All right, dear Saints, it's a great honor to be here. I must confess that many times throughout this journey preparing this sermon, I was wanting to quit at certain points. It is not easy preparing the word of God, but it is certainly a great joy, and it's a great delight to study it. And I really do, the desire in my heart is that God would be magnified, that you would see that God is great, that he's beautiful. And so, I'd like to talk today about longing. And I think all of us have an experience with that, right? Desiring things. If you're honest with yourself, many times the things we desire are not the right things. And sometimes we even desire good things, but not the best of things. And so Psalm 84 is all about longing, a deep longing, a longing after God. Augustine, in his work, confesses in 13 books, he says, speaking of God, for you made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. And so that's the problem with man, right? Man was made for God. Man was made to delight in God, to glorify Him, to enjoy Him forever. That's the chief end of man. But man in his folly, right, man tries to fill this emptiness with anything he could grasp. And the devil is joyful to offer to man the pleasures of the world, to try to fill that void. And so imagine being thirsty to the point of death and you're just drinking sand. And that's what man does with sin. And so dear friends and saints, brothers and sisters, let us now hear, follow the inspired, infallible and unerring word of God from Psalm 84. I'm gonna read the whole psalm just so you guys have the context. Today's sermon is titled, God is Better. And I have three points from verses 10 to 12, which are point number one, the praise in verse 10. Point number two, the reason. And point number three, the blessed. In verse 12. So let's hear the word of God. How lovely are your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. The bird also has found a house and will swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young. Even your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. How blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are ever praising you. How blessed is the man whose strength is in you. and whose heart are the highways to Zion. Passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a spring. The early rain also covers it with blessings. They go from strength to strength. Every one of them appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob. Behold our shield, O God, and look upon the face of your anointed. For a day in your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Oh, Lord of hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in you. So my dear friends, my dear saints, my first point is the praise in verse 10. And so the psalmist in verse 10 is just erupting with praise. And before I go on to this verse, I do feel it'll be very helpful if I gave an overview of what Psalm 84 is about. If you wanted to, you could divide Psalm 84 by the blessings mentioned. Right? The first blessing is mentioned in verse 4. How blessed are those who dwell in your house. They are praising you. So those who dwell in the house of God, right, who serve there, offering their sacrifices, they are blessed. Not only them, but blessed are those who could not even make it to the house of God, but whose strength is in the Lord. In verse 5, how blessed is the man whose strength is in you. And then the third blessing is found in verse 12, O Lord of hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in you. And so we're going to be looking at this last section of the psalm. Now verse 10 is very beautiful because until now the psalmist is expressing a longing for God's house. And so when we look at the temple, before the temple there was a tabernacle. God had appeared to the Israelites and he manifested his glory in the tabernacle, right? It was a representation. It was a place where God would manifest the Shekinah glory. But then, when the Israelites were given the promised land, they made a permanent tabernacle. Okay, in this permanent tabernacle, this is when the Psalmist is saying, oh, how lovely are your dwelling places, oh Lord of hosts. He's not referring to a building, Right? He's referring to God Himself, because the temple represented was a place where God would manifest His presence. And interesting enough, in the book of John, in chapter 1, when it says that the Word dwelt among us, that word in Greek is tabernacled. Because Jesus, in the ultimate sense, is God's representation. He's the glory and the radiance of God. And so not to go so far off, in verse 10, the psalmist is saying, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand outside. And so what the psalmist is doing is, he's gonna make two contrasts. The first one is a day in God's courts. Okay, and what is he contrasting that with? In the literal Hebrew, it says 1,000. And when you see 1,000 in the Bible, what that means is that number is sometimes used literally. We can see it in Genesis. Genesis 2016, Abraham paid 1,000 pieces of silver to Sarah's brother. So it's not used symbolically there. That's a literal 1,000. But many times in scripture, 1,000 can be used symbolically to mean something like a great amount. So this is what the psalmist is doing here in verse 10. What he's saying is this, he's saying, a day in God's presence is better than an infinite, than an eternity away from him. I want you to, I want you to just think about that for a sec, okay? A day in God's presence is better than an eternity without Him. God's presence is so exceptional that just one day beats an eternity without Him. If you were given unlimited money, and immortality, and unlimited land, and women, and pleasures, and every talent that you could think of. Let's say that you were Given this life where you say, look, you're gonna have a never-ending life with all the money you want, all the pleasure you want, anything your eye and your mind can imagine, but you won't have God. I'm telling you that one day in God's presence, and what the word of God is saying, is that one day in God's presence is better than that. It is infinitely better than that. That whatever your mind can comprehend, God is infinitely better than that. A commentator, I forgot his name, he says, he doesn't say a month in God's presence. He doesn't say three months in God's presence. He says a day. And so you see that contrast? Just a day, it could even be said just a moment with God. The other day I was in the car and it was in my mind, and just a smile from the Savior is better than an eternity without Him. Just His smile. Just imagine the smile of Christ. Imagine being greeted by the king of kings, not with a scowl, but with a smile, a smile of love. This, dear friends, dear saints, is better than an eternity, an eternity of pleasures. Like I said earlier, man was made for God. Man has a God-sized hole in him, an infinitely-sized gap in him that only God can fill. And so no matter what you try to put inside, it's not gonna work. It's not gonna satisfy, right? I'll share this, something personal with you, right? You see me on the pulpit now, but just a year ago, two years ago, I was running away from the Lord, all right? I was running hard from God. I was running and in my folly and in my arrogance towards sin. Like Pastor Phil preached on Psalm 73, where he says, Asaph is looking at the wicked and he's seeing them prosper, right? And the grass is looking greener. That happened to me. I was doubting the love of God. I was doubting his word. And the world was looking more and more beautiful to me. And I ran for the world. And like the prodigal son, I ran from the father. There's no excuses on my part. I didn't trust God, I wanted sin. And then one day, I ran from the Lord for six years. I know some of you is gonna come to a shock, right? Even some of you might even question, hey, were you really saved? But the evidence of that is that the Lord led me to repentance. He did not, his mighty hand and his grip on me was stronger than me. And I remember being on the train and just being miserable. You know, I was trying to just live pleasure to the max. And it just was not fulfilling. It was not satisfying. It was like being thirsty and just a never-ending thirst, no matter how hard I tried. And then one day I was on the train and I was I was thinking about, and the Lord caused me to remember the sweet times I had with Him, the times I spent in His Word, the times I spent with His people. And these were times where I had never felt a peace like that in my life, a satisfying peace. And I remember being on a train, and as a train conductor, you're doing the same thing over and over again. I'm opening the doors of a train, every stop. And so every stop, the Lord is just pounding on my mind. And I can't stop thinking about Him. And one day, I remember thinking, I'm too far gone. I'm too far gone. The gospel is just too good to be true. You're telling me that Christ is willing to die for me now? That even after all this truth, and even after all this sin, that he's still willing to go to Calvary for me? And I remember breaking down on the train. It was, I just couldn't fathom doing anything else in my life. The love of Christ It was, you couldn't, I couldn't fight it. I couldn't fight it. You know, I couldn't fathom like, wow, the king of glory, the one who existed from all eternity, would become a man and die for me. He would die for me. Me, who deserves hell, who deserves his wrath. And I ran home and I locked myself in a closet and I cried out to the Lord. And I remember I called Pastor Peter, and he lovingly received me, gave me a big hug with joy, and so did many of you. And so what's the whole point of that? That God truly is better. He's truly better, and if you try, you can try to run from Him, and you can try to go after sin, but eventually, you're gonna run out. You're gonna run out of gas, because you're brand new. You're born again. And so if there's anyone that is discouraged, just be encouraged that a wicked sinner, that the Lord in His love doesn't let us go. He's a good shepherd. Anyways, let's... Sorry I went off. In verse 10, we have two contrasts. The first is of a day, an eternity. The second contrast he's gonna make is a very beautiful one. He says, I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. And so it would help us to know a background of who wrote this psalm, to see the sweetness of this verse. You see, this psalm is written by the sons of Korah. And the sons of Korah were doorkeepers and custodians of the temple. They were also leaders of music in David's time. And you can see it come out in their psalms. In verse 10, we see the psalmist say, I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. This is the son of Korah. This is a doorkeeper. This is a janitor of the temple. You see, the sons of Korah are responsible for 11 Psalms in the Bible. Psalm 42, Psalm 44 to 49, Psalm 84, 85, and 87, and 88. This story goes even further back. They're sons of Korah. And who was Korah? Korah was a descendant of Levi. He was the son of Kohath. And so Korah, You can see this in Numbers 16. Korah gets together with three other men from the tribe of Reuben, and they start rallying up God's people, 250 of them. And they're not satisfied with being doorkeepers or keepers of the temple. Korah, being a Levite, is challenging Aaron and Moses. He says, no, we want to be part of the priesthood. And so we read about this rebellion. Korah, in his pride, They go after Moses and Aaron. And God, demonstrating that Moses was called and Aaron was called and they were not called, the scripture says that God opened the mouth of the ground and they were swallowed alive. It says they were swallowed alive by the ground. And those 250 men that came with them, it says that fire came out of the presence of the Lord and consumed them all. and their little fire pens that they were holding, God said, no, we're not even going to waste that. We're going to take those fire pens and we're going to hammer them into the altar as a reminder that only the sons of Aaron can minister as priests. So you see, Korah was very arrogant. He wasn't satisfied with being a keeper of the temple. And so he wanted the priesthood. He wanted the spotlight. But here we see a change in his sons. Right? In Numbers 26, 9, 11, it says that the sons of Korah did not die. They were spared. Right? And they were spared for this. Right? If God didn't spare them, we wouldn't have Psalm 84. In fact, the prophet Samuel comes from the line of Korah. And so seven generations later, you have the prophet Samuel come. How beautiful is the Lord, right? And so look at the difference between this son of Korah, who's writing this psalm, and his father. His father was arrogant. His father wanted the spotlight. This son of Korah is saying, no, no, no. I'd rather be a doorkeeper. I'm satisfied with that. I'd rather be a janitor in God's house than have the best of the wicked. What we see here is a contrast, and Charles Spurgeon said it best. He said, the worst of God is better than the best of Satan. The worst of God is better than the best of Satan. In Corinthians, we read one of my favorite verses. It's, for the wisdom of God is wiser than men. And the weakness of God, the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. God's foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of men. And his weakness is stronger than the strength of men. God doesn't have weakness. But what Paul is saying is that even if he did, his weakness, his folly is still stronger than the best of men. What a mighty God, what a beautiful God. And so why is this in the Word of God? Why are these contrasts in the Word of God? It's so that when you're tempted and when you're feeling, when the devil puts something in your face that you could tell yourself and you got to preach to your heart that God is better. Because many times the devil is going to throw it right in your lap. And so I see in Psalm 84, God is stating the facts. What are the facts? He's better. He's better. Now look, he also says, I would rather stand. Okay? Now he's contrasting the standing at the threshold of God with dwelling in the tents of wickedness. Right? He'd rather stand, not in comfort. He'd rather stand, right? Even if people look at him like, oh, look at this doorkeeper, look at this janitor of the temple. He'd rather stand than dwell comfortably in the tents of the wicked. Then he also says, the text also says that he'd rather stand at the threshold of the house of God. This is beautiful. And some translations, instead of saying this, right, most translations have doorkeeper, which is an acceptable translation, right, given the background of the sons of Korah. But if you look at the literal Hebrew, the literal Hebrew actually has, is more accurate to say, stand at the threshold. And what that means is, He's standing in like the worst spot of God's house. He's not even inside God's house. He's outside. Right? Imagine inviting someone over and saying, all right, you're going to stay here at the porch. Right? And so, this son of Korah is saying, I'd rather have the worst place in God's house. It doesn't matter that I'm standing outside. It's still better than the best of the wicked. All right, and why is that? Phil pre-Psalm 73, Asaph said that he looked at the wicked and he was saying, man, that looks so good. Like, why are they prospering? But then it says that he remembered. He remembered what's the end of the wicked, right? And God wants to remind you today what's the end of the wicked, right? The end of the wicked is the lake of fire. Okay, the end of the wicked. Some people say it's a separation from God, but I think that's kind of inaccurate because what the lake of fire is is an outpouring of God's wrath and justice. You're separated from God's grace and his goodness. You see, all we know now, all you've ever known your whole life is God's grace. You've never tasted, you've never even got a hint of his justice. You have never seen the anger of the Lord. But in the lake of fire, God's anger and his hatred against what's evil. You see, God is so good and He's so loving and He loves what is good so much that He hates infinitely what is evil. And the lake of fire, the dwelling, the final dwelling of the wicked is a place where He will outpour and show His hatred of evil for all eternity. And there's no one that's going to be weeping for you. There's no one weeping for people in the lake of fire. Why? What are people going to do when there's people cast in the lake of fire? God's angels and God's elect and his saints are going to praise God to his justice. I don't want you to feel and there's not going to be an ounce of sympathy for the sinner, for the sinner who continues in rebellion. And so this is why the psalmist says, I'd rather be on the outside of God's temple. Doesn't matter, right? What is Romans chapter six? Paul says, he says that the outcome, he says, I'll go to real quick. If you want to turn your Bibles to Romans six, Feel free to do so, if not, you can hear it. He says this. Okay, okay. He says this in verse 20. He says, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore, what benefit were you deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? Paul is saying, look, when you were a slave of sin, You know, now you're free. Christ has made you free. What benefit did those things that you gave your life to before, what benefit did you derive from that? He says, those things now just bring a shame. When you think of your life before Christ, it's not something to boast about, right? You don't boast about your life before Christ. You're ashamed. You're ashamed of it. And he says, for the outcome of those things is death. And so the outcome of sin is death. That is the final outcome. The final outcome is the lake of fire. It's a place of no pity, no remorse. It's a place of God's pure and holy justice. Now, let's go back to the Psalm. So we have looked at the praise in verse 10. And now we're gonna look at the reason, the reason for the praise in verse 11. And it reads, for the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. So I want you to pay attention to the word for. He says, for the Lord God is a sun and shield. All right, so what he's saying is this, I'd rather stand on the outside and a day in your presence is better than an eternity. And he says, for the Lord God is a sun and shield. What is he doing? He's saying, that what makes God so great and so exceptional and matchless is his character. It's his character. I was looking up online how much people pay to see LeBron James on a courtside seat. And it is crazy how much people, people are crazy. If it's a game six or a game seven, people are dropping more than $100,000 just to see LeBron play, just to see a mere man, a limited, created, finite, little man, a man that if God just even thinks about him, And here God is calling all men to repent and believe, to delight in Him. He's calling men to call on His name, to fellowship with Him, to walk with Him, to enjoy Him. A free offer, a free offer to all men, no matter how wicked, how sinful you are, it's a free offer to all men. Whether you're a pedophile, a rapist, a prostitute, it's a free call. And yet, man rather die in the lake of fire than come to the Lord. Man is spiritually dead. He is spiritually blind. He does not see his own sin. He doesn't see the beauty of God. So now, In verse 11, we see the reason for the praise. What's the reason for the praise? God's character. It is because of who God is. God's excellence is found in His character. And it is revealed through what He does. So in verse 11, we not only see the glory of His character, we see the glory of what flows out of that character. Right? Leland Ryken, he helpfully points out that when the psalmist says a sun and a shield, he's using a Hebrew idiom. Now I know some of you guys here, you're like, a Hebrew what? What is that? And so an idiom is a phrase that doesn't make sense unless you understand it as a whole. So an example is when someone says, break a leg, right? I'm not telling you go and break your leg. Please don't break your leg, right? What I'm saying is, look, I wish you well. Go break a leg. And when someone says it's raining cats and dogs, right, I'm not gonna see my little four-pound poodle in my house just coming down, right? And so when we say it's raining cats and dogs, we mean it's raining heavenly. And so when the psalmist says that the Lord, for the Lord God is a sun and a shield, he's not saying the Lord is literally the sun and the shield, right? But what it's talking about is God as a protecting king. Where do I get that idea of king? In the following verse, in verses eight and nine, the psalmist is praying for the king of Israel. He says, O Lord, behold our shield. Look upon your anointed. That's what he says. So Israel's shield, the king was like, put there by God. And to Israel, their king was their shield. But God is the true shield. And when the psalmist says, for the Lord God is a sun and a shield, there's many things that are at play here. First of all, the sun. is a source, right? You can't have life without the sun, right? Plants can't grow. The ancient Israelites, they really relied upon the sun. We rely upon the sun. We rely on the God who made the sun, right? But it's still a beautiful metaphor for God because just as So many things are dependent on the Son. So is all of creation dependent on God. You see, something that makes God so impeccable and so amazing is that He doesn't need anything. He doesn't need anything. And He's the only being that doesn't need anything. Think about that. He's the only being that doesn't need anything. Every other created thing is absolutely and utterly dependent upon Him. This is called the acidity of God. You see, even the devil himself, how even though the devil is a mighty archangel, and if it wasn't for God being a shield, we would be hopeless. Even him is being held by God's, the power of his word. His existence is being held by the power of Christ. You see Christ in the gospels, the demons bowing before him saying, we know who you are. You're the holy one. And Jesus with a word, they leave. They leave. Well, they will cry out for mercy. Oh, please, have you come to deal with us? Right, and Christ tells him, you know, he tells him to shut up, he tells him be quiet. And so all things are utterly dependent upon him, even Satan himself. But he is independent of all, he doesn't need anything. And so God Like the sun, all things are depending on him. And God is also a shield. He's protection. He's the ultimate source of protection. God is a shield from you, from yourself, from me. I just look at my life for an example. If God would have kept letting me run my course, if it wasn't for his strong and mighty hand, God is a shield. You see, and when we hear shield, it's kind of strange. I mean, not so strange, but for an ancient Israelite, that was their main primary defensive weapon. You couldn't go to war without a shield. All right, if you went to war in ancient Israel without a shield, you're dead. And so that was their primary defensive weapon. That was the way they defended themselves. And you see, even archers, If you were an ancient Israelite archer, you got to use two hands. And Anthony's an archer right here. And so you got to use two hands. And someone had to be, they had dedicated soldiers who were blocking you. While you're shooting arrows, you had a soldier blocking you. Right? A shield was absolutely essential. When we hear shield, we're like, oh, OK. But to an ancient Israelite, when he hears God is a sun and a shield, he's filled with awe, right? Because he knows you go to battle without a shield, you're dead. And the same thing with God. That's why we sing that hymn, a mighty fortress is our God, right? Man, if God were to leave you alone for a second, you wouldn't last. You wouldn't last a second. We wouldn't last a second. Even the strongest saint in this building would not last a second. God tells Abraham, behold, right after Abraham in chapter 15, 1, Abraham has victory over the kings of the east. God tells him, behold, I am your shield. Now, let's continue. Now we go into, we're moving away from his character. And we start seeing what flows out of that beautiful character. And it says, the Lord gives grace and glory. We're looking at verse 11. The Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. So now we're moving away from God's His character to what flows out of that amazing character. And what flows out of that amazing character? Look at this. This is incredible. Grace. Grace. Glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Now the Bible talks, you see this a lot in the Bible, walking, right? The psalmists are always talking about walking, right? Our dear brother Anthony preached in Psalm 1, right? How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. And when the Bible talks about talking, it's talking about your way of life, okay? Your way you live. All right? And so what he's saying is God doesn't withhold anything from those who walk uprightly. Now, to walk uprightly means to walk with sincerity. It's not to be doing the talk and then not doing the walk. All right? But here's something, and we gotta keep, we have to, if we're honest with ourselves, who here can stand up and say, I walk uprightly before the Lord? Right? Over here in this verse, we see the scandal of the gospel, that God is giving grace and glory to those who have not walked uprightly. How beautiful is that? Instead of giving justice and wrath and death, He's giving grace. And not only grace, He's giving glory. We read in the Scriptures in Romans 8.30, those whom He sanctified, those whom He justified, He glorified. Right, Jesus in his high priestly prayer, John chapter 17, he says, he's praying to the Father that we would take part of that glory that he had from the beginning. And so I just, you need to stop and pause and think about that. Like God is giving sinners grace, and not only grace, he's giving them glory. All it took was one sin for the devil to be cast out of heaven. That's all it took, was one sin. How about you and me who know of the gospel, who know that the Son of God came to die in the place of men? You're sinning against such knowledge. What is God gonna do with you, right? But here is the beauty, the beauty of the gospel, that God, not only does He give grace and glory, He says that no good thing does He withhold, right? And this is what's flowing out of God's good character. In John 3, verse 16, we read, For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. All right, 1 Peter 3.18, for Christ died once and for all, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Romans 5.8, at the right time, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so God's, the glory of his love is shown that when we deserved it the least, when we least deserved it, he gave it. And not only did God, God wasn't stingy. God overflowed us with his love. God gave the very best of him. There was nothing greater that God could have given toward us. Isn't that amazing? There was nothing greater that God could have given towards you. Now, so we read the praise, which we saw in verse 10. We saw the reason for that praise, which is God's character and the actions that flow out of it. And now my final point, how blessed is he whose trust is in you, right? And so, sorry, give me one second, right? How blessed is the man who trusts in you. And so Anthony did a really good job in Psalm 1 of talking about what it means to be blessed. Being blessed by God has nothing to do with material possession. Like these clowns are preaching in a lot of these churches. Has nothing to do with that. Being blessed by God is, as Anthony said, it is a peace that is unchanging. An unchanging peace. It's to be in right standing with God. That's what it means to be blessed. For God to look upon you with favor. Even though he should look upon you with wrath, he looks upon you with favor. And the peace that comes from God looking upon you with favor. I remember being in my room one day and just being overwhelmed by the fact that I have favor with the Lord through Christ, that I am truly in a right standing before Him. It's amazing. In light of all our sin. And so this is, that's what the true meaning of being blessed is. And then this is another beautiful thing we see in verse 12. It's the gospel in a verse, right? We see the doctrine of justification that it is the man who trusts the Lord. It's not the man who works for the Lord. It's not the man's performance. It's the man who simply places his trust in the Lord. To believe in the Lord. The Bible calls you to repent and believe. And what does it mean to believe? It means to trust God. It means to trust God of what He says about you in His Word. God calls you, God says you're a lawbreaker in His Word. God says that the penalty of that law is an eternity of His wrath. And so to trust God is to trust what He says about you in His Word, that you're a sinner. That you can't save yourself, that you need a Savior. The Bible says that we all need a Savior. It's to recognize your need of a Savior. And in trust, you're surrendering to the Savior. You're surrendering to Him. Right? Before we come to Christ, we do things our way. We don't care about what the Word says. We don't read the Word. We don't seek the Lord. We want to do things our way. But when we place our trust in Christ, we surrender. We say, wow, Lord, I'm yours. I'm yours. I want to please you, Master. We call Christ Master. I love how Jose prays. And he calls Christ Master. He prays in his prayer, Master. Right? Because that's who Christ is. He is Master. Now, is Christ the master of your life? Is he your master? Have you surrendered to Him? That's what it means to trust Him. It's not an intellectual knowledge. It's not just to say, yeah, I believe in Jesus. Yeah, I believe this is true. Yeah, I believe all this is true. No. Have you surrendered your life to Him? Have you said, Lord, like the tax collector in Luke 18, he says, have mercy on me, a sinner. Have mercy on me, a sinner. Have you seen yourself for who you are, what the Bible declares who you are? And the good news is that right standing with God is not based on your performance. God is just calling you to trust Him, surrender, to fall upon Christ, fall upon Him. Jesus said, come to me you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. And so, have you trusted the Lord? Have you trusted, have you seen that blessedness, that favor, knowing that you die today, you're gonna be with God, you're gonna be in a right standing. You stand before that great white throne, you're gonna be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. You're not gonna be clothed in your own performance. And if you're not, if you haven't placed your trust in Christ, what are you doing? You know, like, come, come. Right? The Lord does not delight in the death of the wicked. You don't know when your time is coming. God has put me here today as a fact to share the gospel with you, to proclaim the good news, and to proclaim the warning, the warning of what happens to those who trust in themselves, who trust that they're good enough, who don't fear the Lord, who think that they're gonna be able to stand before the great white throne and think that all is gonna be well. Do you know that every single thought and every motive is going to be examined by the God who knows and sees all things? And do you know that the standard is a perfect standard to get into heaven? It's a perfect standard. A lot of people think, oh, you're going to be put on a weight and they're going to weigh you. Well, dear saints, we know that Well, God is gonna weigh you on, He's gonna put you on a weight, but He's gonna put Christ on the other side. Are you as perfect as Jesus Christ? That's the standard. That's the standard to heaven, perfection. But the beautiful thing of the word is that when you place your trust in Christ, that perfect merit of Christ, His perfect sinner's life is transferred to your account for free. So, saying, if you're struggling today, Maybe you're feeling discouraged. You need to preach to yourself. If you ask my wife, I need to preach to myself. I'm constantly preaching to myself. I need to preach to myself. I need to preach that truth. And so in conclusion, God is better than anything this world has to offer. He alone could fill the emptiness in our hearts. He is better because of who He is and what He has done. Blessed are those who trust in Him. So trust in Him today, dear saints. And those of you who have not trusted in Christ, come. Come. Come. Let the unrighteous man forsake his way. Let him forsake his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and the Lord will have compassion. Amen. All right, so I'm gonna say a prayer and close this out. Dear Father, Father, I praise you. Lord, you're better. You're better than all the world can give, Lord. There's no comparison, Lord. You are matchless, you are peerless, Lord. And so, Father, I pray that you would open the eyes of those who have not seen your beauty, Lord, that you would open our eyes to see your great beauty, Lord, to see the sinfulness of sin. Lord, open up even those of your people, Lord. Let us see more of your glory, Lord. Lord, let us see that you truly are better. You're better than anything this world has to offer. Lord, I ask all this in Jesus' name, amen.