I invite you to turn back, if
you would, this morning to the 63rd Psalm, Psalm 63. And I want us to begin this morning
with verse 1. I want to read the first 8 verses,
and then we'll talk considerably about verse 2. About verse 2. But beginning here in Psalm 63
with verse 1, O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee, my
flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water
is. to see thy power and thy glory,
so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Because thy lovingkindness
is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will
I bless thee while I live. I will lift up my hands in thy
name. My soul shall be satisfied as
with Mara and Fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with
joyful lips. when I remember thee upon my
bed and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast
been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after
thee, thy right hand upholdeth me. I wanted to read a couple of
companion verses of scripture to the ones that we've read.
Turn back to the 62nd Psalm and look at verse 11. God has spoken
once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. David here is speaking and he
said, God has spoken once. Well, the Lord has spoken once,
but he said twice, I've heard it. And certainly that is a good
ratio, I think. Everything that God says once,
if we'd hear twice, it'd be a wonderful thing. Especially if we were
to hear it in the depths of our soul. Not only hear it in the
letter, but hear it in the spirit. If we would hear what God has
to say plainly, powerfully, and immutably as God speaks it, and
hear it in our hearts. So that we might practice the
word of God and observe it with all of our being being swift
to hear and slow to speak and hearing Taking heed how we hear
what God says, but David said power Belongeth unto God it belongeth
unto God and then turn over if you will with me to the further
over in the Psalms to Psalm chapter 89 and I want us to look at a
couple of three verses here before we come back to Psalm 63 and
to our text this morning. Notice, if you will, in verse
10, he says, thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, this is Psalm
89, 10, as one that is slain, thou hast scattered thine enemies
with thy strong arm. The heavens are thine, the earth
also is thine, as for the world and the fullness thereof, thou
hast founded them. The north and the south, thou
hast created them. Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice
in thy name. Thou hast a mighty arm Strong
is thy hand and high is thy right hand and then in verse 15 Blessed
is the people that know the joyful sound they shall walk O Lord
in the light of of thy countenance. Thou hast a mighty arm, strong
is thy hand. Now we go back to Psalm 63 and
we see where David begins here by saying, O God, Thou art my
God, this God to whom power belongs, this God that is created, this
God that has destroyed his enemies, this God that has provided a
glorious redemption, this God that is revealed clearly in the
person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Thou art my God. We told you last week that a
man who could say this that was richer than a millionaire and
certainly this is true. Any man that can say thou art
my God, you're my God, my personal God. He said early will I seek
thee. I'll seek you early. Now by that
I'm sure that he means early in the morning. early in his
day that he would seek the Lord. I'm sure that it also means that
we should seek the Lord early in our life and seek him with
our whole heart. You cannot begin too early to
seek the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the very
beginning of wisdom. Now then, he said, my soul thirsteth
for thee. My soul has a thirst. and that
soul is thirsting, my soul is thirsting for thee. That thirst
is that I might find thee by my seeking of thee and that I
might fellowship and commune with you and that I might have
your blessing upon my life. He says, my very flesh longeth
for thee in a dry and thirsty land. Now David was talking about
being in the wilderness and certainly all of God's people are in the
wilderness at one time or the other in a very dry and thirsty
place where there is no water. And we feel, and this of course
is the description of a man who has enjoyed the fellowship of
God, a man who has enjoyed the communion of God, a man who knows
God, but for a short season he is without the communion and
fellowship of God in the Spirit and he feels a thirst in his
soul and he has a longing even in his flesh for the Lord and
for a drawing up, a time when he can draw up near the Lord
and where he can feel the Lord's presence and as verse 2 says,
to see thy power and thy glory. I think this morning that all
of those in Zion, those that the Lord has separated from this
world, those that God has been pleased to do a work in Those
who have felt the hand of God, the touch of God upon their lives,
every one of them desires to see the power and the glory of
God. They all want to see it and they feel that they're in
a place and sometimes we go through a long period of time and it
appears that we don't see the hand of God. We don't see the
Lord working in the church or in our lives as individuals and
we begin to doubt the power of God. We begin to doubt whether
God is able again to appear to His people or whether the Lord
will ever again visit his people, or whether we'll ever see God
do any mighty things in our day. But David said, I'm in this kind
of a place, and he said, I want to see your power and your glory.
So as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. David, have you not
seen God in creation? David, have you not seen God
in the book of creation? As you go out and read the book
of creation, look all over what God has made, have you not seen
the power and glory of God there? Well, certainly David had seen
the power and glory of God in the creation because we know
that God's creation declares His glory and shows forth His
handiwork. But David is telling us here
that he has seen the power and glory of God in the sanctuary
as he has seen it nowhere else in this world. He said it's in
your sanctuary. So as I've seen thee in the sanctuary,
I want to see your power and glory as I've seen it when I
met together with your people in humble and solemn service
and devotion. I want to see it, your glory
and your power in the sanctuary. Now I think this is tremendous.
Now I believe that David here did not want so much to see the
sanctuary as he wanted to see God in the sanctuary. You know
sometimes we see beautiful buildings, wonderful buildings, I mean outstanding
church buildings, buildings where churches meet and we'd like to
have one. We covet. I was showing a picture
to a sister in the Lord a dear sister in the Lord here and and
I know exactly what she meant and a picture of the inside of
a church building back east and she said you know I just Covet
that I covered that building. I just love for us to have that
building Right here, so we could meet in it here in Great Falls
And I understood exactly what she was saying and I don't think
there was anything Sinful about what she had to say it just that
she said she'd really like to have that here in Great Falls. But beloved, I don't think David
was so much interested in seeing the sanctuary as he was seeing
his God and seeing the power and the glory of God. And David
saw God in the sanctuary and he wanted to see it again. And
he felt like he was in a place where that nothing was happening
and he was in a dry and thirsty land and cut off. from the sanctuary
in the presence of God. Now then, it is or should be
the desire of every Christian to see and enjoy more and more
of the power and the glory of God in his day. Now I want you
to hear what I'm saying this morning. I think it ought to
be in the desire of every child of God to see more of the power
and the glory of God in our day. I think we ought to long for
it. I think we ought to long for it in soul, and even our
flesh ought to long for it. That is, if we have been sanctified
by the spirit and grace and redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we ought to desire to see the power and the glory of our God
manifested. And I believe it will be that
even in our day, you know that we could see it, that God is
the same. The scripture says Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God is the same,
as Mike pointed out in the words of that old song this morning.
And certainly it is true, and we ought to long for it and desire
to see it anew and afresh. Well, how can this be accomplished?
How can we expect again to see the power and glory of God? Have
you ever been a witness to it? Have you ever been a witness
to God's power and to His glory? Has it ever been manifested to
you either inside or outside the church? I think that's a
good question. Have you ever saw the glory of
God in the face of our Lord Jesus Christ? Have you ever saw the
power of God in the conversion of a sinner? Thomas Watson said
the power of God is seen in the regeneration of a soul, in the
conversion of a sinner. He said the same power that draws
a sinner to God drew Jesus Christ out of the grave back to heaven. The same power. Have we ever
witnessed the power of God in the conversion and the salvation
of a sinner? Have we ever been around anybody
that God has touched, God has changed, that God has brought
to Himself, that God has created anew and old things passed away
and all things become new in that life. Have we ever witnessed
the power and the glory of God in the salvation of a sinner?
has God ever manifested himself in our presence? Well, how can
this be accomplished? How can I, in my day, see more
of the power and the glory of God? I think it will be by a
devout and diligent attendance upon the worship of God in the
Church of God. David said, I want to see it
again as I've seen it in the sanctuary. And I believe that
as we diligently attend the worship of God, as we go about the duty
that God has given us, and certainly it is our duty not to neglect
the assembling of ourselves together as the custom of some is, but
to be faithful and dependable toward God and toward each other
in the fellowship of the assembly and the coming together to hear
the Word of God preached. I think it is there that we can
expect to hear from God and see the power and the glory of God
at work. Well, how is God's power and
glory in the sanctuary manifested to believers? How is it? Well,
first of all, I think it is, and to further back up what we've
stated a little bit earlier, I think it is by the exhibition
of gospel truths as they're declared, as they're preached. I believe
that in, we might say, the book of creation, the glory of God
is visible, But somebody said it is in the book of Jesus Christ,
it is in the book of the church that Jesus Christ is manifested,
that His glory is set forth. And certainly in gospel truths
such as the reconciliation of a sinner to God. and certainly
in the great truth of substitution, that God has reconciled the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, but imputing,
or as it were, laying or reckoning our sin to be laid upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is there that we see the glory
of God. Now, I never get over it, I don't
know whether you do or not, but I know that the very mirror of
the gospel is substitution. And I know that this generation
is short on hearing the truth of substitution, how God reconciles
a sinner to himself. But I'm going to tell you this,
that if you ever understand the gospel, you're going to see the
glory and power of God in that gospel. Paul says that the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believes it.
Unto the Jew first and also unto the Greek. He says therein. is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is
written, the just shall live by faith. But I want you to understand
that we never grow, we never are able to see all that is in
those marvelous truths of the gospel. And when those truths
are exhibited, when they're set forth, when they're preached,
when they're declared, when they're made known to the hearts of God's
people, it is then that the glory and power of God is about to
be witnessed. It's about to be known. It's
about to be experienced by somebody there in that assembly. When
Jesus Christ is evidently set forth among us crucified, when
Christ crucified is preached and the power of Christ is set
forth in his drawing of men unto himself. He said, if I be lifted
up, I'll draw all men unto me. He said, I'll draw them to me
if I be lifted up. Now, I think also, now we have
the exhibition of gospel truths, this is the way that the power
and glory of God will be witnessed, that's the way we'll see it,
anew and afresh in the sanctuary of the Lord. And then also by
observing and feeling the application of these great doctrines to the
souls of men by the Holy Spirit. We remember a day reading about
it in the book of Acts when the scripture says to those that
were followers of our Lord Jesus, after he'd been caught up into
heaven, you remember Jesus had said before he was caught up,
he said, Euteria, Jerusalem. He said, because power is going
to come down. God's gonna send power. You're
gonna be endued with power from on high. The Holy Spirit is going
to come down. And we've read where the Spirit
of God descended upon the church. Nowhere have we read where he
has ascended again back to heaven. The Spirit of God is in the world. The Spirit of God is in the church.
The Spirit of God is working. The Spirit of God today hovering
over the people of God and the Word of God as it goes out. The
Spirit of God is taking that Word and using it. A brother
I was speaking to this morning here before the service was talking
about how that God must use His Word in the salvation of a man's
soul, speaking of His own Father in the flesh. And it's true that
the Spirit of God must take the Word and use that Word. But beloved, it is as we observe
God doing this in others, applying the Word to their lives, it is
as we feel it ourself, and what a wonderful thing it is to feel
it, to feel God doing something in our own lives by His Word
and by His truth, sanctifying our hearts unto Himself. Listen,
let me read out of the book of Thessalonians to you, a scripture
that will tell you just basically what I'm telling you. Paul says
in 1 Thessalonians 1, he says, For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake. Paul said we preached the gospel,
and it did not come to you in word only, but it came, he says,
in power and in the Holy Ghost. And when it came, it had a definite
effect, it gave you some assurance. You heard from God when we spoke. You heard from the Lord, the
Lord accompanying His word. The Holy Spirit took it, and
you felt and observed the power of God in it. And so, beloved,
this is the way that we will see the Lord in our day and time,
see His power, that we will see His glory. Well, what are the
effects on a believer in his history and experience from an
increasing knowledge of the power and glory of God. What benefit
is it? What benefit is there to a man or woman, a boy or girl,
coming into the sanctuary of God, seeing the gospel put on
exhibit, and seeing the power of God come down from heaven,
take the gospel and use it in other people's lives? What benefit
is there from that? Is there any benefit in the life
of a believer from being in the assembly of the saints? David
said, that's where I want to be and I want to see your power
and your glory there. I've seen it before and I'm hungry
for it again. I'm thirsting for it and I want
to be there and experience it again. Why, David? What's the
benefit of it? Well, I want to try to give you
just a few things here this morning that might help you a little
bit in seeing why this is so important that we be in the place
where we can feel and see the power and the glory of God. Well,
first of all, I believe that the effect will be this. that
it will help to disenchant us from the fascination of the world. This world somehow or other,
and of course we're told all through the Word of God about
the effect and power of the world upon the struggling people of
God. Scripture says that the whole
world lies in the lap of the wicked one. And the world is
always attempting to seduce by their philosophies and by their
ways the people of God and to draw them back into the net and
somehow or other to corrupt them and to take away, as it were,
their singleness of heart toward the Lord and the things of God.
They're to be separate, God's people are, from the world. But
the world's always trying to get us and to draw us in. Well,
beloved, if you are enabled by God to see His power and His
glory in the church, it will have, I think it will somewhere
or another break the fascination of the world. You'll say to yourself,
well, this God that I worship, oh, His power, oh, His glory,
and you'll see the counterfeit, you'll see how empty, how void
of anything, how nothingness the world really is. You'll be
able to see it. And I think it will help you
a great deal to break the power of the world in your life. If
we could just see God again come down, move upon, and work in
the souls and lives of men, display His glory and His power, what
a different person we would be. This old world, I mean, we wouldn't
turn one eye toward it. I mean, we'd just leave it go,
let the world go on to hell, and we wouldn't be bothered by
any fascination of the world. it wouldn't have any effect upon
us anymore. Do you agree with what I'm saying?
Well, I believe it, brother, sister, I believe that's what
we need. We need to go in with David into the sanctuary of God,
and we're hungry to see it happen, and we wanna see it happen. Our
soul thirsteth for the Lord, our flesh even is hungry to see
the power and the glory of our God. Well, another effect that
I think it will have upon us is it will give us an increasing
acquaintance with God and every view of His divine glory And
I think that we will be able to have a mind that is distangled
from the embarrassments into which it is sometimes thrown
by the aspect of providence. Now that's a long statement.
I probably should have tried to work that out a little bit,
but let me make it a little simpler to you. I think this effect of
seeing the power and the glory of God will somehow or other,
you know, There are many things that happen to us in Providence
and I'll tell you what this morning and I have to confess this. I
confess it to you and I don't make any hesitation now to tell
you that there have been times when I have been embarrassed
by Providence. I mean there's times when I've
been utterly humiliated by Providence. I mean embarrassed. to where
I was trying to follow the Lord, I tried to follow the leading
of the Lord, I was trying to obey the voice of God in my life,
trying to give myself, submit myself, bow my knee to the will
and purpose of God in my life, trying to follow as close as
I knew how to follow the Lord, and then my soul, something happens,
something comes upon us, and we're just embarrassed to death
Well, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? I'll
tell you what, brother, sister, you can expect it to happen in
your life. As I've said before, if you're
never humiliated, you'll never be humble. The only way on earth
for you to ever be humble is to be really humiliated. and to be tested by some aspect
of the providence of God. God allowing the wind to blow
in an ill way in your life and you saying, well, what on earth
could God be doing in my life? What's this all about? And I'll
tell you to see the glory and power of God. Again, to see the
Lord come and to see Him manifest Himself, to see God's hand, to
see the Lord plainly, invisibly, to see the Lord do something.
You say, well preacher, don't everybody believe in the power
of God? Well, that's the first thing in our confession. I believe
in the Lord God Almighty. That's a first statement of our
confession. I believe in the Lord God Almighty,
but there are many, many times when we doubt the power of God.
Now that's very evident when we begin to pray. If we believe
that there's something within what we might say the range of
possibility, we can pray for it with fervency. We can say,
well this can happen, you know, because it's just very possible
that this can happen and so we're really encouraged and we pray
for it, you know, with a great deal of, well, maybe even with
a relaxed heart. We can pray because we know God
can do that. It's just a little thing and
we can believe it. But when something's impossible,
We don't, just no way physically, no way it's like Abraham and
Sarah when God said you're gonna have a child when he was 110
and she was 100, you're gonna have a child? Well, that's impossible. Then do you believe in the power
of God? Do you believe in the power of God? Oh, you pray a
little bit, but you say there ain't much need of me praying
about this. This could never happen. This would never happen. We'll never see that happen in
our day and time. Can't be. We're not going to
be able to. We're not enthusiastic at all. Well, don't you believe in the
power of God, preacher? Well, yes, I believe in the power
of God. Well, you don't really believe
in it. If you really believe in the power of God, you would
pray as enthusiastically about these things that look like they
could never happen as those things that look like that they would
happen. They just could happen real easily. if we believed in
the power of God. Now the scripture says that Abraham
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, believing that whatever
God promised, he was able to perform. Whatever God promised,
he could perform. But you know, you and I don't
believe that all the time. And you know, I remember about
Moses, and back over there in Numbers, if you have your Bible,
turn over there, I wanna show you something here. Moses, back
over in the book of Numbers, And the people had been complaining about not having any meat to
eat. And the Lord told Moses, well, you're going to have it.
I'm going to give it. to the people and saying to the
people in verse 18, sanctify yourself against tomorrow and
you shall eat flesh for you have wept in the ears of the Lord
saying, who shall give us flesh to eat for it was well with us
in Egypt therefore the Lord will give you flesh and you shall
eat. ye shall not eat one day, nor
two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days, but
even a whole month, until it come out of your nostrils, and
it be loathsome unto you, because that you despise the Lord which
is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth
out of Egypt? And Moses, he just could not
believe such thing could ever be. Why, Moses said, now how? And Moses said, the people among
whom I am are 600,000 footmen. And thou hast said, I will give
them flesh that they may eat a whole month. He said, shall
the flocks and the herds be slain for them to suffice them? Or
shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them
to suffice them? Why Moses said, what are you
going to do, Lord? Take every animal we got? Are you going
to tell us to slay every animal? Are you going to do that? How
is it, Lord, we're going to catch all the fish that's in the sea
for these people so they'll have some meat to eat? You said you're
going to fill them full. And you're not only going to
feed them one time, you're going to feed them a month. Not only
are you gonna feed them, but you're gonna feed them until
it runs out of their nostrils and it become loathsome to them.
You're gonna eat it until it makes them sick. And Moses said,
Lord, how you gonna do this? I don't see how you could do
anything like this. And Moses was skeptical. But
look at verse 23. And the Lord said unto Moses,
is the Lord's hand whacked short? Thou shall see now whether my
word shall come to pass unto thee or not Is my hand he said
is my is the Lord's hand wax short? Well, I mean is there
something wrong with my mighty hand and my mighty arm if something
happened or occurred here That makes you feel like I can't do
this What is it Moses? That's wrong with you. I And
you know I would say the same to you, and what we need to do
is to see the power and glory of God exhibited again, that
our faith will be strengthened. Because when we doubt the power
of God, then is when faith becomes exceedingly weak. when we doubt
God. Now what do you think about Moses
here? You wouldn't give him a B would you? You wouldn't even give him
a C would you? In the things of God? I don't know what's going
on in my life. You expect me to believe your
promises, but you don't know what I'm dealing with. You don't
know the problems I have, Lord. You don't know how much I owe,
Lord. You don't know what my situation is. The Lord said,
Moses, he said, is the Lord's hand whacked short? Has something
happened? Somebody sapped my strength or
something? I can do this. And so Moses,
he went out. He got his faith up a little
bit. He told the people the words of the Lord, and gathered the
seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round
about the tabernacle. And the Lord came down. The Lord
came down in a cloud, and spake unto them, and took of the Spirit
that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders. And
it came to pass, when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied,
and did not cease. But there remained two of the
men in the camp, and so on and so forth. Well, as the story
goes, The Lord did the people listen and there went forth a
wind in verse 31 forth a wind from the Lord and brought quails
from the sea and let them fall by the camp as it were a day's
journey on this side and as it were a day's journey on the other
side round about the camp and as it were two cupids high upon
the face of the earth and the people stood up all that day
and all that night and all the next day and they gathered the
quails either gathered least And they spread them all abroad
for themselves right about the camp. And while the flesh was
yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the
Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smoked the
people with a very great plague. And that was because they had
complained and complained and complained. And so we see how
that the Lord here manifests Himself to His people And even
the leader of his people was not a believing man at this time,
but yet the Lord was a God of His word. And you know, it was
His glory, God's glory to fulfill His word, and God's glory to
strengthen the faith of His people. And that's just exactly what
happened. And I believe that we, our minds will become disentangled,
and we won't be so embarrassed anymore. If God were to come
down on our behalf and deliver us, greatly deliver us, and if
the Lord would appear for us, if the Lord would come, let us
be very, very careful about our murmuring and complaining, and
about our begging God, and weeping before God. We want this, we
need that, we gotta have that. Because you know, we gotta be
careful. There's a great, there's so many
lessons in that portion of scripture that I didn't get into all of
them this morning, but what I wanted to show you was this. I want
to show you that sometimes we get embarrassed and sometimes
we are perplexed and frustrated and we just can't believe that
God can do the mighty things and the big things that He says
He can do. We don't believe it and we get embarrassed greatly
that we followed the Lord this far and things have turned out
like to have. The things have just turned out
so awful for us and we're embarrassed and humiliated. Just believe
God. Just believe God. And that was
a great blessing to me to think about that and to meditate on
that a little bit. Just to meditate on it. And the
cure for that, seeing the power and the glory of God in the sanctuary.
Just seeing God again. And then it renews our strength
to go on in our pilgrimage. It renews our strength. You know,
beloved, we need We need more strength. Paul talked about being
strengthened with might by his spirit in the inward man. And
you know, I believe this is closely connected with the fellowship
of believers and with God's people getting together. Oftentimes
in our discussions, We've mentioned how that when the Lord's people
stay together, they come together, they fellowship, they experience
the blessings of God together, how strengthening it is, where
that if we are pulled apart, stay apart, we don't come together,
then our lives, our light, as it were, gets dimmer and dimmer
and the heat of our spiritual life seems to just wax away and
becomes less fervent and so this will give us strength to come
into the sanctuary of God, to worship God and to see His power
and to see His glory. And then I think a view of the
divine glory will crucify our lust and put the corruptions
of our hearts to death. And certainly there is a great
deal of need for that as the Lord's people. And there's nothing
like seeing the power and the glory of God to affect us in
that way, to make us to see what we are, how sinful we are, how
holy God is, and the great need to, as it were, to die out to
the things of this flesh. And then, I think again, it nourishes
our humility. There isn't anything that can
humble a man like a man seeing the power and glory of God. I
remember when Isaiah said that in the year that King Uzziah
died, he said, I saw the Lord. I saw the Lord. And he said,
not only did I see the Lord, but then he said, I saw myself.
And I saw the people, and I saw how great sinners we all were.
How great sinners we all were. But it was the view of the power
of God, the holiness of God that caused him to take this view. Now I've said before that I believe
that one of the most humbling doctrines of the Word of God
is the doctrine of election. And I believe that the power
and glory of God is visible in the doctrine of election. Let
me explain what I mean. I believe that when a man once
sees that there is not anything in him that can merit esteem
of God or cause the Creator to in any way, shape, or form look
in his direction and favor him, that the looking of God toward
a man's soul and God coming to a man's soul is all due to the
great heart of God and to the compassion and the love and the
mercy of that God toward that man's soul, I think that's humbling. I think that's humbling. As long
as you entertain the idea that there's something in you that
is worthy of God looking at it and viewing it favorably and
blessing you because of it, my friend, you'll never really be
humble and you'll never see the glory and the power of God and
you've not witnessed it as of yet. But whenever you are emptied
of your own works and your own righteousness and what you are,
when you're emptied of all of that, and God shows you what
you are as a bankrupt, ruined sinner, and shows you that He,
like He did to Noah, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord,
and this poor sinner found grace in the eyes of the Lord, then
you've seen the power and the glory of God, and then you will
not be talking and boasting about what you are. You know the scripture
says, for by grace are you saved through faith. That's not of
yourself. It is the gift of God, not of works. Lest any man should
boast. And all we need to be strict
to that boasting. And we need to be humble before
the Lord. And the thing to do that is for
the Lord to reveal Himself, His power, and his glory. And then I think it arms us for
our conflict with the last enemy, which is death. You know all
of us are going to have to die. That is, unless the Lord comes
back and takes us out of this world before we do experience
a physical death. We're going to have to lay down
and we're going to have to die. Some of us may have time to reflect
upon and think upon our life, to think upon how we've lived
and we may have a great deal of time and then others of us
may not have five minutes. We may just be taken like that
out of this world. But many of us will have a conflict
in that last hour when Satan will try his best to disturb
our souls and to make us anxious in that hour as to whether we're
the Lord's or whether we're not, whether we're saved or whether
we're lost, whether we're going to be damned for all eternity
or saved in heaven's bliss forever and ever. There's a conflict
coming, my friends. And I'll tell you, the more you
see of the power and the glory of God as you live out your days
in this world, the easier that conflict will be. The easier
it will be to deal with those situations and those trials in
the hour when they come upon you. So you see that our object,
beloved, in going to the sanctuary is a definite and distinct object. We go into the sanctuary of the
Lord, we come into the house of God, we come in to worship
God and to see His power and His glory. And you see how important
it is that we be prepared for such an occasion as that. Now,
I didn't get halfway through the message, but we're going
to sum it up and close right here. You see how important it
is that we be prepared for such a day as when we'll come into
the sanctuary of God and where we'll see the power and glory
of God visible, where we'll see it, where God will manifest Himself.
Come in with a praying heart. Begin to pray. Somebody said,
well, I think you ought to begin to pray on Monday. that the Lord
will prepare our hearts for the weekend, and prepare the preacher
for the coming service on the Lord's day, and that the Lord
would intervene, and the Lord would work, and that he'd have
in the chairs those that ought to be there under the sound of
the word. I think it's good advice. Begin
to pray. Begin to pray after this service,
and begin to pray especially for your own heart, that your
own heart will be right with God. I think it is a very bad
thing. I think that you ought to take
a piece of tape and put it over your mouth. If you can't keep
your mouth shut on Sunday morning, but if you would hinder the worship
of God, those around you from worshiping the Lord, or when
they get to the house of God, or in any way disturb the people
of God so that they would not be there as it were prepared,
for this particular business, David had a business with God
and that was to see the power and the glory of God. I think
every one of us just ought to take the tape and put it on our
mouths so that we won't say nothing or hinder anybody, if necessary,
so we can come into the house of God with this definite and
distinct object upon our hearts. Now we're not going to live,
some of us are not going to live a whole lot longer, only God knows how long
we're going to live. But I'll tell you this, that's my distinct
and definite object. I want to see the power and the
glory of God. I want to see it in my life, demonstrated as God
works out the affairs of my life, and I want to see it in the church
as the gospel is exhibited, the truths of the gospel, and as
God comes down and applies them to the lives and hearts of these
people. And I think that most of you here this morning would
say amen. Amen. That's exactly what I want.
That's what I want to see. And that's my object in coming
to church. That's my object. I'm not here to show off my clothes.
I'm not here in any way, shape, or form to make anybody think,
well, because I came, I've come to see something. I've come over
there to see something. I want to see the power and the
glory of our Lord. That's what I want to see. Well,
may the Lord kindle that desire in every one of our hearts. Make
it real. Make it real. So that just going
to a church someplace and showing off will not be sufficient. But
coming to see the glory and the power of God is what we must
have. Father, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we thank you that you have visited us this morning
and given us some help. We were desperate, didn't know
whether we would have a word to say, but you did help us and
you have delivered us. and we thank you for upholding
us this morning and we thank you for giving us something in
our souls and oh how we long and desire to see your power
and glory in our day this is indeed a desert land and there
is very little water father you know there is very, very little
water. And so do Thou refresh our souls,
do Thou appear for us in our presence and exhibit Your power
and glory. In Jesus' name we pray and for
His sake alone, Amen.