Good morning everyone would you please stand and together we lift up our voices as we sing angels we have heard on high. Angels we have heard on high sweetly singing o'er the plains and the mountains in reply echo back their joyous strains. ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Gloria ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Shepherds, why this jubilee ♪ ♪ Why your joyous strains prolong ♪ ♪ Say what may the tidings be ♪ ♪ Which inspire your heavenly song ♪ ♪ Gloria ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Come to Bethlehem and see ♪ ♪ Him whose birth the angels sing ♪ ♪ Come adore on bended knee ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord, the newborn King ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ In excelsis Deo Gloria In excelsis Deo Hark! The herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King! Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Joyful, all ye nations, rise! Join the triumph of the skies! With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem! Hark, the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King! Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time behold Him come, offspring of the virgin's womb. Hail in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Deity! Pleased as men with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Hark! the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King! Hail the Heav'n-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness! Life and life to all He brings, Risen with healing in His wings. ♪ While he lays his glory by ♪ ♪ Born that man no more may die ♪ ♪ Born to raise the sons of earth ♪ ♪ Born to give them second birth ♪ ♪ Hark the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn king ♪ Amen. Good to have you in the worship hour this morning. We're so glad to have Smokey back on the guitar. Back up from the Carolinas. Him and Suzanne have been down with family for, oh, quite a little while. But they're reverse snowbirds. So they're back here for the rest of the winter. Let's open up to the word of prayer. Ask God's blessing. Father in heaven, we thank you that we can come and worship you this morning. And Lord, I do pray that you'd be with our church family. I pray that you'd be with those who would be far away, traveling, working, ask that you'd watch over them. Be with us as we gather here in your local church, your ecclesia. I pray that you would help us to lift up our hearts towards you, help us to honor you this morning, for you are worthy. of all our praise and more. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Please be seated. From a throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt. Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one. God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings. to reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost to redeem the whole creation you did not despise In your suffering, you draw to the other side, So knowing this was our salvation, Jesus, for our sake you died. And the morning that you rose, all of heaven held its breath, till the stone that's moved for good, for the Lamb had come. rose from their tombs, and the angels stood in awe. For the souls of all who come to the Father are restored, and the Church of Christ was born. Then the Spirit lit the flame. Now his gospel truth of old shall not kneel. I am free. Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit free and one. Praise forever to the King of Kings Praise forever to the King of Kings all sufficient merit shining like the sun a fortune i is ♪ By no work I have done ♪ My righteousness I forfeit ♪ And my Savior's cross ♪ Where all selfish and merited ♪ What I could not do In love He condescended, eternal now in time. A life without a planet, the Maker made to die. The law could never save us, our lawlessness had won. Until the pure and spotless Lamb had finally come It is done, it is finished No more debt I owe Paid in full, all sufficient Married now my own And I lay down my carbons, any empty bones works now all corrupted by the sinful host. I'm dressed in my Lord Jesus, a crimson robe made white. No more fear of judgment, His righteousness is mine. It is done, it is finished No more denial Pay it full, all sufficient Married now, my own It is done, it is finished For debt I owe, paid in full All sufficient merit, now my own All sufficient merit, firm in life and death The joy of my salvation shall be my final breath. And when I stand accepted before the throne of God, I'll raise the bar by Jesus and thank Him for the cross. Yes, I'll thank Him for the cross. It is done. It is finished. Oh Please be seated. So this morning, Billy Jo is going to come up and sing a special for us. And I'm just curious, how many of you brought sunglasses this morning? How many of you brought sunglasses? Raise your hand if you brought them. I'm recommending you put them on because she's got a brand new engagement ring on here. Congratulations. Absolutely. Thank you, Jesse, for everything. I'm so proud of you. You can do it all today. And I think upon Christmas Words can't express how our father in heaven has sent us his best to be born in a manger, the king in the hay. He was Lord Bringing peace to us all Through the gift of the Son Now the darkest of ages are done For the Savior of heaven has come When I think upon Jesus, the King of all days, I can't help but respond with an offering of praise. Like the wise men and shepherds, I'll follow your light. Like the angels, I'll lift your name high. ♪ You were born ♪ Bringing peace to us all ♪ Through the gift of your love ♪ Now the darkest of ages are done ♪ For the Savior of heaven has come you were born bringing peace to us all through the gift of your love now the darkest of ages are done for the savior of heaven has come Now I look back in reverence to that holy night For the God of the heavens had us on his mind. Let us sing of his glory, rejoice in his name. O Emmanuel, with us away. And forever his kingdom will reign. Amen. Thank you very much, Billy Jo. We appreciate that. Here, oh, a couple months ago or so, I had gone to a meeting. Actually, I was preaching a missions conference out in Ohio, and the church I was preaching at, when all their special music, they ran the words at the bottom of the screen. And so when I came back, I was talking to John. I told him, I said, I think that really would help people. It helped me at the meeting I was at to be able to understand every word as people were singing. And so I was just curious this morning, has that helped for you to be able to see the words at the bottom of the screen as the singer's singing? So we're going to continue to do that. When I saw it, I thought, that is a good idea. And it has been a blessing to me, anyways. And I enjoyed that Billy Joe and it helped me to be able to see every word that way I could really follow. Excellent. I would like you to turn with me to Psalms 98 verses one down through nine is where we're gonna look the entire chapter. Title of the message this morning is making a joyful noise. The reason I'm taking us to this particular text is because we are in the Christmas season. And when you read the Christmas story or the account of the birth of Christ, all the details, all from the very beginning of the angel coming to Mary and announcing to her that she was going to bear the Messiah. And then you have Joseph, of course, who's shocked that he finds out that the galley's engaged to his pregnant. God says to him, hey, go ahead and take her to be your wife. This child is of the Holy Ghost. And all the way through, as you see her go to her aunts and John the Baptist leaps within her aunt's womb. And as you see the birth come and the shepherds in the field, then you go down a little bit farther and you see where the wise men come to celebrate the birth of Christ. All through this, You find this overarching joy of the Messiah being born. You find this celebration, the shepherds, when the angels come forth and basically proclaim the birth of Christ. It's with this celebratory sound of the angels trumpeting out this announcement. As we come to this Psalm, Psalm 98, my goal this morning is to challenge you through this Christmas season to make a joyful noise about Christmas. I'm happy that to somewhat I have seen kind of a decline of the big, big push away from people saying Merry Christmas. It seems like more places I go to. In fact, the other day I was on the phone with a salesman, and he wished me Merry Christmas. And I said, well, Merry Christmas to you as well. And he actually said to me, he said, I'm so tired of people saying to me Happy Holiday. And I said, me too. So I thought, wow. Man, we've made a connection here over the phone. I want to make a joyful noise about the birth of Christ, the celebration of him coming as the Messiah, the birth of the gift that is beyond any other gift, the gift of eternal life through God himself who came and died on the cross for us. So as we come to Psalm 98, Psalm 98 is really about singing and making a joyful noise unto the Lord. And I wanna challenge you as we go through this season. You might say, well, I'm not a singer. I'm not gonna go up. When I go shopping, I don't sing up and down the grocery aisles or at Walmart. Although you're welcome to do that. You might get some strange looks. Singing is a little bit more, in the context of what I'm talking about, a little more than just singing. Sometimes our singing is just sharing. It's just celebrating. That's where I'm going this morning. So listen as I read to you Psalm 98 verses one down through nine, and then I'm gonna take you through that text and just challenge you this morning during this Christmas season to make a joyful noise. It says, O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory. The Lord hath made known his salvation. His righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his mercy and his truth towards the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth. Make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the heart, with the heart and the voice of a song. With trumpets and sound of cornet, make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roll, in the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands, let the hills be joyful together. Before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth, with righteousness shall he judge. with equity. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, I pray that you'd be with us as we go down through this text. Help us to draw from it the truths that you desire us to have, that we might hide them in our hearts and remember to make a joyful noise this Christmas season. In Christ's name we pray, amen. The first thing I want you to see with me in verses one down through three is that there is a compelling reason to make a joyful noise. And in those first three verses, he's gonna lay those compelling reasons out for every one of us. Verse one, he tells us that he has done marvelous things. Look with me at verse one again. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. And then it starts laying out for us what those marvelous things are. You and I, as we come to Christmas every year, if we're not careful, we begin to kind of take it for granted. You've decorated your house year after year. You've gone ahead and bought your Christmas cards and sent them on. I'm hoping you've got gospel tracks from our track racks and put a gospel track in every one of those Christmas cards. But you've done it year after year, decade after decade. Some of you, almost a century you've been at, celebrating Christmas. And maybe it has started to become a little old. And maybe you have forgotten that truly, when we talk about the birth of Christ, when we talk about the coming of the Messiah, when we talk about the price paid by God, it is a miracle. We find our victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our church's name, Victory Baptist Church. The victory is in Christ. The fact that he has given us the victory over sin, that we might have newness of life. So when we look at this first verse, and he charges us, He compels us. He says, sing, sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm have gotten Him the victory. Our God reaching down from heaven above and there bringing into Mary that spark of light as He did in a miraculous way that she would bear as a virgin the Messiah Himself. We look at that, we understand that is the hand of God at work, doing this marvelous thing. God has revealed His salvation to us. That's what verse 2 tells us. It says, The Lord hath made known His salvation. And then you come to the last part of verse 3. Look with me at the second half. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. When we celebrate the birth of Christ, we are celebrating the salvation of humanity, the payment for human beings' sin, that they might be able to come before God washed clean. through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we look at these verses, we understand that he's telling us, yes, it's God's right hand at work. Yes, it's God's holy arm at work. He is the one who's gotten victory, and his victory brings to us the benefit, the blessing, the celebration of salvation itself. The wise men, they learned about that, through the shining star that led them. The shepherds, they learned about it through the angels that proclaimed it from heaven above. Simeon and Anna, when the baby Christ was brought to the temple to be blessed at the temple, to be dedicated. They learned as they waited and prayed and watched for the coming of Messiah. They learned that here was the miracle of salvation. And your New Testament teaches you all these things. And your Old Testament tells you, sing about it. Celebrate it. Understand that it is a marvelous work that God has done. Look with me now to verse 3. And here we find that He has remembered. God has remembered. He knows our need. Listen to what He says in the first part of verse 3. He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. God, all the way from the Garden of Eden, had promised that there would come a Savior. all the way through the Old Testament, all the way into the teachings of the apostles of the New Testament, we find that the scriptures teach us that God has shown forth His mercy and His truth in the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly, Christ's birth exemplifies the mercy of God. Because if God gave us what we deserved, it would have not been a sacrifice, especially a sacrifice with the magnitude of God himself coming and take upon himself the flesh of man that he might die on the cross. It is only by God's mercy that he looked at you and I and said, yes, He was willing to pay for our sins. So when we look all the way back here in the Psalms, and it tells us that he remembered his mercy and his truth, then you and I step back in the year 2024, and we recognize that that mercy and truth that he's speaking of there, that he prophesied throughout the Old Testament, is the mercy and truth that we embrace. the mercy and truth that we celebrate every time we come to the Christmas season. When you exchange gifts, when you think about your relatives coming to visit, when you plan all the activities, all of that is really a celebration of Christ. That's why we have Christmas. It's not Santa Claus. It's not Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. Christmas is about Christ. So I want to challenge you this year. Make sure you understand that the reason to celebrate, the reason to make a joyful noise is compelling. There should be no reluctance. We should be excited to share with others the marvelous gift of Jesus Christ. We come down to verses four through six in our text, and he shows us how simple this is to do. It's not complicated. Now, when we started our service and Erica was back here, did anybody notice she picked up her violin and she put it to her chin and she started playing with that bow on the violin. Anybody notice her doing that up there? That's complicated. There's no frets. She's got to do that all with ear. She's got to make sure it doesn't squeak to where we flinch. That's complicated. But the Lord doesn't tell us in here, I need every single one of you to play the violin. Thankfully. You've gotta be gifted to do that. God gives to us the option of simply sharing. It's something we all do all the time. We chat, we text, We email. We twit. Is that what Twitter does? It twits, right? It twits. Whatever it may be. We share, communicate. It's a natural part of humanity, isn't it? And so that's exactly what God is going to say to us in verses 4 down through 6. Listen to what He says, because He's showing us how practical it is to make a joyful noise. He says, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth. Make a loud noise. Rejoice. Sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with a heart. with the harp and a voice of a psalm, which is just words, with trumpets and the sound of a cornet, which is really just a ram's horn. He says, go ahead and take all of these things. And he comes down into verse six, with the trumpets and sound of cornet, making a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. You and I can look down through that list, and all of us can make a joyful noise in one way or another. I have up in my office a ram's horn that I bought in Israel. It's just about 18 inches long, which is what a cornet was at the time of the Old Testament. It was a ram's horn that was about 18 inches long. They would cut it off, hollow it out, make a little, just whittle a mouthpiece, And when you blow it, you can't blow it, you gotta do it like a trumpet, it makes a very loud noise. They used it to call people to worship. They used it on the battlefield to go ahead and direct their armies, their soldiers. It was used in times of celebration to get people's attention. Anybody can play. How do I know that? Because all the kids who come into my office, they'll come in and they say, can I see that? And because I have the natural God-given dad humor I do, I'll go ahead, I'll take it, and I'll just show them. Because that's what dads do. When you say, can I see that? Yeah. Sandy will say to me, can I see your phone? I'll say, sure. She'll say, Tim, let me borrow your phone. But the little kids, they'll want to go ahead and take that shifar. They look at it, and then they'll say, and I'll tell them what it is, and they'll say, can I try it? And they will. Lots of spitty mouths have gone on the little shifar in my office. They'll put their mouth there, and they'll go, and it makes not a sound. So then I explained to him, you gotta just perch your lips a little bit. And I mean little kids. And just put that little thing. And all of a sudden it comes out as a loud noise. Sometimes screechingly loud. Listen, God is not asking you and I to do complicated things. He's saying that each and every one of us We can make a joyful noise. We can do it by just speaking the Psalms. He says, make a joyful noise with the Psalms. The Psalms that you have are just poems. They're poems written in Hebrew for songs to be sung. You and I can share any of those truths. He talks about picking up the harp. That's a little more complicated. Some of you are gifted in music. He says, do it with a trumpet, do it with the shifar or the cornet. But he says, do it by telling, by speaking. There's not one of us in this room who can't, by one way or another, make a joyful noise. The method is practical. You might say, well, Pastor, it's, ah. That's not me. Well, wait, we're biblicists here. We love the Bible. It's why we come. It's why I preach the way I do is because we love the word of God. So let's be accountable to the word. Verse four, he says, make a joyful noise unto all the earth. Make a loud noise and rejoice in saying praises. So he's saying all the earth. All of us. Is there anybody here who came from outer space? I wanna know if there's one alien in here, because you're famous if you are. There's not one in here. I felt confident with that. We are all earthlings. And he tells us here, he says, make a joyful noise. All the earth. That's every one of us. Young and old. Big, short, big, narrow. Doesn't matter who you are. God says, make a joyful noise. We come down into verse five. You might say, well, I can't play a harp. I can't play a cornet or a trumpet. But in verse five, he says, sing. Sing unto the Lord. Sing unto the Lord with the harp, and with the harp and the voice of the psalm, with the trumpets and the sound of the cornet. Make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. So every one of us in this room, we have the capacity to communicate. as surprised as I was at that salesman on the phone who made the connection with me over our mutual gripe of people wishing us a happy holiday instead of Merry Christmas. He was able to communicate that to me from who knows where. Because when you talk to anybody on the phone today doing business, you could be talking to India, the Philippines, who knows where you're talking to. but he was able to make a joyful noise. You and I, every one of us, on the job, in our family, in our community, when we read Psalm 98, we should be able to raise our hand and say, yes, I can do that. I can proclaim. I can make a joyful noise. I can express the celebration of the birth of the Savior. he shows for us the impact. And I want you to understand there is an impact in the world. Look with me down at verses seven, eight, and nine. He says, let the sea roar and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth with righteousness, shall he judge the world and the people with equity. When he starts listing out here in verses seven, eight, and nine, the impact, the effect. He's saying, listen, not only can you and I sing the praises, not only can you and I play the instruments to make a joyful noise to God. He says, even all that's upon the earth. He says, let the sea roar and the fullness thereof. The ocean is an amazing thing. They say we know less about the bottom depths of the ocean than we know about a lot of the outer space, because it is so inaccessible. And yet the Bible tells us the mighty seas, they make a joyful noise unto God. They are might. This week I turned on the news and there was a tsunami warning for the coast of California. Did you see that? John back here, John Gilbert. Did you call home to make sure everything was still there in California? Yeah, I think it's still there. It's still there. It was a warning because there was a 7.0 magnitude earthquake somewhere out in the ocean. And they were concerned that it was going to create that wave underneath that eventually would come to shore and wipe California off the map. The power of the ocean is incredible. It is incredible. And so when he starts off here and he says, let the sea roar in the fullness thereof, the capacity, the gigantuous ability of the oceans, he says, let that, praise God and make a joyful noise unto the Lord. You and I, we have a simple voice. God has all that there is. And he is worthy of all praise, even the roar and the fullness of the oceans. Let the sea roar in the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell in them. You remember, we've already concluded that we are all earthlings. I asked for a vote. I raised them hands, I said, is there anybody here from outer space? Nobody raised their hands. We are earthlings. Well, here he says down in this verse, he says, you and I also, we need to be those people of the world, the world and they that dwell in them. Let them all lift up, raise their voice, even as the sea would roar in the fullness thereof. You and I are part of that. Verse 80 says, let the floods clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together. When you go to a mighty roaring waterfall, you hear that clapping, that rushing, that thunderous sound. Whether you go to the Niagara Falls or if you go and stand just outside the edge of the mighty Virgin's Falls. You can hear that water tumbling and splashing and clapping and clapping as it hits the rocks. Here he says, that is part of the impact of God's nature, God's creation, praising and rejoicing in what he has done. If the floods the water, the waves, the sea, if they can rejoice in all that God has given, how is it that we would be reluctant? How would we be hesitant? Verse nine, he says, before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth. He gives us a minute of retrospection. He says, I want you to understand, while yes, I'm talking to you about making a joyful noise unto the Lord, and yes, I'm talking to you about singing and crying forth, even as the great and mighty waves of the ocean, or the splashing and clapping of the flooding rivers. He says, even as I talk about that, I want you to understand that you're doing it before God. You're doing it as before him. You know, the scriptures teach us to do whatsoever we do as unto Him with all our might. All that we do, we should do as unto Him. Raising our children, going to our job, being involved in our community, coming to our church, fellowshipping one with another. All of these should be a part of us living our lives before God. Quite often when I do a funeral or a graveside service, I try to remind people that the book of Hebrews teaches us that we are before a great host. Because the Bible says all those who pass before us are the great host who behold our lives. Now how that works, I do not know. I don't know how it works that they look down from heaven above. But the reality is we don't live such a private life that we think we do. Others see how we live. And most importantly, God sees how we live. So he tells us here in verse nine, before the Lord, For he cometh to judge the earth. With righteousness shall he judge the world and the people with equity. The word equity meaning equality, evenness, leveling the playing field. He says to us, he says, God, he beholds, he proclaims, he sees, he's involved in all of our lives. And he comes to judge. Part of the birth of Christ is the reality that there one day will be a judgment. The reality that he's paying the price for humanity's sin. He went to the cross for us, born of a virgin. Yes, born in a manger. Yes, grew up as a child. Yes, ministered on the earth for 33 and a half years. Yes, died on the cross. All of that took place because there is a judgment day coming. every one of us one day will stand before God. And he wants to remind us that as much as we celebrate and make a joyful noise and sing praises, remember, there comes a judgment day. So your friends, your neighbors, your family, as you exchange gifts and sing Christmas songs, please don't ever forget you must share the gospel, for there does come a judgment day. And as much as we celebrate, we also remember that there does come a judgment day. So he tells us, before the Lord, we make this joyful noise. For he cometh to judge the earth with righteousness, shall he judge the world and people with equity. It will be a level playing field. Doesn't matter who we are. You can be the king of England, the president of the United States, or you can be the janitor at the White House. Doesn't matter who you are. With equity, he will come and he will judge all. And we know that he will open the books. That's what the book of Revelation tells us. He says he will open the books. And there he will come down and he will open the Lamb's Book of Life that tells us. And when he looks in there, if your name is not written there, then the goats are separated from the sheep. Those who are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life, they go into an eternal condemnation. Those who are in the Lamb's Book of Life, they enter into the kingdom of God forever and evermore. We celebrate the birth of Christ. It is truly the most amazing gift that could ever be given, for it sets us free from our sins. We must make a joyful noise. Yes, we do it remembering that it is before God. Yes, we do it understanding that there comes a great judgment day. But we also do it with the celebration of the marvelous things that God has done. You don't have to have a special talent. You could be a simple YouTuber and share. And I don't even know how to do YouTube, but I know what it is, kind of. You can be a texter, a tweeter, an emailer, whatever it may be. Or you could simply go old school and be a teacher. In our office, every once in a while, the young people, that's John and Erica. They'll be working away on different projects, and I'll ask, did we conclude this or that? I'm waiting for them to respond to me. I've texted them or emailed them. And I will simply say, let's go old school and try the telephone. and call it. And do you know sometimes it works? They almost always will say, but pastor, they don't answer. And I say, I know they don't answer me either, but let's try. The old school of just talking. Let's make a joyful noise. God has blessed us magnificently. We of all people should rejoice. We don't have to play a special instrument, but if you can, that's wonderful. But God has given you the greatest instrument of all, your simple voice. Let's share with a joyful noise the birth of Christ. Father, thank you that we could come and worship you this morning. Thank you for each and every person here. And I ask that as we go forth, It would be your Holy Spirit that stirs our hearts to make a joyful noise for you. In Christ's name we pray, amen.