When we look at this psalm, it
comes out in threes, comes out in triplets, three things to
a verse, three things. It comes out, there's five points
in the message, and there's, all deals with threes. Threefold, I should say. You
know, the wise man said a threefold core is not easily broken. And
we have threefold confession, threefold praise, threefold acknowledgment,
threefold thanksgiving, threefold lots of ways. But let's just
go at it right away. Look here in the first line. It says, The Lord is my light
and my salvation. Who shall I fear? The Lord is
my strength, the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?"
Here's the first. Here's the first three in this
first verse. The Lord is my light. The Lord
is my light. You know, beloved, the only people
in the world who's interested in light is people who don't
want to be left in the dark. You know, that's what our Lord
Jesus said. He said, if a man walk in the day, He sees the
light, and there's not occasion of stumbling in Him. But if He
walks in the night, then He stumbles. There's occasion of stumbling
in Him. Now, you keep this, and let's look at this over in I
John chapter 1 and verse 4. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ
said, I am the light of the world. And I know this, that He is my
light. I know, and you know, our Lord Jesus is the light.
Now, when we was in darkness until God shined that light,
I not only have Him as my light, the Lord is my light. I need Him to be my light. I
want Him to be my light. I don't want to be left in darkness.
I don't want to be walking in darkness. Our Lord said, if the
light is in the darkness, how great is that darkness. And that's
why he said, I'm the light of life. And if a man follows me,
he shall not walk in darkness. None occasional stumbling in
him. And look here at 1 John 1 and verse 4. These things write
we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message
which we have heard of him, that God is light. God is light. How can a person say God is light
and continue walking in darkness? And the darkness of sin, the
darkness of ignorance, the darkness of error, the darkness of rebellion,
the darkness of what the Scriptures have to say about the Lord Jesus
Christ. And oh, listen, it goes on to
say, if we say that we have fellowship with Him, communion with Him,
and we walk in darkness, if we're not walking, if the Lord's not
our light, then we lie and do not the truth. But listen to
it, if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, We have
fellowship, one with another, and the bloodiest Son, Jesus
Christ, cleanses us from all sins. And if we confess our sins,
and this is why we know we're walking in the light. We understand
that we need Christ to cleanse us from all of our sins, and
He did cleanse us from them. And if we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, truth not in us. Now man is in the light,
he knows that he's got sin. He's not deceived in himself.
He knows that there's no hope in himself. Now watch this. And
if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The only
person who's going to confess their sins is the person who
has Christ as their light. Nobody else is going to do it.
They ain't going to do it. And that's why he says, you know,
that's why Paul said he had delivered us from darkness and translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son. We manifest Him, save us
from darkness, and we manifest His light in His blessed grace. And oh, let me show you another
back over here. So the Lord is my light. Oh,
what it would be like to be left in the darkness. I thought of
that this morning. Oh, my Lord, sitting down on
that plane, leaving there last night. I thought, boy, wouldn't
it be awful. to be in darkness and be on that
plane, but that plane didn't make it. I started praying, Lord,
this universe may be our last. We may be our last twelve hours,
our last five hours, our last hour. This thing may go down
right over the Pacific Ocean. And I said, Lord, I don't want
to be in darkness. I don't want to leave. I don't want to. I
want to know you. I want to know that I know if
this thing goes down, I know you. And I just calm, peace,
calm. Tears got in my eyes thinking
that I know the Lord and if this thing goes down, I've got it.
I'm not going to go into darkness. I'm going into light. Oh, what
a wonderful thing. What a wonderful thing to know.
And look what he goes on to say here. And look what he says.
The Lord is my salvation. The Lord is my light and my salvation. If He's your light, He's your
salvation. And that's another thing. You
confess to people, you give people who deserve, I mean, light as
people who understood what it was to be in darkness. You don't
want to be in darkness anymore. And the only people who confess
the Lord is their salvation is people who say, we need saving.
Nobody do even need salvation unless they need to be saved.
Then I'll tell you, beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ is our
salvation from Alpha to Omega. We were so lost, so sinful, so
blinded, so helpless, so in desperate condition that only the Lord
Himself could save us. Who else could save us? Who else
could keep us safe? Who else could be our salvation?
He didn't say, the Lord, I want it to be my salvation. I need
Him. He said, He is my salvation. I mean, we have no salvation
unless the Lord has salvation. That's why the Lord told a group
of Pharisees one day, except you believe I'm He, you'll die
in your sins. And, oh, I come to seek and to
save. And then look what he goes on
to say here, not only that, but the Lord is my light, my salvation,
of whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life. Oh my. You know a lot of preachers,
they preach this. The Lord, what He does is that He'll use the
strength you have and enable you to overcome your weaknesses.
So the one thing wrong with that, that's a lie hashed out of hell.
We ain't got no strength. If we had any strength, we wouldn't
have to come to Him. That's why Paul said, you know,
he said, Lord, he said, He said, I could be such a better Christian,
I could be such a better preacher, I could be such a better apostle,
if I didn't have all this trouble in my flesh. You know what our
Lord said to him? He said, my strength is made
perfect when you're absolutely nothing. When you have no strength,
when you are weak, then that's when my strength is perfect.
And I'll tell you what, beloved, I've nothing. If you had to point
to a strength, I'm talking about spiritual strength. I know we
all got abilities and things in nature. But I tell you something,
when we're talking about this business of salvation, talking
about this business of Christ, how in the world can anybody
think for a moment that they have any strength to come to
the Lord? Any strength to stand on their
own? Any strength to make it through, to call on the Lord?
Everything we got, we got to get from Him. And that's why
Paul said we go from strength to strength. We go in the strength
of the Lord. We can never go in the strength
of this flesh. We falter, we fail, we stumble. Look what he said over here in
Psalm 33 with me, just a moment, verse 16. Oh, the Lord is the strength,
He's the light, He's my salvation and the strength of my life. the strength of my life. Lord,
it's your day. Give us this your day. Everything
about it belongs to you. I belong to you. You hold my
breath in your very hands. Look what he said in verse 16.
There is no king saved by the multitude of an host. A mighty
man is not delivered by much strength. A horse is a vain thing
for safety, neither shall he deliver anything by his great
strength. But now look over in Psalm 46
and verse 1. So I tell you what, what man's
strength gonna do for you. Look in Psalm 46 and verse 1.
Listen to this. God is our refuge and strength. God is our refuge and strength. And listen to this, a very present
help in trouble. Oh, and that's why David said
back over here in 27th Psalm, he said, Of whom shall I be afraid?
If the Lord is my light, the Lord is my salvation, the Lord
is my strength, for whom shall I be afraid? And now look down
in verse 4. Oh, it's threefold confession. Oh,
everything we have is from the Lord. Then look here, here's
a threefold desire. One thing, if I desire to 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 acquire His temple." Oh, look what he says here. And the first thing he says,
there's three things here. First of all, he wants to dwell
in the house of the Lord. He wants to dwell there. To dwell
is to abide there. I want to abide. To dwell in
the house of the Lord is to abide with Him. It's an expression
of affection for the Lord Himself. And when we say we want to abide
in the house of the Lord, we want to dwell in the house of
the Lord, where God is, that's where we want to be. We want
to dwell there. We want to live there. We want
to abide wherever He's at. That's where we want to abide
at. You remember when our Lord Jesus Christ His disciples, when
he called Peter, James, and John, and they were falling, he says,
Master, where do you dwell? Where do you live at? He says,
come and see. They wanted to know where he
was, wanted to know where he lived. They wanted to know where
he dwelled at. So when they got to his house, that's where they
wanted to stay. They didn't want to go back to their house. They
wanted to stay where he was. And you remember when he was
on the road to Emmaus, and the scripture says that when he walked
with those two disciples, and they started going on, and the
Lord just kept on walking, they stopped and said, wait, wait,
wait, don't go. Abide with us. Oh, we want wherever
the Lord is, that's where we want to be. Abide with us. And
that's why he says, you know, the psalmist said in Psalm 23
and six, he said, we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
abide with him. Huh? To dwell in the house of
the Lord? To be there with him to God's
house? No wonder David said, I was glad
when they said unto me, let us go unto the house of the Lord.
That's where God's at. Not in a building. He's with
the people, the Lord's people meet together. It's the dwelling
place of the Lord Himself. And then look at the second desire.
He first was, he wanted to dwell in the house of the Lord. Verse
4, he said, the second desire was this, to behold the beauty
of the Lord. I want to get there. When I get
there, I want to see the Lord. I want to see His beauty. If
you were to try to describe the Lord Jesus Christ, how would
you describe Him? How do you describe the Lord
Jesus Christ? How do you describe Him? Everything about Him. glorious,
beautiful. Look how beautiful His love is,
the glory of His love, the beauty of His love. We have to have
a motive to love somebody. We have to have something to
entice us. God's love was unenticed. God's love was unsought. And
look at the people that the love of God, that Christ loves. The
worst, the miserable, the most wretched of all. And oh, how
beautiful is His grace! How beautiful is His mercy! How
beautiful is His holiness! How beautiful is His righteousness!
How beautiful is His patience! How beautiful is His longsuffering!
How beautiful is His compassion! And I want to see the Lord in
His beauty, David said. I want to see the King in His
glory. I want to see everything about
our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Mary sat down at His
feet and said she chose that good part. She sat down at His
feet to learn of Him. And I tell you what, the longer
you know Him, the more you know about Him, the more glorious
He is. The more beauty He has about
Him. And He says, I want to dwell in the house of the Lord. I want
to behold the beauty of the Lord when I get there. And look what
else He says about it. And He says to inquire in the
temple of the Lord. inquire. I want to go, I want
to see, and I want to ask some questions. I want to ask some
questions. Oh, my. I tell you what, I'm
not going to ask questions. I'm not going to go walk in the
Council of the Ungodly. Well, where in the world am I
going to inquire? And when we get there, inquire in His temple?
We're going to ask Him? Oh, Lord, We're going to ask
Him. We know how we inquire of Him
right now. We inquire of Him in His word.
Inquire of Him. Lord, what do you got to say?
Any question that you have, you can find it in His word. I'm
telling you, any question you have at all, you can find the
answer of it in His blessed word. And we inquire in our hearts. We inquire for understanding,
we inquire for wisdom, we inquire for one another, but, boy, to
go into the temple of the Lord and to ask questions, to inquire
in the temple of the Lord. Oh, what a blessed thing. And
let me give you another one. Threefold acknowledgment, confession,
threefold desire. Look here, threefold privilege.
Down here in verse five. Threefold privilege. For in the
time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion, and the secret
of his tabernacle shall he hide me, he shall set me upon a rock."
Now listen to this, what a privilege. He says, he shall hide me in
his pavilion. To be hidden in the pavilion, that means to be covered up by
the Lord, to hedge us in, to protect us. to have a pavilion
over us, a pavilion around us, and Christ to hide us, God to
hide us in His pavilion. And look what it says when He
hides us in His pavilion. In the time of trouble. Oh, my. I'm going to hide you? You're
in trouble? I've got a place to hide you.
I've got a place to hide you where nothing can bother you.
I've got a place to put you. And all were protected by His
gracious providence. All things worked together for
good to them that loved God and that called according to His
purpose. Do you know how many times that somebody, I saw this
the other day, maybe some of y'all saw it, about people that
were on their way to the Twin Towers that day that the plane
flew into it, that kept them from getting there. Some little
simple act that kept them. Stopped to get a cup of coffee.
have to go back and change the tire, and they did not get to
the tire that day. Just by being hindered one time,
just by making the wrong turn, just by stopping to do one thing,
they was prevented from getting on that. God's providence deals
to the mightiest details of our lives. If He counts the numbers
of the hairs of our head, do you think that He is going to
let us and not protect us and keep us and hide us in His purveying
in the day of trouble? And then look what else it says
about hiding in His purveying, in the time of trouble. And we
don't even know that, you know, He says trouble's coming, I'll
put you in here. And then look what it says here,
hide me not only that, but He said He had hid us in the secret
of His tabernacle. You know, she said, secret of
His tabernacle. You know why I heard that? We
know the secret. The world don't know it. The
world don't know it. Hide me in the secret of His
tabernacle. And you know what the tabernacle
is? That was the place where God specially had His presence. That's where the Shekinah glory
of God was. That's where the sacrifices were
offered. That's where the priest entered into. That's where the
blood was offered on the mercy seat. That's where God came down
in His Shekinah glory, and the natural man was not... All he
saw was a tent. All he saw was a bunch of people
dressed up, gathered around a tent, and they didn't see anything
about it, no beauty about it. But he says, He hid us in the
secret of His tabernacle. And Colossians, Paul says this,
that God hid us with Christ in God. We're hidden, hidden there
in His secret place. Look with me in Revelation 21
just a minute. Keep Psalm 27. Look here in Revelation
21. Oh, talking about hiding us in
the secret of His tabernacle. The world don't know nothing
about this. They don't know a thing about it,
but boy, we know the secret. We know where that place is at.
God hid us with Christ in God. Look what he says here. I saw
a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And
thy John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And
I heard a great voice out of heaven say, Behold, the tabernacle
of God is with men." Wait a minute. You mean tabernacle of God with
men? Like you and me? And listen to
this, "...and he'll dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." Oh,
man. And that's that secret tabernacle
he's gonna put us in. Put us in Christ. Hide us in
Christ. And then look back over in that
text just a minute. Look what else it says about
him. Not only is he gonna hide me in his pavilion in the time
of trouble, secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. Then he shall
set me upon a rock. Verse five, set me on a rock.
Now the average preacher said, now there's a rock, climb up
and get up the best way you can. That's not what I said. You know
what he said here? He said us. He said us. Our house is built on a rock,
not on sinking sand. And he said us on this rock.
We didn't climb up to it. And Isaiah said he's that rock
in a weary land. Have you ever been real, really,
and find a rock and in the shade, sit down on a rock and just relax
and just enjoy it, you know? And that's what he said here.
So you're going through this old, dry and desolate place,
and all of a sudden there's this rock in this weary land. It's
got a big ol' long shatter casting off of it. And you sit down in
that shatter, and that's what he's talking about. And I tell
you, we may move around on the rock. I know we're snorkeling
over there, and there's these big rocks, and I was going across
these rocks and skinned my legs up and everything, going across
them rocks, trying to get across them rocks. I may slide all over
the rock, but I ain't gonna get off of it, because I never put
myself on it. But I tell you what, we'll never fall off the
rock, and the rock will never fall on us. Do you know what
our Lord Jesus Christ said? And you will accept yourself
when you get home. Matthew 21, 44 says this. He said, "...whosoever
shall fall upon this rock..." This is the rock which the builders
have rejected and the Father has sent, the cornerstone. He said, "...whosoever shall
fall upon this rock shall be broken in pieces, but whosoever
this rock shall fall on, it will grind him to power." You know
what that means? That if we fall on the rock,
we'll be broken. We fall ourselves on Christ,
we'll be broken, and we'll have a salvation. But if He comes
down hard on us, you ain't got no hope whatsoever. He's gonna
crush you and grind you and bring you to nothing. And I tell you
what, I'm gonna fall on Him. And when you fall on a rock,
you get broke up. But I tell you what, I'm going
to throw myself on Christ the Rock, and that's what he's talking
about. Let me show you. I know I'm taking
too long, but look here in Isaiah 61 with me, just a moment. Isaiah 61. Oh, man, talking about
this rock. Oh, look what he says. This is my history. No, Psalm 61. What am I doing
in Isaiah 61? Oh boy, bless my heart. I caught
myself on that one. I know that didn't make sense.
When I was looking at 61, it didn't make sense to deal with
this rock. I know that I ain't that far gone yet. Now, Psalm
61. Hear my cry, O God, attend unto
my prayer. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto Thee when my heart is overwhelmed. Listen to it.
Lead me to that rock that is higher than I, for Thou hast
been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. Take me
to that rock. Hide me in it. Put me in that
rock. Take me there. Alright, let me
give you another one real quick here. Down over here in verse
eight. Three-fold assurance here. Three-fold
assurance. I was looking just earlier today,
and I thought, Lord, what a blessing here. When Thou said, Seek 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 that has been my help. Believe
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." Here's
threefold assurance. We have the assurance of his
face. Look what he says there in verse eight. When you said,
Seek my face, my heart said, Lord, thy face I will seek. Now, what this is saying is this
is the same thing as the effectual call. God says, Seek my face,
and the heart answer said, I'm going to seek your face. He officially
called us. Now, how in the world can we
know that we're, you know, Paul, or Simon Peter says, make your
calling and election sure. How can you know that you're
one of God's elect? Did he call you? Zacchaeus was
his upper tree. He had no idea he was God's elect
until the Lord said, come out of that tree. Saul in Nautarsus
had no idea he was God's elect until the Lord put him in the
dust on the Damascus road. Bartimaeus had no idea that he
was one of God's elect until Christ says, bring him here,
the Lord calls me. And that's how we know our election,
by our calling. Did the Lord bring you into the
place where he said, in your heart, seek my face? And when
he calls you, you can't help but seek his face. And that's
what he's talking about. Lord, I seek your face. You call
on me and I'm looking to you. He said, seek me, and I seek
you. We seek his face. And we see His glory in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see His face in His Word.
See His face in His providence. And oh, bless His holy name.
And I tell you, the pure in heart shall see God. And I tell you,
we know that we are with God's elect. We know we've been called
because the Lord says, seek ye my face. And when He says that,
you're going to seek His face from that day on. You're going
to do it. That's the first assurance. Look
at the second one. We have the assurance of His
fellowship. Look down in the middle of verse 9. He says, Thou hast been my help.
Thou hast been my help. I took care of your fellowship
with you. He says, Thou hast been my help.
Believe me not. Ain't that what He says? Thou
hast been my help. Believe me not. Neither forsake me. You know what Hebrews 13.5 says? He said, I'll never, never, never,
never, no, never leave thee nor forsake thee. So I'll lay boldly
say, the Lord is my helper, and I shall not fear what man shall
say unto me. Five negative no's there. Five times he says, I'll never,
never, never, no, never leave thee nor forsake thee. Tom and
Peter pursued him, but Christ never pursued Tom and Peter.
Never do it. And that's enough. And he's been
his help, and he's been our help, and you'll leave me not. If the
Lord could leave somebody, he'd have left me long, long ago.
He'd have left me long ago. And then look what else he says
here, in verse 10. We not only have assurance of
his of his face. Seek my face, and, O Lord, I'll
seek it. So we have the assurance of his
face, his fellowship. You've been my help, and you
won't never leave me. In his favor, look at his grace.
Verse 10, When my father and my mother forsake me, then the
Lord will take me out. Here's a couple instances in
the New Testament, even in the Old. when fathers and mothers forsook
their child. That infant cast out in the field,
forsaken of his mother and father. That blind man that the Lord
gave sight to in John 9, his mother and father both says,
prayed the Jews go and put him out of the sight of God. He's
a mage, ask him. And he says, when my father and
my mother forsake me, you know who will take me up? The Lord
Jesus will take me to be His. Huh? Oh, He is faithful. He finds His lost sheep when
they're so alone, so helpless, so wretchedly lost, and He finds
them and He takes them out. Our Lord Jesus told His disciples,
I'm going away, but He says, you know what? I'm not going
to leave you as orphans. I won't leave you as orphans.
You'll never be an orphan as long as you belong to Me. Never
be an orphan. And then let me give you this
one real quick. I know you're tired and it's hot in here. Look
down at verse 11, 12. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and
lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. Deliver me not
over to the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen
up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. There's a threefold
prayer. Oh, it's a prayer for us. And
this one, the first prayer is this, teach me thy way. Teach
me thy way. We sang that song. Teach me,
O Lord. Teach me thy way. Love that hymn. Love that song. For teaching. Teach me, Lord. David, so many
times, he said throughout the songs, teach me. Teach me. Teach me thy way. Teach us how
you save sinners. Teach us ourselves. Teach us
some things about ourselves. Teach us some things about yourself.
Teach us some things from your Word. Teach us how to study your
Word. Teach us to emulate our Lord Jesus Christ. Teach us patience. Teach us grace. Teach us love. Teach us mercy. Teach us kindness. Teach us generosity. And, oh my, teach us your ways. Teach us your ways. Take us in
hand, and whatever your ways are, teach us your ways. Don't
let us learn our ways. Teach us your ways. And then
look what else he says here. And then he asks for guidance.
my way, and look what else he said, lead me in a plain path
because of my enemies. I tell you what, there's got
to be a plain path for us to go in and see. There has to be
a plain path. It must be made plain because
we're so dumb. Oh, make your path, lead us in
a plain path. You know, You know how cattle
are. They'll go the same way, the
same way until they've got a ditch dug that deep. Just keep going
the same way, the same way. And it's easy to follow where
they're going because you can go right there. The path is plain.
You can see it. They've worn ditches out going
the same way. That's why we need the Godly. He had to make it
so plain to us that we could not get lost on the path. Because
if there's a way to get off the path, we'd find a way, wouldn't
we? That's why in Bloomberg's progress, they had a by-path
matter. And that's what it was. It was
a by-path. And this fellow thought, well, this will be a shortcut.
Well, he found out it wasn't much of a shortcut. He got off
over there, and he got in real trouble. And boy, he wanted to
get back over here. And I tell you what, Lord made
the path plain. That's a word in one of our hymns,
make the path plain. And you see, that's why we walk
by faith and not by sight. And then look what he says, because
of thine enemies. We need to walk in plain paths,
not walk a confusing way. God's enemies are our enemies.
We need to walk plainly, straightly, strictly. Give none occasion
to the adversary to ever speak reposefully about us. God helpin'
us. And then look what else he says.
There in verse 12. A three-fold prayer. Lord, teach
me, lead me, and deliver me. Now listen to this. Not over
to the will of mine enemies. Oh my. Don't deliver me over
to the will of my enemies. Oh, my. You know what? Job had
a conversation. God had a conversation with Satan
over Job. God delivered Job over into Satan's
hands. Don't deliver me into his hands.
Please don't do that. Don't deliver my flesh to the
will of the flesh like you did Judas for thirty pieces of silver. Don't let the the will of the world. Deliver
me from mine enemies, the will of the world, like you did Demas.
You put the world in Demas, and he persecuted you. Deliver me
from this evil of Diotypes, who loves to have the preeminence.
Oh, my. And deliver me from my will.
Oh, what a great enemy my old will is. Deliver us, why he says,
deliver us from mine enemies. And look what he says here, ìSo
false witnesses have risen up against me such as breathe out
cruelty.î Thereís always somebody that loves to see us fall, and
loves to see us falter, and loves to see us bring reproach on Christ. And then let me give you a threefold
encouragement, and Iím through. Look what he says there in verse
thirteen and fourteen, ìI had fainted.î 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." Oh, what an encouragement. He
said, I had faith unless I had believed. You know what it is to faint.
You know, you just lose all consciousness, lose all strength. Lose all ability
to go on. And he said, that's what I'd
have happened. And I just lost all ability, all sense, all ability
to go on. And I would have stopped, would
have faltered, would have failed had I not believed. Had I not
believed. Believed what? What God said. Abraham faltered. Had Ishmael. I have fainted lest I believe
to see the goodness of the Lord. And note what else he said. And
look what he says now. I have fainted lest I have believed. To believe what? To see the goodness
of the Lord. We're going to see the goodness
of the Lord. Just wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, and you'll
see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And
then he says in verse 14, wait, Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. Be still. Wait with expectation. Wait. And I've said this time
and time and time again. Waiting on the Lord. Nobody's
more impatient than me. If you go someplace to eat, and
if you've got to wait 15, 20 minutes, I'll go to the house
and eat a bologna sandwich. I just can't take it. I just
can't do that. I'm just not made that way. And
sometimes you can get in situations where you have to. And if you've
got good company, just try to relax and enjoy. But I tell you,
but to wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. The Lord's
going to come. The Lord's going to... You know,
I want this to happen. I want that to happen. I want
my grandsons to be believers. I want them to come and hear
the gospel. But I have to wait on the Lord. I want strength,
but I have to wait on the Lord. I want messages, but I have to
wait on the Lord. You want salvation, you have
to wait on the Lord. You want your pain to go away,
you have to wait on the Lord. You want your heartache to go
away, you have to wait on the Lord. You want your health to improve,
you're going to have to wait on the Lord. You're going to have to wait
on the Lord. Let me show you this in Psalm 62. I'm about done. I haven't preached in a week,
so I, you know, it's a week and a half, so I'm... Psalm 62, look
what he said here in verse one. Truly, truly my soul waiteth
upon God before David, for from him cometh my salvation. I'm awake, I'm in trouble, I
need saving. From this thing, that thing,
and another thing. I'm going to wait. It'll come.
Before we get there. It'll come. Look what else he
said down in verse 5. My soul. Now he's talking to
himself now. And he's talking about his soul.
My soul, wait thou only upon God. For my expectation is from
Him. I don't expect nothing from the
flesh. Don't expect nothing from the world, but I expect something
from Him. It may come through you, but
it's going to come. And then look back over in our
text, and I'm through. Oh, threefold encouragement.
And then look what He said in verse 14. Wait on the Lord and
be of good courage. Oh, listen. Be of good courage,
for He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Send His strength in your heart.
Just wait. He'll make you strong. He'll
make you strong to wait on Him, to be patient, to look at Him,
trust Him, to bless Him.