Gotta fix that so it doesn't
touch. Good evening, everyone. Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 186 from the hardback teminal. 186, the church is one foundation.
Let's all stand together. 186 in your hardback. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one o'er all the earth. Her charter of salvation One
Lord, one faith, one birth One holy name she blesses Partakes
one holy food And to one hope she presses With every grace
endued food. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, She waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with the vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blessed, And the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union with
God the three in one, and mystic sweet communion with those whose
rest is one. O happy ones and holy, Lord give
us grace that we Like them, the meek and lowly, Mannheim may
dwell with thee. Please be seated. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 54, Psalm 54. We'll read from there for our
scripture reading tonight. Good to see everybody here. Casey,
it's good. Good to see you. Psalm 54. David is fleeing from
Saul, and he writes, Save me, O God, by thy name and judge
me by thy strength. If the Lord's going to save any
of us, he's going to save us. There's no other name been given
under men whereby we must be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the only savior that there is for sinners. David saying,
save me by thy strength. He's the only one that was strong
enough to obey the law of God and present a righteousness to
the father. Hear my prayer, O God, give ears
to the words of my mouth, for strangers are risen up against
me, and oppressors seek after my soul. They have not set God
before them. Selah. So many enemies, not the
least of which is our own flesh, that would rise up against God. Behold, God is mine helper. The Lord is with them that upholdeth
my soul. He shall reward evil unto mine
enemies and cut them off in thy truth. I will freely sacrifice
unto thee. I will praise thy name, O Lord,
for it is good. Oh, I'll cause my goodness to
pass before you. Why callest thou me good? There
is none good but God. Hear the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it's the goodness of God that leadeth to repentance. It's not
the threats of the law that correct us. It's the grace and mercy
of a loving God that brings us to his feet. For he hath delivered me out
of all trouble, and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine
enemies. He's enabled us to know what
there is in the end, the judgment of God against all the enemies
of God, and the salvation and mercy of our Lord toward his
people for Christ's sake. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we ask that you would bless your word to our hearts. Lord, if you don't open the eyes
of our understanding, if you don't give us faith to believe,
your word will be deaf to it. How dependent we are. on you
to enable us to worship thee. Lord, we pray you would send
your spirit in power, cause us to cry with our brother David,
have mercy upon me, save me by thy strength and according to
the glorious name of thy dear son. For it's in his name we
pray, amen. Number 130 in the softback, 130
in the softback. And let's all stand together.
130. Rejoice, believer, in the Lord. Again I say, rejoice! Rejoice to know that Christ is
Lord. Rejoice in all He does. Though sin may cause your heart
to sigh, Rejoice in Christ's shed blood. He died that you might never
die, Redeemed you by His blood. Our joy is not in earthly things,
In things that time may change. Our joy is in our God and King,
In Him who stays the same. Always and in all things I say,
Children of God, rejoice! In everything God has his way,
Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! Please be seated. I hope the Lord will enable us
to do what we just asked him. Enable us to rejoice. Paul said, rejoice in the Lord
always. And again, and again, you say
always right now. And again, I say rejoice. Let
your gentleness be known unto all men. Why? For the Lord is
at hand. And if he's ever at hand, it's
when two or three are gathered together in his name. When we
join our voices together in worship, when we open up his word, he
promises to inhabit the praise of his people. He promises to
make himself known. When his children gather together
for worship, he's at hand. If he's here, If he's here and
he's promised to be, oh Lord, would you reveal yourself to
me? Would you speak to my heart? Would you enable me to find a
true and real reason to rejoice? I mean to rejoice, to delight
myself in the Lord. David was looking for just a
time. If you'll open your Bibles again
with me to Psalms, we just read Psalm 54, and I'd like for us
to look at Psalm 56. I want you to notice the last phrase
of verse 9. The last phrase of verse 9, this
I know, God is for me. Oh, what great knowledge. What
great knowledge to be able to say this, I know that God is
for me. He's for me. And if God be for
me, who can be against me? The Lord said, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. And though your mother and your
father forsake you, the strongest bonds that we could possibly
have in this world. And the Lord says, though they
may forsake you, that doesn't happen often. But if it does,
the Lord said, I will never forsake you. This I know. This I know. God is for me. I can't think of anything to
give the soul more hope. to give the heart more comfort,
to give the mind more peace, than to be able to say, this
I know, this I know, God is for me. Now the title of Psalm 56
tells us what David was struggling with at the time that he wrote
these words. If you notice the last phrase
in the prefix to the psalm, that's, as you know, that's part of scripture.
The scripture says that David wrote this when the Philistines
took him in Gath. Now in 1 Samuel chapter 22, David
again is fleeing from Saul. And he goes to a priest house
whose name is Amalek. And he asked him, he tells him,
he said, he lies to him. He says, the king has sent me
on a mission and I didn't have time to get my sword. Do you
have a sword here? And Ahimelech, wasn't Ahimelech, Ahimelech.
Ahimelech said, I've got Goliath's sword. It's wrapped in a towel,
and it's hid behind the ephod. Now the ephod is what the priests
wore, and so here we've got the sword, Goliath's sword, and David
said, give it to me, there's none like that. He said, Goliath,
the giant that you killed. So David takes Goliath's sword,
and he's captured by the men of Gath, the Philistines of Gath. You remember, we just looked
at Goliath this past Sunday, that's exactly where Goliath
was from. So now David is captured in the
city of Gath, he's got Goliath's sword in his hand, and the Philistines
there are gonna kill him. And the scripture says that David
changes his behavior, and he acts like a madman, and he begins
to drool and scratch at the door, and the king of Gath, Achish,
looks at David and says, we're not worried about him, he's crazy.
And eventually David's able to escape. Isn't that where we are? I mean, David said, give me that
sword, there's none like that. And here we have the sword of
God's Word, and there's none like that. We're captured by our enemies. We're bound by our own flesh. We're living in a world that's
contrary to everything that God stands for. We're strangers and
pilgrims in this land. We've got the enemy of the accuser
of the brethren who's always hot on our heels. The things
of this world are contrary to everything that we believe. And
we're acting like madmen. Aren't we? I mean, we just, we
do. We've got this old flesh. And
that's the circumstances that David's writing under. So now,
with that as the setting, let's look at his words. And I hope
that we'll be able to identify. Sunday, we looked at David as
a type of Christ. And here, we see David as a type
of us. And he begins his prayer with
a cry for mercy. Oh, Lord, be merciful unto me. Be merciful. That's what sinners
are always in need of, is God's mercy. We come before the throne
of grace as mercy beggars, smiting ourselves upon our breasts. Lord,
we've got the best sword that there is. And yet we're bound
in this flesh and in this world and we're so much like wild men. And Lord, we're in need of mercy. Have mercy upon me. The publican
would not so much as even look up, but smote himself upon the
breast and cried, Lord, have mercy upon me, the sinner. I'm the one who needs grace.
I'm the one who needs mercy. I'm the one who's in need of
you to withhold from me that which I deserve. You know, that's
what mercy is. Grace is God giving to us what
we don't deserve, and mercy is God withholding from us what
we do deserve. Be merciful to me, oh God. Don't give me what I deserve.
If you give me what I deserve, I'm hell bound. If you charge
me with one of my sins, I'll not be able to stand in thy presence.
Lord, I'm in need of mercy. I'm in need of a substitute. I'm in need of an advocate. I'm
in need of a sin-bearer. I am in need of a Savior. And that's what David's crying
for. And that's what all of God's people cry for. Lord, be merciful
to me. We don't come to God justifying
ourselves. We don't come to God insisting
upon justice or anything like that. We come to the throne of
grace asking, pleading for mercy. Be merciful unto me. Unto me. This is for me. The only time the word of God's
going to be quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword is if it divides asunder the thoughts and intents of my
heart and exposes me before God as a sinner. And so Lord have
mercy upon me, O God, for man would swallow me up, he fighteth
daily. He fighting daily oppresseth
me. This world we live in is contrary
to everything that we value in Christ, all that we long for
in salvation. And here we are bound up in it,
caught up in it, and attracted to it. And our old flesh is just,
we're carrying it around, aren't we? Oh, wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from this body of death? This man fighteth
against me every day. Now David's gonna talk about
his fears. Let me ask you a question. What
is your greatest fear? What is your greatest fear? If
you ask men of the world what their greatest fear is, they'll
talk about, you know, the Taliban or ISIS or global warming or
something to that effect. What is your greatest fear? Yourself, isn't it, Michael? If God leaves me to myself, I
fear that I would dishonor Him in preaching. I fear that I would
dishonor Him in my life. I am afraid of myself. Be merciful unto me, O God, for
man My old man would swallow me up. He would, for he fights
daily against me. He oppresses me. The spirit,
the scripture says, wars against the flesh and the flesh against
the spirit so that we cannot be what we would be. The believer's
heart's desire is to be sinless. is to be perfectly obedient,
to be just like Christ. That's his heart's desire. You
know, when we were in religion and comparing ourselves to other
men, we could take comfort in believing that we were better.
Or when we were comparing ourselves to ourselves, we could take hope
in believing that we were getting better. But now that the Lord
Jesus Christ has made himself known to us, Well, it just seems
like we're getting worse, doesn't it? Seems like this old man's
getting stronger and stronger. And Lord, if you let him, if
you let him, he will oppress me to the grave. He'll overwhelm me. My enemies would daily swallow
me up. This isn't a casual problem I've
got. This isn't an occasional thing
that I struggle with. It's not, well, you know, I was
tempted last week, or yesterday, or... No. No. This is a moment-by-moment experience
that the believer has with sin and with his flesh. And he said,
and David's crying, my enemies would daily swallow me up. They'd
be many that fight against me, O thou Most High. Lord, I'm... He's crying as a victim, isn't
he? Here's one time where it's good to declare yourself to be
a victim. Lord, I am a victim to myself. I'm a victim to sin. I'm a victim
to Satan. I'm a victim to this world. I
need help. I need mercy. I need grace. I need salvation. I need for
you to uphold me. I need for you to deliver me
from myself. What time I am afraid, the only people that aren't afraid
are people that, you know, what's the phrase? Ignorance is bliss. That's true, isn't it? Ignorance
is bliss. And the only people that aren't
afraid are people that don't know the truth. If you know the
truth, you know you've got something to be afraid of. And when I'm afraid, I'll flee
to him. I don't know where else to go. I can't strengthen myself. I can't change my circumstances. I've got no place else to go
but to flee to him. The Lord asked the disciples,
will you leave me? Lord, where can we go? We're
not here because we chose you. You chose us. You shut us up
to yourself. We've got no other option. We've
got no other place to go. When I'm afraid, I will trust
him, put my trust and my hope in him. in the accomplished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way that I can find
acceptance in the presence of a holy God, knowing that I bear
this old sinful flesh, the only way I'm going to find acceptance
is to know that God is satisfied with my substitute. That he bore
in his body all the sins of all of his people and put them away
all by himself. I've got acceptance with God
in the beloved. There's my hope. I'll just trust
that. I'll trust Christ. I'll trust
what he has done. I'll trust who he is. He's my
advocate before the Father. He ever lives. He makes intercession
for me. He's praying to the Father on
my behalf. Oh, that's my hope. Peter, be
of good cheer. Yeah, you're gonna deny me, Peter.
You're gonna deny me with cursings. Who would have thought? Peter
didn't think it. Be of good cheer, Peter. I've prayed for you. It's
the only difference. The only difference between God's
elect and the rest of the world is that the Lord Jesus Christ
has interceded for them. He's prayed for them. Christ
is our hope. Here we are, we're just like
David. We've got the best sword that man could ever have. And
we act like crazy men. And we've got this old body of
flesh that we bear with us, and he would swallow us up. He fights
with us every day. And he causes those who have
sense about themselves to be afraid. Don't be afraid of the
economy. That's in God's hands. Don't
be afraid of the enemies of peace and global warming, all those
things that men are afraid of. I told the folks over in Sarasota
Sunday night, I believe in global warming. I really do. Not the
kind of global warming they talk about, but the kind of global
warming God talks about. There's going to come a day when
the fire of God is going to consume this world with a burning heat
that's going to melt the elements. Now that's global warming. But
you know what? We'll have to be afraid of it.
We'll have to be afraid of it. Why? Because the Lord has accomplished
the salvation of His people. Be afraid of yourself. Be afraid
of yourself. That's a good fear to have. Because that'll drive you to
Christ as a mercy beggar. Lord, don't leave me to myself.
Don't take your hand off of me. Don't allow me to indulge my
flesh in its desires. I'll go headlong into it. Verse 4. In God. In God. And that's just an Old
Testament way of saying in Christ. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. God who manifested
himself to the saints of the Old Testament is the same God
who manifests himself to his people in the New Testament.
It's none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. When Isaiah saw
the Lord high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple,
and the seraphim hovered over the throne and cried, holy, holy,
holy, is the Lord God of hosts? That was Christ. That was Christ. When in the beginning God said,
let there be light, that was Christ. And all the revelations
that God has ever made of himself to men is in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so when David says, in God,
I will praise his word, I'll trust him. Where, where is your
trust? What source, what is your source
of truth? We listen to the educators. There's
no real source of truth. Everything's relative. It just
all depends on what you think is true. And that's where man
is. He's put himself on the throne
of God and he determines for himself what's right and wrong.
Is that a reliable source of truth that would deliver you
from the vanity of this world and from the judgment of your
own sin? Are you willing to risk that? for yourself? Are you willing to risk your
soul in your own opinions? By the way, you know the word
heresy in the scriptures, the same word translated opinion. The opinions of men, God says,
are heresy. The only truth that we have is
the word of God. And that's what David said, I've
got no place else to go. I'll put my trust in you and
I will in Christ praise thy word. In God, I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can
do unto me. Not gonna fear it. Not gonna
fear the, why? Because I've believed what God
has revealed about himself in his word to me. I've got no place. I know. David
said, I know. I know that God is for me. Every day they rest my words. All their thoughts are against
me for evil. Oh, I'm so glad the Lord said,
I know the thoughts that I have toward you, thoughts of good. and not of evil, thoughts of
peace and thoughts of an expected end. That's my thoughts towards
you. And David said, oh, my enemies,
they twist my words. They make things to be what they're
not. They, they, they, and their thoughts
are all against me for evil. Everything's, everything's going
to be nothing but destruction. if it comes from my enemies.
They gather themselves together. They hide themselves. They mark
my steps when they wait for my soul. Is that your experience? You
find sin to be very deceptive. You find your heart to be very
easily drawn away. You know, the believer, he gets
these little glimpses of Christ and these little moments of hope
and peace and joy, and he wants them to last all the time, forever,
and they don't. Why? Because this is where we
are. We're just madmen. We've got
this old flesh, and we've got this problem with sin and with
this world that hides themselves, and they mark our steps, and
they wait for our soul. And then we've got the accuser
of the brethren who never relents in reminding us that if we were
really children of God, we wouldn't have thought that, we wouldn't
have said that, wouldn't have done that, wouldn't have acted that
way. And then we just find ourselves
going deeper and deeper into the dark hole of our own sin,
don't we? Look at verse seven. Speaking
of our enemy, shall they escape by iniquity? Now you know what
iniquity is. Iniquity is not the bad stuff.
Iniquity is the good stuff. What does the flesh try to do
to make up for its sin? It tries to escape by doing something
good, doesn't it? Well, if I could just do some
good things, that'll make up for the bad things. And God says,
your iniquities are an abomination to me. The way to The way to
solve our sin problem is not by trying to be better people,
not by trying to make up for it by doing good. It's fleeing
to Christ. It is, it's just fleeing to Christ.
It's looking to Him. Shall they escape by iniquity
in thine anger? Cast down the people, O God.
Can you pray that for yourself? Can you ask God to cast down
your old man. To make him to you what he is
to God. To take sides with God against
yourself. Lord, cast down my old man. Reveal him to me for who he really
is so that I don't find any hope in him. So that I don't go about
trying to improve him, thinking that I'm going to somehow earn
favor with God by making my old man better. Cast him down. Cast him down. The gospel of
God's free grace puts man where he belongs. In the dust of the
earth. That's just where he puts him. Verse eight, thou tellest my
wanderings. Oh, yeah. My thoughts, Lord,
you knew them, Psalm 139, before I thought them. You know my going
out, my coming in. You go before me and behind me.
God knows everything you've ever thought. He knows every word
you've ever spoken, everything you've ever done. He knows it
before you do it. Lord, thou tellest my, and notice
the word is W-A-N-D-E-R. It's not wonder, it's wanderings.
I'm just wandering all over the place. I'm like the children
of Israel. I'm just aimlessly wandering. It's the way it seems, doesn't
it? And yet those children of Israel, though we call it the
wandering of the wilderness, they weren't wandering at all,
were they? God was ordering every one of their steps. He had them
exactly where they needed to be. That pillar of fire by night
and cloud by day never left them. God was for them. He was for
them. Thou tellest my wanderings, put
thou my tears into thy bottle, are they not in thy book? O Lord,
Would you break my heart over my own sin? Would you break my
heart over my own unbelief? Would you bring me before you
as a sinner in need of grace, in need of mercy? When I cry unto thee, here it
is, you have not because you ask not. When I cry unto thee,
mine enemies depart from me. Oh, the Lord has given us access
into his very presence through prayer. And yet we're so bad about not
praying, aren't we? It's just more evidence of our
own attachments to this world. When I cry unto thee, My enemies
depart from me. They do. We seek the Lord. Satan departs
and sin fades away and we see our hope in Christ. The problem is not with him.
He said, if you seek me with all of your heart, you'll find
me. You'll find me, oh Lord. And everything God commands us
to do, God must enable us to do. Prayer is not an exercise
of the flesh. It's not an exercise of your
determination. It's not an exercise of your
religious dedication. True prayer is a work of grace
done in the heart by the Spirit of God. And so when we read verses
like this, when I cry unto thee, then mine enemies turn back.
Lord, I want my enemies to turn back. Would you cause me to cry
unto thee? Would you bid me to come unto
thee? Would you put it into my heart to pray, to seek your face,
to knock, to ask? Lord, would you do that for me? This I know. This I know, for
God is with me. Now, of all the things that we
know, When it comes to spiritual truth,
none of it can be proven except by the Word of God. And the Word
of God is not enough for the natural man. He wants more evidence. The Word of God is the only thing
the spiritual man's got. And it is enough. It's enough
to satisfy his soul, It's enough to cause him to say, I know. I know something that God has
revealed by his word that it can't be, I've been taught of
God. Just been taught of God. If God teaches you, he's gonna
teach you by his word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the word of God. We're not here to prove that
this is the word of God. We're here to declare it and
we know. that those who belong to the Lord will hear His voice
and they'll follow after Him. They'll just believe it. I can't
prove to you that this is God's Word any more than I can prove
to you the very existence of God. But He can. And if he does, you'll be convinced. You'll be convinced. You won't
have to have anybody prove anything to you. They shall all be taught
of God. You'll know it's true. You'll
have been taught by God Himself, and no man can unteach what God
has taught. What do we know? Well, let me
say, first of all, 1 Corinthians 13, verse 12, For now we see
through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part,
but then I shall know even as also I am known. So, here we, what do we know? We know very little of the whole
picture. We know in part. But don't deny
just because we don't know the whole picture. What we do know
is very true. Casey and I were talking before
the service. He said he was taking trigonometry. Don't even show me a trig formula. I'm not going to know what you're
talking about. I don't have a clue. Does that mean that I don't know
that 2 plus 2 equals 4? I know 2 plus 2 equals 4. It
always equals 4. You don't have to know trigonometry
to know that, do you? We know in part. One day we're going to hold the
whole picture. But what we do know, We know. We know. David said, I know for God is
for me. Job put it like this in Job chapter
19. He said, for I know. I know this, I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see him." Now I
don't know how this is going to work out, but I know it. I
know that when he raises me from the dead, I'm gonna be given
a new body, and I'm gonna see him as he is and be made like
him. John put it like this, it doth
not yet appear what we shall be, but we know this, that when
he shall appear, we shall see him as he is, for we shall be
like him. And we know that. Faith just
believes that. This isn't a speculation. This
isn't pie in the sky. This isn't, well, you know, some
sort of religious, you know, just pretend. This is what God teaches to the
hearts of His children. Paul put it like this, for we
know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved,
we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. Faith just believes that. Faith
knows that. David said this, I know. What else does a believer know?
Well, Paul said in Romans chapter 7, he put it like this, for I
know. that in me, that is in my flesh,
I know dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For when
I would do good, evil is ever present with me. I can't get
away from this old wretched man. I know that in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. What was Paul saying? He was
saying, I know this, I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm a sinner. But you know what my hope is?
Christ came to save sinners. I know that there's nothing in
me that can please God. And God is pleased with his son. He's pleased with Christ. And
that if I'd be found in him, then I have acceptance before
God. Otherwise, I know that everything
I do, Everything I do is infected with sin. David put it like this
in Psalm 140, he said, I know that the Lord will maintain the
cause of the afflicted and of the poor. I know that. I know that he will maintain
the cause of the afflicted. Are you afflicted? Are you afflicted? Are you afflicted with your sin?
Are you poverty stricken? Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of God. In other words, you've got
nothing. You're bankrupt, spiritually
bankrupt, unable to do anything. David said, I know this, that
the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and of the poor. Oh, that's a good thing to know. Paul said in Philippians chapter
1 verse 19 concerning our circumstances, he was talking about those who
were adding to the affliction of his bonds, and he goes on
to say, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation. I know that. I know that my God
hath done all things well, and I know that he works all things
together for good for them who love him, those that are called
according to his purpose. I just know that. David said,
I know this, God is for me. For I know that the Lord is great, and that
our God is above all gods, whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he,
in the heavens above, and under the earth, and in the seas. Whatever he pleases, he does. I just know that. He hath done
whatsoever he wills. with the armies of heaven and
all the inhabitants of the earth. No man can stay his hand. No
man can say unto him, what doeth thou? He's God. We just know
that. What great comfort we have in
knowing that he is for us. Paul said, I'm not ashamed. For
I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I
know that he's the Christ. I just know that. Why? He's revealed
himself. He's the son of the living God.
We know that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. We
are sure of that. We just know it. We know that
he accomplished what the Father sent him to do. He satisfied
all the demands of God's justice. He fulfilled all of God's law.
He ascended back into glory and took with him the names of those
for whom he lived and died and presented them before God. And
he ever lives at the right hand of the majesty of Oni, interceding
on behalf of his church. We know that. David said, this I know, this
I know. What a great thing to know, what
great hope, what great knowledge. Has God taught you these things?
Can you say when all the uncertainties of this world, all the uncertainties
of life, all the uncertainties of your career, your choices,
whatever, the world, these things I know. This is the rock upon
which I build my house. Let me tell you what the religious
man says about these things. John chapter 9 verse 29, the
words of the Pharisees, we know We know that God spake unto Moses. As for this fellow, we know not
where he came from. We're gonna put our confidence
in the law. We're gonna put our confidence
in our works. We're gonna put our confidence
in our ability. As for this fellow, we don't
know where he came from. We know this, that he's a sinner
and that God does not hear sinners. That's what they said. Just the
opposite's true. The only people he hears is sinners. And there's no hope for salvation
in the law. How can we be sure? Abraham, the father of the faithful,
asked that question. In Genesis chapter 15, verse
7, he asked the Lord, he said, whereby shall I know for sure
that I shall inherit the promise that you made? How am I gonna
know for sure, God? And you read it. God had told
Abraham, he said, you get these animals, he told him exactly
which animals to get, cut them in half, put one half over there
and one half over here, and line them up. and then keep the fowls
of the air off the sacrifice. And so Abraham walked between
the sacrifice, the animals that had been divided, and he keeps
the fowls of the air off of them. And that's what we're doing right
now. We're keeping the fowls of the
air off the sacrifice. Those animals were a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then God put Abraham into
a deep sleep. And while he was in his sleep,
God gave him a vision. And he saw a smoking furnace
and a burning lamp go between the sacrifices. Now the furnace
is a picture of God's judgment and the lamp is a picture of
the light of truth. And what God was saying to Abraham,
how am I going to know for sure that I'm going to inherit these
promises? And the scripture goes on to say in Genesis chapter
15 that God made a covenant that night with Abraham. God's never
broken that covenant promise. And the covenant promise was
that the Lamb of God was going to be slain. And that the judgment
of God was going to be satisfied when the fiery wrath of God's
judgment fell from heaven upon the sacrifice. And that as a
result of that, the light of the gospel is going to shine
in the hearts of God's people in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. How do we know that these promises
of God are true? Calvary's cross. Calvary's cross. That's the evidence that God's
given to us. And the proof that God's satisfied
with what the Lord Jesus Christ did is the resurrection. I know the thoughts that I have
for you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give
you an expected end. Then you shall call upon me and
you shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you. It is the goodness of God that
leadeth to repentance. Let me conclude with this question.
This I know, we've just looked at some things that we do know.
We know them. The Lord's taught them to us
from his word and we believe them. When was God for us? That's what David said, this
I know that God is for me. God's on my side. God was for us before time ever
began. God chose a particular people.
According to His own goodwill and pleasure, He wrote their
names in the Lamb's Book of Life, and He made a covenant with His
Son to slay Him as their surety. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
that Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.
God was for His people. even before Adam was ever made. You see, God's never been not
for his people. Jeremiah, to put it like this,
he's loved us with an everlasting love before time began. From Adam to Christ, from the
time of Adam, the first Adam, to the time of Christ, the last
Adam, everything that God did in the Old Testament in preparing
the world for the Lord Jesus Christ to come, and to fulfill
that covenant promise was right on schedule. God was for his
people all through the history of the Old Testament, preparing
the way for Christ to come. When the Lord Jesus Christ hung
on Calvary's cross and the sword of God's justice plunged his
very heart, When the sky was blackened and God forsook His
own Son, He was for us. Do I understand that? No. No. But I do know that 2 plus
2 equals 4. And I know this. that God is
for us. And there's never been a time
he wasn't for us. He laid down his life for the
sheep. He gave his only begotten son. Why? Because he loved us. He
loved us. God was for us. When he sent
the gospel in power in the Holy Spirit and spoke truth to our
hearts. When he opened the eyes of our
understanding and gave us faith to believe God was for us. You know when God's for you and
when he's for me? When we are in the darkest hour
of our own sin. God's for us. And the reality of that is the
only thing that'll bring you out of your sin. If you believe that when you're
in your sin, God turns his back on you, and that God's judgment
and wrath is against you, all that's gonna do is drive you
into deeper sin. To know that when you turn your
heart from him, that he's still for you. To know that when you're
playing the part of the prodigal, that the father is there and
he knows when you're coming home. He's for you. And then he's gonna
lavish you with his kisses and put the best robe on you and
put shoes on your feet and a ring on your finger. To know that
God, this I know, God is for me. At all times, there's never
been a time when he's not for us. I'll never leave you nor
forsake you. He told the Lord Jesus Christ
in praying to the Father, he said, Father, I've loved them
to the end. And that's how he loves you and
loves me. This I know. This I know. God is for me. And if God be
for me, who can be against me? He's gonna be for us every day
of our wanderings in this world, and He's gonna be for us when
He speaks to the Father on our behalf and says, that's one of
mine, receive them into glory. This I know, this I know, God
is for us. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would convince us of the truth that you have revealed
in thy word. For we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Number 88, 98 in the Sopheak
Temple, let's stand together. When we were yet without the
strength Our souls to help or save Christ for a godly, sinful
man His life a ransom gave It was not for a righteous man nor
even for the good. That Christ laid down His life
in death and shed His precious blood. But God commends His love
to us in that Christ Jesus died For us who were His enemies To
make us justified Now sense through blood we're justified By Christ's
atoning death Much more we shall be saved in Him From judgment
and from wrath. For if when we were enemies,
Christ's death and dead all strive, Much more since we've been reconciled,
He'll save us by His life. Now we rejoice and glory to and
triumph in our God. We have in Jesus Christ received
atonement by his blood. What a message. We know that God is for us. Comfort, keep comforting. No, no. He's always moving.