Psalm 139 this evening. Psalm 139. Just the first six verses. O
Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting
and my not-rising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compass'st me my path and
my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my
tongue but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset
me behind and before, and laid Thine hand on me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto
it. God reveals himself to us in his word by his Holy Spirit
through the preaching of the gospel by his son. We're very limited
in our knowledge of him. We search We can know more, I
believe we can know more than we do now, don't you? I want
to know more. The Apostle Paul prayed, oh that
I may know him. He prayed that when he knew him. But the question is asked in
Job 11, 7. Canst thou by searching find
out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
Unto perfection. And of course the unspoken answer
to that question is no. Not to perfection. Not in this
life. Not in this flesh. Not unto perfection. We search. And we know. And I want to know more. But our Lord has searched us,
and He knows us, unto perfection. He has searched me. He has searched me, David said,
and known me. The agnostics say that we can't
know God at all. Of course, they reject the scriptures
when they say that. To know God is eternal life.
The only hope for a sinner is to know God. John 17, this is
life eternal, 17 three. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent. We know him as he reveals himself. We can't really, by searching,
find out God at all. Now, we will find him when we
search for him, according to his promise, when we search with
all of our heart. But our searching is vain unless
he reveals himself. Matthew 11 27 all things are
delivered to me our Lord Jesus said of my father And no man
knoweth the son but the father Neither knoweth any man the father
save the son and and I'm thankful for this and We won't know him in this life
like the son does I But we'll know him because the
Son reveals him to us. No man knoweth the Father save
the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Everybody
to whom the Son reveals his Father will know God. And that's life eternal. That's
salvation. To know him is to be saved. to
have eternal life, to be born again. When we're born of the
Spirit from above, by the grace and distinguishing grace and
power of God, we can see God's kingdom and we can enter into
God's kingdom, which is Christ. Christ is the King. And it's
Him, He's the one we enter into. He into us. And we experience
salvation through knowledge of Him. So to know Him is to be saved,
and to know Him perfectly is to be saved perfectly. Well,
aren't we saved perfectly now, Chris? Well, I want to be more
saved than I am tonight, don't you? I'd like to be a little
more saved than I am right now. What do you mean by that? All of the promises of God, all
of the covenant promises of God are yes and so be it in Christ. And they're mine. They're yours
if you know them. They're ours. But there are so
many of them we haven't experienced yet. As I believe Hebrews 11 says,
we see them afar off. We see them afar off. We've experienced
some of the things that those saints of the Old Testament times
hadn't experienced. or hadn't understood as fully
perhaps as we do, but there's a lot we haven't experienced
yet too and I want to. So to know, when we know him
perfectly, we'll be saved perfectly, fully, completely, in every sense,
finally saved. Now we see through a glass darkly,
but then face to face. I know in part But then shall
I know, even as I know. So we're saved through knowledge
of Him, to know Him is eternal life. And when we know Him perfectly,
we'll be saved perfectly. To know God is salvation in our
experience. I saved before I knew Him. You
believe that? Were you saved before you knew
God? Oh, I don't know, Chris. I don't know about this eternal
salvation. Well, you better find out about it, because God is
eternal. And His salvation is eternal. And the blood of His
Son is eternal. To know God is salvation in our
experience. This is life eternal, that we
might know Him. And knowledge of Him is vital.
It's life. We have to know Him. But salvation
is better defined and is ultimately secured in the fact that God
knows us. God knows us. Now God knows every
man and woman in a sense. He made everybody. He knows what
we're made of. He knows everything about us.
He knows everybody's thoughts before they think them. He's
omniscient. There's nothing that he doesn't
know factually. But God's knowledge of his people
is much more than a factual awareness of and information about them. It's much more than that. God knows his elect in love,
an intimate union with them, a oneness with them. He being
in us and we in him, of God are you in Christ Jesus. If God put
you in His Son, He made His Son to be unto you wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, redemption, everything you need. We're in a vital and eternal
relationship. We understand that relationship
somewhat and we get a glimpse of it here in the relationship
between man and wife. But marriage, we understand something
about what marriage is between a man and a woman, but that as
wonderful as that is, and I think there's quite a few of us in
this building tonight that could say the most wonderful temporal
thing about this life is the union that our Lord has given
us with our husband or wife. What a blessing that we enjoy
daily. But that blessed union that God
says, you're one flesh. Before me, you're one flesh.
That can only imitate the union between Christ and his bride.
It's a beautiful thing, beautiful picture, but it is just a picture. In Matthew 19 5 it says, for
this cause shall a man leave Father and mother, and shall
cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. That's
a beautiful thing. Wherefore they are no more twain,
but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder. And when our Lord joined the
first man and woman together, they became one. It says Adam
knew his wife Eve. And the reason this is important
to our text now tonight is that David is not just here talking
about God knowing facts about it. God has searched me and known
me. It's not just God looking into
our heart. We know that he doesn't look
on the outward appearance. He looks upon the heart, and
he sees the thoughts and the intents of the heart, and he
understands even our thoughts, as David said here in the Psalm
of Pharaoh, before we even think them. And He knows everything
about us, but there's more to that than this here than that
here. There's more to it than that.
It's marvelous enough to think that God knows my every thought
before I think it. That's pretty wonderful, isn't
it? That's pretty amazing. But God knows us, His elect.
When I say us, I'm talking about those with like precious faith
as David. David could say here, Thou hast
searched me and known me. and us, we, his elect, his sheep,
his bride. Here's the sense in which he
knows us. Turn to Romans chapter 8, a very familiar passage of
scripture. A very blessed one that we have
to visit often. Brother Joe referred to it in
his prayer about how God deals with us in
Christ. He justifies us. Nothing can
be laid to our charge. Verse 28, we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
called according to his purpose. Everything is purposed and designed
by God for your good. You think about that for a second.
Well Paul, what do you mean by that? For whom he did foreknow. That's what I mean by that. God
before, before what? Before everything knew you. And whom he did foreknow, everybody
that he knew in this sense. Now doesn't God know everybody
and everything? Yes. But these ones that he knows
in this sense he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son. He knew you in some sense that
caused him to want to purpose and control everything, everybody, every
circumstance, every outcome, every contingency in order to
bring you to a predetermined end, which is we're going to
be just like Christ. Now that's a different kind of
knowledge than just a factual understanding of everything about
me. And whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. He did it for the sake of his
son. Now we'll look at this in a minute more closely. But moreover
whom he did predestinate, then he also called, and I believe
that word there is named. He named. He gave us his name,
didn't he? The Lord our righteousness is
his name. That's my name too. The Lord's my righteousness.
Whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified,
them He also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? God is for
us. Everything's working for our
good. Okay, it's starting to sink in what Paul is saying here.
God has always loved me. And because He did, He determined
everything that would ever happen to me, around me, before there
ever was a me, now that there is a me, Until there ain't a
me no more. All of it he determined and rules
and controls to conform me to the image of God the Son. And he named me. He said you're
mine. I know you by name. You're mine. What can we do if all of that's
true? And he called me, he justified me. He wiped all my guilt away,
my sin. And he glorified me. There's the ultimate salvation
right there, that's what we just talked about. It's already done
in the purpose of God. God's force sound like God's
force doesn't it? What do you mean? Are you still
you still got any doubt in your marriage to what he's talking
about? Well, how about this he that spared not his own son? But delivered him up for us all
How shall he not with him also freely give us all things He
spared not His own son. And then this is where Joke quoted
it. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's and let God
justify it? How can God do that? Who is he
that condemneth? It's Christ that died. He spared
not his own son. Clearly this knowledge, this
before knowledge, this knowledge God had of us before, that results
Whatever this knowledge in verse 29 there is, and it all starts
with that, doesn't it? This is called the golden chain
of salvation because it talks so much about how God saved us. There's not much about me doing
anything there in that, is there? It's all for me, but for me for
Him. for me that he, you see. But whoever God knew in this
sense of knowing, that knowledge caused him to make everything
that happens revolve around them. Isn't that what it said? All
that takes place in time, takes place for the express purpose
of bringing his loved ones to that desired end of being like
his son. Now does that mean everything
is about me? He did that so that Christ would be preeminent, so
that Christ would be the firstborn among many brethren. It's all
about Him. But because it's all about Him,
it's all about me. The way God has chosen to glorify
His Son is in saving me and you. You see what David's saying?
Thou hast searched me and known me. And this knowledge, and that's
the furthest back we can trace. God glorified me. Why? Well,
because I'm justified in Christ. Why am I justified? Well, because
I bear his name. I'm his. Why is that? Because nothing's up to me. That's
why. Because it was all predetermined by God. Is that a good reason? Why would God do that for me?
Because He knew me. Because He has searched me and
known me. You can't trace it back any farther
than that. Why in the world did He set His heart upon me? No idea. I know it's in Christ. I know it has everything to do
with Christ. I don't know why me. Why me? This knowledge of us was such
that it caused the God of glory to not spare his own son for
us. You see what we're talking about?
Thou hast searched me and known me. That's the kind of knowledge
we're talking about. There's nothing about us to cause
God to love us, I know that. And yet, David said, it's me
that he loved. It's me. You think about that
for a minute. Not just some random unit among
many. Not human number 4,368,972,835.
Me. He set his heart on me. He always knew me. He predestinated
me. He named me. He justified me. He glorified and gave his only
begotten well-beloved son for me. And Paul said, that's why
I stand before God. No if, no if you, not no, now
it's up to you. I stand before God guiltless
spotless without blame before him in love because he spared not his own son for
me and he did that for me because he knew me he doesn't know everybody
like that he said to those in Matthew chapter 7 verse 23 who
yet trusted in their own works standing at the very gate The
picture is, the Lord has refused them entrance. They found out
there that it wasn't about them accepting Jesus, it was about
Him accepting them. And He said, you're not accepted. And they said, well wait a minute,
what about all that we've done for you? That's why. That's why Israel hath not obtained
what they sought for, because they sought it by works and not
by faith. That's why you're not coming
in. Depart from me, I never knew you. We just read about some
people that he always knew. Before there was a before, he
knew them. These ones that trusted in their
own works, in his very face, I never knew you, he said. He's
always known us. He foreknew us. He knew us before
there wasn't us. Paul said it began with knowledge. That's what he said there in
Romans chapter 8. It began with that. What do you mean everything
works for our good? Yeah, well it started a long
time ago working for my good. How far back can we trace it?
God knew me. He knew me. A certain special
distinguishing knowledge in the inevitable extrapolation of realities
that spring from that knowledge is that it pleased God to crush
his son for me. When Isaiah said, it pleased
the Lord to bruise him, that word is crushed. That's what
Paul's talking about in Romans 8. It is Christ that died. That's
why I am justified before God. Thou hast known me. He said to
his disciples, this is my blood which is shed for you. Thou hast
searched me and known me. And having known me and loved
me from eternity, there's never a moment in time When he is not in full knowledge
of me, my circumstances, my best and perfect option and course,
which he guides me into, by the way. Well, it didn't look like
the best scenario from my perspective. Trust me. If you're his, it's
the best thing that could have happened to you. Don't trust me, trust him. No
good thing will he withhold from those that love him. Everything
working for your good. Everything. My thoughts, my heart, my intent,
my motives, what burdens me, what lifts me, my every relationship,
my feelings. Verse two, he knows us perfectly. Perfectly. Thou knowest my down-sitting
and my up-rising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Notice how the verse mentions
the physical and beyond that. He knows my down-sitting and
my up-rising. In other words, everything I
do, every step I take. And also, my thoughts. I'm glad to know God. And as
I said, I want to know more, and I know everybody that knows
him wants to know more. But if I come to the place where
I don't even know my own name anymore, much less anything about
God, if I can't even remember my own name, he'll still know
me. He'll still remember me. And just as his knowledge of
me is more than facts, his presence with me is more than location.
He is with me in the sense that he is for me. Look at verses
3 through 5. Thou compassest my path and my
lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. He knows me,
but he is also around me. He comes where I am. There is
not a word in my tongue but O Lord thou knowest it all together.
Thou hast beset me behind and before. And you've laid your
hand on me. He's acquainted with all of our
ways. Is that a good thing? What does God know about me? He knows all my sin. I'm glad
you don't. But I'm glad that he does. I'm glad he does. He knows all my sin. We don't
put on a front for him, do we? I do for you. And you do for
me. And I want you to. I don't want
to know you that well either. But not for him. Isn't that good
though? Isn't it good? There's no need to pretend. In
fact, don't. We might think at first we don't
want God to know all of our sinfulness. But think about how wonderful
it is to be searched out. To be completely found out. Don't
need to hide. We've been hiding for a long
time, haven't we? First thing Adam did was he hid himself. It's wonderful to not have to
hide anymore. It was foolish to ever hide from
God anyway. Ever. In our life. And we have.
We just like our father Adam. But bless God there's no pretense.
That's a relief, isn't it? to relieve. Just as I am, thou wouldst please,
but that thou blood was shed for me, and that thou bid'st me come
to thee. O Lamb of God, here I come, just
as I am, just as I am. The Apostle Peter didn't know
himself, He thought he did. He said, I'll never deny you.
I will die with you before I ever deny you. These other men may.
Probably will. I will not. I will die with you.
And the Lord said, no, Peter, you won't. You won't do that.
No, you won't. Simon didn't know himself, but
the Lord knew him. Our Lord, He knows our sin. What else does He know? Well,
He knows by experience everything about us, doesn't He? Think about
that. Our Lord is touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. He is acquainted with grief. He is acquainted with all of
our ways in this sense. Listen to Hebrews 4.15, of course
you can turn there if you'd like to. I'll give you a second if
you want to turn there. Hebrews 4.15 Just a couple of verses, but
this is... What does He know about us? How is He acquainted
with all of our ways? Again, it's not just facts. He became me. Hebrews 4.15 We have not an high
priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points, all points, tried, tested, like
as we are, yet without sin. Oh, well he can't be tried as
deeply and as fully as I am if he doesn't have any sin. Oh no,
that's not what it's saying. It's way more deeply and fully
than we could ever experience. The sinless one, and I'm in over
my head, I know that. I know that. Talking about something
I don't know anything about. But I know this, his sinlessness
didn't make him less able to be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities. And in that sense, believers
are more touched with it than unbelievers are. We have his
nature. Not sinless by a long shot. But we have his nature now. We
feel sin. We experience infirmity. Like
this world can't. He experienced it like you never
can. Never will. Let us therefore
come boldly unto the throne of grace. This is the conclusion. If we have that kind of high
priest, then let's come to the very throne of God's grace. Not proudly, not presumptuously,
but without fear. Without fear. That we may obtain mercy. Where
are you going to get some mercy if you need some? Same place
I got it to begin with. The only place you're going to
get mercy is at the mercy seat. We say about the mercy seat.
That's Christ. That's Christ. and find grace
to help in time of need. He knows what we need, He knows
why we need it, and He is what we need. He knows that, do we
know that? Do we know that finally? That
He is all that we need. What does our Lord know about
us? I would have never said this
if he didn't say it in the word of God. He knows we love him. He knows that. Simon said, Lord, you know all
things. You know all things. That's what our psalm is talking
about. He's omniscient. He knows everything. That's what Simon said. You know
all things. And so you know this. I love you. I love you. He knows how weak our love is.
As we saw when we studied that and Simon's not bragging on his
love there. I guarantee you Simon walked
away from that experience not saying, oh how much I love Jesus.
But look how much he loves me. I denied his name and yet he restored me. He never denied me. I left Him. I forsook Him. He didn't forsake
me. He knows how weak our love is,
but He knows that we love Him because He first loved us. And
because He loves us, our Lord doesn't just observe everything
about us. We've hinted at this already.
We saw this in verses 3 through 5 here. He doesn't just observe. You know, He's not just looking
at us and searching our heart and our actions and all of that.
He not only observes and He not only has experienced all that
we have, yet without seeing, but He engages us, He surrounds
us, He comes where we are. He hedges us in, he keeps us
before and behind. What about that Chris? Well,
he keeps me from turning back. I'd have done run the other way
if it wasn't for him. You know that right? You too. Not gonna happen though. He has
been setting me behind. And before. He keeps me from proceeding the
wrong way, the wrong direction. A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
Bless God. And look how tenderly and affectionately
he engages us. He surrounds us to protect and
not just to protect us from harm without. He doesn't just hedge
us in to keep our enemies out. He hedges us in to keep us in.
We know that. No man can pluck us out of his
hand. They can't get to us. But also,
we're prone to wander, but we're not going to. We're not going to be lost. I not only have enemies, but
I am prone to wander. He calls us his sheep for a reason.
Because sheep are dumb and they stray. That's what they do. They
ain't even got enough sense to feed themselves. Or to find water. Prone to wander. Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave. Would you leave
the God that you love? If you would, then pray this.
Here's my heart, Lord. Take it and seal it. That's my
prayer. Lord, you keep us. Keep us. That
was our high priest's prayer on our behalf, wasn't it, in
John 17? Lord, keep them. Keep them from the evil one.
But listen, he's not merely mercenary in his protection of us. This
is... This is perhaps most wonderful
in all of this. He lays his hand upon us. He lays his hand upon us. You
think about that. God lays his hand upon a sinner? Think about what that means. Lauren took a picture the other
day that I that I love and I cherish that picture now. I usually don't
like pictures of me, but I'm sitting on our couch at home
and our German Shepherd, Clark, is laying next to me on the couch.
I'm laying my hand on his neck. And I do that a lot. He'll crawl
up on the couch by us I lay my hand on his neck and he responds
to that. He'll cut his eyes up at me and
he'll kind of snuggle in under my hand. I can feel him react
to that and he relaxes. He settles in under my hand and
after a little while he'll close his eyes and fall asleep. I'll
just sit there with my hand laid upon him and he knows on some
level, I don't understand much about what animals know and don't
know, but I know, I can see that he understands on some level that he's mine. Right then and that moment he
understands that he's mine and that we're in it together. It's me and Clark. And my God lays his omnipotent
hand upon me, and I don't owe him much more
than a dollar. But by God's grace, I know on
some level that he's with me and for me. I'm his, and he's
mine, and that we're in this thing together. Oh, what are
you saying, Chris? Me and God, you know, got a good
thing going? No. I don't know why. I don't know
what he gets out of it. I don't contribute anything to
the relationship. I don't know what he gets out
of it. But I know what I get out of it. I get everything out
of it. Everything. God's right hand is Christ. The power of God, the authority. The way that God, how can God
even touch a sinner? How can he lay his hand on a
wretch like me, Christ? God doesn't have a hand. Religion talks about, well he
has no hands but your hands. He's in big trouble then. Your
God has a problem if he don't have any hands but yours. But
God's hand, the God of this Bible, His hand, He has a hand because
of His Son, in the person of His Son. He's able to lay His
hand upon such as we. We saw it recently in Luke chapter
5, didn't we? That leper came up and said,
Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. It says He reached
out and touched that leper. You don't do that. You don't
touch lepers. He does. He eats with sinners. He communes. He knew some lepers before the
world ever was. And he lays his hand upon them.
And when he does, we're made clean. Christ is the hand of
God. The power of God. Somebody standing
by might have said, don't touch that leper. You may catch what
he had. He did it in order to catch what we had. He didn't
catch it. He took it deliberately. That's
why he touched me. Because he wanted it. He caught what we had. He took
it and put it away by the sacrifice of himself. He who knew no sin
took all of our sins. All of the sins of those whom
he did foreknow. That's what Paul said there.
Those whom he foreknew and all those things in between. And
what's the end? He gave his only begotten son. He shed his own precious blood
to put away our sin by the sacrifice of himself, that we might be
made clean, washed clean in his very own blood, John said in
Revelation. Turn to Job chapter 9. We're at before Psalms, Job chapter
9. I'm out of time, but I want us
to see this final thing here. Job 9, 28. There's Job talking about his
sin now, and how Job began to fear. You know, his three friends
were telling him, you know, if you weren't such a wretch, if
you weren't a hypocrite, if you were really saved, you know how
religion talks, if you were really living the Christian life and
all that, God wouldn't treat you like this, if you weren't
such a sinner. I'm glad the Lord doesn't treat
us according to our sins, aren't you? If we suffer in this place, it's
not because of your sin. We don't, we'll never suffer
for our sins. Not like that. But he got, Job sounded like
he began to believe what they were saying. Maybe God's forsaken
me. Maybe God's turned his back on
me. Look what he says here in verse 28. I'm afraid of all my
sorrows. I know that thou wilt not hold
me innocent. And you know this is true, of
course, in ourselves. He does hold us innocent in Christ,
but in ourselves, Job's looking at himself. And I'd say, if you
read the whole book of Job, his friends had a lot to do with
that. And of course, we're guilty of that, aren't we? We begin
to look at ourselves, and we see ourself. You're not going
to find any comfort there. There's no comfort in this flesh.
There's no comfort in our performance. And anything we do, that will
not hold me. If I be wicked, why then labor I in vain? I can't
do anything about it. The more I do, the more wicked
I am. That's true by nature. If I wash myself with snow water
and make my hands never so clean, if I go to church and tithe and
read my Bible and pray every day, yet shalt thou plunge me
in the ditch and mine own clothes shall abhor me. God's not going
to be impressed with me washing the outside of the cup. Job understood
some things there, but it sounds like his comfort's gone, doesn't
it? Sounds like his assurance is at a low ebb. For he is not a man as I am that
I should answer him. What am I going to say? I'm guilty
before God. Job's looking at himself. He's not a man that we should
come together in judgment? Neither is there any daysman
betwixt us that might lay his hand upon us both. Sounds like Job is despairing
here, doesn't it? Job understands the concept of
the daysman. But he said, there's not one
for me. Let it look like there's one for me. God's dealing with me directly
in my sin or he wouldn't, I wouldn't be on this ash heap. Let him
take his rod away from me and let not his fear terrify me.
Then would I speak and not fear. Neither is there any daysman
betwixt us. Daysman, a mediator. a go-between. The one who is to be my mediator
with God must be able to lay his hand upon both. That's what Job said
here. He's got to be able to lay his
hand upon both. How is somebody going to lay
their hand on God? You know who you're going to
have to be to do that? You're going to have to be God. He must not think it robbery
to be equal with God. Because only God can forgive
sin against God. You can forgive me for something
I did wrong against you. You can't forgive me for my sin
because I didn't sin against you. All sin is against God,
and only God can forgive that. Only God can satisfy God for
sin. What's God going to be satisfied
with? If all of us die for our sins, in our sins, we can't pay
for a single sin. The least sin of all of us. So
only God can satisfy sin. So he must be able to lay his
hand on God. If somebody's going to mediate
between me and God, if he's going to satisfy God concerning me,
and me concerning God, he got to lay his hand on both. He must
also be able to lay his hand upon me. He must come where I
am, because I'm not coming to God by myself. Christ died the just for the
unjust. Why? That he might bring us to God.
He's got to lay his hand upon me and bring me to God. I'm enmity against God by nature. And so he must be bone and flesh
like me because man sinned and man must pay for sin. Our high priest must be chosen
from among the people like every other high priest. And he must
have someone to offer unto God if God's going to be reconciled.
to me and me to him, like every other high priest.
But unlike them, Paul said, he can't offer the blood of bulls
and goats. That can never take away sin. But by one offering
of his own precious blood, he perfected forever those that
he sanctified by that precious blood. Hebrews 2 17 wherefore
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren
That he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people if
he's going to make reconciliation for the sins of man He's got
to be man Made like unto his brethren and
Job understood the necessity of this and only felt that because
of His suffering, and perhaps because of the burden that his
friends were to him, it seems that he felt that God was not
dealing with him through a mediator. There's no, there doesn't seem
to be a dazement between us. But later in the book of Job
in chapter 19, we just read from chapter 9, in chapter 19 it seems
like the Lord had given him some assurance. He said, I know that
my Redeemer lives. And there are times when we have
little assurance, and there are times when we have much. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
our mediator, and we know him. And it doesn't depend on me feeling
it. It's not about that. And this is my prayer tonight.
We will have to quit there, but Lord willing, we'll continue
in Psalm 139 next week. It's a blessed psalm, one of
my very favorite passages of scripture. May our Lord Jesus
Christ give us this same blessed assurance that our Redeemer lives
and that he has laid his hand upon us both. That the Lord Jesus Christ, the
darling Son of God, is our high priest. And may he give us grace to snuggle
up under that hand. and rest. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word.
Thank you, Lord, that we can come before your throne of grace
as we read and we call upon you as our Father. We read, Lord, how that you've
known us from the beginning, that you've loved us, you set
your heart upon us. You know everything about us,
Lord. You're right here with us. You keep us. You surround
us. You lay your omnipotent hand
upon us. May we see Christ in all of that.
May we see that you are In the person of your son, the one who said, I'll never
leave you. Sure enough, never has. The one who said, I'll not leave
you comfortless. I'll come to you. And how blessed
we are to have a sense that he does. Gather in your name, Lord, and
you're here in our midst. and your hand is yet upon us. May we rest in your power, in
your love, in the sin-cleansing power of your precious blood, in your perfect righteousness,
wherein we stand without blame and without spot. May we attribute all of our salvation
and all glory unto the Lamb that was slain. In His precious name
we ask. Amen. Amen. You're dismissed. We're going to call that one
easy.