But that mind that has been blessed
by God in grace, sees God in everything. And to put it another way, really
sees everything in God. Because that's the way things
are. Everything's in God. Psalm 74 verse 16, David said,
The day is thine, The night is thine also. It's all God's. It's all God's. He says, when
I consider the heavens, thy heavens, the work of thy fingers. You
know, when you think about the work of the fingers, now you're
talking about intricate work, right? You're talking about fine
work. You know, ladies do their, Sewing
and knitting and you do things, you men who work with wood, you
do things with your fingers. You're talking about meticulous
work. Well, God has fashioned all things. God has made all things right
down to the very, very smallest of details with his fingers. Nothing is left out. When I consider,
when I look intently, when I observe, Lord, when You show me Thy heavens,
and You make me to know they are Thy heavens, they're God's
heavens, and then You show me the work of Thy fingers, And then the moon and the stars,
which thou hast ordained. What's missing there? The sun. Why would David express it this
way? Why didn't he mention the sun?
Because he's observing the night sky. Who is this man? He's the sweet
psalmist of Israel. He's the one who spent many a
night out in the fields watching his father's sheep. And he would
observe the night sky. Oh, how often he would lay underneath
the canopy of God's sky, looking up into a multitude of stars
that he couldn't begin to number. And he would think about, he
would meditate on, He would dwell upon the greatness of the One
who made all of these things with His fingers. You see, only
an educated fool could possibly think that all of creation came
into existence any other way except a creative act. In the beginning, God created
the heaven. that David was observing, that
David said, it's thy heavens. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. God created the heaven as you
look up into the sky, even in the clearest of nights. You will observe a multitude
of stars and a few planets But you'll just see a very, very
little portion, very small portion of God's creation. That's just
a little bit of it. And there's a whole lot more
back of that. If we got to all of those stars,
we got past those and we had another sky above us, We'd say,
my goodness, look at all those stars, and if you got past those,
there'd be even more. I'm sure God knows the names
of all of them, but to us, they're pretty much infinite in number. Man with his most powerful telescopes,
he looks out into the universe. And He sees all of these heavenly
bodies. But even as far as He can see,
that's just the outer edge of God's creation. This universe, all of which God has made, the
universe that includes everything that exists, Why, it's made up,
they tell us, of billions of galaxies. Billions of galaxies. And of those billions of galaxies,
there's one called the Milky Way. Billions of galaxies, just
one of them now, is called the Milky Way. Our Milky Way is made
up of billions of stars. That's what they say. Made up
of billions of stars. And within this network of these
billions of stars, in the Milky Way, there are a few planets that
are kind of together, grouped together. with their individual
stars. That's our solar system. And one of those bodies is the
Earth. Now, in comparison to the Earth, We're nothing. You and me. An individual on this earth.
And I'm not talking about the billions of people who live here,
although that could be taken into consideration as well, but
you think of the vastness of this earth. One person. It's nothing. That's nothing. And yet, our Earth is just a
speck of dust in the vastness of God's creation. But there's something special
about Earth. Billions of galaxies, stars,
and all of that. Here's one little fairly round
ball that keeps going around and round and round. What's so
special about this? The people of God are here. That's what makes this planet
special. And no, they're not on the other
places. Well, why do those exist? Everything
exists for God's glory. Why, there are stars that man's
eye will never behold. I wonder why God made them. For
His glory. For His pleasure. For His delight. For His satisfaction. They're
for God. All things are of God. And you
know something? All things are for God. See,
we think all things are for us. We think all things kind of revolve
around man. Oh no! All things are for God,
for His glory. We behold the creative glory
of God. Surely, as we think about the
billions of galaxies, each one with their billions of stars,
As we survey our own galaxy, the Milky Way, with its billions
of stars, and we think about our solar system and so forth, surely this will promote humility
to those who consider the greatness of God's creation. It just shows
how little we are. how little we are. He says, the
moon and the stars which thou hast ordained. Consider the astronomical
discourses. Men have written about astronomy. One writer who was a believer,
he said, I can give you but a very feeble image of our comparative
insignificance. He said, think of the glories
of an extended forest with thousands and thousands
of trees. One leaf falls, just one. He said, apart from the people
of God, If this earth dissolved, it's like one leaf in the entire
forest of God's universe, who would ever miss it? Who would
ever miss it? This is the work of God's fingers.
This is the work of God. Now in light of this awesome,
this awesome, This vast creation. David then asks in verse four,
what is man? As if to say, is he anything? We've talked about all the other.
What is man? That thou art mindful of him.
or the son of man that thou visitest him. What is man? Man's an insignificant
creature. That's what he is when compared
with the rest of God's creation. When set alongside the vastness
of the creative works of God, boy, each of us are truly insignificant. And yet, insignificant in ourselves
and yet in the eyes of God, very important. Oh yeah, we're his
treasure. We're his jewels. He has redeemed us at great price,
the blood of his own dear son. Though in ourselves, we're nothing. in Christ Jesus. Could I put
it this way? We mean the world to God. More
than the world. We're worth more than the world
to God. What is man? In Isaiah chapter
40, don't have time to turn there, but David, or Isaiah rather, considering
the greatness of God, He says, all the nations of the
earth are as a drop in a bucket before God. A drop in a bucket. Get a five-gallon bucket and
fill it full of water. And you've done that, or a two-gallon
bucket, or whatever, and you've gone out, watered flowers, maybe
you've got one of them sprinkle cans. I got a two-gallon sprinkle
can, and I go out, Started watering the flowers now. Went out to
McSweeney's and got some flowers and water them. The last two,
three days I haven't had to water. The Lord's watering them. But
you know, when I go out to water and I fill up the birdbath, I
keep the birdbath filled. Take a bucket of water. I don't make sure I get every
drop. That's in that bucket. And that,
you know, I'll empty it and it's a few more drops in there, but
I don't go like this to get that last little bitty drop. It's because it's insignificant.
It means nothing. And Isaiah said, all the nations
of the earth, like that insignificant drop in the bottom of a bucket
that you don't even pay any attention to. What is man, David says, well,
we're like the insignificant drop in a bucket, all of us together. In fact, it goes on to say we're
counted as dust of the balance. I go down to the supermarket,
as you do, Kroger, Food Fair, Wally World, wherever you go.
Walmart, I'm talking about when I say Walmart. Wherever you go
and I want a pound of turkey. And make sure you get that dust
off them scales too. Did you get every speck? Well,
we don't talk like that because, yeah, there's probably a speck
of dust up there. Of course, they hopefully got
a piece of paper up there to put the meat on. But that insignificant,
nothing piece of dust doesn't affect the weight in the least. We don't say get that off. Doesn't
mean anything. It doesn't count for anything.
Doesn't weigh anything. That's us. See? That's what he
said. That's us! Ain't nothing to us. What is man? David says man is
vanity. That's what he is. Well, what
is vanity? Vanity is nothing. Vanity is
air. Vanity is emptiness. That's what
we are in and of ourselves. We're just spiritually empty. We're emptiness. What is man? Asked Job. Job said,
what is man? That he should be clean. And then he says, what is man
that thou should magnify? What about that? That you should
exalt him. We're talking about our insignificance. We're talking about our nothingness.
And yet, what is man? That God should magnify us, that
He should exalt us. Listen, He lifted us up from
the miry clay. He lifted us up from the dunghill
of depravity and rottenness, and He sets us among the princes
of His people. Those of us who are by nature,
nothing is nothing to us. We're just emptiness. Boy, you're
talking about grace now. That's grace. One writer said, when thinking of his nothingness, he said, what then am I? when reckoned among the infinite
number of God's creatures. He said, I'm lost in my own nothingness. Who are you? Who are you? What are you? What is man? What is Jim Bird? I'm nothing in myself. My daddy used to say, you'll
never amount to nothing. He is right. And myself, I ain't
never going to amount to nothing, and neither are you. But I tell
you what, in Christ Jesus, I'm a child of God. It says in Revelation 1, He has
made us to be kings and priests. That's who we are, we're kings
and priests. Washed in the blood, rubed in
the righteousness. What is man? Lord, that you'd
even be mindful of that. That you'd give us a thought.
I don't think about that drop in the bucket. I don't think about that dust
on the balance. And David says, what is man that
thou art? mindful of him, or the son of
man that thou visitest him. Think about the mindfulness of
God for his people. I know, I've talked about how
vast the universe is, and I'm in way over my head when I talk
about that. I'm just giving you some facts
that I read that you can read too. But I know this. There never
has been a time when God hadn't been mindful of His people. He's
always been mindful of His children. He was mindful in us when He
chose us unto salvation and gave us grace in Christ Jesus before
He made the universe. What an act of sovereign grace! God's mindfulness of His children
is not something new. It's not a thing of yesterday.
God didn't begin to be mindful of you when He converted you.
He didn't begin to be mindful of you when He sent His Son into
this world to be our Redeemer, to be our propitiation. He made
this world because He was mindful of us. This earth, this is where
He brings to pass the great drama of our salvation. That's the
reason the earth exists. God chose a people in Christ
Jesus before the world began. He was mindful of us and He brought
this into existence in order that we would be on this earth,
that we would live and be brought to a saving knowledge of Christ
Jesus the Lord. God purposed this. He was mindful of us when He
gave us to Christ Jesus in covenant love. David made an interesting statement. King David in 2nd Chronicles
16-15, he told the people, be always mindful of his covenant. And I would say to all of the
people of God here this evening, be always mindful of the covenant
of God. And I'll tell you this, whether
we're mindful of His covenant or not, He's always mindful of
it. Glorious verse, Psalm 111, verse
five. He will ever be mindful of His
covenant. He's never going to forget His
covenant. The covenant of grace made with the Lord Jesus Christ,
our surety, our substitute, our Savior, our Redeemer. That covenant
made before the foundation of the world in which God chose
a people unto salvation. Christ Jesus pledged Himself
to redeem us. The Spirit of God would call
us, regenerate us, Christ would bring us to glorification, to
perfection. The Bible says God will always
be mindful of that covenant. He'll never forget it. No wonder David said on his dying
bed, on his deathbed, he said, although my house be not so with
God, yet He's made with me an everlasting covenant. ordered,
furnished, arranged, ordained, and all things in truth. That's
guarded. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire. That is, it's all my delight.
It's all my longing. It's all I want, he says. I want
that covenant of grace to come to fruition, to come to pass. Well, you don't have to worry
about anything, David, because God's always mindful of it. Always
mindful. I think I hear something leaking.
Yeah. Take care of that later. Leaking
somewhere. I don't think it's me. It's not
my glass of water. Well, we'll take care of that
later. In that covenant of grace, we
had a representative. We had a mediator. God was mindful
of us back in that covenant of grace. He was mindful of us when
we fell into sin. He was mindful of us, therefore
He sent His Son into this world. If you want to see the severity
of God's judgment, look at Calvary and see the Lord Jesus suffering
under the wrath of God, dying for the sins of His people. The Savior said, is it nothing
to you, all you that pass by? Behold and see, is there any
sorrow like unto my sorrow? Which is done unto me wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce wrath. Why did Christ Jesus come and
die on the cross of Calvary? It was because God was mindful
of his people. He's thinking about us. A friend of mine passed away
up in Michigan, and I sent both of his sons a
note, and I said, I'm thinking about you and your family, your
dear mother. Hug your mother for me. I'm thinking
about you, and I'm praying for you. And you know it's good for
people to be thinking about us. I appreciate people say, I've
been thinking, yeah, I've had you on my mind lately. Well,
thank you. Now see if you can get a grip
on this. God's had you on his mind for
all of eternity. And not for one moment have you
escaped his memory. And He has been so mindful of
you. His thoughts have been upon you
as though there was nobody else for Him to be mindful of. You see, He has, we have, how
can I express this? God is ever occupied with mindfulness
of all of His children to the infinite degree because of who
He is. That's the greatness of our God. He thinks about you as if there's
nobody else down here on this earth. Isn't that something? He thinks about you over in Africa.
Those people of God over there, he has you, he's always had you
on his mind as though there was nobody in America that he has
on his mind. That's how great our God is. And David said, what is man that
thou art mindful of him? And I'll tell you, he's proved
his mindfulness of us. He's patient with us even before
conversion. He saw us in our depravity and
our ruin. He is always mindful of us. He is
mindful of us when He sent His Spirit to draw us unto Himself. He is mindful of us by daily
provisions. And He'll be mindful of us someday
when He comes to fetch us unto Himself. Never out of his mind. Let me get to this. The visits. What is man that thou art mindful
of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him. Oh, the visits
of God. Sweet visits. Poor old Hannah over there in
1 Samuel. She was childless and she prayed
and asked the Lord for a child. You know what the scripture says? The Lord visited. He visited
Hannah. And the result was Samuel. And I'm asking you who are the
people of God, how many times has he visited you? Countless times. He's visited
you in your time of need. In the Old Testament, the Lord
visited this world multiple times, always in the person of Christ,
you understand, because no man has seen God at any time. He
visited with Adam and Eve. Adam, where art thou? He was
visiting with them. A little further over, he visited
with Abraham. He visited with Jacob. You remember Samson's mother
and daddy, Manoah, and his wife? There's Manoah and Miss Manoah. And the Lord visited her. He
said, you're going to have a son. Her husband came back in. He
was out working somewhere. He came back in. She said, you're
not going to believe what happened while he was gone. The Lord visited
me. And then the Lord visited again. And then they offered a sacrifice. And Manoah, he said, we're going
to die because we've seen God face to face. They saw the Lord
Jesus. They saw the Son of God in pre-incarnate
glory. And she said, we're not going
to die. If we was going to die, He wouldn't have accepted the
sacrifice. And I tell you, we're not going
to die because God accepted the sacrifice. He accepted the sacrifice
of His Son. The Lord visited. He visited
this earth. Look over in Luke chapter 1 real
quick. Luke chapter 1. You remember the story here of
Zacharias. Zacharias, he was a priest. He's the father of John the Baptist
who's a forerunner of Christ. Zacharias, he was one of 18,000
priests who ministered before the Lord. He served in one of
the Horses or orders. They had all the priesthood,
18,000 priests. They were divided into groups
or orders. 24 of them, 750 priests per order. If you ever studied about priesthood,
every priest, all 18,000 priests had served two weeks a year in
the temple in Jerusalem. and they had to serve at all
three of the annual feasts, Passover, Pentecost, Feast of Tabernacles. And then they would go out and
minister various synagogues and so forth, 18,000 priests. Zacharias
is a priest. Well, while he was on duty at
the temple, the angel of the Lord, Gabriel, Gabriel, which means
the man who stands in the presence of the Lord. And I think that's
Christ himself, myself. That's what I think. Because
he's the man who stands in the presence of the Lord. There's
nobody else fit to stand in the presence of the Lord, stand eye
to eye with the Lord in and of himself, but the Lord Jesus Christ.
But anyway, he came to Zacharias and said, you and your wife are
going to have a baby. Zacharias said, we're too old.
Ain't going to happen. That's basically what he was
saying. Gabriel said, you're not going to be able to speak
till the baby's born. But when the baby's born, name
him John. Nine months go by. Baby's born. Going to be circumcised the eighth
day. Zacharias all his time. Unable to speak. And friends
and family and neighbors is all excited about this little baby
boy. And everybody said, well, let's name him Zacharias after
his daddy. I guess it'd be Zacharias Jr. Zacharias motioned somebody. And what he was saying was, give
me something to write on. And I gave him something to write
on. He took out his pen and he wrote, his name shall be John. And then the Lord loosed his
tongue. All of a sudden he could talk.
Look here in Luke chapter one. This is interesting. Look at
Luke chapter one, verse 63. Verse 63, this is when he wrote. Luke 1.63, he asked for a writing
table and he wrote, saying, His name is John, and everybody just
marveled. And his mouth was opened immediately,
and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and the very first thing
he did was, praise God. He praised God. And fear came
on all them round about them, And all these sayings were nourished
abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea, and all they
that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, what
manner of child shall this be? And the hand of the Lord was
with him, and his father Zacharias was, he was filled with the Holy
Ghost, and he prophesied, saying, one of the first words that came
out of his mouth, blessed be the Lord God of Israel. Time
reminds me of Ephesians chapter one, where Paul said, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the
first thing you do. I tell you what, when God gives
you, when God takes away your dumbness, he makes you alive in Christ
Jesus and you're free to speak and speak of the Lord. I tell
you what, first thing you're gonna do, you're not gonna be
bragging about yourself. You're gonna be saying, blessed be the
Lord God. Bless the Lord for what He's
done. Watch this, for He hath visited and redeemed His people. Now wait, the Lord Jesus hadn't
come yet. He hadn't come yet. Why, this
is just the birth of the forerunner. The Lord Jesus, He'll be born
six months later. Zechariah speaks of this though
as if it's already happened, as if it's a done deal. And in
the mind and purpose of God it was. He's visited and He's redeemed. After all, Christ is said to
be the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. He blessed the name of God. He's
visited. He's visited and redeemed His
people. And I'll tell you, the Lord Jesus
Christ, He did visit 2,000 years ago. He was an unasked for visitor.
He was an unwelcomed visitor. And he was a visitor who was
treated shamefully. But he visited. God visited this
earth 2,000 years ago. Why did he do that? To redeem
his people. That's why he came. That's why
he visited. Read a little further down. Look
in verse 69, He's raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house
of His servant David, and He spake by the mouth of His holy
prophets, which have been since the world began, that we should
be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate
us. He's talking about salvation. to perform the mercy God promised
to our fathers, watch it, and to remember his holy covenant.
This is all in God's remembrance of his covenant. I told you he
doesn't forget. The oath which he swore to our
father Abraham. that he would grant unto us that
we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve
him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him
all the days of our life. And thou, child, now he speaks
to John the Baptist, and thou, child, shall be called the prophet
of the highest, for thou shall go before the face of the Lord
to prepare his ways. to give knowledge of salvation
unto his people by the remission of their sins through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath
visited us. Wise he visited to give light
to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and
to guide our feet into the way of peace. You know what it says
in Romans chapter three? The way of peace. We don't know. That's what it says, isn't it?
The way of peace, if they've not known. That's a result of
our depravity. The Lord Jesus came down here.
He came to redeem us. He came to give us light. He
came to give life to those who are in the shadow of death, and
he came to guide our feet. I need guidance. You know who
needs guidance? Blind people need guidance. And
He guides us. What does He guide us to? The
way of peace. That's His way. That's Him. He
is our peace. And He made our peace by the
blood of His cross. He's visited us. Solomon asked in 1 Kings 8, 27,
will God indeed dwell on the earth? Well, Solomon, the answer is
yes. Yes. The God-man dwelt upon this
earth. He visited here. He visited here. He who is the brightness of the
Father's glory, the express image of His person, He who made all
things and upholds all things by the word of His power, He
condescended in great humility to visit this earth. And He visits us in great power
when He saves us and delivers us from bondage. James, speaking
in Acts chapter 15, He said, God did visit the Gentiles
to take out of them a people for His name. That's what He
does. He visits. He visits the Gentiles,
us Gentiles. Why does He visit us Gentiles?
To take out a people for His name. And he's gonna have to
take us out because we're not willing except in the day of
his power. That's effectual power, effectual
grace. He'll take us. And though he is certainly with
us always, he makes special visits to us even now by his spirit
during our times of distress. It's a wonderful verse found
in Psalm 17, three. Thou hast visited me in the night. In the night of my affliction.
In the night of my trouble. In the night of my grief. Thou
hast visited me. And he's visited with us again
today because he said where two or three are gathered together
in my name. I'll be with you. He's visiting
again today. And God visits with us, Christ
visits with us when he calls us away from earth to heaven. I'll tell you what death is. It's no more than a friendly
visit from the Lord who says, it's time to come home. It's
just a friendly visit. You don't dread a friendly visit,
do you? that you love, think the world
of, call you up and say, I'm coming for a visit. Good brother,
come on over. I'll put the coffee pot on. And when the Lord Jesus, when
he comes for us by way of death, it's a friendly visit, a friendly
visit. And he says, it's time for you
to come home with me. Well, that sounds pretty good
to me. Doesn't that sound good to you, Terry? Oh, I tell you,
that's great consolation to me. Time for you to come home. And
we go to his house and we visit. And we visit with him forever.
Forever. But he's going to pay one more
visit to this earth because he redeemed these bodies too. And
he's going to visit the graveyards. He's going to visit the cemeteries.
And all the dead should be raised. And corruption is going to put
on incorruption. Mortality shall put on immortality. And we'll enjoy perfect bodies,
glorified bodies, fashioned like unto His. That's what it says
in Philippians, like unto His body. He's mindful of us. It's divine mindfulness, divine
thoughts and visits. The Lord is always mindful of
us and He makes many visits with us and we're thankful. Let's
sing a closing song.