Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 30, number 33, from the hardback
hymnal, number 33. Stand up and bless the Lord.
Let's all stand up. Number 33. Stand up and bless the Lord,
ye people of his choice. Stand up and bless the Lord your
God with heart and soul and voice. O high above all praise, above
all blessing high, who would not fear his holy name, and laud
and magnify? O for the living flame, from
his own altar brought, to touch our lips, our minds inspire,
and wing to him our thought. God is our strength and song,
and His salvation ours. Then be His love in Christ, proclaim
with all our ransomed powers. Stand up and bless the Lord,
the Lord your God adore. Stand up and bless his glorious
name, henceforth forevermore. Please be seated. Good evening. We're going to
read from Revelation 20 and 21 for our call to worship tonight.
If you'd like to turn there in your Bibles. Our text tonight is going to
come from Psalm 37. And it seems to me that Psalm
37 is a summary of all of God's word. in that there are two ends
for all men. Eternal life and eternal judgment. That's it. There's heaven and
there's hell. And the scripture speaks so clearly
about both of those. All men will either glorify God
for his grace and glory or they'll glorify his judgment in hell. And how we hope. that the Lord will speak peace
to our hearts and give us that assurance of eternal life. Revelation chapter 20 beginning
at verse 12, and I saw the dead, all of them, small and great,
stand before God. And the books were opened. And
another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the
dead were judged out of those things which are written in the
books according to their works. So the spiritual dead were judged
according to their works and cast into the lake of fire. And
the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell
delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged
every man according to their works. And death and hell were
cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away and there was no more sea, no
more separation, no more trials, no more troubles. And I, John,
saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain for the former things are passed away. And he
that sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, write, for
these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, it is done. It's finished. The work of redemption
is accomplished. It is done. I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end. And I will give unto him that
is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. Freely. They say you can lead a horse
to water but you can't make him drink. And I guess that's true. But the gospel's referred to
as salt. And you feed a horse salt, he'll
want a drink, won't he? That's our hope tonight, isn't
it? The Lord will give us thirst for Christ and feed us with the
salt of his word. Cause us to have the hope of
knowing that our names are written in that Lamb's book of life. Abigail, we're gonna pray for
you again tonight, okay, sweetie? And Abigail's having her surgery. Friday morning at Nemours, down
at Lake Nona. I think it's scheduled, you all
have to be there at 6, Friday morning. And we're going to pray
for your mom and dad too, because they're the ones that are suffering
right now. Okay, let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
Oh, how we do hope that you would send your spirit in power and
speak peace to our hearts and cause us, Lord, to fret not ourselves. Lord, we confess to you that
we're so guilty of fear. We're guilty of unbelief. Lord, we are desperately in need
of you to speak peace to our hearts and to assure us of the
hope of glory that you've secured for us through thy dear son. reveal to us his accomplished
work and his glorious person and enable us, Lord, to set our
affections on him, rest all our hope of salvation in him, and
look forward to that day with hope when you shall make all
things new. Lord, we do pray for Abigail.
We ask that you would have your hand of healing upon her and
that you would use the surgery Friday to restore her body to
full health. Father, we pray for Bobby and
Caleb and ask that you would comfort their hearts and give
them peace and rest in Christ as they wait on you. We ask it
in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand together once
again. We'll sing hymn number nine from your Spiral Gospel
Hymns hymnal, number nine. It is not that I did choose thee,
O Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hast thou not chosen me. Thou from the sin that stained
me hast cleansed and set me free. Of old Thou hast ordained me
that I should live to Thee. Your love had no beginning, no
cause in me was found. That you should choose to save
me, a sinner strongly bound. But grace not earned or sought
for, Was purpose for my soul. For me salvation brought, For
Christ paid the dreadful toll. ? Was sovereign mercy called
me ? ? And taught my opening mind ? ? The world had else enthralled
me ? ? To heavenly glories blind ? ? My heart owns none before
thee ? ? For thy rich grace ? Please be seated. The world had else enthralled
me to heavenly glories blind. Isn't that our experience? The
world enthralls us, set our affections on things of the world, and then
we lose sight of the hope of our salvation in Christ. Our
hope tonight is the Lord will redirect our attention, enable
us to look to Christ and rest all our hope in Him. I want you to turn with me in
your Bibles, if you will, to Psalm 37, And notice the first
three words of that Psalm, fret not thyself. Oh, how good we are at fretting
ourselves, aren't we? When we fret, it's not because
of our circumstances. It's because of our own belief.
And we're full of it. We're full of it. Lord, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. Isn't that what the man said?
He came to the Lord for the healing of his child. But fretting is something we
do to ourselves. It's something we do to ourselves.
And we got real good at it. You say, well, my circumstances
demand something. Well, they may. They may demand
some action. They may demand some action.
I'm sure that the people in North Carolina right now are busy boarding
up and getting ready for their circumstances that are coming.
But fretting, perfect love casteth out fear. And in these few minutes,
that's what I hope, that the Lord will cast out all our fretting
and all our fears and give us one of those glimpses of His
face, one of those lightning bolts. We'll say, all is well,
all is well. The Lord's on His throne. He's
in control. And this fretting that I'm doing,
I'm doing to myself. A summary of this whole psalm
is found in John chapter 14 when the Lord said to us, let not
your heart be troubled. You believe in God? Believe also
in me. For in my Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you, I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
that where I am, there you may be also." We get so caught up in the things
of this world, every one of us do. God speaks over and over and
over again to redirect our hearts, our thoughts, to make us heavenly
minded. I remember hearing someone back
in religion say about someone, he said, well, that person is
so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good. That's not possible. That is not possible. The truth
is that the more heavenly minded a person is, the more earthly
good they are. That's the truth. You can't be
too heavenly minded. The more you are able, by the
grace of God, to set your affections on things above, not on the things
of the earth, the more you will be after the Spirit. They that do mind the flesh are
after the flesh. Isn't that what we are? We give so much of our mind,
so much of our attention to fleshly things. But they that are of
the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit. The flesh profiteth
nothing. The Spirit giveth life. The Lord enable us. What a great comfort it is when
the Lord enables His children to see their life in this world
for what it truly is. David said in Psalm 90 verse
12, teach us to number our days. Teach us, Lord, to be reminded
of how brief this life is that we might set our hearts toward
wisdom. You see, it's only as we're able
to number our days that we're able to set our hearts on Christ. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 37,
yet a little while, yet a little while and he that shall come
will come, will come. This is the glorious truth of
the gospel that sets everything else in this world in its proper
order. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Never die. It's about eternal life. And
if the Lord enables us, the Lord enables us to believe Him about
what He's done in preparing for His people a place. And you know
all He had to do to prepare for His people a place is to present
Himself back to glory. The Word of God did not return
void. He took with Him the names of
those for whom He lived and died, and He is seated at the right
hand of the Majesty on high. ever living to make intercession
for his church. Christ in you, that's your hope
of glory. We see him dimly now, don't we? We just catch glimpses of him,
but then face to face, face to face. When Paul prayed for the
church in Ephesus, Robert preached from Ephesus, from Ephesians
chapter one last Sunday, last Wednesday night, when in verse
18, he said, I pray that the eyes of your understanding might
be enlightened, that you might know what is the hope of his
calling. What is the hope of his calling? Is there a better life here in
this world? Is that the hope of his calling?
Is that the promise? Absence of conflict in this world,
is that? No, the hope of his calling is
eternal life. The hope of his calling is having
this corruptible made incorruptible. The hope of his calling is seeing
him as he is and being made like him. That's the hope of his calling.
Paul said, if the eyes of your understanding are enlightened, you'll understand what is the
hope of his calling. Now this is something that the
unbeliever doesn't even want to think about. See, we think
about departing this world with great hope, don't we? The unbeliever,
I was talking to someone some time ago and the wife of a man
who was in his late 80s completely invalid, last days of his life,
and she needed to make some adjustments in her home in order to provide
a more comfortable environment for him. And I said to her, I
said, well, you know, you could make these changes, and when
you need to, you can change them back. And she said, well, yeah,
I guess that if something was to happen to Bob, we could put
it back. If something was to happen, But that's the attitude that
people that have no hope have about death. They just keep putting
it off and putting it off and putting it off. And I've watched
people that didn't confront it until the last moment of life,
and then it hit them like it was like, and the child of God,
oh, for me to live is Christ to die is gain. That's my hope. That's the hope of my glory is
to be with Him. In Hebrews chapter 12, lay hold
of the hope that is before you, looking unto Jesus who is the
author and finisher of your faith. Consider him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied
and faint in your minds. That's where our problem is,
isn't it? fret not yourself. We cause all the conflict in
our own minds. James said be patient therefore
brethren unto the coming of the Lord. Establish your hearts for
the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. We're not going to be here
much longer and that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Let us not sleep as others do
sleep, but let us watch and be sober. And how is the entire
canon of scripture concluded? Surely, I come quickly. Revelation 22 verse 21. Surely,
I come quickly. Amen. And John didn't leave it at that.
John responded to the last words of the Lord by saying, even so
Lord Jesus come, come. Oh, how much quicker it is than
we think. Isaiah chapter three, verse 10,
say unto the righteous, it shall be well with them. We ask for God's mercy in our
circumstances. We have no assurance that our
circumstances are going to be like we want them to be. But
we do have the assurance of God's promises and God's word that
it shall be well with the righteous. It shall be. And that's what
Psalm 37 is all about. In Psalm 73, Asaph wrote Psalm
73, and in Psalm 73, Asaph said, my feet had almost slipped when
I considered the prosperity of the wicked. I envied after them
until, until I went into the tabernacle of God. Then I knew
their end. I knew their end. I had no more
reason to be jealous. I had no more reason to fret.
I knew their end. and I knew my end. For the believer, the day of
death is better than the day of birth. For the unbeliever,
the day of birth is infinitely better than the day of death. not thyself. This is God speaking to me and
you. He's saying to us, trust me. I don't guess there's ever been
a culture in the history of mankind that's been bombarded with more
things from the world to cause us to fret. to compare ourselves,
fret not thyself because of evil doers. I mean with social media
like it is and with advertisements like they are, we're just constantly
bombarded with things that make us discontent, aren't we? And it's hard to be content in
this world. Paul talked about that with Timothy
when he said, Godliness with contentment is great gain, great
gain. Turn to me to that passage of
scripture, 1 Timothy chapter 6. That's what we're talking
about. We're talking about being content
with Christ and being content with the things that the Lord
has provided in this world, fret not thyself because of evildoers." The Lord's telling me and you,
don't make the values and the measurements of this world yours.
You're heaven bound. This world's not your home. This
life's a vapor. Psalm 37 is so clear that the
things of this world are going to pass away. They're going to
pass away. Look what he says. Now, 1 Timothy
chapter 6, the Lord is giving instructions to slaves. Slaves. The word servant here used in
chapter 6 verse 1 is a slave. Slavery was practiced in this
day. And the Lord didn't condemn it.
He didn't speak against it. He taught the slaves how they
were to live under their circumstances. Could you imagine being a slave?
I mean, your property, you're owned by somebody. You've got
no rights. You can't go where you want to
go and say what you want to say. You have to do everything your
master tells you to do. You're a slave. Now, God had
saved some slaves. And these were believers in bondage
to slavery for the rest of their life. What kind of horrible circumstance
would that be? And the Lord says, let as many
slaves as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy
of all honor that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. Slaves, you treat your master
with respect. You do what you do as unto the
Lord, not as unto men, that your testimony might point to him.
And they that have believing masters? No, the slaves are a believer
and the master's a believer. And the Lord didn't tell the
masters to turn the slaves loose. Maybe some of them did, I don't
know, but here's his instruction. Let them not despise them because
they are brethren, but rather do them service because they
are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things
teach and exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and
consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he
is proud, knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes
of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, and the evil
surmising." Isn't that what fretting ourselves amongst evildoers does? Cause the envy? You feel it,
don't you, every time you see something somebody's got? You
get envious, don't you? That just wells up. The only
thing worse than being envious is being proud, looking at those
below you and thinking, glad I'm not like you. Perverse disputings of men of
corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain
is godliness. They suppose that because they
have something, whether it be physical possessions or whether
it be the gain of honor and respect among men or the gain of their
own good works, they suppose that gain is godliness. that
the things that they've gained in this world is evidence of
their godliness. But God says they got it backwards.
From such withdraw thyself for godliness with contentment is
great gain. Now here's the mystery of godliness
that God was manifested in the flesh. Having Christ is having
godliness. And being content with Him is
what the Lord's calling us to do here, isn't it? being content
with Christ, not only for your righteousness, not only for the
hope of eternal life, but for all the things necessary in this
world. Godliness with contentment, that's great gain. For we brought
nothing into this world and it is certain that we shall take
nothing out. All right, go back with me to
Psalm 37. I think it's Psalm 72, not Psalm
73, that Asaph wrote about his feet almost slipping and him
being the prosperity of the wicked. And then he said, until I went
into the tabernacle of God, then I knew their end. So the Lord says, don't fret
yourself among the wicked, among the unbelievers. Don't you compare
yourself to them. You've got Christ. You've got
everything. Be content. with him and with
the things that he's fret not thyself because of evil doers
neither be thou envious against the workers of inequity we'd be envious of them for they
shall soon this psalm repeats this theme over and over again
oh it's sooner than we think sooner than we think I know some
of our young people They look at the old man standing up there,
and they say, yeah, it's going to be soon for you, but not for
me. Oh, you don't have any idea how soon it's going to be when
you're going to be as old as me. It's going to be quick, quicker
than you think. Life is a vapor. God said it
so, and it is so. They shall be cut off soon. like the grass, and wither as
the green herb, but you trust in the Lord." Now, fretting and fear is the
opposite of faith, isn't it? I'm not denying the fact that
we fret over our circumstances, but here's the thing, when we
blame our circumstances for our fear rather than our unbelief,
then we're not speaking the truth. We're not speaking the truth.
We say, well, you know, look what I've got to deal with. I've
got reason to be afraid. Not if God's on His throne. We
don't. If we confess our sin, He is
faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us
of all of our unrighteousness. And confessing our sin is agreeing
with God. And God says your fear is your
unbelief. You fret yourself. Just admit
it. trust in the Lord and do good. So shall thou dwell in the land
and verily thou shalt be fed. Now this is the psalm where David
says I've never, we're not going to get to this verse I don't
think, where I've never seen the righteous forsaken. Caleb
you quoted this verse the other day to me. I've never seen the
righteous forsaken nor their seed begging bread. You worried about those things
the Gentiles worry after. Your Heavenly Father knows what
you have need of. Fret not yourself. Trust in the
Lord. Understand what He's done for
you. Understand that you're just passing through. You're a pilgrim.
You're a sojourner in this world. It's not going to be long. And
the full reward of your salvation is going to be experienced. In
the meantime, trust the Lord and do what's right. He'll provide. He'll provide. If He doesn't
provide the way you think that He's got a better provision than
you thought He had. Delight, I love this verse, delight
thyself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires
of thy heart. You know, I've memorized that
verse years and years ago and I thought, well, if I just delight
in God, then I can present to him my desires and he'll fulfill
them. If you delight yourself in the
Lord, he's going to make your desires his desires and then
he's going to fulfill those. Now, what is his desire? For
you to believe him. for you to rest in Him, for you
to rejoice in Him, for you to set your affections on Him. That's
His desire. So when we're enabled by the
grace of God to delight ourselves in the Lord, then He gives us
His desire and He fulfills that desire. It's not, okay, well,
if I can just delight myself in the Lord, then I can present
my desires and He'll fulfill them. Oh, no. No. It's not the
way it works. That's the whole purpose of prayer,
isn't it? The whole purpose of prayer is for God to change our
wanter. That's what he does. He changes
our wanter. He makes his desires to become
our desires and then he fulfills those desires. Daniel, from the day that thou
set thy heart to seek me in prayer, I heard you. Yeah, I let you
pray for three weeks because you had some things you needed
to understand during those three weeks and I was preparing your
heart for the things that I was going to provide for you. So, delight thyself in the Lord
and He'll give you His desires and then He'll fulfill those. Commit thy way also unto the
Lord. There is a way that seems right
unto man. But in the end, that way leads
to death, doesn't it? That has to do with salvation.
The way that seems right unto man is a works gospel, a free
will works gospel. That seems right. It seems like
God would reward good deeds and punish bad deeds. That's the
way the world works and And then we think, what I see
as far as how things ought to go in my life, that's the way,
that's the best way. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Commit the way of salvation unto
Him. That's why the Lord said, I am the way. I'm the way. I'm not going to show you the
way. I am the way. The truth and the life. No man can come to the Father
but by me. Commit all your ways unto the Lord. Trust also in
him and he shall bring it to pass. Verse five is saying the same
thing verse four say. When we commit our ways unto
him and trust in him, then he puts into our hearts the things
that he's gonna bring to pass. Plus he's going to bring to pass,
the promise here is that he's going to bring to pass the hope
of eternal life. And he shall bring forth thy
righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday.
He's going to do it. I love that passage over there,
I can't remember where it is now, where Zerubbabel laid the
foundation of the temple and and the Lord's hands finish the
work that he started. And that's the way it is. God's
gonna finish what he started. He laid the foundation. He's
gonna build the whole building. Every stone into the house of
God is gonna be placed into its proper place. And when the last
stone is put in place, then that new Jerusalem we just read about
in Revelation is coming down. And all the living stones making
up that house of God are His children. That's what He's saying.
Trust Him. Trust Him. Believe in Him. Rest
in Him. Wait patiently for Him, verse
7. He's going to bring forth righteousness
as the light and Thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord. That word rest is the word Sabbath.
Hebrews chapter 4 makes it clear that Christ is our Sabbath, He
is our rest. The works were finished from
the foundation of the world is what Hebrews 4 says. From the
foundation of the world the works were finished and God rested
from His labors because He was finished. And when the Lord Jesus
Christ bowed His head on Calvary's cross He cried, It is finished. He's the lamb that was slain
before the foundation of the world. So in the covenant of
grace established by God before time ever began, before time
ever began, the work was finished. Rest. Rest in His work. See, when we fret, we work really
hard, don't we? We toss and turn and we stay
awake and we try to make up and work out and we try to figure
out what to... The Lord's speaking to every
one of us. We're all that way. Every one of us. You're not different. He said, I know I'm that way. It's our unbelief. It's that
flesh that we have with us. And God's chastising our flesh.
He's calling it out. He's exposing it for what it
is. and he's saying to us, agree with me, that your problem, that
sin that does so easily beset you, it's unbelief. It's the mother of all sins,
isn't it? It's the seedbed of every sin that we ever commit
starts with unbelief. And the Lord is just speaking
so clearly to us here. He said, don't... the opposite of fretting, the
opposite of fearing is believing in Me. Trust Me. Rest in Me. Wait for that righteousness that's
going to come. Rest in the Lord, verse 7, and
wait patiently for Him. The farmer plants his seed and
he waits patiently for the harvest. He knows it's coming in the right
season The harvest is coming. The fruit's going to be there.
But he has to wait. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for Him. Fret not thyself because of Him who prospereth in His
way, because of the man that bringeth wicked devices to pass. We all do it. As I said, we live
in this world that's bombarding us with these messages of, you
want to be happy? You gotta have this. You gotta
have that. You gotta be like this. You gotta
be like that. Every advertisement. Every advertisement. I was speaking
to a friend of Laura Grace's who teaches out at UCF, who's
a professor in marketing. And I told her, I said, I said,
every advertisement is either an appeal to the lust of the
eyes, lust of the flesh, or the pride of life. Every advertisement
is an appeal to one of those things. And she didn't understand it
at first. I tried to explain it to her and then she said, she
said, well what about advertising a, you know, a baby monitor? I think that's what she said,
a baby monitor. I said, well that's the pride
of life. The pride of life is control. That's what I'm going
to be in control of my circumstances. I'm going to be in charge. I'm
going to have everything where I, you know, where I've got it,
I've got it under control. That's the pride of life. And
that's every advertisement appeals to one of those three things.
It goes all the way back to the garden, doesn't it? Eve saw that
the fruit was pleasing to the eye, it was good to the taste,
it was able to make one wise. John said, all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life, that's pleasure, popularity, and power. Those
are the three things. And the Lord knows that we live
in this world that is consumed with those things. And the Lord
is speaking to His children. He's saying, don't be deceived
by it. Don't be deceived by it. They're going to get cut off.
Don't envy them. They've got no hope. They ought
to be envying you, but they don't have enough sense to envy you. Cease from anger, verse 8. Forsake
wrath. fret not thyself here he says
it again how many times the Lord saying to us don't be afraid
don't fret trust me fret not thyself in any wise to do evil see fear brings about
evil actions doesn't it it does That's why the Lord said, sin
shall not have dominion over you for you're not under the
law, you're under grace. The law just puts us under the
dominion of sin. Fear puts us under the dominion
of sin. The only power to break sin is grace. For evildoers shall be cut off
Why would you, you know, people talk about leaving a legacy. As if you're going to be worried
about your legacy when you take your last breath and stand before
God. You know, I thought of a, this
is a weak illustration, but a orphan child, a dirty, filthy orphan
child living on the streets in a slum in India. and the richest,
most powerful man in the world. He's got no family. The richest,
most powerful man in the world comes and identifies that child,
takes him out of the slum, makes him a prince. He's got all the
wealth and power in the world. Now, that little boy going to
be thinking about his legacy back in the slums? Well, I wonder what the people
back there thought about me. I wonder what I left behind. We think about, you know, men,
men spend their whole lives worrying about what kind of legacy they're
going to leave in this world. This world's the slums. We're,
we're being taken to glory. That's, that's the, that's the,
that's the values of the world because this is all they've got.
It's all they've got. And the Lord's saying to me and
you, I know you live in the world. I know you're tempted by the
world. I know you've got that old flesh, but listen to me. What I'm saying to you is true.
You are not of this world. For evildoers, you're not talking
about just people who do all sorts of shameful things. He's
talking about unbelievers. evildoers are going to be cut
off. We just read about that in Revelation chapter 21. They
will be cast into the lake of fire. But those that wait upon the
Lord, they shall inherit the earth. That new heaven and new
earth is going to be our home. John saw coming down from heaven
Heaven and Earth, this Heaven and Earth that we know about
now is going to pass away. But my word will never pass away. The Lord is just saying, don't
believe this world, believe me. Believe me. Trust me. For verse 10, this is the message
that the Lord is saying to you and me, brethren. for yet a little
while, just in a little while. It's not going to be long. You know, little children think
that you put them in the corner for 10 minutes, they think it's
a lifetime, don't they? And the older you get, the more
understanding you have of time. And when you get older, you realize,
you know what? Ten years is nothing. Twenty
years is nothing. Teenagers look at,
you know, I'm going to be out of high school, that's going
to be forever. No, it comes quickly. And the more mature you become,
the more, the better understanding you have of time, isn't it, don't
you? Well, young people, you can be
spiritually mature by God's grace to not have to wait till you
get old to believe God. You can believe God right now. What God says is true. Time. Lord. Help me to measure my days
that I might set my heart toward wisdom. there's no wisdom in
this world. For yet a little while and the
wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider
his place and it shall not be. They're going to die and you're
not going to find them. They're gone. Set up monuments to them leave
legacies, but that person's gone. But the meek. How are we going to be meek?
We've got to be found in Christ, don't we? He is the one who is
meek and mild. And when we're in Him, we're
humbled. It's like I said Sunday, We may
puff out our chest and be proud of our accomplishments in front
of men, but you stand before God and there's no pride. There's no pretentiousness. All
there is is humility and meekness before God. The meek shall inherit the earth. That's what the Lord said in
the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5. But the meek shall inherit
the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Peace? You see, the world measures peace
by their circumstances. The absence of conflict for them
is peace. And all they can do is try to
change their circumstances so that they can achieve some level
of peace. God gives his people peace in
their hearts regardless of their circumstances. And that's my hope right now,
is the Lord will speak peace to our hearts, enable us to believe
him, to fret not, fret not the judgment of God, knowing that
all the wrath of God was poured out on Christ. Fret not the hope
of your salvation based on something that you have to do. It's already
been done. Fret not your circumstances.
God's on His throne. Rest in Him. Believe on Him. For in just a little while, just
a little while All this is coming to an end. The wicked, verse 12, plotteth
against the just and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. You
say, well, they don't treat me that bad. They treated the Lord
that bad. They treated Him that bad. If
they hated the Master, they're going to hate the servants too. The wicked plotted against the
just and gnashing upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh
at him, for he seeth that his day is coming. His day is coming. It's called the terrible day
of the Lord. The day of judgment, the day of wrath. When all those
who are not in Christ are going to be found naked They're going
to be weighed in the balance and found wanting. God's going
to bring an end to their kingdom and cut them off forever. We
have the hope of a Savior who's able to save to the uttermost,
to the uttermost. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we confess to you that we have been influenced by this world,
and we do have the weakness of our flesh, but oh, so thankful,
Lord, that you know that we're made of dust, that you delight
in showing mercy towards your children, Lord, we pray for your
forgiveness for our. Much fretting. An unbelief. And we asked Lord that you would.
Use your word. To cause us to believe on the. Lord, you said faith comes by
hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God. We've read your
word we've. We spoke on thy word. Lord, we
are dependent upon you now to make it effectual to our hearts.
We pray it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 12. Let's stand together.
Number 12. Upon my great and sovereign God,
I cast my soul and rest. My Father's hand controls the
world, and what he does is best. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. In raging storms and
fiery trials, He keeps me from all harm. He walks with me and
holds me in His everlasting arms. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. My God with skill infallible
and great designs of grace, with power and love that never fail,
shall order all my ways. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. My life's most minute
circumstance is ordered by my God, who promised that in all
things He will ever do me good. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed.