Psalm 116. I'll pick up in verse
10. The title of this message is,
Faith Speaks Out, or Faith Has a Voice. Faith has a voice. Where there is real faith, there
will be a real witness to God, to Christ, of His person, His
work. You know, down through the ages,
God has always had a witness, hasn't He? Abel. I think of Abel. And you just go on down through
there. Enoch, Noah, David. I mean, you can just go on down
through there. And all of them, all of them, walked before God
by faith. You know, it says Enoch walked
with God. Well, it says the same thing about Noah. It says Noah
walked with God. Abraham walked with God. David walked with God. Every sinner whom God has saved
walks with God. And that walk is a walk of faith. It's a walk of faith. We take
God at His Word. We take Him at His Word. That's
why we study the Scriptures. It's so important that you study
the Scriptures. Not just when you come here and
open the Bible and I preach. That's good. You'd be surprised
how many places don't even bring a Bible. My mother told me several
years ago she went to a place She told me, she said, the preacher
didn't even take a Bible in the pulpit, all he talked about was
what was in the newspaper. And he has a big congregation. They have no concept of what's
in the Word of God. But you who believe, you who
believe, you walk by faith, and you walk by faith according to
the Word of God. It's the foundation of faith. The Word of God is
the foundation of faith. Not what I think. Not what I
think. Not my opinion. At all. It's what the Word of God says. Thus saith the Lord. That's the
foundation of faith. And faith has a voice. And faith
speaks out. When you're out in the community,
when you're out at work, sooner or later, the opportunity is
going to come up and you're going to speak out. You're going to
do it. You can't keep from it. Not if you're God's child, you
can't keep from it. You have to speak out, because the Spirit of God is
in you, and that's the spirit of faith. I'll show you what
Paul says. He quotes from this verse, and
he says, "...we having the same spirit of faith." So what David
is saying here, he's saying by faith. You know, the Psalms speak
of Christ. They speak of Christ. And David
wrote a good portion of the Psalms. And in writing the Psalms, he
wrote in faith. He wrote them in faith under
the inspiration of the Spirit of God, under the power of God's
Spirit. But yet he wrote what he wrote in faith. He wrote with
full conviction, full conviction. And we see this here, he says
in verse 10, I believe, I believe, this is conviction. Therefore
have I spoken. You know, I've learned this.
What people really believe, they speak about. They're not afraid
to talk about. You find somebody that really
believes something, they're going to speak about it. Now, if someone
doesn't talk about it, they don't speak about it, when the opportunity
comes up, it's because they really don't believe it. but you speak
about what you have real convictions about. And David says here, I
believed, therefore have I spoken, and I was greatly afflicted.
First of all, faith is first evidenced by confession. It says
in Romans 10, 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. If you believe, if you confess
with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that
God raised Him from the dead, He says, you shall be saved.
David, listen, David believed that the God he worshiped is
God. It's not a God, that we don't
worship a God. We worship the only God there
is. One of the reasons that true Christianity, not a lot of this
what's going on out here today under the guise of Christianity,
but true Christianity, one of the reasons it's hated is because
it's so dogmatic. It's so dogmatic, it's so concrete,
and it is. There's one thing you learn about
truth. Truth is straight. It doesn't change. It doesn't
vary to the left or to the right. It doesn't have a crook in it.
If it's got a crook in it, it's not truth. And that's one of
the reasons it's so unpopular, is because it's so dogmatic. And David, he believed that the
God he worshipped is the only God there is. There is no other
God. There is no other God. And David believed that God,
the God he worshipped, is holy, Just, gracious, and merciful. Look back there in verse 5. Gracious
is the Lord, and righteous, and He's just. Yeah, our God is merciful. Our God is merciful. And listen,
He wrote that with conviction. You believe that? I believe that
with all my heart. I believe God is righteous. As
John said, He is light, and there's no darkness in Him. He's just,
He's gracious, He's merciful, He delights to show mercy. I
believe that. I believe that's God. That's
the character of God. And then David believed that
the God he worshiped, being the only God, is the God of salvation.
There is no other way to be saved but by Him. He's got to save me. If I'm going
to be saved, He's got to do it. And David believed God concerning
his son, because when you go reading through the Psalms, it
speaks of Christ all the way through the Psalms. Christ said
that the Psalms speak of Him. The prophets and the Psalms,
they speak of Me. They wrote, He said, they wrote
of Me. David believed that. I tell you, David believed in
the resurrection. And he spoke of it. He said in Psalm 16.10,
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine Holy One to seek corruption. He wasn't just talking about
himself. He's speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One
of Israel. He's the Holy One of Israel.
He knew there'd be a resurrection. Job knew there'd be a resurrection.
I know my Redeemer liveth. And he knew, he said, in the
last days, he'll stand upon the earth and I'll see him for myself.
Though my skin worms destroy this body, I'm gonna see him
with my own eyes and not another's. I'm gonna see him. I'm gonna
rise from the dead. He's gonna raise me up and I'm
gonna have a body and with my own eyes, new eyes, a new body,
and I'm gonna see. Job knew that and it was the
oldest book in the Bible, said to be. Said to be the oldest
book in the Bible. And he knew that. He believed
that. And he spoke of it. He spoke
of it. David believed God concerning
his covenant. He said, God has made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things insure. And David
believed God concerning that covenant. And he spoke of it.
He spoke of it. And because of his faith, he
spoke out on behalf of God, And he was afflicted for it. He was
afflicted for it. Because of his speaking out on
behalf of God, he suffered for it. He says there, and I believe,
therefore have I spoken, and I was greatly afflicted. It may
say it like this, though I was greatly afflicted, I spoke out
anyway. It didn't, I'm not gonna shut
up. Faith will not shut up, even in the face of affliction. Even
when the martyrs were being burned at the stake, they didn't shut
up. Our life's been comfortable, hasn't it? I was watching today,
reading today, Tyndale burned at the stake. You know what his
prayer was? You know what his last prayer
was when he burned him at the stake? He said, Lord, open the
king's eyes. He's talking about the King James. He said, open his eyes. And then
we ended up having this book. This is right here, the King
James verse. He didn't beg for release. He
didn't beg for them to have mercy. He just begged God to open the
king's eyes. Greatly afflicted. I spoke and
I was greatly afflicted for it. Paul quotes this verse in 2 Corinthians
4.13. Listen to what he says here.
Look how Paul used it. He says, we have the same spirit
of faith as David, Abraham, all the patriarchs, all the Old Testament,
all those who believed, we have the same spirit of faith. We
are not saved in a different way. Someone said to me back
years ago, when I very first heard the gospel, they said to
me, the Old Testament believers, or the Old Testament were saved by the blood of those
lambs. I mean, how could you even read
the Bible and get this? But they said they were saved by the blood
of those lambs and goats and stuff, and we are saved by the
blood of Christ. They are saved by the blood just
like we are. They were saved by faith just
as we are saved by faith. They were not saved by keeping
the law. They were saved by believing God. Abraham believed God. And
it's the same faith we have. And Paul says, we have in the
same spirit of faith according as it is written. And he's quoting
from this Psalm. I believed and therefore have
I spoken. Paul says, we also believe. What? What? We also believe and therefore
speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall
raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. Paul
is saying here, we have the same spirit of faith. Paul believed
God, the same God David believed. He believed concerning his son.
He believed concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
believed concerning the work, his substitutionary work. He
believed his resurrection from the dead. And he believed that
he would be raised from the dead, and all those for whom he died
would be raised from the dead. He believed that. You know how
we know it? He spoke about it. He preached
it. He preached it. People preach what they actually
believe. They do. And because of this, because
he preached it, he suffered for it. Turn over there to 2 Corinthians
4. Let me show you this. Of course,
David was suffering here in this psalm. I read you the whole psalm. David's suffering there in that
psalm. Well, listen to what Paul says here. Paul says in verse
7 of 2 Corinthians 4, But we have this treasure in earthen
vessels. that the excellency of the power
may be of God, not of us. We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. Persecuted? For what reason? I'll tell you for what reason,
preaching Christ. The same reason David was always
persecuted, for speaking of God, his God, the true God, the only
God there is, for preaching Him. Persecuted but not forsaken,
cast down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal body. So then death works
in us, but life in you. We have in the same spirit of
faith, according as it's written, I believe and therefore have
I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak, even though
we are persecuted and afflicted for it." Affliction will not
shut up faith. What'd they do with Paul? They
put him in prison. What does he do? He writes some
of the best writings of his time. He wrote those prison epistles,
Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians, and Philemon. He wrote those
epistles in prison. Paul said this, I am bound, I'm
gonna paraphrase, I'm bound, but the word of God is not bound. and affliction is not going to
stop faith. Not if you believe God. Not if
you believe God. Where there is true faith, there
will be a confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wrote this
in Romans 1. He said, I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. He said, I am ready. I am ready
to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome. In another place, he said, I
count not my life dear to me, that I might finish my course. You know, when the Lord healed
sinners, they went and told about Him, didn't they? I tell you
what, if any sinner really says that the Lord has saved them,
and they never say anything about Him, there's something wrong. When the Lord healed sinners,
they went and told about Him, even when He told them not to.
He said, don't tell anyone what they do. They went out there
and told everybody. They told everybody. They couldn't
help it. Affliction does not shut up faith. A true confessing
of Christ will bring affliction, but it won't destroy faith. It
will not destroy faith. And this can especially be applied
to our Lord. He said this, as I hear I speak. And because of his message, they
wanted to kill him. Because of what he had to say,
they nailed him to a cross. They absolutely hated him. They
hated the fact that he ate with publican sinners, people like
me and you. They hated that. They hated his message of sovereignty.
They hated that. And because of that, they nailed
Him to the cross. But you and I know that that was purposed
of God, that you and I might be redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Now, David says here, he said
in verse 11, I said in my haste, all men are liars. Well, did
you include yourself, David? I was complaining one time. When
I had my machine shop, I was complaining about the men. to
Paul Thacker, Kevin's dad, he was a partner. I was complaining
to him about the men didn't want to work, they didn't want to
come in on Saturday night, blah, blah, blah. He said, and you don't? I said,
oh, OK. He shot me right 20 eyes. Like,
you're different? You want to be here? I said,
okay, I did. I said, okay, you got me. I'm
just like them. If I didn't own it and I was
just working for it, I'd be just like them. David said, I said
in my haste, all men are liars. That'd be like me going out and
being angry and said, all men are idiots. And you're not. And you're not. But the thing
David does here, he admits. He admits, I said this in haste.
I shouldn't have said it. That's what he said. I shouldn't
have said this. I shouldn't have. Because there is a truth, all
men are liars. Let God be true, and every man
a liar. But now listen. God has saved
us from a lying tongue. God's people are honest. They
are. They're honest people. God made
them that way. God made them to be honest. You know, we just had to be careful
that we don't just lump everything in there. There used to be an
old saying I heard years ago said, be careful not to throw
the baby out with the wash. You know, just don't lump everything
into it and throw it out. But David did admit, he said,
I was hasty in saying this. Have we done that? And we've
been hasty in just condemning everybody except ourselves. But he says here, but then he
comes back to this in verse 12, and he realizes, it's like he's
sitting there and he realizes, I'm so blessed. Has God ever impressed upon you
from time to time how blessed you are? You know, after you
and I quit, you know, when we quit murmuring for a little bit,
Has he really impressed upon you from time to time how blessed
you really are? I was saying to Vicki the other
day, I said, you know, I said, we've had good health, you know,
up till now. I don't know what tomorrow will
bring. But I said, we've had good health
all of our lives. We've had good health. You know
what, can you put a price on that? You can't put a price on good
health. God has blessed us with that. He said, "...what shall
I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me or upon
me?" It's like he's overwhelmed. All of a sudden he's thinking
of all these benefits. Listen, everywhere we turn, God's
benefits are on us in nature. Didn't you enjoy the day? You
enjoyed the day. I told Vicki, I said, it's so
much easier to sit in that study when it's raining and when it's
95 degrees out, I said, but it's 75 degrees. I said, it's hard
to sit in there. It was a beautiful day. What
a day. You know why we had a beautiful
day? Because Jesus Christ died for
a multitude of people that's on this earth. You take the church
away, and there's not going to be a good day. There would not
be a good day. The beautiful day is for us. It's for us. It's for us. The
unbelievers, they get to enjoy it. You think they blessed God
today for it? No, they blessed Mother Nature.
Oh, Mother Nature shined on us today. No, God did. God did. Let's give Him the glory
for it. And then the benefits of his
providence. There's a few of you still go to work. Some of
you are retired. I think we're about half retired
and half go to work. But the benefits, the blessing
to have a job, to go to work, that's a blessing. Man, and to have the health to
do it, and the intelligence to do your job. Providence and the benefits of
grace. Grace, what we see Sunday? Grace
upon grace, grace upon grace. We see here David contemplating
on the mercies of God. He said, how shall I acknowledge
it? What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits?
You know what we're going to render to the Lord? You know
what the best thing, the best thing to render to God for all
his benefits. And it's so simple. You know
what it is? Thank you. Thank you. I mean, right from the bottom
of my heart, thank you. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you for this place. Thank
you for your word. I mean, there's no end to it. There's no end to it. We give unto Him the glory due
unto His name. Now in verse 13, David tells
us what he will do. He said, I'll tell you what I'm
going to do. What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits?
Well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to take the cup
of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord, and we can
read it like this, and bless the name of the Lord. That's
what I'm going to do. I would to God from this day
forward that I could and you could bless His holy name from
the time we get up to the time we go to bed. Thank Him for every
breath we take. I will offer praise for temporal
salvation. Whatever trouble I'm in, He's
delivered me out of it. For spiritual salvation, born
of God, lifted me out of the pit. And eternal salvation, someday
I'll be with Him forever and ever and ever. John Gill said this, he said,
this is said in allusion to a master of a family who at the close
of a feast or a meal used to take, he'd take up a cup in his
hands, he'd take a drink of it and he'd give thanks and then
he'd pass it around. Is this what our Lord did at
the Last Supper? At the end of the meal, he took
the cup. After he broke the bread, he
took the cup, and he blessed it. He drank it, and he passed
it around. He gave thanks. And this is why
we commemorate the Lord, you know, and when we take the Lord's
table, in remembrance of Him, we take the cup. The cup. Listen. The Lord Jesus Christ
took the cup of God's wrath, and He drank it. He drank it. He drank it dry. And now we take
that cup by faith and we are saved. We are saved. We look to Him, that cup of salvation,
that cup of mercy, that cup is filled with His blood. We take it by faith and we are
saved. Delivered. Delivered. And he says here,
I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of His people.
You know, back in that day, especially back in that day, God's people
were in trouble, and you can read through this when you read
the Old Testament, they didn't make a vow or vows, and they
would do so in the presence of witnesses. And when they were
delivered, they would pay their vows in the presence of those
witnesses that they made the vows, in the presence of thy
people. But I thought this, I thought,
we can apply this to our Lord fulfilling His vows made in that
covenant of grace. And He's doing so right in the
midst of the church. Do you know that's what's going
on right now? He's fulfilling the vows that He made in that
covenant of grace to the Father. And He's fulfilling it. And He's
doing it right in our midst. Did God save you? One of the
vows was that He's going to bring you home. He's going to be your
surety. He's going to stand as your surety
and He's going to bring you home spotless, unblameable, unreprovable
in His sight. And He's doing it. He's doing
it. He brought you to faith and someday
He's going to bring you to the grave. And that's just going
to be a door to bring you into His presence forever and ever.
Because He says in the next verse, in verse 15, precious in the
sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Precious? You know when one of your loved
ones dies, I'm saying one of your loved ones that believes
in the Lord, is that precious in your sight? I heard Henry say this, he said,
that's not precious in my sight. When I lose, you know, he buried
two of his children. You couldn't, you can't say it's
precious as God's saying it's precious here. But it's precious,
precious. That's a, what a word. And this
is, this is, this is the way God sees it. And the way God
sees it is the way it is. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints." Now, I'm going to give you, and
I copied this down from Henry. I listened to a message on this. I'm just going to give you a
few points. And I thought, I'm not going to improve on this.
I'm not going to prove it. I'm not going to act like it's
mine either. But listen, he said this. He said, the Lord does
not see as we see. He does not see us as part of
an earthly family, but as His family. That's different, isn't
it? He doesn't see us as part of
an earthly family, but as part of His family. And then it's precious because
that is why He came to redeem them, to be with Him. It says
in John 14, I go and prepare a place for you. If I go and
prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you to
Myself. That where I am, There you may be also. It's precious
because now He's bringing you home. The pilgrim is coming home. Pilgrim's coming home. The journey
in this wilderness, like Israel journeyed in the wilderness and
then they crossed Jordan, the journey in the wilderness
is over. We're now entering into the promised land. wherein dwells
righteousness." It says, nothing that offends
will enter into that kingdom. No more tears, no more sorrow.
Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? That's why faith is a gift
of God. And then, it's precious because
it puts an end to all suffering and sin and makes them into His
image. You know, right now, you and
I are being conformed to the image of Christ, you know that?
That image is finished. It's finished when we enter into
His presence. We are in the full-blown image
of Christ. And then their entrance into
glory will glorify Him. It's the final end. It's like
in the book of Revelation. You get to the last chapter,
the last verse, and after that it says, the end. The end. I like a verse that I read here
today. If we can apply this to us spiritually,
when we die, when you die, you know, if you die before me, I'll
do your funeral. I've done nine funerals since
I've, nine or 10 funerals since I've been here. But listen to
this. The nobleman saith unto him that
is under Christ, sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus says
unto him, Go thy way, thy son liveth. He's not dead. He liveth. And the man believed the word
that Jesus had spoken to him and he went his way. And his
son was alive. He didn't die. He was very healthy
when he got home. Thy son liveth. And when I stand
here and I preach the funeral of a son or daughter of the King,
I can say with absolute confidence, Thy son liveth. Thy daughter, the daughter of
God, the daughter of Christ, the Son of the Lord, the Son
of God, He liveth. He liveth. More alive than when
we were here. And he says here in verse 16,
Oh Lord, truly, truly, and this is a humbling statement. Think
about who's making it, the king. Oh Lord, truly I am thy servant.
I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid. Thou hast
loosed my bonds. We know that Christ was truly
God's servant. We know that. He's spoken of
throughout the Old Testament as the servant. He said, I came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give my life
a ransom for many, for many. I am thy servant. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the perfect servant, but we are his servants too.
David said, I am thy servant. David being king did not let
that overshadow him being the Lord's servant. We are His servant
first, aren't we? That's what we are. We're the
servant. No title. David didn't say, I'm thy king. I'm your chosen king. I'm the
one you anointed king. No, I'm your servant. I'm your
servant. All titles are gone. I'm thy
servant. And we are His servant, whether
we're on a throne, whether we're running a corporation or digging
a ditch. We are His servant, and one's
not greater than the other. One's not greater than the other.
And though He set us free, He's loosed our bonds, yet we are
willing bond slaves. Isn't that something? Free, but yet willing bond slaves. But note the humility here. He
says here, "...and the son of thine handmaid, not ashamed of his heritage."
Not ashamed of his heritage. But here's something that you
really need to... Here's a real blessing.
He says, "...the son of thine handmaid." What a blessing to
be born to godly parents. Timothy, your grandmother and
your mother taught you the scriptures when you were young. You learned
them when you were young from your mother and your grandmother. What a
blessing to be, you know, people think it'd be a blessing to be
born rich, to be born into, you know, Bill Gates home or, you
know, one of these wealthy the greatest blessing God can give
any child to be born into a house of believing parents, even if
they have to scrap for their bread. Thou hast loosed my bonds. Thou
hast set me free from my sins. Thou hast set me free from the
bonds as a slave to Satan. Thou hast set me free as a slave
to this world. Thou hast set me free from it.
free whom the Son sets free, free indeed. And then in closing,
David vows here, and all of God's children vow this, by the grace
of God, I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving. I was trying to look at that
word today. A sacrifice? A sacrifice. Is it really a sacrifice to come
here and thank God? But here's the sacrifice we offer.
It's one of thanksgiving. And I'll call upon the name of
the Lord. That is, I'll praise the name of the Lord. I'll pay
my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people.
He's talking here about public worship. Because he says in verse 19,
I'm going to pay my vows, I'm going to do this in the presence
of God's people, and I'm going to do it in the courts of the
Lord's house, in the temple. I'm going to do it right there
in the temple, right before the Lord's people. I'm going to be with
them, I'm going to gather with God's people, and I'm going to praise
God with them. I'm going to praise God with
them. Rather than God's people don't look for a reason to stay
home, they look for a reason to be here. They don't look for
a reason to stay home. They find one to be at the Lord's
house. In the courts of the Lord's house,
in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem, praise ye the Lord. Faith has
a voice and faith speaks out no matter what the affliction
is. And I tell you what, faith is determined to worship with
God's people and give unto Him the glory due unto His name.
All right.