Yeah. I need Kleenexes. I need anchors. And he got through
and he walked out of the service and he pat me on the shoulder
and said, go pray. What are you thinking, man? I'm sorry. There's
times, do you ever not think? There's times I should put me
down to read. I didn't know I was preaching
on that, really. Thank you. And that's hard. It's a hard
thing to do. The Lord's kept us till this
hour." And he laughs. He said so. He said, those that'll
come, they'll mock him and they'll think they got it the right way.
They think they know. And he said, I'll laugh in their direction. I'll
laugh at them. And there's times I think it can't get no lower.
I mean, and it's like a movie with the surprise that it gets
lower. And there's times I think it
can't get no better. We don't know what's in store for us.
Words can't describe. Brother Fred was talking the
other day, Fred Evans. He said, you know, there's always,
in Revelation, when the glory is described, it's in the negative.
You read what it ain't. There ain't sin there. There's
not tears there. There's no more of this. Because
we don't know what it's like to not have that. We can only
word it in our language to say, this is what it ain't. What a day that'll be. And there's
times it gets slow. I laugh. That's probably, I don't
know, a lot of times if I'm laughing and crying at the same time,
I'm either going to give up or fist fight. It's going to be
one of the two, I guess. But anyway, Psalm 36. Psalm 36. It's very interesting what the
Lord's words are. And it's part of, I tell you
boys that's raised in my house, and I tell you other boys, it's
good advice. Men do things. It don't matter
what your feelings are. You got something to do, do it.
People don't like it, so what? You got something to do, you
know what right is, do it. It's hard, it don't matter, do it.
I'm tired, it don't matter, do it. You're a man, act like it. Quit you like a man is what the
scripture says, isn't it? The Lord told Peter, he said,
you love me? Peter denied him. We looked at that Wednesday,
didn't we? I don't know that man. Get out of here, little
girl. Leave me alone. And then two men come to him.
You know, I know you know him. Leave me alone, I don't know
him. Then the cock crew. Oh, and the Lord looked at him. You ever felt them eyes on you?
The Lord looked at him. Later on, he said, Peter, you
love me? He said, Lord, you know I love you. Lord, Peter, you
love me? Lord, you know I love you. Peter,
you love me? He said, you know all things,
Lord. He said, feed my sheep. Feed
my sheep. Does it matter what if Peter
got tired? Don't matter if Peter's tired. He said, feed my sheep.
What if Peter had the flu? Well, it don't matter if you
got the flu. He said, feed my sheep. Well, if you don't want
to, well, if it's raining, should we wait till it quits raining?
He said, feed my sheep. What if I can't? He didn't say
if you could or not. He said, do it. Go feed sheep. I pray, Lord, let me feed sheep.
Make me feed sheep. David penned this letter. This
psalm, Psalm 36, I titled it, Excellent Faithfulness. David
penned this, but this is our Lord speaking. It's a messianic
psalm, because they all are. You understand all that? Nope,
me neither, but they all are. God's speaking. And he tells
us over a course of four verses about the wicked. If this is how the Lord describes
wickedness, then that's what wickedness is. Try to think of
a plainer way to say that. If he says this is what wickedness
is, then this is what wickedness is. Look first at who's speaking
though. And this is the spirit of which David's speaking there.
It says in the heading there, to the chief musician, a Psalm
of David, the servant of the Lord. He doesn't say King David,
did he? He said he's a servant. That's
more important. Solomon said that wasn't I was
a king. He said I'm a preacher That mighty Apostle Paul. He
said I'm the apostle Apostle Paul Paul coming up possible,
right? Hey, so I'm Paul. He goes. I'm
a bond servant of Christ I'm a willing bond slave now. I happen to be an apostle so
I'm gonna tell you something He was a servant of the Lord everyone
is a servant everybody But we're either a servant of self, we're
either a servant of darkness, of wickedness, of your father
the devil, or we're servants of the Lord. Now, in an essence,
they all serve the Lord, they all accomplish His purpose. There's
evil in the city, has He not performed this? It'll glorify
Him, if it's gonna go further than glorifying Him, He's gonna
stop it. So the Lord's sovereign over all things, but us, are
you an us? You alive in this body, we're
either gonna be servants of ourselves of darkness or we're gonna be
servants of light. One of the two. If we view ourselves as
the servant of the Lord, the bond slave of the Lord, if that's
truly, not just this is something on a piece of paper and we agree
with that. If that's been revealed in our hearts, if our ear, we've
been giving eyes to see and ears to hear. He asked him, they was
praying. He said, what you want? That's
all I see. Show me these things, Lord. If
he's pierced your ear all out, and you're his servant, it'll impact everything you think
and do. 24-7. I'm telling you, he's right. Know it. If you have a given
occupation, if you work in this world, and you go to work, You're
their servant for that work day, right? You clock in, you clock
out. Trevor, you gotta do what, when you handle those liquid
assets, you gotta, you're their servant from nine to five, whatever
it is. But then you clock out and you
go home and you don't think about that. You do something else,
you do what you want. If we're the Lord's, we're his all the
time. Don't feel like it sometimes. I got this old man with me, but
if I'm his, I'm his forever. I'm his forever. I hope I can
remember that more often. I need to remember I'm his servant
in this building. I'm his servant and Paul knew
it, I know it. I'm his servant in this building and I'm his
servant at my house. And if I ain't his servant at
that house, it's a sham what I do here. If I don't believe
God and know him in my home, what I do here is a sham. We all agree, right? If I'm his
servant, I'm his servant at Costco. If I'm his servant, I'm his servant
at work. I'm his servant while I pump
gas. I'm his servant at the bank. I'm his servant at a red light. You trying to hurry to get there,
and then you get the red light, and that person you passed, you've been
hurrying so much, they keep catching you at the red light, like you
said the other day. Oh, he's so frustrated. No patience. I'm his servant at that time.
I need to remember that. I need my pure mind stirred up. I'm
his child. I'm his child. And like my children,
have I ever told you, you're a direct reflection of me and
your mother. When you go out into this city, you got in this
town, remember who you are and whose you are, right? Not Clay's,
mine. You're mine, right? We understand
that. Well, if we're the Lords, when we go out into this city
and we go pay our power bill, we do whatever we do. You remember
who's you are, who you are and who's you are. We let stuff roll
off your tongue. My speech, my attitude, my work
ethic, how I support the gospel is a direct reflection on my
relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray it. So Paul said that
let this mind be in you. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, because he was, but made
himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men. I have to be made. I won't do it. Paul told Timothy,
he said, whenever you go down there to be their pastor, he
said, you take charge. Ain't nobody going to give it to you.
Ain't nobody going to want to give it to you. You take it.
You're gonna have to. They're gonna hand them reins
over that stagecoach. You're just gonna have to sit
in that seat and grab ahold of them. Lord's gonna have to take me and make
me his servant. I ain't gonna willfully bail. I know it. I won't come to him that I might
have life. He has to draw me. He has to make me. And that's
a reasonable service for us. If we know Him, we know what
we are, our sin. We know His righteousness. He's
the only one that's holy. We know what He did. The judgment's
settled. Whatever He puts in my hand,
do so what? It's fine. Well, if I'm just gonna get ground
to powder every day, that's all right. What if everything in
this world is gonna be taken from me? And I won't be alone,
I won't have a friend. Hey, that's what happened to
him. servant's not above his master. He's in truth, he's with
me. I wasn't with him. He said, I'll
never leave you. That old pastor retired, his
son was disabled, and he put himself in a nursing home so
his wife could take care of his son, and she didn't have to take
care of him. And he was bent way over, couldn't
ever straighten up. And the brothers, or the brothers
mayhem, Henry and Paul went to go visit him. They said, you
doing all right? He said, you here by yourself? He said, no,
the Lord's with me. I wish I could remember that. To
be his servant. Here God describes the wicked.
David's a servant, that's who's telling us, that's the attitude
David's telling us. He's not haughty. The Lord's using him to write
this. Here's God's servant describing the wicked. Verse one. The transgression
of the wicked saith within my heart that there's no fear of
God before his eyes. That one that transgresses, that
one that breaks the law willfully. Those wicked people. It speaks
to my heart. I see this taking place. You
do too. Turn the news on. Walk down the street. Or, if
God's done a work in us, look in the mirror. Is this true if I'm all by myself
on a deserted island? God's still true? This one that
willfully, it's all me. These first four verses of wickedness,
it's every bit me. I see it in myself. It says to
my heart, there's no fear God before his eyes. That breaking
of the law, that transgression, deep down, it truly says there's
no fear there. When I do that, what I'm saying is there's no
fear. I don't fear God. I don't honor him and respect
him and what his word is. I ain't afraid of him, neither.
And in our day, with the countless so-called churches throughout
this nation and throughout this world, the way they preach God,
no wonder people don't fear him. No wonder they don't fear him.
And for those that are better, what guts to say something like
that. You might have some fear that
you got something more to do. Preach fire and brimstone, now
it's up to you. You gotta clean up outside the cup. You can't
fear something you've never heard of. Go back in time or go to some
tribe out in the middle of nowhere and say, there's a bola over
there on that ham sandwich. Don't eat it. And it's like,
what's a bola? I don't know what that is. How can I be afraid
of that? I don't know what that is. People that don't know God ain't afraid
of him. They have no respect for him either. You can't respect
someone you don't know. There was a man convicted of murder
of his wife and his son this week. Me and a friend of mine
was watching a trial of some and that man was not sad throughout
the whole thing. He wasn't afraid, he wasn't emotional,
kind of confident. He did not fear God and he didn't
fear those that God put over him because he thought he was
above the law. He was in there without emotion. His wife was
dead. His son was dead, not a tear. And he flattered himself. Even
in a courtroom, he thought highly of himself. Look at verse two.
That wicked one that breaks the transgression, I see it and there's
no fear of God before their eyes. For he flattereth himself in
his own eyes. He thinks he's something. Natural
man coming out of the loins of Adam. We all think we're something
and people ought to respect us. Me. I've done a lot. There's some Wikipedia pages
out there. I'm nothing. That's a fool. I'm flattering
myself. Jonathan Edwards had a lot of points. I think it was
eight, but I've picked out a few of them. He said they flatter themselves
by saying God probably isn't real anyway. I've never seen
him. I'm paraphrasing. God's probably not real anyway.
The fool said there's no God. You know what the fool said?
The fool said no God. but there is no God's accurate.
Flattering themselves by saying, if there's a hell, it's a long
ways off. I got a long time to worry about
that. I remember being a teenager and I thought, man, I'll deal
with this church stuff when I'm grown. Maybe when I'm 30 or 40,
once I settle down. Today's the day of salvation,
isn't it? They flattered themselves by saying, I've lived a good
moral life. I ain't that bad. God couldn't be that mad at me.
Mom ain't. They don't know God. They don't
honor him. They don't fear him. They flatter
themselves by saying, and I'll read this to you, because they
live in a place where the gospel is powerfully preached among
the religious people, and where many have been converted, and
they think it will be much easier for them to be saved on that
account, just because they're in the right church underneath
the right preacher. And he says, thus they abuse the grace of
God to their destruction. That's so I struggled with that for years.
Do I know God here or do I know God here? That's all I've ever
heard in my whole life. These great and mighty men are
just heroes to me. They stayed in my house. I talked
to them by their first names. I'm familiar with them and I
respect them and I honor them and love them. But is that just
like family friends? Do I just know doctrine and five
points up here? Do I know a person in my heart? Did I flatter myself? I think
my grandfather was a saved man because he believed God. Not
because he believed in a God. He knew God. My dad was. And boy, the example he left
for me and my mother was, well, surely I got to be, right? Shoo
in. Flattered myself. Salvation is
a one-on-one thing between God and His child through the preaching
of the gospel. They flatter themselves by thinking
they can earn salvation. That's a pop dream. You can't
debt God to you. And they flatter themselves by
assuming they're already converted. I stand up and preach. God, if
I don't know you, show me your son today. If I'm yours, show me today.
If you've been merciful to me, be merciful to me today. Yesterday
ain't gonna do. I need grace right now. That
man that was convicted, he murdered his wife and son. He was convicted.
He flattered himself something all the way up until they put
handcuffs on him. And you know what happened? Little whip, lip
quiver. And I started moistened up. Reality
came. Oh, he was a lawyer too. So he
thought, man, I got this. I'm at work right now. That's
easy. They put them handcuffs on. Reality hit home. He wouldn't
flatter himself no more. It says, for he flattered himself
in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful. Oh, all
those things you thought good, that's hateful. God don't like
it. He's angry with the wicked every day. He won't have it.
My pastor as a child told me, he said, hell is truth realized
too late. Hell is truth realized too late.
Every knee is going to bow. Every single, I know it's so.
He said it. Every tongue is going to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. And he said, many in that day
have said, Lord, Lord. And I'll say, I never knew you. Do I confess even now? As I, if I'm his servant, as
I walk through this life and my heart, my home, my job, whatever
I got doing, Dr. Pesky, now I want to, do you?
I want to see him and I want to know him and I want to tell
somebody about him today. Sooner or later. The wicked's
gonna be exposed. They're gonna see themselves
as they are. They're gonna see the tragression and the pride
and the sin and that weight is gonna be eternally heavy. I couldn't
find a better word than heavy. They're just gonna have to bear
it. That sin and shame and guilt. What Christ bore for us, that's
what they're gonna have to bear for eternity. I don't think I'm
better than anybody like that. I pity him. I can't handle that. I know I earned it and he bore
it for me. Verse three says, the words of
his mouth are iniquity and deceit. Tricking. You ever say something
to try to get a different outcome? You ever got called by the homeowner's
insurance or whatever, the car insurance, and they said, do
you want an extended warranty on your car? I'm like, I sold that car. Why
did I tell him I sold the car? I just said no. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner, that's why. The
words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit, and he hath left
off to be wise and to do good." Left off to be wise. Left wisdom. And they'd said, and I ain't
the one that said it, I'll just tell you what everybody else
said. Henry said this, he said, they left good counsel. That
was the first step. I've seen that happen. God sends
a preacher to somebody and they pull him off to the side and
they say, I love you. And I'm telling you what God's word says.
And then they'll say, you know what? I'm gonna go talk to brother
so-and-so. And I'm gonna go talk to brother so-and-so. And I'm gonna go talk
to brother so-and-so. And you keep looking for a yes. And if you ain't careful,
you'll find one. Somebody told me that one time.
They said, you know, I was talking to another guy. You probably
don't know him. He said the same thing as you. He says, his name's
Gabe Stoniker. And I said, yeah, I know Gabe
well. I've known him a long time. He said, there's another fellow
too. What was it? Clay Curtis. He told me the same thing you
said. And I said, that's my pastor. I said, you got three of us telling
you, you may want to, hush and listen. People leave good counsel. God
sent three people telling you something, telling you all the
same thing, and you say, well, I ain't going to do it. It wasn't
the men. It was the counsel that people didn't like. What was
that counsel? They're the Lord's servants. They're just going
to tell you what he said. That's what the word says. That's what
the scripture says. The text says that. That's what
his faithful servants will do. I've heard a few times people
say, I don't care what that scripture says. I apologize for being honest.
Instead of deceitful, I'm like, well, I'll think about it or
I'll go home and consider these things or flatter yourself something
else. If I make you mad, that's good. Maybe he's paying attention
to me. God might use that to save somebody. That's what the
book says. That old man, the wicked says,
I don't care. Don't care, that's what it says.
Don't forsake the assembly of saints. Well, but, that's what
it says. Doesn't it? Everything we're
told to do, the precepts and everything, out of a heart of
love, if you don't want to give willingly, don't give. That's
fine. Or give as the Lord has increased you that week. It'll
do you good. Whatever it is. But those people that reject
good counsel, and those people that reject the written word,
they're not really rejecting the man. They're not really rejecting
the counsel, and they're not really rejecting the word, though
you can't separate God and his word. They've left wisdom. They've left Christ, who is our
wisdom. They're rejecting Christ. They're saying, no, God. No,
God. I've read things, and I was like,
man, I know what the book says. and then willfully sin anyway.
I'm a wretch. I'm a worm. Are you? We ain't verse five yet. It's coming. I've heard a lot of excuses for
leaving the assembly of the saints. I mean a bunch over the years,
over 43 years. I've heard a lot, seen a lot,
heard a lot from a lot of people that live longer than I have.
Do you know which one was a good one? My pastor told me that one time.
He said, I've preached here 10 years. He says 52 weeks a year,
520. He said, if you missed every
Thursday evening, he says 520 messages you'd have missed. You
think God might've blessed you for one of those? And I hadn't
missed it, maybe one or two, but I was like, oh man, that's
me. That's me. God's got to keep
me or I wouldn't come. What was more important? Was
me working on an ice machine or a file cabinet for chicken,
was that more important than being where God said he's gonna
meet with his people? Is there an excuse that's good enough?
There ain't. I've heard a lot of excuses, ain't one of them
that's good. Verse four says, he deviseth mischief upon his
bed. I gotta tell you what this says.
He setteth himself in a way that is not good, he abhorreth not
evil. He deviseth mischief upon his
bed. What's God say? Let not the sun
go down on your anger. Be angry and sin not. Don't let
the sun go down on your anger. The wicked devise mischief on
their bed. They stay up late at night stewing
on it, planning, loosely guilty. I'm guilty. I plan for arguments
that never take place. You ought to hear me cut grass
inside of my hand. Next time that guy calls me,
I'm going to say this or I'm not paying that in my insurance
no more. I don't need a tow truck or whatever. It don't make a
difference. Or have you ever planned? Maybe
it's just me. I'm just talking out loud. I'll
wear my heart on my sleeve. I don't care. Lord gave me a new one. That
old one's going to burn up. Have you ever made plans for
an argument that happened years ago? I know a guy that's still
mad over something happened, we was talking about that, 15
years ago. He's like, man, I should have told him this. A little
late now. Guilty. Guilty. I devise mischief upon my bed.
He saideth himself in a way that's not good. There's a way that
seems right unto man, but we've left off to be wise. We don't
care about wisdom, we think we're smart. He abhors not evil. Well, the ends justify the means. God's got a means. That needs
said. Has been needin' said and still
needs said in this nation. God's got a means, he uses things. But do we say, well, the means
don't matter, just get it done. Get him in there by hook or crook,
it don't matter. Tell him a little bit of false
gospel to get him in, then tell him the true gospel. Mm, ain't gonna work. The evil,
they don't abhor, or the wicked, they don't abhor evil. That's
the wicked. That's this old man. That's the
man, if God's hand took off of him, is standing right in front
of you right now. The Lord leaves me alone. And
then two words come to mind, but God. That's what I am, I'm
guilty. But God, who's rich in mercy.
Look at verse five. Thy mercy, O Lord. David turns
on a dime, don't he? He turns on a period. He says
a sentence. Do you? I ain't gonna make it. There's mercy. Our pure minds
stirred up quick. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens. How high is the heavens? You
got a tape measure? How much do you need? That's
a better question. How much mercy do you need? Well,
if you're going to get it from him, his mercy is high as the
heavens. And thy faithfulness reacheth
unto the clouds. I thought about it a lot this
week. I ain't in the clouds. I was driving through them when
I was thinking about it. I was up there. I'd get on top of a mountain.
Be on Mount Zion, huh? His clouds are the dust of his
feet. What's that mean? His providence, him walking as
the Lord goes, he's faithful. Everything that's happened to
me, how in the world could that be good? How could Jay Lotz's
incestuous relationship with his daughter be good? It wasn't,
it was wrong, clean wrong, black wrong, unexcusable. But them
clouds, as the Lord walks through that, well, that's how we ended
up getting our Lord out of that, wasn't it? How is that possible? All right, well, His feet's magnificent.
His faithfulness in the clouds is magnificent. His providence
is unmatched. And I thought, too, that cloud,
what else is in that cloud? I can't get to that cloud. There's something
in that cloud. Cross the rainbow set in the
clouds, isn't there? Them dark clouds hanging over me. Then
I see a rainbow. And the Lord says, when I see
my bow, when I see my Christ, he sees us in him. Is that mercy
enough for you? Turn your frown upside down.
Verse six says, thy righteousness is like the great mountains.
It means it's huge. Heaps, heaps of it. Thy judgments
are a great deep. Those judgments, that's not only
what we think of bad things. Oh, the Lord's going to judge
this place and judge the Lord's judgments. The Lord's judgments are his
word. It's a two-edged sword. It'll condemn the one and uphold
the other. And he shall judge the quick
and the dead. It's what the scripture said,
isn't it? His word is the declaration of what is. If he said, rain,
be down on the earth, It rains, doesn't it? That's his judgment.
He said so. He says live. These dry bones
live. Whatever he says, whatever's
happened, if he said this is what I did, that's what was done.
If he said this is what I'm doing, that's what's taking place, transpiring. And if he said this is what shall
happen, that's what's gonna happen. That's his judgments. They're
deep. Do you know what he's doing? I have no idea what he's doing.
You know, if there's mitochondria in each side of every one of
your cells right now, just making the energy and ATP production,
all this stuff underneath microscopes, man ain't never seen. God does. He's judging every bit of that.
That's deep. Do we get fascinated and try
to start painting murals about junk like that? No, you bow to
him. You can't even make a sense at all. Bow to God. That's who
he is. And he's kind. He's righteous. His righteousness is as great
as the mountains. His judgments are a great deep. We can't swim
that low. We can get wet. We can't swim
that low. You can't go down that far. Oh
Lord, thou preservest man and beast. I look at it, I think
I'm higher than my brethren because it's so. I'm a chief of sinners.
And whoever the Lord saved, that's the men and the women that he
saved. And I'm the beast. I know that, but there's something
more precious there too. Oh Lord thou that preserveth
man and beast. You know, whenever the Lord spoke
to Jonah, he said, should not not have spared Nineveh. Jonah's
mad about it. He was, he was upset. He was mad. The Lord saved a
whole city. I mean, I'm great. Most was 126,000
just children that didn't know the light right hand from the
left hand. He said, should I not spare none of that great city
wherein are more than six score thousand persons which can't
discern between their right hand and their left hand? Should I
not have saved those people? Can't I do it with my own as
I will, Jonah? And he says, and much cattle also. Question mark. That's the last punctuation in
the books of Jonah. What's the answer to that question? Jonah
wrote the book of Jonah. I'll write the whole thing. He
told everything he did wrong, didn't he? He confessed, didn't he?
But why did the Lord say, and much cattle? Is he gonna run
out of cattle? And he just, cattle on a thousand
hills is his. Maybe he's in a, is he a cattleman? Is he in the
cattle business? He's gonna lose money? No. His people need them
cattle, don't they? He looks on those cattle. He's
mindful of the cattle. How many cows are in the state
of California? I don't know. He does. There is. He's mindful
of a cow. What about, what about birds?
How many birds are in this county? My cat brought me a bluebird
the other day in pieces, and then the next day I saw it, and
I was like, did he put that thing back together? That was another bluebird. Cats,
vicious little things, man. Decimating bird populations.
Well, whose birds are it? Whose cat is it? It's the Lord's.
He takes care of those birds, and they got enough sense to
cry out, thank him. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing,
and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father?
Walk out as far as you can in the middle of the woods and you
find a dead bird. God put it there. It fell because the Lord
let it. He's mindful of man and beast. Why? We need birds. He's fit to have
them. So I can tell you about hummingbirds
sometimes. They just amaze me. but the very hair of your head's
all numbered. That's to prove to us. I believe
him. I believe there ain't a sparrow that falls on this earth, ain't
a bird that moves, that the Lord don't take care of. And then
he says immediately, your hair on your head's numbered. I own
you, you're mine. Verse seven says, how excellent
is thy loving kindness, O God. Isn't that amazing? He's numbered
your hairs. Your love and kindness. Excellent. It's excellent. If we could have
had better words to say something more grandiose, we'd say it.
You have excellent love and kindness. Oh God. That's who he's praying
to. Who was it? Remember last hour? Who was,
who was Jacob calling out to? Oh God. Oh God. How excellent is thy lovingkindness,
O God! Therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. Your children,
we put our trust under the shadow of your wings. The Lord said,
Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest
them that are sent unto thee. You've rejected all the wise,
you threw out all the, he's talking to physical Jerusalem. You threw
out all the wise counsel, because they told you what God said,
and you won't have it, you won't have a span rain over us. He said,
how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen
doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not. Man can't accuse God for not
being gracious. If we're his brood, if we're
his hens, I got 14 chickens just hatched up the house this week,
little tiny things. They come out of that egg, we
let them dry off, I pick them up and go put them in a brooder.
That's my chicken, I didn't go grab your chickens and move them,
they're my chicken. If we're his, if he's gave us life, we're
gonna run underneath those wings. I don't have to train them chickens
up how to drink water. I don't have to train them chickens
up how to get underneath their mama. They do it. It's instinct. It's
what God put in them. If you're his little chicken,
you're going to run underneath his wings. That's so. That's what he's put in you.
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings
shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield
and thy buckler. Christ is going to be your shield and buckler,
that alligator skin, so rough on the outside and durable, so
soft on the inside. I thought two of those cherubims
over the mercy seat had six wings, didn't they? Two they covered
their face, two they covered their feet, two they flew with and they cried,
holy, holy, holy. Well, there was a statue of those over that
mercy seat. One on each side facing the middle. Those wings
stretched out over that mercy seat. In the shadow of his knowledge
and his understanding and his power and his purpose and his
predeterminate counsel before time, God purposed to put us
in Christ. And it pleased him to bruise
him. Figure that one out. To make us his people. So those
cherubim spread out their wings on high and covered their wings
over the mercy seat and their faces one to another. I wanna
be in that mercy seat. I wanna be under his wings, don't
you? Verse eight says, and they shall
be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house. And
thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasure. be
satisfied with fatness. The Lord said, there shall be
meat in my house. He's going to put it there. Savory things,
good things, isn't it? That's where he'll meet with
us. And shall make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
He lead us aside to still waters. He's the only one making a thing
drink. I always said that you can take
a horse to water, but you can't make it drink, but you can drown
one too. You can make people go to church and drown them in
religion. They don't want to drink no more. The Lord can make
his people drink. He's amazing. For with thee is
the fountain of life, and in thy light shall we see light. The way we're going to understand
anything, His providence, His salvation, His will to come,
anything. Any light we're gonna have, it's
gonna be in His light, in the light of Christ, with that eye
to see. And He says, O continue thy loving
kindness unto them that know thee. Does God work in somebody
and call them, say, follow me, and draw them near? I keep beating
this up, don't I? I gotta say it. and bring them
together, and they hear this gospel, and they rejoice, and
we sang together with one voice, and then they, well, I got, check,
see you in glory, Lord, I'm out. We're on vacation, moving to
what? No, I wanna, I know him, I wanna
know him more. I rejoice in him, I wanna continue
to rejoice. I know of his love and kindness.
Now, do you tell me a little bit more about that love and
kindness? Unto them that know thee, They
don't know him, take it or leave it. And thy righteousness to
the upright in heart. David said that, judge me, O
Lord, in your righteousness. How in the world could he say
that? Because if I'm upright in heart, it's your righteousness
that did it. I stand on your life, on your merit, and everything
you did, and your decisions, and your will, and everything.
Continue to tell me that, thy righteousness to the upright
in heart. And he says in closing, Let not the foot of pride come
against me. We have spiritual wickedness
in high places. That's our head, isn't it? Thoughts
of man's evil, only evil continually. Our heart is up high, isn't it? What about the foot? I have a
proud foot. I stood on that all week. The
foot's the way we get from place to place, isn't it? Don't let
me have pride in my walk. Don't let me have pride in the
way that you've set me on, Lord. If Lord uses me to preach and
50,000 people saved, don't let me think I did it. Don't let
your providence make me make pride out of your providence.
That's what it means, that foundation, or my means to go. But it's also
the foundation. The root of everything is pride.
That's what we think, that we know better than God. And we
think we do better and we, I ought to get praised or whatever it
is. But that's the first thing. Everything
else stems from that. The Lord said six things that
the Lord hate, yea seven, are an abomination unto him. First
thing, proud look. Me, I, you know what I did. Hmm. Lord, keep my foot from pride
coming up against me and let not the hand of the wicked remove
me. Lord, you have to protect me
from my enemies. Satan desired to sift Peter like wheat did.
He was wanting Job. He said, I can't get him. You
got a hedge about him. Let me get ahold of him. I'll turn him
from you. There's a wicked one wanting
to remove me. That's the division that the Lord allows to take
place in his churches, is for division to come in and separation
and dividing and pulling apart, isn't it? Don't let me be removed. If it were possible, even the
very elect would be led away, wouldn't they? I know it ain't
possible. Lord, don't let that be me. Don't
let me take that for, don't let me be, flaunting myself and thinking
so highly of myself that I just assumed, well, I got to be God's
child. I'm going to call it on you today. There are the workers
of iniquity fallen. That's where it is. Pride and
wickedness. The workers of iniquity are falling
there and they're cast down and shall not be able to rise. It ends with that. There's such
wonderful things in the Lord's faithfulness and His love and
kindness, and we know those things, but we don't take it for granted,
do we? I do. I take it for granted too much,
but He's quick to remind us not to. Keep me looking to You, Lord.
Allow me to never forget what I am until I leave this body
of death. And that way I cry to you for forgiveness and salvation,
and I see that there's nothing good in this flesh, and the only
hope I have is the merit of another. The only life that can be lived
that's acceptable isn't mine, it's his. And I have to be one
with him. Make that so, Lord. That's a
song, you know that? I wonder what that'd sound like
if it was in the native. David wrote all these things
and said, to the chief musician, how you put that to notes? He said,
figure it out. He played too, didn't he? We sang those things. That's a song in the heart. I
hope this cow patty's dry now. Years ago, somebody said, well,
we can't have worship because we ain't singing songs. You hear
about his love and kindness. Didn't you just sing in your
heart? No? It's got to be auditory? Well,
hope God cut your tongue out. Can't worship God no more. That
singing's in the heart. Thank you. All right, Brother
Martin.