Psalm 125. And the title of the message
this evening is, The Confidence of the Saints and the Promise
of God. The confidence. Confidence. I like that word. Confidence. Wouldn't you love to have confidence?
Well, we can by this scripture. Let's read this together. Psalm
125. 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 forever. 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 unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall
lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. But peace shall
be upon Israel. Now here, if you'll notice at
the very beginning again, we have another one of these songs
of degrees. Songs of degrees, and remember
this is a song of ascent. a song of ascent as David ascended
into Jerusalem carrying the Ark of the Covenant. They sang songs
as the priest ascended up the steps into the temple. They sang
songs and so did they as they came back from Babylon. They
ascended up to Jerusalem singing songs. And remember, I said this,
it doesn't matter what when this songs of ascent were done. The
fact is, it gives them this ascent is for us. Tonight we are ascending.
I want you to know that. We are always ascending into
the presence of God through the Lord Jesus Christ so as to worship
Him. It is the heart of every believer
in Christ to ascend into the very presence of our Savior.
We long and need to hear We long to have Him hear our
request. We long to enjoy His presence,
to have His heart engaged toward us. And we long not ever to be
cast out. We long never to be cast out
from Him. You remember Esther, as she was
married to that great king, and she had a great request of her
husband. And she was... that the Jews
were about to be destroyed, and her people were about to be exterminated
by Haman, that wicked man. You remember, as she was coming
into the presence of the king, there was great danger there.
Except the king were to yield his scepter. Except the king
were to give her permission to come into the court. The law
demanded her death. And this is what it says in all
the servants of the king and the king's providence. It says
that whosoever, whether man or woman, should come into the inner
court of the king that is not called, there is one law for
them to be put to death, except the king should hold out the
golden scepter that they may live. And she said, but I've
not been called. I've not been called into his
presence. And what happened when she came? You remember, he said
his heart was moved toward Esther and he yielded to her. Tonight
as we ascend, I want you to know this, your husband, the king,
will always yield to you, the scepter. You will never be cast
out as we ascend into the presence of God to worship him. All of
his church are readily accepted into his presence. And so then let this testimony
of how it is a believer comes and prays and ascends to worship
his God, when we ascend up and lay our burdens at the feet of
Christ, we will never be rejected. You will never be rejected. Now yet, if we come on merit,
If a man comes on his own merit, you bet he will be rejected. He cannot ascend into heaven. who shall ascend into heaven,
but he that hath clean hands and a pure heart. We know this
was only Christ, and therefore, if we were to ascend, we must
be in Christ. We dare not come. Dare not come
dressed in our own righteousness, but how do we come tonight? How
do we come and worship our God and ascend to His presence? Only
robed in the righteousness of our Savior. Only washed in the
blood of the Lamb. We come clean. We come pure. before our Master. And it is
always the heart of Jesus to receive His bride. We always
obtain His favor and He always yields to us the golden scepter. He will hear our prayers. Now
then, who is it that ascends? Who is it that ascends? Well,
our text tells us who it is that are ascending before God. Look
at this in verse 1. They that trust in the Lord. They that trust in the Lord.
In the previous Psalm, Psalm 37 and verse 3, it says, trust
in the Lord. and do good. And thou shalt dwell
in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself
in the Lord, and listen, He shall give thee the desires of thine
heart." Tonight, if we ascend into the presence of God, trusting
Him, what is our desire? It is to worship. It is to praise
our Savior. It is to be accepted of Him.
That is the desire of the believer's heart. The believer's heart is
always to be accepted, to be loved of Christ, to serve Christ. As we ascend before His throne,
we set our hearts, our minds, our souls to worship Him. But how often, as we ascend,
are we molested by our own sin, by our own faults, by our own
inabilities and weaknesses as we ascend into the presence to
worship Him? Our fears, our sins, We are so
prone to wonder in our minds, so weak in our faith, low in
our love for Him, that we begin to doubt He will accept us. Tonight
we're going to where we're ascending. Will He accept me? Will He accept
our praise? How weak is our praise? It's
weak. It's weak. Our minds are weak. We wonder, prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it. prone to leave
the God I love. And so our doubts begin to fill
our minds as we ascend before our God and we cry, Lord, how
long will you forget me? Forever? I know sometimes we
worship and it seems as though it's an eternity before we ever
feel his presence again. And we think in our own minds,
maybe this time he will not yield the scepter. Maybe tonight he
will not, as we come and offer praise, he will not accept it
because it is low, because it's weak. There's nothing more grievous
to the hearts of God's people than when God hides His face.
Can you think of anything more painful, more troubling, than
to hide His face from us? When we cannot see His smile
or feel His presence or hear His voice, when His word that
is preached or read falls on dead ears, is there anything
more fearful to the heart of the believer in Christ? And so
then I'll ask you tonight, are you fearful? Are you troubled? Are you troubled because of your
own sin? Do you suppose that He will not yield to you His
scepter? Do you suppose that He will not
accept you and hear your cries, hear your prayers, hear your
troubles, hear your griefs? Do you desire to ascend before
your God in praise, but see the failures of your own heart and
flesh? Are you so hard in your heart, so cold in your love toward
God, that you fear? Then let us sing the song of
degrees. Let us sing this song of ascension
so that we might not fear, so that we might have confidence
when we pray. Is that not something you desire,
to have confidence when you pray? Not presumption, but confidence. Not in yourself, but in your
God. Do you not desire that your love
be warmed, your heart be melted? I do. I want, by the grace of God,
now tonight, to divide this psalm for you into four sections, four
divisions this psalm could be divided into for your comfort,
for your assurance in these matters of ascending before your God.
First of all, I want us to see the confidence of the saints.
The confidence of the saints. The second thing is the promise
of God. The confidence of the saints
is found in verses 1 and 2. Then you have a promise of God
in verse 3. In verse 4, you have a prayer. A prayer of the saints. And in verse 5, a warning. A warning. And so let's look
at these in their order. First, the confidence of the
saints. Read this with me. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. As the mountains round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from henceforth
even forever. First of all, let us see that
no work here is required of the worshiper. No work. No merit is required. Simply
trust. Simply trust is the only requirement
of approaching unto God. They that trust Not they that
work, not they that earn, not they that merit, but they that
trust in the Lord. Simply trusting. The promises
of God, the grace of God, the love of Christ, Christ's blood
and righteousness, They never come based on the work of the
flesh or any feeling of the heart or any religious zeal to be done
by us, but simply trusting completely in the person and work of Christ.
The whole grounds of false religion is rooted in what? Works. Works. Merit. When one of the false Roman church
is troubled The priests order him to do. That's what their
religion is surrounded. When someone is fearful, someone
is troubled, what do they do? Well, you need to say this. You
need to do ten Hail Marys, and then this, and then go do something
in the community. Whatever it is. Come down to
the altar, bow ten times, do something. They're sending people
out to do some work, some ceremony, some religion. For what? To obtain
favor. obtain favor. This is always
the way of false religion. Work! Work! But see, the Word
of God is clear that none will be accepted of God by their works. Why? because all our works are
sin. All that we do is mixed with
sin. Pray as much as you will, weep
as much as you will. If that's the merit by which
you should be accepted, you will fail. God will cast you out because
it's mixed with sin. Everything. But behold the sweetness
of the psalm, the plainness of his speech, How that one is redeemed,
how that one finds confidence to come before God without fear
of death, it is this. Trust. Faith. Faith. And he says this, listen. They
that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot
be removed. Cannot be removed. Those that
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You listen. You cannot be removed
from the presence of God. You cannot be cast out. You shall
be as Mount Zion. How is Mount Zion today? It's
the same as it was thousands of years ago. The mountains are
still there. They're the same. No man can
move those mountains, can they? Now I'll tell you what, there's
a lot of structures that have been built in Mount Zion. Now
those can be removed, right? Anything a man puts up, it can
be tore down. That temple was put up. How many
times did the temple rise up and then was destroyed? Twice?
We know of. We know that. That it was destroyed
by the Babylonians the first time, and then in AD 70 it was
destroyed again. But how about those mountains?
How about Mount Zion? Is it not still that high a place
as it always has been? It is. It cannot be removed. No man can pick up the mountains
and cast them out. That's what he's saying. They
that trust in the Lord shall never be removed from the presence
of the Lord. Why? Because Christ is in the
presence of the Lord and we are in Christ. If we are in Christ,
Christ cannot be removed and neither can we be removed. We are as the mountains of Zion.
Since we have been saved, we have all fallen short of the
glory of God. We've all missed the mark of
the holy perfection that God requires of acceptance. How then
can we maintain this presence of God? How can we maintain acceptance
into the very presence of God so as never to be cast out? Well,
this is very simple. by a representative man. The
reason that you and I will never be cast out is because of a representative
man, Jesus Christ. You remember how we fail. We
all fail by a representative man. Adam was our representative
man. And when that man sinned, Wherefore,
as by one man's sin entered into the world, and what was the result? Death fell on him. Death by sin. But it did not isolate with Adam. When Adam died, it was not isolated
with him. It passed, Paul said, upon all
men, for all have sinned. When did you sin? You sinned
in Adam. You sinned in Adam, you failed
by representative. Man, but listen, that's not it.
You can't just blame Adam, because you sinned too. Nobody twisted our arm to sin. We sinned most willingly. We defied God most willingly. We all hated the Law of God. We're not subject to the Law
of God. Neither indeed can be. Therefore,
in our flesh, we cannot be accepted. We cannot please God. We've all fallen into sin. And
so how then can we be reconciled? How can we be brought back into
union and fellowship and reconciled? That's what we need. Reconciliation. How can we be reconciled to God
who have fallen so far from God? Well, the same way we fail is
how God determined that we should be made, that we should be reconciled
by a representative man. And that man is only one. That man is only one. Jesus Christ,
the Son of the Living God. He is the only means by which
we may be reconciled unto God. To wit, the Scripture says God
was reconciling the world to Himself by Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. Now how should
that reconciliation be accomplished? The scripture is clear, 2 Corinthians
5.21, He hath made Him, He hath made Him, Christ, to be sin for
us. Who knows sin? That we, sinners,
should be made the righteousness of God, where? In Him. by a representative,
in a representative man. We were made righteous by Jesus
Christ. By Jesus Christ. only by His offering and by His
righteousness. And now the Word of God teaches
us that God has chosen a people, this people that He loved, He
elected before the foundation of the world, but none of these
elect could have ever merited the acceptance of God. We couldn't have ever have earned
our place. Therefore, God purposed that His Son should be the only
mediator and high priest of His elect. And what does the Scripture
say about this? The Scriptures are very clear.
They're very plain, and I'm thankful for that because I'm often confused.
And I usually just confuse myself. I'm my worst enemy about confusing
me. It doesn't take much. So I need
plain words. And plainer words are not spoken. Hebrews 9 and verse 12. Listen. Neither the blood of bulls or
calves, goats or calves, but by his own blood entered in once
into the holy place. Listen. Having obtained eternal
redemption. Listen. For us. obtained for us. You see, Christ didn't obtain
redemption for himself. He obtained redemption for us.
For us. So clear is the apostle. He said
that he entered into that holy place, not made with hands, which
was only a figure, but into heaven itself he entered in once. As it is appointed unto
man once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him. He shall appear the second time
without sin unto salvation. In Hebrews 10 it says, But this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, you listen,
forever sat down, forever sat down, at the right hand of God
from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool
for by one offering he hath, hath, hath perfected." Now then,
what was your question about being accepted? Where's the question? Did He not do the work? Did He
not accomplish redemption? The Scriptures are clear. He
has accomplished redemption for who? Listen, for all who trust
in Him. Trust in Christ. Behold, O man, the only perfect
and acceptable sacrifice is that of Christ, to which God said,
Behold, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. But
you notice this, That's not all. For election
without the work of Christ is not salvation. But I also want
you to know this, the work of Christ without faith is no salvation.
You can know all about election and the work of Christ, but if
you have not faith in God, if you have not faith in Christ,
you are none of His. You must believe on the Son of
God. You must be born again. Isn't that what Jesus said? You
see, the new birth is not optional. Oh, you ever hear this? Oh, you're
a born-again Christian. Is there any other kind? Can
you be a Christian without the new birth? No. Impossible. Can you be a believer in Christ
without believing? No. It's impossible. You see,
this too is something God has ordained, even your faith. Even
your faith. The apostle in Hebrews 11, I've
been studying this a little bit, but in Hebrews 11 it says, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of what? Our faith. Do you see that this all is not
rooted in you? This work is done completely
outside of you and then is wrought in you. so that you who cannot
believe now do believe. And you listen. Here's your confidence. You who do believe shall never
ever be removed. Ever. Now all of the things that we
do and all of the things that we build and all of the things
we have in this world, they can be and will be destroyed. Everything we have is going to
be gone soon. Just like that temple that was
put up. It was beautiful. It served a purpose. But then
it's gone. So then all the things that we
have in this life are soon going to be gone. So what are they?
They're nothing. But what's important is this.
You shall not be as the temple on Mount Zion. You shall be as
Mount Zion. Unmovable. Unmovable from the
presence of thy God. Unshakable. You who were dead
in trespasses and sins, have you not been quickened to life? You who were blind to the things
of God, can you not see them now? Can you not see Christ?
You who were lame as Mephibosheth, the son of the rival king who
only deserved death, did God not fetch you and bring you before
His feet? And you came trembling before
him, saying, What is thy servant but a dead dog? And what did
your master say to you? Come and sit at my table with
the king's sons, and all that I have is yours. And there we are, lame on our
feet, still sitting at the king's table. Today we are sitting at
the king's table. Today. I am lame on my feet,
still a dead dog, yet a king's son. And who shall remove me
from the king's table? No one. Why? God says they that
trust in the Lord as Mount Zion shall not be removed. Rather,
cannot be removed. Not that men won't try. Men will
try to remove you, but they cannot remove you. They cannot keep
you. Why? Because you trust in Christ.
Because you have faith in Christ alone. See then that faith Faith
in Christ, then, is the only evidence of our not being removed.
You know that? How many other things do you
look at besides your faith in Christ? Well, Pastor, I don't think I
love enough. No, you don't. I don't think
I serve enough. Nope. You sure don't. I don't
think I give... Nope. No, you don't. Neither
do I. But see, I'm not going to be removed because of those
things. I know this. I believe on the Son of God. And believing is no natural thing. It is a miracle of God's work
and grace and power. And therefore, those who trust
cannot be removed. And listen, one who is a true
believer, if you truly trust in Christ, I know this, you trust
in nothing else. You hold to nothing else but
Christ. Now some are deceived. How do we know those who are
deceived? Because they are holding to Christ and something else. They are either holding to Christ
and the world or they are holding to Christ and their works. But
they're trying to hold both. We don't have anything to hold. We have nothing else to hold
but Christ. This is our hope. Jesus paid
it all. And now what is my heart? All
to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Lord, indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt this heart
of stone. Do you trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ? Then you shall never, ever be
removed from Him. This is your confidence. Not in you, but in Him. In Him. Therefore, the Proverbs
says, trust in the Lord with, how much? All thine heart. And don't do what? Don't lean
on your understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge
Him. When you have this, He will,
He shall direct your path. I'm so glad there's only one
way so I don't get confused. We are people of the way, aren't
we? One way. Christ. So there's not many ways. I won't be confused. Christ is
all. Christ is all. Now secondly,
look at this confidence of the believer. As the mountains are
round about Jerusalem, listen, so the Lord is round about His
people henceforth forever. Forever. Here we have the word
of the immutable God, who cannot lie and who cannot change. All
who trust in the Lord cannot be removed from their God. And listen, God will not remove
Himself from us. Just as Zion's was set among
the mountains, surrounded on all sides, so that no man could
ever remove them from their place. No man can remove us. But listen,
this is not only so, but God Himself will not be removed,
but rather He Himself will surround us. He surrounds us. Now listen, this flesh may be
poor, it may be sick, it may be weak, it may be timid, it
may be fearful, it may sin. But our hope is not in us, it's
in Christ. Therefore, I know this, because
you are in Christ, God, having accepted you, will never leave
you Himself. He Himself will surround you. He will keep you. Jesus said
this, My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow
Me. I give unto them eternal life, and you listen, they shall
never perish, never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of My hand. For the Father which gave them
Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of His hand. Now if this is the will of God,
if this is the will of God, Who then shall stop God from doing
His will? Does this not give you confidence?
That this is the One surrounding you, this is the One protecting
you, this is the One keeping you, is God. You are as the mountains
of Zion, and God is as the mountains surrounding Jerusalem. He surrounds
all of His church. And no one shall take us. No one shall pluck us from His
hand. Why? He surrounds us. He keeps
us in the palm of His hand. My name on the palms of His hands,
eternity will not erase. Written with marks of indelible
grace. Our Lord says, I will keep you. I will keep you. And so why then are we so fearful?
Why are we fearful? Are we not often fearful as those
ones who would turn back? Remember the disciples in John
chapter 6. Those that turn back. How many
of us are so fearful that we would turn back? What is my confidence that I
won't? You that trust in the Lord, you
shall never turn back, because your God keeps you from turning. So, if left to yourself, you
would. But see then, God says, I surround
you. I keep you. Peter says, who are
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to
be revealed. The Lord says in Zechariah, He
says, I will be a wall of fire round about you and the glory
in the midst of you. Behold then, Christ is your keeper,
Christ is your sustainer, Christ surrounds and keeps and protects
us. Now then, look at this promise
of God, verse 3. For the rod of the wicked shall not rest
upon the lot of the righteous. Now, we who trust in the Lord
are not deceived concerning our lot in the world. In this world you shall have
what? Tribulation. Now, are you deceived
about that? No, you don't like it, but you're
not deceived about it. You know you're going to struggle
with the world, the flesh, and the devil. You are aware of these
enemies. You know them personally. Intimately,
you have experienced this struggle over and over and over again. The rod of the wicked is constantly
vexing God's people. We are constantly perplexed.
We are constantly bowed down by this. This rod of the wicked. But I have you know this, that
this rod of the wicked is not in the hand of the wicked, but
rather in the hand of your father. He uses the wicked to accomplish
His purpose for you. They are simply tools our Father
uses in correcting and instructing His children and showing forth
the glory of His power to us. That's all they are. Did He not
raise up Pharaoh for that purpose? He says, I have raised you up
for one purpose, to show My people My glory and My power. What is
He doing with the rest of the world? Why are you persecuted?
Why are you in trouble? Why are you vexed? God is using
them. God is using them for your good. And this is His promise to you.
You listen. They will not always be upon you. You get that? Satan will not
always be able to vex you, tempt you. One day he will be completely
removed from you. That's his promise to you. Though
you are vexed now, I'm using it for a purpose, for your good. The world who vexes us, they
will not always be here to vex us. Maybe the Lord would take
us away from them, but it doesn't matter. They will be removed.
This rod of the wicked is not something that is always going
to be. You listen, that flesh you contend with, it will not
always be. That rod of the wicked is only
used for a purpose, for a time. And it will be removed. Just as Babylon was a tool that
God used to chasten the nation of Israel, even so, as a father
correcteth his children, chasteneth them not to crush him, not to
destroy him, but rather to drive him from danger or laziness,
even so our Father is faithful to chasten us. Isn't that what
he says? In Hebrews, he says, forget not the exhortation that
is speaking unto you as children. My son, despise not the chastening
of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked
of him for whom the Lord loveth. He chastened. Anybody chastened? If you trust in Christ, you make
sure of this, you will be chastened. And if you are without chastisement,
then what? You are bastards and not sons.
We are chastened of the Lord and we should take this as a
badge of honor that our Father loves us enough to vex us, to
keep us from danger. What kind of people would we
be if we weren't chastened of our God? God does chasten us. He uses these things. Therefore, we should be thankful.
We should be thankful for Him. The rod is not to rest on us. It will not always continue.
And listen why. Listen. Lest the righteous put
forth their hands into iniquity. I want you to know that your
Father understands your weakness. He understands your limitations. If God were to vex us past a
certain point, we surely would be wicked. We'd turn to wickedness
to try to get out. Wouldn't we? We would scheme
ourselves to try to find a way to deliver ourselves from these
things. And God says, no, I won't allow
that. It won't come to that. We worship
Christ. We will endure. The scripture
says, weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the
morning. Why? He says, I'm not going to
let this last. It's only for a time. You remember when the Lord said
about the siege of Jerusalem, he says, "...except those days
be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's
sake it shall be shortened." Why? He understands your frame.
He knows you're but dust. And so our God, in great care
for our weakness, knows that we would turn to sin rather than
Him, therefore He shortens these things so that we would only
turn to Him. And therefore are you in trouble,
even now? Then know this, the Lord has
made a way of escape. And now what he says in 1 Corinthians
10, he says, There hath no temptation taken you as such as common to
man, but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that which you are able. But what the temptation shall
make, listen, a way of escape. You see that? There's not many
ways of escape. There's only a way. What is it? It's the same
way you started. Faith in Christ. Trust. Trust. Isn't that the way of
escape out of every trouble? Trusting in God to know what
He's doing. Trusting in God to know what
I can endure. Trusting in God to know how long
this should last. Trusting in God that the rod
of the wicked shall not endure. The rod of the wicked shall not
rest upon the lot of the righteous. And what does this do? Thirdly,
it shows us, it points us to pray. Look at this in verse 5.
In verse 4. Do good, O Lord, unto those that
be good. This is the prayer of God's people. Do good. Do good. Aren't we just asking God to
do what He does naturally? Isn't what God does always good? Then have we not our prayer answered? Do good, O Lord. To who? Them that are good. Well, how can this be for me?
You listen. In Christ you are good. You know
what we went over the first part of this? Trusting. Why are we
trusting? Because only in Christ can we
be made righteous. Only in Christ are we as the
mountain of Zion. And in Christ, listen, you are
as good as Christ. And what do you expect God to
do for the good? Do you not expect God to do good
for the good? Will not God do good for the
good? Yes! And if you are in Christ, you
are good. Not in you, but in Him. What does God say about your
iniquity? What does God say about your sin? He said, in that day
and in that time, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for
and shall not be found. The sin of Judah shall be searched,
but there shall be none. None. And so then, what are we asking,
Lord? Do me good. And what does God say, what is
God's promise concerning His goodness to us? I will make an
everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from
them to do them what? Good. Good. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. And the last thing is this, a
warning. For as such as turn aside unto their crooked ways,
the Lord shall lead them forth as the workers of iniquity, but
peace shall be upon Israel. There has been and there always
will be tares among the wheat. There will always be goats among
the sheep. Always. Always. Those who profess to believe
in Christ, but whose hearts are made to cling to the world, or
to cling to their own religious ways, they will not last. I've seen them. Haven't you?
You see them come in, They sprout up and have all the zeal and
wonder and we're amazed at them. We say, wow, I wish I could have
that much zeal. We've been sitting in the church
for a long time and we haven't got that much zeal. Look at them.
They just spring up overnight. They're just so raw. They're
so energetic for the gospel. And next thing you know, they're
gritting their teeth trying to stay. They don't love it. They come because they think
they have to. Not because they need it. Because they don't want
it. These people, they're fly by
night. They come and they go and they
turn aside to their own crooked way. Now listen, true faith always
endures unto the end. The scripture says, he that endureth
to the end, the same shall be saved. True faith always endures
to the end. True faith always cleaves to
Christ. There were some like Judas, Ananias,
Sapphira, remember Lot's wife? All of these had outward signs
of morality, but God said they were whited tombs, beautiful
on the outside, but full of dead men's bones. Lord, keep us from such a thing. Lord, is it I? Isn't that what
the apostles said? Lord, is it I that you betray?
This is the heart. The heart of the wicked is, Lord,
have we not done this for you? When have we not? What is the
heart of the righteous? Lord, when did we ever do anything
for you? See the difference? There's a difference. But, listen, peace shall be. Where? In Israel. Among God's
people there is always peace with God. Always. So as you sinned
tonight, as you worshipped your God, do you suppose you were
cast out? Do you suppose you were not accepted? No. You that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion. You shall not, you cannot be
removed. And the Lord shall be round about
you as the hills and mountains of Jerusalem. He shall be a wall
of fire about you, and nothing shall penetrate Him to get to
you that shall do you hurt. The rod of the wicked is the
tool of the Lord. He uses them to chasten us, to correct us,
but never shall they abide on us. They shall soon be removed. Why? Because He knows our frame. He knows we are but dust. He
moves us to cry, Lord do good to us. And what is the Lord going
to do? He's going to do good to us. But not for those outside
of Christ, but only for Israel. May God bless your soul with
this and comfort you and give you confidence. Where? In you? No. Confidence in your God, Jesus
Christ. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.