Psalm 71. I love this book. I love every
word of it. I believe beyond the shadow of
a doubt. that it is God Almighty's word. I don't question it for a moment. I don't question any of it. I
love this book. I love it. I believe every word
of it. I don't understand it. I have to prepare long and hard
to bring the messages to you, but by nature, I'm very ignorant
of this book. God wrote this book. And I don't
pretend to understand that much of it. But I believe it, every
bit of it. I believe it. I read this book,
not as much as I ought to, but I do read it. And I endeavor
to follow what it says. I endeavor to follow what it
says. But much to my own grief and
constant pain, I fail miserably all the time. most of the time. I fail miserably. And then there's
prayer. You know, this book is just the
most blessed gift God Almighty could give to a man or a woman
or a young person. That is an understanding of it.
Everybody has a copy of it. but not all understand it. That's
what he said to the disciples one day, wasn't it? When they
came back rejoicing over casting out devils, he said, don't rejoice
in that. Rejoice in that you know and understand me, that
your names are written in the book of life. I rejoice in this book, and if
you know and understand some of it, believe it, you bless
God for that. Bless God for the book. And then
there's prayer. Prayer is a tremendous gift from
God Almighty. And we can come boldly to the
throne of grace to find help in time of need. We can come
right up to a thrice holy God and speak to Him and be heard
by Him and call Him Daddy, Abba, Father, any old time. And God has answered so many
of my prayers. I should never, ever have unbelief. I ought to believe him for everything. He's answered so many of my prayers,
and I could recount some of them to you. Miraculously, wondrously,
he has answered so many of my prayers, but sometimes I find
it hard to pray at all. You know, God's been so good
to me, and I have abundant reason to thank him from the top of
my lungs. From the depths of my heart,
I find it hard at times to pray at all. How about you? And try as I may, I fail. And
I find myself, when it's all said and done, I find myself
coming right back to where I started the very first day the Lord spoke
to me. Where God first brought me, and
that is as a sinner at the feet of a Savior. Right back where
I started. Sometimes you hear me pray in
here, don't you? And you think, oh, that was a
pretty prayer. And I hear some of you all pray. Some of you
men pray. And I say, oh, that was a blessing. The Lord sure
blessed him to pray. He has a gift to pray. And you
hear me pray all the time. I'm forced to pray. You know, I lead us in prayer
most of the time. I wouldn't put that burden upon
any of you men. You know how difficult it is, don't you? And
I have to pray for you. I don't always feel like it.
The Lord blesses me sometimes to pray. Maybe the times when
I don't feel like I had any liberty in prayer, that's when I did
have it, and vice versa. But when I'm in private, about eighty to ninety percent
of the time, all I can find to say is, help. Lord, have mercy. That's all
I can find to say about Abraham. The Lord blesses publicly sometimes
because we need to speak to the Lord in prayer. So I find myself,
after it's all over, coming right back to where I started as a
helpless, worthless, unable sinner, hopeless sinner at the feet of
a Savior and begging him for mercy. Yes, me, the preacher. You think I'm living the victorious
life? No, the life I live now, I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and died for me. Most of my life is very
much a failure. In Christ, I am victorious. You know, I go to sleep a sinner. I go to sleep a sinner. Thank
God he gives me sleep. He giveth his beloved sleep.
He lets them lay down with a little bit of peace in their heart,
knowing that he forgives sin, and I can go to sleep. And I
wake up a sinner. Sometimes I dream sinful thoughts.
Do you? The most ungodly and wretched
sinful dreams. Do you? I do. That's why that verse of Scripture
that says his mercies are new every morning. That's the reason
that means so much to me. Because I wake up a sinner, I
need fresh mercy. And the Scripture says his mercy
endureth forever. I'm a sinner all the day long.
Oh, I don't practice outward sin. Sometimes I do sin outwardly. But I'm a sinner all day long. End of the night, I wake up a
sinner. I'll never be anything but a sinner. His mercies endure
forever. They're new every morning. And
I talk with older men and women. If any of you in here have the
notion, any of you young believers or anyone who is seeking the
Lord, and these preachers tell you that once you accept Christ,
you know, once you believe on Jesus in their words, that all
your troubles are over, no, they're not. They've just begun. You
see, at the time you were of your father the devil, and he
had you right where he wanted you, so he left you alone, all
nice and peaceful and smug and snug in his bug and rug, at peace
with yourself, you know, and thinking everything's all right,
no conscience didn't smite you, like Bunyan's illustration. I've
used that so many times from this pulpit. It still blesses
me. I'm telling you because it blessed
me. Bunyan said the devil will take a man who is self-righteous,
who thinks he's moral and everything's okay, and he'll just leave him
alone. He won't bother him. His conscience won't smite him.
He won't have any problems with anything. He's all right. And that man thinks, well, I'm
so good that I must be saved. I'm I'm too good not to be sad.
He said he's resting in his own self-righteousness or maybe a
false refuge. You know, he made a public profession
years ago, baptized and saved and sure for heaven's if he's
already there. And the devil says, I don't leave him right
there. I'll leave him alone. I'm not going to give him any
bad thoughts. I'm not going to give him any temptations. All
of that. The Lord doesn't tempt. God tempted
not to sin, neither can be tempted. The devil says, I'm going to
leave him right there, all neat and self-righteous, and he's
going to come right, just fall right into my lap when he dies. But he'll take that old man or
woman or young person who is trusting Christ, whom God has
miraculously changed his sides, changed sides, took him out,
who was led captive by Satan at his will, took him out, led
captivity captive. and put him on the Lord's side,
put him in the Lord's side. He said the devil will take somebody
like that who is resting on Christ, depending upon Christ, looking
to Christ and Christ alone, worshiping Christ, calling upon Christ,
and he'll bombard him or her with evil thoughts. Bunyan said the devil will sneak
up and whisper in his ear, Cursing, bitterness, feeling full of wrath. It's that law that's worried
in your memory. And that man or that woman says,
I'm too bad to be saved. There's no way I can be saved.
I'm too much of a sinner. Is it that way with you? Take
heart. Take heart. I talked with older
men and women. There was one dear old gentleman
down at How about you? Some of you have
been trusting Christ for a number of years now. How about you? You feel like you're better now
than you were twenty years ago? Ten years ago, or however long it
was when the Lord began to reveal himself to you? No, you feel
worse, don't you? You're not. Outwardly, there
has been a drastic change, and everybody can see it. Everybody
takes note that something has happened, but you feel that way,
don't you? You feel that way? So I love the Word of God, I
love the law of God, I consider it holy, just, and good, but
I find myself at times doing that which I would not. Do you? I find myself filled with anger
and malice and wrath and clamoring and evil speaking and envy and
jealousy and hatred and covetousness and so forth. How about you?
Anybody? I do. When I turn my eyes within, all
is dark and vain and wild, filled with unbelief and sin, could
I deem myself a child, a child of God? If I pray or hear or
read, sin is mixed with all I do. You that love the Lord indeed,
tell me, is it that way with you?" That's old John Newton, not a
more godly man on the face of the earth. He was an old man
when he wrote that, a man who wrote Amazing Grace. He was an
old man when he wrote that. And I find myself like that,
and I try as I may at times, I just can't do what I would
do. And that which I would not do,
I find myself doing. I delight in the law of God after
the inward man, but I find in my members another law, warring
against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity. How about you? This is going
to be a message of comfort to you. That's the way the Apostle Paul
described his experience. You say, well, that was Romans
7. He got into Romans 8. He said he wrote that when he
was unconverted. What about the first six chapters?
That should have been first, then, shouldn't it? Romans 7? Well, I do find in 1 Timothy
1.15, he said, I'm still the chief of sinners. What are you
going to do with that? He was an old man when he wrote
that, ready to die, just about to die. And he said, I'm still
the chief of sent. Didn't he? Take heart. And I find myself continually
resorting to the Psalms, such as Psalm 71. This man, God said, was a man
after his own heart. But John Davis, he was a sinner.
You read his story, don't you, David? He was a sinner. Oh, he
was a great man as far as great men go, but what's that saying?
Not much. One word is not much prettier
than another one, is it? Psalm 71, and I find this man
to be a man after my own heart, too. He says in verse 1, In thee,
O Lord, do I put my trust. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Don't let me be confused. Let
me never be put to confusion about this thing of my salvation
and your love for me and mercy and grace and what the gospel
is. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Let me never be put to confusion. If you truly trust
the Lord Jesus Christ, Believe him, call upon him, look to him,
will he save you? Huh? God can't lie, Joe Park,
and he said he would. Listen to the word of God. The
Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants, and none of them that
trust in him shall be desolate, or be found guilty. None. Job said, though he slay me,
I'll trust him. He won't slay you if you trust
him. Trust in him at all times, ye
people. Pour out your hearts before him.
God is a refuge for us. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abided forever.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thy
own understanding. So we need to ask ourselves,
what does it mean to trust the Lord? What does it mean to trust
the Lord? Anybody that trusts him will
never be condemned. What does it mean to trust the
Lord? Well, chiefly, who is the Lord that I should trust Him? Who's the Lord of Lords? Huh? Who is it? Somebody say it. Jesus
Christ is the Lord. So to trust in the Lord is cheaply
to believe and depend upon Jesus Christ to save you. It's as simple
as that. And you must know a few things.
You must know that God is holy. If you don't know God is holy,
you're not going to call on Christ to save you. You're going to
think you can save yourself. You think that God just accepts
you like you are. You must know something about
God's holiness. You must know something about
your sin. Right? Unless you feel your sinfulness,
you'll never call on the Savior. Now, you'll never feel your sinfulness
like you ought to. But you must feel something of
that sinfulness and be sorry for it, repent over it, call
upon Christ the Savior. You must know something about
why Christ came. Right? He came to be a substitute,
didn't he? To live a holy life? You've got
to know something about that. You can't be ignorant of that.
This is eternal life, that they might know thee. Know thee. You've
got to know something about why he died on the cross. He died
to pay for your sins. That God will hold you accountable
for your sins unless Christ pays for them, puts them away. And
he did that. You've got to believe he did
that. And you've got to believe he rose on high, and he now sits
at the right hand of God, and he's the only one you can pray
to. You can't believe Mary is the one you pray to, or one of
the saints. You can't believe that and look to Christ alone,
can you? Can you believe that you can
pray to another mediator and be looking to Christ alone, trusting
him? So you've got to trust him and him alone, you see. You've
got to know him a little bit, something about him. To trust
him, right? Do you know something of those
things? I don't know those things like I'm going to someday, but
I know a little bit about them. I know enough to know that he's
my only hope. Are you saved? What makes you think so, if you
said yes? Well, is there a man at the right
hand of God? Is there a blood sacrifice? Is there a man God
approves of? Is there a mediator, a substitute? A blood atonement? A sinless
sacrifice? An intercessor? Is there a lawyer
up there who takes the case of all sinners and never lost one?
Is he? Is he right there? A high priest,
a great high priest, touched with a feeling of mind permanent?
Yeah. Well, then I'm saved. Why? Nothing I did. I trust him. I trust him. Yeah, but you're
a sinner. That's what the devil He's the accuser of the brethren.
You can't be saved. Look how far you see him about
it. He said I was. He said if I trust
him, he said, I'd do the work for you. I know I fall way short.
Yeah, but nothing. No yeah, but to it. You ever
hear any yeah, buts? Yeah, but nothing. But God, who's
rich in mercy. I trust him. Talk it over with
him. So to trust Him is simply that.
Is that difficult to understand? To believe Him. To believe Him
and Him alone. Trust Him. Call upon Him. I called
upon Him one day, years ago, and when the Lord first began
to deal with me and show me who He was and what I was and who
Christ was, I began to call upon Him. I haven't quit. I'm calling right now. The Lord
saved me or I perished. I'm coming right now. Come to
Christ, the Scripture says. To whom coming? To Christ as
a mediator of the new covenant. And I depend upon him and him
alone to save me. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Don't let me be confused then.
Anybody confused about how you're saved? Anybody confused about
how you'll keep on keeping on? Anybody confused as to whether
or not you'll be saved in the long run? There are a lot of
preachers out there confusing people. Turn over to Galatians
2 with me. The reason they're confusing
people is because they're confused. Bless God, I don't frustrate
or confuse the grace of God. It's what Paul says in Galatians
2, verse 21. He said, I don't frustrate the
grace of God. If righteousness comes by the
law, then Christ is dead and vain. If righteousness comes by anything
I am or anything I'm going to be or anything I do, even my
faith, then Christ died in vain. I'm not trusting him. And some of them are saying this.
They're saying, if you do this or that, you're not saved. Well, I find in the Scripture
where it says, if I do this or do that, I'm a sinner. And I also see where it says,
You keep coming unto me, O ye that labor and are heavy laden
with sin, and I will give you rest. I hear them say, If you
do not do this or that, you are not saved. And I see myself coming
so far short of this standard, I say, Here is a standard you
must reach, or you are not saved. I heard a preacher to heaven,
he said, You have to have one better than that. That is exactly
what he was talking about. And he's also saying, in context
there, he was saying, not talking about our righteousness, we don't
have any. We don't have any. Are you confused? Is this thing by works or grace?
Huh? Grace. If it's grace, it's no
more works, is it? If it's works, it's no more grace.
Well, they say it's works and grace. That confuses me. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Don't let me be confused. I don't
care what this man says to me. I put my trust in you. What do
you say? Is this saying of God, salvation
of the Lord, or is this a cooperative effort, God and me? Does it say
that in Jonah 2 and 9? Salvation is of the Lord and
you. Huh? What does it say? Salvation
of the Lord. Is this thing Christ's work?
His blood and his righteousness, or his blood and righteousness
and my faith? Huh? What about the days when
I don't believe? Is this thing Christ's work and
my evidences? What about the days I can't find
any evidences? What about when I wake up and I don't believe,
I feel full of sin, and I can't find anything? anything in me
that could cause me to possibly think that I'd be a Christian.
In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Trust Christ and you will be
saved. Verse 2 in our text, Psalm 71,
turn back there. Verse 2, he says, Deliver me
in thy righteousness and cause me to escape. See, I was talking
about a righteousness a while ago. How the man does not have
any, he doesn't. There's nothing that even intimates
that in the Scripture. Let me give you an illustration
of that. The first man who was created, the first man who was
created upon the earth had a righteousness. Adam. He had his own righteousness. Did he not? It was self-righteousness. He had his own righteousness.
He had the righteousness of a man. Right? Right. What happened to him? He fell,
didn't he? He wasn't good enough. It wouldn't
keep him. It wouldn't keep him. So what I need is, I need not
only the imputed righteousness of Christ charged to my soul,
that's a legal thing that God Almighty does not hold me guilty
because he sees me as being holy in Christ. And also, he has made
me to be a partaker of his divine nature. He has created a new
creature in me, but that's still not my righteousness. It's the righteousness of Christ.
It's his seed in me. I don't take any credit for that.
I can't keep it up. I can't polish it. It's all of
his work. This is where the Reformed people
get into real trouble when they talk about progressive sanctification.
I believe there's a growth in grace. Yes, I do. But they make a real mistake
when they begin to divorce the work of the Holy Spirit from
this work of sanctification. It's always the work of the Holy
Spirit. It's never your work. It's never your work. The life
that I now live, I live half. by the faith of the Son of God.
Right? Christ in you the hope of glory. Right? It is God which worketh
in you both the will and do of his good pleasure. Right? Huh?
Christ said for their sakes I sanctify myself, but they also might be
sanctified. Is that clear? Are you confused?
Don't be confused. Deliver me, and thy righteousness
shall cause me to escape." Morality, good works, religion can't save
you because it's never good enough. It's never good enough. You'll
never pray hard enough. You'll never feel like old Joe
Terrell said, I'm not even a good sinner. What he meant was, if
you have to feel so sinful. There are some people, some men
that preach that you must lay on your bed for days, crying
and screaming and begging God to show mercy on you and feeling
yourself dropping down into the pit of hell. You read stories
like that of the Puritans and different ones, and you think,
I've never had that experience. I've never felt myself on the
edge of the pit and feel the very flames flicking at my face
like you hear them talk about their experiences, right? I'm
not even a good sinner. I don't even feel sinful enough. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. I'm not putting my trust in how sinful I feel." And that's what they're doing
in these testimonies. Oh, I was bad, I was bad, I was bad, bad,
bad. How bad were you? Bad, bad. And I used to say, you must be
sacred. You're bad, real bad. The half
has never been told. The half. We don't realize how
bad we are. It's never good enough, never good enough. Our repentance,
our faith, our morality, our good works, they're never good
enough. Jesus Christ's sacrifice is always
good enough. I'm accepted in the Beloved,
in the Beloved. And those that, he said in Romans
10, I was going to have you turn there, but I'm not going to.
confess me with their mouth and believe in the heart, shall be
saved. With the mouth confession is
made, with the heart man believeth unto what? Righteousness. Whose righteousness?
His righteousness. Christ is, Romans 10, 4, he is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believeth. You
mean I don't have to keep the law? Not to be saved, you know.
When you want to keep it after you're saved, you've got to love
God. I love God. I esteem all our precepts concerning
all things to be right. The commandment is holy, just,
and good. I love the law of God. I love
it. It's an expression of his holy
character. And just because I can't keep it, God doesn't say he doesn't
relinquish his authority or his rights over me, does he? But
thank God he does not hold me accountable for it. When I break
it now, hold on, when I break it, he'll deal with me as a child. He'll chasten me, just like we
do our own children. But when they cut my head off,
that's what I think, that's what preachers do. You know, this
is a sword, and in the wrong hands, it'll cut your head off.
And I had my head severed about seven or eight times. I didn't
get that out of it. This thing is meant to wound,
yes, but it's double-edged sword. If you're going to cut me open,
please suture me back up. Don't leave me like that Samaritan
in the ditch. Tell me about the good Samaritan,
or don't leave me like that man in the ditch. Tell me about the
one who came by and bound up my wounds and poured in oil and
wine and paid my debt and left me in the charge of the innkeeper
and said, you keep me until I come. Tell me about him. Leave me with
the good news, please. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. Look at verse 3. Be thou my strong
habitation. Now, people, all of this is not
just a head knowledge. You do need to feel it in your
heart. to your own sinfulness, your desperate need of Christ.
But verse 3 says, Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto
I may continually resort. You know, it's like your parents.
As long as they're alive, I don't care if you get to be 60, 50,
60, 70 years old, they're going to be there when you need them. If they're a parent at all, if
they're a true parent, they're going to be there when you need
them, aren't they? Some of you who have loving It's
not always the case with our parents, but it sure is with
our Heavenly Father. And I was using that for illustration.
I believe if I'm 80 years old and my dad's making 110, that's
not very good. When I'm 60 years old and if
he lives to be 90, I believe I could come to him with anything.
Dad, I need a loan. In trouble again? Yeah, I am. Right? I'm going to have to keep coming
to him continually. Be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. Continually. All my life. All
my life. Resort to him. Look at this verse. I love this. You've given commandment
to save me. He pleads with the Lord, he argues
with the Lord that eternal covenant that God made concerning sinners. He argues with the Lord? Well,
that's an old Puritan term that they used to use, where what
you do is you take God's Word and hold Him to it. You said,
God delights in that, because He knows you're reading it. You
said, if I came to Christ, you'd save me. Lord, I believe. It's done. I'm going to trust him, which
he gives that faith to, will be saved eternally. I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Lord, that's what
you said. You gave commandment. And your dictum factum, your
words saying, whatever you say is done. You said it, do it to
me. I'll do it. I'll do it. You're my rock, my
fortress. Deliver me, O my God, out of
the hand of the wicked, out of Satan's self and especially the
wicked world, especially the self-righteous wicked world.
Our Lord, do you remember he said that in Matthew 23? He said
they don't enter in and neither do they suffer anybody else to
enter in. Right? They don't trust Christ and they
don't want you trusting them either. Deliver me from these ungodly
men, would you? Cruel. They're cruel, aren't
they? Aren't they cruel? Preachers
can be, and I'm guilty. Preachers can be as cruel as
fellows. See, they have a captive audience. Nobody dare argue or
disagree with them. They'd be embarrassed to death
if somebody spoke up. They have a captive audience. Everybody's sitting
out there so they can hurl anything they want. Right? They can see somebody come in
and somebody they've got it out for and they can aim at them
and just blast away. And that person can't even shoot
back. They're cruel. Aren't they? They're cruel. Yeah,
they are. They are. They're the cruelest
of men. deliver me from thee, thou art my only hope, O Lord
God. Thou art my trust from my youth,
from my youth. He has kept me from being destroyed
ever since I was born from the cradle, and he'll keep me from
being destroyed to the grave. Verse 6, By thee I have been
holding up from the womb. Thou art he that took me out
of my mother's bowels. I was born for a purpose, make
that a saving purpose. My praise shall be continually
of thee. Verse 7, he says, I'm a wonder
unto many. They can't figure me out. I can't
figure me out. I'm a wonder. I can't figure
myself out. I'm a paradox. I'm an enigma.
I'm holy, yet I'm sinful. Son of God, yet I'm a sinner.
It's hard to figure out. I'm a wonder unto many. They
see a change, but I don't see as much of a change. But thou
art my strong refuge. It's not my change I'm looking
to. Yeah, I'm changed. I'm not what I once was. I'm not. But that doesn't satisfy
me. I'm not going to be satisfied
until I awake with his perfect likeness. Verse 8, let my mouth
be filled with thy praise, with thy honor all the day. Thy praise. The only thing I take credit
for in this life is sin. The only thing I contributed
to my salvation was strength. He did all the saving. I did
all the sinning. And I'm not proud of that at
all. Lord, verse 9, don't cast me
off in a time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength
faileth. What are you going to do when
when there comes a day, and there may come a day when you can't
remember your own name. I may come to visit you in the
hospital or in the nursing home, and I say, Birgie, what's your
hope? Is your hope in Christ? And you may say, Christ who?
Right? Yes. Pardon me, the arteries
fit in it, mate. Is your hope in Christ, too? What's your hope, Birgie? It's
if he knows you. and knew you from the foundation
of the world, and revealed himself to you in this life. And then
when you're old, it says, Don't cast me off, forsake me when
my strength fails, when my mind's gone. Not by my knowledge, but Isaiah
53 says, By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
many. Right? Him knowing me, Joe Parks, not
me knowing him. You know what I'm saying. You know exactly what I'm saying.
We must know him, yes. But when the day, when my mind
is gone, my only hope now is that he knows me. I don't know
him. I've never seen him. I feel like I know him, but I just
know him part. Prophesy him part. Preach him part. Verse 10, my
enemies speak against me. They're lying in wait for me.
take counsel together. You ever felt this? Oh, boy. You know, all of God's
children fall. They have fallen, they do fall,
they're going to fall. You may be in for the worst fall
of your life. It may not have happened yet.
As an old man, John Sheeley, when you get 60 or 70, you may
take the worst fall you've ever fallen into. David did. Noah did. Abraham did. Moses did. David did. And the enemy, they're watching
you. And they see it. They've been waiting all this
time. He'll prove to be no good in
the end. They're hoping for it. And when
they see you fall, they're going to mock you. See? Aren't they? See? They say, verse 11, God is forsaken,
persecuting, taking, none to deliver. He's no different than
we are. I thought you was a Christian. I wish I could tell that illustration, but I won't. If this man is mashing his thumb
and he let out an oath he shouldn't have, I'm not excusing that,
but he's a waifu with a self-righteous past. I thought you was a Christian. I won't tell you. See me later.
But they're watching you, and they're hoping you fall, and
when you fall, they rejoice in it. I thought you was a Christian,
and you say to yourself, I thought I was, too. What are you going to say? Apparently
I'm not. No. My hope is in thee, O Lord. He said in verse 12, O God, be not
far from me. O my God, help me, hurry! You
feel like at times you're going down into the pit, you feel like
you're already there, one foot on a banana peel and one in the
grave and one on a banana peel. And I thought, well, now I've
slipped, the Scripture says. Deliver me from going down into
the pit. Tell me about that ransom. Is Christ's blood still making
propitiation on the mercy seat, even after all I've done? His blood shall never lose its
power till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more.
That's all my salvation. How about you? Oh, Lord, verse
13, let them be confounded and consumed that are my adversaries
to my soul. Let them be covered with reproach and dishonest,
seek my hurt. I'll hope continually, and will
yet praise thee more and more. You get me out of this mess,
I'll praise you more than I've ever praised you for. Well, maybe. You will at first, but you'll
forget again, and you'll fall right back down in that same
pit. And you'll cry the same thing,
get me out of this, my precious. Now, I understand that there's
a lot of people out there, that's the only time they call on him.
That's not so with the child of God. They call on him at the
loudest when he's, when they're when all is well and peace and
joy. Oh, my blessings are running
over. My cup runs over. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, for getting out all his benefits, who daily
loatheth me with mercies and grace. Those are the times when
I want to bless him more than ever, more than ever. Verse 14, I hope in the continuum
of verse 15, What are you going to talk about after it's all
over? My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation
all the day. I don't know the numbers thereof.
We don't know the numbers thereof. We don't know the times and the
incidences. We can't see as God sees. We can't fully understand just
how merciful and gracious our God is to us. We just don't see.
We don't see. This is the reason heaven will
be eternally singing in heaven of his mercy. We're going to
see. If God's going to give us a panoramic view or whatever,
God's going to reveal to us. We're going to know, even as
we've been known. We're going to see his hand,
like that servant of Elijah, you know, who had his eyes open
and saw that David, or Thors, or more than that, would be against
us. And what all God did, how he kept us all the days of our
life. How he put us on his shoulder and carried us all the way. And everything he was divinely
ordering for our good, everything, and we'll see that someday, that's
the reason heaven's going to be nothing but, oh, mercy, mercy,
grace, grace, grace. Worthy, worthy, worthy, worthy,
worthy. That's the reason we're going to be singing that
for all eternity. Not mama, not me. Worthy, worthy, worthy, worthy,
worthy. And never get tired of it. Millions
of firsts, strangers of firsts. Worthy, worthy, worthy, worthy.
Yes! And we learn that now. We learn
it just a little bit. That's the reason we can't sing it like
we ought to sing it. Right? Forgive me, Lord, for
not singing like I'm going to trust in you. The fact that I
can't sing is like I ought to. I'm going to trust you to save
me from that. Because God doesn't need a better
reason to send me to hell than in gratitude, and I'm just as
ungrateful as the average wretch out here in the world. Yeah,
I am. It just crawls over now, and
then I'll give him an hour a week or whatever. Ain't no merit in
that, is it? I ought to wake up singing or
at the top of my lungs and go to sleep singing. If I knew half the numbers, Brother
Joe, of his mercy, I would, but I don't. Now what am I going to talk about?
My righteousness? What a good little fellow I am?
How I give my all for Jesus? Verse 19, thy righteousness. My faith? Thy faithfulness. Huh? Am I making too much out
of this? Can you make too much of the
righteousness of Christ, the imputed righteousness of Christ?
Can you? Can you make God too sovereign? That's a misnomer anyway, and
he's either all sovereign or he's not. Thy righteousness also
is very high. Oh, you're the one that's done
great things. Verse 16, I'll go in the strength of the Lord
God. That's how I'll make mention of thy righteousness and thine
own. Read on. Verse 20, he says, You've
showed me great and sore troubles. What? But the devil did, no, God. He
sent them, he cast down, he raises up on purpose. And you'll quicken
me again, you'll get me out of this one too, bring me up again
from the depths of the earth. You're going to increase my greatness,
comfort me on every side. Now what in the world is that
talking about? Well, when I awake with his likeness and stand before
his throne, dressed in beauty not my he will have increased
my greatness on him. Oh my, glory to glory, made from
image to image, grace to grace, glory to glory. I'll be satisfied,
and I'll be comforted by that on every side. There'll be no
cause for despair at all when I awake with his likeness. Verse
22, I'll praise thee with a song. David says, after all this is
over, he said, I'm going to sing a song on the guitar. What are you going to sing, David?
Will the circle be... I got a cabin in the corner of
glory. What are you going to sing about, David? I heard a
song one time, these are the words of the song. God, I've
been dependent on you, now you depend on me. What are you going
to sing about, David? Verse 22, I will praise thee
with the psaltery, even thy truth. O my God, unto thee will I sing
with a harp, O thou holy one of Israel. I'm going to sing
how great thou art. My lips, verse 23, shall greatly
rejoice when I sing unto thee, my soul which thou hast redeemed. One day I'm going to sing, you
know they say the best singers are those that sing from the
diaphragm. Right, Jeanette? I heard a saw a fellow sing the
other day. He looked so contorted when he was singing, as he was
going in and out with his stomach. But, oh, he could sing. He sang
from here. That's the reason bluegrass singers,
they're not the best singers. Pardon me, John. They sing right
here. Yes! The best singers hear from the
diaphragm, and the best singers, to God it is, sing from the heart,
not the head. That's the reason we sing these
songs over and over again, like a parrot. You know, we know them
in our head, we know them by, maybe not by heart, we know them
by head, though. And someday, we're going to sing like we've
never sung before. You remember Christ singing?
It says that he joined the disciples in singing a song. They said, came back from hearing
him preach one time and said, no man, a mistake like this man,
probably would have liked to have heard him sing. Couldn't
you? Oh, what that voice must have
sounded like. Right? Sin is what causes us
to squeak and to flatten and to sharpen and squeak and squawk
and squeak You know, he had no sin. He had no sin. Oh, he must have
sung like no man sang. My soul is going to sing, he
said, verse 24, my tongue also shall talk. What are you going
to talk about? Through all eternity, what are you going to talk about?
Thy righteousness. All day long. You never get tired
of it. Because we're going to be like
those Egyptians after they crossed the Red Sea and saw the dead
bodies of the Egyptians floating in the water and washed up on
the shore. They saw them, but they weren't
afraid of them. They are confounded or brought under shame. Those that sought my hurt, my
sins, which used to be ever before me. Someday, Brother John, somehow
or another, we're going to remember our sins, but we're You explain that? The former things shall not be
remembered, and have come to pass. That may be when he creates
a new heaven and earth, and we don't meet. Well, how are we
going to sing about worthiness all the time? Somehow or another,
we're going to remember, but we're not going to remember.
I think what that means is we're going to see them, but like I
said, like that illustration, we're going to see them, but
they're not going to cause us guilt. They're not going to cause
us fear. They're not going to cause us,
we're going to see them put away. Dead. Dead. Cast away. You're not going to bother us. What's your hope? Who are you
trusting? Are you confused? Am I confused
after this message? How are you going to be saved?
How are you going to keep on? How are you saved? How are you
going to be saved? Are you confused about this thing? Indeed, O Lord, do I put my trust.
Indeed, O Lord. He's given commandment to save.
Oh, boy. That's more than doctrine to
me. How about you? Let's sing it again. Do you reckon
we can sing 272 again? Virginia? 272. Sherry, come up. We might be able to sing it now.