Turn back to Psalm 31. I'm going to look at a few things
that's in this chapter. I'm not going to deal with every
verse. It would be way too long. But there are some key words in this psalm I want to
pick up on. Now, this psalm was given as
you see in the heading of it, to the chief musician. This psalm was to be put to a
psalm. They were to sing this. Even with all the trouble that
he mentions in this psalm, David says, he gives it to the chief
musician, he says, you sing this. And as I was looking at this
today, and just looking at that heading, I was thinking that
the Lord always calls us to triumph in our troubles, and we do have
something to sing about as He brings us through them. They
make us look to Him. They teach us our dependence
on the Lord. They show us how frail we are. And they show us how that our
God is able to deliver. He's able to keep us. He's able. Troubles will not destroy us. God will not send anything, anything
into the life of any of His children that will destroy them. He will
not do it. Now there are some things that
you would think might destroy you. And there are times something
comes into your life, my life, and I think, how is this good? How can this be good? And you
feel like it's going to destroy you, but it's not. It's not. In fact, it's going to conform
you to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. As an example, back years ago,
when I first, Vicki and I first heard the gospel, we were living
in Milton. And we were driving down to 13th
Street. And the company I was working
for went out of business. And I mean, we were, the boys
were just babies and we were up against it. We were up against
it. And I kept thinking, and I was saying, I said, why does
the Lord make it so hard to hear the gospel? We want to hear the
gospel. I want to hear the gospel. Why does he make it so hard?
Well, looking back, it's trial of faith. That's a trial of faith. We would drive down. I mean,
we wouldn't have five dollars to our name. We'd drive to Ashland,
hear the gospel and come back. And I mean, broke. And I think,
why does He make it so hard? We just want to hear the gospel.
It's a trial of faith. It's a trial. And it never broke
us. It never broke us. Our Lord,
I've learned this over the years, and I can say this to anyone,
to any young believer, No trouble that the Lord sends into your
life will ever destroy you. It will conform you into the
image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as I said, there are some
key words in this Psalm I want us to look at. First of all,
in the first verse, it's in verse 1, verse 6, verse 14, verse 19,
and verse 24. David uses this word, trust. Trust. In verse 1, I put my trust. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. In verse 6, I have hated them
that regard lying vanities, but I trust. I trust in the Lord. In verse 14, But I trusted in
thee, O Lord, I trusted in thee. Verse 19, O how great is thy
goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which
thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee. And then verse 24, Be of good
courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope
or trust in the Lord. David from the outset of this
psalm, his prayer, which is the way we should start every prayer,
is with a confession of his faith before the Lord. Lord, I trust
you. I trust you. In thee, O Lord, do I trust. It's hard to let someone down
that really trusts you, isn't it? It really is. If someone
really, really trusts you, you don't want to let them down.
How much more God? who is faithful, God who cannot
lie, God who cannot sin, God who is faithful. How much more
can we rely on Him? How much more can we trust Him
to do just as He said? He said, "'Call upon Me in the
day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.'"
Now, His deliverance of me in time of trouble is according
to His will, not mine. Because you know my will and
your will in time of trouble is now. Stop it now. Make the trouble go away now.
But it may last for weeks, months, and years. But we have this promise. I'll bring you through it. And
I'll bring you out of it. And you'll glorify me when it's
over with. Now you can trust God. He can be trusted. Now, I thought about this when
I read that first verse. You cannot trust someone you
don't know. So it's obvious here when David
says, "...in thee, Lord, do I trust." He knows Him. He knows Him. He knows the Lord. If the Lord
has revealed Himself to you, I assure you, you will trust
Him." Now, if he has it, you won't
because you can't trust someone you don't know. Paul said over
in 2 Timothy chapter 1, Paul says in verse 12, 2 Timothy
chapter 1, "...for the witchcalls I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed,
for I know whom I have believed." I know Him. This is why I'm not
ashamed. This is why I can trust Him.
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He's able to
keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day." Paul,
what have you committed unto Him? Absolutely everything. Paul said, I'm persuaded. And
I tell you this, this is when you'll trust the Lord, when you
are persuaded that He's able to keep. that He's able to keep
your soul, that He's able to save you from your sins, that
He's able. When you're persuaded of that,
when God Himself persuades you of that, that's when you'll believe
Him and trust Him. We can't pray to someone we don't
know and we can't trust someone we don't know. And how can we come to the throne
of grace boldly unless we trust Him? That's the only way we can
come to the throne of grace boldly, is if we trust the One on that
throne. He said to. He said to come. Lord, You said
to come. And I'm trusting You for it.
Look over in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6, Hebrews 11 verse
6, But without faith, Now you can just put that word
trust. Without trust, without faith, it is impossible to please
Him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that He is. That He is what? That He is who
He is. That God is as He has revealed
Himself in the Scriptures. God is not like we think He is,
naturally. He said, you thought I was altogether
like yourselves, but He's not. God is who He is. And he that
comes to God must believe that He is, listen, it goes on here,
and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. We don't come to God and say,
no, I just don't think He'll do that. I'm going to ask, but
I don't think He will. No, no, no. James said, whatever
we ask, we ask in faith. Nothing wavering. Nothing wavering. Now, what is it to trust the
Lord? To trust the Lord, as David said here, "...in Thee, O Lord,
do I put my trust." It's to lean your entire being on the Lord
at all times. It's to lean your entire being,
your entire existence on the Lord at all times. It is to trust
the Lord to save your soul for time and eternity. It's to trust Him now. It's to
trust Him for the hour. It is to trust Him for the day,
the week, the year, and forever. It's to trust Him for time and
eternity. To trust the Lord is to have full confidence, full
confidence in His person, in His power. Listen, here's
the one that gets us. We have full confidence in His
person, He's God. Jesus Christ is God. We have
full confidence in His power, He's able to save. But we have
full confidence in that He loves us. In the darkest hours, yes,
He still loves me. Yes, He loves me. When He is using the chastening
rod on me, it drips with love. We should never, ever, ever question
the love of God for us in Christ. It is pure, it is holy, it is
perfect. You know, our love for God and
our love for one another can grow. And it ought to grow. We ought to grow in love. God's
love to me can never grow. It's perfect love. It's holy love. Listen, God's love for His children
never, ever, ever diminishes in any way, shape, or form. You know, you watch a candle
burn, you see it flicker. You watch the flame flicker,
and it'll go low, and it'll be up a little bit. God's love is
always white, hot love. Pure, holy love. Have you ever
seen molten steel? Have you ever seen somebody,
or have you ever seen steel melted in these furnaces in these steel
mills. I mean, you can get to that white
hot, and what it does, it brings out that impurities. But God's
love has no impurities in it. God's love, and I'm already ahead
of myself, because that was one of the points. But get it now,
so I won't deal with it later. But God's love, God's love to
us, and if we could ever get this, God's love to us is infinite. You know the scripture calls
it everlasting love? He has loved us with an everlasting
love. Here's something that's hard to conceive. There was never
a time that God Almighty never loved me. Never a time that He
didn't love me. And I am telling you, I know
this, I'm unlovable. I'm unlovable. At times. You can ask Vicky. You know,
45 years, yeah. At times you're unlovable. But
not to God. Never to Him. Never, never, never
to Him. It's to have full confidence
in His person. To trust Him is to have full
confidence in His person, in His power, and in His love. And
then it's to trust Him and no one else. No one else. No creature merit. We never bring
before God anything we do as a reason for Him to accept us
or to hear us. We are forgiven. You know the
Scripture says we are forgiven for Christ's sake. God didn't
forgive me for my sake. He's forgiven me for Christ's
sake. Christ died for me. How do I know that? Because God's
forgiven me. He called me by His grace, He
gave me an interest in His Son, and I believe the gospel. And
many of you do too. That's evidence that God has
called you or that God has saved you. And we bring no creature
merit. We bring no ancestry. Those Pharisees
said, we're Abraham's seed. And so what? It's the promised
seed of Abraham that counts. Those fleshly seeds didn't matter.
And then we bring no religious works. That's why Paul said in
Philippians 3, I count all things as loss. You know how he named
off all these things that he has achieved? And then he says,
I count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things and do count them but dung. Not dung. And then David says something
else here. He says here, "'In Thee, O Lord,
do I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed.'" Ashamed. He says that over in verse 17,
"'Let me not be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon Thee, because I trust You, Let me never be like those spoken
of in Job 6.20. In Job 6.20 it says this, they
were confounded because they had hoped. They had a false hope. They had a false hope. You know
how many people who are given a false hope by a false preacher,
and when they die, I'm telling you, when they die, they are
going to be confounded. But I thought, Lord, we preached
in your name. We cast out devils in your name.
We've done many mighty works in your name. And he's going
to say, depart from me, I never knew you. And they are confounded.
That's why he's saying here, let me never be put to shame.
Let me never be like any of those. I pray that my faith is real. And that being so, I know this.
that I'll never be put to shame." He said, don't let me be ashamed,
that is, I've called upon you, and he's asking God to defend him, to lift him out
of trouble, to save him. He has said, God is my God. And
now he's asking God to come to his rescue. And I looked at this, and here
is how we ought to pray. This is how I ought to pray.
Because I know this, the Lord will never let me be ashamed,
and He'll never let you be ashamed. None of those who trust in Him
will ever be ashamed. And here's how we ought to pray.
Let me never be ashamed of you. Let me never be ashamed to own
you, to own you publicly, to own you not in these walls right
here, but to own you out there in the workplace. You know, that's
in the world. Don't let me ever be ashamed
to not confess you. Can that happen? Look over in 2 Timothy 1 again. He says in verse 7, For God hath
not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and
of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord? Why would Paul write that to
Timothy? There's a reason why he wrote it. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner. But be
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God." Peter said, Lord, I'll not deny you. I will never
deny you. What happened? He denied him
three times. Denied him three times. And I think there had to be maybe
a little form of shame in that. as well as fear. But by the grace of God, by the
grace of God, we are not ashamed of our Lord,
nor are we ashamed of His gospel. And we are not ashamed of His
servants, are we? And that's by God's grace. Because
there was a time we were. Paul said in Romans 1.16, "...For
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation." To everyone that believed, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. But he said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. You know there are men who know
the truth, they know it in their head anyway, but they won't preach
it. There have been men who have said, if I preach that, I believe
that, but if I preach that, I'll lose my church. Well, it's not
yours anyway to start with. I'll lose my job, is what they're
saying. I'll lose my income. Here is what is amazing though,
that the Lord has given us grace not to be ashamed of Him. Not
to be ashamed of the gospel. But here's what I find that's
just amazing. He's not ashamed of me. He's not ashamed of me. Is there
anybody in your family you're ashamed of? Huh? A drunk, a drug addict? Somebody
in your family you're ashamed of? Huh? Christ is not ashamed
of me. If Christ is not ashamed of me,
how in the world could I ever, ever be ashamed of anybody? I
mean anybody. He's not ashamed of me. The Scripture says, He's not
ashamed to call them Brethren. He's not ashamed to call them
brethren. One time, years ago, when I'd
lost my job, I had to go stand for the first time in the unemployment
line. I'd never experienced that. And
I have to say, I felt ashamed. I did. I felt ashamed standing
in that line. But when I was standing there,
When I was standing there, I thought of that Scripture. He's not ashamed
to call them brethren. The Scripture tells us in Romans
10 and 11, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.
And it tells us that He's not ashamed of us. He says He's not ashamed. Look over at Hebrews 11. I'm
trying to remember it. but I'd rather read it. Hebrews 11.16. Let's go back
a verse here. In verse 13, "...these all died
in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen
them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." This
is not our home. So don't hang on to it so tightly.
It's not home. We are on our way home. For they
that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from which they
came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
But now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly,
where God is not ashamed to be called their God. For He hath
prepared for them a city. God's not ashamed to be called
their God. Look over in Hebrews chapter
2. In verse 10, "...for it became
Him, our Lord, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things,
in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause He
is not ashamed to call them brethren." And now the other word I want
to come to in verse 5 is commit. Commit. Verse 5. Into thine hand
I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord,
God of truth. But commit. Where there's real
faith, there's a real commitment. There's a real committing. A
real committing. We commit the keeping of our
souls unto Him. That's what it says in 1 Peter
4.19, as unto a faithful Creator. We commit the keeping of our
souls. And we commit the keeping of
us in the faith to Him. Lord, keep me. Because if You
don't, I'll leave. I'm telling you, every one of
us will leave. If He doesn't keep us, we will leave. You remember, we saw this a little
bit, I think, last Sunday, I think I brought it out, where he's
talking about, eat my flesh and drink my blood. And many of the
disciples said, this is a hard saying, who could hear it? And
many of them left and went no more with him. And the Lord said,
will you also go away? And Peter said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. We have no one to go to. They
left everything. The disciples left everything.
Remember when He called James and John, they jumped out of
the boat and just left their father Zebedee in the boat and
just left. Matthew, he walked by, he was
sitting at the receipt of customs. He said, Come, follow me. He
got up and followed him, left that place. Where there's no commitment,
there's no faith. And where there's real faith,
there's a real all-out commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. I am
His and He is mine. And that's the way it is throughout
my life on this earth until we leave and then we'll go be with
the Lord. And then this verse, verse 5,
was repeated by our Lord on the cross in Luke 23, verse 46. He said, "...Father, into Thy
hand I commend my spirit, And it's been used by many martyrs.
It is said that Polycarp, when he was being martyred, he used
this verse. Stephen used it when he was being
stoned. He looked and saw the Lord Jesus,
and he said he committed his soul to Him. It was used by Hus,
and Jerome, and Luther, and all these men that used this. Into Thy hand I commit, I commit
everything. I commit the keeping of my soul. Are you afraid of what's going
on? I'm telling you I'm not. I don't have an ounce of fear.
I can say that with all honesty. My soul is kept by my Lord. There's
a hedge about me. There's a hedge about you that's
impenetrable. And if the Lord gives Satan the
okay to touch one of us, then that's alright, isn't it? That's
alright. I tell you now, either Christ
is real or He's not. Now He's real or He's not. These
men, Polycarp and Stephen and Hus, these men were burned at
the stake. Did they have anything to fear?
No. No. They went to glory in a flame. I believe it was Hus, the bishop
said to him that I was reading. The bishop said to him, he said,
Now I commit your soul to hell. And Hus said, No, now I commit
my soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over in Psalm 37. Psalm
37 verse 5, "...Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in
Him, and He shall bring it to pass." Over my margin it says,
"...Roll thy way upon Him." Roll thy way upon Him. Roll your burden
upon Him. commit everything, absolutely
everything to Him, and He will bring it to pass. And then here's another one,
the hand of God. The hand of God. He says in verse 15, My times
are in Thy hand. This is so comforting to the
believer, isn't it? Is this not comforting to you,
that your times are in His hand? My times to suffer are in His
hand. My time to do all that God has
purposed is in His hand. It's in His hand. And He will
hand it out when it's time. You'll hand it out when it's
time. I don't know what God has ordained for me. I don't know
when I'll die. I know I will. And I don't know
what God has ordained for me. But I do know this, all that
God has ordained for me is in His hand. And He'll give it to
me when it's time, as I go along the way, as I journey home. God has ordained our time to
come into this world. He has ordained our time to fulfill
our purpose for being in this world. We're not just fillers.
We're not just filling up space, taking up time. There's a purpose. Look over
in Ecclesiastes chapter 3. And this is very familiar with
you, you know this. But sometimes we let familiarity keep us from
a blessing, don't we? We say, well, I've read that
before. Well, maybe you have, maybe you haven't. I've read
some things before many times, and then all of a sudden it comes
alive. Ecclesiastes 3, to everything
there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
Time to be born, time to die. You know that the way I will
die and the time of it right down to the second is ordained
of God. It's ordained of God. You know, I was out walking today,
I've been walking this field trying to exercise, but I'm not
trying to live longer, I'm telling you. I'm not trying to live longer,
I'm not. Because I know I'm going to die
the second God has purposed and ordained it. I just want to have
a little health along the way. Be a little sensible, you know.
It's like living in a house. You know, I can let that house
run down, or I can take care of it. There's nothing wrong
with taking care of your body. It's the house you live in. It's
the house God gave you to take care of it. Look after it. There's a time to be born, a
time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up that which
is planted, harvest, a time to kill. And a time to heal. A time to break down. A time
to build up. A time to weep. A time to laugh. A time to mourn. A time to dance. A time to cast away stones. And
a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace. And a time
to refrain from embracing. Like the coronavirus. We didn't hug for a while. A
time to give. I couldn't let that go. A time
to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to
cast away. Clean out the closet. A time
to rend and a time to sow. A time to keep silence and a
time to speak. Boy, that takes wisdom, doesn't
it? Know when to shut up and know when to speak. A time to
love and a time to hate. A time of war in a time of peace. There's a time for everything,
and God has ordained it right down to the second. There's nothing
out here just willy-nilly floating around. It's ordained of God. And then, the other word is courage. Courage. I know I'm taking longer
than I thought I would, but courage. He says in verse 24, Be of good
courage." Of all people on this earth,
we should have the most courage. You say, but boy, everything
that's going on is so discouraging. In a sense, yes. But now listen,
in a sense, no. It's going according to God's
purpose. It's not like he's sitting on the throne somewhere and he
doesn't know what's going on. We should be of good courage,
right courage. That's why he says good, not
just courage. I've seen people have courage
and it was like, you're stupid. You just need to run. You know,
there's a time to run, but there's a time to have courage. And here
it's called good courage. It's courage that's given of
God. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Shouldn't that give you courage?
If God be for me, what else matters? Seriously, what else matters?
Turn over to Deuteronomy 31. Let me see where I want to start
reading. Let me go ahead and read. Let me start in verse 1.
And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel. And he
said to them, I am a hundred and twenty years old this day.
That's his birthday. I can no more go out and come
in. Also the Lord hath said unto
me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan. The Lord thy God, He
will go over before thee. and He will destroy these nations
from before thee, and thou shalt possess them. And Joshua, he
shall go over before thee, as the Lord has said. And the Lord
shall do unto them as He did to Sion and to Og, kings of the
Amorites, and unto the land of them whom He destroyed. And the
Lord shall give them up before your face, that you may do unto
them according to all the commandments which I have commanded you. Be
strong, and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them. For the Lord thy God, it is that
doth go with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee." That's why you and I are to be of good courage. God will
not fail us. He will not fail to keep us.
He will not fail to feed us. He will not fail to bring us
home. He'll not fail. He said in Hebrews 13.5, I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee. Now, the other one I dealt a
little bit with, but I'm not going to deal with it now. He says in
verse 23, Oh, love the Lord. That's a message in itself. Love
the Lord. We love Him because He first
loved us. Peter, do you love me?" That's a real relationship when
you love somebody. Now, you can like somebody and
not love them. You can say, well, I can get along with him, but
he's not somebody I want to go home with. This is the love. Peter, do you love me? Trust
the Lord. Commit thy way to Him. Commit
thy soul to keeping of your soul to Him. Trust His hand. Job said, by His hand He turns
over the mountains. What's that song, He's got the
whole world in His hand? He does. And be of good courage. My soul, when we leave here tonight,
we ought to be of good courage.