Thou Art My Lord

[00:00:00] All right, let's get our Bible and turn to the Book of psalms. Psalm number 16 tonight. Psalm number 16. Correct. [00:00:16] Which is right after Psalm number. [00:00:20] It is not right after that. [00:00:23] Psalm number 16, verse number 1. It starts with Miktom of David. Psalm 16, verse 1 says, Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust, O my soul. [00:00:38] Thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God. Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer nor take up their names into my lips. [00:01:03] The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup thou maintainest my lot. [00:01:12] The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel. My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. [00:01:33] Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. [00:01:45] Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. [00:01:49] Thou wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Let's pray together. [00:02:01] Father, thank you for the chance to look in Psalm number 16. Thank you for the chance to meet together with your people. You have called them excellent, Lord. Thank you for your word. And I pray that, Lord, if you be pleased to use your word to be a blessing and a help to your people. You know, Lord, I can't do that, Lord. It has to be your spirit teaching and instructing and guiding. So, Lord, I pray that you would do that. Thank you for the results of the election. [00:02:31] Thank you that we have reason to be joyful that a measure of righteousness has been upheld. Thank you for that, Lord. We pray for our leaders. We pray for Joe Biden and for Kamala Harris. We pray for Donald Trump, for J.D. vance. [00:02:48] Lord, we pray for our state and local leaders, the various ones that all of whom need the Lord Jesus. Lord, one day they will stand before the great judge of the earth and will give an account, Lord, help them, prick their hearts, draw them to you that they might be prepared. [00:03:08] And so, Lord, we pray that you bless our service tonight and all that's done in Jesus name. Amen. [00:03:18] In the first thing, I want to point out is actually down in verse number eight. Okay, Verse number eight. And the reason I just want to point it out, because we've covered this when we were going through the book of Acts. [00:03:29] Feels like about 10 years ago, but it's actually only been about a year. [00:03:33] In verse number eight, the Bible says, I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Now this, what I'm quoting here, what I just quoted. And the following verses are actually quoted in the book of Acts, Chapter 2, by Peter as a proof text for the resurrection of Christ. A proof text which is a prophecy of the resurrection of Christ. As I said, we've covered that before. I know some of you weren't here, but we covered that. In fact, if you want to go back and listen to that message, it's on the website. It's listed there under the Acts series. [00:04:11] But I just want to quickly cover it. It Sundays, therefore, verse nine, my heart is glad. Now, as we see in verse number nine, it says, my heart is glad. So naturally we read this and we think David is speaking. But there are many times when David is speaking. But kind of superimposed over David's words, it's actually referencing Jesus speaking because Jesus is the son of David. It kind of all overlaps. It's a double reference. How do we know that? Because the New Testament identifies it as such. Okay. And I'll show you how, besides that, verse number nine, therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoiceth my flesh. That's the body. Now David's speaking. Now, I want, as we go through these verses, think about it through the eyes of David, as if David is the one being referred to here. Okay? That'll help us understand it. My flesh, my body also shall rest. [00:05:10] All right? Think of death in hope. Now we know that hope is faith in something that is future. That's kind of the definition of hope. All right? So his flesh, that is his body, will rest dead in hope with the knowledge and trust of a future event. Okay? That's what we're talking about here. For and that connects it. [00:05:35] Thou, God, wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Here's the way. The logic that Peter used in Acts 2 says this. Was David's soul left in hell? [00:05:54] Was David left in corruption? And the answer is yes. [00:05:58] David died about a thousand years before Jesus. [00:06:03] Right? And so obviously, and this is what Peter says in Acts 2, obviously, this cannot be a reference to just David Although this is where it overlaps, it must, it must also have a higher reference. And that reference is to a promise of the resurrection of Christ, that Christ would not be left in hell, that the Holy One of God would not see corruption. And he didn't because he rose after three days. Right. And so therefore this is a reference to Christ and his resurrection. It's a prophecy of Christ. Now, if any of you are confused with the concept or the idea that David or Christ was in hell, that's a debate that we've kind of debated before. [00:06:52] But I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that. You can ask me about that later if you want my opinion on it. But I want to get to the rest of the psalm here. So let's look at verse number one. Preserve me, O God, for in thee do I put my trust, O my soul. Now stop a second. [00:07:10] Have you ever talked to your soul? [00:07:15] I know that sounds like a funny way to say that, but have you ever talked to yourself? [00:07:23] Your soul is the inner man. The soul is your true you. It's the immaterial part of you, the inside of you, where you think, you feel, you know. That's your soul, not your body. Your soul's the inside. Our soul dwells within our body. Have you ever talked to yourself? [00:07:40] Absolutely. [00:07:41] Absolutely. Adam, what is wrong with you? Right? Usually that's what I'm saying, right? [00:07:48] Are you stupid? Why can't you, why can't you just get this thing right? [00:07:54] He says, oh my soul. So here's what I want you to see. This is a conversation that David is having inside of himself. [00:08:05] This is important. [00:08:07] This is not a conversation he's having outwardly where anybody else knows. This is something private between him and God that nobody knows except the fact that he's put it in writing here. [00:08:19] O my soul. [00:08:21] Thou he's speaking to his soul now, has said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord. Let me ask you a question. Is God the Lord as a statement of absolute fact? Yes. We don't make him Lord. He is Lord. [00:08:43] And if there's anybody that challenges that fact one day he is going to make them perfectly aware that he is the Lord. Okay? So that's not a question, but notice. Notice there needs to be a time in our lives when in our soul, in the inner part of us, we talking directly to God. It's just a two way conversation. Me to the Lord, the Lord to me, nobody else. Not talking to any other, any other flesh and blood person. [00:09:17] There should be a time when we say, lord, you are the Lord, but you are my Lord. [00:09:26] There's meaning in those words. It's not just about saying words. In fact, we're not even talking about saying words. We're talking about the inner man saying to God, you are the Lord, but I'm acknowledging that you are my Lord. You are the ruler. You own me. [00:09:49] Does God? Now, I know God owns you, right? As a matter of fact, God owns all of us, right? He owns everything. He is the Lord of all. That's what that means, he owns everything. [00:10:03] But in practice, does the Lord own you? [00:10:09] Do you acknowledge his lordship over you? And if you do, that means what he says of his own property is what goes. [00:10:23] So can you. Can you and I. Can we honestly say, lord, you are my Lord? It's not just words. [00:10:32] Don't let it be just words. You are my Lord. You have total control over me. I am yours. [00:10:45] This is the conversation David is having in his heart. He's personalizing the lordship of Jehovah. [00:10:56] He's personalizing it. It's one thing to say that Jesus is the Lord. You see that? You know, that's like a religious thing. It's like, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. But is he your Lord? Because it doesn't make a whole lot of difference to you as an individual if he is not your. You don't rather acknowledge that he is and own him as your Lord? [00:11:25] We're just merely acknowledging him in his rightful place. Look at verse number two. O my soul, Thou hast said unto the Lord. Thou art my Lord. [00:11:35] I love this. My goodness extendeth not to Thee, but I must continue. But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent in whom is all my delight. My goodness extendeth not to thee. It's kind of an unusual phrase, right? My goodness extendeth not to thee. Take a peek here. Look at Job, one book to the left. Job, chapter 22. Job 22, verse number two. [00:12:07] How many of you know the way the Book of Job works, the structure? My kids should know. He has three friends. Their names are. [00:12:16] I've been going back in time. We've been in our. In our Bible time, in our family. We're going through Job. We're at the beginning, and we're going. I'm throwing them back in time to the times that we used to memorize things and repeat things, you know, in our Bible time. And they. They roll their eyes at me. So the names are Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. They're like dad, Come on. [00:12:41] But we know that Job's three friends often say the right thing, but in the wrong way, or apply those things in the wrong way, right? Until you get to the very end. And there's one friend, which is Elihu, who's a little bit different. Notice what verse two says. Job 22. 2. Can a man be profitable unto God as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself? [00:13:08] Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous? Or is it gain to him that thou makest thy ways perfect? [00:13:16] Now, Eliphaz is one of the three friends who, though sincere, is not exactly on target. Everything he says, right? [00:13:25] So we might read what Eliphaz says and think, well, maybe Eliphaz has gotten it wrong a little bit. You know, you think, well, the Bible's wrong. No, what I'm saying is the Bible correctly records what the people say, whether that thing they say is right or wrong. Okay? So some of the things Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar say are not exactly right. But in this case, we ask ourselves this. [00:13:48] Can a man be profitable to God? How would you answer? [00:13:52] I would say no. [00:13:54] Right? Can my goodness extend to God? Does it benefit him that I'm righteous? That I obey Him? No, he is perfect. Nothing we do benefits him so. But if there's any doubt, because Eliphaz is the one talking, let's go a little bit further ahead to Job 35, Job 35, verse 7. In this case, we have Elihu or Elihu, depending on how you want to pronounce it. In verse seven, Elihu says this to Job, if thou be righteous, what givest thou him, or what receiveth he of thine hand? [00:14:42] Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art, and thy righteousness may profit the Son of man. Same principle, right? If we live for God, does it help God? [00:14:55] I'm afraid that we have this thing completely backward. [00:14:59] We often think, and I say we broadly Christianity in its broadest terms, not necessarily all of you, but generally speaking, we've got this thing backwards. We think that our living for God, our goodness, our well doing helps God, or we're doing him a favor in some way. We are not. [00:15:25] We are not. [00:15:29] He gains nothing by what we do because he is perfect to begin with. [00:15:34] Now we know he is pleased with our obedience and our well doing, but we're not doing him a favor. [00:15:43] We're not doing him a favor by living uprightly. This is a totally wrong perspective, totally wrong perspective. [00:15:56] But look at what Elihu says at the end of verse 8. Rather, Elihu continues with Job. He says, thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art, and thy righteousness may profit the Son of man. Now go back to Psalm 16, if you would notice what he says in verse 2. He says, Thou art my Lord, my goodness extendeth not to thee. In other words, whatever good I do, you know, you think of the idea of, you know, you take a baseball or. And you throw it up into the air and it's not ever going to reach the Lord, right? It's just. It goes certain height and then it comes back down. That's, that's what I visualize in my mind. My goodness. Whatever good I do, my well doing it, I, you know, it doesn't get up to where you are. There's no profit in that. Number one. We see that. First of all, if it, if, if it, if my goodness doesn't extend to the Lord, that means it can't help me before him in the matter of righteousness, right? It doesn't even get to him. [00:17:02] That's the first thing. But the second thing is that we're not helping the Lord. [00:17:09] We're not doing God a favor by doing good. And you remember on Sunday we talked about doing good in both services. That was the idea. The idea of salt and light and the persecution for righteousness. The idea of doing good. This is something God wants us to do. But we should not think that somehow, that somehow the Lord we're doing the Lord a favor, because we're not. But it does say in verse three, but to the saints that are in the earth, there is indeed a benefit to your well doing. [00:17:50] Not to the Lord, but to those around you, specifically to the saints around you. God's people. [00:17:59] There is a benefit to you living uprightly. You walking with God, you being obedient, you being faithful provides a benefit to the Son of Man. [00:18:13] That's us here. [00:18:15] In other words, you and I, we do not live on an island by ourselves such that what we do has no effect, positive or negative, upon other people. This kind of, you know, we live in America and America is increasingly becoming hyper individualistic, is it not? [00:18:36] You all understand what I'm saying? Hyper individualistic? What people are doing is they're, they're not recognizing or interacting with or accepting any kind of social duties at all. They're just throwing them off. I don't have to do anything to anybody. I don't have any responsibility. It is me. I'm an island. [00:18:55] I'm a star in the sky. I don't touch or interact with anybody else. And that is wholly false. [00:19:03] What you do, good or bad, affects those around you. When you live for God, you provide a benefit for the saints that are in the earth. [00:19:15] And when you don't live for God, that benefit is never realized. [00:19:20] And worse, when you or I sin against the Lord, it brings active harm upon the saints of God. [00:19:31] Just as the benefit we provide a benefit by our living for the Lord. No man lives just for himself. [00:19:42] Every one of us, our lives touch each other. The saints are a group. The saints are a group. That's why you all, almost always you see the word saints in the plural. We're together, we're a body. [00:19:58] That's why, listen, we need to understand, you know, you think of verse number three says, but to the saints that are in the earth, where are the saints of God in 2024? Where are they? [00:20:13] Where are they in the earth? [00:20:15] Simple answer. Where are they? [00:20:20] All over. Okay, where will you find them? If you went searching, where would you go looking if you were trying to find the saints of God? There you go, right? You're going to find them in a church big and churches big and small, across all the lands, all the nations of the world, you're going to find. And they might not look like this, most probably don't. [00:20:42] It might be a shack, might have a thatched roof, whatever. [00:20:46] But you're going to find a group of people that are the saints of God, that in local churches all over the world, that is where you find the saints of God. This idea that we're free floating, you know what they call it, atomized people, like we're just, we're not touching, connected. That's false. The saints are together even in these verses. But to the saints that are in the earth, notice this. And to the excellent in whom is almighty light, notice that David is describing and characterizing the saints of God in the earth as excellent. [00:21:31] How many of you are not so excellent sometimes? [00:21:35] Okay, I raised my hand too. [00:21:37] Are the saints of God always excellent? [00:21:40] But that's how he characterizes them. You see that? You know, there are some Christians that are so sour toward other Christians that they do not characterize the saints of God as excellent. [00:22:00] Sometimes it's like after we're saved and we're saved for so long and we're only surrounded by the saints of God, we forget what it's like to be around people who are not the saints of God and listen. And that's of course no excuse for wrongdoing among the saints of God. That of course, has to be addressed. [00:22:22] But we should be careful how we characterize the saints of God. David says they are the excellent in the earth. The saints in the earth are the excellent. [00:22:35] This is, you know, you fast forward it in our time, we're talking about the church here, right? We're talking about the church of God. We have faults, we mess up, we sometimes mistreat one another, we're out of sorts, we walk in the flesh. We're unkind, all of those things. It's true of you, and it's just the same as true of me. [00:22:59] But listen, we're it, we are it. [00:23:06] We are the saints of God in the earth, and we are the excellent. [00:23:12] Now, of course, we should live up to that honor and that characterization, of course. [00:23:18] But over and over in the scripture, you find the Lord characterizing and describing his people in terms far more flattering than we often seem to observe them to be, do we not? [00:23:35] This is how the Lord, even in the Old Testament, we don't have time to go there. But even in the Old Testament, whenever the Lord's talking to Israel, he's judging and he's correcting and he's disciplining. Because Israel in the wilderness is just a wreck, right? But the moment a nation comes to them and attack, he says, he spreads his wings, as it were, over them. And he says, what are you doing? I have. In fact, in the prophecy of Balaam, he says, I have found no fault in them, and they are full of fault at that same moment. Yet he says, I found none. You guys know what I'm talking about, don't you? [00:24:13] Let us not be those people who. Let us be the people who describe and characterize the saints of God as excellent, Right? [00:24:23] And then we go to verse number four. Oh, I'm sorry, verse three, the end of verse three. In whom is all my delight. And it directly follows, if the saints of God are to us negative, how are we going to delight in them? [00:24:40] What does this say about our. What our attitude should be toward the people of God in the church? The saints. Should we just come to church, make our appearance, sit in our pew, or should we delight in the saints? [00:24:57] Delight is not the same as tolerate. [00:25:01] Say Amen right there. [00:25:03] All right, look at verse number four. Their sorrow shall be multiplied that hasten after another God. Their drink, offerings of blood will I not offer nor take up their names into my lips? You know this drink, offerings of blood. Normally they would have, like wine, or they would have different. Like actual water. Different drinks. Actual drinks. They would Pour out to God. David poured out a drink offering of the well of Bethlehem. Remember that? He poured out a drink offering to the Lord. That's a drink you would drink. This drink offering is blood. [00:25:35] The Jews were not permitted to drink blood. It was an abomination. They were not permitted to drink blood. [00:25:44] Now notice their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God. So we're talking about another faith, another religion. [00:25:51] When I read this drink offerings of blood, you know what I thought about? I thought about transubstantiation. [00:25:58] Roman Catholic doctrine teaches that the wine of communion literally turns into the blood of Jesus. [00:26:06] And then you drink it. [00:26:13] He says, I will not offer nor take up their names into my lips. [00:26:21] The children of Israel had drink offerings. The children of Israel had ways to serve the Lord. [00:26:27] Why would they then offer the drink offering of the blood, of the offerings of blood that the heathen offered? Why would they pattern their worship after the heathen? Should not the worship of God be distinct? And should it not follow the pattern that the Lord has given and not mimic that which is false? [00:26:52] You see the true faith of God because we're talking about another God in verse 4. The true faith of God, mingling it with falsehood for the sake of unity or harmony is a betrayal of God's word. It's a betrayal of the Lord himself. And that's what they're. He's saying, I will not have any part of it. I will not even speak the name. [00:27:22] This is speaking to the purity of our faith. [00:27:27] And then in five and six we'll conclude here, the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup thou maintainest my lot. [00:27:40] The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage. [00:27:45] Picture, picture. Going out to a piece of property. And the lines are being drawn to determine what streams you have, what springs you have, whether you have forests, whether you have fields, what those fields are, how big they are, what trees you have. And this is your inheritance. This is going to be your property. The lines are going to be drawn to set the boundaries of what you possess. What is your becomes yours. That's what we're talking about when we're talking about a portion in verse five. An inheritance, a lot, a heritage. We're talking about all talking about the same thing, which is that which I possess. That's what we're talking about in verse five. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance. So while others boast of their land and their property, the saint of God boasts of the most valuable Possession he has. [00:28:48] And he compares it. Notice he says in verse six, I have a goodly heritage. What is that? Heritage. What is that? Possession. Verse 5. What is it? The Lord. [00:29:01] He has the Lord. And to him that is far, far more valuable. He calls it just as a piece of land. He calls it a goodly heritage. In other words. I know we sing that song. I have goodly hair. And we talk about our mom, her dad, and all that's all fine and good, but the. But the context is talking about God himself being our heritage. [00:29:24] You have the Lord in these verses. What do you hear? What I hear when I read verses 5 and 6 is contentment. Don't you? Look at this. Look at this. The way the lines are drawn and what's on my piece of property here. It's beautiful. It's perfect. [00:29:45] But what we're talking about is the Lord himself. [00:29:48] I have a great reason to be content. [00:29:53] The lines have fallen in pleasant places. [00:29:57] You see, our contentment is based not upon what we possess in material things, but upon having the Lord as our portion. [00:30:08] Usually, if we're discontent, it's because we desire something bigger and greater and better or more expensive than that which we already have. [00:30:16] But the question is this. When you already have the biggest, the greatest, the most wonderful, the most magnificent thing as your possession already, on what grounds you have to be discontent. You already have the biggest. You already have the best thing. The Lord himself. He is your heritage. [00:30:35] Nothing, nothing that we could possibly want is better than what we currently possess. [00:30:43] So we say, this discontentment then, is far more than just an unhappy feeling. [00:30:50] It is an affront to God himself. [00:30:54] Because God is our portion. [00:30:58] If we lose everything, we still have the best thing, right. [00:31:05] To be discontent is to look lightly upon him as our possession, as if he is nothing. [00:31:17] So every one of us in this room that knows the Lord Jesus without a doubt, no matter what family we come from, no matter how much, what our possessions are, our bank account, our home, our land, no matter what, every one of us that has the Lord Jesus Christ in us can say, I have a goodly heritage. I have the best possession I have. We don't always live up to it, but I have reason to be content. [00:31:44] Amen. Let's pray.