And looking in Psalm 118, it says, O give thanks unto the
Lord, for he is good, because his mercy endureth forever. Let Israel now say that his mercy
endureth forever. Let the house of Aaron now say
that his mercy endureth forever. Let them now that fear the Lord
say that his mercy endureth forever. I called upon the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me and set
me in a large place. The Lord is on my side. I will
not fear what man can do unto me. The Lord taketh my part with
them that help me. Therefore, I shall see my desire
upon them that hate me. It is better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in
the Lord than to put confidence in princes. All nations come
past me about, but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them. They come past me about, yea,
they come past me about, but in the name of the Lord I will
destroy them. They can pass me about like bees. They are quenched as the fire
of thorns, for in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. Thou hast thrust sword at me
that I might fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength
and song and has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation
is in the tabernacles of the righteous. The right hand of
the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is
exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth
valiantly. I shall not die, but live and
declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore,
but he hath not given me over unto death. Open to me the gates
of righteousness, and I will go in unto them and will praise
the Lord. The gate of the Lord into which
the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee, for thou
hast heard me, and art become my salvation." The stone which
the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner.
This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord
hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, send
now prosperity. Blessed be he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the
house of the Lord. God is the Lord, which hath showed
us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords,
even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, and I will praise
thee. Thou art my God, I will exalt
thee. O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Now once again,
we come to look at the Psalms and understand that this is the
prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is that One who is speaking
here and giving glory to the Lord and exhorting the sons of
God. to find help in the Lord, even
as he has expressed his own trust in the Lord. Oh, give thanks
unto the Lord, for He is good. Now, that stands alone by itself. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
for He is good. Now, if you read the second part
and you would think that he would be saying, O give thanks unto
the Lord for He is good, because His mercy endureth forever. The
Lord is not good because His mercy endureth forever. The Lord
is to be praised because He is good, and His mercy endureth
forever. Praise Him because His mercy
endures forever. In other words, those two things
are stemming from the same thing. One does not rest upon the other.
Now, a lot of people think the Lord's good because He does good
stuff. I mean, this is where you often
hear people praising the Lord. You know, when something goes
good, they praise the Lord. Oh, and we do it. We all do it.
I mean, I do that, you know. Something goes just like I want
to do it, and I thank the Lord. But you know, whenever things
don't go like we want to, is He not to be praised just the
same? I mean, is there any difference? Because something, as we look
at it, is good, we praise Him. No, the Lord is not good because
His mercy endureth forever. He's good. And His mercy endures
forever. And we are to praise Him because
His mercy endureth forever. Now, all men can't see that.
See, all men don't understand that. But those who have been
given eyes to behold Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners, that
is our testimony. What else can we say? Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, as
He walked among men, as a man, this was His prayer. Oh, give
thanks unto the Lord. And each day He did. Let Israel
now say that His mercy endueth forever. Let all the people of
God say this. Now we read these same words,
I think it was in a couple of Psalms back, I don't remember
which one, but anyway, this same couplet of verses. Let Israel
now say that His mercy endueth forever. the people of God. May
we all say that. Let the house of Aaron now say
that His mercy endureth forever. Because you know, as the Scripture
says, Aaron, he was the high priest of God, but none of the
actions of Aaron ever took away one sin. Aaron was set apart
as a holy instrument of God in the tabernacle, but Aaron himself
was not holy. He had to have the mercy of God.
So let Aaron, let the high priest, over the household of God, let
him say, Thy mercy endureth forever. And then let them now that fear
the Lord say, His mercy endureth forever. You see, that's the
blessing of the work of the Spirit of God in the children of God
to bring the gospel to them. The first work of the Spirit
of God is to cause men to fear Him. And then when a man rightly
fears the Lord, he fears that he's going to be destroyed. See,
a man doesn't fear the Lord and not have a natural understanding
that is a work of the Spirit that caused him to fear God also
caused him to see himself for what he is. And he despairs. You see, a man is brought to
despair when he knows who God is. Now as long as men think
of God as their buddy and their friend and all of that kind of
stuff, they go along their merry way. But when a man is caused
to fear God, and immediately he understands what he is, even
as Job, when the Lord appeared to him, Job said, And you know,
I heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye
seeth thee, and I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes."
Because he was caused to see himself as a sinful man. Same
was true with Isaiah, remember? When the Lord appeared to him,
high and lifted up. And he feared. Daniel feared. John, when he saw the Lord in
his vision in the book of Revelation, he said, I fell at his feet as
a dead man. But let them that fear the Lord
say that his mercy endureth forever. Because you see, the blessing
of God upon a man is to cause him to fear and tremble before
God. That's a blessing. That's not
a bad thing. You know, some people would look
at it as, well, that's terrible to be in fear of God. No, you
need to be in fear of God. It's a blessing when God causes
you to fear Him. And those that have been caused
to fear God, they can say His mercy endureth forever. Because
it is the mercy of God to show a man who He is. I called upon
the Lord in distress, and the Lord answered me and set me in
a large place. The Lord is on my side. I will
not fear what men can do unto me. Now how often it is that
we would wish to say such things, but we All of our resolve is
often mixed with fear and doubt, is it not? But the Lord Jesus,
you see, being a perfect man and having perfect faith, He
stood in that place for us and He did not fear what men would
do unto Him. He had no fear whatsoever. when
He stood before those that could take His life away. He had no
fear because His trust was in the Lord. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear what man can
do unto me. Now how many times have you heard
people, and usually politicians or leaders of government, well,
the Lord's on our side. That's not what he means here.
The Lord is on my side. In other words, I've picked out
a way I'm going to go and the Lord's on my side. I mean, you
know, like a football team's playing and the Lord's on our
side. He's for us against them. No, that's not what he means
here. But rather he means the Lord is by my side. He is there
with me. And so the Lord is on my side. I will not fear. That's why.
We will not fear because the Lord is with us. Now if the Lord
is with us, what can we fear? And of course, we will. Even though the Lord is with
us, we by and the flesh, we will fear. And we'll tremble, and
we'll doubt, and we'll question, and we'll do all these things.
But the Lord Jesus Christ, again, is that perfect man and our substitute,
had no fear. and stood in perfect faith before
the Lord. The Lord taketh my part with
them that help me. Therefore shall I see my desire
upon them that hate me." Now he goes in here and he's going
to speak forth the judgment that he brought. You remember over
in In the book of Isaiah, one of my favorite passages of Scripture,
Isaiah chapter 63, it says, Who is this that cometh from Edom
with dyed garments from Basra, this that is glorious in his
apparel? Travelling in the greatness of
his strength, I that speak in righteousness mighty to save. Now here's the Savior. He's coming
and He's glorious in His apparel. And the question comes, wherefore
art thou red in thine apparel? Why is your garments red? And he said, and thy garments
like him that treadeth in the wine-vats." You look like somebody's
been mashing grapes all day. Your garments are dyed red. And the Lord answers, I have
trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none
with me, for I will tread them in mine anger. and I will trample
them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments,
and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in
mine heart, and the year of my redeem is come. And I will look,
and I looked, And there was none to help, and I wondered that
there was none to uphold. Therefore, mine own arm brought
salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me. And I will tread
down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury,
and I will bring down their strength to the earth." Now, the Lord
says, the Lord taketh my part with them that help me. Now,
who did help him? Well, none did, but He said,
it is the Lord who helps me. He is that one that shall cause
me to see my desire upon them that hate me. Now, you know,
it's a glorious thing, and Brother Al alluded to this, that the
Lord loved us from before the foundation of the world. Because
were it not so, we would be numbered with those that hate the Lord
of whom He speaks here. Because we're not any different
than those that hate the Lord. But see, when He's speaking about
those that hate Him, He's not talking about those whom He has
redeemed. He's talking about those whom
He has not. Those that hate Him, that hate
His way, that despise the mention of His name. Not those that fall
in fear before Him. It is better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in man. And so, we don't ever learn
that lesson completely. We want to learn it. I want to
learn that. Don't you? But the Lord said
perfectly, it's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence
in men. It's better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in princes. And I fear too often those that
profess faith in Christ put too much confidence in princes. I
mean, what's the government going to do for you? I mean, when the
Lord comes in judgment, what difference does it matter if
you're a card-carrying Republican? Or if you're a Democrat or whatever
you are, it ain't going to make any difference at all. Put no
confidence in these things. The governments of the earth
will fail. And this government of this nation
will one day fail. I don't know when it'll be. Maybe
soon. It may be a hundred years from
now. Maybe a thousand years from now
if the Lord tarries that long. I don't know. But I can guarantee
you one thing that the governments, all the governments of this world,
Pass away. Put no confidence in them. It's
better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
All nations. Now here it is, the Lord is stating
His position. All nations come past Me about,
but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them. How do we know
that all the nations and governments of the earth shall fail? Because
the Lord said so. He said, I hate them. You know,
the Scripture says that the nations are as a drop of the bucket. Do you know what a drop of the
bucket is? That means that when you take a bucket and you pour
out what's in it, And then you look back in there in a few minutes
and there's a few little drops of stuff in there. You don't
even worry about that. That's just stuff that's in the
can. I mean, when you pour out a bottle of oil or a bottle of
something, I mean, do you spend half a day trying to get all
them little drops? I know you just throw the thing
in the trash. Why? Because there's a drop in the
bucket. It doesn't have any value to you. In the name of the Lord will
I destroy them. They can pass me about, yea, they can pass
me about, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them.
They can pass me about like bees. He said he was beset, I remember
in one of the Psalms, by the strong bulls of Bashan. I mean, I don't know that all
of you have been in a situation where you were surrounded by
bees, but I've been in a situation before. And you know, I mean,
there's just no way to get away from them. They're just around
you. But in the midst of all of that, the Lord had confidence
in His Father. They can pass me about like bees.
They are quenched as the fire of thorns. That is, they are
destroyed as the fire of thorns. For in the name of the Lord,
I will destroy them. The Lord's going to destroy them.
Now, whenever he gave Noah, remember he gave Noah a covenant and said,
never again will I destroy all living on the earth by water. And he won't, but he didn't say,
I won't destroy all living, did he? He said, I won't do it with
water. But there is coming a destruction
of this world in flaming fire, because that's what the scripture
says, that he comes in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God. And so He will destroy the earth
and all of its inhabitants. I will destroy them. Thou hast
thrust sore at me that I might fall, but the Lord help me."
You see, the intention of those that compass the Lord about,
and the intention of their thrust at Him was to destroy Him, but
the Lord helped him. They threw a sword at me that
I might fall. Their purpose was to destroy
the Lord Jesus Christ, but the Lord's purpose was greater. The
Lord is my strength and my song and has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation
is in the tabernacles of the righteous. The right hand of
the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is
exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth
valiantly. And so our strength in our song
has become our salvation. The voice of rejoicing See, when
the people of God, when we come together and we sing, we don't
just sing as an exercise for our lungs. We do it because we
rejoice in the things that we sing. I mean, these songs that
we sing are glorious. And it's not the tune. It's not
how they're done or anything else, but it is what they tell
us. Our rejoicings in the Lord and
the songs of rejoicing are those that cause us to be reminded
of that which He has done. The right hand of the Lord is
exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth
valiantly. Now who is the right hand of the Lord? the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father. Now does that mean that the Father
is sitting up there and then there's like a little throne
over here to the side and the Lord Jesus is on that? No, it
just means that He is the power of God revealed unto men. He's the Lord's right hand. He
is the right hand of God. And He is at the right hand of
God. The right hand of the Lord doeth
valiantly, that is, He triumphs. I shall not die, but live and
declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore,
but He hath not given me over unto death. Now, that's kind
of unusual language and what men think of as chastening. The Lord speaks of it of Himself. Now the Lord is speaking that
He has been chastened sore. Now we think of chastening as
something that the Lord does to us when we do something wrong.
You know, oh, you better not do that because the Lord's going
to get you, you know, if you do. And He's going to chasten
you. Well, that's not what the Scripture means when it speaks
about chastening. But the chastening of the Lord
is not in response to what we have done wrong, but the chasing
of the Lord is those things that He teaches us along the way.
And oft times it is that the errors that we fall into are
marked out for us so that we might be chastened in the way.
I mean, did not the Lord ordain the actions of Peter? when he
went into the yard there where the Lord was being tried? Did not the Lord ordain all those
things to come to pass? And was not Peter in the exact
place the Lord would have him to be? And yet it was Peter,
was it not, that denied the Lord? Because the Lord would show Peter
what he was by nature. See, that's what the chastening
of the Lord is. The chastening of the Lord is
to teach us what we are. And sure, sometimes the hand
of the Lord does come upon us after we have done something,
just like with Peter. I mean, he was chastened of the
Lord, was he not, when he went out and wept? But you see, Peter's
chastening began long before he began weeping. The Lord said,
those whom I love, I chasten. And He chastened Peter by bringing
him into that place that Peter might deny the Lord. See, Peter never thought he would
do that, did he? But the Lord chastened him. Why
did the Lord chasten him? Why did the Lord bring him to
that place to deny him? Why? Because he loved him. And he would not have Peter to
be trusting in himself, but he would have Peter to be trusting
in the Lord. And, you know, the Scripture
says that the Lord learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
Now that's an amazing thing. Every time I read that, I just
say, I can't get it. I mean, not fully. I mean, I
understand a little bit about it, but this is what he's speaking
about here. He learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
You see, he learned to trust the Lord because he had to trust
the Lord. He couldn't do anything else.
And that's the place the Lord brings us, is it not? He takes
away all confidence in other things so that we have to trust
Him. We don't have any other way. Now we are those who are
prone to fail. The Lord Jesus Christ was not.
He had no imperfection in Himself as He learned obedience. See,
we have to learn obedience from the standpoint of we don't want
to obey. He learned obedience from the standpoint of the fact
that He wanted to obey. But the Lord taught him those
things nonetheless. It's an amazing thing to think
how the Lord walked in every aspect of life as we. The Lord has chastened me sore,
but He hath not given me over unto death. The Lord has chastened
us as children. He's taught us, He's led us,
He's brought us along the way, but not to destroy us. For we
know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
who are the called according to His purpose. He has chastened
us over, but he has not given us over to death. Open to me
the gates of righteousness, I will go into them and will praise
the Lord. Who shall enter into the hill
of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul into vanity, nor
sworn deceitfully. Now, if I was to tell you today,
okay, here's how you can come into the presence of the Lord,
if you've not lifted up your soul under vanity or sworn deceitfully. If you've not done any of those
things, then you can go into the presence of the Lord. That
would be a terrible thing, would it not? I mean, how could we
do it? We wouldn't be able to do it. We would despair of ever
coming into the presence of the Lord. But he that hath clean
hands will come into the presence of the Lord. Now some people
seem to think that they're going to bring clean hands to the Lord.
But I'm telling you, if it's not that the clean hands of the
Lord Jesus Christ are put before the Lord in our behalf, then
we won't have any. And so it is, open to me the
gates of righteousness, because He's the only one to whom those
gates can be opened. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
even be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Because you see, He's the only
one who's ever entered into heaven on the basis of His own righteousness. Religious men don't believe that.
Religious men believe they've got something. Well, you know,
I know we need the Lord, but I mean, you've got to do something.
I mean, you've got to bring something. It can't just all be of the Lord.
Why? What would keep men from just
going off and doing all kinds of things? Well, again, the Lord,
He brought it forth in Brother Al's message today. The Lord's
written His law in the hearts of His people. He constrains
His people to love His way, to delight in those things imperfectly
as we are imperfect creatures. But the Lord Jesus Christ, being
a perfect man, entered into the presence of God with perfect
righteousness. The gate of the Lord into which
the righteous shall enter. I'm glad. that there is a gate
which the righteous shall enter. And I'm glad that he who is righteous
has entered that gate. I will praise thee for thou has
heard me and art become my salvation. The stone which the builders
refused has become the head, stone of the corner. Now the
world didn't see Jesus Christ as we see Him by the grace of
God, by the mercy of God, as we behold Him as the Savior of
sinners. The world does not see Him in that way. The world sees
Christ as a good man. The religious world sees Him
as an example. But you see, the people of God,
those to whom the Lord has taught who the Lord is, He's the headstone
of the corner. He's the whole thing. He's holding
up the whole thing. Just recently, as we've seen
this collapse of this building down in Miami, There was some stone, if you
want to call it that, that was holding up that whole building.
And when that part broke, that whole building came down, did
it not? Christ is the headstone of the
corner. If you take Christ away, every building will collapse.
I mean, He is the headstone of the corner. He is that one upon
which all of our salvation is built. It's not partial. The stone which the builders
refused. You see, men, by nature, they're not going to accept that.
Every man. I mean, this is ingrained in
a man from the day that he draws his first breath. He has to be
untaught this. You don't have to teach him.
Because he thinks he can bring something to God. He believes
everything is going to be alright. He thinks, by nature, that he
can make a deal with God. He thinks, you know, God is going
to show favor to him. I mean, men believe that. That's
how they think. But Christ alone is that one. And they refuse Him. See, when
men will not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, what that means
is to rely totally upon Him, then they despise Him. They refuse
Him. And He is that One who has been
refused by the builders, those who go about to build their own
houses of righteousness. This is the Lord's doing. It
is marvelous in our eyes. It is the Lord's doing. Who can
say? I mean, how could we have ever
been saved were it not that the Lord provided salvation for us? This is the day which the Lord
has made. What day is He talking about? The day of salvation.
This is the day. Dear brethren, this is the manifestation
of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the earth. This is the last
time. This is it. This is the glorious
time when the Lord would manifest and show to men the salvation
which is in Christ. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord.
O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Oh, what a glorious
thing. That's the message that a lot
of people's preaching today is in prosperity, but not this kind. See, they don't want this kind
of prosperity. They want something they can hold in their hand.
But the prosperity of the Lord is the real prosperity when He
shows a man the glory of this headstone of the corner. Blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. We have blessed
you out of the house of the Lord. God is the Lord, which hath showed
us light, buying the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns
of the altar." Now, you know, the horns of the altar were put
there so that whenever they brought the living sacrifice and put
it on the altar to sacrifice it, that it couldn't get off.
They tied it down. That's what the horns of the
altar were for. They tied it down with ropes
because, I mean, the old bull or whatever it was, he was trying
to get away. But they tied him down. They
bound the sacrifice with cords. But see, here the Lord is speaking. And he's saying to the father,
bind the sacrifice. He says, I won't. See, he was
a willing sacrifice. For the joy that was set before
him endured the cross. He gladly laid down his life,
and he desired to be bound to that altar of sacrifice for his
people, even unto the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, and
I will praise thee. in the midst of all of that.
Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. I praise Thee, O God. Thou art my God, I will exalt
Thee. O give thanks unto the Lord,
for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. Now here he
is, that one who has willingly offered himself without blemish
to God. glad to do so. And yet He says, for He is good,
for His mercy endureth forever. Because you see, for the joy
that was set before Him, He desired to deliver His people. And the
only way His people could be delivered was through the sacrifice
of Himself. And He was glad. He said, I want
to do that. And He did do that. And He said,
the mercy of the Lord endures forever. Oh, what a glorious
thing when we remember that which Christ endured for our sake.
And it's there that the mercy of the Lord is revealed completely.