Good evening. Let's open up tonight's
service, your hardback hymnal number 185. 185, glorious things
of thee are spoken. 185, if you could please stand. Yeah. ? Glorious things of Thee are spoken
? ? The Zion city of our God ? ? He whose word cannot be broken
? ? Formed Thee for His own abode ? ? On the rock of ages founded
? What can shake thy sure repose? With salvation's walls surrounded,
Thou mayest smile at all thy foes. See the streams of living
water, springing from eternal love. Well supply thy sons and
daughters, and all fear of one free moon, who can faintly Such
a river ever flows their thirst to sway. Grace which, like the
Lord, the giver, never fails from age to age. ? Round each habitation hovering
? ? See the cloud and fire appear ? ? For a glory and a covering
? ? Showing that the Lord is near ? ? Glorious things of Thee
are spoken ? Zion, city of our God, he whose word cannot be
broken, form thee for his own abode. You may be seated. Don't you wish you had met John
Newton? I would say. wrote some good hymns. One day,
I guess, we'll get to see. Let's open our Bibles together
to Hosea chapter 14. Hosea, right after Daniel, just
before Joel. We'll read from chapter 14 in
Hosea tonight. I've taken from this passage
the title for the message that I would like to try to preach
from Psalm 63. O Israel, return unto the Lord
thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. You know, this matter of returning
to the Lord is something believers are doing constantly, aren't
they? We're always prone to wonder. We're always distracted by the
things of this world. We're always having thoughts
of self-righteousness. And once again, tonight, pray
the Lord will enable us to return. Take with you words. That's the title of the message
tonight. Take with you words. What words can a sinner possibly
speak to a holy God? Well, that's the good news. He's
given us the words to speak. That's what the Psalms are. The
Psalms are prayers that believers offer up, take with you words. and turn to the Lord and say
unto him, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. So will we render the calves
of our lips. We're not going to make a sacrifice
of blood sacrifice of a calf. We're going to make a sacrifice
of praise by the calves of our lips. Asher shall not save us. We will not ride upon horses,
neither will we say any more to the work of our hands. You
are our gods, for in thee the fatherless. Now a fatherless
child would have been destitute of any help. There we are. We're cast out fatherless, dependent. The fatherless find it mercy.
I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely for my
anger is turned away from them. We have a propitiation, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who has taken all the wrath of the Holy God so
that he's no longer angry with us anymore. I will be as the dew unto Israel
and he shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread and
his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow
shall return. They shall revive as the corn
and grow as the vine and scent thereof shall be as the wine
of Lebanon. Ephraim will say, what have I
to do anymore with idols? I have heard him. Why do I need
idols? I've heard from God. And I've
observed him, and I'm like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit
found. Who is wise? And he shall understand
these things, prudent, and he shall know them. For the ways
of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them. But
the transgressors shall fall therein. They will fall therein. By the very declaration of the
gospel, they'll fall by it. By the word of God, they'll fall
by it, by their unbelief. Let's go to the Lord together
in prayer. had a heart catheterization today
that did not have to put any stents in and they're just going
to continue to monitor his condition. So he's home and recovering from
that and doing well. And Jennifer, so good to have
you up from West Palm. So it's a treat for us. Let's
pray. Our merciful heavenly father, We pray that you would send your
spirit in power, enabling us to offer to you the calves of
our lips. Lord, that our praise would be
acceptable to you through the faith that you give to us to
look to the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who was able to offer
perfect faith and perfect fear and perfect praise to you. Lord, we thank you for our brother
Tom and for the encouragement that he is to us and thank you
for the ministry of the doctors and Lord for the good report
today. We ask for your hand of healing
to give him full recovery. We pray it in Christ's name. Let's turn over to number 125.
You may remain seated. Number 125, Jesus Paid it All. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Lord now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone Can change the leper's spot And melt the heart
of stone Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I whereby
thy grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in
the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all, ? All to him I owe ?
Sin had left a crimson stain ? He washed it white as snow Take with you words. The Psalms give us the words
that the Lord is pleased with. God accepts only that which He
provides. We have His provision for prayer
in the Psalms. And what a blessing it is to
be able to go before the Lord and just offer back to Him the
very thing that He gave to us and see them fulfilled in Christ. Psalm 63. Psalm 63, Oh God, thou
art my God. Sometimes when we talk to our
religious friends about the gospel, particularly people that are
bound by the law, people that are using the law of God as their
rule of life, and we try to talk to them about grace, and about
freedom, oftentimes their response will be, well, what do you think
you can just live any way you want? Now, there's two problems
with that question. The first problem with it is
that that question reveals the nature of the person who asked
it. It tells you what they would do had they not been restrained
by the law. You think you can live like you
want? I know what I want to do. And if you just unleash me, that's
what I'll do. The second thing about that question
and the best response that I've ever heard to that question and
the response that I know to be true in my own heart is, oh,
I wish I could live like I want. I wish I could live like I want.
I want to be completely without sin. One day I will be. I want to have perfect faith. I want to worship God like he's
worthy to be worshipped. The way I want to live is far
short of, far beyond what I'm able to do. These Psalms tell us first and
foremost who we are in Christ. As we understand these words
being the words that the Lord Jesus Christ offered to his father,
we offer them up in prayer, looking to him as the perfect fulfillment
of them. He knew the father perfectly. And when he said, oh God, thou
art my God, no man had seen God at any time save the son. The
Lord Jesus Christ has seen the father. Oh, we do believe him
and we at least in part know him. This is life eternal that
they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou has sent. But our knowledge of him, fall
so far short of what we want it to be. Everything we believe we just
believe in part don't we? We want to have perfect sorrow
for our sin and yet we're ashamed of how little sorrow we really
have for our sin. We want to have perfect repentance
and yet We know that every imagination of the thoughts of the heart
are still evil in that continually. And yet all the things that we
would have and all the things that we one day will have, the
Lord Jesus Christ did have. When we read these Psalms, we
understand them first and foremost as being fulfilled perfectly
by the Lord Jesus Christ, and these are the longings of our
heart if we could just be the way we want to be. Turn with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. We do have peace with God, and
there are moments in time when we have the peace of God that
passes understanding, that keeps our hearts and mind in Christ
Jesus. But the experience of peace? We just don't have it like we
would, do we? Not like we want, but he had perfect peace with
God all the time. We do. love Christ and we love
God and we love the brethren, we love God's word, but our love
is so shameful, isn't it? It's so fickle and so fraught
with our own selfishness that we would never offer up our love
for God as the hope of our salvation. There's so many things that we
have just in part The joy of the Lord is our strength, and
we do know something about His joy, but our joy is not what
it ought to be, and not what we want it to be, and not what
it will be, and certainly it's not what His was. Look at 1 Corinthians
chapter 13, and we'll begin reading in verse 9. For we know in part,
and we prophesy in part. Our knowledge of God is so small,
it's so minuscule compared to the eternal glory of His person
and nature. And Paul says we just know a
little bit. And what we prophesy when we
declare the gospel, when we speak of the things of God, We're just
understanding a little bit of what we're saying. But when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When
the trump of God sounds, and the dead in Christ are raised,
and those of us which are alive are caught up together with them
in the air, When this mortal is made immortal and this corruptible
is made incorruptible and we see him as he is and made like
him, then the fullness of all these experiences that we have
now in part will be realized and known. Verse 11. When I was a child,
I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,
but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Now, what
is the Lord saying through this penman Paul? Paul's saying, I'm
just a babe. He's likening his spiritual condition
to his physical life. He said, there was a time when
I was a child and now that I've grown old, I put away childish
things, physically speaking, And that's what's going to happen
for me one day when I put away all these childish things that
I have now. And we're just babes, aren't
we? Suffer the little children to
come unto me, for such is the kingdom of God. Lest you become
as a little child, you should not have the kingdom of God.
Our spiritual maturity is so small. And when God speaks to us, He
has to He has to condescend way, way down, doesn't he? But you
know how you have a child, a baby in a crib that doesn't understand
what you're saying. If you were to stand over that
child and speak to them in the kind of words we use between
ourselves, that child would have no idea what you're talking about.
So what do we do? What do we do? We make eye contact
with a child, we get as close as, and we begin to talk in baby
talk, don't we? What are we doing? We're making
connection with this baby. And we're talking on the level
that that child talks on, saying to that child, everything's good,
I love you. We're here to take care of you.
And in a sense, when the Lord's speaking to us, he's leaning
over the crib and speaking to his babies with baby talk. And
one day, we're going to understand the fullness of what it really
means. But right now, we're just having to understand it in part. Look at the next verse. For now,
we see through a glass, and that word darkly is the word riddle.
It's a riddle. It's just a little bit here,
a little bit there. We're desperately and always
trying to put it together and understand it. And we've got
this flesh that's drawing us away from it. And right now,
we're looking at the gospel in part, a piece here and a piece
there. But then, one day, face to face,
face to face. Now, I'm as a little child, I
only know in part, but then shall I know even also as I am known. What a day that'll be. Brethren,
I'm trying to encourage you to know that all the things that
we have in Christ We have them in Christ. The desires of our heart to know
God, to worship God, to have the peace of God, to have the
love of God, we're just touching the tip. We're just touching
the hem of the garment, aren't we? We're just tasting a little
bit here and a little bit there. But the Lord Jesus Christ experienced
all those things in their fullness. And our acceptance before God
is not based on our faithfulness. It's not based on our sincerity.
It's not based on our worship. It's not based on our obedience.
It's not based on the sorrow or repentance that we have for
our sin. It's not based on any of it.
We have those things, but we only have them in part. We only
have them in part, just a little bit. And we would never offer
up that part as the hope of our salvation. We're looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ as the one who fulfilled them. And knowing
that one day when we're rid of this old man, this flesh, then
we'll see him face to face and be made like him. Look at the
last verse in this. And now, now, now while we're
babes, now while we're children, now while we only know in part, Abideth faith. Faith. Our faith is so wavering and
faltering. We believe God one moment and
don't believe in the next. I mean, God sends an affliction
and we believe him and then the affliction goes away and our
need for that faith wanes, doesn't it? But now abideth faith, hope, and oh, what are we hoping for?
We're hoping for that day when that which is perfect comes and
that which is in part is done away and we'll be able to live
like we want to live. We can't live like we want to
live now. People that say, people that make that accusation about
us, well, you just think you can live like you want? Next
time somebody says that to you, just say, oh, I wish I could.
I wish I could. That's my hope. One day I'll
be able to live like I want. Right now I've got this old man
that's pulling me down, and I'm looking through a riddle. I'm
looking through bits and pieces, and I'm thankful for what God's
revealed to me, but it's so small compared to what I know I'm going
to see one day. what I'm going to experience
one day. For now abideth faith, hope and charity. And the greatest of these is
charity, love, love. You see in that day, when that
which is perfect has come and we're rid of this old man and
we're able for the first time in our experience to live like
we want, in that day. What a glorious day that will
be. There'll be no more need for
faith. Our faith will be our experience. It'll be our sight. There won't
be any need for hope. Our hope will be our experience. No faith, no hope in heaven.
What's in heaven? Nothing but love. Pure, pure
love. The love of God. That's what
we're longing for. So, when we take to the Lord
words, we're expressing to Him those things that we long for,
those things that we desire, and those things which we know
the Lord Jesus Christ provided for us. Go back with me to Psalm
63. So when David says, in the wilderness,
notice in the title of the Psalm, a Psalm of David when he was
in the wilderness of Judah. Oh, that's where we are. We're
in a wilderness. We're in a dry, and barren, thirsty
desert. And just the Lord just gives
us opportunities to drink from the water of life a little bit
here and a little bit there. David was in the wilderness where
there was no water and God's, oh God, thou art my God. The Lord Jesus Christ came in
this wilderness. You know what the wilderness
The wilderness for the Lord Jesus Christ was the sinfulness of
the world that his holy person had to endure. The wilderness for us is the sinfulness of our flesh
that keeps us from being holy. Let me repeat that. The Lord
Jesus Christ, like David, was in a dry and thirsty land. He
was in a wilderness. We're in a wilderness. We're
in a wilderness. But let's be honest, brethren,
the wilderness is not that world out there. Truth is, we enjoy
that world pretty much. Pretty good, don't we? The wilderness for the Lord Jesus
Christ was the world. It was all the contradictions
of men that were contrary to his own holy nature. We have
no idea how offended he was by everything that he saw, everything
that he heard, everything that he experienced was an affront
to his holiness. The wilderness for us is the
sin that keeps us from being holy. So one day we're going to be
around that throne where the river crystal clear, the river
of life flows from the throne of God and there'll be no more
wilderness, no more sea, no more separation, no more sorrow. Right
now we've got to deal with the wilderness of our own sin, don't
we? Take with you words. And in taking with you words
before God, know that these words were only fulfilled perfectly
in Christ. Know that these words are uttered
by us in faith, looking to the Lord Jesus Christ as the one
who fulfilled them all and longing for that day through faith and
hope when they will be our experience. Oh God, thou art my God, early
will I seek thee, my soul thirsteth for thee. Now one thing that
every child of God does know something about is that the world
is able to satisfy our flesh. It is. It is. We get over satisfied by the
things that the world offers to our flesh. But that which
is of the flesh is flesh. The child of God can never have
his soul satisfied by the world. You've got to have a new nature
for that. Why do so many people just completely content with
the things of this world? Because they've only got one
nature. They're men of flesh, and the world provides everything
that the flesh needs. It provides that for you and
me, and it provides that for everyone. So people who only
have one nature, it's just natural that they would be content with
that which takes care of that one nature. But once God gives
you a holy nature, once God gives you a new heart, Once God gives you life in Christ,
then you come to realize there's nothing in this world that quenches
the thirst of my soul. And that's what David's saying.
He's saying, my soul thirsteth for thee. On that great day of the feast,
when the high priest was going through the procession and they
were They were about to enter in to the temple and pour out
the water sacrifice on the brazen altar. And the smoke would go
up. And just about the time they
were to pour that out, the crowd outside is silent and the Lord
Jesus Christ speaks up. I'm sure that he hollered. If
any man thirst, Let him come unto me and out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water. Most folks just aren't thirsty.
They're drinking from the broken cisterns of this world and they're
able to satisfy the thirst that they have by the polluted waters
of man-made religion and the child of God cannot be cannot
have his thirst quenched by anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
I've got to have Christ, got to have Christ. Lord, show me
thy glory. Isn't that what Moses said in
Exodus chapter 33? Lord, show me thy glory. I've
seen the plagues, I've seen the dividing of the Red Sea, I've
seen the mountain quake, I've seen the manna come from heaven,
but I haven't seen your glory. What was Moses asking to see?
He was asking to see God. I want to see God. That's my goal. That's his glory.
And that's the thirst that the new man has. That the world,
there's nothing in the world that's going to reveal God to
us. The Lord's going to have to do that. He does that through the preaching
of the gospel. He does that in the tabernacle. We're going to
see that in just a moment. Turn with me to first Corinthians
chapter four. This is the desire that the Lord
puts in the hearts of his children. Second Corinthians chapter four,
I'm sorry. Second Corinthians chapter four. Verse 3, but if our gospel be
hid, it is hid from them that are lost. In whom? The God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. When Moses was asking the Lord
in Exodus chapter 33, Lord, show me your glory. My soul thirsted
for thee. This is a dry and thirsty land. I want to know God. And when he met God, he met the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord put him in a rock and
caused his goodness to pass before him. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the goodness of God. And now the Lord, now Paul is
saying in the New Testament context of that that the unbeliever doesn't
believe because the God of this world has blinded their eyes.
They've got no interest in seeing God. For we preach not ourselves but
Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servant for Jesus' sake
for God, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. When did that happen? Genesis
chapter one. And God said, let there be light. And there was light on the very
first day that was light. And it wasn't until the fourth
day and that the sun and the moon and the, and the stars were
created. What was that light? That light
was Christ. And the only way that the, that the, that the,
the formlessness of this life is going to be made right as
if the light of the gospel shines in our hearts. Look, for God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So the gospel reveals God by
revealing the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is. and what he's accomplished. And
yet what we see of him, we see dimly. We see darkly. We see a little bit here and
a little bit there, don't we? But the new man is not satisfied
with anything other than Christ. Can't be. David's gonna say that. Go back with me to our Psalm,
Psalm 63. My soul thirsteth for thee, my
flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water
is. We dealt with that last Sunday, didn't we? Sunday before last.
It's our flesh that gets in the way. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
have flesh like our flesh. He had a body. You know, oftentimes
the word flesh is not used to describe flesh and blood and
bones of our physical body it's used to describe the nature of
sin and the Lord Jesus Christ though he had flesh and bones
physically like our bodies yet he did not have the nature of
sin, he was without sin. So when we say our flesh longeth
for thee it's our flesh that gets in the way. My problem in
worshiping God is I can't get out of my own way. I can't give
him my full attention as I want, as he ought to have and as I
desire to have. But the Lord Jesus Christ did.
He did all these things perfectly. When he talked to the Father,
he had perfect fellowship with the Father. When he worshipped
God, he worshipped him in spirit and in body. He knew exactly how dry and thirsty this land really
was. He knew exactly. We're just not
bothered much by it, are we? We really aren't. We pretty much enjoy this world
and this life, don't we? What was David desiring for?
To see thy power. and thy glory, so as I have seen
thee in the sanctuary." The Lord Jesus Christ, when he
went to worship, he had perfect faith. He saw everything in that
sanctuary for exactly what it was to mean about himself and
his relationship with his father. When God reveals these glimpses
of His glory to His children now, He does it in the sanctuary,
doesn't He? This is the place where the Gospels
preach. This is the place where He's promised to meet with us.
This is the place where the light of the Gospel in the face of
the Lord Jesus Christ shines in our hearts when we meet together
for worship. That's why if we've ever tasted
of His glory, we just want more of it, don't we? Always wanting
more, never satisfied, never able to see enough of him. Always
wanted to see more of his glory, more of his grace, always want
to experience more of his peace and of his, of his hope. Lord, I'm just, I'm just, I'm
just touching the hem of your garment. I want, I want more.
That's why Peter said to whom coming, we just keep coming to
him, wanting more and more of Christ. Don't you love John chapter four,
where the woman at the well meets the Lord in his providence, in
his perfect ordained purpose. He said, I must need to go through
Samaria. I've got a woman there. I'm going
to meet at exactly this time. While you boys are down in Samaria,
I'm going to be talking to this poor, poor woman. She kept coming
to the well in the middle of the day to avoid the shame of
her peers. All the other women come first
thing in the morning when the cool of the day and they do all
their gossiping and whatever else they're going to talk about.
And I'm sure she's probably the subject of a lot of that talk.
She went in the middle of the day all by herself and met the
Lord. The Lord said, give me to drink. And she said, why are
you a Jew talking to me? The Jews don't have anything
to do with the Samaritans. And the Lord said, oh, lady, woman,
if you knew, if you knew who it is that saith unto thee, give
me to drink, you would ask him and he would give you living
water. She said, she said, Lord, give
me that water. Give me that water. That I need
not come to this well anymore. The Lord said, you drink of this
well, you're going to thirst again, but drink of the water that I
give to you and you won't have to go anywhere else. You won't
have to go anywhere else. You're just, you'll keep coming
to me. I'm that, I'm the water for the
thirsty soul. I'm the one who satisfied all
the demands of God in all these Psalms. I'm the one that fulfilled
them all. And then this book finishes with
whosoever will. Let him come to the water of
life and drink freely. Freely. Without money, without price. David said, I want to see thy
power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Truth is, the Lord meets his
children in the wilderness. He meets them in the wilderness.
He puts them in the wilderness and then meets them there. Where did the Lord meet Jacob? When he just knew that it's over
between him and, I mean, he divided up his family and his flocks
and he's gonna about to face Esau and he just knew Esau was
gonna get revenge. He wrestled with the Lord there
at the river Jabbok. He was in the wilderness. The
Lord put him in a wilderness, put him in a hard place. And
Jacob wrestled with God. And what did the Lord do? He
touched him in the hollow of his hip, didn't he? Gave him
a limp the rest of his life. That's where God meets his children.
He meets them in the dry and thirsty land. He meets them in
the wilderness. He touches the hollow of their hip, and he gives
them a limp the rest of their life. The Lord sent the apostle John,
the one that leaned on Jesus' breast, the one who had a special
affection for the Lord Jesus Christ. What did he do? At the
end of his life, he exiled him down to Patmos, put him in the
wilderness, And there John received the revelation. And what a blessing
it's been to the church for 2,000 years. John had to go to the
wilderness before that could be written. Moses had to be put
on the backside of the desert for 40 years before God was going
to speak to him at the burning bush. Paul had to be put in chains
after having been beaten in a Roman dungeon. There he's offering
up praise and thanksgiving to the Lord with Silas until the
angel comes and opens the prison gates and Philippian jailer and
his family. God sends his children into the
wilderness and it's in the wilderness where he meets with us. This
is where we live. A place where there's no water. Elisha. Remember when Elisha was fleeing
from Jezebel, he went to Horeb, the mountain of the law, and
there God spoke with him. Lord, I want to see thy power
and thy glory. Go back with me to verse 60,
verse three of Psalm 63. Lord, to see thy power and thy
glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Lord, I've
just caught, I've just caught glimpses of the riddle. Just
a little light here. Lord, just crack the windows
of heaven and allow another sliver of light to come down. My faith
is not what it ought to be. Oh, but I'm so thankful that
there is one who had perfect faith. My repentance is not what
it ought to be, but I'm so thankful there's one who had a changed
mind all the time. My sorrow is not what it ought
to be, but also I'm so thankful that there's one who felt the
full shame and sorrow from my sin on Calvary's cross, and offer
to you a prayer of brokenness and sorrow that was acceptable
in thy sight. Lord, enable me to look to that
one who is the river of life, and grow me in your grace and
the knowledge of Christ, and show me more and more of his
glory. And do it in the sanctuary, the
place where we've been set apart. That's what the word sanctuary
means. It means to be set apart and we've come to this place
to be set apart because God has promised to meet with us here.
He's promised to take his word and to bless it to our hearts
and to allow the light of the gospel to shine in our hearts
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at what David says in verse
three, because thy loving kindness is better than life, You remember
what the Old Testament word loving kindness means? Grace. Grace. That's the Old Testament
word for grace. Loving kindness. Thy grace is
better than life. Let me ask you a question. If
you had to have one or the other, you can't have both. One or the
other, which one do you want? Grace or life? I'm talking about physical life. It's not a question, is there?
Not a question. God, if you have to take my physical
life, and one day He will, one day the Lord's gonna take each
one of our lives. You see, we're saying amen. Your
grace is better than life. The grace of God's better than
your life, isn't it? And if you had to choose between
the two, you know which one you need. You can do without this
physical life, you can't do without the grace of God. Thy loving kindness is better
than life, my lips shall praise thee. Lord, my stammering lips
are so, they fall so far short of being
able to praise you as you deserve and as I ought. Lord, enable
us to praise you. Thus will I bless thee while
I live. I will lift up my hands in thy name. Now we lift up our
hands. They're pretty dirty, aren't
they? But there is a man who lifted
up his hands. He lifted him up and he allowed
those Roman soldiers to drive nails through them on Calvary's
cross. He was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was laid upon him. And he lifted up his hands to
God and he showed those hands to the Father. He said, Father,
I've bore the scars and the wounds of the sins of my people. I've
lifted up my hands. We don't go around doing like
the, you know, people that pretend to worship God by doing all sorts
of foolish outward gestures. Worship is of the heart, isn't
it? We're not going to lift up our
hands to God and think that that's somehow improving our worship
to Him. Lord, you lift up your hands.
I'll hide my hands. Let me just put my hands in my
pocket. My soul shall be satisfied as with morrow and fatness. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one that can satisfy the soul. And only the new man, only the
new man cannot find anything in this world to satisfy him.
As I said already, our flesh is plenty satisfied with the
things of this world. We're satisfied with what we have to eat. We're
satisfied with the things that, you know, we're warm or we're
cold. We get satisfied. We get too
cold, we turn up the heat. We get too warm, we turn up the
air conditioning. We're just satisfied. And the
world can satisfy the flesh. But here, David says, my soul
shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall
praise thee with joyful lips. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one that was satisfied like men ought to be satisfied. And He's the only one that offered
up praise from His lips to the Father in perfect faith. But this is our experience. So
we're taking to Him words. Bring words with you. What words,
Lord? The words I gave you. And when
you speak them, know that you can't fulfill these things. You
haven't fulfilled these things. You're seeing them in part. You're
knowing them in part. You're but a child. You're still
speaking baby talk. But one day, when that which
is perfect is come, then that which is in part will be done
away. And we'll see him in the fullness of his glory and we'll
be made like him. Then our experience of worship
and faith and love and joy and peace will be like we want it
to be. That day, in that day, we'll
be able to live like we want to live. Right now, we offer
up these words knowing that they were fulfilled in Christ. Let's
read the rest of this song. When I remember thee upon my
bed and meditate on thee in the night watches. Older you get, the more elusive
sleep becomes, doesn't it? When you're young, you go to
sleep. You don't even know the world
exists till you wake up the next day. And you can sleep 12 hours
and never think about it. Oh, when you get a little bit
older, you start, you wake up at, what's it? 1230, two o'clock. It's still
four o'clock in the morning. Oh my God, give us grace to offer
to him prayers, words, words, words that he has given to us.
Just repeat back to him the very thing that he said to you. What
God requires, God provides. And that's not just in Christ,
but that's in prayer. When I remember thee upon my
bed and meditate thee in the night watches, because thou hast
been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
Now, I've always thought the shadow of the wings, you know,
when the Lord said, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oftentimes I would
have taken you as a chick, you know, as a hen takes her chicks
and hides them under the, But I read a comment on this from
a brother that I really like reading from many years past,
and he brought up something I'd never considered before. Over
the mercy seat, there were golden cherubims, one on each side,
and their wings, perhaps you've seen this before, I never saw
it until preparing for this message, but their wings touched in the
middle. And their wings provided a shadow
over that golden mercy seat where the high priest would take the
blood of the sacrificial lamb and put it on the mercy seat.
And the Shekinah glory of God would come down. And God said
to Moses, here, I will meet with you. And when the veil was rent from top to bottom, when the
Lord Jesus Christ bowed his head on Calvary's cross and said,
it is finished. Oh, we were hid under the shadow of those wings.
That's where we meet with Him, at the mercy seat where He put
His blood. And so David says, Because Thou
hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will
I rejoice. Rejoice, brethren, rejoice that
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ had been put on the mercy seat
and that we're safe there. We're safe there. And we can
offer to God these words with sincere hearts. And yet we know
at the same time that there's so much insincerity in our hearts,
but there wasn't in his. My soul followeth hard after
thee, thy right hand upholdeth me. We do, our soul desires him. It's the only, the soul can't
be satisfied with this world. If anything is to follow hard
after God, it's going to be the soul. But the Lord Jesus Christ
followed hard after God all the time, all the time. But those that seek my soul to
destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth. Now
that can only be understood as the enemies of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Those who sought his soul to destroy him in the curse
of God. They that believe shall be saved
and they that believe not shall be damned. Isn't that what we
saw Sunday? They shall fall by the sword How are they going
to fall by the sword? By their words they shall be
condemned and by their words they shall be justified. What
a man says about the Lord Jesus Christ is the sword of his own
tongue, of his own tongue is going to stand in judgment of
him. And the sword of God's justice is going to, he's going to testify
against himself. The unbeliever is going to testify
against himself. They shall be a portion for foxes,
but the King, the King, there's only one King, I have put my
King upon my holy hill, the King of Zion, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the King shall rejoice
in God. We want to rejoice in God, we
do rejoice in God, but our rejoicing is just so, it's so shameful,
isn't it? And it's so It's so temporary. It doesn't last very long. But he rejoiced in his father
perfectly all the time. The king shall rejoice in God
and everyone that sweareth by him. I'm going to swear that his rejoicing
is the only hope that I have that God will accept me. I'm
going to swear that His faithfulness is the only hope that God's going
to accept me. That His bearing the wrath of
God and suffering the penalty of sin and expressing the sorrow,
all the things that I want to do. Everyone that sweareth by Him
shall glory. but the mouth of them that speak
lies shall be stopped. Now, let me
tell you what the mouth of those who speak lies is. Not only do
they speak lies about Christ, about who he is and what he's
done, but they speak lies about themselves. They believe themselves to be
people of faith. They believe themselves to be
lifting up holy hands and rejoicing in God. They believe themselves
to be expressing all the graces of the Christian life in a way
that would be acceptable to God. And we, our mouths are stopped,
aren't they? Our mouths are stopped. God's given his law to stop the
mouth of the world. Lord, I can't, I can't speak
to you about anything that I've experienced or anything that
I have. All I can do is look to the king
who rejoiced in the father. He's my hope. He's my life and
his grace, his grace is better than life. I have to choose between
the two, I need his grace. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word and we're thankful for knowing that we have one
who fulfilled these words perfectly. And Father, we ask that you would
enable us to offer up these words as our prayer as we look to Christ
for the one who fulfilled them all. We ask it in his name, amen. All right, let's stand together. Brother Burr, number 258. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock where rivers of pleasures I see. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depth
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord. He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depth
of His love and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. With numberless blessing each
moment He crowns, And filled with His fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, O glory
to God, For such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depth
of His love and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. When clothed in His brightness
transported I ride, to meet Him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock that shadows the dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depth
of His love and covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand.