on many occasions over the years,
so most of you all know him. But I want to pray for you, though,
and the family. And also, Lord Grace has been
spending hours, and this is mainly for our internet folks, reworking
our website. So there's going to be some changes.
It's going to be actually much more user-friendly and a lot
better. They'll be a learning curve,
I'm sure, for figuring it out, everything on it. So that'll
be probably this week it'll be out. All right, you have your
Bibles open to Psalm 29. In the margin of my Bible there
on the first line where it says, give unto the Lord, O ye mighty,
I have written, ye sons of the mighty, which certainly makes
a lot more sense, doesn't it? Give unto the Lord, O ye sons
of the mighty. Give unto the Lord glory and
strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. The voice of the Lord is upon
the waters, the voice of God is upon the earth. The God of
glory thundereth, the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of
the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh
the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars
of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like
a calf. Lebanon and Syria are like unto
a young unicorn. The voice of the Lord Divideth
the flames of fire. Oh, that fiery wrath that fell
upon our substitute, our savior on Calvary's cross. We don't have to worry about
the fire of God's justice. The voice of the Lord, shake
at the wilderness. The Lord shake at the wilderness
of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord make it
the hinds to calve and discover it the forest. And in his temple,
does everyone speak of his glory? I like that. You know, you're
in God's temple when everybody speaks of his glory. The Lord
said it upon the flood. Yay, the Lord said it king forever.
The Lord will give strength unto his people. The Lord will bless
his people with peace. Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father, how needful we are for you to
speak to us Pray that you would send your spirit and Lord, that
you would give us hearing ears, that the voice of God would be
heard in our hearts and that in so hearing you Lord, we would
know that the fires have been divided and that you would speak
peace to us. Enable us to find our rest, our
hope and our comfort in thy dear son. Thank you for the forgiveness
of our sin. Thank you for the great blessing
of worship. Thank you for your word. Lord,
we pray for our brother, Hugo, and ask, Lord, that you would
comfort him in his time of loss, that you would just draw him
near to thyself, Lord, and assure him of your sovereign control
over all things. Pray that you give him wisdom
in the decisions that he has to make in these days. We ask
it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 352, Jesus lover of my soul. 352, let's stand. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is, Hide me, O my Savior kind, Till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Levi, leave me not alone, still
support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed. All my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. ? I am all unrighteousness ? ?
False and full of sin I am ? ? Thou art full of truth and grace ?
? Plenteous grace with thee is found ? ? Grace to cover all
my sin ? Let the healing streams abound, make and keep me pure
within. Thou of life, the fountain art,
freely let me take of thee. ? Spring thou up within my heart
? Rise to all eternity Please be seated. The law was given by Moses. Grace
and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ. The law, there's nothing but
condemnation. We're just saying, if in me there's no righteousness,
oh, but what hope we have in Him. Would you open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 28, please? I've titled this message, A Cry
That Is Heard. Now, the Lord said in John 11,
verse 41, when He was there at Lazarus' tomb, He said, Father,
I thank Thee. that thou hast heard me." And
then he said, I know father that thou always hear me. But I said
this so that these people here would know that you always answer
my prayers. Now that's true of every child
of God. You cannot come before the throne
of grace without the Lord hearing our prayers. And he always answers
them. Maybe not in the way we want
him to answer them, maybe not in the time we want him to answer
them, but he hears and he answers when his children cry. Psalm 28, verse one, what causes
a person to cry? Two things, pain, whether it
be physical pain, emotional pain, or spiritual pain. Pain will
cause us to cry. And the second thing that causes
us to cry is danger. If we feel threatened, we may
cry out for help. Now, David said, unto thee will
I cry. Oh, here's a prayer of the Lord
Jesus Christ calling out to his father. Father, I thank thee
that thou hast heard me. The Lord calling out to his father
on the cross. Father, forgive them, they know
not what they do. He's crying in pain, suffering
the separation. that has come as a result of
bearing our sins. We know that's true. Father,
if there be any way this cup can pass from me, let it be.
Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will. What was the cup? It
was the cup of sin. It was the bitter dregs of God's
wrath that would come as a result of God's divine justice on the
sin bearer, the one who has in his body upon that tree, all
the sins of all of God's. He's crying out. He's crying
out, isn't he? And he says, Father, I pray not
for the world. I pray for them which thou hast given me out
of the world. The physical pain was very real.
We can only imagine the physical agony that our Lord suffered
on Calvary's cross. The emotional pain was very real
in that He was forsaken of all of his friends, left alone. And the spiritual pain, the spiritual
pain bearing the guilt of all the sins of all of God's people.
Turn to me to Psalm 38, Psalm 38. Look at verse three, there is
no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there
any rest in my bones because of my sin. God made him who knew
no sin to be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. The Lord Jesus Christ owns the sins of his people as
his own. and suffers the full wrath of
God's justice in order to put those sins away. This is what
he's feeling. He's crying out to God from the
cross. Now we never, we'll hopefully
not suffer in this manner in terms of physical pain. We don't
know the emotional pain that he experienced in being forsaken
of all of his friends and we certainly cannot relate to the
sorrow that he experienced because of the pain of sin. Nevertheless,
when we look to him, you remember Zechariah chapter 12, when the
spirit of grace and supplication is poured out upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they will mourn
after him whom they pierced. As one mourneth for his only
son in bitterness, they will be bitter toward for him. This is the, this is the work
of the spirit of God that we, we see what God required for
our sins to be put away and what the Lord Jesus Christ suffered.
He cried out to the father. He cried out to be saved. Look
at verse 4. For mine iniquities have gone
over mine head as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. Look at verse 11 of Psalm 38.
My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore and my kinsmen
stand far off. They also that seek after my
life lay snares for me. and they that seek my hurt speak
mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long. Look
at verse 17. I am ready to halt and my sorrow
is continually before me for I will declare mine iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin. Now, David's speaking prophetically
of what the Lord Jesus Christ would suffer on Calvary's cross.
just as he is here in Psalm 28 when he says unto thee I cry. He is suffering physically. He
is suffering emotionally. He is suffering spiritually most. That's the cup. It's the spiritual
sorrow for sin. We have no idea what that means. We have no idea what it means.
We're so accustomed to sin, it hardly bothers us, doesn't it?
And here, the holy, undefiled, harmless, sinless Son of God,
who for all eternity had never experienced sin, is now bearing
the shame of the sins of His people. The burden that He felt
We feel guilt and shame for one act that we might do, and He's
bearing everything of every one of His people of every generation.
And here He is crying, O Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, referring
to His Father as Jehovah. And that name relates to the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit of God. My rock. My rock, the
father was his rock. And our access to the father
is through the son. And so the son becomes our rock,
doesn't he? We cry out and we cry in light
of what he has cried and what he has done and we look to the
Lord Jesus Christ as our rock. After the Sermon on the Mount,
what did the Lord say? He said, any man that builds
his house upon these things, hears these things and does these
things is like a man that builds his house upon a rock. You reject
my word, you don't believe me, you're like a man that builds
his house upon the sand. And when the storms come and
that storm is coming, it is coming. How men handle the the disappointments
of life without the Lord Jesus Christ, I don't know. But if they can't, if they can't
keep up with the footmen, how are they going to, how are they
going to compete with the horsemen? And if in this land of peace
they have conflict, what are they going to do in the rising
of the Jordan? In other words, the Lord is saying if men can't
handle the the conflicts of this life, what are they going to
do when the real trouble comes? The judgment of God that comes
in death. It is appointed unto man once
to die, and after that, the judgment. How are they going to stand in
the presence of our holy God? That's what the Lord is. He's our rock. He said, that rock that followed Moses
through the wilderness, the rock that Moses smote with the rod
and God told him to smite it one time. And after that, he
was to speak to the rock. Now that smiting of the rod of
Moses was the smiting of the law of God on the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is that rock. And once the rod smote him once,
the law was satisfied. The law was silenced. The law
was fulfilled. The justice of God was satisfied
completely. But Moses disobeyed God, didn't
he? He smote him again. He brought
out the rod of the law after the rock had been smitten once.
The rock's already been smitten. We speak to the rock. We cry
out to the rock. We plead with the rock to pour
out waters of refreshment to satisfy our soul. But we don't
smite the rock again. Rock's been smitten. Moses, as a picture of the law,
was forbidden to come into the promised land as a result of
that act of disobedience. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
rock. When the Lord asked the disciples,
whom do you say that I am? Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona,
flesh and blood, I am revealed as unto you. My Father which
is in heaven has made it. And upon this rock, the confession
that you just made, that I am the Christ, the Messiah, the
one sent of God and the full power of the Spirit of God to
fulfill everything necessary for the salvation of God's people.
Upon this rock, I'm gonna build my church. And the gates of hell
shall not be able to prevail against it. And David says, I'm
crying out to Jehovah as my rock. The Lord Jesus Christ cried out
to his father as his rock. Not only was he crying out in
pain, but he was crying out in danger. I had a man say to me,
you don't need to ask the Lord to save you. He's already done
that. You don't even have to ask Him
to save you one time. What He was doing was He was
taking the covenant of grace and because He did not have the
Spirit of God to understand the Word of God, He drew natural,
logical conclusions from the fact that God had already saved
His people fully in the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world and consequently He denied everything that was taught
in scriptures about crying out to God to be saved. Let me show
you. Turn with me to Psalm 3. If the
Lord Jesus Christ is crying out to his father to save him, how
much more do you and I need to cry out to our father to save
us? Oh, Lord, save me. We're just
like Peter, aren't we? Oh, we, we, we. We look into
Christ, we're able to walk upon the water, and as soon as we
look at the waves, what happens? We begin to sink, and what do
we do? We cry, Lord, save me. Lord,
save me. I'm gonna be covered up with
my sin. And the Lord Jesus Christ in
Psalm 28 is saying, unto thee will I cry, O Lord, my rock,
be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent, I become like
them that go down into the pit. Lord, if you don't answer my
prayer, I'm going to hell. If you don't hear my cry, I've got
no one else to plead to. I've got no one else to help
me. Look at Psalm 3 verse 7, I will declare the decrees that
the Lord has sent unto me, thou art my son this day, I have I'm
sorry, that was Psalm 2. Psalm 3 verse 7. Arise, O Lord,
save me, O my God, for Thou hast smitten all my enemies upon the
cheekbone. Thou hast broken the teeth of
the ungodly. Look at Psalm 6 verse 4. Return,
O Lord, deliver my soul. O, save me for Thy mercy's sake. Yes, we're saved in the covenant
of grace. Yes, we're saved when Christ
bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross and declared, it's finished. Yes, we're saved. The first time
we hear the gospel as the gospel and we're brought to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and we're continuing to be saved,
aren't we? We would never dare so presume
upon God as to not cry every day. The most frequent prayer
that the child of God prays, Lord, save me. Save me from myself. Save me from my sins. Save me
from the pit. Save me from Satan. Have mercy
upon me, Lord. Lead me not into temptation.
Deliver me from evil. Lord, I'll be overwhelmed if
you don't save me. And we're always crying out to
God for Him to save us. Look at Psalm 22. Psalm 22, verse
21. Save me from the lion's mouth. For thou has heard me from the
horns of the unicorn. Now a horn in scripture is that
point of the animal of its strength. That's the horn. The horn is
a picture of strength. And the unicorn's got one horn.
I don't know what the unicorn was. Some say that it was a rhinoceros.
I don't know. Maybe it was. But the point is
that this unicorn represents the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't
it? He's got one horn of strength. And we're like the man who's
hanging on the horns of the altar in the temple. That's our only
hope is to hang on to his strength. He saved me from the lion, Lord,
that Satan like a roaring lion is seeking whom he may devour.
Lord, if you don't save me, I know I'll be eaten up by him. I'll
be eaten up by him. And then in Jeremiah chapter
17, verse 14, Jeremiah says, save me, Lord, and I shall be
saved. If you save me, I'll be saved.
Here is a cry that can be, that was heard by God when the Lord
Jesus Christ prayed it from the cross. And because it was heard
by God from him, We come to God based on who he is and what he's
done. And we have the assurance of
God that when we cry out in pain, physical pain, emotional pain,
spiritual pain. Now everybody knows something
about physical pain and emotional pain, but only the child of God
knows what spiritual pain is. Mourning after him whom they
have pierced. understanding the consequences
of sin and the inability to produce anything that's righteous in
and of ourselves and our complete dependence upon his righteousness
for all the hope of our salvation. That's a reason to cry, isn't
it? And only the believer knows what
spiritual pain is. And only the believer understands
truly what danger is. Lord, if you don't save me, I'm
going down the pit. That's a picture of hell. I'll be separated from
you for all of eternity and nothing else is really gonna matter.
No amount of troubles or trials that we have in this life are
gonna compare to that. Man, a man is better off to have never
been born. than to live this life and depart
this world without Christ. He's better off to have never
been born. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter
32. Now we're in Psalm 28 verse 1, unto thee will I cry And you know, these Psalms, first
and foremost, speak of the Lord Jesus Christ and the hope of
salvation that we have in knowing that the Father heard his prayer
and answered his prayer. And in looking to Christ, we're
able to offer the same prayers to the Father. Unto Jehovah I
cry out. Lord, save me, for he is my rock. He's my rock. Oh, that rock that,
remember when Moses went up on Mount Sinai and Moses said, oh
Lord, that I might see thy glory. And Moses had seen so much. He'd
seen the burning bush. He'd seen the 10 plagues. He'd
seen the dividing of the Red Sea. He'd seen the mountain that
quaked with fire. He'd seen the water that came
from the rock. He'd seen the quail that came.
He saw all these demonstrations of God's glory. And he gets on
the mountain of the Lord and he says, Lord, I wanna see your
glory. Moses, no one's seen face of
God lived. I'll tell you what, Moses, I'm
gonna put you in the cleft of a rock and I'll cover it up with
my hand. I'm gonna place you in Christ and I'm gonna let you
see my backside. And you know what that's a picture
of, don't you? What do we know about God? We
know what's recorded in his word in terms of what he has accomplished. We're looking at the backside
of God. We're looking back to Calvary's cross. We're looking
back to the covenant of grace. We don't know what God's gonna
do today. Ego's dad didn't wake up yet a Tuesday morning believing
that he died suddenly. That was not an expected death.
We don't know what God's got in store for us. But we know whatever he does
is right, don't we? And we have great comfort and
hope in that. But here the Lord's allowing
us to hang the hopes of our salvation on the things that we know about
God, the things that he has done, the things that he's revealed
himself to us. Deuteronomy chapter 32. You have
your Bibles open there. Look at verse four. He is the
rock. His work is perfect, perfect. Now that's what God requires.
You and I have never done anything perfectly. We might use that
word. Someone does something for us
and we respond by saying perfect. That's just what I wanted. That's
perfect. But it's not perfect. We've never been able to do anything
perfect. Not in the sight of God, the rock. The Lord Jesus Christ, that rock
that Moses was hit in, the rock that was smitten in the wilderness,
the rock that Peter gave confession to, he's the one that's perfect. And we're perfect in him. We're
made perfect in him. He is the rock, his work is perfect
for all his ways are judgment. The judgment and justice of God
has been satisfied in the perfect work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
a God of truth and without iniquity. What else is without iniquity?
Not me, not you. Iniquity means that you measure
up all of sin and come short of the glory of God. Anything
short of God's glory is iniquity. You try to put anything that
we do on the scale of God's glory, and it's not gonna be equal,
is it? And the rock who's perfect is without iniquity. He is holy. He is undefiled. He is separate
from sinners. And he is perfect in the sight
of God. And we are made perfect and accepted
in him. A God of truth and without iniquity,
Just and right is he. Oh, who else can we say that
about? Nobody, nobody. Look at verse 13 of Deuteronomy
32. God's speaking to Moses and Moses
here is a type of Christ. He made him ride on the high
places of the earth that he might eat the increase of the field
and he made him to suck honey. out of the rock, and oil out
of the flinty rock." The Lord Jesus Christ rode high, didn't
he? He rode high above men. He suffered the contradiction
of sinners, but he wasn't a sinner. And he knew the thoughts of men. He sucked oil out of the flinty
rock. He fellowshiped with God perfectly
and walked in perfect fellowship with his father. Look at verse
15. Now, Jeshurun is a name given
for Israel in their ideal state. And so God says, but Jeshurun
waxed fat and kicked. Thou art waxen fat and art grown
thick. Thou art covered with fatness.
Then he forsook God, which made him, and lightly esteemed the
rock of his salvation." Lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. He's talking about those Old
Testament Jews who also said, we loathe this light bread. We're tired of this manna. Manna
for breakfast, manna for lunch, manna for dinner. We want something
else. And God gave them so much meat that they vomited on themselves,
didn't they? Why? Because they loathed the
light bread and they esteemed lightly the rock, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the rock of their salvation. The name of our Lord is more
blasphemed by the religious than it is by the irreligious. The
irreligious pagan throw around the name of God as if it was
nothing. And the religious, the Lord forbid using his name in
vain. And they use his name in a worse
way than the, than the irreligious use it. They've emptied it of
its meaning. They've esteemed lightly his
person and his work. They speak of a Jesus who loves
everybody and wants to save everybody and is waiting for man to let
him have his way. And they're talking about another
Jesus, aren't they? But they're using the Lord's name. And that's
what they've done. They've esteemed the name of
God and the rock of their salvation lightly. Look at verse 18 of
Deuteronomy 32, of the rock that begat thee thou art unmindful
and has forgotten that God formed thee. Now the Lord is pronouncing
judgment against those who have esteemed lightly the rock and
they have forgotten who owns them, who made them. They've
forgotten that he's Lord over the living and over the dead. Look at verse 31, for their rock
is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
Listen to what they say about their rock and you'll find out
how lightly they esteem their rock and their rock is not like
our rock. When men want to say, well, you know, we worship the
same God, no, we don't. Or we're all Christians, no,
we're not. Well, we can just agree to disagree. I got a, there's
a publisher out of Pensacola, Florida that publishes some good
stuff, some old writings, but they also publish a bunch of
garbage. And they've got on the front of their pamphlet, I just
saw it this morning, that we do not necessarily agree with
all the doctrine that's expressed in the things that we print.
I thought, well, why do you print it? Why do you print it? I'll tell you why they print
it. Because they do not consider it to be a gospel issue. They
consider it, you know, this is just a matter of emphasis. Their
rock's the same as our rock. We can talk about their Jesus
and our Jesus and we'll just agree to disagree. We've just
got a different emphasis on doctrine. No, we don't. Their rock is not like our rock. and they themselves have passed
that judgment by what they say about their rock. Look at verse
37, and he shall say, where are their gods? The rock in whom
they trusted. The rock they're trusting in
is not gonna save them. Not gonna save them. Now the Lord Jesus Christ in
Psalm 28 is crying out to his father, as his rock. And Peter refers
to the Lord Jesus Christ as the stone of stumbling, the rock
of offense. That's the offense of the gospel.
You see, as long as we meet Sam Ballett down at Ono and say,
well, you know, okay, we're all agreed to disagree and it's okay,
we all believe the same thing, then there's no offense. But
when we say, no, our rock's not like your rock. And what you
say about your rock is judgment in itself. By your words, you'll
be condemned. And by your words, you'll be
justified. All I have to do is hear what you say about your
rock. And that's not my rock. Their rock cannot save. The Lord Jesus Christ is calling
out to his father as his rock. And this is the rock that was
rejected by the builders, isn't it? And God has made that rock,
which was rejected by the builders, the head of the corner so that
all the building of God and all the lively stones that have been
put into that building, and that's each one of God's people, are
resting on that one foundation stone, that one rock. Psalm 28. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord,
my rock. Be not silent to me. Be not silent
to me. Lord, come to my rescue. The first two places in the scriptures
where this word silent is used, it's translated still, S-T-I-L-L. And it's, we won't look at the
verses, but it's where God says to the children of Israel, I've
already given you that. Are you gonna stand still? Aren't
you going to reach out and take what's already yours? And now
the Lord says, Lord, don't stand still. Don't stand still. Come to me. Come to where I am. Deliver me. Save me. I can't
get to where you are. And Lord, if you don't come to
where I am, I can't get to where you are. The Lord Jesus Christ trusting
His Father in the most difficult of times, when the hand of God
is heavy, The providence of God is painful. The voice of God
is silent. And his presence seems clear
gone. Faith says, Lord, be my rock. Don't stand still. Come to where
I am. Lord, I've got to have you. And if you don't, I'm going to
go down into the pit. Look at verse 2. Hear the voice of my supplications.
Oh, and what supplications the Lord makes on behalf of his people. We have a lot of them listed
in the scriptures. I mentioned a couple of them
a moment ago. Father, forgive them for they know not what they
do. the Lord Jesus Christ forgiving all those who pierced him with
their sins and crying out to his father to forgive them based
on what he'd done to cover those sins. And then he prays for his
church. Father, I pray now for the world.
I pray for them that thou hast given me all the world. Keep
them from the world. Keep them, Father, that they
might see my glory. John tells us that he's continuing
to pray for us. My little children, I write these
things unto you that you sin not, but if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one,
interceding on our behalf, our high priest, who has entered
in as our forerunner and gone into the holies of holies. That's
where the Lord told Moses, remember when he made the mercy seat on
the top of the ark and between the cherubim and God said, Aaron,
you go in there and you put the blood of the covenant on that
mercy seat and there I will meet with you. Nothing's changed. That ark is Christ. The mercy
seat is what he accomplished. His blood was shed and God says,
there I'll meet with you. I'll meet with you right there. Hear the voice of my supplications
when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands towards thy, you
see that holy oracle? That's the ark. That's the ark. And there's a
picture of Aaron lifting up his hands to the ark as the blood's
being applied on the mercy seat. Now who can stand in his presence?
They that have clean hands and a pure heart. How do your hands
look? They look like my hands, don't
they? That's why he was wounded in his hands, wasn't he? He was
wounded in his hands to show how unclean our hands are and
how pure his, here's our high priest lifting up holy hands,
holy hands to God. And we're able to present our
hands in him. knowing that he's made us holy. He's made us accepted. I lift
up my hands towards thy holy oracle. Verse three, draw me
not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity,
which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. They speak peace. They give men
a false hope by pointing them to look to what they have done. That's what the false prophets
do. Well, look at you. You made that decision. You prayed
that prayer. Why do churches have invitations
where people walk down the aisle and come down front? You've got
to give people something to do. You've got to give them something
to hang their hopes on. You see, the work of salvation
is a heart matter, isn't it? You can only experience the work
of grace spiritually in the heart. It's not something that we do
something, but they say peace when there is no peace. And they
say, well, you know, you don't do the things you used to do.
And so there's the proof that you're a child of God. Well, you ought not to be doing
those things anyway. But that's not the evidence.
There's a lot of good religious folks that have outwardly moral
lives. Paul said, Concerning the law,
he said this not as an unbeliever, he said this as a believer. And
speaking of his life when he was an unbeliever, he said, concerning
the law, I was blameless. No one could accuse me of violating
God's law in the manner in which I lived. There's a whole lot
of folks just like that. What do the false prophets do?
They speak peace to people. They say, well, look to the change
in your life. Look to what you're not doing.
Look to what you are doing. Look what you have done. No,
no. Look to Christ. Looking unto
Jesus who is the author and the finisher of our salvation. What's the evidence that I'm
a child of God? I'm looking to Christ. Faith is the evidence. It's the only evidence we have.
But the Paul's prophets hear the Lord's praying, draw me not
away with the wicked, with the evil doers. And they are, they say peace when there is
no peace. And they really do wickedly. Remember when the Lord
said, he separates the ghost from the sheep and the ghost
said, but Lord, we've done many wonderful works in your name.
Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. draw me not away. Lord, don't,
don't, don't let me, um, get, get, um, caught up in the, in
the way of the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, which
speak peace to their neighbors. But mischief is in their heart. Evil is in their heart. The Lord
said they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far
from me. They have a form of godliness, but they deny the
power thereof. Now that's a good description
of religion. They have a form of godliness,
an outward form of godliness, but they deny the power of godliness. What is the power of godliness?
Without controversy. This is godliness. God was manifested
in the... The Lord Jesus Christ is the
power of godliness. He was manifested in the flesh.
And the religious man looks to his own righteousness as his
godliness. And so the Lord's saying, don't
let us be drawn away with the wicked. Don't let us identify
with the workers of iniquity which speak peace to their neighbors,
but mischief is in their hearts. What is in their hearts? Pride,
self-righteousness, unbelief. They deny what God says and they
hate Christ. They look to the outward appearance.
God's looking at the heart, isn't he? Workers of iniquity. God, I thank thee that I'm not
like other men. Why do the religious not want
to come here? Why won't they come here? Why
are they so committed to their churches? Because they're being affirmed
there. They're being told there how
good they are. They're being led down that broad
road that leads to destruction. And they won't listen to the
gospel because the gospel strips men of their righteousness, leaves
them with no hope outside of Christ. Look at verse four. Now this
is the Lord Jesus Christ praying, give them according to their
deeds. Now, you don't want to be rewarded
according to your deeds, do you? And yet, in Christ, the rock
is perfect. His works are perfect. And so
in Him, yes, yes, reward me according to His deeds. Give them according to their
deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors, give them
after the work of their hands, render to them their dessert
because they regard not the works of the Lord. I would love to
be able to preach a message without speaking negatively about, but
I can't read God's Word without trying. Everywhere there's a
positive statement made about the Lord Jesus Christ, There's
a negative statement made about those things that are contrary
to him, aren't they? We'd have to be like that king
and take our pen knife and cut out half of God's word to avoid
the negative things that God says about the religious world
and the religious man. And here it is right here, the
Lord Jesus Christ. They regard not the works of
the Lord, they have no regard. They regard the rock lightly. They esteem him lightly. They
have no interest in his work nor the operation of his hands.
He shall destroy them and not build them up. Now here's the
truth. Reward and retribution are two
sides to the same coin. You can't have one without the
other. You can't have heaven without hell. You can't have justice without
judgment. The law means nothing if there's
no punishment for breaking it. The obedience of Christ means
nothing if God's going to end up grading men on a curve. I'm so glad my kids didn't have
to deal with this when they were little, but I see it's happened
now. I don't know if it's still happening,
You know, the little kids will play on a ball team and everybody
gets a trophy, right? Everybody gets a trophy. And,
well, if we don't give little Johnny a trophy, he'll get upset.
Well, good. Maybe he'll work harder next
time. Let him get upset. You know, giving everybody a
trophy doesn't do anything for the winner. But that's the way the world
looks at things, isn't it? You can't have one without the
other. You can't have reward without retribution. You can't
have heaven without hell. And if the obedience of Christ
means nothing, if God's going to grate on a curve. So here the Lord says, give them
according to their deeds. This retribution has to be just
as sure and just as real as does the blessings of grace given
by the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. Oh,
what praise this psalm ends with. The Lord is my strength and my
shield. My heart trusteth in him and
I am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices
and my song will I praise him. The Lord is my strength. He is
the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people and bless thine
inheritance. Feed them also and lift them
up forever. Now the son of David, the Lord
Jesus Christ is praying this prayer right now for us. And
we understand who we are in him. We have access to the throne
of grace. To have help. In our time of
need. We cry out, don't we? Lord, I'm. I'm in pain. My sins pain me. And I'm so thankful that you
hear me. You hear me because you hear
your son. A cry that is heard. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we're thankful for your word, and oh, we pray, Lord,
that you would not be silent to us, but that you would speak
Great truths to our hearts about thy dear son. For it's in his
name we ask it. Amen. Number 19, let's stand together
number 19. Yeah. Sovereign ruler, Lord of all,
prostrate at your feet I fall. You are holy, wise, and just. I'm a creature of the dust. All things move at your command,
governed by your mighty hand. ? Heaven, earth, and hell I see
? Fulfill all your wise decree ? Dares a man resist his Lord
? Stand against the sovereign God ? I will bow before your
throne ? Seeking grace in Christ your Son ? Through his blood
and righteousness ? ? Lord I plead with you for grace ? ? If you
will you can I know ? ? Grace and mercy to me show ? ? Will
you Lord my soul forgive ? ? Grant this sinner grace to live ? I've
no other hope but this, Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now I'm conquered by your grace. In the dust I hide my face. Give me Christ or else I die. I upon your grace rely. Oh, for mercy, now I plead. Grant me, Lord, the grace I need. Turn, oh, turn to me and say,
all your sins are washed away. In my son, your debt is paid. He, for you, the ransom made.