Thank you, Gabe and Hannah. Okay,
back to Psalm 116. Let's read verses 9 through 12 again. I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living. I believe, therefore, have I
spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said
in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all His benefit toward me? These are words of David
that were recorded by our Lord for us to read. These are not
the boasting of a proud, self-righteous man when he says, I will walk
before the Lord. The boasting of a proud man,
but the heartfelt words of a grateful man. A man whom the Lord had
been gracious to and revealed Himself to. Brother Ron providentially
read Psalm 115 before we came up here. He doesn't write a psalm
like that. Verse 1 of Psalm 115 says, Not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory
for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. He doesn't write that and
then turn around and boast of what he's going to do. Not at
all. What he's saying is because,
he said, the Lord hath heard my voice, because the Lord is
gracious, righteous, merciful, because the Lord helped me, he
said, because the Lord has dealt bountifully with me, because
the Lord has delivered my soul from death, I will walk before
the Lord in the land of the living. That's why. Thy people shall
be willing. He said, I will. I will. Thy people shall be willing.
Now it is God that worketh in us both the will. It's not free
will. It's sovereign will. God makes
His people willing. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. When the gospel comes in power,
that's the power of God. The day of His power. When the
gospel comes, he makes a new creature. He turns a rebel into
a submissive man. He turns someone who says, I
will not, into one that says, I will. And like so many saints
throughout the Scripture that said things like this, Joshua.
Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And that's what I say, don't
you? By the grace of God. By the grace
of God. Don't you? That's for me in my
house. He's going to tell us about the
believer's walk here. He's going to tell us about the
believer's witness, the believer's persecution, the believer's conclusion,
and the believer's rendering back to the Lord. But the believer's
walk here, he says, I will walk before the Lord in the land of
the living before I die. Up in verse 17 of the previous
chapter of the psalm, it says, The dead praise not the Lord,
neither any that go down into silence. There is silence now,
except those that go to be with the Lord. They are praising Him
from the top of their lungs. But he said, Before I die, in
the land of the living, in the land of the living, here and
now. He went on down there and said, I will pay my vows now,
right now. Now's the time. Today's the day.
Not like Felix, at a convenient time. No, now. Today. I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living. He said, as long as I live, I'll
call upon Him. Some of us in here possibly,
probably have a lot more living to do on this earth. Okay? If I live as long as my father
has, I've got thirty more years and counting. So this is what
David said. What are you going to do with
it? What are you going to do with the rest of your days? David
said, I'll walk before the Lord. What does that mean? I want to, like Enoch, walk with
the Lord, don't you? I want to walk with the Lord.
But David said this, and the Lord said this to Abraham in
Genesis 17. He said, I am the Almighty God.
Walk before me and be thou perfect, that is, upright or sincere. Walk before me. What that means
is to be conscious of our God. When Paul, in 2 Corinthians 2,
I love this verse, he said, we're not as many which corrupt the
Word of God, but as of sincerity, as of God, in the sight of God,
we preach Christ. We speak of Him in the sight
of God. Most human beings are only conscious of what other
human beings think about them. Everybody. When the Lord talked
about these three things in the earth, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, that means everybody
is so concerned about what others think about them, how they look,
how they sound, what they attain to, and so forth. Away with that. We should be only concerned with
the favor of our God. Conscious of Him. Walking before
Him. When God regenerates a man, that
man is then conscious of God. Never gave God a thought before.
The will of God. The mind of God. This is what
it means to walk before the Lord. That's what I want to do, don't
you? I want to be conscious of what's God's will. What's God's
will for me? The mind of God. What does God
say about this? David is going to go on to say,
all men are liars. Well, Hagar said this, thou God
seest me. Whatever you do, Paul said, do
it how? As unto the Lord. from the jobs
we work to the lives we live. And you know, a person that is
more conscious of the Lord will care less what men think about
him. Boy, I want to be like that.
Think about the supreme example. Our Lord Himself. Our Lord Himself. He cared nothing for what people
thought about Him. He always did those things which
pleased His heavenly Father. I will walk before the Lord.
That's the believer's walk, as unto the Lord, before the Lord,
conscious of the Lord. Read on. It says in verse 10,
this is his witness, verse 10, I believed and therefore have
I spoken. I believe. Why did he believe? Why do we believe? Well, it's
not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Paul said in Ephesians 1, you
who believe according to the working of His mighty power.
It's a miracle if you believe God. Very few people do. It's a miracle if you love the
truth. Very few people do. But some do. They receive the
love of the truth. I believe. Do you believe? That's
not presumption. Like to say, I love the Lord.
That's not presumption. You do, you don't. Do you believe? Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. I believe. And you know, with the heart,
man believeth. Doesn't it? And with the mouth, confession
is made. Out of the abundance of the heart,
whatever you really believe, It's going to come out of it. You don't have to wait long
to find out if a person is a Democrat or a Republican. Well, David said, I believe. I spoke up. I had to. In another song, he said, my
heart was like a bottle ready to bust. I read a book speaking
about things concerning the king. That's Psalm 145 in it. I believed
and I spoke. We can't help. Peter said, we
can't help but speak to the things we've seen and heard. Whoever or whatever you love
is what you're going to speak about it. When Peter said that, we can't
help but speak to the things we've seen and heard, what was
he talking about? It's who? They said, don't speak in his
name again. He said, we can't help it. We can't help it. John said,
that which we've seen, that which we've heard, declare we unto
you. And if you've seen him, if you've seen his glory, That's
who you speak about. Believers witness. We witness
of Him, not our church. I quoted that verse to you in
2 Corinthians. We speak of Christ. We're not
speaking about our church. We're not trying to get people
to join our church. Huh? Not at all. We're not speaking
of our denomination. We're not even speaking of John
Calvin, are we? Although I love that man. I don't
deny any of those people. John Knox, John Calvin, Thomas
Manton, John Newton, all those men, I love them. I esteem them
highly. But there's one we esteem supremely.
There's one name. George Whitefield once said,
let the name of George Whitefield perish from the earth. Let the
name of Jesus Christ be praised. That's who we proclaim. That's
who we speak to. I believe, David said, so I speak. I speak. So what happens? Well,
here's a believer's persecution. Verse 10, I was greatly afflicted. How many of you, upon hearing
the truth and rejoicing over it, when you
went back to your family, or your co-workers, or your whoever,
old friends, excited, maybe thinking that they'll not love this too,
only to have them turn on you and hate what you're telling
them. Well, that's what our Lord said
would happen. He said in his prayer to the
Father, he said, I have given them thy word, and the world
hath hated them, because they are not of this world, even as
I am not of this world. Persecution is a good thing. It's a sign. It's given unto
us not only to believe, but to suffer for His name's sake. He said that to the Thessalonians. He said, you receive the Word
in much affliction. Boy, they did, that early church
at Thessalonica. And he said, this persecution
and tribulation you endure for the truth, that's a token, a
manifest token of the righteous judgment of God. You're counted
worthy of the kingdom of God. We don't want to be persecuted.
We want people to believe, but if they don't, and we're persecuted
for it, that's a sign, he said. That's a sign. Well, that's the
believer's persecution. And here's the believer's conclusion. Verse 11, I said in my haste,
all men are liars. You know, that's what you conclude
when you finally hear the truth, that all men are by nature a
bunch of liars. None good, no, not one. The reason
you know that is because you know it's true of you. They're
all born liars. They love a lie. Scripture says
they love a lie. They love those that make a lie. They're of the
Father, the devil, who is the father of lies. until the Lord
Jesus Christ comes, if they're one of Him, and they love the
truth. And when we learn the truth, we learn the truth about
man, don't we? And that's the first thing we
conclude. He's not basically a good creature. He's a liar. He's no good. A depraved creature. And we begin to see through the
facade of self-righteousness, the fig leaves that men make. Now we see through all that.
See through all this facade of religion. There was a time when
you were taken by that. There was a time when religion,
you know, you were impressed with these dearly beloved, these
fellas that put on these airs of religion. You were impressed
by that. You can almost smell self-righteousness. I can spot
preachers when they walk in a restroom. I can. I tell that to you all
the time, don't you? I said, there's a preacher. She
said, go ask him. I don't have to. I know he is.
He's usually the center of attention. He's doing the most talking and
people are hovering around him. He's the loudest, telling the
most jokes and so forth and so on. He's got his hair a certain
way. All men are liars, especially
preachers. I tell that to people I meet.
They find out I'm a preacher and I say, don't liken me to those fellows.
I don't trust any of them. Preachers and lawyers are the
worst in that order. But David said, in my haste, I said, all men are liars. All men aren't liars. Some people
are true men. Why? God made them that way. God's people are true people.
The truth is in them and they're in Him that is true. And you
can trust them. You can. Paul said this over
and over again. Follow me. He said, if somebody
comes preaching another Jesus, you do well to bear with me.
Listen to me. Don't listen to them. A true
man. He said, you've fully known me,
my doctrine, my manner of life, so forth and so on. Wasn't in
it for the money. Wasn't in it for my namesake.
And on and on he went. And there are men like that today.
And women. Yes, there are. Why? Because
God made them true people. God made them, put the truth
in them. Love of the truth. And they are in Him that is true. Here's a word of wisdom here.
David said, I said in my haste, all men are liars. A word of
wisdom. Love is not hasty to cut anybody off before you know
them. Right? Don't cut or censure anybody. Let a man condemn himself before
we do. But his own mouth condemned him. So love believeth, hopeth
all things, especially when it comes to people that claim to
be believers. Don't immediately cut them off. Is that good advice? I said in
my haste. I said in my haste. Alright,
verse 12. Be not hasty, thou, or anything,
before the Lord. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all His benefits toward me? Go over to Psalm 37. The word render means return,
pay back. David says, What shall I render? What shall I pay back unto the
Lord for all that He has done, all His benefits toward me? You know, everything we have,
we have received. What do we have that we have
not received? A man can't receive nothing except it be given him
from above. From heaven, from our God. And
everything we've received is borrowed. Except salvation. It's borrowed. This is so interesting. Back
in Exodus, the Lord told the children of Israel this two or
three times. He said this. He said in Exodus 12, the children
of Israel, according to the word of the Lord, borrowed of the
Egyptians jewels of silver, jewels of gold and raiment. The Lord
gave them favor in the sight of the Egyptians. They borrowed
from the Egyptians. Remember when they were leaving?
He says they borrowed. Well, they're not going to pay
that back. But the Egyptians, They borrowed it too. It was
from the Lord. Everything we have is loaned
to us from the Lord. The Lord lendeth, the Scripture
says. We borrowed it, not ours to keep. And the earth is the Lord's in
the fullness thereof. And men and women lay their claim,
this is my land. Yeah, you will see how long you
keep that. We'll see how long, you know. It's borrowed. And we are sojourners. God's people are sojourners. It's all borrowed. But look at
Psalm 37. It says in verse 21, the wicked
borroweth and payeth not again. That is, the wicked receives
from the Lord on loan everything that they give. And they don't
pay anything back. They don't give anything back.
Now, the Lord said things like this, the plowing of the wicked
is evil. That man is out there plowing
ground that I gave him, giving him a good crop of hay, and he
won't stop and thank me one moment. He won't give one ounce of that
bread for my people. And I will exact from Him everything. But God's people, the righteous,
verse 21, showeth mercy and giveth. Giveth back what's been given
to them. We don't give anything. Remember
David saying, Lord, we're just giving back what You gave us.
Everything we have You gave to us, we're just giving it back.
That's what rendering means. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all His benefits? All His benefits? Oh my, this
is my favorite psalm. Bless the Lord. Oh my soul, all
is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the
Lord. Oh my soul, forget not all His benefits. Who forgiveth
all thine iniquities. There's more. Who healeth all
thy diseases. Some of you have been through
great sickness and trial. Nancy, you went through terrible
trial as a young girl, didn't you? The Lord brought you through
it. Indescribable suffering. There He sent. So smile at Him.
Who healeth all thy diseases. Not doctors. The Lord. Who healeth
all thy diseases. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Saved your soul from death. Made
you worth something. What's that? To His praise. who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercy, who satisfieth thy mouth with good
things." You know, water is becoming one
of the most precious commodities on earth. Water. Water. They're selling it now. Water
from all over the world. We were at TJ Maxx. And they
had bottles of water from Hawaii, from Sweden, from Norway, as
if selling it for big money. I almost bought one. But what I'm saying is, water?
It's free, isn't it? But it's become such a precious
commodity. People are starting to realize
this is a gift. This is a wonderful thing. This
is life. You can't live without it. Water! You can go without anything but
water. I think you can only go about
three days without water. That's it. You die. That's something in
it. Christ said, I'm the water. Oh,
my. Satisfy thy mouth with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the... Oh, I was going to
go on and read it all. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all His benefit? What shall I pay back? To the
man or the woman who has been given much? To the man or the woman who has
been forgiven much? It's never enough. You can't
do enough. You can't return too much. It's
never enough. My, my. Verse 13, he says, I'll
take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I'll take the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord. Matthew 20. Our Lord speaks
of this cup. Matthew 20. It's recorded in
every gospel, I believe. Matthew 20. At least three things
are understood by this cup of salvation. This cup of salvation. Number one, I believe it's a
cup of mercy, grace, and goodness from our God. We need it. We need that cup. And the reason
we get it is because the Lord Jesus Christ took the cup of
God's wrath and indignation and drained it
dry. That's what the cup, when our
Lord talked about, O Father, remove this cup from me, if it
be possible, nevertheless. He said, the cup which my Father
gave me, shall I not drink it? And since Christ drank that full
cup of God's wrath, He drank it dry, there's not one drop
left for His people. God is not angry. There is no
condemnation. None. Not one drop of wrath for
God's people. Christ, as it were, switched
cups with us. The cup of God's fullness of
His love and mercy and grace. He switched cups. We get that cup, and our cup
runs above that. Run it over. I'll take that. I need it. Don't you? I need
it. David said, I'll take that cup.
And here in Matthew 20, the Lord speaks of this cup that we must
drink as He drank. Matthew 20, verse 22 says, The Lord said to them, you know
not what you ask. Are you able to drink of the
cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism
that I am baptized with? They say unto Him, not knowing
what they are saying, that we are able. Oh my, they didn't
know what they were saying. The Lord is talking about being
persecuted and killed. And he said unto them, verse
23, you shall indeed, you shall drink indeed of my cup. Yes, you will. And be baptized
with the baptism that I am baptized with. So this is the cup of suffering,
affliction, trials, and tribulations. Not one single child of God will Not drink that cup. Not one. You can't be a child and not
be chastened. You can't have faith and not
be tried. You can't be one of those standing with God and not
go through tribulation. And we will. But His grace is
sufficient. I want to preach on that real
soon. He said, My grace is sufficient. No matter what it is. How tough the cup? He says, you'll
be able. God gave him the ability and
he said, I'll give it to you. Will you take that? Will you
suffer for his name's sake? David said, I'll take it. I'll
take it. I want to say that, don't you?
I'll take it. The cup of communion. I believe it also means the cup
of communion. Our Lord said, and I started to have the Lord's
Table, and I wish I had now. But the Lord said, take this
cup. Drink all of it. This is My blood
which was shed for you. And as often as you drink this
cup, you do show the Lord to death until He comes in remembrance
of Me. Isn't that a special time when
we take the Lord's table? I'll take it. I remember when
I finally made a profession of faith, baptized, and got to take
the Lord's table for the first time. I remember thinking, I'm one
of them. I felt so privileged. Do you
remember that? I remember as a young child, you know, watching
it go by. And then later as a prodigal son coming in, I tried to avoid
when I knew it was being served. Finally, I'll take it. Give it
to me. Don't pass me by. Take this cup. David said, I'll
take it. I'll take the cup of salvation and call upon the name
of the Lord. What shall we render unto the
Lord? We'll render the calves of our lips. That's the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and praying. This is not a chore to God's
people. This is not a mere habit or a
duty. It is our duty. It is our reasonable
servant. But it's not a duty to us, is
it? No, no, it's what we want to
do. And we get angry with ourselves when we don't do it from the
bottom of our heart, don't we? We want to do this. It's the
believer's desire. I will take the cup of salvation
I need and call upon the name of the Lord. I love to call upon
the name of the Lord with God's people. We were singing those
old songs again and again and again. I love this. I love being here. Can you say that? I will call
upon the name of the Lord. Some don't call. Some are not
calling. Many. Many are called, but few
are chosen to call. David said, because you've called
me, I call, and so I'll call upon you as long as I live. By
God's grace, I want to be here until I'm 85. Not here necessarily, but at
least sitting, calling on the name of the Lord with God's people.
Don't you? My, my. What shall I render unto
the Lord for all His benefits toward me? You know, we can't
really give anything to the Lord, can we? We can't really do anything
for the Lord. What does He need from us? Nothing.
What does He demand of us? Thanks. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. A parent. That's
about all a parent wants from their child, isn't it? I don't
want repayment. You don't want repayment for
anything you ever do, do you? If you were rich enough, you'd
just do it all for them, wouldn't you? But that's not necessarily
good. But that's all a parent requires
of a child. Thank you. Thank you. And share it. You want them to do
in turn, as you've done in the beginning. You want them to learn.
And the Lord Jesus Christ said that. If you've received mercy,
show mercy. Forgive as you've been forgiven.
You've received much, give much. To the merciful, show yourself
merciful. My, my. So that's what He expects
of us. Verse 14, I will pay my vows
unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people. Now, as we
said, these could be the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Words like, the sorrows of death encompassed me and the pains
of hell got hold of me. A verse like this, I will pay
my vows. The Lord Jesus Christ made a
vow as our husband, as our Lord and
our Savior in a covenant. He vowed before the world began
to do all for His people as our surety. I love that. I want to preach on Judah soon.
The surety. Judah said to his father, if
I don't bring your son back to you, you hold me accountable.
That's our surety. The Lord Jesus cried. He vowed
to the father, if I don't bring them all back, you hold me accountable.
He vowed to do all for his people, and bless God, he paid that vow
with his own precious blood. He vowed to love them. He said,
I will love them freely. John 15 says he loved them to
the end. John 13. He did it to the end. He vowed to keep them. In that
covenant, he told the Father, I'm going to go and I'm going
to save them and not one of them will be lost. And in the end,
he said, I've kept them all, not one is lost. Behold, I am
the children that you've given me. He made that vow. He vowed to love his wife. Even though she was unfaithful
to him like Gomer, he loved her to the end. And will escort her down the
halls of heaven. Oh boy. Because of his faithfulness. What shall I render? My vow? What are my vows? Marriage. You make marriage vows,
don't you? I remember my dad one time saying
to us preachers, I don't know why preachers got in the business
of marrying people. You don't see it in the Scripture.
You don't see preachers doing that. He said, I don't know why.
Didn't you? You said that. You did say that. Don't deny it. I remember him saying this one
time. He had a couple up in front of him. He thought, how long
is this going to last? He told me he wanted to say to
them, now, you're going to make all these vows and you don't
mean a word of it. Now, between two believers, it's
true. But the point I'm trying to make
here, the illustration here, when you make a marriage vow,
they ask you, do you take this man? They asked the bride, do
you take this man to be your husband? I do. Well, you know, when the Lord
reveals Himself to us and we profess Him and confess Him and
believe His baptism, do you take this man? Lamentations 3, I'm the man.
Do you take that man as your Lord and your Savior? I do. I
take Him. Before all the world. Before all in the presence of
His people. Right? I do. I do. In the sight of all
these witnesses, yes, sir. You'll be baptized? Yes, I will. How many times? I do. The eunuch said to Philip, they
were riding along and his heart was busting out. You know, he
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, hearing him preach. And he said,
here's water! Stop! What doth hinder me to
be baptized? There's water right there! Philip
said, stop. Stop the charity. Do you? I will pay my vows unto
the Lord now in the presence of all His people. Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of His saint. Why is that there? If you read this, and you have
read it twice now with me, does that seem out of context? Why
is that there? All of a sudden, precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of His Son. Well, I'm glad
it's there. What a wonderful verse, huh?
But in the context, he had been talking
about affliction and persecution. Hadn't he? David was near death. David, throughout the Psalms,
David talks about his enemies that he's surrounded by, his
adversaries, doesn't he? Folks, turn quickly to Hebrews
11 with me. I'm going to finish, I promise
you, but you've got to see this again. You've got to see it again.
Hebrews 11. For 6,000 years, The people of God have suffered
horrible persecution. I mean horrible. It's only up
until the last two or three hundred years that the church has had
any real peace. We have lived in a rare time. The church, the freedom we have,
seriously, we don't suffer any persecution. We can worship freely. But that hadn't been the case
up until about two or three hundred years ago, for six thousand years.
Isn't that right? From the beginning, starting
with Abel. Starting with Abel. David was in the midst of that.
And you start to think about the people of God suffering persecution. Look at
Hebrews 11, verse 32. It says, What shall I say more? For the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah, and David
also. And Samuel and prophets, who
through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, strapped the mouths of lions, thrown to the lions,
quenched the violence of fire, that means they were burned,
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong,
waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the alien.
Women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured,
not accepting deliverance. that they might obtain a better
resurrection. Others had trial of cruel mockings
and scourging, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned,
and sawed asunder, tempted, slain with a sword, wandering about
in sheepskin and goatskin, being dested, afflicted, torment of
whom the world was not worthy, God says. These are my precious
saints. And their blood is precious to
me, just like the blood of my Son. They shed that blood for
my Son, for my truth, and they are precious to me. I love that
story of Stephen being stoned. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
when He by Himself purged our sins, Scripture says He went
back and sat down. sat down at the right hand of
God. At the right hand of the majesty of God. Sat down. The only priest who ever sat
down. He sat down. But, when Stephen was being stoned,
what does it say? Stephen said, I see him
standing. He stood up in honor of this
man Let me die the death of the righteous.
If it becomes a crime, oh Lord, give me death. I could
give you example after example. John Bunyan, probably my all-time
favorite preacher. John Bunyan was in prison for
twelve years for preaching the gospel. Twelve years. He had several children. He had
one blind daughter. She was very precious to him.
A blind daughter. You know how helpless they would
have been back then. She was very dear to him. He nurtured
that child. Well, he was thrown in prison
and his wife brought that daughter to that prison pleading with
him. That little girl pleading with
him. All he had to do to get out of prison was say he wouldn't
preach again. And his little daughter pleading,
Daddy, be like Isabella pleading with me, Papa, what done you do? Can't do it. Twelve years. Twelve years. What did he do
in that twelve years? Wrote some of the greatest books
ever written by a man. Pilgrim's Promise. Holy War. My, my. Paul was incredible. Yeah, I'm going to go on. Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. My, my. Oh Lord, this is David's resolve
by the Lord's grace. Lord, truly I am Thy servant.
I am Thy servant. You've made me so. I believe
you have. Bond servant. Remember that story
of the bond servant? with a fellow who was a servant
and he loved his master so much and he said, you can go free.
He said, no, I love my master. So he said, ok, come over here.
And he put his ear to the post and he bore it through with an
awl and he said, now you're my bond slave forever. That's what
Paul said, I'm a bond slave of Jesus Christ. A willing servant. I love my master. I love the
Lord. I'm His servant. Can we say that?
I believe we can. I'm thy servant. I'm thy servant,
the son of thine handmaid. Who's His handmaid? It's the
church. Church, Mother Jerusalem, Mother of us all. That's what
the Scripture says. The church now has loosed my bonds. Boy, that's a message in itself,
isn't it? I will offer to thee the sacrifice
of thanksgiving. You can't give much, but I can
give that. Thanksgiving. And I will call
upon the name of the Lord. When God's people get together,
Now call upon the name of the Lord. Here it is again, I will
pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.
in the courts of the Lord's house." See, that's where David wanted
to be, didn't he? He said, this one thing I've desired, and that's
what I'll seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord,
the courts of the Lord, all the days of my life, to behold the
beauty of the Lord. That's why we come here, to behold
His beauty, to inquire in His temple, and to praise Him. Praise ye the Lord. Oh, crazy. Okay, stand with me. Our God, we thank You so much
for Your Word. It is Your Word. We know it is.
The beauty of it, the glory of it, the wisdom of it, the power
of it, the purity of it. It's Your Word. We thank You
for it. We thank You when You speak to
us through it. That's when we are more sure
than ever. I ask that you would open our
ears, our blind eyes, quicken us according to your Word over
and over again. Order our steps in thy Word.
Let no iniquity have dominion over us. Lord, give us the faith
of thine elect. this faith, this resolve that
You gave this man after Thine own heart, David. It's of Your
power and Your Spirit. It's not by might. So we ask
that You would make us faithful, that You'd make us, Your people,
Your servants, speak Your name before this ungodly world and
cause us to always for all the days of our life in the land
of the living, to call upon the name of the Lord and to praise
the Lord with the redeemed in the courts of our God. Lord,
thank You for this place. Thank You for Your church. It's
a blessed haven of rest for Your people where we can come and
find some refuge, some peace, some comfort, some hope as we
hear Christ preach. Let this place stand before Thee. The walls of this little building
stand for many years to come. We pray, we ask, for Thy great
name's sake, for our children, for our children's children,
Lord, that the Gospel might continue to go forth from this place.
Thank You for it. It's in Christ's name we've met
here tonight. Amen. You're dismissed.