Psalm 124:1-8

[0:00] Even. Even. Even the Old Testament to see me and look at songs. Been a long time since I preached or taught anything from songs.

[0:16] And I always say the same thing before I do. I kind of feel like I'm cheap when I'm preaching from songs. It's easy to read through songs and praise God.

[0:30] And they're very easy to do. Whether you're reading songs one or songs one hundred and fifty or anything in between those two. It's very easy to praise God.

[0:41] Reading through the songs will be in songs one twenty-fourth this season. It's a very short song and that being said, well I say the greatest words of what I want to hear a future say.

[0:54] I don't expect to be before you do. No. No. It could happen. It could not happen. But I really don't expect that. This song is one of several beginning about song one twenty.

[1:09] Going on through about song one thirty-fourth called the Songs of Degrees. Songs of Degrees, there's some things surrounding that as far as why they're called that.

[1:24] Songs of Degrees are thought to have began as pilgrimage songs for the Jewish people when they would go to Jerusalem for the different feasts. And in particular for the Passover feasts.

[1:39] Then later on it is said, as far as tradition goes, that these became songs that were sung as people were going up to the temple for worship in the temple, for temple worship.

[1:54] And each time they would take a step up toward the temple, they would sing a different line of the song, or a different stanza of the song.

[2:05] But therefore in some of the other English translations that we have, it's called instead of the Songs of Degrees, it's called the Songs of the Sense. Because you're ascending the stairs, or you're ascending your way up to Jerusalem.

[2:18] And folks, it doesn't matter which side of Jerusalem you were on. Every time you read about somebody going to Jerusalem in the Bible, I shouldn't say every time. Most times they say, I'm going up to Jerusalem.

[2:29] Even people that were on the northern side of Jerusalem would say, I'm going up to Jerusalem because Jerusalem sat up on a hill. And it was the highest place that those people knew.

[2:43] And it sat in that kind of place. So when they would say I'm going up to Jerusalem, they were talking about I'm going up to a hill. But I said the Songs of Degrees, or the Songs of the Sense, they were thought to have begun as pilgrimage songs and turned into temple worship songs.

[3:00] And this is one of those songs. And this says, the little subliner here says it's a Song of Degrees of David. Now, there's some people out there that say this is a Song of Degrees, Psalm 124, when the Jews were in Babylonian captivity, well, folks, David gets a rope there.

[3:20] If that was the case, that was long after David reigned as king. But it does say that it's the Song of David. Now, could David have written this and they have sung this song during the captivity?

[3:34] Absolutely. And I would have blamed them if they would. But nevertheless, we'll begin at Psalm 124. In verse 1, there's only eight verses in this song.

[3:47] It says, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us, then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul, then the crowd waters had gone over our soul.

[4:11] Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth, our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we are escaped.

[4:23] Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. That brings us to the end of the Psalm. If we go back to verse 1, actually verses 1 and 2, it says, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us.

[4:49] So here we have really three different descriptions of things that had come against the Israelite people, things that had come against the Jewish people.

[5:01] This again was a song of the Greaves written by David, but David in his lifetime had seen a lot of different things. He had seen things come against him and his life and his walk with God as an individual.

[5:16] He had seen things that had come against the Jewish nation as a nation or as a group of people and he had heard of the stories that we have all over the Old Testament of the people coming against the Jewish people, the people that God had chosen, the elect of God in the Old Testament.

[5:37] He had known all these stories and David here is writing about some of these things that happened. He said, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say, now may Israel say, saying if it had not been the Lord talking about something that had happened in the past tense, but he says now may Israel say, and folks we can say the same thing as New Testament Christians, that if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, that many calamities may have come our way, many things could have happened in the past. I'm not just talking about spiritual things, I'm talking about physical things, emotional things, mental things, any kind of negativity that you can think of that could have or has come in your life.

[6:25] Hey, regardless of that, if it has or has not come the Lord is on your side, if you are saved and a born again child of God, and I'd like to encourage you tonight to keep this in mind that no matter what ailments come your way, no matter what trials or what temptations come your way, no matter what persecution may come to a body, to a residence, or knock on your front door, whatever the case is, the Lord is on your side, if you are indeed a born again child of God.

[6:56] We have nothing to fear because the Lord is on our side. The Bible said Jesus Christ said himself the fear not man that has the power to destroy the body, but the fear God who has the power to destroy both body and soul and hell.

[7:12] We have no reason to fear man, we have no reason to fear whatever it is, whatever entrapment that they have, whatever stains that they might throw our way. We have no reason to fear these things. I'm not saying that Almighty God will always protect us from the physical things. Every one of us gets sick, every one of us suffer injury, every one of us have had these types of things happen to us, but folks on the spiritual side, praise God, the Lord is on my side, the Lord will protect me.

[7:44] This doesn't mean that we don't need to keep our radars open. This doesn't mean that we don't need to keep our watch. It doesn't mean that we don't have to be on guard. It simply means that the Lord is on our side.

[7:58] So come what may, whether it be Satan, whether it be demons, whether it be the principalities of the air, whatever it is that comes our way, the Lord is on our side.

[8:10] And we have no reason to fear what man can do to us. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen. Now only the church say the Lord is on our side.

[8:21] The church say this with Israel. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us.

[8:33] Then they have swallowed us up quick. This doesn't mean swallowed us up fast. It's been swallowed us up alive when we read it here in the Bible. It says, then if the Lord had not been on our side, when these men had risen up against the Israelites, then they swallowed us up quickly.

[8:51] They swallowed us up alive. The Bible says that the devil is as a roaring lion. He is roaming to improve, seeking whom he may devour, seeking whom he may swallow up quick, seeking whom he may destroy, seeking whom he may drag away from the things of God, drag away from the children of God, or drag the children of God away from Almighty God.

[9:15] Hey folks, if the Lord is on your side, you rest in the fact that Almighty God has got your back. It gives me great comfort, and it gives me great peace to lay down my head at night and to wake up every morning knowing that whatever comes my way, the Lord is on my side.

[9:36] Hallelujah! Yes, sir. No matter who comes my way, no matter what kind of insults they might throw at us, no matter how they might attack, the Lord is on my side, the Lord is on our side.

[9:48] Being His children, folks, think about this, those of you that have children, how would you act if someone come against one of those children? Would you not act appropriately?

[10:00] Would you not act defensively if someone come near your children to do them harm? Our Heavenly Father is the exact same way. When someone or something comes their way to do harm, our Heavenly Father is right there at our side, and He is evermore at our side.

[10:16] The praise God, when God say, me, I'm evermore at His side. I'm with God, and He is with me. He abides within me, I abide within Him. Jesus Christ is on the inside, and I'm in Him.

[10:30] Hallelujah! I have nothing to fear because the Lord is with me. Amen. This is a reminder, I think, that the church needs sometimes. Then they swallow us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us.

[10:43] When their wrath was kindled against us, the entire world, the entire world, those that are out there on the same, is full of people that hate God.

[10:56] Right. And they not only hate God, they hate the people of God. Right. They hate the things of God. They hate the Word of God. I know this, folks, I was once upon a time one of those people.

[11:08] I hated God, I hated everything to do with God. I hated the church, I hated hymns, I hated gospel music, I hated the Bible, I hated it all, but God saved my soul. And ever since then, praise God, the Lord has been by my side.

[11:22] The Lord has been right there with me, but this world, it has its wrath kindled against the children of God. Many of you have experienced that yourself when witnessing that cross, you're just trying to testify about the goodness of God.

[11:35] Maybe somebody has berated you, maybe someone has belittled you, maybe someone has outracked her to you, or whatever the case is. Folks, the hatred of the world and the anger of the world is kindled against the people and the children of God, but you rest in the fact that the Lord is by your side.

[11:57] You don't worry about what they say about you. You don't worry about what they think about you. You are a born-again child of the God of this very universe, and there is no reason that we should worry about anything the world has to say about us.

[12:14] You all hope to speak kindly. Of course I do. I'd be a liar if I told you I didn't. I want them to be nice. Absolutely. But rarely they want to be.

[12:26] A lot of them won't be. Most of you all know, I'll go door knocking, I'll patten ourselves, me or Bernard either one of them will be back saying that we are on this of not people that reject the gospel.

[12:40] We run into some nice people that very cordially reject the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then we run into some other people that not so cordially, not so nicely, not so mannerally reject the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[12:58] And these are the people I'm talking about. They're angry as kids. They hate God, and that's why they hate the gospel. They hate the good news. They hate the fact that a man came and suffered and bled and died for them on the cross.

[13:12] They hate that God has a plan of salvation in place, and they hate that people are showing up on their doorstep and reading them out on the street corners, or on the sidewalks, or other cases.

[13:23] They hate the fact that people are out there proclaiming this God. And most of them is because that something has happened within their own lives, that they have blamed God for, and they hate God for it, and they're mad at God, and the best way they feel like they can get back at God is to turn the rest of the world against God.

[13:43] Right. And in most cases, in circumstances like that, the anger of the world is kindled against us, folks. Their atmosphere is against us.

[13:55] And the waters had overwhelmed us. The stream had gone over our soul. Now, everything that we're reading here, you remember how this began. It had not been the Lord who was on our side.

[14:13] And all these things that we're reading here, these things would have happened had not the Lord down on our side. Now, listen, I understand that Israel suffered a lot. Israel suffered a lot.

[14:25] I mean, from the very get-go, Satan and his minions had tried to stamp out Israel. They've tried to stamp out the Jews. And folks ever since the birth of the church, they've tried to stamp out the church as well.

[14:37] They've tried to stamp out the plan of God, but you go plumb back into the garden. You go to Adam and Eve's firstborn. You got to go to Cain and Abel.

[14:48] Hey, that was an attempt to snuff out the plan of God from Cain killed Abel from Praise God. God knew that was coming, so there was a boy named Seth that was born. And you continue on.

[14:59] Go on to the ark. And man, the man that God had created had so upset God and so, so disgusted God that he repented God that he had even made mankind.

[15:14] But Praise God in his mercy and in his long suffering, God saved eight people alive on that ark. You continue on throughout the history of the Israelites. You continue on with Abraham.

[15:26] God told Abraham, he said, I'm going to multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand of the sea shore. But your seed is going to go into captivity down in Egypt for just a little while.

[15:38] He gave Abraham the warning that this was going to happen, but that was all part of God's plan for the plan was never about to fall apart. The plan was never about to be destroyed.

[15:50] God knew what he was doing. God knew how to do it. God knew when to do it and where to do it. And Praise God, it's no different from a New Testament church.

[16:01] God knows what he's doing with your life and keep that suffering too much. Hey guys, what a wonderful plan to do with that suffering. Praise God, why you suffer.

[16:12] Praise God, why you're suffering through one of your elements and one of your afflictions. It is. Praise God through the whole thing, but he will use it for his glory.

[16:23] Amen. He'll use every bit of it for his glory. Praise God. Now, does that include the times when we make stupid mistakes and put ourselves in those situations?

[16:34] God can get glory out of that too. God can absolutely get glory out of that. But don't go blaming God for things that you've done to yourself. Don't go blaming God for going places that you shouldn't go for doing things you shouldn't do.

[16:49] Amen. You're saying the things that you shouldn't say that you know better. Who will blame God for that? A folksace just like Joseph over in the Book of Genesis. My goodness, you think about that man.

[17:01] You think about how his brothers, his brothers inspired to kill him. His brothers threw him down into a pit and instead of killing him, they said, we'll just sell him off into slavery. And so they did that.

[17:13] And when he was sold into slavery, he went down into Egypt to a man named Potiphar's house. And he got down there, he was made a slave in that man's house. And then he was accused of raping Potiphar's wife.

[17:24] He was falsely accused of these things. He got put into prison. Then you look at everything that Joseph suffered through. You look at all the false accusations that came his way. But you also look at the fact that just a little bit later on in Genesis, just a chapter or two after he comes up out of the dungeon, and just a little while later, hey, he is made second in command, not just of Egypt, but of planet Earth.

[17:48] Egypt was the most powerful nation at that point in history. And he was made second in command of it all. The only person that had more authority than he did was Pharaoh himself.

[18:00] And even Pharaoh said, nothing's going to get passed. Nothing's going to be done without the okay of this man, Joseph. God will use your suffering for his glory.

[18:12] And sometimes God will put you in those situations for his glory. Don't get mad at him for it. God will get glory however God's going to get glory. You and I know right to question how he does that.

[18:23] What means he takes to do that or to what extremes that you and I might feel that he's going through to get his glory. God got glory when he saved your soul. God got glory.

[18:34] And that's the whole reason that God saved your soul, was to get glory for himself that you might live a life that brings glory under God and brings glory under the name Jesus Christ.

[18:45] And you might live a life that's holy and righteous amongst others. And you might be something like, out here in this world that hates God, that they might see just a glimpse of the God that saved your soul.

[18:56] They might get just a little bit of a reflection of the God that redeemed you and reconciled you back to his cell. Bring glory to God with your life regardless of what you're suffering through, regardless of what you're going through.

[19:09] Bring glory unto God. It's our job as his children, is it not? glorify God. Can many people think it's my job to go out and save people? We can't save people.

[19:21] It's our job to tell the world about Christ. It's our job to spread the good news of the gospel and Jesus Christ. It's our job to give testimony to the goodness of God. But it's God's job to do the same.

[19:34] It's God's job to do the convicting. It's God's job to do the same and it's God's job to keep them safe. You and I have no part in that. All we can do is testify. I once was lost, the praise God now I'm found.

[19:47] I once was blind, but now I see the waters and overwhelm us. The scream that gone over our soul. This is again David here, riding.

[19:58] And Pagatinsi is talking about Israel as a plural. He's talking about the waters come over top of them, come over their solar. Our soul, as he puts it, talking about the entire nation.

[20:11] It functions as I said just a little while ago. You fast forward to the New Testament church. It's no different for us. We've got the world coming at us with all, from all angles. The world comes at us with all kinds of things.

[20:24] The worldliness has infiltrated the church. False teaching has infiltrated the church. Unbelief has infiltrated the church. Disbelief has infiltrated the church.

[20:35] There is a difference between unbelief and disbelief. All of these things are a hindrance to the church, to the pride of Christ. All of these things, I'm not saying that they pull us away from salvation.

[20:48] I'm not saying that God kicks us all to the curb. What I'm saying is all of these things can be a hindrance in your relationship with Almighty God. When the church allows false teaching in, when the church allows things in that they know shouldn't be, when it allows a self-gospel, when it allows a self-crucifixion, when it allows the things in the world in which these things can hinder our relationship with God.

[21:15] There is nothing self about the gospel of Jesus Christ. You are a sinner and Almighty God is our Savior. There is nothing that is easy about the crucifixion that took place of Jesus Christ.

[21:30] He shed His blood because without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Don't you let anyone convince you to take the blood out of the gospel. Don't you let them convince you to take grace out of the gospel and replace it with words.

[21:46] The gospel is what the gospel is. It is exactly how God intended it to be. But the world will come in and the world will come in.

[21:57] And unbelief and false teaching will come in. They'll try to convince you otherwise. And this will do exactly what we're reading here. The waters will come in, they'll swallow us.

[22:09] They'll come in like a flood. This isn't talking about a flood. You read this in the original Hebrew that was written. It's not talking about a gradual flood. Gradually rises.

[22:20] We can see that coming. This is talking about a torrent coming down the mountain side. This is talking about something that is sudden. Something that comes quickly. Something that comes with no warning.

[22:31] And with it, it drives everything with it. Everything that's in its path. Whether it be homes, whether it be families, whether it be properties, anything else that you can think of. This torrent comes down the mountain side or a hillside.

[22:44] It's a way, everything that's path. And here David the psalmist says that the spring had gone over our soul. If the Lord had not been on their side.

[22:55] This is what they would have suffered. Yes, the Israelites suffered. Yes, the church suffered somewhat. Yes, we have enemies. Yes, the Israelites had enemies. But the Lord was on their side.

[23:07] He was on the Jews side. And Votac can assure you he is on his bride side. Amen. Almighty God, Jesus Christ himself will take the side of his bride every time.

[23:19] We have nothing to fear no matter what torrential floods come our way. No matter what rain comes our way. As I said before, hey folks, the demons and Satan himself had tried to snuff out the church.

[23:30] They tried to hinder the church. They tried to kill off the church. To stamp it out. The folks, it will never be done. This is a plan that Almighty God has set forth from the foundation of the world.

[23:42] And it will not be detoured by Satan. One hour to the plan of God will go forth. The church is seen at the end of the book, at the end of the Bible, in the book of Revelation. The church is seen singing praises under God and worshiping God.

[23:57] The church is seen doing these things. This tells me that Satan's attempt and Satan's stage will never take full effect. No matter what he tries to do with the church, the church will prevail because God has ordained that the church will prevail.

[24:14] Do not fear what will happen to the church, what will happen to the bride of Christ. God has the bride of Christ under his wing, Hallelujah. Amen. Thank you. We've seen several examples in the scriptures of the kind of thing, haven't we?

[24:31] Think about it, when I preached about it, not too long ago, thinking about those disciples out there on the lake, Jesus there on the boat with them. But essentially at that time, that was the church.

[24:44] Jesus crossed and the twelve apostles, there with him on that boat. One half of the storm came up, tossed the boat on over.

[24:55] You think one wave is all that was to one rock wave to overturn that boat. Never one would go sinking to the bottom. You say, well that wouldn't have happened to Jesus.

[25:06] Jesus wouldn't allow that to happen to his apostles. That's exactly why I'm getting that. Amen. That's exactly what I'm saying. Amen. They just took the rock wave, the rock, the rock, the rather mountain of forest from the right spot on that boat.

[25:20] But no, God had planned, God had planned. Jesus was on that boat. And essentially what made up the church at that time was on that boat.

[25:31] God was not going to let anything happen. You look at the first three centuries of the church, the first really three or four centuries of the church. You read back from church history. You see how much persecution the church was going through.

[25:43] And some of it was about people that were professing Christ. Some of the worst persecution came from other people that were professing Christ as their savior. You look at the martyrdom that happened to people.

[25:56] You look at people being killed, people being jailed. You look in our own Bibles here in the book of Acts. You look at Saul and how he was consenting to the death of Stephen, the first martyr of the church.

[26:09] You look how people hated the church then. And you look how people hate the church now. Don't tell me the Satan has quit trying to snuff the church out. He's still trying to praise God. I've said it once and I'll say it again.

[26:21] His plans and his scheme will not prevail against the plan of Almighty God. We are here folks and there is nothing that no power that Satan has and no demon that knows the hell is going to be home one day can do anything about it.

[26:37] We are gods. God desires hallelujah. We are going to make it home one day by his grace. Amen. Don't fear these floods.

[26:48] Don't fear the enemy. Don't fear the people when they rise up against you. And the proud martyrs who go over our souls. Blessed be the Lord who has not given us as a prey to their teeth.

[27:00] Blessed be the Lord who has not given us as a prey to their teeth. Has not handed us over into the teeth of the enemy. I've already said it once. The Bible talks about Satan, the devil walking to him from seeking as a line.

[27:15] He is a line as a line. Seeking whom he may devour. God has not handed us over to that. He hasn't handed us over to any of our enemies. And God will not do that to his people.

[27:28] Now, once again, I've already said it. Does God save us from all the physical elements? Absolutely not. I've got him in my life. He's not in here.

[27:39] He has a physical affliction of some kind that ravages your body once in a while. Or every day. Or every week. Folks, think about the spiritual side of this though.

[27:51] You think about the promises in Scripture. You think about how we're going to low end one day. Whether or not we're going to have to worry about that. You think about how I'm going to go somewhere one day where I'm not going to need these glasses.

[28:02] I'm not going to need this pump on my side. I'm not going to need the pop pills every night before I go to bed. You think about everything that you suffer through. Every type of pain that you have. Every time you get the sniffles.

[28:14] Every time you eyes water this time of year. Or in the fall. You think about everything that you suffer with. You think about how your lungs burn sometimes. You think about your difficulty breathing. Or your difficulty walking.

[28:26] Or your difficulty with pain. Whatever the case is. One of these days, praise God. We are promised per the scriptures of God that cannot lie. That we are going to a land where there will be no more saviours.

[28:38] There will be no more heartache. And there will be no more death in that land. And the reason that there are those slaves will not be present is because praise God. There will be no sin in that land.

[28:50] There will be no sin in that city. There will be no Satan. There will be no evil. There will be no demons. No backcalls. Nothing along those lines. Hallelujah.

[29:01] Hallelujah. Fowler, many, many times, is a scripture.

[29:34] Fowler is a wonderful picture of Satan. Or of evil. Or of demons. And of course the snare is a picture of the traps that are set for us really for anybody to go into.

[29:50] Why would a bird fall into a snare though? I hope there's all kinds of reason, but I promise you the fowler knows the type of bird that he's going for. He knows how to snare that bird.

[30:02] Demons will not tempt me with something that's not tempting to me. I've never been a druggy. They don't tempt me with drugs. But they know what I've been into in my past.

[30:13] And they know what my trippers are to speak back in my days before God. And that's what I'm tempted with. But the Lord is by my side. And with the Lord by my side.

[30:25] Hey folks, it says right here, we just read it. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler. The snare is broken. And we are escaped. Not only did the Lord come over and He released me from the snare, the Lord came over and He picked up that snare or whatever it was.

[30:42] Whether it was a net or whether it was a shell or whether it was some kind of box that they had. Whatever the case was, the Lord picked it up. But not only did He do that, He has broken this very snare that entrap me.

[30:55] He has broken what held me under. He has broken that which oppressed me. Hey, rest assured, my friend, rest assured, dear Christians, that when God saved, He saved me the other most.

[31:07] And when He's released you from the snare, the snare has been broken. Hallelujah. Amen. The snare is broken. And we are escaped.

[31:19] Our soul is escaped as a bird. Think about that bird. It's trapped. Most times it was a net. Most times it was used back in the bottom of the air.

[31:30] That bird didn't know any better. Sometimes it was fear that would drive that bird into the snare. Sometimes it was hunger that would drive that bird into the snare. Sometimes it was just ignorance.

[31:41] But either way, it didn't matter what drove the bird in there. The fowler knew what he was doing. The God knew what he was doing too.

[31:52] Some of us, it was ignorance when we were lost. Some of us, we knew exactly what we were doing. Some of us, it was just enmity against God in our lives.

[32:04] Emity against the churches. We've already said enmity against everything in the world that was good. Because something had offended us somewhere a little bit. I'm just saying there's people like this in the world.

[32:16] But regardless of that snare, if God is delivered, if God is delivered, he has broken the snare. That don't mean that we don't need to look out for other traps.

[32:27] Don't say traps out there for the children of God. I promise you. I'm not saying that once you've been set free, I understand that when the song makes one free, it's free indeed. And I praise God for that.

[32:39] But I'm not saying that once we are made free in Jesus Christ, that we can let down our guard and not worry about the tenotting of the devil from there on out.

[32:52] There's still traps out there for the children of God. I promise you that. But our soul is taken to the burden of the snare. The power of the snare is broken and we are escaped.

[33:03] This would have been David robbing about the Israelites, talking about how so many enemies that come in so many different ways. We've read about the people that were rising up in anger against the Jews. We've read about the floods that would come their ways.

[33:17] We've read about all these things throughout these eight verses of this song. And folks, I've told you that the churches is in the same danger that Israel was in. We have the same tops of people against us.

[33:30] People that hate us and they have the same things against us. And they have the same motives against us as the people had against Israel here. But the snare, God has removed the snare.

[33:42] He has freed us from the snare. He has broken the snare. And we are escaped. We are presently escaped from the snare of the fellers. Hallelujah.

[33:54] And to what I understand in the Scripture, it will ever be that way. Our hope is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Nob is here, David. He doesn't say it was because I was king.

[34:09] David was king. David was a fine king for the most part. We all know David's mess ups and sins and everything else. But for the most part, David, hey, the Bible describes David as a man from God's own heart. Can I be described like that?

[34:26] Can you be described like that? We can look down our noses at David because of the sins that he committed that we know about in the Scripture. Hey, you turn to 1 Kings chapter 15 and you can read in there that everything that David did up to the point of his sin was your right.

[34:45] Everything that he did was perfect in the eyes of God. Read it for yourself. I'm going to take my word for it. 1 Kings chapter 15. Can I say that? Can I say that? Absolutely not.

[34:58] Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Just as it was for David, our help is in that same name. Our help is in that same Lord and it's in that same name and that same Lord for the same reasons that it was David.

[35:15] He is the Lord that made heaven and made earth. Why would we worry about the floods when they come our way? Why would we, when God is the very one that creates the waters? Why would we worry about the anger of Almighty God when Almighty God has created the man that we're talking about being angry with us and that David was talking about being angry with the Israelites? Why would we worry about any of these things?

[35:41] If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, we would have reason to worry about these things. But the Lord has been on our side. The Lord is currently on our side.

[35:52] Everyone understands in my scripture the Lord will ever be on my side. Hallelujah. Take these things to heart. Sleep well with these things.

[36:03] Ponder on them. And I promise you, just as it did David here and just as it did the people, I'm sure that some of this song and that have read this song since, they'll encourage you and let you produce praise in your own life.

[36:17] Know that these people suffer. These people went through the trial. You think about these, the Israelites that we've been talking about here. You think about how God and the great deliverance that He performed for them, bringing them out of Egypt, bringing them to the Red Sea.

[36:36] But those, that was, they reached the end of themselves there. Yes, they were worse. Yes, they were saying, yes, they were already crying the Moses at that point.

[36:48] There's already one, although God had promised, I will deliver you. But that was the end of themselves. They could do nothing more. And folks, when God brought us to the end of our sale, that is when we could see our community for God.

[37:05] When they were standing there on the edge of the Red Sea, what did most of them do? They were standing there on the edge of the Red Sea. What did Moses say? He said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

[37:18] Quit moving about and quit your work and quit everything that's on your mind. Get everything out of your mind, everything that's hendering, whatever it is that you might think about God. And you see the salvation of this God that has promised salvation for His people.

[37:33] You see the salvation of the Lord and the walls are the sea, the Red Sea became his walls on either side, walls of water, the folks, even at that point, that Israel had to make their way through that Red Sea.

[37:47] It's not that God just parted it and then picked them up and set them on the other side. Hey, God has made a way through Jesus Christ that people can be saved, but that is the only way that anyone will ever be saved.

[38:02] We were talking about this snare was broken just a little while ago. We were talking about this. Hey, most of the Red Sea was opened up for these Israelites, but they still had to make their way through the Red Sea to the other side.

[38:16] And when they got over there, the waters come upon the enemy of the people of God. These same waters that I'm sure Pharaoh and his army thought, they're crazy for going in there.

[38:31] They're crazy for doing this. There's same waters protected them on either side. God was protecting them on the backside and got them through at the other side.

[38:43] But when Pharaoh and his army started through, the waters came down. I hope you remember that. You remember, even though God parted the waters, even though God got them out of Egypt, and got them out of Egypt with much substance, and wasn't even theirs.

[38:58] Not that they stole it, but it wasn't even theirs. God done all these things for His people. When God was in the Red Sea, he parted it. They still had to do their part. They still had to make the choice to go through and get to the other side.

[39:11] We'll see them in the snare that's broken. We might cry out to God in our afflictions, in our pain, and in our suffering, and God will make a way out for us. God will tear a hole in that net.

[39:23] God will lift the box up off of us. God will lift the shell up off of us. But it's still up to us to move, to do something at that point. It's still up to us. Keep that all in mind.

[39:35] That's God's message. God bless you all. I appreciate your attention.