If you're here tonight saved
by the grace of God, you're a work of God. We're His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. It's God which worketh
in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. His works
are just absolutely full of wonder. The creation, get up in the morning
and you're so thankful that He's gave you another day, able to
get a good night's sleep and get up and face another day.
But all salvation is of the Lord, and then he went on to say this,
and that God has THOUGHTS to us. Now, we know that God don
t THINK, but it tells us here that He has THOUGHTS toward us.
When did He start thinking about us? Well, before He ever created
the heavens and the earth. That s what He did. He said,
In the beginning, Christ the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. God had His thoughts and His
heart toward us in Christ before He ever created this world and
put anything in it. And then He goes on to say this,
and how are you going to reckon them up in order? Where are you
going to start with what God's done for you? Where are you going
to start? Where are you going to start
with what God's done for you in this world? Where are you
going to start? All the things that God's done
for us, where are you going to start? Huh? Are you wrecking
them up or you know it? What are you wrecking up? You
know, go back over your life from the time that you had sense
enough to know anything, and how God, what He did for you
and washed over you and kept you and then brought you to here
tonight. Oh, how do you wrecking up what
God done for you? And oh, listen, he goes on to
say, if I would declare and speak of them, if I was to get up and
tell somebody what they are, there are more than can be numbered.
I'd run out of time, run out of time, run out of time. But
here we see a soul experience a sinner being saved by the grace
of God, we see a soul passing from death to life, we see a
soul coming out of darkness into light, and all to the full joy
of salvation. First thing I want us to look
at, and I know you ve seen this before, and then verse 2, He
brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, Now,
a horrible pit is a bad, bad place to be. It's a horrible,
horrible condition. And sin is a horrible pit that
we can't get ourselves out of. And one of the things that you
find in the scriptures, you remember when they took Joseph, instead
of killing him, they put him in a pit. They put him in a pit,
and then they saw some folks come by and they got him out
of the pit and sold him. And I'll tell you what, and that's
the same thing that happened with Jeremiah, you keep Psalm
40 and look in Jeremiah chapter 38, look what happened to Jeremiah
over here in chapter 38. You know it s, and when he says,
Out of the Larry knows this and anybody's ever been on a farm
very much when you go out and they get it and it starts raining
like this and it gets muddy and You run over and run over and
cows walking through it Next thing, you know, you'll get in
that with your boots and you get you leave your boots in the
mud So you're trying to get your boot back out of the mud. That's
what he's talking about. It's so my ring So sticky that
you can't get your feet out of it You can't get your feet up
out of it And I've had that happen to me times, and I know other
people has too. But now look what happens to
Jeremiah here, talking about a horrible, horrible condition.
That's what we are, sin is a horrible pit. Look what it said here in
verse 6, Jeremiah 38, Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into
the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hemelech, that's the son of
the king that was in the court of the prison. And they let down
Jeremiah with cords, and in the dungeon there was no water,"
listen to this, "...but mire." And listen to what it says next,
"...and Jeremiah sunk in the mire." They put him down in there,
deep enough that they had to let him down in there. And when
he got down there, his feet sunk up. was in that mire, and it
s way up on his legs, and he has to stand there, has to stand
there. Now, look what else happens here
in verse 10, Then the king commanded Abedmelech the Ethiopian, say,
Take from this thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the
prophet out of the dungeon before he die. going to take 30. He s in there so deep, so far
down in there, it s going to take 30 men to get him out, 30
men, 15 on each side pulling to pull him up out of that dungeon.
And look what it says now, And so Ebebelek took the men with
him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury.
And look what they got, they got some old cast clouts and
old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon
unto Jeremiah. And Abimelech the Ethiopian said
unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts, put now these
old cast clouts and rotten rags under your armholes, done armholes
under the cords, and so Jeremiah did. So they drew up Jeremiah
with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon. 15 men, that's
what they put these things, you know, got a bunch of old rotten
rags and stick them on some ropes, stick them down in there, say,
stick your arm under there. And they took 15 men on this
side and 15 men on that side to pull him up. That's how far
down in there in that mire it was, took 15 men on each side
to bring him up out of that mire. Now, that's the condition we're
in outside of Christ, but the only king that can get us out
of the mire is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and you can't
pick your feet up out of it. You can't pick your feet up out
of sin. You can't pick your feet up out of the place when you're
in that dungeon, and only God can be the one to bring you out.
And oh, my, that's what they did to people, put them in pits,
and I do know this. You'll know it when you're sitting
in that pit. I'll tell you what, oh my, great,
great dirtiness, filthiness. But look what else happens to
him. So there's this horrible condition. That's what sin is.
It's like being in a pit and you can't get out. But look what
else he said in verse 1. I waited patiently for the Lord.
He inclined unto me, and he heard my cry. You know when this man
started crying to the Lord? when he was in the pit, when
he was in trouble. A man ain't going to cry unto
the Lord, a soul ain't going to cry unto the Lord for salvation
until he knows he's in trouble. He's got to be in trouble, you've
got to be in trouble, you can't get out of that pit by yourself.
And he said, I waited, I waited. What is he waiting on? He's waiting
patiently on the Lord. Preachers today make God to be
their errand boy. They can tell God to do this,
God to do that, and God has to do this, God has to do that other
thing. God don t have to do anything but be God! And here He is, you
know, He waited on the Lord! I m in this pit, and I can t
get out of this pit! I m like Jonah who was in the
belly of hell, and I can t get out! I can t get out, and he
knows, and he can t cry, and he waits patiently on the Lord.
He s not his own brother. He ain t going to jump up and
run after us the first time we do it. Then he said he inclined
unto me. He listened down in that pit
when I was crying, down in that pit. What? What? What? It s like
when Bartimaeus cried, Lord have mercy on me! Shut up, Jeremiah! Lord have mercy on me! Shut up,
Jeremiah! I mean, Bartimaeus, shut up! Shut up, blind man, shut up!
He said, they told him shut up, and he just Cried the more, cried
the more, and that s the way it is. When you start crying
out like this man did, waiting on the Lord, God, salvation s
of you. I can t get out of this pit.
I can t get out of this sin. I can t do nothing. Lord, have
mercy! And he stuck his head down there.
What? What did you say? Are you hollering
for mercy? Are you hollering for grace?
Are you hollering to be saved? Are you crying out to be saved? You mean you re down in that
pit and you can t get out? Oh, my! He inclined unto me. Oh, bless His holy name! And
then look what he said, and he heard my cry. Oh, he heard my cry. Oh, you know, you want to get
his attention, you start crying. You start crying out to Him.
Oh, my. And I tell you something, here's
something that happened to this fella here. He didn't need to
be taught how to pray to call on the Lord. Somebody didn't
have to teach him to pray. He knew from his heart that there
ain't no place I can go but to Him. No place I can go but to
Him. It's like that Syrophoenician
woman. You know, she brought her daughter to the Lord. And
she said, Lord, my daughter's sick, grievously vexed. He ignored
her, he ignored her. I'm not sent but the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. He ignored her and she just kept
on, just kept on. And those disciples said, Lord,
send her away. Send her away, she's bothered
us. And oh, our Lord said, you know, said, it's not fit to take
the children's bread and feed them unto dogs. She took her
place, and the Lord met her. She said, yes, Lord, but even
the dogs get the crumbs from the master's table. You know
what he said about her? So be it unto thee, great is
your faith. She said, I'm not going to stop
till he gives me what I want. And that's what this fellow's
doing. And the Lord heard me. You know why we cry unto the
Lord, why we crawl on the Lord, why we seek the Lord? Because
we know, we know He hears us. He hears us. When we don't even
know what to say except groan, groan, cry, don't know how to put words before
Him. But he hears that. He hears that
groan. He hears that cry. Oh, my. You know, you mothers that have
babies and have children, when they start crying, when they're
as little fellas, they start crying, what's you crying about?
What's the matter? What's the matter? Tell me what's
the matter. Well, that's the way God is. Tell him what's the
matter. Tell him what's the matter. Then
look what happens. He heard his cries in this horrible
pit. Then look what happens now. In
verse 2, He brought me up out of a horrible pit. Now I want you to notice what
it says, He heard my cry, then He brought me up. He didn't go,
now listen, here's a ladder, I'm going to put a ladder down
in here. And you come out, you know, if you got enough strength
and got enough ability left in you, crawl out, climb one rung
at a time and get out of there. He didn't do that. He didn't
throw a rope down there and say, Get a hold of this rope and I'll
pull you out. The scripture said, He brought me out. That's what salvation of the
Lord is. HE brings us out. And when He brings us out, you
know what He does? He brings us to Himself. And
he brought her out, brought him out. Oh, my. He brought me up. He brought
me up. No wonder David said, Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and CAUSES, CAUSED to approach
unto thee. Oh, my. Jonah cried from the belly of
hell. And you know what? The average preacher today, if
they was preaching on Jonah, what they'd say is that, Jonah,
God got that whale up there close to the shore, spit him out about
50, 60 yards from shore. Now, you swim the rest of the
way, and then when you get on solid ground, walk on out of
here. No, no, when God brought him up out of the whale, that
fish's belly and that whale's belly, you know where God put
him? Put him on ground. That thing went right up there
and spit him out on solid ground. That's what God does for us. He brought him out. And I tell
you, that's the only one that can do anything for us. He's
the only one who can. He saved him. He saved this man. This man couldn't do it for himself.
He had no ability to do it for himself. But oh my, that's what
our Lord said. And Billy R preached it here
while he was here. No man, no man can come unto me except the
Father which sent me. Draw him. That's the only way
you can come. You gotta draw him. He brought
this man out of this horrible pit and he says, as it is written,
they shall all be taught of God. God's teaching this man here.
Put him in this horrible pit, brought him up out of that horrible
pit. Didn't put a ladder down there and say, do the best you
can. out of a horrible pit. It wasn't just a pit, it was
a horrible pit. I remember being in that horrible
pit. I remember it very well. I remember before God Back when
I was in my early twenties, I was almost embarrassed to call on
Him because I felt I was so filthy. I felt like a dog. I mean, I
felt like an old mangy dog tied to a bumper somewhere or something.
I just felt so filthy and so stinking and so rotten, and all
I could say was, LORD, all I could say, LORD, I have no right, I
have no right, I have no right, but would You have mercy on me?
That's all I could do. Couldn't say anything else. I was like this fella. He's in that horrible pit. I
was in a horrible pit and you was too. And not only that, but
you're in that miry clay. You can't get your feet in and
out of the clay. But he brought me down. You say, ìLord, donít force yourself
on anybody.î If he didnít go where this fellow was and get
a hold of him and bring him out, he would have never got out of
there. And thatís the way it is, heís got to go where YOU
are, because you ainít coming where heís at until he comes
to where YOU are, and heís got to be the one to bring you out.
Ainít that right? Oh, my! Well, look what else
heís done for him. Not only did he bring him up
out of a horrible pit and out of that miry, miry, miry clay
that you couldn't get your feet out of. And look what he did.
Them feet that once was in those miry clays, after he brought
them out, he set his feet on a rock. From miry clay to a rock. From not being able to get out
to sitting on something solid. Something's got some substance
to it, something's real. And he set my feet on a rock.
And oh, what kind of rock you reckon it was? Wonder what rock
it was. I'll hide you in this rock over here, the cleft of
this rock. Smite that rock, there's gonna
be water coming out of it. That rock was Christ. Lead me
to that rock that is higher than I. Rock of ages cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee. He set my feet on a rock, right
out of the miry clay. He brings us out and sets us
down. And he sets us on a rock, on
a rock. And oh my, oh my. And then look what he says. No
more miry clay. And then he established my goings.
But he set us on the solid rock, Listen to me now. He set our
feet on the solid rock of God's grace in Christ. He set us on
the solid rock of sovereign free grace, set us on the solid rock
of the truth, set us on the solid rock of justification and Christ
being at righteousness and everything that God, He taught us, when
He set us on that rock, He actually brought us up and taught us,
He set us on the rock of God who changes not. Oh, my. And I'll tell you, He
set us on that rock that God's sovereign salvation and the truth
that never changes. Truth don't change. Men change,
truth don't change. that God don't, His truth don't
change. He said it on that rock, that He said that truth will
never change, never change. Oh my, on Christ the solid rock
I stand, all other ground is sinkin' sand. You say, well what
if they go back? Go back off that rock and get
down in that horrible pit? Go back in that miry clay? But those people believe that.
Who wants to get off a rock, go right back where you started?
That don t even make, that don t add any good sense, huh? No,
no, no, there s no way. Go from a rock back down to the
horrible pit and the mire clay. No, look what it says, And not
only set my feet on a rock, but he established my goings. Where
you going? You re going Everything we was doing before
that was going wrong. When He brought us out of the
horrible pit, He said, This is the way to go. I'm going to establish
your goings. I'm going to establish your goings
in the truth. I'm going to establish your goings
in the scriptures. I'm going to establish you in
the truth about yourself. I'm going to establish you in
the truth about grace. I'm going to establish you in
the truth of salvation of the Lord. I'm going to establish
you in the TRUTH! I'm gonna establish your goings
for you. You ain't gonna be with them fellas, I'm out for a while,
I'm in for a while. I love Jesus for a month and
then I'm back out in the world for two months. No, no, no. He
establishes our going. And once they're established,
I mean, listen, ain't nobody gonna move you. Oh, ain t nobody
going to move you. The only way in the world a sheep
s going to ever leave this world is when God takes him home. They
ain t going to never walk away from the gospel. They ain t going
to do it. Oh, my! He established our goings. Oh, my! We re not double-minded.
We re not working our way to the Lord. Oh, all our goings
was wrong before Before now they're right, they're right. Kind of
like that Gadarene maniac. He was, our Lord confronted him
and he said, Who are you? I'm, my name's Legion. I got
a legion of demons in me. Our Lord cast them all out. Next
thing you know, that fellow's sittin' there clothed, been naked
for years, clothed in his right mind, sittin' at the feet of
Jesus. And our Lord got up and started
walkin' away. And you know what Scripture said? He followed him
in the way. That's how I established our
going, follow him. Follow Him. Wherever Christ's
at, that's where I'm going to go. Wherever He's walking, that's
where I want to walk. Whatever He's teaching, that's
what I want to learn. Huh? Oh, my. And then look what
else He done after that. It's about time for us to be
happy and be joyful. Look what He says next. They
put a new song in my mouth. New life needs a new song. When
you have a new heart, you've got to have a new song. When
you've got a new tongue, you've got to have a new song. And look
what he says. What is the song he puts in our
mouth? Praise unto God. Before, we never thought of God,
never praised God. But boy, when he brought us out
of that miry clay, he said, Praise TO GOD BE THE GLORY, GREAT THINGS
HE HATH DONE. OH MY, PUT A NEW SONG IN OUR
MOUTH, EVEN PRAISE UNTO OUR GOD. You know, a life of faith brings
a new tune, and you know what that new tune is? Psalmist David
said it this way, they say, WHERE NOW IS THY GOD? OUR GOD IS IN
THE HEAVENS. He does whatsoever He pleases.
And not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name be
glory for Thy mercy and Thy truth's sake. That's that new song He
put in our mouth. God gets all the glory. God gets
all the praise. God gets all the honor. And that's
what He's saying here. Before we didn't praise God.
Now we can't praise Him enough. Now we can't thank Him enough.
Huh? Oh, listen, new tune that we're
singing, new tune, new life, new tune we're singing. You know,
over in Romans chapter 3 it said, whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness, and that word cursing and bitterness don't
mean you're using foul language, that means you're cursing your
life, you're full of bitterness, you're not happy with the life
you got. Boy, when God brings you out of that horrible pit,
it's a new song. What are we going to sing? Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain, that has redeemed us under God by
His blood out of every kindred, tongue, and nation on the face
of this earth. He done it, He done it. And oh
my, it's a song of praise. And I tell you what, He only
puts this song in the mouth of those whose feet He set on the
rock. If you're not on the rock, you ain't got nothing to sing
about. If you're still in that horrible pitch, you ain't got
nothing to sing about. He's the only one who put that
song in your mouth. I read a story the other day, I'll see if I
can remember, about this fellow that just went around humming
all the time. Got out of bed and he started humming, and kind
of under his breath, singing a hymn all the time. Everywhere
he went, he was singing, you know, singing that little old
hymn. And Spurgeon was tellin' about it and said, this fella,
we know he'd go through town and he'd just be hummin' a hymn,
makin' a hymn, you know, murmurin' a hymn under his breath and folks
would be listenin' to him. He didn't pay any attention to
anybody around him. He was so, he said, that's what you call
makin' melody in your heart to the Lord. We'd go around and
say, they put that new song in his mouth. And how, you know,
we do that sometimes, you know, a hymn gets on our mind and it
just goes on and on and on. You can't get it out, and don't
try to get it out, just take that and go on to another one.
But oh my, he only puts that song on those feet he set upon
a rock, set on a rock. Then look what it says here in
verse three. And many shall see it and fear
and shall trust in the Lord. When you start praising God,
giving God all the glory, And you attribute your salvation
ENTIRELY to the Lord. Salvation's of the Lord. You
start doing that, and you start singing that new song about Christ.
You start giving God all the glory and all the praise. After
a while, folks are going to say, Something's happened to that
fella. You know, and you get an opportunity to tell them it's
salvation's of the Lord. And oh, many will see it. Many
will see it. And look what it says. And they're
going to trust the Lord. I'm going to trust the Lord. See, God did something for you,
and that's what He does. And it's obvious that God did
something for you, and His people brought Him out. It's obvious
the Lord did it because you pray Him, praise Him, and look what
it says, fear, fear, a reverence for God. A FEAR OF DISHONORING
HIM, AND SHAMING HIM, AND OH MY, AND TRUST THE LORD, AND YOU
KNOW WHEN THAT HAPPENS? THE LORD TELLS US THAT WHEN HE
MAKES THEM FRUITFUL, HAPPY, JOYFUL, CONSISTENT IN THEIR TESTIMONY
OF SALVATION, BEING BY GRACE AND SALVATION OF THE LORD, AND
THEN HE'S GOING TO BE SATISFIED. LET ME GIVE YOU THIS LAST THING,
GOING TO BE SATISFIED. LOOK IN VERSE 4 AND 5. Blessed
is the man that makes the Lord his trust. Oh, how blessed we
are that the Lord is our trust. What does that mean? If you know
everybody's got something they trust in, well, we make the Lord
our trust. Our trust. And oh, look what
he goes on to say. And he said, he respects not
the proud. We don't respect the proud. And we don't turn aside
the lies. Somebody lying, we just turn
away from them. Turn away from them. And then look what happens.
You're talking about satisfied. Satisfied. And that's where we
started out. Many, oh Lord, my God, are thy
wonderful works. You know what the first wonderful
work was? Brought it out of that horrible
pit. Heard our cry. Put a new song. Established our
going. Set us on a rock. And that's
just the beginning of it. And oh, you've done it, and that's
why He said, You've done it. You've done these works, and
your thoughts to usward, and all the things that you've done
for us and thought about us and done for us over our whole lives
and up to the time we go to be with you, you can't reckon them
up in order. You can go from A to Z in alphabet. You can go from one to billions. But how in the world can you
tell the goodness of God, and the works of God, and the things
that God's done for you? Where you gonna start? You'd
have to start before you was born. That's the first place
you'd have to start. You'd have to start before you
was born. You're gonna have to start before you was born. Then
you start way back under. And then you come up into time.
and then all the things He's done for us over the years. Oh
my, He does many works for us every moment of every day, so
many that we can't number them, we don't even know where to start.
And the man that has the Lord, who He trusts, I tell you something,
He's a satisfied man. He's satisfied with God, He's
satisfied with salvation, He's satisfied with grace, satisfied
with Christ, He's satisfied with what the Lord did. Satisfied. He's satisfied where God put
him, what God's doing for him. He really is satisfied. Father, thank you. Thank you
for your precious word. Oh, what a blessed word. Lord,
you brought us up. You brought us up. You set us
on the rock. You established our goings. Lord,
you Had us on your heart, you had us in your will, you had
us in your purpose. Centuries upon centuries upon
centuries and millennia before we ever existed. Before you ever
put a tree in the Garden of Eden, before you ever put Adam there,
you had a savior for sinners like us. And Lord, you brought
us up out of a horrible pit. Oh, thank you. Oh, blessed be
your name. Thank you for this great, glorious,
blessed salvation. And Lord, we can't thank you
enough, praise you enough, and we don't know where to start
except back in eternity where you did. And we bless you and
praise you for it in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look
full in His wonderful face. AND THE THINGS OF EARTH WILL
GROW STRANGELY DIM IN THE LIGHT OF HIS GLORY AND GRACE. I mentioned to you that I'm going
to start going through Romans probably in the next two or three
weeks. So, you know, kind of read through
it, familiarize yourself with it, and that way you'll be able
to kind of follow along. And Lord willing, I'll see you Sunday.