Yesterday morning, I sat down,
started to write out some notes for the message this evening. Many times I don't know what
I'm going to title a message, but I did this particular time. After reading the text over a
few times, I knew the title that I would give the message. And
I wrote at the top of the page, a happy people. And I sat and
looked at those words on that page and I thought, that sounds
odd. A happy people. This afternoon,
my daughter Holly asked me, what's your title for this evening?
I said, a happy people. She said, huh, that's interesting. Seems like a strange title to
give in a The world that we live in is so filled with sadness,
just filled with it. Depression is so common in our
day. I was kind of channel surfing
around a little bit before I started getting dressed to come to service
tonight. There's a special getting ready to come on some health
channel on the proliferation of depression in America. So
common. Seems like the only happy people
in our day are people who are drugged out of their mind. Or
just absolutely will not look at things in reality. As I've prepared my notes, I
thought about my church family here. Who's being tried so hard. The majority of the people who
are here this evening are being tried in a difficult way, different
circumstances, but tried. Well, what am I doing talking
about happy? people, a happy people. Well, the psalmist describes
here a happy people and tells us why these people are happy.
So let's look at it, look at God's word and see if we have
reason to be happy. And I'm not suggesting that we
put on a happy face and we pretend like we're happy because we begin
to look at the world through rose colored glasses. Not at
all. I'm saying that God's people
can be a happy people, not because we look at things through rose
colored glasses, but because we look at things as they are,
as our God has made them. And I'm not saying that we don't
have reason for sorrow and heartache. I don't know who wrote this psalm.
If David wrote it, the same man who wrote this psalm, talking
about the happy man, is the same one that said, out of the depths,
I cried unto thee, O God. So I'm not saying we don't have
reason for sorrow. But let's look at this psalm
and find out if we have reason to be happy or not. So he begins
in verse one. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the
Lord, O my soul. Hallelujah. That's praise ye
the Lord. Hallelujah. And that word's been
trashed in our day, but it's a good word for believers to
use. Hallelujah. And we praise the
Lord, not because of our fleshly circumstances, although we do
thank the Lord for the blessings that we enjoy physically. But
we praise the Lord simply for who the Lord is. Great is the
Lord and greatly to be praised. We praise him for who he is and
we praise him for what he's done for us in Christ Jesus. And we
say, hallelujah, with quiet awe in reference to who our God is. And the psalmist says, praise
the Lord, O my soul. I'm not just telling you to praise
the Lord. What I'm telling you, I'm telling myself. Praise the
Lord, O my soul. True worship is heart worship. True worship must come from the
soul. One of the writers said the soul
is best used when it's used praising the Lord. And true worship is
not running around shouting hallelujah and acting a fool, running around
the building here. Try to convince yourself and
convince others that you're happy, that you're blessed. True worship
comes from the soul, from the heart, even when that heart's
broken in sorrow. That's where true worship comes
from. And since praise comes from the heart, we praise the
Lord regardless of the circumstances of the flesh. Praise has got
nothing to do with the circumstances of the flesh. And I don't say
that lightly. Now, I'm saying that understanding.
You are a tried people. I understand you. Oh, it's hard. But here's the thing. You didn't
come here tonight feeling like you want to put on a show and
act silly in the name of religion. You came here this evening to
worship, to be fed. Be still and praise the Lord. Because this praise has to come
from the soul, because it's the soul that's been blessed of God. And that's what we'll see as
we go down through these verses. And remember, the trial of this
life is temporary. Praise of the Lord's eternal,
without end. David said in Psalm 30, verse
5, weeping may endure for the night. Weeping is going to endure
for the night of this life. But joy cometh in the morning.
When Christ arises, the great Son of God arises, it's morning. It'll be an eternal morning.
Joy is coming in the morning. Now, verse 2, David says, while
I live, will I praise the Lord. I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being. I've determined as long as I
live on this earth, I will praise the Lord. That's a believer's
attitude. Whatever breath the Lord gives
me, I'm going to use it to praise His holy name. Whatever years
the Lord gives me, I hope He gives me the strength of body
to use it in His service, in His worship, in His praise. And
when I no longer live in this veil of tears, I'm going to praise
the Lord perfectly with all of my being and glory. We sigh in praise, don't we?
And it's genuine. Both the sigh and the praise
is genuine. There, we're going to sing in
praise and it'll be genuine. It will be perfect and it will
be genuine. There's no sighing there. And
the only person who praises the Lord. Now, there are a lot of
people that run around shouting hallelujah, put on a show of
religion. But the only person who praises the Lord is the person
who's been given spiritual life. The dead praise not the Lord.
They might go through religious motions, but the dead praise
not the Lord. The only people who can praise the Lord are the
people who've been given life. And the only people that can
be a happy people are the people that have life. No reason to
be happy if you're dead. And before the psalmist tells
us who the happy people are, he tells us where you won't find
happiness. Now you need to know where you won't find happiness.
Look in verse 3. Put not your trust in princes.
You are in the Son of Man, in whom there is no help. Now, don't
put your trust in flesh, yours or anyone else's. Even the best
of men, even the princes, are just men. Don't put your trust
in them. They're just flesh. Don't put your trust in them.
Don't even become infatuated with them. Just don't do it.
To trust in the flesh, and I'm not very smart. I got this from
Spurgeon. To trust in the flesh dishonors
God. degrade you, and always leads
to disappointment. Always. Dishonors God, degrades
you, and leads to disappointment. Don't put your trust in any of
the sons of men. Adam was in the garden, perfect
and upright. And what did he do? He fell. Plunged his whole race into sin
and death. Adam, you're a disappointment. Look what you've done to us.
And all of Adam's sons will do the same thing. They're just
like their father, Adam. Don't put your trust in them.
One man putting his trust in another man is just like a beggar
going asking another beggar if he can have bread. It's like
a cripple asking another cripple, can you lift me up? It's like
a blind person finding another blind person to guide him along
the trail. What Scripture say, the blind
leads the blind, both of them are going to fall into the ditch.
Flesh can offer no help, can't help itself and certainly can't
help you. But the word help here in verse three, at the end of
verse three is salvation. The things that we're going to
talk about, the things that give the believer cause to be a happy
people are spiritual blessings. This help is salvation. And one thing we know for sure,
there's no salvation in the works of the flesh, none whatsoever.
A believer, how does scripture describe a believer, a saved
person? As a person who rejoices in Christ
Jesus and has no confidence in the flesh. There's no salvation
in the flesh, no even contributing to your salvation in the flesh.
So don't put your trust in man, even the princes. Who, verse
four, his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. In
that very day, his thoughts perish. Here's why it's so foolish to
put your trust in the flesh. If you put your trust and confidence
in the flesh, you're putting your trust in a mud hut. A little
rain comes along and that thing disintegrates. It's mud. It's
just mud. This flesh is so weak, all the
Lord has to do is pinch off the nostril. Just withhold air for
just a minute. And he's dead. Gone. And then
you'll see what even that mighty prince really was. All he was
was a pile of dust. That's all he was. That's what
the best of men was and that's what the worst of men was. Both
of them ended up a pile of dust. Just dirt is all they are. Everything
that he planned and everything he intended to do, gone. For dust thou art and under dust
shalt thou return. And you look at that pile of
dust, that's what I was so infatuated with. It's just dust. And that very day, his thoughts
perish. Oh, the mighty prince, he may
have intended to help you. That's what his plan was. Tomorrow,
he's going to do some great thing for you. Well, everything he
planned went with him to the grave when he died. Everything
he boasted of is gone. His kingdom, his riches, his
power is gone. And I'm telling you the truth,
it's shocking how quickly people turn on that mighty prince when
he's gone. It's not politically expedient,
so they turn on him when he's gone. Out of sight, out of mind. And you will be too. If you trusted
in him, you were in thick with him, you'll fall out of favor
quickly too once he's gone. So you better change horses because
it's just politically savvy to do that. People, just how quickly
they turn on him. And it's so sad if what a person
is doing is putting their trust in the revolving door of men.
Just one right after another, after another. Every one of them
is going to disappoint them because all each of them are is a pile
of dust. But verse five, here's the happy people. Happy is he
that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the
Lord his God. Now the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob is a covenant God. He will not lie. He cannot lie. He will never change his purpose.
He's a covenant God. Now, men are not like that. Men
only help people that they like. Or men, this is what they really
do. You know, the good old voice network, it works. For this reason,
people help somebody they think can help them. Janet went to
a meeting over at the high school this week. And she was amazed
how people are just falling all over themselves and falling all
over people. who they thought could help advance
their social standing and especially help the social standing of their
children. Weren't you glad God's not like that? My soul. If God only helps people who
can add something to Him, I'm excluded. And you are too. But
what does Scripture say? God is the God of Jacob. Jacob. Well, who's Jacob? He's a scoundrel. Even men hate
Jacob. Jacob can't add anything to God,
but God made himself the God of Jacob. He didn't make himself
the God of Esau, did he? Esau trusted in the arm of the
flesh. Jacob trusted in the Lord. Who's
the happy man? Jacob had to go on the run, live
in exile, but now who's the happy man? The happy man is a man who's
like Jacob, who knows he's a sinner and has God for his help. You're
not going to get any help from men. You can't put your trust
in men. He's going to die in that very
day as thoughts perish. You can't get any help from the
flesh. But look at Psalm 46. You'll not get any help from
the flesh. Psalm 46, verse 1, God is our refuge and
strength. a very present help in time in
trouble. Therefore, will not we fear,
though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried
into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof? There's going to be reason to
have some alarm, isn't there? The mountains are moved and shaken
and carried in the midst of the sea, but we'll not fear. Why? God is a very present help
in trouble. The Lord will never disappoint
you or fail you like men do. He's the true friend of sinners.
And this happiness, the man who's happy, who has the God of Jacob
for his help, he's a happy man. But this happiness is not a giddy
emotion. It's happiness of the soul. And
again, the help we're talking about here is salvation, whose
hope of salvation is in the Lord and that word Lord. L-O-R-D as
in all capital letters means Jehovah, whose hope of salvation
is in God my Savior. Now this is true. The cause of
all sorrow is sin. If there wasn't sin in the world
and we weren't full of sin, we'd have no sorrow. The cause of
sorrow is sin. And if your sin has been put
away in the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, than happy,
are you? You're a happy man, a happy woman
if Christ has put your sins away. And that allows a person to be
happy even when your heart's broken. Even when you have reason
to despair, you can be happy. Now, you can't describe that
to the natural man. It can't be done. They just look
at you like you've got worms come out of your ears or something.
How can you be happy? But if you've experienced it
in the heart, you know exactly what I'm saying. Even when your
heart's broken, there's reason to be happy if you have the hope
of salvation in Jehovah. Happy is he whose hope is in
Jehovah. We hope in the Word of God. We
hope in the promises of God. We hope in the Son of God. We
hope in the grace of God. And that's a good hope. That's
a good hope and reason to be happy. We have help in the power
of God and hope in the mercy of God, in the salvation of God.
Now here in verse six, through the rest of this psalm, the psalmist
gives us reason, reasons that a person can be a happy person. The person whose hope is in the
Lord is a happy person. And every one of the reasons
is based on who the Lord is. Not based on who we are or what
we've done or what we can do. Every one of these reasons is
based solely on who the Lord is. That's why we praise him
simply for who he is. Because every reason we have
to be happy is based on who the Lord is. So if he begins here
in verse six, you can be happy if your God is the God which
made heaven and earth, the sea and all that therein is. To look
back at Psalm 97, never, ever forget about the power and sovereignty
of our God. The sovereignty of our God is
reason for rejoicing of his people. Psalm 97, verse 1. The Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. Let the
multitude of the isles be glad thereof. This is not a thing
that we have to fight about that God's suffering. This is a reason
for rejoicing. The Lord reigneth. Let the earth
rejoice. Well, God's people will rejoice.
Our Lord reigns over his creation. You think of the power and the
wisdom that it took to create this world. What wisdom it took
to make all of this fit together and work together. To make all
the planets go in their orbits and all the asteroids and things
flying around out there don't fly into this earth and cause
a big cloud that kills us all. What wisdom it took to do that.
And power. The power to hold all those planets
in their orbits with the Word of His power. Just the power
and wisdom. Well, that same power and wisdom
is used for the good of God's people on this earth. He who
made the earth will provide for his people while they're in the
earth. And he'll provide a way for us to leave this earth when
it's time to. He reigns right on schedule, Paul, right on schedule. He who made the heavens can make
you fit for heaven and prepare a place for heaven in heaven
for you. He who made the sea will guide
his people over the dark, troubled waters. He didn't promise that
the waters wouldn't be dark and troubled. We just read they're
going to roar, swell and roar. But he can guide his people over
those troubled, dark waters. He who made the sea can still
park the waters so you can walk over on dry ground. He who made
the sea still says to the wind and the waves, peace be still. And they still obey Him. They're
still. Oh, you can be happy if you're
God's the God who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that
there is. You can be happy if you're God's the God which keepeth
truth forever. God keepeth His truth forever. Because God's eternal. Now, don't
put your trust in a dying man. He's not going to be here very
long. Put your trust in Christ who is life. Who is eternal. A man's thoughts and purposes
perish with him. The purpose of God is eternal
because He's eternal. The Lord keepeth His truth forever. The Lord is true to His covenant. He promised to save the seed
of Abraham. Let it be more than the stars
of heaven. God's true to that covenant. He's true to His word. He's true to His promise. And
He's true to His Son. He's true to his son that no
one for whom Christ died will perish. He's true to that. God's
truth never changes. And the gospel never changes.
Now, the preacher changes, but the gospel never changes. And
no matter what changes affect our lives or affect our minds
or affect our bodies, a believer can always find help and comfort
from the gospel. We can always come and feed on
the Gospel. I'm telling you, just in the
short time I've lived, I've seen a lot of changes. I mean a lot
of changes. This never, never, ever changes. Truth. Come feed on it. You can
be happy if your God is a God which keepeth truth forever.
Verse 7, you can be happy if your God is the God which executes
judgment for the oppressed. Now, men show partiality to the
strong or to the famous, the rich, the great. But God is the
God of the helpless. He taketh up the cause of the
oppressed. And that's a good thing because
we're oppressed by sin. I mean, just oppressed by sin. Sin is an oppressive taskmaster. But Christ came to set his people
free from sin by being made sin for. by suffering the judgment
that we deserve. And now the believer has no fear
of judgment. You have no fear of judgment
if Christ stood and judgment is your substitute. No fear whatsoever. Christ executed judgment for
His people and ensured for us a happy ending because He put
our sin away, made peace with God. Here in the middle of verse
7, you can be happy if your God is the God which giveth food
to the hungry. Look over it back at Psalm 136.
Give food to the hungry. Psalm 136, verse 25. Who give
food to all flesh for his mercy endureth forever. All the animals,
all the birds, all the insects, all the fish. Even men who are
less deserving to be fed than the animals and the fish and
the birds and the insect. God feeds them all. Provides
food for them all. The Lord Jesus fed 5,000 with
just five loaves and two small fishes. Now, in this world, there
are people who go hungry. If you're not one of them, give
thanks. God fed you. Isn't that what
Jacob told Joseph? God who fed me all the days of
my life up until this day. If you haven't gone hungry, it's
because God fed you. But I'll tell you what he's talking
about here. He's not talking about Heiner's bread. He's talking
about spiritual bread for the hungry. Somewhere, probably nearby,
somebody's going to go to bed hungry tonight. No one will go
to bed spiritually hungry. God feeds the hungry. If you're
hungry, God will feed you with the Lord Jesus Christ. If you
hunger and thirst after righteousness, The Lord will feed you. Look
over at Luke chapter 1. We've been reading there the
study of Ruth and Boaz. Why didn't Ruth go home hungry
when she came to that field gleaning? Boaz provided for her. That's
why. In Luke 1 verse 53. He had filled the hungry with
good things. And the rich hath he sent away
empty. Now, if you're not hungry, the
Lord's not going to feed you. If you've got plenty of righteousness
on your own, fine. But if you're hungry, the Lord's
going to fill you with good things. Well, what are those good things?
The Lord Jesus Christ and everything about Him. Blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. They'll
be filled with good things. God will feed you with Christ,
the bread of life. And when He feeds you with Christ,
you'll never hunger again. Never. Then verse 7, here at
the end, verse 7, you can be happy if your God is the God
who luceth the prisoners. Look over at Isaiah 61. You can
be happy if your God's the God that luceth the prisoners. And again, here He's talking
about spiritual prisoners. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings
unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives in the opening
of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort
all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give
unto them beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. that they
might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that
he might be glorified. Now, we know very clearly that
these verses are referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, because
this is the scripture that he applied to himself in his very
first public message. And he came to set the prisoners
free. Now, we're prisoners to Satan.
He's got us in his clutches. But Christ came to set us free
by crushing his head. We're prisoners to sin. Christ
set his people free by burying our sins like the scapegoat.
He bore them as far away from us as the East is from the West.
We're prisoners to the broken law. Christ set us free by keeping
the law for us as our representative. If the Son shall make you free,
you're free indeed. He looseth the prisoners. Verse
8. Now, you know, I've never been
a prisoner. But I reckon a man who's set
free from prison is a happy man. Wouldn't you reckon? The Lord
looseth the prisoners. Verse 8, you can be a happy man
if your God is the Lord who openeth the eyes of the blind. How many
times in our Lord's earthly ministry did He give sight to the blind?
And He did that to demonstrate that He's the Messiah. Look at
Matthew chapter 11. He did those things to show us
He's the Messiah. He's the one that should come.
Matthew 11 verse 2. Now, when John, John the Baptist,
had heard in prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his
disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that should come,
or do we look for another? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear
and see. The blind received their sight. The lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the
poor have the gospel preached to them. Our Lord did all those
things for blind people and deaf people and dead people and lame
people, but He did them all as a picture of what He does spiritually
for His people who are blind, deaf, dumb, lame, dead. He gives sight to the blind. And I know the primary application
of this is the spiritual sight, because you see here in the text,
the eyes of those words are in italics. Those words are not
in the original. They were added by the translators
and they ruined the meaning of it when they did it. In this
case, the Lord openeth the blind. He openeth the dead mind. He openeth the dead heart. He
openeth the blind. So that they see, so they have
spiritual sight to see Christ. Now, for the believer, I tell
you what happiness is. To behold the Lord Jesus Christ. If you see Him, happy are you. Happy. And once the Lord opened
the blind, now we see. We see Christ in creation. We
see Christ in providence. And not just the providence,
the history of the world, in my life. I can look back over
my life and say, I see the Lord did that. Some of the things,
I can even see why He did it. The Lord did that. I see that
now. We see Christ in His Word. We
see Christ in the Gospel. Why do you see that and other
people don't? The Lord opened up the blind. And if you truly
love Christ, then you're happy seeing Him regardless of the
circumstances. Well, He goes on in verse 8.
You can be happy. If your God is the Lord that
raiseth them that are bowed down, the Lord raiseth them who are
bowed down under a heavy burden of trial. The Lord's going to
provide a way out when it's time. He'll provide a way out. He always
has and He always will. And His people who are bowed
down under a heavy burden of sin, the Lord's going to completely
remove that burden. You're not going to bear an ounce
of it because He took all of that burden and His body on the
tree. Come, He says unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, who are bowed down under a heavy
laden of sin, I'll give you rest. Happy are you if you don't bear
the burden of your sin and guilt any longer. What a relief when
it's been lifted off. Well, here at the end of verse
8, he says, The Lord loveth the righteous. Happy are you if your
Lord is the Lord who loveth the righteous? Now, wait a minute. If the Lord loveth the righteous,
there's no hope for me. I'm completely unrighteous. There's
none righteous. No, not one. For the Lord loveth
those who are made righteous in Christ. Who are made righteous
through the imputed righteousness of Christ. Who are made righteous
in Christ who bear the name of His Son, Jehovah Sidkenu, the
Lord our righteousness. And there can be no doubt about
the love that God has for His people who He has made righteous
in His Son. Because think what it took for
the Lord to make you righteous. In order for God to make you
righteous, He had to send His Son to live in the cesspool of
this world, clothed in human flesh. And he had to send his
son to Calvary's tree to die for your sins. In order for you
to be made righteous, Christ had to agree in the covenant
of grace to be made sin for you, to bear your sin and shame and
iniquity, to suffer and die and shed his blood as payment for
your sin. The father killed his son so that you, His people,
could be made to righteousness of God in Him. Now that's love. Happy are you if God shed that
love abroad in your heart. Now, trials and troubles are
still going to come our way. Does that mean the Lord quit
loving you? Is the Lord going to quit loving you because you're
bowed down with this trial? Is He going to quit loving you
and let you perish now? After he killed his son for you?
Is he going to let you perish now? No, sir, he won't. Why not? He set his love on you. Happy are you if your Lord is
the one who loveth the righteous. Those who he made righteous in
his son. Well, verse 9, happy are you
if your Lord is the Lord who preserveth the strangers. Now,
this clearly is a prophecy about the calling of the Gentiles who
are strangers to the covenants of promise. And you know, I thought
immigration, it's always been a hot button topic in this country,
in the history of the United States. A couple of years ago,
we went to New York and we went out there to Ellis Island and
saw the things about immigration and people have always fought
against it, always hated immigrants, you know, and especially become,
and they forget that one time they were immigrants, you know,
or their parents were, their grandparents or something, but
it become especially hot topic when non-citizens could receive
tax money. And people, I mean, yeah, okay,
we'll let them come in. But somebody starts taking your
money. Boy, people get irate. I mean, they get hot. And those
aliens don't deserve that. You know what? Those strangers
are exactly the people God saves. Those people, they don't deserve
His mercy. No, they don't. Those are the people God saves.
You can be happy if you're God's the Lord who preserves us. the
strangers. He's going to keep you and protect
you. You can be happy if your God's the God who would leave
it to fatherless and the widow. I feel so sorry for children
who grow up without a father. The happiest times of my childhood
were times that I spent alone with my dad. I absolutely idolized
him. When I was with him, I felt safe.
I felt loved. I felt special. And there were
other troubles going on, you know. But I forgot about them. I just didn't care about them
when I was with my dad. Our father, Adam, has left us
orphans. He left us fatherless. He threw
us into this mess and died and left us orphans. But no child
of God is left an orphan. Your child of God can't be an
orphan, can you? He's your Father. And when we're
blessed with the presence of our Heavenly Father, how loved
do you feel? How safe do you feel? How sure
and confident are you when you have the presence of your Heavenly
Father? Every need is provided for. Nothing
else matters when I have His presence. There are no orphans
in God's family, and there are no widows in God's family either.
The Lord's our husband. He's our husband. And not only
will He provide for his bride, Jehovah Jireh, He'll provide.
He'll never leave her alone. He'll never leave her without
protection. You know, in this day, the fatherless
and the widow were completely left without any resources. They'd
starve. There are no fathers and widows
in God's family. He provides for them all. You
can be happy, verse 9, If your God is the God that turneth
the way of the wicked upside down. Now, I know the wicked
prosper for a time. They do. They prosper for a time
for God's purpose. Maybe they prosper to give you
a job. I don't know. But the Lord lets them prosper
for a time. Until he turns everything upside down. Look at Luke 16. Do you think, well, is that God's
will that His people suffer like this? That they live a life suffering
like this? Well, I can assure you if that's
the life they live, that's God's will. I can promise you that.
His will will be done. I can't explain it, but I know
that's so. In Luke 16, verse 19, there was a certain rich
man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously
every day. And there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and
desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's
table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. Who's happy? Who's got the happy life? Well,
it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels
into Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died and
was buried. And in hell he lifted up his
eyes, being in torment, to see if Abraham afar off, and Lazarus
in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me. He never asked for mercy when
he was bearing sumptuously, dressed in purple, did he? Now he says,
have mercy. Now he's suddenly interested
in mercy. Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger
in water and cool my tongue. For I am tormented in this flame. Who's the happy man? God turned
everything upside down, didn't He? Turned everything upside
down. You know, God deals in strict
justice. All these blessings that God
gives His people that are based on who He is are acts of justice. They're acts of mercy, but they're
acts of justice too. They're acts of justice because
God dealt with His Son, our substitute in justice, in the punishment
of the wicked who refused to come to Christ, who refused to
bow to Christ, That's an act of justice, too. So what's the
believer's reaction to that? Well, rather than be envious
of the rich, of the wealthy, of the powerful, the rich flesh,
rather than be envious of them, rather than trust in them, we
ought to pity them. You know something they don't
know. By God's grace, you know something they don't know. Lord's
going to turn all this upside down. Now, verse 10. Here's a reason. for God's people
to be happy. The Lord shall reign forever,
even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord. God is a sovereign monarch. He's not voted on. It's not up
to you and me whether to decide that we're going to accept him
or reject him or, you know, accept his rule or not accept his rule.
God is the sovereign monarch. And he's king forever. There's no end of His rule. And
Zion is His church. What does the church say about
the sovereignty of God, about our monarch? Hallelujah. That's what we say. Hallelujah.
When we see Christ the King, Zion says, Hallelujah. I've asked Mike, if he would,
to lead us in singing the chorus, Hallelujah. I think that would
be a good chorus. I thought about naming the message. Hallelujah. So we'll leave it
like it is, but we'll sing this chorus. Alleluia.