Alright, Psalm 138. Verse 6 says, Though the Lord
be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly. But the proud
He knoweth afar off. The Lord is high. He's so very
high and so very high above us. He's high in His person. He's
holy. He's immutable. He's all-knowing,
all-wise, ever-present. High. The Lord in His person
is high. He's high in His thoughts, high
in His ways. He said, as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. His counsel, all his works are
high. He's wonderful in counsel, excellent
in working. David said, when I consider thy
heavens and the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, the work
of his fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained,
what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the Son of Man that
thou visitest Him. He has to lower Himself to behold
the heavens. Scripture says that. That's how
high our Lord is. But especially, God is high in
judgment. Because He's holy, because He's
righteous, He's perfect in judgment. Perfect in just judgment. He's without iniquity. He's high
in His holy judgment of men. Now our text speaks here of him
having respect to the lowly. So let's understand this. God
does not respect a man's person in judgment. God doesn't respect
a man's person. God gave judges in Israel and
the manner in which he commanded those judges to judge is how
God judges. In Deuteronomy 16, 18. Listen
to this, Deuteronomy 16, 18. He said, Judges and officers,
shalt thou make thee and all thy gates, which the Lord thy
God giveth thee. He gave them the judges. He says,
and they shall judge the people with just judgment. Thou shalt
not rest judgment. Thou shalt not respect persons,
neither take a gift, for a gift to blind the eyes of the wise
and pervert the words of the righteous. That which is altogether
just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live and inherit
the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. When you read thou
shalt not respect persons, it means thou shalt not respect
faces. That's what it means. You shall
not look on that outward appearance and respect faces. You shall
not judge by a man's outward appearance. He said, Hear the
causes between your brethren, and judge righteously. This is
from Deuteronomy 1.16. He said, Hear the causes between
your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother,
and the stranger that is with him. That takes him to you in
Gentile. When he was talking to Israel,
he said, Judge righteously amongst your brethren, he said, and the
stranger. That's the Gentile. God doesn't
have a respect to a person being a Jew or a Gentile. He says,
you shall not respect persons in judgment, but you shall hear
the small as well as the great. Rich and poor, powerful and not
powerful. You shall not be afraid of the
face of man, for the judgment is God's. God does not show partiality
in judgment because a man is poor or rich. because he's a
Jew or a Gentile, male or female, rich or poor, educated or uneducated,
or any other reason. In our courts, you know, when
somebody's charged with a crime, they come to court. They come
to court looking totally different than a lot of times you see pictures
of them when they were in the street. You know, they don't
have their street clothes on. They come dressed in a suit.
They don't have long hair. They cut their hair a lot of
times. They cover up the tattoos if they have tattoos. They put
on a humble face. God commands his judges that
when you see the face and the appearance of any man, no matter
what, who he is, rich, poor, small, great, Jew, Gentile, don't
judge by outward appearance. Don't judge by the face. Nor
will he accept a gift. A gift won't alter his judgment. Man will transgress against God
for the slightest gift. He'll transgress against God
in judgment for the slightest gift. Listen, Proverbs 28, 21
says, To have respect of persons is not good, for for a piece
of bread man will transgress. For a piece of bread. Give him
something and man will change judgment in your favor. God's
exactly just in his judgment. Exactly just. Well, what about
the sinner? You'll hear men say that. What
about the sinner who never had a Bible, never heard the gospel
preached? What about him? How does God
judge him? Well, every man has the law written
on the heart by nature. That's what Romans 2 says. And
here's what the Lord said through Paul, Romans 2 11. There's no
respect of persons with God, for as many as have sinned without
law shall also perish without law. And as many have sinned
in the law shall be judged by the law. That means there's no
excuse, no excuse. And yet this text says, God who
is high has respect unto the lowly. He has respect unto the
lowly. It's speaking of those lowly
in heart, lowly in heart. Those that God has made lowly
in heart. Those he's given a new heart.
That's who he's speaking about. The Lord said to Samuel, look
not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because
I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man
seeth. For man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Our Lord said,
judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. That's the same thing as saying,
do not respect persons in judgment. Don't judge by what you see with
these eyes. The Lord said in Isaiah 11, God
said, when Christ comes, the spirit will be upon him and make
him wise in judgment, and he won't judge after the hearing
of the ears or the seeing of the eyes, but he'll judge righteous
judgment. He knows the heart. The Lord
Jesus knows the heart. So the Lord, he knows the lowly
in heart, and he knows the proud in heart. Our text says, though
the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the
proud he knoweth afar off. Now, the lowly in heart, preeminently,
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's preeminently the lowly in
heart. Look at Isaiah 66. Isaiah 66.
And look at verse 1. He says this to me and you. Thus
saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my
footstool. Where is the house that you build
unto me? And where is the place of my
rest? For all those things hath my hand made, and all those things
have been, saith the Lord. But to this man will I look,
even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth
at my word. Preeminently, that's our Savior,
the Lord Jesus. That's our Savior. He served
God perfectly, in perfect meekness, trusting the Father, in perfect
lowliness of mind. Go with me to Philippians 2.
Philippians 2. Look here in verse 3. Now this
is Christ's mind right here. He looked upon His brethren,
God's elect that God gave Him to save. He looked upon us and
esteemed us better than Himself. He really did. He looked out
for our good above His own good. And this is the mind of Christ. All of this is the mind of Christ.
Look at verse 3. Let nothing be done through strife
or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other
better than themselves. That's what our Lord did. That's
what he did when he walked this earth. Look not every man on
his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
That's what Christ did. That's why he came and took flesh
like unto his brethren to redeem us and bring us to God, holy
and righteous. Let this man be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it out robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him. giving
him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus
every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth
and things under the earth and that every tongue shall confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Our Lord Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me
for I am meek and lowly in heart. Lowly in heart you shall find
rest unto your souls. That's our Lord preeminently.
God looked only to his son, to this man will I look. He looked
to his son who was lowly in heart, who walked just in the way that
we should have walked, the way Adam should have walked, and
the way all of us should have walked, were we not conceived
in sin and come forth corrupt in nature. But he came forth
holy and perfectly obeyed his father, perfectly served God,
and he's our perfect righteousness with God and our holiness. But
by Him sending the Holy Spirit and the Gospel and creating a
new heart in us, giving us a new spirit, He's made His people
the lowly in heart. He's made us the lowly in heart.
Listen to Isaiah 57. Isaiah 57 verse 15. Isaiah 57
verse 15. For thus saith the high and lofty
one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in
the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and
to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isn't that amazing, brethren?
Isn't that just a wonderful word of grace and comfort? This High
and Holy One who inhabits eternity also dwells with His lowly people
who are lowly in heart. Now it's not that He had respect
unto us because we were originally lowly in heart. You know that.
No, we were proud just like everybody else in this world. We come into
this world proud like everybody else. It wasn't that He saw qualities
that originated with us and therefore He showed respect unto us and
had favor toward us. That's not it. We were sinners. We were vile, wretched sinners. It's God the Father chose His
people freely by grace and trusted us to Christ. And so He sent
the Spirit and the Spirit of God created a new heart in us,
a new spirit within us, and He made us lowly, contrite, humble
in heart. by giving us a new heart. Now,
here's my question. What is it to be lowly? What
is it to be lowly in heart? I'm not going to say this is
what it looks like because that would be telling you to look
at the outward appearance. No, I'm going to just show you
what the scripture says it is to be lowly in heart. The rest
of our psalm declares what it is. This is the heart of one
who's lowly. First of all, the lowly trust
the Lord to renew us spiritually. He's our life. We trust him for
life. Look at verse seven. Though I
walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. Secondly,
the lowly trust the Lord to deal with our enemies. Verse seven,
thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine
enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. See, that's lowly and
hard, trusting the Lord. Thirdly, the lowly trust the
Lord to complete every work concerning us. Verse eight, the Lord will
perfect that which concerneth me. Fourthly, the Lord depend entirely
upon the Lord's mercy. We depend entirely on the Lord's
mercy. Verse 8, Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth
forever. And the lowly beg God to not
forsake His people. We beg Him not to forsake us
personally. He says, verse 8, forsake not
the works of thine own hands. See, chiefly, If you could just
describe all of this by saying this, the lowly in heart trust
Christ for everything. We trust Him for all things,
everything. We depend upon Him entirely for
everything. Now let's look at these five
things very briefly. First of all, the lowly trust
the Lord to revive us. We trust the Lord to revive us.
Verse seven, though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou will
revive me. Trouble is the lot of all men
due to sin. Trouble is the lot of all men
due to sin. Job 5.7 says, man is born under
trouble as the sparks fly upward. But the proud, when they enter
into trouble, they try to take matters into their own hands.
We have a nature that wants to do that. God's gonna, He's gonna
subdue His child, this flesh of His child. But those that
are proud, they're not dependent on Christ for everything. The
Lord knows them afar off. He knows them, but He knows them
afar off. But God even sanctifies trouble
to the hearts of His child. He sent the trouble for our good,
and He sanctifies it to our heart, Through the trouble He shows
us more and more how we depend entirely upon the Lord. He shows
us how feeble and weak and incapable we are. The new spirit that He's
given us, the new spirit of God is willing. It's willing. Our flesh is weak. In trouble
we become so cast down so easily, don't we? Our faith becomes weak
and unbelief becomes strong. Grace becomes weak and sin becomes
strong. But God shines His face. Our
Savior speaks through this Gospel. He comes and speaks through this
Gospel in our hearts. And the Spirit revives us. Though
I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me. What did
he say? I just read Isaiah 57, 15. Thus saith the high and lofty
one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in
the high and holy place with him also that's of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble. To
revive the heart of the contrite ones. What does that mean? What
does revive mean? It means to preserve in life.
It means to quicken. It means to renew, to refresh. It's the Spirit of God that regenerated
us in the very beginning. We could not give ourselves life.
The Holy Spirit regenerated us in the beginning. But brethren,
He doesn't regenerate you and then just leave you to yourself.
We ever depend on our Lord to revive us and sustain life in
us, spiritual life. He is our life. He is our life. And we depend upon Him all our
days and it's by His presence It's by the Lord's presence shining
the face of His countenance upon us. The light is shining into
our heart. He declared that God the Father
sent Him to heal the brokenhearted. And that's what He does. He healeth
the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds. How does He
do this? By this gospel. He sends the
Word to you and reminds you how God the Father loved His people
freely without a cause in us. You know, you start in the times
of trouble, you're down and you start looking at your sin and
looking at your past and looking all around you trying to find
something to comfort you and it just troubles you more. And
He sends this Gospel and once again He reminds His people that
the Father loved us without a cause in us. It's grace, grace, grace,
grace. all of grace. And Christ Jesus
came and lived for His people and really and truly put away
all of the sin of His people. He really made us to righteousness
of God in Him. He really did that. And it's
that word, it's hearing that and the Holy Spirit revives us
and He renews us and He reminds us of all God's precious promises
that are sure in Christ Jesus. This is what we have to have.
And as He revives us, comforts us in the midst of this tribulation,
that makes you depend on Him more. It makes you depend on
yourself less. Here's why. Because He gives
you a good hope. You know He did this for you
before. You know He's going to do it
again. You know He's promised to do it. And you know He's done
it for you over and over and over and He keeps renewing you
and keeps renewing you. This is the Living Word, it never
gets old. Because He keeps renewing it
and He keeps reviving us with the Living Word. And Christ is
that Word and Spirit in our hearts. And when He does this, He gives
you this confidence to say, though I walk in the midst of trouble,
right now, though I'm in the midst of trouble, He gives you
the heart to say, Thou wilt revive me. Thou wilt revive me. All right, secondly, the lowly
trust the Lord to deal with our enemies. Verse seven, thou shalt
stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and
thy right hand shall save me. We'll be brief here because we
recently looked at how the Lord saves us from reproach, and we
looked in Isaiah 51, or Isaiah 52, how he pleased our cause. And what the context means in
Isaiah 52, you remember, is that He judges for us and pleads our
cause and judges between our enemies, saves us from our enemies. He said, I've taken out of your
hand the cup of trembling and the dregs of the cup of my fury,
thou shalt no more drink it again. But I will put it into the hand
of them that afflict thee, which have said to thy soul, bow down,
that we may go over, and thou hast laid thy body as the ground
and as the street to them that went over. The Lord knows the
proud are far off, but he does know the proud, and he will save
his people from the proud. Now brethren, as believers, we
don't wanna be, we don't wanna have enemies. We don't wanna
be, doesn't it bother you when somebody is offended at you,
or if you feel like you've offended somebody? That troubles us greatly. You get troubled by that. You
don't want, we don't want enemies. If we had our way, we wouldn't
have any enemies. The Lord makes you a peacemaker. And because he makes us each
know our own sin, it's easy for brethren to be at peace with
one another because we see what we are in ourselves. But we don't
want to personally offend, we don't want to have enemies, but
this is what the Lord does. Look back at Psalm 12. We know
that we, you know, the Lord will put you in a situation where
You can't defend yourself and there's nothing you can say that
you're not going to convince men, nothing's going to change
the opinions of man. But the Lord can revive you and
save you in the midst of that. And so we trust him to do it.
Here's what he says, Psalm 12, 3. The Lord shall cut off all
flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Who
have said with our tongue will we prevail, our lips are our
own, who's Lord over us? for the oppression of the poor.
Listen now, this is the Lord speaking. For the oppression
of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise,
saith the Lord, and I will set him in safety from him that puffeth
at him. The words of the Lord are pure
words. As silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times,
thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from
this generation forever. That's what the Lord, You know,
the Lord's already saved us from our sins. He saved us from the
curse of the law. He saved us from death and the
grave. He's gonna save us from any enemies
we have among men. He will save his people. Thou
shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies,
and thy right hand shall save me. Now the lowly in heart, they're
trusting the Lord to do that. They're going to speak to justify
themselves and defend themselves and condemn others. They're going
to do it at the expense of others. The lowly are going to just shut
up and trust the Lord that He'll save us. Thirdly, the lowly trust
the Lord to do every work concerning us. Every work concerning us. Look here in verse 8. The Lord
will perfect that which concerneth me. That includes everything
that concerns us. It includes all things that concerns
us. All things in providence, we
know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them where they're called according to his purpose. It
is by our Lord working it together for our good. You come into times
of trouble, you know my Lord's ruling this. You have peaceful
times, you know the Lord sent me this. And anything that concerns
me, the good, the bad, the highs, the lows, the Lord's working
it all together for our good. For our good. But especially,
brethren, the work of grace that He's begun in the heart, the
work of grace that He's begun. Philippians 1.6, Paul said, we're
confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good
work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He will
not lose one of His people. He will not. We depend on Him
for that. We depend entirely. Now the proud hear that. They
hear the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. The proud
hear that. We hear that it's the Lord doing
it. But the proud that says, ah yes, I'm getting holier and
holier and less and less sinful. One day I'm just going to make
myself perfect to where I can enter into glory. Well, I won't
ever be perfect in this life, but I'm more holy and less sinful. You know, there's one place in
scripture where one man is saying to another man, I'm holier than
thou. There's only one place that's
used where relative speaking between a man and a man, one
can say I'm holier than thou, only one time. And the Lord said,
and there's a stench in my nose. a fire that burns all the day.
No, the lowly in heart hear our Lord's promise and our spirits
revive by the Lord when we hear that and we look to the Lord. The emphasis here is the Lord
will, the Lord will, not I will, the Lord will. And we look to
Christ and we rejoice in Him alone. This is in the spirit,
it's in that new lowly heart and we rejoice in Christ alone
and we don't have confidence in our flesh. We don't have confidence. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. That's right. He's promised us.
God's promised us. God's able. Our Lord's faithful
to do everything that he promised. And nobody can hinder him. Nobody
can stop him from doing what he's purposed to do. Nobody.
And so come what may, you that he's made lowly in heart, you
can say, the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Oh, next time you're in trouble,
next time things are just turned upside down, you just go to that
and remember that and meditate on that thought and speak to
your own heart, commune with your own soul. The Lord will
perfect that which concerneth me. Here's the fourth thing. To be lowly is to depend upon
the Lord's mercy. To be lowly is to depend upon
the Lord's mercy. Verse 8, Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth
forever. The proud think they're strong
and think they've done works that'll please God, and so they
think God owes them. That's not mercy. That's not
salvation according to mercy or grace. That's merit. That's trying to earn a reward,
earn a wage. And God knows the proud are far
off. He hates pride. God's not going
to share His glory. He created His people for His
glory, for His namesake. But the lowly, we know we're
sinners in our flesh, brethren. We hate sin now. We don't love
sin like we did when we were lost. And we don't want to sin. And it's our desire to one day
know that we just can't hardly wait to that day when the Lord
will raise us anew and we won't have this body of sin and death. But we depend entirely upon the
Lord's mercies to us because we do know how weak and how frail
and how sinful and how needy we are. We depend upon the Lord's
mercies. The Lord has respect unto the
lowly who hope in His mercy. Look at Psalm 147 in verse 10.
Psalm 147 verse 10. He delighteth not in the strength
of the horse. He taketh not pleasure in the
legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them
that fear Him and those that hope in His mercy. That's the
lowly. The lowly in heart. Look back
at Psalm 33. I put this in the bulletin not too long ago. I
think I wrote an article on it. Psalm 33 verse 16. There is no king saved by the
multitude of a host. A mighty man is not delivered
by much strength. And horse is a vain thing for
safety, neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. Behold,
the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that
hope in his mercy, to deliver their soul from death and to
keep them alive in famine. That's the Lord's heart. He's near those that are lowly
in heart. He made us lowly in heart. He
made us lowly in heart. He made us hope in His mercy
by showing us how holy He is. By showing us how Christ is our
only righteousness. And by showing us how sinful
we are if left to ourselves. By showing us how weak we are
if left to ourselves. Christ said you can do nothing
without Me. And so you hope in His mercies. And it's His mercies
which were not consumed because His compassions failed not. So
we hope in His mercy. Now fifthly, the lowly ask God
not to forsake us. Verse 8, forsake not the works
of thine own hands. Every sinner that's been chosen,
redeemed, and sanctified by God is the work of His hands. His
people are the work of His hand. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we shall walk in them. God the Father chose us in Christ,
wrote our names in the Lamb's Book of Life. You realize He
created us in Christ in eternity in His purpose. And then our
Lord Jesus came and we were in Christ when He obeyed God. We
were in Christ when He went to the cross and bore the justice
of God. We were in Christ when He died
and went into the grave. We were in Christ when He came
out and sat down at God's right hand, quickened with Him, raised
up together with Him, seated with Him in glory, created in
Christ Jesus. And our Lord ordained from eternity,
He ordained from eternity that we would fulfill the law of God
in perfection, but not by our works. by Christ's works, in
Christ. And so He comes and He gives
you faith to walk by faith, trusting Christ is your righteousness.
He ordained that and He brings it to pass. The Lord ordained
that we should repent from any works of our hand, from trusting
any of our vain works, and the Lord comes and He works that
in His people. He ordained, brethren, that we
shall continue to the end trusting Christ And He works that in His
people. He ordained that we should love
Christ and love our brethren. And He comes and works that in
His people. He ordained that every act of mercy, every act
of longsuffering, every act of forgiveness, God ordained it
and God works it in His people. And He gets the glory. He gets the glory. The proud
boast that they're their own workmanship. We're boasting that
we're His workmanship, the Lord's workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus. And we know that God promised
He'll never forsake us. We know that. He said, Psalm
94, 14, the Lord will not cast off His people, neither will
He forsake His inheritance. We have that promise and we know
that promise. But we also know our Lord said
in Ezekiel 36, He said, I will yet be inquired of to do this
for you. In other words, you're gonna
come Ask me. And we're, we're, you continually
find yourself asking the Lord, Lord, please don't, please don't
leave me to myself. Lord, don't leave me alone. If
you don't go with me, Lord, don't, don't send me forth. If you're
not in it, Lord, I can't, I can't do anything of myself. Lord,
please don't leave me to myself. We beg and forsake not the works
of thine own hands. Now let me close this up, brethren.
Our main point was this, the lowly in heart depend upon Christ
for all. That's the main thing I'm trying
to say. The lowly in Christ depend upon
Christ for all. Are you one of the lowly? Are you one of the proud? Listen
to Proverbs 16, 19 said, better it is to be of a humble spirit with
the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud. You could
have a lot more if you live for the world and went after the
world. But a man's trying to save his
life and he'll lose it. Think of how foolish it is. You
know, all the things you want to eat and drink, put on, and
all these things, and we going to ignore the one who is life
and who gives life and who provides all things in our endeavor to
provide life and provide those things for ourselves. You see
how backwards that is? Ignore God who's the only one
that provides that for His people and gives everything we need
in this life. Ignore Him, ignore His gospel,
ignore His people because, well, I got to go after these things.
I can't worship. I got to go after these things.
Well, He's the one that gives it. So we come to Him, and better
to be humble, of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to be divide
and spoil with the proud. Here's why, back in our text,
verse six, though the Lord be high, yet he hath respect unto
the lowly, but the proud he knoweth afar off. I pray the Lord make
us lowly. Father, we thank you for your
word. We pray, Lord, that you would bless it to our hearts
and keep us lowly in heart. Keep us dependent upon you for
everything. We need you every hour. You are
our salvation. Thank you, Lord, for giving us
a new heart, a lowly heart. Thank you for all these blessings
you've promised us. Thank you for our Redeemer in
whom we're accepted. And Lord, thank you for providing
all the lesser things in this life that we need. We give you
the glory and the honor, Lord. In Christ's name we ask it, amen. All right, Brother Adam.