Alright brethren, let's go to
Psalm 138. Now last week we were here and
we saw how the the Lord magnifies His Word. We're going to read
that again, verses 1 and 2, so we can stay with the context
here. And I'll remind you again that that word, God's, is the
word that speaks of civil judges and rulers, as well as religious
rulers. And men, by nature, think they
are as God's, attributing to themselves things only God can
do. All sinners in an unregenerate state think they are as gods. He said in verse 1, I will praise
thee with my whole heart. Before the gods will I sing praise
unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy
temple. that temple pictured Christ.
I'm going to worship looking to Christ. I'll praise thy name
for thy loving kindness and for thy truth. For thou has magnified
thy word above all thy name." Now David's saying here he's
not ashamed to preach Christ before the gods. He's not ashamed
to preach him before anyone, no matter how office, whatever
high office they hold, or whoever they are, he's not afraid to
speak of Christ because God's magnified his word to him. That's
why. And here he's going to tell us
how God magnified his word to him. He said, verse 3, in the
day when I cried, thou answeredest me. and strengtheneth me with
strength in my soul." That's why he's not ashamed to declare
the gospel. That's why he's not ashamed.
The Lord heard his prayer, the Lord answered him, the Lord magnified
the word to him and the gospel of Christ to him, and so he's
not afraid to speak before literal kings and princes as well as
unregenerate men that think they're king. He's not afraid to speak
this gospel, not ashamed anymore. And next he gonna say, now here's
what the Lord is gonna do through this gospel. as he preaches the
gospel to anyone that will listen. This is what the Lord's going
to do through the gospel. Verse 4, all the kings of the
earth, connect that. See, he said, I'm not ashamed
to praise you before the gods, before the rulers, the kings,
and the rulers, and the men that think they're his kings. And
here's going to be the result. All the kings of the earth shall
praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways
of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. We'll reference
those last verses, but I'll do that when we get to them. Now
here's going to be our points. I'll try to preach just right
from the Word. I want you to see what the Word
says. Number one, the Lord answers the prayer of His people. He
said there in verse three, In the day when I cried, thou answeredest
me. Number two, the Lord strengthens
us inwardly, inwardly. He said, and you strengthen us,
me, with strength in my soul. And then by answering us and
by strengthening us, making us look toward Christ the temple,
seeing all his wonderful works, what he's done for us. We're
not ashamed anymore to preach this gospel before kings, and
this is what the Lord does through the gospel. All the kings of
the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words
of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways
of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. Now, first
of all, The Lord answers the prayer of
His people. The Lord answers the prayer of
His people. The Lord hears all the prayers of His people. He
hears all our prayers, but this is specifically speaking of the
cry of a sinner who's seen he's poor and needy and has no strength
and needs the Lord to save him. This is the cry of all cries
when you're poor and needy and you need Christ to save you.
God before ordained. He before prepared every work
that the Lord effectually brings his children to do. I'm working
toward a point here to show you that, but when we pray, the Lord
works prayer in the heart. He gives prayer into our heart.
But I want to show you something. Go with me to Ephesians 2 and
look here at verse 10. God before ordained every work,
and then he brings his children to walk in those good works.
He said in Ephesians 2, he said there in verse, he's talking
about how the Lord quickened us, brought us, gave us life
by the Spirit, and he said in verse 8, for by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's a gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are
his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained, or before prepared,
that we shall walk in them. That's what the word should mean,
we shall walk in them. Now, he just before that spoke
of him giving us faith, to walk by faith. Now what does he say
after that? After this is where he speaks
about how the Lord came The Lord Jesus, we were dead in our sins,
the Gentiles, that's us, we were dead in our sins, just like the
Jews were. Before his elect, Christ came
forth and he worked peace for us, and then he came and preached
peace to us, and he caused us to believe on him and to walk
by faith, trusting him. The righteousness of Christ.
Righteousness, perfect righteousness, which is the fulfillment of the
law and perfection, perfect righteousness, also called justification. That
is a work that God ordained that all his elect people shall walk
in. And he before prepared it by the Lord Jesus Christ coming
and working all righteousness for us, going to the cross and
justifying us of all our sins. And when the Holy Spirit regenerates
us, when he comes in spirit and regenerates us, and when of God,
Christ is made unto us righteousness, we see he's our righteousness.
From then on, We walk in this good work, we walk by faith in
Christ, having his righteousness robed us, God robes us in his
righteousness, and we walk by faith in this righteousness that
God ordained we shall walk in, that he prepared for us to walk
in. And then sanctification called
holiness. That is one of those good works. We're going to walk in holiness,
perfect holiness, what God calls holiness. God before prepared,
he ordained for his children, for his elect, that we would
walk in holiness. And Christ prepared it for us
by fulfilling the will of God. You know Hebrews 10, by the witch
will we are sanctified through the offering of Jesus Christ
once for all time. by Him fulfilling the will of
God. And then the Holy Spirit comes, and in the new birth,
He sanctifies us. He creates a new holy man, and
of God, Christ has made sanctification to it. We see that's what true
sanctification of the heart is, is to make you look out of yourself,
away from yourself, away from your works, to Christ who made
you holy. He made us holy. And that's a
work of holiness that God before prepared that His people shall
walk in. Christ prepared that for us to
walk in holiness. And when the Lord Jesus sanctifies
His people, He told Paul, when He called Paul, He said, we're
sanctified through faith that is in Christ. True sanctification
of the heart makes you look to Christ in faith and trust He
is your perfect holiness before God. He is your perfect help. Redemption. Redemption is deliverance
from sin and death. That's what it is. Redemption. And it's by Christ our redemption. And when in the new birth, when
the Holy Spirit of life gives you life and faith and frees
you from the law of sin and death. He does it by making you look
to Christ of God as Christ made redemption unto us. God will
have us to walk in this good work Christ has prepared for
us and Christ has fulfilled for us, the work of redemption that
He's accomplished for us. And so He brings you to walk
in this good work and as John 8 says, The Lord said, when he
casts out the devil out of the house, and the Son of God abideth
forever in our house, in us, he said, if the Son therefore
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. If he redeemed
you, you're free indeed. If he delivered you, you're free
indeed. See, every good work Every good work that God our
Father before ordained, Christ Jesus our Savior, worked for
us. He worked every good work, what
the scripture refers to as good works. Christ worked every one
of those good works and he is our righteousness and our holiness
in every one of those good works. So that when God brings you to
walk in those good works and do those individual good works
that he ordained that you shall do, you are perfectly righteous
and perfectly holy by Christ. He's the righteousness and holiness
of those works that he brings you to do. because He foreordained
it and He before prepared it that you would walk in it. Now,
I said all that to say this. Our text is saying, I cried and
He answered my prayer. Well, just like the Lord works
everything else in salvation, worked it for us in Christ, by
what Christ did for us, and then comes and works in us to make
us look out of ourselves to Christ. Just like He does all of that
work, It's God who brings you to pray to Him and cry to Him.
We don't see our need. We don't see that we're poor
and have no righteousness and no holiness or nothing but sin. We don't see that till God works
that in you and makes you behold it. All right, look back at Psalm
27. I quoted this last time, but
I want you to look at it. Psalm 27, and I'm gonna come
back to this Psalm if you wanna mark it. Psalm 27, eight. When thou saidst, Seek ye my
face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. I'll give you another scripture
that goes right along with this. Romans 8.26, Paul said, The Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself maketh
intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. And he
that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. So the Lord puts this prayer
in our heart. He puts the cry, the need for
Him, He puts that in our heart. We think we're self-sufficient
without it. We think we are as gods without Him putting this
cry in our heart. But when He puts this cry in
our heart, you cry to Him in truth and lowliness and meekness.
Bow down, poor in spirit, and He hears your prayer. He hears
your prayer. He put the prayer there. He put
the cry in our heart. So He promises this. And Isaiah,
I want you to look at this too. Isaiah 65, verse 24. He promises us this right here.
And I'm going to show you some examples of this. Isaiah 65 verse
24. He said, it shall come to pass
that before they call, I will answer. And while they are yet
speaking, I will hear. That's the Lord's promise. Before
we call, He has answered us by making us see our need of Him.
Before we call on Him, He's answered us already by making us see we
need Him. and put that cry in our hearts. And while we're yet
speaking, while we're crying unto him, he hears and he answers
our petition. That's what David's talking about
in our Psalm. In the day when I cried, thou
answeredest me. This is how you magnified your
word to me. This is how you made me see every
promise you made is sure and certain in Christ. When I cried,
you answered my prayer. Look at Acts 9. You know the
story of our Lord and His dealings with Paul when He was Saul of
Tarsus. How did Paul come to cry to the Lord? The Lord arrested
Paul on the road to Damascus. He shined the light and put Paul
in the dust, brought him down to the dust, and He asked him,
why are you persecuting me? And Paul was made to cry unto
Him. The Lord did all that. The Lord
answered him before Paul even called on him. He put the cry
in his heart. Look here in verse 3. As he journeyed,
he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shone right about him a
light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? That's the Lord answering Paul
before Paul ever even called on him. What's he doing? He's
gonna make Paul call on him. And the Lord said, and he said,
Paul said, when the Lord said that, Paul said, who art thou,
Lord? He cried to the Lord. Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord
said, I'm Jesus whom thou persecutest. It's hard for thee to kick against
the bricks. When he called on him, when Paul
cried and said, who is it, Lord? Christ answered him. That's Isaiah
65. He answered him before he cried
to him by putting a prayer in his heart. Then when he cried,
who are you, Lord? He answered him. And verse six,
and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what will thou have
me to do? You see this spirit of him now,
what will you have me do? And the Lord said to him, Arise
and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou
must do. And Christ sent Ananias to tell
him what he must do. Christ told Ananias, Behold,
he prayeth. He's praying to me. I've answered
him. Now you go forth and you preach this word to him. And
we're going to see what the kings will do when they hear the words
of his mouth. They're going to do what Paul
did. They're going to bow down and worship him. Before he called,
the Lord answered him. He brought him, he shone the
light, he put him in the dust, and he made him say, who are
you, Lord? And then the Lord answered him.
In the day when I cried, thou answerest me. Let me show you
an example with a believer, with one that he's already called,
who's already one of his saints. Go with me to Daniel chapter
nine. Daniel chapter nine. He does the same thing for you
and me after He's called us. Look here in Daniel 9 verse 18. It's a little lengthy, but I'm
actually not reading all of it. I'm just going to read Read some
of it, but you go home tonight, read the whole thing. But Daniel
9, 18. Daniel prays, oh my God, incline thine ear and hear. Open
thine eyes and behold our desolations in the city which is called by
thy name. For we do not present our supplications
before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. O
Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hearken
and do! Defer not for thine own sake,
O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. Now watch this. And while I was
speaking, and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people
Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord, my God, for
the holy mountain of my God. Yea, while I was speaking in
prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision
at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about
the time of the evening oblation, and he informed me and talked
with me and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill
and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications,
the commandment came forth, and I am come to show thee. for thou
art greatly beloved, therefore understand the matter and consider
the vision." And he answered Daniel by preaching Christ, by
declaring what Christ would accomplish. He said, verse 24, 70 weeks are
determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish
the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation
for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and
to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy."
That's how he answered him. That's the strength in which
he strengthened him. But did you see that? Before
he called, the Lord answered him. He said, as soon as you
began to speak, the commandment came to me to come to you and
strengthen you inwardly. That's what Gabriel said. Reverend,
He's done the same thing in us. He's magnified His Word to us
by answering us before we called. He put the prayer in our heart
to cry unto Him, and in the day when we cried, the Lord answered.
The Lord answered. That's how He magnifies the Word
of Christ Jesus to us. That's how He magnifies the Word.
He answers the prayer we heard. Do you see this now? He puts
the prayer in your heart before you call on Him. Then when you
call on Him, He answers you. Now, what does He strengthen
you with? We saw how He strengthened Daniel. He strengthened him with
Christ, the gospel. Well, that's the strength. Verse
3 in our text says, and He strengthens me with strength in my soul. Christ is the strength. He's
the power of God into salvation. He's the strength and He strengthens
us inwardly. He strengthens us in that new
man. Now, you know, natural man goes through some struggles.
Natural men go through struggles in this world and they can usually
bear up under them and they come out of them. But when they go
through struggles and troubles and they don't, Christ don't
teach them anything. They come out ragging on themselves,
you know, oh, I was just a strong-willed. Or if they're religious, falsely
religious, they'll say, you know, God did his part and I did my
part. You know, all these things like this. What the Spirit declares
in Ephesians 2. What did He say? He said Christ
came and He preached peace to us. That's how He brought us
to walk in the good work of faith. That's how He brought us to walk
in Christ's righteousness alone and in Christ's holiness alone
and being freed by Christ alone. He came and He preached peace
to us and He made it effectual in our inward man. That's the
strength. He magnified His Word inwardly
to you. And by that, He made you see
your need of Christ. He made us see that we have no
righteousness of our own and no holiness, and we began to
cry to the Lord. And it was Christ and His finished
work that strengthened us inwardly. That was the strength of our
heart, Christ and His finished work. Psalm 28.8 says this, The
Lord is their strength, and He is the saving strength of His
anointed. That's the Lord. The Lord is
their strength, and He is the saving strength of His anointed. Psalm 73, 26. You know this one
well. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Look with me at Romans chapter
5. From the day the Lord called
us and strengthened us inwardly and made us see Christ is all
our strength, all our salvation, From that day forward, in every
trial we've gone through, the Lord has been teaching us more
and more that He is truly all our strength, and all our righteousness,
everything we need, He's teaching us that more and more. And so
He brings you to actually be thankful for the trouble. Look
here, Romans 5.3, He said, and not only so, What's he saying? He just said we glory in the
Lord for having saved us and justified us and brought us into
this grace wherein we stand. And he said, and we don't only
glory in that, but we glory in tribulation also. We praise the
Lord for tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience.
He gives you a heart to wait on the Lord. He works perseverance
in you, patience. And patience works experience,
character. He gives you a better understanding
of how weak we are and how strong our Lord is, that He's our only
strength. And experience hope. He grows us to know we have a
sure hope in Christ. and hope maketh not ashamed.
Remember last time we saw, you won't be ashamed for trusting
Christ, to trust Christ and confess Christ, and you won't be ashamed
for trusting Christ. Hope makes not ashamed, because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost,
which is given to us. Let's hear David say that in
our Psalm. Look at Psalm, back to Psalm 138. Listen, that's
what he says at the end of this Psalm. The Lord taught him, so
as he declared the Lord Jesus before the gods, as he declared
Christ before men who thought they were his gods, or before
his friends who were kings, Hiram, you know, who came and brought
him some timber from Lebanon. David would preach the gospel
to these men. And this was David's patience, this was his experience,
this was his hope right here, verse 6. He said, Though the
Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. But the proud
he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me. David learned that over and over
and over. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive
me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine
hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall
save me. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. Who's David saying his strength
is? He's saying the Lord's his strength. You're right, hand
Lord. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me, meaning he'll work everything that concerns
me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Liloquy says, forsake not the
works of thine own hand. We're His workmanship. And David's
praying for all his brethren and for himself. They're saying,
don't forsake us, Lord. We're the work of Your hands.
You're working all this in us. You're working all this for us
and in us. Christ taught Paul that. So here's
what Paul told the Ephesians. Back in Ephesians 3, Paul taught
him that. The Lord taught Paul that over
and over. And so Paul prayed this right here. Ephesians 3.16 He prayed that the Lord, he said,
I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of
whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would
grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his Spirit in the inner man. That's the strength
we're talking about. That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God." That's the strength he works in the hearts
of his people. Over and over you experience trouble and he
teaches you this over and over. So you're able to strengthen
your brethren with these words. He did that for Peter. Look at
1 Peter 5 and verse 10. He magnified his word to Peter. He brought Peter to cry. He brought
him through the trouble and he strengthened him in his heart
and saved him through his trouble. So Peter then, he was able to
comfort his brethren with these words. 1 Peter 5 verse 10. He said, But the God of all grace,
who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that you've suffered a while, will make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Peter learned that through
trouble. He learned that through trouble.
That's how Christ is teaching us more and more through the
trouble, that he's all our strength. He's all our salvation. In every
way, He's our salvation. So, whereas the earthly man,
he'll come out of the trial and he's praising himself and patting
himself on the back for how strong he is, the Lord's child's coming
out of the trial and saying with David, it's good for me that
I've been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. I'm seeing
more and more, Lord. You're my strength. You're my
righteousness. You're my wholeness. You're everything.
Go with me back there to Psalm 27. Now we value the word of
these prophets and these Old Testament saints. We value their
word, but I think we forget sometimes that they learn these things
that they speak through a lot of sorrow and trouble. The Lord's
saving them through all these little trials. We heard David
declare, when the Lord said, seek ye my face, my heart said
unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek? Well, look how this psalm
begins. Verse one, he said, the Lord
is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked even mine enemies and my foes, the gods, those
that think they're God, when they came upon me to eat up my
flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should encamp against
me, my heart shall not fear. The war should rise against me.
In this will I be confident. What he just said, the Lord being
the strength of my life, that's my confidence. It's not me. We're the circumcision who worship
God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence
in the flesh. Our confidence is the Lord is
the strength of my life. But how did David learn that?
He was accomplished about by enemies. And the Lord showed
him, the Lord taught him. The Lord will give strength to
His people. The Lord will bless His people with peace. He will.
Now, let's go back to our psalm. There's a purpose. God has a
purpose in all of this. He's not just randomly putting
you through trials. And it's not only for your benefit.
It is for your benefit. You're going to profit through
it by what He teaches you. But it's so that we will be We
will be strengthened to declare his word when he puts you before
somebody that thinks they are his gods, whether they be a literal
king and a literal prince or just somebody that thinks they
are, so that you won't be ashamed to speak the gospel because Christ
has shown you over and over he's your strength. And He can make
the word effectual. He'll bring them to cry unto
Him. If they're His, He'll bring them to cry unto Him. He'll answer
them before they cry, make them see their need, and then as they're
crying to Him, He'll answer them. He's shown you that. He's taught
you that. And so He says here, verse 4, This is what he's gonna
work through this gospel. All the kings of the earth shall
praise the old Lord when they hear the words of thy mouth.
Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the
glory of the Lord. Does he mean literal kings? Well,
Paul said in 1 Corinthians, there's not many mighty and there's not
many noble, but there are some. He didn't say there weren't any.
There's not many, but there are some. Yeah, there's some literal
kings and princes that the Lord shall save. When Paul told Timothy
to pray for all men, because God will have all men to be saved,
he told him pray for kings and those rulers in authority, and
what he was saying was, is God will save all his people from
the king, those elect that are kings and princes, and those
that are paupers, and every one of them in between that are hid.
He's gonna save them. And so pray for them. You don't
know who they are. And you may be praying for the
king that he may be God's elect that God's going to bring to
bow to Christ. Wouldn't it be amazing if God brought our president
to bow to Christ and for the first time really understood
the gospel and proclaimed the gospel? He can do that. He has done in the past. David
is the one writing our psalm. He did it for David. This also applies to the fact
that all unregenerate sinners think they are kings. They think
they are kings. And He's going to make you see
you're poor and needy. He's going to put a cry in their
heart, and He's going to make them see Christ is the King of
kings and Lord of lords, and He alone is salvation. Look at
Psalm 72. That's what this psalm appears
to me to say. The kings of Tarshish and of
the Isles shall bring presents. Psalm 72, 10. That's Gentiles is what he's
saying here. And everywhere, if you start
looking this up in the scripture where you see him talking about
saving kings, he always mentions that he's talking about the Gentiles. So I don't necessarily think
he's just talking about men who hold the office of a king. I
think he's talking about elect Gentiles who think they're kings,
who think they're sovereign to do what they will and boasting
in their will. And he says, but he is talking
about men that hold office of kings, but he's talking about
men that think they're king. He said, the kings of Tarshish
and of the Isles shall bring presents. The kings of Sheba
and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down
before him. All nations shall serve him.
He's talking about his elect from all nations. You know Revelation. He called us out of all, every
tribe tongue kindred on the earth. Look, Now look, for he shall
deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath
no helper, he shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save
the souls of the needy. That's where he's gonna bring
the kings. Whether they hold a little office of a king, or
they just thank their king and thank their little gods, he's
gonna bring them to see they're poor and needy, and they have
nothing without Christ. So Christ came, He made Himself
a servant to men who thought ourselves all-powerful. Look
at Isaiah 49. We thought ourselves all-powerful,
and He made Himself a servant to serve for His people, though
we abhorred Him and despised Him. But look what He says here
in Isaiah 49, 7. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer
of Israel, And His Holy One, this is the Lord Jesus, the Redeemer
of Israel, the Holy One, to Him whom man despiseth, to Him whom
the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers. See there, He made
Himself the servant of rulers. Was that just those men that
held office, some high office? That's me and you. We thought
we were the rulers. We were as guides. But he said,
kings shall see and they'll arise. Princes also shall worship. Worship
means they'll bow down. They'll bow the knee to Christ
because of the Lord that is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, and he
shall choose thee. You see what he's saying? He
gonna bring his elect. I don't care if you hold the
greatest office in the land, in the world. or if you're just
a poor sinner who thinks he is as God, He's going to bring you
to see you have nothing without Christ. You are poor and you're
needy, and He's going to bring you to cry on Him. And the sure
result, back in our text in verse 5, He said, Yea, they shall sing
in the ways of the Lord. They'll sing in the ways of the
Lord. They're going to praise the Lord for His ways, for what
He's worked. for choosing His people, and
for sending His Son to redeem His people, and for sending the
Holy Spirit to irresistibly call His people, and for giving us
faith, and for bringing us to walk in His works that He's before
ordained, for answering our prayer before we call it, putting that
prayer in our heart, and making us cry to Him. All these are
the ways of the Lord. It's how the Lord works, and
He's gonna bring His people to praise Him for that. They are
going to sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory
of the Lord. Revelation 15 verse 4 says, this
will be my last scripture. Revelation 15 verse 4 says, Who
shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art holy,
for all nations shall come. and worship before Thee, for
Thy judgments are made manifest. All His elect people that He
redeemed, they're going to come by His Spirit, by His grace.
They're going to be made to cry to Him for mercy, and He's going
to give them mercy, robe them in His righteousness, make them
see He's their holiness, and keep them and save them till
He brings them home to glory. And as far as the rest, everybody,
everybody, little would-be kings and would-be gods are going to
all bow the knee in the Day of Judgment, and they're going to
confess, He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, through
the praise and glory of God. But then they'll be cast out.
But everyone that's His, He's going to bring us to bow to Him.
When He cried, when you cry, He hears you. And Christ is the
strength of your heart. His gospel, what He's accomplished,
who He is, what He's done for you, that's the strength of the
heart. And when you were walking around like you were a king and
a god, you were about to bow down and worship Him and sing
of all His ways and glory only in Him. That's what the Lord
works through this. And the reason He's doing that
for you, putting you through this trouble, and saving you
out of it, and showing you He's never gonna let you go, is so
that when you come in contact with anybody that He's opened
the door for you to speak of Him to them, you'll speak the
gospel and won't be ashamed. That's why He works this. There's
a purpose in it. Not only for your benefits, for
the benefit of those He's gonna call through our Word. That's
what He's doing. Father, we thank You for this
Word. Lord, Your ways are They're high, they're holy, they're perfect. Lord, we thank you for your ways.
Thank you for the way in which you save your people. Lord, we
thank you for the troubles you teach us through the affliction
and make us see Christ is everything that we need, that he is all.
You keep us looking to him and him alone. Lord, Give us the
strength. Give us the faith to speak Your
name and the glory in You before men, to speak to men about what
You've done, what You've accomplished, who You are. Pray that You will
call them out, Lord. Give them a heart to cry to You
and answer their prayer. Lord, give us hearts to speak
of You. to anybody you give us opportunity
to speak to. And Lord, bless your word. We thank you, we praise you in
glory in your name. For Christ's sake, we pray this,
that you hear us and keep us, Lord. Amen. All right, Brother
Adam.