Go with me, if you would, back
to Psalm 138. Psalm 138. I have an encouraging
word for us tonight. for anyone who needs a word of
encouragement, if anybody likes that kind of thing. I have a
message of encouragement. What is written right here is
such a blessing to me, and I believe this is gonna be a blessing to
you. I truly do. Let me give you the line that
caught my attention, and this is the basis of the entire message.
Verse 8, Psalm 138, verse 8 says, the Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. Now that's good news. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. Now, what that says to me and
to us is we are not perfect in our flesh and we'll never be able to make
ourselves perfect in our flesh, but He can and He will. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. There is a desire in a child
of God to be perfect in the new man. There is a desire, very
much so. There's a desire to be perfect
in the new man that God has created in us. God has put a new man,
which is Christ in us. And we definitely have a desire
to be perfect in that new man. But here's the problem. The old
man is still here. The old man is still here and
that old man will do everything in his power, every sinful thing
that he can do. And it sounds like I'm talking
about somebody else, but I'm not. That old man will do every
wicked evil thing that he can do. to resist and to fight against
that new man. He's at war with that new man. What that means is I'm fighting
against me. That's what it means, that's
what's happening. I'm fighting against me so that I cannot do
and I cannot be what I want to do and what I want to be. A child
of God just cannot, do and be what he wants to be. And that
is perfect. He cannot be perfection. That's what the apostle Paul
told the Galatians. Turn with me over to Galatians
chapter five. Galatians chapter 5, he's speaking
of the old man and the new man and he's calling them the flesh
and the spirit. And he describes the difference
in the two in verses 19 to 23. Verse 19 says, now the works
of the flesh are manifested, which are these, adultery, Fornication,
uncleanness, just filthiness. This is the old man. If you want
a good look, it's manifested. If you want a good look at the
old man, this is what the old man is made up of. This is what
he is. He is adultery. He's fornication. He's uncleanness. He is lasciviousness. That means lust. He is idolatry,
he worships everything but God. That's the old man. He is witchcraft, sorcery, evil
spirits and things like that. He is hatred, that's what he
is. He is variance, that means contention,
quarreling, he just likes to quarrel. He is emulations, that
means lashing out, not being able to control yourself, just
in the heat of the moment. He is wrath. He is strife. He is seditions and heresies. Those two words, seditions and
heresies, they both mean division. One's by action and one's by
desire. Verse 21, He's envyings. murders, drunkenness, revelings,
which means rioting, just wild rioting. And such like of the
witch I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that
they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
The old man cannot. That's the old man. And that's
the man that we see in ourselves day in and day out. That's the
one we see. Verse 22 says, but the fruit
of the spirit is love. and joy and peace and patience. That's what long suffering means.
Gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against
such there is no law. That's the new man that we so
want to be in Christ. But look at what he said in verse
17. He said, this is the problem for the child of God, verse 17.
He said, the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh. And these are contrary the one
to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. You cannot do it. You cannot do it. But the promise
of our text is, and the encouragement of our message is, God can and
He will. He can and He will. The Lord
will perfect that which concerneth His people. Let's go back to
our text and see some of the things that He'll perfect. Go
back to Psalm 138. Psalm 138 verse 1 says, I will
praise thee with my whole heart. Now, let me ask you this question.
Will we really praise him with our whole heart? Will we really? As long as we're in this flesh,
will we praise Him with our whole heart? It would have been one
thing had He said, I will praise thee. But He said, I will praise thee
with my whole heart. I will praise you perfectly. I will praise you completely. I will praise you only to the
point that my heart praises nothing else. Nothing else. Can we really say that in this
flesh? Knowing what I am inside and
out, I look at that and this is what I think. Concerning myself
when I look at that, this is what comes to my mind. That sounds
presumptuous. It sounds wonderful, but knowing
me, that sounds a little presumptuous. I will praise thee. I will praise
thee. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if I can count on
myself to do that or not. Like when David said in Psalm
18, he said, I will love thee. Oh, I don't know. I don't know. Last Sunday night,
we talked about what it is to love the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we said, just the thought of that, just the thought of actually
saying, I love the Lord Jesus Christ, it makes us cringe inside. It just makes us cringe because
we know something of our sinful inability. We know something
of ourselves. We feel that toward him, but
we feel so hypocritical in it. We feel so insincere. It's like
we don't even believe ourselves when we say it. We say, yeah,
we love the Lord, but we don't even believe ourselves while
we're saying it. I will love thee, I will praise
thee. I don't know, that sounds pretty
presumptuous to me. I can see this in myself and
see if you can see this in yourself. Turn with me to John 13. I'm telling you, I can see this
in myself. John 13, look at verse 36. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord,
whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, whither I
go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why
cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy
sake. Sounds good. Sounds like the
desire of the new man. But verse 38, Jesus answered
him, will thou lay down thy life for my sake? He said, that sounds
pretty presumptuous, Peter. In Matthew's account, Peter said,
though all men shall be offended because of you, I'll never be
offended. That's what he said. Everybody
else may be offended. Though all men forsake you, he
said, I'll never forsake you. Never. Really, Peter? Really? Verse 38 went on to say,
our Lord said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall
not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. He said, you're not
even gonna make it till the morning. And he didn't. Peter didn't. And after the Lord died, for Peter and was buried for
Peter and rose again for Peter. This is what he asked him. Turn
over to John 21. John 21 verse 15. So when they had dined, Jesus
saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me
more than these? You said you loved me. You said you loved me more than
they loved me. He said, they may all forsake
you, but I won't. I love you more than they do. You said they would leave but
you would never leave. Do you love me more than they
do? Now there's nothing good to say
about them because they left too. But do you really see something
in yourself worthy of commending? Do you really? Do you really see an ability
in you to perform the good and perfect will of God? Do you really? Has God performed an acceptable
work of grace in you? Has he, Peter? This is what Peter
said. He said, Lord, you know. Only
you know. I'm going to have to look to
you on that. Clearly, I cannot do what I need
to do and desire to do to stand in God's sight acceptable. Clearly, I can't do that. I'm
imperfect and I can't do anything to make myself perfect, but you
can and you must. And the promise of your word
is, you will. So I'm looking to you. I'm looking
to you. Now, that is the promise of God's
word to every soul who has received faith to believe on Christ. Every
soul who is looking to Christ saying, I can't and you must,
that's faith. Faith is not courage. Faith says,
I don't have any courage. Every soul that has received
faith to believe on Christ, the Lord will perfect that which
concerneth that soul. Everything about us is so imperfect
right now. So imperfect. But the Lord will
perfect everything that needs to be perfected. Everything. Are you pleased with your love
for him? Are you satisfied with your love
for him? Are you satisfied with the degree
of your love for him and the commitment of your love for him? Are you satisfied with that? He'll take care of it. He'll take care of it. He will
perfect your love for Him. Is that good news? He will see
to it that you love Him with an everlasting love. Honestly, you know, we'll be
with Him for all eternity. Would we be able to love Him
for all eternity? I don't know. Would we be able to look to Him
and hear Him? I don't know. He'll take care
of it. He will perfect it. He'll see
to it that we end up loving Him for all eternity. He'll take
care of it. He'll take care of it to the
point that we love Him with our whole heart for all eternity. As He has loved us, He will perfect
our love for Him as He's loved us with a perfect love. He will
perfect our love for Him. Go with me back to Psalm 138. Verse one says, I will praise thee with my whole
heart before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. And a child
of God can say, in that great day, when that day comes, after
you've perfected me in the way that I need to be perfected,
I'll praise you with my whole heart. Before every other God
that does not exist, I'll praise you, whole heart. Verse two says,
I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for
thy loving kindness and for thy truth. He said, I worship you. Are you satisfied with your worship
of him? Are you satisfied with your worship
of him? Not only your commitment to gather
with the saints and be at worship, but the actual degree of worship
that takes place in your heart while you're here. Are you satisfied
with that? I'm not. And I'm the preacher. I'm not. Are we satisfied with the focus
of our mind? You know, we sing prone to wander,
Lord, I feel it. You know, it sounds like we're
walking somewhere. We don't have to walk anywhere. Are we satisfied with the with
the tuned in hearing of our ear? Are we satisfied with that? If it was only, I'll include
myself in this, but I'm gonna say you. If it was only you and
him here, where two or three are gathered
in his name, he's in the midst of us. And if it was just the
two of you, if it was only you and him here, would you be satisfied
with your worship of him? He'll take care of it. He'll take care of it. He will
perfect your worship of Him. Our Lord has already paid the
debt for the sin of His people by the sacrifice of Himself on
the cross of Calvary. His blood paid all of our debt. All that we owed, He put it all
away. But we're not gonna be physically removed from the presence
of that sin until we lay this body of flesh down in death. It's gonna be with us till the
day we die. And He paid for the sin that
we will commit till the day we die. But it's still gonna be
with us. This old man is still gonna be
here. But when that day comes, All hindrances of the flesh are
going to be removed. Every hindrance in that day,
we're going to experience the perfection of true worship. He
perfected us on the cross, but we're going to know that
we're going to experience that in that day. Just wait, he'll
bring it to pass. He'll bring it to pass. We want
to worship Him so badly. And before the service starts,
we beg, I encourage you to beg Him to let you worship. Lord,
please let me worship you. Please don't let me get all full
of myself. Please don't let me dwell on
these temporary things that don't matter. Please let me worship
you. We beg and we beg and we beg.
Worship is coming. True worship is coming. He right
now is perfecting it for us. And we'll know the experience
of Him perfecting it in us soon to come. He'll bring it to pass.
The end of verse two says, for thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. Are you satisfied with your view
and your study of and your gleaning from the Word of God. Are you
satisfied with your interaction with the Word of God? Are you satisfied with where
you have placed this in the order of importance in your life? I'm not, and I'm the preacher. Are you satisfied with how you
have magnified this above everything else in your life? Every personal thought, every
personal opinion, every personal feeling, all of our fleshly knowledge
and fleshly wisdom, are we satisfied with where this stacks up to
our own thoughts and opinions and minds? The Lord will take
care of it. He will perfect its magnification
to us. Not one word will return void. You know how we're always saying,
I just forget so much. I can't recall that. Not one
word will fail. He'll perfect it. He'll perfect
it. Verse three says, in the day when I cried, cried, cried. Are you satisfied with your prayer?
Are you happy with how you pray? Hold your place right here and
turn over to Romans 8. I love this verse. Romans 8. This is just so glorious. Romans 8, verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as
we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And
he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the
Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. You know what that means? That
means he'll take care of it. He will take care of it. Back
to Psalm 138, verse three says, in the day when I
cried, thou answered me and strengthened me. With strength in my soul,
David said, you did that. You took care of it. Verse four,
all the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they
hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways
of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. That means
he's the doer of all of it. And all the glory has to go to
him. Every bit of it. Verse 6 says, Though the Lord
be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly. And that's what
we are. And that's why we can't do anything.
It's because we're lowly. We're so low. But though the
Lord be high, high and lifted up, the wonderful message of
the gospel is He has respect. That means He looks on. He seized
to the need of the lowly. And how did He do that? He came
down. He condescended down to the place
that we were, so low in our sin, and He took that place of lowliness
upon Himself all the way down in the pit that we were in. He
took that place in the pit upon Himself. And with Him doing that,
because He did that as our substitute, in the process He lifted us out.
When He went down, He lifted us out. Just very quickly, I'm
closing, turn to Psalm 40. Psalm 40 verse 1 says, I waited
patiently for the Lord and He inclined unto me and heard my
cry. He brought me up also out of
an horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock
and established my goings. How did He do that? He went down
into the pit himself. We're not gonna read Psalm 40,
read it sometimes. These are the words of the Lord. And we can hear his cry. He's
crying as our substitute bearing our sin. He said, innumerable
evils have compassed me. He's talking about my sin, the
sin he took upon himself. Verse 17 says, but I am poor
and needy. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me.
Thou art my help and my deliverer, make no tearing, O my God. And he won't. He won't. Those were the words of Christ
for us as our substitute. Crying out of the pit for us.
So back in our text, Psalm 138, verse six, it says, though the
Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. But the proud
he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine
hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall
save me. He will reach way down for me,
no matter how lost, no matter how undone. He will. Verse 8 says, The Lord will perfect
that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the works of thine
own hand. And he won't. He won't. He said, I'll never forsake you.
Never forsake you. What he has begun, he will perform
all the way up until the day that we experience the perfection
of it. All we need to do is rest, wait,
trust, he'll take care of it. He'll take care of it. That's
encouraging, isn't it? So encouraging. All right, let's
stand together.