And got away the trouble roll
across my peaceful breath. Across my peaceful breath. Across my peaceful breath. And got away the trouble roll
across my peaceful breath. You like that song, don't you,
John Davis? I forget. I was looking through
your Bible when we were at your house the other night. It was
that one, or Arise My Soul. Was that it? Arise My Soul. Okay.
That's a good one too. Shake off thy guilty fears. Five
bleeding wounds. Okay, go back to Psalm 4. with me. Psalm 4. Whenever we are looking for a place to
read, a place to help us, a place to find hope and comfort and
peace, to be instructed to psalms, you can always turn to the psalms,
can't you? Always. that really meets your
need. They always bless us. I was looking
at Hebrews 12 and actually started to prepare something for tonight.
This was on, I think, Monday morning. was reading in another room and
came in. She was so blessed by this psalm.
She came in and told me so and began to read it to me and I
followed along and I said, that's good. We'll just look at that
Wednesday night. So that's what we're going to
do. The psalms, you know, there's
no accident that the psalms are right in the middle of the Bible.
No accident, the Lord had it done that way. You drop your
Bible on a table and it just about opens up to the psalm.
You can always find some help here. The word psalm, here's
just a little note before we get into it. The psalm means
a song. It means poetry or words set
to music. All of these psalms were written
to be sung. Many, if not most, were written
by David, who loves to sing. David is called the sweet psalmist
of Israel. And the Lord had him write that. The Lord Himself sings. He sang hymns with his disciples
and it says, if I can find it fast enough, over in Zephaniah,
a little tiny book, it says that the Lord Thy God in the midst of thee
will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in His love. He
will joy over thee with singing." The Lord is the one who ordains
singing and psalms and music. I thought about before He created
man, He created the birds and they start singing to His
glory. And he delighted. This says,
to the chief musician. You see the little, if you read
the fine print sometimes, you'll get a blessing. To the chief
musician. David had about 266 singers in
charge of the music, singing. He loved singing. This was to
the chief musician. He gave it to this man on neginath. That means on a stringed instrument.
David played a harp. He loved to play the harp. He
was quite good at it. He wrote this to be played and
sung and played on the harp. And there are several like that.
Psalm of David. Psalm of David. And he writes
under inspiration, Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. Hear me when I call. Thou hast
enlarged me when I was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my
prayer." We often say grace. I don't know where that term
originated. We often say our prayers, but
sometimes we really call on the Lord. We really cry unto the
Lord to be heard. And those are the cries of the
prayers that are sure to be heard when we are calling truly from
the heart upon the Lord and asking Him to hear us. David was in
distress at this time. He said, you've heard me before
when I was in distress. And I need to be heard again.
I need you to be merciful and kind to me. And your greatest
mercy would be if you'd just hear me. Like a child crying. And you know, there's a difference
in crying. I'm beginning to be able to discern
her cries. And some of them are cries of
just agitation, you know. Cries of a little bit of discomfort,
like I'm just not happy. Cries of rebellion. But then
every now and then she cries when she really has a need. And
that's when you answer. That's when you go to her aid.
And so it is with God's people. Hear me, O Lord. He calls Him
the God of my righteousness. Hear me when I call, O God of
my righteousness. Who will God hear? And why? He was head of a seminary down
south in Texas years ago. He caused a furor when he said
publicly that God will not hear the prayer of the Jews. He said, God will only hear us
through Christ, which is true. That caused an outrage among
the Jews. But the man was telling the truth.
Who will God hear and why? He'll hear those who call upon
Him in spirit, from the heart, and in truth. The truth as it
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. God is holy. God is just. God is righteous. We are not
heard for our righteousness' sake. We are only heard for Christ's
righteousness. And only those who call upon
God through Christ their righteousness will be heard by God. And He
delights to hear those who call upon Him in His Son's name. There was an old preacher years
ago who Somebody asked the question,
if you got to heaven and God asked you, what right have you
got to come in here? And the man answered, I would
have to say, I'm not here on my rights. I'm here on the rights
of another, Jesus Christ. And you know I had the opportunity
to answer that very question just a few days ago. I was actually
asked that question. If God were to ask you why he
should have let you into heaven, what would you say? I'd never
been asked that before. I read that quote, and all I
did was quote 1 Corinthians 1.30. Of God, I believe that of God
I am in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto me. Wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He is Jehovah
Sikhinah. He is the Lord our righteousness. Everyone who calls upon God the
Father will be heard through the cry. He said, Thou hast enlarged
me when I was in distress. There are two ways to look at
that. Number one, there have been times
when I was in distress before, and you heard me. You filled
my heart with gladness. He filled my heart with joy.
I was in distress. I was worried. I was troubled.
I was full of guilt and shame or whatever, fear. And you heard
me. You had mercy on me. You heard
me and you filled my heart, enlarged my heart. It was broken and you
just filled it with joy and peace and assurance. And also, distresses
themselves enlarge our heart. Distress and anguish and trouble
and fears and sorrows fill us, fill our hearts. Out of the abundance
of the heart, the Scripture says, the mouth speaketh. And when
we're in distress, that's when we pour out our hearts to God.
And when we're in distress, we have troubles and anguish and
fears and sorrows, that's when We really do call upon the Lord,
don't we? That's when we do. Well, David,
what do you need? What do you need from the Lord?
He says, here's my need. I need mercy. Have mercy upon
me, O Lord. Have mercy upon me. In spite
of my sin, have mercy upon me. Because of my sin, have mercy
upon me. because of all my enemies." David
had many enemies. Have mercy upon them. This is
the sinner's constant cry, isn't it? This is our constant cry. I venture to say that most every
believer in here's favorite psalm is Psalm 51. It's every sinner's, one of our
favorites anyway. One of the 150 favorites. Have
mercy on me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according
to the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Have mercy upon me. It's the
sinner's cry. Have mercy upon me, O Son of
David, Bartimaeus cried. Hear my prayer. Did he hear Bartimaeus? The Lord of glory stopped. And
he heard the sinners cry. Did he hear David? Yes. Yes, he did. Will he hear us?
Listen to this. This is wonderful. Will he hear
us when we cry for mercy? I love this. Isaiah 30 says, He will be very gracious unto
thee at the voice of thy cry. When he shall hear it, he will
answer thee. He delights to show mercy. Then David starts thinking about
those around him. Verse 2, it says, O ye sons of
men, how long will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love vanity
and seek after leasing? It's an old English word for
lies and deceit. Oh, you sons of men. David starts
thinking about those around him, the sons of men who should call
on God, but they only seem to curse him. And that's what we
hear and it causes us anguish too. He said, how long? How long
will you turn my glory into shame? Now, these could be the very
words of Christ Himself, couldn't they? There are two ways you
can look at this passage, or any psalm for that matter. You
can apply every single psalm as the very words of Christ.
He's the writer of it. This is His Word. And so many
psalms evidently the words of Christ, like Psalm 22. Many believe
that those very words, Christ quoted the whole psalm from the
cross. My God, it begins. My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? Many believe that he quoted the
whole psalm, but it wasn't recorded. It could be. And so many others
are the very words of Christ Himself. And these could be also.
But I prefer to look at it as a believer who is calling on
Christ. who is trusting in the Lord.
And he says here, David, these are the words of David. These
are the words of David. And David says, how long will
you turn my glory into shame? Now, God's glory is His mercy. And I glory in His mercy. His mercy is His glory. And men
turn that glory into shame when they make it Almost like it's
a right that men and women ought to have. Mercy. Mercy means not
getting what we deserve. But men turn it into shame when
they make it to be a general offer of amnesty that everybody's
got a right to, that God ought to, you know, that everybody
deserves it. That turns it into shame, doesn't it? His glory
is His sovereign mercy. Here's the glory that God will
show mercy. No one deserves it, but God in
His glorious mercy will show mercy to whom He will show mercy. Men turn it in shame, don't they? Christ's glory is His cross,
isn't it? God forbid Paul said that I should
glory save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. His cross
is His glory. That great and glorious work
of redemption that Christ accomplished on Calvary's tree for God's elect,
for God's people, thereby putting away all their sin by the blood
of His cross, men turn it into shame when they try to cast it
out as a common thing, as a universal attempt on Christ's part to save,
but didn't really save anybody. That turns it into shame, doesn't
it? And I glory in that cross. So God's glory is my glory. You see? That's what I glory
in. That's what Paul said. I glory
in the Lord Jesus Christ. His cross, His mercy is my glory. And it's what's going to bring
me to glory. They take away my hope when they
say that Christ died for everybody. They take away my hope when they
say that salvation is up to man. They turn my glory into shame. How long is this going to go
on? How long must this go on? David
often asked the question, Lord, it's time for you to work. He
said, they make void your word, your law. Speak. Come down. But God, why doesn't He? Because God's merciful. Because
there are many, perhaps many more, obviously, there are more
that He's going to show mercy for, even those that turn His
glory into shame. Like Paul. Like Saul. He said,
I was a blasphemer, but I attained mercy. So that's what we need
to pray to that end. How long will they love? He said,
how long will you love vanity and seek after leasing or lies? How long? How long? Like David,
I get exasperated when I think how people love false religion
and how they pour all their money and time into it and how they're
so devoted to it and so excited by it. I get exasperated over
that. I get puzzled by it. How long? How long will you go after vanity
and lies? Why do people put up with that
foolishness? I really don't understand it.
In a way, I do. They must not really have a sin
need. Must not be sinners. And they must be like their own
righteousness. I met a young doctor recently. He and his wife. Nice young couple. Very, very young people. Young
children. And we talked and he told me
he attended one of these local, this local mega church here in
town. It's a social organization. They
have fashion shows and golf tournaments and strawberry festivals and
raise money. It's just a country club. I think, why? Why? What do you
get out of that? How long will you go after vanity
and lies? Vanity. Well, here's a reason,
because vanity, all is vanity. Everything in the world is vanity.
That means it doesn't last and it doesn't satisfy. But it's
a temporary escape from reality. Everything in this world, entertainment,
pleasure, all that, is to escape reality. Lies? How long will men believe
lies? Tell them, peace, peace, when
there is no peace, so God loves you. How long? Men love it. It
makes them feel good about themselves. That's what they want to hear.
They want to escape the truth. They want to escape the truth. God's people don't. They want
to hear the truth. This is something that always
gives me encouragement and assurance that somebody is a believer.
They keep coming, Sunday after Wednesday, and a man would stand
up and call them worms. And, you know, tell them they're
nothing. They keep coming back to hear
it. Old Paul, it happened to him, Saul of Tarsus, you know,
he said, I was concerning the law, I was blameless. He thought
he was just righteous. You see, when the commandment
came, it slew him. That became less than the least. And it says
that he was with them going and coming. Somebody started preaching. A man started to stand up. A
bunch of sinners. Dogs. Worms. There sat the former
Saul of Tarsus. Keep calling me that. Old Brother
Scott used to say, you can't claim the promise unless you
fit the character described in the promise. And this is the
promise. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. That's who this
message is for. So, men believe lies and vanity
to avoid the truth and escape reality. My, my. God's people want to hear about
sin, righteousness, and judgment. We've got a death to face. Brother Tommy, Robin, Family
Church is facing Brother Tommy, the reality, reality is this. In a moment, we're liable to
leave this place forever. I mean in a moment. You might
be breathing your last breath right now. What do we need to
hear? Tell me the truth. Please tell
me the truth. Don't tell me a lie. Tell me
the truth. I need to know the true God.
I need to know the true Christ. I need to know what this book
says about how I can get to God. Will God show mercy? Will God
let me in His heaven? Will He? That's a good question,
isn't it? Why? Tell me the truth. Well, I'll
tell you the truth. Christ is the truth. If you trust
Him, if He is your righteousness from the bottom of your heart,
you don't believe you have any, and He is your righteousness,
your hope, your peace with God, the hope of your forgiveness
of sin, and you trust Him with all your heart, and you call
on Him and ask Him for mercy, you're going to heaven. God's
going to let you into His heaven. He receiveth all that cometh
unto him by Christ. Didn't he say that? That's what
he said. That's what he said. Selah. Now, verse 3, he says, Know this. Know that the Lord
has set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear
when I call unto him. The Lord will hear our Lord Jesus
cry. He did hear him, didn't he? Every
time he heard, every time he prayed. The Lord said to the
Father, I know that thou hearest me, but for their sake I said
this. He is our mediator. He is our one intercessor and
everyone who calls on the Father through him will be heard. But he said, know that the Lord
has set apart, sanctified. He sanctified Christ. He sanctifies
us in Him. But here's what sets God's people
apart from the world in context. They call on God in spirit and
in truth. The Father seeketh such to worship
Him. They call for mercy. They're
not asking for things. Oh, give us bread. Give us our
necessary food and needs. But they're asking Him for mercy.
They're calling on God their righteousness. They're calling
in Christ. They don't love vanity. They don't want lies. They want
mercy. And to be godly. The word godly
has the name of God in it, doesn't it? The word godly means someone
who thinks on God, someone who is thankful to God, someone who
worships God in spirit and truth, someone who thinks like God. Godly means you think like God. What does God think? Well, God
says Christ is all. This is my well-beloved Son.
So do they, the godly. A godly person is one who walks
with God. And Amos says, can two walk together,
except they be aggrieved. Alright? We walk with God in
Christ. They're set apart. Now look at
this. Look at verse 3. Know that the Lord has set apart
him that is godly for himself. For himself. God sets apart His
people for Himself, for His glory, for His Son. Know that. It will set them apart. And the
Lord will hear when I call on Him. If that's you, if you agree
with God, if you think on God, if you're thankful to God, if
you worship God, if you call on God in Christ, then God will
hear you when you call on Him. Verse 4, stand in awe, stand
in awe of this, such mercy. Stand in awe of this, if God
has set you apart, has revealed the truth to you, the truth of
Christ, your righteousness. You stand in awe of this, because
many are called, but few are chosen. Does not everyone in
here have family members and former friends and so forth who
hate the gospel and yet you love it? Do you have a close brother
or sister or family member who hates this gospel and yet you
love it? Why is that? Because God has had mercy on
you. Stand in awe of that. Stand in awe of that. And sin
not, he said. Sin not. I love that verse in
Psalm 130 that says, There is forgiveness with thee. There
is forgiveness for the greatest sin. There is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. There is forgiveness for the
worst of sinners, the chief of sinners, like that woman whom
they brought in and cast at the Lord's feet. And when it was
over, our Lord said to her, after all her accusers were gone, the
Lord said unto her, Woman, where are thine accusers? Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's inept? Doth no man accuse
thee?" She said, none, Lord. He looked around. There was no
condemnation left. He said, neither do I. Go and
sin no more. There is forgiveness with thee
that thou mayest be feared. Go and sin no more. Be in all
that God would show mercy unto you. And don't presume upon that
mercy. Don't presume upon it. But here's
still good news. Little children, these things
I write unto you that you sin not. Sin not. And, if any man does, we have
an advocate with the Father. Who is it? Jesus Christ the righteous. That's not just a doctrine. God
our righteousness, my, my. Stand in awe and sin not in all
such mercy. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed. Charles Spurgeon used to quote
quite often a man named Joseph Carroll, the preacher before
him and around his era. And that man said this, he said,
the bed is not just for sleeping, it's for communion with God.
It's a good time to stop, consider in your heart the Lord's mercies
on this past day. He's had mercy upon you throughout
that day, provided for you that day. It's of the Lord's mercy
that we're not consumed. Barnard used to say, anything
this side of hell is mercy. It's mercy. And consider in thy
heart the Lord's mercies to you. And he says, be still. And be
still. Be quiet. We love that song,
don't we, Brother Stephen? Be still, my soul. The Lord is
on thy side. And if God be for us, my, my. Selah. Stop and think about that. And
I'll commune with you heart. Verse 5, he says, Offer the sacrifices
of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. There's that
word again. Would you turn to Psalm 51 quickly? Psalm 51. How fitting that the
answer to this is in Psalm 51. What are the sacrifices of righteousness? Sacrifices of righteousness.
What will God accept as righteous? He says, offer the sacrifices
of righteousness, doesn't He? Offer that. Well, what is it? You know without me telling you.
But look here at Psalm 51. How fitting. Look at verse 17.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. Our Lord said, blessed
are the poor in spirit. Broken over what? Read on. A broken and a contrite
heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. God looks on the heart. What
kind does He not despise? He despises a proud one, but
He loves a broken one. Contrite, kneeling there in deep
contrition. O God, thou wilt not despise.
Read on. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion. Oh, He has
and He will. the church, build thou the walls
of Jerusalem, hedge us about, then shalt thou be pleased with
the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole
burnt offering, then shall they offer bullocks upon thy altar."
What are the sacrifices of righteousness? Christ. All of those are wrapped
up in one. The blood of bulls and goats
can't put away sin, but this man, after he offered one sacrifice
of righteousness, forever put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. That's it. You bring unto God,
our text says, offer the sacrifices of righteousness, a broken heart,
thanksgiving of your lips, and you come to Him Look into Christ
as your righteousness, His shed blood, His righteousness. Put
your trust in Him, all your trust, all your hope in Him, and you'll find mercy. You'll be
heard, you'll be forgiven, you'll be saved, and you'll be still.
That will still your troubled heart. It will enlarge your heart
with thanksgiving and praying. Look at, well, I don't have time. Okay, look at the next verse.
He said, Now there will be many that say, Who will show us any
good? And many say that today, don't
they? Show me something good. Somebody do something for me.
Everybody wants to get something. Show somebody do something good
for us. That's how politicians get elected.
You know it? You can't be elected to office
if you stand up and tell the truth. That's what men love,
lies. Tell us, promise us things. That's what they're saying. Who
will show us some good? Somebody do something good for
us. Give me, give me, give me something good. Who will show
us any good? Our present president, and I
pray the Lord will restrain him, and it's not impossible. You know, the Lord gave Manasseh.
Manasseh was the worst king in the history of Israel. Manasseh. I was just reading that. He set
up more abominations throughout that land than any king in all
the history of Israel. God said that. There has never
been one worse than him. You know that God gave that man
repentance? He repented. And the Lord had mercy on him.
I don't think He saved his soul, but He spared him something.
You read it for yourself. The Lord could have mercy. on
our president. But our president actually ran
for office and wrote a book. The title of it was Audacity
of Hope. Hope. And he set forth himself
as the hope. He was telling America, hope,
and he said this very thing, hope is on the way. Hope in me. That's how he ran. Hope in me. And a lot of people, millions,
put their hope and their trust in a prince and a ruler in Egypt. He can't give us any hope. The
Scripture says don't put your hope in princes and rulers. Don't hope in them. Don't do
that. Who will show us any good? Look
who David calls upon. Look who we call upon. Lord! Jehovah, God, Lord, Jesus Christ, lift thou up. Here's what we
need. Here's the good we need. Lift
thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. In other words, smile
upon us with favor, O God. The light of thy countenance.
John, I'll quote it again, okay? 2 Corinthians 11, for God to
cause a light to shine out of darkness. Hath shine in our heart
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has lifted up the light of
His countenance upon us, hasn't He? Christ is the light which
lighteth, truly lighteth every man of His that cometh into the
world. His countenance. God's countenance. He said to Cain, when God rejected
his offering, he says, Cain's countenance fell. That means
he got angry. Why is your countenance falling?
And God's countenance, God frowns upon this world. God like now,
like He did as in the days of Noah. God looked down upon the
sons of men and He said the earth had corrupted His way. It was
full of violence. You can't even say that without
frowning, can you? God frowned and the wrath of
God was revealed from heaven every day. God is angry with
the wicked every day. God doesn't love this world. God is angry with this world.
And very soon, He said, I will destroy this world. But Noah
found grace. Here, I'm going to give you something
good, okay? God's angry with the wicked. The wrath of God
is clearly seen from heaven. But you want to hear something
good? You want to hear some good news? It's a dire, dire consequences
are about to happen upon this world. But I'm going to give
you some good news, okay? Who will show us any good? The
Lord has lifted up His countenance upon His people. Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord said to Noah, the Lord
said to Christ as He did Noah, be have I seen righteous in this
generation. He said to Noah, build an ark.
He said to Christ, be that ark. He said, Thee have I seen righteousness,
and every one that is with Thee, in Thee, I spare. God smiles. God smiled upon those
in the ark of Christ Jesus. Christ found grace, Christ was
found righteous, and all those found in Him are found the same
way. I've got some good news for you.
God Almighty smiles. Smile! If you trust Christ, God
loves you. That's good news. Good news. That's what he says in the next
verse. He says, Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than
in the time there corned their wine in Crete. Our Lord said,
all these things the Gentiles seek after. That's what makes
them happy. That's what makes them glad. Food, drink, plenty. We can just have plenty of that.
Plenty. That's what the world rejoices
and rejoices in. That's what makes them glad.
You know what makes a believer glad? The plenty that makes a
believer glad? Plenteous redemption. He's put
gladness in our hearts. The righteous are glad in the
Lord. Scripture said, more than when
they're full of corn and wine. All that just goes out in a draft,
doesn't it? Oh, but this is peace. Peace. Look at the next verse. It says, I will both lay me down
in peace and sleep. I will both tonight God willing,
if I commune with my heart by His grace, if I commune with
my heart on His bed, if I've called on Him for mercy in Christ
my righteousness, and I commune in my heart on my bed, thank
Him, I can go to bed tonight in peace. I can lie down in peace. You shouldn't need a pill when
you've got Psalm 4. and five, and six. And it shouldn't
need a pill when there's this sweet psalm, this balm of Gilead
to sleep on. And if you're in distress, turn
off the TV, read this psalm, and go to sleep. And I believe he's talking too
here about when we lie down on our bed of affliction, the Lord
will make that bed. That's what he said. He makes
their bed in sickness. He'll make it. He'll turn it.
He'll give you comfort. And when it's time for you to
sleep, that means die, but it's not death. You'll sleep. And
you mark it down. God's Word says, the end of the
righteous, who's righteous? Those in Christ. The end of the
righteous is peace. He gives them sleep. He giveth
His beloved sleep. And you'll fall asleep in the
arms of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace. And you'll wake up refreshed
as you've never been before. Sleep. Be still. Be still. And know that He's God. Go to
sleep. He's your God and He's the Lord,
your righteousness. Go to sleep. Because you can rest with this
thought. God never sleeps. That's what
that man said who was suffering with insomnia. He got up and
read Psalm 121. It said, He that keepeth Israel
shall never slumber or sleep. So he said, well, if the Lord
never sleeps, I just need to go to sleep. Because it's He
that makes us dwell in safety. See that? We don't rest easily
because there's a gun beside our bed. No. Because there's locks on our
door. No. The only rest we'll really have
is to know that our God keeps us. That we're kept by the power
of God. That doesn't just mean salvation,
eternal salvation. That means every day. Thou only. See that? Lord only. Or is it
only one that makes us dwell in safety? And many people die
with a house load of arms. Right? This was written by a
man who lived in a time of real terror by night. I'm talking about David, the
time they lived in. Everybody around him wanted Israel
dead. And he lived in a time of great
fear for their lives. Their country didn't have nuclear
bombs. And that's not keeping us. That's not keeping us. The Lord owns us. David lived
in a time when not only the terror by night, but the arrows flew
by day. And the pestilence, they didn't
have medicine. And medicine is not keeping us
alive. Technology is not keeping us alive. Science is not keeping
us alive. God is. In Him we live. How long make us dwell in sin? David knew something about the
arrows by day and the terrors by night and the pestilence and
disease and so forth. But David knew God. David believed
God. David trusted God that the Lord
watched over him. He knew then that if he lived,
the Lord spared him. He lived another day. He woke
up the next morning. If he's kept from somebody coming
in on him in his sleep, if he lived the next day, the Lord
spared him. He knew that. He believed that.
He gave God the glory for it. And he also knew that if somebody
came in and took his life, the Lord spared him. More days
of trouble. That's right. Somebody came in and took his
very life that night. He knew the Lord was the one
that took him. The Lord said, I kill. I make a life. Nobody, no thing, no person takes
the lives of God's people except God sent it. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. So, be still. Be still, my soul. Be still,
my heart. Be still and know that I'm God.
God, you're righteous now. Call on me. I'm a very present
help in time of trouble. What do you need? Mercy? I'd
like to show mercy, he said. Every time. To the chief of sinners.
Oh, that's a good move. All right. Stand with me. Our Lord and our God, this is
the best, the best. This is the good news, the best
news. It's what we need to hear all the time. This is what we
need to commune with our hearts concerning. We have food, we
have rain in plenty. But Lord, our greatest need is
is thy word, is assurance of comfort, peace and joy in Christ. Rejoice in the Lord. Someday
this silver, this cord will be broken and we'll be gone from
here. Very soon, very shortly. We'll
go to our long home. Man goes to his long home. Very, very soon. Sooner for some
than others. And perhaps ye might come tomorrow.
But we've seen good tonight. We've experienced good. We've
heard the good news that there is peace, there is safety, there
is peace forevermore. Sleep in Christ Jesus, our righteousness. Lord, cause your people to dwell
on these things and to think about them in days ahead. Bring
us back again to hear the same things, which for us is salvation. It's in Christ's blessed name
we are met here tonight. Amen. Thank you.