Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 209. 209. ? Marvelous grace of our loving
Lord ? ? Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt ? ? Yonder
on Calvary's mount outpoured ? ? There on the bough of Bethel
? was shared. Grace, grace, God's
grace, grace that filled water and clays within. is greater than all our sin. Sin and despair like the sea. It's great is greater than all our sin. Dark is the stain that we cannot
hide. What can avail to wash it ? Is flowing a crimson tide ? ?
Wide as snow you may be today ? ? Grace, grace, God's grace
? ? Grace has now pardoned and cleansed ? ? Within ? ? Grace,
grace ? ? God's grace ? ? Grace that is greater than all our
sin ? ? Marvelous, infinite, matchless
grace ? freely bestowed. that are longing to see His face. Will you this moment His grace
believe? Grace, grace, God's grace, grace
that's worth more than anything, be seated we'll sing hymn number
212 212 What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus
O precious blood Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my part, and this I sing,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. nothing can nothing Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood Oh No Well, it's the first time I've been
here on a Sunday morning in a while. About a month, I think. Psalm 65. Psalm 65. Praise waiteth for thee, O God,
in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. O thou
that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. Iniquities
prevail against me, as for our transgressions thou shalt purge
them away. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. that he may dwell
in thy courts, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house,
even of thy holy temple. By terrible things in righteousness
wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation, who art the confidence
of all the ends of the earth and of them that are afar off
upon the sea. which by his strength setteth
fast the mountains, being girded with power, which stilleth the
noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult
of the people. They also that dwell in uttermost
parts of the earth, uttermost parts, are afraid of thy tokens.
Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. Thou visitest the earth and waterest
it. Thou greatly enrichest it with
the rivers of God, which is full of water. Thou preparest them
corn when Thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges
thereof abundantly. Thou settest the ferils thereof.
Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof.
Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop
fatness. They drop upon the pastures of
the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with
flocks, the valleys also are covered with corn. They shout
for joy, they also sing." our great and glorious God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God, our Father, our Savior,
our Redeemer, the one who loved us from everlasting, who from
old loved us with an everlasting love, called us and drew us with
the cords of a man. Lord, we're so blessed, so blessed
by you. Such a privilege, such a blessing
to be able to gather with the people of God. And Lord, we thank
you for your word. Oh, your word. Nothing like it
in this world. Nothing that has the power. Nothing
that can meet the needs of the heart and the mind and the soul
of your people. That has the power to give life
to dead sinners. that has the power to give sight
to the blind, that has the power to give ears to the deaf, that
has the power to cleanse lepers and make them perfect. And oh,
Lord Jesus, we praise you today. And now we pray for this meeting
today. God bless us. Lord, meet with
us. Come among us. Oh, come among
us. Lord, don't leave us here to
ourselves. Don't leave us to our flesh. Don't leave us to
our reasoning, our own understanding. Save us from ourselves. Save
us from our pride and our self-righteousness. And oh Lord, humble us down before
you. And Lord, for those among us
who are weak and frail and sick and not able to be with us, we
ask for your mercies and your abundant grace to be given them.
And my preacher brethren is preaching today, God be with them. Please
meet with us and do it for Christ's sake. Amen. Number 31 in our course books. 31 in the
course books. When I was lost in sin and shame
How Thou let me take the blame Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
was to me When I could look down deep within And see the sinfulness
of sin ? Thou art to be ? Oh, how merciful
? How merciful ? Blessed Lord, how merciful ? Thou art to be
? Oh, how merciful I'm Why should I repent? And rent the soul deserving hell? Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
wast to me! O how merciful! How merciful! I'm not ashamed how merciful thou art to me. And when this world ceases to
be, eternal blood to speak for me. Blessed Lord, how merciful
thou art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful! Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me! Oh, how merciful, how merciful! Blessed Lord, how merciful! We'll stand together and sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. ? Him who more than paid my debt
? Remember Christ upon the tree ? And now be merciful to me ?
Remember how that Jesus fled He bore your wrath and curse
for me In His own body on the tree A perfect righteousness
He his righteousness might be, thy
grace imputed now to me. I plead the merits of thy blood, Be seated. Look again with me
then and the sixty-fifth psalm, and I want to preach this morning
on the man that's blessed, or the blessed man. The blessed
man, a man who's truly blessed of God, is said here in verse
four, Psalm 65, blessed, or blessed is the man, whom thou choosest,
and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy
courts, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house,
even of thy holy temple." Now, there are several passages in
the Scriptures that talk about being blessed. The whole Beatitudes,
or the blessings, You know, blessed man, blessed means to be happy. It means to be happy, to be blessed. And our Lord, in the Sermon on
the Mount, He started out saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of God. Then He says, Blessed are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they
that are meek, they shall inherit the earth. And He said, Blessed
are they that are pure in heart, for they shall see God. So God,
our Lord, speaks about being blessed so much. And of course,
all of our blessings come to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we talk about spiritual blessings, things that God's given us in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we're happy people.
That's why He says, Blessed is the man, happy is the man. And
so if you want to notice first here in this verse of scripture
that I read tonight, it says, or this morning, is blessed is
the man. Blessed is the man. When you have to start talking
about a blessed man, you have to simply, first of all, you
have to understand he's just a man. He's a man. He's a man. Nothing special about him. The
only thing that makes a difference in the human race is the grace
of God. The only distinction made between
men is the grace of God. But as a man, blessed is the
man, as a man, he's subject to the common sorrows of mankind,
to humanity. There's not one better than another.
I've said this so many times, you can't turn your hand for
the difference in the human race, for any man. If there's any distinction
in men, grace is the one that makes that distinction. Ain't
that what he said? Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. Grace is the only way that makes a distinction in me.
I understand what I am. Grace made me understand what
I am. But grace also makes me understand what I have in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The most blessed man is still
a man subject to pain, subject to sickness, subject
to sorrow, called to endure losses in this world, called to endure
crosses and carry crosses, but yet he's called a blessed man.
A happy man. And here's another thing about
a man. He's subject to infirmities. Now, when we talk about infirmities,
what are we talking about? Well, some people have the infirmity
of being quick to temper. I've got that. I've really got
that one. I mean, I can fly off the handle
just like that and let my mouth get the best of me, say things
and you know I'm quick-tempered, very quick-tempered, and then
there's people that have a high and a haughty spirit, then there's
a people who are very slothful, and as a man, though he's a blessed
man, he has some infirmity, he's got something wrong with him
somewhere by his very nature. You know I was talking, there's
a fella Down at Greg's, his name's R.G., he's 87 years old, and
he's preached for Greg several times, but not lately, but he's
an older man, him and his wife are sweet as they can be, and
her name's Deanna. But anyway, we was talking, and
he always comes up and talks to me, and he says this, he says,
you know, this is what God does for us. If we come in and we're
way high, He brings us down by the preaching. And if we're way,
way down, He brings us up in the same service. Now where do
you find that to be true? Huh? If you're way up here feeling
real haughty about yourself, he gonna bring you down. And
if you're feeling low about yourself, he gonna bring you up. That's
what God does. That's why it's called a blessed
man. And I tell you when it says here, blessed is the man, he
doesn't hold any great or imminent position. It don't say blessed
is the king, It don't say blessed is the scholar. It doesn't say
blessed are the rich or blessed are the educated. Grace, grace
is what makes a man blessed. Grace is what God does for a
man. And any man can be blessed. Any
man can be blessed. And so blessing is the man here.
Look what the first thing it says about him. Whom thou choosest. I love election. I really, really,
really love election. You know why I love election?
Because God was the one who does the choosing. God does. And the second thing I love about
it is, is who does the choosing? God does. And then look at who
He chooses. Just look at yourself. Would
you ever imagine that God would choose you, of all the people
on the face of the earth, that God would choose, that God would
set His affection on, that God would set His love on, that God
would send His Son to bear their sins in His own body for them.
When you set yourself, can you imagine, God, before you was
ever born, before you has ever experienced grace, that God chose
you? And oh, listen, and when did
He choose us? in Christ before the foundation
of the world. And no wonder Paul said, blessed,
we're always bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren. For
God from the beginning has chosen you. Now listen to this now.
Chosen you unto salvation. Election is not salvation. Christ
is salvation. And we're chosen unto salvation. with God has from the beginning
done for you, and he brought the truth to you, and you experience
that truth in Christ. Oh, I love election. I love election. I'll tell you what, if God hadn't
have chosen us as not a soul in this building, not a soul
on the face of the earth, would have ever chosen God Almighty.
You would have chosen a God. You had a God, you had an idol,
Every one of us had one of them. Every single one of us did. And
He was a God that suited our will, suited our power, suited
our mind, suited our works, suited our thoughts, suited our will,
suited everything about us. We all had a God that suited
us. But now the God of the Bible couldn't possibly suit us. He's
too holy. He's too righteous. He's too
glorious. He's eternal, we're finite. He's spirit, we're flesh. He's
holy and righteous and we're sinful. He got all power and
we don't have any. I was talking to a fella this
week. He said when God brought him
to him, he said, I come with empty pockets. Come with empty
pockets, I didn't have no pockets. He said, I didn't bring nothing
to the table. And ain't that what it was when
God chose, we didn't bring nothing to the table back then, we can't
bring nothing to the table today, and we won't be able to bring
nothing tomorrow. Huh? Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. Now look what else he says. And causes, causes him
to approach unto thee. It's one thing to be chosen.
It's one thing to be one of God's elect, but how are you gonna
know you're one of God's elect? How are you gonna know you're
one whom God chose? Because he's gonna cause you
to come to him. Zacchaeus, how'd the Lord know
Zacchaeus' name? How'd he know his name? You know
what God said, I knew thee, like Jeremiah, I knew thee before
you was formed in your mother's belly. And I tell you, God knows
His people. And He calls it, He said, My
sheep, Hear my voice, I know them. I know them. He called a king called Cyrus
600 years before Cyrus was ever born. And he named him and told
him what he would do and when he would do it and how he would
do it. That's God. Huh? Listen, that's, and he causes
you, it affects your calling. When God, if God chooses you,
you know what He's gonna do? He's gonna give you a hearing
ear. He's gonna give you a seeing eye and He's gonna give you a
believing heart. And one of these days He's gonna say, it's time
for you to come. And He said, I know my sheep
and they hear my voice. Oh my, it's like that infant
cast out. You know, God passed by him and
said, I saw you, saw you in your pollution, saw you in your blood,
and I said unto thee, live. And God one time said, live.
And when you live, you start automatically calling on God. A baby start crying doesn't prove
it has life. It had life, and then that's
why it cries. And when God gives us life, we
start crying. Let me ask you this, could you
not have come when God called you? Could you have said, no,
listen, I'm just not going to do it. I'm just not going to
do it. And once you have come, can you
go back? Oh, I talked to a fellow the
other day and he talked about, you know, I said, I don't understand
people going back. And I said, I don't either. I said, you know,
once you have, how do you undo your birth? And if we have a
new birth and God gave us new life and gave us a new heart,
gave us a new spirit, how do you undo that birth? You can't, you can't. And then
look what else he says there in this verse. That thou choosest and caused
us to approach unto thee. Oh, listen, I'm gonna tell you
this and I've said it and you've heard it for years and years.
God's the first cause of everything. I don't care what it is, whether
it's life or death, whether it's anything that happens in this
world, God's the first cause of everything. First cause of everything. And
they say, well, what about all the sin that people commit? God's the first cause of everything,
and if God, and here's the only hope a man has, that God chooses
him and calls him to approach unto him. Or there's not a hope
for any man this side of eternity. And then look what else he says,
that he may dwell in thy courts. Now listen. When are we not in
the presence of God? God calls His courts. You know,
in the temple, they had a court over here for the women, they
had a court for the Gentiles, they had a court over here for
certain people, and so they had these different courts, areas,
where people could congregate They didn't congregate. The Gentiles
didn't congregate over here with the Jews. They had a place where
they had to meet over here. And then the women had a place
where they had to go. And so here's all these different
places that people have to go. Well, God, He has a court. He
calls it being in my presence. It's got like being in His courts.
And is there ever any place, time that we're not in His courts? You know, it's like King Ahasuerus,
I think that's how you say his name, but you know, he had this,
he was a king of Assyria. He was the most powerful monarch
at that time on the face of the earth. And he took, he was one
of the ones that had, that took, Israel captive one time, but
anyway, his wife wouldn't come into his presence one day. He
banned her, said, oh, you'll never come in my presence again.
But you couldn't get in that king's presence to go into the
court of the king, come into his presence, go in that area
where he dwelled. And if you went into his presence
without being brought or being commanded to brought, he could
do away with you just like that. And that's what God does with
people who don't know Christ. He does away with them just like
that. But anyway, this queen, Esther, wasn't his queen yet,
but she'd come into his presence to save her uncle, Mordecai. She'd come into his presence, and if he didn't take his scepter
and hold it out to her, She was a gone woman, there was no hope
for her. But he looked at her, held out that scepter. And that's
what God does for us. He held out the scepter of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and every one of us is welcome into his
presence, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all the days of
our life. And I'll tell you what, he says,
we dwell there. We dwell there. We're conscious
of God seeing and knowing everything about us. What it means is we dwell in
God's presence. We have perseverance in His presence. We live in God, live on God,
on God, by God, for God, and unto God. And look what else
it says about us here. It says about us there, "...and
the blessed shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house." Oh, is God good to Israel? Is God good to us? Oh, he is.
David said, I'll be satisfied when I awaken thy likeness. You
know, I want you, I'll keep Psalm 65, and look with me over here
in Isaiah 53. Look in Isaiah 53. I want you
to see something over here with me. When he talks about being satisfied,
Look what it says here at Isaiah 53 in verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him, to bruise Christ. He hath put Christ to grief. When thou shalt make his soul,
Christ our Lord's soul, an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
that's us, He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the
Lord prospers in his hands. Now listen to this. God Himself
shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.
Now in this verse there is satisfaction. To me the most blessed word in
the gospel is satisfaction. Satisfaction. What does it mean?
God Himself is satisfied. God's not looking for anything
other than His Son. God saw what? The burden that
He bore, the sin that He bore, the travail of His soul, the
agony of His soul, the burden of His soul, being forsaken of
Him. He said, I saw the travail of
His soul and that satisfied me. I'm not looking for anything
else. And Christ viewed Himself And what God did to him, and
he said this, he said, oh father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me, but nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.
Christ saw the travail of his soul and said, I'm satisfied.
I'm satisfied. And every believer who saw the
travail and the agony of the Lord Jesus Christ bearing our
sin, we say, I'm satisfied, I don't need nothing else. Not looking
for nothing else. Ain't that right? I'm satisfied. I'm not looking for nothing.
My faith is satisfied with Christ. And then let me show you another
one. Psalm 32. Psalm 32. There's several of
these that I want to look at. My wife Shirley mentioned this in
this morning. Look what it says. Psalm 32, verse one. Blessed,
happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed or happy is the man unto
whom the Lord imputes not iniquity. Oh my. The only thing in the
world that can destroy a man is sin. And sin, always the consequences,
always death. But God said here, the man whose
sin is forgiven, whose iniquity He won't charge him with, oh
my, whose sin is covered, whom the Lord will not impute iniquity. You know, I want you to look
at a couple verses of scripture with me. I want you to look at
Colossians with me first. Colossians chapter 2. Colossians
chapter 2. And Colossians chapter 1 first. Let's look at Colossians chapter
1. I want you to look at this with me. Colossians chapter 1. You know there's a people in
this world that God will not charge with sin. He will not
impute iniquity to Him. And iniquity has more to do with
just sin, it has to do with a lawlessness, an absolutely disregard for God
and His law and everything about Him. And look what He said here
in verse 12 of Colossians 1, verse 12, giving thanks unto
the Father, which hath made us meet, made us fit to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. Listen to this now.
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom, in Christ, his
Son of his love, we have redemption through his blood, even, even
the forgiveness of sins. Now look over in chapter two
in verse 13. I don't know, you know, people
who have a low view of sin, this don't mean anything in the world
to you. But if you know anything about sin whatsoever, if you
know anything about sin, you know how blessed you are that
your sins are gone, how blessed you are that your sins are forgiven,
how blessed you are that God's forgiven you of your sins. And
look what it said here in verse 13 of Colossians 2. And you,
being dead in your sins, and there ain't a thing you can do
about it, a dead man can do, and the uncircumcision or the
filthiness of your flesh. Now listen to this, hath he quickened
or given life together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. I wanna show you this too, over
in Romans chapter, you know, ain't no sense being no hurry,
when I get done, I'll be done. When I know I've said enough,
I'll quit. But look over in Romans chapter
4 with me. Romans chapter 4, talking about
this, blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered. Oh, my. You know, whom the Lord
will not impute iniquity. Our Lord, you know, He taught
us this. While you're looking at this over here in Romans 4,
let me mention this. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He said,
He told a man, He said, When you meet your adversary in the
way, your adversary, He said, you agree with him real,
real quick, because if you don't, he'll hail you to the judge,
and then the judge will hail you and put you in prison. Now
what He's telling us is, Whenever you meet God, and you're confronted
with God Almighty, and we were adversaries, and God was against
us, and He said, now, you agree with Him. Now, I tell you one
thing that every believer does, he agrees with God even in the
things he don't understand. And that's why He ain't gonna
hail us to the jail, ain't gonna hail us to the prisoner, ain't
gonna hail us to the judge. But I tell you, we agree with
Him. You say I'm a sinner? Yes, Lord. You say I'm a rebel? Yes, Lord. You say I'm a sinner? Yes, Lord. You say I've got a
hard heart? Yes, Lord. You say I'm proud? Yes, Lord. You say I'm self-righteous? Yes, Lord. You say I've got too
much sin, too much flesh? Yes, Lord. You say there's only
one Savior, yes, Lord. Only one place you can be accepted,
yes, Lord. Everything God says, you said,
yes, Lord. Ain't that right? You don't care
what He says about you, you'll agree with Him. Now, you may
not agree with what I say about you, but you'll agree with what
God says about you. Huh? You can go around bragging
on people and the only person who won't brag on himself is
the person who knows God. That's right, I'm telling you
the truth now. Oh my, now look here in Romans chapter four. What shall we say then? Paul
uses this phrase a lot. What shall we say then? that
Abraham, our father, and he's the father of the faithful. We
walk in the footsteps of our father Abraham. What did Abraham,
our father, as pertaining to his flesh, his own nature, what
did he find? What did he find? Well, if Abraham
were justified by works, when you look back on him, he said,
he hath work to glory. He can glory in what he's done,
but he cannot glory before God. He can't do that before God.
For what says the scriptures, and that's the first thing he
says, what does God have to say about Abraham? What does God
have to say about Abraham and Abraham's justification? Abraham
believed God. Didn't believe in God, some things
about God, but he believed God. Believed God's word, believed
God's promise. He believed God. And it was counted
unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh, the
reward's not counted as grace. If you're working, what God's
gonna do? He's not gonna give you grace.
He gonna pay your debt. He gonna pay you off. And the
wages of sin is death. But to him, listen to this now.
But to him that worketh not, but believes on him, He justifies
the ungodly. Did you notice what He said there,
the ungodly? Well, I'm not ungodly, God said
you was, that's the only people He justifies. He don't justify
nobody but ungodly people. And look what He says, His faith
is counted for righteousness. And then He quotes David. For
the one I just read, even as David also describes the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose
sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord impute not sin. You know, God has a people, only
sin can damn and destroy a man's soul, but God has a people that
when He looks at them, He don't charge them with sin. He does
not see sin. God said in Hebrews 4, 17, He
says, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. They're
covered. He said, they're covered by blood,
The law can't find anything wrong with them, justice can't find
anything wrong with them, and grace covers them. It's like the thief
on the cross. That one thief that was on the
cross, and our Lord Jesus Christ was considered a criminal. He
was that man on that middle cross. But when they brought Barabbas
out, And Barabbas was supposed to be crucified. He was a murderer.
He's an insurrectionist. And he needed to die. He was
supposed to die. But they went down to that dungeon.
You could hear them steps going down in that dungeon and unlocking
that door. And they brought Barabbas out
and said him besides Christ, said, here's Barabbas. He's a
thief. He's a murderer. He's a criminal. It's time for him to die. And
they said, give us, let Jesus Christ be crucified. Let Brabus
go free. And that's the way it was. Christ
was crucified and God went down to the dungeon, opened the door
and let us all go free because Christ was on that cross. And
every one of us was criminal and God let us go. All right. Let me tell you this. We didn't become sinners by doing
one thing. None of us became sinners by
doing. And if you didn't become sinners by doing, do you think
you can become righteous by doing? All right. Let me give you one
more, then I'll quit. Look what he said over here in
Psalm 1. Psalm 1. Now when you listen to this psalm,
I cannot find myself in this psalm. I can't. Blessed is the man that
walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in
the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of the scornful. But
his delights in the law of the Lord, and in the law doeth he
meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree,
planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit
in his season. His leaf also shall not wither,
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Now, I will say this
about us, every one of us, and I put an article in the Bulletin
about this week. I believe your view of God's
Word. I believe every one of us delights in God's Word. I
mean, we enjoy God's Book. We love God's Word. And oftentimes
it's called His Law. It's called His Law. His delight
is in the Law of the Lord. In His Law doeth He meditate.
Now, Law has different meanings in the Scriptures. There's the
Law of Moses. And that means the civil and
ceremonial law when he talks about the law of Moses. All the
civil laws and all the ceremonial laws, now the dietary laws that
the Jews had to do that Moses wrote about. There's that law. And then there's the law of the
Ten Commandments. That's a law. And then the law
also means the whole of God's Word. It means all of the scriptures,
every one of them. Wherewith shall a young man cleanse
his way by taking heed thereof according to thy scriptures.
And we delight in God's word. We delight in God's word. But
our Lord Jesus Christ, he delighted not only in the law and in God's
word, but he fulfilled God's law in every way. He fulfilled
His ceremonies. He fulfilled His commandments.
He fulfilled His dietary laws. He fulfilled every jot and tittle
of it. And He fulfilled it from top
to bottom, inside and outside. He fulfilled it. And so because
He fulfilled it, we can delight in God's Word because Christ
fulfilled it. When I look at the Ten Commandments,
it don't condemn me. Why? Because Christ fulfilled
it. I don't have to keep any ceremonies. Why? Because Christ
is the end of it. I don't have to worry about rituals
that I have to go through. Christ fulfilled them all. I
don't have to worry about dietary laws. Christ fulfilled them all. In every way, Christ fulfilled
the law. And so he delights to do God's will. And then look
what he says, we'll not walk in the counsel of the ungodly.
Now, we all go to banks. We all go to lawyers. We all
work with people that's ungodly. And if we have a boss and he's
ungodly and he tells us what to do, we got to do it. We wouldn't
willfully walk in the counsel of the ungodly. But we deal with the ungodly
all the time. But I'll tell you who never walked
into counsel of the ungodly. That was our Lord Jesus Christ.
Huh? He never did. And if I'm in Him,
I don't either. Oh my. And then, look what else
it says, who stands in the way of sinners. Oh my goodness. You know, I'm going to tell you
something. If I could go back, and I can't, if I could go back
to when my children were babies and do everything differently,
I would do it. I would do it without a shadow
of a doubt. I would raise them different. I would treat them
different. I would love them more. I wouldn't
be so hard on them. I wouldn't be so impatient with
them. And lots of things I wouldn't have done in their presence.
Because I stand in the way of my own family. And they're all
sinners. My actions, my words, the way
that I've done, the things that I've said, and the way that I've
acted, I stood in the way of my own children. The way of my
grandchildren. But Christ never did. The only
place He stood in the place of a sinner was when He stood in
our place on that cross and bore our sins in His own body on that
tree. Now ain't that right? Ain't you
grateful He did that? And if God could save me, He
can override everything that I've ever said and done and save
my children. He can make my children not think
a thing in the world about anything I said or done. If He deals with
them, He can make them see nothing that I've ever done wrong. They'll
have to stand like I do in Christ without any sin, without any
iniquity. And then I'll tell you what,
Then He said, not only that, but His delights in the law,
O Lord, and in His law He meditates. Our Lord, He constantly, constantly
dilighted in the Lord's Word. And we delight in it because
of its authority. This Bible has authority. It's
the only real authority we have, real authority. And we enjoy
and bless God for its antiquity. Forever, O Lord, is Thy Word
settled in heaven. And then it's supernatural wisdom. The Bible has wisdom. You know,
theology is the science of God, the study of God, science of
God. But if you ever go find out about God, a man asked me
the other day if I've ever been to seminary and I said, no, no. Well, I said, you know, a lot
of people like to be doctors and they want everybody, wants
everybody to be a doctor now, you know, for all these churches.
But I said, if God calls a man, God's going to teach him, going
to teach him. And His Word, it's not never
gonna change. And then we love it and delight
in it because it's true. It's true. And God's Word stands
fast. It does not change for anybody.
And then it's profitable. It's profitable for this time
in which we live, and it's profitable for eternity. And then look what
it says we should be, down in verse three. And he shall be like a tree.
Now a tree don't plant itself. And if we're planted, God had
to plant us. We're trees, trees of the Lord's
righteousness, trees of the Lord's planting. It says that over in
Isaiah. And he shall be like a tree.
God plants us by the rivers of water. And he ordained that we
should bring forth fruit in all my, in his season. And
you know what he says? Sometimes we think our leaf is
withered, but in Christ, whatsoever he doeth prospers, and whatsoever
Christ did for us, it prospers. It prospers what Christ did for
us. Our Lord, we thank you for your
great and abundant mercies given us in Christ. Thank you for your
gospel. Thank you for your word. Lord, you met all of our needs. All of our blessings are in you.
We have no blessings but what you've given us. We have no grace
but what you've given us. We have no will but what you
give us. Oh God, thank you for your great and abundant mercy
given us in Christ before the world ever began. And Lord, I
pray that as it pleases you and honors you and glorifies you,
use this message today. You use it for your glory and
the good of your people, as seemeth good in your sight. We know we
have nothing, can say nothing, can do nothing without your presence
and power. Forgive me of everything that's
so unlike you, and have mercy on me and this congregation.
We ask you in Christ's name, amen. Amen. Well, I'll see you
tonight, God willing, six o'clock.