Well, good evening. If you care
to open your Bibles with me to the book of Psalms. Psalm 141. Lord, I cry unto thee. Make haste
unto me. Give ear unto my voice when I
cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before
thee as incense. and the lifting up of my hands
as the evening sacrifice. Set a watch, O Lord, before my
mouth. Keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to any evil
thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity.
And let me not eat of their dainties. Let the righteous smite me. It
should be a kindness. And let him reprove me, and it
should be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head. For
yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. When their
judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words,
for they're sweet. Our bones are scattered at the
grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.
But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord, and thee is my
trust. Leave not my soul destitute.
Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me. and the
gins of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their
own nest, whilst I withal escape." Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together. Our Father, we bow in your presence. We bow
with hearts that are full of reverence, worship, awe and wonder,
and full of thanksgiving. Father, how thankful we are to
be able to come before a throne of grace because of the person
and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're thankful. Thankful that you've given us
another opportunity to be able to worship thee. Father, I pray
that we would not take this blessed opportunity for granted, that
we would not let it quickly pass by us. But Father, rest our attention
And for this hour, enable us to set our attention, our hearts,
our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, on the message that's been prepared
for us. And Father, enable us to hear,
enable us to believe, enable us to have our hearts thrilled
by one more time hearing of Christ our Savior and being able to
worship around your table and to remember Christ our Savior. Father, reveal to us your glory. In all of the cares and worries
and concerns and the goings-on of this life that are so heavy
on our hearts that we want to pray that you would intercede,
that you would fix, that you'd give peace and calmness. And Father, we just don't know
how to pray. What is the right thing to ask
for? Except for this. In all these situations, Show
us Your glory. Enable us to see Your glory,
Your redemptive glory, Your ruling glory, Your healing and delivering
glory. In whatever way You choose to
reveal it to us, Father, show us Your glory, we pray. And we
do pray for healing and help for those who are in times of
great difficulty and deep waters. We continue to pray for our brother
Aaron, that you would undertake in his behalf and strengthen
him. And Father, use these upcoming
treatments as the means, we pray, that you would be pleased to
use to heal him and restore him back to health and back to being
able to worship with us. Father, all these things we ask.
We give thanks in that name which is above every name. the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's for his glory and his sake
we pray. Standing on the promises of Christ
my King Through eternal ages let His praises ring Glory in
the highest I will shout and sing Standing on the promises
of God Standing, standing on the promises
of God my Savior Standing, standing I'm standing on the promises
of God Standing on the promises that cannot fail When the howling
storms of doubt and fear assail By the living word of God I shall
prevail Standing on the promises of God Standing, standing Standing
on the promises of God, my Savior Standing, standing I'm standing
on the promises of God Standing on the promises of Christ the
Lord Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cord Overcoming
daily with the Spirit's sword Standing on the promises of God
Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot
fall Listening every moment to the Spirit's call Resting in
my Savior as my all in all Standing on the promises of God Standing,
standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. All right, if you would, now
open your Bibles again to Psalm 141. I titled the message this evening,
Keep My Mouth and My Heart. We looked at the first two verses
of this psalm last week, and I told you this psalm, to me,
reads a lot like the book of Proverbs. It just has one nugget
right after another. So it's going to take us a few
weeks to get through nuggets that the Lord has been pleased
to put in this psalm. Tonight, I want us to look at
the next couple of verses and see a plea. David has a plea
that the Lord would keep our mouths and our hearts. In verse
three, he says, set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep
the door of my lips. Now, first, we always need to
look at the words of the Psalms as the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And certainly the Father answered. this prayer for our
Savior, didn't he? Every word the Lord Jesus said,
it was perfect, it was true. Every word was a word dripping
with His grace. And how precious are the words
of the Redeemer to His people. Just think of some of the words,
some of the commandments that He said, are you weary? Come
unto Me. Are you thirsty? Come drink.
Are you a sinner? Come be forgiven. Oh, His words
are so sweet. And you know, you and I need
to pray this same thing. Lord, set a watch over my mouth. We need to pray that because
I'm sure you know this like I do, our mouths get us in a lot of
trouble. Job said the tongue can scourge. We can use our tongues to scourge
one another. And we can use our tongue to
help and heal soothe one another, we can use our tongue to discourage
one another. Job also said this, he said, Lord, teach me and I'll
hold my tongue. That's a needed lesson for us,
isn't it? Teach me so I'll hold my tongue.
David said a man's tongue is full of cursing and deceit and
fraud. He said our tongues speak evil
and our lips guile. Oh, our tongues need to be held,
don't they? James said the tongue is a little member, and boasted
great things. He said, Behold, how great a
matter a little fire kindleth. The tongue is a fire. It's a
world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members.
It defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of
nature, and it's set on the fire of hell. James went on about
the tongue. He said, The tongue can no man
tame. It's unruly. It's evil. It's
full of deadly poison. No man can tame it. Only the
Lord can tame the tongue. So we pray, Lord, set a watch
on my mouth. You think of the damage and the
hurt our tongues have caused. By words said in anger, by words
said foolishly, they've caused such damage and such hurt, and
they can never be taken back. So Lord, set a watch on my mouth. Our tongues are a big problem.
When David says, set a watch over my mouth, the phrase, set
a watch, literally means put your hand over my mouth. Just
put your hand over it so I can't talk. And he says, keep the door
of my lips. That phrase means put a blockade.
Put a blockade on my lips. Just surround it continually
so you don't let any evil get out. And our tongues and our
mouths are such a big problem. You know why? because our hearts
are evil." See, the root of the problem is our heart. Out of
the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Now David, in
verse 4, talks about the heart. He says, "...incline not my heart
to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work
iniquity, and let me not eat of their dainties." Now again,
these are the words, first, of our Lord Jesus Christ. And His
heart was not inclined to any evil thing. His nature was perfect. He had no sin. And here's the
good news of that. His perfection is the perfection
of His people. He made His people perfect. And
while that being true, still yet we all need to pray this
prayer, Lord, incline not my heart to any evil thing. Lord,
don't let my heart carry me away now because our hearts are such
big problems. Our old heart of flesh is full
of sin and iniquity. Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful
above all things. It's desperately wicked. Who
can know it? It'll deceive you. Your heart will tell you it's
causing you to chase righteousness and it's deceiving you. Really,
what you're doing is being unrighteous. And the only thing that can be
done with that deceitful, sinful, cold, dead heart is for it to
be thrown away. We need the Lord to give us a
new heart. a heart that believes Christ, a heart that loves Christ,
that loves God, that is inclined, is directed by God the Holy Spirit,
directed to Christ, to look to Christ, to trust Christ. Now
since both our mouths and our hearts are such big problems,
David asked the Lord, keep me from five things. Number one
is this, Lord keep my mouth, keep my mouth, keep my mouth
from saying what the flesh says. Just don't let me open my mouth
and reveal my flesh, my sinful nature to everybody around. Lord,
keep me from talking about grace and then going around talking
about works and saying things to give the impression that salvation
and keeping salvation is really dependent on my works and on
my morality. Don't let me talk on both sides
of my mouth. Keep my mouth. Now, you know,
salvation is not dependent at all on our works or our morality.
But I would tell all of us, be moral people. Be moral, upright,
honest people. But not to improve your standing
with God. You stand on Christ alone. Stand in Christ alone. Stand on His promises alone.
And not the flesh. Let my mouth say that. Look at
Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Solomon had a lot to say about
the mouth and the tongue. Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Verse 1. Keep thy foot when thou goest
to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the
sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil.
Be not rash with thy mouth, And let not thine heart be hasty
to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, and thou
upon earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. For a dream cometh
through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by
multitude of words." You let a fool talk long enough, and
he'll reveal to you he's a fool. When you come to the house of
God, be not rash with thy mouth. Don't be hasty now to utter anything. And that is good advice for us
always. We should let our words be few. You know, it used to be a thing,
a man would be known as a man of few words. That's probably
a good thing. We ought to find every opportunity
that we can to keep our mouth shut. A pastor friend of mine
was telling me one time years ago about a conversation he was
having with a lady. Someone in the congregation had
done something. It was worrisome. And this woman started to talk
about that. And he could see where this conversation was going.
And he said, the thing for you and me to do right now is be
real quiet. And that's just become a thing
with me and Janet. The thing for you and me to do
right now is be real quiet. Just let our words be few. Let your words be few, but now
listen. Don't always be silent. Don't always be silent. Somebody's
got to talk. Somebody's got to teach. Somebody's
got to instruct. So when you speak, say something
worth hearing. Say something that's honoring
to God. Say something that's helpful
to God's people. Say something that glorifies Christ. Lord,
keep a watch over my mouth, and when I speak, let me say things
that are glorifying to the Savior and edifying to God's people.
And you know what's edifying to God's people? Not telling
them how to do this and how to do that and how to do this. You
better do that. You better do this. You know what's edifying
to God's people? Talk to them about the things
of Christ. Just point them to Christ. If
they're following Him, they'll be just fine. They'll be just
fine. Don't be trying to direct every step. Just point them to
Christ. If they're looking to Him, they'll
be fine. Let me say things that are edifying. that are helpful
to God's people. Don't let me cause them problems.
Don't let me say something that's going to make people stumble.
Let me say things that promote peace and unity, not strife and
division. Help me say those things. Lord,
keep my mouth. Keep my mouth. Then David says,
talks about the heart. Lord, keep my heart. Keep my
heart from evil. and incline my heart to good,
incline my heart to Christ. In verse 4, when he says, incline
not my heart to any evil thing, that word thing is actually speech. Incline not my heart to any evil
speech. Keep my heart from believing evil speech, from slander, from
tailbearers, and especially keep my heart from believing what
a false prophet says. You know, a false gospel is an
evil thing. You know, somebody who follows
a false prophet, who has a legalistic message and these kind of things,
maybe they will clean up their act. Maybe they will start acting
like a better person. But there's no good in it. There's
no good in it whatsoever. It's evil. You know why it's
evil? Oh, they might have cleaned up the outside of the cup, but
now they're trusting in it. instead of trusting in Christ.
No, it's an evil thing. Lord, keep me from that. Keep
me from being deceived and believing this thing, this evil speech
and following after a false prophet. But Lord, also this, keep my
heart from believing what the old man is constantly whispering
in my ear. The old man is constantly telling
us to trust yourself. The old man is constantly telling
you, you better get to work now. You better get to work and make
this up that you can do this to please God. Lord, keep me
from believing that evil speech of my old heart, my old me. Keep
my heart from self-righteousness. Keep my heart from self-glory.
Keep my heart from seeking my own glory and seeking recognition
for me. Now, I need the Lord to keep
me from that. You do too. You know why? You
know why that's such an earnest plea? Lord, keep me from self-righteousness. Keep me from self-promotion.
Because self-righteousness and self-promotion very much appeals
to the flesh. That's what it's always looking
for. So Lord, keep me from evil. Keep me from my heart from being
inclined after those things. Keep me certainly from being,
you know, inclined after open sin and those kind of things.
But mostly he's talking about here a false gospel. Nothing
is more evil than that. Incline my heart and turn my
heart and direct my heart to the gospel of Christ. The gospel
of Christ and Christ alone. Lord, keep my heart by giving
me a new heart. A new heart that believes on
Christ and trusts Him and Him alone. Lord, keep my heart. Then number three. Lord, keep
my heart Keep me from being occupied with the law and incline my heart
to faith, to trust Christ. In verse four, the word practice,
incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works
with men that work iniquity. That word practice means to busy
oneself, to busy oneself. And that's what people in false
religion do. I mean, they're busy. Boy, you
get a visitor come once or twice, but you better give them something
to do. You've got to get everybody busy. You've got to get them
so busy that they don't think about the message that they're
hearing. They're too busy. They're too busy with all the
work you're giving them to do, all the activity you're giving
them to do to ever seek Christ, to ever to read His Word and
seek Him and think. Think about the message that
they've heard preached. The false prophet probably don't
want you thinking about it too deeply. And they're busy. They're busy
showing off their good works so that people will be impressed
with them. Because I guess they figure if I can impress you with
all my good works, I'll be impressed too. It reminds me of this fellow
I went to school with. We were in a school play. And
I don't know why this fellow is here. You already know. I
don't know why this fella's part was in this play, but this part
was written in this play. This fella had one line. One line throughout the whole
play. Look at me. And every once in a while, just
at random times throughout the play, this kid would run across
the stage and he'd do something crazy and say, look at me. It
wasn't really... doing anything to add to the
play, to add to the story. It was just this commotion, this,
you know, look at me. That's what false religion is.
It's not anything that adds to your heart. It's not anything
that adds to your soul. It's not anything that grounds
you and settles you on Christ. It's just activities so people
can say, look at me. They busy themselves with their
works. Now, you know, I'm not saying
they're insincere. They're sincere. They're sincere. They really do truly believe
their works make them righteous before God. This word practice,
it means to busy oneself and it has to do with gleaning. Now, somebody's gleaning. They're
busy. They're working hard for very
little retirement, aren't they? All those gleaners are getting
is the leftovers. Unless Boaz comes through and
says, leave her some handfuls of purpose. All you're getting
is the leftovers. Something that was not worth
enough for the reaper to bend over and pick up the first time.
That's all you're getting. Well, people who practice their
own works, they're not getting any righteousness at all. I mean,
it's not like they're getting a little bit. They're getting
none. And here's why they're not getting
any righteousness. They're practicing wicked works. They're not practicing
righteousness. Righteousness is faith in Christ.
They're practicing wicked works. Those that work iniquity, that
phrase, work iniquity, means idolatry. Works religion, trusting
in our own works, is idolatry. That's how serious this is. Works
religion is idolatry. You want to know what's worse?
We're the idol. That's exactly right. If I'm
trusting in myself, I'm the idol. If I'm saying, look at me, I'm
the idol. Worst religion is nothing more
than idolatry that makes me the idol, that makes me God. That
was Adam's problem in the garden, and it's still our problem by
nature today. So Lord, keep me from that. Keep me from being
occupied with my works. And Lord, Make me to be occupied. Make me to be taken up with Christ,
to seeking Him, to being found in Him. Oh, that I may win Christ
and be found in Him. Make me be occupied like that.
Incline my heart to be taken up with Christ, with His obedience,
not mine. And that's something only the
Lord can do for us. It's just because of our flesh, it is very,
very, very easy to think I'm better than the world because
I do this, that, or the other. I act better than them. So that
means I am better. No, it does not. No, it does
not. The things I think about Brother
Henry said I just love so much. Better off. You're better off
understanding the Gospel. You're better off being taught
God's Word, but you're not better. No, not better by nature. Lord,
incline my heart to be taken up with Christ's obedience. Christ
is all of my righteousness. All. It's not like, you know,
He's made me righteous and I keep myself righteous. No, He's helped
me along. No. Christ is all of my righteousness. And I don't contribute anything
to it. So if you want to say something, here's something good
our tongues can say. We can say what David said. Psalm
71 verse 16. I will make mention of thy righteousness
even of thine only." And that's what my mouth will say if the
Lord inclined my heart to that. Lord, incline my heart to be
taken up with Christ and His sacrifice that put away my sin. Oh, that'll break my heart. That'll
break my heart. That'll make me tender. It'll
make me forgiving of others. Lord, let me be taken up with
Christ's sacrifice Let me be taken up with the forgiveness
of sin. Not that I sin less, let me be
taken up with the forgiveness of sin that's found in the blood
of Christ. Let me be taken up, not with
this life, not with the things of the flesh, let me be taken
up with eternal life that's come through the death of Christ.
Incline my heart to trust Him, to trust Christ, to believe Him,
to love Him. Let me be so occupied with that
that there isn't any room for me to trust anyone or anything
else, especially my own works. Now, you know, every believer
has good works. Believers are zealous of good
works. I've told you this many times,
good works are not something that we do that is good. You
know, we've done something good, whereas normally we don't. You
know, normally we do bad, but this was good. No, that's not
good works. And if that were the case, then
somehow we're getting some credit for it. Good works are done. And this is the scriptural definition,
the definition our Lord gave his disciples. Good works are
done to help the body of Christ, to help other believers. So,
Lord, let me be zealous of good works, to help God's people,
to comfort them, to encourage them, to point them to Christ.
Let me be zealous of good works without practicing them. Say,
let me be zealous of good works without trusting them. Lord,
incline my heart to do that so that I trust Christ. God hears
the fourth thing. Lord, keep my heart from following
men. And incline my heart to follow
Christ. In verse 4 there, David says, inclined not my heart to
any evil thing to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity. That word men actually translated
is great men. Great men. Now some men we see
as great men. They're men that impress us.
And I'm not wrong to think that. But you know, we've got to be
very careful about this. There's a fine line here. There
are men that we highly esteem, women we highly esteem, and rightly
so. Some, maybe not, but, you know, there are people we highly
esteem. But, you know, there's people we should highly esteem. Absolutely, we should. God's
Word tells us to esteem God's pastors for their work's sake.
Esteem them very highly in love. Love them. Esteem them highly
for their work's sake. For the sake of the gospel. that
they preach, the work that they put into studying it and preaching
it for God's glory and for your good. Esteem them very highly
for it. But you know what? We're to esteem each other. We're
to esteem other believers. We're to esteem others better
than ourselves. So there are people that we should
esteem, absolutely. I esteem you highly. I really do. I do. I thank God
for you. But now we've got to be careful
on this thing. Don't esteem a man or a woman too highly. Don't
put them in a place they don't belong. Isaiah did that to King
Uzziah. He esteemed him so highly. He
was so impressed with this man. All he could see was King Uzziah. And when did Isaiah see the Lord?
In the year King Uzziah died. Uzziah had to die so that Isaiah
but see the Lord. Don't put a man in a place he
doesn't belong now. Sometimes we can esteem a man
so highly that we'll follow him instead of following Christ.
You've got to be careful about that. We can esteem a man so
highly that we'll take what he says for the truth and follow
it like it's God's Word, even though what he said is not found
in God's Word at all. You've got to be careful about
that. And the Apostle Paul gives us instruction on that. 1 Corinthians
11. He said, be ye followers of me.
He wasn't afraid to say that. He said, you follow me even as
I also am of Christ. You follow me as I follow Christ. You follow a man. You follow
a pastor as he follows Christ. If God lets you do that, it will
end up well for you because you know what he'll do? He'll direct
you to Christ. He'll point you to Christ. Don't
just blindly follow any man that has a bunch of good religious
sounding words and just do anything he says. Because if you do that,
a man will lead you to destruction. You follow a man as he follows
Christ. You follow a man's teachings
as he teaches you the Word of God. Think about the Lord Jesus. He went calling His 12 disciples. And when He came to them, He
said, follow Me. Follow me. Now, after he called
two or three of them, he didn't go to them and say, you come
follow Peter. You come follow John. Watch them.
They'll teach you the right way. No, he said, you follow me. Now, a pastor is a guide. You
follow the guide as he follows Christ. But you're following
Christ. You're believing Christ. You're trusting Christ. You've
cast your soul on Christ. And Lord, let me see the difference. Let me see the difference. So
I'm taken up with Christ, not a man. And then number five. Lord, keep me from the sorrow
that comes from sin and incline my heart to the joy of Christ. This word dainties in verse four,
let me not eat of their dainties. It means pleasure. And to eat
doesn't just mean to partake. It means to partake and be overcome.
Lord, keep me from eating. Keep me from partaking in. Keep
me from being overcome by the dainties, the pleasures that
man's religion offers to the flesh. You know, man's works
religion, it's a dainty to the flesh. You know, you do something
to make God happy with you. And God will bless you, He'll
reward you if you do this and you do that. God's going to punish
you if you do this, but if you do this, God will bless you.
He'll give you all these things, whatever promises, whatever carrots
they want to stick out there at the time. That tastes real
good to the flesh. Let me do that. Now I can get
some credit for this thing. The problem with it, it sounds
good to the flesh, but the problem with it is it's deadly. Worst
religion promises joy, and all it gives is sorrow. It promises
freedom and all it gives is continued burden. Slavery to the law. It
promises life, but it only delivers death. It promises something
sweet. And to the flesh, when you first
partake of it and become overcome, it does taste sweet. But Solomon
said, it'll turn to gravel in your teeth. No, it's a false
promise. So Lord, keep me just from what
tastes good to the flesh. and let me taste and see that
God is good. Let me taste and see how sweet
Christ is. Let me taste the sweetness of
God's grace and His mercy. Let me taste the sweetness that
a thrice holy God could love a sinner like me. Let me taste
of that. Let me partake of it and be overcome
with it. Let me taste and see. Let me
just taste and be overcome with the forgiveness of sin that's
in the blood of Christ. Let me taste and see the sweetness
of Christ my righteousness. Let me taste all the sweetness
to have peace with God, that a man could have peace with God. Let me taste and see how sweet
the light of life is. Don't let me fall for this religious
junk now, these dainties. Let me taste and see how sweet
Christ is. I look back at Job chapter 20. I'll give you a couple
of examples of this. This warning of the dainties,
of false religion, the dainties of the flesh. Job chapter 20. I know it looks so sweet. This false religion looks sweet
to the flesh. I think about this all the time
about our young people. I guess I'm getting older. I
worry myself sick about them. I know this world looks so sweet. Oh, it looks so sweet to them.
I know. It looks sweet to you and me
too. Those of us who are a little older, to this flesh, it still
looks sweet. Think of how much harder it is
for them. But it's a mirage. Job 20, verse
12. Though wickedness be sweet in
His mouth, Though he hide it under his tongue, he's not going
to let it go. Though he spare it and forsake it not, but keep
it still within his mouth, yet his meat in his bowels is turned.
It's the gall of asps within him. It tastes sweet at first,
but it's poison within him. He has swallowed down riches,
he shall vomit them up again. God shall cast them out of his
belly. Boy, they tasted good going down. They didn't taste
good coming up, did they? God took them away. the sweetness
of sin, the sweetness of false religion to the flesh. Now, it's
deceitful. It causes sickness of soul. But
the bitter herbs of the gospel give life. It's the bitterness
of the gospel that gives life. It's bitter to hear how sinful
our flesh is. It's bitter. It's bitter to hear
how everything we do is defiled by sin. It's bitter to the flesh
to hear that there's nothing we can do to please God. That
we're helpless, that we're hopeless, that we're utterly dependent
on God's grace to us. That's bitter to the flesh, isn't
it? But you won't have life without it. See, the bitterness of the
gospel gives life because it makes us rely on Christ. Now
look over Proverbs chapter 9. Proverbs chapter 9. Verse 17. Stolen waters are sweet, and
bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead
are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell. A
stolen water, stolen bread, tastes so sweet. And that's saying our
works. This is the message of false
religion. It tells us our works can give us spiritual life. It
tells us that our work can sustain us and cleanse us. And all that
is is stolen waters. We can't do any such thing. Our
works will never do any such thing. Our works can't cleanse
us. They just defile us. Our works can't give us righteousness.
They just work iniquity. See, that's stolen waters. It's
taking credit for something that doesn't belong to us. That's
stolen waters. Only God can give that water
to us. The water of life. The water
that will cleanse us of our sin. Christ, the water of life. Christ,
the bread of life. He promises and He gives eternal
spiritual life to His people. And that's not stolen waters.
That's not stolen bread. It's not stolen because the Lord
Jesus Christ satisfied God's justice for His people and He
gives it to them freely. That life, eternal life that
He gives them, it's not stolen. Christ bought it with His blood,
with His life's blood. He bought it with His death and
He freely gives it to His people. Alright, now let me give you
a look at Psalm 19. A couple of examples of the sweetness
of Christ. And this is why I pray that the
Lord would incline our hearts to the sweetness of Christ. And
this sweetness has no bad side effects. Psalm 19, verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect,
converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the
honeycomb. Moreover, by them is their servant warned, and
in keeping of them There is great reward. Oh, Lord, since that's
true, give me Your Word and enable me to eat it. Enable me to believe
it in my heart. Enable me to partake of it and
be overcome with it. The Word of God. Oh, God's Word
is sweeter than honey. If you believe Christ and you
see Christ in it, if it points you to Christ, reveals Christ
to your heart, that Word's sweeter than honey. Now, one more scripture,
Psalm 104. Psalm 104. And verse 34. My meditation of him shall be
sweet. I will be glad in the Lord. Now to the believer, thinking
of Him, thinking of Christ our Savior is sweet. While we do this, wake up in
the middle of the night and we can't go back to sleep because
we start thinking. I did that this week. Start thinking
of all the crazy things that could happen or that are going
on and I was awake for hours. And I thought to myself, why
couldn't I have spent that time thinking on Him? Oh, that would
have been sweet. It would have been sweet hours,
wouldn't it? You just think on Him all you want. Thinking on the Savior is always
sweet. And that kind of sweetness won't
give you tooth decay. It won't make you diabetic. When
we were in Mexico, Every year I went, Dan Morgan went with
me, and we were told to bring a bag of candy. You got to the
Pueblos to the services and stuff to give candy to the children.
Well, you know, me and Dan, we don't do anything little. I mean,
we bought a suitcase of candy. We're giving out candy. I mean,
we're the candy man, you know. And we were after service. We're giving out this candy,
you know. And Cody started talking to this woman. She was laughing.
And Cody started laughing, and I said, what? And she said, they
don't know it. He said, we're diabetic. We're
all going to go home and be lying on the floor in a coma because
they put us in a diabetic coma. Well, I guess too much Snickers
bars or whatever do that to you. But not thinking on the Savior.
Oh, that sweetness, health to your soul. It'll give life and
joy to your soul. I know it's easier said than
done. If I can ever figure out a way to do it for myself, I'll
tell you exactly how to do it. But I haven't figured it out
yet. But when we find ourselves in trouble, instead of focusing on the trouble,
all that is is sorrow. All that is is bitterness. If
we'll spend our time thinking on the Savior, we'll find sweetness. We'll find sweetness. We really
will. By God's grace, we'll be able to do something else that
is sweet to the taste of every believer. We're going to remember
our Lord by observing His table. If you'll take your cup there,
the bread is on the... You've done this enough already.
You know how to do that. Take that off and you can access
the bread. Our Lord in Matthew chapter 26
instituting the first Lord's table. And as they were eating,
Jesus took bread, he blessed it, he break it, and he gave
it to the disciples. That's the gospel, and he's blessed.
His body was broken. Broken for our sin. And he gave
it to his disciples. And he said, take, eat. This
is my body. Gene, would you give thanks for
the bread, please, sir? Our holy Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. We better take on faith in Jesus
Christ and the work will be completed for us soon. Give us faith in the Lord. Lord God, let our walk
honor thee through this life. Lord, let us focus on Christ
more and more as time passes. I would like to thank the President
of the United States for providing an opportunity You turn that over and carefully
tear that off and find the wine. And he took the cup and gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, drink ye all of it, for
this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. Eric, would you give thanks for
the blood? Our God the Father, we thank
you for this opportunity to be with you again. We thank you
for this opportunity to be with you again. We thank you for this
opportunity to be with you again. Well, how easy is it to call
that a contagious disability? Well, deliverance. You may have
all those things, but you want to deliver the property. You
want to feed them, you want to caress them. Caress them, you
want to discipline them. That's us to our warriors. And sometimes people hear good
advice. Thank you for this opportunity this morning to come together
with you. We're not working very well.
But bless our hearts and our minds. So all of us, all of us,
thank the Lord for giving us this chance. God bless you. Thank you. Bless us. Bless us. Now bless us for Christ. What a blessed opportunity to
be able to remember the sacrifice of our Lord. He actually came. He actually came. And actually,
in time, gave his body to be crucified that he might redeem
the likes of us. What a thing to remember. I'm
thankful. I hope that's been a blessing
to you tonight. You all dismissed.