Fred R. Coulter—January 11, 2020
The Psalms show the attitude and dedication we need to have so that God can, in His compassion, forgive us, protect us and hide us under the shadow of His wings!
*(First Half of Video)
*(Second Half of Video)
*(Transcript Second Half)
The Psalms show the attitude and dedication we need to have so that God can, in His compassion, forgive us, protect us and hide us under the shadow of His wings!
*(First Half of Video)
*(Second Half of Video)
*(Transcript Second Half)
Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services!
Today we’re going to cover a very interesting topic: The Sure Mercies of David!
Isaiah 55:1: “‘Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters…” This is for people! Everyone is wondering:
· Why are we here?
· Where are we going?
· What is life all about?
The truth of the matter is, regardless of how successful, how rich or poor that a person may be, they are never able to live their lives in a way that is understandable, and they generally end up in trouble somewhere along the line.
That’s just the way it is, because we are made to receive the Spirit of God, and to have the Laws of God and the Word of God to advise and guide us.
“…and he who has no money… [you can’t buy what God is giving you] …come, buy and eat…. [‘taste and see that the Lord is good’] …Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread? And your labor for what never satisfies?….” (vs 1-2).
Isn’t that true? People go through life and nothing satisfies. After a while, people get bored and then they get into things that lead them into trouble.
“…Hearken diligently to Me… [listen or hear to obey] …and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness” (v 2)--the full Word of God!
Verse 3: “Bow down your ear, and come to Me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”
(Love, Mercy, and Forgiveness Sermon)
What does it say about the Church of Philadelphia? Christ has ‘the key of David and He opens and no one shuts.’ He does it! What is that key? The humility and yielding to God that David had! That doesn’t mean that he was free from sin.
Verse 4: “Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, a Prince and Commander of people.” This blends into a type of Christ, as well!
Verse 5: “Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know; a nation that did not know you shall run to you because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you.” This is a type of the fulfillment of the resurrection!
Verse 6: “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near…. [here’s how you do it] …Let the wicked forsake his way…” (vs 6-7). You come to understand what is right and what is wrong, the commandments of God and so forth!
“…and the unrighteous man his thoughts…” (v 7). That’s the whole purpose of conversion and the whole reasons of the sure mercies of David, that our minds are converted through the power of the Holy Spirit.
How does that work? Lots of times it works this way: there’s a lot of stuff buried in your mind that that needs to come out of there. The Holy Spirit will draw that to your attention so that you can get rid of it and overcome it.
How much do you have in there? I don’t know! But I’ll just tell you what happened to me. I was watching television and here is this ad for Volvo; they appeal to ‘greenie weenies.’ This car is driving down the highway and there’s these big windmills. It has the music and the windmill is turning, and the father is driving the car. He’s so concerned for his little daughter that she understand about windmills that he rolls back the full top of the car so she can look at it. Here’s this music. I spent all day trying to get it out of my mind!
How much is there in our mind that we have in there that we never intended to be in there. My poor remote control does not have a mute button that works. So, I have an older remote control and that mute button, I discovered the other day, works. When those ads come on I like to mute them.
What does this tell you? It tells you how susceptible our mind is to picking up things that we never even really think about!
Verse 7: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
You can see in the Bible the grievous sins that God forgave Manasseh, that God forgave David, that God forgave Ahab, etc.
Here’s the reason, and what is the key to understanding the Bible? Keeping the Sabbath! That’s the very key! It seems so simple, but that is it.
Verse 8: ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways,’ says the LORD.” In order to be converted and through the sure mercies of David we’ve got to come to God so that He can forgive us!
Verse 9: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
The whole plan of God is to have us born into the Kingdom of God to be like Him! Think about how much God knows. It’s absolutely beyond our comprehension!
I would like to get a tremendous montage of many different scenes of the universe; kind of like the hymn that we have: The Almighty God! To have some fantastic music as a background to use that as a vehicle to help us get our minds on God and what He has done.
Wouldn’t that be good? If you get down in the dumps—and everybody gets down in the dumps—then you can look at the greatness of God and this is what He’s promised us! Amazing!
Acts 13—Paul is speaking in a synagogue in one of the Gentile areas. Paul always went to the synagogue first, because it had to go to the Jew first, then to the Gentiles, who were also in the synagogue. There were many proselytes in the synagogue. They had a place for the men, a place for the women and a place for the proselytes.
Acts 13:31: “And He… [Christ after His resurrection] …appeared for many days to those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people. And we are announcing the Gospel to you—the promise made to the fathers—that God has fulfilled this to us, their children, having raised up Jesus; as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today have I begotten You.;: (vs 31-33). That carries all through His life!
Verse 34: “And to confirm that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He spoke in this manner: ‘I will give You the faithful mercies of David.’”
Acts 15:15—let’s see what James (v 13) said about this: “And with this the words of the prophets agree, as it is written, ‘after these things, I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which has fallen…’” (vs 15-16).
That begins with the Church, and then at the resurrection the whole fullness of it to the world. Quite an amazing thing!
“…and its ruins I will build again, and will set it up” (v 16).
Let’s look at something very interesting: how great God is and how merciful He is!
After Solomon had sinned, what was it that God did? He split the kingdom and He gave the Levites and part of Benjamin and all the Jews to Rehoboam! The God came to Jeroboam and said, ‘IF you will obey Me and keep My commandments, I will give you a dynasty like I did for David.’
You would think that anyone who wanted power—and Jeroboam was a servant of s! What happened. Jeroboam got together with all of the corrupt counselors and they decided to make two calves: one in Dan in the north, and one in Bethel in the south.
1-Kings 14:5: “And the LORD said to Ahijah, ‘Behold, the wife of Jeroboam…’” She was coming to find out why her son was sick! God eventually struck him dead!
“‘…comes to ask a thing of you for her son, for he is sick. Thus and such you shall say to her, for when she comes in, she shall act as a stranger.’…. [but God undid the plan] …Now, it came to pass when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said, ‘Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you acting as a stranger? For I am sent to you with bad news. Go tell Jeroboam, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘I lifted you up from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. And you have not been as My servant David who kept My commandments, and who followed Me with all his heart…’”’” (vs 5-8).
That’s why there were the mercies to David! It’s not how many sins he committed or didn’t commit, it was his dedication to God to follow Him with all his heart!
(Check out the message: The Grace of GOD in the Old Testament“)
…to do only what was right in My eyes. But you have done evil above all who were before you, for you have gone and made yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back; therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who pisses against the wall, bond and free in Israel, and will sweep away the rest of the house of Jeroboam as a man sweeps away the dung until it is all gone” (vs 8-10).
That’s something! Look at how God is: How much time did He give Jeroboam? A lot of time! Because of what he did, there was not recorded one righteous king over the ten tribes of Israel! So, you don’t go against God.
Let’s look at the thing things that we need to follow to have the kind of mind, heart and attitude of David, to serve God the way that we should.
Psalm 84:1: “How lovely are Your tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!”
That’s another way of explaining how great that the plan of God is. What’s the ultimate tabernacle? New Jerusalem!
Verse 2: “My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the LORD…” That’s how much David wanted it! He was looking forward to that.
So, whenever you get down and there are difficulties, look up, go to God, and claim the promises and move forward. Put all of that behind you, regardless of what it is!
“…my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (v 2). I don’t think that any of us have arrived at the point, yet! But that’s one of the goals that we need to look to. This way then we don’t get bogged down.
Another way to describe Laodiceans is that they are lukewarm, because God says that they are; neither hot nor cold. What’s another way of explaining it? Halfhearted! God says that He wants you hot or cold. So, David kept the temperature up!
Verse 4: “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will still be praising You. Selah”--stop and think and meditate on this! That’s exactly what David was doing when he was writing this.
I don’t know whether David understood how long it would be until the Kingdom of God would come, but I think he’s going to be astonished that God kept all these words for us, even in this day. It’s quite a thing!
Verse 5: “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You; Your ways are in their hearts”--that’s how you’re wholehearted!
Verse 7[transcriber’s correction]: “They go from strength to strength, every one of them appearing in Zion before God.”
More on Zion
How do you appear before God? Everyday when you pray! That’s the important thing. Don’t let days go by where you don’t pray.
There was one man who said that he didn’t pray on his knees for over two years. That resulted in a disaster for the Church.
Verse 8: “O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah”--think on that!
If you have a little spell where your belief is not quite what it should be, then you pray like that: “O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer…” and God will help you!
Verse 9: “Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of Your anointed.”
You have been anointed with the Holy Spirit. The Apostle John write that ‘you have had an anointing from God,’ which is the Holy Spirit.
Verse 10: “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness”--because they’re all coming to nothing!
I mean, we have right before us today with this silliness of the impeachment, the manufacturing and promulgation of lies by the Democrats and the media. Where is it getting them? Let’s see! How many are there who are willing to even flatter God?
God says in Psa. 78 that when Israel flatters Him and come back to Him halfhearted. He’ll even ease up on the punishment that He was going to give. But look at the whole history of America.
I just got a book Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America by David Horowitz—what the plan for the elite was for America. That’s been disrupted tremendously by what Donald Trump is doing. So, don’t take this as an endorsement and run out and take ten votes for Trump at the election. But God is interested in nations and there’s a reason why He is there, and there’s a reason why He’s doing what He’s doing.
What do you suppose that reason is? The only place where the Gospel is being preached is in America! If the liberals continue in the way that they were doing, and shutting down everything concerning Christ and the things even Protestantism and Catholicism, they want to bring in an atheist society that Horowitz brings out clearly, but the ultimate goal is to openly worship Satan.
So, the things in the world are at a point that there still needs to be a witness of the Gospel and for God calling other people, and that’s the only reason why these things are taking place. Whenever God does something good, many, many other people benefit and they don’t realize that they’re being benefited because they don’t understand God.
Isn’t Pres. Trump one of the few Presidents in a long time to mention God? Yes! And even having that faith group that comes in a prays with him all the time. Granted, there are Protestants, but that’s dealing with a nation, not dealing for conversion! There’s a difference. The Church is called for conversion! The nation--
· IF they can bring down the abortions to a lower number
· IF they can bring down the drug addiction to a lower number
· IF they can help the poor and things like that as a nation
God will give certain blessings to the whole nation and subsequently that will make it possible for the Church to preach the Gospel and give the warning to the world! That involves all the Churches of God! My prayer for all the Churches of God is: get off your high-horse of your stupid false doctrines and return to God and preach the Gospel!
If you have 50 organizations preaching the true Gospel, it can’t be shut down over night. If it’s only one, you can get it! That’s why that’s coming on.
Regarding the book Dark Agenda, how do we understand people and whom they serve? By their fruits! Look at the atheists, all of the antagonists, all the Democrats that are so liberal, guess who they’re serving? Satan! So, this is a classic fight between God and Satan over what’s going to happen to this nation, which, if you remember back in the 1520s when they first landed in Virginia. They got off their ship and planted a cross—this is not endorsing a cross--they all got on their knees and prayed to God and thanked Him that they were in what is America now! They prayed for this new continent to be a place of preaching the Gospel to the world. That’s something!
Let’s see the tremendous attitude that David had. Psalm 42:1: “As the hart pants after the water brooks, so my soul pants after You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…” (vs 1-2).
What does it say for those who thirst for righteousness? They shall be filled. If you’re halfhearted, are you going to be filled? No!
“…when shall I come and appear before God?” (v 2)
Verse 11: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why do you moan within me? Hope in God…”
When you get down, don’t get discourage and run around oh woe is me! Go to God!
“…for I shall yet praise Him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God” (v 11).
You would have to say that David was a really emotional all or nothing man. So, if you keep it all going for God, that’s the way it’s going to be.
Psalm 92:1: “It is good to give thanks to the LORD and to sing praises unto Your name, O Most High.” Stop and think about:
· Who has drawn us? The Father!
· Who has brought us to the Father? Jesus Christ!
None can come to the Father… He may draw, but if you don’t respond then Jesus won’t bring you to the Father!
Verse 2: “To show forth Your loving kindness in the morning and Your faithfulness every night.”
How faithful is God? One simple thing, and it still amazes me, gravity on the earth! We don’t even think about it. But God keeps it constant, holds everything on the earth, helps you. You have running water. You can have accidents, but God keeps the gravity moving all the time. What if there were days that God just turned off the gravity? God’s faithfulness!
Verse 3: “Upon the instrument of ten strings… [a lyre] …and upon the harp, with melody of music upon the lyre; for You, LORD, have made me glad with Your work; I will exult… [rejoice] …in the works of Your hands” (vs 3-4).
Everything we have has come from God one way or the other. It may have passed through many hands of people making and manufacturing, but everything we have has come from what God has made.
Jonathan brought over some barbecue to us last night—a lamb chop, a chicken thigh and a steak—and it was really good, seasoned perfectly. I first ate the lamb chop, because that was the best. Then I ate the chicken thigh, and I was full so I’m going to have the steak tonight. I thought, everything of that has come from the ground. Every bit of it, and God is faithful to do it for all people. I hope we can enjoy it more because we understand God!
Verse 5: “O LORD, how great are Your works; Your thoughts are very deep.” I think about that every time I see one of these airplane shots flying over these rugged mountains that are thrust up! You look at the top and it looks like it’s sharp as a razor. Of course, it isn’t, but it’s really sharp.
I think, ‘O God, You thrust that up from the depths of the ocean to ever high those mountains are. He made the mountains so that we would be inspired to turn to God because of all of His great power in making it. That’s a fantastic thing!
Second Half -
Today we’re going to cover a very interesting topic: The Sure Mercies of David!
Isaiah 55:1: “‘Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters…” This is for people! Everyone is wondering:
· Why are we here?
· Where are we going?
· What is life all about?
The truth of the matter is, regardless of how successful, how rich or poor that a person may be, they are never able to live their lives in a way that is understandable, and they generally end up in trouble somewhere along the line.
That’s just the way it is, because we are made to receive the Spirit of God, and to have the Laws of God and the Word of God to advise and guide us.
“…and he who has no money… [you can’t buy what God is giving you] …come, buy and eat…. [‘taste and see that the Lord is good’] …Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread? And your labor for what never satisfies?….” (vs 1-2).
Isn’t that true? People go through life and nothing satisfies. After a while, people get bored and then they get into things that lead them into trouble.
“…Hearken diligently to Me… [listen or hear to obey] …and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness” (v 2)--the full Word of God!
Verse 3: “Bow down your ear, and come to Me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”
(Love, Mercy, and Forgiveness Sermon)
What does it say about the Church of Philadelphia? Christ has ‘the key of David and He opens and no one shuts.’ He does it! What is that key? The humility and yielding to God that David had! That doesn’t mean that he was free from sin.
Verse 4: “Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the people, a Prince and Commander of people.” This blends into a type of Christ, as well!
Verse 5: “Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know; a nation that did not know you shall run to you because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you.” This is a type of the fulfillment of the resurrection!
Verse 6: “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near…. [here’s how you do it] …Let the wicked forsake his way…” (vs 6-7). You come to understand what is right and what is wrong, the commandments of God and so forth!
“…and the unrighteous man his thoughts…” (v 7). That’s the whole purpose of conversion and the whole reasons of the sure mercies of David, that our minds are converted through the power of the Holy Spirit.
How does that work? Lots of times it works this way: there’s a lot of stuff buried in your mind that that needs to come out of there. The Holy Spirit will draw that to your attention so that you can get rid of it and overcome it.
How much do you have in there? I don’t know! But I’ll just tell you what happened to me. I was watching television and here is this ad for Volvo; they appeal to ‘greenie weenies.’ This car is driving down the highway and there’s these big windmills. It has the music and the windmill is turning, and the father is driving the car. He’s so concerned for his little daughter that she understand about windmills that he rolls back the full top of the car so she can look at it. Here’s this music. I spent all day trying to get it out of my mind!
How much is there in our mind that we have in there that we never intended to be in there. My poor remote control does not have a mute button that works. So, I have an older remote control and that mute button, I discovered the other day, works. When those ads come on I like to mute them.
What does this tell you? It tells you how susceptible our mind is to picking up things that we never even really think about!
Verse 7: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
You can see in the Bible the grievous sins that God forgave Manasseh, that God forgave David, that God forgave Ahab, etc.
Here’s the reason, and what is the key to understanding the Bible? Keeping the Sabbath! That’s the very key! It seems so simple, but that is it.
Verse 8: ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways,’ says the LORD.” In order to be converted and through the sure mercies of David we’ve got to come to God so that He can forgive us!
Verse 9: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
The whole plan of God is to have us born into the Kingdom of God to be like Him! Think about how much God knows. It’s absolutely beyond our comprehension!
I would like to get a tremendous montage of many different scenes of the universe; kind of like the hymn that we have: The Almighty God! To have some fantastic music as a background to use that as a vehicle to help us get our minds on God and what He has done.
Wouldn’t that be good? If you get down in the dumps—and everybody gets down in the dumps—then you can look at the greatness of God and this is what He’s promised us! Amazing!
Acts 13—Paul is speaking in a synagogue in one of the Gentile areas. Paul always went to the synagogue first, because it had to go to the Jew first, then to the Gentiles, who were also in the synagogue. There were many proselytes in the synagogue. They had a place for the men, a place for the women and a place for the proselytes.
Acts 13:31: “And He… [Christ after His resurrection] …appeared for many days to those who had come up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people. And we are announcing the Gospel to you—the promise made to the fathers—that God has fulfilled this to us, their children, having raised up Jesus; as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today have I begotten You.;: (vs 31-33). That carries all through His life!
Verse 34: “And to confirm that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He spoke in this manner: ‘I will give You the faithful mercies of David.’”
Acts 15:15—let’s see what James (v 13) said about this: “And with this the words of the prophets agree, as it is written, ‘after these things, I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which has fallen…’” (vs 15-16).
That begins with the Church, and then at the resurrection the whole fullness of it to the world. Quite an amazing thing!
“…and its ruins I will build again, and will set it up” (v 16).
Let’s look at something very interesting: how great God is and how merciful He is!
After Solomon had sinned, what was it that God did? He split the kingdom and He gave the Levites and part of Benjamin and all the Jews to Rehoboam! The God came to Jeroboam and said, ‘IF you will obey Me and keep My commandments, I will give you a dynasty like I did for David.’
You would think that anyone who wanted power—and Jeroboam was a servant of s! What happened. Jeroboam got together with all of the corrupt counselors and they decided to make two calves: one in Dan in the north, and one in Bethel in the south.
1-Kings 14:5: “And the LORD said to Ahijah, ‘Behold, the wife of Jeroboam…’” She was coming to find out why her son was sick! God eventually struck him dead!
“‘…comes to ask a thing of you for her son, for he is sick. Thus and such you shall say to her, for when she comes in, she shall act as a stranger.’…. [but God undid the plan] …Now, it came to pass when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said, ‘Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you acting as a stranger? For I am sent to you with bad news. Go tell Jeroboam, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘I lifted you up from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. And you have not been as My servant David who kept My commandments, and who followed Me with all his heart…’”’” (vs 5-8).
That’s why there were the mercies to David! It’s not how many sins he committed or didn’t commit, it was his dedication to God to follow Him with all his heart!
(Check out the message: The Grace of GOD in the Old Testament“)
…to do only what was right in My eyes. But you have done evil above all who were before you, for you have gone and made yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back; therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who pisses against the wall, bond and free in Israel, and will sweep away the rest of the house of Jeroboam as a man sweeps away the dung until it is all gone” (vs 8-10).
That’s something! Look at how God is: How much time did He give Jeroboam? A lot of time! Because of what he did, there was not recorded one righteous king over the ten tribes of Israel! So, you don’t go against God.
Let’s look at the thing things that we need to follow to have the kind of mind, heart and attitude of David, to serve God the way that we should.
Psalm 84:1: “How lovely are Your tabernacles, O LORD of hosts!”
That’s another way of explaining how great that the plan of God is. What’s the ultimate tabernacle? New Jerusalem!
Verse 2: “My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the LORD…” That’s how much David wanted it! He was looking forward to that.
So, whenever you get down and there are difficulties, look up, go to God, and claim the promises and move forward. Put all of that behind you, regardless of what it is!
“…my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (v 2). I don’t think that any of us have arrived at the point, yet! But that’s one of the goals that we need to look to. This way then we don’t get bogged down.
Another way to describe Laodiceans is that they are lukewarm, because God says that they are; neither hot nor cold. What’s another way of explaining it? Halfhearted! God says that He wants you hot or cold. So, David kept the temperature up!
Verse 4: “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they will still be praising You. Selah”--stop and think and meditate on this! That’s exactly what David was doing when he was writing this.
I don’t know whether David understood how long it would be until the Kingdom of God would come, but I think he’s going to be astonished that God kept all these words for us, even in this day. It’s quite a thing!
Verse 5: “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You; Your ways are in their hearts”--that’s how you’re wholehearted!
Verse 7[transcriber’s correction]: “They go from strength to strength, every one of them appearing in Zion before God.”
More on Zion
How do you appear before God? Everyday when you pray! That’s the important thing. Don’t let days go by where you don’t pray.
There was one man who said that he didn’t pray on his knees for over two years. That resulted in a disaster for the Church.
Verse 8: “O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah”--think on that!
If you have a little spell where your belief is not quite what it should be, then you pray like that: “O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer…” and God will help you!
Verse 9: “Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of Your anointed.”
You have been anointed with the Holy Spirit. The Apostle John write that ‘you have had an anointing from God,’ which is the Holy Spirit.
Verse 10: “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness”--because they’re all coming to nothing!
I mean, we have right before us today with this silliness of the impeachment, the manufacturing and promulgation of lies by the Democrats and the media. Where is it getting them? Let’s see! How many are there who are willing to even flatter God?
God says in Psa. 78 that when Israel flatters Him and come back to Him halfhearted. He’ll even ease up on the punishment that He was going to give. But look at the whole history of America.
I just got a book Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America by David Horowitz—what the plan for the elite was for America. That’s been disrupted tremendously by what Donald Trump is doing. So, don’t take this as an endorsement and run out and take ten votes for Trump at the election. But God is interested in nations and there’s a reason why He is there, and there’s a reason why He’s doing what He’s doing.
What do you suppose that reason is? The only place where the Gospel is being preached is in America! If the liberals continue in the way that they were doing, and shutting down everything concerning Christ and the things even Protestantism and Catholicism, they want to bring in an atheist society that Horowitz brings out clearly, but the ultimate goal is to openly worship Satan.
So, the things in the world are at a point that there still needs to be a witness of the Gospel and for God calling other people, and that’s the only reason why these things are taking place. Whenever God does something good, many, many other people benefit and they don’t realize that they’re being benefited because they don’t understand God.
Isn’t Pres. Trump one of the few Presidents in a long time to mention God? Yes! And even having that faith group that comes in a prays with him all the time. Granted, there are Protestants, but that’s dealing with a nation, not dealing for conversion! There’s a difference. The Church is called for conversion! The nation--
· IF they can bring down the abortions to a lower number
· IF they can bring down the drug addiction to a lower number
· IF they can help the poor and things like that as a nation
God will give certain blessings to the whole nation and subsequently that will make it possible for the Church to preach the Gospel and give the warning to the world! That involves all the Churches of God! My prayer for all the Churches of God is: get off your high-horse of your stupid false doctrines and return to God and preach the Gospel!
If you have 50 organizations preaching the true Gospel, it can’t be shut down over night. If it’s only one, you can get it! That’s why that’s coming on.
Regarding the book Dark Agenda, how do we understand people and whom they serve? By their fruits! Look at the atheists, all of the antagonists, all the Democrats that are so liberal, guess who they’re serving? Satan! So, this is a classic fight between God and Satan over what’s going to happen to this nation, which, if you remember back in the 1520s when they first landed in Virginia. They got off their ship and planted a cross—this is not endorsing a cross--they all got on their knees and prayed to God and thanked Him that they were in what is America now! They prayed for this new continent to be a place of preaching the Gospel to the world. That’s something!
Let’s see the tremendous attitude that David had. Psalm 42:1: “As the hart pants after the water brooks, so my soul pants after You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…” (vs 1-2).
What does it say for those who thirst for righteousness? They shall be filled. If you’re halfhearted, are you going to be filled? No!
“…when shall I come and appear before God?” (v 2)
Verse 11: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why do you moan within me? Hope in God…”
When you get down, don’t get discourage and run around oh woe is me! Go to God!
“…for I shall yet praise Him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God” (v 11).
You would have to say that David was a really emotional all or nothing man. So, if you keep it all going for God, that’s the way it’s going to be.
Psalm 92:1: “It is good to give thanks to the LORD and to sing praises unto Your name, O Most High.” Stop and think about:
· Who has drawn us? The Father!
· Who has brought us to the Father? Jesus Christ!
None can come to the Father… He may draw, but if you don’t respond then Jesus won’t bring you to the Father!
Verse 2: “To show forth Your loving kindness in the morning and Your faithfulness every night.”
How faithful is God? One simple thing, and it still amazes me, gravity on the earth! We don’t even think about it. But God keeps it constant, holds everything on the earth, helps you. You have running water. You can have accidents, but God keeps the gravity moving all the time. What if there were days that God just turned off the gravity? God’s faithfulness!
Verse 3: “Upon the instrument of ten strings… [a lyre] …and upon the harp, with melody of music upon the lyre; for You, LORD, have made me glad with Your work; I will exult… [rejoice] …in the works of Your hands” (vs 3-4).
Everything we have has come from God one way or the other. It may have passed through many hands of people making and manufacturing, but everything we have has come from what God has made.
Jonathan brought over some barbecue to us last night—a lamb chop, a chicken thigh and a steak—and it was really good, seasoned perfectly. I first ate the lamb chop, because that was the best. Then I ate the chicken thigh, and I was full so I’m going to have the steak tonight. I thought, everything of that has come from the ground. Every bit of it, and God is faithful to do it for all people. I hope we can enjoy it more because we understand God!
Verse 5: “O LORD, how great are Your works; Your thoughts are very deep.” I think about that every time I see one of these airplane shots flying over these rugged mountains that are thrust up! You look at the top and it looks like it’s sharp as a razor. Of course, it isn’t, but it’s really sharp.
I think, ‘O God, You thrust that up from the depths of the ocean to ever high those mountains are. He made the mountains so that we would be inspired to turn to God because of all of His great power in making it. That’s a fantastic thing!
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