Good morning again. We didn't look at verse 27 in
Acts chapter 17, which is probably the most important verse
in this whole passage. And it would be a good way for
us to open this service, thinking about this, that they should
seek the Lord, that they should seek the Lord, if happily, they
may find him. Although he is very near, he's
not far from every one of us. Romans chapter 10 says he's as
near to us as our lips. That's how near he is. That the
Lord would give us faith to believe what we say about him. Let's
stand together. Tom's going to come lead us in
the hymn on the back of your bulletin. And Bert Ugo is here. ? Come ye sinners poor and needy
? ? Weak and wounded, sick and sore ? ? Jesus ready stands to
save you ? ? Full of pity, love, and power ? ? I will arise and
go to Jesus ? ? He will embrace me ? In His arms, in the arms
of my dear Savior, Oh, there are ten thousand charms. Come, ye thirsty, come and welcome,
God's free bounty glorify. True belief and true repentance,
every grace that brings you nigh. I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms. In the arms of my dear Savior
Oh, there are ten thousand charms Come ye weary, heavy laden, lost
and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. I will arise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in his arms. In the arms of my dear Savior
Oh, there are ten thousand charms Let not conscience make you linger,
nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness he requireth
is to have a need of him. I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms, in the arms of my dear Savior. Oh, there are ten thousand charms. Please be seated. Good morning. Our scripture reading
this morning is going to be in Psalms. Psalm 146. Psalm 146. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the
Lord, O my soul. While I live, I will praise the
Lord. I will sing praises unto my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes. Knowing in the Son of Man to
whom there is no help. When he talks about princes,
he's talking about leadership here. In our case, we'll be a
president or something to that effect. Politicians, we are not
to put our trust in them. Son of Man is talking about a
human being because there's no help in them. There is no help
in none of them. His breath goes forth. This tells
you why there's no hope. His breath goes forth. He returns to the earth. And
that very day, his thoughts perish. Meaning he's only going to last
for a while. He's going to die. His ideas,
his thoughts are going to perish with him. And back when this
was written, these princes and these kings lasted a lot longer
than a president. They lasted until they passed
away. Yet the scripture says there's no time. They have no
time to do any difference. So they're just going to perish
along with their ideas or their thoughts. But this is the contrast. This is happy is he who that have the God of Jacob
for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God." This is who's
happy, whose hope is in God, or Jacob. Jacob reminds me of
our flesh, no? We are very Jacob. And I'm glad
that he's the God of Jacob, because I can relate to Jacob. which
hath made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that
there is, which keepeth truth forever. So he's the creator.
He's not like the princes that return to the earth because they
die. No, he's the creator and sustainer, the Lord Jesus Christ
is. And he keepeth truth forever. reigning forever and ever, which
executed judgment for their press. He gives food to the hungry and
the Lord The Lord loosens the prisoners. So this is what God
does for us. Of course, He is a right judgment. He's the judge. He executes judgment. He gives food to the hungry.
Are we hungry today? I am hungry. I'm hungry to hear
about Christ. And He is gracious enough to
bring us here to be fed with the Word of God. And He loosens
the prisoners. Those are also us. The Lord opened
the eyes of the blind. The Lord raises them that are
bowed down. These are what he does in salvation,
in the work of grace. He opens our eyes, our blind
eyes that are unable to see the Lord Jesus Christ and his glory.
And he raises them that are bowed down. This is what he does. All
believers are bowed down by the Lord, by him, the work of grace
again before him. And he loves the righteous. And
when he says we love the righteous, his children are righteous by
Christ in Christ. We tend to see ourselves, of
course, in the flesh, but in Christ we are righteous and he
does love us because we have the righteousness of Christ himself.
The Lord preserves the strangers. He relieves the fatherless and
widow. But the way of the wicked, he
turns upside down. So everything that's taking place
is by the sovereignty of God. He's in charge. He knows what
he's doing. He's always in charge. He preserves the strangers. That's
how we were before we came to Christ. And I think it's efficient
to say that we were strangers and foreigners before the Lord
brought us. The Lord shall reign forever. Even thy God, O sign unto all
generations, praise ye the Lord. Let's go to the Father and pray.
Father God, we come before you in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, giving you praises and thanking you that you have blessed
us with the wonderful privilege of coming here and listening
to the Word of God, the Gospel. We pray that your Holy Spirit
be both with us and with Pastor Greg, Father. We're in great
need of this Holy Spirit in order for us to see Christ more clearly,
to see more of his glory, Father God. We pray this also for all
the churches that are meeting today that preach the gospel.
And once again, we pray that your Holy Spirit be with us so
we may be able to see Christ in His glory. In Jesus' name
we pray. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
Hymn number 222. 222, there is a fountain. Yeah. There is a fountain filled with
blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains Lose all their guilty stains
Lose all their guilty stains. And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, loose all my sins away. Wash all my sins away, wash all
my sins away. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin not. Be safe to sin no more, be safe
to sin no more. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be safe to sin no more. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream Thy flowing wounds supply. Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. and shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme
and shall be till I die. When this poor lisping, stammering
tongue Lies silent in the grave, Then in a nobler, sweeter tongue
I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy power to save. Please be seated. Would you open your Bibles with
me to 1 Samuel, chapter 21. 1 Samuel, chapter 21. Before we get started, I'd like
for us to join our hearts together and pray for Alexandra. She's expecting. Grape with child. Due on the 18th was the due date
they gave her, but they've decided they need to do Caesarean, and
she has that scheduled for this Thursday. So let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for the miracle of life. We're thankful for the spiritual
life that we have in Christ. We thank you for the blessing
that you give to us with children, the miracle of birth. Lord, we
pray that you would give the medical professionals, the doctors
and nurses that minister to Alexandra this week, we pray that you'd
give them extraordinary skill to do their work well. We know,
Lord, that they are instruments of healing in your hand and that
all true health and life comes from you. And so, Lord, we pray
that you'd be merciful and we thank you, Lord, for the miracle
of birth and for this baby and for the blessing that she will
be to to our homes and to our church. Oh, we ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. I've titled this message hope
for the disabled, the destitute and the dissatisfied. I didn't title it hope for those
who might be disabled or destitute or dissatisfied. This text says
that hope in Christ can only be found if you are disabled,
destitute, and dissatisfied. You say, well, that's not me.
Then I have nothing to say this morning for you. I've got no
hope, I've got no word from God to give you any comfort if you
sit here this morning and can say, I'm not disabled, I'm not
destitute, and I'm not dissatisfied, or I'm not, one of the three. But if the Lord is pleased to
make you a sinner, you'll see yourself standing in the presence
of God, unable. That's what disability means.
A blind man is disabled because he cannot see. Lord, I cannot
do anything for myself. You will see yourself in debt
over your head, a debt that you cannot pay, destitute of any ability. to repay God for what you owe
Him. And the things of this world
and your sin and religion and people you will find have never
really satisfied my soul. I'm in need of one who can give
me satisfaction beyond anything that anything else has to offer.
Are you? Disabled, destitute, and dissatisfied. If you are, I have a word of
hope for you. I've got a word of great joy. great joy, one who is able to
save, one who has paid our debt, and one who himself has satisfied
God and will satisfy you. That's who this is for. That's
who the gospel is for. Now we know that David is a type
of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is called the son of David. David slew the bear and slew
the lion and defeated Goliath and delivered the children of
Israel. He was the sweet psalmist of Israel. He was the shepherd
of God's sheep. He was the king. He was a man
after God's own heart. David pictures the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'm not interested in studying
the life of David for the sake of getting some moral lessons
from David. I want to know how David pictures
the Lord Jesus Christ because he's the only one. He's the only
one that can be my ability. He's the only one that can pay
my debt. And he's the only one that can
satisfy my soul. And more importantly, satisfy
God. So what does David have to do with Christ in our text? David's fleeing from Saul. And we'll begin reading in verse
10. And David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and
went to Achish the king of Gath. Now Gath is where Goliath was
from. And so David now flees, fleeing
from Saul, goes to Gath, and these are the Philistines. These
are generally the enemies of Israel. And the servant of Achish said
unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? And did not
they sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath
slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? This is the
king of Israel who's come into the camp of the enemy. And we've
got an opportunity now to defeat our enemy by taking control of
this king and killing him. And David laid up these words
in his heart and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath, and
he changed his behavior before them. and feigned himself mad
in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and
let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said Achish unto
his servants, Lo, you see the man is mad? Whereof then have
you brought him to me? Have I need of a madman, that
you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this, and notice the word
fellow is in italics, shall this, shall this nothing, this madman,
this zero, this worm, shall he come into my house? David therefore departed thence
and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Here's a man who was praised
by the people, a man blessed of God, a man of great valor,
a man of great strength, a man of great accomplishments. You
remember when Saul tried to put his armor on David when he went
to battle against Goliath, David said, God gave me power to slay
the bear and to slay the lion with my bare hands in protecting
the sheep. David was a man's man. And now
he changes his behavior and becomes a madman and is looked upon by
his enemies as nothing. Turn with me to Psalm 22. And David ends up in a cave,
doesn't he? He ends up in a cave. Sound familiar? The Lord Jesus Christ, the word,
I looked up the word behavior, it means to taste or it means
judgment. So here we've got David tasting
something or making a judgment that is completely contrary to
everything that he'd ever been. He had been a man after God's
own heart. He had been a man of great stability and great
honor and great strength. And now his judgment changes
and he feigns himself a madman, scratching on the door and letting
his spittle go down his beard until his enemy says to him,
he's nothing. And he ends up in a cave. Psalm 22 verse 1, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now you know these are the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ upon Calvary's cross. When God made
him who knew no sin to be sin, God had no choice but to forsake
his only begotten son. When he saw sin on his son, he
had no choice but to sheathe the sword of his justice and
his wrath into the very heart of his own son. He had to. God's eyes are too pure to look
upon sin. He had to punish sin. He said,
I'll not let one sin go unpunished. The Lord Jesus Christ, the God
of glory, the creator and sustainer of all of life, now changes his
behavior and becomes something that he wasn't before. And when
it's all said and done, he ends up in a cave, doesn't he? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hear us not, and in the night season, and I'm not
silent, but thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of
Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee,
they trusted and thou did deliver them, they cried unto thee and
were delivered, they trusted in thee and were not confounded,
but I, am a maggot. That's the word there. A maggot. A nothing. The Lord Jesus Christ changed
his behavior. God made him sin. Who knew no sin? that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. He bore in His body
all the sins of all of God's people and suffered the wrath
of God's justice once and for all. He became something He wasn't
before. He changed His behavior. Look
at verse Verse six, but I am a worm and no man, a reproach
of men and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me
to scorn. They shoot out their lip, they
shake their head. He trusted in the Lord that he
would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeth that he delighteth
in him. Does this not sound just like what David's going through?
He's a madman. Look at him. If thou be the son
of God, come down. The one who had perfect union
and fellowship with his Father for all eternity has now, as
the sin-bearer, changed his behavior and become forsaken of God. It's the cup. It's the cup that
he prayed in the garden, Father, if there be any way this cup
can pass from me as horrible and agonizing as the crucifixion
would have been. Physically, it was the spiritual
agony of being forsaken of God and being considered not even
a man. He's no man. He's a maggot. When God made him to be sin,
He felt... You know, we become so accustomed
to sin, don't we? We're so familiar with it. We're
so used to it. I like what Brother Todd said
here one time. He said, the thing that bothers
me most about my sin is how little it bothers me. And that's true. You know, our sin doesn't bother
us much. God convicts us and makes us
know that that everything about us is sin and we have no righteousness. Now that will cause us to flee
to Christ. But here the Lord Jesus Christ,
never having known sin, He felt the shame and guilt and burden
of sin like you and I have never felt it. He made it His own and was forsaken
of God and changed His behavior. The very source and essence of
all of life dies. How do you explain that? I don't
know. It's a mystery. But I know that
He did. I know that He did. The eternal Word of God is silenced on the cross. Why? To do for those who were not
able to do for themselves. To pay the debt of those who
had a debt they couldn't pay. And to give hope, and happiness to the discontent. Go back with me to our text. Verse 22, verse 1 of chapter
22, David therefore departed thence and escaped to the cave
of Adullam. And that's where the Lord Jesus
Christ was put. He was put in a cave. He was
put in a tomb. He really died. He was really
buried. separated from God, three days. And when His brethren, His brethren. Now the Lord Jesus Christ has
brethren. You know, people talk about, well, you know, God's,
we're all the children of God. By creation, yes. By creation,
all men are the children of God. but not in salvation. He that
sanctifieth and they that are sanctified as all is one, whereby
he is not ashamed to call them his brethren. No longer do I
call you my servant. No longer do I call you servants,
for a servant doesn't know what a master does. I call you my
friends. These are his brethren. These
are his friends. that hear about where David is.
He's in the cave of Adullam and they go to that cave. They go
to that cave. If you and I are going to know
Christ, we're going to have to go to the tomb. We're going to
have to go to the cross and to the tomb and see what God did
in sacrificing His Son to first do business with God. In order
for God to do something for us, God had to do something for God.
God had to satisfy his own justice. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
died first and foremost for his father to fulfill the requirements
of the covenant of grace. We're the benefactors of that.
But Christ laid down his life for the father first and foremost.
And then he went to the tomb. And as we saw in the previous
hour, he was raised from the dead and the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ is the positive proof that God has given
to us, that God's satisfied. He was offered up, the scripture
says, for our offenses and raised again because of our justification. We're justified through the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection is God saying
to us, I'm satisfied. I'm pleased. I would not allow
my holy one to see corruption. I was obligated. I was obligated. Here's God the Father speaking.
I'm obligated to raise him from the dead because he did everything
I sent him to do and he succeeded in it. He put away the sins of
his people. He satisfied divine justice.
He fulfilled all the requirements of the law. What a picture of
Christ. If you're going to know Christ,
you got to go to the cave of a dulem. You got to go to this
man who has changed his behavior. This man who became nothing. And when his brethren and all
his father's house heard it, Heard it. Faith comes by hearing. You see, what we're doing right
now, preaching Christ, is the means by which God brings His
people to Christ. Faith comes by hearing. And hearing
comes by the Word of God. How can they believe on Him whom
they have not heard? Now, should they hear without
a preacher? Now, should they preach unless they be sent? Oh God,
preach to me. Preach to me. I can't tell you
the number of people over the years. Don't preach to me, preacher.
Oh, I want somebody to preach to me. Don't preach over me.
Don't preach down at me. But preach to me. Tell me about
Christ. I'm in debt. I'm disabled. I'm dissatisfied. I need one
who's able to fulfill the needs that I can't get anywhere else. All his father's house heard
it. God Almighty, God the Father,
elected a people according to his own will and purpose before
time ever began, and there is no gospel without that. There's
no gospel without that. Because without that, then the
final decision's up to you. And if it's up to you, then it's
not of grace, it's of works. And you've just made God a debtor. You've obligated God. If there's
something you can bring to the table in order to make what Jesus
did work for you, say not in your heart, what can I do to
bring Christ down from above? Say not in your heart, forbid
the thought. What can I do to bring Christ
up from below? Romans chapter 10. Don't even
entertain the idea that I can do something to make what he
did work for me. What he did worked. It worked
for all those of his father's house. All those whom God Almighty
chose in the covenant of grace before the world began were saved
through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross. When he bowed his mighty head and said, it is finished,
it's finished. It's finished. And all his father's house, they
heard it. Have you heard it? Have you heard
about Him? Or are you still sitting there,
standing in judgment of Him? Well, you know, I have to think
about this. You're not gonna come to truth
by thinking about it. God's gonna make you bow. Oh
Lord, give me faith to believe. to bow to Christ, to rest my
soul upon His finished work and His glorious person? Lord, could
I be one of the Father's house? If you go to the cave, If you
see how He has changed His behavior and how He became nothing, He
became a maggot, He became a worm, forsaken of men and forsaken
of God in order to bear the shame and the guilt of the sins of
His people. Look what happens. They went
down thither to Him. Oh, don't come to a doctrine.
Don't come to a man. Don't come to a theological perspective. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. He's the living God. People change their theology
from being free will Arminians to being Calvinists. That's not
salvation. That's not salvation. You'd be just lost as a Calvinist.
You'd be as an Arminian. Come to Christ. They came to
Him. They came to Him. So how do I know, preacher, if
I've come to Him? Because He's made you to be what's
described of these men in the next verse. And here's where
the title of this message comes from. And everyone that was in distress,
that word, you can look it up, it means disabled. Everyone that
was between a rock and a hard place and could not move, they
were disabled. And everyone that was in debt,
A debt that they could not pay. And everyone that was discontented couldn't find satisfaction anywhere
else. If you can find satisfaction
through stoicism, like we looked at in the first hour, if you
can look down inside your heart, and find some goodness and some
place of comfort and some place of peace and some place of hope
down within your heart, go for it. But if you can't, if you go down
inside your heart and it's like going down in a well, the deeper
you get, the darker it gets, and you can't find anything there, Discontent. Disability means that you lack
ability. If you have any spiritual ability
whatsoever, if you have the power of free will, if you have the
power of good works, if you have any spiritual ability whatsoever,
you won't come to Christ. He is for only the disabled. You can't walk, you can't talk,
you can't see. You just, you're spiritually
disabled. If you have any ability whatsoever
to keep the law of God, people say, well, I've never murdered
anybody. Well, if you believe that to be true about yourself,
then you're not disabled. And you won't come to Christ.
But if you know that when you have ought in your heart toward
your brother without a cause, that God counts that as murder,
you'll know you're a murderer. Lord, I've never kept one of
your laws one time. Turn to me to Romans chapter
eight. Romans chapter eight. Verse six, for to be carnally
minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. If I'm looking to my flesh, that's
carnal. If I'm looking to my flesh, then
I'm dead. If I'm looking to Christ, that's
to be spiritually minded, then I have life. Because the carnal
mind is enmity against God, For it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. You can't keep God's law. When
God gave the children of Israel through Moses the law of God,
you may go back and read in Exodus. Oh, we're gonna do it. We're
gonna do everything God said do. And Moses said to them, you
can't keep the law of God, and he made a sacrifice. The Lord
Jesus Christ himself is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. To be spiritually minded is to
believe yourself to be unable to keep God's law. And to believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that has the ability
to make the law of God honorable, to fulfill it, You can't see
the things of the Spirit of God. Nicodemus, you can't see the
Kingdom of God unless you'll be born again. You're unable.
You're disabled. You're distressed. You can't
do it. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, for
they are spiritually discerned. Lord, that's me. If you leave
me to myself, I won't be able to figure out anything. I won't
be able to see. I won't be able to believe. I
am disabled. That's how I know I've come to
Christ. Because I'm not looking to my ability for any part of
my salvation. No man can come unto me unless
the Father which sent me draw him. Lord, that's me. I can't
come. I cannot come unless you send
your Spirit and open the eyes of my understanding and make
me willing and cause me, Lord, to come. I'm unable. I'm unable. All who think they can come,
don't. and all who know they can't come
do." Isn't that glorious? I'm unable to satisfy the demands
of God's justice? What am I going to do to pay
for my sins? What am I going to offer to God? People say,
make your peace with God. What are you going to offer God
to make peace with Him? The Lord Jesus Christ is our
peace with God, and the only hope we have, I'm not able, I
can't come up with anything. I'm unable to cleanse myself. Those lepers came to the Lord
Jesus Christ, they said, Lord, we know that you can make us
whole if thou will. And the Lord said, I will be
thou be made clean. Be thou made clean. Oh, and what
does the religious man's what's the self-righteous say? I know
God wants to save me. I think I'll let him. Two blind men came to the Lord
Jesus Christ and said, son of David, have mercy upon us. And
the Lord said to them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? Do you believe God's able to
save you? Do you believe God's able? I'm talking about able
to do it all by himself, without your help. That's what it means to be disabled.
These are the men that came to Christ. They came to David in
the cave of Adullam. We believe you're able. Abraham
believed God and was fully persuaded that he was able to do that which
he had promised. And Paul said, I know whom I
have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. I'm not able. I can't do anything. Can't keep
the law. Can't pay for my sin. Can't even
come to God. Can't open my eyes. I can't believe. I can't do anything. I'm disabled. Does that describe you? That's
why I said this message is for the disabled. It's for those who are in debt
over their head. And let me remind you, years ago I used to be a bill
collector. Yep, that's what I did. Not too long before I was a bill
collector, they actually had debtor prisons. So we're talking
about people that, you know, that went to prison for their
debt. You didn't just file bankruptcy
or just, you know, give up your material things. No, you went
to prison for debt. You say, well, how does a person's
debt get paid when that happens? It doesn't. But it sure did deter
a lot of people from getting in debt. You knew you couldn't pay your
debt, you were gonna go to jail for it. You'd probably be more
careful about getting in debt, wouldn't you? That's the situation
here. These men were on the run from
the law. They had a debt to pay that they
couldn't pay. Not only were they disabled,
but their creditors were looking for them to put them into debtor's
prison. Is that you? The law pursuing
you? You got a debt you can't pay?
If God's made you to be a sinner, you know you do. You know you
owe God something that you could never pay back. You need someone
to pay that price for you. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
bowed his head on Calvary's cross and cried with a loud voice,
it is finished. Look up that word. It's the word
tetelestai in the Greek. It's the same word that your
debtor, your creditor would have stamped on your bill when you
finally paid it in full. That's what the word means, tetelestai,
paid in full. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
said, it is finished, what he's telling us is the debt that you
owe God is paid in full. Now you try going down to the
bank and paying on a debt that's already been paid off and see
what they're gonna say to you. They look up the records, sorry,
nothing due, it's all paid. Nope, well, I wanna give you
some money. Nope, you can't, we won't take it, it's paid. Look, look at verse two, and
everyone that was in distress and everyone that was in debt,
to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of
debt. You see, here's the thing about
it. All that believe that they have any ability to give God
something to pay off their debt, Whether it be their dedication,
their will, their prayers, their good works, whatever it is, you
just made God a debtor. And God's not in debt. Not to
you, not to me. Don't make God to be a debtor.
You're the debtor. I'm the debtor. To him that worketh is the reward
not reckoned of grace, but of debt. If you do something in
order to make what Christ did work for you, then you just obligated
God and you made him to be the debtor. Discontent. You see that? Does this describe you? You have a debt you can't pay.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. And that word poor in spirit means poverty stricken.
I don't have a dime. I don't have a penny. We have nothing. Nothing. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed of God. You've been blessed
if you're poor in spirit. If you're in debt to God, that's
because God's already blessed you. Don't think that, well,
I'm going to get the blessings of God by coming to God as a
poor man. If I'll just be poor, God will
bless me. No. If He's made you to be in
debt, it's because He has blessed you. Disabled, in debt, and what else? Dissatisfied. dissatisfied. Have you found it yet to be true
for you that nothing in this world satisfies you? You've tried it. Your sin doesn't satisfy you.
There's pleasure and sin for a season, but in the end, it
leads to death. I can't get satisfied. I cannot get satisfied. You know,
an addiction is a person that just keeps doing the same thing,
and what they're doing is they're looking for that to satisfy them.
That's what it is. It's an attempt to achieve satisfaction. And it's never there. You talk
to any alcoholic, he'll tell you he's chasing his first buzz. Because it was so pleasurable
the first time I had it, and I'm still trying to recover that
feeling. And it just, I can't ever get
there. Dissatisfied. and no amount of
material things satisfies my soul. Oh, I indulge myself in
the pleasures of the things God gives me, you know, and sometimes
sinfully, but right now, I'm talking about right now, I can't
be satisfied. This world can't satisfy me.
No promotion, no new car, no house, no nothing really satisfies
me. I'm dissatisfied. And as much as I love my family,
as much as I love you, and you love me, and we enjoy one another's
company, we can't be satisfied with one another. You know, if you want a successful
marriage, lower your expectation. Don't try to get your satisfaction
from your spouse. They're not able to satisfy you. Religion, if you've tried religion,
you know there's not a religious, there's not a flavor of religion
in this world that will satisfy you. It's all the same. It's
all the same. What about you? The Lord Jesus
Christ changed his behavior and went down into a cave for those
who are disabled, those who are in debt, and those who are dissatisfied. Does that describe you? Say,
no, I'm not disabled. I'm not in debt. I'm really not
dissatisfied. Gospel's not for you. Not right
now. I pray one day it will be. But if this describes you, do
what these men did. Come to the cave of Adullam.
It's where David is. He came to satisfy the demands
of God. And here's the truth, when you
look to Christ, you're going to be satisfied with what God's
satisfied with. God, you're satisfied with Christ?
Oh, I am too. Oh, dare I add anything to Him?
God's pleased with him. You're okay with the death that
he paid? That life that he gave on Calvary's
cross completely takes away my sin? Yep. You mean I'm not in
debt anymore? Nope. And you mean his ability is able
to save my soul? Are you willing to be saved God's
way? Pure grace, sovereign grace,
no contribution of your own, an accomplished work done by
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's hope. That's hope, isn't
it? Hope for the disabled. Hope for those who are in debt.
and hope for the dissatisfied. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for your word and we thank you for the revelation
that you've made of thy dear son. We pray for your Holy Spirit
to make him known to our hearts. Oh Lord, give us faith. As we
partake of this table, we pray that you would enable us to see
the bread as a type of Christ body. broken for us, to see the
wine as the type of His blood shed for us. Let us receive these things in
faith. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I'll ask the men
if they'll come, please, and distribute the wine and the bread. 191. Let's just remain seated.
Tom's going to come lead us in 191. Here, O my Lord, I see Thee face
to face. Here would I touch and handle
things unseen. Here, grasped with firmer and
eternal grace, And all my weariness upon Thee lead. Here would I feed upon the bread
of God. Here drink with thee the royal
wine of heaven. Here would I lay aside each earthly
load. Here taste afresh the calm of
sin forgiven. I have no help but thine, nor
do I need another arm, say, thine to lean upon. It is enough, my Lord, enough
indeed. My strength is in Thy might,
Thy might alone. Mine is the sin, but Thine the
righteousness. Thine is the guilt, but Thine
the cleansing blood. Here is my robe, my refuge, and
my peace. Thy blood, Thy righteousness,
O Lord, my God. Man-made religion is very complicated. Everybody's got a little different
flavor and different set of rules and regulations and traditions. The gospel is very simple. Paul
said, I fear, lest you be deceived like Eve by the serpent, that
you should be taken from the simplicity that is in Christ. The gospel is a person. It's
his life and his death. No leaven in this bread. He's
the only one that ever lived a sinless life. We take this
bread in remembrance of him. As He is, so are we. Stand in the very presence of
a holy God with no guilt, no sin, no condemnation, perfect
acceptance in the Beloved. Not only did righteousness have
to be established, but sin had to be paid for. Without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission for sin. So the Lord Jesus Christ
shed his precious blood on Calvary's cross, and God said, when I see
the blood, I'll pass by your sin. We do this in remembrance
of him. And all God's people said, amen,
amen. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Brother Donald, would you dismiss
us, please, in prayer? Let's stand together. Thank you for the words that we have heard. We ask that you would press them
upon our mind and grant them our rights. We thank you for
the accomplished work of redemption in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We thank you for the table. We
thank you for the almonds. We thank you, Father, for the
gospel and all of God's salvation. We praise your name. We glorify
you. We thank you for everything that we have heard here today.