I wish that were absolutely true
with me, standing on the promises, listening every moment to the
Spirit's call, resting in my Savior as my all-in-all, standing.
I wish that was absolutely true. I'd have no fear, no doubts,
no worries, no trouble. But we don't. That's why we need
this message tonight. Let the Word of Christ dwell
in you. Go back to Colossians 3. Let's
read verses 15 and 16 again. We looked at verse 15 last Wednesday. Do you remember this? Did it
dwell in you this week? Did these words dwell in you?
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which you're
called in one body, unity. and be thankful. May everything
be thankful for you. If we were more thankful, we'd
be happier, more joyful. Let the Word of Christ dwell
in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. If the peace of God rules our
hearts and minds and thoughts. In this church, as a body, in
unity, in our homes, if the Word of Christ dwells in us, lives
in us, richly, that is, we're not poor in knowledge and understanding
of the Word, if that is so, do you know how much love and joy
and peace Faith, and long-suffering, and fruit, we would enjoy. Sadly, it's not so, is it? That's why we need Him. If that
were so, if the peace of God ruled us, and the Word of God
lived in us more, dwelled in us, we would be more like our
Lord, wouldn't we? He's sound asleep in a raging
storm. Sound asleep, resting in His
Father's arms. His father's will, his father's
love, not a worry, not a care. We'd be more like Paul. Paul
was in prison when he wrote these words. He's in prison when he
wrote these epistles, several of them. And he's writing to
encourage people who are sitting in the comfort of their home. He's at a jail cell, and it wasn't
a country club like they are today. And he's encouraging people. They're sitting in the comfort
of their homes. My, my. He said, I know whom I believe.
I know whom I believe, and I'm persuaded. He's able to keep
that. He said, I've committed unto him against that day. I
know. He said, I'm ready to part with him. If the word of God
would dwell in us like that. Oh boy, peace ruling in our hearts
and mind, in the church. We never have a fuss, never have
a fight, never be offended, never have a falling out, ever. If we were more thankful, if
we would be more thankful, we would never murmur and complain
about anything. You know, no matter how bad we
have it. There's somebody who has it much worse. Right? We don't have to look
far to find someone who has it much worse than that. Be thankful. You have a lot to be thankful
for. All right. Verse 16 is where we begin tonight. Let the Word of Christ dwell
in you richly. Who is He speaking to? The world?
No. To the church. Those in Christ.
Those whom Christ is in. Those in whom there's a new creature,
a new man. The Savior of life to life, okay?
His children, those begotten by the Word of God, born by the
Word of God, those that believe on the Lord Jesus, that know
Him, have a union with Him. That's who He's talking to. This
is the words of the Father, the words of the Son, to His people,
to His disciples. It says, let the Word of... It's
not allow. I want you to allow it. God's
going to speak to you if it's His will. But He says this in
this sin. When He said to His disciples,
let these sayings sink down deep in your ears. Don't let anything
hinder you from hearing them. That's the sense of what He's
saying. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, abundantly. If we have a beggarly or a poor
knowledge or understanding or experience in God's Word, we'll
have very poor faith. We'll have very little faith.
We'll live in full of doubts and fears, okay? We'll be overcome by the world. How do we overcome the world?
Faith. Faith. How do we keep the world from
consuming us and being overcome by faith. Well, where does faith
come from? Here in the Word. Richly. Let the Word of Christ
dwell in you richly. The more we know and experience
of God's Word, the more it dwells in us, and we in Him, in it,
the more we dwell in it. And I say it. We're not just
reading a book. These are the words of God. This
is the Word of Christ. We don't treat this like just
a book. And we haven't received it like...
Remember the message in 1 Thessalonians? You received the Word. Our Gospel
came to you not in word only, but in power. You know how it is. If the Lord
doesn't speak to you, you're just reading words. And you forget. As soon as you read, you've forgotten
it. But now if He speaks to you,
if He blesses you, And I'm going to get into that in a minute,
about prayer being a key to reading and hearing God's Word. The more we know and experience
of Christ's Word united to Him, He speaks to us through His Word,
the richer we will be in faith and love and joy and hope and
assurance. I need that. I got all the money
I need. Do you? Look at you. Sure you
do. You got more than one suit of
clothes? You got more than our Lord did, materially. We don't have a fraction of what
He had in true richness. We're rich, increased with good.
We need to be rich in faith, love. Rich in love. Rich in hope, joy, assurance. If we're rich in that, we don't
need much else. Now again, he's talking to those
in Christ. Let the Word of Christ... Now
why does he call it the Word of Christ and not the Word of
God? Why does he do that? Because
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. These three
are one. It's as much Christ's Word as
it is God's Word. Christ is the Word. Isn't it? Our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to John chapter 12. He says, let the Word of Christ
dwell in you, Richland. John chapter 12. For many reasons,
but it's the Word of Christ because He is the author of it as much
as the Father is. He says of Himself, The first,
the last, the beginning, the end, the author, and the finisher. Now, this is important. This is vital. People don't know
this, they don't believe this, they don't know God. Jesus Christ
wrote this book. It's as much as the Father. They
wrote it together. John 12, look at verse 44. He cried. Now, all
right. It was just quoted of what Isaiah
said in Isaiah 6, okay? He just quoted verse 38, saying
of Isaiah, the prophet might be fulfilled. Lord, who hath
believed our report? Isaiah 53. And then verse 40,
he hath blinded their eyes. That's chapter 6 of Isaiah. And then verse 41, these things
said Isaiah when he saw His glory and spake of Him. Who? Jesus
Christ. Well, it says in Isaiah 6, the
Lord of Hosts, capital L, Lord Jehovah. Who's that? Jesus Christ. Is this important? There are
people all over the world who claim to believe that Jesus is
Son of God, but they don't believe He's God. They don't know God. They're lost. Right? That's why they call Him Jesus.
That's why they called Him Jesus. His disciples never did. Never
did. They knew who He was. And His
Word was the Word of God. Didn't our Lord say? Didn't God the Father say? Now,
Hebrews 1. God, at sundry times and in divers
manners, spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these
last days spoken to us by His Son. And then when God hadn't spoken
out loud, He never spoke out loud to people. He spoke to His
prophets who spoke to the people, right? But in the New Testament,
He spoke three times out loud. What did He say? One thing to
mankind. This is my beloved Son. Hear
Him. If you won't hear Him, you won't
hear from me. God said. He's God. This is vital. If you don't know
God, you don't know that Christ is God. If you don't bow to Him,
He's God. There are whole sects, S-E-C-T-S,
that go door-to-door trying to prove He's not God. That's their
whole cause, isn't it? Isn't it? You know Him? He's God. His Word, He said, Heaven and
earth will pass away. Not one word of mine shall fail. Boy, I'm on a subject you've
got to love. He's our Lord and our God. He's not Jesus standing
outside my heart's door. He is the door. He's God on the
throne. We're never going to see God. No man has. No man can. But we
will. Job said, I will see God with
my eyes. Who are you going to see, Job?
Jesus Christ. Father. He thought it not robbery
to meet with Father. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God. The Word was God. The Word was
made flesh. Great is the mystery of God.
What does it say? Great is the mystery of God.
What does it say? God was manifest in the flesh. What's that mean? It means what it says. If anybody
doesn't believe that, they don't know God. Do you believe that?
Why? He said, flesh and blood haven't
revealed that to you, but my Father. Nobody knows the Son
but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father
but the Son, neither whom the Son will reveal Him. If you know
He's God and bow to Him as such, you're a son of God. You know
God. Isn't that wonderful? Now, where am I? Oh, Colossians
3, John 12. Verse 44, He looked up and the
Lord cried and said, He that believeth on Me, believeth not
on Me, but on him that sent Me. He that seeth Me, seeth him that
sent Me. Didn't He say this to His disciples?
Have I been so long time with you, yet thou hast not known
Me? Philip, he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. Call
His name Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace, the Mighty God. Brethren, if He's not God, He's
the greatest imposter that ever lived. He's a blasphemer. He
let people worship Him. If He's not God, He can't save
us. If He's not God, you can take or leave anything He said.
And that's what most people do. Jesus said this, Jesus said that.
I don't agree with it. But if He's God, you better bow
to what He says. And He is. He is. He's the author of it. He's the
subject of it. It's called the Word of Christ
because He's the subject of it. He's the subject of this book.
Yes, He is. His name is the Word. If someone
doesn't see the Word in the Word, they don't know the Word. They
might know the letter of it. There are people that want to
be preachers. Aren't there so many questions
I'd like to ask them? I guarantee you they couldn't answer them.
But you could, our children could. I could ask you a question concerning
various things throughout the Scripture and you'd give me the
correct answer. You know what you'd tell me?
It's Christ. He's all. What's that mean? It
means what it says. If you don't see Him as all,
you don't know anything at all. I'm excited because I see. Don't you get excited when you
see something new of Christ? No, we're not playing. One man
said, all you're doing is trying to find Christ in the Scripture. Yes, that's true. Because He's
all my hope, all my salvation, all my peace, all my joy. He's
the only surety of the covenant. He's the second Adam. He's everything.
He's the prophet, priest, key. He's all. If I can see Him more
clearly and believe Him more fully, I've got peace. I've got
comfort. So when you preach, you know,
people say, I believe the Word. My preacher preaches the Word.
Oh, does he? He preaches the Bible. Oh, does he? Does he preach
Christ? So many of you told me that you
grew up in a religion and you heard stories like Noah's Ark
and the manna and all that, and you never heard Christ's name
mentioned one time. I talked to a Reformed preacher
from here in town. sitting across the table from
him. And I told him, he said, what are you going to preach
on? He invited me to dinner. You remember this man? He invited
me to his house. He said, what are you going to
preach on this Sunday? I said, Genesis 22. He said, what is that? Refresh my memory. I said, that's
Abraham and Isaac. He said, I like that story. He
said, I've never preached on it. I said, you're kidding me. Now, you ain't never preached
nothing, have you? That's what I want to say to him. That's
one of the clearest pictures of Christ crucified in the Bible. That's what it's written. That's
where it began. Genesis 1, that's where it began.
That's where it all began. With who? Christ. The light. He's the light wherever. It's
supposed to be in Colossians 3. This is the Word. This is Christ
dwelling in you richly. It's Christ in you, the hope
of God, not just memorizing Scripture. Are you with me? The Pharisees
could quote Scripture. They wore them on their wrists
and on their heads as phylacteries. But they didn't know Christ when
He came. He has to be revealed to you
from the Word. You remember Jack Van Impey,
that fellow who could talk the walking Bible? You know, he could
quote Scripture right and left. He didn't know Christ! You wouldn't
hear him speak of Jesus Christ. But we do. How? Why? Isn't that amazing? Of all
people, most blessed. Psalm 1, again, blessed is the
man, blessed is the man. Who's that speaking of? Jesus
Christ. John 1. Jesus Christ. Romans 1. The Gospel
concerning God's Son. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.
Go on, keep going. Name a passage, name a scripture. He's the subject of it. He's
the author of it. This is the Word of Christ, the
Book of Christ. So he says, let the Word of Christ,
back to... I have several scriptures that
John wanted you to read. I will quote this to you, John
8, 24, he said, if you believe not that I am He, you will die
in your sins. That's what he said. That's how
serious it is. It's not doctrine, it's not,
well, I believe He's God, but if He's not God, He can't save
us. He didn't save us. Alright, in
our text it says, let the Word of Christ dwell in you. Abide in you. Where you dwell
is where you abide, where you live. Something or someone dwells
with you, they live with you, they live in you. Okay? If we
have no real abiding peace or joy, the Word of God must not
be dwelling in us. If we have no real abiding faith,
trust and confidence in our Lord, but rather we have worries and
doubts and fears and anxiety all the time, the Word of God
is not abiding in us. Why? We must be listening to
someone else. That's the only explanation for
it. Because if the word of, if the peace of God is in you, if
the word of Christ is dwelling in you, if we're overcome by and taken
up with this world, the word of Christ is not dwelling in
us. Because the exceeding precious promises of our Lord help us
escape. the corruption that's in the
world. It is the restraining grace of God. It is the constraining
grace of God. It is the leading of God, the
rebuking, the correcting, the chastening, the feeding. It's how we grow stronger. If we're weak in the Word, we'll
be weak in faith. Whatever we dwell on. Philippians
4. Remember this? Go back to Philippians 4. We
looked at this in regards to verse 15 on peace. Whatever we
dwell on dwells in us. You know that? Whatever we hear
and read and think on the most, it lives in us. It lives with
us. And it controls our thoughts
and our feelings and makes us act accordingly. You hear me? Whatever we dwell on and think
on is what controls us. Now listen, we all need this
so much. Now remember, Paul is in prison.
Chapter 4, verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. And
again I say rejoice. The joy of the Lord is our strength. But look around. He's Lord. He's doing this. Let your moderation
be known unto all men. What does that mean? That's just
not meat and drink, not just appetites, but that's attitude.
It's everything. The word actually means to be
calm. Be calm. The Lord is at hand. The Lord
is at hand. The Lord is reigning. And we're
in his hands. Do you remember what happened
20 years ago, September 11th, 20 years ago? Do you remember?
Three planes. This is what happened. Three
planes flew into three buildings. Two in New York, one wherever
the Pentagon is. Washington. Virginia. Somewhere. Three planes. The
world fell apart. Three airplanes flew into three
buildings. And the world fell apart. Why? Are you with me? And we did. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh,
no. Hardly anybody remembers that.
Right? Everybody's wanting to join the
Army. As soon as that happened. Everybody, man and woman, wanted
to join the Army. Go fight the enemy. Now nobody even thinks
about it. You can't even tell what ever
happened. Let your moderation be known. Did you hear what happened? What happened? A plane flew in
the building. That's damn bad. That's bad.
The Lord's on the throne. Did you hear what happened? What
happened? Earthquake. Tsunami. Yeah, the
Lord did that. Let your moderation be known. They came to the Lord, and remember
they said, that power that failed, there were great sinners, and
He said, for you repent. You'll perish. That's your moderation. Read on. It says, be careful
for nothing. Nothing. Be full of anxious cares,
what that means, for nothing. Why? There's another scripture,
you know this one? This will really help you. Cast
all your care upon Him. Why? Can you quote the rest of
it? Let me hear you. Does He really? Does He really take care of us? Does He really love His people?
His disciples came and said, don't you care? They were so
fearful and doubtful. Don't you care? Care? Been taking
care of you all this time. And now you're all up and up,
poor. Where's your faith? Yes, I care. I've been caring
for you from the day you were born, and I'll care for you to
the day you die. I've been carrying you, I took you from your mother's
womb, and I'll carry you all the way to glory. Cast all your care on Him. He'll
care for you. You don't have it anyway, might as well get
rid of it. Right? I'm talking to myself
now. in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving. Let your request be made known
unto God in everything by prayer. Should we pray over everything?
Isn't that what it says? If we don't, we're going to make
a wrong move and say something wrong. I told you this before. Brother Bruce Crabtree, I love
that man. He said somebody called him. They were going to buy a
dog. A couple were going to get a dog. And he said, well, go
ahead, get you a dog. They said, should we pray about
it? He said, I don't know. And then later on, he said his
conscience about it. He said, yeah. He said, yeah,
you ought to pray over it. You might get a biting dog. Don't
want a biting dog. Praise the Lord won't give you
a biting dog. And everything. Everything. What we're doing, we're not telling
God anything, we're not informing him of anything, but we're pouring
out our heart to him. You know, we want things, and
we feel guilty for wanting them, and he knows you want them. So
pour out your heart. Pour out your heart. And he'll
either grant it or he won't, or convict you for wanting it. Let your request be made known
unto them, and the peace of God, read on, which passeth all understanding. Human understanding. Read Hebrews
11, what all people that believe God went through. How could they
go through what they did? God wasn't with them. They didn't
have this supernatural work of faith in them. Keep your hearts
and minds. Keep your affections set where
it's supposed to be. Keep your minds. Keep you in
peace, keep your minds from worry. Verse 8, Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true... Can you find anything true today?
Can you turn the TV on or the computer or your telephone and
find one single thing you know is a fact? Do not accept the
facts of man. Come on! They make things up according
to their own... whatever their evil intentions
are. I'll tell you it's fact. God can't lie. Why don't we trust Him? Listen
to Him. He's true. He's the true God.
Whatsoever things are honest, isn't anybody out there honest? Come on. I know who He is. Our Lord. Whatsoever things are
just. There's no justice in this world.
Don't expect to get it. You can't get justice out of
unjust people. God's just. He's just. He said, Out vengeance is mine,
I will repay it. Everything will receive a just
recompense. Everything. Every wrong will
be righted and paid for. Every single one. Don't do it
yourself. God will do it. Justice. Whatsoever things are pure. Pure. He's telling us to think on these
things. Don't listen to the filth of
the world, it'll fill you full of filth. Fill your minds and
hearts with purity. You purify your soul by believing
the truth. And you purify your bodies too,
washed with the word. That's what the scripture says.
Ephesians 5.26. Whatsoever things are pure. Whatsoever
things are lovely. This world is ugly, it's filthy,
it's violent, it's wretched, but our Lord Jesus Christ is
altogether lovely. His word is pure. His word is
lovely. His word is holy. Love to read it. Love to hear
it. What's there for things of good report? Good report. You remember the 12 spies that
went into the land? Moses picked 12 men and said,
go into the land, spy out the land, we're going in there. Not,
he didn't say, go in there and see if we can handle it. No,
he said, go in there and just spy out the land, see where we're,
listen, come back and give us a report. Two men came with a
good report. Ten other men said, oh, we're
going to kill, we're going to eat us up. We're going to die.
We're all going to die. Ten other tramps said, we're
all going to die. Let's go back to Egypt. Two men, Joshua and
Caleb said, it's good, brethren. It's ours! God's promised he
can't lie. Let's go! Didn't he? What's your problem? God's promised
he can't lie. It's ours! Two men gave a good
report. The rest of them, oh, it's awful,
it's terrible, it's all going to die. We need to start listening
to the good report. Now, Luke 21. Go back there. Luke 21. We read
this last time. Let's read it again. Our Lord
told all these dire things that were going to happen in Luke
21. Oh, I love this. This needs to dwell in us. If
this Word would dwell in us, peace will keep us. Listen to
this, Luke 21. He said, verse 9, He said, when
you hear wars and commotions, be not terrified, let your moderation
be done. These things must first come
to pass. The end is not by and by. Now that was 2,000 years
ago. Then said he unto them, nations shall rise against nation,
kingdom against kingdom. Did you hear Vladimir, is that
his name, Putin? What's his first name? Vladimir,
the president of Russia, is that his name? It doesn't matter. He'll be gone. Somebody else.
But he's threatening the United States. He's threatening us.
Huh. Well, let's all get in a bomb
shelter. What do you say? No, let's trust
the Lord. That man is in the hands of our
Lord. His heart is in His hands. Great earthquakes, verse 11,
shall be in diverse places, famines and pestilence and fearful sights.
They say the San Andreas Fault in California is just waiting
to happen, just waiting to happen. You know what I'd do? I'd move. And there's no gospel there.
Fearful sights, great signs, shall there be from heaven. Before
all these that will lay their hands on you, verse 12, persecute
you, deliver you up, it will turn to you for a testimony,
verse 13. Testimony. You're going to tell them who's
on the throne, who's doing that. That's what it's for. You're
going to tell everybody who did that. Settle it, verse 14, therefore
in your heart. Verse 15, I'll give you a mouth
and wisdom. Word. Look at verse... 17, you'll be hated of all men
for my name's sake, but not a hair of your head will perish. But now if Paul got his head
cut off, it was the Lord that did it.
But until it's time, not one hair is going to fall. A bird
is not going to fall to the ground in the woods, and not a hair
of your head is going to fall to the ground unless the Lord
says, fall. Right? People say, I don't believe
that. I do. We do, don't we? You see, Jerusalem compassed.
Look down at verse 25. Signs in the moon, the sun, the
stars, distress of nations, men's hearts, failing them for fear,
looking at those things coming upon the earth. Then they're
going to see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and glory.
And here's what He said. When these things begin to come
to pass, look up. It's a good report. When you
see really bad things happening, here's the good report. Your
redemption's drawing nigh. I got good news. You want to
hear the bad news or the good news? If you hear the bad news
and then you hear the good news, Brother Scott said I ain't never
heard any bad news since I heard good news. Right? When you hear the good news,
the bad news ain't so bad. Not so bad. Let the word of Christ
dwell in you. Richard, go back to our tech.
Think on these things. Think on these things. Oh, don't
let the media and all this stuff rule you. Let the word of God
rule you. Let the word of Christ rule in
you. People are like dumb animals.
They're apes, listening to and falling for everything they see.
Don't do it. In our text it says, let the
word of Christ dwell you richly in all wisdom. Wisdom. Wisdom. We need wisdom, don't
we? We need wisdom from above. We need wisdom to think right,
to walk right, to talk right. We need wisdom at home. We need
wisdom on our job. We need wisdom in the world.
We need wisdom. Wisdom to judge, to discern,
to do, to avoid. Wisdom to see what's right, what's
wrong, what's from God's Word. And we only see that in light
of His Word. Wisdom. I was late, me, I was
late coming because I was reading the Proverbs on wisdom. And 115 times in the Proverbs,
wisdom is spoken. 115 times. Ecclesiastes, 48 times. Fools are foolishness 83 times
in the Bible. You want to know what's wise?
You want to know what's foolish? Go to the prophets. And you'll
see. What's the beginning of wisdom? You know how few people fear
the Lord? If we feared the Lord more, we'd fear man less. We'd fear things less. And I
just was browsing. Ron, I was reading and mom called
and said, where are you? You're supposed to pick me up.
I said, oh, I've forgotten. I was just enthralled with all
the wisdom. Everywhere you look, wisdom.
This is wisdom. My son, this is wisdom. Wisdom
is better than Ruby. Wisdom is with all you're getting,
get wisdom and on and on it comes. Let the word of Christ dwell
in us richly in all wisdom. Wisdom to know. Wisdom to speak. You know these words like this. Answer not a fool according to
his father, lest you be like him. Wisdom to know when to speak
and when not to speak. Wisdom to know what to say and
what not to say, and how to say it. Anybody need that? I do. Answer not a fool according to
his father, or you're going to be just like him. Don't sit there
and argue with a fool. Then the next verse says, Answer the fool
according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
We need to know when to let somebody get by with something and when
not to. Hold on now, buddy. Did you hear
what you said? And do it in love. We need the
wisdom to speak the truth in love. Wisdom, wisdom, we need
wisdom. Oh, no man spake like our Lord
did, did he? with authority, with power, with love, with mercy,
with grace, with understanding. I want to speak like that. Wisdom
to deal with people, don't you? The majority of our lives are
spent dealing with people. Relationships, and we need wisdom. It only comes in one place. The
wisdom of God is, listen to this, turn there, James chapter 3, James 4. It says, the wisdom of God, verse 13. Who is a wise
man, a dude of knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good
conversation his work with meekness of wisdom. And he goes on to
say, the wisdom, verse 17, from above is pure, peaceable, gentle,
easy to be entreated, full of mercy, good fruit, without partiality,
without hypocrisy, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace
of them that make peace. Go study that a while. Let that
dwell in us richly. Oh, if that dwelled in us, we'd
have some wisdom like our Lord. And in our text it says this,
let me close with it. It says in verse 16, teaching
and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Teaching
and admonishing one another. Does anybody in here feel capable
of teaching anyone? I don't. The necessity is laid
upon me. This is what I've been called
to do, but I don't feel capable. Paul said, who is sufficient? Paul said, we preach in part. We know in part. But, where is
my sufficiency from? Right here. This is my sufficiency. If I immerse myself in this,
I'll be able to teach you something. Alright, it says here, teaching
and admonishing one another Psalms. That's the word of God in it.
That's where it began. He's not telling us you need
to rebuke and reprove each other and correct each other. You need
to straighten each other out. He's not saying that. Teaching
in Psalms. That is, if all the time we were
bringing up something from the Psalms, it would teach us, it
would admonish us. Admonish means reward, it means
reprove. We've got enough of our own faults
and problems without trying to straighten somebody else out.
But the Word of God, if we were more conversant with it and spoke
more of it and knew more of it and knew more of the Psalms and
whatever we're with the brethren and start talking about, well,
you know what the Psalms said. You know what the Word said.
It'd help us out. We'd all be taught. We'd be admonished. We'd be convicted. Teaching psalms, hymns. This is why the Lord ordained
hymns and singing, because you can remember the word through
music, can't you? You can remember the word. I
venture to say that most everybody in here knows Psalm 121 by now.
Wait. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hill, from where it's cometh mine. Somebody put the music.
The Lord is thy keeper, the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in. What are you afraid of? From
this time forth and even forevermore. Even forevermore. Start singing. You get down, somebody else is
down, start singing. I don't say it works, not like
some kind of mantra, but it's the word of God drilling in us,
making good report. The Psalms, David said, why art
thou cast down with him? You know where that is? Psalm
42. Why art thou cast down with him,
me, O myself? Hope thou in God. I will yet
praise him who is the health of my countenance. If those verses
are in us, when we get cast down, we will remember it. It will
be like a wellspring springing up. It makes us feel better.
And if a brother is cast down, we sing that to him, tell that
to him, her. I love Pilgrim and his companion,
Pilgrim's Progress, the Christian faithful. They'd be walking along. Christians say, the faithful
say, come my dear brother, let's have profitable discourse. And they did. And they had the
wisdom and the handle, every fellow that came along, Mr. Talkative,
Mr. This, Mr. That, they'd say nothing to him,
because the Word of God says this. Let the Word of Christ
dwell in you. Singing with grace in your hearts
to the Lord. Grace. And we're going to look
Sunday at wives and husbands. But verse 17, whatever you do
in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God and the Father by Him. The Word of God teaches
us that all we do is for His glory and His honor and for His
cause. So let's do it cheerfully and
thankfully and gratefully and whatever it is, whatever it may
be, from cutting the grass to washing the dishes fixing food,
having somebody over, whatever it may be. It's keeping the nursery,
playing the piano. It's all under the Lord. It's
a good thing. It's a necessary thing. It's a needful thing.
If it's under the Lord, the Lord loves a cheerful giver. He doesn't
love a dutiful person. He loves a cheerful, willing
person. I ask you men all the time. I
said, would you read and pray for us? I know how you feel. You get instant Diarrhea. You do. But you say to me, you
say to me, oh, I'd be glad to, love to. Love to. Oh, I love that. Don't you know the Lord loves
that? He loves that. Oh, I'd be glad to. Give me great
delight. Whatever you do. Willingly, cheerfully. Oh, we
got a lot to be thankful for. We've got great cause to serve
His cause. What all He's done for us. Alright, stand with me. Father in heaven, thank You again
for Your Word. Oh my, how we need it. Live upon
it. May it live in us, oh Lord. Oh,
may the Word dwell in us richly. Teach us, lead us, guide us by
Your Word. Let these sayings sink down deep.
Write them on our hearts. Hide Thy Word in our hearts that
we might not sin against Thee. Order our steps in Thy Word.
Let no iniquity have dominion over us. O Lord, this is Your
blessed Word. Speak to us through it and keep
us by it. We thank You for it. In Christ's
name, amen. You're dismissed.