Let's turn to Psalm 9, Psalm
9. In verse six, we read, O thou
enemy. Destructions are come to a perpetual
end. And thou hast destroyed cities,
their memorial is perished with them. But the Lord shall endure
forever. He hath prepared His throne for
judgment. Now pay particular attention
to that last part there. He hath prepared His throne for
judgment. And He shall judge the world
in righteousness. He shall minister judgment to
the people in uprightness. We know that the Lord Jesus has
come. He's come and he fulfilled the
work given him of the father. He came into this earth and he
fulfilled the law, filled it full, fulfilled the law. And he being found perfect, he
went to the cross and laid down his life and he bore the justice
that was our demand, our deserve, what his elect people deserved.
And he put that satisfied judgment and he's arisen and he's seated
at the right hand of God. And God has prepared his throne
for judgment. It is finished. It is prepared
for judgment. And we know that in the end of
the world, the Lord shall judge the world in righteousness by
that man, the God man whom he has raised from the dead and
seated at His right hand. It won't be my righteousness. It won't be any other's righteousness. We don't have any righteousness,
but it'll be His righteousness. His righteousness by which those
that approach Him outside of Christ will be judged. And we
know that's true. We know that's so. But also,
remember this. Right now, when it looks like
all around you Everything is in disarray, and it looks like
the world is just in a pitiful shape. And you have enemies within,
you have enemies without. You have all these troubles,
all these problems. Remember this, too. Remember
this, too. This word judgment, this word
judgment. has to do with our Lord's rightness. It has to do with our Lord's
righteousness in saving His people, in protecting His people, His
judgment in how He does everything, His judgment in how He is orchestrating
all things in this world for His people, to teach His people,
to keep His people, to bring His people to Himself. And because
He's the God of judgment, No harm is going to come to His
people. He's going to keep every single one of us and bring us
to Him. Look at this word in verse 8. He shall judge the world in righteousness. He shall minister judgment to
the people in uprightness. That's what the Lord is doing
right now. He's judging everything in this
world and overruling everything in this world in righteousness
right now. And He's doing everything right
now to the people, particularly His people. He's doing it in
uprightness, everything He's doing. And the Lord also, verse
9, it says, will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in
times of trouble. That gives me Those two things
together give me more comfort because he's seated at peace
and glory and he's ruling everything. He's executing judgment right
now and righteousness and uprightness for us. And at the same time,
this one who is our advocate with the Father, this one to
whom all judgment has been given, this one who is the lawgiver
himself, this one who is the Lord of hosts, who has the whole
host at his disposal. This one who is our Redeemer
is also our refuge in all our times of trouble. Now you've
got double good right here. You've got God who is our advocate,
our Redeemer, our Savior, and who's judging all things and
moving all things. And then you've got Him as our
refuge too. That's great. That's the best thing I could
know. I mean, that's the best news
for us. Well, I want you to go down here. This is what I really
want to look at tonight, and I want to speak on this. It's
right there in verse 15. Now get this. The heathen are
sunk down in the pit that they made. In the net which they hid
is their own foot taken. Now look at this verse. The Lord
is known by the judgment which He executed. The wicked is snared
in the work of his own hands. Hegeon Selah. That means meditate, double meditation. Think on this with a double thought. Think on this twice as much.
The Lord is known by the judgment which he executed. Here's one
side of that. The wicked is snared in the work
of his own hands. Here's the second side of that.
Look down at verse 18. It's for the needy. that he's
doing this. For the needy shall not always
be forgotten. The expectation of the poor shall
not perish forever. You know who the needy are? As
you and I have been called by his grave, we're the needy. You
know what our expectation is? Our expectation is he's going
to do what's right. The judge of all the earth shall
do right. Our expectation is he's going
to be our refuge in all times of trouble. Our expectation is
he's going to bring us to himself. And we're going to, we're going
to, that hope that we hope right now is going to be realized.
It's going to become a reality in his presence. And we're going
to see him as he is and rest with him. Now I want to talk
about this thing about Him being known by judgment that He executes. It's amazing that it even says
the Lord is known. That's an amazing thing. The
Lord is known. He made a world and He created all things in
it that He might be known. He's going to make Himself known,
particularly to those that He put in Christ. He's going to
make Himself known to us, but He's going to make Himself known
to everybody in this world. Everybody that's ever lived in
this world is going to know Him in that day. They're going to know
Him. But this is what I've been thinking
on. The Lord is known by the judgment
which He executed. The wicked is snared in the work
of His own hands. Now, you think about this. We
know from 2 Peter 2, it tells us that the Lord, He didn't reserve
the angels that sinned. He cast them out of glory, from
His presence. Look over at Hebrews 1. Why did,
what happened? We can't really get too, delve
too much into that because we don't know what happened there,
but we got some idea of what happened there. We got some idea
of it because we know something about what's in our wicked heart
by nature. We know what's in the heart of flesh by nature.
You remember the Lord told the Pharisees, He said, when they
were talking with Him, arguing with Him one day, He said, You
are of your father, the devil. And he said he was a liar from
the beginning and he abode not in the truth. If you don't abide
in the truth, it means you had to hear something about the truth,
don't it? You have to have been there to
where you heard something about the truth and then you abode
not in it. You departed from it. Well, Here's something that
I think we can see here from the scriptures that was clearly
declared in that council, that covenant, when God made his purpose
known and what he was going to do in this earth. Create a world,
going to send forth his son into this world. And he's going to
take nature, human nature, the nature of a man that God has
made, and he's going to take that nature into union with divine
nature. And he's going to execute judgment
in the earth. He's going to establish righteousness
for his people and put away all sin. And he's going to be risen
again, that all the hosts of heaven and earth will praise
him, that they'll rejoice in him. This is our gospel. This
is what we declare. What happens when men hear that?
When you hear preach this gospel, that God's chosen a people, he's
put them in Christ. But particularly this, that Christ
is going to get all the glory. That's the thing, that Christ
is going to get all the glory. There is one Man, by one man's
disobedience, many were made sinners. Many died, but by one
man's obedience. And that man is Christ. He's
the God-man that is going to get all the glory for having
wrought this salvation. He's going to be glorified just
in that way. A glorified man, glorified human
nature is in glory. He is the God-man. We're going
to see Jesus Christ who walked this earth. That's who we're
going to see. And the devil, Satan, and this whole host of
angels heard this. They heard this. Here's what
they heard. Hebrews 1 verse 6. When he bringeth in the first
begotten into the world, he said, let all the angels of God worship
him. Let them all worship him. Look
down at chapter 2 and look at verse 5. For unto the angels
hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we
speak? But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man
that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest
him? Thou madest him a little lower
than the angels. He's lower than the angels. He
was made lower than the angels. And he says here, Thou crownest
him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works
of thy hands. This, we're talking about, we're
talking about this was given to Adam in the garden, but he
sinned against God and lost everything. This is given to the second Adam,
the last Adam, when he came forth, he's given this glory over all. Thou didst set him over all the
works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection
under his feet. And everything's in subjection
under Him. For in that He put all in subjection under Him,
He left nothing that's not put under Him. Right now, we don't
see it that way, but it's all under Him. Well, I know something. He abode not in the truth. When
that host of angels that were cast out, and Lucifer was among
them, the Lord said, I saw him fall from heaven. He heard this.
And He said what men say. What men say when they hear the
gospel. I will not have that man reign over me. Do you know
who I am? I'm an angel, he's thinking.
Do you know who I am? I'm higher than this one that's
going to come low, a man, and he's going to come into glory
and be crowned and have everything put in subjection under him,
and I'm going to have to submit to him? This is exactly what
fallen sinners say in our hearts by nature. We say, I won't have
that man reign over me. But the Lord's known by the judgment
he executes. Did that rebellion, did it hinder
the purpose of God whatsoever? Did it alter God's everlasting
covenant? Did it change what God counseled
to do before the beginning between God the Father and God the Son?
Did it change anything whatsoever? He's known by the judgment he
executes. He rebelled, the Lord cast him
out. He cast him out into the earth.
And then he makes, he allows him to enter into the garden.
And he enters into the garden. And a whole while that he's going
about to do everything he's doing. You know what his purpose was?
Now, he said wicked hand. This is so of all wicked hands.
But let's just go to the chief wicked one and look at him. Satan
himself. You know what he was attempting
to do in that garden? He was attempting in that garden
to stop what God had said was going to come to pass. He was
trying to stop Christ from getting all the glory. And his way of
thinking he could do that was to make man fall, make Adam fall. And so he tempts Eve. He don't
go to Adam, he goes to Eve and he tempts Eve. And Eve sees the
fruit and she gives it to Adam and Adam takes it and he eats
it and all die. Did that change the judgment
of God? Did that knock God's judgment off course a little
bit, make it to where? No. You know what happened by
those wicked hands doing that? He's digging his own grave. He's
laying a net. He's casting that net out there
and thinking, I'm going to get him in this net. And you know
what he's doing? He's tangling himself up in that
net all the while. Well, as soon as that happened,
God came forth and He called Adam and He brought Druim to
Himself And we have a picture there of him robbing him in the
garments of righteousness and bringing him to believe on him
and what have you. He didn't hinder God's judgment
at all. And then you think about this.
You think about later on, we think about Moses. Remember Moses?
Moses was an infant at the time. And a decree went out. Pharaoh
put a decree out that all the infants were to be put to death.
They'd all be put to death. Where's that coming from? What's
behind all that? What's trying to stop all that?
What's it trying to stop? It's trying to prevent Christ
from coming into the world. It's trying to prevent Him from
coming into the world and accomplishing the work God gave Him to accomplish.
Did it work? He laid a good net. He laid a
good net. He dug a good hole. He dug a
good pit or a good trap for something to fall in. You know what happened?
Moses was put in a basket and went down and was picked up by
that nurse that took him right in there to Pharaoh's house and
raised him up in Pharaoh's house. Gave him better than what he
could have ever had. And you know what ended up happening?
The Lord ended up sending him back into Egypt and he used Moses
to go forth and set forth all his gospel to those folks and
everything he was going to do and everything in truth. And
the Lord brought him right out of there through that very one.
The Lord's known by the judgment He executes. The wicked are taken
in the works of their own hands. Why did He do that? He said,
I do it for the oppression of the needy. I do it for the needy.
Those that are oppressed. My people who can't do this for
themselves. My people who can't save themselves.
My people who are being pressed to produce something they can't
produce. My people who who expect me by
my grace, I've given them a good expectation that I'm going to
save them. And he says that I'm going to save them. I'm going
to save them. His throne is prepared for judgment. He's executing righteousness
in this world. He's executing it in uprightness. Let men look at it and let men
look at things like that and say, oh, how could a God that's
supposed to be so holy and so just let something like that
happen? Well, If those elect infants were His, and they were,
obviously, they went to glory with Him. And if those sinners
who died along the way who are His, they're going right where they
were going to go, what they earned. And those that are saved are
saved by His grace, and if their lives are taken, they're just
escorted into glory with Him, to be with Him. Think of another
example. You think about Haman and Mordecai. Remember how Haman, he was just
so determined. All the Jews had to die. He was
going to make certain all the Jews had to die. And when he
went through the streets, everybody bowed to him. Everybody gave
him honor. Everybody gave him praise. But
when he come to Mordecai, Mordecai wouldn't bow to him. Mordecai
would not bow to him. Mordecai's a Jew. He's sitting
there. He's one of those through whom Christ is coming. He's coming through that people. And he wouldn't bow. He would
not bow to him. And Haman went about doing everything
he could. He went so far as he even made
gallows. He even went and made a place to hang Mordecai. Said, I'm going to hang him.
He laid him a good trap. He dug a good hole. He threw
a good net. He was going to do all that.
And the Lord moved everything involved in that, every little
last little minute detail in that, so that what ended up happening
was it got back to the king. And the king, when Haman came
in there, he said, I'm going to give honor to this man who's
going to save this kingdom. He said, who should I, what should
I do to him? And he said, I put him on a big horse and I take
him through the streets. I gave him honor. I gave him
glory. I have everybody come out praising. when the king knew
already the one that's getting this honor is Mordecai. And Haman,
what did he get? He went, they hung him on the
gallows that he made to kill Mordecai. They hung him on that
very gallows that he made. The Lord is known by the judgment
that he executed. The wicked are snared in the
work of their own hands. The pit, the very grave they
dig, they're digging their own grave. That's what they're doing.
So all down through time, everything the Lord has done, He's making
himself known by the judgment he executes. And then our Savior
is born into this world. He comes into this world and
he goes about doing everything that he purposed to do from the
beginning. And no man was able to touch
him. No man was able to lay hands on him because his hour had not
come. His hour had not come. He set
the hour. He set the hour. And he was the
one who had the power to prevent anybody from touching him until
that hour had come. And he went through this world,
fulfilling all the scriptures, doing everything he said he would
do, fulfilling all righteousness. And he goes then and he says,
now. Now, he says, is the hour. And remember what he said when
they came to arrest him? He said, now is your hour. hour for the Prince of Darkness.
Now's his hour. And all these wicked hands and
everything that was done, they took our Savior. And He's willingly,
He's doing everything. Men think they're the same thing,
and I've got Him now. I have got Him now. I've got
Him. I've been trying this whole time, and now I've got Him. And
He takes him, and they take him through that mock trial. They
do everything they do with him. And the whole time, everything
that was taking place, that was being done by wicked hands, all
the rulers and all the princes and everything, they were being
done. They were doing exactly what God purposed to be done
from the beginning. And every time they took a hammer
and they would take it and they'd rear back and they would Or they'd
take their fist, they'd rear back, and they'd smite our shepherd.
You know what was happening every time that was taking place? Satan's
head was being crushed. They'd rear back with a blow,
and they'd spit in his face, and Satan's head was being crushed.
That's not what wicked hands thought. Wicked hands thought,
we're laying a net for him. We've dug a grave, and we're
putting him in this grave. That's what wicked hands thought.
All the while, the Lord was using those wicked hands to accomplish
His purpose of grace for His people. All the while, every
time they crushed those thorns down on His head, you know what
was happening? Satan's head was being crushed. When they took
Him to that cross and they began to hammer with those spikes and
every time they would strike a blow and nail those spikes
into His hands. You know what was happening?
Satan's head was being crushed. And that one went there and he
bore everything in his body that his people are. And he bore the wrath of God. He bore the judgment of God.
God's known by the judgment he executes. When sin was found
on his own son, he didn't turn his back on his son. He poured
out judgment upon his son. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? Everything he does, he does in
judgment. Everything he does, he does in
righteousness. Everything he does, he does in
uprightness. Everything he does, he does in
uprightness. And all the while that Wicked
Hands were trying to do this, it was accomplishing what he
had determined before the world to be done. And when he bore
everything that his children deserved, when he fully accomplished
that full satisfaction of justice for his people and said, it's
finished. Satan's head was crushed. His
head was crushed. Read it again. The Lord is known
by the judgment which he executed. The wicked is snared in the work
of his own hands. And why did he do that? Here's
the flip side of that. Why did he do that? That was
serving a purpose. Not only was it taking the wicked
in the work of his own hands, but here's why he did it. Verse
18, For the needy shall not be forgotten. The needy shall not
be forgotten. Those who could not do anything
to save ourselves, those who could not work any kind of righteousness,
those who were all together in sin and undone, the needy. those
that He gave to His Son, those for whom His Son laid down His
life, the needy. The needy. For the needy shall
not always be forgotten. It's not that He ever forgets
them. It's not that they're not ever continually with Him. Look at Psalm 73. Psalm 73. The
psalmist there, began to look at the wicked.
And he said, he begins, he says, truly God is good to Israel,
even to such as are of a clean heart. But you know what happens
to our hearts a lot of times? They become defiled. Our hearts
become defiled. Remember David went and he said,
Lord, created me a clean heart. David said that. He's a believer
saying that. He said, wash me throughly, purge me with Israel. Wasn't he washed? Yeah, he was
washed. Wasn't he purged already? Yes,
he was purged. Didn't he already have a new
heart? Wasn't he a new man? Yes, he did. He was. But he had
become dirty. He had become defiled. And the
only way we're going to be kept, and that heart be kept continually
clean to seek Christ and rest in Him alone, is if God does
it. If He continually keeps us by His grace. But why did it
come dirty? Look, verse 2, he says, as for
me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had well and I slipped
for I was envious at the foolish. When I saw the prosperity of
the wicked, I started looking at their prosperity. There are
no bands in their death, but their strength is firm. They're
not in trouble as other men, neither they plague like other
men. They live in this world and they just look like they're
prospering. They look like everything's good and they don't have any
affliction. They don't have any trials. They're rich and they
go through this life that way and they die the same way, he
said. And he said, pride compasseth them about as a chain, violence
covereth them as a garment. But he goes all the way down
through here, and this is where he came. He came to this point.
This is what he was thinking in verse 13. Verily, I have cleansed
my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence. See, he's
saying this has all been in vain. This has all been in vain. Why?
Because, verse 14, all the day long I've been plagued and I've
been chastened every morning. brought him to himself. The Lord
cleansed him. The Lord cleaned his heart. He
purged him. He purged him. So that even those
wicked, those wicked ones that he looked at, all those wicked
ones he looked at and he thought by those, looking at those, and
he began to become defiled and all that. The Lord kept him.
And the Lord drew him to himself. And the Lord taught him what
he was doing for him. So that he was brought to say
this. Look. Brought to say this. In verse 21, thus my heart was
grieved and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I and
so ignorant I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, I
am continually with thee. I'm continually with thee. Thou
hast holded me by my right hand. You take Take one of the little
ones you know and you're walking along with them and they got
their hand in yours. And it makes us, we like that.
It makes you, it endears them to us to know they're holding
our hand. They reached out and they've held our hand. And we're
walking along with them and we're carrying them along and they
see something that's wicked. They see something that's going
to do them harm. They see something that's going to, and their heart
gets set on it. They see it and man they just,
you know how a child Out of the blue, they just turn and they're
going to take off after whatever it is that they've looked at.
And you know it, that's going to be bad for them. That's going
to hurt them. They're not going to be safe
doing that. And that's when you find out
who's holding whose hand, don't you? And you have their hand
and you pull them back to you. And when you do that, when the
Lord does that for one of His own, He makes us to say, nevertheless,
I was as a beast. I looked, for me, I looked to
the wicked. And the wicked are thinking, they're thinking they're
laying a net. The wicked's thinking, I'm laying
a trap. The wicked's thinking, I'm fixing to get one on. Christ's
on. And the Lord's taken them in
their own net. He's taken them in their own
wickedness. Because when He turns His child and He brings His child
back to Himself, you know what He's done for us? He showed us,
you were just this far. Your feet was almost gone. You
were well and I slipped. You were this far. And He makes
us to see, verse 23, Psalm 73, 23, Nevertheless, I'm continually
with thee. Thou is holding my right hand,
He won't let us go. He will not let His people go.
And He brings us to say this, Thou shalt guide me with Thy
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven
but Thee? And there's none on earth I desire
but Thee. He makes us to see my flesh and
my heart failing. There's no strength in it. There's
no strength in me. There's no strength in you, brethren.
There's no strength in us, but he makes us to see. But God is
the strength of my heart, and he's my portion forever. And
I love this last part. Look down here, verse 28. It's
good for me to draw near to God. Look at this. I put my trust
in the Lord God that I may declare all thy works. And you know what he's doing
right there in that whole psalm? He's declaring all God's words. He's
saying at the beginning, truly God's good to Israel. He's good
even to them that are of a clean heart. But let me show you how
polluted this heart can become that fast. How distracted, how
we can be turned away from Him. And he's brought back at the
very end and he says, this is why I've put my trust in Him.
This is why I've committed even the keeping of my commitment
to Him. This is why I've entrusted to
Him to even keep me trusting Him. Because He's turned me from
myself and He's brought me back. And now let me tell you all about
His works. Let me tell you how He's known
by the judgment He executes. Isn't that what a father wants
to be known for? A father wants to be known as
being being just and right and dealing in what's right for his
children. That's how God's making himself
manifest to us. He's teaching us that in everything
we do. We get so easily turned away
and so easily distracted and so easily turned aside. When
the children walk through the wilderness, the Lord said they
lusted after things they ought not lust after. You know what
happened? The Lord directed their steps
everywhere they went. He gave them everything they
had, and He withheld everything they didn't have. You know what
the problem was? They wanted what He didn't give them, and
they didn't want what He did give them. No temptation has taken us but
such as is common to man. There's two things with that
word temptation. It's trial, and it means these lusts of our
flesh, these old lusts of our flesh. We see in the church and
the wilderness what we are. We see how God's kept us by his
grace. We lust after things, covetous
things, evil things that won't do us any good. I know how Franklin
is, because it's just like where I live. Parents taking their
kids from one thing to the next thing, to the next thing, to
the next thing, baseball, basketball, this, that, this program, that
program, this club, that club, trying to give them everything
you can give them, trying to just heap everything upon them,
everything upon them. But if you do that, do all of
that, and in the end, they don't know the Lord, they don't have
the Lord Jesus Christ, They're going to still say, you didn't
give me everything. You could have given me something
else. And they're never going to be content. But if they hear
the gospel, if they hear this grace by His grace, if they hear
what He's done for His people by His grace, though you didn't
give up everything, though they might not have had everything,
though you might have kept them from those things they could
have had, if the Lord works this grace in their heart, you know
what they'll say? You gave me everything. Does they have Christ
who is all? But aren't we constantly attracted
to the wicked? Aren't we constantly attracted
towards that wickedness? The church in the wilderness
went along and it says, it says, let's look over there. First
Corinthians 10. First Corinthians 10. Look at, look at verse seven. Neither be ye idolaters, as were
some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and
drink and rose up to play." You know how that came about? You
remember how that came about? Moses went up into the mountain.
He went up into the mountain, and when they didn't see him
coming back, when he didn't come back in their time, when he didn't
come back according to their timetable, they said, Aaron,
up, make us gods to go before. Make us something we can see.
And they sat down to eat and worshiping that God and rose
up and danced around in all their worship and said, Oh, now we're
worshiping God. We're really worshiping God.
You know where the idolatry began? When Saul was told to go up and
wait on Samuel and he went up and he started seeing all the
enemies around him and he started seeing and Samuel didn't come
up in his timetable. According to the time he thought
he ought to come up. Saul bypassed him, and he just said, I'm going
to make an offering. He took the place of the high
priest, he made an offering, he did everything for himself.
And you know what Samuel told him? He said, stubbornness is
idolatry. It's the same thing, not waiting
on the Lord. Not waiting on the Lord. Hold
your place there in 1 Corinthians 10, and look over at 2 Peter. Look over at 2 Peter. And look at chapter 3, and look
at verse 3. knowing this first, that there
shall come in the last day scoffers walking after their own lusts
and saying, where's the promise of His coming? This one, this
one who's mediating for us between us and God, who's gone up into
the mountain, He hasn't come back. Where's the promise of
His coming? He hasn't come back. And it says, for since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning
of the creation. And so what does the world do? What has the
world done? What has the world done? Oh,
the world has gotten... I'm talking about religion. What
has it done? It's progressed more and gone further now than
it ever has before. Christianity is all over the
world like it never has been before. We got bigger buildings. We got better programs. We got
more things than you could ever imagine. And you know what's
happened? You know what's happened? Christ hadn't come back on our
timetable. And men have said, oh, let's
make something we can see. We can do a lot more that way.
We can get a lot more people in that way. And we can accomplish
a lot more that way. And men flock on every side when
men are flattered and when men are given something they can
do and when men are given activities and things like that. Men flock
on every side. And yet the Lord has a few sitting right here
in a place where you're listening to the gospel preach, you come
in here week in and week out, and you have the bread coming
down from heaven. You have the manna from heaven.
You have Christ the bread. Not all the other stuff, but
you got Christ the bread. And when you have Christ the
bread, you find out, I don't need all that other stuff. In
fact, when you have Christ the bread, that other stuff makes
you sick to your stomach. It just makes you sick to your
stomach. But see how the wicked are going about all the things
that religion's doing in this world in the name of the Lord,
claiming it's in the name of the Lord. And yet the Lord's
known by the judgment He executes for His people, for His needy
people that expect Him to save us. He's brought you into an
oasis. He brought you into a place from
the midst of that wickedness. We wouldn't know wickedness if
it wasn't all around us. We wouldn't know sin if it wasn't
all about us. But He keeps bringing us and
showing us the great things He's done for us and keeping us from
those lusts of the flesh. You ever had that thought? I
know we do. We have the thought, well, maybe
if we did such and such, more people would come. He keeps us
from it, though. He keeps us trusting him and
resting in his word. I'm just showing you some of
these wicked things. This is all the lust of our flesh, right?
Covetousness back at 1 Corinthians 10. And then not waiting on the
Lord. Just not waiting on Him to do
His work and His time. And then look down at verse 8. Neither let us commit fornication
as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty
thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them tempted
and were destroyed of serpents. You know what spiritual fornication
is. We're one with Christ's body.
We're one like a husband and a wife are one. And to take that
which is Christ's body and to unite it with a harlot, that's
fornication. That's fornication. That's exactly
what Paul's saying here. Look here at verse 17. Or look
at verse 16. The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread
which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
For we being many are one bread and one body, for we're all protectors
of that one bread of Christ. We're one in him. We're one in
him. That's what he's saying. We're one in him. We're eating
the bread. We're wanting Him. He said, eat
my flesh and drink my blood. Except you eat my flesh, drink
my blood, you have no life in you. We're wanting Him. We're
wanting Him. Now look what He said. Look down
at verse... Verse 20, but I say the things
with the Gentile sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to
God. And I would not that you should
have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the
Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the
Lord's table and of the table of devils. And he said, do we
provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? We're
going to tempt Christ or we're going to say, well, I'm I believe
I'm one of God's elect people. I believe that He's called me
and He's saved me and He's made me with the righteousness of
God in Him and He's going to keep me. So I'm going to go over
here and I'm going to go into the midst of Babylon and I'm
going to go in there and I'm going to sit down with them and
I'm going to start, I know I'm not worshiping the same Lord
as them, but I'm going to sit down with them and maybe they'll
give me a teaching position or something like that and maybe
I can help try to steer them in the right direction. They'll
steer us in the wrong direction. The Lord says, come out of Babylon,
come out of Babylon. To do so is fornication. But
you see, what I'm trying to point out is, the Lord's known by the
judgment He executes. The wicked snared in the work
of their hands, but for the needy, for those who expect Him to save
us, He keeps keeping us from the lusts of our flesh. He keeps
keeping us from those things that would mean certain death
for us. That's what He keeps doing. And
that verse 10, neither murmur ye as some of them murmured and
were destroyed of the destroyer. You know what that is? If you
go through and look, they murmured against God's ordained means
of salvation. That's what they murmured against.
They murmured against God. They murmured against the gospel
of the bread. They murmured against his servant
Moses. They murmured against the ordinances
of the Lord that he gave. They murmured against those things.
Surely we wouldn't have that that lustful sin in us, would
we? How many times have we ever said,
I'm just so burdened down with this. I know I need to hear the
gospel, but I'm so burdened down with all this weight upon me.
I don't think I can go to service tonight. What better time to
go? What better time for us to go?
How many times have we thought, I just can't even pick up the
Word and read it now. That's the best time to pick
it up and read it. I can't go to His throne of grace in this
way. That's the time to go to Him. He keeps us trusting Him. He
keeps us stayed upon Him. So that once He's turned us from
ourselves and turned us back to Him, He shows us this judgment
He's executing in uprightness. And what he's doing for us continually,
so that he brings us to say, this is why I'm trusting him. He's keeping me. He's keeping
me. And in that last day, when we
stand before him, and he makes that divine division in that
last day, and he sets his sheep on his right hand and he sets
the goats on his left hand, can you imagine You know the saying,
what do they say? A man that represents himself
in court or whatever has got a fool for a lawyer. Think about
this, how foolish this would be. You refuse the advocate,
you refuse the lawyer, you get to that day of judgment, and
you find out that the advocate you refused is the judge. It don't end there. Then you
find out the law that you've broken was given by him. He's the legislator, too. He
gave the law. He's the lawgiver. You talk about
a man that's got a fool. It's really kind of however that
saying is. That's a fool. But those that
are standing there in him, that's Psalm 73 said of those, he said,
I'm going to despise their image. They've been trying to come to
me in the image of Adam. They've been trying to come to
me in the image of Adam. But those others, they come to him
in his own image. They've been created anew after
the image of him that created them, made new in their heart.
And they come to him and they stand there. And it says, when
we see him, we're going to be like him. And when we see him
in that day, he's going to say, that's my image right there. They're one with me. There's
no fault in them. They're righteous. And in that
day, every knee's going to bow, and every knee's going to confess,
because the Lord's going to be known by the judgment that He's
executed. And He's going to do that for
us needy sinners right now. Don't ever, don't ever get discouraged. The Lord's going to keep us.
And when we see one another, we see one another get discouraged,
and we see one another get turned this way or that, We trust this. The Lord's going to keep us.
He's going to keep us. And we try to, we try to just
point each other to him, don't we? All right. Thank you. Well, it's comforting to know
that the judge of all the earth that must do right is also my
advocate. We have an advocate with the
Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous, the same one who judges. And
that's a comfort to my soul. I appreciate the message, brother. Brother D, would you dismiss
us in prayer, please, tonight?