Well, good evening. If you care
to open your Bibles with me to Psalm 138. Psalm 138. I will praise thee with my whole
heart. Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship
toward thy holy temple. and praise thy name for thy loving
kindness and for thy truth. For thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. In the day when I cried, thou
answeredest me and strengthenedest me with strength in my soul.
All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they
hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways
of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. Though the
Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the proud
he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine
hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall
save me. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the works of thine
own hands. Thank God for His Word. Let's
bow together. Our God and our Father, we bow
before you this evening, a grateful and a thankful people. How we
thank you for your countless many mercies you so freely bestowed
upon your people, upon so many gathered here this evening. How
merciful and gracious you've been. Father, we're thankful. We know we haven't earned or
deserved the least of Thy mercies, the least of Thy favor, but You
showered upon us Thy mercy so abundantly because of our Lord
Jesus Christ, because it seemed good in Thy sight. And Father,
we're so thankful. And oh, I pray that You would
give us a heart that would not take these many blessings for
granted, but instead of making us complacent or filled with
pride, that it would humble us and keep us always looking to
and depending upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're thankful
that this is the evening appointed where we can come together out
of all the responsibilities of this world and meet together
for a few minutes and hear your word preached, have your word
open to us and to worship thee. And Father, I pray tonight that
you bless us. Don't let us meet here alone, but bless us with
thy spirit. Bless me in preaching, Father.
Uphold me and open my mouth that I might in clear and simple terms,
boldly, without apology, proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ and be with each soul here. Father, I pray you give
a hearing ear, a believing heart that we would believe and rest
in our Lord Jesus Christ. And we might leave here in our
hearts singing his praises. Father, we're thankful for this
congregation and pray you'd bless each home. And Father, I pray
you'd cause each one of us to look out for one another, to
care for one another, to show our love for one another by caring,
giving and helping one another. Cause us to be an encouragement
and never a stumbling block to your people. We thank You for
our young people. Oh, how we thank You for them.
Thank You for Your countless, many provisions for them. Father, how You've blessed them
with homes and places that they can be where they're loved and
taught the Scriptures. Father, I pray You'd be with
them. Be with them in this dark day. And above all, Father, we
beg mercy for their souls. For those that You brought in
the time of trouble and trial, Sin against thee in forgetting
to pray for them. Father, be with your people that you brought
in a time of trouble. Comfort their hearts with your
presence. Give them grace sufficient for the trial that you've sent
their way. Father, as soon as it could be thy will, we pray
you deliver them. Again, Father, we pray you bless our service.
Make this a true worship service, we pray. All these things we
ask, and we give thanks in that name which is above every name,
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a beautiful song. All the way my Savior leads me,
What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercies,
Who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest
comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell, For I know what e'er
befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. For I know what e'er befall
me, Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me,
cheers each winding path I take, Gives me grace for every trial
Feeds me with His living bread Though my weary steps may falter
And my soul a thirst may be Gushing from the rock before me Lo, a
spring of joy I see Gushing from the rock before me, Lo, a spring
of joy I see. All the way my Savior leads me,
O the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father's house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day. This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. I'm going to open your Bibles
now again with me, if you would, to Psalm 138. Psalm 138. I titled the message
this evening, True Praise. True Praise. Verse 1, David writes,
I will praise Thee with my whole heart. Before the gods will I
sing praise unto Thee. David says, I'll praise the Lord
with my whole heart. Here's the first thing we need
to learn about praise. Praising the Lord comes from
the heart. It's not an outward show of the flesh or an outward
show of motions of religion. God is worshipped and praised
from the heart. And that heart that truly worships
God, that praises God, that trusts our Lord Jesus Christ is not
in us naturally. So God has to give us this new
heart. The heart that will trust Him. That will love Him. That
will praise Him. Before we can ever praise the
Lord, our heart must first be broken. Broken over our sin. Over my sin. Not just sin in
general. My sin. My sin. And then God's
got to give us a new heart. And only then can we truly praise
the Lord with the whole heart. With that new heart that God
gives. Charles Spurgeon said this, he said, we need a broken
heart to mourn over our sins, but a whole heart to praise the
Lord. And this religious world is very
interested in praise. It's a word they cast around
all the time, praise. They're going to have a praise
service. But the religious world, the religious flesh, doesn't
know anything about truly praising the Lord. Now, they have a big
show of religion. But don't ever mistake that for
true praise. They praise their idol. David
says it right here, little g before the gods. They praise their idol,
but they don't praise Him. What they do, they might think
praises their dead idol, but it does not impress the true
living God. And that's why David says he
lived in Israel, surrounded by all these heathen nations. And,
you know, they weren't all of Israel that were of Israel. You
know, he lived, even the Jews there, they're unbelievers. They're just full of idolatry
in their hearts. And that's why David says, especially,
I'll praise the Lord in the presence of these gods, these idols and
these idolaters. And I understand exactly, exactly
what he means. You know, when you hear these
idolaters praise error, I want to preach Christ the truth just
a little louder and a little more plainly. When they praise
an idol that wants to save everybody and can't, I want to preach God's
electing love more loudly and more forcefully than ever. When
I hear them praise an idol that wants to save but can't, I want
to preach God's sovereign power where He saves His people. completely
and fully from their sins. Saves them to the uttermost.
I want to preach that louder and more forcefully. And when
I'm in the midst of this idolatry, when they praise man's obedience
and man's righteousness and what a man does and doesn't do, that
makes me want to declare Jehovah's sake in it. The Lord, our righteousness,
a little louder, a little more forcefully. When they praise
works, I want to praise grace. When they praise works, I want
to preach faith, just a little louder, a little more forcefully.
I want to praise our great God a whole lot louder than they
praise that pipsqueak, that pipsqueak guy. He's worthy of that. And
like I said, the religious world commonly uses this phrase, praise
the Lord, praise the Lord. They have a praise service. But
you know what? They don't know why. They don't
know why they're supposed to praise the Lord. They're just
doing it because it whips them into a frenzy and makes them feel
more religious, makes them feel better about themselves. But
I want to ask you now, why? Why do we praise the Lord? Do
we just praise Him for physical blessings? Well, if you do, if
you just praise the Lord for physical blessings, health and
these kinds of things, what do you do when you get sick? What
do you do when God kills the body? You're going through someday.
What do you do then if you're only praising Him for physical
blessings? Can you not praise Him on your
deathbed? Can you not praise Him from the hospital bed? Do
we only praise God for material blessings? The stuff that He
gives us to use in this life? I mean, really? Now, if we have
any of that stuff, God gave it to us, didn't He? And we're thankful
for it. But what happens if He takes it all away? Are we still
thankful? Can we still praise Him? Can
we? The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the
name of the Lord. Can we say that? Can we say it and mean
it? If we're only praising the Lord
for the material blessings, He gives us money and stuff to buy,
what happens when we go bankrupt? What happens if the bank fails
and you lose it all? So that's not why we praise the Lord, is
it? Again, if we have those things, I want to be thankful for those
things. Things of this life that the
Lord's given to us to use and enjoy. I want to be generous
with them. But that's not the real reason
we praise the Lord. The psalmist here gives us six
reasons to praise the Lord with our whole heart. And all these
reasons are spiritual. And that's the real reason we
praise the Lord. So number one, we praise the
Lord for the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 2, David says, I will worship
toward thy holy temple. Now David says, I'm going to
worship toward thy holy temple. He's not saying he worships the
temple, the building of the temple. Because that would be idolatry,
wouldn't it? To worship a place or a thing like that. That would
be idolatry. And David just got done saying he's not having anything
to do with idolatry. In the face of this idolatry, he's going
to preach Christ loudly and more plainly. And I also think this
is very interesting. David says, I will worship toward
thy holy temple." The temple wasn't even built yet. The temple
wouldn't be built by Solomon until after David had died. So
David is not looking at a building here. David's looking forward
to someone. Not something, not a building.
He's looking forward to someone, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now David
didn't have a temple, but he had the tabernacle, didn't he?
And everything in that tabernacle is a picture. of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the God-man. Like the writer to the Hebrews
said, of which we cannot now speak particularly. We just don't
have time to, to, uh, I started thinking I might go into some
of that and we'd be in here till tomorrow morning. So we just
don't have time to talk about every detail of the temple, how
it was a picture of Christ, but it was a picture of Christ or
in the tabernacle. Well, the same thing would be
true of the temple. See, David here is not looking to a building. He's looking to a person. He's
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ who would come and tabernacle
among us. That's the God-man. That's who
he was praising. David was praising Christ who
would come. That's the one door. He's the
one way to God. David was praising Christ who
would come to be the light of the world, the bread of life.
He was praising Christ who would come and be that perfect sacrifice,
the perfect burnt offering that would completely and fully, finally
take away the sin of His people. David was looking forward to
the coming of Christ, our propitiation, the mercy seat. The mercy seat
on top of the Ark of the Covenant, that's the crown jewel of the
tabernacle. That's where business was done.
That's where business with God was done. That's where the blood
was sprinkled. And David was praising the Lord that God had
provided a way whereby a holy God could meet with sinful men
in mercy and in peace. And it was through the blood
of the sacrifice. And David wasn't looking at an animal sacrifice.
He's not talking about an animal sacrifice. He's not praising
an animal sacrifice. He's praising the Lord Jesus
Christ who would be sacrificed to be the propitiation of His
people. David was looking forward. He was praising the Lord for
the blood shed and the blood sprinkled. The blood applied
that would enable God to be both just and still justify the ungodly. That's what David was praising
the Lord for. He was praising the Lord for
the shed blood of Christ that would fully put away, wash away
the sin of God's people and satisfy God's justice so God could meet
with his people in peace. That's what David's praising
God for. And I tell you what, you'll never find a better reason
to praise the Lord than the Lord Jesus Christ. God sent His Son
into this world to save His people from their sin. He sent His Son
into this world to fulfill every promise of God. He sent Him into
this world to ratify the covenant of grace with His own blood and
bring in everlasting righteousness. Now you can praise the Lord for
Him if you're on your deathbed. I'm telling you from experience.
It's something I learned this past summer. You can praise the
Lord laying in a hospital bed. In so much pain, you can't hardly
say nothing else but from the heart. And you can praise Him. In that, you can praise Him.
Praise Him for a Savior who saves. And it's utterly impossible to
praise the Lord without praising Him for the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's worshiped in Christ. And if you have Him, No matter
what situation you might find yourself in, you always have
the best reason there is to praise the Lord. Well, praise the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me. Oh, praise the Lord for Christ,
my righteousness. For Christ, my substitute. For
Christ, the Savior who saved sinners like me. Praise the Lord.
Alright, number two, praise the Lord for His loving kindness
and His truth. The true, real salvation. Verse
2, David says, I worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy
name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth. Now, when
David says he'll praise the name of the Lord, what he means is
he's praising the character, the attributes of God. And the
Lord will never violate one aspect of his character to exalt another
aspect of his character. They all always work together
in concert. In other words, God will never
violate his truth. God will never violate His holiness.
God will never violate His justice in order to show love and mercy
to sinners. Loving kindness. It made me think
of this. Janet and I talk about this every
once in a while. We remember being kids and Henry, Brother
Henry talking about this. He used to talk about parents
who, he said, had an ungoverned love for their children. And
by that, he meant this. He meant these parents that They
say, oh, I love my children so much, I just cannot stand to
discipline them like Scripture tells me to. I just can't stand
to teach them and instruct them the way Scripture instructs parents
to do. And that ungoverned love ends
up in disaster. It ends up in disaster for a
child. It ends up in disaster for society.
We've set this kid loose on society and never been disciplined, never
been taught. spoil a child by just, oh, I
love them so much, I'm just going to give them everything, you
know, a little heart, desire, and what have we set loose on
the world? An entitled young person that doesn't know you've
got to work to earn a living. You've got to work to get the
things that you want, you know? And that ungoverned love, I'll
tell you what that is. It shows you don't love your
children at all. Now, I've been accused of being too hard. Is
that too hard? Solomon, the most wise man to
ever live other than our Lord, said that exact same thing. Exact
same thing. If you don't discipline your
children, this ungoverned love, you don't have their best interest
at heart. And I'm telling you, you're being
selfish. I see parents do it. They're being selfish because
they don't want that child to be mad at them. Who cares? I mean, you know,
who cares? It's your job to teach them.
That's the problem with ungoverned love. And I said all that to
say this. Don't ever confuse that love with the love of our
Heavenly Father. The love of God is not ungoverned. His loving kindness always is
hand in hand with His truth. Always. And we think we love
our children. I was at physical therapy the
other day, last week. And there's this young therapist
in there just announcing to everybody she's pregnant. And there were
two fathers and two mothers in there. And then this young woman
who's pregnant, she's working on this other young girl. And
she said, oh, but I'm still going to love my dogs. They'll still
be my babies. And all four parents in that
room said, oh, no, you won't. No, you won't. I mean, you love
your children. You think you love your children?
Oh, I know you do. But that can't compare to the
love of God. Our Father loves His people with an eternal, unmeasurable
love. He's always dealing with His
children in love. Always. But never at the expense
of His justice. Never at the expense of His truth.
Never at the expense of His holiness. God loved His people and they're
a sinful, vile, wretched people. So you know what He did? He saved
them by punishing their sin, by paying for their sin, by punishing
His only begotten Son as their substitute, so their sin could
be put away, so the Father could show His children nothing but
love. God loved His people so much, they're unrighteous. They
cannot come into God's presence as they are. So you know what
God did? Luke, He made them righteous. Not by what they did. He didn't
tell them, you do this and you do this and you do this. You
don't do that. You don't do that. You don't do that. You'll be
righteous. He didn't say that because we couldn't do it. You
know what God did? He sent His Son into this world to obey the
law for us and made us righteous in Christ because He knew we
couldn't do it ourselves. See, that way, both truth and
justice and holiness and God's love and God's mercy and God's
grace You think these things are opposite. You think truth
and mercy and justice and grace are opposites. But in this way,
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God magnified all of
his attributes all at the same time, all by the same obedience,
all by the same sacrifice. And that's the only way salvation
can be sure. Salvation that comes through
love and truth. through mercy and justice, is
the only real salvation that there is. There are no loopholes.
This doesn't end around the law. This is salvation through the
law. Through the law. Through the obedience of Christ
to the law. And the only place you'll find salvation like that,
that's in love and true, is salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ that
enabled God to put His loving kindness on display for all of
creation to see. You see, Christ didn't come and
die for sinners to make God love sinners. Christ died for sinners
because God loves sinners. That's why He sent His Son to
die for them, that He might make them what God will accept. Make
them the righteousness of God in Him. And God's sacrificing
His own darling Son to put away the sin of His people. To put
away the sin of people like you and me. That's the greatest display
of loving kindness and truth creation will ever see. Has God
let you get a glimpse of it? His loving kindness and His truth?
Well, praise the Lord. I can rest in that salvation.
I can rest in that Savior, can't you? Alright, thirdly, we praise
the Lord for His Word. At the end of verse 2, For thou
hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Now, all of God's
attributes are They're glorious. But this says, God has magnified
His Word above His name. He's magnified His Word above
the rest of His attributes. Now, the Word of the Lord, it
can mean several things. The Word of the Lord is the written
Word. The seed which God uses to give
life to His people. That Word, you know, we teach
that Word. We go through books here on Sundays
and Wednesdays, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book.
Classes for the children. We teach the Scriptures. We're
not playing games with them. We're teaching them the Scriptures.
You know why? Because this Word is able to
make you wise unto salvation. It surely is. And not one word,
not one promise of this Book will ever fall to the ground. Ever. Not one of them. God will
never allow it because He's magnified His Word above His name. The
glory of the rest of His name depends on Him keeping this Word.
Then the word of the Lord also means the covenant of the Lord.
All of the promises of God's grace. God's magnified His covenant
of grace above all of His name. And the reason for that is the
glory. All of the glory of God's name,
His character, His reputation depends on Him fulfilling that
covenant of grace that He announced to Abraham. That He's going to
save all of His people by the Lord Jesus Christ, by His obedience.
by His righteousness, by His blood, by His sacrifice, no matter
where they're found, God's going to save them. That's His promise
of grace. And you know what He's going
to save? Even the most unlikely. Even kings. Verse 4, David says,
All the kings of the earth shall praise Thee, O Lord, when they
hear the words of thy mouth. Now they can't praise the Lord.
They can't know the Lord. They can't be saved till they
hear the word. But when they hear the words of God's mouth,
they'll praise him. Yea, they shall sing in the ways
of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. And they could
never know how great the glory of the Lord is until they heard
the words of his mouth, the word of scripture, the word of his
covenant of grace. Now he talks about kings here.
Maybe he means ruling kings, mighty, powerful rulers, you
know, presidents and kings and czars and so forth. The Lord
could save some of them, you know. The Lord said not many
mighty are called. He didn't say not any. He said
not many. Not any, but not many. And I
know one person is awful thankful for that, the writer of this
psalm, King David. He's a king. God was merciful
to him. And David said, praise the Lord.
God was merciful to him because of God's promise, because of
God's covenant. Kings could mean heathen Gentiles, could mean
us today. You know, we think about King
David, every person in this room lives a life, physical life,
better than David did. David had a castle or whatever
it was they called it that time. Might have been just a great
big old tent. I don't know. But every one of
us here lives better than David did. Our houses are nicer. We've
got heat in the wintertime and air conditioning in the summertime.
We've got indoor plumbing. We don't have to go out to an
outhouse or, you know, we've got indoor plumbing. You want
a glass of water, you just get it out of the tap. David had
to go get it out of a well. We all live better than that.
We got to medicine to make us feel better, keep us from getting
sick. We got transportation. It was difficult for David to
go anywhere. Aaron, how many miles did you drive today to
work and back and then here and back? Nice car. You had the air
conditioning on, didn't you? I mean, it's so nice. David didn't
have that. If he's in a chariot or something, big old wooden
wheels, he's bumping and tearing his back all up. We live better. We live better than kings. And
we're heathen Gentiles. the most unlikely candidates
for God's grace. But God's Word is powerful enough,
His promise is sure enough to save even the likes of us. Because
the promise of God is a promise that God who cannot lie made
to His people. He'll save them, no matter where
they are. He won't let that promise fail. But mainly, chiefly, the
Word of the Lord means the Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. The Father has magnified His
Son above all of His name. He's magnified His Son over everything
in His creation. And everything God does, without
exception, is to magnify the glory of His Son as the Savior
of sinners. The Father has given His Son
a name which is above Every name. A name more glorious than any
other name. And you know why He did that?
It's because Christ earned it. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
God's Word. He fulfilled His covenant of
grace and put away the sin of all of God's elect. All those
that God promised and purposed to save, Christ came and got
the job done. He did what the Father promised
and purposed. He saved those people from their
sin. Now Christ didn't die for somebody
that's going to perish. No. All of those people that
the Father gave Christ, that He died for, He suffered and
died for, they shall be saved. They shall be glorified. They shall be. Now, when the road is rough,
and the night is dark, and it's long, you hang on to that promise. This is not the end. This is
not the end. It's not all there is. God's
people shall be glorified. Remember the end of the story.
Now, how can I be so sure? How can I tell you to hang on
to that God's promise? Hang on to Christ, the successful
Savior for all your worth and have that comfort your soul in
times of difficulty that are greater than I can imagine. How
can I be so sure? Because God's magnified His Word
above all of His name. That's why. He's not going to
let anything happen that would mar his greatest glory in saving
sinners, he sacrificed his only begotten son to purchase it.
Don't think for a moment he's going to let one drop of that
blood go to waste. Not one. The glory of all of the name
of God depends upon him keeping his greatest promise, his covenant
of grace, his promise of grace to sinners in our Lord Jesus
Christ. The glory of God depends upon
it. Then that means, again, the salvation of God's people is
sure and it's certain. Nothing can make it not happen.
Well, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for such a salvation.
We can rest in calm assurance in salvation in the Lord Jesus
Christ because God's magnified His Word above all of His name. We praise the Lord for deliverance
in Christ. Verse 3 says, And the day when
I cried, thou answeredest me and strengthenedest me with strength
in my soul. Now, let me just tell you from
the get go, this is not talking about physical deliverance. Now,
David did experience that many times. How many times did the
Lord preserve him and protect him? He told about a time where
a bear and a lion came out trying to take his father's sheep. And
David just went out there and killed him with his bare hands.
You're going to attack a bear? I mean, you know. Jen and I were driving through
the Smokies one time and saw this black bear stopped by the
road. It went across the road and it stopped and was looking
at us. And I said, get a picture of that. And so she's trying
to get a picture of him. I was going to roll down the
window just a little bit. She said, don't roll the window
down. I want everything I can get between me and that bear,
don't you? The Lord preserved David. He just took that bear
and killed it. He went out and faced Goliath.
I mean, this man's a nine foot tall killing machine just covered
everywhere but one little spot with metal, with armor. The Lord
protected David. He killed him. He protected him
from Saul. Saul's a warrior. And I'm just
assuming Saul's pretty good with a spear. He threw a spear at
David one day just trying to kill him. and missed him. Well,
you know what was sawed us off that day? God protected David,
didn't he? Absalom tried to kill him. All
David's own mistakes. All the problems, David's own
mistakes called him and the Lord delivered him. But this is not
talking about that. The Lord is able to deliver us. He's able to protect us from
every physical danger. And until His time comes to call
us home, that's exactly what He'll do. He's able, but He's
not going to deliver us from every one of them. But He has
promised to deliver us from every spiritual danger. And He will
do that. David here is talking about spiritual
deliverance. He said, I cried out to the Lord,
and the Lord answered me, and He strengthened my soul. That's
what David's talking about here, soul. This is spiritual blessing,
spiritual protection. God has promised He will save
every one of His people from every spiritual enemy. They'll
never be able to touch them. And me being a rebel, being born
far away from God and doing everything I could to go further away from
God, didn't stop God's purpose at all. He broke me. And He made
me cry. And David said, in the very day
that I cried. You cry to the Lord. You cry
to Him. In the very day you cry to Him with your whole heart,
God will hear you. He'll answer. and He'll deliver.
It was being. God had mercy on my soul and
strengthened my soul. Being born dead in sins, that's
not going to stop God's purpose. He'll give life to His people.
Look at verse 7. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine
hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall
save me. Now who's that right hand? It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a spiritual deliverance
in Christ. I was born dead in sin. That
didn't stop God. That didn't stop His purpose.
That didn't stop His covenant of grace. The Lord revived me.
He gave me new life and a new birth. And God accomplished all
of that by His right hand. By the obedience and sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ so that it was impossible for me to stay
dead. Christ put my sin away. I can't
stay dead, can I? I walked in the midst of trouble.
I walked in the midst of my own sin. No, that didn't stop God's
purpose. No, He delivered me by His right hand. That long
arm. That arm is stretched out. It's
not short and it cannot save. Reached out where I was and delivered
me. Saved me. I had a sin debt I couldn't pay.
That didn't stop God's purpose. He sent His right hand. He sent
His Son into flesh to pay my sin debt for me by sacrificing
Himself for my sin. And you just apply that to every
enemy. My sin is my enemy. But Christ put it away. He washed
it away with His blood. Satan is my enemy. He's the accuser
of the brethren. But the right hand of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, crushed Satan's hand. He took away Satan's power
to accuse me because he took all my sin away. So Satan, he
doesn't have any bullets in his gun. He has nothing to accuse
me of. Christ put my sin away. Sin's gone. Satan is the enemy
that would lie to me like he did Eden. Lure me away from Christ. But Christ crushed Satan's head.
He crushed his power to deceive by revealing Christ to me and
in me. So I cannot be deceived. That's
how God put away every enemy of his people, is by his mighty
right hand, by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Yes, there are lots of enemies out there. We have enemies. We're fighting, battling against,
not fleshly enemies, but spiritual wickedness in high places. We
have a lot of enemies. But you don't have to worry about
one of them. The right hand of God's already defeated every
last one of them. And He did it for me. For me. He did it for you. For
you who believe. He did that for me. He did that
on purpose. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. I love documentaries and movies
and things about World War II. I was watching one the other
day. about the party that happened on V-J Day. The war's over. I mean, brethren, the war's over. The enemy's defeated. Don't worry
about it anymore. The enemy's defeated. Praise
the Lord who delivered us, who won the battle for us. Fifthly, we praise the Lord for
His condescending grace, verse 6. Though the Lord be high, yet
hath he respect unto the lowly. But the proud he knoweth afar
off." Now, unlike the common phrase we hear, the Lord helps
himself, that's not so. The Lord helps those who help
themselves. He does not help those who help themselves. As
a matter of fact, it's the opposite. Those who think that they can
help themselves, they're proud. They're proud. They think they're
able to do something that would please God. They'll probably
admit to you, it's not enough to save them completely. It's
not enough to put their sin away completely. What they do, they'll
say it's not enough to make them completely accepted of God by
themselves. But now they can help God enough
to make it easier for God to save them, because they stand
out from the rest of the sinners of the world. Anybody that thinks
that is so full of pride? And God says in His Word, He
holds those people at arm's length, afar off. Now you remember that
arm of God? It's not shortened at Calvary.
That's a long arm, isn't it? That's how far God keeps them
at arm's length. Far off from Him. They're a stench
in His nose. We say, I wouldn't touch you
with a ten-foot pole. God said, I wouldn't touch you with my
stretched out arm. He keeps them far off. They're
so full of pride. And humanly speaking, we would
think those people are the impressive people. That's the kind of people
I want to be around. But not the Lord. The Lord saves.
the lowly, the lowly by his condescending grace. You think how much higher
than us God is. He is so high and he is so glorious. He's so holy just and yet he
has respect unto the lowly to the likes of us here tonight.
He regards them. That word regard means to see.
It means to regard and it means to provide. God sees the need
of the lowly. They're so far from Him. But
God sees them. He sees their need. He sees their
lost rebels. And He regards their lost condition. God regards. He understands.
They're lost. They're dead. They cannot help
themselves. So He provides. He provides everything
that they need. He provides for them righteousness.
He provides for them life. They have to repent. They can't
do it. God grants them repentance. They have to believe. They can't
do it. God grants them faith. They can't keep themselves. God
preserves them by the power of His Spirit. They can't get home
by themselves. God brings them all the way home.
He sees, He regards, and He provides for them. The high and lofty
God humbles Himself to behold the lowly. He humbled Himself
to become what we are. He humbled Himself to come to
this earth in our flesh as a man. He came to this. Oh, how He humbled
Himself. How He humbled Himself to be
made sin for His people. How He humbled Himself to willingly
suffer and die for His people. And to save those people, those
lowly, lowly people, by His grace. His condescending grace. You
cannot be such a great sinner. You cannot be so low. You cannot
be so vile. You cannot be so lost that God's
grace won't save you. But you can be too high. You
can be too full of yourself. You can have too much to offer.
The high and lofty, God holds them afar off. He holds them
afar off. But He holds the lowly in His
arm up close to His bosom. You reckon you're safe there?
You reckon you're safe there? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
His condescending grace, He'd save a sinner like me. That's
one of the best reasons I know to tell you, call on God and
come to Christ. If He saved me, He'll save you.
Right, here's the sixth thing. Praise the Lord for Christ the
successful Savior. Verse 8 says, The Lord will perfect
that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the works of thy
own hands. Now look at Philippians chapter
1. We'll look at this in closing. The Apostle Paul, I wonder if
he didn't have this passage on his mind as he wrote this in
Philippians chapter 1. The Lord will perfect. He will
complete everything that concerns me. Well, what is it that really
concerns me? I mean, really, really concerns
me. Well, it's what's eternal. It's my soul. And he will perfect
everything concerning the souls of his people. Philippians 1
verse 3. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you. Always in every prayer of mine
for you all, making requests with joy for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident
of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it. He'll finish it. He'll perfect
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now Paul says, I know this. I
know the Lord will perform. He'll finish what He started. His work of grace in you, I know
He'll finish it because that's what He promised to do. And I
think it's worth us noting this. Yet Paul said, I still pray for
you. I pray for you. I give thanks
for you. I pray and still ask God to watch over you and lead
you and guide you and protect you. I know that the Lord will
perform what He's promised. I know He'll finish what He started.
But I still pray for you. And this is what we can take
home with us. Everyone, everyone for whom the Lord Jesus Christ
has suffered and died, absolutely must be saved. They absolutely
must be delivered from this world, delivered from this flesh, and
ultimately glorified. Being with Christ where He is
forever, beholding His glory. They must. If Almighty God, God
the Holy Spirit has begun a work of grace in your heart, or in
the hearts of those that you know and love. I think this is
a good word of advice for us. And we stumble. I stumble. You see someone else stumble.
Don't be too quick to write them off just yet. We'll stumble. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. We're still
going to have a show of this flash from time to time, unfortunately,
aren't we? But you just hang on now. Don't
be too quick. God's begun a good work in them.
If He's begun a work of grace in them, He's going to finish
it. He's going to finish it. They'll not perish. It's not
possible that even one of God's children will ever perish. Because
it doesn't depend on them. It depends on Christ. And He
is the successful Savior. And since He's the successful
Savior, it depends on Him. None of His people can ever perish.
Well, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. That's a Savior
I can trust. That's a Savior I can worship.
By God's grace, that's a Savior I'll praise. Alright, let's bow
together. Our Father, we're thankful for
Your Word. Thankful for this psalm of praise that shows us
the praises of Christ our Savior. Father, I thank You for this
time together. We can gather together in the
middle of the week. It's so hard to go out in the
world and make a living and get through it and get through such
a dry and barren land. How thankful we are for this
time we can gather together and have an oasis of your grace,
an oasis where we can drink freely and deeply and be refreshed in
Christ our Savior. Father, I pray you'd bless your
word. Oh, bless your word to your glory. Bless it to the hearts
of your people. Bless us right now. Make this
word a blessing to our hearts right now. Let us take it with
us. Take it back home. Back out into
the world tomorrow. Still refreshing and strengthening
our soul with Your Word. Father, how we thank You. All
these things we ask and we give thanks in that name, that great
and glorious name, which is above every name, the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. Alright, you're dismissed.