Thank you, Gabe. Now my subject tonight is words
by which to live and words by which to die. And my primary
text is in Psalm 37. And verse 23, Psalm 37, 23. And David says, the steps of
a good man are altered by the Lord. And he delighteth in his
way. Though he fall, he shall not
be utterly cast down, For the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young. That's my subject this morning,
this evening. Words by which to live for the
young. I'm going to address the young.
Then David said, I've been young, but now I'm old. Now I'm old. I have one sister. My sister
Martha, she's my baby sister. She's 81 years old. She's a wonderful
young lady. I love her very much. She loves her brother. She thinks
I hung the moon. One day she and Darce and I were
bistin'. And Darce looked at me and said,
Henry's getting fat. My sister Martha does not ever
say a thing against her brother. She said he's not fat, he's fluffy. Well, I'm not fluffy, I'm old. I may be fat, but I'm still old.
That's what David says here. I am old. Now, he starts with
the young. And I asked Doris today, I said,
how young are we talking about here? Now, I'm talking about
babies now and infants. We're talking about young. And
this is what I think, and she agreed with me. The young, we
think, are those under 50. That's what I would think. You're
young. You're young. Much young. But
I am old. And I'm going to start, David's
going to start where, I'm going to start where David started.
He said, I've been young. I have, believe me. I've been
young. I've been young. And I believe he has in mind
those from 50 down. Because I tell you this, I tell
you why he started with the young. Because it's harder, it's harder
to live for the glory of God and for the good of others when
you're young. It's more difficult. It's more
difficult, life is more difficult for the young than for the old,
really and truly. More difficult. It's a lot easier
To die than to live for the glory of God. That's what Paul said. Paul said this, for me to live
is Christ. For me to die is gain. For me to live is Christ. And
sometimes it's pretty difficult to live for the glory of God
and for the good of others and the responsibilities that you
have upon yourself. But dying? Oh, Paul said, for
me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Really? I'm in a straight
betwixt the two right now. I have a desire to die and be
with Christ, which is far better. Believe me. I want to. I want to depart and be with
Christ. Because he said, that's far better
than living, to die in the Lord. Far better. Alright, let's see
about these words. Go back to verse 1. We'll talk
about these six words. These six words by which we live. The six words. Alright, here's
the first one. David said, fret not thyself
because of evildoers. Do not be envious against the
workers of iniquity. Don't be envious. Don't be jealous. Don't be angry with the people
about you that are wicked. If it weren't for God's grace,
we'd be one of them. That's right. Don't be angry
with them. Don't be jealous of them. But
I tell you this, what others do, what others have, and what
others do not have does not concern you and me. Our will is to do
the will of God. Our work is to do the work of
God. Paul said, but my God shall supply all your needs. Don't
be envious of the wicked. Don't be jealous. My God will
supply all your needs. He always has. He does now. He always will according to His
riches in glory by our Lord Jesus Christ. Don't fret. Don't fret. Don't be jealous and envious
with the wicked. Alright, here's the next word.
In verse 3, trust. Trust in the Lord and do good. One thing that will cure fretting. He said fret not, one thing that
will cure fretting and that is to trust. To trust in the Lord
and you won't fret. You won't be in. Just trust in
the Lord. One thing that will cure fretting
and complaining is to trust in the Lord. There are two words
in the Christian vocabulary that cannot and must not ever be separated. There are two words in the Christian
vocabulary that cannot be separated. You know what they are? Trust. Faith. and do good. That's right. Faith and conduct
can't be separated. As a man thinketh in his heart,
so is he. So is he. And those two words
cannot be separated. If we believe God, we obey God. Abraham believed God. And what
did he do? He trusted Him. Belief and obedience
cannot be separated. If there's peace in the heart,
I believe this. If there's peace in the heart,
there'll be peace in the home. Got to be. If there's peace in
the heart, there's got to be peace in the home. That's exactly
right. David said this, my heart is
fixed. I'm trusting in the Lord and
I shall not, I shall not be afraid. Fret not. Trust in Him. and do good. Faith and obedience
cannot be separated. Alright, here's the third word.
In verse 4, David says, delight thyself also in the Lord, and
He'll give thee the desires of thy heart. Delight thyself in
the Lord. Delight in Him. You know, that's
not always easy, to delight ourselves in the Lord. What we're prone
to do is this, I know from my own experience, we're prone to
say, well, I'll accept my lot in life. I don't like it, but
I'll accept it. Or, I shall endure to the end, I'll bear my trials,
I'll do whatever God puts on me. Well, that's not the way. He tells us here to delight in
Him. Delight in the Lord. Delight
thyself in the Lord. You know, David says that over
and over and over and over again. He said, I delight to do thy
will, O God. Whatever it is. He said, Thy
mercies, O Lord, comfort me and delight my soul. He said again,
Thy Word, O God, is my delight. Don't you enjoy just sitting
and reading the Word of God. I really do. I believe I get
more and more and more in Georgia sitting in my study and reading
the Scriptures. The Scriptures are my comfort,
encouragement. Isaiah said this, His people
shall take delight in approaching their God. Godliness with contentment
is great gain. Fret not. Trust in the Lord. And delight thyself in Him. And
He'll bring it to pass. Alright, here's the next one,
verse 5. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust in Him. And He'll bring it to pass. I
love definitions. And I read three definitions
of faith. I don't remember all three of
them now. But I read one by John Newton and one by somebody else,
and one by Spurgeon. And he gave me the best definition
of faith. I'll tell you what it is. The
Scripture says in 2 Timothy 1, verse 12, I know whom I have
believed. Faith is knowledge. I know him. I know whom I have believed. We know Him. Secondly, He said,
I am persuaded. I am confident that He'll keep
that which I've committed to Him. I know Him. I'm confident in Him. And I have
what? Committed myself to Him. That's
what David said here. Committed. I know Him. I have confidence in Him. And
therefore, I commit my life my family, my hope, everything to
Him. He said this, cast your cares
upon Him because He cares for you. He cares for you. Spurgeon gave me this too. I
love the writings of Charles Spurgeon. This definition of
faith is I know whom I have believed and I'm confident that he'll
keep that. which I have committed." And
then he says this, this commitment to Christ means this, it means
to roll the whole burden of life, the whole burden of eternity
upon the Lord and leave it there. And leave it there. Cast away
anxiety, worry and fear, and resign your will to His will,
His word, His way, His grace. Like a farmer, he goes out, plows
the ground, sows the seed, what does he do then? Leave it there. And the Lord of the harvest will
make it grow. If the world from you withholds, of its silver
and its gold. And you have to get along with
meager fare. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. That's what we mess with sometimes.
We don't leave it there. Just leave it there. That's right. All right. Here's the next one.
Verse 7. Rest. Don't fret. Trust. Delight in Him. Commit it to
Him, leave it there, and rest. Rest. Listen to, look at verse
7. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently
for Him, and fret not thyself because of Him who prospereth
in His way. His way. Because of the man who
bringeth wicked devices to pass. Just rest. When you read the
book of Genesis, the scripture says, when the Lord created the
heavens and the earth, it is written, he rested from all his
labors. Rested. He didn't rest because
he's tired. He didn't rest because he was
fatigued. He rested because he was done.
It's finished. That's right. When the Lord created
the heavens and the earth, He rested. He rested because he
has finished his work. When our Lord Jesus Christ died
on the cross, his last words were these. It's finished. It's finished. He ceased from
his work as God did from his. That's what Paul said in Hebrews. And he entered, Christ entered
into his rest and sat down at the right hand of God. Now then,
Hebrews 11, Hebrews 4 verse 11 says, let us therefore do what? Rest. God finished his work,
finished his work and rested. The Lord Jesus Christ finished
His work and entered into His rest. Now He says, let us therefore
enter into His rest, lest we fall, lest we fall after the
unbelief. A bad example. Our gospel is
not due. Our gospel is done. It's done. Come unto Me. All ye that labour
in the heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me. Keep on learning of me. We don't just learn from him,
we learn of him. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, and you'll keep on finding rest, rest, rest, rest, rest. Now here's the sixth word, verse
8. Cease from anger. Cease from
anger and forsake wrath. Threaten not thyself in any wise
to do evil. Cease from anger. You know what
James said in chapter 1? He said, Wherefore, my beloved
brethren, let every one of us be swift to hear. Slow to speak
and slow to wrath. For the anger and wrath of man
works not the righteousness of God. Cease from anger. Because the battle's not yours,
it's His. The battle's not yours. Vengeance is mine, God said. Not your responsibility at all.
Do anything about it. What are you going to do about
that? I ain't going to touch it. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. In Ephesians 4, listen to this. The Scripture
says, Be ye angry and sin not. Let not the sun
go down on your wrath. Now listen to me. There is an
anger which is not sinful. The Scripture says God's angry
with the wicked. every day. God doesn't sin. There's an anger found in God
and found in Christ. And this anger arises from a
zeal for God. You get unhappy with what's going
on. The pastor says it all the time. We get unhappy with what's
going on around us. We've been happy with this world
and unhappy with this world. That's right. Unhappy. We have a zeal for God and a
zeal for His holiness. And this anger, though, is not
against persons. It's against sin. You understand
what I'm saying? And that's what he's saying here. Be angry and sin not. We're not
angry with people. We've done the same thing they
did. And God stopped us, corrected us, straightened us out, and
turned us into the right world. And they keep on doing it. I'm
not mad at them. If it wasn't for His grace, I'd
be just like them. That's right. Be angry and sin
not, but we're angry against sin. We're angry against those
things that offend our God. That's right. He said this, though,
do not let the sun go down on your wrath. What's he saying
here? Don't let it continue. Even with your anger, even with
being upset, don't let the sun set on it. Don't keep it up. Forgive and
leave it alone. That's the very best thing in
the world. I tell you, when Darcy and I were down in Florida, in
1969, and we're sitting on the beach, and the two soldiers came
to visit us. And they told us that my son
was killed in Vietnam. I was angry. I mean angry with
everything and everybody. And on the way home, I said,
I'll tell you this, Doris, they're not going to shoot those 21-gun
salutes over his grave, I'll tell you that. But they did. And they did. And we buried him
with his buddies. That's right. You've got to be
angry. Don't keep it up. Let the sun
go down your ass. Forget it! Forgive it! Forgive it! Don't hold any room
or foothold for Satan to keep you upset. That's true. That's true. I know it's so. And every one of us, we fly off
the handle. My daddy used to talk about flying
off the handle. I don't know what that means.
What does that mean, fly off the handle? But we do. But he
said, don't let it continue. Let not the sun go down on your
ass. Be angry and sin not. Forget it. Forgive the person. Forgive them and let it go. All right, let's go to that Psalm
37, now verse 25. Verse 25. Now I want you to hear. Now words to die by. Okay. Those are words to live by. These
are words to die by. Verse 25, listen to it. I've
been young, and now I'm old. I'm not prematurely gray, I'm
old. You know, people say there's
some excuse, I'm just prematurely gray. No, I'm just old, that's
right. But I rejoice, I rejoice to get
older and to get, I hope, wiser. Wiser in the promises and purpose
of God. That's the one thing about old
age, you get to learn a few things. And you get to stop saying, I
won't do this and say, I will after all. That's right. That's
right. Well, now here's what I'm going
to do. Charles Spurgeon illustrates what David's saying here a lot
better than I can. And I'm just taking his sermon
and preaching it almost word for word. And I want you to follow
me. Charles Spurgeon preaches this
far better than I ever could. And you know when he preached
it? He was 22 years old. He died when he was 58, but when
he was 22 years old, he preached this sermon. And this is what
he said, I spoke to one of my elders today, who is 70 years
old. And I said to my elder, brother,
there's no person in this church that I envy as much as I envy
you." And he said to me, envy me? Pastor Spurgeon, I'm over
70 years of age. Why would a young man like you
envy an old man like me? Well, he said, I do. I do. And I'll give you four reasons
why I envy you who have lived your life, and I'll tell you
why I envy you. Number one, I envy you because
you are much nearer heaven and home than I am. In a very short while, you're
going to see the Lord. In a very short time, you're
going to see the Lord Jesus. stand in His presence, and be
perfectly conformed to His likeness. Think about it! Maybe tomorrow. And God shall wipe away all tears
from your eyes, and there'll be no more death, there'll be
no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain, because He said,
Behold, I make all things new, and their sins and iniquities
I'll never remember it anymore. Think of it. I envy you. Secondly, I envy you secondly
because you can talk, you can talk of all the experiences of
God's grace that you received and believed and rested in. And you talk about all the promises
of His will and the fulfillment of His will and His purpose.
The young have those promises. The old man sees them fulfilled. Isn't that right? He sees them
fulfilled. They still have them. They're
wonderful and rich and great and wonderful promises for the
future. But we've already experienced
it. Already. You know something? Listen to this. This is the part
that Spurgeon said this. He said we learn and grow wiser
as we get older. We learn to appreciate the goodness
of God more. I do not know, watch this Gabe,
I do not know how lenient Joseph would have been with his brethren
if they had appeared to him when he was in prison. You follow
what he's saying? You remember Joseph was misused
and put in prison? If his brother, that man, had
stepped up, he'd have been mad. But my friends, when Joseph was
in prison as a slave, he would have reacted differently to those
boys. But when it was all over, and he was on the throne of Egypt,
he could say, you fellas meant it for evil, God meant it for
good. That's a good time to say that.
That's a good time to say that. That's the only time you can
really say it, too. When the trial is over, The darkness
is lifted. The sun's coming out. Well, a
lot more lenient. A lot more lenient. That's what
old age will do for you. It'll make you a lot more lenient
about things and you can put up with it because you've experienced
it. And then he said this, I envy
you Because you old believers, watch this, are not alarmed and
swayed by the loud claims of the new methods, and the new
prophecies, and the new doctrines, and the new way of doing things.
The old believer watches all these new things rise up. He
listens to them pop off. He listens to them talk, and
then he goes quietly, and firmly back to the word, back to the
word of God, back to the will of God, back to the righteousness
of Christ, back to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
old believer has learned by experience, don't follow a novice. If anything, if it's all new,
I don't want anything to do with it. I want the old past. Ask for the old past. The old proven things, you know.
You don't want to have confidence in the flesh. Nobody's flesh. Nobody's. And this is what he
wrote. Should all the works of hell
come to pass, or assail my faith with treacherous art, I will
call them all vanities and lies, and bind this gospel to my heart."
Stay with it, gospel. Anything new comes along, stay
with the gospel. Number four, he says this, I
envy you and I envy all these older believers for your spirit
of humility, spirit of dependence upon the grace of God. Even though you've been tried
through the years with trials and tribulations and heartaches,
but you've known this and learned it well that the trying of your
faith worketh patience. I knew a preacher one time by
the name of Luther Martin. When he was born, his mother
and father were outstanding Lutherans. They loved the writings of Martin
Luther. So when old Martin was born,
they named him Luther Martin. And he loved Brother Mews, old
Brother A.D. Mews, a pastor in Louisville,
Kentucky. He was a very young man. Brother
Mews was an old man. Luther Martin went to visit Brother
Mews and he worked with him a little while as his assistant. And he
said, Brother Mews, he said, I don't have patience. I just
can't get patience. He said, would you pray that
I can have patience? Well, yeah, I sure will. Get
out on your knees with me. Let's pray right now that God
give you patience. So Mews started out, Lord, Now
this is a young man, and he's asking for patience. And I asked
you, Lord, give him a glorious hard time. Make his path rough. Make all the things rough. Bring
it into his life. Make him suffer. He grabbed old
brother and he says, brothers, you misunderstood me. You misunderstood
me. I didn't ask you to ask God to
do hard on me. I asked you to teach me patience. Tribulation worketh patience. You can't get it any other way. That's just so. You can't get
it any other way. The new believer will write a
book about how to live a victorious life. Don't ever tackle that. But the old tested believer This
old tested believer knows this, that you probably will, you will
probably learn more by your failures than by your successes. You will
learn more by your trials than your joys. That's so. You'll learn more, I mean rich
things. You'll learn more by your valleys than your mountaintop
experiences. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted, that I might learn His subject. It's good for me. Now then, I want to share a letter
with you. One of the finest I've ever seen. I got this letter four or five
days ago. There was a lady in her 50s out
in Colorado, and she started listening to my tapes. Tom Harding has these tapes,
and she started listening out in Colorado. And she wrote to
Tom, asked for more tapes, and sent him a $100 check to help
him with his expenses. So Tom wrote me and said, this
lady loves your preaching, and she's profited by it, and she
sent $100 to help with expenses. Would you write her a letter
and thank her? Why, sure I will. So I did. I got this back the other day. Listen to this. Dear Brother
Mahan, Greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. It was a very pleasant surprise
to receive your kind letter. I have been blessed by God's
grace to receive your preaching and teaching with a measure of
understanding. And it has helped me tremendously. I believe that you are the only
preacher of God's Word that I ever heard say, God can save a murderer. And it is with profound shame
and remorse that I must confess to you that I am of the same
guilty, heinous act and crime. Thirty years ago, I aborted my
two children, one after the other. I murdered my own children thirty
years ago. A most dishonoring and horrifying
crime against our magnificent creator. I agree with God that he is justified
should he condemn me and banish me from his presence forever. And I would have nothing absolutely
to say except he's righteous in all his judgments. Brother
Mahan, I believe that the Lord has granted me the gift of repentance. Isn't that good? I believe He's
granted me the gift of repentance. And although it is difficult
for me to fathom how God could love me in Christ, in my heart I believe that He
does love me. I sure love Him. I shall love
Him, and I enjoy Him while knowing that I do not deserve anything
good from Him. My heart's desire from now on
is to glorify and honor Him for the remaining years that He gives
me on this earth. I would be pleased if you would
take Sister Mahan out for a lovely meal and dinner on me. It would
be wonderful to join in fellowship with the two of you, but maybe
by God's grace and mercy we will dine together at the Lord's table
before too long." That, that's grace. That's what we're talking about.
That's what this is about. Words to live by and the true
word of God which we die by. Well, a standing prayer will
be dismissed. Our Heavenly Father, We thank
you for your word. Oh, how precious this book is
to us. We pray that you continue to
give us understanding of that which is written. We thank you for meeting with
us tonight. allowing us to rejoice in your
goodness and mercy in our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you so
much for this letter from this dear lady. Lord, bless her, help
her, strengthen her. I pray for her and I pray for
her family, whoever they are and wherever they are. Continue
to be merciful and gracious to her. Father, we pray for our
pastor, and Mindy, and they'll be on
their way home soon. And we pray, Lord, that you'll
give them journeying mercies. Hedge them about with your mercy,
grace. Keep them from the dangers on
the highway and bring them safely back here. Speak to his heart that he'll
have for us a message on the Lord's day. Thank you for your
words, for your goodness to us. We pray for our friends who are
going through trial and heartache and trouble, different churches
that are going through difficulty. Pray for them. Thy will be done. For Christ's sake, we pray. Amen. All right. You're dismissed. I'll give it to them.