Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 37 from the Hardback Tymbal, number 37. How
great thou art. Let's all stand together, number
37. I must be getting old. you O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the works Thy hands have made, I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe
displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross my burden gladly
bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings
my soul, my Savior God, to Thee How great Thou art, how great
Thou art Please be seated. And to know that he is infinitely
greater than we're able to express or believe or understand. We're going to read from Psalm
21 for our call to worship. If you'd like to turn with me
there, Psalm 21. Jessica, it's good to have you with us tonight.
Carl and Barb Moore from Missouri are here. They moved to Missouri
to be a part of the church there and Eric Lutter is going this
summer when his kids got out of school. I guess he's coming
now like once every three weeks or something to preach for you
all and he'll be moving there permanently this summer. We're very thankful for that. Psalm 21, the King shall joy
in thy strength, O Lord. God the Father shall rejoice
in the strength of God the Son. And in thy salvation, how greatly
shall he rejoice. Thou hast given him his heart's
desire and hast not withholden the request of his lips. God gave to his son everything
he asked for. For thou preventest him with
the blessings of goodness and settest a crown of pure gold
on his head. He asked life of thee and thou
gavest to him even length of days forever and ever, eternal
life. His glory is great and thy salvation,
honor and majesty hast thou laid upon him, giving him a name that
is above every name. For thou hast made him most blessed
forever. Thou hast made him exceeding
glad with thy countenance. For the king, that's a reference
to Christ, trusted in his father. And through the mercy of the
most high, he shall not be moved. Thine hand shall find out all
thine enemies, thy right hand shall find out those that hate
thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine
anger. The Lord shall swallow them up
in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their fruit shalt
thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the
children of men. For they intended evil against
thee, They imagined a mischievous device which they are not able
to perform. The Lord's looking at everyone
who looks outside of Christ for any hope of their salvation.
He said, they've, they've devised an imaginary God and imagined
a mischievous thing. They weren't able to perform
their own salvation. Therefore, shalt thou make them
turn their back when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon
thy string against the face of them. They're going to run from
him. They run to the mountains, hide in the cliff to the rock,
hide in the rocks and cry for the rocks to fall upon them.
Be thou exalted Lord in thine own strength. So will we sing
and praise thy power. Let's pray. Oh, our merciful Heavenly Father. How we hope and pray. That for
the sake of thy dear son. We would have acceptance before
they. Lord, we we thank you that you
gave him the desire of his heart. We thank you Lord that you heard
his petitions. We thank you that you accepted
his offering. And the only hope that we have
to stand in thy holy presence is to be found in him. We ask
Lord that you would enable us now in this hour to look to Christ,
to rest in him, to believe upon him. We pray for your Holy Spirit
to come and reveal more of his glory to our hearts and give
us more hope and more faith. We pray for our brother Cyril
and we ask Lord for your hand of strength and healing to be
upon him and give him full recovery from his surgery. We ask it in
Christ's name, amen. Cyril struggling a little more
than he thought he would after the surgery. He was hoping to
be back with us by now, but it's probably going to be another
couple of weeks before he's able to. So y'all remember to pray
for him. Okay. Tom. Number 13. We'll sing this to the tune.
What a friend we have in Jesus. So we will skip the refrain. and just sing the four verses. Dark the stain that soiled man's
nature Long the distance that he fell Far removed from hope
and heaven Into deep despair and hell But there was a fountain
open, and the blood of God's own Son purifies the soul and
reaches deeper than the stain has gone. Conscience of the deep
pollution, sinners wander in the night. Though they hear the shepherd
calling, they still fear to face the light. This the blessed consolation
that can melt the heart of stone. That sweet balm of Gilead reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. All unworthy we who wander And
our eyes are wet with tears As we think of love that sought
us Through the weary, wasted years Yet we walk the holy highway,
walking by God's grace alone, knowing Calvary's fountain reaches
deeper than the stain has gone. ? When with holy choirs we're standing
? ? In the presence of the King ? ? And our souls are lost in
wonder ? ? While the white rope choirs sing ? ? Then we'll praise
the name of Jesus ? with the millions round the throne. Praise him for the power that
reaches deeper than the state has gone. Please be seated. Oh, what a day that'll be. Sooner than we think, I'm sure
of that. I'm just sure it's just. Life is a vapor. It's so brief. I was. Thinking today about, you know,
you hear people say about young people, you know you've got your
whole life ahead of you. And I want to say to those young
people, and that's not as long as you think it is. It's not
as long as you think it is. of what hope the Lord gives us
to set our affections on things above where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God. To know that we'll see him in
the fullness of his glory and be made like him soon, soon. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 20, Psalm 20. I've titled this message, A Sinner's
Prayer. a sinner's prayer. Now, some
of us came out of a works religion, a decision-making salvation where
you had to pray a particular prayer and you had to really
mean it from your heart. You know, and if you did, if
you said the right words and you really meant them, you know,
God would save you. He would reward you for that
prayer. Psalm 20 is the church praying to God for his mercy
for Christ's sake. And it's glorious prayer. It's a glorious prayer. My God
put it in our hearts to approach him like this. Notice how the
Psalm ends in verse nine. Save, Lord. Save, Lord. You remember in Matthew chapter
24, when the Lord was entering into Jerusalem and the crowd
with the palms were crying, Hosanna, Hosanna. Well, Hosanna translated
means save, Lord. And this is the word that's used
here in this text. It's Hosanna. Lord, save us. Be merciful upon us. I've had
experience in the last, oh, I don't know, a few months, two different
people. One was a hyper-Calvinist who
believed in the doctrine of election, who believed that God chose a
particular people in a covenant of his own will and purpose before
time ever began, and he chastised me for calling men to Christ. and said that I didn't need to
be asked telling people to cry out to God for mercy. For God
has already determined in his own irrefutable, unchangeable
counsel to save a particular people. And then recently I had someone
who came from a free will Armenian background and they said essentially
the same thing. How is it I've already asked
God to save me? If I asked my father for something
and he gave it to me I wouldn't ask him again for it. And I thought, you know, what
do these two people have in common? Neither one of them want to ask
God to save them. And I came to the conclusion
that the common thread with both of them is that they're not sinners. They're not sinners. A sinner standing in the presence
of a holy God is always crying out for mercy. He's always distracted from looking
to Christ. And like Peter, you remember
when Peter walked on the water and then he took his eyes off
of Christ and he looked at the waves and he began to sink. And
what did Peter say? Hosanna, Lord save me. Save me right now, save me. And
we're so prone to wander, aren't we? We just sang about that in
that hymn. We're so prone to leave the God we love that we're
constantly finding ourselves asking the Lord to save us. Save me. It's the most often
prayer that a child of God prays. These days you'd never, Well,
the Lord said, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
ye in him. How did you receive him? You
received him as a mercy-begging sinner, asking the Lord to save
you. And we never graduate above that,
do we? Both of these people use their
earthly father as an example that talked to me and said, you
don't have to ask God to save you. He's already done it. And
this guy believed in the doctrine. Or he's already done it for me. This person was trusting in an
experience that she had had. But neither one of them. When the Lord said in Psalm chapter
50, we looked at this verse Sunday, you err. You err in thinking
that I am altogether such a one as yourself. And I want to say to both these
people, your earthly father is not holy. Your earthly father doesn't have
the power to cast your soul into hell. Save me, Lord. Salvation is more than just a past event. Salvation is past, salvation
is present, and salvation is future. We have been saved. When was I saved? When were you
saved? You were saved in the covenant
of grace. when the Lord Jesus Christ entered
into a covenant promise with his father and promised to be
your surety and made himself that lamb that was slain before
the foundation of the world. That's when we were saved. But
we were also saved at Calvary's cross, weren't we? When the Lord
Jesus Christ bowed his mighty head and actually shed his precious
blood to fulfill or ratify that covenant promise. And then we're
also saved when we hear the gospel as the gospel. And the Lord is
pleased to open the eyes of our understanding and give us faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, all three of those
are past tense. And so in that sense, we can
say we have been saved. And then we're saved right now,
aren't we? We are being saved. Peter put
it like this. He said, to whom cunning. You people say, well, I've already
come to Christ. I made that decision. And we've been listening to all
this dribble that's coming out of the, you know, the death of
Billy Graham and, you know, and all the stuff about we, you know,
we made that decision. We nailed it down. We, you know,
we're always coming, aren't we? To whom coming? We're always
in need of salvation. And then there's going to come
a day when we shall be saved. When the eastern sky will split
and the trump of God will sound, the dead in Christ will be raised,
and those of us which are alive will be caught up together with
them and the Lord, and so shall whatever be with the Lord. So
comfort ye one another with these words. See him in the fullness
of his glory and be made like him. We're waiting, longing for
that day, aren't we? So we have been saved, we are
being saved, and we shall be saved. to make salvation just
a past tense experience that I had when I prayed a prayer
or to make salvation a doctrine is to not see yourself as a sinner
in need of being saved. And so, to say that a believer doesn't
need to ask God to save him is not only contrary to our experience,
it's contrary to the scriptures. And we just read it right here,
where David is praying, save Lord, let the King
hear us when we call. Here's the church crying out
to God, Lord, save us. Turn with me to Psalm 3. I just
want to walk you through it. a few verses very quickly. Psalm
3, look at verse 7. Now you know
these psalms, we've seen it clearly, haven't we? These psalms first
and foremost are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ spoken
prophetically by David. And so this psalm, it's the Lord
Jesus Christ crying out to the Father to save Him. Now, where
does that argument come from as far as if Christ is calling
out to the Father to save Him, how much more do you and I need
to call out to the Father to save us? I mean, this is our
constant prayer, Lord, save me. Save me. Look at 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. Salvation belongeth unto the
Lord. It's his to give. And we're not so presumptuous
as to look back at an experience that we had or a doctrine that
we believe and say, well, you know, I've got that settled.
Salvation belongs to God and I'm always a mercy beggar. That
publican in the temple is such a perfect example. That's not
just a one-time experience, is it? smiting himself upon the
breast and saying, Lord, have mercy upon me. I'm a sinner.
I'm a sinner. People who are looking at an
experience that they had in the past or they're looking to a
doctrine and they don't think they have to ask God to save
them now are just simply not sinners. Look at chapter 6 of Psalm, verse
4. Return, O Lord, deliver my soul
oh save me for thy mercy sake look at chapter seven at verse
one oh lord my god in thee do i put my trust save me from all
them that persecute me and deliver me who do you who's your who's
your number one persecutor you need to be safe from yourself
don't you and your own sin, Lord. You see how, I mean, we just
dealt with a couple of Psalms here. Look at Psalm 20. At verse 9, this is our text.
Save, Lord, let the King hear us when we call. Look at Psalm
22. Verse 21. Save me from the lion's mouth,
for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn. The horns
of the unicorn. The horn is a symbol of strength
in the scriptures. And here's an animal representing
the Lord Jesus Christ. It has but one horn. One horn. Lord, save me with his strength
and with his power. Why? Because Satan, like a roaring
lion, is seeking whom he may devour. And Lord, if you don't
save me, he's going to devour me. Look at chapter 31 of the Psalms. Verse 2, bow down thine ear to
me, deliver me speedily, be thou my strong rock for a house of
defense to save me. Save me. Look at chapter 31 at verse 16. Make thy face to shine upon thy
servant, save me. for thine mercy's sake. Now, one, no one's ever cried
out to God for save him for his mercy's sake. The Lord hadn't
saved him. Now, both of these individuals who
said to me, you don't have to ask God to save you. Well, number
one, that's not my experience. Number two, it's not scripture.
Number three, the Lord Jesus Christ cried out to the father
to save him. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
five. Now the Lord Jesus Christ struck
hands with the father in the covenant of grace before the
world began. Had perfect fellowship with his
father. Why would he have to ask the Father to save him? Why
would he have to ask the Father to save him? I mean, they've
already settled what's going to happen. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he
went to Calvary's cross, bore the sins of his people on his
back. And he was in need of his Father
to save him. Look at Hebrews chapter 5 and
verse 7, who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up
prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto
him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that
he feared. Now, how can a person say, well,
you don't have to ask God to save you. He's already done it. I already nailed that down. I
got that settled. The Lord Jesus Christ is crying
out to the Father to save him. And he's heard because he feared
God. Verse eight, though he were a
son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered
and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him. Alright, go back with me to our
text. Lord save me. This psalm is a prayer offered to the Father from sinners
asking God to save them, not because of their faith, and not
because of their obedience, but because of the obedience of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look, here's the church now. The church is praying, the Lord
hear thee in the day of trouble. We're hanging all the hopes of
God saving us on the fact that the father would
hear Christ in the day of his trouble. When was the day of
his trouble? You know when it was. When he
went into the garden of Gethsemane and sweat great drops of blood
and cried out to the father, father if there be any way this
cup. What was the cup? It was the cup of sin. The bitter
dregs of God's wrath coming because of the sin that he was going
to bear. And it began there in the garden. began there in the
garden. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. That was the day of his trouble.
And all that night, oh, what a trouble. And the next day,
beyond our comprehension, the trouble that he bore. And what
are we saying? What are we saying? We're joining
the voice of the psalmist saying, oh Father, hear Christ, in the
day of his trouble, the name of the God of Jacob defend thee. We're pleading God's mercy for
our own salvation based on the obedience and the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God, hear him, hear him for me. Lord, That's our hope, isn't
it? That the Lord would do for us
what he did for Peter. Peter need to be saved? Yeah. Peter before the cock crows,
you're gonna deny me three times. But I prayed for you. I prayed
for you. And when you're converted, teach
the brethren. Always, always in need of, what was the difference
between Peter and Judas? Had the Lord Jesus Christ prayed
for Judas, Judas would have been saved, but he didn't. Judas was left to himself. And
what are we saying? We're saying, Lord, save me.
Listen to his prayers. Listen to his petitions. Send
the help from the sanctuary and strengthen the out of Zion. The Lord May the Lord send his
help out of the sanctuary to strengthen Christ and to raise
him from the dead. Remember, we're still praying
to the Father. We're asking God to remember
the offerings that Christ made, especially the burnt sacrifice. Lord, save me. And don't look
to me for my salvation, look to him. Look to the offerings
that He made to you. Look to His prayers. Look to
His faithfulness. Look to His sacrifices. Look
to His blood. Lord, save me. And I'm pleading
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for my salvation. This is the
sinner's prayer. This has nothing to do with our
sincerity or our commitment. It has everything to do with
the finished work. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember
his offerings and accept his burnt sacrifice. God, might the
fiery wrath of your justice, which fell from heaven on Calvary's
cross and burned up the sacrifice. Lord, might that be sufficient
to satisfy your holy justice in taking away my sin. or I've
got no place else to go, but I've got no place else to look.
Grant, look at verse four, grant thee according to thy own heart
and fulfill all thy counsel. Might God grant to the Lord Jesus
Christ the desire of his heart and fulfill all his counsel. That's what this is. This is
a sinner's prayer. This is us praying to God, pleading our
cause based on the sacrifice, the counsel, and the heart of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't want to approach a
holy God based on the sincerity of your heart, do you? No, no,
you don't. A heart is wicked and deceitful.
We don't know our own hearts. But what is religion based on? It's all based on commitment,
isn't it? You mean it with all your heart.
Give Jesus your heart. Accept Him in your heart. Mean
it with all your heart. Here's the true center. Lord,
I don't know my heart. And the only hope that I have
that You would save me is based on His heart and His counsel. and his finished work of redemption.
Look at verse 5, we will rejoice in thy salvation. Salvation belongs
to the Lord. Jonah said salvation's of the
Lord. It's of the Lord. David, in Psalm
51, he said, he was a sinner, wasn't he? Pleading for grace,
have mercy upon me, oh God. That whole Psalm, is that relevant
to the believer? Yeah. And what does he say? Return unto me the joy of thy
salvation. What is it that takes away the
joy of our salvation? It's our sin, isn't it? And Lord, it's your salvation. We will
rejoice. in thy salvation and in the name
of our God. We will set up our banners, the
Lord fulfill all thy petitions. We rejoice in the name of our
God. Now, Sunday we looked at the isness of God. The fact that
God is holy and God is spirit and God is light and God is love. And when we speak like that,
we're speaking of God in the third person, aren't we? God
is. What is the first person of God
is? I am. You see, it's the same thing,
isn't it? I am. I am holy. I am your salvation. I am light. There is no darkness. I am love. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. I've loved you in my son. And the same way I love him,
I love you. I am. I'm self-existent. I'm independent. I'm your salvation. And so we're
saying, we will rejoice in thy salvation and in the name of
our God. What is his name? Well, Jehovah
said, can you use his name? The Lord, our righteousness,
Jehovah Jireh, That's his name. The Lord will provide. And then
that what Abraham said, God will provide himself a sacrifice. And what Abraham said to his
servants is exactly what John the Baptist was saying. When
he said, behold, the lamb of God was taken away the sins of
the world. God has provided that's his name. So all the hope of
our salvation is based on who He is, Jehovah Rapha. The Lord heals. And by His stripes,
Isaiah 53, we are healed. We are healed of our greatest
sickness, our greatest disease, the disease of our sin. But only
as we come to Him, trusting Him, for our salvation. Oh, there's
so many names that are given of our God in the scriptures,
but Jehovah Sidkenu, he is our righteousness. Jehovah Rapha,
the Lord is our shepherd. Jehovah Elohim, that's the one
that's most often used in the Old Testament, the Lord, our
God. He is Lord. He's Lord of Lords
and King of Kings. He's God. And the gospel, as
we said Sunday, is the only message of salvation that lets God be
God, isn't it? And so what do we say? Here's
the sinner's prayer. We rejoice in thy salvation.
And in the name of our God, we will set up our banners. The
Lord fulfill all thy petitions. We are placing the hope of our
salvation in God answering the prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. Father, I pray not for the world,
but I pray for them which Thou hast given me out of the world.
Thine they were, and Thou gavest them unto me. Lord, keep them
from the evil one. We're praying for God to hear
the prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we're praying. We're not approaching a holy
God saying, well, Lord, look how sincere I am. Look how committed
I am. Look at my prayers. and hang
the hopes of our salvation on our prayers, we're saying with
the psalmist, look at what he says. We rejoice in my salvation,
verse five, and in the name of our God, we will set up our banner. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions. All thy petitions. Might God hear the prayers of
the Lord Jesus Christ. and save me because of his intercession. We have a priest, we have a priest
who's able to sympathize with the feelings of our infirmities
and was in all ways tempted as we are yet without sin. And he
ever lives to make intercession for us. Where do we hang the hopes of
our salvation? When we cry out, God save me. Is the answer to that prayer
based on the sincerity of our hearts? No. No, it's based, this is the sinner's
prayer. Lord, hear his petitions. And look at verse six. If the
Lord hears, if God hears the petitions of the Lord Jesus Christ,
now know I that the Lord saveth His anointed. Now I know. I'm confident. Are you absolutely confident
that the Father heard every prayer the Lord Jesus Christ prayed
that he was satisfied with the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus
Christ made and that the father honored his son by accepting
that sacrifice. You see, that's my hope. That's the hope of our salvation.
When we say, Lord, save me, save me because you saved the head.
I'm convinced now that you saved your anointed one, your Christ. You saved him, and the only hope
that I have of being saved is to be found in him. Look, now
know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from
his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. God's
going to hear the prayers of his son. Father, I thank thee
that thou hast always heard me. And I pray these for their sake
so that they can hear what I'm saying to you. You hid these
things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto
babes, even so it seemed good in thy sight, O God. How often
we see the Lord Jesus Christ praying to the father. What's
he praying? What's he asking? He's praying the Lord to save
him, save his people, save his church. And his prayers were
filled with truth and sincerity, and they were all, all effectual. When you and I pray, we have
to conclude every one of our prayers with, Lord, if it be
thy will. Don't we? Particularly when we're praying
for things temporal. We don't know what God has in
store for us. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
prayed, every prayer he prayed was heard by the Father. And
so what we're saying is now I know, I know. Do you know that the
Lord, the Father saved his anointed because of the sincerity of his
petitions and because of the burnt sacrifice that he made,
God saved him. God saved him. And the hope that
I have of being saved is to be in the body of Christ. He will
hear him from his holy heaven and the saving strength of his
right hand. Some trust in chariots and some
in horses." And I thought, a chariot and a horse, those are things that men ride
into battle. The difference is that chariots
are made by men and horses are made by God. And now the Lord
says, some trust in chariots, some trust in the doctrines and
the commandments of men for the hope of their salvation, and
some trust in horses. Some trust in their obedience
to the word of God. The horses were made by God,
the chariots were made by men, and all religions are are either
based on the commandments and doctrines of men or they're based
on the law of God. But they're not going to save.
They're not going to save. And so some trust in chariots
and some in horses. The Lord said, you go back down
to Egypt. He said, you're like a man who
leans upon a reed. And rather than getting support
from that reed, a sharp stick is what it was, it pierces through
your hand. Or you're like a man who leans
up against a teetering wall that's been put together with undobbed
mortar. It's going to fall on you. Things you're trusting in
are not going to save you, whether they be the commandments of men
or whether they be the law of God. If you're trusting in something
that you've done or what you're writing, then you're not going
to be saved. some trust in chariots and some
in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
We'll remember his petitions, we'll remember his sacrifice,
we'll remember what he did, and we'll look to him. We'll just
look to him and hang all the hopes of our salvation on God
the Father hearing him. God satisfied with Christ. I
can't find any satisfaction outside of Christ. Those who trust in chariots and
horses, those who try to ride into battle based on something
that they've done, they are brought down and fallen. Now that's a picture of being
cast into the lake of fire. But we are risen, risen with
Christ and stand upright, able to stand in the presence of God
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Save Lord, let the King hear
us when we call. I wanna make a statement that some
trust in signs, some trust in signs you know which is what
will wait you heard somebody talk about putting out fleece
put now fleece you know Gideon God called on Gideon to to put
together a a group of motley man that we're going to go against
this great nation of Midianites and And Gideon said, how do I
know for sure that the Lord's telling me to do this? And so
he asked the Lord, he said, I'm going to put a lamb's fleece
out on the ground. And Lord, I need you to wet the
lamb's fleece overnight, but let the ground around the lamb's
fleece be dry. And so the next morning, Gideon
got up and sure enough, he picked up the lamb's fleece and he wrung
out a bowl of water from the lamb's fleece. But he wasn't sure yet. So he
put the lamb's fleece back out and he asked the Lord next night,
he said, so I'll know it's for you for sure. Let the lamb's
fleece be dry tonight and the ground all around the lamb's
fleece be wet. And the next morning it was just
as he had asked. And people read that story and
they think, well, I'm just going to put out a fleece and I'm going
to ask God for a sign. That sign has one message. That Lamb's Fleece is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He came in the full anointing
of the Spirit of God. And on Calvary's cross, He was
wrung out. He was wrung out that the Spirit
of God might go to all the land around Him. That's the only sign
we need. what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
on Calvary's cross, laying down his life for his sheep and the
blessing of his spirit, which enables us. How do I know if
I have the spirit of God? Because without the spirit of
God, you don't know God. But with the spirit of God, you're
able to find your hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're able
to see him and believe on him. You see, I hear people say all the time,
well, you know, I know we're not saved by works, but you got
to have good works. Faith will never be alone. Faith will always bring with
it a desire and the Lord will work in us causing us to will
and to do his good pleasure. But here's the thing, here's
the thing, listen very carefully to this, because in Hebrews chapter
12 it tells us that we're to be looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. And people say, well, we need
to look to Christ for our righteousness, but we need to look to our works
for the evidence of our salvation. If you are looking to your works
for either the cause of your salvation or the evidence of
your salvation, you're not looking to Christ. You're not looking
to Christ. Some trust in chariots and some
in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord, our God.
Save us, Lord, for his namesake, for his petitions, for his sacrifice,
for what he's done. Lord, look to Christ for everything
that you require of me. It's just that simple. That's
this prayer. That's the sinner's prayer. The
believer calling out to God to look to his son for everything
that God requires of them. And we just keep praying the
same prayer, don't we? We never graduate beyond that, do we?
We never say, well, I got that nailed down. I'm good on that.
Let's move on to something else. Or that doctrine is already settled.
We don't need to, no. Save us. Oh God. For Christ's sake. Our Heavenly
Father, we're thankful for your word and Lord, we pray that you
would put it on our hearts. To offer to you. By your spirit. This sort of petition. Always. Looking to Jesus. Who is the
author and the finisher of our faith? for the joy that was set
before Him. Lord, His joy was to delight
Himself in you. And the joy that was set before
Him, He endured the cross and despised its shame and accomplished
the salvation of His people. Oh, Father, look to Christ for
us, for we ask it in His name. Amen. Number 126, let's stand together. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? These, for sin, could not atone. Thou must save, and Thou alone. In Thy hand no price I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling. While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death, When I rise to worlds unknown,
And behold thee on thy throne, Rock of ages, cleft for me, Let
me hide myself in thee. I've already responded.