Psalm number one. Psalm number
one. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel
of the ungodly, and the counsel of the wicked, nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seed of the scornful. But his delight is in the law
of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And
he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that
bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not
wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are
not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners
in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." Turn with me to Psalm 23, Psalm
23, the favorite portion of Scripture of everyone who loves the Word
of God. One that all of us can quote,
even all of it or part of it. Very familiar with it. We've
heard it from our childhood, the 23rd Psalm. Let me read it
again. Always profitable to read the
word of the true and the living God. And especially is it a great
mercy is when we are enabled to believe God. I know the expression is used much
today in believing in God, but there is a difference between
believing in God and believing God. So we are unable to believe God. Well, these things then take
on preciousness. David said, ìThe Lord is my shepherd.î My shepherd. Who is your shepherd? The Lord is my shepherd. And I shall not want. The Lord
is my shepherd. My shepherd. The shepherd looks
after me. I'm the good shepherd. Our Lord said in the tenth chapter,
of the book of John. I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known
of them. My sheep follow me in the green pastures. I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. I lay down
my life for my sheep No man taketh it from me. I lay it down of
myself, and I might take it up again. I'm the good shepherd. David said, The Lord's my shepherd,
and I shall not want. I have everything I need. I have Him watching over me. He governs and manages my affairs. He directs my steps. He keeps
and preserves me. The Lord is my shepherd. Wonderful, wonderful things.
It is only by the grace of God that a man can say, The Lord
is my shepherd. By grace are you saved, and that
not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. The Lord
is my shepherd. If He is my shepherd, it is because
of the grace of God. Because God made Him known to
me, to my soul, as my shepherd, the keeper of the sheep. If that is true, I shall not
want. I am a great one here behind
this pulpit. I say a lot of good things. Sometimes on Monday morning,
you wonder if I'm with the same man. You wonder if this is the
same man that was up here on Sunday and here he is on Monday. Well, I'm glad that there is
sometimes that I believe God. I believe Him tonight here. The
Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want. Now, I may want a few
things tomorrow, but tonight I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, pastures of tender grass, makes
me lie down in that. And he leadeth me beside the
still waters, waters of quietness, not roaring, howling, uncontrollable,
wild waters, but he leadeth me beside the still He restoreth my soul, He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake, for His glory. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou
art with me." He was with me when I was born. He was with me every day. since
I was born. And He will be with me when I
die. For thou art with me, thy rod
and thy staff, they protect me and comfort me. Thou preparest
the table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
and my cup runneth over. And I come to this conclusion.
Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. It has taken me a long time to see the preciousness of what
I have read to you, to understand that The things
of time are fleeting and will soon pass away, and the things eternal will last
forever. And so I need to set my affections on things above, where He is. and not be so concerned about
the things of time, because surely, surely I'm going to depart from
the land of the living and go out yonder in another world. I want you to see here this evening
Somehow, under the sweetness of the Holy
Spirit, His influence and operation in our hearts and in our souls,
I want you to see something about this goodness and mercy. Surely,
goodness and mercy shall follow me. You notice how confident
David is David is the writer of the psalm, and he is very
confident. And he speaks these words at
the conclusion of the hymn, of the psalm, of the song. He says,
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life. And the words that he speaks
here, he had proved to be a truth again and again and again in
his lifetime. But there's times now, don't
misunderstand me, there's times when he differs in his language.
He doesn't use this language all the time. But the language that he uses,
he has proved to be a divine truth. over and over and over
in his life. But his language changes from
time to time. Sometimes he says, Lord be thy favor, thou hast
made my mountains to stand strong, so I shall never be moved. And then again, he said, thou
didst hide thy face from me, and I was troubled. And then
again, in the deep exercise of his soul, he says, the enemy
hath persecuted my soul, he hath smitten my life down to the ground,
he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long
dead. Sometimes He says, though, My
lips shall praise thee, and I will bless thee while I live. And sometimes He says, I am shut
up and cannot come forth. Now, what are we to say to these
things? Was there a change in God? Was there a change in God? No,
but there is a great change in David. Well, no change in God. God never changes. I am the Lord
God, I changeth not. God, our God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed God, The glorious God, the holy
God, merciful God is immutable and He cannot change. It's not
that He won't change. He cannot change. God cannot
change. What God says, He says forever. God never alters. He never changes. I am the Lord. I change not. But there was a change in David,
great change in David. Now, when he did not have the
enjoyment of the things that he said in this psalm, the Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not want. There comes a time when we don't
have the enjoyment of these things that we know to be true and have
proved them to be true. when he did not have the enjoyment
of these things by the sweet and blessed operation and influence
of the Holy Spirit of God in his heart. That's where all these
things come from, good feelings that you have in light of the
Word of God concerning you, whether it's trials, troubles, griefs,
or blessings. They're all the outpouring, the
effect of the God, the Spirit. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit operating
with sweet influences in our hearts. We enjoy these things, believe
these things, and are blessed by them. But when David did not
have these things, then there was a great change in the feeling
of his soul. And David says, concerning those
who know nothing of these things, because they have no change,
the Bible says, therefore they do not fear God. Those that enjoy
these things There comes a change at times, and that change is
certainly for our good and for the glory of God, but those that
know no change know no change because there is no fear of God
before their eyes. Those who are without the teaching
of God, the instruction of God, know nothing of their own emptiness. And they know nothing, certainly,
of His fullness. They know nothing of their own
ignorance. They know nothing of Him, the
light of life and His power. They know nothing of their own
vileness and His preciousness. And they can't understand what
I'm talking about. They can't understand these changes,
David said. But now David says this. He says,
surely, Surely, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I
shall not want for any good thing. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures, leadeth me beside the still waters, restoreth my soul,
leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no
evil. With me thy rod and staff, pass the table before me in the
presence of my enemies. Now anointeth my head with oil,
and my cup runneth over." Surely, in light of this, surely, goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Surely,
surely, surely, surely. Now, I believe that when he said
this, He certainly was under the influence of God the Holy
Spirit. God was in his heart. The mercy of God was real to
him. The goodness of God was real
to him. And I believe here, where he says, Surely goodness and
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord. I believe that will stand forever.
I believe that's true. I believe that's true of every
child of God, however feeble he might be, however strong in
the Lord he might be. This is true. Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And in the
end, I'll dwell in the house of God forever. That's what it's
all about. That's the object. That's why
I'm here. That's why we live. and move. We're going in one
direction, either going to hell or going to heaven. That's what
the Bible's all about. The Bible's all about Him whom
God sent and the message that He gave Him to deliver and the
work that He gave Him to do in order for us to dwell in God's
house forever. We owe my soul. It's not strange, but yet it
is strange that the Lord Jesus Christ came unto His own, but
His own said thumbs down. We looked Him over. We won't
have Him. We won't have Him. He's not what we want. Oh, my
soul, He's all that I want. He meets every need that I've
got as a poor, helpless, hopeless, doomed, damned sinner. He meets
all of my needs. Ah, listen. with the help of
God, with the help of the Spirit of the living God. Let me say
a few words here this evening on the manifestation of God's
goodness and mercy towards His people. God has got some people. He's got some people. He's got
a bunch of them. He's got some out of every tribe,
every tongue, and every nation. He's got some. And every one of them. goodness
and mercy of God follows them all the days of their life. Now,
the Apostle Peter tells us that we who believe that we've tasted
that the Lord is gracious, and so be that we have tasted
that he's gracious. The goodness and the mercy of
God has followed us from the day that we was born, has followed
us from the time we was born throughout our childhood. And
in God's own time and in God's own way, He has stopped us in
our mad pursuit after sin. God stopped us. God stopped me when I was in
my twenties. God stopped me. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me. Goodness and mercy started following
me way back yonder when I was born in Preston County. When I came from Preston County
to Marion County, I came from Marion County into the war and
stayed those three and a half years and come back when I was
in my twenties. God stopped me in my wild pursuit
after sin and vexed my soul and caused me to see what shall it
profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose his own
soul. And Christ become precious to
me. And I tasted, and He was gracious. And He preserved me. Preserved
me. Kept me. Stopped me. I was on a wild course. I wasn't
going in the direction of God. I was going the opposite direction.
But He stopped me. He stopped me, and not only did
He stop me, but He has preserved me in all my wanderings, in all
my backslidings. He's preserved me. And all my departures from Him
unto this present hour. Surely, goodness and mercy has
followed me. Has it followed you? What's true
with me is true with you. That's right. Old Peter there, you know, talks
about, we've tasted that the Lord is gracious. There in, I
believe it's the first chapter of Peter, and about the thirteenth,
maybe the third, the third chapter of the book of 2 Peter and the
first verse. Peter talks about stirring up
our pure minds, stirring up the pure minds of the people of God
by way of remembrance. Now, how do we stir up our minds
by way of remembrance? by looking backward and looking
forward. And as I look backward, I can
see. I can see the hand of God in
everything. Everything in my life, I can
see the hand of God in it. How He's stopped me. How He's
preserved and kept me in my wanderings. How He's brought me under this
present hour. been God. Surely it's goodness
and the mercy of God Almighty. It was the goodness and mercy
of God Almighty that stopped you and stopped me from drinking
in iniquity as an ox drinks in water. He stopped it. He stopped
us. Only He stopped us. Surely the
goodness and mercy of God alone stopped us. Oh, He stopped us from being
swallowed up in this world. Swallowed up in this world and
the things of this world and the things of time. Oh, He brought us out of it. He put our interests somewhere
else, not in making a fortune. We got all we want. No need to
make a fortune. It was nothing but His goodness
and His mercy that stopped us Nothing but His goodness and
mercy that brought us out of this world. It was the great
love of God that did it. God and His grace and His love,
His goodness and His mercy. Did not I preach to you the other
day where it said in the book of Ephesians, but God, who is
rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us when
we were dead in sins. Surely, surely, goodness and
mercy has followed us when we were dead, dead towards God,
alive towards this world, and alive towards sin. We was very active in that area
of it, but we was dead. We had no God-like life or qualities. We was dead. Dead, no concern
for God, no concern for God's Son, no concern for the Word
of God, no concern for being good man, good parent. No understanding of those things. No need of a Savior. Didn't even
know we were sinners. Dead, dead. But He came and He
quickened us and gave us life. But God, who is rich in mercy,
it was the goodness and the mercy of God alone that stopped us
and quickened us and gave us life. Are there not many this
evening? Of you who believe, who are like
David, you can say, Surely the goodness and mercy of God
follows me every step of the way. You can say, God stopped
me in my pursuit of sin and my vanity and my wanderings, my
backsliding. God stopped me with His goodness
and His mercy. Now, how many? of your relatives,
how many of your kinsmen, how many of your companions in your
wild pursuit of sin still remain in the gall of bitterness? Most
of them. Is that right? Most of them remain
in the gall of bitterness. Why were we stopped and they
were let go their merry way? Why was that? Goodness and mercy
is what it was that stopped this. Some of our own children. Is that right? Some of our own
children. Some of our aunts, some of our
uncles, some of our friends and neighbors, they were never stopped. They were never confronted, but
we were. Why? It's the goodness and the
mercy of God. There was no reason found in
us. There was nothing about us to
conduce God to look in our direction. Nothing whatsoever. who are dead in trespasses and
in sin. Surely it was the goodness and
mercy of God. Had to be. Surely it was the
grace of God. Surely God in His mercy visited
us and stopped us and made known to our hearts what we really
were and revealed unto us who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And
we've seen the beauty of God in the face of Jesus Christ and
the goodness of God in His face and His mercy. We're overwhelmed
by it. We said, sink or swim in our
hearts, I'll follow Him. I'll follow Him. Wherever He
leads, I'll go. That's what we said. That's the
reason we're here tonight. Because He's been crowned. the King of Kings and the Lord
of Glory in our hearts. And we're going to do anything
and everything that we can under the sun within our limited possibilities. We're going to do everything
we can to honor Him, to glorify Him, to tell others about the
King of Kings. Why? Has He passed over others? Oh, Lord! Thou art calling, do not pass
me by." He didn't pass us by. We didn't even call Him. We wasn't seeking Him. We wasn't
looking for Him. He found us. He found us where
we were. Brought us home. In the book of I Corinthians,
you remember He names over a bunch of vile and wicked acts. And he comes down at the end
of it and he said, And such were some of you. Such were some of
you. Oh, listen. Goodness and mercy
has followed us. It followed us, listen to me
now, it followed us in putting a stop to our going about to
establish a righteousness of our own. It was God that put
a stop to that. You know, there was a time when
you first had a little bit of light, that you tried to make
yourself better in God's sight, hoping that by what you're doing,
God would be favorable to you. Isn't that right? But God stopped
that. He stopped you from going about
to establishing a righteous platform that you could stand on and say,
look at me. What are you concerned with now?
You're concerned with now is the righteousness of God, which
is by faith. You're concerned now? Once you
was concerned about wearing your own clothes, wearing your own
robe, trying to patch up your garments and make yourself presentable
to God. But now, the only robe that you
want is the robe of righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
want to be clothed in His righteousness, surely that was the goodness
and mercy of God to stop us. Surely it was the goodness and
mercy of God that kept us from trusting for acceptance anything
else but the robe of the righteousness of Christ. That was goodness and mercy. A religious man will accept anything.
The world is full of people who believe that their baptism saved
them. Who believes that because they
are of this family and that family, that they're saved. They believe because they made
it a little old five cent profession. Sometimes when you ask people
if they're saved, you know the first thing that most people
do? They start running way back here. They start going back to some
time and some place. to say, that's my salvation,
that decision. They never say, now. They never say, saved? I'm saved by the blood of the
Lamb. They don't have to go back in
time to a place. It was surely the goodness and
mercy of God that kept us from trusting for acceptance of anything
else but the righteousness of God by faith." Righteousness,
righteousness. What is that that causes us to
plant after His righteousness and be clothed in it? It's the
goodness and the mercy of God. His people do not want a righteousness
of their own, but they want the righteousness which is of God
by faith. His goodness and mercy has followed
us all the days of our life in supplying all of our needs. Supplying
all of our needs. I can say, that I've proved that, blessed
truth, over and over. God has supplied all of my needs,
all of my needs. He supplied them, one way or
the other. He supplied all my needs. And He did so all the days of
our life. When my soul sometimes is heavy. And sometimes my soul is about
ready to sink under the burdens. Sometimes they're man-made burdens.
Sometimes they're burdens that God has laid upon me. I feel
like giving up. I feel like saying it's no use. I can't go. It's too much. I heard an old lady say not too
long ago. She was way up in her 70s, 80s. Oh, she said, I wish, I hope, I pray that I won't have to worry anymore
about my children and grandchildren. That's what she said. You worry
about your children and your grandchildren? I know you do. I know you do. And when there
comes a time when you say, well, it's more than I can bear. I'm
sinking beneath the load. My God, hold on. Because He'll appear. He'll appear
either from His Word or in prominence. And He'll arrest that situation. And He'll cause the sweet influence
and the operation of the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with
the tenderness and the love of God. And you'll be able to make
it one more time. What causes all that, you suppose? Surely the goodness and mercy
of God follows you. and follows me all the days of
my life." Listen, He'll appear, and He'll give you a word of
assurance and in comfort. He'll give you a word from His
Word. There'll be assurance and comfort,
and you'll make it through the day. Ah, He'll make good His
blessed promise. As thy days is, so shall thy
strength be. He'll make that good. He always
has. Blessed be His name. Have we
ever really lacked anything? No, we can say He's supplied
all of our needs. We lack nothing, want nothing.
We've got it all. All things are yours, He said
in Christ Jesus. This whole world, did you know,
this whole habitation, this whole civilization is only held together
because of you, because of His people. That's all. And when He saves all of His
people, when He calls out His people, all of them, the last
one, this thing's going to fall apart. God's going to come. like a voice of thunder. And the elements is going to
melt with fervent heat. And we won't be there because
the goodness and mercy of God has taken us out of it. I started to tell you here at
the outset that sometimes people say about me, He said, You are
a strange man, and that I am. I am a strange man. You seem to be one thing in the
pulpit on Sunday morning and Sunday night, but you are quite
another thing on Monday morning. You say in the pulpit that God
delivers, that He doth deliver, and He will deliver. But on Monday
morning, you don't act like that. Has God changed? No, God hasn't
changed. I'm the one who changes. I'm changeable as the wind. One hour I have a good time,
the next hour I'm damned. But bless God through it all,
surely the goodness and the mercy of
God shall follow me all the days of my life. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that something? Boy, I couldn't believe that
if it wasn't the Word of God. I just couldn't believe it. I
just couldn't believe that. I couldn't believe that God sent
His Son, the Beloved of His bosom, His only Son, sent Him to suffer
for me? Me? Sent Him to suffer for me? To pay my debts, discharge my
liabilities, clothe me in His righteousness, and make me accepted
before His throne in the person of His Son? By God, the Spirit of God is
going to teach a man that. By nature you can't believe it.
By nature you can't find it. Whatever you do, you can't find
it. There's no comfort in it for
you until God Himself, by His Spirit, does something for your
soul. And He starts out by creating
an interest in what the preacher said. Maybe he's beginning that in
you. You become interested. Can that
man be right? He is reading from the Bible. If the Bible's right, it may
be that he's right. See? He begins, little by little,
here a little bit and there a little bit, to the right and to the
left. The interest is being created. Finally you come to the... Maybe
God's speaking to me. See what I'm talking about? Maybe
he's speaking to me. Lord bless you. Let's stand and
go.