continuing to find Jesus in all
the scriptures. We, uh, I've said it here before. I think I even said it last time
we were meeting, which by the way, it's good to be back with
everybody. Uh, missed everyone last week and, uh, good to be
home, uh, back at back back together again. Uh, But I think I mentioned last
time, you know, the Bible is a book about Christ, whether
it's the Old Testament, whether it's the New Testament. Everything
here is the revelation of Jesus Christ and God's work and God's
relation to his people. God's glory in the man, Jesus
Christ. And I tell you, brethren, it
just never ceases to amaze me that as the Lord continues to
open the scriptures up to my mind and to my understanding,
how much of Jesus is found everywhere in the scriptures. It is truly
all about him. And whenever we dive into the
scriptures and we're trying to pull stuff out and look for things,
and we're not looking for Jesus, we're doing a disservice to ourselves
because the scriptures are truly about him. You know, it does
say in the volume of the book, it is written of him. Jesus even
said that from Moses and the prophets, they were all speaking
of him. So everything that we read in the Old Testament, everything
we read about in the New Testament is all about him. Christ was
veiled in the Old Testament and His work and the inclusion of
all mankind in the covenant of grace was somewhat obscured in
the Old Testament. However, in the New Testament
it fully exposes what God's purpose and plan from all ages uh, from
the beginning of time before the beginning of time, uh, was,
and that was Christ crucified and that through that crucifixion,
uh, there would be salvation for all of his elect people.
And so we look here in Psalms one 18. And again, this is a
wonderful Psalm that we can see, uh, the beautiness, the beautiness,
the beautifulness, the beauty of the beauty of Jesus Christ
in these passages, especially as it relates to his dependence
upon the Lord. Now, we just sang and we believe
here that Jesus Christ is the invisible God bodily. He is the incarnation. He is the face, the manifestation
of that one true God that we see all throughout the Old Testament
scriptures. We see that Jehovah, Yahweh,
this one God who is spirit has manifested himself in the man
Jesus Christ. And whether it's in the Old Testament
or whether it's in the New Testament, this man Jesus Christ has been
the mediator of God to men and is in his work of salvation,
a mediator of men to God. And so we are always looking
to find Christ in everything. But as we talk about Christ's
relationship to God, to the Father as his dependents, as we'll see
here in this passage, we're not talking about separate entities,
okay? We're talking about how Christ
is exemplifying to us the relationship that we have with him by his
relationship to God, who has brought him forth as the mediator
between God and man. So that relationship that Christ
as man has with his father, which is God, who is the one indwelling
him, who is the one who is him in deity, that relationship that
he has of love of union, of dependency as he came and as he trusted
in God for his salvation, not the salvation like we're talking
about for us, but in the delivering him from his enemies, the delivering
him from death, and to exalt Him to His right hand, where
He now sits. And He sits in that throne. He
governs from that throne all things. The whole scroll of God's
decreative purpose has been opened by Christ and is being brought
to pass by Christ. He is the one who is making all
judgment. A lot of times whenever we think
Whenever we think judgment, we think you're guilty of this or
you've been acquitted of that. And that's the judgment we're
talking about. But Christ is also the one who brings the judgment
of God in how everything is going to be done. He is the one who
is the judge over all things on how it is going to play out,
how it is going to be enacted, how it's going to be done, how
it's going to be fulfilled, how it's going to be worked out.
He is the one who is bringing judgment to this world And he
has done that and continues to do that even at the right hand
of God. But look with me, if you would,
here at Psalms 118. And we're just going to go down
through a few of these verses. We're not going to go through
the whole psalm here, the whole chapter, but I want us to look
at a few things here. Look at verse one with me. It
says, Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good. Now, if we just stop right there,
I think, I'll speak for myself, but I think if I ask, most of
us would be in agreement of this. We don't give thanks enough for
God. We give thanks for the food.
We give thanks that God has done something really nice for us,
given us something, you know. We give thanks for a lot of things.
But here it says, give thanks unto the Lord For He is good. He is who He is. Give thanks
to Him for being who He is. Give thanks to Him for the fact
that He is good. Now, just because God is good
doesn't mean that God doesn't do things that to us don't seem
good, right? God is good. That is the principle
of Scripture. That is the character of God. He, in himself, is good. So if somebody, in their character,
or who they are, their makeup, if they are good, in its essentialness. I don't know. I don't have the
the vocabulary to explain that the way I have it in my head.
But if God is who he is and what his characters are, are the makeup
of who he is, then that means goodness is defined by God. God
is good. And therefore, everything that
God does is good because he's good. If God is good, then everything
He does is good. So whenever God brings judgment
upon somebody, that's good. Whenever God gives grace to somebody,
that's good. When God chooses one for salvation,
that is good. refuses to elect one and he reprobates
them. That is also good because God
is good. If God is good, he is good to
the totality of himself and therefore everything that comes from this
God is good. And the Bible here says, give
thanks unto the Lord for he is good. We ought to be thanking
the Lord in all of our lives for how He is good. He is who
He is. So everything that He does is
right because He is also righteous. So everything that God does is
righteous. Whether it's, again, all those
examples that I just laid forth, if God does those things, if
He chooses one and doesn't choose another, that's also righteous. He is righteous. He can't do
anything unrighteous. He is without sin. He cannot
do anything to sin. God cannot sin. God cannot do
these things. Therefore, whenever we praise
God or give thanks to God, it is for who He is. Give thanks
unto the Lord, for He is good. But look at the next phrase.
Because His mercy endureth forever. Because God is good, His mercy
endureth forever. Now, I got to thinking about
that phrase about His mercy endureth forever. And have you ever contemplated
on what the difference is between God's mercy and God's grace? I mean, they're almost identical.
A lot of times we interchange the words, you know, as sloppy
grammarians, we a lot of times will Replace the words and I
think to some degree you can because they are very close but
I looked look this up this morning and to see what the Common definition
of both of these were and I found a I found a good take on these
two words And I'm just going to read it to you. I can't remember
it. So I wrote it down it says that grace is about giving a
positive benefit that isn't owed and So grace is to reward someone
for something that they don't deserve. It's giving a positive
benefit that isn't owed. So you're not owed anything,
but God gives you something even though you're unworthy of it.
You're not owed it, okay? Whereas mercy is about withholding
a negative consequence that is deserved. That's what mercy is. Mercy is withholding a negative
consequence that is deserved or sparing punishment. Okay. God is sparing punishment in
his mercy. God in grace is giving you something
that you don't deserve. So grace is proactive generosity,
mercy is compassionate restraint. I really like that part. That
to me is a little more simpler to understand. Grace is proactive
generosity and mercy is compassionate restraint. Now brethren, if you
think about it, God's covenant of grace, which is the eternal
covenant, the everlasting covenant, the new covenant, God's covenant
of grace is rooted in his mercy. If you remember, whenever he
spoke to Moses, he said, whenever he introduced his name to Moses,
he said, I am that I am. He said, I will be who I will
be. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion upon whom I will
have compassion. God's everlasting covenant is
rooted in His mercy and it is kept by His grace. He keeps this
covenant by giving grace to those who don't deserve it and this
mercy comes to them, even though they do deserve it, He withholds
that punishment. So God's grace is there. I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Now that's a sovereign
act of God. But brethren, it comes and it
flows from His goodness. Because God is good, He has given
grace and mercy upon His people. But because God is sovereign,
He is not bound to give that to everyone. In Brother Larry's book that
he wrote, God does not love everybody. He makes that point in there.
God is not bound to give grace and mercy to everybody that he
can set his love upon whom he chooses to set his love upon.
And that does not go against his goodness. It does not go
against his righteousness. It doesn't go against his holiness
or his justice. God is who He is. He is the lawmaker. He is the one who chooses to
do and not to do. He is the only one who has that
free will to choose to do and to not to do. And we as His creation,
especially those who are the children of grace, should give
thanks for that goodness. Now, this psalmist starts out
with that very thing. Give thanks unto the Lord, for
he is good, because his mercy endureth forever. That means
his mercy, that which is withholding what we deserve, which is in
and of itself a grace. That's why it's so intermingled.
It's hard to distinguish between those two words. But God in giving
us mercy through his grace, That mercy is something that endures
forever, even though we have hardships and trials that come
our way, his mercy still endureth forever. Now, there's a few things
that I'd like to say about that. Number one is I am happy that
it endures forever and that God doesn't change his mind and just
says, you know what? I said I was going to do that,
but I've changed my mind. You know why? Because Mike continues
to pile on the sins that would definitely cause a grievance
with God. If God would say, my mercy is
only going to be intact as long as you do this, this, this, this,
and this. Well, I'm without hope. There
will be no mercy for Mike at the end. Because Mike will continue
to pile those things up that God said, if. But see, God didn't
say if whenever he gives mercy, because mercy flows from grace. Grace is giving somebody something
that they don't deserve. And another part to that is he
gives it freely. So mercy stems and flows from
grace. And grace is something that we
get that we don't deserve or are not worthy of. And mercy
is something that we deserved, but God in His compassion is
withholding that. See, aren't you glad for grace? Now you know why we talk about
grace so much around here? Because if it wasn't for God's
grace, His mercy would not endure. And if it wasn't for His mercy
enduring forever, there would be no grace for us. And so the
psalmist realized that. Pin that down by the Holy Spirit. But brethren, I would put it
to you that the Lord knew this. Because this is speaking of himself. Let's move on. It says, verse
2, Let Israel now say that His mercy endureth forever. So first
it's a general, Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good,
His mercy endureth forever. A general statement to all creation. All creation, reprobate and elect,
should give thanks to their Creator God for being good, whose mercy
endureth forever. Now, God doesn't give grace to
the reprobate, but He does show mercy because He does prolong
their life. He does give them things in this
lifetime, but all that is is heaping up coals upon their head
come judgment time. While He shows them goodness,
they continue to rebel and reject and to hate and to be enmity
at God. only shows that without God's
mercy and grace, they would never be anything. That is what's required
for them to be what we are as His children, justified before
God, given love, given grace, given mercy. But see, the reprobate
Despite the goodnesses of carnality that God has given to them money
and life and breath and houses and families and all kinds of
stuff they still do not give Matter of fact, we read that
in Romans. Let me just read that to you
real quick I think y'all know where I'm going Romans chapter
1 and Romans chapter one, look at verse
18. It says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is
manifest in them, for God hath shown it unto them. Now that
right there, I'm just going to stop right there. That right
there is why I believe there's no such thing as an atheist.
There is no such thing as an atheist. You may say that there
is, and society may say there is, and there may be people out
there in their groups calling themselves atheists, but there
is no such thing as an atheist. Every person that has ever come
upon the face of this earth, God has put within them the knowledge
that God is, and that he is, and because he is, he should
be worshiped. And you know why I believe that?
Because even the atheist believes that something should be worshipped.
Whether it's themselves, whether it's society, whether it's a
philosophy. You look into the deepest hearts
of all these religious groups all around the world, somebody
is worshipping something. The Aztecs had a god that they
worshipped. Buddhists have a god they worship.
The Hindus have gods that they worship. The Egyptians had gods
they worship. The Indians have gods that they
worship. I mean, everybody has gods. They have something that
they worship because they innately know, because God has put it
in them, that there is a god and this god should be worshipped. So I know that there's not atheists.
But he says here, because that which may be known of God is
manifest in them for God has shown it unto them. For the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal
power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So when God
does judge, Man, at the end of time, despite the fact that election
and faith and repentance and grace was given to the elect
only, man will be held accountable before God and have no excuse
before God because God had put in them the very thing that they
know that he is God, that he is the creator, that he has the
power over all things, his Godhead, and that he should be worshiped
And yet, because of their evilness of their heart, they didn't.
They suppressed the truth of God. And in unrighteousness,
they rejected Him. And therefore, they are without
excuse. Verse 21, Because that when they
knew God, they glorified Him not as God. Neither were thankful,
but became vain in their imaginations. and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools. Now, you listen to any, you listen
to anybody on TV, you go on the, especially like National Geographic
Channel and all those other, what's some of the Discovery
Channel and some of the, all those other channels that have
all these things on there that always talk about God and what
happened in the old times. And things like that, and they
give you the intellectuals perspective of biblical things, which is
always wrong. Or you watch movies. Listen,
brethren, I'm telling you, while there are some Christian movies
about the Bible that I've watched and enjoy some parts of it and
things like that, none of them, none of them, none of them, zero. have been in line with the Word
of God. They have all depicted something or another out of man's
wisdom. None of them don't get your theology
from the Chosen. The Chosen is very errant in
the Word of God. Catholic influence, it's horrible. Now, there were some good things.
I watched part of it. I watched the first couple seasons
of it. And there were some things that
was nice. Get your heart feels going, you know. Get your heart
strings moving. But brethren, listen, it gives
us and it teaches us, especially whenever we sit our children
down in front of some of these things, it puts thoughts into
their heads that are not biblical thoughts. It puts thoughts into
their heads about God and the things that God has done that
are not biblical or in line with scripture. And so we need to
be careful of those things. But anyway, not to jump off that
soapbox, because that when they knew God, they glorified him
not as God. Neither were thankful, but became
vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart would darken,
professing themselves to be wise. They became fools and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man and to birds and to four footed beasts and
creeping things. Brethren, listen, they've done that with Jesus
even under the umbrella of Christianity. They have made Jesus Christ into
a God after their own image, after their own liking. They've
made a Jesus who is on their level. So just because somebody
says they're a Christian doesn't mean that they're holding to
God's Word and preaching the same God of the Bible. He says,
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the
lust of their own heart, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves,
who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave
them up unto vile affections, for even their women did change
the natural use into that which is against nature." That means
women began to love women and try to marry and love and have
sexual relations with women. Same thing with men. Likewise,
men leaving the natural use of the women burned in their lust
one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly
and receiving in themselves the recompense of their error, which
was meat." Now, brethren, listen. I'm not going to get too far
down this trail here, but I just want you to understand that sexual
perversion is always a sign of a nation or a country or a people
or a person that has deviated from God who has went away from
God, suppressed the truth of God, it almost always manifests
itself in some sort of a sexual perversion. Look throughout scripture,
and this is one of the things that God has dealt with more
more strongly than just about any sin. Listen, there's been
all kinds of sins throughout the scripture, but nowhere in
scripture did God destroy a whole city over sexual perversion.
Two cities over sexual perversion. I mean, of other things, but
he did over sexual perversion. This sin of sexual perversion
is one that is more warned about throughout scripture than almost
every other sin besides unbelief. So God's pretty serious about
this whole LBGTQ business. This isn't something that we
can just, well, just whatever, you know. God is serious about
this stuff. And here he says, the effect
of the heart that God has turned over to itself, who is hardening,
is sexual perversion. You see these people that are
out there that are sexually perverted, men with men and women with women,
and God knows what else, this is the result of what we're
seeing here. A godless society who has suppressed
the truth of God, who has rejected and become at enmity even more
with God, and because of that, God has turned them over to the
lust of their own heart, the hardening of their own heart,
and in doing so, they have become sexual deviants. Now, brother,
that's just as clear as day right here in the scriptures. He said,
and likewise, the men leaving the natural use of the women
burned in their lust one towards another, men with men working
that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense
of their error, which was meat. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind. To do those things which are
not convenient. Being filled with all unrighteousness,
fornication. See, that's sexual deviation
also. Fornication is when someone has
sex before they've been married, or sex outside of marriage. Okay,
if you have sex before you get married, that's fornication.
If you have sex outside of marriage when you are married, that's
adultery. Okay? Those are sexual sins that God
has done, and these are ones that God is talking about. Being
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity,
whispers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding,
covenant breakers. without natural affection, implacable,
unmerciful, who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which
commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same,
but have pleasure in them that do them." So they not only have
pleasure in doing it themselves, but they get off on everybody
else doing it. They like to join the party.
Now, brethren, listen. I'm not pointing the finger at
anybody else. Everything that I just read off here is within
this sinful nature of mine. I can be anything that was just
listed right there if it wasn't for the grace and the mercy of
God. God's mercy and grace is what
would keep me from being any one of these things. And that
doesn't mean that I'm not one of these things. Listen, there's
some of these things that I'm a backbiter, hater of God. You don't think you're a hater
of God, but we're haters of God in our natural self. Inventors
of evil thing full of envy. How many of us are envious of
other things, of other people? See, every one of us fit this
bill here, not just the sexual deviant, but every one of us
are in here and could be in here if God was not restraining us
in grace and mercy. And so I go back. In Psalm 118, His mercy endureth
forever. Let Israel now say that His mercy
endureth forever. This enduring forever is a beautiful
thing because if God does not continue and enduring His mercy
and grace towards us, then we're just the opposite. We're going
to go and be hardened. Our mind would be turned over
to a reprobate bind. Brethren, that is the love of
God in Christ towards his elect, that he keeps us from that and
gives us his grace and mercy that does endure despite who
we are. What a beautiful thing. So he
says, let Israel now say that his mercy endureth forever. So he goes from the general,
oh, give thanks unto the Lord general to everybody. Then he
narrows it down. Let Israel. now say, his mercy endureth forever."
Talking about his people. He says, let the house of Aaron
now say, that his mercy endureth forever. Now brethren, them aren't
three separate people. They're one person described
in three different ways. Let them now that fear the Lord
say, that his mercy endureth forever. You got Israel, the
house of Aaron, those that fear him. Now he gives the general
out there, but then he specifically says, Israel, Aaron, them that
fear him. Those aren't three separate entities.
Them are not three separate categories of people that are different
people. These are the exact same people,
but they're identified three different ways. Look at verse
three. Let the house of Aaron, who is
the house of Aaron? Y'all remember who the house
of Aaron was? or what the purpose of the house of Aaron was. You
remember whenever God gave out the commandments and laid down
the sacrificial system to Moses, he declared that Aaron and Aaron's
family would be the priests of Israel. That they would be the
priests. Therefore, the tribe of Levi
was chosen, and out of the tribe of Levi, and out of the tribe
of Levi only, were the priests unto God. Now that's an Old Testament
type and foreshadow of the New Covenant system where God says
that He has made His people priests and kings before God. He has
made us priests before Him. Okay? So He's talking about His
elect children here in verse 3. Look at verse 4. Let them that now fear the Lord
say that His mercy endureth forever. The Bible says that it is the
children of grace. It is those who are His elect
that fear Him. The reprobate does not fear God.
As a matter of fact, the Bible says there is no fear of God
in them. There is no fear of God before
them. There is no fear of God in their
minds. See, they don't fear God. Do
you know why they don't fear God? You know why people don't
fear God? Because they believe that Satan's
lie back in the garden that we can be as gods. See, they believe
that we have a free will. They don't fear God because they
believe at any moment they can choose their own destiny. They
don't fear God because they believe that they can change and do whatever
they want to do. They can determine their own
path. They can determine their own destiny. Therefore, there
is no fear of God in their eyes because they don't believe that
God governs them. They don't believe that God rules
them. They don't believe that God is
the sovereign of the universe with all power that can destroy
them with the breath of his word. And they're out of here. They
don't have that fear because they believe that they are as
God, equal to God. Another reason why we preach
so heavily against free will here, brethren. So we see that this is speaking
about the people of God. He said, let them know that God's
mercy endureth forever. Now there comes a change in verse
five. It goes from exalting God for
who He is because His mercy endures forever. And then we begin to
see the mercy, the compassion, the governance. We see the dependence
and the trust in Christ Jesus. to God. Look at verse five. He
says, I called upon the Lord in distress. The Lord answered
me and set me in a large place. Now, I can't help but whenever
read that, think of the Lord in Gethsemane. Remember whenever
Jesus was there before his crucifixion and he went before God and he
began to pray to God. Going into that time of distress
and agony and pain and suffering that he was about to endure.
And then the separation that he would know whenever God would
pour out His full and complete wrath upon him on that cross.
And Jesus sat there in that garden and He wept. The Bible says that
He wept as it were sweat drops of blood. Sweat drops of blood. That He was in agony to the heart. And it says here, he says, I
called upon the Lord in distress, and the Lord answered me. Why? Because His mercy endureth. His compassion endureth. I called
upon the Lord, and the Lord heard my cry, and He says here that
He has answered me, and not only has He answered me, He has set
me in a high place. Whenever the Lord Jesus Christ
went through that crucifixion for all of His elect, and He
went down in the depths of that earth, and He died, and was buried
for three days, on the third day God raised Him from the dead,
And not only did He just raise Him from the dead, the Bible
says that He ascended back into heaven and He is at the right
hand of God. He is sitting in the throne of the Almighty. And
the Bible says that He is making intercession for me and for you.
God has raised Him up and set Him on that throne and He has
made Him King of kings and Lord of lords. He has put all things
underneath His feet. He has given Him all things for
judgment. He has given Christ all things
and Christ is above all things. And the Bible says that he sits
in a throne. And if you read in Revelations,
we see that throne is a great and mighty throne. And there
is a separation in that throne before the people are out there.
But there is a separation around that throne because God and his
holiness is so great that we cannot approach that. But yet
we are there. We are with him. We are in his
presence. We are with him. And glory to God. There is interaction
between Him and us. We aren't cast out. We aren't
kept from coming to Him. But yet there is this great place
of God's holiness, this great place of His majesty, this great
place that He has been ascended to. And listen, don't think that
Jesus, these pictures that we see of Jesus loving everybody
and helping everybody, just because there is compassion in our Savior,
in our Lord, doesn't mean that He is still not the majestic
God of creation who who should be feared and should be revered. He is a holy God. And Christ
cried out to this God, and this God had compassion. And He's
seen Him through His time of trial. He's seen Him through
His beatings. He's seen Him through the crucifixion.
And listen, the Lord was His salvation under His great wrath. Verse six, it says, the Lord
is on my side, I will not fear. What can man do unto me? And
listen, brethren, that ought to be our attitude too. What
do we have to fear? If God is on our side, the Bible
says, if God be for us, who can be against us? If God is for
us, who can be against us? Listen, even God himself, the
Bible says that there is none that can lay any charge against
God's elect. Listen, we're not going to show
up in heaven one of these days and somebody's going to come
and point the finger at Michael Smith if I be his. No one's going
to be able to point the finger and say, look at you, look at
you, look at you. Jesus will stand right up and say, I have
paid for that sin with my blood. He is not guilty of that. And who is going to lay a charge
against Christ for saying that? Who is going to ascend over God
to overrule Him? And what law is He going to do
it with? Because the law that God gives
unto man has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus on my behalf. That's
grace. And that's mercy. Brethren, But
Jesus here, he says, the Lord is on my side. I will not fear. I will go. The Bible says that
he set his face like a flint, that he he saw the cross before
him and he despised the shame of what was going to happen on
that cross. But he found joy in it because in that the Bible
says that whenever a grain of wheat is placed in the ground
and it dies, it brings forth much fruit. Jesus said, I and
the children that God has given me, he's bringing them back to
God. And he does that through the cross. So the joy that was
set before him, even though it was shameful, he endured it. And the Bible says that God was
his helper. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can
man do? Brethren, this is the covenant
of grace. Look at John chapter 10, if you would, please. John chapter 10, this in and
of itself is the covenant of grace and listen, the covenant
that Christ, the fact that He died and was buried and was raised
again, this was the commandment, this was the purpose of God,
the commandment of God that this would be. In John chapter 10
verse 17, Jesus said this of himself, therefore doth my father
love me because I lay down my life that I might take it up
again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father. God had given Christ
for this purpose. And so Christ said, for this
purpose, I came into this world. And here in Psalms 18, he says,
In my hour of distress, I called upon the Lord. And listen, the
Lord has been on my side. I will not fear. And then look
at verse 7. He says, The Lord taketh my part
with them that help me. Meaning that God took up the
help and he became my help. He is my help. He is the one
that brought me through this. He is the one that strengthened
me in my hour of distress. He is the one who enabled me
to endure the trials of the cross. And He is the one who brought
me forth from the grave after I was dead three days. And He
is the one who has ascended me back on high and given me, at
the right hand, all power and majesty. Therefore shall I see my desire
upon them that hate me. Wow, that's another. That's different
from grace and mercy, isn't it? See, the Bible here says that
now that Christ has been exalted, those that hate God, those who
are enemies of God. Now, brother, listen again, I
want to get sidetracked here just a moment, because sometimes
we hear this verbiage coming from preachers. yet we don't
understand what that verbiage is talking about. When Jesus
here says that I will have my desire upon them that hate me,
most people think that we're talking about atheists that shake
their fist in God's face and say, I hate you, I'll never serve
you, I'll never love you. No, the haters of Christ are
the haters of the gospel. Those who are haters of God are
the ones who hate the gospel of free and sovereign grace that
God has chosen before the foundation of the world, those whom He will
save and has given Christ to be their salvation. and that
everything of their salvation was complete in Christ Jesus
and that there is zero works on your behalf or on your end
to be taken up for that salvation to be enacted, for that salvation
to be counted, for that salvation to be experienced. There is no
condition whatsoever. People don't like that. They
don't like to know that they don't have the choice. They don't like
to know that God chooses and they don't. They don't like to
know that God doesn't love everybody. They don't like that gospel. And the people that don't like
that gospel are what the Bible calls the haters of the gospel.
They are the enemies of the cross. Paul talked about it all through
his epistle. He said, these people that come against the gospel
that I've brought to you of this free and sovereign grace, these
people are enemies of the cross. They were religious people that
were going around praising Jehovah. These were people that were going
around saying, we need to keep the law of Moses and walk righteously
before men. They were enemies of the cross
because they had taken the grace of God and they had mixed it
with the works of man. And God says that is not a gospel. And any man who preaches that
and any man that believes that, let them be anathema, which that
word anathema means, let them be cursed. God's pretty serious
about that. And here we see Jesus says, the
Lord has taken up my part and helped me. And he says, and because
he has helped me, I have succeeded in that which I came to do. And
in succeeding in that which I came to do, I now have power and judgment
over all flesh. And I will have my desire upon
them that hate me. Verse 8, look at what it says.
It says, It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence
in man. It is better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in princes. Listen, brethren, not
only is that something that Christ was saying about Himself, I wasn't
putting my confidence in the Sanhedrin. I wasn't putting my
confidence in the Pharisees or the Sadducees. I wasn't putting
my confidence in Pilate. Although Pilate came pretty close
to us. It looked like Pilate came pretty
close. But he didn't put his confidence in Pilate. He didn't
put his confidence in Herod. And listen, he didn't put his
confidence in these disciples either. Matter of fact, he said
it years before, strike the shepherd and the sheep are going to scatter.
He already knew that was going to happen. He already knew Peter
was going to deny him three times before Peter ever approached
the time to be the one to deny him. He already knew Judas was
going to betray him back before Judas was ever born. Christ knew
all these things. But yet, brethren, listen, he
did not put any confidence in man. He put all of his confidence
in the covenant of God that said, this is what I'm going to do
for this people. And he give Christ this job to
do. And Christ did it. Why? Because
God was in him. He was God manifested in the
flesh. God was performing his own work
of redemption. And so he had every bit of confidence
that God would be with him. But brethren, listen, that's
good advice for us, though. It is better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in man. Listen, Michael Smith is
going to fail you. I'll fail you if I haven't already. Just wait. I will. I'll fail
you. As good as all these brothers
and sisters are that are here today, they may love you, but
at some point, they're going to fail you. We've all probably
had that experience in our life. Someone that we've loved, that
we've trusted, that we've looked up to, that we've admired, that
has been maybe somebody that has been a mentor to us or something
like that. That all of a sudden, they seem
like they've betrayed us, or they've said something, or they've
done something, and they've let us down. Listen, that's because
we're all sinners. We're all sinners. Only God is
the one that we should put our confidence in. And Jesus put
his confidence in God to get him through this. Now look at
verse 10, down through 13. He says this, All nations come
past me about, but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them.
They can pass me about, yea, they can pass me about, but in
the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. They can pass me
about like bees, they are quenched as the fire of thorns, and in
the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. Thou hast thrust
sore at me that I might fall, but the Lord helped me. Now, brethren, if you just think
about it, whenever Jesus was brought It was his own people
of Israel that came and arrested him, that took him in and was
accusing him of blasphemy and falsely accusing him of other
things, but came and gave him this little mock trial. It wasn't
even according to the law how they tried Christ. And these
were the men who were supposedly supposed to be keeping the law.
But yet they did that so his own people came against him.
Then he was taken to Herod. Then he was taken to Pilate.
Now the Romans are involved. Then all the Gentiles are here
represented. So all the world compassed about
him in the fact that Jew and Gentile came against this man
Jesus Christ. found. Well, I can't remember exactly
where it's at there, brethren, but the Bible says that these
men by the determinate counsel of God has taken with wicked
hands and has crucified Jesus Christ. It was determined by
God exactly what would happen. This very thing that Jesus has
announced in Psalm 118 about being compassed about by the
whole world took place because it was the
determinate counsel of God and it took place exactly as Jesus
said. If you look in the 22nd Psalm, he says, verse 10, I was cast upon thee
from my womb, thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not
far from me. For trouble is near, for there
is none to help." See, that's why he looked to God for help,
because there was none to help him. Many bulls have come past
me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset
me round. They gaped upon me with their
mouths as raving and roaring lion. I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted
in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a pot shirt, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. and thou hast brought
me into the dust of death. For dogs, that's the Gentiles,
for dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and
my feet." Now brethren, this is in Psalms. This is God telling
us what was going to happen to Jesus back in Psalms thousands
of years before Jesus even was here, born, and was ever put
on a cross. They are describing Christ's
crucifixion before crucifixion was even invented. Crucifixion
hadn't even been invented at this time. Here they're talking
about him piercing his hands and his feet. He says, I may tell
all my bones, they look and stare upon me. They part my garments
among them and cast lots upon my vesture. But be not thou far
from me, O Lord. O my strength, haste thee to
help me. Deliver my soul from the sword,
my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's
mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
congregation. Will I praise thee? And this is exactly what Jesus
is doing. He's giving praise to God for being his help. And
listen, he's still doing that today. He's still doing that
today. You say, well, how's he doing
that today? Look at verse 14 back in Psalms
118. The Lord is my strength and my
song and has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation
is in the tabernacles of the righteous. the right hand of
the Lord doth valiantly." Listen, Christ is declaring His name
among the brethren, under the congregation of the brethren.
He is telling about God. He is being the witness of God. He is letting us know what the
Father is like. And He's doing that every time
a congregation of a New Testament church meets together. where
two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst."
Brethren, listen, if we are Christ's people and we are gathered together
here in His name, listen, the presence of Christ is with us
by His promise. Not because we have a name hung
out on a sign somewhere, not because we are part of some denomination,
not because we are some part of some religion. It is because
we are his people who have gathered for the purpose of worshiping
him. Therefore, if we are his people
gathered, that's what a church is, a gathered assembly. Whenever
we gather together in his name, he is in the midst of us. And
whenever he is in the midst of us, His name will be proclaimed. We ain't going to be talking
about other junk. We're going to be talking about
Christ. His name will be proclaimed. And when we proclaim the name
of Christ, we are preaching what Christ's Father is like because
He and the Father are one. Whenever we preach about Christ,
we are revealing God to His people because Jesus Christ is God manifested
in the flesh. That's what Jesus told Thomas. Have I not been with you all
this time?" Whenever Thomas said, just show us the Father. And
Jesus said, have I not been with you all this time, Thomas? Have I not been with you all
this time? And here it is, you're asking,
show us the Father. If you've seen me, you have seen
the Father. I have showed you what the Father
is like. Jesus has testified. And then
He prayed in John 17. I have manifested thy name. I
have showed these people what you are like. I manifested that
to them. And therefore, brethren, He continues
that same ministry in His churches. Whenever He, by the Holy Spirit,
His Spirit, is put within us, and then He, as He calls, especially,
and not particularly, but whenever He calls, A man to stand up and
to preach, whether it's the pastor or whether it's another elder
in the church, stands up and proclaims the name of Jesus Christ,
he is doing the same thing. That man that is called of God
to preach is preaching forth the things of God and is revealing
Christ Jesus to his sheep. Not his sheep, the pastor or
the elder's sheep, but he's showing forth the sheep of Christ, who
Christ is. showing who the Father is. The
voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the
righteous. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. The
right hand of the Lord. By the way, who is the right
hand of the Lord? Is it not Jesus? He is the right hand of the Lord.
The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the
Lord doeth valiantly. And he says in verse 17, I shall
not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord
hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death. See, that goes right with what
we read a while ago. He said that you will not leave my soul
to the grave. that God has given me power to
raise up my life again? It says, This gate of the Lord into
which the righteous shall enter, I will praise thee for thou hast
heard me and art become my salvation. The stone which the builders
refused is become the headstone of the corner. That's quoted
all through the New Testament talking about Jesus. This is
the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord
hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it." Now, we used to always sing that whenever we'd come into
church, right? At least, me growing up, we would
always sing that. Or we'd sing that in vacation
Bible school or something like that. But we would always sing
on Sunday, this is the day, this is the day that the Lord hath
made, that the Lord hath made. But what day is he talking about?
He's talking about this day whenever Christ put away sin, put away
death, put away His enemies, destroyed His enemies before
Him, and has been exalted to the right hand of God, and is
now declaring their Father's name in the midst of the congregation. He says, Save now I beseech thee,
O Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, send
now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the
house of the Lord. Now, that was what was said about
Jesus, right? Blessed is he who cometh in the
name of the Lord. John the Baptist said that about Jesus whenever
he came walking down the road. He said, Blessed is he that cometh
in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the
house of the Lord. God is the Lord which has shown us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords
even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art my God and I will praise
thee. Thou art my God. I will exalt
thee. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord. Here it is exactly how it started.
For he is good. for His mercy endureth forever."
Why does His mercy endure forever? Because Christ Jesus paid the
price so that what was deserved does not have to be given. Remember, mercy is the compassionate
restraint. Mercy is about withholding a
negative consequence that is deserved. And by grace, God has
shown us mercy. because of what Christ has endured
on our behalf. All right, does anybody have
any questions or anything that you'd like to add to that? Any corrections
or rebukes? Anybody got another song you'd
like to sing? All right, let's pray. Father, we've come once
again thanking you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We thank you
for the mercy and the grace. We thank you for the enduring
nature of those very things. We thank you for Christ Jesus.
Whoever lives to intercede for his people. The work that he
has done on the cross on our behalf. Father Lord, we are so
grateful because we can come boldly before your throne of
grace. And that you humbly come within our midst as we gather
together in your name. Father, this union between us
and you, this fellowship that we have with you and the brethren
is a bond that cannot be severed, is one that is most sweet. And
Father Lord, we are so thankful that you have called us out of
this world and into your marvelous kingdom. Lord, we thank you for
this opportunity that we have together, together with each
other. Lord, we thank you for all the ups and downs that we
experience together in this life, for the heartaches that we bear
with one another, for the joys that we rejoice with one another,
for the tears we cry with each other. Lord, for the many, many,
many mercies that you have given us and grace that has governed
it all. And Father, we just pray that
as we experience these things in our life, that you would continue
to make us faithful, to keep us looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith, that we might continue to look
to you for our help and not lean on our own understanding or look
for the help of men. But Father, our trust and our
hope will be in you. Thank you again for this time
together. Thank you again for your salvation. And I pray, Lord,
that you'll be with all these brethren as they leave this place,
that you might take them in safety. and she might continue to increase
and grow them in the knowledge, grace and knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Lord, until we meet again, may
you be honored and glorified. In Jesus' name that we pray,
amen.