We sang in that song, Hasten,
Lord, the general doom. Kind of a somber note, isn't
it? But that is exactly what we read
in the scripture concerning the return of the Lord Jesus Christ
in flaming fire, taking vengeance on all them that know not God.
that is the general doom that will take place in this earth
as the elements melt with the fervent heat and all things are
consumed. If that doesn't cause you to give consideration in a serious
and somber way, then I fear that you have not given much thought
to those things. May the Lord help us, teach us
to know that we are dust, that we are passing away daily. We look like we're living,
don't we? But we're actually dying. And
of course, you know, the natural mind and the modern thought process
says such things are morbid and that you don't have the right
frame of mind. But the scripture has a lot to
say about death, and death is indeed a part of life. And every
man that's born into the world is dying from the moment that
he draws his first breath. I mean,
he's headed towards death. Now, you know, what a glorious
thing when we realize that we have life in Christ and that
to live is Christ and to die is gain. We rejoice in the life
that we have in the present time and we desire to give glory unto
the Lord in it, but we sorrow not as others which have no hope
when death rears its head. And of course we can see it around
us as this pestilence continues
to wreak havoc in the earth according to the Lord's purpose. And we
can be certain of one thing, that not one hair of the head
of any whom God is pleased to keep back from that will be harmed. Now does that mean that any of
us might not escape that? We don't know that, do we? We
don't know what the Lord's purpose for us is. And he might have
ordained this thing to come upon us and conceivably could come
and wipe us all out. or according to his mercy, he
may spare us all. And so our trust is not in the
doctors or in all the things that men come up with to give
men an ability to whistle past the
graveyard. Because really that's what most
of these measures that the government proposes and tells people, well,
this will keep you safe. Well, wait a minute. Maybe you
need to do this, and this will keep you safe. But wait, no,
we think we need to do this. Brethren, our safety and our
hope's not in these things. It can't be. You know, I'm not
opposed to anybody seeking any sort of medical care that they
feel that they need to take or approach. That's fine with me.
I'm not having a problem with that at all, any more than I
have a problem with somebody putting their seatbelt on when
they get in the car. You know, why do we do that?
Well, it's just a prudent thing to do, and there are prudent
things that you could do and should do, no doubt about it.
But our hope and our trust and our confidence is not in all
of these things, regardless of how much they may be pressed
upon us. And men might say that we need
to do those things. Our trust is in the Lord. May
he help us. And that may not be just something
we say, but may it be true in our mind and heart. All right,
we're looking here in verse 81. This is calf. That's the letter. Verse 81,
my soul fainted for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word Mine eyes
fail for thy word, saying, when wilt thou comfort me? For I am
become like a bottle in the smoke, yet do I not forget thy statutes? How many are the days of thy
servant? When wilt thou execute judgment
on them that persecute me? The proud have digged pits for
me, which are not after thy law. All thy commandments are faithful.
They persecute me wrongfully, help thou me. They had almost
consumed me upon the earth, but I forsook not thy precepts. Quicken
me after thy loving kindness, so shall I keep the testimony
of thy mouth. Amen. Forever, O Lord, thy word
is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all
generations. thou hast established the earth
and it abided. They continue this day according
to thine ordinances for all are thy servants. Unless thy law
had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. I will never forget thy precepts,
for with them thou hast quickened me. I am thine, save me, for
I have sought thy precepts. The wicked have waited for me
to destroy me, but I will consider thy testimonies. I have seen
an end of all perfection, but thy commandment is exceeding
broad. Now continuing again with in
mind that these are the words of Christ, that he is that one
alone who has a perfect and continuing regard for the keeping of the
commandments of God. Now we, by grace, desire to have
that. We hope and long and desire for
the Lord to work such things in us, but the only place that
we ever see that perfectly carried out is in the Lord. John was
telling us the other day about he had been to a funeral and
they said about this person, well, they knew that she always
kept the Ten Commandments. You know, as much as I'd like
to believe that was true, I highly doubt that it was, because the
scripture does not indicate that that's the way of man. Man is
wrought in his heart. When men say they keep the commandments
of God, they don't understand what the commandments of God
are. When somebody says, I am a law keeper, they don't understand
the extent to which the law goes. The Pharisees said they were
law keepers. The rich young ruler that came
to the Lord said he was a law keeper, and he was insofar as
what he understood the law to be. and what the Pharisees, what
they understood the law to be. And there's a multitude of folks
out here in the community, which we might call good folks compared
to other folks, that they think they keep those commandments.
But the Lord said to the Pharisees, you know, what the commandment
was. He said, if thou hast looked on a woman with lust in thine
heart, thou hast already broken the commandments of God. If you
have coveted, another man's possessions. If you have not worshipped the
Lord in sincerity and truth every moment of every day of your life,
you have not kept the law of God. Now the law reveals what we are
by nature, and when man goes to the law and he sees it as
something that he can keep, or he goes to the law and he says,
man, look here, I'm gonna do this stuff. And he continues
on in that thinking that he's somehow pleasing God. That man
does not understand the nature of his own heart. He doesn't
know what sin is. And he certainly does not understand
the pervasive nature of the law. Because the law kills. The letter
of the law kills. It'll kill a man. Because when
a man comes face to face with that law and the Spirit of God
is pleased to show him what he is by nature, he will throw up
his hands and seek for mercy before God. Because he can't
keep it. Paul said, the good that I would,
I do not. And the things that I would not
do is the things I find myself doing. Why is that? Because that's
the way we are by nature. And so when we come to read these
things, and we desire that we could say these things about
ourselves, but we know for a fact that we can say them, that the
Lord Jesus Christ could say them about himself. Now, if we get
out here and boast of keeping the law, we're gonna be, that's
a measure of pride. because we can't do it. But when
Christ said that he did, it's just a statement of fact because
he was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. And we see him as a man. He says, my soul fainteth for
thy salvation, for thy deliverance. I need the Lord. See, He continually
was in such a state. We sang a song there a moment
ago, I don't remember which one, but it had a verse in there that
said that our hearts pine for Thee. Well, our hearts do pine
for the Lord because He has caused us to. We didn't come by that
by nature. Our parents didn't teach it to
us, but the Spirit of God is the only one who can give a man
a longing to be made in the likeness of Christ, to walk in the pathway
of the Lord, to be in the presence of God. And that's what he says
here, my soul fainteth for thy salvation or deliverance, but
I hope in thy word Now we talked a little bit last week, I think,
about hope. And whenever we speak about hope,
we're not talking about hope so, but that's our hope. That's where our hope is placed. Like a man who's thrown a life
preserver, and he clings to that life preserver. That life preserver
is his hope. And so he hopes in that, and
that's how we hope in the Word of God. That's how the Lord Jesus
Christ showed us that perfect hope. Mine eyes fail for thy
word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me? We don't always feel
the comfort of the Lord, even as the Lord Jesus Christ did
not. Now, sometimes men have a view of Christ that he was
always in this comfortable state, but he was not. Why? Because
he bore our sins and he carried our sorrows. Now, in and of himself
as a perfect man, he had no reason to ever not be enjoying the comfort
of the Lord. But for our sakes, he was sorrowful. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief for us. Mine eyes fail for thy word,
when wilt thou comfort me? We see the culmination of it
on the cross when he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Which is words that all men would
necessarily say and some will say and some will experience
continually and forever. But the Lord Jesus Christ experienced
those things for his people. He bore our sins and cured our
sorrows. When wilt thou comfort me? And
then he says something rather curious in our understanding.
For I am become like a bottle in the smoke, yet do I not forget
thy statutes? Now we think, when a man, when
we use the term bottle, we're thinking about something, glass
usually, got a lid on it. And we think, well, what's a
bottle in the smoke? Well they didn't have bottles
back in those days and what the bottle, it just simply means,
it actually means a skin. It's a wine skin. It is a, when
they would take the skin of the goats or whatever, I don't know
what kind of animals perhaps they used to make these wine
skins, but they would sew up this hide and I suppose they
had the hair on the outside and the smooth side on the inside. Maybe they filtered wine with
it on the inside. I don't know. But anyway. When
you take leather like that and you put it in a smoky place,
it's going to dry it out. I mean, of course, we grew up
and had the smokehouse and that was basically what the smokehouse
did. It kind of dried stuff out so that it kept stuff from wanting
to eat it. And so that bottle, the illustration
here is that he is is dried out, that he is made uncomfortable,
that he has no strength of his own. Now if the Lord Jesus Christ
could say that he was dried out and had no power and strength
of his own, how much more can we come to that place? But he
for our sake became in such a position as that. Yet I do not forget
thy statutes. Even though he was in that place,
even though he was tempted by Satan, he did not forget the
word of God, did he? No, he spoke the word of God
to Satan and told him to get behind him because he would serve
the Lord his God. How many are the days of thy
servant when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute
me? Now, that's a question we all ask from time to time. How
many days do we have? Is it few or is it many? Well,
a man can't help but wonder that. I think every night when I climb
the stairs going up to my bedroom, I think, well, you know, one
of these times is gonna be the last time that I climb them stairs.
I'm gonna take my last step one day. When will that be? I don't
know. You know, it's just something we don't know. And as a man,
he's in the same situation. How many are the days of thy
servant? But he says this in relation to the fact that, well,
the next thing he says here, when wilt thou execute judgment
on them that persecute me? Now, we sang that song there
a moment ago. about lo, he comes with clouds
descending, and that was the one where it said that the Lord
was hastened, now the impending doom. It is a desire, even as it was
of Christ, because he is God of very God, and he will execute
judgment. He will not at all acquit the
wicked, nor will he clear the guilty. And there's not anything
out of the way for him to say, when will you execute judgment
on those that persecute me? Why? Because he did it unjustly.
He was not worthy of that which they brought upon him. The proud
have digged pits for me, which are not after thy laws. We spoke
about the fact that they used the law against him unlawfully
because they got men, they dig pits, that is, they put snares
in his way, traps for him. The Pharisees, you have to realize
that as men, they were frustrated after three years of dealing
with this man. whom they despised, despised
his way, and they thought he was subverting the people and
turning them away from them. And so day in and day out, they
thought of ways that they could come up and finally nail him
to the wall, whether it was bringing the woman, taking her to adultery,
and asking him, what's the law say? Or whether they would say
something to him about healing somebody on the Sabbath day.
They were constantly trying to dig a pit for him. But they were
constantly frustrated. And you imagine the frustration
that must have been in their mind and heart after three years
of dealing with him and not being able to do anything to him. They are not after thy law. All
thy commandments are faithful. They persecute me wrongfully.
Help thou me. While the persecution of them
was wrong, yet the commandments of the Lord are faithful. They're
faithful because that's exactly what we stand in need of. You
know, I'm glad that the law says thou shalt not kill. Because
there is a measure in which the Lord, by the Spirit of God, restrains
men with that knowledge, is it not? Think about if the Lord
took that away. What if there was no restraint
of the Spirit through the law of God? What would men be? I mean, you know, we see glimpses
of it from time to time as men just go completely berserk and
kill people and do all sorts of terrible things. They had
almost consumed me upon the earth, but I forsook not thy precepts. Even in the very midst of the
troubles that he had, he never ever forsook the precepts of
God, even though they had almost consumed him. You know, I don't
think sometimes we realize the nearness to death that Christ
was every day of his life, because he had people that hated him
and would have gladly killed him if they could have gotten
the opportunity. Remember when they would have cast him off
of the hill? right at the beginning of his
ministry. And they took him up to the brow of the hill, and
the scripture says that he just walked out through the midst
of them. I've always wanted to actually
get some kind of a visual picture of exactly how that is. I don't
know, you see these movies sometimes where everybody's frozen, you
know? I don't know if it was like that,
and he just moved through them, or they said, well, where did
he go? I'm not sure what happened. But
he was preserved, of course, because it was not his time to
go. But they had almost consumed
him. Quicken me after thy lovingkindness, so shall I keep the testimony
of thy mouth. It is only as the Lord quickens
us, makes us alive, enlivens us, gives us strength and power
that we will walk in the way of the Lord. Now, if the Lord
said that, As a perfect man, how much more is it true of us? Forever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. Now we sang a couple songs a
moment ago about the fact that the word of the Lord is settled
in heaven. That is, the Lord told us when
we pray, pray thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Now see, the prayer is, Lord,
your decrees are settled. You're going to do according
to your will. And that's not gonna change. We're not praying
for those things to be altered. But what we're praying is that
we might be conformed to his will as these things that are
done, decreed in heaven take place in earth. Thy will be done. We're glad when we see the will
of God done. Now that's not an easy thing,
is it? But nonetheless, thy word is
settled in the heaven forever. Thy faithfulness is unto all
generations. Thou hast established the earth,
and it abideth. And it will abide until such
time as he's pleased to take it away. And man can't extend
the lifespan of the earth, nor can he shorten it. You know,
regardless of all these climate change people that run around
out here and tell us all these terrible things that are happening,
and if we are just all band together as men, like we built the Tower
of Babel, you know, and made a name unto ourselves, we're
going to save the earth. We're going to save the earth.
Men are not going to save the earth. The earth is destined
unto destruction, so it's definitely not going to be saved according
to the ways of men. Thou hast established the earth,
and it abideth. It abideth according to His will.
They continue this day according to Thine ordinances, for all
are Thy servants. Now that's, everything that takes
place in the earth takes place according to the will and purpose
of God. And every man that's born into the earth does the
will of God. Remember, that's what Paul said
in his argument. And he spoke about the response
of men in there. They said, well, hadn't everybody
always done the will of God? I mean, how can God If God predestined
all things, you ever heard this? Well, if God predestined all
things, then how can He hold men accountable for what they
do? Because He made men accountable. You see, He told Adam, in the
day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Now, a lot of people
say, well, you know, Adam, he could have not done that. Well,
you reckon? I mean, the Lord said, in the
day you eat thereof, you're going to die. Now, the Lord put him
here, and he put him here to do what he did, because he created
him as he was. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Paul answered it. He said, nay,
but, old man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the
thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made
me thus? Cannot God create a man? and make him accountable for
his action, and yet ordain and direct every action that he takes,
and who could say anything about it? Nobody. Now that's not palatable at all
to the natural man. I mean, there's even a part of
me, as much as I believe that to be true, there's a part of
me that says, wait a minute, I don't know if I like that or
not. No, you're not gonna like it. But that's just the way it
is. His words settled in the heavens. They continue this day according
to thine ordinances. Unless thy law had been my delights,
I should then have perished in mine affliction. I would have
been overcome with all these things, except that the law had
been his delight, he said, because all these things have come against
me. I will never forget thy precepts,
for with them thou hast quickened me. Again, he said, you've made
me alive by your word. I am thine, save me, for I have
sought thy precepts. That's the only hope we have,
is it not? Even as he, Lord save us, we
perish. I mean, that's what Peter said
when he found out he couldn't walk on water. You know, that's
the reason the Lord let Peter come out of the boat. Now a lot
of people, when I was a little kid in, Sunday school and stuff, they
used to tell us, well, you know, Peter, he was a man of great
faith and he would have walked on to the Lord if he'd just kept
his eyes on him and he'd, you know, had faith and all that
stuff. No. The Lord let Peter come out of
the boat so Peter could find out he could not walk on water.
Now, the Lord could walk on water. But he did not walk on the water. He said, bid me come to thee,
O Lord. And he got out of the boat and
then he looked around and he said, wait a minute, I can't
walk on water. And sure enough, he started sinking.
But you see, that's, the Lord, if the Lord doesn't save his
people, we won't be saved. That doctrine won't save you.
You can know all the doctrine you want to know. You can know
the five points of Calvinism backwards and forwards. You can
know all the catechisms and the creeds and confessions of faith
and all that stuff, and it won't do you a bit of good if the Lord
does not send mercy, see fit, to deliver you, me or anybody
else. I mean, he's our hope. The wicked
have waited for me to destroy me, but I will consider thy testimonies. Now, when we use the word consider,
we kind of think of it in an offhanded way. If somebody says,
well, would you do such and such? And you say, I'll consider it.
What you would mean by that is, well, I'll think about it, but
I probably won't do it. You know, I'll consider it. Well,
when he says here, I'll consider it, he means more than just consider
it. He means I will apply myself directly to it. I will take this
into consideration. I will strongly consider it or
strongly think of it and apply myself to it. But I will consider
thy testimonies. They are those things that are
ever in my mind. I have seen an end of all perfection,
but thy commandment is exceedingly broad. Solomon wrote about this. He said, vanity, vanity, all
is vanity. I have seen an end of perfection.
So there are perfectionists. I'm not a perfectionist, and
of course a lot of people will testify to that. But I'm not a detailed person. Now
some people are, and that's good. I'm glad that there are detailed
people in the world, because if there wasn't, we'd be in a
mess if everybody was like me. But it doesn't make any difference
how much a person loves detail. All of that perfection that men
think of is going to perish. Some want to cross every T and
dot every I, and they think that in these things they're gaining
something before God. But all of the perfections of
men, vanity. See, our righteousness is the
righteousness of Christ. He's that one whose word is exceedingly
bold, but thy commandments exceed. I've seen an end of perfection.
All the things that men set out to do, there's an end to it.
The best you can do. But the Word of God, the commandments
of God are broad. The Word of God does not fail.
The Word of God stands true forever. See, this is not a temporary
thing here. It's the testimony of Jesus Christ. And the testimony of Jesus Christ
is never going to change. He's not going to tell us something
that He's not revealed here in His Word. I mean, He showed it to us. See,
the mystery of God, which was hidden from the foundation of
the world, has now been revealed. It's Jesus Christ, God, who in
Times past spoke to us by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his son. This is the day of salvation.
Jesus Christ is the testimony of God. And if you would know
what the word of God is, you must know Jesus Christ. because
he is that one who is the testimony of God. And the spirit of prophecy,
the testimony of Jesus, the scripture says, is the spirit of prophecy. So if somebody comes along prophesying
to you all the things that's gonna happen in the end times,
and they're not talking about Christ, then you don't need to
listen to them, because they don't have anything to tell you.
because the scripture plainly says that Christ is the testimony
of prophecy. May the Lord help us.