I believe that David is in the
process of being the king of Israel at this time. Now, these
eight verses here, I believe, has to do with the resolutions
that he makes before he ascends the throne. These are the things
that he's going to try to bring into practice. as He ascends
as King and Ruler over the children of Israel. And where He says,
Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell
with Thee, and He that walketh in a perfect way, He shall serve
Me, I think that He means that He would look out the best men
in the nation. He'd take care of them and give
them offices in what we refer to as his cabinet or his court
so that his work would be well done and that his people might
be judged by wise and righteous men and the affairs of the state
or the affairs of the country of Israel might be managed by
those who were faithful to God. Now, I think that that is primarily
the interpretation to the 6th verse there, that as David ascends
to the throne, he makes certain resolutions as to what shall
be done. He is going to seek out men,
faithful men, and his eye will continually rest upon these faithful
men, that they might dwell with him in his courts and govern
and manage the affairs of Israel. But now, I want to talk to you,
and I don't think I'd do any violation to the text here whatsoever. I want to talk to you about the
greater Son of David. I want to talk to you about the
King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to talk to you
about Him. Everything points to Christ. I'd be safe in saying that every
passage of Scripture in the Bible points to Christ. Although maybe
I couldn't prove it. I think that if you took the
Bible and you compressed it and squeezed it and wrung all the
truth out of it and put it in one place, it would speak of
the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't think that I'm doing
any violation here when I say that I'm not necessarily going
to talk to you this morning here about King David. I'm going to
talk to you about the greater Son of David. I'm going to talk
to you about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He does and the faithful
of the land in regard to Him. Well, number one then, who are
the faithful men? He talks about His eyes shall
be upon the faithful of the land. Who are these faithful men that
the greater Son of David is speaking about? Who are these faithful men to
whom Jesus Christ, our King, will have respect to at all times? Who are they? Well, they may
be known in part by this mark. Number one, they are true, absolutely
true in their dealing with God. I'm talking about the King of
Kings. And I'm talking about the faithful
men to whom our King, the King of Kings, will have respect to. And I'm saying that a characteristic
about these people whereby we might identify them, or whereby
we might feel that we're numbered with them, is first off, they
are honest in their dealing with God. Honest. honest before God
in their dealings. As they come before God, not
only in prayer, but their whole life, 24 hours a day, and 30
days a month, 31 days a month, and every month of the year,
they are not perfect. They are not perfect. They know
they are not perfect, but they have one objective in their life,
and that is to live for Him who died for them. They have one
objective. They have one goal, and that
is to honor and to glorify their King. This is an identifying
mark of these faithful in the land whom our God has respect
to. They are honest men, honest before
God. They don't hide anything from
God. They confess their sins. They
know that there is no There is no cloak or refuge that they
can put on or hide in that would keep them from the sharp and
keen eyes of their God, that He looks right through them.
They know that they are like an open book, that He discerns
even their very intents and their thoughts. And so, knowing that
God is God, they do away with this hypocritical attitude that
the majority of men and women have in this world of trying
to hide and deceive God. They know they can't. And so
they're honest, and they're dealing with God. Now, if you'll remember
this, I believe it'll help you. A man who's not honest to God
is honest to nobody. I don't care who he is. If he's
not honest to God, he's not honest to anybody else. He's got to
first be honest to God before his life takes on the proper
perspective here. He's got to be honest to God.
And if he's not honest to God, he's honest to nobody. You can
mark that down. If he's not honest to God, he's
not honest to nobody. A man who will rob God will soon
rob his neighbor. It won't be long if he'll rob
God. Rob God of his integrity. Rob God of his honesty. And we
do that many times when we pretend to be something that we are not.
We are robbing God. We are dealing dishonestly with
God. We are dealing from the bottom
of the deck. And that ought not to be. And I am telling you here
this morning, it says, Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of
the land. Who are the faithful of the land? Who are they? There
is a distinguishing mark. It is that they are honest in
their dealing with God. I mean by being truthful and
upright to God is that we walk before Him in deep sincerity
of heart. We walk before Him in truth and
sincerity. That's one of the identifying
marks of the faithful of the land. I wonder this morning,
can I to a measure, take this promise or lay claim
to this promise as my own, there is only one way that I can. That
is, that I somehow fit the characteristic of the promise described, if
I can fit that. To make a profession of being
what we are not is not truthful. And I've found out that there's
a whole lot of people that do make a profession. They make
a profession of being what they really are not. They make this
profession. I don't know... Well, there's
many reasons why, I suppose, or how it comes about. Sometimes
men make a profession. because they're scared to death.
I think the hospitals, preachers in the hospitals render confessions
out of men and women and boys and girls because they're scared
of dying. They're scared of dying, and so they go to them and tell
them that if you accept Jesus and if you believe Jesus, you
won't go to hell when you die. And so they jump at the opportunity,
but really, really, there's nothing true and sincere about their
profession because it does not come from the heart. It does
not come because they feel or are aware of their deep need
of a Savior. Many make a profession of faith
because they are scared, and others make a profession of faith
because of emotion, and others make a profession of faith because
they are trying to strike a bargain with God. And I found out, and
I think that you know that this is true, that the majority of
what we refer to as evangelicals of our day, that these that are
paraded before our eyes on the television and on the radio and
newspapers as being what is referred to as born-again Christians,
Now that's a good expression. There's not a thing wrong with
that. Born again. Our Lord said a man must be born
again. He must be quickened by the Spirit
of God. He must have a new heart and
a new nature. He must come under new management. He must have a new boss. That's
right. He's got to be born again. But
that which we see today that's being paraded on various forms
of the media, the television, the radio, and the newspaper,
and so forth, that say we are born again, they, according to
their own testimony, they have come to the Lord Jesus Christ
in order to have their marriage problems solved. The idea set
forth by the prophets of our day, the prophets of doom, They
say, now, if you've got domestic problems, marital problems, Jesus
is the answer to your problems. And so they come to the Lord
Jesus Christ in order to have their problems dissolved. That's not coming to Christ right. So they're trying to be a Christian
without Christ, and it won't work. And what happens is this.
They're making a profession of being what they are not. And
it's untruthful and dishonest, and it's not a mark of the faithful
of the land to make a profession of what you are not. Now there's
some come, they say, well, if you've got a drug problem, come
to Jesus. And so the congregation of young
people, I'm not talking about here, but I'm talking about what
we see is paraded before us in religion nowadays in cities like
Detroit, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, where they have
8 or 10 million people in the city itself and outlying areas.
And they get 40 or 50,000 people to come together, 10 or 20,000
young people. And in those environments, they succumb to drugs and everything
else. And they say, now, if you've
got a drug problem, come to Jesus and He'll solve your problem.
So they come to Jesus. And there's all sorts of offers. Come to Jesus for this and come
to Jesus for that. But what I'm saying here is this,
that if we don't come to Jesus as sinners, to take care of the
sin question, we haven't come to Jesus aright. And if we're
just making a profession because the preacher said, or the evangelist
said, come to Jesus and get your drug problems straightened up,
and get your life straightened up, and do this and do that,
if that's the reason we come to Jesus, to make a profession
or a decision, you see, we're not being honest with God. In
order for a man to be saved, he's got to be aware of his need
of a Savior. And to be aware of his need of
a Savior is to be aware of the fact that he is a sinner before
God. And when he comes to God for
salvation, he must come as a sinner. Not necessarily as being involved
in drugs, or his wife won't speak to him, or something like that.
That hasn't got anything to do with it. That hasn't got anything
to do with it. and to make a profession of being
what we are not is not truthful. To come before Him with prayers
which are not prayers, but only skins and shells, is not being
honest and is not being faithful. Remember I told you here the
other day that there is a verse of Scripture in the book of Leviticus
that says, It shall be perfect to be accepted. It's not, I hope
that it will be perfect, and if it is, I'll do this. It says it must be. It shall
be perfect. Before anything is accepted by
God, it must be perfect. And when we come to God, even
as we come to pray many times, We come to God and say the first
thing that comes on to our mind. We give no thought of what we're
talking about when we pray. We forget where we're at. We think we're praying to people
in public prayer, I'm talking about for the most part. We think
that we're talking here for the benefit of someone sitting out
here among us. That's not being honest. That's
being deceitful and untruthful. When we come to God in public
prayer, we ought to give some thought as to what we're going
to say before we come. No man rushes into anything hastily
without giving thought to it. A fellow wouldn't buy a piece
of property without looking at it four or five times. The fellow
wouldn't build a house without looking at the plans and seeing
whether he's got enough money and what this costs. But brethren,
when we pray, for the most part, we never give it a thought until
we stand up to pray. Am I telling the truth? I'm telling
the truth. And what I'm saying is this,
brethren, the mark of the faithful of the land
is that they're honest in their dealings with God. They're honest. Let us be honest. If we've just
been on the borderline, let us confess today that we've seen the error of
our ways, and let's determine by the grace of God and by the
help of God that we're going to be honest. in our dealings
with God, whether it be singing. We're going to sing from the
heart because it's praise and thanksgiving unto God. And when
we pray, we're going to pray from the heart and not pray in
order to preach to somebody, try to get the message across
to somebody else that we're afraid to talk to. To make a profession of being
what we are not is certainly dishonest. As I said, if we don't, it's only a sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal. That's what Paul said it was.
If we're just saying words. If we sing, when we open up the
book, we're just saying words. Just saying words, that's a tinkling
cymbal and a sounding breath. And when we pray, if it's just
saying words, it's a tinkling cymbal and a sounding breath,
and we just well never opened our mouth. If we're praying without
thought, without meaning, without feeling, without some sort of
emotion building up in our hearts as to prayer and praise and thanksgiving
unto God, we just will pull a zipper across our mouth and shut up.
And if we're singing and we're just looking at the book like
this and just looking at the words, just as well close the
hymn book and look down at the floor and not say a word. Do
just as much good. What I'm saying is, brethren,
when we pray and when we sing and whatever we do, let's give
it some thought and some understanding and know that it's unto God.
This is serious business. This is serious business. Let's dispense with our play. Let's dispense with our hypocrisy. And let's start dealing honest
with God. Let's start stripping ourselves
before God. If we're not saved, if we've
got an empty profession, let's confess it to God. Let's don't
let our pride send us to hell. We've got an empty profession. Well, preacher, I really am not
saved. I was pressured into making a profession. I made a profession.
And people think probably I'm saved because my life's pretty
good and I don't cuss and I don't do this and I don't do something
else. I look like maybe I'm saved. People think I am. I appear to
be. But I know in my heart I'm not saved. I'm a stranger. I'm
a stranger to the gospel of the grace of God. Oh, if you could
ever come to that place and say, well, I know I'm not saved. I
just know it. I just know it. I'm lost before
God. I'm lost. Well, I'll tell you,
if you could come to that and make that honest confession,
And I believe somehow you'd be numbered with the faithful of
the land because those that are numbered with the faithful of
the land, they have honest dealings with God. And if a man has honest
dealings with God, that's where he's going to start first with
himself. He's going to admit what he is. He's going to admit
that there's no hope in himself. No hope in himself. No hope in
what he is, what he can be, or what he will be apart from. Someone
said, well, I repented, I believe, and I prayed. Well, that doesn't
save anybody. Repentance is not salvation.
Repentance is not salvation. Praying is not salvation. Giving
of your money is not salvation. Going to church is not salvation.
Reading your Bible is not salvation. There's a guy on the television
who implies that because he knows the Scripture, or he says the
walking Bible, the walking Bible, be able to quote chapter after
chapter and book after book. Well, that's all right, but salvation
is not known in the Bible. The Bible speaks of one whom
salvation is. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Search the scriptures, Jesus told these folks. Search them. These scriptures testify of me,
of me. There's only one name given among
men whereby we must be saved. That's the name of a man, Christ
Jesus the Lord. Repentance never died to save
anybody. Prayers never died to save anybody. Reading the Bible never died
to save anybody. Reformation never died to save
anybody. You see, if we're ever saved
from our sins, from the penalty, from the power, and from the
dominion of our sins, it'll be because God hung somebody on
a tree. And that somebody that God hung
on a tree was the Lord Jesus Christ, and salvation is knowing
Him. That's where it's at. It's knowing
Him. It's not knowing the catechism. It's not knowing how many, being
able to quote so many verses of the Scripture. That's not
it. Salvation is, I don't smoke,
I don't drink, and I don't run around with those that do. That's
not salvation. That's not it. Salvation is knowing
Him. That's what salvation is. Knowing
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you're going to quote
me, quote me right here now. I'm saying that when we're saved
by the grace of God and we come into this vital union with God
in Christ, I'm saying that that grace will discipline us. Discipline us to the extent that
we won't do this. We won't do other things that
are wrong and bring a reproach upon the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But let's get these things in the proper place. See? Let's
come to Him first. Let's be honest. That's one of
the first marks that I know of about the faithful in the land.
They're honest with their dealing. with God. They're honest there.
They're not hypocrites there. No empty professions. Well, we
need to be honest in everything that we do. We need to be honest
unto all men. Let me read something to you
over here in the book of John. I just come across that verse
of Scripture here not so long ago. In John chapter 5 and verse
42. in light of what I've said about
a man being truthful to God. And I think we ought to be. If
we haven't experienced or felt certain changes, well, don't
profess that we have felt and experienced certain changes.
Why? Look here in this 42nd verse.
Let me read a couple of verses prior to that. Verse 40, our
Lord speaking to these fellows, He says, And you will not come
to Me that you might have life. I receive not honor from men,
but I know you. But I know you. And God says the same thing to
me right now. He says, I know you. I know you. I know your heart. I know your
thoughts. I know your intents. I know everything
about you. I know you. I know you. You can't cover up. You can't
hide. You can't deceive me. You just well be honest. If you
don't know me, you just well confess it and seek to know me. See? But I know you. But I know
you. Read that. But I know you. that
ye have not the love of God in you. I know you don't have the
love of God in you. The mark of the faithful men, that our
Lord Jesus Christ says, My eyes shall be upon the faithful of
the land. That's one of the marks. We've got to be true, number
two, we've got to be true in our dealing with man on God's
behalf. We're to be true in our dealings
with God, and then we've got to be true to man as we deal
with them in regard to God. We've got to be true there. You
see, you can't sit still. This is what I'm saying in being
true. You can't sit still and let men
trample the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ under their feet.
You've just got to set forth the truth in spite of the odds
and opposition. A man has got to be faithful
to God and faithful unto men's souls and tell them the truth.
It makes a difference how much it pains you. We've got to do
that. We've got to do it. For instance,
If someone was to come here this morning and say, well, and I
knew when they came that they hated the doctrine of God's election. They just hated that from the
bottom of their feet to the crown of their head. They just hated
it. Well, if I knew that, I'd have to preach it. I'd just have to preach it from
the Bible, the doctrine of election. Because I feel that if I kept
silent on that, knowing that they was here, if I kept silent
on that, I would not be honest with my dealings towards them
in regard to God. Sometimes, you know, and you
think this is easy, what I'm talking, but it's not easy. If
we're honest and faithful in this, it's not easy. And I'll
show you why it's not easy here. I'll show you why. In particular,
If you're going to pursue this, if you're really serious about
this thing, I'll show you how difficult it can become. We're
talking about this. We've got to be true in our dealings
with man on God's behalf in this difficult thing. Now, for instance,
a lot of times if I go, someone will say, would you go visit
my uncle or my brother or my sister or my mother or my dad
or my friend? They're sick. Many times I do
do that, go various places to Morgantown or Clarksburg or Fairmont
or wherever they tell me, and if I got the time, I go and visit
with them. Now, you say, well, that's not
hard. Well, no, it wouldn't be hard
if I just confined my visit to a social call. Wouldn't be hard
at all. I could just go there and knock
on the door, and they'd say, who are you? Well, my name is
Richardson. I live here at Berricksville.
Your sister asked me if I'd go and visit and talk to you and
visit with you a little bit. And so I just come to talk. How
are you feeling? Well, I'm feeling all right.
Well, are you retired? Yes, I'm retired. You've been
sick long? And just go on and discuss things
in generality and say, well, I'm sure glad that I got to talk
with you. And they'll tell me, say, well,
come back any time. You're always welcome. I enjoyed
your visit. Now, if that's all there are to it, there wouldn't
be no problem. It wouldn't be no problem. But
here's what I'm talking about, Bob. I'm talking about, am I
going to be honest with them as I deal with their souls on
God's behalf? Am I going to be honest with
them? I remember one time, years ago,
a fellow stopped out here. It was before we had Blacktop
on the parking lot. And Glenn and I was out there,
and we was burning some wood. We had some scraps of lumber
there. And we was burning the wood there. And fella stopped
and we talked a little bit and he said, well, he said, my dad
told me that if anything ever happened to him, that he wanted
you to preach his funeral. And I said, yeah, he mentioned
that to me. Well, he said, I just thought I'd We had this straight
here, and he said, Dad was telling me about it. And I said, well,
that's what he told me. He wanted to know if I'd hold it in services if he
died. Well, we talked a little bit, and here's the thing he
said to me. He said, now listen, I want to tell you this one thing
about my mother. He said, if there was ever a woman went to
heaven, he said, my mother did. And I think that we mentioned,
either Glenn or I, or the conversation got around, well, why do you
think so? And the reason he thought that his mother was going to
heaven was not because she was such a great Christian, not because
she didn't even attend church, as far as I know, whether she
was a member of a church or not. She never even made a profession
of faith, as far as I know. But because he thought she was
a good woman. Now, should I have said anything? Should I have said anything to
that fellow? Or let him go on thinking that salvation is because
you're good. Another time I was talking to
a fellow, and he was a good friend. In fact, he was a relative of
mine. And we were talking about this,
and he told me, he said, well, he said, we've had some bad weather
here where I live, and so I've been shoveling all the
snow around neighbors' houses. And he said, there's an old lady
that lives across the street from me, and she's a Methodist
minister's widow. And said, she's a good old soul.
And so he said, I went up to her driveway and steps and was
shoveling it out. And she opened the door up and
thanked me and said, well, let me pay you for that. And I said,
well, no, I don't want to pay for it. He said, maybe if I do
a few good things like that, why, it'll help me in my stand
before God sometime. And so he just kept on and I
said, now, wait a minute. I said, wait a minute now. I
said, I can't let that pass. I just can't let that pass. It's
not for the sake of argument. Now, it's for the sake of truth
now, remember, not for the sake of argument. but for the sake
of truth. We've got to be honest to that
man's soul. We're going to let him talk to us about religion.
We profess to be Christians. We profess to know the truth.
We profess to be honest with God. Now, we're going to let
that fellow go by and not say anything. We know that he's going
to get mad. We know that we're going to tear down his God. Well,
I said, now wait a minute. I said, now, what you're saying
is, that you believe that it's possible for you to build up
enough good works that somehow God will close His eyes to your
bad deeds when you stand before Him and you think maybe everything's
going to be alright. Well, yeah, he thought maybe
that's the way it was. Well, I began to tell him how
God saves sinners. And I told him, I said, we're
all sinners, sinners, sinners, terrible, terrible sinners. And
I said, none of us. Nobody, the best man that ever
lived apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, don't have enough good
words that would give him five minutes in the presence of God.
We're sinners. And he got mad at me, and he's
only spoke to me a couple of times since, and that's been
four or five years ago. What I'm telling you is this.
Sometimes when I visit the sick, I come under great temptation. Because these people that are
sick and are in the hospital or confined to their homes, you
know what they're expecting for the most 99% of the time? You know what they're expecting?
They're expecting to be comforted. They want you to comfort them. Now, they want you to comfort
them when they ought not to be comforted. They ought not to
be comforted because you know by their own testimony of their
lies that they're strangers unto God and they got one foot in
the grave. What are you going to do? Go in there, Jack, and
put your hand on their head and say, well, I'm sorry you're sick.
I hope you get to feeling better. And, well, I just enjoyed your
visit. And leave the place? Is that
what you're going to do? You're exactly right. Tell them the truth! We've got
to tell men and women the truth! We can't shut our... I don't
care if they're mother or father, brother or sister, who they are.
We've got to tell them. We've got to tell them that this
is what God demands. God demands perfection. You say
you're ready to die, are you perfect? They say, no, I'm not
perfect. Then say, well, I know one that
is, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then go on and tell them
about it. Or are you just going to shut your eyes to it and go
to their funeral and whisper to someone and say, I don't believe
that's ever said. Too late to talk about it then.
Tell them now. Tell them now. You see, these
people, they ought not to be comforted with soft, gentle,
smooth words. What needs to be said is that
they need to be made aware of their need before God, which
is absolute perfection or an absolute righteousness, which
can only be had, can only be discovered, can only be found
in a person, and that person is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where it's at. If you
haven't got Him, if you're not wrapped up in Him, bound up,
shut up in the Lamb's wool, you're lost right now. If you're trusting
in anything apart from God's perfection, you're lost. That's
it. You're lost. I'm being honest
to your soul. That's the way we ought to be
to all men. You say, well, that'll cause me a lot of pain. I know
it'll cause you a lot of pain. I know it. I know it. Do you think that Ernest Angley
and Jerry Falwell and Rex Humbard and Robert Shuler All these fellas
have 50,000 people listening to them every Sunday by telling
them the truth? Not on your tin type. They're
a bunch of hupsters. They're a bunch of frauds. And
they'll have their day. They'll have their day. Brethren,
they're frauds. These guys is frauds. These television
preachers, they're frauds. Phonies, you can mark it down.
They're phonies. They're not being honest with
men. Not doing it. What I'm saying
is, what I'm saying is that the mark, one of the two of the marks
anyhow that I know of, of the faithful in the land who the
greater son of David looks upon are those that are faithful and
honest in their dealing with God Almighty. And secondly, they're
faithful and honest with their dealing with men's souls on God's
behalf, they tell them. What kind of compromise do you
suppose that John the Baptist could have concocted up when
he went to this? Here was the king living with
his brother's wife. Old Herod was living with his
brother's wife. And this guy liked John the Baptist.
He liked him. He respected him. And he went
to him and he said, well, listen, king, It's unlawful for you to
have your brother's wife. You can't live with your brother's
wife. That's unlawful. That's a violation of the standards
and the law of God. You've got to get out of this
mess. Do it right now. Made them all so mad. Made that
woman, that girl mad. Made her mad. And finally cut off John the
Baptist's head. Killed him. He's only in his thirties. About
the same age of the Lord Jesus. He's only in his thirties. I
know he could have said, well, I'll just keep quiet here because
it's going to get a lot of trouble and I'm only thirty years old
and I can be used of God for at least thirty more years preaching.
He didn't look at it that way. Well, you see, we've got to tell
people the naked truth. I don't mean be mean about it. Don't misunderstand me. I don't
mean being smart Alec. That's not what I'm talking about. Don't be a smart Alec. Don't
be a know-it-all. Don't be that way. Just don't act stupid about this
thing. Be compassionate and be gentle
and be kind and be tender, but tell the truth. The whole truth
and nothing but the truth. Tell the truth. If it upsets,
it upsets. Well, there's a time you have
to leave and be, Jack said. Well, Jack, that reminds me of
a story. Reminds me of a story. You're
an old coon hunter. Now, if a man's out coon hunting,
and he has a dog, and the dog barks up the tree, And not knowing
too much about coon hunting, Jack, I know that sometimes that
dog may be three-quarters of a mile away, and it's after dark,
and you've got your glasses on, you've got a lantern or a big
flashlight, and you don't know whether that dog's going to stay
right there or not, so you just take out running. And you just,
bushes is hitting you in the face and you're falling and all
that, but that dog's a-barking. Dog's a-barking. And you finally
get there, Jack, and shine the light up in the tree, and there
ain't no coon in the tree. Ain't much of a dog, is there?
You know what he's doing? He's barking up the wrong tree.
There ain't nothing there. And that's what you're talking
about, Jack. There's a whole lot of people. We're arguing with
people about doctrines. We're arguing about what baptism
is, what the Lord's Supper is, where Adam got his wife, or Cain
got his wife, and this and that and so forth. You're wasting
your time because there ain't nothing up that tree. There ain't
nothing up that tree. There just ain't nothing up there. You're casting your pearl before
swine. All right, I've got to get on.
I've got to get on. We've got to be honest here,
and I think to a degree that when we come to die, we'll be
able to say, well, at least there's no blood on my hands. The souls
of men the stains of their bloods, not upon my hands, because I
witnessed to them. I told them the truth. The best
of my understanding, it's been fumbling and halting and mumbling,
and it hadn't been clear, but I did my best to tell them the
truth. And then, brethren, that's all
you can do. But let me take a step further now and take another
hitch at this. Have I been faithful to my own?
Have I been faithful to my own? Have I been faithful to my own
wife in telling her the truth? Have I been faithful? Have I
been faithful to my own children in telling them the truth? You
better be. You better be. If you haven't
been, you better be now. You better be faithful in telling
your wife the truth. Tell her the truth. And you better
be faithful in telling your children the truth. Wives, have you been
faithful to your husband about their souls? Or have you just
dismissed it and said, well, my husband, he just won't come
to church, so I don't say anything anymore to him. You pray for
him. Have you ever had the opportunity
under God just to sit down and say, now listen, husband, I love
you. I love you. I love you. Do anything for you
that I know of, but let me tell you the truth about your soul.
Let me tell you about the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me tell you
about your truth. Have you ever done that? You
need to be honest with Him. One of these days, God is going
to take Him away. Then you'll say, oh, I wish that
I'd have talked to Him. Don't ask me to come. Don't ask
me to come if you haven't talked to Him. If you're a Christian
now, And you know the truth. Don't you come and say, preacher,
come and talk to my husband. I'm afraid to talk to him. Don't
you? You talk to him. You talk to him. And you pray
for him. You talk to your children. Don't you let them believe that
they're such good little children. And ain't nothing the matter
with them if they're innocent and this and that. And if they
don't go to the picture show, if they don't start smoking marijuana
and take them home every night at 9 o'clock, that'll be good. That'll be good. Maybe they'll
go to heaven when they die. Now don't lead them to believe
that. Don't lead them to believe that. They got trouble. They
got trouble just like everybody else has got trouble. You see?
We got trouble! We got trouble! Trouble. We got heart trouble. Does not
the Bible say that man that's born of woman is what? Full of trouble as sparks fly
upward. Full of trouble. Heart trouble.
And we've got to tell them about the heart trouble. You can tell
them about, don't smoke any marijuana. That's good, tell them not to
do that. But I'll tell you this, they can quit smoking that marijuana.
And they can quit drinking that alcohol, and they can still die
and go to hell. A fella tell me one time, said
they need to clean up the TV. I'm all for it. I'm all for cleaning
up the TV, but they can clean up the TV, but that ain't going
to help out any. Is it? That ain't going to help
out any. Clean up the TV, clean up the
radio, clean up the pornographic shops, clean up all of the magazines,
that ain't going to help anything out. Man's trouble's here! In his
heart! That's where his trouble is.
Right here. It's his attitude towards God's
Son. He's saying, I can make it without Him. Some of you right
now, some of you young people right now, you know I'm telling
you the truth. You know, you know, and you've heard enough
right now that you know in your heart that you're saying, that's
right, my problem is my heart! I'm going to make it my own.
The reason I know that I'm right and the reason I know that you
believe that is because you hear me every Sunday and you just
walk right by me. And you just go out here just whistling and
having a big time. You're not worried about it.
What you're really saying is this. What you're really saying
is, I'm okay. I'm okay. You're not okay. You're not okay. You've got heart
trouble. Well, maybe some of us ought to go home from this
service and pour out floods of tears before God and confess
unto Him that we haven't been as faithful as we should have
been to our neighbors, to our friends, to our husbands, to
our wives, to our children. I've done a poor job of it, but
I've tried to describe the faithful men of the land that the king
said his eye would rest upon. These are some of the marks of
the faithful. Well, what does he mean here
when he says, My eye shall be upon the faithful of the land?
Well, let me tell you just quickly what I think that he means. Well, it says his eye will search
him out and so forth. Well, for instance, here's a
working man. Here's a man that works every
day and works on the job all at once at noontime quitting
time, or starting time, or sometime during the course of the day,
someone brings in some false doctrine and begins to tell about,
well, I don't believe that the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ
was sufficient to save a man, to satisfy the justice of God.
I believe that if you do the best you can, you're going to
get to heaven when you die, and talk like that. Or maybe you
might say, well, I believe that you ought to believe in Jesus,
Boy, if you don't have some good works along with it, well then,
your belief in Jesus and this, just go on and destroy the whole
gospel of grace. Now, here's a man, you see, he's
on the job. He's on the job. And he's a Christian. And his works, his works verifies
the fact that he is a Christian. He's honest and he's faithful
and has been down through the years here at this job. But here's
an opportunity. Now, what's he going to do? What's
he going to do? I believe He is going to speak
up for the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe He is going to say,
wait a minute, brethren, I may not be able to explain this to
your satisfaction, but I want to tell you this. I want to tell
you this, that Jesus Christ died to save somebody. I want to tell
you that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ will not be thwarted
by our unbelief. That He died in the stead, in
the place, in the room of somebody. And those somebodies that he
died for will be saved by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm going to tell you that. Well now, I want you to know
that this noble action of this man will not be recorded in the
newspaper. It will not be recorded in the
public paper. It will not be recorded in the
company newspaper. But I'll tell you this. God's
eye will rest upon that faithful man. That's what he's talking
about. When he says, mine eye shall
be upon the faithful of the land. If the newspaper don't publish
it, if your colleagues and your brethren do not publicly recognize
you for your valor and your courage, don't be offended and don't be
disappointed. He means here. that my eye shall
be upon you. And that's all that counts anyhow.
Isn't that what we're talking about? That our prayers is before
God. Our singing is before God. Our
deeds is before God. That's all that counts. It's
all that counts. There's so much of this depraved
nature in us that we just desire to be recognized, don't we? We
desire it. We desire it. And if we can't
get it, well, we figure, well, I haven't done anything. Here
I've been serving the Lord these 25 or 30 or 40 years and no one's
recognized me or patted me on the back. So what, Fred? So what? If what you did, you did it unto
God for His honor and for His glory, His eye rests upon you. And I'll tell you this, He'll
reward you too. God will reward you. He'll reward your faithfulness. He'll do it. Well, I've got to
hurry up here. I know that if you are not faithful
in doing this, I know that your unfaithfulness will deprive you
of many a comfort and many a joy. It will dog your footsteps. It
will track you down when you least expect it and find you
out, the unfaithful. We need to be faithful to God
now. It will track us down, find us out. You remember old David,
the man that primarily we are talking about here this morning?
Did his sin find him out? Did his sin find him out? He
coveted another man's wife. He saw her and finally arranged
it so he took her. And then he had this wife's husband
killed in order to cover up his crime. Finally a man come to
him one day and David David didn't expect this. He was shocked. And this man, a prophet, a prophet
came to him. And this prophet said to David,
he said, King David, there's a fellow out here, he said he
just has one little old lamb. He just had one. And he said
he raised it just from a baby. And it's like one of the children. Just follows him around wherever
he goes and feeds it with the bottle. It's just a pet. But here's a fellow over here,
he's got thousands of them. He comes over here and he takes
that little lamb from these people and breaks their heart. Why,
old David jumped up real quick and he said, who is that man?
He said, as sure as I'm the king and as sure as God's alive, that
fellow's going to die. Who's the man that done that?
And old Nathan said, thou art the man. You're the man that's
done it. You've done it. you took Uriah's
Bathsheba. And you know that from that time
until the time that David died, his life never counted like it
did prior to that. You see, our unfaithfulness will
dog us and track us down like a dog and find us out when we
least expect it. Well, notice another thing here
now. Mine eyes shall be upon them,
the faithful of the land. Now listen here. What will the
king do for them? Listen to what he says. That
they may dwell with me. My eye will be upon them. Every
faithful act, my eye will be upon them. And I'll dwell with
them. I'll dwell with them. You see,
when the grace of God makes a man faithful, and that's the only
thing that can make a man faithful, is the grace of God. Not your
resolutions. It's not your resolutions that
makes you faithful. It's the grace of God. Let me
read something to you over here, if I can find it real quick.
Listen to this. It says, For the grace of God
that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Verse number 12 says,
Teaching us What teaches us? Says, the grace of God teaches
us. Teaches us what? Teaches us that denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously
and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope
and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus
Christ. I said, when the grace of God
makes a man faithful, and only the grace of God can make a man
faithful, Now, when the grace of God does make a man faithful,
then God rewards his faithfulness by permitting him to live in
a close fellowship with Him. Well, it's wonderful, I think,
it's amazing to me that if we have any good works, now you listen to me and think
about this, if we have any good works, God always works them
in us, if we have any. God always works them in us. Then what happens? He rewards
us for these good works as if they were our very own. Do you
see that? You can't do anything to please
God. You can't do anything. Whatever that is in yourself,
if you do do anything, it's because God wrought these things in you.
And then He rewards you or blesses you for these things that He's
done for you in you. He gives grace. and then smiles
on us because that grace that he himself gives. So he makes
a man faithful and rewards this individual for it according to
his grace. You see, he shall dwell with
me. I'll have fellowship with him,
communion with him, and I'll bless him. I'll bless him. Well,
I listened to a fellow there the other day on the television.
He said this. He said, something good is going to happen to you
today. And I was talking to a fellow
about that, and they said, well, that guy said that for years
and years and years. He said he says that at the beginning
of his program, and he says that at the end of his program. He
always reminds the listeners, something good is going to happen
to you today. Well, I thought about that, and
I know what that fellow preaches. But that's the only statement
of truth that he ever made that I know of, right there. Something
good is going to happen to you every day. That is, if you're
a believer in Christ Jesus. Why? Because all things work
together for good to them that love God. See? His eyes on the
faithful. Something good will happen to
you. It can't be bad. It's got to be good because all
things work together for good to them that love God. to them
who are the called according to His purpose. And then another thing, and I'll
quit here. It says, And mine eyes shall be upon the faithful
of the land, that they may dwell with me. And he that walketh
in a mature way, he shall serve me. Well, I don't know, brethren,
which is the greatest. Have you ever thought about this?
Which is the greatest? To dwell with God or to serve
Him? Look here now. Mine eyes shall
be upon the faithful, and they may dwell with me. That's close
fellowship. Now, what's the greater? The fellowship, dwelling with
God or serving God? Now, I don't know which is the
greater. But I know that most people have never thought, really
and truly and honestly, what an honor it is to be permitted
to do anything for God. Now, if you can think of a greater
honor than that, I want to know what it is. To be permitted to
do anything for God. when you realize that God doesn't
need anything. He's not poor. He's not poor. He was happy and content in Himself
before He ever made man. So what a privilege it is for
us to do anything for God, to sing praises unto His name. That
ought to be a privilege when we come here from time to time
on a Wednesday night, a Sunday night, a Sunday morning, to be
able to open up the hymn books and to look into the hymn books
and to sing, Oh, I want to be like Jesus as I walk along this
pilgrim's way. Oh, I want to live like Jesus,
showing forth His beauty every day. This my prayer and deepest
longing to be pure without and pure within. Oh, I want to be
like Jesus, cleansed from dross and free from self and sin. That's
a privilege to be able to just just to sing praises unto God. It's a privilege. It's a privilege
to get up on a Sunday morning and a Sunday night to give a
witness. To give a witness. I was talking
to Joe here not too long ago. We were talking about the opportunities
that we had to be a good witness for God. Now Joe lives all about
30 miles from here. He was talking about coming to
church in the distance. And that's right. That's a far
piece. Thirty miles to get up on Sunday
morning and go to church. That's a far piece. But I told him this. I said,
well, you've got a rare privilege. It's a rare privilege that you
enjoy for this reason. Because you've got the privilege
of being a good witness for God. You can get up on Sunday morning
And if the neighbors say a thing to you, you say, well, I'm going
to church. Well, where are you going? Well, there's a church
down here at Fairmont that believes about like I do. They believe
in the grace of God and the gospel of free and sovereign grace.
And I'm going down there, and I'm going to worship with those
people.