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Paul Mahan

Fret Not: Trust, Rest & Wait

Psalm 37:1-11
Paul Mahan January, 24 2021 Audio
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Psalms
What does the Bible say about trusting in the Lord?

The Bible teaches us to trust in the Lord as our source of peace and provision, as seen in Psalm 37:3.

The scriptures affirm the importance of trust in the Lord as fundamental for believers. Psalm 37:3 commands us to 'Trust in the Lord, and do good,' which underscores that our well-being is intrinsically linked to a deep-seated faith in God's character and promises. When David speaks of trusting in God, he is not merely giving wise counsel; he is imparting a divine command that highlights God's unwavering faithfulness and goodness towards His people. This trust acts as a safeguard against fretting over the challenges and evils we face in this present world.

Psalm 37:3

Why is resting in the Lord important for Christians?

Resting in the Lord is crucial as it reflects our total dependence on Him for peace and sustenance, as stated in Psalm 37:7.

Resting in the Lord signifies a profound act of faith whereby believers acknowledge that they cannot control their lives but can rely entirely on God to fulfill His promises. In Psalm 37:7, we are encouraged to 'Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him,' which underscores that spiritual rest is not about inactivity, but about actively trusting in God's sovereignty and timing. This rest assures us that God is working all things for our good and that He is present in our struggles. Thus, true rest leads to peace and security in our Christian walk, alleviating the anxiety that comes from the uncertainties of life.

Psalm 37:7

How do we know that God is good?

The goodness of God is evident in His character and actions, as affirmed by Psalm 37:25, where David testifies to God's faithfulness throughout his life.

Our assurance of God's goodness is deeply rooted in scripture, particularly illustrated by the life of David who experienced both trials and mercies. In Psalm 37:25, David proclaims, 'I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.' This statement reflects his confidence that God consistently cares for and sustains His people. The goodness of God means He is not only kind and generous but also sovereignly orchestrating all events in our lives for our ultimate good and His glory. Such a view encourages believers to trust in His plans, especially during difficult times.

Psalm 37:25

What does it mean to commit your way to the Lord?

Committing your way to the Lord involves surrendering your life and decisions to His guidance and leadership, as seen in Psalm 37:5.

To commit your way to the Lord is to actively entrust your plans and pursuits to Him, seeking His direction and will in every aspect of life. Psalm 37:5 says, 'Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act.' This commitment requires an acknowledgment that our wisdom is limited, and we need divine guidance to navigate life's uncertainties. It entails a daily act of surrender where we rely on God's wisdom rather than our own understanding. As we commit our ways, we are assured that God will shape our paths and align our desires with His purpose.

Psalm 37:5

Why should Christians avoid fretting?

Christians should avoid fretting because it reflects a lack of trust in God's sovereignty and goodness, as emphasized in Psalm 37:1.

The instruction to 'fret not' in Psalm 37:1 serves as a powerful reminder for believers about the futility of worry in light of God's sovereignty. Fretting often stems from envy or anxiety about circumstances beyond our control. David's exhortation not to fret because of evildoers is a call to trust in God's ultimate justice and timing. By choosing faith over fear and worry, we align ourselves with God's promises, which affirms that He is actively at work even in difficult situations. Moreover, it fosters a heart of peace amidst tumultuous times, allowing us to focus on God's presence and provision.

Psalm 37:1

Sermon Transcript

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Psalm 37. Go back there. Psalm 37. David is the writer
of this. He didn't write all the psalms,
but most of them. And I know many of you are like
me that you read the psalms often. You go through them and you know
sooner you go through them that you start reading them again.
And I've been doing that. I get such comfort, such peace,
such help David was called the man after God's own heart. He
knew the Lord because the Lord knew him and loved him. And David
had a heart for God and God's people. David expresses his heart
throughout the psalm. That's why it means so much to
me. The things he says, I feel all
through the psalm. Most of the psalms or declaring
the truth, declaring who God is. Many of them are full of
prayers, calling on the Lord. I love the Psalms. David was
a sinner. Saved by grace. His hope was in the Lord. The
Lord Jesus Christ. And the world and everything
around him vexed him. A lot inside of him. David was
vexed Sin all around him, sin that was in him. Vexed. And he
would fret. It's not a country saying, it's
the Bible saying it. Don't fret yourself. David said,
fret not thyself. He said it three times. Fret
not thyself, verse 1, because of evildoers. Neither be envious
against the workers of iniquity. They'll soon be cut down like
grass. The weather is a green herb.
Look at verse 10. It's just a little while. Just
a little while. The wicked shall not be. The
Lord calls this world, this present evil world, unlike what religion
says. They misapply and misconstrue
what God said in John 3.16. God is angry with the wicked.
We read here that the transgressors are going to destroy this world. He calls it this present evil
world. He says don't love the world.
It will soon be cut off. The present evil world. Evil
all around us. It's hard to find any good. Isn't it? Hard to find any good. Evil all around us. Why? There's
an evil one called the God of this world. And the Lord allows
to do what He does mostly because of man's unbelief. It gives Him
over. It gives Him over. And He says
all through this psalm, depart from evil. Depart from evil.
Depart from evil. Well, David was fretting. Psalm 73, which is the inverted
number here, 37, 73, said the same thing over there in Psalm
73. He said, I was envious at the
foolish. How could you envy fools? He
said, I was. He said, they're not in trouble
like me. They have everything that they could want. And we
read here in Psalm 37, it said they're being fattened up like
lambs for the slaughter. It said, but a little the righteous
man hath is better than the riches of many wicked, or the many riches
of the wicked. What do we have? The Lord is our voice. We don't
have anything in this world. We don't own anything in this
world. Naked we came and naked we're going to return. It doesn't
belong to us. We're borrowing it. It says the wicked borroweth
and payeth not again. They don't repay God with thanksgiving. They owe Him and don't use the
things He gives them for others but on Himself. God's going to
repay that thanklessness. David said, I was fretful and
even envious. They said they were corrupt.
They said their mouths were against heaven and their tongue walked
through the earth. Blaspheming God? They seemed to get away
with it. Filthy and vile. They seemed to get away with
it. They're not getting away with it. God's people, the waters of a
full cup. and trouble, and trials, and
tribulations, and vexations, and sin, and God of this world
is after them, and they're just full of troubles. And he said,
is this all in vain? That's what David, in Psalm 73,
similar. He says, is this all in vain? He said, I don't need
to talk like that because I would offend my brethren. They don't
need to hear that from me, but I thought this. They would say,
I thought this. He said, I went into the sanctuary. Then I understood, he said, their
end. End. Didn't Moses write in Psalm
9? Oh, that they were wise and would
consider their latter end. We would number our days and
we would apply our hearts to wisdom. to know Christ, to win
Christ, it found in Him. David said, I am in Him. He said,
what was I envious of? What was I jealous of? What was
I just thinking I needed? I'm with Him. I'm always with
Him. He's my portion forever. Do you notice how many times
in this psalm He said, they'll dwell in the land, they'll dwell
in the land, they'll dwell in the land. What land? The land
of Goshen. Land of Goshen. We won't get
to that in a minute. David fretted too. Now, Gus, here's a cure. My pastor called it eight precepts. Eight commands. This is not just
wise counsel. This is a command. He's telling
us, trust in the Lord. Verse 3, here's a cure for fretting.
Here's a cure for envy. Here's a cure for doubts and
fear. Trust in the Lord. That will
cure everything. Trust. Believe. Be confident
in. Cast all your care on Him. Why? He's the one taking care
of you. Trust in the Lord. Be His Lord. He's the Lord of lords. King
of kings. The Lord thy God. Shall I remind
us again? Jehovah-rah, shall I? The Lord
thy shepherd. You shall not want. Jehovah-shalom,
the Lord your peace. God's not angry with His people. I love Brother David Edmonds. I love him. I like this David. I feel like we're David and Jonathan.
But I love what David said. He said, the Lord's out to do
you good. He's not out to get you. He's out to get you out. Bring you up. Out of this place. He's out to do you good. Don't run. Rest right there. Jehovah Shalom. The Lord is our
peace. Christ made peace. Jehovah Nissi.
The Lord our banner. This is the cause. The cause
of Christ. This world is not our cause. Politics is not our cause. Christ
is our cause. Why are you meeting together?
Because we need to. We need to worship our Lord. We have to. He is our life. People are our life. Gospels
are our life. This is bread. Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord our Righteousness. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will
provide. He'll see to it. My dad used
to say, I'll see to it. I'd ask him something. Dad, would
you... I'll see to it. I might come
back, Debra, later on and say, Dad, I asked you... I said I'd
see to it. I'd wait on him. I'll see to
it. Jehovah Jireh. Jehovah Rapha,
the Lord that healeth me. We pray and pray for somebody,
their health, the Lord to heal them, and they die. Hallelujah. He healed them. Didn't He? He healed them. Forever. Jehovah
Shama, the Lord is present. He says, trust in the Lord. Trust
and do good. What's that mean, do good? It
means just what it says. Why do we have to qualify that?
It has nothing to do with good. He told us to do good. Well,
what's doing good? Well, Psalm 92 says this is good.
It's a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. What we're doing
right now is a good thing. It's the best thing. There's
nothing better. This is good. It's a good thing.
Shouldn't we be doing that? This is good. What we're doing
is good. Gathering, worshiping, we're exhorting one another in
service to our God. What we're doing right now is
worshiping our God, giving thanks to our God, singing His praises.
Call in on the Lord. Isn't that good? Don't you love
to hear a man pray for you, call on the Lord for you? This is
a good work. A woman with an alabaster box
came in. Everything she owned, she broke
it. Everything she owned, a family
heirloom, or it was going to be her child's inheritance, don't
need it. She'll just blow it. I'm going
to break it open. I'm going to pour it on the head
of my Savior who was rich, yet for my sake became poor. It says
that odor of her worshiping the Lord, her thanksgiving, her praise,
her trust in the Lord. Just fill that room. Oh, may
the alabaster box of praise fill this room right now. And Christ
said she's done a good work. That woman has done a good work.
Once there was not a faith to sin. But anything that trusting
God and trusting Christ, God is well pleased with it. Trusting! Do good. Serve His cause. Serve His people. Don't serve
yourself. That's no good. Serve yourself,
you're serving a bad man. Trust. So shalt thou dwell in
the land. Verse 3. Dwell in the land. What land? Beulah land. Land
of Goshen. You know the story back there
in Genesis 45. I was going to have you turn,
but there's so many Scriptures we could turn to. I am going
to have you turn to Ruth in a minute. I'm going to whet your appetite.
But back there in Genesis 45, Joseph said to his brethren,
those sorry, those no good, those ones that sold him, Those ones
that were jealous of Him, that sold Him, He loved them. Joseph loved them. There's a
picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. He loved them. And God put Joseph
through that. And He said, you meant it for
evil, but God meant it for good. And He had mercy on them, He
had compassion on them. He said, you're going to dwell
with Me in the land of Goshen. He said, I'm king. He said, there's
going to be famine in the land. Everywhere in Egypt is going
to be a famine. He said, but you're going to dwell with me.
You're not going to starve, Joseph said. You're not going to miss
a meal. No sir. Why? Because I'm the Lord of
this place. And you're going to dwell in
Goshen, the best place in the land. We ought to rename this
place Goshen Baptist Church. Goshen Grace Church. We haven't missed a meal, have
we? Feasting on fat things and wine on the leaf. What's that?
It's Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Fat things. Wine on the leaf.
He said, My body is meat indeed. My blood is drink indeed. Eat
and your soul shall live. Do good. You'll dwell in the
land. You'll be fed. Verily, the Lord... Don't you
love the verily subscription? Verily. That means it's true.
It's true. And John, every time he said,
barely, he said it twice. Barely, barely. Thou shalt be
fed. Verse 4, Delight thyself also
in the Lord. Delight thyself also in the Lord. Is this your delight, what we're
doing right now? Really? David said this over and over
again. He said, Thy testimonies are
my delight. He said, Thy law, my delight. He said, if your law hadn't been
my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. It's my delight. I just delight in what I'm hearing. Delight. Delight thyself. Can
you delight yourself? Can you make yourself delight?
No. You can't create a hunger and
a thirst in yourself, but God does. He does. Oh, blessed are
they that hunger and thirst, they have life and delight. For those who have this life,
they do delight in Him. And you can whet your appetite.
Yes, you can. You can nourish this. You can
feed this new man. In fact, this is what He tells
us to do. Starve that old fellow. Don't
give that flesh what he wants. You make him stronger. Feed the
new man. Feed the new man. When I was
a child, I told you every story I could ever tell, but I didn't
like green beans. My parents made me eat green
beans. Eat your beans. You've heard of that. Eat your
beans. One day, I was eating. I threw up. Dad said, don't ever make him
eat green beans again. Don't make him eat green beans anymore.
You know what? Now I love green beans. Mindy fixed him up. Burnt them.
She burnt the beans the other day. I was so hungry. Irene, you're the best beans
I've ever put in my mouth. I couldn't get enough. Went back
for third, second, third. I love them. When the Lord gives
you a taste for this, You can whet your appetite. He says,
set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth. The more you eat, the more you
want to eat. You know what? Delight yourself in the Lord.
Look at this. He says, He'll give you the desires of your
heart. Whatever you desire, He'll give it to you. You remember
Psalm 27 verse 4? David said, To the Lord. He says, one thing
have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after. Then He says,
seek and you'll find. Knock and it will be opened.
Ask and you'll receive. One thing will I seek after that
I may dwell in. House of the Lord all the days
of my life. Behold the beauty of the Lord. The Lord says, you've
got it, David. You've got it. You'll be with
me forever. You'll be worshipping me in old
age. There's a psalm that says about
the old, trusting Him. It says they'll be still praising
Him. Till old age, till a whore of
heads. They'll be right where they were from the beginning. Still praising Him. I'll set my heart, my affection
on things above. Delight yourself. What do you want? What do you
want? I'll give you the desire. Commit, verse 5, commit thy way
unto the Lord. Commit thy way. Don't you love
these marginal references? It says, roll thy way. Spurgeon said, roll the whole
tenor of your life, everything you are and everything you have
and everyone, everything, all your thoughts, your character,
just roll it on along. Cast your character upon it.
Take it. I can't handle it. You don't handle it anyway. You
don't have it anyway. He does. He has it. You remember that story,
I think it was David Evans that told this story. There was a
man, a fella picked a fella up in a car, he was hitchhiking,
he had a big heavy backpack on his back and a fella got in the
back seat of the man's car and they took off down the road and
the fella looked in his rear view mirror and he still had
that backpack on. He said, why don't you take that backpack
off? He said, oh no, no, it's alright, I'm alright, I don't
want to I said, thank you for picking me up. He said, son,
this car holds you and your backpack. Put it down. Take it off. I picked you up. I carry everything
you have. Cast all your care on Him. He cares for you. He not only
takes care of you, but He really cares for you. The righteous. Those that are
in Christ. Those that believe Him. Those that trust Him. Commit
thy way. Look at this. It says in verse
6, trust also in Him. It keeps telling us that. Trust,
trust, trust, trust, trust also in Him. You know, if you read
the Scriptures and just think about the word trust, it will
just jump out at you. Jump out at you. Page after verse
after verse. Trust, trust, trust. What's that
mean? It means trust. Trust in the Lord. What are we
going to do? The economy is failing. Trust
in the Lord. What am I going to do? I lost
my job. Trust in the Lord who gave it and took it away. Right,
Brother John? John was one year short of retiring,
weren't you, from J.P. Stevens? Was it one year or just
close there by? And the Lord shut that factory
down and he lost his job. How many years ago does that
mean? Quite a while then. You sure haven't missed a meal.
Look at him. There he is. Trust in the Lord.
The Lord took his job. What are we going to do? Trust
in the Lord. Look, everybody's getting sick.
What are we going to do? Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Commit your way. He'll bring
it to pass. Look at this, verse 6. Trust also in Him. He'll bring
it to pass. Why? Whatever His purpose, it's
going to come to pass. Right? Whatever He does, He's
going to bring it to pass. He's the one who brought it.
If He doesn't take it away, or if He gives you cry, He'll never
take it away. Look at verse 6. He'll bring forth thy righteousness
as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. You trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ as your righteousness. You'll see very
clearly that salvation is in Jesus Christ. He's your righteousness. It talks
all the way through here about righteous, the righteous, the
righteous, the righteous. David wrote this. David knew
he was just as much a sinner, a bigger sinner as anybody. He
hated himself. Job hated himself. Daniel said,
I'm vile. Job said, I'm vile. Daniel said...
He hated himself. Ezekiel and on and on it goes.
All God's people know they're sinners, saved by grace. But
when they see that Jesus Christ is their righteousness, they
rest in Him. They're free from fear of being
cast out. They rest in it. And He'll show
you as clear as a noonday sun. When Christ arises in your heart,
you'll see as clearly as a noonday sun that you're not saved, but
you're righteous. You're saved by His, by Christ's
blood. And this also means Christ in you is going to make it plain
who belongs to Him. It's going to be as plain, as
clear as the light. Judgment is a noonday. As I said,
somebody said, well, you need to walk by and use good judgment. Man doesn't have a lick of sense.
I ain't following him, okay? My Lord does. I'm following His
sense. His judgment. As a noon day,
clear as a noon day, what should we do? Trust Him. What should
we do? What are we going to do? Nothing!
We're going to stand still. Trust Him. Look at the next thing. Rest. There's not much effort going
on here for us. Rest. What's rest mean? What
do you mean what does rest mean? It means rest. Don't work. Oh,
not only in religion, don't work. You can't work your way to heaven.
Can't do it. Can't climb Mount Sinai. If righteousness comes by the
law, Christ died in vain. We're resting in Him. Did you
read William Jay's article? Joseph Iron's article. I put
these articles in. As I said, it took us a long
time to do that. I wasn't going to give up because
it's too good. Rest. Rest. Go with me to Ruth, the little
book of Ruth. Rest. Wait patiently for the
Lord. Rest in Him. What's that mean?
It means what it says. Rest. Look at Ruth, the little book
of Ruth. You know this story. that Naomi and Ruth lost everything
and everyone, God took them. God killed both their husbands.
God killed both of Naomi's sons. God did it. They lost everything. They lost everything. They're
coming back poor. They're coming back to Bethlehem.
Bless God, they heard good news. There's bread in Bethlehem, of
all places, Bethlehem. Bethlehem, where's that? That's
the birthplace of our Lord. That's where David was born.
That's where David was born. And this Ruth, David knows this
story well, you know that? David knew this story well. It's
his great-grandmother. One of his favorite stories. Well, Ruth chapter 3, they were
coming back, and they were poor, and Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law,
this is what I seek for you, daughter, verse 1, my daughter
shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?
What do we want for our daughters? What do we want for our daughters?
We want them to rest in Jesus Christ, don't we? In this world you shall have
tribulation, nothing but trouble, sin and vexation and constant
turmoil and be assaulted by Satan. But if Christ comes to you and
calls you by His Gospel and you call on Him, nobody is going
to be called if they don't call on Him. I asked someone recently,
do you pray? Do you call on the Lord? Whosoever
shall call, be saved. If you want to rest in this world,
you're not going to have any rest. Nothing but trouble. But if you come to Christ, He
comes to you first, and you come to Him, you can rest easy. You can rest. It's going to be
well with thee. Well with your soul. That's all
that matters. You know that? It's well with
your soul. Now, she said, Boaz, isn't he
our kindred? Isn't Boaz our kindred? I've
got to get through this or I'll be stuck. She said, here's what
you do, young lady. Verse 4, you find out where he
lies down, you mark the place where he is, you go down there,
you uncover his feet, and you lay down right there, and he'll
tell you what to do. You just lay down on His feet.
Don't do anything. Just lay there. And she said in the last verse
of this chapter, look at verse 18, she said, she said, sit still
my daughter. Sit still now. Are you reading
that verse 18? Sit still my daughter. Lie down. Sit still my daughter until thou
know how the matter will fall. That man, he won't rest. until
He's finished the thing. And then when He's finished,
you're His forever. Just rest. Rest in the Lord. And wait patiently. Verse 7,
wait patiently. Wait patiently. In our text,
wait patiently for the Lord. Wait, I say, wait on the Lord. Oh, these things are the hardest.
Well, with man, they're impossible, aren't they? To trust, to really
trust the Lord, it's just impossible. Not with God. You read in the
Scriptures of people that really trust Him, against their eyesight,
against everything they were seeing. Read Hebrews. Great cloud
of witnesses, people trusting the Lord. He has never let anybody
down that's trusting Him. He's never let one person down
that's trusting Him. He can't. He's trustworthy. And why can't He? Why should
you trust Him? Because He's God. He can't do wrong. It can't do
bad to you. It can't happen. He can't go
back on His promise. He can't! None of them that trust
Him, He said, none, shall be desolate. Not one. Rest and wait patiently. Wait
patiently. What does that mean? Did you
notice in the margin again, I like the margin that says rest. It
means be silent too. Be silent. You know, you can't hear from
the Lord if you're talking. Scripture says, God is in the heavens,
I am on the earth, let thy words be filled. It's the most talkative
generation. There's so many voices. And everybody's
listening to everybody. I wish everybody would just shut
up. Don't you? They won't, but we
can shut our ears to them. Like the pilgrim. Life, life,
eternal life. Things like Facebook. Get off
of that. Let your words be few. Stop talking. Stop listening to people ranting
and raving. Start listening to the Word of the Lord. And you'll
trust in the Lord. You'll rest in the Lord. Be silent. Isn't that what He said? Be silent. That also means that whatever
God does, be silent. Don't get mad. When they came to Aaron, the
Lord said, Aaron, I'm going to kill both of your sons. They're
bad sons. And He said this to Samuel and
He said this to Eli. And He said it to Aaron. And
they dabbled about. He offered strange fire. They
had false religion and God killed them both. You know what it says
Aaron did? Held his peace. He held his peace. Why? He knew that he got what he deserved. And he knew if he'd given me
what I deserved, it would happen to me. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. He held his peace. Be silent.
Be silent. Be silent. Rest. Wait patiently
for him. It's impossible. Patience is
not a human Wait patiently. What does that
mean? It means wait for a word from
Him to know His will, to know His way and walk in it. It means
to come and sit where He said He would come and visit and wait
on Him. That's exactly what it means.
He told the disciples, go before Me into Galilee. And He said, you wait on Me,
I will come there. They did, except Thomas. They were all there, and he came.
He promised he'd come, and he did. They said, we're two or
three together. He said, I'll be there. And he
does. Wait. He'll be there. What did
he do? You know what the first thing
he did? Peace. First thing he said, peace. Thomas wasn't there. He didn't have any peace. He
didn't have any peace. He tore up. Everybody tried to
tell him. Couldn't do it. The Lord was
going to have to give him peace. Where'd they get it? And met again. And Thomas came back. And the
first thing our Lord said to Thomas, first thing he said was,
peace, again. He said, Thomas, reach hither
your hand and touch my side. And look at my hands and my feet.
Thomas, be not faithless, but believe me. He hid his knees.
My Lord, my God. How could I have ever doubted
you? Wait. It means to come and sit
and wait. It means to wait on Him to move,
to act. Because if you don't, you'll
act wrong. You'll move. You'll run ahead. Don't do it.
Wait on Him. He will. Wait on Him to work. Wait on Him to save. If God doesn't
save, we can't. I'm guilty of doing what Brother
Scott told us young preachers to do years ago, Scott Richards.
He said, don't tell everything you know in one message. They
can't take it in. Wait. If he doesn't work, wait to see the end. Wait means
wait to see the end. Judge nothing before it's time. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense. Wait to see the end. Time is nothing to the Lord.
Time is nothing to the Lord. He doesn't work on our time.
It works on His time. Wait to see the end. I had several verses. Let me just read one to you,
okay? Two. I'll read you two. I had 15.
But listen to this. In the Psalms, it talks about
waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. Listen to Psalm 1. Psalm 23 says
this in verse 1. Psalm 23, 1 and 2. Unto thee, lift up mine eyes,
O thou that dwellest in the heaven. Behold, as the eyes of servants
look unto the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maiden to the
hand of her mister, O our eyes, wait. upon the Lord our God until
He have mercy upon us. Oh, have mercy upon us. Oh, Lord,
have mercy upon us. We're exceedingly filled with
contempt. Our souls are filled with contempt. We wait on Thee.
Listen to this. My soul, I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait in His Word,
do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than
they that watch for the morning. You think the Lord will keep
waiting somebody and not show up. He waits to be gracious. The
next thing to wait on the Lord is to wait for your appointed
time. You have an appointed time. I kept having to remind my dad
this. He wanted to go, he wanted to go, go home, be with the Lord.
Now I have to remind my mother that. And she said, it's my time. I said, no, it's not your time
or you'd be gone. It's not time. When are you going to go? When
He says it's time. And so, just what Job said. He
said, all my days I'm going to wait. To my appointed time. I'm going to wait. My change
is coming. I'll have to wait. I want to go now, but I have
to wait. He said, He's going to call, and I'm going to answer
Him, bless God. How do you know, Job? Because
he called me the first time. I answer, give diligence to make
your calling and election sure. He called me by the Gospel. Why? To do what? To behold the glory
of the Lord. Enter into His glory. If you
glory in Him now, you're going to be with Him in glory. And
so our text says, let me wrap this up. It says, wait patiently. Wait for Him to come. He said,
be like men that wait on your Lord, waiting on Him to come.
Wait patiently. Fret not thyself. Look at verse
8. Cease from anger, forsake wrath. Fret not thyself any wise
to do evil. Don't take anything into your
hands. The wrath of man doesn't praise
Him. Cease from anger, forsake wrath. Evildoers shall be cut
off. God says vengeance is mine. A bad man hurt some dear people
I love. Hurt them bad. And it made me so angry. In my mind, I had that man down.
I was wanting him to hurt bad. I mean, for two days, this went
on in my mind. I want him hurt for what he did. You know what? God killed him. God killed him. Don't take matters in your hand.
Don't do it. God says, vengeance is mine.
Wait, you're going to see. No matter what anybody does to
you, no matter what, you know what they did to our Lord, don't
you? Yeah, we did to our Lord. Cease from anger. Oh, this is
just a thing that will keep us from getting too angry. Realizing that God's not angry
with us. He should be. The wrath of God
was poured out on His Son. It should have been on us. Threaten
not thyself. Evildoers will be cut off a little
while. Verse 10, a little while. It's not going to be long now.
You'll consider. They won't be. But verse 11,
the meek shall inherit the earth. This is what I wanted to end
with. The meek. Who are they? Well, that's the
poor, the needy, That's the humble, that's the weak, that's the helpless,
that's the sinner that knows he can't do anything. He has no strength. He has no hope
in himself. There's nothing good in him.
In his flesh dwells no good thing. He strives as he may. He can't
do anything good. He can't help himself. Let's
say God helps those who help Himself. Or the meek say, I can't
help myself. I can't do it. Meek means to
think they're nothing. I'm a nothing. I'm a nobody.
I'm a nobody from nowhere. I can't do anything. Meek. I look to the Lord. And I hope all my help, all my
salvation is in Jesus Christ. If He doesn't save me, I'm going
to be saved. Because I'm a nobody. Just a worm. A dog. That's meek. He said, they're
going to inherit the earth. They're going to inherit the
earth. He kept saying that, didn't he?
They're going to inherit the earth. And verse 11 says, they're
going to delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Peace. Eternal rest and peace. No more toil. No more labor. No more sin. No more old man. No more evil man. No more evil.
No more pain. No more suffering. No more tears. No more death. No more death. It's all over. Abundance. He said life more
abundance. Fret not. Fret not. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the
Lord. He's going to bring it to pass.
Yeah. All right. That's the saying
I'm closing here. What number?
Paul Mahan
About Paul Mahan
Paul Mahan has been pastor of Central Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, Virginia since 1989; preaching the Gospel of God's Sovereign Grace.
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