Turn with me if you would back
to Psalm 25. Sometimes we feel confident. This is my message. We feel like the Lord has truly
given us tonight's message, and I believe tonight's one of those
nights. I really do. Monday morning, Monday, I experienced
one of those days where you get up early, and you get to the
study early, all fired up, ready to go, and nothing happens. And I mean nothing happens and
I've told you about them before. And they come every now and then
and. What you do during those times is you sit. And you sit. And you read and you read and
you pray and you pray and you turn and you turn and you get
every commentary that you has been given to you out. And you start downloading messages
from sermon audio. And nothing happens. Nothing
happens. And about 2 o'clock that afternoon,
2 o'clock Monday afternoon, this came to my mind. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Just wait on
the Lord. I sat there thinking, you have
been here before. You will be here again. Wait
on the Lord. Just sit right here. Wait on
the Lord. He'll give you what you need.
You just wait on the Lord. You don't go home. You just sit
right here. And wait on the Lord. So I immediately
started looking that up. I started looking up in the scriptures. Where our Lord has instructed
us on waiting on the Lord. And I have a message tonight
that I believe will be a big help to all of us. A huge help
to all of us. And the reason is because we
all have something that we need to wait on the Lord about. Every
single one of us. I know that for a fact. Every
one of us has something that we need to wait on the Lord about. And I pray that this will be
a word of encouragement through these scriptures. I pray that
this will be an encouragement for our constant condition. That's why I say I know that
we all have something we are waiting on the Lord about because
it's a It is a constant, constant condition. Wait on the Lord. I want to use Psalm 25 verse
5 for our text tonight. Psalm 25 verse 5, David says,
lead me in thy truth. Isn't that what we want? Isn't
that what we desire? Lead me in thy truth. Lead me in your truth. Lord,
your word is truth. Lead me in your word. Lead me
in your word. Wouldn't you love to open God's
word and understand what you read? Philip came up to that
eunuch and he said, understandest thou what you read? You ever
open this word and it's like, it's like there's scales over
your eyes and you're sitting there page after page. Wouldn't
you love for those scales to fall off? And all of a sudden
that word come alive, bless the heart, reveal the will. Lead me in your word, it's truth. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the truth. Lead me in Christ. Lead me in Christ. Verse 5 says, Lead me in thy
truth and teach me. I think that's wonderful. Wouldn't
you love to learn something? Wouldn't you truly love to learn
something from God? Wouldn't you love that? Something
about God. Something about His will. Wouldn't you love to learn something
about His will? Something about His way? Wouldn't
you love to learn something that is pleasing to Him? Wouldn't
you love to learn something that He's pleased with? I would love to believe that
I was doing what God would have me to do. Wouldn't you love that?
To just believe I'm doing what God would have me to do. Verse
5 says, lead me in thy truth and teach me for thou art the
God of my salvation. What he's saying is, you're my
owner. You're my owner. You bought me. You're the God of my salvation.
You bought me. You paid my price. That's his grounds for this whole
request. You redeemed me in full. We understand
what he's saying right here. We know that David, all of his
grounds, all of our grounds are on the fact that I fell in sin. And you shed your blood and you
redeemed me in full. You satisfied everything that
I need before God. Everything. You paid my price
in full. You bought me. I belong to you. I'm not my own. I'm bought with
a price. And I'm indebted to you. I am
truly indebted to you for putting away my sin. So he said, lead
me in that truth and teach me for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day. all the day. That's the constant
condition of a believer. I mean the constant condition
of a believer. What do you do for a living?
I wait on the Lord. That's what I do. I wait on the Lord. Four times
this word says the just shall live by faith. The just shall
live by faith. That is the constant condition
of a believer. Look with me at Psalm 62. Psalm
62 verse 5. says, My soul, wait thou only
upon God. I wish I could enter into what
that is saying. He is talking to himself. He says, My soul,
wait thou only upon God. Wait only upon God. For my expectation
is from Him. Everything that I should expect
is from Him. Wait thou only on God. Look with
me at Psalm 130. Psalm 130 verse 5 says, I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait, and in his
word do I hope." I wait for the Lord. I wait for the Lord. Right there is the constant condition
of a believer. Constant. Now, I have three points
concerning this thing of waiting on the Lord. And it's actually
three questions. These three questions are the
points of our outline, okay? Here's the first one. Why should we wait on the Lord? Go with me back to Psalm 25 and
we're going to turn to quite a few scriptures tonight. I'm
going to stay, Lord willing, within our time frame, I promise.
But we're going to turn to quite a few scriptures and through
these scriptures we're going to see why. Psalm 25 verse 1
says, Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift
up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not
mine enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee
be ashamed. The word ashamed means disappointed. That's what it means, disappointed.
If we will wait on the Lord, if we will wait on the Lord,
we will never, ever be disappointed. Never. I think that's a good
reason. I think that's an important reason,
a current reason, a relevant reason. If we will wait until
He convinces us this is what He would have us to do, we will
never be disappointed for waiting. I shouldn't have waited. Never. Never. Now, if we don't wait, it's pretty
much a guarantee we will be disappointed. At the end of that verse says,
let them be ashamed which transgress without cause. But He said, Let
none that wait on thee be ashamed. None be disappointed. Look with
me at Psalm 27. Psalm 27 verse 14 says, Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. You know how difficult that is
whenever you're waiting on the Lord? To be strong in courage? Usually we're going, wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on
the Lord. If we will wait on the Lord, during all of our struggle and
all of our turmoil. This is God's promise to us.
He recorded it in His eternal word. Wait on the Lord and He
will strengthen our heart. He will. He'll give us courage. He'll give us direction. He'll
give us peace. That's a reason to wait. That's a reason to wait. David
said, lead me in thy truth. Teach me. You're the God of my
salvation. You're the God of my salvation. Look with me at
Psalm 37 now. Psalm 37 verse 34 says, Wait
on the Lord, and keep His way, and He shall exalt thee to inherit
the land. When the wicked are cut off,
thou shalt see it. The reason we wait on the Lord
is because there is something much more eternal involved. in the Lord's dealings with us.
We see them very temporarily, very physically, but there is
something much more involved than what we can see. Everything
that our Lord is doing with us, every single thing, is for the
purpose of an eternal consequence. Every single thing. It has something
to do with our eternity or the eternity of somebody else. I
mean every single thing. Every single thing. Something
to do with ours or somebody else's. So we said in verse 34, wait
on the Lord and keep His way and He shall exalt thee to inherit
the land. When the wicked are cut off thou
shalt see it. I love how one man said, if we
had the power that God has, we would change everything. And
if we had the wisdom and knowledge that God has, we would change
nothing. You mean nothing? We would change
nothing. We would change nothing. We don't
know why at the moment. I'm telling you, we don't know
why at the moment, but doesn't it help us to always remember
the fact that every single thing is working an eternal weight
of glory? every single thing. Every single
thing is for the eternal good of God's children. Every single
thing. Always. And we won't be disappointed. He's going to give us courage,
direction, peace, and we'll rest in the eternal good of it. So
it's a good reason to wait. Now look with me at Psalm 59. Psalm 59 verse 9 says, because
of his strength will I wait upon thee, for God is my defense. Why do we wait on the Lord? It's
because we know how weak we are. I don't trust myself. I don't
trust myself. We know how weak we are, and
we know how strong he is. I trust him. I trust him. David said, because of his strength,
have you ever had to move something that's heavy? And you know somebody's coming,
so you wait on them? We have a piano, and when we
moved here, I was bound and determined, I'm
not touching that thing until Chris shows up. I'm just not
touching it. David said because of his strength,
and if the Lord would reveal his strength to us, we would
say the same thing spiritually, physically, and everything. Because
of his strength, we'll wait. We'll just wait. Wait on the
Lord. Look with me at Psalm 104. Psalm
104 verse 27. These wait all upon thee. that thou mayest give them their
meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather,
thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. We wait
on the Lord that he may give us our meat in due season. He gives us our physical bread.
He gives us our spiritual bread. Sometimes We think we're doing
without physical bread. We've never been without physical
bread. And we won't be. We just won't
be. But we think we are. And sometimes
we really do believe we're without spiritual bread. And we're not. And we won't be. But we think
we are. We think we are. And He gives
us our bread, our meat, in His own due season. Verse 28 says,
That thou givest them they gather. They go out and gather. You guys
show up and you punch that clock and you work hard and you scrape
it up. But what's actually happening
is, verse 28 says, Thou openest thine hand. He's opening His
hand. And they are filled with good. He opens His hand when He's ready
in His due season and we are filled, so we wait. We wait. Don't turn to this one, but Lamentations
3, verses 25 and 26. It says, The Lord is good unto
them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. To the soul that seeketh Him. What do I need? What am I seeking? May God teach me to say Him. Him. That 26 says, it is good
that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation
of the Lord. Wait. So that's why we wait.
That's why we wait. If our Lord provided us with
His own blood, He will provide us with everything else we need.
Everything else. If He provided us every eternal
need we could ever need, till the end of time, which is the
first millionth of a fraction of a second of eternity. He will
provide for us what we need in this short, short, short temporary
span. All right, so that's why. We
wait on the Lord. We just wait on the Lord. Now
here's our next question. And these are much shorter than
the first. The next question is how? How do we wait on the
Lord? How should we wait on the Lord?
Turn with me again to Psalm 37. Psalm 37 verse 7 says, Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for Him. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for Him. That's the answer. What are we going through? Rest
in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Look at Psalm 40 verse 1. David said, I waited patiently
for the Lord and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. That is the hardest thing to
do on earth. That is the hardest thing to
do on earth. Wait patiently. It is so anti
this flesh. It is so anti. But what our flesh
does not understand by nature, naturally, what our flesh cannot
get a hold of is this. The steps of a good man. And that is a man that is in
Jesus Christ. That is a man that God chose. That's a man that God covered
in His own blood. That's a man that has been called
and given life and given faith. That's a man that follows Christ. The steps of a good man are ordered. Ordered. They're ordered. Do I believe that? I wrote in
my notes, do we believe that? I just changed that to me, just
me. Do I believe that? Do I believe that? That they're
ordered? Or could they go this way or could they go that way? The life of a believer is ordered
and sure. I mean it's ordered and sure.
There is no chance with God. None. Our lives are predestinated. They're predestinated. Everything
in our life has already been ordered. Every single thing,
start to finish. The lot is cast into the lap. And we pray and we ask and we
beg and we seek and we knock. But the whole disposing is of
the Lord. And it's going to happen in His
due time. And when that time comes, He's going to do it. He's
going to do it. And He said, all we need to do
is wait patiently. wait patiently for it. One of these days I'd
love to actually be able to do that. I would love it. Now here's
something that I believe it'll help if we understand about waiting
patiently. The only way we can wait patiently
is if our God does not respond to us immediately. That's the
only way. We want him to respond immediately.
His word said, wait patiently. The only way we can is if he
will not respond to us immediately. And we wonder, you know, why
is he not responding? Are his mercies clean gone? No,
he's allowing us to wait patiently. He's given us the ability, the
trying of our faith. Years ago, I had a desire to preach. I had
a real desire to preach. And that was years before I got
the opportunity to preach. And I did not mention it to many
men. I didn't hardly mention it at
all, and the reason is because I tried it a couple of times,
and my reaction was, don't tell anybody. That's what everybody
told me, don't tell anybody. You want to preach, don't tell
anybody. I think it's good advice. But I decided that I did want
to ask one old, dear, wise pastor about it. And we were sitting on his back
patio, and I was nervous to ask him. I didn't
know how he would respond. And I was not being clear. I wasn't kind of saying what
I wanted to say. I was hinting at it. Hinting
at, how do you know? How do you know? How do you know? What do you
do? I don't know, and what should
I be doing, and how do you know? And finally, he read between
my lines. He understood what I was getting
at, and this is what he said. And he applied this to me preaching,
and I believe this applies to everything. He said, be content
where the Lord has you today. He said, the reason you are where
you are today is because that's where God put you today. And
he said, if God wants you to be somewhere else tomorrow, he'll
put you there tomorrow. As soon as he said that, I said,
okay. That is literally all I needed.
All I was trying to get at is, what should I do? Is there something
I'm supposed to be doing? You know what his response was?
Wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. And you know
what? God did put me where He wanted me to be. He truly did. He did move me both in occupation
and location. It was His will. And I believe
with all my heart, God did it. I really do. I believe God did
it. Right here in Psalm 40 verse
1, David said, I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined
unto me, and He heard my cry. Now, I'm going to be very quick.
See if you can find the book of Hosea. If your Bible's like
mine, it's page 1134. Hosea at the end of the Old Testament. Hosea chapter 12. Hosea 12 verse
6 says, Therefore, turn thou to thy God. What a word that is. Turn thou to thy God. Keep mercy
and judgment and wait on thy God continually. How do we wait on the Lord? We
wait patiently. We wait continually. Continually. Waiting on the Lord truly is
a continual condition. Now here's our third question. We wait on the Lord. Why? We wait on the Lord. How?
Here's our third question. How long? How long? How long should we
wait on the Lord? We think we have patience. I'm speaking from experience.
We think we have patience. We actually have as much patience
as we're willing to have. That's what we have. We'll wait
as long as we feel like it. But then once we're tired of
waiting, we're tired of waiting. How long does God say we should
wait? Turn with me to Psalm 123. Psalm 123, and this is a promise. In this command, He gives us
a promise. Psalm 123, verse 2, He said, Behold, as the eyes
of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the
eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes
wait upon the Lord our God until that He have mercy upon us. We're going to keep on waiting,
and we're going to keep on waiting, and we're going to keep on waiting
until he has mercy on us. Until he has mercy on us. The
Lord wrestled with Jacob. He laid hold of Jacob. And Jacob
laid hold of him, didn't he? And the Lord finally said, Jacob,
it's time for you to let me go. And he said, I will not let you
go until you bless me. I will not let you go unless
you bless me. David said, wait upon the Lord
our God until he has mercy on you. Wait, wait, and I'll tell
you this, if a soul waits, he will. He will, he truly will. I'm going to close with this
scripture. Go with me to Isaiah 30. If a soul waits, he will. Isaiah chapter 30 and look at verse 18. Isaiah 30 verse 18. And therefore
will the Lord wait that He may be gracious unto you. He will
wait. so that his child will cry out
to him, help me. Therefore will the Lord wait,
that he may be gracious unto you. And therefore will he be
exalted, that he may have mercy upon you, for the Lord is a God
of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait
for him. Blessed are all they that wait
for Him. We have good reason to wait on
the Lord in everything. Wait on the Lord. We have good
reason to wait patiently, and that reason is mercy. Mercy in
Christ. Wait on the Lord. David said,
Wait, I say, on the Lord. Look to the God of our salvation.
Trust in His mercy and wait for it. May God give us the ability
to do that. All right, let's stand together.