If you will open your Bibles
with me today to the book of Psalms, and let's turn to Psalm
92. Psalm 92. It is a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord, and to sing praises under thy name, O Most High,
to show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning and thy faithfulness
every night, upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the psaltery,
upon the harp with a solemn sound. For thou, Lord, hast made me
glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of
thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works,
and thy thoughts are very deep. A British man knoweth not, neither
doth a fool understand this. When the wicked spring as the
grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is
that they shall be destroyed forever. But thou, Lord, art
most high forevermore. For lo, thine enemies, O Lord,
for lo, thine enemies shall perish. All the workers of iniquity shall
be scattered. But my horn shalt thou exalt
like the horn of a unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh
oil. Mine eye also shall see my desire
on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked
that rise up against me. The righteous shall flourish
like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They
shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat
and flourishing to show that the Lord is upright. He is my
rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. Over the years, I've been asked
this question several times as to my opinion as to what Old
Testament believers, Old Testament saints knew. What is it that
they knew? Those who lived before the Lord
Jesus Christ came into this world. Well, we all recognize that it's
not what a person knows, but who a person knows that makes
him a child of God. A person can have a lot of knowledge
in their head, but not know him whom to know is life eternal. It's not knowing a system of
theology. It's not knowing certain doctrines,
certain creed, but it is rather knowing a person. The Apostle
Paul said, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that
he is able to keep that against, that I have committed to him
against that day. So it's not necessarily what
a person knows, but who a person knows. And these Old Testament
saints, they knew Christ. They knew Christ as he was promised,
promised to come from the very beginning. And they knew Christ
as he was pictured. in the many ceremonies and the
law that God had given. And the writer of Hebrews in
the New Testament, he answers this question in Hebrews chapter
11, when he names, he lists so many of the Old Testament saints,
and he makes this statement. These all, that is all the Old
Testament saints, these all died in faith, not having received
the promises, In other words, they had not lived to see the
fulfillment of the promises. But they had the promises, and
by faith they believed the promises. But having seen them afar off,
and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. In this psalm, I want to point
out to us four things that David, an Old Testament saint, that
he knew four things. And the emphasis is going to
be on the last of these four things. But first, I want you
to notice he knew that it was a good thing to give thanks unto
the Lord. Verses one and two. It is a good
thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto
thy name, O Most High. It's a good thing. It's a good
thing to give thanks unto the Lord. Recognizing that everything
that we have, our very being, our existence in this world,
every breath that we breathe, it comes from Him. He gives us
life. We live and we move and we have
our being in Him. It's a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord. to thank Him for His Word. Many
people have lived in this world and they have not had the blessing
of having the Word of God. And the fact that David lived
at a time when there was very little of the Word of God in
comparison to you and I, it's a good thing to give thanks unto
the Lord for His Word. Where would we be in this world
A world of darkness without any light apart from the written
word of God. It's a good thing to give thanks
unto the Lord for his word, for his providence. For his providence
that caused you to be born at this particular time to your
parents in this place. all of God's providence that
concerns you and all of his creatures. It's just a good thing to give
thanks unto the Lord. I know as parents, we teach our
children to give thanks, to be thankful. There's nothing, well,
I won't say there's nothing worse, but it's certainly sad when people
are ungrateful, isn't it? Gratitude is something that should
characterize and be a great mark of God's people. We're grateful,
and a happy people is a thankful people, and a thankful people
is a happy people. So that's the first thing I know
that these Old Testament saints knew, that it's a good thing
to give thanks unto the Lord. And second, he knew, that is
this Old Testament saint, he knew that it was through God's
work that he was made glad. Notice that in verse four. For
thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work. He found no real joy, no gladness
in his work, in his obedience, He, like all of God's children,
was made to know that it could not be by the works of his hands,
no matter how great and how perfect the works of our hands may be. It always comes up short when
it comes to our relationship with God. Because our works,
our very best things, our righteousnesses, In God's sight, the scripture
says, are as filthy rags. I think about the hospitals here
in Houston, Texas when they do the laundry and all of the filth
and the sickness and just all the awful things that are produced
by a body that's sick and just scum, so to speak. And that's
our righteousness. That's our best deeds. That's
the best prayer we've ever prayed. The best sermon I've ever preached. The best obedience that you've
ever rendered. Before God is like filthy rags. And David knew that his heart
had been made glad, not through His work, not through His obedience,
but through the Lord's work. And yes, it was promised in that
day, but God's faithful to His promises. God's worth, you know,
that verse two tells us to show forth our loving kindness in
the morning and our faithfulness in the evening. Every morning
when we get up, We recognize that God's mercies are new today. And we need new mercies today. And when we come to the end of
the day, before we go to sleep, we recognize and give thanks
that God's been faithful. He's been faithful to us all
through that day and all through our lifetime. God has been faithful. And the psalmist knew that he
was made glad through the works of God's hands, through God's
work. You know, Job was an Old Testament
saint, and I like what he said one time, and this is in Job
chapter nine. He said, if I washed myself with
snow water, and they believed that snow water was the purest,
the cleanest water that there was, melted snow water. And Job said, if I washed myself
with snow water, and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt
thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor
me." What did these Old Testament saints know? Well, here's four
things that this Old Testament saint knew. He knew, first of
all, it's a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. Do you
know that? I know you do. I know that's why you're here
today, to give thanks unto the Lord, to worship Him, to praise
Him, to acknowledge Him in all things. And are you made glad today by
His work, not by your work, but by His work, His obedience, the
obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, His precious blood that was shed
That bomb that they sang about, there's a bomb in Gilead. We're made glad through his work.
And here's a third thing that I see in this psalm that David
was made aware of, and that is in verse seven. He knew that
the wicked are best compared to grass. The wicked are best
compared to grass. When the wicked spring as the
grass, And when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is
that they shall be destroyed forever. The grass looks good
for a while. It may even be thought to be
beautiful, but it's weak. Grass is, it's weak and it is
soon cut down. It's soon dried up. The Lord
Jesus Christ himself spoke of grass in these words, He said,
if then God so clothed the grass, now listen, which is today in
the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven. David knew, this
Old Testament saint knew that the wicked, the workers of iniquity,
they can best be compared to grass. It's here for a short
while and then it is gone. It is like Our Lord said, it
is cast into the oven. It is burned. Wicked may look
good for a while. He may, she may. They may look
real good for a while. But it's short-lived. It really
is. But here's the fourth. And this
is the point that I wanted to spend most of our time on. He
knew that the righteous may be compared to a palm tree. a palm
tree. We recently spent several days
at the coast and one day I was looking there at the palm trees
and I was reminded of these verses in this psalm and other places
in the scripture, which use the palm tree as a picture, as an
emblem of a child of God. And I understand there are different
kinds of palm trees, But David, of course, was speaking of a
palm tree that would grow and did grow in the land of Canaan.
But I have several things I want to point out to us about the
righteous, that is, God's children, compared to a palm tree. First, the righteous, like the
palm tree in this psalm, is planted. Notice that in verse 13. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. The
righteous, like a palm tree, is planted. Now a man doesn't
plant himself in the house of the Lord. It isn't by his so-called
free will. His depraved will that he has
planted in the house of the Lord. But it is God who plants one
in his house. It is the Lord who justifies,
who declares a person to be righteous. Let me read these verses again
here in Psalm 92. The righteous, verse 12, the
righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow
like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. The
first thing that we recognize about the righteous, the children
of God, as compared to a palm tree, is that God planted them. A bird didn't plant them. Now
a lot of trees are planted by birds. They pick up a seed here
and they fly away and drop it somewhere else. No, the righteous
are planted in the house of the Lord. God does it. God does it. I want you to look
with me. Keep your places here, but look
in Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. Beginning with verse seven, the
Lord Jesus Christ said, you hypocrites, well did he say us prophesy of
you saying, this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth
and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called a multitude
and said unto them, hear and understand. Not that which goeth
into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of
the mouth, this defileth a man. You see, man's problem is his
heart. In Jeremiah, we read the heart
is desperately wicked. Some people translate that incurably
wicked. The heart is incurably wicked. And God must give a new heart. God must give a person a new
heart. And that's one of the promises
of the new covenant. Our Lord here in this passage,
he exposed the hypocrisy of these religious leaders who chose their
traditions above the word of God, above the law of God. And he declares here that man's
problem is his heart. It's not that which goeth in.
It's not his environment. That's not man's problem. The
problem is his heart. We come into this world with
a heart that is astrayed from God, alienated from God, a heart
that is hard, a heart that is wicked, a heart upon which the
word of God makes no impression. Just like on a rock, making an
impression, it's not easy to do. The heart of man is so hard
that even the word of God doesn't make an impression. God has to
give a new heart. But here's the point I want to
make by bringing us here to this place. In verse 12, you notice
here in Matthew 15, verse 12, Then came his disciples and said
unto him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? It's amazing, isn't it, that
our Lord's disciples, early on, they thought they knew better
than the Lord. This is one of those cases, isn't
it? They thought they knew better than Him. Don't you realize you've
offended these people about that statement? And no doubt they were thinking
that these are the men that could really help us. These religious
rulers, leaders, they could really be a help to us in establishing
a kingdom here upon this earth. And of course, that's the kind
of kingdom they were expecting and looking for, even as disciples. Lord, don't you realize you've
offended them? But he answered, now here's the
point. But he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly
father hath not planted shall be rooted up. When we think of
a righteous man, a child of God, as compared to a palm tree, the
first thing we see is that it is planted in the house of the
Lord. And who does the planting? God
does. God the Father planted by His
eternal election, by choosing His people from before the foundation
of the world. God the Son does the planting
by redeeming His people with His precious blood. And God the
Holy Spirit does the planting by convicting and regenerating,
calling his people. And notice they're planted in
the house of the Lord. Now I want us to think of that
in these two ways. That every child of God, everyone
that God saves, is planted in the house of the Lord. First
of all, let's think of the house of the Lord like a local church. You see, when a person is first
saved, we've got to grow. We start off as babes in Christ. We're to desire the sincere milk
of the word. What does a baby eat? A baby
eats milk. And so we have the word of God,
the milk of the word of God. But God plants a tree in a local
church. A sheep, a believer's like a
sheep. And a sheep is an animal that
must be in a herd or in a flock rather. must have a pastor. And God, when he saves a person,
he puts that person in a local church where that person may
be nurtured, just like a baby when it comes into the home.
The parents nurture that baby, feed that baby, watch over that
child. And so in the house of the Lord,
this tree is planted by God and it is planted in the house of
the Lord so that it may be cared for. When the Good Samaritan,
that parable our Lord told that's called the Good Samaritan, you
remember when he rescued that man out of the ditch, he took
him to the inn, I-N-N, and left him there. And that inn may be
likened to a local church. When the Lord saves someone,
he adds that person to a local church. I'm thankful for this
church, aren't you? If you're a member of this church,
if you're part of this church, what a blessing to be planted
in the house of the Lord, where you have people who love you,
people who pray for you, a preacher that preaches the gospel to you,
that we may grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. But
I said, we think of this house of the Lord not only as a local
church, but as the Father's house. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for us.
And we know that He has a place prepared for every one of His
children. RSVP. It's reserved for you if
you're one of his children. There's a place, there's a dwelling
place in that mansion above. And no one else can occupy that
place. And it was reserved for you from
before the foundation of the world. And it's ready, it's ready. And when the Lord calls you home,
you have a place, a building eternal in the heavens. That's
what the Apostle Paul said. So that's the first thing about
this palm tree as a emblem of a child of God. It's planted. It's planted in the house of
the Lord. And people are not saved by chance. It may appear to be chance, there's
no such thing as chance to begin with or luck, but it may appear
that way, but it really isn't because God has planned it from
before the foundation of the world. Now I've told you this
story before, but those three young men that were playing out
in front of a cathedral in some city in England years ago, and
they knew there was a clock on the inside of the church building,
and They wanted to know what time it was, and they kind of
nudged one another. You go in and see what time it
is. And finally, they, I guess, pressured
one man, young man. He ran in, and like in our building
here, he looked up at the clock to see what time it was. But
just that fast, the preacher was preaching, and God, the Holy
Spirit, got a hold of that man. He didn't come back out. So they
sent another one in. He didn't come back out. And
it ended up all three were in. Now that may seem like chance,
like just happened that happenstance. Oh no! No! Before there ever was a star
shining in the sky, God had determined and purposed that those men would
come into that place at that particular time and hear that
message and God work in their hearts. Same thing is true of
you. Same thing is true of me, of
every child of God. It wasn't by chance that you
came to hear the gospel. God purposed it from before the
foundation of the world. And aren't you thankful? Aren't
you thankful? Here's the second thing, and
I say I've got to move along here. The righteous, like the
palm tree, grows upright. This is the thing that especially
got my attention. As windy as it was, I mean, it
was windy where we were a couple of weeks ago, and yet these palm
trees I were looking at, they were straight as an arrow. They
were straight as an arrow. And what a picture there of the
child of God, like a palm tree. We look up. We look up to Christ. We don't look down. Our attention,
our affections are set on things above, not on things of this
world. But like that palm tree grows
upright, so a child of God, we grow in grace and we grow upright. Many a person comes to know the
Lord, and you couldn't believe them. I mean, you couldn't believe
a word they said. But when the Lord saved them,
they began to tell the truth. Now, they'll fall off the wagon,
as they say a few times, and probably tell a lie here or there,
but basically, they're going to grow upright. They want to
be upright in their word. When they give their word, they
want their word to be true. And they grow upright in their
conduct. They don't want to bring a reflection,
a bad reflection upon their confession of faith, upon their Savior.
They want to honor Him. They grow upright like the palm
tree. And a third thing about the palm
tree, a palm tree brings forth fruit. Now, the fruit in Canaan
that the palm trees brought forth was dates. dates, but a palm
tree like a child of God, like a palm tree brings forth fruit.
And the reason the child of God brings forth fruit is because
he's in the vine. He's a branch in the vine. If
he's not in the vine, if he's not in Christ, he's not going
to bring forth any fruit. You know, there are several types
in the scripture that speak of the believer's union with Christ. We're members of his body. He's
the head. We are members of his body. There's
union. He's our husband. We are his
bride. There's a union. The two become
one. There are several of these pictures,
but do you know there's one The apostle Paul deals with called
grafting, grafting. And a person is grafted into
Christ, just like you would take a tree that is sturdy, native
probably to this area and it is strong, but it doesn't give
real good fruit. And so you would graft a branch
or something onto that stalk. and it would begin to give good
fruit. And Paul speaks of believers
being grafted into Christ so that we partake of the root and
the fatness, the sap. We couldn't bring forth any fruit
of ourselves, bad fruit, yeah. But the fruit of the Spirit,
it's His fruit. It's the Spirit living in us
and the child of God. We bring forth fruit, love, and
joy, and peace, and those other things that are mentioned there
in Galatians. Meekness, and temperance, and
goodness. Another thing, the righteous,
like the palm tree, is full of life. Do you know the leaves
on the palm tree are always green? They're always green. As long
as they're on the palm tree, they're always green. They really
are. And the child of God is full
of life. Just like that grain pitcher's
life, the child of God is full of life, eternal life, everlasting
life. Let me show you another verse
in Jeremiah chapter 17. Jeremiah chapter 17. And verses seven and eight. Blessed, verse seven, blessed
is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord
is. For he shall be as a tree planted
by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and
shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green,
and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall
cease from yielding fruit." Have you ever been up in the hill
country, maybe, and it gets awfully dry up there and hot in the summer,
and you see along a little creek, and there's trees growing, and
they're flourishing alongside that creek. Why? Because there's
water. And for the child of God, we're
planted by the river of God's eternal love, and we'll never
die. We're full of life, the life
of God in our soul. He's given us eternal life. And
there's one last thing that I want to mention. The righteous, like
the palm tree, rejoices in victory. And by that I mean, and I want
you to turn to the book of Revelation, but by that I mean that the branches
of a palm tree symbolize victory. When the Lord Jesus Christ entered
into Jerusalem riding on the ass, remember, They were crying
out, Hosanna, blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in
the name of the Lord. But before that, they laid out
those branches of palm trees for him to enter into Jerusalem
on. As triumphant, victorious, the
King of kings and Lord of lords. And here in Revelation chapter
seven, we see a picture into heaven of God's people. chapter
seven and verse nine. And then after this, I beheld
and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number of all nations
and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before
the lamb clothed with white robes, now notice, and palms in their
hands. and cried with a loud voice,
saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb. The righteous, like the palm
tree, no victory, victory in our Savior. He's made us more
than conquerors through Him. And we have victory over sin. The wages of sin is death, but
He has taken our sin away. We have victory over Satan. He
has defeated him. We have victory over the world. He has overcome the world. And
we have victory over death and the grave. The righteous are
like the palm tree in the sense that we know victory. We have victory. And our victory
is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. I pray that the Lord would bless
this message to those of us here today. I want to say something before
we sing our hymn.