Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Psalms. Psalms chapter 34. Psalms chapter 34. I'd like to
read verses 15 through 20. Psalm 34 verse 15. The eyes of the Lord are upon
the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. The face of
the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance
of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord
heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The
Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth
such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth
all his bones, not one of them is broken. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you this
evening. for this time that we can call
upon you in the name of the Lord Jesus. Lord, our call unto you,
our approach unto you is only in him. Forgive us where we failed
you. Lord, bless our worship this
evening. Give us ears to hear. In these
things we pray for Christ's sake. Amen. It's hard to realize, but while everything is going
on in this universe. Now, if you just try to stop
for just a few minutes and just think about what is happening. The Scripture says that He worketh
all things. I mean, nothing, the wind doesn't
blow, a leaf doesn't fall, a bird doesn't fall, except the Lord
ordered that. And we look around and we think
about how much is actually happening. I mean, everything that's going
on. In the vastness of the universe,
the stars, the order, everything that's held together, God Almighty worketh all things
after the counsel of His own will. Every minute detail. Governing everything by absolute
power. and in might, and in righteousness,
causing everything to be brought about for the good of all that love God, to all
that are called according to His purpose. He's working everything. Everything that's happening is
happening for the good of God's sheep. And knowing that, or trying
to even imagine that, it's easy to forget that he is intimately,
perfectly, graciously aware of every minute detail, every thought,
every need of his body, every one of his elect. I mean those that are still on
this earth right now alive and those that have died are in the
grave and their souls are with the Lord. The Lord is aware,
watching over everything. He is intimately aware of every
detail of every one of His people. Scripture says in Job 36 7, he
withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous. To know that he's
watching, he's aware, he sees every event, every step, every
moment of his sheep is known, ordered, and has been eternally
purposed by the God of all grace. Now, verse 15 says, the eyes
of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their
cry. Now, I've heard, and I know this,
so I agree with this. I agree with this statement that
I'm about to make, that when we talk about the eyes of the
Lord, the hand of the Lord, You know, the ear of the Lord. People
talk about that and they use this word. Anthropomorphic statement. Anthropomorphic. That means attributing human
characteristics to the Lord. Attributing characteristics that
you and I would have. We've got eyes, we have ears,
nose, hand. Attributing that. And I agree
with that. But, let me ask you something. Is our Lord and Savior, the Word
made flesh, the One who the Scripture says made Himself of no reputation
and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the
likeness of men, the One the Scripture declares being found
in fashion as a man? humbled himself and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. You remember when
the disciples were talking to the Lord after his resurrection. And the Scripture says, And when
he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up,
and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they
looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men
stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken
up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner. in like style, in like character,
as you've seen Him go into heaven. The Scripture declares that the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. The One that the disciples
were talking to, that they were looking at and He was looking
back. They heard Him and He heard them. They had eyes and He did
too. The Scripture declares that while
he was talking to them, he ascended into heaven. Believer, the God-Man Mediator
is seated right now at the right hand of the Majesty on High.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who took upon Him human flesh, flesh without
sin, but flesh. He was made like unto his brethren
and he sits right now at the right hand of the majesty on
high and the scripture declares that he's here where two or three
are gathered together in his name. Now I know that our eyes
are holding that we can't behold him, but nonetheless He's here. He's here and He hears. And He
sees. And He's ruling. And in this
place this evening where we've met, to worship Him, to adore
Him, I know this, that He has eyes, and He has ears, and He's
made like unto us. being found in him. There's a
man seated in glory. He is God-man and he observes
his own with tender observation and before we even know what
to ask, he hears. He knows the thought and catches
every note of the appeal of our heart, the eyes of the Lord are
upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry. The
face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance
of them from the earth. To those who are the doers of
evil, the lovers of evil, and the Lord Himself only knows. I was reading the passage this
week about the tares and the wheat, and the Lord in that parable
gave that illustration of a man that sowed wheat, and while all
men slept, the evil one sowed tares. Scripture says when they
came up, the blade came up and workers said to the master, didn't
you sow good seed, wheat? Where did these tares come from?
And the master said, the evil one has sown these. He wants
to go in and tear the tares out? And he said, no, leave them alone.
Just leave them alone. Let them all grow together and
in the time of harvest, He said, we'll gather all together, and
the tares will be bundled, and the wheat will be received, and
the tares will be thrown out, and just leave them alone. I
don't know who God's sheep are, but I know this, the Lord does.
And the eyes of the Lord watch and hear the righteous, but His
face is against those that do evil. He knows. He hears, He
sees, He perceives, and He's observing their thoughts and
their actions according to that scripture. He said, the face
of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance. He's going to bring final and
just judgment against them, and He's going to do so according
to their works. Verse 17 says, "...the righteous
cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all their
troubles." As we're made aware, and here's
that which bothers a believer the most, I think. I mean, we're
oppressed and we're talked about. I hear, and you have too, I hear
the statements that are made against this assembly here and
the attitudes, and I know that, I understand, I know that. But
do you know, I know that that's going to come, I know that. But
do you know what bothers me? You know what really bothers
me? Me. This is what grieves me. Myself. When I'm made keenly aware of
the burden of sin within, that yoke of oppression with temptation
within and temptation without, the fiery darts of Satan that
comes and casts that doubt on me. What makes you think you're
a believer? If you think you could act like
you do, think like you do and be a believer. Do you really
believe what you know is so? These precious scriptures, do
you really believe that? These fiery darts, these temptations. Have God said, that was an opening
line, wasn't it? To mankind. Have God said, oh
that's not going to happen. whenever the righteous are made
to realize. Sin within. Oh, wretched man,
Paul says that I am. The righteous cry, and the Lord
heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. He heareth, he's attentive, and
delivereth. It means snatches them away.
I tell you the deliverance that the Lord gives to his people,
his word, I'll never leave you. I'm not going to forsake you. Lord, thank you. Thank you that
you don't mark iniquity. Thank you that you look upon
me in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for Christ's sake.
He ever shows himself strong to deliver, mighty to save, Look
at verse 18. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Crushed. Broken heart. Crushed
heart. Contrite. From a root word that
means humbled. Made to know. Made to know something
about what you are. When we're broken because of
the realization of what we are. That sin that we were talking
about, when we're truly aware that in our flesh, that is in
me, this is really me, this is the real me, there dwelleth no
good thing. When to will to do good, when
to will is present with me. But how to perform that which
is good, I find not, we find not. But we're made to realize
something of how truly little we believe Him. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Lord, forgive me for thinking
so lightly of Your Word. Forgive me for not being attentive
unto You as I ought. That's a grief to a believer. I'm telling you, in those moments
when we realize something of the presence of sin and grieved
over thinking about something that you said, why did I say
that? Why didn't I say that differently? That wasn't a right attitude. Why did I stretch that a little
bit? Why did I just kind of twist it a little bit to try to make
me look a little better? I'm thinking about what I said.
Why? When we think, Because of the presence of sin
that the Lord is furthest from us, He's most near. That's when
He's most near, when you're aware. And He graciously causes us to
be aware. The Lord is nigh, the Lord's
near unto them that are of a broken heart and save as such as be
of a contrite spirit. You know when we when we are
broken hearted. Do you know the sweetest thing? Somebody just give us a word
of comfort. Just comfort me. I'm hurting. Just comfort me.
Verse 19, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord
delivereth him out of them all. In this earthly lot, of God's
sheep. That lot that we're going to
suffer in this world, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution. In this lot, we're made to be
in association with the Lord. He was a man of sorrows. He was
a man that was acquainted with grief. And we are too. He was despised and rejected
of men. You go back and read in scriptures
in John, you know why men hate believers? Because God has chosen
them unto salvation. I was reading the account the
other day of when the Lord turned in Isaiah 53. And he read out
of the scriptures and no one had anything to say about him
as he read out of the scriptures. It was when he began to say unto
them that there were many lepers in Israel. But God didn't send
a prophet but to Naaman. He was a Syrian, a Gentile. There was a lot of widows in
Israel, but God sent Elijah to just one widow that God was going
to provide for Elijah through. And that's when it got mad. When
God Almighty is set forth as being sovereign in election,
sovereign in predestination, sovereign in redemption, when
He redeems in particular His people, dies in particular for
His people, that's when, you know, many are the afflictions
of the righteous. But listen to this promise, the
Lord delivereth him out of them all. Let me ask you something. Just think back, as far as you
want to go back. Think of some of the things you've
gone through. Think of some of the afflictions that you've been
allowed to go through. For His namesake, how many of
them did the Lord not deliver you out of? None. In which affliction? I think
back on just the light afflictions that I've gone through. Which
one of those did the Lord forsake me? Which one was not for my
good and His honor? Which one did He not show Himself
to be mighty, almighty? The Scripture says, He keepeth
all His bones. one of them is broken. He keepeth, he hedges about,
he guards, he protects all of his bones and not one of them
is crushed. We're his bones. We're his body. Bones, the scripture declares,
that's never going to be broken Because He was broken for us. He was bruised for our iniquity. Remember when the Roman guards
came and they were going to break the bones, you know this, of
the three, the Lord and the two thieves at Calvary? And when
they came to the Lord, He had already given up the ghost. That
scripture would be fulfilled, not one of His bones going to
be broken. That's a picture of us. We're His body, we're His
bones, and not one of them. The Lord, His eyes are upon the
righteous. He hears, He sees, He cares. Casting all your care upon Him,
He cares for you. That's such a comfort. Lord,
bless these words to our heart for Christ's sake.