So Psalm 16, Psalm 16, which
is a Mitcham of David, a Mitcham. A Mitcham is a golden psalm,
a golden psalm. Not quite sure what it means,
but I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that this
is so clearly about the Lord Jesus Christ and his people in
him. This psalm speaks of someone
very happy with life. With the exception of verse 4,
it seems very much that the person writing this psalm, speaking
this psalm, is very happy with life. And the title of my message
is right at the very end of the psalm. The last three words.
Pleasures forevermore. Pleasures forevermore. That's
the title of the message. Pleasures forevermore. Would
you say that your life experience is, as that title, pleasures
for evermore? I think the truth is that mostly
people complain, don't they? People all around us, they complain.
Contented minds are a very rare thing. Mostly people complain
about their lot. Even if we get what we think is very good fortune,
even if we win a huge great amount of money or inherit a huge great
amount of money, the world, the society in which we live, is
broken by sin. It's broken. Crime is everywhere. Attempts to commit fraud have
never, ever been known on the scale that they are in these
days. There is violence all around. There is war and rumours of war.
There is disease. There are all the things that
go with that. No, even if we get extremely good fortune, you
have to lock yourself away. on a very isolated island. And even there, disasters come
along, natural disasters come along that you cannot avoid.
Many people have been enjoying this lockdown, especially if
they're furloughed from their work and the government's paying
four-fifths of their wages, and it's seemed like an endless holiday
with the good weather that we had until a few days ago. But
there's a very, very heavy price to pay. You know, if that's the
basis of your happiness, that you don't have to go to work
because of this lockdown, there is an enormous price that will
have to be paid. It's unlikely, very unlikely,
to lead to what our title is, pleasures forevermore. Pleasures
forevermore. Think about it. Is that not a
desirable thing? Pleasures forevermore. Religion never was designed to
make our pleasures less, says a verse of a hymn, and it's so
true. Pleasures forevermore. We want to have a happy, pleasurable
life. Well, some 3,000 years ago, someone
wrote, David wrote, of a very happy life experience. How come
he's happy? How come that he's happy? The
vast majority of people seek happiness, they seek pleasure
in the world and the things of the world, in material things,
the things that they can get, the things that they can acquire,
the experiences they can have, the places that they can go where
the sun will shine, those experiences of life. They seek pleasure,
pleasure, pleasures forevermore in anything other than the true
God who is revealed in Scripture. They hasten after false things. Look at verse 4. This is the
one verse that speaks of other than pleasures for evermore.
Their sorrows, people's sorrows, shall be multiplied. Which people? shall their sorrows be multiplied.
Those that hasten after another god, those whose drink-offerings
of blood will not be offered, nor take up their names on the
lips of the psalmist. You see, they hasten after you
could translate it, wed themselves to another God, hasten after
another God, wed themselves to another God, bind themselves
to another God, to an idol. What is an idol? It's a figment
of the imagination of man. It can be a carved object, but
in our day, the idols that people worship are not totem poles and
gods of brass and Buddhas and things like that in general.
The idols that people worship are ideas, and materialistic
pleasures, and the things of this world, and false ideas of
what is right and what is wrong. We see it in false religion.
False religion abounds with idols. As I say, not just idols of physical
icons, but idols of false ideas, false religion that isn't the
religion that God has declared, that God has made known in His
Word. An idol can be the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake.
An idol can be the things that you possess, adoring the things
that you possess. That's idolatry. Covetousness,
says Paul, is idolatry. The love of money, the love of
money. You see, a man's life consists
not in the abundance of the things that he possesses. And the love
of money, as we read in 1 Timothy chapter 6, the love of money,
not money itself, but the love of it, the idolization of it,
the following after of it, the coveting of it, the seeking after
of it, that love of money is the root of all evil. What's
the motivation for crime? What's the motivation for fraud
that we see all around us? The love of money. The love of
money is the root of all evil. And all of these things, all
of these things of the world, they amount to what we're going
to sing in a verse of the final hymn. They amount to broken systems. Look at Jeremiah chapter 2. Jeremiah
chapter 2 and verse 13. My people have committed two
evils. This is God speaking. And in
a sense, I think this is wider than just the people of his electing
choice. It's the people of the world
in general have committed two evils. They have forsaken me
the fountain of living waters. Forsaken God. We will not have
this man to rule over us. We will not believe in this God. We will fly in the face of the
truth of God. They have forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters. Living waters, fresh waters,
bubbling over waters, never-ending waters. and hewed them out cisterns,
whether it be out of a big lump of stone made like a trough,
you know, an old-fashioned kind of cattle drinking trough which
is carved out of a great big chunk of stone. They've hewed
them out cisterns to hold water, but they're broken cisterns.
These cisterns that they've hewed out, these people who refused
God and the fountain of living water that is in him and him
alone, in our lives pursuing materialism, have hewn out, have
carved out cisterns to try and hold the water of refreshment
for life, but they're broken and they can hold no water. The
water just leaks away. It's not as the fountain of living
water, which is in the blessedness of knowing God. No. Broken cisterns
that can hold no water. Do you hear that? You hear what
the Word of God is saying, that the things of this world will
amount to nothing other than broken cisterns. You need water
of life to give satisfaction, to lead to pleasures for evermore. And yet, if you seek it in the
things of this world, you'll find that whatever you have made
Whatever you have made and pursue after in the things of this world,
idolising the things of this world, you will find that it's
broken, that it's empty, it gives no satisfaction, but only leads
to eternal sorrows. There might be a short-term satisfaction,
there might be a short-term thrill, and that short-term might be
a day, a week, a year, a few years, but listen, it doesn't
last. Short-term satisfaction, for
a while, short-term. But eternal sorrow, why? Why is there always, why does
it always lead to eternal sorrow? The answer is because divine
justice is not satisfied by what it says in this verse, their
drink offerings of blood. Divine justice is not satisfied
by the things of this world, by the kingdoms of this world,
by the things that this world aspires for. Divine justice is
not satisfied. We are the creatures of the living
God. We are made by the living God.
We are made in the image of the living God. The things of this
world do not satisfy, because they cannot satisfy, the just
demands of God, that his righteousness and justice be upheld. Their
drink-offerings of blood will not be offered. The prodigal
son asked his father for his share of the inheritance, and
his father gave it to him. go on then, you know, you don't
like it at home, go and here's your inheritance and off he went
and he spent all that his father had given him in riotous living,
in wild living with his friends and he was surrounded by friends
who loved him for the fact that he suddenly had lots of money
and then they fell on hard times and the friends deserted him
and there was a great famine and he had to work, because all
the money was gone, and that which he had was worthless, and
all of it had proven to be a broken cistern, and all of it had leaked
away. His seeking of instant pleasure
in the world lasted but for a little while, and he ended up eating
pigswill to try and satisfy his intense hunger, and then he came
to himself. You see, his pleasures came to
an end, and so they do. All the pleasures of this world
come to an end. You may think that you're young
and fit with years and years ahead. You know, as the time
goes by, you look back, when you're looking forward, a decade
seems so long, but looking back, it seems so short. To some of
you, the 1990s was the decade in which you were born. And I
look back at the 1990s, and it seems to me as if it was just
yesterday. It seems so recent to me, and yet, look, it's gone. It's 25 years ago, parts of it. It's just gone in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, it's gone. You see, the things that
you thought were pleasurable then, the things that you thought
you had the capacity to do, old age starts to creep on, and you
don't. No, it comes to an end. The rich
fool. in the parable that Jesus told,
he got lots and lots of possessions because his harvest was overflowing
and he filled his barns and he couldn't hold it so he knocked
his barns down and built bigger because he said to his soul,
well done soul, look how well off you are, look how preserved
you are from anything bad that might happen to you. You're going
to enjoy a long, long life because you've got so much and God said
to him, you fool, this night your soul shall be required of
you. Have you heard of people who thought they were in the
prime of life and yet they discovered that the day they woke up thinking
the whole of life was ahead of them, they didn't make it to
the end of the day because an accident killed them or something
else happened to them. Worldly pleasure is fleeting. So as Jesus said, it's a shifting
sand foundation for life. Will you build your house, your
life on that shifting sand of the things of this world? Jesus
said, how foolish is that man that does that. How foolish is
that man that builds his house, his life on the shifting sand
of the things of this world and not on the solid rock, which
is the God who has created all things and upholds all things
and will go on in eternity. Think about this. Don't just
brush it off. Don't just let it roll like water
off a duck's back. Take heed. Jesus said, take heed
how ye hear. Take heed. Be careful. Don't
treat it lightly. The time will come, you know,
if you treat it lightly, that you will look back and you will
say, oh, how I bitterly regret that I didn't stop and think
then. That I didn't change my thinking
then. John says, the apostle John says
this, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
Think about it. Love not this world. I love my
garden. I love doing things. I love my
family. I love meeting friends when we're
allowed to do it. I love all of those things. But
love not the things of this world as if they're an end in themselves,
as if they're the being, the raison d'etre that you have for
living. No. If any man loved the world, If
any man loved the world, you know, Jesus said, if any man
hate not father and mother and husband and wife, he cannot be
my disciple. What he meant was by comparison,
he must be first in everything. The God who made us must be first
in everything. If any man loved the world, the
love of the father is not in him. We live in the world, but
we're called not to live of the world. Yes, we have to live in
it, make a living in it, but not be of it, of its attitudes,
of its philosophies, of its thinking, of its desires. No, no. Live in the world, but not of
it. Do you claim to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do
you claim to be one who is destined for heaven? You know what Jesus
said? Take heed, beware, you cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon? The things of this world,
the things of materialism, the things of possessions. You cannot
serve both. You will have possessions like
Abraham had possessions, but he didn't love them and serve
them. He used them in the purposes of God, but he didn't love them
and serve them. whether he'd had them taken away
or whether he had many, many times more. That was irrelevant
so long as he was in the purposes of God. So wherein lies the key
to this? Pleasures forevermore. The answer
given by this psalm is that it is in our Lord Jesus Christ and
his children in him. This psalm, as so many others,
was written by David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, the boy tending
the sheep from the sheepfold, and made the king of God's symbolical
people, picturing the Messiah. But he wrote these words which
were, at some stage of his life, his own personal experience. But in many ways, they can't
have been. They can't have been, because he couldn't have written
Verse 10, applying to himself, thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.
He knew he wasn't that holy one, but he did know that his son,
according to the flesh, David's, great David's greater son was
coming. The Messiah, the Christ, the
promised seed of the woman was coming to redeem his people from
the curse of the law. And that these words that he
wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they're his words, David's
words, but they're the words of the Messiah. They're the words
of God become man. They're the words of a man who
is God. God became man. When Jesus was
born at Bethlehem in Judea in the days of Herod the king, God
became what he wasn't before. He became a man that he might
redeem people, human beings from the curse of the law, his people.
his body, his church. These words also apply to a good
extent to his church, to the body which is his church. Read
the article I put in by Charles Spurgeon, well it's a piece,
just a piece rather than an article. Read that piece, because it puts
it so well. It's the words of Christ, but
yet we can take so much of it, applying to believers. His body.
You see, he is the head. He is the head of the body, says
Colossians 118. The church. Christ is the head. His church, his people, his believing
people, his elect, his Zion, is his body. He is the head of
that body. And as these are his words of
his experience, to a very large extent, believers can take them
to themselves. These words concern Jesus the
man in his human life, in his human mission to save his people. Why was he called Jesus? The
angel said to Joseph, call his name Jesus for he shall save
his people from their sins. How do we know? Look at Acts
chapter 2. How do we know that these words
of Psalm 16 can be applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. Am I not
sticking my neck out falsely here? Look at verse 25 of Acts
chapter 2. This is Peter preaching on the
day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. You know, the Lord has gone back
to glory. The crucified and risen Lord
has gone back to eternal glory. And in his first sermon on the
day of Pentecost that's recorded here in Acts chapter 2, David
speaks concerning him, Jesus whom you have crucified, he said.
You've taken him by wicked hands and crucified him and slain him.
But he said, this one that you crucified is the one that David
speaks of concerning him. I foresaw the Lord always before
my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover,
also, my flesh shall rest in hope." Those are the words of
Psalm 16. Look over at Acts 13. Acts 13
and verse 35. This is Paul preaching at Antioch. Verse 34, I will give you the
sure mercies of David, wherefore he saith also in another psalm,
Psalm 16, thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption.
For David, after he had served his own generation by the will
of God, fell on sleep and was laid unto his fathers and saw
corruption. But he whom God raised again
saw no corruption. This Psalm 16, says Paul, the
apostle, says Peter, the apostle, is speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They knew that the prophets,
including David, spoke of Christ, because it's what Christ had
said in John 5.39. You search the scriptures, for in them you
think that you have eternal life. That's true. These scriptures
are they that speak of me. These Old Testament scriptures,
this Psalm 16 speaks of Christ. This is God's Word. In the beginning
was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
He is the manifestation of God to the darkened minds of sinful
man. He is the one by whom God is
revealed. This is God's Word regarding
Christ as a man and his church in him, in him. There are so many who claim to
be believers and yet they will have nothing to do with the teaching
of scripture concerning the electing grace of God. But to do that
is to completely deny the true gospel. You cannot, cannot see
a gospel that is effectual unless you see the electing grace of
God. In Isaiah 8 and verse 18, look how tightly bound Christ
is to his people. from eternity to eternity. Behold, he says, I and the children
whom the Lord hath given me. There is a children, there is
a people, there are sheep whom the Lord the Father has given
to the Son that he might redeem them from the curse of the law.
So David wrote this psalm, Christ fulfilled the psalm fully, throughout,
his soul was not left in hell, neither did his body suffer corruption.
This this psalm is fulfilled, Christ fulfilled it. But his
saints, the members of the body of which he is the head, his
saints partake of the nature of their head, each to his own
degree. There is a degree to which, if
you are a true believer, these can be your words. In him, in
Christ, believing him, trusting Him, looking to His accomplished
redemption, seeing your sin debt paid there, the curse of the
law removed there, your qualification for eternal glory established
without any possibility of change or removal there, following Him,
trusting Him. This is where true happiness
is found for the believer, being in Him, being in him, being in
union with him, with the living God who created us. Look at some
more details of these verses, verses 5 and 6. The lines are fallen unto me
in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage.
Remember, we're thinking of pleasures forevermore. This is true happiness. And where is true happiness rooted? It's rooted in the Lord. It's
rooted in Jehovah, the true God. Possessing Him is where true
happiness lies. Jeremiah 32 and verse 38 says
this, Possessing Him, I said, is where true happiness lies.
they, this is God speaking, his people shall be my people and
I will be their God. God is happy to describe himself
as possessed by his people. My portion, the Lord is the portion
of mine inheritance. Do you have God for the portion
of your inheritance? Don't the things of this world
seem strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace? Don't
the things that you might aspire for in this life all fall back
to the back of the queue compared with having Him, with knowing
Him, having the Lord as the portion of your inheritance, of your
cup, of your lot in life? Psalm 23 says, my cup runneth
over, my life runs over because the Lord is in my life, the Lord
is my life and my light. upheld by God in heaven. Look,
you maintain my lot. He causes all things to work
together for good. To those who love God, to those
who are called according to his purpose, thou maintainest my
lot. He maintained the lot of his
son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as he walked this earth to redeem
his people from the curse of the law. But it's true also that
he maintains the lot of those who are united with Christ by
faith. The lines, what does he mean
by the lines? The borders, the borders of life. You know, we all have lines around
us, the borders of life in which we live, the place we live, the
places we go, the people we interact with, the job that we do. The
lines are fallen to me in pleasant places, pleasant places. Yea,
I have a goodly heritage. This is the testimony of Christ,
Jesus, the man. The lines have fallen to me in
pleasant places. Why? For the joy that was set
before him. He endured, he despised it. He
endured the cross, despising the shame because of that which
was set before him. The joy set before him. The lines
have fallen to me in pleasant places. But for the child of
God, whatever the circumstances, the lines have fallen. in pleasant
places. You say, well, that's not always
the case. You know the expression about jam side down. You toast
your piece of bread, you butter it, you spread on your marmalade
or your jam, and whoops, it slips out of your hands. And you know
what the old saying is? Guess what? Which side is it going
to land on the carpet? It's the jam side that will land
down, so that it picks up the hairs and the bits of dust and
the dirt and makes it inedible. We say, oh, that landed jamside
down. No, this says, the lines have
fallen to me in pleasant places. Oh, you say, well, not always,
surely, what about the martyrs? What about John Bunyan? Twelve
years in Bedford jail, the lines didn't fall to him in pleasant
places, did they? he would tell you that the lines
fell to him in very pleasant places, because although the
king locked him up in Bedford jail, he could not keep Christ
out of that jail, and out of that man's heart, and out of
his eyes of faith, to see and to rejoice in the pleasant places
where salvation had put him. What is a man advantaged? says
Jesus. Luke 9.25, what is a man advantage? What is the gain if you gain
the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? Answer, obviously,
not advantaged at all. What a dreadful outcome. Wherever
God's providence puts me is a pleasant place. If I have peace with God,
peace with God. You know, there are Indian gurus
and mystics who say that the simple life is the key to happiness.
Therefore, is this not just the same as the Indian mystics and
gurus teach? Well, no, it's not, because do
you know what the fundamental difference is? And don't ever
forget this. in the Gospel that I am preaching this morning,
in the Gospel that other preachers of the Gospel always seek to
set forth, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the
fundamental difference. The justice of God is perfectly
satisfied in the redemption that Christ has accomplished. All
these mystics have no satisfaction for the offended justice of God. They may have a peace which is
a delusional peace, but there is no satisfaction of divine
justice. And so when it comes to that
day when we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
to receive the things done in the body, if the justice of God
is not satisfied concerning you and your sin, then these are
the words you will hear, depart from me, I never knew you. Look
at verse 7, understanding, next, what a blessing this is, I will
bless the Lord who has given me counsel, my reins, my inner
workings, also instruct me in the night seasons, I've got a
knowledge of life. Look, counsel, counsel, understanding. Proverbs 3 verse 13, happy is
the man that findeth wisdom and understanding. Happy is that
man. Why? Because this just isn't
wisdom as the world thinks of wisdom. This isn't the wisdom
of this world, this is the wisdom of God. And what is the wisdom
of God? Christ is made unto us. Wisdom
from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
Christ Jesus is the wisdom that is from God. And Christ Jesus
is the one that if we have Him as wisdom and understanding,
we're happy. We're truly happy. We're filled
with eternal joy. In Proverbs chapter 8, There
we have wisdom personified. It is Christ speaking. It is
wisdom personified. The wisdom of true life, of spiritual
life, of eternal life from God. There in chapter 8 of Proverbs,
wisdom is speaking. Or what a blessing it is to have
wisdom, to have Christ, to have the knowledge of God, of who
He is, of what He has done. Look at Isaiah chapter 11, Isaiah
chapter 11 and verse 2, where This is the rod that's come forth
from the stem of Jesse, and the branch growing out of his roots.
And who's that? Well, of course, it's the lineage
of David. Jesse was the father of David,
and so on down the generations, until we get to Jesus, who, according
to the flesh, was from the lineage of David and of Jesse. And it
says, a branch, he is the branch, capital B, that shall grow out
of his roots. And verse two, remember this
was written 800 or so years before Christ came. And the spirit of
the Lord shall rest upon him, upon Christ. The Spirit of the
Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. He is wisdom from God, truly.
I know who I am and where I'm from and where I'm going and
what the purpose of life is. It's the outworking of the eternal
purposes of God. In him is the Spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit
of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Is that not what
you should desire? Is that not where true life experience
really is? It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Him, believers are given understanding. Daniel the prophet was given
understanding. Understanding. What a blessed
thing, if it's the truth. If it's the truth of life and
eternity, what a blessed thing to have. Oh, seek after it, says
the Book of Proverbs. Read it, young people, seek after
wisdom. You know what the key wisdom
of Solomon was? He made lots of mistakes later
in his life, but do you know when he was made king and he
prayed to God and God said to him, what would you have from
me? And Solomon didn't ask for riches, Solomon asked for wisdom. That we might have wisdom, and
that wisdom which is Christ. Again, I turn you to Ephesians
chapter 1, listen to these verses, verses 17 and 18 of Ephesians
1. That the God, this is... Paul,
praying for believing people, those at Ephesus, and of course
for us in all ages, he ceases not to pray for us, and he prays
this, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give unto you, listen, the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened. Oh, don't walk around in darkness
as the people of this world, as the systems of this world,
professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. No, the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what? What
is the hope of his calling? What's that? The calling of God
is the calling to salvation. to eternal bliss, the hope of
it, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints. Oh, how blessed you are! The
things of this world pale into insignificance compared with
this. Those without understanding The understanding, that is Christ,
are foolish, says the scripture. The fool has said in his heart
there is no God. Jeremiah says this, O foolish
people and without understanding, if I have Christ I cannot but
be happy for I know, that is, we sung in that hymn the other
week, it is well, it is well with my soul. Living Then, verses
8 and 9, I have set the Lord always before me, because he
is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Therefore
my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall
rest in hope. The man Jesus always set the
Lord before him. He was always at his right hand,
this is how he lived. Do we claim, do we aspire to
follow Jesus? We're told to follow Jesus, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Is the Lord always
set before us? As Christ did, do we see God
in everything? This is what we should aspire
to. This is what we should aspire to in our experience. What a
blessed thing it is, what a thing to give us pleasures forevermore,
to see God in everything. He said, people around observed
that the ravens were fed. Jesus said, your heavenly father
feeds the ravens. People observed, like we can
do now, we can go out, the sun's shining on the garden, and the
flowers look absolutely beautiful, and we can see the beauty of
them, and we can look and appreciate it, but Jesus said, your Heavenly
Father clothes the lilies, and there's nothing arrayed quite
like them. He consistently saw the Father's
outworking. He the man, Jesus the man, consistently
saw the Father's outworking in creation, all around him. He
refused to see anything without seeing God in it. Believer, Do
you, do I, strive for that experience of life? Unbelievers forget God
and refuse to hear him. The atheist, who thinks he's
an atheist, the atheist denies him. But the life of the true
believer is in him. in him, in him. This is it, living
in him, in union with Christ. He tells his people, Jesus told
his people, John 14, 19, look what he said, look what he said,
he said, because I live, you shall live also. Do you believe
that? Jesus said, because I live, you
shall live also. What is it to live? What is it
to live? John 10 verse 10, I am come that
they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.
In the little article in the bulletin, I try to provide a
scratching of the surface answer to what is it to have abundant
life from God. It is this life from God that
is a fountain of living water within, bubbling up within, not
a broken cistern that loses water. It's that which satisfies the
hunger of the sinful soul for righteousness, the thirst of
the sinful soul for thirst-quenching water from God. It's that that
the awakened soul by the Holy Spirit's awakening finds in Christ
and Christ alone. None but Christ can satisfy.
None can truly satisfy the soul. It's not a life of servile bondage
to laws and rules and religious regulations that men love to
impose. They love to lay burdens on people's
backs that they themselves are not prepared to lift with their
little finger, said Jesus. No, this is not a life of bondage,
but a life of liberty in Christ. If the Son shall make you free,
you shall be free indeed. Freed from what? Freed from condemnation. There is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ. Clothed in the garments of salvation,
taught by God's Spirit to be thankful, made content with whatever
our lot is. We read in 1 Timothy chapter
6 and verse 6, godliness with contentment is great gain. Think on that. That's where true
riches lie. To be happy with what you've
got. My heart is glad. Confidently
hoping for heaven then. This, look at the end of verse
9. My flesh also shall rest in hope. Rest there could be translated
dwell confidently content. Dwell confidently content. Happy. I know I've got a certain
hope, confidently content, and living with it. I know I am going
to heaven when I die. I know when I put off this sinful
flesh, this body of flesh, I know that I am going to heaven. This
day you shall be with me in paradise. This is an incorruptible inheritance,
and it's based on the finished work of Christ, and on that alone. Nothing else. Nothing I've done,
nothing I could do on the finished work of Christ. There is a life
to be lived before we get there. Look at verse 11. Thou wilt show
me the path of life. Thou wilt show me the path of
life. He says in Psalm 119, verse 105, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light
to my path. His Word lights that path whilst
we're in this life. The Word of God, the written
Word that we have on the pages of this book, is the light to
our path while we're still in this flesh, still in this world,
but we're on our way to eternal glory. All of the time we have
a certain prospect, fullness of joy and everlasting pleasures. Is that not rich, true life? There is a cause for true happiness
in this life. That's really joy in the Lord. It's decoupled from the experiences
of life. Paul said, whatever state I'm
in, therewith to be content, whether I'm in the prison, with
my feet in the stocks, in great pain from the stripes on my back,
I'm still singing songs and hymns of praise for I know it is well
with my soul and I'm going to heaven and I know that this is
just a fleeting phase. It's because of what they saw
by faith that they were able to do that. What about you? What about you? Would you like
that? Does this sound something that
speaks of true, satisfying life? You need to seek it from the
Lord. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while
he is near. Forsake the wicked ways of this
world and seek God. And you say, well, it's hard,
but look, do what Jacob did. Follow the example of Jacob.
You know, he said, Genesis 32 and 26, he wrestled with God. He wrestled, actually. with the
pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ. He wrestled with him in prayer.
And he said, God said to him, let me go for the day is coming. Let me go. And Jacob said, I
will not let thee go except thou bless me. Have you ever prayed
to God like that? Oh, give me this blessing of
knowing the truth of God and the gospel of his grace. Give
me the certainty of pleasures forevermore in knowing God. Amen.