We're looking in Psalm 103. We
sang that song a moment ago, Awake my soul in joyful lays,
and sing thy great Redeemer's praise. You know, the word lay
is not one that's used very often in our language today, but it
simply means a hymn, a song, joyful song. And this psalm,
of course, as we have pointed out, it begins with praise to
the Lord and ends with the same. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And such is the place for men
to glorify God. And we have no greater purpose
in the earth than to praise and magnify His name. Men think of
many things that they count to be great accomplishments. But
there is no greater accomplishment that a man is brought from darkness
to light and brought from a place of seeking his own praise to
seeking that of the Lord. And the only way that that occurs
is by the grace of God that brings men from darkness to light. Because
how can a man change his own way? Men think they can, and
some make great attempts at it. But unless the Lord changes a
man's heart, that man will not be changed. And what a merciful
God we serve that He does change men. send His mercy and grace down
and snatch us off as a brand from the burning. Else how could
we have ever known His name? Men don't know anything about
the Lord. Every man is born without excuse
because he can look around him and he can know of a surety that
the Lord created the heavens and the earth. You can't deny
that. Now men set out to deny it and they come up with all
sorts of theories that would deny it. But the reality is that
all men without exception or without excuse before God simply
on the basis of the fact that they could see this creation
which He made and did not give Him glory. for it. When they
knew God, the scripture says, it doesn't say they tried to
know God, it said when they knew God, they glorified Him not as
God. but they became vain in their
imagination. Now that's where men are by nature,
vain in their imagination. Men have an imagination. The
Lord gave men imaginations, but the imagination of men is always
under vanity. It's always seeking out vanity
apart from the grace of God to change that course and turn a
man to seek him. Now we've looked at this psalm,
and I wanted to look at a couple of things. We've read some of
this last week. I'll read these last 12 verses. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he
remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass,
as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind
passeth over it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know
it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his
righteousness unto the children's children. To such as keep his
covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom
ruleth over all. Bless the Lord, ye His angels,
that excel in strength, and that do His commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of His Word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye His
hosts, ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure. Bless the Lord,
all His works, and all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord,
Oh my soul. Now one thing that we see as
we read this Psalm is the stark contrast between the eternal
nature of God and the finite nature of man. Now man has no
being apart from God creating him and making him to have being.
In him we live and move and have our being. And we have nothing
that we have not received. We have nothing that the Lord
has not seen fit to give us. And you know, there's nothing
that takes the Lord by surprise. There's nothing that happens
outside of his ordained purpose. He's God and He does all things
according to the good pleasure of His will. That's what the
scripture tells us. And so we are, in contrast to
that, what do we do? What do we control? You know,
men think they're in control, don't we? I mean, we think we're
in control of our life, we're in control of our destiny, we're
in control of all this, but you're not in control of anything. Because
you can't even, as the Lord said in that scripture you read a
moment ago, can a man change the color of his hair? Now I
know men can superficially do that, but you can't make it grow
out in another color. You can cover up the gray hair,
but you can't keep it from being gray. You know, and they've got
things that they claim will help men grow their hair back when
they go bald, but you can't keep yourself from going bald. I mean,
men have devised many devices and think many things, but the
Lord is the one that controls all these things. I mean, just
think about the beating of your heart. How many beats of your
heart are left, do you suppose? I mean, what's your heartbeat
about 60 or 70 times a minute? Something like that, I think.
And, you know, your life, my life, all of our lives are marked
out. He set the bounds of our habitation
that we cannot pass. And so there is a finite number
of heartbeats that's been given to every man. Some men are given
more than others. I was reading about a fellow
last night. He was 107 years old and still
preaching at 107 years old and he decided he'd go see his grandchildren
down in Georgia and he went down to see them and he got sick on
the way and he died. But was that by chance? No, the
Lord knew exactly where he was because that's where the Lord
put him. And he ordained the number of beats of that man's
heart. He couldn't have made it beat one beat longer. He couldn't
have made it beat one beat less because it was in the hands of
the Lord to do as he saw fit. And so the Lord is that one who
in quite in contrast to men who are finite creatures, we can't
change a thing about things that go on. Now we can, we think that
we can make attempts to do so, and by, you know, according to
what he has taught us, we're not saying that a man shouldn't
attempt to do the things that he knows to do. Of course he
should. But the reality is that regardless
of what you think you will set out to do, you won't necessarily
accomplish that apart from the grace of God, the mercy of God.
And so when we read this psalm, it says, he knoweth our frame,
he remembereth that we are dust. Now what did the Lord create
man out of? The dust of the earth. From dust
we came and to dust we shall go back. And the Lord knows that. See, he's not taken aback by
it. It's not that things didn't turn
out like he planned, but that's what he ordained to be, was that
man would come from the dust and he would go back to the dust.
But the Lord reigneth forever. As for man, his days are as grass. as the flower of the field, so
he flourisheth. And man does have a flourishing
period in his life. You know, when a man's young,
and he's got a tiger by the tail, and he just sees the world stretching
out before him as this broad expanse, and he's full of vim
and vigor, and he's, you know, he just thinks that he's got
it down pat. He's gonna do it, you know. He flourisheth. But the wind
passes over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know
it no more. You know, that's kind of a bleak
thing for a man to look at if he does not have the knowledge
of the redemption and the mercy of God in Christ. It would be
a bleak existence for sure to know that that's all there is
to it. I mean, that a man just gonna
flourish and then the wind blows and pretty soon he's gone and
then what do men, men don't think of, you know, when somebody dies,
even somebody you love greatly, the amount of time that you spend
thinking about them grows less and less as time goes on because
of the very fact of the passing nature of time. I mean, You know, you just think
of all the people that have lived in this community in the last
200 years or 150 years. I don't know how long ago Brian's
been here. I reckon it's been here probably
in the early 1800s, I would guess. Sometime along in there was when
this part of the state began to be inhabited. So let's say
Think of all those people that's lived in the 200 plus years that's
been here in O'Brien, but how many of them have we even thought
about? How many of them did we even
know their name? How many of them did we ever
know what they set out to do in their life? Or all the aspirations
that they had? But all these things passed away,
and there are no more. And that's what the Lord said.
I mean, it plainly says, the wind passeth over and it's gone.
I mean, those people, realistically, except for the things that they
caused to put in motion and what not through the hand of the Lord,
they could have never even been here. We wouldn't have known
it. Know nothing about it. The place thereof shall know
it no more. We don't know those things that
took place. A lot of things. You realize
how many times that people gathered around a table somewhere right
here in this community and had fellowship with one another and
enjoyed a meal together. And it was a joyful time for
them. It was real. But the wind bloweth, and it
is no more. And again I say that would be
a very bleak consideration of things if that's all there was.
But you see, by the grace of God, God has taught us that there
is more. than that. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Now, why
do men fear him? Because he gives them that fear.
See, a man can't fear God. You can't teach somebody to fear
God. I mean, you know, a lot of times, I mean, you know, when
we were kids, I remember my grandma, she used to, you know, we'd be
doing something that we shouldn't be doing, and she'd say, you
know, the Lord is gonna get you for that, or he's going, you
know, this is going this, and that was, and I guess in a childlike
way, in some fashion, you know, it made, put some fear in my
heart to think about the judgment of God upon things, but it didn't
last. Wasn't anything to it. Pretty
soon I got to a place where that was like water off a duck's back.
I didn't even think about it. But the Lord is able to cause
a man to fear Him. And you can't tell when that
happens or when it's gonna happen. I mean, you can't say, yes, sir,
when you get to be 24 years old, the fear of God's gonna come
on you. No, you don't know that. I don't know that. The fear of
God may never come upon a man. A man may go through his whole
life. Many men live their whole life without the fear of God.
And they're not those who are spoken of here, because the scripture
says that the Lord has mercy on those that fear Him. Now,
why do they fear Him? Because He showed mercy to them. See, a lot of people get the
cart ahead of the horse, and they think that because men fear
God, then God says, well, there's a man that fears me, so I'm going
to show mercy to him. That's not the way it works.
You see, the mercy of God precedes the fear of God in a man. And
it is true that the Lord shows mercy to them that fear Him,
but they fear Him because He has shown mercy to them. What
a great mercy it is from the hand of the Lord to be caused
to fear God, to tremble at the mention of His name, to be in
awe of His presence. The mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. That is the
mark of the mercy of God. You find men that fear God. I'm
not talking about men that live in abject fear. I'm talking about
men who have reverence unto the name of the Lord. Wherever that
you find that, then you find those upon whom the Lord's mercy
has been visited and His righteousness unto children's children, to
every generation, the psalmist said. Now does that mean that
we can cause our children to fear God? Well, I think that
you can give them a healthy understanding of what the authority of God
looks like by being a parent that demands obedience of his
children. I mean, that's a duty of a parent,
is it not, to teach his child to obey him? And that's not an
easy thing. Children don't want to obey,
why? Because they want to do what they want to do. Now, we
live in a society that has no fear of God, and they have cast
off those parental responsibilities in many cases, and they don't
teach their children to obey them. They just say, well, whatever
they want to do, you know. We don't want to stifle their
creativity. Well, I'm glad that my parents
stifled my creativity. You know, a child needs his creativity
stifled, because if not, he'll create many things unto his own
destruction. And by the grace of God, he has
given us godly parents that did teach us. And hopefully, the
sons of God will continue in that way. But his righteousness
unto children's children, he does indeed, He doesn't stop
with one generation. You see, the Lord has a people
in every generation, in every tribe, kindred, and tongue. And
it doesn't make any difference what happens. The Lord has His
people. I don't know who they are always,
but the Lord has His people scattered wherever He would have them to
be. And in every generation, he will be that one who delivers
his truth unto those whom he loves. To such as keep his covenant
to those that remember his commandments to do them. To such as keep his
covenant. Now that would be pretty, if
we thought of that as the Lord saying, if a man keeps my law,
I'll show mercy to him. We'd all be ruled out pretty
quick. But there's a lot of people that
think they keep the law of God. There's a lot of people that
the Pharisees did. I mean, if you'd ask any one
of the Pharisees if he was a law keeper, he would have said, yes
I am. I keep it in every jot and tittle. Yet the Lord said, you're of
your father's the devil. Because he said, you think that
your righteousness is that with which God is pleased. But the
righteousness which pleases the Father is the righteousness of
the covenant. Not the covenant of law, but
that covenant which He made with His Son. Now when we say the
covenant that God made with His, that the Father made with the
Son, we don't mean that they sat down around a table somewhere
and wrote out some document. But in the purpose of God, It pleased the Father to send
His only begotten Son into the world to die for sinners. And
it pleased the Son to purchase the redemption of those whom
the Father had given Him. Now He said, All that the Father
giveth Me shall come to Me. What a glorious thought! all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. He didn't say most
of those that the Father had given me or He didn't say there's
going to be some men that's going to come to me and then I'm going
to say that they were given to me because they came. No, He
said all that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Why? Why would He not
cast out one that came to Him? Because they belong to Him. I
mean, can a father cast off his child? Can a mother cease to
love the child of her own womb? I know in the sinfulness of men
that does occur from time to time. It happens in this world,
but it does not happen in the kingdom of God, because the Lord
will not cast off those whom he loves, whom he loved with
an everlasting love. And that's what it says here,
from everlasting. to everlasting, upon them that
fear him and his righteousness, to such as keep his covenant."
Now, the keeping of a covenant, that doesn't mean obeying the
covenant, but it means having regard to the covenant. To keep
the covenant is to have regard to it, that is to have the thought
towards it. And that covenant of grace and
mercy which is given to us in Jesus Christ is that covenant
that we consider, not what we have done, but what He has done.
You see, He fulfilled the covenant. The promise was given to Abraham
and his seed, not as of many, but as of one, even Jesus Christ
the righteous. Christ is the fulfillment of
the covenant of God. He is that one who has remembered
the commandments of the Lord to do them. I mean, if you had
to stand before the Lord and give an account of having kept
His commandments in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven, What would you say? Now, the
self-righteous man, he thinks, well, I'd say plenty. But the
man that knows himself to be a sinner, he wouldn't be able
to say anything. Because he knows that if he's offended in one
point, he is offended in all. And he stands without excuse
before Almighty God. And so, dear brethren, if our
salvation depended on our keeping the commandments of God, we'd
be done for before we ever started. But our salvation depends on
Him who has kept that covenant, that one who has kept those commandments,
that one who was tempted in all points like as we are yet without
sin, that one who is righteous without any fault. before Almighty
God. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor
sworn deceitfully. There's only ever been one man
that walked on the face of the earth that could fit that bill,
and that was Jesus Christ the righteous. And so our righteousness,
the keeping of the commandments, for our sake, is that covenant
upon which we rely. We do keep that covenant. That
is, we have regard to it. We don't have regard under anything
we've done. We have regard under what He
has done. He is the covenant keeper. He's
the commandment keeper. The Lord hath prepared His throne
in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all. What a glorious
thing. You remember, every time I think
about a king on his throne, I think of Nebuchadnezzar. You remember Nebuchadnezzar,
he ruled over the greatest kingdom that the world had ever seen
at that time. I mean, he was a powerful king.
His life and death was in his hand. But the Lord sent him out
into the field to eat grass like an ox. And he said, at the end
of those days, I says, I lifted up my eyes to heaven. I said,
the most high ruler within the army of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth. And there's none that can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? You see, Nebuchadnezzar
was brought down to a place to fear God. He was brought to a
place to understand that there was one who was greater than
him. Oh, I wish and I hope that the
mercy of God might be shown in our day upon those who would
lead us in our land to see that very thing, that they have no
power at all except that which is given to them by the Lord.
And they strut about in their ways and think that they have
all these things that they can do, when in reality they can
do nothing except that which the Lord has purposed. His kingdom
His throne is in the heavens and His kingdom ruleth over all.
There's not an aspect of anything that transpires in the world
that His kingdom does not cover. Not from the least little blade
of grass breaking out of the ground to the jet planes that's
flying through the air. It doesn't make any difference
what it is. The Lord is God over all these things. But more importantly,
his kingdom ruleth over all in that he will call the subjects
of his kingdom unto his throne. You see, all of those that belong
to him shall hear the truth of God and the truth shall make
them free because it pleases him to send his word that they
might hear it. And you know, the Lord's hand's
not shortened, say, by many or by few. And men often try to
define how it is that a man's gonna hear it. I think sometimes
that men are taught the Word of God in ways that they had
no idea they would be taught the Word of God. You know, just
oft times, I mean, the Lord doesn't need men to teach men His Word. Now He does use men to teach
men His Word, but He's not dependent on it, because the Lord can teach
people His truth in whatever way He sees fit to do so. And
in order for a man to hear the truth of God, God must open his
heart and his mind to receive it. The Lord hath prepared his
throne in the heavens, his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless ye the
Lord, bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength,
and that do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his
word. The Lord has a heavenly creation that's never sinned. He made a heavenly creation and
a part of it did sin. Now why did they sin? Well, they sinned because it
was in their heart and mind to sin, I suppose. I mean, that's
where sin arises, does it not? But they were created to fulfill
the Lord's purpose, and the Lord was not taken aback when a third
of the angels rebelled against Him, because the Lord had ordained
these things to come to pass, just as surely as He ordained
all things that have transpired in the world to come to pass.
Now, some people get all worried about that when you start saying
stuff like that, because they think that you're accusing God
of something. Men cannot accuse God of anything. Oh, they might in their mind,
but you see, God is an eternal God, and He's in a realm which
is outside of the realm of men. Men have no whatsoever any control
or any ability to call God into account for anything. but he
is his own accountant. He does according to his will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay his hand. So it's impossible that a man
should accuse God. Now it is possible for men to
excuse themselves. See, that's what the real issue
is, that men want to look at the things and say, well, and
Paul actually, he talked about this. He said, well, who is it
that's, if you, what he was saying was, well, if God's absolutely
sovereign, who is it that hadn't done the will of God? And in one sentence of the word,
you could say that's true. Judas did the will of God, did
he not? Of course he did. But could Judas say, not my fault? No. Nay, but, O man, who art
thou that replyest against God? Can he not form one vessel unto
honor and one unto dishonor? What could we say? What could
a man speak of? What railing accusation could
he bring against God? None at all. And so what does
that do? That brings man down to the dust
before Almighty God. which is the place of where we
ought to be, dear brethren. Bless the Lord, ye His angels,
the angels that excel in strength. We don't have the power that
the angels have. The angels, many of them, according
to what the scripture says, they're sent to watch over us. Now, I
don't know how all that works, but there is a There is a realm in which the
angels dwell that we can't see unless the Lord enables us to
see it. And remember old Elisha's servant,
I believe it was, he was all worried about this king coming
to get him and whatnot. And the prophet prayed and said,
Lord, open his eyes and he might see. And he looked and he said
on the mountains around him was chariots of fire and the angels
with flaming swords. And that's what surrounds the
people of God. Now like I say, I don't know
how all that works and that, but the Lord has given the angels
charge over His people. Bless the Lord, ye His angels.
See, but even the angels, those that have greater power than
man could ever imagine, even the angels must give praise unto
their Creator. What a glorious thing. that do
his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless
ye the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his
pleasure, those whom the Lord has sent. What is a minister? Now a lot of people, when they
hear that word minister, they think of somebody that's a preacher.
I don't know where, I mean, I guess preaching is a ministry. But
everybody, just because a man doesn't preach doesn't mean he's
not a minister. You see, God's people are ministers
one to another. We ought to be ministering one
to the other. There's many forms of ministry.
Ministry is not somebody standing up and talking. That's not ministry
per se. But ministry is service. And
are we not to be the servants one of another? Are we not to
bear one another's burdens, so fulfill the law of Christ? Are
we not to love one another? Are we not to esteem one another
higher than ourselves? See, that's a ministry one to
the other. Bless the Lord, all ye his host, ye ministers of
his that do his pleasure. For the Lord works in us both
to will and to do of his good pleasure. And that's why he puts
people together in local assemblies, that they might build one another
up in the most holy faith. And they don't necessarily do
that with words, although it may use words. But you see, we
build one another up in the faith just by simply walking in the
light that we've been given. And we minister to one another
as we see one another, when we pray together, when we see one
another and we gather together to worship the Lord, that's a
ministry one to the other. We encourage one another. Bless
the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Where is that? Is there a place
where it's not His dominion? There's no place. All places
belong to Him. All things belong to Him. In
all His works, in all places of His dominion, bless the Lord,
O my soul. And so that's the only thing
that, there are many questions. that men have in their mind,
and often, you know, they think, well, if they can't come up with
this answer, you know, if they can't have ever answer, the natural
man says, well, if I can't come up with an answer, then I'm just
not gonna believe. But see, a man doesn't believe
by nature. He don't have to set out not
to believe. I mean, if somebody says, well,
I don't believe, we shouldn't be amazed at that, should we? Because men by nature don't believe
God. I mean, it's when men do believe
God that it's an amazing thing. Because we know that if a man
does believe the things of God, it's because God has visited
him in mercy and kindness drawn unto himself. And so what, the
only thing that, what a blessing it is to be brought to the place
with the psalmist, that we can with our whole hearts say, bless
the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his
holy name. Because he's worthy to be praised.
He's full of glory. He's full of mercy to all who
call upon him. To all that fear him. To those
that tremble before him. He'll cast none away. But He'll
draw them unto Himself. What a glorious thing. What a
glorious Savior. A wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord. A wonderful Savior is He. He
hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock where rivers of treasure
I see. What a glorious thing.