Well, let's open to Psalm 13. normally very squared away and
organized. The Lord gave this to me in portions
and chunks, and I've got written notes and typed notes and scribbled
notes, and I hope I can read them. I want to be able to give
it to you. It's the word for the hour. Just as an announcement, there'll
be no service tonight. Go home, maybe listen to this
message again. Here in Psalm 13, verse 1, it says, How long
wilt thou forget me, O Lord? Forever. How long wilt thou hide
thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall
mine enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord
my God, lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemies say I have prevailed
against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I'm moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy.
My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the
Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me." There's six verses
here. There's three divisions. It's
real plain and clear. The first two verses, David is
cold. He's cold. He's in unbelief. He's in sin. The Lord has for
a moment hid His face from him. This man, after his own heart,
God's king, God's prophet, that he put there, the Lord hid his
face from him, and he's ice cold. And David's looking to himself,
isn't he? He said, I'm looking at my soul. How long do I look
at my soul? He's looking at himself. That's his problem. And then
there's two verses that David cried out to God. Lighten my
eyes. Consider and hear me, O Lord
my God. Lighten my eyes, lest I sleep
the sleep of death. We're all going to die one day.
I've heard people ignore that, and I suppose that's silly to
me. We have a physical death coming, and for the Lord's people,
whenever they go to die, He'll give sufficient grace. He'll
give dying grace in that hour. David's praying, don't let me
see that eternal death. Light in my eyes. Give me Christ
the light. He went from looking to himself,
I mean, ice cold. And in that ice coldness, he
called out to the Lord. Let me see Christ one more time.
And then there's two verses of rejoicing in Christ alone. Look
into Him alone, not in self, but the bountiful mercies of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet, our high priest, our King. He says in verse five, but I
have trusted in thy mercies. My heart shall rejoice in thy
salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is the Lord. You've been merciful to me, Lord,
and I'm going to rejoice in your Son. I will sing unto the Lord,
because He has dealt bountifully with me." Well, what about Jeremiah? Had 20-some verses of just, oh,
buddy, that's rough stuff, isn't it? The Lord dealt with him. The Lord gave him that burden,
gave him that trial, made him cold as ice, so like Jeremiah,
that fire can burn in his bones. That Word of the Lord can be
hot. Hot on his tongue. He's got to
get it out. He's got to tell somebody. He's got to sing. David
went from sighing to singing. He went from crying to praising.
One of the writers said, more often than not, David's heart
was more out of tune than his harp was. That's true. That's the walk of the believer. You get up on a plane, and everything's
just peaches and roses, and you click in your heels, and we're
just spiritual all the time. God's people, it ain't so. Those
that he's done a work in, because he's convicted them of sin, and
he convicts them of Christ's righteousness, and he convicts
them that judgment's accomplished in him. It was finished when
he said it was finished. That's what he does for his people.
That's what his word says. His Word says so. I wanted to
enter into this text for you. I prayed to the Lord. I said,
Lord, give me a word from Psalm 13. I want to experience this. I want to be an experiential
preacher. I don't want to sit up here and
give you a bunch of dry, dead, cold doctrine and theological
checklists and all that stuff. I wanted to live this and to
tell you what God showed me in it. The Lord gave me the greatest
trial I've ever lived in my life this past week. I've been through
a lot of things in my life. You can write some books about
it. I'm in a couple books. It's the worst thing I've ever
been through. The Lord got a hold of my heart and he made me cry
out like David four times. More than that. How long, Lord?
How long? You hid your face from me. I
don't see you. I can't see you smile. How long, Lord? I'm looking at my soul. How long? I was dying in conviction, earnestly. And I cried to God, and I just
felt all alone. Let me see Christ. You've done
a work in me, Lord. You gave me your faith. You've
done a work of grace in my heart. Let me see him one more time.
I want to see his face. I want to know him. And he did. He made me cry out to Him, and
He showed me my Redeemer one more time. And that wasn't over
15 minutes. This wasn't five minutes. Boy,
that's kind of quick. What do y'all want for lunch?
This was days. Days I did this. I was made cold. I was turned
to beg for mercy, and I was warmed. Like we looked at the other day,
the spark of faith, the fire of faith, the hot, warm coals
of faith that can handle them trials and logs. Like David, I went from severe
sighing to confident singing. I've experienced this. I'm going
to make it real cold in here this morning. This is a stagecoach. This is
the Lord's stagecoach. We're all in it. And one man
will sit up front in the elements, in the cold, in the sun, in the
rain, and he's going to hold the reins of the stagecoach.
That's my job. I'm thankful the Lord gave it
to me. hide of a rhinoceros in the spine
of steel to be able to do it. And I hope he makes me as wise
as a serpent and as harmless as his dove. I pray he does,
but it's going to get pretty cold in here this morning. And
whoever's left, after it gets cold, if there's any of you still
sitting here, and the Lord's pleased in his
sovereignty, In His bountiful mercies, in His perfect will,
we're going to be made hot. He's going to warm us up. You
know what we read in Revelations? He said, I would that you be
hot or cold. Look warm, I'll spit you out of my mouth. You
think we all heed His word? I think we all do. God said, touch not mine anointed. Well, they've been touched. And
this is a warning out of love to each and every one of you.
I was going to have Kimberly and children stay home this morning.
This ain't to them. They don't need to hear it. I
was going to brag on Kimberly a good bit. She needs bragged
on. And I didn't want my children having questions as they have
questioned me before. And that's never happened in
my life. As to the response of the gospel. Daddy, you going
to have to move? They're going to fire you. You're
going to have to quit, daddy. I've never had my children question
me before. It's happened. Already happened. But I thought
they don't need to be experienced with this. But this is a family
meeting. I thought this morning, too,
we got some visitors. I spent the night with my friend John
Stanley one time, and John Stanley's Ralph. Wasn't Ralph Stanley of
the famous bluegrass? Y'all probably don't know that,
but I always teased him. Ralph held a family meeting.
He said, you youngins get in here, we're gonna have a family
meeting. Well, I spend the night, what do I do? I wanted to hide
in the corner, didn't I? But I knew Ralph. Lord made Ralph
John's dad. And he was a wise man and I heard
him and I learned some things from that. Learned some things
from that. John was kind of embarrassed. I think Ralph was kind of embarrassed.
I was kind of embarrassed, but it was used properly. We're going
to have a family meeting this morning. We're all family. I'm
going to set this house in order. This trial that was given to
me made me speak very plainly. I wrote my notes, scribbled down,
don't be Southern. It's in my culture growing up.
I give people good out. If I don't want to talk about
something, I don't want to embarrass you, I'll give you a good out. And
that's my way of saying, we don't want to talk about this, I don't
want to embarrass you. And I do things too easy sometimes, and
I ought not be that way. I want to speak to you, my children.
I'm going to address some things
this morning. People say, you might not ought to do that, Kevin. Maybe
you ought to do it in private. Maybe you ought not give the
word that the Lord gave you for that hour. Maybe you ought to
change it a little bit. And I'm going to tell you what My pastor told somebody,
told him he was preaching the wrong thing too much. He said,
that's why I'm in the pulpit and you ain't. Oh, Brother Henry's
hard sometimes. I'm going to deal with some things.
And before we start amening, this medicine might be for you. John Chapman's article I put
in there last week, if the shoe fits, wear it. If this applies
to you, it applies to you, and we'll get a shotgun blast. I
don't wear high heels, but I know what high heels look like, don't
I? Sometimes we need, even if it ain't for you, there's several
of you in here that ain't for, but you need to learn what right
looks like. There's some things that need to be addressed. I
want to get all the wood, hay, and stubble out of the way. You've
heard that saying, before you have the meal, we're going to
set the table. I'm going to set the table before we have this
meal. I'm going to clean this table before we set it. Before we put
the silverware down, I'm going to clean the table. I'm going to get all
the wood, hay, and stubble off of it. We're going to see David
getting real cold and him getting real hot because I don't want
a fire building where somebody thinks there ought to be a fire
building and there ought not be a fire. I want to get it out of the way.
Moses, the Lord said, was the meekest man that ever lived.
And Jonah is called the peevish prophet. That means he got angry
over the slightest little thing and popped off. That's the end
of the spectrum, isn't it? Meekest man that ever lived and
a hothead. You know what they had in common? Both of them were
God's prophet. Moses popped. It was after 39
years in the wilderness. And the Lord already killed off
most of them that left Egypt. And all the ones left was 39
or under. They'd spent their whole life,
the bulk of them, from birth under the ministry of Moses.
And right there at the end, because he's represented that law. And
the law can't do nothing for you. The law ain't no savior. And he popped at him. He struck
the rock twice, didn't he? I know I'm much more like Jonah
than I am Moses. I know me. And I pray to be meek. And I've never talked to you
from my belly button. My children know what I'm talking about.
When you talk from your belly button. Old brother Barnard. Old Brother Barnard. Boy, we
all like talking about Old Brother Barnard, don't we? You know how
old Old Brother Barnard was when he preached to my pastor? He
was 44 years old. That wiry old lawyer from Alabama
was 44 years old. He was a young man. And he shrieked
and he shrilled. Whenever I talk from my belly
button, I don't shriek and I don't shrill. I can get real loud and
I don't. I never have to. As a father,
if I correct my children out of anger, if they do something
wrong and I'm mad and I whip them, I'm satisfying my flesh. That's what I'm doing. I'm not
really out to love them children. I'm not really out to correct
them children. I'm in it to satisfy my flesh. That's what I'm doing.
But if I correct them once I'm calmed down, now I can do it
in love, I can do it in wisdom, and I want to speak to you in
love. I want to speak to you in wisdom because I love you. I'm going to give a correction
that's much needed. And after I give these corrections, I'm
going to tell you why I did it. Will you hear me? And then I'm
going to give you God's word on it. That's why I care my children
show up. If I showed up here in my flesh
and I tongue lashed every one of you all, They don't need to
see that. But I thought, you know what?
It ain't me talking. I'm going to show you in God's Word what
it says. It's the Lord's Word. They need to hear that. Y'all
need to hear it. Because I love you and you don't know me well,
I only speak whenever I dwell on something for a long time,
when I've really searched it out, when I've prayed long and
hard about it. And if I'm given the confidence
and the ability to address something, it's right. I can put things
into perspective. I can give examples, and it cannot
be misunderstood if need be. I can give you a personal perspective.
I'm going to give you two general perspectives. I'll give you a
couple of general ones. But I can give you a personal perspective.
What's that mean? That means I'll put you in check with your
own words in light of God's Word. And you'll either but or bow.
It ain't fun. Trust me. You don't want to go
down that road. There's two responses to correction,
just like there's two responses to the gospel. God sent his only
begotten son into this world because man was depraved, fallen,
and Adam fallen in themselves and they hated God. Now they
might have wore robes of their own righteousness and they might
have squeaked up real clean and quit reading dirty books and
watching bad movies and all these things. They're plumb sin. And
Christ came into this world to die for sinners. Why does he
eat Republicans? I'm thankful he does. That's
who He came to save and He was their substitute. All the sin
that they are and the guilt with it was put on Him at Calvary's
cross and He suffered and He died alone for His people. He was made sin who knew no sin
that we might be made His righteousness. Something happened that man's
words can't enter into. That's something more delightful than
our words can speak of. And whenever He rose and He's
seated on high, we're with Him. He shall save His people. They're
plumb saved. And He said, no man will ever
take them out of My hand. Those that are His, those put
in Him in that covenant of grace before time, He's going to come
to, He's going to call them, He's going to give them life.
They're going to be born again, born of above, born of the Father. And they shall never perish.
He's gonna get the job done. It's effectual, that's what that
means. Gets the job done. People hear that, there's two
responses to it. There's hate and humility. People hate that
gospel. They say, I got a hand in it.
Well, if you got a hand in it, you'll plumb dead. If I have
a responsibility of anything in my salvation, I ain't got
a hope. I can't do it. I'm unable. I'm dark. He's hid
his face from me. I can't see anything. How long,
O Lord? Where are you? I don't know where
to find you. I'm unable. I'm dead in trespasses and sins. Man either bows to that and says,
I need a Savior, my Lord and my God. I bow to him, cry for
mercy. Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.
And that man will walk down from that house justified. He won't
walk down, he didn't say the publican left the temple clicking
his heels and whistling Dixie and just woo-hoo. No, he left,
probably still just as miserable as he was when he walked in there,
but he's plumb safe. I don't feel saved. Did you feel lost
when you was lost? No, you didn't. You didn't know
you was lost. I don't feel saved. Don't mean
you ain't saved, does it? If the Lord's done a work in you,
peace calls. People will respond to that with hate and humility.
There's two responses to correction, to a rebuke. They hate it, or
there's humility. I pray it's humility. But if
it's hate, so must it be. There must be heresies among
you, Scripture says. Peter was young, and just like
young believers, he would pay attention to me. Just like young
believers, he was feisty. Lord, I'll die with you. Lord,
I'll never leave you. They come to get him. Malchus come to him to arrest
the Lord and he whipped out a sword and he cut his ear off. That's
a young believer. What happened when God grew Peter?
When God actually gave him some knowledge, understanding, and
wisdom, what happened to him? He wrote, let this mind be in you. which was in Christ also, that
though he be equal to God, he didn't think his robber would
be equal to God because he was God. He took upon flesh and he came
here to be a servant, to serve his Father, to live on behalf
of his people all the way to the cross. That night and day. He was still just a sage whenever
he was mad and chopping ears off. But the Lord grew him, matured
him. That's what mature believers
do. I said, let this mind be in you.
I'm going to speak to you men first. And I'm going to speak
to you women. And then we'll all look together. Men, you stop teaching and you
stop preaching. Knock it off. I can't control
what you do outside of this place. This is the Lord's house. He's
put me in charge of it. You knock it off. Stop teaching,
stop preaching. I'm God's preacher. I know that. He sent me here. You called me,
he sent me. I'll give you the reason. You're
not equipped. That's hard truth, sense of truth.
You are not equipped. I hear a lot of things, and this
Starbucks we're running back here, that is contrary to the
word of God. It ain't right, it's flat wrong.
And there's no light in it. There's one thing, if my children
are acting up in my house up on top of the hill there, and
I ought to deal with it, and I took some time dealing with
it, that's my business and their business. But if the neighbors
and the people down the street start calling, saying, you know
what your children's doing? Is everything okay in your house?
We got a problem, and I gotta fix it right then and there. If I
got other pastors calling me, saying, is everything okay down
there? I need to deal with it. You knock it off. He sent me
here to pastor, and it's my job to preach, it's my job to teach
to all that will hear his word. His preacher says, thus saith
the Lord, not I think, I feel, I perceive. Turn over to Isaiah
chapter 8. Isaiah 8 verse 11. Isaiah writes,
For the Lord thus spake thus to me with a strong hand, and
instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people,
saying, Say ye not a confederacy, that means an alliance, to all
them whom this people shall say a confederacy, neither fear ye
their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself.
You lift up Christ. You lift up Lord. You tell them
who God is and let him be your fear and let him be your dread. Don't you be afraid like everybody
else is afraid. You fear the Lord. And he shall be for a sanctuary,
but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of a fence to
both the houses of Israel, for a gin and a snare to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. Christ is that stumbling stone.
And many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be
snared and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the
law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord,
Isaiah writes, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob.
He hid his face, didn't he? And I will look for him. Behold,
I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and
wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts which dwelt in Mount
Zion. And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that
have familiar spirits. You're going to hear people say,
I want you to go talk to somebody that's got familiar spirits.
Boy, they're doing some fabulous work down there. They're healing
people. They're raising money. They've got all this knowledge.
They have this new enlightening. The Lord's taught them something
new. Boy, they really got a handle on this. They don't know all
this deep. How deep in the ocean do you
have to swim to get wet? You ain't got to go down to the
bottoms of the sea, do ya? Well, they got deep knowledge. Well,
they got some special revelation. He said, whenever you see that,
and unto the wizards that peep, oh, that sing so beautiful, just
like a bird. Oh, they got such eloquent words.
And that mutter, you know what mutter means? That sounds something
bad, doesn't it? Murmur, mutter. That means they
have smooth words. And the literal translation is
they search and they learn and they study. Oh, you know who
you need to talk to? You need to go to this man that
either can do something fancy, that sings like a bird, or that,
you know what? They really spend a lot of time in the scriptures.
They read a lot of John Gill. They read a lot of Spurgeon.
They read a lot of Robert Hawker. They read a lot of dead men.
That's who you need to go talk to. Should not a people seek
unto their God? Shouldn't you go to see what
God says? Shouldn't we go to His Word? What's He say? For
the living to the dead, are you going to go to a dead man to
find the living God? A prophet ain't in his generation
no more. You won't find a living God in his living prophet in
his living generation. That's where you're going to
find it. To the law and the testimony, to the law and the prophets,
to the Word of God, If they speak not according to this Word, it's
because there's no lot in them. Natural man has some wrong things
about God's Word. We don't know Him. Born of Adam,
we don't know God. And when God gives His life unto
His children, when He quickens them, there's a new creation
in them. There's a new creature. Christ abides in them. But we
still got that old man. That old man is going to say
a lot of foolish things, and it would be good and wise for
us to hush and wait on the Lord. Reason two, I want to preach
from Psalm 13. I'm going to have to enter into
it. David was made cold. That's necessary. I've entered into that coldness.
If you're going to be God's preacher, if you're going to be his teacher,
if you're going to be his prophet in this generation, it's going
to be painful. There's going to be great sacrifice to it. I'll give you one general perspective
on that one. Oh, the first general perspective.
If you're so equipped, I don't need to be here. Now, a man that threatens divorce
all the time ain't a man, that's a boy that can shave. I ain't
doing that. I'm just putting this in perspective,
a general perspective, not a personal perspective. If you're so squared
away with it, I don't need to be here. God sent me here, though.
I'm here. Second, I'm not begging for sympathy,
I'm not pulling at your heart strings, I'm just telling you.
I'm not yelling, I'm not screaming, I'm not raging, I'm just telling
you. If you can do anything other
than preach, if you can do anything other than teach, do it with
all your might. You support the gospel, you support
God's preachers, you support His people with all that is in
you. Isn't that what we've been looking at for two years? What's
the two commandments? What's doing righteousness? Believe
in Christ and love in the brethren. This is how all men's going to
know you're my disciples. Not if you teach, not if you're
really squared away on what all these scriptures mean. If you
have love one towards another. Mercy. Long suffering. Do that
with all that's in you. Be kind. Be merciful. Be patient.
Be patient with people. If a child can't run a marathon,
you don't whip it. If it's stumbling, learn how to walk. You stick
your finger down, you hold that little child's hand, and you let it learn to
walk, don't you? Good job, buddy. Take another step. You don't
whip them. Out of love and wisdom, I tell
you, stop talking and start listening. God giving grace to say, come
church with me. We've looked at that several
times. That's the almighty power of God working on His child to
say, come church with me. Go to your neighbor, your family
members, your loved ones, come church with me. It's the same
grace God has to give if someone comes to you with a question
to say, go talk to your pastor about it. It's weird me being
your pastor and telling you this, but it's so, it's the word of
God. Go talk to your pastor about it. Sheep don't carry shepherd's
hooks. They say, bah. As God's under shepherd, what's
my shepherd hook? Thus saith the Lord. Women, the same goes for you.
If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. It
goes for you men. Turn over to Titus chapter 2.
I've been whipped with this a few times and they didn't know what
they were doing. Titus chapter 2. Titus 1 verse 16,
we'll start there. They profess that they know God,
but in works they deny Him. What we looked at the other day,
that double heart David talked about. Being abominable and disobedient,
and unto every good work reprobate. Titus 2 verse 1, But speak thou
the things which become sound doctrine, that aged men be sober. That ain't old folks. That's
those that's been in the gospel a long time. Those that that
new man is a little bit older than everybody else is. That's
who the aged folks are. The aged men be sober, brave, temperate,
sound in faith, in charity, in love, in patience, in patience. The aged women likewise, that
they be in behavior as becometh holiness. What's that mean? Does
that mean you talk just a little bit smoother? You carry a little
bit higher octave whenever you talk? Hello! I know what that
means. That's the fruit of the Spirit.
Love, joy, meekness, long-suffering. Merciful, kind. That's what that
is. Not false accusers. What's that
mean? Run around with every little
rumor you can get your hands on. I'll tell you what else that
means too. God will give me the strength
to be calm and meek. Someone goes behind your back, and they
go to a nine-year-old and a 12-year-old and tell them how bad their mommy
and daddy is, and they ought not be like them. That's a low
blow. That's a false accusation. Does
that sound like an old woman? You want to teach any young women?
Somebody go after your children. I know God's going to, His enemies
will come after me. That's fine. They're going to
come after her. That's fine. You come after my
children, you've got a problem on your hands. And I'll tell
you what the problem is, the Lord's going to deal with it.
I can get a hold of you and whoop you real good. I'll grab you
by the beard and I'll smack you around and I'll slap taste clean
out of your mouth. That ain't nothing. God, the Bible kills
people. He said, touch not mine anointed. We're going to look
at that in a second. False accusers. Not given to much wine. Well,
I don't even drink. You don't understand that text
either. What's that? What's the false wine? That wine
of Babylon. False religion. Clinging to your idols. Clinging
to your traditions. That's the way we always did
it. We've always done it this way. Too bad. That's wine. You're
drunk. Not giving a much why. Teachers
of good things. Without being instructed. I've
had so many people tell me how well behaved my children are.
That's so good. They're on an honor roll. They're such nice children. They're polite all the time.
They're always good. And then they proceed to tell me everything
I ought to be doing different. Does that make sense to you?
And to be mean to a little kid? What did the Lord say? He said,
you being evil. Who's he speaking to? You being
evil. You being a heathen. If your child asked you for a
fish, would you give him a scorpion? A godless heathen knows better
than that. That's something we all learn in kindergarten. A
godless heathen knows better than that in the world of thinking.
God sent you women. God sent you Kimberly. Young and old, you listen to
me. God sent you Kimberly, not the other way around. That woman
sacrificed. God gave it in her heart to leave
her family and leave her friends. And those children did too. She
had an easy life. She had the American dream. I
mean, living high on a hawk. And she gave it up for you. God's
equipped her. He's given her an alligator hide.
That's called a buckler in the scripture. It's an alligator
hide, an atonement. He gave her a spine of steel.
I watch it often." So it bounces off of her. She sets her chin
like a flint and takes it. She's the aged woman. Through
God's work of grace, she's turned from her idols and she serves
the living God and she's an example. Don Fortner put me over somebody
about 10, 15 years ago. He said, if I was you, they asked
him a hard question. He said, if I was you, I'd do anything
Kevin Thacker did. Whatever Kevin Thacker did, that's what I'd
do. And buddy, I'll tell you what, my life went south. We
stayed up late last night, in the wee hours of the morning
talking about this. You're probably going to get your head chopped
off, and I'll be right there next to you. That's the aged woman. Any question on that? Turn over numbers. Numbers chapter
12 is for everybody. erroneously, without wisdom,
without understanding, without knowledge. I said one time, not
me, this is the response. When God calls his preacher,
he calls his wife too. Kevin, you might be right, you
might not be right. Y'all believe Don? How many times did Don tell
you that? You ever heard Henry say that?
You ever heard Clay say that? Whenever God calls his preacher,
he sends his prophet, he sends his wife too. He equips them.
And I had somebody tell me, I don't think so. And I didn't correct
it at the moment. And I ought to have. I ought
to have. Look here at Numbers chapter
12. And Miriam and Aaron, that's Moses' sister and his brother. Numbers chapter 12 verse 1. And
Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian
woman who he had married. For he had married an Ethiopian
woman. This ain't too common nowadays, but this also applies
to people that's against interracial marriage. Here's God's word on
it. But they was mad at Moses' wife. Now, Zipporah, was that
just an image of perfection? Was that a nice woman that was
friendly to everybody? That was mean to her? No, it wasn't, wasn't
it? She was a rough lady. And they
spoke bad about God's prophet's wife. Verse 2, and they said,
hath the Lord indeed spoken by only Moses? Hath he not spoken
also by us? And the Lord heard it. I've heard it. Does that make
a big difference? It don't matter what I hear.
The Lord heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek,
above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. The
Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam,
Come out, ye three, unto the tabernacle of the congregation.
And they three came out. Why? Because when the Lord speaks,
that's what happens. His word goes out. It's factual.
The Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the
door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both
came forth. And he said, Hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you,
I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will
speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who
is faithful in all my house. With him will I speak mouth to
mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude
of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore, then, were ye not
afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" Don't you know that this
is my prophet? Aren't you afraid to speak against him? Well, we
didn't talk against him. We talked against his wife. Same thing.
The two have become one. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against them, and he departed. And the cloud departed
from off the tabernacle, and behold, Miriam became leprous,
white as snow. And Aaron looked upon Miriam,
and behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas,
my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us wherein we
have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned. Let her not be
as one dead of whom the flesh is half consumed when he has
come out of his mother's womb. And Moses cried unto the Lord."
Aaron went to the man designated as the prophet, didn't he? He
beseeched him, what did Moses do? Moses said, I told you not
to say nothing. He said, I told you so. No, he cried to the Lord. Moses cried unto the Lord, heal
her now, O God, I beseech thee. And the Lord said unto Moses,
if her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed
seven days? That was the tradition. Let her
be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that, let her
be received again. And Miriam was shut out from
the camp seven days, and the people journeyed not. They waited
on her. till Miriam was brought in again. And afterward, the
people were moved from Hezroth and pitched in the wilderness
of Paran." I've watched this happen several
times. I know a man that cussed God's prophet, his preacher,
said, I ain't gonna sit underneath you. You're mean. I don't like
your words. I don't like the words you speak
about God, even though it's God's word. Thus saith the Lord. And
he left. He got mad and left. Like that
raven we looked at the other day, out of the ark. It left
and it didn't come back. He made it two weeks and he fell
down the steps and broke his neck and died. That's an earnest warning. Touched
not mine anointing. Now what are we going to do?
What are we going to do? You cold yet? I went too long
and I'll wrap it up quick. Are you cold yet? Is it cold
in here? Is it awkward in here? Good. God might be getting ready to
teach you something. I'm not going to apologize for what I
say. That's the Lord's Word. I showed it to you. I've expounded
on it. I told you what he said. I ain't
going to apologize to you. And I don't need an apology.
Paul wrote that article not too long ago. Pay what you owe. If
you owe an apology, that's your business. Probably ought to. But I ain't
going to apologize for it. What do we do now? Back to Psalm
13. Now it's getting cold. David begins in the first two
verses so cold, and he gives four how longs. How long wilt
thou forget me, O Lord? How long wilt thou hide thy face
from me? David feels freezing from a lack
of Christ or love. He feels like the Lord's clean
gone from ever. That's what it says in Psalm
77. Lord, have you clean gone forever? What's clean gone mean?
That sounds like an old hillbilly saying. You know, the Appalachian
dialect is very closely linked to old English. To sucker. You may not use that word often.
I know what that means. Said often to me. It's cling
on. That means it ain't there and ain't even a trace of it.
There's not a shadow. There's not crumbs. Lord are you cling
on. And sin and unbelief. King David, God's prophet, cries
out, how long? That's cold. It's a cold heart.
And it's a cold heart looking to itself. Look at verse 2. How
long shall I take counsel in my soul, having my sorrow in
my heart daily? How long shall my enemy be exalted
over me? How long am I going to take counsel
with myself? Seeking warmth. Seeking answers in myself. How
long, Lord? How long will my enemy be exalted
over me? Who's that? We'll always tell you. If you're
alone on a deserted island, these Scriptures are true, ain't they?
Who's David's enemy? David. David's old man. His old man's exalted over him.
That's what he said there in Psalm 12. Help, Lord! Save, Lord! Because the godly
man ceaseth, and the faithful have failed. What's that mean?
We looked at that as a man coming back from a funeral last time,
didn't we? That's David saying, Lord, haven't you done a work
of grace in my heart? I know you've given me faith. Where'd
it go? Where'd it go? Have you clean left me? There's
hope in the frigid cold. I've had hypothermia twice in
my life. You know what happens? You get real numb and it hurts.
It don't make sense, but it's so. There's numb and there's
pain. You don't feel nothing. You don't feel nothing. You ain't
lifted up. You ain't brought down. Then there's pain. But there's
hope in that cold. You know why? You who know the
Lord know what I'm talking about. If I feel like I'm left to myself
and I keep looking at myself and I'm just miserable, when
He's hid His face from me, I can't see Him smile. I have comfort
knowing He's dealing with me. He's exposing my sin to me. The Lord doesn't do that to the self-righteous.
They don't do that to the people He doesn't love. The Holy Spirit
comes to convicts of sin. The Lord's showing me my sin.
And I've been through this enough, been through it enough times,
I'm going to see Christ at the end of it. It ain't happened
yet, but I'll cry to Him. I'll beg to Him. He's allowed
me to see and experience what I am, that noun, sin. The Lord said to the church,
the angel of the church that led the sins, right? These things
said, amen, that's Christ, the faithful and true witness, the
beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, and thou
art neither hot nor cold. I would that thou were hot or
cold. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor
hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth." What's lukewarm? Have
you ever been lukewarm? Let me ask you. Are you just
grieved over your sin, over what you are? That's cold. That's good. Is the Lord's Word
burning in your bones? Oh man, He gave me comfort today.
I've got to tell somebody. That's hot. Or are you like,
well, I've done some bad things and I kind of like reading the
Word. That's lukewarm. You know what's lukewarm in a
person? We call it room temperature. What happens when somebody hits
room temperature? You're dead. You're dead. A dead man's room
temperature. A dead man's lukewarm. He said,
I would that you'd rather be hot, cold, or hot. One or the
other. Here's what Spurgeon wrote about
this verse. If a man has never yet found occasion to use the
language of this brief ode, he will do so before long, if he
be a man after the Lord's own heart, just like David. How long
wilt thou forget me? How long, Lord? And then Spurge
went on to say, How like a fool thou talk'st! Can God forget?
Can God forget? Just like we read in Lamentations,
Jeremiah said, I remembered you. I remembered your word. It's
written on my heart, and there's a new man in me. Turn over Isaiah
49. What won't a believer do? What
won't a sinner do? Nothing. They'll do anything,
except leave the Lord because He helped them. What sin won't
they commit? They'll commit anything. They'll
do anything. and they'll forget and they're
going to be cold. Who makes cold? How does somebody
make cold? God hides His face from them. Why does He hide His
face from them? That way they'll cry out to Him.
He puts faith in them to cry out to Him and then He reveals
Himself to them, reveals His Word to them, reveals His promises
to them that He's sure, not us. This old man is a liar. This
old man is weak and frail and just as the Lord says he is.
He fails not. His Word fails not. Look here
in Isaiah 49 verse 13. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful.
O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains, for the
Lord hath comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His
afflicted. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my
Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking
child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her
womb? If you're breastfeeding your child and you've got a newborn,
can you forget that? Yea, they may forget. Happens all the time on the news,
don't it? Yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee
upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before
me. What's our promise that the Lord
won't forget his people? In that Lamb's Book of Life,
He's written the names of His people on the palms of His hands. He sees those palms. He sees
those nail prints, those holes. Not us. If He saw me, I'm in
trouble. If He saw Kevin Thacker, there
would be an eternity of wrath coming. But He looks upon His
hands. And He said, My son died for them. God provided Himself
a Lamb. And that sin that does so easily
beset us, It comes on us so easy, doesn't it? Because that's our
nature. That's our old man just raging at us. He took that and
he went to Calvary's cross. He was ashamed. He was stricken
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity.
And by his stripes we're healed. And when God the Father sees
that, He says, well done, my good and faithful servant. Why? How could that happen? How could
a holy God that cannot have sin in front of him, he can't have
it anywhere near him, he can't smell it, he can't see it, it
can't be in his presence. How could he still be just and justify
a sinner? Because of what Christ did on
that cross. What Christ died for. The people he died for. Jeremiah said, He wanted to give
up. When the Lord died, the apostles
were lost. They were lost. They were cold.
They felt lost. The Lord left them. How long
will we be gone, Lord? And Peter said, I'm going fishing.
It's all wrapped up. I'm heading out of here. And
those angels came to that tomb. And they said, you go tell the
disciples and Peter. And Peter went cold. And when
they came to him and said, My Redeemer liveth, he was hot.
Jeremiah experienced that. Jeremiah went and preached and
preached and preached. He said, Lord, you fooled me.
Nobody's listening to me. I know the feeling. I preach
on giving because that's what we come to in the text. We go
verse by verse, don't we? And the numbers drop. I preach
on attendance. People quit coming. I'm scared to death preaching
on how a husband ought to love his wife like Christ loved the church.
Y'all may go home and get in a fist fight. Jeremiah said, Lord, you've deceived
me. I've said your words, and they're
about to kill me. They're going to pick up stones
and stone me. And he said, I ain't going to say your words no more.
I ain't going to do it. You've sent me, but I ain't going
to say your words no more. And then it said his word. He went cold.
That's cold, isn't it? And he said, but your words burn
in my bones, and I cannot stay. I have to tell somebody. So when
you see all this sin, and you see all this grief, and this
heartache that we self-inflict, don't we? All that we can be
turned from that coldness to His warmth. Christ and Him crucified. The person and the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We can see what He's did. What
He did. And then we start getting humble, don't we? Because we
see it in ourselves. I know what I am. I see what I've done. And
now I can't condemn another. And if Christ has died for that
one, that seems to be so horrendous. What if somebody's a mass murderer?
You know what I mean? What if they went out and shot up the
school or something crazy? If Christ died for them, He's
put away the sin. There's no condemnation. How
can I charge it? Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifies, isn't it? That warms
us up. That gives me hope. It gives
me hope for wretched, dead sinners. to look to Him. And like David,
I'm going to start out so cold, and then I'll call to Him. And
as soon as I call to Him, I'll remember His Word. I'll remember
what I am. I'll remember who He is. And
then I'll sing and rejoice. I'll praise Him. I'll praise
Him. I hope the Lord will make you
cold, that He can warm you. He can give you the faith to
see what Christ did for His people, and to praise Him, and to sing
to Him, and rejoice in Him. Amen.