Let's look at Psalm 79. This is another Psalm of Asaph. O God, the heathen are come into
thine inheritance. Thy holy temple have they defiled. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants
have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the
flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood
have they shed like water round about Jerusalem and there was
none to bury them. We are become a reproach to our
neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about
us. How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry forever? Shall thy jealousy
burn like fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen
that have not known thee and upon the kingdoms that have not
called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob
and laid waste his dwelling place. Oh, remember not against us former
iniquities. Let thy tender mercy speedily
prevent us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God, of
our salvation. For the glory of thy name, and
deliver us, and purge away our sins for thy name's sake. Wherefore
should the heathen say, where is their God? Let him be known
among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood,
of thy servants which is shed. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee according to the greatness of thy power. Preserve
thou those that are appointed to die. And render unto our neighbors
sevenfold into their bosom their reproach wherewith they have
reproached thee, O Lord. So we thy people and sheep of
thy pasture will give thee thanks forever. We will show forth thy
praise to all generations. Now this particular psalm appears
to be prophetic in nature because if this Asaph that is in the title as being the one
who wrote this psalm is the one whom we believe that he is, a
contemporary of David, because many of the, some of the Psalms
David wrote to Asaph or for Asaph, then nothing of this particular
nature that he describes here had taken place up until that
point. but it was later that exactly
this very thing did take place when the Babylonians came into
Jerusalem and destroyed it according to the purpose of God and this
appears to be what he is speaking of prophetically. Now it is true
whether that is the case or not that the people of God in all
generations are the persecuted people in the earth. In other
words, the men of this world, while they hate all things in
a measure that have anything to do with God, they most specifically
hate the people of God and those that would declare the truth
of God. Now you can find a coming together of all of the religions
of the earth in a measure. There's a National Council of
Churches and there's these organizations, you know, when they'll have the
Muslims and the Jews and the Hindus and the Buddhists and
all that stuff. They'll all gather together from
time to time in these great convocations and, you know, speak about these
things. But the one group that is never
accepted in their midst is those that will not in any wise say
that there is any God except that one who has revealed himself
in Jesus Christ. That there is salvation in no
other Now there are some who will nominally say that because
I mean if a person is going to claim to be a Christian they
would have to nominally say that, would they not? I mean you couldn't
very well make sense of what the Lord Jesus Christ came to
say if you did not nominally believe that. But many claim
to believe that but nonetheless feel like that they have some
other camaraderie with all people who are people of what the world
calls faith. Now the scripture tells us that
there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. There cannot
be a faith which is generic in nature if it be the faith that
we profess. And so God's people will always
be at odds with the world. I mean we can't, that doesn't
mean we want to take up arms and go against the world. No,
we're as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But they most
surely and certainly will take up arms against us and they will
do all they can to destroy the people of God. But as the Lord
said, he would build his church and the gates of hell could not
prevail against it. And so while we have no desire
to join in with the religions of the world, we're not at war
with them. The world's gonna go its way.
But we will, by the grace of God, declare the truth of the
gospel of Jesus Christ without equivocation and unashamedly
declare that there is salvation in no other name than that which
is the name of Jesus. Now, that automatically sets
you at odds with the world. People say, well, that's cultish.
I mean, that's narrow. And it is. But you see, the disciples
of the Lord Jesus Christ They declared no other name. Paul
said, I determine not to know anything among you except Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Now, if a man desires to have
fellowship around that, I can have fellowship with him. I mean,
we don't have to agree on every jot and tittle of everything
that is found in the Bible. Because there's plenty of things
we can all find to disagree about as our understanding is varied,
but we cannot in any wise have any understanding of the salvation
of the people of God as being anything else less or more than
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I mean, that's it. And so it
is that that is a point of great contention in the earth and you
cannot be friends with the world and believe those things because
the world will not be your friend. They don't want to be your friend.
if you want to say those things and be the, and not, you know,
we'll just be, we'll just, you know, just soften up the edges
a little bit. Just don't make it quite so straightforward,
you know? And people are, you know, if
you can just say it in such a way that people don't really know
what you said, then they'll be fine with it. And that's what they have seminaries
for. is teach people how to take the
rough edges off of the Word of God. Teach people to soften it
up a little bit. You know, I've had people tell
me, if you'd just make it a little softer. I mean, it can't be any
more soft than what the Lord said. Come unto me all you that
labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. He will not quench the smoking
flax, or break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax. I
mean, He is tender and kind to all who call upon His name. But
it is His name, and His name alone. that is the place of salvation
for the people of God. But the heathen are come into
thine inheritance, and by holy temple have they defiled. They
have laid Jerusalem on heaps. And I thought about that, son,
and I believe we can see that in great measure. You know, the
church of God over the years have been assailed from without. But the greatest errors and the
greatest heartache and the greatest destruction that's been brought
to the Church of God, and I'm speaking in a corporate sense
of the Church of God, those that do profess that they believe
in Jesus Christ, has come from within. And the heathen have
come into the midst. They couldn't do anything from
without, so they came into the midst. Now the idea that the
vast majority of people is, is we need to just get as many people
in as we can. I mean just, you know, open up
the doors and get them in any way you can. And we see what
that has done. You have churches today, and
when I'm speaking church, I'm speaking kind of in a nominal
sense. You have churches today that are full of people that
were gathered in just under such a notion. And they've come in
and they've added their things to, just like Brother Al was
talking about, as men over the years, they seek to add things
to that which God said. You know, if the Lord said trumpets,
well, they want to do something better than that. It's like David.
You know, the Lord said, take the ark by the Levites, Karen. He said, well, man, we're going
to make this a big deal here. We're going to fix a brand new
ox cart. And they probably painted that
thing up, and it probably looked good. Probably better than any
ox cart anybody had ever seen. But it wasn't that which God
said to do. And so consequently, the heathen
are come into thine inheritance. They've come into the very midst.
Paul warned the Ephesian elders about it, did he not? He said,
after my departing, grievous wolves shall enter in among you,
not sparing the flock. He said, of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things together to have men come
and follow. And thus, I believe we see that
played out among the people of God. Because there's a multitude
who've moved away, you see. They've got the name as those
churches there, or one of the churches that the Lord speaks
of in the book of the Revelation. He said, you have a name to live,
but you are dead. Now, you've got all the outward
trappings and it all looks good, but the essence, that which is
the truth, your first love, you've left it. That which Paul said,
he would not leave. He would declare, you have left
it. And so it is that the inheritance of the Lord, the temple, has
been defiled. They've laid Jerusalem on heaps,
the dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to
the fowls of the heavens. They cast away much of the truth
of God and said, oh, that's old-fashioned. We don't want that. Those old
guys, they were all right for the time they were in, but they
didn't know the gospel has never changed. It's not any different
today than it was when the Apostle Paul declared it. It's Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. There's no other message that
we have. I mean, what does a gospel preacher
need to know? What does he need to know? He
doesn't have to be smart. I'm thankful for that. He doesn't
have to be eloquent. He doesn't have to be anything. He just needs to be called by
God and given a simple, plain, and straightforward message.
that says Jesus Christ died for sinners poured out his life's
blood that they might have life and that they might have that
life more abundantly what a glorious thing it is their blood have
they shed like water round about Jerusalem there was none to bury
them now you know from the book of the revelation it speaks about
the two prophets that came and prophesied and when they killed
them, it said their bodies laid in the street, and they wouldn't
allow anybody to bury them. Now, I've thought a lot about
this, and you know what, the book of the Revelation, I believe,
as the scripture says, as the book says, it's the revelation
of Jesus Christ. is not revelations concerning
things that would happen but it is the revelation of Jesus
Christ and I believe primarily that the things that are in that
book are things that are descriptive of the unfolding of the gospel
of Jesus Christ and those prophets that were slain, there were two
of them And to me, I mean, what I see and understand about that
is that this was the prophets of old and the prophets of the
new. They came speaking the Old and
what did the nation of Israel do? And the world in general
when they heard, when they knew God, what does the scripture
say? They glorified Him not as God. They killed Him. They said,
we don't want the prophets. And then when the Lord Jesus
Christ came and He raised up His prophets to go and declare
in the earth, what did the people say? By and large, I'm talking
about the religious world. What did they say? We don't want
these guys. We're going to kill them. You know, we're going to
put them out. We don't want to hear that. We want something
that's more pleasant. And there was none to bury them. There's very little respect today
unto the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Now we probably live
in an age when there's more people on earth that claim to be Christians
than at any other time on earth. And it's not up to me to determine
if people are Christians, if they are true followers of Christ
or not. The Lord knoweth them that are His. He knows those
that are His. They belong to Him. But there
are more nominal Christians in our day and it is an easier thing
to find people that claim to be the followers of Christ. But
it is very difficult to find somebody that just believes that
it is Christ and Christ alone that is their salvation. And
dear brethren, anything more than Christ is too much. Anything
less than Christ is not enough. Christ is all. He is our salvation. We'll become a reproach to our
neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them around about us. A bunch of dummies. I mean, y'all
just think that, y'all just think that it's all up to God, that
there's nothing for men to do. Well, that about sums it up.
I mean, when I read the scripture, that's about what it says, does
it not? I mean, the salvations of the
Lord. Ask Jonah. Ask him what he's
going to do. What could he do? Ask blind Bartimaeus. Blind from birth. Ask the woman
with the issue of blood who'd spent all that she had. That's
the woman taking in adultery. What can they do? It's Christ. It's Christ. Oh, what a glorious thing that
He is the Savior of sinners, that He does save sinners. I
mean, He doesn't try to save sinners. He doesn't make salvation
possible. there's a lot on the radio he's
i don't know how you got on the radio so much the same like all
of a sudden he just was on the radio and every time you talk
to people he's on there and that's one of his his finest i'd say
it says is god may he'd make salvation possible if you just
take advantage of it Well, brethren, that's the problem. You know,
I heard about that since I was that old. I heard about that.
But when the Lord showed me I was a sinner, that didn't do me one
bit of good to know that salvation was possible. I didn't want to
know if it was possible for me to be saved. I wanted the Lord
to save me. And I knew that He was the only
one that could do it. And I didn't care if they told
me, well, you don't need to be so concerned about this. I remember
when you joined the church when you were just 10 years old or
11 years old and you don't need to be saved again or nothing. You were alright. And I didn't
believe it. I couldn't believe it. Because salvation is not in what
men tell other men. See, salvation is not in me being
able to bestow it upon you. I can declare the truth unto
you by the grace of God. And God has, through the Gospel,
brought life and immortality to light. How shall they hear
without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
to be sent? But dear brethren, unless God
is pleased to give a man eyes to see and ears to hear, that's
all of no use to him. It is only in the Lord that salvation
comes to a man. Don't ever take somebody's pat
on the back and tell you you are alright. Now seek mercy at
the hand of God and don't you ever let up until God is pleased
to show you mercy. If you be concerned. Now most
people are not concerned, unfortunately. most of the religious people
i know they're not really concerned they're satisfied with that i
mean if the preacher tells them you know you you say this prayer
and you're alright they're happy with it and i don't know like
i say i don't know anything about their situation but i know this
that the lord saves those that call upon his name and he gives
men a desire to call upon his name And those whom he gives
a desire to call upon his name can't do anything else. I mean,
when that old Philippian jailer came in there and fell down at
the feet of Paul and says, man, what should I, what can I do?
I mean, he was at the end of his rope, wasn't he? I mean,
he didn't have a lot of options. And they told him the only thing
they knew to tell him. believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Now what we've done today is
we've made that, the religious world has made that into a formula.
Here, fill out this card. You fill it out and go put that
in a cabinet somewhere and if you ever get in a doubt and go
back and read it and you can say well on such and such a day
I did. I think I've probably told this
story several times but I was reading about John Warburton
was told this story about this lady that did that. You know,
she wrote, the preacher told her, now if you need to write
this out on the paper, it's such and such a day that you, you
know, this was when you asked the Lord to save you, and if
you ever doubt it, you can go back in there and get the thing. Well,
she got the doubting one day, and she went into the cabinet
to get her piece of paper, and her aunt had it. So, you know, what did she have
left? I mean, her piece of paper was
gone. She couldn't remember when it was. Well, listen, dear brethren,
I'll tell you when the salvation of God's people took place. It
was on a hill outside of Jerusalem on Mount Calvary when Jesus Christ
poured out His blood for sinners. That's where our salvation is.
It's in the blood of Christ. Oh, what a glorious Savior He
is. They have devoured Jacob, laid
waste his dwelling place. Help us, O God, of our salvation
for the glory of Thy name. For the glory of Thy name. You
know, when Achan had took the wedge of gold. And the Lord, when they went
into Jericho, he had told them not to take anything. But Achan saw that piece of gold,
and he said, man, you know what? Ain't nobody looking. I mean,
I'll get the gold and hide it. Who will ever know? And so when
the nation of Israel then went up against Ai, well, things didn't
turn out so good. And AI, the people of AI, they
pretty well worked them over. And Joshua prayed after that,
after they dealt with Achan. And his prayer to the Lord was,
he said, what wilt thou do unto thy great name? what what they
are doing to that great see salvation's about the glory of God it's not
about men see that's where people get it all messed up they think
that all this is about men and so we ought to go out here and
try to do everything we can for men but that's not why the why
we preach the gospel I mean we desire for men to hear the gospel
and believe it And we know that they will. But our purpose in
declaring the Word of God to men is that the name of Christ
might be exalted. What wilt thou do unto thy great
name? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Savior of sinners, so that He might be glorified. Oh, that
the Lord might give us a mind and heart today to believe Him,
to follow Him, to love Him, to walk in His way. don't expect that everybody will
be your friend if you do because the world has set it in against
the people of God you don't have to try some people you know they
try to be as aggravating as they can confrontational and you know
try to stir up trouble with people you don't have to stir up any
trouble with people just worship Christ and Him alone and ultimately
When men find out just what you mean by that, you'll have all
the trouble you can stand. They don't want to hear that.
It's got to be something for men to do. It's got to be someplace
that a man can say, this is my righteousness. Here's Christ's
righteousness, but here's mine. You can't have Christ's righteousness
as long as you hold on to yours. Oh, for grace to trust Him.