Gospel—Randy Hale
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We begin our gospel meeting this evening by singing together #7.
I'd like to turn to a portion in God's Word. Some of you may have heard me speak on before, but it's in particular very precious to me this passage since Psalm 116.
116 Psalm.
I'll just read it through first of all.
It says, I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice.
And my supplications, because He hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord.
And righteous, yeah, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul. For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, and mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
I believed, therefore have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted.
I said in my haste, All men are liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints. O Lord, truly I am thy servant. I am Thy servant and the son of thine handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds.
I will offer to thee the sacrifice of Thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the court of the Lord's house, in the midst of the old Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.
But you know, first of all, I'd like to mention that in the Psalms we have many different things, and primarily I believe we have a little history of God's earthly people, Israel.
We have all that they pass through and right on into the future of what Israel will pass through. And we also have in the Psalms the sufferings of Christ. We have in the Psalms what the Son of God passed through for his people, for you and I.
But thirdly, there is also in the Psalms that which the soul passes through, that which we each pass through, that is the deep longings that we all have down deep in our hearts. We also find that in the songs. And it is in particular that that is the portion or that is the part which I'd like to deal with tonight. And the one thing I want to impress upon you tonight, if I can, by the by, with the Lord's health.
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Is the love of God to you, dear friends, in all this Psalm begins, and in the Psalms we often have.
In the first part we have the end result, the blessing, and then after that, in the succeeding verses we have what the soul passes through to get to that point. And so it is with this song. We have in the 1St 2 verses the blessing that the soul has come into, and then in the succeeding verses we have what it is passed through to get to that point. And dear friend, there is a point that God wants you to come to.
You may be here tonight because someone has brought you here or because.
You're here because it's your normal custom to be at the meetings, but you're here tonight because God wants to tell you something. God has a message for you, and He wants you to know that He loves you.
Well in the first verse it says I love the Lord.
And you know, by the grace of God, I can stand here tonight and I can say that I love the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to ask you, friend, is there anyone here tonight who can't say that, who cannot say that I love the Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, I want to tell you something. It's a wonderful thing to be able to say that. But you know, it also tells us in the New Testament that we love because.
He first loved us, and dear friend, the Lord Jesus loved me long before I ever felt any love for him. He loved me with an everlasting love. It tells us in Romans that God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Yes, the Lord Jesus loved me long before I had any affection for him.
How much, how much does God love you? How much does God love you? Well, many of us here know that well known gospel verse, that beautiful verse in John 316. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
But you know, Satan is at work. Satan is real and he is at work. And the one thing he wants to do this evening is to whisper in your ear to tell you, to convince you that God doesn't love you. And whether you're here tonight as someone who is still in your sins, as someone who is still not accepted the Lord Jesus, or whether you're here as someone who does know the Savior, who has accepted him as your Savior, Satan is still doing the same thing.
He's trying to tell you that God really doesn't care about you. He really doesn't love you. But you know, it also tells us in John, in the Gospel of John, that Satan was a liar from the beginning. He's the father of lies. There's no truth in him.
And so do I, dear friend. When he whispers in your ear that God doesn't love you, he's lying. He's lying, plain and simple. And he began way back in the very beginning. If we were to go back in the book of Genesis, we would see that he whispered in easier. He tried to convince Adam and Eve that God was holding back something from them that would really be for their good. He was trying to tell them that God really didn't love them. And you know, he succeeded. He succeeded. They believed his lie rather than God's truth. And that verse says God.
So loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
And why is it that he gave his only son? Because God is love. It's his very nature. You know, some of you may have heard this little story before, but one time around about the turn of the century, there was a man named Rudyard Kipling. And you may remember, perhaps you learned in school one of his poems in particular, that one. You'll be a man, my son. Well, you know that man, Rudyard Kipling, he had some very definite.
Ideas about what manhood was all about. He had some very high ideals about what it was to be a man. They were very admirable ideals too, and he followed through with them his life, I believe. But you know that man rubbed your Kipling. He longed for a son. He longed for a boy. He had two daughters, but he longed for a son. And you know, he finally received that son that he had waited for so long and called his name John.
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He had a son, and he only ever had one son, and his name was John. And that's the one who he wrote that poem for. You'll be a man, my son. And in it he expressed his high ideals of manhood. Well, you know, there came a time in that young man's life. He was only 17 years old. And at that time there was a terrible war raging in Europe, a terrible war in which many young men lost their lives.
It was just at the beginning of this century and there he was, a 17 year old boy and he wanted to go off into this war. Well, this man, Rudyard Kipling, he was faced with a decision because of 17. That boy couldn't go without his father's consent. And so here he was faced with a decision. Shall I sign and let my son go and perhaps die or shall I not and spare him? But you know, because of what he believed was manhood, because of the high ideals that he held for country and so on and for God.
He signed a paper and he let his only son go because of what he believed.
Well, it was just a few weeks later that they received word that young John was missing in action, and it was until two years, two years later that Roger Kipling found out that his only son had died, had given his life for what he believed.
Dear friend, it's only a pale picture of what God has done. That man gave his son for what he believed, but God gave his only son.
For what he is, God is love.
And he gave his only begotten Son for you and for me.
So I can stand here and say I love the Lord, but it's because he first loved me and he gave his only Son to die for me with Calvary. What about you? Are you going to spurn such a love as that? Are you going to spurn the love of God for you, your friend? It's a wonderful thing to know the love of God. Well, it says I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my lo, my supplication. You know, it's a wonderful thing.
Because the Lord Jesus not only gave himself for me, the Lord Jesus not only went to Calvary, dear friend, for you to save you, to have you with him for all eternity in heaven, but it says he hath heard my voice and my supplication. You know, the Lord Jesus is someone that I can go to at any time, at any time of the day, and I can talk to you. And he listens to my voice, He listens to me. He cares about everything that happens to me, and he cares about everything that happens to you too.
Wouldn't you like to have a Savior like that, One who no matter what the problem is, and it doesn't matter what longings you have in your heart, and we all have the most deep longings that we can't talk about to anyone else. But if we were to go back just a few pages in 107 Psalm, it says, He satisfies the longing soul, and he really can, and he does so. He has heard my voice and my supplications. And then it says, Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him.
As long as I live, you know, I look around here tonight and I see some brothers and some sisters who've walked with the Lord for many years. They've walked with the Lord for many years and they've enjoyed His company. And I know every one of them. If they would say so right now, they would say it was worth it. They would say it was worth every minute to know the Lord is my Savior and to walk with Him because He's listening to me and He's cared for me.
As long as I've lived, as long as I've lived. I'd like to turn to a verse in Isaiah chapter 46.
I've enjoyed this verse so many times.
Isaiah 46 and verse 4.
And the Lord says, And even to your old age, I am He, and even to her hairs.
Will I carry you? I have made and I will bear even I will carry and will deliver you that a wonderful verse. It doesn't matter how long you've lived. The Lord says, I not only want to save you, but I want to come in and walk with you and take care of you every step of the way, every minute of your life. And he says, when the road gets too hard, when you feel like you just can't go on, when the trials and the tribulations are just too much and you can't take another step, he says.
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OK, wonderful, you carry you even to ***** hairs right to the very end dear friend, and right on into the glory. What a savior we have to talk about tonight, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, now we come to the third verse and we begin to speak here about what the soul passes through to arrive at this point, to come to the point where you know the Lord, as you're saying.
And sometimes it's not an easy thing. Sometimes we pass through a great deal.
Sometimes the Lord has to speak to us many times, and through difficult circumstances, and so it says here, the sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me, and I found trouble.
So the Soros of death company.
I wonder, dear friend, the Bible says that the wages of sin is death.
The wages of sin is death and by man sin came into this world. You can't blame that on God. It was by man that then came into this world and if you're honest with yourself, you will agree with God, God's judgment of you all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have sinned. There is none righteous, no, not one, and you know it's true.
All have been, and so the sorrows of death come to me.
Have you ever realized, dear friend? Have you ever perhaps come to that point where you've maybe stared death in the face?
Have you ever realized that someday you're going to leave this world, but you know there's something far more serious than even death?
The wages of sin is death, and it also says in the word of God it is appointed unto man once to die, but then it says after this.
The judgment.
And dear friend, if you should die in your sins, if you should die tonight without Christ, after this the judgment.
The Bible says of God he knoweth the secret of the heart.
And again in Romans it says God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.
That's your friend. You'll have to stand before God, the very one who's loved your spurning tonight. You know, on our meeting room at home, we have those two things, those two verses. God is love and we also have God is light.
That's his very nature, love and life.
And so he has to judge sin.
And dear friend, if you don't accept the Lord as your Savior, you'll stand before God in all your sins one day, and He knoweth the secret of your heart and mine too.
While the sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me.
And that's a very solemn thing, because you know, hell is real. Hell is not just something made-up. There's no one that spoke more of hell than the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
He spoke of a man, a rich man. It says he lifted up his eyes. In hell, being in torment. Have you ever thought about that word torment? Have you ever felt yourself tormented? Maybe. Perhaps you face something daily and you feel you're just tormented. You feel you just can't get away from it. But you know it has an end. Someday it'll be gone, but this torment will never be gone.
I was once asked to visit a man in the hospital and he was dying and he was in a great deal of pain. And I can remember that man calling out, calling out in pain. But it tells us that in hell there's going to be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and all that man's suffering and pain. I never saw him gnash his teeth, but in hell there's going to be weeping and wailing and national peace.
It's real, friend. You need a failure. You need the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
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Well, as I found trouble in store, maybe trouble has come into your life. Maybe the Lord has allowed difficulties, trouble, and sorrow. You know, we live in a scene in a world full of sorrow because it's full of sin. It's a very sorrowful place. And you know it is. And it's getting worse all the time. It's full of sorrow. And maybe the Lord has allowed you to get into sorrow. Maybe He's allowed something to come into your life.
What are you doing about it? We heard a little bit about that this afternoon. Are you listening? You know, if you don't know, the Lord Jesus is your Savior. He's allowed that sorrow in your life because he's trying to speak to you. He's trying to talk to you.
Why? What's he trying to say to you? Turn over to Joel for a minute. Just go back one book, Joel Chapter 34 I believe it is.
Job Chapter 33.
Show chapter 33.
And verse 19.
Speaking of man, the Lord says He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and in the multitude of his bones with strong pain, so that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen in his bones that were not seen stick out. Yeah, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyer, and so on. And then verse 29.
Lo, all these things worketh God, oftentimes with man to bring back his soul from the pit.
Dear friend, God has no delight in the death of the wicked. He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and He doesn't want to offend you to hell. He loves you and He wants you to be saved. And so He allows these things in your life to speak to you, to bring back your soul from the pit. Are you listening? Are you listening tonight to what God is saying to you? I pray that you are, because you may not have much time left.
The Lord is coming.
Well.
It says in verse four, Then I call upon a name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.
Very call upon the name of the Lord, and you know, it's just that simple.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's just that simple. It's a call of faith.
Have you ever called on the name of the Lord? Have you ever called out, Lord, save me? Have you ever realized you're going down? You need a savior? You remember that thief on the cross? He didn't have opportunity to do anything. He didn't have opportunity to do any good work or to be baptized. So that's right and proper.
All he had time to do was to say, Lord, Remember Me. But you know, I believe it was in earnest. It was, Lord, Remember Me, and how cometh into thy Kingdom. And what did the Lord say? You say? No, you're too bad. No, you've done too many wicked things. You've never done anything good.
On the response of the media today shall thou be with me in paradise? And that's just how fast, friend, you can turn from darkness to light. That's just how quickly you can accept the Lord as your Savior. Lord.
Remember Me? That man was in earnest. He knew that he didn't have long. He might not have long either. See a lot of young people here tonight. You may not have long. You think you do. I remember being young, younger, and I remember thinking I had a great deal of time. The older guy gets, the more I realized how quickly time passes. Time is gliding swiftly by and death and judgment both draw nigh. And it continues that little hymn that says to the arms of Jesus fly.
Be in time.
And we hear about it all the time. I don't have to go into details. Young people passing into eternity.
You don't have time. You don't have any time. Now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. I called upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. And what's the result? Verse 5. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous ye are God with mercy.
The mercy of the Lord endureth forever.
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And the Lord Jesus said him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. And it doesn't matter, friend who you are, it doesn't matter what you've done. The Lord Jesus loves you, and he'll take you just as you are.
Just as you are come, the mercy of the Lord endureth forever. Gracious is the Lord.
You know.
Says By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of work, lest any man should boast.
Not have worked. An awful lot of people think that they're gonna be all right because they do type things, but it's not a work, Dear friend, it's by grace, the grace of God, that I stand here tonight a saved Sinner. And it's by the grace of God that you too can be a saved Sinner. And on your way to glory, all you have to do is open your heart to the One who loves you and gave himself for you.
Gracious is the Lord and then it says verse six. It says the Lord preservethis simple. I was brought low when he helped me. The Lord preserved us this simple.
There's a lot of people that think because they're very intelligent. I know a man, he lives very close to us and he has a great deal of confidence in his own intelligence. He has a great deal of confidence in his own ability. And you know, he is a very intelligent man, extremely so.
But you know that man is trusting in himself, that man is trusting in his own intelligence, in his own ability to solve all the problems of life. What about you? Are you like him? God says the foolishness, the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
So it says.
You preserve it the simple, and you know you have to come to the Lord as a little child. You have to accept His salvation just as a little child. Won't you come?
Won't you come? He has everything for you. You know, I've repeated this before, but I think it's so lovely. It's the story of a man, and it's a true story. And it happened long ago. And he saw two little girls and they were off in the distance, and they were standing in front of a store window. They were standing in front of a store window. And they were all beautiful things in there, dolls and everything else that would appeal to little girls.
And the one little girl, she was waving her arms and the man was standing off at a distance and he could see that she was really happy. She was really, really thrilled to see all these things. He was smiling and laughing. And then she noticed the other little girl was just standing there and she wasn't moving at all. She just stood there. And he didn't understand why. He could see that both of these little girls didn't have a lot of money and they probably couldn't buy these things. And so he couldn't understand why this little girl wasn't thrilled to see what was in this window. So we came up a little closer. He wanted to find out why.
And as we got a little closer, if you got a little closer, he found that why the little girl was blind.
She couldn't see. She couldn't see what was in the window.
And the other one was trying to tell her, but she couldn't. And dear friend, I can't tell you. I can't tell you honestly in all its fullness, the love that the Lord Jesus has for you. I can't tell you all the things that He has for you. I can't describe them to you. Words can't tell.
To see it, to have it, you have to come. You have to come to the Lord yourself. Accept Him as your Savior and He'll open it all up to you, everything He has, and it's worth it. Won't you come? Well, I was brought low and He helped me. This next one says I was brought low.
Hey friend, have you ever been brought low?
Have you ever been brought low?
Or are you still turning away from the Lord because you're too proud?
Is it a humbling thing to accept the Lord and Savior? Yes, it is, Because you have to own that. There's nothing you can do. You have to own that. There's no good in you. You have to own that it took the precious blood of Christ to cleanse you from all sin.
So it is a humbling thing, but let me ask you, everyone in this room, have you ever been brought low? Have you ever gone through a real exercise of a thin and a serious?
You know, a lot of times we look on sin pretty lightly.
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Especially our own skin. Sometimes we wait and we say these fins are really bad and these fins aren't so bad.
You know sin is thin.
And while there might be quite true, there's degrees, but I wanna tell you, everything is serious in the sight of God.
In the sight of God.
Do you wanna know how serious sin is in the sight of God?
I want you to close your eyes and I want you to picture. I want you to see the Son of God with nails through his hands, nails in His feet, and a crown of thorns on His head. I want you to see that fear pierced through His side, and I want you to see the blood flow out.
I want you to close your eyes and picture in those three hours of darkness when the Son of God had to cry out. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
In those three hours of darkness, when the wrath of Almighty God against sin was poured out upon the head of my Savior for my sins.
And if you will have a friend who suffered for your sins too. That's how serious sin is in the sight of God. May we each one be exercised about the seriousness of sin. Took the life of my Savior of the Son of God.
Have you been brought low? I hope so. In other words, a man named Nebuchadnezzar, a king, A mighty king, perhaps. Probably the most mighty king had ever lived on this earth.
And he was humbled. God brought him low, and God trying to bring you low tonight if you're still in your sin. And that man finally said the most high rule in the Kingdom of men. And then he adds, and he setteth up over at the basis of man. And I believe that Nebuchadnezzar at that point was owning that he was the basis of men.
Have you ever humbled yourself before God? Has there ever been true repentance, dear friend? Because you know there needs to be repentance, there needs to be repentance. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, and your sins shall be blotted out.
Have you ever got to that point where you truly humbled yourself before God? You know, maybe there's someone here tonight and they say, well, I'm not all that bad. I'm not really that bad. But you know, back in that portion, back in that previous book that we read in Job, God said of Job that he was a perfect man, one that has to it's evil.
God had a good report about Joel. He said he was a perfect man, but after God worked with Job.
What did he say at the end? What did Job say at the end? He said, Now mine I see a thing. Wherefore I bore myself and repent. Does not, dear friend, have you ever really got into the presence of God and seen yourself as He sees you? And have you ever really hoard yourself in the presence of God?
I was brought low and my desire is tonight that if there's anyone here who has not been brought low.
In the presence of God, that He will bring you low tonight, and that you won't leave this room before you have repentance towards God and before you accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
Well, a wonderful result in verse seven it says, Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord have dealt bountifully with.
Is there anyone here tonight? Perhaps you're safe, but you're not enjoying this rest. We've forgotten that the Lord loves you. You've forgotten that the Lord cares about you. We often do that, don't we?
I know myself how often it is Satan comes along and he says to me, the Lord really doesn't care. He's holding back things from you. You know, again, that's just a lie of the devil. He loves you, He loves me, and he wants the very best for us. Have you found this kind of rest? Return to thy rest. Hold my soul. Have you found the peace of God that passeth all understanding? Maybe you have peace with God, but if you found a peace of God.
Are you really trusting? You're trusting him for your salvation, but are you trusting him for your life?
He wants you to, He wants you not only to have peace of conscience, but to have Peace of Mind and you can have it. The Lord will take care of those problems. It's true we go through problems. We're not fair problems just because we know the Lord is Savior. We have problems just like all others because we're living in this world. There was verses read this morning at the prayer meeting, the whole creation groaning, and then it says we ourselves grown within ourselves.
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Waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our minds. And so we're in a groaning creation. Those of us who know the Lord and Savior, I say, brethren, we're in a groaning creation, but the Lord cares. We can go to him with all of our problems and He wants us to. He loves them. He really loves them.
Well, return to direct and then he says verse 8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling. There's three things here. He delivered his soul from death at the very first thing. And the most important thing of all is to get the Lord Jesus as your sins accept him now. And the second thing, my soul from death, mine eyes from here.
There's a lot of tiers we have to set, isn't it? Even those of us who know the Lord is Savior? And I know if there's anyone in this room who doesn't know the Lord his Savior, you have a lot of tears too, because we just said it's a sorrowful world. You know, in the Psalms it also says, put down my tears into thy bottle. Are they not all in thy book? The Lord Jesus knows every single tear you've ever shed. Can you go back and count all your tears? The Lord Jesus knows every single one.
Take care, we've marked them down.
Has marked them down. He knows all your problems.
And he cares, and he wants you to come to him with.
So mine eyes and tears, dear friend, dear brethren, tells us in the Proverbs there is an end, and thine expectation shall not be cut off. There's coming a day when there will be no more tears, neither crying, no more sorrow, no more death.
Are there any more pain for the former? Things are passed away.
But that day will only be for those of us here who have accepted Christ, those of us here who are in Christ. What a wonderful future. Is it worth it? Yes, it is. It's worth every minute.
Well, the third thing is my feet from falling. And, you know, maybe there's someone here who says, well, I'd really like to come. I'd really like to know the love of God, but I'm afraid I just can't walk the Christian path.
What he says and my feet from fall, our Lord will help you. I can't walk it either. I can't walk it either. And there's not a Christian in the world that can say I can walk that path. It's by the grace of God. Even the apostle Paul said, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And the Lord will give you that grace. If you walk in dependence upon him day by day, He'll give you that grace and he'll keep your feet from falling. Look to him for that.
The next thing says I will walk before the Lord.
In the land of the living.
You know, very interesting here it says I will walk before the Lord. Walking seems like a very simple thing, doesn't it?
We're going very quickly on time, but I'd just like to look at a few verses in Isaiah chapter 40.
Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 28. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint.
And be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as Eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not think. You know, I find this last verse very interesting because I think if it were left to me and left to most of us, we would put walking first, then running and then the mounting up is Eagles. But God puts it the other way around. He says the first thing is they shall mount up with wings of Eagles. Is that wonderful? The first thing is when you accept the Lord as your Savior.
You're not just a saved Sinner. Bible says, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Dear friend, you don't just become a saved Sinner.
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You're brought into the family of God, you're made a child of God with all the blessings that go along with being a child, with all the blessings that go along with being in that family. And so the first thing is it says they shall mount up with wings as Eagles. You set, you take the Lord as your Savior and he sets you in high place.
Success you in heavenly place, you're associated with the Lord Jesus in heaven. So that's the first thing, the high places. And then it says thou shalt run and not be weary. He'll help you in that pathway. He'll help you through this world. And sometimes we gotta run. Sometimes there's an awful lot of pressure put on it and he'll help you for that run. But then the last thing of all is this thought of walking. You know, we may think that's the easiest thing.
But I remember someone mentioning to me once that walking is sometimes the most difficult of all because a lot of us here, that's just what we have to do. We have to walk every day. We look at perhaps the brother or sister or someone who's out on the Lord's service and we think, oh, it's not wonderful there. They are running in the Lord's service. What an exciting thing. But you know, one of the hardest things of all is just to go about your daily routine is just to go to work every day.
Sometimes it seems very monotonous, but that's the hardest thing of all, to go day by day, walking that path in faithfulness to the Lord. But you know the Lord will help you do it. And you see, I can't live the Christian life. The Lord will give you the great to do it, to walk day by day, giving honor to the Lord wherever He's placed you at work or at school, you can do it for Him. Whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord, so He'll give you the grace to walk.
Well.
It says here in verse 10 I believed, therefore have I spoken.
Dear friend, I stand here tonight. Nobody. I'm just someone who's believed.
I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and that's why I'm here to speak tonight. I just want to tell you about my savings. You love me and he went to Calvary for me. I.
Believe, therefore have I spoken, and I would that if there's anyone here tonight that is not a believer, that tonight you believe, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Therefore have I spoken. And then it goes on and it says I was greatly afflicted. I was greatly afflicted, you know, David said it is good for me that I have been afflicted and maybe you've suffered that too.
Maybe the Lord has allowed affliction. We've already spoken a bit about the Lord allowing sorrow in your life.
And maybe you say, well, how? How could God love me and allow this kind of affliction?
In my life, maybe it's a kind of affliction that nobody knows about. It's not obvious. Maybe it's something you have to suffer every day.
And maybe it's not going to go away either.
Maybe it's like we spoke about this afternoon, that thorn in the flesh.
You know God's allowed it just because He does.
If you're without Christ, be thankful, and I'm thankful that you're reflecting, because it's far better to be afflicted and to have the Lord still speaking to you.
And to harden your heart and to get to that point where the call of the Spirit of God is lost, because if you get to that point, dear friend, you'll be lost for all eternity.
So if you're afflicted, I'm glad because the Lord is speaking to you. The Lord is speaking to you. He loves you too much to let you go.
I was afflicted. I was greatly afflicted. And then he says. I said in my haste, all men are liars.
Have you gotten to that point perhaps you found in this world, and I know we've all found that, that there's no truth in this world. This world right now is Satan's domain. And as we've already said, he's the father of lies. And we often find that. We find that we can't trust people. We can't trust those at work. We can't trust those whom we come in contact with. And sometimes we find that even those we love and who love us, we can't entirely trust them. Sometimes they let us down.
Don't they?
You know, we get to that point. Sometimes we get so discouraged we said everybody is a liar. What's the point?
But God doesn't lie, dear friend.
And I'm not standing here telling you on the authority of my words I speak tonight, I trust on the authority of the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
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Lord Jesus said heaven and earth may pass away, but my word shall not pass away. And the things we speak of tonight are from the word of God. God doesn't lie.
God is love.
Well, in verse 12 it says, What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?
Maybe someone here thinks, well, what can I do, What can I do to get salvation? David here says, what can I render unto the Lord? And you notice the answer. He says, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
Couldn't do anything. He couldn't do anything. All he could do was think.
And that's the kind of God that we're speaking about tonight here, friends. He's a giving God. He doesn't want anything from you. He wants to give you salvation free and full. He wants to give you freely that cup of salvation. But you know, it costs. It doesn't cost you or I anything. But there was another cup in Scripture, a cup that the Lord Jesus had to drink.
The cup of judgment for my sins. For your sins.
And he was willing to go to that cross for me, and he wants to save you too.
And there at that cross of Calvary, that soldier took that spear and pierced his side. It says forthwith came their own blood and water. You know there's a verse in the Old Testament, you know that story of Cain and Abel. And Cain flew his brother Abel. And God said to him, the voice of thy brother's blood cryeth unto me from the ground. You know there's also a verse in the heat in, in Hebrews, in the New Testament, God says the blood of Christ, which.
Speak us better things than that of evil.
That wonderful.
Tonight I have the precious blood of Christ speaking on my behalf.
Do you, do you have the precious blood of Christ speaking on your behalf? In first John it says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sins. But I'll tell you friend, if you don't have the blood of Christ speaking for you, it'll cry against you in that day when God shall judge the secrets of men because this world.
Is stained with the blood of Christ. This world ought to answer for the murder of the Son of God, and if you don't have the blood of Christ speaking for you in that day, it will cry against you.
Won't you come and accept him tonight? Well.
He goes on and will take the cup of salvation. And then he says in verse 14, I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Now this verse is repeated in in the 18th verse. So I'll pass it by for now until we come on. But in the 15th verse it says, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.
And you know.
Adverse brings a couple of thoughts to my mind personally.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.
There was a brother here last year. Sad about there.
And he sat there the year before, too, when we were at this conference. Brother who many here knew and loved very much. Brother who was a real encouragement to us and a cheer to many of us.
It's not here anymore. It's not here today. He went home, the Lord took him home. He's in the glory and right now he's enjoying the presence of the Lord this very minute.
But what about you? What about you?
If the Lord should end your life tonight, and I want to tell you your life is in His hands, God, in whose hand is the soul of every living thing in the breath of all mankind, He holds your life in His hand. What if He should take it tonight?
Would you be at home in the glory like that?
Could you say that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints? Now remember what a few years ago, a brother or two I loved very much, and I remember the Lord took him home. He was still fairly young. And that night I went to bed and I was pretty down buddy, and I wasn't going to read. I wasn't going to open my Bible, but I thought I turned out the light. I turned it back on. I said I have to read. So I opened my Bible and I turned it to Isaiah 57. That just happened to be where I was reading that night.
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And the first verse says, the righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart.
Our brother was taken home to glory. A brother that sat here last year was taken home to glory. But there's a warning in it. Have you laid it to heart?
Both those brothers weren't that old.
Have you laid it to heart? What if your life should terminate tonight?
Would you be at home in the glory? I hope so.
And he, the Lord, his Savior.
Well, the other thought I had on that little verse, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints, and all we're told in Colossians it says mortify, therefore your members upon earth.
And sometimes it's not easy because just because we belong to Christ, there's an awful lot of temptation still.
But you know what the Lord tells us to mortify our members which are on the earth, and He'll help him. He can help us to put to death the flesh. Again, we say sometimes it's not easy, it's hard to walk that path of faith, but the Lord will help you. You accept Him as your Savior, and you'll find He'll not only save you, but He'll give you the great to walk that path and to put to death those deeds in the flesh.
Well, just in a couple of minutes that are left, I'd like to notice these last verses.
It says verse 16. Oh Lord, truly I am thy servant. I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bond. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of Thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. And here we have that verse again. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the present of all his people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of the old Jerusalem. Praise ye, the Lord tells us. We're not supposed to vow in the new test. But I like to think of this.
These two verses, because it's repeated twice, I will pay my vows unto the Lord. You know what James tells us? He says you show me your faith without works, and I'll show you my faith by my works.
Dear friend, those of us here who know the Lord as Savior, does the world know?
Does the world see that there's a difference in US?
So to speak. Do we pay our vows?
Are we really living for the Lord Jesus? When I grew up, you know, the people around me in my street, whether they were Christians professing or whether they were lost sinners, they generally all lived fairly much alike. They were upstanding people. People lived, they had manners and they had principles that were leftover perhaps from their parents that they lived by. And it always wasn't obvious to see a true Christian. You know, today it is very obvious if there's a true Christian really living for the Lord.
It's very obvious the people know that you're a Christian, and I don't say you have to speak it audibly, but can they see from your life? And our lives are a real testimony. We spoke this afternoon about the heritage we have, and there's an awful lot of people on the streets of this city tonight who don't have what you and I have. They don't know the love of God for them. They can. They could, because it's to whosoever will, but they don't have that.
They don't have it and they don't enjoy the privileges that go along with it. But do they see it in our lives? Do they see that we have something they don't? They ought to, brethren. They ought to see that we're different in the way we live. I will pay my vows unto the Lord. But then it says, I am thy servant and my servant, and the son of nine handmaid. And I know if the Lord, if you've enjoyed the love of Christ for you, then there's love in your heart for the Lord. You can say that the beginning of this Psalm. I love the Lord.
It says in Peter, it says that unto you therefore, which believe he is precious. And I know that those of you here tonight who know the Lord as your Savior, who really love the Lord, you want to do something for.
You wanna serve him? He hasn't asked us to, but I know that you wanna serve him. And so he says here I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid. And what is the first thing that he says here? I will offer to thee the sacrifice of Thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord at the very first service. You know, we often like to do things perhaps gospel work or serving the Saints, and we think that service. Well, it is. And it's wonderful thing to serve the Lord in that way. That's that's royal priesthood.
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But you know, before that we're holy priests and the most wonderful service of all we can all do, and that's to give praise to worship God.
What a wonderful service, what a privilege, brethren, to come together around a person of the Lord Jesus Christ and to offer him the praise of our lips, the worship of our hearts. There's nothing higher than that, because all service, I believe, begins with worship. It flows from a full heart. That story of Mary, that story rather of the woman at the well, The Lord said to her, God is the Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit.
And in truth, in spirit and in truth, you need the Spirit of God before you can please. You have to be saved. You have to have the Spirit of God indwelling you before you can truly worship. And then the other part says, in truth, according to His word, what a wonderful privilege we have. What a service to the Lord to worship. What about it? Have you remembered the Lord? Have you remembered the Lord? He's coming soon, and there won't be much more opportunity to do that.
He stood up and praised him in the meeting. Have you given out to him? Read some scriptures.
Have you offered to him a Thanksgiving? The praise of your lips? Well.
We're out of time. I just want to mention this last verse. It says in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of the old Jerusalem, praise ye the Lord, this is where it ends. This is where it ends, in the court of the Lord's heaven.
And dear friend, that's what I'm looking forward to.
The courts of the Lord's house.
Read in Thessalonians that the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.
The dead in Christ shall rise 1St, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the cloud, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Does that comfort your heart to know that you're going to spend eternity with the Lord Jesus?
Comforts my heart in all the sorrow and the trials that I have to pass through. And we all pass through them. That's the one thing above all that comforts my heart. Maybe today it might be tonight the Lord is going to call me home.
Dear friend, if you don't have that hope, if you don't have that hope to be in the Lord's court, you can come right now. He loves you so much and he wants to save you.
He'll save you right now if you'll only come.
I just wanna read because I have in my Bible. Here we spoke a little bit about service.
And it's a 2 little verses of a poem that I don't know where I found them back in February. And it says.
Well, what can I do for my Lord? I am foolish and small and weak, and I know not what to do, and I know not how to speak. Oh, child, there's not you can do. Sit down at his feet and be still. But what can he do with thee? Oh, child, he can do what he will.
And if you've gotten to that point where you can say I love the Lord, if you've enjoyed the love of God, the love of Christ for you, and you can say I love the Lord, you put yourself into his hand and he can do anything he wants with you. What a wonderful thing it is to know the love of God. Like that little song says, it's past his telling and I can't describe it to you. You have to come, come now, find out the love of God for you. We just close in prayer.