As they said, my name is Bucky Irwin, and I do have the privilege of being the pastor of Grace Heritage Baptist Church in Franklton, Louisiana, which is actually my hometown, so that is a double blessing that I count it a sincere privilege. I do ask that we would go to the Lord again and just ask for His specific blessing on the ministry of the Word tonight, so join me. Oh God, what songs of praise, what songs of truth, to renew our minds and to set our hearts aflame. Our desire is that through the ministry of the Word, attended by the power and grace of the Spirit, that you would illumine hearts, that you would convict, correct, Challenge. Comfort. Edify. Build up. Bless and beautify your people. Sanctify us in truth. Your word is truth. We're thankful that you have spoken. We're thankful for the revelation we have. We give you all praise and glory. for your word, a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. So would you be pleased to take this simple preacher, a cracked earthen pot, and would you strengthen me afresh and anew with grace and power. by the Spirit to glorify Christ, to exalt in the triune God, to preach the Word, to feed the sheep, to give the scents, to evangelize those perishing before me. Would tonight you call and regenerate and rescue even our little ones, those without You. Be pleased to bless the means of grace tonight. Accompany the means of grace powerfully and effectually that the Word would come past the ear and deep into the heart. I pray for my brothers before me who are pastors. Would tonight, they be deeply encouraged and washed in the word. May my brothers and sisters who know you and are bought by you, may they be renewed tonight. So strengthen me for the sacred task of preaching. For we do not look to the arm of flesh in this moment. We depend on a demonstration of the Spirit's power. Our all is in vain. So come, bless and glorify your name and build your church. We humbly ask this in the name of Jesus Christ who is risen from the dead. Amen. Amen. Tonight I invite you to turn to Psalm 115. Psalm 115. And the title tonight is, To Your Name Be Glory. To Your Name Be Glory. A clear contrast and a holy calling. When you examine the book of Psalms, you find a highly devotional portion of Scripture. It literally addresses every season of the soul. There are praises and laments, highs and lows, mountaintop joys, valleys of tears. In a sense, it was and is the inspired hymn book for all believers in all generations. Their use was to put on the lips and hearts of the people of God sincere heartfelt praise. To put on the lips of God's people how to pray, how to praise, how to lament, how to complain, how to surrender, how to yield, how to believe, how to endure. It's for teaching, it's for singing, it's for praying, it's for praising. It's for every season of the soul. The Psalms were on the lips and the hearts of Jesus, the apostles, and the early church. The Psalms were on the lips of Jesus as He hangs on the cross for your redemption. Into your hands I commit my spirit. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I thirst." Those are quotations from the Psalms. And then in the letters to Ephesians and Colossians, to these Christians and churches gathered there, the New Testament says, Ephesians 5.19, address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Colossians 3, verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly teaching, admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thanksgiving in your hearts unto God. So brothers and sisters, if you want to know God, if you want to know how to pray, If you want to know how to adore and give thanks, spend time in the Psalms. If there's no other takeaway, I remember that guy said, if I want to know God, spend time in the Psalms. That would be enough for me. if you would sincerely apply that. So tonight we look at Psalm 115, which is concerned about the glory of God and the blessing of His people, contrasted to the lifeless idols and the peril of the pagans. We'll observe it under two broad headings tonight. A clear contrast, verses 1-8, and a holy calling, verses 9-18. Now the contrast runs through the whole psalm, but you'll see. We want to divide this first part up in verses 1-3, clear contrast, and then verses 4-8, the second part of the clear Contrast. Psalm 115, verses 1, 2, and 3. Not to us, O Lord. Not to us. But to your name give glory. For the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. Why should the nation say, where is their God? Our God is in the heavens. He does all. that He pleases. A clear contrast. The first contrast we see in the psalm is the contrast between man and God. The contrast between the creature and the Creator. Verse 1 gives us the negative, the negative, and the positive. Not to us, not to us. but to Your name give the glory." You see the contrast. Not to us, O Lord. And then it's repeated, not to us, rather, positive, to Your name give glory. The repeat here is to emphasize and add strength to what's being said. It's an acknowledgement from the start of the song that the glory, praise, and honor do not belong to them. It's not to take glory for themselves or to rob God of what belongs to Him. You see, robbing God of glory is a severe thing. And if you're not convinced of that, when we look at the New Testament account of Acts 12, 20 through 23, Herod is struck dead for not giving God the glory. Acts chapter 12. Then there's the positive in contrast to the negative. We want to, to Your name, give glory. Now, the name of God refers to all that God has revealed Himself to be. God has not hidden Himself where we have a question mark about, well, I wonder what He's like, and I wonder who He is, and I wonder what He does. God has revealed who He is. The name of God communicates and reveals how He has been pleased to manifest Himself. It's to reveal His character, His attributes, and His being. All that is summed up in the name of God being where the glory belongs. And when we consider all that God has revealed Himself to be, generally in creation, particularly and especially in the revelation of His Word, how can we not give Him glory? How can you not behold creation and acknowledge and adore the Creator? How can you not glorify God for His revelation in Christ Jesus as He died to rescue and redeem Adam's race? How can we not give Him glory? And this is the point here. It's a reminder that dare not they themselves take glory, but they want to, to the name of God, give glory. They want to ascribe glory that is due to God alone. And then the question is, for what reason? Why would we want to give God glory? And there's two reasons stated in the text. The first reason, for the sake of your steadfast love, verse 1, and then for your faithfulness. So I ask you tonight, is God not worthy of you giving Him glory for His steadfast love in your life? Is God not worthy of you giving Him glory for His faithfulness in your life? We could glorify God all night, for His mercy and faithfulness. His steadfast love is His mercy, His lovingkindness, His covenant love and loyalty. His faithfulness is His truth, His trustworthiness. Particularly when we consider all that God is and what He's done in Jesus Christ, we are to always be glorifying Him for mercy. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Not getting what we deserve. And we want to glorify this One with steadfast love that never ceases in His faithfulness for His name's sake. There's the distinction here. between God and man, Creator and creature, because God alone is the one who holds steadfast love in Himself, and God in Himself is faithful, and we are not. We are not. The second contrast is not only the contrast between man and God, but we see the contrast of the living God to lifeless idols. And we'll see this as we walk through down to verse 8. But the question from the pagans in verse 2 goes like this. Why should the nations say, where is their God? This is a taunt. This is a mock. Where is their God? The nations do not know God. They do not know the Lord covenantally. They have their gods, and they're mocking the living God. Where is their God? And then the faithful answer the pagans in verse 3, Our God is in the heavens, and He does all that He pleases. That's the answer to the mocking in verse 2. Our God is in the heavens, He does all that He pleases. Now this reveals two things that set God apart from not only man, but set God apart from lifeless idols. And these two things in verse 3 are God's sovereignty. He is in the heavens. And then God's freedom. He does whatever He pleases. God's sovereignty and God's freedom set him apart. This is what makes God, God. He is sovereign in the heavens. We are mere creatures on the earth. We're not sovereign over anything and we're not free to do whatever we will. We do not have total free will. The only being in the universe that's ultimately and totally free is God, and He's in the heavens. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. Don't be that guy. We are responsible. We do choose. We make decisions. But God is free. God is free. He is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases. The idea here is His position. His position. God is in heaven. It shows that He's exalted. He's above us. He's over us. Meaning, God is sovereign over all. He alone is in heaven, we and every other creature in the earth. The idea is that everyone and everything is under Him who is in the heavens. This God is our God. This is a song of the faithful, the redeemed here in verse 3. Our God. This is in a sense saying we belong to Him and He belongs to us. This is the covenantal language. Relational language. Our God is in the heavens. And He does whatever He pleases. But this sovereign God who is in heaven is also free. He does whatever He wants. He does whatever He pleases. It means that God, being sovereign over all, answers to no one. God seeks counsel from no one. God doesn't take polls. He needs no one's opinion. He does what He pleases. And He's free to do so. And I would tell you tonight, brother and sister, it's good that God is free to do whatever He pleases. It's good that He's free. It's good that He will do what pleases Him. That's good news. I don't want to operate. With me being in control, doing what I please. Because I know the fickleness of my own heart. And it is good news that God is in heaven. And He does what He pleases. And everything He does that pleases Him is consistent with His character. It's consistent with His name. It's consistent with His being. He is sovereign and He is free. He's doing what He wants. His doing in verse 3 is purposeful. It pleases Him. It's preeminent. Purposeful meaning God's doing is not random. And God's doing is not merely permitting. And we learned that from Genesis 50, 20, right? This is the home team. And what you meant for evil, God permitted for good. That's not how the text reads. It's just not there. It's a parallel. The parallel is, my brothers, you meant evil, and God meant your evil for good to preserve much life. You see, so when God does whatever He pleases, He's doing whatever He pleases purposefully, not randomly, not up to chance. Man's plans, they can't thwart God. God's doing whatever He pleases is the sense here. And it really does please Him. Meaning, God's not reluctant about what He does. God's not indecisive. God's not trying to choose the best option. God's not anxious about anything. He does what He pleases and He's in the heavens. He's preeminent. He answers to no one, seeks no one's approval. He does what He pleases. It's left to Him. So God's will and His doing, what pleases Him, it will not be thwarted, it will not be derailed by man's schemes or plans, whether pagans or His own people. Well, why is this emphasized? Why do I labor verse 3? Our God is in the heavens, He does all that He pleases. Because this is both a confidence and a comfort. It's a confidence and a comfort for the believer. Now we do not always know why and how He pleases to work all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. But whatever He pleases to do is consistent with His character, and we can have confidence in that. We can have confidence that God is wise, that God is good, that God is purposeful, and that whatever He does pleases Him, that He's artistically designing and skillfully weaving all things for His glory and the good of those who love Him. And we can take confidence in that. But we can also take comfort in it. We have comfort that He will do what He pleases to do. And what God pleases to do is better than what you please to do. That's the comfort. That's the confidence. What God pleases to do is better than what you please to do. Now verses 4 through 8, this contrast is spelled out very clearly between the lifeless idols and the living God. So our God is in the heavens, verse 3. He does whatever He pleases. Contrast, verse 4. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak, eyes but do not see. They have ears but do not hear, noses but do not smell. They have hands but do not feel, feet but they do not walk. They do not make a sound in their throat. And those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them." The contrast is clear. This sovereign and free living God does whatever He pleases while the idols are limited and they literally can do nothing. You see the contrast. Our God does whatever He pleases. What do the idols do? Nothing. They do not see, they do not hear, they do not taste, they do not walk. They do nothing. Our God's in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Their idols, the work of human hands, they can't do a thing. It's the contrast. The conclusion of their folly is in verse 8. Those who make these idols become like them. And so do all who trust in them." Meaning not just the idols themselves are lifeless, but the idolaters, the makers of the idols, the worshipers of the idols, they themselves are also lifeless, trusting in nothing and their idols can't do anything for them. Foolish, empty, trusting in the work of their own hands and billions, billions the world over ultimately trust in the work of their own hands. The heart and the devotion and the desire and the drive and the ambition of their life in the ultimate sense is trusting in the work of their hands. And verse 8 tells us that is utter foolishness. You become like those lifeless idols as you trust them. Meaning, you will be as lifeless as that lifeless idol. The contrast. So the argument is clear. There's a litany of negatives here. They can't do anything. God is and God does. Their idols are nothing and can do nothing. There's the contrast, clearly. So according to God's Word, it is a foolish, empty, lifeless pursuit. to trust in the work of your own hands. Man's nature is the perpetual factory of idols," Calvin said. Now our second part is a holy calling. A holy calling. Verses 9 through 18. A holy calling. This holy calling for the saints here includes a command to trust, an assurance of help, a divine and desired blessing and continual Praise. So first, let's look at the holy calling for the saints. Namely, in that it includes a command to trust. Look at verse 9. 9, 10, 11. O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. So this holy calling here, this shift in the psalm, is a turning point of trust. Verse 8 said, Those who make the idols become like them, a.k.a. lifeless, so do all who trust in them. Then the contrast of trust. Oh, Israel, trust in the Lord. See it. They're trusting in what cannot bring life. Israel, you trust in the Lord. And we see that it's emphasized in a triplet. It's a threefold command here. It's a deliberate turning point emphasized by the triplet. Anytime something is repeated in the threefold sense, it's highly significant. The most significant way to emphasize something in Hebrew. We underline, we highlight, we put asterisks, we italics, caps lock, bold print to emphasize something. The way you did it then is you repeat it three times. Trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. Trust the Lord. Underline, bold print. Trust the Lord. What does it mean to trust? To trust is to firmly rely. It's to have confidence in. Because it's repeated in the threefold sense, it means to trust Him in the fullest, truest sense. With all that you are, trust Him. We are to trust the Lord. Covenant name here. We are to trust the One who's in heaven and who does whatever He pleases. We are to trust the One who is sovereign and free. Trust Him. Well, who are the ones commanded to trust? Israel, house of Aaron, and those who fear the Lord. So three categories marking out the people of God. Three different groups, so to speak. Israel, generally speaking, the people of God. House of Aaron, particularly the spiritual leaders, priests. And then those who fear the Lord, those who know God reverently and sincerely. So the idea here is House of Aaron spiritual leaders. Israel, all who named the name of God in some sense, maybe even in the nominal sense, commanding them to trust in the name of the Lord as well. And then those who fear the Lord. So this is an all-encompassing view. House of Israel, house of Aaron, those who fear the Lord, as if to say, everybody, trust the Lord, trust the Lord, trust the Lord. That's the sense. Rely on the living God who's sovereign and free. Trust in Him. And then that begs the question, right? Trust in Him. Why? Then we have another triplet. We have another three-fold description. Why should we trust Him? 9, 10, and 11. He's their help and their shield. He's their help and their shield. He's their help and their shield. You know why it's repeated? Because we are so forgetful. Because we're so prone to trust in the work of our own hands. We have to be stirred up and reminded to trust, trust, trust in the Lord. Why? Because He's your help and shield, your help and shield, your help and shield. To be our help means that He is the support. He's the strength of His people. Shield is the defense and protection. The shield takes the blow on behalf of the warrior. Christ Himself would speak of both of these in His earthly ministry. He speaks of the Coming One, the Helper, the Holy Spirit of Truth. He'll be your Helper and Counselor. And then Christ, is He not our shield? Did He not take the blow of God's judgment on the cross? He most surely did. He takes the blow for His people. He's their shield. He takes the punishment. He absorbs the wrath of God for His own people as their shield and substitute. And promises the Spirit to be not only the Spirit of truth, but the counselor and the helper. The paraclete. The paraclete is the one who comes alongside you in the race to help you finish it. It's one who comes alongside on the journey to help you reach the end. And I hope tonight you know your own weakness. And that you know desperately that you need the helper. That you have to have someone come alongside of you so that you will finish the race and the helper. For the new covenant, Christian, is the Holy Spirit. So the three-fold command to trust. The three-fold reason why. Because the Lord is our help and our shield. He's our help and our shield. So we have the command to trust. This holy calling includes the assurance of help. This calling includes a divine and desired blessing. A divine and desired blessing. Verse 12. The Lord has remembered us. He will bless us. will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great. May the Lord give you increase, you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. So this holy calling, the command to trust, the assurance of help, it includes the divine blessing, another triplet. Again, to emphasize the fullness and completeness of the blessing of God for His people. Do you see it repeated there? He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He'll bless the house of Aaron. He'll bless those who fear the Lord. So what does it mean for God to bless? Well, when you look at the Old Testament, You see number six, and putting the name of God upon the people, you see that Aaronic blessing. The Lord bless you and keep you. It involves the face of God being upon you, the light of His countenance to be with you, His grace and peace and shalom with you. Also in the Old Covenant, we see that blessing was linked to prosperity or increase in the field, in the land, in the home, Deuteronomy. You see in the Psalms that the blessed man has a quiver full of children as a heritage, a reward. He's not going to be ashamed in the city gates. Psalm 127. Psalm 128, the blessed man eats the fruit of the labor of his hands. His wife is a fruitful vine. Children are olive shoots around the table. It's all well with him. The well means there's a shalom over his life. So there's a lot that goes into the Lord bless you, bless you, bless you. And then we haven't even touched the New Testament, where union with Christ is the blessing of all blessings. We've been seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus and been given every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians chapter 1. It's all there. You look at the benefits in Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Forget not all of His benefits. Who forgives all your iniquities. Amen. Who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit. Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. The blessing and the benefits of God are upon His people. It's a divine blessing. You see, the source of the blessing is clear. The source of the blessing. The Lord has remembered us. Verse 12, not the other way around. The Lord has remembered us. He will bless us. He will bless the house. He will bless the house. He will bless those who fear. So it's a divine blessing. God is the source of it. The repetition of the word bless here is intended to mark the uninterrupted stream of His loving kindness, Calvin says. Reminds us of a hymn. Come thou fount of every blessing. Tune my heart to sing thy grace. What's the next part? Streams of mercy never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise. It's the streams of mercy never ceasing that prompts and ought to prompt the people of God to bless the Lord, to praise Him, to realize that the source of all blessing, that it's all of grace and it's all of God. This psalm speaks of the blessing as certain, comprehensive, and pronounced. The blessing is certain. He will. It's repeated. He will. He will. He will. It's comprehensive. Israel. House of Aaron. Those who fear God, and then one step further, the small and the great. This is a comprehensive blessing, sourced from God, comprehensively to all of His people, Israel, Aaron, God-fearers, and the small and the great. And this blessing is pronounced as well. It's pronounced in verse 14 and 15. May the Lord give you increase, you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. There's a pronouncing of the blessing because the source of the blessing comes from God. Sometimes before a meal, my family sings the doxology. Every Wednesday night after prayer meeting, Grace Heritage, we sing the doxology. And it's a glorious reminder, not only of Trinitarian glory, but a reminder in that first line. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. From whom. It's a divine blessing. It is a desired blessing. May the Lord give you increase, you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. So let's apply this as Christians in the New Covenant. In what sense should we seek the blessing of the Lord? I'll give you two ways. First, we ought to seek the blessing of the Lord certainly in the saving spiritual sense. Certainly, in the saving spiritual sense, we are to seek the blessing of God for us, and as the text says, and your children. So I ask you tonight, just honestly, simply, sincerely, do you ask and desire the blessing of God for your household, for your congregation, pastors, in the saving spiritual sense? Do you want that? Would you pronounce it over your kids? Would you plead with God for the saving spiritual blessings for your household? Why would we not? They come from Him. Why would we not? He's the felt. Yes, we ought to certainly in the saving spiritual sense, seek the blessing of the Lord. And also, proportionately in the material sense. And I'm careful with that wording. proportionately in the material sense. Proportionately, humbly, thankfully in the material sense. Meaning we really can pray and really can pronounce blessings and really can seek blessings from God for us and our children, certainly in the saving and spiritual sense, and humbly and thankfully and proportionately in the material sense. I'm not saying ask Him for riches. I'm saying proportionate to the need. Why would you not ask God to provide? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the hills too. Why would you not ask Him? Now, I'm not a Presbyterian. But why would we not ask God and pronounce blessings on our household and congregation in the saving spiritual sense and proportionately in the material sense? And I'm not talking about prosperity foolishness either. I'm talking about as the need and as to the occasion, entrust that to the wisdom and goodness of God, and when needs arise, why would we not ask God to bless? May the Lord give you increase, you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. I really want those things. Do you not want God's blessing? It all comes from Him anyway. Proportionately in the material sense. Think back to the wilderness generation. Everybody was not allotted the same amount in the daily portion. As the need, as the household, so you gathered. Which means some needed less, some needed more, and who's the one providing for every single need? God is. So that's what I mean by proportionate. Paul said he knew how to be content in lack and in plenty. So there really may be seasons of lack and need And there also really may be seasons where there's abundance. And if you've been walking with Jesus any time, you've probably seen some of those seasons in your life where you had hardly anything. And God provided and you weren't begging for bread. He provided daily bread for you. And then perhaps there have been seasons in your life where In God's sheer grace, you had more than what you really needed. And because you had more than what you really needed, you were actually able to help someone who was in need. And that's how the body works. This is why they're bringing everything to the apostles in the New Testament, in Acts. Just laying it at their feet. Anybody who had a need, it was taken care of. It's a proportionate to the need, humbly, thankfully, in the material sense, proportionately. I'm not saying wealth, health, prosperity, claim it. Don't hear what I'm not saying. It's foolish garbage, okay? I'm talking about humble, sincere, thankful, proportionate. God knows your needs. He's our Father. If we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, is He going to give us stones when we need bread? No. No. And then this holy calling includes continual praise. Continual praise. Verse 17 and 18. The dead do not praise the Lord. nor do any who go down into silence. So they do not contrast, but we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord. So this holy calling includes continual praise. It's the final contrast of the song. They will not, they cannot, they're dead, they're not going to praise God. They're not going to do anything but go down into silence. They're not going to give God His due praise. So who will? And the contrast is, we will praise the Lord. We will bless the Lord. They won't. We will. They can't. We must. The dead do not praise Him, nor do any who go down into silence. The dead and those descending thereto, they do not praise the Lord. This is perhaps an allusion back to the idols and those who trust them, dead and lifeless. the dead and those going down to the grave, they will not and will refuse to honor God and give thanks to Him as God. They will continue to spiral down, but not those with a set-apart calling. Not so for those trusting in the Lord. For those trusting, trusting, trusting in the Lord. For those who know God as the Sovereign One and Free One who's in the heavens and does whatever He pleases. For those who know that God is their help and their shield. Their help and shield. Their help and shield. They will bless the Lord. They will praise Him. Others won't. We will. And we must. So a word to the unbeliever tonight. for anyone and everyone apart from and outside of Christ, would you be counted among these spiritually dead? Would you be like the silent ones going down who refuse to praise God? Because if you are, you will not have the blessing, but the curse. That's the other contrast. For those not praising, for those refusing to honor, for those refusing to give thanks, for those refusing to trust in the Lord but trusting in the work of their own hands, they continue to go down under the curse. And the blessing of God is not upon them. And if you are apart from Christ, and outside of Christ, and not hidden in Christ, I would offer Christ to you tonight, that you would look to Him and live. That you would look to the living God, who descended, who took on flesh, who became the curse of His people on the cross, that even you might have His blessing. He was cut off. He was cursed, stricken, smitten of God, wounded for our transgressions. And the punishment was laid on Him that brought us peace. And you ought to look to Christ today. who took the curse of His people, that you, by repenting and believing, may have His blessing. That you may be hidden in Christ. That you may know the spiritual blessings that are in Christ Jesus. For in Him there's redemption, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. It is through Jesus Christ whereby we're adopted as sons. according to the good pleasure and kind intent of His will. So I would simply say, look to Christ. Do not longer go down into silence. Do not any longer trust in the work of your own hands. But with the empty hand of faith, receive all that God is for you in Christ. Receive with the empty hand of faith all that Christ has done and won for you as the substitute of His people. And then to the brother and sister in Christ tonight, when you are prone to self-glory, and when you fall to it, Let us genuinely repent when it happens. Are we not so prone to self-glory? Oh, we are so prone to it. It always rises up in us. And we are to say in those moments, when we're prone to self-glory, when we're prone to rob God of the glory that He's due, we are to join the psalmist here with the negative and the positive. We are to humbly go before God and simply say, not to me, O God, not to me, but to Your name give glory. That's how we fight. for a God-glorifying life. When we're prone to fear, when we're prone to doubts, we need to remember and remind ourselves of the sovereignty of God and the freedom of God. That our God is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases. That our confidence and comfort be God reigns. And what He does is purposeful, wise, good, always consistent with His character. The sovereignty of God is to comfort the believer. Spurgeon says, when you go through a trial, the sovereignty of God is the pillow on which you lay your head. That trial is not random. That affliction is not unintended. That adversity is meant. It's meant. And we are to lay our head on the pillow of God's sovereignty as we endure the trial. All the while knowing that though the lot is hard, and though the burden heavy, He still does what He pleases. And He's good in it. Thy gold to consume, thy dross to refine. Or maybe that's the other way around. I sing that over Eden all the time when I get her to sleep. And I'm stumbling over the words right here when I'm before everybody. Thy dross to consume, thy gold to refine. There we go. Maybe I should just sing it. It is a deep comfort to know that God is free, that God reigns, and that He is wise and good in His purposes. Brothers and sisters, let us see the foolishness of trusting in our own hands. Let us not trust in what these can provide. Let us not have lifeless pursuits. And when we stumble and when we get out of the way, let us repent sincerely and quickly that we may trust, trust, trust in the Lord. And then finally, let us all, every group tonight, young and old, married and single, individual, household, pastor, flock, small and great, trust, trust, trust in the Lord, because He is your help. And He is your shield. And He repeats it so that you can rehearse it as you forget. And when we forget, when we stumble in it, let us preach to ourselves that God is our help and shield and that we are to trust Him. And finally, let us not be silent, but let us praise the Lord continually. Let us praise the Lord from this time forth and forevermore, even until we join the everlasting song and crown Him Lord of all. As Spurgeon says, should not living men extol the living God? Yes, we should. And it is our privilege to do so. So may we as living men and women, boys and girls, may we extol the living God. So Lord, grant these truths among us. Press them upon our minds and our hearts. Take this feeble, feeble attempt. And work it good for the sanctification of your people. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.