Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/bellshill_baptist/sermons/13428/the-touch-of-the-masters-hand/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] it's good to be in God's house this morning good to be with you and it's good to know that Jesus Christ is Lord that's why we're gathered here this morning to praise him, to worship him and to give him all the glory if you have your Bibles with you will you turn to Psalm 30 Psalm 30 it only consists of 12 verses so we'll read the full Psalm this morning I will extol thee O Lord for thou hast lifted me up and hast made not my foes to rejoice over me O Lord my God I cried unto thee and thou hast healed me O Lord thou hast brought me up out of the grave and thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit sing unto the Lord

[1:13] O ye saints of his give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness for his anger endureth but for a moment and his favour is life weeping may endure for the night but joy cometh in the morning in my prosperity I said I shall never be moved Lord by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong thou dost hide thy face and I was troubled I cried unto thee O Lord and said unto the Lord I made my supplications what profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit shall the dust praise thee shall it declare thy truth hear O Lord and have mercy upon me Lord be thou my helper

[2:14] Lord thou hast turned my mourning into dancing thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness to then that my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent O Lord my God I will give thanks to thee forever may the Lord bless the reading of his precious word to our hearts this morning thank you let's just pray thank you heavenly father we pray that you will just bless our coming together Lord and we thank you this morning for the health and the strength that you have given each and every one of us Lord to be found in your presence we thank you this morning father that we can sing the praises of our God because of what you've done for us

[3:22] Lord father we'll never cease to thank you and praise you and so father may your name be glorified this morning for we ask it in the saviour's name Amen praise the Lord well as I say it's good to be with you this morning I was in shots last Sunday morning and I couldn't help laughing because brother Tommy said to me at the beginning of the service would you like a glass of water and I said yes that would be nice he says well I'll just give you a half a glass and it means that you won't speak too long but you know the Lord is good and whatever the Lord gives us it's good to be able to share with one another I was just reading something before we come to this sand this morning and I thought how wonderful it is that God has given us breath this morning to come into his presence and to praise him isn't that wonderful

[4:33] God has raised us up God has lifted us God has given us a voice that we might praise him and you know I was just reading something about and I don't know if there are any nurses here this morning I know there's a paramedic and so Jim is in the ambulance service and I used to be in the ambulance service myself and you know when a baby is born it's a bad sign when the baby doesn't cry there's something wrong and you know I remember that my colleague and myself picked a lady in Motherwell who was due her baby and you know when a baby comes you can't do anything about it all you ladies will know that when something happens it's something you can do nothing about and so we picked a lady up and as we as I turned into

[5:41] Bellsell Cross my colleague said stop and I stopped the ambulance within the back we delivered the baby and the baby began to cry praise God what a wonderful thing it was as I drove down to Bellsell Maternity all I could hear was the baby crying and I said thank you Lord God for another life into this world it's a wonderful thing when a baby cries it's a wonderful thing to give God praise and as we look at this psalm this morning we see that David thanks God that he can praise him because he's been rescued from death he's been rescued into the favour of God and he has been delivered from all that could come against him praise God you know we read in these first verses 1 to 3 and it says

[6:52] I will extol you Lord for you have drawn me up you have lifted me you have not allowed my foes to rejoice over me oh Lord my God I cried for help and you healed me oh Lord you have brought my soul from Sheol now Sheol is a place where dead people are you restored my life for among those that go down to the pit God has lifted us this morning he has lifted us from the mud and from the mire he has lifted us from the pit he has taken us from the grave and David praises God that he has given him life over death blessed be his name how wonderful it is to be delivered how wonderful it is to know that God's hand is upon you the touch of the master's hand upon your life you know

[8:08] Daniel was thrown into the lion's den I don't know about you but I love wildlife and sometimes I watch the wildlife on television and you know the most ferocious beast on the planet is the lion the lion goes after the wilder beast the lion goes after its prey it looks upon them as breakfast or dinner or whatever but it sees that as food but when Daniel was cast in to the lion's den Jesus closed the mouth of the lions praise God and Daniel was delivered from the mouths of the lions what a God we have this morning a God who delivers us a God who rescues us in verse three of this psalm we see that twice

[9:17] Daniel said that if God hadn't moved within his life he would be in the grave he would be in the pit but God's resurrecting work showed Daniel the difference between death and between life how good it is this morning to have been delivered no how good it is this morning to be delivered to know that God's hand is upon our lives and no matter what we go on through life the Lord sometimes allows things to take place but he's there with us we think this morning of the three men in the furnace oh you know I used to watch the steelworks and if anybody here has worked in them they'll know that the furnace has to be at a certain temperature so that the metals and the things that go in there can be melted into an ingot and so you see there's always a clipe you remember when you were at school always somebody ready to clipe on you as long as everything was alright with them they didn't care about you they would clipe dear sir it wasn't me it was him or it was her and you see this clipe went to king nebuchadnezzar you know how you said you're the king and everybody is bowing before you and everyone acknowledges you as king well listen just a wee word in your ear there's three guys here who don't recognise you as king well bring them to me and of course they came before king nebuchadnezzar and he said to them

[11:26] I'm the king but you know that the three men that was put into the furnace went in there because of their faith how do we stand this morning with our faith what if something was to happen to us what would we do Shadrach Meshach and Abednego the three men that went into the furnace but the Lord was with them hallelujah and sometimes we go through things but the Lord God almighty is with us blessed be his wonderful name deliverance rescued in Jesus name not only rescued from death but rescued in to the eternal favour of God oh praise him this morning you know

[12:27] I don't mind saying this I love the Lord God is good he has done great things in our life whereby we should be glad and although we cannot sing the praises of God because our mouths are covered with a mask our hearts should be bubbling over with the joy and the goodness that God has done within our lives what a saviour we serve this morning God has given us his eternal favour sing praises to the Lord oh ye his saints give thanks unto his holy name for his anger is but for a moment and his favour is for a lifetime weeping may tarry in the night but joy comes in the morning what a saviour we have what a

[13:32] God we have he goes through when we are weeping when we are crying when we are travailing in prayer because of our families or our friends the Lord is with us and he's with us when joy comes in the morning the joy of the Lord is our strength and so we praise God this morning for his eternal favour to us as a people you know there are times in our lives when suffering comes and we wonder what is happening to us but the God who created the earth the God who loved us is the God that is with us David says in this psalm we were darkened in our understanding we were alienated from God we were unclean we were unrighteous we were evil and hostile towards our God you know

[14:44] I remember speaking to a man one day and we had a lovely conversation conversation and I just let him speak about what he was saying and the things that he enjoyed and then I started to speak about God and he changed like that suddenly from being a nice person he became hostile towards me now that wasn't the man himself that is the enemy within that man you see Satan's days are numbered God is coming back and the enemy knows this and that's why he comes like a roaring lion trying to seek those that he may devour but our God reigns this morning and his hand is upon us blessed be his name you know in verse five of this psalm the psalmist mentions that God's anger and the reality of weeping on this earth what does that mean in a psalm of thanks why do we see this weeping and crying in a psalm of thanksgiving well sometimes we see this because the world that we live in is a world that is tainted and tarnished by sin and even as believers sometimes we need discipline in our lives where

[16:35] God comes to us and nobody sometimes liked discipline we hated our mothers well we didn't hate them but we didn't like our mothers and dads when they used to discipline us and we used to remake against this and it's the same sometimes when God comes to us but he comes because he disciplines us and he loves us and he rejoices in us as his people you know the bible says that suffering will come and pain is real we can't disguise that how many times have we been in pain how many times have we weeped and cried but we have a God who comes to us and although weeping lasts for a night joy comes in the morning and so therefore in

[17:37] Christ we receive his eternal favour we weren't just close to death we were dead dead in our trespasses dead in our sins till Jesus came hallelujah you know we're sitting here this morning and as Ruth was singing and Cameron was playing my heart was rejoicing because of what God has done for us oh ye his people give thanks enter his gates with thanksgiving in your heart come into his courts with praise and praise him because of what he's done for us you know the darkness won't endure our circumstances won't last forever but God's promises will hallelujah you know he's coming back for us he's coming to lift us he's coming to raise us as he raised us from the pit as he raised us from the grave he's coming back to the air to raise us up into glory hallelujah when the trumpet sounds time will be no more but the

[19:06] Lord is coming for his saints hallelujah so don't worry about what you suffer here on earth as David says the pain endures but David wasn't looking at the pain and the despair here on earth he was looking to God in the glory great is thy faithfulness oh Lord to me and so God rescues David by his mercy mercy there was great and grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me there my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary praise God this morning for his mercy where would we have been if the Lord God Almighty hadn't touched this by his hand blessed be his name the psalmist goes on to say verses 6 to 10 as for me

[20:16] I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved by your favour Lord you have made my mountain stand strong you hid your face I was dismayed to you O Lord I cried to the Lord I pleaded for mercy what profit is there in my death if I go down to the pit will the dust praise you will it tell of your faithfulness hear O Lord said the psalmist and be merciful unto me O Lord my helper see we thank God this morning as I said for the touch of the master's hand God goes on to say this the psalmist says you have turned my mourning into dancing have you ever danced before you've danced at a wedding have you ever danced in the

[21:26] Lord praise that I was in a service not too long ago now the Lord Jesus is a wonderful saviour and the Lord has given us liberty isn't that good but he hasn't given us license he's given us liberty and you know what's right and what's wrong but I tell you this I was sitting on a platform not long ago just going in and thinking well it's just it's another service I pray that if there is someone that doesn't know the Lord that they'll come forward and accept him as his saviour and there was a brother leading the singing and as he was leading the singing I could see the people smiling and rejoicing do you know something I felt like dancing praise God I felt like jumping up well

[22:29] I can't do that now but I felt like jumping up and dancing in the spirit of the Lord because God's hand I believe that night was upon me our God reigns our God reigns blessed be his holy name you've loosened my sackcloth said the psalmist now sackcloth was a rough coarse cloth that was worn when people were mourning and you know perhaps you and I at some time have felt the old rough cloth we felt oh I need to get out of this I need something more comfortable and God has loosened our sackcloth this morning praise and has given us the clothes of gladness hallelujah what a saviour we serve this morning the great

[23:31] God the great I am the wonder working God and the psalmist says you've turned my moaning into dancing you've loosened my sackcloth you've clothed me in the garments of gladness and my glory may sing your praise and not be silent oh Lord my God I will give you thanks forever praise God whatever situation you're in praise God it isn't easy it's not easy sometimes to praise the Lord when you're down and you feel despair if you're familiar with the gaither music there's a beautiful singing girl there if you look it up her name is Linda Randall and she sang a song one day I was listening to but how wonderful life is easy when you're up on the mountain there you'll find peace that you've never known but things change when you're down in the valley but don't despair because you're never alone for the

[24:52] God of the mountain is the God in the valley when things go wrong he'll make them right and even as the days are dark he'll bring the light what a saviour we serve this morning God has rescued us from death God has given us his eternal favour and God has given us his mercy and therefore we thank God this morning that we are able to praise him thank God this morning for a change of rain you know we used to sing maybe Gene knows this one I don't know we used to sing this many years ago in Hartel Assembly the windows of heaven are open the blessings are falling tonight there's joy joy deep in my heart since

[25:54] Jesus made everything right I gave him my old tattered garment he gave me a robe of pure white I'm singing his blessings because he had done everything right what a saviour we serve this morning you know we were on the zoom and the men folk praying for Israel and a brother David Andrew said I've got something to share with you and you know when he started sharing this with us I thought a way back to sitting in the living room with my mother and my dad was night shift he was a miner and he used to go to the collier at night and my mom would sit round the fire with us reading God's word but she said one evening listen

[26:58] I'm going to read a poem to you and I want you to listen to this and my brother David Andrew brought this poem to our minds on the Israeli prayer the name of the poem is the touch of the master's hand praise God where would we be this morning if it wasn't for the touch of the master's hand of God's hand that was on our lives and David brought this to us I won't read the poem to you but I'll give you a little insight of what it is have you ever watched Dickinson Realdale and there they take things to the auction so that the highest bidder may buy whatever is there and on the day of the auction the auctioneer lifted up an old batter bruised violin nothing to look at it was shabby looking the strings were all loose the bow was twisted and so rather than ask for a dear price he said who will give me one dollar maybe two dollars perhaps three and an old man that was sitting at the back of the auction room came up to the front and said to the auctioneer can

[28:39] I have a little look at the violin and the auctioneer said yeah on you go have a little look at it and so he took the violin and he straightened the bow and he shined it all up to its natural beauty and he tightened up the strings and he began to play it and it was said that it was like the sound of an angel singing and so the auctioneer said who will give me one thousand perhaps two maybe three you see it had been changed your life and my life was bruised and battered but Jesus came along and he lifted us he restored us he gave us his strength he touched us by his hand blessed be his name ransomed healed restored forgiven who like thee his praise should sing and so we have much to thank

[29:59]  God this morning for thank God that we are able to praise him thank God that his hand is upon our lives and we can leave here this morning having praised him and know that we've been touched by the master's hand may Lord bless you