Psalms 146

Now Psalm 146 begins with the words, Praise
ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. Now I don't mean to be unkind
here. I don't think we ought to be
unkind and seek to give offense But I'm sorry to see this great
and meaningful word, praise the Lord, hallelujah, and hallelujah
is h-a-l-l-e-l-u-j-a-h. It's praise to Jehovah. That's
what hallelujah means, praise to Jehovah. or praise the Lord. And I regret to see this great
and meaningful term become a flippant religious byword. It's tragedy. Praise the Lord. Now that's a
good phrase And when we use it, if we use it with reverence and
with fear and with true worship, the worship that ought to be
given to his holy name, it's commendable. If we can say, and
note this, it's not lip worship, it's soul praise. Praise ye the
Lord, O my soul. That's one thing to say praise
the Lord with our lips. But if our hearts and souls are
not in tune with those words, we're taking God's name in vain. And no need to give illustrations
of this, but the scripture says, God will not hold him guiltless
that taketh his name in vain. And praising the Lord is a soul
work. It's not a lip function. It's
a soul work. If we can find the words to express
our soul's feelings, that's wonderful. And I want our people to say,
praise the Lord. I want them to say, hallelujah,
hallelujah, praise to Jehovah. But I'm saying it's dangerous
to get to using those words as a byword. Just let them fall
out of our mouths carelessly. Well, it's taking God's name
in vain. And in the book of Psalms, David
uses it frequently, praise ye the Lord. When we read these
Psalms we see that he's not just using words, he is truly praising
the Lord. Now in the second verse he says,
while I live will I praise the Lord. I have good reason to praise
him while I live because I live by his pleasure. I live by his
pleasure. In Psalm 103 he says, he forgiveth
mine iniquities. He healeth my diseases. He redeemeth
my life from destruction. He crowneth me with lovingkindness
and tender mercies. He satisfieth my mouth. It's
by his pleasure that I live. And while I live, and while I
have any being, I will sing praises unto my God." I appreciate that
song which Jack introduced. That's the first time, I believe,
I've ever heard it. If you've ever sung it, I was
absent from the service. But I've never heard it. But
you know, I noticed this while we were singing. It was praising
the Lord. It was praising the Lord. It
was giving the glory to Him. And I appreciated that song.
And that's what David is saying here. I'm going to, while I live,
praise the Lord while I have any being at all. I'm going to
praise him. I'm going to praise him. Now
look at the next verse. Put not your trust in princes
or kings, nor in the Son of Man. It's not talking about Christ
now, because the Son is not capitalized. Nor in the Son of Man, in whom
there is no help. And the word help there is salvation. Now here's what he's saying.
Do not put your trust, your confidence, in man no matter how high he
is, even if he's a king, even if he's a prophet, even if he's
a powerful individual. For in man there is no salvation,
there is no David did not want the people to put their trust
in him. That's the reason he uses the
word, put not your trust in princes or kings. David did not want
the people to put their trust in his nobles, nor even in one
another, but in the Lord, but in the Lord. Put not your trust
in man, even in kings and nobles and princes. For in him there
is no help. However great, however noble,
he's still a man and subject to fall. Look at the next verse,
talking about man here. His breath goeth forth, he returns
to his earth, and in that very day his thoughts perish. Now
in the word thoughts there put purposes or plans, and read it
this way. Man's breath goeth forth, he
dies, he returns to the earth, and in that day His purposes,
his plans, his work, his schemes, all stop right there. Now this
is something that's hard for us to realize. In the day that
men die, all of their purposes and all of their plans and all
of their schemes, whether to do good or to do evil, cease
right there. It's hard for the church to learn
this. I remember when Brother A.D. Mewes died. He preached
down in Louisville for, oh, 25 or 30 years, had a tabernacle
down there, Hart's Harbor Tabernacle. Brother Mewes was a fine minister
of the gospel. People loved him. He was used
of God down there at 405 or 505 Market Street in Louisville,
Kentucky. I helped preach his funeral.
And while his body was lying in state in the front of the
church, people came by, just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of people. I sat over in the chair and watched
people pass by and view his body. There were rich people and poor
people, black people and white people, old people and young
people. Brother Muse was a man who was much loved and much used
of God in that area. But when he died, his work stopped. His purposes, his plans stopped. And they tried their best to
continue his ministry. They tried their best to continue
publishing his paper, publishing his sermons. They tried to carry
on his work there in his name, but it would not work. They did
the same thing in England when Charles Spurgeon died. The scripture
says here that when man's breath goeth forth and he returns to
the earth in that very day, his work ceases. The Jews tried to
do this when Christ and the disciples were preaching to them. They
said, well, we have Moses. No, they didn't. Their forefathers
had Moses, but they didn't have Moses. Moses was dead. And that's
exactly what this scripture is saying. Man is not to be looked
to, nor depended upon, nor trusted in, because at death he can do
no more. Therefore we look only to Christ
because he ever liveth. He ever liveth. I think many
times people make themselves unhappy by trying to retain. It's wonderful if we can retain
a memory, pleasant memory of the dead, but you cannot retain
the dead. His place is gone. It says the flower dies and the
place thereof shall know it no more. If something were to happen
to me, pastor of this church, there's only one thing this church
can do, and that's find a new leader with new purposes and
new plan, his own message. You cannot carry on a man's ministry
and message. It can't be done. And because
he's only a man, That's what he's saying. Don't put your trust
in any flesh. Don't put your confidence in
any man. Because his breath goeth forth,
and he dies, and he returns to the earth, and in that very day,
all of his work, all of his purposes, all of his schemes, whether good
or evil, they stop right then. He's dead. But our Lord ever
liveth. Ever liveth. He never dies. And
our confidence and our trust and our hope can be in him because
he never changes. Look at verse 5. Happy is he,
happy is the individual that hath the God of Jacob for his
help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Now, happy is the man
who has the God of Israel. It's not just talking about the
person Jacob, it's talking about Israel because that was Jacob's
name, Israel, whose hope is in the Lord. He is a very present
help in time of trouble. We can come boldly before the
throne of grace that we may find grace, mercy and grace to help
in time of need. And our hope is in Him because
He's the giver of hope, He's the sustainer of hope, He's the
object of hope, He's the foundation of hope, and the man whose hope
is in Christ is a happy, contented, and satisfied man. Because it
can never change. His hope is never altered. His
hope is in one who never changes, because look at verse 6. He made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is, and he keepeth
truth forever. He keepeth the truth of his purposes. The gifts and calling of God
are without change. He keepeth the truth of his mercy.
He said, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you, I'm with
you always. He keeps the truth of his promise,
which God promised, God who cannot lie. So here in these first six
verses he tells us to praise the Lord, to trust in the Lord,
to hope in the Lord, and then he gives us, and this is the
main part of the message that I've been trying to get to, he
gives us six things about the Lord in whom we trust. Six things
about the Lord in whom we trust. In verse seven he says, and all
of these begin with Jehovah. Now you notice how this psalm
is joined together. He starts out, hallelujah, or
praise to Jehovah, or praise to the Lord. While I live, I'll
praise him. I'm not going to trust man. I'm
not going to put my confidence in the flesh, because man dies
and goes back to the earth, and his schemes and purposes cease.
But the Lord who made heaven, who made the earth, the seas,
and all that therein is, he keepeth truth forever. His purposes never
change, His mercy never changes, His promises never change, so
I can hope in Him and I can trust in Him. Because there are six
vital things about the Lord that call forth this praise. Now the
first one is this, the Lord looseneth the prisoners. And that, Mr. Spurgeon said, is the Lord the
Great Emancipator. The Great Emancipator. He looseth
the prisoners. Turn to Isaiah 61. Isaiah chapter
61 verse 1. The Lord looseth the prisoners. Isaiah 61 verse 1. Now listen. The Lord Jesus quoted this in
Luke chapter 4 when he was speaking before the people at Nazareth.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath
anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek. He hath sent me
to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of prison to them that are bound." The other night I was watching
the bicentennial celebration on television. And the orchestra was playing
the National Anthem. And while they were playing the
National Anthem, the camera was going about Washington, focusing
on the Washington Monument and the Capitol and the White House. But then it swung over to the
Lincoln Memorial. I believe that's what it is,
one where Lincoln's sitting in that big chair. And that's the
Memorial Dawn. Lincoln was sitting in that chair.
And that camera stopped on Mr. Lincoln. and moved in closely. While we were playing the National
Anthem, we kept moving closer and closer to Lincoln. And the
thought came to me, it was a very precious moment to me and quite
overwhelming, the thought came to me as never before, the greatness
of that man. During those few seconds that
the camera was focused upon Abraham Lincoln and the firecrackers
were going off and the orchestra was playing the national anthem,
it came to me as never before the greatness of Mr. Lincoln,
the courage which he manifested in the face of overwhelming opposition. the dedication of that man. For
through his courage and through his complete dedication, Lincoln
set millions of black people free. At least, he started the
wheels rolling that finally led to their freedom. Lincoln is
called a great emancipator. All of this went through my mind.
While I was sitting there watching the television, I don't know
what you think about his party, or his political affiliations,
or his home life, or his religious life, or like he said, all that
I am I owe to my darling mother, or his love life. That just is
totally insignificant as far as I'm concerned. But God put
that man in this nation and on this earth for one purpose. And
by the grace of God and through his dedication and courage, he
accomplished that purpose. In our land, men and women, black
people, were absolute slaves. We know that. You know that.
I know that. They were slaves. They had no
will of their own. They had no movement of their
own. They were slaves under the whip. They owned no property. They paid no taxes. They had
no representation. They may as well have been in
a dungeon. And their children were snatched
out of their hands and sold on labor blocks and taken away from
them. They had no will whatsoever,
no mind of their own, no freedom whatsoever. They were slaves,
absolute slaves. We don't know anything about
that. And I'm saying this, while Mr. Washington may have been
the father of this country, politically speaking, Mr. Lincoln was the savior of this
country, politically speaking. For if it had not been for his
dedication, and usually there's one man standing in the gap,
had it not been for his dedication, and don't fool yourselves, we
know human nature, we'd still have slaves. We absolutely would. And Bible-quoting preachers and
deacons and Sunday school teachers would still be slave owners.
And I was just overwhelmed by the thought as I sat there and
watched that program, and I thought, there is a man A man God used
to set free the slave, the great emancipator. That's what Christ
did for me and you. We were slaves. That's right. If you look at Ephesians chapter
1, it tells us about this slavery. Oh, and it's a worse slavery
than political slavery. It's a worse slavery than bodily
bondage. It says here in Ephesians 2 that
in times past, verse 2, we walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air. We were
slaves to Satan. We were in bondage to Satan.
Total, absolute bondage. Satan can have you in bondage
and make you think you're free. He's a deceitful, subtle master. He's the spirit that worketh
in the children of disobedience, verse 3, among whom also we all
had our conversation, our behavior, our citizenship, our existence
in times past. In the lust of our flesh we were
slaves to Satan, we were slaves to the lust of our flesh, we
were slaves to the desires of our flesh, and slaves to the
desires of our mind, and we were by nature children of wrath.
But God, the great Emancipator, Christ our Lord, And I say this,
and you know one time I was preaching down in Birmingham, and I gave
an illustration about Abraham Lincoln. And if you want to know
how bitter people can be along this line, I told about how Lincoln
had a little boy named Tad Lincoln. And it's supposed to be a true
story. Whether it is, I don't know. But I used it as an illustration.
Little Tad one day was out playing in the yard and there was a soldier
who came by who'd lost all his papers, credentials, and everything,
and they were going to put him in prison. And he wanted to see
Mr. Lincoln. Of course, he couldn't
get in to see Mr. Lincoln. He didn't have any papers.
He didn't have any identification at all. He had no credentials.
He couldn't get in. He was sitting out there in the
yard, just downcast and brokenhearted, and Little Tad was playing around
there, and he made friends with the soldier. And he asked the
soldier what he was doing there, and the soldier said he was trying
to get in to see Mr. Lincoln, but he couldn't because
he lost his credentials and his papers and his identification,
and the guards wouldn't let him in. Tad Lincoln said, well, he's
my daddy. He said, you can go in and see
him. I'll take you in there. So he took the soldier by the
hand. He walked right up to the guards and told them he was going
in to see his daddy. And they opened the door and in they walked,
right into the president's office. And the little boy went around
and crawled up in his daddy's lap and said, this man wants
to see you, daddy. And I said, the Lord Jesus, no
way I could get into the presence of the Father. I'd lost my identification
in Adam. I'd lost my papers. I'd lost
my credentials. I'd lost my right to come into
the presence of the Father. But his son brought me into the
presence of the Father. And man, after the service, a
fellow came down. He was mad. And I saw he's mad,
and he said, you committed a terrible sin tonight. I said, I did? He
said, you sure did. I said, what did I do? I didn't
know whether it spiked my water and I got out of hand, you know,
or something, but I said, what did I do? He said, you compared
the Heavenly Father to that terrible man called Lincoln. Now, see
how ridiculous people can get? But I say this, Lincoln gave
his life to free the slave. He certainly did. He died because
he stood for the freedom of the slave. Christ, my emancipator,
gave his life that I might be free. He gave his life. Our Lord used parables and illustrations
like that. We were in bondage to the law.
We were in bondage to sin. We were in bondage to Satan.
And Christ came and looseth the prisoner. Free from the law,
O happy condition, Jesus has bled, and there's remission.
I was cursed by the law, I was bruised by the fall, I was in
a greater bondage and slavery than any black man that ever
lived, and Christ redeemed me once for all. He set me free. He broke the fetters, He took
off the chains, He removed the gates, and He let me go, and
I'm free. I'm free. All right, look at
the next phrase here. He looseth the prisoners, verse
7, and then it says in verse 8, The Lord openeth the eyes
of the blind. And you know he's not through
yet, loosing the prisoners. Someday he's going to loose me
from this body of death. That's what Paul said, Who shall
deliver me from this body of death? There's a sense in which
I'm still a prisoner. Did you know that? Paul said,
when I would do good, I find what? I find a law warring within
me, bringing me into what? Captivity. And then someday he's going to
loose me from the prison of the grave. Now you talk about a prison,
they're going to take this body and they're going to put it down
in a cement vault, covered with tar, a pitch, and pack six feet
of dirt and rock on top of it. and put a stone on top, I walk
off and leave me. Somebody's got to get me out
of there. And the Lord Jesus, he's going
to deliver me from that too. He has the power to raise me
from the dead. He's the emancipator. He frees
the prisoner from Satan, from the bondage of the law, from
even this body of death and someday from the grave. But look at this,
he openedeth the eyes of the blind. Now, here's a great mystery. And I don't think, I don't think
any more than we understand what Christ is, those black people
understood what, no wonder they loved him, what he'd done for
them. I don't think we understand what Christ has done for us in
loosing the prisoners, and I don't think we really comprehend just
how blind the natural man is. I don't think we do. I think
most of us really get a little bit provoked with our friends
because they can't see what we see. But the natural man, 1 Corinthians
2.9 says, he cannot see and he cannot hear and he cannot understand. Isn't that what it says? He cannot
see himself. He does not know what manner
of man he is. I believe that many natural men
actually believe that they are pretty good folks. I do. I think
they're sincere. I believe there are people with
whom you work, when you talk to them about depravity, about
total depravity, about sinfulness, I think they really can't understand
what you're saying. I think they really believe that
they're not that bad. I think there are a lot of religious
people, like Brother Huddle used to say, he'd hear people pray,
forgive me of my sins, and he couldn't understand why they'd
pray that. Well, we're not sinners anymore.
And the natural man cannot see what manner of man we are, men
we are. He cannot see the extent of the
law. He cannot see how far the law
reaches beyond the actions, beyond the deeds, even beyond the attitude,
even down to the very motive, even down to the very thought
that provoked the motive. God's law is a holy law. Natural man cannot see the gospel
of substitution. He cannot see the beauties of
Christ. He cannot see judgment in its
true value. He cannot see heavenly glory.
He cannot see. Here it says, the Lord opens
the eyes. Blessed are your eyes, Christ
said, they see. He enables us to see at least
a little of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And I think that the more a man
or woman grows in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, the
more they'll grow in a knowledge of their sinfulness. And then we see the inability
of this flesh. We see the glory of Christ's
office work, our prophet, our priest, our king. We see the
glory of his redemptive character. We see the glory of his work
in sanctification and justification and intercession. We see the
glory of his blessed coming, the glory of his eternal kingdom. We see these things. Our eyes
have been opened. Now brethren, if a man is blind, and I've known
some blind people, we've had some in our family, people who've
never, I had an aunt that never, never, never, ever saw. And you could hold a hundred
watt light bulb right in front of her face, but she could not
see it. The light was there, but she
couldn't see it. And I tell you, you can preach
the gospel, the sinfulness of sin, the holiness of God's law,
the justice and righteousness of God in Christ, the beauty
of Christ, the substitutionary work of Christ, and you can preach
it in plain, simple, everyday terms. You can lay it out as
logically and clearly as it can be laid out in words. to a man
who's blind in sin and he cannot see it. And the only one who
can enable him to see it is the Lord God who openeth the eyes
of the blind. Now that's so. It's the Lord
who opens the eyes. We are blinded by the fall. Cannot see. And then next of
all, in verse 8, you have Christ First of all, the great emancipator
and the great illuminator, and now you have him, the great comforter.
Look at these words. The Lord, verse 8, raiseth them
that have bowed down. Now some people have bowed down
under a sense of sin. And I honestly, I'll say this
to you, hoping not to be misunderstood. But I feel sorry for people who
do not see their sins. I feel sorry for them. David
said, my sins are ever before me. And to rightly understand
my sin is to be under constant awareness of it and therefore,
and therefore constantly depending upon my Lord. Paul said, when I'm weak, I'm
strong. And the informed believer and
the taught believer is never at any time without an awareness
of his sins, and therefore that increases his dependence upon
Christ. Now I know that that perhaps
to some will make them cry out like the Romans who said, Let
us sin that grace may abound. If my sin exalts and magnifies
the grace of God, then let sin that grace may abound." Well,
I'll answer you like Paul answered those people, thy fool, thy fool. Some are bowed down with a sense
of sin. It says here, he raiseth them
that are bowed down. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse. And then some
are bowed down with inward distress. Mr. Spurgeon said, we have to
label this either causeless concern or fleshly depression. And that's
what it is. When we're bowed down with inward
distress, it has to be labeled causeless concern or fleshly
depression, for we know this, and every one of us would say
this, we are blessed above all people. You and I have never shed any
blood for our faith. You and I have never gone hungry
for our faith. You and I have never spent one
night away from our families for our faith. You and I have never been imprisoned. We've never been threatened for
our faith. We've never been persecuted.
We've never been ridiculed. We've never been mocked for our
faith. And therefore we ought to say
with David, Why art thou bowed down, O my soul? Why art thou
depressed in me? Hope thou in God. But to bring comfort to the mind
is not in my power, nor in your power, but it is in his power.
It says he raises them that are bowed down. The same one who
luceth the prisoners, and who giveth sight to the blind, raiseth
them that are bowed down." Here's where we need to be, and here's
where we need to come, and this is what we need to say. And here's
our problem. It's a four-letter word, and
I'll guarantee you that it is the problem. Any time that I
have this causeless concern and this fleshly depression and this
inward distress, it's spelled S-E-L-F. So the hymn writer said, Out
of unrest and arrogant pride, Into thy blessed will to abide,
Out of myself to dwell in thy love, Out of despair into raptures
above, out of earth's sorrows into thy balm, out of life's
storms into thy calm, out of distress to jubilant psalm, Jesus,
I come to thee." I come to thee. Does he set the
prisoner free? Does he open the blind eyes?
Then he also raiseth them that are bowed down. He does it. He does it. But I've got to do
something about myself and my will and my desires and make
them his. Then some are bowed down with
the burdens of life. We have financial burdens. We
all know something about this. We have family burdens. Children
that ought to be our joy have become our grief. Friends with
whom we work and play and even worship develop misunderstandings
and conflicts and consequently become, instead of a joy, a burden. To avoid, someone said, the daily
burdens of life, you'd have to go out of this world. Well, we
can't avoid them. What do we need? We need a place
to take them. I know a place. Leave it there. Leave it there. Take your burden to the Lord.
But here's where we miss it. We don't leave it there. If you
trust and never doubt, He'll surely bring you out. Take your
burden to the Lord. And what I do and what you do,
we take it there and come right away with it. Take it right back
home, right back to the job, right back to the bedroom where
we can't sleep, right back to the den, right back to our own
selves. We don't leave it there. You're trying to make a simple
solution out of a complex problem. I'm not. The Lord's not simple.
He's the solution. He's the solution. I know what
I'm talking about. He looseth the prisoners. He
opens their eyes. He layseth them that are bowed
down. I'll tell you, if He can take
a woman bent over with an infirmity for forty years and say, straighten
up more, And he can take a poor, faithless child of his who's
bowed down with distress and inward conflict and causeless
concern and feeble faith and faithless, and tell him to rise
up and walk like a believer. And act like a prince, a son
of the king. And act like God's alive. That's right. Rise and take up
your bed and walk. And then he's the great lover.
He says he loveth the righteous. Oh, he is a great lover. Sometimes I hate to get on this
subject because it reveals how fickle our love is. If you want to be distressed
about your love, you study God's love. His love is everlasting. He says, I have drawn you with
an everlasting love. He loved me eternity to eternity. His love never fluctuates, it
never changes, it's always fervent. His love is great, for God so
loved that He gave His Son. Greater love hath no man than
this, He lay down His life. Having loved His own, He loved
them to the end. His love, what's this? His love
finds its cause only in himself, not in me. We love the attractive,
we love the lovable, we love the responding one, we love those
that love us. His love is so great it finds
its cause only in himself. Herein is love, not that we love
God, He loved us. God committed His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, we walked according to the course
of this world, a prince of the piety and children of wrath.
But God, who is rich in love for His great love wherewith
He loved us, His love finds its cause in Himself. We are so human
and so far from the divine that I could lose your love tomorrow. It wouldn't be very difficult
to do. All in the world I have to do is make one mistake and
lose your love. And that brings you to the point,
is it worth having? Is it really worth having? His love is unchanging. That's
what he said, I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons
of Jacob are not consumed. Is human love even worth having? It's so fickle, so changeable. That's the reason we need to
flee to Him. He is the great lover. He is
my husband, brother, friend. He is my God, my hope, my life. His love is everlasting. Nothing can separate me from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Nothing! He's a height,
nor depth, nor angel, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things
to come. I can do nothing and lose His
love. Nothing. Because before He ever
chose me, He saw me as I was. I can never surprise Him. I may
surprise you, but not Him. He knows all about me. That's
what Peter said, Lord, You know everything about me. Consequently,
you know I love you. We need to read 1 Corinthians
13, and we don't need to throw up our hands and say, this can't
be attained. It can be attained. Anything
God commands can be produced by God's grace. And you read 1 Corinthians 13,
the great definition of love, and we better start trying to
produce it. Because by this shall all men know ye are my disciples,
if ye love one another. If any man loveth not, he knoweth
not God. Our problem is a four-letter
word, S-E-L-F, and our solution is a four-letter word, L-O-V-E.
Loving God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves.
And then he's, verse 9, the great preserver. He preserveth the
strangers. I found something here that is
beautiful, if you'll give me three or four minutes, not being
impatient. The Lord preserveth the strangers. In nearly all nations in these
days, it's true today, but it was especially true back here.
Strangers were not welcome. Places in eastern Kentucky, they
ain't welcome now, up Big Sandy. But strangers were not welcome.
People didn't want foreigners among them. No way. And foreigners
and strangers were usually driven out. Because human nature is
always suspicious of strangers and unkind to strangers. But
the Lord turned to Exodus 22. The Lord exhorted his people,
Israel, to be kind to strangers. Look at Exodus 22. Now watch
this. This is a pretty picture here.
Exodus 22 verse 21 says, Thou shalt neither vex a stranger
nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
And then in Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 1 and 2, Hebrews 13,
verse 1 and 2, it says this, Hebrews 13, 1 and 2, Let brotherly
love continue, and be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby
some have entertained angels unawares. We were strangers and
he took us in. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2 and
here's the picture here, Ephesians the second chapter verse 12 and
13, listen to it. At that time you were without
Christ. You were aliens, foreigners from
the commonwealth of Israel. You were strangers. You Gentiles
were strangers. Ephesians 2 verse 12. You were
strangers from the commonwealth of Israel, or covenant of promise,
having no hope, and without God in this world, but now in Christ
Jesus You who were at one time far off are made nigh, you're
made sons. You're made sons by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He preserved the stranger. Makes
him one in the covenant, one in the kingdom, one in the family.
And then last of all, and I close, verse 10, the Lord looks at the
prisoners, opens their eyes, raises them that have bowed down,
loves the righteous, preserves the strangers, and he shall reign
forever. Here are some thoughts on that
that are interesting. He shall reign forever. Now listen
to this. John Gill says he is the eternally
self-existent one. He says, I am. that I am. He didn't say I was or I will
be, but I am. The Lord God is the only being
who necessarily, and from his own nature, exists. All others
exist by his sovereign pleasure. All others exist by his sovereign
will. The angels, the cherubims, the
seraphims, man, the animals, all things exist by his will.
But he is the only being who necessarily, and from his own
nature, exists. I am. I am, he said, the eternally
self-existent one. And then secondly, he is the
independent one. You and I are dependent upon
heat. We're dependent upon light. We're dependent upon food. We're
dependent upon water. We're dependent upon a number
of things. But God is totally self-sufficient and all-sufficient
and dependent upon nothing. He was as great before he made
the world as after he made the world.

Psalms 146

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Psalms 146

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