Turn with me, if you would, to
2 Timothy chapter 3. Open our service. 2 Timothy chapter
3. A few announcements. Remember
our brother Dan Morgan, his father in prayer. His father's health
is changing. He's staying up there this weekend
in Cincinnati to be with him. I know the doctors are looking
at some different things for Dan's dad, so remember our brother
Dan, his father in prayer. Frank is admitted into University
of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington. He went down yesterday, which
I think is a good thing. They're recognizing this as the
critical condition that it is. Last I heard, my understanding
is he's scheduled for emergency surgery. And as of today, we
would expect that to be done the first couple of days of next
week, which is a good thing. From what little I was able to
see at the emergency room yesterday, it could not have been better. We're just thrilled with the
staff and how easy everyone made it. No less of a miracle than the
parting of the Red Sea. It's just a special time yesterday
to see. And I'm glad that medically,
we have some hope and some vision for going over the next few days.
And I stress that medically, because we always have hope.
We have hope in Christ. We have hope. We know he's in
control. Even if we don't know what's happening Monday or Tuesday,
we know that he's in control. We know that it is good. It's
also comforting to kind of know what that plan is. So we got
to see some of that yesterday, and we're thankful. He sent a
message, and he stressed this a couple times to me. So I wrote
it down, so I made sure to get his exact words. He says he thanks
you for the texts and for the cards and for the phone calls,
for the contacts that he has. And he says, make sure that they
know I thank each and every one. He stressed that, each and every
one, that that's important. And he's looking forward to preaching
for us again. And I know we're looking forward
to having him back. So he appreciates each and every one. Finally,
our brother Eric, he's in Danville today. So, so keep him in mind,
the congregation there and the message there as well. That said,
let's open our worship service this morning. Second Timothy
chapter three. Let's start in verse, verse 14. All the changes in our world
right now with schools and with this, and there's so much that
we're wondering, what, what do I do? What decisions do I make? And, and I don't know, but just
this one thing, this, this, this we know, but continue thou in
the things which thou has learned and been assured of knowing of
whom thou has learned them. That from a child that has known
the Holy scriptures, which are able to make the wise and the
salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished into all
good works. We'll end our reading there. Let's pray together. Our Holy Heavenly Father, hallowed
reverend be your matchless name. We pray that your name be glorified
today, be lifted up as it ought today, that we may worship We
worship you in Christ's name here in this place today, that
your message go forth in power, that sinners are called to repentance,
to the throne of glory, to the throne of mercy, that the saints
are edified according to your will, according to your word.
We thank you for, we can't even begin to thank you for what we
ought to thank you for. We thank you for Christ, for
full atonement, full remission of sins, taken away by Christ's
sacrifice, by Christ's blood on the cross. Full atonement,
full atonement was made. Righteousness was brought to
a sinful race. For your people, we have much
to be thankful for. We thank you for this time together
that we have as a body, as a family, that we may worship, that you've
seen fit to send your word to unworthy, undeserving sinners
such as we are. We have much to be thankful for.
Father, thank you. We thank you that you do remember
that we're dust. We're needy. We rely on you for
everything, for the very breath that we're taking right now,
that we rely on you for everything. Father, thank you for providing.
We pray that you continue to provide as we're promised that
you do. We pray for our pastor and for
Janet even now. Thank you for being with them.
We pray that you Keep your hand of healing on them, on our pastor,
as you see fit. Bring them home safely to us
in your time, that your will be done. For others, for our
brother Dan with his father now, and for others who are undergoing
trial, that trial work your will and that you be with them in
comfort as only you can, as only you can. For our brother Eric
and for others who are traveling today, we pray for traveling
mercies. And above all, we pray that your will be done. Give
us faith to take comfort in your good pleasure. Give us faith
to trust you in all things. Again, we pray that your name
be glorified here in this place today, that we have this opportunity
to see Christ once again. Thank you for this time that
we have together. Pray this thankfully in Christ's name and for his
sake. Amen. For the special, after the special,
if you go ahead and come speak, I'll introduce Marvin. We're
thrilled to have our friend, our brother, and our sister,
Marvin and Glenda here with us. Marvin's the pastor of Katie
Baptist Church in Fairmont, West Virginia. Thank you. Thank you for being
here. And after the special, you come and deliver the message
the Lord's put on your heart. We're thrilled to have you here
and especially thrilled to have you here. Thank you. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now am
found Was blind, but now am found Was grace that taught my heart
to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils, and snares Tis grace hath brought me safe
thus far, And grace will lead me home. When we've been there
ten thousand years, The song we've no less days to
sing God's praise than when we first begun. I wish I could express to you
the joy that I and my wife have to be here with you. I love your pastor as you do,
and I am so thankful for him. He's been my friend for years,
and I do pray The Lord's pleased to heal him, bring him back. He can be again with you. I know he desperately wants to
be, and you want him here. And I do. I pray for you, pray
that God bless you, keep you. I thank God that he's given my
wife and I this privilege to be here. I'm going to do something
that I normally don't do, I normally don't start with an illustration. While I'm getting ready to turn
with me to Psalm 62. Psalm 62. I want to look at Psalm
62 this morning. And I've entitled this message,
Waiting Only Upon God. Waiting Only. upon God. Melinda and I got up yesterday
morning and our plans were to take off just a little bit before
nine and had a couple of places we were going to stop before
we headed this way. And we got maybe five miles,
maybe, down the road and all of a sudden lights started coming
on the dash. I noticed that I didn't have
power steering. And I said, Oh, and she said,
What do you mean? And I said, cars not running
engines not running. Well, I pulled over to the side
of the road. I mean, it's a job, you know,
when you lose your power steering and pulled into a driveway and
block the man's driveway. tried to start the car, he wouldn't
start. Well, about a month ago, Linda was driving, going to see
her dad in the hospital, and a man runs a stop sign and hits
her car, totaled it. And so I've got a totaled car
and a car that won't start. So I sat there for a minute.
I called Chip Holbrook. Chip's in Kentucky. I want to
be in Kentucky. But I don't know what to do but
call Chip. And he said, buddy, I wish I was there. And I said,
I wish you were too. And the man that we stopped in
front of his house, I looked up and he had a wrecker service.
And I, after a little bit of trying to get the car started
and it wouldn't start, I looked at the side of his truck called
his number, and he came out of his house, loaded us up, and
took the car home. And we borrowed a car, and we
made it here. You say, well, what has that
illustration got to do with the message? I'm going to try to
preach this morning on waiting upon God, waiting only upon the
Lord. David says In verse 1 of Psalm
62, truly, that word interpreted is only. Only my soul waiteth
upon God. From Him cometh my salvation. Now this psalm is penned by a
man named David. And truly, it is a psalm of David
as David is in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And David
could truly say, from a heart made new, I wait on the Lord. But the thing that struck me
about the word waiteth there, and if you've got a margin you'll
see it, what it says is silent. My soul is silent toward the Lord. My soul is made to be quiet,
to be confident, and wait on the Lord. Yesterday as I stood
on the side of the road thinking about how am I going to get to
Ashland? I'm scheduled to preach What
am I going to do? I told Glenda, I said, Romans
8.28 is always Romans 8.28. All things. Now, we're all going
through what we're going through right now. Different situations,
different scenarios. But don't we know that all things
have been ordered by the Lord? He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will. And if we want to know what the
will of the Lord is, whatever comes to pass, that is the will
of the Lord. Whatever it is, it's going to
be shown to be to the glory of Almighty God and to the good
of God's people. These verses that I want to look
at, I know this. Now, the Spirit of God moved
on David to write them. And truthfully, as a man, a woman
is made new in Christ. And as we look at these verses,
we're going to realize there's some things that truly you say,
well, a believer can't say that. Well, yes, a believer can in
the Lord, in himself. Paul said, I see in me, that
is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing. But for a believer
to pin what God has said concerning his state, his walk in this life,
is truly a blessing. And I pray that the Lord bless
these words to our heart this morning. Truly, my soul, that
regenerated self, that new man, My soul is silent toward the
Lord. My soul waits upon God from Him
cometh my salvation. Now, we do wait on the Lord. Waiting is absolutely, I'll just
speak from experience, waiting to me is absolutely one of the
most trying things that I could possibly say. to wait and to
seek God's face and to know what is the Lord doing. I've told
many people when I was growing up, my dad had a saying and it
was this. He said, boy, we're going to
do something today if it's wrong. I grew up with that attitude.
I'm going to do something. It's so much easier for me to
do something. than to wait and to seek and
to pray that God be pleased. Give me patience to wait on the
Lord. While we're waiting, here's what
the Spirit of God moved upon Paul and say in 1 Thessalonians
5, 17, pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. We wait, believing that He is
going to bring His will to pass. I know He is. Isaiah 46.10 says,
My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. So whenever the Spirit of God
moved on David to write, my soul, my living being, we're all born
with a nature dead. A nature that's not going to
wait on God, but for David to say, my soul is only continually
waiting and silent. It's confident. It's still, it
is waiting upon the Lord. No murmuring. That's what it
means. My soul doesn't murmur against God. You say, how can
you say that? That which is born of God sinneth
not. The only way I know that that
soul is that the Spirit of God told me that. Because I'm real
honest with you. I don't see that in me. Somebody
says, I see myself perfectly waiting on God. Can anybody really
say that? I always see myself waiting on
God. And the Spirit of God has said
that a believer does. All the struggles, Truly. Only. His soul waited on God. The Spirit of God directed him
to confess his mind. To set forth that peace that
he knew that all things were in the hands of Almighty God.
He told him. The Spirit of God told him to
set forth that his safety, his deliverance, his victory came
only from the God of his hope. You tell my people, you tell
them that I am the Lord and David's desire. This is what a believer
wants. I want to wait on him. What David's confession did was
it drove a believer to see that all of his confidence in the
Lord. Now you think, when David said, my soul waiteth upon God. who's the only one that ever
waited on God in his own merit for Jesus Christ. All of our
hope, all of our peace, why? Because as I said a while ago,
Paul said, I know that in my flesh, I know that dwelleth no
good thing. To will is present with me, but how to accomplish
that which I would, I find not. So the only one, Almighty God
is well pleased with is the one that truthfully can say this. This is a psalm of David. But the Spirit of God speaking
of Christ. All of our hope. Here's what
the Lord said concerning himself. John chapter 8 verse 29. He that
sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone. For I do always those things
that please Him according to His righteousness that He earned,
that He has imputed to His people, being found in Him, a believer
can say that, being found in Christ. Only the Lord has perfectly obeyed
His Father. Verse 2, He only is my rock. by salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be greatly moved. Now, He is my only rock. He is my only defense. I shall not be greatly moved. In the word only, there the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ again is set forth I read that, I read
it again this morning and I thought to myself, how easily my heart
is turned away from confidence, from peace. We look at things
and mess and stuff. Somebody would say, I only see
myself only always trusting the Lord. You let the dial drop a thousand
points, and I'm going to tell you what
most of us would think. We'd say, well, I don't ever
put my confidence in that. David, under the inspiration
of God's Spirit, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, the man
Christ Jesus, who humbled himself and made himself of no reputation,
Here's what Christ said. He, the Father, is my only rock. He is my only defense. He is my only deliverance. He's my only safety. And we struggle. We struggle. We struggle with
ourselves because we don't want to admit it, but we will. We look to us. We rest in us. And that, as Paul says, grieves
me. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Resting in the
Father only. The great Saviour and Priest
of the Lord Jesus Christ did that which we cannot do because
of the flesh. And we do struggle. And he confessed
that while being hated of those that knew him not, he said something
that you and I truly know and believe. Now, listen to what
he said in verse two, the latter part. I shall not be greatly
moved. Now, I guarantee you, a believer
believes that. He believes that he's kept by
the power of God through faith. I'm going to just read something
to you. Psalm 24, Proverbs, Proverbs 24 and verse 16. Let me, let
me just read this to you. Proverbs 24, 16 for the just
man fall at seven times and rise it up again, but the wicked shall
fall in to mischief. Now here's what the scripture
says concerning a believer. The just man falleth. into calamities,
and He does rise up. Why? Because He's kept by the
power of God through faith. The Lord's not going to leave
Him to Himself. But the wicked falls into ruin. And so here's
the Lord Jesus Christ back in Psalm 62 and verse 2, I shall
not be greatly moved. Here is Christ Himself speaking
as the head of His people. Speaking of their safety in Him,
I shall not. Speaking of His body, I shall
not be greatly moved. And for that, I'm so thankful.
We do fall. And we do struggle. We do waver. We slip. But we're kept. Oh, for the Lord Jesus Christ,
though. He was despised. He was rejected
of man, he was a man of sorrows, he was acquainted with griefs,
he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, smitten of God,
afflicted, wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities
and in every suffering, every sorrow, his righteous soul waited
only on God. Oh, what comfort, what peace
to know that here as our representative, our federal head, our righteousness. We stand before God accepted
in the beloved. Then the Spirit of God moved
on David to pen a question that again could only be asked by
our omnipotent Lord and Savior, verses three and four. He says,
how long will you imagine mischief against a man? You shall be slain,
all of you, as a bowing wall shall you be, and as a tottering
fence. They only consult to cast him
down from his excellency. They delight in lies, they bless
with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. Now who could know the thoughts
and the imaginations of men concerning their mischief and their assaults
and their attacks against the man? the Lord Jesus. Mischief against Him who is the
delight of Almighty God and of God's choosing. That man that
has eternally stood as the representative and the surety and the salvation
of all God's elect. Here the Spirit of God reveals
that which shall surely come to pass against those that stand
in rebellion and resentment and die. in that state against the
Lord, all of your attempts, he said, against the man himself,
they're going to come to nothing except your destruction, your
demise, all your efforts to cast him down. And that's what we
all, by nature, want to do. We're born with a nature. The
carnal mind is enmity against God. And here the Lord reveals,
how long? How long? How long until we die and God
casts us out or until God's pleased to call us out of darkness and
regenerate in grace? We're not going to change of
ourselves. We're not going to turn over a new leaf. We're not
going to find ourselves doing anything other than that which
is by nature. Resentment against Him. The religion is that man by nature
has no other thought than to cast the Lord down from his dignity.
That's the very heart of free will. The very heart of a man
lifting himself up. He's going to say his Satan.
He just verbalizes exactly the heart of the devil himself. Isaiah 14, I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. Oh, man will never openly say
that that's his goal, but the scripture declares right here,
they delight, man by nature delights in lies. He delights in that
which is untruth, resents God's word, they bless him with their
mouth, but they curse him But then the Spirit of God moved
upon David to put that little word right there, Selah. He said, I want you to pause
and think about what the Lord has just said. Think about what
He's just revealed. I'm going to read it again and
then stop. How long will you imagine mischief
against a man? You shall be slain, all of you,
as a bowing wall that has no foundation. It's leaning over. It's going to topple. That's
what He said. You're just like a tottering
fence. And they only consult to cast
Him down from His excellency. That's the whole bent of their
life. That's their whole desire. Man by nature goes through this
life wanting one thing. to bring God down from His excellency. And man by nature will say, no,
no, no, no, no, that's not what I've been thinking. The Lord
said that is what you're doing. How long? Think of what I just said, the
Spirit of God has directed us to say. Think upon what man by
nature does. And think about the grace of
God that would cause any of us to be here this morning with
a heart made new that would want, desire to bless Him and praise
Him and thank Him for His goodness and grace and mercy. Verse 5
to 7, My soul, wait thou only upon God. For my expectation
is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. The psalmist seems now to be
speaking to himself. He's going to say something. Think about how many times we've
done the same thing. Told you about our little incident
yesterday morning. And I did verbalize what I said
to my wife. But I'm going to tell you something.
I was speaking to myself. Marvin. Whatever the Lord has been pleased
to bring about. Is according to his will. Wait on him. Trust Him. He's not going to leave you to
yourself. He's promised that. I'm not going to leave you alone.
I'm not going to leave you to fend for yourself. I need to hear it. I need to
hear me say that. Listen to David. My soul, wait thou only upon God. For my expectation, my hope is in Him. If God be for us, who can be
against us? The theme of David's heart as he is born again. As one thought,
one continuing joy, And this is only that which we can know
by faith. Again, I said, how many of us
would say, I find myself truly only, only, always resting in
God. I believe you're going to say,
Lord, as you say it is, it is. As you say it is in Christ, it
is. Because I do see in me. David rested in the Lord God
of his salvation. But in verse 7, He uses a word
and it is salvation. In God is my salvation. Now in verse 1 he said, Truly
my soul waiteth upon God, from Him cometh my salvation. In verse
2 he said, He only is my rock and my salvation. In verse 6
he said, He only is my rock and my salvation. But he says something
in verse 7 that's different. He says in verse 7, In God is
my salvation. And that word is a different
word. Not the same word he used in verse 1, 2 and 6. In verse
1, 2 and 6, the word that he used means deliverance. That
is right. He is my deliverance. He is my
deliverance. He is my deliverance. But in
verse 7, he uses a word and it's interpreted salvation. But it
means liberty. He's my liberty. He's my freedom. I'm free. I'm free. John 8.32 says, You'll know the
truth and the truth shall make you free. Having heard the gospel, having
had that gospel powerfully and effectually born to our hearts
from above, God's people realize, being taught by the Spirit of
God, that they're free. They've been freed from the penalty,
the bondage of sin. We're not under the law. We don't
walk by the deeds of the law. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. I'm so thankful. I'm so
thankful that God's not left us in the bondage of the law. They're free from the power of
sin. He doesn't have dominion over us. We're not under that law for
a covenant. We're not under that curse because
Christ being made a curse for us redeemed us from the curse
of the law. Being made a curse for us and
soon, very soon, we'll be free from the very presence of it.
David said, the Lord is my deliverance. But He also said in verse 7,
He said, In God is my salvation and my glory. He boasted in Him as being His
glory. He boasted in Him of being the
only one that's worthy to be gloried in. I can't glory in
myself. What can I do but rebel against
Him? I have no freedom in me. I have
no freedom in self. I see me now as being repulsive
to me. Job said, I loathe myself. I've
told folks so many times, I want to pray. I want to seek the Lord. I want to ask. I want to have
It's time I want to enter into my closet. As the Lord said,
when you enter into your closet, if you found yourself trying
to pray and all of a sudden you're realizing, where am I? Where did I go with that thought?
I can't even keep any consistency in me. And God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. Now listen to how personal this
is. I know that He is the salvation.
I know that He's the deliverance and the liberty of His people.
But do you realize the joy of being able to say, as David said,
look at verse 7. In God is, He's my salvation. I know He's done something for
others. I'm so thankful He's done something for me. He's my glory. I read in the
scriptures where His people gloried in Him. Praised Him and blessed
Him. But He's my glory. He's the rock of my strength.
Again, I know He's the strength of His people, but He's my strength.
And He's my refuge. I think about when the Lord told
him, you're going to put Moses in the cleft rock. I think, oh,
what a joy that God put him in there. He put Moses in there,
but he put me in there too. And for that, I'm thankful. My refuge is in God. Then he
said in verse eight, he said, trust in him at all times, you
people. And listen to this, and this
is what God's people want to do. Pour out your heart before
Him. God is a refuge for us. Now you muse on that. Trust in Him at all times. Don't you want to? Don't you
want to do that? Don't you want to lean on Him
and rely on Him and have confidence in Him? Again, only. Only in Christ do we do that,
and we do it. We do trust Him at all times. Because again, I go back to 1
John 3, 9. Remember, that which is born
of God trusts Him at all times. That
which is born of God is confident in Him at all times. How can
you say that? Because that which is born of
God said it not. What a miracle of God's grace.
What a freedom that we have in having this word taught us by
God's spirit. Pour out your heart before him. Isn't it freedom just to be able
to just talk to the Lord and just tell him, Lord, I'm struggling. Lord, I need you. Lord, you help
me. Lord, be my salvation. Be my refuge. Be my peace. Be my comfort. Pour your heart out to him. Rest
in him. Tell him what burdens your heart. I realize I don't know what to
say. The Spirit of God has told us
that. He helpeth our infirmities. But
Lord, take what I don't even know how to say and would You
present it? Lord Jesus, would You offer it
in the merit of Your essence? Would You, as the great angel
of revelation, offer it unto the Father in Your incense? Father, would You hear me For
Christ's sake, Holy Spirit, say what I can't say. Just pour out
your heart. Just tell Him, I need You. I need You, Lord, to teach me.
Tell Him and rehearse in His ears for guidance and direction. Cry unto Him in the hour of your
need. Verse 9, Surely men of low degree
are vanity, And men of high degree are a lie to be laid in the balance. They're altogether lighter than
vanity, than nothing. Who else can we trust in and
have confidence in but the Lord? The Spirit of God again moved
upon David to lay forth the value of men. I'm so thankful to be
here with you. I'm so thankful that I can be
in the presence of God's people, those that I'm convinced. There's people that's here today
that God Almighty has everlastingly loved and chosen to show mercy
and compassion, put you in Christ, and Christ has redeemed you.
I'm convinced. God's elect are here. I'm convinced
of that. God's had mercy. As far as me being able to trust
in you, or you and me, we can't have any trust in. We
love each other, pray for one another, pray God to have mercy
upon us. But here's how much confidence
we can have in each other. Surely men of low degree are
vanity and men of high degree are a lie. We're just men, women. by his good pleasure has taken
some and has been pleased to temporarily bless, you know,
in a few things, men of high degree, that's what it is, that
seem to have excelled in something. Really, when it comes right down
to themselves, they're just a lie. And we all admit it. We know
him. We're just a fading, false illusion
in ourselves that can't be trusted. You lay them both in themselves. You lay them both in a balance
to determine their worth. And here again, every believer
here is going to admit this. Their worth is going to be shown
to be lighter than vanity. Lighter than nothing. What are
you worth? I'm lighter than nothing. Belshazzar
thought it was somebody over in the book of Daniel chapter
5 Scripture says that one night he saw a hand writing on the
wall. Daniel came and interpreted it
to him. He said, you've been weighed in the balance, that
is, of God's justice and God's truth, and you've come up wanting. You've come up deficient. Man by nature is lighter than
emptiness. in himself no worth, no substance,
no value. Therefore, look at verse 10,
trust not in oppression and become not vain in robbery. And if riches
increase, set not your heart upon them. Don't trust in your
supposed strength because we don't have any. We have nothing in thinking of
ourselves to be able to handle the situation. Don't become vain
in robbery. Robbery of any kind toward God
or men, those that put trust in themselves and their own will,
they're going to lose their life. And what they're doing is, you're
attempting to rob God. of His glory. You're not going
to. But we try to. If we trust in the robbery of
men, that is just oppressing them, in whatever capacity, whatever
it is, just think of robbing men just like with a gun or something
like that. But to rob them of their character,
to rob them of their, or if you're hiring somebody, you take advantage
of them and their time and whatever, you know, you're trusting in
nothing. You think that you're elevating
yourself. The scripture says, no, you're just, it's robbery. Or if riches increase, even in
an honorable way, man, by nature, we're, we're bent. We're, we're
for me, we're all for self. That's, that's by nature. We're all for self. But even
if riches increase honorably, And the Lord blesses the efforts
of our hands, and we do have something for a little while.
Don't set your heart on them. Don't trust in them. They're just fleeting. If a man
gained the whole world and lost his soul, he has nothing. He's going to be as those that
man that his ground brought forth plenty. You remember he said
he didn't have room to store all of his stuff, and he thought
he'd just pull down his barns and build greater things. And
the Lord said, you fool. Today, tonight, your soul is
going to be required to be. And then whose shall be those
things? You've heard the saying, you
know, men that have much, in this world, they leave this world.
How much do they leave? All of it. They leave this world
with nothing. Verse 11 and 12. God has spoken
once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth
mercy. for thou renderest to every man
according to his work." God, who doesn't change, has
spoken. When David said God has spoken
once, God has spoken once and for all. That's what he said. The Lord has spoken, and His
Word, because He, does not change. God has spoken once. We on the other hand, David said
God has spoken once, twice. Have I heard it? I need to hear that which He
who has spoken once for all, I need to hear it over and over
and over. I need to hear it again. Again,
tell me one more time. Tell me one more time how the
Lord has had mercy upon His people. Tell me again. Tell me the character
of a believer. Tell me something. Tell me what
the gospel is again. Some might say, well, I know
what the gospel is. Tell me again. I want to hear
it one more time. Tell me how the Lord has promised,
I will never Lady, why? Because I'm so prone to forget.
I said, well, I heard that before. I want to hear it again. Tell me again. When the Lord
said in John 637, him that cometh to me. How many times does a
believer come to Christ? He always comes to Christ. He's continually calling, Lord,
have mercy upon me. Do you think the Lord's had mercy
upon a man that has been given a heart to cry out for mercy?
Absolutely. Do you think that man will ever
stop crying out for mercy? The Lord has spoken once and
twice have I heard it. What have I heard over and over
and over again? Here's what I've heard. that
power belongeth unto God. I love hearing that God Almighty
is all powerful. I love hearing again that He
doeth as He will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. I'm so thankful for that. I'm
thankful for that scripture that I quoted again. When I started
here, And we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God. I need to hear that again. I
need to hear it, hear it, and hear it. And when you come and
you hear Brother Frank preach or you hear a man preach from
this pulpit, here's what you want to hear. I want to hear
again and again and again what I've heard before. Don't tell
me anything new. You show me in this book. You
show me that God is all-powerful. That's what I want to hear. Don't
tell me anything that degrades, that takes away from His glory.
I don't want to hear it. Unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth
mercy. Lord, I know that You're all-powerful. Power, strength belongeth unto
God. Tell me again about how God has
mercy on sinners. I know He's all-powerful. Tell
me again how He's had mercy on me. Tell me what He's done for
me. Lord, O Lord, unto Thee belongeth
mercy, for Thou renders to every man according to his work. You know what I know in closing.
that God is just. I know He's all-powerful. I know that all mercy belongs
to Him. And I know He's a just God. If
a man stands before God, trusting in his own work, his own salvation,
here's what I know. according to the scriptures.
Every man, every woman that stands before God and pleads his own
righteousness. Lord, I prophesied your name,
cast out devils in your name. I've done many wonderful works
in your name. Let me ask you something. Based
upon what you know from the scriptures, what's going to happen? That man's going to perish. But if that man's work be a good
work of faith, a labor of love, and a patience of hope in the
Lord Jesus Christ, if that man, that woman's been made willing
in the day of God's power to cast himself upon the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and places no confidence whatsoever
in his flesh. If he's like that publican, it
wouldn't so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but smote upon
his breast and cried, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Based upon the word of God, that
man is going to see God in mercy, in peace, in hope. For the Lord
is going to render unto every man according to his works. If he leaves it to himself, he
leaves him to himself. If God Almighty has done something
for me, done something for you, and we cry unto him, him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Would you tell me that
one more time? One more time, tell me how God
has had mercy on me and it'll suffice until I hear it the next
time. I pray that God have mercy upon
us, that he bless his word to our heart for his glory and our
good. Brother, thank you. We're thankful
for your friendship and we're most thankful for the fact that
Lord saw fit to give us his message through you today. Thank you.
Let's close in prayer. Our great Heavenly Father, thank
you for this this time we've had together today. Thank you
for answered prayer. That you sent your spirit to
to point us to Christ this one more time again today. So many
times we've heard that one truth, how Christ saves sinners based
on his own merit, based on his own goodness, based on his own
work. Only Christ. Father, thank you for seeing
fit to have that message declared from this place to us, your people
here again today. I pray that your word go forth
in power and accomplish your will. Father, be with us. Be with us through the week. Thou knowest our need. Be with
us as you see fit. We pray this thankfully in our
Lord Jesus Christ's name, for his sake. Amen. You're all dismissed. you