And I did the same thing. I said,
I introduced our next speaker and we had songs and specials
lined up to sing before we got to the speaker. I think sometimes
you read the word and you just think, let's just get to the
good stuff. Let's get to the gospel right
now. And I've been there. Thank y'all
for Having me here, it's good to
have you pastor asked me and I'm. This wasn't. Planned out
by us, just come down to pick up a vehicle, but. The Lord purposed
it from eternity and it it was good because Brother John sick
so happy I could be here. To preach for him and you'll
be in prayer for him. We're going to go to someone
30 Psalm 130, I know Brother John is going through Psalms. He was here in June. Back home, we looked at this
first half of this Psalm last Sunday. Tonight, I want to look
at the last four verses, just the last four verses, but I want
to read these first four to get us prepared for those last verses. This is a song of degrees. And
this is truly something that Lord teaches his people by degrees. There's something he teaches
us by degrees right here. This is what they would sing
is going up to the Lord's house three times a year. We're going
up to the Lord's house. That's whatever is God, all of
God's saints. We've been called by God, set
apart, separated, made holy. righteous in Christ, holy by
Christ, and we're on our way to the Lord's house in heavenly
Jerusalem, just like they were marching up there to earthly
Jerusalem. And as we're going our way there, he's teaching
us some things about himself by degrees, and he's teaching
us some things about ourself by degrees. And here's what we're
learning. Little by little, we're learning
salvation A to Z is of the Lord. It's all of him. And number two,
we're learning by degrees. You and me can't contribute one
thing to it. You can't contribute one thing
to it. Let's begin here in verse one. He said, out of the depths
have I cried unto thee, O Lord. It's just that you're down in
the deeps now. Your sins are heavy on you. You've
got troubles. You've got things you can't get
out of. It's just you're in the depths.
And I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. You know,
when you're in that place, you're not telling the Lord what you
want. The only thing you really are saying is, Lord, I just need
you to hear me. That's all. I just need you to
hear me. He said, If thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Now you think about that, if
the Lord marked one iniquity in you, you couldn't stand before
him. That's so you, that's so me, that's so everybody in this
earth. The stars are not pure in his sight. How much less a
man that's a maggot, that's a worm. He's holy God now. If he marked
our iniquity, he knows everything about you inside and out. You
couldn't stand. You couldn't stand. That's where
you gotta be brought. That's where he's gonna bring us in
the deep too. He's gonna bring us there to where we confess
to him. Lord, I can't stand before you. Please don't come into judgment
with me, Lord. I can't stand before you. I'm
the sinner. But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. I'm
gonna tell you something now. Nothing will make you fall down
and worship God like forgiveness. Nothing will break your heart
like forgiveness. When you know you're guilty,
when you know you deserve nothing from God, there's no discipline
like the discipline of God's free forgiveness for Christ's
sake. That will just humble you down
to his feet. And that's the purpose of it.
He said, but there's forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be
feared, reverenced, seen as all powerful, all knowing, all sufficient,
all salvation, that you might fear him as all and in all. Now our subject is what fear
does, what fear does. Verses five through eight tell
us what God-given fear does. This is what God-given reverence
for the Lord makes His child do. Number one, God-given fear
makes us wait on the Lord. We're waiting on the Lord to
save. We're waiting on Him to deliver.
He said in verse five, I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait. Look at verse six, my soul waiteth
for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say
more than they that watch for the morning. Number two, as we
wait, this is what God's grace does with the fear he's put into
the heart, the reverence he's put into the heart. This is what
it does. As we wait, we hope in the Lord's word. Verse five,
and in his word do I hope. We hope in his word. That's what
fear does. Number three, God-given reverence,
God-given fear makes you speak to your brethren. When they're in trouble, when
they're in the deep, he makes you speak to your brethren, encouraging
them to wait and hope in the Lord. Verse seven, let Israel
hope in the Lord for with the Lord there's mercy and with him
is plenteous redemption and he shall redeem Israel from all
his iniquities. Now those are three things God
given fear does. Now let me say a little bit about
fear before we get to these points here. Whatever we fear, whatever
we fear, that's who we exalt. If it's a man, we fear another
sinner, we exalt that sinner above God. We're saying they're
more powerful, they're more worthy to be feared and to be afraid
that they can overcome us than to trust God. Whoever we fear,
that's who we exalt. Now, if we fear the circumstances,
we fear what's come to pass in providence, we're exalting The
circumstances over God. We're making the circumstances
to be more powerful than God. Just act like God can't, like
he don't control the circumstances and get you right out of the
circumstances just like that. He can. He's God. He rules them. When that happens, when we're
fearing man, when we're fearing things, men lean to their own
understanding and their own strength. And that's exalting self. rather
than exalting God. He's the power and the wisdom.
Men are quick to speak and quick to condemn and to do so without
any mercy. And brethren, that's to exalt
self as a judge rather than fear the just judge. You know what
it is? The Lord said, don't judge by
appearance. Don't judge by what you see with these eyes. He said,
but judge righteous judgment. You know what that is? You know
how you do that? How'd he do it? How'd the Lord Jesus do it?
He committed it to the righteous judge. He didn't revile back. When they was plucking out the
hair of his beard, he didn't revile back. He didn't even open
his mouth. And he knew no sin. If anybody
could have justified themselves, he could have. He didn't open
his mouth, because if he'd open his mouth, he'd condemn you and
me that he was dying for. And he wouldn't condemn his people. So he kept his mouth shut, but
what did he do? He committed it to him that judges righteously. You want to judge righteous judgment?
Commit it to the righteous judge. I want to show you this in Isaiah
8. Go over here to Isaiah 8. You remember when the Lord sent
Isaiah to Ahaz? I just want to show you some
things about fear before we get here and look at these things.
But you remember when the Lord sent Isaiah to Ahaz and he told
him, the king of Israel, Ahaz was the king of Judah. The king
of Israel had joined himself with the king of Syria and they'd
made a confederacy and they were going to come up and fight Judah,
destroy the children of Judah. And the Lord sent Isaiah to Ahaz
and he said, don't worry about these men. Fear the Lord, don't
worry about them, fear the Lord. But Ahaz wouldn't listen to the
Lord and he went and he made a confederacy with Egypt to try
to destroy these two men, these two nations that come up against
him. And the Lord said, you're gonna be destroyed and so were
they. Now listen, here's the message in all that. Here's what
the Lord sent Isaiah to preach to his people. Now look here
in Isaiah 8 verse 9, Here's a word, first of all, to those that feared
men. He said, associate yourselves. You get all your friends together. Rally your troops together. Associate
yourselves, O ye people, and you shall be broken in pieces.
Give ear, all ye of far countries. Guard yourselves. You try to
cover yourself in your own righteousness, you'll be broken in pieces. Guard
yourselves, you shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together,
it shall come to nothing. Speak the word, and it shall
not stand. Why? For God is with us. God's with his people. For the
Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that
I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, say ye
not a confederacy to all them whom this people shall say a
confederacy? Look, neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. This world right now is afraid
of the climate. They afraid of the, of Russia. They afraid of, of the sea rising. They afraid of other men. They
afraid of, they just afraid of everything, but the only one
men should fear. And that's the Lord. Don't you
fear their fear. Don't be afraid of what they're
afraid of. What should God's people do? Verse 13, sanctify
the Lord of hosts himself. That simply means you see him
set apart, high, holy, separate, all powerful, ruling everything.
You see him as he is and let him be your fear. Let him be
your dread and he'll be for sanctuary to you. You'll be safe. But he'll
be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses
of Israel and for a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Christ didn't come to save everybody. He's a trap for some people.
He's a stone of stumbling whereby they're going to fall and be
broken and destroyed for some people. That's what clearly what
that verse says. You know who he's salvation for?
Them that fear none but Him and worship Him and trust Him and
know He's my salvation. I got nothing to fear. He's my
salvation. Now this fear, back in our text,
this fear is created by God alone. But now listen, once He creates
it in new birth, it's the beginning of wisdom. That's what scripture
says. Fear the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the
Holy's understanding, but you see, we're gonna have to be grown
in this wisdom and this reverence for God by making us, we're gonna
have to go through the depths many times, and he's gonna deliver
you out of the depths many times, and by that, he's gonna, by degrees,
he's showing you he is everything he said he is. He is holy, he
is the one to be feared, and he's salvation and you can't
save yourself and you learn this more and more and more and more.
And so it grows you more and more in reverence to him. Reverence
to him, you fear him more and more. All right, let's look at
this now. And let me say one more thing.
The writer here, he might still be in the trial, he might still
be in the depths and he's telling you what he learned in the last
trial by these three things. or he may have come out of the
depths now and he's experienced God's forgiveness again and he's
telling you what he's learned all over again. But either way,
this is the three things the fear of the Lord does right here.
Number one, a true God-given fear, reverence for the Lord
makes God's child wait on the Lord to deliver. Makes you wait
on him to deliver. Verse five, I wait for the Lord.
And we do this from the new heart, the new heart He's created in
you. He said, I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait. This
is an inward, true understanding that the Lord's in full control
of everything going on. I'm just gonna wait for Him. I'm gonna wait for Him. The Psalm
here, you know, it starts with, out of the depths have I cried.
That's where in the depths the Lord's gonna make you see that
you don't have power. You don't have power. Now, if
it's some kind of thing and we can suffer some things and we
think we're in the depths, but then we finagle our way out of
it, well, you wasn't really in the depths. When you're in the
depths is when you get, Lord puts you in a place where you
realize, I can't do a thing about this. There's nothing I can do. And that's a good place to be.
For God's child, because when God puts you there, he's showing
you, you're absolutely right, there's nothing you can do. But
he's teaching you, the Lord is the power and the wisdom of God. And he's one that'll save. And
it's gonna grow you in reverence for him. Only the Lord is able
to bring you down to the depths and make you see you are the
sinner. That's what the psalmist is saying in the beginning, I'm
the sinner. If you marked iniquities, Lord, I couldn't stand. I'm talking
about now, get brought down to where you stop hearing this gospel,
stop hearing these scriptures as condemning other people, and
you start hearing them as condemning yourself. Have you ever been,
as a believer, God's child gets here. I know they do, because
I've been there, where as a believer, you read this word, and every
word in it, you just see your sin, and see your sin, and see
your sin, and see your sin. I'm talking about a child of
God that knows Christ. Before you sin, you know that
he put your sin away. You know that God says, I remember
your sin no more. But while you're in the depths,
you see, ah, that just condemns me, everything about me. He makes you see when you acted
too hastily and you didn't wait. When you spoke too hastily and
you didn't wait. He makes you stop blaming others.
He makes you start seeing, I made the mess. I made the mess. If we lean to our own understanding,
if we lean to our own strength, He makes you see all we are is
sin, and all we've ever produced is sin. That's it. That's how he's going to make
Christ your wisdom and your power. That's how he's going to make
you see Christ as really holiness. You see in those depths that
if he hadn't, if he wasn't my holiness, my sanctification,
separating me to himself and keeping me separated to himself,
if he wasn't my all in sanctification, I'd perish. True sanctification
is being separated from you and me. True sanctification is being
kept from the center we are ourselves. True sanctification is being
separated from this world's religion and everything that's false and
vain and hypocritical and being kept trusting the Lord. And it's
when you're in the depths and you have no strength and you
know you have no strength, that's when you find out Christ really
is my sanctification. If he hadn't have kept me, I
wouldn't have been killed. Just a Psalm or two before, they
said, Lord, if it hadn't have been the Lord was on our side,
they'd have swallowed us up quick. That's when you see, you know,
we hear this gospel and we delight in it, but when you're in the
depths and you start hearing the gospel and he's brought you
to confess your sin to him, that's when he's going to turn
you to see the Lord Jesus Christ laying down his life in place
of his people. You hear this gospel like it's
the first time you ever heard it. You brethren that have been
around a while, you've experienced that where there's times you
hear the gospel so new and fresh, it feels like this is the first
day I have really understood the gospel. And he makes you
see Christ, but you don't just see him laying down his life
for the elect, he makes you behold He really, really laid down his
life for you and redeemed you. And that's when you, he said,
I'll pour upon my people the spirit of grace and supplication
and they'll look upon me whom they have pierced. That's what
he does. He makes you look upon him and
realize I pierced him. My sin pierced him. If he's brought
you to the depths because of some particular sin, you know
for this sin, I pierced him. And what I'm saying is it gets
real to you, it gets personal to you, but the righteousness
he is to his people gets personal to you too. And you realize,
he did that for me. I'm righteous. He put away my
sin. And I'm telling you, it's some
depth he brings you into, that's when you really and truly, you're
gonna, that's when he, grows you in reverence to him, in fear
of him. Because you see, if he marks
your iniquity, when you're in that place, you see so very clearly,
if he didn't mark my iniquity, I'm a goner. But he forgave me
for Christ's sake. He forgave me because Christ
laid down his life for me. Oh, that's it right there, brethren.
That's how you experience his power and his wisdom, his righteousness,
his holiness. And it's your soul that waits.
He said, verse five, I wait for the Lord. My soul does wait.
You know, what does this mean when your soul waits? He makes
you less hasty to speak and tell somebody what we know. He makes
you less eager to give advice, tell somebody what they ought
to be doing. He makes you more willing to prove your own work. That's what policy and relationship,
prove your own work. What does that mean? Here's what
it means, real simple. Mind your own business. That's
what it means. Why? Why? What I'm saying is
when you see somebody else in trouble and you see somebody
else, it makes you less hasty to act, less hasty to speak,
less hasty to get in and give your advice. Why? You know who
saved you out of it, the only one that could. And you wait
on him. You trust him. Instead of speaking
to somebody what they ought to be doing, you go to him and pray
for them and ask, Lord, and then wait on Him to work in them.
Only He can. Only He can. You know, when you've
experienced this free forgiveness and you brought in more to reverence
Him, it's gonna make you less hasty to judge and condemn by
the appearance of the eyes. Think about how bad our appearance,
judging by appearance, how bad is it? It's terrible. You make
terrible mistakes. You've heard the analogy before
people have done this thing, but it's true. If you heard that,
if you heard that, uh, there was a, your next door neighbor
was married to a man and she come up pregnant, but she ain't
married where she ain't married yet. She's pregnant or whatever.
And you'd probably condemn her. That's what everybody thought
about Mary. And she's carrying the Lord Jesus. You know, if,
if you, if you heard that, if you heard your neighbor got drunk
and that, and next thing you know, you see his daughters are
pregnant. And, and then you hear he had, he committed incest with
his daughters. You'd say that that's a lost
man right there. God said, that's righteous lot. Judging by appearance,
you're going to judge wrong. What do you do in those cases?
There's only one thing we can do, brethren. Go to the righteous
judge and commit it to him. Lord, if this is yours, if this
one's yours, he don't look like yours, but my eyes can be deceiving. I don't know what the will of
the Lord is. I don't know what the Lord's working in his people,
but Lord, you know, and if he's yours, save him, Lord. Pull him
out of the fire. If you won't use me to speak
a word unceasingly, Lord, give me the words to speak. I can't
just rush in and make a judgment, climb up in the judgment seat.
That's his seat. That ain't my seat. See what
I'm saying? Wait on the Lord. More willing
to be merciful and gracious. And look here, we may not even
get past this first point, but look here at verse six. My soul
waited for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning.
I say more than they that watch for the morning. This is This
is earnest waiting, that's what that means. I'm waiting more
than they that watch for the morning. But there's something
else in this verse too. More than they, my soul waiteth
for the Lord. More than they that wait for
the morning. We're comparing two different
people here. Somebody who's watching for the
Lord. And he's watching for the Lord more earnestly than this
other person over here is watching for the morning. Now think about
that. A natural man, he gets in trouble. He gets in the depths. Everybody
does. We're all sinners. You're going
to get in the depths. The difference is the Lord's working in the
heart of his child and he's not working in the heart of the natural
man. And the natural man, he comes into the depths and he's
watching to see his circumstances change. He's in the dark of night. Picture
a man in the dark of night, and he can't sleep, and he's troubled
because it's dark, and he's aggravated by everything and his circumstances.
What's he watching for? If it'll just get daylight, I'll
be all right. If it gets daylight, I can get
out of this house and get out of this room, and I'll be all
right. He just wants the natural circumstances to change. And
the natural man thinks, well, if my natural circumstances change,
if I'm brought out of this trouble I'm in, then judging by appearance,
everything's good. And he don't know God. And if
he died today, he'd go to hell. Everything ain't good. Just because
his condition outwardly is good and judging by appearance is
good. The Lord's not going to take us out of the natural circumstances. He don't have to. He might, but
he doesn't have to. He's not going to take you out
of this world. You're going to stay in this world till the time
he's appointed. Then he'll take you out of it. But then you're
going to suffer trouble all the way through it. That's what he
said. In this world, you'll have tribulation. He's not going to
change that. And there may be something, trouble
that the Lord put in your life that you're going to have to
deal with it and carry it the rest of your days. He's not going
to change that circumstance. But here's what he will do. The
Lord Don't have to change the circumstance. The Lord's light,
and the light of his countenance in the heart, and when he shines
his face in the heart, he gives you peace in the heart, and he
don't even have to change the circumstances around you. Has
he taken you out of that body of death? He ain't changed that
circumstance, has he? You got an old man of flesh just
as dead as he ever was, just as vile a sinner as he ever was.
He didn't take you out of that circumstance, did he? What'd
he do? He shined the light of his countenance into your heart
and gave you a new heart. And he can do that and give you
peace. What'd he say to his apostles? He said, my peace I give unto
you. Not as the world gives to you.
I'm giving you my peace and no man's going to take my peace
from you. Not the circumstances, not man, nothing's gonna take
my peace from you. And God-given fear, when you're
in that trouble, it's not the circumstances. You know, Lord,
do you find your prayers getting a lot more simple where you stop
praying, you know, Lord, give me this, give me that, take me
out of this, take me out of that. We all prayed like that when
we was younger. Now you get older, and what do you pray? Lord, here's
what you pray. Psalm 27, 9, hide not thy face
from me. Put not thy servant away in anger.
Thou has been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake
me, O God of my salvation. See, that's the light I need,
not the natural light of the morning. I need a light of his
face. Here it is, Psalm 31, 16, make thy face to shine upon thy
servant and save me for thy mercy's sake. Listen, there'll be many that
say, who will show us any good? Lord, here's what God's people
say. Many say, who's gonna show us
any good? And by good, they just mean natural
thing. Give me riches, give me this,
give me that. Here's what the Lord's people
say. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my
heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. You've given me gladness in my
heart by lifting up the light of your countenance in my heart.
You've given me gladness more than when they had a bumper crop
of corn and wine. I'll lay me down in peace and
sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safely. You're
the only one that makes me dwell safely. You see how different
that is? Waiting for the Lord himself
rather than waiting for just the circumstances to change.
A lot different. Should we stop right there? Should
we try for one more? You can go one more. All right,
one more. Secondly, God given fear. Not
only makes us wait on the Lord, it makes his child hope in the
Lord's word. Why you wait? He said in verse
six and in his word, do I hope now Christ is the word. He's
the word in the beginning was the word. He's the word we're
hoping in Christ and, and true reverence is hoping in the word
of the Lord. He, this word's Christ's word. He's the word. And this word's about him. And
this word was given by him. And so everything about this
word is about him. And so we're trusting and hoping
in him. That's what we're doing. And
here's why. He promised us salvation. He
chose his people before this world was made, trusted us to
Christ, Christ's been saving us from the beginning, come and
worked out all righteousness for us, redeemed us, and then
he come and revealed this gospel to us. And this is what he has
promised. You that he's called, you are
in scripture called spiritual Israel, and this is what he's
promised, spiritual Israel. He said in Jeremiah 29 11, I
know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. I hope in
that word, don't you? When I'm in trouble and I see
no good in me and no ability in me and nothing but sin in
me, if I'm being condemned, if all the circumstances look bad,
I'm waiting on the Lord to save me by His power and His grace.
I'm waiting on Him to be my righteousness. I'm waiting on Him to be Be my
all, and as I'm waiting on him, I'm looking into his word, and
here's what I'm hoping in. Lord, you said you know the thoughts
you think toward me. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil to give me an expected end. I'm hoping in that word. You
promised me, Lord. Now, we're waiting ultimately
for hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised
before the world began. That's what Titus 1-2 says. That's
our hope, hope of eternal life. We're gonna have eternal life.
We have it now, but we're gonna, it's eternal life, we have it.
And God promised it and he can't lie. He gave it to us before
the world was made. We've been justified by his grace, so we
should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
That's our ultimate hope. Now, all of this has been accomplished. Christ has made his people the
righteousness of God in him. If he'd given you faith to believe
him, God's made you know In your heart, purging your conscience,
he made you know he's imputed the righteousness of Christ to
you. And God, when he imputes it, it's because Christ made
you righteous by his obedience. He don't put impute sin to you
because Christ put your sin away. But now, we're talking about
these trials now. And when we're in these trials,
right now we're in these trials. We're hoping in the word of Lord
that he's going to save us through whatever trial it is. Go with
me to 2 Corinthians 1. 2 Corinthians 1. And I want you to see Paul. Paul
suffered more than anybody as a believer. And I want you to
see what he said. 2 Corinthians 1 3. He said, blessed be God, even
the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies. and the God of all comfort, who
comforted us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. For as the suffering," do you
see what he just said? He said, the reason God comforts
you in trouble is so you can comfort your brethren in trouble.
We're not gonna get to this third point, but that's the third point.
You speak this word to your brethren when you fear the Lord, because
you know this is the only way God's gonna comfort his people.
It's through this gospel, so you speak that to one another.
I tell you something now, your brother fell, you wanna help
him? Don't go tell him what the law
says and whip him with the law. If he's fallen and his heart's
broken by the Lord, he knows what the law says. God done told
him what the law says, he knows it. He know what he needs from
you, he needs you to go and comfort him with the comfort where Christ
comforted you last time you was in that place. That's what he
need, that's the gospel. That's the third point. We won't
get to that. I just, I just gave it to you.
That's it. That's the end of the third point.
Now here, here you go. Read on. For as the sufferings
of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounded by
Christ. And the next verse is a little
complicated, but it just says, if I'm, if we're afflicted or
we're consoled either way, it's to comfort you. That's the whole
purpose of it. Verse seven. And our hope of
you is steadfast. Here's our hope now. We hope
in the word of the Lord. Here's our hope. We know as your
protectors of the suffering, so shall you be also of the consolation. He gonna comfort his people.
He gonna keep his people. And he gives an example of being
in Asia. He says there in verse eight, we is pressed out of measure,
bust, strength. We despaired even of life. He
said, but we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we
should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raises the
dead. Do you know how close faith and reverence, faith and fear,
you know how closely they are? You can't believe somebody you
don't reverence, and you can't reverence somebody you don't
believe. And he said, we had this sentence of death in ourselves
so we'd fear the Lord and trust the Lord to deliver us and not
ourselves. That's what these depths are
about. That's what these troubles are about, to teach us again
and again and again. You know, it's like a It's like,
we're just like our babies. When they were like, you know,
when they first started walking, and they'd take one or two steps,
and boy, they couldn't do it, you know. And then they took
one or two steps, and they did pretty good. And they'd say,
you know, they'd strike out across the floor like they gonna run
a marathon, and they'd get a little way, and boom, they'd fall on
their face. That's us. The Lord teaches us to take a
few steps, and you know, we take a few steps, and all of a sudden,
we think we can just take off running. We got strength to do
it. So he brings you back to the depths again and shows you,
I'm the one saving you. I'm the one saving you. I'm holding
your hand, you ain't holding mine. And that's, it keeps you
fearing him. It keeps you fearing him. This is what he promised us,
brethren. Let me give you this. He said, I'm with you always.
We're talking about hoping in his word now, hoping in his word.
He said, I'm with you always. He said, I'll never leave you,
I'll never forsake you. He said, I will deliver you.
And you know, he told us, he said, fear not, I've redeemed
thee. I've called thee by thy name,
you're mine. When you pass through the waters,
I'll be with you. When you go through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When you walk through the fire,
thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
I'm the Lord thy God, the only one of Israel, thy Savior, I'm
with you. You know, do you realize that's what the scripture means?
When Paul said in Philippians 2, he said, he said, work out
your own salvation. Now he said, I'm gone. You've
always obeyed. He said, now work out your own
salvation. They don't have a thing to do with your eternal salvation.
He's just saying, you know, whatever you got to do day to day with
each other as brethren, just work all that out with fear and
trembling. Whatever you're doing, working
out your daily affairs and whatever has to be done, Do it with fear
and trembling. And here's why. He said, because
it's God which worketh in you, both the will and the do of his
good pleasure. He's saying just what the Lord said. Christ is
in that brother, just like he's in you. And he's in his church
collectively, right here in the midst where he's gathered his
people together. He's there. And he's saying, so whatever
you're doing with each other, do it knowing Christ is right
there. Christ said, as much as you've
done it to one of these, the least of my brethren, you have
done it to me. I am with you always. And so
Paul's next word is to do everything without murmuring and disputing.
And what I'm saying is if when he given you a reverence for
the Lord, the more he does this, that's why you see older believers
that's been around and been through it. when trouble comes, rather
than getting all, you know, younger people want to, we're going to
show how strong and how much we believe God and how, and we're
going to just jump in there and start condemning and wrestling
and wrangling and make a mess of stuff. And the older believer
has been taught this fear and reverence and groan to wait on
the Lord, trust in the Hoping the word of the Lord and he knows
the Lord's right here. He's in our midst. He's in that
brother. He's in me. He's in you. He's
right here. So I'm going to do what I do
with fear and trembling because I don't want to offend him. By
offending them. And I'm just going to hope in
the word that he's promised me when you pass through this water,
it's not going to overflow. You you pass through this fire.
It's not going to burn you. I'm with you there. And I'm gonna
keep you. And so instead, and just to get
to that third point again, instead what do we do? We just remind
each other it's good news. Brother Christ is right here.
He's right here. Let's look to him. Let's wait
on him. And let's hope in his word, he
said he'll deliver us out of this. And if anybody else has
anything else and want to know what you think about what so-and-so
did, here's what I think about it. Christ is on his throne,
and Christ is going to save his people. And we're just going
to wait on him and hope in his word. That's what I believe about
it. And that's what he's teaching
us little by little, you know. This thing, you start out and
there's a big old desk and it's all wide and it's got all these
books and all this stuff on it, you know, and that's what our
life's like. We think, oh, this is important, that's important,
this is important, that's important, and we got to know this doctor
and that doctor and this and the other thing, and life goes
and through these Bringing us into the depths, the Lord's just
making that table get more narrow and more narrow. And stuff you
don't need just falling off the side, falling off the side. And
it's getting more narrow, and more narrow, and more narrow.
And one day, it's going to get down to a few short breaths.
And it's going to keep getting narrower. And everything's falling
off the side. And you're going to close your
eyes in death. And you're going to open them. And you're going
to see they wasn't but one thing needful, my Lord. It's all that's needful. It's
Him. And that's what fearing Him is
about. Knowing He's my need. He's going to save. All right.
Y'all want to go to the Lord in prayer? Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You for this Word. We thank You for how You teach
us and keep us. We can't learn anything but by
your hand, by your spirit, by your word. We thank you, Lord,
that you never fail to correct and to grow and strengthen your
people. Lord, give us more fear to truly
reverence you. Give us more grace to wait on
you, more grace to hope in your word, know everything you've
spoken to us, you're gonna do it. Make us speak more this gospel
to one another, remind each other of these words to one another,
and make us less eager to give our advice, and less eager to
repeat what brother so-and-so from years ago said, and more
eager to repeat what our Savior said. And help us to trust you, Lord.
Lord, we pray for Brother John, pray you help him. He's sick
and it's an awful place to be sick and just don't feel good. Pray you help him and comfort
him, Lord. We pray for everybody that's
sick and troubled and whatever they're going through, Lord,
you be with them and keep them and bless them. Lord, you know
the needs. You're the only one able to comfort
and to help. We leave that to you, Lord. We
thank you for mercy and grace. In Christ's name, amen.