Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with him from the spiral hymn book, gospel hymns, hymn
book, uh, number 42 familiar to number 42. And let's all stand
together. Let us praise the name of Jesus. ["Ode to Joy"] Let us praise the name of Jesus,
prophet, priest, and sovereign king. To him render adoration,
laud and homage to him bring. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
God incarnate from above, Came to save His chosen people, Sent
by God in covenant love. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
who upon Mount Calvary shed his blood and sealed our died for
sin to set us free. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
risen, conquering, gracious friend, advocate and mediator. All our hopes on him depend. Let us praise the name of Jesus,
for he brought us to his fold. Come, exalt his name and worship,
may the Savior be extolled. Let us praise the name of Jesus
till we see him face to face. Then throughout the endless ages,
praise him for his love and grace. Please be seated. Good evening. We're going to
read from Psalm 112 for our call to worship tonight. I'm sorry,
I'm going to preach from Psalm 112. We're going to read from
Psalm 113. Psalm 113. Perhaps there's someone who hasn't
heard that the Lord was pleased to take Don Fortner home this
morning about one o'clock and. Oh. His family and everybody was
around him. We're hoping that he would go
quickly. He's been suffering a good bit the last few days,
so I was. He's a dear brother be missed. But. Have good hope. Also. You all know Eric and Liz
from Sarasota. Liz's brother, Greg, came when
we were having services in Sarasota and heard me preach two or three
times. And nice guy, really liked him.
His wife, Sue, a 42-year marriage, was diagnosed with lung cancer, no symptoms, a week ago and died
yesterday. And so I've been in touch with
Greg and I want us to pray for Greg as he's heard the gospel
and I hope he'll reach out for some help. Let's pray together,
pray for the church in Danville and pray for our meeting here
tonight. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
What great hope we have and knowing that. When we come into thy presence. Calling on the name of thy dear
son. The Lord Jesus Christ, for all
the hope of our salvation, all our righteousness and all our
justification before the. Or that we have full acceptance
into thy Holy Presence. We. No Lord that without Christ
we have nothing to bring. We don't have our works, we don't
have our wills, we don't have anything that would recommend
us to you, but oh, what great comfort and hope we have in knowing
that in Christ, we have full acceptance. And so, Lord, we
thank you for The work of your spirit that enables us to rest
our hope in Christ and we ask Lord that you would send your
spirit in power to cause him to be lifted up in our presence
tonight and that our hearts and our hope would be fixed on him. Father, we pray for Shelby and. For the church in Danville and.
For Dawn's children and grandchildren, ask Lord for the for the comfort
that only you can give would keep their hearts and minds on
Christ Jesus and that you would help them in this time of grief
to not only be comforted, but help them, Lord, in the decisions
they have to make. And, Lord, give them good peace
and direction in that. Lord, we pray for Greg, for Liz's
brother, and ask, Lord, You might be pleased to remind him of the
things that he's heard and cause him Lord to have a need for Christ
and. Or that you would give Eric and
Liz the wisdom to know how to how to speak to him in this time
of great loss and grief. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Number 294 from the hardback
terminal. Let's stand together again. 294. Savior, like a shepherd lead
us, much we need thy tender care. In thy pleasant pastures feed
us, For our use thy folds prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us Thine we are. We are Thine, who Thou didst
befriend us, be the guardian of our way. Keep thy flock from sin, defend
us. Seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Hear, O hear us when we pray. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus,
Hear, O hear us when we pray. Thou hast promised to receive
us, Poor and sinful though we be, Thou hast mercy to relieve us,
grace to cleanse and power to free. Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus, early let us turn to Thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
early let us turn to Thee. Early let us seek thy favor,
early let us do thy will. Blessed Lord and only Savior,
? With thy love our bosoms fill ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus
? Thou hast loved us, love us still ? Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus ? Thou hast loved us, love us still Please be seated. Chris said, you forgot to read
the scriptures. I did. I forgot to read Psalm 113. For those that are watching,
we have about 18 here tonight and had 21, I think, here Sunday. And we've got plenty of space
between us. And I'm sure we could have at
least twice this many or more than that here and still maintain
you know, a safe distance from one another. So we'll we'll transition
into this. I know that Florida is doing
really well as far as the compared to other states and and our governor
has not put restrictions on us to meet. So I think if we just
be smart, we can start coming back together. And hopefully. Hopefully will. In a few weeks,
we'll be able to all be here. But if we've got some folks that
are just, I know some of you are chomping at the bits to be
here, I would say, you know, come on. We'll be smart with
what we do here. The building's coming along.
Talked to the contractor today, and he said that In three weeks,
the roof will be on, the siding will be on, and all the drywall
will be up. And so basically, electrical is finished, air conditioning
is being finished now. So we could be in it quickly,
maybe in the next six or eight weeks. So the roof is here. The metal roof is here. And they're
going to install it on Monday. All right, you have your Bibles.
Let's open them together. We know that this book is about
the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is and what he has accomplished
for his people and their salvation. And the Psalms that we've seen
over and over again are to be understood primarily of speaking
of him. We could see David praying these
prayers in that he was a man after God's own heart, we can
see ourselves praying these prayers. But when we understand these
in light of who Christ is and what he's done, and we understand
the blessings in terms of our union with Christ, then then
they become rich and the Lord's pleased to bless us. That's where the blessing is.
He is the blessing. Christ Jesus the Lord is the
blessing. And I've titled this message,
The Blessed Man. Now, everybody's interested in
having God's blessings on their lives. And only as the Lord enables
us to see that the blessed man is the Lord Jesus Christ, can
we enter in to the blessings that are in him. All the blessings
of God are in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He's the one
who has gotten the victory on behalf of his people. And the
only hope that we have to be blessed of God is to be found
in him. So he's the blessed man. He's the man that the Psalms
begin with, blessed is the man who walks not after the counsel
of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of the sinners, nor sits
in the seat of the scornful. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
blessed man. And we've seen him over and over
again in the Psalms. I hope tonight that we'll leave
here saying in our hearts, what manner of man is this? What manner
of man is this? The God man. There's one God
and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. He is the blessed man. He is the one that the scripture
speaks of that became flesh. God incarnate, Emmanuel, God
among you, God with you, the word that was made flesh and
dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory as the
glory of the only begotten of the father, the one who himself
is full of grace and full of truth. And any hope that we have
of knowing the truth will be in knowing him. And any hope
that we have in being blessed with God's grace will be in him. When Pilate, after flogging the
Lord, brought him back before that bloodthirsty crowd in hopes
of appeasing them with what he had done. He hoped that this
would disband them and he brought the Lord Jesus Christ out, a
bloody mess, and said, behold the man, behold the man. Look, look, there he is. There's
your man. Well, if the Lord enables us,
Pilate spoke the truth. And my hope is every time we
go to God's word and every time we come together, that the Lord
by his spirit will enable us to behold the man. What was it
that John said, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sins of the world. You and I are sinners. We're
in need of a Savior. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
that blessed man who has won the victory of salvation for
his people. Psalm 111, Psalm 112, and Psalm
113 all begin with the word hallelujah. These are the hallelujah psalms.
There are several more of them in the scriptures, but we have
translated praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. It's an exalt
hymn. Worship Him. Fall at His feet. Set your affections on Him. Look to Him. Rest your hope in
Him. Believe on Him. That's what it is to praise the
Lord. It's interesting that that word
is translated the same way as I understand it in every language
of the world. It's one of those common language words, and everybody
says it, hallelujah. But how many people understand
the blessings that are in the Lord Jesus Christ? And how to, hey, look, look,
verse one of Psalm 112, praise ye the Lord, blessed, blessed. is the man that feareth the Lord,
that delighteth greatly in his commandments." Now we love God's
law and we do fear God. In faith, the Lord gives us a
spirit of grace to where we bow in worship and we look to Christ.
But our fear of God and our love and obedience to God's law is
not sufficient for the blessings of God. We can't win God's blessings
by our faith or by our fear or by our obedience. Blessed is
the man. He's the one who's blessed. Why?
Because he feared God perfectly. He feared the Father. He trusted
the Father. He obeyed the Father in every
way perfectly and he won the blessings of God as a result
of that. And our blessings come as a result
of his obedience and as a result of his faith. That's what it
means to fear the Lord. It means to believe on him. And
the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one that had perfect faith. You
know, we're always the child of God. The believer is always
saying, Lord, I believe, oh, help thou mine unbelief. We've
got, we've got so much fear and so much unbelief and so much,
and so much lack of godly fear. Um, and so much disobedience
in, in our lives that we're not worthy of the blessings of God
based on what, what we have. except that we're found in him. Blessed is the man. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
man that feareth the Lord and delighteth, delighteth in all
his commandments. Listen to what the scripture
says. I delight to do thy will, O God, yea, thy law is written
within my heart. Now who is that speaking? Who
is that? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He
had every jot and tittle of God's law written in his heart. He is the law of God. He's the
word of God. And he said, I delight in thy law and to do thy will. He is the only one that's holy. He's the only one that's harmless.
He's the only one that's undefiled. He's separate from sinners. He's not like us in any way. And he got God's blessings as
a result of his faith and of his obedience and the blessings
that he received. The blessings of salvation are
given to us through him. by his obedience and by his faith. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, and higher than the heavens. That's what the
scripture says about the Lord Jesus Christ. Who needeth not
daily as those other high priests to offer up sacrifice, first
for his own sins and then for the sins of the people? He didn't
have to do that. When the Old Testament priests
went into the temple to worship God, to praise God, to fear God,
to offer up sacrifices, they had to make sacrifices for their
own sins first. And he needeth not, like those
priests, offer up daily sacrifices, first for his own sins and then
for the sins of his people, for this he did once, when he offered
up himself to the Father. the living sacrifice, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And in doing so, he got the blessing. He got all the blessings of God,
not just for himself, not just for himself, but all those who
were in him. You see God's elect were put
in Christ before the foundation of the world. God has never seen
his people outside of Christ. We have been the seed of the
Lord Jesus Christ from eternally past. And, uh, all the blessings
that the Lord Jesus Christ won. We're not just for him, but they're
for his children. Look, it's right here. Verse
two, look his seed, the blessed man's seed. And if you be Christ. then you be Abraham's seed and
heirs according to the promise. All the promises of God are yea
and amen in Christ. And if we, if we have faith,
we're the, we're the seed of Abraham, the father of the faithful
and Abraham, the seed of Christ. And so we were, Spiritually speaking,
just as we were physically in the loins of our father Adam,
when he fell, we fell. So we were spiritually the seed
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that everything he did,
Everything he did, his perfect obedience, his fear of the father,
his perfect faith, his sacrificial atoning death on Calvary's cross,
his resurrection, his ascension. That's why the scripture says
that we right now are in heavenly places in Christ. We're seated
there right now. And look what, look what the
Lord says, this blessed man, the man that has gotten all the
blessings of God for his faith and for his obedience, his seed,
who's his seed. It's his church. His seed shall
be mighty in the earth. Listen to what the Lord said
in Isaiah chapter 44, I will pour water upon him who is thirsty. and floods upon the dry ground,
I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy
offspring. Now that's the father speaking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to pour water, floods
of water upon your seed. And just as a seed cannot germinate
and grow and, and produce fruit until, until it's given water.
And so the water is the washing of the water of God's word. Isn't
it? It's the gospel. It's what we're
doing right now. And we, and we hope and pray
that the Lord will give us faith to drink from the river of living
water. That river that flows clear as
crystal from the throne of God and from the lamb. And as we
do the promise of God, the promise of God to the father, I'm going
to send floods upon your seed and upon your offspring. We are the seed of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are the offspring of Christ. We are the children of God. And
so everything that he receives we have by inheritance, by virtue
of our union with him. Look what he says in verse two,
his seed shall be mighty upon the earth. Now, everything that's
happening in this world, this coronavirus, whatever conflicts
happen on the grand scheme of things between nations, whatever
small events take place in your life, And in the lives of others,
it all has one purpose, one purpose, the glory of God through the
salvation of his people. Everything God's doing, he's
doing for his church, everything. His seed shall be mighty in the
earth. What hope, what comfort, what
peace we have knowing that our God, our Father, our brother,
the Lord Jesus Christ refers to himself as our brother. He
said, we're his seed and everything is happening. He's doing it and
he's doing it all for his church. It all exists for his church.
I mean, what kind of, what kind of power is that? What kind of
freedom is that? His seed shall be mighty. I looked up that word mighty
and it's the word prevail, prevail. You know, we, we get worried,
we get afraid, we get anxious. We, we find ourselves in trouble.
We, we have so much unbelief. And yet what's the Lord saying?
Because of the fear of the blessed man. And let me say this, we
can understand these verses as they relate to us as believers,
but the blessings of God don't come because we fear God. And
the blessings of God don't come because we keep his commandments. The fact that we fear God and
the fact that we love his law And the fact that we're looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ as the blessed man who obeyed God, that's
the blessing. That's the blessing. It's just
like the Beatitudes, isn't it? When the scripture says, blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That
doesn't mean, well, if I can just try to figure out how to
be poor in spirit, then I'll be able to have the kingdom of
heaven. No, being poor in spirit is the blessing. It is the blessing. Having faith in Christ is the
blessing. And so, yes, this blessing is
to us as well, but it comes to us through Christ. Look at, his
seed shall prevail through all the troubles that they have in
this world. They're gonna prevail. They're going to persevere. They're going to overcome. When
the scripture speaks of those overcomers, in the book of Revelation
in particular, you know, they that overcome shall inherit the
kingdom of heaven. To overcome just means to prevail
until the end. It means that you can't stop
believing. It means that because God has
enabled you to rest your hope in the blessed man, and his blessing
is your blessing, and he is your blessing, that can't ever change. That can't ever go away. That's
our hope, isn't it? And so the seed, which is the
church of the blessed man who has been blessed because of his
faith and because of his obedience. That seed is going to prevail. They're going to be overcomers.
They're going to believe to the end. They're going to draw their
last breath like our brother Don did this morning. believing
on Christ. That's, that's, that's powerful.
That's mighty. That's a, that's a work of grace. The seed, his seed, I'm sorry. Verse two shall prevail upon
the earth. They're going to prevail in faith.
They're going to believe they're going to be mighty. They're going
to have the strength to believe. Um, when we were yet without
strength, we didn't, we couldn't believe we didn't have the, we
didn't have the faith to believe. And what does God do when he,
when he saves one of his, when he, when he calls, well, when
he let's put it like this, when he waters one of his seeds with
the gospel and makes them sprout and begin to grow, what does
he, what does he do? He gives them faith to believe.
He gives them the power to be set free from their unbelief
and from their sin. His seed shall be mighty upon
the earth. The generation of the upright
shall be blessed. The generation of the upright
one, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all his seed, and all of his
children, and all of his church, are going to have all the blessings. All the blessings. And the natural
man looks at material things for their blessings, don't they?
And they think, well, you know, I've got health, wealth, and
prosperity, and, you know, and peace in this world. And that's
their, you know, they call that the blessing of God. So-and-so,
look at their blessings. No. No, the blessings of God
are spiritual. It's the, it's the blessing of
knowing Christ. It's, it's, it's, it's being
in union with Christ. It's, it's the blessing of wisdom
and truth and righteousness and justification and faith and,
and, and hope. And those are the, those are
the real blessings. And those are the things that
are going to prevail to the end. And as we grow in grace and the
knowledge of Christ, those, those blessings just become more and
more real. Look at, uh, look at verse three,
wealth and riches. Now the natural man reads this
and he says, ah, health and wealth, prosperity. What is the wealth
and riches of God? What are the riches of God? The
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ became poor. You know,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich yet,
Yet for your sakes, he became poor that through his poverty,
you might be rich. Rich in what? Rich in wisdom? Rich in spiritual blessings?
The Lord Jesus Christ, he's our wisdom. Turn to me in the book
of Proverbs to Proverbs chapter eight. Proverbs chapter eight. Look at verse 18. Riches and
honor are with me. Now this is wisdom speaking.
And I remind you that God has made him to be for us all our
wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. When James said, if any of you
lack wisdom, let him ask it of God, who will give to all men
liberally, and upbraideth it not. The Lord's never forbid
someone who's asking for Christ, and to know Christ, and to have
more of Christ. He's never withheld that from
his children. That's his promise. He wants
us to have. And so he says, in this chapter
of wisdom. Look at verse 1 of Proverbs chapter
8. Doth not wisdom cry and understanding
put forth her voice? The Lord Jesus Christ is our
wisdom and he's the one who puts forth his voice and he's the
one who gives us understanding. Verse 18. Riches and honor are
with me. Now wisdom speaking, Christ is
speaking, he's saying, riches and honor with me. Bigger bank
account, bigger houses, no, no, you know better than that. The
riches of his grace, yay, yay, durable riches. You see that? How durable are the riches of
this world? Yeah. The scripture calls the
riches of this world the deceitfulness of riches. Why? Because they
promise something they can't deliver. That's what deceit does.
That's what a liar does. A liar says, I'm going to give
you something, they can't deliver it. And that's what riches say. Riches, I'm going to make you
happy. I'm going to give you peace. And they can't do it.
And the more people get, the more they want, and never, they
never. No, this is durable riches. These are riches that They can't,
they can't ever be diminished. Uh, the, the, the wisdom of God
is better than pure gold. The scripture says riches and
honor are with me. Yay. Durable riches and righteousness. There's the blessing to be able
to stand in the presence of a Holy God and be righteous in his presence
to be perfect before God. How's that going to be? To be
found in the blessed man, the man who feared God, the man who
kept his commandments. My fruit. Look at verse 19. My fruit is better than gold.
Yay. Then fine gold and my revenue
than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness. in the midst of the paths of
judgment, that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance. And I will feel their treasures. We were talking the other day
about the, uh, streets in heaven spoken of as being streets of
gold. And, uh, you know, that that's I'm not looking for golden
streets, but I think here's the here's because so much of the
scripture like that is, is, is prophetic language. Um, maybe
they will be actually made up. Here's the, here's the point.
Here's the point of that. Um, the cheapest thing that we
use for construction in this world by weight is blacktop. I mean, asphalt is just, you
know, we, we pave our roads with it concretely. What, what does
the Lord say when he says the streets are going to be made
of gold? Those things that you value in this world, you're going
to be walking on them in heaven because they're not going to
have any value for you there. They're not going to mean anything
to you. Gold's not going to mean anything. You're going to be
walking on it. Much as it means for you here, doesn't mean anything
there. Why? Because we have the durable riches,
we have the everlasting riches, we have the presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the things of this world are of no significance
in heaven. Paul concluded Romans chapter
11 with, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and
the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways
are past finding out. There's the, there's what we
have in the blessed man. That's the blessing of God. Turn,
turn with me to the book of Ephesians. Look at Ephesians chapter one,
verse seven, in whom speaking of Christ, we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace. There's the riches. There's the
durable wealth. There's the real blessing. Look
at, look at verse 18 in that same chapter. Paul's praying
for the church and he said, oh, that the eyes of your understanding
may be enlightened and that you may know what is the hope of
his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints. That the Lord would cause us
to see how, how, how temporal and how insignificant the things
of this world that men set their affections on are. and cause
us to set our affections on things above, where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God. That's the blessing. Look at chapter two of Ephesians,
verse seven, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. That's our hope. that in the
ages of to come we'll see what the real riches and wealth of
God is through the grace. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
at chapter, uh, Paul uses this word a lot in Ephesians. Look
at chapter three of Ephesians, uh, verse eight unto me, who
am, who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given
that I should preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches
of Christ. All the depths of his riches
cannot be, cannot be plumbed. They, they, I bet they're unsearchable
there. They can't be counted up. Look
at a verse 16 in that same chapter that he might grant you according
to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by
his spirit in the inner man. Now there's the blessing. There's
the blessing that God would grant to us according to his riches
in glory to be strengthened in faith by his spirit. Go back
with me to Psalm 112. I want to know this blessed man.
Don't you? This is the blessing of God.
All the things that men call blessings. The majority of things
that men call blessings are going to end up being their curses. Verse three of Psalm 112, wealth
and riches shall be in his house. Where does, where does the Lord,
where does he measure out? the blessings of his grace and
mercy and, and, and give the gold of his riches and, and knowledge
and wisdom to his people. Well, right here, right here. That's why, that's why you long
to be back here. This is the place. And it's not
the same. We were talking before the service tonight. It's not
the same being at home. I mean, it was the best we have
right now, but, but there's a, you know, there's so much more. water being poured out when God's
people come together and, uh, and the, the, the seed gets better
germinated here in his house than anywhere else, anywhere
else. Wealth and riches shall be in
his house and his righteousness endureth for ever. If I have
the righteousness of Christ, I can never be unrighteous. It
endures forever. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's our
perfect, eternal righteousness before God. And that righteousness,
as I said before, God's never seen his seed outside of him. All the people of God have always
been viewed in Christ. That's why the scripture refers
to what we have in Christ as eternal life. You see, we've
always had it. It didn't have a beginning. It's
never going to have an end. And God's seed have always been
righteous in Christ. They've always been perfect in
Christ. When, when, when God calls us out of darkness into
his marvelous light, he's just enabling us to discover something
that's always been in me. He's he's, he's showing us what
he's accomplished for us. Look at verse four. Unto the
upright, there arises light in the darkness. Now, who is the
upright? Who's the upright man? Who's
the man who stands tall before God, Christ, and those that are
in him. And what does the Lord say? In
the darkest hour, there's going to come light. When did that
happen? When did that, that the stone
was rolled into the, onto the door of that tomb. And it became
pitch black and the darkness in the hearts of gods, of, of
the disciples and those who had cast all their hope on Christ,
that they had nothing but foreboding darkness. And those disciples
on the road to Emmaus, when they were walking with the Lord and
didn't know it was the Lord. Do you remember what they said?
Where have you been? This Jesus who we thought was
the prophet has been crucified and he's gone, he's dead. All
of our hopes are dashed. What happened? Light shined in
the darkness, didn't it? The stone was rolled away. The
light of God's mercy and grace came flooding down. The Lord
Jesus Christ was made the firstborn among many brethren. And there's
gonna be some dark hours for us in this world. The darkest
hour. Will be just before dawn. I'm
just certain of it. I've watched too many people
die. And. And I'm sure that. That. I know dawn was suffering and
I know he had some Lord gave him dying grace. I'm sure I mean,
but but those are dark times, aren't they? And yet, what's
the Lord say? Look what he says. unto the upright. There ariseth light in the darkness. And brethren, when God sends
his frowning providence and his and his difficulties into our
lives, he sends them to us. We have we have dark clouds over
our heads and circumstances outside of our control. And what do we
find ourselves doing? crying out for mercy. It's the
only time we pray. That's the only time we really
pray. People say, well, there's nothing left to do but pray now.
The only time you ever really pray is when there's nothing
else to do but pray. You doing something else and
praying? Prayer is our confession of our total depends upon him
and light comes. The Lord takes notice of those
who pray. I've been thinking a lot about
what the Lord told Ananias. I think I shared it this past
Sunday, but it, it's so impressed me when the Lord told Ananias,
you go to the street called straight and you're going to find in,
in, in, in, in Judas's house, a man who's Saul of Tarsus and
he's blind. and you can go preach the gospel
to it. Ananias objected, Ananias said, Lord, I can't do that.
I've heard of this man, he's killing us. And the Lord said,
you go, for he prayeth. What does the Lord say? When
my children pray, I take notice of it. I take, when they really
pray, When they've gotten in a place where they've got no
place else to come, but to me, that's when I take notice. And
that's when I send a hand and I just came preach the gospel,
laid his hands on him. Saul got his sight back and,
uh, all the blessings of God flooded his soul. You see, God
sets the heart to pray, doesn't he? And, um, Unto the upright,
there ariseth light in the darkness, the Lord Jesus Christ, the upright
man, the blessed man, and he trusted God. The last recorded
prayer we have of the Lord from the cross is his last words.
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And he gave up the
ghost. He's saying to the father, father,
I'm going to trust you to send the, I'm, I'm fixing the club.
I'm going to close my eyes right now and I'm going to go into
that tomb and it's going to be dark, but I'm, I'm trusting you to
send the light and to raise me from the dead onto the upright. There rises
light in the darkness. Notice the next two words are
in italics. Yes, he is gracious and full
of compassion and righteous. But what do you say? Unto the
upright there riseth light in the darkness. Gracious light,
light that's full of compassion and light that's righteous. Why? Because he's that way. It's the
light of grace. Now all of our salvation is by
God's grace. It was by grace that he chose
us in the covenant of grace. It is by grace that he redeemed
us by his precious shed blood. It is by grace that he calls
us out of darkness and births us into the kingdom of God. It's
by grace that he keeps us. And it's by grace that he glorifies
us. It's all of grace, isn't it?
Why is he so gracious? Because he's full of compassion.
You as a father pity of his children. So the Lord pity of them that
love him and fear him and how much. We pity our own children. We do our children go through
trials and troubles. It's a hard lot harder on the
parent than it is on the child in it. And yet. Our love. You you being evil know how to
give good gifts unto your children. Oh, how much more your heavenly
father? will give his spirit and good
gifts to them who ask him. His love for us cannot be compared
to our love for our own children. And so he's full of compassion,
he's gracious, and he's righteous. And so is that light that he
sends. When the riches of his wealth
are poured out in his house, And the river flows freely, the
river of life to germinate the seed of Christ who is the blessed
man. And he was blessed because he
feared God and kept his commandments. And he knew when he died that
he had, I want to say this very reverently, but you understand
what I mean. The Lord Jesus Christ knew that
he had obligated his father to reward him for what he had done. He knew that he had been faithful
to his father. He knew the father was going
to be faithful to him. You and I can't do that. But
he's the blessed man. And all the blessings that God
has for you and me. are all in him. Every one of
them. Let's pray. Our merciful heavenly father.
How we pray for the riches of your mercy and grace. The wealth. Of your wisdom. Would be given
to us for Christ's sake. And that we would find. All our
hope. In him. Lord, thank you that
we have. The blessed man. To bless us. We ask it in his name. Amen. Number 442, let's stand together. Sorry. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, His wonderful
love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to His
holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard
His children in His arms. He carries them all day long. Praise Him! Praise Him! Tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him! Praise Him! Ever in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus who
bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful, deep,
and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals loud with hosannas
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, Prophet
and priest and king, Christ is coming. Over the world victorious,
power and glory, unto the Lord belong. Praise Him, praise Him,
love His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song.