Your Bibles, please turn back
to Psalm 34. I heard this story one time that
a preacher said, and I'd like to share it with you. He had
finished his sermon, and he was out in the hallway and shaking
the brethren's hands as they left. And this one guy come up
to him and, brethren, he said, you know, preacher, you didn't
tell me a thing that I didn't already know. I didn't hear anything
that I didn't already know. But he said, you know what? I
need you to hear it again. And that's the way the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ is. I need to hear it. Every time
I come through those doors, I look forward to hearing it again. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I've titled this session, Let
Us Exalt His Name Together. You know, we know that God is
absolutely sovereign in providence, salvation, creation. And I was
in religion for over 60 years. And there was one word I never,
ever remember hearing anyone say. And that is that God is
sovereign in providence. And his message is mostly for
me because that's something that I often forget. And that is,
this is something that the preacher said this morning, bless my heart,
he said, the spirit of Jesus is in. It's children that are
in Christ and he is, he's with us wherever we go. It doesn't
matter what we face. He's there with us and he's going
to take care of us because he does all things well. You know,
God's chosen people when they're near the great shepherd and that's
our Lord Jesus Christ. We find peace, we find comfort
and we find safety. I remember Peter whenever he
walked on the water, you know, as long as he was looking at
Jesus, Christ our Lord, he was doing fine. But when he took
his eyes off of him, what happened? And that's what happens to me
sometimes. I get out here and I get too caught up with the
things of the world and I get my eyes off Christ and then his
sweet spirit will remind me, hey, don't worry about it. It's
gonna be all right. And it is, it always has been.
He's always took care of me and he always will. The word exalt
here, it means to hold in very high regard. Think of or speak
very highly of the glory. Also to worship, to honor, and
to reverence, and to praise, and to meditate. And that's something
that I love to do is to meditate on God's word because that's
what gives us our strength. You can't separate God's word. from the Lord Jesus Christ, because
as far as I'm concerned, they're both the one. The Lord wrote
to use men to write this book, to believe God's word to be absolute
truth and to believe the record that God has given us of his
son. I want to read a couple of scriptures here before we
get to our text. But you know, sometimes we go
down and we go through very dark valleys in this life. One day
everything may be all right, and then all of a sudden something
will hit us. And we need to know that God is in charge of it. One thing that I'm guilty of
is there's a lot of things in this life that I complain about.
And then I remember, now wait a minute, there's a reason for
that. God has a purpose, and he watches
over his children. But anyway, The Bible says that
all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him, amen, and
to the glory of God by us. What that's saying right there
is that all the love of God are in those that the Father placed
in him before the foundation of the world. There is no love
of God outside of Jesus Christ, our Lord. All the promises, all
the spiritual gifts, and all the eternal life is in Christ
Jesus, our Lord. and it's in his blood. You know,
he says in his word, he says, set your affections on things,
and I would do good to do this, set your affections on things
above and not on things of the earth, for you are dead and your
life is hid with Christ in God. Listen to this. And then when
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear
with him in glory. Isn't that wonderful? Just to
think and meditate on those words right there. You know, the Christian,
the believer don't never die. They just pass on. Paul said
to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord instantly. You know, and then who is this
Jesus? You know, as a pastor mentioned
this morning, who is he? Well, in God's word in the book
of John, it says that in the beginning was a word and the
word was with God and the word was God. So we're talking about
almighty God here. In verse 14 in the same chapter,
it says that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and
we beheld his glory. The glory as the only begotten.
as the Father, full of grace and truth. Christ Jesus coming
into this world, 100% God, 100% man. And the reason for that
was to be a perfect sacrifice for those whom the Father had
placed in Him for the salvation of the world. You know, we're
not saved by going to church. We're not saved by being baptized.
We're not saved by reading the Bible. We're not saved by being
good moral people. We're saved by the blood of the
Lamb of God. Then in Timothy, God's word says,
and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
Think about this. God was manifested in the flesh. He was justified in the spirit.
He was seen of angels. He was preached unto the Gentiles,
and I thank him for that, believed on in the world, and received
up in glory. And that's just something that
just places our hearts so much to think about that, considering
who he is and who we are. You know, as you get older in
this life, the glamour of this world gets dimmer, and the light
of Christ keeps getting brighter and brighter. If you will, turn
to 2 Corinthians, and hold your place here, but turn to 2 Corinthians, chapter 4. I thank God for His written word.
You know, when we get down and out and get discouraged, and
I'm sure I'm not the only one that does that, The place to
go is to the Word of God, to go to His written Word. There's
so many promises there, so many blessings there for His people,
for those that are in Christ. It says here in chapter 4 of
2 Corinthians, verse 6, listen to this. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Beautiful. But we had this treasure
in earthly vessels, that the excellency of the power may be
of God and not of us. And then in verse eight, it says,
we are crumbled on every side, yet not disgraced. We are persecuted,
but not forsaken, and we are cast down, but not destroyed. You know, Job said that a man
that is born of a woman, that his days are few and full of
trouble. And then God's word says in John,
he says, in this world, you shall have tribulation. So it shouldn't
be a surprise for us to have to go through heartache and pain. That's just part of life. And
that's the way it is. But I love what the last part
of this verse says. He says, I have overcome the
world, and He is in us. I thank God for that. You know,
God's word said back in the book of Joshua, Joshua said, be strong,
be strong, don't be afraid. Lord, our God is with thee wherever
we go. And that's something that I need
to remember. He's with me no matter what kind
of shape I'm in, no matter what's going on in my life, no matter
the sorrow that I think, my Lord is right there with me. And all
they need to do is to look to him. You know, I remember whenever
I was a little kid, we had a big front yard, and I lived in the
country, and there's a lot of us kids, you know, in the summertime. And I'm talking about I was like
eight, nine years old. We ran around barefooted in the
yard all the time. There was some clover in that
yard. And every now and then, one of us would step on a bee,
and it hurt. And we'd go crying to mama, and
she'd just grab us up and hug us and hug us and kiss us, you
know, and she'd pat where we got stung. And before we got
off her lap, we'd be laughing. You know, that's the way God
takes care of His children. He takes care of us. He does. whatever the believer goes through,
our Lord has been there. And we thank God that we've got
a high priest that knows what we go through, for he says that
we have a high priest which cannot be touched with our feelings
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. The Lord takes care of his children.
He always has, and he always will. And don't you love what Isaiah
says? He says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. Why is that? For he hath clothed
us with the garments of salvation. Not we, but he. He hath covered
us with the robe of his righteousness, not our righteousness. I have
no righteousness in this flesh. I have none at all, but in Christ,
I am covered with his righteousness, and the life is in the blood. Thank God for that. It says here,
you know, David was having a very hard time, if you will, go back
to Psalm 34. David was having a very hard
time here. His king was trying to kill him.
Saul had over 3,000 men chasing him, trying to kill him. And
David had been anointed king. He just hadn't took that position
yet. And he was hiding in a cave. He was hiding in a cave. Even
people in his own land didn't want nothing to do with him.
And what did he do? He sets a good example for us
from when we get down and out. Here he is sitting in this cave
and he's got 400 men that he has to take care of that went
with him because they didn't care nothing about Saul. But
he says, I will bless the Lord at all times. When we get down
and we get out, it's a proven fact because it's right here
in the word. When we get down and we get out, we get scared,
we get worried, we get hurt, we suffer. If we get our minds
off of ourselves, if I get my mind off myself and I get my
mind on the Lord and get to thinking about all the blessings that
he has given me, it lifts my spirit because his spirit lives
within me. He lifts my spirit. I don't lift
it, but he lifts my spirit. And David, like I said, he was
in a lot of distress. And where did he find his comfort?
He found his comfort in the Lord. It says in Psalm 119, remember
the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to
hope. This is my comfort, and my afflictions for thy word have
quickened me. You know, God's word has so many
promises in it for the elect. And that's where we go to get
our comfort and our peace. Because his word is unchangeable.
God is unchangeable. Everything in this world changes.
Nothing stays the same. But when it comes to God, Malachi
says in his word, he says, for I am the Lord and I change not.
And then the Bible says, the flower fadeth and the grass withereth,
but the word of our God will stand forever. He says, I change
not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. You know, when
I get out and I get down and get worried and something, most
of the time before it's over, if I find out, I don't have no
control over it anyway. Why am I worrying about it? You
know, most of the things that I worry about in this world,
I come to realize that I don't have no control over it. I know
someone who does. God is absolutely sovereign in
providence and he has absolutely control over all things. And
we don't realize this, and I don't realize this, and that is Psalm
40, the Word of God says, Many, O Lord my God, are thou wonderful
works which thou hast done, and thou thoughts which are to usward.
They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare
and speak of them, there are more than can be numbered. The
Bible says in Hebrews 15, by him, therefore, let us offer
up the sacrifice of praise of God continually, that is, a fruit
of our lips, giving thanks unto his name. May he blesses us each
and every day of our lives. And we don't realize that. I
say we, I mean I. Some of us probably do, but I
don't realize it, but he blesses us each and every day of our
lives, each and every day. Let's read verse one and two
in our text. In Psalm 34, I will bless the
Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in his mouth, in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
Make her boast in the Lord, but humble she here thereof, and
be glad. You know, it's not good to boast
about things, but there's one thing that we can never boast
enough about, and that's our Lord Jesus Christ, because he
is our all, and he is in all. If you will, turn to Jeremiah
9. Hold your place here and turn
to Jeremiah 9. I like to read these verses because
it puts me in my place a lot of times. Sometimes I get into
myself. But verse 23 in Jeremiah 9. Look at verse 23. It says, Vest saith the Lord, let
not the wise man glory in his wisdom. You know, I'm not saying
that I've got much wisdom, but I'm saying that the day may come
when I may not even know what my name is. I may not even know
where I live or who my family is. Neither let the mighty man
glory in his might. You know, at one time a man may
be real strong, but the day may come when someone may have to
help him off a couch to get him to go to bed. And then let not
the rich man glory in his riches. You know, God's Word says that
we brought nothing into this world, and we certainly will
not take nothing out of this world. Everything that we have
in this world, God give it to us, and it belongs to Him. And
then verse 24, this is what we are to glory in. This verse blesses
my heart so much. He says, but let him that gloryeth
glory in this, that he understand and know of me, that I am the
Lord, which exercises, listen to this, loving kindness, judgment,
and righteousness in the earth. And this right here really blesses
my heart. He says, for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. That's toward his loved ones,
that's toward his people. Thank God for that. You know, it says here, it says that the humble should hear
thereof and be glad. You know, the humble love to
talk about all about the Lord and what the Lord has done for
them and how that they need him. What does the crowd talk about?
They like to talk about what they've done for the Lord and
how much the Lord needs them. It's just the opposite. I need
the Lord each and every day of my life. Every morning when I
get up, before I ever leave the house, we never know. When we
open that door, we never know what's outside that door. We
never know what we're going to face that day, but we know that
the Lord is with us and we thank Him for that. Look at verses 18 and 19. It
says, the Lord is nigh unto them of a broken heart, and saveth
such as he of a contrite spirit. That's verse 18 of chapter 34.
He says, many are the afflictions of the righteous, and the Lord
delivereth him out of them all. You know, the humble will say
what Psalm says in chapter 115. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name we give glory, for thy mercy and for
thy truth's sake. When God's people hear all the
praise given to the Lord and the Lord alone, it blesses their
heart. And that's where we put our trust.
That's where God's people put their trust. They put their trust
in the Lord and the Lord alone. Read verse 3 here in our text,
if you would. We are of one mind, one accord,
and one purpose. We're here to worship God, to
praise him, to magnify him, and to exalt him. You know, the highlight
of my life is whenever I get to come into this church and
to hear God. I mean to hear Gabe preach the glory of God. I've
been coming here for nine years and I've never left this church
without being blessed because of the grace preachers that have
been here and because of my pastor Gabe. We are so blessed to have
him and God has blessed him so much. You know, we cannot make
God greater or higher than what he is, but But if we adore Him
as infinitely great and higher than the highest, and then we
give Him glory and all glory. You know, Revelation 4 11 says,
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power, for
Thou hast created all things, and for Thou pleasure they are
and they were created. In other words, brothers, it's
not about us. It's all about our Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, when we are in hard
times, whenever, for cause, we begin to meditate on His grace.
You know, we get down and out, we get worried, we get scared.
It happens every time. When we begin to meditate upon
Him, upon His grace, upon His mercy, upon His love, His everlasting
love, His long-suffering, I thank God for His long-suffering, on
His loving-kindness, on His compassion toward His children, on His goodness,
we realize how great He is. And I realized how great, how
blessed that I am to have a Lord such as Him. He is perfect in
all of His ways. He does all things well. In verse
four here of our... It says, I sought the Lord, and
he heard me, and he delivered me from all my fears. How many
times do you read that in the Bible? He delivered me from all
my fears. We need to stay close to the
Lord. Jeremiah. 313 said, The Lord hath appeared
of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have led thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I grown thee. You know how many times in religion
did I hear somebody say, I got saved? I got saved. I didn't get anything. The Lord
grew me. The Lord grew me. He says in
John 6, verse 44, our Lord said, no man can come to me except
for the Father to grow him. You know, when the Spirit of
God begins to deal with a man, to grow the soul of a sinner
to him, he implants in him a divine instinct to seek the Lord. Only later does a saved sinner,
that's what I am, I'm a saved sinner. There's two kinds of
sinners in this world, saved and lost. But a saved sinner
realizes that it was the Lord that was the original seeker.
Psalm 110.3 says, Thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power. There's an old hymn that says,
I sought the Lord, and afterward, I knew He moved my soul to seek
Him, seeking me. It was not I that found, O Savior,
true. No, I was found of Thee. And that is really true. Verse
four here, let's read verse four again. It says, I sought the
Lord, and He heard me, and He delivered me from all my fears.
Jeremiah 29, 13 says, and you shall seek me and find me when
you shall search for me with all your heart. You know, it's
not about head knowledge, but it's about heart knowledge. And
we need to stay as close to the Lord. I need to stay as close
to the Lord as I can each and every day of my life. And as
I stand here, the Lord knows what's so good is the Lord that
we serve, he knows our heart. And I need him so much. I need
him every day. And I love him more and more
and more. You know, that's why we go to gather together to worship
him, to grow in grace, to grow in the knowledge of our Lord
and our Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, our Lord Jesus, he
said, learn of me and you shall find rest for your souls. And
the book of Isaiah says, thou will keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on thee. I need to always remember that
God is absolute sovereign. In Proverbs, regardless of what
comes my way, it's for His glory and it's for our good, regardless
of what it is. In verse five here of verse hex,
it says, they looked unto Him and were enlightened, and their
faces were not ashamed. Who is He talking about here?
He's talking about all the believers before Him. Many besides Him
have looked unto Him. How? By faith, prayer, and they've
been enlightened by it. You remember Job said, he said,
I know that my Redeemer liveth. And at the latter day, he shall
be up on the earth. He said, though worms destroy
this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. He's coming back. I
thank him for that. You know, it has wonderfully
revived and comforted so many in this world when they look
to Jesus Christ, our Lord. his people. When we look at the
world, we're darkened, we are filled with uncertainty, at times
at a loss, but when we look at God, from him we have the light,
both of direction joy, and our way is made plain and pleasant
when we put all of our trust That's important right there.
You know, all too often, a man, you know, pride sometimes gets
in the way, but whenever we look to the Lord and we put all of
our trust in Him, All of it, and that means all, look to Christ
and to keep on looking. One preacher said, I looked to
Christ yesterday. I look to him today. And he said,
I'll look to him tomorrow. And he said, when I leave this
world, I will still be looking to him. When we look to the Lord,
it gives us confidence. It's not our confidence. Our
confidence is in our Lord. He helps us to handle the hard
things that comes into our lives as part of his sovereign will
and his purpose. Psalm 41, 6 says, God is our
refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Verse
6 and 7 of our text here, it says, This poor man cried, and
the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamped around about them that fear him
and deliver them. Who is this poor man? That's
all of us. That's all of us. This is our
heritage from Adam. That is that heritage. What is it? It's death and sin.
You know, whenever Adam sinned, he died instantly, spiritually. You know, later on, he died physically.
The only reason he died physically, because he had sinned. That's
what caused his death. But this poor man, who did he
cry to? He cried to the Lord. Why did
he cry to the Lord? Because the Lord was the only
one that could help him. He couldn't help himself. There
wasn't nothing he could do. He cried to the Lord, the only
one that could help him. And the Bible says that the Lord
heard him. And what a blessing this poor man got. As one preacher
said, and we're talking spiritually here, is that in Adam, we all
died spiritually. And when that happened, we was
nothing, had nothing, know nothing. And worst of all, we could do
nothing. But the Lord, out of his abundant
mercy, heard him. And the Lord saved him out of
all of his troubles. And the Lord will deliver all
of his sheep out of their trouble. He'll not lose a one of them.
And John, the Lord says, I give unto them eternal life and they
shall never perish. Never shall any man be able to
pluck them out of my Father's hands. Don't you love Romans
8, 28 through 35? I think it's through 35, but
I don't have time to read it, but I read it all the time because
it blesses my heart because I know that there's nothing in this
world, all this world wants to do is take and take and take,
but there's nothing that he can do when we're in the arms of
Jesus. The believer is not only saved,
but he's also in verse seven here, It says, the angel of the
Lord encamp round about them that fear him and deliver them.
You know, the believers not only say, but we are kept as well.
And the angel of the Lord surrounds the saints, and they are ministering
spirits that protect. God's people. You know, I'm retired
and I stay at the house a whole lot, and I think, well, you know,
I ain't got no enemies. Look at Ephesians 6. Sometimes
I forget about this all the time, but we need to realize that life
is two-dimensional. Ephesians 6, chapter 6. Verse 12 and 13 of chapter 6
of Ephesians. God's words say, speaking to
his children, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rules of
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. He says, therefore, take unto
you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and have them done all to stand. We keep on
looking to Christ. Keep on looking to Jesus. We'll
go back to our text now in 34. In verse 8, they say, don't taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusts
within him. Taste and see. One has to taste
food to see if it's good. One has to truly trust in the
Lord. The Lord calls him, saves him,
places him in Christ. And we see just how good our
Lord is. He's always there, and He's always ready to help. He
never goes on vacation. And regardless of what our problem
is, we talk to Him. You know, I talk to Him like
a brother. I'm by myself a lot, you know. And I just, if somebody
seen me, they thought I was crazy, but I'd be just talking up a
storm. But I know just that the Lord is right there with me.
He's right there with me, beside me, listening to me, you know. And he's hearing what I'm saying,
and I thank him for that. But Jesus Christ, he is the feast,
he is the food, he prepared it. He says, come and dine. The table
has been set. Come and dine. What are these
heavenly blessings? We're talking about spiritual
food here. You know, every day we get hungry and we eat, don't
we? These physical bodies get hungry. You know, the spiritual
body gets hungry, too. And that's why we need the Lord
each and every day of our lives. We need to meditate upon him,
ponder his word, read his word. And every chance we get to get
under the preaching of his word, we need to get under the preaching
of his word to grow close to him. But the Lord here, he says, come
and dine. The table has been set. Come
and dine these heavenly blessings of what? Mercy and grace and
truth. And as the Lord's sheep, as I
said, we need to do it every day of our lives. And then we
look here at verse 9 of our text. It says, O fear of the Lord,
all ye, fear of the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no wont
to them that fear him. You know, we hear that word a
lot. What is fear? What is this talking about right
here when it says fear of the Lord? And we only know in part
because we're in his fleshly bodies, but one day we'll be
like him and we'll see him as he is. But the fear of the Lord
is to know something of his power. and our weakness, to truly know
that. To know something of his awesome
majesty, his greatness, and his righteousness. To know something
of his holiness and our sinfulness and unworthiness. To have some
understanding that in Christ Jesus, God has established an
everlasting covenant of grace and mercy to those that he placed
in Christ the Lord before the foundation of the world. In Ephesians
1-4, He says, he says, he hath chosen us, who's us, the elect. in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. You know, in this body, I'm full
of sin from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. But
in Christ, I'm as righteous as he is because he is my righteousness. I thank him for that. We'll turn
one more place and I'll be finished. If you will, turn to Hebrews
1. It's all about Jesus Christ,
our Lord. He watches over His children.
He protects us each and every day of our lives. You know, even
whenever I was young and rebellious and didn't know Him, didn't want
nothing to do with Him, I was one of His sheep. I just hadn't
been called out yet. And as I look down through my
life through the years, there's so many times that terrible things
could have happened to me. But it didn't. Why didn't it?
Because the Lord was watching over me. Because He knew one
day He was going to call me. And He did. But here in Hebrews,
it says, God, in the first chapter of Hebrews, God, who at sun-dry
times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, half in these last days spoken unto us by his
son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the worlds, who be in the brightness of his glory, in the
express image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had, listen to this, by himself purged
our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. We'll go back to Psalm 34, and
then we'll finish. David said, when he was down
and out, discouraged, the whole world was against him. He said,
I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise will continually
be in my mouth. Christ is all, and he is in all. And we as His children, this
world is not our home. We're just sojourning, we're
passing through. The world hates God, therefore
it hates its people. But we have someone that is greater. It says that He is great because
He lives within us. So we have nothing to fear of.
You know, we're no match for the evils of this world. We're
no match for them. But we have someone living in
us, the Lord Jesus Christ and His children. That is a match,
and I thank God for that. I'm finished.