There in Psalm 36, and let's look at verse number 8.
Psalm 36 verse number 8, the Bible reads,
they shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house.
The title for the sermon this afternoon
is Abundantly Satisfied, Abundantly Satisfied.
Now, we ought to be Christians
that are abundantly satisfied.
We ought to be people that are happy, are joyful,
that we feel like our life is complete.
We know our way to heaven, amen,
cause we're saved.
And we ought to be people that just thoroughly enjoy life,
that we're satisfied with the portion
that God has given us.
We're satisfied with the words of God
and the direction that God has given us in our life.
And so, I believe what we can learn from this Psalm
is we can look at how the wicked are not satisfied,
and then we can compare that to the Christian life,
how God has given us everything we need, brethren,
to live that happy, abundantly satisfied life.
Let's start there in verse number 1.
It says, the transgression of the wicked,
saith within my heart,
that there is no fear of God before his eyes.
Now, verse number 1's a little bit interesting.
It says the transgression of the wicked,
saith within my heart.
So, what I believe is happening here,
the Psalmist is looking at the wicked transgressing,
the wicked committing all kinds of sins,
and then within his heart, he says the following,
that there is no fear of God before his eyes.
Whose eyes?
Well, obviously the wicked,
those that are doing the transgressions,
you know, we can look and say within our heart,
when we see wickedness on this earth,
we can say, well, these people have no fear
before their eyes.
Now, please keep your finger there
and go to Romans chapter 3.
Romans chapter 3.
And Romans chapter 3 repeats that portion of scripture
that says there is no fear of God before his eyes.
So, let's go to Romans chapter 3.
And Romans 3, of course, Paul will expound on this passage
from the Old Testament,
and apply it once again to the wicked.
Now, the wicked that we read about in Romans chapter 3
is just the unsaved, just the degenerate man,
the man who is not born again,
the man who is not saved, who's not a believer,
who, you know, is trying to live a so-called good life
when there is none good, no, not one.
But what we see here in Romans chapter 3, verse number 13,
Romans chapter 3, verse number 13,
the Bible says their throat is an open sepulcher,
and their tongues have they used deceit.
They have used deceit.
The poison of asps is under their lips.
So, the wicked use their mouths to be poisonous.
So, they use their mouths to defile,
to say all kinds of wicked things.
An open sepulcher, of course, is an open grave.
You know, the lies of the sea that comes out of the mouths
of men lead to death and destruction.
Verse number 14, whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness, all right?
So, we can see that we're referring to these same people
that when we would contemplate how they behave
and how they act, we would say within our own hearts
that there is no fear of God before his eyes.
Let's keep going, verse number 15.
Their feet are swift to shed blood.
Now, notice verse number 16 and 17,
because we're talking about living
that abundant, satisfied life.
But verse number 16 talks about the wicked.
It says, destruction and misery are in their ways.
Not only do they go and seek and destroy,
but they're just miserable.
Reverend, the unsaved, those that do not have
the fear of God, those that are unsure
about their eternal destination,
reverend, internally, in their soul,
they are miserable people, okay?
The only one that can fix that misery, of course,
is by their belief on Jesus Christ,
for them to hear the gospel and get that opportunity
to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved.
Look at verse number 17.
It says, and the way of peace have they not known?
They don't know what it is like to have peace.
Now, brethren, I'm not looking for peace on this earth.
Now, one day, yes, in that thousand year reign of Christ,
there will be peace.
You know, there will be justice and righteousness.
But you know what, brethren?
I don't look for peace on this earth.
Where we get peace, of course, is with our Lord God.
When Christ came to die for us,
he brought peace between God and man, okay?
And again, this is what satisfies us,
to have that peace, to know exactly
where we're going to be for all eternity,
to know that this wicked world that we live in
is just a temporary part of life,
and we have greater things to look forward to in the future.
And then it says in verse number 18,
there is no fear of God before their eyes, okay?
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
So that's repeating what we read there
in Psalm 36, verse number one.
So please go back to Psalm 36, verse number one.
As I said, the Apostle Paul, there in Romans chapter three,
just expounds further upon the wicked here,
the things that they do, the fact that they have no peace,
they've got no satisfaction, okay?
And obviously they have, yeah,
they don't live that abundant, satisfied life
that we Christians ought to be living in.
Now, I think if we're honest,
even as Christians, as people that have believed on Christ,
we're not always abundantly satisfied.
We're going to go through times of difficulties
and hardships, and we're gonna feel let down,
and we're gonna have the sorrows in life,
but you need to remind yourself that
while we're going to face that in our life,
God, even in the midst of that,
wants us to be satisfied,
even when things are not going our way.
Now, we're still talking about the wicked here.
Look at verse number two.
It says, for he flattereth himself in his own eyes
until his iniquity be found to be hateful.
Now, we talk about somebody who speaks with flattering lips,
okay, someone who is the flatterer,
and why do people like to flatter other people?
They try to butter them up, right?
They're trying to butter people up,
and the wicked, they love to use flattery.
But what I find interesting about this wicked person,
he flattereth who?
He flattereth himself in his own eyes, okay?
So instead of a wicked person buttering up somebody else,
this person butters himself up, okay?
So what is this about?
Obviously, this is talking about pride.
This guy is full of pride, right?
He speaks highly of himself.
He's deceived himself.
He flatters himself into thinking
that he's above his measure,
and then he goes here,
until his iniquity be found to be hateful.
And so his iniquity, of course,
is the fact that he's flaring himself,
his iniquity is pride.
And I do believe the key sin of this psalm
that separates you from living that abundant,
satisfied life is the sin of pride, okay?
Because the wicked are full of pride.
And it says that as soon as iniquity be found to be hateful,
what that means is that other people
that are around that very prideful person,
they're not going to enjoy that person's company.
They're going to start hating the person
that puffs themselves up, that is full of pride.
You know, it might take a little bit of time,
but eventually they're going to get sick and tired
of this individual constantly speaking themselves up,
constantly lifting themselves up, okay?
And I don't know about you,
but I feel that way when I come across somebody
and they seemingly know what's best all the time
about every situation.
They seemingly know that,
well, this is the right way to do things all the time,
and it's wrong if you do it this way.
And it's not wrong,
it's just different ways of doing things.
You know, some people really struggle with the idea
that people have liberties, people have freedom.
God has given us many options, many ways of doing things,
so long as they are not sinful.
And then you have others that will come along and say,
well, no, that's all wrong, that's all wrong,
do it my way.
I'm the one that does it right,
I miss the perfect or I miss this perfect,
and you guys need to follow after my steps
and do things the way that I do.
Well, that person that flatters themselves
with their own eyes,
eventually those around them
are gonna be hateful toward them,
because no one likes somebody like that.
No one likes a person that's full of ego, full of pride.
Eventually, they end up losing their friends
and they become, you know, they're dishonored, I guess,
in the eyes of the people that once did look up to them.
Verse number three, it says,
"'The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit.
"'He have left off to be wise and to do good.'"
Okay, so this proudful person,
they were once seeking after wisdom,
they were once wise, they were once doing what is good,
but then as time progresses,
they became full of themselves, flatter themselves,
their mouths became of iniquity and deceit.
Now, keep your finger there
and go to Matthew chapter 12, please.
Go to Matthew chapter 12 and verse number 34.
Matthew chapter 12 and verse number 34,
we're looking at the words of Jesus Christ here,
Matthew 12, 34.
The person, the wicked person that speaks iniquity
and deceit and lies and they're destroying people
and speaking badly of people
and going behind people's backs and backstabbing them,
brethren, these are extremely wicked people.
You know, they may try to appear to be friendly,
appear to gain your trust
and all these kinds of things, brethren,
but don't forget the words of Jesus Christ here
in Matthew 12, 34.
Matthew 12, 34 reads,
O generation of vipers,
how can ye, being evil, speak good things?
For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
So when you hear somebody just openly, just constantly,
all they can do is speak bitterness,
all they can do is criticize,
all they can do is claim that their way is the best way
and they're flattering themselves
and they're destroying other people,
looking down at other people.
Why do they speak that way?
Because their hearts are wicked, okay?
They speak what is coming out of their heart.
You know, the wicked person can temporarily seem like
a wolf, sorry, a sheep, okay, amongst the sheep,
but eventually if that person is a wolf,
you know, eventually you're gonna see their ears stick out,
eventually you're gonna see their teeth, okay?
They can't hide the fact that they're a wolf forever
and so eventually out of their mouth,
they're going to speak the things
that come out of the abundance of the heart.
Look at verse number 35, it says,
a good man out of the good treasure of the heart
bringeth forth good things
and an evil man out of the evil treasure
bringeth forth evil things.
And so, you know, here's the key behind this all
is that when the wicked are speaking deceitful things,
their throat is an open sepulchre,
they're speaking lies and mischief,
you know, long before that came out of their mouth,
those things were developing in their hearts
and in their minds and now they can't help but speak
that which is wicked.
Go back to Psalm 36, please, Psalm 36.
And you might say, well, what does this have to do
with being abundantly satisfied?
Well, I believe verse number four tells us
that these people are not satisfied,
that they, you know, that they live this life,
they feel that being wicked and puffing themselves up
and taking down other people,
they feel that it's gonna give them some level
of joy or satisfaction,
but it doesn't abundantly satisfy the way the Lord does.
But look at verse number four, it says,
he deviseth mischief upon his bed.
He set of himself in a way that is not good.
He abhorth not evil.
So this person stays up at night, you know,
bed is supposed to be the place that you go to sleep.
You know, bed is supposed to be that sweet place
after you've, you know, you've worked hard
and you've got a lot accomplished done during the day
where you just lay your head down in that bed
on that pillow and just zonk out, right?
Because you've just tired yourself out,
you've accomplished, you've been productive for the day
and, you know, beautiful can be sweet.
In fact, if you just keep your finger there,
go back to Psalm four, go to Psalm four in verse number eight
Psalm four in verse number eight.
Psalm four verse eight reads,
I will both lay me down in peace and sleep
for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety, okay?
So having that, that beautiful, safe sleep,
you know, you're laying down, why?
To have peace, you're laying down to have some rest.
You're laying down on your bed to recharge your batteries
for the new day to come.
That is the whole purpose for bed.
But the wicked, no, they don't go to bed to sleep.
They go to bed to think of mischief things.
They think about things of, you know, sinful things,
wicked things, and then, you know,
obviously they're not satisfied.
They don't have that peaceful sleep.
And then they wake up in the morning,
they go out and go and perform those wicked things
that they've thought about in their mind.
I'm going to read to you from Proverbs 4 16.
Proverbs 4 16 says, for they sleep not,
except they have done mischief and the sleep is taken away
unless they cause some to fall.
So these wicked people,
they don't live abundantly satisfied.
They're not satisfied in their life, right?
They seek to do mischief, they seek to do evil
and they can't have a good night's sleep, okay?
They're all, you know, and let that be something
that we consider that, you know,
going to bed is not the time to think of plans.
You know, going to bed,
and I don't know if you've been this way
where maybe you struggle to sleep
and your brain's working overtime,
your brain's thinking of maybe even ridiculous things
that you just think, why am I thinking that, okay?
Because you're not having that peace.
You know, you're not going to bed
and getting that rest that you need.
Your brain is ticking away at maybe stupid things.
Well, the wicked are similar.
They go to bed to hatch plans, to hatch some wicked ideas.
And maybe you can go to bed
and start thinking about wicked, sinful things,
things that do not please God.
And we need to remember to take those wicked imaginations
of the mind or the heart and bring them into captivity,
okay, to the knowledge of Christ.
And so, you know, if you're someone that tends to,
for whatever reason, go to bed
and think of ridiculous, crazy things,
listen, you know, the idle mind can be very dangerous, okay?
This is where the wicked start.
They start with their idle mind.
They're not busy, they don't get tired.
They go to bed and they have other things to think about.
That's not the reason you go to bed.
You go to bed to get that abundant, satisfied sleep, okay?
But as we're comparing here,
the wicked cannot get that satisfaction.
Now, if we look at the next few verses,
it gives us the key to being abundantly satisfied, okay?
We as Christians, we ought to be satisfied.
You know, we ought to be content.
And that's another way of saying satisfied, right?
Being content, being happy with what God has given us.
Even if we look at others and they have more.
You know, we could look at what God has given us,
how he has blessed us in life,
and say, boy, I am abundantly satisfied.
You know, this is the best life I could possibly live
because the Lord has blessed me, okay?
Now, let's look at what they are.
Verse number five.
Verse number five and verse number six
are very important to this psalm.
Verse number five says,
thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens,
and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.
Thy righteousness is like the great mountains.
Thy judgments are a great deep.
O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.
So we have four qualities of God here
that brings us that satisfaction.
And notice that each one of these things,
where it's mercy, faithfulness, righteousness, judgments,
all of these are being given a great depth or great heights,
meaning that we'll never reach the end of God's mercy
if we seek it.
We'll never reach the end of his faithfulness
or his righteousness or his judgments.
That all of these attributes that make up who God is
are so vastly deep,
that if we just continue on that journey
to learn more about him,
we'll never reach the end of it, right?
I mean, it is not within the nature or the ability of man
to uncover all the heavens and to reach unto the clouds,
or I guess if you're flying,
I guess you could reach unto the clouds,
but you as a man could not jump from where you are
and reach the clouds, reach the heights of the clouds.
The righteousness is like great mountains, right?
Not only can the people aid to climb that mountain,
but that's only on the outward.
What about all the rock and the earth
that makes up that mountain on the inside?
How great is the righteousness of God?
And thy judgments are a great deep.
I think about the deep oceans
and they still haven't uncovered,
they still haven't explored all the deepness of the oceans.
And so all these parts of God, these attributes of God,
are the things that give us that satisfied life.
You know, if you find yourself living a Christian life
and you say, you know, pastor,
I'm just not satisfied in my life.
I'm not happy.
You know, there's something that you've not explored.
You're missing an attribute of God here
currently in your life that you need.
So what are they once again?
Number one, it's mercy.
What is mercy?
When we think about mercy,
we think about compassion, right?
Favor, the ability to mitigate punishments.
And we need God's mercy.
You know, even before we were saved,
we needed God to be merciful to us.
If God punished us justly,
we would, as soon as we sinned,
be cast into an eternity of hell, okay?
We would, you know, immediately just face that judgment.
And, you know, but because of God's mercy,
because He has shown favor toward man,
because He is compassionate to us,
you know, we've obtained that mercy
by coming to Him for salvation.
The next one that was mentioned was faithfulness.
Faithfulness, of course,
it's the faithfulness of God that leads us to salvation.
You know, Jesus Christ, who was faithful for us,
who died on the cross, He faithfully did the works,
He faithfully kept the law of God perfectly,
and He faithfully gave up His life for us.
But, you know, we're not always faithful, right?
Just like mercy, we need God's mercy
because we're not always righteous.
We don't always do what is right.
We make mistakes, we sin.
We sin every day, brethren.
And so we need to run and seek God's mercy.
That's what's gonna satisfy you when you've sinned,
is when you appeal to God's mercy
and you receive His favor and compassion.
Then you've got the faithfulness, of course,
and I'll quickly read to you
from 2 Timothy 2, verse number 13.
2 Timothy 2, verse 13 reads,
If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful.
He cannot deny Himself, okay?
If we believe not, so if we fail in our faith,
if we fail in our faithfulness toward God,
so long as, you know, we are saved, God will remain faithful.
God's going to keep true to His promises.
Unlike us, we break our vows, we break our promises.
We don't live in accordance to God's ways
exactly as we should.
And we're not always faithful to God, are we?
But God is always faithful to us, okay?
We need His faithfulness.
You know, praise God that our, you know, salvation
is not dependent on how faithful we are, right?
You know, many people believe
that you can lose your salvation.
If you fail in faithfulness, well,
then God will no longer be faithful to you.
No, even if we fail in our faithfulness,
God will remain faithful, He cannot deny Himself,
meaning that when we're saved,
we have His Holy Spirit live in us.
Of course, the Holy Spirit is God Himself.
Let's keep going.
Righteousness was the next one, righteousness.
I'm going to read from Romans chapter three.
We looked at Romans three earlier,
but the righteousness of God, what is that righteousness?
Well, Romans chapter three verse 21 says,
but now the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all
and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference.
So for everybody that believes,
we receive the righteousness of God.
Praise God.
Again, we don't go to heaven on our own righteousness,
or you won't make it.
We go based on the righteousness of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
And so God, you know, through His Son,
has shown His great love and the righteous acts of Christ.
And then He's taken those righteous acts
and we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
What a beautiful thing,
that God has given us all these things, right,
to give us a satisfied, abundantly satisfied,
life that we can live.
The next one that was mentioned was judgments.
Judgments are a great deep.
And if you wanna go,
you can just go back a few pages to Psalm 25.
Psalm 25 verse nine.
Psalm 25 verse nine, it reads,
the meek will he guide in judgments
and the meek will he teach his way.
Okay, so this is what's great.
After we're saved, after we've had the mercy of God
and God's been faithful to us
and Christ has been faithful in His task
and we've received the imputed righteousness of Christ,
well then God gives us His judgments,
He gives us His word,
so we can be able to judge what is right and wrong.
He guides us in His ways.
He causes us to walk in His paths.
And brethren, when we are able to live a life
and identify what is right and wrong,
the media's not gonna tell you what is right and wrong.
The schools aren't gonna tell you what is right and wrong.
In fact, they mix it up so many times.
They speak of what is evil, they call it good
and what is good, they call it evil.
They have no idea, but we have black and white
and God's word, His judgments, what is right and wrong.
So we can have great wisdom
and we can be protected if we walk in His ways.
You know, if we live in His ways,
if we walk after His judgments,
we're going to be abundantly satisfied, okay?
When others are making silly mistakes in life,
they're destroying their lives, they're caught, you know,
they're committing grave sins
and hurting themselves and hurting others,
we can continue on that narrow path, walking in God's ways
as we obey the judgments of God.
Back to Psalm 35 and verse number, sorry,
Psalm 36 and verse number seven.
It says, how excellent is thy loving kindness, okay?
So when we think about God's loving kindness,
you know, that's kind of like the umbrella
of all these other things that we looked at,
the mercy, the faithfulness, the righteousness,
the judgments of God, under the umbrella of all of that
is the loving kindness of God.
And then it says, how excellent is thy loving kindness,
O God, therefore the children of men put their trust
under the shadow of thy wings.
This is what caused us to trust in the Lord.
Yes, believing on Christ for salvation
is us trusting His finished work.
Amen, and again, we're appealing to His mercy.
We're appreciating the faithfulness of Christ.
We're receiving the righteousness of God.
And then once we're saved,
we can walk in accordance with His judgments.
You know, when we see the beautiful package
that salvation brings us,
this caused us to trust in the Lord and be saved.
But don't forget, this is not just salvation,
but this is living out that Christian life.
We should continue being people and children of men
that put our trust under the shadow of thy wings.
Why would we wanna trust the Lord?
Why would we wanna put ourselves under His shadow?
It's because we know how excellent His loving kindness is.
Brethren, we need to be people
that are constantly tapping into the mercy of God,
His righteousness, His judgments, His,
what was the other one?
His mercy, okay?
His mercy, His faithfulness,
His righteousness and His judgments.
This is an important part of our Christian walk.
You know, and when you fail in your walk,
remind yourself, well, God's gonna be faithful to me.
You know, when you fail in your righteous living,
remind yourself, well, God has given me
the righteousness of Christ,
and I just need to walk, get back,
ask God for forgiveness and walk in His ways.
You know, when you know you need the chastisement of God
and you feel that it might be a very heavy chastisement,
it's good for you to run to His mercy
with a broken and contrite heart.
Seek the mercy of God.
And then verse number eight, it says,
they shall be abundantly satisfied.
Who, who's gonna be abundantly satisfied?
All those that recognize the excellent loving kindness
of God, those that put their trust
and hide themselves in the shadow of God's wings.
They shall be abundantly satisfied.
Notice that, okay?
So just cause you're saved,
it doesn't mean that the rest of your life
is just gonna be abundantly satisfied, okay?
It's not gonna be the case.
You have to take hold of the loving kindness of God,
get under His shadow, appreciate His mercy
and His faithfulness, His righteousness and His judgments.
And if you can do that, you can walk in that path,
brethren, then you're going to live
that abundant Christian life, okay?
They shall be abundantly satisfied,
said in verse number eight,
with the fatness of thy house,
and thou shall make them drink
of the river of thy pleasures.
Okay, so what I like about this passage,
it also highlights the importance of God's house
because it says they shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house.
Whose house?
God's house.
And we know at the time when the psalm was written,
God's house was the tabernacle.
And of course, you know, before the temple was built,
we had the tabernacle.
That's where they would come and bring, you know,
the sacrifices, the offerings,
and the Levites, they would live,
they would eat off the fatness of the offerings, right?
They would live off the carnal offerings,
the meat offerings, but also, you know,
the other offerings that were given,
drink offerings and, you know, the grains,
all that kind of things, things that, you know,
the priests and the Levites would live off that, okay?
They would, you know, physically be satisfied
with the fatness of God's house.
But we know that God's house in the New Testament
is the local church.
You know, it's New Life Baptist Church.
And you know what?
There is a satisfaction that comes
from being in God's house.
You're not going to be abundantly satisfied
in your Christian life if you neglect God's house, okay?
If you, you know, you know services are on,
but you just decide not to be there.
You know, you, you know, you pull yourself out
and you maybe, maybe not even intentionally, you know,
you just take it for granted.
You know, it's so easy to take church for granted, isn't it?
We think it's just going to be there
week after week after week.
But brethren, you know, my heart is saddened
because here in Sydney, you know,
blessed our Baptist Church,
we've not been able to meet.
This is, we're coming into our fifth week
where we've not been able to have church.
We, this is our fifth week
where I've not seen the faces of the brethren.
We've not been able to collectively come together
as one body to hear God's word preached
and to sing praises together.
Brethren, you know, we're suffering in Sydney in that area.
You know, of course, God is our substance.
You know, His grace is sufficient for us.
Of course, we're doing the best we can
to worship God from house, from home,
you know, with the families that we have.
But brethren, we're missing a major component here in Sydney.
Please be praying for us.
And, you know, I wish that I could be
in the house of God with you today.
You know, please don't take it for granted.
You know, don't be thinking,
when is this service going to end?
I just want to get home.
I've got things to do.
Brethren, this is, the house of God
is the place where you're going to be abundantly satisfied.
Please don't take it for granted.
I, look, you know, I know that I'm pretty sure,
I don't know about, I think Melbourne,
they're not having church services either.
I know in Adelaide that they've recently
clamped down on church services as well.
Of course, not just church,
but all other kind of gatherings
that are from an indoor perspective
with large groups of people.
And brethren, you guys on the Sunshine Coast, thank God,
you can still meet for church.
I know you've had the inconvenience of the masks.
I'm not sure if that's still the case at the moment.
But be thankful, appreciate what you have right now.
You don't know, maybe next week there will be no church.
You know, this could be your last church Sunday service
for a while, who knows?
You know, with all these lockdowns going on,
the uncertainty that we have.
And then when you don't have church,
you know, there's going to be a part of you
that is not satisfied.
You know, church, that there's nothing else on this earth
that is like church.
You know, we will attend certain things.
We go to certain things.
You know, we might go to grocery shopping
and we go grocery shopping to satisfy
the hunger of the flesh.
We need to feed ourselves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Nothing wrong with that.
And you know, you might go retail shopping
and go buy clothing for this body, for this flesh,
because you need to clothe yourself.
Nothing sinful in that.
You know, you might have different entertainments
that you like.
Maybe you like going for a swim
or maybe you like going and watching a sporting match.
But brethren, all those things, all they do
is give some level of satisfaction to the flesh.
None of that satisfies the soul like church, okay?
That's what church is all about, that satisfying the soul.
You know, feeding that spiritual food
that needs to be fed, okay?
The only place that is, in fact, there is no place.
There is no place like church.
I appreciate it.
I know we're a small church.
You know, I know where we're growing
and we desire for more people to come.
We desire to do greater works.
But you know what?
God has given us the opportunity right now.
They're on the Sunshine Coast to meet together.
I appreciate the brethren.
I appreciate the fact that you can be fed,
not like the Levites of old,
where they literally get the fatness of the offerings,
but you get the fatness of God's word being fed to you.
I appreciate the fact that you can come to this place
and give off your financial offerings
to further the work of God,
a place where you can go
and be in fellowship with other brethren.
It's so hard to find other saved Christians.
And then how much harder is it to find saved Christians
that are alike in our beliefs and our statement of faith,
you know, that we stand for as a church?
It's very rare.
You know, thank God that you've got a place
where you can be, we gather together
and sing praises unto the Lord
and lift your praise and worship unto the Lord
and be encouraged, you know,
provoking one another unto love and good works.
You know, you've got a place right now, brethren,
that I wish I was in right now.
I wish I could be with a brethren.
Again, I said, we're going five weeks here in Sydney.
Please be praying for us
because it doesn't look like this lockdown's
gonna let up for some time.
The COVID cases, you know, are not diminishing.
And yeah, you've been greatly blessed
up there on the Sunshine Coast.
Be very thankful.
You don't know when he might be taken away from you.
So brethren, where does one go to satisfy the soul?
It's God's house, okay?
They shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house.
You know, God's house satisfies the soul, okay?
It gives us the spiritual food we need to live out,
you know, be encouraged and just live out that life
full of zeal and passion and love for God.
Back to Psalm 35.
Psalm 35, verse number nine.
The Bible reads, for with thee is the fountain of life
and thy light shall we see light.
So again, the fountain here speaks once again
of how the waters of God, they satisfy the one
who is thirsty, the abundantly satisfied life, okay?
You know, God is like that fountain that we can just go to
when we start getting thirsty
and we need the presence of God.
So we can go to him and take drink
of that fountain of life, okay?
And then it says in thy light we shall see light.
So the more we know God, the more we know his word,
the greater the light will be.
God is light.
You know, when we go to the Lord, we see that light
and we can look at our world, we can look at our situation,
we can look at our relationships,
we can look at our workplaces, we can look at our community,
we can look at our world, our nation
and with the light of God's word,
be able to deflect the darkness,
the forces of darkness that are in this earth
and we can know the truth.
There are so many people that are deceived
and worried and concerned about what this world holds
because they're so uncertain, they're so unsure,
it's like they're in a place of darkness
but we brethren, we have the light of God,
we have the light of his word, nothing should surprise us,
we ought to be prepared ourselves
for whatever situation we may find ourselves in.
Yes, even if it's a loss of church for a period of time,
brethren, you have the light of God,
you should be able to shine forth his praises
and his goodness in your life
and others ought to see you live
in that abundant, satisfied life.
You know, I look at the faces of people here in Sydney
once again, with the masks constantly,
you can't go any place, you've got to literally,
if you step outside your house,
you've got to carry a mask with you.
You know, you enter any place
you've got to have a mask of you
and I just look at people around
and they just look depressed,
they look upset, they look sad,
you know, there's lack of joy,
there's a lack of noise in the area, brethren,
but you know what, as Christians,
even if we're facing that,
we ought to be reflecting God's light.
People ought to be looking at us and say,
well, hold on, don't you know that we're under lockdown?
Don't you know we're facing restrictions?
Why is it that you're so happy?
Why is it that you seem just satisfied?
You know why?
Because we need to learn as Christians
to be content and satisfied
regardless of what situation we find ourselves in.
God is that fountain of life.
You get thirsty, run to God.
Things get dark around you,
you're not sure, things are not clear,
things you're unsure about the future,
you run to the light of God
and ask him to shine his light in this dark place.
So not only does water satisfy the soul,
but the clarity of vision is also very satisfying.
Let's look at verse number 10.
It says, oh, continue thy loving kindness
unto them that know thee,
and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.
So the Psalms are saying,
continue thy loving kindness unto them that know thee.
So as I said, God's loving kindness
was that umbrella form of his mercy,
his faithfulness, his righteousness and his judgment.
And those are the things that we desire
and we entrust as we come to believe on the Lord
through salvation.
We taste and see that the Lord is good,
but not only do we leave it there, but we continue.
We desire to continue in God's loving kindness.
Yeah, that's what's gonna help you
to continue living that abundant, satisfied life
is that you reach out to God,
you stay under the shadow of his wings
and reach out for his loving kindness.
Again, we need his mercy every day of our life.
If we didn't have his mercy,
we would sin and we would just be distraught.
We would be, oh man, what do we do now?
I've sinned against the Lord,
but we run to his mercy and say,
God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
Once again, his faithfulness,
we're not always faithful when we sin.
Again, that's an act of unfaithfulness.
When you don't pick up your Bible and read it,
when you don't do the works that God desires you to do,
and look, the yoke of Christ is easy.
His burden is light, he said, right?
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, Christ said.
His yoke is easy, his yoke is light.
And we fail in our faithfulness toward God,
well, we can remind ourselves,
well, God's gonna be faithful to me.
He'll never leave me.
Oh, forgot how that verse goes, right?
But he will never leave us, right?
He will always be there for us.
We reach out and the Lord will be there
as we seek out to live our Christian life.
Once again, his judgments, we need to,
yes, we've learned about the judgments of God.
When you got saved, you recognize that God's judgment
for weakness, for our sins were laid upon Christ.
We know that if we were to believe on Christ,
God judges us right to be righteous before him.
But we need to continue to learn to walk
and understand his judgments.
We live in a very unusual days, don't we?
We don't know what is true and what is false.
And many times the media portrays things to be true,
but they're mixed with lies.
And it's hard to differentiate between truth and lies,
but we have God's judgments all the time with us.
We know that when we're feeling deceived,
we can just turn to God's word,
we can turn to his judgments
and know that it's always 100% true.
I never read this and have to doubt,
well, could that be true?
Did that really happen in God's word?
I know every time I read this,
I'm getting a dose of truth,
which is 100% truth all the time.
Let's keep going, verse number 11.
Let not the foot of pride come against me.
As I said, if we look at this passage
and we look at the weakness,
we saw how prideful they were.
Pride is going to disrupt your satisfaction in God.
That's the key enemy, that's the key sin
that's gonna cause you to not be satisfied.
Let not the foot of pride come against me
and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.
As we saw earlier,
that pride, a prideful person flatterers himself.
The prideful person flatterers himself
and you're not going to seek the love and kindness of God.
Pride keeps you far from God.
Pride separates you from God.
It's humility that caused us to run to God,
seeking that love and kindness.
Pride is what stops us from going there
and we think we're just right
without needing God in our life.
And as I kind of quoted earlier, Psalm 34, 18,
it says, the Lord is nigh unto them
that are of a broken heart and save of such
as be of a contrite spirit.
You see, the pride will not break his heart.
The prideful will not become contrite before God.
And as I said, this is the enemy
against God's love and kindness
because if we're seeking God's mercy,
we need to come and humble ourselves and say,
God, we've messed up, we've made mistakes,
we've done wrong, God be merciful to me.
But the prideful will say,
well, I don't need the mercy of God.
What have I done?
I'm right.
I don't need to go.
Why do I need God's mercy?
That's what the prideful does.
So if he's not seeking God's mercy, guess what?
He's not going to be satisfied.
It's against faithfulness.
As we saw earlier that God's house
is where we can be abundantly satisfied,
but the prideful will not be faithful
toward the house of God.
The prideful will say,
well, I don't need God's house.
Why do I need God's house?
I'm saved.
I've got God.
I've got the Holy Spirit within me.
I can pick up my Bible.
I can read it.
Why do I need to go to God's house?
Why do you need to go?
Because God commands us to go to his house.
That's why, okay?
And the prideful will think
they don't need to be in the house of God,
but again, they're not going to receive
that abundant satisfaction
that can only come by being amongst other brethren
within God's house.
The prideful will be against righteousness,
the righteousness of God,
because once again, when they sin,
they don't want to recognize themselves as sinners.
They don't want to see,
recognize that they've made mistakes,
and so they've got a different standard of righteousness.
Why do I need God?
Why do I, I've done right.
Even though they've done wrong,
even though they've committed sin,
it's like, well, no, I'm right.
I'm right.
That's the right thing.
Why do I need to go and compare my righteousness
compared to God's righteousness?
And again, they're against judgment,
those that are proud, against the judgment of God,
because they'll say things like,
well, I know God's word says that.
I know the Bible says that,
but God understands my situation.
I'm different to these other people.
You know, yeah, God has that in his word,
but that's not me.
God knows my situation.
I'm facing things differently.
God understands.
And so the prideful will go
and do things contrary to God's word
and justify themselves,
basically rejecting the judgments of God.
They don't think the judgments of God apply to them.
They create their own judgments,
and they believe they're just right with God,
rejecting the very clear judgments of God, right?
They don't want to put themselves under God's word.
They think that, yeah, that's for other people,
but not for me, you know?
So, yeah, the sin of pride, brethren,
is what's gonna keep you from being abundantly satisfied.
Look at verse number 12.
Verse number 12 says,
there are the workers, sorry,
there are the workers of iniquity fallen.
Where are they fallen?
Out of pride, okay?
That's where they fall.
They are cast down and shall not be able to rise.
So, brethren, here's the danger of pride, okay?
That you're going to fall in pride
and you're not gonna be able to get back up.
It's very hard for a prideful person to admit they're wrong.
It's very hard for a prideful person to say,
if they hear the preaching of God's word,
to say, well, yeah, that applies to me.
I have to make changes.
The prideful will always look at other people,
oh, yeah, that's for them.
Yeah, brother so-and-so,
I hope you heard that in the sermon today.
You need to change that about yourself.
Yeah, sister so-and-so, hey, watch your kids.
Don't you know that you heard that from the church today?
But hey, they don't even consider themselves.
They don't consider their own families.
They don't consider their own situation, right?
They look at other people,
but at the same time,
they're falling and they're not getting up
because they don't apply God's loving kindness.
They don't have the satisfaction from God
and they grow to be bitter people, okay?
Angry toward God, angry toward God's house,
angry toward God's people,
and they don't live the abundant, satisfied Christian life.
Now, I know we started the Psalm talking about the unsaved,
okay, and most definitely they are not satisfied.
They don't have the satisfaction of the soul,
but how sad is it when someone is saved,
when someone does have the house of God to go to,
when someone does have God's mercy to reach out to,
God's loving kindness and His righteousness
and His judgments and all the things that we read about,
but they neglect them anyway.
They set them aside and say, well, I don't need that.
You know, for some of the men there
on New Life Baptist Church,
we know individuals that, you know,
God has placed New Life Baptist Church
literally in their own backyard.
Maybe they've even been praying for this church,
but they have not stepped foot in that church, okay?
Why is that?
You know, God has given them everything they need,
and I'm telling you, those people,
they're not gonna be satisfied.
They're not gonna find joy in the Christian life
because God has come and delivered them,
you know, on the Sunshine Coast, a great church,
great people that make up that church,
and they've decided not to be part of it, you know?
So this can happen to Christians as well,
not just to the unbelievable.
We as Christians, and so we need to take heed
and remind ourselves to live that abundant Christian,
you know, satisfied life.
And so in conclusion, brethren, are you satisfied?
You know, can you look at your life today as a Christian?
Can you look at your life this Sunday afternoon
and say, boy, I am abundantly satisfied.
I am so content with what God has given me.
I am so blessed.
Or could you say to me, honestly, Pastor,
I've not been satisfied for a long time?
Well, I hope there's something in this sermon
that you can look at and compare,
see whether you're living in accordance to God's ways.
Maybe you've not been seeking God's judgments.
Maybe you've, you know, allowed yourself to become prideful
and move yourself aside from God's judgments.
Maybe you've not been looking for his mercy.
Maybe you know you've sinned against him
and you've not run to him and sought his mercy.
I don't know what element it is.
Hey, maybe it's church.
Maybe you've neglected church unnecessarily
for much too long,
and then you find that your soul is missing out
on a key ingredient of that abundant,
satisfied Christian life.
But you know what?
God has given us everything we need
and he's given us more.
And once again, we've church, brethren,
you know, I want new life at this church
to go from strength to strength.
I want it to grow, not just numerically, but spiritually.
I want us to become more mature.
Please don't take your church for granted.
And I'm not saying that because I'm your pastor.
I'm serious.
Like it is so sad that blessed about the church
he have not been able to meet for five weeks now,
coming up to five weeks.
And again, we don't know.
We don't know how long it's going to be.
You know, it's very frustrating
because you guys know I came to Sydney
to be a blessing to help lead this church.
And the fact that we can't have it right now is just,
you know, it's kind of irritating,
but I need to remind myself that,
no, well, you know what?
I need to be content anyway.
I need to be satisfied anyway.
And, you know, be positive minded and just,
you know, decide, well, you know what?
Whatever situation I find myself in,
I'm gonna praise God.
I'm gonna, you know, I'm going to worship Him
and I'm gonna be thankful for whatever God has given us
because such is the abundant, satisfied life.
Okay, let's pray.
Heavenly Father, Lord,
I just thank you for new life of Baptist Church.
I thank you that the brethren on Sunshine Coast
are still able to meet.
Lord, there are still many cities across Australia
where brethren are unable to meet.
So Lord, I pray that the brethren
would not take it for granted.
I pray, Lord, for the churches, for the brethren
that haven't been able to have church for a number of time.
Lord, I do pray for blessed Baptist Church.
I pray that none of us will grow cold toward you,
that none of us would sort of lose that heart
and desire to be in your house.
And Lord, that we would be picking up our Bibles
and reading it and spending time in fellowship with you.
Lord, thank you for giving us your loving kindness
and Lord for promising us
that we can have abundant, satisfied lives.
And Lord, thank you that we can find that
in the house of God.
Lord, I just pray that you'd be with each one of us.
Please bless us.
Give us the spiritual food that we need, Lord,
to live a life that is pleasing to you.
And I pray that you'd bless us throughout this week.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.