Oh. 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! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze 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 evening. Let's open our
Bibles together to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. Peggy, good to have you back. We'll begin reading in verse
one. The Lord is my light and my salvation. All the light we
have comes from Christ and all of our salvation is accomplished
by him. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Problem is, we all do experience
fear, don't we? We lose sight of who Christ is. When the wicked, even mine enemies
and my foes, come upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled
and fell. Though a host should encamp against
me, my heart shall not fear, though war should rise against
me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the
Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of
the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble,
He shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me, and he shall set me upon a rock. Christ is that tabernacle that
he hides us in. He's the rock on whom we stand,
and it's a secret place. And if the Lord doesn't reveal
Christ to our hearts, he will remain a mystery to us. We've
come here tonight in hopes that the Lord will assuage our fears
and give us hope once again in Christ. So let's let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father, we desire to worship you in spirit
and in truth because you've put that desire in our hearts. Lord, we are completely dependent
upon you to reveal Christ in us. and make him to be all the
hope of our glory, all our salvation, and all our desire. Lord, you've
given us here in your word the place where that happens, to
desire to be in thy temple, beholding thy glory and thy beauty. Lord, open what no man can shut,
open your word, open our hearts, Open the windows of heaven. Reveal
to us the glory of Christ. Give us faith to rest our hope
in him. Forgive us, Lord, for all the
unbelief that remains in our old man and that manifests itself. In our life. And thank you, Lord,
that. Crisis sufficient. To put away
all our sins. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. Number 29 in the Spiral Hymn
Book, 29. Hallelujah, God has saved me,
number 29. Let's all stand together. I was lost and did not know it,
rushing madly to my end. But my God, who's rich in mercy,
would not let me die in sin. Hallelujah, God has saved me,
Saved me by His sovereign grace. Jesus died, the Spirit called
me, I am saved by sovereign grace. Chosen by my Heavenly Father
and redeemed by Jesus' blood, I am justified, forgiven, and
accepted by my God. Hallelujah! God has saved me, saved me by
His sovereign grace. Jesus died, the Spirit called
me, I am saved by sovereign grace. God the Spirit came in power,
gave me life and set me free. He revealed my blessed Savior. and created faith in me. Hallelujah! God has saved me, saved me by
His sovereign grace. Jesus died, the Spirit called
me. I am saved by sovereign grace. God has saved me and will keep
me By the power of His grace He will guide, guard, and protect
me Till I see my Savior's face Hallelujah, God has saved me
Please be seated. Only kind of grace there is,
isn't it? If it's not sovereign, completely of His choosing and of His control,
then it's not grace. If man has any contribution to
make whatsoever to his own salvation, it's not of grace. Sovereign
grace, free grace, that's the kind of grace I'm interested
in, the grace that gives to our God all the glory and all the
credit. I was thinking today that most religious opinions among
men are sort of like a team sport where the team wins and after
the win all the members of the team hold up the star player
and the star player gets, you know, gets the glory and then
they interview the star player and the star player uh, of course,
diverts the glory and the credit to his team members and saying,
there was no way I could have done it by myself. And, uh, and
everybody knows the star player could not have won the game by
himself. He had to have the participation
and the cooperation of the other players of the team in order.
Well, you know, that's what man made religions like. They hold
their little Jesus up as the star player. But everybody knows
that he couldn't have got the victory by himself. He had to
have their participation and their cooperation in order for
him to win. And that's not our Christ. No, he gets all the glory. He got the victory and won the
war over sin and over death and over hell and over Satan and
over the grave. And he did it all by himself. We can't even, you know, in team
sports, even the spectators take some credit for the win, don't
they? We pulled our team through, you
know. We ratted them on and pulled
them through. We can't even take and we don't want to take any
credit for that, do we? Christ is all. He's all in our
salvation. I want to continue where we left
off Sunday. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
is all in our wisdom. If it's not for him, we have
no wisdom. We have no light. We have no
truth. And we have no advocate with
the father to present himself on our behalf. When we're confused
about most everything, Christ Jesus is all in our wisdom. He's all our righteousness. We
have no righteousness outside of him. Our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. We don't go about trying to establish
our own righteousness. We believe that Christ Jesus
the Lord is the end of the law for righteousness. Righteousness
is obedience and comply to the letter of God's law. We've not
been able to keep God's law, but Christ Jesus the Lord did.
He's all our righteousness. He's all our sanctification.
all our holiness, all the setting apart was done by Christ for
Christ. He gets all the glory and, uh,
whatever he enables us to do in this life, uh, causing us
to will and to do after his good pleasure. Christ is all he's
all our redemption. We're not seeking to try to redeem
ourselves. We look to the shed blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ as the only payment that God Almighty
is satisfied with, the precious blood of Christ. We've not been
bought with silver and gold. We've not been bought by our
works or by our will. We're bought by the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all in our redemption before
God. We know that every breath we
draw, we're dependent upon him for. We know that. We know that the next beat of
our heart is dependent upon him. Life is in the hands of the Lord,
and he will bring it to an end when he's pleased to. But how
easy it is for us to lose sight of that. How easy it is for us
to lose sight that Christ is all, not only in the spiritual
truths of our salvation, but he's all in the physical life
that we have in this world. He's all we have. As I said Sunday,
Christ is only all when he's all you have. And what the Lord
has done in his loving mercy, in his In His gracious providence,
He has ordained for us times and circumstances that put us
in the place to where we've got no place else to turn but to
Him. And that's a good place to be.
That's a good place to be. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 12. The Lord is merciful to show
us from time to time and remind us from time to time that Christ
is all we have to sustain us in this life. And what a blessed thing it is
when he brings us to the end of ourselves and we've got no
place else to turn. We've got to depend completely
upon him. Second Corinthians chapter 12, beginning of verse seven, and
lest I should be exalted above measure. And that's what happens
to us. We get exalted above measure. We forget our dependence upon
the Lord. We become presumptuous. David
said in Psalm 19, he said, Lord forgive me of my presumptuous
sins. How presumptuous we are. I'm presumptuous more than I'm
faithful. I just presume upon the Lord
for my next breath, and for my next meal, and for my next day
of life. We go through life and we forget. Paul said, lest I should be exalted
above measure. The Lord is not going to let
that happen. He knows how to humble his children,
doesn't he? And it's a good thing. It's a good thing to be humbled.
Lest I should be exalted above measure, though the through the
abundance of revelation and the Lord has given us an abundance
of revelation. Oh, he's he shined the light
of the gospel on the pages of his word and revealed the glory
of Christ and showed us our our need for Christ and showed us
how Christ is all and every part of our salvation. There was given to me a thorn
in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should
be exalted above measure. Now, every child of God can relate
to that. Now, I don't know what this, the more I grow in grace
and the more I understand of the gospel, the more light the
Lord gives me, the more I wonder whether or not this thorn in
the flesh was anything physical at all. Our thorns in the flesh are much
more painful the ones that are spiritual. The temptations for
sin, the unbelief that remains in our old man, old wretched
man that I am. I'm thinking more and more this
didn't have anything to do with a physical malady. It had everything
to do with his desire to believe God with all of his heart and
his inability to do that. At the end of Romans chapter
seven, Paul said, therefore, with the flesh, with the mind,
I serve the law of God, but with the flesh, I serve the law of
sin. The will is present with me, but how to perform that which
is good, I find not. For when I would do good, evil
is ever present with me. Oh, wretched man that I, I'm
thinking that's the thorn in the flesh, because that's the
thorn in my flesh. And, It's a lot more painful to the
child of God to experience that thorn than it is a physical problem. And he says that Satan buffeted
me with this. And that's what Satan does, isn't
it? He's the accuser of the brethren. He's the one that continues to,
Lord, lead us not into evil. That's our constant prayer. Deliver
us from the evil one. He's our thorn in the flesh. Lest we should be exalted above
measure, we're reminded every day of our weakness when the
Lord reveals to us by his spirit our sin and our unbelief. For this thing I besought the
Lord thrice that it might depart from me. Lord, just take this
unbelief away. Take the sin out of me. Give
me the ability to walk as I would. Later he wrote, the spirit wars
against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit so that we
cannot be what we would be. That's our experience, isn't
it? It's a spiritual warfare. And he said unto me, and he says
to you, and he says to me, my sovereign, free, omnipotent grace
is sufficient for thee. I'm what you need, not to be
delivered from that thorn, but you need my grace for my strength,
the Lord speaking, my strength is made perfect in your weakness. You see, it's a blessing when
God shows us our weakness. It is. It's a blessing when God
humbles us. It's a blessing when that thorn
in the flesh pricks us. And then the Lord, in his good
providence, puts us in a place where we just can't do anything.
Otherwise, we're... We've gone a few days at our
house without rain. All these storms, they get to
I-4. We live one mile on the other
side of I-4. They get to I-4, I'm watching
them on the radar. And between I-4 and our house,
they split. And I actually got aggravated
the other day. You know, I'm needing some rain, I'm waiting
for some rain, and it's right there, and then all of a sudden,
just before it gets to my house, it splits. And as soon as I got aggravated,
the Lord reminded me of Jonah, getting mad at God for killing
his gourd. and taking away his shade. That's
exactly what I was doing. Whether you get aggravated, you
know, Bert, you get in the middle of a paint job and all of a sudden
the sky opens up and rain starts coming down, you know, and you
get aggravated, don't you? What did, uh, when the Lord spoke
to Samuel and told Samuel what he was going to do and Eli's
family and Eli told made Samuel tell him, you tell me what God
said to you. If you don't tell me what God
said to you, then what God said in judge Samuel knew it was against
him and his family. His boys often in Phineas were,
were bad priest and, and, um, And Eli told him, or Samuel told
Eli, I said Samuel, Eli's boys, that the judgment of God was
gonna come against this house. What did Eli say? What did Eli
say? It's the Lord. Let him do whatever
seems right in his eyes. We're just not like that most
of the time, are we? More often than not, we get mad
at God because things don't go the way we think they ought to
go. And that's when the Lord just pricks us with a thorn in
our flesh and reminds us of our weakness and says to us, my strength
is made perfect in your weakness. You can't sustain your faith
any more than you could earn it to begin with. Just as you
were. birthed into the kingdom of God
by a miracle of grace and the power of the spirit of God. So
you are kept by a miracle of grace and the power of the spirit
of God. And it's a good thing for us
to be reminded. Christ is all I have is all I
have. My strength, God says, is made
perfect in your weakness. It's not until you are unable
that my strength is glorified. Most gladly, therefore, Paul
says in verse nine, will I rather glory in my infirmities that
the power of Christ may rest upon me. That's what I need. I need the power of Christ to
rest upon me. Lord, I can't defeat Satan. I
can't resist sin. I can't have faith. I can't do anything. I need Christ.
Now glory in my infirmities and confess my inability before God
that his strength may be perfect because Christ is what I need.
He's who I need. Verse 10, therefore, I take pleasure
in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities. These things are necessities.
You know, how often the Lord puts these necessities in our
lives. You know, maybe it's a, maybe it's a sick child or rebellious
child or a lost child. And the parents just at their
wits end, Lord, I just don't know what to do. My strength
will be made perfect in your weakness. This was necessary
in order to bring you to the end of yourself, that Christ
might be formed in you and that he might get all the glory. Persecutions and distresses for
Christ's sake. You see that in verse 10? This
is all for Christ's sake. It's all for his glory. For when I am weak, Then I'm
strong. I am become a fool in glorying. You have compelled me for ought
to have been commended of you. For in nothing am I behind the
very chiefest apostles though I be. Nothing. They were discounting the preaching
and teaching of the apostle Paul as if he didn't measure up to
the authority of the other apostles. in the church of Corinth. And
Paul said, I'm a fool having to say these things about myself
because I'm nothing, but the Christ might be formed in you.
Psalm 72 verse 12 says, for he shall deliver the needy when
he crieth. The Lord's merciful to bring
us to the end of ourselves in those places where, Lord, I don't
know what to do. I don't know what to do. He delivers the needy when he
crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper. Lord, I
don't have anybody to help me. I look to my right hand, I look
to my left, no man can deliver me. I can't deliver myself. You're
all I've got. And he says, my strength is going
to be made perfect in your weakness for when you are weak, then you'll
be strong. When you give up, then Christ
will get all the glory. Hebrews chapter 13, verse six
says, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. We may boldly say with confidence,
the Lord is my helper so that I will not fear what men can
do unto me. All that God would give us, give
us that grace. We're rarely there. We need the
humbling ministry of the Holy Spirit. through the preaching
of the gospel and in God's good providence to bring us to that
place to where Christ is all. All I've got is all I've got. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter
30. Proverbs chapter 30. Look at verse eight, remove far
from me vanity and lies. The empty promises of this world,
the empty vanity of my own flesh, the, the, the, the empty lies
of man-made works, freewill religion, Lord, remove those things from
me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient
for me. What is that food that's convenient
for us? Oh, it's the bread of life. It's
the manna that's come down from heaven. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's his body that we eat, looking
to his life for all our righteousness. It's his blood that we drink,
looking to his death on Calvary's cross for all of our justification
before God, all of our redemption. That's the food that's convenient
for us. Lord, if you give me riches, I'll forget my need for
that, for him, I will. That's why it's so hard for a
rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle. And what the disciples say, who
then, Lord, can be saved? Well, the Lord say, to man, it's
impossible, but to God, all things are possible. I can get a camel
through the eye of a needle, and I can get a rich man into
heaven, but he's gonna be poor first. He's going to be stripped
of all of his righteousness and all of his glory and all of his
independence. And I'm going to put him at the
feet of Christ. That's where we have to be. That's
where Ruth was, isn't it? Naomi told Ruth, she said, you
go to the threshing floor. What's the threshing floor? That's
where the wheat was separated from the chaff. That's where
we're at right now. This is the threshing floor.
This is where the gospel is preached. And those who believe, bow and
rejoice. And those who don't, either disregard
the message or get angry. But this is the threshing floor.
And Naomi told Ruth, said, you go, go, go and lie at his feet. For I know that man, he will
not rest until he has finished the work this day. And that's
all she did. She just lied at his feet. He
uncovered his feet, lied at his feet. He woke up, and what'd
he do? He was gonna redeem her. Boaz was Ruth's kinsman redeemer. Boaz is Christ. Ruth is me and
you. What are we to do? Just lie at
Christ's feet. The Lord saved me. I can't save
myself. Ruth was destitute. What had
to happen? Boaz said to Ruth, there is a
kinsman nearer to you than me. And the law required that that
kinsman have an opportunity to redeem Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law. And so
what did Boaz do? He got 10 elders together. What
are those number 10? That's the law, isn't it? And
they met together at the gate of the city. And Boaz said, Naomi
has come back. Elimelech has died. Naomi needs
to have her land redeemed. And you're the kinsman redeemer.
And the kinsman redeemer said, I'll do it. And Boaz said, by
the way, in the day in which you redeem Naomi, you also have
to redeem that Moabitess that came over here with her, Ruth.
And what did the kinsman redeemer say? No, I can't redeem her. I'll mar my inheritance if I
take a Moabite into my family. And that's what the Lord said.
That's what the law says. I can't redeem you. You're a
Moabitist. If I redeem you, I'll have to
lower my standard. The law can't redeem. And so
Boaz reckoned with the law, right there among those 10 elders. And then Boaz, as a type of Christ,
as the kinsman redeemer, he bought the land back and he married
Ruth. That's what the Lord Jesus has
done for us. How'd all that start? Ruth lying at the feet as a destitute
woman, depended upon Boaz to be kind and merciful and gracious
to her. That's what we are, brother.
And the Lord gives us these thorns in the flesh. The flesh is the
thorn in the flesh. Is that your thorn in the flesh?
Your flesh? No place where Paul talks about
his flesh does he say, you know, that makes sin okay, or that
excuses sin. No, we take full responsibility
for our inability and our sinfulness before God, don't we? James said,
let no man say when he sins that God made me do it. I got a letter from somebody
recently. And they said, I've heard people say the devil made
me do it, but I've never heard anybody say God made me do it
until I heard you. I never said that, but that's
how they interpreted it. We hold up the Lord in his rightful
place. No, God never made anybody sin. We sin when we're drawn away
of our own lust, and lust is conceived of bringing forth sin,
and sin bringing forth death, and we're fully responsible for
our own sin, aren't we? Don't blame God for our sin. And yet we acknowledge the fact
that, Lord, my best efforts, my best efforts are fraught with
my unbelief. Lord, this thorn in the flesh
will never goes away. Why? That we not be exalted above
where we ought to be. That we be kept humble and dependent
upon Christ. That Christ might be formed in
us. Lord, I've got to have Christ. I've got to have him. He's all
I've got. And so Solomon, the wisest man
in the world, other than the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, Remove,
verse eight of Proverbs chapter 30, remove far from me vanity
and lies, give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food
convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say,
who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and
take the name of my God in vain. Lord, give me that food that's
convenient for me. I've got to have Christ. David said in Psalm 118 verse
9 verse 8, it's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence
in man. And yet how much confidence we
have in ourselves. How much they see every time,
every time we get confident in ourselves, the Lord humbles us,
doesn't he? Paul said in Philippians chapter
3 verse 3, we are the true circumcision, which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. When do we have no confidence
in the flesh? We have a lot of confidence in our flesh most
of the time. When is it that we have no confidence in the
flesh? When we are worshiping God in the spirit and rejoicing
in Christ Jesus, then we have no confidence in the flesh. Right
now, every child of God is saying, Lord, I've got no confidence
in me. I've got to have Christ. You all have God, all have God.
And we'll leave this place and we'll forget it about that quickly,
won't we? Hebrews chapter 3 verse 14, we
are partakers of Christ if, if we hold the beginning of our
confidence to the end. What is the beginning of our
confidence? Christ is the beginning of our confidence. Lord, I can't
keep your law. I can't put away my sin. I can't
redeem myself. I can't set myself apart. This
is not a team sport effort. Lord, you're gonna have to do
it all by yourself. And we have confidence holding
the beginning. of our trust in Christ to the
end. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
four. Here's what we want to be, what
we so rarely are, and yet our God His soul full of mercy. He's so kind. He. He sends his spirit and power
through the preaching of the gospel. Reminds us of these things. Most of the time. Most of the
time we're we're like Peter, aren't we? Walking on the water. Taking our eyes off of Christ
and the Lord has to. Bring us near grounding. Near
grounding. Lord, I'm going to drown. Lord,
save me, save me. And immediately the Lord reached
down, picked him up. Philippians chapter four, Paul said in verse 10, but I
rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at the last, your care for
me hath flourished again, wherein you were also careful, but you
lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of
want, For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith, to be
content. Now that's growth in grace. Oh,
that, Lord, to be able to say, Lord, I've learned in whatsoever
state I'm in to be content. I know both how to be abased
and I know how to abound. Everywhere, in all things, I
am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound
and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me. When is Christ's strength made
perfect in us? When we have no strength. When
we have no strength. When we are yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. What a blessing it is when God
in His providence and by His Spirit causes us to see that
Christ is all. He's all. Jairus was brought
to that place, wasn't he? Bother the master no more, your
daughter's dead. And the Lord looked at Jairus
and said, be not afraid, only believe, only believe. Isaiah went to King Hezekiah
and told King Hezekiah, set your house in order for this sickness
is unto death. And Hezekiah turned his face
to the wall. It was on his deathbed. And he
wept and cried out to God, And then Isaiah came back to him
and said, the Lord has heard your prayer. He's heard your
prayer. He's seen your tears and he's
extended your life by 15 years. Oh, Hezekiah had no place else
to go. No place else to go. That's a good place to be. What Moses say, Lord, I can't
leave these people. Lord, if you don't go with us,
leave us right. Don't take us from this spot
unless you're going with us. We can't do this. That's my constant
prayer. I think the Lord brings this
truth home to the hearts of his preachers more than anybody,
because there's no way I can get in this pulpit, try to preach
the gospel to you. Without a full confession of
my total inability before God, or do you going to have to, if
this is going to, this is going to be blessed to the Lord. You're
going to have to do it. You're going to have to enable me to
speak. You're going to have to open
the hearts and ears of your people. You're going to have to bless
it. Otherwise it's all in vain. It's all in vain. Christ is always all. We lose sight of that. We become
confident and presumptuous and the Lord in his mercy. Pricks
that thorn in our flesh and reminds us every day. You have no strength
outside of me. You have no ability outside of
me. and then his strength is made
perfect in our weakness. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your mercy towards your Children. We know that as a father pitieth
his Children, so you pity of them that love you. Lord, pity us, have mercy upon
us and forgive us and keep us looking to Christ for everything. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. Number 2 36. Let's stand together. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see. Was grace that taught my heart
to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils and
snares, I have already come. T'was grace that brought me safe
thus far, And grace will lead me home. When we've been there ten thousand
years, bright shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's
praise than when we'd first begun.