When John wrote the book of Revelation,
he said, I was in the spirit on
the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet
saying, I am Alpha and Omega. And what thou seest, write us
in a book and send it to the seven churches. And then in verse 18, he says,
and when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid
his right hand upon me saying unto me, fear not for I am the
first and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead
and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of
hell. and death. Write these things
which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things
which shall be hereafter." And the Lord's written them. He's
written them to us. I hope that we'll be in the Spirit
this morning and that the Lord will cause us to hear Him say,
I am the Alpha and the Omega. I'm the one that chose you. in
the covenant of grace before time ever began. I'm the one
that redeemed you through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I am the one who regenerates
you by the power of the Holy Spirit, making you willing in
the day of my power. I am the one who keeps you and
presents you faultless before the throne of God. I'm the Alpha
and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Tom's gonna come
and lead us in number 291. 291, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. Let's stand together. Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but Thou art mighty. Hold me with Thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more. Feed me till I want no more. Open now the crystal fountain
whence the healing stream doth flow. Let the fire and the cloudy
pillar lead me all my journey through. Strong deliverer, Be
Thou still my strength and shield. Be Thou still my strength and
shield. When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside. Bear me through the swelling
current, Land me safe on Canaan's side. Songs of praises, songs
of praises, I will ever give to thee. I will ever give to thee. Please be seated. Morning. We're going to be reading
this morning a psalm. Book of Psalm 130. Psalm 130. Out of the debts have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. And this is the only place where
the believer cries out of debt when the Lord makes you a sinner,
and the Lord shows you a need of him. Lord, hear my voice. Let thy ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, should have marked
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? No one will stand. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can
stand and we stand in Him. But there is forgiveness with
thee. That's the good news. There is
forgiveness. That's why He doesn't count the
iniquities of the believers because they've been already paid in
Christ. But there is forgiveness in Him that that might be feared
I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait in his word. I do hope. We have a hope. The hope is Christ. He's the
living word and that's what we have hope in. My soul waited
for the Lord more than they that watch in the morning. I say more
than they that watch in the morning. Those are the night watchmen
that watch all morning, all night, and looking forward to the sun
to come up. We watch for him, for the Lord's coming, even more
so than they do. Let Israel hope in the Lord. Israel is us, the believers. He calls us the new Israel. We
hope in him. For with the Lord, there is mercy. That's what we need. We need
mercy from our God. With Him is plentiful redemption. Our greatest need is mercy and
redemption, and it's all in Christ. It's all in the person and work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that's being preached from
here this morning, and the one that will be exalted in the next
hour. There is forgiveness. There's
redemption in that Lord Jesus Christ, in Him and Him alone.
And he shall redeem Israel for some of the iniquities, from
the present or past iniquities, no, from all iniquities. I'm full of iniquities. And I
am glad and joyful and thankful that there is redemption in him.
And he says he's going to redeem Israel, which is his chosen people,
from all the iniquities. That's what we need. That's what
we need. Father God, we come before you
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by his righteousness and
by his death on the cross, his payment for our sin. We come
before you thanking you, Father, that we have a place here where
we can gather and hear your word, Father, and hear the Lord Jesus
Christ magnified. Father, we thank you for the
preacher. We pray for him, for the Holy
Spirit to fill him. And we also pray for all the
other churches that are preaching the Lord Jesus Christ and His
gospel, the gospel of grace. We pray for them as well. But
we require your Holy Spirit at this time more than ever, Father.
We need Him to point us to Christ. We need Him to open our eyes,
stop our ears to hear Christ and Him alone, Father. We need
to know more of Him. We need to see more of his glory,
we need to know him better, Father. And we pray, we are totally dependent
on you for you to do that to us, Father. In Jesus' name we
pray, amen. Let's stand together once more, we'll
sing the hymn on the back of your bulletin, and then we'll
have some special music. Let's all stand together, the
hymn on the back of the bulletin. Before the throne of God above,
I have a strong, a perfect plea. A great high priest, whose name
is love, Whoever lives and pleads for me. My name is raven on his hand. My name is written on his heart. I know that while in heaven he
stands, no tongue can bid me to depart. Because the sinless Savior died,
My sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied,
to look on Him and pardon me. One with Himself, I cannot die. My soul is purchased with His
blood. My life is hid with Christ on
high, with Christ my Savior and my God. Please be seated. We have Matt
Vincent visiting with his wife, Andrea. I think everybody knows
him from Lexington, but Matt's going to come bring some special
music. Before the sun had ever shone
its light upon the land. Christ was slain in sinners'
stead, More numerous than the sand. Jesus died a substitute, In my
place stood He All my sin in Him He bore On
blood-stained Calvary Was this justice? Was this right? That God would die for me? How could I, condemned to die,
by Jesus be set free? Jesus died a substitute In my
place stood he All my sin in Him He bore On
blood-stained Calvary Now I know what my pardon is
Why it is I live Jesus' blood the reason is His
for mine did give Jesus died a substitute In my
place stood He All my sin in Him He bore On blood-stained Calvary Jesus died a substitute In my
place stood He All my sin in Him He bore On
blood-stained Calvary. Thank you, Matt. Turn with me
in your Bibles to Psalm 23. Psalm 23. I've titled this message,
Reaching My Destination. Reaching My Destination. And
I would introduce this message by asking you to consider your
own destination. What is the destination of your
life. Trish and I had a neighbor, 55
years old, who dropped dead of a heart attack, picture of health,
no apparent health problems, last Saturday. And we went to
his wake Thursday night and we witnessed three or four hundred
people, standing around, all talking, greeting each other, acting as if life was just going
to go on forever, and never really considering their own mortality. Never. I mean, here is the lifeless
corpse of a 55-year-old friend, and everybody's just acting like,
that's not going to happen to me. I want you to consider your mortality.
Not in fear, but in hope. Paul said for me, to live is
Christ and to die is gain. I want the Spirit of God to impress
upon your heart and my heart that we have a home. The Lord
said, You believe in God? Believe also in me. For in my
Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go and prepare a place for
you. And I will come again and receive
you unto myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. Oh, what hope. He started that
passage by saying, let not your heart be troubled. Let not your
heart be troubled. David in Psalm 23 with, and I
will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Is that your destination? Or
are you like most folks, just investing all your time, all
your effort, all your energy, all your thoughts into just getting
by in this world? You listen to the message that's
being preached in religion, and it's all about how to get along
in the world, how to be a better person, how to be successful
and happy. And the messages are filled with
nothing more than moralisms, psychology, rules and regulations
on how to live a better life. The message of the gospel is
all about how to get out of this world. Not how to get along in
it, but how to get out of it. I want you to be prepared for
the inevitable. inevitable this is not a this
is not a depressing subject for the child of God if talking about
death is depressing to you then you particularly need to hear
this message you really do I want you to have hope in it the Lord put it like this he
said labor not for the meat which perishes Don't invest all of
your effort into the worldly things that are going to perish. What does it profit a man if
he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What would
a man give in exchange for his soul? I want you to be thinking
about your soul. Our lives are filled with responsibilities
and messages and impulses and everything that gets us focused
on this life. Isn't that the way it is? And
you go to work and you've got demands put on you and you're
at home and you have responsibilities and everything's relating to
the here and the now. The gospel will point our hearts
to the one who's seated in glory and cause us to long to see him
as he is and be made like him. Do you have that hope? labor not for the meat which
perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto eternal life, which
the Son of Man shall give unto thee." Lord, if I'm going to
have hope for life after death, and let me say this, the only
way that you can live in this world content The only way that
you can experience the happiness that can come only from God,
the only way that you and I are going to know anything about
the peace of God that passes understanding is to have our
hearts and our minds kept in Christ Jesus. to be looking unto
him who is the author and the finisher of our faith, who for
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
its shame. Oh, that the Lord would enable
us to look to him, to rejoice in him, to believe that what
he did was sufficient. It was everything that God requires
from me. He finds it in His own Son. Nothing I can do to add to what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done. Nothing I can do to take away
from what He's done. And only when I'm resting in
Him and hoping in Him and longing to see Him do I have any ability
to understand and to live my life in this world in such a
way to honor the Lord and to experience His joy, His presence,
and His peace. You don't learn to die by how
you live. You learn to live by being ready
to die. Religion would promote works
as the means of your salvation. Let me say this, to disobey the
gospel, which means to not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to
not rest your immortal soul on Him, to not trust His finished
work, for all your righteousness. Trust Him for your salvation. Trust His shed blood for your
justification. To not do that is worse than
the worst crime that you could commit. To not obey the gospel is much
worse than not obeying the law of God. For when you don't obey
the law of God, there's a remedy. It's called the gospel. When
you don't obey the gospel, there is no remedy. There remaineth
no sacrifice for sins. Truth is, you and I have never
been able to keep any of God's laws, and we're in need of grace. Oh, Lord, show me Christ. Cause me to hope in Him. Don't let me become like the
world. Just either living in denial
of death or making some covenant with death based on something
that I've done. The Lord said, I'll disannul
that covenant. I'll put it away. You make a
covenant with death based, in other words, if your hope for
salvation is based on anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ,
the scripture says you are leaning on a teetering wall. You are dangling over the very
fires of hell, holding on to a spider's web. The Lord. Psalm 23, verse 1,
the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, He's my shepherd. I shall not
be in want of anything. He shall supply all my needs
according to His glory in grace in Christ Jesus. He gives me
everything. and gives it to me in abundance.
He finishes this psalm by saying, my cup runneth over. I've got
more than I need. I cannot exhaust the grace of
God. All the righteousness I need
is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have no righteousness of my
own. All the justification I need
is found in His shed blood. All the wisdom I need is found
in His glorious person. God has made Him to be for me
all my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my justification, and all
my redemption, and I want nothing. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not be in want. He supplies everything I need. Without holiness, no man shall
see God. The Lord Jesus Christ is my holiness
before God. He that sanctified, that's what
the word holy means. He that sanctifyeth. That's what
the Lord Jesus Christ did for His people when He shed His blood
on Calvary's cross. He sanctified them. He made them
holy. He that sanctifyeth and they
that are sanctified are all as one, so that He is not ashamed
to call them His brethren. Oh, that's what I need. That's
what I need. I need the Lord Jesus Christ
to be for me my every need. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want. The only
way that the Lord can be your shepherd is for him to make you
to be a sheep. Make you to be a sheep. There
are a few things I want to tell you about sheep. They are dumb,
they are defenseless, they are dependent, they are dirty, and
they are a domesticated animal. They belong to the shepherd. Does that describe you? Lord,
I don't know anything. If you don't open the eyes of
my understanding, All of my intellect, all of my study, all of my research,
it will avail me nothing. I'm a dumb sheep. I need a shepherd. Lord, I'm dependent upon you
for everything, for my righteousness, for my justification, for all
my salvation, and I'm defenseless. Lord, I'm dirty. In me, that
is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. The law of God's holy, just,
and good, but it's never made a person holy. It's never justified
anyone. It's never added an ounce of
goodness to anyone's life. I can't keep your law, Lord.
All I can do is break it. I'm a sinner. Here's your hope. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And let me just say this, a sinner
is a person who can do nothing but sin. Does that describe you? That's a work of grace. God's
got to do something for you to believe that to be true about
yourself. Well, I know I've committed some sins. No, no, no. No. God's made you to be a sinner.
You know that there's nothing you can do but sin. You are in complete need, dependence
upon the Lord Jesus Christ for all your righteousness before
God. Look at verse two. He maketh
me to lie down in green pastures. Oh, if he doesn't make me lie
down, I won't lie down. I'm gonna work. I'm gonna do
something. There's some contribution I can
make to my salvation. No, there isn't. No, there isn't. And the only one that can make
you lie down is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. Oh, Lord, that's the Spirit of
God. Lord, enable me to drink. from that river that flows from
the throne of God described in the book of Revelation, that
river that's clear as crystal. Oh, Lord, let me drink. Cause
me to be like that tree planted by rivers of living water that
will not wither in due season to produce its fruit. Oh, Lord,
I need that. I need that. I want you to know
Christ. Not to know about Him. Not to
get some doctrine and theology, but to know Him. Without Him,
there's no life. There's no hope. There's no salvation. Let a man accomplish all he can
accomplish in this life. When I looked at my neighbor
lying there, The corpse of my neighbor lying there in that
casket, I thought, oh Lord, just a few days I'm going to be right
there. Just a few days you're going to be right there. It's
true. Lord, I want to know You. I need for you to confirm to
my heart, Lord, by your spirit, that you fed me with green grass
and led me beside still waters. Look at verse 3. He restoreth
my soul. He turns my soul. Lord, you know
what sheep are good at? All ye like sheep have gone astray. That's what sheep are good at
doing, just going astray, wandering, prone to wander, prone to leave
the God that you love. The shepherd has never lost a
sheep, not a single one. He leaves it. One sheep goes
out, he goes out and gets him, brings him back in. Lord, that's,
I need you to restore my soul. If you leave me to myself, I'll,
I'll, I'll wander away and I'll never come back. I need you to
come get me. Restore my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. What are those paths of righteousness? Surely, if we're to be saved,
He's got to lead us to Christ and cause us to know that all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God and that the
only hope that we have is to know Him who is our righteousness
before God. But that's not what He's talking
about here. Notice the plural in the word path. Paths of righteousness. For his namesake. There's only one path to Christ.
That's faith. That's the only path to Christ.
The gospel, when it's preached, God's pleased to apply it to
a man's heart and giving faith to believe upon Christ, that's
the path. But there are many paths in this life that the Lord
has to take us down in order to bring us to that place. That's
what he's talking about here. Now, James makes it clear in
James chapter 1, let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted
of God. For God tempteth no man, neither
can he be tempted of evil. But every man is tempted when
he is drawn away of his own lust. And when lust hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin, and sin bringeth forth death. Man is
fully responsible for every sin that he's ever committed. And
if God shows you Christ, you come to him. expressing that
responsibility and showing him your need for him to take it
away. Lord, I bear the full responsibility for my sin. That having been
said, our God is so glorious. He's so omnipotent. That He takes
even the sin that we're guilty of, the sin that we're responsible
for, and uses it as a path to righteousness. Everything you've ever done. Every experience you've ever
had. Proverbs chapter 16 verse 9,
man's heart deviseth his ways, but the Lord directeth his steps. Everything that you've ever experienced
in your life, every act of providence, sad or happy, dark or bright,
has brought you to where you are right now. and was necessary for you to
be where you are right now. He leadeth me in paths of righteousness
for his namesake. And we can't see it when we're
in the midst of it. You remember when Jacob sent
his sons down to Egypt to get food during the drought? Joseph
was already down there. Joseph by now is the prime minister
of Egypt. He's got the keys to the storehouses. He's the one
distributing the food. He's in charge of all of Egypt.
In God's providence, the Lord has set him up in that position
to save his brothers. Remember at the end, Joseph said
to his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for
good, to save many people. All the evil things, all the
hard things, all the difficult things that you and I have been
through and will go through. God will use them for good. For the salvation of our souls.
He's got an end. He said, I know the thoughts
that I have for you. Thoughts of good and not thoughts
of evil. to bring you to an expected end. Oh, he leadeth me in paths of
righteousness for his name's sake, all these things being
necessary for my salvation. And Lord, can you say with me,
can you say with me, whatever you have to do, for me to be
able to say, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Lord, do it. It takes faith. Because you've had some hard
days, haven't you? There's been some heartbreaking experiences
Lord, I don't want to go through any of those. I don't want to
suffer those things. Lord, you know what's best for
me. Jacob thought, when Benjamin
came back, they came back for Benjamin, and Jacob's son said
to him, He's asking for Benjamin. We had to leave Simeon down there,
and he's asking for Benjamin. If we don't bring Benjamin, he's
not going to give us Simeon back, and we're not going to get any
food. And here's what Jacob said, I've lost Joseph, and now I've
lost Simeon, and now you're asking me to give up Benjamin. And here's
what he said, all these things are against me. To the contrary. To the contrary,
none of it was against him. It was all in God's good providence
to save him. Now turn with me to Genesis chapter
48. Genesis chapter 48. This is at the end of Jacob's
life when Joseph brings Ephraim and Manasseh to his father Jacob
for Jacob to put the blessing on Joseph's two sons and And
Jacob says this in verse 14. And Israel, that's Jacob, stretched
out his right hand and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was
the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding
his hands willingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed
Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac
did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day. His tune had changed. He said, all these things are
against me. When he thought that he had lost his sons. Now he's
got his, all his sons together. He's given his, he, and now he's
putting his blessing on his grandsons. And he's saying the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac is the God of Jacob. And he has fed me and
blessed me every day of my life. Is that your experience? Has the Lord Himself convinced
you that all things work together for good for them who love God
and those who are the called according to His purpose? Is
He convinced you of that? Now, let me give you a few more
examples from the scriptures. I've heard it said, and you've
heard me say, that which is born in the storm often dies in the
calm. And I've seen it happen many
times. People are in a crisis. They come to God for one reason,
to be delivered from that crisis. And when the crisis is finally
over, they lose their interest in the things of God. That which
is born in the storm often dies in the calm. I don't want that
to happen. That having been said, God often afflicts his people
with storms in order to cause them to see their greater need,
which is the putting away of their sin. Would Bartimaeus have
ever cried, Jesus, son of David, have mercy upon me, if he had
not been afflicted as a blind beggar? What would you have me to do
Bartimaeus? Oh Lord, that I might see. And he restored his sight. And then he gave him spiritual
sight. Bartimaeus followed him, didn't
he? Would Naaman That Syrian afflicted
with leprosy ever had come to the prophet Elijah for healing
had he not had leprosy. No, he wouldn't have. He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his namesake. Bless Naomi's heart. Oh. Her husband took her down to
Moab and he and her two sons died in that place. And now she
comes back and she says, do not call me Naomi, but call me Mara,
for God has afflicted me. And her friends saw her and said,
Naomi, is that you? They couldn't believe how much
she had changed from those experiences that she had down in Moab. And
yet God used all that in order to bring her to Boaz, her kinsman
redeemer, and restore unto her everything that she had lost. Would the woman at the well had
been there in the middle of the day? Had she not lived such a
shameful life? Would she have been interested
in the water of life? Has she not been in such desperate
straits? See, God used all these things,
didn't he? He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake. I cannot imagine the heartache
and the pain that Job went through in losing everything he had. And yet, he never would have
been brought to that place of saying, behold, I am vile. I had heard of thee by the hearing
of mine ear, but now mine eyes have seen thee, and I repent
in dust and ashes. Those things were necessary.
Those were paths of righteousness that God afflicted him with in
order to bring him to Christ. What a shameful life the thief
on the cross must have lived. And yet, would he have had any
interest in Christ had he not been hanging there, dying? Now we know it was the Lord that
put him in that place spiritually. The Lord opened up the heart
of one man and didn't open the heart of the other. But what
I'm saying to you is that these things were necessary. They were
necessary. The best example of that is in
John chapter 9, when the Lord healed a man that was born blind. And the disciples asked him,
he said, Lord, why is he blind? Is it because of his parents'
sin or because of his sin? And the Lord said, neither, but
that the works of God might be manifest in him. God afflicted
this man with blindness. He'd lived all his life not being
able to see a thing. in order for the Lord to give
him sight and manifest his glory. He saved him. Can you say, can you say, he
leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his namesake? Every path that I've been down
was necessary in order to bring me where I am now. And whatever God has ordained
for me is right and good if it results in the salvation of my
soul. Look what he says in verse 4. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, This life is a walk. It's a walk. Scripture says in 2 Corinthians
10, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but spiritual, mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds. Lord, I need a spiritual strength
in this walk. And here's what Isaiah said in
Isaiah chapter 41. They that wait upon the Lord,
they that trust in Christ, shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Lord, I need for you to strengthen
my walk. I need for you to keep me looking
to Christ. Notice what he says, Yea, though
I walk through the valley. Now the valley here is a narrow
gorge. It's a passageway between mountains. It's the only way to get from
one side to the other. It's fraught with danger. Animals ambush. all sorts of
problems in this valley. And he says, Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death. He's not talking about
just dying. He's talking about this life.
This whole life is a shadow of death. I'm standing before you as a
dying man preaching to dying people. And if you don't know
that, you need to know that. You are dying. I am dying. But here's the glorious
hope. Death is a shadow. It's a shadow. A shadow can't hurt you. The
shadow of a sword can't kill you. The shadow of a dog can't
bite you. The shadow of a mountain can't
fall upon you. Oh, death wears your sting. Oh, grave wears your victory. The strength of the grave is
sin. The strength of sin is the law. The law's been satisfied. The
law has been satisfied. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. This thing called
death for the child of God is a shadow. It's not anything to fear. Have you seen the video? It was
out just a week or so ago. It looked like about an 18-month-old
little girl. She's walking down the sidewalk
with her father, and the father holds his hand up in the sunlight
and starts making shadows on the sidewalk in front of her.
cute little video, I'm sure you can look it up on YouTube or
something, but the little girl sees the shadow in front of her
and she stops in her tracks and then she gets terrified of this
shadow that's on the sidewalk in front of her. And what does
she do in her terror? She jumps into the very arms
of the one who's making the shadow! Though we walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for thou art with
me. Thy rod, that's a scepter. The scripture says the scepter
shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come, that's Christ. It's
a picture of the sovereignty of God. Why am I not going to
fear? Because my God is omnipotent. My God has a scepter. My God
reigns over all the affairs of men, over heaven and over men,
and whatever He does is right. And His rod, His scepter, comforts
me. His staff, that word means anything
you lean on, And the scripture says, if you lean on Egypt, it'll
be like leaning on a broken reed and the man who leans on it,
it will pierce his hand. So if you lean on your works,
that's what Egypt's a picture of. Man-made religion, man's
works. Lean on your works. Oh, but if
we lean on the staff of the good shepherd, who's never lost a
sheep, who laid his life down for the sheep, then we fear no
evil. Thou art with me, thy rod and
thy staff, they do comfort me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. If you're a child of God, you've
got some enemies. You've got, first of all, the accuser of
the brethren, who's always causing your heart to fear. He's causing
you to doubt. He's throwing up your sin before
your face and making accusations for you. Here's what God says,
He is a liar and He is the father of all lies because in Christ
I have no sin. No sin. My enemy is making these
accusations. But my sin has been put away. It's been put away. Thy rod and
thy staff, they shall comfort me. The rod's a picture of his
ability to save because of his sovereignty, and the staff's
a picture of his willingness to save because he can be leaned
on. I'll fear no evil. Thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of my enemies. If you're a child
of God, you are at enmity with this world. Everything in this
world is contrary to everything you believe. And yet the biggest
grief that you have in your life is how much this world influences
you. And you hate it. You hate the
world. You hate what it does to you.
You hate how easily you get caught up in it. It's your enemy. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. And the biggest enemy you've
got, the biggest enemy you've got is sitting in the very seat
you're sitting in. If you're a child of God, you
know that you are your own worst enemy. Your unbelief, your sin, Your
worldliness? So what does the Lord say? I'm
going to prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies. I hope he's doing that right
now. What's at a table? Food! Food's
at a table. What's our meat? The Lord said,
labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat
which leadeth to everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall
give unto thee. Here's what he said. My flesh is your meat indeed. My blood is your drink indeed. If you eat not of my flesh and
drink not of my blood, there's no life in you. And the Jews
thought he was talking about cannibalism. If the perfect, righteous life
of the Lord Jesus Christ is not your life before God, you've
got no life. If the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross is not the only thing that covers your sin before God, your
sin's not covered. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of my enemies. O Lord, Spread the gospel out
on the table for me. Let me eat on the flesh of Christ. Let me drink of his blood. Let
me find all the hope of my salvation in who he is and what he did. And if that's going to happen,
you're going to have to anoint my head with oil. the oil of
gladness, the oil of the Spirit of God. Anointing, we talk about
the head and the heart. You know this thing in your chest
is just a muscle that pumps blood throughout your body. Your heart's
here. Your spiritual heart, your affections,
your will, your desires, it's right here. Lord, anoint my head
with oil so that my cup runneth over Lord, enable me to think
on Christ, to rest in Christ, to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, to rejoice in anticipation of His coming. It's the only
hope I've got. Surely, surely, this is not wishful
thinking. This is not the power of positive
thinking. When God says, surely it's sure it's sure. That's what David said. And he said, although my house
be not so with God yet, he has made with me an everlasting covenant
ordered in all things. And sure. What do you have in
your life? That's sure. I mean, sure. You know what you've got? Nothing.
Because the next breath you draw is not sure. It's not. Surely, here's what I've got. I've got the promise of God.
That's sure. That's sure. What is His promise? Goodness and mercy. Goodness why call us now me good. There's none good but God In
me that is in my flesh dwelleth. No good thing if I'm gonna have
the goodness of God, I'm gonna have to have Christ and He delights
in showing mercy Goodness surely God says surely surely Goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. I And I will dwell in the house
of the Lord forever, forever. Our heavenly father, we ask that
you would send your spirit in power and reveal to our hearts
the glory of thy dear son, causing us to believe him to the saving
of our souls and the hope of life eternal. For it's in his
name we ask it. Amen. 258. Let's stand together. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to be. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord. He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns, And filled with His boldness divine, I sing
in my rapture, O glory to God, for such a Redeemer is mine. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, And covers me there with His hand. And covers me there with His
hand. When clothed in His brightness
transported I rise To meet Him in clouds up the sky His perfect
salvation, His wonderful love I'll shout with the millions
on high He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows
a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. Thank you.