All right, Psalm 37. I did not
realize it, but we looked at this psalm about one year ago. I did not realize that until just earlier this evening when
I just grabbed some old notes to look at them. And I'm glad
I didn't look at them earlier. I might not have preached from
this so soon after. But it doesn't matter. We could look at this time and
again, couldn't we? This is one of the most blessed
and helpful psalms in the Book of Psalms. And just a running
commentary will be a blessing. to us a great help I wanted to
do the whole song as usual I couldn't couldn't get through it. Now
this is God's word Christ's word to his people. And let me say
this before we begin we talk about messianic songs and there
are. You could rightly say all of
them are messianic. In the sense that the We look
to Christ in all these things. Some of them are obviously the
words of Christ, like Psalm 22, the very words of Christ from
the cross and other places. In this psalm, of course, the
Lord Jesus Christ never did threats, did he? So he's the one talking. He's the one who we look to.
He is the one we trust in. He is the Lord. That is spoken
of spoken up so this is messianic and that's saying understand
that this is to God's people telling them not to fret telling
them to trust them and then the delight commit their way cease
from anger and so forth. These are instructions to God's
children. To look to the Lord Jesus Christ so his word to us
is verse one and two he says fret not myself because of evil
doers. Neither be thou envious against
the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like
the grass and wither as the green earth. Fret not. He says this
four or five times in the psalm. Fret not. Do you ever fret? That's kind of an old country
word, isn't it? But I think you'll find most of the old so-called
country words come from God's Word when people learn how to
read. by reading God's Word. It's a
good word, fret not. That is, don't be too full of
anxious care and fear. Don't fret, he says, because
of evildoers. Now, throughout this psalm and
others, he talks about evildoers. He talks about the wicked. He
talks about workers of iniquity. The world is full of them, sons
of Belial, they're called, the wicked. All worldlings are wicked to
God. God looks on the heart. It doesn't
matter how they may appear to us. God perceives men as they
truly are. But especially the religious,
whom the Lord himself called workers of iniquity, didn't. But he says, don't fret because
of these evil doers. And you're surrounded with them.
Talking to the believer, you're surrounded with them. You deal
with them. You might work for them you might
live with you might you have to deal with them every day workers. Evil doers don't pray don't be
too bothered by them don't worry too much about what they are
doing and saying to you or whatever don't worry about the terrorists
don't worry about whoever it is. He says they're gone they're
like grass. They're like grass. Now, early
this spring, well, the month of June, I was a little late
in getting my yard sown in grass. At any rate, it began to grow. And it looked so green and so
lovely. And I thought, I've got a good
stand of grass now. Well, then we went through that
dry period. And I have no grass now. It's gone. It no sooner
came than it was gone. And that's the way everything
and everyone in this world is. All flesh is grass, soon to be
cut down. It doesn't last long at all. All proud flesh, especially,
will be brought down. I love that passage in Isaiah
where he says the Lord hath purposed it to stain the pride of all
glory and bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth.
Everyone and everything that exalts themselves against God,
who do not acknowledge God, God is determined to bring them down
and he will do just that. Salvation is to be broken now
before him. Verse three, he says, trust in
the law. Trust in the law. Don't take
matters in your own hands. Don't depend on the flesh, your
flesh or anyone else's flesh. Trust. And the Lord, that's his
name, isn't it? The Lord, which means sovereign
ruler and controller. You and I can't do anything without
him. He said you can do nothing. So. Don't try to take matters
into your own hand when you can't take care of those things, but
trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. I'm talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one whom God has given
power and authority over all flesh, hasn't He? He's the one
who reigns and rules over all. So it is He that we trust in. Do good. Look at that. Trust
in the Lord and do good. What does that mean? It means
just what you read. Just what you read. Do good.
Do what's right. Do what's scriptural. What's
good? None good but God, is there? Nothing good but what comes from
God. Nothing good but what God says do. So what is it to do
good? It's to do his will. Do what
he says. Whatever he says unto you, do
it. That's what it means to do good.
To a man that knoweth to do good and doeth it not? Sin. What does he say? What does it
mean to do good? We know. We know. That law was
written upon our heart. Do good. And he said, so shalt
thou dwell in the land. Trust in the Lord. Look to Christ. Do what he says. Do his will.
Christ has no unwilling servants and no disobedient children.
Do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land.
What land? Beulah land. Canaan's fair and
happy land. The promised land. So shalt thou
dwell eternally, live there. He says, Christ said, I go to
prepare a place for you, a dwelling place. In my Father's house are
many dwelling places, many in the land. You look to Christ,
do what he says, you'll dwell in the land. And verily, thou
shalt be fed. I like what the margin says there.
Did you read that? Do you have a center reference?
Verily thou shalt be fed in truth or stableness you'll know the
truth as our Lord said in John seven if any man will do his
will. You know the doctor whether it's
a god or not you know. That's what you read tonight
James forwarded these very things I was. Pleased to have these
go together. To do that with and you'll be
Established in truth to know what's right and stable. Established,
settled, strengthened and stable, grounded and settled concerning
all things. And verse four, he says, delight
thyself. Delight thyself also in the Lord. Paul wrote to the Colossians,
set your affection on things above. We delight in many things,
don't we? Don't we? Are you with me? We
delight in many things. Everyone in here has some special
thing that you enjoy. But these things are trivial
things, temporal things, earthly things. He says, delight thyself
in the Lord. Set your affection on things
above, knowing that the things of this earth are temporal, but
things, spiritual things, are eternal. Set your delight upon
the Lord. How can we do that? How can we do that? Well, only
by calling upon him, number one. Call upon him, Lord. Set my affection
on things above. Cause me to delight in that.
And he's given us the means which will increase that delight. What
you're doing right now is conducive to having your affection set
on things above. Absence doesn't make this heart
grow fonder. It makes the heart grow colder.
Set your affection. Delight thyself in the Lord.
The more you do this, the more you worship the Lord, the more
you look into the things of God, the more you want to. That's
just the way it is. Delight thyself. Set thy affection
on things above. Desire the sincere milk of the
Word. Same thing, that you may grow
thereby. And he shall give thee the desires
of thine heart. Who shall? He who has all things,
Christ. Delight thyself in him, and he
shall give thee the desires of thine heart. What is the desire
of your heart? The true inward desire of your heart. What is
it? You know that God gives all men what they want. People do what they want. Adult
human beings do what they want, go where they want, with whom
they want, they do exactly what they want at all times. That's
right. And God gives us what we want. David said, one thing have I
desired, and that's what I'm going after. Didn't he? Didn't
he say that? The Lord said to David, seek
my face. That's so David said. All right, thy face will I seek,
O Lord. That's exactly, he's not saying
anything different than he had already said. Nothing different. Delight thyself. One thing if I desire, David
said, and that's what I'm going to be doing, and that's where
you'll find me. Seek my face. He said, that's what I'll do,
Lord. Draw nigh unto God, he'll draw nigh unto you. Seek my face,
I'll be found unto you. That's what he said. Delight
thyself. also unto the Lord. And again,
without Him we cannot do this. He shall give thee the desires
of thine heart. The Lord shall establish our
wants. Verse 5, Commit thy way unto
the Lord. Commit thy way. Entrust all that
you are, all that you have, thy way, thy soul, thy life, unto
the Lord. Commit thy way. under the Lord. The margin says, roll thy way
upon Him. Let me sing a song. I started
to sing it tonight. Take thy burden to the Lord and leave
it there. Cast thy care upon Him. Why? Because He cares. Roll thy way upon Him. Commit
thy way. Entrust all things unto Him. He has them anyway. Might as
well. Entrust all thy way. Say, Lord, here am I. Here am
I. Take me. Lord, here's my family. Take it. Lord, here's my life. Take it. Here's my children,
Lord. Take them, please. Would you take them as your own?
Lord, here's our body, our church. Please, Lord, it's yours. Take
it. Roll thy way. Commit thy way
unto the Lord. And thy way, confess. That also
means confess thy way. Come naked before Him. Open up
before him, confess thy way, everything about you. He knows
it anyway. Get it out. Commit it unto him. Lord, you
know all about me. You know all about me. And here's what the
Lord says. He says, I know my thoughts toward
you. Over in Jeremiah, he said, I know my thoughts toward you.
Thoughts of peace. Thoughts of peace. Commit thy
way unto the Lord and trust also in him. Trust in him. Depend
upon him. Trust means depend. It means
put all your confidence in him, in Christ. All of it. Put no
confidence in the flesh. None whatsoever. Not your own
or anyone else's. You'll be let down. You'll be
bitterly disappointed. But the Lord cannot disappoint. So trust in Him and Him alone,
and He shall bring it to pass. What? Thy way. Thy way, He'll
bring it to pass. Verse 6 says, He shall bring
forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the
noonday. Now, you know what that's talking
about, don't you? Huh? We don't have any righteousness
that's our own. You know that, don't you? imputed,
imparted, whatever it may be, it's what the Lord gives. It's
his. He gets the glory for it. Christ
is our righteousness. You know that, don't you? What
he's saying here is, if you are in Christ, he's going to make
it clear. He's going to bring it to light.
You'll be known. All the sons of Jacob will be
known, and Esau's will be too. God's sons will be known, and
the sons of Belial will be too. He'll bring it to light. And
he'll bring your judgment, that is your understanding, will be
like the light turning on in Christ. All those in Christ have
things revealed to them. He's hid these things from the
wise and prudent, the self-conceited and so forth, but he's revealed
these things unto babes. Those who are like babes and
receive his word, the judgment just keeps opening up like a
light. The self-conceited stay in their
own, whatever it is, ignorance. Well, verse 7, rest in the Lord.
Rest in the Lord. Rest in the Lord. I like the
marginal reference here, too. Don't you? Be silent, too. Our Lord said to Moses, who was
spreading a little bit—well, a whole lot. Moses was spreading
a whole lot, so were the people when they were being hounded
by the Egyptians and when they were faced with that vast gulf
that they couldn't cross. What did the Lord say to them?
Be still. Just be still and know that I'm
God. Just shut up. Be silent too. Rest in the Lord. Quiet. And wait patiently for
him. Wait patiently. How many times
does Scripture tell us to wait on the Lord? Why does Scripture
keep telling us to wait? Because patience is something
that takes a lifetime to learn just a little bit about, doesn't
it? Brother Henry, is that true? Patience. And what it means to
wait on the Lord is to wait on the Lord. He worketh all things. The Lord is doing all things.
The Lord Jesus Christ worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will, working all things together for our good.
And if you'll just wait, you'll see that. No matter how it may
appear to us right now, just wait. No matter how something
may appear to be good. Let's wait and see if it really
is good. Something may appear to be evil. Let's wait and see. It might turn out to be the best
thing to ever happen. Wait on the Lord. Wait. My dog often grows impatient, even
as old as he is. I've come to the conclusion the
only good dog is an old dog. But even at that, He is often
impatient with me. If I'm around and he wants to
go for whatever, a walk, he gets real impatient with me. As if
I've got nothing better to do than to entertain him. As if
I don't have more important things to deal with. Are you with me? And we are impatient with our
God, aren't we? Do something. Do something. As
if he doesn't have He will do it, mate. Commit thy way, and
then he knows. Lord, aren't you going to do
something? Did you ever tell that to your dad? Did you ever
come to your dad with something that needed to be done? And he'd say, I'll see to it. And then he felt pretty confident
that he would. And he walked away, and a little
while went by. And you came back, and I just
want to make sure, Dad, that you heard what I told you to
see, too. The wheels of our Lord's providence
move slowly, but they are moving. That's why the scriptures keep
telling us that over and over again, because we're so impatient,
so impatient. Rest and wait, and he says, Spread
not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way." Now,
in verse 1, he said, don't be envious against the workers of
iniquity. In other words, don't wish for
what they have. Don't envy a fat cow. That's what it says over there,
the wicked shall be as the fat of lambs. Don't envy a fat cow. Be better to be a lean cow, wouldn't
it? Wouldn't it, Rob? Wouldn't it be better to be a
lean cow? I don't envy them. I don't envy
them. I don't want what they have. He says, fret not thyself
because of him who prospereth in his way, and the wicked do
prosper, don't they? They do prosper in this world.
They have it all, but what do they have? Because of the man
who bring up wicked devices to pass you know you know how you
get a lot of money today you gotta be pretty corrupt. You
know how you gotta be elected to high office. Or even low office. You gotta
be corrupt. Yeah you do you gotta make promises
you can't keep. You gotta bribe and so forth.
Yeah you do. That's the world we live in. And that's so that's
who's in office. And that's who has Most of the
time. Well, don't fret. God's fattening
them up. You understand that? Fattening
them up. Wicked man. Verse 8. So don't
be angry. Who are we angry at anyway? Cease
from anger. Forsake wrath. Who is it, when
we grow angry, who is it that we're really angry at? Unless you can say with David,
At time, do not I hate them that hate thee. Unless you have the zeal of God's
house and God's truth eat you up and you can't stand what these
false prophets and people are saying about your God, then it's
time for a little anger, like our Lord when he went in the
temple with that flatted whip. If you can not be angry at those
times, I'm not sure you love this God. He says concerning things in
this world, all things that take place and who has what and so
forth, don't be angry. Forsake wrath. Forsake it. Threaten not thyself and any
wives to do evil. Don't get any spray paint and
go around and try to do something about these church signs. OK,
Henry? Don't do it. They're coming to naught. They're
not doing anything for anybody. They're not bringing God down
one answer, really not. As mad as they make you, it's
not doing anything against the truth. It's not swaying anybody
that can't be swayed. God's sheep are not listening.
You understand? One time I was talking about
Alan Jellett, a man so much smarter than I am. I was fretting over
these women preachers, all these women preachers. And he wisely
said to me, he says, what difference does it make if it's a woman
or a man? If he's not telling the truth, it doesn't matter,
does it? I said, you got a point there. You got a point. Don't worry. Cease from anger,
forsake wrath, fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Evil
doers shall be cut off. They're going to be cut off.
Folks, you think back over history. You think back over all of the
evil, notorious men and women down through history. Think back.
There have been some pretty mean characters, haven't there? There
have been some that make Saddam Hussein look like a fireboy.
Genghis Khan and these fellows. Nero and so forth. You know where
those men are right now? You're walking on them. They're
dirt under your feet. That's right. Dust. They've returned
to dust. Nothing. It's all coming to nothing. Soon cut off. Those that wait
upon the Lord, though, they're never going to be cut off. They're
going to inherit the land. You know, if you make your earthly
father mad, he might cut you off from the will. Might cut you off. Might do it.
Has that happened to any of them? Our Heavenly Father, though he
frowns upon you, he'll never cut you off. You'll inherit the
land. You'll inherit the land. He's
promised you. The meek shall inherit the earth,
verse 11, verse 10. A little while, you're going
to, the wicked shall not be. You'll diligently consider. Where'd
he go? He shall not be. The meat, though,
shall inherit the earth. Those Christ-like people, those
in Christ and those like Christ, shall inherit the earth and shall
delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The new earth, that's
what we're talking about. The new earth, that's what we
want, isn't it? Don't polish the brass on this sinking ship.
We're looking for a new heaven, a new earth, aren't we? wherein
dwelleth righteousness." And he said, you're going to be satisfied
and delight yourself in the abundance of peace. There'll be nothing
there to make a lie, nothing move, nothing harm us, no sin,
no evildoers, nothing, no worries, no fears, no tears, no pain,
no suffering. Abundance of peace. Just nothing
but peace. We'll be resting eternally in
peace. One big happy family. all prodigals, all former prodigals. Well, he says, he says, a little
while and they're going to be gone. The meek shall inherit
the earth and be delighted in the abundance of peace. The wicked,
though, read on. The wicked ploddeth against the
just and gnashes upon him with his teeth. Plot what they're
going to do and rage upon God's people. Against the Lord and
against his anointed. That's what I said there again.
Against Christ and his people, Christ said, marvel not, brethren,
if the world hates you. You know that it hated me before
it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love
its own, but you're not of the world. I've chosen you out of
the world. Therefore, the world hates you. So don't marvel. Don't be surprised.
The Lord promised that would happen. And they plot and they
plan and they Do, I'm going to get him, I'm going to get her.
This is what I'm going to do. What's the Lord doing? The Lord
shall laugh at him. Why? Because he sees his day
is coming. The Lord knows his day. We don't
know it. We don't know. That's why he
tells us to wait. Just hang on now. Just wait. The Lord's got every man's day
appointed. Every dog has his day. But he's going to cut them dogs'
heads off. They have their day. They can
bark and growl and bite and devour all they want to. But the Lord
our shepherd will not allow a dog to harm one of his sheep forever.
He'll cut them off. He sees his day is coming. Suddenly cut off. Well, the Lord
says, the wicked have drawn out the sword, they have bent their
bow to cast down the poor and needy, to slay such as be of
upright conversation. They make their plans, plot their
evil intentions, but their sword shall enter into their own heart.
A man's evil will come back on his own head. It will all come
crashing down on his own head. That's what the Lord said to
them. Always. Always. It is their own heart. And their bows shall be broken. Just so he said this way. Hang
on. Hang on. A little while. He says, look
at verse, I'm going to hurry. Verse 16. He said, A little of
the righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.
He talks about being envious of the prosperity, the wicked
and the world and so forth. No, no, no, no. He says a little
better is a little with the fear of the Lord. Where did Solomon
get his wisdom? He had a wise dad, didn't he?
So Solomon just repeats what he learned. A little that a righteous
man hath. A little with the fear of the
Lord is better than great treasure and trouble. Or where your treasure
is, that's where your heart is and your and moths and rust and
thieves and so forth. But he says a little that a righteous
man hath those, you know, whose riches are in Christ. That's
not a little is it? That's great treasure. But a
little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of
many wicked. In other words, you think that's worded wrong?
Better than the many riches of the wicked? No, no, there's no
grammatical errors in God's Word. It's better than the riches of
all the wicked put together. You put all their riches together.
It's just a little that a righteous man has. It's better. It shall be broken. Whatever
people trust in, the flesh, shall be broken. You know, everybody
comes to their deathbed. Strong men, rich men, they all
die like a dog. Can't do anything about it. Their
riches can't save them. Their strength can't save them.
Their wisdom can't save them. Their money can't save them.
Nothing can save them. That arm of the flesh shall be broken.
But the Lord upholdeth the righteous. Leaning on His everlasting arm,
He upholdeth the righteous. The Lord knoweth the days of
the upright. The days. He's got our days numbered.
They cannot pass. Our bounds set cannot pass. He
tells us to number our days that we might apply our hearts to
wisdom. This is the wisdom he's talking about. And their inheritance
shall be forever. This is going to pass. It's all
grass. All flesh is grass. It looks
good now. It's going to fade away. down a little while, you have
no interest in it. Sister Nancy and I were talking one time,
we're talking about how the world seems to lose a little bit of
its luster with each passing year. Doesn't it? It should. A little
bit of its luster. And it's going to pass. It's all
grass. It won't have any appeal to you
in just a little time, a little short time. But our inheritance,
Your affection set on things above, that grows brighter and
brighter. Brighter and brighter. And more
desirable, the older you get, and the closer you're faced with
eternity, if you're a believer, the more it appeals to you. My
dear old dad and mom tell me all the time that they just can't
wait. They have a desire to depart and be with the Lord, which is
far better. Oh, my, may that be my desire.
Now, in my youth, I'm still young. Too young to sit for a long time. Well, he says, their inheritance
shall be forever, and they shall not be ashamed in the evil time.
Evil time being the day of judgment. What the world will consider
evil. It's not going to be evil to the Lord's people. Judgment
day for the world is going to be coronation day. You know, folks. There's not
going to be one second of fear or trepidation or worry or fear
or whatever, when the Lord comes, not one second. On your deathbed,
that's not going to happen. The end of the righteous is peace.
That's what we're going to look at. Is it any wonder I made a
two part message out of this? That in itself deserves a message.
But at any rate, God's people die in rest. They don't die. They rest in peace. They rest
in peace. And in that day, that evil day,
it's not evil to the people of God. Their deathbed is not evil. It's not the end of all things.
It's the beginning. It's not the end of life. It's
entrance into abundant life. It's not the cessation of or
the end of happiness and joy and things you wished and hoped
for. It's the beginning of eternal happiness and peace and joy unspeakable
and full of glory. In the Lord, in Christ, for those
in Christ, those who know something about this. So he says, set your
affection on that, on him. Well he says in the day of famine
they shall be satisfied. God's people in the day of famine.
Now we're in that day. We're in the evil days. The last
days. Evil day. Perilous time. We're
in those days right now. But they're not really evil to
God's people are they? These are evil days but they're
not evil to God's people. It's good. Everything's working
together for our good. We're learning. We're growing.
Being United together as a family being prepared. Being conformed
to his it's good it's all good yes it's all good. It's all good. So this evil time these evil
days these perilous times there's really no peril but it's. Disciples were never in peril.
When the Lord was with them they thought they were. Oh my, how little is our faith. He says, he says in verse 19,
the days of famine, they shall be satisfied. We're living in
that day of famine, not of bread. There's more bread than ever
has been. The more riches, physical, material riches than ever in
the history of the world. This is the richest society in
the history of mankind, America, United States of America. And
it's being fattened like a sheep for the slaughter, like a lamb.
But famine of God's word, famine of the famine of the hearing
of God's word. You'll hear more word, the more
the word of God on our radio program in 15 minutes than you
will in 15 years in the average so-called. That's a fact. I hear
them. That's a fact. You do, too. Oh, how blessed we are. Blessed
are your ears to hear what they hear. My, my. will be satisfied. You satisfied? Some aren't. Most are. You satisfied? God's people will be. They are.
They're fed. They're fed. Ah, boy. But the wicked shall perish.
It goes back to the wicked, doesn't it? What about the... I told
you before, they're going to perish. Isn't that right, son?
Enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs, they shall
consume the smoke, and smoke they shall consume away. Wicked,
verse 21, borroweth and payeth not again. You know, everything
that everyone has is borrowed. Nobody owns anything. Everybody's
clamoring to own, well, the American dream now is to own a second
home. At any rate, we don't own anything. We don't own anything. Nothing. Man stakes his little title claims
to a piece of ground, and about all the piece of ground he's
going to own in the end is a six foot plot. And if you're in Mexico, you
don't own that. They'll dig your bones up in
a few years and give it to somebody else. The wicked borrow it. Everything man has, he borrows
from God. And he doesn't pay it again.
How do we pay back God? We can't. But God requires one
thing from us. What does he what does he require
of us? The sacrifice of what? Praise. Thanksgiving. Render unto God
the sacrifice of your life. Thanksgiving. Just give thanks.
That's all. My dad never did require anything
of me. Payback. All those years he fed
me never required a simple thank you would do. Do we need a better
reason to come here? Just do it twice a week. That's
not much. It's not enough, really. Every day. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks every day. Oh, may
these, you know, blessings that we make at the table mean more
than just that. Say in grace, my, my. My, my. The wicked borrows and
pays not again. You know, the wicked are out
plowing his field on a large debt. That is, plowing God's
field on his day. That's why God says it's a positive
wickedness. Let the righteous show us mercy
and give us. Who is the righteous? Christ
is the righteous. Who is the righteous? Those in
Christ are righteous, as he is, so are we. How do you know somebody's
obtained mercy? How do you know somebody's obtained
mercy from God? How do you know somebody's obtained
mercy from God? They're merciful. How do you know somebody's received
grace from God? They're gracious. How do you
know somebody's been forgiven all their sins? They forgive. To the merciful, he'll show himself
merciful. to the forward he'll show himself. That's the rule. Not a bad rule. A good rule. As we have received
mercy, show mercy. Or, there was a preacher riding
on a ship years ago, and the captain of that ship
began to beat one of the sailors unmercifully. for a minor infraction. And the preacher went up to the
captain and said to him, Dear sir, he said, I beg you, please
show mercy to this man. And that brutal captain said,
I show no mercy to anyone. And that preacher wisely said,
then you better hope you have no sin upon you. Because you
receive no mercy from God. You better hope you never need
mercy, or you're not going to get it. To the merciful, you
show himself merciful. So, the Lord says to us, the righteous show mercy and
giveth. Give, and it shall be given to
you. Verse 22, such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth.
I like this. I love this. Whoever is blessed
by God shall inherit the earth. No matter what anybody says,
nobody can say anything against it. Do you remember the story
of Isaac blessing Jacob and Esau? Do you remember that? Or Jacob
being the supplanter that he was, schemed and connived and
got to bless him. But do you remember what happened?
Isaac blessed Jacob instead of Esau, remember? And Esau came
running back and said, please bless me, don't bless him, bless
me. What did Isaac say? He said, I have blessed him,
and he shall be blessed. And so it is with God's people. He blessed them, and they shall
be blessed. Our Lord's blessings are shalls,
not might be, not will, not condition. Shall. Shall. They that be blessed
of him shall inherit the earth. They that be cursed of him. No remedy. Cut off. Cut off. Okay, next week, Lord
willing, next Wednesday, we'll look at the rest of that. And
oh my, it gets better and better, this song. It gets better and better. Steps,
the next verse, steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
You interested in that? Have your steps ordered? What are my steps? What are my
steps according to that word? Oh, my. All right, let's pray.
Stand with me. Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, thank you
for your word. It is a sharp, two-edged sword. It wounds, it heals, it breaks,
it makes whole. Lord, your word is your power.
It convicts, it encourages, it shows our weakness and it strengthens
us. Lord, your word is everything if you are pleased to send it
forth in power, if you're pleased to make it a savior of life and
not death, if you send that error home to the heart of your people. Otherwise, it's a curse. Lord,
if we be hearers of the word, not doers only, we're cursed
by it. The Word shall be judged by the Lord. Let us judge ourselves.
Let us condemn ourselves. Let us be judged by the Word.
Let us hear the Word, be convicted by it, be proved and rebuked
by it, and be doers of it, and thereby inherit the blessing
of the Lord. O Lord, have mercy upon us, we
pray, according to the riches of Thy glory in Christ. We pray the same things over
and over and over again, Lord, for your mercy, your grace, your
help. These are perilous times indeed,
dangerous times, yet those that trust in thee and wait upon thee
have nothing to fear. So let us do just that, trust
in thee, look to thee. And we pray all these things
in Christ's name, amen. you