Preserve me, O God, for in Thee
do I put my trust. O my soul, thou hast said unto
the Lord, Thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to
Thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the
excellent, in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall
be multiplied that hasten after another God. Their drink-offerings
of blood will I not offer. nor take up their names into
my lips. The Lord is a portion of my inheritance
and of my cup. Thou maintainest my lot. The
lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly
heritage. I will bless the Lord who hath
given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in
the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before
me. Because He is at my right hand,
I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, my
glory rejoices, my flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou
wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine
Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life, and Thy presence is fulness of joy. At Thy right hand there
are pleasures forevermore. Our Lord Jesus, our blessed,
blessed Master, Savior of our souls, Lord, we are blessed again
by You. Your goodness extends to us,
though ours don't extend to You. But Your goodness extends to
us, and You've blessed us and give us this time to worship
and meet together with You. Lord, I thank you for your dear,
dear saints. Oh, God, they're the excellence
of the earth, truly the excellence of the earth. And our Father,
I thank you for the trials, the burdens, the heartaches that
you send our way because you said in your Word, it's good
for us to be afflicted. And Lord Jesus, I thank you for
Daryl and Joyce how they've been such a blessing, and I thank
you, Lord, that you're strengthening them and strengthening her and
encouraging her. I thank you for Brother Bill
and what you've done for him, how you've met his needs and
how you've met our needs for how you strengthen Mary. Lord,
we're so thankful. We have more to be. We're like
the psalmist. We're like David when he said,
Lord, how shall I reckon up your mercies in order, your blessings?
And Lord, what can I say that the Lord daily loads us with
benefits. So Lord, bring glory to Yourself
in this service tonight. Honor Your blessed Son. Enable
me to speak. Again, without fail, we want
to mention our children lost, hopelessly lost, our grandchildren
hopelessly lost. We ask for Thy mercies and Thy
preserving power to bring them to faith in Christ. In His holy
name we pray. Amen. David, do you think David knew
that he was prophesying of the Lord Jesus Christ when he wrote
this psalm? Do you think that how many prophets
prophesied of something that they didn't understand what they
were saying? They didn't know the meaning of it. They were
just being moved by the Holy Ghost, like as the Spirit of
God moved them to speak in their vocabulary, in their language,
in their personality. But to show you that this is
who David is talking about, look in Acts chapter 2, just a moment.
Let me show you what I mean in Acts chapter 2. I mean, you think Isaiah, when
he was prophesying in Isaiah 53, that he knew what he was
saying, that the man he was talking about, what would actually happen,
and who he was talking about. So there's many, many things. And look what Peter says here
on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2.25. For David speaketh concerning
him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on
my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my
heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh
shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. Thou
hast made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full
of joy with thy countenance." Men and brethren, let me freely
speak to you of this patriarch David, that he is dead, buried,
and his sepulchre is with us to these days. Therefore, being a prophet, and
knowing that God hath sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit
of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ
to sit on his throne, he seeing this before spake of the resurrection
of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his
flesh saw corruption. He quoted over half of this psalm
in that sermon right there. Quoted half of it. He said, David
speaks on this line. This is what David was talking
about. Now, let's look back over here together in this psalm.
Now, also remember this, that we're so united with Christ and
our union with Christ and joined to our Lord Jesus Christ, that
what He did, we did in it. So we can apply this even to
ourselves as we have spoken about our Lord Jesus Christ. Because
we so identified with Him. And everything He did, we're
so one with Him. And He starts out by saying this,
Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust. Preserve me,
save me, guard me. That's what He means. Just like
a bodyguard surrounds a king. He says, preserve me. Encompass
me round about, keep me, save me. And as our Lord Jesus Christ,
as a man, as a man, He cast Himself on God, a perfect man, a sinless
man. But yet He cast Himself on the
Lord. He cast Himself on God Almighty.
And He, one of the great names of God Himself is that He's the
preserver of men. Job said, Thou preserver of men,
thou wilt keep me. And our Lord Jesus Christ was
preserved of God for a particular office, for a particular deed,
for a particular people. And He was preserved from the
devil. In fact, He said one time, He
said, Lord, save me from this hour. He said, save me from this
hour. So He says, guard me, keep me
from this hour. But let me show you something
in Isaiah. Let's look in Isaiah 49, talking about our Lord Jesus
Christ, how the Father preserves Him and keeps Him, and we're
one with Him. You see, Paul, the Jews said we're preserved
in Christ Jesus. He was preserved, the elect were
preserved in Him. Look what he said here in Isaiah
49, 7 and 8. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer
of Israel. and His Holy One, to whom man
despises, talking about Christ, to Him whom the nation abhorreth,
to a servant of rulers, king shall see and arise, princes
all shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful, and
the Holy One of Israel, and He shall choose thee. Now thus saith
the Lord in an acceptable time, Have I heard thee in the day
of salvation? What's this? I helped you. Now listen to what
else He said about it. I will preserve thee. Talking
about a son of God, talking about his own blessed son. I will preserve
thee and give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the
earth to cause to inhabit the desolate places. So God said,
I'll preserve you. I'll keep you. I'll guard you.
I'll protect you. And I'll do it. And that's what
God always has done. I mean, the nations abhorred
Christ, and they still abhor Christ. Men still abhor Christ. They despise Him. But just as
He was preserved, God's elect were preserved in Him. And I'll
tell you something, beloved, that's why our Lord Jesus Christ,
because He was preserved, He prayed for us and said, Father,
keep to Thy name those that Thou hast given to Me. I've kept them,
and not one of them has been lost. So He kept us. God preserved
Him and preserved us in Him. And then look what else He says
about it here. He says, Preserve me, O God. O God. And this is Christ speaking
now. O God. I didn't know this until
just recently in preparing for this message. You know, I know
some of the names of God and some of the titles that He has,
but here He says this word God here means El. E-L. And everywhere you find El at
the end of a word or El before another word is God. Like Daniel
and Ezekiel and El Shaddai. But anyway, this L means omnipotent
God. It means God our help. And our
Lord Jesus Christ said, Oh God, the name of omnipotent God, the
helper of His people. That's what that word L means.
Omnipotent God. The one that's got all power.
And that's why our Lord Jesus Christ trusted Him. He said,
I do always, always please the Father. He loved His Father,
and He knew that His Father was going to keep Him. And oh, beloved,
that's why he'd even cry out and cry out, my God, at times,
when he had strong cries. It's said in Hebrews, with strong
crying and tears, he was heard of him who was able to save him.
Talking about our Lord Jesus Christ. And with strong cries,
and then because of him, beloved, God is our omnipotent God. God
is ours. He's the one who is our helper
in our time of need. And then look what else he said.
Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust. Our Lord Jesus Christ put His
trust in His Father. The very fact that He says, I
know that you will not leave my soul in hell, tells us that
He trusted Him. That He believed Him. That He
took and put, He said, in Thee I put my trust, and that means
I've taken shelter in You. I take him just like a chicken
runs under its mother's wings and hides right there. He said,
I put my trust in you and I shelter. I've taken shelter in you. And
I tell you what, beloved, taking shelter beneath the shadow of
his blessed refuge, taking refuge between his strength and under
his strength. And I tell you what, beloved,
who else are we going to put our trust in? Who else is going
to be our shelter? We sang that old song, hide me,
O my Savior, hide me, till the storm of life has passed. And
I tell you, and they said, according to your faith be it done unto
thee. And for in thee I put my trust, I've had myself, I've
taken my shelter there. This is where I'm going to stay.
When they came and said, when he saw him with the woman at
the well, said, have you got anything to eat? When they brought him
something to eat, he said, I'm not hungry. He said, I got to eat meat to eat
that you know not of. my Father's will, I'm doing my
Father's will, I'm living in Him, I'm putting my trust in
Him, and He's going to be the one to sustain me and keep me.
And then look what He said in verse 2. This is a little hard
for me to understand and to grasp it, but, O my soul, thou hast
said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, and my goodness extendeth
not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to
the excellent in whom is all my delight, their saws shall
be multiplied, that, hastened after another god, their drink-offerings
of blood will I not offer, nor take upon their names my lips.
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup thou
maintainest my lot." Here's the first, and this is where Peter
started out. He says, "...O my soul, thou
hast said to the Lord, Thou art my Lord, Now, you think about
this. O my soul, thou hast said to
the Lord, Thou art my Lord. What he's saying here, and he's
in most soul, and he's in his most being, he says, Lord, my
soul says to you, says to my Father, says to Jehovah, says
to God, that you're my Lord. I submit myself to your will.
I submit myself to your service. I submit myself to anything you
will for me to do. That's what I do. I submit myself
to you. You're my Lord. And I tell you,
beloved, those who are in Christ, that's what we do. We say, Lord,
we bow to you. Whatever your will is, that's
what we want. That's what we want to do. We
don't want to fight it. We don't resist it. You're our
Lord. And we give full consent to His rule and His government.
And I want you to know what He said here. He said, Oh, my soul
sinned. He didn't say my lips sinned. He didn't say I spoke out loud
about it. He said, for my soul. It's one thing for us to tell
people that the Lord is our Lord, and to say it with our lips.
But to get before Jehovah Himself and say, for my soul, I say so,
and my soul says, Lord, You're my Lord. You're the Father of
my Lord. You're my Lord. And I submit
to You and bow to You. And, Lord, profess it before
God Himself. And do they hold on Him in the
covenant, just like our Lord Jesus Christ did. And then look
what else he said. Now, this is really hard for
me. I hope I can explain this right. He says, And the last
part of that, verse two, my goodness extendeth not to thee. What he's saying, now if I said
that, my goodness extendeth not to God. That any good that I
do, anything that I've ever done, adds absolutely nothing to God. Does not change Him at all. And
any good work He works in me would not change God at all.
God's gonna be God whatever we do. You know, will your righteousness
make God more righteous, Joe Vance? Will your obedience make
God more blessed than he is? No. And what our Lord is saying
here, he's so identified with us that he's saying, you know,
he called himself a worm and no man. He says that my goodness,
I so identify with my people that my goodness, That, you know,
if there had been no atonement, had Christ never come, and the
whole human race had perished, God would have still been just
like He is. God would not change. And so
when Christ came, He didn't come to make God any greater and glorious
than He did. God was who He was. But when
Christ came, He so identified with us that He says, My goodness,
extendeth not to thee. I add nothing to you. I don't
make you any more than you are." And though then when He did come,
He did end up honoring and glorifying God in such a glorious way, but
He so identified with us that He said that. Now, I can say
that and be honest about it. And our Lord Jesus Christ identified
with us. And listen, our goodness does
not make Him good. But His goodness is infinitely
good to us. And I don't know how else to
say it than that. I mean, there was no necessity
in God to save us, to do anything for us. And if Christ hadn't
come, God would have been just as glorious and holy and infinite
as He is now. But when our Lord Jesus Christ
came, then God could extend His goodness to us because of Him. But He said, now my goodness
don't extend to you, but He said, look who His goodness extends
to now. Talk about who Christ's goodness
extends to. He said, but my goodness extends to the saints that are
in the earth. He said, my goodness,
extends to my people. My goodness extends to the saints
and the earth. Now, we're not like Catholics.
We're not praying for dead people. When a person's gone, you just
as well forget about ever saying another prayer for them. As long
as there's life and there's hope, then we ain't praying for dead
people. And here our Lord Jesus Christ said, Behold the saints
that are on the earth. That's who my goodness extends
to. Them people that's on the earth now. You and me and every
child of God. He says, My goodness extendeth
to the saints that are on the earth. My soul, huh? How are we so blessed by the
work of our Lord Jesus Christ? Oh my, the good works that we
have is because of His good work. The zeal we have is because of
His zeal. The righteousness we have is His righteousness. The
cleansing we have is in His blood. So His goodness extendeth to
us. And all we are is just receivers.
He gives and we take. And then look what else he says
about them. To the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent
in whom is all my delight. He calls them the excellent of
the earth. What? You wouldn't call yourself
excellent of the earth. No way. You'd say, I'm nothing.
I'm nothing. I'm nobody. But Christ, in spite
of our infirmities, in spite of our weaknesses, In spite of
our inabilities, you know what he says? You're the excellent
of the earth, and my goodness extends to you. If there's an
aristocracy on this earth, you know who they are? The Lord's
people. We're more of, you know, the
king of England, or the queen of England. She got a title,
she inherited it, and it'll be passed on to somebody else, and
if the Lord's world stands, it'll be passed on to somebody else.
And it's just a figurehead. But God actually made us kings. God considers us kings. God,
Christ, made us kings and priests unto God. So He says, You're
the most excellent of the earth. I know we don't feel that way,
but that's what He says about us. Our opinion of ourselves is nothing. And yet He sends His heart on
and says, My excellence of the earth. And I'll tell you, beloved, you
know what He does? Look what He says here. And I'll
tell you, He loves us with so much love and so glorious, and
He's been so for us, and even while we were in, we begged Him.
He says we were His delight. He delights in us. Delights in
us. And He just rejoices in us. And
I'll tell you, look what He says here now in verse 4. And that
love, that heart that calls us his delight and the excellence
of the earth and whom his goodness extends to, he turns right around
and he says here of how he despises and abhors sin. He says, Their
souls should be multiplied that hasten after another God. Their
drinkoffering of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names
unto my lips. What our Lord Jesus Christ is
saying here, Anybody that goes after another, and see, it says
here they hasten after another God. We're so slow in our zeal,
but sinners are so zealous after their God. He says they hasten
after another God. Hasten after it. Go after it. They run like madmen after their
God, after their false God. And I tell you what, you know
what Matthew Henry said about this? And then he says their
sorrows will be multiplied. I mean, you think they got sorrows
now, and people have sorrows. You wait. I thought of two men this morning.
Two men this morning. That's been in hell now for a
month, three, four, five months. And I thought, boy, I said, Mary,
it's just awful to think about. Awful to think about. Awful to
think about. You know, the sorrows here. And they drink, and they take
drugs, and they live in sin, and they go on and on, and they
die, and their sorrows will multiply, and then they go to hell, and
they multiply, and multiply, and multiply. Do you know what?
If you love darkness here, do you know what? If you delight
in darkness here, do you imagine how dark it's going to be when
you put it out of darkness? We're so dark that there ain't
nothing? You love darkness, I'll put you in that dark place. And
their sorrows are multiplied. It's a horrible thing to think
about. But listen to what old Matthew Henry says here. He says,
they that multiply God's, multiply Greece to themselves. For whosoever
thinks that one God, too little, will find two Gods, too many. And yet a hundred, not enough. And that's the way it is. No
matter how many, you just never have enough. Never have enough. And I'll tell you something,
beloved. There was a time that you and I had our God. And you
know, Sal, there's a little God, a little G. Every one of us had
one. You know where its root was?
In ourself. In ourselves. And we gave ourselves
to idols and blessed His holy name. He saved us from idols. He took us from idols. He took
our idols from us. And I pray God never hurt me
in the idol. Tag, one old hymn writer said,
tag from his throne. If I be an idol found before
my face, tag from his throne. Bring him down from his place.
And I taste like Moses. You know, when he was up on the
mountain, they made that golden tag and danced around it and
said, this is the God that brought us out of Egypt. They knew that
wasn't to God, but they said, we've got to have something to
save, something to handle, something we can actually put our hands
on, that we can save, handle with our eyes and handle with
our hands, with works of our hands. You know what Moses had
to do? He had to beat it down into powder.
He took that golden calf and beat it down, molded it down
and melted it down and beat it into powder. And then he throwed
it in the water and made every one of them drink out of the
same water. He said, you want your idols, drink of it now.
He said, it's just nothing but dust. And oh my, our Lord Jesus
Christ, and look what it said here else about him. He said,
I'm not, there are great offerings of blood I won't offer. I won't offer. I'm not going to
offer blood to a false god. I'm not going to make any allegiance
with the devil. I'm not going to make any allies
with the devil. Do you know the Mormons think
that Jesus Christ and Satan are half-brothers, have the same
father? Did you know that? Yeah, they think that Satan and
the Lord Jesus are half-brothers. One of them went bad and one
of them stayed good. Don't they? I'll tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ, He cannot have fellowship with darkness. And then what
He says, not only that, but I'll not take their name on my lips.
And that ought to be us, too. Oh, my, my soul We're not going
to take any offerings from them, not going to make any offerings
to them, unless don't take these false gods and these false idols
upon their names, upon our lives. In fact, our Lord Jesus Christ,
when the unclean spirit starts saying, Oh, Jesus, now move toward
one of us. He said, Hold your peace. Just
shut up. He said, I don't want you to
tell anybody who I am. You don't know you. Just shut
up. He wouldn't even let them acknowledge who he was. Oh my. Then he goes on to say,
now look what he says, but he says, you know what's my portion?
You know what my portion is? The Lord is the portion of mine
inheritance of my cup. I'm glad that I'm with Him. If
the Lord's His portion in His inheritance, then the Lord's
my portion in my inheritance. And then look what he says here.
He said, and of my cup." My cup? Oh, my. Are you content? If God was all in the portion
you had, would you be content with Him? You know, when you come to a
portion, when you come to a portion, you know, we say, you take this
portion, you take that portion. God, the Lord Jesus Christ said,
the Lord Himself is my portion. When I face God, when I face
the cross, When I face my sufferings, when I face the hatred and rejection
and despising of all the men that hate me without a cause,
he said, the Lord will be my portion. He's who my portion
is. There's other stuff. That's just
what I have to go through. But the Lord's my portion. And
when you face God, who's going to be your portion? What are
you going to have to go before God with Christ Himself? The
Lord's going to be our portion. Our inheritance. What's our inheritance? Christ and His portion. His portion. If God's His portion, He's our
portion. If He's His inheritance, He's
our inheritance. My goodness. Ever, you know,
when Mary got sick, we went and done, oh, we done some more stuff
with deeds and, I mean, wheels. Man, we got to split up 49 ways.
You just wouldn't believe. I mean, we take, we hopefully,
hopefully things will be taken care of. The kids ain't even
been born yet. Other people, you have to, you have to make
sure that they got just a portion so that somebody else can have
a portion. Because there's something, you know, if you've got a, if
you've got a, One that's got good sense, and one that ain't
got good sense, and you split between two. And the good one
that ain't got good sense, they're going to take everything and
waste it away. And them kids ain't going to get nothing. So
you've got to make all these allowances. You've got to figure
all this stuff out. But let me tell you this. Christ is our
portion. He's our inheritance. They're
going to get just a little bit. When they've got much, they can't
just leave much, can they? If you haven't gotten a little
bit, everybody's going to get just a little bit. But this one,
I'm sorry, but the Lord is our portion, our inheritance. What's
your inheritance? The Lord. The Lord. And look
what it is, my cup. Oh, the Lord gave the portion
that God gave Christ as His cup. And David had said, My cup runneth
over. But the cup that God gave Christ, was a cup. He says, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Let this cup pass from me. And
our Lord Jesus Christ took that cup of water, took that cup of
suffering and sorrow. And then we have a little bitty
cup of sorrow. And over here, God has a great
old big cup full of consolation and grace and strength to give
us to go with our little cup of sorrow. Don't he? And then
look what else he says. He says, Thou maintainest my
lot. We all have a lot in life. We
have a place. We have a position. We have things
that's going to be given to us. We have a certain area, a time
of life, a lot given to us. This is what's going to happen.
This is what you get. And everything in this sphere of your life has
been ordered for you and given to you. And our Lord Jesus says,
Thou hast maintained my lot. You have kept my lot. And you've
maintained it. And I've not wanted for anything
in the lot that you've given me. And I tell you, our Lord
delighted in this truth. He knew that God was on His side
and that God would maintain all of His lot, everything that He
has called on to do in this world, God would maintain it. And He
knew that His elect would be reserved for Him and that God
would even preserve us and maintain our lots in this world. And some
folks, they get very upset with the lot that God's given them.
They don't like the lot that God's given them. But I'll tell
you why, He's sure given me a good one. Oh, He's given me a good
lot. Mary and I've talked about it
so many times that I tell you, you couldn't dream as big. I couldn't have made life better. Couldn't have made it better.
I couldn't dream as big as what God's done for me. Maintaining
my life. He made a pretty good size lock
for you too, ain't he? In fact, you go anywhere you
go on the face of this earth and you're still in God's lock.
It's still, he's maintained it your whole life. I've got to hurry, I've taken
way too long. Then he says, the lions are falling
under me in pleasant places. And I will bless the Lord who
hath given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in
the night seasons." Our Lord Jesus Christ says, the lines
that you've given me in this lot, you know they've fallen
out unto me in pleasant places. Oh, I've done the will of God,
I've obeyed the Lord, and everything that you've done for me has come
out in pleasant places. I mean, I've made things pleasant
for myself, made things pleasant for your people. And even the
things that Marty's conferred, he said, oh, he said, I'd like
to do thy will. I come to do thy will. And oh,
it says your lines has fallen out to me. Fallen out to me.
And our Lord Jesus Christ here said, he said, I will bless the
Lord who hath given me counsel. Do you know God gave him counsel?
I'll show you this. I think it's in, I think it's John 7. Let me look
it. John 7, just a moment. Yes, look over with me at John
7, where he says, The Lord be my counsel. John 7. Let me see
if I can find it. Where he says, My word. Let's
find it here. John 7, 18. Oh, in verse 17. 16 and 17. Jesus answered them
and said, My doctor is not mine, but his that send me. If any
man will know, will do his will, he should know of the doctor,
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. You see, he
said, the words that I'm speaking, he said, they're not mine. He
said, God gave me these words. God gave me this counsel. God
taught me these things. The word that I have comes from
Him. And he said, I'm going to bless the Lord. I'm going to
bless Him. I'm going to bless Him high. I'm going to bless
Him holy. I'm going to bless Him with all my heart. And he said, My reins also instruct
me in the night seasons. That's why he's called the counselor.
My reins. And reins means your heart, your
will, your affections, everything about your inward man. And how
many night seasons did our Lord Jesus Christ have? And His heart
and His affections were set on His Father. And then look what
he says here now. I've set the Lord always before
me, because He is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. I've
set the Lord before me. Always before me. Always before
me. There's the Lord. I've set Him
before me. I've set His person. I've set His character. I've
set His nature. I've set His attributes. I've set His will. I've set everything
about the Lord. I've set Him before my face.
He says, I'm going to trust you. And look what He says, and I
shall not be moved. I'm not going to be moved. Nobody's
going to move me from this. And that's what the apostle said,
I foresaw the Lord always before my face. That's what he said.
When I prayed, that was the Lord. Whatever thing I did, the will
of God, the Father, everything about Him was constantly before
my face. I'll tell you, when he saw the Lord, he saw that
he was going to have to come, he was going to have to suffer,
he was going to have to die, he was going to have to go to the
grave. He's going to have to go through a resurrection, he's
going to have to go through some awful suffering. And he said
to the Lord, and always saw the Lord before his face, he said,
I shall not be fooled, because he is at my right hand. I mean,
he's right there in that bed, his right hand means he's right
there with me at all the time to keep me and preserve me and
be there for my health. And then he says in verse nine,
therefore, my heart is glad. I believe our Lord Jesus Christ,
He said, for the joy that was set before Him. What was that
joy? Our redemption, doing the will
of the Father. Oh, His heart was set full of
joy and His heart was glad, grateful to do what He did, glad to do
what He did. And my glory rejoices. I rejoice now for what I've done.
And he said, and I'll tell you this, my flesh, this old body
right here, I'm coming to the end of this thing, he said. He
said, my life is about over, I'm fixing to go to the cross,
and my flesh will rest in hope. He stood before Pilate, never
said a word. They slapped him and spit on
him and everything, tried to get him to say something, and
he said, answer now, mother! His flesh was resting in hope.
Resting in hope. And this is what made him rest
in hope. He says, for you'll not leave my soul in hell. And
hell's that place, they say, this means the place where the
dead are. I don't know. They say it's Sheol. It's the place where the dead
are. He said, you'll not leave my
soul in hell. You'll not leave my soul down there where the
dead are. And not only that, but you're
not even left to suffer, you're only one to see corruption. He
was dead. He was dead for three days, but
yet his flesh never started corrupting. If you and I die in just a very,
very few hours, our flesh is going to corrupt. Just in a few
hours, just, I mean, quickly it's going to corrupt. But he
says, when I'm in the ground, When I'm in that tomb, you will
not let your Holy One see corruption. And not only that, but you will
show me the path of life. The path of life, the way to
life to save my people, you show me the path of life. For mine
elect, you show me the path of life for myself. I've got to
go through this ground, I've got to go through this cross,
I've got to go through this suffering, I've got to bear their sin, and
this is the life. If I have life, they'll have
life. And the path of life is for me to go to the grave and
be resurrected from the dead and rise again the third day.
That's the path of life. And then he said, in thy presence
is fullness of joy. And oh, there he is for him,
and there he is for us soon. And he said, at thy right hand
are pleasures for evermore. You know what? He knows because
that's where he's at right now, at the right hand. At the right
hand. At the right hand. And I tell
you what, our Lord Jesus Christ is the cause, is the earnest,
is the guarantee, is the emblem of the rise of all his people
from the grave. Oh my, when we go to the grave,
let's just go to it as our beds. Just rest this old flesh in the
dirt. Just like we'd rest on a couch, because that's all that's
going there is just flesh. Oh, this is one of Isaac's wise
things, which is what he said. He says, Jesus is not mine, I'll
not fear undressing, but gladly put off these garments of clay.
To die in the Lord is a covenant blessing. says Jesus, to glory
through death, led the way. Amen? He led the way. One old hymn writer said that
he perfumed the grave and there ain't even no smell of death
in it anymore for his people. I think that's right. I think
that's right.