morning y'all we'll be turning
to psalm 44 psalm 44 i sent the email out but uh Just to remind
a brother Mark's in the hospital, got a infection in both his legs.
They went in for some physical therapy the other day and they
sent him over to the hospital and they've admitted him and got him on some
IV antibiotics and they hope to have him released back home
this evening, sometime this evening, hopefully. So we'll see what
the Lord has for him, but as they're on your heart, ask the
Lord comfort them in this trial that he sent. and he accomplishes
what he sent to trial for. Psalm 44. We're going to look
at the first eight verses this morning. Next week, I think we'll
go look at the remaining verses, but I want to look at just the
first eight. We're going to see a believer that's strong in faith. A believer that's strong and
faced. And then in these first eight verses, before we get that
Selah, pause, stop, consider these things. We just see praise
and repeatedly declaring, thou, thou, here's what you did. You
Lord, you did this. And then in verse nine, after
that Selah, it takes another turn. Something changes. And the focus goes from thou,
thou, thou to us, us, us, our, our, our. You ever get sorrowful
when you look into self? You ever happy when you see him?
If that's us speaking, if this applies to me and I'm saying,
my, my, my, our, our, our, us, us, us, that's bad. And there's sorrow that goes
with it. But next week, we'll look at them last verses. If
that's the Lord speaking, that we're made one with, boy, that's
precious. And it's right, it's true. But I wanna just look at
these first eight verses this morning. The heading there, if
you have a heading in your Bible, mine says, to the chief musician
for the Sons of Korah, Maschiel. We don't know who wrote this
song. David's name is not on it. Old Brother Calvin said anybody
but David wrote this song. But that's good. It's good we
don't know that David wrote it. You know why? If it hasn't already,
there will come a day when this Psalm applies to the believer,
to us, to me, to you. When we have strong faith to
praise the Lord, no matter what. When them sons of Cora are coming
after us and we say, Lord, you're right. This is good. This is good. There'll come a
day that's going to happen. And there's going to come a day when
we're completely overthrown in our sorrows. when we think we're
right, when we think we're justified all by ourselves, and why me?
And so those things are right. God-given faith goes to the Lord. God-given faith that he gives,
it praises him no matter if the times are good or if the times
are bad. Now, it takes a long time to grow in grace to be able
to honestly give him the praise through the tough times. When
times are good, it's a whole lot easier. But it takes a long
time. We have to be taught over and
over and over again through trials, one on top of another, to be
taught to bow to him. And if he gives faith, he's going
to prove that faith. If he gives belief, he's going
to prove to us that we believe him. It's going to happen. It
takes a long time for us to be grown in grace, to acknowledge
him, to see that it's his hand that's working all things, all
things. This is bad. The old man says,
the new man says, this is good. The Lord's right. But we can't
handle those hard times. We can't handle those sorrowful
times unless first we do have good news. Bad news on top of
bad news, it compounds itself. But if there's good news, then
we can make it through the bad news, what we call bad news.
This is simple, though. How are we going to have that?
For us to hear the good news, the gospel, we have to hear it. You get that? For us to hear
the good news, we have to hear it. Somebody's gotta tell us,
don't we? Look here in verse one. For we
have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us what
work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. We have
heard with our ears, this psalmist writes. Someday we'll say that
if we're his. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. What are we going to hear? It
says there, our fathers have told us what the work work thou
didst in their day. That's singular, isn't it? That's
not a, there's not an S on the end of that word. It's singular.
There's a work. It's a blessing to have physical fathers and
mothers to tell us the work of God and what he did in them. And that is a rare thing. My children are the only children
in this room today. It's a rare thing to have parents that tells
you the truth about God. Strikingly rare. But we're told
to. Aren't you commanded to? Is that
what the Lord said? He said in Exodus 12 concerning
the Passover. He said, it shall come to pass.
We're going to have this Passover. You're going to have this feast
that your children say unto you, what mean you by this service?
Daddy, why are we doing this? Why do I have to get this lamb
and why are we roasting it and why are we doing these things?
And ye shall say, it's the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. Remember
in the New Testament, the Lord said, he went down and he said,
this is the Jews Passover. Y'all just clean left it. You handed
down no gospel to your children. You did a lot of religion. You
read the scriptures a whole bunch, but you didn't know what you
was talking about. You didn't hand nothing down. He said, whenever your children
ask, you tell them it's the Lord's Passover, who passed over the
houses of children of Israel and Egypt. when he smote the
Egyptians and delivered our houses. You tell them what the Lord did.
And he talked about that whenever the offering of the firstborn.
He said, and when your son asked thee in the time to come, saying,
what is this? You shall say, by the strength
of hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt. We offer our firstborn. We dedicate them to the temple
when they're young because the Lord brought us out. out of the
house of bondage. And he talked about that given
at the law of Sinai. You tell your children concerning that
mountain of fire and that holy law and our need of a mediator,
says in Deuteronomy 4, 9, teach them thy sons and thy sons' sons. You teach your children, you
teach your grandchildren. You do it. Some young people don't
have believing fathers and some young people don't have believing
mothers. Some of them do. Some young people only have believing
mothers. We touched on that a little bit when we looked at Genesis
18 verse 19, when Abraham commanded his house and all of them that
was with him, the whole household, everybody he was responsible
for, not just his offspring, everybody he come in contact
with. Based on his property, he commanded them. And we looked
at that slide, because sometimes there's believing mommies that
don't have believing husbands or their widows. What are they
to do? Paul told Timothy, he said, I call on to remembrance
that unfeigned faith that's in thee, which dwelt first in thy
grandmother, Lois, and in thy mother, Eunice. There was a believing
grandmother and a believing mother. Now, whether they was widows,
we don't know. Whether they had husbands, but they were unbelieving
husbands, we don't know. But they taught their sons, didn't
they? They taught Timothy. How will the parents know to
tell them? How's mommy and daddy? That's why we don't have children's
programs here. My job is to teach the parents
and the children will pick up more than you think. They correct
some of y'all too, don't they? They'll pick up more than you
think. But I teach the parents. The Lord teaches me. I teach
the parents. They'll teach them. The Lord's going to do the sending.
He'll send a preacher to teach the children of God, whether
they're young or old. It don't make a difference. and then the
children or the parents. He's gonna send them to teach
who he is and what work, singular, that Christ accomplished. That's
what they're gonna do. Paul said, my little children.
He wrote to that church at Galatia, to the Galatians. Paul said,
my little children. You recognize somebody there that was older
than Paul? Maybe one or two. Bob, you're one of my little
children. Paul said, my little children of whom I travail in
birth again until Christ be formed in you. I'm going to keep telling
you the same thing until someday God might be pleased to save
one or two of you. My little children. He wasn't the only
one, was he? John said that. That son of thunder
said, we'll burn this town down. You want us to call down fire,
Lord? Lord softened him, didn't he? He said in 1 John 2, he said,
my little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin
not, and when any man sins, you just remember we have an advocate
with the Father, Christ Jesus the righteous. That's the one
message, that's the one work, isn't it? Look at verse one again.
We have heard with our ears, oh God, our fathers have told
us what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. What
about them old things? Verse two. How thou didst drive
out the heathen with thy hand. You took those enemies out with
your hand and plantest them. You took your people and you
planted them. How thou dost afflict the people and cast them out.
We're all heathens. That's the truth. But in grace
and in love and in mercy, the Lord has a people. He does. And
it says here, by your hand, our enemies are driven out. That's
what your hand does. And by your hand, we are planted. The Lord's planted us. What does
it say there in Psalm 1? It said, he shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water. We're put there. Psalm 92, those
that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in
the courts of our God. If he puts you there because
we're two or three gathered, they think they can gang up on
God. We'll just work. Everybody get over. We're going
to have a prayer meeting. He said where I've gathered,
where he gathered, didn't it? Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord, those that are gathered there in his house, they'll flourish
in the courts of God. It's plain in the scriptures that the Lord
elected a people. I don't want to preach election,
I want to preach the God of election. But it's plain that he's elected
a people. That's all there is to it. He had to. That's good
news to us, isn't it? But it's also true, he told those
Pharisees, oh, you hypocrites. He said, you know how many times
I'd have gathered you underneath my wings like a hen gathers her
chicks? And ye would not. Mankind can't blame God for,
well, he didn't pick me. That's his fault. Don't you dare.
Don't you dare. You understand? We get a good
handle on how God saves sinners, don't we? Because we know everything.
Five times he healed a blind person. They's all blind. He
was the only one that could heal them all. Five times were different.
Well, now we know how men see, don't we? We know how people,
how the Holy Ghost comes to them. And then John the Baptist had
the Holy Ghost from birth. Soon as we think we got him boxed
in in a corner, we read something new, don't we? Turn over to Isaiah
43. Isaiah 43. Everything that happens is for
God's glory and for His people's good. Everything. Now, it's one thing to say everything
until that everything shows up in your doorstep, until everything
hits you in the living room, until that everything's in your
lap, isn't it? It's good when it's everybody else's everything.
But everything the Lord does is for His glory and for our
good, for his people's good. If there's wars, it's for our
good. He said, has there not been evil in this town and the
Lord's done it? That doesn't mean he's committed evil, but
he's allowed it to happen, hasn't he? It's for his purpose, for
his glory, everything. It don't matter if we think it's
good or bad. And how many times, if the Lord's worked in us a
while ago in our lives, do we look back and say, that was terrible
and that was miserable, but boy, it sure is good now. I'm happy
now. Wouldn't trade it for the world.
That's so, isn't it? Everything he does is good. Look
here in Isaiah 43 verse one. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. The king says to the constituent,
you're mine, I own you. I did this. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. and through the rivers,
thou shalt not overflow thee, and when thou walkest through
the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee." What's that say? One, he's not an austere man.
We don't have a cold, stoic dictator on the throne. And he says, I
loved you. And he goes, and when you pass through the waters,
does that mean you're gonna pass through waters? You ain't gonna
drown. You'll be all right. When you
pass through the fire, you won't be burned. What's that mean?
You're gonna walk through the fire. Isn't that what we looked at
Wednesday? The Lord told them what was going to happen. A flame shall not kindle upon
thee. Why? Verse 3. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba for thee. I've gave nations for you. Nations
for you. Well, God wouldn't do that. He
said he did. I heard a lady one time, she
lost her son, and that pastor wasn't worth two cents. Told
her, said, God didn't do this. He wouldn't do something like
this. Satan did this. No, he did not. If he has that kind
of control, we're all in trouble. Do you understand that? People
don't understand Satan. They sure don't understand God. You don't
know him. The prayer reveals himself to you. The Lord said,
I've given Egypt for thy ransom. Well, but the Egyptians said
that ain't fair. Well, ain't their business what's fair. He's
the judge that does right. You get that? What about Ethiopia? Well, that ain't fair. It doesn't
matter. He'd get it. Why? Since thou
was precious in my sight, thou has been honorable people. You're
precious to me and I made you honorable. And I have loved thee.
Therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life.
I'll do whatever it takes. You're mine. I love you. People
say, I can't believe God would do something like that. Do you
have children? Do you have somebody you love? A family member, a
mommy and daddy, a sister, brother, child? You touch one of my children,
watch what happens. I'll give you right now. We understand
that, don't we? He said, because I've loved you.
He's loved us with an everlasting love, and his love ain't like
my love. He said, y'all evil, and your sons ask you for a fish,
you don't give them a scorpion. How much greater does your father
in heaven? Oh, that's something we just see a taste of now, isn't
it? We were elected. Just because we're so great and
grand? No, that's not it, was it? He said in Deuteronomy 7,
the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto
himself above all people there upon the face of the earth. Why?
The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because
you were great in number, because you were many people. He said,
because you were the fewest people. What could that also be translated
as? I didn't choose you because you was the greatest and you
was going to do the best. I chose you because you was the weakest
and you was the worst. because he was showing off. He
can show how strong he is. He told Pharaoh that. He said,
I've raised you up here in Egypt, put you on a throne just so I
can display my power. That's it. He said in Deuteronomy
7, 8, because the Lord loved you. That's why. That's why. There's no pride in grace either,
is there? The Lord told his people in Deuteronomy 9, 5, he said,
I didn't cast out the heathen because you was righteous. I
cast them out because they were evil. We can't get too high and mighty
on ourselves. Shouldn't that give a heart of compassion? Instead
of, I'm right and they're wrong. Doesn't our heart weep for people?
Those poor souls. They're just as ignorant as I
was before he came to me, sent somebody to tell me, whether
it was a physical father or one of his preachers. And it ought to motivate my heart
to do any thing, all this is done, to do anything I can to
tell somebody else. They're lining up and taking
tickets to hell as fast as they can get them. Thinking they're
doing God a favor. Back in our text, Psalm 44. What
other good news have we heard? What else have we heard about
this good news? How that God can be just and
the justifier. How he has given his people all
things because of the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse three. For they got not
the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their
own arms save them. but thy right hand and thine
arm in the light of thy countenance." That's what saved them. That's
what gave them a possession. It's not what is the right hand,
what is the Lord's arm, what is the light of his countenance,
but it's who. It's who. Isaiah said, to whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed. That arm's Christ, isn't it? His right hand is His Son that's
at His right hand. His countenance, the light of
it. Christ said, I'm the light. I'm the light of the world. That's
a person, isn't it? And a person did this. A person
has eternal life. Someone that's on this earth,
they die and they go to glory. It's going to be because Christ
did it. Your sword, that tongue of yours or whatever, you didn't
do it. He did. He did. That's how the Lord is
the only way the Lord could be just and the justifier is in
him, by his doing. We do not get spiritual blessings
in heavenly places because of our sword, because of our arm,
because of our doing, because of our fighting the good fight.
No. What Paul said in Ephesians 1,
blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, in him. Verse three says, for they got
not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did
their own arm save them, but thy right hand and thine arm
and the light of thy countenance. Why? Why would he do that? Why
would he save them? Why would he give them possession, an eternal
possession? Because thou hast a favor unto them. He favored
them. It's not if we're on God's side,
it's if he's on ours. That's the difference between
rebels and revolutionists. Do you know that down in Cuba? Those are
rebels, aren't they? That's what the Cubans said.
That's what Castro said. Well, I guess he was the leader
of that first round. But we looked at it and said,
those are revolutionists. They're changing that place.
Depends on what side you're on. The only difference is, what
about these eternal matters? It's whose side the Lord's on.
And he said, I've saved you with my lot, my arm, my power, because
I favored you, because I loved you, because I wanted to. Why
did he save some and cast out others? It pleased him. free,
unmerited, sovereign purpose and will to be gracious to some
and to show mercy to some in his son by unity with him, by
putting them in him before the world was. That's the Lord's
business. That's his product. That's what
I told Moses. Moses said, let me see your glory. And Lord said,
I'll make all my goodness pass before you. And I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. And I'll be gracious to whom
I'll be gracious. And I'll show mercy to whom I will show mercy.
and then he put him in a cleft of the rock. I was 16 years old, buddy, and
I take people to task. I said, you want me to tell you
something about Lord's sovereignty? He's going to be gracious. That's
his glory. He's going to be gracious to his graces and merciful to
whom he'll be merciful. And that means that's his glory.
No, he said, he's declaring those things. And then he put him in
Christ. That's what it was. Took a long time to learn that,
didn't it? What's the response? If we see our sin, we're a heathen,
we deserve to be cast out. And we see his might and his
sovereignty and all things and his grace. We're convicted of
those things, the Holy Ghost convicts us of sin, because we
didn't believe Him. We was proud of righteousness. That's what He is. He's the only
one that can ascend to the Father. I must be in Him. And of judgment,
it's settled. I don't have to do anything.
It's done. When He said it's finished, He was telling the
truth. What's the response to that? Look here in verse four.
Thou art my King, O God. You're my King, O God. The king. That's not some dude
named Jesus on a street corner wearing tennis shoes, handing
out tracks and pamphlets and all that junk. That's not the
man upstairs who we flippantly refer to. Thou art my king, O
God. King. That's who we're dealing
with. Thomas answered and said unto him, my Lord and my God.
You're God and you're my Lord. You're the king. That's the lordship
of Christ is what he's declaring. We don't make him king. That's
a king maker. You know that? If I could go,
that's what our nation's trying to do. If I go into some other
country and I say, this is the king now. Well, what's that king
in comparison to me? Nothing. He's just a puppet,
isn't he? People say, make him a lord of your life. Make him
king. He already is. And if he deals with us, now
we declare he's king. We thought we knew what kings
were because of that place over in England. Boy, let me tell
you something else. Let me tell you about this throne. Humans
will negotiate with a peer. Do you know that? If I was in
front of an earthly king, well, you'd put your pants on the same
way I do. I mean, somebody might do it for you. You wear pants,
you wear clothes, you're just a human like me. A little different
job. We can kind of negotiate, couldn't we? But to a sovereign,
you bow. to a sovereign you bow, and it'll
either be in this lifetime or it'll be at that judgment. It'll
be one or the other. Salvation's to know him now.
Salvation's to bow to him now, be put into him now. Salvation's
of the Lord. Look here in verse four. Thou
art my king, O God, command deliverances for Jacob. I didn't say, well,
if you could greatly suggest and kind of vote on our behalf,
that'd be great, and I'll vote for me to, no. Command deliverances
for Jacob. Salvation's of the Lord. It's
His. He owns it. And we're saved by just Your
Word, Lord. You just command it. By Your
command, us Jacobs, us deceivers, we can be delivered. And it says,
deliverance is, don't it? Day in and day out, we need Him.
We need His Word. We need His command. We need
Him on His throne. He is, and we need it. And from anything,
that's not the same mercy, it's newer morning, the same salvation,
but from anything at all. Illness or pain or sorrow or
too much joy. Lord, keep me from being too
prosperous. I'll think I did it from anything that we are
need in need of deliverance from all he has to do is speak. Lord, you're able, if you're
willing to say the word, this servant will be made whole. This
are you just speak it. That's God-given faith. He's
able if he wants to. That's his business, isn't it? Lord, once we are delivered,
you make our trust be in our King only. Look here in verse
five. Through thee will we push down
our enemies. Through thy name will we tread
them under that rise up against us. For I will not trust in my
bow, neither shall my sword save me. What's that? The Lord's going
to use some means to accomplish things. That's so. He's a God
of means. He does things through people
or things or events or providence or whatever. That may be the
vehicle by which our enemies are put down, but the Lord's
the first cause. Saying through you, that's the
only way it's going to happen. By your command and through us.
You doing it through us, and I won't trust in that bow even
if that's what's used. I won't trust in that sword even
if that's what's used. You did it. You gave me an arm
and the power to lift a sword and gave us iron to make swords. You did it all. And natural man,
we get so caught up in the means, don't we? If I preach and the
Lord uses that to save somebody, I didn't do anything. He did
it. I'm just the means. We have a tendency to really
favor man, don't we? Oh, I love Apollos. Oh, I love
Paul. Oh, Barnabas. Boy, I like that
one the best. Or men in our day, right? Those
that are gone. Fortner. Oh, I love Fortner.
Oh, I love Henry. Well, we do. We appreciate that.
But that's just the vehicle by which the Lord works. You understand
that? That's an earthen vessel. It's a clay pot, no different
than anything else. And if you trust the natural, you die in your
sins. We have to trust in the one that sent it. We're so easy
for us, our old man, to focus on the blessings and not the
blesser. Right? Look what the Lord did for us.
Yeah, well, look at the Lord. He did it. We're prone to look to ourselves
and look to things and not Him. Verse seven, but thou hast saved
us from our enemies and has put them to shame that hated us.
Oh, our enemies. That's not just other countries.
That's not just the opposition. That's not just those that despitefully
use us and talk to two ways out of their same tongue. That's
our bigger enemies, isn't it? That law of handwriting of ordinances
that is against us, that law that we broke, that cursed us. He was made a curse for us. He's
handled that enemy. What about sin, death, the grave,
hell, the accuser of the brethren? And my worst one, this guy, from
me. He saved us from our enemies
and put to them the shame that hated us. Paul said there in
Romans, he says, he that spared not his own son, but delivered
him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give
us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. He's
the one that saved us from our enemies, isn't it? Who is he
that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Maketh, that means he did,
that means he does right now, and that means he's going to.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Do you know what
I wrote in my Bible next to that? In pen. I might make somebody
mad someday. Not even me. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Not even Kevin. When God speaks, he sends a servant
to tell of his salvation, whether that's a relative or somebody
else. And he speaks of his son. He
speaks of who we are and what we are and our need of salvation.
And he speaks of his mighty hand that we have been saved. We are
being saved and we shall be saved. Who gets the glory for that?
That's a litmus test if somebody is telling the truth and not
a lie to men's souls. Who gets the glory? What about this psalmist
who gets all the boasting? Look here at verse eight. In
God, we boast all the day long and praise thy name forever.
Selah. We boast in the Lord all the
day long. I wish I could. Morning, noon,
and night. And if I could, I'd have sleep
sometime and I'll be trapped in my dreams. You know how to
keep us, keep us in check. Boast in Lord all the day long
and praise thy name forever. And it says, Sela. That's a musical
term as a pause. The translations hang on that
pause, weigh that out, weigh it. And God, we boast all the
day long. I have that sciatic nerve pain
that shoots down my right side and gets down to my calf muscle.
My calf knots up, goes all the way down my ankles sometimes,
down my toes. The Lord did it. It's good. Do you know that?
I don't know why. I don't know what he's doing
it for. It's for my good. It's for his glory. Boast in him and
praise thy name. Thank him. Thank you, Lord. Thank
you. If I was as fit as a fiddle,
I might start playing basketball. I still have four years of collegiate
eligibility. I might go back to college and
start playing basketball. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Pause on
those things. Weigh it out. I pray someone
will hear with their ears today and that they will boast in God,
not of themselves, and they will praise Him, not another, for
it. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for these
songs. We thank you for those that wrote them. The lives that
you gave them and experiences they had to live through to pin
your words honestly. Lord, we're thankful for this
life you've given us and for the trials that you're seeing
and the good times, the sweet things, the blessings you've
sent and the tough that we boast in your doings and praise your
son's sweet name. Make us so, Lord. Forgive us
for what we are. Be with our brethren that aren't
with us, those that are away and those around this world,
Lord, comfort them and reveal Christ our King to them as you
promised you will. We know you will, Lord. We ask
anyway. Thank you for this day. Be with us and comfort the hearts
of your people. It's in Christ's name that we
ask it. Amen. We'll take a break and meet back
at 1030.