Good evening. We're going to
be meeting with the city of Apopka in the morning at 9 o'clock.
So if the Lord enables you to pray about that meeting, that
it'll go well for us. So Tom, we're going to open with
number 52 in the Hartbeck terminal. Let's stand. ? Majestic sweetness sits enthroned
? Upon the Savior's brow ? His head with radiant glories crowned
? His lips with grace o'erflow ? His lips with grace o'erflow
No mortal can with Him compare among the sons of men. Fairer is He than all the fair
who fill the heavenly train, who fill the heavenly train. He saw me plunged in deep distress
and flew to my relief. For me he bore the shameful cross
and carried all my grief, and carried all my grief. To Him I owe my life and breath
and all the joys I have. He makes me triumph over death
and saves me from the grave and saves me from the grave. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to John chapter 9. John chapter 9. This man was born blind, impossible
for him to be able to see. And Jesus passed by and saw a
man which was blind from birth. And his disciples asked him,
saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that
he was born blind? And Jesus answered, neither hath
this man sin nor his parents, but that the works of God should
be manifest in him. I must work the works of him
that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man
can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of
the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat
on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed
the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said unto him,
go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent. He went his way therefore and
washed and came seeing." That's our hope tonight, isn't it? The
Lord would anoint our eyes and enable us to see because If he
doesn't, we will be blind. We were born that way and we're
just as dependent upon him to give us sight now as we've ever
been. So our merciful heavenly father,
we're so very thankful for the miracle of grace, the mercy that you have for your
children. The hope that we have in knowing
that when we come before thy throne of grace in the name of
thy dear son that you are pleased. To open the eyes of the blind. To unstop the ears of the deaf. To raise from the dead. Those
who. Are dead in their trespasses
and sins. Lord, how hopeful we are that you would do that for
us tonight. We're completely dependent upon
you for everything. More than we can. More than we
can even know. Lord, we pray for your mercy. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 37 in your spiral hymn book, number 37 in the gospel
hymn spiral hymn book. Approach, my soul, the throne
of grace in every time of need. There's mercy for the needy one
who Jesus' name shall plead. 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. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 68? I've titled this message, Free
to be Powerless. Free to be Powerless. If you go to a 12-step program to be delivered from
some sort of addiction the first thing that you'll have to agree
to is your inability to handle that addiction and uh... what
freedom comes when someone is able to admit that they are powerless
over their addictions and there can be no healing and there can
be no progress made until that first step is taken. And you
know that's the first of the 12 steps. Interesting to me that
the first step is to admit that you're powerless and then they
give you 11 things to do. What freedom there is for the
child of God to be brought to that place by the Spirit of God
to know that they are powerless. They're powerless to see if the
Lord doesn't give them eyes to see. They don't have the ability. The Lord said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Cannot, you're powerless. No
man can come unto me unless the Father which sent me draw him."
Powerless. Powerless to believe. Powerless
to see. Powerless to hear. We're born
into this world spiritually deaf. If the Lord doesn't give us ears
to hear, we won't be able to hear. Lord, I'm powerless. Powerless to be able to speak
the truth. Lord, I'm dumb. I can't speak unless I can hear.
You're going to have to give me ears to hear. You're going
to have to loose my tongue and enable me to speak the truth.
I'm powerless. Lord, I'm like Lazarus in the
tomb. I'm dead. A dead man is completely
powerless to do anything. Lord, I can't give myself life. I can't breathe. I can't do anything. Completely dependent. on you. And when we are brought to that
place by the Spirit of God, He doesn't give us 11 things to
do. He keeps us powerless all the days of our lives depending
upon Him for everything. Now there's freedom in that.
There is great, great freedom in that. Open your Bibles, if you will,
please, to Psalm 68, Psalm 68. We are powerless to believe the
gospel. The Lord has to put us in Christ
and put us in his church. And we looked at the first five
verses. of Psalm 68 Sunday morning and
saw that in verse 5 that this gospel is for the fatherless
and the widows. Now, in this culture, biblical
culture, if you were fatherless or a widow, you were helpless. You couldn't survive. Somebody
provided for you. And that's who the gospel's for. It's for the poor. It's for the
needy. It's for the powerless. May God break the pride of our
hearts that would cause us to think that we can do anything
for ourselves. Now, the self-righteous, The one who believes he's got
the power in his own will to decide when he'll let God come
into his heart, he's not been made powerless. Look what the
Lord says in verse 6, God saideth the solitary in families. Now there's two ways to understand
that passage. The word solitary is also translated
in the Old Testament desolate. It's also translated only. And the Lord takes the desolate. He takes the individuals and
He puts them into the family of God and makes them a part
of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ so that they have a family
like no other family. And we're powerless. You know,
we see people come into the church all the time who are not believers.
And they're like a fish out of water. They don't enjoy the benefits
of the fellowship of believers. They're powerless to. Unless
the Lord takes the solitary, the desolate, the only ones,
and puts them into the family of God, we're powerless to become
members of the family. We're like that, you know, I
think of Jerry and Mary Ann's two girls, and they were powerless
to make any decisions for themselves over there in China in an orphanage. All the power rested in you two,
didn't it? Well, you know, rested in God, but in terms of choosing
them, and bringing them out and making them part of your family.
And so it is with becoming a member of the family of God. We're like
those orphaned children who can't do anything for themselves, fatherless
and widows, completely dependent upon the Lord to come fetch us
and bring us out. And there's liberty in that.
There's great freedom in knowing that it's not up to me. It's
not up to me. It's all up to Him. God saideth
the solitary in families. Now, I said there's two ways
to understand that. And there is because there's,
I wanna quote three passages or read three passages from the
Old Testament where this word solitary is used. One of them
is in Psalm 25 verse 16, where it says, turn thee unto me and
have mercy upon me for I am desolate and afflicted. Now, Psalm 25
is a prophetic picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here's the Lord crying
to the Father, turn unto me for I am desolate and afflicted.
That was his experience on Calvary's cross. Another place where this
word solitary is used in the Old Testament is Genesis chapter
22, verse two, when God said to Abraham, Abraham, take thy
son, thine only son. whom thou lovest and bring him
up to Moriah and sacrifice him. And that certainly is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? Where the father took his
son, his only son, the son that he loved and made him to be a
sacrifice for us. So we see that, and then there's
one more, Psalm 22, certainly is a prophetic psalm about the
Lord Jesus Christ, and it says, deliver my soul from the sword,
my darling. Now that's the same word, darling,
from the power of the dog. Deliver thy darling. So we see
that this word solitary, is translated desolate, is translated only,
is translated darling, and in all three cases it speaks of
the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's two ways to understand
verse six. God saideth the solitary in families. And that's what he did for each
one of us when he called us out of darkness into his marvelous
light and made us a member of the family of God. But it also
is a promise of God setting the solitary one, the only one, his
darling, into this family. So that he said, where you gather
together, there I am in the midst of you. God saideth his darling,
his only son, his desolate son among his families. That's where
I want to be. I want to be where the Lord Jesus
Christ is. And this is where he's promised
to be. The Lord's got to do it, doesn't
he? He's got to put us in the church and he's got to bring
himself into the company of his saints in order for us to be
blessed by his presence. We're powerless. We're powerless
to believe. I can remember debating in religion
over this idea of how would it be that we're powerless to believe
if God commands us to believe? Does God command the impossible? And the answer to that question
is yes. Yes, you better be sure he does.
He commands the impossible. Why? In order to show us how
powerless we are. What God requires, God must provide. So yes, he calls us and he commands
us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But apart from the power
of his grace, apart from the ministry of the spirit of God,
causing us to be born again, Lord, I'm powerless. I can't
believe unless you cause me to believe. You're gonna have to
bring me, you're gonna have to put me in the family of God,
you're gonna have to reveal Christ to me. I know you've called on
me to believe. Lord, enable me, enable me, turn
me and I shall be turned. Not only are we powerless to
believe the first time, but we're powerless every day to believe,
aren't we? This matter of believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ is not something that we look back to an experience
that we had in our new birth and think, okay, I've got that
taken care of. No, we're continue to call on to, but Lord, I can't
believe I'm powerless. Listen to what the Lord says.
We are kept by the power of God. were kept by the power of god
lord if you don't if you don't keep me i'm powerless to keep
myself if you take if you if you if you cut the leash on me
uh... i'm gone uh... i know lord what
up what i'll do if you don't keep me we are kept by the power
of god through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time The fullness of my salvation
has not yet been experienced. You know, we wonder when is a man saved? Well, he's saved in the covenant
of grace when God chose him in Christ before the foundation
of the world. He's saved when the Lord Jesus
Christ bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross and declared,
it's finished. He's saved when he hears the
gospel as the gospel and is given faith to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's continuing to be saved as
he is kept by the power of God unto salvation. Powerless, all
those things are things and we shall be saved. Unto salvation
which shall be revealed in the last time. Lord, I've not yet
experienced the fullness of my salvation. and I've got to be
kept. I'm powerless to believe. I'm
powerless to be kept unless you keep me. God saideth the solitary in families. Lord, you're going to have to,
you're going to have to, I can't, I can't resist the devil. You're going to have to work
in me, causing me to will and to do after your good pleasure. I'm powerless. Paul said, we
know that the law is holy, but I'm carnal. I'm sold under sin. Lord, my old man can't do anything
but sin. And if you don't deliver me,
I'm powerless. Isn't that liberating? Is it free just to be able to
stand up in the family of God and say, my name is and I'm a
sinner. And I'm powerless to do anything
else than to be a sinner. God's going to have to, he's
going to have to save me. He's going to have to keep me.
Now look at the rest of this verse. God set it for solitary
in families. He bringeth out those that are
bound with chains. Lord, I'm bound. Look over in verse 18. Thou hast ascended on high. Thou
hast led captivity captive. Lord, you're going to have to
come into the pit of hell and get me. You're going to have
to tear down the gates of hell. I'm captive to my sin. I'm captive
to my unbelief. And Lord, if you don't lead captivity
captive, if you don't make me captive to yourself, I will remain powerless to save myself. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ came to do. He came to set the prisoners
free, but he's got to do it. He's got to do it. He's got to
do what he did for Paul and Silas and Philippi, isn't he? He's
going to have to shake the prison house. He's going to have to
unlock the doors. He's going to have to release the shackles
and enable us to walk out free. Notice the last part of verse
6. But the rebellious. Now what is it to be rebellious?
What is it to be rebellious? It's to refuse to submit to authority. That's what rebellion is, isn't
it? An unwillingness to submit to authority. And so here the
Lord is contrasting those who are powerless over their circumstances,
powerless over their salvation, powerless over their sin, submitting
themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ. being brought to that
place of saying, Lord, I have no ability. I'm completely dependent
upon you. To those who are rebellious against
God, those who refuse to bow, those who refuse to submit, those
who think that they have the power to save themselves, those
who believe they have the power to deliver themselves, like the,
going back to the illustration of an addiction, like the alcoholic
says, I can stop drinking anytime I want. And that person will never be
delivered from alcohol until they're able to say, I'm powerless
over this. I've got to have a higher power
to deliver me. Refusing to admit their inability,
their powerless state, refusing to be dependent, pride will not
allow them to bow. That's the rebellious. Self-righteous,
self-sufficient. I'll choose God when I'm ready
to choose God. No, you won't. You're powerless
in that. Well, I can quit sinning anytime
I want. No, you can't. You're powerless in that. Oh,
there's such freedom in being powerless, isn't there? Men trusting in their will, trusting
in their works, trusting in their wisdom, and not bowing powerless
to the authority and the ability of God. God saideth the solitary
in families. He bringeth out those that are
bound with chains, but the rebellious, The rebellious dwell in a place
where there is no rain, there's no water. It's a dry land. It's a thirsty land. People are dying of thirst in
the desert of this world all the time, and they're drinking
out of broken cisterns, aren't they? Polluted waters, trying
to satisfy their thirst with the things that this world has
to offer, and only getting more sick, only becoming more bound
by their sin. Lord, I've tried drinking from
those broken cisterns. And that water is polluted. And
all it does is make you more sick, doesn't it? Oh, but that
river that's crystal clear that flows from the throne of God
and from the Lamb, that water's satisfying. Lord, plant me by
that river that my leaf would not wither. Lord, give me, give
me the, that, that, That inexhaustible source of water. And what the
Lord said to the woman at the well, I give you this water to drink,
this living water, you'll not need to drink from this well
again. You'll not need to go back to the earth. to get your
sustenance. Your soul will be satisfied in
that living water. And he said, if any man thirst,
let him come unto me and out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. And this he spake concerning
the spirit. It's the spirit of God that reveals
to us the Lord Jesus Christ enables us to drink from that fountain. Lord, I'm powerless. The world's
powerless to provide for me any water. Oh, but that water that
comes from the rock that was smitten by the rod of Moses,
there's the Lord Jesus Christ smitten by the law. And out from
him flows rivers of living water. The rebellious, those who refuse
to submit to authority, they dwell in a dry land. Oh God, verse seven. Oh God, when thou wentest forth
before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness,
Lord, I'm powerless to move. Don't you love what Moses said
when he said, Lord, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not
up hence. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
goes with his people, he doesn't walk along beside of them. He
goes as their Jehovah Nisi, the Lord, our banner. He goes before us, Lord, I'm
powerless. So how do I, what do I do? Well,
what the reference here is when the Lord was leading the children
of Israel through the wilderness and how do you lead them? Well,
he led them across the Red Sea with the rod of Moses, didn't
he? And he led them across the Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant. And every time the Ark was taken
up, they folded up their tents and they kept their eye on the
Ark. And wherever the Ark went is where the people went. And
that's what the Lord is saying to us. Keep your eye on Christ.
Keep your eye on the Lord Jesus Christ. And He'll order your
steps because you're powerless to move apart from Him. The steps of a good man are ordained
by the Lord. He delighteth in his ways. Now that's a reference to the
Lord Jesus Christ as the good man whose steps were ordained
every single one of them. And he was perfect in accomplishing
God's purpose and satisfying the law and saving his people.
But those that are in Christ are referred to as good men,
too, and our steps are ordered as the Lord. We make our plans,
but the Lord orders our steps so that He says, I'll go before
you. Listen to Psalm 85, verse 12.
Righteousness shall go before Him and shall set us in the way
of His steps. So what's the Lord saying? We
spend all of our time worried about, well, I wonder what God's
will is for this and for that. A single eye, keeping your eye
on Christ, He'll order your steps. We don't know the outcome of
the decisions that we make and the steps that we make, but He's
already been there. He's already ordained them, He
purposed them exactly like they're happening. And that's what he's
saying. Just like the ark went before
you in the wilderness, so I go before you as Jehovah Nissi,
the Lord, your banner. I've conquered the enemy. I've
already been through the grave. I've already conquered death.
You're powerless over death, but I've already conquered it.
I've already walked the steps of obedience. Listen to what
David said in Psalm 119. Order my steps in thy word and
let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Lord, order my steps
in your word. That's why we're doing what we're
doing right now, isn't it? It's the word of God that he
uses to order our steps and cause us to walk after Christ. Proverbs 16 verse 9 says, a man's
heart deviseth his ways, but the Lord orders his steps. Every step has been ordered by
God. We have our plans, we have our ideas. Listen to what Jeremiah
said in Jeremiah chapter 10. Oh Lord, I know that the way
of a man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. It is not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. Lord, I'm powerless. I don't
know what I'm doing. You know, I look at my circumstances
and I think, well, that's the best thing to do, but how do
I know, Lord, I'm powerless? But, oh, to know that you've
ordered them. To know that you've already purposed
everything for your glory and for my good and ultimately for
my salvation. Oh, I'd like being powerless.
If I thought that every decision I made was somehow going to determine
the outcome of my salvation or the salvation of someone else,
I would think, Lord, I can't handle that much power. I need
to be powerless. Look at verse 7. Oh God, when
Thou wentest forth before Thy people, when Thou didst march
through the wilderness, everything we go through in this life, He's
already gone before us. We go into situations not knowing
the outcome. He not only knows the outcome,
He's purposed it. He's purposed it. He's gone before
us in death. The Lord Jesus Christ conquered
death and hell. And he came out victorious. And so David was able to say,
though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil
for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff. They do comfort
me, comfort me. Lord, your rod is the rod of
his authority. That's the rod of his, that's
his, that's his scepter. That's his power. And the staff,
that's what he uses to bring the sheep to himself, isn't it?
And the sheep say, oh, as long as I can see the shepherd, I'm
safe. Because I know his rod will protect me from the predator. And I know his staff will draw
me into his presence. As long as I can keep my eye
on the shepherd, everything's fine. Death really is the final enemy,
isn't it? What comfort we have. Now, the
unbeliever has no bands in their death. They've made a covenant
with death and with hell, they are in agreement. You hear unbelievers
say, well, you know, we've lived a good life, it's time to go
home. And they have all sorts of ideas about heaven. It's only
the believer that understands the consequences of death. Only the believer knows that
he is powerless in death. But he also knows who holds the
keys of death and hell. And so once again, we find ourselves
completely dependent upon the Lord to take us through that
valley of the shadow of death. Lord, you've been through it.
You carry the keys. You're the only one that's able
to unlock the gates of heaven. You're the only one that's able
to usher me in. You're the only one that's able
to speak on my behalf. Lord, you're the only one that
can prepare a place for me. I can't prepare a place for myself.
Your works went before you. My works cannot recommend me
to God. The only one that can recommend
me to God is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He's gone before us into heaven. Look at verse eight. The earth
shook. The heavens also dropped at the
presence of God. Even Sinai itself was moved at
the presence of God, the God of Israel. Now, what is Sinai?
It's the law. It's the law. And no man or animal
was permitted to touch the mountain. If he touched it, he was gonna
be put to death. Only one man was able to go up on that mountain.
And what a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ going up on the
mountain of the law. And while Moses was up there,
the mountain shook. It shook at the presence of God.
I love thinking about, now when the law of God speaks against
a man, That man better shake. But when
the Lord Jesus Christ speaks, the law does the shaking. The
law shakes and the law is silent to speak against him. So we've
got the mountain shaking at the presence of God. Oh, I don't
want the law to speak to me. I don't want to touch that mountain,
but to know that we have an intercessor who went up on the mountain of
God and that the mountain itself shook at his presence. Well, that's a comfort to me.
I'm powerless over the law. I'm powerless to keep the law.
I can't keep any part of it, but he kept every part of it.
And he made the law to shake. And there I can find comfort. I can hide in that rock and know
that the law is satisfied. Look at verse nine. We're powerless
over the blessings of grace. We're powerless to, to receive
the spirit of God. If you, being evil, know how
to give good gifts unto your children, how much more your
Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask
Him. You know, prayer is nothing more
than an expression of our powerlessness, if that's a word. That's what
it is. Faith prays. Lord, it's a confession
of my inability. Lord, I'm powerless. I'm not
going to have the Spirit of God unless You give Him to me. You're
going to have to open the windows of heaven. You're going to have
to cause the showers of blessings to come down. And that's what
he says in verse 9. Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful
rain, whereby Thou didst confirm Thine inheritance when it was
weary. Lord, I'm weary. I live in a dry and thirsty land.
I've drank from that polluted, broken cistern way too many times. And if you don't open the windows
of heaven and cause the Spirit of God to come down, I'm powerless
to drink of that river. Verse 10, thy congregation hath dwelt therein. Thou, O God, hast prepared for
thy goodness for the poor. The Lord told Moses when he was
on Mount Sinai, he said, there's a place near unto me. It's a
rock. It's a cave. It's a cleft. I'm gonna put you in the cave
of that rock. I'm gonna put my hand over it and I'm gonna cause
my goodness to pass by you. And you're not gonna see my face.
but you're going to see my hind parts. And by that, the Lord's
just saying to us, you don't know where I'm taking you. You,
you, I has not seen, nor has he heard, nor has it entered
into your imagination. The things that I prepared for
you, you have to walk by faith. But the hope of your salvation
is not knowing what your circumstances are going to be tomorrow or next
year. or how glorious heaven's going
to be. The hope of your salvation is based on what you see in my
hind parts and what you see in what I've done. So we don't look
forward for the hope of our salvation, we look backwards. And we look
to what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross.
We don't look to an experience in our lives. Those things are
subjective at best. We can't say, well, I know when
I was saved. Most of us can't pinpoint a moment when we were
converted. Some people can, but that's not
important. What's important is, am I looking
right now, right now, to what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
for me in my powerless, poor, naked, sinful state when he caused
the mountain of the law to shake And He satisfied God's justice,
bearing my sins on Calvary's cross. Am I looking to what Christ
accomplished 2,000 years ago? Am I looking back even further
than that to eternity past, knowing that God has ordained the salvation
of His people and that Christ could not fail in what He came
to do? Lord, I'm powerless. I'm powerless. You're going to
have to give me faith to believe in something that I wasn't there
for. Something that I can't see. People
love being able to hold on to an experience or a feeling. That's so fleshly. It's not walking
by faith. It's trusting your salvation
in something that you've experienced. We trust our salvation in what
He experienced. We're powerless to receive His
goodness. Thy congregation hath dwelt therein, dwelt under the shadow of Thy
wings, dwelt under the showers of Your blessings from heaven.
We were weary and poor. Look at verse 11. The Lord gave
the word. Great was the company of those
that publish it. Lord, I'm powerless to hear what
your word means. You know, I can study the Bible
for its historical value. I can study it for its theological
value. I can do word studies and I can
do all sorts of things to try to figure out what, but Lord,
in order for Christ to be revealed to me, I'm powerless. I'm powerless. I'm blind. I can't see. You're going to have to open
your word to me. And this isn't something that
we, again, this is our walk. We're not talking about something
that we just experienced in times past. We're talking about right
now, Lord, if you don't open your word, if you don't open
the windows of heaven, if you don't cause your spirit to come
down, if you don't speak, if you don't give me eyes to see,
Lord, I'm powerless. I'm powerless. What freedom there
is in being powerless. It's not up to you, brethren.
The battle's not yours. It's the Lord's. Salvation's
of the Lord. Just come. Just like you are
without one. One bit of righteousness in yourself. The Lord gave the word. Of his own will, isn't that what
James says? Of his own will, God begat us
with the word of truth. He revealed Christ in us. When it pleased God, Paul said,
who separated me from my mother's womb to reveal Christ in me. And he spoke, he spoke his word. Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. What would you have me to do?
Oh, he makes us willing in the day of his power. When he speaks,
the Lord gave the word. Great was the company of those
who publish it. Lord, we're powerless to preach.
We're powerless to witness who's sufficient for these things.
We're powerless to be able to speak the truth to anyone. Great is the company of them
who publish it. Kings of armies did flee apace,
and she that tarried at home divided the spoil. Lord, I'm powerless to come unto
you unless you enable me to. Kings have fled from you. You know, I was thinking, about
the message Sunday and I was thinking about guilt and shame
and what did it do to the first man that ever sinned? What did
guilt do for him? What did shame do for him? It
caused him to run from God, didn't it? It caused him to hide. It
caused him to use the power of his hands to sew together some
fig leaves and try to cover his nakedness before God. And here he says, kings and armies
did flee apace. Greater men than me have run
from God. And if they had reason to run,
how much more I have reason to run. But those who stayed in
the home, those who stayed in the family, they divided the
spoil. The spoil, that's the that's the riches of his grace.
And those things are divided among God's people and those.
Fatherless and widows who stay in the home. Though you have lean among the
pots. Oh. I think about what David
said in Psalm 72 when he said, Lord, I considered the prosperity
of the wicked and my feet almost slipped. I became jealous and
I thought, well, I need this and I need that. I've got a lean
pot. And that's the world we live
in, isn't it? The world we live in is always
telling us not to be sad. That's what advertisement's all
about. You can't be happy unless you have this, unless you have
that. And we're bombarded with it. And if the Lord doesn't show
us the truth, we'll be powerless to that sort of temptation. And though you have leaned among
the pots, though you might not have what other men have, yet
shall you be as the wings of a dove covered with silver and
her feathers with yellow gold. Oh Lord, make me to be like that
dove that flew out of Noah's ark. Now the raven, when the
raven left, the raven never came back. Why? Because the raven
was able to feed on the dead carcasses that were floating
in the water. But the dove, the scripture said,
found no place to light her feet. She flew out there and she had
to come back. And what Noah do, there's one door in the top of
the ark, it's about 18 inches by 18 inches, a cubit by a cubit. And Noah stick his head out,
and he sticks out his hand. And he reaches for the dove and
she lights on his hand and brings her safely into the ark. And
that's what the Lord's saying. Don't envy the prosperity of
the wicked. You're like that dove with wings
of silver and gold. And the hand of God has reached
out and brought you into the safety of the ark. They're feeding
on dead carcasses. Don't lust after what they're
feeding on. You've got the bread of life. Lord, I'm powerless. To resist. The temptations of this world. The values of this world, unless
you speak to me by your word and remind me. Remind me that
godliness that's having Christ with contentment is great gain. Or make me content with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Make me content with the things
that you've provided for me. Though you have lean among the
pots, yet you should be as the dove, the wings of silver, the
wings of gold. That's the riches of His grace.
You can't put a price on that. What does a profit a man if he
gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What would a man
give in exchange for his soul? They're gonna die drinking that
polluted water from broken cisterns and they're gonna die eating
that rotting flesh. And God has given to us what
we don't deserve. We would be just as powerless
as they are. Verse 14, when the almighty scattered
kings in it, it was widest snow in Salmon. The hill of God is
as the hill of Bashan, a high hill as the hill of Bashan. Why leapy high hills? Now there's
the proud, there's the one who cannot submit to authority, there's
the rebellious, there's the one who does not yet admit that he's
powerless. And the Lord says, why do you
leap you high hills? This is the hill which God desires
to dwell in. Yea, the Lord will dwell in it
forever. Goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life. One thing I desire of the Lord,
and that will I seek after, that I might dwell, dwell in His courts
forever. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, brethren. Christ and His church, the only
thing that's going to survive this world, the only thing that's
going to survive this world. The gospel is for the powerless. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're thankful that You have mercy on the poor. We're thankful
that You have come to lead captivity captive and break the chains
of our rebellion. And Lord, reveal to us our utter
dependence on You. Thank You for Your grace. We
ask it in Christ's name, Amen. 218, 318. Let's stand together. Number 318. ? I need thee every hour ? Most
gracious Lord ? No tender voice like thine ? Can peace afford
I need Thee, O I need Thee, every hour I need Thee. O bless me
now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, stay
Thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when Thou art nigh. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to thee. I need thee every hour in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide or life
is vain. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, Most
Holy One, O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee.