I like to preach from the Psalms.
I find much comfort in reading the Psalms. David was a man exercised
in the faith, and not only for his good, but for ours also.
I like reading this because he is a man after God's own heart,
and yet he's a man of like He's a man of like passion. So I want
us to look at this psalm. He says, Hear me when I call. What a priceless. Priceless blessing
to be heard by God. Like, give some thought to that.
To be heard by God, that's what we ought to stamp seal on that
one. God would hear me. To be able to come to the throne
of grace, and it is a throne, and grace reigns there. And to
cast all my cares upon Him, knowing, not hoping, knowing He cares
for me. To have His full attention, to
have God Almighty's full attention. I've never had anybody's full
attention. I've never given my son my full attention, my minor
wonder, and I'll be listening to him tonight. To have God Almighty's
full attention as if I was the only one that existed. Hear me when I call. You can
also read it this way. Answer me when I call. You know,
God has not told us to call upon him in vain. We should call upon
him expecting an answer according to his will. We shouldn't call
upon God and say, no, he won't answer that. No, we call upon
him expecting, expecting the answer according to his will,
submitting to his will. And then here is the reason God
can answer me. Oh, God of my righteousness. Oh, God of my righteousness.
God who is righteous is the God of my righteousness. He's the
God of my righteousness. I can stand in His holy presence. He can answer my prayers because
in His Son I'm as holy as He is. In His Son I am. I'm as holy as He is. The righteousness
that I have comes from Him. It comes from Him. He's the author
of it, he's the giver of it, therefore I need not be afraid
to call upon him. It is not presumption for a child
to call upon their father. That's not presumption. To call
upon him in faith, to call upon him in Christ, expecting, looking
for him to answer And then David said, Thou hast
enlarged me when I was in distress. You know, when we think of God
enlarging a person, we think of blessings, don't we? Material
blessings. That's what the world thinks
of whenever they think of God enlarging them. It's blessings
and material blessings and wealth. They don't think of troubles. When you're in trouble, you don't
think of God enlarging you. When you're under heavy trials
and your heart is broken, God's enlarging. He's enlarging that
heart for more grace. He's enlarging that heart for
more kindness and more love. That's what God's doing. David
says, Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. He can make
all our trials abound to our good. And then David looks back
here upon the past mercies of God and finds comfort and encouragement
that God will deliver him because Listen, as He is, so will He
be. God changes not. I can look back
on my past and I can see times when God has delivered me and
delivered me, delivered me, and He hasn't changed. So even now
I expect, when I'm in trouble, I expect God will deliver me
because He changes not. Can we not say, Here I raise
my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I come? And you know what? We'll say that tomorrow too.
And the next day. That's what we'll say. God Almighty
is faithful. He's a faithful God. He's faithful
to his word. He said, I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. He's faithful to that. He's faithful to his
people. And I love this verse. I've used
this verse. I've used this verse down through
my life as a believer. He says, Call upon me in the
day of trouble. And I believe. That's one of
my favorite verses in the scriptures, you call upon me in a day of
trouble and I'll believe. And you know what you call upon
him and you leave it there because he said, I believe. I believe. We have God to look to. We have
his word to look to and we have past experience to look to. Is
that not enough? He's given us much to look to.
And so he says here in verse one, have mercy upon me and hear
my prayer. Hear my prayer. He pleads for
mercy, not his marriage, but he pleads for God's mercy. Mercy
is one of my greatest needs. You know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to ask for it. I'm going to ask for it. Have
mercy upon me and hear my prayer. It is a mercy upon me if God
hears my prayer. It's a mercy upon me for God
to hear me. Then he turns and he says in
verse two, O ye sons of men, how long will you turn my glory
into shame? How long will you lie on God
and his Christ? It's so sad. I think it's so
sad and pitiful. that there is so much lying going
on right now in pulpits on God and on Christ. And people sitting
out there are listening to this. There's lying on God. And He
says, how long are you going to lie on Him? How long are you
going to preach another gospel which is not another? How long will you take the glory
of God, the redemptive glory of God, which is the gospel,
and turn it into a lie? Saying things that God does not
say and has not said and will not say. Telling men and women that God
loves everyone indiscriminately the same. You know how much that's
told this morning? You know, the Word of God says
He hates the workers of iniquity. He hateth the workers of iniquity.
It also says He loves those in Christ. The Word of God teaches
us that God loves those that are in His Son. How long are
you going to tell men and women that Christ died to save every
son of Adam? How long are you going to do
that? How long? I'll tell you what He did. He
died to save every promised seed of Abraham. That's the truth. That's not a lie. That's the
truth. Christ died to save every promised
seed of Abraham. How long are you going to tell
men and women that God wants to do something for them? How
long are you going to do that? How long are you going to tell
them that if they'll only cooperate with Him? Why don't you tell them that
He's the Sovereign? Why don't you tell men and women that God
Almighty is Sovereign and that He does as He will, with whom
He will, when He will? That's the truth. That's the
truth. And a man will never worship
God until he worships God at his sovereign throne, until he
worships God as the sovereign of heaven and earth, who can
do with him as he will. The first time, I tell you, when
I heard the gospel, one of the first things that struck me when
I heard Henry preach on television was that God didn't have to save
me. I was told most of my life that God wanted to save me. Won't
you accept? Oh, He wants to save you. Then
I found out. After all, if I was saved, it
was the sovereign mercy of God. And for the first time, I actually
became afraid of God. I became scared. I thought, He
doesn't have to do that. He does not have to save me.
He can leave me alone and be a just God and do it. How long, He said, are you going
to turn my glory into shame? How long are you going to love
vanity and seek after leasing or lying? How long are you going
to love that which is absolutely nothing? Vanity, nothing. That's
what vanity is. It's nothing. How long are you
going to do that? How long are you going to seek
after a lie? Men love darkness rather than light. I'll tell
you how long. I'll tell you how long. You'll do it until God either
saves you or damages you. That's how long you'll do it. God either saves you by His grace
or He damages you. That's how long. But know this. He says, know this, but know
that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself. Know
this, the godly man is God's chosen man because he's a work
of God. A godly man, a true godly man,
is a work of God. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus, Jesus under good works. The believer is a
work of God. God has chosen from Adam's race
an innumerable company of sinners. for himself. He's chosen. We are not, and we're not made
for ourselves. That's an awakening, isn't it?
Anybody in this country. I was not made for myself. God
didn't put me on this earth for myself. He didn't give me life
on this earth for myself. We have been made, the believer
has been made, a new creation in Christ Jesus. He's made you
a new man in Christ. to what he's done. We have been
bought with a price, the Scriptures tell us. We have been bought
with a price. We are not our own. And I tell
you this, I am thankful I'm not my own. The last person I want
to own me is me. God don't own me. You know what
a believer is? He is a purchased possession
of God. Purchased possession of God Almighty.
And I'm not my own. And I tell you, that's when we
begin to worship. And we worship at a sovereign
throne, and we realize we're not our own, that we are His
purchased possession. We are for His glory. He said,
I made you, created you and Isaiah for my glory. God's glory. And being made for
His glory, we are the apple of His eye. I can't comprehend that, that
I would be the apple of his eye, the object of his affection.
I can't comprehend that. Then he says in verse three,
the Lord will hear me when I call unto him. Oh, to have confidence
in prayer, to have confidence in prayer, to go before him knowing
that the Lord will hear me when I call unto him. Here's our confidence. Here's our confidence. If I'm
His, if my righteousness is from Him, if my righteousness is from
Him, then He will hear me when I call unto Him. Then God will
hear me when I call unto Him. And we'll leave the answers to
Him. We'll submit to His will in these things. He'll hear me
when I call unto Him. And stand in awe, He says in
Stand in awe at the being of God, my soul. I want you to look over in Job
38. Job chapter 38. Let me read some
few verses here. Stand in awe of God Almighty. It says, Then the Lord answered
Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkens
counsel by word without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a
man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where was
thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou
hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof?
Who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations
thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof?
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
for joy. for joy, or who shut up the sea with doors when it
break forth, as if it had issued out of the womb, when I made
the clouds and thick darkness and swaddling bands for it, and
break up for it my decree place, and set bars and doors, and said,
Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy
proud ways be stayed." Have you ever stopped the ocean? Have
you ever set the boundaries of the ocean? You go on later on
and read that chapter. And you think upon the greatness
of the one we serve. God. Stand in awe. Stand in awe of the person of
Christ, the God-man. This is God Almighty incarnate.
This is God in human flesh. That's who that man is. That's
God. That's God. Stand in awe of that. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifested in the flesh. Stand in awe of what God has
done for you in Christ. Don't ever get over that. We ought to be awed every day
of what God has done for us in Christ. Someday we will. Someday
we'll be able to worship Him as He used to be worshipped.
But we need to stand in awe of it right now. Stand in awe of
it. and in all of the righteousness
that He's given you and the forgiveness He's given you in a place in
His kingdom. Christ said, I go to prepare
a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for
you, I'm coming again to get you. I'm coming again to receive
you unto myself. Heir of all things. If you were
made heir, if a person is made heir of the Biltmores, You, man,
you'd be, you'd think, whoa, I got mad. You're heirs of God. Heirs of God. We have in Him
things that can't even be explained. Paul said, when he went to third
heaven, he said, I saw things unlawful to be uttered. I can't
even put it into human language, what I saw, and we're heirs of
it. Stand in awe of it. We need to stand in awe of it.
Don't, I tell you this, I do believe that if we ever get to
the point where we can truly stand in awe of God and Christ
and what we have in Him, we won't be awed by any man. We won't
stand in awe of some athlete or some rich man. When you meet
God, it's like that blind man. He said, what do you see? He
said, I see men as trees walking. He touched his eyes again. He
said, now what do you see? He said, I see men as men. And when you see
God in Christ, you really begin to see men as men. I don't care
if it's the president or a pauper, they're just men. Used of God. That's all they are. What you and I are about to receive
can't be described, but we can stand in all of it. We can stand
in all of it. And he says in sin not, sin is
never approved. God never approved sin. Grace
teaches us to deny ungodliness. The grace of God teaches us to
deny ungodliness. And then it says, Commune with
your own heart upon your bed and be still. Well, this is a
good time to meditate upon God. When the business of the day,
the house is quiet, everything's quiet, then think upon God. Think upon God. Meditate upon
Him. Use your mind for what God gave
you for it. So think upon Him. Examine our relationship to Christ.
Not take any of these things for granted. And remind ourselves
of the greatness of God and the mercies of God. And be still. It's taken me a while to learn
this, but I learned most when I shut up. I finally learned
that when I shut up, I finally learned something. When I listen,
I pay attention. I learned something. And that's
why he's saying here, just be still. I don't understand it. Just be still. You don't have
to understand. Like that last line, you don't
have to understand. You just trust him. And that's
what he says here later on. We learn most when we are quiet
and we just be still and watch him. Watch his hand. Watch his
hand in providence work. Just watch him. And be still. And I know this, there's nothing
as sweet to a laboring man like rest, like just being still. Just be still and rest in him.
Rest in him for all of us. Just be still and rest in him.
Be still, he says in Psalm 46, 10, be still and know that I
am God. This is what we need to know.
I am God. When I don't understand and when
I can't comprehend, I rest in his wisdom, his infinite wisdom. I rest in his power. I rest in
his goodness. The Lord is good. That's what
the scriptures teach us. The Lord's good. He's always
good. I may have a bad day, but that
doesn't change him. He's good. And everything he does for me
is good. Be still, be still from fretting, from much care, and
just trust him. Just lean hard. Boy, you ever
lean hard upon something? You ever been tired? Just lean
hard upon something. Just lean hard upon him. Lean
hard upon him. The same God who brought you
this far will lead you home. He knows the way home. Like that
horse you talked about last night. He knows the way home. Because
he is the way. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. You know, I lost in Adam, I lost
the way to God. But you know, Adam was never
the way to God. Christ said, I am the way. I lost in Adam,
I lost the truth of God. But Adam was never the truth.
Christ said, I am the truth. I lost in Adam the life of God,
but Adam was not the life of God. Christ said, I am the life. He is everything I lost. He is
everything I lost to me. He knows the way home. So we
just trust him for it. And this is all for the sacrifices
of praise, all for the sacrifices of righteousness. And here's
why he's saying, seek after and do those things that are right. You know what that is? What we're
doing right now? Worship. There's nothing more
right than worshipping God. To worship God. Worshipping Him. Love one another. Do that which
is right. Love one another. That's what
our Lord's new commandment is. To love one another. By this
shall all men know you're to my disciples if you love one
another. Love is the glue that holds the
family together. To love one another. Love covers
a multitude of sins. And give, looking for nothing
in return. That's totally opposite of the
world, isn't it? They give to those who can give
back. Give, looking for nothing in return, and put your trust
in Him. That's why you lean hard upon
Him. He will provide. Have you ever failed? He's provided
us with a righteousness. He's provided us with everything
we need. He's given us all spiritual blessings
in the heavenlies in Christ. And he did that before the foundation
of the world. Put your trust in him. The more
we come to know him, the more we will trust him. Make him the
study of your life. Make Christ the study of your
life. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of what? I don't have to learn Greek. Just learn him. Learn
of me. The more we come to know him,
the more we'll trust him. The more we trust him, the less
we'll toss and turn on our beds at night. I'm telling you, the
more we trust him and come to know him, the less we'll toss
and turn on those beds, worrying and fretting. There'll be many, he said, that
say, who will show us any good? Everybody wants to be rich. Who's
going to show it? Who's going to increase our corn
and our wine? Who's going to show us any good?
I'll tell you this, if they knew God, they wouldn't have to ask
that question. But here's what they're saying. They are interested
in the temporal blessings of this life. Who's going to make
me rich? Isn't that the attitude of most
people you meet? Who's going to make me rich?
Who's going to provide me with and a big home and prestige,
and who's going to show me any good? Let me find that person.
Oh, their interest is in gratifying the flesh. That's all that is.
That's all that is, gratifying the flesh. But this won't do
for the believer. I'm telling you, the believer
who knows God, he desires God who is good. God, give me Him. God who is
good, and what he gives me in this life is for my good and
his glory, and we'll be satisfied with that. Here's what the believer wants.
This is what the believer wants. Lord, lift thou up the light
of thy countenance upon us. Isn't that what you'd rather
have this morning, God's favor? More than the world. God's favor. This is the real good. Let us
have thy favor on Christ. Let them have the worldly goods.
Let us have the heavenly good. Christ. He's the heavenly good. Let us have him. And he says
in verse seven, thou has put gladness in my heart. I tell
you this, if you have any real gladness, God put it there. God
Almighty put it there. Do you have any real gladness?
He put it there. When God saved me by his grace,
at the same time, he put gladness in my heart. When God saved you, did it make
you mad? It made you glad. He put glad, glad,
glad he saved me by his grace. And this salvation in Christ,
this grace that produced gladness in my heart, far exceeds the
increase of their corn and wine. Far exceeds it. Their good can't
bring this happiness. Not this. No. When wintertime
comes, the harvest is over, the wine and the corn is eaten up
and drank up, their gladness is gone. But you know the grace
of God will endure all seasons. It endures all seasons. It doesn't
matter if it's summer, winter, fall, or spring. It endures all
seasons that come my way. If you want real gladness and
real joy, you're going to find it in Him. You're going to find
it in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where you're going to
find it. I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou,
Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. Isn't that a beautiful
verse? That's a beautiful verse. Peace. You'll notice here, peace comes
before sleep. If you don't have peace, you're
not going to sleep. He said, you make me lie down
in peace. David had many enemies. He was surrounded by his enemies.
He said, I'm going to lay down the night and go to sleep. Because
thou only makest me dwell safely." When a man finds in Christ all
he needs, and he knows that in Christ he has God's favor, and
that God has chosen him in Christ before the foundation of the
world, and that in Christ he's righteous, that man can lay down
at night in peace and sleep. Because he only makes me to dwell
safely. My youngest brother, he's gotten
in behind a lot of guns and stuff, and I haven't shot guns and stuff,
but he was telling me the other day, he said he bought a pistol
and he said, I got to permit to carry it. I said, well, you
need that for what? He said, well, you never know. You know, sometimes the Lord
will let you trust just what you want to trust him. I'm going
to trust him. Thou only makest me dwell in
safety." God keeps His sheep. He keeps them. God who made us, Christ
who died for us, and the Spirit who indwells us will keep us
all the way home. He'll keep us all the way home.
He only makes me dwell in safety. You know, the President, with
all his secret servicemen, can't keep him safe. No, that's proven
enough. It's been proven. But God Almighty
can keep every one of His sheep, His elect, every one of them
at the same time, safe. Nothing can touch. Not unless
He lets it happen. And I'll only make this me to
dwell in safety. He said, I'll lay me down. I'll
tell you this. We can lay down at night in peace
and sleep knowing these things in Christ. And one day, one day,
we're going to lay down in peace and sleep for the last time.
We're going to wake up in his presence. And thou only makest me to dwell
safely. Here, you know what? I am as
safe here as I am as if I was there. I was safe as if I were
on the battlefield or if I'm standing here. I don't realize
it like I ought to, but I'm telling you, I'm just as safe. And in
Christ, our lives are hid with Christ
in God. Now that's safe. Thank you, John. Let's turn to
number 207. Number 207. And let's stand and sing verses
1 and 3. Number 207, verses 1 and 3. Oh, happy day that fixed my choice
on Thee, my Savior and my God. Well, may this glowing heart
rejoice and tell its raptures all abroad. Happy day, happy
day, when Jesus washed my sins away. He taught me how to walk
and pray and live rejoicing every day. It's done, the great transaction's
done I am my Lord's and He is mine He drew me and I followed
on Charmed to confess the voice divine Happy day, happy day,
when Jesus washed my sins away. He taught me how to watch and
pray and live rejoicing every day. Happy day, happy day, when
Jesus washed my sins away. You.