Turn back to Psalm 36 with me. Now, this is a very sweet psalm. But in order to get to the sweetness,
there's some bitter that must be going through first, which
is a little bit like the picture of salvation. No one tastes the
sweetness of Christ until we taste the bitterness of seeing
who and what we are by nature. And this psalm begins with a
description of a group called the wicked. And a believer can obviously
benefit from being instructed about who the wicked are, what
they do and why they do what they do. If that weren't so,
then these things wouldn't be in God's Word. But we can benefit
from that. But the most important thing
a believer can know about this group called the wicked is that the only difference between
the wicked and the righteous is the Lord Jesus Christ. The wicked and the righteous
are just one step apart, and in between is the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's all that separates us
from the wicked. The second important thing a
believer should realize is that at one time, we all stood over
there with the wicked. used to be counted amongst the
wicked. And the only reason we don't
rejoin them is the goodness and the grace of our God, that he
restrains us. The truth of the matter is, if
he just lifts our hand away from us, we'll go right over there
and rejoin again. The wicked nature we got from
our father Adam is subdued by God's goodness, but it has not
been killed yet. The old man's not dead. Therefore,
when the voice of sin, or the voice of the wicked, speaks,
do you know we still hear? We still hear it, don't we? Look
at verse 1 here. The transgression of the wicked,
there's that group, the wicked, the sinful. It says the transgression
of the wicked sayeth. Sin has a voice, folks. It has
a voice and it talks constantly. It speaks continually. And you
young people, I'm going to Aim at you a little bit here and
us older folks hopefully will hear too and get a blessing from
this, but. You young people can understand exactly what I'm talking
about, just like us adults can. Because if you think about it,
you too have heard this voice of sin speak to you. And I could
give you a lot of examples of it. Why is it when your folks
say don't do that? And there's sometimes this little
voice in there that goes, that's exactly what I'm going to do.
Whether you do it or not, there's that voice, and that's the voice
of the wicked. And it always says the same thing
to you. Have you ever had, do you all
know what peer pressure is? The voice of wicked has one thing
it says, and it's right here in the last line of verse one,
it says, the voice says, there's no fear of God before the rise. The voice of the wicked says,
don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. You see, that's
what Satan came to Eve with and said, thou shalt not surely die. Don't be afraid, Eve. It's OK. You young people ever have somebody
say, come on, Let's go do this. And there's this other voice
in you that says, I shouldn't be doing this. That's your conscience. See, God's giving you that voice,
thank goodness. Your conscience says, I don't
think I should do that. And what do they say? You chicken. They say, don't be afraid, don't
they? They say, your parents won't
really care. They say, what are they going to do to you? Don't
be afraid. Don't be chicken. Isn't that
what they say? They say, that's the voice of
the wicked saying, don't be afraid, when in your hearts you know
you have every reason to be afraid. Let the voice of your conscience
hold sway, as one who listens too much to the voice of sin
will tell you. That same voice It says in verse
two. For he flattereth himself in
his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful. That
word flatter there means to deceive oneself. And that's what the
voice of wicked will tell you to do. And here's how this works
now. And it doesn't matter what the
what the sin is in particular, that the thing that you're thinking
about doing. OK, if you do it. When it's done,
what that same voice will say, well, that's not so bad. First
says, don't be afraid, and then if you do it, it says, that's
not so bad. It'll flatter you, excuse you. And listen to this
circle. Listen to this. You see, the
adulterer says, well, I'm not a thief. And the thief says,
well, I'm not a murderer. And the murderer says, well,
I'm not a rapist. And the rapist says, well, I'm
not a traitor. And the trader says, well, I'm not a child abuser
and the child abuser says, well, I'm not an adulterer. You see
how everybody's got some sin that's worse than the one they're
committing. And therefore, they don't have to be afraid. And
we excuse ourselves that way. The Scripture says, you see,
it says there in the. It says that until his iniquity
be found out. We can be sure, listen, young
people, you can get away with a lot of things that your folks
never find out about. They may never know, but there
is someone who knows. God knows everything we do. And one day we'll be found out.
One day we will. It's like I read an article where
cheating is rampant now in colleges. You know, computer classes and
this kind of thing. Just get somebody else to do the work
for you. And the folks think that won't be found out. As soon
as they have a job and they're supposed to do something they
don't know how to do, they'll be found out. And God knows what
we do, whether our folks do or not. Iniquity will be found out. And God hates sin and will punish
all the workers of iniquity. Satan said to Eve, Thou shalt
not surely die. What did God say to Adam? In
the day you eat, you shall surely die. Who's right? The voice of
iniquity or the voice of God? Look at verse 3 here. The words of his mouth are iniquity
and deceit. He had left off to be wise and
to do good. The voice of sin leads to self-deceit,
and eventually, the more we sin, the easier it becomes. And that's
a great danger to you as young people, is that you may get away
with it, but sooner or later, it comes back to haunt you. It'll
be found out. The sad thing is that there comes
a time when we become so hardened that we don't know the difference
between right and wrong. An illustration of this is, you
know, for what I do to make expenses through this life is I represent
artists and sell their artwork. I used to work with some Russians.
I don't anymore. You know why? Ninety years of
living under communism and, you know, in communism, there is
no religion allowed. There is no right or wrong. There's
no. It's a godless society. Well, do you know what the problem
I had with them? Do you know what was honest to them? What
was right to them? What was good to them? Whatever
they wanted. And what was bad for them was
anything that they didn't like or didn't want to do. Well, I
can't deal with that. I don't know how to. I mean,
if Stan and I shake hands on a deal, it's done, isn't it?
That's how it's going to be. You make a deal with a Russian,
well, tomorrow it's a different deal. And you catch him or call
him on it and they go, oh, you catch me, you know, it's OK.
It's funny, you see. And that's where that leads is
eventually there is no right and wrong in the eyes of one
who is drowning in sin. And that's where the voice of
iniquity leads. It just leads further and further
into that. And I'm not trying to scare you
to death with this. I'm just telling you what this says in
these verses. You see, verse four, it says, that the wicked
deviseth mischief upon his bed and sits himself in a way that's
not good, he abhorreth not evil. Where it will lead you eventually
is that when you're sitting up in school, you're thinking about
something you're going to do you shouldn't be doing as soon
as you get out of there or that night or whenever. And when you
go to bed at night, you're laying there thinking, whether you're
sitting up or laying down, you're thinking about something that
you shouldn't be doing. Now, that's where the voice of
sin leads. It's where all sin leads. And
the picture here is that we're all born in sin. And, you know,
young people may wonder, how do my folks know so much about
me? It's because they were you. They
were sinners just like you were, and they're not proud of that,
and they're not going to point it out to you on a continuing basis. But you see, they have felt the
consequences of sin. And there are. And we're not
lying to you about this. There is pleasure in sin for
a season. But then there are the consequences
of sin, which will come. But the ultimate consequence
is eventually right now, there is the wicked and they're the
righteous. And the Lord Jesus Christ is all that's between
them. One day, Christ is going to take his people up in his
arms and go to be with God in heaven. What's going to happen
to these folks? Scripture says they're going
to be put somewhere where they can do no more harm. God's going
to put away sin and the voice of it. And those who are with
Christ, won't we be glad when we won't hear the voice of sin
anymore coming from out there or from inside us? And young people, you don't want
to be with the wicked. Now, let me point this out. What is the tone of this psalm? You know, God is angry with the wicked
every day, but God's anger is righteous and right and just. But as far as you and I are concerned,
Young people, your parents, when you harken to that voice of sin
and you do something, your parents may be angry. And I tell you
what, they don't hate you. They're not ready to. If any
of you have been sent off to prison yet. If your parents go,
OK, that's the last straw. You're going to reform school.
I've had enough of this. No, no, no. They love you. They
just want to teach you. They want you to see the difference
between the wicked and the righteous, that it's the Lord Jesus Christ
that separates us. That's what's on their mind.
And we as a people, the tone of this psalm is not like, OK,
now there's the wicked. They're going to get theirs.
No, I tell you what, any one of us who was never counted with
the wicked. Well, pick up the rock and throw
the first stone. But ought we not rather to have
compassion upon the way we look at our children when they sin?
All we need to have that same compassion out here, don't we?
And that's the tone David knew about sin, folks. He was one. He harkened to that voice. And
we should be eager and desire mercy for others. as we've received
it ourselves. The best perspective of the sins
of others is from a right, long look at my own. And that's where
David was coming here. But thank God there is mercy.
There is mercy. OK, we're done with that part.
OK, now let's get to the good news, which starts in verse 5
here. Do you see it? It says, Thy mercy, O Lord, is
in the heavens. Thank God there is mercy to be
had. But whose mercy is it? What's the word in front of mercy?
Thy mercy. It's God's mercy. The only true
mercy is God's mercy. And I can give you an example
of of our mercy. We need to be glad it's not that
your salvation and mine is not dependent on my mercy. Joseph,
I wonder, do you ever take the trash out of your house? Sometimes
you got to do that. Have you ever gone out there
and picked up the can of lead and gone to put something in
there and seen these little white wiggly things? Y'all know about those? Those
little white wiggly things that go on everywhere? Yeah, I know,
Joseph, what your mom and dad have taught you to do. When you
see those, you immediately run in the house and go, Mom! Mom! The maggots are here! Get out
there! Get worth a fresh hamburger!
Start thawing some steaks! Is that what you do? Not quite,
is it? I know what you do. He'd go for
the raid. Gotcha. There's one getting away. Isn't
that what we do? Kill those ugly little vicious
boogers. We don't want them around us,
do we? That's our brand of mercy. I'm so glad the word thy is in
front of mercy here. You know what God's mercy is
compared to ours? God sent his son to the dunghill. And when he got there, it was
infested with maggots, white wiggling things. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, did he reach for the bug spray? He reached down
and one by one, gathers them up, puts them in his hand, takes
them into his house, he feeds them, he cares for them, he keeps
them, provides everything they need, and what's amazing is that
one day he's going to turn them from wiggling maggots into his
very own image. Because he's married to them.
Can anybody here even imagine Gabe, you did right well for
yourself. Can you imagine marrying a maggot? Beyond our comprehension,
isn't it? But that's the mercy of God,
because that's what we are by nature. Where is this mercy? It says
it's in the heavens. It's all in Christ. The father
ordained this mercy, the son came and established it, and
God the Holy Spirit calls us to it. Turn over to Psalm 51,
just a few verses, pages over to Psalm 51. Upon whom is this
mercy shown? Is it just isn't like the modern
preachers say on TV today? God loves you. Got a wonderful
plan for your life. All you've got to do is come
down here and shake my hand, jump in that pool. When you come
out of there, it's going to be all fine. God's got a wonderful
plan for your life. Is that how it is? Is that how
God determines who to have mercy on? Is who comes down front and
shakes hands? Is that what's determined on?
You know, I tell you what, Look what it hinges on here in verse
51. I mean, Psalm 51, verse 1 says,
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according
to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions,
wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgression
and my sin is ever before me. What's this saying? Turn over
to 1 John 1 with me. This voice of sin, it will harden
the heart. It will harden the heart of those
who listen to it. It'll just make you harden to
sin. That's why we shouldn't be surprised at the butchery
and the You know, you read about a woman who put her baby in the
oven and just, you know, you just think, how could they do
that? Now, listen, except for the grace of God, we'd do the
same thing. We'd hearken to that voice. And that's where that
leads. But there are some to whom God
shows mercy. Who is it? Have you got 1 John
1? Look at verse 9. It says, He
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from our unrighteousness. If we walk the aisle and shake
a preacher's hand and do what he is, that what he says. Now,
you see those that you see the condition of receiving mercy.
If we confess our sin. You young people want to know
where salvation, where it begins. Is do we see ourselves as really
what we are? Do we see ourselves as sinners?
Do we confess before God doing what we are? That's the claim
on mercy if we confess who we are. And back to our text, you
see, it says, Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and Thy faithfulness
reaches unto the clouds. You see where faithfulness begins? Whose is it? It's God's faithfulness. It's Thy faithfulness. And this
is a beautiful picture. I don't know if any of you have
ever gotten in an airplane and you're on a drizzly, foul day. And you take off and you're flying
and rising and all of a sudden you burst through the clouds
and the sun's out and it's gorgeous up there. Well, you know, the
only thing that separates the brilliance of that sun and the
beauty of that thing from this awful mess that's down below
is what? Those clouds. What separates them from us? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
cloud between this mess that is us and the righteousness of
God. And it's his faithfulness to
stand there. It's his faithfulness to be between
us and the wrath of God that's being pictured here. But listen,
mercy alone is not enough. Now, listen, it's not enough.
Look at the first phrase of verse six. Thy righteousness is like
the great mountains. Now, if you'll stay with me here,
this is not an easy thing to get across, but it'll be a blessing,
I think, if you can get it. There's some, you know, the fellows
that translated these, the Bible like this, God's blessed this
and I'm not trying to take issue with it, but occasionally there's
something that we can understand a little different than what
they actually put down here. There's no S on the word mountains
there. If you look up the original, there's no S. And also the word
great there. Do you have a center reference
in your Bible, and it says the mountains of God, where they
almost got it right there. That word great is God. That's
the word. So it reads like this. Thy righteousness
is like the God mountain. So that doesn't make any sense
to me. Stay with me now. So bless you. What is a mountain? But a big rock, a really big
rock, right? Well, who's the rock in Scripture? And this is in capitals in the
other text. Who is the rock? That rock that
followed them through the desert, Egypt, that Moses smote? Well,
in the New Testament, it says that rock is Christ. Isn't that what it says? Now,
what this says is that the righteousness of God, OK, is the God rock. The righteousness of God is the
Lord Jesus Christ. And notice, it doesn't say that
the righteousness of God is is I mean, it doesn't say that the
rock is like the righteousness. It says righteousness is like
the rock. And there's a huge difference. The difference being
this. You can pursue righteousness
all you want. That's what the Pharisees did,
isn't it? They pursued righteousness. And what does that lead to? Self-righteousness. Tell you what. We're not after
righteousness, we're after Christ, who is our righteousness. Say,
boy, that's a subtle difference. Well, that's what this is saying.
It does not say here that Christ is like righteousness. No, whatever
Christ is, whoever he is, that is righteousness. And to those
who see themselves as sinners and seek mercy, confess who and
what they are and seek mercy, you know what they find they
need? Righteousness. And the only place that is found
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that righteousness is like
a mountain. And here's the picture there.
Have you ever seen one of these... Wild World of Sports used to
have a thing when they started. And it would be way out here
showing this huge mountain. And you thought, well, that's
nice. And then it would start coming in like this. And it would
just keep coming in, coming in, coming in. And then all of a
sudden, what just showed up as a speck all of a sudden turned
into... There was a guy climbing that mountain. Back there, you
couldn't even see him. You couldn't even see him there.
That's how you and I are if we're in Christ. God doesn't see us,
he sees the mountain. He sees the God rock. And the
righteousness you and I need, it's in Christ in the rock. Isn't
that a great picture? All right. Look over at, go to verse, the
rest of verse six here, it says that God's judgments are a great
deep, and the Lord preserve us man and beast. Now, when it says
a great deep here, we know that Christ is deeper than we can
comprehend, don't we? We know that. God's whole plan
of salvation is so deep or so impossible by nature for us to
understand. And your children may wonder,
why do I have to come here every week? Well, let me ask you this. You go to school. for twelve
years, right? That's mandatory. Or maybe ten. I don't know how many it is.
Why is it that these mean parents and this mean government makes
you go to school? You know why? You can't get through
this life without an education. If you don't know the basics,
there's no hope for you. You're going to have a miserable
life. Your parents bring you here because
you must know who Christ is. or you're going to wind up miserable. And Christ is so deep, we'll
never understand Him enough. But I tell you what, everybody
here who knows Christ, they know who He is. He's God in human
flesh. They know what He did. He came
down here from on high and lived a perfect life and died for our
sins. They know why He did it. To save
His people and to glorify the Father. And we know where he
is now. That's not so deep, is it? It
is deep, but it's not so deep we can't understand it. All right,
look at verse 7. Well, in that phrase there, that
thou preservest man and beast, who does it? God preserves. Everybody,
whoever comes over from the wicked to the righteous, those who are
preserved, the only way they got there is because the Lord
brought them there. Your parents, you know, your parents didn't
come in here one day and lightning come through the roof and hit
him in the head and they go, oh, I see now and it's all it's
OK now and it's going to be. No, no, God preserved him just
over time, listening to the gospel and hearing who Christ was. It
came to the place where I see him. Oh, isn't this wonderful? I see myself. I want to know
him, too. All right, verse seven, how excellent
is our loving kindness, oh, God. Whose lovingkindness? You see
a pattern here? If there be any lovingkindness,
it is found in Christ. Turn over to Psalm 148. What
is the lovingkindness of Christ like? You've got Psalm 148, verse 13.
It says, Let them, let them Any time you see a group of people
like that, let's find out who the them are. Go to the verse
ahead of it, and you see verse 12. It says, both young men and
maidens, old men and children. I tell you what, verse 12 just
took in this whole building. There's young men here. There's
old men here. All you ladies are maidens. Young people, I am so thankful
that you are included here. Do you realize that God saw fit
to include you? You know, you can be part of
the righteous. You don't have to live out there with the wicked.
Oh, I mean, we got to go to work. You've got to go to school and
you've got to be in and you're going to hear that voice as long
as you live. But you don't have to stay with them. You can come
on over. So young men, maidens, old men
and children. Now, look, it says, let them
praise the name of the Lord. For his name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth
and the heavens. Now look back at our text. It
says, How excellent is his lovingkindness? It's above anything we know or
comprehend. And the rest of that verse says,
Therefore, the children of men must put their trust under the
shadow of thy wings. You young people, It is talking
about your parents here. We are the children of men. We're
the sons and daughters of Adam. It's talking about you, too.
Talking about you, too. Put your trust. You know you
trust somebody. You put your trust somewhere.
I know who you put it in most. When I was your age, you knew
who I trusted more than anybody there was. I thought I knew everything.
Thought I had the world by the tail on a downhill pole. I thought I was smarter than
anybody, stronger than anybody, more handsome than anybody. What
a fool I was. And we understand when you think
those things. Because that little voice is
saying, don't be afraid, you're strong. Don't be afraid, you're
pretty. Don't be afraid, you know everything.
Don't hearken to that voice. Come on over to the righteous.
The Lord Jesus Christ, you see, it says here, Children of men,
put your trust under the shadow of thy wings. Do you know where
that is? Y'all have studied about the Ark of the Covenant? There
were two chairmen on that, and they had wings. And they went
back over the top of that Ark of the Covenant. And do you know
what they put on that Ark? On the top of that, under those
wings, the priest came in under the veil and poured the blood
of the sacrifice there. What this is saying to you is
put your trust under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or
a better way to say that is put your that with coming to Christ, is
we think, I'm just, if we ever see ourselves for what we are,
we think, I'm just too wicked. I'm just too bad. God, I mean,
nothing could help me. I'm so bad. Yeah, I can. Get under the wings of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the picture here is like,
my uncle used to have a farm. We'd go up there, and there was
a chicken hawk that'd come over that buddy and circle all the
time. You know what he was looking for? He was looking for a little
bitty, one of these little chicks that when he circled, didn't
run and get under. When they saw the shadow go across
the barnyard, those little chicks would run and get under the wings
of its mother because that chicken hawk wasn't going to be bothering
any full grown chicken. But those that stayed out there
by themselves, they were gone, just gone. Get under the wings
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the picture here. But
look at verse 8. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the
fatness of thy house. Now, this is a picture that we,
you know, right now, fat's not very popular, is it? You're supposed
to not eat much of it or what have you. But back in this day,
if you could afford to cut a meat that had some fat with it, it
was satisfying. It was fulfilling, nourishing.
You got real protein and all this sort of thing. So that's
the picture here, is that there's abundant satisfaction or fullness
in Christ. Now look over at Ephesians 3
with me real quick, and let me show you this verse. Ephesians
chapter 3. There's no question we need the
Lord Jesus Christ to do for us all that must be done. But is
he able? Is he capable of doing that?
Well, here's a verse that sums all that up. Verse 20 of Ephesians
3 says, Now unto him, that's Christ, who is able to do, see
he's able to do some things, but he's able to do them exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the
power that worketh in us unto him, unto Christ be glory in
the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages world without end. I
tell you when we'll come to Christ is when we see ourselves as totally
unable to do anything for ourselves. Then we'll come to Him to do
all that's necessary to be done for us. And then look at the
last part of verse 8. It says, And thou shalt make
them drink of the river of thy pleasures, for with thee is the
fountain of life. Now, did you notice here the
word it says that He makes them drink? I was at a customer's
recently where they had a golden retriever that had been sick
and the dog had to take a pill. I thought, this is going to be
interesting. And it was. It took two of them wrestling
that dog while the other person took and had a hold of that dog's
head and trying to pull its mouth open and jam that pill down that
dog's throat. It was a hoot watching that happen.
It was crazy. Is that what God does to his
people? He calls him and then, buddy, he just takes him up to
that water and I mean, you know, you can take this thing that
says you can take a horse to water, but you can't make him
drink. Let me tell you, that's true. I know that for a fact. If you
don't want to drink, can you see Gabe and I and Rick grabbing
ahold of a horse trying to make him drink water? There's no way
you can do that, is there? Is that what this means here?
God takes his people by the neck and he takes them over and shoves
their head down that tank to Lake Creek. Is that how it works?
Now, let me tell you how it works. This illustration. Do you know
I was over 30 years old before I ever put a floret of broccoli
in my mouth? I thought it was the ugliest.
It stunk up the house. I from it was, you know, pull
my tooth with no novocaine. Don't make me eat broccoli. I
hated the smell of it, the look of it, everything. And then when
I was I was over 30, this Real pretty girl asked me to have
dinner and she was cooking it. I don't remember anything about
the meal except she made broccoli. It was delicious. I love that
broccoli and I've eaten it ever since. You say, well, what was
it made you even try it? Let me tell you, she could have
made me eat dirt and I'd have thought it tasted good. God knows how to make us drink
the water of life. You know who that is? It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you what, you can
stand over there with the wicked and think there's pleasure in
sin, but if you ever see Christ, you'll want a big drink of Him. You'll come to Him. Alright,
look at the next phrase here. It says, The last part of verse
nine, it says, In thy light shall we see light. Now, we know from
that we know who the light is, don't we? And we know by nature
what we are. We're in darkness. We were born
in darkness. And how great is our darkness
when our light is darkness? But I tell you what, if we ever
see Christ, if we see the light and you notice whose light it
is, thy light, that pattern holds all the way through the psalm.
It's God's light. And if we ever see that, we have sight. And
we see, and I'm running long, so I'm going to jump ahead to
verse 9, where it says, O continue thy lovingkindness unto them
that know thee, and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. Again,
you see, it's His righteousness. It's His lovingkindness. But
it says, continue it here. Now, this is not like the sense
of believers. Those of you who know Christ,
we don't sit around going, oh, I hope God didn't take away my
salvation. Hope he doesn't take Christ away
from now. Listen to me. That is the most that would be
the most terrifying thing in the world to me to think that
I could lose my salvation. But God's people, when Christ
pulls us out from the wicked and puts us in himself and the
righteous, he gives us assurance, doesn't he, that it's forever.
It's a done thing. God does not go back. No, sirree. And he'll keep us to the end.
We rejoice in that. But the sense of this, it's not
that slavish fear. What it is, is have you have
you ever had been eating a dessert? And you started and you went,
hmm, that's good. Eat it, and the more of it you
eat, the better it tastes. And the longer you'd like it
to last, just, oh, why can't this just start growing in my
bowl and just go on? And I wish this was nattery.
But sooner or later we get full or it runs out, don't we? The
prayer here of all those who are in Christ is, Father, let
it continue forever. And it will. All those who are
in Christ, it will go on and on and on. Turn a page back to
Psalm 34, and here's something sweet. Psalm 34, verse 7 says,
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him.
Now, children, young people, them that fear him, we talked
about that earlier, didn't we? You see, there's the wicked who
are trying to convince you not to be afraid, and there's the
righteous that have learned fear God. And that's not just Fear
like this, it's a reverence, it's a heart love, it's a reverence
for God and who He is. And this says here, that campeth
round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them. Now listen,
O taste and see that the Lord is good. You young people, come
taste Christ. He's good. Tastes so good. Blessed
is the man that trusteth in Him. O fear the Lord, ye His saints,
for there is no want to them that fear Him. All right, look
back at our text, verse 11 and 12, and the psalm ends where
it began. It says, Let not the foot of
pride come against me. Let's not be so proud that we
won't bow at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let not
the hand of the wicked remove me. There are the workers of
iniquity fallen. They are cast down and shall
not be able to rise. This hand of the wicked remove
me. The illustration of this is that believers can't lose
their salvation. But here's a question. Have you
all noticed that on bridges they have rails along the side? And
have you noticed that on these overlooks and in parks, they
up on the parkway here, big cliff, they got a rail there. And I
went up in the Empire State Building about thirty five years ago and
they had a they had a wall about this high around it. I went back
a few years ago. Now they got a wall with a fence
that goes all the way up and attaches to the building. You
say, why did they do that? It's because people jump off.
You say, what kind of fool's going to do that? Well, what
kind of fool's going to live with the wicked over here? It's
leading right up to the edge of the cliff. They're going to
jump off with them? You young people are smarter
than that, aren't you? Well, I'll tell you what God does.
When he lifts us out of the wicked and puts us over here with the
righteous, you know what he does? He puts a rail around us. He
hedges us about with the Lord Jesus Christ because he knows,
because the old man's not dead, you give us half a chance. You
know what we'll do? We get right over here again with the wicked,
wouldn't we? But what this says is that God keeps us. He keeps
us. He'll go to the end with us.
He not only restrains us. He goes with us to the end. That's
how good the Lord Jesus Christ is. Now, in closing, I want to
read this psalm again, beginning in verse 5. And I'm going to
just change one thing. You see if this doesn't bless
you. Beginning in verse 5. Everywhere there's a thy, we're
going to make a little change. Christ, O Lord, is in heaven.
Christ reaches into the clouds. Christ is the great mountain. He's the rock. Christ is beyond
our comprehension. He's so deep. Christ preserves
man and beast. How excellent is Christ, O God! Therefore, the children of men
put their trust in Christ, or under the shadow of his wings.
They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Christ. And thou shalt make them drink
of the river of Christ. For with Christ is the fountain
of life. In Christ shall we see light. Oh, let it continue. Let Christ
continue unto them that know thee, and let Christ continue
to the upright in heart. It's all about Christ. It's all
about Christ. The only difference between the
wicked and the righteous is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the scripture
says And I say this to young people. Come go with us. Come go with us. The Lord will
do you good. He'll do you good. Your parents
know about these things. May the Lord bless His Word. Turn to hymn number five and
let's stand. I remind you, we do have Wednesday
night service this week. Speak in my tongue some heavenly
things. and speak some boundless thing. The mighty works, for mightier
name of our eternal King. Last verse. O might I hear thy
heavenly tongue, But whisper thou our smiles. Those gentle words should raise
my song to notes almost divine.