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[0:00] You can take your copy of God's Word and turn to Psalm 138.

[0:10] We will read all of Psalm 138. This is the Word of God. Of David, I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart.

[0:24] Before the gods I will sing your praise. I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness. For you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

[0:38] When I called, you answered me. You made me bold and stout-hearted. May all the kings of the earth praise you, O Lord, when they hear the words of your mouth.

[0:49] May they sing of the ways of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord is great. Though the Lord is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.

[1:00] Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes. With your right hand you save me.

[1:11] The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. Your love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not abandon the works of your hands. Amen.

[1:25] Two weeks ago in Psalm 119, we saw that part of David's response to God speaking to him was for him to make determined resolutions.

[1:35] I will praise you, O Lord. I will obey your word. I will meditate on your wonders. I will not forget your law. And that's something that's not unique to that Psalm alone, but it's found in some 100 verses scattered throughout the Psalter.

[1:54] So today we're diving into David's Psalm 138, where we see David's resolution to praise the Lord. Now there's much more in the Psalm than that, but that's how the Psalm begins and the other points just keep adding to reasons to praise the Lord.

[2:14] So there's four points. David's determined resolution. David's believing prayer. David's ongoing testimony and David's sure hope.

[2:25] We'll only get to the first two points today. And I trust that as we see David's heart swelling with praise to God by the Spirit, our hearts will do the same to resolve to praise the Lord.

[2:40] So number one, David's determined resolution. Verses one and two. I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart. Before the gods, I will sing your praise.

[2:51] I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness. For you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

[3:03] So four times there in those two verses, David says, I will, I will, I will praise you, O Lord. Now we've heard him pray in Psalm 119, 175, let me live that I may praise you.

[3:19] And indeed, if life is worth anything, it is for praising the Lord. It's for extolling him, lifting him up, making much of him, speaking well of him, telling why he's so wonderful.

[3:34] Did you know, Christian, that's one of the reasons why God saved you. 1 Peter 2, 9, your chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of him who brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

[3:56] That's why he chose you. That's why he made you a priest in his temple. That's why he made you one of his own possession. That you might tell others, what a wonderful Savior Jesus is to you.

[4:10] So praising the Lord is indeed a worthy resolution for us to make. And it seems to me there are two kinds of resolutions. There are some resolutions that are just the happy overflow of new mercies received.

[4:25] Of answers to prayer. Of deliverance out of some troubles. And so with spontaneous glad relief, we say, I will praise you, O Lord.

[4:39] But other resolutions are made right in the midst of the troubles. In the mess of trials. In the heat of the battle. In the height of the storm. When with determined faith, and perhaps even clenched teeth, we refuse to quit.

[4:57] Refuse to give in to the temptation. And therefore resolve, I will praise the Lord no matter what. We've seen both in David.

[5:08] And I know that we have both kinds as well. In good times and in bad times. The resolve, I will praise you, O Lord.

[5:19] Now notice five things about the praise that David resolves to bring to the Lord. First of all, it's God focused praise. I will praise you, O Lord. I will sing your praise.

[5:32] So whether spoken or sung. It's all focused on God. God the Father. God the Son. God the Holy Spirit. The three in one. He himself is the theme of our song.

[5:47] The one we speak of in our songs as we meet. In our preaching. In our praying. In our fellowshipping together. We declare how good and how great our God is.

[6:00] It's God focused. Secondly, it's informed praise. And I want to pause longer on this one because David himself does. Verse two, I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness.

[6:16] For you have exalted above all things your name and your word. Notice he says, I will praise your name. His name is more than just a moniker that identifies him.

[6:30] No, his name is all that he's revealed himself to be. All that he is. The sum total of all his attributes. And so we praise God for being the one true and living God.

[6:44] For being all knowing. Everywhere present. All mighty. Infinite, eternal, sovereign over all. We praise him for his wisdom. For his goodness.

[6:55] His righteousness. His justice. His wrath against what is evil. His grace and mercy to the evil, to the ill deserving. His jealousy. His holiness.

[7:06] His majesty. You see, when God himself is the object of our praise, we never run out of reasons to praise him. And yes, his love and his faithfulness, which are given special highlight in verse two.

[7:21] I will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness. Christian, what do we owe to the love of God? A love that before time chose us and predestined us to be adopted as his children.

[7:38] And then a love. Then a love. Two thousand years ago. That sent his son into the world to redeem us while we were yet enemies. Rebels with our backs turned toward God and our face turned toward self and sin.

[7:53] And he sent his son to redeem us by obeying for us and suffering and dying for us as we've been singing. And then a love that sent his Holy Spirit to give us new birth.

[8:08] When we were dead in trespasses and sins, he made us alive in Christ so that we were enabled to turn from our way and receive Christ and believe on him.

[8:21] A love that now watches over you and sends grace to help you in your time of need. A love that's from everlasting to everlasting. A love that will never let you go and is bringing you all the way home to heaven.

[8:37] Don't you want to praise the Lord for this? His love for you. Don't you want to sing of it? Amazing love. How can it be that thou, my God, should die for me?

[8:50] Curse for me. Damn for me. Life given for me.

[9:03] That I might have eternal life. Which is to know you. To have an intimate relationship with you. To know your love for me. A love that will go on forever and ever.

[9:16] And then we praise him for his faithfulness. He's faithful to his name. He's faithful to all he is. All his attributes.

[9:27] He's faithful to himself. He cannot deny himself. He can't ungod himself. I, the Lord, do not change. Not so much as the shifting, slight shifting of a shadow.

[9:43] He's ever the great I am that I am and ever will be. I was and who is and is to come.

[9:55] The same yesterday, today, forever. Now, do you see what that means? What would we wake up to every morning if we didn't know? Well, maybe God was like that there, but he may not be that now.

[10:10] No, no, he does not change. And that means what he was to Abraham, what he was to Moses and Joshua and Caleb and David. That he is to you, Christian, and he will ever be that to you.

[10:24] You never have to guess. I, the Lord, do not change. What he was to you last year, he will be to you this year.

[10:36] Ever faithful. He's faithful, I say, to his name, but he's also faithful to his word, to whatever he has promised to do.

[10:46] What I have said, that I will do. And oh my, the things that he said. What more can he say than to you he has said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled.

[10:59] He's faithful to his word. And oh, what has he said? He says, if you come to me, I will never cast you out.

[11:13] He says, come to me and I will give you rest, soul rest, inner rest, and sense of well-being. Because you're right with God through Jesus Christ.

[11:25] Ever faithful. You see, you can venture your eternal destiny on one promise of the gospel.

[11:36] And never be disappointed. Because he's faithful. Doesn't it make you want to praise him? Doesn't it make you want to sing, great is thy faithfulness?

[11:48] Oh God, my Father. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. Of course you do. Because he promised. Surely, goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life.

[12:00] And you're waking up to that reality every morning. He's faithful to his name. And he's faithful to his word. And so verse 2 ends.

[12:12] For you have exalted above all things your name and your word. Why do we praise you for your faithfulness to your name and your word?

[12:24] Because you have exalted above all things your name and your word. So here's all things. That's a big category, isn't it? And you can line them all up as to worth and value. But up here is his name and his word.

[12:44] He has lifted up. He is exalted above all things his name and his word. And if he's exalted above all things, should we not exalt above all things in our hearts, in our praises, his name and his word?

[13:10] Exalting who he is and what he said. You see, the two go together. It's in his word that he reveals his name.

[13:25] How do you know who God is? Well, you can learn a few things from creation, his eternal power and Godhead. But you can look in your microscope, your telescope forever.

[13:36] And you will never learn of his compassion for sinners in Jesus Christ. The way that we guilty sinners can be right with this holy God. We learn that in his word.

[13:47] And so he's exalted above all things his name and his word. For it's in the word that he reveals his name to us. They stand together. And we are to praise him for both.

[14:01] So this worship that we resolve with David to bring is God-focused praise. It's informed praise. Informed by God's word. And then thirdly, it's wholehearted praise.

[14:14] Verse 1 again. I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart. Not half-hearted praise, but wholehearted. Not just with my mouth, but with all my heart engaged.

[14:29] You see, your mouth is just to be the overflow valve of what's in your heart. So that out of the abundance of your hearts, praise for God. Your mouth will speak.

[14:40] Your mouth will sing. I wonder if you've realized that your mouth and your heart are your instruments. And if you've ever been to a concert, you know, before they start the first song, there's a tuning of the instruments, aren't there?

[14:57] And so it may take some doing to get your instruments ready to praise the Lord with all your heart.

[15:10] That's what we find David doing in Psalm 103. He's giving himself a good talking to. He's saying, praise the Lord, O my soul. All my inmost being.

[15:20] Praise his holy name. That's how he starts out. You see, he's warming himself up for praise. And before he goes into specifics, who forgives all your sins, he's calling on himself.

[15:33] Self, wake up. Wake up. Don't forget any of God's benefits. The ways that he's blessed your life. So I would encourage you, take some time before we gather to praise, to just remind yourself of all of his benefits to you.

[15:56] Ransomed. Healed. Restored. Forgiven. Who, like me, his praise should sing. And so when this worship leader says, let's turn to such and such and stand and sing, everything within us, you see.

[16:13] All that is within me is ready to praise all that is in you, O Lord. Benson Sheksnadri is a 20-year-old chess master from Mississippi.

[16:27] Evidently, that's a high ranking. Not very many chess masters. But he recently said that in order to increase his ability to play chess, he was going to start working out.

[16:41] Yeah, exercising. Now, we don't usually think that playing a board game requires a lot of exercise. I mean, they're just sitting there for crying out loud.

[16:51] But evidently, getting more blood to the brain makes it work better, even at chess. And so, he's going to work out in order to play the game of chess better.

[17:10] And if that's true, should we not, in order to praise the Lord with all of our hearts, work out in our schedule that we get to bed on a good time Saturday night.

[17:25] That when we come into the worship of God and we've prepared our hearts, we have strength with all of our hearts to praise the Lord. He's worthy.

[17:35] And so, this praise that David says, I will praise you. It's wholehearted praise. I'll praise you with all my heart. And then, fourthly, it's reverent praise.

[17:46] Verse 2, I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name. If not with your knees, at least with your heart.

[17:58] We do not lift ourselves up when we come to praise the Lord. We put ourselves down. Bowing is reverence before the one we're praising.

[18:12] It doesn't matter how joyful. Your highest joy in worship is always to be brought with reverence and awe. Remembering who he is that you're bringing your praises to.

[18:27] Who he is and who I am. He's God. I'm not. He's creator. I'm creature. He's holy. I'm sinful. I come low before him. Serve the Lord with fear.

[18:41] And rejoice with trembling. What an awesome God is ours. I will bow down toward your holy temple.

[18:53] Now, Old Testament worship was directed toward the temple in Jerusalem. And that's because that's where God chose, out of all the earth, to place his earthly dwelling place.

[19:04] It was there that he would make his meeting place with men. God and men would meet there. He would receive their praises, their worship, their sacrifices there in the temple in Jerusalem.

[19:18] That's why Daniel, when he prayed three times a day, would open his windows that open toward Jerusalem and pray. It's why Jonah, when in the belly of the fish, looked again in prayer toward God's holy temple.

[19:31] And that's why David, often driven outside of Israel, bowed down toward God's holy temple. It was God-directed praise.

[19:45] Now, our new covenant worship is directed toward the new Jerusalem above. The real holy of holies. Where Christ, our Savior, has gone before us, having purchased by his own blood our eternal redemption, and thereby has opened up for us a new and living way, whereby we come right straight into the most holy place and meet with God.

[20:12] So, just as the Old Testament saints directed their prayers toward the temple in Jerusalem, we now direct our prayers and praises toward Jesus, looking unto Jesus, our mediator, our high priest before the Father, in whose name and merit we draw every blessing from that throne, and bring and offer our sacrifices, spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

[20:45] Christ. The new temple. And so, the new center of worship in the New Testament. As Jesus taught, that Samaritan woman is not here on Mount Gerizim, as you folks think, and neither will it be on Mount Jerusalem, as we Jews have thought.

[21:06] For God is seeking worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth. And he's now gathering worshipers from all the nations.

[21:18] Yes, it was handy for the Israelites to go up to Jerusalem three times a year. But now that he's gathering a people from all the nations, his presence is with us wherever we meet on God's earth.

[21:34] Well, it was reverent praise, bowing down. And then it was public praise. He says, before the gods, I will sing your praise.

[21:45] Privately, yes, but public as well. The Hebrew word here for God sometimes refers to angels, and that's a possible interpretation.

[21:57] We worship in the presence of angels. Why should we not? They're ministering spirits to us who will inherit eternal life. But it also is used in some places of the false gods, of the heathen nations that did not know that one true God.

[22:15] Other times it's used of the great ones of the earth, the judges, the kings of the earth. And I lean to that interpretation for several reasons, because later in verses four and five, David prays for the kings of the earth as they hear the words of God's mouth, that they might sing of the ways of the Lord.

[22:36] Remember, David had a lot to do with kings, with leaders of nations. Even as a young man, he was playing his harp for who? King Saul. And when Saul and his army started hunting him down to kill him like a partridge in the mountains, there he often would flee into other nations and would find himself before other kings.

[23:02] But especially when David was brought to the throne and reigned for 40 years as king of Israel, he was found often before pagan kings and their false gods.

[23:15] And so I think that's the best interpretation of the gods in this passage. Before these kings, these great ones of the earth, I will sing your praise, O God.

[23:30] You see, David is resolving to praise the Lord, not only in private, not only in the fellowship of the gathered assembly of the righteous, but also before pagan kings who didn't give two hoots about his God and had their own false gods.

[23:45] He's going to resolve, I'll praise you, Lord, in their presence too. And I think Psalm 119 verse 46 supports this view as there David resolves to do this very thing.

[23:58] He says, I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame. He resolves that very same thing. That very same thing here.

[24:10] Now I want to commend you for the way that you heartily bring your songs of praise to the Lord as we gather in his name. It's not only pleasing and an honor to the Lord, but it's encouragement to the saints.

[24:27] It's encouraging to me. But let me ask you, do you praise the Lord just as heartily out in the world before the lost? Or is that just something here that we do?

[24:42] Before those who do not worship our God, but who worship other gods, gods of pleasure, gods of money, gods of power and status, created things rather than the creator. Do you tell them what a wonderful savior is Jesus my Lord?

[24:58] When they misuse his name, do you stand up and tell them what his name means to you and what he's done for you? When the world is dismissing God's word, do you stand up for it?

[25:14] Because it is the word of the Lord. You see, the truth is you and I probably won't ever have the opportunity to praise the Lord before kings.

[25:28] But we have daily opportunities to praise the Lord before others who are worshiping other gods. Neighbors, relatives, friends, schoolmates, teachers, in the shops, around the town.

[25:50] Will you resolve, I will praise you, O Lord. before those who do not know you. They need to know who you are. They need to know how good and great you are. And I will praise you, O Lord, before them.

[26:05] Praising the Lord is easier in here, isn't it, than it is out there. And perhaps that's one reason why David resolved to do it. Because it's hard.

[26:16] God, and yet, and yet, with God-given, Holy Spirit-stirred, self-control, and determined resolution, I will, Lord, I will take advantage of those opportunities you're given to speak a word in your praise.

[26:36] It's not right. My Savior deserves better. And so David spoke well of his God before kings. People love to talk about the gods of the worlds that they serve.

[26:51] Why should we not talk a lot about the one living and true God that we know in Jesus Christ? When we hear his name and word dishonored, let us not be shamed into silence, but speak of his name and of his word all the more.

[27:08] And do you know how precious it is to the Savior when you do so? We have these letters from Jesus on record to the seven churches. You know what he says to the Philadelphia church?

[27:20] He doesn't have any criticism for them. He says, I know that you have a little strength. I know that. I know you're weak.

[27:32] Yet, you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Oh, that's precious to him because he's exalted his name and his word and when he sees you doing the same in your life, he is greatly exalted.

[27:54] David resolved before the gods I will sing your praise. I'll speak of your statutes before kings and not be put to shame. Well, that leads us to the second point in the psalm.

[28:05] David not only determinedly resolves to praise the Lord before the heathen, but that's immediately followed with his desperate prayer. Number two.

[28:17] Verses three to five. When I called, you answered me. You made me bold and stout hearted. May all the kings of the earth praise you, O Lord, when they hear the words of your mouth.

[28:29] Hear it through my bold mouth. May they sing of the ways of the Lord for the glory of the Lord is great. You see, just because David resolved, I will praise you before the kings doesn't mean he was leaning on his own strength.

[28:43] Not at all. Listen to him. I'm calling on you, Lord. If I'm going to keep that resolution, I need you. And so he called on the Lord a desperate prayer.

[28:58] And when I called, you answered me. You made me bold and stout hearted. I think David is amazed at the reality of the thing we call prayer far more than we are, than I am.

[29:18] I wonder if we've grown so familiar with it that we're no longer amazed at the amazing thing it is. But when I called, you answered me.

[29:35] you, the eternal, infinite, unchangeable God who feeds eight billion people on the planet along with the birds and the beasts, who rules over kings, who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name, who keeps the earth spinning on its axis and revolving around the sun with such precision that we can set our watches and calendars by it.

[30:04] you, when I called you, you listened to me. I'm just one of your many poor and needy children.

[30:20] And you listened as if you had nothing else more important to do, no one else to listen to. And you did more than listen. You answered me.

[30:30] me. The great God of heaven acted on my behalf. Somebody pinch me.

[30:41] Tell me I'm not dreaming. That God hears me. and he answers me. That's no small thing. Let's pause and realize our rare and amazing privilege.

[30:52] Isaiah 64, 4. Since ancient times, no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God beside you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

[31:04] You're alone, God. You're unique in this fact of being hearing and answering prayer. Deuteronomy 4, 7, Moses impresses Israel with this rare privilege. What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way that the Lord, our God, is nearest whenever we pray to him?

[31:24] Those other so-called gods that people, they don't hear, they don't answer, but our God does. Don't you want to praise him for that? David did.

[31:35] Psalm 65, 1 to 2 and 5. Praise waits for you, O God, in Zion, O you who hear prayer. What a title. O you who hear prayer, that's why praise is waiting for you from Zion, God's people.

[31:54] To you all men will come. They will come disappointed with their gods that have ears but do not hear, and hands that cannot answer. But all men will come to you.

[32:06] because you answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God, our Savior. Remember the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel?

[32:19] Crying out and cutting themselves from morning until noon. O Baal, answer us. But there was no response. No one answered.

[32:32] No one paid attention. Of course not. Those gods only existed in their minds. But our God, when I called, you answered me.

[32:47] You made me bold and stout-hearted. David tells us what he asked God for. It was boldness, you see. He had resolved to praise the Lord before the kings.

[32:59] And remember, he's just an old shepherd boy. And now he's going before royalty? You don't think he sometimes trembled a bit? He's a man of like passions as we are.

[33:11] He's perhaps a bit unnerved and feeling inferior and overawed by them, but he wants to speak God's word boldly to them. And so he not only resolves, but he prays.

[33:22] And the Lord answers, you made me bold and stout-hearted. Not only did he pray for boldness, but he prayed for the conversion of these kings that he witnessed too.

[33:33] That they would turn from their idols to the living God. He says, may all the kings of the earth praise you, O Lord, when they hear the words of your mouth. And may they sing of the ways of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord is great.

[33:46] So yes, resolve to praise the Lord before the unconverted. And then pray, pray for boldness to do so. That's what Peter and John did.

[33:58] When they preached God's word and for it, they were arrested and thrown into prison and brought out the next morning and put on trial by the high court of the Jews and all the big shots were there, the chief priests and all his family and the elders and teachers of the law.

[34:16] And they just peppered them with questions. Grilling them. By what power have you done this miracle upon this 40-year-old man?

[34:28] And Peter, filled with the spirit of God, said, it was by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified. You talk about boldness. Whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead.

[34:42] He's the stone you builders rejected, but God has made the capstone and salvation is found in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

[34:54] Amen. You say, what boldness. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note with these, that these men had been with Jesus.

[35:10] What's the connection? Well, there was never a man more bold and courageous than Jesus. And he had stood up to these men.

[35:22] Remember how they'd come and poke and try to get him to say something to get him in trouble? And every time he silenced them, boldly proclaiming the word of his God, the name of his God.

[35:35] Have you not read? Do you not know? I say it was that way. He silenced them every time except the last time because it was his time to die.

[35:47] And he answered not a word to all their accusations, to the amazement of Pilate. And now here are his followers who just a few weeks before were hiding behind the upper room where they were all gathered with a locked door.

[36:03] And now they're Peter and John are boldly proclaiming Christ. And so they threatened them. They command them to speak no more in the name of Jesus.

[36:14] And they let them go. I mean, they couldn't do anything. The people were amazed that this 40-year-old had been healed. What did they do? They gathered the church together to pray.

[36:29] To pray for what? To pray for boldness. Enable us, your servants, to speak your word with great boldness. You say, well, they just did.

[36:40] Yeah, they did. But yesterday's grace isn't enough for tomorrow. They've just heard threats and they've known what these men are capable of doing. They saw their Lord crucified by these men.

[36:52] And so they're before God with the gathered church. Enable us to speak your word with great boldness. And the place where they were gathered was shaken.

[37:06] They were all filled with the Spirit and they all spoke the word of God boldly. Acts 1-8 said that the Holy Spirit would be given them to give them power for witness.

[37:17] That's not just for them. It's for us as much as them. Because it was to begin in Jerusalem, there. But it's to go to the ends of the earth, here. And so the promise of the Holy Spirit is to give us boldness, courage to confess Him, to praise Him before the unconverted in our lives.

[37:38] You see, Jesus is building His church. He's gathering His bride from the uttermost parts of the world. He's gathering His choir to sing the praises of our King. Our memory verse, posterity will serve Him.

[37:50] Future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn for He has done it. He has provided a righteousness for sinners.

[38:02] And somebody told us, we are the future generations. And now we are to tell others that they too might learn of our Savior who's provided a righteousness by God Himself approved.

[38:15] His own righteousness to make sinners like us right before God. We're the recruiting choir members, recruiting choir members for the eternal choir.

[38:31] Now, I don't know where you need boldness with the lost. I know where I need it. And David tells us, our Lord in heaven answers prayer for that very thing. You made me bold and stout hearted.

[38:46] So join us on Wednesday night as we pray for boldness to witness to the lost and pray for the conversion of them that these lost people who hear the Word of the Word of God would come to praise the Lord with us.

[39:00] And after they start walking in God's ways, that they would find that these ways are good ways and start to sing of the ways of the Lord. Ways that they thought were gloomy ways.

[39:12] Ways that they thought would steal all of their joys. But now, with a new heart, they see that these are the ways that we flourish. These are the ways of blessedness and peace.

[39:23] peace. So we've been warned, haven't we, this week of another, by another, natural disaster that judgment is coming.

[39:41] A final day that will make every other natural disaster to seem like nothing. We saw and heard the terror of people running from the avalanche of water, mud and rocks and trees and debris in Nepal.

[39:57] And we saw that it was coming ten times faster than they could run. They could not escape.

[40:09] It was hopeless. There was no forewarning. It came unawares, unannounced, and found them totally unprepared. And we pray for families who lost everything and loved ones. And that many might even come to know the Lord through these times.

[40:25] And for God's people to be upheld. Well, these events, you see, are forewarnings of the coming day of the Lord when Jesus returns in great power and glory with his angels to judge the world in righteousness.

[40:40] And the Bible says he's coming like a thief in the night. How does a thief come? He comes unannounced. He comes when the world is not prepared for him. Oh, the warnings are being sounded right now by the gospel.

[40:55] Repent, for the king is coming. But the world is not listening. Ha! That's a bunch of rubbish. That's just God talk. They don't think it's going to happen.

[41:06] They don't think it's going to happen to them. If you're here without Christ, you need to take refuge in him now.

[41:23] He's the only safe place from the coming wrath. When every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and they will mourn because of him. What a horrific day for every sinner outside of Christ.

[41:38] He appears suddenly. And when you see him, there's no time to escape. And there's no place to escape. And people will be so desperate, they'll actually call on the mountains and the rocks to fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the day of their wrath is coming.

[42:04] Who can stand? Who can stand? No one will stand in that day except, as we heard, those who are found standing in Christ. Get into Christ.

[42:17] Get into Christ. Lost friend, heed the warning. Come to Christ. Now's the appointed time. Today is the day of salvation. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

[42:31] He comes to bless you. Receive him. And eternal life in him. He's ready to receive you. Take him at his word.

[42:43] And then you can praise the Lord with us for his so great salvation. And believers, in that day when God's wrath is falling on this world of unbelievers and impenitence, then we will know just how much we owe to our Savior's love and faithfulness for having spared us from God's wrath.

[43:08] Then we will know a little more of why he cried that cry of dereliction. My God, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

[43:21] You see, by the grace of God, some of us have turned from our idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead.

[43:32] Even Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath. Don't you want to praise him for that? I love the Lord for he heard my voice.

[43:45]  He heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. Amen.