Good morning. All these tall creatures are
going to have to get a soapbox. I went down to Kingsport last
week and preached in a Bible conference and Gabe is kind of
tall and I feel like I need to do this to see over the pulpit. I invite you this morning to
turn with me to Psalm 131. While you're turning to our text,
let me say again that I thank God for the privilege of being
here today and for His gracious providence that has arranged
this meeting. it's a whole new outlook when
you realize everything that you experience in a day has been
arranged with God. It's God's work. God's work. Oh, what a difference it makes
in how you look at that day and all the things that are happening
in that day. This is arranged. He worked on
all things after the council had gone. And I thank you for having me,
and I thank you for your affection over the years and your generosity
to me over the years. And I pray that the Lord will
use this church for many, many years. Psalm 131 is one of 15 psalms. which have a title if you look
above psalm 131 you'll see it and you'll see it in every one
from psalm 120 all the way through psalm 134 and the title simply reads a
song of degrees each one a song of degrees he's not talking about
degrees of salvation there are no degrees of salvation the baby
in Christ is as secure as the most mature saint the weakest
the weakest woman in Christ is as strong as any apostle there
are no degrees of salvation but there are degrees of knowledge
we grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and
there are degrees of comfort There's degrees of comfort, there's
degrees of assurance. Abraham was strong in faith.
Strong in faith, giving glory to God. And Jewish historians say that
these songs were sung by men and women going to Jerusalem
to partake by faith of those typical feasts. They were commanded
once a year to go to Jerusalem. and partake by faith of these
typical faith these days were not just ordinances though they
were were not just uh... things that you do it's sunday
so we'll go to church uh... there's a little more to it than
that and there was with these feasts too and these old testament
saints the true believers in the old testament times understood
what those feasts God had men who would teach them the truth
the same as He does today. And they might not see those
feasts with the clarity that you and I see, but they saw those
feasts as God setting forth His Son as a propitiation for our
sins. He tells us that in Romans 3,
24 through 26. And I have no way of knowing if this is true, as far as them singing these
songs on their way to Jerusalem. But these wonderfully inspired
songs are meant for us to sing as we gather in God's designated
place of worship and on our way to our Father's house and that
heavenly Jerusalem. I understand that these things
are inspired for that, And understanding that, I can't help but believe
they sang those things on their way to Jerusalem. Just as we
sung the hymns this morning, what did we do? We recalled in
these hymns what God has done, is doing, and yet shall do for
us. And if we're just babes in Christ,
these songs are teaching us, instructing us as to those things
that God has done, is doing, and has promised yet to do. And each of these songs highlights
some facet of our salvation in Christ. They're written by divine
inspiration for us, and each song has a subject And I pray
the Holy Ghost this morning will enable me and enable you to rightly
divide these things and open our hearts and minds to embrace
them. Psalm 120, beginning way back
there, I titled it the Song of the Crier. In my distress I cried
unto the Lord. Don't you recall that? That was
my experience. standing before God naked, crying
unto him out of my distress. And then in Psalm 121, he sings
the song of the keeper. He will not suffer thy foot to
be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. And then the song of heavenly
eyes. O my soul, blessed are your eyes,
our Lord said, they see. What do they see? They see what
this world has never saw. They see spiritual things. The
Spirit caught John up, and I don't know what we think about when
we read that, but the Spirit catches us up also, and He allows
us to look right into Heaven itself and see those things that
God has predestinated, see those things that shall yet come to
pass. We see those things. How do we
see them? By faith. So there's a song here about
heavenly eyes and there's a song of assurance and on and on it
goes. This morning I pray God will teach us to sing the song
of contentment. That's what this psalm is all
about. What is contentment? Very few of us know because very
few of us are content. What is contentment? The dictionary
said it is a state of happy satisfaction. That's what it means to be content.
And our text goes even deeper than whatever ideas we have of
that in this world. I'll be content. Boy, I used
to say if I could just get me a new truck, I'd be content.
But I wasn't. If I could just get a house,
I'd be content. If I could just get my children
ready, I'd be content. The contentment we learn and
what this psalm is all about is a spiritual contentment. And
true contentment, happy satisfaction, it finds in Christ a happy satisfaction. It finds in Him everything He
could ever possibly want is in Him. What could you possibly
want that's not in Christ? They're none like him. Isaiah talked about him a thousand
years ago. He said, I'm God, there's none
like me. There's none like me. There's none like him, there's
none more caring than he. There's none more loving than
he, more gracious, more kind and merciful than he. There are
none more wise, more committed, more fixed in purpose than Him.
I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent
me. There are none more qualified, more able, more ready, more supplied
than Him. Of His fullness, John said, the
word was made flesh, dwelt among us. and we beheld his glory the glory
of the only but not all of grace and truth and all of you for
and we all receive so much so that paul said crash
is all and you know what that all mingled so much so that Listen
to this, it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness
dwell, and that in all things he might have the preeminence. Faith finds an eternal contentment
in Christ. It finds contentment in eternity
past, in all of his appointments, It finds eternal contentment
in His manifestation in this world. It finds eternal contentment
as it looks to Him in glory. And the man or woman who has
this contentment learns to be content in all things. Is contentment something of value,
something that we need? Paul writes to Timothy and tells
him, godliness, what's that? God-likeness. He said godliness with contentment. Boy, if I want to think about
my efforts to be godly, I can't be content with that. But in
Christ, I have a perfect godliness. And godliness with contentment
is great. Does this contentment bleed over
into my everyday situation? Well, he writes to the saints
at Philippi and he said, I've learned in whatever state I'm
in there with to be content. I'm content. If I know that my
Lord who loved me and gave himself for me, in whom full provision
has been given, if I know he sits at the right hand of God
arranging all things, supplying all things, bringing all things
to pass for my good and his glory, I ought to be content in everything. Does contentment have a place
in our behavior? He said, let your conversation
be without covetousness and be content with such things as you
have. Why? Because He said, I'll never
leave thee, I'll never forsake thee. Oh, I'd be content with
that, can't you? Content me. He is or shall be the experience
of every believer to be content find happy satisfaction in God
our Savior. And what does it take to make
us content? What do we discover in Christ
that gives us contentment? Well, it takes something so vast,
so inexhaustible, and so perfect that we can't take it all in.
That's what it takes. eternity will not exhaust the
treasure of the knowledge of god which is rightly called eternal
it'll go on for it all you thought when you got up in the glory
and all you see and gone you thought you'd know everything
there you don't keep right on right on discovery because it
is not it will not exhaust the treasure
of the knowledge of God. And Paul prayed for the saints
at Colossae that their hearts might be comforted, being knit
together in love unto all riches, to the full assurance of understanding,
and to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the
Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. Surely Christ is the treasure
in the field of God's Word, and those who know it buy it. They
buy the whole book, and they start digging. They start digging. They discovered that treasure. I discovered that treasure years
ago in one or two verses. I'm still digging, and I've never
run out of treasure. It's still there. It's still
there. May the Lord teach us, each one,
how to sing this blessing song. There's three verses in the song,
and it begins with a godly attitude, and then a godly weaning, and
then a good hope through grace. So let's begin with the attitude
of God's saints being called of God. How does this attitude begin?
Look at the song. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord.
Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord.
Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord.
Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord.
Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord.
Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord.
Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord.
Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord.
Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord.
Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord. Lord.
Lord. or what do you order the lord of all the lord of heaven earth and
when he approached those damon possessed me and what did they
what did those damon say to him? Lord, isn't that what they said? why shall come to us? He's Lord of the dead and the
living. He's Lord of heaven, earth, and
hell, and the scripture said He's Lord of lords and King of
kings. What's that mean? Well, Solomon
said the King's heart. The King, whoever He is, the
King's heart is in the hand of the Lord just like those rivers
of water. He turneth it whether so ever
He will. He's Lord. Sovereign, eternal, omnipotent,
Lord. And those who know this address
Him as such. He's Lord. Well, what is their mindset?
Look at verse again, verse one. My heart is not haughty. It was. It was. had a quick come back for everything are not home nor my I'll lofty you know people who look down
on people like that there see here's cry and he's invited in
it to his home age and there he is and this guy didn't give
him any water to wash his feet he didn't give him anything he
just It was all a crap anyway. They wanted to catch him in something
that he said. But they invited me in and here
comes this woman and she's just bawling and she's washing his
feet with her tears and drying his feet with her hair. And he
looked down and he said, if he knew what man or woman that was,
he wouldn't have allowed it. You reckon the Lord of Glory
didn't know what man or woman that was? So if we can't take
our place with her, we've got a problem. We've got a problem. No, my eyes are not lofty. I'm
not up here somewhere looking down. I'm down here. When he
brings you down to the bottom, all you can do is look up. I
look up to you. I'm sitting on the bottom. I
can't look down at anything. Paul called himself the chief
of sinners. He wrote half the New Testament.
Surely he'd have a haughty heart and a lofty look. No, he did. He did, but now he's on the bus,
and he's a chief of sinners. He said, my heart's not haughty,
nor my eyes lofty, neither do I exercise myself in great matters
or in things too high for me. What brings about such an attitude? understanding that there's nothing
of any eternal value to your soul outside of Christ. That's what we'll bring it about.
Those who find contentment will not find it in themselves or
in others or in this present evil world. They'll find it in
Him. Brother Mahan told me one time
that when I read the Proverbs just to substitute Christ for
that word wisdom. Everywhere where it says wisdom,
just substitute the word Christ because He's our wisdom. Of God
are we in Christ Jesus who is made unto us wisdom. In 1 Corinthians 2.30 it goes
on and tells us that the same thing applies to righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. and also i'll add to that the
same thing goes for contentment where you see that we're content
with this subject of the work right why can you say that because
indian released here's what paul told us i think a lot dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in
Him." You're wanting nothing. Nothing. Oh, my soul. Contentment. So how does it appear that natural
men and women seem so happy and content without Christ? they're
just happy as a lot. They're just doing this and doing
that. Buying up businesses, buying cars. Die contented. No bans, that's
what David said. There are no bans in their death.
How can that be? Well, Isaiah said they've made
lies their refuge and hidden themselves in falsehood. There's
no truth in them. No truth in them. Those old Pharisees
and scribes, They were filled with self-righteousness. They'd hidden themselves in falsehood
and made lies their refuge. If anybody saved, I am. We used
to sing a song like that when I grew up in religion. If anybody
makes it, Lord, surely I will. I can't believe I sang that song,
but I did. I did. And there's a multitude of preachers
out there whose father is the devil, just like the Pharisees,
and their preaching seems perfectly reasonable to natural men. It's
reason. What's wrong with their preaching?
I hear it all the time. The scripture said there's a
way that seemeth right unto a man. It seems right. You wouldn't
go there if it didn't seem right. People flock in there because
it seems right. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction. John said, They
are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world
hears them. Hears them. We are of God, he said. He that
knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth
not us. The attitude of the believer
is formed as he showed up to God's Word, God's Spirit, God's
Son, God's Preacher, and God's Providence. We're just empty vessels in need
of filling. We're blind sinners in need of
light. We're ignorant sinners in need
of teaching, dead sinners in need of life. A proud look. totally contrary
to the experience of grace and so far or people not feeling the religion is world
we had a dot com and he dragged out a bunch of charts and start
describing the end of the world and that's the fact that they
don't mind and maybe some of you saying uh... bomb is that i don't make sure
that much different great when the end of the world i don't
know and i'm a good company the son of god said i don't know
we've he said no man no that no not
even the sun but i'm a proud man so i won't get up to you I don't exercise myself in great
matters or things too high for me. And brethren, you and I are
shut up to the word of God and the revelation of the spirit
in Christ and we're content. Aren't you content? When God
began to reveal things to me through his preacher, I found
contentment. I told Kathy after the first
time I heard Brother Mahan, I said, that's where we're going. That's
where we're going. I like what he's saying. I can
be content listening to him. Contentment. We're content with such things
as God reveals in his Son. And Paul tells us about men worshipping
angels and intruding into those things which they've never seen,
vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds. He tells us about preachers
of the law. They're desiring to be teachers
of the law, and they don't understand what they're saying or what they're
reading. They don't understand. So contentment begins with a
godly attitude, and that godly attitude is when Christ, the
Lord, brings you down. He brings you down, shows you
who you are and what you are, and then shows you something
of His grace. Now you have an attitude. You
have an attitude. And it's a good attitude. And
then secondly, the Holy Ghost inspires this song to teach us
about a godly weaning. Psalm 131-2. He said, Surely I have behaved
and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother.
My soul is even as a weaned child. Two things mentioned here to
bring about this godly winning. First of all, he tells you I
have behaved. What's he talking about? Obedience. Obedience. A rebellious spirit
will never know contentment. He's always questioning and kicking
against the pricks and trying to ignore the means of God and
the ways of God and the word of God and the work of the Holy
Ghost. He's always wanting to get around something or go over
it. He's not content. One frustrated
man told one of my members something I said about, I was trying to
stress the point I was making. and uh... i said something about
your old grandma or should we say that he had a hero and uh... so he he was right up in the
face of one of my members after the meeting and he was trying
to tell him that i didn't single out his grandma i was just talking
about salvation and in particular self-righteousness non-righteous
no not one not even your grandma he said, I don't care what the
Word of God says. I don't care what the Word of
God says. Ain't much obedience in that, is it? Another one told me, he said,
I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have to hear a
preacher. The Holy Ghost said you did. not much will be others but they can unravel the
things we've got out there get form on the job I was working
on one time he was listening to me talking to a friend of
mine he said that ain't right and I said well that's what it
says and where so I went out and got my bible come in and
showed it exactly what i want to have a
moment we can read the back you really think you can go home
and read it like a novel come come back on monday morning and
unravel all the mysteries of god the calling of god leads us to
miss you submissive to all the means and ways of god because
he shut us up to it and we behave as we submit. Listen to this,
Romans 6 verse 17. Oh, he said, may God be thanked.
You were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered you. God shut you up
to a preacher, and he told you the truth, and you received it,
and I thank God for it. because that's the only way it'll
ever happen. Submission, behavior. And then
the second part of this weaning is a quieting of the soul. And
oh, how the heart cries with anxious desperation when God
reveals to you your sins. Convinces you that you're the
sinner. You're the sinner. All you can
do is sin. All you can do, every thought,
every imagination of the heart is only evil continued. He shows
you that you're the sinner. Your best prayer is my filthy
rat. Oh my soul, how the heart cries
in anxious desperation when it discovers sin. sins of ignorance,
and sins of the flesh, and even sins... Did you know there's
a sacrifice in the Old Testament for sins of the holy things?
We can't even do what God instructs us to do without sin. And even
that spiritual church, even that spiritual house of God, He said,
offers up spiritual sacrifices, now listen, acceptable to God
by Jesus Christ. with even sins of the holy things. My sin, David said, is ever before
me. Paul the aged cried, O wretched
man that I am! Not that I used to be, but that
I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? God the Holy Spirit in the Gospel
reveals how our sins have been dealt with he bore our sins our
sins he bore our sins in his own body on the tree he put away
the scripture said our sins by the sacrifice of his body God
laid on him the iniquity of us all And God hath made him sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God, justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. And to the praise of the glory
of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the blood,
in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace. The soul is quieted
by the accomplished redemption of Christ. It's quiet. And that's the only thing that'll
quiet. Here's the ministry of reconciliation,
to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them. Never charge them
with a single trespass, even though they came forth from the
womb. they could not what do you want to do this overlooked he came to accomplish the redemptive
will of god the scripture said by the week we are we're trying
to back to the offering of the body of jesus christ Oh, how redemption quiets a troubled
soul. I just, I imagine those saints
on their way to Jerusalem, and if you can, just try to imagine
yourself. That's what we're doing, we're
pilgrims, going to that heavenly Jerusalem, and we're recalling
to ourselves those things that God has done for us. And oh,
how it quiets the soul, a troubled soul. when you see all these
things accomplished by Jesus Christ. The hymn writer said,
That soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not,
hear me, he said, I will not desert him. That soul, though
all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, nor never
forsake. You draw any comfort from that?
Oh, I'm telling you how I get contentment in that. And then thirdly, if I'm taught to sing the song
of contentment, I must see and be convinced of an everlasting
hope. Let Israel, all God's elect,
verse 3, hope. in the Lord. How long? From henceforth
and forever. Forever. You have a good hope
through grace, a hope with divine origin, if your hope is Christ
in you, that's the hope of glory, isn't it? Christ in you. Christ
only. Christ all and in all. If your hope is an everlasting
hope, you ought to have continuity. Hebrews 8, 19, Paul said, for
the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of another
hope did, by the which will we draw nigh unto God. God said to his son, he said
two things, and both of them had to do with the same thing.
He said this, thou art a priest forever, at the order of melchizedek
you have an everlasting priesthood you were a priest before the
foundation of the world when i appointed you and you will
be a priest in eternity thou art a priest after the order
of melchizedek and then he told him this thou art my son today as i begot
thee This man, this God-man, the man
Christ Jesus, this man, because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable
priesthood, wherefore he's able to save to the uttermost them
that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. Attempts being convinced of the
full provision of salvation in Christ. Paul said, I know whom
I have believed. We preach a person. a person. And he said, I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I have committed unto him against that day, made provision in our
eternal election, secured us by divine and eternal predestination,
redeemed us by his blood, reconciled us through the offering of the
body of his Son, justified us by his resurrection, intercedes
for us in glory and reigning over all things upon his throne
of grace. He preserves forever his people
by an unchangeable decision. Let God's elect hope in the Lord
for henceforth and forever. And I'm not trying this morning
to convince you of a system of theology. or some denominational
preference. I'm doing the best I can, and
that's not very good, but I'm doing the best I can to set before
you salvation in a person. In a person. Read the New Testament. My soul, how many sinners who
didn't know anything came to Christ. If I can just touch They
didn't know anything about His eternal appointments. If I can
just touch the person, if I can just lay hold of the person,
preaching is setting before you a person in whom all the fullness
of the Godhead abides. Abides. Life is in Him. He that hath the Son shall have
life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. To know Him is to know God. To
see Him is to see the Father. To hear Him is to hear the voice
of God. Salvation is in a person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And those who lay hold on Him
have an eternal hope, eternal forgiveness, eternal life. Listen to what John says. I hear
this all the time. Then people over there at that
church, they think they're the only ones in the world who know
God. I don't know about the world, but
around where I live, as far as I can tell, I'm the only one,
and those who listen to me. But John said this, he said,
we know the whole world, life and wickedness. And he said,
we know we're of God. Well, that's what they accuse
me of. and that's what they'll give you. And then John says in chapter
5 verse 20 of 1st John, he said, We know that the Son of God hath
come, and given to us an understanding that we may know Him that's true,
that we're in Him that's true, even in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God and eternal life. If you learn to sing the song
of contentment and let me learn to submit, obey,
and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. We which have believed, he said,
do enter into rest. You know, I told our folks several
years ago, I was going through the book of Genesis, and several
people were listening to it, and the Lord was really opening
up some things in me for the first time. But I got over to
chapter two, and it said, that god had created the whole
world and he raised him and i thought now wait a minute didn't he know that satan was
going to tempt that woman in the garden? didn't he know that through the
fault of that woman that adam would partake of that fruit?
Didn't He know that by the sin of that one man the whole world
that He was created was going to fall? By one man sin entered into the
world and death by sin and death passed upon all men. Didn't God
know that? Didn't He know that just in a
few generations That every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart
was going to be only evil continually and he'd have to destroy the
whole world? Didn't he know that? Didn't he
know that even after the flood? men's heart was going to wax
gross in sin and they were all going to go down to Babylon and
they got together and got talking the way religious folks do. They
had a little council meeting. They got together and said, hey,
let's build a tower right up in the glory. We'll just walk
up steps right in the glory. We'll build this tower. Didn't
God know they were going to do that? By their own works, try to walk
in the glory. then how could he rest? Didn't
he know that when his son come into the world that his own people
along with the world would reject him, spit on him, despise him,
reject him? Didn't he know? Then how could
he rest? The same way you and I did. Who
first rested in Christ. That's what that word trust means
over there in Ephesians. Unto the praise of the glory
him first trusted in Christ. When did he do that? Back on
the beginning of the world. Back on the foundation of the
world. And he rested. Did you know creation
is created by our redeeming? And that everything in it is
necessary to manifest the glory of God in our redemption. I tell
you, you'll look at creation in a whole new light, and you'll
be content. Alright, thanks.