Good evening, let's all stand
together and we'll sing hymn number 512, 512. Someday the silver cord will
break, and I no more as now shall sing, but oh the joy when I shall
wake within the palace of the king and I shall see him face
to face And tell the story saved by grace, And I shall see Him
face to face, And tell the story saved by grace. Someday my earthly house will
fall. I cannot tell how soon't will
be. But this I know, my all in all,
has now a place in heaven for me. And I shall see Him face
to face, And tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see Him
face to face, And tell the story saved by grace. Someday when fades the golden
sun beneath the rosy-tinted west, my blessed Lord will say, well
done, and I shall enter in to rest. and I shall see him face
to face and tell the story saved by grace and I shall see Him
face to face And tell the story Saved by grace Someday till then
I'll watch and wait My lamp all trimmed And burning bright That
when my Savior opens the gate My soul to Him may take its flight
And I shall see Him face to face and tell the story saved by grace. And I shall see him face to face
and tell the story saved by grace. Thank you and be seated. Hymn
number 67. 67. O Savior, as my eyes behold the
wonders of thy might untold, the heavens in glorious light
arrayed, The vast creation thou hast made, And yet to think thou
lovest me, My heart cries out, How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? That God should love a soul like
me Oh, how can it be? As at the cross I humbly bow
And gaze upon thy thorn-crowned brow and viewed the precious
bleeding form by cruel nails so bruised and torn. Knowing my suffering was forming,
in grief I cry, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? That God should love a soul like
me? Oh, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? Was ever grace so full and free? From heights of bliss to depths
of woe, In loving kindness Thou didst go. From sin and shame
to rescue me, O love divine, how can it be? How can it be? How can it be? that God should love a soul like
me. Oh, how can it be? Psalm 27. Psalm 27. I want to bring a message tonight,
three-fold chords. Three-fold chords. The Lord is my light and my salvation,
whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies
and my foes, come upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled
and fell. Though an host should encamp
against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired
of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty
of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of
trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his
tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted
up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in
his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will
sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with
my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer
me. When thou sayest, Seek ye my
face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me.
Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave
me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father
and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Teach
me thy way, O Lord, lead me in a plain path, because of mine
enemy. Deliver me not over under the
will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against
me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless I had believed
to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait
on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine
heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. O Lord, our blessed Father, our
blessed Master, our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is
God over all, who is God Himself who come down to save sinful
souls like ourselves, identified with us, O Lord, took our place
that we might be able to have what He has, And Lord, we bless
you that you have mercy upon us. Bless you for your grace. Bless you for your patience and
long suffering with us. And I thank you, Lord, for the
preacher you sent away this last Lord's Day. Thank you for what
you gave him to say. And I pray he was made a blessing
to the saints here. And Lord, I pray for my lost
loved ones. Oh, God. Oh, Lord. They don't have any interest
at all. But I remember when I didn't
have any interest. But Lord, You created an interest
in me. You've done something for me
that only You could do. So I trust that in sovereign
mercy and for Christ's sake that You'd go after our families,
go after our sons and daughters, go after our children and grandchildren,
go after our son-in-laws and daughters-in-laws, Go after our
husbands and wives. Oh Lord, You can go after them.
And when You go to get them, Lord, You'll bring them. You've
got the power. You've got the will, if it pleases
You to do so. You've got the blood to pay for
their sin. You've got the righteousness
to give unto them. So Lord, we look unto You. And
Father, we pray for those who are not with us through Your
providence and pray that You would continue to bless your
dear saints whose bodies are frail, bodies are weak, who are
going through a great fight of afflictions, and bless my preacher
brethren as they stand tonight to preach the gospel of the grace
of God. We bless you in Christ our Lord's
name. Amen. Amen. In number one 2525. I hear the Savior say, thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone Can change the leper's spots And melt the heart
of stone Jesus paid it all All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I Whereby
thy grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the blood
of Calvary's Lamb Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save my lips
shall still repeat Jesus paid it all All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Here in the 27th Psalm, I'm going to deal with things
by threes, by threes, and the verses that I'll use, they'll
break them down into three things. There's a lot of threes in here,
and I want to read a verse of Scripture out of Ecclesiastes
chapter 4. You don't have to look at it
if you don't want to, but I'll read it to you because this is
what I'm trying to say tonight. In verse 9 it says, Two are better
than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if
they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him
that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help
him up. Again, if two lie together, then
they have heat. But how can one be warm alone,
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, and
a threefold cord is not quickly broken." So you take two people that helps one another, put Christ,
and you can't be broken. You can't be broken. It won't
be broken. And that's what I'm going to
deal with tonight, threefold cords. And the first one in verse 1,
let me show you this, the first of all, the Confession and Acknowledgement.
Look what it says, the first one is THE LORD IS MY LIGHT,
THE LORD IS MY LIGHT. You know, God commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, and has shined in our hearts to GIVE
LIGHT, to GIVE LIGHT. That word LIGHT also means UNDERSTANDING,
to GIVE LIGHT. and to see the glory of God in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus said,
I'm the light of the world. They asked John, said, are you
that light? He said, no, I'm not that light.
I sit to bear witness of that light. That light is Jesus Christ
himself. The Lord is my light. What light
would we have if it wasn't for Christ? If it wasn't for him,
he is my light. I NEED HIM TO BE MY LIGHT! Our
Lord said, HE THAT FOLLOWETH ME SHALL NOT WALK IN DARKNESS,
BUT SHALL HAVE THE LIGHT OF LIFE! And you know, I NEED HIM TO BE
MY LIGHT, I WANT HIM TO BE MY LIGHT, AND THE ONLY PEOPLE, ONLY
PEOPLE WHO CONFESS THAT THEY NEED THE LIGHT AND WANT LIGHT
IS PEOPLE THAT KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE IN DARKNESS! when
you brought out of darkness into His light. That's what Peter
said to your chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
that you should show forth the praises to Him that calls you
out of His darkness, calls you out of darkness into His marvelous
light. We'd be still in darkness if
it hadn't been for God not being our light. for God not coming
and turning on the light. People say, oh, you know, we're
sitting in the dark. I don't care how long you live
in a house. I don't care how many times you go through that
house, if you get up in the middle of the night in the darkness,
you're going to bump something, you're going to hit something,
you've got to feel around like this here. And that's the way
it is with people that don't know the light of Christ. They're
just stumbling around, bumping into everything. But, Oh, He
is my light. And another thing is in this
verse one is, here's the second thing. The Lord is my salvation. Not only is He my light, but
He's my salvation. We confess. You know when you
say the Lord's my salvation, you know what you're saying?
I need salvation. I can't save myself. I can't
do anything for myself. So if the Lord's my salvation,
that means that I don't have nothing to do with it. That means
that I couldn't contribute anything to it. He Himself is my salvation. From Alpha to Omega. He s our salvation from beginning
to end. What He started, He ll finish.
And I tell you what, here s the thing, we were so lost, so sinful,
so blinded, so helpless, in such a desperate condition that only
God could save us, and only the Lord could be our salvation.
When we say salvation's of the Lord, I don't mean He just saves
us one time and leaves us alone. Salvation's of the Lord from
before the foundation of the world till He carries us all
the way to eternity. It's a miracle that we're saved
at all. It's a miracle that we stay saved
and it'll be a miracle when we enter into glory. Everything
God done for us is supernatural. The Lord is my salvation. He didn't need my help. He didn't
ask for my help. He didn't ask if I needed anything.
He just said, He is my salvation. Oh my, you know, He was sent.
You know what He was sent to do? To save us. From what? From sin. You know what He was
sent to do? I come to seek. Seek. He said, I don't want to sin,
but to seek. Who's He seeking? The lost. Sinners. That's where he come to seek,
oh my, the Lord's my salvation. And then look again here in verse
one. Here's the first three things. The Lord is the strength of my
life. I've heard preachers say, oh,
I've heard several people say, and this is natural man. He says, the Lord, you know,
the Lord will use what strengths I have. Oh, he ain't got no strength. If you had any strength, You
wouldn't need Christ. If you had any strength, you
wouldn't need saving. When we were yet without strength,
when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for
who? The ungodly. We have, you know, We don't have no strength. If
we have anything God gave us, who makes you to differ? How
do you stand in this world? How do you live in this world?
What strength do you go by? I don't have any strength to
stand on my own. Oh my. We don't have any. You know all we got is weaknesses.
That's all we got, weaknesses. I told the folks up at Wheelersburg,
I said, you know, all a baby can do and all a little child
can do is make a mess. Somebody has to clothe them.
Somebody has to clean them. Somebody has to fix them up when
they get hurt. And that's the way we are. We're
like a baby. Christ has to clean us up, has
to heal us, has to get rid of our messes. And when we fall,
he has to pick us up. We can't even get up by ourselves. Oh my. Paul said it like this. He said, lest I be exalted, because
of above measure, because of all the revelations that Christ
has given me. He said, there was sent unto
me a messenger of saving, a thorn in the flesh. And it buffeted
me and buffeted me. And I said, I asked the Lord
one time, take it away from me. I asked him the second time,
take this thorn away from me. I asked him the third time, You
know what he told him? He said, I'm not gonna take it
away. I'm gonna leave it right where it's at. Why? Because my grace is sufficient
for you. My strength, my strength is made
perfect in your willingness. And that's why he said, I ain't
gonna talk about my strength. If I talk about anything, I'm
gonna talk about how weak I am, how frail I am. Oh my, I tell
you what, We go in the strength of the Lord. We could never go
in the strength of the flesh. We would just falter and fail. Look over here in Psalm 33 with
me. Look at Psalm 33. Go over here
in Psalm 33. And look in verse 16. There is no king saved by the
multitude of a host. A mighty man is not delivered
by much strength, and a horse is a vain thing for safety. Neither
shall he deliver any by his great strength. But, oh, behold, the
eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that
hope in his mercy. Nothing can save a man But God,
not a horse, not a mighty man, not a king, only Christ. We go into strength. And let
me give you another one. Psalm 46. Just look at this.
It's just one verse here. Everybody knows this. You'll
remember it very well. Psalm 46, verse one. God is our refuge. We got a hiding place. Oh, our
refuge. And listen to this, and strength.
God's our refuge and strength. And I love this, a very present
help, very present help in trouble. That means when you're in trouble,
he's right there. Always present help, very present
help. Oh, and that's why he said, to
whom shall I be afraid? Then let me show you another
three things. That's the first three things. The Lord's my light,
my salvation, my strength. Look down here in verse four.
Here's another one. Talk about these threefold chords.
Verse four. One thing have I desired of the
Lord that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life. Oh, my. He said, you know, here's a threefold
desire. You know what he desired to do?
Dwell. Dwell in the house of the Lord.
You know, to dwell in the house of the Lord is to abide with
Him. To dwell with somebody is to
abide with them. And you know, it's an expression
of affection for the Lord Himself. We sang that song. Change and
decay all around I see. Thou who changes not, abide with
me. And that's what He said, dwell
in the house of the Lord. It means abide, abide with Him. And oh my, it's an expression
of affection for the Lord Himself. Our Lord Jesus was on the road,
on the Damascus Road. And when they got to the end
of the way, There were these disciples that was walking in
them, they said, Lord, abide with us. Come in and abide with
us. The day's about gone, come in
and abide with us. And you know what the Lord did?
He went in, and He abided with them. Oh, Lord, abide with us. Oh my, and you know, it says,
our Lord said, in my father's house, lots and lots of mansions,
And I'll come again, receive you unto myself, that where I
am, I am, you may be with me. And David said it this way, surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And
what's going to happen then? I'm going to dwell in the house
of the Lord. Forever. That's a long time. That's a long time. Here's the second desire. First
was to dwell in the house of the Lord. Here's the second.
To behold the beauty of the Lord. To behold the beauty of the Lord. You know, the glory of the Lord You know,
it says over in Isaiah 53, it says, there was no beauty about
him that we should desire him. But once you see him, God gives
you the sight to see him, and he gives you the light to see
him. He becomes the most beautiful. Everything about our Lord's beautiful.
Everything about him's beautiful. You know, when you start talking
about the Lord, how beautiful, how beautiful is His love. You ever seen anything more beautiful
than the love of Christ? Loved us with an everlasting
love. Anything more beautiful than the grace of God that came
to where we was and grace sought us, grace bought us, grace will
bring us home. Anything more beautiful than
grace that came to us and opened our hearts, saved us and keeps
us? Oh my, what about mercy? anything
more beautiful than mercy? When you ask for mercy, do you
get it? How beautiful it is, how precious it is when God sends
mercy! Oh, my! And oh, how beautiful
is His compassion! How beautiful is His holiness!
How beautiful is His righteousness! And oh, listen, when you're like
me, when you're like me and as sorry as I am, you're talking
about a beautiful attribute is his patience. Oh, so patient
with me. Oh, how patient he is. And oh, and I'll tell you another
attribute that's so precious to me and so beautiful, being
the person that I am, his long suffering. His longsuffering,
He suffers so long with me. And do you know how long He'll
suffer with me? Till He takes me all the way
to glory. But He'll suffer long with me until He takes me home.
What a beautiful attribute that is. Patience and longsuffering,
grace and mercy. Oh my, I'll tell you, This was the part that Mary chose.
She saw such beauty in him, sat at his feet, and learned of him.
Here's the third desire. Not only dwell in the house of
the Lord, but behold the beauty of the Lord. But look what it
says here in verse 4 again. And he says this, And to inquire
in his temple. I want to inquire of the Lord.
When he says inquire in his temple, that means that you're going
to inquire of him. You're going to talk to him. You're gonna
converse with Him. And you know in the temple, our
Lord was often in the temple, and they come in there and do
things in the temple. But the temple, it represents
this building that you and I are in. And if God, you ask God of
anything, you know, you ask Him of wisdom, He'll give it to you.
But oh, and how in the world do we inquire in His temple?
You know the reason you're here tonight? Is you're here to inquire. See what he has to say in his
word. We're inquiring in his word right now. I'm inquiring in his word. That's
what we're here to do, to inquire. Let's inquire in God's word and
see what he has to say. Oh my. And I'll tell you something,
to inquire in his temple means, Lord, I wanna come, I wanna talk
to you. I heard a lady say the other
day, she said, I got a lot of questions for God. I've got a
lot of questions for God, and I don't know if He's able to
answer them. But let me tell you something,
you ain't never got a question that God's Word will not answer.
You think about this has happened so many times over the years
people Get together and they'll talk about some verse of scripture
talk about something in the Bible and they'll say I don't know
what that means I don't know what that understand I believe
I'll ask the preacher and then you get say well I'm gonna go
to church and ask the preacher about the time you read asking
he'll preach exactly what you're wanting to ask Huh? Ain't that amazing how God does
that? Bruce Daly used to say, he said,
he got in my mailbox today. That's what he said, he said,
he read my mail today. And how's that doing? I didn't
know what, you don't know what's going in, but God does. God does,
and that's why we're here, to inquire. Lord, speak to me. Lord,
let me learn from you. If I got a question, Lord, I'm
gonna go to you, and I'm gonna wait on you to give the answer.
And He'll give the answer, oh my. And that's why we've come
here to learn, to learn. Inquire in His temple. And let
me give you, that's three. Dwell in the house of us, threefold
desire. Dwell in the house of the Lord
to behold Him in His beauty and to inquire in His temple. And
then let me give you a three, three chord privilege here. Look
in verse five. I didn't know if I'd get through
this tonight, but I believe I will. Look what he says in verse 5,
what a threefold privilege for us here. For in the time of trouble
he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me, he shall set me upon a rock. Now all three
privileges here. First of all says he's going
to hide me in his pavilion. Oh my, you know, the safest place
in the world for any soul is to be hidden in God. For God
to hide you. Where does He hide you from?
Sin? Judgment? Justice? Wrath? He hides us. He's going to hide
us in His pavilion. And that word hide means to cover. It means to hedge in. It means
to protect. And when's he going to do this?
He said, In the time of trouble! In the time of trouble! I was
talking to a dear, dear preacher friend of mine. He's been diagnosed
with a kind of progressive cancer, and they don't know if it's spread
or not, but he'll know next week what the treatment thing's going
to be. But to make a long story short, To make a long story short,
he said, Ben was talking about it and he said, you know, like
Scott used to say, you want to believe is one of three prices.
He's going into trouble. He's in trouble or coming out
of trouble. And that's the truth. That's the truth. And then when
the time of trouble and this fellow is calm as a cucumber,
his kids ask him, Daddy, are you just pretending to be strong? He said, no, it's not bothering
me. I'm not worried about it. He's
calm as he can be. He said, when the trouble comes,
God's going to hide you. Hide you from what? The trouble?
He'll put no more up on you than you're able to bear. And with
your temptation, He's going to make a way to escape. Where are
you going to escape at? Into His peace? Into His comfort? Into His strength? Into His ability? Into His providence? Where else
are we going to hide? Oh, He'll hide us in His pavilion.
We're protected by His gracious providence. Oh my. None of us, not one of us would
be here tonight and lived our whole lives unless God had ordered
every step we took. How many times have we been in
danger? I was talking to a fellow the
other day and we were talking about up in Claremont County
and I told him, I said, when I was just a boy, 15 years old,
And I'm not bragging here. I'm ashamed of it. But he is
talking about going up to Batavia. And I said, that's in Claremont
County, ain't it? He said, yeah. I said, you know, I was up in
the fifth tier of a barn, tobacco barn, hanging tobacco one time.
I was 15 years old. Sheriff come down there and called
me out of that barn. Took me to jail and put me in
jail in Claremont County. I've never, I said, I ain't gonna
own up to nothing. I wouldn't, I just wouldn't own up to nothing.
But what I'm telling you is, this, that everything that's
ever happened, went through Vietnam, went through, I've been through
many dangers, toils and snares. Grace has brought me stuff this
far. And that's the way it is. How
in the world did we come from the time we was babies to where
we're at right now, without God not hiding us in his pavilion. Without him not protecting us
by his grace. And oh my, so I tell you, he
hides us in his pavilion. Then look what the next thing
it says there in verse five. He said, not only that, but he
had hide me in the secret of his tabernacle. He puts us in a place that only
he knows. We don't even know it when we
get there. He said He puts us in this secret
of His tabernacle. Oh, my. And I tell you that,
you know, with the tabernacle, let me tell you three things
about that. First of all, the tabernacle was God ordered it. He said, You make it just exactly
like I tell you to make it. Then secondly, He said, This
is the place that I'll meet you. Thirdly, this is the only place
where a sacrifice will be accepted. And Christ, when the Word says
the flesh was dwelt among us, that means the Word tabernacled
among us, Christ tabernacled among us. And you know what that
means? That God will only meet us in Christ. You know what that
means? That God will only accept the
sacrifice where this is at. And this means that there's only
one place that God will give us His Shekinah glory, and that's
in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And all my I want you to see
this. You keep Psalm 27, look in Colossians,
Colossians chapter 3. We need to see this. And I've
quoted it so many times over the years, but it'll be good
to look at it. Colossians chapter 3. Oh, He hides us in His secret tabernacle,
in the secret of His tabernacle. But oh, look what He said here
in Colossians 3.1, If you then be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand
of God, set your affection, your mind on things above, not on
things of the earth. Now listen to this, For ye are
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Oh my! Now that s a secret place, the
world don t know anything about it. and hiding in the secret
of His tabernacle, a place where only He knows, and the natural
men don t know nothing about it. And I tell you what, we re
hid in Christ, hid in God, and hid in His tabernacle. And the
third one is not only just hiding in His pavilion in the time of
His trouble, and the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide
me." And we're hid with God in Christ. Then look what he says
in the third thing there. Here's the third thing here about
this privilege that we have. He shall set me upon a rock. Now listen, there's a rock. Get
up on it the best way you know how. That's not what he said. He shall set me set me on a rock. And you know what Christ is called?
Rock. Christ our rock. He was the smitten
rock. He's a rock in a weary land. He's that cleft in the rock. He, you know when you start sitting
on a rock, and then the scriptures tells us that we're built, our
house is built on a rock, not on sand. On Christ the solid
rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Oh my, he set us on it, we didn't
climb up to it. Oh, bless his name. We may move,
you know, he hath picked me up out of a miry clay and set me
on a rock. And then it says he established
my goings. Oh my, we may move around on
the rock, may even fall on the rock, but we'll never fall off
the rock. And that rock and bless his name
that rock will never fall on us never fall on us Never ever
fall on us Okay, let's go back over here in psalm 27 Three cold
folk threefold privilege hiding in his pavilion secret of his
tabernacle and set us on a rock and then here's a threefold a
three-chord assurance look in verse 8 and When thou said, Seek ye my face,
my heart said unto thee, my heart said unto thee, thy
face, Lord, will I seek. You know, this, do you know what
this means? This means effectual. God said,
Seek my face. You reckon if God said, Seek
ye my face, that you're going to seek his face? And when you're
talking about the face, you're actually talking about the person.
you re talking about the PERSON, and when God talks about the
FACE, He s talking about the FACE of Christ, the PERSON of
Christ. And when He said, Seek My Face, you know what our heart
says? Lord, here I come, I m going to start seeking you, I m going
to seek your face, oh my! And that means it s an effectual
calling, that s what it is when God says, Seek My Face, we re
going to seek His face, we re going to seek His And oh my,
how can we make our calling and election sure? By cause God said,
Seek Me, and we seek Him! We cannot do anything else! And
oh my, and when we talk about His face, when He calls His face
to shine upon us, oh my, we see His face, we see His glory in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. WE SEE HIS FACE, WE SEE
HIS PERSON IN HIS PRECIOUS WORD. WE SEE HIS FACE IN GOD'S BLESSED
PROVIDENCE. AND YOU KNOW WHAT? WHEN HE SAID,
BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART, THEY SHALL SEE GOD, YOU KNOW
THAT'S NOT WHEN WE GET TO ETERNITY, THAT'S RIGHT NOW. WE SEE GOD
RIGHT NOW. WE BEHOLD HIS FACE RIGHT NOW.
OH MY! AND THEN SECOND THING IS THIS,
of assurance, as fellowship. Look down at verse 9. Had not
thy face far from me, put not thy servant away in anger. Thou
hast been my help. And listen to this now. Leave
me not, neither forsake me, O God, of my salvation. He says, Thou
hast been my help. Thou hast been my help. Leave
me not. Leave me not. I am so thankful
that our Lord said, ìIíll never, no never, no never, no never,
no never leave thee nor forsake thee.î He said, ìYou know what?
Iíll go with you all the way to the end of the world.î Thatís
what our Lord said, ìNobodyís going to pluck you out of My
Fatherís hands.î I mean, our Lord in our fellowship, and this
is a fellowship, you know, ìThou has been the help of My life,î
the fellowship with the Lord, ìLeave Me not, donít forsake
Me.î And you know when John said it this way, he said, Our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. That's
our fellowship. Look in Isaiah 49. Look in Isaiah
49. He's talking about fellowship
and unity and being able to... Fellowship means that you get
along, you have this communion. Fellowship and communion is the
same thing. And look what he said here in Isaiah 49, verse
16, yeah, verse 15, 14, excuse me, Isaiah 49, 14. But Zion said, Zion's the church,
the Lord hath forsaken me, my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a
woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, Yet will
I not forget thee? Why don't you, Lord? Behold,
I have craven thee upon the palms of my hands." Oh, my! I've craven thee. He put those
nails in his hands. He craved our names right there.
And so fellowship, and then let's look at his favor. Look at grace. Another third thing of assurance,
threefold assurance. Here's a third thing in verse
10. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will
take me up. Oh my, you're talking about grace. Grace. When my mother and father
forsake me, many a mother and a father forsook their children.
Lots and lots of them, lots of them, lots of them have done
it. Walked off and left their children.
left them to the world, left them to anybody that would take
them. And when my mother, this is said, when my father and my
mother forsake me, you know what the Lord will do? He'll come
and in the margin said, He'll gather me. Our Lord said, I'm
not gonna leave you like an orphan. He said, I'm gonna come and get
you, I'm gonna put my arm around you, I'm gonna gather you. I'm gonna
gather you, they won't gather you, but I will. And you're talking
about grace, you're talking about favor, you're talking about love. Everybody, you know, he is faithful. He finds lost
sheep when they are so alone and he takes them up. He takes
them up. I'm not gonna leave you like
an orphan. Oh, I'm not gonna do that to you. I'm gonna be,
our Lord's our father, our mother, our brother, our sister. He is
everything that we need in this world. Oh my. And then let me hurry, look here in verse 11 and 12.
Here's a threefold prayer, three chord prayer, look in 11 and
12. Here's the first thing, the first one, first chord. Teach
me thy way, oh Lord, teach me thy way. We sang that song, teach
us thy way, oh Lord. Oh Lord, teach me thy way. I
don't want my way, I want your way. And the Lord has to be the
one to teach us. He's got to be the teacher. And
oh Lord, teach us, teach us how you save a sinner. Teach us how
you can be just and justify sin. That's the question of all the
ages. How can God be just and justify? Teach us, oh Lord, ourselves. Teach us ourselves. Teach us
our frailty. Teach us to number our days.
TEACH US, O LORD, TO EMULATE YOU, OUR MASTER! TEACH US, O
LORD, PATIENCE! GIVE US PATIENCE, LORD! GIVE
US PATIENCE! And oh, listen, TEACH US THY
WAY! You know, He showed, taught Moses
His way. He showed Moses the way, and
everybody else just saw His mighty axe. And when you can look at
the axe of God, that won't save you, but you know what will save
you? seeing his work, seeing the work that he accomplished
and he finished. Teach me, teach me thy way, oh Lord teach me
thy way, thy way. And then look what else he says
here in verse 11. Lead me in a plain path. You know why he
says lead me in this is for guidance, second thing is guidance. You
know why he says lead me in a plain path? Because we're too stupid
not to get in the right path. We really are. You know, He has to make it plain. He has to make it so obvious
that you cannot err. You know, He's got a way, a holiness
and a way of holiness that you cannot err therein. You can't
stumble in this way. God's got to make the way plain.
This is the way, walk in it. He got to be made plain to us.
You ve heard that old saying, plain talk s easy understood.
That s why Paul said, I use plain speech, plain speech. Oh my, it must be plain because
we re so dull, and we walk by faith and not by sight. And then
he says, lead me in the plain path because of mine enemies.
God's enemies are our enemies. The world's God's enemy. Sin's
God's enemy. Self-righteousness is God's enemy.
Pride's God's enemy. But oh my, God's enemies ARE
enemies. And we need by His grace to walk
in such a plain way that no adversary will be able to speak reproachfully
about us. Here's the third thing now, threefold
prayer. Lord, teach me. Lord, guide me. lead me in a plain path. And
then the third thing is this, in verse 12, we pray for deliverance. That word deliverance is the
same word as salvation. Deliver me not over into the
will of mine enemies. Deliver me from the will of my
enemies. You know, let me give you just a few instances of that.
When Satan sought Job, God didn't let him have him. God delivered
him. When he left Judas to the will
of the flesh, we say, Lord, deliver us from the will of the flesh.
And when Demas, having loved this present evil world, we say,
Lord, save us from this present evil world. Oh my, deliver me,
oh God, from my will. For I tell you, even my will
is an enemy, this old flesh. The worst thing we have to deal
with in this world, I'm telling you, I know this, I know this,
and you'll agree with me 100%. The worst enemy we have in this
life to deal with is our own flesh. That's our worst enemy
to deal with in this world. us, ourselves, our flesh. And
oh Lord, deliver me from my will, deliver me from the greatest
enemy of all, myself. Oh, deliver me from my enemies.
And let me tell you, there's always someone who wants to see
you fall and someone who wants to see you fail. Always somebody
does. And then I'll close with this.
I hope I haven't taken too long. Here's the last thing, a three-fold
encouragement, three-chord encouragement. Look in verse 13. I had fainted, I had fainted, unless I'd believed to see the
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. You know, to believe, I had fainted, unless
I'd believed. I would have, you know what fainting
means here? It means getting, going to you cannot, you just
have no strength to go on anymore. Can't go on anymore. And I had
fainted unless I'd believed. You know, Paul said it like this,
we're troubled yet not perplexed. We're cast down, but we're not
destroyed. Oh no, no, no, we're not. Paul
said when he was on that ship and they hadn't seen the sun
for 14 days. He stood out in the middle of
that ship and he said, Sirs, be of good cheer. Now I tell
you what, they hadn't seen the sun, they'd thrown everything
overboard that they could. They hadn't eaten. Paul stood
up and said, Sirs, be of good cheer. The Lord hath told me,
and I believe what God said. And that's what we do. We had fainted, I believe. If
I'd bid for the Lord, I believe, I believe. And here's the second
thing of a prayer. Wait on the Lord, verse 14, wait
on the Lord. There's nothing, nothing. And
that word wait means to be still. to wait with expectation. Wait
on Him. He'll do what's right. Just wait.
You say, Well, I need to get this done. I don't know if I
should do this or do that. If you don't know what to do,
don't do nothing. Wait on the Lord. He'll direct
your path. Wait with expectation. And here's
the fourth, third thing, the last thing at all. He says there
in the verse He says, Wait on the Lord, be
of good courage, and He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I
say, on the Lord. Oh, to receive, to wait, to receive. Be of good courage. Be of good
courage. Oh, my. Be of good courage. You know what He'll do? Just
wait on Him. He'll give you strength. He'll
give you the courage. He'll give you the ability to
carry on. That's three full chords. I hope that's a blessing. Everything
in threes. Fellow by self, gotta be alone,
gonna get cold. Take two people, they lay together,
they can heat one another, warm up to one another. You put the
third person in it, the Lord Jesus Christ, put them together,
you can't break them. Oh my, bless his name, bless
his name. Our Father, Praise be unto thee. Thank you for allowing us to
meet here tonight. Thank you for the privilege of looking
into your word, to coming into your temple and inquiring, coming
into your face, coming into your presence and inquiring of you. Thank you for allowing us this
blessed, blessed time. Meet the needs of this dear congregation. Meet the needs of every home.
Meet the needs of every heart. Meet the needs of the weakest,
because Your grace, O Lord, is perfect in weakness. Meet the
need of those that are up, bring them down. Those that are down,
bring them up. And Lord, help us to wait upon You. Wait on
You. O Lord, wait on You. Blessed be Your name. Thank You,
Lord. Amen, amen. I know we're saying this all
the time, but I love it. 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. Good night and God bless you.
Oh listen, I bought some new Bibles and I laid one out there
on the table out there if you want to see it and you need a
new Bible. They're Cambridge Bibles, they're wide margin.
They just don't have the Cambridge name on them. And I bought a
bunch of them for the church and for anybody that needs one.