Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with number 32 from the Spiral Hymnbook, number 32. In
Christ we are free. Let's all stand. All children of wrath In bondage
and sin We helplessly lay Condemned and unclean God's law in its
infinite Justice and wrath Demanded we suffer An eternal death But
long before time had ever begun, One stood in our place, God's
glorious Son. He offered himself to go live
among men, And give his own life to atone for our sin. The great substitute, behold
he has come. The price has been paid, the
work is all done. Christ took on himself the great
load of our sin. He poured out his blood and he
put away sin. God's justice and law are now
satisfied, and all who believe have been justified. Through faith in the blood of
the Lamb, we are free from sin's condemnation, eternally free. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 99. Psalm 99. Good evening. Verse one. The Lord reigneth. Let the people tremble. He sitteth
between the cherubims. Well, we know what's between
the cherubims, don't we? The mercy seat. He sitteth between
the cherubims. Let the earth be moved. And that word is the word stagger.
Let the word stagger at the presence of our God. The Lord is great
in Zion and he is high above all the people. Let them praise
thy great and terrible name for it is holy. The king's strength
also loveth judgment. Thou dost establish equity. Thou
executeth judgment and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt ye the Lord our
God and worship at his footstool, for he is holy. Moses and Aaron
among his priests, Samuel among them that call upon his name,
they called upon the Lord and he answered them. He spake unto
them, in a cloudy pillar. They kept his testimonies and
the ordinances that he gave them. Thou answerest them, O Lord our
God. Thou wast a God that forgave
us them, though thou tookest vengeance on their inventions."
I love that word. Everything that's contrary, everything
that comes from man is an invention. Exalt the Lord our God and worship
at his holy hill. For the Lord our God. Is holy. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're thankful that you've put it in our hearts to have a desire
to worship you. We come before you in the name
of thy dear son. And we ask Lord that you would
enable us to worship in the power of your spirit. We pray that
your Holy Spirit would, would teach us meaning of your word and cause
us to find our hope in the one that your word reveals. For he alone is holy. and it's
in his name that we pray, amen. Number 176 from the hardback
teminal, 176. Let's all stand together again. Break thou the bread of life,
dear Lord, to me, as thou didst break the loaves beside the sea. Throughout the sacred page, I
seek thee, Lord. My spirit pats for thee, O living
Word. Bless thou the truth, dear Lord,
to me, to me, as thou didst bless the bread by Galilee. Then shall all bondage cease,
all fetters fall, and I shall find my peace, my all in all. Thou art the bread of life, O
Lord, to me. Thy holy word, the truth that
saveth me. Give me to eat and live with
thee above. Teach me to love thy truth, for
thou art love. O spend thy spirit, Lord, now
unto me, that he may touch my eyes and make me see. Show me the truth concealed within
thy word, And in thy book revealed I see the Lord. Please be seated. Our primary text tonight will
be found in Psalm 86, and we'll begin at verse 14. And by way of introduction, I'll
be reading some verses out of Philippians chapter two, Philippians
chapter two and Isaiah chapter 86. We walk by faith, not by sight. The faith that we have is a gift
from God. enabling us to believe God. Without
faith, it is impossible to please God. They that cometh to him
must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. Our faith is fraught with failures. We have a body of death that
we carry around with us that's always resisting that which we
know is true. And we're always in need of our
faith to be encouraged and to be increased. The disciples asked
the Lord, Lord, increase our faith. enable us to believe you
more fully. Nothing encourages the faith
of a child of God more than seeing the faithfulness of the Lord
Jesus Christ himself. Nothing causes the child of God
to say, why would not I believe everything that he believed?
He had perfect faith. If it's not a faith, the scripture
says, it's sin. And the thing that distinguishes
us from the Lord Jesus Christ is that he was without sin. He
believed God perfectly. In our text, Psalm 86, we have
an expression of our Lord's faith. And my hope tonight is that we
will find ourselves rejoicing in his perfect faithfulness and
seeking to follow after him. I've titled this message Perfect
Faith. The word faith means firmness. It means fidelity. It means steadfastness. It means trust. It means to believe
something and be convinced that it's true. Convinced that it's
true. The Lord convinces us that he
is the Christ, the son of the living God. And in that regard,
we believe, we're steadfast. We don't waver. We know who the
Lord Jesus Christ is, and we know for sure what he's accomplished. And we have no place else to
go but to him. To not believe what the Lord
Jesus Christ believed is pure insanity. It's pure insanity. And yet it's a testimony of how
unstable and how insane we are that we don't believe God as
we ought. Faith is most needed when it
is most challenged. When all the evidence around
us says one thing and God says something else, that's when faith
is most needed. Abraham was 100 years old. Sarah was 90 years old. And the Lord promised them that
they were gonna have a child. And God uses Abraham and Sarah
as the father of the faithful, doesn't he? He believed God and
it was counted to him for righteousness. Scripture says in the book of
Romans that he staggered not at the promises of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, fully persuaded that he who promised
would also perform that which he promised. That's what faith
is. Faith is believing that who promised was able and would perform
that promise. So faith is most needed when
it's most challenged and it shines brightest when it's most challenged. We think about Naaman, that leper who came down from
Syria, heard that there was a prophet in Israel. And what did Elijah
say? Go wash yourself in the Jordan
River seven times. And what did Naaman say? Do I
not have better rivers than Damascus? Why would I want to wash? I thought
the man would come out and wave his hands and perform some ceremony. And his servant said unto him,
would you not believe if he had told you to do something? And
so he washed. Contrary to all the evidence,
he washed. Sort of like the servant that
went outside the house in Dothan and saw the army surrounding
the prophet and came in and said, what shall we do? What shall
we do? What did the prophet say? What
did Elijah say? They that are with us are more
than they that are with them. But faith was challenged. It
was challenged. And because all the evidence
was contrary to what God had said. Isn't that when our faith
is most challenged? Noah was commanded of God to
build an ark. And all these are mentioned in
Hebrews chapter 11, the chapter of the men and women of faith
in the Old Testament, Noah was commanded to build an ark. No
one had ever, ever, ever since the creation of the world seen
rain. Rain? It's going to flood? What's that? What's that? There
was no evidence in the world to confirm what God told Noah
was going to happen. Noah believed God, built the
ark. The greatest trial of your faith
and of my faith is yet to come. The evidence of faith is believing
God to the end. What is going to be the evidence
that's going to be confronting us on our deathbed? What's the
evidence? What's going to be all right?
Death. That's the evidence. We're going to be confronted
with death. The reality of death is still that challenge of faith.
There's one enemy. The scripture says left one enemy
left and that's death. And what is the promise of God
in death? They that believeth on me, though they die, yet shall
they live. So here we're confronted with one thing, and God's promising
something completely different. Completely different. And faith
is to believe God in spite of the evidence, in spite of the
physical circumstances that are around us. So it is with the Lord Jesus
Christ, and so it is in our text. Our Lord's faith was most challenged
on the cross. The evidence was that the father
had withdrawn his presence from him. The evidence was that everything
was leading to death. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ,
in spite of the evidence, believed God. And his faith shined most
brightly in that time of his life when everything around him
spoke contrary to what he believed. And yet he believed God. He believed
God. I said by way of introduction,
I wanted to read a passage out of Philippians chapter two. Brethren,
nothing encourages the faith of God's people more than seeing
the perfect faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. And no place do
we see his faith shine more perfectly than on the cross. Every evidence was contrary to
what he believed. And yet he believed God. And
so when the evidence in your life and in my life seems contrary
to what God has promised. Faith is just to say. It's the
Lord God said it. I believe. Look at. Philippians chapter 2 beginning
at verse 5. Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus. So as encouraged we are by someone
like Abraham or Noah or Elijah or Sarah. As encouraged as we
are by one another and we are to encourage one another in the
faith. There's nothing that encourages us to believe God more than when
we look in faith to that one who was most faithful and whose
faith was most challenged at the cross. And they believe me,
let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who
being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with
God. He, he knew that he was God.
And he knew that he wasn't blaspheming, as he was accused of, by claiming
to be God. For which of my works do you
persecute me? Which of my works do you want
to stone me? Not for your works, but for you, because you being
a man are making yourself out to be God. Christ thought it
not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no
reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was
made in the likeness of men. So here's the faith of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Behold my servant, this is the
servant of God, he came and he took upon him the likeness of
sinful men. We had to have a man, we had
to have a man stand in our stead before God. He had to be born
like us, he had to live like us, he had to die like us. And
yet he was born perfectly, he lived perfectly and he died perfectly. making of himself no reputation,
being a servant of God. He's a servant of God. Isaiah
asks this question, Isaiah 53, who hath believed I report? To
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? The strong arm of God is none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who believe the gospel
are those whom he has been revealed to. It's all God has to do to
cause us to believe, is show himself to us, doesn't he? That's
all he has to do. He doesn't have to convince us,
he just reveals himself. And so here we have Christ being
the servant of God, made in the likeness of sinful men, and being
found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Here's perfect faith. The Lord Jesus Christ came, though
he was God, he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, became
a man, took on all of our responsibilities, became our surety, bore our sins
in his body upon that tree, and was obedient to God even unto
death, yes, even the death of the cross. The shamefulness of
the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ suffered why? Because he believed
God. He believed God. Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name that is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,
things on earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. So the Lord, the Father, rewarded
the Lord Jesus. That was what he believed God
would do. That's what he believed. He went to the cross believing
that the Father would exalt him. He wasn't exalted in the eyes
of men. Go back, go with me now to our text. The proud are still rising up
against the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no fear in the hearts
of men. No fear of God. Look at, uh, look
at Isaiah chapter 86 at verse 14. Oh God. And this Psalm is a prayer. of the Lord Jesus Christ. A prayer
of David. That's how the psalm is titled. A prayer of David. And we saw Sunday how clearly
this represents the Lord Jesus Christ. I just, you know, we
have a few words recorded in scripture that the Lord spoke
audibly while he was hanging on the cross. Just a few. But
he was there for three hours. And what else? These are the prayers
that he has mentioned that he's offering up to the Father in
his heart. Oh God, the proud are risen against
me and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul
and have not set thee before them. There's no fear of the
one that has the authority to cast both body and soul into
hell. Men don't fear God. They don't believe the gospel.
They have no regard for the one that is able to present them
faultless before a holy God. They have no regard for Him.
And that's what He's saying. He's saying here, Father, I've
got nothing. In the day of our death, it's
going to become most clear. It's true now. It's true now. But when everything else is stripped
away from us, I remember Marvin Stoniker standing in this pulpit
years ago and telling us about his experience with Linda when
the Lord took her home, his wife. And one of the very last things
that Linda said to Marvin before she passed away was, I see more
clearly now than I ever have in my life that I've got nothing
but Christ and nothing but Christ. So faith shines most brightly
when it has no place else to go. And here we have the Lord
Jesus Christ is saying, everybody's turned against me. All the world
is standing in opposition to me. They have no regard for me. They've
despised me. They've rejected me. I am the
man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. The whole world is at
enmity with the only one that can save them. That's what our
Lord's saying here. He's saying, oh God, He's pouring
out His heart to the Father. What am I saying here? Nothing
encourages the faith of God's children more than to see the
faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one that believed
God. And you've heard me say it many
times, I'll say it again. It is finished was the next to
the last thing that the Lord Jesus Christ said from the cross.
The next to the last thing. Father into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. That was his last words. What
do we learn from that? That our Lord was faithful, he
believed God to his dying breath. And he gives us, this is our
hope. Our hope is that he's our faithful
advocate and that he's going to enable us to have faith. Turn with me to Psalm 22. Psalm 22. Here's what our Lord's saying.
He's, he's hanging on Calvary's cross. He's bearing the sins
of his people. His, his own disciples have,
have forsaken him. The father has forsaken him.
Death is confronting him. The, the, the, the, the bulls
of basin, as they're called are surrounding the cross and they're
wagging their tongues. And they're saying, if you'd
be God come down, he saved others. Can he not save himself? You
see all the evidence of him being exalted and given a name that
is above every name that every knee should bow and every tongue
shall confess. All the evidence of that was not there. It was
all gone. It was nothing in his circumstances.
All he had is all you've got. And it's all I've got. And that's
the promise of God. Abraham believed God and it was
counted him for righteousness. It's all we've got. The end of
the day. Everything, all the dust settles
and all the inventions of men go away and all the opinions
of men go away. All we've got is the promise
of God. But that's all we need. It's all He needed. That's all
He needed. You don't need any more than
He needed. Look at Psalm 22. We'll begin reading in verse
9, but thou art he that took me out of the womb, thou didst
make me hope when I was upon my mother's breast. How could,
how could God who created Mary, all things are created by him,
nothing was created, nothing was made that he didn't make.
How can we understand that? Here we have the incarnate son
of God on the breast of his mother whom he made. And he's fully
God. Fully God. He doesn't become
God when he becomes an adult. He's fully God when he's conceived
in the womb by the Holy Ghost. I don't understand that. But
I believe it. And here the Lord says, I was
cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's
belly. David said in Psalm 51, he said,
I was conceived in sin. I've been a sinner since I was
in my mother's womb and the Lord's saying here in Psalm 22, I was
conceived innocent by the Spirit of God and I've been trusting
the Father from my mother's womb. What an opposite contrast. So,
verse 11, be not far from me for trouble is near and there's
none to help. The Lord Jesus Christ is praying
in Psalm 22. He's saying, father, I don't
have anybody help me. He's saying the same thing in our texts in
Psalm 86. I don't want anybody else to go to. And when that greatest challenge
of faith comes to me and you, we're going
to find ourself in that same place, aren't we? Faith only shows itself when
it's needed. when it's needed, and it shines
most brightly when it's needed the most. Many bulls have come
past me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset
me about. They gaped upon me with their
mouths as a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water
and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted
in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws and thou hast brought
me into the dust of death. The Lord Jesus Christ, all the
evidence around him is completely the opposite of what he believed
to be true. But here he is calling out to
his father to save him, believing that God is faithful to his promises. Go back with me to our text. Oh God, the proud are risen up
against me. Oh, we've got so much pride,
don't we? Our pride doesn't take much for
our pride to come out when we are dealing with other men. But
when the Lord puts us in His presence, there's no pride there,
is there? There just isn't. You're not
going to be proud before God. But here's our Lord saying, the
proud are risen up against me. They're too proud to admit that
they don't have the power to believe. Are you too proud to
admit that? No. Lord, I can't believe you
if you don't enable me to believe. If you don't give me faith, I
won't have faith. If you don't turn me, I won't
be turned. If you don't save me, I won't be saved. It's not
by might nor by power, it's by your spirit, saith the Lord.
It's not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Lord, I'm not too proud. Not
in your presence, I'm a proud man. In the presence of other
men, I'll compete with men to try to show how much better I
am than others. But when I stand in the presence
of the Lord saying here, these men are proud before me, before
God. All pride goes away when God
brings you into his presence, doesn't he? You become as a little
child. Babies aren't proud. They don't
know to be proud. All they know to be is dependent.
unless she becomes a little child, she's not of the kingdom of God.
What's the Lord say? He says, the proud are risen
against me. They cannot admit, they're so
proud that they cannot admit that their best deeds are filthy
rags in the presence of a holy God. They can't admit it. They're
proud of their works. But Lord, We've done many wonderful
works in your name. We've cast out demons in your
name. Men by nature are proud before God. They're too proud
to see that their only hope to know God is for him to make himself
known to them. They're too proud to admit that.
They think, well, I can know God. I'll make an effort. I'll study. I'll read the books
on theology, I'll read the Bible, I'll figure out who God is. No,
you won't. Who hath believed, I report,
to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed? That's who believes. Men are too proud to admit that
the only way they're gonna know God is by the hearing of the
gospel. They think they're going to figure
it out on their own. They won't sit down and shut their mouths
and ask God to give them ears to hear. Let them who have ears
to hear hear what the Spirit hath to say to the churches.
Men are too proud to do that. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
saying here, the proud are surrounding me. They've risen up against
me. They're too proud to kiss the
son lest he be angry. They're too proud to make the
effort to come and bow before him in worship and to listen
to his word and to cry out for his spirit. They're too proud. And the Lord saying, father,
the proud have risen up against me. the assemblies a violent man
sought after my soul they have not set you before them or not
the Lord Jesus Christ and father you the only one I've got turned
to look at the that all these men there against me there against
you first 15 but Thou, O Lord, are a God full
of compassion. There's my hope. There's my hope. When my sin is against me, when
the accuser of the brethren is against me, when the world that
I live in is against me, when my circumstances are against
me, in spite of all the evidence that is contrary to the promises
of God, But God, who is rich in mercy, wherewith he has loved
us. That's what this word compassion
means. It has to do with affection, love. But God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, has been forsaken of God, been forsaken. The sky is
black. My God, my God, whilst thou forsaken
me, he's crying out to his father. But in spite of the fact that
he can't see his father, in spite of the fact that he can't hear
from his father, in spite of the fact that all the circumstances
around him are contrary to the father having compassion on him.
You see, the evidence of compassion would be that the father would
burst through those black clouds and send a legion of angels and
destroy the earth and deliver his son, his darling son. That
would be the evidence of the father's compassion. But none
of that's happening. None of that is happening. Just
the opposite's happening. The father's withdrawn himself.
The bull's abation are surrounding him. Men have no esteem for him. They've denied him. They've risen
up against him. They're proud. And here's what God says to me and
you. eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it entered
into the imagination of man the things that God has prepared
for them. But God hath revealed it unto
us by His Spirit." That's faith. In spite of the
fact that the natural eye can't see it, the natural ear can't
hear it, and that all the world is against it, God has revealed
the gospel and the glory of Christ to us by his spirit. Romans chapter 5 verse 8 says,
but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. There's our hope, brethren. We've
got an expression here of the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God saying to me and you.
Believe me. Believe me, my son, but it would
be. It would be insanity not to believe
what my son believed. He believed me. I was faithful
to him. God gave him a name that's above every name. And God's going
to give us a name that is above every name. The Lord I righteousness
union with Christ. in his presence in all of glory. I was thinking today about that
story in Daniel chapter 6 when Darius, whose name translated
means Lord, and Darius was the king of the Medes and the Persians
and his advisors hated Daniel. And so they devised a plan to
have Daniel put away. And they said, they brought this
plan to the king. They said for the next, I forgot,
I think it was seven days, 14 days, if any man ask of anything
other than from the king, he's to be put to death. And the king
thought, well, that's a good thing. We'll make that decree.
And the king wrote it out, sealed it with his ring. And immediately
they brought Daniel to him. They knew Daniel was going to
be praying to his God. What'd they do? They put him
up, but the king had no choice. The scripture says that the king
wrestled with his advisors the entire day trying to figure out
a way to deliver Daniel. And the advisor said, no, this decree
is according to the Medes and the Persians. It can't be changed.
The decree that God almighty made to make the Lord Jesus Christ,
our sin bearer cannot be changed. It was made in the covenant of
grace and yet just like Darius. Oh, there's no comparison actually.
Is there Darius? He, he, he admired Daniel. Maybe he loved Daniel. The next
morning, they threw Daniel into the lion's den and sealed it
with a stone. What a picture of Christ going into the grave
and being sealed with a stone. And Darius told him, he said,
Daniel, your God's going to save you. The next morning, Darius
was the first one at the lion's den. Roll away the stone. And
there came Daniel out. And Darius commanded those men
that had accused Daniel to be put to death right there on the
spot. What a picture. There's what the Lord Jesus Christ
is saying while he's in that lion's den while he's in that
grave father. Thou hast compassion for me. Thou hast loved me with an everlasting
love. Oh, and your love for me is so
much better than my love for you. Simon. Son of Jonah. Lovest thou me? Now this would be easy for you
to look up. You go to that passage in John chapter 21. It's very
interesting the wording that's used. You know what the word
agape is. That's the Greek word for God's
love. And the word philos is the word
for man's love. And so if you read that passage
The Lord Jesus Christ is talking to Simon, to Peter, after the
resurrection. And he says, Simon, son of Jonas,
agape thou me? And Peter responds by saying,
Lord, I philos thee. And the Lord Jesus Christ asked
him again, Simon, son of Jonas, agape thou me? And Peter says,
Lord, I philos thee. And the third time, the Lord
Jesus Christ says, Simon, son of Jonas, philos thou me. Oh,
Lord, you know that I love you. You know that I philos you. What
was the Lord Jesus Christ saying to Peter? And what's he saying
to me and you? Peter, I do know you love me,
but your love for me cannot be compared to my love for you. I love you with an agape love.
I loved you so much that I laid down my life for you. Peter, I bore the full burden
of your sin and satisfied God. When the scripture says, thou
thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself, when we
think about our love for God and the best expression of our
love that we can come up with, is just philos. That's all. But his love for us is perfect
love. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
is saying here. Look at verse 15. But thou, O
Lord, are a God full of love. Full of love. There's our hope here in his
love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave his
son to be a propitiation for our sins. That's the definition
of love. Don't think that God loves us
the way we love him. His love for us is perfect. His love for us is unchanging. We look Sunday about the immutability
of God. Every, every aspect of his nature
is immutable. He doesn't have degrees of love.
He doesn't love one more and one less and have a little bit
of love here and less love there. That's the way we are. That's
the way we are. But He's not that way. He loves every one of His children
exactly the same way with a holy, immutable, perfect, eternal love
that He loves His Son with. And here's what he's saying.
The Lord Jesus Christ is saying all the evidence is against me.
There's no, there's no proof that I can see with my eyes or
hear my, it's all contrary to it, but thou O Lord are full
of compassion. And so when all the evidence
in our lives seems contrary, God's love doesn't change. If
he's ever loved you, he's loved you eternally. It's, it's, it's a perfect love.
He's full of compassion. Faith is believing that this is a, a deep abiding love. And look at the next word. The
Lord Jesus Christ is saying, but thou O Lord, in spite of
my circumstances, but thou O Lord are a God full of compassion
and gracious, gracious. Now you can look up that word
too. It's the word pity. It's the word pity. Now God the Father had broken
His fellowship with the Son because when He saw sin on His Son, He
could do nothing but pour out His wrath in order to satisfy
His holy justice. But there was ever a moment in
the heart of God that He didn't have compassion and pity for
His Son? He's satisfying justice. He's thrusting the sword of His
justice into the heart of His Son. What can we understand? The Lord Jesus Christ here, in
spite of the evidence, in spite of the fact that the sword of
God's justice, it pleased God to bruise him, in spite of the
fact that he's suffering the full wrath of God's justice,
he believes that at the same time, his father toward him is
full of compassion and full of pity. Full of pity. And that's what faith does. In
spite of the fact that I'm lying here on my deathbed, Lord, and
I'm about to draw my last breath and there's no evidence of life
around me. I believe. I believe that what Christ did
for me is sufficient. For me to be able to stand in
my presence and that your compassion and pity towards me is because
of the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And how he pities us. I brought
this out Sunday when Christ was on the cross. What did he say?
Father. Forgive them. They know not what
they do. We've never understood the full
impact of our sin or the full impact. We haven't even understood
the beginning of the impact of our sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is praying
for his church. Father, forgive them. They don't
know what they're doing. They don't know what they've done
to you. They don't know what they've done to me. They take their sins so
lightly. But father, you forgive them.
Because I know that you pity them and you have compassion
for just like you do for me. Long suffering. Paul tells us long suffering
of God is salvation. It is, aren't you glad we have
a God that's long-suffering? Would you put up with anybody
that's been as unfaithful to God towards you as you have towards
God? Would you put up with anybody?
No. How many promises we make and
we fail to follow through on. You had somebody in your life
that treated you that way, you'd cut them off a long time ago.
But our God's long-suffering. He's long-suffering. And the
long-suffering of God is our salvation. That's our hope. Here's our Lord praying to his
Father, saying, Father, you're full of compassion. In spite
of the fact that the proud have risen up against me, the assemblies
of violent men have sought after my soul. In spite of the fact
that they don't have any regard for you or for me, in spite of
the fact that their faith is so faltering, thou, O Lord, are
full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering, plenteous in
mercy. Plenteous in mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ is calling
out to his father for mercy. Mercy. And the mercy that he
received was because of the blood that he shed. Mercy and peace. Mercy and truth have met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. That all took
place on the cross. And our Lord saying to the father,
father, I know that you're plenty of mercy. And I know that your
truth, truth, not that you know the truth or you, you are truth. Our God is truth. And as truth,
he's going to, he's going to be faithful to every word and
every promise impossible for him to lie. We saw that Sunday
from Hebrews chapter, uh, chapter six. It's impossible for our
God to lie. We have a strong consolation. We fled to Christ, the anchor
of our soul. Verse 16. Nothing encourages
the faith of God's children more than seeing the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who in spite of all his circumstances on the
cross said, oh, turn unto me and have mercy upon me. Give
thy strength unto thy servant and save the son of thy handmaid. The son of thy handmaid. Could that be anybody other than
the Lord Jesus Christ? He's the son of God's handmaid.
Mary was God's handmaid and the Lord Jesus Christ was saved the
son of thy handmaid. Her people. Man said to me one time, he said,
well, you don't tell people to, you don't, you don't have to
ask God to save you. That's all. He's already done that. He's
already done that. The Lord Jesus Christ is calling
out to his father to save him. to deliver him from the grave,
to read, to, to reward him for his faithfulness by giving him
a name, exalting him above all others and giving him a name
that is above every name because he had made of himself no reputation
and became a servant and was obedient even unto death. Yes. Even the death of the cross. Now let's finish this last verse.
Look at verse 17. I started to prepare a message
on tokens. There's so many references to tokens in the scriptures.
I preached it once years ago. I think I'm going to do it again.
But look at this. Show me a token for good. The Lord Jesus Christ is saying,
Lord, show me a token for good. What is the token for good? That
they which hate me may see it and be ashamed because thou Lord
has hoping me and comforted me. That's the resurrection. That's
the resurrection. That's the token for good. The
Lord Jesus Christ is drawing his final breath on the cross,
believing the father and asking the father to raise him from
the dead. Show me a token for good. And
what do we have just a few days later? The same crowd that he's
speaking of here when he says, the proud are risen up against
me, the assemblies of violent men have come against me. That
same crowd that was crying, crucify him, crucify him. When the token
for good came and the resurrection came and the spirit of God came
on the day of Pentecost, those same people, after hearing the
gospel, were pricked in their hearts and said, men, what shall
we do to be saved? Show me a token for good. The
token is the ministry of the Spirit of God revealing to us
the success of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the token for
good. When the Spirit of God comes,
he will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment, of sin, because they believe not on me. That's our
sin. The easily besetting sin, the
sin that causes all our other sins, is our unbelief, isn't
it? It's our unbelief. Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father. We have a righteous advocate
with God. of judgment because the prince of this world is judged.
Sin's been put away. Satan's been defeated. That's
the ministry of the Holy spirit. And that's the token. That's
the token. Ephesians chapter one, verse
17. We've been, we've been given a down payment, a token, the
Holy spirit, Romans chapter eight, that spirit of God is who causes
us to cry ABBA father. That's the token. We have a token
for good. That we might be ashamed. Of
what we did and putting the Son of God on Calvary's cross. And yet rejoicing. Because the
father helped him and comforted him. And as he helped him and
comforted him, he's going to help you and me too. And comfort
us. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful.
For the faithfulness of our dear Savior. And how we pray that
you would. Encourage and enable us to believe
you. By causing us to look to him. For all our hope and all our
salvation. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. The Tom. Number 327 let's stand
together. Oh, for a faith that will not
shrink, though pressed by many a foe, that will not tremble
on the brink of any earthly woe. That will not murmur nor complain
Beneath a chastening rod, But in the hour of grief or pain
Will lean upon its God. A faith that shines more bright
and clear when tempests rage without, that when in danger
knows no fear, in darkness feels no doubt. Lord, give me such a faith as
this, and then what'er may come, I'll taste even now the hallowed
bliss of an eternal home. We found this in our electronics,
just in case.