All right, the gospel of Habakkuk,
the gospel. There is good news. You read
it with me. There are several verses in this book that we quote
quite often. The just shall live by his faith. Like the others, this is full
of warnings to an unbelieving world, which is the majority.
And then it's full of promises to God's believing people, which
is a remnant. Paul wrote in Romans 9, he said
the Lord will make short work of this and the earth. He said
if he had not chosen a people, we could have been like Sodom
and Gomorrah. He's chosen his people to deliver them. Chapter
1, verse 1, begins the burden which Habakkuk the prophet conceived.
May we all have this burden. A burden is a weighty matter,
something that is pressing upon you, a burden like a weight.
on our hearts and minds. We all have this weighty, this
burden for the glory of God. Martin Luther had that burden,
didn't he? Habakkuk had that burden. All
the prophets did, and as should we. A burden for the Word. A
burden for God's Word. May we have that burden, not
only for ourselves, but for others. Others might have a burden for
one another. A burden for the lost. And if Bacchus prays, he
begins verse 2 by praying, O Lord, how long? How long? Does that sound familiar? Psalm
13. It says that three times, David
did. If you read this, Habakkuk was
after David, so he most certainly read the Psalms. And I advise
you to read Psalm 27 again after you After we hear this and Psalm
18, if I don't have time at the end of the message, I was going
to read that with you. Psalm 18, Psalm of the Cross. It just sounds just like Habakkuk. But Habakkuk prayed, asked the
Lord, how long, how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear
and cry unto thee of the violence And thou wilt not save. How long?
Verse 3, Why dost thou show me iniquity? I see all this sin
and abomination and iniquity, and it grieves me, it says. It grieves me. You know, it's
a great blessing to be shown iniquity. For the Lord to show
us our iniquity. It's a great blessing, or else
Christ would mean nothing to us. The gospel would mean nothing
to us. The Holy Spirit of sin, the first thing he does is to
convict of sin, isn't it? Righteousness and judgment. So
it's a great mercy of God for him to show us our iniquity and
all the iniquity around us, to grieve over it. What a blessing.
to grieve over it. The world doesn't grieve over
it. There is no sin to the world. But we grieve over it, don't
we? And we see, and he talks about the violence all around
him. In verse 4, he says, the law is slapped. Judgment does never go forward.
It sounds like Isaiah. Judgment's turned way backward.
None cried for truth or justice. David one time said, Lord, it's
time for you to work. They've made void your law. They're
twisting your Word and they're rejecting your Word. It sounds like now, doesn't it?
Because men are the same, ages are the same, just more of them
right now. He says in Wicked, verse 4, compass
the righteous. The wrong judgment proceeded.
We look around at all the wickedness and perversion and injustice
in the land. That sounds like Psalm 73, doesn't
it? How long, O Lord? And then the Lord speaks in verse
5. The Lord speaks. He says, Behold,
ye among the heathen regard and wonder marvelously. I will work
a work in your days which you will not believe, though it be
told you. Now, what he's speaking of here
is a work of wrath and judgment and a work of correction and
salvation. Wrath and judgment, correction
and salvation of his people. Paul in Romans 11 dealt with
that, how the gods dealt with wrath, judgment against the Jews,
but in mercy with his people, with the Gentiles. He said, behold
both the goodness and the severity of our God. And that's what we
see here. That's what we see in every one
of these prophets, don't we? And God says, you will not believe
what I'm going to do. Now, the world, the unbelieving
world, doesn't even believe there's a God, and they certainly don't
believe that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. They
don't see any of these things as being the wrath of God. We
do, don't we? That's a blessing in it. It causes us to fear God.
It causes us to call on the Lord. To look to Him. They don't believe. And you know what we have a hard
time believing? We don't have a hard time believing
God is that holy, and God is that just, and God is that righteous,
and God will punish sin. We have a hard time believing
how He can be so merciful. Amen. You know, I wish I could
come up with a better word, but sometimes I say, I just can't
believe it. That He would save me, that He
would have mercy on me, choose me. He says, you're not going
to believe Him. The world doesn't believe Him.
Verse six, he says, I'll raise up the Chaldeans. Now, this is
three years before, most believe this is three years before Nebuchadnezzar
came and wiped them out. Isaiah prophesied a hundred years
before that. He lives during the time of Jeremiah. How about
that? He lived at the time of Jehorakim. Jehorakim was the
son of Josiah. Josiah was a, what a king. Josiah, what a king. He's a picture
of Christ. But his son was named Jehorakim. He's the one that cut the Bible
up and threw it in the fire. And it was shortly after that
God destroyed that place. So this is when he, so he says,
I'm going to raise up the Calvary and they're going to wipe you
out. And he talks about how swift
they'll be and how violent they'll be. And, and, uh, he says, they
are my judgment. Now in verse 12, look at, look
at it. Are thou not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die, but O Lord,
thou hast ordained them, these adversaries, for judgment. You
see that? Turn with me real quickly to
Psalm 17. Psalm 17. I've read this to you before,
but you need to see it, mark it, remember it, where it's found.
Because there have been many adversaries down through the
years, many powerful enemies. adversaries in this world. Down
through history, Pharaoh was the first great adversary of
God's people against God. Now Satan, we're going to get
to that in a minute, Satan. But Pharaoh, then there's Syrian
kings, and then Chaldeans like Nebuchadnezzar, and then there
was the Roman kings. The Persian kings, right? Caesar, all the Caesars. And other kings, Attila the Hun,
Adolf Hitler. Why did God allow these men to
judge? Look at Psalm 17, verse 8. Psalm 17, verse 8. Keep me, O
Lord, as the apple of the eye. Hide me under the shadow of thy
wing from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies who
compass me about. David had enemies all his life.
They are enclosed in their own fat. Their mouths speak proudly.
They've compassed us in our steps. They've set their eyes bowing
down to the earth like as a lion, as greedy of his prey, as it
were a young lion lurking in secret places. Arise, O Lord,
disappoint him. Cast him down. Deliver my soul
from the wicked which is thy sword. See that? Read on. From men which are thy
hand. Oh Lord, the men of the world,
God sends these. God sends these in wrath and
judgment against the wicked, a wicked and ungodly world. And
the chief wickedness is, and this is where it all started,
is ungodly, is idolatry. That's why our society and the
world in general is like it is, because of false religion, idolatry. They're not preaching. a God
on the throne, a holy and righteous and sovereign and just God who
will punish sin and not preaching the law of God. There is no law. To them, anything goes. No God, no law, no right, no
wrong. Everybody does that which is
right in their own eye, which is all evil. And so that's why
our world is like it is because of false religion. Okay? And God's chief Judgments are
against that. Israel perverted God's way. So am I. All right, back to chapter
1. He cries. He cries out unto the
Lord. Chapter 1, verse 12. You read
it with me. Are thou not from everlasting,
O Lord my God, mine Holy One? Are you not the everlasting,
eternal God? Are you not Jehovah? Are you
not our God? See, this is his cry, this is
his hope, this is his plea. He said, what he's saying is,
he's not questioning, he's just saying, aren't you our God? Yes, you are. My Holy One, my
righteousness. We shall not die, no matter who our enemies are. No matter how powerful our enemies
are, they're not as powerful as our God. And we shall not
die. Oh, no. We shall not die. Thou
hast ordained them for judgment. Read on, Almighty God. Thou hast
established them for correction. Chastening, that's the word,
chastening. God doesn't punish his people
for our sins, but he does correct them. He punished Christ for
our sins, didn't he? We with whom the Lord loveth,
he chasteneth. He said, we shall not die. Job
said this. He said, if a man dies, shall
he live again? He said, he's going to call and
I'm going to answer. He'll have a desire to the work of his hands.
How do you know, Job? What makes you so sure, Job?
He says, because I know my Redeemer liveth. And he'll stand at the
latter day on this earth and say, those skin worms destroy
my body. I'm going to see God. Who's he
talking about? God who walked on this earth,
Emmanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said this, He said,
He that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Do you
believe that? He that believeth on Me, He said,
hath everlasting life. Hath. Cannot die. And on the
back it says, we won't die. Because God's our God. Because
Christ is our substitute. Because Christ died. That's why. Oh, I was going to read so many
verses like Romans 8. Who shall separate us from the
love of God, the tribulations of death? No, nothing. We won't
die. We're not going to die. Christ
said so. Because He's our God, He's our
Savior. Look at verse 13 in our text,
Habakkuk 1. We read this a lot, we've heard
this. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil. Canst not
look on iniquity. But He says, do you not see what's
going on? Yes, He does. He sees. He sees what's going on. Then
chapter 2. Chapter 2, I love this. I preached
the whole message on this one verse, at least two verses. It
says, I'm going to stand upon my watch, and I'm going to set
me upon the tower, the watchtower, and watch to see what he will
say unto me, and what I'll answer when I'm approved. We all need
to stand watch, you know that? Doesn't the scripture constantly
tell us to watch and to prayer? Watch and pray. Let us not sleep
as do others, but watch. Watch. Watch and read. He said, I'm going to watch and
see what He'll say to me. Watch and read and hear. Hear
what He says. This will keep your eyes open. Keep you planted. Old Jeremiah
wrote this, and by the way, Speaking of knowing our, you know, knowing
iniquity and all that, the Lord said to Ezekiel, He says, Son
of man, cause Jerusalem to know their abomination. Cause them
to know that they're just like that child thrown out in that
field. And I had mercy on them. But here, Habakkuk says, I'll
stand on my watch. He said, I'm going to watch and
see. I'm going to stand and watch and see. And listen to what he
said. And this is what Jeremiah said. Stand ye in the ways and
see. Ask for the old path where is
the good way and walk therein and you'll find rest for your
soul. No matter how many in it. No matter how strong, no matter
how lively. And now you know that our chief adversary, is
Satan, the god of this world. And that's why we sung that song.
Old Martin Luther, he said, one little word will fail him. And
though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo
us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph
through us. Didn't you like that last line?
Let goods and kindred go. This mortal life also, this body
they may kill, but God's truth about it still. His kingdom,
His breath. We were just reminded, I think it was Gade brought up
the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace. I love so much what
they said. They said, King, we don't have
to stop and think about it. We're not going to bow and we're
not going to be afraid and you throw us in the furnace. If God
delivers us from the fiery furnace, fine. If he doesn't, he's delivered
us from you. He delivered us from everything
and everyone. And we'll be happy never after.
Oh my, we have nothing to fear. We shall not die. If you don't
remember anything, remember that. We shall not die. Because God
is our God. Christ is our Savior. But Habakkuk
said, I'll stand on my watch and see what He'll say to me. I'll answer when I'm reproved. We need reproof, don't we? All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness, that the man
of God may be truly punished unto all good work. He said in
verse 2 here, and the Lord answered that. He said, write the vision,
make it plain on tables, that he may run that readeth it. Write it down. Make it plain.
Make the message plain. We sing that song all the time.
Make the message plain. What is that song? Christ receiveth
sinful men. Make the message plain, write
it down, that we may read it, that he may run to read it. Run,
what do you mean run? Run to erase the sinful, with
patience. Looking where? Not to Jesus. The Lord Jesus, author and finisher
of the faith. The vision, verse 3, is yet for
an appointed time. And at the end it shall speak,
and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it,
because it will surely come. It will not tarry." The vision. What is the vision? Out of what? It's the Son of Man. The Son of God. The Lord Himself. The Lord Himself. Immanuel. So he said, he's coming. He's
coming. That's what all the Old Testament
prophets say. He's coming. That's what the
prophets say. He's coming. The gospels say
he's here. We've waited for him. He's here.
And the epistles and the revelations say he's coming again. Wait for
him. Wait. Though he tarry, he's coming. Wait. That's what you read. Wait,
I say. Wait on the Lord. Be patient. The coming of the Lord draweth
nigh. Look at verse 4. This is wonderful. Thousands
upon thousands of messages have been preached on this one verse.
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him. Pride
is the thing God hates more than anything. Six things that the
Lord hates, yet seven are an abomination. The first thing
is pride. All through Isaiah, all the prophets,
they talk about the lofty looks of man shall be brought. No.
He that walketh in pride, God is able to obey. Pride goes before
a father. Pride. That's why God's going
to destroy this world. It's the chief reason. Pride
and unbelief. That's why men are proud. They
don't believe God gave them everything. They don't believe God made everything.
They don't believe salvation's by grace, by mercy. They don't
believe Christ sacrificed it. So they're proud of themselves.
Take all the credit to steal God's glory. That's pride. That's
pride in it, stealing God's glory. But now, the just, the just,
the justified, those whom God has given this precious gift
of faith, to believe God, to believe His Word, to believe
God's Son, to trust God's Son. I've got one verse of scripture
in the bulletin for Sunday. It's, none of them that wait
on Him shall be ashamed. None of them that trust Him shall
be ashamed. Not one single person who really trusts the Lord shall
be cast out or ashamed. Not one. To just. To justify. By nature, there's not a just
man on the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. It's not by
nature. But who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifies. Who is he that can do it? Christ
died. Christ died. We're justified. How? By faith in Christ. Not by works, but by faith. How
many times have you heard that? Want to hear it again? That's
good news. Just. Martin Luther, that's the
verse that saved Martin Luther. You know that? That's what came
piercing his heart. The just shall live by faith,
not work. He was trying to work his way
to heaven by all his abstinence and this and that and the other,
and that first came home to his heart. Don't you like how this
reads? This is the first mention. It's quoted three other times,
I believe. The just shall live by his faith. Whose faith? Christ's faith. Christ lived by faith. And we
are justified by the faith of Christ, first of all. The faith
of Christ. We're going to be saved by His
faith, His righteousness, and His faithfulness. Because He
was faithful to God. Because He lived according to
the law. Because He satisfied God's justice. Because God is
well pleased for His righteousness. And we get what He did. And He received our just death. So the just shall live. shall
be accepted by his faith. And the justified, those who
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, live by faith, who walk by faith
in this Word. Now brethren, we've been thinking
about this a lot since the Lord sent the plague. And we just
don't have, we just don't exercise or we just don't act like we
believe God hardly at all do. It's a shame. Most of the time we just act
like Christ is a fire escape from hell and the rest of it
we're going to depend on somebody else. That's just not so. The Lord is our shield. The Lord
is our Savior. The Lord is our Savior of our
mind, body, soul, everything about us. We're in His hand,
everything about us, everyone around us. Why can't we live
by faith? Why can't we trust the Lord?
You know, before I die, I'd like to really trust the Lord and
not be so afraid of anything or anyone. The just shall live. Let's live
by faith. Let's quit ourselves like men.
Let's quit ourselves like women that believe and trust God. The
Lord is my salvation. Who shall I be afraid of? David
said. He said, what time I am afraid, I'll trust the Lord. Let's be like David, shall we?
Is there not a cause? Let's be like Shadrach, Ananias,
Mashiach, and Azariah. Let's be like them, shall we?
Daniel. Our God is able to save us from
anything and everything. Everyone. If He doesn't, we're done with all this. Won't
that be wonderful? So let's just not be afraid anymore,
shall we? That's easy to say. But we need
to live by faith. Trust the Lord. All right, and
it goes on down the rest of this chapter, several woes pronounced. Woe to him that, verse 6, it
increases with that which is not his, that is all the rich that just oppress people
and all that. And verse 9, woe unto him that
coveteth an evil covetousness to his house. And woe, woe, woe,
woe, verse 12, woe to him that buildeth a town with blood On
and on it goes, all the woe. But chiefly, down in verse 19,
Woe to him that saith to the wood, Awake to the dumb stone.
That is, woe to those who trust in idols. Verse 20, Oh, but the Lord is
in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence
before Him. What a verse. The whole world
needs to hear that verse. But don't think for a minute
I've passed by verse 13, verse 14. It says, the earth shall
be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the
waters cover the sea. What a verse. And it is. The whole earth is full of His
glory. And He has filled this earth
with the knowledge of Himself. And He has a people out of every
kindred, nation, tongue under heaven. Thank God He's so merciful. Because the knowledge of the
glory of God, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Christ is salvation. Thank God He sent it to the isles.
The British Isles. Then he sent it to this wilderness,
this land of the heathen. Thank God. Alright, now look
at chapter 3. This is it. This is a song and
a prayer. A song and a prayer. Habakkuk,
he starts playing and singing. Evidently, he could play this
neginoth. It's an instrument, a stringed
instrument, named called neginoth. I don't know how John Gill knows
it. John Gill knows everything. But
he said it was played and plucked with a feathered, a feather or
like a dulcimer or something. That stands to reason. So it's a prayer and a psalm.
Prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet upon Shiginoth, that is, upon
the psalm. Here it is. O Lord, I have heard
thy speech, emerges the report. That's how Isaiah 53 begins,
doesn't it? Who hath believed? I report. Anybody else? Go ahead, raise
your hand. To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? He's made bare His holy arm.
That's what you said one time. Your dad used to do that to you.
Well, our father does that all the time. He has hands, alright. God does. He has arm, alright.
It's Jesus Christ. We're underneath the everlasting
honor. We're in His hand. Who hath believed the report?
He said, I heard. Lord, I heard thy speech, and
I was afraid. I was afraid, feared. That's
the beginning of wisdom. That's the first thing that everyone
that God saves, that's the first thing He does to them. He convicts
them of sin. holiness and righteousness and
sovereignty of God, and they believe God is sovereign, and
they fear this God. And so it causes them to call
on Him, ask Him for mercy. The world's not asking for mercy.
He's not a just and righteous God, and they haven't done anything
wrong. Right? That's what they feel. He loves
us. God's people, they know who God
is. And the one thing they desire
and ask of Him more than anything else is mercy. Mercy. All the preachers preach this
continually at the meeting. We all do. Because salvation
is by the mercy of God. Mercy is not getting what we
deserve. That's what mercy meant. Grace
is getting what we've known as ever. Thy grace is saved. He said, I've heard thy speech
and I was afraid. O Lord, revive thy work. What is God's work? David said,
I will be established. I will be rejoiced. I will be saved. I will triumph
in the work of thy hands. That is the work that Christ
performed for us, the work of salvation. Oh Lord, revive thy
work in the midst of these years. In the midst of this perversion,
that's what I like to say, in the midst of this perverse generation,
this untoward generation, in the midst of this prosperous
generation, in the midst of this ungodly or religious but ungodly
generation, revive thy work. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the
Lord would pour out His Holy Spirit, the Gospel, in our land? Wouldn't that be wonderful? If He doesn't, there's a song
we sing, Let the work begin in me, in us. May He revive it here
in the midst of the years. Revive us again, O Lord. Fill
each heart with Thy praise. In the midst of the years, make
known. Make known what? Make Thyself known. This is life
eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, in Jesus
Christ, who is to make known. Old Paul said that I might know
Him. Know Him. Win Christ. Be found
in Him. I want to know Him. Power of His resurrection. Conformable
unto His death. He says, O Lord, in wrath, remember
mercy. In wrath, remember mercy. He
has, He does, and He shall. Because mercy and truth have
met together. Yes, righteousness and peace
have kissed each other at Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
all the mercy of God and truth and righteousness and peace found
in Him. He goes on to talk about Christ. He read this with me. It sounds
just like Psalm 18. He talks about the earth full
of His praise. He's the Holy One. From the north
and from the south, His glory covered the heavens. Verse 4,
His brightness as a light. This sounds like Revelation 1.
Before Him, the pestilence burning coals at His feet. Feet like
fighting brass that burned in a furnace. He stood and measured
the earth. Judgment committed. All judgment
committed on the ground. Verse 8 and on it talks about him dividing
the sea, and that's with the Israelites of course, but it
talks about the sea being troubled at his presence. Our Lord walks
on the water, walked upon the sea in the midst of that. where the disciples were in that
ship. Verse 11, the sun and the moon stood still when Christ
was hanging on Calvary. The sun refused to shine. Verse
12, He did marks through the land of indignation, threshed
the heathen in anger. He went forth. He came here,
verse 13, for the salvation of His people, the salvation of
Thine anointed. Verse 13, He wounded the head
out of the house of the wicked. That's Satan in it. He crushed
his head, though his feet were bruised. from the foundation
up to the top stone. Verse 14, he did strike through
with staves ahead of the village. He came out as a whirlwind to
scatter me. Their rejoicing was to devour
the poor secretly. But he did walk through the sea
with his horses through the heap of great water. for the children of Israel at
Passover. He separated our sins from us as far as the east is
from the west. And here's what Habakkuk said,
When I heard this, my belly trembled. Our Lord said through Isaiah,
He said, This is the man that I will look to. He that is born
of a contrite heart and trembling at my word. He said, My lips
quivered at thy voice. Jeremiah, Isaiah had a coal put
on his lips that blistered it. I heard a preacher one time preaching
with blistered lips. It was wonderful. He said, rottenness
entered my mouth. When I heard all this about my
God, my Lord, Holy Sovereign, just rottenness entered my mouth. Job said, I've heard of you,
now mine I see of thee, wherefore I abhor myself. Isaiah said,
woe is me, I'm undone. Daniel said, my comeliness melted
to corruption. John said, I saw him, I fell
at his feet like a dead man. That's what happens when you
see the Lord as He is. Rottenness enters your bones.
But he says, I want to rest from this trouble, from all this sin,
from this rottenness. Could you get rid of this rottenness? And when the enemy cometh up
to invade his people with his troops, O Lord, would you be
my salvation? So here's the end. Those are
the verses. Here's the chorus. All right,
the last three verses of the chorus. of this song. You could keep singing this.
I've heard my dad quote this so many times, hundreds of times
over the years. And no matter what happens, he
says, though the fig tree shall not blossom, no fruit on the
vine, the labor of the olive shall fail, fields yield no meat,
flock cut off from the fold, separation there, no herd in
the stalls, Sounds pretty bleak, doesn't it? Yet, I will rejoice
in the Lord. Didn't Paul say rejoice? And
again, I say rejoice. Where was Paul when he wrote
that? In prison. Well, he's cut off from the fold,
wasn't he? Not really. He says, I will rejoice
in the Lord, I will enjoy in the God of my salvation. You
see, remember, the Lord sent all this. The Lord sent all this
for judgment upon the world, but for correction of His people.
God sends trials and afflictions and tribulations. He said you
must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom of heaven.
You must. He sends these things for our good. He sends these
things to prove our faith. Faith will be tried. Or else
it's just a head belief. He's going to try our faith.
Like Job. He took everything away from
Job. to prove that Job had the one thing that the root of the
matter was in him. He did not take himself from
Job. See, faith is real. Faith is
from God. And He sends these things to
try our faith, to prove our faith, the faith that He gives. And
to prove Himself to us, to prove His Word is true. We never need
His Word quite like when we're in trouble. When we feel hopeless and helpless
and no place to turn, at our wits end, where do we turn? His
Word. To our Lord. In prayer. In His
Word. It never fails. He is speaking. He proves Himself. I am thy God. I sent this. I'll never leave
thee. You're going to lose everything,
but I'll never leave you. And then when it's all over,
you get it all back. With interest. Have faith. Be not faithless,
but believing. And he sends these saints. Prove
himself, prove his word, help one another. Because they all
go through the same thing. I will rejoice in the Lord. I
will joy in the God of my salvation. There's so much sadness, so much
sorrow, so much grief, so much sin and so much disappointment. Seems like it's mostly that. But we can joy in the God of
our salvation. Always. The Lord God is my strength. He's the one who will bring me
through all this. We have no strength. We can't
go through anything without Him. Without Him, we can do nothing.
We have no strength. He's our strength. Oh my, be strong in the Lord,
Paul wrote. The power of His might. Where
did he write that? In prison. He said, He'll make
my feet like hind's feet. Deer. You know how when you're
sad, you're just kind of dragging? You're tired, you're weary. Sometimes though, when you hear
the gospel, you just... David said that, he said, by
thee I have leaped over a wall, run through a troop, like hinds feet, deer. We're
able to run the race when we joy. The joy of the Lord is our
strength, he said. Unbelief and sorrow and all that
brings us down, weakens us. He said, He'll make me to walk
upon mine high places. He'll make me to walk upon mine
high places. You're sitting right now in a
heavenly place. Honestly, there's no place I'd
rather be. This is a heavenly place. This
is a foretaste of glory divine. It's evident that most of you
believe that, too. He's made us sit together in
heavenly places. And we walk. I love Psalm 48. It says, take a walk about Zion.
Just take a walk around Zion. Behold its bulwarks. Behold its
walls. God has made walls, appointed
walls for salvation. Just look around. Neither for
us or more than they did me against it. So we made us to sit together,
and we walk about Zion, and we walk with God. There was a time
when I walked with the world. Boy, I was in a slime pit right
along with it. Look back at chapter 2. Look
at chapter 2, verse 6. Look at this. We'll take up a
parable, he said. Proverb, Woe to him that increaseth
that which is not his. How long? To him that ladeth
himself with thick clay. That's all you're going to accumulate
in this world. Like the Egyptians went through a sea to go through
that, and their chariot wheels were stuck in the mud. That's this world. I was there
in the muck and the mire, as low as you could get. He made
me walk on high places now. My high places. You know what? This is His place. This is my
place, Daddy. You're my people. This is my God. Is this God your
God? Is His people your people? This place your place? This is
my place. This is God's church. This is
mine too. He's God's Son. He's my Savior. He's made me
to walk upon my high places. We walk with God. We walk with
the saints. And we've walked through this
wilderness. We've walked through the slime pits. We've walked
through the valley of the shadow of death. But someday we're going
to be just like old Enoch. You know that? Any day now, we're
just going to walk on them. That's right. Boy, we'll be walking on high
places then. And so he says, sing. We've got something to sing about. He says, give this to the chief
singer to play on the stringed instruments. He says, now second
verse, same as the first. Let's sing. Read Psalm 18 for yourself. Read
Psalm 27. They go so well with this. Because
it's all the same, isn't it? Stand with me.