Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 9. The title of the message this evening
is, I will praise the Lord. That's the way David begins this
Psalm, saying, I will praise thee, O Lord. And that's my prayer
that the Lord will enable us to praise Him tonight. You know,
He ought to be praised, shouldn't He? The Lord ought to be praised.
In the first, we'll mostly just look at the first 11 verses here
of this psalm, David gives us several reasons that we should
praise the Lord. The first one's this, we praise
the Lord if He's given us a heart to praise Him. David says in
verse 1, I'll praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. A true worship,
true praise is heart praise. That's where it must come from.
The Lord's not impressed with lip service. The Lord told Isaiah,
he's not going to hear those who honor him with their lips,
but their heart is far from him. He's not impressed with lip service.
But that kind of worship can't come from this natural heart.
Our natural heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately
wicked. Who can know it? They can't worship.
Our natural heart has not changed since the days of Noah. it's
only evil continued. Our natural heart is hardened
by sin. It's so hardened it can't praise
God. The fool can't worship God, can't
praise God. He says in his heart, no God.
That heart cannot and will not praise God. So if we worship
God, if we truly praise him, God must have given us a new
heart. And that's what he does for his people. And that Only
the new heart that God gives can praise Him. David throughout
the Psalms talks about this heart, this new heart. He calls it a
broken and a contrite heart. He calls it a humble heart. He
calls it a clean heart. He calls it a heart that pants
after righteousness. If the Lord's given you that
heart, you praise Him. You can't help but praise Him.
Praise is as natural to that new heart as breathing is to
this body. You can't help but praise Him.
But listen to what David says here. He says, praise the Lord
with your whole heart. Now I know that new heart that
God gives us can't help but praise him. But from what David says
here, there ought to be some effort put into this thing of
praising the Lord. Half-hearted praise, Spurgeon
said, is no praise at all. Half-hearted praise. The Lord
deserves our best. Actually, the Lord deserves much
more than our best, doesn't He? We can't begin to praise the
Lord as He ought to be praised, but we ought to do our best at
it. Don't you think we ought to give the Lord our best? I
wrote an article in the Bulletin last Sunday about a job worth
doing is a job worth doing right. I said, my dad, a job worth doing
is a job worth doing right. I can't tell you how many times
he told me that. Shouldn't we apply that to worship? Worship
is worth doing right. It's worth putting our whole
heart into. Put everything you've got into
the praise and service of the Lord. He's worthy of at least
that much, isn't he? I'll praise the Lord, David said,
with my whole heart. That's a reason to praise the
Lord. He's given us a heart that would praise him. Second, we
praise the Lord for his marvelous works. There in the end of verse
one, I will show forth all thy marvelous works. We could talk
about the Lord's marvelous works for weeks and weeks and weeks
and weeks. I'll just break it down into three general categories,
say a little something about each of them. First, His works
of creation. Now, when we look at this creation,
it's marred by sin, but it's still a marvelous creation in
how it all works together, how it all functions together. It's
marvelous how the Lord supplies for every living thing in this
in his creation, how he sustains this creation, how he holds it
all together. Despite everything man does,
we can't see him yet to destroy it. This is a marvelous creation. And I know this creation is marred
by sin, but most of it is a stunningly beautiful place to live in. That's
God's marvelous work of redemption. I can't imagine what this place
looked like when it wasn't marred by sin. And when a believer who's
got a new heart, they're driving down the road, they see a sunrise
or a sunset or clouds or mountains or scenery. My God, that's His
creation. That's His marvelous works of
creation. We praise the Lord for that.
Just when I think about just me, David said, I'm fearfully
and wonderfully made just physically, not to mention that the Lord
created me. Why make me praise him? What are his works of creation?
The second, his works of providence. The Lord governs this whole earth
for one purpose. Salvation of his people. That's why he keeps this whole
thing spinning. He keeps men alive until such
time as he's pleased to give them spiritual life. The Lord
may keep a very wicked man alive, may allow him to prosper because
his son or his grandson or his great grandson, somebody that's
going to descend from this man is one of God's sheep, and he's
going to preserve that man for his elect's sake. He governs
this whole world for that purpose, the salvation of his elect. They
can't be lost. All his works of providence,
the things that the Lord has given to happen on this earth,
they can be seen in big, gigantic events of history. They can be
seen in small things that just are completely unnoticed usually.
This week, Janet had some dental work done. And she got home from
the dentist and I was working on this very verse. And I came
out to see, I went and got her some pain pills and things, you
know, she's all hurting. I said, boy, it's a marvelous
work of the Lord. He let a man invent anesthesia. And she's, you know, I mean,
that's that's a small thing, unless you're the one that's
hurting. The Lord did all his marvelous works, things that
just go unnoticed are so marvelous. And the believer can even praise
the Lord for the works of the trials that he sends our way.
We don't think the pain or the suffering of the trial is marvelous
at all. Quite the contrary. But we will admit the effect
of it is marvelous. Only the Lord can bring something
good out of something so painful and so sorrowful to us. I can
praise the Lord for that, can't you? I don't have to understand
why or how he's doing what he's doing. I just know everything
he does is marvelous. And we're praising him for it.
But then thirdly, the Lord's work of redemption is His most
marvelous work. It's marvelous when you consider
who it is the Lord chose to save. He chose to save sinners. He
chose to save the worst of the worst. He chose to save His enemies. He chose to save those who don't
have any hope. He chose to save those who can't contribute anything
to Him. He chose to save those who are disgusting in His sight.
that He might wash them in the blood of His Son and make them
beautiful." That's a marvelous word. Consider how He saved His
people. God saved His people through
the death, through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. God saved His people by making
His darling Son to be a substitute for sinners. That's a marvelous
work. I praise the Lord for that. Then
consider how he gives the dead life and the new birth to a miraculous
operation of the Holy Spirit. He gives life where there's been
nothing but death. And consider how he keeps his
people. He doesn't save them and then set them off on their
way there to keep themselves. No, he keeps them. He keeps them
to the end for his glory that he'll not lose one. Oh, I praise
the Lord for that, don't you? Redemption from sin by Christ
being made sin for us. That's a marvelous work. Redemption
from the curse of the law by Christ being made a curse for
us. That's a marvelous work. Redemption from death, freedom
from death because Christ died for us. That's a marvelous work. I believe I can praise God for
his marvelous work of redemption. Look over at Psalm 139. I like this passage. David, as
he writes here, kind of sounds like he's from our neck of the
woods. Psalm 139, verse 13. For thou hast possessed my reins.
Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee. for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made, marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right
well. I know that right well. I'll
praise the Lord for that. All right, thirdly, we praise
the Lord for who he is. Let's always guard against this. Let's be careful not to only
praise the Lord for what he's done for us, but praise the Lord
for who he is. I will be glad and rejoice in
thee. I will sing praise to thy name,
O most high. Our rejoicing, David says, is
in thee, in who the Lord is. He's the most high. The Lord
is so high above us. His name is high. That H there
is capitalized. That's a proper name. His name
is high. Now I can't understand the Lord.
I can't begin to understand the Lord. I, uh, this morning got
up and our crazy little Yorkies, I let them out and they came
in and it was rain and wind was blowing and stuff. And they were
looking at me like, you know, what is danger? You know, I said,
it's all right. And I thought they can't begin
to understand me. It's just all right. You're going
to have to trust me. It's all right. infinitely more
than that. I cannot understand the Almighty. He's so high above me, but I
can praise Him for who He is. The fact that I can't understand
Him makes me praise Him for who He is. He's so glorious, He ought
to be praised. The Lord is holy. That's who
He is. He's holy. He never does wrong,
no matter what He does with me. It's not wrong. The Lord is faithful. You can count on Him. He'll always
keep His promise. I can praise Him for that. The
Lord has all wisdom. His name is wisdom. He's too
wise to make a mistake. Lord just hadn't made a mistake
and let something slip through the cracks and something bad
happen, no. He's too wise to make a mistake. The Lord is love. I can praise God for that. Only
God could love a sinner like me and save them. Only God. We rejoice in the Lord who's
gracious. That's the only way sinners can
be saved. By grace. That's who the Lord is. And thinking
about him, thinking just about his person, about his character.
That makes the believer glad. Just makes him glad. Now I know. There is plenty to be sad about
and depressed about in this life. Those things are real, and I
don't think that we ought to pretend like that they don't
affect us, they don't make us sad. A good friend of mine at
the congregation there at Todd's Row just found out his wife's
got a brain tumor at the base of her brain. Very serious. It's
already caused her to lose her hearing in one ear. It's already
making her confused. It would just be hypocritical
to say, this doesn't bother us. This doesn't worry us. That'd
be hypocritical. Of course these things bother
us. But at the same time, there's something wrong with
religion. There's something wrong with
preaching that doesn't make us glad. There's something wrong
with it. These are serious matters. When
we meet together and open God's Word, we're dealing with serious
matters. I mean, I don't care where you
open your Bible, you're in over your head. These are deep matters. These are eternal matters. Serious. But they ought to bring joy and
gladness to the heart. They really should. There's something
wrong if they don't. Now, we suffer in this life,
and that suffering is real. But we can be glad. that the
Lord is our life. We're suffering right now, but
this isn't our life. He's our life. We can rejoice
in that. We can rejoice that this is temporary.
We suffer the effects of sin in this world. You can't avoid
it, but we can be glad the Lord forgives. We suffer times of
darkness and sorrow, and those things are real, but we can be
glad the Lord's our life. and the Lord's our joy. There's
reason for gladness. There's a reason to rejoice in
the Lord. And gladness and rejoicing often
show themselves in singing. You're happy people, you notice
that happy people sing or they, you know, to themselves or they
hum or something, you know. I remember when I worked with
H.B. Thompson, H.B. was always singing
and always humming. I don't care what, he's up in
the rafters working on something, he's singing. Happy people sing. David says that's what believers
ought to do. He says, I'll sing praise to thy name, O Most High.
In verse 11, he says, sing praises to the Lord, which dwelleth in
Zion. Declare among the people his
doings. You know, the song service is an important part of worship.
The song service is not a space filler. Now, most people don't
really know this, but Mike Barton spends a lot of time picking
out songs that are good songs of worship, and he practices,
I don't even know if you know this happened, but this happened.
When H.B. Thompson died, and I was talking
to Scott, and he asked if Mike could sing a special for the
reunion. And I said, well, I'll get with
him, I'm sure he will. And I called Mike, and Mike said,
I'd be delighted to. Well, here in a minute, my phone
rang. I mean, just a minute, and it's Mike, and I answered
it, Mike wasn't at the other end of the phone. I don't know
how you dialed me, but a minute after I got off the phone, you
know what he was doing? He was sitting at his piano practicing
a song he was going to sing at HB's funeral. You might not know
all the work that goes into that, but trust me, it's a lot. Well,
the least we can do is join in singing with him. Just sing out.
If you can't sing, don't worry. He'll drown you out. Just sing.
Put your whole heart into it. Put your whole heart into it. I thought about this sitting
up here. I got a good lesson on this one time. I don't know
how many of me and Janet did. I know she was there. We were
at Bible school, and everybody got out in the auditorium beforehand.
We were singing. And our class, apparently somebody
in our class wasn't singing or wasn't singing loud enough or
well enough or something. I don't know. And buddy Henry
dressed us down. I mean, he gave us a talking
to. And he told us about it. The Lord is worthy that you sing
his praises with everything you got. He gave us a message, didn't
he? And then he made us stand up
and sing a solo, just our class alone, you know. You remember
that. That's what we ought to do. Everybody
doesn't get the opportunity to speak publicly at the worship
service. Some of you, you're glad you
don't have that opportunity. Everybody doesn't have the ability
or the desire, you know, to pray publicly. But everybody has the
opportunity to use their voice in the worship service. From
your heart, sing praises to the Lord. And I'm not getting on
you. This congregation does that.
I've told you before we have visiting pastors and visiting
people come in, you know. And they tell me how much they
love the song service here because they can tell people sing from
the heart. Let's not lose that. Let's just
not lose that. We should take advantage of this
blessing to use our voice to sing praises to God, both here
and in private. I drive down the road. People
might look in and think I'm nuts. I sing choruses. I sing to myself.
I can sing real loud. Nobody's around to hear me. Take
advantage of that. That's a blessing. We use our
voice to sing praises to our Lord because he's made us glad.
All right, here's the fourth thing. The believer praises the
Lord for his presence. Verse three. When mine enemies
are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence. At thy presence. Every believer
desires the presence of the Lord. We greatly fear the Lord taking
his presence from us. Look at Psalm 51. This is David's
great fear here in his psalm of repentance. Psalm 51 verse
11. Cast me not away from thy presence
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. That's his great fear. Don't cast me away. Don't take
your presence from me like I would deserve. And do you know he won't? The Lord won't do it. He will
not do it. I know so because he promised it. Let me show you
that in Isaiah 54. See this and grab hold of it
because we're going to need it someday. Isaiah 54 verse 7 For a small
moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I
gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a
moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on
thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of
Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I
sworn that I will not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. For
the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my
kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant
of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. I can rejoice in that precious
promise because of how desperately we desire the presence of the
Lord. When we have his presence, everything
else really is okay if we've got his presence. It's the presence
of the Lord that gives life to his people. His mere presence
gives us life. The presence of the Lord is what
makes heaven heaven. It's not streets of gold and
pearly gates and great big mansions. What makes heaven heaven is the
presence of the Lord. And the absence of the presence
of the Lord is what makes hell hell. It's his presence. And
all it takes for the Lord to defeat His enemies is His presence. It's not hard for Him to do.
All He's got to do is show up. His mere presence makes His enemies
fall away backwards. Isn't that what happened in the
garden? That mob came to take Him. He stepped out in front
of them, between that mob and His disciples. He said, Whom
seek ye? He wasn't worried. Who are you
looking for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I am. And they all fell over backwards.
It's just his presence. And he told them, well, it's
me, you see. Let these go free. It's his mere presence. That's what's gonna happen to
every enemy of the Lord. Look at verse five. For thou hast rebuked the heathen,
thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name
for ever and ever. O thou enemy, destructions are
come to a perpetual end. Thou hast destroyed cities, their
memorial is perished with These enemies of Christ are going to
be so thoroughly defeated at just his presence. Their names
are going to be wiped out. Nobody's going to be able to
remember their names anymore. Now it seems like, when we read these
verses, it seems like that David is rejoicing over the coming
destruction of his enemies. But that can't really apply to
people who are our enemies right now. Now the day is coming that
we will rejoice when God cast his enemies into hell. There's
a day coming, we'll rejoice in that. We'll praise him for his
justice. And we'll be able to do that
then like we cannot do now, because now we're in a sinful body. Then we'll be in a perfect, sinless
body. And this should not be our attitude now, that we're
just delighting in the fact that the Lord's going to destroy somebody.
We shouldn't be making fun of them and the coming destruction
that's coming their way, you know, unless the Lord intervenes.
That ought not be our attitude. We ought to be praying for them,
shouldn't we? That attitude is unbecoming to
grace. And even maybe even, I suppose,
more important, how did our Lord tell us to handle our enemies?
Our Lord said pray for them. So we ought not be rejoicing
at their coming destruction. But this is our attitude. about
our spiritual enemies. Spiritual enemies, wickedness
in high places. Look in Ephesians chapter six.
Here's our enemies. If we're gonna rejoice over the
destruction of our enemies, let's find out who they are. Ephesians six, verse 12. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood. It's not really people that are our biggest enemies
or our real problem. but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. And because of that,
that's why you take on the whole armor of God, because of these
spiritual enemies. And we can rejoice in their destruction. Satan is our enemy. And that's
not just an enemy in high places, that's in us. Oh, I can rejoice
that that enemy is going to be destroyed. Self-righteousness,
Oh, what an enemy, an enemy I carry around in me all the time. I
can rejoice in the coming destruction of that enemy. Separation from
God, that's a spiritual enemy. One day that's going to be done
away. God's going to wipe those enemies out so we don't even
remember their name. And the last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death. That enemy is going to be destroyed.
We can rejoice in that, can't we? Thank God for that. We can
praise him for that. Now there are people who are
our enemies. They're the enemies of Christ,
the enemies of his gospel. But when David speaks of them,
he speaks of them differently than he talks about these spiritual
enemies, sin and self-righteousness and death. He says, now they're
awful smart, or they think they are, but they'll be taken in
their own trap. Look at verse 15. The heathen
are sunk down in the pit that they made, and the net which
they hid is their own foot taken. The Lord is known by the judgment
which he executed. The wicked is snared in the work
of his own hands. That's exactly what happened
to Calvary. They were taken in the work of
their own hands. Satan moved in their heart to
make it happen. They said, we'll not have this
man to reign over us. We're going to put him to death.
Crucify him. Let his blood be on us and our
children. And it is. All they accomplished
in putting the Lord Jesus to death has accomplished God's
eternal purpose. They accomplished the salvation of God's elect
and seated Him upon the throne of glory forever. They are taken
in their own trap. But you know what? Even some
of those enemies whose foot was taken in their own trap are forgiven. The Lord prayed, Father, forgive
them. So you know what they did. Isn't that an example to pray
for our enemies? And it sure seems like on the day of Pentecost,
some were saved. They were right there, taking
part in that crucifixion. That's God's grace. The believer
can rejoice in that. Can't we praise the Lord for
that? We don't have to worry about our enemies. If they're
Christ's enemies, He's going to take care of them one way
or another. He'll either save them, make them our friend, or
one day He'll take care of them. But either way, He's going to
take care of them. We can pray to God All right,
fifthly, we praise Christ our righteousness, verse four. For
thou hast maintained my right and my cause. Thou saddest in
the throne, judging right. Now what David says here about
you've maintained my right and my cause, he means more than
you defended me against false accusations of Saul and all these
other people. What he's really talking about
here is you made me righteous. Now the believer rejoices We're
reminded, I don't have to make myself righteous. And we don't
have to keep ourselves righteous either. Christ makes us righteous
and Christ keeps us righteous by being our righteousness. My obedience to the law is Christ
obedience to the law. When the Lord Jesus kept God's
law in thought, word and deed, that's my obedience to the law.
That's how he made me righteous. And I'm kept righteous. because
my righteousness sits at the right hand of God. That's how
we're, the Lord Jesus Christ has made me righteous and he
keeps me righteous. I can praise the Lord for that.
And that brings me to the sixth thing. Since the Lord is our
righteousness, there's no reason for us to fear judgment. Now
notice here in verse seven, up till now, David's been talking
about the past, what the Lord has done. Now he starts to praise
the Lord for what he will do in the future, verse seven. But
the Lord shall endure forever. He hath prepared his throne for
judgment, and he shall judge the world in righteousness. He
shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. The Lord
will judge the world in righteousness. His throne is a just throne,
a throne of just right judgment. And what that means is in that
day, everybody who appears before the throne of judgment, it will
receive exactly what they deserve. They'll receive exactly what
they've earned. There's not going to be any loopholes.
There won't be any special treatment. Everyone will receive exactly
what they've earned. That's bad news for sinners.
We've got a perverted sense of judgment or justice in our country. That's bad news for sinners who
expect to come with a bunch of excuses and a defense attorney
think they can get them off on a technicality. That's not going
to happen. The Lord's going to give everyone
exactly what they've earned. Those who want to stand in their
own works, or maybe they want to have Christ's work plus a
little theirs added to it, you know, they're going to receive
exactly what they want. They're going to receive the
rewards of their works, which is eternal death. Everything
we do is sin. It's all those works that we
want to contribute, the wages of sin is debt. And the Lord
won't short pay that debt, not one penny. They'll get exactly
what they've earned. Those who want rewards in heaven,
they're going to get rewards. They won't be in heaven, but
they're going to get rewards. The word rewards in the Bible
is never one time used in relation to a believer. Every time it's
used, it's used in relation to an unbeliever who will be damned. They'll have their rewards, it
just won't be in heaven. But the sinner who has no excuse,
the sinner who can only plead guilty, that sinner will be found
not guilty because Christ has made him not guilty. Everyone
who can't do anything for themselves, everyone who's got no works to
contribute, all they can do is trust in Christ. That person
is going to receive exactly what Christ has earned for them. They're
gonna receive eternal joy and peace, eternal life. There'll
be no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more tears, no more
death, just perfect life. That's what Christ earned for
them. That's what he earned by his perfect obedience and his
death as their substitute. Now God's a just judge. He'll
see to it that that happens. God would not be just to kill
Christ for your sin and then kill you too. He's not going
to do that. His throne is a throne of just
judgment. So God is going to do what's
right. He will give his people exactly what Christ are in for. Oh, I can praise the Lord for
that, can't you? All right, here's the seventh thing. We praise
the Lord because Christ is our refuge, verse nine. The Lord
also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times
of trouble. Those who are oppressed are oppressed
by their sin. The Lord's going to be a refuge
for them. He's going to be a refuge from their sin. He's going to
take their sin away. He's going to take the punishment of their
sin. He's a refuge for those who are
oppressed by sin. He forgives sin through his sacrifice. He came and offered his own self
as a sacrifice. put away the sin of his people.
Sin will not oppress them anymore. It won't have dominion over you
anymore. Christ put it away. People are oppressed by the law,
by the terrors and fear that the law causes. They're oppressed
by their own flesh, trying to bring them back into captivity
to the law. David said in Psalm 103, verse
six, the Lord executes righteousness and judgment for all that are
oppressed. He executes judgment for them.
He sets them free from oppression to the law by making them righteous. So the law's got nothing against
them. He makes them perfect in his perfect obedience. The law's
not going to oppress you anymore. It's got nothing against you.
Christ kept it for you. Then those who are oppressed
are oppressed by Satan. They're oppressed by Satan constantly
lying to them. They're oppressed by Satan constantly,
trying to get them to look to any kind of religion, any kind
of hope, other than Christ alone. And Christ sets his people free
from that oppressor. Because when he died, he crushed
Satan's head. I'll show you that in Acts chapter
10. Acts 10 verse 36 The word which God sent unto
the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is
Lord of all. That word, I say, you know, which
was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee,
after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about
doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.
For God was with him, and we're witnesses of all things which
he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they
slew and hanged on a tree. Him, God raised up the third
day and showed him openly. God showed Christ openly. He showed him openly to us here
in his word. He showed him openly, showing
us the great victor. The victory's been won. The oppressor's
defeated. Christ is our refuge. Now there
are oppressors and there are troubles all around us and in us. Thank God we have
a refuge to hide in. A refuge that will never be swept
away in the overflowing scourge of God's wrath. Christ is the
refuge that every believer hides in. Just like Noah hid in the
ark, we hide in Christ. He's the refuge. He bore all
God's punishment. We're safe from God's wrath.
And Christ is also the refuge from the storms of this life.
Now, I think of a refuge in this life. I think of our home. Janet always wanted our home
to be a place of calm, a place of peace, a place where her children
and her husband could come out of the world. We've got a refuge. That refuge
that keeps you safe from the cruelty of the world, from the
storms of the world, from just the battering of this life. There's
a place you could come and people will love you. People will be
kind to you. Somebody will give you something, a nice comfortable
place to sit. Somebody will give you... She
always has some good food to eat. Just something to comfort
you. Comfort food. There's a refuge. Christ is a refuge for His people.
A place you come, get away, get out of this world, get out of
the storm and the cruelty and the wickedness of this world.
And there's a place of peace. Here's the one who loves you.
He proved his love. He suffered and died for you.
He gave you a heart that praises him. He called you to him. He
brings you to him. He gives grace for every hour.
He gives peace and comfort in every trial. Oh, I can praise
the Lord for a refuge. refuge. And then last, we praise
the Lord because he will never forsake his people. David said,
Lord, don't take your presence from me. David, you don't have
to worry. He'll never forsake his people. Verse 10. They that know thy
name will put their trust in thee. For thou, Lord, hast not
forsaken them that seek thee. Now Spurgeon in his hints to
preachers, he gave a outstanding three point outline on this verse
from a man named T.W. Medhurst. I don't know that I've
ever heard of him before, but he ought to get credit for this
three point outline. First, he says, there's an all
important knowledge. Knowing the name of the Lord,
all important knowledge. And knowing the name of the Lord
reveals the character of the The only way we know the Lord
is our righteousness is we've got to learn his name, Jehovah
Sikkimu. The only way we know the Lord's going to provide everything
God requires is to know his name, Jehovah Jireh. The only way we're
ever going to know, I don't have to make my peace with God, Christ
is my peace with God, is to know his name, Jehovah Shalom. The
only way I'm ever going to find out that there is a way that
I can be healed from all of my diseases, all of my wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores is knowing the name of the Lord,
Jehovah Raphael, the Lord that healeth me. Knowing the name
of Christ is all important because there's salvation in no other
name but His. Now, salvation is not just knowledge,
not just knowledge. But I tell you this, We're not
going to be saved without knowing who Christ is. There's going
to be knowledge of who He is first. Look at Romans chapter
10. That's why every man that stands
here to preach, we always just preach Christ. Always only preach
Christ. Because that's all that's important,
is that you know Him, that you know His name, It's impossible
to be saved without knowing. Romans 10 verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Somebody's got to tell us his name so that we call
on the right name. That's all important knowledge,
knowing the name. Then second, here's the blessed
result. The result of knowing the name
of Christ is to trust Him. If you know the name of the Lord,
you will trust Him. If the Lord ever reveals His
name to you, you will trust Him. And after you do, we're going
to keep preaching the name of the Lord. We're going to keep
telling who He is because the more you know about who the Lord
is, the more fully you'll trust him. You see, there's no such
thing as blind faith. Faith is intelligent. That's
true, faith is intelligent. Davis says those who put their
trust in the Lord put their trust in him because they know his
name. You can only trust somebody that
you know. If you don't know somebody, you
can't trust them, you don't know anything about them. See, that's
not blind faith. The apostle Paul said, I know
whom I believe. And because I know whom I have
believed, I'm going to trust him. That's the blessed result. Knowing the name of Christ is
to trust him. And then third, here's sufficient
reason to trust him. He will never forsake anyone
who seeks him. I can praise the Lord for that.
Do you know him? Do you need him? Then seek him. On the authority of God's word,
I can tell you, he will not forsake any who seek him. I'm thankful. I know this about myself. I'd
forsake the Lord if he let me. I surely would. If he left me
myself, I know that's just exactly what I'd do. But despite of everything
that I am, of everything that I do, of everything that I think,
of all the sin that I am, The Lord will never forsake me. He's
given me a heart to seek him and to meet him. I can praise
him for that, can't you? I hope the Lord will enable us
to do that. Let's bow and pray. Father, how we thank you for
the precious, precious promises of your word. How we thank you
for these clear declarations of your word that tell us who
you are, that we might believe you, that we might trust you,
that we would be enabled by your spirit to praise your matchless
name. Father, I pray that this evening
you would reveal yourself to each heart that's healed, each
one, Father, reveal yourself, reveal your name to us so that
we might leave here trusting, resting in you, praising your
matchless name. Our praise will fall far short
of the glory that your name deserves. But Father, help us to with everything
we are, with every faculty that you've given us, to praise your
name for your word. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ we pray and give