We are very thankful for our
Lord's mercy and his faithfulness to keep us. He said, I'll never
leave, you know, forsake you. And it's it's by his grace that
we are kept. And the more we grow in his grace,
the more we see our need for it. The more we see of our sin
and the more we see of our need for God to keep us, Lord, don't,
don't leave me to myself. Don't let me go. And I'm so thankful
that for these 27 years he hasn't, he hasn't left us. Psalm 115
verse one says, not unto us. Oh Lord, not unto us, but unto
thy name. Give glory for thy mercy and
for thy truth's sake. Hope you will stay for lunch
after service this morning if you didn't know about it or forgot
about it. Always plenty of food. Tom's going to come and lead
us in number 36, 37, 37. How great thou art. Let's stand
together. Just verses one, three, and four. We'll skip through verse two. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the works Thy hands have made, I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe
displayed Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee How great
Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. ? That on the cross my burden
gladly bearing ? He bled and died to take away my sin ? Then
sings my soul my Savior God to thee ? How great thou art How
great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! ? When Christ shall come with
shout of acclamation ? And take me home what joy shall fill my
heart ? Then I shall bow in humble adoration ? And there proclaim
my God how great thou art Then sings my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my
soul, my Savior God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Please be seated. Good morning. If you will, open
with me to Psalm 130. We're going to start from the
beginning and do the whole chapter. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou,
Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand? But
there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. I
wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than
they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Dear Lord, we thank you for bringing
us together today. We thank you, Lord, for the message
that we heard in the first hour, and Lord, that the second message
be spoken to our hearts. We pray for Greg and that you
give him the words to preach and that you give us the ears
to hear. We pray for all those in our congregation which are
poor and needy. And Lord, that we always look
towards you. In your most holy and perfect name we pray, amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin, on the back
of your bulletin. Thy works not mine, O Christ,
speak gladness to this heart. They tell me all the work is
done, they bid my fear depart. Thy cross, not mine, O Christ,
has borne the awful load of sins that no one else could bear but
our incarnate God. Thy death not mine, O Christ,
has paid the ransom due. Ten thousand thousand deaths
like mine would have been all too few. Thy righteousness, O
Christ, alone can cover me. No righteousness can satisfy,
save that which is of Thee. Please be seated. No righteousness can satisfy
but that which is of thee. Our righteousnesses. And I love
the way the, you know, we would normally put an ES on the end
of righteousness because that's kind of plural already, but the
scripture calls it righteousnesses. All the righteousnesses of man
are as filthy rags. The Lord didn't want to leave
any doubt in our minds as if there was anything at all that
we did that was righteous in his sight. All of our righteousnesses. I'm thankful that we have a righteousness
in Christ that's acceptable to God. I write these things unto you,
little children, that you sin not, but if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. Let's open our Bibles to 1 Samuel
17 again. 1 Samuel 17. I've already given a preface
to this chapter this morning and also last Sunday so we will
not do that again but just to say that David in this story
is a picture of Christ and Goliath is a picture of all the enemies
of God's people, their sin their flesh, this world, Satan, and
death itself. And how David went up against Goliath is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ defeating our enemy for us. And what we're
going to see this hour is the reason why Christ did
it. The reason why he did it. And we find that in verse 29. Let's begin at verse 28. And
Eliab, his eldest brother, David, has now gone to the battlefield
and he's heard what Saul has promised to anyone that kills
Goliath. And And David responds by saying, who is this uncircumcised
Philistine? Why don't somebody go up against
him? I'll do it. David said, I'll
do it. And I'll say again, Goliath never
had a chance. He never had a chance against
David. And that's not to David's glory,
that's to God's glory. All the enemies of God never
had a chance against Christ. And Eliab, his eldest brother,
heard when he spoke unto the men, and Eliab's anger was kindled
against David. Reminds us of the Pharisees,
doesn't it? Doesn't want somebody else, doesn't want the younger
brother to get all the glory. So Eliab is angry toward David
for being so proud in thinking that he's gonna be able to take
on Goliath. And he said, why comest thou down hither? And
with whom has thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?
He's mocking David. He said, we left you at home
with a few scraggly sheep. Why don't you just go back home
and take care of them? Thanks for bringing the food. You can
leave now. I know thy pride and the naughtiness
of thine heart. For thou art come down that thou
might see the battle. You just wanted to see some blood
and gore. That's why you're here. And David said, what have I done? And here's the title of the message.
Is there not a cause? Is there not a cause? Is this not, is there not a reason
for this? Now in this question, we find
the answer as to why the Lord Jesus Christ left his rightful
place in glory and was born of a woman, born under the law,
was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. and was counted by the
world as off scouring. He suffered the contradiction, the
scripture says, of sinners. Men mocked him because like Eliab
mocking David. Who are you? What are you doing
down here? We're fighting this battle. No, you're not. No, you're not. But I'll fight it and I'll win. And this uncircumcised Philistine
will be nothing up against me." And we find the answer as to
why the Lord Jesus did that. Why he set his face like a flint
toward Jerusalem. Why he lived his life for that
hour in which he would go to Calvary's cross and bear the
sins of his people and suffer the full wrath of God's justice
and put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself. Why did
he do it? Because there was a cause. There was a cause. There was
a reason. There was a purpose in what he
did. And this passage of scripture
tells us what that purpose was, but I want to, by way of introduction,
ask you, do you have a purpose? Do you have a cause? Life without
a cause has no meaning. It's empty. It's pointless. Men take up causes to make them
feel like they have a purpose, and some of those causes are
noble, and some of them not so noble. For most, for most people,
the cause of their life is survival, just carve me out a little niche
in this world, work day by day to provide a
life of ease and comfort, try to achieve a little bit of happiness. But for those who are able, by
God's grace, because most are not able, to see beyond the end
of their nose, Most people can't see beyond the end of their nose.
Those who are able by God's grace to think a little bit deeper
than their own shallow feelings know that all the causes that
this world has to offer are vanity. They may be noble in a temporal
sense There are a lot of noble causes, but when it comes to meeting
the needs of an immortal soul, when it comes to meeting the
needs of a man who's made in the image of God, all of those
causes that men live for are as Solomon saw. How does Solomon
begin? Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanity,
and Solomon had tried it all. Oh, he cast his life into wealth,
into wisdom, and into women. And his conclusion after all
was, it's all vanity, it's all empty. It's not really a cause
worth living for. There is a cause, there is a
cause that is as eternal as your soul. A cause that will go beyond
the shallow vanities of this life and this world. One worth
dying for. More importantly, one worth living
for. One that will leave you not wanting
a greater cause. You know, men of this world,
they're all looking for a bigger cause, you know, something a little
bit more. You know, I've gotten tired of
this cause. This cause hasn't fulfilled what I thought it was
going to do. Let me find something better to do. Let me find something
bigger to achieve. And always looking for a bigger
and better cause. This cause will not leave you
wanting. It will not leave you doubting
the purpose of your life. It will satisfy all the likenesses of God that
he has put in your heart. A cause that will be worthy of
every ounce of your being. A cause that very few people know
anything about. And they're not really interested
in this cause because there's no glory for the one who holds
this cause to himself. If the Lord enables us to see
beyond the end of our nose and think deeper than our superficial
feelings, we'll discover very soon that the cause for which
he's called us gives to him all the glory. It doesn't promote the flesh.
It doesn't call attention to the man who holds this cause.
It doesn't give him a high esteem in the world. No, if you hold
to this cause, you'll find yourself to be the off-scouring of this
world. You'll find yourself to be the oddball of this world. You'll find the Eliabs of this
world. rebuking you and making fun of
you and telling you to go back to your
few sheep. That's what they would say to
me. You know, I've been in big religion and I know what they
think and I know what they say. Why don't you go back to your few
little sheep? You're not. You're not wanted
here. Well, that's fine. That's fine. God has given me a cause among
his people. That's a worthy cause. It's a
worthy cause to die for. It's a worthy cause to live for.
It's a cause that wakes me up every day and enables me to lie
down at night. It's a cause that's worth fighting. This cause will strip you of
your rights and make you the servant of another. This cause will cause you to
see that your only approval will not come from men, it'll come
from God. And the only one that's gonna
protect you in pursuing this cause and provide for you in
this cause will be God. The Lord said, let your light
so shine before men that they may see your good works. Don't stop there. That's where
the self-righteous stop. That's where the man who's looking
for attention to himself stops. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
which is in heaven. You're not gonna get any glory
for it. You get glory for it, it's not good work. You see, when a good work is
performed by God's people and by God's grace, it diverts all
glory to him. That's the cause. That's the
cause. What was David so concerned about
in this story? Well, look at verse 36. Look at verse 36. David is now
speaking to Goliath. David now, I'm sorry, speaking
to Saul in verse 36. Thy servant slew both the lion
and the bear. And we saw last Sunday what that
represents. The lion who roars about seeking whom he may devour
is Satan himself. And the Lord Jesus Christ destroyed
the works of the devil on Calvary's cross. He defeated the enemy
on Calvary's cross. And here's the problem. Amos
speaks of it. Mark, you gave me a tape recently.
I listened to it this week. A man has escaped a lion only
to run into a bear. Now there's a picture of a man
who prides himself in his good works because of the things of
the devil which he's restrained in his life. Well I don't do
this and I don't do that. And he's so proud of his straight-laced
life and wants everybody to see it. and glories in it only to run into a bear. And what is that bear a picture
of? The law of God. The law of God is the bear and
the law of God requires absolute perfection. The law of God doesn't, God doesn't
grade on a curve. His law requires absolute perfection. Every letter of the law must
be kept perfectly and not just in outward deeds that are seen
by men, but they must be kept perfectly in the heart. Now,
what law have you ever kept in your heart? The man that's gonna live by
the law has gotta live by it perfectly. The Lord Jesus Christ, the only
one that slew the lion and slew the bear. He kept God's law in
heart, in spirit, in word, in deed. He loved the Lord God with
all of his heart and all of his soul and all of his mind all
of the time. He slew the bear. Oh, don't run
from the lion only to be taken by a bear. Thy servant slew both the lion
and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of
them, seeing that he has defied the armies of the living God. Now there's the cause. There's
the cause. David said, that man has profaned
our God. He has defied the armies of the
living God. Now look over in chapter, same
chapter, verse 46. Now David's speaking to Goliath. This day, will the Lord deliver
thee in my hand and I will smite thee and take thy head from thee
and I will give the carcass of the host of the Philistines this
day unto the fowls of the air and to the wild beast of the
earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel
and that all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not
with sword nor with spear for the battle is the Lord's and
he will give you into our hands. What was David fighting for?
What was David's cause? What was Christ's cause? The
glory of his father. The honor, the reputation, The
name of his God was being blasphemed in this world. And he came with
the cause of upholding the glory of God. Now that's the only cause
brethren that will be worth living for. The only cause. Any lesser cause that you have
or that I have to live for will prove itself to be empty. But there is a cause. There is
a cause and Christ took it up and he got the victory in that
cause. He glorified his father. Turn with me to John chapter
12. John chapter 12. You know, the older we get, the less motivated we are to
look for a cause. and the more likely we are to
settle in to the satisfaction of just daily comforts. One thing I've noticed, young
people are looking for a cause. They are. I hope all folks will
too. But I know young people are looking
for a cause. What is this life about? What is my life about?
What is this world all about? What is it that's worth living
for? What is it that's worth dying for? Is there a cause bigger
than me? Is there a cause bigger than
the world? Is there a cause bigger than what everybody else is pursuing?
Yes, there is, young people. And the cause is the glory of
God. It's God's glory, and any cause you settle for that's less
than that is gonna leave you wanting. I don't know how more clear to
make it than that. But what the world is offering
you as a cause is empty promises. This is the cause that will cost
you everything, and yet it'll cost you nothing. You know, I was talking to a
preacher friend of mine this week, and I said, well, you know,
he would say, we were talking about when religion takes on
to be like the world, they never do it as well as the world does
it. You know, they try to put on
a rock concert. Well, it's nothing compared to
what the world has to offer. You know, they come up with a
cheap counterfeit. And I said, well, they make it
free. And I said, yeah, and you get
what you pay for. You know, you get what you pay for. And that's
so true in a lot of life, isn't it? Not in the gospel. You get everything. You didn't
pay nothing for it. The Lord Jesus Christ paid it
all. And yet the flip side to that coin, It costs you everything. The same preacher friend many
years ago was talking about a very popular, wealthy preacher that
I knew. And when the Lord called me out
of religion, I had an opportunity to talk to this man. And he looked
at me and he said, I wish I could do that. And I told my preacher
friend, I said, I said, well, I guess he had too much to lose.
And my preacher friend wisely said, he didn't have any more
to lose than you did. I didn't have anything, he had
everything. He didn't even have more to lose than I did. What
am I saying? It costs you nothing and you're
gonna lose everything. That's what I'm saying. That's what this cause is. It
costs you nothing and you're going to lose everything. You
want to take up a cause? A cause worth dying for? And a cause worth living for?
David said, this is all about God's glory. I'm going against
this uncircumcised Philistine for God's glory. And I had a man years ago say
to me, he said, I mentioned this in a message. And he said, God
doesn't need you to protect his glory. I said, no, he doesn't. But I'm gonna stand for God's
glory. And if I don't, he'll raise up somebody else to do
it. No, he doesn't need me. But I
have a cause. God's given it to me. And the
cause is the glory of God. Nothing else matters except that
cause. David said, is there not a cause? This was his cause. It was the
glory of God. You have your Bibles open to
John chapter 12. Look at me, look with me at verse 27. This
was, this was, Our Lord speaking to his disciples
in verse 27. Now is my soul troubled, and
what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour,
but for this hour came I in, for this cause came I into this
hour. Father glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. The Lord Jesus is saying, my
heart is troubled. And shall I take this troubled
heart? He's about to go into the garden
of Gethsemane. He's about to sweat drops of
blood. His hour has come to go to the
cross. He said, my heart is troubled.
Shall I avoid this? No, it is for this cause that
I came into the world. And then in the next verse he
tells us what the cause is, to glorify his father. So the cause that the Lord Jesus
had was the same cause that David had, the glory of God. What's your cause? And then in John chapter 18,
our Lord is taken before Pilate And Pilate tries to interrogate
the Son of God. I could just see Pilate there
with his robes and all of his entourage standing around. Are
you a king? He's looking at the Lord, mocking
him like Eliab did, mocking him. Are you a king? Have you just
been beaten and flogged and you got a crown of thorns upon your
head? We're mocking you as a king.
You got a purple robe on you, are you a king? The Lord Jesus Christ said to
Pilate, he said, for this cause came I into the world. For this
purpose was I born. To bear witness to the truth to the truth. And then he said,
they that are of the truth, hear my voice and they follow me and
my cause. I added a couple of words to
that, but that's exactly what our Lord's saying. This is my cause and this will
be their cause. Is there not a cause? Turn over just a page with me
to John chapter 13 and look at verse 30. He then having received the sop
went immediately out and it was night. Judas had identified himself
as the son of perdition. Therefore, when he had gone out,
after Judas had left, very interesting, the Lord didn't reveal this when
Judas was in the room, after Judas left, Jesus said, now is
the son of man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God
be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself and
shall straightway glorify him. John chapter 17, the Lord said
to his father, I have glorified thee in the earth. I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. I took up the cause that
you gave me of slaying the Goliath. And I knew that there was a cause. The cause was the glory of God.
And I finished that work. Father, now glorify thou me as
I've glorified thee. And these that you've given unto
me, I've sanctified them by thy word, and thy word is truth. Here's the cause, brethren. The
cause is the glory of God and truth. And this is a cause that most
men have no interest in. They have no interest in it. Caught up in all the temporal
vanities of this world, thinking they're living their lives for
a cause. They're not living for anything. They've got no purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ glorified
His Father. most clearly and most gloriously
when he went to the cross. He glorified the Father's holiness
when he was made sin and offered himself to his Father as an offering
for the sins of his people. That's what he was doing on the
cross. He was glorifying the holiness of God, that God's holiness
could not be satisfied unless there was a perfect sacrifice
made, a sin bearer, perfect blood shed. That's what the Lord Jesus
did at Calvary's cross, and he glorified his father. He said,
Father, I have taken up the cause, and the cause is your glory,
and I have glorified thee. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And now, Father, glorify thy
son. You see Psalm 115 that we read
earlier. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name be glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. It's all about God. It's not
about you, it's not about me, it's about God. And any cause
that we have that's less than that, you've been duped. We've been fooled. We've been
deceived. We can't see beyond the end of
our nose. We can't think beyond the surface
of our fickled feelings. Men just make their causes based
on what makes them feel good and what they can see. Up close,
this is the cause. This is the cause that that the
Lord Jesus accomplished this is what he came to do. Is there
not a cause? He glorified the Father's righteousness. He showed in his death on Calvary's
cross that God would not settle for anything less than a perfect
righteousness. And he glorified the Father's
righteousness. He glorified the Father's justice. He showed that
the law of God required perfect retribution. He glorified His Father. He said,
Father, I've glorified Thee. I've taken up the cause. I finished
the work which Thou gavest me to do. He glorified His grace. He showed by His death on Calvary's
cross that there's no way that you and I can be saved apart
from the grace of God. He glorified the love of God.
Greater love hath no man than this that He lay down His life
for His friends. He glorified His Father. That
was His cause. His cause was the glory of his
father. It's the only cause worth living
for. There is no other cause. It was
his cause. For this cause came I into the
world to bear witness unto the truth.
They that are of the truth, they're going to take up my cause. and
they're gonna follow me. Jeremiah chapter 22 verse 16
says, he judged the cause of the poor and the needy. Lord,
I'm poor, I'm needy. This world, I've tasted it. I've chased after
it, I've tried it, and I've been left wanting, I've been left
empty. Lord, I'm poor and I'm needy. He has judged the cause
of the poor and the needy. That's what he did on Calvary's
cross. He upheld the glory of his father. Jeremiah said in Lamentations
chapter three, oh Lord, judge thou my cause, judge thou my
cause. And in Jeremiah chapter 50, Jeremiah
said, he shall thoroughly plead their cause. The Lord Jesus Christ
took up the cause of his father to glorify his father and he
accomplished that cause perfectly. And I love what we read about
Moses in Exodus chapter 33. Now, by the time of Exodus chapter
33, Moses had met God at the burning bush, heard the audible
voice of God, saw the bush burning without it being consumed. Picture
the cross, the burning fiery wrath of God's justice coming
upon Christ without consuming him. He had seen the ten plagues that
God had sent to the Egyptians. Miraculous. Inexplicable. Things that were beyond imagination. Ending with the coming of the
death angel slaying the firstborn in every household. He had seen
the dividing of the Red Sea. Walking across on dry ground
while the water was walled up. He had gotten the children, he
had seen the destruction of Pharaoh and his army in the sea. He had seen the manna come from
heaven day after day after day, providing sustenance for the
people of God. All this happened before Exodus
33. He had seen the water coming
out of the rock, smitten by his rod. Another picture of the cross,
Christ being smitten by the law of justice and the water of life
flowing from him. He had seen all these things.
And in Genesis chapter 33, he was up on the mountain the second
time. He had been on Mount Sinai for 40 days the first time and
received the law of God. This mountain that quaked, this
mountain that was on fire and filled with smoke, Moses had
experienced all of these things. And then at the end of Exodus
chapter 33, Moses says, Lord, I just wanna see your glory. I said, wait a minute, Moses,
you've seen all these demonstrations of God's glory. No, no, no, I
wanna see his glory. Turn to me to that passage. You
see, that's all Moses was interested in, and that's all Christ was
interested in, was the glory of God. And those who take up
the cause of Christ, that will be the thing that they'll be
interested in, God's glory. And my brethren and my friends,
It is a cause worth living for. It's the only cause. And it's the only cause that
will bring you safely through death. God's glory. But he'll get all the glory.
You won't get any. But you know what? You'll be
happy with that. You make, and listen to this
carefully. It's not original. You make God's glory your aim,
and your happiness will be his glory. You make God's glory your aim,
and your happiness will be his glory. God give us understanding of
what that means. Moses wanted to see the glory
of God. Look at Exodus chapter 33. I have a new Bible. It's right
around verse 15, 16. Here it is, verse 18. And he
said, Moses said to God, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Can you pray that? Lord, I just wanna see your glory.
I wanna see your glory. The glory
of God is seen in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to magnify God's glory. That was his cause. And Moses
said, I want to see your glory. In verse 19, and God said to
Moses, I will make my goodness pass before thee. Now when the
rich young ruler said to the Lord Jesus Christ, good master,
what must I do to inherit eternal life? He's like most men. What can I do to make sure that
I'm saved? And the Lord Jesus looked at
him and said, why callest thou me good? Don't you know that
there's none good but God? Now the Lord Jesus wasn't denying
himself to be God. He was putting a statement in
the form of a question to bring to the heart of that rich young
ruler the truth of who he was speaking to. You just called
me good master, but there's none good but God. Do you acknowledge the fact that
I'm God? If you do, then my goodness is the only
thing that you, you can't do anything. You can't produce enough
goodness to merit favor with God. I will make my goodness
pass before thee. Oh, I pray the Lord will make
his goodness to pass before, make the Lord Jesus to pass before
me. You know, I think of blind Bartimaeus. The Lord was passing
through Jericho And Blimey Artimaeus cried out, son of David, have
mercy upon me. Jesus, our son of David, he kept
repeating him, crying the louder and the louder. He knew that
the Lord wasn't going to be passing that way again. Listen, we're
talking about a cause here that cannot be put off. People say,
well, you know, I'll think about that. And when I get ready for
a more important cause than I have right now, then maybe I'll decide
to take up that cause. If the Lord Jesus Christ is passing
by you, if the goodness of God is passing by you, don't presume
that he will ever pass by you again. That's being presumptuous. God never promised that. I'm
gonna cause my goodness to pass by you. Be like blind Bartimaeus,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. Lord, I have no
hope for tomorrow. I have no reason to believe that
you're gonna ever pass this way again. Moses asked for God to show him
his glory. I need a cause bigger than all
these, bigger than saving these Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. I need a cause bigger than that.
Who had a bigger cause in life? He led the entire nation of Israel
out of bondage into the promised land. You would think that'd
be enough cause to sustain a man, give him a sense of purpose in
life. No, Lord, that's not enough. I need to see your glory. I'm
gonna cause my goodness to pass before you, Moses. And I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and I will be gracious unto whom
I will be gracious, and I will have mercy upon whom I will have
mercy. When I show you my goodness, I'm gonna show you my sovereignty.
I'm gonna show you that I'll have mercy upon whom I will have
mercy. I'm gonna show you that salvation's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, it's of God that showeth mercy. I'm
gonna show you that salvation's of the Lord. I'm gonna show you
your complete dependence upon me. I'm gonna make you a mercy
beggar. I'm gonna put you on your face
and cause you to bow in worship before me. And that's my goodness. You see,
most of the people think, you know, God wants to save everybody. He's done what he can to save
everybody. But unless I give him right to save me, unless
I invite him into my heart or exercise my will and do something
that will enable him to do what he wants to do, That God doesn't
exist. That God is a figment of your
imagination if you think that. That's an idol that has hands
but it cannot touch. It has eyes but it cannot see.
It has ears but it cannot hear. It's a cold stone idol. The God who is says I'm gonna
make my goodness pass before thee. and I'm gonna proclaim
my name, and here's what my name means. My name means that salvation
is of the Lord. And you're gonna bow to that. In taking up my cause, you're
gonna bow to me getting all the glory. That's glorious, isn't
it? Brethren, if God's giving you
the grace to take up God's cause, you glory in him getting the
glory. You've made God's glory your
aim and your happiness is now his glory. What is the cause? God's glory
and truth. For this cause came I into the
world, and for this cause was I born, to bear witness unto
the truth. And they that are of the truth
hear my voice, and they cast their care upon me, for I care
for them. They cast their lot in with me
on my cause. because they know that I am the
truth. What did Pilate say when the
Lord Jesus said, I came to bear witness to the truth? Pilate
said, truth? Yeah. 2,000 years ago, men were
just as relative as they are today. Relativism has always
been alive. Now what is relativism? Relativism
says there's no absolute truth. Everything's relative. There's
your truth and there's my truth and there's their truth and his
truth and nobody's got the truth. Pilate said truth? Is that what
this is all about? Don't you know there's no such
thing as truth? Now brethren, And again, I speak
to young people because they're looking for the truth. If you buy into the lie that
there is no truth, don't be surprised if you have no peace and no comfort
and no hope and no direction your entire life because relativism
wakes up to a new truth every day. And truth will be to you whatever
you want truth to be. And that'll be your cause. You
will be your cause. You will set yourself up on the
throne of God and you will establish what's true for you. God's word is truth. Truth. I mean through and through every
word of it. And if God has given you his cause, you have bowed. to him as your truth. And you will say with that Syrophoenician
woman, when God said, God called her a dog, you'll just say, truth,
Lord. Truth, Lord. Whatever comes out of your lips,
Lord, is true. And whatever is spoken contrary
to what you have said is a lie. David had a cause. David said,
is there not a cause? What was David's cause? The glory
of the God of Israel and the truth of who he is and what he's
done. The Lord Jesus Christ had a cause. He lived it perfectly and fulfilled
it completely. His cause was the glory of God.
And God's glory was most demonstrated by his accomplished work of salvation. And his glory is demonstrated
now when he saves one of his people and brings them into a
loving relationship with him and causes them to bow to his
cause, to his clause. the glory of God and truth. Is that your cause? Anything you settle for, less
than that won't be a cause that's gonna
make you happy, won't be a cause that'll Fulfill all the things that those
other causes promise. I'm not talking about just, when
I say make you happy, I'm not talking about just this kind
of happiness that the world, I'm talking about contentment,
I'm talking about just peace, hope, comfort, joy, fellowship
with God. You make God's glory your aim. And your happiness will be to
his glory. And you will bow to every word
that he has spoken. Amen. What a cause. World doesn't know anything about
this cause. They really don't. Thank God. He's given us a cause. Amen. All right, let's stand
together, Tom. 34. 34 in the spiral hymnal,
number 34. Is that what you have for me?
? It is finished, sinners hear
it ? Hear the dying Savior's cry ? Hear the Lord himself declare
it ? Justice has been satisfied ? It is finished, go proclaim
it ? To poor sinners far and wide Holy Spirit, make them hear
it, Jesus Christ, for sinners died. It is finished, all is
over, Jesus drank damnation dry. What a Savior, what a Savior,
see Him now exalted high. It is finished, look, behold
Him seated at His Father's side. ? Yonder on the throne behold
him ? ? Christ our substitute who died ? ? It is finished,
hear him pleading ? ? As our advocate on high ? ? His own
blood's great merit pleading ? ? Pleading justice satisfied
? It is finished, can you hear him? ? All the work is fully
done ? Now believing, looking to him ? We are saved by God's
own Son you.