Good morning. Good to be with
you all again. If you will turn with me for
our text to Proverbs chapter 15. Proverbs 15. Look with me at verse 15. All the days of the afflicted
are evil, but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. As I was looking for a message,
this verse caught my eyes. And when I read it, I thought,
that pretty well sums up the life of a believer, doesn't it?
Affliction, affliction, affliction. But by the grace of God, a merry
heart and a continual feast. Now I want to talk to you today
about the continual feast. Just bless my heart so much studying
this and thinking about it. But first I'd like to consider
our life. The Scriptures often speak of
our life, and it does right here, in terms of days. You know, you go to a funeral,
you say, so-and-so was 75 years old. We don't say the days. Even
our baby who was just born what seems like yesterday, we say
she's 5 months old. And God says our life is just
days. See that? All the days. Days. And the point here is, Our life
is so short. I think I'm finally starting
to realize this. I got to thinking how it doesn't
seem that long ago I was just a wee little kid and everybody
seemed so old. Well, now as I'm getting older,
you all don't seem so old anymore. As a kid, you think, oh, well,
they're old. I'm little. I got my whole life
ahead of me. I remember thinking, oh, I can't
wait to be in high school. I've almost been out of high
school 10 years. Crazy. My, how the time flies. And the
scriptures give us so many verses that tell us this. Psalm 103
verse 15 says, As for man, his days are as grass. How often
are you going to mow the grass, cut it down? That's us. His days
are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
I remember I'd go outside and see dandelions all the time.
Pretty little things. You just give it a couple days,
then you go out there and they're white. And you pick it up. No more. That's our life. That's our life. We need to stop
counting on tomorrow. I'm talking to me. I need to
stop counting on tomorrow. Well, if I just had tomorrow,
Boast not thyself of tomorrow. We don't know what today is going
to bring forth. I don't know what today is going to bring
forth. We just don't know. We read in James 4.14, Whereas
you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your
life? I tell you, that's a good question
for us to consider daily. What is my life? I mean really,
when we get down to it, what is my life? It is even a vapor that appeareth
for a little time and then vanisheth away. Here's the reality we must
face. Very soon, this life will be
over. Mine and yours. I know you all, this church particularly,
you've experienced that a lot lately. It's a reality we all
must face. Very soon, this life will be
over. Job asked this question. He said,
Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Are not his
days also like the days of a hireling? A hireling is somebody who was
hired for a specific job for a specific time. And when the
time came, the job was done, it was over. A set time. Our days are appointed. They're
numbered. We have an end. Job knew that. We know it too. We try to suppress
it. We don't want to think about
it. We don't want to face the fact. We need to face the fact.
We need to face the fact. Look with me back at Psalm 39.
You can keep a finger there in Psalm 39. We're going to look
at a few Psalms today. In Psalm 39, look at verse 4. David said, Lord, make me to
know mine end and the measure of my days what it is. We have an end and we need to
consider it. And the end is not the death
of this body. Really, that's just the beginning.
If we're honest, that's just the beginning. Deuteronomy 32.29
says, Oh that they were wise that they understood this that
they would consider their latter end. And that doesn't mean just
think about it every now and then. I mean consider all the
time. We have an end. What is our end? When we die, judgment is coming. There's no escaping it. Hebrews
9.27, And as it is appointed unto men, once to die, but after
this, the judgment. We're all going to be there.
There's no escaping it. It's inevitable. Judgment is
coming. And here's why this is so important,
okay? I didn't read the whole verse here. Psalm 39 verse 4,
but read the whole verse with me. It says, Lord, make me to
know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is, that
I may know how frail I am." It's crucial that we know this
before we go meet God in judgment. This matter of being frail, it
doesn't mean just teach me that it could all end at any moment.
That's not what it's saying. That's not what it's saying at
all. The word frail, this is what that word right here means.
Rejected. Rejected. Lord, teach me to know
judgment is coming, and as I am in my flesh on my own, I'm rejected
before you. This is serious. Everybody thinks
they're accepted. Oh well, I'm going to be accepted.
God says we're rejected. That word frail, it means lacking. Lacking what? Lacking anything
pleasant to God. Lacking anything that God is
going to say, okay, come in. We're rejected and we're lacking.
We need a hope. This is where we've got to start.
We're sin. We need a hope before God. And
I love this right here in Psalm 39. It tells us our hope. Look
at verse 5. Behold, thou hast made my days
as in hand breath. That's just the length of your
hand. It's not much, is it? Thou hast made my days as in
handbreadth, and mine ages as nothing before thee. Verily every
man at his best state is altogether vanity. Surely every man walketh
in a vain show. Surely they are disquieted in
vain. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather
them. And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope. is in Thee. Is your hope in Him? I pray it is. Our time is coming
very, very, very soon. Our hope better be in Him, the
Lord God Almighty. And look back at our text, Proverbs
15. Verse 15. All the days of the afflicted
are evil. I don't have to tell you this.
All believers suffer affliction. I'm sure you more than me, but
we know a thing or two about affliction, don't we? Trouble,
trial, heartache. Our Lord told us plainly, in
the world you shall have tribulation or affliction. We must endure affliction. But I love this. As I study this
verse, here's what afflicted means right
here. Poor and needy. It doesn't mean a bunch of bad
things are happening to you. It means poor and needy. Poor and needy. What does it mean to be poor
and needy? It means to have nothing to offer God. Sorry. This whole world, people think
they've got so much to offer God. And we all do in our flesh. We think we've got all these
wonderful works mustered up. We don't. We have nothing to
offer Him. Nothing. Nowadays especially, there's
kind of a notion that being poor and needy is first, well poor
pitiful me, I didn't deserve to be in this state. But not
only that, I do deserve for things to be given to me. That's not
the way it is before God. We're poor and needy and it's
our own fault and God doesn't owe us anything. We're at His
mercy. Helpless. Hopeless. What that
means is we're in His hands. God's not in ours. The word afflicted here means
wretched. And remember, this is believers. Wretched. Miserable. You ever
feel miserable? You blame your misery on others
or you know where the source is? Despicable. That's a strong word. That's
what we're talking about here. Despicable. Contemptible. You
just open your mouth We condemn ourselves, don't we? The moment
we speak, this tongue is a dangerous weapon. Worthless. This is who this message is for.
This is who the scriptures are for. Those who are worthless,
totally worthless in the sight of God. Afflicted here means
lowly. Everybody wants to talk about
your self-esteem. Gotta have some self-esteem. God's people have the lowest
self-esteem on this earth. Because God's shown us a little
bit of what we are. By His grace, we're ashamed of
ourselves, aren't we? Ashamed of ourselves. If we're
not, we need to be. I mean that. I need to be. I
pray we can put ourselves in place of the afflicted here.
God's people are. God's people are the afflicted.
I want to show you what Jacob had to say about himself. Turn
with me to Genesis 47. Genesis 47. We know Jacob was a child of
God, don't we? Jacob have I loved. God loved Jacob. Genesis 47 verse
7. Jacob was about to die and Joseph,
the Lord had caused Joseph to rule over the land of Egypt,
raised him up. And Joseph brought Jacob in to
talk to Pharaoh and Jacob was going to bless Pharaoh. And here
Jacob is about to sum up his life for us, okay? Genesis 47
verse 7, And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him
before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And
Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? Kind of an odd
question, isn't it? And I love what he said. Verse
9, And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage
are an hundred and thirty years, He could have stopped right there,
couldn't he? That answered the question, how old are you? He
went on to say, few and evil have the days of the years of
my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of
the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. And
Jacob reminded us, he said, this is just a pilgrimage. This isn't
my home. He said, I've been here 130 years, but make sure you
know this. All my life, it's been few days and full of evil. That's it. Now that's honesty
right there. And I pray we can put ourselves
right there in His shoes. Evil. Evil. Jacob didn't go blaming His trouble. on Esau. He didn't go blaming
his trouble on God. He said, whatever I've suffered,
it's my own fault. It's my own doing. I'm a worm. I'm a sinner. God taught him
by his grace, Jacob, you're a sinner. You're nothing. But you're my
peculiar treasure. I chose you unto myself. Oh,
what a blessing. What a blessing. And I ask us,
do we know what we are? Has God in his tender mercy and
loving kindness taught us what we are? Oh, if he had, what more
could we ask for? Where sin abounded. Sin abounded
in Jacob. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Praise God. Praise God. I mentioned Joseph. One thing
we read about Joseph, we read what happened to him. He seemed
to be the victim, didn't he? Don't forget, Joseph, I don't
know of anything bad we read about him, but he was a sinner
just like us. There's one sinless one, that's
Christ. But though evil befell Joseph, we read that his brothers
did evil to him, but God overruled that evil for good. God meant
it for good. We meant it for evil. God meant
it for good. You look at the cross. Did we mean it for evil?
You better believe we did. But praise God, it was according
to His purpose. He meant it for good. Now, the point here is,
though we've sinned against God, I'm telling you what we are,
what we've done, what we do. God always overrules His people's
evil for their own good. And if you know anything about
your evil, that will comfort you more every time you hear it.
And in this matter of afflictions, we know they don't come by accident. We know we deserve them. But
as we endure more and more, we learn we need Him. We need Him. God overrules our evil. God sends us trials and afflictions,
and He does it for a reason. Now I'm going to show you a familiar
text. If you will, turn with me. 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians
4 verse 8. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 8. Paul said, we are troubled or
afflicted on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed
or confused, doubting, but not in despair. That right there, that's our
life, isn't it? Troubled on every side. You hear it said, you're
either coming out of a trial, you're in a trial, or you're
about to go right into another trial. That's the life of the
child of God. He said, we're troubled, but
we're not distressed. We're perplexed. We doubt. Oh, don't we doubt
all the time. Doubt everything. We doubt ourselves,
but we'd be fools to doubt God. You doubt our salvation because
we're looking to ourself. Look to Christ. He said, we doubt. We're perplexed, but we're not
without hope. Not without hope. Praise God.
Verse 9, we're persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but
not destroyed. always bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. Look down at verse 15. He said,
For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might
through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God,
for which cause we faint not. But though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction. which is but for a moment, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while
we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
And I'll just point out in verse 17 where he said our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, The believer is troubled all his
days. I mean, I think there are certainly
people in these pews, I have no doubt, trouble constantly. Trials that never seem to have
an end. And where it says our light affliction
but for a moment, I just told you, our life is just a moment.
So don't let it surprise you when you're afflicted every day.
But praise God this life is short. And praise God our afflictions
are of the Lord. He sends us afflictions to draw
us to Himself. And He said they're light. I'm
not going to tell you what you're going through is light. I know
what some of you are going through. To me, it's not light at all.
Not light at all. But to God, compared to the eternal weight
of glory that He said awaits us, I mean, really, what's the trial?
What's the trial? Jeremiah said, the Lord is my
portion. You know, our portion's not, well, let's see what's going
on. Let's see what my state is. That's
not our portion. He said, the Lord is my portion.
Jeremiah, he wrote the book of Lamentations. That's a sad book. It's lamenting. You're sad. You're grieving. He said, I'm a hope in Him. He's
my portion. The prayer of a believer, I want
to show you a few things in the Psalms here. Look at Psalm 25. As afflicted men and women, this
is our prayer. Psalm 25 verse 15. He said, mine eyes are ever toward
the Lord, For he shall pluck my feet out of the net, turn
thee unto me, and have mercy on me. For I am desolate and
afflicted, I am all alone, and I am afflicted." You know where
we're going to be comforted, don't you? He said, mine eyes
are ever toward the Lord. That's where our eyes need to
be, brethren. Oh, may God turn our eyes upon the Lord Jesus
continually. Look at verse 18 right here.
He said, Look upon mine affliction and my pain, and forgive all
my sins. In verse 17, He said, "...the
troubles of my heart are enlarged, O bring thou me out of my distresses."
Can we not relate to this? Do you not feel like the psalmist
here felt? But God can help us. He alone
can help us. He will deliver us. Look over
a few pages at Psalm 90. Psalm 90 verse 15. Verse 14, He said, O satisfy
us early with thy mercy. Fill us, that's what satisfy
means, satiate, fill us early with thy mercy that we may rejoice
and be glad all our days, all our days which are full of sorrow
and affliction. Verse 15, He said, Make us glad
according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us. in the
years wherein we have seen evil." You notice he said, wherein thou
hast afflicted us? It's true, our troubles are self-inflicted. But God, it's all according to
His will and His purpose. God has afflicted us, brethren,
for our good, and He will satisfy us early. That's our prayer.
Satisfy me early, and He will. My cup runneth over. If it ain't
now, if you belong to Him, it will. Oh, it will. He will cause
us to rejoice and be glad all our days. And here's why. He's given us a continual feast.
I'm excited to get to the good part. Look back with me at our
text. Proverbs 15, 15. All the days of the afflicted
are evil. But he that is of a merry heart
hath a continual feast." I love a good feast. When I first came here, it was
for a conference and y'all know how to put on a good feast. Here in just about a month, Thanksgiving
is coming up and I'm ready to feast. Feasts are so enjoyable
to me. But spiritually speaking, God
calls our life, all our days, a feast, a continual feast. And it says, he that is of a
merry heart has this feast. What does that mean? What does
that mean? Has God not given you a merry
heart? And by that I mean a happy heart, a heart of rejoicing,
a heart that believes God, a heart that trusts in God, that looks
to Christ. Has God not done that for you?
I pray He has. Oh, I pray He has. But that's
not the meaning of a merry heart right here. And this blessed
my heart so much. The words, a merry heart, right
here. Here's what it means. A good
inner man. He that has a good inner man
hath a continual feast. Well, based on what we've just
seen, every man in his best state being nothing but vanity. Well,
that can't be us, can it? Our inner man. Surely that can't be us. Turn
with me to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians 1 verse 26. Paul said, the mystery, which
hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made
manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known what is
the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory." What is that new man,
that merry heart? Christ in you, the hope of glory. See brother, there's nothing
good in us except Christ in us. And in and of ourselves, this
sinful flesh that we have, we're like the children of Israel.
We're the least merry people around. So we just complain and
doubt and sin and cry. Praise God for the inner man.
Praise God for Christ in you, the hope of glory. In verse 28 right there, He said,
whom we preach. We preach Christ warning every
man, teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every
man perfect in Christ Jesus. The only way we're going to stand
before God accepted, perfect. We've got to be perfect. And
the only way we're going to stand before God that way is in Christ.
If Christ is in us, and if we're in Him, it says He chose us in
Him. We must be in Him, and He must be in us. All the days of
the afflicted are evil, but he that has Christ in him hath a
continual feast." A never-ending feast. What was it you're struggling
with again? What was it you're going through
again? Child of God, Christ is in you. Christ is in you. What's the affliction? What's
the trial? Christ is in you. Feast on Him. Believe on Him. Trust in Him.
Rest in Him. Come to Him. Cling to Him. Are
you afflicted? Consider the affliction He endured
for you. I want to show you this. Turn
to Lamentations chapter 1. Lamentations 1, verse 12. Now this is Christ at the cross. Lamentations 1, verse 12. Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by, behold, and see if there be any sorrow
like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord
hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger." I pray
that when we consider the cross, when we behold the cross, I pray
this is not us, nothing to us. Oh, my soul, this is everything
to me. What happened at the cross? Christ was afflicted. He bore
our sin. He bore our affliction. He suffered
our death that we deserved, that we earned. He suffered the just for the
unjust. Christ is perfect. He never sinned
one time. And yet, we've just read, there
was never any sorrow like unto His sorrow. He took it upon Himself,
made Himself to be what we are. And praise God, as a result,
He made us to be what He is. My soul. He cried, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? And I can't imagine. We just
can't. We can't imagine, and yet we
live our lives sinfully thinking, why have you forsaken me? Child
of God, Christ was forsaken so that you won't be. Ever. Don't we often feel like that?
Like He's forsaken us? We read the word desolate a minute
ago. It means alone. I just feel so alone. I just
feel so lonely. He said, I'm with you always.
He said, I'll never leave you or forsake you. That's why He
went to the cross, brother. He went to prepare a place for
us. He's going to receive us, bring us to Himself, and we'll
be with Him forever. Turn over just a page to Lamentations
3 verse 1. This is Christ again. He said,
I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one who truly knows anything about affliction. I see some of you who are afflicted,
who are nodding your head. You know it to be so. I know
our afflictions are real. I know what you're going through
is real. I pray for you. I beg on your behalf to God to
have mercy, be gracious, bring comfort. But in light of Christ,
in light of His affliction that He took upon Himself, oh how
light our afflictions are. And I pray God will teach me
this. I know life's only going to get harder. I pray God will
teach me this. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Consider Him.
Father, the Apostle Paul, God gave him that thorn in the flesh
and He begged him three times to take it away. And here's what
God said to him. He said, My grace is sufficient
for thee. Not taking the thorn away. Whatever you're going through,
God may not take it away. But we know this, His grace is
sufficient for you. He said, My strength is made
perfect in weakness. You feel weak? Don't trust in yourself. Look
to Him. Christ is our strength. And His
strength is so perfectly manifested in our weakness, isn't it? And
I love Paul's response. He didn't beg a fourth time,
Lord take it away. He said, Most gladly, therefore, will I rather
glory in my infirmities. He's like, you know what, I'm
going to be thankful for that thorn. I'm going to glory in my infirmities
for this reason, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He said, I'm going to thank God
for the trial, and I'm going to look to Christ. Oh, we'd be
wise to learn from that, brethren. Back in our text one more time. All the days of the afflicted
are evil, but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast."
Look at verse 16. It says, "...better is little
with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith."
How often do we look around us and we envy people? You read
in the Scripture about the prosperity of the wicked. I'll tell you
this, it doesn't matter what a person has in this life if
they don't have Christ. I'll take the merry heart over great
treasure any day. Christ in us, the fear of the Lord, the beginning
of wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. Why are we here to worship God?
God has given us, put in us the fear of the Lord. We have Christ. We don't lack anything. Verse
17 right there says, Better is a dinner of herbs where love
is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. It's better to have
nothing. I mean nothing in this life and
the love of God in Christ as opposed to all you could want.
All this flesh desires, take the world but give me the Lord
Jesus Christ. All this silver and gold is nothing,
nothing compared to Him. Precious blood of Christ. And
I pray God won't let us forget that. I need to be reminded of
this. I know my life is so easy compared
to most of you. Really, I believe that. But these
verses mean something to me too. We need Christ. We've come here
to worship Him. We've come here to feast. I mentioned
the conference. The feast is in the messages.
It's in the worship. It's in the fellowship. That's
the kind of feast I'm interested in. Are you? The Lord Jesus,
He said this, He said, My meat is to do the will of Him that
sent Me and finish His work. You know what our meat is? Our
meat and our drink is to rest in Him and His finished work.
What do I have to do? Rest. Look to Christ. Sit back and do nothing. Rejoice
and be glad. Look to Him. In light of a feast, our continual
feast, our Lord said, Come. He prepared a supper. He said,
Come. For all things are now ready. I say the same thing. Come. All
things are now ready. Don't move a muscle. Come. The table is set. What's for
dinner? Everything. Are you sure? Everything you could
possibly want. Everything. Did you salt it? Yep. Salted
everything. These are some of my favorite
words. Dig in. Dig in. It's like when the Lord
fed the multitude and He took, what was it, two little fish
some five loaves of bread. He said he fed over 5,000. And
at the end of that, he told his disciples, he said, you go take
up the fragments that remain. He said they gathered up 12 baskets
full. One for each disciple. One for each tribe of Israel.
One for all God's people. You come, all things are ready.
Sit down. Dig in. Eat all you want. Don't forget
dessert. Eat all you want. There will be an infinite number
of food left over. Have all you want. Here's my advice to us, alright?
Let's not forget to give thanks for this feast. I know the trials are real. Let's
not forget to give thanks. That's part of the feast. Let's
give thanks for it. Our Lord said this, He said,
I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Blessed
are they that do hunger and thirst after Him. Soon we're going to
sit down at a supper, the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's going
to be an eternal feast, brethren. There's going to be no end to
that feast. One day. Eternity is just one day. There's going to be no affliction,
no more sorrow, no more tears, no more sin, no more pain. Perfect
peace and rest. Here's what it's going to be.
It's going to be a merry heart and a continual feast forever
and ever. Amen. Thank you, Brother Cody. I'm
looking forward to that feast, aren't you? We had a feast today. Had a feast today. Let's stand. Sing Amazing Grace, how sweet
the sound.