Psalm 65. Sorry, y'all, I had to turn that heater down. It's like a sauna up here. I hope it's not bad out there. I hope it's not cold. Psalm 65. I wanted to say Happy New Year. Not just because I want to give you the greeting, but that's going to be our subject. Happy New Year. It's only been four days and you've heard it, I've heard it, you've said it, probably to brethren and probably to strangers.

But I got to thinking about that phrase, Happy New Year. And what got me on this, what got me thinking about this was Walt, last week when we were leaving, we were in the parking lot talking and he said, It's kind of strange when people say, have a blessed day. And he's like, there's nothing, the Lord doesn't bless a day. He's like, a blessed day? And I got to thinking about phrases we use, and I got to thinking about happy new year. What does it take for you to have a happy new year?

Now, if you asked an unregenerate man that, and probably most religious folks, that the things they would say is not what the Lord's people would say. I mean, there are some things, you know, they would say money, possessions, honor for men, a career, a promotion in their career, healthy health, long life. And those things give a temporary sort of happiness. It's a little easier to get through a day when you don't feel like the creditor's gonna come knocking down the door than it is when you do. But that'll give you a temporary sort of happiness, but it's carnal, and it doesn't last, and it doesn't satisfy. And there always has to be more. There always has to be more.

Health's eventually gonna decline, and the body's gonna break down, and when that happens, For a believer, talking about a longer life is not something, an aged believer whose body is just gone, that's not something that appeals to them. They want to be with the Lord. The Lord brings you to a place where you want to be with Him. Talk about a longer life, that's a young man's desire, but not an aged believer. That's whose body's in bad health.

What does the word of God say will make us have a happy new year? I read that to you in Jeremiah 17. I thought that was going to be the text, but that word where he said. Speaks about the blessed man there that that case is not the word happy. That's the word where God's given you blessings. But a lot of places in scripture, the word blessed is happy. But here's where I wanna start right here. I wanna show you true happiness is created in us. It's not of man, it's spiritual. We're talking about spiritual happiness. It's of God and it's knowing we are the Lord's. It's knowing he is our salvation. It's knowing that he is He has saved us, and He is saving us, and He shall save us. That salvation is all of grace.

Now, if you know that, you will have a happy new year, and a happy year after that, and all the way through eternity. Now, let's start right here. The happiness God creates in His child is entirely of God alone. Look here in verse four, blessed, and that word is happy. Happy is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy court, in your true church. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

Now think about this, happiness is knowing I did not choose God, He chose me. Think about that statement. If your happiness in God was that you chose God, wouldn't you always have a little fear that maybe you choose to leave Him? But if you know He chose you, you didn't choose Him. That's happiness. He didn't do it because of anything in you. He did it because of grace. So you can't mess it up. That's reason to be happy.

Happiness is knowing God calls me to approach him by grace. If I was the one saying it was all up to me to approach him and I approached him, same thing. I worry one day I'm I'm going to depart from him. Or if it was, you know, that preacher just really persuaded me and I came to the Jesus. What if another man comes along and persuade you of something else? I've seen people who were pretty convinced that the Lord persuaded them to believe on Christ. And then later I thought, did the Lord do that or did a man do it? because they go after man.

Happiness is God making us satisfied with Christ. That's what it is. You know, Christ made you willing to come to him in the day of his power, and he drew you to Christ and gave you faith to believe, and you beheld him, and he made you satisfied with Christ. What does that mean, to be satisfied with Christ, to be satisfied with the goodness of his house, even of his holy temple? Well, he's the tabernacle made without hands, and his people are living stones in that temple. It's to know we're united to Christ, and we've been redeemed by Christ, and we're saved by our Lord Jesus. That's what it is to be satisfied with Christ, to know God is satisfied with you in Christ, and Christ did it all, and you find all your satisfaction in Him.

Listen to this in Psalm 32.1. I'm gonna go to the Psalms, stay in the Psalms a little bit here at first, but in Psalm 32.1, here's why we're satisfied with Christ. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile. Happiness is knowing that Christ put all our sin away. He put all the sin of his people away and God will not remember them anymore. There's no record of them. It's knowing God's forgiven me. I don't care what this new year holds. and how bad you may suffer something, as long as you know God has forgiven you all your sin, as long as his child knows he'll never impute sin to me because Christ so thoroughly blotted them out by his blood, I don't have sin for him to impute to me. I don't care what happens on your worst day, if you know that by his grace, you'll have a happiness this world don't know anything about.

God's saints, and this happiness is in a spirit that is without guile. You know what that means? It means when God's people say that we are the sinner and we didn't contribute and we're dependent on Christ to save us entirely, we're not lying. We're not being deceitful. We're completely truthful. We have to be saved by Christ. There's no guile. When the Lord said, was it Philip or Nathaniel, when he said, here's an Israelite indeed and whom is no guile, what was he talking about? He had put a new heart in him, a new Holy Spirit in him, in which was no sin. He had been born of the incorruptible seed, a true Jew. Not in the letter, not outwardly, but one that's true of the spirit of God, been given a new heart, a holy, new holy man, Christ had been formed in you. And the Lord looks on the heart and he knew Philip and he said, there is a true Israelite, a Jew, an elect, redeemed, regenerated child of God, in whom is no guile. He's not pretending anymore that he's righteous and that he's partly made holy by his works. He's saying, no, Christ is all my salvation. That's when you're happy.

Look at it there. He says, happy is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. The blessed is the man who the Lord imputed not iniquity. That's all what Christ accomplished at the cross for us before the law. That's our righteousness in Christ. And in whose spirit there is no God. That's Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's Christ putting a new heart in you and making you know he's all your salvation.

No, God, we're not trying to deceive anybody anymore. When we didn't have that new spirit, men that are religious, they don't have a new spirit. They're hiding their sin and acting like they're righteous. God's child is saying, I don't want anybody to know my sin. God has said he remembers it no more, and I believe him. And I'm telling you, I gotta be saved by Christ. He has to be my righteousness and my holiness. I need him to keep me. That's being truthful with God. That's being truthful. We're happy in Christ.

Happiness, look here at Psalm 89, 15. Happy New Year. I hope when we hear that next time, These are the things we'll think about. Look here, Psalm 89, 15. Happy is the people that know the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. He giving you ears to hear. What's the joyful sound? It's hearing this gospel that Christ is all, that he's done it all, that he's saving his people, that he'll not leave his house, and he won't let you leave his house. He's gonna keep you dwelling in that house. He's gonna keep you planted in his house. He's gonna keep you.

There was one time, look, blessed is the man that know the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. He said in Psalm 65, when God causes you to approach unto him, and he makes you willing to trust Christ, and he'll dwell in his courts. You won't leave. You'll dwell in his house. You're planted in his house and you're not leaving.

A man came to Brother David Pledger one time. Brother David is, he's in his 80s now. He's still preaching the gospel faithfully and strongly. And a man came to Brother David one time and I guess this man was trying to straighten him out on his preaching. to tell him what he needed to be preaching. And David wasn't going along with him. And the guy said, I'm trying to help you out. And David said, I don't want out. I don't want out. I'm planted in the Lord's house. I don't want out. I'm in Christ. I don't want out. I don't want you to help me out. Dwell in his courts forever. That's the Lord's work.

Look here now. Go with me to Psalm 146. We just, Lord just taught us this not too long ago. Psalm 146. It's having God for our help. It's knowing God's gonna help us. God's gonna, whatever we need, he's gonna help. And look here now. Psalm 146 in verse five. The Lord taught us this just recently, verse five, happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Do you see this is personal? The Lord makes you to know that he's your help and that he is your God personally so that like you're the only child he's got. Now that's, When he really blesses you to hear and know, he's helping you. Every step, every breath ever, he's helping you. He's helping you look to Christ. He's helping you continue trusting none but him and walking in the light of his countenance. That's a spiritual blessing that makes you spiritually happy, blessed, blessed.

The significance here of him saying the God of Jacob It's cause Jacob was a sinner, and yet God saved him. All by grace. And the significance here of it saying the Lord his God, I've said this to you, when you see the Lord God, you go and look how many times you'll find it's when he's promising Abraham or Isaac or Jacob about his covenant promises. Blessed is the man who has the covenant-keeping God, like Jacob had, like Abraham had, like Isaac had.

Genesis 22, 18, this is what the Lord promised Abraham. He said, in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. That seed's Christ. I won't have you turn there, but I've told you, Galatians 3. promise was confirmed of God in Christ before he ever made it to Abraham. The covenant was confirmed before of God in Christ, and the law, which was 430 years later, could not disannul it, that it made the promise of no effect. Because if the inheritance is of the law, if it's of our works, then it's no more of promise. It's no more the Lord God, the covenant God that did it. but it's given to Abraham by promise. It was given to Isaac by promise. It was given to Jacob by promise. Happy is the man that has the God of Jacob for his help. Blessed is that man who the Lord God is his savior.

He gave Christ for a covenant and Christ is the cover. He's the fulfillment of everything. Look at Hebrews 6 and look how fully, I mean this word is so full of assurance right here. But blessed is the man whose hope is God, is in God. It's not in us, it's in him.

Look here, Hebrews 6 and verse 13. When God made promise to Abraham Because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself, saying, surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. God gave him what God promised. Wherein God, willing more abundantly, over and above, going over and above, making your cup run over with assurance by his promise. He said, showing us abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, he confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable, unchangeable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, strong comfort, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which entereth into that within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Now you picture a traveler in a strange land, being in a foreign country and being in a wilderness in a foreign country where there's wild animals and there's wild people, there's robbers and all of this. There's this man in this wilderness. And yet he's got the most powerful army there is all around him on every side. And the king of that nation is right there walking hand in hand with him. And that king says to him, I have attached my name and my glory as the king in getting you through this wilderness to where I promised you I was gonna take you. So here's my army, and here I am with you, and I'm gonna take you where I said I was gonna take. My name's attached to it.

That's what we have in Christ. He's the king of kings, and his glory, his name, the name of God, is attached to him getting you through this wilderness and bringing you to glory with him. And his whole, all the heavenly host is his army, surrounded his people all the time. That's our hope, brethren. He's promised it, he shall do it. He promised it, he shall do it. That's the happiness for this year, for every year, for next year, that's gonna be our happiness from here on. He's your all, brethren. He's your all.

Now look here. Verse Deuteronomy 33. I'm going to show it to you. I said that he's the king and he's protecting you and he's got his army around you. Here it is. Deuteronomy 33. You're not facing a new year having to work out a righteousness for yourself. Not the child of God. Oh no, Christ already did it. You think about this, you see this, you see Ben do this, but Ananias, you know, if he's carrying something, and he's struggling with it, and he's trying to carry it by himself, and you see him come over there, pick it up for him, take it for him, and not only that, but just pick him up, and you watch his face. He just smiled. He's just happy. That's what the Lord has done for us. He's taken our sin off of us. He's taken the burden off of his people. But not only that, he's picked you up, and he's carried you in his arms, and he said, I won't let you go. I'm gonna deliver you. That's happiness. That's why our hope's in him. Our covenant keeping God.

Now here he is with us, with his army, around us, protecting us. with his glory attached to carrying us to the other side of this wilderness and getting us to glory, right here. Look, Deuteronomy 33, 29. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto you, O people saved by the Lord. Who's Israel? That's who Israel is, the people saved by the Lord. That means entirely. The shield of thy help. The Lord is the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency. And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places. You see that? Our shield is our savior. Our shield, our protection is our savior to preserve us and protect us and provide for us. He's going forth not only being our defense and protecting us, he's going forth with his sword and he has to have conquered all our enemies, and he'll conquer any enemy that faces us. An enemy shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places. That's because he will see to it. He will see to it.

Now, look here at this next thing. What about when we go through trials and trouble, though? What about, because we're going to do that, What if this new year has some trouble in it? We're happy because we know it's our Heavenly Father correcting us because He loves us. Go with me to Job 5, Job chapter 5. Now, I'm at the market while I go and I lost my place. All right, look here in Job chapter 5. Now look, these guys that came to comfort Job, they were not comforters. They were miserable, and their heart was to condemn Job. That's why God said to them, you didn't speak a right as my servant Job did, because their heart was to condemn him. But What they said right here, what one of them said, and what's said right here by God is absolutely true. Look here, Job 5, and look at verse 17. Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth. Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty, for he maketh sore and he bindeth up. He woundeth and his hands make whole. His hands make whole. And I encourage you to go home and read that whole chapter. It's good.

But look, see, for our father, he really loves us with a perfect love. He loves those he chose in Christ. He loves in Christ with a perfect love, unchanging. That's what we just read in Hebrews. All his promise to us is immutable. It will not change. And his love does not change. God does not love today and hate tomorrow and hate today and love tomorrow. His love does not change. He said, that's why we're not consumed.

But look, in Hebrews 12.6 is where the Hebrew writer got, I mean, he got it, he got Hebrews 12.6 from Job 5. Happy is the man whom God correcteth. Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty, for he maketh sore and bindeth up. He woundeth and his hands make whole. He said in Hebrews 12, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.

Now listen, if you saw a child, and I kind of saw something like this one time, If you saw a child walking with his father, I'm talking about a little child, and there's a cliff, I mean a steep cliff right there. No guardrails, nothing. I mean, it's on a sheer drop off, probably 200 feet to the water. And that little child is running right up to the edge, and the father ain't saying a word to that child. If that father didn't go over there and cause some pain to that child, from snatching that child away from the side of that cliff so he don't fall off that cliff, you'd say, I don't know if that father loves that child. He's not taking him away from that cliff. I don't want to hurt his feelings. Better hurt his feelings than let him hurt his head when he hits that water.

Wouldn't you rather know God's going to cause you some pain to turn you back to Christ and keep you partaking of his holiness, being sanctified into Christ from this world, even though it causes some pain, but in the process, he makes you know Christ more, he makes you look to Christ more, he makes you know that this world has no happiness in it for you. Christ is your salvation. If you had to go through a little pain to be corrected, for God to keep you knowing that, wouldn't you be happy?

A lot more happy if God just said, I don't wanna hurt his feelings, I don't wanna offend his will, I'm gonna let him go. He's walking into the mouth of a lion, but I'm just gonna, I don't wanna offend his precious will. That's not love, that's not. If you have the ability to save and you don't save, How can you say love has anything to do with that? God saves those he loves. Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ? Paul said nothing. That means God will never let one he loves die. He will not. He will not. He chastens us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness.

I want you to go to Isaiah 35. I'm going to be brief right here and get on, but I just want to show you this. In Hebrews, he said, he chastens to keep you partaking of his holiness. When he first sanctified us, he separated us from the world. That's what sanctification is. He sanctified us into Christ. He put us in Christ. Christ said, I'm the way. There's no coming to the Father but by me. He is the way of holiness. He's the holy way to God. And when the Lord puts you in him, he makes you to see he sanctified you in him back in eternity when he chose you. He makes you to see you were in him when he died. He makes you see you were in him when he rose and sat down at God's right hand. And he's gonna keep you in him, sanctified in him, and he's gonna do it by his presence in your heart. That's what Moses said. How are we gonna be sanctified, Lord? Is it not that your presence goes with us? You're gonna keep us sanctified from this world, separated into Christ. Well, look here, Isaiah 35a. A highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it. You don't get yourself washed up and clean and then enter Christ our holiness. No, he comes and he washes you, creates a new man in you, and puts you in Christ absolutely clean, holy, sanctified.

Look, but it shall be for those, the wayfaring men, that's what we are, strangers just passing through this world. Those fools, that's what we are in our flesh, but we shall not err. We won't err and just mistakenly enter Christ the way erringly. He's gonna make you know him for sure, but what it's saying is, though we see through a glass dimly, though we don't know, and we don't know a lot, and we're prone to stumble and fall, we're not gonna err out of Christ. He's not gonna let you be out of Christ. That's why he chastens, to keep you in Christ our holiness. That's why. It might cause you some sorrow.

But look, no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up there on. It shall not be found there. You know what that means? Those are all, they represent things that would separate us from Christ. And he's not gonna let you be severed from Christ the way of holiness.

But the redeemed shall walk there. and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and shall come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their head and they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. You know, when the Lord gives you an understanding of what's to come in Christ, the joy of being in heavenly Zion with Christ, he gives you a little vision of it and through faith so you see Him and know sin and know tears and being with Christ and knowing Him perfectly and all the things you see about Him and know about Him. Even while you're in this way, like he's talking there, and you're walking, you're not, you're not, you're not stumbling or He's keeping you walking and look, and, and You're singing as you go, you have joy and you have gladness, you have happiness. He gives you a foretaste of it right now. And you see him and you know him a little, and you have a little foretaste of what it's gonna be in perfection in the end.

But there's no maybes there, that's all you shall. This is what he shall do. That's why he chastens us, to correct us, to keep us in Christ. He won't let you be separated.

You know, when I'm driving sometimes, And you're in a place you don't know. It's a strange place. And the lady on the GPS starts talking. And she gets aggravated with you. And she starts almost sounding like she's going to say something ugly. And she keeps doing it, keeps doing it. It's kind of aggravating. She just keeps saying it. And you know how you'll tell her to hush and turn it off or whatever. She keeps doing it. It's aggravating. But then when you realize, oh, I'm lost. I'm glad she did it. She got me out of here. I'd have never got out of here on my own. Well, that's how it is when the Lord chastens you. It's not pleasant. It's sore. It hurts. But afterward, you realize, I'm sure glad he did it. I'd have sure been, I'd have went my way. I'd have been separated from Christ. I'm glad he did what he did.

That's our happiness, brethren. That's our happiness. It's trusting Christ to rule the providence rather than leaning to our own understanding.

Listen to this now, Proverbs 16, 20. He said, and this is good to look at because it's, I just want you to see it. He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good. And whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. What he says before the colon And what he says after the colon is just two different ways of saying the exact same thing. You want to handle a matter wisely? Trust the Lord. And who trusts in the Lord? He's happy.

You see, you can't do anything more wise. You can't trust, you can't handle a matter more wisely than trusting the Lord. You know, when we start trying to look to our own understanding, and we start trying to fix our situation, and we start trying to get the splinter out of a brother's eye, we're gonna fix their situation, rather than committing it to the Lord is trouble, and it's not pleasant. But when you commit it to Him, and you see the Lord work it out, it's joy, you're happy, because He gets the glory.

Is that what it means? Look at verse three. Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Verse nine, a man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. Verse 25, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Verse 33, the lot's cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is the Lord. Verse 20, he that trusteth in the Lord is wise, and he finds good, and whoso trusteth in the Lord, he handles the matter wisely. That's how you could read it. It's two ways of saying the same thing.

He that handles the matter wisely shall find good, whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. It's two ways of saying the same thing. If I partly sit in that chair, and I partly try to hold myself up, I'm gonna get exhausted in a little while, because I'm not gonna be able to do it. If I just keep trying to hold myself up, but if I just plop down that chair and rest entirely, I'll rest. And if you trust the Lord and try to partly fix it and partly do and partly trust Him, you'll never find happiness. But if all your happiness, if you trust the Lord, you'll find complete happiness because you have rest. That's the message. You have rest.

I want to close with this, and I just say this to the young people. This was on my heart. Everything in this world, and this world makes a lot of promises. We're crafted by what the world does, and we hear things, and we see people going after, you know, fame and fortune and all the stuff they're going after. Everything this world promises you. Brother Don used to call it a soap bubble. He said it's like a little child chasing after a soap bubble, and the moment he touches it, it busts and disappears. You see something, and if I get that, I'm gonna be happy. And you finally get it, and you touch it, and you're not happy.

But that's not so with the Lord. He keeps his people robed in his righteousness, trusting in him, and it'll never change. It's by his grace. and he saves his people unto the end. Don't lose one. And to you, my brethren, our happiness is not in the mercy of the economy, it's not in the mercy of the government, and it's not in the mercy of these shipwrecked bodies. Our happiness is Christ, and he's promised, I will never leave you nor forsake you. He said, if he be for you, who can be against you? Trust him, brethren.

All right, Brother Adam. Happy New Year. I'm happy, I'm...