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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church. If you would please grab your songbooks and turn your view into song number 191 song number 191 in my heart there rings a melody song 191 Let's go down to the next verse A hell of a song that Jesus gave me He gave us and brought him love There was a sweeter melody is a melody of love In my heart there rings a melody there rings a melody and it's harmony In my heart there rings a melody there rings a melody of love Oh the Christ who died on Calvary For he washed my sins away He won't within my heart a melody and I know there's things to say In my heart there rings a melody there rings a melody and it's harmony In my heart there rings a melody there rings a melody of love Oh the endless cleaning glory when the angels I will sing will be a song with glorious harmony when the forms of heaven ring In my heart there rings a melody there rings a melody and it's harmony In my heart there rings a melody there rings a melody of love Amen. Alright, brother Willie please open up with a word of prayer Dear God, thank you for getting us here Father, safely, thank you for your kind service Please bless it, bless us and we almost disappear Amen Amen Alright, we're going to turn to our next song Song number 441 Song number 441 Great is thy faithfulness Song number 441 Great is thy faithfulness Oh God, my Father There is no shadow of turning with me I'll change this but my compassion may fail not As thou hast been the forever will be the forever will be Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed thy hand and hope I am Great is thy faithfulness Lord, unto me Summer and winter and springtime and harvest The moon and stars and their forces of art Join with all winter in many pools with me To thy faithfulness mercy and love Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed thy hand and hope I am Great is thy faithfulness Lord, unto me Morning for cinema peace that is luring my oh dear presence to cheer and to guide strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow Blessings all mine with ten thousand dreams come Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed thy hand and hope I am Great is thy faithfulness Lord, unto me Amen. Great singing this evening. At this time, we're going to go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, just slip your hand up real high and one of our ushers will get one out to you. And if you'd open up to the first page, you'll see our service times listed there. Sunday morning at ten thirty. Sunday evening again at five o'clock. Wednesday night seven is our Bible study. We've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvations and the baptisms for the month of February. Pardon me, as well as for the year. Let's go ahead and count up. If there's any salvation numbers to report for the week, just slip your hand up real quick. One. And one today. Amen. Very good. Anyone else I miss? All right. Very good. Keep up the good work. Preach in the gospel. We've got the offering totals received through the month of February down there at the bottom of the page. Prayer requests. We have a few additions this week. So Darlene Hyde is also with child. We're adding her to our list of pregnant ladies as well as Mrs. Estrada, who who's also pregnant. So please be in prayer for both of those ladies as well as everyone else here. All the other ladies who are on our list that we're praying for, for the safe delivery of those children. And then I also added my wife to the prayer list. She's going to have a knee replacement surgery next month. So it's a very significant surgery for as far as that's concerned. So please pray that all goes well with that. If that surgery doesn't work, which there's no reason to expect that it won't, but if it doesn't or when it fails, there's going to be basically no other choice but to lose the leg. So that's kind of what we're looking at with her. Not that we think that she's going to lose it now or anything like that, but it's just one of those deals where, I mean, she's had, I don't even know, probably about 10 surgeries on that leg. So we appreciate your prayers there. And then also David Bass was out with a broken arm and he had surgery on Monday. Has anyone heard from him at all? Anyone? Yes. Okay. Now he's just recovering. So surgery went good and he's got to recover, huh? Good. Is he able, do you know if he's going to be able to work soon or no? Because I mean, yeah, yeah. Good. Well, we'll continue to pray for a safe recovery or speedy recovery for Brother David Bass. But surgery went well, so we're happy to hear about that. Anyone have any other updates for people who are on the prayer list right now? Is there anything new to update? All right. Well, continue to pray. Obviously, there's a lot of people who are in great need with their health. So please, please, please continue to pray for them on the back of our prayer list. We actually, I decided to put the birth announcement here on this, on the back of the prayer list for the Weatherby family. Micah Trenton was born on February 5th. So you can see his stats there and we're very happy about that. It was a good delivery. Everyone's doing well. So praise the Lord for that. And as I mentioned on Sunday, they requested to not receive all the meals. So, of course, it's family's choice. And that if you want to receive meals or not. But generally speaking, we will be providing meals for all the families where there's a new baby born. Just to take, relieve some of the burden on family for getting food and stuff. So that's why we're not doing the meal train here. And then on the next page, we have the February challenge. So hopefully you are participating in this. It's spending a minimum of one hour every day doing something spiritual. Soul winning, Bible reading, memorizing, praying, these types of activities. And, you know, honestly, I hope you don't find that to be too much of a challenge. That would be my like like sometimes we do things that seem a little bit more challenging than others. And just like in my mind, some of these things, it's just like this is this should be more like a standard than a challenge for you. So that's my opinion. Obviously, everyone has to decide for themselves what how you spend your time and days and what's appropriate and what you think is right. But in my opinion, this should be more like you're setting your own standard of making this your minimum, not your not doing extra. So but in any case, I know for some people, I'm sure it probably is a challenge and is extra. And that's and that's fine. And that's one reason why we do this is I want you to start thinking about your schedule and being able to do more things to to be close to the Lord. I mean, that's the bottom line, right? We want to we want to walk with the Lord and dwell in his tabernacle regularly. Not just not just when we come to church and and, you know, get the chocolate or whatever happens to be the prize that the prize is actually just being with the Lord and reaping of the benefits of walking in the spirit. So that's a much better prize. All right, continuing on. New church playing Greenville. Anything new to update us with Brother Carter? No. All right. Cigarette, if you can, just for a couple of minutes after church. I just want to talk to you briefly about that. But so far, we're still looking. So please continue to be in prayer for us for finding that location. Bible memory passage, we are on our second week of memorizing Hebrews 11 verses one through 20. You can quote this before the deadline, then you will earn a prize for being able to do that. Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are listed there. Brother Doty has a birthday today. So happy birthday, Brother Doty, if you're listening and then upcoming events down there at the bottom. The next event is a baby shower for Mrs. Courtney Taylor. They'll be right after the morning service on Sunday. And then the home school field trip roller skating event is going to be the twenty third. And you can see the address is there. It's not very far from here. So if you're playing attending that, it's not far from here. And this one does not require a sign up sheet because there's going to be no food there at all. And there's no concession. So just bring drinks for yourself, your family, for whoever's coming. And we'll enjoy the rink for for those two hours and should be a really good time. And then the lady sewing fellowship there on the 16th of March, followed by the next home school field trip. And on you can read all the rest of these that are that are on the list as it stands. If you requested an Amazon gift card, I did not email those out yet. So don't think that I might have missed your name. I didn't miss you. I just didn't do any of them yet. So I will be getting those out this week. So by by Sunday, if you don't receive the gift card that if you requested one, then you can contact me. And if there's anyone here this evening that has not received the prize for January. So January, the New Testament Bible reading. I gave you three choices. One is one of these chocolates that are up here. It's still available. It's still on the table. Literally, it's on the table. Two was an Amazon gift card and three was the mystery prize. All right. The mystery prize. That is still a mystery. Unfortunately, it's still a mystery. So I was giving everyone the option. Is there anyone here that has not decided? So by decided, I mean, I asked for a show of hands of who wanted a mystery prize for a show of hands for the gift or all that stuff. If you earned a prize and did not express what you wanted. Raise your hand. Mystery. Great. I like it. Anyone else? All right. So we're going to we're going to call this 11. Perfect. All right. And we brought in some clothing on Sunday. There's a whole bunch of of boxes of clothing. They're mostly all, I guess, smaller children's boys and girls jackets, whatever, all kinds of stuff. So if you would like any of that stuff, even if you want to pass it on to someone else that you know, that might be able to use it, by all means, help yourself. We'll leave it here for maybe another week or so, and then we'll we'll move it on to other donation centers. So if anyone wants any of that stuff, it's just out here for the taking. So go ahead and help yourself to that. And I think that's about it for the announcements. Let's see if I'm missing anything this evening. All right. Very good. With that, let's turn to our next song. We're going to sing song number 248. Oh, Jesus, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, you oh, oh, oh, oh oh, oh oh, oh, oh, oh from sorrow and shame. Now I belong to Him. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. Amen. Last verse. Lord, what my soul for Jesus has saved me, freed me from sin that long had enslaved me. Whose grace is what he gave to me. Now I belong to Him. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. Amen. All right. For eternity. That's great news right there. At this time, we're going to take our offering for our missionary that we support. So if you all should please come to the front, and we'll do the collection for that. Wednesday night offering, of course, goes solely to support Pastor Matthew Stuckey. Right now, he's the only missionary we're supporting. So if you'd like to give and support his ministry, we'd appreciate that. We also have, hopefully they're still out there, I don't know, I printed off some of his reports recently of the efforts that have been going on over there in the Philippines. He is pastoring multiple churches. There's a lot of activity going on there, a lot of soul winning, a lot of people getting saved, a lot of lives being changed, a great work for the Lord being done over there in the Philippines. I'm putting all of our support right now behind that man and his ministry because he is a worker, he is a laborer, and the money that we provide to support that is money very well spent. So at this time, we're going to read our passage, Psalm 92, and I'm going to ask Brother Michael Ricardo if you'd come up and read this for us tonight. You can follow along silently while he reads. Amen, church. Once again, that is the book of Psalms, Psalm 92. Psalm 92, the Bible reads, It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High, to show forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the salt tree, upon the harp with a solemn sound, for thou, Lord, has made me glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works, and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this. When the wicked spring as the grass and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed for ever. But thou, Lord, art Most High for evermore, for, lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish. All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. But my horn shall thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and my ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing to show that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Let's pray. Father, God, we praise you and thank you for the book of Psalms and Psalm 92. We thank you for all the souls that have been saved this recent month and also the souls that will be saved in the future. God, we praise you and thank you for Pastor Burzins and for his ministry and God that you allow for him to be blessed and for us to be able to take in the words that he will speak, fill them with your spirit, allow for him to preach boldness and allow for our ears to be attended to every word that's spoken. So we just praise you and thank you for all that you do. Say this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, Psalm 92, let's dig right in here. Now, the Bible says this, too, and I bring this up occasionally on the title. Sometimes I go over the title for this psalm. We'll cover this at the end after we go through verse by verse, but the Bible says here that this is a psalm or song for the Sabbath day. So we're going to go through what all the verses mean and then I'm going to give my opinion on why I think that's applicable here, why it's referencing this as being a song for the Sabbath day. It makes sense to me, but let's go through this and we'll kind of leave that for last. So verse number one reads, It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High, to show forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night. And I just want to point out here as we've seen in other psalms as well at this point, we've gone through 92 psalms overall just in general in this church. We went through Psalm 1 through 50 previously and now we're going through 51 through 100. And in Psalm 92, it references here, you know, hey, it's good. It's a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord. It's a good thing to sing praises and oftentimes those two things go hand in hand, right? Praises are giving thanks to the Lord in many applications. But we ought to be giving thanks. We ought to be singing praises and not just at church, right? Like it says here, showing forth thy loving kindness in the morning and thy faithfulness every night. So we should be singing, we should be thankful, giving thanks unto the Lord, praising his name every morning and every night. And why? Because of his loving kindness. Why? Because of God's faithfulness. Why? Because God is there for us. Because God is who we look to. But then not just the singing and the praising there and the giving thanks. Verse number three, because this sentence isn't complete yet. Verse three says, upon an instrument of ten strings and upon the psaltery, upon the harp with a solemn sound. So not only singing, but also the addition of the musical instruments accompanying that praise and that singing and that also being done on a regular basis, on a daily basis even, playing to the Lord and singing his praises. And this is something that many of us might not be doing that good at. Hopefully you are in your prayers thanking the Lord every day and being very contrite and thankful in your heart for all that God gives you to maintain that humble spirit. But also just praising him. Don't forget to praise the Lord. And not not as a checkbox like, well, I have to do this. The praises ought to come from your heart and they will come from your heart. I mean, those of us who are saved there's every reason to praise the Lord but you won't you won't even think to praise the Lord unless you're thinking about the things of God. Unless you're thinking about, you know, what God has done for you. You're in his word and you're establishing and maintaining that good relationship by doing spiritual things. And this is why I said in the announcements when I talk about our February challenge, spending an hour every day doing something spiritual I don't think that ought to be a challenge for you. I think that ought to be a minimum for you. I think this is something that we ought to be spending that much time just spiritually with the Lord. And if you are spending that much time spiritually with the Lord it's going to be a lot more natural from the Spirit to want to praise his name. To be giving thanks and to doing what the Bible's talking about here about giving thanks, singing praises in the morning and every evening. This is where that's going to come from. It doesn't just happen though on its own. You have to put in the time you have to put in the effort to maintain that good relationship with God. Because there's always always distractions every day to take you away from the things of God. And of course there are necessities in life. No doubt. We have to live, we have to work, we have to survive we have to do other things to live this life. But we cannot neglect the importance of maintaining that good relationship with the Lord. That is critical. And that's how we'll find ourselves showing forth his loving kindness and his faithfulness every night. Let's keep reading here. Verse number 4. For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of thy hands. And I want you to notice three times here, twice in this one verse four and then also in verse number five Oh, Lord, how great are thy works. The praising of God's works and what God has done and what God is empowering you to do and the work of the Lord is what is praiseworthy. There is no triumphing in the works of my hands here. It's triumphing in the works of thy hands. It's the glory and the praise and the rejoicing over what God does. And this doesn't mean that we're not involved in that. It's recognizing that the goodness and the praise belongs and is deserved to go to the Lord. I mean, you think about every battle that God had led the children of Israel in, in the Old Testament, you read through the judges, you read through the kings and the chronicles, and you read about these different stories where they're getting in these battles. And when they were right with God and when they would consult the Lord and God is going to bring them victory, then God is always the one that gets the credit for it. But they still have to show up. They're still going to go, they're still going to fight in many cases, right? Sometimes God didn't even make them have to fight, but every time they have to show up. We were just reading, I was doing my family Bible reading and we just read a passage to my kids where God already promised Jehoshaphat, he's like, you know what? I'm going to do all the work. And that was when they had three different groups of people that came against them and then they ended up fighting themselves and they just all attacked each other and then they showed up and then it's like all dead corpses. And they're like, sweet. So they just go out and they spoil the bodies and get all the stuff that they could get. And God just brought that miracle all by himself, but they still showed up. He still said, go and be prepared and be ready and stand out there. I mean, you couldn't just run away and be scared and quit, right? They still had to show up. And at every point, though, no matter how much of our own effort is put into the work, we're going to praise God for his works and for what he does and for bringing us those victories and the triumph in the work of God's hands. Oh, Lord, how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep. Verse six, a brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this. And that in itself is just kind of interesting to me because it's such a simple concept and it's so easy to see. And for those of us who are saved and have been through struggles and you've relied on God to help you and to save you and he's delivered you, this is so easy to see and so basic and so elementary, but the brutish man and the fool, they don't get this. People lean on their own understanding too much, just don't get this at all. Look at verse number seven, the Bible says, when the wicked spring as the grass and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed forever. I'm going to spend a little bit of time on this. First of all, because it brings up workers of iniquity, I think twice in this passage and when we see later, as we get into Psalm 92 a little bit farther, it refers to seeing what's the word? Seeing my my desire on my enemies. So that's going to imply wanting to see them being judged and being destroyed. And the reason why this isn't contradictory to where the Bible teaches to love your enemies is you have to understand who the workers of iniquity are in reference to scripture when we look at other scripture. Because in general, yeah, you know, we're not wishing evil on people, we should be out there you know, loving our enemies, you know, loving our brethren, and doing good. But there is a small group of people that are the enemies of the Lord that we should not be blessing, that we should not be encouraging, and that we shouldn't even be praying for. And when the Bible is referring to this, and I've done Bible studies on this in the past, and I just want to give some examples for you, and I'm going to go through a lot of these really quick, but you can write them down if you want to look up these references later, and do the study on your own later on too if you want to fact check this and check it out for yourself. When the Bible is referring to these workers of iniquity, it's kind of like a class or a group of people, you can say, yeah, but we're all workers of iniquity because we're all sinners. But that's not how the Bible uses this phrase. It's just not. And I'll show you from scripture that this is a phrase that's used for people who are not just your average sinner. Now, Psalm 5 says this, The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. So it says that God hates all the workers of iniquity. Psalm 6 8 says, Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity, for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. And this is the psalmist saying, hey, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, because God's heard the voice of my weeping. Psalm 14 4 says, Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread and call not upon the Lord. So these are clearly people that are not calling upon the Lord. They have no knowledge and they're eating up God's people like they would eat bread. I mean, this is a wicked people that's just destroying God's people just like it's no big deal, just as they'd eat bread. Continuing on with these other references, Psalm 28 3 says, Draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. And, you know, I brought this up before, too. I think we all can know what we've all been unsaved before. And I could speak for myself. I never had this heart where I would plot and plan someone else's demise and mischief against people like just or I'm going to do this and I'm going to lie and wait and I'm going to do all these things like this evil things to just have it out for someone and set traps for people. Right? Like that's a special, that's a different type of person who does those things. I'm not saying every person who's ever set a trap for someone is some reprobate, but rather this is a characteristic of the workers of iniquity that they do these things. Like that this is in their heart. This is what they're about. That they they're the ones that have mischief in their heart, but they'll speak peace, right? So they'll lie to you and say, oh yeah, hey brother, you know. On the outward, they're the wolf in sheep's clothing. They're the ones that are going to make themselves look good to other people, but then they're really wolves that are looking to destroy. Psalm 53 verse 4 says, have the workers of iniquity known knowledge who eat up my people as they eat bread? They have not called upon God. And there's another, you say, didn't we just read that? No, that was in Psalm 14 that sounded very familiar to this, almost identical to Psalm 53 4. Psalm 59 2 says, deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloody men. Psalm 64 2 says, hide me from the secret council of the wicked, from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity. And then even in Luke chapter 13, there's a New Testament reference to this. Luke 13 verse 27, the Bible says, but he shall say, I tell you, I know you not once you are. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out. So clearly these are people who are damned to hell, where he's calling them the workers of iniquity and saying, depart from me and referring to the gnashing of teeth that's going to be in that outer darkness. So let's go back to actually turn if you would to Psalm 73. Keep your place in Psalm 92. I just wanted to throw out those references for the workers of iniquity, and I think if you study this out, you'll see the same thing that I'm talking about here that it's kind of like a group of people that I would call reprobates. That these are the people that have pushed things too far, that have hardened their heart to the point to where God has hardened their heart and it's been darkened and they have been given over to the reprobate mind. But what did we see in Psalm 92 about these people? It says when the wicked spring is the grass and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, what does flourish mean? It means they're doing well. So when these really evil, wicked people are just doing good, they're doing well, you look at them and be like, it seems like they don't have any problems. Why does it look like they're being blessed? Why do these people look like everything is going well for them when I know that they're super wicked, when I know that their heart isn't right, that they're setting traps for people, they're evil people. Well, it says, when they spring is the grass, when they flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed forever. Basically, don't worry because it's already established that they're just going to be destroyed forever. So yeah, right now, they seem like they're flourishing and everything's going great, but they have an end. And they have an end that you need to understand is not good, it's a destructive end, and they're going to get what's coming to them. So in the short term, in the temporary, yeah, everything seems to be going their way, but that's not how it's going to end for them. Psalm 73, we just covered this, well, a while ago now, I guess, about 20 chapters ago almost, so 20 weeks ago, roughly, we looked at this passage in its fullness, but look at verse number 3, the Bible says this, for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. And this goes more in depth into just having this wrong mindset when you see wicked people doing really well and he's going, look, I was envious at them. I'm looking at the wicked and their life and what they have and I'm becoming envious over these foolish people when I see their prosperity, I see how well everything's going, it's like, man, I want my life to be like that. I want to have that stuff. But that's always because you don't see the full picture anyways. Even outside of the world to come, even in this life, like, you're still not seeing the full picture. Sin is always a big smoke and mirrors show because people are never satisfied. Even the people with the most amount of money that seem like they have the best lives, they're never satisfied. Never satisfied. That's a, that is a piece they don't have. But I'm going to continue here in Psalm 73, it says, for there are no bands in their death but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. It's kind of going through all these things that it just seems like everything's going so well for them. They seem to have it all together. They don't really have any problems in their death. They've got their strength. They don't have trouble like other people, like normal people have problems. They, everything seems to be just fine. Jump down to verse number 16. The Bible reads, when I thought to know this, it was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God then understood I their end. And of course, Psalm 73 goes into much more detail compared to Psalm 92. Psalm 92 jumps right to the end right away and says, hey, when they flourish, when they spring up, they've got an end. Don't worry about it. And Psalm 73 goes more in detail, but it comes to the same conclusion. He says, oh wait, yeah, then I went in the sanctuary of God and I realized how foolish I was for being envious at the wicked people because now I understand their end. Surely thou did set them in slippery places. Thou cast them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment? They're utterly consumed with terrors. So when they're so established here in this life and everything seems to be going so well, they're going to be consumed with terrors when they breathe their last breath and go to hell. That is a terrible, a terrifying sight and a place to be. Go back, if you would, further to Psalm 37. Psalm 37. We get a little bit more teaching on this because we don't want to have the wrong view of the well off in this world or the rich wicked people in this world. And I'm not saying every single person who has wealth is wicked. I don't believe that to be true, but the vast majority of them are. And obviously we have to define how much wealth you're talking about here. Well, I mean, on one hand, everybody in the United States is wealthy. And we ought to have that outlook and that mindset knowing that, right, just, hey, we're here in this country, we're wealthy because we could do a comparison amongst humanity over a long period of time and just know that we've got it well. We've got it very well. But then on top of that, of course, there's just extremely, extremely grossly wealthy people that are that are alive in these you know, these days. And we ought but we ought not to envy that and not be covetous over their stuff and the things and and their lives and whatever else, because it's it's not all it's cracked up to be. So we're going to look at some of these passages and just remind ourselves, hey, look, you know, when you know someone to be evil, we could don't be envious of them at all. There's no reason to be envious of the evil doer. Verse one Psalm 37 says fret not thyself because of evil doers. Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. And again, it's referring to workers of iniquity in Psalm 37 says for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land and surely thou shalt be fed. Jump down to verse seven. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. So he's saying don't fret. Don't worry. Don't be troubled over these people and over these things that you see. It's not worth your time. Don't get anxious about it. Don't worry yourself. We have no reason to worry ourselves over the wicked and the person who's prospering in his way. Don't let it bother you. Cease from anger verse number eight and forsake wrath fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Why? Why can we just have peace and just take comfort and just be like, you know what? I'm not even gonna worry about this at all. Not gonna let it bother me. Why? Verse nine. For evil doers shall be cut off. But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the Earth. There's two reasons, right? One is because those evil doers, God's gonna take care of them. They're gonna be cut off. They're gonna see their end. It's gonna be horrible. It's gonna be terrifying for them. But not just that. Hey, those that wait upon the Lord, you're gonna inherit the Earth. So it seems like they have everything right now in this very short space and short amount of time. This is their heaven on Earth. This is what they get. The wicked, the workers of iniquity, this is all they have is what's in this world. And it doesn't last very long, and then it's an eternity in hell. Whereas those that wait on the Lord, we may have to struggle a little bit more. We might not have all the riches and things of this world. So what? We're just gonna be patient. Why? Because in the end, we're inheriting the Earth. Verse 10. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. Yet a little while. It's just a little amount of time, and then it's like, wait, where did that guy even live? Yeah, it's not even there. It's gone. All the stuff, everything he had, gone. It's like nothing. But the meek shall inherit the Earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Let's go back to Psalm 92. And all of these other references, these other Psalms that we turn to, it's a very similar progression through Psalm 92 as well. We talk about the wicked, but then it talks about the inheritance of the Earth and God blessing those that wait on him and serve him. It's that same pattern, the same truth, the same truth being expressed. Right? So we ought to take comfort, and God wants us to take comfort, which is why this is found in Scripture in multiple places, because let's face it, reality can be hard sometimes when you're just day in, day out, and you get confronted with wicked people, and there's a lot of wicked people in power and have a lot of influence and have a lot of wealth, and they don't make it easy for us sometimes. Right? And we confront ourselves and get real angry. And I'm not saying you can't have righteous anger, but at the same time, just understand and be like, look, they got an end. Like, we shouldn't be in despair over it. And we shouldn't be envious. And just say, okay, well, it's gonna, everything will be brought before judgment. Everything will be brought before judgment. There is a judgment day. It's coming. And there's the resurrection of the just and of the unjust. And everyone is gonna stand before God, and every knee is gonna bow, and every tongue is gonna confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of the glory of God the Father. Let's keep reading here in Psalm 92. Look at verse number 8. Bible reads, But thou, Lord, art most high forevermore. For lo, thine enemies, O Lord, for lo, thine enemies shall perish. All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. And this is where we're seeing the tying in of God's enemies and the workers of iniquity be in the same group of people. This is talking about that group. It's God's enemies. And what I brought up earlier about having that mindset or that attitude towards God's enemies is different than it would be on our own enemies. Verse 10 says, But my horn shall thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. Because this is when God rights the wrongs and all the people who have been being persecuted and martyred and all the bad things happening. You know what? Those wicked people and those workers of iniquity are going to get their end. They're going to get their due and it will be, you know, for all the saved on Earth. And you've got to understand this. There's going to be rejoicing at God's judgment. His judgment is righteous. And we ought to be happy about God bringing in justice into the world and just righting all the wrongs. That is a good thing. God is a God of justice and it's a very good trait and attribute and something that we should be looking forward to one day. Obviously we want to see as many people get saved as possible, but you know what? The workers of iniquity are out there just the enemies of God and trying to stop people from getting saved and trying to stop all the good works being done and doing everything they can for darkness and for wickedness. You know, they're going to get their day. And that's just a fact. So earlier we saw the flourishing of the wicked. Remember that? We're talking about how well they flourish. But now we kick over, kick gears into where the flourishing is of the righteous. Verse number 12 says the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit of their own age. They shall be fat and flourishing. Three times now for the one time that the wicked flourishes, there's three times that the righteous are flourishing in this passage. And that just shows how much far and above God is going to make us to flourish in the end. And also notice too, verse 13, I preached on this in the past week or two, being planted in the house of the Lord. Those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of God. God's going to bless that and you're going to be really flourishing and doing really well. And I love verse 14 says they shall still bring forth fruit in old age. Old age. And would to God we could have more men and women of God in their old age continuing to serve to the best of their ability. And it's sad because we have churches that are dying out. And churches that have done great works for the Lord in the past and have members that were part of all of that work and part of all of that effort in the past saved brothers and sisters, but now they've kind of stopped doing all the work and their church is about to die. But they're not dead yet. And if we could, if you're planting yourself in the house of the Lord, man, you need to be flourishing, but it's not enough just to plant your rear end in the house of the Lord. You got to be there, body, mind, soul, spirit, ready to serve and planted and rooted in the house of God, right, in his tabernacle, in his holy hill, being with him to do the work. And I get it as you get older, your body isn't quite as capable of doing the things that it was when it was younger. But there's still opportunities, still opportunities that can't be wasted. And, you know, as you get more time in general, if you get more time, I say that, you know, not necessarily everyone that goes into older age always has more time. Many do. Many still have to work until the day they die, but many people get more time off and are able to have more time on their hands. Look, make the most use out of that time so you can still be bringing forth fruit even in old age. Bring forth fruit, bring converts, talking to people about Christ. The job isn't finished until you breathe your last breath. Make every last use of your time, make the best use of your time as you can. I pray to God that I can still be bringing forth fruit all the way through old age until whatever that last day as I breathe my last breath, I want to be a soul winner. I want to not let that ever die out, and I never want to retire from serving the Lord. And just say, well, I'm done now. And that's what happens when people retire from serving God and we find the condition of many churches, like I said, they're just going to die now. The church is just literally going to die because everyone's retired. But what's next after retirement? Death. That's it. No, keep working. I want to be fat and flourishing. That's what the verse says, verse 14. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing. I want to be flourishing and, you know, not physically fat, but, you know, spiritually fat. To show that the Lord is upright. He is my rock. And there is no unrighteousness in Him. So this is a great ending to this psalm. Now, quickly, I want to cover let's say, well, Bensalabasins, why is this a song for the Sabbath day? It doesn't mention the Sabbath. It doesn't talk about creation. It doesn't talk about this stuff. How is that applicable? How would that be a proper title for this psalm? Well, because of the focus on that judgment. So I spent a lot more time going into more detail on some of these topics. But when you go back and just look at the psalm as a whole, you know, we see the giving of thanks, of course, and praising the Lord. Why do we praise Him? Because He's good. Because of His faithfulness. It brings up the brutish man and the wicked and saying, you know what, they flourish, but then it's just gone forever because God brings that judgment and then all the goodness that comes. And that's the most of this psalm is focused on how God is going to be good to the righteous. And this is, these are all references to later times. This is not happening like right now in our life. This is the rest that we're going to enter into. And this is why I think this is appropriate for, to being a song of the Sabbath. Because while we may suffer in this life, we enter into the rest of Jesus Christ. So you could turn if you went to Hebrews chapter 4. And while you're turning there, I'll just read for you Genesis chapter 1, of course, where the first Sabbath was instituted. Genesis 1 31, the Bible reads, and God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. That's the last verse of Genesis 1 that closes out that sixth day creation time. And everything He did was good, and He's like, alright, it's done. And then He rests, and Genesis 22 says that on the seventh day, God ended His work, which He had made, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And you remember all the references to praising God for His works, right? Three times we saw that in this psalm. It's His works, and we're going to triumph in His works. Because that's what salvation is, is trusting in His works, not ours. It's what God has done. And He gets the credit, and He gets the glory, and He gets the honor, and He gets the praise. He gets the singing. But the seventh day, God rested from the works that He had made, and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made. And of course, the Sabbath was a big deal throughout the Old Testament, a huge deal, right? In fact, it's such a big deal that if someone broke the Mosaic law, the Ten Commandments of breaking the Sabbath, that you would be put to death. That was a big deal. God was clearly trying to bring home a serious truth, and that truth is fully explained in the book of Hebrews. And we're going to look at one small section in Hebrews chapter four. Verse number eight, the Bible says, For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day? There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. There is a rest still to come, for He that has entered into His rest, He also hath ceased from His own works, as God did from His. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. And I'm not going to spend the rest of the evening going through all of Hebrews four. That's a whole Bible study in and of itself. You could read that more fully in context, Hebrews three, Hebrews four, and even Hebrews five. But the fact is that God did all the work for us. And we need to recognize that and not think that you know, we deserve heaven, we deserve all the great things that God has planned for us. We don't deserve it. But we thank God because He's giving it to us and He loves us anyways, He wants us to have it. And He did all the work for us and He prepared a place for us. We don't have to go and prepare a place, He prepared a place for us. It's bought and paid for, it's ready to go. And when we receive Christ, when we put our trust in Him, we receive eternal life, we receive the inheritance, we receive the blessing, we receive all the goodness of God. And it has nothing to do with our own works. Because He did all the work for it. And we just rest in that. Just as the Sabbath day, everyone had to rest from labors, don't do any work, don't even, you know, the food preparation, all that stuff is all done prior to that. You just, you rest. I don't want you doing anything, is what God said. I just want you resting. Why? Because it's a reflection of, that's the only way you can be saved. You can't be thinking that you have to add anything to that. And that's why it was such a serious punishment of the death penalty because if you think that you can do anything, add any of your type of work on top of what God's done, no. Doesn't work. It's a picture of salvation, so anyone who tries to add works into salvation, you're not saved. You think that anything that you do, any little, whether it's a little bit or a lot of work, he says, none of it. You're doing none of it. None on the Sabbath day. And none to enter into the rest of Christ. And that's good news for us. But I like how Hebrews 4-11 says, well let us labor to enter into that rest. Because while we have the salvation right now, we're still laboring to fully enter in to what God has prepared for us. We're secured, we're sealed with that salvation. But we don't just stop now and say, alright, I'm done. We say, alright, I'm done trying to work my way into heaven and trying to be good enough for heaven. Yeah, we stop that. But now we know we're saved. Hey, well we're going to keep laboring until I do finally enter into his rest completely and go into the land that he's promised and inherit the earth and inherit the blessings that is promised to us. That is promised to those who have received the gift by faith. So, these topics were brought up in Psalm 92. Maybe not in the most obvious ways, but when you think about it, I think it makes a lot of sense as to why you can apply this to be like, you know, this is a good psalm of the Sabbath. This is a song for the Sabbath. Because it's a psalm of rejoicing of the things to come and the celebration in God's works and what he had done and hey, we're resting from ours and trusting in his. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for such a great, encouraging, edifying psalm here in Psalm 92. We thank you for doing all the work for us and Lord, we pray that you would please work through us and help us to do great works for the name of Christ, that you can get all the glory and honor and that we can show people and tell people about the work that you've done and the love that you have and what you have in store for us, dear Lord. I pray that you would have mighty works be done through our church, through the people here that are going to show up willing to do the work, willing to face the battle, willing to put themselves out there and face the heat, dear Lord, just to serve you and to do what's right and I pray that you please help us and strengthen us, dear Lord, to do the right thing, to be preachers of your word and to teach the truth in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, dear Lord. Help us to shine like lights. We love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. We're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed for the evening. So let's turn our songbooks to song number 281. Song number 281, Bless me not, O gentle savior. Song 281. Bless me not, O gentle savior, hear my humble cry. While our brothers are calling, do not pass me by. Savior, our Savior, hear my humble cry. While our brothers are calling, do not pass me by. Let me and mercy wind asleep here kneeling there in deep depression. Help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While our brothers are calling, do not pass me by. Trust me only in my merit. Lord, I seek thy grace. Heal my wounded broken spirit. Save me by thy grace. Savior, hear my humble cry. While our brothers are calling, do not pass me by. Let me love the strength of all my comfort. Lord, my delight to me. True in heavenly Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While our brothers are calling, do not pass me by. Amen. We're dismissed. Thank you all so much for being here this evening. We'll be right back. ...