Psalm 147. We began in here this morning and we looked at this idea of the legs of a man. God does not take pleasure in the legs of a man. We looked at those things, and again, I'll relate it because there are some here tonight that weren't here this morning. I just want to tell you, you know, a little background as to why we're at where we're at. Last Sunday morning, God did not give me anything to preach. I had no message whatsoever. And so basically, we took a few scriptures and threw them up in the air and shot at them on the way down. We dealt with some things in the church and it was a good time. I believe we met with the Lord in those things. He was good to us in that. But I wasn't going to preach something that was just what I thought we needed to preach because God gave me absolutely nothing. Now, Monday morning, before the morning even began, while I was just coming into consciousness, the latter half of this verse, he taketh no pleasure in the legs of a man, was running through my mind as I woke up, okay, before I had even opened my eyes. And I was thinking on that and it itself was running through my head over and over and over again. It wasn't even that I was repeating it to myself, but that was the recurring thing going on. And so I began meditating on that as I was trying to come to consciousness. And I went downstairs and wrote a couple of things out. And this morning we dealt with this in, you know, the first part of that verse is he delighteth not in the strength of the horse. And it says, he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. We showed that the legs of a man are where his strength is. You know, we had some good discussion afterwards. And there's a couple people, as I said, my prayer was that God would answer some questions with what was going to be preached. And there's two people in specific that said he answered my question on this. One person specifically with this verse that they were looking at and wondering about that. That's just God. That's just how God works, okay? And so we're looking at the latter half of this here, all right? We looked at that there's no security in the strength of a horse and in the security of battlements and armaments and anything that we would take ourselves into battle with and in our own security. There's none of that outside of the Lord. Why? Because safety is of the Lord. And we looked at Psalm 33 17 a horse is a vain thing for safety neither shall he deliver any by his great strength Proverbs 21 31 the horse is prepared against the day of battle But safety is of the Lord. And so God does not delight in the strength of a horse. He just doesn't why because it robs him of of deliverance. He's the one that is the deliverer. He will come in and deliver. And so we looked at those things in some depth this morning. And we looked later on, the latter half of this morning service, we looked at that, he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The legs are the strongest part of a man. If you were able to get down underneath this piano and you were able to stand yourself up, you may not be able to pick it up with your hands, but you would be able to stretch yourself up and lift that heavy piano right up off the ground by yourself. As you get older, those legs are no longer as glorious to you. The glory of young men is their strength. It's just the way it is. That's why they should bear the oak in their youth. That's the reason. But those things were running through my mind. Well, why doesn't he take pleasure in the legs of a man? And again, it's because his strength is made perfect in weakness. That's when we find Him the strongest is when we are the weakest. And so, again, we looked at those things. It'll be on Sermon Audio, so you guys can look that up and watch the morning to kind of get the full picture of what we're looking at here tonight. But I ended with this question, and this was the second question that ran through my mind as I was pondering these things. Okay, well, the first one was, you know, why not? Why doesn't God take pleasure in the legs of a man? And then the question came to me as I was still laying in bed, and I said to myself, well, what does he take pleasure in then? What does he take pleasure in then? I had a couple of thoughts, and I went downstairs, and I was jotting down some things, and I opened up my Bible, and then we come to Psalm 147, verse 11. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. And my question was answered right there. And we're done. We're gonna close in prayer. Now, the question is, well, what does the Lord take pleasure in? If he doesn't take pleasure in the legs of a man, what does he take pleasure in? He takes pleasure in them that fear him. When you fear the Lord, it is a pleasing thing to God. And on that note, I'm gonna have Mike Batt open us up in prayer. Amen. Thank you. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy now I've found some great correlation between Psalm 33 and Psalm 147 there's many places throughout there where they say almost the exact same thing their same phrase will be used the same wording will be used there will be a A word in Psalm 147 that's also in Psalm 33. And so as I was going back and forth between those things, I was looking at this in regards to the Lord taking pleasure in them that fear Him. And as I was pondering these things at the beginning of the week, it dawned on me how amazing it was that God had not given me a message for the day before, but yet He had given me the entirety of the message before I even got out of bed the very next day. for this Sunday. And here we are filling Sunday morning and Sunday evening with what He gave me that morning. Let's go to Psalm 33. Let's look at a couple of things here in relation to this. Psalm 33. Oh, let's see. You know, let's start at verse 16. It says this, Neither shall he delight or shall he deliver any by his great strength. And so we see the correlation there, what we saw in Psalm 147, verse 10, about God not delighting in the strength of the horse. And we saw the things that we preached about this morning, dealing with the legs of the man and the strength of a man and God not finding pleasure in those things. Why? Because it's a vain thing to look to that horse for safety. Why? Because safety is of the Lord. I could spend the entire time just repeating that over and over and over again. And as the Word of God, being that quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, pierces you, that safety is of the Lord. Safety is of the Lord. Safety is of the Lord. Safety is of the Lord. The more I would say it, the more some of you would buck against it and balk at it and look at all the times in your life where you were not safe and where you accused God that he did not deliver you. But then there would be others who would say, Oh yes, I saw him deliver me there. Oh yes, I know the safety was of the Lord there. Oh yes, I did prepare the horse against the day of battle, but safety was of the Lord there. And that's just, that's just the way the word of God works. Right? But reinforcing these things with this scripture, look at verse 18. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy. The Lord take his pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. Isn't that something? Now, it isn't something that is written twice in the Bible. That's not the astounding thing. Oh, wow, they repeated the same words twice. But no, it's something that God would tie these things together to show you, yet again, God is the one that is in control. God is the one that will deliver you from any evil. God is the one and the only one that can come in and fix a situation that is absolutely hopeless and helpless. And in fact, He might just wait until it is hopeless to deliver you. That's how it is in salvation. Just like that man that sat beside the pool at Bethesda and waited for the troubling of the waters, and he sat there for 38 years. Waiting waiting, but he was crippled. He could not get to the waters when that angel came down and troubled those waters So somebody got in the waters first and got the healing and Jesus comes to him Knowing he was in such a great state for so long And he says what are you waiting for and the man says well I have no man to help me and That's what Jesus was waiting for For him to finally get to the point where he said, I have no man to help me. There is no man that can help me. I have no help. I have no hope. And that's what Jesus specializes in. That is his specialty. You really wanna see a mighty move of God, get hopeless before him. And that's when he moves the best. And then you just sit back and watch him do his thing. And I'm telling you what, it is a miracle. It is a miracle every time you hear the word of God. Did you know that? The way that your ears work to send signals to your brain so that you can cognitively put it together into words that make sense in a sentence, that alone is a miracle of God. But when the word of God is spoken to you and preached to you and you hear the word of God and it stirs you on the inward parts and the secrets of your heart are made manifest and you are laid open and naked and bare before the almighty God of the universe. And he says, I can fix that. I can clean that, I can heal that. But you do always resist the Holy Ghost as did your fathers. In unbelief, they did that. The only thing hindering the work of God in your life, whether it be for conversion, or whether it be for deliverance from some evil, whether it be a victory over some besetting sin, whatever it may be, the sin that so easily beset us is our sin nature, by the way. It besets us. When you are beset, you are surrounded, okay? And so it is your flesh. And remember, when you're surrounded, the only place you can look is up. And that's why we look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, all right? But you gotta get surrounded, you gotta get hopeless. I think at the time where, and I don't remember names, and I don't remember exactly the unit they were with and all of this, but outside of Bastogne during World War II at the Battle of the Bulge, when the 101st Airborne was completely surrounded, it finally got around to the point where the last, the Germans were counterattacking there in the forest there around Bastogne, and I mean, it was the middle of winter, it was 20 below zero, the last line of supply and escape was cut off, and the word got up to those 101st Airborne Soldiers, and they said, all right, we're surrounded, good. Now we can shoot in every direction. When you are completely hopeless and helpless, That's when God steps in. So rather than saying, I'm surrounded, I'm hopeless, I have no hope, there's no way out, this is the end, you ought to be saying, well, thank God, I'm surrounded and I can't do a thing about it. Now God's gonna show up. But our human nature won't allow that. Your carnal mind will not allow that, because you sit there in unbelief saying, yeah, but I can tell you all the times God didn't show up. Yeah, but you're still alive, aren't you? You're still here, aren't you? You're sitting here listening to my voice, unless I'm hallucinating and there's only my family in this room. What are you expecting the deliverance of God to look like anyhow? When God delivers you out of all your trouble, what are you expecting that to look like? Something according to the movies, something according to country music, something according to your tradition, whatever it is. Listen, if you want God to deliver you, you gotta look what deliverance looks like from the word of God. That's step one. What does it look like when God delivers a person out of evil? When God delivers a soul from sin? When God delivers a person who is bound in their sin, a person who is surrounded by enemies on every side, a person who is in a hopeless situation, what does it look like when God delivers? Get in the word of God and find out. Let the comforter guide you into all truth. You know, when you go out, like out West, everybody here on the East Coast says, oh, we go out hunting out West. You know, the ones that are out West, they just say we go hunting. Okay. But when you go out West and you go hunting, you don't know the lay of the land. You don't know where the animals are patterned at. You have a very brief, short amount of time to go out there and hunt. So what do you do? You hire a guide. You hire a guide to be able to take you to the places they're familiar with. They know the lay of the land. They know where the animals are patterned at. They know where to put you. They know how to line you up so you'll get a good shot when they come through and all of that. And it's the same thing with the Holy Ghost. As he guides you into all truth, he's taking you to a place that you may not be familiar with, but he knows it. Why? Because he wrote it. He knows it. And so as he takes you here and as he guides you over there and as your mind seems to wander and you're getting frustrated with self because, no, I wanna study this thing out, but this over here just keeps jumping out at you. And then all of a sudden you accidentally glance over to the other page and then there's a verse that you never saw before, which is crazy because you've read through the Bible before, but you look at that verse and you say, why have I never seen that before? And then you start following that out and there's a word in there that jumps out at you. And you think, oh my goodness, that's also in Isaiah. And then you turn over to Isaiah and you find that word and there's the answer to what you were looking for in the first place. It's the guiding of the Holy Ghost into all truth. That's how he works. And guess what? He just delivered you. You walk in whatever he just showed you. Walking by faith and not by sight. But I tell you what, that takes faith, doesn't it? How do you get faith? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. How did anybody that was personally touched, physically touched by Jesus Christ, how did they have faith to be made whole? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That is a precept in the word of God. If you want to know how you are going to get faith, you have to be listening and hearing the word of God. That's the only way it can come. And so those people that were alive at the time of Jesus Christ, as he was walking, and he was miracle working, and he was healing, and he was preaching, and he was declaring, and he was reproving and rebuking, and he was cleansing the temple, and all of these things, and as the word of God that they had learned out of the Old Testament scriptures from their youth up, and they were learning those things all the way up, and as they heard of this man Jesus, and all of a sudden the Holy Ghost began putting pieces together of what they heard in the scriptures, and what they were hearing in that common day, and all that was being put together, all of a sudden, faith came to them, and they believed, if I got to this man, I could be made whole. Faith has always come by hearing, and hearing has always come by the word of God. That's how it works. This is the sharpest sword, and you need a very, very, very sharp sword to circumcise your ears. This is the only thing that can do it. It's the only thing that can do it. And as you listen to this thing, and as you listen to the word of God preached, and as it works in you and it begins cutting away the deadness of the flesh on your heart, pretty soon that circumcision of the heart made without hands takes place. Saving faith comes to you, you believe the word of God, and you're born of God. That's the simplicity of the gospel. It's all on God. He does the whole thing. Your responsibility before Him is to seek Him, is to listen to the preaching of the Word of God, to get in the Word of God. And as He leads you to repentance, and as He lays these things before you, and He changes your mind on this thing, and He changes your mind on that thing, just agree with God. Believe what He tells you. But here, it's Psalm 33. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy. And look at verse 19. to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. Now, it's amazing what the fear of the Lord will do. It's amazing that the fear of the Lord is something that God takes pleasure in. When he finds that in someone, he is very pleased with that. When he finds that in a person, he'll say, I am very pleased with that. That's a very pleasing thing to me. Now, you can curse God, or you can bless God. You can displease God or you can please Him. A froward heart, wickedness. God is wicked with the angry, or angry with the wicked every day. But when you are pleasing to God, listen, when your children obey you, isn't it nice when you're able to actually do something good for them? My dad used to ask me, it's almost, he would say, it's almost like you enjoy getting spanked. Because I would just do things that just merited a good swat on the backside, continually. And he says, do you enjoy this? Do you enjoy your mother and I having to scold you and having to punish you and spank you and all this? No, I don't. But then I knew I wasn't supposed to do something. And I knew it was rebellion. And that iniquity in my heart abounded. And I'd go and do it anyway. And in my sneakiness, I'd try to hide it. And my dad knew. My dad would find out. That rod of correction would come again. All that to say, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of knowledge. Knowledge and wisdom together give you understanding. When you have understanding, well, then you can hear the words of God. And faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Okay? That's why the fear of the Lord is so important. That's why it's so important to fear the Lord. Fear Him. Now it's said, I mean, you do a Google search, right? And it'll say, you know, the fear of the Lord is not a terrified fear of him, but a holy reverence of his goodness and his grace. That's what it'll say. But whenever the Lord showed up and manifested himself, people were terrified. I think that's a pretty good posture to be in. Something to think about. You look at Christianity, just in America today, all right, because I'm speaking to Americans in America, I'm preaching in an American church, okay? You look at Christianity in America, in the last 50 years where people have said, oh, the fear of the Lord is just awe and reverence for his goodness. How's that worked out for the American church? What's the fruit of that? Is not wisdom justified of all her children? Yes, that's what Jesus said. So, what's the wisdom in saying that? That you don't actually have to be afraid of God, but you just have awe and reverence for him. It's churches that are full of lost people. trying to be religious, trying to make this thing work, trying to come up with every way possible to make Jesus Christ a deliverer when they refuse to believe the Jesus Christ of the Bible. And it's full of hatred and bitterness. It's full of carnality. It's full of perversion. I could play you a video. I have a video saved on my phone, and it was of a United Methodist Church conference, and it was people just introducing themselves. They had gotten up to a lectern, and they were going to address the conference in general, okay? And they introduced themselves, and they gave their name. They gave their race. They gave their color. They gave their preferred pronouns. They gave their sexuality orientation. They gave all of that as an introduction to what they were about to say. And these were clergy. Confusion. And the last time I checked, the Word of God says that God is not the author of confusion. I think what the church in America needs is a good, healthy, terrifying fear of God. And I was terrified of my father growing up. I answered him again, but I never talked back to him. I would try to defend myself, but I never told him what to do. Because I feared for my life. Now, just so you know, my father would have never killed me, and my father never beat me. My father was never abusive. I had a good father. Not everyone can say that, I understand. I had a good father. Now I have a good saved father, okay? He was a good, God-fearing man. And he put the fear of God in me. Even as a lost man, punishing a lost boy, I learned how to fear my father. I learned what happened when I crossed my father. I was terrified to talk back to my father, so you know what I would do? I'd talk back to my mother, which was even worse, because he would take me. Why don't you come up here for a second, Russell? I don't know if you notice this or not, he's taller than me now, but I'm still his father. Now, you can stand right up, it's fine. He would take me just like this, and I mean, he was good at just twisting that thing. He would take me, and he would say, she may be your mother, but no one talks to my wife that way. And I tell you, I was afraid. Out of that fear was motivated a deep love and appreciation for the authority of the man that God put in my house. You need to get a good, healthy, terrified fear of Almighty God. That's the beginning of wisdom. Can't figure out wisdom? Any man that lack wisdom, let him ask of God. You know what he's gonna do? If you truly are asking, he's gonna show you how to fear him. Now, we looked at these things before, and we looked at the deliverance of God, and we looked how the fearing of the Lord will breed thankfulness to him in all of this, and it'll glorify him, it'll magnify him, and all of these things. But he takes pleasure in them that fear him. Then we turn and we look at that he takes pleasure in them that hope in his mercy. The beautiful thing about God, one of the beautiful things about God, is that when you fear him, you understand that his mercy is unending. Because you understand what he could have done. I know what my father could have done. Okay? I've seen him throw blocks, grab two blocks, concrete blocks, in one hand, pick them up, and put them on top of an eight-foot wall, and then do the next thing, and the next thing. And then he'd go up, and he would lay those blocks. I've watched him do that with one hand. I know what he was capable of. So when he did punish me, I look back now and I know I was receiving mercy from Him. You know what the Word of God says about that? We've received less than our iniquities deserve. That's exactly right. You're alive today. God has been merciful. Thank the Lord for it. You remember? Thanksgiving is a spiritual sacrifice that we're still to offer up. And there's leaven involved with that. You know why there's leaven? Because it grows. Mrs. Bell, I have just been fascinated with that ever since Wednesday. It's good. It is good. And the more thanksgiving you offer up, the more things you can remember to be thankful of, and you think of this and this and this, which then makes God look bigger to that one over there who just has been thinking that God is so small. And all of a sudden, they begin thinking of all the things they can be thankful for, and they start worshiping and praising God. And I'm telling you what, when you're at your worst, when you're in the lowest place, why don't you just spend a good hour thanking God for every possible thing you can think of? and then go ahead and writhe in your pain and your suffering and your lowliness. Just see if you can still do that. When that sin that does so easily beset us, the weight that so easily besets us, when that takes you, why don't you just spend a good hour praising God and thanking Him for His goodness, thanking Him for His mercy, thanking Him for the holiness of His word, and see if that sin has any power over you. If you're born again, the only reason any sin has any power over you is because you allow it. If you're lost, you're a servant to it. You're chained to it still. But as God commands you, he'll enable you to cast down imaginations. And every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ. Do you know why it's every thought? Because that's where Satan has you snared. In meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his own will. You're snared in your thinking, and that's why repentance will deliver you from it. And by the way, God gives that repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Amen and amen. So as we're looking at this though, behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy. And then there was another thing that I thought about. Well, what is the Lord pleased with? The words just ran through my head. Behold, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And then all of a sudden these scriptures that we're about to look at take on a whole new light. Did not God deliver his son? Did he not hear his cry and deliver him? Do you think Jesus Christ feared his father? He is wisdom, so yes. He understood the weight and the consequence of being made sin. And just like that prodigal son knew in that law that if he went back to his father, he had dishonored his father, and by the law, he could have been stoned to death. But what was he hoping in? Mercy. Hoping in his mercy. Isn't it amazing how all these things just kind of click? They just kind of fit together. Let's look at a couple of things. Oh, if you wanna know, all right, there's four places where that's mentioned. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. I'm gonna give him to you in rapid succession. If you don't get them all written down, you can come see me afterwards or look it up yourself. Matthew 3.17, Matthew 17.5, Mark 1.11, 2 Peter 1.17. Okay, so in those things, you look at that and you see God said it, that he was pleased with his son. So according to the word of God, Jesus Christ feared his father. Why? Because he'd take pleasure in them that fear him. He said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. He was pleased with this son. Why? Because he feared him. Why don't you fear God? You think you can tell God better? You think your bitterness and hatred and anger is better than what God has to offer? That's just a lie Satan has you believing, that's it. Anyone who has ever been given repentance to the acknowledging of the truth on anything, all right, whether it be to that final point of salvation where you are born of God, or whether it be something where God removes something out of your life so that you can finally see God, when you've been given that repentance and all of a sudden your mind has changed and all of a sudden you're able to think clearly, for the first time, and your heart doesn't feel like somebody's stabbing it, for the very first time in your life, why would you want anything different? Why would you want any other way? Why would you want your way, which is leading you to death? Why would you want bitterness, and anger, and hatred, and clamor, and variance, and emulation, and strife? Why would you want that? One word, pride, that's why. Because you're drunk on your stinking pride. That's why you got to beg God to hide pride from you. You know the best way to stop an alcoholic from being an alcoholic? Hide the booze. Hide the liquor from them. Make it so they can't get it. You know, it's the only disease that's cured by not buying a bottle. Alcoholism. You know what that is, though? It's just Exodus 20, verse five. That's why you see it generational. That's what it is. Because drunkenness is a punishment from God. It is. Now, let's look at something here. Let's go to Psalm 130. I just wanna look at a couple of scriptures. Again, in light of all the things that we've been laying out here, Psalm 130. I was kind of meditating on these before I went to sleep last night, and it was late. We'd gone over to my family's home for our Thanksgiving together, and we got home kind of late, and so I was just laying in bed and just kind of unwind from the trip back, and there were just some things in here that brought me to tears as I was reading them. But Psalm 130. Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. And I can cross-reference Jonah 2 in Psalm 18 for both of those verses. All right. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? That's one that brought me to tears. If God were to mark iniquities, who could stand before him? No one. If he were to go through your life and mark every single iniquity, write it all down, show it to you, you know what you would do? You would fear him. Remember, we've received less than our iniquities deserve. He says this, but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Do you understand what that's saying? That because God forgives, he can be feared. Because God forgives, because there is forgiveness with the Lord, he can be feared. You say, well, I don't understand how that is. What's the significance of that? Because mercy is a more powerful thing than death. Mercy is a more powerful thing than death. God not giving you exactly what you deserve is more powerful to you than death. than that punishment for everything that you've done. He's marked out every single iniquity and he lays it to your charge and he shows you every single thing. But he says, because of my son, Jesus Christ, you're forgiven. That's a God to be feared. Because he's able to destroy both body and soul in hell. He's a God of all mercy, the God of all comfort. Second Corinthians. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Then he says this verse five in light of what we looked at. Remember there the Lord take the pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy. I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait and in his word do I hope there's hope there. This is the voice of Jesus Christ in Psalm 130. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. We see the fear of the Lord. We see forgiveness. We see redemption. We see God hearing the voice of his son out of the depths. And we see God delivering him by the righteousness of the cleanness of his own hand, by his own righteousness. We see God doing these things and we know that he is a God of mercy and therefore he can be feared. He should be feared because he has mercy enough for you. You're not beyond the mercy of God. Stop thinking so highly of yourself, goodness. You think you're some big bad person that's done the most wicked thing you could in the world and there's no one that would be able to forgive you for what you've done. Oh, a preacher, you don't know what I've done in secret. Yeah, you don't know what I've done in secret. If we could go ahead and we could just show the secrets of our hearts, of the things that we thought, even just today, on this screen, every single one of us in here would run out of those doors in shame. Every single one. But God sees it every day. And yet he's merciful because you're still alive. You're sitting here listening to the preaching of the word of God. allowing it to be that quick and powerful sword piercing, even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. He's searching you on the inward parts. He's cutting away the deadness of the flesh. You know what the deadness of that flesh is? It's your unbelief. Isn't that the beautiful thing of it? The more that sword cuts, the more it cuts away your unbelief, because you're losing this argument. Well, he's proved it there. You're losing that argument. Well, I can no longer not believe him in that because he's proved that. And you know what he's doing? He's building faith. Faith is coming to you. It's being built line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, so that you would stumble and fall backward and stop opposing yourself. And so you just believe the word of God. Getting to the point where you realize you're lost is one of the biggest battles in any person's life. That's the hard part. Allowing God to prove to you that you are lost. Now I want you to understand there is a difference between knowing you're not saved and knowing you're lost. When you're lost, it is an absolute desperation and you have no hope. As we talked about in the beginning, absolute desperation. When someone gets good and lost, it's not too much longer before they're found by the Lord Jesus Christ. Because they get desperate for him. They get so lonely for him, they cannot spend another second without him. And in your desperation, you cry out to this God of heaven for mercy. And you know what he does? He proves himself one more time and he gives you mercy. Picks you up out of that miry clay. Makes you a new creature on the inward parts. Cast your sin into the deepest ocean. As far as the east is from the west. Passes you from death unto life. Places you in Christ Jesus in heavenly places. Hides your life in him. and you're born of God. But finding yourself condemned under the holy law of God, that's the hard part. That's where the labor comes into play. You realize it is a labor to sit under preaching. You say, preacher, we know that. We sit and listen to you every week, I know. Sometimes I'm purposefully difficult. And God gives me liberty to do those things. But there are times where I know it's hard for you to sit and listen to what I'm saying, because God wants to see how serious you are about hearing Him. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope. I want you to go to Lamentations chapter three. We're winding this thing down. Lamentations three, just a couple of verses here. We're starting in verse 24. Lamentations is right in between Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Lamentations 3.24, the Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore, will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, Look at this, to the soul that seeketh him. To the soul that seeketh him, he is good to those. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Hope and quietly wait. Why quietly wait? Because he's trying to get you to shut your mouth. Because you keep talking. God can't get a word in edgewise. Why was that law given? That every mouth would be stopped and the whole world would become guilty before God. Stop trying to justify yourself. Just be guilty before God. Let him prove it to you. Let him show you that wickedness in you. It's good for a man both to hope and to quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Jonah chapter 2, the end of, I think it's verse 9, it says, salvation is of the Lord. It's that deliverance, deliverance from a hard trial, deliverance from tribulation in life, deliverance from your sin, that salvation that is to come, that deliverance from the wrath of God. Yes, deliverance from hell, yes, deliverance to your home in heaven. All of that is part of it. But you know the greatest thing that he delivers you from? It's you. Delivers you from you. You are your own worst enemy, because you won't shut your mouth. You've got an argument against what that preacher says. You've got an argument against, oh, well, that's not how I interpret that verse. You've got an argument against that verse right there, even though it says it exactly as the preacher preached it, and he preached it word for word, and just quoted that verse, and you say, oh, well, no, but that's Calvinism. That can't be true. If it's the Bible, it's true. Bible says salvation is of the Lord. So, class, who is salvation of? If you really believed that, y'all would be born again. But Jonah had to go in the belly of a fish for three days so that he could prophesy of the soul of Jesus Christ in hell and being delivered out of hell. He had to go through all of that and to see everything that Jesus Christ was going to be a partaker of for you and finally get to the end of himself and say, salvation is of the Lord. He had to do all of that, go through all of that before the fish spit him out on dry ground. What's interesting about that, and I just like to throw this in here every once in a while thinking about this, He was on his way to Joppa when the fish swallowed him up. He spit him out on the beach back where he started from. So for those three days that that fish was swimming, he was going in one direction, getting him to that shore where he could be spat out in dry ground. God told the fish to spit him out. He spit him out. You know how I know God told the fish to spit him out? Because God had prepared a great fish. He prepared that thing. Right now, you are swallowed up in something, absolutely swallowed up in it. You don't think God maybe prepared that just so that you would get desperate for Him? You think you ought to fear that, God? Let's look at another verse, Psalm 52. Psalm 52, verse one. Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth continually. And I love that. Endureth, so it shows that continual tense of that verb, and then just to hammer it home and reinforce it just a little bit more, it's continually. By the way, all way means continually, continually means all way. So the goodness of God endureth continually. There's never a point in time where God's goodness does not endure. Thy tongue devises mischiefs like a sharp razor working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good, and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah. Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. God shall likewise destroy thee forever. He shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah. The righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him. Now, hold on a second. Started out by talking about the wicked, didn't it? All of a sudden we have the righteous. We have the righteous laughing at one man. This is that man of sin in Jesus Christ. Absolutely. Look at this. The righteous also shall see and fear. Who's he fearing? Is he fearing the wicked? No. He's fearing his father. His father's pleased in that. And he laughs at him. Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness, but I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. You know what that green olive tree does? Pumps oil into those lamps. Zechariah 4, it'll come to you later. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise thee forever because thou hast done it. And I will wait on thy name for it is good before thy saints. Again, we just see Psalm 147 played out time and time again, and that this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And he is pleased, he takes pleasure in them that fear him, and them that hope in his mercy. And we see the son of God hoping in the mercy of God. Go to, and we're gonna skip the next two, let's just go to Psalm 119 and we'll close this thing out. Psalm 119. Verse 65. Thou hast dwelt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. Thou art good and doest good. Teach me thy statutes. The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in thy law. It is good for me that I have been afflicted. Anybody in here believe that? You better, because it's in the word of God. Do you know why it was good for him to have been afflicted? Now, I believe all through Psalm 119, it's Jesus Christ through this, the whole thing, okay? But let's just focus in on you and the affliction that you've gone through in your life. Do you know why? Because before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. He that hath suffered in, what is it? He that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. That's the reason. You won't cease at the rebuke of God, so he has to make you suffer in it. And by the way, that can be to Christians. He may just beset you in that thing, just so you are hopeless in it, so that you do fall. Because you refuse to turn away from it. And it's a snare unto you. Oh, let's look at this though. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me. Give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments. They that fear thee will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in thy word. And at that point, you know that can't be David. They that fear thee, God, will be glad when they see me, the Son of God, because I have hoped in thy word. Do you know what that is? That's the faith of Christ. He hoped in the word of God. He had hope in that word. And when we see him in his hope, does that not make us glad? Amen. I know, oh Lord, that thy judgments are right and that thou in faithfulness has afflicted me. How about that? It was his faithfulness. It was in his faithfulness that he afflicted you. And that's why, Miss Julie, why we can give thanks in everything. Because it's in his faithfulness that he afflicts us. It's good. Let I pray thee thy merciful kindness be for my comfort. According to the, according to thy word unto thy servant. Let thy tender mercies come unto me that I may live for thy law is my delight. Let the proud be ashamed for they dealt perversely with me without a cause, but I will meditate upon in my precepts. Let those that fear thee turn unto me and those that have known thy testimonies. And again, it's not David. Let my heart be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed. My soul fainted for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word. I had fainted except that I had seen the light of the Lord in the land of the living. And again, it's that desperation. You have zero hope outside of Jesus Christ. You have zero hope outside of the faith of Christ. You have zero hope outside of the deliverance of God. You have zero hope outside of the fear of God. My soul fainted for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word, 82. Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, when wilt thou comfort me? For I am become like a bottle in the smoke, yet do I not forget thy statutes, and time doesn't allow me to get into that. They didn't have glass bottles back then. They had bottles made out of clay, and they had bottles that were made out of animal skins. And when you hang an animal skin in the smoke, what color does it turn? Brown. You hold it there long enough, what color does it turn? Black. And then you go over to Song of Solomon and he says, I am black and comely. Leather, when it's exposed to extreme heat and smoke, will eventually dry out and crack and be broken. Follow those things out. How many are the days of thy servant? When wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? The proud have digged pits for me which are not after thy law. All thy commandments are faithful. They persecute me wrongfully. Help thou me. They had almost consumed me upon earth, but I forsook not thy precepts. Quicken me after thy loving kindness, so shall I keep the law, or so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. And then verse 89, and this is where we're gonna end. Forever, forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. And I can't think of a better place to end. Everything that you see about the deliverance of God everything that you see about the fear of the Lord Everything that you see about the wisdom of God about God's mercy about his grace about fearing the Lord about his judgment on sin Everything that you see about that in the Word of God is settled in heaven There's not a man on earth that can change that including you Don't you dare think you're gonna get to heaven and explain to God why he should let you in. You have no understanding. You are without understanding. You are a brute beast. You are forward in your thinking, and you need Jesus Christ. Forever, O Lord, is thy word settled in heaven. Now, with all of this put together, What does the Lord take pleasure in? His son. You know, when his son is in you, he takes pleasure in you. Cannot deny himself. Jesus Christ is that new creature in you. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. He says he takes pleasure in his son because his son feared him. All right, now that's where we're gonna close it out. Theron, you can come on up, I think I'm done.