Is there any place you'd rather
be than here? Anything you'd rather be doing? Seriously, it's obvious you're
here. This is a blessing. And if you'd
have told me when I was 17, 18, 19, 20 years old, I was going
to drive seven hours on the weekend, spend my Friday and Saturday
here in about Eight hours of preaching. I say, you're crazy. But there's nothing I'd rather
do. That's a good sign, isn't it? The Lord not only gives,
when he saves somebody, a new creature, he not only gives a
belief for the truth, but a love for it. You love what you're
doing, don't you? Love it. And John, you know when
you've been blessed by a message when you're preaching second,
And you were blessed by that message. You could listen to
it. We're thinking about thinking
about you on me. That's good. Enjoy that song. Thank you so much. He wrote that.
Right. Charles Spurgeon once said that
roast beef and potatoes weigh heavy on the hearts of the hearers. So I hope you can stay away for
a little bit, okay? One more message tonight, one
more. Go with me to Psalm 116. Psalm 116. There's my notes. They're sitting up here. Couldn't find them. Psalm 116. For what it's worth, when Brother, I got to tell this on your pastor.
He and Kevin were back, they were down visiting us. When was
that? Last year sometime, was it? September
or something like that. And he asked me if I'd come preach
in the conference here. I said, well, sure, I believe
I will. I can. I never heard from him
again. Until I saw the schedule and
my name was on it. Mindy said, you know you're preaching
for Clay? No. I'm here. That's the effect you'll call
anybody. Psalm 116, this is verses 5 and 6. Read these with me. I'll try to be brief. Gracious
is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. The
Lord preserveth the simple. He says, I was brought low, and
he helped me. The Lord preserveth the simple. That's the title of this message.
The Lord saveth the simple. Now, simple, the word simple
can be used several ways. First, it can be used meaning
easy, something that's not difficult or uncomplicated. It can mean
singular, or that's just one way. such as the gospel, the
singular message of Christ, the simplicity that's in Christ. Salvation, simply put, is in
Jesus Christ alone, alone, simple. But in the Old Testament, and
this meaning right here, every time it means one thing, every
time. Simple means silly, it means
foolish, it means childish, It means easily fooled, easily influenced,
gullible, naive, weak-minded, feeble-minded, and if you can
take it, it means stupid. One time, Brother David was preaching
for me, and he used that word stupid, and he apologized for
it. You remember that, David? He
said, that's not politically correct today. But I'm going
to use it extensively. because I feel pretty stupid. Stupid, the word means dull,
of scent, don't have good scents. That's the way I act a lot of
time, don't you? In other words, the Lord save it the stupid,
preserve it the simple. Now, we're all born that way. We're all born stupid. We grow up, and if the Lord doesn't
do something for us, do a work of grace, we'll become proud
and heady and high-minded and haughty and self-conceited, and
the scriptures call it vainglorious, because we have nothing to be
conceited about, nothing to be glorious about, nothing to be
proud about, because we are nothing, we know nothing, we can do nothing,
yet we think we are. That's how stupid we are. Our
Lord said, without me, you can do what? Nothing. By the grace of God, we are what
we are. What do we have we have not received? Dull of hearing. You know, Hebrews talks about
that. It ought to be teachers. Dull of hearing. That's us. Stupid. Unless the Lord does something
for them. This seems to be the recurring
lesson that we're learning here, isn't it? If the Lord doesn't
save us, we won't be saved. If the Lord doesn't preserve
us and keep us, we're going to destroy ourselves. We're going
to destroy ourselves. If the Lord doesn't teach us,
we're going to remain ignorant and lost and stupid without knowledge,
without understanding, without God, without Christ. So I'm going
to keep this simple, okay? I'm a simple man and often stupid. And I'm going to keep this K-I-S-S,
okay? You got two points, very simple. The merciful Savior and
the simple sinner. The merciful Savior and the simple
sinner. Okay? This is who the Lord is,
how the Lord is, and who He saved. All right? The merciful Savior.
Look at verse 5 again with me. It says, Gracious is the Lord
and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. Gracious
is the Lord. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Gracious. The Lord is full of
grace. Brother Fortner preached on that. Our Lord's grace. There's a wonderful message. We haven't waded ankle deep in
the subject, in the ocean of God, the fullness of His grace.
The Lord is gracious. He's full of grace, all grace,
every grace. The word gracious can mean tenderness,
it can mean kindness. The Lord is very tender. Very
tender. Because He's kind, He's compassionate. Compassionate, He's patient.
Long-suffering. That's the grace of the Lord.
Long-suffering. Peter said, take into account,
keep this in mind, that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation. One
time the Lord said to His disciples who were acting stupidly, Like
they didn't know anything. He said, how long must I suffer
with you? How long did He? All their lives. Because He's long-suffering.
That's our salvation. How long is He going to put up
with that? As long as it takes. Have He loved His own? He loved
them to the end. He's long-suffering. That's our salvation. The Lord
is pitiful. We use that word wrongly today.
I think we say that about someone. They're pitiful. No, what that
means is full of pity. Our Lord is pitiful. He's full
of pity. Full of pity. We're not really
pitiable. But He's pitiful. He's full of
pity. He pities His people. Those that
fear Him. Those that fear Him. The Lord
is thoughtful. David said, your thoughts toward
me are more than I can number. He said, it's too wonderful for
me to even think of it. The Lord is courteous. Courteous
means to think about the other one before yourself. That is
Him, isn't it? Courteous. The Lord is considerate. The Lord is generous. Psalm 1,
blessed is the man. Blessed man. That has to speak
of our Lord. And our Lord is the one that
said, it's more blessed to give than to receive. And no one gave
like He did. So He's the most blessed man.
Generous. Give. Give her. More blessed
to give than to receive. The Lord is gracious. He delights
to show mercy. Oh, He's plenteous in redemption.
The Lord is gracious. Look at the next time. The Lord
is merciful. The Lord is merciful. Righteous,
that is. Gracious is the Lord and righteous.
Righteous. Our Lord, everything He does
is right. That's what Mother John said.
Everything the Lord does is right. All he says is right. He is righteous. He's pure. He's honest. He's
true. He can be believed. He should be believed. No one
else should be. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Trust the Lord. He's righteous. He's right. Everything
he does is right. Things are right because he does
them. He just doesn't do things that are right. They're right
because he does them. That's how we're going to have
peace. resting his righteousness. He does right. Abraham was worried
about his nephew Lot, wasn't he? He was concerned about Lot
living down there in Sodom. And do you have loved ones that
don't know the Lord? Abraham was concerned about Lot's
soul, wasn't he? And he pleaded with the Lord,
not only on behalf of Lot, but maybe his family and others that
lived in Sodom. Isn't that a lesson for us? We
shouldn't want to call down fire on sinners. At any rate, Abraham was pleading
on behalf for Lot, his nephew, and you remember what he kept
saying, if there would be 50, if there would be 10, he got
down to 10 righteous. And finally, he settled this
himself and he got peace with this thought. Shall not the judge. of the earth do right. He's going to do right. By you,
by your children, whatever it is, that Eli, when they came
to him with the news of his two sons that were going to be killed,
he said, it's the Lord. He's right. He's righteous. He
does what's right. Whatever he does, it's right.
There's a verse in Luke that he says, He said, in your patience,
possess your souls. In other words, like you preach,
be still and know that I'm God. That whatever I do is right and
you're going to see. Someday you're going to see it
was all right. Righteous. He's right. Just in
all he does. This will keep your mind and
it'll keep your soul with peace and comfort. You won't charge
God foolishly with your lips. That's what kept Job, didn't
it? Job said the Lord gave him. The Lord taketh away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. He's righteous. He's righteous. Oh, look at verse 5. Gracious
is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. Yea, our God is merciful. Gracious
is the Lord and righteous. And our God is merciful. Yea. It says yea. Yes, that's what
that means. It almost sounds like a cheer,
doesn't it? Yay. We go to a ball game, somebody
scores a touchdown, we say, yay. That's what we ought to say when
we hear about our God's grace and mercy and righteousness,
yay. Your dad, I used to hear him
say, Adam Sheridan, somebody preaching a message, something
he likes, say, yeah. That's right. Yay, that's what
amen means. That's right, that's the way
it is. I'm glad it is. I agree. Yay, our God is merciful. He's merciful, merciful, merciful,
merciful. He delights to show mercy. Scripture
says the Lord takes pity in them that fear Him and them that hope
in His mercy. People, that's all I've got to
hope in is His mercy. He takes great pleasure in showing
mercy. I remember when I was working
on the railroad. I worked on the railroad for
about 12 years. Started out as a brakeman. And I would have
to walk the trains and check the trains out, walk many a mile
all night long and the day and walk many, many miles. And often,
always alone. But as a young believer, I remember
one night I was walking in the middle of the night, had my brakeman's
lantern, you know, and I was feeling so sinful and so wretched,
so rotten, I was just feeling so I was feeling like I wasn't
a child of God and I was just down, cast down. I had a Bible
in my back pocket and I took it out and I was needing some
kind of help. And I got my lantern and I just opened it up and it
just opened up to a scripture where the Lord said to his disciples,
fear not little flock. It's your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. And I don't think I touched the
ground, Russell, going all the way back to the caboose. Gave
me such cheer. Merciful. Our God is merciful.
He delights to show mercy. That's what I need, and that's
what he's full of. That's what I need the most,
and that's what he's full of. Yay. Yay. I remember when I was a boy,
go to Bible conferences and went to Sillicog, Alabama. That was
about like time in the 1930s. Sillicog, I mean, going there
by choice, Don. We're going there by choice now.
But Sillicog, Alabama, and there was a dear brother down there,
preacher, pastor, named Henry Breedlove. And I'd go down there
as a boy. And my dad would be preaching,
Farrell Griswold and other men would be preaching. And I'd have
to sit on the front row. That's where preacher's kids
sit. And behind me, old brother Henry. You remember. Every now and then, he'd just
laugh. And Jeff, I thought, I didn't
hear any joke. Somebody tell a joke? That old
man was laughing with a holy laughter. When somebody says
something with such good news to him, he's just rejoicing. I didn't know what was going
on. I do now. I do now. This is like Psalm
126. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were
like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with
laughter. The Lord has done good things
for us. Great things for us. And we're glad. And I catch myself
doing that all the time. Laughing. Yay. The Lord is merciful. There's something sure about
it. Be of good cheer. The Lord is gracious. The Lord
is righteous. He's going to do what's right.
The Lord is merciful. Full of mercy. And look at this.
And this is who he saved. And that's why he saved. Verse
6. These people. Verse 6. The Lord preserveth
the simple. The stupid, the silly, the gullible,
the foolish. You know, that's what he calls
men and women by nature, foolish, foolish. Go with me to Proverbs
1. Look at how this starts out. Go over to Proverbs chapter 1
with me. It says, Proverbs 1, verse 2,
to know wisdom and instruction. And verse 4, to give subtlety
to the simple, the young man, knowledge and discretion. That's who he's talking to. Over
in chapter 8, he says, oh, you simple one, listen to me. You
simple understand wisdom. You fools, be of an understanding
heart. We're so foolish, aren't we?
So gullible, so naive, so easily led astray. One time his disciple,
well, after he arose from the grave, walking on the road to
Emmaus, remember? And they were down, they were
sad, and he walked along with them and he said, why are you
sad? And they said, we thought we trusted, you know, Jesus and
that. It's like they'd never heard a thing by the John one.
And he said, oh, fools, and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophet ought not Christ to have suffered. Haven't you
heard anything? That's what the Lord says. Slow, dim-witted, dull, foolish
sinners. These preachers would admit,
if you're honest. If you're an honest preacher, you'll admit
that if this wasn't our job, If this necessity wasn't laid
upon us, if we didn't have to sit down and study like we do,
we wouldn't know, we wouldn't be able to quote half the scripture
we know. And we wouldn't do it. Right? It's just the way it is.
Take heart. Take heart. It was Rob Keller
was asking me before the service, he says, what's your text? I
said, Psalm 116. I forget. So I'll tell you later. What's our hope? What we know? What we retain? What we come
to understand it? Hmm? It's who knows us? Who remembers
us? We're gonna lose our mind. Alzheimer's
something's gonna happen to us. What's our hope? that He knows
us. He won't forget us. That's it. The Lord preserveth the simple.
He preserveth the simple sinner. Now listen to me. A little bit
long. This will be short. There's some that are born simple.
They're born with their minds not fully developed. We have
a young couple whose son, only son, well they have three daughters
and their son was born with brain damage. And he'll never fully
develop, his mind won't. There are many like that. Many
like that. Down syndrome and so forth. Okay,
their mind's never fully developed. They're simple-minded, they're
feeble-minded, their brain won't develop, their thoughts won't
develop. They'll be like that all their life. Lord saves every
one of those people. Where do you get that? Right
here. Huh? Right there. In fact, he said,
if you don't become like that, you're not going to enter the
kingdom of heaven. Isn't it? If you don't become...
He told his disciples that one day. One of the few times I believe
our Lord got mad at his disciples, got angry with them was when
they were arguing about who was going to be the greatest. And
he took that child and sat him on his knee And he said, if you
don't become like this little child, you're not going to see
the kingdom of heaven. You're not going to be in the kingdom
of heaven. I take that quite literally.
Quite literally. How many babies have been aborted? How many children have died in
infancy? Millions and billions. They're
with the Lord. Aren't they, Brother Fortner?
Yes, sir. The Lord saveth the simple, the childlike. Yes, he
does. Christ had to die for them, didn't
He? He did. He had to pay for their
sin. They're born sinners and they
suffer death because of sin, because of sin, but they don't
sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression. That's what Romans
5 says. They're not willful rebels against
God. And I'm not making allowances
of compromising the gospel for anybody that rejects the truth.
Anybody that willfully, knowingly rejects the truth is going to
perish, going to be judged by God for it. But these little
children, these little babies and all, and there's no age of
accountability. I'm not saying that at all. But the Lord does
right. And these little ones and these simple-minded people,
they're with the Lord. They're with the Lord. And for
the life of me, I don't understand men and women that have the attitude
that... Well, one time the disciples
wanted to call down fire on some people, and the Lord said, you
don't know what a matter of man you are. That's a wrong attitude.
He said, I didn't come to destroy men's lives. I came to save them. And for the life of me, I don't
understand why people want to commit children to hell anyway. And, you know, we're saved by
Greg. You say, well, they've got to believe. Let me ask you
something. Are you saved because you believe?
Are you? Or do you believe because you're
saved? Which comes first, life or faith? Those babies are going to wake
up and they're going to believe all right, in glory. Oh, they're going to believe.
And they're going to be singing the songs of repentance unto
Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in their own
blood. Yes, they are. We're not saved because of our faith. We're
saved because Christ died, because God justified. Faith is just
the result of that gift or that life He's given us. And I'll
show you a scripture maybe you haven't seen concerning this
over in Job chapter 3. There are many scriptures. I've
heard many men preach on this and Brother Fortner had a wonderful
message on that. But Job chapter 3. And you know
David, and this might give somebody some real hope in here. I know
some ladies who have aborted their children when they were
young and they made that horrible mistake and they live with those
terrible regrets. And I can give them great comfort
that they're going to see that child someday. But they meant
it for evil. Let me ask you this. All those
children that died when Herod was trying to kill the Christ,
that died for him, you mean to tell me that they're going to suffer
hell for dying in Christ's stead? Is everybody Christ died for
or saved? What about those that died for him? Look at this, Job chapter 3.
The Lord wouldn't give us these comforts. Wouldn't give, like
when David said concerning his infant child, he said, he'll
not come back to us, I'll go to him. He would not give that
comfort to anyone. He wouldn't give a false hope
to somebody. But look at this, in Job 3, this is the oldest
book in the Bible, isn't it? Job chapter 3, and Job was lamenting
the fact that he was born. In verse 11, Job said, Why died
I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost
when I came out of the belly? Why did the knees prevent me,
or why the breasts that I should suck? He's saying if I had died
in infancy or at birth, verse 13, now should I have lain still
and been quiet, I should have slept, I'd been at rest. If I
had died as a baby, aborted or whatever, he said I'd be at rest.
There you have it. The Lord preserveth the simple. Titus chapter 3, Job 3, Titus
3, look at this. Here it is, very simply put.
We're saved, not by what we've done or what we know, but by
who knows us and what he's done for us. Look at Titus chapter
3, you know this. Verse 3, verse 2. Speak evil of no man, be no brawler,
gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. Show all meekness
unto all men. For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers, lusts, and pleasures,
living in malice, envy, hateful, hating one another. But after
the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us half by the washing of regeneration,
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior. And justified by his grace, we're
made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Any mention
of anything you did in that? That's what all he did for us. The Lord, salvation is up to
the Lord. The Lord preserve it. The Lord
save it. And in our text it says He save
it, He preserve it. The simple, the foolish. Is that
you? You feel yourself to be nothing
but a sinner. Foolish? We sing that song, once
I was foolish and sin ruled my heart. Well, sometimes I feel
like I'm still foolish and sin ruled my heart. The Lord preserveth the simple.
The Lord preserveth the simple, those that simply trust Him.
Those that simply trust Him. Do you? What is your hope, really? Don't look to anything you are,
anything you've done. It's all your hope in Jesus Christ. When I talk to people privately,
This is the question I always ask them. What is your hope of
eternal life? When I hear somebody's religious,
and it doesn't take long to find out, I ask them that question. What is your hope of eternal
life? What is your hope of eternal life? If you can say from your
heart, what we just heard. I believe, like Peter said, no,
I'm sure, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He's my hope. He's my righteousness. He's my
sanctification. He's my redemption. He's my salvation. He's my all. Christ is my all.
He's my only, is that your, is that your simple confession of
faith? Is it? The Lord preserve it. That's pretty simple. The Lord
preserveth the simple, the sincere, the honest, those with no guile,
like a little child, no hypocrisy, but they really do trust Him.
They really do trust Him. They really do look to Him. They
really do depend on Him. Is that you? Like a little child? The Lord preserveth the simple,
those with a simple appreciation for and rejoicing in simple things,
Like mercy, like what you've been hearing. If you ever grow
tired of hearing the gospel of God's sovereign grace and sovereign
mercy and Christ dying for sinners, if you ever grow tired of that,
woe is unto you. You've never really heard it.
You've never really heard it. But if it grows sweeter to you,
more precious to you, that's a good sign. A simple appreciation. Like a
little child that delights in anything given to it, anything
done for it. A little child delights in things
that it learned. Oh, my. Mindy and I, we used to work
with the Special Olympics, Winter Olympics. And we'd go take these
people, simple-minded people, to skiing, okay. Many of them were in their 30s,
grown men and young ladies and women. But most of them had the
mentality of a child. I was six years old and I was
in charge of one fellow, he weighed about 250 pounds. And Kenny,
Kenny was his name. And I was picking him up off
the snow. Oh, he wore me out. But he just smile. He just happy
everything. But at one time, I was in the
room, I was chaperone and I was brushing my teeth and, and I
felt somebody looking at me and I looked around to to these young
men in their 30s looking at me. What do we do? I had to tell
them like little children, well, brush your teeth, and use the
bathroom, and wash your face. At any rate, there was a man there
that was in his 50s. His name was John Brown. John
Brown's Down Syndrome. He's only about four foot, six
inches tall. John Brown. Down Syndrome. And if you've known any Down
Syndrome people, they're generally Always smiling. Always sweet
and kind. And he was. Always smiling. Always
upbeat. Always kind. Always enthusiastic. Always happy. Always. Well, he
came in one day. He came in one day and he said
he was so excited he'd gotten a job. They gave him a job, thank
good will. And he came in and he said, I
get to go to work. I get to go to work. How often
do you say that? If everybody said that, we wouldn't
have national debt. We'd have unemployment. He said,
I get to go to work. And then he said, and they pay
me too. Lord preserve it the simple.
Shouldn't we say, I get to go to church. I get to hear the gospel. I get to be a part of the saints. That's what you felt when you
first heard the gospel. You thought, I don't belong with
these good people here, but I'm sure glad to be here. I get to
be in the kingdom of God. And He pays me too. I received
from the Lord double from all of my iniquity. Pays me what
Christ earned, doesn't it? Gracious is the Lord and
righteous, yay! Our God is merciful. The Lord
preserved the sinful. David said in closing, he said,
I was brought low and he helped me. If you don't know the circumstances
of Psalm 34, David wrote Psalm 34. He wrote that right after,
you remember the story when David acted like a madman? You remember
that? David, this was the killer of
Goliath. David, this was a man who fought
armies single-handedly. David, this was that courageous,
bold, true believer of the Lord. One time he got so afraid that
he acted like a madman. He was drooling. spittle was
running down his beard. Remember that? And she was scratching
on. He lost his mind. He was out
of his mind. I can like a bloomin idiot. David. How could you act like
that? Have you ever had like that?
Have you ever done something? What was I thinking inside of
my mind? Well, he wrote Psalm 34 after
that. You need to read it for yourself. But now I think in
verse 4 it says, David said, this poor man cried. And the
Lord heard him. I think he was saying this poor
excuse for a man. This poor excuse for a believer,
this poor excuse for a child of God, this fickle, fallible,
foolish, failing, silly, stupid sinner. I cried unto the Lord
and He saved me. Why? Because the Lord is gracious. That's why. The Lord preserves
the sinner. Is that you? I pray the Lord have mercy on
me. hymn number 228. My faith has
found a resting place. Let's all stand together and
sing hymn number 228.