Psalm 16. This psalm has the
distinction of having been preached from by the apostle Peter in
Acts chapter two. We'll look at the passage of
scripture there where Peter preached from this passage in Psalm 16
and also the apostle Paul in Acts 13 preached from this same
psalm. And when they did, as we'll see
when we turn there, that they preached concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ, the language of the psalm, when he says in verse
10, thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine holy one to see corruption, that that's the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. But this psalm, it concerns the
Lord Jesus Christ, but also his people in Christ. And this is also true of us.
So let's look at it tonight. And I pray the Lord would be
pleased to teach us. Look at verse one. Preserve me,
O God, for in thee do I put my trust. Now we know that It was
the Lord Jesus that said, thou will not suffer than a holy one
to see corruption. But can this be the Lord also
preserved me? Oh God, does the son of God need
to be preserved? Yes, he did. As our representative,
as the man, as the son of man who became in all ways like us
yet without seeing prayed that the Father would preserve him
in this earth. You remember what Satan said
to the Lord in the desert in Matthew chapter four, verse six.
He saith unto him, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself
down, for it's written, he shall give his angels charge concerning
thee. And in their hands shall they
bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a
stone. What is the Lord Jesus, the Lord of glory, need the angels
to bear him up for? As a man, he walked this earth
just like I do, except without sin. And this helps us understand
how God came and walked in this world like we do, became a man
like us. Why does the father preserve
his son? Preserve my soul, oh God. Does
he do it? Does he preserve him? He did,
didn't he? Why? Because he deserved it.
He earned it. He pleased his father. He obeyed
his father. He served his father perfectly
as a man. And because the father loved
him, the Lord preserved him. Will the Lord preserve me? Does
this apply to me? This is David also saying, David
didn't just write this For the Lord. He was saying this himself
to preserve me, oh God. Will the Lord preserve me? He
preserved the Lord Jesus because he deserved it. Will he preserve
me? If so, why? Because the Lord
Jesus deserves it. Because my Savior deserves. The
father's blessing and care and. Protection and everything. As
a man, he earned it. And he didn't just earn it for
himself as a man, he earned it for me. He earned it for me. He gets what he prays for, doesn't
he? Because the Father, he said, the Father heareth me always.
Because he pleased the Father in everything that he did. John
17, 11, he said, now I am no more in the world, but these
are in the world. My little sheep, my children,
my brothers, sisters, there in the world, and I come to thee,
Holy Father, keep through thine own name. That word keep there
is preserve. And the word preserve in Psalm
16 means keep. It's the same thing in a different
language. Keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. Preserve me, O God, For in thee
do I put my trust. Do we put our trust in him? The
Lord Jesus Christ did perfectly, didn't he? He trusted his father.
Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Can we
honestly say that? It's easy to trust him when he's
blessing us, or what we consider to be blessing. But Job said,
he's killing me. But I trust him. I trust him. That's faith that comes from
God. That's not something somebody worked up. That's faith from
God there. But we don't trust him perfectly, do we? We have
to say with that man, I believe, Lord, help thou mine unbelief.
Our trust is not meritorious. He's not going to preserve us
because of our trust. But my Savior trusted perfectly
as my representative. And He preserves us in Christ.
He preserves us because of Christ. That's why I say sometimes, in,
by, through, and because of the Lord Jesus Christ, God blesses
me. And every one of that's not just
being repetitive. It's in Him. It's by Him. It's through Him. And it's because
of Him that God preserves my soul. Now verse two, oh my soul,
thou has said unto the Lord, you're my Lord. You're not just
the Lord. Although that's good to acknowledge
it, be still and know that I'm God. But more important than
that, he's my God. More important to me anyway,
he's my God. My goodness extendeth not to
thee, but to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent
in whom is all my delight. You may have seen this verse
before and wondered what it meant. I have and did. Now he said,
my soul thou has said unto the Lord, you're my Lord. It's one
thing for your lips to say that you're my Lord. You can't hear
what my soul is saying tonight. I can't hear what your soul is
saying. I can hear what your lips say.
And you may say with your lips, the Lord is my Lord. But what's
your soul saying tonight concerning this God? Not the God of religion,
not the God of your imagination. God as he's revealed himself
in this book, sovereign and holy, gracious and powerful, almighty. to redeem, Almighty to save.
This God, as He's revealed here, what is your soul saying concerning
Him? Do you own Him as yours? That
one that's despised by this world. Paul said, after the way which
they call heresy, that's how I worship God, by this gospel,
by this truth, by this message. Is the one that they call a heretic,
an imposter, is that your Christ? My Lord. He's my Lord. That's
what he's saying. Remember when we saw those two
blind men and he said, do you believe that I'm able to do this? After all the Pharisees and everybody
that was anybody in religion had rejected the Lord Jesus Christ
and said, he's an imposter. He's a blasphemer for saying
your sins are forgiven. But do you believe that he's
the Christ? That's the question. Is he your
Lord? Thomas said at one time, I will
not believe. But then a little bit later,
he said, my Lord. When the Lord Jesus revealed
himself to him in grace, so gracious, Thomas, come here and touch,
touch my hands, thrust your hand into my side and don't be faithless,
but believing. He said, my Lord and my God,
not just Thee, Lord, and Thee, God, mine. My beloved is mine
because I'm his. And he said, my goodness extendeth
not to thee. Now, I understand this with regard
to myself. I understand David saying that
about himself. My goodness doesn't add anything
to God. That's what he said. My goodness
doesn't add anything to you. It doesn't impress you. It doesn't
add anything to you. It doesn't supplement your goodness. Now, I understand that about
me, but what about the Lord Jesus? Can this possibly apply to him? My goodness extendeth not to
thee. Yes, it does. Think about it
with me. Our Lord's human righteousness
did not add anything to the righteousness of God. God Almighty, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit did not become more righteous when the
Lord Jesus Christ came down here and lived a perfect human life.
He's infinitely, immutably righteous before, during, and after that. And that's what the Lord is saying
here. That's not what the Lord Jesus came down here to do. He
displayed the righteousness of God as a man. He glorified the
righteousness of God as a man, but he didn't come to prove anything
as God. No, that's not what he did. He
didn't come to make God more righteous. He came to make you
righteous and me righteous. Look at verse three. He said,
my goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints. That's
the Lord Jesus talking there, isn't it now? His goodness does
extend to the saints. It does add to the saints. It
does affect the saints. That's why they're called saints.
That means holy ones. Because His goodness extendeth
to me. We've washed our robes and made
them white in the blood of the Lamb. That's how His goodness
extends to me. And that's why we're called the
excellent. He calls us His excellent ones. His choice, prize, the
gems in His crown. And this is why He delights in
us. His soul delights in His people because of His righteousness,
because of His glory that's revealed in us. What about verse three
regarding us? Verse two, now we see, David,
my goodness doesn't add anything to you, God. You know, religion
thinks that it does. They think that God's waiting
on you, that he needs for you to do some things in order to
make him who he wants to be. God wants to say he wants to
be a great savior of people, but you're gonna have to, your
goodness is gonna have to extend to him in order to make that
happen. Nonsense. Blasphemy. But what about verse
three? My goodness extendeth to the
saints. Can David say that? The goodness of Christ in us.
extends to his other people, doesn't it? The goodness of Christ
in you extends to me. It's a blessing to me. To see
God's grace in you, we're able to comfort one another with the
comfort wherewith we are comforted of God. That's the goodness of
Christ and God in us extending to God's saints. We're taught
by one another. We're edified by one another.
We enjoy the fellowship of one another. Our goodness extends
to each other, not to God. And to me, you're excellent. I don't tell you that a lot,
because I don't want you to get all proud. But you're just flat excellent.
You look at this world now. Who do you want to spend your
time with? Who do you want to be around, if not the people
of God? By God's grace, his people are
excellent, and I delight in you. Paul said many times that you're
my joy and my crown, and the people of God, we delight in
one another. That's such a blessing. Then
verse four, he says, their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten
after another God. Their drink offerings of blood
will I not offer, or take up their names into my lips." Now,
it's clear this from David's standpoint. We don't have anything
to do with those. Now, it doesn't mean that we,
you know, go off in a convent somewhere and seclude ourselves
from wicked people. We have to do business. We have
to deal with wicked people every day, but we don't have to have
anything to do with them as far as fellowship. And can't. There's no fellowship between
light and darkness. What fellowship hath Christ in
Belial? Absolutely none. And that's what's
being taught here. But the Lord Jesus Christ also,
you know, he said of his sheep in John 10 three, my sheep hear
my voice and I call my own sheep by name. But here he says, I
won't take their names into my lips. Those that hasten after
another God. Those who worship another Jesus.
Who believe in another God. He doesn't take their name to
his lips. He calls us by name. But he says
to them, I never knew you. I never knew you. Their drink
offerings of blood will I not offer. Their offerings will I
not offer. In other words, he will not fulfill
the office of priest for them. I'm not going to offer your offering.
That's what happened under the old covenant. The people would
bring an offering to the priest and the priest would sacrifice
that offering for them. There got to be a mediator, you
see. And the Lord said, I will not be that for you. And we see that more than one
place in the word of God in John chapter 17. That's the Lord's
great high priestly prayer. When the high priest went into
the Holy of Holies, he had a censer filled with incense that was
burning, and the smoke rose up, and that's the intercession.
That's that sweet-smelling savor of Christ in the nostrils of
God. And that's what's happening. The fulfillment of that picture
is when our Lord, in His high priestly prayer, prayed and interceded
on behalf of His people as our high priest in John 17. And when
He did, He said, I pray not for them. I will not offer their
offerings. I will not be their high priest,
because they hasten after another God. And I pray not for this
world, but for them which Thou hast given Me, because they are
Yours, and all Yours are Mine. He does not intercede for them,
as is the role of a priest of God for the people, of God, nor
does he offer sacrifice for them. That's the other thing that the
priest did for the people that he offered the sacrifice for
them. How did Christ fulfill that? By going into the holy
of holies, not without blood. And he didn't go there with the
blood of bulls and goats, but with his own precious blood and
obtained eternal redemption for us. But he said, I will not do
that for them. He did not die for them. He did
not offer his blood for them. If you hasten after another God,
your sorrows will multiply. You may have some sorrows in
this world. It's just a taste. They're going to multiply infinitely. And then verse five, the Lord
is the portion of my inheritance. You see there, it doesn't say
the Lord is a portion of my inheritance. That's the way some would have
it. Oh, I want the, you know, I want to have, I want to be
a Christian, you know, and I want to go to heaven when I die and
all that, but I want to enjoy this world too and be of this
world and live for myself. Now he not a portion of our inheritance. He is the portion of our inheritance. He's our share. That's the Lord
to his people now. If you know who he is now, if
you know who he is and he says to you, you go sell everything,
give it to the poor and come with me. How long is it going
to take you to do that? The Lord's my portion. I don't
need that stuff. By God's grace. That's just the
way it is with his people. Now listen, listen to the language
of, he said, the Lord is the portion of my inheritance. That's
what I expect. And of my cup, that's what I
got in my hand right now. And he maintains my life. The
Lord is all I ever hoped to have, my inheritance. He's all I need
right now, my cup. David said, my cup runneth over
present tense right now. I've got everything I need. How
about you? Jacob said, I have everything. I've got the Lord.
And you maintain my lot. In other words, it's not ever
going to be any other way than that. You're everything I want,
and you're everything I have, and you're everything I need.
That's it. That's the testimony of God's
people. Oh, and how true that was of
our Lord Jesus Christ as he walked this world in flesh. The Lord,
the Father. How many times did he say, what
the Father told me to say, that's what I say. What the father told
me to do, that's what I do. I must be about my father's business.
Verse six, the lines are falling unto me in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage. What are these lines? Do you
know what that is? Probably what you think. The
lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. These lines were stretched
in order to establish the borders of a property. In heritage, the
word heritage there means property or portion. In other words, since
the Lord is my God and my portion, I live in a good place. I live
on a good piece of land. In Psalm, listen to Psalm 48
too. I thought of this as I read that.
Beautiful for situation. The joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion. That's where God's people live.
The city of God. On the sides of the north, the
city of the great king. That's where we live. That's
the kingdom of God. He's the king. We're his subjects. We're his people. We're his servants. We're his family. And Mount Zion,
where we live, is beautiful for situation. You can't be situated
in a more pleasant place than in the city of God. And you know
what that is? That's Christ, dwelling in Christ, with Him,
in Him. Would you trade places with anybody
in this world who doesn't know the Lord, honestly? Well, I understand
the flesh now. I'm not being flippant about
that. Now, I've been in the rat race. And I understand the allure
of this world to this flesh that we dwell in. I understand that.
You better believe I do. By God's grace, I wouldn't trade.
I wouldn't trade. Beautiful for situation. The
lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Moses left the treasures
and luxuries of Egypt, his status there. as a son, a grandson of
Pharaoh. And he chose a life of reproach. He was reproached by the Egyptians
and he was reproached by the Israelites. They never were happy
with Moses. Did you realize that? He chose a life of reproach for
Christ's sake. It's called the reproach of Christ
in Hebrews chapter 11. That's what Moses chose. left
all of the luxury and all of the beauty and the riches and
status that he had in Egypt and said, by God's grace, the lions
are falling unto me in pleasant places. This is greater than
that. The psalmist in Psalm 73 envied
the wicked for a little time. He said, I saw the prosperity
of the wicked. And he said to himself, what
have I trusted God for? The wicked are blessed and I'm
cursed. But then after a little while, he said, I went to the
house of the Lord and I heard God's word. And what a stupid
beast I was to think like that. Look at where they are. Their
feet are in slippery places and look where I am in the favor
and blessing of God in this world. Verse seven, I will bless the
Lord who has given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in
the night seasons. Now listen to this. I will bless
the Lord who hath given me counsel. David has declared, my soul has
said unto the Lord, you're my Lord. How did it come to that? How did he come to the place
where he owned the Lord as his Lord? He said in verse one, I
put my trust in you. How did that happen? I'll tell
you how that happens. The Lord gave him counsel. The
Lord taught him. The Lord instructed him. The
Lord spoke to him. I will bless the Lord who hath
given me counsel. How did you come to put your
trust in him? How did you come to say he's my God? He gave me
counsel. Faith came by hearing, and hearing
by the counsel of God, the word of God. He said unto me, it's
not just a verse in scripture, it's a wonderful verse in scripture,
but it's more than that. He came to me in his irresistible
power and mercy and said to me, come, let us reason together. Let's take counsel together,
saith the Lord. And though my sins were as scarlet
when he did that, They're now as white as snow. And though
they were red like crimson, now they're like wool. How does this
apply to the Lord? He gave me counsel. Did that
happen? Absolutely. As a man, as the
man, our representative, the Lord Jesus Christ was counseled
by the Father. Listen to it. In John 8, 28, Jesus said unto them, when you
have lifted up the son of man, then shall you know that I am
he, in that I do nothing of myself, but as my father hath taught
me. As my father hath taught me,
I speak these things. He was taught of the father.
He took advice, counsel from the father as a man. and did
so perfectly, not like I do. Now because he has taught me
in my inmost being, the Lord has spoken to my soul and taught
my soul. David said, now my reigns, my
reigns instruct me in the night seasons. Because the Lord has
taught me in my inmost, my reigns is my inmost heart of hearts. I recall those things that he's
taught me. That's what David said. He said,
thy word have I hid in my heart. Have you done that? By God's
grace, have you hid God's word? Has he hidden it there in your
heart? Then your reigns will instruct
you with that counsel from God. And David said, I do this in
the night seasons. What is your comfort in the night
seasons? Do you recall then the counsel
of the Lord when night has fallen, when fear comes, when worry,
when heartache, when trouble is upon you? Where do we take
refuge? In the counsel of the Lord, the
comfort What did Paul, he talked about how the Lord's gonna come
back for us, and he said, comfort one another with these words,
the counsel of God. I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, or concerning yourselves
when the Lord comes back. He gonna come back with a shout.
And he said, this is the counsel of God. Now, I don't want you
to be ignorant about that. I want you to be counseled, taught
about these things, the things of God. And that's where your
comfort is when the night season comes. That's your comfort, the
counsel of God, the truth of God, of his mercy upon sinners
like you. And in verse eight, I have set
the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall
not be moved. The Lord Jesus Christ, again,
as a man, we have to consider him as the son of man, as born
of a woman, as bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, tempted in
all points, like as we are, yet without sin. In this world, as
my representative, as my last Adam, the Lord Jesus set the
Father always before his face as a man. As we've already said,
he said, I must be about my Father's business. Everybody else can
be about whatever business they want to be. But he said, I'm
going to be about my father's business. He said to his parents,
don't you realize? Wish you not. Didn't you know
where I'd be? I'm going to be about my father's
business. He said, I do always those things that please the
father. You see the meaning here? He's always before my face. In
everything that he did, in everything that he said, In all of the thoughts
of his heart, the Father was before him. And he knew because
he had come to do the Father's will and because the Father was
with him always and heareth him always. He said, the Father heareth
me always. That he would not, he could not
be moved. He said, I won't be moved because I've set him always
before my face. I trust him and he's worthy of
that trust. He won't allow me to be moved.
He could not be prevented from accomplishing the purpose that
the father sent him to accomplish, the redemption of his people.
Because he set that purpose and the will of him that sent him
always before his face. And he was confident that his
father would do as he said he would. And then verse nine, he
said, therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope."
The Father's will was the Lord Jesus' unalterable purpose and
continual work, but also his joy. It wasn't a drudgery to
him to do his Father's will. He delighted to do his Father's
will. He said, I have meat to eat that
you don't know about. My me is to do the will of Him
that sent me. That's what sustains me. That's
what nourishes me. That's what fulfills me, satisfies
me, to do my Father's will. That's who I need. That's who
I need representing me. That's my mediator. That's my
representative. That's my substitute. that which
sustained him and delighted him was doing the will of him that
sent him. And he said in John 6, 39, this is the father's will
which hath sent me. This is what he went everywhere
doing. I do always those things that
please the father. He went about everywhere doing
those things that fulfilled the will of the father that sent
him. And he said, here's that will. Here's what he sent me
to do, that of all which he hath given me. All He sent me to represent,
all He sent me to redeem, all that He gave me in that covenant
of grace from before the foundation of the world, I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day. And because
He did perfectly the Father's will and accomplished the work
that the Father sent Him to do, living, dying for us, being raised
from the dead and ascending to the throne of glory to intercede
for us there. All that the Father gave him
to do, having done it all, having said it's finished, he said,
my soul rests in hope. In what hope? In what sense?
That all that he redeemed will be redeemed. My soul is complacent. That's what that means. Having
done everything that the Father sent me to do, I rest. It's finished, it's perfect.
I rest in hope. And verse 10 goes right with
that. For thou will not leave my soul in hell. He was able
to rest in hope, having accomplished the redemption of his people,
having crossed every T and dotted every I in the law, It shall
be fulfilled. And he fulfilled it in a body
as a man, as my representative. He lived and he died for me on
Calvary. He said, it's finished. And he
said, I rest in hope. What hope? You won't leave my
soul in hell. You won't forsake me. There won't
be any failure. Everyone I shed my blood for
will be redeemed. I'll be exalted as the Father
promised. Everything is going to be just as God has always
purposed it and always said that it would be. I rest in that. You won't leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Now there's an age-old controversy,
and I've heard it pop up in my lifetime a time or two. about
whether the Lord Jesus went actually to physical hell, if there is
such a physical hell. The word here is grave. I can
tell you that. It's Sheol, which means grave
and can signify hell. But our Lord Jesus Christ, right
there on the cross, paid all of the penalty for all of the
sins of all of his people for all time, right there on the
cross. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. And the Lord dealt with him there
for all of our sins. He punished him there for all
of our sins. He forsook him and he bore everything
that hell is. He didn't have to go any place
to do that. You understand that? It's such
a petty thing to argue about. It's such a foolish thing to
argue about. He didn't have to go anywhere
to bear my hail. He did it right there. He was
buried, but he can't stay in the grave. That's what this verse
is saying. He can't stay in the grave and
nor can we. Nor can we. That which is true
of our Lord here is true also of us in him. He's not gonna
let his sheep see corruption. Now we live in a body of corruption,
but we're not gonna stay in the grave because he redeemed us
soul and body. He redeemed those bodies with
his precious blood and the Holy One redeemed us and we can't
stay in the grave. We're not gonna see eternal corruption
like those who hasten after another God. Why are we gonna be raised
again? The same reason he is. Thou wilt
not suffer thine holy one to see corruption. He that's holy
doesn't see corruption. Corruption comes because of sin. He didn't have any sin. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father, dealt with our Lord on the cross bearing
our sin. What happened to him on the cross
now? happened to him because he bore my sin. He dealt with
him in the resurrection, glory, as his holy one. Well, what happened
between the cross and the resurrection? Where'd the sin go? It's gone. I can't tell you where it's gone.
It's behind God's back, that's where it is. That's the way God
put it. behind his back. It's as far
from us as the East is from the West. And so because the Holy
One can't see corruption, neither can His Holy Ones. Those He perfected
forever, those who are sanctified. You know what sanctified is?
Made holy. And so we're not going to see
eternal corruption either. We live in a body of corruption.
But not for long. Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. We're familiar with these passages
of scripture, but then when you see them in the context of another
passage of scripture, that's when the light starts coming
on for me. That's how the Lord, He reveals scripture by scripture. Scripture sheds light upon scripture.
And so I know you've read 1 Corinthians 15 verse 50 through 58 before,
more than once probably. But you hadn't thought about
it in connection with this study in Psalm 16. And this will help.
This will be a blessing, I believe. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 50. Thou will not suffer thine holy
one to see corruption. Now that's David saying that.
But David wasn't just talking about himself, as we're gonna
see in the book of Acts. That's verse 50. Now this I say,
brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
God. Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Now that's
our bodies that we live in now, as they are now. We live in a
body of corruption, and we can't go into the presence of God like
that. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. Got to be changed or we can't
see God. How are we changed? By Christ and what he did, the
Holy One dying in our place. And the Lord, because of that,
the Lord's gonna change us. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible Why? Same reason he was raised
holy Because he is hope I'm raised incorruptible for the same reason
because he is holy and he redeemed me we're made were sanctified
in him and We shall be changed for this corruptible must put
on incorruption and and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is thy sting?
God won't suffer one of his holy ones to stay there. Oh, grave, where is your victory? The Lord Jesus Christ couldn't
stay in the grave because he's holy. I can't stay in the grave
because he's holy. The sting of death is sin and
the strength of sin is the law. And in him was no sin. And he
took my sins upon himself and bore them away. He did away,
he put away our sins. And so there not being any sin,
so there's no sting of sin. There's no consequence of sin.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in
vain in the Lord. We work and we're laboring for
him in his vineyard here. We're being about his business
as he sent us to do. And we know it's not in vain.
We know we're victorious. We know we win. We know what
happens in the end. And we win. We win big. So that ought to encourage us
as we labor, shouldn't it? Verse 11, we'll hurry. Thou wilt
show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of
joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures
forevermore. Again, as the man, he was taught
of the Father. And here the Lord Jesus said,
you will show me the path of life. In Luke 2.52, listen to
this, it says, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature. The omniscient God increased
in wisdom. If you can understand that, then
you've got a little glimpse of how truly and fully He became
me, yet without sin. He grew in wisdom and in stature
and in favor with God and man. He saw the path of life. He increased. He was shown by God the path
of life as my representative in obedience to God. And His
path, now there was a path of life unto Him, If the Lord Jesus
Christ perished the thought were to ever sin, then he would have
died with us and went to hell with us. But he could not sin. He could do no sin. There was
no sin in him. He was the immaculate son of
God. But he knew the path of life because he was taught of
the Father. And he saw the path of life as
my representative and followed it, did what I couldn't do. And
his path If there's gonna be life for me is included here
too. The path that the Lord must follow
in order for me to have life was what? To the cross. He got to go to the cross. He
got to live perfect in thought, word, and deed every second,
every moment in this life. And he got to go to the cross.
That's the path of life for me. His path, but life for me. And he shows me, David and us,
the path of life. And that path is Christ. And
in his presence is fullness of joy. We don't really yet know
what joy is. Do you realize that? You know
why? Because we've never experienced
fullness of joy. We've experienced some joy, no
question about that. I thank God for that. We don't
count that a small thing, that the Lord has given us some joy
in this life. But fullness of joy? Don't even
know what that is. Do you? I just know that it's
to be with Him. I know that it's to be with Him,
and I know that it's far better than where we are now. In His
presence, in His presence is fullness of joy. Now think about
that. Does that mean that's where you
find fullness of joy in his presence? No. That's what fullness of joy
is in his presence. You see the difference? That's
not just where you find it. It's not just where he is. Being
where he is, is fullness of joy. Oh, Paul said, I desire to depart
and to be with him to be with Him. The Lord Jesus prayed, I
want them to be with me. That they may behold my glory. That is fullness of joy, to behold
His glory without distraction, without limitation, and without
end. That's joy. That's fullness of
joy. That's His presence at His right
hand. Pleasures forevermore. The former things are passed
away. No more crying. No more sorrow. No more death. No more pain. No more anything
but pleasures. That's my Lord Jesus Christ to
me. I'm not going to take the time tonight, but I want you
to jot down if you got a pencil there. Acts 225 through 36.