I sang that one other time at
my dear brother Gary Perkins' funeral. That was his favorite
song. I thought about him all day. Turn with me to Psalm 145. Psalm 145, someone sent me a
word of encouragement and mentioned verses 18 and 19 from this psalm,
saying how much these two verses brought comfort and joy to this
particular believer. And as soon as I read them, they
brought comfort and joy to me. Verse 18 says the Lord is nigh
unto all them that call upon him. To all that call upon him in
truth. He's nigh to all that call upon
him. To all that call upon him in
truth. in truth. Verse 19 says, he will fulfill
the desire of them that fear him. He also will hear their
cry and will save them. This particular believer said,
before the Lord revealed himself to me, this is what the note
said, before the Lord revealed himself to me, I never really
thought about Nor did I even see or take notice of the two
words, in truth. In truth, this believer said
the truth is Christ. It's not my repentance, it's
Christ. It's not my tears, it's Christ. Verse 18 says, the Lord is nigh
unto all them that call upon him. To all that call upon Him
in Christ. To all that call upon Him in
Christ. I want us to look for a minute at what that means.
I guess this is a little bit of a serious message, but I want
us to just really consider what that means. It's so important. He is near unto all them that
call upon Him. To all that call upon Him in
truth. That's the key. That's the key. I want to start
by taking note of what David said here in Psalm 145. All right,
let's just notice what is written here. Verse 1 says, I will extol
thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name forever and ever. Thee, thy name. The word extol means lift up. David said, I will lift you up,
not me up, you up. The call on the Lord in truth
has everything to do with Christ being lifted up. It has everything
to do with Christ being the one who is blessed. Verse two says,
every day will I bless thee. And I will praise thy name forever
and ever. Every day I'll bless thee, not
me, thee. I'll bless thy name, not my name,
thy name. Verse three says, great is the
Lord. Not great is me. Not look at what great things
I've done. Great is the Lord. Verse three
says, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness
is unsearchable. I love the margin in my Bible.
It says, and of his greatness, there's no search. Not only can
we not find it out, we, we can't even search it. Verse four says, one generation
shall praise thy works to another. And that's exactly what we're
doing. You know, I'm so glad that the generation before me
praised the name of Jesus Christ. That's what the generation before
me did. That generation praised the name of Jesus Christ over
and over every time. And now that's what we're doing
to the next generation. We're praising His name. Verse
four says, one generation shall praise thy works to another and
shall declare thy mighty acts. Not my works, not my mighty acts. Verse five says, I will speak
of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works."
David said, if we're going to talk about works, we're going
to talk about your works. Verse six, and men shall speak
of the might of thy terrible acts. And I will declare thy
greatness, thy, thy, thy, You know the gospel, people accuse
the gospel of sounding like a broken record. And to that, all of God's
people cry, Amen. Greatest broken record ever.
We're broken on that right there. Verse seven, they shall abundantly
utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy
righteousness. Thy, thy. Lord, it's your goodness. It's
not my goodness. It's yours. It's your righteousness, it's
not my righteousness, it's yours. Verse eight says, the Lord is
gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. You talk about an outline for
a message. I'd title it, the Lord is. I
think I have. But just in case I haven't, I
would title it, The Lord is, four points. Gracious, full of compassion, slow to anger,
and of great mercy. How do you know? The cross of
Jesus Christ. Just look at the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. All of that is in Christ. Grace gave Jesus Christ. Compassion gave Jesus Christ
to be the lamb. Mercy gave Jesus Christ to be
the lamb slain for the sin of his people. And that very gift and work from
God is what appeased his own anger. All of that in Christ.
Verse eight, the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow
to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all. And his tender mercies are over
all his works. The fact that every human being
on this earth is allowed to breathe his air, that is goodness from
God. His sun that shines, his rain
that falls, all of it is goodness from God. Verse 10, all thy works shall
praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. All thy works shall praise thee.
Every knee is gonna bow. All thy works shall praise thee.
Every tongue is going to confess that he is Lord. And you think
about that. You know, I think about this world sometimes. When
we did go to Africa last year, we traveled through these different
countries, and there was so many people. There were so many people. And we were in one particular
country, and I said to them, too, I said, it just blows my
mind that there's so many people. And you have to wonder, do any
of them know the true and living God? But every soul on this earth
is going to bend the knee to him. Every soul is going to bow. Every single tongue that's ever
been made is going to confess, He is Lord. He's Lord. His saints are going to do it
willingly. This world is going to do it
in judgment, but His saints are going to do it willingly. They're
going to do it happily. They're going to do it joyfully. Thy saints shall bless thee.
Verse 11, they shall speak. of the glory of thy kingdom and
talk of thy power. That's their regular conversation.
That's the that's just the normal conversation of God's people.
Your glory, not mine. Yours, your power, not mine. It's yours. They shall speak of the glory
of that kingdom and talk of that power to make known to the sons
of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of His kingdom."
That's all we're doing. We're just making known His mighty
acts. We're just speaking of the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Verse 13 says, thy kingdom is
an everlasting kingdom. And thy dominion endureth throughout
all generations. Thy. Thy. Not my, thy. Verse 14 says, the
Lord upholdeth all that fall and raiseth up all that be bowed
down. We don't uphold ourselves. We
don't raise ourselves up, the Lord does it. Verse 15 says,
the eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat
in due season. Thou openest thine hand and satisfyeth
the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all
his ways and holy in all his words. The, thou, thine. Verse 18, the Lord is nigh unto
all them that call upon him. To all that call upon him in
truth. He will fulfill the desire of
them that fear him. He also will hear their cry and
will save them. The Lord preserveth all them
that love him, but all the wicked will he destroy. My mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord and let all flesh bless his holy
name forever and ever. Him, the Lord, His, forever and
ever. Now does that give us some idea
of what it is to call on Him in truth? To call on Him in truth,
the truth of who He is, the truth of what He's done. To call on
Him in truth is to, number one, call upon Him. is to call upon Him. You know,
so often, and I'm guilty of it too, I can't point the finger
too much, but so often when we call on our Lord in prayer, we're
calling because we want something. We want Him to do something.
Or we, you know, usually it's attached to us. But to truly
call upon Him is to call upon Him. is to call upon Him. It's to acknowledge Him. In John
chapter 14, He said, I am the truth. I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. To call on Him in truth is to
see Him. It's to acknowledge Him. It's to glorify Him and Him alone. Him alone. There is a calling, and you know,
this Sometimes I approach messages with the warm and fuzzies, and
I'm not approaching it in that way tonight. This is a serious,
urgent message because there is a call, there is a call on
the Lord that is not calling on Him in truth, and I want to
point that out. I want us to understand that.
There is a calling on the Lord that is not a calling on Him
in truth. And let me show you that over
in Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7 verse 13 it
says, enter ye in at the straight gate. What is the straight gate? Christ
is the straight gate. He said I am the way. Christ
is the straight gate. Verse 13 says for wide is the
gate. What is the wide gate? Everything
that's not Christ. If it's not Christ, That's the
wide gate and we need to stay away from it because verse 13
says, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction and many there be which go in there at. Because straight is the gate
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that
find it. Beware of false prophets. Our Lord is saying that. Beware
of lying preachers, deceivers. How will I know if I've run into
one? All right, here's how we'll know. Here's how we'll know. On the outside, when you look
at that person, that false prophet, he will look exactly, if you
just look at him at face value, he will look exactly like a child
of God. He'll appear to be a sheep in
God's sheepfold. Verse 15, beware of false prophets
which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves. Verse 16, he said, and you shall
know them. You're going to know a false
prophet. You're going to know a ravening
wolf by their fruits. By their fruits, they're going
to come preaching their fruits. They're going to come claiming
their fruits. And our Lord said, let me ask
you this. He said, let me ask you this.
Do men, verse 16, do men gather grapes of thorns? or figs of
thistles. What are grapes and figs? Well,
that's the fruit of God. That's fruit. God made that fruit. God made grapes and God made
figs. That's the fruit of God. All right. What are thorns and
thistles? That's the fruit of man. That's the fruit of man's sin. In Genesis 3 verse 18, the Lord
told Adam, because you have sinned, thorns and thistles are now going
to cover this ground. So the end of verse 16, he said,
do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so,
every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. But a corrupt tree
bringeth forth evil fruit. What's a good tree? Christ is
the good tree. He is the only good tree. What
is the evil tree? Man is the evil tree. That's
all that man is. People read this right here.
They read Matthew 7 and think, well, man, you want to be a good
tree and not an evil tree. All that man is is an evil tree.
That's all man is. Evil trees, that's all men are.
Verse 18, a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. What he's saying is that which
is spirit is spirit, and that which is flesh is flesh. In Christ
is no sin. No sin in the flesh of man is
no righteousness. Verse 19, every tree that bringeth
not forth good fruit, every corrupt tree, which is me and you by
nature, all men and women in the flesh is hewn down and cast into the
fire. Wherefore, by their fruits you
shall know them." They're going to appear to be calling on the
Lord. They're going to be in sheep's
clothing, but they're not going to be calling in truth. They're
not going to be calling on the Lord in truth. Their fruit, what
appears to be fruit, will be corrupt fruit. And the Lord illustrated
that in this way, verse 21 right here. He said, not everyone that
sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. There are going to be some people
who say, Lord, Lord, Jesus Christ. Not every one that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." What is
the will of the Father in heaven? What is the will of the Father
in heaven? This is my beloved Son. Hear Him. Call on Him in truth. Believe on Christ in truth. Acknowledge Him for who He is
in truth. Bow the knee to Him. Worship
Him. He said this right here is what
not calling in truth looks like, all right? This is not calling
on the Lord in truth. Verse 22. Many will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? The word prophesied means preached
in Jesus' name. And in thy name have cast out
devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. Lord, we preached you. We witnessed you. We cast out devils in your name. Everything we did was in your
name. We did many wonderful works everywhere we could work. We
went. We worked. Our Lord said that
is not what calling on him in truth is. Verse 22, many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in
thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Ye that work iniquity. He said
everything that you did was sin. Are you telling me preaching
is sin? Are you saying that preaching
is sin if it's not done in the truth of Christ? Yes, it's sin. Are you telling me that good
works in the name of Christ is sin? If it was truly in the name of
Christ, I mean if it was truly in the name of Christ, we wouldn't
be calling anything that comes from this flesh good. It was
truly in the name of Christ. If we were calling on Him in
truth, we would be saying, I know that in me, that is in my flesh,
dwells no good thing. That is a child of God's fruit. That's what the child of God
produces. That's what the child of God
produces. Oh, wretched man that I am. He said the way you can know
that these false prophets were not calling on Christ in truth
is this right here. OK, this was their their fruit
and this is it right here. Lord, I, me, my, we, our. That's corrupt fruit. Good fruit
says with David, thee, thy, thine, your, yours, That's the fruit that God produces
in the hearts of his people. They call on him. In truth, you, you, Lord, it
has to be you. It has to be you. It's all you.
It's all you. Turn with me over to Luke 18. Verse 10, it says, two men went up into the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. All right,
now this is not calling on the Lord in truth. What we're about
to read right now is not calling on the Lord in truth, verse 11.
The Pharisee, the religious leader, the church-going man. The Pharisee
stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give
tithes of all that I possess. That is not calling on the Lord
in truth. That right there is corrupt fruit. That is the fruit of a corrupt
heart. I am not sinful like other men. I am so much better than other
men. I'm not an extortioner, I'm not
unjust, I'm not an adulterer, I fast, I give tithes, I, I,
I. That is not calling on the Lord
in truth. Here is calling on the Lord in
truth. Verse 13, and the publican, standing afar off, would not
lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven. but smote upon his breast,
saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I acknowledge everything
that I am in truth. I'm a sinner. I acknowledge everything
that you are in truth. You're the holy and just one,
but you're the merciful one. You're the one who shed your
blood to save sinners like me from their sin. And I renounce
and I reject everything that I am and everything that I've
done. I reject everything that I've done. I mean all the bad
things, all the wicked, wretched sin, I reject it. All the good
things, I reject it. I reject everything that I've
ever done, and I beg you for mercy in your blood. Every word I've ever preached
is so full of sin. You know, I believe that. I told
somebody yesterday, I'm not going to do it, because I'm just not. Maybe, I don't know, maybe I
will. I think if I could, I'd take my first 10 years of messages
off of sermon audio. Not that I'm any better than
I used to be, but it'd just be less sin in the world. My words, every word I say, it's
just so full of sin. It's so full of pride. It's so
full of self. Every kindness I've ever done
is so full of sin. I'm calling on you. I need you
to help me. I need you to have mercy on me. I am calling on. I'm falling
on. You know, whoever that rock falls
on, it's going to grind that person to powder. But whoever
falls on this rock will be broken. That's a good thing. We need
to be broken. So I'm calling on you. I need
you. I need you. Verse 13 says, the public in
standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,
but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. The Lord said, verse 14, I tell
you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the
other. This man literally was an extortioner,
unjust and adulterer. He didn't tithe. He stole. And our Lord said, this man went
down to his house justified rather than the other. For every one
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. Lord, teach us what it is to
call on you in truth. Teach us what it is to call on
you in truth and cause us to do it. Cause us to do it. Because our text says, and I'll
close with this, but go back to Psalm 145. Our text says in verse 18, the
Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call
upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of
them that fear Him, that fear Him. God, be merciful to me,
the sinner, the sinner against you, the sinner against this world, the
sinner against myself. God, be merciful to me. That's
the soul He's near. That's the soul He will hear. That's the soul he will save.
In his purpose, in his blood, in his time. That's the soul
he will save. Verse 18 says, the Lord is nigh
unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him
in truth. He will fulfill the desire of
them that fear him. He also will hear their cry and
will save them. The Lord preserveth all them
that love him, but all the wicked will he destroy. My mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy
name forever and ever. Amen.