If you would, open your Bibles
with me to 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4. Our brother Aaron
Simpson came home from Columbus today. Stunning. I feel like
it's stunning. Turn around from where he was
last Thursday and Friday. We're so thankful. Here he looks
pretty good. We're just so thankful to hear
that. He's got a long road ahead, it's bound to be better being
home. We're thankful. Many of you probably have already
heard, but our sister Evelyn Yates, Lord has been pleased
to finally call her home after 95 years. The visitation will
be Saturday from 11 to 1, and I'll be preaching the funeral
service at 1 o'clock at the Music Family Funeral Home in Greenup,
Kentucky. Evelyn's brother, Pastor Darwin
Pruitt, is going to be here for the funeral And he's agreed to
preach for us on Sunday, so we'll look forward to that. All right,
2 Corinthians chapter 4. Therefore, seeing we have received
this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,
nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation
of the truth, committing ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them
that are lost, in whom the God of this world has blinded the
minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. We're troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed.
Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus'
sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our
mortal flesh. So then, death worketh in us,
but life in you. We have the same spirit of faith
according as it is written. I believed, and therefore I have
spoken. We also believe, and therefore
speak. knowing that he which raised
up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall
present us with you. For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
were down to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not,
but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, Worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. Isaac, you come lead us in some
songs. Everyone stand and sing 442. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, His wonderful
love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to His
holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard
His children in His arms. He carries them all day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound His praises. Jesus who bore our sorrows, love
unbounded, wonderful, deep, and strong. Praise Him, praise Him,
tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus,
our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals loud with hosannas
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, prophet
and priest and king. Christ is coming. over the world victorious, power
and glory unto the Lord belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. You may be seated. Turn to 126. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure,
Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? These four sin could not atone,
Thou must save and Thou alone. In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling. While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death, When I rise to worlds unknown,
And behold thee on thy throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let
me hide myself in thee, I know if you would open your
Bibles with me to the book of Psalms, Psalm 147. I was sitting there thinking
I probably should have said Saturday at 1 that Isaac and I will be
doing the funeral. Isaac's going to take care of
the music for me, which is such a big relief. I'm thankful that
he's able to do that. You pray for us as we prepare
for that service, if you would. Psalm 147. Praise ye the Lord,
for it's good to sing praises unto our God, for it's pleasant,
and praise is comely. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem.
He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken
in heart and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number
of the stars. He calleth them all by their
names. Great is our Lord, and of great power. His understanding
is infinite. The Lord lifteth up the meek.
He casteth the wicked down to the ground. Sing unto the Lord
with thanksgiving. Sing praise upon the harp unto
our God, who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain
for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. He
giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which
cry, delighteth not in the strength of the horse, he taketh not pleasure
in the legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them
that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. Praise the
Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise thy God, O Zion! For he
hath strengthened the bars of thy gates, hath blessed thy children
within thee. He maketh peace in thy borders,
and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. He sendeth forth
his commandment upon earth. His word runneth very swiftly.
He giveth snow like wool. He scattereth the hoarfrost like
ashes. He casteth forth his ice like morsels. Who can stand before
his cold? He sendeth out his word and melteth
him. He causes his wind to blow and
the waters flow. He showeth his word unto Jacob,
his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt
so with any nation. And as for his judgments, They
have not known them. Praise ye the Lord. Thank God
for his word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we've gathered here
together tonight as your people to praise our Lord. And oh Lord,
how we do praise you. We praise you for your goodness,
your mercy, love, your people. We praise you for your wisdom
that provides a salvation that's both just and gracious, that
allows you to be just and the justifier of them that would
believe in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, how we thank you. How
we thank you and praise your name for giving us your gospel
here to preach, to hear, to believe. Father, we're so thankful. It's
not so in every place, but you've seen fit to to place it here,
and Father, we're thankful. And I pray you'd protect it,
that you'd give us the wisdom and the heart to protect it,
to earnestly protect it, that this might be a place where Christ
is preached for years and years and years to come, where sinners
can come and hear the Savior, where your sheep can come and
be fed in the green pastures of your Word. And that's what
we pray tonight, Father, Bless us with your presence as we enter
into this psalm, the green pastures of your word that you enable
us to eat and be filled, to be instructed and edified, have
our hearts thrilled one more time with hearing of Christ our
Savior. Father, we thank you for all
the many blessings of this life. You blessed us more than we could
ever say, certainly more than we deserve and far more than
we could ever say. Father, we're thankful. We thank
you for the good report on Aaron, that you've seen fit to bring
him back home from Columbus. And Father, we pray you continue
to be with him. Strengthen his body. Use this
as an instrument to healing, we pray. For others who are still
going through difficult times and recoveries, Father, we pray
for them. We pray, Fred, that you continue to strengthen him,
and Barb, that you'd be with her in a mighty way. Pray for
the family of our dear sister, Evelyn, that you comfort their
hearts with your presence. We're so thankful to have had
her and known her. And Father, we pray you bless
her family at this time of loss. And all these things we ask in
that name which is above every name is for his glory and his
sake we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to Thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high, hide me, O my Savior, of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Leave I'll leave me not, Still
support and comfort me All my trust on Thee is stayed All my
help from Thee I bring Cover my defenseless head With the
shadow of Thy wings Thou, O Christ, art all I want, More than all
in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
Heal the sick and lead the blind. Just and holy is Thy Name, I
am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am. Thou art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found. Grace to cover all my sins. Let the healing streams abound,
make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain-heart,
freely let me take of Thee. Spring Thou up within, rise to
all eternity all right if you would open your
bibles now again with me to psalm 147 I've titled the message tonight,
Sustaining God's Church. You may recall that last Wednesday
we looked at the first six verses of this psalm with the Lord building
his church. Tonight I want us to look and
see how the Lord sustains his church. He's got to do both. The Lord must build his church.
If he's not the one building it, it'll fall down flat. But
he also has to sustain that church or it'll fall down flat. It can't
be left up to us at any point. The Lord must save us and then
he must keep us saved all the way to the end. And the latter
part of this Psalm tells us how God does this. Now remember these
last five Psalms I've called, I don't know if they're called
this or they could be called the Hallelujah Psalms. Each one
of them begin and end with this phrase, praise ye the Lord, which
is interpreted Hallelujah. And whenever you find God's church,
that's what you'll find them doing, praising the Lord. Let's
pick up in verse seven. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving.
Sing praise upon the harp unto our God. Now, David here says,
sing praises unto the Lord and use the harp to do it. Now, the
instrument is not really what's important here. What he means
by this is make your singing beautiful. Make it beautiful.
When you praise the Lord, you sing his praise. Make it beautiful.
And you know, beautiful singing does not have to be that you
have the very best singing voice ever was. I mean, it helps, but
it doesn't necessarily mean that. Beautiful singing comes from
the heart. Now you know when somebody's singing from the heart.
If somebody's praising the Lord from the heart, that's beautiful
singing. And David says, make it with
thanksgiving. We can't praise the Lord without
thanksgiving. And singing is an important part
of worship. I'm thankful for it. Now, aren't
you glad we're able to sing again? We're not kind of restricted
like we were before. I'm thankful. But now, it's not the most important
part of worship. We praise the Lord the most when
we preach. We preach Christ. That's the
most important part of the worship service. And you'll notice that
much false religion, their earmark is this. Their focus is on singing,
not on preaching. The reason for that is they got
talented singers and they don't have no talented preachers. That's
probably a big part of it, but they focus on singing, not preaching. Now we should praise the Lord
in beautiful singing. We should. The same thing should
be true of our preaching. Our preaching should be done
as solemnly as possible, but as beautifully as possible. You
know, we don't praise the Lord beautifully by using flowery
language poetic language and poetic phrases, you know, that
impress the flesh. We praise the Lord. We praise
Him beautifully when we praise Him in the beauty of holiness,
in the beauty of His holiness, not ours. We praise the Lord
beautifully when we use common, everyday language to give God
all the credit and all the glory for saving our sinful souls.
It doesn't have to be fancy words. It's common, everyday language
that's praising the Lord beautifully and we do it from a heart of
thanksgiving. You know, knowing I haven't done
one thing to deserve the least of God's mercies, but he gave
it to me freely. I'm thankful and we praise him
from a thankful heart. Now let me give you five ways
that the Lord sustains this praising church. Number one is this. The Lord sustains his church
by feeding it. Verse eight, who covereth the
heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh
grass to grow upon the mountains. And it's beautiful, it's awe-inspiring
to see what the Lord does with this creation, how he feeds it
with sunshine and rain. The beauty of this creation is
astounding, even with sin marring it, the creation is beautiful.
Well, Wayne, your family could say that for you just being beautiful,
beautiful. Maggie says she couldn't tell
me just one thing. It's all beautiful, just all wonderful. And that's
what the creation marked by seeing. Think of that. You ever get tired? We go away someplace, and we're
coming back home. And it just always strikes me,
the beautiful, lush valleys and rolling hills of this area. I
mean, I love them. We go to the mountains. We go
to the beach. We go all these. And it's nice. But man, to see
these rolling hills and those lush valleys, I'm telling you,
I never get tired of it. It's so beautiful. We go to the
mountains. When you go down there to the
Smokies, you ever get tired of it? It's the vast, vast beauty
of that place. How about the Snowcapped Mountains
in various parts of the world? A lot of the riders I was reading
talk about the Alps. The beauty of those things, it's
just unbelievable. You ever get tired of seeing
the grass growing up those slopes, towards those snow-capped peaks,
and invariably there's a bunch of wildflowers? Nobody planted
that. God just planted that. God just
caused that to grow. It's so beautiful. The Lord did that.
And nobody can enjoy the beauty of creation like a believer.
But now, if that's all we see, the writers that I read this
week, that's all they see in this. If that's all you see in
these verses, you missed it. You missed a vital blessing and
a very important instruction. The picture here is how the Lord
sustains his church by feeding it. And he does it in a way that
we wouldn't think of right off. You know, we would think the
Lord would give his people such abundance. And he'd give them
both physically and spiritually. Give them abundance. And that
he'd do it by giving us Eden's. giving us a bunch of clear, bright,
sunny days without a cloud in the sky. But David says here
the Lord covers the heavens with clouds. You can't see the beautiful,
clear skies. You can't see the sun. The Lord
covers the heavens with clouds. And sometimes you think you can't
even see the Lord. You know He's there. You know
He's there. He's everywhere, but you can't see Him. It feels
like the heavens are brass. Prayer can't penetrate it, and
your sight can't either. And David tells us the Lord did
that. He covered the heaven with clouds. And David says the Lord
prepares rain for the earth. And I'm convinced that David
means a whole lot more in H20 here. The Lord prepares and sends
rainstorms, trials. And often, they're severe. They're
severe thunderstorms. The Lord prepares those storms.
He prepares and sends those trials for this reason, to feed and
to sustain His church. Not to punish them, not to do
them harm, but to do them good. And in our selfishness, our short-sightedness,
this is what we would choose. We would choose all bright, sunny
days. We'd choose no trials. We'd choose
no difficulties. We would just always choose smooth
sailing. Wouldn't we? That's exactly what
we choose. But the Lord, in His wisdom,
covers the heaven with clouds. And He prepares rain to sustain
His people and to feed them. And it's a good thing He does.
Can you think of a place on earth that's always bright blue skies
and sunny days? The Sahara Desert. That's what
our souls would look like if the Lord didn't send clouds and
prepare rain to send us. We wouldn't be fruitful. It'd
be just like the Sahara Desert, dry and dead. And when the Lord
sends the clouds and the rains, David points out here that the
grass grows on the mountains. Now where? Where's the grass?
On the mountains. Not down there in the fertile
farmlands where men plant and water and weed and prepare things.
On the mountains. Grass growing on the mountains
is all the work of God. One of the writers said, he said,
I've read this week, he said, I've never seen anybody manuring
a mountain, never. But there the grass is growing.
That's the work of God. Men didn't do that, God did.
And that's a picture of salvation. This is how God feeds his church.
It's all the work of God alone, and none of it is the work of
man. It's all God's work. Righteousness is the work of
God alone. It's the obedience of Christ
to the law alone. Giving life, that's the work
of God alone. Feeding God's people, causing
them to grow in grace, causing them to grow up, to spring up,
and to grow strong, to grow in grace, that's the work of God
alone. Yes, we plant, and we water, don't we, by preaching
Christ. That's how we do it, by preaching
Christ. Everywhere the Lord gives us an opportunity. But now listen,
only the Lord can give the increase, and He does to His people. And
this is a picture of salvation another way, too. God sends the
rain. He causes this grass to grow
in the most unlikely place, the mountain. That's what happens
when God saves his people, too. God always saves the most unlikely
people. They're all the chiefs of sinners.
They all are. And that's pictured even more
clearly in this next verse. Look at verse nine. He giveth
to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. God
gives food to the brute beast of the field. Just to wild animals
that man thinks has no better use. The only thing they're good
for is to hunt them and kill them and eat them. That's the
only thing they're good for. They're not pretty. They don't
make good pets. They're not domesticated animals. They're not domesticated bull,
if that's a word. They're just brute beasts of
the field. Wasn't that a very good description
of those that the Lord saves? They're just brute beasts of
the field, good for nothing. The world thinks they're really
good for nothing except to destroy him. But those are the people,
the most unlikely people, in the most unlikely place, the
most unlikely people. God gives them life, and he sustains
them. God feeds and sustains those
brute beasts, and he does the same thing for the ravens. Now
of all the birds, David could have chosen, here he chose the
raven, an unclean animal. but that's who God saves. God
saves the unclean. Now he makes them clean by giving
them the righteousness of Christ. He feeds them and sustains them,
but by their birth in Adam, they're a wild child, unclean. David
here doesn't describe the Lord sustaining a beautiful songbird
that would be in a rich person's cage. God saves. He sustains the wild, unclean
rapist. Nobody else wants them, but that's
who God saves. And that's what he sustains.
Praise the Lord. Aren't you thankful? That's who
God saves, right? Here's the second thing. The
Lord sustains his church by giving them faith. Verse 10, he delighted
not in the strength of the horse. He take it's not pleasure in
the legs of a man. The Lord takes pleasure in them
to fear him and those that hope in his mercy. Now this is an
undeniable fact. The Lord God saves his people
by faith, through faith, by giving them faith in Christ. The Apostle
Paul says, Romans 3, 28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified
by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith alone, by faith, without
the deeds of the law. That's what we conclude. Now
God is never satisfied with the best that we can do. He's not
satisfied with our best law keeping. He's not satisfied with our best
morality. That's what the legs of a man
represent. You know, the strongest muscles
in our body are those leg muscles. They're strong. That represents
the best we can do. The strongest we can be. Not good enough for God. Not
good enough to please Him. God's not delighted in the strength
of a horse either. You know, God's not satisfied. He's not
delighted with any creature of this earth, even the best, the
brightest, the strongest, the most beautiful, and the fastest
of them. God's not delighted in them, but God's delighted
in His Son. Oh, He's delighted in His Son
because His Son is perfect. And God's delighted. He takes
pleasure in everybody who trusts in His Son. He takes pleasure
in that. He's delighted in them. But here's
the problem. None of us by nature have faith
in God. And we can't produce it. God's pleased with those.
He finds His delight with those that trust His Son. But by nature,
we don't have faith. We can't trust Christ. We can't
make ourselves trust Him. So you know what God does? He
gives faith as a free gift to all of His elect. He gives them
faith, and they believe, and they can't not believe. And God
takes pleasure. He takes pleasure in that. He
takes pleasure. He delights in what He puts in
His people. What he puts in us. Sinners are
saved through faith in Christ by trusting Christ to be everything
that they need. And the father's delighted in
that. He finds his delight. Christ is the only hope we have.
We don't even want another hope. And the father's delighted in
that. He finds his delight in those that trust his son. Sinners
are saved through faith and they're sustained. Sinners are sustained
through faith in Christ. See, when God gives faith, it
lasts all the way. All the way to the end. And you
know what that lets us do? That lets us run our race by
faith. By faith. Looking unto, depending
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who's the author and the finisher of
our faith. Looking to Him. We look to Him
to give us faith, and we look to Christ to keep giving us faith
to bring us all the way to the end. And David here promises
us he will. So we won't quit. Well, praise
the Lord for giving us faith. Then thirdly, the Lord sustains
his church in peace and prosperity. They gotta have several things
of a kingdom that's gonna have peace and prosperity. And the
first one is security. And the Lord gives his church
security. Look at verse 12. Praise ye the
Lord, O Jerusalem. Praise thy God, O Zion. For he
hath strengthened the bars of thy gates. They put those bars
across those gates, you know, and they bring those battering
rams. You can't bust through that gate
because the bars of it are so strong. It's their security.
Well, what are the bars that hold the gates that makes God's
kingdom so secure? Well, one bar is the righteousness
of Christ. The righteousness of Christ is
the security the strong security of all of God's elect. Christ's
righteousness is the complete defense that cannot be defeated
against any charge of sin. None. Because the righteousness
of Christ makes all of His people perfect. He makes them not guilty. So, people can hurl all kinds
of charges at you, but if you're not guilty, they'll never stay. The righteousness of Christ is
our defense. He makes His people not guilty.
Then I thought of this bar, the bar of God's sovereign rule,
his sovereign power. That is the guarantee. You'll
never find an enemy strong enough to break through God's sovereign
power. He describes himself as a fire circling his people. And he has such, such power,
such sovereignty. Nobody can break through. If
you believe Christ, you're defended on every side. It can't break through. The thief
cannot break through and steal your inheritance in Christ, your
security in Him. It's impossible. So we're secure,
we're strong in Christ Jesus, our Savior, in the power of His
might. That's what makes us secure.
The end of peace and prosperity are gonna continue in a kingdom.
There's gotta be children. There's gotta be generations
come along to replace the other ones if this thing's gonna be
sustained. Well, God does that. Verse 13. For He has strengthened
the bars of thy gates, He has blessed thy children within thee. Now God fills His house, He fills
His kingdom, He fills His church with children. His children. And those children, not just
that they're born, not just that they're there, not just that
they're hanging around, those children, are blessed of God. Blessed of God. To be blessed of God, that's
to have peace. That's to have peace. That is
every believing parent's prayer. Oh, Lord, bless my children.
And when He does, there's peace. There's peace. The end of the
kingdom is going to have peace and prosperity. Not only does
there have to be peace from those enemies without, they got to
be kept from coming in and destroying us. But there's got to be peace
from within. If there's not peace from within,
we'll destroy ourselves from the inside out. So God gives
peace within his kingdom. Verse 14. He maketh peace in
thy borders. The Lord puts peace within his
people. He puts it in their hearts. We
enjoy peace with God through the blood of the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, why do we have peace in
that sacrifice? There's peace with God in the
sacrifice of Christ, in the blood of his sacrifice. Well, it's
because the blood of Christ took away the sin that made God angry. If Christ died for you, God has
no reason to be angry with you whatsoever. There's peace. And the blood of Christ, this
is, peace is two-way street. This blood of Christ also makes
God's elect come to Him in love and makes them surrender. When
the blood of Christ is applied to your heart, I'll tell you
what you'll do. You'll surrender. You'll believe Christ and you'll
surrender. Well, there's peace. There's peace. You're not mad
at God. God's not mad at you. And people have peace of conscience.
There's peace within that peace of conscience. Because they know
their sin is forgiven by the blood of Christ. They enjoy peace
of conscience. Everybody's afraid of dying and
afraid of the fear and the judgment. For the believer, there's no
need. I mean, I know we do sometimes. We fear death because we've never
done it before. We don't know what it's like.
But the believer has no reason to fear death. The believer has
no reason to fear judgment. You don't need to fear standing
before the judge if you're not guilty. If Christ has already
been condemned for you, You have no reason to fear judgment. None. And those people, God's children,
they have peace with each other. Now, they're family. They have
the same father, so they're family. Now, I know they're still in
the flesh. And unfortunately, there'll be problems from time
to time. But you don't take care of that.
You don't take care of that and let peace prevail. Love. Love for Christ. Love for Christ
enables God's children. And then little things come up,
you know. It's love for Christ that enables us to get past those
things. It's love for Christ and understand that we have some
desire to forgive as we've been forgiven. It's love for Christ.
See, you just can't fight with somebody for long if you love
them. You just can't do it. There's peace. There's peace
in God's kingdom. And then a kingdom's got to have
plenty to eat. If there's gonna be peace and prosperity, people
gotta have enough to eat. When there's not enough to eat,
what do you see? People rioting. I mean, the most horrible dictatorships
in this world, when there's not enough to eat, people riot. I
mean, I see that in the news and see that in other countries
all the time. That never happens in God's church, never. Because
all his people have plenty to eat. The end of verse 14, he
says, he filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. Not just
wheat, but with the finest, the best of the wheat. Everybody
in God's church hears one message. They hear Christ preached. Christ
and Him crucified, and that's what they feed on. They feed
on Christ the living bread, and when they do, they never hunger
or thirst again. Not spiritually. If you have
Christ, if you're feeding on Him, if you believe Him, and
you know when we talk about feeding on Christ, eating His flesh and
drinking His blood, that speaks of union. If you have union with
Christ, He's in you. You're in Him. You have union
with Him. You've got everything you need. Everything you could
ever want. And there's peace. There's peace. Alright, here's
the fourth thing. The Lord sustains His church
through all the different seasons of our lives. Verse 16. Who giveth
snow like wool, He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He
casteth forth his eyes like morsels. Who can stand before his cold?
Now there are different spiritual seasons we all go through from
time to time. And no believer looks forward
to a time of spiritual winter. If you suffered a time like that,
and we all have them from time to time, nobody looks forward
to that. It's a miserable, miserable thing.
But you know, the Lord sends those times of a spiritual winter
for our good, for our learning. You know, just always remember
this. Be careful. Saying someone, they're
lost. They don't know the Lord. They
don't have any spiritual life based upon what you see. What
you see in the flesh. It could be wintertime. Could
be. A tree is alive. even though
it looks dead in the wintertime. We got a redbud in our backyard. The girls and I were out years
and years ago, got Janet all the Mother's Day stuff, you know,
that we were going to give her. And we saw these trees for sale
somewhere. I don't know. I mean, just this,
the girls want to get this tree. And I thought, that thing's a
dead twig. It will never, ever grow. But
the girls wanted to get it for their mama, so we did. I took
them out there, we planted that thing, we watered it, and I thought,
this thing is never going to grow. And it did. I mean, it
grew to this beautiful redbud tree, and something happened
to him. Half of it is dead now. You pull on a branch, it just
falls off. trunk and a half, you know. This
half over here is alive and this half is dead. I mean, it's an
awful looking thing now. But when it buds in the wintertime,
it makes Jan so happy, or in the springtime, it makes her
so happy, you know. And every winter, she says, I think that
tree's gone. I just don't think it's gone.
I mean, it just doesn't look good, you know. It comes back
every year. Just be careful judging by what
you see. Could be wintertime. Could be. Pray for your brother that winter
time be over quick. And I think about winter. I'm
telling you, I hate winter. I hate it. I hate it with a passion. When I think of winter, this
is what I think about. I think about dangerous roads
to drive on. I mean, now I'm mostly studying
home. But for how many years, 25 years, however long it was,
I'd get up at 5 o'clock in the morning. It didn't matter if
there was a foot of snow on the ground. I'd go to work. It's
dangerous. You've got to go do stuff. It's
dangerous. I know some people see snow and they think, oh,
you know, they think it's beauty. I see a big snow and I think
of danger and car wrecks and loss of life and limb. And it
seems to me like it always snows Saturday night. I'm going to
have to cancel a service and I'm going to just be depressed.
I mean, just utterly depressed. I know the Lord sent the snow.
I know it, but I'm depressed. I feel like a failure. Canceling
service. I mean, I'm a real ray of sunshine,
aren't I? You know, winter's coming. But that's what I see. But you know what? Hate winter
if you want. Winter's good for the earth.
That's God's wisdom, kid. It lets the land rest. Snow on
the mountaintops keeps those streams full all summer long.
A blanket of snow on the earth. I read this this week. A blanket
of snow on the earth actually protects the ground from freezing,
because the air is colder. And that snow was an insulator,
and it's keeping that ground below there warm. It's a good
insulator. That's why Eskimos can build
a house out of snow and ice and live in it. It's a good insulator. Well, that snow and that ice,
both physically and spiritually, now I'm talking about in a spiritual
sense, that's God's ice. That's God's snow. He commands
for it to go where he wants it to go when he wants it to go
there. And a time of spiritual winter is awful. But you know,
it could be good for us. And the Lord sustains His people
through it. The snow we hate so much. Could
be keeping the ground warm enough, everything down there don't die.
When springtime comes. And listen, times of spiritual
winter for God's people, now they don't last forever. Springtime's
coming. Summertime's coming. And God
sends it by His word. By His word. Here's just a piece
of advice for you. If you're going through a time
of spiritual winter, it seems like you can't hear, you can't
get a blessing, you can't... I'll tell you what you do. Here's
what you do. Get in God's Word. Read it, read
it, read it, read it. I know it feels like you're not
getting anything from the service, but don't miss one. Because God
blesses His people by His Word. And if you're in a time of spiritual
spring, a spiritual summer, get in God's Word. And read it, and
read it, and read it, and read it. Don't miss a surface. I read
one time about Ted Williams, famous baseball player. Great,
great, great, great hitter. And when he was just knocking
the cover off the ball, those guys found him taking extra batting
practice every day. Just batting practice, batting
practice. You're getting 4.05. What are
you taking extra batting practice for? He said, I don't want to
lose the groove in a time of spiritual summer. immerse yourself
in the word. Maybe it'll last longer. God
does it by his word. Look at verse 15. He sendeth
forth his commandment upon earth. His word runneth very swiftly.
And that's maybe when that's when he sends the ice and the
snow. But look at verse 18. He sendeth
out his word and melteth them and causes his wind to blow and
the waters flow. The streams thaw and the waters
flow. Look at Song of Solomon, chapter
4. God sends his word and it warms
the hearts of his people. Gives them a time of revival
and warming. The flowers begin to bloom and
bud again. Song of Solomon 4, verse 12. I better get in Song of Solomon,
not Ecclesiastes. Here we go. Verse 12. A garden enclosed is my sister,
my spouse, A spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants
are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, camphor
with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon,
with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the
chief spices. A fountain of gardens, a well
of living waters and streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north
wind, and come." He's talking about that cold wind coming to
bring winter. Blow upon my garden, how the warm winds are blowing
upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my
beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits.
See, for those spices to flow out, first there's got to come
a north wind. There's got to come that winter and then the
south wind, the springtime, to warm them up. It may be winter
now. Some of you might be going through
that time right now, but this I'll tell you. The Lord will
sustain you. He'll sustain you through it. and springtime's
coming. Springtime's coming, and you'll
enjoy the beauty of Christ the lily of the valley. Springtime's
coming. He's gonna do it by his word. Oh, here's the last thing. The Lord sustains his church
sovereignly. Verse 19 in our text. He showeth his word unto Jacob,
his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt
so with any nation, And as for thy judgments, they have not
known them. Praise ye the Lord. Now the Lord
has given His people an understanding. He's given them a love for His
Word. They can see Christ in the Word.
They feed on it. They love it. God's given His
people faith in Christ. He sent His Son to die for them. To pay for their sin by His blood.
To cleanse them from their sin with His precious blood. God's
called them out to Christ, and he sustains them all the journey
long. God does that for his people.
Others, he passes by. He loved Jacob, and he hated
Esau. He called this one, and not this one. How many publicans
were there collecting taxes that day? The Lord walked by and said,
Matthew, follow me. He called one. How many fellows
were out there fishing? The Lord called John and Andrew.
Why did the Lord do that? Why did He call this one and
not this one? Why did He have mercy on this one and not this
one? Why did He set His love on this one and not this one? Why did the Lord preserve and
protect and keep this one all the way to the end so they can
be with those saints in Hebrews 11 and say, these all died in
faith. Some quit. Some died in faith. Why? It pleased Him to do it. It just
pleased Him to do it. That's why the King does as He
pleases. And we glorify the Lord the most when we praise Him for
His electing love. We praise the Lord for choosing
and saving undeserving sinners. Only God would do that. I mean,
all other man-made religions saves those that deserve it,
don't they? Only this gospel saves those who are undeserving.
God did that in His electing grace. A man told me one time,
I was in Mexico, and he told me that he hated election. He
said, you folks that believe in election, he said, you look
down your noses at everybody that's not elected. I told him,
I hope that's not true. And I hope it's not true. If
that's ever been true of me, I beg your forgiveness. Election
does not make us look down our noses at other folks, if it does. If it does, if it makes us feel
so proud of ourselves and we're looking down our nose at somebody
else, we've missed God's electing love altogether. We've missed
the meaning of it altogether. God's electing love for His people
makes His people praise the Lord, makes them shout hallelujah,
because nothing humbles us more than God's electing love. God
did not have to choose me. God didn't owe me anything, anything
but wrath. He didn't have to choose me. But he did. But he did. God didn't have to
save me. Who am I to think God had to
send his son to die for me? God didn't have to do that. But
he did. God didn't have to sustain me.
But he did. And he will. Well, hallelujah. Praise you, Lord. That's how
God sustains his people. And I fully expect that he will,
don't you? Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you for a refreshing
that you've given us here in the middle of the week. We can
gather together in this dry and barren land and be refreshed
in your word. Be given this promise that you
will save and sustain your people, that the workers of the Lord.
Father, cause us to believe. Cause us to believe in our Lord
Jesus Christ and enjoy the rest and the peace and the security
that we have in him. Father, show us your glory, we
pray. Show us your glory that we may praise your matchless
name. First in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his sake
and his glory, we pray. Amen. All right, Isaac. Stand and sing 449. To God be the glory, great things
He hath done, So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life and atonement for sin, And opened the life
gate that all may go in. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. O perfect redemption, the purchase
of blood To every believer the promise of God The vilest offender
who truly believes That moment from Jesus a pardon receives
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the people rejoice! O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. Great things He hath taught us,
great things He hath done, and great are rejoicing through Jesus
the Son. But purer and higher and greater
will be our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. O come to the Father through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done.