Brother David told me that some
folks were going to be out of town during this meeting. It's
spring break. Is it spring break here? But, you know, we should
never be disappointed. God has appointed everything.
We should never be disappointed in his appointments. Whoever,
whatever God does, ought to be okay with that. Two or three
are gathered in his name, and there's a lot more than that
here tonight. And our Lord has promised to be there. One time,
my dad, a fellow country preacher up in the mountains of West Virginia,
years ago, 30, 40 years ago, heard my dad preach on the TV,
and he thought every, Gene, he thought every Television preacher
was a big time evangelist, you know, televangelist. And he called
my dad on the phone. They never met. And he said,
Doesn't my hand, I'm so and so. I'm pastor up here in the so
and so West Virginia. He said, we've got just a little
small group here. And he said, how many would it
take for you to come preach here? How many? Dad said, two. You to listen, me to preach.
So if you'll show up, I will too. I'm delighted to be here. Turn
back to Psalm 27 with me. Psalm 27, that Brother Drew read. If I had a text, it would be
this, in a title, verses 13 and 14. Read these verses. David
wrote this. He said, I had fainted unless
I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living. And then he encouraged all of
us, wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and he shall
Strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. If I had a title, it would be
Waiting for Something Good to Come out of Trouble. Waiting
for something good to come out of trouble. It's like David is
saying here that I'm in trouble. I have been in trouble. I'm in
trouble. I'm going to be in trouble. And I'm going to wait and see
the goodness of the Lord because He's promised everything, didn't
He? Everything works together for
good to those that are called, those that love God and are called
according to His purpose. And we get in trouble, we have
troubles. This is a psalm for those who have troubles, those
in trouble, those who have fears and worries and doubts and those
who wait for the goodness of God, wait for something from
God, from the weak, the worried, the troubled, the afraid, the
faint. David seems to be saying, if
I didn't believe that I was going to see some good in all this
trouble I'm going through, I couldn't make it. I would faint. So I'm
going to wait and see because it's got to be good. Anybody
need this? This is for God's people. Job
14 says that man who is born of woman is a few days and what? Full of trouble. just full of
trouble. Our Lord said to his people,
his disciples, you shall through much tribulation enter the kingdom
of heaven. In this world you shall have
tribulation, trouble, trouble, trouble. Brother Scott Richardson
once said that every believer is either coming out of trouble,
in trouble, or getting ready to go into more trouble. It's
just the way it is. And the Lord sends it. The Lord
sends it. David was a man after God's own
heart. God loved David, didn't He? And David loved the Lord
because God first loved him. And all whom the Lord loves,
He puts through troubles for God's glory and for their good. Many reasons. To try their faith,
to prove Himself to them, to cause them to call on Him. If
we didn't have any trouble, Like Psalm 107, Brother Drew, talked
about the children of Israel, and they didn't cry until they
got in trouble, didn't they? Every time they got in trouble,
that's when they cried, and the Lord delivered them every time,
didn't He? So He sends these troubles, He
weans us from this world. If we didn't have trouble, we
might want to stay here. Now this is not our continuing
city. This is not our home, God's people. It's the psalm of David, a man
after God's own heart, whom the Lord put through trouble after
trouble after trouble. No one knew any more trouble
than David did. He had troubles of his own heart.
He said, the troubles of my heart are greatly enlarged. And he
had troubles of mind, troubles of body. He was wounded unto
death, almost unto death one time. They took him up as dead
in a battle. He was wounded. He had troubles
of his soul. He had troubles within himself, like all of us.
He had troubles with others. He had troubles at home. Oh my,
did he have troubles at home. Troubles in the world. He had
troubles with his enemies. He had troubles with his friends.
And that's some of the hardest troubles to go through. He had troubles with his wife.
He was married to an unbeliever, Michael, Saul's daughter. That was his first love, wasn't
it? He loved her dearly, but she didn't know the Lord. And
she mocked David, and she was a trouble to him. He had troubles
with his children. He had seven sons, not counting
the infant son that died, and most of them were wayward sons.
He lost three sons. Three sons died, not counting
that infant. One of his sons raped his sister. And in Absalom, you know, that's
troubling. Anybody? Anybody go through troubles
like that? He had troubles that he caused
other people and troubles they caused him. He had troubles with temptation,
trouble with lust, trouble with sin, doubts, fears, worries,
sorrow, grief, sadness, physical troubles, emotional troubles,
heart troubles. Though a courageous, David was
afraid. He said, what times I'm afraid,
I'll trust in Him. He had troubles. Anybody? God's people seem to have more
troubles than the people of the world, don't they? That's what
David wrote in Psalm 73, didn't he? He said the people of the
world are unbelievers that don't even give God a thought. They're
not in trouble as other people. But the waters of a full cup
are rung out to God's people. But it's the goodness of God.
This is the goodness of God. Most of you know this scripture
over in 1 Corinthians 10. If you don't, you need to remember
it. 1 Corinthians 10, 13, there's no temptation or trial taken
you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who
will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able, but will
with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may
be able to bury. How's that? Right now, what we're
doing here, this is help in time of trouble. This is the balm
of Gilead. This is how God's people make
it through trouble. This is the way to escape. When
we preach our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and
the life. There's no temptation taking
God's people when such is common. All of them go through it, some
degree or another. They all go through similar troubles, some
more in one way than another. Okay? Here's what Peter said
about the troubles of God's people. He said, the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren throughout the world. In other
words, right now, whatever you're going through, believer, whatever
you're going through, one of your brethren, or more than one,
or many, throughout the world are going through the same troubles.
Know that. Part of the reason we go through
them is to help our brothers that are going through them.
Who better to help a brother going through the loss of a child
than someone who's been through it? That's why. That's part of
the reason, okay? And this is the way to escape.
What we're doing right now, this is a refuge for the troubled.
God's Word is a refuge. God's truth is. Oh, I hope the
Lord through his word has mercy upon us tonight, gives us some
help. Alright, here in this psalm, we're just going to go through
this psalm. And what you have here is our confidence, the believer's
confidence, the believer's desire, the believer's joy or song, the
believer's prayer, and the believer's hope or expectation. Okay. The believer's confidence. Look
at verse 1. 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, my enemies, that Satan, sin, self, whoever it
may be, my foes, they come upon me to eat up my flesh. They stumble
and fail. Though a host should camp against
me, my heart shall not fear. The war should rise against me.
In this will I be confident. What's that, David? The Lord
is my salvation. The Lord is my life. He's my
confidence. All those who know the Lord are
confident. They believe, they trust the
Lord, that He is Lord. Brother Gene, He's not a figurehead.
He really is reigning and ruling in it. Overall. Everything is in His hands. We're
in His hands. Everything about us is in His
hands. Everything, all our family, our future, everything is in
His hands. Our souls are in His hands. My times are in Thy hands,
David wrote. We used to sing an old song.
My times are in Thy hands. My God, I wish them there. That's
where I want them to. Don't you? Our God reigns. Pity the people who have a God
that they must let be God. Who needs a God like that? Pity
the people whose God is Lord only when they let Him be that
way. Oh, blessed are the people who know that He is Lord, reigning
and ruling. Whom shall we be afraid of? What
should we fear? Go with me to, he says the Lord
is my light and my salvation. Go over to Isaiah chapter 8.
Isaiah chapter 8. In another place, Psalm 86 I
believe it is, it says the Lord is our sun and shield, our light
and our salvation. This is our confidence, ok? In
a person. A person. The Lord is. The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
God the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ. He is
our light and our salvation. Look at Isaiah 8 verse 21. It says, the people that pass
through this land, this world, that pass through it hardly bested
and hungry, and it shall come to pass when they shall be hungry,
they'll fret themselves and curse their king and their God and
look upward. That's about all you hear. That's
mostly what you hear when they speak of God today in it. Cursing
His name. Cursing His name. Using His name.
People using it as a byword. Oh my God. And you look around in this world,
look at verse 22. They'll look to the earth and behold trouble
and darkness, dimness of anguish, and they'll be driven to darkness. Never been a more bleak time
in the history of the world, has it? And you look around.
Do you not agree? I thought the 60s and 70s, Brother
David and I grew up in that most turbulent time. They were bad,
weren't they? You didn't think it'd ever get
worse. They have, haven't they? Darkness and dimness and anguish
of spirit and everybody's turned to whatever. Drugs and so forth,
right? A dark time. What about God's
people? You know, we talked about the
children of Israel when they were leaving Egypt. It says they had light in their
dwellings. But it was all darkness to the Egyptians. It says that
the last plague before God killed the firstborn was what? Darkness. And it said it was darkness so
dark, so deep that it could be felt. Don't you just feel it
today? Bad time, dark time. But God's
people, we're not in darkness even as others are we? Why? The
entrance of thy word giveth light. We have light in our dwellings. This is a lighthouse. This is
where Christ the light is shown. We're not in darkness, even as
others. We have light. Light. The Lord
is our sun and our shield. My granddaughters, since they
were little girls, would need a little nightlight in their
room. Did yours, your children, your grandchildren, they want
a little nightlight in their room? You still have enough? Well, what it is, is in the dark,
everything seems, you're afraid, aren't you? Pits and snares and, you know,
things could sneak up on you and evil lurks in the darkness. Night and the dark are alike
to God, aren't they? But we've got to have a little light, even
when we've grown up. We've got to just have a little light in this darkness.
What is it? Christ is that light. His Word
is our light. He enlightens our darkness. The
entrance of Thy Word gives us light in a dark time. There's
hope. It's help. We're not in darkness. No, no. If this could be said,
there sure is light at the end of this tunnel. Look unto me,
our Lord said, and be ye saved from whatever it is. Look unto
me. I'll lighten your darkness. Over in Micah, it says, what
time I'm in darkness, oh, when I'm down in darkness, I'll look
to the Lord. He's my light. The Lord is our
confidence, our confidence in dark times and troubled times. Look at the next thing, our Lord
is our desire, verse 4. He said, One thing have I desired
of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty
of the Lord, to inquire in His temple. In the time of trouble
He'll hide me, He'll hide me in His pavilion. In the secret
of His tabernacle shall He hide me. He'll set me upon a rock.
The Lord is my desire. One thing have I desired, and
that will I seek after. What's that, David? The Lord
is my desire. He's my desire. Those who set their affection
on things above where Christ sits on the right hand of God,
he will grant that desire. He will grant that desire. Scripture
says, delight thyself in the Lord and he'll give thee the
desires of your heart. What do you want? What do you
seek? If it's the Lord you seek, it's the Lord you give. And with
Him you get it all, don't you? Life and joy and peace and righteousness
and salvation and goodness and mercy and grace and truth and
light. The world doesn't have any of
that. Delight thyself in the Lord.
If it's Him you seek, it's Him you'll get. Blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after righteousness. That's Christ.
They'll be filled. They'll be filled. Seek Him first
and all these things will be added unto you. If your desire,
your delight is in the Lord, Look at verse 5, it says, those
who desire to be in his house and behold the beauty of the
Lord, that's the person, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and inquire in his temple. That means now and forever. Is
this your delight, what you're doing out here tonight? Is this
your delight? I know it is of some of you because
you came up to me before this started and you said, I've been
looking so forward to this. That's what Brother David said,
been looking so forward to this. But you know that most people,
you can't get them to come and worship God. There's no greater
proof of depravity in that you can't get people to come and
sit for one hour and just listen to a man talk about God. You
can't get people to come and just give God one word of thanks.
You're not calling on them to do anything. You're not going
to acknowledge them. They don't have to do anything.
Just come and sit and maybe sing some songs of praise and thanksgiving
to God. Just thank God for everything.
Because what do we have we haven't received? Fed and watered us
and clothed us and protected us and done all things for us.
Just come and sit for an hour. No, I ain't going to do it. No
greater proof of depravity is it? And I was that way. And you were too, weren't you?
God was not in all your thoughts, but God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love, worthy love, gathered you, born of God, this
new creation in Christ, that loves Christ, that loves the
things of Christ, that loves the people of God, that loves
the worship of God, that loves the songs of Zion, that loves
more than anything else. Can you say that? That it doesn't
get any better than this? Can you? God's people can, all
of them, really. This is the delight of their
heart. This is where they want to be, and this is where they
are. This is where you'll find them. Joshua said, as for me
and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. You're going
to find me where God's people are. Look across the page at
Psalm 26, verse 8. Lord, I have loved the habitation
of thy house, the place where thine honor dwelleth. Oh, I love
it. Do you love these psalms of Zion? Do you ever get tired
of singing, Come thou fount of every blessing? There is a fountain
filled with blood. Blessed assurance the Lord Jesus
is mine. Do you ever get tired of singing
those psalms? How many years have you been singing those,
Brother Gene? Well, why aren't you tired of it? Because the
gospel is called good news, isn't it? To the sinner, It's always
good news, isn't it? His mercies are new every morning.
His compassions, they fail not. And these songs, from a heart
of gratitude and thanksgiving to God for forgiveness of sin,
they want to sing. put a song in their heart, joy
in their heart, gratitude in their heart. This is where they
want to be, with God's people. Look at verse 5, David said,
verse 4, he said, I've not sat with vain persons, neither will
I go in with dissimilar. I've hated a congregation of
evildoers. I won't sit with them. I ain't
going there. We used to have a lady in our
church, Virgie Jones her name. Probably some of our people are
listening to this right now over Mixler. They knew and loved her
so well. Virgie, Virginia, Virginia woman
born and bred in the great commonwealth of Virginia. And this is just
how she talked. And she loved the gospel. The
Lord revealed himself to her when she was about 70 years old.
And oh, she loved the gospel so much. And she'd tell everybody. None of her kids believed the
gospel. And she'd tell them when they were going someplace, she
didn't know the truth down at that church. They don't preach
the gospel down there. She said, you come up here. You
come up here. She was there every single service,
right there early. Right there where Shelly's sitting.
Not there, but at home right there. But anyway, she had a
heart attack and went to visit her in the emergency room. Intensive care. Yeah, emergency
room. Intensive care. Her family was out in the waiting
room, and David knows this well, and Drew does too, Jean. None
of them knew the Lord, and they weren't happy to see me. They
didn't want me there. But Virgie did. She loved her
pastor. She loved the gospel. And she
wanted to see me more than anybody. Well, I went in to see her. And
she said, this is what she's worried about. She said, they're
going to put me in a nursing home. He said, I don't want to
go there. She said, I'll have to listen
to all that bad preaching. That's all she was worried about.
Because, Drew, that's where the wolves are, aren't they? That's
where the wolves, they prey on the sick and the afflicted and
the old. That's where they go. They visit hospitals. That's
about all they can do. And she said, I don't want to hear all
that bad preaching. You know what? She died the next day.
She didn't have to hear any bad preaching. The next voice she
heard was the Lord Jesus Christ. Is this your delight? Do you like bad preaching? You
get good preaching here. Verse 12 here in Psalm 26 says,
My foot standeth in an even place in the congregation of the Lord. You can go to about any grace
church, can't you? And it's an even place. That
means it's a just place. It's not crooked. It's on the
level. The men aren't crooked, the people
aren't hypocrites, and the truth is preached. Aren't you glad? I was just in one of those such
monstrosities, those mega churches so-called, and Mindy and I were
there for the funeral of my aunt, and it was nauseating. We're so blessed, aren't we?
So blessed. Lying on God, those people. Oh, my. So David says, I desire that your house and
behold the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ and inquire in his
temple. So much I don't know, I want
to know about him. I want to grow in grace and the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. When it says in the time of trouble,
he's going to hide me. It's like stepping up here. A
pavilion is not a great big place here. What that's talking about
is like a little ark in the bulrushes, like the Lord put Noah in. He
put Noah in a little ark in the bulrushes. And the mother of
Moses put Moses in that little ark of bulrushes and cast him
on the water. Can you do that with your children?
We better. Cast your care on the Lord. Your children, everything about
them. Lord, please take my children. My son-in-law, before they had
children, he told me later, he asked the Lord, Lord, if they're
not, if my children, if you give us children, let them belong
to you, or don't give us any children. Don't give us any children
unless you're elect. If you have children, oh, pray
that the Lord will hide them like the Lord put Moses in that
basket. And it says he'll set me in the
secret of his tabernacle. God's true tabernacle is a secret
to most people. You know that? when the Hibites
and the Hittites and the Perisites and the Jebusites and all those
Ites went by, you know, and there was that brown tent covered with
badger skin, that brown tent, you know, they're all attending
all those pagan temples with all their adornments and all
that, and they'd look down on that little place, like all the
people that pass by here and see this place, ain't nothing
to that place. Ain't nothing in there. Look at that old little
brown tent. Surely God's not in there. That's the only place
God is. It was nothing to them that passed
by. You know why? It was a secret. It was hidden.
You had to be on the inside to see the beauty, to behold the
glory of the Lord. That's the way it is with this
church. We don't have all the adornments, all the trappings
of religion, big choir and all. David and I flat messed that
song up. I take the blame. But that doesn't
matter, does it? It's not by might or power. It's
not the way it's done. It's the Spirit's attitude. The
Mormon tabernacle choir is an abomination to God Almighty. So is it make a joyful sound
unto the Lord from the heart and truth that worship God in
Spirit and in truth in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this
is all about. That's what God's people are
all about. That's all they want to do. And it's beautiful to
the Lord, it's beautiful to them, and it's beautiful to Him. They
worship Him in the beauty of holiness. They really worship
God's Son, and God delights in them. And He's there. He's there. Best singer I ever
heard, a man that couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. He sat behind
me, 13th Street, for years. He was deaf. He didn't have much
hearing at all, but he'd sing out, and it wasn't anywhere close
to the tongue. You may remember him, but he
was singing at the top of his lung from the bottom of his heart,
and it was music to God's ears. You'll hide me in the secret
of His tabernacle. Oh, He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. And then He says, You'll set
me up on a rock. When all this is over, oh boy, we're going
to be set above. Like that ark, Noah's ark, when
the whole world was under that deluge of water, there was one
thing that rose above it all, wasn't it? All the tallest buildings,
all the works of man were under water. The highest mountains
that man had climbed, they were under water. And there was one
thing to be seen on God's earth. It was the ark. And that's Jesus
Christ. And when this is all over, He's
all that's going to be seen. He set me on a rock, and that
rock is Christ Jesus. Look at our joy in our song,
verse 6. Now mine head will be lifted
up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore, while I offer
in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy, I will sing, yea, I will
sing praises unto the Lord. I'm going to lift my head up
above mine enemy. Surely that's talking about Christ
our head, isn't it? The woman's seed that brews the
serpent's head. And that head that is now crowned,
it sits on the right hand of the majesty on high. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the head of the body, sure that's talking about
Him. It's also talking about the believer who hangs his head.
There was a woman, one time the Lord was preaching in the temple. And those Pharisees came in,
rudely interrupted Him. They had a woman caught in the
act of adultery, and they threw her at His feet. So this woman
was taking the act of adultery, caught in the act, threw her
at his feet. When it was all over, they were
gone. The Lord had stooped down, wrote
in the sand, you remember, and one by one, beginning with the
eldest, they all walked out of that place. And the Lord had
stooped down where that woman was. And then he said, woman,
where are thine accusers? I believe her head was hanging,
don't you? She didn't want to look up, but she had to look
up now. Where are they? No man accuse
you? I don't see any. Neither do I. Lift up our head. Lift up your
heads, people. Are you ashamed of yourself?
Are you guilty? Lift up your head. Your redemption
draweth nigh. Your head has been lifted up
Christ. And he says, no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. Lift up the head. Oh, now shall
my head be lifted up. And I'll sing. Have you ever
gotten so down? Have you ever been so down in
a deep pit, in dark troubles that you thought you'd never
get out? Have you ever been so down, so
full of grief and sorrow, or guilt and shame, or whatever
it may be, in a pit so deep, so dark, you thought, I will
never get out of here again, I will never sing again? David did, didn't he? He did. Psalm 13, David started out,
We call it the howling song. How long, oh Lord, how long,
how long? You ever thought, how long is
this going to go on? I can't take anymore. That seems to be
what he's saying here. I can't go through this any longer.
You ever been there? Well, David, it says, he started
out by saying, how long, oh Lord, how long? And then he started
praying unto the Lord. And you know what? He ended up
singing. In six verses, six verses, Psalm 13, Brother Gene, he started
out pining, and he started praying, and he started praising. He started
out by sighing, and he started suing, suing for mercy, and he
started singing. Psalm 42, David said, I'm cast
down. Why art thou cast down within
me, O my soul? Then he confessed to God. He
said, I am cast down. Lord, you know I'm cast down.
But he said, I'll yet praise Him for the health of His countenance.
I'll yet praise Him. When this is over, I'm going
to pray. I'm going to sing again. And he did. And we always do,
don't we? My wife's father gone through
a great deal. And I remember him telling me
one time, I don't think I can take any more. I mean, he's a
believer. And you know what? He did. The Lord brought him through it,
because God's grace is sufficient. We sing. And you know what? You
know why the scriptures tell us to sing so much? Because it
helps us. Not only is it glorifying to
God, But it helps us. Try it sometimes. Not so much
try it, like a rabbit's foot. But what I mean is, start thinking
about the Lord's blessing. Start thinking about the Lord's
mercy. You know it? Start thinking about how His
mercies and His blessings far outweigh our troubles. Paul talked
about our light afflictions. Why did he say that? Because
they're light compared to our mercies and the graces that God
gives. They're blessings, aren't they?
They far outweigh our troubles, the blessings too. They're light
compared to some people. And they're going to be light
compared to the weight of eternal glory that we shall... They're
not even going to be remembered to come to mind. Our light afflicts them. And
Paul is one that wrote that. And boy did he go through some
trouble. And he wrote that for our comfort. Oh man, I'll yet
sing. I'll sing, sing. And so it helps
us to sing. Start singing. Start singing.
Come thou fount of every blessing. Here's our prayer. Look at verse
7. Hear, O Lord, when I cry. Hear,
O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer
me. When thou said, seek ye my face,
my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. Do you
seek the Lord? Scripture says, seek the Lord
while he may be found. Call upon him while he's near.
When is that? Today. Today's the day of salvation. Do you seek the Lord? If you
do, you know why you do? Because the Lord called you.
And the Lord said, seek my faith. That's why you did. There was
a time I didn't seek the Lord. Then there's a time I am seeking
the Lord. Why is that? Because He called me. For whom
He did foreknow, He did predestinate. Whom He predestinated, He called.
Seek my faith. I think I will. Will you find
Him? Those that seek the Lord, will
they find Him? Anybody who truly seeks the Lord will find Him.
He said, I'll be found of them that seek Me. Didn't He? David
said in verse 9, Hide not thy face far from Me, put not thy
servant away in anger. God, our Lord ought to be angry
with us, didn't He? He's angry with the wicked every
day. And we feel wicked, don't we? Like Paul, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. Oh, wretched man that I am. We
feel wicked. We feel no better than the people
of this world. Is that right? He ought to be angry with us,
but he's not. God is not angry with his people. Why is that? Because he took out his anger
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he took out his wrath
upon Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ bore the
wrath of God Almighty against my sin. And he's not angry. His
wrath was spent on the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. He's not
angry. And I say to every believer in
here, smile. God loves you. If you're going
through trouble, that's proof of it. It's proof of it. Whom the Lord
loves, He chases. And don't despise it. If you're
without chasing it, you're a bastard. And if you go through chasing
it, you're in one the Lord loves. But hide not thy face. There
are times when we sin against Him and He does. Hide His face.
And we say like David, is His mercy clean gone? Never. Never. No, His mercy endures forever.
And so David took courage here and he said, he's the God of
my salvation. Verse 10, when my father and
my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Our Lord said that. He said,
can a woman forsake her sucking child? Do it all the time. Do
it all the time, don't they? God won't. Never, never. Here's our prayer. Teach me thy
way, O Lord. Verse 11, teach me thy way. What's
God's way? What's the way to God? How do
we get to God? Jesus Christ. He's the way. He teaches all his people that.
Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Look
to the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Call on
the Lord God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved. That's his way. Oh Lord, lead
me in a plain path because of mine enemies. Oh, Paul said,
because we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech,
don't we? The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is plain to his
people. Our enemies, Jesus Christ, slew
our enemies on Calvary's tree. Verse 12, he said, deliver me
not over into the will of mine enemies, Oh, it was the will
of God to deliver Christ up for his people. False witnesses are
risen up against me. Our Lord said rejoice. You rejoice
when they persecute you and say all manner of evil falsely against
you for my name's sake. That's how they did the prophet.
That's what they did to David. They breathed out cruelty. Saul
of Tarsus one time was breathing out cruelties and threatenings
and slaughters. What did God do to him? He made
a friend out of him. Made a son out of him. Oh, here
it is. Here's our hope. Here's our great
expectation. David said, I would have fainted
unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the
land of the living. If I didn't believe that something
good was going to come out of all this, I'd just quit. I couldn't
take it anymore. I'd just quit. Paul one time,
1 Corinthians 15, he said, if this is all there is, if in this
life only we have hope in Christ, what are we doing this for? Let's
eat and drink. Tomorrow we die. Huh? What are
we spending our Friday night here for? But Christ is risen. And all
of this is vain. All this other stuff out here
is vain. This is the only thing that's not vain. This is the
only thing that is going to last. You know that? The world thinks
there's nothing to this. The fact of the matter is, there's
nothing to that. This is everything. And God shows
us that. That Christ is all in all. He
that has Christ has it all. And he that hath the world has
nothing at all. There's those that gain everything in this
world and lose their soul. There's those that lose everything
and gain their soul. It's the opposite of what man
says. That's his way. He teaches us the way. The way
up is down. So David said, I would have fainted
unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land
of the living. He's talking about now. When he was still living
on this earth. And the Lord did show him. And
when he was 70 years old, David, it says the Lord gave him rest
round about from all his enemies. And he's the one that wrote Psalm
37 where he said, you mark the perfect man. He said, the end
of that man's gonna be what? Peace. He gonna die in peace. That's the way it's gonna be
with all of God's people. Have you ever read the account of
some, the deathbed of some unbeliever? You need to. It's horrifying. Those that die without Christ.
No matter who they are, no matter what they think while they're
living, when they come to face death and the unknown and the
darkness out there, it's horrifying. No light. But God's people have light in
their dwelling, don't they? Oh, we're going to see good,
all right. We're seeing good tonight. So he says, wait. Just wait. How many times does he say that
in the Scripture? Wait. Wait on the Lord. That's the
hardest thing for us to do isn't it? Wait. Patient. Doesn't come
naturally. So he tells us over and over,
just wait. Wait on the Lord. He is the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. The Lord
who is the one who is carrying the weight of his people on his
shoulders. The Lord was the one who had
the responsibility of the souls and the lives and salvation of
all of his people from time past to time eternity on his shoulder. A man of sorrow and acquainted
with grief. But he wasn't walking around morose and melancholy
and sad. He's called the blessed man.
He was a happy man. He was delighted to do God's
will. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despised
the shame, thought nothing of the shame, gladly endured the
shame. And he was constantly telling
his disciples, be of good cheer. Wasn't he? Cheer up. I'm the
one that's going to be forsaken of God. I'm the one that's going
to take all the wrath of God, not you. It's not going to come
on you. Not a hair of your head's going to fall. But me, God's
going to pour out on me, put on me the iniquity of you all.
Be of good cheer. Got nothing to cry about. It's all good. That's what he's waiting. And
they saw it, didn't they? Those three days when the Lord
was dead, they thought the world had come to an end. Saddest time
of their life. Oh no. Three days later, a woman
came running in. He's alive! Boy, everything changed
then. And they could go through everything
they went through. And they went through some troubles,
didn't they? Most of them were killed. All of them were killed
but John. But they were of good courage, weren't they? Because
they saw this is all the goodness of the Lord. All the goodness
of the Lord. Oh, may the Lord encourage our
hearts and to look to Him. to encourage us, and to be of
good courage, and comfort, and hope, and call on His name, and
just wait, wait. You're gonna see. If you're a
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're gonna see goodness in
the deepest, darkest trial. Yes, you are. May the Lord bless
you.