Alright, go with me if you would
back to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. And let's read verse
14 again. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage. And he shall strengthen thine
heart. Wait, I say on the Lord. That is a helpful verse of scripture. That is a very, very, that is
always a helpful verse of scripture. Every time I read that, this
has always been one of my favorite Psalms. I only have 150 favorite
Psalms, but this is one of them. And every time I read that verse,
that helps me so much. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage. Don't, don't get too down. Wait
on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine
heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." At
all times, that's the answer. All through the scripture, that's
the message. That's always the message. That
has always been God's message to God's people. Wait on the
Lord. Always. All through the Old Testament,
starting with Adam and Eve, the message of truth, the message
of the gospel, the good news was, wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. That's the
entire message of the Old Testament. God told Adam and Eve, you've
sinned against me. You are now cursed because of
it. Everything that you touch is
cursed because of it. You're going to die because of
it. You're going to return to the dust that you came from because
of it. But he laid hold of a lamb. And he shed the blood of that
lamb. And with the skin of that lamb, he made two coats. And
he covered Adam and Eve both, covered both of them. In doing
that, this is what he said to them. Wait on the Lord. Just
wait on the Lord. All right, you've ruined everything.
You've lost everything. You lost it all. You had it all. You lost it all. But your Lord
will come and redeem you. He will put you back. He'll put
you back where you fell from. Just wait for him. Just look
to him. God gave Abraham a token of a
covenant. He said, I have chosen to make
you my people, you and your seed. My particular people. I don't
make this covenant with everybody. But I'm making it with you. Every
time that token was administered, this is what it said. Call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Just wait on the Lord. Wait on
the Lord. Every prophet cried, the prophet
is coming. Every sacrifice cried, the sacrifice
is coming. Sin has plunged you into an indescribable
debt, but the payment is coming. It's coming. The payment is coming. The law has convicted you. Justice
is holding you captive, but pardon is coming. Just wait on the Lord. That's all you have to do is
wait on the Lord. All right. Now stroll with me
through the Old Testament. We're going to, we're going to
just go through the Old Testament a little bit. All right. Go with
me to Exodus chapter six. Exodus chapter 6 verse 2, it
says, And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD. And I appeared unto Abraham,
unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty. But
by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. And I have also
established My covenant with them, to give them the land of
Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.
And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom
the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. Wherefore say unto the children
of Israel, I am the Lord. And I will bring you out from
under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will rid you out of their
bondage. And I will redeem you with a
stretched out arm and with great judgments. And I will take you
to me for a people, and I will be to you a God, and you shall
know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from
under the burdens of the Egyptians." And I will bring you in unto
the land concerning the witch. I did swear to give it to Abraham,
to Isaac and to Jacob. And I will give it you for inheritance. I am the Lord. Moses, go say
to him, wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. He is going
to strengthen your heart. Wait, I say on the Lord. Go tell
Him that. Go tell Him to wait on me. This
is what I'm going to do. Just go say, wait on me. Wait
on Him. Turn with me to Psalm 130. Psalm 130 verse 1 says, Out of
the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest bark
iniquities, O LORD, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the LORD. My soul doth wait, and in His
Word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than
they that watch for the morning. That's all I can do. That's all
my hope. That's all my hope. Verse seven
says, let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there
is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption and he shall redeem
Israel from all his iniquities. He'll do it. He'll do it. Be of good courage. He'll do
it. He will come and he will do for his people what the law
could not do for them. He will come and do it. He will
turn them loose and set them free. That's one of my favorite
lines from our Lord. When he cried, Lazarus, come
forth. And that man came forth bound
in his grave clothes. He said, loose that man and set
him free. And that's what he says to every
child of God. Loose him and set him free. Wait on the Lord. Just
wait on the Lord. Turn with me now to Isaiah chapter
one. Verse 27 says, Zion shall be
redeemed with judgment and her converts with righteousness. They shall be shall be weighed
on the Lord. It is going to happen. Turn with
me to lamentations three. Lamentations 3 verse 21 says,
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail
not, they are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good unto
them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is
good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation
of the Lord. That is the best thing that a
man or a woman could do. Hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Just stand
still. and see the salvation of the
Lord." That was the commandment. That's what Moses said. I tell
you what, this is what you need to do. Just stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. All of the Old Testament cried,
wait on the Lord. He will come and save you. Your redemption draweth nigh. Just look to Him and look for
His coming. Be of good courage. He's going
to strengthen your heart. All right, now turn with me to
Luke chapter 1. Luke 1 verse 67, and his father Zacharias, this
is speaking of John the Baptist's father, his father Zacharias
was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied saying, Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed
His people. And He raised up an horn of salvation
for us in the house of His servant David, as He spake by the mouth
of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that
we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that
hate us. to perform the mercy promised
to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which
he swore to our father Abraham that he would grant unto us that
we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve
him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him
all the days of our life. All of the Old Testament cried,
wait on him, he's coming. All of the New Testament cries,
He came. He came and saved us. He fulfilled
the promise of His covenant. He fulfilled every single promise
He made to us. Look with me at Galatians 3. Galatians 3 verse 13 says, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of a law being made a curse for
us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. He made himself to be that lamb. The lamb whose blood was shed
because of my sin. His life was given so that I
could have that covering. So a coat could be made for me,
the covering of his blood, the robe of his righteousness. The
prophet came, the sacrifice came, and he accomplished what he said
he would do. Everything he said he would do.
And sometimes every now and then we enter into that. This man
does every single thing he says he's going to do. Everything
he said he would do, he did it. He did it. Salvation, intercession,
redemption, he did it. All right, now because of that,
the message of the New Testament cries, wait on the Lord. That's the New Testament message. Wait for the Lord. He's coming
back. He is coming back. He is coming
back. He will come back to get his
purchased possession. Be of good courage. I know it's
bad down here. I know it's sad down here. I
know it is. I know that everything about
this sinful world is so discouraging and it's so troubling. We we
stay troubled every now and then we get a moment of relief from
trouble and then trouble right back on us. It is tough, it's sad, it's it's
troubling, but he is going to strengthen our hearts. Wait on
him. Wait on him. Wait, I say, on
the Lord. Just wait on the Lord. I wrote
a little article in the bulletin today from this verse. I believe the Lord led me to
that article and led me to this message because of this right here. This
thought went through my mind. If waiting on the Lord is God's
message for salvation, all right, what must I do to be saved? Here's
the answer, wait on the Lord. If waiting on the Lord is God's
message for salvation, just look to Christ, just trust Christ. If that is His message for salvation,
and if waiting on the Lord is the life that we live, now as
His redeemed people. This is the life we live. The
whole reason you're sitting in these pews is because you are
waiting on the Lord. That's what we're doing. We have
things that need to be done along the way, but once He appears,
that's all over. And none of it will matter. None
of it will mean anything to us. As soon as we see him, that's
it. That's all that matters. This
is what we do. This is our career. This is our
life. What do you do for a living?
I wait on the Lord. That's all I do. Now, if it is
the Lord's message for salvation. And if waiting on the Lord is
the life that we live as believers, redeemed children of God. listening
to His Word, looking for His return. If that's the case, then
waiting on the Lord is the answer to everything that pertains to
our life as followers of Christ. It's the answer to every single
thing. In that article, I listed three
verses of Scripture. The first one was Proverbs 16. Turn with me over to Proverbs
16. Proverbs 16 verse 33 says, the
lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord. In this life, we're going to
be faced with many difficult decisions, very difficult decisions. Some of them very heavy, some
of them very weighty. What do we do? As children of
God, here's the answer. Wait on the Lord. That's the
answer. What do we need to do? Wait on
the Lord. He has already made the decision. He's already made the decision. That brings comfort to my heart.
I don't care what it is that brings such comfort to my heart. What do I do? What do I do? He's
already made the decision. Whatever it is that I'm going
to do has already been determined. All I have to do is wait to see
what it is. That's all I have to do. Wait on the Lord. Whatever
he has purposed to be done is going to be done. And whatever
he does not purpose to be done, it is not going to be done. And
all I have to do is wait on the Lord. All right, now turn with
me to Psalm 37. Psalm 37 verse 23 says, The steps of a good man, and
there's none good but God. There is none good but Christ
Himself. I mean none. But every sinner
that the Father placed in Him. Every sinner that has been redeemed
in Him, as He is, so are they. Only in Him, only because of
Him. As He is, so are they. So in
Him, verse 23 says, the steps of a good man are ordered by
the Lord, and He delighteth in His way. Which way should I go? Which
way should I go? Here's the answer. Don't worry
about it. In Christ, it's already ordered. The steps are already ordered. You know, I take a lot of steps
that I don't know if I should have taken those. I take a lot
of steps that sometimes I wonder, was that a bad step? What about
my wrong steps? Are they ordered to? Well, listen
to verse 24. Though he fall. He shall not
be utterly cast down. For the Lord of holdeth him with
his hand. Every single step, there's not
a step that God's people take that is not in the hand of the
Lord Jesus Christ. How much comfort does that bring
to our hearts? If all of our hope of redemption
is in the Lord Jesus Christ, I mean, if we have cast our all
on His blood only, this is the only hope I have of entering
into glory and being with Him. It's that He shed His blood for
me. If we are completely looking
to His blood and completely looking to His mercy, if God has given
us a heart to look for and wait for His return, if God has given
us a heart for Christ, if He's put a love in here for Christ
and a need for Him, a true heart that cries, I need you every
hour. Draw me nearer. If that's the case for us, then
this is the comfort of every decision we make and every step
we take. Turn with me over to Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3 verse 5 says, Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart. From salvation to our reservation. There is a place reserved for
every one of God's children. And all the way from salvation
to our reservation, everything in between. Trust in the Lord
with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. Don't give in to your own rationale. That's tough to do, isn't it?
Don't give in to your own rationale. His ways are so much higher than
our ways. His works are so much more perfect
than our works. The Apostle Paul told the Ephesians,
he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Verse 5 says, Trust in the Lord
with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him. Our Lord said in Matthew 6, Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. His righteousness is Christ. Seek Christ. Seek His glory,
His honor, His purpose. Seek ye first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
to you. Verse 6 says, In all thy ways
acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. That's a comfort
to my heart. That's a true comfort to my heart.
That gives me rest. What he's saying is rest. Rest. He said, come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. From
sin to salvation to eternity, everything in between. He said,
you bring it all to me and I'll give you rest. All right, so
let's close with our text one more time. Go to Psalm 27. Psalm 27 verse 14 says, wait
on the Lord. If you have had anything going
on in your life that has caused you to search for answers. Here
it is. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. Verse 14 says, wait on the Lord.
Be of good courage. The decision is already made.
You may not be able to see it yet, may not be revealed to you,
but the decision's already made. It's perfect. It's for your good. It's for God's glory. And every
step that you need to take in the matter has already been ordered.
So verse 14 says, wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and
He shall strengthen thine heart. He will comfort you, He'll encourage
you, He'll settle and establish you, and He will do every bit
of that by showing you Christ. That's how He'll do every bit
of it, by showing Christ to you. So just wait, I say, on the Lord. All right, let's all stand together.