Every day that God would keep
me preaching and believing, teaching the grace of God. I said, Lord,
nothing you could pray for me that I'd cherish more than that.
To keep me preaching and teaching the grace of God. Never bring
anything else other than the free grace of God in Christ.
Never, ever give anybody any hope. Any smidgen of a hope. outside of the Lord Jesus Christ
and His wondrous, free, amazing grace. That just has something. Keep you true. Keep you true. And Obey prayed that. You know,
and he says, grow in grace. When he said that, I started
thinking. He said, not grow in sanctification. Not grow in fundamentalism. Not grow in legalism, not grow
in your self-estimation, but grow in grace. And as you grow
in grace, you get a knowledge of Him, and the more knowledge
of Him, the more you see grace, and the more grace you see, the
more you see you need Him. Grow in grace. Grow in grace. All right, let's look here at
Psalm 40. I'll read these five verses here, the first five verses. I waited patiently. for the Lord. And he inclined unto me, and
heard my cry. He brought me up also out of
an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock, established my goys. And he hath put a new song in
my mouth, Praise unto our God! Many shall see it, and fear,
and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn
aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered." I'm going to tell
you something that you probably don't know. If you ain't, you
know, if I ain't told you before, I'll tell you again. Salvation's
of the Lord. Salvation's of the Lord. There's
no doubt about that. No doubt about it. Ain't that
what it says there in verse five? Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which you have done. His works are full of wonder. We still stand in amazement at
the grace of God that we are saved. that God came to us and
did for us. And then he says, and he even
had thoughts towards us. He even had thoughts that God
would ever think. So he says in one place in Psalm
8, he says, What is man, the dark mindful of him, or the son
of man, that you visit him? And David here said that he had
thought about us. Thought about us. For God, you know, we know that
He don't think, but yet He says, here are your thoughts toward
us. Thoughts. And they can't be reckoned up
in order unto thee. Where are you going to start?
Where are you going to start? And what we have here, and I
tell you what, it's He that works in us. We talk about His many
wonderful works. It's He that works in us, both
to will and to do of His good pleasure. It's God that created
us in Christ Jesus unto good works. God created us. God does
this work in us. But now here's a picture in these
five verses that I've read tonight, another picture. I gave you one
this morning, a picture of the experience of a sinner, a soul
passing from death to life, from darkness to light, and coming
from no salvation at all to a full salvation and the joy that accompanies
it. We have a salvation here that satisfies, that satisfies. Now look what, first of all,
there in verse two, look where this man was at, look where this
soul was at. He was in a very horrible place. In fact, that's
what he called it. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. Now, a horrible place,
a horrible pit, he called it a horrible pit. One thing that
they'd done in those days, and maybe they still do it in some
countries, they had great pits, and they had big pits. And those
pits would be the prisons. Those pits would be the place
where they would hold them. And they sometimes, you know,
after it rained or something like that, they'd get full of
water and full of mud. I mean, they took Jeremiah, and
the Scripture says that they put him down in a pit, and he
was mired up to his armpits. The Scripture said he was mired
up to his armpits, And they would let down a bucket with water
and bread in it, and that's all he would get, had to stand there
in his armpits for prophesying and teaching the true grace of
God to those sinful people. And sin, this horrible pit. Remember
that they took Joseph. His brothers dug a pit, and they
put Joseph in the pit, and was going to walk off and leave him.
And then they saw the caravan come and said, well, it's just
selling. But they was going to leave him in that pit. And you
can't get out of this pit. And here the psalmist calls it
a horrible pit, because it's a horrible place to be, and you're
in a horrible condition. And I tell you, beloved, sin
is a horrible pit to be in. And it's miry clay. And this
miry clay, what it is, beloved, you ever get any clay to pull
your boots off and pull your shoes off? He said, this miry
clay, you can't even pick your feet up out of it, much less
climb up out of it. You can't pick your feet up.
This miry clay, you mire down in it, you sink down in it. And
this sin, this horrible pit of sin, it holds you fast in this
horrible pit. Holds you, closes you, can't
even pick up your feet to get out. The mire and the muck. And oh, this is what they did
to souls. And oh, beloved, I'll tell you
something. Only God's people have been in this horrible pit.
Have you ever been in this horrible pit? Do you know something about
being in a horrible pit and not being able to pick up your own
feet? First of all, he's in a horrible
condition. Horrible condition. Sin's a horrible pit. And irony
of clay holds your feet and you can't get out. You can reach
up and try to do your best to get out, and you go on and you
just can't even get your feet out of clay, much less pull yourself
out. Well, what did he do? What would you do if you was
in that place like that? Well, I'll tell you what this
man did. He says there in verse 1, I waited patiently for the
Lord. He said, and I, and he inclined unto me and heard my
cry. You know what he began to do? He began to cry unto the
Lord. You know, God, let me tell you something. This soul went
out and cried out to the Lord for salvation. And, oh, beloved,
and he, until he knows it, the man won't cry unto the Lord until
he knows he's in trouble. And he said, I waited. God didn't
jump to him just like that. God's not our errand boy. We
don't get in trouble and they say, Lord, come. No, no. God's
not an iron boy. You know, you live your life
without Him, and then all of a sudden you get in trouble.
You think you ought to jump. But David said, I'll wait Him.
Or this psalmist said, I'll wait Him, and I'll wait Him, and I'll
wait Him. And you find how many times in the Scriptures when
our Lord Jesus Christ, men would come to Him, and He would put
obstacle after obstacle in their way to tell Him that if you come
to Me, you know what it's going to cost you? If you come to Me,
you know what it means? That war-sorrow-conditioned woman,
she come to him, and she said, Lord, my daughter is grievously
ill. He just ignored her. Just absolutely ignored her. And how many times did people
come to him, and he says, do you know, well, one fellow said,
I'm going to follow you. Well, now, wait a minute. You
sure you won't do that? You better sit down and count
the cost. He said, nobody ever builds a house if they don't
set out to count the cost. No man goes to war unless he
knows he can win the thing. And that's what our Lord said,
and He always put obstacles in people's places. I'm telling
you, that's what here, the Lord don't come running whenever we
start crying. And He said, I waited and waited
and waited. And, beloved, that's what you
got to do. Man, I'll tell you, this business, you know, will
God jump when you say to. The Lord here said, you're ready
right now to save you. Maybe he is, maybe he ain't.
But I do know this here, he said, that he inclined unto me. I looked up that word inclined.
That means bent, bowed to, reached down to, and inclined means going
this way. Well, God went this way to where
David was. Went this way to where the soul
was. That soul couldn't come here, so God had to go there.
You know, he couldn't bring himself up to God. But God could incline
and come to where he was, bow to where he's at, bend his ear
to where he's at, come down to where he's at. And that's what
he'd done. He cried unto the Lord. And then he inclined unto
me. And he heard my cry. That's what
I like about it. He heard it. He heard it. Oh, let me show you something.
You keep Psalm 40 and look with me over in Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. This is such
a blessing. And that's, you know, they tell
people, you know, we need to teach folks a sinner's prayer.
Nobody needs to teach this fellow how to pray. No. Look here at
Mark chapter 10, in verse 46. A sorrowful Phoenician woman
cried out after the Lord. And oh, look what happens. And
as they came to Jericho, and they came to Jericho, and as
he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number
of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the
wayside begging. And when he had heard that it
was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, cry out, and say,
Thou son of David, have mercy on me." Now watch what happened.
And then he told him, he said, now just be quiet, be quiet,
that he should hold his peace. What happened then? And he cried,
Lord. He said, you can't make me shut
up. You ain't gonna make me shut
up. I'm gonna get to the Lord. I'm gonna go quick till he hears
my cry. And about the time he cried the
word, Christ stopped. And they went over and said,
be of good cheer, the Master calleth you. And, O beloved,
he heard not cry, cry out, cry out from your heart, cry out
from your soul. And he cried out the more. And
then back over in our text, not only was he in a horrible place,
and he began to cry out unto the Lord. And I do know this,
that once you ever start crying out to the Lord, you'll never
stop crying. And sometimes all you can do is just say, Oh, Lord,
have mercy. Oh, God, I need you. Oh, I don't
know what to say, except I need you. Don't know how to call on
you, except say, Lord, I'm here and I'm helpless. And oh, look
what happens to him in verse two. He was in this horrible place. He cried out to the Lord, and
the Lord heard him, and he waited till God heard him, and he cried.
And then look what he said. He brought me up out of this
horrible place, out of this horrible pit. Huh? That's what God does. He brought him up. Oh, I tell
you, the average preacher says, you know what? The Lord's got
a ladder. He said, set it down in that
pit before you climb on up out. No, no. He said, here, I'm going
to throw you a rope. Pull yourself up out of there.
No, no. He says here, He brought him up. Brought him up. God brings us up. Brings us out
of the barren clay. Brings us out of the darkness.
Brings us from death to life. Brings us from sin to righteousness.
Brings us from bondage to freedom. Brings us, He's the one that's
going to... Psalm 65 and 4 said, Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest. and calls us, brings to approach
us. And our Lord Jesus says, no man
can come to me except the Father which sent me. Draw him, and
you know what that word draw means? That means that God reaches
out and touches you and starts bringing you. That word draw,
when I've said this so many times, when they were in the garden
and all those men come out, Malchus drew a sword, and Peter took
the sword out of somebody's hand, and he took that sword, and he
cut Malchus' ear off. And our Lord says, put up your
sword. But that draw on that sword is
the same word that he said, except the Father draw him. As he drew
that sword out, that means God reaches and gets to bring you.
What kind of a condition are we in that it takes God in His
power to bring us? That God brought us to Himself,
that God's got to come where we are because we can't come
where He is. We don't even know where He is
until He brings us to know where we are. We've got to know where
we are before we can find out where He is. Does that make any sense? He
makes us know where we are. He never cried on the Lord until
He was in that horrible pit. And you're going to be in a horrible
pit before you're ever brought up. And oh, may God make you
know what a horrible pit you're in. I know what it was for me,
and I know what I know for my own children. They're in the
horrible pit of self-righteousness. They're in the horrible pit of
sin. Self-reliance. In the horrible pit of worldliness.
Drug addiction. Alcohol. Fornication. They're in these horrible pits.
This horrible pit. You know, I'm as good as anybody
else in this horrible pit. And until God makes a man understand
that he's in this horrible pit, of this pit of thinking, I'm
okay, this pit, I can get out of this pit whenever I want to.
I can get out of this pit, you know, I can crawl out. But no, no, this man understood
that he couldn't get out of this horrible pit, and then he cried. When's the last time you cried
out to the Lord? Or have you ever cried out to
the Lord? Have you ever cried out to the
Lord and said, Lord, I'm in a horrible pit? I'm in this pit that I can't
get myself out of. I'm in a pit of sin. I'm in a pit of bondage. I'm
in a pit, a place that I can't save myself from. I'm sorry. And I'm in a situation. I've deceived myself. I've deceived
my family. I've deceived them. And I've
said and done things in many places that I shouldn't have
went. Oh, God, would you have mercy on me? Cry out. When's the last time you cried
out to the Lord? And I'll tell you what, when
he cried out to the Lord, you know what the Lord did? He wretched
got him and brought him up. Wretched got him. He said, he
brought me up. He didn't say, get out of there.
He didn't say, scratch and crawl and get on your knees and come
out of there. He didn't say, if you cry enough, I'll get you
up out of there. If you're sincere enough, I'll
get you up out of there. Ah, this man was in a horrible
place, and He just wretched got him and brought him up. Brought
him up. Brought him up. And then look
what else He done for him. And set my feet upon a rock. Oh, bless His holy name. He, as you know, it's like this
morning. Everybody, the fellow, the king,
didn't do anything but do evil, and everything else was done
for him. This fellow was in a horrible pit, and he couldn't do nothing
for himself, and everything was done for him. Somebody else had to
do it. He brought him up, and he said, he set his feet upon
a rock and established his going. What was the rock he set his
feet on? Ah, he got him out of that pit. Not in no more miry
clay, and he set him on the solid rock of God's grace. On Christ
the solid rock I stand, on other ground is sinking sand. I mean,
listen, he set him on Christ the rock, set him on a foundation,
and Christ himself said that he was that rock upon which he
had built his church. He was that rock in that wilderness. He is that rock that's in a weary
land. And he set his feet on that rock,
set his feet on the rock of God's sovereignty, that God is ruling
and reigning in this world. And I can find some comfort and
assurance that this world is not capriciously run by the laws
of nature, but ruled by God Himself. And he sets him on that solid
rock of the truth that never changes. There's a truth in this
world that never changes. A lot of things changes, but
truth never changes. The truth of God's blessed grace
never changes. Some things never change. I've
changed. I've changed over the years. You've changed over the
years. Our families have changed over the years. People's come
and people's gone. Our health changes. Our financial
situation changes. Marriage status changes. Lots
of things change. But there's some things that'll
never change. That man's a sinner, that'll never change. That God
is holy, that'll never change. That Christ is the only sinner,
that'll never change. Savior. That Christ is the only
Savior. That Christ alone can save a
man. That Christ alone bore sin in
his own body on the tree. That Christ alone is the only
person that can save a man. The truth! And that salvation's
altogether of the grace of God. Oh, those truths will never change.
And people say, well, what if they go back? Go back? Go back in a pit? Crawl back
in the crane? You're just trying to get out,
you reckon? They say, well, they go back.
Go back and get in that horrible pit again? Oh, if you called out to yourself,
probably a pretty good idea you'd go back. But if He brought you
up and He sets your feet on that rock, you ain't gonna get… He
sets your feet on that rock. And then look what else it says.
He established, established my goings. Oh, my. You know, I've been going,
Bruce, all my life. I just went, you know, I've been…
Where you going? Where you going? Gloria says,
could I be going somewhere? She said, Can I go with you? Can I go with you? Can I go with
you? Go, go, go. She's going, going, going. But
I tell you what, I've been going all my life, but until Christ
established my goings, I didn't know where I was going. I didn't
know whether I was up or down, in or out. You know, when I was
in religion? But now He's established my goings.
We're not double-minded. No, we're not in and out. We're
not up and down. Established. Established in the
truth. Established in grace. Established in the word. Established
in the gospel. Established in love. Established
in wisdom. Established in the knowledge
of God. Established in the work of Christ. We're not working
our way to the Lord. Before, all our goings before
was all wrong, and now they're right. When the Lord come and
set him free and put him in his right mind, he followed Jesus
in the way. When he establishes you're going,
you know where you're going? You're going to follow the Master
wherever he goes. That's what you're going to do.
And then look what he done. Oh, then look what he says after
you brought him up out of that miry clay. He said he's feet
on the rock of God's blessing, grace, and truth, and sovereignty,
and on Christ the rock himself. And he has, and he has, he has,
he's done all these things now. And he has put a new song in
my mouth. Oh, my. Boy, wonder what the song was. I believe it had something to
do with grace. Well, it says here, even praise unto our God.
Not only did He bring us up and set our feet on a rock and step,
but He put a new song in our mouth. A brand new song. What is that song? Well, look
over in Revelation 5. Let's see if we can see what
that song is. Revelation 5. See what that new song is. You
know, a new life always brings a new song. A new life brings
a new song. A life of faith brings a new
tune. You know, David Edmondson wrote
a little article the other day, and I'll probably put it in our
bulletin one of these times. He said, you know, nobody would
ever like a one-note symphony. You know, when you get all these
instruments together and everybody's playing just what they ought
to play, and they got all their parts and all their notes and
they're all playing, and they make this beautiful music together.
But if they all just hit one note over and over and over again,
you'd get bored real quick. Except, the grace of God. He said, this is one note that
nobody, this symphony, nobody ever gets tired of. Sound a clear
note. Henry Mann's got a message on
that. Sounding a clear note. And sound a clear note. What's
that note? Christ and Him crucified. One note. And here's the song
that we sang. Look what it says in verse nine,
Revelations 5. And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy, Oh, we was rich. We was the one who had all the
worth before, and now we find out that thou art worthy. You're
worthy to take the book. You're worthy to open the seals.
For you was the one that was slain. You're the one that has
redeemed us to God. You're the one that done it by
your blood, out of every kindred and tribe and tongue and people
and nation. And oh, you're the one And then
look down there in verse 12, saying, with a loud voice, worthy
is the Lamb slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and
strength and honor and glory and blessing in every creature
which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and
such as are in the sea. And all that are in them, heard
I say, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever."
And they all said, what? Amen. That's that new song. That's what we, you know, before
we sung about ourselves. A wonderful Lord satisfied with
me. I'm building a bridge. If anyone
makes it, Lord, surely I will. But, oh, God put a song of praise
into our mouth, and it's a new tune. And now we sing, Not unto
us, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory, for thy mercy
and thy truth's sake. And I tell you, He puts this
song in the mouths of those whose feet He's picked up. And He's
brought you up out of that mire of clay. When He establishes
your going, set your feet on that rock, you're going to start
singing a new song. He's worthy. Blessed be the name
of the Lord, to God be all the glory. And then look what it says there
in verse four, verse three, excuse me. And then the last part of the
verse, not only put that in New Psalm, but many shall see it
and fear that God will use you sooner or later, God will use
you. And you won't even know that He's doing it. Many shall
see it in fear and shall trust in the Lord. Now they'll see
that God does something for you. They're not the same person.
They're not the same person. They're different. It's obvious
that the Lord did something for them. They say all they want
to talk about is talk about Christ. All they want to talk about is
talk about the grace of God. All they want to talk about is
what Christ did, what Christ accomplished. And maybe God will
cause fear to come in the heart and trust the Lord. And He makes
them fruitful and happy, joyful in consistency in their lives. And then look what happens. They're
satisfied. Verse 4 and 5. Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust. Oh, my. Makes the Lord his trust. Lord, to whom shall we go? To
whom shall we go? You've got the words of eternal
life. Who else shall we trust? Who
else can save me? Who else can keep me? Who else
can do for me? And that's why He says, Many,
O Lord God, I will trust you, because your works toward Me
are many, and your thoughts which are to us Yeah, you're going
to wreck a lot of people, but if you started telling God's
blessings for you, where would you start? Where would you start? All spiritual
blessings are in Christ. Would you start with election?
Would you start with salvation? Would you start with grace? Would
you start with Christ? Would you start with mercy? Would
you start with a new heart? Would you start with God making
you to know your sinfulness? Would you start with your home?
Would you start with your children that He saved? Would you start with the wife
He gave you, the husband He gave you? Where would you start? Where
would you start thanking God? Where would you start blessing
Him for what He's done for you? Where would you start? Because
now you're going to keep an order to Him. How are you going to
number Him? That's what He says. So why isn't a man making the
Lord his trust? And then look what he says here,
and respect not the proud. Those who are mighty, those who
are great, they don't respect them, don't consider them like
they're somebody. And they don't have anything
for those who turn aside the light. You know, I've heard the
truth and I'm not going to have anything to do with lies anymore. And all my many, O Lord my God,
O Lord my God, like Thomas said, my Lord and my God. All many
are you wonderful works which you've done. Creation, salvation,
preservation, The heavens He's made for us, the new heavens
and new earth already. Salvation done. And your thoughts,
which are to us. How in the world does God think? And He has thoughts to us. And oh, you can't reckon them
enough. And if I were to declare, if I stood here tonight and declared,
if every one of y'all stood up here tonight and declared and
speak of them, when would you How could you
tell them? You couldn't all tell them. He
said, if I declared them, they are more than can be numbered. I'd just run out of time. I'd
run out of things. I'd just run out of things to
say. I'd run out of things to say. This fellow was in a horrible
pit, cried out to the Lord. The Lord brought him up, set him on a rock. Solid
rock. Established his goings. Don't
have to worry about him anymore, which way he's going to go. We
wonder which way that fellow will go. Wonder which way he'll
jump. If the Lord's established his goings, you don't have to
worry about it. You won't have to worry about
it. Huh? Put a new song in his mouth.
He's singing grace now. Singing about the Lord Jesus.
Now, more about Jesus would I know. More of his saving fullness. Our Father, O gracious, gracious
Father, in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus, again we thank
you for giving us this privilege together with the children of
God. Thank you for this service. Thank you for the truth as it
is in Christ. Lord, you have indeed been gracious
unto us to the day, merciful to us, patient with us, loving
and kind towards us. Thank you for the truths, thank
you for the saints, And God save you people in this place. Bring
glory to yourself through us. And we ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen. We're going to sing a chorus
we haven't sung in a long, long time. And it's in number two
in the chorus book, in the