In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel continues his verse-by-verse study of the Bible. He focuses on Psalm 117, which is one of the Hallel Psalms. The psalm emphasizes the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and the need to praise and exalt God. Pastor Chuck highlights the importance of spreading the message of salvation to all nations and emphasizes the mercy and kindness of God. He also mentions the impending day of God's wrath and the need to escape it through faith in Jesus Christ.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Broadcast ministry of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us On a verse-by-verse venture through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll be continuing with Let all the people praise God As we pick up in the 117th Psalm Beginning with verse 1 And now, with today's message Here's Pastor Chuck Smith Another one of the Hallel Psalms, a very short one Again, one that was sung by Jesus in the Passover Feast Oh, praise the Lord, all ye nations Praise Him, all ye people You see, through the death of Christ Salvation is now to be offered to the world And taken to the world Jesus said to His disciples, go into all the world Preach the Gospel to everyone And so, Psalm 117 takes us into The whole race of people, all of the nations All of the people Praise the Lord, for Why do you praise the Lord? For His merciful kindness is great toward us And the truth of the Lord Endureth forever, praise ye the Lord Beautiful little short Psalm here In joining the whole world to praise the Lord For His merciful kindness is great Thank God we have escaped the judgment of God Through our faith in Jesus Christ We are no longer appointed to wrath But the day of God's wrath is coming And I can't see that it can be too far off We're living in desperate days His merciful kindness is great towards us But His truth endures forever And in truth and in righteousness, God will judge But thank God, if you're a child of God There is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment Jesus bore it for us No fear of judgment But I fear for the world Concern for the world Psalm 118, the last of the Halal Psalms And it is a Psalm that is known as a Messianic Psalm That it is a prophecy Definitely concerning Jesus Christ So that as Jesus sang this Psalm with His disciples He was fully cognizant of the fact that Portions of it referred directly to Him O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good Because His mercy endureth forever Let Israel now say that His mercy endureth forever The house of Aaron now say that His mercy endureth forever And then it comes down to you Let those who fear or reverence the Lord Say that His mercy endureth forever Well, why don't we say it His mercy endureth forever That's right, good Now, talking about the mercy of the Lord I called upon the Lord in distress And the Lord answered me And set me in a large place We need to be expanded The Lord sets me in a large place Broadens my horizons My vision The Lord is on my side, the Psalmist said I will not fear what man can do unto me There's a lot of Satanism today A lot of power of darkness There are a lot of spirit forces and powers That are being unleashed In these days in our society Through the many Satanist groups They fast and pray for the demise and the destruction of the church For the destroying of the ministry And people say, oh, aren't you afraid? You know, man, they're praying, you know, God will destroy it The Lord is on my side I will not fear what man can do unto me That great statement of Paul in Romans chapter 8 Where he said, if God be for us Who can be against us? We need to know the greater is he that is with us Than he that is in the world God is on our side I love that The prophet came to Asa the king Returning from victory over the Nubians The Lord is with you as long as you will be with him Well, listen, I plan to be with him the rest of my life So I can confidently say the Lord is with me The Lord is on my side because I'm on his side And because the Lord is on my side Because the Lord is my strength Because the Lord is my defense Because the Lord is with me I will not fear what man can do to me I love that kind of confidence that comes by realizing And when you begin to fear, when you begin to have anxious thoughts Just remember the Lord is on your side And if God be for you Who can be against you? The Lord taketh my part He sticks up for me With them that help me Therefore, I will see my desire on my enemies My enemies aren't going to triumph over me I will triumph over them Because the Lord will take my part It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in men How many of you have put your confidence in a person And you've turned out to be disappointed You really thought, hey, this guy is really sincere And you put your confidence in man Only to be greatly disappointed I'm certain that that's happened to all of us Better to put your trust in the Lord, you'll never be disappointed He'll never let you down He said, I will never leave you or forsake you Better to put your trust in the Lord than your confidence in men Better to put your trust in the Lord Than your confidence in princes Even they can let you down All of the nations had encircled me But in the name of the Lord, I'll destroy them I mean, though the whole world be gathered against me If God is on my side I'm going to come out victorious The Lord in me can whip anybody and everybody They encircled me Yes, they encircled me about But in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them They circle me about like bees But they are quenched as the fire of thorns For in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them You have thrust sword at me We talked about the enemies that I might fall You've tried to destroy me You tried to bring me down But the Lord helped me All of this goes back The Lord is on my side, I'm not going to fear Though all of the nations of the world Have encircled us, trying to wipe us out In the name of the Lord, I'm going to come out victorious You've tried to destroy me, that I might fall But the Lord has helped me The Lord is my strength My song And has become my salvation He has delivered me And so, it's glorious to know the strength of the Lord And seeing the victories of the Lord To just sing those songs of praises And triumph and victory through Jesus Christ The voice of rejoicing My songs of rejoicing and salvation In His tabernacles of the righteous The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly The right hand of the Lord is exalted The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly I shall not die, but live And declare the works of the Lord He who lives and believes in me, Jesus said, will never die I'll not die, but I'm going to live and declare the works of the Lord The Lord has chastened me sore But He's not given me over to death He's put me through some real trials Gone through some deep water But I'm still here Open to me the gates of righteousness I will go into them and I will praise the Lord This gate of the Lord Into which the righteous shall enter I will praise Thee, for You have heard me And You have become my salvation Now, beginning with verse 22 We have direct reference to Jesus prophetically The stone that is Christ, the rock Which the builders refused Is become the headstone of the corner And this is the Lord's doing It is marvelous in our eyes There is a story That at the building of the temple of Solomon The stones were quarried away from the building site And they were so perfectly hewn out And carved that they interlocked Without the benefit of mortar So that the whole temple was built Without the sound of a tool, a trowel It was just taking the rocks, hewn away from the site Brought to the site, all numbered And all to be set according to the plans Perfectly designed so that Without mortar they put the whole thing together Interlocking rocks Marvelous feat And the story goes that A rock came from the quarry And as they looked at it They couldn't figure where it went Into the building All of the rocks seemed to be in order there All of the stones that came to the quarry Seemed to be in order, they all fit And there seemed to be no place For this stone that had come from the quarry So they cast it aside They threw it over into the bushes Of course the building of the temple Was a period of years So that by the time the temple was complete The chief cornerstone was missing And so according to the story They sent to the quarries and they said We're ready to finish and celebrate We're going to have the laying of the cornerstone And the big celebration Send the chief cornerstone And the quarry sent back the message We've already sent it And so the thing back and forth And finally one guy says I remember throwing a stone over there in the bushes And went over and got the thing out And sure enough Here was the chief cornerstone of the whole building Whether or not the story is true The illustration is true Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone Upon which the church is to be built Was said of not by the religious leaders of Judaism The stone which they set aside They rejected God has made him to be the chief cornerstone Upon this rock I will build my church The confession of Peter that you are the Messiah The son of the living God So that when Peter was brought before the Sanhedrin And he was being challenged and questioned Because of the miracle of the lame man being healed Peter said this is the stone referring to Jesus Christ He is the stone which was set of not by you builders But God has made him the chief cornerstone And neither is there salvation in any other For there is no other name Given among men whereby we must be saved So the chief cornerstone So Peter quotes this And makes a direct reference to Jesus Christ The chief cornerstone Who was said of not by the religious leaders of his day Set aside and yet God has exalted him God has made him the chief cornerstone So this is the Lord's doing It was the Lord who made him the chief cornerstone It's marvelous in our eyes And then this is the day God's day of redemption God's day of bringing the Messiah And this is a reference to the very day that the Messiah came This is the day that the Lord hath made We will rejoice and be glad in it Now a lot of times people wake up on a beautiful morning Like this morning where the skies are clear The sun is coming up And we look out and we say Beautiful This is the day that the Lord has made We will rejoice and be glad in it No, no, no He's not talking about December 19, 1989 He's talking about one special day in the history of man When he would keep his promise And send the Messiah That day came It was the day of man's redemption The day of the fulfillment of God's promise The day in which the Messiah made his entry into Jerusalem According to the prophecy of Zachariah Riding on a donkey He is humble Lowly Riding on a donkey That was the day that the Lord had made Now the very next verse in Hebrew Says, Hosanna I beseech thee, O Lord O Lord, I beseech thee Send now prosperity You remember what the disciples were crying When Jesus made his entry on the donkey They were crying this psalm They started quoting this psalm They started saying, Hosanna Hosanna Verse 26 Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord That's what they were saying When he was riding on the donkey The day that the Lord had made The day that the Lord had prophesied And here was the Messiah Riding in on the donkey According to the promise And right on schedule 483 years after the commandment Had gone forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem Right on schedule The day that the Lord had made And the disciples recognizing it Began to quote this psalm Hosanna, Hosanna Save now, Lord, save now Is what they were crying This is the day Salvation The Pharisees when they heard The disciples quoting this psalm Knowing that it was a psalm that related to the Messiah Said, Lord, you better tell them to shut up That's blasphemy And you remember the answer of Jesus If they at this moment Would hold their peace These very stones would start crying out For this is the day that the Lord has made And if man doesn't rejoice and be glad in it Then the stones themselves will begin to rejoice They'll cry out the praises unto the Messiah But you remember how in looking at Jerusalem He began to weep And Luke's Gospel, chapter 19 Tells us that as he wept, he said, oh Jerusalem If you only knew The peace that you could have In this Thy day This is the day the Lord has made The day of peace God's making peace But man rejected They set aside the stone But the stone that was rejected by those builders The religious leaders of that day God has made to be the chief cornerstone And so it's a very pertinent psalm As far as prophecy is concerned Prophetic of our Lord's entry into Jerusalem The presenting to Israel Their Messiah Who was rejected by the builders The religious leaders So, but the disciples crying Hosanna, Hosanna I beseech thee, oh Lord Oh Lord, I beseech thee Send now the prosperity of your kingdom And all blessed Be he that comes in the name of the Lord For we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord And then the declaration God is the Lord Who has showed us light Interesting Bind the sacrifice With cords Even to the horns of the altar Jesus who came as the Messiah, the Savior Became the sacrifice Nailed to the cross And he became the sacrifice For our sins Thou art my God I will praise thee Thou art my God I will exalt thee And then the repetition Oh, give thanks unto the Lord For he is good For his mercy endureth forever And surely the goodness of God was manifested His mercy was manifested They all came together in the person of Jesus Christ God's Messiah Our Lord and Savior We'll return with more of our verse-by-verse study through the Book of Psalms in our next lesson as Pastor Chuck Smith continues with Meditate on God's Word And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now, I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one you can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives and they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again, our toll-free number is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience you can order online anytime when you go to www.thewordfortoday.org And while you're there, be sure to browse through the additional resources that include Bible studies, commentaries CDs, DVDs, and so much more Once again, that's The Word for Today online at thewordfortoday.org And for those of you who still prefer to write you can use our mailing address which is The Word for Today P.O. Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters of this station with your correspondence And now, on behalf of The Word for Today we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time as Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse-by-verse venture through the Psalms That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today And now, once again here's Pastor Chuck Smith with today's closing prayer Father, again we thank you for your word and for your Holy Spirit that you have sent to teach us all things and to give us understanding of your mercy and of your truth that endures forever May we hide thy truth away in our hearts, Lord that we might not sin against thee Lord, keep us from evil that it would not destroy us Help us, Lord, to walk before you in a way that will bring pleasure to you Draw us unto yourself Fill us with your Spirit and with your love In Jesus' name Amen Come along on an exciting adventure as Pastor Chuck reads the story of the Ten Commandments to children God wants us to keep the Ten Commandments but we just can't do it So Jesus came and did it for us Featuring Pastor Bob Coy as the voice of Pharaoh Moses, Moses, Moses No, I will not let God's people go No, no, no Pastor Ken Graves as the voice of God You shall have no other gods before me You shall not make for yourself a carved image Honor your father and your mother And Pastor Poncho Juarez as the voice of Moses Do not be afraid Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today and so many others To order the story of the Ten Commandments book by Pastor Chuck which comes with the audio CD as a gift call The Word For Today at 800-272-WORD Or to see a sneak preview of the book visit us online at thewordfortoday.org This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California