In his book, The Ultimate Priority, Dr. John MacArthur wrote, clearly the supreme duty of the creature for time and eternity is to worship the creator. Worship is the essential expression of service rendered unto God. He goes on in that book to write, I struggle to bring people along with me in worship. Because the church often seems so pragmatic, so programmed, and success-centered. In the process of striving to fulfill our needs and satisfy our desires, the church has slipped into a philosophy of Christian humanism that is flawed with self-love, self-esteem, self-fulfillment, and self-glory. there appears to be scant concern about worshiping our glorious God on his terms. In the preface to the book, How to Worship Jesus Christ, he also writes, worship is that one essential activity that must take precedence over every other duty of life. Worship is ultimately our first priority. Nothing on anyone's agenda is more important In fact, the hectic pace of modern life only elevates the importance of active, deliberate, purposeful, daily worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're in the midst of a mini series on corporate worship, worship as a church. But in order to have strong corporate worship, we have to have individuals who are worshiping. Jesus Christ. The call to worship God simultaneously exposes and challenges our hearts. For great worship can only flow from great hearts. Hearts which love and adore God. Of course, loving God with all our hearts, all our souls and our mind and our strength is the greatest commandment in all of the Bible. That is not my opinion. That is the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest commandment in all of scripture. Love him with all your heart. Bob Coughlin in his book, Worship Matters, probes the individual worshipers and their hearts. He says, God wants us to love him more than our instruments and music. more than our possessions, food and ministry, more than our wife and children, more than our own lives. That doesn't mean we can't love anything else or that we shouldn't love anything else, but we can't love anything in the right way unless we love God more. Our desires will be out of whack. We'll look to temporary pleasures like concerts, video games and sports to fulfill eternal desires. will love things that aren't as worthy as God to be loved." End quote. No wonder Jesus Christ said to his disciples in Matthew 10, he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his own cross and follow after me, that is not loving yourself first, is not worthy of me. The Bible is filled with the priority of God, the priority of the worship of God. Do you remember Noah's first act after he got off the ark? What did he do? Worship. He sacrificed of what he had to slay the animals, shed their blood and worship God. Most important thing to do in the new world. First thing that happened in this new world, an act of worship to the one true and living God. Abraham's first act when he got into the land of promise was build an altar and engage in a formal time of worship. The centerpiece of Israel's encampment in the wilderness was the tabernacle designed to be the place where they would express corporate worship as a people to God. The heights of the Psalms that we're in the midst of express the centrality of worship, praises, adorations, thanksgivings, confessions, music, everything. Elijah called the people to abandon their idols and worship the Lord alone. The early church gathered every single Sunday before they went to work because Sunday was a work day for them and they worship the Lord alone and they heard God's word, the heavenly songs and revelation. As you read them, you might've realized that all of eternity is going to be filled with worship. I remember when I was a younger Christian, I was thinking, well, that's not gonna be too exciting. All we're gonna do is sit around and sing all day long. I mean, I want something exciting. Now I know that God is more exciting than any thrill that I can. engage in. Worship is the most thrilling activity for any person, any church to be engaged in. And the more you know God and love God, the more you realize that is true. Listen, unfeigned worship is the goal of our faith in Jesus Christ. Worship is the highest expression of our faith. Evangelism is a means to an end. That end is so there will be more people, new people, worshiping God. Why do we go out and evangelize? You say so that they'll be saved from hell. Not the primary motive. Primary motive is so there will be more worshipers of God. Discipleship, counseling, Christian ed, they are a means to an end so that God's church will worship God even better than they did before. Why do we edify the church of Jesus? So matured saints will worship God with a pure heart. Worship is not a means to an end. Worship is an end in itself. The worship of God is the something greater we are to be doing. It is that to which you and I were called, eternally being, worshiping beings of another greater being. Anytime that we worship for the sake of getting something out of that worship, we pervert worship. Worship must not be humanistic. Worship must not be pragmatic. Worship must not be sensational. Do you remember when Mary of Bethany poured out her very costly oil on the feet of Jesus. And Judas's reaction was a pragmatic response. We could have sold this and given money to the poor. And Jesus reminded all the disciples, this is a great act of worship. What could be better? She was preparing me for burial. Worship is the greater goal. God is far too precious and far too glorious and far too important to be a means to anything else. All glory, laud, and honor, the scriptures say, belong to the King of glory. Revelation 19.1, salvation and glory and power belong to our God. That's why he gets to pray. No wonder Jesus prayed to the Father and he said in John 17.24, Father, I desire that they, my disciples also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am so that They may see my glory. Jesus wanted us to see him in glory because once we saw him in glory, what would we start to do? Worship. Nothing greater, Christ in glory. Don't misunderstand. Of course we get blessed when we worship. Of course we do. But worship is not to gain a blessing for us. I didn't get a blessing in church today. Worship is to give the blessing to God. Did God get blessed in worship today? That's the only question that matters when we're driving home. Did God get blessed today? He alone is worthy of it. That is what worship is about, ascribing to God worth. In fact, Our term worship comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning to ascribe worth, literally worth ship. Like in Revelation 5, 12, worthy is the lamb, they say in heaven, to receive glory. When you ascribe highest worth to something, whether you call it worship or not, that is what you're doing. A lot of worship happens in sports stadiums. Did you notice that? A lot of worship happens when singers are in front and people go to concerts. A lot of worship happens there. When they are ascribing highest worth, they are worshiping. I hope that lesson reaches our hearts as we return today to Psalm 100. I know you're wondering how can I get a four-part series from five verses, but I'm working really hard on it right now. Psalm 100, I'll read it again. We'll keep focusing on these truths and let them take us to other portions of God's word to shout joyfully to the Lord. It says all the earth serve the Lord with gladness come before him with joyful singing. No, that the Lord himself is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him. Bless his name for the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting and his faithfulness to all generations. Last time we saw that man is a worshiping being. The only way to understand man is that he was made by God. To fellowship with God and to worship God is man's calling. We are creatures. That's all that we are. And we were made, therefore, and owe our existence for another and to another. It's to him that our highest devotion must be given. Of course, in man's blindness, after we fell into sin, we often worship other things. That's what Romans 1 says. We take the one incorruptible God and we make corruptible images and we worship them. It makes no sense whatsoever. How could we worship the things God made and not God himself? By the way, that's what's behind every single religion that uses pantheism as a base. They worship the creature rather than the creator. Every single pantheistic religion that all is one and all is God, all of that is nothing more than worshiping creation rather than worshiping the creator. And it's false. In our blindness, we worship the false gods. we bow down to the false God, like the current false God of tolerance. You've heard of this false God, have you not? The false God of liberal America, who unlike the God of the Bible, this God hates righteousness and loves unrighteousness. We have to stand against it. Perverted or righteous, the impulse of worship remains in all human beings. The idea of worship, the drive to worship is innate in a human being. We were created to worship. You know, dogs, they do dog things. And chickens, they do chicken things. And cows act like cows. And snakes act like snakes. Human beings act like human beings. And what's that? They were made to worship. And so we do. There are no true secular people. Get to know them enough, you'll find what they worship, money, something. No society is free from worship. Look back to the ancients. You always see religion is at the center of their society. No matter which continent you go to, even an isolated island, it's about worship. They just swap the worship of God for the worship of something else. We come here now to Psalm 100 and we gather as a church and we're listening to its call to worship. And when we worship and we gather, we are going against the grain. We're doing something radical in here. We're worshiping the true God who made heaven and earth. We see here God's call to worship him and no one else. He doesn't allow worship of anything else. Anything else that's put in with him, he kicks it out. No other idol allowed. You cannot synchronize the worship of God with anything else without perverting the worship of God. That's what Psalm 95 through 100, this unit of Psalms is expressing. There is the one sovereign and his name is Yahweh. He is the Lord of Israel and all of the world must come to worship him and no other God. And he's jealous for his glory and is jealous for his name. And he will not be set aside. He will not be added to. He will not share his glory with another. And people may try, but he will not allow it. Psalm 100 reminds us, Worship of God is the church's highest priority and its greatest privilege. We noticed last time that Psalm 100 contains seven calls to worship, little bursts of calls to worship. And then it's followed by three declarations about the Lord's character. And we're in the midst of those calls to worship. We went through numbers one, two, and three last time. At verse one, the first call to worship is to shout to the Lord. The shout refers to the shout of the people, a shout of triumph given to their king. The king has just sat down upon his throne and the people recognize that he rules in his capital city. He's taking rulership. And so before him, they shout with triumph and joy to their king. They're boasting and glorying in their king. Of course, Christ is our king and we shout to the Lord Christ. We approach him joyfully and triumphantly because he reigns and we acknowledge that in the shout. The second call to worship was to serve the Lord. Look at it again. We serve the Lord with gladness. It reminds us that when we gather together as worship, we're doing something pragmatic. Right now, as you sit and listen to the Lord's word and you worship in your heart, you're doing something. I hope you're doing something. It's pragmatic. It matters. It's good. It's a service. It's just not a service to you. It's just not a service to the person next to you. It's a service to God. We serve the Lord with gladness. That's what we're doing. It's worship. That means Sundays are very important. We get more done on Sundays than any other time. What are we doing? We're worshiping God. That's something, guys. That's something important. We serve the Lord in our worship. The third call to worship is come before him. And when you come, bring some joyful singing. Don't come in all drab for goodness sake. Bring joyful singing up into his presence. Obviously this speaks of a time of formal worship, where there's corporate worship, where we're gathering together. This is talking about the people of Israel coming into the temple. They're gathering for formal and corporate worship. We gather on Sundays for our formal and corporate worship. It's formal, yes, but it's exuberant. It's triumphant. The one we serve, the one we sing to rose from the dead, remember? The joy one feels in approaching God needs to be poured out. How is it poured out? in joyful songs. That doesn't mean that we can't ever sing in a sober fashion. We can't ever be quiet before the Lord. It's just saying the natural response before the king who sits on his throne is to be joyful, to glory in his victory and realize you share in the kingdom. You share in the triumph. I mean, all throughout the week, we get told we're losers. We get told we're getting nothing. We're not fighting for our own rights and fighting for this and that. We're losing politically and we're losing money. And we have to come in here and be reminded that they're the losers. We're the winners because we're with God. He's on our team, right? Psalm 95 also said this in our scripture reading, come into his presence with thanksgiving. It's the Lord's day. The day we worship the triune God through Jesus Christ. So we shout, we serve with praises, we come into his presence with joyful singing. The fourth, and here's where we pick up from last week, the fourth command is, know the one you're worshiping. Look at verse three again, look at verse three. Know, there's the exhortation, know this, know that the Lord himself is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Here's what we are to know, truth is, important to worship. Jesus said so, not my opinion. Those who worship God must worship him in spirit and what? Truth. No truth, no proper worship. All proper worship must be driven by truth. When truth takes a back seat in worship, God is not pleased. The truth of the Lord is everlasting. Praise the Lord. Psalm 117, verse two. And here we are to know some truth. We are to know some things about God. This is confessional in nature. There are things we are to know about God. Socrates is credited with saying, giving that advice, know thyself. The Lord says, know your God. For only then will you ever know yourself. Our worship must be with the deepest personal conviction about truth, about God, God's character. Who is he? Loving acts that God has done. What has he done? Faithful promises and prophecies for the future he's gonna keep. That's what must anchor you in your worship. That's what has to get you excited. If you're here and you don't know why other people around you are excited about worship because you're not, it's because you don't know your God very well. Biblical worship is truth-driven worship. It's a response to revelational truth from on high. When we grasp that, the Holy Spirit makes that come alive in the illumination of our minds. We can't help but worship. We get it. In Paul's day, the Athenians had an altar built to an unknown God. We cannot worship what we do not know. Can't do it. We must know whom we have believed and be persuaded concerning the things he has said. As we learn biblical truth about God, it's not supposed to sit in our heads and go, well, now I know good doctrine. It's supposed to get down deep inside of us. What did Paul write? Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. Why? so that as it gets into you, as the truth sinks in, as you understand better, it erupts. The spirit of God uses that to erupt in worship in your heart. Don't be a sitting skeptic at worship time. Hmm, I wonder if these things are true. Get caught up in heavenly reality. Ask God, open my eyes, Lord, help me to see wonderful things in thy law. Believe the truth. You are commanded to believe. It is that faith that excites your heart in truth. The Holy Spirit uses that. He sets worship on fire in your spirit as truth gets in there. Then it'll be the kind of worship that enraptures our minds and then delights our emotions and captivates our will. The mind has to lead and worship. Otherwise it becomes false worship. It becomes sensational. Worship which just drums up all the emotions. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Did you like that? singing the same thing over and over again. I love the Lord. I love the Lord. I love the Lord. I love the Lord. I love the Lord. I love the Lord. I love... Which Lord? Which Lord do you love? But it put me in a worship mood. There is no worship mood. It's a worship mindset. It's more hypnotizing you than it is getting you to delight in the Lord. Uninformed emotional hype. does not honor God. He who is so great, all the words in the dictionary cannot define him. However, brain worship is not enough either. Without the whole body, without the whole soul being excited in God, I imagine that smells putrid to the Lord, not worth calling worship. You're the greatest ever, Lord. I'm convinced of it. Not really so greatly convinced, I think. The mind has to lead. What does the mind lead? Your affections. You put your affections to follow. The mind grips the truth. The truth comes down into the feelings and emotions, and then it reaches into the will, the decision-making. You say, yes, yes, my God is great. I shall worship him with everything I have. Otherwise, it's stale. It's not so good. How pathetic fans would be in a playoff game in a stadium who barely pay attention to the game and clap politely. Players on the field are like, is this the playoffs? Am I in a nightmare here? Why does the home team have the advantage? Because the fans are screaming with delight. We need to know the Lord, our God, and be fully engaged in worship. Here, our Psalm tells us three things that we need to know about God to put ourselves in right relationship to him so we can worship him properly. First thing to know, know that the Lord himself is God. You say, that sounds pretty basic. It is, it is, but there are a lot of people that don't get this. Know that the Lord himself is God. If you look at it more carefully of your study Bibles, it says, know that Yahweh is Elohim. Yahweh is the covenant name for the God of Israel. Yahweh, I am who I am. Know that that God, the God that appeared to Moses, that's the correct God. That's the God that made the heavens and the earth. We don't have like a deity that's like for us. So that's nice. He's your God. No, no, I don't think you're understanding. He's our God, but he's the God over everyone. You just don't acknowledge it yet. This is truth concerning God's identity in person. Where does all worship start with? It starts with getting the correct God, getting the right confession of faith, having the right religion. This is who the Lord indeed declares himself to be. And when God says something is true, it is true simply because God said it's true. Why? Because nobody knows all truth except God. And since he knows everything and there's nothing that he doesn't know or couldn't know, when he says something is true, he's the expert. It's over with. And he says he is the true God. That's the point. This basic truth is the basis for our worship. The God of Jesus, the God of Israel is the correct God. I have a existential atheist cousin I haven't talked with in a while, but when I used to try to witness to him, he used to say, I can't believe that the true God of heaven would pick one, one nation to be the God of that nation. That can't be the correct God. You can't just pick some people. He has to be the God of everyone. I said, he's the God of everyone. If you repent, he'll become your God, but he's allowed to pick whoever he wants to pick. If he wants to pick one nation, five nations, if he wants to pick people that stand on their head, it's his world, it's his universe. He made us, he can do whatever he wants. How can you say you can't believe in him? That's exactly what God does. God's in charge, not you. You can't sit down and say, I just don't conceive of a God that way, therefore he doesn't exist. What do you think you are, God? You think you just invent something and God just appears? That's what an idol is. Let me see, I would like a God like this. And that's what people do today, but without the wood, without The gold, they just do it in their heads. This is the God that I think that is really there. The God of tolerance. What an evil God that loves unrighteousness. What an evil God. Of course, this is what Yahweh revealed to Moses. Who are you? What's your name? That's a good question Moses asked. The burning bush, right? I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What's your name? I am who I am. Just his name comes from the being verb in Hebrew, the being verb, you know, like am, I am, I am. You are what? I am. I know, but you are what? I am. Theologians have been working on that one forever, right? The aseity of God, the self-existence of God, never made, never created, the basis of all existence, everything that exists, every molecule, every bang that went on in the universe, all of it, His invention, His creation, He's the basis of reality. I am who I am. You can't say you're like this or you're like that or this. You can't define Him. He's the definition of everything else. That's why he's a jealous God. That's why he will not allow any other deity, some demon there pretending to be God and investing himself in some false religion. He won't allow any of them to have any of his glory. They're excluded. They don't get any of it. We have to be fully assured of this doctrinal truth. That shows that when the church has confessions of faith, Jesus Christ is God. For example, we make that confession of faith. That's very appropriate in a worship service. Because here it is, know that the Lord is. So if you know it, confess it, say it with confidence. We come to worship this one triune God. We come to worship no other. And we have to make that very clear to other people. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Are you saying that the people who worship other gods are not worshiping the true God? That's exactly what we're saying. I'm glad you were listening. Glad you finally got it. They're not worshiping the true God, but they're so sincere. They are, and they're very wrong. They're sincerely wrong. I'm not sure how sincere they are. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are what? Idols. You know what idols means? Nothings. It literally means they are vain. They're nothing. but the Lord, Yahweh, made the heavens. Psalm 96, four and five. We've come here today to glory and boast in the name of the God of Jesus, the God of Abraham, Yahweh. Allah is an idol. He's a nothing. Buddha, if they worship him as God, and not all Buddhists do, but if they do, he is an idol. The modern day Mary of Catholicism is not the real Mary and is an idol. The coexist God is a vain idol. Know this, know this, declare this in your worship. Distinguish the true God from all others. Deuteronomy 439, know therefore today and take it to your heart that the Lord, he is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Bible's so clear about this. Isaiah 43, 10, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me, there is no God formed and there will be none after me. Like if we could go up to heaven and count the gods, you know, we would not conclude what Star Trek did, that there's a pantheon of gods. Get out there far enough, we're like, wow, look at all these gods. He said, if you popped up here and got your head up and where I am, and you looked around, you'd say, it's only Yahweh. That's it, nobody else up there. Satan not allowed up there at the highest? No, it's just, it's just, he's all alone at the top. Yeah, but how long will he be there? Forever. Won't there be someone else comes along? No. Doesn't that get you excited? A wee bit excited? Who are these idols? These nothings. 1 Corinthians 10, 19 and 20 tells us. Paul's trying to explain himself to the Corinthians. He says, what do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to an idol is anything or that an idol is anything? No. But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. They sacrifice to demons and not to God. You know, the world wants to say they sacrifice to demons and to God. Paul says they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become sharers in demons. So don't go into false religious worship services. Don't go worship with them. They're worshiping demons. So who are the idols? They're demons, very clever demons. not cute blue demons, real spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places, as Paul writes in Ephesians 6, who conjure up ideas of a God they want to be and speak that doctrine into some human vessel that's willing to take that and invent a religion. And it didn't come from their creativity, it came from a demon to boomerang worship back to the demon. Paul says so. All the false religions are idols. All the false religions go back to worshiping some demon. There are a lot of demons. You remember the contest on Mount Carmel between Elijah and the prophets of Baal? But it really wasn't a contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. It was a contest between Yahweh and Baal. Let's call on our God You call on your God, Elijah, we'll call on our God. Who won? Do you remember? And before that, Elijah says, how long will you hesitate between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow him. Makes sense? If Baal is God, follow him. What do the people do? Right straddling the fence. Let's see. I'm not so sure, you know. We'll serve them both. But then a fire fell from heaven. Remember that? Burned up not only the sacrifice, but the stones. The stones, that's a real fire. Do you remember what the people said then? They got down low. Yahweh is God, Yahweh is God, Yahweh is God. Psalm 46, 10, Yahweh says, cease striving and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. You're like, when Lord? Well, he's told us the whole plan. It's gonna get bad. Evil is gonna triumph. There's gonna be this world religion. It's gonna really be really bad. It's gonna be better to be out of here and be in heaven for a while. The man of sin's gonna come on, he's gonna say, I'm the Messiah, and he's gonna be a filthy rotten sinner, and everyone's gonna think he's Jesus, he's the Messiah. Things are gonna get bad. But look for the sign of the son of man coming in glory in the clouds, right? Because then he'll come back and he'll slay the enemies, and then everyone will know. Read the Bible, it's kind of fun, because in the end we win, you know, we win. Matthew Henry has some well-suited words describing God. He is a being infinitely perfect, self-existent and self-sufficient, and the fountain of all being. He is an eternal spirit, incomprehensible and independent, the first cause and the last end. The heathen worship the creature of their own fancy. The workmen made it. Therefore, it is not God. We worship him that made us and all the world, he is God. And all other pretended deities are vanity and a lie. And such as he has triumphed over them. I mean, there's a contest going on and God's gonna win the contest. That's the first thing to know about God, Yahweh. is God. Second thing to know, look back at it and say, He made us and we didn't make ourselves. Oh, this is so basic. Pastor Linc, I'm not learning anything new today. I know, but you gotta get this. You gotta get this, okay? He made us and not we ourselves. Evolution is just this idea that we kind of made ourselves, right? Time, chance, we made ourselves, not true. This obviously speaks to His power and God's privilege compared to us, our weakness, our inability. He is something, we're not something. The other uses, by the way, of this concept of being made by God indicate that it refers not just that the Lord made mankind in the time of creation, but here it more likely means that he made and formed the nation of Israel. That's the us here, forming the nation of Israel. God made Israel. He started by calling Abraham. And he had Abraham form a family. And then that turned into a clan during the times of Jacob. And they went down to Egypt and they became enslaved. And then he delivered them with a mighty hand because they were his nation. He told Pharaoh, let my, what? People go, right? They're mine. And Moses delivered them during the time of the Exodus and set them free from slavery. And he brought them to Mount Sinai in the wilderness and he gave them a law and he entered into covenant with them. And he said, you're my people. and I am your God, I formed you. Isaiah 43, 20 and 21 says, they are my chosen people. The people whom I formed for myself, they will declare my praise. Talking about Israel, Isaiah 43, 20 and 21. Today, we are the people of God. We are the special ones, we are the church. We also need to know that he formed us, we did not form ourselves. We were called into existence by God. We didn't get together and start a little thing here. It's not just that as creatures of this earth, God formed us, that's true, but that he recreated us, reformed us in Christ Jesus, also we're made twice, twice born. in this world and born again. If any man is in Christ, he is a what? New creature, old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. If you don't have new life in Christ, you can come and get new life in Christ today. Call upon his name, ask him to save you. 1 Peter 2.9, you are a chosen race. Talking about the church here. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. a people for God's own possession. Why? So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. He saved you to proclaim his greatness. We are special. We are twice born. We're formed by God. We're his creation. We did not start a little religious club in an organization. were recreated by Christ. How did you get into Christ? Answer, God put you into Christ. How were you born again? Answer, God caused you to be born again. How did you get a new nature? Answer, God had to give that new nature to you. You couldn't make it yourself. As many as received Jesus Christ, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, listen, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were born of God, John 1, 12 and 13. We could not create ourselves in the first place. We could never recreate ourselves. We didn't cause our new birth. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused, has caused us to be born again. 1 Peter 1, 3. He caused us to be born again. When we worship, there ought to be a sense of great humility and thankfulness. He caused me to be born again. I didn't cooperate with him in my birth. Here, Lord, let me help you get me born again here. The whole image of birth is the one being birth does nothing. I mean, kick a little, you know, cry. They don't do anything. Mama does all the work. Our salvation, our recreation was purely an act of God's volition, purely an act of his mercy. He formed Israel, he formed the church, He formed us and he reformed us. We are to know this. This belief in the sovereign grace of God should lead forth our worship. We should sing of this. Worship because of knowledge, because of doctrine. And third, the third thing we are to know. We are his people and the sheep of his pastor. Again, this speaks of the nation of Israel. Israel was God's people and Israel was the sheep of God's pasture. They were in a privileged and close relationship to God. One nation only. Sounds unfair, doesn't it? I mean, there's a lot of junk we get in our heads as Americans. We think God has to conform to some kind of a equality that we teach here in America, right? But God says, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna pick who I wanna pick and I'm gonna pick Israel. I said, but there were a lot of other nations. How come he didn't pick like the Armenian nation? Why didn't he pick Saudi Arabia or at least the ancient Arabia? Why did he pick Egypt or the Hittites or the Romans, Greeks, America? America didn't. He picked Israel. Is he allowed to do that? Wouldn't matter if we said he wasn't allowed to do it. God is the shepherd of his own people. That shows intimacy. He's intimately acquainted with Israel. The shepherd motif is also a monarchial or kingly motif. Kings were shepherds of their people. In ancient times, if they were a good king, they viewed themselves as the shepherd of their people. David in Psalm 78, 70 and following was said to be taken from guarding sheep. He was the youngest of all the boys of Jesse, remember? And he was guarding the sheep where he'd killed a bear and killed a lion, defended the sheep. And it said, God kind of plucked him from being a shepherd and made him the shepherd of his people. The king, the king to shepherd the people. Yahweh is the king, the actual king of Israel. He's the shepherd of Israel. Psalm 80 and verse one. Oh, give ear, shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. The sheep or the flock of God's pasture is a phrase that is seen in Psalm 79, three. So we, your people and the sheep of your pasture will give thanks to you Forever. That's what Israel is. The divine shepherd is also seen in the Exodus. God shepherded his people through the wilderness. What will we eat when we're out here? He gave them manna. What will we drink? He split a rock open. I don't want any more manna. He brought in quail, so much the meat rotted in their teeth. He cared for them. Out of all the nations of the earth, Israel is God's flock. Isaiah 40, 11, like a shepherd, he will tend his flock. In his arm, he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. We in the church are also the children of God. We're the spiritual children of Abraham. We're redeemed of God. We're reconciled back to God through Christ. We are his people also. We are the sheep of God's pasture. When you come in here to worship, corporately worship, you should know not only that the Lord is God, but also that he is here to shepherd you. He's here to care for you. He knows you intimately. He knows you by name. You're one of his sheep. He calls you by name. Jesus made that point in John 10, 14. I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me and they follow me. He calls them by name and they come. Why is it you're following along behind Jesus and others are not? Because you're one of his sheep. He calls in his own know the voice and you come along. There you are running along behind him. Isn't that good? Stay right there. That's a good place to be. There you go. I know you like that. Come right along like that. There's Jesus. He's out in front. Just keep following him. What other people aren't following? They're not one of his sheep. You are, but they're not gonna come. Follow him. Hebrews 13, 20 labels Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep, not just good, great. We come to gather around the greatest shepherd anybody could ever have. What kind of shepherds do other people have? Who are they following? Who's guiding their soul? I remember when I was thinking about all my old friends, I chose to follow Christ and I was sitting there thinking, is this gonna be worth it in the end? Just following Jesus, giving up all the stuff that I see my friends doing that are fun, you know, that I used to do. And I kept thinking about all these idiots that were my friends. And I was thinking, which one of these idiots is gonna stand up on judgment day and speak for me? None. Then I thought, even if they did stand up and speak for me, would God listen to them? No. I'm gonna follow. I got a great shepherd. Now, he can be hard. He could take you through the valley of the shadow of death. Psalm 23, right? But yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? For thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. And then he switches the images to the host in a home. You've anointed my head with oil. My cup overflows. He's gonna take care of us, right? We have the best shepherd. We are to know this when we come and we gather and we worship him. God wants to have his people among him. It's interesting that even in Revelation at the very end, when it talks about the future past the thousand year millennial reign into eternity, there's this declaration in Revelation 21. And we might just kind of take it for granted. I think it's just a beautiful thing. It says, The tabernacle of God is among men and he will dwell among them and they shall be his people. And God himself will be among them. That's so wonderful. He wants us to be right there with him like a shepherd with a sheep so that we can see his glory and be right with him. That's the intimacy he wants for us. God identifies you as one of his. You are stamped and sealed, signed, sealed, not yet delivered. Ephesians 1.13, do you know the Holy Spirit inside of you is a stamp in your life that says you're genuine and that you're protected so that in the future, the inheritance that was promised to you, you're gonna get. How do you know you already have the down payment, the guarantee right now? Ephesians 1, in Christ you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Christ with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance. Everyone who's gonna get an inheritance, they get told you're gonna get a great inheritance. You know what? You know, the helicopter just landed in the parking lot and they're asking for your name. You're being called out of the worship service. You gotta go back there. You gotta go out. Are you so-and-so? Yes. Well, you've just been pledged to inherit a few million dollars. You didn't know you had this rich uncle. He just died and you are named as the beneficiary. You want some proof. This isn't some hoax with a camera behind a bush. Is this really real? What's the guarantee? Where's the piece of paper? Where's the promise? Get a lawyer. I gotta know. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of the promise, a pledge of our inheritance. You are saved with the blood of God's own son. God sent his son to shed his blood, to pay and purchase and buy you. You are adopted into sonship in his family, promised an inheritance. And to make sure you know it, he put his spirit right inside your body. Guaranteed, mine, sealed. And while you're down here, you're told you have access to the throne room where your heavenly father says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. You are his. We need to worship with that spirit. Psalm 23, the Lord is my, what? Shepherd. So we are to know. The fifth command we don't have time for. enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. We'll pick up there next time, looking at these calls to worship. And we are leading somewhere. We're going to get into the practice of corporate worship as well. But to really get into our minds, the priority and the grandness of worship, we're taking our time going through this wonderful Psalm that launches us into themes throughout scripture. Father, what can we say to you? The Lord above, our King and our maker, glory be to your name. and help us when we come on Sundays to give our best to you and not our leftovers for you alone are worthy. Amen.