Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 37 from the Spiral Gospel Hymns
hymnbook, number 37. Let's all stand together. Approach, my soul, the throne
of grace in every time of need. There's mercy for the needy one
who Jesus' name shall flee. Though I'm a weak and sinful
wretch, I will approach the throne. I'll lean upon Christ's mighty
arm and plead His blood alone. The blood, the precious blood
of Christ has opened up the way by which I can draw near to God
and to my Father pray. Though Satan tempts my heart
to sin, I'll call upon my God. And if I fall, he'll lift me
up and cleanse me in the blood. The way is open, God will hear
my groans and cries of grief. Nothing can keep me from His
throne but my own unbelief. O Lord, my unbelief remove, and
turn my heart by grace. Compel me to approach your throne,
and there spread out my case. Please be seated. That's our prayer this morning.
Robert, Indiana Horton. So good to have you all back. We've missed you. Would you take your Bibles and
open them with me to Hebrews Chapter 4 Hebrews Chapter 4? This is not. The text for the
message this morning, but it's a verse of Scripture that that
him we just sang. comes from. Someone said to me recently,
you make comments about the hymns when you get up to preach a lot,
and I've come to realize that when you're singing just before
you preach, you pay a lot more attention to the words of the
hymn than you otherwise would. At least that's the way it is
for me. If I'm in a service and I'm not
preaching, I'm not near as attentive, uh, to the words of the hymn
as I am when I need to get up and preach. And, um, wish I could
be that way all the time, but, uh, Hebrews chapter four at verse
15, for we have not a high priest. which cannot be touched with
the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal
word of God, was made flesh and dwelt among us. He suffered the
contradiction of sinners and suffered all the all the things
that you and I suffer here in the flesh, yet he was without
sin. Let us, therefore, in light of
the fact that we have an advocate with the Father, We've got a
sinless Savior who's seated at the right hand of God, who makes
intercession for his people, and he does it sympathetically. That's the point that I want
to make. He does it sympathetically. He sympathizes with our infirmities,
having suffered all the things that we suffer and infinitely
more, infinitely more. Let us therefore come boldly. Let us come with confidence,
not confidence in ourselves, we have no confidence in the
flesh, but our confidence is in him. Let us come therefore
boldly to the throne of grace. That's what we just sang about,
the throne of grace. It's not a throne of law, rules
and regulations, it's a throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help. In time of need. So my question
for you this morning is my question for myself. Are you poor and
needy? Because that's who the gospels
for. It's for those who are in need.
Those are self sufficient. Those are strong. Those who are
can rely upon themselves. There's no no message in the
gospel for them. But for those who are suffering,
those who are poor, those who are weak. That's who Christ came
to save. Sinners. Sinners. Our text this morning for this
first hour is going to be found in Psalm 84. Psalm 84. And I've titled this message,
Every Believer's Prayer. Every Believer's Prayer. And my hope this morning is that
we will leave this place with this prayer in our hearts. We will find ourselves by the
spirit of God offering up this very simple prayer to God. And we have the promise of his
word that if this is our prayer, he will hear us. This is the
prayer by which we come to the throne of grace. This is the
prayer through which we find our help in our time of need. And that's a very simple prayer.
It's not a complicated prayer. It's not a convoluted prayer. It's a very, very simple. Let's,
uh, speaking of prayer, let's go before the Lord and ask his
blessings. Cause if he doesn't bless his
word, it'll all be in vain on it. Let's let's ask his blessings. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come before thy throne of grace confident. Confident, not
in ourselves, Lord, we have no confidence in our flesh, but
we rejoice in Christ Jesus. And we come. In the spirit of
grace and in the spirit of truth. And. We ask Lord that for Christ's
sake you'd be pleased to visit us this morning. Pray that you
would. Speak to our hearts. We pray
that you would put this prayer on our hearts. And cause us to. To confess our complete dependence. Upon thy dear son. For all our
righteousness and all of our justification before thee. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Before we read our text and it's
just one verse, I want you to take your bulletin if you would.
And. And look with me. At the article
titled What Wonderful News, What Wonderful News. This is an article
that Brother Maurice Montgomery wrote years ago. He's, of course,
as most of you know, gone home to be with the Lord. Maurice
preached here many years ago, and he was reading some comments
that Thomas Brooks made. Now, Thomas Brooks was a preacher
from, I'm going to say 17th century, I think, maybe the 18th century.
But Thomas Brooks, in the second paragraph, Mr. Brooks said in
this chapter, the covenant of grace, the covenant of grace,
the Lord declares that he will require no more than he gives,
that he will give what he requires, and that he will accept what
he gives. That's a summary of this message
this morning. Our God in the covenant of grace
gives what he requires. Another way to put it would be
that God must provide everything that he requires. He only accepts
that which he provides. Everything that he provides,
he provides in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's our hope. That's called
grace. What liberty, what we're saying
is that God's not looking to you and me for anything. He's
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, His blessed Son, for everything
that He requires from us. And the prayer that the believer
prays, and every believer prays, is, Lord, look to Him for everything
that you require from me. Here it is, look at verse 9.
Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. That's every believer's prayer.
Lord, don't look to me for anything. Don't look to me for my righteousness.
Don't look for me for my justification. Don't look to me or anything
in me for reasons why you should love me or have mercy upon me. Oh God, look to the face of thine
anointed on my behalf. And faith is what the believer
does exactly what God's doing. You see, saving faith is looking
to the same place God looks. That's all it is. It's looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ for all your acceptance before God.
Everything that God requires, everything, everything God must
provide. And God always accepts that which
he provides and everything he provides, he provides in the
person of his dear son. And so every believer's prayer
verse nine, behold, Oh God, our shield. and look upon the face
of thine anointed for me. Now, true prayer is the life
of faith. Just as breathing is necessary
for our physical life, A prayer is the breathing of faith. That's
what it is. It's an expression of our complete
dependence upon God for everything. And so, this verse 9, Behold,
O God, our shield. The literal interpretation of
that verse is, see our shield, O God. See our shield, O God. Now you remember in Genesis chapter
15, when the Lord is establishing his covenant with Abraham, the
Lord says to Abraham, I am thy shield and thine exceeding great
reward. So in one sense, this verse is
just repeating itself. Behold, that word behold is see,
look, look, look Lord at our shield. He's our shield. He's our exceeding great reward.
And in Proverbs chapter 30 verse five, every word of God is pure. He is a shield to them who put
their trust in him. So when we pray, see our shield,
oh God, what we're saying is look upon the face of thine anointed,
look to Christ for everything that you require of me and give
me the faith to do the same. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
six, Ephesians chapter six. verse, we'll begin reading in
verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God. Now I can just see the Apostle
Paul He's in a Roman prison in Rome, probably looking at one
of these Roman guards standing outside. And he makes a spiritual
connection between each of the parts of the armor that he sees
on this Roman guard to the spiritual armor that God has given to us. And he says to us, put on the
whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. This battle that we face is a spiritual battle. It's a
spiritual battle. Wherefore, if you're going to
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, You won't
be able to be a soldier in the midst of this conflict, take
you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day and having done all to stand. Now, this matter
of standing is standing in Christ, is standing on his rock. The
Lord told Moses, he said, I've prepared a place here near unto
me. Stand right there. And he put him in the cleft of
a rock, didn't he? And when the Lord summarized the whole Sermon
on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7, he said, they who build their
house upon a rock, they stand right there. Upon this rock I'll
build my church. Christ is where we stand. We're
standing in him. And, uh, and the Lord, the Lord
made that clear when he said, if you abide in me and my word
abides in you. Um, so this, this matter of standing
against the devil is to be hid in Christ and to stand in his
strength. And so in verse, in verse 14,
he says, stand, therefore having your loins girt about with truth.
So here's the belt of truth that's holding up the skirt of this
Roman soldier so that he can engage in this warfare. And the
truth is the gospel, it's the word of God. Christ is the truth. He said, I'm the way, I'm the
truth, I'm the life. Everything in the word of God
is true because it points to the truth. It points to Christ.
He said, gird your loins about with truth and have the breastplate
of righteousness. You don't have any righteousness
of your own, wear the breastplate of righteousness. And your feet
shoved with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And above
all, above all, taking the shield of faith. the shield of faith,
wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the devil." Now go back with me to our text. Behold, O God, our shield. See our shield, God. Look upon the one to whom we're
trusting for all our righteousness and all of our justification.
Look to him for our faith is in him. Now, faith is not an
end in itself. You know, in, in, in self-righteous
man-made freewill works religion, men make faith a work. They make faith a work. Faith
is something you do in order to activate what God has done. And faith is your contribution
to your salvation. Faith is not a work. Faith is a gift of grace. For
by grace are you saved. Through faith in that not of
yourself, it's a gift of God. God has to give us faith. But
even when he gives us faith, when that gift of faith comes,
that faith is not an end in itself. That faith is a means to an end. Christ is the end of faith. He's the end of faith. Hebrews,
the scripture says, for without faith it is impossible to please
God, for they that come unto him must believe that he is. and he's the rewarder of them.
Faith is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is that empty
hand that reaches out and holds to Christ. Christ is the one
who saves. I thought of a simple illustration. I hope it's accurate. I hope
it's helpful. Every one of us came here this
morning by getting into an automobile. and drove here. And whether we
thought about it or not, we had faith in that vehicle to get
us here. All of us at some time in our
lives have had unreliable vehicles. Hopefully you didn't come in
one of those this morning. But if you had an unreliable vehicle,
you don't have faith in it, do you? But you just got in your
car, you came here, and nobody got out of their car and thought,
well, my faith got me to church this morning. Your faith didn't
get you to church this morning. The car got you to church this
morning. The faith is what got you in the car. And, and, and so it is with Christ. It's the gift of faith that God
now you say, well, I had to get in the car, so I had to exercise
my faith. Well, let me take the illustration
a step further and say, suppose that, uh, the other people in
your home woke up this morning and found you dead in your bed
and they took your corpse and put it in the car. And as soon
as they put you in the car, you came alive. And then the car
got you to church. Now there's an accurate illustration. We are dead in our trespasses
and sins. God has to breathe life into us. He has to give
us the gift of faith. But it's not faith that gets
us to heaven. It's Christ that gets us to heaven.
It's faith that gets us in Christ. Faith is believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ. What must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Rest all of your confidence,
all of your hope and all of your dependence upon him. Say to God,
look upon our shield and look to the face of thine anointed
one. Because if he doesn't get me there, I'm not getting there. I'm not getting there. He's gonna
have to do it all. Lord, whatever you require of
me, you're going to have to provide. And I'm confident that you're
going to accept that which you provide. And I'm confident that
Christ is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God
by him. Resting faith is an admission
of your complete inability. Lest you become as a little child,
you shall not enter in the kingdom of God. Suffer the little children
to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of God. And when
the Lord was talking about little children, he wasn't talking about
five, six year olds. He was talking about infants.
What can an infant do for itself? It can't feed itself. It can't
provide anything. It's completely dependent upon
someone else. And that's what faith is. Faith
is looking outside of yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ and
saying to God, look upon our shield. He's the one I'm trusting. Above all, having the shield
of faith. And look to the face of thine
anointed. Lord, Lord, look to Christ for
everything. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
three, Galatians chapter three. Adam read passage in the study
this morning with the men. where the Lord said, if you being
evil know how to give good gifts unto your own children, how much
more will your heavenly father give his spirit to them that
ask him? And he said, well, I don't know
if I have to ask God to give you faith. Lord, I've got to
have faith. I've got for you, I've got to
have you make me, bid me to come unto thee, cause me to put all
my trust in Christ alone. Faith is not looking to anything
that you've done. Faith is not looking to a decision
that you've made. The Lord said, it is not of him
that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy and whom I will harden. Lord, I'm completely
dependent upon you to do all the saving. You've got to give
me faith. I can't make any contribution
at all. You've got to keep me from falling. You've got to present
me faultless. You've got to do it all. And
when he does it all, he gets all the glory, doesn't he? He
gets all the glory. I am the Lord. I will not share
my glory with another. I'm going to get all the glory.
I'm going to do it all. Faith is not looking to a work
that I performed Faith is looking to Christ. Galatians
chapter 3, look at verse 6, even as Abraham believed God and it
was counted to him for righteousness. And he's making a reference to
Genesis chapter 15 when the Lord told Abraham, Abraham's an old
man, Abraham says, Lord, I've got to have an heir. And the
Lord said, you look up in the sky, see the stars? Your heirs
are going to be like those stars. You're not going to be able to
number them. Look at the seashore, see the grains of sand, your
heirs are going to be like that. Well, Lord, I'm 90 years old,
he said, believe me. He said, well, it must be through
Eleazar then, right? And the Lord said, no, one's
going to come from your own loins. But how am I going to have a
child? Lord, I'm going to believe you. I'm going to believe you. And in the very next chapter,
Genesis chapter 16, Sarah and Abraham figure that God needs
a little help in fulfilling his promise. And so Sarah brings
Hagar into the picture and Ishmael's born and the world's been suffering
over the conflict between Ishmael and Isaac ever since to this
very day. God doesn't need help. Sarah gave birth to a child according
to the promise of God and the seed of Abraham. was brought
in through Christ. And so he says, Abraham believed God. Having
faith is not perfectly trusting God
in all your circumstances in this. Oh, it would be wonderful.
We had perfect faith. Well, that's what makes Christ
different from us. He believed God with all of his
heart and all of his mind all the time. All of his soul, all
the time, didn't he? We're like that man that said,
Lord, I do believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Lord,
I'm like Abraham. I believe you. And then I think,
well, God's got to have my help. But Abraham believed God. He
believed the promise. And it was accounted to him or
reckoned to him or imputed to him as righteousness. Know ye
therefore that they, which are of faith, the same are the children
of Abraham. You remember when the Jews said
we'd be children of Abraham, they were physical descendants
of Abraham. And they thought that was going to get them into
heaven. And what did the Lord say? Lord said, God, God raised up
children of Abraham from these stones on the ground. The children
of Abraham are those that believe God. And in fact, if you did,
but if you do believe God, it's because he raised you up as a
stone, didn't he? He took out the heart of stone and put in
a heart of flesh verse eight and the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, through faith,
not faith. Christ does the saving, but he
saves through faith. Preach before the gospel unto
Abraham saying, in these shall all nations be blessed. So then
they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as
many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for
it is written, curse is everyone that continueth not in all things
written in the book of the law to do them. You're not going to be saved
by keeping the law. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. You won't be saved through looking
to Christ who fulfilled the law, but that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God is evident. It's evident. You're not going to be justified
by the keeping of the law, not in the sight of God. You may
impress another man by your good works, but you're not going to
impress God for the just, the just shall live by faith. And
the law is not a faith. The law is not a faith. But the
man that doeth them shall live in them. In other words, you're
gonna be saved by the law, you gotta keep the whole law. Not
just in your outward behavior, but in your heart. When have
we ever kept any of God's law? Christ's the only one that did
that. What are we praying? God, oh God, see our shield. Look upon the face of thine anointed
for all my righteousness. My righteousness is as filthy
rags. I don't have any righteousness. If righteousness is keeping the
law of God, I've never been able to keep God's law. Look upon
the face of thine anointed. This is the prayer of every believer. Don't look to me. Don't look
at anything I've done. Christ hath redeemed us, verse
13, from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for
it is written, curse is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The Lord
Jesus Christ suffered the wrath of God's justice in order to
put away our sin. Look to the face of thine anointed
for all my justification. Lord, I can't justify myself
before you. I can't make myself pure. I can't
put away my sin. Lord, I'm looking outside myself,
and I'm trusting that you're looking outside of me. That the blessing of Abraham
might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. Through faith. Faith is not an end in itself,
brethren. Faith is a means to an end. Christ
is the end of salvation. He's the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end, the first and the last. He's the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. We're placed in Him in the covenant
of grace. We're birthed in Him when the
Spirit of God causes us to look to Christ and rest in Christ. We are kept in him and we'll
be glorified in him. Look upon the face of thine anointed.
Oh God, see my shield. See the shield. He's the one
I'm looking to. Look on the face of thine anointed.
Now, anointed, what is the anointed? You know what it is. Christ translated
means the anointed one. The Messiah translated means
the anointed one. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
said in, when he read from Isaiah chapter 61, when he, you remember
when he began his public ministry in Luke chapter four, he went
into the synagogue in Nazareth among all of his friends and
family members, people that he had known all his life. And he
stood up and he took the scroll and he read a passage that every
Jew in that synagogue knew was a reference to the Messiah, the
Christ, the anointed one. And he said, the spirit of the
Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach
good news. What is the good news? That God's
not looking to you for anything. That's the good news. God's looking
to Christ for everything. And the Lord Jesus Christ stood
up and he read that passage of scripture and he said, this day,
this scripture has been fulfilled in thy sight. and the people
wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth.
He was claiming to be the Messiah, the anointed one, the one sent
of God in the full power of the Spirit of God to accomplish the
salvation of God's people. Well, you know how that story
ended up. A, When the Lord declared his
sovereign control in salvation, they wanted to kill him. They
wanted to kill him. The anointed one is sovereign
in salvation. He gets all the glory for it. Psalm 45 verse 7, thou lovest
righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the one that loves righteousness and
hates all wickedness. And therefore God has anointed
him with the oil of gladness above his fellows. You remember
John chapter four, when the Lord speaking to that half Jew, that
Samaritan woman at the well had been married five times. And,
uh, and, and after he exposes her, she says to him, I know
that when Messiah comes, he's going to tell us everything.
He's going to fix everything. He's going to make all things
straight. This mess I've made in my life, I know that when
Messiah comes, He's going to fix it. And what did the Lord
say to her? In our Bible, it says, I that
speaketh unto you am He. But the literal translation is,
I am speaketh unto thee. I am speaketh unto thee. I know
the one Messiah. I am. I'm the Messiah. And at
that time, the disciples came back from Sychar, and she dropped
her water bottle, ran all the way back to the city. She was
ashamed to be at the well in the morning with all the other
women. Now she's broadcasting in the city what she had found.
Come, meet a man who told me everything I ever did. Is this
not the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ? Yes. Yes, He
is. For what works do you stone me
for, the Lord asked the Pharisees. And they said, we're not stoning
you for your works. We're glad you're helping folks out. We're
stoning you because you, being a man, make yourself out to be
God. Either he's God or he's not. A man stands up and claims to
be God. He only got three possibilities.
Either he knows he's not God and he's trying to fool people,
which makes him a liar. Or he's deluded and he thinks
he's God and he's not, which makes him a lunatic. Or he is
who he says he is. You got no other choice. No other
choice. Jesus Christ, the son of God. Look upon the face of thine anointed. I've got to deal with this just
quickly. Our faces reveal a lot about
ourselves, don't they? They say that we learn more from
body language when a person is talking to us than we do from
the words that they're actually speaking. Because our words,
our facial expressions communicate so much about what we say. And what does the psalmist say
here? Look upon the face of thine anointed. Look upon the pure innocence
of his countenance for my acceptance before thee. Look upon the sincerity
of his sorrow. I've never been able to express
sorrow for sin like I ought, but the Lord Jesus Christ did
when he hung on Calvary's cross. The scripture says, he said in
the Psalms, he said, I will be sorry for my sins. He bore our
sins in his body upon that tree and express sincere sorrow to
the father for those sins. And so what do we say? Look upon
the face of thine anointed. Look upon the sincerity of his
sorrow for me. Look at the agony of his suffering. Look at the purity of his love
and his compassion and his affection and his sympathy for me. Look at his righteous indignation
for self-righteousness for me. Oh, the countenance of thy son,
father, expresses to you the things that I want to express
that I can't. Look upon the face of thine anointed for me. When
the Pharisees sent the police out to arrest the Lord, they
came back empty handed and they said, where is he? Huh, never
a man spake like this man before. He spoke with authority, not
like the scribes. We couldn't touch him. And when
they came to arrest him with a band of Roman soldiers in the
garden of Gethsemane, he said, whom do you seek? Jesus of Nazareth. I am, he spoke his name. And
the band of soldiers fell over backwards at the sound of his
name. Look at the countenance of thine
anointed for me. Look at his authority. Look at
his compassion. His look of love and forgiveness
broke Peter's heart, didn't it? That night that Peter denied
the Lord Jesus Christ, the scripture says, and Christ, after his flogging,
looked on Peter. And Peter went out and wept bitterly.
Did he look at him with disappointment? Did he look at him with disdain?
Did he look down at him? Did he try to shame him? No,
his look was that of love and compassion, and Peter's heart
was broken. When Mary Magdalene, that woman
that was possessed with seven demons, Needed mercy. She found herself at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ crying all rub bone. I. Have mercy on
me. That woman who had an issue of
blood. Who was in need? Fell at his feet. The Lord healed
her. And she told him all the truth.
She told him all the truth. Look upon the face of thine anointed
for me or that's where I'm looking. That's the only place I've got
to go for my righteousness, for my justification, for any reason
why you would love me for your mercy, for my sanctification,
for my glorification. Lord, you're going to have to
look upon the one I'm looking to. You've given me faith to rest
my hope on thy dear son. Look upon our shield and the
face of thine anointed for me. All right, let's take a break. This is better.