Good evening. I asked Tom if
we could sing that hymn tonight. I was very thankful. I appreciate
that, brother. I'd like to read from Psalm 36,
if you could turn with me there in your Bible, Psalm 36. We have several folks in our
congregation that are very ill. I think Ed and Deborah have been
in bed for a week now at Burnside, and Tricia hasn't gotten out
of bed today. I guess airplanes are kind of
virus traps, you know, so we all came back with a little something.
Lord, grace is sick. Pray the Lord will make it short-lived. Psalm 36, the transgression of
the wicked saying within my heart that there is no fear of God
before his eyes. For he flattereth himself in
his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful." That's
just all free will religion is, is man flattering himself in
his own eyes, believing that he has the ability to control
his own salvation, and his iniquity actually proves his hatred for
God. The words of his mouth are iniquity
and deceit. He hath left off to be wise and
to do good. He deviseth mischief upon his
bed. He setteth himself in a way that
is not good. He abhorreth not evil." He's
not grieved by lies. He's not affected by those who
would deny Christ his glory and salvation. He just doesn't have
any hatred. for false gospel. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens, and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the
great mountains. Thy judgments are a great deep. O Lord, Thou preservest man and
beast, how excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God! Therefore the children
and men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings." It's
the love of God and the goodness of God that leadeth us to repentance. It's not the fear of wrath or
judgment. It's God's mercy. It's His loving-kindness. It's His grace that causes us
to flee to Him for salvation. They shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house. What do you have in abundance?
The salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ has supplied for His people
is an abundant salvation. And thou shalt make them drink
of the river of thy pleasure, for with thee is the fountain
of life, and in thy light shall we see light. From grace to grace,
faith to faith, the Lord just continues to shine the light
of the gospel brighter and brighter as the gospel is preached and
as it's heard and believed. The light gets clearer, doesn't
it? We saw that this weekend in Charlotte. I'm just so encouraged
to see how the Lord shined the light of His gospel in the hearts
of our brethren there, and their renewed commitment to be a church. There were several visitors that
were there Saturday night and Sunday morning, and the believers
that were there were encouraged. I'm so excited to see what the
Lord's going to do there. They have, it seems like, a renewed
zeal and desire to have a gospel witness in that city. And I'm
thankful. Oh, continue thy lovingkindness,
Lord. Just continue to shine your face
upon us. Continue to be merciful. Continue
to turn us. continue to shine the light of
the gospel in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts. Unto them that know thee, and
thy righteousness to the upright in heart, let not the foot of pride come
against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. For
don't let me be deceived by the things of this world, and be
led away from thee. There are the workers of iniquity
fallen. They are cast down and shall
not be able to rise. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on His Word. I want to express my gratitude
to Michael and Hugo. I listened to the messages on
Sunday night. From Charlotte and was so so blessed by by their
their ministry Let's let's pray together Our merciful Heavenly Father
We're reminded what the prophet Isaiah said when he asked, who
hath believed our report? And then answering that very
question, to whom the hand of the Lord has been revealed. Lord, we thank you that you've
been pleased to make yourself known in this place and in our
hearts. And we ask, Father, that you
would send your Holy Spirit in all of his power and sweetness
to shine the light of the gospel one more time. Cause us, Lord,
to find our comfort, our hope, our rest, and all our satisfaction
in the abundance of your mercy and your grace. We pray for our
brethren in Charlotte, and we ask, Lord, that you would continue
to draw their hearts together and draw them to Christ. Lord,
that you would raise up a gospel witness there in that city and
that you would provide for them a faithful man to lead them and
to preach the gospel there. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 36. We're going to be looking at
the very next Psalm, Psalm 37, tonight. And I've titled this
message, Mark the Perfect Man. And you'll find that phrase in
verse 37. Psalm 37, 37. That's an easy
one to remember. Mark. Mark. the perfect man. This word mark means to keep
or to observe. It means to watch or to regard
or to make the head of. Mark the perfect man. And that's what this psalm is
all about. Marking or observing the perfect man. The Lord Jesus
Christ who is that man who lives in glory, who intercedes on our
behalf, who has himself put away our sin through the perfect obedience
of the law. He's our righteousness, he's
our salvation, and he is all our strength. And if we're to
follow after him, we'll do it by marking him. by observing
Him, by setting our affections on Him. So many words of encouragement
in this psalm. I want us to go back to verse
1 and see how it is the Holy Spirit put this admonition, this
encouragement in His Word to mark the perfect man. It begins in verse 1 by saying,
fret not thyself because of evildoers. Fret not thyself. Fretting is something that we
bring on ourselves. When the heart is not settled
by faith, it is naturally overrun with fear. When we're not marking
that perfect man, we are disquieted with anxious thoughts. We're
filled with doubts and with distress and with despair. This discouragement takes over
like air to a vacuum. They rush in to fill an empty
space. When the heart is filled with
faith, fretting is repelled like the opposite pole of a magnet. You can't put them together.
When the perfect man is being marked, fretting can't get in. It just can't get in. Turn with
me to Isaiah chapter 43. Oh, that the Lord would enable us
to mark the perfect man and to believe the precious promises
that he has given to his children look at Isaiah chapter 43 but
now thus saith the Lord that created thee O Jacob and he that
formed thee O Israel there's both our natures the old man
and the new man together in one man. Fear not. Why? For I have redeemed thee. It's finished. The work of redemption
is finished. The price has been paid in full. The only thing that God required
for the forgiveness of our sin was the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's been spilt. There's nothing
else to be done. He hath redeemed us. That's reason
for us not to fret or not to be afraid. I have called thee
by thy name. You've been called the Lord thy
righteousness. He that sanctifyeth, and they
that are sanctified are all as one. As He is, so are we. He's
put His name on us. He's called us. Called us out
of darkness into His marvelous light. Thou art mine. You belong to me. You're my children. Is there anything I wouldn't
do for you? No reason for fretting. Fretting is what happens when
we're not marking the perfect man. Fretting is what happens
when we don't have our eyes set on Christ. When thou passest
through the waters, here's His promise to us. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. Oh, there's some deep
waters that God has ordained for His children to pass through.
The way of the Lord is through the sea. And there's some turbulence
in this life. But He's made it clear, I'm with
thee. I'm with thee. If I be for you,
who can be against you? I'll never leave thee, nor forsake
thee. Through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee, and when thou walkest through the fire." Oh,
don't you love the story of those Hebrew children thrown into the
fiery furnace. And they confessed their faith. God was able to deliver them,
that they would not bow to the king. And one like unto the Son
of Man was found in there with him, so that the smell of smoke
was not found on their clothing, and not one hair was singed."
Here's his promise. Here's his promise. When we mark
the perfect man, he just takes away fretting. He doesn't say
there won't be any rivers. There won't be any rough seas. There won't be any fire. He didn't
say that, did he? He said, when you go through
the rivers, it won't overflow thee. When you go through the
fire, you won't be burned. Why? Because I'm with you. That's
the difference. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. Why? For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba for thee, since thou wast precious in my sight."
Now that word means priceless. Priceless. What kind of price
can you put on the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? What kind
of price can you put on His life? That's what He gave. for his
people. God says you're priceless to
me. There's no value that can be placed on you because you're
beyond value. I'm going to provide for you.
Don't fret. Don't fret. Mark the perfect
man. since thou wast precious at my
sight, thou hast been honorable, I have loved thee, therefore
will I give men for thee and people for thy life. Fear not,
for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north,
give up, and to the south, keep not back." Wherever God's people
are, He's going to bring them to Himself. He knows where they
are. And He'll ordain and has ordained and will do whatever
is necessary. to save one of his children. Bring my sons from far and my
daughters from the ends of the earth. Even everyone that is
called by my name I have created him for my glory. The sacrifice
of the believer is the sacrifice of his lips which is the praise
of the glory of his grace and that can only be done when the
perfect man is marked. When Christ is observed, when
He's lifted up, when He's given all the glory and all the praise
for our salvation, then and only then do God's people give to
Him glory. And in Him there is no fretting. Mark it down. Mark it down. Spirit of fear is not of God,
is it? It's just not of God. Here's our Lord's precious promise
to us. Fret not. Go back with me to
our text, Psalm 37. Fret not thyself. Oh, we bring
these things on ourselves, don't we? And faith, which is the opposite
of fretting, comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
My hope and prayer right now is that as we read God's Word
and hear God's Word, that He'll give us the faith to believe
it. And in believing God's word, all fretting will be dissolved. It'll all be pushed out. Neither be thou envious against
the workers of iniquity. Let me ask you a question. Is not the one who succeeded
in saving our souls able to sustain our lives? Is he not? Is not the one who went against
heaven and hell, is not the one who is able to take out the heart
of stone and put in a heart of flesh, the one who has the power
to save and to regenerate and to keep us from falling and to
present us faultless before his throne, is he not able to sustain
us in whatever other needs we might have? Is he not? But what
do we do? We fret ourselves. Why? Because
we're not marking the perfect man. We're looking at the evildoers
of the world. And we're comparing ourselves
to them. That's what he said. Look. Because, why do we fret
ourselves? Because of evildoers. Neither
be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. Boy, that's what we do, isn't
it? We're so bombarded with so many enticements to be like the
world, to have what the world's got, to envy the world. You've seen the latest car commercial,
the guy's got this fancy car out there and the guy says, consider
how it would make you feel if you had this car. No, consider
how it will make others feel about you if you had this car. That's what he says. I mean,
he's just going right to the heart of the issue, isn't he?
Oh, the envy of evil doers. The lust of the eyes. Oh, if
I had that, others would feel better about me. I'd be powerful
and popular and prosperous. That's what the Lord's saying.
No. Mark the perfect man. Set your affections on things
above, not on things of the earth. For they shall soon be cut off."
Don't lose sight of the brevity of life. Men don't believe how
brief this life is. They just don't believe what
God has said. They don't believe it's a vapor. They don't believe
that all flesh is as grass and the glory of the flesh is the
flower of the grass. When the sun comes up, it fades
away. It's mown down. That's just what flesh is. Men
don't believe that. Last Friday at noon, I was sitting
at a table with four dear ladies who were 90 and above. Well,
the youngest one was 87. The rest of them were over 90
years old. In a nursing home where you hardly
find, you know, they're having a difficult time putting one
foot before the other. And one of the ladies said to
the other ladies, did you hear that Bee died Sunday? And all
these ladies were in absolute shock that Bee had died. Well, she was doing so well.
I saw her just the other day. How could she have died? And it just struck me. You know,
men just, they just think, what do they think, life's just going
to be forever? Don't lose sight of the brevity of life. There's
not much to it. There really isn't. And the Lord
has promised to sustain His children through it, through every bit
of it. Mark the evildoers while you mark the perfect man. David put it like this, he said,
the days of our years are threescore and ten. Now if that's true,
that means I've got about 10 more years left if I live that
long. And if by way of strength they are four score, those years
will be filled with labor and sorrow. And you just look at
what people have to suffer when they get older and you find out
that that's what the latter years are, is they're full of labor
and sorrow. You see your children die, you see your friends die,
you suffer physical problems in the flesh. I read today, Steve Jobs died,
you know, about two years ago. He's 56 years old. And I guess there's a bunch of
books out there that are very popular in the business world
that are quotes from Steve Jobs. as he was a genius when it came
to success and business. And according to his wife and
his sister, his dying words were, oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. And he died. And you're going to die. And I'm going to die. Oh, that the Lord would keep
us reminded of that. That we would not live like the
people of this world as if this world was all there was. This world is not our home. That's
what the Lord is saying. Mark the perfect man. And he
stands in stark contrast against the workers of iniquity in this
world. and workers of iniquity are all
those outside of christ who've got all their eggs in one basket
and that's in that's in this world and in their works and
in all the things that they have you know they just david's men when he went to battle
you remember he had six hundred warriors and he went to battle
one time against uh... Nabal and Told his men to strap
on their swords and shields they were going to battle and the
scripture says and for up 400 of them Put on their swords and
shields and 200 of them stayed behind by the stuff That's what
scripture says they stayed behind by the stuff Now you want to be found by the
stuff or you want to have the sword and of the Spirit, which
is the Word of God and the shield of faith, and be engaged in a
victorious, God-glorifying battle of faith. That's, you know, I
don't want to be found by the stuff. That's where everybody's at.
The Lord says mark them, don't... Look what He says, "...for they
shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green
herb." how shallow and how short-sighted we are when we make the material
things of this world our security. When we make the material things
of this world our security, we're showing our shallowness and our
short-sightedness. No security, people die holding
on to that gold, don't they? Must be a channel I watch. This
guy's on there all the time. The actor that's selling gold,
you know. Oh, I feel so much more secure
when I have gold in my hand. The guy's 78 years old. What's
he going to die with that gold? His fist is going to be clenched
around that gold when he takes his last breath? What security
is that going to be for him? There's no security. So what
does he say? But that's what we fret over,
isn't it? We look at the workers of iniquity and we think, oh,
if I just had what they had, And we're tempted to take our
eyes off the perfect man, and to set our affections and our
security on the things of this world. Let me just say this, because
sometimes when you talk like this, people think we're talking
about rich people. The amount of material goods
that a person has has absolutely nothing to do with the degree
of greed that's in their heart. Nothing. A person can have nothing
and be eat up with greed. Don't think this is a rich man's
problem. This is a problem of taking our
eyes off the perfect man, isn't it? Oh Lord, look at verse 3. Trust in the Lord. Oh, the Proverbs
chapter 3. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not on thine own understanding. In all thy ways
acknowledge him. In all thy ways acknowledge him.
And what's he promised to do? Direct your path. We're on a
path. We're on a road. It's a road
to glory. And faith is the means of that
road, isn't it? That's how we stay on the road,
looking at Christ. It's kind of like you plow a
garden. The first time I ever plowed
a garden, I had one of these rotor tillers and I was so proud.
I was a city boy and I was farming. And I'm going down through and
I'm looking back at what I'm doing. Boy, I got to the end
of the road and looked back and yeah, I was all over the place,
Brian. And somebody had to show me, hey city boy, you put a stick
down there at the end with a little flag on it. Turn that rototiller
on and just don't take your eyes off that stick. I did that and
had a straight road. That's the way it is, isn't it?
You put your hand to the plow and look back, you're not fit
for the kingdom of God. Oh, but there is a man. There
is a man, a perfect man. And if we'll mark Him, keep our
eyes on Him, and we'll stay on that straight and narrow path
the Lord described as the way to glory for His children. Mark
the perfect man. Trust in the Lord. Trust the
sacrifice that He made on Calvary's cross for all of your forgiveness
of sin. Trust that His perfect obedience
to the law of God is all your righteousness before God. Trust
the Lord. Trust that He ever lives to make
intercession for you and that His intercession is your acceptance
before God. Trust the promises that He has
made to keep you and to present you faultless before the throne
of God with great joy, to never leave thee nor forsake thee,
to provide for your every need. I've never seen the righteous
forsaken, never seen their seed begging bread. Trust. that He will provide you
every need. And do good. You see that? Trust
in the Lord and do good. Do what's right. You don't need
to be told right from wrong. You know what's right. You trust
in Christ. And, you know, it's just the
right thing to do good to all men, particularly those who are
of the household of faith, but that, you know, which the Lord
works in His children, causing them to will and to do His good
pleasure. He that knoweth to do good and
doeth it not, to him it is sin. The Lord said in John chapter
13, He said, If you know these things, happy are thee if thou
do them. Solomon concluded all the vanity
of Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Oh, Solomon had
everything this world had to offer. I mean everything. and he indulged himself in everything
and finally it's all emptiness, it's all vanity. And in chapter
12 verse 13 he said, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter,
fear God, that's trust Christ, trust the Lord, fear God and
keep his commandments for this is the whole of man. To obey
is better than sacrifice. If we mark the perfect man, he'll
cause us, he'll give us the grace to do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land. Oh, if God gives us the grace
to trust in the Lord, to mark the perfect man, and to do good,
then we'll find a place of dwelling. Now that word dwell means to
rest. It means to have peace and comfort. That's what I need. That's what
you need, isn't it? With all the temptations of your
own flesh, with all the trials that the Lord's ordained for
us, with all the troubles of this world, we need a place where
we can rest we need a place where we can just be at ease be at
home there's something different about being a home isn't there
we so enjoyed being with eugene and natalie this past weekend
and they treat us like royalty i mean it was just it was just
such a such a blessing to be with them but there you know
there there's no place like home is there you just come home and
that's just Dennis asked me, Sunday I guess,
or Monday I guess it was, he said, well I guess you're all
anxious to get home. I said, well we sure have enjoyed being here.
But there is no place like home. That's our dwelling place, isn't
there? Isn't it? And our home is in
the perfect man. If the Lord enables us to mark
Him, then we'll find our rest in Him. We'll find our hope in
Him. We'll find our peace in Him. So shalt thou dwell in the land. And look at the rest of verse
3. Verily thou shalt be fed. Now
that word verily, you remember the Lord said verily, verily
I say unto you. It means truly. What He's saying
is you'll be fed with the truth. You'll be fed with the truth. And if you know the truth, the
truth will set you free. The truth about who we are. What
Isaiah said, Lord, where do I start? Tell them they're grass. Tell
them all flesh is grass and the flower of the grass just withers
away. Just tell them that. Tell them
they don't have anything. Tell them the truth about what
they are and about what they don't have. It will cause them
to quit looking within. Tell them the truth about the
world. Tell him how vain the things of this world are and
how temporal the things of this world are. Tell him the truth
about Christ. Tell him what he's accomplished.
Tell him that he's put away, that warfare has been accomplished
and their iniquity has been pardoned. Tell him that. That'll be their
comfort. Comfort you, comfort you, my
people. Tell them that all the work of their salvation is accomplished.
Tell them that I'll never leave them nor forsake them. Tell them
they're precious in my sight. Tell them I'm going to provide
everything they need. Tell them to mark the perfect
man. Tell them to set their affections on Christ. Tell them the truth. Tell them that I am omnipotent. I've got all power over the clay
to make some vessels of honor and some of dishonor. No man
can say unto me, what doest thou? Tell them that. They shall be fed with the truth. Verily thou shalt be fed. and
that truth will satisfy their souls." Oh, the bread of life. The Lord said, labor not for
the meat that perisheth. What's the meat that perisheth?
It's the gold that everybody's grabbing for. Labor not for the
meat that perisheth, but for that meat which leadeth to everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto thee. What is that
meat? My body is your meat indeed. And my blood is your drink indeed. You eat of my flesh and drink
of my blood, you'll be satisfied. You'll be filled. What is that?
It's marking the perfect man. It's looking to Christ. Oh, look
to me and live. It's the same story, isn't it?
The Lord's just given us the same message over and over. Wherever
we go in the Scriptures, He's just telling us the same thing.
He knows how foolish and slow of heart we are. He knows how
prone we are to wonder. He remembers that we're made
of dust. He knows we live in this world. He knows the weakness
of our own flesh, so He just continues to tell us the same
good news over and over again. Oh, fret not thyself. Remember that the workers of
iniquity are going to be cut off. Don't lose sight of how
brief this world is, this life is, and what an exciting time
we live. The Lord said, when this gospel
is preached throughout all the world, then the end shall come.
I don't know when the end is going to be. But the Lord has
so written His words so that every generation of believers
can genuinely and honestly anticipate His return in their lifetime.
Never in the history of mankind has the gospel gone throughout
the world like it is right now. I got an email yesterday from a
man in England. They put up a seven-foot screen
on the wall, and they've got a group of people coming in thanking
me for a message that they had just watched. It's just everywhere. Somebody was telling me the other
day they're dropping computers into third world countries with
little tutorials on them and the kids are picking them up,
plugging them in, learning how to use them. The government's
trying to introduce some of these countries to the Western culture,
I'm sure, in order to try to bring down some of the problems.
But what? That's the gospel. The internet's
only got one purpose. It's only got one purpose. God
raised it up for one purpose. Verily thou shalt be fed. Look
at verse 4. Oh, when we mark the perfect
man, we delight ourselves in the Lord. He becomes our delight. rejoice in Christ Jesus and again
I say rejoice set your affections on things above where Christ
is seated at the right hand of God sanctify the Lord God in
your heart and be ready always to give an answer to them who
ask you for the hope that's within you and do it with meekness and
fear how many ways the Lord tells us love the Lord Jesus Christ
make the joy of the Lord thy strength finally brethren Whatsoever
things are true, and whatsoever things are honest, and whatsoever
things are just, and whatsoever things are pure, and whatsoever
things are lovely, and whatsoever things are of good report, if
there be any virtue in them, if there be any praise in them,
all those things describe the perfect man. Mark the perfect
man. And Paul says in Philippians
chapter 3, think on these things. delight also thyself in the Lord."
Who is my delight? You know, the pleasures of the
world can only delight the flesh. That's all they can delight.
There is pleasure in sin for a season, but it's just that.
It's just for a season. But for the Lord to give us eyes
to see, ears to hear, for Him to give us faith to believe, to mark the perfect man, to set
our affections on Him, to delight ourselves in Him. Oh, if we're
delighted in Him, all the rivers and all the oceans and all the
fires of this world cannot put that out. Not if we're delighting
ourselves in Him. and if we delight ourselves in
the Lord, He'll give us the desires of our heart. Why? Because in
delighting yourself in Christ, He changes the desire of your
heart. See, what God requires, God must
provide. And what He provides, He accepts. So we delight ourselves in Him,
He gives us the desires of our heart, because He is the desire
of our heart. I am thine Thy reward. That's what he told
Abraham. I am thine exceeding great reward. So the Lord Himself becomes our
reward. And what more can we have than
to have Him? This world doesn't know Christ.
They don't know Christ. All they throw Jesus' name around
here and there as if it was just another name. But they know nothing
of the Lord Jesus Christ. To be able to delight ourselves
in Him. And to have Him work in us. To will and to do of His good
pleasure. To have Him put His mind in us. You have the mind of Christ.
When does that come? When by God's grace we mark the
perfect man. And delight ourselves in Him. The Lord said when you pray,
pray like this, Father thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth even
as it is in heaven. The kingdom of God is in the
hearts of God's people. It's not an earthly kingdom.
It's not an earthly kingdom. The Lord said if I had an earthly
kingdom, my disciples would fight. My kingdom is not of this world.
We don't get involved in all this right-wing political stuff
and trying to make our country or this world Christian. The
only thing Christian in this world is the church. It's the
only thing Christian. God sets up the throne of His
kingdom in the hearts of His children when the gospel of His
grace is preached. Delight thyself in the Lord.
He'll give you the desires of your heart. Oh, to trust Him. Young people want a believing
spouse. They want to raise their children
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Delight yourself
in the Lord. He'll give you the desire of
your heart. He'll provide. In His time, wait on Him. The
Lord said to the book of Isaiah, He said, wait on the Lord. Then
you'll mount up with wings as eagles and run and not be weary
and walk and not faint. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Trust
Him. Delight yourself in Him. Don't brush out and get ahead
of Him. Seek Him first. The Lord said, Seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things will
be added unto you. needs that his children. You
can't delight yourself in the Lord without Him giving you the
desire of your heart. You just can't do it. I didn't
say start with the desire and then delight yourself in the
Lord. I said delight yourself in the Lord. Rest in Christ. Wait on the Lord. The desire that he has in your
heart, that he puts in your heart, he'll fulfill. Verse 5, commit thy way unto
the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall
bring it to pass. This word commit is very similar
to the word that Paul used when he said I'm not ashamed of the
gospel for I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I have what committed unto him
against that day. Literal translation of this word
commit means to roll thy way upon. To just put it on Him. Put the burden on Him. Commit
it all to Him. Commit thy way. The way of salvation. Commit it to Him. Don't try to
do any part of it yourself. Commit it all to Him. All your
righteousness. All of your justification. All
of your sanctification. All of your redemption. All of
your wisdom. All of your glorification. Put
it all on Him. Salvations of the Lord. He's
the only one who can do it and He does it right. Commit thy
way. There's a way that seems right
unto a man, isn't there? But that way leads to death. The way that seems right unto
man is that I should be able to merit favor with God by something
I do. A prayer that I pray, a decision
that I make, a will that I exercise, something that I do, and that
way leads to death. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Commit all your salvation to
Him. Roll it all off on Him. Give
Him the burden. He's the only one who can carry
it. And I'm persuaded that He is
able to keep that which we've committed unto Him against that
day of judgment, that day of wrath. He's able to keep it. He's able to keep you. Trust also in Him and He shall
bring it to pass. He's going to bring it to pass.
Oh, He may not give us all the riches that the world says we
need, or the things they say, well, if you had, other people
would think better of you. The things that the workers of
iniquity are pursuing with all their heart, but He'll give you
everything you need. He's not going to forsake His
children. We find our contentment in Him,
we'll be content with what we have, won't we? Who will be? If we delight ourselves in the
Lord, we'll be content with whatever it is He's ordained to give us. And He shall bring forth thy
righteousness. Who is thy righteousness? Who
is your righteousness? Who's my righteousness? If it's
the Lord Jesus Christ, He's going to bring Him forth. He'll bring
Him forth through faith right now and cause Him to shine the
light of His glory in our hearts and we'll have the hope of knowing
in that day when He comes forth and brings this whole mess to
an end. He's going to take us home to be with Him in glory. He shall. Not might, not He's
going to try, not He'll do His best, not won't you let Jesus
have His way. He shall bring forth His righteousness
as the light and Thy judgment as the noonday. What is your
judgment? What is your judgment? Your judgment. was executed on your substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ, 2,000 years ago, when God in the fury
of His wrath poured out the fullness of His judgment on the sin bearer
and was fully satisfied with the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus
Christ made. That's as bright as the noonday
to me. Is that so clear? I don't know much, but I know
that. Your judgments shall come forth as the noonday. We have
no fear of the wrath of God. Now that billboard out there,
that can't be said just indiscriminately that God's not angry. The scripture
says that God is angry with the wicked every day. That's what
God says. But to those who are found not
having their own righteousness but that righteousness which
is by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ those that are hid in
him there's no condemnation there's no wrath the fierceness of the
fire has been quenched the fury of the wrath has been changed
to love and care and the perfect man The perfect man who we mark
provides for us perfectly. Perfectly. He does. You believe
that? It's not marking Christ that
causes us to fret, isn't it? You can't mark Christ and fret
at the same time. You just can't do it. You just
can't do it. You can't look at what you have
in the Lord Jesus Christ and be envious of the world at the
same time. You look at what you have in
the Lord Jesus Christ and you have pity for the world. Your heart is broken for the
Steve Jobs who had the world by the tail and died in agony
crying, oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. Your heart breaks for them. We've got everything. Everything. Rest. Rest. There it is. Be still. Rest in Christ. Be quiet. Be still and know that I am God.
This word rests in verse 8. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for Him. If you look in the margin of
your Bible, in my Bible it says be silent, be quiet. You don't have to defend yourself
to God, you don't have to explain yourself to God. You just come
before Him in childlike faith and humble yourself before Him
and be quiet before Him and ask Him to speak to you. Ask Him
to do the speaking. Wait, patience. Fret not thyself. Fret not thyself. Both times
now fretting has to do with thyself. Your circumstances don't cause
you to fret. It's yourself that causes you to fret. Your circumstances
don't cause fear. It's unbelief that causes fear.
It's taking our eyes off the perfect man that causes fretting,
isn't it? We fret ourselves. How many things
we fretted that never came to pass? And how many times the
Lord has provided for us in so many ways and so many times,
and yet we think, well, He's finished with me. He's just not
going to do it again. He's not going to quit. Fret not thyself because of him
who prospereth in his ways. Don't compare yourself to the
men of this world and think because you don't have the comforts and
the riches and the wealth that they have that somehow you're
not really living. You're not really living. Because of the man who bringeth
wicked devices to pass, cease from anger and forsake wrath."
Oh, what causes wars within you, James said. What? What is it that causes wars within
us according to James? You have not, so you fight that you might get
it. Mark the perfect man. Delight thyself in the Lord and
He shall give you the desires of your heart. He is going to change the desires
of your heart, you can be sure of that. Once He changes them,
then He will supply that. That is what He will supply. Tom, what are we going to sing? 90 in the soft back tenor. Let's
stand together. Number 90.