I talk to my kids one to ten times a week, and
often when my children call, they may have a question. or bothering them or a decision
that they've got to make. And as soon as the conversation
starts, and I know that we're going to be talking about something
that they've got to do or they want to do or they're questioning
about doing. My mind is immediately drawn
to ask the Lord. Help me. Lord, what we're about
to talk about, help me. Help me to speak with some wisdom. Lord, give me a word to know
what to say. And I'm very, very careful. I want to be very careful when
I give somebody some advice because I don't know. I don't know the
mind of the Lord for someone else. I don't know. But I do
know this. The Lord has given us his word. And whenever we have a word from
the Lord, we have some confidence there. I don't want to tell somebody
the wrong thing, but I don't want to not tell them something
when I should. I want to be truthful. I entitled this message, A Word
from an Old Man. And I took that title from verse
25. Psalm 37, Psalm 37, 25, David
said, I have been young and now am old. Yet have I not seen the
righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. So David was speaking
under the inspiration of God. And he was speaking from experience. The Lord had taught him some
things. A man, a woman learns some things,
a believing man, woman. Age has some heartaches with
it as we get older. We start to feel the pain and
the aches the struggles of sin in our body. But with those aches
come some things that the Lord's taught us. And when you can speak
from experience, I told someone one time, if somebody comes and
they say, you know, I'm going through this trial, well, if
I've never been there, I can't really say I know how you feel. But if it's something that I've
gone through, you know, Bob, this is right. If you've experienced
it. Somebody said, you know, I've
lost a loved one. I understand. Somebody says,
you know, a doctor said I've got this physical problem. I understand. Then you can speak
from experience. If somebody has been somewhere
and I know that you have my best at heart, then I can say with
some surety, I know how you feel. I had an incident years ago when
I was in Louisiana and I had a little construction business
and a man and his wife wanted me to do some work. on their
house, and the work that I was going to do had to do with putting
a cover, a patio cover, and some walls. I was going to enclose
a back porch. The slab was already there, and
I went out and measured it and ordered everything and installed
it, and the walls were up, really nice room, and the first rain
came heavy, heavy rain and in the outer left side, water was
standing and gotten into the walls and stuff like that and
they called me. And I came out and looked at
it and couldn't figure out. I got an engineer to come out
and look at it. And he told me later, he said,
Marvin, here's the problem. Whoever put the slab in, that
end was lower than it should have been. And it was holding
water. And I fitted to it. And these
people told me that they were going to make me make it good. And wise advice from the engineer,
he told me, he said, here's what I would do. He said, if I were
you, he said, the court normally looks with a frown at a contractor
that looks like they're trying to get to a homeowner. He said,
my advice to you, he said, they're in the wrong. He said, you're
right. But he said, I'm going to tell
you this. He said, it won't go well with you. He said, even
if you win, you're going to lose because of your reputation. And
he said, don't try to push it. He said, go ahead and just take
the building down if you have to. Give them their money back
if you have to. Just don't, don't, he said, don't
push it. He said, they'll hurt you. He
said, they'll badmouth you. 37 one says fret not thyself because
of evildoers. Neither be thou envious against
the workers of iniquity. Now listen. Whether I'm talking
to my kids or whether I'm talking to myself or to you, I'm going
to tell you right now. As a believer, we're in this
world. We're in this world and we're
not of it. There are people by and large
in this world and they do not have the same mindset as a believer. They don't think as a believer. It's for themselves only and
you are a stepping stone to their end. And the Lord has providentially
ordered all things. You did not cross their path
by accident. You just weren't just unlucky.
He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Your clients, those people that
you work for, Your boss that seems as though that everything
that he does is working against you and you think I don't know
how much longer I can take this. Fret not thyself because of evil
doers. The Lord teaches us. As we live
in this world, I know some people try to separate themselves or
separate their children and, you know, I'm telling you, the
Lord has put us in this world. David said concerning being an
old man that I just read about, he said, I've been young. I've
been young. I was young at one time. Now
I'm old and I know there's some things that I've seen and I know
this. David said, I'm an old man. I've never seen the righteous
forsaken nor his seed begging bread. The Lord has given us words to die
by. He said, I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you. But we live by those words too.
We live by that. I need his word to guide me and
direct me. What do I do? When I'm crossed
with people of this world and I feel as though I'm being
mistreated and I'm just, you know, don't grieve or be angry
at them because of their evil doings. That's what, don't fret,
don't burn within. Don't let yourself just get all
fired up and just, you know, boy, one of these days, buddy,
I'm going to. Don't fret. Don't envy these unbelievers
that you have to deal with. They may seem to prosper while
you scratch out a living. David said in Psalm 73 verse
3, he said, just here's the spirit of God that caused a man to be
honest. 73.3, he said, I was envious
at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. There were no bands in their
death. Their strength was firm. They're
not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like
other men. And here a believer seems to
struggle and struggle and struggle. And every time I seem to get
just a little bit ahead, I look over here and now it's gone. I'm going to have to spend that.
I thought this month we were going to have enough to make
it all the way to the end of the month. The wicked's dealings with a
believer. They may be unfair, but don't
fret. Don't fret feeling sorry for
yourself. Now, these are words that the
Lord has given us that we walk by. We walk by these words. Don't fret. Why? Well, look at verse 2. They shall soon be cut down like
the grass and wither as the green herb. This is the best they're ever
going to have. Unless the Lord calls them out of darkness, all
of their prosperity, all of the things that mess and stuff that
they have accumulated, what they've done to you and how they've treated
you and They're going to be cut down. Pray for them. Pray for them. I know it's, I mean, we feel
so defensive and, you know, I know how it is. But they're soon going
to, it's going to be over. God Almighty's going to judge
them. Here's the way to not fret. concerning the evildoers in the
day of judgment would you trade places with them? in that day
when they stand before God don't fret fret not because they're
going to be cut down and soon the scripture says here's the next word of advice
Trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land
and verily thou shalt be fed. Trust in the Lord. Put your confidence in the Lord. About a month ago, this is as
good an illustration as I can think of right now. About a month,
month and a half ago, we were down in Mexico. And when you
go to Mexico, if you've ever been, there are certain things
that you can do and there are certain things you can't do.
There are certain things that you want to stay away from. There
are certain places you don't want to go. And I really don't
know where all those places are and I don't know exactly what
the right foods to eat. But when we go down there and
we're with the groupers and if Betty or Winna or Cody tells
me, now I wouldn't eat that. I wouldn't trust that. Brother
Walter has gotten to a point to where he's He tries things
that I probably wouldn't try, you know, but that's Brother
Walter. He's been down there. But if Betty or Winna or Cody
tells me I wouldn't eat that, I'm not going to eat that. I
wouldn't drink that. I'm not going to drink that.
If they tell me don't go here, I'm good with that. When we go
out into the Pueblos at night, I think to myself, I'm thrilled
that I'm with them because if anything were to happen, especially
if the vehicle were to break down or something, you know why
I feel confident? I trust them. I trust them. I know this, they have my best
at heart. I know this, that we're down
there to visit with them and they love us and they're watching
out for us. They don't want us to get in
trouble. So I trust them. But the Lord, the one that has
eternally loved his people, he said, I've loved you with an
everlasting love. chose us in Him before the foundation
of the world. Listen to this. Chose us in Him
from before the foundation of the world that we should be holy
and without blame before Him in love. Predestinated us to
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. When the Lord
Jesus Christ went to the cross, he was made sin. I am a sinner because of what
I am. I'm sin. I commit sins because
of what I am. He was made sin for us. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Trust in the Lord. Roll yourself upon Him. He who
orders all these things. He who orders the steps of His
people. Trust in the Lord and do good. I know that in me there is in
myself there dwelleth no good thing. I know that. But do you
know the scripture tells us, commands us, trust in the Lord
and do good. Listen to this, Psalm 133.1,
behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. Let me tell you something that
maybe I can say that might be harder for your pastor to say. Your pastor's desire is that
you dwell together in unity. Let me tell you what he wants.
He wants you to love one another. He wants you to have each other's
back. You know, Brother Scott told
me that one time. Bob, that was the sweetest thing.
He said, Marvin, I've got your back. And he wasn't kidding.
He was just, and I thought, oh, that means so much to me. I've
got your back. Your pastor wants you to dwell
together in unity. He wants you. So therefore, that
is good. Behold how good and how pleasant,
it's so pleasant when brethren dwell together in unity. That's the most, oh, it's like
you can breathe. You can take a deep breath and
you think, oh, I'm so thankful. I thank God for the unity that
we have here. So therefore, endeavor. to keep the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace. Strive after that. If there's
something that comes up, a problem, endeavor, endeavor, endeavor
to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Forgive
one another. Don't cut each other off for
a word. Don't, no, no, no, listen. As brethren, We're going to dwell
together forever. Be like Abraham told Lot when
they had a little squabble, you know, over some grass. Their shepherds were squabbling
over grass. And Abraham told Lot, he said,
we're brethren. Love one another. Psalm 119.71. Here's another good thing. It's
good for me that I've been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes.
So therefore, let me tell you, since it's good that I've been
afflicted, nobody wants to hear a report from a doctor that's
not a good report. Nobody wants to hear that. I
wouldn't choose that for anything. But if that has been your lot,
let me tell you what you will end up saying. I think I told
you the first time I told Brother Scott, I learned so much from
just sitting down and just listening to him. The best thing, just
listen, just listen to him. A doctor had given me a report
one day that I really didn't want to get. But here's Brother
Scott's words. He said, you know the worst part
of it is just when you first hear about it. That's the worst
part of it. And you know what? That proved
to be true. And it's been so good that I've
been afflicted that I could learn thy statutes. Learn that when
God Almighty says that life is but a vapor, you know that's
what you think about. You think, you know what, this
life is a vapor. It's just fading. Therefore,
give thanks for affliction. You will. You'll end up doing
it. You will give thanks for the affliction. I mean, when
you first hear about it, that's the worst part, but you know.
Psalm 92 once said, it's a good thing to give thanks unto the
Lord and to sing praises unto thy name, O most high. Trust
in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land,
in the land of rest, in the land of mercy, so shalt thou dwell. Why? Because he's going to keep
you. He's going to keep you. So shalt thou dwell in the land,
and verily thou shalt be fed. Now here's a promise to you that
the Lord has been pleased to raise up, give you a new heart,
put you under a faithful pastor, put you in a place where he's
raised up the gospel. So shalt thou be fed. The Lord
is going to feed his sheep through the preaching of a pastor that
God raises up. You're going to preach the gospel
to you. You're going to be fed. God's going to make sure you're
fed. Trust in the Lord, do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land,
and verily thou shalt be fed. Here's the next word of advice.
Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires
of thine heart. Delight thyself. You know, delighting. in the Lord is something that is a miracle
of God's grace because man by nature, delight and hearing the
gospel does not go together, not by nature. Man tolerates,
he may tolerate coming to a church service. He may just, I mean
he just, he'll go through the motions If he's wanting to impress
someone, tolerance is as close as it gets. He can't wait to
get out from under the hearing of the truth. But to delight
thyself, delight thyself also in the Lord. Delight is from
a new heart. A man loves his wife. He delights in his wife. He delights
in her. May have a lot of acquaintances,
a lot of, you know, friends, but for his wife, a wife or her
husband, they delight in each other. They love being with each
other, sharing each other's thoughts and affections. The unbeliever
delights in lies. That's what Psalm 62, 4 says. But God's people, they delight
themselves in the Lord. They want to know Him. They want to know Him. They want
to be taught concerning Him. When we come together, where
two or three are gathered together in my name. The Lord said, the
Lord said, I am in the midst of you. A believer delights in the Lord
when he delights to meet together in public worship. This is, public
worship is vital. I was gonna say it's very important.
It's more than very important. It's vital. We must, whenever
Gabe or any other pastor comes here, and he's here to study,
and he's back in his study, and he's searching, and he's seeking
the Lord for a message and stuff, there is a sense. The Lord said, I'll never leave
you, I'll never forsake you, but there is something that is
promised by the Lord concerning the body all made together. It said where two or three are
gathered together in my name. There's a truth that is taught
there. You know, a lot of times people
say, well, we'll just have like a little, you know, we're not
going to be meeting together with everyone else. We're going
to just meet over somewhere. I'm telling you, public worship
is vital. It's vital. This is what the
Lord has raised up. He raises up a pastor. He said,
I'm going to feed you with a pastor. I'll give you pastors after mine
own heart. Delight yourself in his presence. Delight yourself in his word. Delight yourself in the communion
of the Lord and in his provisions. The believer so delights in the
Lord. If you ever find out, let me
ask you a quick question and I'll go to the next point. Delight
thyself also in the Lord. If you had to move, if a believer
had to move, go somewhere else, what is the first thing that
you're going to consider before you have to make that move? Is there a place where I can
meet with God's people? Delight yourself in the Lord. You seek first the kingdom of
God. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness and all these things will be added
unto you. Delight thyself also in the Lord and He shall give
thee the desires of thine heart. the desires of thy heart. I want
to know Him. I want to be found in Him. I
want to be a peacemaker. Delight thyself. Here's the next
verse 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall
bring it to pass. Commit thy way. I want you to
look at 2 Timothy 1.12. I heard Brother Henry, Brother
Henry said that he got this from Mr. Spurgeon. And Mr. Spurgeon had said that this verse
of scripture, 2 Timothy 1.12, this verse of scripture he said
was the one verse that was the greatest, most clear to him description
of faith. This right here, 2 Timothy 1.12. For the witch cause, I also suffer
these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed."
Here it is. Brother Henry said, this is it. For I know whom I have believed,
not what. Now, an unbeliever, when you
ask them, what is your hope? Well, they're going to give you
a what. Well, I know that I'm a Christian because I was baptized. I walked down the aisle. I spoke
in tongues. They're going to give you a what? He says, I know whom I have believed. It's faith in Christ. Then he said, and I am persuaded. I'm persuaded a believer knows
by faith in whom he has believed and he is persuaded. He's convinced
by a new heart, by the Spirit of God imparting life. I am persuaded,
I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which, and here's
the third thing, I have committed unto him against that day. Life in Christ is evidenced by
commitment. A believer is committed. He's
committed. God's people, where the Lord
raises up the body, you're committed to this. You're committed to
this. You support. You support by your presence. You support by prayer. You support
by your love. You support by giving. You support. This is where the Lord's raised
up His Word. Commit thy way unto the Lord. I told the folks in Katie the
other day, I said, you know, commitment. I said, let me tell
you, let me just give this a quick, quick statement. You let a man
tell his wife, honey, I want you to know that I am 99% committed
to you. 99, 99%. You know what? You're not committed
at all. That's not commitment. Commitment,
you give of yourself. You give your heart. And a believer
struggles because he sees in him all that I would be committed. I want to be. And I see the warrings
within. I see the fighting and the struggles
within. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall
bring it to pass. Peter says, casting all your
care upon him, for he careth for you. I want to do that. I
want to do that. And he shall bring, verse six,
he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, thy judgment as
the noonday. Let me read you this, when it
says, I want you to turn to Matthew 25, when he says right there,
he says, commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him,
he shall bring it to pass and he shall bring forth thy righteousness
as the light and thy judgment as the noon day. Matthew 25 to
me gives as clear, Matthew 25, I'm going to start in verse 31,
as clear an explanation of that. What he says is this, those that
trust in him, those that delight in him, commit their way to him,
excuse me, they're going to be vindicated. They're going to
be vindicated. The world hates them. They're
in a world that the world hates. But God Almighty is going to
vindicate them. What He's saying is He's going
to bring forth thy righteousness, that imputed righteousness. He's
going to show the world who he is to you and who you are to
him. That's what he's saying. He's
going to bring forth thy righteousness. Matthew 25, 31, when the Son
of Man shall come in his glory, all the holy angels with him,
then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him
shall be gathered all nations. He shall gather them one from
another. I'm sorry, he shall separate
them one from another. And as a shepherd divides his
sheep from the goats, he shall set the sheep on his right hand,
the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand..." Alright, now here's what he just said
over in Psalm 37. He's going to bring forth thy
righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. You know when a judge makes a
judgment call, he hears all the evidence, and if the evidence
points to this man is innocent, and that judge says, I'm going
to give him a judgment right now, no charge. justified. That's his judgment. He ruled in your favor. The Lord
says, I'm going to bring forth thy righteousness, that is, the
righteousness imputed by the Lord Jesus Christ as the light
and thy judgment as the noonday. I'm going to show heaven and
earth and hell. I'm going to show heaven, earth,
and hell. Then shall the king in Matthew 25, 34 say unto them
on the right hand, when all All the world stands before God.
Then shall he say to those on his right hand, you come, you
bless to my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world. He's going to bring your righteousness
to light. Verse 41, then shall he say,
Also unto them on the left hand depart from me ye cursed into
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Back in Psalm 37, verse 6, he
shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment
as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, verse 7. Wait
patiently for him. fret not thyself because of him
who prospereth in his way because of the man who bringeth wicked
devices to pass. Rest in the Lord. When the Lord
rested on the seventh day from creation, was it because he was
tired? No, he was done. He was done. When the Lord Jesus cried from
the cross, it is finished. You know what it was? It was
finished. It was done. He ascended into heaven and now
sits. That's how Isaiah saw him. He
said, I, in the year the king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord
sitting upon a throne high and lifted up. We rest, rest in the
Lord. We rest from our labors. We're not trying to earn our
righteousness before God. The Lord is our righteousness.
The Lord is our salvation. We've been saved by grace and
by faith He's taught us that. That's how we see it. That's
how we know it. By faith we know. Our faith didn't
save us. By grace we're saved through
faith and that not of ourselves it's the gift of God so we rest
in the Lord waiting patiently for him fretting not ourselves
because of him who prospered in his way because of the man
who bringeth wicked devices pass to pass and then lastly I'll
stop with this verse 8 cease from anger and forsake wrath,
and fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. This is a hard thing
to do, because I'm telling you, we're all by nature, we're very
defensive, we're very selfish. Cease from anger, anger toward
the wicked, anger toward your family, anger toward your brethren,
cease from anger against God's providence. James 1, 19 and 20
says, wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear,
slow to speak, slow to wrath. Why? For or because the wrath
of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Getting mad at somebody is not
going to make it right. That's why he said, the wrath
of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Ephesians 4.26 says,
be ye angry and sin not. That's always been a very trying,
I've wondered about that. But you know, I think it has
something to do with this. I know that there's an anger
that is not sin. I know that. The Lord said, and
the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And I know that
there's an anger. And I know God didn't sin. And
we're commanded, be ye angry and sin not. But I know that
there's an anger that is zealous for the glory of God. I know
that. I know there is. I know there is. I hate and I'm
angry with what I see in myself. Oh, wretched man that I am. I have a brother that I love very
much and he has no heart for the gospel. He has no heart for
the gospel. I'm angry at what I see sin has
done to him, what it does to me and what it's done to him.
I love him. I love him. But when it comes
to being angry at somebody for something that they've done,
James, James 4.1, I'll just read this to you. Here's what scripture
says through James chapter 4. From whence come wars and fightings
among you? Come they not hence even of your
lust that war in your members? You know when I get mad at somebody,
do you know really who's the problem? Me. The real cause of anger toward
others is from the corruption of my old nature. James says,
from whence come wars and fighting among you? Come they not hence
even of your lust that war in your members? That includes me. The problem is me. Whenever the wicked cross my
path and I get mad and I fret The problem is within. I've got
God's Word as instruction for living. Fret
not. Trust in the Lord. Wait patiently
for Him. Commit your way unto the Lord. Cease from anger. Lord, teach
me these things for the glory of God and for my good. Amen.