All right, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Psalm 125. Psalm 125, we'll be looking at
verses one through five this morning. And the title of this
message, the confidence to ascend before God. Confidence to ascend
before God. Now, this psalm, as you read
it, you can see the title of this psalm, and there's titles
on many of the psalms previously before this and after this, A
Song of Degrees, A Song of Degrees. And the scripture says, they
that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion. which cannot be removed, but
abideth forever. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people, from henceforth
even forevermore. For the rod of the wicked shall
not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous
put forth their hands unto iniquity. Do good, O Lord, unto those that
be good. and to them that are upright
in their hearts. As for such as turn aside under
their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the
workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel." Confidence
in Ascension. As we've said, this song is a
song of degrees. It's another song of ascension. That's what that means. There
were three times the nation of Israel were required to go to
Jerusalem. And as they were going up to
Jerusalem, going up to worship God, they would sing these songs
of ascension. They were ascending to worship
God. Now believer, is that not what
we're doing this morning? Is that not our heart's desire? That our worship, that we ascend
into the very presence of God, bow ourselves before him and
worship him. This is our purpose of doing
this. We don't do this as just a habit. If you're doing this
as a habit, stop. It's not a habit. We're here
to worship God. We should be. Our hearts and
minds should be set. Our affections should be set
on things above to worship Him. And we ascend into the presence
of our Savior. We long for this. We need this. We desire He hear our prayers.
Is that not right? We just prayed, didn't we? I
hope we prayed. I hope I didn't just pray. I
hope we all prayed. We prayed and we desired to be
heard. We desire to be heard of Him
and not cast out. We desire to be encouraged. Who
does not need encouragement, believer? Who does not need strength
of faith and love and zeal for God? How do we receive these
things? Except we ascend unto God. We ascend unto Him. But
how should we know we're going to be heard? What is our confidence? That's what is my subject this
morning is our confidence. What is our confidence that we
who are singing these songs of degrees that we might be heard
of him? Well, you remember Esther. In
the book of Esther, Esther had a request of her husband, the
king. It was an important request,
wasn't it? The Jews were about to be destroyed. He had just
given Haman, the evil enemy of her people, the seal of the king,
and he was about to destroy her people and her along with them.
And she had an urgent request to be brought before the king.
But she knew this, if she ascended in the presence of the king and
did not receive the scepter, that he did not yield to her
the scepter, the law was she should die. This is what it says.
She says, all the king's servants and the people of the king provinces
do know whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come before the
king in the inner court, who is not called. There's one law
of his that they should be put to death. except the king should
hold the golden scepter that they might live. And you know what happened? She
came before the king, didn't she? In faith, she came before
the king. The scripture says, in her royal
apparel. She came in her royal apparel. And you know this, that the king,
when he saw her, he was moved by her. It says, the king saw
the queen Esther standing in the court, and she obtained favor
in his sight, and he did what? He yielded the scepter. He yielded
the scepter to her. Let this be a testimony to us
who are believers in Christ today, as we right now, at this moment
ascend into the presence of God, dressed in the royal apparel
of Jesus Christ's righteousness. He, our beloved husband, always,
now you pay attention, always yields the scepter to us. Always. We always shall obtain
favor. Because we are dressed in the
righteousness of Christ, because we are washed in the blood of
Christ, we have acceptance with Him. Yes, if any man come on
his own merit, dressed in his own righteousness, that man will
not be accepted. If you are coming on the grounds
of your own righteousness, you are ascending to God based on
your own religious merits or your religious deeds. Well, I
was baptized. Well, I ate the Lord's supper. Well, I joined the church. Well,
I made a decision. Well, what are you doing? You're
coming before God on your own merits and not the merits of
Christ alone. You remember that man who came
to the wedding feast in his own garment? Our Lord told us that
parable. He said there was a wedding feast
and there was a man there who had not on a wedding garment
prepared by the king. And he said, friend, why are
there come? Where'd you come from? And why don't you have
a wedding garment? And that man was speechless and
he was cast out. You see, he was not allowed to
ascend. He was not allowed to come before
God. But we, but we dare not come. in our own righteousness. We dare not come dressed in our
own righteousness or by our own merits, but only by the blood
of Christ. We see the heart of Jesus then
to all his bride is this, that we shall obtain favor of him. We shall be received of him. The scripture says, trust in
the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land.
And verily thou shalt be fed, delight thyself in the Lord,
and he shall give thee desires of thy heart." Now this morning
again, what is the desire of your heart? Is it not to worship? Is it not to praise? Is it not
to see Christ? I like those Gentiles, what they
desired. They said, sirs, we would see
Jesus. Not we would see Peter, not that
we would see Paul, not that we would see any of the disciples.
Sirs, we would see Jesus. That's our desire is to see Christ
this morning. And listen, he shall give thee
the desire of the heart. And so as we ascend before God
and before his throne, we set our hearts and minds to worship. But I know this, even now we
are often molested by thoughts of sin and unbelief. Even now
you desire to worship, but yet you are bowed down by cares and
troubles, afflictions of this body and flesh, fears of sin. We are prone to wander in our
minds. We are weak in faith, low in
love for Him that we even doubt He'll hear us. We'll doubt He'll
accept us. Sometimes our sins have covered
us so much. We say with David, how long will
you forget me? Have you felt forgotten? He said, will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face? To a believer, is there anything
more painful than when God hides his face? Can you think of anything
more grievous than to be left alone? There's nothing more grievous
to the hearts of God's people than when God hides his face, when we don't feel his presence
or see his smile or hear his voice. Today, believers, thy
heart fearful. Do you desire to ascend before
the throne, but feel you have no right? Are you so hard in your heart
and so cold toward God? I'll tell you what, then let's
sing this song together. You and me, because I understand
those feelings. I understand those griefs. I
know those pains. of being when God hides his face
and when my heart is cold. Let's sing this song together
so that our hearts might melt. Wouldn't that be great? If the
warmth of God's love and grace should come upon us and melt
this heart of stone, that we might really ascend, that we
might really know his presence and his mercy and his love toward
us. And by doing this, let's look
now at this song. Look at this song with me. This
song could be divided into four parts, and I don't believe I'm
gonna get through all four of them, but at least I wanna get through
the first one, or at least the first two or three. But this
song could be divided into four parts. First of all, I want us
to see this song is a song of confidence, a song of confidence
to the saints concerning our acceptance. concerning our continual,
perpetual, and eternal acceptance in the presence of God. Secondly,
we're going to see the promise of God to the saints in trouble. The promise of God to the saints
who are in trouble. Thirdly, we see the prayer of
the saints in verse four. And in verse five, we see a warning,
a warning of God to those who are lost. Okay, let's see these,
the confidence of the saints. Let's look at verses, look at
verse one. It says, they that trust in the
Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but
abideth forever. First of all, we see that to
ascend before God, there is nothing required of the worshipers except
this, trust in the Lord. Nothing is required of the worshipers
but simply to trust in the Lord. The promises of God's grace and
love of Christ's righteousness and blood never come or never
based on any work of ours in the flesh. They're never based
on our feelings or any religious zeal that we have done in order
to worship God, simply this, trust in the Lord. Trust in the
Lord. The whole grounds of false religion
is not trusting in the Lord, is it? The grounds of false religion
is trusting in the merits of your flesh, trusting in the merits
of your religion. You know, especially in the Roman
church, but this is the same in every false church. When someone
sins and they bring this sin before their priest or their
pastor, what do they do? They send them out to make recompense. Well, you gotta do this to make
recompense. You gotta go out and tell that
person you're sorry, and you gotta go out and make up, and
you gotta make sure that you give them back more than you
took from them, whatever. They do all kinds of penance. in order to be accepted with
God again. But the word of God is clear
that in order to be accepted, it's not by works because all
our works are mixed with sin. But behold the sweetness of this
Psalm. the plainness of God's speech
as to how we are received, how the ascending pilgrims find confidence
that they may approach to God without fear of death. Here it
is. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the
Lord. Trust in the Lord. And listen,
you cannot be removed. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion, which, what, cannot be removed. Such hope and confidence of being
accepted with God is simply this, trust in Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Trust. in Christ. Why? Because that's the only
place of acceptance. Remember when God chose his people
in Christ, it says that they were accepted, where? In the beloved. The only place
to be accepted. And since we all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God, we've all missed the
mark of acceptance. We've sinned. How do we come to such ruin where
we're not able to commune with God by nature? How is that? Two
things, the fall of Adam and our own sin. Scripture says,
wherefore as by one man's sin entered into the world and death
by sin, so death passed upon all men. You see, we fail, we
were ruined in Adam so that we lost acceptance. We lost the
ability to come to God. And not only that, our own sin,
our own sin, the scripture says, your iniquities have separated
you from God. You see, we've come to ruin and
we cannot be accepted by our own merits. Sin has separated
us. So what then and how then may
we be accepted? How is it by trusting Christ
are we accepted? Because In Christ, God has made
reconciliation. Reconciliation. The Word of God teaches us that
only by the righteousness and offering of a representative
man are we made acceptable. By one man, we were made unacceptable. Also, by one man, we are made
acceptable. The scripture says, for by one
man's disobedience, many were made sinners. So by the obedience
of one, many shall be made righteous. You see, the word of God teaches
us that God has chosen a people, unelected people, purpose that
they should be accepted in Christ. But none of these elect ever
merited their own acceptance. None of them. None of us. None
of us merited our place before God, therefore God purposed that
his son should be made a mediator and high priest for the elect
for this single purpose that they should be made holy and
acceptable, blameless before him. And so as we ascend before
God this morning, what is the grounds? What is the grounds
of, why is it, what are we trusting about the Lord? What are we trusting
in the Lord for? Here it is, that Christ our mediator
has accomplished all our reconciliation. All that was needed to make us
acceptable, Christ did it. That's what trusting in the Lord
is. Go to Hebrews chapter, Chapter nine, and look what Christ did.
Look what our great high priest did. Hebrews chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine, and look
at verse 12. It says, neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once
into the holy place, and what did he get? Having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Eternal redemption for us. He
obtained eternal redemption. And the scripture says in Hebrews
chapter 10 in verse 12, this man, after he'd offered one sacrifice
for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God, henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Do
you not now see why we are able to be accepted. Those who trust
in Christ, what are we trusting? We are trusting He accomplished
all that was necessary for our ascension. This morning, as you
ascend unto the presence of God, how shall you ever have any confidence
at all that you should be accepted? Because Christ, our Savior, merited
all that was needed. All that God required of you
is done. It's finished. And the reason
we feel that we should not be accepted is because we're looking
to ourself. We're looking at some merit that
we've not yet accomplished. And friends, there's no reason
to look there. There's nothing that merited
other than the blood of Christ. Therefore, God sends his preachers
into the world to what? Preach reconciliation. We pray
you in Christ dead be you reconciled to God. Why? For God made him
to be sin for us. God took all your sins and made
Him to be sinned for us. And what was the result of that?
He knew no sin. Why? That we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. So if you need to be, if we're
going to a sin, we have to be righteous. And Christ has accomplished
our righteousness. Now, the only reason we feel
we're not accepted is because we don't believe that. If you feel like you're not allowed,
well, it's because you just don't believe. Christ is all. Christ
is all. Behold, the only perfect and
acceptable sacrifice is the blood of Christ. The only perfect righteousness
is the righteousness of Christ. And behold, Jesus, God said,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And this work,
this work, I want you to know this work, For the election of
God, the election of God without the
sacrifice of Christ is not salvation, is it? But also the sacrifice of Christ
is not salvation without application. All of these things are necessary.
Election was necessary. The blood of Christ and his offering
was necessary to make us acceptable, but also application of the Holy
Spirit is necessary. Necessary. The effectual applying
of that blood to the heart of sinners. We are bound always
to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God had chosen you from before the foundation of the
world that you should be, I don't want to misquote it here. You
see, it's 2 Thessalonians chapter two and verse 13. Beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you, listen, to salvation. What,
how? Through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth, trusting in the Lord. Jesus said,
you must be born again. You must be born again because
you were chosen. You must be born again because
you were redeemed. And how are you born again? By
the power of the Spirit of God. This morning, I need to ask you
this. Are you born of the Spirit of God? Are you born from above? Have you been given life from
the dead? Have you seen your need of Christ? And have you found all you need
in Christ? Have you trusted in Him? Have you believed on Him? Have you been like Mephibosheth?
Oh, Mephibosheth, the son of King, son of Jonathan, son of
King Saul. You know, he was the grandson
of a rival king and David had every right to kill him. And yet, because he made a covenant
with Jonathan, he sent and fetched old Mephibosheth. You remember,
he was laying on his feet. He couldn't walk. He couldn't
run. He couldn't even come to David.
So David sent and fetched him. Now, why did he fetch him? Not
to destroy him, but to save him. Have you been saved like Mephibosheth?
Have you been fetched by the grace of God? to sit at the King's
table, to have all that your father Adam lost restored unto
you? How is this? Only, how do you
know that you've been born again? How do you know you've been fetched?
Listen, listen. Trust in the Lord. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you believe on Christ alone?
This friends is the evidence of our acceptance. The evidence
of our acceptance. Now faith is the evidence, but
never the cause of our acceptance. See, that's where we're confused.
Most of the time we believe faith sometimes is the cause of our
acceptance. And when our faith is low, guess
what? We don't feel accepted. Faith is not the cause of our
acceptance. It's simply the evidence of our
acceptance. Faith, friends, is a gift of
God, not of works. And so without faith, it's impossible
to please God. And I'm telling you this, if
you don't believe in Christ, I want you to know what you're
doing. You are spitting on the sacrifice of God. To not believe in Christ is to say that Christ is of no value. to you. Also, if you add anything to
Christ, Christ is of no value to you.
Now, what Paul said, he said, if you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. You add anything to Christ, but
true believers, we don't have anything to add. We don't have any grounds to
come to God. We have no righteousness, no
goodness. We have no sinless offering to
bring. Therefore, the gospel of God's free grace, this is
why it's so refreshing. Isn't this absolutely the most
restful thing in all the world, that you are able to send a God
simply trusting in Christ, simply believing on him, that he paid
it all. He paid it all. So then this
morning, do you trust Him? Do you trust Him? If you trust
Him, then why are we not ascending? Why do we not seek Him? Why do
we not serve Him? It's because we're not trusting.
We trust Him, we will ascend to Him. We will worship Him.
The scripture says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart
and lead not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge
him and he shall direct thy path." So what's the constant need of
the believer as we ascend under God? Simply this, believing in
Christ. The just shall live by faith,
by faith. Now then, since faith is necessary
and we see that Christ has accomplished all this, what is the confidence
of all who trust him? It is the word of God. It is
the word of God, isn't it? And listen to what the word of
God says. Here's your confidence. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. Here we have in the word of the
immutable God who cannot lie, who cannot change, all that trust
in Christ cannot be removed. Cannot be removed. Now, just
as Zion was among the mountains, surrounded on all sides, so that
no man could remove it from its place, so are the people of God. Now, I like this. The men that
inhabit Zion could be removed. The Jews were removed, weren't
they? Romans eventually surrounded that place. They besieged it. They eventually killed everyone
in it. And the temple, even the temple that was on it, they destroyed
it. But what could not the Romans remove? They couldn't remove
the mountain itself. See, God didn't say you are the
temple in Zion. God didn't say you're the people
in Zion. God said this, you are as Mount Zion, which cannot be
removed. Listen, that mountain is still
there. Isn't it? Today, it's still there. It's
been there all the ages. Why? Nobody can pick up that
mountain and move it. No one. That's how sure you are
of being in the presence of God. You cannot be removed from Him.
You cannot be removed from Him. All who trust in Christ we are as Mount Zion that cannot
be removed. Now listen, I know this, believers
we can and are often tossed about by circumstance, by providence,
by the sins of our flesh and by the hatred of this world,
we are often tossed about. We're like that sailor in Psalm
107 that tossed about the winds are raised up and the waves are
on high and ascend to the heavens. We stagger like drunken men,
don't we? But no matter what happens in
this life, no matter what, you cannot be removed from Christ. This is the confidence. Here's
the confidence. It's not even in your faith because
that fluctuates. It's in Christ that cannot be
moved. He is our rock. He is our foundation. And listen, because we are in
union with Him, we cannot be moved. from God. We cannot be moved. We may be
moved in the flesh. We may stumble and fall, we may
sin and we may fail, we may be rebuked and we may be chastened
of our God. We may be poor, we may be sick,
we may be weak, we may suffer in pain and sorrow and afflictions. We may often be tossed and turned
about, weary and foolish, sinful and rebellious even as Israel,
yet this is the confidence God gives everyone who trusts in
Him, you cannot be removed. Is it not confidence? Should
that not give you boldness in this? You cannot be removed. You know in that Psalm, this
is wonderful how the Lord, the Shepherd Psalm, Psalm 23. Thou
preparest a table for me in the presence of my God. God takes his sheep, puts them
right in the middle of a wolf pack, and says, I dare you to
touch them. And they can't. They can't. They can't touch us. They can't
remove us. Listen, we may die, but can death remove us? Paul
said, I'm persuaded that neither life nor death, nothing in life
and nothing in death can remove us from the love of God that
is in Christ Jesus, nothing. Be of good comfort and good cheer,
believer, for you will never be removed. God will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. Why? Because you're in Christ.
Because you're in Christ. But of God are you what? In Christ Jesus. And because
you're in Christ Jesus, God has made him to be what? Wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Everything you need,
Christ has been made that for you. Christ is all our redemption,
all our righteous, and he, put us in experimental union by giving
us his nature. You are made partakers of the
divine nature. Jesus said this, I give unto
my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish. Listen, do you believe that? Do you really believe that? If we believe that, what confidence
we should have that God hears our every cry. We shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Why? Because the father which
gave them me is greater than all and neither man shall any
man pluck them out of his hand. You cannot be removed. You cannot
be removed. Well, I don't feel. What does
that have to do with anything? You feel something now in 10
minutes, you'll feel something else. Trust in the Lord, not in what
you feel, not in what you think, not in the opinions of men, trust
in God. And God said, they that trust
in Him cannot be removed. Well, I just believe a man could
be saved and lost. Well, you go on believing that
if you want to. God's people believe this, they
shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed. That's what
we believe. Jesus said, all that the Father
giveth me, I should lose nothing. That just means this, he loses
nothing. Pretty deep interpretation. I
just went real deep in that, didn't I? You don't have to go
deep, friends. God's word is plain. I was talking
to a man about this. He's got questions and he wants
to go in and study and try to, I know they prepare this, You
know, their defense, they wanna get a defense prepared, you know?
Like I'm ready, like I'm the one gonna attack, I'm not attacking.
All I do is simply proclaim the word of God to them. I'll just
simply tell you what God says, doesn't matter what you think
and it doesn't matter what I think. Doesn't matter what you feel,
doesn't matter what I think. What does God say about it? God
says this, trust in the Lord and they that trust in Him, guess
what? They shall not be removed. Never, ever, ever be removed
from him. Why? Because Christ's not going
to lose anything. Believer, behold, our salvation is the work of
God alone. And in Christ, he says this,
we are as immutable as Zion. And we know that we shall not
be moved also for this. Everything that he does is for
his own glory. The salvation of His people is
for the glory of God. And for God to fail in saving
His people, He would lose His glory. Isn't that why He chose
us in the election? According to the praise of the
glory of His grace. Isn't that why Christ redeemed us? According to the praise of the
glory of His grace. Isn't that why He called us? According to
the praise of the glory of His grace. And so that if he would
lose us, he would lose the praise of the glory of his grace. He's
not going to lose his glory, friends. God says this, I'm God, there's
none else. Declaring the end from the beginning,
from ancient times the things were not yet done, saying this,
my counsel shall stand. and I will do all my pleasure."
And what is his pleasure? He says this, "'Hearken unto
me, you stout-hearted, and you that are far from righteousness.
I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off. My salvation
shall not tarry. I will place salvation in Zion
for Israel, my glory.'" You not realize that you are the glory
of God? You're his glory? And so if someone could remove
you, then that would be removing the glory of God. Not gonna happen. Who then shall separate us from
Christ? Nothing and no one. And God does not only say that,
look at this second part. Look at this second part. Go
back to your text. Not only shall we who trust in
Christ shall be as Mount Zion and cannot be removed. Notice
this, as the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord
is round about his people henceforth even forever. A constant perpetual
protection. You are not only in Christ, who
sits now in heaven. Do you realize this? You are
as much in heaven as he is. That takes faith, doesn't it?
Because you ain't gonna see it anywhere else. You won't see it except in the
word of God. But while we are in this world,
He is constantly, perpetually, and continually protecting us.
Now, Zion was a mountain situated and surrounded by other mountains.
In other words, there was only really one way to get in. There's
only one way in and one way out. What a picture of the gospel,
isn't it? There's only one way into Zion, Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
life. No man comes to God but by me. And once we are in Zion,
we're safe because we are all protected by these mountains
surrounding us, which is Christ. We are kept by the power of God. Now, why is it you are still
believing in Christ this morning? You who trust in the Lord, you
who desire to ascend into the presence of God this morning
and worship God and love God and experience His presence this
morning, you that trust in Him and cannot be removed from Him,
why is it that you still believe? You've been, ever since you believed,
you've been in trouble. I know that that's the experience
of every believer ever since we believe trouble has been our
experience. Why is it that you remain faithful?
Why is it that you have not went back like other disciples? Why
is it that you continue to believe and trust in Christ? Even because
of this, you are kept. You're kept. Peter says, you're
kept by the power of God through faith. Never apart from faith,
it's always faith is the evidence we're being kept, isn't it? I
still believe today. This morning, I trust in Christ
alone because I am kept by the power of God. And not only kept
in grace and love and favor through faith in Christ, but as the mountains
surround Jerusalem, we are safeguarded from all enemies, so does God
protect and keep us from all harm. Listen to what the Lord
says in Zechariah 2 in verse 5. He says, thus saith the Lord,
I will be a wall of fire round about them and will be the glory in the
midst of her. Behold, Christ then is the keeper
and protector of all his people. See then that all that happens
to the believer in Christ is the will of God. Isn't that right? All that happens to you in this
life is according to the will of God. And what is the will
of God? What is the will of God? It is
this, not to hurt you, not to destroy you, but to save you. To save you. Now pay attention, when Jerusalem
was in captivity, Everything that they were experiencing appeared
to be against the promises of God. They were in trouble. Yet God says of Israel, these
are my people. God says, I will bring you again
to the land. And yet everything seemed to
be contrary to what God promised. And God told them this, listen,
I know my thoughts of you. I know my thoughts towards you.
Thoughts not of evil, but of peace. You see, you may be in
the circumstance where it appears that God's thoughts of you are
evil. It may appear that God seems
to want to do you harm. But God says, listen, I know
my thoughts, and they're not that. They're thoughts of peace. And listen what the trouble and
the affliction is for. He says, this is Jeremiah 29,
verse 12. He says, then shall you call on me. And you shall go and pray unto
me. And here's a promise I will hearken unto you. You see what
trouble's for? You see what afflictions are
for? They're to bring us to call on Him. And what do we find when
we call on him? I'm gonna close with this one,
the promise of God. Look at verse three. You trust
in the Lord, you're in Christ, you cannot be removed from Christ,
and in the providence of time, God is as the mountains round
about Jerusalem, always protecting, always shielding us, and this
is his promise to us as we abide in this world. Look at verse
three. For the rod of the wicked shall not rest on the lot of
the righteous. lest the righteous put forth
their hands to iniquity. Does not our troubles and our
griefs move us to call upon God? They do. Now these, we who trust
in the Lord, we're not ones to deceive ourselves
concerning our lot in this world, are you? Are you deceived about
your lot? Our Lord Jesus testifies to us
that we shall suffer tribulation. We who are children of God must
be tried and proven to be sons of God, not for God's benefit,
but for yours. Peter said the trial of your
faith is what? Much more precious than gold.
The trial of your faith is necessary for your spiritual growth. And
these afflictions, these troubles are intended of God. This is
what is called the rod of the wicked, the rod of the wicked,
the troubles that you face concerning your flesh. Isn't that feel like
the rod of the wicked is your flesh? The rod of the wicked
is Satan, the rod of the wicked. That's accusations against you. That's the world's hatred towards
you. It's trouble, it's strife. And just as Babylon was a test,
was a tool in the hands of God to chasten his people, So listen,
all of the troubles in the world and all of the difficulties we
face are tools in the hands of our God, aren't they? To rebuke
us, to chasten us, to discipline us. But is this chastisement really
for our evil? Was it really intended to hurt
us? No. Scripture says, don't you know
that this, It says, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor
faint when you're rebuked of Him. Why? For He only chastens
those He loves and rebukes only sons. But I'll tell you this, it doesn't
seem pleasant. The rod of the wicked does not seem pleasant,
does it? But I'll tell you this, The scripture
tells us, weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in
the morning. Why? Listen to the promise. The
rod of the wicked shall not rest on the lot of the righteous.
It won't continue. It won't continue. Why? Lest
the righteous put forth their hands to iniquity. Unless it
be too much for us that we would abandon our faith. You see, God
will only put on us that which he gives us strength to bear. And how do you know you're going,
how do you know you're bearing it? Do you still believe? Do you still believe? We who worship Christ must and
will endure for a night the struggles and trials of this life, but
joy comes in the morning. For this is the promise of God
to encourage us, that the rod of the wicked shall
not rest on the righteous. God is faithful, friends. God
is faithful and will not put on us more than we can bear.
Consider this. There was a king, Asa. And this
king, he did that which was a right of the side of the Lord. He was
God's man. And then during the course of his reign, he did something
very evil. He used the armies of Assyrians
to attack Israel. And God sent his man to rebuke
this man of God, Asa. And you know what Asa did? He
swole up like a toad frog. He became so angry at the prophet
for rebuking him. And God sent gout into his feet. And this man was so stubborn
that he would not pray unto God. You know what God did? God took
him. Why? To fulfill this scripture. lest the righteous put forth
their hands to iniquity. He would not allow him to live
any longer than his faith." Isn't that encouraging? That's encouraging friends. That
God's promise is sure to all his elect that he will give us
faith until the end. And the way of escape, friends,
from our trials and troubles and tribulations that God gives
us is simply this, believe, trust in Christ. And I know this, our
afflictions, Paul said, are just light afflictions that endure
for a moment. If we would put things in perspective,
eternity, put things in real perspective, not just time, eternity,
think of things as they really are. And these troubles we face
will really become small in comparison. And God promises this, and this
is the prayer of the righteous. I'm gonna go through these without
reading it. Verse four, do good, oh Lord,
unto those that be good, to them that are upright in their hearts.
Listen. I know this, this is my prayer
that God do good to them that are good. Now, who are those
that are good? Only those who are in Christ. You see, my goodness is not in
me, it's in Christ. My uprightness is not in me,
but in Christ. But guess what? I am good in
Christ. I am upright in Christ. Lord,
do good unto us who are in Christ. Do good unto us. And God warns
this, Those that turn aside to their crooked ways, they'll be
led forth with the workers of iniquity. These are false professors. These are ones who claim to trust
in the Lord, but do not trust in the Lord. They turn away from
trusting Christ to their own imaginations, their own wicked
ways. But here's a promise again. Peace
shall be upon Israel. Oh, that you should trust in
the Lord today. Do you trust Him? Do you believe on Christ? And listen, you can't be removed. As you ascend this morning, who
can hinder you from coming to God? Nothing. You can't be removed
from Him. And in this life, are you troubled? He's as the mountains
surrounding Jerusalem, protecting you, keeping you in the faith.
And this is his promise. That trouble you're facing is
not gonna last forever. Weeping endures for a night,
but joy is coming in the morning. And God is not going to let you
outlive your faith. And that's a blessing, friends.
He's gonna keep us in the faith. And this is the prayer of all
who believe. Lord, do good unto your church. You know what he's
going to do? He's going to do good. He's going to do good. But those
that turn away, He'll lead you with them that
have no profession of faith. Those who have no right, no hold
on Christ. but for Israel's peace, peace. I pray God bless this to you,
please, that he will. Let's go to him in prayer. Father,
I pray you'd bless the message according to your mercies and
kindness in Christ. Please be gracious to your people. Forgive us our many sins. Wash
us and cleanse us and give us such confidence and boldness,
not in self, not even in our faith, but in Christ. Let us
see him. Let us enjoy his presence. I
ask this in his name.