My study tonight will be Psalm
36, the scripture that Brother Dan read for us a moment ago,
Psalm 36. I love these short psalms because
I can finish my message. I can get through 12 verses within
a good time frame. So let's look at Psalm 36. Now this, right there under Psalm
36, to the cheap musician who had charge of praise in the temple,
to the cheap musician, this is a glad psalm. This is a psalm
that extols the great attributes of our God. That's what I'm calling
this message, the character of our God. And it's the psalm of David,
you see that, to the chief musician, a psalm of David, the sweet psalmist
of Israel. And then he says, David, the
servant of the Lord, see it there, the servant of the Lord. Now
this is a title which is worn with pride by all of God's people. We are delighted to be called
the servants of the Lord, the bond slaves of our master, we're
his servants, his bond slaves. Actually, all who dwell on this
earth are servants of God. I talked about this making a
tape Monday night at the television station. Our Lord said, I have
power over all flesh, that I should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given me. The earth is the Lord's, and
the fullness I have, the world, and all they that dwell therein.
Proverbs 16, the writer of Proverbs says in Proverbs 16, verse 4,
the Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked,
for the day of evil. He has a purpose for all people. They are all his servants, everything
that wiggles and walks. will serve the purpose of God.
He told Pharaoh that. He said, for this cause I raised
you up to accomplish my purpose, that I might show my power in
thee. So everybody's a servant of God, whether he knows it or
likes it or not. But you know the redeemed sinner,
he delights to be the servant of the Lord. Paul said, being
made free from sin and become servants to God, made free from
sin and servants of God, your fruit unto holiness and the end
goal, life everlasting. A servant of God who has been
freed from sin and made a servant of God. His fruit is unto holiness,
and the end thereof is life everlasting." Well, David was a king. God chose
him to serve as the king of the kingdom, but he's still the servant
of the Lord. Let's turn to Matthew chapter
20. Matthew chapter 20. Our Lord
told his disciples this. problems with them along this
line. They continually fretted and
argued about who was going to be greatest in the kingdom of
God. In Matthew 20, verse 25, our Lord called them unto himself
and said, Matthew 20, 25, You know that the princes of the
Gentiles, leaders of the Gentiles, exercise dominion over them.
And they that are great exercise authority upon them, but it shall
not be so among you. But whosoever will be great among
you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant." That's what we are. No matter what office a man holds
in the kingdom of God, he's a servant. He's a servant, servant of the
Lord God. Verse 28, he said, even as the
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give
his life a ransom for many. And David was a preacher, and
he called himself the servant of the Lord. That's what we are
as ministers of the gospel. Paul said we preach not ourselves,
but Jesus Christ our Lord and ourselves, your servants, for
Christ's sake. Well, we're going to talk about
the character of our God tonight, but first, in Psalm 36, he talks
about the character of the transgressor. The first four verses, the character
of the transgressor, the transgressor. Verse 1, the transgression of
the wicked saith within my heart, or tells me in my heart, the
transgression of the wicked tells me that he doesn't fear God. That's what his action and attitude
indicates to me, that he doesn't fear God. Now let's see what
the word transgression means. The word transgression, the Hebrew
word here that David uses means revolt, revolt, rebellion. We think of transgression, we
think of getting drunk, killing somebody, robbing a bank, doing
something of that nature. But the transgression, the word
transgression, is not just robbery or murder or thievery or lasciviousness,
it's rebellion. It's rebellion, no matter where
you find it, it's transgression. That's what the word means, Cecil. It means rebelling against authority. That's what the transgression
of the wicked. The reason he rebels and revolts
is because he doesn't fear God. That's what that tells me. His
actions and attitude tell me he doesn't fear God. Now, it's
evident and easy to see that the morally corrupt do not fear
God. That's easy to see. That the
fellow who hurts people mistreats people, and steals from people,
and those things, you know, that you can see, he doesn't fear
God. But my heart tells me that those
people who are religious and moral, who rebel against God's
order, and against God's authority, and against God's sovereignty,
and against God's Word, and against God's holy worship and truth,
They don't fear God either, or they wouldn't rebel against
Him. By the fear of the Lord, men depart not only from outward
evil, but by the fear of the Lord, men worship God and revere
His Word and respect His truth and bow before His Son and worship
the Lord God. And the very fact that they rebel
against God's rule over them, and right to rule over them,
tells me they don't fear God. A man who does not preach the
truth of Christ and the offense of the cross, that tells me he
doesn't fear God. A covetous preacher, a preacher
with ambitions above the glory of God, tells me he doesn't fear
God. And then it says here in verse
2, he flatters himself. The transgressor flatters himself
in his own eyes until his iniquity is found out. The transgressor
flatters himself until the day that his rebellion and his compromise
and his revolt is discovered and exposed, and then he hates
it. But he's been found out. He's
been brought before some type of punishment or judgment for
what he has done or what he has preached or what he has said.
And therefore, then he begins to regret the path that he walked.
But up until that time, he flatters himself. Jonathan Edwards, I
think one of the great writers, dealt with this verse here. The
transgressor who revolts and rebels against God's order and
God's word and God's worship and God's authority and God's
sovereignty and God's Son, he flatters himself in his own eyes.
And Jonathan Edwards gave five evidences. Here they are. And
here's what causes him to continue this deceit and flattery. Number one, he entertains a secret
hope. that there really is not a just
God. There really is not a holy God. That God is not as holy as he
says he is. He's not as just and righteous
as he says he is. That man, he flatters himself
that that's true, that there's not a just and holy God that
will judge men according to verity and truth. Then secondly, he
flatters himself that If there is such a God that will one day
judge and hold men responsible for their rebellion and for their
revolt, that time's a long ways off. He's just a young man. He's got time to change. The
thief on the cross did. So he'll just not deal with that. He'll keep flattering himself
in his own eyes, keep walking his way. doing his thing for
his reasons. Because judgment, if there is
a judgment, is a long ways off. I don't need to think about that
now. Thirdly, he flatters himself in entertaining the notion that
he's no worse than anybody else around him. Everybody's doing it. This is
a natural thing to do, do what everybody's doing. There's strength
in a crowd. The majority rules, you know.
That's what we think in this country. Whatever the majority
thinks, that's what... They take polls all the time,
you know. Everybody's taking a poll. If 65% of the people
say it's so, it's so! Write her down! But that means
it's not so now. No worse than anybody else. And then fourthly, now watch
this, Edwards, this is, they flatter themselves in considering
the fact that they live among religious people, that their
family members and kin are church people. And somehow because my
sister goes to church, or my brother goes to church, or my
uncle's a preacher, somehow by association, or by religious
connection, somehow it's going to go right with me. Don't fool
yourself. Don't flatter yourself. Don't flatter yourself. I meet
people all the time that are related to some of you, and they
don't have any more interest in the gospel of God's grace
than a frog, but they greet me like a long-lost friend. They
don't have any use for what I'm preaching whatsoever, but I'm
their pastor. I'll be called when they die,
too, to say a few words. And they flatter themselves.
It's going to be all right. Isn't that true? Tells me there's no fear of God
before their eyes. That's what tells me. They flatter
themselves. Here's the fifth thing. They've done a few good works,
and after all, God does love everybody, you know that, don't
you? Sorry about that, East-South. Now, how long will this flattery
continue? How long will this rebellion,
this revolt, this rut into which they've got themselves, how long
is this going to last? How long will it continue? Until
his iniquity is found to be hateful, wretched, condemning, convicting,
and brings him to Christ. Maybe, until God opens his eyes. But he's going to come to the
realization that he's wrong. The particle son did. He came
to himself. His situation, his condition,
his surroundings, his deeds, everything about him, he hated. He came back home and said, My
father, I've sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm not fit
to be called your son, not fit. I hate myself and what I am and
what I've done, and I've hurt you. and wounded you and shamed
my God and the truth." Now, if it becomes hateful at that time,
he'll be restored. But if he waits till the judgment,
that's when it's going to be tenfold more hateful. That's
when he's going to be ashamed. That's when he's going to cry
out for the rocks and mountains, fall on me and hide me from the
face of him. who sits on the throne. The amazing thing to me is that
people who have had some exposure to truth and leave it, most of the time they never reclaimed. Never. pride won't let them. They've fallen into a certain
rut and a condition and a revolt and a rebellion, and they flatter
themselves. And they keep going down that
road. It's a dead-end street, but they won't turn. They won't
turn. They'll talk to you when they
run into you about grace. They'll say they used to do this,
that, and the other, but they're not going to budge until God
budges them. That's right. And most time he
doesn't. I found that to be true. But
once in a while, once in a while, somebody will come to see that
his iniquity is found to be hateful, and he cries for mercy. But verse
3 says this transgressor, this transgression The words of his
mouth are iniquity. You know why they're iniquity?
He's poison. It doesn't matter who he is,
if he's not submitted to Christ and surrendered to Christ and
committed to Christ and worships Christ, even his witness is poison. Because by example and by attitude,
he leads people contrary to God's way and God's will and God's
word. That's right. He leads others
to follow him. He's influencing. He's influencing
people. He's influencing people. Everybody
influences somebody. And the committed person and
the surrendered person and the devoted, faithful believer who
worships God, he influences people by his words and by his attitude
and by his actions and by his example. But this other man influences
them. to follow him down the road of iniquity. And his words
are deceitful. Look at the word here. They're
deceitful. His words are designed to be deceitful. Truth is open. One old writer says, truth is
always open and honest. Honest and open. This is what
God says. This is what God requires. This is the duty of a believer. This is just open and honest
and truthful and godly. Deceit is self-justifying. Deceit
justifies myself wherever I am, whatever I'm doing. It's self-justifying
and hypocritical. It's so serious. The words of
his mouth, the fountain of his heart, He says he ceased to be
wise. He left off to be smart. He's
not smart anymore. He's foolish. He ceased to be
wise. He's sinning against Scripture.
He's sinning against conscience. He's sinning against counsel.
He's sinning against God's ordained way. He ceased to be wise. He's not smart anymore. He may
be smart in the things of the world. He may be the best this,
that, or the other. He's a foolish man. He ceased to be wise. He ceased
to do good. You see, transgression is not
always robbing a bank. Transgression
is not always something that the flesh has done in evil or
wickedness. Sometimes it's spirit attitude. Revolt is rebellion against order,
against God. Left off to be wise. And here's
the danger. He that ceases to be wise, mark
my words, will one day cease to care. He who ceases to be wise will
one day cease to care. God will send them strong delusions.
They'll believe a lie. and think it's the truth. That's
what he said in Thessalonians. He divides this mischief upon
his bed. He sets himself in a way that's
not good. He doesn't hate evil anymore.
He can associate with it, fellowship with it, socialize with it, walk
with it. He doesn't hate it anymore. Most people, whether they're
napping or whether they've gone to bed for the night, they'll
lie up on the bed and think. They'll lie back on the pillow.
Sometimes I'll tell Doris, she's working a crossword puzzle, I
said, the light won't bother me, I just want to lie here and
think a little bit. You ever do that? Just want to lie here
and think. But David did. Let me show you some scripture.
Psalm 4, verse 4. Psalm 4, verse 4. He said, Stand
in awe and sin not, and commune with your own heart upon your
bed. When you get home tonight, think
about the message that the scripture Dan read and the prayer it was
offered and the song Mike sang. Be still. Think on these things. Psalm 16. Talking about that
same subject again, Psalm 16, verse 7. Oh, I'll bless the Lord
who has given me counsel. My reign shall instruct me in
the night season. That's your inner reigns, that's
your kidneys. That's right, that's your vital
organs. You look that word up, it says,
my kidneys, my vital organs, my innermost being. In the night season, they teach
me. Now, you're thinking on the things of God, because you're
in fellowship with Him, in fellowship with His gospel, you're in fellowship
with His church, you're in fellowship with His minister, you're in
fellowship with Godly people, and you carry this around with
you, even to bed. You lie there and think about these things.
Look at Psalm 42. Psalm 42, verse 8. David talks about this often.
Yet the Lord will command his love and kindness in the daytime,
and in the night his song will be with me. My prayer be unto
the God of my life. That man is not in revolt. He's
not in rebellion. He's in submission. But now watch
this. We turn to Luke 12. Luke chapter
12. It's gone to bed, and he's doing
a little thinking and a little plotting and a little planning,
a little studying. Let's see what he's considering. Luke 12, verse 15. It says, Our Lord said to them,
Be careful, take heed, and beware of covetousness. A man's life
consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses,
And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain
rich man brought forth plentifully. He's prosperous. He's doing real
well. Real well. And he thought within himself.
Now, he's not talking to anybody but himself. I think he's lying
on his bed, and he can't go to sleep because he's got all this
hay out there, no place to put it, and all these barley and
oats and other things, no place to put it. He said, What am I
going to do? What shall I do? I don't have any room to bestow
all my fruit. He said, this is what I do. I'm
going to pull down my barns and build greater ones, and then
I'll bestow all my fruits and my goods. I'm getting along good.
I'm prosperous. I think I got it made financially. And I say to my soul, you just
got a lot of goods laid up for many years. You're in good shape
financially. You're in good shape every way.
Just take your ease, eat, drink, and be married. But God said
to him, You're a fool. He has ceased to be wise. You're
a fool. This night, this very night,
thy soul shall be required to be. Then whose shall these things
be which thou hast provided?" Well, is not that the character
of the transgressor? The way of a transgressor, his
revolt and rebellion tells me, number one, he doesn't fear God. Number two, it tells me he's
going to continue in that state of revolt in spite of the warnings.
Number three, he'll finally be hardened in his deceit and self-justification
and hypocrisy. And then, even in his moments
of quiet meditation, he's not interested in anything but building
bigger barns. That's the character of the transgression. Now let's see the character of
our God. I'll get on a happier subject here. The character of
our God, our gracious God. Let's read verse 5 through 7,
and tell you what you do. You outline these five attributes
of God, the glorious attributes of our God. First of all, thy
mercy. There's number one. Thy mercy,
O Lord, is in the heavens. Here's number two, thy faithfulness
reaches under the clouds. Number three, thy righteousness
is like the great mountains. Number four, thy judgments are
great deep, O Lord. Thou preservest man and beast.
Number five, how excellent is thy lovingkindness. Therefore
the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy
wings. Well, let me tell you something.
These gracious attributes of our God are not hidden. They're
not hard to find. I think if you went out on the
street tonight and said, God's merciful, I believe about everybody
would say, you're right. God's faithful, I believe you're
right. God's holy and righteous, I believe
you're right about that. God's just, yeah, I'd have to
vote for that. And God is love. So they're not
hidden, are they? They're not hidden. We're not
strangers to these things. Nobody out there is. Paul said
in a sermon in Acts 17, he said, Seek the Lord. He was talking
to a bunch of heathens on Mars Hill, a bunch of pagans, Epicureans
and Stoics and all that kind of folks. He said, Seek the Lord. If happily he might be found
You might find him. Seek the Lord, if happily you
may feel after him and find him. Listen, for he's not far from
every one of us. He's not far. This God of mercy
and faithfulness and righteousness and judgment and love and kindness,
he's not far, because in him we live and move and have our
beings. He's not up there and hidden
somewhere and you can't get in touch with him. You live in him,
move and have your being in him. Not an atom, or a fly, or a flea,
or a deer, bound through the forest without God's permission. And these gracious attributes
of our God are free. They're free. Mercy, grace, and
love are free. Paul said again in Romans 3,
"...if they are unto all, and upon all them who believe, there
is no difference." And these gracious attributes
of our God are his chief attributes. That's right, mercy, love, grace,
faithfulness, that's his chief attributes. Moses says, Lord,
show me your chief glory. Show me your glory." Now Moses
had seen all these other things, you know, the Red Sea Divide,
folks walked through on dry land, and he'd seen the plague of lice
and flies and darkness and the river turned to blood, and he'd
seen the rod turn to a snake and all these things, death of
the firstborn. Lord, show me your cheap glory. And the Lord answered. And he
said, Moses, I'll make all my goodness pass before you. I will
be merciful to whom I will be merciful. And I'm going to be
gracious. That's right. That's his chief
glory. Let Israel hope in the Lord.
For with the Lord is mercy. He's plenteous in redemption.
He's free. That's his chief attributes.
They're not hidden, they're not hard to find. He's a great God. Let me find this verse over here
and read it to you. Here it is. It's in Micah, chapter
7, verse 18. Listen. Who is a God like unto
thee, that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression,
revolt, rebellion? of the rendement of his heritage,
who retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delights in
mercy." That's Micah 7, verse 18. He will turn again, verse 19,
he will have compassion on us, he will subdue our iniquities,
and he'll cast our sins into the depths of the sea. That's
the character of our God. What are you waiting on? Because you've got a thick head
and a hard heart, and you're bound to traditions and pride. and revolt and rebellion and
modern religion. Let me tell you something. Look
over here at 1 Peter. I wanted to bring this out Sunday
night, but I didn't have time. In 1 Peter chapter 1, let me
read you three verses here. 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse 9, this is where I was
Sunday night, remember? Receiving the goal, the aim,
the purpose of your faith, which is the salvation of your souls,
of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently,
who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching,
searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ
which was in them did signify. when he testified before of the
sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. What
were these prophets searching for? They searched diligently. They inquired, he said, inquired
and searched diligently. What was it they were searching
for and inquiring diligently into? What was it they were seeking
to learn more about? Was it their faith? Was it their
experiences? Was it their fellow travelers
wondering whether or not they were saved or not? Was that what
they were searching into? I'll tell you what they were
searching into. Verse 1, the salvation of your souls. Verse
10, of which salvation the prophets have inquired. They were seeking,
searching into salvation. They searched diligently, they
prophesied. Here's another thing they were
searching into, the grace that should come. That's Christ, the
Redeemer, the Lamb that should come. That's what they were interested
in, that's what they were inquiring into, that's what they were searching
about him who should come. Listen. Searching water, what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify when he testified of the sufferings of Christ. That's
what Moses and Elijah talked about when they came to meet
with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. I think there's a danger. Too
many of my generations wrapped up in this danger, too much self-searching,
too little searching into what the Spirit of God talks about
here, salvation. the glory that should come, the
sufferings of Christ. Too much self-searching, too
little searching into what the Spirit of God testifies of. I
tell you this, if like these prophets, you and I make it our
business to find out about thy mercy, O Lord, thy faithfulness,
thy righteousness, thy judgments, thy loving-kindness, If we spend
our time and our business learning of Christ, faith will come. Faith
will come. That's right. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me, and you'll find rest. Those old boys knew
they believed God, but they were searching into the glory. That's
what old Moses said, would you show me your glory? Would you
give me some evidence that I'm a Christian? No. Show me your
glory. Would you give me some feeling
that I have good faith? No. Show me your glory. Would you give me some evidence
that what profession I made in the baptism, if that's valid? These prophets search diligently. inquired into the salvation of
their souls, into the sufferings of Christ, into the glory that
should come and the glory that must follow. And my, if we can
learn of him, assurance will come, faith will grow. Let's just look briefly at these
five things. Verse 5, Thy mercy, O Lord, is
in the heavens. That's right, his mercy is seated
at his right hand in heaven. His mercy is in the covenant
of grace made in heaven. His mercy came down from heaven
and purchased our redemption. His mercy is higher than the
heavens. One old writer said, when you can measure the heavens,
you may have some understanding of his bountiful mercy. Thy faithfulness,
O Lord, reaches unto the clouds. God is faithful. His throne is
in the heavens. His counsel is truth and righteousness. Listen to this, verse 6. Thy
righteousness is like the great mountains. The great mountains. Here, let me read you something
that I read about this. The righteousness of God is like
the great mountains. The righteousness of God is lofty
and sublime, firm, unmoving, unchangeable, as the greatest
of mountains. The wind, the water, the hurricanes,
the passing of years won't alter that mountain, won't shake it,
won't move it. So the righteousness of God is
never affected by circumstances. He's always just and holy. None can bribe him, impress him,
or compel him. Not even to save his elect will
he compromise his righteousness. Not even on behalf of his son
will he alter his law and justice, even so. Like the great mountain
of God's essential righteousness, that righteousness in Christ
upon his elect is just as unchanging and just as great. Thy judgments, God, O Lord, are
great deep. What are the judgments of God?
What are the judgments of God? Well, it's twofold. His judgments are, one, his acts,
his providence, determined by his wisdom. His acts, his providence,
determined by his wisdom. His judgments are his ways, determined
by his will alone. He made known unto Moses his
ways, unto the children of Israel his acts." Charles Spurgeon said
this. This was a blessing. God's judgments
and God's acts and God's ways in dealing with us are deep and
cannot be fathomed by every boaster who demands a why for every wherefore. The Lord giveth no account of
any of his matters. The Lord is never to be questioned
as to why this or why that. He has a reason. He has a purpose
for all that he does. And that reason and that purpose
is his glory and the eternal good of his elect. His providence
is like the deep ocean. It says, Thy judgments are great
deep. At one time, that ocean is peaceful
and calm and unrippled like a sea of glass. At other times, it's
tossed with the tempest, with the clouds, with the wind, and
with heavy disturbances. But it's always the same. It's
deep and mysterious and glorious. As Job said, tell me, Who has
discovered the springs of the ocean? That's God's judgments. And then in that verse there
where he says his judgments are great deep, O Lord, thou preservest
man and beast. Have you ever considered the
countless creatures God preserves, man and beast? Innumerable birds? inconceivable abundance of fish,
insects, beasts, rabbits, squirrels, deer, men, billions, billions,
billions, and many billions more. Their breath, their life, their
continuance in life depends on Him who feeds them, who keeps
them, who sustains them. verse 7, how excellent is thy
lovingkindness. The word excellent is how rare,
how valuable, how precious to be prized. David bases all that
he seeks, desires, and needs on one thing, God's lovingkindness. I want you to turn to Psalm 51.
All that David seeks and desires and needs, he bases upon God's
loving kindness. How excellent is thy loving kindness,
O God. Therefore the children of men
put their trust on the shadow of thy wings. Psalm 51. All of these requests here now depend
on one thing. Have mercy upon me, O God. Verse
1. According to your loving kindness.
I deserve nothing. I'm not worthy of the least of
your mercies. but do it according to your lovingkindness. He said, Keep me as the apple
of thine eye, and hide me under the shadow of thy wings. He said,
In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until the calamity
be overpassed. In the shadow of thy wings will
I rejoice. Our Savior said, Our God gathers
us as a hen gathers her brood under her wings in his protected
But one of the writers said this, we're also under the shadow of
the wings over the mercy seat, where the blood of the cherubims, the wings,
the mercy seat. All right, let me give you this
before I dismiss you. The character of his house, verse
8, We've seen the character of the transgressor, the character
of our God, now the character of his house. They shall be abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of our house. His people in his
house, in his family. I'm glad when they said to me,
let's go to the house of the Lord. And we are satisfied with
the fatness of his house. His word is our food. His righteousness
is our clothing. His people are our family. His glory is our delight and
desire. Everything I need is right here. Spiritually. Not only are they satisfied,
but they have pleasure. Listen. And thou shalt make them
drink of the river of thy pleasures. This is our pleasure. God's people
are happy. They're happy here in his presence. They're happy worshiping. They're
happy singing. They're happy fellowshipping.
They're happy in the presence of God. Pleasure. You have to turn to Psalm 16
with me and see this word pleasure. Pleasure too often is directed
in the wrong direction. temporary pleasure. This is the
pleasure that is lasting, that's genuine, that's real. Psalm 1611, listen.
Thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness
of joy. At thy right hand, there are
pleasures forevermore. That's the character of his house.
It's fatness which leads to satisfaction. It's his presence which gives
us pleasure. And then notice the next line,
verse 9. For with thee is the fountain
of life. This is where life is. There's
no life out there. Life is in him. He's the fountain
of life. He said to the woman at the well,
you drink of this water, you'll thirst again and again and again.
But whoso drinketh of the water that I shall give him, it shall
be in him a well of living water, springing up all the time until
life everlasting." We have life. I'm the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth on me will never die. Satisfied with the fatness of
his house. Find a river of pleasure in his
presence. And here we find life. I want to live, somebody says.
I do, in him. Live forever. The word today,
I'll tell you, is get yourself a life. It won't last long. If you come to him, he'll give
you eternal life. There's a difference. But you have to give up this
one to get that one. You can't have both. You can't
have two masters. You're going to get yourself a life that they
call life. You'll have to give up this one he calls life. That
was temporary. And some of us at the point in
that life that we know is not temporary either. But his life
is eternal. We have a fountain of life. A
fountain I walked around the park there and came home. God
said, the fountain's still running. I said, no, it froze up. But
this fountain never stops. It's a fountain of water. And
then to have light. Oh, my soul, I hate not to have
any understanding, don't you? But God has given us understanding. The Son of God has come and given
us light. In thy light shall they see light.
We see light. Right here we're going through
this and you're sitting there and you're seeing more light
all the time. Every time we open the word you get more light into
who he is and who we are. And I gave you some light a while
ago. Don't spend your time searching for how much faith you got. Spend
your time searching into who Christ is, what he did, why he
did it. Study Christ. That's light. More light. So that's the character of his
house. It's the house of fatness, pleasure, light, and life. If you could just get them to
come and sit down and listen, wouldn't that be something? If
you could just lasso your friends and relatives, loved ones, and
bring them in, set them down, and shut them up now, you know,
they got to put tape on their mouths, and just sit down and
listen. I tell people that, just come
and listen. It's light here. Light, real
light. And then here's the character
of prayer. I'm preaching too long, but Ronnie, you can make
one sermon out of this on two or three times. All right. Verse
10, 11, 12. Here's the character of prayer.
I've got to give you this. The character of prayer. Oh,
Lord, continue thy loving kindness unto them that know you. We ask
no more than this, a continuation of past mercies. Is that what
we ask? What's that verse in Amazing
Grace? Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already
come. By his grace brought me safe
thus far. I'm asking for grace to take
me on the rest of the way. Same grace. Continue your loving
kindness. I'm here by your loving kindness.
Just continue. Continue your loving kindness
unto us who know. Secondly, in thy righteousness,
prayer is not only thanksgiving but praise. Thy righteousness
to the upright in heart is by your righteousness we stand.
By your righteousness we are upright. That's right, we're
the upright in heart, but why? Here's righteousness. See that?
The word's so clear. And continue your righteousness
to those who are upright by your righteousness in heart. We're
not perfect outside by any means, but in heart we are. Now watch
this. Prayer is humility. Let not the
foot of pride come against me. Lord, shield me, hedge me, but
don't let pride, don't let it invade me. Don't let it come
against me. Don't do it. Keep me from pride. Break me, bring me down. Keep
me humble. And let not the hand of the wicked
remove me from this place. Don't let anybody take me out
of here. Don't let me be like Demas. Don't
let anybody influence the hand of the wicked. The hand of the
wicked is anybody that removes you from the place of worship,
fellowship, feeding upon Christ. Don't let that happen. Don't let anybody be wicked that
took me out of my fellowship with God, wouldn't he? No matter
how sweet he is, he's still wicked if he takes me away from God.
Don't let that happen. Don't let that happen. Anybody
here? It's happened before. Don't let
it happen again. Probably will, but don't let
it happen. And then I'm, there are the workers
of iniquity fallen. He's talking about the, we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but principality and powers and
rulers of the darkness. They've fallen. They're defeated. There they are. There are the
workers of iniquity fallen. They're cast down. My Lord defeated
them and destroyed them. And they'll never rise again.
Isn't that good news? Thank you, Lord. You crush the
power of Satan and sin, and they'll never rise again. All right,
the Psalms. You know, you get more alike
when you realize that the Psalms, it's the gospel in the Psalms. David wrote of Christ. It's out
there in the Psalms.