What a hymn that is. The last
line, all of it, I love it. You know, Martin Luther is who
the Lord used to translate Scripture. In the world, the evil religion
didn't want the people to have the truth. That word above all earthly powers,
no thanks to them, abideth. The spirit and the gift are ours
through him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, they
will. This mortal life also, it will. The body they may kill, something
will, God does. God's truth abideth still, his
kingdom. It's forever. They tried to kill Martin Luther.
They wanted him dead. He had enemies everywhere. He died in old age, in his 80s. Thank God for Martin Luther.
Thank God for the Word. Psalm 106, we believe David wrote
this. It begins and ends with, Praise
ye the Lord, O give thanks unto the Lord. May we do that. May
we begin and end this service that way. For His mercy. And who can utter the mighty
acts of the Lord? Who can show forth all His praise? Who can
tell what all He's done for us? It begins and ends that way.
And David then personally, 4 says, Remember me, O Lord, please.
With the favor you bear unto your people, O visit me with
thy salvation. David, aren't you saved? Well,
at the time, he wasn't there yet. But that's what he's asking
for. That's what he's calling for.
Save me, O Lord. And then he ends with verse 47. He prays for everybody. All of
his brothers and sisters. For us. You have it, verse 47. Save us, O Lord our God. Us, our children. Gather us from
among the heathen. To do what? To give thanks. Is your family, other family
members, they're not here this morning? They don't know the
God? They don't care? They're not looking? Why are you? The Lord has gathered
you from among the heathen to give thanks. You know, Moses
kept telling Pharaoh that. God said, let my people go. Why? We're going out in the wilderness
to have a feast. Outside the camp, we're going
out there to worship God. They're not doing it in Egypt. You've got to come out. The Lord's
got to bring us out of Egypt, outside the camp, gathered with
His people who are strangers and pilgrim, and they're calling
on the name of the Lord. What do they call them? Oh, save
us. This message was born a couple
of weeks ago out of fear and sorrow. He's a young man. When I say young, he's 60 now,
I guess. I've known him all my life. He
and his wife were standing beside the hospital bed of their 23-year-old
son whose life was ending. No, it wasn't the virus. Other
things kill people, you know. If that was your loved one, As
your spouse or your son, what matters then? What matters? Anything? Does anything matter but this? Do they know the Lord? Do I belong to the Lord? Nothing else matters. It doesn't
matter if you're married or unmarried. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter if you have children or don't have children. It doesn't
matter if you're educated or uneducated, rich or poor, tall
or short, male or female, old or young, live or die. One thing
matters. One thing matters. Right? And it's all going to come to
that. Their son died. So this verse says, save us. Oh Lord, us. Save us. And you know, God is so merciful.
God is so gracious that He says three times, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. No matter
who it is. Whosoever. Three times. Whosoever. Does what? Just call. What? Save us. Shall be saved. Whosoever. If anyone ever really calls on
the name of the Lord. Lord. He's Lord. No one and nothing
else is. No one and nothing else has any
control over anything. Do you hear me? Do you hear me? I mean, He really is. He said,
I, the Lord, do all these things. My hand, I do it all. Your breath
is in my hand. If anybody really calls on, Lord,
You're Lord, save me. I'm looking to you. I need saving. You know, the world doesn't think
it needs saving. The world, most people in the
world kind of like this world. They don't want saving from it. Whosoever, doesn't matter. Call
on the name of the Lord. Lord, You're my God. I'm in Your
hand. Lord Jesus Christ. Like Bartimaeus. Remember Bartimaeus? Oh, son
of David, have mercy upon me. And they called him. He called.
And they called him. It says the Lord's calling you.
Pete, be of good cheer, Bartimaeus. He's calling you. How do you
know he's calling you? You just called on him. And they kept telling him to
be quiet. He needs saving. And the Lord,
he came to the Lord, they brought him to the Lord and he said,
what will you do? And he said, I will see. And there's no ifs, ands, buts, or
maybes about it, whosoever shall call. My hope for you and all
of you, young and old alike, is that in this message we all
will call on the name of the Lord right now. Right now. And
never quit calling until the day we die. Never quit. My hope for you, all of you,
and me is that we all will call. Save us, O Lord. Turn with me to Romans 10. Paul
quoted this in Romans 10. And it begins, you know Romans
9, don't you? It talks about the Sovereign
Lord. Romans 9. Election. Before the children
were born. And then any good or evil purpose
of God according to election will stand. Yes, it will. Not
of him that willeth or him that runneth. It's of God that showeth
mercy, doesn't it? Well, Paul in the next chapter
says, call. And if you don't call, you won't
be saved. And he quoted in Romans, or Joel
2, But in verse 1, he says, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. See that? Verse 9, look at this. How many
times have we read this? Young people, read it with me.
Verse 8, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth. What's that?
Help! The Lord saved me. Word of faith,
which we preach, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus
and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved. Talk about saved. And this modern generation thinks
this is foolishness. saved. This is just old ignorant
religion of ignorant, uneducated mountain people. That's all they
see. That's what the world thinks. It's just foolishness. And we're all going to find out
real soon. And us which are being saved,
Christ is the power of God, the wisdom of God. Oh, we think the
wisdom of this world is foolishness. And we all know we need saving.
Our children need saving. Saving from what? From this present
evil world. Saving. Look at verses 9 through
11. It says in verse 11, Scripture
saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Whoever
calls, whoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall not be
ashamed. There are going to be myriads
of people, multitudes of people, ashamed. Standing before Him
in shame. Hold Romans 10. Go back to Psalm 106. Go back
there. Hold Romans 10. We'll come back
to that. As said, most people don't believe we need saving.
Certainly, sin is... I remember years ago there was
a a survey in the Roanoke Times on the headlines of the paper.
What is sin? What do you think about sin?
They did a survey, and people all over the Roanoke area answered
it, and they wrote in what they thought about sin. Most people scoffed at it, you
know. Most people, their idea is nothing from God's Word. You
see, sin is the source of all trouble. all evil, all wickedness,
all horror, all terror, all pain, all suffering, all sickness,
all hate, envy, anger, wrath, malice, shame, fear, and ultimately
death. Sin is the cause of all death. Sin. Sin. That's the problem.
Within us, without us. Everywhere. Sin separates us
from God. who is love, who is mercy, who
is grace, who is goodness, who is peace, who is joy, who is
contentment, separates us from God. Sin separates us from each
other. Sin makes marriages fail, friendships
fail, turns children against their parents, parents against
their children. Sin destroys our minds, destroys our bodies,
destroys our hearts. Sin is what drives people to
drugs, to drink, to finally, ultimately kill themselves with
no hope because they're without God in this world. Sin. It's
not a light matter. It's not a laughing matter. Sin started in the garden. It
was against God. Against who? God. Good. Goodness. Mercy. Grace. Feeder. Provider. What does God require
of man? What does He require of man? Just thanking. Just worshiping. God prays you. Sin started in
the garden against God, against love, against grace, against
wisdom, against righteousness, against His Word, against His
commands. They listened to the God of this
world and it plunged them into darkness. It plunged them into
pain and suffering as they'd never experienced before. If
they'd only listened to the One who told them the truth. And
they listened to the God of this world. And it plunged them and their
children and everything and everyone into darkness. and despair and
sorrow and sickness and trouble after trouble after trouble until
finally they died. Sin. It's real, isn't it? They began to hate each other.
They began to blame each other. If God hadn't intervened, the
first marriage would have ended in divorce. Why? Sin. But God is rich in mercy. He must have loved Adam and Eve. He wouldn't have told them these
things. He wouldn't have showed them these things. He wouldn't
have covered them in the covering of an innocent substitute. You see who they sinned against?
And they did it. Who'd they do this against? It's
against Him. But who suffered? They did. Their children. Everything around them. And this is how David begins,
verse 6. We have sinned. Psalm 106. We've
sinned with our fathers. We've committed an iniquity.
We've done wickedness. Our fathers just didn't understand, did they?
Why didn't they? They just didn't understand thy
wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the multitude
of thy mercy. They provoked Him, provoked Him,
provoked Him. Oh, this word, verse 8, nevertheless. Nevertheless, He saved them. In spite of them,
He saved them. You know, mercy is not getting
what we deserve. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consuming. You know, pride is... The Lord's got to save us and
our children from everything. Pride goes before destruction. It's a thing that God hates more
than anything, and it's the prevalent characteristic of all mankind
more than anything else. And as Scripture says, in the
last day perilous times shall come, men shall be lovers of
self, proud, boasters, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure
more than lovers of God. God's not in their thoughts.
They're so proud of themselves. The last day. Pride is in us. Pride is in our children. I see
it in myself. I see it in our children. I see
it in their faces. It's ugly. And God's going to
kill a whole world full of proud people. But He's going to save
everybody that bows down before Him, that humbles himself and
calls on the Lord. Lord, save me from pride. Save
me from myself. Let me realize There's just not
one thing I've ever had or done in my entire life that you didn't
give me. You know, our children are full of pride. Why? They
haven't done anything for anybody. They haven't provided anything
for anybody. They haven't done one single
thing in this world for anyone. That was me. Everything I have been given
to them by my parents. What have they got to be proud
of? It's worse in adults, though.
It's worse in adults. It really is. Forty, fifty, sixty,
seventy years of God's mercy and God's grace, and most human
beings don't give God a thought. Don't give Him a thought. Scripture
says God's the Savior of all the world, all of mankind. How's
that? He gives them to them. He feeds them. He clothes them.
He says, I've girded you though you didn't know me. I've fed
you all these days. And what have you done? Bite
the hand that feeds you. Taunt the hand that feeds you.
It says in verse 7 in our text, they provoked him. They provoked
him at the sea, the Red Sea. The Red Sea has always represented
the world. Why? Those Egyptians tried to get
through it and they drowned in it. It's called Red Sea for the
blood that was in it. Thousands and thousands of years
have gone by. How much blood has been shed? How many people died? A sea of
blood. And these Egyptians, it says
in verse 9, it says, he rebuked the Red Sea. It dried up and
led his people through the depths as through the well. He saved
them from the hand of him that hated them and redeemed them
from the hand of the enemy. But the waters covered their
enemy. Not one of them left. He brought them through the Red
Sea, his people, but those Egyptians drowned in it. If we get through
this world, God's going to save us from it. And it says, Then
they sang, look at it, verse 12, Then believed they His word,
and sang His praise. Do you remember when you first
heard the gospel? When you first heard the truth of who God was,
and what a sinner you were against God, and what all God has done
for you, and you've done nothing for Him, and you called on Him
for mercy, and He spared you, and He showed you Christ crucified,
and you believed on Him, you sang His praises, God saved me
from myself, from sin, from this world, and you gathered together
with His people, strangers and pilgrims in this world, what
happened? Soon forget. Verse 13, they soon forget. What
made them forget? What happened? Got out in the
world. I've done it. I've seen you do
it. I'm seeing it happen. The world
will get a hold of people. That's all you think about. And
forget God in order to have His thing. We need saving. You see what
I'm saying? We need saving. And whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord. We're gathered here together.
This is what David said. Save us and gather us. It says
gather us from among the heathen to give thanks unto thy holy
name and to triumph in thy praise. We need saving from, number one,
sin. Within us and without us. There's
only one person that can deal with this, and that's Jesus Christ.
And He did. He said, believe on that. Look
to that. And you'll find in the end there
won't be one left, not one sin left. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord, save us, O Lord Jesus Christ, from sin. Lord, my God, save me from sin. And when I say sin, I mean myself,
from me. Save me from me. Save me from
them. Have mercy on me, O God, according
to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude that I tend
to mercy. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from my iniquity.
Cleanse me from my sin. For it is against Thee and Thee
only have I sinned, and done evil in Thy sight. And I will
sin against Him till the day I die. What have I got to do?
Call. Just keep calling. And He's promised,
I'll save you. He kept saving them, didn't He? In Psalm 107, they kept getting
in all kinds of trouble, you know? Three kinds of trouble
they got into. Number one is what they locked
themselves into. Look over at chapter 107. Look
at verse 10. You have it. It says, They sit
in darkness, the shadow of death. There's this shadow hanging over
their heads, bound in affliction and iron, because they rebelled
against the words of God. Contempt, or treated God's Word
with contempt. Well, who were they listening
to? If they weren't listening to God, who were they listening
to? The world. So He brought down their heart
with labor. They fell down. Verse 13, so they cried unto
the Lord in their trouble. How did he save them? He brought
them into the sanctuary. We need saving from the God of
this world who holds captive. I know. A God of this world holds us
by nature captive, our children captive, like Pharaoh. The whole
world is looking to and calling upon and hoping in and trusting
in Tech Man. Right? We need to save him from
that, because vain is the help of man. It's just vain. It hasn't
saved anybody yet. Not one. We need to be saved from listening
to this world. The Lord needs to save our ears.
You know what He needs to do? Did you hear the radio message?
He needs to stop our ears from hearing and listening to everyone
and everything but God. We need to be like old Pilgrim,
leaving that city of destruction, don't we? Put his fingers in
his ear. Everybody's hollering at him.
His mother, his father, his wife, his family, his neighbors. Don't be a fool. No, y'all are
the fools. And he put his fingers in his
ear, and he looked to that wicked game. Life, life, eternal life. That's what we need to be. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord, We need saving from the
world. We need saving from the world.
It says that people drowned in that Red Sea and Paul warned about
riches, the deceitfulness of riches that many desire to have
and have drowned in it. Paul one time said, Demas hath
forsaken me. Why? He loved the world. And
he got in the world and he drowned in it. He covered it. He was
overcome by it. We need to save from prosperity.
We're in it. And more people drowned in that
than anything else. That's a fact. It makes you forget
God. And bless God, He sends troubles. Have you ever thought about troubles
being God's blessing for His people? He sends troubles. There in Psalm 107, then He sent
troubles, troubles. And they cried. He saved them.
How'd He do it? He sent His Word. Healed them. Sent storms. They mounted up
and they kept down. Trials and troubles. You see,
as I began this whole message, what matters in light of death
and eternity? What matters? Nothing but one
thing. Am I His or am I not? Do I belong
to Him? Nothing matters. Nothing matters. Well, it says, look it down,
I've got to hurry. It says in verse 12, look at
verse 12. They believed, they sang His
praise, but they forgot, they waited not. Oh, waiting, calling,
looking. It's so against our flesh, isn't
it? They lusted. They gave Him their request.
Verse 15, leaned us into their soul. They envied Moses. They said, you're just a man.
Yeah, he knew that better than anybody. But he was doing what
God told him to do. Leading, feeding, and warning.
That's what he was doing. It says down in verse 35, they
sacrificed their children, they mingled with the heathen, learned
their works, served their idols, sacrificed their son and their
daughters. How do we do that? When we make our children think
that there's anything to this world, we're sacrificing to it. When we live such a life that
all they think is all we're interested in is the idols of silver and
gold, that's what we're after. We make our children think maybe
there is something to it. Now, here's what's important,
son, daughter, here's what's important, that you've got to
get a good job, you've got to get you a house, you've got to
have your security, you know, you've got to have something
to fall back on. Fall back on it. At this world, you've got to,
you don't have much time and you've got to get out there and
get it and go for it. We're sacrificing our children
this world. And who's telling them that?
The people of this world, the smart people of this world. And
you bring them in here, and I'm going to tell them the truth.
I'm going to tell them the truth. That young people die like old
people. And one thing matters. You seek first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness. And all these things will be
added to you. And all these things will be taken from you. But not
life, not real life. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. We need saving from this world.
We need saving from the wrath of God. Boy, that isn't an old-fashioned
thing. That's what John the Baptist
stood up preaching. Who hath warned thee to flee from the
wrath to come? Do you hear anybody today saying that? Do you hear
any preacher today? It's gone. Because that's not
God to most people. It is God. Our God's a consuming
fire. Rock of ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Save from wrath and make me pure. False prophets have lied so long
that everybody believes them. No fear. Nobody repent. Nobody call. Nobody needs mercy. Nobody needs salvation. Nobody
really needs the blood of Christ. They just got a sugar daddy named
God and a fire escape named Jesus. Look at verse 29. So they provoked
him to anger with their inventions, and the plague break in upon
him. What plague? The plague. And everybody was
more afraid of the plague than they were of God. Does that sound
familiar? Oh, the plague, the plague, the
plague. The fear of the Lord. The Lord said it. The Lord said
it. Nobody has fear in Him. Oh my, let's get to this. Verse
39, they were defiled with their own works and went ahoy with
their inventions. Verse 40, the wrath of the Lord
kindled against them. Verse 41, he gave them into the
hand of the heathen and they became just like them. Captives,
those that ruled over them, their enemies oppressed them. Verse
42, they were under the same doubts and fears and trouble.
Verse 43, many times he delivered them, they provoked him, provoked
him. They were brought low for their own iniquity. Nevertheless, there's a scripture I love. It
says, where sin did abound, grace did much more. He regarded their
affliction, look at it, verse 44, when he heard their cry. You mean they forgot Him and
they went a-whoring and went after this and went after that
and sacrificed their sons and their daughters and went on and
did all this and didn't give God a thought? They went after
riches, got out in the world, got just like the world and sacrificed
their children, did all this, and then all of a sudden they
brought to themselves and they called on the Lord and said,
forgive us, have mercy upon us, and He saved them just for calling?
That's exactly right. Isn't He good? Isn't He merciful? Isn't He gracious? Call Him.
Just call Him. We need saving. We need saving
from sin. We need saving from the world,
the God of this world. Saving from wrath. We need saving
from the distress, despair, fear, hopelessness, things that come
upon us, trials, troubles, storms of life are going to come. God's
going to send them. Why? To show us. This world is
vanished. And you're not of it. It's just
going to happen. It's going to keep sending it.
Just keep sending it. That you might keep calling.
Keep calling. Never quit calling. Psalm 73. David was envious of the prosperity
of the wicked. Remember? He was envious. He
said, They're not in trouble like I am. It seems like all
I've got is trouble. Well, bless God for that. He said, I don't understand.
Is my religion in vain? Your people, all they have is
nothing but trouble. And the world doesn't have troubles
like that. He said, I went in the sanctuary.
Then I understood their end. That it's all going to end. And
so is everything I have. It's going to end. But not if
I'm in Him. The end, sister, is the beginning. And while this world perishes
and everything and everyone in it, God's people on a new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness, and nothing shall defile it.
Do you like what you're doing right now? Do you really? I have
to think you do, because you're here again, hearing the same
things again. Do you like this? Do you? You want to do it with a pure
heart, pure mind, with nothing bothering you? Wouldn't you like
to just stay here forever? That's what Peter said. Let's
just camp right here and build three tabernacles. We don't have
to go out in the world. There's nothing but trouble.
Do you like this? Christ said, Rejoice in that which I create.
Rejoice now. I've got to create a new heaven
and a new earth. For who? Let us whoever calls. Just God. Just God. He's saving storms of life through
the Sheriff of Chicago. Lord save me. One of the greatest
prayers in all the Bible is one of the shortest. Old Simon Peter
is sinking. He's going down. Look into Christ. He walked above this. He did
what was impossible with man, not to be overcome by this world,
not to sink, not to drown in this world and the things of
it. And he looked into Christ. He had only eyes for Christ.
He said, Lord bid me come to thee. He said, come, come on
Peter, come on Simon, come to me. Come to me. I have overcome
this world. You come to me. And sign, please,
I'm coming. And he stepped out, waves crashing,
wind blowing, he's looking to cry, and he's about there and
he looks down. And he starts sinking. And he
prayed three words. Can you hear his cry? Lord, save
me. And he reached down. He said,
why did you doubt? Why did you doubt? The Lord's
going to send all these things. We look around, oh, oh, it's
going to... Lord save me. They're coming. They have come, they do come,
they will come. Storms of life, trouble. Now let me close with
this at the end of this blessed psalm. Thank God for this psalm. And he remembered for them, verse
45. Verse 44, he regarded their affliction
when he heard their cry. They just cried. And he remembered
for them. He said they forgot him. He can't
forget them. They forget his past mercy. His
mercy endureth forever. They forget it. He can't. What
God can't remember, we can't forget our sin. What we seem
to forget and can't remember, God can't forget. That's His
covenant. That's His truth. That's His
mercy. He said, I'll never leave thee to forsake. I won't. You're
mine. You're bought with a price. You're
not your own. Like Oeprum. I keep bringing him up, Kelly.
We love Oeprum, don't we? Because we're just like him.
In the beginning, Hosea, leave him alone. He's gone to his idols.
He won't listen to me. Just let him get in the trouble.
And he got nothing but trouble. In the end, the Lord said, I
can't give him up. I'm not going to give him over.
I'm not going to do it. And when it was all over, old
Ephraim said, what was wrong with me? He said, what have I to do anymore
with idols? I've heard him. So here it is,
verse 47. Save us, O Lord our God. Gather us from among the heathen
to give thanks unto thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise. You see, we triumph over sin
and despair and the world and everything when we give all praise
and honor and glory to our God. We give thanks to Him, for good
and bad. Knowing that God sent in all
this to save us. It will save us from despair
and distress if we give thanks. If we praise Him for whatever
comes our way. It will save us from being destroyed
by that sorrow. You know that? Yes it will. Because
these things destroy people. They drowned in sorrow. When
we realize like Job. Job had tears running down his
face. His heart, there's holes in his heart that may never heal.
And yet he said, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.
Oh, bless me in the name of the Lord. And the Lord brought him
through that. And you know what? The end of
Job was 10 times better than the beginning. It was so good
in the end that he forgot about the beginning. And that's it. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
from everlasting, verse 48, from everlasting to everlasting, and
let all the people say, praise you the Lord. Okay. John, you can come lead us a
couple verses or something.