Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 24 from the Spiral Gospel Hymns Hymnbook,
number 24, Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. Let's all stand together. Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our
righteousness. We love to call you by that name,
our Savior Christ Jesus. Jehovah Sidkenu, the God-man
live for us, bringing eternal righteousness which God imputes
to us. Jehovah Sidkenu, our substitute
who died. Your blood has put away our sin,
and we are justified. Jehovah Sidkenu, Your love has
won our praise. Trusting your blood and righteousness,
we're saved by your free grace. Jehovah Sidkenu, we stand in
you alone our only fitness before god is in our lord his son jehovah
♪ The Lord our righteousness ♪
Christ Jesus you alone we call ♪ The Lord our righteousness
Please be seated. Good evening. I'm going to be
reading from Psalm 1, 18 for our call to worship. You know, there's a bright side
of these mask. Some of you all look better with
them on. Oh, I hope we don't have to do this
long. But I'm thankful we have an opportunity to be back together. Psalm 118, beginning of verse
one. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord
for he is good. Because his mercy endureth forever. Let Israel now say that his mercy
endureth forever. Let the house of Aaron now say
that his mercy endureth forever. Let them now that fear the Lord
say that his mercy endureth forever. Now notice the word endureth
is in italics. And he gives the idea that mercy
has a beginning and lasts forever. But the word endures not in the
text. His mercy is forever. In other
words, it never had a beginning and it never has an end. It's
everlasting. I called upon the Lord in distress. And the Lord answered me and
set me in a large place, the Lord is on my side, I will not
fear what man can do unto me. If God be for me, who can be
against me? The Lord taketh my part with
them that help me. Therefore, shall I cede my desire
upon them that hate me. It is better to trust in the
Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in
the Lord than to put confidence in princes. Our confidence is in our God,
who is able to do all things and does all things well. I want
us to pray together tonight. Most of you all have not met
Walter Gruber. You knew Cody, and Walter is
Cody's father. Walter and Betty moved to Mexico
in 1964 and didn't speak Spanish, believing that God had called
them to preach the gospel there. And they never left. They raised
their children there. And the Lord has, over the years,
raised up several gospel churches in and around Mérida, where Walter
has been all these years. Walter has just been diagnosed
with bone cancer. It's in advanced stages, and
he's not going to do any treatments. They're going to try to mitigate
the pain. And he told Betty, he said, the
one thing I look forward to is going to services on Wednesday
and Sunday. He said, if I can make it to
the doctor's office, I can make it to church. So dear, dear brother,
pray for Walter and for Betty. Their daughter, Lisa, is down
there helping to take care of them. Also, Jessica Clark had
her surgery Monday and had her colon resected and liver pump
put in for her cancer. She's doing, recovering. She's, Brad says she's doing
very well, spiritually and physically. Our daughter Jennifer goes to
Mayo tomorrow for. Some tests so. Got a lot of folks
pray for Lynn Nyberg. As you most of you know, Todd's
wife has had. Kidney disease all her life. And it has gotten to the point
to where she has to have a transplant. So they're going to go this week
and try to get her. on the list for transplant surgery. I called upon the Lord in my
distress and he heard my cry. Let's call upon the Lord. Our
merciful Heavenly Father, We come into thy holy presence thanking
you that we have thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as all
our righteousness before thee. Thank you for his precious shed
blood that has put away our sins and justified us in thy sight. Lord, thank you for the Holy
Spirit that gives faith and eyes to see and hearts to believe
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that you would send your
spirit tonight in power and that you would cause Christ to be
lifted up. That our hearts would be drawn to him and that our
faith would be placed on him and Lord that you would increase
us in faith and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless
your word to our hearts. We pray for Betty and Walter. Thank you, Lord, for the encouragement
that they've been over these years to your church and your
people and pray for your hand of mercy to be upon them and
for you to provide all that they need in these difficult days. Father, we thank you for the
successful surgery that you gave to Jessica Monday and pray for
your hand of strength and healing to continue to be on her and
thank you for the expression of rejoicing and hope and mercy
and faith that Brad and Jessica have been able to give in this
time. Father, we pray for Jennifer
and ask that you'd give the doctors the wisdom that they need to
make a good diagnosis and good treatment and give her strength
and grace. And Father, we pray for Lynn
and ask, Lord, that you would provide for her in this time
and that there would be a donor that would fit and, Lord, that
you would give her your hand of strength and healing. We ask it all in Christ's name
and for his sake. Amen. Number 168, your hardback teminal,
168. Let's stand once again. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing,
Thou art scattering, full and free. Showers the thirsty land
refreshing, Let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me,
let thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to Thee. I am longing for Thy favor, whilst
Thou art calling, O call me, even me. Even me, let thy blessing fall
on me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit,
Thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of Jesus' merit,
Speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not thy lost one bringing,
Bind my heart, O Lord, to thee. While the streams of life are
springing, Blessing others, O bless me. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 116? Psalm 116. Cyril and Lenore will be heading
back north Sunday, I think, right? We'll miss you guys. And Fred
and Mary Jane, I think, are leaving next week to go back up north. Always a sad time this time of
year when our snowbirds start flying north. But we'll miss
you. Psalm 116. Is a. Almost spontaneous heartfelt. Prayer of. Praise and faith. And rejoicing. Expressed to God. At a time of great difficulties. Yes, even death. We have rejoiced
in being able to understand these Psalms as they speak prophetically
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that our Lord was on
the cross for six hours, and yet we only have a few words
that are recorded in scriptures that he actually spoke during
that time. Yet we know that his heart and
was in constant fellowship with the father the entire time he
was there. And I just am certain that Psalm
116 is one of those prayers that he expressed to his father in
his time of death. That's really what this Psalm
is about. I've titled this Psalm, verse
10, you'll notice I believed therefore I have spoken. The Lord Jesus Christ. Had perfect
faith. He believed God. Till his dying
breath when he cried father into thy hands, I commend my spirit. He trusted the father to reward
him. For. the fulfillment of the covenant
promises that he was making ultimately in his death. The scripture said
he was obedient even unto death, yea, even the death of the cross.
So the work of the Lord Jesus Christ being accomplished for
the redemption of his people on Calvary's cross was a sacrifice
that he was offering to the Father. in obedience to the promise that
he had made to the father before the foundation of the world.
And in Psalm 116, our Lord is expressing his reliance upon
the father to raise him from the dead. Now, faith is expressed most clearly in prayer. That's
where we express our faith, is in our prayers. And James tells
us that we're to pray in faith. If any man, James chapter one,
if any man lack wisdom, and we know that the Lord Jesus Christ
is made of God to be our wisdom, so we're always seeking to know
more of the Lord Jesus Christ. And James says, if any man lack
wisdom, if you want to know more about Christ, let him ask of
God. But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering, for he that wavereth is like the waves of the sea
tossed to and fro. Let not that man think that he
shall receive anything from the Lord, for he is double-minded
and unstable in all of his ways. Now, what does that mean to be
double-minded and unstable in all our ways? Let me ask you
a question. Do you feel most of the time
that you're double-minded and unstable in all your ways? Do
you find yourself to be a contradiction to yourself? Do you find your
flesh warring against your spirit and your spirit against your
flesh so that you cannot be what you would be? That's every believer's
experience. That's not what James is talking
about when he says, let him ask in faith, nothing wavering for
he that wavereth is like the waves of the sea tossed to and
fro, double-minded and unstable in all of his ways. Let not that
man think that he should receive anything from the Lord. To be
double-minded, to be unstable in all of our ways, to be tossed
to and fro is to mix works and grace. That's what it is. It's to approach the throne of
God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ along with something that
you've done, some work that you've performed. In other words, just
to rely upon not only what God's done, but what you have done
for your access into the presence of God. You're coming before
the throne of God, not before the throne of grace, but before
the throne of law, and God says that that's being unstable. and
double-minded, and let not that man think that he shall receive
anything from the Lord. But they that come before him
must come in faith. If any man lack wisdom, let him
ask it of God, who gives to all men liberally and upbraideth
not, but let him ask in faith." What is it to ask in faith? It's
to come into the presence of God trusting that the Lord Jesus
Christ himself is all your righteousness and all your justification before
God. That's what it is to pray in
faith. Let me read a statement that I wrote. Faith is not believing
that you are going to get something from God. Faith is not coming into the
presence of God, believing that you're going to get what you
ask for, and if you just believe strong enough, God will reward
you for the strength of your faith, and He'll give you that.
That's not faith. No, James goes on to say that
You, you, you, you have not because you ask not, but when you do
ask, you ask a miss that you might consume it upon your own
lust. In other words, when we pray, we have to say, father,
if it be thy will, we don't, we, we often don't know what
God's will is in terms of, of, of things that we have in this
world. Oh, faith is not believing that you're going to get something
from God. Faith is believing that God gave
to his son everything that he asked for and that your only
hope to receive anything from God is to come into his holy
presence looking in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for all
of your righteousness and looking in faith to his shed blood on
Calvary's cross for all your justification before God. That's
what faith, that's what praying in faith is. And that's, that's how we come,
isn't it? That's how we come. And in that
regard, we would not dare enter into the presence of God and
present anything that we've done for our acceptance with God.
In that regard, we're, we're not double-minded. We're not
unstable. Faith looks to Christ alone for all the hope of our
salvation, for all our righteousness and all of our justification.
And faith believes that God gave to him everything he asked for,
everything he asked for. Because everything he asked for
was in perfect obedience with the will of God and was asked
for in perfect faith. Now Psalm 116 is the Lord Jesus
Christ pouring out his heart to the Father. And faith is you
and I, for us, faith is believing that what Christ is pleading
with his Father for here, the Father gave him. And the only
hope that we have for the Father to give us anything is to believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ was faithful and successful in everything
the Father sent him to do. That's why he said, I believed,
therefore have I spoken. I've expressed my heart to God
in faith. And in that regard, that's exactly
what we do. We can say, I believe, I do believe. I believe the Lord
Jesus Christ is the only hope. We just sang, we just sang Jehovah
said, can you, the Lord, our righteousness. I believe that
the, that if I have any righteousness before God, it's going to be
bound up 100% in him. And if there's any hope. any hope whatsoever that my sins
are going to be put away from the presence of God. They're
going to have to be covered by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, all my justification and all my righteousness. And
so let him ask in faith, in faith, nothing wavering for he that
wavereth is like the waves of the sea tossed to and fro, toss
to works, toss to grace, toss to works. Oh, no. We believe,
therefore, we have spoken. Turn to me to 2 Corinthians chapter
4, because Paul quotes from Psalm 116 in
2 Corinthians chapter 4. Look at verse six, for God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And when the light of the gospel
shines in our hearts, that light reveals us for what we are, so
that we're able to say, there's no righteousness in me, there's
nothing in me but sin. I have no claim on God. I can't
present anything before God in hopes that he would reward me.
And all my hope is that the glory of God is in the face of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure, this
precious oil in an earthen vessel. What's the earthen vessel? That's
our old man. That's our old nature. That's our idemic nature. That's
Jacob. That's how we're born. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the excellency of the power might be of God
and not of us. Whatever I get from God and whatever
prayers I'm able to express to God and whatever faith I have,
He gets all the glory for it. All I had to contribute was this
earthen vessel. We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed. Always bearing about the body,
in the body, the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. You see, this gospel
is constantly killing us, isn't it? It's constantly exposing
us for what we are. It's constantly causing us to
bow and to say, the Lord Jesus Christ is my life. You remember
where he gets the poor from? He gets the poor from the dust
of the earth. And we saw that in the Psalms
a couple of weeks ago, that we know that we're poor when God
makes us to see that we have no life outside of Christ. That
God, if I have any life before God, it's going to be the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. He is my life. Paul says this earthen vessel
reminds me, it's a constant reminder that I'm dead and that the only
life I have is the life that I receive from Christ. For we
which live, verse 11, are always delivered unto death for Jesus'
sake that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our mortal
flesh. Christ is my life. Paul said, I was crucified with
Christ. And this goes right along with this Psalm as the Lord Jesus
is, is crying out from the cross and, and, and, um, and he's,
he's offering up his life to the father for the sins of his
people. And Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. When Christ died,
I died. Nevertheless, I live yet. It's not I. It's Christ that
liveth in me. The life that I now live, in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. So it's His
faith. I believe, therefore I have spoken.
He's my righteousness. He's my justification. And I am brought constantly to
this point of death, acknowledging that I have nothing to contribute
to my salvation. So then death work within us,
but life in you, as we're brought to acknowledge our death, our
death brings forth life and that, and that crisis is going to get
all the glory for our life or he won't, or he won't be our
life. look at verse 13, we having the
same spirit of faith according as it is written I believed and
therefore have I spoken we also believed and therefore speak knowing that he which raised
up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall
present us with you so Paul's looking back to Psalm
116 as he's being inspired of the spirit of God to write. And
he said, as it is written, I believed, therefore I was spoken. I was, I was dead and yet now
I'm made alive. Faith, faith is believing that the Lord Jesus Christ Received
from the father everything that he asked God for everything. And that if you and I are going
to get anything from God, we're going to have to pray in faith,
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for all of our justification
and all our righteousness before God. So reread this prayer. Psalm 116. And the commentaries miss this.
I read what other men have written about scripture and it's amazing
how the self-professed theologians don't see Christ in this. Verse 1 of Psalm 116, I love
the Lord. because he hath heard my voice
and my supplication." The Lord Jesus is saying, Father, you've
heard everything I've asked you. Now we do love him. We love him. But we love him because he first
loved us. And, uh, and it is that love that constraint of
us. And it's the love of God that
calls us. And that's, and it's the goodness
of God that brings us to repentance. And, and, and, and yet here we
see the Lord Jesus Christ saying, I love my father because everything
I've ever asked him for, he's given to me everything I needed. He's provided. Because he hath
inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long
as I live. There's our hope, brethren. There's
our hope. We come before the throne of
grace, looking in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, believing
that God gave him everything that he asked for, and we can
come with confidence. Isn't that what scripture says?
that we're to come before the throne of grace with boldness. That word boldness means confidence,
not confidence in ourselves, not confidence even in our prayers,
but confident that the Lord Jesus Christ received everything he
asked the father for. What was the very first thing
the Lord Jesus asked the father for on Calvary's cross that we
have recorded in scripture that he asked verbally for, audibly
for? that we could hear and write
down, what was the first thing you said? Father, forgive them
for they know not what they do. How true is that? You and I don't
have a clue what sin is. We really don't. Our conscience
convicts us when we do something bad and do something wrong. But to understand that the Lord
Jesus Christ, the only one that understood what sin was, He's
the only one that felt the full shame of it. He's the only one
that felt the burden of it. He's the only one that knew how
offensive it was to God. You and I are so accustomed to
it. It doesn't bother us much, does it? Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. That's still true, isn't it?
But here's our hope. Here's our hope. We can come
into the presence of a holy God, knowing that the Father answered
all the supplications that the Lord Jesus Christ offered. And
the hope of us receiving forgiveness of sin is not based on how sorry
we are, or how repentant we are, or how much we're determined
to not do it again. But our hope of being forgiven
of sin is that he heard his supplication. And he put away the sins of his
people, once and for all. He hath inclined his ear unto
me. Look at verse three. The sorrows of death come past
me. The pains of hell gathered upon
me. I found trouble and sorrow. We taste a little bit of this
when the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin. When we come to
see that, that our sin is rooted in our own unbelief and that
if, and if the Lord Jesus doesn't stand in our stead, if he doesn't
bear our sins before God, if he doesn't put them away by the
sacrifice of himself and cover them by his shed blood, that,
that we'll go to hell. We'll, we'll never know God.
We'll never receive anything from God. And then, and to some
degree we experienced that, that hell has got hold of me or I
I'm, this is, this is a problem I've got that I can't do anything
about. You know, everything else we can make, we can make some
efforts to work things out. Can't we, but not this, not this
Lord, I've got a, I've got a sin problem with you that I'm going
to have to have Christ to, to solve for me. The sorrows of death come past
me, and the pains of hell gathered upon me. I found trouble and
sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. And we do. We call upon the name of the
Lord. Deliver me, Lord. Deliver me. But our faith, when we're calling
upon the name of the Lord, is not in our prayers. It's not
in our sincerity, it's not in our faith. We ask in faith, we
pray in faith, not wavering, not like the waves of the sea,
tossed to and fro, not being double-minded, looking to works
plus grace. No, we're believing that the
Lord Jesus Christ beseeched the Father on our behalf. And we're
looking to his accomplished work and his glorious person as the
hope of our salvation. I believed, therefore, I have
spoken. God has given us faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we can speak. We can
speak the truth about Christ. We can speak the truth about
ourselves. And we can speak to God. We can go into the very
presence of God. Not, not in faith, believing
that if we just believe hard enough that God will be obligated
to give it to us, but in faith, believing that if we're going
to get anything from God, it's going to because it will be because
of what the Lord Jesus Christ did. Gracious verse five is the Lord. and righteous. Yay. Our God is merciful. He's full
of grace. He's full of righteousness, and
he's full of mercy. You in need of that? You in need
of grace? Demerited favor? Grace? You don't have, you don't have
anything to do with it. It's a gift of God. Unmerited. How can we say it? It's all of
God. Grace, grace unto it. And mercy. Are you in need of
God too? You know what the difference
between grace and mercy is. Grace is that which God gives us that
we don't deserve and mercy is that which God withholds from
us that we do deserve. And we need both, don't we? We
need God to give us the gift of life and we need to him for
withhold us the curse of death. And that's what he does, grace
and mercy. Righteousness. Gracious is the
Lord and righteous, yeah, our God is merciful. And he delights
in showing mercy. He's not reluctant to show mercy. We come into the presence of
here. Here's the thing about it. God honors those who honor
his son. So when we come into the presence
of God, honoring the Lord Jesus Christ for all our standing before
God, God honors that prayer. If we come thinking, well, you
know, I just pray a little longer, pray a little harder and be a
little more sincere. Maybe if I shed a few tears,
maybe if I do a little bit over here, a little bit over there,
quit doing this, start doing that, make up what we're doing.
We're double-minded, unstable in all of our ways. Let not that
man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord. Look at verse six, the Lord preserveth
the simple singular. What did, uh, Paul
said, I fear less as Eve was deceived by the serpent in the
garden that you should be drawn away from that simplicity, that
simplicity, which is in Christ. The singularity of the Lord Jesus
Christ be in all our righteousness and all the hope of our salvation
and all of our access before God. He preserved the simple. I was
brought low. That's what the gospel does.
Does it? It brings us low. It kills us. It puts us to death. It shows us our inability to
bring anything before God. And it causes us to look to Christ
alone for all of our life. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
saying, I was brought low and he helped me. Oh, he was my God. My God. Why has thou forsaken
me? We don't, we don't know what
the Lord Jesus went through on Calvary's cross. We don't know
what that cup was that he drank from. We can't, we can't enter
into that. We can believe it. We can't feel
it. We can't understand it, not sufficiently. The spirit of God gives us a
little, a little experience, but we don't look to that experience. God said, believe. The Lord Jesus
Christ drank damnation dry. He drank the bitter dregs of
that cup when he prayed, father, if there'd be any way this cup
can pass from me, let it be nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.
And this Psalm goes on to say, talk about that cup. Verse seven, return unto thy
rest. Oh, my soul for the Lord have
dealt bountifully with thee. There's no place to rest other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our rest. The work was finished
before the foundation of the world, Hebrews chapter four.
And, and, and Christ is our rest. There's no, there's no rest.
There's no hope. There's no, there's no peace
outside of Christ. Return. How often we have to,
you see, we're, we're prone to wander, aren't we? We're prone
to be double-minded and to be unstable, not just between the
flesh and the spirit, but to kind of have those, you know,
there's a Pharisee in every one of us, isn't there? It's like
my brother Angus said, Angus Fisher, he said, I'm a whole
lot more concerned about that Pharisee in here than I am the
one out there. And he's there, isn't he? That's why we have to keep hearing
the gospel. Then I'm bringing us back to Christ. Oh, bring
me back to Christ. Show me that Christ is all I've
got and he's all I need. And he's all God's pleased with
God. Make me to be pleased with Christ,
Christ alone for the house delivered my soul.
Look at. Look at verse 7. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Return, return. How
many times do we have to return? How many times do you have to
return? Oh, we don't return as often as we should, do we? We
return a lot, don't we? We find ourselves. Our faith
is renewed, David. This is called sanctification.
It's being called being kept by God. It is the Lord that turns
us and causes us to return. And aren't you glad he does?
He's got us on a leash, doesn't he? And that's a good place to
be. Be God's dog on God's leash. And he can pull us back before
we, before we go over the brink. I'm so thankful for that. return
unto thy rest for thou has delivered my soul from death, mine eyes
from tears and my feet from falling. There's the Lord Jesus. When
he's crying, my God, my God, why is thou forsaken me? He's,
he's pouring out his soul to the father. Here's the father's
forsaken him. He's become sin when the holy
God saw our sin on his son, he had no choice but to forsake
him. And not just forsake him, but slay him. It pleased the
Father to bruise him. It was God that put the Lord
Jesus Christ to death because of sin. And now Christ is crying
out to the Father, but he's saying, in all of this forsaking, and
in all this burden, and all this sorrow, and all this sin that's
been piled on me, I know that my God is gracious. I know he's
righteous. I know he's merciful. I know
that he will preserve me. He will return me to my rest
and he will deliver me from death. How do you know that? Because
those things were promised in the covenant of grace and the
Lord Jesus Christ believed his father. And the only way you
and I are going to be delivered from death is look to Christ
who was delivered from death. He is the firstborn among many
brethren. That's a reference to his resurrection,
not his physical birth. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. Mine eyes from tears, my feet
from falling. Oh, how often we stumble and
what tears we shed in this world. Lots of lots of things to be
sorry about in this world, aren't there? There's sorrow and there's
death. And what do we read? What do
we read in the scriptures in the book of Revelation? In that
day, there'll be no more death. There'll be no more sorrow, no
more tears, no more sin. Why? Because just as the father
delivered the son, so he delivers all those who look to the son
and rest their hope in the son. Look at verse nine. Brethren, this is, this is more
real to me. I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living. When I awake in his likeness,
I shall be satisfied. Oh, to see him as he is and be
made like him, to walk with him in the land of the living, to
be without sin for this mortal to be made immortal. What else matters? What else
really matters? What does it profit a man if
he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? You know the world's
not concerned with these things. God puts on the hearts of his
children a concern for their soul and a hopelessness outside
of Christ for the salvation of their souls. They've got to have Christ. I
believe, therefore I've spoken. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded. I am absolutely persuaded that
he is able. I'm not, but he is. Verse 10, I believe therefore
have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said
in my haste. Now, don't misunderstand. This verse doesn't mean I said
hastily. This word haste means in my sorrow
or in the time when I was being pressed. This is Christ on the
cross. I said, when I was being pressed,
all men are liars. He's not saying I said hastily
now, you know what this means. We ought to be truthful people
to one another. We ought to be faithful to our
word, faithful to our promises. Uh, we. Isaiah says that God's
children don't lie when it comes to the gospel. They tell the
truth about God. They tell the truth about themselves.
They tell the truth about how it is that God's plead to save
centers. They don't lie. And yet. We're always. We're always covering
ourselves, aren't we? We the Lord's the only one. I made this statement a couple
weeks ago. It's good to have a filter. It's
good to have a filter between your mind and your mouth. I mean,
that's a good thing. But you know, God doesn't have
to have a filter. He did. We do. Why? Because all men are liars. And
we don't want people to... David spoke in one of the Psalms,
I think Psalm 72, he said, if I told other people what I was
thinking, it would just be a discouragement to them. People don't want to know what's
in your heart. You got things in your heart you can only talk
to God about. Why? Because we're all a bunch of
liars. God alone tells the truth. And here's the Lord Jesus. He
says, I said, when I was pressed, I'm looking for some deliverance.
I'm looking for some help. I'm looking for someone to help
me. But I look around and all men are liars. They've all forsaken
me. I can't trust them. Not to save me. And you and I
can't say we can't save each other. We can't look to men to
save us. What shall I render? Look at
this. This is glorious. I may come back to this verse
Sunday and preach a message on it. There's just so much in this. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all his benefits toward me? Now here's the question. What can I give to God for all
that he's blessed me with? And I want you to notice the
answer. I will take. And I will call. Now, is that giving? The question
is, what can I give to God for what he's given to me? And the
answer is, I'm going to take from him the cup of salvation. I'm going to call upon the name
of the Lord. I've got nothing I can give God. All I can do
is take from the cup of salvation. How do we take from the cup of
salvation? We look to the one who drank that cup dry. That's what we do. That's how
we take from the cup of salvation. How do we call upon the name
of the Lord? We call upon the one who called upon his father
and said, father, I will love you because you have heard all
my supplications. What shall I give to the Lord?
What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward
me? And the self-righteous religionists will say, well, I'm going to,
you know, I'm going to start serving God. I'm going to do
more for God. I'm going to read my Bible more, and I'm going
to do those things. You know, Lord, we ought to be
reading our Bibles more. We ought to be praying more,
and we ought to be doing more. But don't look to that as rendering
back to God for his benefits, take from the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord. He's the giver and we're
the receiver. God doesn't need anything from
us. Oh, but how much we need from him. I will take the cup of salvation
and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto
the Lord now in the presence of all of his people. And that's
exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ was doing on Calvary's cross.
He had made a vow. He had made a promise with his
father back before the stars were made, before the angels
were created. In eternity past, when there
was no time, the Lord Jesus Christ stood as our surety before his
father in the covenant of grace and promised to redeem those
whom God had chosen. And now he's saying on the cross,
I am paying my bowels in the sight of all the people. This
thing was not done in a corner. This thing was done publicly.
The Lord Jesus Christ paying to his, he wasn't paying anything
to us. Christ didn't die on Calvary's
cross to make us an offer of salvation. He died on Calvary's
cross to make himself an offering to the father for the salvation
of his people. And the father accepted what
he did. And we'll finish with verse 15.
Look at verse 15. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. When did all the saints of God
die? When did they die? I've already
quoted that passage from Colossians where Paul said, I am crucified
with Christ. Every one of God's elect was
in Christ. We were, we were in his, we were
his seed in him and precious in the sight of God was the death
of all of his saints. When do we die? We die daily. We just read that over there
in second Corinthians chapter four, when Paul quoted from this
passage and he said, I die daily. We're brought to recognize our
own spiritual deadness before God that we might receive life
in Christ. And that's done daily. He renews
our faith day by day. And then one day it is appointed
unto man once to die. And after that, the judgment. One day God is going to cause
us each to draw our last breath and precious will it be in his
sight. When he ushers us into his presence and into glory.
Precious. In the eyes of the Lord. Or the
death. Of his Saints. Our merciful Heavenly Father. We ask that you would increase
our faith. Cause us Lord to rest all our
hope. In the Lord Jesus Christ. Fortune
his name we pray. Amen. Number 224 let's stand together
224. I know not why God's wondrous
grace To me he hath made known, Nor why unworthy Christ in love
Redeemed me for his own. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not how this saving faith
♪ To me he did impart ♪ ♪ Nor how believing in his word ♪ ♪
Brought peace within my heart ♪ ♪ But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded ♪ ♪ That he is able to save me ♪ Keep that
which I've committed unto Him against that day. I know not how the Spirit moves,
convincing men of sin, revealing Jesus through the Word, creating
faith in Him. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not what of good or ill
may be reserved for me. of weary ways or golden days
before his face I see. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him against that day. I know not when my Lord may come
at night or noonday fair, nor if I'll walk the veil with Him
or meet him in the air. But I know whom I am believeth
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day.