Good evening. Good to see everybody. We're going to open tonight's
service with hymn number seven from the Spiral Gospel Hymns
hymn book, number seven. Let's all stand together, number
seven. A head that once was crowned
with thorns is crowned with glory now. A royal diadem adorns the
mighty victor's brow. The highest place that heaven
affords Belongs to Him by right, The King of kings and Lord of
lords, And heaven's eternal light. The joy of all who dwell above,
the joy of all below, to whom He manifests His love and grants
His name to know. ? To them the cross with all its
shame ? ? With all its grace is given ? ? Their name an everlasting
name ? ? Their joy the joy of heaven ? Please be seated. Feeling a little bit more like
normal, isn't it? This is good. I want to read Psalm 40 for our
call to worship tonight. Turn with me there in your Bibles,
Psalm 40. Seth and Kaylee Hardman are now
here. They're here also, but they're
moved here. And they both came with jobs,
and of course, with the coronavirus thing, both those have been put
off. So I'm confident Florida's gonna provide for you all. Pray
for them, that they both need to find jobs other than what
they were expecting when they made their plans to come here. The building, the roof is almost
finished. Probably finish it in the morning.
And then I guess drywall starts Monday, maybe siding next week,
so Somebody I just saw walking by there. I don't know if we
need to somebody check. Do you know who that is? Can
you check on that bird? Okay? There's a lot of equipment
out over here, so All right Let's read together from Psalm
40. I waited patiently for the Lord,
and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also
out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet
upon a rock and established my goings. He hath put a new song
in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and
fear and shall trust in the Lord. As is true with all the Psalms,
this Psalm is first and foremost messianic. It's prophetic. It's
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ rejoicing in his father, rewarding
him with the resurrection. And by virtue of our union with
Christ, we can identify with these things as well. Blessed
is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not
the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God,
are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts
which are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee, If I would declare and speak of them, they are more
than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offerings thou
didst not desire, mine eyes hast thou opened. Burn offerings and
sin offerings hast thou not required. Then said I, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. I delight to do thy will. O my
God, yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips. O Lord, thou knowest. I have
not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy
faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy loving
kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold
not thou tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness
and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have
come past me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me. Notice. Now you know this is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's owning the sin that was
charged to him as his own. It was imputed to him. He said,
mine iniquities have taken hold of me so that I am not able to
look up. They are more than the hairs
of mine head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver
me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded
together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be driven
backwards and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate
for reward of their shame and say unto me, aha, aha. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, the Lord be magnified. But I am poor and
needy. Now the title of the message
tonight, and it's not from this text, it's going to be from Psalm
113, is Hope for the Poor and the Needy. But I am poor and
needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and
my deliverer. Make no tearing, oh my God. Let's pray. Our glorious and merciful Heavenly
Father, we come into Thy holy presence in the name of Thy dear
Son. We believe that we have no righteousness
outside of Him. We believe that He is all that
you require in order for us to have acceptance in Thy presence. And so, Lord, by the faith that
you've given, we look to Christ and we ask Lord that you would
reveal more of his glory by your word and by your spirit. As we
worship together tonight, we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 235 from the hardback
tenor, 235. And let's stand together again. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry, While on others Thou art calling, do not
pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry, while on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let me at the throne of mercy
find a sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition,
help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Trusting only in Thy merit Would
I seek Thy face Heal my wounded, broken spirit Save me by Thy
grace Savior, Savior Hear my humble cry, While on others thou
art calling, Do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
More than life to me, Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 113, Psalm 113. Do you believe yourself to be
poor and needy? Now the emphasis is on that question.
I want to make on the word believe. I didn't ask you, do you feel
yourself to be poor and needy? we will never feel ourselves
to be as poor and as needy as we are. The Lord knows how in
his providence to create circumstances to make us feel how poor and
needy we are, but like everything else, what we believe is by faith,
not by feeling. I didn't understand, I didn't
ask, do you understand how poor and needy you are? I know you
don't. I don't. But do you believe that
you're poor and you're needy? Do you see your poverty as it
really is? No, you don't. I don't either. When our commitment is not as it ought
to be, to the Lord. It's not for lack of commitment,
it's not for, it's simply for one reason, not believing that
we are poor and needy. Not believing that we're poor
and needy. Faith is believing what God has
said and so When I read the scriptures, it's very clear, very clear that all the children of Adam stand
before God poverty stricken in that they have nothing. They
have no righteousness. They have no claim on God. They
have nothing to present that would obligate God in any way
to save them. They can't earn God's favor by
anything they do. Why? Because they don't have
anything. Now we, as I said, we don't understand what that
means and we don't feel it as we ought, but we know it's true.
We believe it. And that's why we cry out to
God being needy. Lord, I believe what you've said. I believe I'm devoid of all righteousness
and my righteousness is before thee are as filthy rags. I don't believe that I've got
anything that I can present before God. To to earn his favor, his
mercy is grace in any way. I cannot recommend myself to
God. I have no standing before God apart from Christ. I am left to myself poverty-stricken. Blessed of God are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. If God has caused you
to believe, and there's the emphasis, do you believe yourself to be
poor? Not do you feel your poverty as you ought, not do you see
it or understand it as you ought, do you believe it? If you do,
It's because you've been blessed of God. He's given you faith
to believe what he has said about yourself. That's why we come. And when we lack dedication,
it's because we're not believing God as we ought. That's what
it is. It's not because we don't feel
our need like we ought. It's just because our faith is
wavering. We are of little faith. If the
Lord just gives us the grace to believe what he says about
our circumstances before God, then we will agree with him that
we are poor. It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of heaven. Now, I know that material wealth
can be a hindrance to a man in terms of his understanding, his
need for God, because he can, if he's wealthy enough, he can
buy himself out of pretty much anything. But you know that's
not the real meaning of that. There's very few people in this
world that are really that wealthy. But all men, all men, all the
unrighteous believe themselves to be, to believe themselves
to be righteous. And all men are rich in their
own righteousness. All men believe they've got something.
They've got a prayer, they've got a commitment, they've got
to work, they've got something. Good master, what good thing
can I do to inherit eternal life? And that's the condition. And
so all men are wealthy in their own righteousness. And the disciples
said, Lord, if that be true, who then can be saved? And what
did the Lord say? It is impossible. You cannot
get a camel through the eye of a needle, but with God, God can
make you so small. God can make you so poor. God
can strip you of your righteousness and make you little enough to
fit you through the eye of a needle. And, uh, that's what the Lord
say. This is a work of grace, isn't it? It's a work of grace
for us to believe. I want to, it's just something
the Lord has been dealing with me a lot about lately. This is just believing God. That's
what, that's what salvation is. We, it's not believing you're
saved. It's not, it's not having a feeling
of salvation. It's not, it's believing what
God has said. Truth Lord, truth Lord. And she told him all the truth,
didn't she? That woman with the issue of
blood. And that Syrophoenician woman who was called a dog. If you say it, it's true. If
you say it, it's true. Faith is just saying amen to
what God has said. And God says, you and I are stripped
naked of any righteousness before him. We have no wealth. We have no riches. We have, we
have no, nothing that we can offer God. We are completely
dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ for all our acceptance
before God. You believe that? You're not feeling it like you
should. You're not. But as faith increases
and as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ, it will become more of an experience to us. But that's
not what's saving faith, it's just saying, Lord, look at our
text, Psalm 113, verse seven, we'll begin in verse seven. He
riseth up the poor out of the dust. Now what does dust represent
in the scriptures? From dust thou was taken and
to dust thou shalt return. What is death? It's death. Lord, apart from the life of
the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm spiritually dead. I have nothing that, I
can't make myself alive. And the Lord says he raises up
the poor out of their dead condition. And he breathes life into them.
Just as he breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of
Adam in the garden, so in the new birth. That's what the Lord
said to Nicodemus. Nicodemus, you've got to be born
of the Spirit, and the Spirit's like the wind. He's got to breathe
life into you. How do we know he's breathed
life into us? Because we have this experience we had this feeling
no because we have come to believe that apart from the Lord Jesus
Christ I am spiritually dead I have no life in and of myself
and the Lord has raised the poor out of the dust and look at the
rest of that verse and the needy out of the dunghill now what
is the dunghill It's our righteousness. That's
the dung hill. And yeah, that's what it is.
It's just a big old hill of dung. And Paul, when he was talking
about his life and before the Lord called him on the road to
Damascus, he, you know, he said, you know, I excelled amongst
my peers. I was a Pharisee. I was concerning
the law in the sight of men. I was blameless. Nobody could
charge me for being a lawbreaker. I was an Israelite. I was of
the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised the eighth day. And I was going
about establishing my own righteousness until the Lord arrested me and
revealed himself to me. And when I saw him, what did
I, what did he conclude? Those things which I thought
were gain, I now count as lost. Yea, I count all things but loss. for the excellency of the Christ
Jesus, my Lord, and do count them as what? Dung. So here's my next question. Do
you believe, number one, do you believe you're poor? Do you believe
that apart from the life of Christ, you're spiritually dead? You
have no way of raising yourself from the dead. You can't do it
by your will. You can't do it by your works.
You're dependent upon the Lord's breath of his spirit. And, uh,
do you believe that all your righteousnesses are dung, dung
and count them to be so that you might have that righteousness,
which is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe
that? Not, do you feel it? Not do you
understand the full impact of that? Do you believe it? He raises up the poor out of
death. Lord, I don't have a scent. I
can't earn your favor. I've got no place of standing.
I've got no righteousness. I'm completely dependent upon
Christ. The Lord, if you don't have mercy
upon me, I'm needy. Now a poor person who is too
proud to beg is just not poor enough. That's just true. If God strips you of everything,
I mean, you've got nothing. What are you going to do? But
beg. That's what a mercy beggar is. A mercy beggar is a person
who's had everything taken away from them. And a mercy beggar is a needy
person. A needy person. Was blind Bartimaeus,
that poor beggar, was he needy? Oh, son of David, have mercy
upon me. Artemis, what would you, and
what'd he do? He let, he had a, I mean, I can just, I can
imagine what that coat looked like. I mean, we have people
live on the streets today and, you know, it's pretty, pretty
dirty and pretty, but, but back then, I mean, you can imagine
this, this filthy garment that he was covering himself with.
And the scripture says when When they said, be of good cheer,
the master called the, he took it off and dropped it right there
on the curb, went to the Lord naked. Lord, you're going to
have to, you're going to have to clothe me with your righteousness.
What would you have me to do? Oh Lord, that I might see, I
can't, I've been blind all my life. I can't do anything about
it. You will have to give me eyes to see. That was, uh, 2nd Kings chapter
7, you remember those lepers that were at the gate of Jerusalem?
The Assyrians had the city surrounded and they had it besieged for
months and the people in the city had resorted to cannibalism. That's when the story about the
two women that had the baby and the baby died and they, you know,
they ate the child and I mean it was just, it was awful. Awful. They were dying and there was
three lepers outside the gate. And you know what leprosy represents.
That's our poverty. That's our needy condition. We're
lepers before God. And the lepers looked at each
other and they said, if we go in the city, we're going to die.
If we sit here, we're going to die. Let's cast ourselves on
the mercy of the Assyrians. If they have mercy upon us, we'll
live. If they don't, we're just going to die anyway. In other
words, they were not left with any other options, were they?
They were needy. They went to the Assyrians to
cast themselves on their mercy in hopes that they would spare
their lives and give them something to eat. And when they got there,
God had already emptied the camp, hadn't he? And he had all the
provisions. That's what it is to be needy,
Lord. If I go here, I'm going to die. If I go there, I'm going
to die. All I can do is cast myself upon you for your mercy. I'm needy. I've got no place
else to go. And here's the promise. He takes
the poor out of the dust and he delivers the needy from the
dunghill, from their own righteousness. Now that's a blessing. That's,
that's grace. And that's faith. We don't feel
our need as we ought. We don't experience sorrow for
our sin as we ought. We don't see God in all of his
glory and see ourselves in the ugliness of our sin as we ought. We see just a glimpse of it. But by God's grace, by his spirit,
we're able to say, when God says you are poor and you are needy,
we're able to say, amen, I believe Christ. I've got to have Christ. And when our, when our commitments
wane, it's only because we're not believing God. That's what
it is. It's a lack of faith. Let's go. Let me read a couple
of verses here. Psalm 70, verse 5. But I am poor
and needy. Make haste unto me, O God. Thou
art my help and my deliverer, O Lord. My God, make no tearing. Now, all these Psalms are the
prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ. We just saw that in Psalm 40,
the last verse in Psalm 40. You know, the dogs that come
past me about and I'm poor and needy, Lord, come and deliver
me. The Lord Jesus Christ knew how poor and needy he was. He
felt the full weight of sin as it really was. And he's the only
one that ever did. You and I are never gonna feel
it. We couldn't bear it if we did. But we can say, Lord, I
know I'm poor. I know I've got nothing. I know
I've got no righteousness. I know I've got no claim on God.
I know that I've got to have Christ. I'm needy. Lord, I'm
naked, I'm blind, I'm poor, I'm wretched. There's no good thing
in me. I believe that because you said
it. Not because I feel it, but because
you said it. Listen to Psalm 72 verse 13. He shall spare the poor and the
needy and shall save the souls of the needy. Now that's God's
promise. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that? We're talking about being a sinner.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He only saved sinners
and he saves every one of them. Every single one of them. Lord, he spares the poor and the needy.
He shall not might not try to not, you know, one day he shall
save the souls of the needy. Where did the needy come from?
Out of the dunghill. How do I know I'm needy? Because
I know that all my righteousness are as filthy rags before God.
I know that if God looks at anything I've done, man at his very best
state is altogether vanity. I was talking to a young man
yesterday and I was explaining to him about Aaron. Having to
bear the iniquity of the holy things and he was thinking, you
know sin was the bad things I think and the bad things I do and I
told him I said, you know when you're sitting in church You but what you're doing is
fraught with sin right now you can't even concentrate on the
truth Perfectly, can you? We need the Lord Jesus Christ
as our high priest to bear the iniquity of the holy things. Our, our best, most sincere prayer. If the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
make it acceptable to God, it won't be acceptable. So he shall save the souls of the
knee. So believing that you're needy. is believing that you
have to have the Lord Jesus Christ to make what you're doing right
now, to make what I'm doing right now, acceptable to God. That apart from that, you you've
got no claim on God. If the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
make what we're doing right now, acceptable to God, then what
we're doing right now is dumb. That's what it is. If it's just what we're doing,
it's just our righteousness. Okay, I'm needy, Lord. I know. I believe that. I just believe
it. Psalm 82, verse 4, deliver the
poor and needy and rid them out of the hand of the wicked. That's
a prayer. Lord, deliver me and rid me out of the hand of the
wicked. I'm poor and I'm needy and that's who you came to save.
Lord, I'm not going to pretend to understand that. I'm not going
to pretend that I feel that as I ought. But I know it's true
because you said so. And you gave me faith to believe
every word that you've said. And I know I have no righteousness
because you said so. I know I'm needy because you
said so. I know my righteousness is like dung because you said
so. I know that I'm spiritually dead
because you said so. I didn't feel my spiritual deadness. He saved us out of our deadness,
didn't he? We were dead in our trespasses
and sins. But, you know, I've been alive
all my life. You know, wake up every morning and I feel alive
and I'm breathing and I'm feeling and, you know. Do we feel our spiritual deadness
as we ought? No, but God says you're born
spiritually dead. You're born at enmity with God. And unless I breathe life into
you, and Lord, I believe it because you said it. I don't feel my
deadness like I ought. I certainly don't understand
the full ramifications of it, but I believe it. Do believe
that you're poor and needy. Psalm 86 verse 1, bow down, 90
year old Lord, hear me for I am poor and needy. Lord, you got to bow down. You're
going to have to condescend to where I am. You know, look at,
look at, you've got your, you've got your Bibles open to Psalm
113. Look at, uh, Look at verse five and six. Who
is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high, who humbleth
himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in
the earth? The stars are not pure in his
sight. The angels are charged with folly. He has to condescend
to have anything with anybody, doesn't he? The things in heaven. He has
to humble himself to observe the things in heaven. I don't
know what all that means. But I believe it. I believe it. Who is a god like unto thee?
That pardoneth, and our God is holy. He's beyond. He's unsearchable. He's unsearchable. Past finding out. That's what
we need to believe. Proverbs 31 verse 9, open thy
mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and
the needy. That's our prayer. Lord, open
your mouth and judge righteously. I'm not asking you to make exceptions
to your law to accept me. I'm not asking you to lower your
standards so that my righteousness can be acceptable. You're gonna
have to take me out of the dunghill and you have to judge me in Christ
in order to judge me righteously. Lord, open your mouth, judge
me righteously for I know that I am poor and needy. How do I know that? Because God
said so and I believe it. And that's just, you know, Feelings
come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving, aren't
they? My only warrant is the word of God. None else is worth
believing. Faith is believing God. There's
no way you and I are going to feel how poor we are. There's
no way we're going to feel how lost we are. There's no way we're
going to feel how dead we are. There's no way we're going to
feel or understand how much like dung our righteousness really
is. There's no way we're going to
do that. But the Lord didn't say, feel it, understand it.
He said, believe it, believe it. And we do. We just, we just believe God. And we say with Solomon, Lord,
open your mouth, judge righteously and plead my cause. You plead
my cause because I am poor and needy. Psalm 113 verse one, praise ye
the Lord. Praise oh ye servants of the
Lord. Praise the name of the Lord.
exalt him, praise him, give him all glory and all honor and all
majesty and all power. And do we feel that? Do we understand
that? No, but we know that he's worthy
of all that and that we're not worthy of any of it. He has all
power, I've got no power. I'm ungodly apart from his work
of grace in my heart. I can't worship God. So all praise, blessed, look
at verse two, blessed be the name of the Lord from this time
forth and forevermore. Oh, we saw several of his names
and saw in Acts chapter three, Sunday, didn't we? He's Holy. He's the Holy one of Israel.
He's righteous. He's Jesus. He's the Christ.
He's Lord. He's the Prince of life and the
Lord of life. And we, and we believe all those
things that are said about him. We just read in Psalm 40, yea,
I have come to do thy will, O God, for it is written of me in the
volume of the book. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. I've come to do thy will, O God. Verse two,
blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.
You see, if God's given us faith to believe God, we'll never not
believe God. Now you and I try every day to
not believe God. We're tempted to not believe
God. We're tempted to believe something else. But if you're
a believer, you cannot not believe. You just can't do it. God's given
you grace to believe him. You believe every word that he's
spoken. People say, how much of the Bible do I have to believe
to be a believer? If you're a believer, you believe at all. You believe
everything God says. You don't, you don't act like
that old Testament King that took out his pen knife and cut
out the sections of scripture you didn't like. You believe
and throw it in the fire. That's what he did. Oh, you believe
everything, don't you? And that's what Psalm, that's
what, that's what verse two said, blessed be the name of the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore. He's given me faith to believe
him. And if this faith is from him, it's never going to stop. It's never going to cease. He's
not going to let me, he's not going to let me get away from
him. He's not going to let me fall. He's, he's going to keep
me. Look at verse three, from the
rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, the Lord's
name is to be praised. Some of us went to a church one
time that their preacher in his, in his public prayer, uh, every
Sunday would quote this verse. And, uh, and I'm just certain
that he didn't have a clue what it meant. Does giving praise to his name. Is it only to be done from the
time the sun comes up in the east, this east and goes down
in the west. So we don't praise him at night.
You wake up at two o'clock in the morning. You can't praise
God because it's the, you know, the, the sun hasn't, the sun's
already set. Is that what that means? Malachi chapter two speaks of
the son of righteousness. rising with healing in his wings,
that, that morning star. And that's what Peter calls it.
He calls the sun, the morning star. Let's turn to that passage
of man. Second, Peter chapter one from
the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, the name
of the Lord is to be praised. What does that mean? What does
that mean? Second Peter chapter one, we'll
begin reading at verse 16. For we have not followed cunningly
devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
We didn't make this up. This wasn't some myth, mythological
tale that we heard or we, we, we contrived. For he received
from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a
voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved son
in whom I'm well pleased. For this voice, which came from
heaven, we heard when we were with him on the Holy Mount."
Now you know what that's a reference to. Peter's talking about when
he was on the Mount of Transfiguration with James and John. The Lord
took the three of them up there And he took them up there for
a purpose, to hear from his father. And the veil of our Lord's humanity
was taken away, and the radiance of his deity shined forth like
the noonday sun. Peter, James, and John were driven
to the ground. And they heard audibly the voice
of God speaking from heaven, saying to them, this is my beloved
son. In him, I am well pleased. Hear ye him, hear ye him. That's why the Lord took them
up there. To have that affirmation given
to them from his father. And so Peter's recounting that
experience. And he said, we didn't, we didn't
make this up. We didn't make, it's not a fable.
This is not a myth. This is, we handled the word
of God. We heard the voice of God. We saw his glory shine forth. And look at verse 19. We have
also a more sure word of prophecy. More sure than that mountaintop
experience. I mean, you talk about having
a religious experience, a mountaintop religious experience, that was
one right there. And what does Peter say? We have something
more certain than that. Was Peter relying on the feelings
that he had back there on the mountaintop? No, as a matter
of fact, those guys came up with some of the most stupid things.
They said, you know, let's build three tabernacles here, one for
Moses, one for Elijah, one for you, Lord. You know, they didn't
know what they were observing. But Peter's saying, now we've
got something better. We've got a more sure word of
prophecy. Brethren, this is what we believe. This is who we believe. We're
believing God and everything that God has said about his son
when he gives us faith. We left ourselves, we're poor
and we're needy, and we just believe God. Look at, we have
also a more sure word of prophecy, where unto you do well that you
take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until
the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart. So when
Psalm 113 says, from the rising of the sun to the setting of
the same, The Lord's name is to be praised. That's when the
day star rises in your heart through faith and you, and you
see something of the glory of Christ and you, and you agree
with him about your own need and your own, your, your own
poverty. You remember when the Lord said,
I must work the work of him that sent me while it is day for the
night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the
world, I am the light of the world from the rising of the
sun. When was the rising of the sun?
When the Lord Jesus Christ came forth out of, out of the, out
of the tomb. And when the day star rose in
our hearts, when God gave us faith to believe the more sure
word of prophecy, his word. Believing God, don't wait for
a feeling, don't wait for, you know, I need to, this young man
I was talking to yesterday, well, you know, there's just so many
things I don't understand. I said, well, there's a lot of things
I don't understand either. But do you believe yourself to
be a sinner? And do you believe Christ to be your only hope of
salvation? Do you believe he's the son of
God and his righteousness is the only righteousness that's
not a downhill from the rising of the sun. This
is what the rising of the sun is to the going down of the same.
The name of the Lord is to be praised. We're. The sun's risen in your heart
is never going down. This isn't just talking about
praising God from, from, from dusk to dawn. This is the, this
is the, the dawn of, of, of light. I am the light of the world and
night cometh when no man can work. Let us work while there's
day. We have light of the gospel in
our hearts. We've got the light of Christ. We've got the truth
of the gospel. God's given us grace to believe
on Christ. That's the rising of the sun. That's the rising of the sun.
Look at Verse five, who is like unto
our God? Oh, I'm sorry, verse four, the Lord is high above
all nations and his glory above the heavens. Now, can we experience
what Isaiah experienced in Isaiah chapter six? Through faith we
can. Yeah, we've got a more sure word
of prophecy. Yeah, we can see through the
eyes of faith what Isaiah saw. The Lord Jesus Christ sitting
upon his throne with the seraphim hovering over him, crying, holy,
holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. with the smoke and the
train of his tent, of his, of his, of his, of his robe filling
the temple and the post of the temple shaking. Yeah. When Christ
speaks, he just shakes everything. He rattles everything. There's
nothing, nothing else secure. Is there talking to somebody
recently and they're trying to find some truth outside of the
Bible. And I just kept telling, you
know, just stick with the scriptures. If the Lord's going to reveal
himself, he's going to do it through his word. And when he
does, the post of the door shakes. God shakes. When God makes you
know that this is true and this is where you're hanging all your
hopes, then you know that nothing else is reliable. Nothing else. You're not going to find any
hope in anybody else's testimony other than a testimony of God. Who is like unto the Lord, our
God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to belong to
behold the things that are in the heaven and in the earth.
To whom will you compare me is what the Lord said to Isaiah.
To whom will you compare me? What am I like? What are you
going to find on earth that's like me? Nothing. Nothing. As I said, he charges his angels,
his innocent angels. We're not talking about the fallen
angels. We're talking about the innocent angels in heaven. He
has to look down. He has to humble himself to behold
them. And he charges them with folly. That's how high and glorious
he is. They've never sinned. They've
never done anything. All they've done is ever worship and serve
God. And God's so high above them, he charges them with folly.
He looks at the stars and he says, you're not pure in my sight.
How can a star be impure? Well, that's how high he is. And so he raiseth up the poor
out of the dust, and he lifts the needy out of the dunghill.
He gives life to those that are dead. He reveals the dungness,
if you will, of the righteousness of his people so that they have
no place to go other than to trust Christ for their righteousness. Verse 8, when he does that, that
he may set him with princes, even the princes of his people."
Oh, he doesn't just take us out of the dunghill and just kind
of clean us off. He puts us, he adopts us into
his family. We become kings and priests before
our God. We're a nation of priests and
we're the children of God. I mean, there's no royal family
like that. He takes his children out of
the dust and out of the dunghill and puts them in, sits them at
his table and feeds them with the bread of life. And that's,
that's glorious. Verse nine, and then we'll finish. He maketh the barren woman to
keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. Now, does
that have to do with having physical babies for a woman? No. No. Let me show you that. You remember Sarah was barren,
and that's when she gave Abraham Hagar, and Hagar had Ishmael,
and Hagar began to treat Sarah with disrespect because she thought
she was better, and the Lord said, said, sing and rejoice,
Sarah, for the children of the barren woman will be more than
the children of the woman that has children. Turn me to Galatians
chapter four. I'll show you the New Testament. This is what this is all about. In short, brethren, the woman
is the church. And he makes that woman to have
children. And that's the, you know, the
scripture says these Old Testament types, you know, when the scripture
says that children are an inheritance of the Lord, they're blessing
from God, and blessed is the man who has his quiver full of
them. Well, children are a blessing, and they are from God. You've got Absalom or, or, or,
you know, Oh, we could think of, we could think of a lot.
I mean, children can be a real heartache, can't they? Don't think that you, that you
have some kind of, you haven't been taken out of the dunghill.
If you think by having children, you're going to be proving your
righteousness before God. That's not what that's about. Galatians chapter four, look
at verse, and this is in reference to Sarah and Hagar. And this
is what this, this is what this promise is about. He makes the
barren woman. You see the church was barren.
She didn't have children. You, you and I couldn't have
children. We weren't able to, we weren't able to interact with
the children of God. We were barren. We were childless
and he makes the barren woman. to reside in a house. I'm still
looking at verse 9 in Psalm 113, if you have your finger there.
He makes the barren woman to reside in the house. It's not to keep house, to sweep
and clean and all that. It's to have a home. He took
these people out of the dust and out of the dunghill, the
poor and the needy, and they were barren, and he put them
in this home. and gave them a family and gave
them children and made them joyful to be able
to have family with the people of God. Verse 22 of Galatians
chapter 4, for it is written that Abraham had two sons, the
one by a bond made and the other by a free woman. You know who
that is? Ishmael by Hagar and Isaac by
Sarah. But he who was of the bond woman
was born after the flesh, but he was of the free woman was
by promise. In other words, it was, it was
Sarah and Abraham scheming to help God. We're going to help
God out. You know, God promised us an inheritance, but he hadn't
done it yet. So he must need some help. Let's
help him out. Let's bring Hagar in. And, and,
and, and so they did. And God says Ishmael was born
after the flesh. This is the works of the flesh.
This is the dunghill. Which things verse 24, which
things are an allegory for these are the two covenants, the one
from Mount Sinai, which gender at the bondage, which is Hagar. And this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage
with her children. So what's the Lord saying? He
said, there's two covenants. There's a covenant of works and there's
a covenant of grace. There's a covenant of spirit and a covenant
of the flesh. And Hagar represents that covenant of the flesh. It's
the covenant of works. It's the covenant of the law,
and there's no salvation there. And, and, and by the way, he's
saying the Jews that are still in Jerusalem right now, they're
under the law, but Look at verse 26, but the
Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
For it is written, rejoice thou barren that bearest not, break
forth and cry thou that travailest not, for the desolate hath many
more children than she which has a husband. Now that's what
verse nine is talking about. God takes us out of the dunghill.
He takes us barren, lifeless. And he says, rejoice you barren,
for you're going to have more children. They don't have any
children. Their relationships are very
tenuous. And they're not going to last
forever. The family of God will always
be the family of God in this life and in the life to come.
Rejoice ye barren. Yes, you were barren. I was barren. The church was barren. God, by
his grace and by his promise church, one more passage, Isaiah
chapter 54, Isaiah chapter 54. Sing, verse one, sing, O barren,
thou that didst not bear, break forth into singing and cry aloud
that thou didst not travail with child, for more are the children
of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the
Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth
the curtains of thy habitation. Spare not, lengthen my cords
and strengthen thy stakes. The Lord, the Lord is going to
make you have life. And in the preaching of the gospel,
you see, you say, well, the church is such a remnant. It's such
a small portion, but they don't have children. Children have
to have life. You know, they, they're propagating
physical children, but not spiritual children. The barren woman is
the only one that's having spiritual children. And the Lord's saying,
I'm going to make the barren woman to live in the house and
to be a joyful mother of children. And God's people rejoice in living
in his house and being called princes and princesses. We're
just children of God. And we believe. We believe ourselves
to be poor and needy. All right, let's pray. Our heavenly father, bless your
word to the salvation of our souls. We ask it in Christ's
name, amen. Number eight. Eight in the spiral hymnal,
number eight. Let's stand together. This is
normally an opening hymn, but I think it's good closing tonight. Oh Lord our hearts and souls
? To lift up from this earthly
mire ? ? O may we think of heavenly things ? ? And know the joy thy
presence brings ? ? Lord, let us see the Savior's face ? And
let us taste of thy sweet grace, May open, dears, thy glories
here, And may we smell thy fragrance near. ? Be pleased to open heaven's
door ? ? And on our heads thy blessings pour ? ? All wretched,
poor and needy weep ? ? Where can we go if not to thee ? O
may this day be blessed the most that Jesus Christ becomes the
host to feed our souls with living bread and with our souls in joy
to wed. Thank you.