We turn back to Psalm 138, the
brother Rick read for us. Psalm 138. I think this is one of Brother
Joe Parks' favorite psalms. At least I remember hearing him
say that one time. I say that just about every psalm
I read, and so many songs I sing, too. Yeah, that's one of my favorites.
That's my favorite. They all say the same thing.
I'll talk about the same one. As badly as I want to preach
the gospel with power and fervency, that is, sincerity, And as badly
as I want you to enter into each message and be touched by it
and blessed by it and profit by God's Word, no matter how
much I try and no matter how much you try, we are at the mercy
of God to hear a message from God and the delivery of a message
and the hearing of a message. Many times I have been blessed
in the study and there preparing a message, just blessed inexpressibly,
just, I just cannot. describe or express the blessings
that I have received at times sitting in there. I felt like
I was in a little taste of heaven, you know, sitting about this
high off my chair, crying and laughing and just go through
all manner of emotions, only to come out here and have it
just be a dull and untouched bite in the presentation of it. And for you, and I listen, and
I listened to preaching last We, in the hearing of a message,
no matter how hard we try to drum up emotion or arouse ourselves
to hear the message, we're still at God's sovereign mercy to hear
his word. And he has to be sovereignly
pleased to give a blessing. He can do it. He can give it
or he can withhold it. It's up to him. We don't deserve
to hear from him, that's for sure. And this is why, after
feeling like I'm a failure at preaching, which is so very often,
or listening, we must—I go directly to God's Word and just lean on
it as good as I can. I told one of the preachers one
time, I said, I like to read a lot of scriptures so people
won't look at me too much. So they won't look up my way
too much. I'd rather have them looking
at God's Word, because I run out of things to say unless He
fills my mouth. But I just—I have to run back
to the Word, and quite often it ends up being in psalms, quite
often. And so once again tonight I turn
to a psalm. And let's go through this psalm
together, Psalm 138. The psalmist David says, beginning
in verse 1. He said, I will praise thee with
my whole heart. He's not boasting here. This is not an idle boast by
a man, so much as a prayer and a desire. This is a desire and
a zeal for God that this man of God had. And, you know, the
Scriptures so often speak of the heart, the heart in this
thing of seeking God. I'm reminded of a quote I heard
one time regarding prayer. A man said that it's better to
have a prayer without words than a prayer without heart, a prayer
without heart, and that those Scriptures speak so much of the
heart in this thing of seeking God and worshiping and praising
God. He says, with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. That's where God looks. He looks
on the heart. He's not really paying that much
attention to what we're doing outwardly, because we can fake
that pretty good. We can fake it among men pretty
good, but God sees our heart. He says in another place, to
my son, give me your heart, your heart. And he says in another
place, you shall find me when you search for me with all of
your heart, with all of your heart. And this is the thing
about the heart, the heart of men and women, is that usually
the heart, when you've got your heart set on something, it's
your whole person. It's your whole person. Man usually
gives his whole heart to whatever he really is in love with. He
gives his whole heart and being to it. And that's what I want.
And that's what David is saying, I believe, here. A whole-hearted
worship and belief in God. A whole-hearted, not half a heart.
I give that too much of the time. Half-hearted worship. half-hearted
praise. I give that too much of the time.
I want to praise God with my whole heart. Someday we will,
but, you know, He gives us times now where we're able to enter
in more than others. If God requires anything of us,
He requires all of us. Think about that. If God requires
anything of us, He requires all of us. all of us. Look at verse
1 again, where, I will praise thee with my whole heart. Before the gods will I sing praise
unto thee, unto thee, the only true and living God. Before all
these false gods in our generations, and there are many, aren't there? Many gods of many men's imaginations,
foolish and wicked imaginations. Not the God of the Bible. Men,
for the most part, aren't praising and preaching the God of the
Bible, who is sovereign and holy and just and righteous and does
according to his will. But they're making up gods of
their own imaginations, false gods who can't say, can't work,
can't help anybody, can't do anything unless men let them
do it. But that's not the God that I
worship. That's not the God of the Bible. That's not the God
of the Scripture. That's no God at all. No God
at all. And he says here, David says
this, and I can say it with him, but before all these gods, I'm
going to sing and praise about the one true God of heaven and
earth, by His grace. And it's by His mercy and grace
that I know Him, or else I'd be speaking all this false religion
like everybody else. But before this wicked and adulterous
generation, who's going after other gods, I'm going to sing
praise unto the one true God, by his mercy and by his grace.
That's what I want for you, too, in the midst of this hypocritical
generation. He said, I'll sing praise unto
thee, praise, the only true God who reigns and rules among the
armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth, the one who is
high and holy and lofty lifted up above us the Christ who sits
at his right hand, the right hand of the Father, expecting
his enemies to be made their foots too. That's who I want
to praise and worship. That's who. And he deserves that
God, this God in whose hands my very breath is and whose hands
are all my ways. He deserves all of my praise.
He deserves my reasonable service to worship him and praise him
for all of the things that done for me. He deserves all the praise
of all my heart and of everyone's heart. Verse 2, he says, David
says, I will worship toward thy holy temple. That's how I worship. David knows how to worship right.
You know, the temple wasn't even built yet, though. Most of them would tribute this
psalm to David, but, you know, his son Solomon built the temple,
didn't he? Well, this is God's prophecy. You can only look to God. You
can only find God and worship God in the place where He's found,
the place where He dwells. And the Scripture says He's not
in a building made with hands. The tabernacle of God is with
us in the body of a man, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
temple of God. That's the Jerusalem. That's
the place we look to, the Lord Jesus Christ. He said it Himself.
He said, no man come up unto the Father but by me. You can't
worship God, you can't approach God, you can't talk to God, you
can't even, you can't be spoken to by God except through a mediator,
except through the Lord Jesus Christ, our tabernacle on earth. Christ said, he that has seen
me has seen the Father. Christ said, no man has seen
God at any time, the only begotten of the Son, who's in the bosom
of the only begotten Son, who's in the bosom of the Father, he
hath declared it. He hath. And David said, I'll
worship God toward thy holy temple. And that's how every believer
worships God, in the Lord Jesus Christ. When you come to know
Christ, then you're able to come to know God and worship him.
Turn over to 1 Kings with me. You're going to enjoy this. 1 Kings chapter 8. 1 Kings chapter 8. This is the
prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple, after the temple
was built. Now, this is just tremendous.
Just tremendous. We're going to preach on this
sometime. 1 Kings chapter 8. I want to read a lot of scripture. Turn with me. 1 Kings chapter
8. If you have a Bible, look at
it. This is just tremendous. This
speaks so clearly of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you can enter into it, you'll
get a blessing. 1 Kings chapter 8, look at the
beginning of verse 27. Solomon is praying here. In verse 23, he said, Lord God
of Israel, there's no God like Thee. And that's what David was
praying over there. There's no God like Thee in heaven
above or on earth beneath. to keep covenant and mercy. And
look now at verse 27. He says, Will God indeed dwell
on the earth? Now, he had just built this temple,
and he's already saying, God doesn't dwell in a building.
That's symbolic. Will God indeed dwell on the
earth? Well, in the Lord Jesus Christ, He did. Behold, the heaven
and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this
house that I have built. Yet have thou respect, O Lord,
unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord
my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant
prayeth before thee today." Now look at this. He says, I pray
that your eyes may be opened toward this house, night and
day. And that's the prayer of every
believer, that his eyes will be fixed, the Lord's eyes will
be fixed upon the blood and the righteousness of Christ, our
mediator, our representative. Even toward the place of which
thou hast said, My name shall be there. God's put his name
in Christ. And that you may hearken unto
the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place.
We pray in the name of Christ, don't we? Verse 30, And hearken
thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel,
when they shall pray toward this place." Lord, when we pray in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, God hears us, and He's promised
to do so. Hear thou in heaven in thy dwelling
place, and when you hear, forgive. He will, in the name of Christ.
If any man trespass against his neighbor, and an oath be laid
upon him to cause him to swear an oath come before thine altar
in this house, then hear thou in heaven, and do and judge thy
servants, and condemn the wicked." Verse 33. When thy people Israel
be smitten down before the enemy because they sinned against thee,
and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray,
and make supplication unto thee in this house. Then hear," that's
Christ, isn't it? "...hear, and forgive the sin
of your people." Verse 35, when heaven seems to be shut up, no
rain, we don't get any blessings out of anything because we're
sinning against it. When it feels so sinful, if you
pray toward this place, We pray in the name of Christ, confess
in his name, and turn from our sin, repent. Then hear, thou,"
verse 36, in heaven, forgive the sin of thy servant and of
thy people. Hear us, verse 37, if there be
in the land of famine, and we're in that land of famine, aren't
we? There be pestilence, blasting,
mildew, locusts, and so forth. Whatever plague, verse 38, when
prayer and supplications are made by every man, any, no matter
how sinful, by all the people of Israel, which shall know every
man the plague of his own heart, when he spreads forth his hands
toward this house, then hear him, hear him. And he's promised
to do so in Christ, in Christ. Verse 41, moreover, concerning
the stranger. A stranger, remember Peter prayed,
or Peter wrote to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus and
Galatia and so forth, and that's Gentiles. A stranger that's not
of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy
name's sake, because they're going to hear, verse 42, they'll
hear of your name and of thy strong hand and thy stretched
out arm. When that stranger comes and prays toward this house,
hear him too. Hear him too. in our dwelling place. Verse
44, if your people go out to battle against their enemy, and
we do go out every day, we will serve with us and send them and
pray unto the Lord toward the city, toward thy house, then
hear on. And he's promised to do so. If
they sin against thee, verse 46, for there's no man that sinneth
not, all have sinned and come short. If you be angry with them
and deliver them to the enemy, and every now and then he lets
us go to our own way. So they're carried away captive
into the land, far yet, if they just stop and think, in the land
where they're captive. And say, verses 40 says, we've
sinned and done perversely, we've committed wickedness, and return
with our heart, with our soul, and down at the last part, and
pray unto that, unto thy name, and toward thy house. which I
have built. Then hear them, verse 49. Hear
them, and verse 15, forgive thy people, they have sinned against
thee. And that's what David says, and
that's what we say. We're going to worship toward
thy holy temple. We're going to worship Christ, our mediator.
We're going to look to him. We're going to look unto him
and be he saved. All the ends of the earth, scattered
strangers and whoever is your lights, whoever looks to Christ
will be saved. Look toward God's holy temple,
God's holy tabernacle among men, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm
going to look to God and worship God in the place he dwells, and
that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Look back at the text, Psalm
138. He says, I'll praise, I'll worship
toward thy holy temple, and I'm going to praise your name for
your loving kindness. Look at it with me. I'm going
to praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth. Turn back
a few pages to Psalm 107. Psalm 107. Do you know anything
about God's lovingkindness? I believe some of you do. Lovingkindness. This is a beautiful Old Testament
word. A beautiful Old Testament word,
and it means nothing more than It's an Old Testament word for
the word grace, loving kindness. Look at Psalm 107, verse 41.
God setteth the poor on high from affliction. He makes families
like a flock. The righteous shall see it and
rejoice, and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. Verse 43. Who is wise and observes these
things, that is, the great work of God in salvation. Even they
shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord, his lovingkindness.
Jeremiah said, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying,
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore,
with lovingkindness I have drawn thee. And that's what Christ
says. That's what we studied back in John 13, wasn't it? He loved them unto the end. And
with lovingkindness, he drew all those disciples, and he draws
us the same way, by his mercy and by his grace. Isaiah said,
I'll mention the lovingkindness of the Lord. And this is the
song of every believer. The lovingkindness, the grace
of our God. Not what we've done, what He's
done for us. The grace of our God. David said
this, that let thy lovingkindness Thy grace and thy truth continually
preserve me." Let thy, now listen, let your loving kind, let your
grace and your truth preserve me. Now what does the New Testament,
what does the Scripture say? The law came through Moses, but
grace and truth came through the Lord Jesus Christ. So, David's
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ there, in prophecy. Let your
grace and your truth preserve me. Let the Lord Jesus Christ
be propitiation for my soul. Let Him be my peace. Let Him
be my preservation. Let Him be my salvation itself. Grace and truth came by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, I am the way, I am the
truth. I am the truth. You know, truth. is also another word for word,
the word truth, thy truth. Let thy lovingkindness and thy
truth preserve me, thy word, your lovingkindness and your
truth. And I praise God for this word,
for his word that preserved me, keeps me. Look at verse 2 again. He says in verse 2, he's magnified
his word above all his name. David said, thou hast magnified
thy word above all thy name. Now, it used to be that a man's
word meant something. It used to be, some of you old
fellers, like Henry and Joe, You've been around a while. Used
to be a man, you didn't have to write up a contract. They didn't have credit cards
back when you were young, did they? You go into a gas station
like yours and put it up. Put it on my bill. Okay. Are you sure? If you make an
agreement with a man over whatever, some farm goods or whatever,
you shake hands on it. And a man says, you have my word
on it, I'll pay you. next Friday or whenever, you
have my word on it." A man's word used to mean something,
didn't it? It used to mean something. Well, a man's word doesn't mean
a thing, but God's word does. And that's what he's saying here.
God's saying, you've got my word on it. God has magnified his
word above all things. His word. God has spoken. And
forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." Christ said
a wicked and adulterous generation speaks after a sign. They need
something to prove it. You know what he said? A wicked
and adulterous generation speaks after a sign. He also said in
1 Corinthians 14 that Torahs are not for believers but for
unbelievers. These signs and all. Believer
doesn't need a sign. What's he got? What's he need?
Good enough for me. God's Word. God's Word. He said it. That settles it. And now I believe it. Now I believe
it. Because it's settled in heaven.
God says, you have my word on it. Peter said, we have a more
sure word of prophecy. Peter said, we saw some miraculous
things. We walked and talked with the Son of God while He
was on this earth. We saw His miracle. We saw Him raise people
from the dead. We ourselves have raised people
from the dead, Peter said. But he says, you have a more
sure word of prophecy. You have something that you do
well to take heed to. More sure. I wish we could get
that through our heads. I sure do. Wish we could. Truly, God has magnified His
Word above all else. You know, God's Word is His power
and His authority. It's His Word. He speaks things
into existence by His Word. In the beginning, God just spoke
things. Let there be light. And it's
the same way to them. Except He does it through this,
the written Word. He does it the same way. Let
there be light in this old dark heart. Let there be light. And
it is. There's light, there's understanding
in a darkened sinner's heart. You know, like I said, God's
Word is His power and His authority, and when He speaks, things live,
things move, things have their being. Let us create man, and
man lived and moved and had his being. And Christ is called the
Word. of God, the Word of God. He's the power of God, by whom
all things are made and upheld by the Word of His power, by
the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him all things consist by
Him and for Him, and without Him was not anything made which
was made. Christ is that Word, and one
and the same. God's written and incarnate Word,
one and the same. You know, perhaps this He says,
you've magnified your word above all names. Think about that for
a minute. He says, thou hast magnified
thy word above all thy name. Now, perhaps he's talking about
the word as being a name, as being a name. And that's what
Christ is called. Like I said, Christ is called
the Word. And in the Word, when you have
the name Word, in the Word, the incarnate Word, you have all
the character of God. All the counsel, all the will
of God, all the character of God is to be seen in His Word,
and it's all to be seen in the express image I said, and his
son, who's the express image of the Father. And he calls him
the Word. The Word. Look at verse 3. He says, In the day when I cried,
thou answered me. You know, I looked up that word
cried, and that means a lot more than just to cry out. The word
cried, I looked this up. And it said this, in the Old
Hebrew, So to cry means to call out to properly by name. To call out and address properly
by name. Now the scripture says, Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord. You've got to call on the
right one. And you just can't call on anybody. You just can't
cry for help. Everybody does that, don't they?
Everybody gets in a little trouble. That's not the way it is. You call on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And how shall we call on him who may not hear? Hmm? I don't
even want to hear what I'm preaching. That's what we were talking about
this morning. You've got to call on the right woman. You've got
to call on the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, call upon me in the
day of trouble, and I'll deliver you. Come unto me, all you that
are lay. You can just call, just help
somebody. You've got to call on the name
of the Lord. He's the only one that can help.
And you know, David said, I'll praise thee with my heart and
my mouth. He said, I'll praise you with
my heart, and now he's saying, I'll praise you with my mouth.
And that's what Paul said in Romans, with the heart. With
the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and then with
the mouth, confession is made. It naturally follows. And this
is very convicting to me, and it should be to all of us. God
forbid that we should be ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ. Rick
and I were talking last night about how our zeal and our enthusiasm
in witnessing and speaking to other people is really in direct
proportion to our relationship with him at the time. If we're
walking with Him, if we feel close, then we'll readily speak
out on His behalf. So we need to pray that we might
know Him, that we might know Him, the love of Christ which
passes a mere understanding or head knowledge. But out of the
abundance of the heart a mouth speaks. I can't help but speak
about my daughter. Can't help it. Like I said, you
all get tired of hearing about her. I know, but I can't help
it. She's on my heart. I love her dearly, and I speak
about her, and my wife. I love her dearly, and you folks.
I speak about you to the people. If I love my Lord, my soul, I
need to speak about him, don't I? I need to speak about him. Well, he said, I cried, and you
heard me. I called on the name of the Lord, and you heard me,
and strengthened me. Verse 3, strengthened me. with
strength in my soul." That's exactly what Paul said over in
Ephesians 3. Paul prayed that God would strengthen
us with might by his Spirit in the inner man, in the inner man. It takes, like I said at the
very outset, it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to enable
us to do anything. Verse 4, verse 4, said, "...all
the kings of the earth shall praise thee." All the kings of the earth shall
praise thee, O Lord." When they hear the words of thy mouth,
they'll all praise you. One of these days, everybody's
going to praise God, whether they want to or not. One of these
days, every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going
to be forced to confess. He's Lord. He's Lord. You know, we're considered kings
and priests to our God, and all of us as kings of the earth praise
our Lord. But I believe he's talking about
the mighty of the earth shall one day bow before the Lord. When they hear that voice, when
they hear He said, when they hear the words of thy mouth,
when men hear that voice, the sound of many waters, and start
quaking in their shoes for fear and trembling, Scott Richardson
said, when God breaks His silence, someday God's going to break
His silence and speak from heaven, and men have never heard Him.
And then they're going to start admitting, ooh, He is God, isn't
He? He is Lord, isn't he? Yeah? Verse 5, they shall sing. They shall sing in the ways of the
Lord. This kind of reminds me of an
old western. You know, an old western, you'd get some old tough
ombre, and he'd get some little old weakling, and you'd have
him at his mercy, and he'd say, Dance! And he'd be shooting at
his feet. I don't mean this in a very irreverent
way at all. But, you know, you sing those
bands, bands, you know, to make that man know he's at his mercy.
Well, some day, men and women who've been singing rock songs
and honky-tonks and folk songs and protest songs or whatever,
well, some day they're going to be made to sing, How Great
Thou Art. They're going to be made to sing
it, whether they want to or not. And only by God's mercy and grace
that you and I want to sing it. We'll be singing it by His mercy
and by His grace from the heart. But some men are going to be
singing it, going to be forced to sing it. Sing it! Oh, boy. I want to learn to sing
that song now. I want to sing it from my heart
now, and I want to sing it then from my heart, and not be forced
to do so. And the ways of the Lord for
great is the glory of the Lord. Verse 5, Though the Lord be high,
but, but, or even though the Lord be high, he's holy, he's
exalted, seated on his throne, yet he has respect under the Lord. Isaiah 57, the Lord God of glory,
who sits on a throne that's unapproachable. This same God condescends to
speak to and be spoken to in and through the Lord Jesus Christ by sinners. no good sinners like
you and I. Verse 15 of Isaiah 57, Thus saith
the High and Lofty One, that Inhabitant of Eternity, whose
name is Holy. He says, I dwell in that high
and holy place with him also, and here's my companions, that
man or woman or young person whose contract of a humble spirit
to revive the spirit of the unborn, to revive the heart of the contrite
ones. We have a great high priest. I mean, if you'd have seen that
Old Testament priest with all his garments on, the Pope and
all these dudes didn't nearly come up to his grandeur. I mean,
emeralds and and rubies and sapphires and gold and, oh, just decked
out in splendor, perfection. If you'd have seen him, you'd
have been somewhat in awe, in awe of him. Well, we've got a
great high priest. Read Revelation 2 sometimes,
a description of him. Oh, he's high. He's touched with a feeling of
iron firmness. We have not an high priest who
cannot be touched with a feeling of iron firmness, but yet was
tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin, he condescends,
he stoops down into the dirt to speak to a harlot. He's great,
man. He sits on a throne, high and
lofty, but he condescends to speak to Old sinners like you
and me. Oh, the Lord be high, and He
is, and we don't even know the half of it. Like that Queen of
Sheba said, the half has never been told. We don't have it.
Look, we cease through such a—oh, we go through the motions here
and try to come to some kind of understanding of the Lord,
what He's like and all. We just get a little glimpse
over now and then. We don't know the half of it.
little over a quarter of it, a one-millionth of it. Now, he
is, he's high, yet he has respect unto the lowly. But look at this,
he says, but the proud, verse 6, the proud he knows afar off. I read over in the New Testament
where it says that Christ knew what was in men, John He said
he knew what was in him, so he didn't commit himself unto them.
Because he knew what was in him. He knew what was in me. Pride. Pride. And the only people he'd
come calling on was the lonely. Like that South Venetian woman.
All right, Mr. Dog. I just want some crumbs
all I want. You don't have to, though. Just
some crumbs. He smiled on that woman. Smiled
on her, holdin' her fiddle-shell. And the more I tell you the older
I get, the more I see that we've got to just become dogs. We've
got to become dogs. Dogs. You know, a dog is a man's
best friend, isn't it? Well, an old worthless no good
sinner that acknowledges himself to be just an old worthless dog
like that woman and like Mephibosheth and so forth. God will befriend
him, will befriend him. Well, he says the proud, though,
he knows are far off. He knows are far off. Christ
said, I came not to call the righteous. Uh-uh. Christ said
to those Pharisees, I know you. You love your father the devil.
And he told the disciples, he told others, he said, leave them
alone. I have. You leave them alone. He knows
his people in saving, mercy, and union. But the proud and
the self-righteous, he knows them far out. He knows them.
He knows all about them. He ain't done it. He knows their
heart. He knows what they're thinking, where they're going,
what they're doing. They're in His hand. The king's heart is
in the hand. The wicked, everybody's in His
hand. The doer with us he put. He knows them all right. But
a far off. He doesn't know them intimately
like He does His people. The proud, He'll know a far off.
But the meek and the lonely, He'll know them up close. Like
Adam knew his wife. And become one with them. And
put Christ in them. It will. And he gives that spirit. It's not something we drum up.
He gives that spirit of humility and meekness. Verse 7. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me. Christ said in the world, you
shall have tribulation. Job said man who's born a woman
is a few days and full of trouble. They would say, how are they
encouraged to trouble me? Hezekiah said, this is a day
of trouble we're living in. Ezekiel said, the time has come,
the day of trouble is here. Paul said, we're troubled on
every side. We are, aren't we? Trouble all
around us, all around us. But, he said, though I walk in
the midst of trouble, but God, God will revive me. And we need
reviving every day, don't we? But God, Christ said, be of good
cheer, I've overcome the world. It's a world full of trouble.
And that thing which chiefly troubles you, sin. That's what
we need to be rid of. That's what we need to have Him
overcome for us, sin. That's the thing that troubles
us the most, the true child of God, our sin, our wickedness. And when we look to Him, we see
Do you hear him say, Be of good cheer, I've overcome that. And
there's really nothing else to worry about, nothing else. Be
of good cheer, I've overcome this world of trouble, and that
which troubles you the most, your sin. Verse 7, Thou shalt
stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and
thy right hand shall save me. Keep your place there and turn
to one more scripture. Hebrews chapter 1. He says, you'll
stretch forth your hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and
your right hand shall save me. Your right hand. What is the
right hand of God? What's he talking about? The
right hand of God. Look at Hebrews 1 verse 3. seeing
the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when
he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of God." That's
the right hand of God. He's the right hand of God. I believe that's, I forget the
Psalm 118, I believe it is. Look over Hebrews 8, verse 1. Hebrews 8, quickly, verse 1.
Now, of the things which we have spoken, this is the Son. We have, and you could sum up
every message with this, every gospel message, this is the Son.
We have a high priest who's sat down on the right hand of the
throne of the majesty in the heavens, and God, by his right
hand, shall save us." And as you notice there, he stretches
forth his hand against the wrath of mine enemy. Christ on that
cross stretched forth his hands, and by that death, by those wounds
in his hands and his feet, by those outstretched hands on that
cross for me, he defeated the wrath of mine enemy. He defeated
Satan, sin, and self by the sacrifice of himself on that cross. And
now, mindful of all this, David said, verse 8, mindful of all
God has done for me, that glorious covenant of grace in the Lord
Jesus Christ, verse 8, the Lord, what can I help but say with
the Lord? He's got her under control. My salvation is sure. The Lord will perfect that which
concerns me." He'll take care of it. It's in his hands. He
wanted him to took the burden in the first place. And he's
going to have to see it through all the way. He's got to carry
it out. He's called the author and the finisher of our faith
anyway. When he starts, he'll finish. What we start, you know,
we rarely finish. I'm real bad about that. Real
bad about that. Starting something, I get real
gung-ho about it, and maybe get 95% done with it. We were talking
about that one. And fail to finish it. My God! Whatever God starts,
he finishes. And that reminds me of a verse
over in Philippians. Paul said, I'm confident of this,
that what God has begun in you, that good work that he's begun
in you, he'll carry through. He'll finish it. He'll perfect
it in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord will perfect
that which concerns me. God is so concerned for his people,
he sent his Son down to die for them. He's going to make sure
they were saved. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
so concerned with God's people, His honor, His glory, His reputation
is at stake. You better believe He's going
to carry it through. And that's what He said on the cross. He's
finished. I did it. I did it. All that
the Father bid me to do, all that my hands set out to do,
I did it. I did it. There's an old saying that if
you want something done right, That's what we just read, wasn't
it? When he had by himself perched
our sins. He did it, man. I despise, like
David said this morning in Psalm 119, I assume all of our precepts
concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way. I
hate this modern gospel. Haters, because it blasphemes
the Lord Jesus Christ. It makes Him a pathetic failure. It makes His blood a small thing. And men despise—men have done
this fight in the spirit of grace, haven't they? They tried none
to put the blood of the Son of God. Why? Because men say He
just threw it out there for anybody to pick it up that wants it.
Just scattered the blood. Oh, that's precious ointment,
isn't it? You dare not waste a drop of that precious, precious
ointment. God's too wise to do such a thing, but He applies
that blood, every drop, applies it to every believer, to every
child of God that He chose from the foundation of the world.
Not one drop of that precious blood was wasted, not one drop. And I despise this modern-day
so-called gospel. that has Christ dying for all
men and not knowing who's going to be saved. I despise it. Uh-uh. That's not the gospel of God's
Word, God's grace. The Lord would affect that was
a concern of mine, because you want something done right, do
it yourself. And he did it. He, when he had by himself purged,
he purged our sins. And like Brother Todd Nybridge
said this past week, he said, He said that the atonement, we
talk about particular redemption, and we talk about it in the form
of a doctrine, but he said, this is my hope. It's my only hope. The blood of Christ is my only
hope. Not my faith, not my works, but
blood applied to my soul. When God said, I will ask Him
for blood, I'll pass over you." He didn't say, when I see the
blood, plus your faith, that if you believe enough in the
blood. No, he said, when I see the blood, now that blood better
be able to save me. And Christ's blood does. The
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, saveth us, cleanseth us
from all sin. It's my only hope. My only hope
that I got the blood on the doorpost of my soul. And God sees that
and accepts me. And He took away that, I don't
have a ground to stand on. And it makes me mad. Don't be
talking about the blood of my Lord like that. See, there's far more at stake
here than just believing the doctrine in there. Far more at
stake. My salvation is at stake in the
blood. Yes, sir, it is. When that high
priest of old went in with that, the Holy of Holies with that
basin of blood, now the folks were out there wringing their
hands, wringing their hands. He had bells on his garment and
went in there, and as long as he heard those bells, and the
smoke rose up from the altar, and when he finally came back
out, he accepted the blood. The sacrifice has been accepted,
and the shout of joy rang out. But his barrel stopped, and no
smoke rose, and God didn't accept the blood. Oh, and if God doesn't
accept the blood, what's he going to accept? Not my filthy works
of righteousness, is it? Only the blood. It's the blood,
it's the blood, it's the blood. And that's what I'm clinging
to, the blood, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I said
this before, from over in Exodus, that we don't even put the blood,
we don't apply the blood. No, no, we don't. Like in that
Passover story, the elders, they applied the blood to every house. In every house where the blood
was, there were certainly large families full of people who were
too young, too ignorant. I'm ignorant. There were people
too young, too illiterate to apply the blood. There were little
kids who couldn't reach up to put the blood on it. He said,
put it on the doorpost for men. They couldn't reach if they wanted
to. Somebody do it for them. And the Holy Spirit has to do
that for me, apply the blood to my soul. He has to do it for
me. Whether the Lord will perfect
that which concerneth me, He will. Why? Why wouldn't he continue it like
Paul said in Philippians? He'll continue it, he'll perfect
it, he'll finish it until the day of Christ. Why? Because Paul said it again in
another place. Because I know whom I believe.
I know who I'm talking about. I know. Because his mercy endures
forever. Yeah. Once he shows mercy. And you felt it. You know it.
That God has been merciful unto you from the outset. and there's
no reason to believe that he won't be merciful, continue to
be merciful. Great is thy faithfulness. I've
been altogether unfaithful all my life, and unbelieving, and
ungrateful in every other sinful adjective. That's been me. But
he continually opposes me. He just keeps picking me up.
I'll follow him if he picks me up. I'll follow him if he picks me up.
I'll follow him if he picks me up. He's faithful. If I believe not, Paul
said to Timothy, yet he about is faithful. He can't deny himself.
It's part of his character to continue to be merciful to his
people. Once he sets his eye on you, once he sets his love
on you, his affection, his mercy, once he applies the blood to
you, call me Antonomi. Go ahead and take it out there.
I don't care. No, I don't want to be called Antonomi, but if
I do it anyway, so be it. Once he applies the blood to
my soul, it doesn't matter what I do. He accepts me in the beloved.
That's good news to me. That doesn't make me want to
go out singing about far from it, no. But that gives me peace
in knowing that if I do fall, He'll pick me right back up again.
Pick me right back up again. Because His mercy endures forever. Because it's of grace and not
of works. It's of grace. Now look, he ends
this up with a He's not being presumptuous in his prayer. And it's like Jeremiah. The Lord spoke through Jeremiah
and said that the Lord said he was going to do all these things
for the people. He was going to save them and
draw them out and so forth. But he said, But I'll yet be
inquired of them for this. Prayer is the means that God
uses to bless his people. Yes, it is. And this is what
David ends up by doing. He ends up by praying. He says
he's confident in his Lord. He knows whom he has believed.
He's persuaded he's able to keep him, to perfect that which concerns
him, because the Lord's merciful and his mercy endures forever.
But then he says in verse 8, I'm not trying to sound presumptuous, forsake not the works of your
hands. There he was pleading what God
offers, or not offers, what God provides. He's pleading. God
has to accept what he provides, and God has provided himself
a lamb in the Lord Jesus Christ. He has to accept it. He has to
accept it. And that's what David prays for,
and that's what you and I pray, that the Lord will accept the
offering the body, the blood, the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ on my behalf, on my behalf, that he'll impute
it to my account. For certain not the works are
thine own hands, and this thing of salvation is of the Lord.
It's his work from start to finish, and God won't forsake it. He'll
not forsake it. Christ said, I'll never leave
thee nor forsake thee. Why? Because he does it all for
us. He does it all. He did it all.
And God accepts him and accepts us in the Beloved, in the Beloved. Well, let's stand and sing that
song, Jesus Paid It All. Sherry, come up and we'll just
sing a verse or two of that. Jesus paid it all, that's 125. Did we sing that this morning,
Joe? Huh? Well, we'll sing again. 125.
125. We'll sing it over and over again. I hear the Savior say, me. Oh, I like that last part. Let's sing that. Jesus died, my soul to save.
My lips shall still repeat Jesus' name. Oh, Lord, You hear my word.
Sin hath left, remnants slain. Seriously?