I don't want you to turn to our
text yet. You remember I told you I'd be
speaking from Psalm 138, but we'll wait just a few moments
and let me make some comments. I said this morning that my message
would be entitled, A Psalm of Assurance. A Psalm of Assurance. Now, it's just not true. It's
just not true that a person must wait until the judgment. to find
out if he's a child of God or if he's forever rejected and
condemned. The scripture teaches that saving
faith, living faith, loving faith, is a hard experience that's known
and treasured. It's an experience right now
in this life. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. It does not yet appear what we
shall be, but now are we sons of God. Our Lord exhorts us to
settle the matter of faith now. Paul wrote, don't turn to this,
but let me read it. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 13,
examine yourselves. Examine yourselves whether you
be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves? Do we not know ourselves? How
that Jesus Christ is in us, is He in us? Do we believe Him? Are we resting in Christ alone? Except we be reprobate. Over
in 2 Peter, the scripture says this, examine or give diligence
to make your calling and election sure. Now listen to this, wherefore
the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election
sure. For if you do these things, you'll
never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we're told when we come to
the Lord's table to examine ourselves and then eat of the bread and
drink of the wine. And then our fathers were confident
of their interest in the Redeemer. I will have you turn to these
scriptures. Turn with me first to the book
of Job, chapter 19. Our fathers were confident of
their interest in the Lord and their faith in Him. In Job 19,
Job amidst, in the middle of all of this suffering and trial
and grief, and who on this earth has ever suffered like Job suffered? And he says in Job 19 verse 23,
Oh that my words were now written, oh that they were printed in
a book, that they were graven with an iron pen and laid in
the rock forever. For I know, I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, In my flesh
shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes
shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within
me." And David wrote, this is, you don't need to turn to this,
you're so familiar with it, the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord
is my shepherd, I shall not walk. And surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord forever. And then over in 2 Timothy, the
Apostle Paul, here's his testimony. In 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse
12, he says, For the rich cause I also suffer these things. Because
I'm a preacher, an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles, the gospel of
God's grace. Verse 12, 2 Timothy 1, nevertheless,
I'm not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded, confident,
that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him
against that day. That day of judgment, that day
of the coming of the Lord. And then in the book of John,
1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4. Sometimes when
you're reading the book of 1 John, note how many times that he uses
this word, know. I know. We know. We know. 1 John 4 verse 13. Listen to him. Hereby know we.
Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because
He hath given us of His Spirit." We know we dwell in Him. So,
our Lord commands us to settle this issue of faith. And our
fathers were confident of their interest in Christ. And then
I find this. If you'll turn to Acts 21, verse
13. The Apostle Paul is speaking here. I find this, that the knowledge
of Christ and assurance of His mercy and love is what encourages
a person to leave all and follow Christ. Now, if a mind is filled
with uncertainty and doubt concerning saving faith and an interest
in Christ, it leads to indifference. If a person's mind is filled
with uncertainty and doubt and fear about his interest in Christ,
it leads to indifference and carelessness. But when this matter
is settled, Christ is enthroned. We're his and my beloved is mine
and I'm his. It leads to a committal. It leads
to a committal, and that committal leads to assurance and rest.
Now listen to Paul here. The people were weeping and lamenting,
and Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, and on his way to Rome, I mean,
to suffer and to die. And verse 13, they were grieving
over him. Acts 21, and Paul answered, What
mean ye to weep, and to break my heart? I'm ready not to be
bound only and cast into prison, but also to die at Jerusalem
for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's commitment. And you see, when this issue
is settled, that's where it leads. It leads to commitment, it leads
to confidence, it leads to rest, it leads to a willingness even
to die for Christ. So let's turn to our text now,
and let's read this. Psalm of assurance, and make
some comments on it. Psalm 138. Psalm 138. Now, I know of no better place
to go for assurance and confidence and comfort than the Word of
God. And I know of no better place to go in the Word of God
than to a man's writings who was called a man after God's
own heart. And I know no better place to
go than the writings of a man who knew God and knew that he
knew God. That was David. And all right,
we'll start with verse 1. Listen to it. He says, I will
praise thee with my whole heart. This is not lip service. This
is heart praise. I'll praise thee with my whole
heart. Here's a firm Dedicated, wholehearted
commitment to Christ. My whole heart. Not a divided
heart, but a single heart. Committed to Christ Jesus. There
are two sides. There are two sides, and only
two in this world. And you ask me which side I take? I take the side of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There are just two sides. And
I'm committed to His side. to His truth, to His redemption,
to His salvation. There's just two kingdoms in
this world. There's the kingdom of darkness and there's the kingdom
of God's dear Son. You ask me whose side I take?
I'm on the side of Jesus Christ. I'm in the kingdom of God's dear
Son. That's a commitment. That's what
David's saying here. I will praise God with my whole
heart. I'm on His side. I'm in His kingdom. There are two righteousnesses.
That of man's obedience and that of Christ's obedience. Which
is yours? I'm looking to the author and
finisher of our faith. I'm in Christ. He's my righteousness
and only. There are two families. There's
the family of flesh and there's the family of God. Whose side
are you on? Whose family? I'm in the family
of God Almighty in Christ. The two ways. There's the way
that seems right to man, and there's the way, the truth, and
the lies. Where do you stand? These are
the issues. These are the two hopes. There's
the hope of Cain, the hope of works, the hope that it's going
to be alright if certain requirements are met, But then there's that
living hope, that blessed hope, Christ who is our hope. That's it. And the songwriter
said, my hope, my hope, my hope is built on nothing less than
Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's it. David said, I will
praise thee with my whole heart. Whose side? whose kingdom, whose
righteousness, whose family, whose way, whose truth, whose
hope? He is. He is. Now watch this. Before the gods will I sing praises
unto thee. Notice before the, see the little
letter, gods. Before the gods. What's David
saying here? I'll tell you what David's saying.
It's something we need to hear. David was surrounded by heathen,
pagans, heathen people, heathen gods, false gods, false religion,
false worship, and ignorance. We're surrounded with the little
letter G-O-D-S. False gods, false worship, False
religion. We're surrounded with it. One
of our men told me this morning that a couple of fellas knocked
on his door just the last two or three days. He went to the
door and they had a Bible. And they said to him that they
wanted to come in and talk to him. He said, no, I'd just rather
you wouldn't. And they said, but aren't you
interested in salvation? He said, not in yours. I'm interested in his." That's
a good answer. I like that. Not in yours, but
in his. And we're surrounded. We're surrounded
with gods. We're surrounded with religion.
We're surrounded with false worship. And David said, in the midst
of all this, in the midst of this false religion and false
gods and false worship, I'm going to sing praises to thee. I'm
going to sing praises to thee, the living God. I'm going to
honor the living God as He ought to be honored. I'm going to praise
the living God as He ought to be praised. I'm going to answer
these fellows just this way. I'm not interested in your salvation. I'm interested in Him. I'm not
going to bend on God's feet. When they deny His sovereignty,
I'm going to more boldly preach it. When they deny his right
to reign, behold, God reigneth. I'm going to cry out the louder,
God reigneth. When they deny his covenant of
mercy, I'm going to more fervently believe it before the gods. Before the gods. That's what
he says. I'm going to praise you with
my whole soul, my whole heart. And before all of this mess, before all of this false gods
and religions, I'm going to sing praises to you. When they despise
His elective grace and His effectual atonement, I'm going to more
constantly proclaim it, a little harder, a little plainer, a little
more forcefully. Praise Him! Praise Him! Don't you let them praise their
little gods more than you praise your great God. Don't you let
them out-talk you and out-praise you. When they exalt the human
will, I'm going to exalt the divine will. When they talk about
what they've done for God, I'm going to talk about what He did
for me. A little bit harder. That's right. The best way to answer error
is to preach truth. The best way to expose a false
god is to exalt a living God. Is that right? It's the best
way. If half the time men have spent
in debate and councils and arguments, if half the time that men have
spent arguing with pagans and heathens and apostates, had been
spent in just preaching the true gospel, we'd be much better off
for it. Yes, he said, I'll praise thee
with my whole heart. Before the gods, before the false
gods and false worship and false religion, I'm going to praise
thee. And when they deny your greatness
and glory, I'm going to preach it a little more boldly. And
when they deny your sovereign grace and covenant mercies and
elective grace and effectual atonement, I'm going to set it
forth a little stronger. Because He's God. Salvation is
of the Lord. Notice verse 2. And I will worship
toward thy holy temple. You notice something here. The
temple wasn't even built then. The temple was not built. The
material temple had not been built. David's right in this,
Solomon built the temple. But the tabernacle stood. The
tabernacle which was the first temple. The temple under a canvas,
that's right. And the same thing was in the
tabernacle that was in the temple. The Holy of Holies. And the mercy
seat. And David is not an idolater.
David's been condemning the idolaters and the false gods. And he says,
I worship toward thy holy temple. I look toward thy holy temple.
I look toward the holy of holies. I look toward the holy oracle.
I look toward the temple. Is that idolatry? No. He's looking
toward the mercy seat. That's where he's looking. That's
where he's looking. I look towards the holy of holies. Because God told them over here
in Exodus 25, listen to this, in Exodus 25, and I won't, I've
told you this before, but they took that law which God gave
to Israel, and they put it in the ark. And over the ark they
put the mercy seat. And the high priest would go
in once a year, dipped the hyssop in blood and sprinkled the mercy
seat, the atonement, the blood, picturing the death of our Lord
Jesus, the shedding of His blood, when He went not into the holy
place made with hands, into the holy of holies, but into heaven
itself, not with the blood of animals, but with His own blood,
and not on the mercy seat in the holy of holies, but in heaven
itself. But this was a picture. And God
says here in Exodus 25, 21, Thou shalt put the mercy seat above
upon the ark. And in the ark thou shalt put
the law that I shall give thee. And there I'll meet with thee. And there I'll commune with thee
from above the mercy seat. And that's what David said. I
look towards the mercy seat. I look toward the atonement.
I look toward Christ. That's where he's looking. Jonah
said that in the belly of the whale. Jonah, you know, when
he said the iron bars were closed about me and the seaweeds about
me and I'm shut up forever, I'm cut off from all things. I look
toward our holy temple. Well, he didn't even know which
direction it was. He's in the belly of a fish.
But his heart was directed that way. His mind was directed toward
the sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. There's where the redemption
is. That's what this man said. I'll praise you with my whole
heart. Before the gods and false religions, I'll sing praises
to you. And I'll direct my look and my
faith and my confidence toward the blood on the mercy seat.
covering the law. Daniel, you know, when King Darius
commanded him not to pray, Daniel went in and opened his window
towards Jerusalem and fell on his knees and prayed. Daniel
wasn't an idolater. Daniel didn't pray to a temple.
He prayed in the direction of the mercy seat. The mercy seat. Alright, that's what men know
who know God. And then listen. Verse 2 says,
I worship toward thy holy temple. Children, I'll show you another
verse here that maybe you've seen it before. Turn to Psalm
28. Psalm 28. Let me show you something
here. Here David is writing over here.
It's the Psalm of David. Psalm 28, verse 1 and 2. Listen
to this. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord,
my rock. Be not silent to me, lest if
thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the
pit. Hear the voice of my supplications
when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle,
right in your margin toward thy holy of holies, holy of holies. mercy-seeking blood. All right,
now back to Psalm 138, verse 3. I'll look at verse 2 again. Let me show you something else
here. I worship toward the mercy-seeking, toward the blood. Now listen,
I'll praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth. Now, those who are taught of
God, you know, this morning Walter quoted a scripture from John
6 that says, In which our Lord said, no man can come to me except
my Father which sent me drawing. And I'll raise him up at the
last day. It is written in the prophets, they shall be taught
of God. Every man that has learned of
the Father, been taught of God, comes to me. What does God teach
him? Well, this right here. We've
been taught concerning his loving kindness and his truth. I praise
thy name for thy lovingkindness and thy truth." We understand
that God's lovingkindness is never shown apart from truth.
You never separate those two things, lovingkindness and truth. Mercy and righteousness. Justification
and justifier. Lovingkindness is always based
on truth. Always. Always. That's the reason
Christ died, to enable God to be just and justified. Enable
God to show His love in a righteous manner. See that? All right,
what's the next thing? One other thing here. For, and
you'll have to listen carefully here, For thou hast magnified
thy word above thy name. Now these three things go together. Verse 2. toward the mercy seat,
toward the blood, toward the sacrifice. I'll praise your name
for your loving kindness and mercy based on truth, for your
grace based on the righteousness of Christ. And here's the confidence
and comfort of a believer. God says He has magnified His
Word above His name. Now listen to me. His Word, God's
Word, is the same thing as His faithfulness. His Word is the
same thing as His holiness. And He has magnified His Word,
His faithful Word, His promise. is so dear to Him that He called
His Son the Word of God. That's what He called His Son,
His Word. He's magnified His Word above
all His attributes, above all His name, to the extent that
He called His Son, who's the sole revelation of Himself, the
Word of God. The Word of God. And this Word
His faithfulness, His holiness is exalted above every other
attribute. And this was what Abraham believed
and looked to and found his confidence. Turn to Romans 4. This Word of
God, this holiness of God, this faithfulness of God was the foundation
of Abraham's faith. In verse 20 it says this, in
Romans 4.20, He staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being
fully persuaded that what God had promised, He was able to
perform. He would perform. God cannot
lie. God cannot lie. And that's our
foundation. Titus chapter 1, let me read
this to you. Chapter 1, verse 2, listen to
this. Paul, a servant of God, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and
the acknowledgement of the truth which is after godliness, in
hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before
the world began. And old David says this, he says
this, I'll worship toward the sacrifice, toward the mercy seat,
toward the blood. Depending upon looking to your
loving kindness and your truth, for both are satisfied. Your
loving kindness is revealed in Christ's death and your truth
in Christ's death. And knowing this, that this cannot
fail because you've exalted your word even above your whole name. That's right. That's right, and
that's where we poor sinners and frail people can get our
confidence. It's not, like Bob said a while
ago, in our faithfulness, it's in His. It's not in our dependability,
it's in His. He's exalted and magnified, His
promise, His Word, His covenant, above every other attribute,
above all of His name. God cannot lie. God cannot lie. When Paul stood on the deck of
that ship, and everybody wanted to jump over the side and abandon
ship, he said, stay in the ship. Stay in the ship. There stood
by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve,
and he said to me, Paul, I've given you every soul on this
ship. But don't leave the ship. And
sirs, I believe it will be exactly as he said. Because his words
will not fail. That's it. Now you can go back
and look at your experience and it will sort of shake you sometimes.
You can look at when you're saved and under whose preaching you're
saved. who baptized you and all this
other sort of thing, you know, and get a little shaky, and look
in your own heart and get even shakier, and all these other
things. But if you look in His Word,
and He said, He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting
life, and His Word is more important to Him than any other attribute. That's what that says. Isn't
that right, John? That's your confidence. That's David's. Don't leave out the sacrifice,
look towards the blood, where your loving kindness and your
truth were magnified. And I look towards your promise,
because God cannot lie. He magnified His Word above His
name. And this is what bothers me about
all these preachers that are running around with these microphones
up and down and up and down steps and all. But they're not teaching
people the Word. It's God's Word. That's where
the hope is. That's where the confidence is
in the book. His Word. Alright, I've got to
move on. Verse 3. Look at this carefully. He said, in the day I cried.
I cried. What did you do? I cried. I prayed. I called on God. What did He
do? He answered me. He heard me. He heard me. I cried and He heard
me. And what else did He do? He strengthened, strengthened
this me with strength in my soul. Now let me say something here. Is there any better answer to
false gods and false religion than this? How do you know that
you know God? Well, David said, I cried and
He heard me. And He answered me. And He did
something in my soul. That's where He did it. In my
soul. He strengthened me. He established me. He grounded
me in my soul. Now, today's religion is an outward
thing. It's an emotional thing. I hear
these fellows, I listen to them sometimes, and they talk about
dead churches. You know what they mean by dead
churches? Where there's nobody screaming. That to them is a
dead church. Where there's nobody shouting.
Where there's nobody running in the aisles. Where people don't
have, they say, the freedom to express themselves and to holler
and scream and testify and do all these things. They have to
keep something going. Going all the time. They can't
stand it. Be still, my soul. The Lord's in His holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence before Him. Hush. Wait on God. Commune with Him
upon your bed in the night. It's what David said. I cried
privately unto Him. He heard me. He answered me. And He strengthened me in my
soul. He made my feet dance and my
body run. He settled me, established me,
spoke peace to my heart. The reality of His presence I
felt. Our need is not a jitterbug. Our need is a heart need, a soul
need. Not an outward show for people
to see, but an inward peace in which we can rest. when the night's
long and you can't sleep, and when the pain's so great that
you can't sleep, and when troubles with your children and your loved
ones are sweeping over, rolling over your souls, and you don't
know where they are, and who they're with, and what they're
doing. Don't come in yelling at me, and screaming, let's all
dance a jig. I need His presence, His strength,
His voice, His word. That's what I'm talking about
now. If anybody here wants that other stuff, you're welcome to
it. But it won't do you any good
when you're by yourself. That's right. It won't do you
any good. You've got to have somebody to jump with you. And
to cheerlead. That's what preachers are today,
they're cheerleaders. They're not teachers and pastors,
they're cheerleaders. And it's awful. I tell you, this
old, difficult, troubled journey of life, we need this inward
strength. I cried, and He heard me. And He strengthened me with strength
in my soul. A dear friend said to me, recently,
like he said, that great trial, but he said, and it was so dark
around me, and I turned to the Word of God, and I read David's
comment, I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and He delivered
me from all my fears. That's quiet, isn't it? When
I couldn't, when there was no human hope or help, he said,
I sought the Lord, And he heard me, and he delivered me from
all my fears. And he said, the sun came up. And the sun came up. That's where
it is. That's the psalm of assurance.
And I'll tell you, I don't know what these next two verses mean,
but I'll tell you what I think. He says in verse 4, all the kings
of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words
of thy mouth. The kings of the world, that's
the Gentiles, I guess. Not just the Jews, but the Gentiles
as well. They're going to hear the gospel.
They're going to believe the gospel. And they shall sing in
the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of our Lord. He's
going to save people of every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue
unto heaven. Even their kings are going to
praise Him. But maybe, maybe this means In that day about which Paul
wrote in Philippians 2 when he said, every knee shall bow and
every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord in heaven, earth,
and under the earth to the glory of God. That may be the day there,
but most of them are so, the Gentiles are going to praise
Him. And also one day everybody will. Look at verse 6. Though
the Lord be high, oh my goodness, I looked at that, high, the Lord
be high, high, high, high, high, high, high. My tongue can't describe it.
Can anybody speak with understanding of the majesty and the glory
of our God, the power of His throne? You know what old Job
said? Let me read you what he said. I'm talking about the glory of
God, how high. Can you by searching find out
God? Can you find out the Almighty
unto perfection? It's as high as the heavens.
Let the scientists tell you how far out it goes. Light years? What can you do? It's deeper
than hell. Where is that? I don't know.
What can you know? The measure thereof is longer
than the earth and broader than the sea. Here's another of God's servants
talking about that same subject. Paul the Apostle said, listen,
oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God. How unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways past finding out. who hath known the mind of the
Lord, who hath been his counselor, or who hath first given to him,
and it will be recompensed unto him again, of him, through him,
to him, are all things to whom be glory for ever and for ever. And yet, listen, though the Lord be high, Yet
hath he respect to the lowly. Brother Walter this morning was
just overcome with that verse when Ruth, sitting there in the
field, little old widow lady, ragged, running around behind
the reapers picking up what they left, a stranger from a foreign
country, Moab, from pagan ancestry, She looked up on that white horse
and there sat that man that owned everything she could see, East,
West, North and South, in his finery, looking down at her and
telling her she'd found grace in his sight. She said, who am
I? Scared her to death. I'm a stranger. And boy if we could just, that's
nothing, nothing compared to what we're looking at. His majesty
fills the universe. And yet, He has respect to the
lowly. Let me read you a couple of verses.
Respect to the lowly. Listen to this one. In Isaiah
66, and I'll tell you what I'd do if I was me and you. And I
am me. I'd sure I'd sure look for some
of this lowliness. Because he says in Isaiah 66,
Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is
my footstool. Where is the house you build
me? Where is the place of my rest? What are you going to build
for me? For all those things hath my own hand made, and all
those things have already been for you, came on the scene. Sayeth the Lord, I'll tell you
the man to whom I'll look. To this man will I look, even
to him that's poor. Poor in spirit, lowly, humble,
broken, of a contrite, broken heart and spirit. And to the
man who trembles at my word. He's high. But that's the fellow
he's going to look at. Watch this next line in Psalm
138. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the
lowly, but the proud he knoweth afar off. He knows them. He doesn't need
to get very near to them to know them either. He can smell them
a long ways off. He can discover their vanity
and their emptiness a long ways off. He puts a distance between
him and them. That's what he's saying here. He puts a distance. He knows
them afar off. The proud. You ever hear that
statement, I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole. Do you
remember us saying that? I wouldn't touch that. I wouldn't
touch him with a ten-foot pole. That means you don't want to
get anywhere near him. That's exactly what he's saying
right here. God's high. But he'll come down to the lowly
like the Father embraced the Son in his dirt and filth and
kissed him. Broken. Father, I've sinned unto
heaven, against heaven, and in thy sight I'm not fit to be called
your Son. Just let me be a slave. Ah, kissed
him. But he said to Proud, I wouldn't
touch with a ten-foot pole. That's what he said. Oh, keep
him out of my sight. Keep him out of my sight. Well,
you can find assurance there if you're lowly. This fits pretty
good, doesn't it? Verse 7 says, Though I walk in
the midst of trouble, Believers are born of woman and a few days
and full of trouble. But I tell you, they walk, they
keep going. I walk. I'm not going to sit
down and quit. Though I walk in the midst of
trouble, I'm not going to give up by His grace. Though I walk
in the midst of trouble, He'll revive me, He'll refresh me with
His presence and His Word. David said, I would have fainted.
I would have quit. Had I not believed to see the
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I walk in the
midst of the trouble, but He'll revive me. He'll refresh me. His word refreshes me. His presence
refreshes me. His people refresh me. His fellowship
refreshes me. His gospel refreshes me. And
thou shalt stretch forth thy hand against the wrath of mine
enemies. Mine enemies aren't people. People
aren't my enemies. Satan is my enemy. Principalities
and powers, those are our enemies. The flesh is our enemy. Sin is
our enemy. The law is your enemy. Try it. It's against you. Charge you.
One day if the law could, it would damn you. Justice. Those
are my enemies. And he's going to stretch forth
his hand, his right hand. His right hand will save me.
His Redeemer, all my enemies. And one of these days, the last
enemy, He'll destroy. That's death. That's death. And what verse 8? And the Lord
will perfect. Finish. Complete. He'll perfect. That which concerneth
me. What really concerns me? I think
David summed it up over here in Psalm 27. I believe he really
summed it up. That which really concerns me.
And I know there are a lot of things that temporarily concern
us. I know that. But I'm talking
about what really concerns us. Psalm 27, verse 4. One thing,
one thing, one thing have I desired of the Lord. And that's what
concerns me. That's what I seek after. That
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life
to behold the glory and the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in
His temple. That's what concerns me. And
He's going to perfect it. How do I know? Two statements. Verse 8, Psalm 138. The Lord will perfect. You know,
Paul said in Philippians 1, 6, I'm confident of this one thing,
that he that hath begun a good work in you will finish it. He'll complete, he'll perfect
it. And here's why, right here, two things. For thy mercy, O
Lord, endureth forever. You can just leave the word endureth
out. There's another psalm that says, our mercy endures forever,
and repeats it about twenty times. But it's always in italics, endures.
His mercy just doesn't endure, his mercy is forever both ways.
It doesn't just last forever, it is forever both ways. His
mercy is forever. His mercy is forever. And secondly,
he'll never forsake the works of his own hand. And that's the reason that we
preach here so strongly, I do, and our elders and our missionaries
so strongly, salvations of the Lord. Because with His workmanship,
He that hath begun a good work in you, you see, then if it's
His work, He'll finish it. He'll never quit in the middle
of something. He's never started something and quit. He'll finish
it. He'll perfect it. And there's
your confidence. Augustus Toplady, I found that
song, Ronnie, wrote this. Listen. A debtor to mercy alone,
of God's covenant mercies I sing. Nor do I fear with His righteousness
on my person an offering to bring. The terror of law and of God
with me can have nothing to do. My Savior's obedience and blood
hides all my transgressions from view. The work which his goodness
began, the arm of his power will complete. His promise is yes
and amen and never was forfeited yet. Things future, nor things
which are now, nor things below or things above, can make him
his purpose forego or separate us from his love. My name, from
the palm of his hands, eternity will never erase. Impressed on
his heart, it remains in marks of indelible grace. Yes, we to
the end shall endure. As sure as His promise is given,
more happy, but not more secure, are the glorified saints in heaven.
People that are already there are more happy than we are, but
they're not more secure. Christ saved them, and Christ
saves us, and they're not more secure. There they are, and we're
on the way. And there are sheep yet that
haven't even been called, and they're secure too. That's right. For they shall hear my voice,
and they shall be one fold in one shepherd. A psalm of assurance. I pray it will be a blessing.