All right, brethren, Psalm 141.
Psalm 141. Now, I'm not gonna read it again. I'll read sections as we go,
but the Psalms are the favorite for God's saints, and I think
we love them more the longer we're in the faith because we
see our own troubles and we hear our own prayers when we look
into the Psalms. This is a psalm of David, and
we hear David's prayer here, and we recognize it as the same
petition we make to the Lord. And David's a type of Christ.
When we look at David, we can see the perfect prayer of our
Lord Jesus. We can see something of his intercession
for us now at God's right hand. He was tempted in all points,
like as we are, yet without sin. So He's able to comfort and help
His people. And when we pray, He's the one
who makes our prayer come up to God, accepted in Him. Now, the first thing I want us
to see here is Christ alone is our high priest. He alone is
our intercessor. He's our advocate with the Father.
He begins in verse one, he says, Lord, I cry unto thee. Our prayer is to the Lord because
he's the only one that's able to save. Christ is the only great
high priest of his people. He's our only advocate with the
Father. He's the only intercessor between
God and men, the Lord Jesus Christ. An earthly priest can't save
us. An earthly priest cannot save
us. We have a great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. All the
priests in the Old Testament scriptures pictured Christ our
high priest. A earthly pastor, bishop, elder,
that's all the same office, pastor, bishop, elder. An earthly pastor
can't help you, can't save you. Christ is the bishop of our souls. shepherd, the pastor who is God,
he is able to save to the uttermost. And he can help us, he can save
us. Our brethren are unable to save
us. We share our burdens with one
another, but go to the Lord. Our Lord is, he is the firstborn
among many brethren. He is the elder brother of his
people. Not even an earthly father can
save us. but our Lord Jesus is our everlasting
father. He is the last Adam who is our
father, who is our everlasting father. So go to Christ, go to
him and pour out your heart. David said, Lord, I cry unto
thee. And then secondly, when our Lord
and all prayer, true prayer is of the Lord, the spirit helps
us to pray. We know not how to pray as we
ought, Paul said. and true prayers of the Lord.
But the prayer our Lord produces in us is from a broken and a
contrite heart. A broken, the heart God's made,
the heart he's created in us, a broken and a contrite heart. Notice it here in verse two.
He says, let my prayer be set before thee as incense and the
lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. like everyone
that's been taught of God, David knew that we have access into
the holiest of holies. We can enter into God's holy
presence. He knew that. He knew that. It's
by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way. That's what was pictured in the
Old Testament. Only the high priest went into
the holiest of holies, and he didn't enter without blood. He
alone was able to go in. That picture of our Lord Jesus,
he now has entered in, not with the blood of bulls and goats,
but with his own blood. He's entered in into the holy
place, the holiest of holies, to God's presence. And it's by
his blood that we have access through him. We have him as our
high priest over the house of God, and we, through his blood,
we've been made righteous and holy. Everyone he's given faith,
He's made you to know His blood has made you righteous and holy
so that holy God will hear you when you pray. That's the only
way we can pray, is our prayer coming up through our Lord Jesus
Christ. He gave us this spirit to cry,
Abba, Father. The Lord intends, His purpose
is for us to come to Him, but we pray in Christ's name. That's
not just something we tack on our prayer. cannot come to God
any other way than in the Holy One, the Righteous One, Christ
Jesus. But we can because of Him. Go
to Hebrews 10. Because of Him, we can. Hebrews
10, verse 19. Because Christ perfected us,
He said, having therefore brethren, boldness, liberty to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which
he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his
flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God, let us
draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water. Look back to Hebrews 4. Paul
said it's through him that we have access by one spirit unto
the Father. He said in Christ we have boldness
and access with confidence by the faith of Christ, by his obedience. And brethren, now we're willing
to do whatever we can to help one another. And we share our
troubles and our burdens with one another, but we cannot do
for one another what our Lord Jesus can, what God our Father
can, and use this access he's given. You go to him and pour
out your need to him. Look here, Hebrews 4.14, seeing
then that we have a great high priest that's passed into the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. But, though David knew he had
access, and though we know we have access through the blood
of Christ, by the spirit of our Lord, we approach the Lord humble
with a broken and a contrite heart. We come before him dependent
entirely upon the Lord Jesus to represent us to the Father.
That's what we hear here in David's prayer. He said, verse two, let
my prayer be set forth before thee as incense. and the lifting
up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Do you see how humble
and how lowly and the spirit with which David prayed to the
Lord? He said, let my prayer be set
before thee. Who's gonna set it before God?
It's gonna be Christ who does it. He'll set the prayer before
the Father. He's our high priest. He says,
let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense. You know, God
commanded in the law that incense be offered in the morning and
on the altar of incense while the people outside prayed. You get the picture? The priest
went into the holy place and he's burning the incense while
the people are on the outside praying. That pictured Christ. Here we are down here praying
and there's Christ in the holy place. representing us to God
and presenting our petitions to God. He alone, he's the incense
in the altar that sanctifies, or he's the altar that sanctifies,
the incense represents our prayer. But he's the altar that sanctifies
us ourselves, the believer ourselves, makes us holy and accepted of
God. He sanctifies our works, and he even sanctifies our prayer. and makes it holy before God. They're called spiritual sacrifices,
the calves of our lips, and they're acceptable to God by Jesus Christ,
scripture says. We can't come to God any other
way than Christ, any other way. He's at God's right hand, and
he ever lives to make intercession for his people. But we know this,
and so we come to him lowly But by him, our prayers come to God,
fragrant and accepted, a sweet smell. Go to Revelation. The
Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter eight. This is not the revelation
of times and seasons and gobbledygook that people like to think it
is. This book is the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Now look here, in chapter eight
and verse three, John said, I saw another angel. This is Christ
Jesus, the angel of God. This is Christ, the angel of
the covenant. He's the high priest, he's the
mediator, the intercessor, the advocate for his people. He said,
I saw another angel and he came and he stood at the altar having
a golden censer and there was given unto him much incense that
he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden
altar which was before the throne and the smoke of the incense
which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before
God out of the angel's hand. Do you see, when David said,
let my prayer be set before you as incense, he's basically saying,
Lord, In Christ's name I'm coming before you. I'm coming before
you in Christ Jesus. Let him set my prayer before
you. And then look here in Revelation.
Christ answers the prayers of his saints. That's what we see
next. This fire, he sends the fire of his providential judgment
upon our enemies. Look here, verse five. And the
angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar
and cast it into the earth and there were voices and thunderings
and lightnings and earthquakes. So that's why David is humble
before God. That's why he says, let my prayer
be set before you. He has faith in Christ. He knows
he can't come to God any other way but through Christ. And the
prayer that's produced by the Spirit of God asks for the Lord
God to receive us only in the blood of Christ. He said there
in Psalm 141 too, he said, and let the lifting up of my hands
be as the evening sacrifice. You'll see from time to time,
I've seen this at meeting, at conferences sometimes, strangers
will come in and they'll start lifting up their hands, you know,
when they're singing or when they're praying, and don't have
any idea what that means. The evening sacrifice was the
last sacrifice of the day. Had to be offered every day.
It was the last sacrifice of the day. but not one of those
evening sacrifices ever put away the sin of the people. They pictured
the Lord Jesus Christ in the evening of this world, in these
last days, Hebrews 1 says, in these last days, Christ has come,
and on a day in the evening of that day, the Lord Jesus Christ
laid down his life on the cross, and by that one offering, He
perfected forever His people. And we can come to God in His
perfection. We come to God in Him. And this
lifting up of these empty hands, what it pictures is in our heart,
we come into God saying, in my hand no price I bring, simply
to Christ I cling. Lord, I'm not bringing any works
of my hands. I'm not bringing anything I've
done. I'm simply coming to You trusting in the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus alone. That's the only way we come to
God, even in prayer, even in prayer. So that's a broken heart,
that's a contrite heart that the Lord gives his people, that
you approach the holy God this way only in the merits of the
Lord Jesus Christ, asking Christ to represent us to God the Father. Psalm 51, 14, listen to this. So I'm 51, 14. Deliver me from blood guiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud
of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips, and
my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not
sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God. thou wilt not despise. Because a broken and a contrite
heart trusts Christ only. We're trusting him alone to represent
us to God. God said, I'm the high and lofty
one. I'm the holy one. He said, I
dwell in the high and holy place. But he said, I also dwell with
him who is of a broken and a contrite spirit. And Lord said, and I
revive the heart of the contrite ones. So, here we have David,
he's crying to the only one for help, the only one who can help,
Christ. God our Father, through Christ
Jesus. And he comes broken and humble
before him. Lord, I'm bringing nothing in
my hands. I pray in the name of Christ
that he would set my petitions before thee. And then we see
David's prayer was importunate. I'll show you what that means.
Notice in verse 1, he said, Lord, I cry unto thee. This is a fervent
prayer. I cry unto thee. And he asked
the Lord to hurry. He said, make haste unto me.
And he says, give ear unto my voice when I cry unto thee. You know, a father and mother
can tell what the cry means when their child cries by the voice
of the cry. There's different voices. There's
the complaining cry has a voice. And a hungry cry has a voice. And a needy cry has a voice. You can tell by the voice. And
that's what David's saying, Lord, hear my voice. Hear my need that
I have before you. David's voice is the voice of
importunity. Importunity means this. being
fearful of shame and disgrace. That's what it means. Let me
show you that, Luke 11. Our Lord illustrated it, Luke
11. As he was teaching his people
to pray, he said here in Luke 11, verse 5,
he said, which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him
at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves.
For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing
to set before him. And he from within shall answer
and say, Trouble be not, the door is now shut, and my children
are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee.
I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because
he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise
and give him as many as he needeth. This man was fearful of shame
and disgrace because he didn't have any bread to set before
his visitor friend who had come to see him. That was his fear
of shame, that he didn't have any bread to set before his friend. David cries from a fear of doing
something that will bring shame and disgrace because he has nothing
of himself and he can do nothing of himself. That's why David's
crying. That's why we cry. Christ said,
without me you can do nothing. The Spirit of our Lord makes
us know we're helpless without Christ. Lord's taught you that,
that belief. We're helpless without Christ.
We're importunate because of this. We're fearful of shame. We're fearful of bringing dishonor
and disgrace because of our sin. And apart from Christ, we don't
have a righteousness. Apart from Christ, we don't have
a holiness. Apart from Christ, we can do
nothing. And so Christ teaches us to go
to God our Father, to go to Christ our Savior, for mercy and for
grace to provide for us. That's why we're going to the
Lord. True prayer, when you come to God, importunate, it is coming
fearful of your own self and what you know you're capable
of. And let's see that with David. First of all, what did David
pray for? What's this shame he had? Why
does he have this shame? What's he fearful of? And what's
he fearful of being ashamed of and disgraced by? First of all,
from sinning with his lips. He says in verse 3, He said,
A watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. David
speaks of the wicked here laying snares for him. And so he asks
the Lord to keep him from sinning with his mouth before the wicked.
We need the Lord to keep our tongue, brethren, We can't even
do that, we need the Lord to keep our tongue, especially if
wicked men are trying to entangle us in our talk. And that's the
gist of this psalm. In another place he said, let
my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all the day.
There are many other ways we can sin with our lips. when it
seems the Lord's providence is against us. The Lord puts you
in a situation and it's very unpleasant. We know God's sovereign. We know He rules all providence
and we know He's doing it for the good of His people according
to His eternal purpose. But it's sinful when we pray
and we're murmuring and we're covetous for God to change it. And so we have to ask, Lord,
don't let me sin with my lips. Lord, make me content and know
and trust that you're near, you're at hand, and you're ruling all
things for my sake. We ask God to help us from being
critical of others, from exalting ourselves over others. How easy
that is to do. Let me not slander others. Let
me be content knowing the Lord's at hand. He's never gonna leave
me. He's never gonna forsake me. Even when we're praying. Do you find this, brethren? I
find so often my prayers are selfish. They're just selfish. Lord, don't let me sin when I
pray to you. Number two, here's what he prayed
for. We depend upon the Lord to keep our hearts. Practice might be honoring to
him. Verse four, incline not my heart to any evil thing, to
practice wicked works with men that work iniquity, and let me
not eat of their dainties, of their delicacies. That's what
Christ taught us to pray. When he gave that model prayer,
he didn't mean pray that exact words, but he gave you a model
of prayer, but in it he said basically the same thing. He's
told us to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil. That's what he's praying here.
We know to pray this because the Spirit of our Lord has made
us to know this. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. when I would do good, evil is
present in me. I have to ask the Lord, incline not my heart
to any evil thing because He's taught me and He's shown me by
painful experience that my old heart is inclined to sinful things. We depend upon the Lord to keep
our hearts so that we won't join with the workers of iniquity. He says, incline not my heart
to any evil thing to practice wicked works with men that work
iniquity and let me not eat of their dainties. Works of iniquity,
they include all sin. When you commit one sin, and
I'm just talking about in the heart, one sin, is to commit
every sin that can be committed. Ain't that right? The Lord has
taught us in his book, if you break one commandment, you've
broken them all. Particularly, works of iniquity
are religious works that men engage in that they think is
holiness and righteousness, but that does not equal the perfect
righteousness and the perfect holiness that God requires. That's what works of iniquity
are. They may appear like they're
good works to men, but God is looking at the motive of the
heart, and if it is not done in faith in Christ, and if it
is not moved by the love of Christ for us, then it's wicked works
of iniquity. He said, whatsoever is not of
faith is sin. Read Romans 14, I'm gonna preach
from that soon again. Paul's telling there that just
because a brother believes he's He has to eat certain things
according to the law and not eat other things. That doesn't
mean he's a legalist. And the brother who's free tonight
and knows he has liberty, that doesn't mean he's an antinomian.
He said they both do it in faith. As long as they both do it in
faith, it's accepted of God. They're doing it to the Lord.
But whatsoever is not of faith, that's sin. That's sin. And that goes for you and me.
If you constrain somebody else to do what the scripture says
they ought to do, and they do it to try to please you, if it's
not a faith, it's sin. You just constrained them to
sin. So that's why we trust the Lord to make the motive of the
heart to be faith in Christ and constrained by the love of Christ.
And only the Lord can do that. Faith which works by love, that's
the believer's rule of life. But if it's not a faith, and
it's not constrained by the love of Christ, if it's, like I said
this morning, to indebt God, to make yourself righteous, to
make yourself holy, and you look into that work, it's a wicked
work of iniquity. And they're dainties, even to
a believer, they're delicacies to our sinful flesh. Our sin nature is pride, and
our sin nature loves works of iniquity. That's what our sin
nature loves, as much as the delicacies of a wealthy, on a
wealthy man's table, that our flesh loves the works of iniquity. Listen, this is, if you, Colossians
2, 23, if you read this correctly, here's what Paul is saying. I'm
gonna read it, giving you the meaning of what it is. Here it
is. He said those works of touch not, taste not, handle not, he
said, which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship
and humility and neglecting of the body to the satisfying of
the flesh, but not in any honor to the satisfaction of God. That's
what he said. They do satisfy the flesh. The
flesh loves to engage in these works of iniquity, touch not,
taste not, handle not. The flesh loves it. but God despises
it. So we beg Christ to keep us from
the vain works of iniquity. Let me not eat of their dainties. Now, let's get to this right
here. And here's what's so important, brethren. This right here, this
makes this psalm a very experimental psalm. This is something you're
gonna only enter into this if God's given you faith and he's
shown you these things by experience. Now listen, Psalm 141.5. Here,
I want you to see, here's the point
I want you to see in this next part. We pray and depend upon
Christ to keep us and save us from vain men and to save our
brethren from vain men. Watch this now, verse five. This
is his opportunity now. This is what he's fearful of
bringing shame and disgrace about. He says, verse five, let the
righteous smite me. He's speaking of being reproved.
He's not speaking of them hitting him. Although, if you look at
Christ, Christ was smitten. He was hit. And this all, Christ
can do all of this far worse than we ever will. But look here,
let the righteous smite me. It shall be a kindness. And let
him reprove me. It shall be an excellent oil
which shall not break my head, for yet my prayer also shall
be in their calamities. When their judges are overthrown
in stony places, they shall hear my words, for they are sweet. Now, we've seen in the scripture
there was a time when King Saul was the king over Israel and
Judah. David had been anointed by the
Lord, and he was God's ordained king. But for that time, Saul
was king, and Saul turned everybody in Israel and Judah against David. He turned them against David.
Not everybody, but almost everybody. So then when Saul died, false
men kept the children of Israel still turned against David, even
after he was the king. And during that time, David's
own brethren said things about David that smote him. They said things that smote him
and reproved him, but they did it because of their false judges
and their false rulers that had turned them against David. You remember, we've seen that
in 1 Samuel and Kings? Now, it's, This is true brethren
David's talking about here that he calls the righteous. He says,
let the righteous smite me. It shall be a kindness and let
him reprove me. It shall be an excellent oil
which shall not break my head. We know Christ is the righteous. The Lord Jesus is our righteousness
and he's the righteousness of his people. And if he uses brethren
to reprove us, it's Christ correcting us. We know that. It's Christ
chastening us. And sometimes he uses brethren
to reprove us. But when brethren reprove, one,
be very slow to reprove your brethren. Be very slow. Especially
if it hasn't been asked for. If it hasn't been asked for and
you offer up your reproof, it is going to come across as you
being critical of them. That's how they're gonna hear
it. But this word is not speaking to you and me about you reproving
other people. It's speaking about if you are
reproved. But a believer is gonna prove
reproved with sweet words. You know, we preach this gospel
and the Lord applies it however it needs to be applied. While
it's blessing one's heart, it's chastening another. rebuking
another, correcting another, while it's bringing one down
from a high and lofty opinion, he's lifting another up from
a low place lest he perish in depression or whatever. The Lord
applies it as he needs to apply it. But when we speak to one
another, we do it with sweet words, kindly and kindness. But here, this word smite, It's
saying, David, and we see it when we go back to 1 Samuel and
read, there were times David was smitten harshly by men who
said harsh things to him. Remember when he was cussed that
time he was going up the mountain and his friend wanted to go over
there and take the guy's head off? David said, let him cuss me. He said, God sent him. God's
gonna teach me through it. That was the heart, that's the
humble broken heart knowing that's only happening because the Lord
sent him and the Lord's teaching me through that. That's how we
need to hear things, just like that. But listen, these brethren
were righteous in Christ. David knew someone, now that
man that cursed David that day, he was a wicked man as far as
I can remember. But there were some men who had
been led away that David knew were his brethren. They were
righteous in Christ, but they were led away by false judges,
false rulers, false king like Saul, false men, lifted up in
pride and self-righteousness, and so they smote David harshly. But listen, here's the heart
the Lord gives his people. He still prayed for them. Look
at verse five. Yet my prayer also shall be in
their calamities. And David knew only the Lord
is able to make his servant stand. Only Christ can make his servant
stand. And my brother, I'm not his master. Christ is his master. Romans
14. And Christ is able to make him stand. And so he prayed to
Christ and trusted Christ to be their master. See, that's
the law we're under. It's the law of faith. We're
trusting Christ to save ourselves and to save our brethren. And
we're trusting Christ to make us stand and make our brethren
stand. and by his grace and by his love toward us, we do what
we do, constrained by his love for us. And so David, by doing
what he's doing here and saying what he's saying here, you know
what David's doing? He's being a hearer of the word
and a doer of Christ's law. The law we're under is faith
which works by love. David's being a hearer of it
and a doer of it. by what he's saying. That's his
heart he's revealing right here as he prays to God. Now look
at James 4.11. I want you to see something.
James 4.11. I'm almost done. I'm just about finished, but
I want you to see this. This is so important. This is
why I say this is so experimental right here. The Lord's gonna
have to be our teacher right here. James 4.11. Speak not evil of another, brethren,
He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judges his brother,
speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law. The law we're
under as believers is faith which worketh by love. You can read
it in Galatians 5. But when we speak evil of brethren,
we're judging Christ's law as not being a good law. That's
what we're doing. Now look here, watch this. But
if thou judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, you're
a judge of the law. If there's one lawgiver, Christ
Jesus, who's able to save and to destroy, who are you that
judges another? Now listen, David trusted Christ
to save his brethren when Saul was their king, and he trusted
Christ to remove Saul. He's able to save and destroy. David was a hearer of the word
of the Lord, And he was doing the word of the Lord. He was
believing Christ, trusting Christ to make his brethren stand and
to deal with the enemies. And so he did everything he did
from the motive of love. He said, verse six, Psalm 141,
six, he said, when their judges are overthrown in stony places,
then shall they hear my words for they're sweet. You see there,
he's waiting on the Lord. He's saying when King Saul and
Saul's captain, I forget his name now, remember he led Israel
away, he said, Christ, when you overthrow them in stony places,
he said, then my brethren will hear my words for they're sweet
words. That's faith working by love. We believe Christ is able to
save to the uttermost. Look here, verse seven. Our bones
are scattered at the grave's mouth as when one cutteth and
cleaveth wood upon the earth. I've been to Ben's house when
he's splitting wood, he got wood scattered all over the backyard.
He said, our bones are scattered everywhere because of all of
this. Look what he said, verse eight.
But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord, and thee is my
trust, leave not my soul destitute. Keep me from the snares which
they've laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their
own nets, whilst that I withal escape. Go with me to Ezekiel
37. That's faith working by love.
You see, he knows. He says, let them go ahead and
smite me now. It's doing me good, Lord. You're
blessing me through it. He said, but when you overthrow
these One's leading, turn them against me. When you overthrow
them, then they'll hear my words, because my words are going to
be sweet. And he said, and in the meantime, I'm praying for
them. That's what David said. And then he says, he said, we're
a mess right now. We're scattered. Our bones are
scattered. And he said, but my eyes are
on you, and I'm trusting you, Lord. Now listen, that's just
what all of Judah and Israel said. And listen to what the
Lord said right here. He killed 37, 11, this is the
valley of dry bone. And he said unto me, son of man,
these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say our
bones are dried and our hope is lost. We're cut off our parts. Doesn't that sound like what
David just said? Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth
like somebody had been splitting wood. Therefore, prophesy and
say to them, preach to them. He's telling his preacher, preach
this right here to them, Thus saith the Lord God, behold, O
my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out
of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel and you
shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves,
O my people, and brought you up out of your graves and shall
put my spirit in you and you shall live and I shall place
you in your own land. Then shall you know that I, the
Lord, have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord. That's what
David believed he would do. Go back there to Psalm 141. That's
exactly what David believed the Lord would do. Just read that
again. He said, verse seven, our bones
are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and
cleaveth wood upon the earth, but mine eyes are unto thee,
O God the Lord, and thee is my trust. Leave not my soul destitute. Look what he said back up there,
verse five. He said, let the righteous smite
me. It's a kindness to me. Let him reprove me. It's an excellent
oil which shall not break my head. Yet my prayer also shall
be in their calamities. I'm praying to you, Lord. Praying
to you. And when their judges are overthrown
in stony places, they shall hear my words for they're sweet. Now you picture Christ. What
happened to our Lord Jesus? Our Lord Jesus came to this earth.
What did we do? Rulers in religion turned people,
tried their best to turn people against Him. And at last hung
Him on a cross and smote Him. With the perfect faithfulness
of our Lord Jesus, He looked only to His Father, and He justified
His people on that cross, and He arose And right now Christ
is working all things, and He's teaching His people to do what
He did. He's teaching me and you to look to Him, come to His
throne of grace for mercy and grace to help in time of need.
He's teaching us to come there with a humble heart, knowing
we can do nothing of ourselves. We need Him to keep our lips. We need Him to keep our heart.
We need Him to keep us from joining in with the works of iniquity.
in the vain works of the iniquity. And only he can speak life and
make our brethren stand. Only he can keep us united. Only he can keep our soul from
being destitute. And only he can deal with every
enemy that would turn us aside from him. And that's what he's
gonna keep us knowing. And that's what he does, brethren. You go to him, you believe on
Christ, he's able to save to the uttermost. That's what we
see in that psalm. See, David believed him. And
you pray to him, you pour your heart out to him. David said,
even though my brethren are smiting me, he said, I'm gonna pray for
them. And you're gonna save them in
all their calamities. You pray to him, pour your heart out to
him for mercy and grace to help. And also, we see in David, he
waited on the Lord to work. He waited on the Lord to work.
When he took the throne, we saw how careful he was and slow he
was. Even when the Lord put him on
the throne, he waited on the Lord to assemble the children
of Israel, and the Lord did. That's, brethren, that's true
prayer right there. That's faith working by love.
That's being a hearer of the word and a doer of the word right
there, what you hear. I pray Lord bless us to do that.
All right, Brother Greg.