Alright, go back to Psalm 147
with me. Psalm 147. To those who have tasted that
the Lord is gracious, His Word is sweet, isn't it? Sweet. Especially the psalms
written, well, by our Lord, but penned by the sweet psalmist
of Israel I wrote, who said himself, thy
word is sweeter than honey to my taste. Sweeter than honeycomb.
And I hope this will be sweet to you tonight. The last five
Psalms begin with these words, praise ye the Lord. Psalm 146 through 150. Praise, that is give honor. Render honor, give thanks to. We praise. We praise people that
we love, people that we are thankful for, and people that do things
for us. Our children even that do things
well, we keep a little praise on them, thanksgiving, honor. But here he says, Praise ye the
Lord, the Lord who is worthy of all honor. in all thanksgiving
and all praise. For of Him, through Him, to Him
are all things. Praise ye the Lord. For everything that hath breath,
but this is to each of us individually. You praise the Lord. And if you're
one of His, that's what He says, it's good to sing praises unto
our God. If you know God. If He's your
God. The God of Israel. The true God. You know the living and true
God. And that's your God. And not this false God that people
believe in. Oh, you've got reason to praise
Him. Because flesh and blood didn't reveal Him to you. But
the Father which is in Heaven. Our God. Oh, it's good, he said.
It's good. It's good. It's pleasant. Verse
1, it's pleasant. Very pleasant. Do you derive
pleasure from this? This is a foretaste of glory
divine. Those who know the Lord, they
get great pleasure and worship. It's just a foretaste of what's
to come. Praise is comely. The word comely
means it's becoming, it's fitting. It's fitting. We say something
is becoming to that person. for the saints, for those who
have received such mercy and such grace. And God has done
so much for us in revealing His Son to us and sending His Son
to die for. It's just fitting that we give
Him praise. Give Him praise. Now, look at
some of the things He does. Psalm 40 says this. I'll just
read it for you. It says, Many, O Lord, my God,
are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done. And thy thoughts
which are to usward, they cannot be reckoned up in order under
this. If David says, if I would declare
and speak of them, they're more than can be numbered. All of
God's wonderful works that he's done and his thoughts toward
us, he said, I know my thoughts toward you. He said that in Psalm
139, your thoughts of me are too high for me. If they could
be reckoned up, they'd be more than can be numbered. But here's
a few. Alright, here in Psalm 147, it gives us a few of these
wonderful works that he does. He builds up Jerusalem. The Lord
doth build up Jerusalem. There's not one stone going to
be left standing on one building on this planet Earth sometime.
Our Lord said that. Not one thing that man has done
will be left standing. Every stone. broken down. But the Lord is
building his church. He has been and he is right now
building his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
him. And you as living stones are
built up a temple under the Lord, a spiritual temple. And not one stone of Christ's
church will be missing. Not one. Living stone, a spiritual
house built on this one foundation which is Now the foundation can no man
lay than that which is laid. The cornerstone, the foundation
that God laid that the builders rejected, that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we're all built on the one
foundation and this most holy faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. And look at who his church is
made of. He gathered together the outcasts
of Israel. The outcasts of Israel. Go over quickly to John 9, the
Gospel of John chapter 9. I immediately thought of this
story when I read that. The outcasts of Israel. All spiritual Israel, all of
God's people are outcasts. They're not of this world. Especially
religion. Religion doesn't claim them.
Religion casts them out. thinks of God's people, true
believers that believe in the sovereign God and the sovereign
Christ and His particular redemption and His effectual salvation and
His sovereign election of a people, they are called a cult to this
work. They are outcasts. I started
thinking about that today, how this cult, which is Pentecostal
religion, charismatic religion, They call us a cult now. That
stuff is accepted as the norm. But what we believe, the truth,
the people who believe it are outcasts. They call us outlaws. Legal people, law people call
us outlaws, don't they? Antinomians. That's just not
true. But our Lord said, blessed are
you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all
manner evil against you falsely. Why do they say all these things?
Because we preach Christ and not man. Because we preach Christ's
work and not man's work. Because we preach free, full,
final, effectual, eternal grace. That salvation is 100% by grace,
not of worthless any man should boast. And if they want to call
us all those things, fine. Fine. But we're the outcasts.
Like this man in John 9. The Pharisees and Sadducees,
they kicked him out. He was witnessing. Verse 32. This blind man who the Lord opened
his eyes, he said to these Pharisees who were grilling him about who
opened his eyes. And he said, since the world
began, it was not heard to any man to open the eyes of one that
was born blind. If this man, speaking of our
Lord, were not of God, he could do nothing. And they answered
and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and
doth thou teach us? And they cast him out. And when our Lord heard, when
Jesus heard that they had cast him out, he went and found him
and gathered him and brought him in. So we're the outcasts. We go unto Him, Hebrews says,
without the camp, outside the camp of modern religion, gathered
unto Him, bearing His reproach, which is the cross is the truth,
and that's what we bear. Now notice, he tells us through
these verses who the Lord is and what He hath done. He healeth,
He bindeth, He numbereth, He calleth, He lifteth up, all these
things. Verse 3, He healeth the broken
in heart. He bindeth up their wounds. He
healeth. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. A broken and a contrite heart
is a good thing. To this man will I look. To he
that is poor and of a broken heart and a contrite heart and
trembleth at my word. That's a good thing. The Lord
is the one who breaks the heart. He said, I kill. The Lord must
kill us before He makes us alive. He says, I wound. The Lord must
wound us before He heals us. The Lord must break our hearts
over sin. Blessed are they that mourn over
their sin. They will be comforted. But if
He breaks us, if He breaks our heart, He will heal it. If we
don't find healing, it's a good thing to have the
heart broken over sin. But then if we don't find healing,
We're looking in the wrong place. We're still looking within and
we're looking somewhere, I don't know, but we're not looking to
the Lord. Because everyone that was bitten by that serpent, when
they look to the serpent of brass, which is Christ and him crucified,
they were healed. Sang that song of Moses, didn't
we, Sunday? And that should convict us all,
but that ought to drive us to Christ. Those who know the first
song will be able to sing with great joy the new song. Oh, worthy is the Lamb. He's
healed us. He's shed His precious blood
for sinning. So is there no balm in Gilead?
If we don't find any healing, we're not hearing Him, we're
not looking unto Him, and or we're harboring something that
we need to get rid of. Ill will, bitterness, whatever.
Rebellion, sins. Put off the old man. He bindeth
up the wounds. He bindeth up wounds. Our Lord
is the Good Samaritan. He's the one who comes and finds
His people lying in a ditch and picks them up and binds their
wounds and pours in oil and wine. Wounds left by sin. Wounds left
by sorrow. If we're not bound up, we're
looking in the wrong place. Looking in the wrong place. Here's a way to have your wounds
bound up, whatever it is, sin or sorrow. Look to His wounds. Look to His wounds. By His stripes,
we are healed. He was wounded. And we're never
going to be wounded like He was wounded. If we'd look to his
wounds, we'd see that our wounds are light in comparison. It would
greatly lighten our affliction by looking to his wounds. Are
you with me? Look at verse 4 and 5. He telleth
the number, the greatness of our God here, he tells the number
of the stars. That is, he numbers all the stars.
He knows how many there are. He calleth them by their name.
Great is our Lord. Great power. And his understanding
is infinite. Now, the people of God are like
the stars of the sky for number. The people of God are like the
sand of the sea. Can you number a handful of sand? Would you even attempt it? No. God does. That's our God. That's how great His power is,
His knowledge, His understanding. He knows how many grains of sand
are on the oceans shore and in the ocean. You believe that? It says the very hairs of your
head are number. And not one of those hairs falls
to the ground. Is that just some kind of allegory? No. That's our God. It must be so
for our God to rule and reign and order everything in this
universe. Mustn't it? Must be so. Well,
it is so. That's our God. Great power is
of His powers, no searching. It's without our understanding.
Now, here's the point. God has a people as the stars
of the sky. That's a lot of people. That's
a lot of people. Why not you? Every one of us thinks, well,
I might not be one of them. His mercy. is infinite. Our Lord is of great mercy and
great grace. You think you're going to deplenish
it? You think it's not enough to go around for you? You think
you're worse than all the billions that have come before you? Sinners. He knows them all by name, too.
What's the use in naming stars? What's the point? Do you see
any point in it? We'll never see the stars. Our
little finite understanding of our galaxy, you know, scientists
think they know something. We just see just a little way
off. But the Lord numbers every one
of them. What's the point? The point is, God knows every
one of His people by name, intimately, every one of them. He called
a film. by name. They are like the stars of the
sky for none but God's people. And the Lord calleth them all,
each one of them by name, beginning with Adam. Where art thou? The very first man. And then
trillions of people have come and gone. And every one that's
here, Abraham, Jacob, Simon, Mary, Zacchaeus, all of them. He calleth them by name. My sheep,
hear my voice, he said. I know them. He calleth his own
sheep by name. And he does that through his
Word. He does it through his Gospel. And the first thing that
he tells us is our name, doesn't he? He's called the God of Jacob. The previous psalm says, O happy
is he that hath the God of Jacob for his head. All right? What's your name? If you can
find yourself as a Jacob that he's called you, Jacob, Jacob,
worm. Fear not thou worm, Jacob. Does
that offend you? Then you're not one of his. But
if it doesn't, if you're like that Syrophoenician woman, dog,
if you're like Mephibosheth, a dog, or even David said that,
then you're one of his. Mary, the thief, Mary Magdalene,
sinner, he calleth them by name. Verse 6, he lifteth up the meek
and casteth down the wicked. Proud in heart, those who say
no God will be cast into hell, Scripture says. But if a believer
is broken before the Lord, bows before his sovereign Lord, meek,
blessed are the meek, They shall inherit the earth, the new earth. God has prepared a place for
the meek and the lowly. Those who have nothing for the
contract. Those who, oh my, hope in His mercy. He's prepared a
place for them and the rest He's going to cast out. Sing. Verse 7. Sing unto the Lord.
Shouldn't that give us reason to sing? Sing unto the Lord.
with thanksgiving. There's nothing that will lift
us up any more than start singing with thanksgiving. Start thanking
the Lord. We all get cast down, don't we? We all get cast down. We all get sorrowful and down
and out. Psalm 13, don't you want to turn? I'll never forget this, reading
a sermon by Brother Spurgeon when I was a young man from Psalm
13. And he called it the sign psalm. How long? Several times. How long, O Lord?
How long will you forget me, O Lord? How long? Forever? How
long will you hide your face from me? How long? How long?
How long? David, the Lord can't forget
you. Probably you forgot Him. And
so he hid his face from him. But he said, consider and hear
me. Enlighten mine eyes. My enemy
is going to prevail over me. Oh, they trouble me. But then
he said, but I've trusted in your mercy. My heart shall rejoice. I will sing unto the Lord. He's dealt valiantly with me.
It started out by David saying, how long? How long are you going
to forget me? And he ends up by singing. It's
your way to get out of the depths of despair is to sing thanksgiving. Thank the Lord. Start thanking
the Lord. Thank Him. Number your blessings.
Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praise upon the heart unto
our God, who covereth, verses 8 and 9, His created glory here,
who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for
the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains, Giveth
to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. The
Lord cares for these seemingly insignificant creatures like
ravens and sparrows. Even sparrows are less than ravens.
Shall he not care for you, O ye of little faith? Recovereth,
who prepareth, who maketh grass, and doeth all these things for
insignificant creatures. How much more will the heavenly
Father feed and take care of His people. So he says, sing.
Sing like the birds. Irene, you feed the birds, don't
you? Were your birds out there in
that bitter cold and snow? Oh, yes, they were. Doing what? Singing. Singing. Oh, my. And we complained of
the cold. We sit in our nice warm houses
and we complain of the cold. Oh my, I know you men go out
there, but you can always find a warm place, can't you? Our great Creator has done so
much for us. We live in plenty. We live in
warmth and comfort. Speaking of the Creator, Scripture
says, the heavens declare His glory, the firmament showeth
His handiwork, day unto day others' speech, night unto night The
things that are made His eternal power, declared His eternal power
in Godhead, they're clearly seen by the things that are made.
And it forgives us eyes. It forgives us eyes to see they're
clear, aren't they? And Revelation 4 says, For thy
pleasure they are and were created. Our great Creator. We clearly
see His hand, don't we? His creative hand in all this
stuff. Why? Most people don't. Why? Do you see His hand? Clearly. You clearly see it, don't you?
Because He's given you an understanding that you might know Him that
is true, that you're in Him that is true. There's a debate going
on right now. You may not know about it. You
really don't need to know about it, but I'm telling you about
it. There's a debate going on right now between evolutionists
and creationists. There's a public debate going
on right now, and many are very excited about it. The leading
proponent of evolution, some scientist, is debating a creationist
publicly right now. Are you interested? I'm not. What could anybody say to put any doubts whatsoever in
your mind upon what God has done? Anything that science makes up,
and that's what they do. That's what they do. Paul said that. God's Word said
that. Science falsely so called. I'm telling you the truth. They
make things up. They make up their own theories.
They make up their own tests. They make up their own results.
And who's going to challenge them? And there's no point in
it. And now there's a fellow debating
them, a creationist. What can he say? What can this
fellow say to you to convince you more that God is? Anything? Do they have to convince you
with scientific knowledge, with facts or man's findings? Did man prove God? Besides, it's pointless to argue
with blind people, isn't it? What's the point in arguing with
blind people? Huh? the world, the people of this
world, say no God. What's the point in arguing with
them? That's red. That's red. He said, no, it's not. It's blue. God made this. No, he didn't.
This just happened. Let the potsherds of the earth
strive with the potsherds of the earth. That's what Scripture
says. Nothing they say can lessen the faith of God's people.
Nothing. Nothing that People who try to
prove what God can say gives them more faith. Our faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. God reveals Himself
not only in the... That's Psalm 19 for you, isn't
it? The heavens declare His glory, and then God has written a book
of which men don't read, but we do, don't we? Oh, how clearly
we see our God is in creation and from His Word. Thank the
Lord. He's given us eyes. He's given
us eyes to see. What does the great God of glory,
the great Creator, take pleasure in? God who made all things,
everything. He says, for thy pleasure they
are and were created. But what does He take pleasure
in? What does God take delight in? His creation. Look at the next
couple of verses. It says in verse 10, He delighteth
not in the strength of the horse. He taketh no pleasure in the
legs of a man. These are two things, two glorious
creatures. Two of the most glorious creatures,
actually. The horse has probably been one
of the greatest of God's creation for the service of man. The horse
is a magnificent creature. The horse has been serving man
since the beginning of time. A magnificent creature used by
our Lord for the service of man. But God takes no pleasure in
strength of the whore. Man, oh my, how the Lord exhibited
His marvelous glory in creating man in His image. He's the only
creature on earth that stands upright on two legs. Only one. So only the monkey does. No,
he doesn't. No, he doesn't. You watch him. He's on all fours. That's where
we're going. I believe in a reverse evolution.
I believe we started upright. We're down on all fours now.
I believe we're creating the image of God. Now we're like
slime. Worms. No men. We're not men
now. Not the way God created man.
We've become a worm and no man. Oh, how glorious it is that our
Lord Jesus Christ became a worm. You know, people don't... When
people talk about great men, they don't even mean talking
about the Lord anymore. When they list great men that have
lived, they list people like Martin Luther King or Thomas
Jefferson and on and on it goes. They don't mention Jesus Christ. What is man? But man takes great
pleasure in these things, doesn't he? There's nothing he takes
more pleasure in than like the horse and men, great men. What a silly, listen to me, what
a silly, shallow and ridiculous society we live in. Utterly ridiculous. Which is taken with horses that
run around a circle. Now this is their idea of a great
horse. He's about two or three years old, and he runs around
a circle in two minutes, and we give him millions of dollars,
and we say he's the greatest horse to ever live. What did
he do? Nothing. When there was an old plow horse
years ago with legs like iron, plowing 40 acres, 100 acres,
200 acres, the Lord made horses to bear heavy burdens. to go
into battle, horses carrying captains like David on their
back, in the face of cannon fire. Horses? You want to talk about
horses? Let's talk about one of those war horses. What a silly
and shallow society we live in. Men, talk about great men. What
great feats that men have done. Why, that fellow can throw a
ball a hundred yards. What? Read the story of David's
captains. Go back and read the stories
of David's captives. They could throw a spear with
the right hand and the left hand and hit the mark every time. Nobody has done anything for
a long time. What a silly, shallow society
we live in. But the Lord taketh no pleasure
in the strength of a horse or the legs of a man. Look at who
He takes pleasure in. Look at what he takes pleasure
in. Verse 11, the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him,
in those that hope in His mercy. The Lord taketh pleasure, mind
you, great delights. Pleasure is something that pleases
you, something that you get joy from, something that you are
delighted to do. What pleases you? It pleases
you. It pleased the Lord, He said,
to make you His people. The Lord taketh pleasure in them
that what? That do what? Great feats? No. Them that fear Him. And those that hope in His mercy. That's Curtis' mercy. Those that
hope in His mercy. People, that's about all I can
do, is hope in His mercy. That's my only hope. Well, here
it says, the Lord taketh pleasure in me. Isn't that amazing or
what? Sing! Praise the Lord, verse
12. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem.
That's who He takes pleasure in, Jerusalem. Praise thy God,
O Zion. O Zion, city of God. The Lord
says things like this. The Lord chose Zion. The Lord
loveth Zion more than all the dwellings in Israel. The Lord
dwelleth in Mount Zion. That's where He lives. That's
what He loves. That's where He dwells, the city
of God. Bless God, I do too. What is
Zion? It's a church. It's a church. We've not come under Mount Sinai,
but we're coming under the church of the living God. Mount Zion
is the church. I love thy kingdom, Lord. We sing that song. Oh, how I
love Zion. Don't you? Our walls before thee
stand. I love... Old Jerusalem. Oh, praise the Lord. He's made
you a member of that blessed body. And verse 13 says, He strengthened
the bars of thy gates. Old Jerusalem in the time of
David was a gated city. It was a walled city. And the
Lord protected it, had hedged it about, and nothing could get
in. And nobody could get out. Oh my, how the Lord has hedged
us about. Do you not literally feel safer
when you come into this place where the people of God hold? This is literally the church
of God, where His people are. Not the building, mind you, but
wherever His people meet, they're going to meet in peace. The Lord
has hedged us about. And listen to this, Isaiah 26,
and that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah.
We have a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. Open the gates that the righteous
nation which keepeth the truth, that's us, that keep the truth
may enter in. And thou wilt keep him or her
in perfect peace. whose mind is stayed on thee,
because he trusteth in thee." Trust ye in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. He strengthened the
bars of our gate. He hath blessed thy children
within thee. Our children are more blessed
than any children on earth. Yes, they are. Do you agree?
No, no. Religion has all these programs
for the children. Has all these activities for
the children. They build gymnasiums. They build
this. They build that for the children.
And they're telling them lies. What do we have for our children?
What are we doing for our children? We're trying to tell them the
truth. We're trying to tell them the Scriptures. You've got a
preacher and you've got teachers that are preaching the Scriptures
that are able to make them wise unto salvation. There's only
one thing needful for our children, and that's what we do. By the
grace of God, that's what we do. And I believe that they're
learning it. I believe they are. Our little children are learning
each day. Sunday before last, after the message from Psalm
145, I preached it. Little Daisy Hudson came running
up to me and said, You quoted our Scripture verse, our memory
verse. I said, What was it? She said,
He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him. He also will
hear their cry and will say, And then Lily came up right after
that, and I said, what is it, Lily? And she quoted. And I told
Mel and I said, I hope they know that verse when they're 16. Better
yet, I hope they know that Lord. I hope they cry unto Him. He
will save them. It would be a crime to do anything
other than preach the truth to them. Your children are going
to be blessed. This is where our children hear
the truth. They're going to go out into a world, we're going
to send them out into the, by faith, we send them out of the
world like the Lord sends us. We don't protect them, hedge
them and, you know, keep them home and all that. No, we send
them out. That's what the Lord does with
that. You've got to exhibit some faith, don't you? Well, where
are they going to learn the truth as opposed to what they hear
in a school? One place. Or two places. At home? And here,
if you don't tell them at home, they're sure going to hear it
here. That's for sure. So in Mount Zion, in the gates,
within the gates, our children are blessed. Verse 14, He maketh
peace in thy borders. He maketh peace in thy borders. And filleth thee with the finest
of wheat. He maketh peace. How does He
make peace? Oh, you know. By the blood of
His cross. Christ said, My peace I leave
with you. My peace I give unto you. Peace
I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. He
maketh peace in thy borders by the blood of Christ. Peace with
God. Peace in the church. They're
dogs without. And it's a dog-eat-dog world.
But bless God where the Gospels preach, where His people love
Christ, there's peace. Peace. Fills us with the finest
of wheat for bread. Oh, there's a famine going on
out there, isn't there? not of bread, but of the hearing
of God's Word. And we hear fat things, fat of
wheat, finest of wheat. Look at this, verse 15. He sends
forth His commandment upon earth. His Word runneth very swiftly.
His Word runs well. His Word runs swiftly. What it sends it to do, it accomplishes.
The power of His Word, His voice, not just His creative Word creates,
but His saving power. That's why we preach this Word.
That's why that's all we do here. We're hoping the Lord will use
one of His many words of salvation to rest the heart, to convict
the heart and the mind of someone, to send his errors home to the
heart. That's why we do this. He sends
His Word, and with power it goes forth. It runs swiftly. Something wrong. I worry about
people that sit under the Word for a long period of time. I
really worry about them. And nothing happens. I really
do worry about them. Verse 16. He says, verse 17,
he gives snow like, how fitting this is right now. relative this is right now. He sends snow like wool, scatters
the hoar frost like ashes, casts forth his ice like morsels. Who
can stand his cold? Snow like wool. It's beautiful
when the Lord sends snow. There's nothing I used to enjoy
more than And then after a big deep snow, go out and walk in
the woods. You men do that? Women? Oh, it's wonderful isn't
it? It's so quiet and peaceful. This
world is so dirty and filthy. It covers it with snow. And I
think of Isaiah 1 every time. Don't you? Though your sins be
as scarlet, they'll be as white as snow. What does He send to
cover them? The blanket of our sins. The blessed blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ covers His robe of righteousness, covers
snow like wool, warming. Can you be warm when it's cold
outside? Yes. It scattereth the hoarfrost like
ashes. Frost. You go out there on the
ground and that frost, isn't that beautiful? Isn't that just
beautiful? A frost just like ashes. I used to clean out my
wood stove and throw it out there That's what the cross looks like
all over the ground. And ice, like morsels. Oh my,
is there anything more beautiful? They talk about Tiffany. What's
the Irish crystal in Ireland? Rick, help me here. The Irish
crystal everybody makes. So it's nothing compared to this. When the Lord sends ice, and
we dread it, don't we? Nobody has died yet among us.
When He sends ice that covers every little branch and every
little twig, there is nothing more beautiful. It's His hand.
We see His hand in it, don't we? Ice like morsels. And then who can stand His cold? Who can stand when God sends
His cold? And then verse 18 says, He sends
out His Word and melts them. He causes His wind to blow and
the waters flow. Now, I believe that this is speaking
of something much deeper and much more glorious than just
snow and ice and frost and cold outside. I believe, and I'm sure,
that the Lord is talking here about these ice-cold hearts of
ours. that man's heart is like a block
of ice until the Lord sends His Word. And we, even believers, get cold,
don't we? We get cold like ice. I preach so often and look out
and preach and some are weeping and others are unmoved, totally
unmoved. We get like ice. We get cold.
And our Lord said, lukewarm is the worst thing when you don't
feel anything. And our Lord said, I would that
you were hot or cold. And the Lord does this to us.
When we turn our face from Him, when we turn away from Him, when
we sin against Him, yes, He'll turn His face from us. And He'll make us feel like He
left us. And rightfully so. We need to feel like that now.
And we'll feel cold. And we'll feel left out in the
cold. And who can stand it when we have no feeling of the presence
of our God? No feeling of the mercy of our
God? When we feel like we've been left out, cast out. Who can stand that when God does
it? But oh, bless the Lord, oh my
soul. He sends forth His Word. If you're
one of His, He sends forth His Word. And He melts that cold
heart. He sends forth His wind. The Holy Spirit is called the
wind. Come, O north wind, and blow upon thy garden. Let the
spices of Christ flow out on this cold heart of mine. He sends
His wind and blows. And what happens? The waters
flow. The waters flow. Where's Mr. Wet Eyes? That's what Bunyan's
book said. Send him to Immanuel. Tell him
to come get us. That's who you'll answer to.
This man, this woman who I love, is broken at heart. Not the cold
and the dead and the dry. Oh, Lord, break our cold hearts,
our icy, stony heart. Break them. Send Your Word. Let
it run swiftly. That's what we need to pray every
time. Oh, Lord, my son, my daughter, they've got a cold, icy heart.
Send the Word and break their hearts. Cause the waters to flow. And He saves us the greatest
thing for last. All these great blessings of
our great God. The greatness of His person,
the greatness of His power, the greatness of His creation. And
He says in verse 19, He showeth His Word unto Jacob. His statutes and His judgments
to Israel. He revealed he hath not done
this to any other nation. He found a fellow in a waste,
howling wilderness. Do you remember that? Jacob.
Found him in a waste, howling wilderness. Jacob have I loved.
Who? He found this old boy named Jacob
who wasn't looking for him, who was running from him. A worthless
old boy named Jacob. And he revealed himself to him.
A heathen like Abraham. Revealed himself to him. Showed
his word to him. He didn't have to do that. He
didn't have to do it, but he did. Jake, Israel. What about Israel? Oh, what an ungrateful, what
a wretched bunch of people the Israelites were. Oh, they didn't deserve to have
shown unto them the statutes and the judgments of God. When
the world has no judgment, when He's left them without judgment,
reprobates, to go on and to die in their ignorance and their
darkness. He showed His Word and continues
to show His Word. Oh my, how good our God is to
us. He hath not dealt so with any nation. And this little building
here, this little city set on a hill here, Oh, how blessed
Central Grace Church is among the churches of Franklin County,
Virginia, and all the state of Virginia and America. How many
years have we had the Gospel? He hath not dealt so with any
nation. Had all these pagan, heathen
nations that don't have the truth. And as for his judgments, they
had not known them. Praise ye. Praise ye. The Lord. We've got many reasons
to do so. Alright. Stand with me. Our Lord, forgive this pitiful
preacher. Forgive these fumbling words. You said you would speak to the
people with stammering lips. Oh, Lord. We had this treasure. What a treasure. What a glorious
gift. What a marvelous gift. What a
gift of Your grace. Sovereign grace given, bestowed
freely to us. Not everyone, but to us. The
gift of Your grace. The gift of Your Son. The gift
of the Gospel. The gift of Your Word. The gift
of an understanding that we might know You that is true. The true
and living God that we are in You that is true. Oh, Lord. We have every reason to give
thanks. No reason to murmur or complain.
None whatsoever. Forgive us our murmuring. Forgive
us our complaining. Forgive us, O Lord, we are unworthy.
We are rebellious. We are unthankful. We are ungrateful
people. As Daniel of old said, O Lord,
confusion belongs unto us. O Lord, we are men and women
of unclean lips because these lips murmur. in the midst of
a people of unclean lips, an unthankful nation that is so
full of so many blessings. O Lord, unite our hearts to fear
Thy Name. Unite our hearts to praise Thy
Name. Unite our hearts in thanksgiving and prayer. O Lord, take not
Thy Holy Spirit from us. Take not Thy Word from us. Take
not Thy Gospel from us. Don't take our candle away. Leave
it shining, we pray, not for our sake, but for others and
for Thy glory, for Thy great name's sake. O Lord, have mercy
upon Israel for Christ's sake. And we give thanks, Lord, for
this word, Psalm 147. Now we thank You. Let everyone
in here, old and young alike, male and female, praise the Lord. And it's in Christ's name we've
met here and do what we do. Amen.