Turn to Psalm 125. My voice is going to be a little
on the weak side tonight for some reason. I guess it's God's reason. Whatever
reason. He purposed it. But the title
of this message, the stability and security of God's people. You're not only a saved people,
you are a safe people. Until the Lord is pleased to
take us out of this world by whatever means he has purposed. God's people are eternally secure. Before I heard the gospel, I
went to a place, to a Baptist church, and they believed in
eternal security. Once saved, always saved. But
their idea of eternal security was you're accepting Christ as
your personal savior. And once you did that, you were
saved forever. That's not eternal security.
Not at all. Eternal security has nothing
to do with me doing something. It has nothing to do with me
accepting Christ as my personal Savior. It has nothing to do
with that. It has everything to do with
God and what He's done for me and you. He loved me when I was
unlovely. He chose me. He redeemed me by
His blood. He died on that cross. And He
lives for me and all those whom He saves. He lives for me and
He intercedes. He prays for me. Use my name, John. Can you imagine
the Lord, Peter? I have prayed for you that your
faith fail not. And that is why his faith failed
not. The Lord interceded for him and
he intercedes for every one of his children. They're innumerable. And yet he intercedes for every
one of them. As if they were the only ones
that existed. And the Holy Spirit. which is
sent by the Father in His name, regenerated me, gave me eternal
life." He didn't ask me if I want, I told Vicki's family last weekend,
I said, God doesn't ask us if He can save us. He saved us. He saved me. He didn't ask me
if he could save me. He saved me. And then I asked
him for mercy. I asked him for forgiveness.
The Holy Spirit regenerated me, called me, takes the things of
Christ, reveals them to me. My whole eternal security lies
in my eternal God. That's my eternal security. God.
God is. Now here we have in this first
verse the stability of God's children. They that trust, that
word trust has the meaning hang upon. I like that. They hang upon the Lord. They
hang upon him. They that trust or hang upon
the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ here, Jehovah Jesus. That's who
the one spoken of in this chapter here. You see, this stability
and this security belongs to a particular people. It's they
that trust. They. Not everyone that makes
a profession. Not everyone that said, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. There's gonna be many,
he said many, that will say, Lord, we preached in your name.
We cast out devils in your name. We have done many mighty works
in your name. Yeah, you used his name. You
didn't preach his person, I guarantee you. He's gonna say, depart from me,
I never knew you. You see, this salvation, this stability, this
security, belongs to they who trust, hang upon, The Lord Jesus
Christ for everything. Everything. It says in Psalm
37, the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. It's not a cooperative
effort. It's of the Lord. He saved me. So Pilgrim starts out here in
this psalm with faith. We don't know who wrote the psalm. I think David did, but nobody
could actually pinpoint it. But I do know this, I can call
him Pilgrim and I can get the one that wrote it. So Pilgrim
starts with faith. He starts with confidence in
the Lord. And there's no mention of works, just trust. Just trust. And he's speaking from experience
here. He's writing from experience. Faith is one of the identifying
marks of God's people. They trust the Lord at all times,
in all situations. We trust him. We don't run to
the arm of the flesh. We trust the Lord. They trust
the Lord for salvation, both temporal and eternal. You know, it's just not consistent
to trust God to save my soul from the curse of the law and
fall apart over every temporal thing going on. That's not consistent
with faith. That kind of faith brings reproach
on the name of Christ. We trust Him to save us in the
temporal things as well as the eternal things. We trust His
Word. We take Him at His Word. We trust
His promises that He's given. All the promises of God in Christ
are yay and amen. We can take Him at His Word,
His promises. We trust His power. You know,
whatever trial I go through, whatever real heartache I go
through, It's not a matter of the power of God, it's a matter
of the will of God. God has the power to just stop
everything. He has the power to say to the
wind and the waves in my life, be still, be still. It's a matter of his will when
he says be still, not power. So we trust his power, we trust
his wisdom. You trust God's wisdom. Does
God know what he's doing? Boy, it's a sad statement to
make that, isn't it? God is infinitely wise. And in infinite wisdom,
he has ordained everything in our life. Every tear that I will
ever cry, God ordained it. God ordained it. Nothing takes
God by surprise. He has determined, the scripture
says, He has determined the end from the beginning. Aren't you
glad of that? It's not willy-nilly running
around. This world's just not floating around out there. God
has an eternal purpose. And by His purpose and His word,
He's given command. This world stands fast. It's
going exactly as He has purposed it. Exactly, to the second. We trust his wisdom, we trust
his mercy. The Lord delights to show mercy.
With the Lord, there's mercy that he may be feared. We don't
presume upon God's mercy. We trust his providence. Everything
today throughout the universe and throughout this world works
for our good. The Lord Jesus Christ made it
work for our good. And knowing that all things are
working for our eternal good, gives us rest, comfort, peace. It's for our good, whether I
can see it or not. Because you see, whatever happens
to us is for our eternal good. We can't see it right now. So
much of what goes on and what happens to us, we can't see it.
We take God at his word. He's conforming us to the image
of his son. And he's going to bring us to
glory. Whatever all that is, I mean,
I've never been there, but I tell you what, when I look at this
earth and God's creation, as beautiful as it is with sin in
it, what must it be like with sin out of it? That's something. They trust
in the Lord. You know, the Pharisees trusted
in themselves that they were righteous. Most people do. Most people will say, I'm not
that bad. Well, what you're saying is,
I'm really righteous. I'm really good. I'm not that
bad. Christ died for bad people, the
ungodly sinners. The gospel is for sinners. It's
for nobody else. It's for no one else. They thought
they were righteous enough to be accepted on the grounds of
their works and their heritage. We'd be Abraham's seed. We've
never been sinners, they said. Well, you'll never be saved.
God doesn't make you a sinner. He doesn't make you do sin to
make you a sinner. He just makes you to know it
without excuse. David said, against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. No excuse. I'm not going to blame it on,
you know, well, God, you could have stopped me by Bathsheba
not being there at the same time I was. Let's blame it on God. Isn't that what Adam did to the
woman you gave me? It's good evidence that God has
saved someone when they bring up no excuse for their wretchedness. But not so the believer. The
believer trusts in the Lord only, and the believer trusts in the
Lord all the way home. All the way home. And they are
established, they are safe and protected. He says, that they
shall be as Mount Zion. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. Now, if you want to talk about
Mount Zion that's over there in the Middle East, you know,
Mount Zion is still there. Then the days of Abraham, then
David, there have been a lot of buildings built on that place
and they've been destroyed. Titus came through in 70 AD and
leveled that place. But Mount Zion is still there.
Mount Zion is still right there. They haven't dug it up, moved
it, blown it up or anything. It's still there. But he's speaking
here of the church. The church is Mount Zion, spiritually. You see, when God establishes
something, it cannot be removed. It can't be if He establishes
it. He said the earth is established forever. I know I've seen this
with scientists thinking, you know, somewhere along the way
a meteorite is going to come through here and hit us. Or people
afraid of the nuclear wars. or this or that. This earth is
going to stand until God's done with it. This earth is the place
where God is playing out redemption. And He's got a people, and they're
going to be saved, and this earth is going to be established, it's
going to last, and it's going to produce. It's going to produce,
because Christ is the head of it. he's going to see to it that
his people are fed and taken care of on this earth until that
last one is saved and he takes that last one home and the church
is the bride of christ is complete she's put together all the members
are there they're all there now mount zion here the church spiritually
speaking she's it's the church was established by god in covenant
You know God is a covenant God. Aren't you glad he is? If you
go over and read about that baby that was cast out into the field,
and he said the time was love, read the whole chapter. She turns
into a mess. But God said, I made a covenant. And I will not break it. I will,
I will. God's had every reason to break
that covenant with me since I had believed. He's had every reason
to cut me off. He's had every reason to throw
me out into the field. But God is a covenant God, and
he said, I will not break my covenant. And God has made a
covenant in Christ with all those people, all those whom he saves.
I'm telling you, God keeps that covenant. He's gonna keep that
covenant. And the church as a whole will
be here forever until the Lord takes her away. She shall endure
throughout all ages. Satan has tried to wipe her out
many times. Men have tried to wipe her out
many times. But every time they try to wipe
her out, she grows. You look at the history of the
church, you go back in the book of Acts, when they were persecuted,
they were scattered abroad, and what'd they do? They went preaching
the gospel. The church grew. You see, you
and I, we like that comfort zone. And God has to send trials to
bust us up and get the gospel out. And the church grows. That's
how the church grew in the early days. And it may be just around
the corner again. She cannot be removed. Mount Zion, the Church of God,
cannot be removed. She's not made of the dust of
the ground, but by the Spirit of God in Christ, she's made.
Just like God took that rib from Adam and he created a woman. Spiritually, that's exactly what
he did with Christ. He died on that cross. He's brought
out of him his own bride. His own bride. That's why she, you know, when
Adam was, when God did that with Adam, Adam called her woman. Because she was taken out of
man. Now every man born since then,
every man and woman born since then has been born from a woman,
but not that one. Came from a man. And the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ came from a man. Him. Him. Now the Lord has established
and he has protected his church. And she, as I said, she will
be forever. now we can be removed from worship sickness has removed
you a few times hasn't it you've not been able to be here we can
have peace removed from our conduct god can remove he doesn't remove
the holy spirit but he can remove his comfort he can remove his
joy you know what david said in psalm 51 Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. He couldn't lose God's salvation.
When the Lord saves, he saves. But you can lose the joy of it
by your conduct. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. That means he can be grieved
by our conduct. But we cannot, we cannot apostatize. Isn't that good? Because if we
could, we would. We would. If we could, we would,
but we cannot be removed. We will not become apostate.
Not his church and not any member, not any true member of the Lord's
church. It can't do it. And here's safety
in verse two. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, see, we had stability. Now we've got safety. So the
Lord, that is the Lord Jesus, Jehovah Jesus, is round about
His people from henceforth even forever. He's around about them. And this
thought, when I was looking at this, I was looking at this paper
like this, and I looked down at my hand, and it just hit me
of the Lord being round about His people like my skin is round
about my body. My whole body is covered in skin,
it's just wrapped. We are wrapped in God. We're
wrapped in Him. Our life is hid with Christ in
God. It's hid with Him. God established
Jerusalem in a place surrounded by mountains for her protection. And to give us this picture,
to give us, He put her there, He will and purpose but to also
give us this picture that I'm standing here tonight preaching
to you 2024 This is a picture of the church being surrounded
by God himself He's given the angels his angels charge over
you to keep you But God himself surrounds you I would to God he'd make us to
really lay hold of that. Because we live in an evil world.
We live in a very wicked, wicked world. I thought today, you know,
the scripture speaks of hell being made for the devil and
his angels. But you know he's putting everybody else there
that does not believe, he's putting them in the same place. Because
they're devils too. They're just devils too. Every individual believer is
surrounded by God, listen, forever, forever. In Job 1, verse 10, Satan came
before God. And you know the story, he wanted
to get at Job. I got the first at him to fall,
and he knew no sin. I sure couldn't get Job to fall.
He's full of sin. I know where the chink in that
armor is. And he says this to God. Hast not thou made an hedge
about him? Do you realize there is a hedge
about you? Really. And you put it about his house
and about all that he hath on every side. Thou hast blessed
the work of his hands and his substance is increased in the
land. Lord, you did that. And now you got a hedge about
him. I can't go through that hedge. I have no doubt one of that hedge
is this God's word. You leave him alone. God himself. And the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the word of God, hedged him about. The believer
could not be more secure. I think I wrote this in the bulletin
that the believer, the believers in heaven are not more secure
than we are here on earth. They're not more secure. We are secure in Christ. Now
it says here in verse three, where the rod And that word means
scepter, scepter. And a scepter stands for what?
Power, rule, what it stands for. For the rod of the wicked, and
over my margin it says, for the rod of wickedness shall not rest
upon the lot of the righteous. These are promises. My soul,
we ought to just eat these up. These are promises. These are
promises when things are going tough to take before the Lord.
Lord, you said the rod of the wicked wouldn't rest on the law
of the righteous. That's powerful praying. Pleading the promises,
that's powerful praying. The rod of the wicked, the scepter
of the wicked shall not rest upon the law of the righteous,
lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. The scepter here of the wicked
shall not rest. Abide. As I can tell you, if
the world could, it'd get rid of you. If Satan could, he'd
get rid of you. He would get rid of you. It will
not abide, it will not rule the righteous. And the first scripture
that crossed my mind, the rod of wickedness, is this in Romans
6, 14. For sin shall not have dominion
over you. Let me read it like this. For
sin, the sin nature you and I were born with, it'll not have dominion
over you anymore. It's been dethroned. Well, you're
not under the law, you're under grace. God has delivered His
people from the reigning power of sin. He's not only delivered
us from the guilt of sin, but also from the reigning power
of sin. Sin is not your master anymore. It's not your master. Christ
is. The Lord Jesus Christ is. At one time, sin was our master.
All we thought about was the lust of the flesh, lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life that filled our thoughts. Not God,
not Christ. But not anymore. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our master. Christ, by his obedience and
death, has conquered the power of canceled sin. He's conquered the power of it.
Now God uses, at times, the rod of the wicked for his purpose
and his children and chastening them. Sometimes, you go back
and read the Old Testament, sometimes God let the Philistines come
up and whip Israel. Sometimes he did that because
of their sinfulness. And sometimes God lets the world
have its shot at us, so to speak. But it's in his hands. It's God's
controlling it. God controls it. And he gets
his will and purpose out of it. And you and I learn a lesson
out of it. We learn a lesson. So he may
use the rod of the wicked, but it will not. It will not rest. abide on you. It says on the lot. God's given
us a lot in this life and inheritance in heaven. It's not going to
abide on you. It's got, it'll be used for a
purpose and for a season. But when that season's over with,
he'll make it, he'll, he'll lift, he'll make it and go away. But something else here I have
thought about and looked at. I thought of the scepter of the
wicked, power. You know, sometimes these things
don't always come in a trial of heartache. It might be riches. What was it I read out of Proverbs
the other day? Make me not rich lest I forget you. There's more
danger in being rich. Far more danger in being rich.
More people have fallen by riches than any have fallen by poverty. Many. And it's sad because we
are so inclined to want to be rich. It's just in us by nature. It's just in us. Remember that
old Pac-Man game back in the That's what I think. We're a
bunch of pack men. He's going up there just gobbling
everything up we can. That's us by nature. And God
will not let the lot of wealth, He will not let the rod, the
scepter of wealth rest on His people. Because, you know what?
He says, lest they put their hand to it, you'll put your hand
to it. You'll put your hand to it. You'll start buying bigger
this, bigger that. And next thing you know, God is not on your
mind. You know, at one time, at one
time, I had that business. At one time, it was in a position,
in a direction, that Vicki and I would have been wealthy. We
would have been wealthy. God stopped it. He took that
rod and did not let it rest on me. By grace and by mercy, he did. And that's mercy. That's mercy. Oh, he will not let he will not
let the wickedness of wealth rest on his people. You know,
most most believers that are wealthy, you know, I know a few
wealthy believers. But they were that way before
God saved him. I haven't seen any get wealthy since the Lord
saved him. I haven't seen it. Not wealthy.
Of course, I guess that's all relative what you compare it
to, but I don't think so. You see, we still have an old
nature. We have an old nature that loves these things. I have no doubt this is one of
the reasons God took everything from Job. Job's perspective at
the end of that trial, and God doubled everything he had. But
I assure you that Joe's perspective, even though everything was doubled,
was more on the Lord than it was on what he owned. He knew
in an instant he could lose it all. He could lose it all. And the Lord was his confidence
and not 15 million sheep out there and cattle and camels and
servants. I guarantee you at that time, It's like Paul said, Paul said
this, I have learned in whatsoever state I am to be content. I have
learned how to abound when I've got plenty, I've learned how
to handle it. And I've learned how to be a base where I don't
have anything. I know how to handle it. It doesn't change
me. A person who's really grown up
in Christ, he can fall into money and he can fall out of money.
It doesn't matter. His stability is God. His stability
is the Lord Jesus Christ, not these things. They come and they
go. And we learn that. And no doubt, listen, no doubt,
our Lord does this. He does this. Turn over to Exodus 34. Here's
one of the reasons why he does this to his children. And he
doesn't let them wealthy, he doesn't let He'll let the rod, maybe use
the rod, but they won't rest there. And here's why. Let me find it if I quit talking. 34. 14. For thou shalt worship no other
God. For the Lord, whose name is Jealous,
is a jealous God. He's jealous over his people.
You're jealous over someone you love. If you're not, you don't love
them. Now, I know this flesh can take
that kind of jealousy in the wrong direction and come way
out there, but I'm not talking about that kind. Talk about a
genuine love for each other. You want the best for each other.
And God, God is jealous over his people whom he loves and
they are not, they are not gonna worship another God or he's not
gonna let you follow the God of materialism or wealth or this
power and any of that. Not his people, not his. And here's why in verse three.
Lest, now this word, lest, has this meaning. Lest, with the
intention of preventing something undesirable. That's what God's
doing. He does not let the rod of the
wicked rest on the lot of the righteous, lest something undesirable
happen. And here's the undesirable, that
it will happen. They lay their hand to it. They
lay their hand to it. With the intention of preventing
something undesirable to avoid the risk of. What's that? Falling. Falling. We say, Lord, don't let me fall.
Don't we pray that? Lord, don't let me fall. Then
when he takes something away from us, like you ask him not
to let you fall. And what he took away was a problem
and you're going to fall. You know, God does answer prayer,
so be careful what you ask. Be very careful what you ask
God. God answers prayer. And I tell you, as I've gotten
older, I try to be very careful what I have to say, what I say
in prayer. God is God. We ought to come
before God in prayer, come boldly to the throne of grace, but be
careful. Be careful. Remember who you're standing
before. lest the righteous put forth
their hands unto iniquity. Galatians 6, 1 Brethren, if a
man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou
also be tempted. Lest you also be tempted. That's
all it takes. It'll be tempted. Don't be shooting
down that brother of fail. Don't shoot David. Lest, you know, you, someone
said this, I heard this from somebody, your Bathsheba just
hasn't come along yet. That's, lest you be tempted. I heard Paul say that. But that's
true. That's true. This is why we pray, lead us
not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. God Almighty controls
all things for our sakes. And we see here our weakness.
If he doesn't remove it, we will put our hands on unto iniquity. If he doesn't, remove it. If
he doesn't, put a restraint on it. It says he will not tempt
us more than we're able to bear. But if we're with the temptation,
make a way out. When God lets us be tempted and
tried, it's not for him to see what you'll do. He knows exactly
what you're going to do. Your whole life has already been
lived out before God. Just let me see what I'm going
to do. See what's still in me. Let him that thinketh he standeth,
take he lest he what? Fall. Fall. Don't ever think. Don't ever
think that you are at the age and the place where you will
not fall. It just takes the right temptation. And usually that temptation never
comes on strong. It's just little by little. Satan,
he's subtle. Chink here and a chink there,
and a piece here and a piece there. Drop a little crumb here
and a crumb there, and you follow that crumb. Next thing you know,
you're in trouble. You're in trouble. But listen to our Lord's prayer
here in John 17, 15. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. And one of the ways he does that,
he does not let the rod of the wicked rest on the lot of the
righteous. And then he says here, Do good,
O Lord, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright
in their heart. We should always pray for the spiritual good of
God's people. We should always pray for the
spiritual good of one another. It's funny how it's easier to
complain about one another than it is to pray for one another.
That's sad. That's sad. Now, none are naturally
good. We're naturally evil. None good.
None good. No, not one. God said. But the
evidence of those who've been made good in Christ is this. They are upright in heart. They
have a new heart. They are sincere. They love Christ
and they follow him. That new heart is a good heart.
God said in Ezekiel, I'll give them a new heart. He didn't give
us a heart that's as bad as the other one. That can fall like
the other one, it's fallen. He said, I'll give him a new
heart, and that's a good heart. You love Christ, none of us love
him like we ought to, but we love him, don't we? Peter said,
Lord, you know all things, you know I love you. Can we say that
with confidence too? As for such as turn aside unto
their crooked ways, verse 5, the Lord shall lead them forth
with the workers of iniquity, but peace shall be upon Israel.
They turn aside, listen here, as for such as turn aside unto
their crooked ways. They turn aside from the gospel.
They've made a profession. They're religious. They call themselves Christians,
but they turn aside from the gospel to another gospel, to
another gospel. Paul said in first, or John wrote
in 1st John 2, 19, they went out from us. They were with us
a while, but they went out from us, but they were not of us. Where if they had been of us,
they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. In time, God makes those things
known. The Lord knows how to separate the sheep from the goats,
and the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity.
They will be led to the same place, these religious people,
false religion. Lord, we preached in your name. They will be led to the same
place and the same end as the workers, the flat out workers
of iniquity. They'll be led, these religious
people will be led to the same place as serial killers led to,
hell. Hell is where they're going to
be in. You know how what a church Spurgeon said that the day of
judgment is going to be a day of surprises. Lord, we preached
in your name. Cast out devil. You know, we've
had universities and we've trained ministers. Yeah, you trained
a bunch of self-righteous ministers. And they're all going to be in
hell right there with the worst criminals ever walked on this
earth. They're going to be right there. RELIGION IS NOT SALVATION. JESUS CHRIST IS SALVATION. IF
I HAVE CHRIST, I HAVE SALVATION. HOWEVER, HE WILL LEAD HIS OWN INTO PEACE.
PEACE IS OUR END, BUT PEACE SHALL BE UPON ISRAEL. Psalm 37, 37. Mark the perfect man. And behold the upright, for the
end of that man is peace. Paul said in Galatians 6, 16.
And as many as walk according to this rule, go back and read
that, we don't have time right now, in Galatians 6, read that
chapter. But as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them and mercy, and upon the Israel
of God, you peace be upon you and if god says peace be upon
you you're gonna have it you're gonna have it but brethren we
are eternally secure in christ we are stable in christ it's
not wishy-washy we are we are safe we are stable we are safe
and we are eternally secure in the lord jesus christ and god
surrounds us god does our