When tears like a river attend
in my way When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my love
Thou hast taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul
It is well, it is well It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. Let this blessed assurance come true, That Christ hath regarded
my health, That this day Him hath shed His own blood for my
sake. It is well. It is well. With my soul. With my soul. It is well. It is well with my soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glory
and thought My sin, not in part, but the whole His nail to the
cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well with my soul. With my soul. It is well, it
is well with my soul. And Lord, haste the day when
my face shall be sighed. The clouds be rolled back as
a troll The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend Even
so, it is well with my soul It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Paul wrote, the trumpet shall
sound. He said, and it shall. The dead
in Christ shall rise. They all say it is well. The
Lord hath done all things well. That was well done. Brother Gabe
and Hannah's father and mother used to sing that hymn together,
some of you who I remember hearing them sing that together. I could not help but think of
Linda. She believed that. She believed
that. That was her hope. Hope was in
Christ as well with her soul. Her hope is now sight. Now she knows as she has been
known. It is indeed well. Say ye to
the righteous. It shall be well with him. You hear that? You don't hear
anything else this morning. You're in Christ, the righteous. It shall be well with them. It shall. All right, Psalm 92,
go back there, Psalm 92. You know, this is a good thing
we're doing here. It does not get any better than
this. This is good. This is better. This is the best. It's a good
thing what we're doing here, giving thanks, praising, singing
these praises, looking into God's Word, hearing God's Word. It's
a good thing, verse 1, to give thanks unto the Lord, to the
Most High, sing praises unto thy name. We're doing this unto
Him. Notice, I love when things come to mind, new and fresh,
at the last minute, right while you're reading it again. David
wrote this and said, it's a good thing to give thanks unto the
Lord, so that's what he did. Sing praises unto thy name. It's
like he forgot he was writing. He began to write unto the Lord,
unto thy name, to the Most High. Oh, most high God over all. It's
a good thing, this thing of giving thanks and praising God and singing
his praises. It's a good thing, isn't it?
It's our reasonable service. It's a good thing. It's the right
thing to do, isn't it? Give thanks unto the Lord, from
whom are all things, by whom are all things, the God in whose
hands our breath is, the most high Creator. Down in verse 6,
he said, a brutish man. That's a man who's no better
than a beast in his understanding. A man who doesn't acknowledge
his God, who doesn't know that he's in God's hands and everything
comes from his God. He's a brute. He's a beast. He's
a fool. He doesn't understand that. Oh,
how blessed we are if we do. God is our It's a good thing. What we're
doing here is a good thing. It's good for us. It's good for
His glory. It's good for our children. It's
good for our children. Do you remember this? David said
that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth, our
daughters like cornerstone, our garners full, spiritual. all manner of store. He goes
on to say that there be no complaining in our streets. You remember
that? Oh, this is a good thing. Those
that don't know God do mostly murmur and complain. It's a good
thing to give thanks unto the Lord. Well, who maketh us to
differ? See, here's one of the reasons
we come to give thanks unto the Lord, because He maketh us to
differ. If we know and understand, if
we feel a need to be here, if we enjoy, have a desire to and
enjoy this, what we're doing right now. It's not of yourselves. Flesh
didn't do this. The father, you if you if you
enjoy thanking him, praising him with a congregation of the
righteous. You've been congregated. You've
been gathered, the word congregate is the gathered ones you've been
gathered. Sheep, you see, that's the nature
of sheep. They're gregarious. They are
gathered, a congregation of the same. If you if you just like
to snuggle up with these people and do this right here. Oh, give
thanks. Give thanks. It's a good thing
if you do. It's His grace, you know that?
We come here, verse two in the morning, come here first thing
in the morning, the first to show forth by loving kindness. That's the Old Testament word
for grace, isn't it, Brother Ed? That's what that word means.
Loving, kindness. Love and kind. If he loves you,
how do you know? It's kindness. It's kindness. and gifts and so forth. Show
forth what we're doing here this morning. Here's why we come.
To give thanks, because what do we have we have not received?
To give thanks, to sing praises, to give him all the glory. If
we received it, we dare not glory in anything. We give him all
the glory. We give all the praise. To sing praises unto his name. No names should be acknowledged
this morning but one. Truth. Unto thy name, O Most
High. And we're here to show forth,
to declare one more time, as long as God gives us breath,
one more time to show forth, to declare His lovingkindness. By grace are you saved. Amen. We've been gathered out
from among the heathen from the world together with the little
flock to see his glory. Everybody can see his glory.
Just like James and Peter and John, he chose them to take him
up on a mountain to do what? Show his glory. Oh, my. Show us his work. So that's what
we're doing here. First thing in the morning. First
thing in the morning. And that faithfulness every night,
Wednesday night. We'll get together, Lord willing.
Brother Mahan's going to preach. I know what he's going to preach.
I know. I don't know the text. He hasn't
told me that. I don't know where it's going.
I know what it is. Spurgeon used to say to his young
students, if you have trouble knowing what to preach, get out
of the ministry. You're not called. We know what
or rather who we're going to preach. But now, he said, now,
if you have trouble knowing where to preach from, I said, that's
different. That's that's the whole struggle. Look, and you
know what this book is all about, brotherhood. And you search,
though, for something, just a new way of telling it. It's an old
story, but. New ways of telling, fresh and
new. Well, to show forth his loving kindness, his faithfulness
every night. Great is thy faithfulness. Oh, Lord God, my Father. Great is his faithfulness, summer
and winter. God is faithful in his providence.
He said in the beginning, he commanded the earth. He established
it, that it be not moved. It'll be seed time and harvest,
summer and winter, so forth and so on. Food, clothing, everything. This is our benefactor. This
is our God. This is our Father who provided
for His own. They're not going to lack. God's
seed will never beg bread. Why? He owns the earth. The cattle on a thousand hills
are His. All the... They'll never... lose
anything. All the gold and silver in the
mind are here. He's faithful. Faithful. Faithful to his providence. He's
faithful to his word. He cannot lie. True. You think of somebody faithful,
they're true. He's faithful. The word says
this is a faithful saying. What is? Everything he said. Everything he said is faithful. And all that he said, he said,
call, I'll answer you. He said, hope in my mercy, I'll
show you mercy. He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus, on the Son, I'll give you life. He said, come unto
me, I'll take you. Trust in me, he said, I'll provide. Lean on me, he said, I'll hold
you up. Cast your care upon me, he said. I'll forbear you. He said, confess
to me. I'll cover him. He's faithful to his word, faithful,
faithful to his covenant. Oh, he's faithful to his covenant.
God made a covenant with his son before the world began. Both
of them, this was an agreement. We weren't there. We didn't consult
us. It doesn't depend upon us. Nothing concerning this covenant
is concerning us. We weren't there when this covenant
agreement was made. The only ones there, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they all agreed together
and made this pact together, this covenant, this contract,
and sealed it all in a book and said, let it be written, so let
it be done. What? The salvation of God's
people. Everyone. All that the Father
chose, He gave to Christ. All that were given to Christ,
He'd come down here and He'd save them. Do everything for
them. And the Holy Spirit would round
them up. Every one of them. Not one of them missing. So God
in the beginning made this coven. He's faithful to it. And on and
unto God are all His works in all his people. He knows. His work, God thought it, look
at verse four, God, and this makes me glad, doesn't it you?
You made me glad through thy work. His work of salvation. It's a
great work. Great work. It's too great for
man. To man, it would be impossible,
but God is great and his work is great. and he thought it Christ
bought it Holy Spirit it's of the law salvation of the law
it's his work. So he said. Give thanks unto
him sing praise this is a good thing. It's in a good thing salvation
by grace. Aren't you glad Does He make
you glad? And so that's what we sing of
upon whatever we use, an instrument of ten strings and so forth.
He said in verse four, thou hast made me glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of
thy hands. It's not by works of righteousness
which we have done. You know that, don't you? Oh,
you know that. You're so blessed if you do.
Many are going about to do that aren't they? They're sincere.
Paul said they're zealous. I know they're trying to work,
but you can't get there. You can't do that. Oh, aren't
you glad that we're going to be saved by the works of Christ's
hands. It's not our works, but according
to his mercy he has saved us. It's the works of Christ's hand.
That old saying, did you ever have that old saying on your
wall? Only one life soon will be passed. Only what's done for
Jesus shall last. You ever had that on your wall?
If you're religious, you did. A lot of people do. Sounds good. That's hogwash. Only what's done by Jesus Christ
shall last. Everybody's going to be judged
by works. Every human being will be judged
by works, your own or his. Will it be? Uh-huh. That's what
he said. He's going to judge all men in
righteousness by that man. Whether you stack up to him,
whether you weigh up to him, come up to that glory, glorify
God, weigh up. Will it be? If we get on the
scales, it says we're lighter than bank. Nothing does. Won't
even weigh up. Have you done anything? Nothing. Christ steps on the scales with
us. Weigh up. Equal. Equity. There is no iniquity in God's
people. Equal to his glory. Why? He's
on the scale. We're in him. We're in him. You know, people are like that
little mouse. was riding on the back of that elephant. Religious people. You ever hear
that? You know, they think they've
done something. That little mouse riding on the back of that elephant
across a suspension bridge. After they got across, the little
mouse said, boy, didn't we shake that bridge. Yeah. Don't even weigh it up. come far short. Oh, that thou
hast done it, thou make me glad. Aren't you glad it's by the works
of his hands? Aren't you glad? He made me glad.
Oh, Lord, verse 5, how great are thy works. We don't have
enough time to go into them, do we? The works of creation,
his greatest works, the works of salvation. Oh, I will triumph
How great are thy works, and thy thoughts, O Lord, are very
deep." Thy thoughts are very deep, as
opposed to shallow. People say about men, boy, he's
a deep thinker. Oh, my. God's thoughts are so
higher above us. As the heavens are above you
and deep. Oh, the depth says of the depth
of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how
unsearchable are his judgment, his ways past finding out. And
here's something deep. Here's what David couldn't get
over. How great are your thoughts toward
me? When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the
sun and the moon, which thou hast ordained, the stars, What
is man? That thou art mindful of him.
Should thou such a one take thought of me? Why would you stop and
think of me? Oh, that's too deep for me. That's
too deep for me. Thy thoughts are very deep, he
said. Very deep. Deep with love. Oh,
the deep, deep love of the Lord Jesus Christ. The depth of his
love, the depth of his mercy. He talks about deep. God says,
I know my thoughts toward you. What we did, it causes the praise. He said, thoughts of peace, thoughts
of love, thoughts of mercy, thoughts of good and deep. You'll never
drain dry this vast well spring of the deepness of his love.
And I'm talking things too wonderful for me. When I started this message,
I was going to deal with verses 12 through 14. Prepared a whole
message. Took me several, several hours
to do. And I thought, this is impossible. This is like a man, Paul, it happened in the
the apostle Paul he Lord allowed him in the glory and he came
back. I can't tell this. The Lord showing
this vast treasure house is right now you got forty minutes to
tell them about it. Can't do it. You can't do it. How deep are his thoughts of
love toward his people, his thoughts of mercy toward them, his thoughts
of goodness. Oh, my. Yes, this is a good thing
we're doing here. This is a good thing. If you
just go to the well one more time and start thinking, does
the Lord love me? You wouldn't be sitting here
if he didn't. Clothed in your right mind. rejoicing over this? Oh, does he love you? Yeah, but what? Those that believe, he tries.
Did the Lord love Job? And here's wisdom, James wrote
back in the last part, he started with wisdom and he ended with
wisdom and James said, Now here's wisdom. Have you considered Job?
The end of that man. And think about the end, whom
God loveth, all things work together for good to them that love God. Why do they love God? Why they
love God's Word? Why? Because He first loved them. Oh, the deep, deep love. It's
pacified me now. If God loved me, why this? That's
why. He's not going to leave you to
this world. Not going to leave us to this world. Not going to
let us be too attached to it. My, my, love deep. And I didn't
want to stop there. Thoughts are too deep. That's
too deep for me. Let's go on. Verse six. A brutish
man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this. A fool
that said there is no God. A fool doesn't see any need to
thank God. Fool. What a fool. Isn't it a fool whose hands,
his breath is, and all his ways are one that he never even acknowledges?
Isn't that a fool? What a fool. Now who. Eat drink and look at you you're
blessed all that's not necessarily less. Here's a man who has everything
here's a man who has nothing here's a man who has no trouble
whatsoever here's a man who has nothing but trouble who's the
best. The world so we'll look at it.
Faces. Look to the end. Look at what he has. He's blessed.
Look at who has him. Look at who he has. Look at Lot.
He's in Sodom. Look, he's well-watered, pleasing,
everything's just fine with Lot. Look at Abraham. What's he have?
The Lord's with him. The Lord's with him. A brute
doesn't understand these things. A fool doesn't understand. He
talks about the wicked and he talks about the righteous here.
The wicked spring as a grass. All the workers of iniquity do
flourish. They flourish. I'll be honest
with you. I'll just be honest. Well, I've
been honest so far. I didn't mean, you know what
I mean. But I'll tell you the thing that bothers me. It bothers
me all the time when I drive by all of these so-called church
houses, and I can't build them big enough because there are
people just flocking to them. Can't build them big enough.
They cost millions of dollars. Can't build them fast enough,
expand enough, and people just flocking to them. Why? I know
what goes on there. The Lord calls them workers of
iniquity. Doesn't even stand. Yes, He does. They're doing it in their name.
They're doing it to be seen. They're not doing it for the
glory of God and the glory of Christ. They're patting one another
on the back. They're doing it to get a husband.
You know, all these ministries. We have one ministry. It's not
to find you a husband that you're going to lose soon. It's that
you might find Him, your eternal husband. Singles ministry and
all this crap. ball teams and all that. It's
not of the Lord. It's all iniquity. Our Lord saw
that, didn't He? An abomination of desolation. Desolation. God's not there.
The glory hath departed. It's an abomination of the Lord.
It's in His name, but it's not for His name and His glory. I
know that, and I see it, though, and I think, Lord, burn that
place down. I'd like to get a big spear and pop that tent. I'm honest with you. Aren't you?
I see they're blaspheming on their signs, you know, all that
stuff on their signs in God's name. They're not doing it for God's
glory, are they? Look down at verse 9. He says, Thine enemies, O Lord,
Thine enemies, Thine enemies. And down in verse 11, he says,
My enemies. In Psalm 139, he says, Thy enemies
are my enemies. Do not I hate them that hate
thee? Yes, I hate them with a perfect
hatred. That means a mature hatred, not
a fleshly hatred, but a mature hatred based on what you see.
They're bringing God's name down. They're dragging His Word through
the dirt. They're bringing His Son down
from His glory. They're sharing His glory. David
said, I hate it. And here we are, honestly, trying
to just try to tell the truth, the truth of nothing but the
truth. Aren't we, Brother Henry? Been doing it for years. Can't
get a crab. Have to borrow money to pay for
this little two-bit building. I'll be honest with you. It bothers
me. But it's going to all fall down. It's grass. It's going to perish. Workers of iniquity, they shall
declare it. Who's on the Lord's side? We're
going to find out. We're going to find out. When
the Lord comes like a consuming fire and a fuller soap, we're
going to find out who was in this for God's glory, whose name
was being honored. And all this wood, hay, and stubble
is going to be burned up, like grass, but the gold, the silver,
the precious stones, God's true people, God's truth abided forever
and are going to be, Nancy, stones Gold, silver, precious stones
in the temple of God. Fixed. David was the same way, wasn't
he? Don't we go to Psalm 73, Stan? You and I love that psalm. David said, I envied the prosperity
of the wicked. I envied them. I go by these
places and I think, we could enjoy that view better. They've
got the best view in Franklin County. We could enjoy that more
than them. Now he's ruled all this and that we could use that.
We need that we need one room. One place and a piece of wood
for a man to stand up with a book and declare who got only the
gymnasium. I don't have it. Well where am
I. Well he says in verse. Just go on down to verse ten
my horn shall thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn. You know
I began thinking about that. You know the clean animals and
unclean on the ark. The clean ones had horns. That just occurred to me. They
had a cleft hooves. I chewed the cud. And also sheep,
male sheep, deer, cattle. Well, you know, the altar had
horns around it, didn't it? Four horns, male sheep, horns. That's a symbol of power. Horn. Horn of a unicorn. Horn. What is our power? What is the
exalted? Christ. Christ is our altar. Christ is our strength. Christ
is our... And the horn. Also, you know,
they would take... When they'd sound that trumpet,
it started out with a horn. In the Old Testament days, the
trumpet they had was a ram's horn. What did Joshua and all
of them bring the walls down with? Ram's horn. That's shouting out. That's blowing
the trumpet of The gospel of Christ without trumpets. He's
going to raise our horn, isn't He? He's going to raise our horn. I will be anointed with fresh
oil, He said. Fresh oil. That's the Holy Spirit.
Fresh oil. Fresh, new. Verse 11. Let's go
on. Mine eyes shall see my desire
on mine enemies. My ears shall hear. They'll hear
that. He says, when you see, you're
going to rejoice. You're going to say, Amen. All
of this being done away. We're going to see it. We're
going to see it. We're going to see it. Now, this
is where I wanted to stay, and I'm out of time. But let's look
a minute, just would you with me, about this palm tree and
this cedar. The whole message was going to
be on this. Verse twelve, he says, "...the
righteous shall flourish like a palm tree." The righteous. "...he shall grow like a cedar
and lemon." The righteous. Singular. One righteous shall
grow, shall flourish like a palm tree. "...and he shall grow up
into a cedar like the cedars of lemon." Who is this? Who is this talking about? Christ,
the righteous. Christ, the tree of life. Christ,
the vine where the branch. Christ, who is the root of this
matter. This matter of salvation, this
great work that we're going to triumph in. Christ is the root
of the matter. He's the tree of life. The tree
of life. Remember, God planted a tree
in the garden, told Adam that he couldn't partake of it. He'd
have to live forever. But that same tree, John, he
transplanted it into glory, and it's there. It'll be there forever,
and everybody in there will partake of it. They'll live forever. The tree
of life, the righteous one, Christ the righteous. There's none that
doeth good. No, not one. There's none righteous. No, not
one, but one. There is one. the righteous one. And he came down here to make
us righteous. The Lord, our righteousness. This is what he shall be called,
Jehovah Sid Kenneth. The righteous one. The Lord,
our righteousness. The righteous. He'll flourish
like a palm tree. Hey, Wesley, you with us? What
do you think of when you think of palm trees? Huh? Vacation. Rest. You think you're resting? Relaxation. Vacation. No more work. It's
over. All the works of your hand, labors of your hand, that's your
reward. You can sit under a palm tree.
If it's got coconut milk in it, you drink it. Am I bent? No, no. This is Christ, the believer's
rest. We rest under his shadow. We sit under his shadow. resting
from our labor. It said of old Solomon, the people
in Solomon, here's something amazing. Jerry, under Solomon's
rule, there was not one war ever. Ever. Not even a rifle was shot. Not an arrow flew. You know that? Under Solomon's reign, peace
the whole time. And it says, every single person
that dwelled under Solomon's reign and rule sat under his
own vine and his own fig tree. They were all rested. It sounds
like they all just sat back and enjoyed what Solomon had done. That's a good illustration. You know, when Christ came into
the town, And they shouted, Hosanna. You know what they did? They
went and got palm branches and cast them, strode them in the
way. And he went, palms of victory. There's an old song, palms of
glory. Thanks be unto him who giveth
us the victory. We triumph in the work of his
hand. Palm tree. So it remains only
for us to sit under the palm tree. It's over. And he'll be like a cedar in
Lebanon. Is that good? I don't know. Cedar in Lebanon. Cedar. Cedar in Lebanon. You know, I've never seen one
of these trees in person. But apparently the most glorious
tree ever on planet Earth. Would you run back to Psalm 1
real quickly? Psalm chapter 1. The cedars of
Lebanon are unsurpassed in glory. You know, Ezekiel gives a...
You want to read this for your own, sometimes, Ezekiel 31. Just sometime this week, go back
there and read. He's talking about a pharaoh,
but no, he's writing of Christ. And he says of that cedar, he
said, he's like a cedar in Lebanon, fair. It's high in stature. Goes on to say, his height is
above all the trees. His boughs multiply as branches. many. It goes on to say the fowls
of the heaven make their nest in his boughs. It says the cedars
in the garden of God, the cedars, little cedars, you know, cedars
are prolific, aren't they, grower? Nancy, you know how cedars give
off little acorns and they in turn grow up cedars. It says
the cedars in the garden couldn't hide this cedar. In other words,
you couldn't see the forest for the trees. He said, way up above. He said, all the other ones envied
Him. I wanted to grow up to be just
like Him. You see, this thing just kept...
I thought, I've got to quit somewhere. But this cedar of Lebanon is
an evergreen. Why? Verse 3. It's a tree that's
planted by the rivers of water. An evergreen. is always green,
wither, never withers, whatever it does will prosper, flourish,
it said. It flourish like the palm tree,
grow up like the cedar, flourish, green, always green, always new,
full of life, the cedar tree. Lebanon, listen to this, Nancy.
Lebanon, the word Lebanon means, it's two words. The word Lebanon
comes from the word heart and a white mountain. So from
the heart of the white mountains, or that is the snow-covered mountains
over in Lebanon, you have these snow-covered mountains, pure,
beautiful. Have you entered into the treasure
of the snow? Who can stand before His cold? He's holding it. From
the snow-covered, white, gloriously high mountains of God, Lebanon,
From the heart of that comes this beautiful tree planted by
the rivers of water, a cedar of leaven. That's Christ who comes from
the heart of God, from the high and holy place, and he's like
a cedar of leaven, planted by the rivers of water. Oh, my. Planted. The root of the matter. Planted by the rivers of water.
in verse, back in our text, it says he grows like a cedar in
Lebanon. Listen to this. Listen to this. A cedar is known for a few things. A cedar is known not only for
its height. It's the highest tree over there.
The oldest tree, the oldest trees in Lebanon are the cedars of
Lebanon. What of our ancient one, the
Lord Jesus Christ. No beginning of day. And cedars
are known for what? Anybody? Fragrance. Fragrance of cedar. Nothing like it. Cedars are impervious. Cedar wood is impervious to decay,
to rots, pests. Oh, what of the sinlessness of
our Lord Jesus Christ? The eternal one. In him is no
seed. The temple was built, the temple
of Solomon. Every plank, wall, ceiling, and
floor was from the cedars of Lebanon. Every plank. What color is cedar wood? What's the heartwood of cedar?
So the walls of that temple, inside and out, everything you
saw on the inside, everything you saw on the outside, was blood
red, covered, propitiated with this blood red seal. It was covered
with gold, but it was also covered with gold. You know, carved all over those
walls were palm trees. Oh, my. Palm trees. And there's
cedar. And cedar is, oh, my. Fragrant and fruitful. Read the
next verse. It says, verse 13, those that
be planted in the... Wait a minute. I thought you
were talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we are. As he is,
so are we. He's righteous. Say you to the
righteous, those in Christ, little cedars planted, verse 13, planted
in the house of the Lord. They'll flourish too. They triumph in the work of his
hands. From him is their fruit, he said. They come from him.
They know it. Fruit. be planted, those that
be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts
of our God. This is a good environment to
be in. You know, this is a good place to just plant, be planted.
John, the Lord brought you to a good place to plant you, establish
you, settle you, strengthen you. Plant it. When you think of somebody
planted, you think of firm and unmoved, don't you? Plant it.
It's a good place to be planted. You're planted you and your children
are planted back and every tree whom the Lord our God have not
planted will be rooted up. But those that are planted in
his house. This is where the seed is sown.
This is where the seed conceived. This is where we're born of God
under the Word. You want your children planted
grow up in faith and be transplanted? The house of God. This is it.
Bring them. Bring those little saplings.
Bring them here. May the Lord plant them in his
house, the house of the Lord, and they'll flourish in the courts
of our God, as I said, transplanted. Someday, grow up to the measure
of the fullness of Christ's cedars of Lebanon. Verse 14, they'll
bring forth fruit in old age. They'll be fats. Fats. It's a good kind of fat to be
right here. Fat and flourishing. They'll bring forth fruit. in
old age, those planted in Christ. I thought about this. I thought
of several of you folks, many of you older folks. And the fact
is, older a vine is, a more fruitful Got to go through some seasons.
Got to go through some storms, doesn't it? Huh? And as that
vine gets older and older, that tree gets older and older, it
gets gnarly looking down. I'm sorry. Call you gnarly. But that's all right. Wish I'd
have brought that vine up here now. I've got a big old grape
vine down there. It's that big around. You think
of a vine, you think of something about that big, don't you? I've
got one that's thirty-some years old. It's that big around. You can hold your whole weight
on it. That's Christ. There was no beauty in Him. But
they get older, and they get gnarly looking like an old vine,
and they hang down, don't they? Their boughs, their branches
hang low. Why? Full of fruit. What's the fruit of the Spirit?
Well, I can't preach. I can't. Hold on. What's the
fruit of the spirit? Love. Joy. Fruit of the spirit. Peace. I
wish I was as peaceable as some of you older folk. Long-suffering.
That just comes with age, doesn't it? From above. Gentleness. Goodness. Faith. Meekness. Temperance. Fruit.
That's fruit. That'd be fat and flourishing. You know, the best way to get
fat is to eat fat things. Uh huh. And you want to do that. You want to get fat spiritually. But with winter lean times, there
are lean times. Always are. But God's people,
he's promised they'll all be fat even in time of famine. In the famine of the hearing
of the word, There a table is spread for them in the wilderness
of fat things and wine on the leaf. And they'll be flourishing. What's all this about? Verse
fifteen, to show for the glory of, to the praise of the Lord
who is upright, or our righteousness, high and holy, upright. And he's
my rock. And now that's another story. David says, he's my rock, and
I'll tell you about that later. This rock, but he's the palm,
he's the cedar, and in him there's no unrighteousness. He's the
righteous. So say ye to the righteous, it
will be well. It is and it shall be well with
them. And they're going to grow up
planted in the house of the Lord, and be made like unto him, his
glorious image changed from glory to glory. This corruption must
put on incorruption, and we'll be as he is. Comfort ye one another
with these words. It's a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord. It's his work, his glory. Let's turn to hymn number 681
and stand again. We'll sing the first and last verse,
681. I will sing of my Redeemer and
His wondrous love to me, all the cruel cross He suffered,
from the curse to set me free. Singing, O King of my Redeemer,
with His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon,
Made the dead and made me free. Last verse. I will sing of my
Redeemer and His heavenly love to me. He from death to life
has brought me, Son of God, with Him to be. Sing of me, of my
Redeemer, With His blood He purchased me On the cross He sealed my
pardon Paid the debt and made me free