The Word of the Lord

Jul 27, 2011   //   by admin   //   Past Sermons  //  Comments Off on The Word of the Lord

Presented by Brother Rex Slaughter
July 25, 2011 — morning service

Our starting point this morning will be Psalm 119:41. The 41st verse is something that we all need to hear.

“if you have ears to hear, let them hear.” That’s what Jesus said. Do we all have ears to hear? Are you sure we all have ears to hear? If you are not ready to receive the Word of God, you have to prepare yourself to do so. That means you have to get your heart right, that means you have to be attentive, that means you are going to do what the Word of God says to do. That’s how you prepare for it. But if you’re not ready to receive it, you’ll never get it.

So the Word of the Lord speaks to us this morning and it says: “Let thy mercies come also unto” everybody else but me. No, they don’t come to me, they go to everybody else. That’s what we think. But my Bible tells me that God’s mercies endureth forever. There’s no stopping point in God. What’s going to happen is going to happen. You can’t stop it, not one bit. Whether He’s angry at you or whether He’s spouting sonnets about you, praising you, lifting you up, brushing you off and saying “Keep walking, keep walking, keep walking.”

Now is not a time to turn back from God; it’s not. Or to turn away from Him; it’s not. No matter what we’ve done God’s mercies endureth forever and His mercy will come to you. It will. It may not seem to be coming, but it will eventually get there. A lot of times we have to wait and be patient. But patience is not something that we exhibit. especially in this church.. Why, I don’t know. It’s only been preached for 15 years here. The world tells us that patience is a virtue. It is, if you’ve got it. But when you become impatient, it’s not such a virtue. Can any of us say that we are totally patient? Then I’ll show you a liar, because we’re not.

Can I ask if there is anyone in here that totally relies on God? If you say yes, I’ll show you a liar. If I say nobody in this church takes anything into their hands, they rely on God, I’ll show you a bunch of liars. But we must also remember that God’s mercies endureth forever and they will come to you.

Sometimes God needs you to prove to Him that His mercy won’t be wasted. If you’re not going to take the time for God, why should He take the time for you? If you’re not going to listen to what He says, why should He tell you anything, or grant to you anything? The hardest part about being a parent is when you tell your kids all these things, and they still don’t listen to you. God is the same way. You parents instruct your children, “Well, you need to do this, this and this, and you need to do it in this manner.” And they don’t do it and things get messed up, and we wonder why things are so messed up in our own lives because we should have listened to God in the first place. Or maybe you didn’t even ask God to begin with, because if we would have asked God to begin with, He would not have approved of the sin. You mean God doesn’t approve of sin? Not the God I serve. And certainly not the one that David served.

(Verse 41) “Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation.” Now, here’s the catcher: ACCORDING TO THY WORD. How many of us want the Word of God to happen right now? This moment? It’s quiet in here. Either you need to get things right with God — and you still need to get things right with God, because if everything was right between you and God, you would have said “Praise the Lord! Amen! Hallelujah! Give it to them, Lord! Keep the beatings going over that way — thank you, Jesus!”

I used to do that when I sat out there. “Thank you, Lord, the Bishop’s not on me today! Thank you, Lord, the Bishop’s not talking about me today! Thank you, Lord.” It didn’t take him long to get to me.

(Verse 42) “So shall I have wherewith to answer Him that reroacheth me” (Uh oh!) “for I trust in thy word.” How many of us totally trust in the Word of God? No confirmation there, so maybe God does know what He’s talking about.

(Verse 43) “And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in thy judgments.” What would you do if God took His Word away from you? Well, you’re not using it, I’ll just take it away from you. Hmmmmm. That might raise some eyebrows. Well, if you’re not going to abide by His Word, why should He give it to you? I hear people say “Well, I read the Word, but I don’t get it.” Maybe God’s withholding from you, because you’re not doing that which is right in His sight. Maybe we didn’t consider all things the way He wants us to. Will God withhold His Word from you? Yes, he will. He’ll withhold blessings. I’ve never heard of Him withholding a cursing. I’ve heard Him change His mind about the cursings, but never once did He ever change any of His judgments.

(Verses 44-46) “So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever. And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.” You want to be free? Then you need to keep God’s Word. Sin will bind you. Sin will get ahold of you and it doesn’t let go easily. Well, I’ll already made up my mind! Yes, you have. Yes, you have. You could be like my mother. If she had her mind made up, dynamite couldn’t get her to change her mind. If she was going to do something, there was no stopping her from doing it. Sometimes that’s good, and sometimes it leads to destruction. How many of us want to be destroyed and not make it to Heaven? You see, that’s your choice. You don’t have to go to Heaven; I’m not going to force you to go. Far be it from me to force anybody to do something they don’t want to do. But I will tell you this: If you don’t do what I tell you to do, you have no chance of making it. Not one. And when you blatantly go against my word, my word which is the Word of God, you come against God Himself. And how can you stand against the Living God? Nobody in the Bible could. What makes you think you are special?

Just because you might be getting away with things today, doesn’t mean you are going to have a tomorrow? And just because some are bringing a reproach against the church, this church in particular, doesn’t mean that they will have a tomorrow. And even if they do have a tomorrow, where is eternity going to be spent? You see, I don’t care about tomorrow; I only care about today. And I don’t care about the week to come; I know that my God is already there.

I thank the Lord for a letter I received in the mail this week. It was from Brookville Area School District — said that they are going to keep my position, and that they want me to return. Isn’t that something? God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. So I’ll have a job this fall, back again for my fourth year. Oh, how I prayed and prayed and told the Lord that I really love this job, that it’s the best job I have in my life, being able to be with the kids. It’s so much fun and so many of them are now beginning to look up to me and ask me questions, and even ask me to pray for them every now and then, to give them a hug or a word of encouragement every now and then. You don’t know what that means to me or to them, to have somebody on your side, no matter what station of life you’re in. I’ve even heard teachers make comments about some of the kids and their station in life, and that just infuriates me, makes me mad. Who do they think they are, bringing judgment against a child? It’s not the child’s fault. If they don’t have an upbringing, it’s not the child’s fault, so why blame them? All we can do is show them the right path to take.

All I can do is tell you the right path you need to take. Stay strong and be of good courage; God will not let you down. He doesn’t let me down; He won’t let you down, either. But you better be in His will before you ask anything of Him. If you’re not in His will, if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing, He’s not going to answer you. He’s not going to open up His Word to you, as long as you’re doing the things you’re not supposed to be doing. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Everybody likes that scripture.

But it comes with a requirement. Lean not to your own understanding. We want to take vengeance out on everybody that crosses our path, but the Word of God says “Vengeance is mine saith the Lord. I will repay.” You don’t have to worry about people and what they’ve done to you. God already knows. He’ll take care of them as He sees fit. Sometimes His judgment is immediate and sometimes you just have to wait. I know, because I’m still hearing about problems and woes of some people at Recreation and Parks, and I haven’t worked there for 15 years. It’s amazing that God is still taking care of the enemies, and He’ll continue to do so if we allow Him to take care of them.

Seek Him while He may be found, because you may not always find God. You may not always find Him, and when you step out of His will and you do what you think is best for you, then you’re not doing what’s best for you. What’s best for you is listening to God and doing His will. That’s what’s best. But sometimes we just can’t help ourselves and take things right out of God’s hands. Then you’re back to square one, because everything that He’s done for you goes away just like the snap of a finger. It just goes away. Then you’ve got to start all over, and so does God.

He doesn’t pick up where He left off; that’s done gone. That blessing is over with; now you’re going to have to ask Him for a new blessing. And you know what? He doesn’t even have to answer it. You messed it up the first time; He doesn’t have to give you a second time, or a third. Except for this: His mercy endureth forever. You see, God does keep His word. Even though sometimes we don’t think He does, He has always kept His word. And we’ll see just how He’s kept His word.

(Verse 47) “And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.” We don’t love the Word of God like we should. If we did, we would keep His commandments all the time, His precepts, His statutes, His testimonies. We would be a keeper of them and not just trying to please ourselves. Uh oh, now you’re getting back into that sin thing, Brother Rex. Lust of the eye, lust of the flesh and the pride of life — on those three things hang all sin. We get our eyes off of God, we get our eyes on the flesh and how we’re going to get it satisfied. If we’ve got an itch, we’re going to scratch it, regardless of how bad it itches. I had an itch between my shoulder blades and tried to use a song book to get it; couldn’t get it. I scooched down in the chair a little bit; thought I’d do a little rub thin. That didn’t work. So finally I said “Lord, You’re going to have to take this itch.” And you know what? He did! You see, even old preachers have to ask God for things, they don’t just come automatically.

He says to do all you know to do, but sometimes what we know to do goes against the Word of God, and He doesn’t want us to go there. But how often do we go there?

(Verses 48-49) “My hands also will I life up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.” Hope is believing in something that is going to happen that has not happened yet. I believe Jesus is coming back. I have a hope He is coming back for me. He may come back and not take me. I hope that doesn’t happen. That is up to Him, if He has found me worthy. I don’t know if He will. I hope He will, but I have no way of knowing until my life is required of me, whether it is in the rapture or whether it is to the grave. I won’t know for sure until then. I just have to try and conduct my life so it will be pleasing unto God.

Well, Brother Rex, you’ve been saved for 25 years. That don’t make no difference. I’ve heard of ministers being in the ministry for 45 years and before they drew their last breath they stepped away from God. Look at old Hezekiah. “Oh Lord, don’t take my life.” “Okay, I’m going to add 15 years.” And he died in a lost condition. He should have gone when God was telling him that he was going to go home. But do we ever listen? Do we ever listen? No, I’m just going to do what I want to do, and I don’t care what any of the rest of you say. I’ll show you what I can do.

You show me what you can do and I’ll show you what my God will do. You go ahead and do your own thing, but I’ll show you what my God can do. You better hope He has mercy on you; you better hope His word won’t change because of you. It just might, it just might. But you’d better hope it doesn’t.

I have hope in know that God’s mercies endure for those that serve Him, not for those that don’t. Can we assuredly say, without a doubt, that God will remember us? He says “Remember the word unto thy servant, unto which thou hast caused me to hope.” David’s reminding Him, “Lord, You told me . . . You’ve given me a hope.” Now I know that money don’t grow on trees, so You’re either going to have to drop it in my lap or bring it in some other form.” So we get a letter. At the end of August school starts. I’m not sure when I’m going back, I just know that they are going to call me back. I’m hoping that they get the pool area finished quickly so that I’ll have a job at the beginning of the year. God’s going to work it all out; I know He is. I just have to hang on until the answers come. And sometimes it’s by my fingernails that I’m hanging on. And I went ahead and I bit them off. I’m trying really hard to overcome that habit. But this one got so long and my nerves got to me, and I whacked it right off and now it’s sore, because I bit it too far! I’ve been trying. The Lord is helping — it’s been almost two months since I gnawed on my fingernails and I just couldn’t help the temptation. Now it’s sore. It’s my fault; I didn’t trust God enough. He couldn’t get me to the nail trimmers fast enough. I took it into my own hands and now it’s sore.

You think that’s just a little itty bitty thing, but to me it’s a great big thing, that I can finally overcome a habit that I’ve had since I was a kid. You think that biting your nails is just a habit. It is, but it’s one that can be broken if you trust in the Lord enough. I didn’t. I took matters into my own hands and bit my nail off and it bled; the first time I’d had a bleeder in a long time, and it’s sore. You see, when we step outside of God, we feel like we’ve got a sore. And you do, because your life is hanging in the balance. You’ve placed yourself in jeopardy. You really have no hope outside of God.

As I was walking around the fairgrounds yesterday and this week, i saw a lot of people that I felt had no hope by the way they were dressed.An old man, an old man walking around with a cane, bent, was wearing a t-shirt and I was rather appalled by the t-shirt that he wore. I don’t know if anyone else saw it. I didn’t quite see what it said on the front, but it had a little thing on it that might have said “Cabbage Patch.” But the back of the shirt brought the rest of the story, with two, I’ll say cartoon character women, dressed very scantily in a cabbage patch, and it said ‘Cabbage Patch Girls.” That’s a man who has not hope; he’s only living for the day and the satisfaction that he can get out of the day. He definitely wasn’t living for God.

And I had at least six or seven people stop me and say “I liked your letter to the editor,” and I didn’t know them from Adam. And a lot of them Patti didn’t even know. One guy called me over and said, “Hey, Rex. (I didn’t know who he was.) I read your letter to the editor. Boy, you’re sure in for it.” And I said “Why?” And he said, “Because you telled the truth.” I said “Why do I have to be afraid of the truth? The truth is all I have. If I didn’t have the truth, I wouldn’t be here.” The truth is all I’ve got. The truth makes me hang on to God, because the truth is supposed to make me free. Yet, if the truth makes me free, why should I ever have to tell a lie. Why should I ever have to be deceived or cause someone to be deceived?

Why should I put on pretenses? I’m just who I am. If you don’t like me, that’s okay. I don’t care if any of you in here like me; I don’t care. I’d hope that you would, but I’ll tell you this: Jesus is enough for me. If I didn’t have my wife, Jesus is enough for me. If I didn’t have my home, Jesus is enough for me. If I didn’t have my car or a job, Jesus is enough for me.

Now all the things that I named sure makes it a lot easier for me. So I give credit to God, because He gave them ALL to me. You see, sometimes we take the gifts of God for granted. We really shouldn’t. But we do. How often do we throw back the gifts that we’ve received from God, saying “I don’t want them anymore” or “They’re not good enough for me anymore,” without considering Who gave them to you? Once God has given you a gift, you’re responsible to the gift. You are, except that God would take the gift from you. Then you had better ask for His mercies, cause you see, it’s only God’s mercies that endure forever. Brother Rex’s mercies don’t.

Brother Rex’s mercies come with a price. If you want forgiveness from ME, you’re going to have to pay a price. It’s not a price of money; but if you’ve broken a trust with Brother Rex, you’re going to have to prove to Brother Rex that you are trustworthy again. If you’ve lied to Brother Rex, then you’re going to have to prove to Brother Rex that you’re trustworthy again. You see, my mercies aren’t the mercies of God. You burn me once, you’re not going to get a second chance. And if you burn me twice, don’t think that I’m not going to take you before God. If He tells me I have to have mercy, I will, ’cause you see, I don’t have to. God says after the first, and then He says after the second admonition, count them as an unbeliever. And then it’s by my mercy. That’s what He told the apostles — it’s by your mercy. That’s what he told Job, “It’s by your mercy; now you need to forgive your friends. But if you don’t forgive your friends, then they’re not going to be forgiven by me.” Hmmmmm. And then Job wouldn’t have been forgiven by God.

What’s more important? Hanging on to anger and bitterness or saying “I forgive you.” Jesus asked the Pharisees and the Sadducees, “Is it better for me to say be healed or your sins are forgiven?” What makes the difference? That’s what He was saying, “What makes the difference?” He told the woman “Your sins are forgiven you!” Ohhhh! You can’t forgive sin, you’re not God, you can’t forgive sin. They didn’t recognize God because their eyes were blinded to the truth.Are our eyes blinded to the truth? Yes,sometimes they are, because we so much want to take matters into our own hands that our eyes are blinded to the Word.

When it’s time, God will give you what you’re seeking? Is that prophecy, Brother Rex? You can take it however you want to take it. I know from all my experience with God that it’s going to happen. It’s going to. But it might take a while.

(Verse 51) Then he goes and he says, “The proud have had me greatly in derision.” Does anybody know what that derision word means? Stress applied by other people; saying you’re no good, no account, worthless. Trying to make you feel lower than dirt. That’s my job; I don’t give that to anybody. And I think that from time to time I do that pretty well, from time to time. And then some try to stand up and rebel against it, but they’re still dirt. But you see, God can pick that dirt up and re-form it and turn it into something that would be as fine as pure gold.And sometimes God has to bring you down to dirt status so that He can build you back up again. You see, there are times that we don’t know why things are happening. Just let go of the steering wheel; let God take it for awhile. He’ll steer you in the right direction. When people cause derision, they’re trying to put you down. That’s a big word like Brother Jacob likes to have, so he needs to know what it means. I think it’s better to use words that people are going to understand.

My wife says that “you use big words all the time.” No I don’t; if I do I don’t realize it unless I’m really trying to get a point across and that’s the only word that fits. And sometimes I put words in there that don’t fit at all. They seem good at the time, but they don’t fit at all. “”Yet I have not declined from the law.” They can say anything they want to about this church; I really don’t care. They’re not going to keep me from coming to this church. They’re not going to keep me from knowing what the Word of God is.

This man tried to convince me that Joel Osteen was the best thing that has ever happened to the gospel. I looked at him and said, “He’s not telling you the full truth, which makes him a liar.” “Oh, well he just talks about the good things of God.” I said, “Being a minister of the Word and being pastor of a church . . .” “Oh, he’s not really a pastor. He just knows a lot of the Bible.” I said if he knew a lot of the Bible, then he’d be telling everybody the truth. Just because things are going well in your life doesn’t mean you are saved. He said, “Well, things aren’t going very well for me.” I said, “You need to find your way back to God. You’re more than welcome to come to my church.” He said, “Oh, I live down by Kittanning,” and I said, “Well, when you find yourself up in this area, stop in, look me up and come to church.”

Taste that the Lord is gracious, saints. That’s what you need to do, is to get a taste of God. When the old prophet was out in the desert and the birds were bringing him food, they didn’t bring him steak and mashed potatoes and gravy or sour cream and chives. They didn’t bring him any of that. You know what they brought him? Regurgitated. That’s all the birds could bring. You can read it in the Bible; it’s in there. We don’t need steak to sustain us; we do need food to sustain our bodies, to keep everything in check, the way it’s supposed to be. Without food, our body turns on itself and our body begins to eat ourselves. I have a lot of fat stored up, so my body can just start eating away, if it wants to. I don’t know I don’t know if I went on a 40-day fast if I’d ever lose any weight. Odds are in my favor that I probably could. Ghandi fasted for over 100 days or something at one time. I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t have something in my mouth to eat. There’s days that I fast. I fasted this week, and God sent an answer to prayer this week. Imagine that!

It made me feel so good I might fast again this week. I don’t know what the Lord will lay on me; He might. If you fast, I’ll answer a prayer. Okay, I’m there, Buddy! “What prayer do you want Me to answer?” I need some money. Like the advertisement, I need cash now! It will come, when God’s ready to give it. I know it will. Will we be able to receive it in the way that it is given? I hope so.

(Verses 52-) “I remember thy judgments of old, O Lord; and have comforted myself.” You can comfort yourself in the Word. “Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.” I get upset with the world, too, when they go against the Word of God, just like some of the t-shirts that I read last night. “I’m going to hell; wanna go with me?” No, no I don’t want to go with you. I have a hell to shun and a heaven to gain. Why would I want to go to a place of torment? I’ve got enough of that on this side of glory, let alone what’s going to happen on the other side. I don’t want to smell like an old smoky, dirty garbage can that’s spewing out nasty smoke odors, burning what they were burning the other day up at Sister Patti’s house. I don’t even want to know what it was; it stunk. Can you imagine the stench there’s going to be down there? Have you ever smelt something that was burnt beyond burnable when you were cooking and your forgot something and it was burned so bad, the stench was so bad? Popcorn is one of the worst and bacon is wretched when it’s burned to oblivion; can you imagine what human flesh would smell like being burnt all the day and all the night? Too wretched for me to think about.

(Verses 54-56) “Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I have remembered thy name , O Lord, in the night, and have kept thy law. This I had, because I kept thy precepts.” He had peace, he had mercy, because he had kept the Word of God. Can we say that we have peace, we have mercies? If you want peace, start trusting in the Word, start believing in the Word. The Word will comfort your heart, it will comfort your soul, it will comfort your mind. The Word is just what it says — THE WORD. It’s not Brother Rex’s word, although I claim it to be, because God gave it to me. Do you claim the Word of God to be your own? You need to. If you don’t claim it, then neither will God claim you. Where do you want spend eternity? I guess that’s really the question. You can spend it with Jesus through all eternity, or you can be with the rest of the world, away from Jesus. But you won’t ever really escape God, because He says if you go to hell, He’s going to be there. If you go to heaven, He’s going to be there. If you’re on earth, He’s going to be there, too. Do you want Him or not? That is the question. I’d rather have Jesus than anything.

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