Welcome to Nothing But The Truth, with David Johnston. Everybody serves some God or another. Some serve very stupid gods. In fact, anybody who serves a God other than the one who is God, they've got so much damage happening, it's not funny. Watch this. Whenever you put something over your life, allow something to rule your life that is unwise, unloving, uncapable, guess what you're gonna get out of it? And so, happy are the people whose God is the Lord. Now, I want to take you deeper in this verse. Notice here, happy is that people that is in such a case. Now, the case referred to here, in such a case, the case, what is the case of the people whose God is the Lord, okay? Well, I love the Scriptures, because you're going to see that. I'm going to give you an outline right here, right straight, it's right here in the Scriptures. just before this verse 15, it describes the case of those whose God is the Lord. Are you ready? It's really wonderful. Let me show you why happy is the people whose God is the Lord. The case when God is Lord. Number one, there will be no spoiled or dishonest children. Now this is the lead up to this scripture about this case. Rid me and deliver me from the hand of strange children whose mouth speak vanity and their right hand is the right hand of falsehood. If we keep God as the Lord, we will not suffer the consequences of spoiled and dishonest children. Now, you may have a dishonest child, and you know this because his mouth says the right thing, but he does something different. And he knows how or she knows how to carry on a false front of what they are. And this is probably one of the most damaging behaviors of the teenage years. Because teenagers learn to say to their parents what they know their parents want them to say. And young people learn to act when their parents are around the way they know their parents want them to act. But the falsehood that can be carried on at the same time is horrendously damaging. Two things, fathers. Number one, if God is your Lord, this shouldn't happen. If it does happen, at least you won't be damaged by it. You won't be affected. You will be delivered from the consequences of it. Let me say, let me talk to young people just for a moment. Be careful, especially if you have, as you should, multiple brothers and sisters, be careful that you are not the victim of the hypocrisy of an older brother or sister. Don't follow them, follow Jesus. And if you have watched them and you know that around mom and dad they can say the right things and act the right way, but you know there's another life going on, don't let them be your model. Now, there's reasons for this. We're going to cover some of this in our Wednesday night counseling series. See if you can catch this for a moment. In one of Maurer's books, who was the psychologist who reacted to traditional psychotherapy, and basically Maurer didn't put God in the picture, which makes him greatly fallible, but they were Bible principles of counseling. And this is what he said. He has a chapter in his book called, You Are Your Secrets. It is a trap to think that secret sin doesn't have consequences. The fact is, I don't know if you can handle this. Sometimes when Jesus, not everybody can receive what I've just told you, but if you can receive it, receive it. Secret sin causes mental health problems. That's why the scriptures are such a delight for us because they, both the Holy Spirit and the scriptures penetrate the facades that we are so capable of putting on. And they do it with scriptures like this. Be sure your sin will find you out. This is a loving God not willing to leave us the victims of our own secrets. I love God. I love the Holy Spirit. Remember he's called in the Bible, the counselor. We covered this Wednesday night, he's called the Pericles. Jesus was the Pericles and the Holy Spirit was the Pericles of the Periclete. He's the, Jesus is the counselor and the Holy Spirit has taken over the function of Jesus as counsel. And I love him. Because the counsel that comes from God comes condemnation free. The work of the Holy Spirit is not to condemn. Jesus said, I've not come in the world to condemn the world. but that the whole world through me might be salvaged." The Holy Spirit doesn't point a crooked finger in your face and call you a rat, ever. The Holy Spirit is warm, loving, compassionate. Comes alongside, puts his arms around you and says, David, you've got to change that behavior because it's got damage in it. He's constructive, wholesome, helpful, healing. Doesn't come with a bat in his hand. Comes with a washcloth. To wipe away your tears comes with words of not condemnation, but encouragement. The widespread mental disorders of this society can be directly traced to the secret lives and the secret sins of this society. How is it that we can think that the secret life we have is not us? How did we divorce ourselves? There is no logic or spiritual energy that's capable of accommodating such an idea. But in essence, it's very important to understand that when God is dealing with stuff, that this correcting, blessed is he that is whom the Lord correcteth, is that his approach to us is so, you know, I used the word constructive, but it lacks feeling. Maybe compassion, compassionately constructive would be a better The script. I guess I learned this from my father. Do you remember the scriptures? Whom the Lord loves, he chastens as a father, as a son in whom he delights. And I have to tell you that having a father that delights in you is a big deal. And I have a lot of memories of my childhood, and I could tell you lots of them, some of them. But I look back to my father correcting me, go to your room, son, I'll be there. That was the longest wait I ever had. And I don't know why there was a long wait. Probably he was getting his composure. I don't know. He came in the room with a belt in one hand and a Bible in the other. And he sat down beside me with his arms around me. And I learned from my father what the Heavenly Father was like. He doesn't come storming into the room swinging the belt. In fact, I often saw my dad literally have tears in his eyes when we had these sessions, which occurred far too frequently. And he would sit beside me. We always started with a Bible study, always with the Scriptures. Here's why I have to do what I'm going to do. And without hate, my father would discipline me, without bitterness, without anger. And God is like that. Do not resist the chastening of the Lord. It's the best thing we got going for us. Happy is the man. whom the Lord corrected, therefore despise not the chastening. Teenagers, young people, don't start hiding stuff from your parents just because your older brother or sister do. By the way, it is quite natural for younger children. When you're my age, you wish you could be younger, but when you're young, you want to be older. Little children want to emulate their older brother or sister, become their heroes. That's a natural thing. They should really be admiring and imitating their father. But that's why the older children watch out, because if they are not a model that is authentic, and they are living, quote, a secret life, and you know they are, but your parents don't know they are, don't let that older brother or sister become your model. The case, when God is Lord. No spoiled, dishonest children. Secondly, When God is Lord, you will have sons that grow up early. Some sons never grow up. That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth. Where did we get this idea? We had to go through youth to become a grown-up. If God is Lord, our sons will be grown up in their youth. They will be grown up at age 12. Now, how do you tell the difference between a child that's grown up and a child that's not grown up? In the 13th chapter, that's the big chapter, remember that? The love chapter. When I was a child, I fought as a child. I understood as a child. Now there's what makes a child. Childishness is a way of thinking and a way of understanding. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. What are the childish things put away? Thinking like a child and understanding like a child. Because you get grown up early. This idea of adolescence, which is really adolescence, is a concoction. Not to be. So one of the benefits, when God is Lord, is that our sons grow up early. Isn't that good? Number three. You'll have daughters with royal dignity. Our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth, and our daughters may be as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace. Daughters that don't look, act, and behave like movie stars, like the widespread whoredom, But these daughters, they're polished. They sparkle. They have about them dignity, palatial. They fit in a palace because they are so admirable, like a stone. It isn't a surface thing. I mean, it's solid all the way through. The benefit of having God as Lord is not only makes you happy, but the case is a happy case, too. Here's the case. Daughters with royal dignity. Productive domestic reserves. Our garners may be full. Our pantry may be full. Affording all manner of store. You've got all the stuff you need. Our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets. This is talking about your ability to prosper financially. Back in these days, it was whether your sheep were reproducing. Are you making any money on your sheep? In this agricultural society, that's how it was evaluated. When God is Lord, that's why I say, when God is your Lord. See, that's why you go over there to 1 Peter 2, there's one passage, and Colossians 2 is another, that gives employees, that's most of us, precise steps on how, if God is our Lord, we should behave towards employers. Then if we do that, guess what? Prosperity abounds. The garners are going to be full. All manner of store your sheep will bring forth. You'll become self-sustaining. The oxen will be strong to labor. The way you earn your income will not weaken, it will be strong to do the work that needs to be done, and there'll be no breaking in nor going out. Nothing is going to break in, Rob, and take from you. There's gonna be no breach in your household where the enemy can come in and steal out of you. And then there'll be no reason for complaining. There'll be no complaining in our streets. This is the case when God is the Lord. And that's why it's really wonderful to understand that happy is the man that is in such a case. Yea, what does it mean? It means yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord. Hallelujah. I get happy right there, right now, having God as your Lord. Don't let anybody mess with your soul. Don't let anybody mess with your relationship And then happiness, finding and following and retaining wisdom and understanding. So here we go. Happy is the man that finds wisdom and the man that gets understanding. I mean, he understands what's going on and why it's going on. He doesn't just know the facts, he understands how the facts got here. Understanding means you know the cause and effect relationship between things, okay? This person is happy because he knows what's going on. The merchandise of it, the merchandise, the benefit of it, this it here is this wisdom and understanding that's referred to up here, is better than the merchandise of silver and is better than the gain of gold. Here's the offer. I'll tell you what, I'm going to give you either gold or I'm going to give you the secrets of how to get your own gold. Which would you choose? That was the offer that God made to Solomon. Solomon, the richest man in history, the only trillionaire in history. All right? Someday, I'm going to get back to a teaching I did years ago called, The Greater Than Solomon Is Here. I mean, Solomon was an astounding figure in history and worth a trillion dollars easily, a trillionaire. Before he was anything, he had a choice. He could choose riches or he could choose wisdom and understanding. And God comes along and says, Solomon, because you have chosen wisdom and understanding instead of riches, you will have riches and a whole lot more. because you made the right choice. And so here this text comes and verifies, this is Solomon speaking here, the merchandise of wisdom is better than the merchandise, the profit you can get from silver or the gain that you can get from 24 karat gold, fine gold. She, referring to wisdom and understanding, is more precious than rubies. I don't know if you've checked out recently the cost of rubies. Last time I checked, an equal carat with a diamond of ruby was worth more than four times as much. She's more precious than rubies. Now watch this. She's more precious than all the things thou canst desire. That's why the scripture says, wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom. And with all you're getting, get understanding. Because she's more precious than anything, nothing can, nothing, zero can be compared to her. Length of days is in her right hand, in her left hand riches and honor. All her ways are the ways of pleasantness and all her paths are paths of peace. Whoa, look at what you get. She's a tree of life to them that lay hold on her. Happy is the man, every man that retains her. Now that's why this word is up here. Because it's possible to get wisdom and lose it. It's possible to get wisdom about something and not apply it in your life. And so the scriptures say, hey, happy is the man that gets it and retains it. Happy is everyone that retains wisdom. He that handles the matter wisely shall find good. Whoso trusts in the Lord, happy is he. Number six, caring for the poor. He that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. As you know, we took on an endeavor four years ago, Wangadongi in Africa. And you know that we, through our efforts here, coordinated with Joe Sanders, and people attached to the church who funnel money to the church, and it's gone up there. We built church in that town. We built an AIDS clinic. We built a kitchen. We buy the kids' uniforms so they can go to school. We pay the school teachers. We paid the pastor of the church. And we feed 715 orphans, two meals a day, five days a week. And guess what? We're paid up to the end of 2011. Now I say this, this is not about boasting. I'm just saying that there's something happy producing. A few years ago we sent Brother Bill here over to Katrina. He spent a year of his life over there and we helped fund, promote that. There's something happy producing about that. Caring for the poor. is a way to happiness. The fear of the Lord. Now, here is a problem that a preacher has. Look at this. Happy is the man that feareth always. Let's talk about the fear of the Lord. Now, here's the difficulty. If you were here during the teaching on the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord has 24 benefits to it that are listed in scripture. 24 benefits. One of them is happiness. Fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. to depart from hell beneath. The risk here, the hard thing for the preacher is not to go into these 24 semi-points here now, see? But the fear of the Lord needs to be properly understood. Happy is the man that feareth always. Now, this is interesting. Let me just share this one insight from the verse. Happy is the man that feareth the Lord always, but he that hardneth his heart shall fall into mischief. Interesting to note that The fear of the Lord has about it the ability to make the heart soft and not hard. Fear of the Lord does that. That's manhood stuff. I'm being hard-hearted. It's not macho at all. That's not manliness. Real men have a softness to them. They care about children, they care about the sick, they care about the poor. And what comes to create this condition in our hearts is this thing called the fear of the Lord. Another way to happiness, God's way, is to be a servant to others. If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you." Now, this could be literal. In fact, a number of years ago, we had several services where we washed each other's feet, literally. And I remember great results from that time together. When you walked in Israel, dirty, dusty roads, and you came into the house, you had dirty feet. And so servants would usually wash your feet. Well, when Jesus was there, He became the servant. And so he's saying to us that as you serve one another, you'll do what I've done to you. Verily I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither is he that's sent greater than he that sent him. But if you know these things, look at this, happy are ye if you do them, if you do serving. Everybody in the secular world, there are two worlds. There is the world of light and there is the world of dark. the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. In the kingdom of Satan, everybody wants to be at the top of the ladder. In the kingdom of God, everybody wants to be the servant at the bottom, serving everybody else. That's how you know you're in the kingdom. That's one of the ways. Remember? Jesus became a servant, humbled himself. Even though he was equal with God, he became of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant he humbled himself took on the form of a servant and this is what he tells us to do we are servers so isn't how many people can i get to come to that church and do what i want them to do the question is how many people can i serve that's the question how many people can you serve and and i tell you that it is in this losing your life that you find it again. This is the great paradox. Who shall save his life shall lose it. He wants to be the top. Dog is not gonna be top. Him that is greatest among you shall be what? The servant of all. The chief shall be the servant. Then Jesus comes along and says, well, this is what makes you happy. And if we're still trying to appease our ego and get people to bow to us, give it up. It's not the way to happiness. But number nine is being free of self-condemnation. Now, watch with me here. Happy is the he that condemneth not himself. Let me tell you, this is not small stuff. Most people live in self-condemnation. It is not mentally healthy. It causes emotional distresses. And there are cause-and-effect relationships that make people be self-condemning. There is an accuser of you. You know who it is, right? Satan. What Satan wants you to do is so convince you that you are unworthy, and he wants to condemn you so much that you believe his condemnations about you, and you join his side. And this causes self-destruction. Fragmented personalities are the result of self-condemnation. And Jesus comes along and says, happy is the man that doesn't condemn himself. But there's so much to this. that I don't think I could do it justice in the time I got left this morning, so next Sunday morning, I'm gonna pick up there. Happy are the people whose God is the Lord. What rules your life? What caused you to think the way you think? What is the Lord over you? Happy are the people whose God is their Lord. Our hope and prayer is that you have been blessed and encouraged through this teaching. Our mission is to edify, exhort and disciple the Body of Christ by teaching nothing but the truth from God's Word, the Holy Bible. For more information about Nothing But the Truth, or to view our teachings, please visit NothingButTheTruth.org.