All right, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles again tonight to the Psalms, and we're gonna be
in Psalm 33 tonight, Psalm 33. Thank you so much for your hospitality. Thank you for having me and Mark
and Regina. Thank you, and Shirley, thank
you for dinner last night. I want to just read a verse to
you. Psalm 33, verse 20. Psalm 33,
verse 20. Our soul waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. Our soul, this is the inward
man. This is spiritual. This is spiritual. Our soul waiteth for the Lord. It implies an earnestness as
well. Our soul waiteth for the Lord. And here's why. He is our help
and our shield. Doesn't say he's gonna give us
help. He is our help. Doesn't say he will give us a
shield. He is our shield. Brethren, I love you, and I owe
so much to you. The Lord used you. I know you
want the Lord to have the glory, and I am giving him the glory,
but the Lord did use you to minister to me when I was a boy in Arkansas,
sending messages down there and tapes. tracks and what have you. And Lord used you to minister
to us when we were in Tennessee, the church congregation in Tennessee. And the Lord has used you to
minister to us in New Jersey. And I love you. And my heart
is for you. And I think of you and I pray
for you. And I pray the Lord to be pleased to bless you. I
pray he'll be pleased to give you a pastor. I really do. I asked the Lord to give me a
message and I pray for right now, a message for you. A message
for you. And I pray the Lord will bless
his word tonight. I pray that he will make it powerful
in our hearts. That's what I pray, that he will
do that. The things I'm going to declare,
you already know. I'm not trying to tell you something
new. It's like Peter said, you're
established in this present truth, but I think it meet as long as
I'm in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. And that's what faithful preaching
is. It's just putting brethren in remembrance of what the Lord's
already taught you. Nothing new. Brother Scott Rich
used to say, there's nothing new about us, original about
with us, but sin. And I just want to put you in
remembrance of some things. Our subject's waiting for the
Lord. Let's read it one more time.
Our soul waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.
From the time God reveals Christ in us, God's saints begin waiting
for the Lord. We're waiting for the Lord to
return. That's what the whole life of faith is. We're waiting
for the Lord. Paul said, we, through the Spirit,
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. We're waiting for the
Lord, our righteousness, to return and to take us home, and we'll
be completely, thoroughly righteous and holy and complete in Him. And through many trials, the
Lord rules all providence in this world. And he rules it on
purpose so that he puts us in situations where we have to wait
for the Lord. And as the Lord makes good on
his promise and he provides for us in his time, he strengthens
us in faith and hope, makes us more assured that he will return. And we have a good hope waiting
for him to return. He makes you know these things
little by little as he puts you in a situation where you have
to wait on him. And then he makes good on his promise, delivers
you, and you see the Lord is sure. His promises are all yes
and amen. He will return. He will come
for us again. Because he showed me in all these
little deliverances he did for me that it's good to wait for
the Lord. That's our only way to do anything
rather than just wait for the Lord. And you know, believers
waiting for the Lord all the time. I mean, we're waiting for
the Lord for something all the time. We depend on Him for everything. And we're waiting on the Lord
at all times. And He's going to keep this prayer
in our hearts, verse 22. He said, Let thy mercy, O Lord,
be upon us, according as we hope in thee. That's what He's doing
right there. He's keeping that prayer in our hearts. While we
wait, we're saying, Lord, let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us,
according as we hope in thee. Now, I want to just remind you
of who this Lord is that we're waiting for, who he is we're
waiting for. First of all, the Lord we're
waiting for is our sovereign creator. He's the sovereign Lord
of heaven and earth. He's the one who created all
things. It says back in verse six, By
the word of the Lord were the heavens made. By the word of
the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the
breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the
sea together as a heap. He layeth up the depths and storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the
world stand in awe of him, for he spake, and it was done. He
commanded, and it stood fast. Now who is this Lord who created
everything? Well, it's our Redeemer. It's the same one who came and
laid down his life for us. John said, in the beginning was
the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The
same was in the beginning with God and all things were made
by him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, in the Son of God, Christ, set up from eternity. God the Father trusted Him from
eternity, and God the Father trusted Him to make this world,
and He made this whole world. He spoke this world into existence
by His Word. That's who we're trusting, and
that's who we're waiting for. And it's the same one who created
us anew. Just like he made that first
creation, he creates his people a new creation. And it's by the
word speaking the word. It's by the Lord Jesus who is
the word speaking the word. He said, behold, I create a new
heavens and a new earth. That new heaven and new earth
is going to be a real new heaven and new earth. But it's made
up of his people that he's made entirely new. Behold, I create
Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. It's by his word
of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should
be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. He created us
just like he created the heavens and the earth. He created you
and me anew, a new heart, this soul with which we wait for the
Lord. He made it a new spirit, a new heart, just like he separated
the seas from the dry land. He separated his people from
all mankind in Christ, and he separated us to himself, and
he's gonna keep us separated to himself, sanctified unto himself,
partaken of his holiness. So knowing now, this is who we're
waiting for, the Lord who created all things, the Lord who created
this new heart in us. Verse 20 says, our soul waiteth
for the Lord. He's our help and our shield.
We're not waiting on somebody who's not able to help us. We're
waiting on this one who is the sovereign over heaven and earth,
ruling everything. That's who we're waiting for.
Number two, we're waiting for the Lord because we've been taught,
we've been instructed by him that it's his counsel alone that
shall stand. Whatever the Lord purposed in
eternity, that's what he shall bring to pass and we're waiting
We don't know what he's going to do providentially. We don't
know, but we know what he's promised, and we're waiting for him to
bring to pass and waiting for him to do what he's willing to
do. It's his counsel that'll stand. Look at verse 10. The
Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to naught, to nothing. He maketh the devices of the
people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth
forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Now,
the clearest place to see this is just look to the cross. The
Lord Jesus Christ came down, took flesh, and men crucified
our Lord, trying, imagining a vain thing, imagining they could break
the cords of the Lord, imagining they could really get him out
of the picture and get him out of the way so they could go on
with their vain religion. Using his word, using what God
spoke and the oracles he gave, using those but not wanting the
God who gave them. And men crucified the Lord because
our Lord Jesus gave them permission to do it. But he gave them permission
to do whatsoever God's hand and God's counsel determined before
to be done. It's God's counsel that's going
to stand. So when you look to the cross, you don't see failure,
you see God's counsel standing. And you see him completely bringing
the counsel of men to nothing. The devil thought he's crushing
the heel of the Messiah. And he thought by that, he thought
he's really crushing his head. But by what Christ endured, Christ
crushed his head. took all his power from him,
delivered his people and put away all our sins so the devil
has nothing to accuse us with. Christ, the counsel of the Lord
was for God to be exalted in the Lord Jesus. And that's what
Christ did. He declared the righteousness
of God. He showed how God is just in his laws upheld and shows
how a sinner can be justified with God. It's the counsel of
the Lord that'll stand. That's what you see on the cross.
You look to the cross and you see how Christ redeemed his people
from the curse and condemnation of the law, saved us entirely. So what you see is men meant
it for evil. God meant it for good. And whose
counsel stood? The Lord's counsel stood. He brought the counsel of men
to nothing. And now the Lord Jesus is arisen victorious with
all power in heaven and earth. You go to Revelation and read,
he holds the seven stars in his hand. That's his preachers. He holds the candles in it stick
in his hand. That's the churches. He walks
in the midst of the candlestick. He's in the midst of his people
at all times. This is why Paul said, you work
out your daily affairs with one another with fear and trembling
because Christ is in your midst. Working his good pleasure in
you. He's in his midst work. It's his glory as the head of
the church to fill all in all. He's going to fill the pew. He's
going to fill the pulpit. He's going to fill the hearts
of his preachers. He's going to fill the hearts
of his people. He gets the glory as the prophet, priest, and king
of filling all in all. Just like he fulfilled all the
law, just like he fulfilled all the scriptures, all the prophets,
he fills all in all his people. He gets the glory for doing that.
And this is the one in whom we've obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all
things after what? The counsel of his own will. That we should do what? This
whole psalm is about praising God. This whole psalm is about
rejoicing in the Lord. And that's why he saved us. That
we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted Christ,
God our Father. There is no, this is Proverbs
21 30. There's no wisdom nor understanding
nor counsel against the Lord. Now remember that brethren. Men
can Try and do whatever they want to try to do. There is no
counsel against the Lord. The Lord's counsel is coming
to pass. So just wait on the Lord. Just wait on the Lord.
Wait on the Lord. He makes the devices of the people
of none effect. He does that. The counsel of
the Lord standeth forever. The thoughts of his heart to
all generations. Now, thirdly, We wait for the
Lord because he's taught his saints that he has chosen us
and he's made us his holy nation and we're his inheritance. Look
at verse 12. Blessed is the nation whose God
is the Lord and the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. There is only one nation. that
ever existed. This one nation has existed throughout
all the ages of time. This one nation shall exist while
time is in existence. There's only one nation whose
God is the Lord. Only one. And here he tells us
who they are in the verse. The people he has chosen for
his own inheritance. It's his people. It's his elect. It's his holy nation. You are
a chosen generation. a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people, a treasure, an inheritance to the Lord that
you should do what? Do just what our psalm says.
Show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light. Now you look at what this verse
says. It says blessed. That means happy, full of rejoicing,
praise in the Lord. If we're not happy, I'll tell
you what the real cause of it is. Anytime we're not happy,
We're trying to bring to pass our own counsel and our own will,
and we're not waiting for the Lord, waiting on him. Because
blessed is the people. They're happy. They're happy.
It's the nation whose God is the Lord. Believer, our God is
our Lord. Our God is our Lord. Everything
that's happening in this world is happening for the citizens
of his holy nation. That's each of you that he's
called. You're birthed into this kingdom. You don't do something
to get in this nation. You're birthed into this nation.
He chose us and he sent the spirit and he birthed us into this nation.
That's how you get in this nation. It's the people whom he has chosen.
And he chose us for his own inheritance. That's what peculiar treasure
is, is to be his special inheritance, his treasure. We saw Sunday how
he's our portion. He's our inheritance. He says
here, we're his inheritance. That's security, brethren. We're
his inheritance. Christ gave that cup of wine.
And he said, this is the New Testament. This is the will and
testament of God. That's what we're reading here,
all about his inheritance, what his will is, what his counsel
is. And Christ said, this cup of
wine represents my blood, the blood of the New Testament, which
is shed for you. He's the testator, and it's by
his death that this inheritance was ordered and sure in all things. And at the same time, not only
did he promise us an inheritance by his blood, but by his blood
he purchased us and made us his purchased possession, and we're
his inheritance. He's going to inherit his people.
That means everything God's working in this world, everything you
see coming to pass, is for you. That's what it means. It's for
you who are his, for you who are members of this holy nation.
We don't have to fight. We don't have to. We don't have
to try to make something happen at any point. We don't have to
do that amongst brethren. We don't have to do that in this
world. We can wait on the Lord. We can wait on the Lord. He's
our help and he's our shield. Look down at verse 13. The Lord
looketh from heaven and beholdeth all the sons of men. From the
place of his habitation, he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the
earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike. That means he made everybody's
heart. He considereth all their works.
The same Savior who redeemed his people is risen now with
all power in heaven and earth. And he looks from heaven and
he beholds all the sons of men. You can't see everything going
on. I can't see everything going on. He sees everything going
on. He knows everything is going
on. The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the
evil and the good. He sees everything. And he fashioned
every man's heart. He made every man's heart alike.
That doesn't mean he made everybody's heart the same, but everybody's
heart is alike, made, fashioned by him. He did it. He made every
man's heart. He considereth all their works.
Here's what it means. Everybody's heart was made by
him and he's ruling everybody's heart. The king's heart. We're talking about the heathen
king that don't even know him. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord as the rivers of water, he turns it withers so
ever he will. Can you turn a river? Can you
turn a river whichever way you want it to go? Not unless you
got some big some big dirt movers and spend a lot of work moving
it. He can turn it wherever he wants it to go. Remember a little
while back when they had a hurricane down there in New Orleans and
he made the water flow backwards up the Mississippi River? He
can turn it wherever he will. He can do that with men's hearts
too. He does that with men's hearts too. Look over at Romans
9. Here's what this, he fashions
all men's hearts alike. Here's what it means. Look at
Romans 9. And he did all this and he rules every heart. Mine,
yours, he rules the hearts of his people. He rules the hearts
of them that are not his. He made my heart, your heart
that believe, he made our heart. He created our heart anew. He
created a heart in those that don't believe him. And he's gonna
rule both. to show his power in his name. Here's what it means. Look, Romans
9, 17. The scripture said to Pharaoh,
even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might
show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. Therefore, he has mercy on whom
he will have mercy and whom he will harden. And man will say,
well, why does he find fault? If he made every man's heart
and he's ruling every man's heart, then who's resisted his will?
No, but old man, who are you to reply against God? Shall the
thing formed, here's how he fashioned every man's heart alike, shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made
me thus? Had not the potter power over the clay of the same lump
to make one vessel unto honor and another to dishonor? Does
he not have that power? What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endure with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, that he might make
known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which
he had aforeprepared unto glory, even us whom he called not of
the Jews only, but also the Gentiles? He's made every heart. He's life. He's ruling it all. He's ruling
every man. And he's made some unto honor
and some unto dishonor. And he's going to get all the
glory and make his power and his name known. And he's doing
it for you who he's called by his grace to show you, to magnify
his grace to you. Because he had called everybody.
He's just called a remnant. And that magnifies his grace
to you. That shows you something of the greatness and the preciousness
of his grace that he chose you and called you and created you
anew. This means, brethren, You don't have to strive with men
to try to have your way. Listen, we're saved by the Lord's
strength alone. That's what I tried to show you
Sunday. We don't have any. We just don't have any. We don't
have strength. When you read the scripture and
Paul said, be strong. What does he say? In the Lord
and in the power of his might. That's where your strength's
at. Paul was given that great revelation. And he said, lest
I be exalted, because that's what it would have happened if
the Lord hadn't given him a thorn in the flesh. But he said, the
Lord gave me a thorn in the flesh to humble me, to bring me down,
and he wouldn't take it from me. And every time I cried to
him, he said, my grace is sufficient for you. Get what that means,
brethren. The Lord will put you in a situation
and he ain't taking you out of it. He's going to leave you in
it. But it's the best thing he could ever do for you because
what he's showing you in that is his grace is sufficient. He's showing you his strength.
And the only way you see it, the way it's made perfect, the
way you're made to see it fully is by saying you don't have any
strength. It's made perfect in weakness.
When you see how thoroughly weak you are, that's when you see
how strong he is. Look, verse 16, there's no king
saved by the multitude of a host. A mighty man's not delivered
by much strength. A horse is a vain thing for safety,
neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. What's
that saying? No sinner is saved by our strength. We get that when it comes to
salvation by works. You've been taught well and you
get that. We're not saved by our works, we're saved by the
Lord's work. When we start trying to make things happen according
to our understanding and our wisdom and our strength in the
trials day to day, it ain't no different than a man trying to
trust in his work for salvation eternally. None. No sinner saved
by our strength, not in eternal salvation, not even in the daily
trials of this life. Listen to 1 Samuel 2, 9. He will
keep the feet of his saints, he will, and the wicked shall
be silent in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. That includes Everybody know
it. By strength, no man shall prevail.
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven
shall he thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends
of the earth and he'll give strength unto his king and exalt the horn
of his anointed. That's what the Lord will do.
He said, I'll have mercy upon the house of Judah and will save
them by the Lord their God and will not save them by bow, nor
by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. Did you know
that God forbid Israel to have horses? That's in the law. They
couldn't have horses because the Lord knew what they'd do.
They'd look to those horses, and when they overcome and won
battles, they'd say they did it, and the Lord wouldn't let
them have horses. Egypt, you know who made horses
and who bred horses? Egypt. Egypt did. Sorry to tell you that when we're
sitting right here in the middle of horse country, but Egypt was
who bred horses. The Lord wouldn't let Israel
have horses. Remember how Gideon won the victory, brethren? The
Lord whittled that army down. He just kept whittling it down,
whittling it down. Why'd he do that? He said, because
if I let you go with this many people, you'll boast that you
won the victory. So he whittled them down. And then he did this
strange thing. He said, now you go into this
camp where all this host is. And he took a candle and put
it in a vessel and said, you carry this vessel with this candle
in it. and you carry a trumpet in your hand, and you blow the
trumpet, and you break that earthen vessel, and the light shines,
and that's how they won the victory. Every man went to fight each
other, and the enemy killed themselves, and they overcome the enemy.
That's how he did it. What's the picture in that? That trumpet
is this gospel, the power of God unto salvation. That light
is Jesus Christ, the light. And I'll tell you how you're
going to let your light shine before men. We have this treasure
in earthen vessels that he's going to break before he ever
makes Christ the light shine. If he don't break us, we're going
to try to make men see light in us. He's going to have to
break you to where you have no strength in you so that the light
that's shining forth is nothing but the gospel of Christ. So
that you're preaching Christ, praying to Christ, waiting on
Christ, and not trying to make anything happen by yourself.
And that's the man God will use. He will not use anybody that's
trying to do something by their own wit and wisdom and work,
and he's going to break you. And it's on the job training.
Once he starts using you, he's going to keep breaking you and
keep breaking you, because we keep wanting to try to put our
hand to it. But that's how he does it. That's how he does it. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, broken vessels, that the excellence here, the power
may be of God, not of us. No king saved by the multitude
of a host, not at all. Our soul waiteth for the Lord.
He's our help and our shield. All right, next. The Lord's eye
is upon each of his children to save us. His eye is upon us
to save us. Look here in verse 18, behold,
The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that
hope in his mercy, to deliver their soul from death, to keep
them alive in famine. Now here's why we're waiting
for the Lord. The Lord's taught us this and
he's teaching us this. He's making us know this more
and more. Our Lord never slumbers and he never sleeps. And his
eye is upon each and every single one of his redeemed all the time. We can't do that. We can't keep
our eye on all our children at once. And if they get out of
our sight, we can't keep our eye on them at all. The Lord
has his eye on every single one of his children personally, just
like you, the only one he's got. He keeping his eye on you at
all time. You're his focus all the time. To deliver their soul from death,
to keep them alive in famine. Now that's what he's going to
do concerning the heathen and all around us. The Lord prepares
a table for us in the midst of our enemies. He's our shepherd.
He's going to keep his people. But now let me ask you this.
What happens when we're the one, when our sinful flesh is the
reason for the death and for the famine? What happens when
we don't wait on the Lord? What happens when we try to run
ahead or when we try to make something happen? When we're
the death and the famine, how's he going to save us from that?
Let's go in Isaiah 30. I want you to see this. Here's
how he's going to save us. Isaiah 30. Verse 15. Thus saith the Lord God, the
holy one of Israel. In returning and rest shall you
be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength, and you
would not." Now let me tell you what happened. The Lord sent
Isaiah to King Ahaz, and he was the king of Judah. Well, Israel
had joined with, they had joined up with Syria. And they were
coming up against Judah. And the Lord sent Isaiah, and
he said, this is not going to come to pass. Ahaz, my counsel
shall stand. Both these nations are going
to be diminished. Syria is going to be destroyed.
Israel is not even going to be a people one day. He said, and
here's your promise that this is going to come to pass. Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and be with child, and his name shall
be Emmanuel, God with us. Because he's coming through Judah,
nothing's going to happen to Judah. Well, God's promising
me and you nothing's going to happen to us because he's already
come and he's redeemed us and he saved us. But Ahaz wouldn't
listen. Ahaz joined in with the Assyria
and made a covenant with them. Well, just like the Lord told
them. And he said, Assyria is going to be, they're going to
be harmful to you. They're not going to help you.
And sure enough, at the point that Isaiah sinned again, Assyria
is attacking Israel, Judah now. Assyria is, the one they put,
made a covenant with. And the Lord sent Isaiah this
time and said, the best thing to do is to wait on the Lord.
And they said, nope, we're going to Egypt and we're going to make
a confederacy with Egypt this time. And they're going to save
us from the Syrians. Now watch, the Lord said, returning, and
resting, shall you be saved? In quietness and confidence,
shall you be your strength? He said, if you return to me
and wait on me and trust me, that's how you're gonna be saved.
That's gonna be your strength. And you would not. You ever been
there? I've been there. Just wasn't
waiting on the Lord. Not gonna wait, gonna try to
make something happen. Well, the Lord just gonna cast you
off when you do that? You said, no, we'll flee upon
horses. Therefore shall you flee, the
Lord let them flee. You said we'll ride upon the
swift, therefore shall they that pursue you be swift. One thousand
shall flee at the rebuke of one, at the rebuke of five shall you
flee. When the Lord's with you in spirit,
you can stand up against a multitude. If the Lord's not be in your
strength and you're trusting that you'll never deny him, You'll
stand by a fire, and when a little maid asks you if you know him,
you'll curse at God and say, I don't know who he is, because
you don't have any strength without him. Well, he said, I'm going
to do this till you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain,
as an ensign on a hill. The margin says, like a mast
with no sail, or like a tree with all its branches broken
off. I'm going to do this till you're just Brought to the end
of yourself and broken. That's what the Lord said. Look. You wouldn't wait. He said verse
18. Therefore, will the Lord wait?
Therefore, will the Lord wait? Why? That he may be gracious
unto you. That he may be gracious unto
you. Therefore, will he be exalted? You see, when you're brought
down and stripped and don't have anything, and you're on that
slave block like Gomer was, and the Lord comes forth and says,
nobody wants her, but I'll buy her, that's when he's going to
be exalted to you. And you're going to see you're
saved by grace. When you see that you're the one that did
all the sinning, and you're the one that messed it all up, and
you're the one that did exactly contrary to what you claim to
believe, and the Lord still didn't cast you away, but he's still
best gracious to you, that's when he's gonna be exalted. And he does it that he may have
mercy upon you, for the Lord's a God of judgment. Blessed are
all they that wait for him. For the people shall dwell in
Zion at Jerusalem, and they shall weep no more. He'll be very gracious
unto thee at the voice of thy cry, when he shall hear it, He
will answer you. You see, that's how the Lord
teaches us to wait on him. It's how he teaches you to be
patient. It's how he teaches you to hope in his mercy. He
does it by making good on his promises, but he also does it
sometimes through tribulation when you don't wait on him. He
delivers your soul from death. He keeps you alive in the famine,
even when you're the cause of it. Ask a lot. Ask our brother a lot about that.
All he had to do was just humble himself and submit himself to
Brother Abraham, the man who taught him the gospel. And he'd
have peace. Instead, he said, look at that
fertile plain down there. I'll take that. And he took off
down there. And there's only one reason the
Lord didn't destroy Sodom. Because of Lot. That's it. You reckon Lot You reckon when
the Lord brought him out of there, you reckon like saw the grace
of the Lord, you reckon like saw something of God's mercy. Lord's going to work in providence
and he's going to send these various trials so that we have
to wait on the Lord. You know, you've been waiting
on the Lord for now, it'll be five years in the spring, this
spring. And I'll tell you, this is the hardest thing we do, if
not the hardest thing that we do is wait on the Lord, because
We want things to happen in our time, and we just get tired of
waiting. But the Lord's going to operate
on his timetable. He's going to operate on his
timetable, and his time's the right time. It's called the due
time. In the fullness of the time,
God sent forth his son. Not before, not after. When the
hour was come, they couldn't touch Christ till the hour came.
Brethren, everything God's purpose for us has a set time and it's
the Lord's time. But when we will not wait and
he keeps delivering us, that's how he's going to grow us to
know our only help and our only shield is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul's talking about
over there in in Psalm. I mean, in Romans five, when
he said, we're not only glory and being justified by Christ
and his grace where we stand. He said we glory in tribulation
also. Why? No one in tribulation works patience
and patience experience and experience hope and hope make it not a shame
because the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given us. And you know what he reminds
you of every time he does this for you? How did he first save
you? Look at verse 6. When you were
without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
And he shows you that, and look what he tells you here at the
end at verse 21. Just like sin has reigned unto
death, grace shall reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. The same as he saved you in that
first hour and you had no strength, the whole way through you don't
have any strength. It's him saving you by grace,
making you reign in life by our Lord Jesus Christ. Every bit
of this salvation. But every time he's delivering
you, he's making you grow in patience, in hope, He's teaching
you by experience that you got no strength in you. Trust him. And that's why verse 21 says
our heart shall rejoice in him because we've trusted in his
holy name. He's going to keep you rejoicing in him, brethren.
He's going to keep you. You shall rejoice in him. And
here's why. Because you trust in him. Look, he gave you the
faith to trust him. That's why you trust him. And
he's never going to make you ashamed for trusting him. And
he's never going to put you to shame for trusting him. He's
going to keep you believe in him and keep you hoping in him.
And your heart shall rejoice in the Lord because you trust
him to save you. And he's going to keep saving
you. Now, look at verse or listen to Isaiah 40, verse 27. Now,
here's a personal word to you. You've been waiting a long time,
and here's what we tend to say, Isaiah 40, 27. Now, we wouldn't
say this out loud, but this is what we think in our heart. Why
sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest thou this? For my way is hid
from the Lord, my judgment's passed over by my God. They say,
why do we get to thinking the Lord's forgot about us? Or maybe
the Lord's not with us, or maybe the Lord's not going to bless
us, or maybe the Lord, you know, he's passed us over, he's not
going to help us. Verse 28, has thou not known,
has thou not heard the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There's
no searching of his understanding. He giveth power, but who's he
give it to? To the faint. To the faint. What did we just
see in Isaiah 30? As long as we're fleeing and
running and we got some strength, he'll just wait till we're the
faint. That means we're on our face
before him saying, Lord, if you don't save me, I won't be saved.
That's who he gives strength to. That's when he's exalted. That's when his grace is magnified.
That's when we praise him and him only. And he said, and to
them that have no might, he increases strength. And it doesn't matter
who you are, you might be a strong young person, you're gonna faint
and be weary. The young men shall utterly fall.
No matter how strong we think we are, we're gonna fall. But
they that wait upon the Lord. Listen now, even when you've
fallen, what did he say in Isaiah, I think it's Isaiah 44, he said,
who is he that believes the Lord, obeys his servant, and walks
in darkness? You believe the Lord, you trust
the Lord, but you're in darkness. You faint, you're down, you're
weak, you're weary. He said, let him stay upon his
God. When Christ was going to that cross, you think it was
dark. He said, all my apostles will forsake me. He said, you're
going to all leave me tonight. Everybody left him and he was
totally alone. He said, but I'm not alone, the
Father's with me. That's what Paul learned. He
said, they all forsook me. All my brethren forsook me. When
you're in this place right here, you'll find that you got a lot
of Nicodemus friends. They'll be friendly to you and
talk to you on the telephone or in cover of darkness, but
not out in public. But he said, but my father's
with me. I don't much care, as long as
he's with me. That's all that matters. And
you stay up on the Lord even when you're in the darkness.
Christ said, I set my face like a flint. I know he'll justify
me. I know he'll make good on all
his promises. Who is he that'll condemn me?
It's God that justifies. He will raise me from the grave.
When I finish this work, he's going to raise me to his right
hand. And he went to that cross. And here's the point of what
he was teaching us in that chapter. If you're in darkness, you set
your face like a flint, and you keep looking to the Lord, and
you wait on him, he will make good on this promise. And he'll
prove that to you. Who's he going to dwell with?
He said, Thus saith the high and the lofty one that inhabits
eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy
place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. Just trust in me and wait no
man to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of
the contrite ones. And so we keep praying. Here's
the heart of the humble. Verse 22. Let thy mercy, O Lord,
be upon us, according as we hope in thee. That's our prayer. That's
the prayer of a person stayed upon the Lord, hoping in him,
waiting on him. Let thy mercy be upon us, O Lord. We're hoping in you. Lord bless
you.