Psalm 66. I titled the message, Trials, Providence, Purpose,
and Worship. Trials, Providence, Purpose,
and Worship. In the beginning of this psalm,
we are called upon to make a joyful noise unto God. We are called upon to make His
praise to be heard and to be glorious, majestic. And we are called to behold the
works of the Lord. Everything going on that has
gone on and shall go on is the work of God. He rules and He
overrules. He allows things, He permits
things in order to bring about His purpose. Just like Pharaoh. You think Pharaoh knew he was
doing God's will? Pharaoh was doing exactly what
he wanted to do. And in doing that, he fulfilled
the will of God, the purpose of God. And we are told in this Psalm how that God delivers His people
as He did there at the Red Sea, and there they rejoiced. They
rejoiced in God their Savior. And He lets us know that God
rules By His power. By His power He rules. And our
Lord said this in John 17. He said, Father, You have given
me power over all flesh that I should give eternal life to
as many as Thou hast given Me. And Lord Jesus Christ right now
rules over all flesh. He has that power. He said before
going back to glory, that all power and all authority is given
to Me in heaven and earth. It is vested in Jesus Christ. Now in verse 8 and 9, we are
told to bless God and to make His praise to be heard, that
it is God who holds our life, He holds our soul in life, or
He put us our soul and life. He keeps us alive both physically
and spiritually. We have life from the dead, spiritual
life from the dead because God has given it to us. No one can
take that from us. No one can take our life on this
earth from us. Someone said we are immortal
until God makes us mortal to take us home. We are safe. in all situations, at all times. We don't act like it. We don't
always feel like we're safe. But we are. We are. We are safe
in the shepherd's fold. And then in verse 10 and 12,
the psalmist tells of God's dealings with His children. The church. 10 through 12, we see the Lord's
dealing with the church throughout the ages. The church in every
age will experience verse 10, 11, and 12. Every one of them. Every individual child of God
will experience. Now, I'm telling you, you're
going to experience it, and many of you have already experienced
it. Verse 10, 11, and 12. Because it is the heritage trials
are the heritage of God's people. They are the heritage of His
people. Now, He says here in verse 10, For thou, O God, hast
brought us, thou hast brought us, and thou, O God, hast proved
us, He says in verse 11, thou hast brought us, but he says
in verse 10, for thou, O God, hast proved us. You've put us to the test. You've
tested our love. You know, in one place in the
Old Testament, God said He left certain things in the land to
prove their love to Him, to prove their love to Him. Thou, O God, has proved us. Thou hast tried us as silver
is tried." Silver is tried and proven in the furnace. That's
where it's tried. Trials, as I said, are the heritage
of God's children. Listen to 1 Peter 1, verses 5
and 7. Speaking of God's children, he
said, "...who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, to be revealed, ready to be revealed in the last time,
wherein ye will greatly rejoice. Though now for a season, if need
be, you are in heaviness through manifold many different temptations."
Trials, that's what he's talking about. Temptations. "...that
the trial of your faith," that's what he's trying, that's what
he, "...thou hast proved us." proved our faith, that the trying
of your faith, being more precious than of gold that perishes, whatever
it is God puts us through is more precious than the gold that
perishes, though it be tried with fire. that it might be found
unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. That it be found to be real and
not counterfeit. Not counterfeit at all. We see
by verse 10 that God is the author of our trials, all of them. He's
the author of our trials and nothing happens to any of God's
children by accident. Nothing happens to us by accident.
Everything is designed by our Heavenly Father. Every trial
is designed. It's literally tailor-made for
you, individually, and as a church. Trials are designed by Him, right
down to the very tear that it brings out of your eyes. That's
designed of God. David said in one place, put my tears in a
bottle. He's designed our trials. And
that being so, then we know that they are good for us. They're
good for us. And here's the providence of
God. Thou broughtest us into the net. There's a time set for
every trial. There's a time for us to meet
it, or for God to bring us into it, And it'll be God who'll bring
us through it. When you go through the water,
He said, I'll go with you. It'll be God who brings us out of it.
And when He brings us out of it, we'll praise Him. Our praise,
and I'll get to this in a minute, but our praise will be more glorious
and more rich, more heart. We'll sing with more heart. They'll
cause us, when God brings us through them, they will cause
us to sing unto Him with more heart than we did before that
happened. That's why He said, there did
we rejoice. After they brought Him to the Red Sea, there did
we rejoice in Him. They could not have rejoiced
in God on the other side of the Red Sea before they went through
it. Not like they did after they went through it. My, can you
imagine walking through that, seeing those walls of water way
up over your head? Can you imagine that? And walking
on dry ground? Walking on dry ground through
where the ocean is standing up on like walls on left and right,
and they're walking. They did that. They did that. That happened. They looked at
that. And when they got to the other
side, they watched that whole sea just come in. They watched
that. And there, He says, did we rejoice
in Him. The greatest rejoicing happens
when God brings us through a real heartache. And when we look back,
we say, there did I rejoice in Him. There. Thou brought us into the net,
caught in the net. Thou laidest affliction upon
our loins, You know, our Lord, it is said in Acts, was delivered
into their hands, into the hands of sinners. God delivered Him
up. He was delivered. And God delivers
us up to afflictions. He brings us into the net. Yes,
God our Father. God our Father does this. He does it. All God's children
must go down this road. And it's a road well-traveled
by all the saints of God. They've all traveled this road,
and you and I are going down it too. We will go down it. You know, when Job spoke of all
his losses, he said, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. He's the one who brought this
on me. He's the one who allowed this. You and I can't see into that
secret chamber of the Lord. We can't see into the secret
counsel of the Lord concerning each one of us. We know that
it has to do with our redemption. We know it has to do with being
conformed to the image of Christ. We know it has to do with His
eternal glory, our eternal good. But to know those things that
He has appointed... Job speaks of God appointing
his afflictions. They're appointed. They have
their appointed time, and they have their appointed duration,
and they have their appointed purpose. Every one of them. Every one of them. And here's
something that's comforting to God's children in trials. When it comes to trials, Thou
broughtest us into the net. Now, God uses means, He'll use
men, he'll use whatever situation, everything serves God. But God
brought us into it, he'll bring us out of it. That's what he
said to the children of Israel over in Deuteronomy, I brought
you in that I may bring you out. I brought you into Egypt, didn't
he? He brought them in 70 strong, and they went out over a million,
they think. Over a million. I brought you
into that place and I might bring you out of that place to the
land of flowing with milk and honey. Oh, here's the comfort to God's
children in trials. God brought us into the net. The net's not in the hands of
men. The net's not in the hand of
Satan. He may use their hands, but it's in the hand of our God.
It's in God's hand. You know, Paul, when he wrote
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, where did he write that from?
Prison in Rome, didn't he? But you know, he never called
himself a prisoner of Rome. Paul did not call himself a prisoner
of Rome. He said, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ, not Rome. Rome has no power over me. He
called himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I'm here because
it's the Lord's will. The Holy Spirit revealed to Paul
that in every city there awaited him bonds and afflictions. Trials, listen. Something else
here, you know, Paul called himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ. But
some of these trials that God sent on Paul, that God sent on
David, that God sent on Abraham, and you can just go to the list
of it. They can be severe, as we count
severe. They can be severe. He said, "...as silver is tried."
That's in the furnace. "...laid afflictions on our loins."
That's a heavy load. A heavy load. Men rode over our
heads." That means they were laid down prostrate, flat on
the ground. He said, they just rode over
our heads. The enemy did. He said, they
went through fire and water. Verse 12, we went through fire
and water. Heavy, heavy trials are appointed, especially to
some of God's children. Not all of God's children go
through really heavy, heavy, severe trials, but some do. Some
do. Listen to this. Revelations 2.10.
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the
devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be
tried. And you shall have tribulation
ten days. Be thou faithful... Now listen. Be thou faithful
unto death. Look at the end of all the apostles
on this earth. martyred, except John, martyred. You go back and look at many
of the saints. "'Be thou faithful unto death, and I'll give thee
a crown of life.'" He's saying here to his saints
that some of them are going to suffer to the point of death. He said, you be faithful. Now
listen to Zechariah 13, verse 7 and 9. Listen to this. Awake,
O sword, against my shepherd. That's against Christ. That's
the law dealing with Christ. And against the man that's my
fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon the little
ones. And it shall come to pass, and in all the land, saith the
Lord, two parts thereof shall be cut off and die. Two thirds
of the land's gonna be cut off and die. But the third shall
be left therein. Now listen. And I will bring
the third part through the fire, and I will refine them as silver
is refined, and will try them as gold is tried, and they shall
call on my name, and I will hear them, I will say, it is my people,
and they shall say, the Lord is my God. but here's how I'm
going to have them. Here's what they're going to
experience. They're going to go through the fire, and I'm
going to refine them like silver. I'm going to burn the dross off.
Our Lord put away our sins, all right? He put them away before
God's law, before God's justice. Our sins don't exist no more.
But you and I experience sin every day. And we sin. We sin every day. We sin every
second, really. We sin a lot. And our Lord purges
us through trials from our sins, our daily lives, daily living,
and brings us closer to Him. And that brings me to the purpose
of these trials. He says, Thou hast caused men
to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through
water. But you brought us out into a wealthy place. What's the purpose of all these
trials? What's the purpose of God putting
us through these trials that are called fire and water and
men riding over our heads and causing us to be caught in the
net like the bird, you know, is caught in a net or the fish? What's the purpose? Well, first
of all, to conform us to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. You cannot be conformed to Christ
any other way. You can't be. Spurgeon said this,
God had one Son without sin, but He never had a son without
trials. Not a one. Then, to make us see
and feel our need of Christ as we pass through this life, You
know how when the sun is shining all the time, how easy it is
to get complacent? It's not until a storm rolls
by that we begin to think. We begin to think upon the Lord. But it's to make us feel our
need and see our need of Christ day by day and not become complacent. and then is to burn away the
dross of sin, that we might be as Enoch and walk with God." I think this is so. I believe
this is so, this statement I'm going to make. It seems the closer
the walk with God, the hotter the trials. The closer the walk,
I'm telling you, mark it down. The closer the walk, the hotter
the trials. Look at the lives of Abraham,
the lives of Abraham and Jacob and Job, and these men that walked
with God. Look at their lives. They were
tried. They were tried. To walk with God as Enoch. Enoch walked with God. We walk
with God by faith. But to walk with God is to walk
in sincerity, is to walk in holiness, is to walk in a manner that's
pleasing to Him. I'm telling you, the closer the
walk, the harder the trials. And then, these trials make us
more youthful. There's a program on television
called Forged in Fire. You know, they'll make a sword
and they have to forge it and they got to quench it in oil,
fire quench it and oil quench it. I'm telling you, God forges
his children in the fire. He makes you fit for the Master's
use. You're not fit for the Master's
use until He forges you in the fire and gets rid of some of
the dross. We always have dross, that's
why we always have trials. We never completely get rid of
sin. And then it's to make us more
compassionate. I thought about this statement,
and I sat down and I thought about, I look back at my years,
my years, Especially after believing the gospel, I look back and I
thought of this, because I'm guilty of it. Rarely have I seen
young people visiting the sick and the elderly, unless it's
a family member. But as we get older in the Lord,
I'm speaking to believers, as we grow older in the Lord, we
grow more compassionate. If we don't, something's wrong.
Something's dead wrong if we don't grow more compassionate
and more gracious. The young don't, I've never seen,
I don't remember, I don't, I'm sure they have, okay, but I have
not known anyone in their youth to go and visit the elderly or
the sick and afflicted, unless it was a family member. But as
you and I grow older, we realize the grace of God, we realize
the needs of others. that we didn't realize when we
were young. We don't realize the spiritual needs of others.
Just a visit, I'm telling you, just a visit, it just can make
a person's day. My dad thanked me for coming
over. And then these trials, listen,
they work for us. It says in 2 Corinthians 4, 17,
18, listen to this. Paul speaking of our afflictions,
he said, for our light affliction. Now he's been speaking about
going through fire and water and men riding over our heads
and being brought into the net. And he calls them, Paul calls
them light afflictions. Paul was stoned. They thought
he was dead. I mean, he had so many, it was a shipwreck and
all those things that he mentions in the Corinthians. And he says,
these are light afflictions. Listen now, for our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us. Do you realize how the
trial is actually working for you? God is making that trial
work for you. It worketh for us a far more
exceeding and eternal weight of glory. I thought today, I said, trials
like investments work for us. They work for us. They bring spiritual investments
to us, spiritual growth, spiritual knowledge of Christ. And then
trials, if I can say it this way, and I believe I can, trials
purify our worship. They really purify our worship.
They really get rid of the dross and we're sincere. When God's
put you through something, when you sing, you're sincere about
it. When you work to worship, the worship becomes more sincere.
They purify our worship. And then they bring us to God,
not away from Him. They bring us to Him. They bring
us to God, and listen, they bring us into a wealthy place. He said,
all these that you have done, thou hast brought us into a wealthy
place, a moist place. I'm gonna tell you something,
if a trial makes you think upon God, you're in a good place,
you're in a wealthy place. If a trial weans you from this
world and makes you less interested in the things of this world and
more interested in the things of God, you've been brought into
a wealthy place, a wealthy place. And you'll notice here what it
does, here's something else it does, and this brings me to worship.
It brings us to truly worship. Verse 13, I will go into thy
house with burnt offerings. What God requires, I will come
into your house, I will. That's commitment. That's one
of the vows that David had made. Assuming David wrote this, I'm
sure this is one of the vows he made. I will come into your
house and I will praise you. I'll go into your house with
burnt offerings. I will pay thee my vows, which my lips have uttered,
and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble." You ever promise to do something
if God brings you through something or out of something? I know we'd
be very, very careful making a vow, because you make it, you
keep it before God. David said here, he did, he made
a vow. And he said, I'm going to keep that vow. You know, it's
not just something to get out of trouble, it's something that's
very serious. It's serious. But I thought of this. I thought
when I read this, I will go into thy house with burnt offerings.
I'll pay thee my vows, which my lips have uttered and my mouth
has spoken when I was in trouble. I thought, oh, to grace, how
great a debtor I am daily constrained to be. debtors of grace, debtors
to the grace of God. And I'll offer unto thee burnt
sacrifices of fatlings, the best I have, the best I have. I'll give to God with the incense
of rams. I offer bullocks with goats.
Oh, he says, Selah. I'll tell you what, when we gather,
when we come here to worship, we need to Selah before we come
in here. Pause and think about it. Pause
and think about it before you ever come in His doors. Now He says here, Come and hear, all ye that fear God. These are
the only ones who will hear. These are the only ones who will
hear. But the message is to you who fear God. and I will declare
what He hath done for my soul." You know, before it was, come
and see the works of God, how terrible they are toward the
children of men. But now it's to the children
of God, it's come and hear. And I'll tell you what God's
done for me. Like that woman at the well, she went to the
city and she said, come and see a man, come and see, come and
hear a man who's told me everything I ever did. Come and hear. I have something
to say. Listen, until God trains us and
teaches us, we don't have anything to say. Until God saves us, we
have nothing to say. But boy, after He does, we have
something to say. We have a message. We have a
message. He's redeemed my soul. He has
made me whole. He has made me accepted in the
Beloved. He has made me righteous. He
has cleansed me from all my sins. He has taken me like a bran plucked
from the fire. He has raised me up to glory.
He's made me a son, a son of God. I'm looking at children
of God. That's just over our heads. Coming here, and I'll tell you
what God has done. Everybody here has got a testimony.
Everybody here who believes the gospel, you've got a testimony
to the grace of God. He has saved your soul. He has brought you through the
fire. He's brought you through the fire. I used to love to sit
down. I still do. Of course, Henry's gone, but
to be with the Lord, but I used to love to sit down and just
listen to him talk about different things and the past and things
that the Lord's brought him through and just to listen to them men
talk. Scott and those men, you know,
those older men whom the Lord has taken. Oh, I tell you, I wish young people
would take advantage of the elderly in Christ. Those who have been
around a while and grown up in grace and they've experienced
the trials and they got something to say. They got something to
say as to what God has done for them. I cried unto him, he said in
verse 17, with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.
Listen, it is true worship when we can cry and sing at the same
time. That's true worship, when we
can cry and sing at the same time. Now, he says here, know this,
in verse 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not
hear me. God doesn't hear hypocrites.
But now, can a child of God regard that as favor, look with favor
on iniquity in his heart? Can that happen? Yeah, it can. David says in Psalm 32, verse
3 and 5, this is after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. He said, when I kept silence,
he wasn't going to confess his sins. My bones waxed old through my
roaring all the day long. Day and night, thy hand was heavy
upon me. My moistures turned into the
drought of summer. Then he said, I acknowledge my
sin unto thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I'll
confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin. But I tell you what, it took
him a while to get there. It took him a while to get to this
point. Some say it was about a year. I don't know. I don't
know how they come up with that number, but some say about a
year. If I regard with any favor, Do not confess my sins before God. He said He will not hear me.
He will not hear me. But look in verse 19, But verily
God hath heard me. So it's evident He had confessed
and He didn't harbor any thoughts of iniquity, choice iniquity
in His heart. But we can apply this to the
Lord Jesus Christ who knew no sin. This applies to Him. He knew no sin and He was always
heard. He's the one who could say, search
me and know me and see if there'd be any wicked way in me. John said this in 1 John 1 verse
9, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Aren't
you thankful for verses like that? Those verses are for us. They are for us. And last of
all, he says, he ends it with this, Bless God. Bless God. Give unto Him the glory due unto
His name. Bless His holy name. Bless God. which has not turned
away my prayer, nor His mercy from me." He has not turned away
my prayer. You ever have anyone turn you
away when you try to talk to them? You ever have anybody just ignore
you? You're trying to say something
to them? Or they tell you to leave or
get out? He said, God hasn't ran me off.
He still lets me come to the mercy seat. And He's not taking
His mercy from me. His mercy still follows me. Listen,
God has every reason to do so. He has every reason not to hear
me. I give a thousand reasons a day for God not to hear me
and to take His mercy from me, but He doesn't do it. Because
God's a covenant God, and God delights to show mercy. And He's
never going to turn away any of His children. As Paul said,
He has not cast away His people, whom He foreknew. Blessed be God, which has not
turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me. That's a good one to end on,
isn't it?