Oh, it's a delight to be here.
All of you that I know. I don't think there's anybody
here that I don't know. Many of you. Seems like forever. It's a long, long time. Carla,
I'm talking about you. Carla knew me when I was just
not this big here. Carla, we go way, way, way back. Probably 20 years or so, isn't
it, Carla? But I am indeed delighted to
be here. I know all of you. Cherish all
of you in the Lord. I'd ask you to turn back to Psalm
139. You know, I've been retired now. I can't believe it. It's
gone on seven years. Me and Cecil worked down there
at the mill together. Years ago, Gary worked down there.
But I think everybody in the world ultimately ends up at Wal-Mart. We go to Wal-Mart twice a month.
Me and Jackie go to Wal-Mart. Heading back through there with
that buggy and I'll run into somebody from Armco. Invariably. And sometimes two and three people.
There's always somebody there. But you know what we just always
talk about. We'll talk there a little bit.
How you doing? How's your health? Check still coming? Yeah. You
on Social Security? Yeah, I'm on Social Security
now. And then invariably, did you hear about so-and-so? Did
you hear about he's sick, he's bad sick, or he's died, or his
wife's died, or his family, something. And that's what we just always
do. We always go to those people that we knew for 40 years, and
somebody always has a bad report. And it's just kind of the day
we live in. I think it's the age we are. You young people don't know anything
about this yet. But there'll come a time, if the Lord allows
you to live to this older age, that you'll experience those
things. And it's primarily what we talk about. And I thought,
you know, one of these days, somebody's going to meet at Walmart. Two fellows that work there,
and they're going to say, gee, what about Dale Simpson? He's
gone, or he's bad sick. And I thought, I hope, I hope
when that day happens, I hope that they say, boy, he's got
a good hope. Don't weep for him. He's about
to leave here and go be with his Lord, which is far better.
And I think that's kind of what we're dealing with here. Psalm
139. David obviously wrote this Psalm
139. But the occasion of the writing
of this psalm is most important. David had a son. His name was
Absalom. David loved that boy. That boy
was something special. He was handsome. He was personable. Everybody liked Absalom. He was
just special. But there was a time when Absalom,
in his pride and arrogance, rose up And he stole the kingdom.
He stole the heart of the people away from David. And he ascended
the throne. And David had to leave. David
had to leave those people, that place where God had placed him.
You remember when he had replaced Saul and God raised David up
and put him on the throne. And David had to leave. And he
left in shame. He left in heartache. He left
a broken man. He left weeping. He left sorrowful. Turn back and look at 2 Samuel.
Chapter 16. This tells about the time when
David left. 2 Samuel 16, verse 5. David's leaving now. He's leaving
Israel. He's gone away in fear for his
life and sorrowful and broken. And David came to behew him.
And behold, there came out a man of the family of the house of
Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gerah. And he came
forth and he cursed all the way as he came and approached David.
And he cast stones at David. This is God's king. This is a
man after God's own heart. This is a man that has gone through
grief and sorrow. His heart is heavy with grief
over this dear son of his. And he's leaving and here he's
encountered this instead of Someone comforted him, cast stones at
David, and that all the servants of the king, King David, and
all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and
on his left. And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come
out, thou bloody man, thou man of Belial, the Lord. This is
one of the family of Saul. Now you remember, Saul was replaced
by King David. And in that day, that was the
way that those things were done all in that previous king's household,
they were destroyed because of the fear that they would rise
up in rebellion against the new king. So David, all these men
were destroyed. But this Shimei was some distant
relative. He was of that household. And
he said, The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the
house of Saul, and whose stead thou hast reigned. And the Lord
hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son.
And behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art
a bloody man. David was a warrior. David was
a fighter. He was a soldier. David was all
these things. And now, that that he had done,
that that he had done to ascend to the throne, now that had come
upon him. And this man was adding more shame to David and more
grief to David. So that's the occasion. Now David,
with all this going on, I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine. We do go through grief in this
life. We do go through sorrow and suffering
and weeping. I can't imagine what David's
gone through. This is his son. This is his dear son that he
loves more than life itself. And he has overthrown David and
forced him to leave. And that's the background to
the writing of this psalm. It's a psalm of most gracious
comfort from our Lord. We need to remember this psalm.
We need those times. And you all have gone there,
you've been there, or you will be there. and those times of
sorrow and grief. Remember this 139. Everybody
remembers the 23rd Psalm. There's nothing like the 23rd
Psalm, not in all of God's writing. There's nothing compared to the
23rd Psalm. But here's another place. Here's another place of
comfort in our Lord. And so David takes pen and paper.
At this time, can you see this man? Do you get a picture of
what this man is going through? The sorrow, the grief, the suffering,
the pain, the tears. And he sits down. And he writes
this psalm, and he begins in verse 1, Oh, Lord, oh, You've
searched me, and You know me. Lord, You know me. I'm Your servant. I love You. I love You because
You first loved me, and You called me by Your grace, and You opened
Your eyes, and You've given me to see the Savior that will come,
to know that the Christ is coming. Thou knowest my down setting,
and You know all about me. You know my peaks and valleys.
You know when I'm on the mountaintop, in the valley. You know me. You've
always known me. You've had your eye of affection
on me. Always. You know me. You know me. And
verse 3, you compassed my path and my lying down and are acquainted
with all my ways. You surround me. You surround
me. Isn't that a comforting thought?
In these times of grief and sorrow, whatever the Lord brings our
way, whether it be a time of sickness or a loved one that's
sick or something like this that David's going through, Lord,
You surround me. You're all around me. You've
shielded me from this world. You've shielded me from anything.
There is nothing that's going to enter into my presence, that's
going to enter into my life, unless You allow it, unless You
bring it. Lord, You've surrounded me. You've
compassed my path wherever I go, whatever I do, whatever's going
on. Can we even imagine this, that here this morning around
each one of God's children, He has His arms around us? To bring
us here. To take us home. To guide us
through this week. To bring us back to this place
next week. He's all around us. In everything we do. And He's
that way with every child of God. Every believer. He surrounds us. He encompasses
our past. Our lying down. Our lying down when we're tired
and weary. You're acquainted with all of
our ways. Verse 6. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. This is just overwhelming to thank. to think that God Almighty,
who spoke the heavens and the earth into existence, He thinks
on me. And He has the time and the care
in His heart to surround me and to protect me, to know everything
about me, and to shield me from this world, only allowing in
what He would have come into my life. It's the most comforting
thought. It's the most comforting thought.
Verse 7, and then David goes on and he says, Whither shall
I go from thy spirit? Whether shall I flee from thy
presence? Do you think maybe that David at this time thought
back? You remember the incident with Bathsheba. You remember
that. Do you think he thought, is this
godly? Is this something that a child
of God would do? Could the child of God ever stoop
to this? Could he do this? And yet, and
yet, I went from thy presence. This was of the flesh. This was
something that I desired to do that the old man would do Is
in us all, like Brother Frank talked about in his lesson? One
day it won't be. One day that will be taken away.
But now, we battle. There's a warfare going on in
the heart of a believer. The old man. We struggle with
that old man. Do you think David may have thought back on that
time of when he sent Uriah, his dear, dear friend and supporter
of King David, would lay his life down for David? And he told
them other soldiers, he said, when the battle is at the hottest,
and he said, you're up there on the front lines, he said,
all of you withdraw and leave Uriah up there. And Uriah was
killed. Whether I go from thy presence...
David had left the presence of God. The old man had overwhelmed
David and he did those things. But yet he says, even when I
do that, whether shall I go from thy spirit or whether shall I
flee from thy presence, no matter where I go, And he goes on and
lists these things here. If I send up to heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in the grave, thou art there. If
I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea, O thou there. Wherever I go, I remember hearing
Maurice Montgomery say once his son is a professional soldier. He's a colonel in the Marine
Corps, been a soldier all his life. And Maurice told his son
30 years ago, don't ever forget this son. The United States military
cannot send you nowhere. where your God is not. Wherever
they send you, God's there. And that's what David's saying
here. This is where comfort is. This is where comfort is. He's
always known me. He's had His eye of affection
on me. He surrounds me and protects me and shields me and guards
me. And nothing comes in unless God intends for it to. Unless
God allows it to. Is that a place of comfort? It's
not just some happenstance. It's not just, boy, was I...
Swine flu. I don't really know what to make
of this thing. The news scares us to death.
We don't know what to do with these children. We don't know
whether to go and get this thing that they've just concocted overnight
and say, yeah, go ahead and give it to my child. I don't know
if that's the right thing to do or not. One thing I know for
sure, none of us, these little ones or these old ones or these
middle-aged ones, none of us are going to contact this thing.
unless God intends for it to come into our life. There's where
our hope is. The world can run amok over this
thing. But I'm telling you, and you
know as well as I do, that none of us is going to come down with
this unless God intends for us to come down with it. And if
He's pleased to use that to remove us, that's our God. That's His
will. And what's the worst thing that
can happen? He does remove us and take us to be with Him forever
and always. That's what David's saying here.
And don't be fearful of these things. No matter where we go,
no matter what we come in contact with, our God's there. And He's
got His arms around us. And He's always known us and
had His eye of affection on us. Well, this is just too wonderful
for me, David said. This is just overwhelming. I
just can't even imagine. Now look at this in verse 14.
Verse 13, And he went on there and he told
of all these things now at David's age that he may go, things he
may get into, may get involved in. He may even leave the presence
of the Lord, but the Lord's with him no matter where he goes.
And then he says, verse 13, Thou hast possessed my reins. Thou
hast covered me in my mother's womb. He even knew me then. He even knew me then. Look at
this. I'll praise Thee. I'll praise
Thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I am. David said, I am. Fearfully, look at me. Look at
me up here. We're all, everyone here, if
we stood all of us up here, side by side in a row, there's not
any two of us that are the same height, that are the same weight,
that wear the same belt, that wear the same dress, that have
the same shape, that have the color of hair, eyes, anything.
None of the two of us are alike. But we are just what God intended
for us to be. Standing before you is one who is fearfully and
wonderfully made. I am the product of my God's
hands. He molded me and formed me. And
that's what David is saying here. Even in my mother's womb, I was
then a product of His purpose and His will and His love. I
am what I am by the grace of God. I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. Marvelous are Thy works. We can't
even imagine. Sometimes you just stop and think.
There's six billion people on this earth. All the old writers
say that in that 1,656 years from the time God created Adam
until the flood, it was the most prolific. And people didn't die.
They lived for an exaggerated old age, just around a thousand
years. People didn't die like we do now, three score and ten.
A lot of those people lived almost the whole 1,600 years. And so
a lot of those old writers, most of them say, there's probably
that many people on the earth when the flood came. All came from two
people. All came from that two people. And then this, the eight
that went through the flood. And all this that's now on the
face of the earth. The people that are on the face
of the earth now are a result of that. And God did it. It's
all of God. Life is the peculiar prerogative
of our God. And we cherish it and we're thankful
to God. And these young ones and these
little ones, it's an amazing thing. But here they are. Here
they are and they look a little bit like us and they walk a little
bit like us and they talk a little bit like us and have actions
a little bit like us. David said, God did it all. God
did it all. This is in a time of great sorrow
for David. Where did he go for his comfort?
He sat down and he wrote about his God. He's on the throne and
he does what he will, when he will. I'm fearfully and wonderfully
made. Look at this, verse 15. My substance
was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. At the very beginning
of this conception, at the very beginning of the growth of this
that I now am, thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect. There is a time in that development
of that person, in that mother, There's a time when it's just
kind of a mass. And then there's a time where
it will begin. Them little arms will stick out. And them little
stubby fingers will stick out. And them eyes will develop. And
the ears and all that. The legs and all that. And David
said, before that happened, before I was fearfully and wonderfully
complete in my mother's womb, there was a time when I was imperfect.
I was just a lump. You saw me then. You saw me then. You loved me then. You had a
purpose for me then. Being yet perfect, yet being
unperfect. And in thy book, you see that
in the latter part of 16, in thy book all my members, every
one of them, were written, which in continuance were fashioned,
when as yet there was none of them. God knew that lump before
it was when it was imperfect. When it was imperfect, when it
was just a lump there in the mother's womb. The members were
all written in his book. He knew exactly what we'd be.
He knew exactly how tall, how much we'd weigh, everything about
us. They were written in his book.
David said, here I am going through a time of grief and sorrow, but
my God, who's always known me, He even knew me when I was in
imperfect life. He purposed this. And it will
be for my good, and it will be for His glory. Now we're going
to spend just a little bit of time here in these next two verses.
And David says, How precious also are thy thoughts unto me,
O God." David, are you saying that God Almighty has precious,
precious, precious... Do you have precious thoughts
toward... Brother Frank mentioned Sean's little one. Do you have
precious thoughts for that little one? Both them little ones? For
your wife? For your parents? We have precious
thoughts. We have precious thoughts one
to another. I've got precious thoughts For you people here,
I've known you, a lot of you. We grew up together. We were
kids together. I had precious thoughts. But
here's the thing. There was a time when I didn't
have any thought of you. I didn't even know you. There
was a time when I didn't know my wife. There was a time, Sandy,
I didn't know you when I was three years old, four years old.
I didn't know you. Cecil, I didn't know you. I didn't have any thoughts.
But David's saying here, God Almighty has precious thoughts.
Precious thoughts. Well, when did God have these
precious thoughts? For King David and for me and
you. Well, in the first place, He
had precious thoughts towards us in eternity past. Before the
foundation of the world. And we don't even, our mind can't
even begin to comprehend it. But there was a time, as we mark
time, there was a time when God the Father, God the Son, God
the Holy Spirit existed. in the leisure of eternity, and
there was nothing else. Just a Godhead. Perfect. Without need of anything. Perfect
in themselves. And at that time, God had precious
thoughts towards me and you. Precious thoughts from before
the foundation of the world. There was a time when God Almighty,
standing on nothing but His sovereignty, created the heavens and the earth.
He created the stars, the sun and the moon. God created the
earth, which we now abide on. And He said, let there be life.
Let there be light. And there was light. And God
separated the water. And the water gathered together
in certain places. And the dry land appeared. And
at that time, God carved out these rivers and streams and
pushed up that ground and made mountains. And at that time,
David said, at that time, he had precious thoughts about me. This river out here? When God
carved that river out here, four miles on the other side of that
river, out there in a little place called Sugar Creek, just
a scratch on a map, God Almighty knew that 6,000 years down the
road, there would be one of His children that would be born right
there in that exact place to them exact parents. And he would
be raised up there. He'd meet his wife. And he'd
bring that woman to hear the gospel. And God would save them
by the preaching of the gospel. He had precious thoughts when
He created the heavens and the earth. He had precious thoughts
for His children, for His dear children that He would bring
to hear the gospel and would fall in love with the Lord Jesus
Christ. He had precious thoughts. He had precious thoughts when
the Lord Jesus Christ came down here to redeem His people. He had precious thoughts. When
our Lord came down here, the very first spoken word of our
Lord His parents took him up to Jerusalem at one of those
high feasts, one of those high holy days. And they went up there,
and they were there for a period of time. You know that story.
And they left in a caravan, heading back home. And somehow the Lord
wasn't with them. Somehow they went off and left
this 12-year-old boy back there at Jerusalem. They made a three-day
journey, discovered he wasn't with them, and they went back
to Jerusalem to find him. And they found him in the temple.
And he was disputing with the doctors, those students of the
Old Testament law. And his earthly mother said to
him, don't you know that Wiz was worried about you? Don't
you know that Wiz was concerned about you and was fearful about
you? And he said this to her, I must be about my father's business. The first recorded words of our
Lord has to do with the precious thoughts he had towards me and
you. This is my father's business. I came down from heaven, not
to do my will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is
the will of Him that sent me. that of all which he hath given
me, I won't lose a one of them. Raise him every one up at the
last day." The very first spoken words had to do with those precious
thoughts he had for me and you. He had them in eternity past.
He had them when he created the heavens and the earth. And he
had them when he came here to die for the sins of his people.
This is David's comfort. He has precious thoughts for
me. Precious thoughts for me. He had precious thoughts of me
personally and you personally, you children of God, when you
were born into this world. Any possibility that it would
be an untimely birth? Any possibility that you're not
going to be raised to maturity? Any possibility that one that
God ordained to hear the gospel and to flee to the Lord Jesus
Christ? Any possibility anything is going to happen to them? They've
got an appointed time when the gospel is going to cross their
path and they're going The Spirit is going to do that work of grace
in their heart, and they're going to fall in love with the Lord
Jesus Christ. He had precious thoughts and shielded us the
time of our growth, the time of that when we had no interest. I heard the Gospel with these
ears. I heard it sit there from the
time I was seven or eight years old. Brother Frank talked about
Henry Mahan. We've heard Henry. Cecil, we've
heard him all of our lives. From all children. But we just
heard him with these ears. But there was a time, God always
had precious thoughts towards us, but there was a time, a time
when He crossed our path and we heard, we actually heard. We heard what we were, sinners,
dead, dying, without hope, without Christ, without God in this world.
And there's the remedy. There's your hope. And we saw
Christ and we fled to Christ. He had precious thoughts for
us in the time of our conversion. And He has precious thoughts
towards us in this life here below. As we walk through this
life, as we live this life that our Lord has given us, we're
going to encounter a lot of things. We're going to encounter disappointment
and heartache and grief and sorrow. We're going to weep. There's
going to be times when we laugh. We're going to be on the top
of the mountain. We're going to be in the valley. We're going to be where we just
shake our head and say, Lord, I can't get through this. I can't
survive this. He has precious thoughts towards
us in that time. You know, you that have experienced
it, you that's been there, you know what I'm talking about.
Precious thoughts. These are precious thoughts that
our God has towards us. And there'll be a time, there'll
be a time, when we've got to cross that Jordan. My dad used
to sing a song. He couldn't sing a lick, but
we'd go to the farm, my grandparents had a big farm out in the country,
and we'd go to the farm every Saturday morning, check on Grandma
and Grandpa. Dad would just throw that head back and just sing.
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand and cast a witch fly to Canaan's
fair and happy land. That's where my possessions lie,
where Christ is in Canaan. But you've got to go through
Jordan to get there. The children of God, when they come out of
the wilderness, they had to go through Jordan. They had to go
through the River Jordan. And when we leave this place,
unless the Lord tarries His return, We're going to leave it all the
same way. We've got to go through that muddy water of Jordan. We've
got to die. We've got to go to that time.
We've got to go to the grave. We've got to be removed from
this place. And He's got precious thoughts towards us at that time.
You know, I thought this week, I thought, you know, we have
a number of breaths that we've been given. It's just like we've
been given a number of heartbeats. We're going to breathe so many
times in this life. God's given it. It's ordained.
It's purposed of our God. It's determined. Every breath. But a breath, there is an inhale
and there's an exhale. And you know there's going to
be a time when we exhale for the last time. But when we exhale
for the last time, immediately we inhale in the presence of
our Lord to be with Him forever. And He's going to be with us
because He's got precious thoughts. We're His children. He loved
us eternally. He loved us when He created the
heavens and the earth. He loved us when the Lord Jesus
Christ came and died for us. He loved us when we were born.
He loved us as we grew. He loved us when He crossed our
path with the Gospel. He loved us, had precious thoughts
towards us when He drew us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And He
guides us every step of the way. And one day, He'll bring us to
be with Himself. He's got precious thoughts. This
is where David's comfort is. And this is where our comfort
is in times of sorrow. How precious are thy thoughts
unto me, O God. How great! Look at that. How
great is the sum of them? How great are they? How great
are they? I thought as I was preparing
this, I wanted to come up with something to just stagger you.
I wanted to come up with something. Now, we know. Listen to me. Here I stand. Every second that
I'm up here, that old heart beats just like that. There it is.
There it is. Beats 60 times a minute. It beats
3,600 times an hour. Every one of them is because
God purposed it. Every one of them is because
God has precious thoughts towards me. Every one of them is because
He's bringing me to that expected end when He removes me, takes
me to be with Himself. It's going to beat so many times.
It beats 86,000 times in a month. This month already, my heart,
it beat 86,000 times. Beats 24 million times in a year.
24 million times in a year. Boom. Boom. I'm going on 65. Cecil, you know how many times
your heart's beat already? Over 2 billion times. Boom. Boom. And every one of them is
because God has precious thoughts for me. He's going to bring me
to that expected end. He's going to bring me to that
appointed time. And then He's going to bring me to Himself.
How great. And that's just that. That's
not talking about your Your eyes, oh, I had some eye trouble years
ago. I had a supposed to be the best surgeon in the east of the
Mississippi up here in Huntington, Dr. Morgan. He done surgery on
my eye. Took it out and worked on it
and put it back in. I said, I asked him once, do you think there'll
be an eye transplant? He said, I don't think it'll
ever happen. He said, you can't imagine all that's connected
to that eye that goes back to your brain. He said, there's
thousands and thousands of fibers. He said, I don't think it'll
ever happen. At heartbeats, every member, all of our members, the
brain, the blood that pumps through us, the muscles, the strength
that we have, the endurance, the health, all that. How great
is the sum of God's thoughts towards us. All of those things.
He controls every one of them. Right on time. Right on schedule.
How great is the sum of them. He said here in verse 18, look
at this. If I should count them, if I could, if I could, the precious
thoughts that our God has towards us. If I could count them, if
I could count them, I'd say they're more in number than the sand. He don't say that they're numbered
like the sand or the same number as the sand. You all ever go
to the beach? You've been to the beach? You see how much sand
is there? And that's just at that one little
beach you're at. We go to Top Sail Island over there. You walk
out there on the beach, you just miles and miles of it. And I
don't know how deep it is. You can't dig down and get to
the bottom of it. But you know what? If you had time, you could
sit down and you could count every grain of sand on this earth.
You could count every one of them. Given enough time, you
could count every grain of sand on this earth. But David said,
that don't get the job done. He said, the precious thoughts
that our God has towards us. He said, there are so many. Or
he said, there are more in number. They're more than that. More
than the sand. More in number than the sand.
And he goes on here. And he said, when I wake, when
I wake, I'm still with Thee. When I wake. You know, there's
just that, when you lay down to go to sleep, there's just
that wonder, you know, will this be the night Will this be the
night that our Lord, will He remove me? I'd be a great blessing. Wouldn't that be a great blessing
that the Lord would just lay down and go to sleep and wake
up in His presence? Would just exhale that last one
and inhale in the presence of the Lord Himself? Wouldn't that
be a great way? The Lord would be pleased to
do that. Maybe. Maybe He'll be pleased to do
that. But David says here, Every time that I do that, when I wake
and I lay down and I go to sleep, I know this one thing, that tomorrow
brings with it, tomorrow's God. And tomorrow's God is that God
who has precious thoughts for me. He's always loved me, gave
me to Christ in eternity past as a surety of that everlasting
covenant. In time, Christ came and died for me. And in time,
the Spirit calls me to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and flee
to Christ. So I say, what David's saying
here, we can't imagine the grief that David's gone through. We
can't imagine the sorrow David's gone through. You know something
about it? Have you been there? Have you been in the valley?
Has God been pleased to bring you in the valley? Like He did
this man. And this man, when he got away from all that, when
he got away from Shimei, cursing him and throwing rocks at him
and saying those awful things, he got off to himself and he
sat down. Like we do. What's my hope? Who's my hope?
Whose child am I? Who died for me? Who called me
by His grace? Who keeps me by His power? All
that happens to me, it's on purpose by my Heavenly Father who loves
me and who has those precious thoughts for me. I think that's
what's going on here. Remember Psalm 139, when the
Lord's pleased to bring you into a time of trouble. Go back there
and read it and read it and read it. Because he has precious thoughts
for every one of his children. We can't even number them. They're
more than the sand. So Dale, what's tomorrow bring? I don't know. I don't know. Is
tomorrow going to be a time of grief? We've been there. We know
something about weeping. You do too. Is tomorrow going
to be that kind of a day? I don't know. But Dale, just
lay down and go to sleep. Because when I wake in the morning,
I'm still with Him, my Heavenly Father. I hope it's been a blessing. It was a blessing to me preparing
it. Cecil.