Amazing how that works. I can
sit up here and holler and nobody pays attention. I just do a little... You don't have to turn to this
verse. I just want to read one verse in Psalm 13. David prays,
consider and hear me, O Lord my God. Lighten mine eyes. lest I sleep the sleep of death. We know how prone we are to slumber.
If the Lord doesn't light our eyes, we'll just sleep the sleep
of death, won't we? Pray the Lord to answer that
prayer for us this morning. Let's stand together. Tom's going to
come and lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Great God, thy glory and thy
love our humble songs employ. In mercy from thy throne above,
look down and aid our joy. Thy presence and Thy glory, Lord,
fill all the realms of space. O let Thy presence, by Thy Word,
divinely fill this place. This hymn begins the solemn sound
of holy worship here. May every saint with joy abound
and reverential fear. Eternal Spirit, heavenly dove,
descend and fill this place. Reveal the Savior's matchless
love, the wonders of His grace. Please be seated. Good morning. Could you turn
to the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 22, 2 Samuel, chapter 22, for
our call to worship. We're going to start in verse
20. As I ever inch so closer to the
grave, there's one glorious truth that's becoming more and more
precious to me, more assurance, more comforting, more peace,
and that's our union with Christ. The whole chapter 22 is David
offering up a song, praise and thanksgiving for being delivered
from all his enemies and Saul. But we know that our David, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord blessed me and I pray he opened us up
to you too, but it's really glorious. Let's start at verse 20. He brought me forth also into
a large place. He delivered me because he delighted
in me. The Lord rewarded me according
to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands
hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the
Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments
were before me. And as for his statutes, I did
not depart from them. I was also upright before him,
and have kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore, the Lord
hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, according
to my cleanness in his eyesight. With the merciful thou wilt show
thyself merciful, and with the upright man thou wilt show thyself
upright, with the pure thou will show thyself pure, and with the
froward thou will show thyself unsavory, and the afflicted people
thou will save. By thy eyes are upon the haughty,
that thou mayest bring them down, O Lord, continue to beat this
flesh down, it's always haughty. For thou art my lamp, O Lord,
that little light, Greg, and the Lord will lighten my darkness,
For by thee I have run through a troop, but my God, by my God
have I leaped over a wall. Look at verse 31. As for God,
his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is tried
and the Lord Jesus Christ was perfectly tried and perfectly
came through perfect. One day you and I are going to
be, God's gonna require perfect righteousness, holy like Him. He has provided His way. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a buckler to all them that
trust in Him. For who is God? Save the Lord. And who is a rock? Save our God.
No one. God is my strength and power. And he maketh my way perfect. Let's pray. Lord, we do ask once again as
you gathered us into thy presence. That you would lift up thy dear
son. That we might be able to behold
him. High and lifted. That we may
glorify him. Lord, I more than anything want
to be found in him this morning, and most especially in that terrible
day. Oh Lord, be merciful to us this
morning. Lord, we know if you bless your
word, we will see Christ. And that's our desire now, that
you would heap upon us grace upon grace. Lord, forgive us
of our sins. And just for this next hour,
Lord, oh, bless thy word. And the pastor that you've given
us according to thy heart, Lord, would you give him now power
from your Holy Spirit, clarity and conviction. Lord, if you
do that, we will all be edified. For Lord, this is your body.
You are our head and we bow to you, giving you all the glory
and for Christ's sake, amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 233, Depth of Mercy. Just the first three
verses, just three verses. Number 233. Death of mercy, can there be? Mercy still reserved for me. Can my God his wrath forbear? Me the chief of sinners spare. I have long withstood his grace,
Long provoked him to his face, Would not hearken to his calls,
Grieved him by a thousand falls. Now incline me to repent. Let me now my sins lament. Now my foul revolt deplore. Weep, believe, and sin no more. Please be seated. I'm so thankful for that passage
of scripture you read, Bert. I'm especially thankful for what
it says in verse 25, in his sight, in his sight. If we're found
in him, we have perfect righteousness before God. Oh, we don't look
that way to ourselves. Not at all. Just the opposite. All we can see in ourselves is
our sin. But if he's put us in Christ, in his sight, we're righteous. We're perfect. Will you open
your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 63. Isaiah chapter 63. And we'll read the first six
verses. Who is this that cometh from
Edom, with dyed garments from Basra? This that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art
thou red in thine apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth
in the winepress? I have trodden the rimepress
alone. And of the people, there was
none with me. For I will tread them in mine
anger and trample them in my fury and their blood shall be
sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my remnant.
For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my
redeemed has come. And I looked, and there was none
to help. And I wondered that there was
none to uphold. Therefore, mine own arm brought salvation unto
me, and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people
in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will
bring down their strength. to the earth. What God has done here is given
us a picture of a warrior, a conquering warrior returning from battle
with his garments stained in blood and yet he's not dragging
his sword. He's not struggling to put one
foot before the other. No, to the contrary, he's coming
back victorious and declaring to his people, it's finished. I have single-handedly defeated
the enemy. The law has been satisfied. Justice has been fulfilled. Death
has been defeated. Satan's been conquered. My people
are free. What a glorious picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Who is this? Who is this? It's Christ. It's Christ. And what a conquering warrior
he is. No, he didn't come back from his battle and say, will
you accept the victory that I'm offering? You remember the story
of David and Goliath. You know, there's another mystery
that men don't see in religion. They use that story to teach
bravery and courage. But David's a picture of Christ.
You remember when Goliath was threatening the children of Israel
and Saul and none of the mighty men of battle knew what to do.
Goliath was nine feet tall. And Goliath's threat was, you
send out your number one warrior and we'll just go mano a mano,
we'll just man to man, one on one. And if I beat him, then
all of Israel will become subject to the Philistines. And if he
beats me, which isn't gonna happen, then we'll become subject to
you. And every day Goliath went out into the valley and he issued
that that threat to Saul. And nobody knew what to do. All the Israelites hiding behind
a rock, scared to death, didn't know what to do. And finally,
young David sent by his father to take some provisions to his
brothers who were on the battlefield. And David happened to be there
when Goliath came down that morning and issued his challenge. And
David looked at Saul and he said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine? Let me go. I'll go out there. I'll take him. The God that delivered
me from the lion and the bear will deliver me from him too.
And Saul said, well, if you're gonna go, you're gonna have to
have some armor. And he tried to put on Saul's armor, it didn't fit.
And David said, no, I'm not going in the strength of the flesh.
I'm going in the name of the God of Israel. And he went out
there with a sling and you could see little young David running
towards Goliath. I mean, he was running toward
him. He wasn't doing any, he was full out running full speed,
slinging his sling at the same time while he's running. He let
that thing go, took Goliath's sword and cut his head off. And
all the Philistines, all the Philistines became subject to
the Israelites because one man got the victory. One man got
the victory. David's not an inspiration of
bravery. David, we ought to be courageous. We ought not to fear. We ought
to trust God like David did. But David's a picture of Christ.
getting the victory. He went against Satan. He went
against the grave. He went against sin. He went
against death. He was tried, a tried stone. Tried by the law of God and came
out victorious. And he got the victory. There's
the picture. And he comes back bloody. But not with the blood of his
victim. No, it's his own blood. It's
his own blood. And he declares, it's finished. The battle is over. The enemy
is defeated. The law has nothing to say to
you. The strong man's house has been
spoiled. Justice has been satisfied. Where
is he coming from? He's coming from Edom. You see
that in verse 1? Who is this? Who is this? It's none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ coming back victorious, declaring to spiritual Israel,
the enemy has been conquered. I have gotten the victory all
by myself. All by myself. He's coming from Edom. What was
Edom? Well, Edom was the land inhabited
by the descendants of Esau, Esau. And Basra was a city in Edom
translated, it means fortress. So when the Lord Jesus Christ
went to battle on behalf of his people and got the victory for
every one of them, where did he go? Where did he go? What did he conquer? Who was
the enemy? Now I know we often think of
Esau being a picture of the unbelieving world. The scripture does say,
Jacob I have loved and Esau I have hated. But Esau more than that
is a picture of everything pertaining to the flesh. Everything pertaining
to the flesh. You see the truth is that each
of us have two natures. We have a fleshly nature, just
like Esau. Esau sold his birthright for
a bowl of soup. And you will do the same thing
in your flesh. And then we've got a new nature. That prince, that Jacob, who
by nature was a supplanter, but his name was changed to Israel.
Turn with me to Galatians chapter four. Where did the Lord go? when he got the victory, when
he fought the battle for us, where did he go? He's not exhausted. He's not defeated. He's not stumbling
to walk. No, just like little David ran
into the battle, the Lord, the scripture said, set his face
like a flint towards Jerusalem. He knew what he was going into.
No man took his life from him. He laid it down willingly. He was making the offer of salvation
to his father, to his father. And his father saw the travail
of his soul and his father was satisfied. Now here he is coming
back from battle declaring, I've been to Esau. I've been to Edom.
I've been down there to Basra, the city of fortress. The gates
of hell shall not prevail against me. I've gone and I've set captivity
captive. I went to those who were dead
in their trespasses and sins and I brought them out." Who
is this? Who is this? He went down to
Edom. Look at Galatians chapter 4 at verse 19. Galatians chapter four verse
19, my little children of whom I travail in birth again until
Christ be formed in you. Oh, that's where we're in. We're
in travail of birth, aren't we? Rachel and I were talking this
morning before the service and seven weeks, right, Rachel? And
I said, are you a little anxious? And she said, well, maybe I'll,
you know, I said, you will be, it'll be okay, it'll be okay.
But the travail of birth, it's brief, thankfully, but it is
a travail, isn't it? And our hope, just like in the birth
of a baby, is that Christ would be formed in us, a live birth,
the birth of life, I desire to be present with you now and to
change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you." Do you stand in doubt of yourself? Now, faith believes the gospel
more than it believes anything else. Faith can't not believe. That's
one of the fruits of the Spirit. In Galatians chapter 5, I didn't
mention that in the first hour, but one of the fruits of the
Spirit is faith. And faith is the substance of things hoped
for. It is the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the gift of
God. Faith is our ability to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ with all of our hearts, all of our
mind, and all of our souls. And faith can't not believe.
I know that's a double negative, but it can't. Faith cannot not
believe. It's impossible. We try it all
the time, don't we? We try every day not to believe.
Every time we take our eyes off of Christ and set our affections
on things of the earth, we're trying to, and we just can't
stay there. Why? Because if you've got faith,
God's got you on a leash and he's gonna bring you back. And
you just, that's the work of the spirit of God in us. And
we're so thankful for that. But we stand in doubt of ourselves.
We're a contradiction to ourselves and we're always questioning
ourselves. We look at our outward appearances
and we look at how weak we are and we think, could I? Could
I? And then the accuser of the brethren steps in and he's got
a foothold too, doesn't he? And he thinks, you know, if you
were really a child of God, you wouldn't be thinking like that.
You wouldn't be acting that way, talking like that. And we doubt
ourselves. And that's what Paul said now
to the church of Galatia. I stand in doubt of you. Tell
me, you that desire to be under the law, Do you not hear the
law? For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid and the other by a free woman.
Ishmael. Abraham, one day, you know, Abraham's
getting to be an old man and Abraham knows that God has made
him a promise to be the father of a great nation, but he's got
no heir. And so he gets with Sarah and
he says, Sarah, we need to help God out. Well, you know, let me go into
Hagar and we'll have a child. You can have a child by her.
Well, whatever we got to do. Sarah agreed. It's not always
a problem. You know that happened 4,000
years ago. And the world is still suffering
between the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac. For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid and the other by a free woman.
But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but
he was of the free woman was by promise." Now, you've got
two natures. You've got a nature that was
born after the flesh. However many years ago it was,
you inherited the nature of your father. who inherited the nature
of his father, we come in the likeness of sinful flesh. We
are sinful flesh. Which things are an allegory? For these are the two covenants,
the one from Mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage which is
Hagar. So here's a, there are two covenants.
God made two covenants with man. The first covenant was a covenant
of works that God made with Adam in the garden. And the work was
very simple. There's one thing you can't do,
Adam. That's it. One simple thing. Don't eat the
fruit of that tree. And Adam couldn't keep the covenant. And so that was a covenant of
law. That was a covenant of works and Adam broke it and he died. And the glorious thing is that
the covenant of grace is older than the covenant of works. The
covenant of grace goes back before time. The covenant of grace is
when the Lord Jesus Christ struck hands with his father and made
a promise to his father to redeem those who died in Adam. And so the Lord's using that
now as an allegory to show us the two covenants, these two
children, Hagar and Isaac. For Hagar is of Mount Sinai,
verse 25, that's the law, and answereth to Jerusalem, which
now is, and is in bondage with her children. So all that are
under the law are under the bondage of the law. If you're going to
be saved by keeping the law, you got to keep the whole law
with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul. We can't
do it, can we? We've never been able to keep
any of God's law, much less keep it all. But Jerusalem which is above,
that new Jerusalem which comes down from heaven, she's free. She's free from the law. The
law has nothing to say to her. Why? Because this glorious victorious
warrior came into this world and he silenced the curse of
the law. He silenced the accusations of
the law. He kept the law perfectly. The laws and he didn't keep it
just for himself, he kept it for all his people. Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
Men go about trying to establish their own righteousness, why?
Because they are ignorant of God's righteousness. Christ is
God's righteousness. And so here we're free, we're
free from the law. Which is the mother of us all,
for it is written, rejoice thou barren that bearest not, breaketh
forth and cry that thou travailest not, for the desolate hath many
more children than she which hath a husband. Now we brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Now he's comparing
Sarah with Hagar, Sarah being desolate and yet now she has
much more children, spiritual children. But as then, he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit,
even so it is now. Does your old man persecute your
new man? He that is after the flesh? He's your, he's your number one
enemy, isn't he? He's your biggest nemesis. He's,
he's your, he, he, oh, the longing. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? One day, one day, that which
is corruptible is going to be made incorruptible and that which
is mortal is going to be made immortal. It does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we're
going to see him as he is and be made like him. What a glorious
day that'll be. But right now, right now, that
which is born after the flesh persecutes him that's born after
the spirit. And yet that persecution is the
very means by which God drives us back to Christ. And so the
older is serving the younger. Your old man is serving your
new man. Though he's your persecutor,
though he's your number one enemy, though you long for that day
when you get to get rid of him and he's made new, right now,
He's the one that keeps reminding you of your need for Christ and
keeps driving you back to the throne of grace for help in your
time of need. Nevertheless, verse 30, what
sayeth the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. So then, brethren, We are not
children of the bond woman, but of the free. That's the only
reason you can read that verse that you read in Samuel chapter
22, and we can have any comfort. Why? Because all those things
that are said are true about those who are in Christ, in Christ. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made you free and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Don't go back. Don't look to
the law as the hope of your salvation. That's Esau. That's Esau. That's Basra. And that's what
the Lord Jesus Christ came to defeat. And that's who he did
defeat. He did. He satisfied the law. He defeated the flesh. He conquered
the grave. Oh, grave, where is thy victory? Death, where is our sting? The sting of death is sin. The
strength of sin is the law. Thanks be to God through Christ
Jesus. We're more than conquerors, we're
free. And that's who's being described
here in our text. Turn with me to... Romans Chapter 8, Romans Chapter
8. Look at verse 33, who shall lay
anything to the charge of Godzillet? Does the law have anything to
say against you? Romans chapter 8 verse 33, it
is God that justifies. What was that verse that Bert
read earlier? In His sight. If God justifies you, if that's
what we look like in His sight, if the law has been satisfied,
Christ has come as that conquering warrior and He has shed His blood
and He's come back to say, it's finished. It's finished. I've
been to Esau. I've been to Edom. I've been
to Basra. And I'm coming back with my blood
stained on me. It's been conquered. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. And if you're justified, that
old man, he doesn't exist. He's been killed and buried. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
For it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter, nay, in all these things. We are more than conquerors
through him that loved us. Who is this? Who is this that
comes with his stained, his blood-stained garments? He said, I treaded
the winepress by myself. I got the victory all by myself. I went to Edom, I went to Basra,
I conquered the enemy and all those that I conquered the enemy
for, they themselves are more than conquerors through him that
loved them. For I am persuaded. What are
you persuaded of? What is your persuasion? I'm
persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus. God loves all those that are
in Christ. Jacob I've loved, Esau I've hated. I've been down there to eat them.
I've come back just like David. You remember that? You remember
the time when David's out with his army and they're fighting
in a battle and they leave all their wives and children in a
little town called Basra. I'm sorry, Ziklag. Basra is in our text. And David
comes back with his men from this battle. And from a long
distance away, they see the billowing smoke coming up from Ziklag.
And their hearts drop. And they fear the worst. And
sure enough, when they finally got into the city, there was
not anyone left. The Amalekites had come in and
taken all of their wives and all their children. And they
could only imagine. They wanted to kill David. They
could only imagine what had happened to their loved ones. And the
Lord provided David, a young man, to tell him where the Amalekites
were camped out and where the wives and children were. And
here's the end of the story. David took his men, and the scripture
says they fought the Amalekites from one evening to the next
evening. So all night and all the next
day. And not one of David's men died. And here's how the story
finishes. And David recovered all. He recovered everyone. Not one
of his children, not one of the wives, none of them were hurt.
David recovered all. Now that's what Isaiah 63 is
about. Who is this? Who is this with
dyed garments that is pressed out the winepress of the wrath
of God all by himself on Calvary's cross and come back and declared,
it's finished. Edom's been defeated. Basra's
been opened. The prisoners have been set free.
And look what he says about, look what he says about his garment.
This, that in our text, Isaiah chapter 63, verse one, this,
that is glorious in his apparel. He's decked with the apparel
of a king. Now, when he came into this world,
he wasn't dressed that way. When he came into this world,
though he was king of kings and Lord of lords, the God of all
creation, he was born to commoners in an obscure village, in a stable. placed in a feeding trough. The angels had to come and declare
his birth in order for the shepherds to know. The wise men came from
the East. They knew from Daniel's prophecy
that they had learned centuries before that this was time for
the Messiah and God had given them a sign in the sky. And they
came, what did they know? They knew a king had been born,
but he didn't look anything like a king. It didn't look anything
like a king. And so Herod found out that there
was talk of a king threatening his reign and Joseph and Mary
had to take the Lord down to Egypt for two years. And Herod
killed every one of the babies that were born during that period
of time, slaughtered them all. Why? Because he was threatened.
A king? A king? No. In his life, he didn't look much
like a king. Why, he's a carpenter. He's the
son of Joseph. He's our, we know, we know his
brethren. They didn't know who he was.
I'm certain that his brothers must have admired the way he
lived. They were never able to say as siblings tend to say,
Jesus did it. They could never do that. He was a king right there in
their own household, the king, and they didn't know it. In his death, the Roman soldiers
mocked him. They put a purple robe on him,
mocking his being a king. They pressed a crown of thorns
into his brow mocking him of being a king. They smote him
on the face and said, if you're a prophet, prophesy. Tell us,
tell us who hit you. And then when Pilate did crucify
him, Pilate wrote that inscription on the cross, Jesus, the King
of the Jews. That was, Pilate was mocking
him. He was mocking him. And the Jews came and said, say
that he says he's king of the Jews. No, I'm putting it up there.
We're going to show you what the Jewish king looks like. Because
I'm king. I'm the one running this show.
He didn't look much like a king, did he? And the most amazing thing is
when Pilate, when the priests gathered together at Pilate's
place and said, crucify him, crucify him, and Pilate said,
should I crucify your king? Now, we have no understanding of how
much animosity and hatred there was between the Jews and the
Romans. And for the priest to say, we have no king but Caesar,
You ever had something slip out of your mouth and as soon as
you said it, you went, oh man, I wish I hadn't said that. I'm
sure that's how they must have felt. God put those words in
their mouth. The Lord Jesus Christ wasn't
their king, Caesar was their king. Stripped naked, the indignities
and shame of his crucifixion, He didn't look much like a king,
but now, now he's risen victorious. He's coming back, look at our
text. Who is this that cometh from Edom, Edom with dyed garments
from Basra, this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in
the greatness of his strength. I speak in righteousness. How comforted are you to be able
to read God's word, have the Holy
Spirit reveal to you the glory of Christ? I don't find any comforting words
anywhere else. I mean, the politicians don't
have any answers. The educators don't have any
answers. Science doesn't have answers. Medicine doesn't have
answers. There's no hope anywhere. What's a sin-sick soul going
to do for the hope of eternal life? And God says, I come. I come
in the righteousness of my speech, and I come in my strength, and
I'm able to save to the uttermost. to the uttermost. I've already
pressed out the brine press. Edom's been defeated. The gates
of the fortress of Basra has been opened. And I did it all
by myself. I didn't get any help. All by
myself. And God's people rejoice, trusting
Him for all the hope of their salvation. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for this glorious picture of Thy dear Son. Oh,
how we pray that Your Holy Spirit now would impress upon our hearts
and minds our conquering warrior, the hope of eternal life that
we have in Him. For it's in His name we pray.
Amen. 15 15 and your spiral him no, let's
stand together number 15 It is finished, Jesus cried. Then he bowed his head and died. Died for sins, but not his own. And redemption's work was done. Justice then was satisfied, God's
elect are justified, Righteousness our Lord brought in, And removed
His people's sin. Sin and death and hell subdued
by the power of Christ's blood, grace to sinners now is given,
pardon, holiness, and heaven. It is finished, can it be, That
Christ's blood was shed for me? Yes, I know He died for me, For
by grace I now believe. Leading Christ's atoning blood,
Kneeling at the throne of God. Gone my guilt, my sin is gone,
It is finished, all is done. th