the one who wrote that hymn,
a great hymn writer, and a great preacher. I think that's on his
tombstone. Rock of Ages, a clip from that. Psalm 18. Go back to Psalm 18. I am constantly examining my
preaching, as I should be, and wondering if I am doing it
the way I should be. True preaching, I am convinced
of this. gospel or biblical preaching,
the way that God's Word instructs us preachers, preaching that God uses, preaching
that God blesses, which He calls the power of God, that which
God has chosen to use. True preaching is the setting
forth the declaring of the person and the work of the Lord God. That's it. That's it. Paul said we don't use persuasible
words. We're not really trying to convince anybody of anything. We want people to believe the
truth, but it's not the preacher's power of persuasion. It's not
his oratory, his ability to speak. It's not his ability to move
the people. It is none of these things. There's
one thing that God uses. God's going to get the glory.
He's going to get all the glory. And it's his word, that's what
he uses. Preaching is not moral stories that move people,
inspiring stories of what men and women did in the scripture.
That's not it. It's not it. If there's a young
man in here who may someday be a preacher, know this for a fact. And I'm learning it by experience,
that true preaching that God uses to the salvation of human
beings and the comfort, the edification, all things. What God uses is
declaring his Son, declaring Christ, who he is, what he's
done, where he is now, what that means to us. That's it. Christ
said, If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me. Salvation. Our Lord said this.
Our Lord said it in a few words. He said, This is life eternal,
that they might know thee, the only true God. So how are people going to know
God? Well, you declare God. The preacher gets up and wants
people to know God. So what does he do? declares
God, tells us who God is, the God of the Bible. This is life
eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ. You can't know God except through
Christ. So what does a preacher do? Well,
he tells people what they ought to be and what they ought to
do. No, he declares Christ. This is life eternal. And Christ
is not only the object of our faith, but He's the example for
our everyday lives. So we declare Christ. We declare
God. To know God and to know Christ,
that's life eternal. And that's what life here is
all about. Paul said, Oh, that I might know thee. And now to
know, listen to me, to know God is more than just an acquaintance
or to know something about him. And our Lord said, this is life
eternal, they might know thee. It's more than just to know about
somebody. I know about George Bush, but
I don't know President George Bush. I've never met him. We've never conversed together.
I really don't know his mind, and he doesn't know me. We don't
know each other. Right? To know God is more than a mere
acquaintance, but it's to understand something of who he is, his mind,
his character, his ways, and to know someone, to really know
someone in the biblical sense of the word, is to love him. The first use of the word no
is when Adam knew his wife Eve. He said Adam knew his wife. The Lord presented the woman
to Adam and says he knew his wife. Does that mean, well, here
she is? Just facts about no. The two
became one. They entered into an embrace.
They knew each other. That's what, and it means to
love. It means to love. It means to love Him. To know and understand something
of who God really is. Now, everybody has a conception
of a God. The world over, people love their
God the way they think He is. But now what we're talking about
is loving, knowing something of who God really is. I mean
the God of the Old Testament, the God of the Bible, and understanding
something of His absolute sovereignty, His ways, His purpose according
to election, and loving Him as God. Loving
that He is God. Are you understanding what I'm
Trying to say, this is life eternal. The natural man doesn't love
God, Ron. The natural man doesn't love
God. He loves his consecutive God. But now the God of the Bible,
Brother Bill, the natural man doesn't love an absolute sovereign,
one who owns him and can do with him what he will. No natural
man doesn't love that kind of God, does he? Natural man wants
to be his own little God. The natural man doesn't want
anybody to reign and rule over him. The natural man doesn't
want anybody to be his judge to whom he must answer. So this is life eternal. When
God Almighty comes to a human being who's a rebel against God,
the natural mind is enmity against God, Romans 8, 7, 6. And God
in sovereign mercy and grace and love and life comes to that
rebel, that God-hating human being and says, know me, that
I'm God. There is none else. You are, aren't you? And you
can do with me as you will. Would you have mercy on me? Yes,
I have. That's why I'm revealing myself to you. That's precisely
why I'm telling you right now who I am. I've had mercy. I've
decided to have mercy upon you. Grace upon you, and here's my
salvation, and revealing His Son, and on and on. And that
person who before hated, loves that He is who He is, and
sovereignly chose Him. Oh, thank God! You understand? This is life
eternal. Now, John 17.3 is not my text,
Psalm 18 here. But David, a man after God's
own heart, oh, he loved God. Yes, he did. And right here,
he tells about his God. And that's all I want to do this
morning, is through David, is tell you what David said about
his God. And you know what he said, Lee,
about his—this is—that's my God. This is my God. Is your God staying? I know you're going to love this.
I know you are. Rocked. Right. David said in
verse 1, now, what this is all about, verse 3, he says, So shall
I be saved from mine enemies. David, oh, David was hated, pursued, persecuted, hounded
most of his life. most of his life. Had enemies
on every hand. His family, everybody. And David says, now, this is
how and why I'm saved and going to be saved. This is why. This
is who. This is who. This is who my salvation
is. This is what it's all about.
We live in a hostile world. We do. Believers who are not
of this world. Enemies on every hand. If God
be not with us, for us. But if God be for us, I mean
this, God. Who or what can be against us?
Nothing. Nancy, if God be for us, there is nothing against
us. There is nothing against us.
It's all for us. All things work together for us. Why? Because God's our God. This God's
our God. Let's get into it. You say, OK,
let's do it. All right, verse 1, David said,
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. I will love thee, O
Lord. Now, this is not pride or presumption
on the part of David. David's not saying, I've decided
to love the Lord. No, he's not saying that at all.
Not at all. But this is something that's
happened to him, the Lord who loved David first and revealed
himself to David and chose David. Why does anyone love the Lord?
What did John say? We love him because he first
loved him. God came to David one day and
revealed his love to him, and David was amazed by it, and God
shed abroad his love in David's heart—love for God and love for
God's people, God's truth, God's people. And David is not saying
this in pride or presumption, but he's just saying it from
his heart. When two people come to be married, you know, if they
come to be married, they already loved one another, didn't they?
They fell in love. They fell in love with each other,
and the marriage is the public avowal of that. The preacher
stands up and says, they take these vows, the preacher says,
do you take this woman and do you take this man, and he says,
he better say, without reservation and hesitation, he better say,
I do. Will you love her to, will you,
I will. Huh? When I said that, I mean
it. Did you mean that stat? You better
nod your head real vigorously. When the preacher said, Will
you love this woman till death do you part? I will. Yes. I love
her now. I will. This is what God has
done to a man to cause him to love God. Not natural, but God
had done it. But, Henry, it's the outpouring
of a man's heart. I will love you. Yes, I will,
by your grace. But I will. When the Lord came
to Peter, he said, Peter, do you love me? Did Peter say, well,
let me think about it. I don't act like it. Sometimes
I want... No, no, no. What'd he say? Yes, Lord. Asked him again. Do you love me? Yes, Lord. Asked
him a third time, and Peter, knowing his own heart, was grieved. Lord, why do you ask me that?
Yes, Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. That's not presumption. It's
not pride. It's just the heart. I will. I will. Why, God's great. Now,
David tells us why he loves the Lord. Tells us who it is he loves. The whole book of Song of Solomon
is about that. What is your beloved more than
others? Well, I thought you'd never ask. You know, you'd ask
somebody who's really in love with somebody, tell me why. Well,
sit down, and I'll tell you. I'll give
you, got an hour or two? Now, this is why, this is who
I love. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength, first thing. Now, notice all the way down
through here. Look at it with me. He says,
the Lord my strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my
God, my strength, again, in whom I will trust, my buckler, my
salvation, my high tower, my, my, my, my, my, my, everything. Now, notice he says that, now,
my strength, the Lord is only the strength of somebody who's
weak. You see, this God, this gospel, is only for the weak. I couldn't interest the world
in what I'm about to say this morning, that people are self-sufficient
and independent and think something of themselves that they're quite
able and so forth. This is to the weak. A God whose
strength is to the weak. A rock is for somebody that's
unstable themselves, like shifting sand. Somebody that's like, yeah,
unstable as water needs a rock. A fortress is somebody who's
defenseless, is for somebody who's defenseless. A fortress. Somebody who needs a deliverer
is somebody who's captive, right? I can see some smiles and some
interest in some people in here this morning. It must be your
God. He says, My strength. Now, He doesn't say. David says,
God who gives me strength. People all over the world say
things like this. God gives me strength. He's given
me faith, and I put my trust in Him. David says, God is my strength. There's a difference. It's all
the difference in the world, or that in what the world is
saying and what God's speaking. God is my strength. David says,
I have no strength. God is my strength, all my strength. I have no strength in my flesh,
in me. It's nothing. No mobility, no
strength at all. God is my strength. Look at Psalm
27. We're going to stay here in the
Psalms. We'll turn over a few here and
there. David, as I said a moment ago, David was hated. David was
persecuted. David was pursued by his enemies
most of his life, just like David's Lord, the son of David, hated
from the cradle to the grave, pursued And this whole psalm,
like every psalm, is a messianic psalm. Christ said these very
words. What we're looking at it now
is David speaking of Christ. Psalm 27, look at this. See if
this is your confession. Verse 1, The Lord is my light
and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? There's
much to be afraid of, isn't there? People are afraid of so many
things. Dead boats and security systems
and, you know, afraid. Well, there's much to be afraid
of. Well, David said, now, when the wicked, verse 2, even mine
enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled
and fell. Though an host should camp against
me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against
me, in this will I be confident." Verse 5, in the time of trouble,
He's going to hide me in His—in the secret of His tabernacle,
He'll hide me. He's going to set me upon rock. You see, We have no defense. We have no strength to defend
ourselves, to save ourselves against anything. The young servant
of Elijah one time walked... Here's a good illustration. Here's
a good story. The king and the enemy kings
hated Elijah, hated God's servant Elijah. And the king sent a whole
army down. to capture that one man. A whole
army, Lee, to get one man, Elijah. And Elijah had a servant boy
in the house there, and he went walking out one day to fetch
some water or something, and here came a horde of army. One man. They were out to get
one man. And that servant went and brought
him back here, and he said, Oh, Master, we're gone. What are
we going to do? What are we going to do? And
Elijah prayed, Lord, open his eyes. Open his eyes to see that
they that be for us are more than they that are against us.
He's the God of hosts. And the servant went back outside
again and looked, and he said the hills were full of angels.
He just walked back in and said, We don't have anything to be
afraid of, do we, Master? And they didn't. That army couldn't
take Elijah. They'd send a bunch of them down
to take him, and the Lord had smited them. Send another bunch
down there, and the Lord had smited them, and another bunch
smited them. Finally, the next group came and said, Listen,
we don't want to die. Will you please come with us? Elijah said, Okay. Do you understand that? I hope
you do. It will give you peace. Of whom
shall I be afraid? David said, well, I'm getting
ahead of myself. We have no strength. God is our strength. The Lord
is my rock, David said. Verse 2, The Lord is my rock. My rock. Listen to this. Let me read to you from Psalm
37. Oh, I like this. Psalm 37, David said in verse
32, he said, The wicked watches the righteous. They seek to slay
him. Verse 37, or 38, Transgressors now, they're going to be destroyed
together, all of them. The end of the wicked will be cut off.
But the salvation of the Lord is of the righteous. He is their
strength. in the time of trouble. The Lord
shall help them, deliver them. He shall deliver them from the
wicked, save them. The Lord is my rock. Look now
at verse thirty-one here in the same chapter, Psalm eighteen. Who is God save the Lord? Who
is a rock save our God? Now, the image of a rock, the
Lord uses this imagery in reference to himself quite a bit. The Lord
is called a rock throughout the scripture. And the image of a
rock, what do you think of? There's an insurance company.
What's the name of that insurance company? They use a great big
old rock. Prudential? Yeah. The Rock. They've had that for years. The
Rock. When you think of a rock, What
do you think of? I mean, I don't mean a pebble.
I mean a big, massive rock. You think of something ancient.
Been there a long time. Bald Knob here. This little town
has its name, Rocky Mount, because there's a place over behind the
high school, big old Rocky Mount. Bald Knob, they call it. How
long has that been there? I've been there long before you
were here, wasn't there? How long has it been there? It's
been there longer than any man's been on this earth. And it's still there. Rock. You're not going to move it.
Rock. Permanent. Permanent. Solid. Substantial. If you want to build
your house somewhere, okay, that rock's been there for a long
time. If you want to build your house somewhere where you think,
now, it's going to be here to stay, then I ought to buy that
off Clyde Perdue. He owns that Rocky Mountain.
Buy it and build your house up there. It's been there forever. It's going to stay there. If
you build upon that rock, you're going to stay there. Your house
is going to stand with everything that comes along. That's exactly
what our Lord uses in illustration. The wise man built his house
upon the rock. The rock, solid, substantial,
immovable, sure foundation upon which you can stand firm. You'll
not be moved yourself if you're built upon this rock. Who is
that rock? David said, My God is my rock. Unchanging, immovable. How long
has it been God? Forever. How long will it be
gone? Forever. Can anybody move it? No, sir. Change it? No, sir. The thing to do is cast yourself
on that rock. Cast yourself on that rock. This
is our rock, our Lord, the rock of ages, the sure foundation. Christ is called the believer's
foundation stone. It's there to stay. Cleft of
the rock, when old—and I could stay right here all morning on
this subject. When old Moses, when the Lord was going to reveal
himself to Moses, he said, there's a place by me. I'm going to put
you in it. Cleft of the rock. Hewn-out rock. I'm going to put you in there,
and I'm going to pass by. No man can see me and live, but
you're going to see my back part. I'm going to reveal myself to
you, my word to you, but you've got to be in that rock. You're
a sinner, an unclean thing. I'm a holy God. I'm coming by,
though. I'm going to reveal. You've got to be in that rock,
safe, or you'll be consumed by me. That rock is Christ, the
cleft of the rock, the smitten rock. When the children of Israel
needed water, dying of thirst, the Lord through Moses, smoked
the rock. That's Christ, the smitten rock.
The foundation stone, and on and on. Christ, God is our rock. My rock. Now, their rock, the
world's rock, isn't it? It's not like our rock. Their God just out there likes
to rock and roll. Literally. It's a sham, God. Small g. He moves it there. You know,
He changes. He moves. He's easily swayed. No, not in our rock. Our foundation is sure. Sure. Steady. Always been there. Always unchanging. This is our
health, our hope. Our salvation is in that our
God never changes. You know that? That's our hope.
Same God I talked about David's enemies and the danger that David
faced. We don't live in a world like
David lived in. We don't understand the dangers
that he faced. We don't understand it. We don't understand it. We really don't. We haven't been
in that sort of... I mean, daily fear, moment by moment. For your
family, your cell, everything, just in fear. Everybody out to
get you. David said, Of whom shall I be
afraid? The Lord's my rock. The Lord's
my rock. Like a ship out on the sea of
the world's troubles, cast your anchor on that rock. Look at
the next thing. The Lord is my rock and my fortress.
David, as I said, had a lot of enemies, and David was in a battle.
And this is in keeping with what we were
looking at in Ephesians. 6, is it not? The armor of God
on Wednesday night. David was always in a struggle. In ancient days, the only type of warfare that
they knew was hand-to-hand combat or cavalry on horses. But most of it was fought hand-to-hand
combat. And men and women back then knew
something of the value of a fortress, a fortress, if you could just
build a fortress to get in. If you could just build a fort
in this country, a cavalry and so forth, settlers, there were
forts that they would build, and it was their safety. It was
all their hope, but they very rarely venture outside of that
fort. And all of their confidence,
their security was in that fort. Well, David said, God is my fortress. It's not a building, it's not
a place, it's not a thing, it's a person. God is my fortress. Go turn to Psalm 90 with me. Psalm 90. A wall of defense,
a bulwark. That is, a place to hide behind,
a hiding place, a refuge. Are you with me? A place to run
for safety. A place to run for safety. David
says, The Lord is my fortress, a wall of defense. Look at Psalm
90, verse 1 and 2. He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High. Now, this is a secret to most,
this place. shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty, I will say, of the Lord. He is my refuge
and my fortress, my God. In him will I trust." Verses
5 through 9. Thou shalt not be afraid. That
is, if you have this fortress, this one to hide in, this protection. Read on. You shall not be afraid
for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by
day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for
the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall
fall at thy side, ten thousand at thy right hand, and it shall
not come nigh thee." But preacher, but David, there are people killed,
not unless God decided it. to you than he hath said." If
somebody's killed, a car didn't do it, a disease didn't
do it, God did it. The enemy didn't do it, God did
it. He said, all souls are mine.
I kill, I make alive. If God says live, you're going
to live, no matter who and what confronts you. You could tell me stories. I
can tell you stories in my past of the things that I went through. Amazing deliverances. Miraculous
things. How God spared me. I'll just tell you one. When I was 18 years old, I was
working construction for brick masons. And you know what's under
a construction site? Especially where they're laying
brick and block and so forth. You know what's under that? Broken
brick, dried concrete, all of that. I fell 65 feet. I was working up on scaffolding,
65 feet. Had two buckets of mortar, one
in each hand. And the scaffolding broke out
from under me and I fell 65 feet and landed flat on my back. And
a board, that 16-foot scaffold board, the brickmason said, hit
me right in the head. He saw it. Here I am. That's just one story. Just one story. I never told you that happened.
If God be for us, who can be against us? Satan came to God about Job,
and he said he wanted to get him, but he couldn't touch him.
He couldn't touch him. Satan's mad. He said, You put
a hedge about him. That's right. That's exactly
right. That's the way it is with every
one of God's people, no matter where they are. In the most dangerous
parts of this world, or the safest, God headsets them about. And when it comes their time,
if they're in the safest place on earth, give them up a heart
attack. Or whatever. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. That'll give you
peace. That'll give you rest. Submission. Submission. Well, go back to
the text. The Lord is my fortress, my hiding
place. All are safe in Him. When the
overflowing scourge of God's wrath comes by, it'll not come
nigh God's people, because Christ is their refuge. They've made
the Lord their refuge. He is my deliverer. A deliverer
is someone who goes and saves somebody that's a captive. You know, everybody's familiar
with that Jessica Lynch, is that her name, that was captured.
And I'm not being hard or calloused about this and all, but they
made a hero out of her. And she was just lying in a hospital,
a captive. I tell you who the heroes are,
the ones that risked their life to go get her. That's kind of
like Armenian theology. That's kind of like modern man,
his religion, you know. They make over a man who's supposed
to be lost and dead and all this, a rebel. And accepting the Savior,
accepting a deliverer, like man did some great thing, allowing...
I'll tell you who the hero is. I'll tell you who the one worth
lauding and praising is, who ought to get all the glory. The
one that did the deliverance. The one that laid down his life. God's people know that. That's
who's getting the glory. Yeah, Him, their Deliverer. Lord
is my Deliverer. Christ is my Deliverer. Oh boy,
I wanted you to turn to Hebrews 2, but I'll just quote it, paraphrase
it. It says, Who delivered them who
all their life were subject to the fear of death, because He
became them. He died that they might live.
Their Deliverer. To deliver them from the curse
of the law, to deliver them from the fear of death, to deliver
them from sin. He is their Deliverer. Read on.
The Lord is my God, my God, in the fullest sense of the word. He is my God, David said, my
absolute Sovereign, not just in theory, but actually the One
who reigns and rules. who wills, who purposes, who
controls, who does all of these things, who raises up, who casts
down, who gives, who takes away. My God, the God who is God, is
my God. How about you? My God just doesn't
want to be my God. Thank God. My God is God. My God. He is my God. I didn't make Him my God. He
made me His servant. That's my God. Pharaoh said of
Moses' God, he said, Moses' God is God. Pharaoh, when he knew
that nothing and nobody in the whole world could not withstand
or thwart God's absolute purpose and will concerning his people,
Pharaoh finally said, now Moses' God is God. Darius, when he saw
that Daniel was delivered from the lions there, no matter what
he tried to do to Daniel, God's, he said, Daniel's God is God. He came to the conclusion, this
little God that all of us have been worshiping around here,
he can't deliver a fleet. But he said, no, Daniel's God
is God. Old Nebuchadnezzar, when he came
to the fiery furnace, had thrown Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
in the fiery furnace, all three of them. And the fellows that
threw them in were consumed by the furnace. Old Nebuchadnezzar was walking
by us. He says he was astonished. He said, I see four men in furnace. Four! Didn't we throw three in
there? Yeah, we did. I see four. He said, one of them
looks like the Son of Man. He said, come out of there, Shadrach. And they came out, and not one
hair of their head was singed. Their clothing was perfect. Not
even the smell of smoke on them. And old Nebuchadnezzar said,
he ended up saying, their God is God. And I make a decree from here
on out, we're going to worship this God, the God who's able
to deliver after this sort. A God who doesn't try to save,
but a God who does save. Thomas said, My Lord and my God. Yeah, the Jesus Christ. My Jesus
Christ is God. God. My God. Read on. He says, He's my God. He's my strength. Well, you already
said that, David. Yes, I did, didn't I? The word,
John, you probably read it in the margin, is my rock. Well,
David, you already said that. You already said, yeah, but you
must not mean a rock if you think I'm just refuting myself. It
must not mean anything to you. David says, I've been out on
the ocean. Have you been out on the ocean?
I've been out on the ocean. I was out there for ten days
one time, 150 miles out to sea, and we got caught in a storm. And if you've never been out
on the ocean like that, you don't understand the power of the ocean.
I mean, the greatest titanic. It doesn't matter. Bill was telling
us last night about World War II, three destroyers. A typhoon
came up. Destroyers, that's one of the
biggest, most powerful, impregnable, so to speak, ships on the water. Destroyer, you know. A picture
of strength. God sent away. three of us just
feel said that way and they were gone. I didn't come up for air. But if we came in the act, we've
been out a few days been in us waves. You know, I haven't been
out of the water bill. And I thought there were five
foot six foot waves that I thought there's 50 foot typhoon waves.
I thought this is all over. The captain wasn't worried a
bit, Lee. He'd been through more than that, you know. I was worried.
When we got back, when we pulled into the harbor and cast our
anchor on that rock, tied her down, I got out of that boat,
and I was like the Pope. I kissed the ground. And you can't get me back on
that. Ah, rock. You'd appreciate a
rock if you'd ever been out on a tossing ocean. Rock. So David says it again. He's my rock. My rock, in whom
I will trust. In whom I will trust. Now, folks,
this is not idle talk or presumption. And every believer in here, if
you're a believer, if you're a child of God, is going to learn to absolutely
100% trust the Lord. Every believer does believe.
Yeah, they do. But now there are young believers.
There are those who haven't been through much. But in the course
of time, every believer, like that boat, is going to be tried.
Those that go down into the sea, do business in deep waters, the
Scripture says. You're going to go through trials,
tribulations, afflictions. There's only one thing that's
going to give you this absolute trust. I want that experience. You're going to learn to trust
the Lord. You're going to say, David. David said, I've been
young, I'm now old. I trust the Lord. You don't learn that overnight.
You don't have that immediately. When you go through many storms, Then you learn, fine. You know, God, everything God
says is true. It sort of means something to
some of you. Eventually, you learn, you know,
everything God said is absolutely so. He said, trust me. I didn't. I was worried. It's
so. Everything He said was so. I will trust you. I will trust
you. Learn to trust. Trust takes a
while to build up, doesn't it? Learn. Well, our Lord is to be trusted. He's my buckler. That means shield. My shield, oh boy, I'm out of
time. Again, this is symbolism back
there when there was hand-to-hand combat and a man knew the value
of a good shield, a breastplate. They were going to be looking
at that. A helmet and a shield, though, above all,
because, you know, they had big shields. They had little shields
according to where they were and so forth. Arrows flying down,
swords, spears, shield. David says, the Lord is my shield. I have no natural defense, no
natural protection. in and of myself, but the Lord
is my shield. He shields me. He shields me. I love the story, Gabe, where
they came to take the Lord in the garden. They came to take
the Lord in the garden. He went out. Here are the disciples. They're all sitting around or
laying around sleeping, not the Lord, because He that keepeth
Israel shall never slumber or sleep. And the Lord, in the middle
of the night, here came the enemy, and the Lord walked out and met
them. whole band up with swords and staves. The Lord walked out
and said, Who are you looking for? He said, If you seek me, you
let them go. Now, that's just not the way
the Roman army did things. Oh, no, no, no, no. If you're
in on it, we're taking you all. No, Stephen, the Lord said, If
you seek me, If you're going to take me, they've got to go. You can't have them. One or the
other. That's my salvation, Stan. John,
that's my salvation. And yours? When the law comes
seeking me, justice against me, the Lord is my shield. He's standing.
It's either me or them. You take me. If your wrath and
justice falls on me, you've got to let them go. You can't have
them if you have me. The Lord is my shield, David
said. My buckler. The very sound of the word sounds buckler. My shield. My horn of
salvation. I've got to quit. The horn of
salvation. You know, every clean animal in the Scripture. Every
clean animal. Every clean animal, those that
part the hoof and chew the cud, has horns. Think about it. Horns. Stop and
think about it. I did. I spent about an hour
naming clean animals. Part the hoof. Say sheep does. A ram does. A male sheep does. Oh, yes, sir. A horn. A horn. That horn is something
that wards off the enemy. That's their only protection. The Lord is my horn of salvation. I want a protection, a helmet
of my salvation, a horn of defense. The Lord is my high tower, a
high tower. Back then, the lookout would
go up in a high tower and look out and see the enemy approaching.
Nothing's going to take me by surprise. If I'm in Christ, I
see clearly. I can see clearly, I can see
it far off in Christ. Can't you see the enemy approaching
my high tower? Verse 3, I will call upon the
Lord. So for this reason, all my health,
all my defense, my salvation is in a person. So that's who
I'm going to call on. David said, I'm going to call
upon the Lord. He's worthy to be praised. And so shall I be
saved. How, David? The Lord is my salvation. Not, I'm going to keep on keeping
on. No, I'm going to pray through.
Mama prayed me through. I'm going to gather my strength. The Lord's
going to give me strength. No, no, no. David says the Lord
is my salvation. That's how I'm going to be saved.
for my enemy. The Lord has given commandment
to sin. All right, I'd like to keep going.
Let's go another way. All right, we're going to sing
272, Solemn, Solid Rock. 272, right? We've sung this so
many times, maybe you'll sing it now with some understanding. My hope is built on nothing less
than a solid rock. Let's stand. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus'
blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
prayer, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On priceless solid rock I stand
And all other ground is sinking sand And all other ground is
sinking sand When darkness veils his lovely
face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale, I anchor homeward with a glance of ale. On Christ's
solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. And third is the last. His oath
is common and his blood, support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, he made his all my hope and stay. All other ground is
sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.