Well, we're looking once again
in Psalm 37. And I'm not going to read the
whole thing since we read it last week. We'll begin there
in verse 11. It says, But the meat shall inherit
the earth. That's what the Lord said, wasn't
it, in the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. The meek
shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the
abundance of peace. The wicked ploddeth against the
just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh
at him, for he seeth that his day is coming. The wicked have
drawn out their sword, or have drawn out the sword, and have
bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such
as be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into
their own heart, and their bow shall be broken. A little that a righteous man
hath is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms
of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholdeth the righteous. The Lord knoweth the days of
the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall
not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they
shall be satisfied. But the wicked shall perish,
and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs. They
shall consume away into smoke shall they consume away." Now,
I'm just going to stop there. We may go further than that,
but there is much said in this psalm concerning the wicked. Now, any man that knows anything about
himself would have to confess that he could easily be numbered
among the wicked. And we can't sit back and say,
oh, them old wicked folks, we're not among them. No, we're just
as wicked as any man that has ever been. The only difference
between any man and the wickedest man that has ever manifested
his wickedness in the earth is the grace of God. It's that which
has restrained him and kept him back because every one of us
have a bent to go in the way of the wicked. Now, why has the Lord created a world
and put wicked men in it? Now that's a question a lot of
philosophers have spent a lot of time trying to answer that
question. And the only answer that I have
for that question is, even so, Father, for so it seemed good
in thy sight. You know, I don't have an answer
for why some men hate God and some men are called to love Him.
I know this, that the only difference between the two is again the
grace of God. It's the mercy of God that He
shows to some. And I believe, in my understanding
of what the Scripture says, that the purpose that the wicked serve
in the earth is to show the contrast between those whom the Lord loves
and those whom He has appointed unto this place of destruction.
Now, some would say, well, that's a pretty hard doctrine. Well,
you know, when you read the Scripture, that's pretty much what it says.
I mean, you can't escape that. Now, some people think that,
well, you know, that causes some people to be lifted up with pride.
No, if a man rightly understands What I just said, and he finds
himself not in the path to destruction, it is owing again not to anything
in himself but to the mercy of God. The only thing that has
kept us back right now, the only reason that you have not slipped
into eternal destruction is because of the mercy of Almighty God
who has kept you back from it. He has given those whom He loves
a desire to know His Word, to know His way, to walk in it,
to manifest His name in the earth. I mean, we don't go about wanting
our names lifted up. We don't desire people to know
necessarily even who we are. But we do desire that men might
know who Christ is, because He is the Savior of sinners, and
He is the Savior of those who call upon His name. But it says
here that the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves
in the abundance of peace because a man who has been made meek...
Now you remember the Scripture said that Moses was meek more
so than any man upon the earth. And it just simply means that
the Lord humbled him before Himself. He understood having been brought
face to face with the true and living God, he understood what
he was by nature. Because the Lord caused his glory
to pass by. And he didn't let Moses see it.
He said, when I'm almost out of sight, and I'm going to uncover
your eyes a little bit and you can see my backside, because
no man can look on God and live. His glory is so great. Moses
understood that. He was meeker. than other men
in the earth, but the meek shall inherit the earth." Those who
know themselves to be without any help or hope in their own
selves. They are as a child who is meek. You know, a child is helpless. He cannot do anything. I mean,
he might bow up and show himself from time to time, but when all
is said and done, he really knows he cannot do anything and he
is dependent on his parents. And so it is that the children
of God know that. I mean, we sometimes, you know,
get caught up in our own way and self and everything, but
by the grace of God, if the work of God has been performed in
us, we do indeed know that we have no strength except that
which comes from Him. I mean, we can't accomplish anything
or do anything apart from His mercy. The meek shall inherit
the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace, because
there is peace in Christ. And the only men that will seek
Christ are the meek. It's those that have been stripped
of all hope in anything else. See, as long as a man has hope
in something, he'll cling to it, won't he? I mean, you know,
if a man gets a disease and the doctor says, well, you know,
we can perform this surgery, and help you out of this, then
he says, well, go on and do it. Because he's clinging to that. He said, well, I believe that's
going to do me some good. He hopes it will. He doesn't
know if it will or not. And so it is that his consideration
is in that one in whom he trusts. And so it is with the people
of God. They delight themselves in the
abundance of peace. But the wicked, in contrast,
says, "...the wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth
upon him with his teeth." Now I think this is specifically,
as are all of the Psalms, pointing to Christ. The wicked did indeed
gnash upon Him with their teeth. I mean, Scripture says that they
ran to Him and gnashed upon Him. They despised him. They plucked
out his beard. They wanted to just hurt him.
I mean, they just wanted to do what they could to destroy him.
The wicked plotted against the just. Who was the just? There
has only been one just man in the earth. And they crucified
him. They gnashed upon him. The Lord
shall laugh at him. For you see, that is day coming.
The Lord shall have them in derision. That is what the Scriptures I
mean, he sees the wicked. He sees the day of the wicked.
He knows the end of the wicked. Now, he's appointed the wicked
to the day that he appointed him unto, but he knows what it
is. The wicked in his pride, he says,
well, you know, I won't let God do this to me. I will triumph. That was a whole thing that happened
there on Calvary. as men would have destroyed Christ,
crucified Him, put Him out of the way. We don't want this man
to rule over us. We won't see him. How foolish. But you see, the Lord shall laugh
at him, for he seeth that his day is coming. You know, there
are very few things that can show a man his weakness than
when he has done all that he can, His opponent laughs at him. You know, it's like in the old
Free Studios movies whenever Moe or one of them would put
his hand on top of Curly's head and he'd be trying to hit him
and he couldn't because he was holding him off. I mean, what
was he doing? He was having him under his.
He knew he couldn't do anything. Well, the Scripture says that
the Lord shall laugh at him for he knows what the end of that
man is. The wicked have drawn out the
sword and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy
and to slay such as be of an upright conversation." You see,
that is the purpose of the wicked is to destroy righteousness.
Men do not, by nature, cannot sit idly by while other men walk
in righteousness by the grace of God. They do not like it.
Why? Because it puts them in a bad light. See, men like for
all men to do something. You know, when you get a bunch
of guys together and they're going to do something that they
know they shouldn't do, they try to get everybody else involved,
don't they? You know, come on, let's do this.
I mean, because they don't want to do it themselves. They want
to bring everybody else into the same picture as they are. And that is the way of the wicked. They've drawn their sword. and
have bent their bow to cast down the poor needy to slay, such
as be of an upright conversation." And that was played out in the
case of the Lord. Listen to this, "...their sword
shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken."
You remember the story of Mordecai and Haman. Desired to destroy
Mordecai. And he had that gallows built.
And he got the king to say, you know, whoever this was, he didn't
name who it was, but he said, you know, he needs to be destroyed.
And the king said, yeah, make your gallows. And so he made
this gallows. But it turned out he was the one that was hung
on his own gallows. And that's exactly what it says
here. Their swords shall enter into their own heart, and their
bows shall be broken." That is, those instruments of death which
they would have brought against someone else are broken in their
hands. A little that a righteous man
hath is better than the riches of many wicked. Now, it's better,
David said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper. in the house of my God than to
dwell in tents of wickedness. That is, I would rather be at
the lowest place that you could possibly be, and yet be walking
in the path of the Lord than to be dwelling in great sumptuous
fare wherever. A little that a righteous man
hath is better than the riches of many wicked. But again, this
is, I believe, a picture of Christ. Now Christ was a man. One of the disciples said, Lord,
show me where you dwell. He said the foxes have holes
and the birds have nests, but the Son of Man had not where
to lay His head. He didn't even have a house.
He didn't have a place to live. He was without anything in the
earth as far as men were concerned. He didn't have any money. I mean,
that would be kind of a strange thing according to some of these
preachers you listen to nowadays, that they kind of place what
the blessing of God is by how much money they can amass and
what all they've got. And one's going to buy two or
three new planes or something. I don't remember what all he
was planning on doing, but he had to have a bunch more money
to get that. Well, the Lord didn't have anything.
And so it is, it says here, a little that a righteous man hath better
than the riches of many wicked. It doesn't make any difference
what a man has if he does not have the grace of God. And that's what the righteous
man has, you see, because the righteous man is hidden in Christ. And he is a recipient of that
grace which Christ alone possesses the righteousness that he wants.
How do we become righteous? Only one way, and that is that
the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us so that we stand
there in His righteousness. That is exactly what we are setting
forth here today as we take this bread and this wine. It is that
which Christ provided for us in our behalf. For the arms of
the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholdeth the righteous. Now, it's kind of a picture here,
the arms of the wicked shall be broken, and then he says,
the Lord upholdeth the righteous. And you know, you hold things
with your arms. They can't uphold anything, can
they? But the Lord upholds the righteous. They can't hold themselves
up, but He holds them up. But the arms of the wicked shall
be broken, and they won't hold anything, even though they may
boast. of what they know or what they
are. The Lord knoweth the days of
the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall
not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they
shall be satisfied. The Lord does know the days of
the upright. Now, the upright is primarily,
again, speaking of Christ. Now, this is like a broken record,
but this is the truth. And God's people don't ever tire
of hearing that. Now, religious men like to be
told how righteous they are. Religious men like to be told
what good work they are doing. Religious men like to be patted
on the back so that they will be encouraged to do more. But the Lord knoweth the days
of the upright. and the days of the upright are
the days of Jesus Christ. The Lord knows His days because
He appointed Him to be the Savior of sinners from the beginning.
This wasn't a hatched up scheme that took place later on after
Adam fell. Now if you listen to a lot of
people, and this is a pretty widespread philosophy, is that
the Lord created Adam with the purpose from the beginning that
Adam was going to Do good and everything was going to go great.
And then, lo and behold, Adam messed it all up and God said,
well, now what am I going to do? And he had to come up with
some other scheme. But dear brethren, before ever one tree was planted
in the Garden of Eden, The Lord determined exactly what Adam
was going to do and how the stuff was going to turn out. And the
purpose for it all was that he might bring glory to his name
in the redemption of sinners. Now that is a glorious thing,
and a lot of people do not like that. I like that. I am glad that the Lord is determined
to save His people. I am glad to hear that. Now some
people are like, well, we just wish we were just all off on
our own, you know. We want to be carried along and
just make a free will decision. When we get good and ready, we'll
serve God. Well, it won't ever happen except
by the mercy of Almighty God. The Lord knoweth the days of
the upright. He knows the way of Christ and
those who are in Him. Because you see, everything that
Christ has, He has been pleased to give to His people. We have
been what made heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Now
that is... I can't really just wrap my mind
around the whole, you know, the breadth and the length of that,
but just to consider it for a moment, that all that Christ has, He
has with His people. We share in all that Christ has
done. We share in all that Christ has. What a glorious thing! Their
inheritance shall be forever, those who are in Christ. What
a glorious thing! They shall not be ashamed in
the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. Obviously, this does not speak,
and of course, he's going to go on down here in a minute and
speak about he's never seen the righteous forsaken or their seed
begging for bread. But the provision that's made
for the people of God, he's not talking about provision in this
world. I mean, there's plenty of God's
people that are in places of famine and places of starvation. I mean, you can just look in
the pages of the Scripture and find those that have been in
the same situation. I mean, he speaks of that one
Lazarus who was laid and said the dog licked his sores. I mean,
he was in a bad condition. But yet, it says here, that they
shall not be in the days of famine, they shall be satisfied. Why?
Because they are not looking for a satisfaction of this world's
goods. Now all of us want as much as
we can get in this world, you know. I mean, that's just the
natural thing of the way. But that's not the satisfaction
of God's people is to gain a bunch of stuff. and to judge our blessing
based on what we have in this world, is it? I mean, if that
would be the case, we would be just like the Pharisees who considered
that the riches that a man has was a manner in which you could
judge how blessed of God he was. Now, men are blessed with having
the things of this world, there's no doubt about that, but that's
not the blessing of God in the sense of what the lasting blessing
of God is concerned, because all of these things will pass
away in a moment. They'll be done. But in the days
of famine, the people of God, those who are in Christ, they'll
be satisfied, because it doesn't matter if we have something to
eat or we don't have something to eat. We have meat to eat that
they know not of. We've been fed from the source
and we can be satisfied with nothing else. But the wicked
shall perish. Now that is a pretty final statement. The wicked shall perish. Now when something perishes, it's done, is it not? I mean,
the wicked shall perish. I mean, you know, you buy food,
and Caleb, he checks all these dates pretty strong when he goes
in the store and he buys this stuff, and it says, you know,
not to be sold after such and such a date, or good until such
and such a date. And, buddy, when that date comes,
I mean, you've got to throw it out, you know, right then, because
it's perished. Men do perish. I mean, the Scripture says the
wicked shall perish. And the enemies of the Lord shall
be as the fat of lambs, they shall consume into smoke, shall
they consume away. Now there has been a lot said
over the years, and a lot of it by people that have studied
the Scriptures, and I am not wanting to start a controversy
or anything else about the ultimate state of the wicked. And all
I try to do is just read what the Scripture says, and that
is what I believe is the case of the wicked. The Scripture
says that the wicked perish. It says here that as the fat
of lambs they shall consume into smoke shall they consume away. Now you know when you fry bacon,
you can take a piece of bacon out of the refrigerator and it's
got mostly fat in it. by and large, I mean the biggest
portion of it, if you cut all the lean out, it would mostly
be fat. And you can put that bacon in
a pan or in the microwave, however you want to cook it, and that
stuff will shrivel all up, and if you leave it there long enough,
it will burn and there won't be anything left in the pan but
the lean part of that bacon. Because what will happen to the
fat? It will consume away. Now, where
did it go? I don't know. But it's not there
anymore. I do know that. I mean, you know,
once you've cooked that piece of bacon and the fat has consumed
away, you can't get it back. I mean, it's not there anymore.
It's gone. But the wicked shall perish,
and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs." Now,
I don't know if the fat of lambs is any more consumable than the
fat of a hog or a cow or whatever, but I know that the fat of all
animals, when you cook a piece of meat, it consumes away to
a certain extent, depending on how long you cook it. But it
goes away. In fact, I was just reading I
think this is the scripture, let me see here, it's in Deuteronomy
29, I think it is. 29 and 20. Now this is what the
Lord said about the wicked. It says, and the
Lord will not spare him. But then the anger of the Lord
and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the
curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and
the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven." He shall consume them away into smoke till they consume
them away. The Lord shall blot their name
out. In fact, there's another Scripture that says, "...the
name of the wicked shall be brought. The wicked borroweth and payeth
not again, but the righteous showeth mercy and giveth." The
Lord is indeed that righteous One. He shows mercy and He gives. Are we not the recipient of those
gifts that He has given? Is this right here not the greatest
gift that has ever been given to men? That the Lord would give
Himself as an offering for sin. And the only reason that we come
together, the only reason that binds us together is this. I mean, you know, we could develop
a supper, some kind of an organization, I guess, and we could all sign
a paper, and we could join up, and we could say we're going
to do this, and we're going to do that, and we're going to do
the other. We could do all of that. And a lot of people think
that's what needs to happen. When people come together to
worship the Lord, they've got to have some kind of structure.
You've got to have something that's going to hold it together.
Well, I'm going to tell you this, that will ultimately hold the people
of God together is what we're coming here today for, and that
is to remember the Lord's death until He comes again. Because,
brethren, that's really ultimately the only thing we have totally
in common, is it not? I mean, we've all got different
ideas and thoughts and upbringings and ways and all the different
things that we could find to fall out with one another about,
but there's one thing. that we come together for and
we all have the same thing in common. We desire to remember
the death of Him who died that we might have life and that we
might have that life more abundantly. What a glorious blessing it is
to be called as the sons of God and to be given the privilege
to remember His death until He comes again. You know, I was
thinking this week as I read in the news about these ISIS
fighters over there in Syria, I believe it was. And they're
all, you know, sitting around there huddled up and bowed down.
And I'm thinking to myself, you know, what hope and expectation
do they have? And I don't know the case where
they may be some of them that the Lord may bring them to Himself. I don't know anything about it,
but I was thinking to myself, what a privilege it is to be
given the knowledge of Christ. And that the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal. We're not trying to go out here
and establish some kind of a kingdom where we can rule and reign over
men or whatever. The weapons of our warfare are
mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. But the
greatest blessing that we have is to be able to remember the
Lord's death until He comes again. And you know the man that doesn't
believe that, he's not missing it, is he? I mean those guys,
those ISIS fighters, they're not missing it, are they? They're
not wishing they could be here, are they? They have no desire
whatsoever to worship Christ. Why do we? Because of the mercy
of God. Oh, that He might give us grace
today to remember His death as it comes again.