Well, good evening. If you would
care to open your Bibles with me to Psalm 135. Psalm 135. As you're turning, let me tell
you, I've got a good report on our brother Gary Holbeck. He
is out of intensive care and supposed to be in a regular room
by now. I haven't talked to him today,
but we've just had a very good report. They're calling him their
miracle patient. And we're quite thankful. Alright, Psalm 135. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye
the name of the Lord. Praise Him, O ye servants of
the Lord. Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts
of the house of our God, praise the Lord. For the Lord is good. Sing praises unto His name, for
it's pleasant. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob
unto Himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure. For I
know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all
gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven, and in earth, and the seas, and all
deep places. He causeth the vapors to ascend
from the ends of the earth. He maketh lightnings for the
rain. He bringeth the wind out of his
treasuries. Who smote the firstborn of Egypt,
both man and beast, who sent tokens and wonders into the midst
of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants, who
smote great nations and slew mighty kings, Sihon, king of
the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms
of Canaan, and gave their land for an heritage, and heritage
unto Israel his people. Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever,
and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations. For the Lord
will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning
his servants. The idols of the heathen are
silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths,
but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear not. Neither is there any
breath in their mouths. They that make them are like
unto them. So is everyone that trusteth in them. Bless the Lord,
O house of Israel. Bless the Lord, O house of Aaron.
Bless the Lord, O house of Levi. Ye that fear the Lord, bless
the Lord. Blessed be the Lord out of Zion,
which dwelleth at Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. Thank God
for His Word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we bow in
Your courts this evening with a heartfelt desire to do what
the Psalmist has instructed us to praise the Lord. Father, I
pray that you would enable us this evening by your spirit to
praise you, to praise your matchless name, to praise you for everything
that you are, everything that you have done for your people.
Father, give us an hour of true worship. I pray that you deliver
us from just playing church and going through the motions and
acting religious, but Father, give us an hour of true worship
where your word is declared in the power of your spirit and
where it's heard in the power of your spirit. That the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ would be exalted and that your people
would hear, be encouraged, comforted and edified, called to our Lord
Jesus Christ. Father, how we Thank You for
the many blessings of this life that You've so freely bestowed
upon us. We thank You for the good report
we've had on our brother Gary and others who have been sick. Father, for those who are still
in deep waters of sickness, heartbroken, those who are getting ready to
undergo various treatments and difficulties, Father, be with
them. How thankful we are When we and
those that we love go through these difficult times, how thankful
we are to know that you are God above. You are the Great Physician. You can heal. You can comfort.
You can deliver. And Father, we pray with the
leper of old, Lord, if you will, you can heal. If you will, you
can comfort. If you will, you can deliver. Give us the grace and the faith
to leave these things at Thy feet, knowing that You do everything
well, right, and good. Father, I thank You for this
place that You've given to us, a place where Your people can
meet together in peace and love and unity. And Father, I pray
You'd give each of us the wisdom and the heart to earnestly protect
the peace and the unity that we have here so that we might
fulfill our obligation to our generation to preach the gospel,
to point our generation to the Lord Jesus Christ as those who
have stood faithful in years past, Father, make us faithful
to serve our generation in our time. And Father, we pray for
our country. We pray for our leaders that
you would give them wisdom. We pray that you'd turn their
heart to good. that you might use them as an
instrument in your hand for the good of our country, for the
good of our world, to protect the freedoms that we have long
enjoyed in this country. We know it's come from thy hand
and we're thankful. In all these things we ask and
we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Sweet hour of prayer Sweet hour
of prayer That calls me from The world of care and bids me
add My father's throne, make all my wants and wishes known
In seasons of distress and grief My soul has often found relief
And of this game The tempers snare by thy return, sweet hour
of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour
of prayer The joys I feel, the bliss I share Of those whose
anxious spirits burn With strong desires for thy return. With such I hasten to the place
Where God my Savior shows His face And gladly take my station
there and wait for the sweet hour of prayer sweet hour of
prayer sweet hour of prayer and wait for the sweet hour of prayer Alright, open your Bibles now
again with me to Psalm 135. This psalm is called a mosaic psalm. Like a mosaic artwork. And that's exactly what this
psalm is. It's a work of art. I saw recently
how they have uncovered new mosaics in Pompeii. They keep uncovering
stuff apparently. They found these mosaics. And
that's what the psalmist has done here. He's taken these gems
from different psalms. You recognize some of these as
being taken from other psalms, very familiar passages from different
psalms. He's taken these gems from different
psalms and put them together to give us this beautiful mosaic
and to put them all together to give us a beautiful picture
of the God that we worship. I don't know how long it will
take, a few weeks, to look at some of the different pieces
of this psalm and kind of see them together to give an overview
of this mosaic work of art, but tonight I want us to see five
reasons that we're to praise the Lord who we worship. And
the first reason is this. Praise the Lord because He's
made us His servants. Verse 1 says, Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord
Praise Him, O ye servants of the Lord. You know, most people
don't want to be called a servant. They don't want to be a servant.
I mean, just ask people. Everybody wants to be the big
boss. Everybody, all the little guys, you know, little people
in a business always think the business would be better if they
were the big boss. Everybody wants to be the big boss, you know.
Nobody wants to humble themselves because they don't want somebody
else to tell them what to do. That's human nature, isn't it?
But you know, that's not the new nature that God gives his
people. The new nature God gives his people, that new man has
a humble nature, who's the nature of servant. And I want to give
you a few reasons to be thankful, thankful that you're a servant
of the Lord. Think about this. It's an honor
to be a servant of the Lord, Jehovah. It's an honor. Isn't
it amazing that God Almighty would let people like us be His
servant. And that's an honor. You know,
people call preachers the servant of the Lord, and that's true.
Preachers are God's servant. But that's true of every believer. Every believer is a servant of
the Lord. When you go out in your life
about your daily activities, your work, your interaction with
people at work and school and the community, you're being a
servant of the Lord. Come out here in the summertime,
you'll find Aaron Simpson cutting the grass. Aaron, you're a servant
of the Lord doing that. Just like somebody preaching.
It's serving the Lord. Isn't that an honor? To be a
servant of the Lord. Now the Lord, God our Savior,
has condescended to save His people, and then He's condescended
to allow us to be His servants. You know, the Lord does not allow
His people to be His servant because He needs us, like He
needs anything. The name Lord here, Jehovah,
reveals the self-existent one. It's God our Savior, but it also
reveals the self-existent one. God doesn't need anything from
us. He said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you. Cattle on
a thousand hills are mine. He's self-existent, yet He allows
us to be His servant. The Lord gives His people the
blessing of being able to serve the Savior who loved us and gave
Himself for us. Now if that doesn't make you
happy, you're not a servant of the Lord. That gives God's people
the motivation to serve the Lord. What an honor to be able to serve
Him. And then think about the joy. There's an honor in being
God's servant. There's a joy in being a servant
of the Lord. God's people are happy to serve. Just happy. I mean, if something
needs done around here, all I've got to do is mention it, ask
somebody, and people are happy to do it. They just jump to do
it. It's a joy to be a servant of
the Lord. Remember when the Queen of Sheba, she made that trip.
She came to visit Solomon and she was amazed. She was just
amazed at Solomon's rule. One of the things that just amazed
her was Solomon's servants were happy. to be His servants. I
mean, I guess some kings, you know, they rule out of fear and
their servants, you know, they got to serve, you know, or they'll
be killed or something. I don't know, but she was amazed.
Solomon, your servants are happy to serve you. They're happy as
they're serving you. You know what they get to do?
Solomon's sitting at the king's, sitting at his table. There's
his servants around, Solomon's cup gets just a little bit empty.
They fill it back up. His plate, you know, they fill
it back up. And while they're serving, you
know what they get to do? They get to hear Solomon in his wisdom
give proverbs and speak. And they're happy. Happy. Well,
how much happier are God's people to be able to be the servant
of the Lord? To be able to sit and listen to his wisdom, the
gracious words that come out of his mouth All of creation
is commanded to praise the Lord and God's servants are allowed
to do it. We know God's name. He showed us His name. And His
name there means His character. We know what God's like. God's
servants are the ones who are able to praise the Lord. There's
a joy in that. And then think of the blessing
of being one of the Lord's servants. You know, when you think of a
master, you hear of masters, your mind probably goes, where
my mind goes, where a lot of Americans' mind goes, back to
those masters in the Old South in the days of slavery. We think
of masters who are hard and cruel people who treat their servants
badly. And that's why we don't want
to be a servant. We don't want somebody to be able to treat
us badly. But turn with me to John 15. That's not the way our
Lord and Master treats His servants. He treats His servants with love,
in grace. Now make no mistake about it
now. He's the master and we're the servants. He told his disciples,
you call me Lord and Master and you say well, for so I am. But
look what he calls his servants here. John 15 verse 13. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are
my friends. If you do whatsoever I command
you, Henceforth, I call you not servants." Now, you're a servant.
He said, but I don't call you a servant, for the servant knoweth
not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends.
For all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known
unto you. The Master calls His servants
His friends. And what a friend He is. What
a friend of sinners that He is. He shows His friends, His servants,
His will of redemption by His sacrifice for them. He lays down
His life in great love for His friends, His servants. Now that's
a blessing, isn't it? What a blessing to be the servant
of the Lord. Praise the Lord. He made His
enemies not just His servants, but His friends. Now look back
at Psalm 34. Here's another blessing. And
this goes right hand in hand with what the Lord was telling
His disciples there. Another blessing of being the
Lord's servant. Every one of His servants. Have redemption. Psalm 34, verse 22. The Lord redeemeth
the soul of His servants, and none of them that trust in Him
shall be desolate. And the word there is guilty.
None of them that trust in Him, none of His servants shall be
found guilty because the Lord's redeemed all of His servants.
He's paid their sin debt. They have no more sin. He took
away their guilt. They cannot be found guilty.
That's what God does for His servants. Oh, praise the Lord. Isn't that a blessing to be a
servant of the Lord? Alright, second. Praise the Lord. Because He has
made us to stand in Christ. Verse 2, He says, Ye that stand
in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our
God, praise the Lord. Now, you and I are fallen in
Adam. We've fallen. and we can't get
up. There's no way that we can get
up and stand on our own. Look at Psalm 130. We're fallen in sin and we can't
produce a righteousness that will let us stand accepted in
the presence of God. We can't do anything to cover
our sin that will enable us to stand in the presence of a holy
God. Psalm 130, verse 3. If thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, Oh Lord, who should stand? None. Not one. We cannot stand on our
own. But, verse 4, but, there is forgiveness,
propitiation, there is a sin covering with thee, that thou
mayest be feared, that thou mayest be worshipped. Praise the Lord. We cannot produce a righteousness
that will cover our sin. See what God did? God sent His
Son to do the job for us. God sent His Son to be the propitiation
for the sin of His people. He sent His Son to make His people
righteous through His obedience and through His sacrifice. Now,
we can't stand on our own, so God made His people to stand
in Christ, to stand by Christ. We stand in Christ. Praise the
Lord. We can't stand on our own, but we stand in Christ. And David
says here, God makes His servants to stand in His house. We're
not on the outside trying to look in and see what's going
on in God's house. Wonder what's going on. This
must be a beautiful place. There must be majestic, glorious
things going on there. And you're trying to look in.
No. The servants stand in the house. They dwell there. They live there. What a privilege
it is to stand in the house of God, to stand in His Son, to
stand in Christ, to stand by God-given faith in Christ. Now, you and I are fallen in
Adam. We've got to go back to this. Why is it we need somebody
to make us stand? Because we're fallen in Adam.
Look at Psalm 1. We're fallen in Adam and we cannot
stand in judgment. We cannot stand before God in
judgment. If we do, standing there in ourselves, we'll surely
be damned. Psalm 1 verse 5. Therefore, the
ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the
congregation of the righteous." They cannot stand. You and I,
in and of ourselves, cannot stand before God in judgment by our
own works. But look over 2 Corinthians 1.
I know we're turning to a lot of Scriptures. You can tell I
went through my concordance looking up some of these words. It's
a business of standing. I don't want to just quote them
to you, I want you to see some of these things yourself. 2 Corinthians
chapter 1. We cannot stand by our own works,
but I'll tell you how God's people stand. It's by faith. By faith
in Christ. 2 Corinthians 1 verse 24. Not for that we have dominion
over your faith, but are helpers of your joy, for by faith you
stand. See, we've got to be given faith.
We can't produce this faith on our own. God's got to give us
this faith. God the Holy Spirit gives this
faith to all of His servants so that they stand. They stand
in His presence. Now, praise the Lord. Praise
the Lord. Alright, one more Scripture on this point. Look at Ephesians
chapter 6. You know, we don't have anything
that's required to be able to stand before God. gives His servants
everything that they need to stand before Him. He gives His
servants the whole armor of God that enables them to stand. Ephesians
6, verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might, not in your might,
in His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be
able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, since this
is true, take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be
able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to
stand. Now stand, here's how you stand.
Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,
having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all,
taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying
always with all prayer and supplications in the Spirit, and watching therein
too with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."
Now there it is, the whole armor of God, and God's got to give
us each piece of that armor. And each piece of that armor
is Christ, isn't it? It's His Word. It's His salvation.
It's His faith. It's faith in Him. It's all Christ. God's given His servants everything
that they need to stand. We do not have to stand in our
own power, in the strength of our faith, in the strength of
our endurance. But it's in the might, the strength,
of the Lord, who enabled you to stand. Praise the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? Alright,
here's the third thing, back in our text, Psalm 135. Praise the Lord, because it's
good, and it's right for us to praise Him. Verse 3, praise the
Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praises unto His name, for
it's pleasant. Now, there's none good but God. in any goodness, all goodness
must come from Him, because there's none good but God. Well, then
it's good for us to praise His holy name in it. It's good for
us. And the Lord is so good that there's no goodness in us. We
can't do anything good. The Lord is so good, He enables
His servants to be able to praise His holy name. Isn't that something? He enables us. And we can't do
it without Him. We can't praise Him. We can't
worship Him. Without Him, we can't do nothing. But the Lord
is so good, He enables sinful men and women like us to be able
to praise His holy name, to be able to worship Him. And it's
good for us. It's good for us to praise the
Lord. Now, it's right. It is right.
Can you think of anything more right than fallen, wretched,
guilty sons of Adam would praise the Lord and worship Him? It's
right, isn't it? It's only right. But besides
that it's right, it's what we ought to do. We ought to worship
God. We ought to praise Him. But more than right, it's good
for us. It benefits us to praise the
name of the Lord. You know, the hearts of God's
servants are blessed every time we praise the Lord. It's a blessing
to our heart to think about the Lord's glories, to think about
who He is, to think about what He's done for the likes of us,
and to talk about those things. That's good for us. It's good.
It blesses our heart every time. And it's good for us to praise
the Lord in every situation. In every situation. Because in
every situation, whether we see it or not, whether we feel it
or not, God is good. God is good. My dear friend Marvin
Stoniker, you might know him. I can't tell you how many times
he's told me this. We'll be talking on the phone. talking about something
going on. He says this often. I bet you've
heard him say this. He'd say, Frank, Romans 8.28 is always
Romans 8.28. And you know what he means by
that. He means Romans 8.28 is always true in every situation. And since that's true, we praise
the Lord in every situation. I tell you, in times of sorrow,
in times of difficulty, As much as you can remember this, as
much as the Lord brings this to your mind and to your heart,
when you're just so overwhelmed, you can't see anything but blackness
and darkness and pain and suffering, you just remember this. At that
time, it will do your heart good to praise the Lord. It really
will. Because when you praise the Lord,
you know what you're going to remember? You're going to remember
this. Our Lord's in control. This thing, this furnace that
I'm in, this vice that I'm in, it's just crushing me. You know,
a lot of times when David speaks about a trial, he speaks about
a narrow place. Something that's just crushing
me. To remember that the Lord's in
control of this thing. He's the master refiner. He's
sitting there right with his finger on the knob controlling
the exact heat of this thing. So all it's doing is burning
off draws. Hmm, it hurts. But all he's doing
is burning off drugs. Yeah, it's tight fits. Yeah,
it's tight. But the Lord's in control. He's
in control of the vice. That'll do you good. It'll do
you good. It'll do the heart of a believer
good to remember this is not all there is. This life is not
all that there is. This flesh is not all that there
is. And whatever it is that the Lord
sent me that's causing me this great sorrow and difficulty and
pain and suffering, if Romans 8.28 is always Romans 8.28, then
the Lord sent it somehow for good, didn't He? Somehow He's
working this together for good. And then when the opposite is
true, when you're on the mountaintop and God's blessed you, just to
have every reason this world be happy and shout and sing for
joy, As much as you can have this in your mind, you know,
it's hard to have it in your mind and have it in your heart
both times, both extremes, in the valley, on the mountaintop.
It'll do your heart good to stop and praise the Lord. Because
at that time, when you're on the mountaintop, and oh, everything's
wonderful, the Lord just blessed you so much, you know what it'll
do? It'll do your heart good to remember
God's in control of this thing. God's the one sent to you. God's
the one that gave you all these blessings from the hand of His
grace. Not because I deserve it. Because
God's just been gracious to me. And it'll be good for us. It'll
do your heart good to stop and thank God. To thank Him for His
blessings and praise Him for it. Praise the Lord because it's
good. It's good for us. Not only is
it right, it's good for us. It'll do your heart good every
time. Alright, fourthly. Praise the Lord for His electing
love. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob
unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure. The Charles
Spurgeon said of this verse, election is one of the most forcible
arguments for adoring love. And that's a fact. The Lord chose
Jacob for himself. Now that's electing love. Think
about it. Two boys, two twins. The Lord could have chosen Esau.
He's going to choose one and pass the other by. He could have
chosen Esau, couldn't he? Esau didn't deserve God's love,
God's favor, God's choice, any more than Jacob did. Both those
brothers were undeserving. Both of them were guilty. Both
of them were vile. Both of them were dead in sin. But God chose Jacob. And humanly
speaking, Jacob is a whole lot less admirable than Esau. I mean,
you know the story of those two men. Who would you rather have
your friend be your friend? I don't necessarily want Jacob
to be my friend. If I've got a friend, I've got
to keep arm's length away from my wallet and away from my business
dealings. And he's going to cheat you. He's going to get the angle
on you every time. You know, humanly speaking, Esau,
he's a man's man. I mean, he's the kind of guy
men like to be around. But God chose Jacob. And I point that out to make
this point. The same thing is true of everyone
God sent his electing love upon. God could have chosen anybody
else other than me. And he'd been right to do it.
God could have chosen lots and lots and lots of people who humanly
speaking are more admirable than we are, but God chose Jacob. God chose cheats. God chose supplanters. God chose the guilty. God chose
the foolish things of the world and the things that are nothing
in this world. That's who God chose. God set his electing love
upon those people. God said, I love Jacob. I'm the God of Jacob. I've got
a whole slew of Jacobs that no man can number. I set my love
upon them. That's electing love, electing
love. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. I'll tell you this. The Lord
certainly did not have to choose me. He didn't have to choose
you either. And there's no reason found in
us. God would choose us. But the Lord chose to save his
people because God has the capacity to love sinners and choose to
save them. And He calls those people His
peculiar treasure. I look that word up, peculiar
treasure, it means this, God's valued property. And you want
to talk about a miracle of grace. God would choose to love sinners. That He would save, that He would
elect and choose to save sinful men and women like us, not because
they had any value in themselves, but because they're valuable
to God. God set His love upon them and that made them valuable
to God. You know, normally you go buy
something, especially, you know, a big ticket item. You know why
you're buying that thing? It's a house, it's a car, it's
a, you know, whatever. It's because it's got intrinsic
value and you're getting something of value back for your money.
There's no value found in any of the people, God chose to save.
None. You know why? The one and only
reason they had any value to God is God loved them. God said,
I love them. And God redeemed those people
with the precious blood of His own Son. Now, the psalmist says
here that these people God has elected to save, they're God's
peculiar treasure. They're His valued property. Did God leave any doubt that
was true? He redeemed those people. He bought those people with the
precious blood of His only begotten Son. That's how valuable that
they were to the Father. Now I tell you, I can't see it.
Can you? I can't, I can't, I just cannot
see. Now God could call somebody like
me His peculiar treasure, valued, valued treasure. But He did. And only God sees why. Only God
knows why. God sees His people as His precious
jewels. Praise the Lord. God counted
His elect people to be His peculiar treasure. He chose to save those
people, and those people are His crown jewels. Those sinful,
worthless wretches that God chose to save, He redeemed with the
precious blood of His Son. They're God's crowning glory.
It's God's crowning glory that He would save Jacob. Or that
He would save Frank. Or He would save Brady. Or He
would save Cecil. Our name just goes right interchangeable
with Jacob, doesn't it? It's God's crowning glory that
He would save somebody like us. And it's His crowning glory that
He could save somebody like us. Nobody else could. Nobody else
could pay the price. God did that because those people
are precious to Him. And those things that are precious
to Him, God will never lose. Now there are things that are
precious to me. You have things that are precious to you. And
you'll go a long, long way to keep and protect those things,
won't you? And sometimes we can't do it. Sometimes we can't. Usually
we do, but sometimes we can't. God is sovereign. And we're going
to see this in just a minute about His sovereignty. Because
God's sovereign, He'll never ever lose anything. Anyone who's
precious to Him. Praise the Lord. That's a good
reason to praise the Lord. I can't keep myself. But our
Savior does. Alright, here's the last thing. Praise the Lord for His sovereign
grace. Verse 5. For I know that the
Lord is great and that our Lord is above all gods, all idols.
Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He, in heaven, and in
earth, and the seas, and all deep places." Lord willing, we'll
come back and look at these verses in a little more detail next
time, but I want to look at them as part of this mosaic that we're
looking at, this precious gem that we're looking at being put
in place in this mosaic tonight. God's sovereign grace. I thought about this Before I
put this in my nose, but this is true. I know this is true.
One of my very favorite subjects is the sovereignty of God. Now,
the sovereignty of God, God's electing love, that God saves
whom He will, when He will. That God has mercy on whom He
will have mercy. That's God's sovereignty. That
doctrine, that truth of God's sovereignty is sovereign grace.
That is not a mean, hateful subject that tells people you can't be
saved. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Anybody that presents it that way or anybody that thinks
about it that way is off their rocker. That does not mean that
at all. The sovereignty of God in salvation,
that God elects whom He will unto salvation, that God will
have mercy on whom He will, that is the only hope a dead, guilty,
vile sinner has of salvation. God's sovereign grace. His electing
love. And the sovereignty of God. That's
the only guarantee of salvation that any sinner has. It's God's
sovereignty. That God will do His will. If
salvation were left up to you and me, there's not one of us
would be saved. Not one son of Adam would ever
be saved if it was left up to us. If salvation is of the Lord,
then all of God's people must be saved because His will is
always done. And I'll tell you, that lets
me sleep at night while the billows roll. That lets me sleep at night. It's God's sovereignty that gives
me the heart, gives me the desire to continue to preach Him week
after week after week after week. I got my message done for tonight,
today, and I started looking at the text for Sunday. And I'm telling you, I can't
wait. I mean, I just can't wait. I see there's such a good message
there, such a message of the glory of Christ. If somebody didn't know no better
from the outside, Well, look at this little group here. Would they think we're doing
anything? Are you accomplishing anything?
I tell you what gives me the heart to continue week after
week after week. It's God's sovereignty. It's
God's sovereignty. We cannot fail if God is sovereign. If His will is always done, if
we trust a God who cannot fail, then we can't fail to preach
Him. that we can't fail if we believe Him. That we can't fail
if we trust Him. Is that right? Of course it's
right. Of course it's right. It's like
you're telling that story. Eric was telling a story about
Brother Marvin Stoniker's preaching. He's pastor there at Fairmont.
And Scott was still there. Right in the middle of Marvin's
message, Marvin's preaching on the sovereignty of God. Right
in the middle of the message, Scott said, Brother Marvin, do
you really believe that? And Mark said, yes, I do. That's
what the Word of God declared. Yes, I do. And God said, all
right then, go on. All right then. All right then. It's God's sovereignty. All right
then. Let's go on. Let's keep pressing
forward. Let's keep pressing towards Him.
Let's keep hanging on to Him. Let's keep looking to Him. Let's
keep trusting Him. It's God's sovereignty that's
the guarantee of the salvation of God's people. It's God's sovereignty
that makes glory secure. for all of God's elect. Thank
God, this is not all there is. You know, God sends these trials
to show us that and be thankful for that. This is not all there
is. Glory, after this life, is sure
and certain to God's people because of God's sovereignty. If God's
sovereign, He's sovereign over everything and over everyone,
then there's no thing And there's no one who can ever thwart God's
purpose of salvation and the ultimate glorification of His
people. If God's sovereign over them, well, He is. Then praise
the Lord. His sovereignty guarantees glory
for His people. And here's something out of today's
newspaper. Things in this life, things in this world, the goings-on,
the governments of how this world runs, man's elections, you know,
those things may not go the way that I want them to go. It seems
like they often don't. But I tell you what, no matter
who comes out on top in any election of government in this life, from
dog catcher on up to president, no matter who gets the most votes
in that thing, at the end of the day, when all the votes are
counting and it's all done but to shouting, the king is still
on his throne. The king is still accomplishing
his purpose, and it doesn't matter what puppet is in the halls of
human power. It doesn't matter, because they're
just a puppet. They're just a sock puppet, you know, in the hand
of God, that he turns with us, whatever he will, to accomplish
whatever will he has for his people. Because God is the sovereign
ruler, and there'll never be a change in that administration.
Praise the Lord. In different situations, May
not be what I want them to be. People may not do what I wish
they'd do. And often they don't. Often they
don't. But I'll tell you what, when
those situations are against us and people are not doing what
we wish they'd do, they're breaking our hearts, you see them heading
down a road of trouble for themselves. I'll tell you this, the king
is still on the throne. In Romans 8.28. is always Romans
8.28. Situations may not be what I
want them to be, but the King is still working these things
together for good. To them who love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. Then praise the Lord
for His sovereignty. Praise Him for it. Thank Him
for it. Doesn't that let you rest at night? The sovereignty
of God is what comforts the hearts of God's elect. God is sovereign. I don't know, we tend to think
about God being sovereign over everything out there, right?
You know the place I'm most thankful God is sovereign? Right here
in this heart. In this old sinful nature. God
is sovereign over me. And God has willed to save me. He's sovereign, so His will is
always done. You know what that means? With all my sin and all
my failure, when I'm the one doing what somebody else wishes
I wouldn't be doing, I can't mess it up. Because God is sovereign. God and His sovereign power can
give me a new nature that won't quit trusting Him. That won't
quit believing Him. And God has the sovereign power
to hold me and not let me go. No matter what. It's the sovereignty
of God that comforts the hearts of God's elect. Because I know
this. Since God's sovereign, He has
the power to take care of my every problem. He's got the power
to comfort my heart in every situation. He's got the power
to supply my every need. Even if He doesn't change my
circumstances, He's got the power to comfort my heart. Praise the
Lord. Praise the Lord for His sovereignty.
That's five good reasons to praise the Lord. And I hope and pray
that God will let us go home this evening and head back out
to the salt mine tomorrow, praising the Lord. Let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, oh, we humbly bow
before You. And with the hearts and the tongues
that You've given us, we say praise the Lord. Oh, how we thank
You for Your purpose of redeeming a people, that You've made us
Your servants. And Father, I pray You'd make
us faithful. Oh, make us faithful to Your cause. Make us faithful
to Your Gospel. Make us faithful to continue
looking to and trusting Christ alone. Let this be the heart's
desire of this congregation to praise the Lord, to show forth
His glories to our generation. Now, Father, I pray You'd bless
us. Bless Your Word as it's been preached. Cause it to take root
in our heart that we might learn more of Christ our Savior, that
we might learn to trust Him more fully. Go with us to our homes
and give us a good night of rest and go back out to face the world
again tomorrow. Bring us back here again Sunday
when it's time One more time, by thy will, purpose, being able
to hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. For in his precious
name, we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, you're dismissed.