Turn with me, if you would, to
Psalm 27. I was talking with some brethren
last night, and we were talking about the Lord's dealings with
us. And I told them I don't know
exactly when the Lord quickened me. We say saved me. Talk about when the Lord saved
us from before the foundation of the world in His will and
purpose and in His election. And then He saved us when Christ
suffered for our sins on the cross of Calvary. And then in
time, He sends a gospel preacher to us And He opens our eyes and
our ears, and He gives us life, and He quickens us, and He saves
us. And right now, all of us are waiting for Him to come save
us. But I do not know when the Lord quickened me and called
me, and here's the reason why. I did not grow up under false
religion. My father preached, my father
was in false religion, but the Lord revealed the truth to him
before I could understand what I was listening to. And I grew
up believing in total depravity, unconditional election, limited
atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints.
I just always believed that. I never had a moment where I
went from one doctrinal position to another doctrinal position.
Some people have that and they know. The Lord opened my eyes. Well, I didn't have that. And
I can tell you this, though. There was a particular moment
in my life when I went from believing Calvinism to needing Christ. And I'll tell
you when that moment was. And again, I don't know when
the Lord saved me. It was over the span of 20, somewhere
over 20 years. But a little over 20 years ago,
the Lord in His good providence and His kindness and His perfection
and His sovereignty in doing everything well, He gave my mother
cancer and called her home. From the time she found out,
it was 11 months, we were a young family. And in that span of time, those
11 months, as she went to those treatments and we'd wait on the
news and then the Lord called her and that time thereafter,
I'm telling you, I went from knowing Calvinism to needing
Christ. I needed that man. I needed Jesus
Christ. And I started reading the Scripture
for the first time. And I read Psalm 27 for the first
time. I'd heard it, heard it. But I'm
telling you, the words on the pages, it just came alive. They just stood on top of the
pages. I'll never forget reading Psalm
27 and the Lord just flooding my soul, just comforting my soul. I read this Psalm over and over
and over. This is a very special Psalm
to me. Every word in the scripture is
special. There's not one word more special than another word,
but this is a very special Psalm to me. The Lord greatly comforts
my heart with this And I pray the Lord will comfort your heart
with this psalm today. I really pray the Lord will speak
to us and help us and comfort us today. I'd like to focus on
one verse from this psalm. It's verse 14. It says, wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine
heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. That is experience talking. You were just talking about that.
That's experience talking. That is a blessing. That is comfort. That is strength. That is encouragement. That's a word from a child of
God who has had that proven to him. And this is what he says. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage. And he shall strengthen thine
heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Waiting on
the Lord is the most hopeful thing that a child of God can
do. It's the most difficult thing
that the flesh of a child of God can do. But it's the most
hopeful thing that the spirit of a child of God can do. And
it's because God's people have been caused, truly caused, to
know and believe Those two words right in the middle of the verse. He shall. He shall. He has. And he shall. Isn't that comforting? Isn't it so comforting? That
was the announcement of the Old Testament concerning our Lord's
coming to save His people. So confident. So confident. Call His name Jesus, for He shall. He shall save His people from
their sins. Look with me at verse 5 right
here. It says, For in the time of trouble,
He shall hide me in His pavilion." Where was our greatest time of
trouble? It's the moment we stood for
a child of God. It's the moment we stood, that's
past tense. It's the moment we stood before
His judgment throne in all of our sin as He looked on us. in the person of our substitute,
in our Savior. When God the Father looked at
Christ, He was looking at all of the sin of His people, everything
we had committed. That was our time of trouble.
We were in trouble. And you know what our Savior
did? He hid us in the secret of His own pavilion, in His tabernacle. He stood there. In the time of trouble, He shall
hide me, He shall. every trouble thereafter, every
time. He'll hide me in his pavilion,
in the secret of his tabernacle, shall he, he shall hide me. He shall set me upon a rock. He shall. Who shall do that? Verse one, David said, the Lord
shall. The Lord shall. Isaiah 42 says, he shall bring
forth judgment to the Gentiles. Aren't we so glad for that? And he shall not fail. God the Father said, let me tell
you what he shall do, and then I'll tell you what he shall not
do. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles, and He shall not fail. Isaiah 53 says, He shall grow
up before Him as a root out of dry ground, in order for the
Father to lay on Him the iniquity of all of His people. And it
says, he shall see the travail of his soul. The travail of Christ's
soul. Think about that. Can you enter
into God the Father looking at God the Son and the Lord Jesus
Christ standing there in all of that judgment and all of that
condemnation, all of that punishment, all of that wrath, looking at
and watching the travail of Christ's soul. in being satisfied. That's all
the wrath that's needed. That's all the punishment that's
needed right there. That's all the suffering, all the anguish
that has to happen, that's plenty. He shall see the travail of his
soul, and the Father shall be satisfied. Jeremiah 23 says,
He shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Man, that's good
news. The angel announced to Mary in
Luke chapter 1, He shall be great, and He shall be called the Son
of the Highest. And he shall reign over the house
of Jacob. That means the sinner, the trickster,
the supplanter. And of his kingdom there shall
be no end. I love that. I love that. We're never going to have to
vote on a new king. Never. We have a good one. And He's going to reign forever.
Just wait on the Lord. Just wait on the Lord. He shall. Moses told the children of Israel
just before God parted the sea for them. God had not parted
the sea yet. And they just didn't know. And
they're worried. Wouldn't you like to have seen
God part the sea? You know, we have, we just can't
see the Lord's hand in everything He does for us. He parts the
seas for us. But this is what Moses said.
He said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. The
Lord shall fight for you. Do you see the army? Do you see
the chariots? Do you see the weapons? The Lord
shall fight for you. And you shall hold your peace.
You won't have to say anything. Just wait on the Lord. All you
have to do is wait on the Lord. Isn't that so wonderful? That's
just so pleasant. That is so pleasant. Just wait
on the Lord. What do we do? Wait on the Lord. Just wait on the Lord. Whether
we're talking about the eternal things of salvation or the temporary
things in this life that we live on earth. Our strength. You know, David said, when I'm
weak, I'm strong. We think I got to be strong here.
No, we need to be weak here. Wait on the Lord. Our strength
and our encouragement is in Waiting on the Lord. Look to the Lord.
Look to the Lamb of God. He alone is able to save you. And He shall. He shall. Eternally. Temporally. He shall. Verse 14
says, Wait on the Lord. And then there's a colon after
that, Wait on the Lord. And then there's another colon
after be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart.
It's like those colons divide this verse into three parts.
The first part emphasizes the Lord. Three parts to this, David
said. First one is wait on the Lord. The second one emphasizes he.
Be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart. And the
third part emphasizes the Lord again. Wait, I say on the Lord.
The Lord, He, the Lord, He's the object, He's the doer, He's
the prize. Wait on the Lord. He'll do it. Wait on the Lord. He'll give
you courage and strength, and He'll do that by being your courage
and being your strength. The Lord is our courage, and
the Lord is our strength. He'll do that. He shall do that. If God gives us the ability to
wait on Him and to truly look to Him, it means we belong to
Him. With man, that's impossible.
No man or woman can wait on the Lord and look to the Lord or
come to the Lord. No man can come to Him except
the Father which sent Him draw a man or a woman. We can't do
anything. If we're given the ability to
wait on Him and to truly trust Him and look to Him, we belong
to Him. God only gives that ability to
His people. And if we are His people, then
He shall, in our looking and in our waiting, supply our every
need. He shall. Turn with me, if you
would, to Numbers chapter 6. Numbers 6. Verse 24 says, The Lord bless thee, and keep
thee, The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious
unto thee. The Lord lift up His countenance
upon thee, and give thee peace. That is a prayer from someone
to someone. That's a desire for a particular
people. Who is praying that prayer? Who
said that? Verse 22 says, the Lord said
it. The Lord is the one praying this
prayer. I love this. Had any other man said that,
we'd think, how do you know? The Lord said it. Verse 22, The
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his
sons, saying, On this wise shall you bless the children of Israel,
saying unto them. He said, I want you to tell my
people this. The Lord is going to bless you. He said, I want you to say this,
you tell Aaron and their sons, thus saith the Lord. This is
directly from the Lord. The Lord is going to keep you. If He put you in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and if He's given you that ability to look to Him and
wait on Him, trust Him and not yourself. then you tell them the Lord is
going to make His face shine on you. The Lord is going to
be gracious to you. The Lord is going to lift up
His countenance on you. And the Lord is going to give
you peace. He's going to. Wait on the Lord. How is He going to do that? Where
is He going to do that? In Christ. In the Lord Jesus
Christ. Are you looking for these things? Are you looking for the promises? How do I lay hold of the promise?
Where do I find the promise? In Christ. In the Lord Jesus
Christ. Ephesians 1, 3 says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, In Christ. In Christ. It's all in Christ. It's all in Christ. We have a brother in Kingsport. Who I love so much. I just love
this man so much he. He's about 70 years old. He started coming four or five
years ago. And. He's just the happiest man. He
just comes in smiling and laughing. And he just loves the Lord's
people and loves the gospel and loves being there. And when he
hugs you, you better brace yourself because this man is about to
hug you. And his name is Danny. And he'll come up. Danny is a
car guy. He's always showing up with a
new car. He's always trading cars. He likes motorcycles. He's
a car guy. And I'm not a car guy. I have a car and I'm thankful
for it and I like it. But anyway, Danny will come up
and he'll, you know, he'll reach up and he'll grab me and he'll
just shake me, you know, just laughing, smiling. And he's always
telling me, you're a one owner. That's what he tells me. You're
a one owner to a car guy. I think that's a good thing. I hope, anyway, I hope that means
I like you, you know, because that's what he's always telling
me. You're a one-owner. You're just a one-owner. He tells me
that all the time, still. You're a one-owner. And the Lord, he started coming
four or five years ago, and the Lord started revealing these
things to him, and this has been a while back as the Lord was
opening these things up, but one Sunday night, About ten minutes
before the service started, not everybody was there, people were
talking, I was putting my Bible on the pulpit. Danny came up
to me and he's always happy and joking and all that until we
start talking about the gospel. Until we talk about salvation
and eternity and sin and those kinds of things. Very serious.
He came up to me and he said, he said, the scripture says we're
all bad, aren't we? And I said, Outside of Christ
we are. And he said, outside of Christ
we are. Outside of Christ we are. Serious
as a heart attack, he looked at me and said, in Christ, we're
all one owners. I said, yeah brother, in Christ. We're all one owners. One owners. In John 17, our Lord said, Father,
all that you've given to me, I've kept them. One owner. I've kept them in me. They're
in me. I'm in you. They're never going
to be taken out. Kept by the power of God, one
owner. That's the gospel according to
Danny King. In Christ, you're all one owners. 2 Corinthians 4, 6 says, God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God. Where? In the face of Jesus Christ.
You want to see God? Look at the Lord Jesus Christ.
John 1.17 says the law was given by Moses but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. Acts 15.11 says we believe that
through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved.
Romans 3.24 says being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Psalm 42.5 says, I shall yet
praise Him for the help of His countenance. He is the health
of my countenance and my God. It's all in Him. It is all in
Him. Ephesians 2 says, He is our peace
because He's the one who broke down the middle wall of partition
in His own body on the tree. So making peace. Verse 24 right here says, The
Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make His face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up His countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. He will do it. He will do it. He shall. Just wait on the Lord. Just wait on the Lord. Be of
good courage. He'll strengthen your heart.
If we need salvation, Wait on the Lord. Look to the Lord. If we need provision, wait on
the Lord. If we need direction, wait on
the Lord. If we need comfort, if we need
hope, if we need strength to make it through one more day,
wait on the Lord. Look to the Lord. He's going to. He's going to
strengthen you. He's going to bless you. He's
going to keep you. He's going to make His face shine
on you. He's going to be gracious to
you. Oh, He's going to be so gracious. He's going to lift up His countenance
on you and He's going to give you peace. In Christ, you shall have peace. In Christ, you shall have peace. Outside of Christ, they can cry
peace all they want to, but there's no peace. But in Christ, you
shall have peace. Wait on the Lord. Again, how do you know? How do
you know? How can you say that so confidently?
It's because He said it, not me. He said it. If He says He
shall, He shall. Go with me back to Psalm 27,
I'll be brief here. If we wait on the Lord, if God
gives us the ability to look to the Lord and wait for His
encouragement and His strength, then this will be the end of
our waiting, okay? the encouragement and strength
that comes to us. This is what we'll realize. Verse
1 says, the Lord is my light. We find ourselves in darkness.
I feel like I'm in darkness. The Lord is my light. And my
salvation. The Lord is my salvation. I'm
not my salvation. My decision's not my salvation.
The Lord's my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to
eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though when hosts should
encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident. You think about on
the day of judgment. Who can lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? Who could even accuse God's elect
of sin? It's Christ that died. You think about the host of accusations
that could be brought up against us. David said, I'm confident. Verse 4, one thing have I desired
of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty
of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. No matter what happens
on this earth, I want one end. This is all we want, this one
end. We want to dwell in the house
of the Lord to look at Him and behold His beauty. Verse 5 says,
For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion,
in the secret of His tabernacle. Shall He hide me, He shall set
me up on Christ. And now shall mine head, who
is our head, That's Christ. Now shall my head, Christ, be
lifted up above mine enemies. Round about me, therefore, will
I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, I'll sing
praises unto the Lord. Let me just give you a couple
of scriptures here to think on and then I'll close. Go with
me to Lamentations 3. Lamentations 3, verse 21. This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. How unfaithful we are. How unfaithful
we are. Thank God. He is faithful. Verse 24 says the Lord is my
portion. That means I get him. The father said to the son, if
you ask of me, I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance.
He got us. We get him. The Lord is my portion,
saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him. Now watch verse
25. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for him. To the soul that seeketh him.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait. for the salvation of the Lord.
May God give us the ability to do that. David said, wait on
the Lord. Just keep looking. Just keep
looking. We say, Lord, turn our eyes to
You and they'll be turned and we will look. Keep us right there. David said, wait on the Lord.
And then he said, wait, I say, on the Lord. That means keep
on waiting. Look to Him. and then look some
more. Hope in Him and then hope some
more. Wait on Him and wait on Him and
wait on Him and wait on Him. It's good for a man or a woman
to do that. The Lord is good to those who
have been caused to do that. And here's the reason why. Turn
to one more and I'll be done. It's good if a man or a woman
is caused to do that. It's so good. This is the reason
why. Isaiah 30. This was quoted last night. Isaiah
30, verse 18. It says, And therefore will the
Lord wait. Didn't you enjoy thinking about
Him sitting under that oak tree? Man, I enjoyed that so much.
I'm stealing that from you. Therefore will the Lord wait. Why? That He may be gracious
unto you. And therefore will He be exalted
that he may have mercy upon you." Moses said, the law, Moses represents
the law, said, show me your glory. He said, here it is. I'll have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy. Justly, you'll be satisfied.
The law will be satisfied. He'll have mercy upon you. He'll
be exalted that he may have mercy upon you for the Lord is a God
of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait
for him. For the people shall dwell in
Zion at Jerusalem. Thou shalt weep no more. He will be very gracious unto
thee at the voice of thy cry." He said, just cry. He'll be very
gracious. When he shall hear it, he will
answer thee. Isn't that so comforting? So encouraging. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. He'll strengthen
your heart. Wait, David says. Wait, the Lord
God says. Wait on the Lord, Christ Jesus
the Lord, our Savior and our God. May all of us be caused
to do that. Look to the Lord. Come to the
Lord.