I didn't think of that. We was talking about this the
other day on Thanksgiving. I had some family over. I'm out of
town. Horatio Spafford wrote It Is
Well With My Soul. It's commonly misconceived that
Philip Bliss did, but Philip Bliss, as you're looking at him
on the right-hand side, is who wrote the music. He wrote the
music. He had a hard life. That fellow's
wife was with him on a train. He wrote several songs, and it
went off in a ravine. It was a fiery crash, and he
escaped the train, and then he went back into the train to retrieve
his wife and his family and his whoever he could and he perished
he died but a trunk made it out and there was some songs and
that's some hymns we sang in our day but Horatio Spafford
wrote this and if you take a bold dogmatic statement something
the Lord says he's gonna prove it to you if you say I believe
the Lord you about to find out he's gonna prove to you his word
Ratio Spafford's family was traveling on a, he'd sent them from Chicago,
big fire coming, wealthy man of Chicago, sent them to England.
And him and his wife and his daughters all perished. They
drowned. And then he had to take the same
route on a boat over to England to bury them. And while he was
on that boat, he wrote this song. It's well with my soul. Is it?
You about to find out. The Lord's gonna prove himself
to his children. Not to everybody. But to those
that are his, my faith's strong. If it's his, it is. And he's
going to prove to you ain't got none. And it's his. He sustained
it. And he prayed that his faith
failed on. That's precious, isn't it? I
like that song. Lord, prove some things to me
over the years. Just some announcements here
real soon. It's close to us now. December
7th, we won't have any midweek service. Lord will leave the
evening of the 5th. But that next weekend, December
11th, Brother Marvin Stover will be here to preach. Him and Glenda's
coming. I want to sort our motels out tomorrow. Just got this itinerary. And he's had a request for somebody
to drop him off. But we may need somebody to pick
him up. But I'll let you know. from the airport. He's coming
in Saturday and then leaving out that Monday morning. The
following Wednesday, December 14th, Brother John Reeves will
be here to preach for us. And then, as the Lord's pleased,
Cameron and I will come back that Friday, and we'll be here
for services as normal the 18th. So, I'm thankful for that, that
the Lord's blessed us, for us to preach the gospel to another
continent. That's why He's chosen you for.
That's why He's putting our hand to do. I'm thankful for that.
I pray He uses us. Give us His word. All right, for our morning message,
Psalm 28. Psalm 28. I would like for you to pay attention
as I read, if you'll read along with me. Here in Psalm 28, David
is praying to the Lord. He makes his requests known. And then the Lord hears David,
and the Lord gives peace to David, to this turmoil that's in his
life. And after this petition to be heard, and this petition
for the Lord to speak to him, and why, why he needs the Lord
to speak to him, it turns into praise. Has that ever happened
to you? Have you ever prayed to the Lord?
Lord, hear me and speak to me. Like, I don't want you just to,
I heard you. You speak to me, speak to my heart, speak peace
to my heart. And then that turns into, real quick, it turns into
praising him. Your petitions turn into praise. Has that happened
to you? It's happened to me. While this prayer is coming from
David's heart, it turns into praise. And then, at the end
of it, there's a respectful request. I worded that very, I spent 15,
20 minutes on how to word that. I put it in quotations in my
notes. He has a respectful request at the very end. Now read with
me. Psalm 28, verse one. Unto thee
will I cry, O Lord, my rock. Be not silent to me, lest, if
thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the
pit. That's our nature. If you let
me go, if you're silent, if your word doesn't sustain me, I'm
going down. That's God taught. And that doesn't
feel good. It sounds good in a seminary.
Like, well, total depravity sounds so elegant until you're totally
depraved. There's tissues involved. Do
you understand? This is messy. And David said,
if you don't speak, I'm going down. Just like a rock. If you're
at my repent, it's just straight down. I was in a cave this past
week. Had a 470 foot drop. If I let
go of a rock, what's it going to do? Well, gravity is going
to take over. And that's natural. Like a rocket
to the bottom. He said, I become like them that
go down into the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications,
verse two, when I cry unto thee. He's crying, isn't he? When I
lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. What's a holy oracle?
That's a holy of holies. How does he lift up his hands?
Let me tell you, this is common hogwash. This is common shampoo
for hogs. Hello, Father. What did that?
That sinner, that publican in the temple that prayed unto God,
he wouldn't so much lift up his eyes. Mankind, it's not a public
show of religion where people wave their hands. This ain't
a Rolling Stones concert, you understand that? That ain't what
he's talking about. My hands are empty. That's what
our hands are. My nature, I'm empty. I have
nothing to come into your holiest of holies. But what do we just
look at? Lord, Rebecca sinned. Jacob with, dressed in like his
brother, bread in one hand, savory meat in the other. The only thing
I have to your holy of holies is the holy one of Israel, his
person and his work. That's it, that's all I can do. He said, hear the voice of my
supplications when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands
toward the holy oracle. Draw me not away with the wicked,
the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors,
but mischief in their hearts. There are some people that speak
peace to their neighbors, don't they? And they got mischief in
the heart. I'm gonna say something kind
about them, but this is on purpose. Oh, it's conniving, isn't it?
A serpent's tongue, it's a forked tongue. I'm talking about both
sides of the mouth. That's what we say in Eastern
Kentucky. It's a forked tongue. They speak peace to their neighbors.
Oh, hello. and that the octaves go up, and it just gets so sweet
as sugar, you get diabetes if you hear them talk. But mischief
in their hearts. There's another nature there.
Another motive, isn't it? Some are drawn away from the
Lord, aren't they? Given to what? Strong delusions. He said, I'll give them strong
delusions. And you know what that is? Is that heroin? No,
it's not. Is it fentanyl? No, it's not.
Is it prostitution? No, it's religion. religion,
title, power, garments, position. You know who I am? Somebody asked me one time, said,
you gonna tell them folks who had some visitors, you gonna tell some folks that
you're the preacher? And I figured out real quick, I ain't gotta
tell nobody that. My name's Kevin, you call me Kevin, that's my
name, comma, I happen to be the pastor here, that's my job. Don't call me by my other job,
might embarrass my children. People are giving strong delusions,
they're giving strong wine of Babylonian religion. Don't let
that happen to me. Verse four, give them, those
that desire those things, those that seek offices, the founders
convention. I saw it on a website the other
day. They're having a founders, what'd you found, the gospel? Get out of town, man. I don't
wanna go to that. Give them according to their
deeds. That's what they want, give to them. What'd the Lord
say? They shall have their reward. You want titles, you want fancy
garments, you're gonna get it, and that's all you're gonna get.
Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness
of their endeavors. Give them after the work of their
hands. Render to them their dessert,
or their deserved end. Because, why? What's the source
of all that? They regard not the works of
the Lord. They regard their own works.
They accepted, they chose, they picked the right truth. I know
that's truth because Spurgeon said so. No, it's the truth because
God said so. You get to getting into man worship
pretty quick and in a hurry, isn't it? Give them the work after their
hands rendered them their dessert because they regard not the works
of the Lord nor the operation of his hands. He shall destroy
them. and not build them up. They regard
not the works of the Lord. Do you regard the works of the
Lord? Do you regard his grace? Do you
regard his love towards an unlovable people whose natural instinct
was just going down to the bottom of the pit like gravity pulling
us? Do you regard the Lord that gave
a new nature? The Lord that gave a new heart? We are his workmanship,
is what the scriptures say. Do you regard that? Who is he
that condemneth those that do regard? I regard that there's
a sovereign God of heaven and earth and everything you can
ever imagine and he rules and reigns and he's holy. Everything
he does is true and that's what we looked at the last hour, brother
against brother. I'll get to it here in a minute. We have
a dear brother that's just eight up with cancer. I got to talk
to him another day. And as far as man's logic is, he ain't got
long left on this earth. God gave him that. He's too young. That's vanities. That's a lie. And that's not knowing God. Lord's
right. That's who we regard. The one
that does right. The one that's holy. And is gracious
and is loving. Do you regard that? Put everything
else out of your mind and concentrate on Christ. We've come into this
house and gathered in his name to worship him. So forget about
yourselves and concentrate on him and worship him, regard him. Now verse six, blessed be the
Lord. What was he doing? Wasn't he
just begging, Lord, don't leave me? You punish those that are
against you. Blessed be the Lord because he
hath heard the voice of my supplications. How do I know he has? It says
half. That means he always has. He
heard me right now and he's going to hear me because I'm his. What
changed? How do we know that he's heard
me and he is hearing my voice and my supplication? How can
I know that? How did David know that? How
can you know that? Because we regard the person in the work
of Christ. Woe is me. I'm woeful. I'm sorry. That's what I am. But when I
see him and his workmanship and who he is, well, he's heard me. He spoke to me, Christ. What
did Christ come preaching? Christ. We regard the person and work
of Christ. That's too simple, Kevin. Oh, really? Well, if you're
weak, if you're fearful and you're depressed, look to Christ. Look
to Him. And you'll either be strengthened
in Him, you'll be confident in Him, and you'll be content in
Him, or you'll be enraged by who He is and what He did. There ain't no other side of
the fence. This ain't a wide fence you can sleep on top of
for eternity. You're either going to be on one side of it or on
the other side of it. Period. Man can put a pacifier
in his mouth and cry that the hills are on fire and every little
conspiracy theory you can dream up in a bad imagination on this
earth to be a pacifier to make us think of something else other
than the holy God we offended. But you have to find comfort
in Christ, strength in him, wisdom in him, contentment in him, and
that's your only joy. Or you'll cling to the vanities
of this world and cuss it. We that have been given A new
life that he's put life in that regards the Lord. We regard his
body that was prepared for him. We regard his virgin birth. He
has to be made like his brethren, but he can't have the same father
I have. His perfect life, his shed blood, his ascension, where
he is now and what he's doing there, his intercession. He's
ascended and he intercedes. When we regard that, the child
of God will praise him, will praise him. And we'll be thankful.
We'll be strong. That's rich. That's valuable. And we'll be content. We'll be
joyful in that. And this is personal. Did you
know that? When the Lord spoke to Abraham, he said, Abraham,
when he spoke to Jacob, he said, Jacob, that's what I want. This ain't a fact that's floating
out in the air. This is personal. Lazarus come forth. Noah, you
found grace in my sight, because I told you about it. Saul, Saul. to you, to each and everyone
of you. He calls his by name. This is personal. If he's alone
on a deserted island, this is personal. The gospel's the truth.
Look here in verse seven. The Lord is my strength. He's all strength, isn't he?
Yeah, but he's my strength. And he's my shield. I ain't got
no other shield but him. Well, he's the only true shield.
Well, yeah, I know, he's mine. My heart trusted in him. And
I am helped. Who's helped? I am. Therefore,
my heart greatly rejoices. And my song will I praise. With my song will I praise him.
Who's song? My song. He gave it to me. He
taught me the song. I sang it to him. It's about
him. And I'll praise him. All the children of God do the
same thing, don't they? That's personal. It's personal.
It's not a cold, dead letter doctrine. It's personal. You
have to say that about you. God has to speak that to your
heart. I can say it to you until I'm blue in the face. He has to speak
that affectually to the heart of his people. It's personal.
And it's the same for you as it was for me if he spoke to
you. You say amen, that's right. Look here in verse eight. The
Lord is their strength. I thought you said he's my strength.
Yeah, he's their strength too. Ain't no different. Your strength
ain't different from my strength. You who believe. The Lord is their
strength and he is the saving strength of His anointed. Who's this for? God elected a
people before time in Christ. I want to say something about
it. I hope this wake you up. Let's get your attention. You ready?
I hope I never preach election. As long as God's with me, I hope
I never preach election. I hope I preach that all men
deserve death and that God of all grace elected some to be
made like his son. I hope I preach the God of election,
the God who elects, not election. I don't want to preach just a
doctrine. I want to preach a person. I'll read you something. This
is a little lengthy, but stay with me. This is, I find it hilarious,
but I got a weird sense of humor. This is 170 years ago. It's entitled
the art of preaching this by JC Philpott. He lived from 1802
to 1869. He said, we are overrun. with a shallow, superficial ministry,
which is destitute of all life, savor, and power. A dry, dead-letter
scheme of doctrine, as mathematically correct as the squares of a chessboard,
it prevails where what is called truth is preached. And to move
Bible text on the squares as pawns is called the art of preaching. How simple is truth? That's complicated,
isn't it? How simple is truth? Man's misery,
God's mercy. The abounding of sin, the superabounding
of grace. The depths of the fall and the
heights of the recovery. The old man, the new man. The
diseases of the soul, the balm of the Savior's blood. These
lessons are learned in the furnace of inward experience. This ain't
mathematically correct, moving doctrine of Bible verses on a
chessboard. This is experienced in the heart. It's personal.
How different from the monkish austerity of the ritualist, the
lip service of the Pharisee and the dry Calvinistic formulary. What a dreadful lack is there
of true preacher. Now I look around and see so
few men qualified to feed the church of God. We are overrun
with Parsons, with preachers, but oh dear, what are they? There's
preachers everywhere you turn. Everywhere. He said, I cannot
but attribute the much of the low state of the churches to
the ministers. It's their fault. As goes the
pulpit, so goes the pew. Why is this state and this nation
in such a horrid wretch of a situation that we're in? And it's like
we're living in a cartoon. There's nonsense going on left
and right. It is abandoned completely the word of God. Why? Nobody
stood on her hind two legs and told folks. You don't know what
you don't know. He says Ezekiel 34, I recommend
you go read that sometime. Ezekiel 34 is a true picture
of the false shepherds. It's a shameful thing. I hope
I never preach election. I hope I preach to God's election
of people in Christ, the person of him. Health, wealth, and prosperity. If I'm healthy and wealthy, what's
prosperity? We know what health is, don't
we? That ain't sick. We know what wealth is, that ain't poor.
What's prosperity? That's a thriving condition.
You know what we call it in our generation? Happiness. Happiness,
the pursuit of happiness. This does not only need to be
said, this needs to be written down and read often. God's people,
they get sick. God's people, some of them are
financially poor. And God's people, many of them.
Many of them, I dare say most. This one, gets depressed, gets
sad, and gets downtrodden. Ought we? No. Do we? Yep. We have afflictions in the
body, we have afflictions in the mind, in the heart, and afflictions
in the pocketbook. It happens. It happens to God,
people. How could you say such things, Kevin? I'm just telling
you what the Lord told you, isn't it? He said, these things I've
spoken to you that you might have peace. I'm telling you all
this stuff so you can have peace. He said, in the world, in this
body I'm living in right now, I'm old California in 2022, you
shall have, not you might, He's speaking to his people. His people
shout. That means it's guaranteed it's
going to happen. Have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome
the world. We'll see him anyway. Sometimes believers are dealing
with only one of those three. They might have sickness. They
may be broke or they may be sad. Sometimes they might have their
health, but they may have two of them. They may be broken,
sad, any combination. Sometimes they're all three.
They're sick, they're poor, and they're depressed. But those
that are at their lowest, what the world considers lowest, if
you cut them down all the way deep to that new heart that's
put in them, and that new man, that new heart, it's younger,
it's smaller, and it's less mature than the old man. The old man
has been around for a long time, a lot longer. That new man, if you cut all
the way down to it, it's content. It's strong, it's healthy, it's
joyous, it's prosperous. It ain't just rich, it's wealthy.
Wealthy. The body may be broken, the bank
account might be broke, the mental state may be broken, but deep
down a believer's content, steady, and they are eternally healthy
and lively. They are. How? Christ does all
those things to his people. That's how. That's the only way
we could be. The body, this body, this present evil world, it does
not matter if we behold him. If we petition him and he hears
us and he has a word for us, he's mindful of us, nothing else
matters. Yeah, but I'm real poor, it don't
matter. Well, I'm real sick and I'm in pain and I'm grief, it
don't matter. I'm sad, I don't care. If you
see him, it won't matter, it won't. He's our health, He's
our wealth, and He is our everlasting joy. Turn over to Psalm 42, I
want you to see this. This was precious to me. Psalm
42. Does that mean we want to be
sad? Does that mean we want to be broke? Does that mean we want
to be sick? Of course not. There's contentious people in
this world that will butt. There are goats that'll butt
anything. They'll hit each other, they'll hit trees, they'll hit
electric fences. It don't make a difference. They'll butt, butt,
butt, butt. Of course not. That's foolish. We don't desire
those things. But Christ is always to the believer.
Here's Psalm 42, verse 11. Psalm 42, 11. Why art thou cast
down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him of a physical
disease. He's gonna do it. There's something
a little worse than physical disease, isn't there? He gives
us physical disease that makes us dis-eased. That's what the
word means, dis-eased. You was at ease and now you ain't.
You have a disease and he heals that. Maybe in the flesh, maybe
not. Maybe he does in the flesh, maybe
not. I've heard some people say before they were requesting complete
and total healing. That sounds super churchy, don't
it? What's that mean to a child of God? What's that really mean
in real world, real world terms, in God's language? God kill them
and take them home. That's what you're asking. To
be completely and totally healed, God kill my brother or my sister
and take them home. That's what you're asking. My
mother laid in a home by herself, a care facility. She just had
a quadruple bypass and she was alone. And sometimes she was
in 1974 and sometimes she was in 2020. And I said, Lord, she's
yours. Kill her and take her home. And
you know what happened? She was plum healed. Plum healed. She was made like Christ, who
is our health? Who cures our diseases? I was thinking of an
elderly believer that was in a car wreck, and they were just
banged up so bad, and their grandkids were grown. You know what I mean?
Like, what the Lord's putting their hands done, and they believe
the Lord, and their body's just miserable and beat up. Lord,
take them home completely and totally heal them. Our brother
D's. has cancer, and if the Lord's
pleased to take him home soon, he's not gonna die from cancer.
He's gonna be healed of his cancer. You get that? This world's what's
death. This world's what's sickness.
Why do people get sick? Because they're sinners. They
don't think so. They think it's because of me.
Or you, or germs. Ah, it's sin. He's the one that
heals us. He's our health. We hope the
Lord's pleased to give us physical health. and have strength to
the end like Moses did. Be strong in our old age. But
that's not what's needed. There's one thing needful, isn't
it? Christ who is our health. He's the, what about wealth? He's our wealth. What did Paul
tell the church of Ephesus? Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ. Peter said that. He said, oh,
this is more precious than gold. You think gold's precious? He's
more precious than gold. The Lord said to Abram, came
to him in a vision, spoke to him personally, didn't he? And
he said, fear not, Abram. Why? Because he's scared, he's
sad, he's depressed, and he was weak. He said, fear not, Abram,
I am thy shield, and I am thy exceeding great reward. We know Ephesians 1 so well,
but let's look at it. Maybe the Lord will show it to
us anew this morning, Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1, we'll begin in verse
3. Ephesians 1, 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. What's something
valuable to you? You like your car? You like your
house? You like your children? You like your mom and daddy,
brother and sister, your husband and wife? Are they more valuable
to you than being holy and without blame before the holy God in
love? If the Lord's taught you the
value of your soul, that's more wealthy. That's a greater riches. It is. Look down verse 11. In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance. What's our inheritance? Being
predestinated. according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ." Predestination has something to do with being conformed
to the image of Christ. I explained it to a friend of
mine one time. He said, I can't believe you believe that stuff. And I said, well,
it's in the scriptures, and it means we're going to be made
like Christ. You got a problem with that?
Well, he did, that's why he's mad. He valued his riches was
his knowledge and his understanding more than the application of
the facts on that chessboard, more than the person that we're
made like, the person that we're in the presence of. Verse 13,
in whom he also trusted. The father trusted in him first
and we trust in him too. After that he heard the word
of truth. You didn't trust him until somebody preached to you.
The gospel of your salvation. In whom also, after that ye believed,
ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the
earnest of our inheritance. What will we have until the redemption
of that purchased possession? What will we have now, the earnest,
the down payment, the up front money? We have his spirit with
us, Christ dwells in us. He dwells in his people. What about contentment and joy?
He's our riches, he's our health, what about joy? What about contentment?
Turn over to Isaiah 55. Paul told us in, why don't you
turn to Isaiah 55. Paul told us in Romans 15, that
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. that ye may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. He prayed that earnest would
come to us and we'd have joy and contentment in Him. You got
Isaiah 55? Look here, verse 10. Isaiah 55,
10. For as the rain cometh down and
the snow from heaven and returneth not thither, but watereth the
earth and maketh it bring forth bud, that it may give seed to
the sower and bread to the eater, so, just after that, like that
happens, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto
I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy. How can you turn a frown upside
down? God's gonna send it to the heart.
He has to speak, his word has to go forth. I can read that
all day long. It's like an Ethiopian unit,
but how can, unless a man tells me. Somebody's got to preach
to me. Somebody did. Man stood up real
loud. He was a big fella. He's bigger
than me. And he yelled real loud one day and told me who God was
and who I am. And all of a sudden, like, that
seems so offensive. No, that's joyous. That's good news. That's called gospel. Gospel. For you shall go out with joy
and be led forth with peace. There's peace with it. What's
going to happen if that does? You just going to agree that
that's the right doctrine? The mountains and the hills shall
break forth before you into singing and all the trees of the fields
shall clap their hands. Oh, the birds are going to sing
sweeter than they've ever sang before because they're his birds.
And we know him now. You see them trees? You know
how many leaves are on those trees? He does. Man don't know,
we can estimate how many grains of sand are in the sea. He knows.
That's how many his people's gonna be. Can you imagine that?
No, he can't. His creation's sweeter. His providence
is sweeter. I'm sick. Good, I'm thankful. Lord's using that. It says in verse 13, instead
the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead the briar shall
come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a
name, for an everlasting sign that it shall not be cut off.
If he speaks that peace to the heart and gives you that joy,
and he heals you by giving you a new nature, and he is your
only riches, he's the only thing that's valuable, it'll never
be taken away from you. That's great news, it'll never
be taken away from you, no matter what. You can't undo what God's
declared done. People say that's too bold of
a statement too. It better be. It better be how it is or I'm
in trouble. This needs said too. Believers get sick, believers
get broke sometimes, and believers get depressed sometimes. That
happens, that's true. But there's nothing wrong with
believers being healthy and fit, there's nothing wrong with believers
having earthly riches, and there's nothing wrong with the believers
being happy. It's okay. I like carrot cake. Does that
have anything to do with spiritual matters? No, but it tastes delicious
and I like eating it. Did you know that? Lord gave
me taste buds. Thank you. I like sailboats.
I like fishing. He's ordained that fish to be
alive. It could not die. It could not be caught until
the day I caught it. That's my fish. And I rejoice
him in that. And I physically like fishing. That's okay. It's
all right. He said, I leave peace. I'll
leave you and my peace. I give unto you. It's fine. He set us at Liberty, hadn't
he? Not as the world giveth. The world can't give that. The
world can't give that health, it can't give that riches, and
it can't give that contentment and joy. It ain't gonna happen.
Solomon told us that. It's all vanity. And live long
enough, you'll agree with him. That brand new Porsche is gonna
rust. New house is gonna leak. Babies are gonna grow up and
cuss ya. Family's gonna die. He said, let not your heart be
troubled, neither let it be afraid. That's contentment, isn't it?
What's contentment declared? Paul said in Philippians 4, I
know y'all know this. Not that I speak in respect of want, for
I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know how to be abased, I know
how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I'm instructed
both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." That's
what he said, wasn't it? What did I say when we started? You
take a dogmatic stand, God's going to prove it to you. That
was proven to Paul. King Agrippa called him. You
come up on the carpet, Paul, what have you done? You're imprisoned,
in jail. He's a felon. You get that? People's
upset with their pastors throughout this country. What if they're
sitting in a jail cell because they're a felon? You don't like him over a rumor,
and you don't even know what the truth is. You'd be real mad if I was
sitting in a jailhouse. Paul declared that in Philippians
4, and then the King of Gripa went to him, and he said, you
know what? He said, I declared that, and I've experienced it.
He said, King of Gripa, I think myself happy. I'm in prison because
I preach Christ. Because I told you, he's all.
That's so simple and so dumb, but he is. And that's what I'm
going to say. That's a good place. I'm glad
to be in prison. We ought to be glad Paul was in prison, too.
There's a whole bunch of them because of his bonds. They wouldn't have
nothing to do with him. Oh, well, that's obvious. He's not the
Lord's man. He wrote most of the New Testament. He labored
more than them all, hadn't he? An answer to prayer. Back in
our text here in Psalm 27, Psalm 28, David asked the Lord to be
with him. and he was afraid, and he was
weak, and he was depressed, and then he saw Christ is all. He's our health, he's our wealth,
he's our happiness. And all that stuff passed, didn't
it? Because we regard our Redeemer. And we pray while we're praying
sometimes. You ever start out asking for something and you
knew, like you got the answer as you was talking, and that's
where you transition to praise, isn't it? Thank you, Lord, you
already answered my prayer for us. While I was yet speaking,
he heard and he acted on it, didn't he? Here, David's praying while he
was praying. Psalm 28, verse nine. Save thy people. You've answered
everything I've asked for, Lord. And I ask this, save your people. What's that mean? To be washed
in the blood of Christ. Take your people, call them out,
wash them in Christ's blood, and tell them about it. Send
the Holy Spirit, tell them about it. Save my people. What could be healthier? Well,
my kids are sick. I want my children saved. My
loved ones, my brothers and sisters. You probably want your parents
to know the Lord. Well, they're sick. Well, it
don't matter if they're sick. They don't know Christ. What about wealth? Well, they're
broke. They need to buy groceries. Yeah, you can starve to death
and know Him. You'll be all right. What about joy? They're sad. They
gotta get their countenance back up before they can come to church.
If the Lord saves them, that's the answer to everything. That's
it, save thy people, your people, you laid down your life for.
And it says, and bless thine inheritance. Bless them, save
them, and bless them. Who's his inheritance? We're
reading Psalm 2. The father told the son, he said, I give you
the heathen for your inheritance. Are you a heathen? If you ain't,
I got bad news for you. If you're a heathen, if you're
nothing, The Lord saves his people and he blesses his inheritance. Feed them also. Feed them. Oh,
we're fed with his word. That's what David started out.
Hear me. Speak to me. Well, he spoke to him because
he regarded him and he praised him and he thanked him and he
said, speak to me again. I want to hear a word from my wife.
I like talking to her. I don't want to hear just one.
Talk to her today and tomorrow. However long we're together.
David said, save thy people, bless thine inheritance, feed
them also, and lift them up forever. Lift them up, give them joy. You're their health, you're their
wealth, and you're their joy, and lift them up. That's right
now. I hope you're lifted up today.
I hope the Lord's... I don't want to have a ministry
of condemnation. There's some condemning that
needs to take place. There's some rebuking that needs to take
place. I want to have a ministry of rejoicing. And I hope the
Lord lifts his people up now and gives them peace now because
of him. I want to show you him. Showing you him will do both.
I know that. Preach Christ, I'll do both of that. I want to show
you him that you lifted up. And then that's eternal, isn't
it? Lift them up forever. Lord, you're risen. Save your
people, bless them, feed them. Has he promised to do all, our
great shepherd, has he promised to do all them things? He laid
down his life for the sheep. He tells us of him. He feeds
us. He'll lift them up forever, eternally.
Eternally, that's health, isn't it? That's eternal life. That's
wealth. He is our riches. Does that make
you happy? That's a little past happenstance,
isn't it? That's contentment and joy. Joy. We will rejoice
evermore, he says, isn't it? I hope that was a blessing to
you. All right, Brother Mark.