That's good singing. Did you
anybody catch a Notice a prevalent word in all
those hymns? Anybody venture to say it? Glory. Good. Our text says, They shall
sing in the ways of the Lord for greatness and glory of the
Lord. Psalm 138 is where we'll be. looking and studying tonight,
Psalm 138. I know what the bulletin says,
but don't pay any attention to that. The psalmist says all men
are liars. That's true. I told Brother John,
I told him I'd changed, and he said there's only one word that
endures forever, isn't it? God's word is written with a
pen of iron and rock, and his word, the scripture says, forever,
O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. What God has written
will come to pass. He has spoken it, and he said,
I'll do it. I have spoken it, and whatever
God purposes, he does. Psalm 138, I was so blessed this
morning in reading it, and I couldn't get away from
it, so I started working on it this afternoon. You can turn
anywhere in the Psalms and find something you need, find something
that really fits your case. and you can receive a blessing.
Just turn him anywhere in the psalm. God is the one who made
our heart. God made man's heart, and he
directed David, the man after his own heart, to write down
the feelings of our own heart. And it happens every time. David,
the psalmist, pens something that really is something that
I'm This is a psalm of worship and praise and prayer and singing,
a psalm that ought to give us some assurance. Let's just look
into it. Verse 1, Psalm 138, he says,
I will praise thee with my whole
heart. David is not bragging here. He's not bragging on his worship
like some do about how much they pray and what they do for their
zeal for God. David's not doing that. David's
not bragging on what he's doing for God. He is just merely telling
and pouring out his heart and saying that, I will praise thee,
O Lord, with my heart, my whole heart. Scripture speaks a lot
of our hearts, a lot. Scripture says, with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, not the head. He may know some
things in his head, but that won't save him. Salvation is
a heart work. Heart work. Scripture says, you
shall find me when you search me with all your heart. It's
not playing religion. It's not going through the motions
of outward form and ceremony of religion. It's a heart work.
It's seeking God with a heart. really wanting to know the true
and living God. And this is what David says,
I will praise thee with my whole heart before the gods, small
g. He says before the gods, little
gods, will I sing praise unto thee. You see, David knew the
true and living God. There's only one. David knew
him. David worshipped him. And though
there are many people who say they know God, yet their description
of him says that he's no God. No God at all. You've heard them. You've heard them talk about
the God they worship, the God they believe in. Small g, isn't
it? small G, small God. He tries and fails. He wants to and can't. He loves
everybody, but it might not help you at all. You might go to hell
anyway. That's a small G in us. That's
a small, that's no God at all. I think it was Barnard that said,
I could whoop that God. This God who can't do anything
for anybody unless they let him? That never ceases to amaze me,
how anybody could worship or talk about a God like that. Does it you? Like that old farmer
told that young preacher one time, he said, the young preacher
was trying to get him to come to church and all that, and the
young preacher said what they always say, well, if you don't
let God save you, then he'll send you to hell. Wisely said,
no, I won't let him do that either. If you can prevent God from doing
that, saving you, you can sure prevent him from damning you,
can't you? It's just a small g, isn't it? And David says,
I'm going to praise the true and living God, the God who is
in the heavens, I guess. David says, where's your God,
David? Here's our God. Let me tell you about it. He's
walking the banisters of heaven, or he's walking around trying
to do what he can. And people just won't let him
have his way. He said, David, where is your God? He said, my
God is in the heavens. He's not walking around, he's
seated on a throne. And he said he hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased. He doesn't do what other people
let him do, he does what he purposes to do. He does what he's pleased
to do. David says, that's my God. And
people, that's the only God there is. And for the life of me, I
can't see why anybody would worship any other God. And David says, I'll praise this
God with my whole heart. He's worthy to be praised. Before
the other gods, before all the other gods, I'm going to sing
praise unto him. I'm going to sing praise unto
him. Verse 2, he says, in verse 2, I will worship, I will worship
toward thy holy temple. Now, what's that mean? Does that
mean we're going to all turn toward Jerusalem, like the Moslems turned toward
Mecca in the East? Well, that's ridiculous. What
kind of building over in the middle of—well, it's not even
there, is it? Solomon's Temple's not even
there. Where are we going to turn? I lift up my eyes under
the hills. from whence cometh my help."
The temple of the Lord here he's talking about, God's holy temple,
is the tabernacle of God among men. The scripture says that
God tabernacled among us. The temple of God, the place
of worship, is a person, Jesus Christ. It's not Mormon's tabernacle. It's not St. Peter's Cathedral. It ain't even
this little building. It's not a building. God does
not worship with men's hands. God doesn't dwell in buildings
made with men's hands. The heavens, the heaven of heavens,
the Scripture says, cannot contain him. But this God did dwell on
this earth. This God did come down, and that's
what the Scripture says, he tabernacled among us. That's the temple. That's the tabernacle. That's
the dwelling place of God. God took a body, a form of a man in Jesus Christ's
name. And that's who we turn to and
look to and look toward for our help, for our salvation. He says, I will worship toward
thy holy temple. I will worship toward thy holy
temple, and you can't worship God apart from faith in Jesus
Christ. You can't know God, you can't
talk to God, you won't be spoken to by God except through Jesus
Christ. Christ said there, he said, no
man comes unto the Father but by me. By me. And no man has seen God at any
time, Christ said, the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of
the Father, he hath declared it." Read on. He says, "...I
will worship toward thy holy temple," and it's spiritual. The word of God is spiritual.
We've got to see it all as it pertains to the spiritual matters
and Christ. He says, "...and I will praise
thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth." I will worship
toward thy holy temple." In other words, I'm going to worship God
in and through Jesus Christ. And I'm going to praise thy name
for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth. There's that word
again. Ed, there's that word again. It's throughout the Old
Testament scriptures. He says, I'm going to praise
thy name for thy loving kindness and thy truth."
Let me read you a few scriptures here. I wrote them down here.
The scripture says, "...the Lord hath appeared of old unto me,
saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore
with loving kindness have I drawn thee." Isaiah 63 says, "...I
will mention the loving kindness of the Lord." Psalm 40 says,
Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth, and thy truth continually
preserve me. And as I said this morning, lovingkindness
is an Old Testament word, and the closest word we have in the
New Testament to it is grace. Grace. Now, where is the grace
of God to be found? Where is the grace of God to
be found? It's all in Jesus Christ, isn't it? The grace of God, the
gifts of God, the blessings of God, salvation of God, all the
grace of God is in Jesus Christ. Gifts of God, the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through, all
comes through or because of Jesus Christ. Not for our sake, but
for his sake. You see, nobody merits the salvation
of God. Nobody deserves God. Nobody has
done anything that God could smile at and God could accept,
because God's holy. God's holy. But Jesus Christ
is the only man that lived a life worthy of God's notice, and God
says, now I'm going to accept everybody in Him. So the loving, the grace of God
is found in Jesus Christ. Well, what is the truth of God?
I quoted that verse to you. It says, Let thy lovingkindness
and thy truth preserve me, or save me. The lovingkindness or
the grace of God is in Christ. What's the truth of God? The Bible? The Bible gonna save
us? Huh? Well, as it tells us of
Christ, it will. But Christ is the truth. Christ
said, I am, John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth. This Bible won't save you except
as God shows you Jesus Christ in it. He said, reading the Bible
won't save anybody. Christ saves. Reading the Bible,
a lot of people go through the ritual of reading the Bible and
praying and all that and miss Christ, right? The Pharisees,
the Sadducees, the scribes, they read the Bible. Christ said,
You do err, though not knowing the scriptures. They are they
which testify of me. So they miscribed. So the truth of God is Jesus
Christ. I put those two things together
here in this verse 2. It says, I will praise your name
for your lovingkindness and for your truth. Praising for Christ. Great, listen
to this verse of Scripture. The law came through Moses, but you got it. Grace and truth by
the Lord Jesus Christ. So he is God's grace to us. He is the truth. He is the one
we must know. Look at verse 2 again. It says,
But thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. I like that, don't you? Thou
hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Now, you know what
that's saying, Barbara. You've got that glimmer in your
eye, like, I see, I see. God's Word. God's Word. Look over Psalm 119. Let's look
at a few places where it talks about the Word of God, okay?
God's Word, when it speaks of the Word of
God, right there, and God's Word on the whole is more than printed
words on paper. It's more than printed words
on paper. Jesus Christ, in John chapter
one, is called what? The Word. In John chapter one,
the Scripture says, In the beginning was the Word. Is it talking about
the Bible? No. It's talking about Him, Christ. In the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by him.
There was not anything made that was not made by him. And it goes
on down to say in John 1 that the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. The Word. Christ is called the
Word. The incarnate or the Word that
was made flesh. That's his name. And it says
over in Revelation 19, I believe it is, that he has written on
his thigh a name which no man knew, save to those it was revealed
to. You know what that name is written
on his thigh? Word. The Word. All that's so significant. And someone said that you don't
know anything about the Word of God unless you see the Word
of God in the Word of God. See, Christ is the Word of God. God has been saying it from Genesis
1 all the way to the end of Revelation about his Son. That's what this whole book's
about, the Word. Christ is the Word. Everything,
all the scriptures, you have those types of Christ in the
Old Testament, maybe in the back of your Bible, like I do. He's
all the way through the scriptures. He is the Word. Everything testifies
of him, of him. He is the Word. Well, Psalm 119,
you can read every one of these verses that speak of the Word. You can read them as they relate
to Christ. Look at verse 49. Look at these
places where it mentions the word. Psalm 119, verse 49, says,
Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me
to hope. Christ is our hope, isn't it? And because God remembers him,
he remembers me. Right? Because God remembers
what Christ has done. satisfied his law, paid for my
sins, paid for God's justice against my sin. I have hope because
of Christ, the Word, the Word incarnate. Read on. Look at verse
50. This is my comfort in my affliction. Your Word has quickened me. Christ said that very thing,
didn't he? He says, As the Father quickeneth
whom he will, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. He said,
I am come that they might have quickening, or have life. That's
what quickening means. Christ is life. He quickened.
He must give life. He is the Word, isn't he? And
you know, you can't separate Christ's written Word from himself. Right? It's the Word. It's God's
Word where we find our comfort in time of trouble. Psalm 60,
or verse 65 here. Look over there. Oh, I love this
verse. Psalm 119.65. This is one of
my favorite verses in all of the Scripture. It really is. Verse 65. Thou hast dealt well
with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy Word. God's dealt well
with me. Why? Because I'm a good boy?
Because he thinks I'm just living the good Christian life? No. We've all failed miserably. God
has dealt well with me because of Jesus Christ. Because of him. According to him. According to him. Because I'm
found in him. by his blood. See, God sees my
thoughts, my heart, everything about me, and there's nothing
I can do that doesn't have sin in it. No thought, no word, no
deed, and God can't accept it. Nothing. But he accepts Christ,
everything he did, because it's perfect. Perfect. Perfect. And the Scripture back in our
text, turned back over there, we could go on and on. You want a good study? In case you forgot the one we
did one time through Psalm 119. Go back through that and mark
down every time where it talks about the Word. Psalm 119, the
whole thing is about God's Word. And you can substitute every
verse, every mention of precepts, testimonies, judgments, commandments,
Word with the name of Christ, and it speaks of Him. Every word. This is the Word. Christ, the
Word. Look at what it says in verse
2. He's magnified thy Word above
all his name. That's the name. Christ is called
the Word. Scripture says God upholds all
things by the what? Word of his power. It's amazing isn't it? God's
Word is so amazing. The name, the Word, the name
Word. God perhaps has exalted that
above every other name. Word. In the Word. In the Word. Verse 3, read on. And David just
gives his testimony here. He says, In the day when I cried,
you answered me. In the day when I cried, Romans 10, verse 13. You know,
soul winners like to take people down the Romans road. And they
use Romans 10. That's the Romans road. They just use one verse. But they use Romans 10, verse
13. Whosoever shall call begins with
a four. But they say, Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And they stopped
there. They stopped there. Well, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they going to call? The next verse says, How are
they going to call? And Paul, when he quoted that,
he was quoting Joel chapter 2, verse 32, wasn't he? He was quoting
the Old Testament, which said, Everyone whom the Lord our God
shall call will call on the name of the Lord. Who's going to call
on the name of the Lord? Ain't no man or woman or young
person on the top side of this earth who's dead and trespassed
trespasses and sin, it's going to call on God for salvation
unless God comes calling first. Because, see, this gives God
all the glory in salvation. There's some peoples going to
be bragging about how they call on the Lord. Well, nobody really calls on
the name of the Lord and is saved whom God didn't call first. He
gets the glory. He gets all the glory. But there
was a day when I did call on the name of the Lord, and I'm
still calling on the name of the Lord. It's not like there's
one day back and then you call and then you quit. You keep calling
on the name of the Lord. I need him just as bad now as
I did then. I need him worse. I need his grace, his mercy now
as much or more than then. The same. I need forgiveness
now, today, this very morning, or evening, the same as I did
then. I'm still calling, aren't you?
I need him every moment, every hour, calling upon the name of
the Lord. And Scripture says here, when
I cried, you answered me. You answered me. How did he answer? Verse 3 says, He strengthened
me with strength in my soul. Strengthened me with strength
in my soul. God doesn't help those who help
themselves. Where'd that come from? That's
an old way of stabilizing. Scripture says God helps those
that... One lady's down at the... Some lady down at the hospital,
when Virgie was laying in there. Some lady came out, we were all
sitting around in the waiting room there, and she came
out and she said, she was talking to Virgie, and Virgie said, Virgie
said, you don't have to worry about me, the Lord will take
care of me. You know how she talked? The
Lord will take care of me. And that woman said that she
told Burgie, she said, Well, Burgie, the Lord will only do
so much, and you've got to take care of yourself, honey. Where does it say that in the
Scripture? Now, where does it say that God
helps those who help themselves? That God will go so far and you
do the rest? Huh? Where does it say that? Would some preacher somewhere
tell me where it says that? That sounds like only the strong
survive, doesn't it? That's not what the Scripture
says. Scripture says only the weak survive. God helps the helpless. He said, I'm not coming to call
the righteous, the good people, the people who just need a little
help on the way. I'm coming to call those who can't take one
step. Those who can't see, blind people,
deaf people. Lame, dead in trespass and sin. If Lazarus could have taken the
first step, he could have walked all the way, couldn't he? See,
the hard part, that's what preachers are telling people, aren't they? If you'll take the first step,
God will meet you halfway. The first one's the hardest.
Isn't it, Barbara? If Lazarus could have taken the
first step, he could have come all the way. He was dead. He couldn't move a finger. And
the Scripture says, And you hath he quickened, who were what?
Dead in trespassancy. Dead. Dead. And he strengthened me. And God
said, and the Scripture says all the way through, I'm a very
present help in time of trouble. I'm a strength to the weak. I'm a strong, God is our strong
tower of strength. to the weak. No, God doesn't help those who
help themselves. God helps the helpless. God gives
hope to the hopeless. God saves not the righteous,
but sinners. That's what Christ died for,
not good folks. He didn't die for good folks,
but for the ungodly. And he says he strengthened me
in my soul. That's where I needed most. Faith,
hope, and love. I need trust, I need confidence,
I need assurance, I need inward strength that's founded on Christ. Verse 4, verse 4, look at it. "'All the kings of the earth
shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth.'"
"'All the kings of the earth shall praise thee when they hear
the words of thy mouth.'" What king is this talking about? Well,
I don't hear king, what's his name over there in Jordan? What's
that King in Jordan's name? Who cares? I don't hear him praising
Jesus Christ. He doesn't believe in it. Huh? I don't hear King... I didn't hear King Agrippa in
the Old Testament praising. Did you? King whoever. Did you hear he's our king? Pharaoh,
did you hear him? He didn't praise him when he
heard God's word come through. Who's this king? Who's these
kings he's talking about here? Like I said, it's spiritual,
isn't it? Well, Revelation says that he hath made us kings and
priests under our God. This is this royal generation,
this chosen, this peculiar people. Royal generation. Kings. by virtue that we're joint heirs
with the King of Kings, sons of the Most High King, King of
Kings. And all these kings, all these
people whom God has crowned with salvation, they will praise the
Lord when they hear the words of his mouth. They will. They will. To be sure, every
man everywhere will, in every need, will bow and every tongue
will confess that he is Lord, some day. Some day. Well, God's
people do it now, kings of the earth. Read on, verse 5. It says,
Yea, they will sing in the ways of the Lord. They will sing in
the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. Lord,
help me here. That's the reason I say our songs
are, we sing hymns here. H-I-M's. Hymns. We're not singing about mama.
We're not singing about mansions. We're not singing about the church.
We're not singing about what I have done for Jesus. That's
all we hear today on these so-called gospel songs. It ain't a word
of gospel in any of them, is it? Gospel song. We've got gospel
quartet, gospel this, gospel that, and ain't nobody giving
all the glory to God. They may look like it, but no,
they don't look like it either. They don't sound like it. They're
not—they're getting the glory. They're getting the glory. And
besides, if you listen to what they're saying, they're talking
about what One day I was walking down the road and I said to God,
I said, God, I did, I, I, I, I, get that I out of there. Sing
unto him, him. All our songs and the songs of
the redeemed, songs here of the church in heaven or the church
on earth, we sing of the ways of the Lord, what he has done. Glory of the Lord. Great is the
glory of the Lord. My, my. Touch on that a little bit. A
long time. Great is the glory of the Lord.
The glory of God is seen in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where his essential glory
is seen, in Christ. Read on, verse 6. And this is
his essential glory, his saving glory. Verse 6, it says, Though
the Lord be high. Though the Lord be high, and
he is high. Like David said, our God's in
the heavens. My God's not a statue. My God
doesn't look like Wild Bill Hickok on a picture, you know. My God's in the heavens. And
he's high. He's big. He's God. The Lord is high. His ways are
high. As high as the heavens are above
the earth, he says, even so are my ways higher than your way,
my thoughts than your thoughts. God's ways are high. They're
passifying me now. God is passifying me now. high, holy, sovereign, reigning,
ruling, controlling. He says, I kill, I make alive,
I wound, that is, I make sick, I heal, I, the Lord, do all these
things. Our God's high, isn't he? He's
high. Well, though our God be high,
yet he lowered himself, didn't he? He hath respect unto the
lowly, the lowly. You see, it's not like religion
is saying that you've got to get high, get high on Jesus. You've got to get low. You've
got to get low if you're going to approach this high of God.
Isn't that strange? That's the way of God. Though
God be high, the only way to approach him is not climb Mount
Sinai. You've got to just get as high
on your Christian walk as you can. That's not the way to approach
God. It's to be as low on your belly as you can as a sinner. That's who he pays attention
to. Let me show you. Don't take my word for it. Isaiah
chapter 57. Listen to this. Isaiah 57. And as I've said so many times,
I'd like to put on this church building, I'd like to put a sign
on top of this church building that says, No good people allowed
here. Only sinners. That's what God's
Word says. I've been quoting that over and
over. I've not come to call the righteous
but sinners. Listen to this, in Isaiah 57,
verse 15, he says, Thus saith the High and Lofty One, that's
God, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. What a verse. I dwell, and God says, I dwell
in the high and holy place. Well, Pope John Paul says that
he's in the cathedral. I dwell in the high and holy
place." Well, look who he's dwelling with. Who does he dwell with? Angels? Cherubs? Seraphs? Yeah,
they're there, but that's not who he's around the table with. Look at it. I dwell in the high
and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble
spirit. Look over quickly at Isaiah 66. Turn over there real fast. It
says the same thing, similar thing. Isaiah 66, verse 1. Listen to this. And if religious
people would just read their Bible, they would see that God
dwelleth not in buildings made by hands. And our buildings don't,
big buildings don't mean God's there. It probably means he's
not within a, well, big building probably is a good
indication God is not there, because they're pretending to
worship him with all these trappings. The less you have on the inside,
the more you've got to have on the outside. Spurgeon said, "'Emptied
buckets ring the loudest.'" Isaiah 66, verse 1, The heaven is my throne, the
earth is my footstool. Where's this house you're going
to build under me? Where is the place of my rest? Verse 2, all
those things that my hand hath made, the world, the universe,
all those things that have been, saith the Lord, oh, to this man
will I look. Here's the one I want to pay
attention to, not the ones that are dressed in robes and the
big choir singing and all this going on, but to him that is
poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word. One
poor, broken sinner, down in the dust, pleading for mercy. God says, that's who I'm paying
attention to. You know the prayer that God's
paying attention to? Not the one that some dude dressed
up like a woman and with a fish hat on his head is praying in
Latin. That and bouncing off the ceiling. It's some little
old sinner, right now, a good sinner, right now, It feels
the weight of their sin, and they feel guilty and vile and
wretched and unworthy and ungodly, and they're saying, and like
that, that, you know, the Pharisee and the publican in the temple,
two men went to worship, and the Pharisee went up, God, I'd
never touched my lips, I thank you I'm not like these sinners
back here, but I'm a good righteous person, and Christ said, that
man is rejected. But there was a little old fellow
back in the back just beating his, all he could do was just
beat his chest and say, God be merciful to me, I'm an old sinner. The ear of God, the high and
holy one. I heard somebody praying. It wasn't the Pope and the Cardinals
and the preacher. It was that little one, that
broken sinner. That's who got here. I cried. This old sinner cried. He heard me. Listen, if he'll
pay attention to a worm like this one, if he gathers back
prodigals like this one, If he says the likes of this one, he'll
hear anybody. The chief of sinners. I'm here
to tell you, I'm living proof that God has respect under the
lowly. But the proud, it says there
in verse 6, the proud he knows afar off. God knows everybody, he knows
everything about us. Psalm 139 there in that next
chapter there says that, doesn't it? It says, he's not a word
in my tongue, he doesn't know, not a thought in my head, he
doesn't know everything, knows everything about me. I sat down
last when I rose up last. My thoughts, everything about
me, he knows me. But there's a special way in
which God knows, intimately knows and loves his people. But the
proud, religious pride proud of those who think they're
something when they're nothing. He says he knows them at arm's
length, far off. He knows them all right. You
know what Christ said to the Pharisees one day? You remember
when Christ, the scripture says, that Christ said, I know you,
that you have not the love of God dwelling in you. If you were
of God, you'd hear me. You'd hear my word. Scripture said in another place,
it says, he did not commit himself unto them. He knew what was in
them. Didn't he? I know you, he said. But he knows his people up close. The proud, he knows afar off.
He knows his people up close. Verse seven. Though I walk in
the midst of trouble, That will revive me. You're looking at a man that's
always in trouble. And I use the term man like that. How about you? I can find somebody
who's troubled right now. There's one person who's troubled. Scripture says to you that are
troubled, Rest with us. Rest with us. Where are you going
to rest? Christ said this thing about, you know, I'm getting
back to the religious world again. The religious, these hucksters
in religion and all that tell people that if you get saved,
everything's going to be all right from there on out. It's
going to be all right with God, but our troubles are just beginning
with man and with this world. Right? The Scripture said, in
the world you shall have tribulation. Now what Christ said? Not an
easy road. Tribulation. What for? For believing the truth. Isn't that right, John? And what
he said? He said, they shall persecute you, revile you, and
persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you, falsely
from my namesake. They said rejoice. They did that
to the prophets and the fathers before you. Persecution for the
truth. In the world you shall have tribulations.
It's not just talking about trial or problems. Every man and woman
that's born has troubles. Right? Troubles. Doesn't mean the Lord's going
to revive them or save them or that the Lord is doing good by
them, no. Every man. Man, the Scripture
says, that is born of woman is a few days and full of trouble.
That's just a lot man's got to have because of sin. But the
Scripture says that he'll revive those of his people that are
in trouble. Where are we in trouble? Our
chief trouble is sin. See, I have trouble, that's my
chief trouble, sin. That's what is ever before me.
That's what always gives me trouble. How about you? Huh? It always
drags me down. My sins, sinful thoughts, my
actual sins, sinful actions. Doesn't it use trouble? You send
trouble. If they cease to trouble you,
you've really got trouble. But the scripture says that though
I walk in the midst of trouble, he will revive me. He will revive
me. I get down and dirty, and He
comes along and revives me. How does He revive us? Barbara,
how does He revive you? Right here. Washes your feet
in His Word, doesn't it? Washes your mind. Washes your
sins away. Then there's trouble in the world
because you're staying for the truth. Ain't nobody going to
hate you for believing on Jesus. Ain't nobody gonna hate you for
believing on the God of this world that loves everybody. There's
no persecution there, but you believe in a God who reigns and
rules and tell everybody so? You believe in a Jesus Christ
who saved his people, not those that led him, but those that
he came to save? That this whole
thing, none of it's in man's hands. That man can't do anything
for God, but God has to do everything for him. You tell everybody that,
and they'll hate you. They'll hate you. And you'll
have trouble. You'll have trouble. And though I walk in the midst
of trouble, He will revive me. You see, this thing is not about God being
on our side, is it? God being with our church, on
our side. This thing is, who's on the Lord's
side? There's only one side. There's
not two sides, there's one. Who's on the Lord's side? Who's
on the Lord's side? Well, read on. He says, he will
stretch forth his hand against the wrath of mine enemies. Stretch
forth his hand against the wrath of mine enemies. What's that
talking about? He stretched forth in both his
hands against the wrath of my enemy. The law of God and my
enemy. It's not my friend. You can't
keep the law of God, my friend. You can't keep it. The law is
our enemy. The law of God? There's nothing
wrong with the law of God. It's the weakness of the flesh.
Right? The law is a curse. to us. It says, do this and live. We can't, so we must die. Christ
said, I can. I can live up to it. And he did. But we had to die, because we
were broken. He stretched forth his hand.
The wrath of God was against me. Right? The wrath of God abides
upon the ungodly. Who's that? That's me. The wrath
of God, not the love of God, the wrath of God abides upon
the young guy. He stretched forth his hand against
the wrath of mine enemy. Satan is my enemy, huh? And I
can't stomp on my hand of the devil, like these preachers say.
Christ can and did. When he stretched forth his hands,
he crushed the serpent's head. The wrath of my enemy. is my
enemy. I can't whip one. Henry, I can't
whip one sin. I've tried like Job, and will
make a covenant with my eyes. It doesn't work. Thank God Christ
made a covenant with God concerning my eyes. They're washed, fitly
set in the blood. I was a charismatic preacher.
I'd say, somebody say, Amen. Ah, boy. He stretched forth his
hand against mine enemies. His hand. That's what he said
in John. He said, My Father which is greater than all gave unto
me, and no man shall pluck him out of my Father's hand. Ain't
no man to pluck him out of my hand. Two hands involved. one
and the same. Well, and his right hand shall
save me. Hebrews 1 says that when he had
by himself purged our sins, sat down at the what? Right hand. The place of acceptance. The place of authority. The place
of reign and rule. The place of the eldest son,
the right hand, and his right hand, that's Christ. Christ is
God's right hand. He's his right-hand man, and
he's my right-hand man, and he shall save me. Verse 8, that's
what verse 8 says, a Lord will perfect, will finish that which
concerneth me. He never leave. Here I go again,
talking about these the falsehoods out there today. They say he tried and failed.
They say he did all he can do, and now the rest is up to you.
Where does it say that? I wish somebody would stand up
in the middle of one of these sermons sometime and ask if they're—wait! Stop everything! Where does it
say that? If you show me one place in all
of Scripture where it says that God's done all He can do, and
that... I'll show you where it says that,
that God has done all He can do. It does say that, but it
doesn't say the rest. It doesn't say, now the rest
is up to you. It does say He has done it all,
nonetheless. It does say that when Christ
hung on that cross, He said, His last words were, it is finished. I've done it all. I've done it all. Our God has done all he can do,
and that's all that can be done. That's all he can. And the Lord
will perfect, and here's the comfort and assurance here, just
like Philippians 1, 6, we studied recently. that says that he that
hath begun a good work in you, you finish it. I may, I'm doing
my house, I may not finish that house. Really, I just may not
finish that thing. And something might blow it down,
it might not, if I do finish it, it might blow down, right?
God has never started anything He didn't finish, especially salvation. especially
salvation. When he finished creation, he
rested and said, when it means God rested, it means that's all
that could be done. Right? That's what rest means.
That's all that needs to be done. God finished his work, he rested.
He wasn't, he was tired. He's speaking it, he's doing
it, but just by his word. When tired, it means that's all
that needs to be done. And what do you do when you rest
in Christ? Only real believers rest in Christ. You see that bulletin board in
Booz Mill? You see it show up on your way to Walmart? You see
it? Church of the Brethren, so-called?
It says, a Christian that rests will rust. That's what it says. Why is this so vast? Show me! A Christian in rest will be saved! That's what the Scripture says.
A Christian in rest will rest! That's what they are. I'm going
to go down there. Anybody want to go with me under
cover of darkness? We'll change one letter, and
it'll be right. Rick, you want to try it with
me? A Christian that rests will change
that you to me. We'll rest. The real Christian
who's resting is just doing that. He's resting. That doesn't mean
he's just sitting back on his haunches or not doing anything,
not praying or reading or talking to people and all that. That
doesn't mean that. What it does mean is that he is trusting Christ
and Christ alone. He's resting. As Brother James
would say, just put a sign on my door. Do not disturb. I'm resting. Put that on a sign
on our church door out there for all religious people to run
by and see. Don't disturb us. We're resting. Don't tell us how we ought to
be. Some woman told my wife the other day about some Armenian
to the core of people. This woman was supposed to believe
grace. She said, those people will put us to shame with all
their zeal. Zeal doesn't mean a doodly flop. It doesn't. The Pharisees cut
the sea and land, just like a good Jehovah Witness would, to establish one apostolate,
one Christ column. After they've established it,
a two-fold a child of hell, as they were to begin with. Hmm. Zeal. What did Paul say in Romans 10?
They have a zeal for God, but what? It's not according to knowledge. They're zealous for the wrong
God. The Buddhists are zealous for Buddha. The Muslims are zealous
for Mohammed. Right? The Hindus are zealous
for Krishna. Not zeal. That doesn't have anything
to do with it. It really doesn't. It's knowledge. It's zeal according
to knowledge is what it is. Ah, boy. We're blessed people
here. We're a blessed people. We don't
have to live listening to that bad preacher. That bad preacher
or she would say, they don't believe nothing out of that church. Oh, my. The Lord will perfect
that which concerns me. That's all this old sinner's
hope. That's all my hope. I'm just resting right there.
Thy mercy, O Lord, thy mercy endures forever. Look at this. Now here's our prayer, people.
Here's our prayer in a few words. Forsake not the works of thine
hand. Isn't that your prayer? In one
line, forsake not the works of thine hand. I like that illustration we use
all the time. You've heard so many times. That
woman came up to a young preacher, and he was all zealous for the
Lord, and this and that and the other. And the old woman said,
There's a big difference, young man, in your religion and mine. And he said, Oh, there is. She
said, Yes, there's a big difference in your religion and mine. She
said, Your religion consists of two letters, D-O, do, do,
do. She said, Mine has four. D-O-N-E. Done, done, done. And what God has done is forever. It ain't like that silly little
sign that says, Only one life soon will be passed. Only what's
done for Jesus will last. Well, if you change one word
in that, it'll be all right. morning. One little word can
say, can change the whole meaning of everything, can't it? Only
one life, and yes, it's soon to be past. Only what's done
by Jesus Christ will last. Right? Forsake not, O Lord, the
works of thine hands. Thine hands. Christ, what he
has done. He won't leave. He won't All
right, let's stand, and I'll dismiss this in prayer. You can go home tonight, and
you can just rest on all that, can't you? You can go to sleep. Our Lord, we thank you for your
Word. We thank you for revealing it
to us. We thank you for revealing Christ
who is the Word in from the Word. Our Lord, we've, so many, all
of us here, at one time, did not behold these glorious
things from thy Word. We read it as the Bible. We read
it as a good book. That's what we called it, the
good book. Ah, now we see it's the Word. It's Christ. It speaks
of him, all the way through his hymn book. This is his story
book. And we see him in every line,
every word. And he is our hope. He is our
salvation. Salvation is of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And, O Lord, our prayer is the
same as David. O Lord, forsaken not the work
of thine hands. Christ, what he has done. We
know you won't. He never lives to make intercession. We are accepted in the Beloved,
never to be forsaken, to give unto us eternal life, and we
will never perish because of the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is comfort, there is peace, there is rest right there. Give it
to us, Lord. Make us stay ourselves right
there. In Christ's name we pray, we
are met together tonight. Amen. You're dismissed.