Again, we'll sing the hymn that's
on the back of your bulletin. When this passing world is done,
When has sun gone radiant sun? When I stand with Christ on high,
Looking for life's history, Then, Lord, shall I fully know Not
till then how much I owe. ? When I hear the wicked call ?
? On the rocks and hills to fall ? ? When I see them start and
shrink ? ? On the fiery deluge bring ? ? Then, Lord, shall I
fully know ? not till then how much I owe. When I stand before thy throne,
rest in beauty, not my own. When I see Thee as Thou art,
Love Thee with unsitting heart, Then, Lord, shall I fully know
Not till then how much I owe. Chosen none, for good it be,
Please be seated. Would you open your Bibles with
me to Judges chapter 8? Judges chapter 8. What a blessing it's been to look
at this man of God by the name of Gideon. He believed God. The Lord used him to deliver
the children of Israel from the Midianites. A beautiful picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the man of war, who went to war against
Satan, against death, against hell, against sin, and he got
the victory all by himself. But Gideon as a man, as a a very
encouraging person as well. Here we find him at the end of
his life doing something that's really kind of inexplicable. I can't explain why he makes
this ephod, but he does. He takes the gold that was given
to him as a result of the He was the commander of the army.
You remember the 300 men that he used to deliver the children
of Israel from Midian. And they want to make him king.
Now the battle's over. Midian is destroyed. They never
come back. The whole nation is finished. And the children of Israel want
to make Gideon king. And Gideon knew that that was
not right. And so he said, no, he said,
gotta be your king. Gotta be your king. I'm not going
to be your king. But then he said, one thing I request of
you. He said, the Midianites were Ishmaelites and the Ishmaelites
all wore gold earrings. And so he said, I want one golden
earring from each one of the dead Midianites. Take of the
spoils of war that you have gotten and give to me one gold ring
from each." And they did. They were happy to do it. They
said, oh yeah, we'll be glad to do that. We're thankful for
you. And scripture tells us how much gold it was, 1,700 something
shekels. It's there. I can't remember
the details, but he takes that gold. He makes a golden ephod. And he hangs it up in the town
where he lives. And here's God's testimony of
that action. Gideon is gonna take his rest. He's gone back home to the place
where he was from. And Gideon was a picture of Christ
in that. He, He went home after he got
the victory, didn't he? And he took his rest, and he's
home now in glory, seated at the right hand of the majesty
on high, interceding for us as our high priest. And Gideon wasn't
of the tribe of Levi. The priestly tribe, you remember
the tribe that Aaron came from, was the tribe of Levi, and only
the Levites could wear priestly garments. Gideon had no business
with an ephod. The ephod was a shoulder cape
that the high priest wore. And on that shoulder cape were
two stones and engraved in those stones were the names of the
children of Israel. And those names represent how
the Lord Jesus Christ, as our high priest, bears the burden
of our sin and takes us by name into glory when he enters into
heaven as intercedes for us as our priest. Gideon had no business
having an ephod, but he wanted something that he could see.
He wanted a symbol of the gospel that he could look at and he
could touch. And that's the message here. Look at verse 27. Gideon made an ephod thereof
and put it in his city, even in Ophrah. And all Israel went
thither whoring after it, which thing became a snare unto Gideon
and unto his house. This world is full of snares. Satan has snares, a trap, and
the highway of faith is filled with them. And like a trap that
would be set for an animal, the traps that Satan sets to try
to become a snare to us, even as it became a snare to Gideon,
are camouflaged They don't look like traps. They look enticing. They draw our attention to them. And like a trap for an animal,
a snare, they are often baited. And so the snares of sin have
been baited for God's people to ensnare us as Gideon was ensnared. And at the end of this message,
I want to look at some passages in the Psalms about how the Lord
Jesus Christ went into that trap, not because it was camouflaged
or because it was baited. He knew exactly what the trap
of sin was. And he was held to Calvary's
cross by that snare and delivered his people. from all the snares
that we get caught up in in this world. And so the two points
of this message, the first is the Lord is pointing out for
us some of those snares. You know, he's warning us of
where they're located, that we might avoid them and not be caught
up in them. And then he's promising us that
though we get caught up in the snares of sin all the time, and
though we disregard his warnings, We have one who was snared by
sin for us and put away the shame and the guilt of that snare.
One who bore the names of his people on his back, on his shoulders. The government shall be upon
his shoulder, Isaiah tells us, and his name should be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. He bore in his shoulders the
burden of our sin when he went to the cross. So though we get
stung by these traps of sin all the time, the Lord mercifully
tells his children where they're located And I was thinking, I
don't know if this is a good illustration or not, but when
I was growing up, my father was stationed in Guantanamo Bay,
and we lived not far from the fence that separated the base
from communist Cuba. And between the fence on the
American side and the fence on the Cuban side was about 100
yards of minefield. And there it was, just a minefield,
no man's land. You couldn't see the mines, they
were underground. But I was thinking, you know, I'm sure that when
that minefield was put in, that someone made a map of where every
one of those mines are, so that if they ever had to go in there,
they could navigate around them. You know, the Lord has taken
down the fences. He's brought his people out,
but here he's giving us a, he's pointing out the mines, the traps,
the snares. He said, avoid that one. Avoid
that one. Isaiah chapter 53. Verse four
says, surely, surely he hath borne our griefs. He hath carried our sorrows. Now Isaiah is writing 660 years
before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but notice the
verb tense is past tense. What God has purposed is finished. So the Lord Jesus Christ, though
he didn't, physically fulfill the covenant until Calvary's
cross. He is the lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. It was good as done in all eternity. what God promises and what God
purposes is finished. And so Isaiah speaks of this
event that's going to happen. He's one of the prophets that
Paul was talking about. When we looked at Acts chapter
24, I believe all that was written in the law and the prophets,
Isaiah knew he was talking about a future event that was just
as good as done. And so he speaks of it in the
past tense. And he says, he hath borne our griefs. He hath carried
our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. We had no interest in the things
that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. Until the Lord brings us in saving
faith to Christ, we've got no real interest in the things of
God. I'm not saying we don't have interest in religion or
in You know, people come to church for a lot of reasons, you know,
looking for something to help them get through this world another
week. And I pray the Lord will give
us a sole interest in Christ that we'll just desire Him. And by nature, we don't have that.
We esteemed Him not. We esteemed Him smitten and stricken
of God. We're not interested in that.
But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed."
He's the one that wore the ephod. with the names of his people
on it. He's the one that bore the burden of sin. All we like
sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's what happened when Christ
was at the cross. He bore the full weight and shame
and burden of all the sins of all of God's people, and he put
them away once and for all by the sacrifice of himself. What
a Savior. Now, Gideon, contrary to everything
that God had taught the children of Israel, was making an ephod
to hang up in his home and in his hometown to look at, to touch. He needed something he could
see. You might think, well, didn't he know better? Didn't he remember
what happened to the golden calf? When Moses came down off that
mountain, then scripture says he ground it into powder, mixed
it with water and made the people drink it. Now you think about
it, what happened in the end of that golden calf? Exactly
what Paul's talking about in Philippians chapter three, when
he says, I count it but dung, that's what happened to the calf,
that I might win Christ. That's why he had all the people
drink the powder. That's where it ended up. Didn't Gideon remember
that? What about when Hezekiah took
the brazen serpent and he called it a worthless piece of brass
because it had become an object of worship? The people had begun
to bow down to it. And he ground it up into powder. And he cast the powder. onto
graves showing this is not the way to eternal life. Bowing down
before something you can see, depending on that which you can
see and instead of that which you cannot see. I want to say this, especially
to the older brethren. Gideon's getting up in age. He
does something here that's wrong. And yet, in verse 32, and Gideon,
the son of Joash, died in a good old age and was buried in the
sepulcher of Joash's father in Ophrah of the Abizurites. He was an Abizurite of the tribe
of Manasseh, not of the tribe of Levi. Wasn't supposed to do
what he did. And yet the promises of God did
not change. As we grow in grace and in the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we see more and more of our sin,
don't we? We see more and more of our need
for Christ. We grieve more and more over
the remnants of corruption and unbelief that remain in our hearts. And we think, You know, Lord,
am I really one of yours? How many times, brethren, have
you thought, well, maybe I just know things about God and I don't
really know God. And that thought strikes fear
in your heart, doesn't it? And then you know, I've got to
know Him. I've got to know Him. Oh, that
Paul said, this is my golden life that I might know Him. the
fellowship of his suffering, the power of his resurrection.
I've not yet apprehended that which has apprehended me. I want
to say to you, brethren, that Gideon, though he did something
that was so grievous, just like Solomon did, Solomon died in
shame. He died in shame. The Lord Jesus
Christ died in shame. He died bearing the shame of
our sin. So in every way we can see how
these men, we're not justifying what Gideon did. We're saying,
to the brethren. Yes, we're going to bear this
body of flesh with us to the grave. And we're going to we're
going to do things and say things and have things in our hearts
that ought not to be just like Gideon did. But God's promises
do not change. When we're unfaithful, he remaineth
faithful. There's the hope of our salvation.
And our God is faithful. And if God speaks that truth
to your heart, you'll know that's not a licensed sin. That's not a, you know, a pass. No, it's just the truth. It's
just where we hold out our hope. We die with doubts and disobedience. Oh, we're saved by grace. I love
with John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace. He said, you
know, when I was a young man, he said this right before he
died. He said, when I was a young man, I knew a lot of things. But now
that I'm about to die, he said, I only know two things for sure.
Number one, I'm a great sinner. Number two, Christ is a great
savior. The only two things I know for
sure. So Gideon is an example of every believer going to his
grave and burying things he ought not. Yet the Lord was faithful. We are crushed by the weight
of sin. This ephod, this ephod points
us to Christ, who was crushed by the weight of our sin. And
the Lord said, all ye that labor, And everybody's laboring to get
to heaven. Everybody's laboring. That's what religion's all about.
Man-made religion is all about man's working his way to heaven. And here's what the Lord said,
all you that labor and are heavy laden. And that word means that
you've been crushed by your labor. Your labor is so strong and so
difficult, it has put you in the ground. You can't labor anymore. You bore all you can bear. All
you that labor and are heavy burdened, come unto me. I will give you rest. My burden
is light. I've already bore it. I wore
the ephod on the cross. I've got your names on my breastplate. I've carried them into glory.
My burden is light. My weight is easy. My yoke is
easy. Joshua, I'm sorry, Josiah in
second Kings chapter 22 was used of God to bring spiritual reform
to Israel. They had a revival and they had
been worshiping a image of Baal and Josiah crushed it to powder. All these things are crushed
to powder. And that's what happens when the Lord brings us. He crushes
us to powder, doesn't he? We fall upon him and we're just
broken. We're broken. Lord, I can't save
myself. I can't do anything about my
sin. Lord, I've got to have you to bear the burden of my sin
before God for me. Man-made religion. is filled
with things that can be looked at with the physical eye. Oh,
they have statues and icons and pictures and altars and cathedrals
and robes. And the paraphernalia in religion
is endless because men want something they can look at, something they
can touch. Why? Because they don't have
the eyes of faith. All they have is physical eyes.
See, the fact that we have to have something we can look at,
something we can touch, something we can experience with our physical
senses is a denial of the hope that we have in Christ, which
can only be experienced by faith. But we're deficient in our faith,
aren't we? Here's our hope. I'll read a
quote from a man by the name of Robert Hawker, who I have
been greatly blessed by many of much of his writing. He said,
it is the deficiency of our faith
and not a defect in the covenant, which makes a believing soul
to stagger. And the question is faithfulness.
It is the deficiency of our faith and not a defect in the covenant.
There are no defects in the covenant. The covenant of grace was established
in eternity past when God the Father, by his own will and purpose,
elected a people. God the Son entered into that
covenant relationship and promised to redeem those whom the Father
had chosen. And God the Holy Spirit entered
into that covenant and promised to regenerate those whom the
Lord Jesus Christ redeemed. And our Savior is seated at the
right hand of God with the names of all those chosen. redeemed
and regenerated by God. There's no deficiency, no defect
in the covenant. Any more than there can be a
defect in our God. Plenty of defects in us. Plenty
of deficiencies in us. But our salvation is not determined
by that. It's determined by His perfection. What hope? What hope? We look not on the things which
are seen, but on things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. The eye of faith doesn't look
to a golden ephod hanging in the city square or in the living
room or look to anything else. If we are looking to our lives,
the improvements of our lives or the works of our lives, either
for the cause or for the evidence of our salvation, we're not looking
to Christ. It doesn't take the eye of faith to evaluate your
life and see if you're, you know, if you're doing things you didn't
used to do and not doing things you used to do, and you know,
I think I'm getting a little better and, you know, no. No, the eye
of faith sets its affections on Christ, and in doing so, it
cannot look at self. Only thing it sees in itself
is sin. Once the glory of Christ is revealed,
then you can't find any comfort in your life. And yet that's
what men do. They point you to your life.
Well, look at what you look, whether you look at when you
accepted Jesus or look at when you prayed this prayer, look
at how you're not doing what you used to do. Well, maybe what
you used to do, you shouldn't have been doing anyway. There's
a lot of unsaved people that are gonna go to hell that are
extremely moral people. Kind people give you the shirt
off their back. and they're not engaged in things
that are shameful. Plenty of people go into hell
like that. So don't look to your kindness or to the things that
you're doing or not doing as the evidence or cause of your
salvation. That's looking at an ephod. That's looking at something hanging
there that you can see and you can find some comfort in. No,
ask God, Lord, give us your spirit. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit of God, for they're spiritually discerned,
neither can he know them. Lord, you're gonna have to open
the eyes of my understanding. You're gonna have to enable me
to see Christ. He's the only one that can save
me. But aren't we prone, aren't we prone to look at physical
things, things which are seen. It's what they, show us a miracle
and we'll believe that you're the son of God. We want to see
something. If thou be the son of God, come down off that cross.
We want to see something. That's what the natural man does.
I want to see a miracle. I want to see something that
defies nature, something that's unexplainable. Satan, that's what Satan said.
If thou be the son of God, I know you've been fasting for 40 days
and 40 nights. If thou be the son of God, take
that stone right there and turn it into bread, then I'll believe.
What'd the Lord say? Oh, he wasn't tempted by that.
No, he said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. His hope was in
the revelation of Christ made in God's word. We're often drawn to those ephods. Scripture says, faith, this saving
faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the word of God.
Why hearing? That's one of our physical senses.
Why hearing? I'll tell you why. Hearing is
passive. When you touch something, you're
being active. When you speak something, you're being active.
When you look at something, you turn your head, you focus on
it. But hearing is passive. Somebody's not talking to you,
but you're going to hear what's being said. You don't have to focus your
attention or your, unless you're deaf like me, or your senses
to hear something. Hearing is passive and God's
gonna make sure that you and I are passive in our salvation. So faith comes by hearing. And
hearing comes by the word of God. Thomas, Doubting Thomas. I think
I mentioned Thomas last week. You remember when the Lord appeared
to the disciples, Thomas wasn't there. And then when Thomas comes
and the Lord appears, remember he's the one that said, I'm not
gonna believe unless I can see the wounds in his hands and put
my finger into them and the wounds in his side and thrust my hand
into them. That's the resurrected Christ who revealed himself to
Thomas, said, Thomas, here it is. Put your hand, thrust your
hand into there. Put your finger into my wounds.
You know what that tells us? Two things I want to say about
this. Number one, those wounds are still in the resurrected
body of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory. And the only thing
that we're going to have any reference to in this life is
when we see him and we know that those wounds are the reason that
we're there. Number two, Thomas said, my Lord
and my God. And the Lord said, Thomas, Thomas,
it's good that you now believe that you've seen me. But blessed
are those who have not seen me yet believe. You and I have not
seen the Lord Jesus Christ with our physical eyes. We will one
day, but we have not seen him. We see him through the eyes of
faith and we hear his voice through the ears of faith. The voice
of a man can't save. God has to take what I'm speaking
audibly as it is made true and real in the word of God and make
it effectual to our hearts, doesn't he? 1 Peter 1, verse 8, whom having
not seen, you love. In whom now you see him not,
yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,
receiving the end of your salvation, even the salvation of your souls. You don't see, but you believe. Our Lord said in John chapter
six, verse 63, it is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth
nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. God uses his word, speak to the
hearts of his people, make them alive. We walk by faith, not
by sight. It's the written word that reveals
the living word of God. I love that passage in Philippians
chapter four, where the Lord says, be anxious for nothing. Be careful for nothing. Stop
worrying. What do we worry? We worry about
the things that we see, the temporal things. We worry about, you know,
well, this isn't the way I thought it was going to be, or I'm not
sure how that's going to work out. And the Lord says, be careful
for nothing, but in all things. We worry because we can't understand
our circumstances. We worry because we want something
tangible, something we can see, something we can control. That's
what Gideon's doing. He's showing the evidence of
our flesh. I want an ephod hanging up there, a symbol of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's not a statue to Baal. It's
not a golden calf. It's an ephod. It's a priestly
garment. Something I can handle, something
I can control. The Lord says, be careful for
nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto God. And the peace
of God, which is better than understanding will keep your
heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Lord, I can't understand
it, but I can. I can rest in Christ. I know
you've got it. You're in control of it. You
understand what you're doing. Not only do you understand it,
but you're doing it perfectly. Perfectly. Everything's right
on schedule. God's perfect timing. The peace
of God. That word passeth in Philippians
chapter 4 verse 7 means better than, exceeds. The peace of God
exceeds understanding. False man-made works religion
is a snare. The Lord said in Psalm 106 verse
36, they mingled among the heathen and learned their works. They served their idols, which
were a snare to them. We live in this world. The Lord
tells us we're not to be of this world. And if we mingle with
the pagans of this world and we try to mingle our religion
with them, We try to figure out some common ground where we can
have some unity with people who have a works religion, it'd be
a snare to us. But works religion, man-made
religion, is all about physical signs and wonders and images
and, you know, I can see walking down an aisle. I can hear praying
a sinner's prayer. You can't You can't capture repentance
in a rote sinner's prayer. Can't do it. You know, when somebody apologizes
to you, you naturally evaluate the sincerity of that apology
based on the words that they're speaking, based on their demeanor
and based on their demands. If the words that they're speaking,
if someone apologizes to you and it begins with an if or ends
with a but, you know that apology is not sincere. And so it is
in true repentance. There's no if, ands, or buts
about it. When God gives the heart true repentance, we come
broken, accepting full responsibility for all of our sin. Lord, this
is all on me. I can't blame anybody. I can't
blame my father. I can't blame my, no, this is,
this is, this sin is all mine. And, and we don't, you know,
we can't come with some sort of rote, memorized sin. You know, just pray this prayer
and God will forgive you. No, that's so, that's so insincere. God breaks the heart. Sometimes
you can't say anything. You may not be able to speak
a word. You're just brought to your knees in brokenness before
him. Lord have mercy upon me. And if someone apologized to
you and in that apology, they are demanding even by inference
that you forgive them, you know that apology is not sincere. Forgiveness is completely in
the hands of the one offended. A genuine apology does not demand
forgiveness. It hopes for it, but it doesn't
make the apology a condition for forgiveness. And if the Lord
forgives you and me, it's not gonna be because of the sincerity
of our apology or our repentance, it'll be because of Christ. A man-made religion's a snare. Debates over the gospel can be
a snare. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2. Look at verse 23. But foolish and unlearned questions
avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. Religious people want
to debate things. We're not here to debate the
gospel. We're not here to argue with anybody. We're just here
to declare what God has made clear in his word. And what we
believe is not just a refined, tweaked version of what every
other religious person believes. We believe God. We believe on
Christ and it's contrary to what other men believe, but we're
not going to argue with them about it. For the servant of the Lord must
not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach and patient. I want to be that way. in meekness,
instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure
would give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth
and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil
who are taken captive by him at his will. And you know, the Lord's pointing
out the snares. Here's a snare. This debate and you know, and,
and, and, Words and strifes. The truth is so simple, isn't
it? It's so simple. And yet men won't believe it.
Men love to complicate everything. They want an ephod. They want something they can
see, something they can control. And God said, don't go there. Don't go there. Just preach the
simplicity of the gospel. Paul could have debated a lot
of subjects. He was an incredibly intelligent
man with a high education. And he said, I determined not
to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. You there in 2 Timothy, turn
back just one page to 1 Timothy chapter two. 1 Timothy, I'm sorry, chapter six.
1 Timothy chapter six. At verse three, if any man teach
otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine, which is according
to godliness. If you can't get all of your
answers for everything out of God's word, you want to debate
something, you know, you want to add to it the words of a man
or confessions or whatever. He is proud. You see, that's
why the gospel is offensive because it just causes you to bow to
what God says. There's no debate over it. There's
no discussion about it. We rejoice in it, but we just
declare it. And the reason why men do that
is because they're proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions
and strifes of words, where have come at the envy and strife and
railing and even evil surmising, perverse disputings of men of
corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain
is godliness from such, withdraw thyself. Don't get involved in
that snare. That's the snare of man. You
there in 1 Timothy, look at chapter six. The Lord tells us of another
snare, beginning where we just left off, where we just left
off in verse six. But godliness with contentment
is great gain. For we brought nothing into this
world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And
having food and raiment, let us be there with content. But they that will be rich, In
other words, they set riches as their goal. Material wealth as their objective
in life. Fall into temptation and a snare
and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction
and perdition for the love of money. The Lord's not condemning
money. We all have different amounts of it. Pray the Lord
will cause us all to understand that it's his and he's just loaned
it to us and we don't set our hearts on it as the as our life. It's the love of money is the
root of all evil. Why? Because money buys things
that can be seen. The things that are seen are
temporal. It buys it buys the the respect of other men. It buys material wealth. It buys
power and prosperity and popularity and pleasure. Those are the things
of the flesh. Or so don't love it. Don't love
it. Use it, be thankful for it. And then the fear of man bringeth
a snare. The scripture says in Proverbs 29, 25, but whosoever
put at this trust in the Lord shall Be safe. Men love the praise
of men more than the praise of God. You're going to believe
on Christ. You're going to have some people
that are going to hate you for it. They're going to hate you
for it. And if we lived in a different
time and a different place, they'd kill you for it. Men won't come to Christ because
they love the praise of men. The fear of man is a snare. Now in closing, I want you to
turn with me to Psalm 124. I told you earlier I was going
to close with this. Psalm 124 at verse six. Blessed be the Lord who hath
not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as
a bird out of a snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken
and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the
Lord who hath made heaven and earth. Oh, the Lord escapes his people
from that snare. He's made a way of escape. Way
of escape. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
way. He's the way, he's the truth, and he's the life. You're there
in the Psalms, turn over just a few pages to Psalm 140. Psalm
140. These Psalms are spoken of Christ,
and particularly here, look at verse five. The proud have hid
a snare from me, and cords they have spread a net by the wayside. They have set gins for me. Look
over in Psalm 142. I cried unto the Lord with my
voice, and with my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication.
I poured out my complaint before him. I showed before him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed
within me, then thou knewest my path in the way wherein I
walked. Have they privately laid a snare
for me? I looked on my right hand and
behold, there was no man there that would know me. Refuge failed
me, no man cared for my soul. I cried unto thee, O Lord, and
said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the
living. Attend unto my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver
me from the persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Bring
my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name. The righteous
shall come past me about, and thou shalt deal bountifully with
me. The righteous are, this is the
Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous are compassing him about now.
Why? Because he cried out to the father
when he was snared by our sin on Calvary's cross. And the father
brought him from death to life, brought him into the land of
the living. And by him, these snares, these things that the
natural man needs to look at and to touch and to feel, These
ephods are worn by our savior in glory. We look unto him, the
author and the finisher of our faith. Amen. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, thank you
for your word. Lord, we confess that we have. Lord, we have been caught by
snares, many of which we've set ourselves. Lord, we pray that
you would use your word to help us to find our hope in our Lord
Jesus, who was snared for us and brought forth out of death
into life. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. 126. And Tom, when we finish, you
lead us in a prayer for our meal. And if you didn't know we were
having lunch, we are over in the Fellowship Hall, so please
stay. I'm certain there's plenty of food. Okay, all right. Rock of Ages, clap for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double pure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? These four sin could not atone. Thou must save and Thou alone. In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling. Shall I draw this fleeting breath
when my eyes shall close in death? When I rise to worlds unknown
and behold thee on thy throne, God of ages, clap for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Please be seated. Lord, we ask that the messages
that we've just heard, Lord, that you would open our hearts
to receive them. Lord, cause us to not look to
things of this world that would be snare unto us, Lord, but give
us the hope and the faith, your faith, Lord, to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who has promised to redeem us from all the snares
that we find ourselves in. Lord, we thank you for the food
that we're about to receive. Lord, we ask you to bless our
fellowship and our time together. Lord, let us talk about you this
next hour. Let us enjoy and love each other,
our fellow brethren in Christ. And Lord, we ask this in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.