Come back in Psalm 103. Psalm 103, look at one verse
with me, verse 13. He says, like as a father, pitieth
his children. So the Lord pities them that
fear him. Fatherly pity. Fatherly pity. Now, salvation is knowing God. The first mark or evidence that God is
revealing himself to someone comes in a knowledge of his person. First, all God's people know
him as God, as in the truest sense of the word, that he is
indeed the sovereign, holy, just, all-powerful God. All God's people,
without exception. We studied one evening in John
6.45, they shall all be taught of God. They shall all be taught
of God. So this is something that all
that really know God, that really have a saving
interest in Christ, this is something that all God's people know, that
He is indeed God Almighty in the truest sense of the word,
in the strictest sense of the word. And they bow to Him as
such. But He's not only a just God,
they know Him as a holy and just God, but they know Him as a Savior
too. All of God's people eventually, after they see him as God, then
he reveals himself to them as a Savior, a just God and a Savior. They see that salvation is of
the Lord, and that Jesus Christ is that Lord, and he's a merciful
Savior. He's our only hope, our only
righteousness, our only way to God, our only mediator. Now these
are, like I said, this is always the first revelation of God to
his people as God, as a just God and a Savior. But this is
not the only way that he reveals himself to his people. This is
not the only character. These are not the only characters
that God reveals himself to his people. And sometimes I believe
that's the reason there are just dead, cold Calvinists because
they come to a conclusion of these facts, that God is this
way, that he is that way, and that Christ is this and that,
he must be this and we must believe that. They come to these facts,
but they never really enter into the person, the character of
God. They never really have had this
third characteristic revealed to them. manifestation of God. They only
believe facts. And I've been here. I know what
I'm saying is from experience. All of God's people eventually
come to know Him as their kind and good and tender, compassionate,
loving Heavenly Father. Father. A Father to His people. A Heavenly Father. Now, I used
to think, like I just said, I know this from experience, because
I used to think of God when I came, quote, to the knowledge of the
doctrines of grace. Now, that is not salvation. We
like to, people like to use that term, but that's not, Terry,
that is not salvation. Coming to a knowledge of doctrine
is not salvation. We must come to knowledge, yes,
but we've got to come to know Him, His person, His person. And this is part of that person.
I used to think of God when I could quote, or I could argue doctrine
from an early, from a young man. And I used to think of God as
being, I was so convinced that God was holy and sovereign and
just and all these things. Convinced, I was zealous for
that truth. But I thought, I really thought he was austere and unmoved. and unfeeling, that he sees all
his works from the beginning, all things are naked and open
before his eyes, and nothing really moves him. Nothing sways
him, nothing moves him. That's not true. Not according
to this work. We'll see that in a minute. But
when I saw finally, I believe when he finally revealed himself
to me in this character, when I saw something of the love of
God in Christ, The love of God in Christ evoked my old Calvinistic
heart, my old proud heart. And after all, the Scripture
does say that the goodness of God leads a man to repentance. Not only is God good in giving
man repentance, but I believe that means that a man will really
repent, really repent now, when he sees just how good God's been
to him. You see what I'm saying? That the goodness of God leads
you to repent. But God is a Father to his people.
I want you to notice with me the Apostle Paul, his salutations
to his people. Look at 1 Corinthians. Look at
1 Corinthians with me. I want to jump from book to book
and show you every time how he addressed God's people. Listen to this. Listen to how
every salutation of the Apostle Paul's in his letters to the
Corinthians, the Galatians, the Ephesians, and so forth. Look
at this. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse
3, well, verse 2, he says, Under the church of God, that is, God's
people, God's family, at Corinth, a particular people, to them
that are set apart, sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be
saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus
Christ our Lord, both their Lord and our Lord. Grace be unto you,
and peace from God our Father. And then look over at 2 Corinthians
1. 2 Corinthians. The next letter to the Corinthians,
he begins it in this fashion. Verse 2, where he's writing to
the saints which are in Achaia. In verse 2 he says, Grace be
to you, and peace from God our Father. And then look over at
Galatians, the next book, Galatians, his epistle to the believers
at Galatia. And he says in verse 2, he says,
I'm writing all the brethren which are with me under the churches
of Galatia. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father. And then over in Ephesians, look
at Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1. Verse 2. Well, he sees right
into the faithful, the saints that are at Ephesus, the faithful
in Christ Jesus. He says, Grace be to you, and
peace from God our Father. He keeps on, and we'll look at
every one of them, nearly every single one of them. He talks
about grace and peace coming from our Father. Our Father. He refers to God as our Father.
And here in our text, the psalmist says, like as a father, pities
his children, so the Lord pityeth them that fear him." Now, this
is the first characteristic of a true child of God. Notice this. Now, the pity of God, the loving,
kind, compassion of God, longsuffering of God is not upon every man.
It's on his children. And this mark distinguishes them,
those that will receive this pity. This mark. Like as a father
pities his children, the Lord pities them that fear him. Fear him. God, listen to all
these scriptures, God takes pleasure in them that fear him. God honors
them that fear him. The Lord is with them that fear
him. The Lord is round about them
that fear him. There is no want to them that
fear him. Sounds necessary to me, doesn't
it? What is this fear? Fear of the Lord. I've heard
many messages on it. Many good ones. Well, simply speaking,
this fear is reverence. It's reverence. It's a profound
admiration and awe and respect for God. An amazement of His
person. Amazed in awe. Stained in awe. Be still, you know, and know
that I am God. Stand in awe. Commune without
heart on thy bed. Be still, know that I am God.
It's a reverence for Him that will cause a man to fear Him.
It's respect. Respect for His name, for His
character, everything about Him. And this respect is brought on
by an understanding of His powerful person. Respect. Those that fear Him dare not
even take that name upon their lips. Dare not to. They respect
that name too much. And it's a submission. You can't
fear God unless you're submissive to him. Unless you're submissive
to him. It's submission to his authority,
to his word, all of it. All of his commands and claims.
Submission to him. He says, the Lord says, this
is my son. Hear him. and submission, the
one that fears God, says, OK, I'll hear it, I'll listen. He
says, the word comes and says, Christ says, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. And true fear and true submission
says, OK. I'll come by you. No way. I won't
try to get in my own way. The Word comes and says that
Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And you are complete in Him.
And true submission and true fear and respect says, that's
right. He's everything I need. I don't
need to do a thing. That's submission. The fear of
the Lord, the Scripture says, is the very beginning of all
understanding and wisdom. There's much weight in that.
And this is a characteristic of all God's people, all God's
saints. Those that know God, really know
Him now, they fear Him. They fear Him. Those that don't
know Him won't fear Him. And this is indictment against
this generation. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. It's clear, isn't it? It's clear
by the way they refer to Him, by the way they conduct themselves
in so-called worship, It's clear that they don't fear God. They
don't fear God. God's some old man, you know,
upstairs. But He pities them that fear
Him. But His wrath is on them that don't. His wrath. And notice this. Only the pitiful
need pity. Only pitiful people need pity.
Those that really get a sight of God's awful And this is an
old Puritan term, awful majesty. That means just awful, awesome. Those that really get a side
of God's awesome majesty and power and glory, omnipotence,
those that get a side of this, of this holy God, Every one of
them, they'll cry out for pity. Have pity upon me. Have mercy
upon us. Another word for pity. Have mercy
upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness. And God shows
it. He shows it like a father. And
we'll get into this now. But the Father doesn't pity us
just because we're pitiful. Listen to me. This is important. He doesn't pity us just because
we're pitiful creatures. We don't deserve to be pitied.
We deserve to be damned. We've rebelled against him from
our youth up. We don't deserve his pity. Why does he pity us
then? Why does he pity his people?
Only because of Jesus Christ. Only because of his Son. He only
shows pity because of his Son. Why? Because he had no pity on
his son, he said. He was our substitute in this
very respect. He had no pity upon his son,
therefore he can now show pity to us. Listen to this. At his
birth, at Christ's birth, he was born in a stall, a manger. No man was born in more abject
poverty than our Lord. God showed no pity upon him at
birth, that he might pity us. In his childhood, he worked for
a living, worked in a carpenter's shop. No pity for him there. He had to work hard for a living.
Satan tempted him. He was tempted and tried in all
points, like as we are. Harder, much harder than we'll
ever be tempted. But God showed no pity upon him.
He let the tempter just have at him. No pity upon him that
he can sucker us who'll be tempted by him. When he was brutally,
when he was maligned by men and reviled by them, No pity. When he was brutally bound and
beaten and spit upon, when they finally put the crown of thorns
on his head, when he had to carry his own cross, when they nailed
his hands and his feet, when they hung him up there naked
in shame and mocked him, when he cried out, I cursed, all of
these things. When he cried out, my God, my
God, why have you forsaken me? When finally his lifeless body
hung there and a man came by with a spear and ripped his side
open. God had no pity on him. He showed no pity to his son
through all that. Why? That he can pity us. You see, in saving others, he
couldn't save himself. That's what the Pharisees said
about him. Or that's what the people said at the foot of the
cross. He saved others. Himself he can't save. No truer
words were spoken. He can't have, if God's going
to pity us now, he can't have pity on his son there. He can't
spare him. He can't spare one drop of His
wrath, the dregs of that cup. Christ said, the cup of God's
wrath, that cup, shall I not drink it? If I don't drink it,
you'll have to. So He says, I'll drink it for
you. And the Father had no pity, and He drank that cup, that bitter
cup dry. And we don't have to drink it
now because of Him. Because the Father had no pity
upon Him. He was taking our place. He was
bearing our sins and our shame and our punishment, and God was
imputing His righteousness to us and our sins to Him, showing
no pity upon Him, but showing pity to us, showing mercy to
us. And because of that, God has highly exalted Him and given
Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus,
every knee will bow now, and every tongue confess that He's
Lord. And now God has pity upon His children because of what
Christ did. Well, let me show you some ways
how he pities us. This will be a blessing to you,
if you're able to pay attention with me. Now by nature, like
I said, we're to be blamed, not pitied. But in Christ, we're
accepted. He pities us like little children. Now listen to this. This will
be a blessing. This is how God pities us, some
of the ways that he pities his children. He pities our childish
ignorance. As little children, we're ignorant,
aren't we? We don't know anything. He pities
us, how little we know. Says he knows our frame. He knows
we don't know much. He knows our frame. We know very
little. Any man thinks he knows anything,
and sometimes we do, don't we? I'm getting ahead of myself.
But He pities us for how little we know, how very little we know
of Him and His glory and His person. He pities it. And sometimes
He pities us for forgetting what we do know. You know, we know
some things, but we forget them. And He shows pity to us. We forget
the things that we do know, the things, the simplest teachings
of Scripture. We forget them. That God's on
the throne. That's the foundation of it all. Well, of whom shall I fear? The
psalmist says. God's on the throne, yet we fear
and worry and fret all the time. We forget that. But he pities
us in that, and he patiently keeps teaching us. He patiently
keeps teaching his children. How? Well, he doesn't expect
much out of us. He knows what we are. He doesn't
expect much out of dust and ashes. What can be required of dust
and ashes? Not much. And he tells us over
and over again, like a little child. You know, a parent once
asked another parent, said, I heard you tell that kid to do that
ten times. Why'd you tell that kid that
ten times? And the other parent said, well,
because they didn't get it after number nine. So I'm going to
keep telling them until they get it. That us, how many times
he has to keep telling us. Paul said to write the same things
to you, Over and over again. See, I would have you in remembrance.
I would have you continually in remembrance of these things.
To write the same things to you is not grievous to me, but for
you it's safe. It's necessary. It's needful.
Why? Because we forget the most basic of truths, don't we? He
has to keep teaching us like little children. Now, son, you
know better than that. I've told you before. I've told
you before. Over and over and over and over
again. He teaches us slowly, doesn't he? Slowly. Because we're
slow of understanding, dull of hearing, aren't we? Like little
children. Didn't you hear me, son? Honey, didn't you hear what
daddy said? Well, little children, that's
all we are. And he teaches us, Christ said
unto his disciples, he said, I have many things to say unto
you, but you're not able to bear them. You're just little children.
So I'm going to keep telling you, over and over again, line
upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little,
till someday when you get 70, 80 years old, maybe he might
get something. Something. Well, he pities that
childish ignorance of ours. And he pities our childish weaknesses. Not
only our ignorance, but our weaknesses as being little children. The
more weakness, the more pity. You know, little children can't
do much, can they? They're just too weak. They have
little strength. They're helpless. They're totally
dependent from the very start, from the outset. Totally dependent.
They can't walk from the outset. They can't walk, can't talk.
There's nothing more dependent than a little baby, a newborn
baby. Can't walk, can't talk, can't act, can't think, can't
feed themselves, can't wipe their little noses. The parent has
to do everything for them. And that's a picture of salvation
in it. how our Father pities us in our weakness. And a loving
parent, a truly loving parent, pities the child, the weakest
child, the weakest one. The father and mother, they don't
despise the child that can't walk. You know, you have three
or four children. You have one younger than the other. You don't
despise Andrew because he can't do what Jennifer can do, do you? No, you don't more over him.
You expect a little more out of her, but not him. You remember
his frame. He's only five years old. You
don't expect out of him what you expect out of her. So the
weaker a child, the less he expects and the more he pities their
weakness. In fact, that mother or that
father will dote over that one, will dote over that one, the
weakest one. He pities our weaknesses of body. Christ was weak, wasn't he? Oh,
he was tempted like no man by Satan. He was weak after forty
days and forty nights of fasting and tempting of the devil like
no man had ever gone through. See, he was weak, and the angels
had to come to him and tend to him and nurture him. He was weak. He worked hard for a living.
He knows what it is to be tired, to be weary. He slept. Figure
that one out. God slept. He was weak in the
flesh, weary and tired. He pities us. We have not a high
priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
He's touched. He pities us, our weakness, our
sickness, and our affliction. Ah, he was touched. Weakness
of body. And he pities our weakness of
mind. This is where some of us are the weakest. All of us. Weakness
of mind. He pities our fainting fits.
Fainting fits. I quit. I quit. I give up. How often do you say that? I
just quit. It's just too tough. I quit. I can't keep on anymore. I can't
do it. I've heard my little girl say
that so many times. Daddy, I can't do it. Try now. I can't. Okay. Daddy will do it for you. And he pities us in that way,
doesn't he? In our depression, weakness of mind, any of you
have depression, suffer depression? You don't know where it comes
from. I don't know if anybody suffers through that. But you're
ever just depressed for no reason? Just this cloud comes over you,
and you just don't know what it's all about. You're just depressed.
He pities that. Our dullness, dullness at hearing
God's Word, he pities it. I'm glad he doesn't hold us accountable
for falling asleep at the hearing of his Word, aren't you? Thank
God he pities us. And something worse, though,
than ignorance and childish weakness, something worse that he pities,
he pities our childish foolishness, our childish follies and foolishness. You know, little children are
just little foogles. That's all. They're just little
foogles. It's like pranks and games. You play games. Foolishness. Child is foolish. Some people
like to be around children constantly. God has given women a special
patience to be around children that I don't believe he gave
us men. It would be sheer torture for me to have to stay in that
nursery. Sheer torture. I'd rather dig a ditch or something
than to stay in that nursery for an hour. Can't do it. I don't
like to be around children for very long because I get tired
of all that foolishness. Especially a bunch of them, you
know, running around and all. It drives me crazy. I want peace
and quiet after a while. But you know something? I'm able to bear with my own
a little more easily. and more patiently than with
other people's children. You, a parent will put up with
a thousand little ways in their own child that they won't, that
they frown at in another's. Won't they? I believe that's
the reason we're raising up some little devils. So we think ours
is okay, everybody else's is bad. And everybody's thinking that,
and there's no, you know, no bad kids. You know, somebody
else will say about maybe your child, they'll say, look at that.
Did you see that? And the daddy Rick will say,
yeah, ain't she cute? Ain't she cute? Did you see what
he did? Yeah, that's my boy. That's my
boy. Well, God pities his children,
and I'm glad. He pities our foolishness. Listen
to these foolishnesses that he puts up in his children. Foolish
pride. We think we know something. No,
we get puffed up with pride every now and then. We forget who gave
us everything we have. No, just like our kids, don't
they? They get puffed up. We know in part. We see through
a glass dimly, but sometimes we think we know everything.
We think we know everything. We strut around like around people
that don't know what we know, like we're really something.
We think we can do things for ourselves. We think we're serving
God when we're just messing things up. I'll illustrate that. And
you'll forgive me if I keep using Hannah as an illustration. That's
why God gave her to me, I'm sure. But one day I was out washing
the car, and I just about got it completely washed. Hannah
came outside and said, Daddy, let me help you wash the car.
Oh, no. I've already washed it. Let me
help. Okay. And so she got that bucket of
soap and commenced to just mess it up. It was already rinsed.
She began to commence to put soap all over it. She just got
in the way, you know, got in the way. But after it was all
over with and we finished and everything, she walked in the
house. Mommy, I washed the car. Just
bragging, you know, bragging to no end. And I started bragging
on her too. Yeah, she did a good job. She's a good helper. And
he says someday that God's going to say that about us. Well done,
thou good and faithful servant. Oh my goodness. What have we
done but getting away? But he says he's going to say
that about us someday. He did it all for us. I had to tell
her where it washed, I had to rinse it, I had to do it all
over again for her. And that's us, isn't it? God
has to redo or undo—has to work in spite of us. In spite of us. Yet we're going to be rewarded
for our works. He explained that. Fatherly pity. That's the only
way you can explain it. Like a father, he understands,
and he pities it. Our foolishness. Well, he pities
our jams and the messes and the pitfalls and troubles we get
into. Like little children. Where are you now? Just where
are you now? Henry, son, what have you got
into now? Aren't you glad he pities you,
buddy? Oh, my Paul, Paul, what are you doing now? What are you
into now? Oh, I'm glad he pities us, aren't
you? My, my. And Christ said it on the cross,
Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. They're just little children, just little children. Pity. What pity? And he pities not
only our ignorance, our weakness, our childish folly, but he pities
our sinful state, our sinful state. Now, I'm speaking to believers
here. The wrath of God abides upon the ungodly, upon them that don't love Christ, not trusting
in Christ, and looking to him. The wrath of God abides upon
them, and they'll wreak the wrath of God. But upon his children,
they're still sinners. They're still sinners. They're
still filled with unbelief, just like the worst man out there. Still filled with it, aren't
we? Still filled with it. Unbelief. And all these things—doubts,
Fears, worries, just another word for unbelief, isn't it?
The scriptures are chock full of promises for us, full of promises. That's what this whole book is
for. Glad tidings, great news, good news of great joy. God's
not angry. God has promises for his people.
Like Don said, we live so far below our privileges as children.
Yet we don't avail ourselves of it. And we're so fearful of
unbelief, so fearful of doubts and fears and worries. But God pities us, doesn't He?
He pities us. Our unbelief. He pities our wanderings.
Our wanderings. One day, Hannah, we tried from
a very, very early age to keep her out of the parking lots everywhere. And one day, she saw somebody
come driving up at home. somebody she knew, and she went
running out there to see him. So excited to see him. It wasn't
necessarily bad, but I was fearing for her safety. I saw more than
she did her danger that she was in, and I yelled at her at the
top of my lungs, Hannah, come back here. And it scared her
to death. She came back crying and all,
and I tried to explain to her. But we wander into this, into
that. We wander all sorts of things,
and we wander in all sorts of trouble. Prone to wander, the
song says, Lord, I feel it. So prone to leave the God I love. Oh, bind my heart to Thee, the
song says. Well, we wander in all sorts
of this and that and the other. And thank God for His restraining
grace. Thank God for His Word that calls us, Holy! Right there. Stop! Hitherto shall you go and
no further. Keep us from danger. Keep us
from dashing our brains out. Keep us from dashing our souls
into the pit. He has to call us, doesn't He?
Call us back. We're wandering all sorts of
sin and worldliness, but like a loving parent, He calls us
back. He chases us for a while. He
chases us for a while. Like that prodigal son, he usually
has a kiss waiting. Kiss. Before you finish your
confession, you know, Father, I've sinned and I'm evil and
I suck. And before we finish, he says,
it's all right. It's all right. He delights to
show mercy, doesn't he? You know, we're not so ready
to quicken to forgive, are we? Oh, Peter, he'd been kicked out
of the church real quick, wouldn't he? He has to go through tribulation,
period. He has to go through some repentance
before we let him back in. But our Lord, what he said, as
soon as he came back and appeared to them, the first thing he said,
you go tell my disciples now that I'm risen, and make sure
you tell Peter. Make sure you tell Peter. I'm
the first. Tell Peter. That's the way our
Lord is. And it's true, and it's lasting
forgiveness, too. Peter asked the Lord, he said,
how often shall I forgive my brother if he sinned against
me? And he got real cocky. He thought he was being real
merciful. He said, seven times seven. That's pretty good, isn't it?
Seven times seven. Our Lord said, I stay in you
seventy times seven. Seventy times seven. And that's
just using a number to represent infinity. How many times has
God forgiven us? How many times? He forgives us again and again,
day in, day out, hour upon hour, doesn't He? He forgives and forgives
and forgives. Like a father, like a merciful,
pitiful Heavenly Father, He forgives us. We're His children. I'm so
glad. He forgives because Christ has
borne all our sin, and He's given us perfect righteousness, and
we're accepted in the blood. That's why. Let me explain that
one more time. That's why He forgives us, because
of Christ, and because we're His children, and He loves us
in Christ. And now, let me hurry. You know,
a child, when they're learning to walk, when they learn to walk,
they'll fall. They'll fall. And it's real painful. Oh, my. It's so painful. And it hurts a parent. It hurts
to see that little young one run across and skin their knees
and elbows. It hurts you. It's painful. Sometimes nothing but a mother's
kiss will cure it. It's amazing. Somebody said it's
an amazing healing balm in the kiss of a mother. There can be
blood streaming down that old leg, and a mom kissing, that
makes it better. Yeah, it's better. Explain that. And it's sad when God's children
fall, and they will. It's the nature of the beast.
It's the nature of a little child to fall. They're going to fall
because they're a little child. And we're going to fall because
we're human beings. We're human beings. And it hurts. But we're not to keep them from
the Father. That's who they need. They need
to come to the Father. Any cut knees out there? Any cut knees? Well, listen to
this. God's children have been object
of His pity from the very beginning. When we were born, when Hannah
was born, she came out all dirty, filthy, bloody, and I took her
and washed her up, cleaned her up from her own pollution and
filth, like that child in Ezekiel. And that's us by nature. We're
filthy. We're dirty. God can't stand to look at it.
We stink in our sin. He cleans us up. He washes us
in the blood of Christ and washes us up. We're naked. Come out
of that womb. She was naked. Came out and one
of the first things I did after I cleaned her up was I covered
her in a little warm blanket. God covers us with the righteousness
of Christ. He—all things are naked and open
before his eyes. He sees our very hearts, but
he closes with the righteousness of Christ. He can't see it, oh
sinful heart. Closes. He said to that prodigal
son, he said, bring the best robe. The best robe, covering. Little child comes forth from
the womb hungry. Hungry. Ah, nothing but a mother's
breast to take care of it either. And we've got to have the milk
of God's Word, don't we? The bread of life. We've got
to have it. And God gives it. And in due time, he gives us
meat. The milk of God's Word. His iron. The sincere milk of
God's Word. And God sends it. He gives a
gospel nanny. He gives a nanny to his people
to feed them with the milk of his Word. And they cry. They come forth from the womb
crying. And he comforts with a word. That little girl, I remember
she started crying. Crying and crying and crying. And I started, I was bathing
her and I started, it's okay, it's okay, it's alright. Daddy's
here. And she quit crying. She heard
my voice. And when God's people cry out
for mercy and for pardon, Father, have mercy upon me. Have mercy.
Save us, Lord, or we perish." And he speaks to us through his
Word. We hear his Word. We stop crying and start praising,
don't we? Good and God. Ga-ga at God's
mercy. He speaks peace and he soothes
us with the sight of the Savior. That little child comes forth
cold. Cold. You know, they've been in that
nice, warm, protective womb for a long time. They don't want
out. They don't want out. You have to jerk them out by
the hair of their head, or forceps, or whatever. They don't want
out. And that's us, isn't it? We don't want out of sin. We
want to stay in it. It's that we think we're comforted
in it. But we come out, and we're cold at times, and He warms us.
We need comfort. We need embraces. We get lonely.
We need His presence. Nothing but the presence of the
Father will do it. And He speaks to us. And a little child? will be offended at times. Starts
growing older and goes out on its own, playing with his comrades
and so forth, and gets out there and there's some bully in the
neighborhood. Some bully, Butch is usually his name, or maybe
Steven. Some little bully in the neighborhood,
you know, picking on him. And they come running home, Daddy,
Steven's picking on me. Daddy, help me. No, I'll take
care of it, son. And in that us, we come running
home, but they haven't left father to father. The devil is shifting
me. I can't stand it anymore. Get
him. He's picking on me. And this
is the spirit by which God's people cry to him. Abba, Daddy,
help me. Help me. He defends us. He defends us.
Christ laid down His life for us. You know, we'd do it in a
minute, wouldn't we, Rick? I mean, it wouldn't take a minute,
wouldn't it? Lay down our life for those little girls. I ain't
no question about it. No question about it. God loves
His people infinitely more than we love our little girls. And
He did just that. He laid down His life for His
sheep. We come out of poverty in rags. He bestows riches to
us. That little girl, when she came,
she didn't have anything. She's totally helpless. Needed
everything from me. And I freely bestowed it all
upon her. Freely. And even now, when she
just asks me, comes up to me, Daddy, I love you. What do you
want? The world is yours. The world. I'll get it. I'll
work two jobs to get you everything you need. And that's our Lord. All he requires of us, really
now, all he requires of us is to acknowledge him in all that
we do, to give him glory. Daddy, thank you. Father, thank
you for what you've done. Father, I love you and thank
you. All that I have is yours, all that I have. That's all he
requires of us. He doesn't expect much of us.
He knows our fame. He, that little child comes out
needing shelter. needing to be sheltered. I had
a home waiting on her. He was waiting. We had it turned,
jacked up about 80 degrees, you know, waiting on him. Shelter.
And we had the shadow of his very wings, under the shadow
of his wings. A home. Like I said, she needed
a home. And we need a home. We need an
eternal dwelling place, don't we? And we have one. A building
in heaven. Not made with hands, though.
An eternal dwelling place. Christ. In Him we live and move. and have our being. We're raised
under the roof of the rock, the dome of the rock, Christ Jesus. Well, look over at Matthew 7,
and I'll quit. Matthew chapter 7. I remember one day I was walking
along feeling pretty sorry for myself, needing pity real bad.
I was at work one day and was getting pretty fed up with everybody
and everything, feeling pretty down on everything, feeling pretty
pitiful, and I needed pity. And this scripture came to my
mind so clearly, and I believe I walked back to where I was
going, about six inches off the ground. It came to me like never
before. Well, look at this. In Matthew
7, verse 7. Matthew 7, verse 7. Our Lord Jesus Christ speaking
here, and he says, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall
find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth,
and he that seeketh findeth. And to him that knocketh, it
shall be opened." Well, what man is there of you? Now, we're
evil, aren't we? We're wicked. We're just sinners. And he says, what man is there
of you? whom if his son asked bread, it would give him stone.
Boy, you wouldn't dream of it, would you? Or if he asked a fish
something to eat, just necessary things, it would give him a serpent,
something evil. If you then, being evil, know
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more How much
more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things
to them that ask him?" Therefore, all things whatsoever
that men should do unto you, do you even so to them. This
is the law of the prophets. This is what God does for us.
If you being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children,
how much more shall your kind, merciful, heavenly Father give
good things to them that ask him. Well, like a father pities
his children, so the Lord pities them that fear him. Christ said,
Because your sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into
your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And so I say in this message
to the saints, as Paul saluted all the saints in other places,
I say it to you, to the saints and to the faithful which are
in Christ Jesus at Rocky Mount. Grace and peace be unto you,
from God our Father, our kind, merciful Heavenly Father. Amen. I want you to turn
with me to Sharia. I don't know if you know this
psalm, but verse number 40. Number 40, great is thy faithfulness. You know what? Great is thy faithfulness,
O God my Father. Let's sing this song. Stand with
me and let's be dismissed and sing this song. We'll sing first
and last verses. There is no shadow of turning
with thee. Thou changest not thy compassion. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. All I have needed, I have seen. Great is thy faithfulness.