Thank you, Joy. I like that hymn.
Nearer, still nearer. Lord, would you draw us nearer
tonight. Let's open tonight's service with number 58 from your
hardback hymnal, number 58, Jesus, the very thought of thee. Let's
all stand together. ? Jesus, the very thought of thee
? ? With sweetness fills my breast ? ? But sweeter far thy face
to see ? and in thy presence rest. Nor voice can sing, nor
heart can frame, nor can the memory find. ? A sweeter sound than thy blessed
name ? ? O Savior of mankind ? ? O hope of every contrite
heart ? ? O joy of all the meek ? To those who fall, how kind
thou art. How good to those who seek. ? But what to those who find
of this ? ? Nor tongue nor pen can show ? ? The love of Jesus
what it is ? ? None but his loved ones know ? Jesus, our only joy,
be thou as thou our prize wilt be. Jesus, be thou our glory
now and through eternity. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 62. Psalm 62. Truly my soul waiteth. That word
waiteth is the word to be silent. And that's what we do when we
come to worship. We close our mouths and wait
on the Lord to speak. Truly my soul is silent upon
God. From him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be greatly moved. I'm so thankful that the Holy
Spirit put that word greatly in there. How oftentimes we are
moved by our troubles and by our sin and by our circumstances.
And yet the Lord won't not let us fall. How long will you imagine mischief
against a man? You shall be slain all of you.
As a bowing wall shall you be and as a tottering fence. They
only consult to cast him down from his excellency. What a description
of man-centered religion. They consult to cast him down
from his excellency. They delight in lies. They bless
with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Lord said, you honor
me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. They call Jesus
Lord, but then they deny him in their hearts. My soul wait
thou only upon God for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory. The rock of my strength and my
refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, ye
people. Pour out your heart before him.
God is a refuge for us. Surely men of low degree are
vanity and men of high degree are a lie. To be laid in the
balance, they are altogether lighter than nothing. How do
you get lighter than nothing? Well, that's just man, isn't
it? Man at his very best states altogether vanity. Trust not
in oppression and become not vain in robbery. If riches increase,
set not your heart upon them. God hath spoken once. Twice have
I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord,
belongeth mercy, for thou renderest to every man according to his
work. I'm so thankful that we have
one who presents himself on our behalf and his works are perfect,
perfect. I want us to pray for Angus and
Chris and Todd. All those men have asked us to
please be in prayer for them as they prepare the messages
for the conference. Also, the Wednesday night after
the conference, which will be two weeks from today, we will
not have our regular Wednesday night service. We will meet next Wednesday night
before the conference. Let's pray. Oh, our merciful Heavenly Father,
how we pray that you would settle our hearts, calm our spirits,
cause us, Lord, to be silent before Thee and to wait upon
Thee, our only rock and our salvation. We're so hopeful Lord, that you
would be pleased in this hour to speak to our hearts. We're
hopeful that you would have mercy upon us and that you would rend
the heavens and that you would come down, that you would make
the mystery of the gospel so precious and clear and powerful
in our hearts, that you would cause us to be in a spirit of
worship this hour. and that you would speak and
cause us to find all our hope, all our salvation, all our comfort,
all our joy, all our peace in thy dear son and his finished
work of redemption. Father, we do pray for our three
dear brothers, for Angus, for Chris and for Todd. We ask Lord
that in these days waiting for our meeting that you would impress
upon their hearts the messages that you would have us to hear
and that you would give them liberty and power to give us
ears to hear that Christ to be exalted and that we would be
saved. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 326, 326. More about Jesus would I know. More of His grace to others show. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. ? More about Jesus let me learn
? More of his holy will discern ? Spirit of God my teacher be
? Showing the things of Christ to me More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More about Jesus in his word. Holding communion with my Lord. Hearing his voice in every line. Making each faithful saying mine. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus, more
of His saving fullness see, more of His love who died for me. More about Jesus on his throne,
riches and glory all his own. More of his kingdom sure increase,
more of his coming Prince of Peace. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. Please be seated. That's been
my prayer all day today. The Lord would Show us more of
his love, more of his grace, and more of his saving power. More about Jesus. Open your Bibles
with me, please, to Psalm 61. Psalm 61. I've titled this message,
Are You Overwhelmed? Are you overwhelmed? What do
you do when you get overwhelmed? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ was
overwhelmed on Calvary's cross. And these Psalms, first and foremost,
must be understood in light of Him and what He did. And when
the Lord Jesus Christ was overwhelmed, He went to a rock that was higher
than Himself. He cried out to the very one
that was pouring out His wrath on Him. And He found his help
and his comfort from his father in the time of being overwhelmed. The Lord in his mercy and grace
overwhelms us, doesn't he? He puts us in the midst of circumstances
sometimes beyond our ability. And then oftentimes he causes
us to see, at least in part, something of our sin. And we've
come to realize that We are beyond ability, beyond help, beyond
our strength to fix the problem that we have between us and God.
And in being overwhelmed, He puts it in our hearts to cry
unto the rock that is higher than we are. Let's read this
Psalm once through. It's just eight verses and understand
it in light of Christ crying out to his father, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? He's praying to the father in
the garden, father, if there be any way this cup can pass
through, I'm overwhelmed. I'm overwhelmed with the burden
of this sin, the shame and the guilt, the separation, the bitterness,
the wrath, all that I'm experiencing because of the sins of my people,
I'm overwhelmed. And yet he cries out to the very
one who is causing him so much suffering. It pleased God to bruise him.
It was the father that was pouring out his wrath on his son. And
even while he's doing that, hear my cry, O God, attend unto my
prayer. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the
rock that is higher than I. There's only one rock higher
than the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's the Father. That's who
he's crying out, Father, enable me to keep my affection set on
Thee. For Thou hast been a shelter
for me and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Thy
tabernacle forever. I will trust in the covert of
thy wings." There was the Lord Jesus' hope that he was going
to be received back up into glory for having faithfully accomplished
the work that the Father sent him to do and that he was going
to abide in the tabernacle of his Father forever. For thou, O God, hast heard my
vows. The Lord Jesus Christ entered
into a covenant of vows. between the father, the son,
and the Holy Spirit. The father vowing to elect a
bride for his son. The son vowing to the father
to do everything necessary to redeem them, to justify them,
and to establish a righteousness for them that would enable them
to enter into the very presence of God. God the Holy Spirit vowing,
coveted with the father and the son to make them willing in the
day of his power to open the eyes of their understanding,
to cause them to have ears to hear, to bring the new birth
to their hearts. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is pleading with his father and he's saying, father, I've made
vows. You know, I've kept my vows. I've kept all my promises. Verse five, for thou O God has
heard my vows. Thou has given me the heritage
of those that fear thy name. I've been faithful to my vows.
And so the reward that I'm receiving from my father for my faithfulness
is my heritage, my bride, my people. Turn with me to Deuteronomy 32. Look at verse 9, Deuteronomy
32. And you'll want to keep your
finger in that passage because we're going to come back to it
in just a moment. But look at verse 9. For the Lord's portion is
his people. Jacob is the lot of his heritage. That's what he got for having
kept his vows. And that's what he's pleading
here in this Psalm. He's pleading to the father.
I've made vows to you and my portion, my reward is Israel. Jacob is my portion. Go back
with me to Psalm 61. Now read verse five again. For
thou, O Lord, has heard my vows. Thou has given me the heritage
of those that fear thy name. Thou will prolong the king's
life and his years as many generations forever. The word there is generation
after generation after generation. There's no end, no end. He shall, the Lord Jesus Christ
shall abide before God forever. Oh, prepare mercy and truth,
which may preserve him. Truth will preserve him, mercy. So will I sing praise unto thy
name forever, that I may daily perform my vows. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
faithful one, keeping all of his promises and being given
for his faithfulness, the reward of Israel, Jacob, his heritage,
his bride. He cries out in his time of being
overwhelmed to a rock that's higher than him. Now we know
that this book is all about the Lord Jesus Christ. In the volume
of the book it is written of me, beginning with Moses and
the Psalms and the prophets, he expounded unto them those
things concerning himself. This book is a book of Christ. And as a book of Christ, it uses
many types and pictures to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. And as
we see in this Psalm, The rock here that the Lord is crying
out to is his father. The rock that we cry out to is
the rock that's higher than us. And so that in our being overwhelmed,
this imagery of a rock is given to us time and time again in
the scriptures. There are many types. The Paschal
Lamb, of course, is a type that was slain on that Passover night.
and the blood of which the Lord passed by the children of Israel
and spared them from the death angel. When he saw the blood,
he passed by. That's a clear type of Christ
carried all the way through the Old Testament. The manna that
came down from heaven, the Lord said, Moses didn't give you that
manna. My father gave you that. I am
the manna. I'm that sweet as honey manna. The bread of life that came down
from heaven that you're to call out and cry for every day. Give us this day our daily bread. Don't try to live off yesterday's
manna. Trust God daily for a fresh supply of bread to sustain your
soul. The brazen serpent that Moses
put up on a pole. The Lord told him to take a serpent,
make it out of brass, put it up on a pole, and whoever looked
would live. represents the Lord Jesus Christ
as our sin bearer, having been stung with the venom of sin. And when we look to him, look
to him as our sin bearer, as the one who satisfied God's divine
justice, we're saved. The burning bush certainly was
a type of Christ, wasn't it? Moses on the backside of the
desert found himself in the presence of God, and the bush that was
being burned with fire and yet was not consumed, what a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross, being burned with the
fiery wrath of God's justice, yet he was not consumed. He was
not consumed. The tabernacle certainly is a
type of Christ. All throughout the Old Testament,
that tabernacle in every way from the holies of holies all
the way out to the one door that entered in was a type and a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ who tabernacled among us. He's the
one that we flee to. In the times of being overwhelmed
with sin, with our circumstances, with troubles, with fears that
are within and troubles that are without, we, We flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's typified in all of these
things. Noah's Ark certainly is a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where Noah and his family
found safety from the flood of God's wrath. And it's interesting
that that Ark rested When the waters began to assuage, the
rock, the ark rested on a rock, on a rock. And that's what we
have a picture of here, the immutability, the strength. Sometimes this
rock, as we're going to see from Deuteronomy 32, is referred to
as a flinty rock, a hard rock, a stable rock, a rock of shelter,
a rock of strength. And this type of Christ being
like a rock. When I'm overwhelmed, lead me. Lead me. Lord, you're gonna have
to lead me to the rock that's higher than I. I don't know how
to get there. I'm overwhelmed. When you get
overwhelmed, you're just overwhelmed. You don't know how to pray. You
don't know what to do. You don't know what to say. Lord, you're
gonna have to lead me. You're gonna have to make me
to come to the rock that's higher than I. That's the rock that
the Lord Jesus Christ was referring to when he told Peter, Peter,
the confession that you've made just now, that I am the Christ,
the son of the living God, upon this rock, I'm gonna build my
church. And the gates of hell shall not
be able to prevail against it. Now the Catholics have understood that
to be Peter as the rock. The thing about it is, Peter's
name translated means little rock. Little rock. You can't build a very big church
on a little rock. But the big rock is the Lord
Jesus Christ, the stone of stumbling. the rock of offense, the stone
that the builders rejected, God has made to become the head of
the corner and the whole church is built upon this rock. Lord,
when I'm overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that's higher than
I. Do for me what the Lord Jesus
Christ did when he fled to you in the midst of his troubles
and found you to be sufficient. When the Lord Jesus Christ finished
a sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter seven, he said, he that
heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them is like a man
who buildeth his house upon a rock. And when the winds blow and the
rain falls and the floods come and beat upon that house, It
will not fall for it's been built upon a rock. You see the same
floods that come against the unbeliever come against the believer.
The same rains, the same troubles, same trials. The difference is
the foundation of the house. Their house is built on sand
and that house is going to fall. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
listen to my words and believe me and you'll be like the man
who has dug down to the bedrock and built his house upon a rock. When God spoke to Moses there
in Exodus chapter three at the burning bush, scripture says
that it was at the rock of Mount Horeb. Now Horeb is another name
for Sinai and Horeb translated means desert and sometimes the
Lord overwhelms us by just putting us in a desert. We've got no
water, we've got no everything's a mirage, we've got no comfort,
no peace and then God speaks from the mountain of the law. from that rock where the Lord
Jesus Christ is seen there speaking to Moses. Later, after Moses
went back to Egypt and brought the children of Israel out, he
brought them back to Mount Horeb. You remember when Moses asked
the Lord at the burning bush said, how do I know that this is gonna
really happen? And the Lord told Moses, he said,
when you get back here to this mountain, that'll be your sign.
You're not going to get a sign until after it's over. And that's
the only sign that we have. The sign that we have is after
it's over. The Lord doesn't give us a sign before. You know, people
talk about Gideon putting out his fleece. Well, that's a, that's
a picture of Christ. That, you know, the fleece is
a, is a, is a lamb skin. And, uh, And Gideon put the lambskin
out and said, Lord, let this lambskin be wet and the rest
of the ground around it be dry. And sure enough, Gideon woke
up in the morning and it was wet. It was soaking wet. He wrung
out a bowl of water out of the lambskin and Gideon said, Lord,
show me one more time. Give me one more sign. And so
he put the lambskin back out and he asked the Lord, make the
ground around the lambskin wet and the lambskin dry. And so
the next morning, all the ground around the lambskin is wet. and
the lambskin itself is dry. And people say, well, you've
got to put out your fleece and ask God for a sign in order for
you to know what you're supposed to do. No, that's Christ. The sign's already been done.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ that was filled with the Spirit of
God and poured himself out on Calvary's cross and suffered
the desert of abandonment so that the water of grace and the
water of God's Word could go out beyond him to the rest of
the church. There's the sign. The sign's
already been given. We're not looking for a sign.
The wicked and perverse generation seeketh after a sign. We have the sign of Jonah, don't
we? The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ and that's enough. That's enough. Lord, I believe,
I believe. And so Moses gets back to Mount
Horeb and the Lord confirms to him that the Lord is with him. And the people began to die of
thirst. I mean, they were in a desert.
There was no water. Have you brought us out here
to die? We could have died in Egypt. We'd have been better off. And
Moses, the Lord points out a rock on Horeb to Moses. It says, take
your rod and strike the rock. Now that rod was a rod of justice. It was a rod of justice. And Moses was to strike the rock
one time and he struck it three times. And the Lord chastised
him greatly for it. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
was stricken by the law, the rod of justice, one time. And
the Lord tells us that that rock was Christ. And they ate of the
same spiritual meat and did drink of the same spiritual drink.
They'd all drank from that rock. What an unlikely place for water
to come from. Came out of a rock. When stricken
by the law of God's justice, the water of life flows from
the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, lead me. If in being overwhelmed,
God's pleased to reveal to us the nature and character of the
Lord Jesus Christ and cause us, you say, well, what is the means
by which God leads me to the rock? Well, it's the preaching of the
rock. It's the lifting up of the rock. Isn't that what the
Lord said? And I, if I be lifted up, will
draw all men to myself. Why do we come together? Why
do we preach Christ? Because this is the means by
which God causes us to come to the rock that's higher than us. That rock followed them 40 years
through the wilderness. That rock is the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in Exodus chapter 33
when Moses cries out to the Lord, Lord, show me your glory. So
many demonstrations of the glory of God Moses had already experienced
and yet Moses says, God, show me your glory. And God said,
well, I'm going to put you in the cleft of a rock. I'm going
to have to hide you in Christ in order for you to see my glory.
For no man can see my face and live." And so Moses is saved
from the power of God by being placed in the cleft of a rock. A rock. Lord lead me. Lead me
to the rock. that is higher than I. That's the only place to go when
you're overwhelmed. People go to a lot of different
things. They go to the power of positive
thinking when they're overwhelmed. They go to therapy. They go to drugs. They go to
whatever to try to calm their fears when they're overwhelmed. And the Lord says, you go where
I went. I went to a rock that was higher
than me. And I am that rock. You come
to me and I'll make sure that everything between you and the
father is good. It's good. Turn with me to Deuteronomy
chapter 32. This imagery of the rock is given
so many times in the scriptures. Look at, several times here in
Deuteronomy chapter 32, look at verse four. He is the rock. He is the rock. There's only
one rock. There's another verse we're gonna
look at in just a moment where it says our rock's better than
their rock, but their rock's not a rock. They're rock shifting
sand. There's only one rock. There's
only one place where you're safe from the wrath of God. Only one
safe place, only one place to stand. There's only one rock
that is an everlasting rock. And so Moses says, he is the
rock. His work is perfect. That's so simple, isn't it? His
work is perfect. It's perfect. What was His work?
Well, you could summarize His work by saying that it was to
glorify the Father by saving His people. And His work was perfect. Perfect. All of us have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God, but the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished the work that the Father sent Him to do. Did you
not know that I must be about my father's business? What is
my father's business? To glorify him. Father, John
17, I have glorified thy name upon the earth. Now glorify me. I've given them your word and
they've kept it. Father, keep them. Keep them. Keep them from the world that
they might see my glory. The Lord Jesus Christ's work
was to glorify his father by redeeming his people. And here Moses says he is the
rock and his work is perfect. Now in the truest sense of the
word perfect, what man can say that anything is perfect? We use that word loosely, don't
we? Say, oh, that's perfect. But it's not perfect. Not perfect. Far from it. Perfection can only
be found in Him. He is the rock. His work is perfect. Lord, I'm overwhelmed. I can't
work my way out of it. I can't get myself out of this
sin. I can't get myself I can't justify
myself before you, I can't change my circumstances, I'm overwhelmed.
What am I going to do? Go to the rock, Lord lead me
to the rock that's higher than me and cause me to see that his
work is perfect. Now look at the rest of verse
4, and all of his ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is he. Now, the word judgment or justice
is honoring and keeping the letter of law, honoring and keeping
the letter of the law. Now, in our justice system, we
have a, I don't remember which amendment it is, but one of them
in the Bill of Rights forbids the government from cruel and
unusual punishment. In other words, the punishment
has to fit the crime. You can't be put to death for
a traffic violation. So your crime is measured, your
judgment is measured by the severity of the crime in our justice system. Why do you think that the crime
that caused all of this problem, all this death was eating of
a piece of fruit? What's God saying? Disobedience and rebellion against
God is high treason. Don't think that one crime is
less than another crime. For in the day in which you eat
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you're going
to die. You're going to die. That's the
penalty. The death penalty. See, men think,
well, you know, I'm not that bad. Well, my sin's not as bad
as somebody else's sin. And they're making God to be
altogether as themselves. They're making God's legal system
to be like man's legal system. Well, that would be cruel and
unusual punishment for God to send me to hell. Don't I have
some bill of rights? Don't I have an amendment that
I can present before God to show him that I'm not worthy of hell? That's why all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
the full wrath of God's justice in order to meet the letter of
the law. He died in our stead. and put away our sin. If God should mark iniquity,
and you know what iniquity is. Iniquity is the good stuff we
do. If God would judge us by the best thing we've ever done,
we're going to hell for it. That's God's justice system.
But he meted it out. He satisfied the law. He's the
end of the law for righteousness. He suffered the wrath of God. Truth, justice, and judgment
without iniquity. Without iniquity are his. Why? Because he is the rock.
and his work is perfect. Lord, I'm overwhelmed with my
inabilities. Lead me to the rock that is much
higher than I am. Oh, much, much higher. Look at verse 13. Now this is,
we looked at verse nine a few moments ago. For the Lord's portion
is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
The reward that God gave, the father gave the son, was his
bride. And where did the Lord find Jacob? Where did he find his people?
He found him in a desert land, verse 10, in the waste howling
wilderness. He led him about. He instructed
him. He kept him as the apple of his
eye. The Lord found him out there in the wilderness. He was overwhelmed, overwhelmed. As an eagle stirreth up her nest
and flutterth over her young and spreadeth abroad her wings
and taketh them and bare them on her wings. So the Lord alone
did lead Jacob, him. And there was no strange God
with him. Jacob knew that there was one God, one rock. He made him ride on high places
of the earth that he might eat the increase of the fields. And
he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the
flinty rock." Now here's, here's, here's the, we just stopped right
there. That's our experience. And my
children are not going to worship another God. They've come to
know there's one God. And they're going to, they're
going to, they're going to eat oil, honey out of the rock. What
is honey? Oh, it's the sweetness of His
grace. It's the peace, the comfort, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
the encouragement of His peace. And where does that, where does
that honey come from? Comes out of the rock. Comes out of the rock. And then
oil, what is oil a picture of in the scriptures? Just a picture
of the Holy Spirit. He was anointed with the oil
of gladness above his fellows. And Aaron, you remember, had
oil poured on his head and it went down his beard and dripped
off the hem of his garment. And the woman with the issue
of blood said, if I could just touch the hem of his garment,
I would be made whole. And what was she doing? She was
getting the drips of the Spirit of God that came off the hem
of the garment of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that hymn of the
garment is the same thing that Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter
6. When Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his
train, that word train is the word hymn. His train filled the
temple. So where did God's people gather?
They gather at the hymn of his garment where the oil of gladness
drips off of his garment and enables us to look to Christ. That's the primary. That's the
primary ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is to
fix our eyes and our hope and our attention and our faith on
Christ. And out of a flinty rock. Now,
I don't know. It impressed me. The only thing I ever knew about
flint was that my boy scouts would take flint and hit it on
steel. So I just thought I would read up on flint a little bit. Flint is a quartz and it's a
very, very extremely hard rock. But one of the things I was interested
about Flint is that oftentimes when Flint is formed, it will
capture impurities within it. And so what I read about Flint
was they said be very careful when you heat it up. Because
when you heat it up, some of the impurities that are inside
the Flint will expand and the rock will actually explode. The fracture will become so violent
that pieces of the rock could hurt you. And I thought, well,
you know, that's this flinty rock. This is the rock that's
higher than us. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
burying in his body the impurities of our sin. And the fire of God's
wrath came upon him until the fracture was so violent that
he died. And that's where we get the oil
from, from the flinty rock. But Israel, Israel did not esteem
the rock of their salvation. Now he's talking about Old Testament
Israel. Look at verse, look at verse 15, but Jeshurun, and that's
a synonym for Israel in its best state, But Jeshurun waxed fat
and kicked, and thou art waxen fat and are grown thick and are
covered with fatness. Then he forsook God which made
him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. Now, to
our shame, that's what happens to us, isn't it? Jeshurun, the
separated ones. Israel, God's people, when he
allows us to have times of waxing fat, no trouble, peace, everything's
going well, we have a tendency to forget our God in those times,
don't we? We have a tendency to esteem
the rock of our salvation lightly in those times, don't we? Whereas
when the Lord puts us in a time of trouble. That's when the rock
becomes precious to us, of great value to us. They provoked him to jealousy
with strange gods, with abominations provoked him to anger. They sacrificed
unto devils, not to gods. to what religion is, a sacrifice
to devils, to gods whom they knew not, to
new gods that came newly up, whom their fathers feared not.
And that's what sin is. We can apply these to our own
lives when we lose sight of and esteem lightly that rock that's
higher than us. of the rock that begat thee,
thou art unmindful and has forgotten God that formed thee. Is it shameful
when things are going really well how long we can go with
very little thoughts about God? Look at verse 29. Oh, that they
were wise. that they understood this and
that they would consider their latter end. Well, that'll put
everything in perspective, won't it? When we seriously consider
our latter end, the reality of death and our need to be made
right with God, that sobers us up, doesn't it? That puts everything
right. How should one chase a thousand
and two put 10,000 to flight? Why are they so fearful? Why is it that their minds just
can't stop imagining the worst things to happen to them? Except their rock had sold them
and the Lord had shut them up. When we lose sight of the rock,
the rock leaves us to ourselves for a little while. That's when
fear grips our heart, isn't it? For their rock is not as our
rock. And their rock is not a rock
at all, but their rock, little r, is not as our rock, even our
enemies themselves being judges. Now what does that mean? Well,
the ones that are worshiping another god, what do they say?
What do they say? I'll tell you what they say.
They say, my god's hands are tied. My God wants to save everybody,
but He's impotent. My God's making an attempt to
get everybody to heaven, but you know, unless man lets Him
have His way, He can't do it. And of their own testimony, now
they won't say it like that, but they say essentially the
same thing. And of their own testimony, they confess that
their God is not like our God. Our God saves. Our God's omniscient. He's omnipotent, he's sovereign,
he's accomplished, his work is perfect. Their God's not like
our God. Lord, lead me to the God that
is higher than I. And look at verse 37. And he
shall say, where are their gods? Their rock in whom they trusted,
which did eat the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine
of their drink offerings, let them rise up and help you and
be your protection. See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no God with me. I kill, I make alive, I wound,
I heal, neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
For I lift up my hand to heaven and say, I live forever. If I
wet my glittering sword and mine hand take hold on judgment, I
will render vengeance to my enemies and reward them that hate me.
I will make mine arrows drunk with blood and with my sword
shall devour flesh. And with the blood of the slain
and of the captives from the beginning of revenge is upon
the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his
people. for he will avenge the blood
of his servants and will render vengeance to his adversaries
and will be merciful onto his land and to his people. When my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Our Heavenly Father, bless your
word to our hearts and give us faith to trust you. Forgive us,
Lord. Forgive us for so many times
we lose sight of our rock. We thank you for the perfect
judgment of Christ. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. Number 272, let's stand together. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness veils his lovely
face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale, My anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. ? Mother ground
is sinking sand ? ? His cloth, his covenant, his blood ? ? Supports
me in the whelming flood ? ? When all around my soul gives way
? ? He then is all my hope and stay ? On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground
is sinking sand. When He shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in Him be found, Dressed in His righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. Freedom of speech.