Psalm 92 this evening. I think
we'll just kind of go verse by verse and not read the whole
song together. Sometimes it's a good idea. I
guess it always probably is, but I believe we'll see it this
way. Just fine. I know if the Lord is pleased
to teach us, it'll be just fine. And I pray for that. I really
do. And I know you do too. We don't just meet to be religious,
just to You know, have a good attendance record. My goodness. I honestly, I believe before
God, I want to learn of him tonight. I pray he'll teach us. Verse
one of Psalm 92. It's a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord. And to sing praises unto thy
name. Oh, most high. You know, usually
when we speak of giving thanks to the Lord, And this is me,
you know, I've heard others, and I'm guilty of this. Usually
we'll say something like, well, we have so many things to be
thankful for that it'd take too long to mention them. But you
know, when I saw this verse, I thought, not this time. We're
going to stop and think about it. We're going to mention them
if we can, some of them anyway. Surely it's true we couldn't
mention everything we have to be thankful for. But it doesn't
hurt to try, does it? I'm thankful for the Savior.
How often as we go through this life? Are we thankful for him
in whom we live and move and have our very being? The one
who made us from the dust without him was not anything made that
was made, and that's me and you. Who? Takes every step we take
beside us. He never leaves us, never forsakes
us. He guides our every step. He shines his light upon every
choice we make, every decision. He keeps us in
his love and power. I'm thankful for what he did to save
me. I don't think about it near often enough, even as a preacher. And that's a very personal thing
for each one of us who know him. We don't just believe in salvation,
you know, as a doctrine or something. I want to appreciate the fact
that he saved me. He came right where I was one
day and saved me. I'm thankful for my family. And you know, there's so many
things that I want for them. I'm guilty often of just starting
to pray, Lord, do this for them, do that for keep them safe. Reveal
yourself to them. And I forget sometimes just to
say, Lord, thank you for them. Thanks for my family. Thank God
for them. I'm thankful for this church.
For you all. Thank God for saving you. I thought
about each one of you. I've seen him save some of you.
as much as that can be seen. That's such a blessing. Thankful he brought us together
as a family to worship him, to learn of him. As stupid as we
are, we've learned a few things over the years, I believe, by
his grace. I'm more and more thankful for
good health. And that's for all of us, for
myself and for you too. When somebody else is hurting,
it hurts me too. Somebody I love. It's good to hear Brother Charlie's
doing well. He's hopefully going to come home tomorrow. I know
he's looking forward to that. And I want it for him. And I know some of us have some
troubles. But they could be a lot worse. So much to be thankful for. I
thank God for this book, don't you? Don't take your Bible for granted.
We grow by this book. As newborn babes, Peter said,
desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. And we do. We're comforted by this book.
Paul said, Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written
for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures,
might have hope. Isn't hope a wonderful thing? This book, by God's grace and
design, made us wise unto salvation. and is able to make those that
we love who know him not wise unto salvation. We talk about
a precious gift. Wherefore, James said, lay apart
all filthiness. This is our desire for those
that we love. Lay aside what's filthy and all
superfluity of naughtiness. This world is full of the vanities
of the flesh. Lay that apart. and receive with
meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
Thank God we have that which is able to save that by which
God reveals his son who is the Savior. Well, our Lord and Savior is honored
and revealed in this book. And we have communion with him
as we rejoice in his gospel. It's good. It's good, David said
here. I believe it's David. I'm not
sure. Whoever wrote this song. It's good to give thanks. It's
good to sing praises to him. Isn't that good? Somebody writes
a good Christ honoring song and we lift it up. How many good
things have you done today? You ever thought about that?
We've done a lot of stuff today. How much of it was good? According to God's estimation
of what's good. Well, we just did something good
according to the book. Have you ever wondered Maybe you've wondered, I've wondered
this before, should somebody that doesn't know the Lord even
sing the hymns that we sing? Should they just be quiet? Because they don't even know
it. How can you sing to somebody you don't even really know? Or
maybe you've thought, I'm not worthy to even sing before him. Can't sing very good. Why should
I lift up my croaking frog voice before the Lord? Well, David
kind of put all of that kind of thinking to rest when he said,
let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Everything that
has breath, you have breath. You got that breath from God and use it to praise him. Verse
two, he said to, here's what we do when we sing, when we praise
him, we show forth his loving kindness. in the morning and
his faithfulness every night. It's never a bad day to praise
him. Never a bad day to show forth
his praises or to be thankful unto him. And, you know, showing
forth his loving kindness. That's quite an undertaking,
isn't it, if you think about it? How are you going to show
forth his loving kindness without talking about his sovereign election?
He said, Jacob, have I loved before they were before him or
Esau were ever born or had done anything good or evil? He said,
I love Jacob and I hate Esau. How are you going to sing of
the loving kindness of God unless you talk about that? His love
is distinguishing. His love is free. I have loved him freely, he said. to show forth his loving kindness,
you'd certainly have to talk about Christ coming where we
are to redeem us from our sins. Herein is love. Not that we loved
him, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. And we got to show forth his
faithfulness every night. And of course, that word every
applies to the morning and night, every day. And this rebukes us
a little bit, doesn't it? Have you ever gone a day or two?
Or more? Without really thinking about
him? Without really praising him from your heart now? Yeah, me too. I'm ashamed of
that. Having loved his own, he loved
him to the end. Faithful. Faithful love. He was
faithful to his father in finishing the work that the father gave
him to do, which was to honor him in the redemption of his
people by his obedience unto death. Faithful. Got to talk
about his faithfulness. Meditate on it. He is, has been, and always will
be faithful to his people in every promise he ever made to
us. And boy, you talk about great and precious promises, the book
says, and sure enough, they are. And we want everybody to know
about it, don't we? To tell of it, it says, to tell of it. Show it forth. Upon an instrument
of ten strings, upon the psaltery, upon the harp. I thank God for that, don't you?
Thank God for those that can play instruments. That takes
a little dedication, doesn't it? in the dedication that many
of us don't have. People are gifted in different
things, but what a blessing it is when someone who is gifted
in something like that uses it for the glory of the Lord. That's
a blessing to everybody that loves Him. If you play an instrument, play
it for Him. Play it for Him. And the word
solemn here, play it with a solemn sound. I heard somebody talking today
about Christian rock bands. There's not much solemn about
that sound, is there? You know, it doesn't take a genius
to figure that out. People say, well, define what's
good music and bad music. You don't really need to do that,
do you? You just listen to it, and I can tell you that ain't
right. That's not it. It's not jazzy, emotional display
of talent. Solemn means meditation. If you
can't listen to it and think about Him and give Him the glory
and honor Him with it and in it, then quit doing it. It's
not to entertain or just to make noise. And then verse four, for
thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of
thy hands. You see that, isn't that wonderful?
I'm gonna win. That sounds kind of bold if you
just say just that. I'm going to win. I'm going to
have victory. I can't lose. Sounds like I'm
bragging until I tell you this. I can't lose because of his works.
You see that? Isn't that beautiful? Because
of what he does, I can't lose. I win. We win. We know how it
ends. And it ends well for us because
of what he did. That's what we sing about. Just
look what he's done. How can you not sing of his exploits
and his greatness and his power and his love? This world that
he made, just that alone. If we had nothing else to sing
about, we'd have to sing about that? How many beautiful works
of art have just nature that he created inspired? What about
love? Have you ever heard anybody sing
about love? Probably 80% of the songs ever written are written
about love, isn't it? But most sing about love without
honoring Him in it. Where do you think love came
from? God is love. There's no love apart from Him. Most of all, of course, we sing
as His sheep, of His redeeming love, of His precious blood. of His saving grace. We sing
on Christ the solid rock I stand. All of the ground is sinking
sand. His work, the psalmist said, makes me glad. You know, it seems like everything
man does has got problems, doesn't it? There's a downside. But notice the wording here.
It doesn't really say his work makes me glad. It says, Lord,
you've made me glad. You have made me glad through
your work. You know, some people are glad
and some people are not on many different levels. And notice
it just in life itself. Some people are just happy and
some are not. And usually you can see, you
can compare. You're in the same thing. So
one will be happy and one will be upset about the same exact
thing. We see that in the scriptures,
Acts 13, 48, when the Gentiles heard the gospel, they were glad
and they glorified the word of the Lord. They were glad to hear
God's word, the gospel. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life, believed. As many as God had chosen from
the foundation of the world, believed on Christ. That's how
that works. But And the word of the Lord was published throughout
all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable
women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against
Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their coves. The
Gentiles were glad to hear the gospel, the Jews not so much. They hated Christ. They hated his gospel. They hated
everybody that preached it. Same thing, big difference. Same gospel, two completely different
reactions. And this is true in all of life. Maybe you can't stand your job.
A lot of people would love to do that job. Be glad to have it. Who makes
the difference? Do you know who decides things
like that? Only the Lord can make the heart
glad. So in all of life, in everything,
he's to be acknowledged in that and thanked. If anything is delightful
to you, thank the Lord for that. Not only for the thing that delights
you, but for the fact that it does. You have made me glad,
the Psalmist said. You did it. Verse five, O Lord,
how great are thy works, and thy thoughts are very deep. Brutish
man knoweth not Neither doth a fool understand this So this
is what we've been talking about now how great his works is mighty
salvation a Brutish man, you know what brutish means there,
you know This is this is very Very insulting
word, stupid. If somebody called me stupid,
they better be ready to bring it. Well, God's calling all of
us stupid here. By nature, that's what we are,
we're stupid. It means slow, dull of hearing, dull of learning,
slow of heart. That's what the Lord said to
those disciples. And here he's talking about the unbelievers.
The Lord said to his disciples on the road to the maze, so fools
and slow of heart. You know what that word slow
means? Stupid. He's not saying it in a berating,
offensive way any more than you would do that to your own children.
He's just telling it like it is. Without my revealing grace,
that's what we are by nature. Now, this is what we are. We
don't know anything. But the Lord is gracious to teach
us anyway. In spite, he overcomes our natural
denseness, slowness of heart. The difference between a believer
and an unbeliever is not that there are some stupid people
and some not so stupid, smart people. The difference is the
grace of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. And now by his grace, As stupid
as we are by nature, we, like the psalmist here, we marvel
at the works of God. You know, the Lord calls us dumber
than animals in this book, by nature. He called his own people
that, didn't he? The people of Israel, he said,
even an ox knows who made his bed for him and who feeds him.
But as foolish as we are by nature, God has revealed Christ to us
and in us, and we're just in awe. Just like here, how wonderful
are your works, how wonderful. You remember when Paul said,
oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God. How unsearchable, how unsearchable. And so even a fool, by God's
grace, when he shines his light in our hearts, Everything here
again all of life is affected by that in it. It's wonderful
To be able to to see the the deep that Paul said we have the
mind of Christ and we can discern the things of God By his grace
the the natural man doesn't receive them for two reasons their foolishness
to him because God hadn't shown him the wisdom of them Neither
can he know them because they're spiritually discerned because
that which is born of the flesh is flesh and And this book is
a spiritual book. You're not going to get it until
you're born in the spirit. But, but God has revealed them
unto us. First Corinthians chapter two.
He chose the weak, the base, the foolish, the stupid, the
things that are not and chose to reveal the glories of his
son. He gave the light and the knowledge of his glory in the
face of his son to idiots like us. And now we say, oh, the depth. Oh, your works. How wonderful. How deep are your thoughts? That song, and as I said, all
of life is different, isn't it? We sing that song that says,
heaven above is softer blue. Earth around is sweeter green.
True, and if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, you can't
see any beauty really in anything. Not as it is. Something lives
in every view that Christless eyes have never seen. And I know
in a sense that's true. In another sense, you know, we
see just like everybody else. But there's, there's, in the
spiritual sense, we can appreciate even the the just everyday things
that the Lord does. The beauty and the little things
that he blesses our life with. Verse seven, when the wicked
spring is the grass and when all the workers of iniquity do
flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed forever. The Lord's
just letting them grow up in order to cut them down. Why would
he do that? I don't know. You have to ask
him. But he told Pharaoh, I raised you up so I could cut you down. I know one reason to make his
power known. That's what he told him. To make
his power known. To let everybody know what we
said a while ago. I'm God and there's nobody else. Does it bother you to see the
wicked flourish in this world? Remember Psalm 73? That's what
the psalmist of Psalm 73 was worried about. How the wicked
prosper and the righteous are troubled. But then he said, I
went to the sanctuary of God, and I understood their end. That's what the psalmist here
is talking about too. They're growing up now, they're
flourishing now, but it's just that they'll be cut down. But
thou, oh Lord, verse eight, are most high forevermore. When the wicked have come and
gone, the Lord's still gonna be on the throne. Verse nine, for lo, thine enemies,
O Lord, for lo, thine enemies shall perish. All the workers
of iniquity shall be scattered. But my horn, my power, shalt
thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh
oil. Not only will the Lord still
be on the throne when all of his enemies have raged and spit
and fumed and They've done all that they can do, that he allows
them to do. But so will his people still
be exalted, preserved, blessed, right along with him. Mine eye, verse 11, shall also,
also shall see my desire on mine enemies. And mine ears shall
hear My desire of the wicked that rise up against me. What
is your desire on your enemies? What do you want to see happen
to them? Well, I thought about that. I believe as a child of
God, my desire upon my enemies is whatever he's pleased to do
with them. Don't you think? If he wants to have mercy on
them, that'd be fine with you, wouldn't it? God wants to save
your enemies. Reveal himself to them. Should have brought his love
in their hearts and changed them. I'd be fine with that. But you
know the scripture reveals if he doesn't do that, we're gonna
be fine with that too one of these days. We should pray for them now.
Pray for your enemies. Pray for those that despitefully
use you and persecute you. If you just pray for your friends,
you don't do anything that the Pharisees didn't do. The Lord
said, pray for your enemies. But whatever he does with them,
I know it'll be right. It'll be right. Verse 12, the righteous shall
flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. He just said the wicked are like
the grass, but now the righteous are like a great palm tree or
a cedar tree. What a difference. And you know
what the difference is? It's the difference of nature.
A blade of grass is never going to be a tree. Never going to
be a tree. It's different nature. And all
flesh, by nature, the scripture says is what? Grass. By nature,
we're all grass. But it says in Psalm 1-1, blessed
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in
his law does he meditate day and night. And he shall be like
a tree planted by the rivers of water. You see a man that
delights in the Lord, that doesn't have any use for the ways and
things of this world, doesn't want to be with those who are
God's enemies, doesn't stand with them, doesn't sit with them,
not interested in their counsel, but delights in God's word, delights
in his gospel, wants to worship him, wants to honor him in this
world. And David said, you know what?
God planted that one. God planted him. God planted
him. Our Savior said, every plant
which my heavenly Father hath not planted will be rooted up.
But the ones that he plants are going to flourish. He bringeth
forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither,
but whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not
like that. They are not so. They're like
the chaff which the wind driveth away. They're the undesirable
part of the plant. that's just driven away in the
wind. We're not like a tree or a piece of grass or some wild
plant that just springs up naturally, but we're a tree planted by somebody. And if you planted that tree,
you're gonna take care of it, aren't you? You're gonna water
it, you're gonna prune it, you're gonna, you know, help it to prosper. We're planted in a perfect place,
too, by the rivers of water. We're made to prosper by design.
We bear fruit for the honor of the one that planted it. That's
by God's design and purpose that can never fail. That's why we're
able to say it shall prosper because God planted it. Those, look at verse 13, those
that be planted in the house of the Lord. You talk about a
perfect spot. My heart's desired I might dwell
in his house and behold his beauty They should they shall flourish
in the courts of our God To be planted by the rivers of water
as we read there Is to be planted in God's house. There's a river
which flows from the throne of God It's Christ the water of
life Christ is the river. I It's a beautiful song and a
beautiful truth. Christ is the river. It doesn't
say anywhere that the grass was planted in this song. And that which is not planted
by my heavenly father, Christ, it'll be rooted up. But the tree
here is planted by him in his house for his pleasure, and he
takes care of it. He makes it to flourish for his
own glory. It's in his courts. That's such a beautiful truth.
They shall bring forth fruit in old age. Verse 14. They shall be fat. And flourishing. Did you know there's just something
wonderful? About growing old. in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's something just wonderful
about that. If the Lord lets us live to an old age, there's
a great blessing in that. I've spoken with some of you
about this before. Some of us are right on the edge
of getting old. I'm not old yet, but I'm almost
there. And it scares me a little bit,
I'll be honest with you. There's a lot to be, you know,
for this flesh to worry about. But you know, on the other hand,
I'm really, by God's grace, just beginning to know some things.
Just really beginning to. I mean, I'm talking about simple,
basic truths that I have heard since I was six years old. The
Lord is starting to teach them to me. Just a little bit. And I've experienced now some
things that I know. Sometimes you can know some things
as far as book knowledge is concerned. But you know, even in natural
things, somebody that just has learned something out of a book
is not going to be real good at it, whatever it is. And this is a blessed book. Now
this is different from any other book. And knowledge of this book
is important and God uses it. But you know, Henry said one
time, Henry Mahan, and I believe this is right. You
don't really know anything you haven't experienced. And by God's grace, as we get
a little older, we begin to experience some things. And this is where
the fruit comes from, you see. This is the Lord working in us
and through us and causing us to bear fruit. And it takes some
time. You're not going to plant an
apple tree and get a whole lot out of it the first year. Or
even the year after that. It may take a good while before
you ever see an apple. It's an apple tree now. And it
was planted by somebody and taken care of and nourished But in
old age, as the psalmist said here, it's going to bear fruit,
sweet fruit, if the Lord is in it, if the Lord is taking care
of it. And his word, as we get older,
his word is so sweet, now more than ever before. I've been preaching the gospel for I guess 25, 28 years now. And there's just something about,
something different now. Just in the last year or two.
And so I read this verse in this psalm and I think I know what,
I think I know what he's talking about. Just beginning to learn the Bible,
just a little bit. We've seen We've read of the
faithfulness of the Lord for decades, but now I've seen it. I've seen it for years now. I've experienced His faithfulness.
And I believe I can talk about it a little bit better because
of that. I'm just really starting to trust
Him. This world is beginning to lose
its grip on me a little bit, I think. I don't want to brag
about it because if any of this is true, it's not because of
me. I know that. But I think this world is losing
its grip on me a little bit. It's losing its shine now. I'm
not as distracted by the illusions of this world as I used to be.
And that helps me to turn my attention to Christ a little
bit better. And I'll tell you something else,
as you get older, things get simpler. Simple is good when it comes
to the things of God. No desire to argue, can't tolerate
any drama or any, you know, it just gets simpler, doesn't it?
Somebody said to me recently, an older fella, just by coincidence,
said to me, I just want to sit and hear the gospel. That's all
I want. That's a pretty good thing to
want. That's kind of what David said when he said, one thing
if I desired, I just want to live where he lives and behold
his beauty. It's a lot simpler and that's
a good thing. And you want to surround yourself with people
like that as you get older in the Lord. You appreciate more
the simple blessings of God. And I don't know if I'm bearing
any fruit or ever will bear any fruit for his glory or not, but
I sure do want to. I sure would like to. And that's
another thing that increases with age. You just want it more
and more to be about him. What John the Baptist said, he
must increase and I must decrease. That's true on so many levels.
I think age has something to do with that, in our experience. He must be exalted. And I'm more and more gonna take
my place in the dust before him. I just want it to be about him.
And believe me, my flesh, I hadn't given up yet. But I want to say
from my heart, not under us, oh Lord, not under us, but under
thy name, give glory. And may we, as this psalmist
wrote here, still bring forth fruit in old
age. And in some senses, I believe
it's even better. They shall be fat and flourishing.
in old age. I'm thankful for that. To show that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there's no
unrighteousness in Him. As we get old, this is the three
things, now here in this verse, that it's all about. May everything I am, everything
I do, everything I say, just show who he is. You see that
there? To show that the Lord is. In old age, we bear fruit to
show by what we say, by what we do, by what we are. To show
who he is. That's what we want. to show
forth his glory, to show that he's upright. That word simply
means he's right. Pretty simple. He's correct.
Don't you want that to show in your life as you get older? That
he's right. Let God be true and everybody
a liar. I want to show that forth, don't
you? And then he's my rock. I trust in him. He's my rock.
All my eggs are in one basket. I want people to see that, don't
you? I want my children to see that. Not just when they're little,
but now that they're older, too. I want them to see that, sure
enough, I don't just talk about him being the rock. He's my rock. My rock in a weary land. It's
getting wearier and wearier to me. The shelter in the time of
storm. And old age is a storm. Now that we've lived a while,
can we say this truthfully? He's my rock. I got one rock. I got one anchor. I got one foundation,
and it's Christ. And he is the sinless savior. There's no unrighteousness in
him. There is not any in him and there
never has been any unrighteousness in him and there ain't never
gonna be I Don't know what it means when the scripture talks
about him being made sin. I Know that the scripture in
the Psalms It has prophetic language and the Lord is crying out and
then he owns my sin is his sin That's a horror that's not revealed
to us. We're never going to enter into
the horror of that. I know that he didn't just bear the legal
punishment for my sin, but he bore my sins in his own body
on the tree. And what the experience of that
was, I don't know. I don't know anybody that does.
I don't know what it means for Christ to be made sin, but I
know what it don't mean. I know what it don't mean. In
the very verse where it says he was made sin, it says that
he knew no sin. As a man, he did always those
things that pleased his father. And there was no guile found
in his mouth. He's our great high priest, tested
at all points like as we are yet without sin. Hebrews 7.25,
wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them, for such an high priest became us. We needed one like
this, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens. We need a high priest that's
holy. And we have one, by God's grace.
And when he was on the cross, he wasn't wounded for his transgression,
he was wounded for mine. He was the spotless Lamb of God
that was slain for sinners. Listen to 1 Peter 1 18, for as
much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ. There he is on the cross. What
are we redeemed with? The precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without blemish, without spot. There's no unrighteousness in
him. And right now there's not any,
we know that. There never has been. Hebrews
9, 28, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. He bore all of our sins. But unto Him that looked for
Him shall He appear the second time without sin. Unto salvation. We look to the
sinless substitute for salvation. We look for Him to come sinless. We look for Him to appear without
sin. And come save us. Save us from
the body of this death. It's gonna be the sinless one
that does that. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Let's pray.