Good evening. Let's open up tonight's
service at number 268 and Hardback Hymnal, number 268, How Firm
a Foundation, if you could please stand, 268. Thou firm of foundation, ye Saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word. What more can he say than to
you he has said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled? Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand, upheld by my gracious, When through the deep waters
I call thee to go, the rivers of woe shall not thee overflow. For I will be with thee thy troubles
to bless, and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall light, my grace, false eviction, shall be thy
supply. The flame shall not hurt thee
I only design. draws to consume and thy goal
to refine the soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose. I will not, I will not desert
to his foes. That soul though hell Good evening. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 92 for our scripture reading this evening. Psalm 92. Digna called Rinaldo yesterday,
and she was very weak and she asked him to ask me to tell you
all that she loved you and To say farewell to you. She's really
in her and it looks like her last days, so If you wanted to
get in touch with her you'd need to do it right away, I'm sure
and Also, this coming Friday night, we're going to have a
memorial service for Jennifer Dunbar's dad, Jerry Ross, here. So 7 o'clock. And you're welcome
to come and be a part of that. All right, you have your Bibles
open to Psalm 93. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength
wherewith he hath girded himself. The world also established that
it cannot be moved. Now that just means that what
God has ordained to take place in this world is set. It can't be changed. Everything
that's happening is happening according to His purpose and
according to His will. That's comforting, isn't it?
Thy throne is established. Of old thou art from everlasting. You remember what that word everlasting
means? It means it didn't have a beginning. We can't comprehend
what everlasting means. Everything in our, from our perspective,
has a beginning. You know, we We can somewhat
think about something without an end, but how can we think
of something without a beginning? That's our God. The floods have lifted up. We
just sang about this. The floods have lifted up. Oh,
Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift
up their waves. Oh, the trials and the troubles
and the flood that we just sang about that's going to come in
death. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of
the sea. They shall not overflow thee. Thy testimonies, and that's just
one of the ways that the Psalms speak of the scriptures, the
word of God, thy testimonies are very sure. We put all our
hope in the sure promises and word of God. Holiness becometh
thine house, O Lord, forever. One of the things I'm looking
forward to in heaven, the second most important thing I'm looking
forward to in heaven, seeing Christ to be the first and being
without sin. without sin. Donnie told me tonight that their
meeting for Chad in Colorado is going to be the 6th of October.
The 9th, I'm sorry, the 9th. So let's ask the Lord to give
the judges and those wisdom in that. Our Heavenly Father, we're
so very thankful for thy precious promises, for thy strength, thy
power, thy grace, thy love. Lord, we rejoice in knowing that
you are from everlasting to everlasting and that none of your purposes
can be altered. Lord, we rest the hope of all
our salvation in the accomplished work of thy dear son, and look
to his glorious person as the fulfillment of all of your promises. Lord, we do pray for our sister
Digna, and we ask, Lord, for your tender hand of mercy to
be upon her in these days, and Lord, that you would gently take
her home to glory. Lord, we. Pray for the. The judge that will be. Making decisions for for Chad
and Lord, we know that the heart of the King is in the hand of
you and Lord that you direct it with us. Whoever you will.
Lord, we pray that you'd give wisdom and grace. And. Pray for your mercy. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. We're going to sing number 258
number 258 in the hardback. He hideth my soul. If you could
please stand number 258. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, that for givers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows the dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depth
of His love and covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord He taketh my burden away He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved He giveth me strength as my day He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock That shadows the dry, thirsty land He hideth
my life in the depths of His love And covers me there with
His hand And covers me there with His hand With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns And filled with His fullness divine I sing Him
my rapture, O glory to God For such a Redeemer as mine He hideth
my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depth
of His love and covers me there with His hand. And covers me
there with His hand. When clothed in His brightness,
transported I rise to meet Him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout with a million songs high. He hideth my soul
in the cliffs of the rocks that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. and covers me there with his
hand. We open your Bibles with me to
Psalm 92. Psalm 92. There's a phrase in verse 5 that
I've chosen to name this psalm and this message. Oh Lord, how
great are thy works. How great are thy works. We're impressed about a lot of
things, aren't we? We're impressed with With wealth,
we're impressed with power. We're impressed with strength.
We're impressed with success. We're impressed with beauty.
We're impressed with knowledge. But how great are thy works. God gives you eyes to see the
glory of the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
only thing you can come to, the only conclusion you can come
to when it comes to the things that men are impressed with is,
woe is me, I am undone. And the people I live among,
they're just as bad as I am. What is there to be impressed
with among men? When you have the works of God
declared in his word. All that the Lord would give
us grace. To be impressed. Beyond ability. To worship him for his infinite
wealth, his sovereign power, his almighty strength, his perfect
success, his unblemished beauty. And. is perfect knowledge of
all things. How great are thy works. I started to title this message, The Cause
of Gladness and Victory. Notice in the previous verse,
the one we just looked at, for thou, Lord, hast made me glad
through thy work. Lord, you've caused me to be
glad and you've caused me to triumph. I will triumph in the
works of thy hands. All our gladness and all our
victories are the result of the works of his hands, his hands. How great, how great are thy
works. Go with me to the first verse
of this psalm. This is such an encouraging word
from God. I pray the Lord will lift our
hearts to some level of understanding and faith and believing what
the Lord has told us here. It is a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord, to bow before him, to give thanks to him in all
things. For all things are the will of
God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Oh, the spirit of thanksgiving,
the spirit of gratitude before God. How easy it is for that
spirit to be interrupted, isn't it? How easy it is for us to
lose sight of the goodness of our God and the perfect success
of his works. But it is a good thing. It is
a good thing. When God gives us the grace.
To express gratitude from our hearts, not just the not just
the gratitude of our lips, but when God moves our hearts in
gratitude to him, thanking him for his salvation, thanking him
for his mercy. Being able to. We saw Sunday
the Dead Sea had water coming in and had no outlet. And what
a picture of the natural man. He receives all these blessings
from God. Every breath he draws, he's been
given by God. He doesn't know it. Every day
he lives, he's been given by God. Every enjoyment that he
has in this world, the food that he eats, the health that he enjoys,
all comes from God, but he has no outlet. He has no expression
of thanksgiving and worship from his heart to God. Consequently, the fresh water
that gives life evaporates away and leaves nothing but a toxic
pool of sludge. And may God give us the grace
to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing, to sing from our
hearts praises unto his name, O Most High. Our God occupies the highest
throne and He's unthreatened and unmoved by the rebellion
of man and the sin of man. To show forth thy loving kindness
in the morning. Now the word loving kindness
in the Old Testament is a word for grace. And we show forth
our God's grace. All that we have is by His grace.
We're elected by His grace. We're redeemed by His grace.
We're regenerated by His grace. We're called by His grace. We're kept by His grace. We're
sanctified by His grace. And by grace, we shall be glorified. And so we are reminded every
morning of his loving-kindness, of his grace, and to show forth
that loving-kindness. And then, just as the day represents
the light of his grace, so the night represents the troubles
of life. the trials, the things that he
sends our way in order to cause us to see more and more of our
need for that which cannot be shaken. And so he says, to show
forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness
every night. Lord, when the sun's not shining
and I can't see your grace, when the darkness of unbelief grips
my heart, I know this, Thou art faithful. Thou art faithful. Lord, I know that you've not
forsaken your purpose and your people. And for that reason,
upon instruments of 10 strings and upon the psaltery and upon
the harp with a solemn sound. You look at the kind of music
that people in religion play. Yeah, and they call it worship
music. It's not a solemn sound. And God may God always give us
the grace to sing and make melody from our hearts in a way that's
honoring to him in a way that solemn. And. We would not be. And we would
not be light about our worship. Look at verse four, for thou,
Lord, has made me glad. You're the cause of my gladness.
I wouldn't have reason to be glad if it wasn't for you. And
if you didn't take your word and open my heart and cause me
to be glad, I wouldn't be glad. Lord, I'm in need of you to make
these truths real to my heart. It's it. I just stand amazed
the miracle of being able to see and being able to believe. You know, we sometimes we we
talked on believers and and and they have absolutely no understanding
of what we're talking about. We think, well, why can't you
see this? And then and then the Lord brings us to the place of
why in the world did I ever see it? Why am I not like that? He's made me to differ. The Lord
has made me glad through his work. His work began in the eternity
past when the covenant of grace was established between God,
the father, God, the son, and God, the Holy Spirit. His work
was fulfilled when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world,
satisfying the demands of God's law and shedding his precious
blood in order to put away all the sins of God's people. His
work was seen when the spirit of God comes and makes us willing
and opens the eyes of our understanding and gives to us faith to believe
on Christ. His worth is experienced by the
children of God every day as they're kept. And his work. Will be seen. And bringing us
into glory. Making us. To be like him. Lord Dallas made me glad through
thy work. And I mean to do with our work.
I was talking to a man the other day and. And. sharing with him
about the gospel, and he said, well, I guess I got my work cut
out for me. I said, oh, no, you didn't understand. You didn't
understand, and we were able to talk some more, and after
a while, he said, oh. He said, well, I got some listening
to do then, right? I said, yeah, that's it. Why
has God made hearing the means by which he gives faith? Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God. Well,
you know the answer to that question. Hearing is passive. It's passive. You're not making any contribution
to the message. You're not asking any questions.
You're just listening to what God says. And the Lord's not
going to allow us to participate in our salvation. And so he has
wisely made hearing. He shuts our mouths and opens
our ears, doesn't he? And causes us to hear his voice. Thou, Lord, has made me glad
through thy work. Men find great pride and glory
in their own works. But the child of God says, thou
has made me glad. My gladness is the result of
your work. Not my work. I will triumph. I will become victorious. I will
become a conqueror. That's what that word means.
Through Christ Jesus. He's conquered the grave. He's
conquered sin. He's conquered Satan. And in
Him, I'm victorious. I'm victorious. Through thy works,
the works of thy hands. Lord, every time I put my hand
to something, I just make it worse. Isn't that your experience? I'm trying to learn that lesson.
I am. There was a time I would have
jumped in the middle of something real quick to try to fix it,
and now, 65, I'm learning a little bit, just, you know, wait a minute,
just wait on the Lord. Let God do a work. And, uh, I
hope we can, I hope we can learn that lesson. The works of thy
hands. When he puts his hand to something,
it's always fixed. It's always fixed. Oh, Lord, how great are thy works,
and thy thoughts are very deep. Oh, Lord, we can't comprehend
your thoughts. Your thoughts are not our thoughts.
As the heavens are above the earth, so are the thoughts of
God above our thoughts. We're not commanded to understand
God. That's what, you know, that's
what a lot of, a lot of people, well, you know, you need to understand
this. We can't, that's, we're commanded to believe God, to
believe his works. We can't understand God. What kind of God would he be
if he could be understood? His thoughts are beyond finding
out. They're unsearchable. Men are impressed with with wealth. God's people are
impressed with the wealth, the riches of his glory and of his
grace. You remember when when God sent
the seven years of famine to Egypt and Joseph was appointed
as the prime minister of Egypt and Pharaoh gave him the responsibility
to gather up all the resources in the seven years of plenty
so that when the seven years of drought came that, what happened
during the seven years of drought? Well, the Egyptians spent all
their money buying food from Joseph. And then when they ran
out of money, they gave Joseph their cows, their cattle. And
when he ran out of that, they gave him their land. And they
ran out of that, they sold themselves. And the scripture says, at the
end of the day, Pharaoh owned everything. Everything. What a picture. What a picture. The Lord Jesus Christ pictured
in Joseph and Pharaoh being a picture of our Heavenly Father and Christ
has gotten to him all the wealth. All the wealth. My God shall
supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ
Jesus. All the blessings of God. are
in Christ. All the riches of God are in
Christ, in the heavenlies. We look to him for our wealth,
don't we? And when we see him and the wealth
of mercy and grace that he has, well, we can only come to the
conclusion that Solomon came to when he looked at the wealth
of this world. What did he say? Vanity of vanities. What is it? It's nothing. Turn
with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Look at verse 7. In whom, in whom the
Lord Jesus Christ, we glory in his works, in whom We have redemption. Not you might have redemption
or you can get redemption, but we have redemption. When the
Lord Jesus Christ shed his precious blood on Calvary's cross, he
actually redeemed all of God's elect. He bought them with the
price of his precious blood. in whom we have redemption through
his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. What does the wealth of this
world have compared to the riches of his grace? Look at verse 18
in that same chapter. Oh I pray that the eyes of your
understanding might be enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of his calling. And what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the saints. Oh, men will trade the eternal
riches of glory for the temporal wealth of this world. Won't they
look at chapter two at verse seven. That in the ages of to
come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
towards us through Christ Jesus, the exceeding riches of his grace. There's no wealth like his wealth. Look at chapter three at verse
eight. Unto me, who am less than the
least of the saints, is this grace given that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. His wealth and his riches are
unsearchable. Look at verse 16 in that same
chapter, that he would grant you according to the riches of
his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the
inner man. The outer man is perishing. Might
the inner man be renewed by the riches of his grace and the riches
of his glory. Might the Lord cause us to see
that Christ himself is the pearl of great price. He is. Oh, the things that men are impressed
with in this world. They don't impress believers
too much, do they? They really don't. Romans 11, verse 13. Oh, the
depth of the riches, both of his wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways are past finding out. Yes, we brought nothing into
this world and it is certain that we shall carry nothing out. We rejoice and triumph and are
glad in the greatness and the glory of his works. Another thing men are impressed
with is power. They're impressed with their power and they try
to intimidate with their power. That's what Pilate did, didn't
he? Pilate didn't know he was standing before omnipotence. All power was standing before
him. And the Lord Jesus Christ say to the disciples when he
ascended into glory, he said, all power has been given unto
me. He's the omnipotent God of glory. And Pilate said, do you
not know that I have the authority to crucify you or to release
you? And what the Lord say, you have no power at all except that
which is given to you from heaven. That's all you've got. And that's
all any man has. Men are impressed with power. That's why the Lord said, be
not afraid of those who are able to kill the body, but fear him
that has the power after having killed the body. to cast both
body and soul into hell. He's the one that we're to fear,
isn't he? He's the one with power. Oh, Lord, that we would be impressed
with your works and your power. And when the Lord shows us his
wealth and his power, the things that men are impressed with in
this world just don't hold much weight, do they? Let men boast in their power
and in their glory all they want. We'll boast in the Lord. Men are impressed with strength.
You know, whether it be physical or political, men love to flex
their muscles, don't they? Look at Exodus chapter 6. Look
at Exodus chapter 6. Here's strength, here's strength. Exodus chapter six at verse one.
Then the Lord said unto Moses, how now, now shalt thou see what
I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand shall
he let them go. And with a strong hand shall
he drive them out of his land. Oh, the strong hand of God. The
strength, the strength to change a man's heart. To take out a
heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. The strength to make
him willing in the day of his power. The strength to give a
rebel faith and cause him to beat his swords into plowshares
and his spears into pruning forks. To turn him from a warrior, from
an enemy of God to a servant of God. That's power. That's
power. You don't have that. I don't
have that power. We might be able to control man's outward
behavior with certain powers and strengths, but to change
a man's heart, that's the power of God. That's what he said.
With a strong hand, I'm going to bring you out. No strength like his strength.
Revelation chapter five, John saw a strong angel, a strong
angel holding a book that was sealed with seven seals. And the angel cried with a loud
voice, who is worthy to open the book? And John looked around
and he saw that there was no one worthy. And unless the book
gets open, no one's going to be saved. And then the angel said, John,
weep not. And John wept. He began to cry.
There's no one. There's no one that's able. John,
weep not. For the lion of the tribe of
Judah hath prevailed. He is able to open the book and
to unloose the seals thereof. Why? Because he's got strength
that no man's got. He's got strength before God
to intercede on our behalf. He had the strength. He had the
strength to satisfy every jot and tittle of God's law. Who
of us have got that kind of strength? His blood was so powerful and
so strong that it was able to cover all the sins of all of
God's people of every generation. What strength! That's strength! He had the strength to enter
into the very presence of God Almighty and be accepted on the
basis of the works of His hands. His hands. That's power. That's
power. How are we going? How are we
going to enter into the presence of God? How are we going to have
that kind of strength who can stand? Who can stand? He has the strength to save.
And looking to his strength, we see that all the strength
of men. Is it nothing? And we say of
our own strength. When I was weak, Then it became
strong for his strength is made perfect in my weakness. Only
when God brings me to the end of myself. Oh, to glory in the
great works of his hands, to triumph, to be glad in the works
of his hands. Men love the glory and success,
don't they? We ought to set goals and try
to achieve those goals and be successful in that regard and
be proud of our children or of our friends that achieve some
level of success. But to be impressed with the
success of men, when we've got the success of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who actually accomplished what
he came to do, You shall call his name Jesus. Why? Because
he's going to save my people from their sins. He's going to
accomplish everything he came to do. He's going to satisfy
divine justice. He's going to fulfill the law
of God. He's going to save his people. He's going to put away all their
sins. He's going to redeem them. He's
going to be successful as a intercessor. presenting his prayers to the
father on behalf of his people. Oh, I'm so thankful we have a
successful savior. He didn't make an attempt to
save anybody. One, not one drop of his blood
was wasted on Calvary's tree. He succeeded in everything he
came to do. He's successful in calling his
sheep by their name. And when he calls them, they're
gonna come. They're going to come. Irresistibly. He's going to make them willing.
And he's going to be successful in keeping those. I had someone
ask me recently, they said, well, do you believe a believer can
lose their salvation? Absolutely not. Why? Because our Savior is successful
in finishing everything he starts. Everything he starts. Who he calls, he keeps. Just that simple. If he lost
one of his sheep, he would not be successful. We worship a successful
God. We have a successful advocate,
Jesus Christ, the righteous one, presenting himself on our behalf
before his father. These are the works that we glory
in. These are the works that we're glad for. This is the work
of his hands that causes us to triumph. It's not our works.
It's his work. Men are impressed with beauty,
aren't they? They're impressed with the beauty
of people. They're impressed with the beauty
of art. And they're impressed with, you know, and I understand
that. We see something beautiful. We're attracted to it. We're
caught by it. But what do the things of this
world compare to his beauty? What did Daniel say? Daniel said
when he saw the Lord that Daniel's comeliness, beauty, and strength
was turned into corruption in his sight. There's no beauty
like his beauty. The beauty of his grace, the
beauty of his word, the beauty of his work, That's why, that's
why the, the, the beloved was what the bride was looking for
her beloved in the song of Solomon. And she, she, she, she said,
there's no one like him. She describes his beauty and
his glory. The beauty of his holiness. He's
unblemished. He's the lamb of God without
spot. These are the works that make
us glad. Let the world find their gladness
and their victory and their satisfaction in these things that they see
physically in the world. And we see these things only
through the eye of faith, don't we? Only through the eye of faith. Men are impressed with knowledge.
People use knowledge to impress and intimidate men. and education
and knowledge are highly exalted in the world, but what man knows. I remember Maurice Montgomery giving
an example from this pulpit years ago, years and years ago. He
said, what we know He said, it would be like putting a pea in
a thimble and throwing it into a boxcar and letting it roll
around. You know, that's about the extent of our knowledge.
He's omniscient. He's got all knowledge. As we saw in Psalm 93, The world
is not going to be, the world is established. Why? Because
the knowledge of God has established it. Eternity is established,
nothing's gonna change. He is the immutable one who has
set everything according to his knowledge, and he knows us, doesn't
he? Oh, we don't know ourselves very
well. One thing I've learned about people, and I'm sure it's
true about me, The reason why I need a wife to correct me is
that men don't know themselves. They just don't know themselves.
You know, you think, you're just self-deceived, aren't you? He
knows. He knows our thoughts before
we think them. He knows our words before we speak them. He knows us. His knowledge is
perfect and complete. Oh, here's the one we're glad
for. His wealth, his power, his strength,
his success, his beauty, and his knowledge. And when God makes
you to be impressed with him, those things don't impress you
much with men. They just don't. You just think,
okay, you know, Glory in what little bit of that you got. But
what I've got in Christ is infinite. Look at verse 6 in our text. A brutish man, an unbeliever,
he knoweth not. He doesn't understand what we're
talking about. He goes out in the world and
he's overly impressed with beauty and knowledge and wealth and
all the things that the world prides itself with. A brutish
man, he doesn't understand. He doesn't know. He doesn't know. A fool doesn't understand. A
brutish man is an unbeliever. A fool is an unbeliever. They
don't know. They don't understand. When the wicked spring as the
grass and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is
that they shall be destroyed forever. Oh, let the world go around puffing
out its chest and boasting in its glory and in its wealth and
in its success and in its beauty and in its strength and in its
power and in its knowledge. But they don't know that there
is grass. All that that the world glories in is coming to an end.
You know, I think the reason why men glory in these things
is because these things are the perfect attributes of God. And man wants to be like God.
It goes all the way back to the garden, doesn't it? The same
in St. Eve. God knows in the day in
which you eat of that fruit, your eyes will be open. You'll
become like him. You thought that I was altogether as such
a one as yourself. And so men glory in the things
that they can see with the physical eye, because those are the things
that are perfected in our God and in Christ. They're perfected
in him. They don't know. that what they're
looking at and what they're glorying in is coming to an end. They
don't know that they're but grass. Look at verse 7. It is that they
shall be destroyed forever. They don't know that. They don't
understand that. But thou, Lord, art most high
forevermore. What a contrast. What a contrast
between the things that men glory in and the things that we glory
in. The works of his hands are forever. The things that this
world glories in are coming to an end quickly. For lo, thine enemies, O Lord,
for lo, thine enemies shall perish. All the workers of iniquity shall
be scattered. But my horn shalt thou exalt
like the horn of a unicorn. I love, you know, let the world
speculate about the unicorn all they want. This is a picture
of Christ. Christ is the unicorn. He's the, he's the one that has,
a horn is in the scriptures is a picture of strength and he's
got one strength. There's one that's strong. And
we will glory in his strength. That's what verse 10 is. But
my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn. I shall
be anointed with fresh oil. Now that's that's the Lord Jesus
Christ, the anointed one, the Christ, the Messiah. The one
son of the father to show forth the riches of the glory of his
grace, the success of his work. The salvation of his people.
The beauty of their Christ. Mine eyes also shall see my desire
on mine enemies and mine. I shall hear my desire of the
wicked that rise up against me. All the things that men glory
in robbing God of his glory. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
going to see their end. But the righteous, the righteous
shall flourish like the palm tree. You wanna look it up, you can.
But a palm tree is not a tree. It looks like a tree, we call
it a tree. But technically. A palm tree. Is in the grass family. A palm tree is grass. You see, all men are grass. It's
just they don't know it. What the Lord said, Isaiah, tell
him their grass. They're going to flourish like
the palm tree. There's over 3,000 species of
palm trees in the world. All of God's people are a little
bit different, but they're all palm trees. They're all grass. The Lord makes sure they grow.
Palm trees are so much different from trees. The life of a palm
tree is in the heart of the tree, whereas the life of a regular
tree is just under the bark. Isn't that the way it is with
God's palm trees? Their life is in their heart,
whereas the man of the world, his life is in his flesh. That's
all he's got. It's the only life he has. The righteous shall flourish
like the palm tree. You know, you see them carrying
palm trees around on trucks and the root ball is just a little
bitty ball. The roots of a palm tree go way out from that palm
tree. And the roots of a palm tree
are not like regular roots of a tree. The roots of a palm tree
are the same exact diameter at the end of the root as they are
when they leave the tree. And they're looking for water.
and they go in every direction. You can take all those roots
and cut them off and replant that tree and it'll just put
out new roots. Oh, what a picture of God's people. They're always
looking for water. And transplant them and they're
gonna flourish. They're gonna continue to flourish. They're
like trees planted by rivers of living water. In due season,
they'll produce their fruit. Another thing about palm trees
I read is that most trees, when they get older, fruit trees,
when they get older, their fruit production diminishes and their
fruit's not as good. The best fruit a palm tree produces,
whether it be dates or coconuts, is in the oldest trees. The sweetest and most prolific
trees are the oldest ones. Not the way it is with growing
in grace and the knowledge of Christ, the sweetest and most
prolific grace is seen in the older people of God. They shall flourish. I'm going
to make them flourish. They're not going to be like
other trees. They're going to be grass. And they're going to rejoice
in my work. In the work of my hands, they're going to glory
and triumph. In the work that I've accomplished. How great? Are thy works, Oh
God? Bert, you come lead us in him.
What number we got number 37? Let's stand together. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder consider all the worlds Thy hand hath made, I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe
displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
when I look down From lofty mountain grandeur, And hear the brook,
and feel the gentle breeze, Then sings my soul, my Saviour God,
to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God his
Son not sparing sent him to die, I scarce can take it in that
on the cross My burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to
take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art. How great
Thou art. When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration
and there proclaim My God, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. Thank you.