Verse one, Psalm 39, one, I said,
I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will
keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me. Now,
David said, I will. He started out this song saying,
I will. And we know now from the scripture
that this can be a very bad thing to say. In Isaiah 14, we have
the record of Satan saying, I will ascend, I will exalt my throne,
I will be like the most high. The Apostle Peter spoke a lot
like him, like Satan, and that's why the Lord said, get thee behind
me, Satan, on one occasion. But we all, we all have that
tendency. to say I will in the wrong way.
Peter said, I will die with you. I will not betray you. I will
die with you. Of course, the Lord had to teach
him something like Satan. Peter was exalting himself. He
distinguished himself from the other disciples. He said, particularly,
they might betray you like you say, but not me. And the Lord
had to teach him something. I prefer to learn the way we're
doing it tonight, don't you? Instead of having to be brought
down by the Lord and have the stuffing knocked out of us. But whatever, whatever it takes,
the Lord will do. To proudly boast of our will
and what we will or will not do without an acknowledgement
of the truth that without Christ we can do nothing is that haughty
spirit that Solomon talked about in Proverbs 16, 18. He said,
a haughty spirit goes before a fall. That's what happened
to Peter. He had to come down. And we all
know that. We've all experienced that, I'm
sure, at one time or another. But does this mean that we're
never to resolve, to have any resolve concerning anything?
Of course not. Notice in the text, though, that
David's not boasting in front of others. He's talking with
himself and saying, I will guard my mouth. He's not boasting in front of
others. You remember, that's important
now because our Lord said the Pharisees do what they do to
be seen of men. That's not what this is. He's
communing with his own heart. He's speaking to himself. And
David was a man who knew how this particular resolve would
be accomplished. He's saying, now I'm going to
be careful what I say. I'm going to guard my tongue.
But he also said in Psalm 141.3, set a watch, O Lord, before my
mouth. Keep the door of my lips. You
keep me from being an idiot, from proving
it, that I am one. But if we understand what we
are, and we understand our dependence upon the Lord, it's good to resolve
within ourselves to honor Him. That's good. We should commune
with our own heart often. We should talk to ourselves,
put things into perspective, speak. I don't just preach to
you, I preach to myself. And I don't just always do it
here. How about you? Do you just listen to me or do
you preach to yourself a little bit? That's what David's doing
here. He said in Psalm 4, 4, stand in awe and sin not, commune
with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Talk to yourself. Now this is not trusting your
heart. That's not what this is. The
world says, just follow your heart. I don't advise that. God's
word don't advise that. The next verse after Psalm 4
where he said, commune with your own heart upon your bed and be
still. The next verse is, offer the sacrifices of righteousness
and put your trust in the Lord. That's what you're talking to
yourself about, about what he said, not about what you think. The world says just follow your
heart. That's not a good idea. The fool hath said in his heart,
no God. Should he follow his heart? But
if God has taught you something, If God has taught you something
through the gospel, it's good to mull that over in your heart.
To chew on it a little while. To think about it. And resolve,
as David does here, to act upon it. Be a doer of the word and
not a hearer only. Admonish yourself. David resolved
here. What was his resolution? I'm
not going to sin with my tongue anymore. And you know the reason
he's saying that is because He mourned what had come out of
his mouth before. I'm just not going to do it anymore.
And we probably will. But I'm determined not to, aren't
you? I'm going to take heed. He said that, that I'm going
to take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. I'm
going to think about what I say and why. And be careful when
I say things because when I'm feeling a certain way or reacting
to something, it's not a good time to talk sometimes. I'm going
to take heed. I'm going to think about my ways.
I'm going to put some perspective, a gospel perspective on my actions
and my words, and I'm going to refuse to dishonor God. I just
don't want to dishonor God anymore. With my tongue and here and in
any way, that's a good thing to resolve. And it's good to
resolve that. Now this will be a battle. Just
like we see in the, it's a warfare in that we're fighting ourselves
all the time. The flesh warth against the spirit and the spirit
against the flesh. Warth, not playing tag, warring. James said in James 3, 3, behold,
we put bits in horses mouths that they may obey us. And we
turn about their whole body, their big old muscular strong
body, with that little bit. And behold also the ships, which
though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds, yet are
they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the
governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little
member and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little
fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire. Don't
make any mistake about that. A world of iniquity. A universe
of iniquity is sitting right there in my mind. So is the tongue
among our members that it defileth the whole body and setteth on
fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell. My tongue? Yes. Your tongue?
Yes. For every kind of beast, and
of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea is tamed.
You can even make a snake do what you want it to do. You can
train it. And hath been tamed of mankind,
but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of
deadly poison. I think he pretty much nailed
it, didn't he? He covered that base. Full of deadly poison. David, who, when the whole great
army of Israel was shaking in their boots, said, Who is this
uncircumcised Philistine? Who is he to come against the
army of God? He said, I killed a lion and
a bear when they came after one of my father's sheep, and this
uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them. That David said, I'm going to
conquer my tongue. I'm gonna rule, I'm gonna get
control of my tongue. If I could just do that, I could
kill a giant with a rock. But if I could just get a hold
of my tongue, by God's grace. Not without God's grace. He didn't
kill Goliath without the power of God, you reckon? And we sure
ain't gonna tame our tongue without it. Without his grace and strength. But we can resolve to do so by
his grace. And didn't Paul say, I can do
all things through Christ, which strengthens me. That's one of
the things I want to do. I'm with David on that. And David's not saying here that
this only matters while the wicked are around in front of the wicked.
He mentions that. He's just saying, especially
then. Especially then. And David understood something
about that. You remember when David sinned with Bathsheba and
murdered Uriah the Hittite. And Nathan, the prophet, told
him that story. And you remember David said,
whoever stole that ewe lamb and killed it, I'm gonna kill him.
And Nathan said, it was you, David, it was you. And he mourned
and said, I've sinned against God. And David said unto Nathan,
I have sinned against the Lord, 2 Samuel 12, 13. And Nathan said
unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin, He loved you
before you sin. He still does. He's put it away. You won't die. You're not going
to die. What's the wages of sin? Death. The wages of sin is death. David sinned greatly, but God
put it away. You won't die. You're not going
to get what you deserve. How be it? There are temporal
consequences For your sin, David, by this deed thou hast given
great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. And
so the child that is born into thee shall surely die. And that's
what David's talking about here. I'm not going to, I'm going to
hold my tongue, I'm going to control, I'm going to guide,
I'm going to keep my tongue in front of the enemies of the Lord.
I'm not going to give them occasion to blaspheme my God. Is that
a good thing to resolve? Boy, we know it's going to be
a fight and we know we can't win it without his grace. As soon as we let our guard down,
it's going to come out. He said in verse two, I was done
with silence. I held my peace, even from good.
I didn't say anything bad and I didn't say anything good either.
And my sorrow was stirred. Sometimes the best way to bridle
your tongue, and that's the word he used. Interesting that he
uses the word bridle here. That's the same thing James was
talking about. He didn't use the word bridle, but he said
we put bits in horses mouths. You know what that's called.
It's called a bridle. Part of a bridle. But here's the thing. He said,
here's the way I bridled my tongue by shutting up. Sometimes that's
the best way to do it. Sometimes we just need to be
careful of what we say and go ahead and say it. Just be careful.
Sometimes we don't need to say anything. And that's what David
said here. He said, I just, I got so sick
of hearing myself. I just decided to shut up. We don't have to talk. I know that's a revelation to
me and you. We don't have to talk. We don't
have to say something about everything. We just think we do. Except in one sense. When David
stopped speaking good, it made him sad. He realized this is
not going to work either. I can't stop saying some things
that need to be said. He had to speak eventually. He
couldn't just shut up from now on. And then in verse three he
says, my heart was hot within me. Has that ever happened to
you because of holding your silence? And this is the context now.
He shut his mouth and his heart started burning. Now that can
be good or bad. You probably experienced both. This burning could be envy or
anger. Or wanting to set the record
straight. Or wanting to get back at somebody. That could be burning
in you. And the longer you're silent, the hotter it burns.
And you're just going to have to bust out. Or it can be good. The truth can burn in your heart,
too. Cry out to be spoken. The Lord said, you don't light
a candle and put it under a bushel. It's going to have to shine sometime.
And that's what I believe Dave is talking here. He said, while
I was musing the fire burn, I was thinking, but not talking. And
the more I thought, and the more I realized some things needed
to be said, the hotter that fire burned. And then I spake. Then
I spake. I had to talk. I had to say something. There's
times when you just have to. Some things just have to be said.
Paul said, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. But look at the context there.
It's also, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Necessity is laid upon me, he
said. Necessity. God had said to Paul,
to Saul then, I guess, I have chosen thee to be a witness unto
the Gentiles. You're going to testify of me
to the Gentiles. And the Lord has commissioned
all of us to go and preach. And so we must, there's a fire
that burns. And as I said, now that can be
good or bad. Just because it's burning in
there doesn't mean it needs to come out. But if it's good, David
said, I stopped saying anything good. And that was just brought
sorrow. But there is a godly fire now.
Acts 4.18, listen to this. You remember the enemies of the
Lord? We're always persecuting the disciples and it says, they
called them and commanded them not to speak at all or teach
in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and
said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to
hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot
but speak the things which we have seen and heard. We can't
shut up about it. And sure enough, as soon as they
let him go, they went Right back to doing what they were doing.
Preaching the gospel of Christ. And then David said in verse
four, Lord, make me to know my end. And the measure of my days, what
it is. That I may know how frail I am. Now there's three thoughts in
this verse. Some of the most important words
that we speak or to God. And David's speaking to God here.
We have to, we can't be silent to him, can we? Somebody said
a believer can stop praying like a man can stop breathing. It's
something that we just about walk about doing all the time.
We're so dependent upon him. And he's worthy of our gratitude
all the time. I have more things to be thankful
for unto him since I walked in that door back there tonight
than I can count. We have to thank him and we have
to inquire in his temple. We want to learn of him. We pray
things like, Lord, increase our faith. Help us to see you better. Help us to wean us from this
world and teach us what's important. And here, he said, reveal some
things to me, Lord. This is a good prayer. Somebody
said one time, if we're ever gonna speak to men for God, we're
gonna have to first speak to God for men. And that's a good
saying. That's a good saying. I believe
that's what David's saying here. If I'm ever gonna say anything
good, I'm gonna have to first say something to God. And this
is a good prayer here. Make me to know what I am. And
in these three separate ways here, make me to consider, first
of all, how all of this ends. Because the end of a matter is
more important than the beginning. How's it going to end up? Where am I headed? Where are
we going with this? You remember how the psalmist,
I believe it's Psalm 73. I always forget that, that number.
but where the psalmist was envious of the wicked. But then he was talking about how the wicked
are always prospering and the godly are always suffering. And
he said, I've washed my hands in vain. I've trusted the Lord
in vain. And then he went to the house
of the Lord. And he said, I was as a beast
before you, Lord. I was talking like an idiot.
There again, I'm going to shut up now. I was saying things I
didn't know what I was talking about. I was as a beast before
thee. Because I went to your house and I heard the truth and
then I considered their what? Instead of envying the wicked,
I considered their end. That's what he's talking about
here. Let me think about, Lord, cause me to think about, not
the day-to-day business. Let me see beyond that unto the
end. Let me put an eternal perspective
on things. What's going to be my end? And
then he said, make me measure my days. In other words, redeem
the time. Let me realize how brief. And
he's going to talk about that in the next verse. Let me realize
how precious the seconds are. They're ticking away right now.
They're precious. Make me realize that without
you, I can do nothing. Let me, let me understand my
limitations. That's the third thing. But I may know how frail I am, how helpless I am, how weak I
am. Do you have any understanding
of that? Well, I used to be something until the Lord taught me some
things. Make me realize that without
you, I can do nothing. A man who knows these things
now, who considers his end, and who realizes how short and how
precious, and who realizes how weak and frail he is, and just
how dependent we are upon the Lord. A man like that can say,
I will, in the right way. By God's grace. Humility. If we thought about those three
things, it would bring us down. We'd quit being Sadat Gum-Hai
and Mighty all the time. Patience. We'd be more patient
in understanding and long-suffering with others, wouldn't we? If
we knew how frail we were. I believe it was Paul that said,
if somebody falls or gets, is troubled or afflicted, restore
such in one. If they sin, if they fall away,
restore them considering yourself. lest you be tempted also. Let
me remember, Lord, how frail I am and be more patient and
understanding. If the Lord answers yes to that
prayer of David's above, Lord, teach me, show me, make me to
know that all of these things will be the result. Humility,
patience, understanding, longsuffering, and an urgency to honor the Lord
in all ways that he's called us and enabled us to do so while
it's day. While it is day, he said, I must
work the works of him that sent me while it is day. Night's coming.
And then it's over. It's over. If we're going to do something
here, I thought about this now. This is not just a story. This
is not a history lesson. This applies to us right now.
If we're going to do something here, we better get to doing
it. Does that ring true to anybody?
We better get to doing it. We're just going to be here a
little while. We must work the works of Him
that sent us. And He said, as the Father has
sent me, that's how I'm sending you. While it's day. I must be about my master's business. He said, I must be about my father's
business. He said, I send you. So I say,
I must be about my master's business. Same business. But what condescendence and what
grace, what kindness that he's included us in it. And I'm not suggesting that we're
not doing it. I think preaching the gospel,
that's what he sent us to do. I don't know what else there
is to do, but may he give us wisdom to do it if there is something
else. I know if it takes away from the preaching, then it shouldn't
be done. Whatever it is. But let's ask the Lord for some
wisdom and some direction in doing whatever it is we're fixing
to do. Because we're going to have to
do it now. We're going to have to get to
doing it. Verse five, behold thou hast made my days as in
handbread. You're walking around with a
measurement of your whole life right there to remind you. You
could tell my whole story, my whole timeline. You could put
it right there. Pretty easy. My age is as nothing before thee. He's the ancient of days. Barely
every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Wow. Altogether empty, emptiness. And that's when we've done our
best Are you content to be nothing?
You okay with that? I'm starting to be okay with
that. I tell you this, we might as well be content to be nothing.
That's what we are, aren't we? We're nothing now. We're nothing. And we're going to have to become
more and more nothing. He's going to have to increase
and we're going to have to decrease. Until we're less than nothing. Our Lord said in John 6, 63,
it is the spirit that gives life to flesh, profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. And he's talking about
how sinners are saved there when life is given. Regeneration is
what he's talking about. The dead soul, dead in trespasses
and sins, coming alive, being dead to sin and alive unto God
instead of just the other way around. How does that happen?
The flesh profiteth nothing in that. Only God can give you life. Until he does, you're dead. You're
worse than nothing. Nothing doesn't stink. A corpse
stinks. I'd rather have nothing in the
bed of my truck than something dead, wouldn't you? The Lord said in Genesis 3, 19,
In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, till thou return
unto the ground. For out of it thou wast taken,
for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Now we know there's more to it
than that. That's not all he said. He promised the woman seed. And he talked about the one in
whom sinners have life. But this is us by nature now.
We're dust. We used to be dust. He said we're
dust now. Isn't that what he said? Out
of the ground was thou taken. You were dust then. For dust
thou art. You're dust right now. And you're
fixing to be dust again. Under the dust shalt thou return.
That's pretty thorough. Every time a drop of sweat runs
down our face, we ought to remember what we are. By nature, the children
of wrath, under the curse of God's law now, and take our place
before him. Every time we see the back of
our hand, we ought to remember. That's my whole story could be
told right there on that. Was that about four inches, four
and a half inches? I'll tell you this now, God didn't
love you if he does love you because you're something. He loved you freely, for no reason. The book says,
Christ sitteth upon the circle of the earth and all the inhabitants
thereof are his grasshoppers. This is what David said, Lord,
teach me this. Keep reminding me because I don't feel like
a grasshopper. I don't look like one, I don't feel like one, I
don't think like one. Remind me what I am. The nations of the earth are
as a drop in a bucket, Isaiah 40, 15, and as the small dust
in the balance. It's not even worth considering.
If there's a drop of water in a bucket, what do you call that?
An empty bucket. That's what you'd call it, right?
You'd look in there and you'd go, oh, there's nothing in that
bucket. And if you take everything else off of the scales, and there's
nothing but dust on there, what's on the scales? Nothing. Somebody said, man's will cannot
even cure him of a sore finger, and yet he vainly imagines that
his will can cure his very soul. What fools we are. Teach us how frail we are, Lord.
I will. We usually say it the wrong way,
don't we? Or at least think it. And this is why this is important
now. So we'll be able to say honestly, verse seven. David
said in verse seven, and now, oh Lord, now, now, now, considering
what I've said is true, now, Lord, what wait I for? What in
the world is there to look forward to if it's that bleak, if I'm
that messed up? My hope is in me. I'm not hoping
I'm going to get better. Are you? Quit hoping that because
you're not. That's a false hope. What wait
I for if I'm really that messed up? If I really stink that bad,
then what in the world do I have to look forward to? What hope
do I have? The Lord Jesus Christ only. And as someone a lot smarter
than me said one time, He's enough if He's all you have. And this is why we need to realize
what we are now. You're either going to hope and
trust in yourself, or you're going to hope and trust in Him.
So the Lord's going to have to kick that out from under you.
All hope and trust in self. And if He's going to save you,
that's what He'll do. He'll kick it out from under you. He'll
pull it right out from under you. If you are hoping in yourself,
it's time you realize what you're hoping in. Nothing. What's a worm gonna do for God? No, we're waiting on Him. He
ain't waiting on us. We're waiting on Him. David said,
what do I wait for? My hope's in you. Verse six,
surely every man walketh in a vain show. What a description of us.
Surely they are disquieted in vain. He heapeth up riches and
knoweth not who shall gather them. Each one of these verses
has three distinct thoughts in them. A vain show. Everything
that man does is designed to make himself and others think
that he's not a grasshopper. But God said, you're a grasshopper.
It's a vain show. Look at me. Look what I can do.
I'm not a grasshopper. God said you're a grasshopper. By God's grace, I just want to
be His grasshopper. I'm okay with being a grasshopper
as long as I'm His. And that's grace now. I pray
that I always feel that way, and more and more so. Let's take
our place as what we are before Him. Lord, make me to know how
weak I am, how foolish I am, how faint I am. How brief and transient I am. Man pretends to be what he's
not. That's what a vain show is. And this is true in natural
things. Most of our leaders aren't leaders.
They're just playing the part. We got one now that's playing
the part of the king. He wants to be king. He got his
crown, though, at the costume shop. He's not a king. It's a vain show. In spiritual
things, though, this is what this is what's important. This
is tragic. Paul said the Jews were going
around pretending to be righteous. To establish their own right,
to make sure everybody knows, look how righteous I am. And
before God, look at all of our wonderful works. He said it's
a vain show. And my heart's desire and prayer
to God is that he would save them. Save them from their own
hypocrisy. And then the second thing in
that verse, he said, they are disquieted in vain. Interesting
word, disquieted. It means they murmur, they growl,
they cry aloud, they rage. But they might as well not. It's
a waste of breath. They rage against God's authority.
Psalm chapter two. They said, look, we'll cast his
bands from us. We don't need God telling us
what to do. God said, I'll laugh at you. And I've set my king
on my holy hill, and you'll kiss him or you'll face his wrath. They rage against God's authority.
It's like an ant shaking its fist at me. An ant crawled in
the bed with me the other night. And, you know, it might have
been thinking, it might have been raging against me. This
is my bed. I couldn't even hear it if it was, though. And it
didn't do anything for long. It's just that they're doing
it in vain. Be still. And the law says, the law of
God says what it does to you that every mouth might be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. Be still and know
that he's God and you're not. Well, everybody knows that. Oh,
I beg your pardon. We got a whole lot of gods running
around in this world. And then man heaps up riches.
He thinks in that way, you know, he can be more than he is. God said, I'll burn your money
with you. And these are the things that
we need to understand about ourselves. If we trust in ourselves and
rage against God and trust in what we can obtain We have to understand these things
about ourselves if we're to come to the place where David was
in these next verses. As I said, verse seven, and now,
Lord, what wait I for? What does a worm like me, a vain,
empty show, strutting around, pretending to be something I'm
not, vanity, emptiness, frail, weak, helpless, What's my hope? You are. You are. My hope is in Thee. Deliver me from all my sins.
It always has to come back to this, doesn't it? Lord, save
me from my sins. All of these problems, what I
am is because of my sins. Make me not the reproach of the
foolish. Seeing that we are what we are
and can do nothing, cannot help ourselves, what hope do we have? Well, I'm a grasshopper and I
know it, but I'm his. Thank God that I'm his. I'm lame on both of my feet,
but guess where I'm sitting? I'm sitting at the king's table. In verse 11, we'll have to hurry
now. I don't want to be long tonight.
I say that every time. No, I'm not going to say that
anymore. I'm going to bridle my tongue. Just understand from now on that
I don't want to be long and I won't have to say it. In verse 11,
though, this is important. We need to see a few more things
here, but I'll skip down and I'll leave you to study the rest
of this word by word. It's all, it's all rich now.
But in verse 11, David said, Lord, when you spoke to me, when
your truth came in power to me, when thou with rebukes did correct
me, when you correct man for iniquity, for his sins, I couldn't pretend anymore. Isn't
that beautiful? I couldn't, I was putting on
a vain show before that, but then the Lord rebuked me, showed
me what I am and all my beauty. All of my imagined beauty melted
away. And this is so good now because
until that happens we'll never see his beauty. All of my beauty was consumed
away like a moth in a flame. Surely every man is vanity and
now I know that. Now I see that my beauty The
beauty that I thought I had is gone. I'm nothing but emptiness. And think about this in spiritual
terms now. I can't keep up the pretense
anymore when God's word, his law rebukes me, the hypocrisy,
the sham. I see myself as I am. And now
I'm saying, Lord, save me from my sin. Instead of saying, look
at me, how many wonderful works I've done and how I don't need to pretend anymore
that I can be good. I don't want to pretend anymore. I know I'm not going to get there.
I'm going to fall short of your righteous. I always have and
I always will. Oh, but your precious blood. I need your precious blood. I
need the cleansing from sin. I need you to forgive me, Lord. I don't need to turn over a new
leaf. I've given up on that now. I need forgiveness. I need to be saved. That's what
he said. Save me, deliver me. And then verse 12. Hear my prayer,
O Lord, and give ear unto my cry. Hold not thy peace at my
tears. For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner as all
my fathers were. In this place of vanity and sorrow
that he's describing, this stage of actors and fools, Dave said,
I'm not going to stay here long. I've already checked out of the
play. I'm not playing the king and the holy person anymore. In this whole world full of fools
that still are, I'm not going to be here long with them. I'm
with you. I'm a stranger in this place.
Do you feel that way? Now, we don't feel like we're
holier than anybody. We know better than that. But
I'll tell you this. Light and dark don't have any
communion with one another. And the light knows it. Christ in us is our hope now,
and if he is in us, then we're just gonna be strangers. Paul
said, I'm dead to this world and it to me. I'm just a sojourner
here. Let me read you some scripture
and I'll be through. Hebrews 13, 12, Wherefore Jesus
also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered
without the gate. What's my hope? What wait I for? him who shed his precious blood,
that he might sanctify me with that precious blood and save
me from my transgressions, as David said in our psalm. That's
how transgressions are forgiven. That's how salvation comes by
that precious blood. And that's what Paul said here.
Let us go therefore unto him without the camp. If we have
to leave this world to go to him, we fix and leave this world
behind. without the camp bearing his
reproach, for here we have no continuing city anyway. This
world is not going to lure me away from him. I've got no continuing
city here, but we seek one to come. I want to go be with him. I don't want to stay here. And then Hebrews 11, 13, these
all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having
seen them afar off. All of his promises to us, we
haven't received them all yet. But they're as good as done.
Paul said, glorified E.D. past tense in Romans chapter
eight, as though it was already done. Because the Lord speaks
of those things that are not as though they were. And he does
that because his counsel is invincible and immutable. And he can't fail. He said, I've spoken in and I'll
do it. And so we put an E.D. on it. Just put an E.D. on it like Paul did. These all died in faith, not
having received their prophet. But God's ruined us because he
showed them to us. He's ruined us to this world.
We can't ever be the same again. We've seen him! We've seen him! And all spiritual blessings in
him. Oh, and we're persuaded, we're
persuaded of them and embrace them and confess that they were
strangers and pilgrims on this earth. If he's going outside
the camp, we're going with him. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country. I seek another world, another
place, another country. You know where it is? It's with
him. Paul said, I have a desire to
depart and to be in Beulah Land. No, to be with him. If that's what Beulah Land is,
then I want to go to Beulah Land. But I'm not sure about that song
or that idea. I want to go to heaven when I
die. What do you mean? If your idea of heaven is just carnal
and worldly, and I want to live in a big mansion and, you know,
have all this luxury, Paul said, I have a desire to depart and
be with him. I don't want to be here unless
I'm with him. And I don't want to be there
unless I'm with him. They're seeking a country and
truly if they had been mindful of that country from when they
came out, if we're mindful of the world, if we do mind the
things of the flesh, they might have had opportunity to have
returned. That's what Lot's wife pretty clearly wanted to do.
She was mindful of the country she had left and God turned her
to rock and sent her to hell. Turned her to salt. But now they desire a better
country. He showed it to us and we're
ruined. That isn't heavenly. Wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared
for them a city. You know what that city is now,
we've already said, but let me quote it to you from his own
words. He said, I go to prepare a place for you. You think that's
what Paul's talking about right there? Same place, the city.
He hath prepared for them a city. He said, I'm going to prepare
a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, you
can be sure of this. I'm going to come again and receive
you into myself, that where I am, where is that Lord? What difference
does it make? What difference? That where I
am, there you may be also. That's the city. I don't care where it is. If
it's in the sky or if it's a new earth, we're going to be down
here on a new earth. We're going to be with him. That's
where we're going to be. And that's what glory is. That's
what heaven is. Paul and David said here, I'm
just Lord, help me, show me, teach me, deliver me, save me,
forgive me, because I'm just a stranger here with you and
I want to be with you forever. I'm not going to be here long.
By reminding us what we are, our Lord weans us from this world,
from this flesh, and makes us desire to depart this country
and go to that country, which he described as, quote, where
I am, end quote. I like that country. And now
that I've seen it, I'm just passing through this
one. That's far better, to be with him. That was David's desire. He said, I'll be satisfied, Lord,
when I awake with your likeness. I think I might be satisfied
with that, too. By his grace. Seeking the country. Let's pray.