Read your Bibles again with me,
if you would, to Psalm 52. I titled the message this evening,
What to Do When the Wicked Prevail. Verse one, Psalm 52. Why boasts thou thyself in mischief,
O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth
continually. Thy tongue diviseth mischiefs.
like a sharp razor working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good
and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Thou lovest all
devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue." Now, if you look back
at 1 Samuel chapter 22, we read 1 Samuel, a portion of 1
Samuel 21 to open the surface. And here in 1 Samuel 21, This
is what happened following that incident between David and Ahimelech. And this in 1 Samuel 22, this
event here we're going to read is what prompted David to write
Psalm 52. This is the evil, the wicked,
mischievous man that he's referring to. 1 Samuel 22 and verse 6. When Saul heard that David was
discovered and the men that were with him, Now Saul abode in Gibeah
under a tree in Ramah, having a spear in his hand, and all
his servants were standing about him. I think that tells you something
about Saul. He's standing there in a well-defended
place with all his servants about him. He's got a spear in his
hand. I think he's always ready to stab somebody with that spear,
don't you think? Then Saul said unto his servants that stood
about him, Here now, you Benjamites, will the son of Jesse give every
one of you fields and vineyards, and make you all captains of
thousands and captains of hundreds? that all of you have conspired
against me, and there is none that showeth me my son hath made
a league with the son of Jesse. And there is none of you that
is sorry for me, or showeth unto me that my son has stirred up
my servant against me, till I in wait is at this day." Then answered
Doag the Edomite. Remember, he was there when David
and Ahimelech were speaking. He was said over the servants
of Saul and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech
the son of Ahitab. And he inquired of the Lord for
him and gave him victuals and gave him the sword of Goliath,
the Philistine. Then the king sent to call him, elect the priest,
the son of a high tub and all his father's house, the priests
that were in Nod. And they came all of them to
the king. And Saul said here now, thou son of a high tub.
And he answered here, my, my Lord. And Saul said unto him,
why have you conspired against me? Thou and the son of Jesse,
and that thou hast given him bread and a sword, and hast inquired
of God for him, that he should rise against me to lie in wait
as at this day. Then Ahimelech answered the king
and said, Who is so faithful among all thy servants as David,
which is the king's son-in-law, and goeth at thy bidding, and
is honorable in thine house? Did I then begin to inquire of
God for him? Be it far from me. Let not the
king impute anything unto his servant, nor to all the house
of my father, For thy servant knew nothing of all this, less
or more. And the king said, thou shalt
surely die, Himalek, thou and all thy father's house. And the
king said unto the footman that stood about him, turn and slay
the priest of the Lord, because their hand also is with David.
And because they knew when he fled and did not show it to me,
but the servants of the king would not put forth their hand
to fall upon the priest of the Lord. And the king said to Doeg,
turn thou and fall upon the priest. And Doeg the Edomite turned,
and he fell upon the priest and slew that day four score and
five persons that did wear linen ephod. And nob the city of the
priest, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women,
children and sucklings, and oxen and asses and sheep with the
edge of the sword. And one of the sons of Ahimelech,
the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar showed David that
Saul had slain the Lord's priests. And David said unto Abiathar,
I knew it that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he
would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the
persons of thy father's house. Abide thou with me, fear not,
for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life. But with me shalt thou
be in safeguard. At some point after that conversation,
David went off by himself and wrote Psalm 52. You'll notice
that Doeg, he lied on David and on Ahimelech by not telling the
whole truth. You know, he didn't tell Saul
that Ahimelech thought he was helping Saul's servants, you
know. He may have sounded like Ahimelech
helped David even though he knew it was treason against Saul.
And when Saul's men refused to kill God's priest, Doeg the Edomite,
who descended from Esau, gladly did it. He hated the priest of
the Lord. He hated those who stood for
the gospel. And he gladly killed them. He
used this opportunity to kill the priest of the Lord, to go
in and kill everybody in that city, so he could gain Saul's
favor and move up the corporate ladder. That's exactly what he
did. When Doeg heard that conversation
between David and the priest, he was one of the herdsmen. He
was the chief herdsman. When this was over, he was one
of Saul's chief men. Now hearing all this wickedness,
killing God's priests, killing men, women, babies, children.
He prospered. He prospered. He wasn't ashamed
at all what he'd done. He boasted about it. And what
a coward to kill the priests, men who never did touch a sword,
women and children and babies. He prospered by persecuting and
killing God's people. Now we don't know anything of
that severity. But all of us know something
of what it feels like to be hated and for people to persecute us
and then prosper for it. We all know how that feels. And
let me make this. This is obvious, but ought to
be pointed out. If we're going to be persecuted, let's make
sure it's not because of our ugly personality or something
wrong that we do. Let's make sure it's for doing
good. The wicked hate that. They'll hate you if you do good.
They'll hate you if you're honest and have integrity and do good.
If we're going to be persecuted, let's be sure for the gospel
sake, just stand for the gospel. You know, the world hates the
gospel. They'll find you, persecute you and hate you. If we're going
to be persecuted, let's make it for those reasons. But my
question tonight is this, what do we do when the wicked persecute
us like that? And they prosper. They prevail
over us. You know, they're not ashamed
of the evil that they've done. Just like Dillig, they boast
about it. And their words are so deceitful. They're going around.
You don't even know what they're doing. They're slicing us up
and we don't even know it. It's too late. And it hurts. It hurts our feelings. And they
enjoy it. This is sport for them. Just
devouring people with their words and their actions. So what do
we do when they prevail over us? When they do that wickedness
and prosper? How does David comfort himself
in this psalm and comfort us? what his enemy prevailed. He
comforts himself with both the judgment and the mercy of God. I'm going to spend the bulk of
my time talking about it. We'll get more to this in just a minute,
but we will find comfort trusting in the mercy of God. That's where
we'll find comfort. But Doeg is also a picture of
false religion. They trust in themselves, don't
they? They don't trust in Christ. And
they boast about what they do. They boast in all their works
that makes them good Christians. Now, those of us, God's given
eyes to see, we know their works aren't good. We know their works
are mischief, really, but they don't know it. And they're boasting
about it. And their sin is worse because it's sin against the
continual goodness of God. God's continually good. He doesn't
strike them immediately. And they just keep sinning more
and more and more against God's goodness. And the message that
they preach is so deceitful. Oh, it sounds good and holy,
but it's the law. It's something that you got to
do. They're cutting their victims up and killing them eternally
before they even know it. That's their verse two. He says,
the tongue devises mischiefs like a sharp razor working deceitfully. It's like a barber just shaving
some fellas cheeks and just before he knows it, slits his throat.
He's dead. They don't love righteousness.
They don't love good. They love evil. That's why they've
got so many laws. You know why they've got so many
rules and regulations? They love evil and hate righteousness.
They've got to come up with all these rules and laws to try to
control themselves. And yet, they prosper. And it hurts to see it happen,
doesn't it? It hurt David. David wrote a whole psalm about
it, Psalm 73. He asked God, why do they prosper? And God's people suffer so much.
Let me give us four words of comfort and encouragement here
that will help us when our enemies prevail by persecuting us, mistreating
us. Number one is this, when our
enemies prosper and prevail, don't envy them, remember their
end. Verse five, God shall likewise
destroy thee forever. He shall take thee away and pluck
thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land
of the living. Now don't envy the wicked. God's going to destroy
them eternally, completely and eternally. I don't want to be
like them. Do you? I don't want to have
that end. You know, all their prosperity on earth is just a
mirage. It's going to bring them nothing but sorrow. I don't want
that. Don't envy the wicked when they prosper because it's just
temporary. Their end will be eternal ruin. God will completely
destroy everyone without mercy who does not trust in his son. David gives us four ways that
this destruction is complete destruction. Four ways they're
destroyed. First he said, God shall likewise
destroy thee forever. And that phrase means to pull
down and to utterly break in pieces. It's like, remember when
they would go in and pull down, Israel would go off into idolatry
and they'd build up all these altars and stuff to idols. And
they'd go in and pull down the altars and pull down the groves.
That's the same word here. They'd pull them down and utterly
break them in pieces. That's what God will do to his
enemies, those wicked. He's just going to smash them.
Just smithereens, just pull them down and utterly break them in
pieces. Second, he says, he shall take thee away. And that phrase
means to tear out by the roots by twisting and pulling, just
twisting and pulling it out. It's just like a tornado coming,
twisting everything, pulling it out. That's the storm of God's
wrath that's coming. Utterly just twist them and pull
them up by the roots. There'll be no more. Third, he
said, he'll pluck thee out of thy dwelling place. That means
to utterly sweep away, just like chaff is easily blown away. You know, in their harvest in
the week, they got all that chaff, and you wonder, what are we going
to do with all this chaff? Well, they'd feign it. The chaff was
gone, and there was no evidence it was ever there. It's so light
and worthless, it was just easily blown away. And that's what's
going to happen to the wicked. Everything that they hoped Everything
they worked for, everything that they thought they were gathering
up to protect themselves, they're going to find out it's worthless.
God's going to blow it away and they'll be left with nothing.
Fourth, David says he's going to root thee out of the land
of the living. That means exactly what you think
it means. They're not going to be found in the land of the living.
They're going to be found in the land of the dead. God's going
to put them there where they can't get out. Utterly ruined. Now, verse six said, David says,
the righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him.
Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted
in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his
wickedness. That word wickedness is substance.
Sounds to me like that's the substance he gained through his
wickedness. The righteous shall see and fear
and shall laugh. Now that laugh is not a joyful
laugh. It's not a mocking laugh. It's a serious, it's almost sad
laugh. Like, huh, look at their awful
end. They were so ambitious. They
were so proud. They would not show mercy to
anybody. Just like Doeg, he wouldn't show
mercy to anybody, would he? Now look, look at their end without
mercy from God. They boasted in themselves. They
wouldn't trust Christ. They didn't need to trust Christ.
They could do it all on their own. Now look at them spending
eternity all on their own without Christ. Now this says the righteous
shall laugh, but don't laugh in joy at their end. Be sad for
them. Pray for them. Ask God to be
merciful to them just like he was to you. What's the difference
between the righteous and the wicked? Come on, what's the difference? It's God's mercy. So pray for
him, pray for him. And do it in fear. He says here,
the righteous shall see in fear. Do this in the fear of the Lord. It's right for us to have a holy
awe of God. And God's justice and God's wrath
is nothing to be trifled with. You know, don't Use it for your
own gain. That's why we don't preach what
men call hellfire and brimstone preaching, trying to scare people
into coming to Christ. No, we don't do that at all.
No. God's justice and His wrath is
nothing to be trifled with or to treat it reverently. Treat
it reverently, knowing it's coming. So remember their end. Remember
their end. Don't be envious of them. Remember
there, you know where this thing's going. All right. Number two, when our enemies
prevail, I guess I should say when they seem to prevail, when
they prevail for a time, trust in the mercy of God forever. Verse eight, David says, but
I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust
in the mercy of God forever and ever. Now the tongue of the wicked. we talked about earlier, you
know, that tongue ought to sound familiar to all of us because
that's the tongue we're born with. We're all born with a tongue
that lies. We're all born with a tongue
that will slant the story, you know, our way to tell the story.
We'll present the facts in such a way we present the story the
way we want it to be told. And the nature of the wicked
we talked about earlier ought to sound familiar to us. It's
the nature we're all born with. We're born with a nature that
loves self and hates God and hates others. I hear these psychologists,
it just drives me insane. We've got to teach our children
and teach everybody, you know, to love themselves. No, we don't. No, we love ourselves just fine.
We know how to do that. Our problem is we hate God and
we hate others. We're born with a nature that
will boast in self and will not, will not bend the knee and beg
God to save us. Well, how can I be delivered
from that? How can I be delivered from the end of the wicked? I've
borne the same nature they did, they got. My only hope is God's mercy.
God's goodness, hope always, forever, the mercy of God. God's
goodness and mercy is a good hope because it doesn't have
any end. It's either the end of verse
one, the goodness of God endureth continually. Now remember this
when the wicked seem to prosper. I don't care how long man's mischief
and man's sin and man's rebellion might last. It might last a long
time. I don't know how long it'll last,
but I know this, God's mercy is going to last longer. So trusting
God's mercy. God will utterly pull down and
break the wicked in pieces, but he in mercy is going to build
his people up in Christ. He's going to twist and tear
the wicked up by the roots. But he's going to plant his people
in his house forever. He's going to root the wicked
out of the land of the living and they'll not be there. But
he's going to put his people in the land of the living forever
by his mercy. So trust in the mercy of God
forever and ever. It's worth trusting. The God
of all mercy is worth trusting. I can trust in God. who is the
father of mercies. He's the very father of it. He's
the fountain of mercies, a fountain that'll never run dry. I need
mercy continually and I always will. Then I can trust in God
the fountain of mercies that never will run dry. I can trust
in eternal electing mercy because I need God to choose me because
I'll never choose him. Paul told Timothy, 2 Timothy
1.9, that God has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus, when? Before
the world began. That's eternal mercy. That's
eternal electing mercy. I can trust that. I can trust
in God's covenant mercies, mercies promised by God who cannot lie. David wrote this Psalm 52, and
we're on his deathbed, you know what he said? Although my house
be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant.
It's ordered in all things, and it's sure, this is all my salvation,
and it's all my desire. I can trust in this covenant
mercy. David trusted him, but he died on his deathbed, and
he was never disappointed. I can trust in God's sovereign
mercy. Because sovereign mercy depends
upon the character of God, not on my sorry self. Romans 9, 15,
he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
And I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion. I don't think that's a difficult
sentence to understand. God's going to have mercy on
whom he will. Sounds to me like nobody can
stop it, doesn't you? Nobody's able to stop God's mercy
from coming to the objects of his mercy. I can trust in that
sovereign mercy because it's not dependent upon my sinful
character. It's dependent upon the holy
sovereign character of God. I can trust his sovereign mercy. Nobody can take it away. I don't
care how much it seems like the enemy's prevailing. He can't
take it away. It's sovereign mercy. Then I can trust in mercy that
forgives. Oh, how I need forgiveness. God
told Moses, Exodus 34, verse seven, that he keeps mercy for
thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sins, and
that will by no means clear the guilty. God forgives sin and
he never clears the guilty. You see, when God forgives sin,
he makes his people not guilty. I can trust in that, because
I'm guilty. Oh, I need forgiveness. I need
to be made not guilty. I can trust in God's mercy that
forgives sin. Look back at Genesis chapter
19. I can trust in delivering mercy. Delivering mercy that doesn't
wait on me to take the first step, that doesn't wait on me
to do anything, but it's delivering mercy. I need the kind of mercy
that Lot needed. Genesis 19 verse 15. And when the morning arose, then
the angels hasten lot saying, arise, take thy wife and my two
daughters, which are here, lest I'll be consumed in the iniquity
of the city. And while he lingered, can you imagine such a thing? Those angels told him, hurry
and get out of here. We're going to destroy this place. While he lingered, I think of that sometimes. Living
in this sinful world, you find yourself lingering, kind of looking
around at it, kind of being drawn to some things of it. We need
delivering mercy, don't we? While he lingered, the men laid
hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon
the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto
him. And they brought him forth and
set him without the city. That's the first time the word
mercy is used in scripture. It's delivering mercy. It doesn't
wait on you to take the first step. The Lord laying hold, pulling
him out, setting him in a place of safety. That's the kind of
mercy that I need because I'd linger. Would you? I can trust in redeeming mercy.
Mercy that redeems the soul. David said in Psalm 130 verse
7, let Israel hope in the Lord. For with the Lord, there's mercy.
And with the Lord is plenteous redemption. I don't need just
a little bit of redemption. I don't need just a little bit
of mercy. I need great mercy. I need plenteous redemption.
That's God's mercy. That's for me. I can trust that.
Then I can trust in preserving mercy. David said, Psalm 40 verse
11, withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord, let
thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me. That's what I need. I don't need
God to have mercy on me, set me down, let me run the rest
of the way myself. I need continually to be preserved. That mercy is for me. Then look
at Titus chapter three. Titus the third chapter. I can trust in mercy that saves
and it gives eternal life. Titus 3 verse 5. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. That's the kind of mercy that
I can trust. It saves and it gives life in the new birth.
And that's exactly what David's talking about here. He talks
about the green olive tree. He's talking about the Lord giving
his people eternal life. This is a tree that's been planted
by the Lord and it can't be plucked up. The olive tree flourishes
in the hottest climate and it's full oil. That tree is just full
of oil. That's a picture of life. It's
the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer. I read this. I thought this was
fascinating. I read this this week. David talks about the green
olive tree. He's not talking about the color
of the olive tree. From what I read, the olive tree
don't look like much. It looks, these leaves are like
an ugly yellow color, not green color. One of the writers talked
about a friend of his who went over to this area of the world
and was so excited to see all these green olive trees, you
know. And he said, they were all ugly. He's from England.
And he said, it looked like trees beside our dirt roads where people
pass by and dirt gets kicked up and lands on the leaves. He
said, this looks like they're all dirty. They're nothing to
look at. But they're full of life. You
can't tell it from looking at the outside. The outside looks
ugly, looks dead. But the inside is full of oil.
It's full of life. That's the believer. You can't
tell that life from looking at it from the outside. Oh, it doth
not yet appear what we shall be. But now the unbeliever is
like the green bay tree. The green bay tree, that has
great big, bright, green, beautiful leaves. But there's no oil in
them. It doesn't bear any fruit. Don't
feed anybody. That's the unbeliever. They're
going to look good for a while. They might prevail for a while,
but there's no life in them. You know their end. By God's
mercy, that's not the believer's end. That's the mercy that I
can trust in. I can trust in that mercy. What
else can a sinner trust in? Huh? Is there anything else a
sinner can trust in? Not one thing. I can't do anything
to get God to save me. I certainly can't be good enough
for him to save me, but I can trust in God's mercy to the guilty.
I can trust in God's mercy for the dead. Mercy is the only hope
and it's a good hope for a sinner. So when the enemy prevails, when
they persecute you, they seem to prosper for it. They do you
wrong. They teach you and they seem
to prosper for it. Just hang on now. Trust in the mercy of the Lord
forever. Not forever. Not just when it's going good,
but forever. And third, what am I to do when
the wicked prevail against me? Praise the Lord. Verse 9 says,
I will praise Thee forever because Thou hast done it. Praise the Lord because His mercy
endureth forever. God's mercy is going to outlast
this situation. You can praise Him for that.
Praise the Lord because He's good. A man is wicked. Don't expect man to be anything
else. Don't be surprised. Man is wicked. God is good and
he's going to overrule this situation. I read a story about, I forget
where it was, but David, when they brought the Ark back to
Israel, he appointed certain Levites. Their whole job was
to minister before the Ark of the Lord. And this is what is
written. Their job is to record and to
thank and praise the Lord. It sounds to me like David wanted
them to record everything that the Lord does. and then praising
and thanking for it. Bet they had quite a list, don't
you reckon? Let me give you a short list. Reasons we can praise God. Praise the Lord for his righteousness. Don't get bent out of shape about
the unrighteousness of the wicked. Praise the Lord for his righteousness.
Psalm 7 verse 17. I will praise the Lord according
to his righteousness. according to his righteousness.
Does that mean in the same level as his righteousness? Could be. Then you've got a lot of praising
to do, don't you? Because his righteousness is perfect. Think
how he's made his people the righteousness of God in Christ. He had done that for the wicked.
He's done it for his people. Can we praise the Lord for that?
No matter what else happens, if he's made you the righteousness
of God in Christ, you've got everything you ever need. That's
worth praising him for. Praise the Lord for eternal life.
Psalm 22 verse 26. They shall praise the Lord that
seek him. Whoever seeks the Lord is going
to praise him. Your heart shall live forever. Do you desire eternal life? Seek
the Lord and you'll find it. The wicked are going to die.
They're going to be in the land of death, but God's given his
people eternal life. Praise him for that. Praise the
Lord for His Word. Psalm 56 verse 10 says, in God
will I praise His Word. In the Lord, Jehovah, will I
praise His Word. How thankful we should be for
God's Word. We're guilty of treating it far
too lightly. Far too lightly. God's given
us this great treasure. These pages contain everything. Almighty God has to say to me, God's word is a lamp under my
feet. Which way should I go in this
trial? God's word is a lamp to my feet.
In all things, which way should I go? What should I do? God's
word is a lamp to my feet. No matter the situation, God's
word is going to tell us one thing. Go to Christ. Go to Christ. Go to Christ. Oh, thank God for His Word. We
wouldn't go otherwise. Man's Word won't tell you that,
but God's Word does. Psalm 113, verse 9. He maketh
a barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of
children. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, both for our
natural children and for our spiritual children. Praise God
for His children. They shall live. They make me a whole lot more
happy than the wicked make me unhappy. Don't you? Then praise
God for this. He always reigns. Always. Psalm 146, verse 10. The Lord shall reign forever
and ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise
ye the Lord. Even in this thing the wicked
have done to me, where they've hurt me and they've prospered?
Yeah, even in this. Because the wicked aren't reigning
in this thing. God is. He reigns forever and ever unto
all generations. The wicked didn't do this according
to their will to accomplish their purpose. God did this. Brethren, is God sovereign or
is He not? Huh? Then God did this. He used them
as an instrument to do something we can't understand. But whatever
it is He's doing, I promise you this, God did this according
to His will to accomplish His purpose. David said, I'm going
to praise you because thou has done it. This isn't something
Doeg did. God did it somehow to bring about good for His people.
I praise the Lord in this He reigns. I don't have to think
the world's gone off its rails. The world hasn't just gone off
crashing into the sun. God's still accomplishing His
purpose today, just like He was yesterday. He always reigns.
I just rest in Him. Then praise the Lord for how
He comforts His people. You know, the Lord never promised
His people they wouldn't hurt, did He? Never did He promise
that. But what did He promise? Isaiah 12 verse 1, In that day
thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee. Though thou was
angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest
me. You just go to the Lord. He'll
comfort you in this thing. He will. Yeah, the enemy's prevailed. Yeah, they've done you wrong.
But you praise the Lord. He'll comfort your heart. Then
praise the Lord, because everything he does is right. Whether it
hurts my flesh or helps my flesh, whether I like it or I don't
like it, it doesn't matter. Everything God does is right. Isaiah 25 verse one. Oh Lord,
thou art my God. I will exalt thee. I will praise
thy name for thou hast done wonderful things. Thy counsels of old are
faithfulness and truth. Now the wicked are deceitful. They're unfaithful. But our God
is faithfulness. and He is truth. We can praise
Him for that. Those things never change. See,
if we just praise the Lord, we have a whole lot less time to
be down in the mouth about the wicked if we're opening our mouth
to praise the Lord. Is that right? Fourthly, what
do I do when the wicked prevail? Wait. Just wait on the Lord. David says, verse nine, I'll
praise thee forever and ever because thou has done it. And
I will wait on thy name for it is good before thy saints. Now
the name of the Lord is the character of the Lord. His name tells us
who he is. That's why his people are willing
to wait on him. Wait on the Lord. He's merciful.
He will show mercy. He'll show mercy to his people.
Now wait for it. He'll send it. Wait on the Lord. He's righteous. He is right and
just. Yeah, the wicked have done wrong
here, but just wait on the Lord. He'll do what's right. Wait on
the Lord because he's good. Yeah, the wicked have done evil.
Of course they have. What else could they do? But
wait on the Lord. He'll do good for his people. And don't get discouraged. And
feel like you're all alone. The name of our Lord is Jehovah
Shem. The Lord is present. If you believe
Christ, you're never alone. So trust him. Wait on him. He's
not going to leave you alone. And don't get discouraged and
think that the battle's lost. The Lord's name is Jehovah Nisi,
the Lord, our banner. We cannot lose when Christ lifted
up. preaching the gospel, just like
holding Moses' hands up, Aaron and Hurl holding his hands up.
As long as his hands are held up, Joshua prevailed. The name
of that place was called Jehovah-Nissi. As long as the banner of Christ
is lifted up in our hearts, lifted up in our preaching, we cannot
be defeated. And don't think the wicked have
taken everything he got away from you. They may have taken
enough away from you to hurt you, but they ain't taking away
everything. And so what if they did? The name of our God is Jehovah
Chakra. The Lord will provide. He will
provide. Just wait on him to provide.
And don't let the wicked disturb your heart, get you all out of
sorts, act crazy. The name of our Lord is Jehovah
Shalom. The Lord our peace. He'll send
peace to the heart. You just wait on him. Just wait
on him. Wait on the Lord. What else are you waiting on?
Huh? What else do you want? Wait on the Lord. He's all we
need. He'll comfort the hearts of His
people. Now look to Him and wait on Him to do it. And while we're
waiting, let's go back to trusting His mercy and praising His name. That's a good thing to do while
we wait. I mean, just because you're waiting doesn't mean you have
to do nothing. You can wait, trusting in His mercy and praising
His name. That's what we do when the enemy
prevails. Let's bow together and pray. Our God, how we thank you for
this, your word. How we thank you for these instructions
to comfort and instruct the hearts of your people, to constantly
remind us of your untold mercy to your people, Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, cause us to not just be lip service, but to trust
in thy mercy. Cause us not just to go through
the motions of religion, but Father, cause us to truly praise
the Lord, to praise him from the heart, how you ought to be
praised. Our praise is never worthy of you, but cause us to
praise you with all we've got. Cause us, teach us, to wait on
the Lord. You'll do right. You will do
right. your comfort, you'll deliver,
your help, whatever it is you'll do right for your people that
caused us to wait expectantly and patiently on thee. It's in
the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray and give
thanks. Amen. And after we sing, if a couple
of you men would set up the tables for us, Luke, you know what we're
doing, set those tables up for us, I would greatly appreciate
it.