Alright, we're going to be in
Psalm 4. Psalm 4. But before we begin there, our
introduction is going to begin in Ephesians 4. So if you want
to hold your place in Psalm 4, and then we're going to go to
Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. By the work of the
Spirit of God, whenever A child of God is regenerated, given
faith and life, born again. They're made a new creature in
Christ Jesus, a new creation. And we put off the old man with
his deeds. And among those deeds that we
put off is lying. We don't lie anymore. We speak
the truth. We speak the truth. And Apostle
Paul tells us what truth he's speaking about, what he's preeminently
speaking of in this chapter. And if you go back and read from
verse 1, you'll see this is so, but let's look at Ephesians 4.20.
He says, But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have
heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus. This is the truth he's talking
about. Speak the truth. And he says this, verse 22, that
you put off concerning the former conversation, that word means
way of life, the old man, put off the old man which is corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed renewed in the
spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man, which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Being born
of the seed of God, created in His image, born of Him. Wherefore,
verse 25, put away lying. Speak every man truth with his
neighbor. We're talking about speaking
the truth as it is in Christ. Now we're not talking about lying
at all, but we're talking about preeminently here, speaking the
truth, the gospel. For we are members one of another,"
down in verse 29. He says, let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use
of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. We're
talking about speaking the truth. And as the believer speaks the
truth of Christ, speaks the truth of God's sovereign of his sovereignty,
of his sovereign election, of his sovereign predestinating
of his people into the adoption of children, as we speak of Christ
and give Christ all the glory, there's going to be those that
we encounter. Some who were going to speak of blasphemous things
about the Lord, speaking of self-salvation, self-righteousness, self-sanctification. I've even heard men speak of
what you do, steps A, B, and C, to be born again. And I asked you the other day, what
did you have to do the first time you were born? Nothing.
So you don't have anything to do with being born again. This
is the work of God. This is His work. But you'll
have folks speak things against God, speak lies against the glory
of God. Now concerning those who are
seeking the Lord, Those who are seeking, though ignorant and
though opposing themselves. Paul instructed Timothy to instruct
them in meekness and meekness and patience because he said
they opposed themselves. Now our Lord was very meek and
patient with those who were seeking Him, who came to Him. Those who
were teaching and promoting lies and trying to promote falsehood,
our Lord was very bold with them. He was very bold. And Paul told
Titus this, Titus 1 10, he said, there are many unruly and vain
talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, those
who preach works, the will of man works, law, something you
have to do to make yourself accepted of God. Especially they of the
circumcision, and Paul said, whose mouths must be stopped. They subvert whole houses, teaching
things they ought not. And they do it for filthy gain,
some kind of filthy gain. They're looking to gain for themselves.
He said, wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound
in the faith. Now, there's such a thing when
we hear blasphemous things spoken against our Father and our God. There's such a thing as a righteous
indignation. I expect if my children hear
something spoken against me that's not true, I don't expect them
to be lukewarm about it. I want them to either be hot
about it or cold about it. But don't be lukewarm about it.
At least stand on some side. Stand either for me or against
me. And that's what God said. He said, I'll spew you out of
my mouth. He said to the lukewarm. He said, be hot or cold. I would
rather you were hot or cold. And there's such thing as a righteous
indignation, a righteous anger. And I can hardly stand to hear
somebody speak about my Heavenly Father without it causing me
to be angry. It does make me angry. Makes
me very angry. The same as it would if somebody
said something against your earthly father. Makes me more so, actually. And our Lord, we see anger attributed
here to our Lord. Look at Mark 3. Mark 3. He was
in the temple one day and he'd entered a synagogue and there
was a man with a withered hand and he was going to heal this
man. It was the Sabbath day. And these men of the circumcision,
these law keepers, these law mongers, these will worshipers
said to him that he couldn't heal on the Sabbath day. And
here she got a man with a withered hand. And the Lord's fixing to
heal him. And these hard-hearted, self-righteous
men don't want him to be healed because they want to keep the
law. They want to keep the Sabbath day holy. And he said unto them,
Mark 3, 4, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days, or
to do evil, to save life, or to kill? But they held their
peace. And when he looked round about
on them with anger, Do you see that? Mark 3, 5, "...when he
had looked round about on them with anger." This is the Lord
Jesus Christ being grieved for the hardness of their hearts.
He was angry, grieved with the hardness of their hearts. We
find in Revelation 6, 16 it speaks of the wrath of the Lamb. Psalm
7, 11 says, God judges the righteous and God is angry with the wicked
every day. The scripture says, Psalm 212,
kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish from the way when
his wrath is kindled but a little. There is a such thing as a righteous
indignation, a righteous anger. We see it in Paul, look at Galatians
chapter 1 verse 8. Galatians chapter 1 and verse
8. Paul said this twice. He said, though we or an angel
from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which
we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that you have received, let him be accursed. He said
over in Galatians 5.12, he said, I would that they were even cut
off which trouble you. Now that's these who are coming
in and saying there's something yet to be added to Christ. There's
something yet to be done that Christ didn't accomplish the
work He said He accomplished. Mr. Spurgeon was commenting on
this that Paul said in Galatians 1.8 and he said, According to
modern effeminacy, He ought to have said, Let him be kindly
spoken with in private, but pray, make no stir. No doubt the good
brother has his own original modes of thought and we must
not question his liberty. Doubtless he believes the same
as we do, only there is some little difference as to terms.
As Spurgeon said, this is treason to Christ and treachery to truth
and cruelty to souls. That's what it is. He said, he
that does not hate the false does not love the truth. And
he said, and I confess it, I grow angry when somebody, he said,
I boil over with indignation when his name is disparaged.
But though this anger may be righteous anger, turn over to
Ephesians, back to Ephesians 4.26. Paul gives us a word, a good word of instruction here.
Ephesians 4.26. Be ye angry. There is such thing as a righteous
anger. He doesn't say don't be angry. He says be angry and sin
not. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Turn over to Psalm
4-4. This will be our text tonight
and I want you to see that Paul in the context appears to have
quoted from this psalm and I hope by the end of this psalm now
you'll have some comfort and some instruction
in these things. But look at Psalm 4.4. Stand
in awe and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed and be still. Now this is almost verbatim to
what the Apostle Paul quoted over there in Ephesians. Now
let's go back to verse 1 and let's go through and see what
we can learn about this. It's very common, especially
for new believers, to find themselves becoming angry at men who speak
blasphemous things about the Lord. And it may be justifiable,
but we know that our hearts are very apt for it. it to be something other than
a righteous anger. The Lord teaches us here something
about that. Look at Psalm 41. This is to
the chief musician on Neganoth, which is a particular instrument.
It was a Psalm of David. He says, Hear me when I call,
O God of my righteousness. That's who our God is. He's the
God of our righteousness. He says, Thou hast enlarged me
and freed me when I was in distress. And he says, have mercy upon
me and hear my prayer. Has He not enlarged you, sinner,
who know Him and believe Him and trust Him? Has He not freed
you by His work of grace that He's done for you and work of
grace He's done in your heart? And David pleads this. He says,
you've done this for me. And he says, now hear my prayer.
O ye sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love vanity,
worthlessness, and seek after leasing after that which is lives?
Can you imagine, I was thinking of this today, can you imagine
living in a nation, living in a kingdom, where the king who
sat upon the throne, ruling the throne, that one you see come
on and interrupt the TV shows at night and all the news channels
flash on and there he is talking on television. and he says something
this faithful, and this scriptural, and this true, and this comforting
to your own heart, wouldn't it make you, can you see how these
children, the true child of God, sitting under the throne of David,
would just love this beloved king who wrote honorable, God-honoring
songs like this, and who spoke these things, and they could
know that they were one with Him in their heart, in spirit,
in truth. They were one with Him. And they
had a King who knew the infirmities of their own hearts, who knew
the things that causes them grief and trouble and sorrow. That
would be a wonder. We have it. Believer, we have
it. We have a King, Christ who sits
on the throne, who by the Spirit of God moved David to write what
he wrote. and he knows the feeling of our
infirmities. He knows what we suffer and what we endure. In
this psalm we hear much of the prayer of Christ. There's somebody
greater than David speaking here. We have much of the prayer of
Christ when he walked this earth as a man. He's God and as God
he needs nothing. He is the God the Son. As the
second person in the Trinity he needed nothing. But as the
righteous servant of God, the faithful servant of God, man,
In his human nature, in his manly nature, he was totally dependent
upon God, upon the Father, as the righteous servant and head
and representative of his people. And we have a prayer here that
is very much the prayer of our Lord when he faced the hardness
of sinful hearts. I'm going to divide this into
four divisions. We're going to see righteous indignation first.
Secondly, we're going to see consolation. Thirdly, we're going
to see instruction. And fourthly, we're going to
see rejoicing. The first thing we see is righteous
indignation, righteous anger. Verse 2. He says, O ye sons of
men, how long will you turn my glory into shame? How long will
you love vanity and seek after lies? Can you hear the Master
say that? Can you hear the Master after
He's in the temple that's been turned into a den of thieves?
Can you hear the Master after He stood there with a man with
a withered hand and is about to heal this man? And the hardness
of these men's heart, wherein He was angered, can you hear
Him retire to the mount somewhere by Himself, pouring out His heart
to the Father and saying, O ye sons of men, How long will you
turn my glory into shame? How long will you seek after
that which is absolutely worthless? Will you seek after the lies
instead of seeking after me? Christ Jesus is the glory of
God. When he says, how long will you
turn my glory into shame? He is the glory of God. He was
sent forth to declare the glory of God. And he came forth and
he declares in everything he's accomplished at Calvary, he declares
the holiness of God. God's gonna save in a way that
is in complete, total, complicit holiness. that which is altogether
whole. He's going to save in a way that
is absolutely righteous. He's going to save in a way that's
right. His law is going to be honored. It's going to be upheld.
It's going to be magnified. That's what He did in sending
Christ forth. He magnified it, honored it, fulfilled it. He
saves in a way that's in complete accordance with His justice.
That's why Christ came. He came to die at Calvary. Men would stop talking about
universal redemption if we just look into something about justice.
If Christ died for everybody, everybody's got to be saved.
Everybody's got to be called. Everybody's going to be in heaven
and there is no hell. Hell's a lie if Christ died for
everybody. And that's not so. Hell's true.
There is a place. There are some there now because
Christ didn't die for them. Christ didn't die for them. He
put away sin and justice demands that they have to be called.
They have to be united to him in faith. They have to be given
life and all things that pertain to Godliness. If we would look
into the mercy of God, we'd find out that this glory of God and
mercy, He's gracious and He saves according to grace, not based
on anything in us, but He saves by grace. And this is manifest
on the cross. Here is one getting what his
people deserved in the place of his people so that his people
can receive nothing but mercy. and grace, so that God withholds
from them what they deserve, mercy, and gives them what they
don't deserve, grace, and robes them in His righteousness, and
makes them complete in Him, so that they enter into the very
presence of God. This is the glory of God, and
we see the love of God. This is what, this is, Christ
didn't come and die to make God love some people. He came because
God did. The Spirit of God doesn't enter
in and give life and faith to a person to make them God love
them. He does it because God loves
them. God's the first cause. And what God does, He does according
to His holiness, His righteousness, His justice, His mercy, His grace,
His love, His long-suffering. This is what Brother Joe was
talking about. The only reason He hadn't come back now is because
He's not willing that any, any for whom Christ died, perish,
but that every one of them come to repentance. And they will.
And He won't come back till they all do. He won't come back till
they all do. We saw Sunday concerning Lazarus,
he said, the reason that he has died is for the glory of God
that the Son of God might be glorified. That's why everything's
coming to pass in this earth, for the glory of God that the
Son of God might be glorified. Whenever Paul said we were born
anew, he said he shined the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Christ Jesus. We saw the glory of God
when we beheld Christ by faith. We behold the glory of God. I
want you to see this one, Revelation 21-23. I'm just trying to make
the connection here that between Christ and God, the glory, Christ
is God and the glory that He came forth to declare is the
glory of God. Look at Revelation 21-23. The city had no need of the sun, neither
of the moon to shine in it. He's talking about the heavenly
Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. For the glory of God
did light it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. You see, the
glory of God and of the Lamb, that was the light thereof. He's
the glory. And Christ says of those that
He's called by His grace, He said in John 17, 22, He said,
The glory which thou gavest Me, I have given them. for this reason,
that they may be one even as we are one." Now hear what Christ
is saying. I've given these, I've called,
I've given them the glory you gave to me for this purpose,
that they may be one like God the Father and God the Son are
one. How can that be? What glory is this He gives that
makes us one with God the Father and God the Son even as God the
Father and God the Son are one? It's the glory of being made
the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. It's the glory of this
one who died as our substitute having put away all our sin so
that we're robed in his righteousness and we're complete in him and
we're made the righteousness of God in him. It's this glory
of this one who's made a curse for us that he might put away
the curse that there'd be no curse against us that we can
come into God's presence. accepted in the Beloved. This,
this is the glory that He's given. And so when He walked this earth,
this One who is the glory, this One who came to declare the glory
of God, this One in whose face we see the glory of God as brethren,
when He walked this earth, men sought, they sought to turn His
glory into shame. They sought that which was absolutely
worthless in seeking lies against Him, because He's truth, He's
light, He's God, and in Him is no darkness. In Him was no sin. But they sought constantly to
come and entangle Him in His words. I get so disgusted with
men who sit down and act all pious and sincere and want to
talk to you about something, and within a few moments you
find out they're just trying to trip you up in your words.
And it don't take much to figure out that's what's going on. And
they kept trying to come and entangle Him in His words. They
kept trying to come and try to find sin in this sinless one. You know what they were doing?
They were trying their best to justify themselves before the
people who they put on this great pious show in front of. They
were trying their best to justify themselves before that people
for nailing Him to the cross and rejecting Him. Rejecting
Him. And He withdrew. And this is
the righteous indignation wherewith Christ was angered when He saw
the hardness of their hearts in the temple. And this is the
righteous indignation of His people whenever we hear somebody
speak against our God and reject Him by saying, that either Christ
is not God, or that He didn't accomplish what He said He accomplished,
or that there's yet something that the sinner must do to add
to what He said, and they seek to make our Savior a liar, saying
He's a liar when He said it's finished. Either He is true and
said it is finished, their redemption's accomplished, or He lied. It can't be both. And that's
why it makes me angry, because this is what, and this is my
prayer, this was the prayer of the Lord Jesus, the righteous
servant of God, the faithful one, and this is our prayer,
this is what we pray. Have you ever done this after
being rejected, after having, and I'll just give you this word,
don't argue with folks. Somebody email me and say, what
should I say to folks concerning this argument about, first thing
I tell them is nothing. Don't say anything to them. Don't
argue about anything. Declare the truth and go on.
And leave it alone. But this is our prayer about
it. O ye sons of men. Psalm 42. O ye sons of men, how
long will you turn my glory, the glory of my Redeemer, the
glory of my God, how long will you turn my glory into shame?
How long will you seek vanity and seek after leasing lives?
How long? So that's the righteous indignation.
Now let's look secondly here at the consolation. Look at verse
3. Now I've told you this before
and I get this now when we read this psalm. This is the psalmist
It's like when you're cast down and you know you've got opposition
coming at you and you've got angry words spoken back at you
and you know how you get alone and you start talking with yourself.
And you start talking with the Lord and you're trying to remember
and remember who's you are. Who's you are. And this is what
the psalmist is doing. This is what he said. Verse 3,
know, he's speaking with himself, know that the Lord has set apart
him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call
unto him. Now, first of all, let's hear Christ communing with
his own heart in the midst of all the enemies he faced in this
earth. Hear Christ Jesus. He is the godly man. He is the godly one whom God
set apart for himself. We saw that in Isaiah 42, 1.
Behold my servant, mine elect whom I uphold and whom my soul
delighteth. God said, I've set him apart.
I've set him apart for me. And Christ knew, God the Father
set him apart. And Christ knew, the Lord will
hear when I call unto him. And this is the great consolation
of our hearts, brethren. This is the peace of our soul,
because Jesus Christ is our righteousness. And because Jesus Christ, our
intercessor, is risen and is seated in the glory with the
Father. Because he is there and he is our advocate with the Father,
and he's ever heard of the Father, we know. that the Lord hath set
apart him that is godly for himself. He set apart us in him. for Himself. He set apart His
people in Christ for Himself when He set them apart in electing
grace. And when the Spirit of God came
and we were sanctified by the Spirit of God and made alive
to behold what God has done, we were set apart for Him by
the Spirit of God. And He made us to behold that
when Christ died at Calvary's tree and put away our sin, He
set us apart by His own blood. so that we're set apart for Him
who is our God. And this is our consolation because
it's so. In our covenant head, in Christ
whom God hears, in Christ who's finished this work, He will hear
me when I call Him. You ever wonder why when we pray,
we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Because we can't
come to God unless we come in Him. That doesn't mean you have
to verbally say in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ every time
you pray. We pray and praise Him throughout
our prayers and throughout what we're saying. It means coming
to Him in Christ only. We don't approach God any other
way but Christ only. It's approaching Him in faith.
It's approaching Him in faith. And we know He'll hear us when
we call. That's our consolation. Even though we're surrounded
with enemies, even though you sometimes encounter this righteous
indignation in your heart, we remember this. The Lord has set
apart them that are godly for Himself. He'll hear me when I
call. He'll hear me. Here's the instruction now. Verse
4. Psalm 4-4. Stand in awe and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed and be still." Now Christ beheld those around Him there
in that temple that day. And He said He looked on them
with anger, greed for the hardness of their heart. He stood in awe. He was amazed. at the hardness
of their heart. He was angered at the hardness
of their heart. He trembled at the hardness of their heart.
That's what this word awe, it encompasses amazement, anger,
trembling, stand in awe. He was amazed at those things.
But our righteous head stood in awe of God's word. He stood in awe of the word.
Let me, you can turn there if you like, Psalm 119. Psalm 119,
let me give you this. Psalm 119, 161. This can only be said of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Princes have persecuted me without
a cause. He's the only one that can truly
be said of. Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart
standeth in awe of thy word. of thy word. I rejoice at thy
word as one that findeth great spoil." So what does that mean?
What's he telling us? When we're grieved at heart,
let's follow our Savior. Let's follow Him. Let us commune
with our own heart in private. That's what he said. Stand in
awe and he said, and sin not But do this, don't let this anger,
this trembling be turned into something that it shouldn't be.
Our Lord never sinned. He had no sin in Him, no thought
in Him. And He says to us, let it not
turn into that, but He says this, commune with your own heart upon
your bed. This is what our Savior did.
In Matthew 14, 23, when He had sent the multitudes away, He
went up into a mountain apart to pray. And when the evening
was come, He was there alone. This psalm's called the evening
psalm by some because it deals with communing with God upon
our bed. It ends with, I'll lay me down
to sleep. And it's about when we lay down
in private and commune with God upon our bed. He continued all
night in prayer to God, Luke said. And he says to us here,
stand in awe, tremble, be angered, Be angry, as Paul said, but sin
not. Sin not. Be angry and sin. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath, neither give place to the devil, but he says here
in Psalm 4, for commune with your own heart upon your bed
and be still. Be still. Look at verse 5. This is the same instruction.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord.
What's the sacrifices of righteousness? You remember what David said
in Psalm 51.7? This is the sacrifices of righteousness. Psalm 51.17, I'm sorry. The sacrifices of God, that's
what they are. They're the sacrifices of God
and they are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. He says, is your heart broken? Are you contrite? Is your spirit
broken? Bring that to God. That's what
he's saying, bring that to God. This is a psalm about prayer. Come to God with it. And he says,
and put your trust in the Lord. Put your trust in the Lord. Whatever
the cause, come to God. Come to God with that broken
heart. Come to God with that contrite heart. and put your
trust in the Lord. Don't just come to Him and pour
out your prayer to Him. Don't just come to Him and speak
honestly with Him. Come to Him and speak it to Him
and trust Him to take it and to take care of it. Believe Him.
Leave it in His hand. He's able to speak peace into
your soul. It's not only to believe He's
able, it's to trust Him to do what He's able, what He only
is able to do. Trust Him to comfort your heart. That heart need to
be comforted. He's able to do it. That night
when he walked across that water and those waves were bouncing
all over the place, he just said, peace, be still. So when he was
in the ship, they were all frantic and worried. We're in fellowship
with him. If we're in fellowship with him
in the ship in which he is our fellow, we don't have to... Lord
help us. And he just said, peace, be still. And the waters just calmed. He's
able to keep our broken frame. He's able to make his word go
forth in effectual power. Let's just stand in awe and tremble,
but stand in awe of His Word and remember it's His Word only
that can go forth. It's only His Word that can do
something in my heart, and it's only His Word that can do something
in the heart of the one who I desperately want to know the truth of God.
It's only His Word that can do something in the heart of that
one who is opposing themselves by opposing me and opposing God. It's only God who can do that
work. Stand in awe of that word. He's
able to quicken His own and He's able even to subdue our enemies.
Go to Him with that broken heart and trust Him. Go to Him and
trust Him. It seems like everybody's too
many enemies, too much against you, too much power and opposition. You don't know. You don't know
all the opposition I'm facing. It's not too much for the Lord.
Look at verse 6. There'll be many that say, who
will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light
of thy countenance upon us. When Christ walked this earth
in the face of hell, when they were crying out in sin, there's
no hope for him in God. This was his prayer. There'll be many that say, who
will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light
of thy countenance upon us. Aren't you glad that he didn't
say, me? Aren't you glad he said us? Who's
he talking about? I only behold one on Calvary's
tree, treading the winepress of God's fury alone. I behold
one who endured a contradiction of sinners against himself. I
behold this one who is brought to the winepress to the point
that he's all alone, and yet I hear him pray. Lord, lift up
the light of thy countenance upon us. He intercedes not just for himself,
he intercedes for all those in him, for us, for us. When we pray, we stand up here
and we lead the congregation in prayer. When the men do so,
we pray, Lord, have mercy on us. We pray, Lord, be merciful
to us. Why? Because we're not just praying
for ourselves. We're praying for us. We're praying
for all God's sheep. We're praying for those whom
Christ is the head and we're the body. We're praying for all
us. Us. And when he walked, this
was his prayer. And he's ever living now to make
intercession. And so we ask in his name and
we say, Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You've
enlarged me when I was in distress. You've saved me from my sin.
You've paid my debt. You are risen to the right hand
of the Father. Have mercy upon me and hear me when I pray. Lord,
lift up the light of Thy countenance upon us. And we trust Him. And we wait. And we wait. It might not be
this minute, Christine. It might not be tomorrow. A hurricane
might come through first. But then He speaks that still,
small voice in our heart. This is what He says, Psalm 46.10.
This is what calms the waves, Psalm 46.10. This is what makes
us to be still. And you might add an E.D. there,
to be stilled. This is what He says, Psalm 46.10.
Be still. and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen.
I will be exalted in the earth. This is what he speaks to our
heart so that we know the Lord of hosts is with us and the God
of Jacob is our refuge. And that's how that heart that's
just going here and there and shaking and trembling and trying
to find peace everywhere but where the one place peace can
be found. This is how that heart is all
of a sudden just peace. Now here's the rejoicing. Verse
7, Thou hast put gladness in my
heart. more than in the time that their
corn and their wine increased." God the Father and our righteous
head, Christ the Lord, are of one heart. So much so that His
own heart was made glad in His own faithfulness. And it's His
faithfulness by which He puts this gladness in our heart. He puts it in our heart, His
gladness in our heart. The sons of men may increase.
They may increase and increase with corn and wine, with all
the natural things, but this joy He puts in our hearts is
something that's greater and something that's more everlasting
than any of the joy of the increase of the sons of men. Christ Jesus
whose name is wonderful, his name who is mighty, his name
who is counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. He's taken the government upon
his shoulder and it's still there. It's still there. What government? Government. The government of
the government. The government of this nation,
of this state, of this house, of his house, of my house, of
your house, the government is on his shoulder. He's come and
by his work he's broken the yoke of the oppressor. He's broken
his rod so that he can't oppress us anymore. If we ever get a
hold to what Christ has accomplished, we'll find out we can't be oppressed
anymore. We may get down sometimes just
like David did when he saw all this host come up against him
and turn the glory of his Redeemer into shame. But we won't get
down. We won't get down low enough
to get down down. He won't allow that. He won't
allow that. He'll lift us up. And he'll make
us to see that the increase of his government and peace, there'll
be no end to it. He'll keep us in peace. He'll
order it. He'll establish it with judgment
and justice forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will do this. He'll do this. We saw the other night how that
he said he drank of the brook and therefore he's the lifter
up of the head. I like to picture that and I've
experienced it just this real before. To where it was just
like when I was, I can't even lift up my head to him because
I am in such a, just broken hearted and broken spirited and just,
and literally, him reach out and lift it up, lift it up. So I can see His face. You know,
if you go through and you look, if you got a concordance and
you look up the light of thy countenance, you look that up,
go through the Psalms and read it. One particular Psalm where
it's said over and over again, turn us again and give us the
light of your countenance. You see, when we're down and
we're in the dark, it's not that He's not looking at us. Because
He's looking at us in His Son. He's looking at His people in
His Son all the time. The problem is, we're not looking
at Him. And He says, the Scripture says,
Turn us again and lift up the light of thy countenance. And
when He turns, when He lifts up the head, our head, and He
lifts it up and He calls us to look at Him, we behold the light
of His countenance, the light of His face. And it's been shining
on us the whole time. We just needed Him to lift it
up so we could see Him and rejoice in Him. And He puts gladness
in our heart that way. So we can say this with full
assurance, verse 8, I'll both lay me down in peace and I'll
sleep. For Thou, Lord, only, makest
me dwell in safety. I pray the Lord to lead us in
that. As often as we behold the seekers of vanity and the seekers
of lies and our hearts become turned, we commune with our hearts
upon our bed and be still by His grace. I love that song we
sang, what a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the
everlasting arms. What a blessedness, what a peace
is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms. What have I to dread, what
have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms. I have blessed
peace with my Lord so near, leaning on the everlasting arms. When I was younger, I used to
run and I'd get in a bed with my father in the middle of the
night and he'd wrap his arms around me. I'm getting to enjoy
a little bit of that now myself, except I'm in a different place
I was then. I'm getting to put my arms or
to wrap my arms around and I'm reminded of just how that was
the safest place in the world. There wasn't anybody that could
touch me. I was safe. Crawl into His everlasting arms.
It's the safest place you can be. The everlasting arms of God
our Savior. Amen.