Let's open our Bibles to Psalm
125. Psalm 125. As you're turning
there, let me make just a couple announcements of some housekeeping
matters. We want to remember our brother
John Chapman is preaching in Madisonville, Kentucky today.
We want to remember him as he preaches and Vicki as they travel. Conference is just two weeks
away, so there's plenty of opportunities for you. Sign your name for food
sheets and nursery and all the things that need to be taken
care of for the conference. Let me make just this note to
everyone. Jackie told me there's no need
to have a eulogy or read an obituary or anything like that for our
service today. She said everybody. Here we know
what Dale stood for, the kind of man that he was. I can't let
this moment pass without making this statement. I am so thankful
that the Lord gave Dale Simpson to this congregation. His family
knows the blessing he was to y'all and what a constant source
of encouragement that he was to me. I just, I can't tell you
how encouraging he was to me and to all of our congregation. I'm thankful that the Lord gave
Dale faith and he gave him the faithfulness to exercise it.
I'm just so thankful. In our bulletin, I send the bulletin
out via email to some folks in other places that might like
it. And I got to know yesterday evening, I thought I'd pass along
to you from Moose Parks. Moose liked the article I made
mention here. The last time Dale read the scripture
and spoke to us, he read from Psalm 46, verse 10 says, be still. Know that I'm God. Moose said,
Dale's heart is more still than it's ever been. So still, so
still. It's such peace now. While we
are heartbroken, how we rejoice. All right, let's read Psalm 125
together. They that trust in the Lord shall
be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. As the mountains are round about
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth,
even forever. For the rod of the wicked should
not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous
put forth their hands unto iniquity. Do good, O Lord, unto those that
be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. As for
such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall
lead them forth with the workers of iniquity, but peace shall
be upon you. All right, let's stand together
as Mike leads us in singing our call to worship. Hail, mighty Jesus, how divine
is thy victorious sword! Dost thou thus rebel, must resign
at thy commanding word? Thy arrows give, they pierce
the hardest heart. Thy smiles of grace, the slain
revive, and with thee give a part. Still gird thy sword upon thy
thigh, Ride with majestic sway. Go forth, sweet Prince, triumphantly,
And make thy foes obey. And when thy victories are complete,
When all the chosen praise Shall round the throne of glory be,
They'll sing thy conqu'ring O may my blood, my soul be found
among thy favored men, and I with them thy praise will sound. Throughout Emmanuel's land. Thank you, may be seated. Turn now to page 290. Page 290. Be still my soul. Be still, my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. Lead to thy God, to order and
provide. In every change, ye faithful
will remain. Be still, my soul, thy best thy
hand. Through thorny ways, leads to
a joyful end. Be still, my soul, thy God doth
undertake To guide the future as He has the past. My hope, my confidence, let nothing
shake. All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. Be still, my soul, the waves
and winds still know His voice to rule them while He dwelt below. Be still, my soul, the hour is
hastening on, when we shall be When disappointment, grief, and
fear are gone, Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored. ? Be still my soul ? When change
and tears are past ? All safe and blessed ? We shall meet at
last Now let's turn back to 280. I wanted to say that every time
I did a special, they have always made it a point, encouraged me. They always say, you nailed it. I said, good, we'll put a hat
on it and leave it there and hang there. I just love it. 280. I think
it's one of Jackie's favorites. I did this for you. Dying with Jesus, my death reckoned
mine Living with Jesus, a new life divine Looking to Jesus,
till glory does shine Moment by moment Moment by moment I'm kept in
His love. Moment by moment I fly from above,
looking to Jesus. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am
Thine. Never a trial that he is not
there, Never a burden that he doth not bear, Never a sorrow
that he doth not share, I'm under his care. Moment by moment, I'm kept in
His love. Moment by moment, I fly from
above, looking to Jesus till glory does shine. Moment by moment, I am thine. Never a heartache and never a
groan. Never a tear drop and never a
moan. Never a danger but there on the
moment by moment he thinks of his own last verse. Never a weakness that he doth
not feel, Never a sickness that he cannot heal, Moment by moment,
in war or in will, Jesus, my Savior, abides with me still. Moment by moment, I'm kept in
His love. Moment by moment, I'm flying
from above. Will glory thus shine Moment
by moment O Lord, I am Thine. Brother Eric Floyd is going to
come and read scripture for us. I told Eric The Lord's given
him a word for us to give it. If not, you don't have to. If
he has, you take your time and you give it to us. Before I say
anything, just on behalf of our family,
let me say thank you. We've been just overwhelmed by
your kindness, your graciousness, your kind thoughts and kind words
and your prayers. We said this the other day as
we drove out to the gravesite. They would have just been overwhelmed.
We would have just been completely overwhelmed. So we thank you. We continue to covet your prayers. Back in August, when we were up in Cleveland, Dale felt pretty certain that
he'd never come home from Cleveland. He made us very aware of that. And each subsequent trip to the
hospital, he intended to try to prepare us and say goodbye
to us. I always thought how unselfish
that was. But from that time, I began thinking,
what would you say? What would you say about Deb
Simpson? In a scripture, came to my mind,
and it's probably an odd scripture for this time, but it's the account
of Naaman back in 1 Kings. This is what our 2 Kings 5, this
is what was said of Naaman. And I believe this is true of
our brother Bilhah. Said Naaman, he was a great man. He was a great man. distinguished
of men. He was a great husband. He was
a great dad. He was a great grandpa. He was a great friend. He was a great man. And I would
tell you young girls, if you look for a husband, That's the
kind of man you want to find. Great man. And for us that are
husbands, ought to be a great husband. Love our wives, care
for our wives, cherish our wives. Bill Simpson was a great man. He was a great, great man.
Second, this was said of Namath. He was an honorable man. Honorable
man. Another word for that word honorable
is gracious. L. Simpson was a gracious man. Kind, gentle, forgiving. The kind of person you like to
be around. Anytime you had a conversation
with him, he always wanted to know about it. It was never a Sit there and
let me talk about myself. He was a, oh, he was a kind and
gracious man. He loved his country. Oh, I loved
his country. Loved to have his flag out waving
in the front yard. He loved his family. I don't
know that there was anything more dear to him. He loved his brother. Oh, how
he loved coming to worship. How he loved his spiritual family. Jeff Simpson was an honorable
man. An honorable and a gracious man. And then the last thing that
was said about Naaman, he was a mighty man. A mighty man. I think of Dale and I think of
a man who was a, he was a man among men. You know, said earlier,
he loved his country. He served his country. He served
his country. And I was thinking about that,
how name was it? A mighty man in power. Dale stood
for something. You know, he, somebody said this and I can't,
I can't remember at the grave site. Said Dale never, I think
it might have been you, Bob. Dale never, Dale never get fuzzed
up again. And I thought about this. In the 25 years that I knew Dale
Simpson, I could think of two things, two things that would
get him fuzzed up. He'd stand up quickly for these
two things. One was his family. Cross word
with his family, he'd stand up for them. this gospel that we love. He stood for the gospel, this
gospel that he loved. And then, I said that was the
last thing, but this fourth thing, this fourth thing, and this is,
Dale would probably have a fit. He'd have a smothering spell
if he heard people saying these things about him. This is what
Dale would say about himself. And this was true of Naaman. Naaman was a lamb. Naaman was
a sinner. That's what Dale Simpson would
tell you about himself. He'd say, I'm a sinner. Unjust, undone, no help, no hope
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. No help apart from him. And then this, what's the Lord
Jesus Christ say about themselves? What does he say about every
one of his sheep, every believer? Over in Luke chapter four, beginning
with verse 25. You don't have to turn your head. Our Lord said this. He said,
I tell you a truth. I tell you a truth. Our Lord spoke. Our Lord spoke
the truth. He said, I tell you the truth.
There were many lepers. There were many sinners in the
time of Elisha. Many sinners in Israel in the
time of Elisha. None of them was delivered. Save
one. Save one. None of them were delivered.
Save one. None of them were saved. And I believe we can put Dale
Simpson's name right there. Right there. In every one of God's sheep.
Every one of God's sheep. He said, I'm the Lord. I change not, therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not my sons. God, he saves one, he saves every
last one of his sheep by his mercy and by his grace. and our comfort, the comfort
of this family. We gathered together here this
morning. Jackie said, I want us all to
sit together. That's what we did over to the
hospital. That's what we've done around the house. We've just
gathered together. And that's what we do this morning
as this family of believers. Our hearts are broken, but we
gather together as one to hear God's Word and listen. This is our comfort, not in the
fact that we know Dale was a great man. We know that Dale was an
honorable man. We know that Dale was a mighty
man. But our hope and our comfort
and our rest is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord, by the sovereign
will of God, he's determined that every child of God, every
one of His elect, every one elected by the Father, redeemed by the
Son, and called by the Holy Spirit, will be brought to Him, and not
one, not one will be lost. Our salvation, our security,
our hope, our rest, it's in the obedience and sacrifice of this
day. Immediately sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Over in John 17, 24, Abbey had
this verse this morning. Our Lord said this, he said,
Father, I will. I will that they also whom thou
hast given me. What our hearts desire is to
have him right here with us, isn't it? But the Lord Jesus Christ, he
said, it's my will, it's my will that they whom you give me be with me where I am, that they
may behold the door which thou hast given me. Thou lovest me
from before the foundation, That's where our brother Dale
sits right now, beholding his victory. I'll turn with me for
our scripture reading this morning to Psalm 46. God is our refuge. God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear? Though the earth be removed,
Though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, although all these things are
removed, thou wilt not be pressed. Though the waters thereof roar
and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof,
there is a river. There is a river the streams
whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the
tabernacles of the Most High, God's in the midst of her. He
said, I in them, and thou in me. God is in the midst of her,
and she shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that
right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth
melted. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the
Lord. What desolations he's made in the earth. He maketh wars
to cease unto the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow. He
cutteth the spear and sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still. Be still and know that I'm God.
I'll be exalted among the heathen. I'll be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. God of Jacob, God of Jacob, he's
our refuge. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our God and Father in heaven,
Lord, we thank you for this day. Lord, though our hearts are broken,
our hearts are troubled, Lord, we thank you for this day. For
it's a day that you've given us to come together in your house. Lord, to sing hymns of praise. Lord, to read thy scriptures.
Lord, to hear thy word preached. It's a day to rejoice in the
Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Lord, we thank you for your many
blessings. We thank you for our families. Lord, we thank you
for our homes. Lord, we thank you for your provision. Lord, how you blessed us and
provided for us, Lord, so richly. Lord, we thank you above all things for
our safety, Lord, that you've sent your Son, Lord, to suffer
and die in the place of your people. Lord, to provide us with
a perfect righteousness. Lord, we thank you for a good
hope, a sure hope, a certain hope. And God, we thank you for
our Savior. Pray that you would continue
to to teach us of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray for those who are
in a time of trouble, those who are sick, those who are hurting. Lord, only you can comfort our
hearts. Lord, we pray that you would be with us. You should
strengthen us in all things, Lord. Teach us not to rest on
this arm of flesh, but to look to Thee. rest in thee, trust
in thee for all things. Pray for our children, Lord,
that you would teach them about it, that you protect, keep, and
defend them, above all things, that you teach them of Christ,
that you would bless them to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray
for our upcoming conference, Lord, these men that will preach,
Lord, these Lord, that you lay a message on their hearts. Lord,
that you bless the sounding forth of your gospel. Pray for our brother John and
our pastors. They preached this morning. Lord, that you bless your word. Again, we pray. Be with us in
the days to come. Lord, uphold us by Thy mighty
hand. Comfort us. Strengthen us. Cause us to rest in peace. Bless
us for Christ's sake, we pray. Amen. I'd like for you all to help
me on the chorus of this song. It's on 555 in your Old School
Hymnal, 555. I don't know about tomorrow I just live from day to day. I don't borrow from the sunshine
or the skies. I don't worry for the future,
for I know what Jesus said. I'll walk beside Him for He knows
what is ahead. Sing it with me. Many things about tomorrow I
don't see But I know who holds tomorrow And I
know who holds my hand I don't know about tomorrow. It may bring me poverty, but
the one who feeds the sparrow is the one who stands by me. And the path that be my portion may be through the plain And I'm covered with His blood. Who holds tomorrow And I know who holds my hand Thank you, Mike. He drove a lot
of nails at me. If you would open your Bibles
with me to Isaiah chapter 3. I can't tell you how deeply earnestly,
heartfelt desire I have to be able to give you some comfort
this morning. And it's good when Lord teaches
you, you don't know much, you don't have much talent, you don't
have much skill. So you are wise enough not to
do anything, but just stick to God's word. That's what will
comfort your heart. And I want to this morning honor
Brother Dale's memory. And the best way to do that is
by preaching the gospel that he loved so well. Dale's wish was at this time
that his family and his friends would hear the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel that gives sure salvation,
that gives hope and confidence and assurance to his people.
And it was his prayer that the Lord would give us faith to believe
Christ as his priest. Our text this morning is a text
that I preached from before. And I remember Dale got such
a blessing from it. I thought it would be good that
this is a good time for us to go back and look at it again.
Draw some comfort and assurance from Christ our Savior in this
text. The title of the message is It
shall, I like shalls and wills. This is not a maybe, this is
not a doubt. This is not a could be, this
is not so for some people, not so for others. It shall be well
with the righteous. I took that title from verse
10 of Isaiah chapter three. Say ye to the righteous that
it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their
doings. As a preacher, I just love it
when the Lord gives a clear message. There's no guesswork about this
message. The Lord said, this is what you
say to my people. It shall be well with the righteous. I want us to go back and look
at the situation that was in Israel at this time when the
Lord sent this message, it shall be well with the righteous. Understanding
the situation in Israel will be a blessing to you. Let's go
back here, verse one of Isaiah chapter three. For behold, the
Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and
from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread and the
whole stay of water. And the Lord took away all the
food and water supply from Israel. He took away everything that
this flesh depends upon for life. He did that for a reason. Lord
did that for this reason. so that his people would learn
to depend upon the Lord to provide everything that they need. The
Lord did this. Gene, what an accident was it?
The Lord of hosts did this. You know this. Everything that
happens comes to pass for this reason. It's the way God ordained
for it to happen. He ordained this to happen from
before the foundation of the world. And right now, all he's
doing is bringing to pass His will. This has happened to accomplish
the purpose and will of God. God's the first cause of everything.
This didn't happen because the devil did it. This didn't happen
because Mother Nature did it. This didn't happen because some
doctor messed up. No, the Lord our God did this
to accomplish His eternal purpose. And even when I don't understand
it, I can find some rest and some confidence and some peace
in these Our Heavenly Father did this. Verse 2. The mighty man, the man of war,
the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
the captain of 50, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the
cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. The Lord took away all
the mighty men out of Israel. He took away their leaders. He
took away their counselors. He took away those judges. The
men have been around long enough to be able to to have some wisdom,
to lead Israel. These are the men that Israel
relied upon, and the Lord took them away. See, that's why I
want to go back and read this. This is what happened. This is
what's happened to this family and to this congregation. The
Lord took away one of our mighty men. One of those men you talked
about. Those men who would lead. The Lord gave some wisdom, but
the Lord took them away for this reason, so that we would learn
to depend upon and to follow the Lord. Not men, not even His
choicest servants, not the best of men, but we're to follow the
Lord. We follow Him. Now, we're thankful
for these mighty men, these wise men, these counselors that the
Lord's given to lead His church. But always remember this. Christ
is the shepherd. Christ is the one. He's the one
who leads His people all the way. Now, he'll use different
men from time to time to do it. But the Lord is the shepherd.
He's the one, as Jacob said, who shepherded me all my life.
The Lord hasn't changed. He's still shepherding his people. And our trust, our confidence,
the one we follow is him. But you know, when the Lord takes
away these leaders, when he takes away these mighty men, this is
what we worry about. We're worried who's going to
take their place. You know, if it's not somebody is wise or
not somebody following Christ, we could have a disaster on our
hands, couldn't we? And you know, that's exactly what happened
in Israel. Look, verse four. And I will give children to be
their princes and babes to rule over them. And the people should
be oppressed, every one by another and every one by his neighbor.
The child should behave himself proudly against the ancient and
the base against the honorable. When a man shall take hold of
his brother of the house of his father saying, thou has clothing,
be thou our ruler and let this ruin be under thy hand. You know,
when we leaders rise up who don't know anything, they're just like
children. They're immature, they're self-serving, they're self-willed.
It's always going to cause big problems. And we worry about
this when the Lord takes away these mighty men, you know. And
the reason for that, people suffer in the absence of leadership.
People suffer without it. In the absence of genuine, real
leadership, people will clamor after anybody to be their leader.
Somebody lead. Somebody take the lead here.
That's why this is a truth that worldwide over, people love a
father figure. People love father figures. Because
they want to know that somebody that's got some wisdom, somebody
that's got some care and love about me is leading this thing,
you know. That's what people loved about
Dale. They just saw him as a father figure. That just appeals to
people. But in the absence of a true leader, people will pick
almost anyone. That's what verse 6 is saying
here. They go to this fellow and say, well, you look like
you could be a leader. You know, we need a judge. You got a robe,
so you be the judge. They're looking at these outward
things to try to decide, is this person a leader? But if there's
no inner character, if God hadn't given him some wisdom, he doesn't
be able to lead. Isn't that exactly what happened to Israel when
they wanted a king? They said, well, who could be king? You
hear that guy standing out, head and shoulders above the tallest
one, head and shoulders above everybody else. He looks like
he could be a king. And they had a disaster, didn't
they? Instead of just waiting on the Lord to lead, instead
of waiting on the Lord to reveal His will. And whoever this was,
they asked to be the leader. Apparently, the Lord gave him
some wisdom. Look at verse 7. And that day he will swear, saying,
I will not be a healer. I'm not going to be a leader,
for in my house is neither bread nor clothing. Make me not a ruler
of the people. Now it's good this man, you know,
said I'm not the leader. You know, if he had just stepped
up and been the leader, it would have been a disaster. It's a
good thing he realized that, but in the end, here's what's
happened. The people are left without a leader. They're left
with these children, these self-willed, self-promoting, self, self, self,
these little children to be their leader. And the Lord allowed
that to happen. He allowed this to continue.
He's teaching us this lesson. We follow the Lord. We look to
the Lord. If you don't wait, if you don't
follow the Lord, don't wait on Him, the disaster that we're
in is going to be our own fault. Look at verse 8. For Jerusalem
is ruined and Judah is fallen because their tongue and their
doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of the Lord. So what this is saying is Jerusalem
is ruined and it's her own fault. Can't we say that spiritually
about our situation? We're ruined. And it's our own
fault. I can't blame Adam. Yes, Adam's
guilt was imputed to me. Absolutely it was. But I can't
blame Adam. It's my fault. It's my sin. My
fault. Now in the midst of this sin,
in the midst of man's sin and God's judgment against man's
sin, God sends his servant with a promise of mercy. In the middle
of this curse against sin, man getting what he deserves. God
sends covenant mercy to his people. And you know what covenant mercy
is? Covenant mercy just means this. It means God promised mercy
to his people. If God promised it, he promised
mercy to his people. You reckon it's coming? promised it. In the midst of
man's ruin, in the midst of this time of sorrow and disaster,
God sends a message of comfort to His people. It's a promise
of His mercy. It shall be well with the righteous. That's a promise. That's a promise. God's preacher is sent with this
message to God's people. No matter how bad it looks right
now. No matter how heavy the heart. No matter how you feel
like you just cannot go on. No matter how bad it looks right
now. It shall be well with the righteous. It shall. But we've got to talk about this.
This message is not for everyone, is it? You can't just go out
and tell people at random and these awful sorrows come upon
us. Well, now it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay.
Well, I think we better be careful about that. What does God say
here? It should be well with the righteous.
Now, who are the righteous? I want to know. Am I one of the
righteous? Well, the righteous are people who know this. I'm
not righteous in my nature. The people who are righteous
know I'm not righteous because anything I've done or anything
I will do. The righteous are those who are righteous in Christ. Christ is their righteousness.
Their righteousness is a person. Jehovah said, King, the Lord,
our righteousness. Those people who are righteous
are people who are in Christ. Now, we say Christ is the righteousness
of his people. Eric just explained it to us.
What that means is this, that our righteousness is Christ's
obedience, the obedience of the man, Jesus of Nazareth. His perfect obedience to the
law is our obedience. That's how we're righteous. Not
through what we do, but through what he's already done for his
people. Look over Romans chapter three. God's people are made
righteous. by Christ's obedience to law
for us as our representative, as the representative of his
people. And he gives that righteousness to his people through faith,
through faith in Christ. Romans 3 verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. See, this righteousness doesn't
come by what we do, does it? All the law is going to do, all
it's trying to keep the law is going to do is give us a knowledge
of our sin, how we always fail to keep the law. Righteousness
is received by faith, verse 21. But now, the righteousness of
God without the law, without your obedience to the law is
manifested. Be witness by the law and the
prophets. This is told all throughout scripture. Even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there's no difference. Our righteousness
comes by the faithfulness of Christ. Keep the law and it's
received by faith in Christ. Now, Christ is the righteousness
of the believer. And that righteousness becomes
ours in two ways. First, Christ's righteousness
becomes ours. by imputation. Look over page
of Romans 4 verse 20. Christ's righteousness becomes
ours because he imputes it. He charges it. He reckons it
to be the righteousness of his people. Romans 4 verse 20. Speaking
of Abraham, Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being
fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also
to perform. Therefore, it was imputed. It
was counted, it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Now,
this was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed
to him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Now, the
Lord Jesus obeyed God's law perfectly, and that's what righteousness
is. He obeyed God's law perfectly. And then he imputes that. He
counts it to be the righteousness, the obedience of his people.
He gives it to him. So it's theirs. It's their righteousness. He gave it to him. Now we say,
is that real? Is that imputation real? Imputation,
the doctrine, the teaching of imputation is not some theory
written down on some paper, you know, only John Gill can understand.
It's real. Adam's guilt was imputed to everyone
that he represented. Is that real? Can you do anything
but sin? Then the imputation of Adam's
guilt is real, isn't it? That's how we were made sinners.
For the righteousness of Christ being imputed to his people is
real. So that they are righteous. It's
not like they're righteous. It's not that they'll be righteous
someday. They're holy right now. Because the righteousness of
Christ was given to them. So his righteousness becomes
the righteousness of his people by imputation. But secondly,
it becomes ours by impartation, being put in us by the new birth. When a sinner is born again,
there's a new man born and he's new. Everything about him is
new. He's holy because he's got a new father, a new seed, a holy
father, this holy seed. In the new birth, we receive
a holy nature. the nature of our heavenly father.
Just like in our first birth, we receive the nature of our
earthly father. Adam, you receive the nature
of your father. You look like him. You act like him. You're
his son. That's obvious. The same thing's
obvious about God's children, his sons. They look like him. They got his nature. It's put
in them in the new birth. Now, when we're born again, I
know you know this, but you always have to say this. Don't be disappointed
when you see all I still do is sin, because that's all the old
nature has not changed one bit in the new birth. There's a new
nature given where a new holy man is put in, is born there
by God. That nature, he's not of us,
is it? Not of us, that's not something
we did. But he sure is in us, isn't he? Because God put him
there. That's who the righteous are.
I want you to listen to God's promise to the righteous. There's no doubt about this promise. No doubt whatsoever. It shall
be, not it might be, not it will sometimes, but sometimes it It
won't be this way for some of God's children, but others of
God's children, you know, maybe he don't love them as much or
he's not as concerned about them. So it won't be this way with
them. No. It shall. Without a doubt, always
be well with the righteous. There are no qualifications to
this promise. You don't have to meet certain
qualifications. You don't have to trust enough. You don't have
to love enough. You don't have to be faithful enough. There
are no qualifications. Christ already met every qualification
for his people. So it shall be well with the
righteous. There's no details given in this
poem. It's not, well, when will it be well? Or sometimes will
it be more well than others? No. It shall always, in every
situation, be well with the righteous. I want to give you just a few
examples, a few points. I've got four of them. It shall
be well with the righteous. God says to his preacher when
he sins, you say to the righteous, it shall be well with you. Like I said, all we do is sin.
Now I'm talking to believers here. I'm talking to those who've
been born again. Those who are righteous. Yet
everything we do is still sin, isn't it? Everything. And our
sin bothers us. I was talking to a dear friend
of mine the other day. Someone asked him, do you have
a problem with guilt? And he said, oh, I just go around
with a cloud over my head all the time. Our sin bothers us,
doesn't it? I don't want to sin. I don't. I want to be like my Savior.
But all I do is sin. And God promises judgment against
sin. I do not want to do that. I do
what I do not desire. I do it anyway. But God says,
you say to the righteous, it shall be well with you. Jesus Christ already suffered
the just for the unjust. So it shall be well It shall
always be well with the righteous because Christ took their sin
away. Their sin is gone. So it will always, in every situation,
even in the midst of our sin and weak faith and stumbles and
mumbles, it shall be well with the righteous. Number two. This is for today. Ross, I reckon
every point for today. This is, you see how applicable
this is to today. When we go through times of trial
and heartache and sorrow that we think will break us. God tells
his preacher, this is what you say to my people. It shall be
well with the righteous. This trial is not going to separate
you from God. This trial is not going to take your righteousness
away. It shall. be well with the righteous. That's
not to say that the trial won't hurt. It's not to say that trials
aren't coming. No, they're coming. They won't
be dead. They're just going to be dead.
They're going to cause tears and fears. But you say to the
righteous, it shall be well with you. Why don't you look at 2
Kings chapter 4. 2 Kings 4, this is right, you
know the story of the Shunammite woman. This is right after, immediately
after, that son of hers died. He's dead. I want you to look
at this. 2 Kings 4, verse 25. She went and came unto the man
of God to Mount Carmel. And it came to pass when the
man of God saw her far off, that he said to Gehazi, his servant,
behold yonder is that Shunammite. Run now, I pray thee, to meet
her and say unto her, is it well with thee? Is it well with thy
husband? Is it well with the child? And
she answered, no, everything's a disaster and I don't know what
I'm going to do. That's not what she answered, is it? She answered,
it is well. How on earth Can she say that? I'd like to know, wouldn't you?
When we're hurting, I'd like to know how can I say, not just
given a religious catchphrase, how can I say this and mean it? Well, because she believed God, that's
why. She believed God. She believed His covenant mercy,
His promised mercy. She knew, she believed all things. All things work together for
good to them that love God. To them who are called according
to His purpose. So when we're like Israel, when
we're in a situation like Israel was, and everything in this life
is taken away, and we're hurting and we're left without those
things we used to rely upon. It shall be well with the righteous.
Because Christ is your bread of life. Because Christ is your
water of life. It should be well with the righteous. It should be well with the righteous
God, your father. It should be well with the righteous
because Christ is your foundation. He's our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. Christ is your life. This stuff is not our life. What
we're doing here, what we're going through here is the valley
of the shadow of death. This is not our life. You just
expect death and decay and darkness and sadness because that's all
sin can bring. This is not our life. Christ is your life. Then it can't be anything but
well, can it? Jackie, you children, you grandchildren,
there are few things that I can guarantee you. I can guarantee
this. In the coming days, the coming
weeks, I can guarantee something. Something that you already know,
but something you're going to learn a whole lot better. God's
grace is sufficient. It's not. It's not. I asked a
little girl one time. We were at a funeral. is the fear of my dad, and she
saw me. She's just a little girl. She
came up to me, and she saw me. She just broke down and sobbed.
And I told her, God's grace, this is okay. God's grace is
sufficient. I said, you've heard preachers
say that before? And she said, I said, do you
know what that means? She said, I said, it means God's
grace is enough. It's admitted. Yes, this hurts.
I'm sorry. I wish it wasn't this way. But
God's grace is enough. His covenant promised mercies
will be enough. He didn't promise to give his
children not enough. He promised to give him enough. It's sufficient. God doesn't do anything is insufficient.
You're going to learn he will never No, never, no, never leave
you or forsake you. How can I guarantee that to you? It's God who cannot lie from
us. It's enough. If we have him, it's okay. That'll
comfort our hearts. Number three, when we go through
the experience of death, you say to the righteous, it shall
be well. Now we all face death with a
little bit of uncertainty. Every believer would like to
leave this world and go be with the Lord, but there's some uncertainty
about death. But not because there's fear
or doubt in the Savior, it's just we don't have experience
with that yet. We haven't done that yet. Everybody who's done
that is already with the Lord. But in our hour of death, it
shall be well with the righteous. It shall. God, who gave grace
to live by, will give grace to die by. It shall be well with
the righteous. Now, there's no reason for the
believer to fear death. Not at all. We talked about that
Friday morning. There's no reason for the believer
to fear death. Of all of our mixed emotions, fear not one
of them. We have sorrow and joy. We have
heartbreak and rejoicing. But in all those mixed emotions,
one of them's not fear. No, we don't fear. Our Lord said
a believer doesn't even die. Our Lord said the believer sleeps. We look forward to a good night's
sleep, don't we? We don't dread sleep. We welcome
it. We need it. It's good for us. A believer can look at the
death of these bodies in the exact same way. It's good for
us. It's rest and sleep. So we can
go be with the Lord. For the believer, death is all
gain. No loss. The Apostle Paul said,
for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain. Wednesday morning, our brother
Dale suffered no loss. No loss. For the believer, death
is all gain and no loss. Think about what we trade. The
believer trades sin. the holiness. We trade corruption
for incorruption. We trade the valley of the shadow
of death for glory. We trade faith for sight. We trade sorrow for joy. That's all. You say to the righteous,
it shall be well with you in the hour of death. And then number
four, we go to the judgment. You say to the righteous, it
shall be well with you. And we don't know a lot about
judgment, how that will work. I know everyone must appear before
God in judgment. It's appointed unto men once
to die. And after this, the judgment. And to the unbelief, to those
who are in their own sin, their own righteousness, trying to
work out their own refuge. That sounds like a disaster,
and it sounds like a disaster because it is. But when we're
called to the judgment, this is what you say to the righteous.
It should be well with you. Frank Sweeney, he wrote the music
to that song. This is another song he used
to sing. In the judgment, it should be well with the righteous.
When your name is called, your representatives are going to
stand up and say, I'm here. I'm here. The Lord Jesus Christ
is going to stand up and for you say, I'm here. And the Father is going to look
at His beloved, glorious, perfect Son who in all things pleased
Him and say, howdy, well done. What did she do? Everything he
did. So you say to the righteous in
judgment, it shall be well with you. You have an advocate with
the father. Jesus Christ, the righteous Jesus
Christ, your righteousness. Then it shall be well with you.
The record will be opened. You know, this thing's not going
to be done just trying to skirt justice. The record is going
to be open. and there'll be no sin found in your charge. Because
the blood of Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ the righteous,
has blotted it out. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, because Christ was already judged
for his people. He already suffered that condemnation,
and there's none left for anyone who's in Christ. Justice has
already been satisfied in the death of Christ our substitute.
So there's no need to fear judgment. You know who never fears standing
before the judge? An innocent man. Never fears
it. Because he's innocent. Christ has made his people innocent. Not guilty. So there's no need
to fear. There's no need to fear judgment.
It shall be well with the righteous. There's so many other... I limited
myself to four for time's sake, but we'd be here until tomorrow.
But in every situation, whatever it is, whatever situation you
think of, mark it down. It should be well with the righteous.
When you're young and when you're old, it should be well with the
righteous. When you feel strong and when
you feel weak, when you're in the valley and when you're on
a mountaintop, it should be well with the righteous. Just like
we looked in Psalm 121 this morning, when you go out coming, it shall
be well with the righteous. Whether you're at home or you're
abroad, whether you're at home or whether you're at school or
work or wherever you are all day, every day at all times from
the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, it shall
be well with the righteous because of the merit, the blood, the
sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look back in our text one
more time. The message would not be complete
until we look at verse 11. Like I said earlier, this message
does not apply to everyone. No, it only applies to the righteous.
There's a message to the wicked, too, in verse 11. Woe unto the
wicked! It shall be ill with him, for
the reward of his hands shall be given him. He's going to receive
exactly what he's earned. So it will be ill with the wicked. Because the wicked stand in their
own worlds, in their own righteousness, in their own faithfulness. They
stand before God outside of Christ. So it will always be ill with
the wicked. Because they don't have any sacrifice for sin. There is a crimson line, a crimson
river, crimson ocean, whatever you want to call it. There's
a crimson line that separates the righteous and the wicked.
That crimson line is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So
in Christ, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness,
we can say to the righteous at all times, even when you don't
think it's really true at this moment, it's true. It should
be well with the righteous. I pray that the Lord would give
us faith To look away. Not just to look away from our
sorrows and our troubles. More important, it's easy to
want to look away from those things, isn't it? Tell you what's
tough for us to look away from. Oh, let's look away from those
things. Look to Christ. He's the righteousness of His
people. If we'll lift up our eyes and look to Him, our hearts
will be lifted up too. If we see Him, Oh, God, give
us a glimpse of him by faith. We'll say with the prophet. It
should be well with the righteous because of who he is, because
of who our savior is. So while this is a sad time,
this is a sad time for us. Can't we find peace, comfort,
assurance and rest in this in this promise of God? It shall
be well with the righteous. Oh, what a promise of God to
his people. I pray that the Lord would apply
that word to our hearts to comfort us, to strengthen us through
this difficult time. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this sure word, the sure promise of you that you've given
us in your word it shall be well with the righteous. Father, we're
so thankful that you for these years have given Brother Dale
Simpson to us. We thank you for what he's meant
to his wife and his children and his grandchildren, all of
his family. How we thank you for what he's
meant to this church family, the example of faithfulness that
you gave. Father, we're thankful. And we're
thankful to know, because of your mercy and grace and infinite
goodness to your people, that right now our brothers experience
the fulfillment of this promise. Oh, it's well. It's well. And
we rejoice. How we rejoice for this great
blessing that you've given one of your children when you call
him home to be with you. Oh, how we thank you. But Father,
you know our hearts. You know our hearts are broken
at loss of relationships and times that we planned on of fellowship
and being together. You know our hearts are broken.
You know all things. Father, we pray that in this
time of sorrow, this hour of sorrow, that you would comfort
the hearts of your people. That by faith you'd let us behold
our Lord Jesus Christ. and seeing Him to know your promise
hasn't failed. It shall be well with the righteous. Father, I pray that you'd be
with us. Comfort this family, your people
who are sick and hurting. Father, we lay these cares out
at your feet with this confidence that you will do all things well,
that you'll work these things out for your glory and for the
good of your people because you promised them. it shall be well
with the righteous. Father, we praise and thank your
matchless name for all your good providence, how you've done all
things well. Thank you that you brought us
together this morning to worship, to comfort each other and to
find comfort in your word. As we go back home, Father, apply
your word to our hearts. Let us leave here believing,
rejoicing, having the name of the Lord Jesus Christ upon our
hearts. It's in his precious name, for
the glory of his name that we pray. Give thanks. Stand and sing 256. 256. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, Let this blest assurance come true, that
Christ helpless estate, and hath shed
his own blood for my soul. Back to third verse. For my sin,
O the bliss of this glorious thought, My sin not in part,
but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul, it is well with
my soul. my soul. And, Lord, haste the day when
my faith shall be sighed. The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll. Grace but well with my soul It
is well with my soul It is well, it is well