All right, brethren, let's go
back now to Psalm 36. I want you to look down at verse
16. He says, Come and hear all ye
that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. Come and hear all ye that fear
God. Through the preaching of this
word, God gives a fear, a reverence, for God in the heart of his child,
and they never stop coming to hear. They never stop coming
to hear. And what's the message? I will
declare what he hath done for my soul. The self-righteous will
tell you what, he'll say what I've done for God. But God's
people are gonna speak about what he hath done for me, what
he's done. Back up at verse one, he says,
make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands. Sing forth the
honor of his name. Make his praise glorious. Say unto God, how terrible, how
awe-inspiring art thou in thy works. That's what we preach
and sing, brethren. We sing and we preach the honor
of God's name. The honor of his name. We're
speaking about his terrible, awe-inspiring works, those works
whereby he creates reverence and fear in the heart of his
child. We're not here talking about us, we're here to talk
about him, about his works. This word glorious, make his
praise glorious, that word is rich, full, full of honor, and
reverence, weighty. That's why we're careful about
the songs we sing. That's why we are careful about
the messages we preach and how we conduct the service. Because
praise to God is supposed to be weighty. It's supposed to
be honoring and reverent. That's what he commands. My subject
is what he has done for me. What he has done for me. Now,
what has the triune God done for me? If I was to sum it up,
I can just say this. He's done all. He's done everything. He's all in my salvation. There
are five works here, and I wanna just speak very briefly on each
one of these. The first thing that we see is
God has made his child willing by his power. Now, we're gonna
see this by contrast. We're gonna see this by contrast
with his enemy. Look at verse three. Through
the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves
unto thee. All the earth shall worship thee
and shall sing unto thee. They shall sing to thy name.
Now notice this is said about God's enemies. Said about his
enemies. The word submit here is deceive,
it's lie, it's to be found liars. It's only used one other place,
it's in Psalm 14, and it's not speaking about God's people bowing
in truth, in spirit and in truth, it's talking about men pretending
to bow to God, who go through the outward form, but really
haven't bowed in the heart to God. Men will do this when they
get in trouble. They will, you know, start praying
and start trying to reform and what have you and they will build
them a refuge in the time of storm and when the storm is over
then they forsake it. You remember when the Lord, when
they came to arrest the Lord and he said his name and they
fell backwards. This is just the sheer greatness
of his power. We're not talking about the working
within him. Folks see tornadoes and hurricanes
and the destruction that God's hand leaves in this earth. And
men will get real religious. And there's many who are in vain
religion because of his power. Just seeing it with natural eyes.
He said, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have
we not prophesied in thy name? Didn't we preach in your name?
And in thy name have cast out devils? We didn't associate with
anybody that's wicked. We separated ourselves. That's
what Pharisee means, separate ones. In thy name, we've done
many wonderful works. Christ said, and then will I
profess unto them, I never knew you. I never knew you. Depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. But now look at the contrast
to this. For his elect, God works his great power inwardly, in
spirit and in truth. He did something for me that
nobody else could do. Nobody else could do it. He made
me willing to bow down and worship him in spirit and in truth. No other sinner could do this
for me. A preacher, my preacher was my grandfather. You would
have thought he'd have been able to do this for me if somebody
could have done it. Nope. No preacher can do it. A preacher can guilt you into
an outward form, There's no power there, hadn't
experienced the power of God, inward power of God. I couldn't
do this for myself. That baby cast out and left,
aborted and polluted in its own blood, not swaddled, just helpless. Could that baby do anything for
itself? Could those dry bones that Ezekiel saw, could they
give themselves life and come together? Could Lazarus give
himself life and come out of the tomb? I was blind, can a
blind man give himself sight? I was deaf, can a deaf man make
himself hear? I couldn't do this for myself. But thanks be to God, he brought
me under the gospel and he spoke an effectual power in my heart. Psalm 110.2 says, the Lord shall
send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. He's speaking to
Christ. God's speaking to his son. What's
the rod of Christ's strength that comes out of heaven, Zion?
This gospel we're preaching. It comes forth. Rule thou in
the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. in the beauties of holiness. Remember we saw the beauty of
that holiness in the Old Testament when they sprinkled that oil
and that blood all over those priests? And you think, man,
they just ruined those beautiful garments. No, that was the beauty
of holiness. That's how they were consecrated.
That's how they were made holy to come to God. That's what the
blood and the Holy Spirit makes us willing and consecrated to
God, makes us come to Christ Jesus, willingly come to Him. Our Lord said, it's the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profits nothing. He said, the words that
I speak unto you, their spirit and their life. They'll come
forth through a man, he'll use an earthen vessel to say the
words, but then Christ speaks those words. You're not gonna
hear an audible voice, but you're gonna realize it when he's done
it. You may not realize it right
when he's done it, but you're gonna sooner or later realize
he's spoken in your heart, in spirit, and in power. I used
to try to sit as far back as I could sit away from the preacher. And I tried to do everything
in my power not to hear. I would draw. I would make paper
airplanes. I'd try to do anything to keep
from hearing the gospel. And one day Christ spoke in my
heart. And I didn't even know it had
happened. I just know that I started finding myself hanging on every
word. Here was somebody that didn't
want to hear. Next thing you know, I'm hearing it and I'm
rejoicing in what I'm hearing. That's the work of the Lord.
That's the work of the Lord. And then secondly, look here.
This is what Christ has done for me. He's redeemed me from
my enemies. He's redeemed me from my enemies.
Verse five, come and see the works of God. He's terrible in
his doing toward the children of man. What's gonna give you
the fear of God? To behold God's works with spiritual
eyes. That's gonna give you the fear
of God. That's what that word terrible means. Here it is, he
turned the sea into dry land, and they went through the flood
on foot, and there did we rejoice in him. God did two things at
the Red Sea. Two things happened at the Red
Sea simultaneously. He saved his elect, and he destroyed
his enemies. With the same water, he did that. That's what God did on the cross.
Our Lord Jesus destroyed his enemies and saved his people
on the cross. Pharaoh and his army had Moses
and Israel trapped, and they couldn't go anywhere. But you
remember what God spoke through Moses? Fear ye not, stand still. You quit doing anything. Stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he'll show you
today. For the Egyptians that you see
now, you'll see them no more again forever. The Lord shall
fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. That's what
was happening on the cross. The Lord was fighting for his
people, destroying our enemies and redeeming his people. God
brought Israel across on dry ground, and then when Pharaoh
and his army tried to go across, he killed them with the same
water. On the cross, God the Father stretched forth the rod
of His justice, just like Moses stretched forth that rod over
the Red Sea. He stretched forth the rod of
His justice on our Lord Jesus Christ, our sin-bearer. And when Christ cried out and
said, it is finished, and commended His spirit to the Father, our
Lord Jesus dried up the sea of justice, and His people went
across on dry ground. And at the same time, because
he satisfied justice only for his elect, he sealed up the fate
of everybody else. He judged all his enemies right
then too. The devil was cast out right
then. Cast out right then. Judgment
was settled right there at the cross. And so he did the same
thing he did at the Red Sea. Same thing. We died in Christ
where our old man was crucified in Christ. We were buried in
Christ when he was buried. Out of sight, that old man out
of sight, out of God's sight now. And we came forth to newness
of life when Christ came out of that grave. And right now, in the righteous
judgment, just like he was executing righteous judgment on that cross.
Right now, all judgment belongs to Christ, and he's working in
this earth right now. You know what he's doing? He's
doing everything to protect his people. Look here, verse seven. He ruleth by his power forever. His eyes behold the nations. Let not the rebellious exalt
themselves. He won't do any good. Won't do
any good. Christ is ruling this world for
His people. So thirdly, this is what He's
done for me. He preserved me. He just keeps
preserving me. Look here in verse 8. Oh, bless
our God, ye people, and make the voice of His praise to be
heard, which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our
feet to be moved. Oh bless our God. Who is it? Christ Jesus the Lord. What does
he do? He holds. You know what that
word is? He puts and he sets. Is to put and to set firm. He puts and he sets our soul
in life. He puts our soul in life and
sets our soul in life. And he's the life. He's the one
that comes into His child, and He puts life in His child, and
puts His child in Him, and puts us in life. And when He does
so, He sets us in life. He holds our soul in life. There's
no, when the scripture says you have eternal life, it says you
hath eternal life. He that believes on me hath eternal
life. It's done. You got it. You got
it. When you drop this body of death,
I just know this is going to happen. When we die and draw
our last breath, that's when it's going to finally dawn on
us, I've got eternal life. Because nothing's going to happen
to you, believer. Only thing that's going to happen is your
body's going to die. And you're going to find out, that wasn't
really me. I'm still alive. And you'll realize you've had
that life ever since God gave you life. And He holds it. He
won't let you go. He will not let His people go.
He won't allow our feet to be moved. What's that mean? It means He
won't allow those He's given faith to stop believing on Him. He won't allow you to be separated
from Christ. It really doesn't have much to
do with our fleshly bodies. That's what we think about when
we think about our foot not being moved. It don't matter really
what happens to our bodies. That's why scripture says, no
pain, no harm's gonna come to my people. Because this is not
who we are. Who we are is that new creation
that Christ has created. That's who we are. So no harm,
he's not gonna let you be separated from him. Now how does he do
this work? Here comes something we don't necessarily like too
much. He does it through trials. Look here, look at the thous,
verse 10. For thou, oh God, has proved
us. Thou has tried us as silver is
tried. Thou broughtest us into the net. Thou laidest affliction upon
our loins. Thou has caused men to ride over
our heads. We went through the fire and
through the water, but catch this now, but thou broughtest
us out into a wealthy place. He doesn't talk about the second
causes. You know, we get into the detail.
We want to know what happened, how did this happen, why did
that happen, whatever. God just says, I mean, the psalmist here
just says, God, you did it. You did it. Brother Rob just
said it, there's nothing that happens in this world except
by the will of God. When a trial comes, don't you
wish you could remember this? We do well to remember it, but
boy, we sure forget it when a trial comes. Now, we can remember it
when it's happening to somebody else, but when it's happening
to us, we forget this. God's doing this. It's His net. You trapped? It's His net. Are
men ruling? Are they opposing you? He's ruling
the men. Has a loved one been taken away? He gave that loved one. He'd take it away. Did he lay you off work? He gave
the job. Well, if my boss hadn't... It
wasn't your boss. It was God. He did it. What's
he doing? He's removing our dross. And
he's purifying, purging, cleansing the new heart. Thou hast triedest
as silver is tried. Proverbs 17.3 says, the finding
pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord trieth
the hearts. He tries that new man he's made.
Malachi 3.2, he says, who may abide the day of his coming?
Who shall stand when he appeareth? For he's like a refiner's fire. He's like fuller's soap. He shall
sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. And he shall purify
the sons of Levi. Who's that? That's you who believe. His priests. He gonna purify
us. He gonna purge them as gold and
silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. The trial is a fire. It's meant
to be a fire. And the hotter it is, the more
dross it's gonna consume. The harder, the more painful,
the more dross he's consuming. It's to purge our dross. What
do you mean by that? It's to turn us from us. That's
what it is. It's to turn us from us, it's
to turn us from anything that'll separate us from Christ, anything
coming between us and Christ, to remove it. It's to purify
that new heart God's given. What do you mean by that? I mean
draw you closer to Christ, make you trust him more. And thereby, we come to God with
the one offering God will receive, the Lord Jesus Christ. He said
that's the purpose of it, is to purge them as gold and silver
that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Is to come with Christ through
faith in Him. He said, I'll bring the third
part through the fire. The other parts he's gonna burn. destroy. But I'll bring the third
part through the fire and I'll refine them as silver is refined
and I'll try them as gold is tried and here's the result.
Listen, they shall call on my name and I will hear them. I will say it's my people and
they'll say the Lord's my God. That's what's going to happen
when he gets done with the trial. Every time. Every time. You know a refiner has to be
very careful. He sits He sits so he can be
very careful that it said Christ sits as a refiner. The refiner
sits and he puts the gold in the fire and he watches it and
he can't leave it in there too long or it'll ruin it. He watches
it and that gold will become so shiny it's like a mirror.
And you know when he knows it's ready? When he sees his image
in it and he takes it out. Christ puts you in the fire and
you think He's gonna destroy you. You think you're gonna die. But it's to purge away you. It's to remove you from trusting
you. And when He sees His image in
you, when He sees you turn to Him and casting it all on Him,
He pulls you out of that fire. That's what it was for, for you
to call out, he's my God, and he hears you, and he says, that's
my child. That's what it's for. We're proud
in our flesh. We're strong in our flesh, and
when we are, we're weak spiritually. It's just contrary to how we
naturally think. When we think we're strong and
healthy, We're weak. You don't hardly ever pray then.
Not sincerely. Not like you do when you're in
the fire. We're not trusting Christ, we're
trusting our flesh. You know what we're trusting?
We're trusting the dross. And if we were left there, that
dross would consume us. We would be left in our flesh
and we would cease believing in him. And he won't do that
for his child. Peter, he knew about this. He had way too much of himself
involved when he was saying, I won't deny you. These might,
but I won't. He had to be tried. He had to
go in the fire. Why? He does it to humble us. He does it to bring us down.
He does it to turn us from the dross of our flesh to remind
us our need of Christ. But you know what he always does?
When He pulls you out of that fire, He always brings you into
a wealthy place. You know where it's at? Christ's
feet. He says there in verse 12, they
brought us out to a wealthy place. He always brings us to Christ,
to His feet. That's the wealthy place. That's
the richest place you can be. The richest place you can be.
Peter experienced that. Look at 1 Peter 1.5. This is
probably why he writes this. Look here, 1 Peter 1.5. He unites the power of God with
trials. And I just have to believe that's
because he experienced this. Look at 1 Peter 1.5. He says, by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, which is ready, it's done, it's ready to be revealed
in the last time, wherein you greatly rejoice. See, you're
a saved believer. But now watch. Though now for
a season, if need be. You know what the problem is?
We don't see the need be's. Why is the Lord doing this to
me? Because it's a need be. And you know, the biggest problem
is, is that you didn't see the need be. That's why he had to
do this. So if for a season, if need be,
you're in heaviness through manifold temptation, multiple trials and
tests. The trial of your faith being
much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried
with fire, that it might be found under praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Whom having not seen, you love.
In whom though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Receiving, here's what
happens, and this happens at the end of each trial, and we
get a little taste of this. at the end of each trial. And
it's a taste of what we're gonna have when Christ comes. We receive
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul. You taste
a little bit of that when you come out of a trial. You experience,
God did this, God saved me through it. And it gives you some confidence
and assurance that God's doing the work that I didn't see the
need be. And he had to bring me through this trial. Purge
that dross and cause me to cast my care on him. So look at 1
Peter 5, and I want you now, thank God, brethren. Thank God
for the trial. Thank God that He preserves you
in the trial. He does that. That's just how
He preserves us. See, what He's doing is He's
keeping you looking to Christ. He's keeping you believing on
Christ through this. He's purging the dross of our
unbelief and the dross of our flesh, and He's purifying the
gold of our faith, the gold of the new man, keeping our hearts
cleansed so we can look to Christ. That's how we persevere in faith,
Him preserving us through trials. So thank God for that. Thank
Him. And know this, if you're in a
trial, He's not gonna destroy you with it. Look here what Peter
said, verse 10. The God of all grace, who hath
called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you've
suffered a while. I'll make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. That's what He'll do. He won't
destroy you. Now, fourthly, what has Christ done for me? He's
made me glory only in Him. Look here, here's the fruit of
this trying. Look at verse 13, Psalm 66, 13. I will go into
thy house with burnt offerings. I'll pay thee my vows, which
my lips have uttered and my mouth has spoken when I was in that
trouble. I will offer unto thee burnt
sacrifices of fatlings. That's the fattest, that's the
best. With the incense of realms, I'll offer bullocks with goats. Now under the new covenant, you
know what these offerings are? These are thank offerings. Under
the new covenant, this is praise and thanksgiving from a heart
of love. Fresh out of the fire. right
out of the fire when that love is still burning hot and that
love is still aflame for God and we praise Him and we thank
Him. Don't you know that's when God
loves to see that in His child? He worked that. He worked it
through the trial and you're just thanking God for what He's
done for you. And that fire's burning. Christ
said to love him with all the heart, with all the understanding,
with all the soul, with all the strength, to love your neighbor
as yourself. Now we don't ever do that. But
probably the most closest we come to that is right out of
the fire, right out of the trial. You know what he said about it?
He said it's more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. More valuable to God than all
those burnt sacrifices. That's what they pictured. It
was love, the heart and love with God, and it pictured thanksgiving
to God. Take with your words and turn
to the Lord. He's not interested in our sacrifices. He's not interested in our polluted,
corrupt works done in a vain way and done for a selfish reason
to try to indebt God. He's not interested in that.
Take with you words and turn to the Lord and say unto Him,
Lord, please take away all iniquity. Have mercy on me. Receive me
graciously. Receive me freely. So will we
render the calves of our lips. That's what God's interested
in. Praise and glory. By Him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit
of our lips giving thanks unto Him. Now, I can sit here and
tell you to thank God, but the Spirit's going to produce it
in all His people. And if he has to put us through
the fire to do it, that will always be the fruit when he's
brought us out of that fire. Christ said that. He said, they're
going to call out to me. And I'm going to say, that's
my child. They're going to say, that's my God. And you're going
to offer up these calves if you live. That's going to happen.
That's going to happen, his people. So lastly, what has he done for
me? This is probably the best thing
of all right here. Christ continues to hear my prayer. He continues to hear me. He continues
to have fellowship with me, communion with me. Look here in verse 17. I cried unto him with my mouth,
that means I prayed, and he was extolled with my tongue. As I
prayed, I highly exalted the Lord in praise. Now if I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear me. That's what the trial was
for. The trial was to purge that dross
and cleanse that heart so you can come to God with the offering
he requires and that he'll receive. Come to him in Christ in prayer
and now that he's cleansed it, look what he, verily God hath
heard me. He's heard me. And he's attended
to the voice of my prayer. He not only heard me, he's turned
his undivided attention to me. How can He do that to all His
children at once? He's God. He's God. You and I can't give our attention
but to one child at a time. He can give it to all of them
at the same time. He attended to my prayer. Oh,
blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor His
mercy from me. That's what He's done. That's
the works He's done. Now, has He done that for you?
He regenerated me to life and faith by His power. Can you give
Him all the glory for that? He put my sin away and made me
righteous in Christ. Can you give Him all the glory
for that? He preserves me in faith and He does it through
trials. Can you glorify Him for that? Let me tell you something. The trial is never just between
you and somebody else. Never. It's between you and God. Now, He may be using somebody
else to cause the pain and the suffering and the trouble, but
it's always God teaching you, if you're His. Listen. Pay attention. Don't separate
your life from what God's doing. Hear God. When that one's talking
to you, and they're telling you every thought you got, hear God
talking to you. That's how He's going to preserve
us in faith. Can you give Him glory for that?
He brings you to glory only in Him. He brings you to offer the
sacrifice of praise, thanksgiving to Him. And He never stops interceding
for you and receiving your prayer and attending unto your prayer.
If that's the case with you, if you can say, yes, that's the
case with me, go back to verse one. Make a joyful noise unto
God. Sing forth the honor of His name. Make His praise glorious. Say
unto God, how fear-inspiring are you in your works. So let's sing to Him now. You
see there, we're not singing to one another. We're singing
unto God. That makes me want to sing loud.
We're singing unto God, and He's hearing. We got a lot to sing
about, don't we? A lot. Amen.