is from I.M. Haldeman. Now, I don't know a lot about
I.M. Haldeman. I suspect in some ways he may
be a bit of an Arminian, a free will person. But this is good. All right, but herein you may
behold the essential difference between law and grace. Grace
bids us draw nigh to God. The law shuts us out from God. Grace bids us consider God. The law bids us consider ourselves. Under grace, we are taken up
with God. Under law, we are taken up with
self. Under grace, we discover what
God is, full of mercy and saving love. Under law, we find out
what we are, sinful, unrighteous, and lost. Grace is expressed
in four letters. Paul, you've said this several
times. Done, D-O-N-E. Law is contained in a word of
two letters, do. Under grace, All is done. All
is done. The work has been done for us.
It is completely and perfectly finished. There's nothing for
us to do but to rest in his finished work. Under the law, we were
always doing and never done. Never done. We never accomplish. We never meet the demand made
of us. We never can begin to give the
slightest hint of satisfaction. We have no place of rest, and
under the law, there is no moment you are secure. Grace bids us
hope, the law tells us to fear. Grace brings salvation, and the
law puts under condemnation, and demands the penalty without
mercy. I like grace better than law,
folks. Come on, let's just be simple about it. It's not that
tough a comparison. I don't understand the attraction
some people have for the law. And don't get me wrong, I do
love the law of God. And I wish to God that I could
keep it. But I know I can't. And thank
God, I am no longer, and if you believe, you are no longer under
the schoolmaster of the law. When faith comes. Now wait a
minute, I love that statement too. Because here's the thing,
faith's gotta come to you. You don't come to faith. He comes
to you and gives faith. But when he gives faith, I am free from the law. I like that. I really do. Paul writes about the liberty
that we have in Christ. This is what he means. We are
free from the law. We are free from works. And on
that note, I'm gonna talk about our walk today. We are free from works for salvation
And we are under works Because of the grace of God that has
been given to us and I'm gonna teach that hopefully here from
Psalms 116 116 Psalms 116 beginning in verse 4 Then called I upon the name of
the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver
my soul. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous,
yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought low, and he helped
me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered
my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from
falling. And here it is, I will walk before
the Lord in the land of the living. And that's where I'm gonna just
stop for the moment. My title, Paul, is walk before
the Lord. Walk before the Lord. Now what's
that mean? Well, according to Mr. Gill,
it means to walk in the sight of the Lord, according to his
will and according to the word of God. I like that. Then I called upon the name of
the Lord, verse four. I purposely skipped over this
because of this word where he says this little four-letter
word, then. Then I called upon the name of
the Lord, deliver my soul. Then I called upon the name of
the Lord. When did I call upon the name
of the Lord? Well, look right back at verse
three. Sorrows of death compass me and
the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow
Listen folks, you're never gonna call upon the name of the Lord
until you're in trouble The whole need not a physician
Christ said that but they that are sick you understand I called
when the sorrows of death compassed me, surrounded me. I called when
I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called, then, and I'm
gonna say it, and only then, and only then. Not before, never
before. You understand, we'll get to
it here in just a minute. I'm not gonna go into that. You're never gonna call upon
the name of the Lord until you understand who you are and who
he is, at least to some extent. Do you understand? Pharaoh, king
of the world as far as he was concerned. Powerful, most powerful
country on earth at that time, as far as I know. I can tell
you this, as far as Pharaoh thought, Who is the Lord that I should
hear it? No, but when you're in trouble, when the sorrows
of death has compassed you, surrounded you, and the pains of hell got
a hold upon me, I found trouble and sorrow, then you'll call
upon the name of the Lord. And like I said, not before,
not before. Because I'm gonna tell you something, When it said verse five, gracious
is the Lord and righteous, yea our God is merciful. Then you'll
call upon the gracious and merciful Lord. Who is the righteous God? The righteous God. And I'm gonna
tell you something folks, this is the Lord's determined order. He tells us in the next verse,
verse six. I love this verse. Because I'm
gonna tell you something, I see myself in it. The Lord preserveth
the simple. I was brought low, and he helped
me. Folks, that's the gospel. That's
the gospel. You understand? The Lord preserves
the simple. The only reason you're still
alive is because the Lord preserves you. And I'm gonna tell you,
that includes Before he saves you in time and after he saves
you in time. I Mean thank the Lord he preserves
the simple the simple Because I'm gonna tell you something
compared to him That's a compliment for us to be called simple We
are simple We are single-minded in the worst possible way, put
it that way. And here's the thing. We can't
preserve ourselves. He's got all power. We have no
power, no power whatsoever. And let's just put it this way,
folks. We're simple. We don't know even what we think
we know. That's how bad we are. That's
how simple we are. Oh my. Listen, he says it plainly. Our thoughts are not his thoughts. Oh, and even more, our ways are
not his ways. Mm, mm, mm, mm. Because I'm gonna
tell you something, compared to God, We are feeble-minded. We are simple. We are simple. His thoughts are high and ours
are horrible. His ways are perfect and ours
are rebellion. That's our way. Rebellion against
God, rebellion against man, rebellion against law, rebellion against
authority, rebellion against your parents. That's where we
live. You guys know the story. The
quickest way to get somebody to do something is to tell them
not to do it. And that works with kids and
adults. That's what we are. But the Lord
preserveth the simple. Oh, I like that. His thoughts
are pure, ours are splattered with sin and iniquity. His thoughts
are glorious, and our thoughts at best are simple, low, and
slow. I need to be preserved. You need
to be preserved. But hear this next statement.
I was brought low. See, that's where verse three
is. The sorrows of death compassed
me and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble
and sorrow. Why? Because I was brought low.
I was brought low. I was brought low. Now understand,
let's be very clear here, the Lord did not put you low. You already were low. You already
were low. Man, as he is born, is low. Okay? However, thank God, it is the
Lord who makes it known to us, to us. Oh, I'm gonna tell you
something. And here's the thing, when the
Lord brings you low, you will know it. You'll know it, you'll
know it. Because I'm gonna tell you something,
being brought low means to know you are a sinner. To know you are compassed, surrounded
by death. Death in yourself and death in
everybody you know. Oh my. You find out just a little
bit of what it is to be dead in trespasses and in sins. And
the reason for that is he makes known unto you your trespasses
and your sins. And your sinful nature. I mean, I've heard it said, and
I'm sure you all have it too, that, oh, yes, I'm a sinner,
but they don't sound too broke up about it. It's lip service
is what it is. Christ told him, he says, I'm
surrounded by people who honor me with their lips, but their
hearts are far from me. When he brings you low, he's
bringing your heart in line. I'm tell you something we come
to understand that we actually know nothing of spiritual things
Because the unbeliever cannot know cannot know But here's the
thing He said the Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low
and And what'd you say? He helped me he helped me Oh
my. Now, let's be very clear. To start with, you may not realize
it at the time, but his help began by bringing you low, letting
you know you are low, letting you know you are a sinner, revealing
that to you. But it is the Lord who brings
low and it is the Lord who lifts up. Helps he helps. Oh my He helped me to know I
was low. He helped me to know I was simple
simple Feeble oppressed empty and impoverished And I'm gonna
tell you this folks The Lord only helps those he has brought
low Those he has brought low. I say there, the whole deed,
not a physician, but them that are sick. Those that are what? Brought low. Brought low. The
Lord will not help lift up anyone he has not brought low. First Samuel two and six says
it this way. The Lord killeth and the Lord
maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave,
and bringeth up. What's that mean? It means he
preserves the simple, I was brought low, and he helped me. He helped me, oh my. He only raises those who know
they are in the pit. That's what it means. And this is the thing, folks.
We were in that pit all along. We were in that pit all along.
But we didn't know it. We didn't know it was a pit.
We didn't know our feet were stuck in the miry clay until
he takes us out of it. And he's the one that takes us
out of it. Psalms 40 in verse two says, he brought me up also
out of an horrible pit. of the miry clay and set my feet
upon a rock and then whoa and established My goings. Oh, I like that part But the great thing is that's
not all Psalm 40 verse 3 says this and he hath put a new song
in my mouth well, and here's the song folks even praise unto
our God. Many shall see it and fear and
shall trust in the Lord. This is the thing. Every believer
was in a horrible pit. Believers were in the miry clay. That's low, folks. That's low. That's low. Now we were there
all along, but we didn't know it until he brought us low. He
caused me to know, what is it they always say, he caused me
to know my estate. He causes you to know where you
are in yourself, in yourself. And I'm gonna tell you something,
folks, he preserved you to that very place. And you were there,
until he revealed unto you that you were there. And he brings
out. Oh my, he brings out. The Lord
lifteth up his people. His arm is not short that he
cannot say. No, he brings down to the grave
and then he brings up. What's it mean? He helped me.
He helped me. I like that. Oh The Lord brings
low and the Lord helps those Every one of those that he brought
low He says this return unto thy
rest oh my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee
Those the Lord brings low he helps And he gives rest rest Believers are given all spiritual
blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. That's where all
this is Every bit of it being brought low being brought up
Preserving the simple and helping us. This is all in Christ every
bit of it is We are given all spiritual blessings in Christ
Here's that all they that labor and are heavy laden Come unto
him Come unto Christ. He'll give you rest. He'll give
you rest. And it says it in there. He'll
give you rest for your soul, for your soul. Oh, I like that.
I like that. And not only that, folks, we
are given peace with God. Is that not a restful place to
be at peace with God? Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of
the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant Through
the blood of Jesus Christ and the covenant between the Father
Son and Spirit now This God make you perfect in every good work
what? To do his will Working in you
that which is well-pleasing in His sight in His sight Through
Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever and then Paul
writes it in Hebrews Hebrews 13 20 and 21. He says it. Amen Amen Amen. Oh my We have rest for our souls
in our Lord Jesus Christ because he is our peace and We don't, I don't want to anymore
fight against God. God's not fighting with me. God's
not fighting with you. If you believe Him, He's not
fighting with you. Don't fight with Him. Christ
is our peace. Oh, oh my. have rest for our
souls in our Lord Jesus Christ and Believers rest in the resurrected
and risen Lord Jesus Verse 8 for thou has delivered
my soul from death Mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling
you understand and it says it here in the past tense. I Where
is this stuff? Even when we were dead in sins
hath quickened us together with Christ by grace you are saved
We were dead In Christ you are no longer dead What the Lord
killeth and the Lord maketh alive The Lord bringeth low and he
helps me He helps me. Oh, I like that. He's delivered
my feet from falling. He's delivered my soul from death. He's delivered my eyes from tears. I like this. And here we come
to it. This is verse nine. He's delivered my feet from falling.
What's he say then? I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living. And that statement just kind
of hit me all of a sudden. Now, first of all, folks, only
one man has ever done this naturally, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ.
He walked perfectly before the Lord. Understand every step Jesus
Christ took he was at that time Loving the Lord by God with all
his heart all his mind all his soul and all his strength and
Jesus Christ loved his neighbor as himself We don't do either
We don't love God with all our heart mind soul and strength
and we don't love our neighbors ourself But it says this I Will
walk before the land Lord in the land of the living Well,
the first point is this. Walking before the Lord takes
place in the land of the living. The dead don't walk before the
Lord. Unbelievers do not walk before
the Lord. I don't know how I can be any
plainer than that. Because here's the point. Life
comes first. I mean, people ask, I remember
Earl got asked on the telephone, what comes first, life or faith?
And Earl answered him, life. Why? Because the unbelieving
can't believe. The unbelieving have no faith.
The dead soul, dead in trespasses and sins, has no faith to believe. Life comes first. What'd he say?
I brought low and I brought it up. I helped you. He kills and
he makes alive. Oh my. Walking before the Lord
comes after life has been given by the Lord. It's in the land
of the living. Walking before the Lord comes
after soul deliverance. Walking before the Lord comes
after being brought low. And walking before the Lord comes
after the Lord helped me. Walking before the Lord comes
after he delivers your soul from death. And walking before the Lord comes
after he's delivered your feet from falling. What'd I say? What'd I read? What? He lifted me out of the
horrible pit. I set my feet on a rock. But
then what? He establishes your goings. He establishes your goings. Oh my, I like that. So let's
be very, very, very, very clear. There is no boasting in ourselves in walking. We boast in the Lord. He lifted me out of the horrible
pit. He pulled my feet out of the miry clay. He set me on a
rock, the rock Christ Jesus. And he established my goings.
Oh, I like that, I do. Because walking before the Lord
in the land of the living is the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not of man. We read it all
the time here. I'm gonna read it again, I like
it. Philippians 2 and 12 and 13, wherefore, my beloved, as
ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence. And listen to this, folks. I've
heard a lot of people preach on this and then stop. Work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling, and they'll stop
right there. But you got to read the next
verse for it to make any true sense, for it is God. which worketh
in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. That's
the only way to walk before the Lord. God has to put in you both to
will and to do of his good pleasure, and he does. He does. Because I'm gonna tell you something,
the believer's own salvation is the work of God. and the believers
walk before the Lord is the work of the Lord. It's the work of
God. And thank God. Thank God. Oh my. He effectually works in the believer. He's promised it. For we are
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God
hath before ordained that we should what? Walk in them, walk
in them. Listen, walking is ordained by
God. Walking is ordained to you, to
you by God if you know him, if you know him. Oh my. Colossians 2 and 6 says this,
as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus, so walk ye in him. Now listen to that little bitty
word at the very front of that verse. As. What? As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus. How did you receive Christ Jesus? By grace. By the power of our Lord Jesus
Christ. My So, how do we walk by grace? As you've received Christ walk
by grace By the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism into death and This is Romans six and verse
four, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness
of life. So, after you have been delivered
from death, been quickened, given life, after you've been preserved,
after you've been brought low, after you've been helped, brought
up by the Lord, then, you walk, then you walk. As God has ordained it, as God
has ordained we should. See, how is it proclaimed that
we should walk before the Lord? It's according to his word. Not
only the word of his scriptures, but the word of his power. Oh
my, I like that. To walk before the Lord, Jesus
Christ, and make no mistake about it, Jesus Christ is Lord, right? It's impossible to walk before
the Lord if you do not know the Lord. And to walk before the Lord is
to walk in faith. What's that mean? Believing the
Lord Jesus Christ. As you walk, you believe him. You understand? It's a thing.
People, you know, I can take you. Oh, I can tell you the time
and take you to the place where I believe God. Well, isn't that
right now? And isn't it right here? Because
if you don't believe God now, you never have. If you don't
believe Jesus Christ now, you don't know anything about faith.
Because He preserves the simple. That's us folks. Believers are
the simple. And he preserves us, oh my. To walk before the Lord is to
walk in faith, believing the Lord Jesus Christ, because we
believe according to the working of his mighty power. It's not anything we can take
credit for. Not the believing and not the
walking. We can't take credit for it. You understand, we believe, what
is it? That gracious is the Lord, and
righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. We
believe the Lord preserves the simple, brings them low, and
helps them. And we believe the Lord gives
us His rest. His rest. Because what? He has dealt bountifully. with
us. He's given us so much more than
we deserve. He's given us more than we've
ever asked for. Because we don't know what he's
done for us. Not the half of it, I don't think.
You understand? Scientists are going around and
they're playing with bacteria and viruses. And they're playing
with DNA and RNA and all this stuff. And they want to be able
to create life. God does it by saying the word. His thoughts are not our thoughts.
His thoughts are reality. His thoughts are reality. He
reconciled us when we were enemies. When our heart was enmity with
God. Christ died for the ungodly. And he gives life to those that
are dead in trespasses and in sins. And he does it just by the Holy Spirit. The wind blows
whether it listeth, and you can't say where it came from or where
it's going. So is everyone that is born of
God. He speaks and it's so. He thinks it and it happens.
Oh my. He reconciled us when we were
enemies and we shall be saved by his life. Life. And here's this. Believers joy in God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. We walk before the Lord And here's
what we have walked before the Lord in confidence, but not in
the flesh, not in the flesh. We have no confidence in the
flesh, but we can walk before the Lord in confidence in our
God, Jesus Christ, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Oh, I liked that. We trust him. The word of the
Lord is sufficient for those he brought low. and those he
brings up, for those he kills, and for those he makes alive.
His word is sufficient because here's the thing, folks, he said
it, he'll do it. I mean, this is the thing. That's
the God I know by his grace. That's the God I need. Because
if he don't have the power to do that, there's no hope for
me. There's no help for me. And it
says, he helped me. What did I need? What did you
need? You needed life. You needed life. We were dead. And while we were
dead, what? He saved us. He saved us. He quickened us, made us alive
when we weren't alive. Oh my. I'm gonna tell you something,
folks. Being confident of this very
thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Wait a minute. He performed it. He said it. He did it. He did it. And he's doing it. Until that day. Until that day. Because all of this comes from
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. What'd he say? Remember? I said this a few weeks
ago. Remember. Remember. Remember. Fear not,
I have redeemed thee. Oh man. Because you understand,
who is the Lord helping? Who is the Lord bringing low?
Who is the Lord preserving? He's preserving and bringing
low and bringing up all those that he redeemed with his precious
blood. Like that we're dealt with bountifully
God has dealt with us bountifully Hmm We rest in him by his shed
blood and We walk before the Lord Understand we walk before
the Lord in grace in mercy in love and in joy of our Lord Jesus
Christ We walk before the Lord because
the Lord Jesus Christ is with us and in us What you understand Now, I do understand here, in
this order, the Lord preserveth the simple, and then it says,
I was brought low, and he helped me. But listen, folks, that word,
the Lord preserveth, that's preserves. Guess what? It doesn't end. It doesn't end. He preserves
the simple while he brought us low. He preserves the simple
while he brings us up. He preserves us, the simple,
when we rest in Him. When we trust in Him. When we believe Him. And when
we walk before the Lord. The Lord preserves the simple.
Because, folks, that's still us. I like that. I like that. He keeps us, it's
prominent. He keeps us. By the power of God, through
faith, He keeps us. He preserves us. This is what I need. Our Heavenly
Father, we're thankful again for this time and this place.
Lord, thank you for bringing us low and raising us up, for
pulling us out of the horrible pit and the miry clay and putting
our feet upon the rock and ordering our steps, giving us everything
you have. You've given us life and faith
and ordained us works in your name and in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord. Thank you so
much for everything. Amen.