Looking in Psalm 79, we will read this psalm and then
we will go back and make a few comments upon it as the Lord
enables us to. It says, O God, the heathen are
come into thine inheritance. Thy holy temple have they defiled. They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants
have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven. the
flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood
have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was
none to bury them. We are become a reproach to our
neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are round about
us. How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry forever? Shall thy jealousy
burn like fire? Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen
that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not
called upon thy name. For they have devoured Jacob,
and laid waste his dwelling place. Oh, remember not against us former
iniquities. Let thy tender mercies speedily
prevent us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God, of
our salvation for the glory of thy name, and deliver us, and
purge away our sins for thy name's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, Where is their God? Let him be known among the heathen
in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants
which is shed. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee. According to the greatness of
thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die, and
render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom their reproach,
wherewith they have reproached thee. Lord. So we thy people
and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks forever. We will show forth thy praise
to all generations. Now it is impossible that men
in their natural understanding should be able to grasp the things
of the kingdom of And of course, as Brother Al ably pointed out
this morning there in the book of Genesis, how clearly
the truth is set forth, so clearly that it is impossible for the
enlightened mind to think that someone could read that and not
clearly see what it says. But yet the wisest of men in
the earth, or at least as what men call wise men, as the Lord
said they were wise, and He said, not many wise shall be called. He thinks, Father, that these
things were hidden from the wise and the prudent. So it's not
amazing that we would think a man like Stephen Hawking, supposedly
is a great wise man and is so among men and the great philosophers
of our day, that they should read these things and basically
say, well, that's okay for a religious perspective if you want to look
at that in that way. But they cannot see that therein
is contained the very truth, the absolute truth, of how these
things are. That is, the revelation of God,
but yet a man can't comprehend it. And so it is that the psalmist
says here, the heathen are come into thine inheritance. The holy
temple have they defiled. Now, this of course has specific
reference to the fact that in the earth those people whom the
Lord had called out of the tribe of Jacob's offspring, the tribes
of Israel. And He had set them up as the
typical of the people of God, that remnant which are in Jesus
Christ from before the foundation of the world. He has set Israel
being that typical people that would manifest the Lord's dealings
with His people in the earth. Now, the problem is that men
in their carnal understanding do not see that. Now, that's
very important, I believe, that a man knows and understands that
the love of Jesus Christ for His remnant which are hidden
in Him before the foundation of the world supersedes and is
greater than that manifestation of his love to a people of a
carnal tribe and tongue on the face of the earth. Those people
who are known as the nation of Israel are not all Israel. In fact, they are a very small
number among them, even as out of all the nations, tribes and
tongues of the earth, the Lord has called a people in Christ. But yet, in the Scripture, the
Lord would manifest His dealings with Israel in order that He
might manifest His proper dealing with those who are his people
in Christ. And so he says here that the
heathen are come in divine inheritance. There is a mixture in the earth of God's
people, and those who are not God's people. Now, that's just
as plain as can be set forth in the Scripture. The heathen
have come into thine inheritance. The Lord said that the kingdom
was as one who sowed seed in the earth, and then the enemy
came along and sowed tares among the wheat. And he said, we won't
root them up. He said, we'll let them grow
until the time of the harvest. And the heathen have indeed come
into thine inheritance. That is, there is a mix today.
And today especially in the earth and in the religious world, which
I call the carnal religious world, and the reason that I do that
is not just to be critical of the world, but there is a worldview
of carnal religion which centers in men. That is, the benefit
of carnal religion is for men. Most all of the books that you
see written today are for the benefit of men. How to have a
happy marriage, how to pray, How to do this and how to do
that and all of those things. And I'm not saying that there's
not perhaps some benefit that can be derived in looking at
those books, but you cannot arrive at what the truth is concerning
the Lord's dealings with His people by reading such stuff
as that because the gospel is not about the benefit of men,
though men benefit greatly. But the gospel is about the glory
of God. And if we don't see that, then
we cannot see and understand what the gospel is. And our focus
and our time and effort will be spent in trying to enhance
the ways of men in the earth. Now, there is certainly nothing
wrong with doing good in the earth. And I believe this, that
those who are drawn to Christ and shown what they are by the
grace of God will desire to do good in the earth. I mean, I
don't believe that God's people are going to desire to go out
and create evil and heartache and trouble for people. God's
people are not called unto this. The Lord Jesus Christ went about
doing good. Should it be any less of those
who are his disciples? He said, as you have seen me
do, so do ye. And so it is, though, that the
heathen are come into thine inheritance. There is a mixture. And today
it is most difficult to differentiate quite often between that which
is the wheat and that which is the tares. We are never told
to differentiate between the wheat and the tares. That's not
our job. We're not going out here trying
to pick the wheat. But what we're doing is we're
seeking to glorify God in the earth in the manifestation of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, telling men what it is that Christ came
to do, and therefore exalting the name of Christ in the midst
of the earth. They have defiled the Holy Temple.
I kind of got ahead of myself. This psalm is written specifically
to point out in an illustrated way of the numbers of times that
the nation of Israel was overcome by other kingdoms that came in
and laid them waste, tore down the temple, most especially in
the days of Nebuchadnezzar when he came and he laid waste the
temple. And the heathen, it says, here
they have defiled, they have laid Jerusalem on heaps, the
dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat to the
fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints to the beasts of
the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem,
and there was none to bury them." Now, while that is the illustration
that is given, There is a greater persecution that goes on in the
earth today than simply what the psalmist is specifically
speaking of in a carnal sense. And that is that they have defiled,
they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. The carnal manner of the world,
the heathen, the way of the world is to go against the people of
God. wherever they may be found. Those
that have one desire, that is to exalt and honor Christ, that's
not enough. Well, you should be doing more.
Well, I mean, no, that is what we're sent to do there, brethren,
is to magnify Christ. What more is there? Now, that's not good enough for
the world, and they will tell you pretty quick that you ought
to be doing more. But the more that they're doing
is those things not of the kingdom of God, but of those things that
imitate the kingdom of God. Now you see, there is an imitation,
a counterfeit of all things spiritual in the earth. There is an imitation
which is that which is of darkness. And so it is as They have come
into thine inheritance, the holy temple they have defiled, they
have laid Jerusalem on heat. They've warred against the people
of God. Now, they don't war outwardly, but they war nonetheless because
they will militate against the... Militate, is that a word? That's
not the word. There's a word I'm thinking of.
I tried to say it a while ago and it wouldn't come to my mind.
I don't know of any other word
to say. They war against the people of
God. I'll think of the word. There
is a word, something like that, but I can't think of what it
is. But anyway, the world wars against the preaching of the
gospel. They're not friends to it. When a man stands up and he says
that God orders all things to come to pass according to the
good pleasure of His will and nothing transpires in the earth
except that which He has ordered to occur, there are those that
will fight against that. And they'll fight against it
in the name of God. And they'll say, oh, well, you're
just going off the deep end. You're just pointing out one
thing. There is no greater thing than that. And in turn, if a
man comes to the place where he has an understanding that
all things occur according to the good pleasure of God's will,
how can he possibly have any understanding of the way of man
in the earth? Dear brethren, if the Lord does
not order our steps, who does? I mean, if somebody else is ordering
our steps, who is it? And if we are ordering our own
steps, are we not in great trouble? Because I know where my heart
would lead me. I know where my steps would go
if it was not for the grace of God that did order my steps to
call me and bring me to Christ. But the world hates that. The dead bodies of thy servants
have been given to be meat to the fowls of the heaven. They
feed the preachers of God's righteousness up quite often. They say, well, they just believe
that God's going to save His people in spite of hell or whatever. I say that's absolutely right,
because that's what the Scripture says. If it's not so, dear brethren,
we are in a world of trouble again, because that is the truth.
That is our worldview. Is it not that God is going to
call His people unto Himself? The Lord Jesus Christ said, All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. Now that is a glorious thing. Because you see, we are sent
to preach the gospel unto the poor and the heavy laden and
those who are bowed down. And those who believe, we say
to them, Christ has died for you. Those that hunger and thirst
after righteousness, we say to you, shall be filled. You see,
there is mercy for all of those who call upon the name of the
Lord. He said, I will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious. I will show mercy to whom I will
show mercy. And those to whom He shows mercy
are those who believe, those who love His way, those who delight
in the things of God, those who want the name of Christ magnified. You see, it is impossible for
a man to desire the glory of God who has not the Spirit of
God in him, because man by nature is not going to desire such a
thing. Now, I didn't say that he might desire to build up a
kingdom for men to see. He said, well, brother, I've
got this congregation and we preach this and we're proud of
what we preach and we're proud of going along. No, that's not
it, but it's Christ. Let Christ be exalted. May our
names rot in the earth. May we be forgotten. But let
the name of Christ be magnified. You see, that's the purpose and
the point of preaching the gospel of Christ. Their blood had the shed like
water by Jerusalem. The world doesn't like that message
there, brethren. It wants everybody to have a
fair chance and a square deal. Well, that just wouldn't be right.
Like the fellow I shared with you a while back that came in
the store and he said, yeah, God's trying to save as many
as He can. He's out here just wanting to
save everybody. Well, brethren, if that be the
case, now understand what I'm saying here. If that be the case,
he's not doing a very good job. No, that's not His purpose. Dear
brethren, His purpose is to draw His people unto Himself and everyone
whom He loved with everlasting love, He's going to draw to Himself
according to the good pleasure of His will. But the world hates
that doctrine. You don't believe it? Well, when
the Lord Jesus Christ stood up in the temple to read the Word
of God, and He said, I tell you, there were many lepers in the
land of Israel. But unto Naaman the Syrian was the word of God sent, was
the prophet sent. A Gentile, an enemy of God's
people. He said there were many widows
in the land of Israel, but unto one Gentile woman was the prophet
sent. And you know what they said?
This man speaks blasphemy. We are going to cast him out.
And they took him to the brow of the hill, the scripture says,
and would have thrown him over, but he walked and passed through
the midst of them. I wish I could have been there
and seen that. I have often pictured that in my mind. How here they
are ready, and then all of a sudden he is gone, and they do not know
where he went. But you see, that is the way
of the world. We have become a reproach to
our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them round about us. Now,
nominal religion is not a scorn unto men. They'll have panels
of religious men to come together when they have days of prayer.
All of these things that the world looks at and everybody
takes, you know, sets back and they enjoy all these religious
leaders coming together and all of these things. And men say,
oh, we're all fine folks and we've all gathered together to
pray. But no, dear brethren, the world hates the gospel of
Christ. It hates the message of God's
sovereign grace. And it won't ever be a thing
that the world delights in. How long, Lord, would I be angry
forever? We have become a reproach to
our neighbors and a derision to them that are around about
us. Pour out Thy wrath upon the heathen
that have not known Thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not
called upon Thy name. That doesn't sound very kind,
does it? Huh? That's not very nice. But you
see, the purpose there is not because the psalmist is desiring
that he be made to appear fine in the eyes of men, but because
he knows that a reproach against the gospel is a reproach against
God Himself. And he hates the preaching of
unrighteousness. Not because he just desires to
be angry and mean. Now some people, I've heard some
fellows that seem like they just want to be angry and mean. We
don't want to be angry and mean. I don't have any desire to be
angry and mean. But I'm angry when somebody would
not preach the glory of God in the Gospel as Christ goes forth
in triumph to purchase the eternal redemption of His people. It sends cold chills up and down
my spine when I hear men preach Christ and do not give Him glory. Let's set Him forth as some beggar
who is hoping to do somebody some good, but not sure if he
can or not. No, dear brethren, pour out thy
wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, that have not
desire thy glory, not because it is going to vindicate me,
but because it is going to magnify the name of Christ. Oh, remember
not against us former iniquities. Let thy tender
mercy speedily prevent us, for we are brought very low." You
know, the trials of God's people serve to do one thing, and that
is to bring them to the awareness of what a sinner they are. And
when we've been mistreated by others, there's two tacks we can take.
We can become indignant that somebody treated us that way,
or we can, by the grace of God, realize that we should have gotten
worse. Do you realize that every time
somebody mistreats you, you're only getting what you really
deserve? Now, we don't like to think of it like that because
we think in our mind, well, we ought not to be treated that
way. Well, we're better than that. That's wrong. No, dear brethren. The reproaches that they reproach
us with are the reproaches that Christ bore. Peter said, because he did something
wrong, what can you say about it? But he said it's when we
suffer, when we haven't done anything wrong, that God is glorified. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
do anything wrong. What did He say? He didn't say
anything. As a lamb before shears is done. Pilate said, don't you know that
I've got power? Don't you know that I can snuff
your life out?" He said, you don't have any power at all.
He says, I have power. He says, I have power to lay
down my life and I have power to take it up again. Why? Because
He is the Lord. The world is not ready for a
Savior like that. See, they want a nice little
sweet Jesus boy Savior. that's out here hoping he can
do something and help the world, but the world is going the wrong
way. We just need to get out here and just try to make the
world a better place. Dear brethren, you can't make
the world a better place because it's not designed to be a better
place. It's designed to be what it is so that God's people might
be weary of it. I mean, if Egypt was such a great
place, I mean, if the children of Israel had been in Egypt and
they'd have had a spa built for them and they'd have brought
them a feast every day and everything was great and they enjoyed their
time in Egypt, do you think they'd have wanted to leave? Of course
not. This world is a place that is
antagonistic towards the children of God. It is designed that way. It's full of purpose. You always hear this speculation.
Well, what if Adam hadn't of sinned? I mean, he'd have been
living while we'd be living in the garden and everything would
be great, would it? No, it wouldn't. Dear brethren,
it is through the ordained purpose of God that all things occurred
with Adam exactly like they did. He said, in the day thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die. And he said that by way of decree
and prophecy. Because you see, he ordered that
so that he might magnify the grace of God and the glory of
God in the face of Christ in the redemption of his people.
And the world hates that. They don't want you to tell them
that. Because they want everything to be like you said, kind of
out here loosey-goosey on the deal out here and man's determining
what's going to happen to him and all of those things. Because
that makes him comfortable. See, you can go listen to most
preachers and be comfortable, because they're not going to
tell you that it's something that's going to go contrary to your
natural way of thought. It's the natural way of thought
that man would say, well, God created the world and so He's
got to do something for it while He just loves everybody and He's
going to do something. And that just sounds right, doesn't
it? I believed it for a long time. It sounded good to me. And oh, I tell you, when I started
hearing it, maybe that wasn't the case. I got mad about it. And I still get mad about it
from time to time when the Lord doesn't say things and do things
exactly like I think it ought to be. I'm not going to tell
you everything that's in the Word of God. I just say, man,
that's great. No, there's a lot of things I
say, well, that's not right. I don't want it that way. I want
it my way. But you see, it is His way, and
He has ordained it to be His way. And it is a reproach unto
the people of God, and it is indeed, dear brethren, a place
of heartache in this world. He said, Blessed are they who
mourn. Now, we don't like to think of
that, do we? We don't want mourning. I mean, mourning? Are you kidding
me? We don't want to mourn? Who wants to mourn? Do you want
to mourn? No, I want to be happy. Don't you? I mean, I do everything
in my power to avoid mourning. I don't want to mourn. But yet
I know this is the true thing, that apart from mourning, apart
from sadness, apart from heartache, there will not be any joy for
the people of God. Because you see, it is through
that heartache that we are made aware that this world is not
our home. We are made aware that we have no strength of our own.
You see, it is when a man is brought down to the end of his
way and he can go no further that he will be cast upon the
Lord. As long as a man figures there is a way out, he will not
trust the Lord. It's like the man, I heard that
he was sliding off a roof one time, and he started crying,
Oh, Lord, help me! And he's sliding down the roof,
and he gets to the edge of the roof, and his overalls hang on
a nail at the edge of the roof, and he catches and he's hanging
there, and he says, It's okay, Lord, I can handle it from here.
See, as long as a man thinks he's alright, he's alright in
his mind. He's not going to seek the Lord.
Men don't seek the Lord when everything is all right. Men
seek the Lord when the Lord stirs them up to show them things aren't
all right. The only people that will ever
be saved are the people that are lost. And according to what
the Scripture says, everyone who is lost shall be found. The world is not lost. They know
exactly where they are, don't they? They are not seeking the
Lord. Oh, there's a lot of people seeking
a lot of stuff, like you pointed out. People, they seek answers
in all sorts of things, religion and whatever, but it's always
something of their own doing. But you see, when a man's brought
down to the end of his ability to seek and find any answers
at all, then the Lord will take him up. And the reality is that
the Lord's already taken him up, because he wouldn't have
ever been brought to that place. You see, a man will never be
brought to a place of calling upon the name of the Lord apart
from the grace of God bringing him there. You never want to
call on the Lord. You never seek the Lord. You
never desperately hunger for the righteousness of God apart
from the grace of God moving you to do it. So don't remember. Remember not
against our former iniquities, O let thy mercies prevent us,
for we are brought low. You see, it is in the recognition
of our sin that we are brought low before the Lord and desiring
to be cleansed from our sin. If a man didn't ever know himself
to be a sinner, why would he want to be cleansed from it?
He'd never know that he should. Help us, O God, of our salvation. For the glory of Thy name and
delivers for the glory of thy name. Oh, that thy name, you
see, he, speaking here as a Jew, he says, do not let these heathen
destroy thy temple, but for the glory of thy name delivers. I
mean, your name is reproached. Magnify thy name. The Lord is
going to magnify his name. He is magnifying his name now.
Now, the world cannot see it, but the people of God can. But
according to what Scripture says, there is coming a day when it
is going to be made manifest to all men who Christ is. See, the manifestation of the
glory of God's grace in the day of judgment when He separates
the sheep and the goats, there will be a manifestation, dear
brethren, for all men to see. Now this is the thing that men
by nature clamor to avoid. with all their theories. Because
you see, if you have the theory, and we'll just call it a theory
for the sake of our argument, if you have the theory that God
created the heavens and the earth, then you have to have some thought
that what's God going to do with it in the ultimate outcome. God's
going to bring some kind of arrangement to pass. He brought it to pass.
He's got to bring something to fruition, does He not? But men
want to avoid that thought, do they not? Because if they believe
He created it, they've got to believe He's going to do something
with it. And they don't want to face what He's going to do
with it, but it is appointed unto men once to die, and after
this, the judgment. See, that's our worldview. Somebody says, well, what's your
world view? Well, this is it. It's pointed unto men once to
die, and after this the judgment. Our God's in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. That's my world view. The world doesn't like that.
The philosophers don't like it because they want something.
We want something, you know, that's a little easier to understand
and not quite so rough around the edges. See, that's what people
don't like about what Christ said, because it's rough around
the edges. Now you take some of the guys that's out there
today, they've smoothed off the edges. They've figured out a
way to smooth every edge. Well, dear brethren, you can't
smooth the edges off of the truth, because it cuts like a sharp
two-edged sword to the piercing of thunder, to the dividing of
soul and spirit. It cuts. And in those who have
been given eyes to see it, it cuts them to the very quick of
their heart and causes them to fall on their faces before Almighty
God and say, Help us, O God, of our salvation, for the glory
of thy name. Wherefore should the heathens
say, Where is their God? Let him be known among the heathen
in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants
which is shed. Let the sighing of the prisoner
come before thee according to the greatness of thy power, Preserve
thou those that are appointed to die." Now, when Peter and John were arrested
and taken into prison and then beaten, and then they were released,
and the Scripture says they counted it joy. that they had been counted
worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ. Now, the psalmist
says here, Preserve thou those that are
appointed to die. Now, he's talking about the people
of God. Some of God's people are appointed
to die in the place of persecution. Preserve them, O Lord. Help them
to stand. You see, Stephen was a man appointed
to die. The prayers of God's people for
those who are appointed to die is, Lord, preserve them. Now,
do we pray, Lord, preserve them, thinking that the Lord won't
preserve them? No. Not any more than we pray, Lord,
thy will be done, thinking that the will of God won't be done.
No, we know that the will of God will be done. We know that
God will preserve His people. But you see, the Spirit of God
moves God's people to pray in accordance with God's will. And
it is in accordance with God's will that He will preserve even
unto death. Those whom He has appointed,
the Scripture says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of His saints. Yes, their life is precious.
But their death is precious too because He has appointed their
death at the time that pleased Him and they cannot pass. Not one of us in here will pass
our appointed time. We are appointed to die, but
He is specifically speaking about here those who are appointed
to die in defense of the gospel of Christ. Now whether that be a physical
death or whether it just be an assassination of character, You
see, that's what some of the so-called believers tried to
do with the apostle Paul. Did they not? They said, well,
he's saying that you should sin that grace may abound. See, they
sought to assassinate the character of Paul. They sought to kill
him. They said, we don't like what he's saying. And so we believe
that because he's preaching free grace, that is telling people,
just go out and sin all you want to, so that God will be magnified
the more. They sought to assassinate His
character. And dear brethren, as long as there have been men
in the earth preaching free and sovereign grace, there have been
detractors who would fight against it, tooth and toenail, and accuse
those who do so of all manner of things. May the Lord deliver us from
a critical spirit of anybody whose soul and chief desire is
to magnify the name of Christ. Oh, that we might be glad. See,
everybody that... I don't agree with everybody
that I believe is preaching the gospel of free and sovereign
grace as it ought to be preached. I don't necessarily agree with
everything everybody always says, but I'll tell you one thing.
I am glad when I hear the name of Christ alone exalted. And
I am sad when I hear that there is a mixture of any sort of the
effort of men and the effort of Christ. Oh, that the Lord
might deliver those that are appointed to die and render unto
our neighbors sevenfold unto their bosom their reproach, Now
listen to what he said, "...wherewith they have reproached thee, O
Lord." Listen, a reproach against the gospel is a reproach against
Christ Himself. A declaration of a false gospel
is not a reproach against me. You see, I don't grow weary because
somebody disagrees with me. I'm surprised anybody agrees
with me. It amazes me. I mean, here's
some folks that drove over here from Jacksonville because they
heard one of our messages or some of our messages on the Internet. And I'm amazed at that. I'm amazed. I'm glad. I mean, who can overturn
the Word of God? It goes forth in ways that we
don't even know about. Have no mind to. You see, when there are those
that will not declare the truth of God, they reproach Christ. Now, so I'm not amazed when people
don't agree with me, and I really don't care if people agree with
me. It's not important to me that anybody on the earth agrees
with me. That's not important. Now, I'm
delighted when I find out that there are. But like Brother Stanley
Phillips used to say, he said, if I got to go and sit on my
porch by myself, he said, I'm going to do it. But I'm not going
to change what I preach and believe to be the absolute truth of God. We're not preaching for mutual
agreement. Now, I believe this is a true
thing, that those that love Christ love to hear Christ exalted,
even if they don't like everything somebody might say about everything. Now, if you read enough of everything
I've ever said, you won't agree with a bunch of it. That's all
right. But I believe this is the true
thing, and I'm not tootin' my own horn, because I wouldn't
know how to preach anything. I don't know how to preach anything
else. But the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ as the Redeemer
of sinners, that's the only thing I know how to preach. And by
the grace of God, and only by the grace of God, I expect and
hope to preach that with my last dying breath, and there to never
be any other word come forth from my lips than that Christ
is all. Because that is the message of
God, dear brethren. I believe it with all my heart.
It's there that I take my stand. And if it be not the Lord, then
I'll perish, but I'll perish with Him. If He be not the Savior... I saw this guy on a talk show
the other day, and he had written a book about Christ. and not from a believer's standpoint,
but just from a person just analyzing the life of Christ and how the
amazing thing to him was that of all the different messiahs,
and there have been thousands of them that have come into the
earth over the years, that only this one has ever had the impact
upon the world in general as he viewed it as Christ has. Now, that's neither here nor
there as far as I'm concerned because that's not the point. The point is that it is Christ,
and it is Him and Him alone that we cleave to. And if He be not
the Messiah, then we're of all men most miserable, even as Paul
said, if the dead rise not because, dear brethren, because He rose
from the dead is why we believe we shall. Is it not? And so it's Christ or it's nothing.
Upon this we take our stand. So we thy people and the sheep
of thy pasture will give thee thanks forever. We will show
forth thy praise to all generations." Now, that's not a boast. That's
a declaration of belief. We shall praise thee, O Lord,
unto all generations. Now, we're not saying, Well,
brother, we know we will. And all these other people are
going, No, we believe we shall because we believe He is. See? We believe we shall stand because
we believe He is the Messiah. We believe He is the Savior.
We believe He is the Lord. We believe He is the one true
and living God who has come and walked among men and taken the
sin of His people as far away as east is from the west and
remembers it no more. Yes, that, dear brethren, is
the place we take our stand. And we say with the psalmist,
we will show forth our praises to all generations. Oh, may the
Lord give us a mind and a heart to praise the name of Christ,
because He as He alone is, whether on life or death. Paul said,
so whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's, so
that we can say with the psalmist, Lord preserve those who are appointed
to die. All of us are appointed to die,
but some of us are appointed to die in various fashions for
the name of Christ. May the Lord be praised, and
may we even be thankful unto death as such because he is that
one who is our Lord in life and death.