Psalm 34 says, I will bless the
Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him,
and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. This
poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out
of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints,
for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions
do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. Come, ye children, hearken unto
me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is he that
desireth life and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil and
thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The
eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open
unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from
the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and that
delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto
them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. But the Lord delivereth him out
of them all. He keepeth all his bones, not
one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and
they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeemeth
the soul of his servants, and none of them that trust in him
shall be desolate. Now, this psalm, the occasion
of this psalm, says there in the title, A Psalm of David,
when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him
away, and he departed." Now, as a historical note, when Saul
had sent word, or had made the decree that he was going to destroy
David, and of course, Jonathan you know, had the archer. He
shot the bearers and they had set up this thing so that David
would know what Saul's mind was to him, whether he was of a mind
to forgive him or he was out to kill him. And of course, Jonathan
told him that he was going to kill him. And so he fled to the
priest at Nob, and that's when he went in there to the temple
and he gave him Goliath's sword. And then shortly after that,
he went to the King of Gath, which was the Philistine stronghold,
and when he got there, so that the Philistines would not kill him,
he acted like he was crazy. And they thought he was That's what it means there when
it says, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, which
the word Abimelech is just another name for the king because the
king's name was actually Achish. But just like Pharaoh was named
Potiphar, but yet he was called Pharaoh, and this is evidently
a name for the king of the Philistines because I believe it is used
in more than one occasion. But in any event, this is the
occasion that it is speaking about when he changed his behavior
before this king. And it's just interesting to
me, and the king, rather than... the king drove him away, he said,
get this crazy man out of here. I don't want him, you know, in
this... around us. And he departed. Now,
the Lord's hand is not shortened, say, by many or by a few, and
the moralist will always come up with some criticism of the
manner in which the Lord may choose to deliver His people.
Now, you remember that He chose to deliver the Israelite spies
that went into Jericho through the hand of the harlot Rahab.
Now, that doesn't sit well with some people, and then they say,
well, you know, Rahab lied. And so consequently, the children
of Israel were delivered, but she shouldn't have lied. Well,
of course she should. They didn't have any right to know anybody,
that anybody was there, because these were the people of God.
She was going to deliver them. Now, does that make lying good
or does it make lying right? Well, of course not. But dear
brethren, the Lord ordains all things for the benefit of His
people. I mean, even, unfortunately, as some may look at it, He ordains
those things that are not right and good in the sight of men
as they would do things. But you see, God sends His people
to do the thing that He would have them to do. And He is right
and good in all these things, even though men, in their ways,
are evil. The Lord knows that we are dust. He knows exactly what we are.
And a man doesn't need any encouragement to tell a lie, does he? I mean,
that's just in our nature, is to lie. Now, a man won't lie
unless it's of a benefit. In fact, I had a fellow one time,
one of my subcontractors. You'd know who it was. He told
me, you know, that it wasn't wrong to tell a lie if you were
to get yourself out of a jam. In other words, that was all
right in his mind because he constantly was getting himself
out of a jam, you know, because he would tell you he was going
to be on the job the next morning and he wouldn't be. And then
he'd bring his mixer by over there later in the afternoon,
and he'd say, well, we'll be here first thing in the morning.
Well, then about two days later he'd show up. But he would be
constantly saying stuff like that because he was constantly
in a jam, but he adjusted it in his mind to be all right.
So no, not right to lie is not right to act like a crazy man
before the king, but The Lord does ordain these things. And
the Lord delivered David as a result of it, and that is the occasion
of this psalm right here, as he was delivered first of all
from the hand of Saul, and secondly from the hand of Abimelech, the
king of the Philistines. I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. Now, that would be the desire
of those whom the Lord has awakened and called by His grace, worked
in by the Spirit of God. But now, none of us could honestly
say that that is always the case, could we? But there is one who
has stood in our room instead who can and does stand in our
place as that one whose praise of God is continually. in his
mouth. I will bless the Lord at all
times. He did bless the Lord at all times, did he not? I mean,
there was never a time when the Lord Jesus Christ was not blessing
the Lord. Oh, that we might learn from
Him, that we might follow in His steps, that the praises of
God might continually be in our mouth, not just whenever things
are going good. You know, one of the most common
phrases among religious people is, praise the Lord. You know,
something good will happen. Praise the Lord. But what about
when things don't happen? What about when their car runs
off the road and they tear it all to pieces and what not? Do
they get out and say, praise the Lord? No, because you see,
men, by nature, we look at the things we like and we think those
are the things that are good. But David is saying, the praise
of God will be in my mouth continually. I praise Him for the good things.
I praise Him when the things don't turn out like I like for
them to. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble
shall hear thereof and be glad. Well, that's interesting. The
humble shall hear thereof. What shall they hear? That my
boast will be in the Lord. Because you see, a man in whom
the Lord has taught humility, he has his boast in the Lord. And is it not a blessed thing
for the man, the humble, to hear that and to rejoice? Because he realizes he doesn't
have to be something. See, you don't have to be anything.
You don't have to be anything. You don't have to meet some standard,
but our boast is in the Lord, because He is that One who does
all things well. He does all things in our behalf. He brings us to the place He
would have us to be. The humble shall hear thereof
and be glad, because they are not lifted up with pride in what
they are doing, but their boast is in the Lord. Oh, magnify the
Lord with me. and let us exalt His name together. Now isn't that the blessed privilege
of the saints of God? To exalt His name together? I
mean, a man can praise the Lord by himself. Surely he can. I've had men tell me, well, you
know, I can praise the Lord while I'm out fishing just as good
as I can down there at the church house. Well, I hope you can. You know, I mean, it's a glorious
thing to survey the Lord's creation and see all the things that He's
made and to be reminded of what we are and the mercy of God and
to praise God in all situations. But dear brethren, it's an error
to think that that's a substitute for the saints coming together
and praising God together in unity. as we build one another
up in the most holy faith, then as we encourage one another and
strengthen one another and bear one another's burdens. Now, what
is the purpose of praying together? Now, prayer is primarily an exercise
of the Spirit with the Lord. And it doesn't really involve
anybody else. except that the Lord has given
God's people the privilege to come together and to pray unto
Him that we might bear one another's burdens. Because as you unburden
your heart before the Lord, I hear you unburdening your heart before
the Lord, and I am burdened for your burden. And I move to pray
for what you pray for. And so we do bear one another's
burdens, and in that we fulfill the law of Christ. And in the
gathering together of the saints of God, There is a worship, a
spirit of worship that we bring together and we praise the Lord
together and it is uplifting, it's strengthening. It's that
which cannot be had all alone. And the Lord designed it that
way. Oh, let us exalt His name together. Let's come together
to do that. I sought the Lord and He heard
me and delivered me. from all my fears." Now, you know, it's a true thing
that the Lord does deliver us when we seek Him. The error that
men have in mind, however, is that they often think they're
the first ones that sought the Lord. They sought the Lord and
He heard me. Now, He heard us because He moved
us to seek Him. I mean, we wouldn't seek the
Lord, would we? if He didn't move us to do so. But He does
answer. He does answer those that call
upon Him and seek Him. I sought the Lord, and He heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. And is not this the
very prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, the testimony of the
Lord, that He sought the Lord and He delivered Him out of all
His troubles, out of all His fears, They looked unto him,
and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed." You
know, when a man is really seeking the Lord, there's no way he can
be ashamed of that, is there? I mean, if he's praising the
Lord in his soul, I mean, that's the glorious thing. Now, the
man that has no interest in praising the Lord, it's a burden to him. I mean, he'd rather be doing
something else. But the man who's been moved
by the Spirit of God to praise the Lord, it's the delight. His
face is not ashamed in it. He's not doing something because
he has to, but he's doing something because he desires to. And he
is not in any wise desirous of something else. The poor man,
this, now here's what he says here, this poor man cried. And
the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
This poor man. Now, David speaking in the first person, he said,
this poor man cried, and the Lord heard me. Here I am before
the king of Gath, and I'm saying, well, now what's going to happen?
And the Lord delivered me because He moved David in the concept
of how to be delivered out from the hand of this king. I mean,
David came up with that, no doubt, but where did the thought come
from? I mean, the Lord. is the one that moves men to
think the things they do. Now a lot of times people think,
they think up stuff. Well, you know, I figured out
how to make this, or whatever. A man can't figure out how to
make anything. The Lord has to teach him how
to do that. He can't do it. It's of the Lord
in these things. They looked unto Him. and were
lightened. Their faces were not ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him
out of all his troubles." Now, would we tell people to seek
the Lord? Absolutely. Why? Because the
Scripture says for us to seek the Lord. Would we not instruct
our children to seek the Lord? Of course we would. Why? Because the Scripture tells us
to do so. Now do we have any notion that
they will heed what we say? Other men will heed what we say?
No. They won't listen to us at all.
But when the Lord awakens a man to seek Him, he'll say, I'll
seek the Lord. Now how did he know to do that?
Because the Spirit of God moved him to do it. To seek the Lord. You can't keep a man from seeking
the Lord. I mean, Brian Bartimaeus by the
side of the road. He said, Jesus, Thou Son of David,
have mercy on me. They said, be quiet. Don't bother
him. What did he do? He said, okay,
okay. No, he said, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me! Because, you see, he was seeking
the Lord because he couldn't do anything else. He was in the
place where he was Helpless. And when a man gets in a helpless
state, he'll seek the Lord. But he won't seek Him otherwise.
As long as a man thinks that he's holding the card over here,
he won't seek the Lord. But when he thinks he's in trouble,
then he will. This poor man cried. The Lord
Jesus cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him and saved
him out of all his troubles, even as David did the same. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." Now a lot
of people have the notion of angels that I believe is a wrong
concept, because they look at the angels as being these like
secondary powers. Now the angels do have power,
even as Satan As a fallen angel, he has power, but the only power
that they have is the power that is allotted to them and given
to them by God to do His bidding and to accomplish the thing that
He would have to be done in the earth. And so the angels, we
don't pray to the angels, do we? That would be like, you know,
if you want something done, when you've been on the phone,
on one of these tech calls or something like this, and you've
talked to every one of these people that you can talk to and
none of them really knows what's going on, what do you say? I
want to talk to somebody that's in charge. So we don't need to
pray to the angels. We don't need to seek the angels.
What we want to do is go to the one who's in charge of the angels,
the one that tells the angel, you go do this and you go do
that. But the Lord does send the angels,
He surely does. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear Him. He is with them. He was with
the angels encamped about the Lord Jesus Christ, did He not?
They were there with Him when He was tempted by Satan. The angels ministered
to Him. When He was in the garden, the
angels ministered to Him. And surely as they encamped,
he was one who feared the Lord, was he not? And so it is that
as the angels encamped around him, so the angels encamp around
the sons of God. And there are indeed, dear brethren,
those who are sent to be the beneficiaries or to administer
benefits to the sons of God, those who are appointed unto
salvation. The Lord encampeth, the angel
of the Lord encampeth round about them. Now what is an angel but
a messenger of God? That's essentially what that
word angel means, is a messenger sent from God. Now sometimes
in the Scriptures, the angels may not be speaking of heavenly
creatures, but it may be speaking of other messengers, human messengers
sent unto men. That's an angel. The angel of
the church of Thyatira, who is he talking about? He is talking
about the one sent to deliver the Word of God to them. He is
not talking about an angel in the sense of a heavenly being. But sometimes there is a passage
in Hebrews where it speaks about, Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Now, it could conceivably be talking about heavenly creatures,
but I don't think that's what it's talking about. I think it's
rather saying you entertain strangers because, you know, the Lord will
send people into your life that will minister help unto you. And He ordains the help of men
to other men. I mean, how often do we hear,
you know, a person, they were in a certain situation and the
Lord sent somebody to them at that right time with just the
right word that they needed to hear. And so it is when He sends
men to preach the gospel of Christ. When a man is sent and a hearer
is present, then that's a good word. Otherwise, it is just like
water off a duck's back. I mean, you can preach all day.
You can take the best preacher that ever lived, as men count
good preachers. Now, what is a good preacher?
A good preacher is somebody that just preaches what the Lord sent
him to preach. That is a good preacher. It might
not be what you wanted to hear, but it is what he was sent to
preach. But when the Lord sends a man
to preach, then somebody will receive that. Because the Lord
doesn't send His Word just to fall on deaf ears. He will accomplish
the thing that He sends it to do. The angel of the Lord encampeth
around about them that fear Him, and delivereth them. Oh, taste
and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in Him. Now you know, the senses that
we have, taste is kind of by itself. You can't help but smell
something. I mean, if you go somewhere and
something's a bad odor is there or whatever, or a good one, you're
going to smell it, aren't you? I mean, you don't really have
any control over that. Same way with hearing or seeing. I mean, if your eyes are open
and you can say, man, I wish I hadn't seen that, or whatever,
but you did, But the taste is a thing that is an act that you
actually do something to taste. And I know somebody could throw
something in your mouth and you'd taste it. But in the consideration
of tasting something is something that a man picks up and he puts
in his mouth and he tastes it. And so that's what the psalmist
is saying here. Oh, taste and see that the Lord
is good. How can a man know that the Lord
is good? Except that he tastes. that the
Lord is good. Now how can he taste it except
the Lord give him those morsels and cause that to be a pleasant
taste to him? You see, a lot of people taste
and they say, oh, I don't want anything to do with God. You
know, it's not what I want. But the man who is given that
taste, I mean, you know, there are some things you like the
taste of and some that you don't. And people are different. But
you see, all of the sons of God delight in tasting the goodness
of God. It's a good thing. And we encourage
one, oh, taste and see. See if it's not true. Seek the
Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed, happy is the
man that trusts in Him. There is a happiness, there is
a glory, there is a blessing that is in those that fear Him, that trust the Lord. Oh, fear
the Lord, ye His saints, for there is no want to them that
fear Him. Now does that mean they get everything
they desire? No. It says, you know, ask the
Lord. and He will give thee the desires
of thine heart." Now, men have used this passage of Scripture
to try to present it as, well, whatever you want. You just write
you down a list of all the different things you want out of life and
God will give them to you. No, that is not what it means
at all. The Lord will give you the desires
of your heart because what He will do to those whom He loves
is He'll cause them to desire His way. He'll cause them to
fear Him. And then the fear of the Lord
is that where we are made to want the things of God. Oh, fear
the Lord, He, His saints. Now, speaking to the saints,
I mean, you can't cause a man to fear the Lord. You can tell
him how the judgment of God falls, but until the Spirit of God comes
upon a man to give him the fear of God, he cannot fear the Lord.
But oh, what a blessing it is! Oh, fear the Lord, ye His saints!
And we exhort one another to fear the Lord. Paul in writing to the Hebrews,
he says, Our God is a consuming fire. Now why did he tell them
that? He wanted to remind them who this is that we are dealing
with. We are not just playing games here. You see, the Lord
does not play games with His people, but He deals with His
people. Oh, fear the Lord, ye His saints,
for there is no want to them that fear Him. The young lions
do lack, and suffer hunger. Now, a lion, that's considered
to be the king of the beast, isn't it? I mean, the lion, he's
supposedly the top man on the totem pole in the savannas of
Africa. But even the Scripture says the
young lions do lack and suffer hunger. In other words, they're
the strongest ones. They can kill any animal they
desire to kill. Even sometimes they don't find
anything to eat. Maybe the gazelle was a little
faster than they were, or whatever. You've seen the videos where
they go off after something and pretty soon they lay it over
there and they're worn out. They're suffering hunger. They
can't do it by their own power. The young lions do suffer hunger. But they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. See, those whom the Lord causes
to seek Him, He will fill their mouths. The Lord doesn't call
men to Himself and then turn them aside. But He calls men
unto Himself and He fills their mouth. And He blesses them. They that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. Now, He didn't say those that
seek their own benefit. Now, you know, this is one of
the things, one of my biggest aggravations, I suppose, with
the message that is often called a health and wealth gospel. In other words, it is basically
this, that God is up here and He wants to do good things for
you, and if you will just seek Him, He will give you all the
things that you want. And if you have got enough faith,
there is just no limit to what you can get. Well, the problem
with that is that the seeking is not seeking the Lord, it's
seeking the things that you want. And the Lord is kind of a convenient
source that you can get it from. But what you're really doing
is seeking what you want. If you want money, ask the Lord
for it. He'll give you money. Well, what
were you doing? Were you seeking the Lord or
were you seeking the money? Because to seek the Lord is not
to be concerned about all that stuff. To seek the Lord is to
seek the Lord. Now, how can you cause a man
to seek the Lord? You can't. But when the Lord
moves in a man's heart, he can't do anything else. He'll seek
the Lord. But they that seek the Lord shall
not want any good thing. The Lord will give. His people
the desires of their heart. Come, ye children, hearken unto
Me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord." Speaking again
to the people of God. What man is he that desireth
life and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue
from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do
good. Seek peace and pursue it. Now, is that good advice? I mean, would we counsel the
people of God to seek evil? Would we tell men, you know,
seek after strife and turmoil? No. The Spirit of God moves the
people of God to seek these things. What man is he that desires life
and loveth many days? Now what that speaking about
is, The fullness of life. How can you have the fullness
of life if you seek those things that are the very destruction
of ourselves? I mean, the things that God has
taught us to do are for our benefit. When you look at the law of God
as revealed in the Ten Commandments, for instance, is there anything
in the Ten Commandments that would be to the detriment of
the children of God? Not a thing in the world, to
man. I mean, is there anything in the Ten Commandments that
is meant to harm men? Not at all. Now, religious men
will take them and make them into something they're not. The
Pharisees did this with the Sabbath day. And they made it to be a
burden unto men. But the Sabbath day was never
meant to be a burden to men. It was meant to be their blessing.
How many of y'all would like to work seven days a week? I
mean, that's not a good thing, is it? It's not good physically.
It's not good mentally. And so the Lord gave man the
Sabbath. And He said, six days shalt thou
do all thy labor, and the other keep the Sabbath day, for it
is holy unto me. Now why did He give that to His
people? He said to the Pharisees, man is not made for the Sabbath. In other words, it's not a religious
requirement. But it is given to man for the
benefit. Man is not made for the Sabbath,
but the Sabbath is made for man. So keep thy tongue from evil
and thy lips from speaking guile. Don't be a deceitful people.
Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. Is
that not the fruit of the Spirit to cause men to desire these
things? The eyes of the Lord are upon
the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry." Now, is
he speaking about the eyes of the Lord are upon the partial
righteousness? Is the Lord pleased with partial
righteousness? I mean, does he look at me, and
like we said a couple of weeks ago, does he look at me and say,
well, you know, he's doing pretty good on this. I think I'm going
to bless him on the basis of He did fairly good. He didn't
make an A, but he did maybe like a C plus or a B minus, and so
that's better than the guy over here that had a D. I mean, is
that what the Lord does? No, the Scripture says the eyes
of the Lord are upon the righteous. Not the partially righteous,
but the righteous. As we've said over and over,
and I hope I drum this into our minds and the Lord teaches us
this very thing, there is only one right. The Scripture says
there is none righteous. Now does it mean that comparatively
among men there are not some men that, as men would judge
it, are better than others? Of course there are. I mean, we talk about good people
and bad people and all that, and there's a place for that
discussion among men. But brethren, when we're talking
about how the Lord looks at these things, there is no place. The
Lord doesn't grade on the curve. The Lord looketh on the righteous. Now that cuts us out. I tell
you, if that's the way you're depending on your righteousness,
you are in bad trouble. Now a lot of people are content
for the Lord to look on their righteousness. They're confident. I've related this to you, but
one time my neighbor, I asked him what was his hope of standing before the Lord
and being given an entrance into the kingdom. And he said, well,
he says, I'm going to tell Him that I always tried to do what
was right. Well, that was the biggest lie
he ever told because no man has ever always tried to do right.
But even if it was true, let's just say it was true, that would
be a very poor thing to come to the Lord with. Would it not
always try to do what Christ did? Because the Lord doesn't
care what you've tried to do. He knows what you are. He knows
where you measure out. There is none righteous. It says,
The Lord looked upon men to see if there were any that did seek
Him. And He said, There is none righteous, no, not one. But it says here, The eyes of
the Lord are upon the righteous. I am glad that they are. Because,
dear brethren, this can be speaking of nobody else other than the
Lord Jesus Christ who is the righteousness. the pure righteousness
of God. And by the grace of God, He is
the righteousness of those whom He has hidden in His bosom. And
He has become their righteousness, even as He has taken their sin
unto Himself. And when the Lord sees the righteous,
He is seeing Jesus Christ. And all of those hidden in Christ,
He sees as righteous. And His ears are open unto their
cry. The Lord has heard the prayer
of the Lord Jesus Christ when He said, I pray for them. I pray
not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me out
of the world. And so it is, dear brethren,
that we rejoice that the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous,
because I would never fit into that if it was not that The Lord
was my righteousness, because I have none of my own. His ears
are open unto their cry. He hears us, why? Because we
cry unto Him in the authority of Christ. Christ said, Come
unto Me. Christ said, Seek the Father.
And He said that He would be our intercessor. Now His intercession
is not with words, but His intercession is by person. I like that hymn
that I believe Charles Wesley wrote. He says, Five bleeding
wounds he bears, received on Calvary. They pour effectual
prayers. They strongly plead for me. You
see, the Lord Jesus Christ does not plead for us. He does not
intercede for us with words. But He intercedes for us by His
presence, in the very presence of the Father, by the very fact
that He has entered in once into the holy place. And He has obtained
redemption for us. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. Now this is the contrast of that. The eyes of the Lord are upon
the righteous, but His face is against those that do evil. Now who are those that do evil?
There is not any in the earth that the Lord looked down upon
the sons of men to see if there were any. And He said, the thoughts
of their hearts are only evil continually. Now again, does
that mean as men look at it that we are always thinking bad things? I mean, you know, sometimes aren't
our thoughts more pure than others? Well, of course they are. You
know, as men look at it. But you see, that's not good
enough. And so the face of the Lord is against them that do
evil. Apart from being in Christ, every one of us is an evildoer. But in Christ, then we have a
righteousness that causes Him not to look upon us as evil,
but to look upon us as righteous. But His face is against them
that do evil." Listen to this, to cut off the remembrance of
them from the earth. What will the Lord do with the
wicked? He will destroy them. He will destroy them. Now, you
know, that's not a good thought, is it? Would that sound like a good
thing? Now, the means whereby He'll destroy them according
to the Scripture is that it's a lake of fire. A terrible thing. A place that men would fear to
tread, fear to go. But the Lord said that He would
cut them off. The name of the wicked shall
rot. The face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. The righteous cry, and the Lord
heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Now again,
I believe this primarily speaking about Christ, and I'll show you
why. The Lord heareth and delivereth
them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saith that such as be of a contrite
spirit. Has there ever been a man of
a more contrite spirit than the Lord Jesus Christ who came to
the Lord. And He said, Father, into Thy
hands I commend my spirit. Now, He didn't have any reason,
did He, in Himself to have contrition, but He did so in our behalf as
He was judged the sinner for us. The Lord is nigh unto them
that are of a broken heart, and saith the such as be of a contrite
spirit." Now it is a true thing that when the Spirit of God works
in men, He does give them a contrite heart. And He does give them
a broken spirit. And He does cause them to mourn
before Him, and He will not despise them, not for their sake, but
for Christ's sake. Because the Lord said, He is
one of mine. See, He is our Advocate before
the throne. He is our Mediator. He is our
Righteousness in completion. The Lord is nigh unto them, and
save as such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions
of the righteous. Listen to this now. But the Lord
delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones. Not
one of them are broken. I said I'd show you why I believe
this speaking about Christ. Because when the Lord gave the
Israelites to use the Passover, to slay the Passover lamb and
eat the Passover lamb, one of the things that they were not
to do in slaying this animal and eating that meat It says,
don't break the bones, and not a bone of it is to be broken.
Why is that? Because you see, the Lord would
point to Christ. And the Scripture says that whenever He was crucified, it says that
they were going to break His legs, And they would have broken
his legs, except he had already given up the ghost and he was
dead and there wasn't any reason. So that, the Scripture says,
it might be fulfilled, not a bone of his is broken. Because he
is that true Passover lamb. He is that one whom the Lord
has given in our behalf. And he is that one. who has the
afflictions of the righteous. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. The Lord Jesus Christ, He was
a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and He bore our sin
and He bore our sorrow. But the Lord delivered Him out
of them all, did He not? Because on the third day, On
the third day, dear brethren, he was delivered because he did
indeed commend himself unto the Lord. He keepeth all his bones,
not one of them is broken. Evil shall slay the wicked, and
they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. That's the end. That's the end,
dear brethren. Evil shall slay the wicked. Why
will men be condemned? See, some people say, well, that's
terrible. You're saying that some people are appointed unto
destruction just because they're appointed unto destruction. Well,
they're appointed to destruction by the Lord, but you can be sure
of this, there will not be one man who's ever been appointed
unto destruction who does not deserve the destruction that
comes upon him. Never be one, because never been
a man born that was not born a rebel against God. Ever one. Ever man of his own desire, even
as Adam by his own desire and knowledge ate of that fruit that
the Lord forbade him to eat of. Now, did he do so in keeping
with the Lord's ordained purpose? Well, of course he did. But that
doesn't mitigate or change the fact that he did what he did
because he wanted to do it. And wicked men are destroyed
because of their wickedness. There has never been a man destroyed
because of reprobation. But he has been destroyed because
on the account of his wickedness. The Lord is not going to stand
one day and say, point to a man and say, I'm going
to destroy you just because I desired to destroy you. No, he's going
to tell him, I destroyed you because of your wickedness, because
of your rebellion against me. For when I called, you did not
listen. When I gave you the testimony
of the creation, you did not like to retain God in your knowledge. And so I gave you over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient. Evil shall slay the wicked. The
Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants, and none of them that
trust in Him shall be desolate." Now there was a widow. Several of them in the Scripture
actually. The Lord cares for the widows and the fatherless. But there was a widow who came
to the collection plate at the temple. And all these rich men
that went in before, and they put in plenty of money up there,
and she had two mites. And she cast her whole living. The Lord said she cast in all
her living. But you know, she cast in all her living, but do
you for a moment believe that she was left desolate? Oh, she
might not have had plenty as far as the world's goods, but
dear brethren, the blessing of God was upon her. Now was the
blessing God upon her because of what she did? Well, it was
the Lord used her. He determined to bless her before
she ever gave the money because of the fact that He caused her
to give the money. What a glorious thing! Oh, the
Lord's blessing is upon His people. And none who fear Him, none who
trust Him, none who come to Him seeking mercy will ever be turned
aside because He will not leave desolate. those that call upon
His name. What a merciful and kind Heavenly
Father we have. Oh, that we might declare Him,
that we might sing His praise together, that we might worship
Him in spirit and truth as He enables us to do so.