Psalm 37, a psalm of David. For it not thyself because of
evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as
the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good.
So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires
of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord.
Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall
bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment
as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently
for him. Fret not thyself because of him
who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked
devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake
wrath, for it not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers
shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall
inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the
wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider
his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the
earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The
wicked plotteth 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 the
sword, and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and the
needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. Their
sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows 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 into smoke, they shall consume away. The wicked
borroweth and payeth not again, but the righteous showeth mercy
and giveth. For such as be blessed of him
shall inherit the earth, and they that be cursed of him shall
be cut off. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he
shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with
his hand. I have been young, and now am
old. Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed
begging bread. He is ever merciful and lendeth,
and his seed is blessed. Depart from evil and do good,
and dwell forevermore. For the Lord loveth judgment,
and forsaketh not his saints. They are preserved forever, but
the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall
inherit the land, and dwell therein forever. The mouth of the righteous
speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law
of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide.
The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him. The
Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he
is judged. Wait on the Lord, and keep his
way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land. When the
wicked are cut off, and thou shalt see it. I have seen the
wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and lo, he
was not. Yea, I saw him, but he could
not be found. Mark the perfect man, and behold
the upright, for the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors
shall be destroyed together. The end of the wicked shall be
cut off. But the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. He is their strength in the time
of trouble. And the Lord shall help them
and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the
wicked and save them because they trust in Him." Now this
Psalm of David begins with some wisdom from David that he had
to learn in his experience of going through life. And the only
way that men can learn this particular lesson is by experience, as the
Lord is able to teach. Because by nature, because we
have the work of the law written in our hearts, it is natural
for us to fret when people seem to get away with stuff. You know,
especially when they get away with stuff that's against us,
you know, when they take advantage of us. Now we can kind of live
with it a little better if it's somebody else, you know, but
when somebody does something to take advantage of us or somebody
does something that we don't like or whatever, then we, it's
just natural. You don't have to teach somebody
that. You don't ever have to tell somebody, now when people
mistreat you, you need to be upset about that. You know, nobody
ever had to teach you that. You just knew that, didn't you? And that's because the work of
the law is written in your heart. The law says an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth. I mean, it's pretty strange,
isn't it? There's no mercy in the law.
You know, that's in us. And as we've said so many times,
men often say, well, that's not true because men disobey the
law. Well, sure men disobey the law, but they disobey the law
for their benefit, you see. They don't disobey the law for
somebody else's benefit because they want to use the law for
their own benefit. And they want judgment and justice
to occur on other people, but not on themselves because they
want to excuse their own way. You know, you can take something
from somebody else and you can feel justified in it, but if
somebody takes something from you, what do you think? Well,
that's not right. Why is that? Because the work
of the law is written in your heart. And you can't escape that. And you'll be, meanwhile, accusing
or excusing one another, as Paul says, in Romans, because of that.
That's just the way men are. But David says, and of course
we know that all of this is the instruction of the Lord, and
not only is it the instruction of the Lord, but the Lord Jesus
Christ came as the very epitome of what it is not to fret himself
against evil doers. See, he didn't sit around wondering
what was going to happen, you know, why this was and that sort
of thing. He just came to do his Father's
will. So we're not to fret ourselves because of evil doers, nor be
envious against the workers of iniquity. What do they have that
we need? I mean, why would we be concerned
with what they're doing? They're going to do what they're
going to do. We don't need to be upset about it. For he says,
they shall soon be cut down like the grass and withers the green
herb. Brethren, our consideration of the wicked is that we ought
to have pity on them as we consider what their end is. Now, what
a privilege it is to be delivered. from going contrary to the way
of God, that is, to have it in our mind and in our way of going. Now, all of us, by nature, we
know that we do go astray from God, but it pains our heart when
we see that revealed to us. But see, the wicked man, he does
not have that constraint. He is just going on about his
way. And why should we be angry about that? We should be pitying
him. Well, he doesn't know. You see that he is on a quick
path to destruction. For they shall soon be cut down. Soon. When I was a young man,
I used to think that sixty years old, you were getting pretty
old when you got to be sixty. And now I don't even think ninety
is all that old. I mean, you know, it's funny
how your perspective of things changes. But it doesn't make
any difference if a man lives to be a hundred, you know, because,
I mean, that's a pretty lofty attainment. I mean, I doubt,
I'm not being morbid or anything, but probably most of us probably
won't make it to a hundred, you know, that's in this room. We
probably won't. But even if we do, and we survey
our lives, will we not say that was a short thing? I mean, where
did the time go? I mean, it's just like a vapor,
the Scripture says. But it's even more so with the
wicked because they are cut down quickly and they are no more. I mean, that's what the Scripture
says right here. It says they shall be cut down like the grass
and wither as the green herb. Now, everybody in here has a
lawn mower and you go out and you mow the lawn or pay somebody
to mow it, but anyway, it gets cut down. And you can go out
there in a month's time, and you won't find that grass that
you cut down with, well, you might find a blade of it here
or there, but the point is that it's cut down and it is no more.
That's what it says right here. It withers as the green herb.
I mean, when the herbs of the earth, when they wither and die,
they don't just keep building up. I mean, think about it. If
they were around, Now, I mean, we'd be covered up. I mean, there wouldn't be anything
left. No, they'd wither and die. They're gone. And that's a sad
condition, is it not? Trust in the Lord and do good.
So shalt thou dwell in the land, verily thou shalt be fed. We're
in trouble if we take that in its literal sense. Now, we do
exhort one another to do these very things, trust in the Lord.
We do exhort one another to trust in the Lord. But what if your
salvation depended upon your trust in the Lord? What if it
did? Now, on the one hand, we know
that only those who trust the Lord shall be delivered, but
what if It was up to you to trust the Lord, and if you faltered
or failed in that, that was it. Would you want to be in a situation
like that? We do exhort one another to trust
in the Lord. But dear brethren, while we exhort
one another to trust in the Lord and to do good, good things are
good, are they not? And we know what good things
are to an extent, at least. And we want to do good. And we
exhort one another to do good. But what if I told you tomorrow,
alright, here's what you're going to be, your standing before the
Lord is going to be how good you are. Now, how would you do? Where would you find yourself?
You'd be cut off, would you not, pretty soon, because it's not
in man by nature to do good. In fact, the Scripture says there
is none that doeth good. No, not one. Now, I didn't make
that up. It's right there. There is none
that doeth good, but He said to do good. So where does that
leave us? Well, it leaves us or brings
us to the place of recognizing that apart from having someone
to be our substitute before Almighty God and stand in our room and
place as one who is completely trusting in the Lord and going
about doing good, Scripture says, he went about doing good. Why? Because he is good. And he was
good as he walked upon earth. So trust in the Lord and do good,
so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed."
Why are we fed? Because of the mercy of God,
because of the righteousness of Christ, because He has imputed
His goodness to us. And He has been our goodness. We are not those who are good
and the Lord says, well, they're good, so I'm going to bless them. No, our goodness is in Christ. And any blessing that comes to
us, comes to us through Christ. So shalt thou dwell in the land.
Why do we dwell in the land? Because of the mercy of God.
Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires
of thine heart. Now, I've often heard this spoken
of, well, brother, what you've got to do is you've just got
to delight yourself in the things of the Lord. Go out and do it. Well, why don't you start doing
that? Can a man do that? Can you delight in anything that
you don't delight in? I mean, why do you delight in
something? Why is it that some people like to fish? Some people
like to race cars. Some people like to make things
with sculptures. The fellow, what was his name,
Basaliel? Basaliel, wasn't that how you
pronounced that, Basaliel? The Lord said, now, I'm going
to give you the ability to make these things, but you're going
to hate every minute of it. I mean, you know, what if the
Lord gives a man a talent, but He doesn't give him a desire
to do it? Does that happen? I mean, does a guy that loves
to pitch a baseball, is he going out to the man and saying, man,
I'll be glad when this is over? No, watch, he wants to do that,
does he not? You see, when God works in a
man, He causes him to desire the things that he desires. in the Lord because He causes
us to. That's just the way that it is.
I mean, I can't love to design women's handbags. Now some people,
I mean, they think about that at night. You know, they think
about, how am I going to design this and what am I going to do
here? I can't do that. I'd be lying to you if I told
you I had any desire whatsoever to do that. But there are some
people that do the same thing with making shoes, or designing
clothes, or all manner of things. But you see, the Lord is the
one that gives people the desire to do those things and the delight
in it. And the Lord is the one that gives a man a delight in
the things of God. And he says here, "...Delight
thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires
of thine heart." Did he not do that with the Lord
Jesus Christ? Was he not the perfect example
of this? The Lord said to him, Ask of
Me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.
And he came, and he purchased that which the Lord gave to him. And it is his. And he is the
perfect example of one who delighted himself in the Lord day and night,
and the Lord gave him the desires of his heart. And so it is, dear
brethren, that as the Lord gives a man a love for the things of
God, He also gives him the desires of his heart, because that's
the very thing that he wants. Now, you know, I've heard men
say it, and you don't have to go very far or turn on the radio
very often, and you'll hear somebody telling you this kind of stuff,
Well, brother, if you'll just be faithful and you'll give your
money, especially be sure when you write the check out to write
it out to me, and sow your seed, and I'll tell you, the Lord will
give you whatever you want. If you want a Cadillac, you just
go down to the Cadillac dealership and look, pick out the one you
want, and you send me a big enough check, and before you know it,
that thing will be sitting in your driveway. Now, I mean, that's
the kind of stuff that the natural man and the natural religious
man feeds on. But that's not what he says here.
He said, Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he will give
thee the desires of thy heart. Because that is the desire of
our heart. That is the work of the Spirit
of God. And that's perfectly exemplified
in the Lord Jesus Christ. As he said, I came not to do
what mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. He delighted
in the Lord, did he not? And what did the Lord do? He
gave him the desires of his heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord.
Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Now here again, the natural man looks at that
and he says, okay, I want to arrive over here So what I'm
going to do is I'm going to commit my way to the Lord, and the Lord
is going to cause me to arrive over here. Well, that's not what
it's telling. That's not what it's teaching
us. If we commit our way to the Lord, if we pray, Father, not
my will but Thine be done, is that not to commit our way to
the Lord? So then our way is no longer
our way, is it? Our way is His way. And that's
what it is to commit our way unto the Lord. It's not to say,
Lord, here's my way, help me to get there. No, it's, Lord,
what would you have me to do? See, that's how the Lord works
in His people, is to cause them to desire the things that He
would have them to do. Commit thy way unto the Lord,
trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Bring what
to pass? His will, His purpose. See, committing our way unto
Him is a privilege. It's not a means whereby we're
going to gain what we want, but it's the privilege of being made
conformable unto His will. Even as the Lord Jesus perfectly
illustrated for us, He said, Father, not My will but Thine
be done. He shall bring forth thy righteousness
as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday." Why? Because
the evidence that the Lord works in His people is that He conforms
them to His will. He causes them to desire His
way, and their righteousness is brought forth as the noonday,
but it's not theirs. It's only theirs by imputation. But they call it theirs. It is
ours, is it not? I mean, is not the righteousness
of Christ ours? Paul said He's made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. So His righteousness
is ours. He's given it to us. That's what
He said. And so He shall bring forth thy
righteousness as the light. Now, man can't see that, you
see. apart from the grace of God. But the Lord said, He will
bring forth thy righteousness as the light that is, it will
be spread out, it will be set forth, it will be a thing that
can be seen. And is that not what the Lord
does when He teaches us the Gospel? And shows us who Christ is? And
shows us what we are by nature? He causes these things to be
set forth in the light, thy judgment as the noonday. I've said this
many times, judgment's not a bad thing if you're innocent. Now, it's amazing to me how the
circus that goes on in our places of government in the name of
so-called seeking justice, when in reality they're just seeking
to find something to put on somebody. And all of them guilty of the
same thing. They're all doing the same kind
of stuff, so I'm not putting one side against another. It's
sometimes put on a more clear display than it does. But you
see, they're not seeking forth judgment and justice, they're
just seeking condemnation. But there is more to judgment
than condemnation. See, a judge can say, or the
verdict of the court can come down and say not guilty, as well
as it can come down and say guilty. Coming up with Trump, they just
can't wait until they find something where they can say, He's guilty!
He's guilty! String him up from the yard arm.
See, I told you he was guilty. He's guilty. Maybe he is guilty. I don't know. The Lord knows.
But you know, judgment has to do with justice. And justice
can be satisfied. And justice is satisfied in our
case. And so our judgment You see,
the Day of Judgment is an awful thing to consider that there
is going to be the wrath of God poured out upon multitudes. But
dear brethren, the sons of God who are hidden in Christ have
no reason to fear the Day of Judgment because it is in the
Day of Judgment where the Lord is going to set His people upon
His right hand and say, They belong to Me. Our judgment Is
that what you set forth in the light? And we are made free as
those who have never sinned because of the justice of Almighty God. See, He is both just and the
Justifier. He didn't just rule us just,
but He made us just in Christ. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for Him. Threaten not thyself because
of Him who prospereth in His way, because of him, because
of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass." Now that's
how he began the psalm. And the only way that a man can
be in a position not to fret because of evildoers is to rest
in the Lord. Just turn it over to the Lord.
What are we going to do about it? I mean, because you've got wicked
men on every hand and some seeking to overturn the courts of justice
in this country, what are you going to do about it? Not really
anything. I mean, there's nothing you can do. When somebody mistreats
you, what can you do? I mean, the natural man says,
well, you've got to do something back to them. I mean, that's
the most satisfying thing to the natural man, is it not? But
it's not for the sons of God. That's not the principle upon
which the kingdom of God is built. Rest in the Lord. Wait upon Him. See? That's the place. Wait patiently
for Him. Now, I'm glad He put patiently
in there, because it's not an easy thing, is it? You know,
children have a hard time with patience. Just like adults do. But, you know, a child, he just
thinks that things, he's got to have this thing right now.
I see them come in the store all the time, and of course we've
got those gum machines and stuff over there by the door. And when
they come in, the first thing they do is go over there and
look at that thing. And they're just looking at it and turning
the knobs and everything and going over there to their mom
or their daddy and saying, Daddy, can I have a quarter and this,
that and the other? And their daddy might say, Yes, son, let me get
through to you. But that ain't good enough. Because
they can't wait patiently. And so there is a difference
between frettingly waiting and waiting patiently. The Lord Jesus
Christ waited patiently. He was as led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and He opened not His mouth. But He waited upon
the Lord. He trusted in Him. And He did
not fret Hisself because of them that prospered in their way.
Did not the wicked prosper in their way when they took the
Lord Jesus Christ into that Roman judgment hall? When they cried
out, crucify Him, when they rejoiced, when they spat upon Him, when
they plucked out His beard, when they did all of those things,
did they not rejoice? Did they not prosper in their
way? Did they not say, man, we've
got Him now? But the Lord, He opened out His
mouth. He didn't whisper a word of condemnation
to any of them. They brought wicked devices to
pass. Now they brought wicked devices to pass according to
what? The purpose of Almighty God.
There wasn't one wicked device that occurred, ever occurs, or
occurred in that day which was not ordained to occur according
to the sovereign purpose of the Holy God. Now people have a hard
time with that sometimes. But brethren, either God's Almighty
God and all things that occur according to His will or some
things don't. And that's a scary proposition
to think that some things might be happening that's outside of
His will. He does according to His will in 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? Cease from
anger and forsake wrath. Now why did he have to say that?
Why do you suppose he had to spell that out just like that? Because when wicked men do wicked
things against us, what's the first thing we do? We get mad. And there's such a thing as righteous
indignation, but most of our anger doesn't fall in that category,
does it? We like to think that it does.
Oh, well, you know, they did that against us, so it's right
for us to be angry at them. No. Yeah, exactly. Cease from anger. And forsake wrath. Turn from
it. Threat not thyself in any wise
to do evil. That is, don't turn what they've
done into you doing it equally. a bad thing in retrospect to
it. Spread not thyself in any wise. The Lord said, Be wise as serpents
and harmless as doves. Now sometimes a blue jay, I have
had blue jays to attack me before. I mean, I guess you get close
to their nest or something, I don't know, but I've had them come
to those various birds that will attack you. But doves, I don't
know, maybe they will too in the right situation, but the
Lord used a dove, did He not, as an illustration of how we
are to be. And you know, doves are those who are juxtaposed
against the hawks in government. You know, they talk about the
hawks and the doves. Some people like to take pride
in being a hawk. The Lord said you should be a
dove. You take that for what it means,
what you want it to be. But you know, the wicked are
for war, are they not? I mean, they are for strife.
I know that the Lord uses governments and sometimes war is inevitable
and there will be wars and rumors of wars at the time of the end,
but God's people are not people of war, are we not? The weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty to the casting
down of what? Imaginations. You see, that's
the place where the Spirit of God works, is in the imaginations,
the minds of men. And He subdues whole nations. through their mind and heart.
He can do that. You remember when it was Sennacherib,
when he besieged the city of Jerusalem, and they were in there
dying and everything. And in the middle of the night,
he sent a sound of an approaching army and all the armies all fled
and left. What did he do? He played a trick
on their mind, did he not? He worked in their mind to bring
his purpose to pass. And so it is that the Lord would
have us not to threaten any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall
be cut off. Now this is a truth that is taught
throughout the Scripture. The wicked shall perish. The wicked shall be destroyed.
Evil doers shall be cut off. That is, they, just in contrast
to what he says about the people of God, he said, but those that
wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Now what earth
is he talking about? Is he talking about this one?
I mean, do you want to inherit this earth? Do you want this
corrupt place that you are presently living in to be your inheritance
forever? No, the Scripture says he is
going to make a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness. And you see, that is the inheritance
of the saints of God. We shall inherit the earth. We
shall. according to His mercy and kindness,
but those that wait upon the Lord. You see, evildoers shall
be cut off. There is going to be a contrast
between those who are the children of God and those who are not
in the final day because the Lord will cut them off and there
will be no more. It will be the end of them. But those that wait upon the
Lord, they shall inherit them. Now brethren, we don't have eternal
life by nature. We don't have life
at all except it's given to us. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
given us life and we have it because of Him. Now, the Scripture
says that the Father gave the Son to have life in Himself. He has life in Himself. We have
life not in ourselves, but in Him. We live because He lives. Our life is in Him. He has hid
our life. Our life is hidden with Christ,
where? In God. Dear brethren, by the mercy of
God, as the world is destroyed in a fervent heat, the Scripture
says, The sons of God shall be preserved in Christ. And we shall
inherit that which the Lord has ordained from the beginning that
which should be ours. And we'll receive it because
not of what we've done, but because of what He's done. And why should
we fret ourselves against evil doers? I mean, what can they
do? Our pity should be upon them. You know, even as the Lord, I
believe, demonstrated this, He looked upon Jerusalem and He
said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered
thee, but you would not. Oh, what solemn words those are
when the Lord shall say to many who shall say to Him in that
day, Lord, have You not done many wonderful works in Thy name?
And He shall say to them, Depart from Me. I never knew you, ye
that work iniquity. Oh, what a solemn time! What
an awful thing! But to those who are His, He
shall say, Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. And they shall
say, Well, Lord, when shall we be naked? And when did we do
these things? Lord, how could it be that this
kindness has been visited upon us? Because, dear brethren, He says,
I saw you do those things. Not that I saw you do them, but
I saw Christ do them. And because of Christ, you shall
inherit the kingdoms that are forever. May the Lord help us. Somebody give us or somebody
got a question or comment.