Sunday morning, the chief end
of man, the very reason for his existence, the purpose for a
man or a woman to live upon this earth, is to give glory and honor
and praise and serve the God who made them. If I make something,
if I make something for my use, my pleasure or whatever, that
thing, the purpose of that thing, The very reason that I made it
was to serve me. And that is what mankind is for,
not to serve himself or to lavish himself with happiness, but rather
to serve his God who made him. And to enjoy God. To enjoy God. Now, some people,
I'm sure, are made to say, Enjoy God? What do you mean by that?
Sounds awfully mystical to me or something. Yes, enjoy God. Those who really know God enjoy
God. And I can't describe it to you
or explain it to you or create it within your heart. Nobody
can. Except those who know God. The only people who ever get
to know God are those that God reveals himself to. Nobody figures
this thing out on his own. God's ways are unsearchable.
Pass finding out, the scripture says. But to enjoy God, all that
he is and all that he does, do you? Don't fake it. He says here in verse 1 of Psalm
33, Rejoice in the Lord. Didn't say anything about doctrine? Didn't say anything about your
church? Didn't say anything about your family? Paul says it over
and over again through his epistles. Rejoice, I say, rejoice. Rejoice
evermore. Rejoice, I say. Finally, brethren,
rejoice in the Lord, he said. It's all said and done. If you
call yourself a Christian, a believer, A child of God, you must rejoice
in him." He described a person who's truly
a believer, a follower, a disciple, a Christian. In Philippians 3,
he said, it's one who worships God in spirit. I mean not one
who puts on a three-piece suit and comes to church on Sunday,
tries to look the part and go through the motions and all that,
and lives a good life, is a good citizen, a good daddy and all
this and that. The true people of God are those
that worship God in spirit. Worship God. You got any reason
to worship God? My soul. Look at the clothes you're
wearing. The air you're breathing. The
water we drink. The food we eat. The children
we have. The jobs we have. You got any
reason to worship God? everything we have, we have from
the hand of God Almighty. Have we got reason to worship
God? Have we got reason to rejoice in Him? Oh, my soul. He says, Rejoice in the Lord,
O ye righteous. Now, here's the only man it's
going to. Here's the only man or woman who's going to rejoice
in the Lord. That is a righteous person. Now, I'm not talking,
he's not talking here about a morally upright and persons who clean
their life up and so forth. That's not what Scripture calls
a righteous man. There's a lot of people out here
attending churches that are the most wicked people on the face
of the earth. I've known some people who've
never darkened the door of a church house who are some of the finest,
most moral and upright people I've ever known. Outstanding
citizens, examples, and they never go to church.
That's not what he's talking about here, a morally upright
somebody who lives according to the Ten Commandments and this
and that and the other, a righteous man. Who is righteous? Who is righteous? Scripture says
several times, there's none righteous, no, not one, right? Then who's
righteous? He's talking about somebody being
righteous here. It says, Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.
is only one way anybody is ever considered righteous by God Almighty. And that is for God Almighty
to declare him righteous. Even though he or she has lived,
I don't care what kind of life they live, like that publican
in the temple, like the harlots that came to Christ, I don't care what kind of life
they live, if God says, that person is considered by
God righteous. And I don't care how morally
upright and how religious and so forth a man or woman is, if
God says they're condemned, they're condemned. How is a person made righteous?
Through the righteousness of somebody else. That's what this
whole thing called the gospel is all about. Now listen to me.
If you don't hear anything I say this morning, hear this. A man or a woman, God is righteous. He's holy. He's sovereign. He's
holy. He won't have anything to do
with unrighteous men and women, which is all of us by nature,
including the preacher. This holy and righteous God can
only love and have righteousness. That's what he said in verse
5. He loves righteousness. How is he going to have anything
to do with us? We've lived from the cradle. And we will live
to the grave as sinful people. Our thoughts, now come on, let's
be honest, our thoughts are impure, wicked, adulterous, this and
that and the other, including the preacher. Our lives, some
of us came from myself, the gutter. Maybe some of us are still in
it, I don't know. But Jesus Christ came down here
as a man and lived a life, a perfect life. God Almighty said, now
this is the only man I approve of. Everybody else, I disapprove
of where they think, where they live, where they are, I disapprove.
But not this man, the God man. How could he do it? Because he
wasn't just a man, he was God. Jesus Christ. He lived this life
perfectly. And God said, there it is, that's
the way it's supposed to be done. I'll accept him. And do you know
what Christ did then, with that life that he lived? The Scriptures
calls it a robe of righteousness, calls it a garment. It's like
Christ took that garment off, and then he says God had some
people, and he put it on every one of those people. The life
he lived, the perfection that he accomplished. The acceptance
God gave him, he put it on some people. Who? All those that believe
him as their only righteousness. Does that make sense? That's
as simple as I can make it. But everybody doesn't. Some people
insist on getting to heaven according to their works, according to
their religion. Well, they won't get it. He called some people who came
to him in the final days, said, Lord, we've preached, we've cast
out devils, we've done many wonderful works, we was in church every
Sunday, we called on the name of Jesus, we've healed people
in the name of Jesus. Apart from me, you workers of
iniquity. Churchgoers. Why? Because they
weren't looking to Christ as their only righteousness before
God, they were looking to themselves. Here I am, God! Like the Pharisee
in the temple, God, I thank you, I'm not like that sinner, that
drunk down there, I'm a good fella. I've done this and that
and the other all my life, and Christ said about that man, I
reject him. And that old sinner, that publican,
came in the temple and he wouldn't even look up, he just pounded
himself on the floor, God be merciful to me, I'm a sinner,
I know what I am, please help me, please have mercy on me.
Christ said, no, there's a just and a righteous man. because
I want to clothe him in the righteousness of Christ." Is that your hope? Hmm? Christ, his robe of righteousness,
his person. Huh? Huh? You got reason to rejoice,
you righteous, if you see Christ as the Savior, true Savior, your
only hope before this holy God? You've got reason to rejoice. Some day, some people are going
to stand before this holy and righteous God and this Christ,
and they're going to wish they were rejoiced right now. Praise is comely for the upright.
It's fitting. It's fitting. It's right. Praise
the Lord. You know what? Praise from a
hypocrite. People singing these songs like
we sung without a heart, out of praise, singing it. without
a heart that means it, it's like flowers growing out of a pile
of manure. That's what that is. It's like a couple of little
lovely flowers growing out of a cow down out in the field.
But praise is comely, it's beautiful coming from a child who's really
praising. Now somebody's just mouthing the motion, going through
the motion, it's a stench in God Almighty's nostrils. I say that to my conviction,
too. He says, praise the Lord with heart. That's what you just
did, Jeanette. If you did it out of glory to
God with a heart, sing it with the psaltery and the instrument
of ten strings. Sing unto him a new song. Play
skillfully with a loud noise. A loud noise. Sing it. Play it like you mean it. That's what he's saying there.
And if you do mean it, you will do it in such a manner. Preach
it like you mean it. That's what he said to Isaiah,
when they get on top of the highest mountain, and you cry with a
loud voice, say, God, not a whip in heaven who's
trying to do this and that and the other, but a God who reigns
and rules among the armies of heaven and inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay in his hand or say, What do you mean,
what you're doing? He does what he will. God, tell
everybody who he is. Don't be ashamed of it. Don't
put on your little pious robe and so forth. A sprinkle of water,
get up and preach who God is. That's what this whole psalm
is all about. The word of the Lord, verse four,
is right. Now, listen to me, please. I'm going to quote in the course
of this message. upwards of two dozen or three
dozen passages of Scripture, maybe more, depending on how
the Holy Spirit leads and opens my mind. If I get up here and read one
verse of Scripture and close this whole book and then start
raving and ranting and flipping my handkerchief like Jimmy Swaggart
or somebody, don't you listen to me. Don't listen to a word
I say. But if I'm reading from this
book, if I'm quoting verses of Scripture from this book, We
better sit up and pass it, because the word of the Lord is right. What I want to read this morning
is not my opinion. What I'm going to tell you, what
I'm trying to tell you, God is my witness, is not my opinion. It's what this book says. That's
all I want to tell you. That's all the true preacher
is going to do anyway, is get up and tell you what this book
says. I'll tell you what you want to hear, not tell people
what they want to hear, scratch people's back, tickle their ears.
No. If I get sick to please men, here's one. If I get sick to
please men, I'm not the servant of Christ, Paul said. The word of the Lord is right.
Now, everything God Almighty says is right. If God calls us
a worm, you know what we are, Henry? A worm. Yeah, he did. He called Jacob,
one of his leading fellows, he said, Fear not, thou worm, Jacob. Why is he a worm? He's crawling
around the earth. That's us, crawling around this
earth. God is high above the earth as the stars are above
the earth. The heavens are higher than the
earth. God's that high, much higher,
a life, a spiritual life, an earthly life. We're crawling
around, making our lives out of dead things, like maggots.
things that are dying around us, making our lives, living
here. And we're going to die. God calls us a worm, what are
we? We're worms. God says there's none righteous,
no, not one. Now, wait a minute, I've lived
a good, no, no, no. None righteous. But I don't,
I'm not a sinner in any, oh, wait a minute now. First John
chapter one, he says, if any man say he hath not sinned, he's
calling God a liar. We've all sinned to come short
of the glory of God. Whatever God said is right. Right? You and my answer to that question,
it reveals the state of your heart, my heart. Whatever God
said—now, understand me, please. If it comes out in a harsh manner
from this man, I'm sorry. I'm just a man. But whatever
I quote from God, it's right. No matter how I bring it across,
I'm trying my best just to convince people. I can't do that, though.
There's another. He said in 1 Corinthians 2, the
natural man receiveth not the things of God. There's foolishness
to it. That's old-fashioned, hell's-fire, damnation preaching.
I don't like that. Well, the Scripture said you
wouldn't. The natural man doesn't receive the things of God. There's
foolishness to it. Neither can he understand it.
He can't. They're spiritually discerned,
spiritually understood. Now, wait a minute, I've got
a Ph.D. I mean, not many wise men at the flesh. How many have
I quoted so far? Not many wise men at the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble are called, but God has chosen the weak things,
foolish things, things that are nothing. Nobody's. People don't
think they know so much to reveal the wisdom of heaven to them. The word of the Lord is right.
Right? And all his works are done in
truth, done in truth. God is true. Here's another one.
And every man is a, somebody, somebody say it out loud. Liar. Include this fellow. God is true
and every man is a liar. Well, that especially holds true
for these preachers. They're just scum of the earth. Most
of these guys out here are the scum of the earth, I'm telling
you. They want a discount everywhere they go. They ought to be charged
double. Freeloading, no good. Lying on
God, not telling what this book says. Reach out and pick out
a lovely little verse and preach their little sermonette. Being paid thousands and thousands
of dollars. The Lord loveth righteousness.
Look at verse 5. He loveth righteousness and judgment. You see that? He loveth righteousness. Don't talk, don't anybody. I
get so tired of hearing preachers and people talk about the love
of God. Now, God is love. That's just part of a sentence,
though. That's not the full verse. God is love. Yes, God does love
some people. Not all people. No, no, no. Psalm 711 says God is angry with
the workers of iniquity every day. Psalm 55 says God hates
all workers of iniquity. He said to Jacob, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau, sorry about this Esau, Esau have I hated. Now God does love some people. But according to this verse right
here, who does God love? God loveth righteousness, right? And we just saw down here there's
none righteous. Who does he love then? Righteous
people with good moral, upright religion. No. People who are
just sinners saved by grace, looking to Christ, been declared
righteous. That's who God loves. He said, The proud and the mighty,
my soul, abhors! But the broken and the contrite,
realizing what they are, agreeing with what God says about them,
agreeing with who God is and agreeing with what he says about
them, God says, Now I'll pay attention to that man. I'll look
on that man. I'll dwell with him. I'll accept
him. He loved righteousness and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness
of the Lord. Look at that, verse 5, full of the goodness of the
Lord. The air, think of the countless millions and billions of people
that have lived upon the face of this earth, all breathing
this air. It's full, it never runs out.
It never runs out. How about water? How many fish
are in the ocean drinking it, breathing it? How many people
drink it, need it to subsist upon? The food we eat, trees
we cut down. The sheep we shear, the cotton
we grow, it just keeps on replenishing, right? The earth is full of the
goodness of the Lord, full. And I made this comment last
week, that we need more than anything the mercy of God. Why?
Because all of our lives we've lived, we've taken, taken, taken,
taken from God. Everything we have, we've received
of the Lord. We've taken, taken, taken, taken. And most people
don't utter one word of thanks. Certainly don't live their life
like they appreciate God. Now they go in the restrooms,
you know, when nobody's looking. And then they begin. Take, take, take, take from God.
Here's more. Take, here's more. Take, take,
until the day they die. Never give God a thought, never
live for God, forget God. And then they're going to take
what's coming, including me, if I'm not resting, if I don't
have this robe around me, because that's what I did with my life
before, and I still do it to a great extent. I still don't
live for the glory of God and appreciation of God like I ought
to. Nobody in here does. That's the reason we need that
covering bad, bad. Well, Christ did. Jesus Christ
did. He said, I always do those things
which please my heavenly Father. Always. He said, I must be about
my Father's business, because I love God supremely, and I'm
out to serve Him with all my life. And he did just that, and
God said, now there is a man who lives for me, and he lives for you, if you
are in him by faith. He loves righteousness and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness
of the Lord. If I asked everybody in this room
to tell me what this is talking about here, I wonder how many
could tell me. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.
I think only the people he's talking about in verse 1 could
answer this question. By the word of the Lord were the heavens
made. What's the name which is above every name? What is the
name that God gave, a special name, that God gave to somebody
in the scripture? The Word. Right? So there's a man over
in Revelation who has a name written on his thigh. It's called
the Word of the Lord. John 1, 1, in the beginning was
the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. All things
were made by him. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not
anything made which was made. That's Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus
Christ is not just a puny man that came down here and died
on the cross as a martyr and lived a life, an exemplary life,
and died on the cross because men wouldn't help him, wouldn't
receive him. He's God. He made the earth. the one who
walked on the earth, the one that made it. And he wasn't asking
anybody to do anything back then when he came, any more than he
was in the beginning. He didn't consult anybody. He
came down here to do a job, get a job done, and he did it. And
hanging on that cross, he said, it's finished, I've got the job
done. He went into the grave, and then rose out of the grave,
took those earthly clothes off, and wrapped them up real neat,
and went back to heaven. Job finished. Got the job done. He's not crying his eyes out
in heaven, hoping somebody will let him save them. No. He came
down to save a particular people, and he did just that. And he
went back to heaven and sat down, job finished, expecting not only
for all of his children to come back, but expecting that his
enemies be made his footstool. That's it. By the word of the Lord, everything
was made. This is also talking about God
speaking. You remember Genesis chapter
1? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. How'd
he do it? Let there be light. Sun. Let the waters cover the earth. Done. He spoke. Right? He spoke. Oh, man, that's foolish, isn't
it? Ain't that foolish and old-fashioned stuff? Everybody knows evolution
is an accepted fact. No, do you know that they can
put in a small child's coffin all of the skeletal fragments
that have been gathered over the years in support of evolution?
In a small child's coffin, they can put all of the bones that
have ever been gathered to support their theories of evolution.
These skulls and so forth, chromagnum, homo, sapien, whatever he is,
you know, they get a bone right here, you know, and then they
take the clay and then they sculpt it all around him. Ape man. Huh. Ain't no one an ape. What's the missing, Lynch? Huh?
If man came from ape, how come there isn't one right in the
middle? That's too foolish. Men, Gabe,
listen to this foolishness. That's not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world. There's another one, another
verse. Men gaze for days and weeks at stars. Get them big telescopes, most
powerful they've been, four billion, hundred billion dollar telescopes
in the space so they can see even a little closer. What? Stars. Trying to find the mysteries
of the universe. Do you know that there's black holes in space? Yeah, we've spent billions finding
that out. Gazing at the stars, digging
up bones. We spend billions of dollars
digging up bones. Trying to find out the origin
of things. Then one word will answer it all. God. One word will explain it all. God. That's good enough for me. I can't figure it out, certainly
not by looking at a star. And these people end up starry-eyed.
They're looking at Gator at the start. In the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth. There you have it. There's your
answer. But Peter said this. Then here's
another one. Didn't Peter say, but this they're
willingly ignorant of, that the heavens were fashioned Didn't
it? Peter said that, no, we don't
believe that. We're willingly ignorant of creation. Willing. Why? Because they'd
have to answer to this God. You see? If men believe that
there is a God, I mean an all-wise One, then they have to answer to Him. Where did we come from? such
a high form, so high above the creatures and the insects and
animals and so forth, we're a high and noble being, aren't we? No.
We're lower than the beasts. Beasts don't pollute their environment,
do they? Beasts don't kill their babies,
throw them out. Beasts don't do all these things. But if we're such a high and
mighty and noble creature, though, where'd we come from? A beast? No, the Scripture says God created
man in his own image. That's the reason man looks so
much different than the beasts. Look in his eye. Don't look in
the mirror. No, look at somebody else. Look
at somebody else in the eye. And then look in the eye of an
ape. What do you see? A glassy eye. A beast. Look in the eye of a
man. Something different in there. Proof of man's ignorance and
rebellion. Think about this. Proof of his
ignorance and his rebellion against God is his willingness to praise,
honor, and extol an idiot with a paintbrush. Some idiot, probably
a homosexual. Paint some picture or ceiling
or whatever. Paint some picture that's unrecognizable,
and they call it art, and they get millions of dollars for it.
Paint some—and they say it's a work of genius. Stroke of genius! This is the greatest man who's
ever lived! He's got checkered pants on,
you know, and polka-dotted shirt, and let the hat turn sideways.
Genius! And look at the earth. Look at
the trees, look at the flowers, look at the bees. And they want
so much as look up and say, genius. Right? God. Some psychotic philosopher, Freud
or somebody, always got the answers of it all. And look at this book,
you who look into this book. If you don't look into it now,
don't say anything about it. Nobody has a right, they can't quote
a verse in the scripture that has a right to say anything about
this book. If you can't quote a verse, you've got no business,
no right, saying anything about it. You're not qualified to speak
on the subject. This thing is not according to
man's opinion. It's written. The word of the Lord is right.
So prove it, preacher. God doesn't have to prove himself.
I don't have to prove myself to anybody. I am. Prove you're
alive. I don't have to, I am. Prove
there's a God." He said, I am. So therefore, verse 8, let all
the earth fear the Lord. Now here's the
beginning of wisdom. It says that more than Five times in the Scripture,
the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Based upon some of the things
I've already been talking about from this book right here, if
you are indeed a wise man or a wise woman, if you indeed do
know anything worth knowing, I don't care if you're a history
major, I don't care if you're a whatever, whatever you know
is about this world, It's dying, it's dead, and the knowledge
of that will be gone when you're gone. But the fear of the Lord
now, if you know who this God is, that's the very beginning
of wisdom. You understand. You talk about
history. My brother's a Ph.D. in history. If you don't know his story,
you don't know his story. This whole thing began with his
story. We will one day. Let all the
earth fear the Lord. We will one day. Everybody will
fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of him, in awe. We will someday. We will.
From Plato to Aristotle to Charles Darwin to Sigmund Freud to Carl
Sagan to Madeline O'Hare, they'll all stand amazed in the presence
of this one called Jesus. He spake, and it was done. Verse
9, He spake, and it was done. God does everything that he determined
for to be done. There's another verse. Known
unto God are all his works from the beginning. Do you believe
that? That's another verse of Scripture. We make our plans. Man, puny,
finite, fickle, failing, fallible man makes his plans, you know. We don't plan what we're going
to do next month. We don't know what tomorrow is. We don't know
if we're going to wake up in the morning. We might wake up a vegetable.
We might die. We make our little plans, and
we fully intend and fully think we're going to carry them out. God does. Whatever he purposed, he did.
He's fake and he purposed. He purposed. There's an old Latin
saying. Write this down. Dictum factum. Said, done. That describes a
little bit of God's power. Done. What daddy says goes, not necessarily. What God says goes, necessarily. Verse 10. The Lord brings the
counsel of the heathen to naught. Who's the heathen? People in
Africa? Well, no, the people in America
are more heathen than they are. Talk about them dancing around
poles. Just turn your TV on. Heathen. That's everybody. The
heathen. He brings the counsel of the
heathen to naught. Men today say that God's counseling. He's frustrated, don't they?
God tried. God's done all he can do. Now
it's up to you. That's not what this book says,
is it? I don't find that anywhere in
the scripture some idiot preacher made that up. So people would
send him a thousand dollars. That's up to you you've got to
send me money so I can get more money so I can get more money.
I have money to stay on the air so I can ask for more money to
stay longer on the air to ask for more money. God's done all he can do. No
he hasn't. Now it's up to you. No, it is
not. Dictum factum. He brings the counsel of the
heathen to naught. He makes the devices of the people
of none effect. Here's another verse. The lot
is cast into the lab, but the whole disposing thereof is of
who? The Lord. We think we're doing what we
want to do, but We're doing what God purposed and planned for
us to do. That's right. Here's another
verse of Scripture. Peter said on the day of Pentecost,
he said, You with wicked hands have taken and crucified the
Lord of glory. You killed Jesus Christ because
you wanted to. But it doesn't stop there. You
see, but you've done what God's counsel had determined before
to be done, right? He's called the Lamb slain from
the beginning, and all men did was carry out his bidding. They
crucified the Lamb of God for the remission of sin. All things work together according
to God's purpose. You say, I don't understand it.
How can evil do this and good do that? Well, listen, here's
a very simple illustration. You've got a watch on your wrist.
You've got a clock in your house. Yeah, everybody does. If you'll
open the back of that watch up, Now, it's an intricate, beautifully
made, wonderfully glorious creation. A clock is a beautiful thing.
It takes great wisdom and skill to make one. If you'll open up
the back of that clock, you'll find one gear going this way,
and the other gear going this way. Once I'm on one, you can't
see it moving. And stems and windings and jewels and this and that and
the other, all working seemingly independently, right? Going different
directions? But they all work together to
tell the time, right? Everything is working together
according to God's purpose. Yeah, but, but, but, but, don't
that, if you read the quote in the bulletin here, you can't
find that. It's just enough. You'll never
understand why God does what he does. He's God. If men can
understand God, they'd be God. This is the way men have God
done. They've got a God they can understand. That's not the
God of the Bible. My child can't even understand
me. I'm the same kind of person as she is, a human being. God
made me. I can't understand God. I'm not going to try to. Just
going to bow to Him and worship Him. You can't, you'll never understand
why God does what He does. If you believe Him, that's all
necessary. Let's learn to trust God for
who He is. Let's remember, He's God. He's not a man. He's God. And He doesn't answer
to anybody. But I just don't like that. It
doesn't make any difference. I don't understand that. That
doesn't make any difference either. Believe it. That's what faith
is. That's what God requires of everybody,
first thing. Then, those who come to him by
faith say, oh, yes, I believe. They'll only do it because he
brings them. No man, you know, we're so obstinate
and rebellious and so hard-hearted and proud, we're just not going
to believe that until you prove it to me. Well, some people,
God turns them 180 degrees. I was the world's worst skeptic
and agnostic, blasphemed, made fun of this, called my dad in
old-fashioned. I said, I was studying all this
mysticism and Hinduism and all that sort of thing, and I said,
I've got a book that can disprove everything that's in the Bible.
What a fool. That's the voice of a young fool. Now I've figured out I don't
know much about anything that's in this Bible. I've come to find
out that one verse is too over my head. He brings the counsel of the
heathen, and makes the devices of the people of none effect.
The counsel of the Lord, it stands forever. He said, My counsel
will stand. I'll do all my good pleasure.
His thoughts endure forever. Look at this. He said, blessed
is the nation whose God is the Lord. Blessed is Israel. Now, here's another one. I know
that the so-called Christianity, boy, they use that term so loosely. I use it loosely. Everybody calls
themselves Christian, certainly not Christian, my soul. Oh, boy,
that's a whole other story. But so-called Christianity, you
know, talks about Israel and all of this. The Bible, the Scripture,
speaks of Israel quite often. Romans 11. Now, somebody explain
that to me. I don't know. Apparently, God
is not through with Israel. But have you considered that
little peanut nation over there in the middle of nowhere? Have
you considered it for a moment? I mean, look at it on the map
compared to all its Middle Eastern neighbors. It's a peanut. That's
about what it's shaped like. Peanut. Little nation over in
the middle of nowhere, got all these gigantic nations all around
them with nuclear warheads, trying their best to wipe that little
nation out. And they tried it from the beginning,
hadn't they? Huh? The Babylonians went down
and got them, and captured them, and on and on and on. Hitler,
I'm going to wipe them all out. And today, every Arab on the
face of the earth says, I'm going to kill them. I'm going to kill
our Jews. They can't do it. They can't
do it. See, if you like this, Rick,
Israel is incontestably, unconquerably, undutifully undefeatable. You
know what that means? It means they can't be beat. No, they've tried to wipe them
out. Why? God said they're my people. He ain't gonna touch Think about it. But especially blessed is the
people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto
them. Who's that? I hope it's me. That's why I'm
here this morning. I want to approach unto God.
I'm trying to worship this God. I'm not here to just be heard.
Oh, I'd whole lot's rather be sitting out there and listening
to somebody else up here, pfft, biting their mouth off. I'm here
to think about and look into and worship this God. Approach
unto Him. That's what this thing's all
about. That's the reason it's so serious. We're approaching
God. God doesn't take it lightly,
and neither should we. Blessed is the man, the woman,
the young person who God chooses and causes to approach unto him.
Why? Because verse 13 and 14, my soul,
would you look at this? You got a Bible? Verse 13, the
Lord looks from heaven and beholds all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation
he looketh upon. the inhabitants of the earth. God sees us. Listen to this prayer by this
godly woman. She said, Talk no more so exceedingly
proudly. Let not arrogance come out of
your mouth. The Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by him, actions are weighed. We've got our silly little sayings,
you know, but there's some truth in them. Things
like, I can't hear what you're saying for seeing what you're
doing. There's some truth in that. out of the abundance of
the heart, the mouth speaketh. And a man usually does what he
is, what he is on the inside. Scripture talks about this thing
of fruit and so forth. Fruit comes from the stock. Scripture
is very clear about that. And God does look on people.
Read Psalm 139 sometime. He does. We're reading Psalm
33 right now. The Lord looks from heaven, he beholds all the
sons of men. Now, the first place God looks,
though, is on the heart. Man, the only place he can look,
and that's what the scripture he's talking about in 1 Samuel,
man, the only place he can look is on the outward countenance.
We can't look on the heart. We can't know what anybody's
thinking. God can. God does. God looks on the heart. And God looks on the countenance
and the outward appearance and actions and so forth. Yes, he
does. And he's looking at the foolish
things people are doing. Look at verse 16. No king is
going to be saved by a multitude of hosts. Napoleon conquered
the world, and he went after, he turned. Who turned him? Well,
he turned and went out at Russia. The king's heart is in the hands
of the Lord. He turneth it whithersoever he will. There's another verse
of Scripture. Napoleon had conquered the world. He turned on Russia. with a half a million soldiers,
five hundred thousand. I'm going to take Russia, too.
They were wiped out by snow. Nearly every one of them died
in a snowstorm. And Napoleon ended up desolate
out on an island. He'd bring up the council of
the heath and the Teething is not saved by a moat to the post. And there's no salvation in numbers
either. Just because somebody's a member
of the largest church in Franklin County or whatever, doesn't mean
a thing. Now, Noah wasn't a member of
the largest church. Noah had seven members. And they got on a boat. while
seven million perished. Lot had three members, and one
of them perished. There's no strength in numbers,
no strength in numbers. And look at this, and a mighty
man is not delivered by much strength. How many times does
it say this in the Scripture? Let not the mighty man glory
in his strength. Let not the beautiful woman glory
in her beauty. Why? Goliath fell. That man was eight
foot two. Weighed three hundred and four
hundred pounds. Carried a spear that weighed
a hundred and twenty pounds and defied the armies of the living
God. I'll take any man one on one. Here comes a shepherd boy with
a slingshot. Great swimmers often drowned.
Fitness freaks. There used to be a man named
Jim Click, I believe it was. Or Flick. Click. Somewhere around
there. He was a fitness, health expert. A jogger. Forty years old. Prime of life.
Wrote book after book on health and jogging. Was out jogging
one day and died of a heart attack. God will not share his glory
with a peanut. Who gave you your health, man?
Who gave you the body you got? How come you're in a healthy
body and that man's in a wheelchair? God! That's why. Who maketh thee
to differ from another, and what hast thou or how hast thou not
received? 1 Corinthians 4.7. Now, if you've received it from
God, what are your glories if you haven't? I did these." No,
he didn't! Doctors become idiots. Go to
the nursing home, and if your doctors up there aren't former
physicians, they become slobbering idiots. Beauty queens become wrinkled,
old, despicable-looking old women. Don't they? Weightlifters become
90-pound weaklings. Let not the mighty man lower
any strength. He's not delivered by much strength.
Verse 17, a horse is a vain thing for safety. I don't know what
horse you're riding on, but you'd better get off your horse. Right? That's what this says. I don't
know what horse you're on, but you'd better get off it. I'd
better get off it. You can't run from God. I tell
you what, no matter what you're pursuing or using to forget God,
it won't work, because someday you're going to remember. Someday
you're going to see Him as He is. You tried to ignore Him all
of your life by pursuing this and that and the other, and someday,
though, you're going to stand right smack dab in front of Him,
no place to turn, no place to look, but right in the face of But, verse 18, the eye of the
Lord, the Lord's looking at somebody else. He's looking at everybody.
Do you ever remember your dad? You know, dad, my dad seemed
like he was omniscient. He knew everything. He knew everything. I couldn't keep anything. My
mother had the world's greatest sense of hearing. I could sneak in the house. She'd
hear me. I don't care. I think she heard
me three blocks away. Why? She was waiting on me. But
Dad knew everything. How'd he know that? He's watching. The old man ain't
so dumb after all. He's watching. He knows. Why?
He'd been a boy. God's watching you. That's what
the heathen said. Do we make the mistake and say,
God's not looking at my eyes? No, that's what the heathen say.
God doesn't see me. He has no hands but your hands,
you know. No feet but your feet. No eyes
but our eyes. Oh, no. The eyes of the Lord
run to and fro through the earth, Scripture says. But the eyes
of the Lord are on some people. They're over everybody, all of
His creation. This is the eye of the Lord, though, that tender
eye. Look at it in the eye of a mother. I'm looking right now.
She's got one in her arm. When she looks at that baby,
it's a different eye than the way she looks at me. It's a different
looking eye. It's a different looking eye
of God Almighty upon some people. And it ain't because of anything
they did. You see, they're just like the rest of them. These
people. These chosen. These righteous.
Just like everybody else. They were living the same life.
Here's two of them. Grew up together. Sisters. Brothers. Had two brothers. Grew up together in the same
sinful life, just for some unexplainable reason. According to the good
pleasure of God. Now, they both ought to be rejected.
They both ought to be sent to hell. They're both hellions.
They're both living and rebelling. The guy's shaking her fist in
the face of God. But God just says to one, Oh, no. You're not going to hell. You're
mine. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to reveal myself to
you. Call you by my grace, by the
gospel you're hearing this morning. You're going to believe it? Not
me! Yes, you! You're going to believe Christ, you're going
to bow down to the Father. And one of these days, I'm going
to make you like Christ. And your eyes are really going
to be opened then. Why'd they do that? They both
just lied. It's called grace. It's called
mercy. And the eye of the Lord is upon
some people. There's one. He called himself the Good Shepherd.
Didn't he, Terry? Christ called himself the Good
Shepherd. He said he was on the trail of his sheep. On the trail
of his sheep. He came there, not seeing who would help him.
Somebody please accept me. Please, that's not what Christ
did. He came to us on the tail of
his sheep, didn't he? And he found one up a tree named
Zacchaeus. There you are, you're mine. He's
a son of Abraham. I'm going to your house, buddy.
One came in, a harlot. Oh, you don't want anything to
do with her. Yes, she does. He came for her. Get up. I've been looking for you. on. That you. He's on the trail of issue. And
I hope you grab me by the collar he had to do that with me I mean
by the collar and took some sense into. Well I'm I don't know you're
not. A young. The eye of the Lord is upon them
that fear him." And they end up, instead of blaspheming and
taking his name with God and this and that, instead of, God
damn it, it's, God bless! Bless God! Instead of Jesus Christ, this
and that, and the other, it's, Jesus Christ! What a name! Above
every name. Right? Chained 180 degrees. Who does that? Man's got a religion,
that's all. And some do. Some do. They won't
keep it. What man gets, he loses. What
God gets, he doesn't lose. He said, I give unto them eternal
life, and they'll never perish. Why? Because my Father, which
is greater than them, owns them, and they're in His hands, and
not getting out. If I'm the strongest man in this
room, ain't no man in here getting something out of my hand, right?
Ain't going to do it. God says they're in my hand. The fear of the Lord comes upon
them, and they hope in his mercy. You see that? This is it. I quit. I quit. The eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.
If you've seen a glimpse of this God, A glimpse. Christi, this is the difference,
isn't it? Is this the different God that
you now believe in? The one before you didn't give
a dog about? This is the God you've got to
confess up here. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism. There's only one Christ to confess
in here. And it says it's the God that
people must fear and hope only in his mercy. And I tell you
what, that's the beginning point. But the end, you see, God doesn't
remain a, this fear is not a slavish, coward,
shirkened, scared to death kind of fear. It's just wisdom by
seeing who he is. Hey, he's much greater than I
am. I've got to worship him. And
then when you do, then the love of God as a father, then the
fatherly love of God comes upon his people. And they see him
as a father, to be respected, to be obeyed, yes, to be honored,
to be esteemed, to be thanked, yes, but to be loved then. That's where it starts. It doesn't
start with the love of God. God loves you and Christ died
for you once. No, that's not where the gospel starts. The
gospel starts with the fear of the Lord. That's the beginning
of wisdom. And for a man to bow down and ask for mercy, have
mercy upon me. And then the love of God comes.
Then and then only does the love of God come and say, hey, I've
loved you with an everlasting love and with everlasting kindness
and mercy upon you. Our soul waits for the Lord.
Do you see that, our? He is our help and our shield,
our heart. You see where it says soul? It
says heart, singular, but it says our. Why? We're all, we
got all that same, all believers everywhere believe the same thing.
You know that? Isn't that the only denomination? One of these
days, we're going to take a Baptist off his name. I'm going to prepare
you right now before I do it. We're going to take you out today,
though. Why? We ain't Baptists. Episcopalians, we ain't Methodists,
we ain't Presbyterians, we ain't whatchamacallits. We're believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We baptize, yes, but we don't
worship baptism. You notice how that's how people,
that's how churches are named, Baptist Church. They worship
baptism, the landmark church, primitive baptism. A Methodist,
a Methodist, you know, works religion. Presbyterian, church,
church. Catholic, you're in the, if you're
in church, you're in the, you're in the church, you know, you're
saved. Your body's in the church. We hope in his mercy. Our soul,
one Lord, one faith, one hope of your calling, one baptism,
one Christ to confess. Our hearts shall rejoice in him."
We don't rejoice in our church. And people, I tell you this,
here's a good word of advice to you. Don't go out asking people
to come to church. Don't go out and tell everybody,
hey, the preacher said don't ask people to come to church.
Don't go up to somebody and say, won't you come to church with
me? No, you can't come to church.
The church is the body of Christ. It's the people of Christ. It's
a believer. You can't come. No man can come
except the Father which has sent me drawing. Don't go out and
ask people to come to church. Everybody in the universe says
that. Why don't you come to our church? You come to our church,
I'll come to your church. You come to their church, we'll go to each other's
church. Say, come hear the gospel I hear. Now there's the difference. We're
not playing church here. We're preaching the gospel. We're
rejoicing in him. I want you to come here. Here's
a better thing to say to people. Come hear about who I'm hearing
about. Come here to Jesus Christ that we didn't hear about. You'll
find he's quite different. Right, Christian? Quite different.
As a matter of fact, he's quite the Lord. He's quite the Lord that the
Bible says he is. There's the difference. Our heart
rejoices in him because we've trusted in his holy name. You
see that? Him, him, him, him. We sing hymn books. We sing out of hymn books. Songs
that sing of him, not mansions in the corner of glory and meet
mama and apple pie. Him! That's what the whole song
in heaven is going to be about. Our heart rejoices in him. Do
you remember how he started it? Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous. There's some people in here. Some people in here can rejoice
in this message I preach this morning. Can't you? I see some heads shaking, some
smile. I see some bewildered looks. You know, he said the
king is not saved by a multitude of hosts. I think people think
they get lost in a crowd, too. Sitting out there, like, you
didn't see me, I'm just a face in the crowd. Oh, no. Some of
you are accused of being barometers, like Jeanette and some of them,
that you grieve that Deborah, Mindy, you grieve that their
emotions are on their face. They've got to wear them right
here, you know. And sometimes you fake it real good. Fake it
real good, nod in the right places, but I'm looking at you and you're
not listening. But some people, by God's grace,
sometime, at some time or another, God gets through to these old,
through these old hard hearts and dull frames and all that,
and our eyes light up, and our hearts warm up, and the gospel clears up. Right? And that's a nice. Other people.