Good evening. Let's open our
Bibles together to Psalm 18. That was a pretty bad storm that
came through. Several folks aren't going to
be able to be here with us tonight because of it. But glad you made
it. Good to have Roger and Bonnie
with us tonight. Alright, Psalm 18 will begin reading at verse
one. I will love the Lord my strength. The Lord is my rock,
and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I
will trust, my buckler, the horn of my salvation, and my high
tower. I will call upon the Lord, who
is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies.
The sorrows of death can pass me about. The floods of ungodly
men have made me afraid. The sorrows of hell come past
me about, and the snares of death prevented me. In my distress,
I called upon the Lord. I cried unto my God, and he heard
my voice out of the temple. And my cry came before him, even
into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled,
and the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because
he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of
his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals were
kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and
came down and darkness was under his feet. What a picture of Calvary. Let's pray together. Our merciful, gracious, glorious
Heavenly Father, what great hope and comfort we
have in knowing that we can come before Thy throne of grace with
boldness, confident that the Lord Jesus Christ has succeeded
in making us acceptable in Thy presence. That mystic union that
we just sang of Christ and His Church. Lord, He is our hope. He is all our salvation. He is
our fortress. He is our buckler. He is our
high tower. Lord, we ask that You would be
pleased in this hour to send Your Spirit in power, that You
would reveal more of His glory, that we would find more hope,
and more love, and more grace, and more faith in him as you
reveal what you accomplished when you
ran the heavens, when Christ came down, when the smoke of your nostrils went
up, and Lord, when you poured out your fiery wrath upon the
Lord Jesus on Calvary's cross and satisfied your justice. Lord, show us that. Comfort us
in him, save us from our sins, deliver us from our enemies.
For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Number 11 in the Spiral Hymnbook,
number 11. Let's all stand together again. With broken heart and contrite
side, A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry,
Thy pardoning grace is rich and free, O God, be merciful to me. I smite upon Thy troubled breast,
With deep and conscious guilt oppressed, Christ and His cross
my only plea, O God, be merciful to me. No works nor deeds that
I can for a single sin atone. To Christ the Lord alone I flee. O God, be merciful to me. And when redeemed from sin and
hell, With all the ransom from my dwell My raptured song shall
never be God has been merciful to me Please be seated Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 144? Psalm 144. My hope tonight is that the Lord
will fulfill in our hearts the title of this message. I've titled it When God Comes
Down. When God comes down, every time we gather together for worship,
that is our hope, that the Lord will come down, that he will,
as Isaiah said, rend the heavens and come down. He will speak
to our hearts and reveal to us the glory of Christ. And that's
my first point. We know that he's come down when
he reveals to us the truth about his dear son. Look with me in
Psalm 144 at verse five. Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and
come down. Sunday we looked at what it meant
to touch the mountains, but I want us to think tonight about what
it means for the Lord to come down, for him to bow the heavens,
for him to condescend to where we are here upon the earth. in
our sinful state and make himself known to our hearts. Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and
come down. Touch the mountains, and they
shall smoke. Cast forth lightnings and scatter
them. Shoot out thine arrows and destroy
them. Send thy hand from above. and rid me and deliver me out
of great waters from the hand of strange children, whose mouth
speak vanity and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood."
If the Lord's pleased to come down, he will rend the heavens
and in doing so, he will rend the veil. when that veil was
rent in the temple when our Lord bowed his head on Calvary's cross
and said, it is finished. And Hebrews makes it clear that
that veil was his flesh. And in order for us to have access
into the presence of God, in order for God to meet with us,
Christ had to be rent on Calvary's cross. But in renting his flesh,
his robe was not rent. You remember when the soldiers
were casting lots for our Lord's robe. And the reason why they
cast lots for it, they divided everything else up. But the reason
why they cast lots for his robe is because they said there was
no seam in it. There was no seam in his robe.
And they said, let us not rend it, but let us cast lots for
it. Now that robe, we know, is a
picture of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
to rend His righteousness is to separate His righteousness
and ours. It's to try to combine the two. And when the Lord comes down,
He makes it absolutely clear. that the righteousness of Christ
is all our righteousness. The Lord Jesus himself is our
righteousness, our advocate, and all the hope of our salvation. And so we pray with David, send
thine hand from above. Send thine hand from above. Now,
we had the evidence of this in the incarnation. when the angels
met those shepherds on that night when Mary gave birth to our Lord.
And the scripture says that they declared unto the shepherds,
unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior,
which is Christ the Lord. This is the long awaited Messiah. And when they had made that declaration,
the scripture says, and suddenly there was with the angels a multitude
of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God on highest
and on the earth, peace, goodwill toward men. We have peace with
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. God cannot come down apart from
showing forth His hand, the work of His right hand, the work of
salvation accomplished on Calvary's cross, the acceptance that we
have in the Lord Jesus Christ as our righteous advocate before
the Father, our substitute, our sin-bearer. And so when the Lord
comes down, He always is pleased to reveal Christ. The Lord said in John 15 that
the Father would send the Comforter, and when He comes, He shall testify
of Me. Every time we come together,
we pray, Lord, send your spirit. Send your spirit and power. Open
the eyes of my understanding. Give me faith. Enable me to set
my affections on things above. Reveal to us the glory of Christ.
Show us who he is and what he's done. Cause us to love him more. Cause us to believe on him more,
more surely. And if that happens, it'll be
by the work of the Holy Spirit. And the Lord said, the Holy Spirit
will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment,
of sin, because they believe not on me. What is it that the
Holy Spirit convicts you of when you gather together for worship,
or when you go to the Lord in prayer, or when you're just thinking
on the Lord and fellowshipping in Him? What are you convicted
of more than anything else? Your unbelief. Your unbelief. Lord, I'm just so unbelieving.
I can't believe you as I ought, as I want to. And that's the
work of the Holy Spirit. That's the evidence that the
Lord has come down, that he's caused us to see that all our
other sin problems are rooted in our unbelief. Lord, help thou
my unbelief. of righteousness because I go
to my Father. We know the Lord has come down
in the power of His Spirit and that He has testified of Christ
when He shows us that all our righteousness is in Him, that
we have no righteousness outside of Christ. Everything about us
is unrighteous. Everything about us is sinful.
If we're going to stand in the presence of a holy God, we're
going to have to have the Lord Jesus Christ to stand in our
stead, to be our sin bearer and our substitute, our surety before
God. That's how we know the Lord's
come down and he comforts our hearts with that truth and of
judgment because I've gone to my father. We know the Lord's
come down when we're able to see him through the eyes of faith,
seated at the right hand of God. He's seated in the heavenlies.
He's been given a place at the right hand of the majesty on
high. He ever lives in that place to be our advocate and we in
him, all the blessings of God are in the heavenlies in Christ.
I was talking to a brother the other day and we were just reminding
each other about what it means to enter into glory. And we know
that we've always been viewed in Christ. We've always been
in Christ. We know the scripture says that
we are in the heavenlies now in Christ. And when we close
our eyes in death and open them in glory, what we're going to
do is discover that we've always been there. We've always been
there. We're not going to look around
and compare where we are to what we just left. We're going to
have no memory of what we just left. We will always have been
there. That's the justice of God. That's the hope that we have
that Christ has ascended into glory and that he's satisfied
divine justice and he's defeated our enemy death. So when God comes down, he points
us to Christ for everything, as our advocate, as our righteousness,
as our sin bearer. He shows us the right hand of
God. And when he came down in the
incarnation, he had to come in the form of a man in order to
accomplish these things for us. And so that's why the angels
A multitude of heavenly hosts came praising God and saying,
glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward
men. Robert asked me as we were coming
through the door just a little bit ago, he said, tell me something
good. I said, I only know one thing
good, and I'm going to tell you about him in just a minute, just
a little bit. I'm going to tell you all about
him. Isn't that so true? is our goodness before God. And
we know that the Lord has come down when he shows us the accomplished
work of Christ through his incarnation, just as he came down and spoke
to those angels, or spoke to those shepherds through those
angels, he comes and reveals to us the importance of Christ
being made flesh and dwelling among us, and us beholding his
glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, the one
full of grace and full of truth. Oh, Lord, come down. rend the
heavens, and come down. when what we just read of in
Psalm 18, when darkness was below his feet and the fire of his
wrath came out of his nostrils and God came down in his wrath
and in his judgment and he sheathed the sword of his justice in the
heart of Christ. and then being satisfied with
what the Lord Jesus accomplished. He came down just a few days
later and he rolled away the stone and the Lord Jesus Christ
victoriously came forth out of the tomb. Why? Because God came
down. God came down. And we know that
he's come down when we see the Lord Jesus Christ resurrection
as the evidence and proof, all the proof that we need, that
God is completely satisfied with what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished.
All we need to see is that open tomb. And to know that God could
not allow His Holy One to see corruption. He raised Him from
the dead. He came down in the incarnation.
He came down in the resurrection. And when it pleases the Lord,
To call out one of his lost sheep, he comes down through the preaching
of the gospel, and he calls his sheep by name, and they come. They come, and they believe.
That's our hope every time we gather together. Lord, come down. Speak my name. Call me out. Make me willing. Reveal Christ
in me. Save me, Lord. If I'm gonna be
saved, you're gonna have to come to where I am. I can't get to
where you are. Lord, you're gonna have to come
down. You're gonna have to rend the heavens. You're gonna have
to make that infinitely condescending journey to where I am in the
miry pit of my own sin. Lord, come down. Every time the church meets to
worship, the Lord comes down. That's why we're here tonight.
We rejoice in being able to come because this is where the Lord
has promised to reveal his grace and his glory. He said where
two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the
midst of them. And he puts his foot upon Mount
Zion and he comes down and reveals himself. Through the preaching
of the gospel, through the worship that he puts into our hearts,
he comes down. Every time we plead and every
time we rejoice in private worship, the Lord comes down and he speaks
peace to our hearts. He reveals to us Christ and makes
us know that all is well and that he is in absolute control
of all things. He wipes away the tears and he
takes away the fears when he comes down and enables us to
rest to rest in Christ, knowing that his burden is light. There's gonna come a day soon when the eastern sky is gonna
split, the trump of God's gonna sound, and the Lord Jesus Christ
is gonna come down. And all this that we have such
a high stock in is gonna become nothing. He's gonna close it
like a book, it'll be over. and we'll be forever with the
Lord. After he comes down, he's got to come get us. And he's
promised to do just that. And whether or not we're breathing
when the Lord splits that eastern sky and comes down on the trump
of God's sounds, or whether the Lord takes us through death,
he will come down and receive us unto himself. so that where
he is, there we shall be also. That's why he said, let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. My father's house are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you, I go and prepare a place for you. That place was prepared The moment
the Lord Jesus Christ entered into glory and took His rightful
place at the right hand of the Majesty on High, everything we
needed is in Him so that everything necessary to prepare glory for
God's people was succeeded in the Lord Jesus ascending into
glory. Lord, come down. Notice what
happens when he comes down. Send thine hand from above. Now we know that's the Lord Jesus.
Reveal to us his person and his work and his glory and rid us
and deliver me out of great waters. Oh, you know it's no less a miracle. It's no less a miracle for you
and I right now to come through faith to the Lord Jesus Christ
walking upon the waters than it was for Peter to get out of
the safety of his boat and walk on the water toward the Lord.
There's no less of faith. That's what we do every time
we come to him. What Peter said, bid me to come unto thee. And
we're attracted to the safety of our little boats, aren't we?
The false security of our little ships. And yet when we see the
Lord walking upon the water and he says, come, come unto me. And we're brought gladly to forsake
the false security of our little ship and walk upon the water
to him. And then as we're walking, By
faith, we do exactly what Peter did. We look away from the Lord
and we see the boisterous wind and the seas and the waves and
we get afraid and we start to sink and then we cry out again
and again and again and again, Lord, save me. Is there any prayer
you pray any more often than that? Lord, save me. Save me,
I'm always in need of being saved. Deliver me. out of the great
waters from the hand of strange children. Look at verse nine. If the Lord comes down, if he
rends the heavens and comes down, he will enable us to worship,
to worship him in spirit and in truth. Paul put it like this in 2 Corinthians
3, he said that God has made us able ministers of the gospel. Not of the letter, but of the
spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
spirit giveth life. And that's our hope. That we
won't just be, that when we gather together for worship, we won't
just be doing some mental exercise or some physical thing to try
to learn something, but we'll actually be enabled to enter
into worship. A subjective experience without
the gospel is nothing more than emotionalism. And there's a lot
of that going on in religion. people thinking that they're
worshiping, but they don't have a gospel. And they're having
all these subjective feelings and experiences, but it's nothing
more than emotionalism. But the flip side to that coin
is that the gospel without a subjective experience is nothing more than
cold intellectualism. Let's don't throw the baby out
with the bathwater. Lord, I want you to speak to
my heart. I don't want to just be registering information in
my mind. I want you to speak to my heart
and make it fresh and alive and new. Look at verse 9. I will sing a new song unto thee,
O Lord. Upon a psaltery and an instrument
of 10 strings will I sing praises unto thee. I hate it when I hear people
talk about making the Bible relevant. Usually what they mean by that
is give me some precepts that I can live by so that I can be
a better person in this world or something to that effect. The Lord Jesus Christ himself,
when he speaks and reveals himself, Paul said, when Christ revealed
himself in me, not just to me, but in me. Robert, you read that
passage from Matthew chapter 11, that we're to come to the
Lord, come unto me all you that labor in a heavy laden and learn
of me, learn of me. Not just we learn from Him, we
learn of Him. He reveals Himself to our hearts. What is more relevant than that?
What's more relevant to every aspect of life, the temporal
and the eternal, than to know Christ, to walk with Him and
to have Him making His grace and His glory and His love and
His power known to us in our hearts? Now call that subjective
if you want, but it is an experience, it is. And we're not looking
for an experience outside the gospel, but the gospel brings
with it union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He touches the heart, he does. True worship is a work of grace
in the heart. John chapter four, when the Lord
told that woman, if you knew who it is that said unto thee,
give me to drink, you would ask it of him and he would give unto
thee living water. Oh Lord, give me that water that
I need not come here and draw anymore. And while the Lord say
to her, go get your husband. Well, I don't have a husband.
You spoke the truth. where you've had five husbands and the man
you're with now is not your husband. She wanted to get the attention
off of all that, so what she said, well, I perceive that thou
be'st a prophet. And then she wanted to have a
theological debate about where worship was to take place, and
she said, our fathers say that we should worship here on Mount
Gerizim, and you Jews say that we have to worship in Jerusalem,
and the Lord said, the hour's coming and is now here, that
the true worshiper will worship God in spirit and in truth. For such, the father seeketh
to worship him. For God is spirit, God is spirit,
and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth. Men are still debating theological
things, aren't they? They're still, well, Do you worship
God through this religious means? We just read somewhere today
that 50% of teens that were surveyed, probably a lot higher than that,
I don't know where this survey came from, had come to the conclusion
that there was truth in every religion, that no one religion
had you know, had the truth and that there's just truth out there
everywhere and everybody's debating about, well, who's got the truth
and where do you worship God and which religion is more accurate
than the next and that sort of stuff. The Lord said, the father has
to seek you and make you to worship him in spirit. in the power of his Holy Spirit.
And we've already looked at that. When the Holy Spirit comes, what's
he do? He convicts the world of sin,
of righteousness and of judgment. He testifies of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He receives of the Father and
he teaches us of Christ. He reveals to us the glory of
Christ. And that's the work of the Spirit
of God. And that's a work in the heart. Some of you all know that I used
to be on staff at one of those big mega churches. And I'm ashamed
to say this, but we would have staff meetings on Monday morning. And all the men responsible,
and the women for that matter, for putting together the worship
service would get together on Monday morning and we would evaluate
what had happened the day before and try to figure out how to
make it bigger and better the next Sunday. And all we were
doing was counterfeiting, counterfeiting the work of the Holy Spirit.
We were fooling ourselves and fooling others into thinking
that, well, you know, you just have a great experience and it'll
be the evidence that the Spirit of God is here. No, it's not. It's all it was just it was just
there was no gospel. There was just an emotional experience. We worship God. In the spirit, what does that
mean? Look at look at verse look at verse 9 again. I will sing a new song under the
You know, we were singing that song tonight, The Church's Foundation. What's that? The Church's One
Foundation. I was thinking as I was singing
it, you know, I've sang this song hundreds of times and it
was just as glorious to me singing it tonight as it's ever been
before. That's what it means. That's what it means. It means
the gospel doesn't get old. It's not It's not mundane. It's not stale. It's not something
that we get used to. It's not common or everyday or
routine. It's not familiar. It never loses its freshness.
It never loses its surprise. It never loses its reality. It's
alive. The Word of God is living and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's not a cold,
dead, lifeless, feelingless thing. When God comes down, He touches
the heart. Like I said, I don't want to
make this an experiential thing because I've been there and I've
done that. But I don't want to deny the reality of that either
because when the Spirit of God speaks, He does move the heart. And He causes us to grow in grace
and to love Him more and to see more of His glory and to be more
humble and to rejoice the more. I will sing a new song. Every
time we sing, no matter how many times we've sung that song before,
and every time we hear the gospel, it's new, it's fresh. If God
has come down, if God has come down, if he blesses it, that's
why we pray that the Lord would come down, that we not sit here
and just think, well, you know, I've heard this a thousand times
before, nothing new. No, I wanna hear it like I've
never heard it before. I want to believe on Christ like I've
never believed on Him before. I want Him to be a new song. I want Him to be alive and recent
and fresh and current and I want Him to be wonderful and exciting
and I want Him to move my heart in grace and in love toward Him. Lord, that's why we pray, Lord
come down. Don't lead me to just hearing
this with the ears of my flesh. Lord, I want to hear from you.
Lord, come down. Come down. Reveal Christ to me. Show me more of his glory. Turn
back with me to Isaiah, Psalm 40. Psalm 40. Verse one, I waited patiently
for the Lord and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. He
brought me up also out of a horrible pit and out of the miry clay
and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings and He
hath put a new song in my mouth. Even praise unto our God, many
shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. Oh, I want
my sin to be taken away as if it had never been taken away
before. I want to feel alive and clean. I want to have confidence
to come before the throne of grace with boldness. I want my love to be fresh and
real. That's the new song. You see,
these words are the same, but it's new, it's fresh, it's alive,
it's real when God comes down. Let me show you that in the book
of Revelation, turn mid-Revelation chapter five. Revelation chapter
5. Revelation 5, and I saw in the
right hand of him that sat upon the throne a book written within
and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong
angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open
the book and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven
nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book,
neither to look thereon. And I wept much because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to
look thereon. And one of the elders said unto
me, weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe
of Judah and of the root of David have prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld and low
in the midst of the throne and on the four beasts and in the
midst of the elder stood a lamb as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God
sent forth into all the earth. The number seven being the number
of completion, the number of perfection. And here's the Lamb
of God who's able to open the book, reveal the names and the
purpose and the glory of God. And he came and took the book
out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And
when he had taken the book and the four beasts and the four
and the 20 elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of
them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers
of the saints, and they sung a new song. You see, every time we sing in
glory, it's going to be a new song. It's going to be new. Everything in this world loses
its luster, doesn't it? Everything does. That's why we
have to have a change of scenery. We have to have a change of diet.
We have to have a change of clothes. We have to have a change of hairstyle,
whatever it is. We're always looking for something
different. Why? Because everything, after a while, loses its glory. And we get bored with it. And
just the opposite's gonna happen in heaven. With every passing
moment of time, well, there'll be no time. Time will be no more,
the scripture says, but for all eternity. The glory of Christ
is gonna become more and more glorious, and every word that
we sing is gonna be new and fresh. They sang a new song, and what
did they sing? Thou art worthy to take the book
and open the seals thereof, for Thou art slain, and hast redeemed
us to our God by Thy blood out of every kindred, tongue, and
people, and nation. They sang a new song. Glorifying
the Lord Jesus. Turn over just a few pages to
Revelation chapter 14. Revelation chapter 14, look at
verse one. And I looked and lo, a lamb stood
on the Mount Zion and with him 140 and 4,000 having their father's
name written in their forehead. That's the whole church. The
whole church of the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed in glory, the
144,000. And I heard a voice from heaven
as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder.
And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps and
they sung as it were a new song. And they've been singing this
song for all of eternity, but every time they sing it, it's
a new song. It's a new song. It's like they never heard it
before. It's fresh. It's alive. It's glorious. It's
radiant. It's full of meaning and power
and peace and glory every single time. Go back with me to our text. When God comes down, the songs
of Zion are new. The gospel message is new. We're
not just waiting to hear something that we've never heard before.
Oh, no. No, tell me what I've been listening
to all along. And God the Holy Spirit, when
he comes down, will make it fresh and alive and real and new to
me. I will sing a new song unto thee,
O God, Upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will
I sing praises unto thee. Psaltery here, you can look this
word up, it's a wineskin. I guess they made some kind of
instrument out of it. But I think about what the Lord
said when he said you don't put new wine into an old wineskin. Otherwise, when it begins to
ferment, the old wineskin will burst and we'll lose everything
that's in it. And this wine skin is a picture
of our new man. You see, the only way that we
can sing a new song is in the new man. The old man, he's just
of the flesh and he just gets bored easily, doesn't he? And
he gets tired and he gets sleepy. Think about those disciples at
the Garden of Gethsemane. Could you not stay with me one
hour? They slept, they fell asleep.
We do the same thing. Why? Because the spirit though
would be willing, the flesh is weak. But this, this new song
can only come from the new man. It comes from the psaltery and
from the 10 stringed instrument. What is 10? Well, we have the
10 commandments. We have the Passover on the 10th
day of the first month on the day of atonement on the 10th
day of the seventh month. And the number 10 is the number
of completion. It's the number of perfection. And so the picture here is that
we worship God in the spirit. This is what the Lord told that
woman at the well. Worship him according to the new man. The
old man's not capable, but the new man, through the new wineskin
and the 10-stringed instrument and the perfection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the truth of the gospel.
The truth of the gospel is that Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness, that he's that Passover lamb, that he's
the atonement that we have before God on the 10th day. and that God has to reveal Christ
to the new man to enable us to worship him. God comes down and we'll close
with this. Look at verse 10. Verse 10, it is he that giveth
salvation unto kings who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful
sword. Oh, David, the son of David here. was delivered from the hurtful
sword. Oh, the sword pierced his heart, and God's justice
slew him. When God saw sin on his darling
son, he had no choice but to pour out the full fury of his
wrath. But he delivered him from that hurtful sword by raising
him from the dead, proving that he was satisfied with what he
had accomplished. So the sword's been sheathed.
It's been put away. We have the sword of the spirit
now, which is the word of God, the revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You remember when, when David
was running from Saul and he didn't have a weapon and he went
to, um, I think it was a Biathar or one of the priests and, uh,
and the priest and the, and, and David asked the priest, he
said, he said, do you have a sword? And, and he said, well, I've,
all I've got is Goliath sword. You know, it was the sword that
David had used to cut the head off of the giant. And David said,
oh, there's no sword like that sword. No sword like that sword. There's no sword like the sword
that God used to destroy the enemy, to put all the enemies
of God to flight. And there's no sword like the
sword that he used to slay his son. And there's no sword like
this sword. We have the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God, which reveals to us His glory. And the more we read of
Christ, and the more we hear of Him, the more we say, oh Lord,
rend the heavens and come down. Come down, enable me to sing
a new song. Enable me to worship you truly
from the heart in the power of your spirit according to the
truth revealed about Christ and save me. Save me. Look at verse
10. It is he that giveth salvation
unto kings. Lord, if I'm gonna be saved,
you're gonna have to do it. You're just gonna have to do it. You're
gonna have to do every bit of it. I can't do any of it. Or are you going
to have to save me in election? You're going to have to save
me in redemption. You're going to have to save
me in revelation. You're going to have to save me in regeneration.
You're going to have to save me in sanctification. You're
going to have to save me in glorification. Salvation, as Jonah said from
the belly of the whale, is of the Lord. It's all of him from
beginning to end. How do we know that he's come
down, that he's come down and met with us? because he's revealed
that glorious truth to us, that he delivered David from the hurtful
sword and that in delivering David from the hurtful sword,
he has saved us. He saved us. Everything necessary
for the salvation of God's elect was accomplished in Christ. Lord,
come down, make the Make the gospel new to me every time I
hear it. Make the songs of Zion fresh to me every time I sing
them. Prepare me, Lord, for that day. Forgive me for my... I can be so dull of hearing,
can't we? That's why the flesh really is
weak. That's what the Lord told those
disciples, said, sleep on. Sleep on, I know your spirit's
willing, but your flesh is weak. It's the weakness of our flesh
that causes us. The old man serves the new man,
doesn't he? And it's the weakness of our
flesh that causes the new man to cry out, Lord, come down,
come down. Make the song a new song, make
the gospel a new gospel, reveal Christ in me. Give me a give
me a heart to believe all that you've said and all that you've
done and all that you are. And I might rest my hope on the
person, the glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who himself
is my salvation. Give it to me. He giveth salvation
unto kings who deliver David his servant from the sword. Rid
me and deliver me from the hand of strange children. Oh Lord. Stranger in the Old Testament
was someone that was alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel,
and they were unable to participate, particularly in worship, with
the children of Israel. You know, the Lord Jesus said,
My friends have become a stranger unto me, and we're strangers
to ourselves. Our old man can't enter into
worship. He's a stranger. The old man's a stranger to you,
isn't he? If you're a believer, your old man's a stranger to
you. He really is. You look at him and think, boy,
I'll be glad when you're dead. You're not who I am, not anymore. Rid me, deliver me from the hand
of strange children whose mouth speaketh vanity and their right
hand is the right hand of falsehood. Lord, and this world, we're strangers
to this world, aren't we? And the world is strangers to
us. The world would love you if you were of the world, but
you're not of the world. He's not talking about the physical
world. The physical world actually shows
forth the glory of its creator. He's talking about the religion
and the values and the philosophy and the things of this world
that lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes and the pride of
life. And there's something about that stranger in us that's attracted
to this world and yet we love not the world. And so we cry, Lord save me,
deliver me, rid me from these strange children who speak lies
and vanity. And their right hand is the right
hand of falsehood. Lord, I don't want to get caught
up in that. All the world's telling us every time we turn around,
what's the world say? Well, if you don't have this,
you can't be happy. What happens when God comes down? Well, let's
go down to the last verse. Verse 15. Happy is that people
that is in such a case a happy is that people whose God is the
Lord. We know the Lord's come down.
when He makes us content with Him. We're just happy, just content,
blessed to have Christ. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
rend the heavens, Lord come down. There's no way we can come to
where you are. Lord, you're going to have to
bow all the way down here. Make us to be blessed, happy,
content with Christ. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. 3434 number 34. Let's stand together.