In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the unchanging nature of God and His unwavering love and faithfulness towards His people. The sermon uses the analogy of a shepherd and his sheep to illustrate the close relationship between God and His followers. The preacher encourages the congregation to enter into God's presence with thanksgiving and praise, acknowledging Him as the creator and sustainer of their lives. The sermon challenges the listeners to examine their own faith and whether their beliefs are merely words or truly reflected in their actions and devotion to God.

The song that we're going to sing is called the Lily Song, and just to give you a little explanation of it. The lily, when the seed is planted, the lily doesn't worry about how it's going to get through all the rocks and soil and everything. It just grows. And we as Christians should just be like the lily and just grow. And not worry about it and just let Christ move everything else. Good evening. I'll ask you to open please to Psalm 99, if you would. The New Testament says that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in the Lord Jesus Christ. And our brother was just singing, I find it all in thee. If God hides something, we certainly, unless he shows us where it is, we're not able to find it. Not if God hides it, but if he tells us the hiding place, is there any excuse not to find it? All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in the Lord Jesus Christ. We know the hiding place. And he's promised if we would come as little children, that he would open up the scriptures and reveal these things to us. He's promised if we would come as dry ground, that he'd rain fresh water on us. If we came with our mouths open wide, that he'd fill us. He delights to show us the Lord Jesus, to feed us with the bread of life. Every time we come to this book, we need to remember that indispensable principle, total reliance upon God's Holy Spirit. He wants us to trust him. He will take this book and show us Christ. Seeing Christ, we'll be changed. Being changed, we'll find our place in his redemptive purposes on the earth. Let's trust him to do that. Let's bow. Our Father, we thank you again that you have not left us on our own as we come to this precious book. But the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts, who searches the depths of God and reveals them unto us, is certainly here this evening to turn our eyes to Christ. And so, Lord, we commit our time unto thee. Deliver us from flesh and blood, from man's ideas, from human wisdom. Take us beyond the letter. Deliver us in these moments from futility. May we be open to thy Spirit, thy voice, and thy revelation. We know someday in the future, when we see him, we'll be like him. And so we'd ask now for a present foretaste of that coming glory. We want to see him, that we might be like him. Thank you, Lord, for these precious psalms, these royal psalms. And now we'd ask thee to clinch the message of the royal psalms in our heart. Take us forward in the kingship of Christ. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we welcome you again to our little study in these eight wonderful psalms. For those that haven't been with us for each lesson, I'll just give a brief review of what we've been looking at. We're in Psalm 93 through 100. All of the psalms have to do with the kingship of Christ. Psalm 93, 1 says, The Lord reigns. Psalm 96, 10, The Lord reigns. 97, 1, The Lord reigns. 99, 1, The Lord reigns. Psalm 103, verse 19, The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. We have in these psalms not only what we can call the theology of the reign of Christ, and I believe it's all there in picture form, but we also have, and this is what we've been trying to call our attention to, we also have the description of the person whose life is ruled by the king. You not only see that he reigns, but we can see what our lives will look like if we bow our stiff necks at his feet. The one who's ruled by King Jesus, just as an overall characteristic, his life is going to be filled with song. It's going to be filled with joy and with music. And the way we've developed these psalms is this, we just call it message, song, message, song, message, song. The first two royal psalms give a great truth, a great message. And if that message is true in our heart, then a song is born, a song is created. And then the next psalm gives another message, and then followed by another song, and so on throughout the psalm. Psalm 96 and 97, or rather, yeah, 96 and 97, the song of worship and praise. Psalm 98, the song of victory. And Psalm 100, we call the song of service. And so we've been trying to follow that simple plan. Psalm 93 and 94, the first two psalms, the message is this. Psalm 93 says, the Lord reigns. He sits upon a solitary throne. Nothing can oppose His reign. Psalm 94, when you read it, you say, it certainly doesn't look that way. It looks like the world is reigning, like the devil is reigning, like sin is reigning. And sometime your heart cries out, Lord, if You're really reigning, why does all this happen? The message of the first two royal psalms is this. Take His reign by faith. He's reigning whether it looks like it or not, whether it seems that way or not, whether everything seems to go against it or not, the Lord Jesus reigns. Believe that. And the Bible says, when you believe it, the song of rest and worship will be born in your heart. At this level of the Christian experience, when you first enter into this and you just take by faith, it just seems like you've almost arrived at the millennium. And you say, the Lord's in charge, He's reigning, I believe it. And then you begin to have the same rest that He has. And you enter into His rest, and the anxiety and the fret and the fear seem to go away. And at that point you say, well, there can't be anything more to the Christian life. That must be it. It's just so wonderful to just have this peace that everything's all right in my Father's house. In my Father's house. In my Father's house. Everything's all right. And just to know, no matter what comes, it's okay because Jesus is on the throne. But then as you go on in the Lord, you realize that's only the first step. And quite honestly, it's just sort of a baby step. It's just the call, the invitation to come and trust the Lord by faith. And so God then takes us to another step, another plane. If we believe that He's reigning, then we enter into His rest by faith. And then God takes us to this second step. The song of rest is good, but the song of victory is better. And we begin to learn that what God is doing in our life, and we looked at this this afternoon, from His point of view, He's bringing redemption to the whole wide world. Now you may think when some little thing comes into your life that that's just going to touch you or your husband or your wife or your children, some little circle of influence. But according to the Bible, when God works in your life, He's touching the whole wide world. We can't begin to know when God brings something into our life, how God's going to use that in the life of somebody else, in the life of our children or our children's children. The ripples of that influence will just go on forever. So God says, don't worry about that. Just know I'm using you evangelistically. I'm using you redemptively. And everything that touches you is redemptive. It's not possible, as a Christian, for something to come into your life that's just for you alone. It's not possible. Because everything's redemptive. And God is bringing something into your life in order that those who touch you might come to know the Lord. So, your responsibility in all that is to sing the song of victory. God's business is to bring redemption to the earth. Your business is to know God. And we looked at that this afternoon. Everything He allows is going to show His love and His grace and His strength, and He's going to share His life with you. In each case, God comes closer and comes closer. And now, that brings us this evening to the third message and the third song. We call this the song of service, and as we go into this, you'll see that it's paradoxical. As you would expect, Psalm 100 would have to be not only the third song, but also the climax of all the royal psalms. It's going to bring everything to a consummation. Let's look at this final step, and as I understand it, the highest step in understanding the kingship of Christ. If He's really King, it's got to end here. It doesn't start here. It starts by faith. It moves to light. It's got to end here. It has to. Psalm 99, let's look at the message and then we'll move into the song. Let's read these nine verses together. Follow along, please. The Lord reigns. Let the people tremble. He's enthroned above the cherubim. Let the earth shake. The Lord is great in Zion. He's exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise the great and awesome name. Holy is He. And the strength of the King loves justice. Thou hast established equity. Thou hast executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool. Holy is He. Moses and Aaron were among His priests. Samuel was among those who called on His name. They called upon the Lord and He answered them. He spoke to them in the pillar of the cloud. They kept His testimonies and the statutes that He gave them. O Lord our God, Thou didst answer them. Thou wast a forgiving God to them and yet an avenger of their evil deeds. Exalt the Lord our God. Worship at His holy hill. For holy is the Lord our God. I think if you glance at that psalm, you'll agree that verses 1 to 5 is the most natural break. And then verses 6 to 9 is a little different. There seems to be a direction in the tone of the psalm. Now, you see, up to this psalm, quite honestly, in the royal psalms, everything has been positive. Rest, worship, victory, rejoice, gladness, singing. And as we come to the end of the royal psalms and the kingship of Christ, you almost expect this last step will take you higher. You expect to soar. You expect rapture. You expect to move forward and be lifted almost to the throne of God. By this time, if God has worked the truth into your life, gone is the fear of circumstances and evil and what the wicked can do. Gone is the dread of the future, all condemnation, failure. Gone is the burden of trying to have a personal victory of your own. Gone is the burden of trying to have a rest of your own, trying to understand what's going on in your life. You're just filled with song. You've entered into His rest. You've entered into His victory. And you say, well, if I have as much peace about things as God does, and I have as much victory as God does, where do I go from there? How can you say the next step is higher? And so you come to Psalm 99-1. The Lord reigns. Let the earth tremble. He's enthroned above the cherubim. Let the earth shake. Say, well, that's new. Now, this isn't just the flip side of the same coin. This isn't just the other side of an identical truth. For six chapters we've been studying, the Lord reigns, rejoice. The Lord reigns, be glad. There's a big step between rejoicing and gladness and trembling and shaking. There's a whole difference there. Now, one translation, the New English Bible, says the earth quivers. The Amplified says, let the peoples tremble with reverential fear. Something happened in this psalm that changed the mood, the spirit of the psalmist. We're rising and rising and rising, higher and higher. He's king. He's glory. Enter His rest. Enter His victory. Tremble. Fear. Quake. Sort of anticlimactic. I just didn't expect that when I was studying the Royal Psalms. I didn't expect to come to the end and see trembling and shaking and quivering as an expression, especially the highest expression, of Christ reigning in our life. But the reality is, Psalm 99 is taking us to the epitome of understanding the reign of Christ. This is the consummation of the lordship of Christ. Now, don't just read that and get the idea, well, he's not addressing Christians. He's talking to the enemies of God, to the ungodly, to the unbelieving. There's no doubt that they're not included. I think they are in 99.1. The peoples, the earth, they're in there. But so am I, and so are you. Now, I'm going to ask you to glance at the first five verses of Psalm 99. I need to play with this a little before we can home in on the great message of this psalm. Because if you don't see this message, you won't sing that psalm. We've got to home in on that message. What's this trembling all about? Why the sudden change? Why the move from rejoice, he reigns, to tremble, he reigns? Look at 99.1. He's enthroned above the cherubim. 2. The Lord is great. He's exalted. 3. Holy is He. 5. Exalt the Lord our God. Worship at His footstool. Holy is He. Some have taken those three verses, 3, 5, and 9. Holy is He. Holy is He. Holy is the Lord our God. And they just call this the Holy, Holy, Holy chapter. Just like that hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy. This psalm is full of the majesty of the Lord. Of the glory of the One who reigns. You read this chapter 99, and you're going to see what our brother was singing about this afternoon. This One who all through the Bible is so exalted and so glorious. Look at verse 4. The strength of the King loves justice. Thou hast established equity. Justice, righteousness are in Jacob. Let me suggest this as a possibility. You see, up until this time, He takes us forward in little steps. And He says, the Lord reigns whether it seems like it or not. Take it by faith. Alright, I believe it. And then you begin to have His rest. And then He says, I'm using you whether you know it or not to the ends of the earth. And you just concentrate on Me and know Me. And have My victory. And so I enter into that. And then you come to this. He said, the Lord is high. The Lord is holy. The Lord is great. The Lord loves truth. The Lord loves justice. The Lord loves equity. And you get the idea by this time, that this whole idea of the kingship of Christ is not a game. This whole idea of the kingship of Christ is not play acting. There's no stage here. There's no theater here. You see, in the first message, I saw His works. He reigns. He rules. He controls. He overrules. He turns the curse into a blessing. God is on the throne. His works, what He's doing. In the second message, I saw His attributes. He's loving me and He's faithful to me. And He cares for me. And He draws near. And I see His grace. Then I come to this chapter. And I don't see His works and I don't see His attributes. I see Him. See, you've moved from the works of God at the beginning to the attributes of God, His love and His grace and His faithfulness. And now all of a sudden, you see Him. And when you see Him, it's holy and He's pure. And He loves truth and He loves justice. And He loves reality. And He won't let us fake it. And He won't let us play games. See, when you see the finished work of the King and the Lord reigns, it's so easy to say, He's done it all. I rest in His work. And then you see His attributes and His love and His grace and His patience. And you say, oh, I have His victory. I have His victory. But there's going to come a time in your life, and if it hasn't come already, it will come. I guarantee it, as sure as you're His child. Someday, someway, you're going to see the Lord. And when you begin to see the Lord and how high He is and how holy He is and how pure He is, 91.1, enthroned above the cherubim, exalted above the people. Verse 3, great and awesome and holy, loving truth. And all of a sudden, you begin to look at your own life. And you look at your heart. You look at your testimony. And you say, you know, all this talk about the Christian life, resting in His rest, having His victory and not my own victory. I wonder if it's all real. Or if I'm not just playing some Christian game. I wonder if somewhere along the line, because of some preacher or some hymn writer, I wonder if I sort of picked up a script and learned it. And I got all the right words, and I got all the right... And I wonder, and all of a sudden when you see the Lord and who He is, it's a new emotion. And you begin to back off a little, and you begin to tremble, and you begin to shake. And you feel like Peter in Luke chapter 5, after he does this great miracle. Peter says, depart from me. I'm a sinful man, O Lord. And the more you see the Lord, the more you see yourself. And you begin to say, I wonder if I'm just faking. I wonder if I'm just going through the motions. I wonder if I'm playing a big game. If I'm just...somebody's programmed me. And I got all the right answers now. It's so easy to talk about Jesus and Christ and His revelation, His rest, His victory, fruit, assurance, confidence. I wonder if it's all real. It's so easy to say, He reigns, I believe it, whether it seems that way or not. Is that your song, or is it just your creed? It's so easy to say, He's using everything in my life redemptively. Whatever comes in, I know He's using it. Is victory your song, or is that just your creed? Are you playing a Christian game? It's so easy to say, my part in missions is to know Jesus. Is that just a cop-out? Is that just a deception? Is that just an illusion? A baptized escape from duty and responsibility and discipline and obligation? Is that part of my catechism, or is that my song? Brothers and sisters in Christ, I'm pressing this because, and may God anoint my plain language, the climax of the Christian experience in knowing Christ as King has to do with the revelation of God Himself. It's bigger than all that God has done. Praise God for what He's done, and enter into His finished work. And it's even bigger than His attributes. But He doesn't want you to fall in love with His attributes. I remember in my Christian life when I fell in love with the love of God, and not the God whose love it was. But in this last step, He's inviting us to know Him, to see Him in all of His holiness. The first step has to do with faith. The second step had to do with light. This step has to do with reality, with the knowledge of God Himself. And when we see Him as He is, we begin to stand in awe. We begin to tremble. We're astonished. Honestly, I have seen Christians at this point in the revelation of Christ desire to throw in the towel, desire to quit. They've had a measure of rest, and they've had a measure of victory, and when they see the Lord, they just say, Oh no, He's too hot. He can't be pleased. He's too holy. I'm not the kind of a person that can make a Christian. I'm too messed up. That must be for spiritual hot shots. In the greater revelation of Christ, it's almost like the more overwhelming and the more crushing is the reality of who He really is that reigns and how holy He is. Sometimes you're tempted just to throw in the towel and say, What's the use? He's too high. He's too exalted. He's too holy. It's just words. I'm just faking it. I can't get into it. I just can't please Him. He's too hard to please. Well, that's how the psalm begins. And you're almost let down, and you're rising, and you're singing, and it's rest, and it's victory, and it's all that He's done, and it's all that He's showing in His attributes, and all of a sudden you see Him, and you go, Fear, tremble, quake, awe, and you shrink back from this revelation. And then it's almost like God anticipated that, and in verses 6 to 9, He says, Moses and Aaron were among My priests. Samuel was those who called on My name. Israel was guided by a cloud. Look at verse 6, those great examples. In verse 7, it's almost like God is saying, and I don't want to play with this, but it's almost like God is saying, Wait, don't throw in the towel yet. Remember Moses? Remember Aaron? Remember Samuel? Remember Israel? You want a history of mess-ups? There you have it. Disobedience, idolatry, no discipline in the home, grumbling, complaining, proud, arrogant. Verse 8, O Lord our God, Thou didst answer them, Thou wast a forgiving God to them, yet an avenger of their evil deeds. By the way, that's a wonderful verse, that verse 8. Probably one of the greatest verses in the Bible that brings together grace and government. There's no contradiction at all between forgiveness and the consequences which follow sin. And there you have it, all in one verse. Anyway, God is saying, Look at Moses, look at Aaron, look at Samuel, look at Israel, the nation Israel. Yes, I'm a high God, I'm a holy God, I'm an exalted God, but I forgave them. You see what God is doing here? We saw in the first step, in the first Psalm, Psalm 92, God is so exalted and so far away, and we just sort of take it all by faith. But then God almost, He doesn't really, but He almost gets off the throne. And He begins to walk near us. See, you don't expect this in the kingship of Christ. You expect it the other way around, that the more I see Him as King, the bigger He will get, the bigger the throne will be, the more exalted, the brighter the glory. But instead, you see Him, He gets off the throne. And the King begins to come down into your life, and you taste His love, and you taste His patience, and you taste His grace, and He gives you His strength, and He supports you, and He holds you up, and underneath are the everlasting arms, and He comforts you, and He counsels you, and He begins to talk to you, and He's coming closer. And now, when you see Him so high and holy, you say, no, it's too much, depart from me. And like Isaiah, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and I said, whoa, it's me, I'm undone. I'm like a leper in a leper colony. My lips are unclean lips. I live among an unclean people. Like Job, I heard of the Lord with the hearing of the ear. I saw Him with my eyes. Now my eye sees Him, Job 42 and 6. Therefore, I repent in dust and ashes. I retract. And God says, wait a minute, wait a minute. You don't see, I'm coming down. I'm coming to you. Remember Moses? Remember Aaron? Remember Samuel? Remember Israel? And your heart begins to turn. It must be possible. There must be a way. They did it. They were accepted by God. And all of a sudden, there's a new life, a new hope that's born in you. If He forgave them, if He ministered unto them, if they were accepted, maybe, maybe I can be too. And so the first look at this Holy God, you want to run. You want to quit. You want to throw in the towel. And then He reminds you, I'm coming near you. I forgave them. I was, yes, I had to deal with them. And there was government that followed and consequence. But I helped them. And a new song is born in your heart. And I have an idea when you see the song that you'll understand the message. So let's look at the song, Psalm 100. Shout joyfully to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before Him with joyful singing. Know that the Lord Himself is God. It is He who has made us, not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him. Bless His name. For the Lord is good. His loving kindness is everlasting. His faithfulness to all generations. The first words in this psalm, shout joyfully to the Lord. The song is back. You have to see this in the connection with the psalm. Because He starts off, Sing, rejoice, be glad. Tremble. Shout joyfully to the Lord. Something happened and the song came back. And now the song begins. And in fact this is the grandest music known to the soul of man. This is the highest song you'll ever sing. We call it the song of service. And probably you're thinking in the wrong direction when I say that. I call it the song of service based on verse 2. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before Him with joyful singing. Serve the Lord. That's what this psalm is about. Now I want you to notice that He continues what He hinted at in the previous psalms. He continues to stoop. He continues to draw near to us. Notice verse 3. He's almighty God. Notice verse 3 again. He's creator. He's coming near. He's coming down. But even that's a little much to take. Notice verse 3 again. He's our shepherd. We're the sheep of His pasture. Don't forget we're talking about King Jesus. The royal Psalms. He's almighty God. He made us. He's coming. He created us. We're His sheep. The sheep. He's coming closer. Verse 5. He's good. His loving kindness is everlasting. His faithfulness to all generations. The very God that frightened me in Psalm 99 has now stooped down and accommodated His greatness to my weakness. And He's drawn near to me. A full sight of Him blinds us. His deed is almost too much to take. And even His creatorhood, if that's a word, is so much that He's too big. And so now He draws near as a shepherd. And we begin to see ourselves as sheep. And with that revelation, we sigh a sigh of great relief. Because with this revelation, the scariness of the Christian life dissipates. It goes away and goes away forever. Who would have guessed in a thousand years that the climax of the revelation of Christ as King is Christ the Shepherd? And it's exactly so. You'd expect the revelation of Christ as King to grow higher and higher and brighter and brighter until at the end you would just say, it's just too much. But instead we saw the reverse. And this great King, sitting upon a solitary throne, irresistible, begins in every psalm to come down lower and lower and lower until He comes to Psalm 100 and we learn He's the Shepherd and we're the sheep of His hand. Very, very precious. He takes Himself off the throne, lays down the scepter, He picks up the crook. He lays down the crown and He picks up the shepherd's wrap. He lays off His royal robes and He clothes Himself and girds Himself in the shepherd's cloak. This psalm only hints at what the New Testament spells out as it describes God coming down from His throne, the Good Shepherd, who gives His life for the sheep. Now, to get to the heart of the message and the psalm, the psalm that will fill your heart, I'm going to ask you to look at Psalm 100 again and I'll give you what I consider to be the key to this psalm. And the key to this psalm is the illustration that He uses. And I'm talking about the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. Those who've studied the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep, the Oriental shepherd and the sheep, have suggested that that's probably the strongest relationship possible between a man and an animal. You know, you hear about a man and his dog, or a boy and his dog, a man's best friend, or many stories about the closeness between people and animals, horses and so on. Sometimes there's an unhealthy relationship between a man and an animal not created in the image of God. But between men and animals, not any relationship comes closer than the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. And if you're going to understand this psalm, don't lose the illustration. All the way through this psalm, think shepherd-sheep, shepherd-sheep, shepherd-sheep. If you lose that, you lose the psalm. With that in mind, you say, then why did you call this the psalm of service? I see a little bit of a paradox here. Serve the Lord with gladness, sheep. Don't get rid of that. Serve the Lord with gladness. Can you picture a shepherd out with his flock in a field? And you go up to the shepherd and you say, what's that out there? He says, well, those are my servants. I've got a whole flock of servants. They're serving me, sheep serving the shepherd. Think about it. Sheep serving the shepherd. What kind of a service can the sheep give to the shepherd? I suppose, when you can call having all your needs supplied, service. When you can call being made to lie down in green pastures, service. When you can call being led by still waters and having your soul restored, when you can call that service, when you can call being led in paths of righteousness, comforted by the shepherd's rod and staff, having the comfort of seeing him drive away the fear when you're in the valley of the shadow of death, when you can call that service, then I guess the sheep can serve the shepherd. Serve the Lord with gladness, sheep. I suppose when letting Him prepare before you a table in the presence of your enemies, when allowing Him to anoint your head with oil, when having your cup filled to the brim and flowing over on all sides, when being pursued by goodness and mercy, when dwelling in the Lord's house all the days of your life, when those things can be called service, then the sheep can serve the shepherd. There's only one thing a sheep can give the shepherd, and that's wool. And that's sort of a product of life too, isn't it? And feeding. Try to catch the impact of this wonderful psalm and then you'll get the song. The sheep serve the shepherd when they let the shepherd serve the sheep. That's what service is. Service is letting Him serve you. See, that's what Peter had to discover when he wanted to wash the Lord's feet. And the Lord said, And never you'll not have a part with Me then, until you learn to let Me wash your feet and to serve you. I did not come, Jesus said, to be ministered unto by you, but to minister and to give Myself a ransom for many. The only thing a dumb sheep can do, the only thing you can give, I can give the shepherd, is a heart that receives. You see, God's sort of incurable in His desire to give. He's just a giver. He's incurable. He just gives and gives and gives and gives. And what do you do with someone who gives and gives? How can you minister to them? You take and take and take. And the more you take, the happier He is. The more you let Him serve you, the more you serve Him. And that's what service is. I read this wonderful poem by A.B. Simpson. I don't know if you've ever heard of him, the great alliance man. There are deep things of God push out from the shore. Have you found much? Give thanks and ask for more. Dost thou fear the generous giver to offend? Then know his store of bounty has no end. He does not need to be implored or teased. The more we take, the better He is pleased. Oh, brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the highest song. As it was His rest, as it was His victory, it's His service. That's what it is to have Him as King. And this becomes then the clincher of the royal Psalms. The highest you can rise in the kingship of Christ as He gets off His throne to minister unto you, to serve you, the shepherd serving the sheep. He reigns by faith. He reigns redemptively. And He reigns to serve you hand and foot, to serve me, to provide all of our needs. This is the song of rest. This is the song of victory. And now this is the song of service. You say, how can I serve the Lord with gladness as a sheep? How can I serve the shepherd? Verse 5, the Lord is good. His lovingkindness is everlasting. His faithfulness to all generations. See, that's not only the last verse of the 100th Psalm. That's also the last verse of the royal Psalms. And it ends with this great revelation of the Lord and His character. No wonder the flock is singing in this chapter. No wonder. Because they're serving the Lord by letting the Lord serve them. You say, how can I serve Him? The Lord is good. Let Him be good to you. You say, that's serving God? Let Him be good to me? Sure it is. You see, God is always true to His nature. He's always good. I like to think I'm a gentleman. I like to think I'm a perfect gentleman. But I'm not always a gentleman. My moods change. My character is not finished yet. God is still working. Sometimes I'm provoked. Sometimes I'm downright rude. But here's an amazing thing. God always acts like God. Every time God appears, He appears as Himself. And He's good. He's always good. You say, oh, but you should see what He's allowed in my life. It's good. You say, oh, I missed His best. This is second best. God has no second best. That's man's idea. God only has a will. And His will is good and perfect and acceptable. And at any moment in my life, I can have the good and perfect and acceptable will of God, no matter what my past has been, no matter what my present is, no matter how ugly and repulsive it is. At any moment, when I look into the face of God, I can have again His good and His perfect, His acceptable will. Serve the Lord with gladness. Let Him be good to you. Verse 5 also says that His lovingkindness is everlasting. Let Him keep loving you. Every time you let Him love you, you serve the Lord with gladness. You say, oh, I don't know how to serve God. Let Him be good to you. Let Him love you. And His faithfulness to all generations, it is tremendous. God can't change. He can't lie. He can't fail. He can't stop loving me. He can't stop being faithful. And every time I let Him be good to me, every time I let Him love me, every time I let Him be faithful to me, the sheep serves the shepherd. A glorious song! No wonder this flock is singing. This is way above, my friends, the song of rest and way above the song of victory. This is the song of service. And it is His service. Look at verse 4 please. Again, don't lose the illustration. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise, give thanks to Him and bless His name. Don't lose the illustration of sheep and shepherd or you're going to miss this. By this time, the Lord has come down off His throne and He's revealed Himself as shepherd and I'm a sheep. He said I can serve Him by letting Him love me and letting Him be good and letting Him be faithful. And the sheep is all excited about this. He's entered into His rest. He's tasted His victory. Now He sees His service. Enter His gates. Enter His courts. Why would a sheep go through the gate and into the court? Do you think there are pastures in the court? Do you think there are quiet rivers and streams in the court? What's in the court? It's where the altar was. And His sheep are talking because all of God has done and all that He's condescended to me. You know why the sheep went into the courtroom? Into the courtyard? It's the court of the temple to be sacrificed, to lay down their lives. It's right that the royal psalms would end with this. See, you'd expect to begin with that. Say, oh, we're going to hear about the kingship of Christ, therefore surrender. It ends with that. It doesn't begin with that. Because until I take His reign by faith, until His light shows me what's His business and my business, before I see His victory, before I see He wants to serve me, I have nothing to surrender to. But now that God has shown me that, there's only one response the sheep can make. Enter His gates with thanksgiving. Now, Lord, I want to surrender to such a King as this. I'm not afraid of Your reign. I'm not afraid of Your kingship. I'm not afraid of Your scepter, because I know You're good and I know You love me and I know You're going to take care of me and I know You're using it all and I know nothing can hinder. And with all of this light and all of this knowledge, the sheep now at the end of the royal psalms says there's only one thing we can do. Let's go through the gates with thanksgiving. Let's lay down our lives for such a King as this and go into His courts with praise. And that's what the sheep were doing here. These are the royal psalms. Don't answer now, just think of this. How far have you come in the reign of King Jesus? Are you way back at the starting line murmuring and griping and groaning and complaining, massing and merrifying, wondering if God loves you? Now listen, take His reign by faith and enter into rest. You're still trying to figure out what in the world is happening in your life and why God allows this and God allows that? Know that God is using you redemptively and you go on in the victory of the Lord. Mind your own business. Stay out of His. Just know Him. Are you puzzled by the impossible standard of a thrice holy God? Say, I could never please Him. He's so high, He's so holy. Remember Moses? Remember Aaron? Remember Samuel? Remember Israel? He forgave them. He'll do it for you too. He'll do it for me. And the shepherd comes down and our God becomes Creator and our Creator becomes Shepherd and our Shepherd looks at the seat and says, now, you want to serve Me? Let Me serve you. Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the reign of Christ. These are the songs He wants us to sing. He wants us to enter into this. Are you willing in your heart to say, oh Lord, in the light of all of this, I want to enter Your gates with thanksgiving. I'm going to let You serve me. If that's serving the Lord with gladness, I love serving the Lord. It's so easy to serve the Lord. I just let Him serve me. And the more you let Him serve you, the more He's written down, you're a servant of the Lord. That's what it means to let the Lord serve you. Let me close with this wonderful poem. Some people miss sing it. They sing, take my life and let it be. We're not going to sing it that way. Take my life and let it be. But take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Before I read that poem, I'm going to ask you to turn to one more passage. Micah. Micah chapter 4. So you might say, oh, this whole idea, it sounds so high and so lofty. I'm not spiritual enough for that. Other people are gifted, you know, and they know their Bible. I don't even know Greek. How in the world am I ever going to serve the Lord? There's a wonderful prophecy in the book of Micah. Chapter 4, verses 6-8. In that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame. I will gather the outcasts. I will make the lame a remnant and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now and forever. Do you see that? I will assemble the lame and the Lord will reign over them. You say, I'm not spiritual enough for all of this. He wants to reign over the cripples. He wants to reign over the lame. He wants to reign over the helpless. He says, they're going to be My dominion in the day of My reign. So if you feel like you're not qualified for the reign of Christ, I remind you that the King is searching for the lame and He's searching for cripples and He's searching for the helpless. And He says, I'm going to gather them and I'll reign over them. I'll be king over them. Take My life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Listen to the last verse that she wrote. Take My will and make it Thine. It shall be no longer Mine. Take My heart, it is Thine own. It shall be Thy royal throne. It shall be Thy royal throne. Sheep, are you going to serve the Lord with gladness? There's only one response that could possibly be. Let's enter His gates with thanksgiving. Safest thing you'll ever do. Let's enter His courts with praise. Let's lay down our lives before this King and say, alright Lord, You want to reign over the cripple? You want to reign over the lame? You want My heart for Your throne? Here I am. I believe by faith You're reigning. And enjoy His rest. I believe by faith You're using My life. Whether I can see it or not, I just want to know You more. Enjoy His victory. Serve the Lord by letting the Lord serve you. Oh, may God help us understand the wonder of the reign of King Jesus. Let's bow. Our Father, You have shown us in these Psalms Your works. You have shown us Your attributes. And then You have shown us Yourself. And Lord, at the sight of Yourself, we wanted to run, but You've called us back. You've assured us of forgiveness and patience and grace. You've shown us that You want to be our shepherd. You want to serve us and minister unto us. And then You give us credit for serving You. Oh, such mystery! So amazing! And yet, Lord, we thank You for it. And our hearts want to respond by surrendering afresh to You. Going through the gates. Going into the court. Once again, laying ourselves upon the altar. Thank You, Lord, for these royal Psalms and make them a burning reality in our lives. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.