Certainly as we look in the laws
that was given to Moses, we are struck and reminded of the holiness
of it and the intricacies that are found therein. And then we realize the total
impossibility that it is that a man could ever keep those things. in their jot and tittle and have any sort of hope that
he should enter into the presence of God on the basis of his own
obedience to it. If we did not have one that did
undertake to perform every jot and tittle of that law in our
behalf, we would perish. I mean, there's just no two ways
about it. I mean, that makes any difference.
Who the person is, the best person that ever lived upon earth, has fallen far short of that
standard. But thanks be unto God. That's
not the message we come to preach to men, is that you must do something.
But praise be unto God. We've been shown that to preach
a message it says what Christ has done. And when men are given
grace to see what Christ has done, there and there alone will
be found the rejoicing of the heart. And in Him alone will
be our rejoicing. We're still looking here at Psalm 22. And I want to begin reading in
verse 22. It says, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I praise
thee. Now, of course, the Lord Jesus
Christ, when He was told that His mother and his brethren were
outside and they wanted to speak with him, he said to those there,
he said, look, here is my mother and my brethren. Now he did not
mean that he had no regard unto his physical family. but rather
he was speaking of the fact that in comparison in the kingdom
of God, the relationship between the children of God, one to the
other, is a much stronger relationship than flesh and blood. Now in
this world, men exalt the relationships of flesh and blood, and in order
that we might be taught the greatness of our relationship in Christ,
to Christ, and to one another, we've been given these familial
relationships. You know, a mother doesn't have
to be taught to love her child. She just loves her child. You
can't keep her from loving her child. She's going to love her
child. And the same way with a father. He's going to love
his children. He's going to desire the best
for them. part of being a father. If we
did not see those natural relationships and the development of them,
we would not have an appreciation for those heavenly relationships
which are indeed actually greater in their strength because they
are built upon a more sure foundation. You know, mothers turn against
their children from time to time. Fathers turn against their wives,
and wives turn against their husbands, and children turn against
their parents, and all of those things happen in the natural
world. But in Christ, these things do
not happen, because there is a relationship that is given
to God's people that among themselves, that is strong. And only as the enemy would come in and sow discord
among the brethren, are these relationships interrupted? They cannot be interrupted in
the worship of Christ because we have been given one mind and
one heart. It is always external things,
is it not? that cause discord among the
brethren. It's somebody coming along with some new idea or some
better idea or something that they think ought to be done or
we need to do this or we need to do that. But those things
are nothing. And the unity that we have is
a unity in Christ. And in Christ we have unity. And it's like that oil that the
psalmist speaks about that ran down Aaron's beard and how sweet
such unity is. Well, the Lord says, I will declare
thy name, speaking of His Father's name, I will declare thy name
unto My brethren. Now, the Lord has brought His
message to His people. He said, My sheep hear My voice,
I know them, and they follow Me. He said to the Pharisees,
you cannot hear me because you are not of my sheep. He says,
I will declare the Father's name among my brethren. Now, he said
that is why he spoke in parables, did he not? He said so that those
that have been given eyes to see might see and those that
have not would not be able to see, but they would be blinded. He prayed, he thanked the Father.
He says, I thank thee, O Father, that thou hast hid these things
from the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto babes.
And so he says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. Now everybody does not desire
to hear the exaltation of Christ, but the children of God do. It
is impossible that a child of God should hear the name of Christ
exalted and not be glad. I mean, it is impossible that
that should happen. When Christ is exalted, God's
people are made glad. That is just part and parcel
of what the Spirit of God does in the children of God. It causes
them to delight in hearing the name of Jesus Christ exalted. In the midst of the congregation
will I praise thee. Is there anything more sweet
than praising the name of Jesus Christ in our song, in our prayers,
as we speak of the Word of God? I mean, is there any place we
would rather be than to hear these things and to be made one
together in these things? How we are made one and unified
is in that desire to exalt and honor Christ. Ye that fear the
Lord, praise Him. Now, all men should praise Him. In fact, the Scripture says,
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. So we can say
with surety to every person in the earth, you should praise
the Lord. But we know this, that it is
going to fall on deaf ears by and large, but to the sons of
God, He says, ye that fear the Lord, praise Him. Because it
is those that fear the Lord who do praise Him. A man who does
not fear the Lord, who does not have a regard to Him, who does
not tremble at the mention of His name, he will not praise
the Lord because he does not have any basis or grounds upon
which he does. Now, he may say, praise the Lord. I guess there is probably no
more Or it is at least a very common expression that you'll
hear people say, and sometimes it almost makes me not even want
to respond, when people just kind of glibly say, well, praise
the Lord. And usually it's because something
good happened. Is it not? I mean, it's because
something they judge to be good, they say, praise the Lord. Well,
what about when something bad happens? I mean, the praise of
God does not just come to us because something good happened.
It should not be stimulated in us because something good happened.
I mean, thank God He does bring good things and we do praise
Him. But if that is the only time that we praise Him, then
we miss the point. And it should not be just a catch
word to us to say, praise the Lord, just like, you know, it
is a great day, have a great day, have a blessed day. and
all of those things. Now, if you respond in some negative
way to somebody who says, have a blessed day, they would take
it wrong and then they would judge you to be some kind of
old hard head or something wrong
with you. But, have a blessed day, what
does that mean? I mean, if somebody is not worshipping
Christ and they say, have a blessed day, What do they mean by who
is going to bless us? Where are our blessings? You
know, be thankful for your blessings. You hear that? Well, only the
people of God who know the source of their blessings can truly
say we are thankful for the blessings because we know from whom our
blessings come. Thanksgiving is coming up here.
And you will hear all these people talking about, oh, we need to
be thankful. Well, who are we going to be thankful to? I mean,
are we just thankful? I mean, are we thankful to the
guy down the street? Are we thankful to the government?
Who are we thanking? See, God's people thank God.
It's not just a general thankfulness. Well, we're thankful. Well, what
do we mean by that? It kind of falls in the same
category of a guy who says, well, man, I was lucky. What do you mean you were lucky?
I mean, where does that come from? You know, God's people
aren't lucky. God's people are held in the
palm of the hand of the Lord, and He guides and directs their
every step. And it's not about luck, or faith,
or some sort of blind destiny that caused us to be in a certain
situation, but it's the hand of God's mercy. And so ye that
fear the Lord, praise Him. Praise Him with these things
in your mind. All ye seed of Jacob, glorify
Him and fear Him, all ye the seed of Israel. Now we're going
to talk about the seed there in a moment because while he
is speaking, And in their understanding at least, as they would have
read this psalm in that time, that he was speaking specifically
to the nation of Israel, the seed of Jacob, in a natural sense. And surely the seed of Jacob
should fear him. But that is not the seed with
which Christ is primarily concerned. For he hath not despised nor
abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid
his face from him, but when he cried unto him he heard." Now
this is a general truth, but it is most specifically true
among the saints of God. The Scripture says precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Now it does
not say precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of every
man. But it does say precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of His saints because the afflictions of the righteous
are those things which He takes note of. They are those things
which He is concerned with. He is mindful of them. The afflictions
of men in general is the course of sin in this world, is it not?
All men, all you've got to do to have afflictions is be born
into this world, and you will have some affliction of some
kind if you live long enough. You know, you will have something
will come upon you, and you will have troubles and trials and
what not. But the afflictions of the righteous
are sent for a specific purpose in the lives of each of God's
people to cause them to cry out to Him. to call upon His name. And what a glorious thing it
is, ye that fear the Lord, praise Him, for He hath not despised
nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. You know, sometimes
if we see someone who has some physical affliction, we're not
concerned about it, but it makes us uneasy and uncomfortable,
doesn't it? I mean, there's a young man that
comes in the store from time to time, and he has a very strong speech impediment. And
I just want to, you know, I'm sitting there, I'm thinking,
you know, I want to understand what he's saying, and I don't
want to embarrass him, and it makes me uncomfortable, and in
a way, it makes me to abhor. is affliction. Not him, but you
know, I want to kind of turn away from it. I don't want to
be, I guess, bothered with it, I suppose you might say. But
you see, the Scripture says the Lord, He does not abhor, He doesn't
hate the affliction of the righteous. He doesn't hate the affliction
of His people. Why? Because He puts it upon
them, all things work together for good to them that love God
who are called according to His purpose. These things He brings
on us because He loves us. And he would nurture us and hold
us in the palm of his hand. Neither had he hid his face from
him when he cried unto him he heard. And now think about this. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
hanging on Calvary's cross. He said, The Lord does not hate
my affliction because it is according to the purpose of God that I
am here. And in the midst of his trouble, in the midst of
his heartache, he said, when he cried unto him, he heard.
Now there's a measure, and we've talked about this, and every
time I think about it, it just baffles my mind to try to consider
it. But to think about how that the
Lord perfectly trusted in His Father, and He perfectly knew
that the Father would not forsake Him, But yet the Father did forsake
him for our sake. But He loved him. Now, I know
there are people that can explain that and all of that, but I don't
really want to hear what they have to say, because there is
no real explanation of that. How can that be? That's why the world scoffs at
what we're saying. They say, well, that's stupid.
I mean, how could that be? become a man and come down and
suffer and die and all of that. I mean, how can that be? They
can't comprehend it. Well, I can't comprehend it either,
but the difference is that God gives to His people faith to
believe it. Not just to kind of blindly hope,
well, maybe, you know, maybe this thing is true. No. To believe
it, to hold upon it and know that, brother, this is my hope.
This is the thing that I delight in. Though all the world falls
aside, this is that which I love. And I can't help it. You see,
that's what the Lord gives to His people. He hath heard him when he cried,
My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. That
is when the people of God are gathered together. Now there
is coming a time According to what we read in the scripture,
when all of the sons of God shall be gathered together in one place. Now I don't know what kind of
a place that is. It's a big place, I know that.
But because it says that multitudes which no man could number, John
said. And he looked at a vast multitude
and it was just beyond his comprehension as to how many people it was.
But he said it was men out of every kindred, tribe and tongue
on the face of the earth. I mean, some folks out of tribes
and tongues that you wouldn't even imagine would be there are
going to be there. The congregation of the righteous.
Now, I can't explain at all how it was, you know, how it is,
but that's what it says. And he said, My praise shall
be of thee in the great congregation. That is when the entire gathering
of the sons of God has come together in one place when we are congregated,
my praise shall be of thee. The Lord Jesus Christ shall exalt
the name of His Father." Now over in the book of I Corinthians,
and I'll, let me read something to you here, just popped into
my mind here. It says, For he must reign till
he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under
his feet, but when he saith all things are put under his feet,
it is manifest that he is accepted, which did put all things under
him. And when all things shall be
subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject
unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all
in all. I don't think there's another
scripture in all the Bible that causes me more consternation
than that one. And yet, that's such a glorious
thing, and it's exactly what he's saying. Hear my praise shall
be of thee and the great congregation. There's one God, and He will
be praised forever. And He has shown us what His
name is. See, He has a name which is above
every name. And before that name, every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall confess." What a glorious God
we serve. Oh, what a wondrous message is
given. And the mouth of the Lord Jesus
Christ speaks this. He says, I have no other desire
than to speak His name, His own name. Now, men say, well, that's
kind of self-centered, isn't it? Well, God is self-centered. He said, I'm a jealous God. He
said, I'll have all the glory. And I said, I won't share it
with anybody. And I'm glad, praise God, for a God who is self-centered. He's not running around out here
trying to satisfy people. He's doing all things under the
glory of His name, that name which is above every name. And
his praise shall be of him in the great congregation. I will
pay my vows before them that fear him. He says, I will worship
in the presence of those that fear the Lord. The meek shall
eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that
seek him. Your hearts shall live forever.
The meek. You remember it said Moses was
the meekest man on the earth. Now, that was at that time, because
when the Lord Jesus Christ came into the earth, He was the meekest
man that actually ever lived upon the earth. But He said,
the meek shall inherit the earth. Now, what are the meek? We usually
think of the meek as, you know, the little, somebody that's a
little weak and powerless and what not, and there's a measure
of that in there. We are powerless. But you see,
meekness arises out of a person knowing who they are before Almighty
God. And a man that comes into the
presence of God who has been taught who God is, he will be
meek. He won't have a whole lot to
say. You know, people talk about, when I get before the Lord, I'm
going to tell Him this and I'm going to tell Him that. No, you're
not going to tell Him anything. He's going to be the one that's
doing all the talking. And those that fear Him will
be meek before Him. You see, over in Matthew's Gospel
when he said, that many shall say unto me in that day, Lord,
have we not done all these wondrous works? Well, see, that couldn't
be the people of God because the people of God would not be
saying anything. Only a man who is a fool would
come before God and say, Lord, look at all these things we've
done. No, I don't want him to. I want to say, Lord, hide your
face from the things that I've done. Just look at Christ. I want to see the righteousness
of Christ. The blood of Christ shed for
my sake. And so the meek shall eat and
be satisfied. That is, they are going to be
happy in that which the Lord gives, and such is true. The proud man, he can't ever
be satisfied in anything less than pride. I mean, you take
these politicians. Now, buddy, they don't miss an
opportunity, do they, to take praise unto their self, even
if they know they didn't have a thing in the world to do with
it. I mean, from the president right on down. They've got to
boast about, oh, I did this and I did that. And of course, you
know, in the hypocrisy of all the political things, they'll
be accusing one another of doing that, and then they'll turn around
and do the exact same thing. And all this stuff. But that's
just the way of men. That's the pride of men. But
it is not that of the meek. They shall praise the Lord that
seek Him. Your heart, shall live forever. What I was going to
say, I kind of got off my train of thought there, but a man,
you know, he cannot be satisfied with anything but his own praise. But to me, those who have been
taught who Christ is, they cannot be satisfied with anything less
than the praise of Christ. They do not want the praise of
men. They don't want men to heap praise upon them and tell them
what a good job they did and all that kind of stuff. They
just want Christ to be exalted. All the ends of the world shall
remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations
shall worship before thee. Now look at that. It says all
the kindreds. That is all those who have a
kinship. shall worship before thee. Now,
all men shall not worship the Lord in spirit and truth. Now, all men are going to bow
down, but they are going to bow down in abject destruction. In other words, they are going
to be as those whom the stone falls upon, as that Scripture
speaks about, and shall grind them to powder. Yes, they're
going to be bowed down. But you see, the sons of God
are those who have fallen upon the stone, and falling upon the
stone are broken. And the stone does not grind
them to powder, but the stone is that which preserves their
life. And so it says here, all the kindreds of the nation shall
worship before thee. That is, all of those who have
a kinship in Christ, who come together for that purpose, They
shall worship before thee, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and
He is the governor among the nations." Is that not what Isaiah
said? That the government shall be
upon His shoulders. He is the ruler over all. There
is not a kingdom in the earth where the Lord Jesus Christ does
not rule and reign in the present time as the mighty God for sure,
but I am talking about in the sense that He is calling His
people out of every nation, kindred, tribe and tongue in the earth.
The gospel is going forth into the world and is presently being
sent into the world. And there is no power on earth
that can stop it because Christ will call His people in his own
time and according to the means in which he is pleased to sin,
the nation shall worship before thee, for the kingdom is the
Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. All they that
be fat upon the earth shall eat and worship." All they that be
fat. Now that would kind of include
a bunch of us, wouldn't it? But see, hopefully we are not
just fat in the natural sense, but we
are fat because we feast on the things of God. That's what it's
talking about. All those that feast upon the
things of God, the deity is that the Lord spreads upon His table.
You know, not just fried chicken, but cake and pie and all of those
things that are sweet to the taste that He's pleased to give
us as the sons of God. We feast upon these things and
we become fat. with them, and they that be fed
upon the earth shall eat and worship. Those that rejoice in
the truth of God shall eat and worship. All they that go down
to the dust shall bow before Him, and none shall keep alive
his own soul." See, all men are born of the same stock, and it
is not possible that any man should live in and of himself. Now that's true in the natural
sense, is it not? I mean, no man thinks that he
can preserve his life. Now I know you read about some
of these people that have their head cut off and they freeze
it and they're going to later on hook it up to another body
or machine or something somewhere and they're supposedly going
to live on and they're developing these pills you're going to take
and you're going to live and all that stuff. We know the foolishness
of that. I don't know what the Lord may
allow people. He might let somebody thaw their head out sometime
and hook it up to a machine sometime. I don't know. But I know one
thing, that when the Lord's time calls a man from this world to
judgment, he's going to come. There's no question about that.
For it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this,
the judgment. Now you can fill in the blanks
and figure out how that works out, I don't know, but I do know
that to be a fact. None can keep alive his own soul. Now this is an interesting passage
of Scripture. And just reading over it, you
know, you might bypass some things. The Lord made man a living soul. Man does not have a soul. Man
is a soul. Now, that's an important thing
to consider. You know, we're not a body with
a soul. We're a soul with a body. And
the Scripture says that no man can keep alive his own soul.
Now, some tell us that the soul somehow, somewhere became immortal. But I'm saying this, and you've
searched the Scripture, because I've searched the Scripture to
try to find when that occurred, I haven't found it yet, that
the soul is somehow immortal. The only way that anybody is
immortal is if they have been what? Given immortality. And the only way that a man is
given immortality is in Christ. No man can keep alive his own
soul. The Lord said, don't fear those
that can kill the body but can't kill the soul. He said, fear
Him rather who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. He said, you be sure you understand
that, that you know that you don't have life in yourself.
Nothing about you lives except that which He gives. And we live
because He lives. He is our life. The life was
in Christ and Christ is the life, the way, the truth, and the life.
None shall keep alive his own soul. The seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare
his righteousness unto a people that shall be born that he hath
done this. Now, over in 1 Peter, in chapter
2, we read this. Let me see if I can find it here. Here we go. Well, let me just start here
in verse 1 of chapter 2, "...laying aside all malice, and all guile,
and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn
babes, desire to send sincere milk of the Word, that ye may
grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted that
the Lord is gracious, to whom coming as unto a living stone,
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye
also, as lively stones or living stones, are built up a spiritual
house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained
in the scripture, Behold, I lay in sign a chief cornerstone,
elect precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling, and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient, whereinto also they were appointed." Now listen to
this, "...but ye are a chosen generation." He says right here,
a seed shall serve him, it shall be counted to the Lord for a
generation. Now what is a generation? I mean,
we read in the Scripture about the generation of such and such,
and what does it mean? It means his children, does it
not? I mean, the generation of Jacob
is all the sons that came forth from his loins. Well, you see,
the Lord Jesus Christ, according to what the Scripture says, He
has a seed which shall be counted to Him for a what? Generation. They've come forth from Christ
and they belong to Christ. They were given to Christ. Now
again, you know, me as the man that's gone shipwrecked trying
to describe and discuss that to the nth degree and wind up
all the time saying things that the Bible doesn't say, I'm not
going to say something that the Bible doesn't say, but it does
say that the Lord has a generation. A seed which belonged to Him. That's what it says right there.
And Peter reiterates it. He said, you are a chosen generation. See, we're not a natural generation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We didn't just come along. But
He chose His people because they were His people. See, we weren't
chosen out of Christ. We were chosen in Christ. Now that is a glorious thought.
It gives you something to think about. We were chosen in Christ. We are in Christ. We are a holy
seed according to the Scriptures, which shall be called a generation.
A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
peculiar people, for what purpose? That ye should show forth the
praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness and into
His marvelous light." The purpose of God is to call that generation
which belongs to Him out of the darkness and into the light And
that is what the Lord says in His prayer here. They shall come
and shall declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born,
that He hath done this. Not that they did it together,
or if they will do this, He will do that, but they shall declare
the Lord hath done this. How does the redemption of God's
people take place? The Lord did it. Had the election
of grace take place, the Lord did it. He hath done this. You see, that's the message of
the Gospel. The Lord hath done this. And
He said He would declare it. Peter declared it. He declared
it right here. He said, Ye are that chosen generation. Ye belong to Him. A peculiar
people, oddballs in the world. You know, when you think about
something being peculiar, that usually has a bad connotation,
doesn't it? Well, he's kind of peculiar. I mean, people have
said that about me my whole life. He's kind of odd. He's odd. There's
something wrong with him. He's peculiar. Well, we are peculiar
people, as the world considers it. We're oddballs. We're outcasts.