Our Source of Counsel II - Part 1 of 2

This is LeSary Bradley, Jr., and I just wanted to convey a special message today to those of you listening on podcasts. I have to admit, when my staff first started talking to me about putting the broadcasts on podcasts, I didn't know what they were talking about.

I still don't understand it, but I'm thankful for it. Thankful that we can get the message out by another channel. And I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the fact that so many of you are listening to it. I was recently on a preaching trip to Jackson, Mississippi, and so many people came to me and said, I listen every day.

In fact, a number of them said that's the first thing I do in the morning, is listen to one of the programs on podcasts. So I just wanted to say I appreciate the fact that you're listening. I pray the message will be a blessing to you, and we'd love to hear from you.

Our mailing address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Thank you for listening, and may the Lord richly bless you. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise, Thou the grace of my God and King, Thou triumphs of His grace. This is Lisera Bradley, Jr., welcoming you to another broadcast of the Baptist Bible Hour. This is my earnest plea, born of the Christ to Thee, Born unto Thee, Born unto Thee, Once earthly joy I pray, song, peace, and rest, Now Thee alone I sing, give what is best, This all my prayers shall be, Born of the Christ to Thee, More love to Thee, More love to Thee, Then shall my latest prayer whisper Thy praise, This beloved parting cry, My heart shall raise, This stillness prayer shall be, Born of the Christ to Thee, More love to Thee, More love to Thee. We're in Psalm 119, and we're continuing with the subject, Our Source of Counsel. We're going to be on that for several more days because it is such an important subject. So many have become confused and turned to a variety of sources for their counsel and help in time of need. So I pray this message will encourage and strengthen you.

If it does, we'd like to hear from you. Our mailing address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. We continue today with our sermons from the Psalms. We're in Psalm 119, looking at the third section, which begins with the 17th verse.

As we've pointed out, this psalm is divided into 22 sections, 8 verses each, and each section designated by a letter from the Hebrew alphabet. Verse 17, Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live and keep thy word. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

I am a stranger in the earth, hide not thy commandments from me. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgment at all times. Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments. Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies.

Princes also did sit and speak against me, but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. We see before us a number of great things.

And in our last message, we looked at the first three of those, I believe it was, or maybe four. In the 17th verse, there is great expectations. The psalmist prays, Deal bountifully with me. And God's people can expect that He will deal bountifully with them.

Not that they are worthy and not that they have any merit that they can claim such a blessing, but on the basis of God's grace. He tells us in the 8th chapter of the book of Romans that if He has given us His Son Jesus Christ, shall He not with Him also freely give us all things. And then there is great vision in verse 18, praying, Lord, open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things. We talked at length about the wondrous things that may be seen in God's Word. The truth about God Himself, His greatness, His power, His majesty. The marvels of His grace to reach down and rescue fallen, ruined, lost sinners.

To read about that which He has prepared for them, telling us that we need not be troubled because He has gone to prepare a place and someday we will be with Him. All the sufferings, sorrows and heartaches of life will be ended. The last battle will have been fought. The victory will be won.

We will be at home with Him forever and ever. We wouldn't know about these things if we didn't read it in His Word. So as we go to the Word of God, we find wondrous things. The 19th verse speaks of great need. I am a stranger in the earth, hide not thy commandments from me. Well, if we are a stranger, if we are strangers and pilgrims in this earth, that presents for us a great need.

We need God's grace, we need His support, we need His guidance, we need for Him to direct us as we are strangers looking at last to that homeland where we have an inheritance that is incorruptible and fadeth not away. We then see in the 20th verse great desire. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. An intense desire to be faithful in serving God, in understanding the things that are contained in His Word.

A desire not that comes just periodically but at all times. A desire for the sincere milk of the Word of God. So now we come to verse 21 and see here a great rebuke. Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed which do err from thy commandments.

Biblical history confirms the fact that God does indeed rebuke the proud. Let's look at a vivid example of it by turning to the book of Exodus. The Lord preserved the life of Moses miraculously. How beautiful to see the unfolding of his providence when Pharaoh had given order to kill all the male children. And God spares the life of Moses and not only spares his life but brings him into Pharaoh's own house. So that his daughter having found him in the little ark decides to bring him home. And then as far as Pharaoh is concerned to add insult to injury, I hear Moses' own mother is hired as the nursemaid. Isn't it remarkable how God can work things that we would never have imagined.

Could never have figured all that out. But God works in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. Well Moses now has come of age and has made a choice to leave the comforts of Pharaoh's palace and to be identified with the suffering people of God. He comes on the authority of God to appear before Pharaoh and says in Exodus chapter 5 verse 1, And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.

Now look at the response. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.

My, what pride! Who is the Lord that I should respond to him? I don't know the Lord. I have no obligation to him.

Is that not the attitude that we see prevailing in much of our society today? More and more people repeatedly say, I'm not sure there is a God. But if indeed there is a God, I feel no particular accountability to him. Who is the Lord that I should repent?

Who is the Lord that I should conform my life to the teaching of the Bible? It's an outdated book. Don't you hear people make comments like that? It has all kinds of problems. There are all kinds of errors in it. Even if it has some good things, there's many things that are not. And what it ultimately comes down to is that people want to make the decision about what's good and what's not. If there's something that suits me, then I decide that's good. If it doesn't, then I say, well, that's bad. I don't want that.

That must not be right. And so that attitude prevails. Who is the Lord that I should obey him?

Let me ask you the question. Has there been a time in your life that that's been your attitude? Oh, you may not have said it out loud, but you didn't include God in your plans. You knew what you wanted to do, where you wanted to go, what you wanted to be.

And you moved forward with determination to reach your goals. But God was totally left out. By your action, you were saying, who is the Lord that I should obey him? But I hope by reason of the fact that you're here today, we see evidence that God has dealt with you and made you realize he is someone you need to hear when he speaks. And when the Lord commands something, you should give his command your utmost attention. You should want to know, what does God say? What does God expect of me? How can I have a personal relationship with the living God?

Yes, it's a vital issue. Well, Pharaoh in his pride was saying, I don't know Lord, so I don't feel any obligation to do what he says. But let's look at the ultimate outcome in chapter 14. Exodus 14 verse 27, And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared, and the Egyptians fled against it, and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them.

There remained not so much as one of them. But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. Oh, you see, Pharaoh in all of his arrogance and pride asked, Who is the Lord? By the time the ten plagues had been set upon the land, and the land was basically devastated, and then he sends the army in hot pursuit to bring them back when they have departed, God parks the waters, makes a dry path for the children of Israel to cross, and when Pharaoh's host goes after them in hot pursuit, the waters are rolled together and the soldiers are drowned.

And the children of Israel sang a song of praise on the other side, The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. Wasn't anybody that day trying to take credit for it. They didn't say, My, we really had an excellent strategy here. Aren't we brave, courageous people? Look what we have done. It wasn't we, it was God.

Look what God has done. God sustained us, God spared us, God destroyed our enemies. Oh, the proud, arrogant Pharaoh was brought down. His nation was devastated.

Think of another example. In the book of Esther, we read about a proud man named Haman. It was his purpose to destroy the Jews, God's favored people. He was determined to have them put to death. He laid his plans, he had his strategy.

He couldn't stand it because Mordecai would not bow to him and give him the reverence that he thought he deserved. Now, to show when a man's full of pride how distorted his judgment can be, see, he doesn't know that one night the king could not sleep. And so he says, I want you to read to me out of the chronicles. Might not seem like the most interesting reading in the middle of the night, but you see, again, here's the providence of God. As they read, he discovers that Mordecai has favored him and revealed a plot so that the king's life was spared. He said, what we've never done to this man?

Not a thing. Remind me of that in the morning. We're going to do something for him. So here comes Haman full of himself and thinking, you know, if anybody's rising toward the top, it's me. And the king says, if you were going to favor a man, what would you do?

Ah, Haman says, no doubt, that's me, that's me. So I'm going to make this as good as I can. Oh, I'd have a parade. I'd lead him down Main Street. I'd put him on a white horse. Oh, on and on he goes. The king says, that's a good idea. Go get Mordecai. Put him on the horse. Have a parade. We're going to honor him.

We're going to give him some credit for what he's done. And as the story unfolds, he's gone in to the queen, to Queen Esther, to ask a favor in all of this. Yet it's his intent to destroy her and her people. And he's caught in the queen's chamber. And the king is angry and says, what shall we do to such a man? And they said, the gallows that he had built on which he intended to hang Mordecai, they're available.

The king says, hang him. Oh, you see, God in his providence has a way of turning things around. The book of Proverbs talks about those that dig a ditch and then fall in it.

You'd better be careful to try to dig a ditch for somebody else. You try to build a gallows you're going to hang them on, you may get it. Because God has a way of disrupting the evil plans of men. But here was a proud man, Haman. What became of him? He's hanging on the gallows that he himself had built. And then we can hardly think about a man of pride without thinking about Nebuchadnezzar. This proud king that gloried in the works of his own hands according to the book of Daniel chapter 4.

In the 30th verse, the king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? See the pride, this is my house, I built it, it's for my name, it's for my majesty, look at me. And you know, as much as you see this kind of a spirit condemned in the word of God, it's often encouraged in the society we live in today. Little children are taught, you've got to think highly of yourself. You've got to build one's self-esteem, you've got to feel like, I'm great, I'm special, I'm somebody, look at me. Even among those that were not necessarily committed to embracing scripture, in an earlier time in our country, just as far as the concept of what was appropriate and what was not, people were taught the basic idea that humility was in order.

That's out the window now. No thought and idea about being humble. Think about number one, think about me, think about yourself, you know, you're entitled to that.

Well, here's a man thinking about himself. This is a great Babylon, I built it, it's by the might of my power, it's for the honor of my majesty. I get credit for it. Now, I'm not talking to anybody today who is a king, but has there been a time in your own life that you stepped back and said, well, I'm pretty proud of myself. Look what I've done, look what I've accomplished, look where I am.

Never thought I'd get here. I guess I'm even smarter than I thought I was. I've made a lot of good choices and I really feel good about myself. Failing to realize that even if you've been blessed and favored, you didn't do that on your own. God blessed you with a mind that you could use effectively. God blessed you with a body that was healthy so you could work and accomplish what you needed. God blessed you by his providence to be able to accomplish what you've accomplished. Don't you think it would be an order to bow and say, thank you, Lord, for what you've given me. I don't have any room to boast.

I'm weak and frail and I'm full of faults and shortcomings. And if you had dealt with me according to my sin, I wouldn't have had a single blessing. But Lord, I thank you for what you've given me.

This man, though, was boasting in what he had accomplished. While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee, and they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. Nebuchadnezzar, you're coming down. You're on the throne. You're highly esteemed among your people, but you're going to come down and eat grass, like the oxen of the field. What a sight. Some dignitary comes to call on the king, and those in his court have to say, You want to see the king? Look out the window. There he is out there.

He's down on his all fours, eating his breakfast. There's the king. God has a way of putting people down, if it's his determination to do so. The king was not in his right mind. And God says, I'm going to keep you down there until you know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men, and he giveth it to whom he will. The reason you were on the throne is I put you there. I've had people offer rebuttal to that and say, Well, when you read a verse like that, all that means is that God put Nebuchadnezzar there, but that doesn't mean you put anybody else on the throne. And I believe the Bible teaches that every king that ever sat on the throne, God put him there. Does that mean that every king that's ever reigned was a good man?

No. Sometimes God has raised up men who were overbearing, austere, were not good kings, and he did it to judge the people over whom they reigned. We don't always understand the purposes of God, but God, as it were, God puts up kings and brings them down. And it says you're going to learn that there's a God who rules.

Aren't you glad to know that? That in the midst of all the confusion and what appears sometimes to be total chaos in the world in which we're living, and sometimes you may feel like there's nothing but total chaos in your life, but God is on the throne. God is ruling. God is accomplishing his purposes. God is going to bring ultimate glory to his name.

He reigns. Verse 35. This is following those days, and Nebuchadnezzar lifted up his eyes to heaven, and he says, All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?

What does he do? He works his will in the army of heaven, among the inhabitants of the earth. And nobody has the right to come along and say, God, I don't like the way you operate.

I don't understand what you're doing, and so it must not be right, because I deserve to understand it, and I'm entitled to agree with it. Who are we as little, weak worms of the earth to stand up in the face of God and want to try to dictate to him? The book of Isaiah tells us that God has never sought counsel from man. God doesn't need our advice.

He doesn't need counsel from human beings. See, our vision is so limited. It's amazing how limited it really is. We get to thinking that in this day of communication, because we see little snippets on the evening news from around the world, or you can go on the internet and get information from everywhere and think, Well, I really kind of know what all is going on. What we know is so limited, such a small amount of knowledge compared to the knowledge of God and what all God is doing.

See, God's not just doing one thing at a time. You ever have a little trouble with that? Even concentrating on one thing? Did you ever go to another room in the house, and when you got there you couldn't even remember what you went for?

I know I came in here for something. And so I guess I'll go back and start over. Maybe if I go back where I was, I'll think of it.

And it may be two hours later before you remember it. I mean, we can't even handle one thing at a time. Think of what all God's doing. Think about how many people he's involved with. How many things that touch your life, that touch the life of a lot of other people at the same time, and he's coordinating it all.

He's keeping up with all of it. He knows all your thoughts, all your attitudes, all the things that are going on in your life, and all the things that are going on in the lives of the people that you're concerned about. Maybe some you're concerned about because you're praying for them and you wish things were going better for them.

Maybe some you're concerned about because they're your adversaries, and you'd say, Lord, are you noticing these people? Yeah, God's still in charge. He's still working and accomplishing his purpose, even when it appears to us that he's doing nothing. God's always doing something.

God is always at work. And he says, Nebuchadnezzar, you're going to learn this. Verse 37, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.

Now that was almost an understatement, wasn't it? Coming up from the all fours and eating grass like the beast of the field, and now it says those that walk in pride, God knows how to abase them. He knows how to bring them down.

He knows exactly how to deal with them. What a change. A man going all the way from self-centeredness and pride and exalting his own name, to saying there's a sovereign in heaven that rules, and he works his will, whether it's in heaven or on earth, and he knows how to bring down the proud.

Oh, what a lesson to learn. All the day long. This is my story.

This is my song. Praising my Savior. Praising my Savior. Praising my Savior. All the day long.