Four Needed Men

[0:00] Amen. It's good to be challenged like that. I've been challenged already in the way we've had three preachings so far.

[0:10] And it's been a real blessing. I enjoyed the singing. It's good to be around men. I like, like you said, I like being around the ladies. I think that's a blessing, but I like it when it's just the men. I enjoy hearing men sing.

[0:22] I enjoy hearing men talk about Jesus Christ and about how good he is and how much they love him. I don't know about you, but our country's in trouble.

[0:34] You don't have to look very far to know that our country is in trouble. Our churches are in trouble. Families are in trouble.

[0:45] There's a lot of trouble. It seems like at any moment things are just going to tip off like that. We need men. We need men.

[0:56] So it's good to be here with men. I'm going to preach to you a message on the four most needed men, in my opinion, the four most needed men in the Bible.

[1:12] They're all found in one verse, in Psalm 12. Psalm 12. Now, if you don't agree with three of these men being the most needed, you'll at least agree with the last one as the most needed man that we need.

[1:30] Psalm 12, verse 1 and verse 2. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men.

[1:45] Now, that's my text. And from that text, I will show you four of the most needed men in the Bible. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men.

[2:01] They speak vanity, every one with his neighbor, with flattering lips and with a double heart. Do they speak? I don't know how this man prayed this prayer. I don't know if he prayed it like I've seen some guys pray where they are real loud when they pray.

[2:17] Maybe he was, help! Maybe it's like that. Or if you've ever been in a really distressing situation, sometimes when you're crying out for help, it's just, God, we need help.

[2:33] Help, Lord! The godly man ceaseth. The faithful fail from among the children of men. This is a famous prayer. You've probably heard many sermons preached from it.

[2:45] There are four men that are the most needed men in the Bible, and I want to give that to you here tonight. Father, I want to thank you for the opportunity to preach. I realize that without thee I can do nothing.

[2:59] If left to myself, I'll mess this up. So, Lord, I pray that you would please remove Josh Stevenson. May you exalt that King James Bible. May the Holy Spirit bear witness to it.

[3:11] Father, magnify your word now. Fill me with the Holy Spirit of God. Lord, help me just to deliver the message as it needs to be delivered by the help of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth.

[3:26] Now, the first man that I want to point out is pretty obvious from the text. The very first of these most needed men is the godly man. The godly man. We need godly men today.

[3:39] We need a godly man. He says in the text, for the godly man ceaseth. I realize Pastor Andrus did a fantastic message there on the making of a man.

[3:49] It seems like manhood is being attacked right and left. They don't want our sons to be men. They want to emasculate our sons. They parade in front of our sons and in front of our families, in front of our congregations.

[4:03] They parade guys. I don't even know what to call them. But men is the last thing that I would call them. They're not men. But the Lord says here in the text, the guy's praying, and he says, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth.

[4:17] Now, I looked up godly. Godly is simply pious or reverencing God. Now, there are 15 times that the word godly shows up in the Bible. I've heard godly put like this. It's being like God.

[4:28] That's what I've heard godly put as. Now, here we have in the Old Testament, we've got him saying, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth. Now, 15 times the word godly shows up in the Bible.

[4:39] And I didn't realize this until I looked it up. Only four of those times it's in the Old Testament. All the rest are in the New Testament. Out of the remaining 11, eight of those times talking about the word godly, the apostle Paul is the one talking about it.

[4:55] We ought to be godly men. Now, there are five areas that Paul mentions the word godly, and these are character traits that you and I ought to have. And we ought to be godly men.

[5:07] Not worldly men. Godly men. Now, it doesn't come easy. And it's going to be difficult. But, gentlemen, you know that difficult things are worth it.

[5:19] We live in a world where everything has to come easy. They want it easy. But we're men. So you just do the hard stuff. Even if you don't want to do it, you do it.

[5:29] Because we're men. And we do it. So here's some things about being godly. Hold your place here in Psalm 12, because you've got to come back to it, and go to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

[5:41] The first attribute about godly that Paul talks about is godly sincerity. Godly sincerity. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. And I'm glad this is not a sword drill, because I would fail.

[5:56] 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 12. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshy wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you, word.

[6:16] The kind of sincerity that Paul had was a godly sincerity. You ever seen somebody who tries to come across as being sincere, but they are the farthest thing from being sincere? A car salesman will be sincere.

[6:28] He ain't sincere. He's just trying to get your money. He'll tell you whatever he's got to tell you. You know what the Bible says about us? Have some godly sincerity. In other words, don't just be sincere because you're going to get something out of it.

[6:39] Be sincere because it's the right thing to do. Be honest. We need truthful, sincere men these days. And it seems like everything these days is just a sham.

[6:50] It's a facade. It's false. You know what our children are looking to us as? They're looking at somebody that they can look at us and say, my dad is sincere. My dad is an honest man.

[7:02] That's the kind of guy I want to be. Our kids know. Our kids know. You know who's really good at sniffing out sincerity? Teenagers. They're good at that.

[7:13] They can tell if you mean it or not. Godly sincerity. How's your sincerity? Most motives are concealed or fake. I'll give you an example. Remember Absalom?

[7:24] Absalom comes along. He's got this long hair. He's a handsome looking man. From the top of his head to the bottom of his foot, there wasn't a blemish in this guy. And everybody who's coming to see David, he would take him off and they'd kick him out of the hand, kiss him on the cheek and say, oh, tell me about your woes.

[7:40] The guy would try to kneel in front of him. And he'd say, oh, no, no. Stand up. Stand up. And then he would tell him his case. And he says, oh, would to God that I were made a judge. I would make sure you would see.

[7:51] You have a great case. He didn't care about him. He didn't care about him. I was told this one time. Be careful when people flatter you. And ask yourself, why are they telling you that?

[8:05] You know, when I first started preaching, people would come up to me and they would say things like, man, that was an amazing message. That was absolutely fantastic.

[8:16] And I believed what they said. It wasn't until later on that I found out that sometimes they didn't know what to say, so they were just being nice. But one time, I'll never forget this.

[8:27] I was in Bible school. I was still on PBI. And I got invited to go preach at a guy's church. The guy is still in the ministry today. He's a great preacher. He was gone. And he asked me to fill the pulpit. Man, I was ecstatic.

[8:38] I spent a lot of hours putting together this message on David. I mean, it was a lot of work on this message. I got up. I preached this message. Well, his second in command gets up and he goes, wow, that was an amazing message.

[8:52] And listen, he said, I could sit under a guy like that. Now, yeah, some of you know where I'm going with this. Because I didn't realize what was going on at the time.

[9:06] And I thought to myself, oh, wow, maybe I'll make a great pastor one day. I have a church of thousands of people. I'm not there yet, fellas. Just the day is coming.

[9:17] No, I'm teasing. Then I found out it wasn't but a few months later. I found out that that guy was undercutting his pastor. He ends up splitting the church and leaving. Don't always believe everything people tell you about you.

[9:30] Godly sincerity. Notice in 2 Corinthians 7. 2 Corinthians 7. Here's the next attribute of godliness. Verse 9. This is godly sorrow.

[9:41] Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance. For you were made sorry after a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing.

[9:52] For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold this selfsame thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort.

[10:06] What carefulness it wrought in you. Yea, what clearing of yourselves. Yea, what indignation. Yea, what fear. Yea, what vehement desire. Yea, what zeal. Yea, what revenge. In all things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

[10:20] You know what the church of Corinth was? They had a godly sorrow. You know most of the sorrow these days, it's like Judas. It's just sorry because you don't like how things turned out.

[10:32] It's what the Bible calls a worldly sorrow. You know what he does? He takes that silver. You know what he does? He takes that silver and he goes and he throws it to the chief priest and then he goes out and hangs himself.

[10:43] He doesn't try to go get things right with the one he had offended. But then you got another guy there named Peter. Peter and Peter after he turned and looked at Jesus Christ, his heart smote him and he went out and he wept bitterly.

[10:54] And then there they were along the seashore. And you know what he did? He got things right with the Lord. Can I ask you what kind of sorrow do you have? Do you have a godly sorrow or do you have a worldly sorrow?

[11:06] Are you just sorry because you got caught? Are you just sorry because you don't like how things are turning out? Or are you sorry for what you are? Are you sorry that you have offended your heavenly father? Are you sorry for the sin that you commit in your life and you hate it and you wanted to get rid of it?

[11:20] And if you don't have that, why don't you ask God to give it to you? Say, God, change the kind of sorrow that I have. You know what I'm sick of? I'm going to preach it myself.

[11:31] I'm going to preach it myself. Tell me, preacher, what are you sick of? I am sick and tired of getting things right with the Lord on the altar and then going out and doing it again and then coming back and getting it right.

[11:42] I just want to be done with it. I hate this flesh. This flesh drives me nuts. I don't like it. Godly, godly. Here's another attribute.

[11:54] Godly jealousy. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 2. 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 2. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.

[12:06] For I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Most of the times when we think of jealousy, it's something that is bad. But here it is obviously something that is good because the Holy Spirit of God chose to write the words godly jealousy.

[12:22] This is a good attribute. And he has godly jealousy for the church at Corinth. He doesn't want to see them beguiled. He doesn't want to see them tricked. He doesn't want to see them getting into sin. Would to God we had some godly jealousy over our family.

[12:35] Would to God we had some godly jealousy over our church. Would to God we had some godly jealousy over the right kind of things. Let's keep that corruption out. It's invading our homes.

[12:46] It's trying to invade our churches. God, get it out of here. This is your flock. These are your people. This is the family you give me. Or get that stuff out of here. Godly jealousy.

[12:57] Help, Lord. The godly man ceaseth. Here are some attributes of godly. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy 1. Godly edifying. 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 4.

[13:09] Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith. So do. That clear?

[13:20] Do that. Don't do the other thing. Everybody wants to do. They want to give heed to fables and endless genealogies. Well, let me ask you a question. How many scales did Leviathan have?

[13:34] And I want to know. And they all these weird questions. But how does that edify anybody? Bible says you need to major on godly edifying. So do.

[13:45] I think it was Lester Olof that said it's not the things in the Bible I don't understand that bother me. It's the things in the Bible I do understand that bother me.

[13:56] You ever just want the Lord just to tell you what to do? You know, open up heaven and tell you what to do? All you got to do is open up your Bible and he tells you what to do. Do that. The last attribute about godliness is found in 2 Timothy chapter 2.

[14:12] Godly living. 2 Timothy chapter 2. Nope.

[14:23] It's not 2 Timothy 2. I think it's 1 Timothy 2. The one that says... Nope. Is that the one that talks about how we're supposed to live between the advents?

[14:37] Yes. Yes. Thank you. All right. Titus 2.12. Yes. Okay. So verse 11. It says, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.

[14:47] You already know this. I'm not teaching anything new. You know that the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared, past tense, hath appeared to all men. That deals with the first advent.

[14:59] If you look down in verse 13, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, talking about the coming of the Lord. So verse 12 is in between when the Lord first came and now you got in verse 13, the second advent.

[15:13] So in verse 12, here's what we ought to do in between the advents. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

[15:26] That's how we're supposed to live our lives, looking for the Lord Jesus Christ to come back. This world is going to do everything it can to try to make you cold and make you conform.

[15:42] I'm studying church history. And as I'm studying church history, one of the things, I'm reading Dr. Ruckman's book on church history. And the one thing he says that the devil will forgive you for more than anything else, he'll forgive you for anything as long as you'll conform.

[15:58] Because the devil just needs you to conform. Because that's the way the whole entire world is going. We were talking just a moment ago about the ecumenical movement. And right now in the apostle's epistle, in Paul's epistle, he says, come out from among them.

[16:17] Come out from among them. I forget exactly which one it is, but come out from among them. Okay? But in Revelation, it says, come out of her. So right now, you got the ecumenical movement, but then all roads lead to Rome.

[16:27] Come out in her. Interesting. You know what the devil needs? He needs conformity. He wants all the men to look like women, all the women to look like men. His job is to remove all the boundaries.

[16:38] I mean, now you can't even, now you don't even know what somebody is. Now you have to figure out what pronoun that you're supposed to address somebody by. And they have all these things. They're trying to force all that stuff on you.

[16:50] That's all. All they want you to do is conform. That's all they want. And once they get you in one little area, then they're going to get another one. And then they're going to get another one.

[17:01] You know what we're supposed to do? We're supposed to live godly. We're going to say, I only know two pronouns. He and she. It's male and female. That's it. It's conform. We're not going to conform.

[17:12] That was why they killed the early Christians. Because they wouldn't conform. They wouldn't go along with the way the world was going. How about you? Is there any difference between you and the world?

[17:25] Or are you a conformist? Or are you a non-conformist? We were told how to live. We were not told to live it only if it was conducive to our living environment.

[17:38] We were told to live godly. That's how we were told to live. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases. The more a society, if you go back over to Psalm 12, Notice the more a society lacks godly men.

[17:54] Watch what happens in verse 2. It says, They speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor. With flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. The more a society lacks godly and faithful men, you find that they, first of all, speak about things that don't matter.

[18:11] It says they speak vanity. You know what vanity is? Things that don't matter. Boy, I tell you what. It seems like half the conversations today, they don't matter. If you didn't waste your time talking about them, you wouldn't have missed anything.

[18:26] I'll tell you what matters. What matters is what's being preached behind the pulpits of Bible-believing churches. That kind of stuff matters. Even if the guy doesn't say it in the way you want him to say it, or even if he doesn't have the personality, or whatever the thing is, maybe he bumbles over his words, or he gives terrible illustrations, or can't find Timothy from Titus.

[18:48] Whatever it is, it's still the word of God. And that's something worth hearing. Those are good words. My Bible tells me in every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment.

[19:02] You just see vain words. Vain words. I remember I got out of Bible school, and I went to go see my uncle, and sit around talking to my uncle, and the conversation, you know, didn't really last very long to be able to really carry on much.

[19:17] Next thing you know, he and his friends started talking about what they enjoyed talking about. And the conversation got really serious. It was a serious conversation. It was intense.

[19:29] And I listened for a few minutes. Do you know what the conversation was? The conversation was this. Is Jean-Claude Van Damme a real martial artist or not?

[19:40] Oh, man. Him, Steven Seagal? You know, I'm telling you, these are real martial artists. I bet if you were to meet them on the street, oh, man, you couldn't whip them in a street fight.

[19:54] These are some crazy martial artists. I'm telling you, they went on and on and on. And I'm sitting here going, what are we talking about this for?

[20:08] I guarantee you, I bet there's some guys in here that could walk up to Jean-Claude Van Damme and take him off guard, punch him right in the nose. He's out like a light. I wouldn't do that, but maybe some of you could. But you know what conversations are these days?

[20:19] They're about nothing. About nothing. Even the conversations in churches sometimes. After in the fellowship. Are about nothing. Do you ever take time just to talk about the scriptures?

[20:33] Talk about the word of God? Talk about things that matter. Do you ever take inventory about what you talk about? Notice what else they do. They flatter. It says with flattering lips.

[20:44] They flatter. They flatter. In the book of Jude, verse 16, it says, they have men's persons in admiration because of advantage. Sometimes people will just flatter you because they're trying to get something out of you. The last thing that they are in verse 2 is they're two-faced.

[20:59] It says they're double heart. With a double heart, do they speak? They're telling you one thing, but that's not what they mean. You know, and even if I don't like you, at least if you just tell me straight up, at least I'll know.

[21:15] You know, I hear Dr. Ruckman stand up and preach, and a lot of people hated him. I loved him personally. Because, I mean, you stand up and preach, people didn't like him, but at least they knew what he meant because they knew what he said.

[21:26] He told them the truth. He just gave it to them. You know what I don't like? I don't like it when guys stand up and they say things like, you know, here we are today, and I have a message for you about the importance and realization that we have come to today in the most extreme manner to find a way to work within our means amongst one another in the highest compoundable way, finding between us a mutual bond that can work and strive together.

[21:58] Are you with me? What did I say? I don't even know what I said. So the first man is a godly man.

[22:10] Will you be a godly man? If that prayer was prayed today, help Lord for the godly man ceaseth, which we could pray that prayer. And this one, I gotta lay myself with you on this one.

[22:24] Could the Lord point to you and I and say, I got one right here. The second man, that is the most needed man, is a faithful man.

[22:35] Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. A faithful man. The Bible says in Proverbs 20 and verse 6, a faithful man who can find.

[22:48] Faithfulness is sticking with something even when you don't want to or when no one notices or nobody's gonna pat you on the back. It's just doing what you're supposed to do when you are supposed to do it.

[23:03] It's showing up. It's being faithful. You know, I appreciate that you have Pastor Andrews preach. And he's faithful, brother. Been here a long time. I appreciate guys like Dr. Uckman.

[23:15] Just faithful. Brother Donald, just faithful. I appreciate that faithfulness. I appreciate that stuff. I like it when a guy will just stick with it and just doesn't quit. And let's be honest, it's not all the better roses.

[23:29] I mean, it's ups and downs. You know what a faithful man does, though? He just keeps going. Just keeps plodding along. Yeah, but everybody's leaving me. I'm just gonna plod along. Yeah, but nobody appreciates me.

[23:40] I'm just gonna plod along. Yeah, but I'm not giving me accolades. I'm just gonna plod along. Why? Because that's where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Faithful man. You know, we're missing?

[23:50] We're missing faithful men. I haven't been in the ministry too long. I've been in it for 21 years. In that time, I have seen men get into the ministry and get out of the ministry.

[24:04] And sometimes people think that the ministry, at least I did before I got into it, that it's all glamorous. That you're always preaching up here and everybody is always with you. And they're like, yeah!

[24:15] And let's go gung-ho for the Lord! Yeah! You know what I found out? I found out that sometimes I get behind the pulpit and I don't even want to be there. I didn't even want to preach.

[24:27] And I walk in and sometimes I would see somebody show up at a church and I'd be like, oh man. Lord, do they have to be here today? Because I'm really not feeling it. And then you just stand up behind the pulpit, turn your Bibles, and preach.

[24:46] Faithful man. The first man in the Bible who is called a faithful man that I could find, okay? Now, it's not the first mention of the word faithful, but the first man in the chronological order of men in the Bible that I found that was a faithful man was Abraham.

[25:04] Look at Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter 9. Nehemiah 9. It says something about his faithfulness that I want.

[25:16] Nehemiah 9. Nehemiah 9 and verse 7. Thou art the Lord, the God, who didst choose Abram and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees and gavest him the name of Abraham.

[25:36] Now watch this. This is what I read and I thought it was so amazing that the Holy Spirit wrote it like this. And foundest his heart faithful before thee.

[25:47] Whoa. It's not just him. His heart was faithful. I thought about that and I thought, man, you know, many are faithful in body, but their heart is long gone.

[26:01] And eventually, if the heart is long gone, their body will follow. I've seen it before. I've been preaching and we were talking about this. I can see when all of a sudden something just seems to be off.

[26:15] Somebody who used to be shouting amen, somebody used to be with me. Something's off. And I try to figure it out, go up to them, talk to them, try to, you know.

[26:26] And so I'm trying to, I'm trying to talk to them, trying to figure out what's going on. And they wouldn't tell me. And then all of a sudden one day, they're gone.

[26:38] And so I learned something. I learned that the heart leaves long before the body leaves. I think the prodigal son was in the far country long before his body was.

[26:48] His heart was there. So I want to ask you, I know you're faithful in body. I mean, you're here on a Saturday night. Here you'll come to a special meeting.

[26:59] I guarantee I'm talking to the cream of the crop here. But how about the heart? Is your heart faithful? That is where rubber meets the road.

[27:13] That's the real deal right there. Abraham was faithful in heart. God knew where his heart was and where it would be a year from now. He didn't just hop around. It wasn't just here.

[27:24] It wasn't just there. I've had people like that. You know, we call them church hoppers. You guys ever seen a church hopper? They come to the church for a couple of months and they go to this church for a couple of months. They go to this church for a couple of months. And then they get mad at me.

[27:35] And they say, preacher, you never visited me. I said, well, you weren't coming to my church. You like left with somewhere else. How am I supposed to know you want me to be your pastor? If you want me to be your pastor, then come and join.

[27:45] If you don't want me to be your pastor, then leave. What am I supposed to do, man? And can I tell you something? If you're a church hopper, you put yourself in a dangerous crosshair of the devil. Because none of the pastors in town know that that's the church that you want to be at.

[27:59] So when you get out and you're in a hospital or you're away from God or you need some encouragement, I doubt any of them are going to come finding you. Because they don't even know that you want to belong. This is not just one way.

[28:12] This is us. I tell my church all the time, it's not just me. You don't just come to hear me preach. Right? It's us. We're worshiping the Lord together. That's the way it should be.

[28:23] So the Lord knew that Abraham, he knew he was going to be there. Bible says, meddle not with them that are given to change. You know, the first mention of a faithful man, Pastor Andrew has already touched upon it, was Moses.

[28:36] And I'll go to Numbers 12. Let's go to Numbers 12. Numbers 12, verse 7 and verse 8.

[28:46] This is Maryam and Aaron speaking against Moses. Not necessarily, they said, because he had an Ethiopian woman, but it seems like the real motive is found in the next verse because they were mad that God had only spoken to him and not to them.

[29:06] And in verse 8 it says, With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches. And the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses.

[29:21] Moses was a faithful man, and because he was a faithful man, God spoke to him plainly. God said, I will, he says, I will speak with him mouth to mouth, even apparently.

[29:33] He didn't use dark speeches. He knew exact, God was very plain. With, with Moses. And he said, it's because he was a faithful man. Can I give you an encouragement about your Bible reading?

[29:44] Some of you get into your Bible, and you get discouraged because, you're not getting anything. And you say, man, I'm reading it, I'm just not getting anything. I don't understand it. May I encourage you, be faithful.

[29:57] God gave this faithful man, he spoke plainly to a faithful man. Maybe, if you and I were just faithful, at sticking in our Bibles, whether we wanted to or not, whether we understood it or not, maybe every once in a while, God might say, hey, let me give you some understanding, and show you this thing over here.

[30:17] Amen. Amen. Have you ever been reading your Bible, and had something that you've read before, just jump out at you?

[30:29] You ever had that? Take your Bible, and go over to Exodus 15. I'm going to read you something, that I was reading just the other day, that jumped out at me, and I must be honest, preacher, I'm sorry, I am using your pulpit, for my own advantage.

[30:42] So, because Pastor Andrus is here, I'm going to read this passage, I don't know what it means, and I'm hoping he'll tell me after the service. I'm getting my question in in advance. Now, I was reading this the other day in my Bible, and some of you may have seen it, but I had never seen this before, and it has to do with, when Israel crossed to the Red Sea, and the Egyptian army comes behind them, it appears that something happened, to the Egyptian army, that I had never seen before.

[31:09] And I want to show it to you, maybe I'm way off base, but it jumped out at me, I've never seen these words. Verse 6, Exodus 15, verse 6, I'm going to read quickly. Thy right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power, thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.

[31:21] They're singing the songs, about what had just happened, of course you know it also, as second advent reference. And in the greatness of thine excellency, thou hast overthrown them, that rose up against thee, thou sendest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.

[31:33] And with the blast of thy nostrils, the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as in heap, and the depths were congealed, in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my lust shall be satisfied upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.

[31:50] So speaking in context, of having Pharaoh's army, come after Israel, I'm tracking, I'm like, okay, I can see where Pharaoh, I'm going to get it, I'm going to finally get, I'm going to get Israel, okay, I'm following, I can see the Red Sea parting, the waters are congealed, there's Israel, they're going through, and Pharaoh's like, aha, I got him now, and down and he goes after him.

[32:10] So now, where was I? Alright, verse 10, he says, thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them, they sank as lead, in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?

[32:23] Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Man, that's good stuff. I imagine them shouting, they're rejoicing. Now it's the next verse, that I saw something I'd never seen, and here's the question from Pastor Andrews.

[32:34] Thou stretchest out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. The earth swallowed them?

[32:47] Swallowed who? Did he swallow? Pharaoh's army? Here's what I'm telling you. I don't know the answer. What I'm telling you, is I've read this passage, numerous times.

[33:02] I've never seen that, ever. And I don't know, what that's about. But it says, the earth, swallowed them. So he swallowed somebody, and I wonder, if it's Pharaoh's army, and if so, is that what Ezekiel, 32, was talking about?

[33:20] Is that that? I don't know. But you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to be faithful, and keep reading. And slip my question, to Pastor Andrews as well. What I'm trying to tell you, is you know what you'll do?

[33:32] You'll go along there, you'll read that book. I'll tell you, the Lord will start showing things to you. He'll start giving things to you. Samuel is called a faithful priest. Go over to 1 Samuel, chapter 2, 1 Samuel 2.

[33:47] Now I got all you staying in Exodus. 1 Samuel, chapter 2. 1 Samuel 2, and notice verse 35.

[34:01] And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart. And in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he will walk before mine anointed forever.

[34:17] The Lord's talking here, and he talks about Samuel. Samuel was a faithful priest. You know why he was faithful? Because he did what the Lord wanted him to do. He knew that whatever God wanted, God knew that whatever was in his heart, in his mind, Samuel would do that.

[34:33] Samuel wouldn't just do his own heart, and wouldn't just do his own mind, do his own way. He would do what the Lord wanted him to do. Can I ask you a question? How are you doing when it comes to doing what the Lord wants you to do?

[34:48] A lot of times people are looking for the will of God, and they're looking for heaven to open up, and the angels to come down, you know. Sometimes you don't need, that's not what you need.

[34:59] You don't need a period. Because that book tells you exactly what you're supposed to do. I would guarantee that most of us know what we're supposed to do. We just don't want to do it. You really don't even need the preacher to tell you.

[35:12] You pretty much already know. It's just doing it. You know what the Lord knew about Samuel? He would do what the Lord wanted him to do. Not what Samuel wanted him to do. All right.

[35:23] Let's go ahead and go back over to Psalm 12. I'm going to come down the home stretch here. There's two more men that are found in the text. Psalm 12. And I know you've been looking for the other two men since I started.

[35:37] Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. Well, the third man that I would like to point out in the text is the one who's praying.

[35:49] Help, Lord. The third man that I'd like to say that is the most needed man is a praying man. Here, the psalmist, he's talking to the Lord and he's praying, Help, Lord!

[36:02] We need praying men. We need praying men. You know, the Lord is the one who can do something about it. The Lord sees the condition of our country.

[36:14] He sees the condition of our churches. He sees the condition of our politics. He's not in heaven wringing his hands, wondering what he's supposed to do. I'll tell you, you know what you should do?

[36:25] You should be taking your burden to the Lord and leaving it there. Some of you are raising kids. You know what you got to do? You got to take those kids and bring them to the Lord. Because eventually, as you find out, those kids have a mind of their own.

[36:41] Eventually, they become adults. You hope that all that training paid off. You know what verse I claim? Train up a child and the way he should go.

[36:52] And when he is old, he'll not depart from it. I pray for my kids and I say, Lord, you told us to train them. And we trained them up in the way of the Lord. I'm praying, Lord, that they will not depart from it.

[37:04] Lord, help them. You know what I want the Lord to do? I want the Lord to show himself strong, show himself real to my children. I want him to do that. There was a good preacher that came through our church here recently.

[37:16] Some of you know him, Paul Ionella. And he preached a message called Locked Up to Look Up. Did any of you hear that message? That was a great message. And the short of the message is that Peter and Paul, sorry, Paul and Silas get thrown into jail.

[37:33] And it was when they were in jail that they finally started praying. And when they started praying is when the Lord started opening up doors. You know what I think is neglected?

[37:46] Our prayer lives. It's just neglected. We preach about it often and practice it little. Prayer is needed. We need praying men. All right, I'm not going to task you longer than need.

[38:00] So I'm going to tell you now about the fourth man. Help, Lord. Well, the fourth man, you can figure out who that is. And the fourth most needed man in this text is the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

[38:14] The man, Christ Jesus. He is all those things that we talked about. He's a godly man. The Bible says he always did those things that pleased the Father. Pilate stood up and said, I find no fault in him at all.

[38:26] As a matter of fact, nobody could find fault with him. You still can't find fault with Jesus Christ. He is a man beyond reproach, above reproach. You cannot find any fault in him.

[38:38] You cannot even touch the hem of his garment. If you were the best man around, you wouldn't come close to measuring up to my Savior. My Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[38:49] He is the glory of God. And he hasn't come short. He is the standard. He is the standard. He is a godly man. He is a godly man. You know what he is? He is a faithful man.

[39:01] My Bible calls me, he calls him a faithful priest. I will tell you, he says there over in the book of Hebrews, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. You maybe have had a lot of people come and go.

[39:13] You have had a lot of people make you promises and renege on those promises. I would guarantee to say you have told somebody you were going to do something. And you didn't come through on your promise. But I'll tell you, there is one man in the entire universe that every word that he said, he comes through on it.

[39:29] And if he hasn't come through on it yet, he will come through on it. Because he's a faithful man. When he comes back, he rides on a white horse and he's faithful and true. He's a faithful man.

[39:42] He's a godly man. He's a faithful man. You know what he is? He's a praying man. My Bible tells me that he, seeing he ever liveth, to make intercession for you and me.

[39:53] Boy, you think about that? I've got the Lord Jesus Christ praying for me. And he's praying for you. Boy, that's a blessing. To know I've got somebody to intercede on my behalf.

[40:05] Because I'll tell you, there are times where I come to the Lord with a prayer. And I feel like the prayer is like when your kid tried to fix something when they were real little. And they come and they say, Dad, look, I fixed it.

[40:17] And there's arms hanging off and legs hanging off and bolts. It just looks like a mess. And you kind of take that thing and you adjust it a little bit. You make it back to where it needs to be. Here you go. You ever feel like that?

[40:27] You come to the Lord and you say, man, I'm going to pray. And you start praying. And you thought it was a really good prayer. And then a few years later, you look back at your prayer life and you're like all embarrassed about it, you know. But then you've got an advocate.

[40:41] You've got someone who made propitiation. He made peace on your behalf to God. You have a daysman. Someone to go between you and God.

[40:53] Boy, that's a blessing. You take Job. Job there, he had no scripture. And he says, oh, that I had a daysman. Someone to go betwixt us. Somebody to talk to God on my behalf.

[41:05] Well, I've got one. I've got the man, Christ Jesus. So look over to Ephesians chapter 4. This is the last verse. Ephesians 4.

[41:18] This is the man that you and I need to aspire to be. To be like Jesus Christ. This is the best man you can measure yourself to.

[41:29] Ephesians chapter 4 verse 13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man. Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

[41:42] You know what Jesus Christ is? He's a perfect man. He's the perfect man. It's easy to pick all the faults in everybody. We get to start here. Start working our way around.

[41:53] We get to say a fault in this guy. Fault in that guy. This guy did this wrong. You did this wrong. You did that wrong. You messed up here. You messed up there. Oh man, I never done like that. This guy did wrong. This guy. We could go around the room and all of you.

[42:03] You're not without exception. Myself included. You find something wrong in all of us. You look at Jesus Christ. He's a man who did everything right. He did everything right. So you know what the last admonition is?

[42:15] Stop setting your eyes on everybody else and say, well, at least I'm not like him. At least I'm not like that guy. At least I'm not like that guy. That's not who you're going to be comparing yourself to.

[42:28] You're going to be comparing yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. And once you take one look at him, you will say, oh God, help me. God, I lack. Lord, make me more like Jesus Christ.

[42:41] You'll help do. It'll help keep you humble. So in conclusion, I'd like to say this. What kind of man are you? What kind of man do you want to be? Why don't you come and talk to the one man who did everything right and present yourself to him and ask him to make you into the man that you need to be?

[43:05] Let's all stand. The altar is open. Father, thank you for the opportunity to preach tonight. Lord, I pray that you give us godly men. Give us faithful men.

[43:16] Give us praying men. And may we keep our eyes on the man Christ Jesus. The God man. Lord, if by chance there's someone in here who's not saved.

[43:29] May they realize they cannot stand before you in their own righteousness. They must have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. If they are trusting in their goodness to get them to heaven, they'll never make it.

[43:42] Jesus paid it all. They must put their faith and trust in what he did alone. Father, make us into your men. In Jesus' name.

[43:58] Amen.