I would like very much for you
to open your Bibles to Psalm 116. If you have the Bible handy,
close by, pick it up, open it to Psalm 116. I'm going to preach
mainly from verse 15, which says, Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. That's the main text that I'll
be using. Psalm 116 verse 15, but I want
to go back and review some of the things
that David has said prior to this important text. Precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Now, that's
Psalm 116. 116. Now, this is one of those
psalms that ought to be required reading quite often. We ought
to read it very often. David didn't find these words
in a church prayer book. He didn't find these words in
a church creed or catechism or even a confession of faith or
a constitution. He didn't find these words in
a book of systematic theology. These words in this psalm came
from his heart. Someone said the man after God's
own heart had a heart that was after God. He loved God. He believed God. He rested in
God. He communed with God. And these
words that you'll find in Psalm 116 is the very outpouring of
his heart and his experience and his feelings for his Lord. Look at verse 1. He says, I love
the Lord. I love the Lord. I love the Lord
because he hath heard my voice and my supplications." This man
loved the Lord. It was not the God of his imagination,
but it was the eternal living God that David loved. He said,
I love the Lord. I love the Lord, the Lord God
who reigns and rules. Someone asked him one time in
Psalm 115 and Psalm 135, they said, David, where's your God?
Where's your God? He said, My God's in the heavens,
and He hath done whatsoever He pleased. Whatsoever the Lord
pleased, that did He in heaven, earth, in the seas, and all deep
places. And that's my Lord. And I love
Him. I love the sovereign, omnipotent,
almighty God. who doeth all things after the
counsel of his own will, worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will, who doeth his good pleasure in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and giveth it to
whomsoever he will, and none can stay his hand or say unto
him, What doest thou? I love the Lord who reigns and
rules. I love the Lord Jesus who redeems. And I love the Holy Spirit who
regenerates. I just love the Lord. I love
the Lord." You notice he didn't say, I love my God. He said,
I love the Lord. And the Lord is my shepherd,
the Lord. Now look at verse 2 of Psalm
116. Does that encourage you to listen
a little further? I hope so. He says in verse 2,
verse 1, I love the Lord. Then he said in verse 2, I will
call upon the Lord as long as I live. I will call upon the
Lord as long as I live." What he's saying is, I love the Lord
and I'll continue to love Him. He's saying, I believe the Lord
and I'll continue to believe Him. I've called upon the Lord,
and I'll continue to call upon the Lord. You see, his union
with Christ was not a union with an organization. His religion
was not a religious system. He loved a person, and he called
upon a person. You know, our Lord said to the
disciples one time, a whole multitude of people had been listening
to him, and then they departed from him and angry. They said,
this is a hard saying you're giving. Who can hear it? And
they left. And he turned to his disciples,
and he said to them, will you also go away? And Peter said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ, the son of the living God. These men's
hearts were knit to a person. It wasn't a way. It wasn't an
organization. It wasn't a system. It was a
person. And this is what David says,
I love the Lord and I will call upon him. As long as I live. You see, I believe this is the
trouble with today's organized religion. This day of high-pressure
evangelism. Men and women are busy joining
positions and leaving positions. Men and women are busy making
professions and then denying the profession. Men and women
are being brought into programs and tiring of the programs and
leaving the programs. Salvation is not in a position
or a profession or a program. It's in a person. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the living God. And when a person comes to know
Him and is vitally united in a living union with Him and Christ
in you, which is the hope of glory, as Paul said, I travail
till Christ be formed in you. There's the key. He never leaves
that person. That person never leaves Him.
I travail till Christ be formed in you. And when Christ is formed
in you, you continue in that faith. You continue in that faith. Now he says, I'll call upon the
Lord as long as I live. As long as I live. And then look
at verse 3. Now listen to this. And I don't
mean to be contrary or rude or disagreeable. But somebody needs
to sound a clear and truthful plain note in this day. Because
so many deceivers are going about, profiting by man's natural religious
inclination. David said in verse 3, now here's
a man who said, I love the Lord, and he was a man after God's
own heart, king of Israel, sweet psalmist of Israel. He said,
I'll call upon the Lord as long as I live. And then he said in
verse 3, I found trouble and sorrow. He calls them the sorrows of
death and the pains of hell, I who love the Lord. I who call
upon the Lord, I who am the sweet psalmist of Israel, who wrote
most of the Psalms, I, the man after God's own heart, anointed
by God's own prophet to be king of Israel, I found trouble and
sorrow. And my friends, no one who knows
anything about God, about the Bible or the Lord Jesus Christ,
No one who knows anything about the gospel will promise a believer
an easy road unless he's a fool. I can't promise you as a preacher
of the gospel of Jesus Christ that if you know the Lord from
now on, you'll have health, happiness, and prosperity. It just is not
so. It wasn't so in Old Testament
days. It wasn't so in New Testament days. It's not so today. Our
Lord plainly said, in the world you shall have tribulation. They'll
cast you out of the synagogue. Men will hate you, my brethren.
Marvel not if the world hate you. It hated me before it hated
you. There'll come a day, he said, when men will kill you
and think they're doing God a favor. All who will live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution. Peter says our faith must be
tried. Don't count it strange when you
go through fiery trials. Faith, true faith, must be tried
by fire. And for all generations and in
all the world of all ages, God's people have suffered. I can take
you into Australia and to Mexico and to Africa, places where I've
been and preached, and I've found people who love Christ, who are
devoted to the Word of God, who know the gospel. Many of them
live in poverty and want, they have dead babies. They have scarcely
enough to live on, and they're godly preachers and godly men
who love Christ. But all things work together
for good to those who love God, who are called according to His
purpose. And David said, I found trouble and sorrow. Don't be
surprised, don't be amazed when, as a child of God, you find trouble.
Tribulation work is patience. Patients experience and experience
hope and hope make it not a shame You see these divine healers
and I I'm acquainted with them the health and wealth preachers
People who stand on TV and tell you to make them rich and God
will make you rich That's not a bad deal But these men rise
up and they prosper at the expense of poor people poor people and
often poor sick people and And then they fade away. You ever
wondered where these fellas have gone to? Where are some of these
fellas that did all the healing back when I was growing up and
in my early years? They're new ones all the time,
new ones. They rise up, they get rich at the expense of poor
people, they retire in comfort, fade away, and then they die
of cancer and heart trouble like everybody else. I got amused the other day on
television. They were demonstrating how to
stay slim and trim, how to work away all of the ugly fat and
have a 24-inch waistline. But I noticed all the models,
men and women, are 21, 22 years old. I had a 24-inch waistline
when I was 21 years old, but I'm 60 years old now. And I noticed
all these divine healers are in the prime of life. They're
all young men and young wives and young children. Very seldom
do you find very many of them who are old and decayed and on
the way to the grave, talking about health and wealth and perfect
strength and all of these things. David says, I found trouble.
But, you know, these fellas, they rise up and, uh, hucksters
and flesh merchants make merchandise out of people, and they fade
away in retirement down in Florida somewhere, and another one comes
along, takes their place, and pulls the same con game successfully. It's astounding. But Barnum said,
there's a sucker born every minute, and someone to take his money.
Now, God's people know happiness, but it's in Christ. And God's
people know joy, but it's in Christ. And God's people know
success, but it's in Christ. And God's people know trials
and troubles and suffering and sorrow in this world, all ordered
by the Lord for His glory and for their good. How would I ever minister to
you or sympathize with you if I knew nothing about heartache
myself? If I never wept, if I never felt
the hand of God heavy upon me, how in the world would I ever
sympathize with you in your trials and in your suffering? And then verse 4, David goes
on. He said, Then I called upon the
name of the Lord, O Lord, deliver my soul. You see, David knew
troubles and sorrows like all the rest of us, but he also experienced
deliverance. Deliverance from these trials
he said in verse 8 thou has delivered my soul from death My eyes from
tears and my feet from falling isn't that just like the Lord?
All of this is spiritual here. He says you've delivered my soul
from death. My body will die, but not my
soul It'll never die. He that believeth on me shall
never die Christ. You delivered my eyes from tears
and My sins are gone. There's no charge or condemnation.
And you delivered my feet from falling. He's able to keep you
from falling and present you faultless before his presence
with exceeding joy. Now, if you can trust the Lord
in the midst of your trials and your faith's not worth a plugged
nickel if you can't, anybody can rejoice in the sunshine.
Anybody can rejoice and wave their hands and cut up when everything's
going their way but the true believer rejoices in the shadow
and believes in the trial and Continues in faith and perseveres
during the tribulation you'll be delivered sorrow he said endure
it for the night and And there is a night, but joy cometh in
the morning." If you can wait on the Lord, He'll strengthen
your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. I called, He said, and
the Lord delivered me. In His own time, in His own time,
let patience have her perfect work, and God will deliver you
stronger in faith than ever before. But you need that trial, and
I do too. Then verse 10, He said, I believe. I believe, therefore
have I spoken." David speaks here of the foundation of faith.
He believed. Whom did he believe? He said,
I believe the Word of God. I believe the Word of God. Like
Abraham, David believed God. I hear people say, well, I know
what I believe. Aren't you wording that wrong? Didn't Paul say,
I know whom I have believed? I know whom I have... Abraham
believed God, and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
And David says here, I believe, I believe God, therefore have
I spoken. You see, this is what all of
God's servants say. Here's Paul out here on the deck
of that ship. The ship's about to go down,
and everybody's panicking and wanting to jump overboard, and
he says to all these experienced seamen, he says, now, men, He
said, don't leave the ship. There stood by me this night
the angel of the Lord, whose I am and whom I serve. And he
said unto me, Paul, God's given you all on the ship, if they
stay on the ship. Now he says, sirs, I believe
God, that it shall be exactly as he says. And that's what I
believe. That's what David's saying here.
I believe God. It shall be exactly as he says. That's what I believe. One day,
our Lord Jesus Christ, one morning, came down to the seashore. Peter
and the apostles had been out fishing, and they were experienced
fishermen, too. And they'd caught nothing. They'd
fished all night, caught nothing. And the Lord said to them, He
says, Have children? Have you any meat? They said,
we've toiled all night and caught nothing. Well, he said, back
the boat up a little bit off the shore and cast your net on
the right side of the ship. And Peter looked at him. They
were cleaning their nets then. He looked at him. He said, Lord, we've toiled all night and caught
nothing. But he didn't stop there. He
said, nevertheless, at thy word, I'll let down my net. Now, that's
what I'm talking about right there. at thy word, I believe
God." And, you know, it says in Romans 4, Abraham believed
God and was counted to him for righteousness. Now, this was
not written for his sake alone that it was counted to him for
righteousness, but for ours also to whom it shall be imputed if
we believe. Can you? I believe God. And then he says this in verse
13, I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name
of the Lord. Now, most won't. Most people won't come to the
Lord. That's right. He said, let another come in
his own name, whom you will receive. That's par for the course. That's
natural man's religion. Let a man come in his own name.
The more ridiculous he is, the more followers he has. Jim Jones
is a testimony to that fact. The more ridiculous a man is,
the more followers he has. But I come in my Father's name,
and you will not receive me. You will not come to me that
you might have life." But David said, I will. I will. I will come. I'll take the free
gift of life. I'll call upon the name of the
Lord. By His grace, He's made me willing in the day of His
power. I will pay my vows. I will be true to my Lord in
the presence of all His people. I will. I'll be identified with
Him and His people, not ashamed. I'll be identified. I'll be identified
with the Christ. I'll be identified with the gospel.
I'll be identified with His glory and His grace. I'll be identified.
I'll pay my vows. He's not talking about money
there. In the midst of His people, being identified with those who
know Him publicly. Now notice verse 15. Here's where
I've been leading up to precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of his saints. Well, it's very easy to see the
people to whom this scripture belongs. It's very easy to see
the people to whom this scripture belongs. They are the people
who love the Lord. David said, I love the Lord.
They're the people who call upon Him as long as they live. They die in faith. They're the
people who believe God. They're the people who received
Christ and call on His name. They're the people who identified
with Him openly. They're His saints. They're His
saints, and their death, their death is precious. It's precious. Now, why is the death of the
saint precious? Why is it precious to the saint?
Well, now, death itself is not precious. I know that, and you
know that. Death is often accompanied by
pain, much pain. Death is often accompanied by
a decay of the faculties, a withering of the flesh. Death is often
accompanied by great tears and sorrow, lingering. Death is often accompanied by
much difficulty, especially for those who are left. But Paul
says death is gain, for me to die is gain. Gain? How can something so difficult
and painful and fearful be gained? Well, he said, I lose an old
body and gain a new body. I lose sin and gain perfect holiness. I lose mortality and gain immortality,
never to die again. I lose weakness and gain strength.
I lose ignorance. and gain perfect knowledge, then
I shall know as I have been known. I lose shame and gain eternal
glory." I like what Richard Baxter said on his deathbed. Someone
came into the room where that great old Saint Richard Baxter
was dying, and the man walked right up to the bed, and he said,
uh, Brother Baxter, how are you? And the old man looked at him,
weak, dying, He said, I'm almost well. Thank you. Almost well. To die is gain, and to die is
to be present with the Lord. Now, I want you to think with
me a minute. Paul said, to be present with the Lord is far
better. Far better. And he said in Romans
8.18, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. This present time is not worthy,
is nothing compared to that time. Now, if you can, you take the
time in your life when you were the very happiest, happiest,
happiest, happiest ever in your life. Can you remember? You say,
I think I can. That's nothing compared to the
happiness enjoyed in His presence. You take the time in your life
when you were the strongest, the very strongest, at the peak
of your prime, the healthiest. Got it? That's nothing compared
to the immortality and the strength of His image. Take the time in
your life, can you, when you were the most peaceful, just
at complete rest, not troubled by anything. but you were at
rest. Let me tell you, that was nothing.
Nothing. Not even worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Take the time
in your life when you were the most satisfied and contented,
and you said, I wish this could go on forever. Nothing. Nothing. Now, nothing, less than
nothing, compared with the contentment and the joy and the peace in
Christ when we stand in His presence and are made like Him. That's
what Paul's saying. He's not worthy to be compared. Well, why is the death of the
believer precious in the sight of the Lord? Now, that's what
this says. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the
believer. Well, I can give you several
reasons, the first of which is this, because they're precious
to Him. Anything that happens to someone who's precious to
you is precious also. And the people of God are precious
to Him. He said, I've drawn you with
an everlasting love. I loved you when you didn't love
me. And whatever happens to you is important to me. It's precious.
And then, not only because they're precious to Him, but because
they're His sheep. Why, He chose them and He redeemed
them by His blood. He came into the world and died
for them and imputed to them a perfect righteousness. That's
why Christ came to this world to redeem His sheep. He said,
I'm the good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep.
other sheep I have which are not of this foal, them I must
bring, and they shall hear my voice, and they shall be one
foal." There is sheep, my sheep. I love my sheep. I know my sheep. And then I'll tell you another
reason why our death is precious in His sight is because sin is
obnoxious to God. Did you know that? Sin is obnoxious
to God. And one day, God's gonna put
an end to all sin. But when we die, that puts an
end to sin in us. His purpose is to have a people
without sin. And He gave His Son on the cross,
yonder, to accomplish that purpose. And when He takes us out of this
world, He takes us away from all sin. And then I'll tell you
this. Now listen to me. Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints because God
sees things not as man sees them, but He sees things as they really
are. Now we only see what's around
us, but God sees that which is around Him. This is my home. This is my body. These are my
people. This is my habitation. I haven't
seen his home and his habitation. Paul did. He came back and said
he saw things that wasn't lawful, heard things that wasn't lawful
to utter. But God sees it as it is. He sees it as it is. And that worm in the dirt down
there has never known anything but dirt. And I stand up here
infinitely in better condition than he is, and I said, oh, little
worm, if you just knew how nice it is to be clean and to eat
clean food. But he doesn't understand that.
And he'd object a great deal if I took him out of the dirt.
But if I could take him, the worm, and turn him into a man,
he'd be glad to be out of the dirt. And here I am, a worm in
the dust, and he says, oh, little worm, if you just knew what it
was like here, And I hate to leave my dirt and my habitation. But once He
takes me there, I won't want to come back. I won't want to
come back. Our home eternal is with Him.
Our real life is to never grow old, never die. Our joy is to
look upon His face. Our family, leave my family,
that's my family, the body of Christ. Death is not a penalty,
it's a promotion. It's not the end, it's the beginning.
It's not to die, it's to live. Now, I have a couple of messages
on this one tape. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of the saint. And that one I brought last week.
If you want them, you write for them. The address will be given
you on the screen. Join us again next week. if God
leads you to do so. Until then, God bless you.