It is so good to see everyone.
What an honor to be here and the Lord allow us to worship
him. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you
all for that song. That was a blessing. His sheep
do hear his voice. And they follow him wherever
he goes. Whatever valley, whatever heartache,
whatever pain, He leads us. He knows what we need to teach
us to trust Him. He knows exactly, and I'm glad
He does. I want to read, if you want to
go ahead and be turning your Bible to Psalms chapter 40, and
I want to read the last two verses of that song that we sing, the
sands of time are sinking. Psalms chapter 40. The song says, oh, I am my beloved's,
and my beloved's mine. He brings a poor bouncer to his
house of wine. I stand upon his merit, I know
no other stand, and even in him when glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's
land. The bride is not her garment,
but heard your by-groom's face. I will not gaze glazed at glory,
but on my King of Grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but
on his pierced hands. The Lamb is all the glory of
Emmanuel's land. Glory to the Savior. Psalm chapter 40. Some make reference to some psalms
and call them messianic psalms. To me, I think they're all messianic
psalms. I think that whoever wrote the
psalm, it could be them speaking and them experiencing what they're
experiencing, and God inspired them to write it. But I believe
most of all, if you miss Christ, you missed it. To think about
him saying these things, and we know that this scripture is because Paul makes reference
to it, this Psalm 40 in Hebrews 10, verse five through seven. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not,
but a body hath thou prepared me. And burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, I, lo, I come in
the volume of the book. It is written of me to do thy
will." And here we are looking today in the volume of the book. And who are we coming to see?
We're coming to see Him. He said in verse 1, I waited
patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my
cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and He set my feet on a
rock and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in
my mouth, even praising to our God. Many shall see it in fear
and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn
aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to usward. Now notice that, thy thoughts,
his thoughts, which are to usward, they cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered. God's wonderful
works. And here it is, sacrifice an
offering thou didst not desire. Mine ear hast thou opened, burn
offerings and send offerings. Hast thou not required? Then
said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written to
me. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law was within
my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not reframed my lips,
O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
and thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold not thou
thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy lovingkindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils, have compassed
me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me." And you go, surely that's not our Lord speaking. He had no iniquities. That's
exactly right. He didn't. But somebody's got
to bear yours. And he said here, For innumerable
evils have come past me about, mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me, so that I am unable to look up. They are more than
the hair of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased,
O Lord, to deliver me, O Lord. Make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded
together to seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be driven
backward and out and out and put the shame that wished me
evil. Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that's
saying to me, aha, aha. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, the Lord be magnified. So it seems his heart
is just overflowing with praise to his God. Look at verse 17. But But, a little conjunction word,
but, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thanketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer,
and make no tarrying, oh my God. He's saying and he's speaking
in our behalf, We may not realize it, we may not comprehend it,
but we are all, by nature, poor. When our father, Adam, in the
garden sinned, he left us in total, complete, bankrupt. We have nothing of our own, we
have no merit of our own, and here he says, I am poor and needy. How did he become poor? 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, for
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
was rich, you just think sometimes how rich he is. Though he was
rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty
might be rich. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for they are the children of God. He said, I am poor and needy,
yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Our Lord, I want you to think
about something just for a few minutes. Our Lord came to this
world. What a wonderful work is that,
that God, that God, would join himself to marry himself with
human flesh and become poor. Born in a stable, never owned
a piece of ground, didn't have a place to lay his head. Think about Larry. Everything
they got's gone. Who are they going to lay their
head? He never had a place. One man asked him one day, he
said, I'll follow you wherever you go. He said, the foxes have
holes in the birds of the air. They have a nest. He said, I
don't even have a place to lay my head. You still want to follow
me? He depended upon the hospitality
of others. Let me read you this. Turn to
Luke chapter eight. And it was kind of ironic, as
we read the first part of Luke 8, that this comes right after
Luke 7. And what happened in Luke 7,
right before this, remember when our Lord was invited to Simon's
house, and he said, you didn't wash my feet, you didn't anoint
my head. And this woman came in, out of love for him, and
washed his feet with tears and dried it with the hair of his
head. This man never offered him anything. But this woman
showed him great love. But he depended upon the goodness
of others. In Luke 8, verse 1, it came to
pass afterward that he went throughout every city and village preaching
and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the
twelve were with him. And certain women, which had
been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene,
out of whom went seven devils, And Joanna, the wife of Cusa,
Harry's steward, and Susanna, Susanna and many others, which
ministered to him of their substance." Did he need things? Yes. He could
have provided them for himself. He keep fed 5,000, but he never
used a miracle for himself. He could have put in someone's
heart to build him a house, but he didn't. But he came to their
house, and they ministered unto him. How's he going to survive? How are they going to get something
to eat? How are they going to have all these things? Well,
what do you need? You are poor. A lot of people may know they're
poor, but they don't know they're needy. Are you needy this morning? Everyone in here are poor. We
are all poor. And we are needy. You might not
know you're needy, but we are needy. You know, what do we need?
We need grace. We need mercy. We need kindness. We need forgiveness. We need
reconciliation. We need peace with God. We need
rest with God. And we could go on, needy, poor,
needy. How did our Lord walk in this
world? He walked by faith. In Luke chapter 10, Verse 38, and it came to pass
as they went that he entered into a certain village, and a
certain woman named Martha. What did she do? She invited
him to her house. She said, Lord, would you come
over to my house for dinner? And she had a sister named Mary,
which sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. He went over to her house. Why? Because we, by nature, are
poor and needy. As I was talking to Rex earlier,
he's able to be felt with the feelings of our infirmities.
I don't know what you're facing. I don't know what you're going
through, but I know he does. I know he does. When he was crucified, they stripped
him of everything. And when he died, they buried
him in a borrowed tomb. Our Lord came to this world to
identify with his people. He came to save his people. Listen to Isaiah 41, verse 17. When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, That's a poor, needy man. He's thirsty
for water. And there is none. We are blessed,
we are blessed, you are blessed to have had a pastor that brought
you the water of life. Most people don't have a clue.
You drink of the waters of this world, you'll thirst again, but
you drink of his water, you'll never thirst. But it said they, The needy seek water, and there's
none. And their tongue faileth for
thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them.
I, the God of Israel, who you get this, I won't forsake you. I won't forsake you. I want you
to turn to Ezekiel 16. Just bear with me. I want to
show you something. Someone pointed this out the
other day in our church. I've never seen it before. Ezekiel
16, verse 48. If I mentioned the word solemn
this morning, there's something that comes to your mind. First
thing that's going to come to our mind, that's what we're going
to think about. And what's this? In Ezekiel 16
verse 48. As I live, saith the Lord God,
Sodom thy sister hath not done. She nor her daughters as thou
hast done. He said Sodom didn't do like
Israel did. Thou and thy daughters. Now behold, this is the iniquity
of thy sister Sodom. He said this is her iniquity.
Pride. Would you, would that have been
the first one you would have thought about, not me? Pride,
seven things that the Lord hate, a proud look, fullness of bread,
an abundance of idleness was in her and her daughters. Neither
did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy. Out of
her pride brought all those other things, but then the charge against
them was they did not strengthen or help the poor and the needy. They are haughty and they commit
abominations before me. Therefore, I took them away as
I saw good. Sodom is charged with pride,
luxury, idleness, uncharitableness. And these, someone said, were
sufficient to sink any city to the bottomless pit. Have no compassion
for the poor and the needy. But our Lord did. Our Lord did. They refused to
help strangers. The poorest hated even of his
neighbor in Proverbs 14, 20. But the rich had many friends.
He that despises his neighbor sinneth, but he that hath mercy
on the poor, happy as he is. You know what, our Lord? He showed
mercy. You know what you need this morning? What you need,
and you get this, what you need this morning is mercy. If God
don't show you mercy, you'll perish. You need mercy. You may
not know it, but you need it. His mercy is new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. It endures forever, His mercy. He hath mercy on the poor, in
spirit, and bankrupt. Luke, if you would turn to Luke
chapter 14 verse 12. You know, the common people heard
our Lord lately. You know, we're not just talking
about physical or material wealth, we're talking about something
that's spiritual. Well, what's in a man's heart?
Out of the heart, we're going to talk about thoughts in a minute.
Out of the heart, perceive what? Evil thoughts. What did that
man think about our Lord? He didn't show him any mercy. Our Lord looked like any other
Jewish man. He said, I don't need to wash
his feet. I don't need to anoint his head.
Big deal. I could care less. I know one
who cares. It's said, our Lord said, and
he said also to him that made him, verse 12 of Luke 14, when
you make a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy
brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors. Now that's
who we would have invited. But when thou makest a feast,
you call the poor, and the lame, and the lame, and the blind,
and thou shalt be blessed. For they cannot recompense thee,
for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just."
And then James, in chapter 2, verse 1. My brethren, have not
the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect
to persons, If they're coming to you in assembly with a man
with a gold ring or godly apparel, goodly apparel, and they're coming
also a poor man in vile raiment, and you have respect to him but
wear the gay clothing, and you're saying to him, why don't you
come up here and sit on the front row? Sit down here in a good place,
and you say to the poor, we don't have any more seats. Why don't
you stand up in the back? Who's he writing to? Last time
I checked, he's writing to me and you. You say, oh, we would
never do that. Like I said, when I read you
that in Ezekiel about Sodom, what was the first thing that
came to our mind? We see, oh, we need to go back there and
talk to him. We need to speak to him. Oh,
come on up. You just slide on over. We're
going to make a spot for him. What you need to do is make this
man stand in the back and put that poor man up on the front.
That's what our Lord said, and that's what our Lord did. He
went to the poor and to me. He sat and ate with publicans
and sinners. He said in James, are you not
impartial in yourselves and become judges of evil thought? You know how they treated him?
Just like that. He's despised and rejected of
men. They saw no beauty in him that
they would desire him. They said, he's nothing. Can
any good thing come out of Nazareth? That man? They spit in his face, rejected
him. And all men forsook him. The psalmist said, I am poor
and needy, but that's not the end of it. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Do you know when he wrote this
book, he had you in mind? I read something from Spurgeon
the other day, and it really blessed my heart. I'd never thought
about it. We know when God created everything, he created everything,
everything. He created the sun, the moon,
the trees, everything before he made man. When he created
everything, who did he have in mind? Well, I know he had Christ
our Lord in mind, but he had Adam in mind. He thinketh upon
me, what will Adam need? Well, here's what he'll need.
And everything that he needed, God provided. And he had him. You think about that. Boy, don't
that flower smell good. Oh, look at that sunshine. Look
at all the beautiful plants. And then look at the wife he
gave me. We have spouses. He said he's
going to make him a help meet for him. You know why? He needed one. He needed someone
to love, and God made him a bride for him. I know our Lord don't mean anything, but God God made him a bride for his
son. And he said, I'm going to become
poor and needy for her. Do you know Adam was not deceived? When he partook of the fruit,
he knew exactly what he was doing. He said, I love her so much. I'm going to be identified with
her. I'm going to be bankrupt for her." And he did. Knew exactly what he was doing.
He was not deceived. He knew what God said. And out
of love for his bride, he said, this is what I'm going to do.
And out of love for his bride, our Lord came here to save the
poor and the needy. You know, our Lord, even in the
Old Testament, you know, he made stipulations for the poor. He
said, when you reap the harvest of your land, Leviticus 23, 22,
thou shalt not glean all the corners of thy field when thou
reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest,
thou shalt leave them unto the poor and to the stranger. I am
the Lord your God. And you know, I bet Ruth appreciated
that that day. She's a moabite. Her husband's
dead. She has no one to take care of
her. It's just her and Naomi. And Naomi says, here's what we
can do. We're just two old poor widows, needy widows. We got to have something to eat.
What are we going to do? go out there and the law says
that if we're poor that we have the right to glean at the corners
of the field. And she just happened on Boez's. You know what that means that word
happened? It happened on purpose. It happened because God ordained
it. She's a You know what she's pitch, you know what glenders
do, they bend down and they pick up. Always looking down, just
picking, picking up what's left. Here's a little crumb, here's
a little crumb. But that day, somebody come riding up. And
she goes, who in the world's that? I said, that's Boaz. He don't, he don't. But God made stipulations, you
don't mind. we would have gathered the whole
field. We wouldn't have left one grain
of corn. He said, even if you forget a
bag, don't go back and pick it up. She's poor and needy. Yet, Boas thought of her. You know what he said? He said,
you drop handfuls on I pray today that God would drop
a handful of them, just me. Oh, our gracious Lord. But you know this world sees
that I'm poor and need yet thou thanketh, the Lord thanketh upon
me. You know, The world doesn't give our Lord a second thought. He said in Psalms 10 verse 4,
The wicked, to the pride of his countenance, will not seek after
God. God is not in any of his thoughts. When the world does have any
thoughts about God, they're all wrong. He said, My thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the
Lord. And you know what they think, what their thoughts are?
Psalms 4911, their inward thought is that their house shall continue
forever and their dwelling place to all generations and they call
their land after their name. I didn't, I knew that, I'd heard
of Robert C. Byrd before I ever moved to West
Virginia. But when you go to West Virginia,
every other street is named after Robert Seabird, who was in Congress
or something for 50 some years. But you know what I found out?
You know where that man was born? That man was not born in West
Virginia. That man was born in a place
called North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. His mother was buried
in a cemetery across from where we had church. For what I'm getting
at, oh they gotta name everything after him so we'll be remembered
as Robert C. Byrd. It says the rich man, Lazarus
and the rich man both died and Lazarus was, he died and he was
carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Not the rich man, he was
buried. He wanted to be remembered. They wanna call their lands after
themselves. Most of us are going to be forgotten
pretty quick. But if my Lord purchased me,
he'd never forget you. He's thinking upon you this morning. There's so many examples of this.
I thought about Joseph. His brothers hated him, despised
him just exactly the way they hated our Lord. Remember, they
sold him into slavery. He was in Potiphar's house, and
Potiphar's wife lied on him, and then he was cast into prison.
When he was cast into prison, you remember when the butler
came out, Joseph said, would you remember me? And he never
gave him another thought for two years. But then, God, in
his mercy, he brings Joseph out, and there's corn in Egypt, and
Joseph's brothers have to come to Egypt to get corn. And they
don't recognize Joseph. I wonder the thoughts that are
going through Joseph's mind. They probably have forgot about
what they've done. He remembers. And here his brothers came to
him one day in Genesis chapter 15, now listen to this, verse
18. And his brethren also went and
fell down before his face and they said, behold, we are thy
servants. And Joseph said unto them, fear
not. Two precious words. Joseph could
have had those boys killed. They deserved to be killed for
how they treated him. He said, fear not, for I am,
for am I in the place of God, but as for you, now you listen
to this, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good. to
bring to life, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Now therefore, fear ye not, and I will nourish you and your little
ones." And he comforted them and spake kindly unto them. He
always had them on his mind. And he said, don't you be afraid.
We thought evil against our Lord, but he meant it for good. He
said, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Here's how men think. Here's
their thoughts. There was a man named Naaman
one time, Naaman the Syrian. He was a leper, an honorable
man. You imagine what everybody thought about him. Boy, he's
something. I bet you he had medals all the
way down his chest. But he was a leper. He didn't
want anybody to know he was a leper. He wanted to keep it hid. And
just so happened that they had captured this little girl in
the army when they were out fighting She's in his house, and she finds
out he has leprosy, and she's a Jew. And she tells the mother
of the house, she said, there's a prophet in Israel. If Mr. Naaman
would get to that prophet, he may heal him of his leprosy.
And Naaman acts on what he hears, and he gets his papers together
from the king, and he goes to the prophet's house. He first
goes to the king, because that's what he thought. He thought,
I'll get favor through the king. And Elisha hears about it and
he said, you call and tell them to come to my house. And can
you imagine this man and all these men riding up with him,
they all think he's something. And he walks up on the porch
and knocks on the door. And Elisha don't even go to the
door. He said, he just sent him word
by his servant, he said, go tell Naomi. If he wants to be healed,
you go up there to this Jordan River, and you bow down, and
you dip yourself seven times. And he said, I ain't going to
do it. You know what he said? I thought. I thought this is
what he'd do. I thought he'd come out and wave
his hand over me. I thought he'd do some big show. Yeah, that's what we think. Our
ways are not his ways. But thank goodness he thinks
upon you. He knew what? that man needed. That man was poor, but he didn't
know he really needed anything. You know what he needed? He needed
to be humbled. Can you imagine walking up there
to that river? His servant said, well, if he told you to do some
great thing, you would have done it. He said, all he told you
to do was go wash in that Jordan River. But I can see him when
he walks up to that Jordan River, and he starts pulling his coat
off. All of this battles, and he has to lay him down. And I
can see him pulling his shirt off and his body covered in M.O.
ulcers, just running, running sores. And he went down in the river
and God healed him. And our Lord even preached a
message from that one day. He said there was many lepers
in Israel in the days of Elisha the prophet, but he never healed
a single one of them. You know what he had in mind?
He had an ailment. When he sent a little girl to
that man's house, he had an ailment in mind. He thought, the Lord
thinketh upon me. The Lord thinketh upon me. We are poor and needy. Do you
see yourself as poor and needy? You know, that had to be humiliating
to Naomi. I don't want people to see this. I'm ashamed of it. And he's standing
there, exposed to everyone. In Revelation chapter 3 verse
17, because you say, I am rich and increased with goods and
have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. Do you see yourself as blind?
Bartimaeus, a poor, blind beggar. Somebody had to carry him out
there every day and just sit him beside the road. He'd sit
there and beg. And one day he heard, Jesus is
coming by. And he cries out, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy upon me. I said, shh, you need to
be quiet. Who do you, what do you think
you're doing? He knew exactly what he was doing. He said, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. And the son of God stopped
in his tracks. You imagine stopping the son
of God? And he said, bring him to me. When our Lord went that
way that day, he had one man in mind. Blind Bartimaeus. This man, poor and needy. It'd
be bad enough to be a beggar, but to be blind? That's us. You know what blind
Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, means? He was the son of a blind
man. You know what? We are all born
children of a blind man. We're all born spiritually blind. Notice there, we're mentioned
in verse five. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to usward. Now who is the usward? It makes me think that he's long
suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. He's having reference to his
elect, I think it was Spurgeon who said, why our Lord is addressing
his father as Jehovah, his God, our Lord speaks of the members
of his family. Usward. What's it say? That thy thoughts
which are to usward. Divine thoughts come with divine
acts. For it is not according to God's
wisdom to act without deliberation and counsel. Everything he does,
he does it on purpose. He did it, if you want to say,
with forethought. Because when he made the earth,
he had in his mind what he wanted to bring about. And I can tell
you this, this world may seem like it's in a mess. But everything's going along
to God's counsel and God's thought. He had you in mind. God's gonna
save his people. And it ain't like we think. It's
not gonna be like what we thought. How's he gonna save Israel? He's
gonna send Joseph to Egypt. And he said, all the divine thoughts
are good and gracious toward his elect. God's thoughts of
love are very many, very wonderful, and very practical. In Psalms 139, you want to turn
there? Just a few more pictures. Psalms 139, verse 2. My Downsitting and Mine Uprising. I don't understand what all this
means, I'm just gonna read it. Thou understandest not my faults,
my fault aforeof. Before I think it, when I think
it, and when I have even forgot it, Thou dost understand my every
thought. You imagine you see it by yourself
and all these thoughts come through your mind. Nobody else knows
your thoughts. But to think about this, He knows
your thoughts. He knew those men that day, in
their thoughts they were saying, there's nothing to this man.
He said He knew their thoughts. To think He knows your thought,
not thoughts, your thought. a far off. I'd like to sit down and explain
it. Verse 17 of the same chapter. How precious also are thy thoughts
unto me. O God, how great is the sum of
them. If I should count them, they
are more the number than the sand, and when I wake, I am still
with thee. There's good news. How precious
are his thoughts unto his people. Some people would not give you
the time of day or a second thought, but how precious, how precious
are his thoughts, not just to Shelby, but unto me." Jeremiah 29, 11, I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and
not of evil, to give you unexpected end. Isaiah 14, 24, the Lord of hosts
has sworn, saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come
to pass. And as I have purpose, so shall
it stand. When our Lord thinks upon you,
now you think about this, he is perfectly acquainted with
your situation. He's acquainted with your dangers,
and he's acquainted with your wants. Mr. Spurgeon said, some cry, well,
I'm poor and needy. Woe is me that I should be so. But the Lord, he said, doesn't
he ever felt this way, that the Lord doesn't think upon me? I
looked up to the heavens, but no eye of pity looked down upon
me in the depths of misery. He said, many a wretched mind,
many a bereaved spirit, many a downcast heart has cried. The
Lord hath forgotten me. He counted the number of the
stars and he calls them by name. But as for me, I'm too little,
too insignificant, too obscure that I cannot believe that God
would think upon me. You remember that his thoughts
are not just empty thoughts. They break out into words. Would
you like to know what he thinks towards you? This reveals his
thoughts. How do we know what God thought?
How do we know what God thought before the foundation of the
world? We chose a people. Jesus was crucified before the
foundation of the world. It wasn't some afterthought.
God didn't say, well, I messed that up. I've got to come up
with plan B. No. Everything was the fulfilling
of God's thought toward his son and toward his people. He said,
someone said, you read each line as if it were freshly written
and it will make you say, I am poor and needy. I see in this
book, I see by this book I'm poor and needy. I see by this
book that I need him, but I also see by this book that he had
us in mind. You think, I'm so glad, I'm so
glad that it's written in English. I'm glad it's not written in
German, that I can't read German. He gave it, he had you in mind.
He had you in mind. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me
in the year May God give us all faith to
look to our Lord and rest in Him for everything. Amen.