Every year about this time, you
will see cards and signs and things around, and on those signs
it will say, Wise men still seek Him. That's actually contrary to what
Scripture says. Wise men don't seek Him. I know
it's kind of a play on words be considered, you know, the
wise men as they came to seek out the Lord Jesus Christ.
But the implication of the little saying, wise men still seek Him,
is that it would lead you to believe that the wise men sought
Him because they were wise. But the wise men didn't seek
Him because they were wise. They were made wise unto salvation
by the sovereign grace of God. And they saw His star in the
east and the Lord showed it to them. And He brought them that
way. The Lord showed them. And just
as surely as He showed them the way there, He also showed them
the way back that they would not go back unto Herod and tell
him, you know, where the child was. So all of these things are
in the hands of the Lord, and so wise men don't seek the Lord. The Lord has hidden these things
from the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto babes.
And so every time I see that, it just kind of aggravates me. And I know if you say anything
about that at this time of the year, especially if people say,
ah, you don't have the right kind of spirit and you're hard-hearted
and all that kind of stuff. But the truth, brethren, and
we ought not to ever proclaim a lie because it sounds catchy.
You know, that sounds catchy, doesn't it? Wise men still seek
Him and you've got the wise men, you know, and it sounds great.
But the truth is going to be the truth. It doesn't make a
difference where it is or when it is. And we ought to be, in
all that we do, desirous of speaking the truth, nothing but
the truth. I remember when I was a kid listening
to or watching Perry Mason, and they'd always tell them, you
know, you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth. Well, that is the truth. I mean,
you know, is there any other kind? Like the fellow came to
Lester Roloff one time and asked him if he believed in divine
healing. And he said, I didn't know there was any other kind.
So you know there is not but one truth. It is the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and that is Jesus
Christ. He said so. He said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. And so we are looking at Psalm
30, and this is a glorious Psalm, as all of them are, but
some are seemingly the Lord puts a special blessing upon them. Psalm 30. And it's good to read
the titles to these. It says, A Psalm and Song at the
Dedication of the House of David. That is part of the psalm, the
description of it. It says, I will extol thee, O
Lord, for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes
to rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried unto thee,
and thou hast healed me. O Lord, thou hast brought up
my soul from the grave. Thou hast kept me alive, that
I should not go down to the pit. Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints
of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.
For His anger endureth but a moment, in His favor is life. Weeping
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And in
my prosperity, I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy
favor thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide
thy face, and I was troubled. I cried to thee, O Lord, and
unto the Lord I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood
when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall
it declare thy truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy
upon me. Lord, be thou my helper. Thou
hast turned for me my mourning into dancing. Thou hast put off
my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. To the end that my
glory may sing praise to Thee and not be silent, O Lord my
God, I will give thanks unto Thee forever." Now this is clearly This is a description of the
Lord Jesus, and I believe, once again, the extolling of Him towards
His Father in the recounting of that which the Lord has brought
Him into the world to perform. A psalm and a song at the dedication
of the house of David. Now, just kind of bear with me
a little bit on this. And because I believe this is
a true thing, and you know, some would say, well, you're kind
of stretching it there a little bit, but I think that the truth
can be seen. I believe what I'm going to tell
you is the truth, you know, whether it is specifically
What's being spoken of here or not, I believe it is being spoken
of here. But, you know, we're mortals
and we see through a glass darkly and we see things sometimes. But as the man said, I'd rather
see Christ where He was not than to miss Him where He is. Now,
so, you know, when I read through the Psalms, and it's not always
been this way, As I've grown older and hopefully
with some more understanding as time has gone on, by the grace
of God, I can see Christ in all of these psalms. I mean, He's
right there, just like He is everywhere. And it's the mercy
of God when the Lord enables a man to see the beauty of Christ
in the Scriptures. I saw him in a song at the dedication
of the house of David. Now you remember when David,
he wanted to build a house for the Lord. But the Lord didn't
enable him to do so. He was able, however, to build
a very fine house, a house of cedar. And remember Hiram, he
sent from Lebanon, he gathered up all these trees and they took
them down there and they made this fine house for David. And
I thought about that a little. And this is from the dedication
of the house of David. Now the house of David was a
carnal house. It was a glorious house, but
it was a house that you can't go anywhere and find the house
of David, the literal house of David. You can't go find it because
time has erased it. from the earth. Now, you know,
down through the Middle Ages, they were still selling pieces
of the cross and all these things, and even now I read somewhere
the other day that they thought they had found the Ark of the
Covenant. And, you know, of course, for
years they've said they found two or three people, different
times, they'll come up with these scientific expeditions, and,
well, we found Noah's Ark over there. Who really cares if they
did find Noah's Ark? Again, with Lester Roloff, somebody
asked him, because back then he was still alive at the time,
and they had this big expedition, and he said, Well, Brother Roloff
says they've found Noah's Ark. Does that strengthen your faith? He said, if they load that thing
up on a trailer and bring it to my backyard, he says, it won't
cause me to believe it any more than I already do. I mean, all
those things, they just pass away. They're nothing. You know,
the Word of God is true. And by faith we understand that
these things are indeed true. And that's the only way we can.
You can't prove it to somebody. Unless the Lord gives a man the
heart and mind to receive it, he won't. He can't. He just can't. I mean, you know,
it's like expecting a two-year-old child to sit still. Now, you can take a piece of
rope and you can tie him up and you can bind him up, but I guarantee
you he's still moving. You know, because that's just
the way it is. And people are people. And people
can't see the truth of God unless the Lord shows it to them. And so it is that David, he is
a type and foreshadow of Christ, but yet, At the same time, he
was a carnal man and he was not allowed to build the temple of
God because David was representative, I believe, of the carnal man
as Christ. Now, carnality is not a bad thing. The Lord Jesus took upon Himself
carnality. He became flesh. That is what
that means. He dwelt among us in a carnal
body. It was not a corruptible body
because he was without corruption. He was without sin. But he was
carnal nonetheless. He was in the flesh. And this
is a psalm and song at the dedication of the house of David. Now, think
of the house of David in the sense the house, the tabernacle
in which he dwelt. It was a carnal dwelling just
like the house that he built. was a carnal dwelling, but he
dwelt in it. But that carnal house, while
it was that which the Lord gave, it was not that which would continue,
was it? It came to an end. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world made in a carnal body. Now, he was raised, however,
in the same body but not a carnal body. Now, don't ask me to explain
all of that because I can't, but Paul said that we go into
the ground with a carnal body, with a body of flesh and blood,
with a corruptible body, but we come forth with a spiritual
body. Now, it's a real body. See, spirituality
and reality do not cancel one another out. The Lord Jesus Christ
came forth in a body, a real body. We know it was real because
His disciples, He ate with His disciples. He talked with His
disciples. He showed them the wounds in
His hands, in His side. So he was real, but yet his reality
exceeded anything we could comprehend in this present time. I have
not seen nor have entered into the heart of man those things
which are prepared, those things which are yet to be. When we
see him, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. We shall be known as we are known. Because there is a reality. You see, to be known as we are
known is to be known what we really are. Now what you see
right now is not really what I am. Now you think it is, and
you know, I don't want you to shoot me or anything because
I am pretty real right now, but yet I am not real in the sense
of a lasting reality. Because this is all going to
come to an end. But there was a dedication of
the house, and this was the psalm and song of the dedication of
the house of David, but it was given to magnify and to remember
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe we
can see that in here. It says, I will extol thee, O
Lord. Now keep in mind that the Lord Jesus Christ walked among
men as a man, just as much of a man, just like any other man
except that he had no sin. I will extol thee, O Lord, for
thou hast lifted me up and hast not made my foes to rejoice over
me. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ's
foes did for a season rejoice over Him, but what He is speaking
about here, thou hast not made them to ultimately rejoice over
Me. Even as the enemies of David,
in David's lifetime, they often rejoiced over Him. And, you know,
He came to an end. The Lord gave Him victories,
but He had many defeats, many sorrows. in His life. I will extol Thee, O Lord, I
will praise Thee, for Thou hast lifted me up." Now, when we speak
about being lifted up, you know, we can praise God for being lifted
up, even though we are not lifted up every moment of every day,
are we? I mean, sometimes we go up through a low valley. And
surely the Lord Jesus Christ did, as which He will speak of
here. But he said, thou hast not made
my foes to rejoice over me. He said that he will give his
angels charge over him, lest at any time he dash his foot
against a stone. It is impossible that that which
the Lord Jesus Christ came to do should fail. Now, we hear
plenty of folks today say that Christ did fail, basically, because
He came into the world to save all men. And very few people,
I mean there are some that do, but very few people believe that
all men shall be saved. I mean, they would be more consistent,
would they not? I mean, if a person says he believes
Jesus Christ died for the sins of every man, woman, boy and
girl on the face of the earth, if they say they believe that,
then if they would be consistent, they would have to believe that
everybody is going to be saved, would they not? I mean, I could
more readily believe that than I can believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ went to the cross and shed His precious blood and poured
it out just trying to do as much good as He could. No, the Scripture
speaks of what He did as a purchase. It speaks about what He did as
obtaining eternal redemption. And the foes of the Lord have
not been able to rejoice over him because he did exactly what
the Father sent him to do. He triumphed in it and he destroyed
every enemy of the people of God. The last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death. Now he has already taken it by
the throat and squeezed the life out of death, if you can do such
a thing, but death has no power. except as He has ordered it to
be so in this carnal body. Oh Lord my God, I cried unto
Thee and Thou hast healed me. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ
can say that, can He not? I mean, He cried unto the Lord
because He was in a sad situation, a terrible situation. He cried
unto the Lord, and the Lord did heal him. How do we know that?
Because on the third day, he arose from the tomb. Death didn't
have any hold upon him. He was healed of all his diseases. And his diseases was our disease,
because he didn't have any of his own, but he took upon himself
our disease. But he was healed even of that,
because he came forth from that tomb. Oh Lord, Thou hast brought
up my soul from the grave. Thou hast kept me alive that
I should not go down to the pit. Now that doesn't mean that he
never died, but it means that he did not die lastingly. What we've got right here is
a testimony to the fact that he did die. But it's also a testimony
to the fact that He rose again. Why? Because He said, this do
you as often as you do it in remembrance of Me till I come
again. And He says, if I go away, I
will come again. Because I go away to prepare
a place for you. And He says, if this thing was
not true, I would have never told you. You know, the Lord
Jesus Christ is either who He said He was or He's the biggest
charlatan that ever walked on the face of the earth. He says,
I and my Father are one. Now, is that true? I believe
it's true. He said that He came to save
sinners. I believe it's true. Now, if
he didn't do those things that he said he would do, then he's
a liar. The truth is not in him and we're
just playing games. But you see, here's the place
where the Lord has brought us and we're in a bind there, brethren. We can't get a hold of this with
our hands And we can't just prove that any of the things we say
are true to the satisfaction of the carnal man. It can't be
done. But the Lord has bound us to
believe something that we can't prove, but yet that we cannot
leave. We can't abandon it. We can't
cast it off. I mean, if a man cannot believe,
I mean, if he can say, I don't believe, then he can just not
believe. I don't have a problem finding
a fellow that can't believe. Man's born where he can't believe.
But it's a gift of God when a man is caused to believe. Because
when the Lord causes a man to believe, he can't depart from
it. He can't help it. I mean, he might try to help
it. He might say, I'm going to cast
this mess off. I don't believe this stuff anymore.
I'm going to go plow corn or do something. I'm going to go
fishing. I'm tired of it. He can't, because the Lord will
begin to work in his heart. And he'll move in him and he'll
draw him with cords of love and he'll be him as the prodigal
son who comes back to his father's house because he knows. He knows. How does he know it?
How does a man know that in my father's house is plenty for me? I mean, how did the son know
that? Because he was acquainted with
his father. So how is it that a man can believe that Jesus
Christ can take away sin? Because he said he would. Because
he said he would. And we believe that if what he
said he would do. I don't have any doubt in my
mind that what Jesus Christ said He would do, He would do. Now,
I often have doubts in my mind that I'm one of His, not because
of what He did, but because of my own sorriness and my own unbelief
and my own weakness to believe the things that He said. But
you know, brethren, if we believe what He said, He said, Come unto
Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. Now did he tell us a story? I
don't believe he did. I can't go anywhere else. So
I'm kind of shut up to this. I'm kind of like caged in. You know, I'm glad to be a prisoner.
Like those servants that had their ear bored through with
it all and said, I want to serve you forever. I want to do that. Why? Why would a man do that? I don't know. What would make
a man not even want his own freedom, but want to be bound to it? I can't explain it. But oh, it's true. And it's the
work of God that brings it to pass. Oh, Lord, Thou hast brought
me up, my soul, from the grave. Thou hast kept me alive that
I should not go down to the pit. That is, not go down to total
destruction. Now, what is the pit? The pit
is, of course, a picture of the grave. A grave is the picture
of that pit which is that eternal hell. It is a place of everlasting
destruction. It is a place where there is
no reprieve. It is a place where there is
darkness forever. It is to be cast out from the
very presence of God forever. Now, the question is, and this often
arises in the mind of men, and I can't solve it for you, but
men say, well, are men going to have a conscious existence
forever? I don't believe they will. Those
who are outside of Christ, how would they have it? They don't
have life. They have death. Go out to the
graveyard and see if you can find somebody That's got consciousness. They don't have any. Why? Because
they're in the pit. They're in the grave. There's
an everlasting destruction that comes upon the wicked. Now, I know that runs contrary
to what I was taught as a young child, you know. But dear brethren, when you think
about the awfulness of absolute destruction, see, men can joke
about Oh, I'm going to burn in hell forever. You know, I'll
tell you this and I'll tell you that. No. Dear brethren, the
awfulness of just absolute destruction. See, the devil told Eve the greatest
lie that's ever been told. He said, Ye shall not surely
die. Man doesn't think he can die.
Give it to any funeral you want to. Grandma's up in heaven and
Uncle Joe, he's sitting by the riverside over in heaven and
he's fishing and he's doing all these things. Men cannot comprehend
because it's impossible that men can comprehend the awfulness
of absolute and total destruction. But that's what the pit is. It's
a bottomless pit. There is no end to it. There is no remedy for it. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Scripture
says that He went to hell, and He did. The grave, that place
of death, He did that. He went there. But He was not
left there. that he should not go down to
the pit of destruction. Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints
of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness,
for his anger endureth but a moment in his favour's life. Weeping
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Now that's
an interesting thing, dear brethren, if you look at the creation. The Scripture says, now we think
of the day starts with the morning. I mean, that's how we think of
it, isn't it? But the Scripture says the evening
and the morning were the first day. It doesn't say the morning
and the evening were the first day. It says the evening and
the morning. The night comes before the dawning of the day. Now brethren, we are in the night
season right now. Weeping may endure for a night. Weeping did endure for a season
as the Lord Jesus Christ walked among men as a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. And He poured out His soul unto
death. I mean, the darkest hour of the
night was when He hung there and He said, My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me? But you see, the Lord healed
him, did he not? For his anger endureth but a
moment in his favor's life. Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning. Dear brethren, we look beyond
this veil of sorrow and this place where things don't work
out. You know, I think just naturally,
I think people get more... accustomed to the changes of
things and they become, I don't know if patience is the right
word, because some people aren't very patient at all, I'm one
of them, but they become more patient just naturally as they
age. They're not quite as keyed up
about things. It's easier for an older man
to let something slide than it is for a young man. You know,
a young man, he's got, boy, I've got to solve this problem, you
know, he's got to jump right on it and get it. But you know,
when a man gets older, he kind of realizes, well, you know,
he probably ain't going to solve it to start with, and so why
be bothered with it? But it is a blessing that comes
as a man grows in grace and the knowledge of the Lord to recognize
that This world is not our home. These things pass away. But the
things that we do delight in, endure forever. Joy comes in
the morning. We look for a city which has
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Was that not what
all of the Old Testament saints, the Scripture says, that they
did? And if they'd been mindful of that place where they came
out, in other words, they'd turn around and say, well, you know,
I think we'll go back over there. No, they couldn't, could they?
They had to look forward to that which the Lord had given them. And in my prosperity, I said,
I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favor thou hast
made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide thy face, and
I was troubled." Now, the Lord Jesus Christ, you see, He knows
the end from the beginning, and even though He learned obedience
by the things which He suffered, He was not surprised. Now, some
people think about that, you know, when they read that passage
of Scripture, like, well, man, I never knew it was going to
be like this. No, he knew exactly what it was. I mean, he knows
all things. I'm not able to get into how
all that is, but I do know this. The Scripture says he learned
obedience by the things which he suffered. That is, he went
through it. He, knowing it. Now see, if you knew, If you
knew that there was pain coming, you'd do everything in your power
to avoid it. I mean, you know, if somebody
told you, you're fixing to have a heart attack next week, you'd
go to the doctor this afternoon. You'd call him up before you
got out of here. You know, you'd say, hey, I need some help. Help me. I want to avoid that.
But the Lord Jesus Christ, He knew the end from the beginning.
He knew what He was getting into. And what did He do? He went right
ahead and did it. And in my prosperity, I said,
I shall never be moved. Lord, by Thy favor, Thou hast
made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide Thy face, and
I was troubled. I cried to Thee, O Lord, and
unto the Lord I made supplication." You see, even in the midst of
the greatest desolation that any human being has ever faced
or went through, impossible that anybody could ever go through
anything any worse than what the Lord Jesus Christ did, when
He said these words, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me? But He did not. at any time, did not at any time
consider that He would call upon any other but His Father. As Job said, though He slay me,
yet will I trust Him. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ,
even when He cried, My God, my God, why hast You forsaken me?
His love for His Father was never lessened. He was never disappointed. He just was enduring that which
is due to every one of His people. I cried to Thee, O Lord, and
unto the Lord I made supplication. Because you see, when He was
making supplication, He wasn't just making supplication for
Himself. He was making supplication for
us. What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit?
If the Lord Jesus Christ shed His precious blood and He did
not rise from the dead, but was left a moulder in the ground,
what good would that have done? Not a thing. Dear brethren, the
whole basis of our faith rests on the fact that He rose from
the dead. Now, as much as people get all
excited, and well, they should. I'm not, you know, as hard-lined
on this as I possibly have been in times past. But if people
want to get all excited about the Lord Jesus Christ being born
into the world, I'm going to rejoice with them. But that's
not the place of my rejoicing. Now that's the main place of
most people's rejoicing. People get all fired up about
it, you know, and Jesus is the reason for the season and all
that stuff. But He's not the reason for every
other season, you know. I believe He's the reason for
all seasons, not just this one. But it's okay to remember the
birth of Christ, but just keep in mind that's not what the Lord
told us to do. He never told us one time, I
want you all to set aside a day and I want you to remember when
I was born. And I want you to put on pageants
and do all these things in my name. Now he didn't tell us not
to do that. You know, I'm glad to hear some of the songs and
stuff that come up around this time of the year and it reminds
us that he did indeed come into the world born of a virgin. That's
a glorious thing. But dear Bradley, if that's the
only consideration we have of Christ, we have missed the mark. Because the whole purpose of
Him being born was to die. And that's what He said. He said,
Remember my death till I come again. Because He is coming again. What profit is there in my blood
when I should go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise me?
Shall it declare thy truth? Is there any praise for God in
the grave? I mean, have you ever walked
past a graveyard in the night and heard folks singing? No,
they're not singing. There's no praising God in the
graveyard. Those folks are just there. They can't do anything. But you
see, There is no prophet to being in the grave. And there is no
prophet under Christ to be in the grave. There is a prophet
to us because He took our sin and it was buried with Him. But
the prophet, you see, was in the life. That is the thing that
we desire is life. And He is the life. Shall the
dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth?"
No! Had Jesus Christ not risen from the dead, we wouldn't have
anything to say. We couldn't help a person. We
could forget it. You could have the biggest Christmas
celebration that's ever been. If there is no resurrection,
it's all for naught. It's just a nice little story.
And unfortunately, that's what it is to most people, just a
nice little story. You know, peace on earth, goodwill
towards men and all of that. And it's just a nice thing. It
makes people feel good. But brethren, if that's all there
is, it's of no consequence. Because unless he died and rose
again, then it's of no use. Hear me, O Lord, and have mercy
upon me. Be Thou my Helper. Thou hast
turned for me my mourning into dancing. Now when did He mourn?
Every day He walked upon the earth. He mourned for the sins
of His people. Every day. He bore it. He was
a man of sorrows, but Thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded
me with gladness. Who for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross despising the shame. He gladly
undertook this But it was a weight that bore upon him his whole
life. He was bowed down under sin and
sadness. He girded me with gladness. To
the end that my glory shall sing praise to thee and not be silent. The Lord Jesus would not be silent
because there came a day when the appointed time came. And he rose from the dead. Oh, what a glorious thing to
be able to have been there and beheld a man as dead as any
man has ever been. Take life back unto himself and rise up and take off the
windings of the grave, fold them up and leave them right where
he was. and come forth from the tomb.
And the door to the tomb wasn't open so He could get out. It
was open so the disciples could get in. Because the grave could
not hold Him. No stone has ever been built
that could keep Him there. And He said, to the end that
My glory may sing praise to Thee. This is the reason that we preach
the Gospel. is that His glory might be seen
in the earth, that He might be declared among men and not be
silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks
unto Thee forever. I will give thanks unto Thee
and not be silent. Now, we hope to praise Him forever, but we
know this, if we praise Him forever, it will be because Jesus Christ
has given us life. and that we praise Him because
He has given us life that we might praise Him. Otherwise,
we won't. And those that go down into the
pit, they will not praise Him. Oh, keep us back from the pit.
Oh, that we might know Him that has life evermore. I will extol Thee, O Lord.