Isaac Watts. He wrote that hymn,
that tune that you were playing for the prelude didn't he? What
a good preacher and hymn writer Isaac Watts was. Mount Zion. Go to Psalm 48 now. I lost my good glasses in the
ocean. I can't see in these. My dad won't be able to see my
notes. It might be the best message I've ever preached. This is a great song. Just great. It speaks of our great Lord and
His beautiful city. The city of God. That's the church
that He's speaking of. Us. Right here. This little place, this little
brown building, this little brown tabernacle in the wilderness.
A place where God made. He loves it. The city of God.
We sang that from Psalm 87, I believe it is. The Lord loves the gates
of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Israel. But this speaks of our
great God. His people, His church, and it's
just a blessing. I hope you were blessed by reading
it. I could have given several fitting titles to this. Like
Sunday morning's message, I went down and just looked at words,
found beautiful words. I could have entitled this, Our
Great God. Our Great God, or The City of
God, or What a Beautiful Situation. Or, let's walk around Zion. We
did a message 16 years ago on that verse 12, walk about Zion. Let's take a real tour of the
real holy land. That's the kingdom of God, the
people of God. Or, we could have titled this,
This God is Our God. Or, Our God and Our Guide Forever. Any of those would do, wouldn't
it? And we need to know and understand, I think all of us do, that Zion
is God's kingdom. Zion is God's church. Zion is
God's people in earth and heaven. God's family. He has his church
in heaven and his church on earth. That's his people, Zion. It's
called Mount Zion because God has elevated his people. and brought us up out of the
miry clay and set us on a rock. Zion, the word means a rocky
ridge. And the actual Mount Zion that
was over Jerusalem was this precipitous or vantage point or safe high
place where you could sit up there and see all around the
view See, your enemies come in and all of this. Mount Zion,
this church, God's given an understanding of all things too. Now, it's
not speaking of literal Jerusalem. It's not speaking of Mount Zion. It's still there, by the way,
that mountain over there. It's still there. But Jerusalem
was burned by fire twice. Completely burned. And it's going
to be burned one last time. Our Lord said that, didn't He?
There's not one stone going to be left standing on that temple. So this is not talking about
that city or that place. Although it was probably beautiful.
We're going to see in a minute how David was the one that began
to build that city. But in Hebrews 12, let me just
read you this so that you'll know for certain that it's the
church that he speaks of in Mount Zion. It says in Hebrews 12,
you are come to Mount Sion and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, heavenly, to an innumerable company of
angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven, to the God, the judge of all,
to the spirits of just men made perfect. That is, they join with
us right now, and we join with them. Although there's just a
thin veil that separates us, a breath. We're a breath away
from being joined with them forever. But we're all doing the same
thing right now. We're all in a beautiful situation. Beautiful
situation. And Revelation 21, let me just
read you this. This is wonderful. There's so
many scriptures I wanted to read. Revelation 21. John said, I was
carried away in the spirit to a great high mountain, and he
showed me that great city, holy Jerusalem. I was carried away
in the spirit. May the Lord let us be carried
away tonight in the spirit so that we might see just what a
beautiful situation this is and how great our God is. OK, you
with me? All right. This is a song, a psalm. We don't
know who wrote it, and that's fitting. We don't think David
wrote it. We don't think Solomon wrote
it. We don't know who wrote it. That's fine. You don't need to
know. God gets all the honor and glory.
Verse 1. Great is the Lord. And greatly
to be praying. Great is the Lord. Oh, so many
of you love to sing that song. I was tempted to sing it. How
great thou art. Listen to Psalm 145. I will speak. of the glorious honor of thy
majesty, and of thy wondrous works, and men shall speak of
the might of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness. They, men, and I shall abundantly
utter the memory of thy great goodness, shall sing of thy righteousness."
Here he goes on to say, the Lord is gracious, full of compassion,
Slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all. His
tender mercy is over all His works. So great is the Lord,
and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. That's the
only place He is being praised. Among the people of God. The
world is taking His name in vain. Cursed Him. Not thankful. Blasphemous. God's people. Praise Him. Worship
God in spirit and truth. There's another psalm that says,
Psalm 89, 7, God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of
the saints. And to be had in reverence of
all them that are about Him. So we've come here. We've come
to Mount Zion, the church of the living God, to worship our
God. where He is promised to be. He's
promised to be here. And while we fear Him, and you'll
only worship and praise Him whom you fear. You really won't. You won't worship someone you
don't fear. We worship the Lord. In the mountain
of His, verse 1, the mountain of His holiness, Mount Zion,
the church of God, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Mount Zion. As I said, Zion means a rocky
ridge. It means a stone pillar. It means a way mark. That is,
a pillar. Something you can see
from afar off and say, there, that's where the place of God
is. The church is called the pillar
and ground of the truth, isn't it? The pillar. It's a way mark. The wayward. To tell them, this
is the way. Come with us, we'll do you good.
A church where God's name is exalted. A mountain where God's
name is exalted. God's holiness is extolled. Where
Christ is high and lifted up. A mountain. When you went to
Jerusalem, you went up. It was a city set on a hill.
And so it is here. Don't you believe? God elevates
you when you come into this place. Verse 2, beautiful for situation.
City of the King. The joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion on the sides of the north. The city of the great
King. Beautiful for situation. Now David, the King, God's first
true King, not Saul. David is the one who took this
city away from the Jebusites. Do you remember the story? It
was inhabited, and they called it Jebusite. Some heathen name. It means trodden
down. And the Jebusites inhabited,
the heathen inhabited this city, and David came. And they had,
you remember the story? They had their gods sitting on
the wall around them. The place had a wall. And the
Scripture said there's the blind and the lame. They're gods. They
had no hands, no feet, no... Like the false gods of this world,
but the heathen. And they said, David can't come
in here. Remember, he can't come in here. The next verse says,
he took it. And so many of you worshiped
false gods, were blind, halt, and lame, and had a false god.
God can't do this, and God can't save you unless you let him,
and all that. He took you. He took this city. All of his
people were heathen, worshiping a heathen god. And David then
took this city and expelled all the enemies, all the heathen
out of that place and began to build it up. And he made it beautiful. And then Solomon followed after
that. And then, oh, was it beautiful. And Solomon built the temple,
you remember. And so this place, at one time, it was a glorious
place. It was a beautiful place. The
temple was unlike any other. But, as I said, God had it destroyed. Not once, but twice, and will
so again. What this is talking about is
the church of God. To the world, this looks like
just a little old building, little red brick building on the side
of a hill in Franklin County, 40 West. Big deal. Like that tabernacle in the wilderness.
Brown skin tent. Where was the beauty? On the
inside. You had to go on the inside,
if you did. And only the priests could go
in there. Oh, the Shekinah glory dwelt
in there, didn't it? The beauty is inward, isn't it?
Where God dwelt. See the Son of God, all His work
inside the temple, and all those pieces of furniture, and the
Holy of Holies, covenant and a mercy seat. It all speaks of
Christ. But beautiful situation. Brethren,
we're in a beautiful situation here. Maybe that ought to be
the title. The joy of the whole earth. Meaning
that God has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
nation on earth. And they worship God in the Spirit
and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they joy in God's
church on the sides of the north. Now you southern sons of the
Confederacy, give it up, okay? But God wasn't on the side of
the North or the South. Rebels, but He does turn all
rebels to His side. The sides of the North being
that side closest to God, nearest to God, where God is. The city
of the great King. God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. Verse 3, God is known in her
palaces for a refuge. Listen to this. I meant to read
this. The very next Gatsby hymn number 361. Listen to this. This is wonderful. The joy of
the whole earth. Oh, how my heart rejoiced to
hear my friends devoutly say, In Zion let us all appear and
keep the solemn day. I love her gates. I love the
roads. I love the church adorned with grace. stands like a palace
built for God to show His wonderful face. Up to her courts with joys
unknown, the holy people repair. The Son of David holds His throne
and sits in judgment there. He hears our praises and complaints,
and while His awful voice divides the sinners from the saints,
we tremble and rejoice. But peace be within this sacred
place, and joy a constant guest, with holy gifts and heavenly
grace by her attendance blessed. My soul shall pray for Zion still,
while life or breath remains. There my best friends, my best
friends, my kindred dwell, and there God my Savior reigns."
The joy of the whole earth. If God blesses you, no place
you'd rather be than right here with God's people. Beautiful
situation. The joy of the whole earth. is known in her palaces for a
refuge. God is in the midst of her. Listen
to this now. Would you listen? Listen to this. Psalm 46. God is our refuge and
strength, a very present help in trouble. The world's in trouble. They don't know where to turn.
We do. We have peace. We're not in trouble.
Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, though
the mountains be carried away in the midst of the sea. God
is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her in that right earth. The Lord of hosts, he says this
three times, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob
is our refuge. He is the sun, that is light.
He is our shield. God is our shield. Selah. It says that three times. Selah.
Selah, you don't say it. You don't say anything. You just
stop. Think about that. God is our
refuge. The Lord of hosts. The Lord over
all. Angels, men, devils, germs is
with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Stop. Let these sayings sink
down in your ears. God is our refuge. Okay? We need not turn anywhere
else. We need not trust anything else.
We need not worry. We need not fear, right? I'm
going to tell you that. God is. God is our refuge. Our palaces. Our Lord said, I
go to prepare a place for you. In my Father's house are many
mansions, and I go to prepare a place for
you." Who's he talking to? Simon Peter. Denier of the Lord. Thomas, doubtful,
unbelieving. Sons of Jacob. That's what he
said. I go to prepare a place for you. If it were not so, I
would have told you. In my Father's house are many mansions, many
dwelling places. And if I go, I will come again
and receive you to myself. Got a text from a sister recently,
she's doubting her salvation. If you keep looking to yourself,
you will doubt your salvation. Okay? If you look to yourself,
I don't have enough of this, I don't have enough of that,
I'm sinful, I'm this, I'm that. Our faith is not in ourselves,
it's in Him. Faith is not in your faith, it's
in Him. Faith is not the strength of your faith, it's the strength
of your Lord. We look to Him. There's nobody who's ever trusted
Jesus Christ has ever been cast out. Not one. Do you hear me? But what? None of them that trust
in Him shall be ashamed, shall be desolate, shall be cast out.
Right? Faith is not... It's something
we do. It's someone we look to. He's our refuge. Alright, now
look at these next few verses. This may have puzzled you. Kings
were assembled. They passed by together. They
saw this, the holy city. They marveled at it. So they
tried to take it. And you know, Jerusalem was besieged
fifty some time. It was captured and taken back
44 times. Ever since it was built, ever
since David became king, the whole world wanted to take it,
destroy it, all the enemies. They still do. It's still over
there, that literal place. But even more so, the church
of God, the God of this world and His seed want nothing more
than to destroy the kingdom of God. You can't do it. You can't
do it. The king is assembled. Remember
Psalm 2. David said, he said, why the
heathen rage? The people imagine things, vain
things. The kings of the earth set themselves.
Rulers take counsel together against the Lord, against His
annoyance. They say, we'll break this thing up. No, you won't.
No, you won't. Why? God is in the midst of it. He shall not be moved. How does I refuse? I think maybe
Jehoshaphat wrote this song. Because in 2 Chronicles 20 is
the story of the Moabites, Ammonites, and a whole bunch of other ites,
were gathered against Jerusalem. And Jehoshaphat was king of Judah.
Okay? And that's the wonderful story
where Jehoshaphat gathered all the people of Israel, their wives,
And their little children and their little ones, and they stood
before the Lord and said, Lord, we don't know what to do. Our
eyes are upon you. And you remember what happened?
The Lord sent a preacher named Jehaziel. You don't know anything
about him. As far as I know, it's the only message he ever
preached. His first and last message. You know what his message
was? Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. He said, the battle's not yours,
it's the Lord's. You're not going to fight in this. The Lord is.
Just stand still and wait. You know what happened? Jehoshaphat
said, well, if it's done, let's just sing. And so they did. They started singing before the
battle had even taken place. You know what happened? You know
what happened. It says the Lord sent ambushment. And the Lord
smote all their enemies. A hundred and some thousand.
Moabites, Ammonites, Hittites, Ahivites, Perizzites, Armenians.
Slew them all. They all wanted, were against
them. If God is for us, who's going
to be against us? Right? Who is God for? We looked at that Sunday morning,
didn't we? He's for those that are for His glory. He's for those
that are for His Son. So, these kings were assembled
together and they passed by and they saw it. They tried to take
it, and they marveled, and they were troubled, and they hasted
away, and fear took hold upon them there, and pain as of woman
in travail. And that's what it said there,
and let me read it to you. I don't want to misquote it at
all. This is glorious to read. In 2 Chronicles 20, it says that
after that, the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those
countries when they heard that the Lord fought against the enemies
of Israel. Well, maybe Jehoshaphat wrote
it. He knew it well. All right, look at this. Verse
7, Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. After this, or was it before? It was either before or after. Jehoshaphat was a good king.
He was a good king, godly man. But he's a sinner. He was living
in the world, and the world had an allure to him, for him, the
things of the world. And he made a business venture
with an evil king. A business venture. They went
in business together, and they bought a bunch of ships to send to Tarshish. Why? To get some gold. Money. Going to be rich. Tarshish made
an alliance with. It was in concord with an ungodly
man. So what did the Lord do? He sent
a wind and destroyed all those ships. And so maybe Jehoshaphat
wrote it. So what's the lesson in this?
Seek not your riches or your fortune in this world. Riches are deceitful. Vanity
of vanity. God teaches His children that
some kind of difficult lesson. Brother John Warburton here,
anybody read Mercies of the Covenant God? John Warburton, he was a
preacher. He had 14 children. He said,
I have a fruitful wife. Well, you had something to do
with it, John. But anyway, 14 children, and they were poor,
and all these mouths to feed. So, Ricky, he went in all these
businesses. He tried to raise pigs, and they all died. They
all got sick and died. Everything he tried to do failed.
Why? He was a preacher. God raised
him up to be a preacher. He's going to live by the things
of preaching. And he did. And the Lord blessed
him. He was a wonderful preacher.
The lesson is, don't seek your riches and your fortune in this
world. If so, the Spirit of the Lord may destroy it. Teach us
a lesson. Here's another lesson. Are you
waiting on your ship to come in? It ain't coming in, in this world.
And I tell you what, you're in it. You're already in it. The ark of Christ Jesus. And
it just remains to be seen that we're going to reach the other
shore. And everything else is going to be broken. Except the
ark of Christ Jesus. Now look at this, verse 8. Amy,
this is the one that you made all those copies of that time,
a long time ago. Amy, I asked her to copy two
sermons by Charles Spurgeon on verse 8. I read a sermon by him,
two sermons, just blessed my heart so much, and she spent
so much time, and I never did use them. I'm doing it now. This is glorious. Verse 8, As
we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts
and the city of our God. As we have heard, so have we
seen. As we have heard, so have we
seen. These are wonderful words that speak of the promises of
our God being absolute and certain, yea and amen to the glory of
God by us. As we have heard, whatever we've
heard, we've seen it come to pass. The city of God. This is where
your eyes will be opened, your ears will be opened to hear,
and your eyes will be opened to see. This is only true of
Him that is true. God that cannot lie. The Lord who is truth. As we
have heard all that He has said, all that He has written, whatever
has come to pass, we have seen it come to pass. We have seen
it fulfilled. As we have heard, so have we
seen. And God's Word and His will,
His purpose, In his church, where he reveals these things, all
that we have heard, we have seen come true. Now, I'll give you several things
here. Now, first of all, this is not
so in this world. It's just not true. What you
hear is not so. You won't see it come to reality. All that you see here in this
world, the God of this world, the people of this world, they
say things like this, sin is good, sin is sweet, What we've
seen it to be is bad and bitter, haven't we? The God of this world
says the things of this world are true riches, bring real happiness. That's not what we've seen, is
it? Vanity of vanities. That's not what we hear in God's
Word, or what we see by experience. The wisdom and philosophy of
this world says man is good, man is noble. That's not what
I see. Do you? I don't see that. Look
at it. Chaos. Madness. Violence. Man's not good. He's not a noble
creature. He's worse than the beast. We've heard that in God's Word,
what man really is, and we've seen it. No, but the world, the
wisdom, philosophy says that science and technology is going
to improve us. We're worse than ever. We were
better off years ago before any of this. Right? We really were. Education is going to bring us
out of this. Education is the answer. It's going to make us
all wise. It's made people fools. That's what the Scripture says.
That's what I've seen. I don't see any wise people. except in
the city of God, in the house of God. Wisdom from God. Hath
not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? The world says
there is no God. Just imagine there is no heaven,
no hell. Just imagine. All you need is
love. I don't see any. Do you? I don't see any love. I see hate. I see anger. I see violence.
I see a world about to destroy itself. Religion. What do you hear in religion?
Free will. That's what they say. That's
what I'm hearing from false religion. Free will is true. That's not
what I see. Are you? I don't see anybody
coming, calling, bowing, repenting, worshiping God. Do you? Do you
see anybody like that? except when they're born again?
Our free will doesn't make somebody repent and bow and worship. Spirit
of God alone. Religion says, well, we need
to invite them. We need to offer salvation to
all. I don't see anybody taking that offer. I don't see people fearing God,
worshiping God. Now, what have we heard? What
have we heard from God's Word? Who cannot lie? What we've heard
is that God is holy and just and righteous, and I see it.
I see it everywhere. I see the holiness of God, the
justice of God. I see the judge of all the earth
doing what's right. God is angry with the wicked
every day. Stephen read that in Psalm 5,
didn't you? Don't you see it? Wrath of God revealed from heaven.
Everywhere. Clearly seen. God is Creator. That's what we heard in the beginning.
God created all things. I see it. Don't you see it? As
we've heard, so we've seen. God, the heavens declare His
glory. The firmament show His handiwork. Day unto day others
speak. All of these things clearly show the hand of God. As we've
heard, so it will be seen. God's Kingdom is forever. Man's kingdom comes and goes.
I've seen it. I've seen God destroy kingdom
after kingdom after kingdom. The Medes, the Persians, the
Assyrians, you name it. They come and go. The Romans,
the Greeks, the Americans. But God's kingdom
goes right on. As we've heard, He says, Thy
kingdom is prepared. So be it. It goes right on. God's Word. It goes right on. Our Lord said
this. Listen to it. Let this sink down in your ear.
He said, Heaven and earth shall pass away. But not one word of
mine shall fail. Brethren, God is our refuge. God is true. You can trust Him. You should trust Him. You ought
to trust Him. You ought not to trust anybody else. He's the
only one who doesn't lie. The only one that tells the truth.
Oh, do we need truth today more than ever? God is true. He cannot lie. We've seen God's
Word fulfilled. Everything that He's said. The
types, the symbols in the city of God. We've seen these things.
Some of you came here and didn't have a clue what God's Word was
about. And you heard things like the woman's seed. You heard it. And you saw it. What? Who? Son of God. Oh, you've heard things like
Noah's Ark. And then you saw it. Christ.
And you think, I want in Him. I want in Him. Smitten Rock.
Manna. Passover Lamb. On and on it goes.
You've seen all these things fulfilled, seen in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And oh, I could go on and on
with this. We've heard all that the Lord did for Israel of old.
All the things that God did for Israel of old, taking them out
of Egypt, Psalm 104, 5 and 6 and 7, all those things, Brother
Kelly, we've seen him do it for us. We've heard about that, he
did it for them, and I've seen him do it for us, time and again. As we've heard, so we've seen. In the city of our God. And God
will establish it forever. What's that? His Word, His promises
established forever in Christ. They're all in Christ. Our Lord,
our Master, our Covenant Head, and our Yea and Amen. Selah. Now, verse 9. We've thought of
thy love and kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. When
do you think of that more than when you come in here? We mostly think about His loving
kindness, His mercy, His grace when we come in here, don't we?
Together. We thought of that loving kindness.
Oh, the loving kindness of our God, the long-suffering, the
mercy and grace. Verse 10, according to thy name,
O God, so is thy praise. And to the ends of the earth,
according to your name. What's His name? Moses. He said to Moses,
I want to declare my name. I'm going to make all my goodness
pass before you and declare my name. What did He declare? The
Lord. The Lord. The Lord God. Merciful. Gracious. Slow to anger. Slow to wrath.
Ready to pardon. That's His name. The Lord. Jesus. Savior. Christ. Messiah. prophet,
priest, and kisser. His name, your name, according
to your name, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy
right hand is full of righteousness." What's that? Where did you learn
this? The right hand and the right
arm of the Lord have gotten him the victory, have gotten us the
victory. You know, you hear in religion, God has no hands but
your hands. Then I'm a goner. And you're
a goner. God doesn't have any hands. That's not even worth commenting
on, really. We're in His hands. And the right hand, God has hands,
and His hands are Jesus Christ. The God-man. God manifesting
the flesh. We're in His hands. And His right
hand is full of righteousness. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of His kingdom. Oh, verse 11, let Mount Zion
rejoice. Let the daughters of Judah be
glad. Why? Because of His judgments.
Don't ever think of judgments as only bad. Oh no, that's His
dealings with His righteous judgments. His dealings with the world and
everything and everyone and us. He's righteous and His judgments
are good. His dealings with everything
He does. Even his chastenings are wonderful. The trials he
sends are good for that. Now look at this. Walk about
Zion. Take a tour. Go round about her, the church.
If we could see the defenses around this little place, like
Elisha's servant, he went out and saw all the enemies against
him. And Elijah said, Lord, open his
eyes. And he saw chariots of fire surrounding
him. Just him and Elijah. And so it
is with all of God's people. If only we could see eyes of
faith. Towers thereof, watchtower, mark
well her bulwarks. Her bulwarks. Listen to this,
Psalm 125. It says this, Psalm 120. No, I'm sorry, Isaiah 26. This is Isaiah 26. You know that
will keep in perfect peace. Listen to this. It says, We have a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. We have an unseen wall surrounding
us. We're hedged about. Remember
that? When all this whole thing started, we're hedged about. Okay? Since then? Have we? That's what we heard,
isn't it? Have we seen it? We're hedged
about, aren't we? Sure are. There's towers around
it. It's a bulwark. Consider her
palaces. You go down to Kingsport, Tennessee
right now, and you meet in this little converted house. Beautiful
little place. But downtown, there's a little
courtyard that's got these monstrosities. These big religious edifices
that look like Rome or Greece, you know, with all these columns
and all that. God ain't there. Oh, how the world's impressed
with that. God ain't there. Where is He? Right up in that
little converted house, where people are crammed together.
Trust in the Lord. God's in the midst of her. That's
a palace. That's a palace in there. Beautiful
situation. Beautiful situation. Mark well. Mark it well. Mark it well. That's what the Lord said. Let
these sayings sink down now. Consider it. Tell it to the generation. Tell it to your children. Tell
them what? Trust the Lord. Seek not this
world. Trust not in uncertain riches.
Seek the Lord. Seek His face. And this last
verse is perhaps the best. This God is our God. Aren't you glad our God is God? I stand up here every time to
try to convince us of that. Whether you're convinced or not,
He is. Whether you believe it or not, He is. I'm scared. Go ahead and be scared. He's
still God. But, but, but, go ahead. Fear. You're still in
His hands. Why don't you just trust Him?
This God, who made the worlds, is our God. And we're the people
of His pasture, sheep of His pasture. And listen to this.
He's our God forever and ever. He will be our guide. Even unto
death. He's our God and our guide. Meaning, He guides us. The steps
of a good man are ordered by the Lord. That is, everybody
in Christ Jesus, their steps are ordered. Everything about
them is ordered. Your hairs of your head are ordered.
It's God. It's our God that numbers our
hair. Let these sayings sink down. He's our guide to death. He has determined the means of
your death. He's determined the day. He's
determined the means. And nothing and no one can stop
it. And you don't want it to. It's going to be the best thing
that ever happened to you. It's better than your birth. To death. I told you that story
about putting my dog down, you know. Went out and dug his grave,
and I took him with me. When I dug his grave, long before
he died, I took him with me and had him lie in it to measure
him. We need to do that. Go ahead
and buy your coffin. You got your place out there
in the cemetery? Good. Make your arrangement. It's coming
soon. And God has determined the bounds, and He cannot pass
them to me. And one day, like my old dog,
I said, it's time. And I put him down. I said it. There's nobody else's decision.
It's mine. That's a good thing. He fell asleep. He fell asleep. Our God is our guide unto death. And when it comes, we've got nothing to worry about.
This God is our God. And our guide forever. Do you
understand that? If you don't understand it, it's so. Alright,
stand with me. Our Lord and our God, we believe
to help our unbelief. Forgive us, Lord, for not trusting
You more. You've been a long time with
us, and yet we have not known You. We have not believed You. We've doubted You. Partly because
we looked to ourselves. Partly because we're so sinful.
We worry about ourselves, we worry about others because we
are so blind, halt and lame, ready to fall and prone to wander and
all these things. We are just like dumb sheep.
Oh, but the Lord, Thou art our shepherd. And what we have heard,
we have seen. He said we shall not want. And
we've walked through this valley of shadow of death, some of us
60, 70, 80 years. And we've seen Your marvelous
hand of mercy and grace. Why don't we believe? Why don't
we trust You? Oh, forgive us. But we're so
glad and we rejoice that Thou art God and our God, our Lord,
our Master, our Savior, our Refuge. In the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, I give thanks. Amen.