Alright, Psalm 119. David was a man who experienced
affliction. He experienced much affliction. Affliction to the point to where
he begged God to quicken him because he had no strength, no
ability. to believe Christ, repent toward
God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. From the day the Lord called
him until the last day on this earth, he experienced a lot of
affliction. He had the affliction of his
own sinful flesh, his own sinful nature. Many times he sinned
and even when he didn't sin outwardly, he still had the sinful thoughts
and just that corn of flesh that afflicted
him. He had enemies that tried to
trap him and incessantly pursued him. He's mentioned them several
times in this psalm. David had prayed in verse 88,
quicken me after thy lovingkindness So shall I keep the testimony
of thy mouth. And then he begins in this word,
in this section of verse 89, and he declares how the Lord
had quickened him. And it made him praise God, it
made him glorify the Lord for what the Lord had done for him.
And the message of this section is of God's covenant faithfulness. He declares that our immutable
Lord quickens, faithfully quickens
and saves us according to his unchangeable covenant word that
he has established. And this is the only reason that
we do not faint. It's the only reason we do not
faint. First of all, he said the Lord is faithful, and this
is how the Lord will settle his saints, making us remember that
he changes not, and nor does his covenant word change. He
said in verse 89, forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. One of the ancient translations
says, forever thou art, O Lord. And it says, and thy word stands. It's settled in heaven. The Lord
God is eternal and he's immutable. So he never changes. But this is a special blessing
to God's elect who've been quickened and brought to faith in Christ.
Because it's true of Christ Jesus, our Lord and our Savior. It's
true of our great high priest. And it's true of the everlasting
covenant that he has established. David lived during the old covenant
dispensation. But all God's saints, then and
now, are saved by the same everlasting covenant of grace. We're saved
by the same Lord Jesus. by the grace of God, freely given
through the blood and righteousness of Christ who established the
covenant and who has an unchangeable priesthood for his people. He
was saved the same way his brethren today are saved. Christ is the
high priest of his people. The Lord Jesus is the high priest
of his people. Under that old covenant, the
high priest and the lambs and all of that pictured Christ,
but Christ has come now. He's come now and He has fulfilled
the Law and the Prophets. He fulfilled all the types and
the pictures. He answered to the moral law
for His people and brought in everlasting righteousness before
it for His people. And He's gone to glory now and
He is set there in the throne of His glory and His Word is
settled. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. And that's true of the covenant
of grace that He has established for His people so that God can
receive us. It is the same yesterday, today,
and forever. It's settled. is settled in the
heaven. All the promises of God in this
new covenant of grace are settled in heaven in Christ, worked out
by Christ, accomplished by Christ, and by God the Father in His
covenant word to His Son. So we have a new, eternal, everlasting
high priest, and we're saved under a brand new law, the everlasting
covenant of grace. Go over to Hebrews chapter 7
with me. Hebrews chapter 7. He's been comparing and contrasting
that Old Covenant priesthood and that Old Covenant law. And he says now, verse 12, Hebrews
7.12, the priesthood being changed, there's made of necessity a change
also of the law. He said, for he of whom these
things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no
man gave attendance at the altar. They were Levites. He said, it's
evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe
Moses spake, nothing concerning priests to it. And it's far more
evident for that after the similitude of Melchizedek there arises another
priest who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment,
but after the power of an endless life. For he testifies, thou
art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. There is
verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for
the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the Lord made nothing
perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did. Christ
did, and he gave us a better hope, by the which we draw nigh
unto God. And he says there in verse 22,
By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament, a better
covenant. Verse 24, This man, because he
continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. He says there in chapter
8, this is the sum of what we're saying. We have such a high priest,
set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens." David said, Lord, your word is settled. Christ, our
high priest, is set there. He's forever, and this covenant
of grace is settled. And it says, He's at the right
hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. He's the minister
of this sanctuary, of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched
in not man. Verse 6, Now he's obtained a
more excellent ministry by how much also he's the mediator of
a better covenant which is established upon better promises. The better
covenant and the better promises is God didn't leave anything
in the hands of His children. He made this covenant with His
Son and His Son fulfilled all for His people. And now He's
a great high priest ever at the right hand of God, ever living
to make intercession for us with an unchangeable priesthood, able
to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him alone. He came down and He accomplished
the redemption of His elect. He bore the curse for us. He
put the curse away. He put the condemnation away.
And He made us everlastingly righteous in Him. The righteousness
of God in Him. That's what He did for all those
the Father chose and trusted to Him. He took away the ministration
of death. He took away the ministration
of death. That's what the old law did, it ministered death.
He took it away and established the everlasting covenant of grace
for His people. This is the word by which He
quickens His people. This is the word by which He
ministers life and a new spirit to His people. This is the law
He writes on the heart of His people. And it's by His never-ending
mercies and grace. He never ever changes toward
His people. He never ever changes toward
His people. He keeps showing them mercy and
He keeps showing them grace. The old covenant was glorious.
Look at 2 Corinthians 3. It was glorious. But the new
covenant so far excels it that it has no glory. It's almost
like the old has no glory, Paul said. Verse 7, Paul said, 2 Corinthians
3, 7, he called it the ministration of death, written and engraven
in stones. And he said it was glorious,
it was glorious. But look at the end, which glory
was to be done away. God never purposed for that old
covenant to be forever. And he says here, if it was glorious,
he says in verse 8, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit
be rather glorious? See that's a small s right there.
The old ministered death, this gospel of this new everlasting
covenant fulfilled by Christ, through it the Holy Spirit ministers
a new spirit to his child. New life. The old ministered
condemnation, the new ministers Christ's righteousness to us.
Look at verse 9. If the ministration of condemnation
be glory, much more did the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. See, the old ministered condemnation,
the new ministers Christ's righteousness freely to those he brings to
believe on him. And Christ is the glory of this
new covenant. That's why it excels in all points. Christ worked it, Christ accomplished
it, Christ fulfilled it, and He's the glory of this new covenant.
It's through this good news that the Lord shines a light and makes
you behold His glory in the face of His Son. Look down at verse
18. He said there in verse 17, when the heart's turned to the
Lord, the veil's taken off the heart. Now the Lord is that Spirit,
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. But we are
with open face, beholding as in a glass, in the glory of the
Lord. He's the glory of this covenant.
He's the glory. He gets all the glory. Him alone. He's the glory of this covenant.
And beholding His glory, we're changed into the same image.
He created a new man within in His image when He made you to
be born again. And so we're turned from the
glory of that old covenant that killeth to the glory of the Lord
Jesus and the new covenant of grace by the Spirit of the Lord. Now you hold your place here.
I'm going to come back here. And we'll look at this in a moment,
but Christ and the everlasting covenant of grace. Our Lord Jesus
Christ and the everlasting covenant of grace was all David's salvation. Christ was all his desire and
his covenant, ordered and assured in Christ, was all his salvation.
This was his last words. He said, although my house be
not so with God, yet he made with me an everlasting covenant
ordered in all things insure, and this is all my salvation,
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow." This is
what Paul said to us in 2 Corinthians 1.18. He said, God is true. And our word toward you, the
gospel we preach, was not yes and no. It wasn't maybe. For
the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by
us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yes and no,
in Him was yes. In Him was yes. All the promises
of God, in Him are yes and in Him amen unto the glory of God. All God's promises, all His covenant
word is settled in heaven in Christ Jesus our great high priest.
And it's yes and amen. Now, how are we going to be established? He which establishes us with
you, He's the one that does it, in Christ, He anointed us and
His name is God. He's the one that's going to
establish His people. He's the one who has also sealed us. When He's called you and given
you this new spirit and brought you to believe Christ, He seals
you and He gives you the earnestness of the spirit in our hearts.
This is what David is saying, You are. You're in glory and
your word is settled in heaven. It's accomplished, it's settled.
Everybody God ever saved was saved that same way, by that
same covenant, by the same Lord Jesus. So when you're faint,
you start seeing change and decay in this world and all the things
that constantly are changing in this world, just remember
our high priest is unchangeable. He's seated at God's right hand
in the heavens and He's unchangeable. He's ever living to make intercession
for His people. Forever, O Lord, Thou art and
Thy Word is settled in heaven. That's the comfort David had
when he was so beat down that he couldn't lift up his head.
That's the word. The covenant faithfulness of
God is what comforted him. Now secondly, back in Psalms
119, it's by the Lord's faithfulness toward us that He does this,
that He saved us in the first hour and He keeps saving us.
It's by His faithfulness. Verse 90, Thy faithfulness is
unto all generations. Thou hast established the earth,
and it abideth. They continue this day according
to Thine ordinances for all are Thy servants. It's by God's faithfulness. It's by God's faithfulness. Our
Lord chose His people. by grace and trust Him to His
Son, and because God the Father is faithful, and because His
Son is faithful, He fulfilled all things for His people. And
it's by His faithfulness that He brings it to us and teaches
it to us, and He keeps teaching us. He keeps teaching us by His
faithfulness that Christ has saved every one of His elect.
And it's in every generation, this is how He is saved. This
same faithfulness of God, the same Lord Jesus, the same covenant
mercies of God. Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah,
Abraham, Isaac, David, you and me, Jacob, all that He saved. And there was a whole bunch more
than that. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations. God saved
one way. He saved one way. By the grace
of our Lord, by His covenant in Christ Jesus. The same gospel
was preached to Abraham. The very same gospel that God
quickened you, He preached to Abraham. Galatians 3.17 says
that this is the everlasting covenant. It's the covenant of
grace that was confirmed of God in Christ Jesus to Abraham. And when the law of Sinai entered
in 430 years, it did not disannul this promise that God had made
to Abraham. What did the Lord preach to Abraham?
In Genesis 17, verse 4, this is what the Lord preached to
him. He said, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and
thou shalt be a father of many nations. He didn't have children.
He was old. God said, I will establish, I
will, I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy
seed after thee in their generations. for an everlasting covenant to
be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee." And when he
says, thy seed, he's speaking first of all of Christ Jesus
who came through Abraham. That's who the covenant was fulfilled
by. That's why it's sure to all the
spiritual seed of Abraham. And God made the same covenant
to David. Same covenant. And Psalm 89.3
He said, I've made a covenant with my chosen. I've sworn unto
David my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever
and build up thy throne to all generations. And he says, now
think about that. Because he uses David's name,
but the mercies of God are assured to David and assured to all God's
elect because it's Christ. David pictured Christ and it's
to Christ that God made the covenant. And Christ made the covenant
with the Father. And because Father and Son fulfilled
it, all these covenant mercies are assured to David. If God
puts you in Christ Jesus and He's all your hope, when you
read there, I've made this covenant with David, you put your name
there. It's Christ who he made the covenant with, but it's in
Christ we're accepted. Just like that wave sheaf, God
said, I'm offering it up, and the sheaf shall be accepted for
you. He didn't say, I'm going to accept
you. He said, I'm going to accept the sheaf on your behalf. That sheaf pictured Christ. And
Christ did everything, and God accepts Him, and therein He accepts
His people. And so He said this in Psalm
89, 19. This can only be said between
the Father and the Lord Jesus. He said, Then thou spakest in
vision to thy holy one, and said, I have laid help upon one that
is mighty, I have exalted one chosen out of the people, I have
found David my servant, Christ my servant, with my holy oil
I have anointed him, listen to this, with whom my hand shall
be established, and mine arm shall also strengthen him. That
is the Lord Jesus and God the Father. That's how this covenant
is sure. That's the faithfulness of our
God in Christ. So to show this and to declare
this to us in this psalm, he uses the first creation and he
uses all things that are created in heaven and earth to show the
faithfulness of God. He said in Psalm 119.90, He said, Thy faithfulness is
to all generations. Thou hast established the earth,
and it abideth. They, speaking of the earth,
the sun, the moon, the stars, they continue unto this day according
to Thine ordinances for all of Thy servants. And just like He
created that first creation, He creates His people anew. And
just like He has been faithful to keep everything held in place,
the earth, moon, sun, stars, season after season, so His covenant
is sure to His people because God is faithful. God is faithful. Jeremiah 31.35, let's look there. When you faint, when you cast
down, when you've fallen, this right here is the word God's
going to use to comfort you, and He's going to use this to
strengthen you, and He's going to use this to quicken and draw
you to Him. Jeremiah 31, 35. This is the
show of all His people. Jeremiah 31, 35. Thus saith the
Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinance
of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth
the sea when the waves thereof roar, the Lord of hosts is his
name. If those ordinances depart from
before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel shall also
cease from being a nation before me forever." The seed of Israel,
you can read that the seed of Christ. Christ is Israel, and
he's talking about all Christ's seed will not cease from being
a people before him forever. That's what he's declaring in
our text. Look at Jeremiah 33 20. Jeremiah 33 20. Thus saith the
Lord, if you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of
the night, and that there should not be day and night in their
season, then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant,
that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and
with the Levites the priests my ministers. But I'll tell you
this, God's everlasting covenant of grace is even more sure than
the heavens and the earth of the first creation. It's all
going to burn up one day. God's going to burn it all up,
but not this covenant. He said, the mountains shall
depart, Isaiah 54.10. He said, the mountains shall
depart and the hills be removed. But my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the cover of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Thus saith the Lord
that hath mercy on you, the sinner, who saves you by his tender mercies
beginning to end in spite of you. You'll never change my covenant,
God said. You'll never change it. Brethren,
next time this world appears like it's all out of order and
you hear men, men used to just boast that they could make themselves
be born again and that they could work righteousness themselves
and they could sanctify themselves. Now they claim they can change
the seasons. They can't do any of that. But
next time you hear it and it looks like the world's all out
of order, you remember God's faithful. His eternal counsels
are settled by the Lord Jesus Christ. They're ordered and sure
in all things. And He's working everything exactly
according to His purpose. That's His covenant promise.
So now back in Psalm 119. God faithfully, because this
is His covenant promise, God faithfully quickens us with the
gospel of this covenant so that we faint not. He faithfully quickens
us with it. He said in verse 92, Unless thy
law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. I will never forget thy precepts,
for with them thou hast quickened me. Men hear the word law and
they hear the word precepts and they want to run to the law of
Sinai. And it ministers death. It's going to minister death.
It's the gospel of His everlasting covenant of grace ordered in
Christ Jesus, the law of faith. It's the law of peace and pardon
and righteousness and eternal life in and by Christ Jesus. That's the delight of the new
heart and that's what's going to keep His people from fainting.
The Lord quickened Abraham and David Notice there, he doesn't
say that the precepts quickened him. He said, the Lord quickened
him by his precepts. There is a big difference. There
is a big difference. David couldn't quicken himself.
He said, the Lord quickened me. And he used his precepts. The
Lord quickened Abraham by his precepts. Let me show you this
in Genesis 12. When he first came to you, and
found you in your idolatry, your religious idolatry, he did this
same thing right here to you. This is how he quickens all his
people in the very beginning. It's by his precept. Genesis
12-1, the Lord said to Abram, get thee out of thy country. That's his command. That's his
precept. He spoke that affectionately
to Abraham. He said, get away from your kindred,
get away from your father's house, go to the land that I'll show
thee. And then he told him the promise of the gospel of God's
covenant of grace. I will make of thee a great nation.
and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt
be a blessing. And I will bless him that blessed
thee, and curse him that cursed thee, and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed." And this is always the result. Abraham
departed as the Lord had spoken unto him. Paul used this gospel
preached to Abraham, and he asked the Galatians this question.
He said, He therefore that ministers to you the Holy Spirit, that's
Christ. He's the high priest. He that
ministers to you the Holy Spirit and works miracles among you,
quickens you to life where there was no life, puts a new spirit
in you where there was no spirit, brings you to faith and repentance
toward Him where you couldn't do it yourself. He that works
these miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the
law or by the hearing of faith? Did he do it by telling you to
do something, or did he do it by making you hear of his faithfulness? He said, even as Abraham believed
God, and it was counted to him through Christ. What did we just
see Abraham heard? God said, Abraham, depart. I will, I will,
I will, and you shall. He said, The scriptures foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith preach before the
gospel unto Abraham, saying unto thee shall all nations be blessed,
so then they which be of faith, the same, are blessed with faithful
Abraham." God quickens us by His precept. He commands us to
live. He says to these dry bones, live! And when He says it, we live. That's because His covenant is
ordered and sure. He speaks and He says, incline
your ear, come unto Me. Hear, and your soul shall live. And then He gives you this promise
of His everlasting covenant. He says, and I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even as sure mercies of David. Well, when
is a man going to do that? When is a man going to stop looking
to his keeping his own precepts and incline his ear and actually
come to Christ and actually hear the Lord and actually submit
all to Christ? Well, when the Lord gives the
precept in the heart. The Lord came to Lazarus' tomb
and He didn't say, Lazarus, please come out of that tomb. Would
you just give your heart to Me and please come out, please come
out, please accept Me. Lazarus, please. Now, he came
and said, Lazarus, come forth. He gave his precept and it was
effectual. What happened? Lazarus came out.
He came to that man with the withered hand and he didn't say,
now, I know you got no strength and I know your hand's been withered
all these many years. I know you can't do a thing with
it. If you could just do something with it, I'd save you. If you
could just, you know, work with me on this thing, me and you
got a good thing going, help me out a little bit." No, he
said, stretch it forth. He stretched it forth and it
was whole, just like the other one. When the Lord gives the
command, it comes effectually. When the Lord Jesus said, it's
the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profits nothing, the words
that I speak unto you, their spirit and their life. Do you
remember the precepts He gave in the context of that? That
great multitude followed Him, going to make Him a king. They
were going to bow down and make Him a king. But everything they
wanted was carnal. Everything they wanted was fleshly.
They said, what shall we do that we might work the works of God?
And Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God
that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. That's the precept
God has to make effectual in our heart. He didn't make it
effectual in their heart. He declared it, but He didn't
speak it into their heart. He said unto them, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man,
and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth
My flesh, and drinks My blood, has eternal life. And I raise
him up at the last day. And here's what He means. He
said, As the Living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father. So he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me." It will be by the life of Christ Jesus,
the resurrection of Christ Jesus, speaking into the heart. He didn't
speak into their heart and they went away offended. But he turned
to his disciples and he said, will you also go away? And Simon
Peter answered and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. And we believe and we're sure
You're the Christ, the Son of the living God. So as a believer,
David, he was fainting in his affliction. He was cast down.
He had no strength. He was begging God to quicken
him. And God had quickened him to make him beg God to quicken
him. But the Lord spoke that same gospel and He commanded
David with the same precept and the same promise of grace as
he did Abraham. He told Abraham, Abraham had
given away all that fertile plain to Lot, and he had given all
the spoils to that king, and didn't want anything, didn't
take anything, and they all went away, and Abraham's faint. He's
faint. That just wasn't a good business
deal by the world standards. And the Lord gave him a precept.
He spoke it into his heart and he said, Abraham, fear not. When
you're not going to fear? When he says, fear not. That's
when you stop fearing. Stop fearing men and you fear
God. Fear not. And he said, I am thy shield
to protect you from all your enemies, temporal and spiritual.
And I'm your reward in this life and that to come. That's what he did to David.
David said back up there in verse 50, this is my comfort and my
affliction for thy word hath quickened me. You've quickened
me. You've been there. You've been
there where you just were so afflicted and cast down and depressed and
you couldn't do anything as you ought to do. Things you want
to read the Word and you couldn't get anything out of it, you wanted
to serve Him, you couldn't serve Him, you couldn't do anything.
We're told to forgive our enemies, love them, love our enemies,
do good to them. And when you're facing that,
you can't do it if you're cast down and afflicted or if you're
under bondage. How can you do it? When the Lord
speaks the Word and quickens you. That's when. That's when. You know, go back there to 2
Corinthians. This is why I wanted you to see that 2 Corinthians
3, because after Paul declared how the Spirit of the Lord quickened
us to behold Christ's glory, how He turned us from the glory
of the old to the glory of the new covenant, Paul said it's
the same glory, the same covenant Word of our God, ministered by
the same Holy Spirit by which we faint not. He said in verse
1, therefore, he's ended that last chapter by saying, this
is by the Spirit of the Lord. And he said, therefore, seeing
we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, the same
way we receive mercy, we faint not. How is it? How is it? Look down to verse 16. For which cause we faint not,
though our outward man perish, the inward man is renewed day
by day. That's by God quickening you.
That's by Him speaking the Word. This is how He did it at the
beginning, verse 6. God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, shine in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
He said that's how we return from the old to the new, to Christ. And He said, and that's how He
keeps doing it. The powers of God, not of us. We're trouble
on every side, but we're not distressed. We're perplexed,
but we're not in despair. We're persecuted, but not forsaken.
What's the cause of that? Verse 16, for which cause we
think not? The life of Christ in you, speaking,
quickening, making you to live and believe in Him. That's the
only way. Then we do what David did. You know what David did? He heard God testify. He heard
God's witness. God speaks to the man and said,
this is my son, hear him. This is my son, follow him. Incline
your ear, come to me. All you who are laboring and
are heavy laden, come unto me, I'll give you rest. He makes
you hear God's witness of his son. It never changes from the
very first moment he actually makes you hear the gospel and
every time that you ever hear the word, that you ever are comforted
and strengthened by his grace, It's always Him making you look
to Christ. Always. Always. Repentance is toward God. It's not toward man. And it's
not faith in man. It's faith in God. And He's going
to bring you to bow to Him and stop trying to do it yourself
or coerce others to do it. This is what only God can do. This is where it brought him,
verse 94. He said, I'm thine, save me. That's it. I'm thine, Lord, save me. For I've sought thy precepts.
He was doing what God commanded him to doing by saying to the
Lord and asking Him, Lord, I'm thine, save me. I'm seeking your
precepts, Lord. Lord, save me. You said cast
it all on you. I'm casting it all on you. Save
me. Why? The wicked have waited for me
to destroy me. But I'm considering your testimonies,
Lord. You give me the witness of Christ
in my heart and told me to flee to Christ and trust Him and you'll
deal with my enemies. I don't have to worry about that.
What a burden is lifted. I don't have to worry about it.
I trust God's given faith to His people. He's had mercy on
you to fall. He's able to make you stand and
that He'll deal with our enemies and that takes all the burden
off. And he said this, this is why
he needed the Lord. I've seen an end of all perfection.
I've seen the end of my so-called perfection and my so-called righteousness
and my so-called holiness and my so-called strength and everything
else that in this world they call perfect. I've seen an end
of it. But Thy commandments exceeding broad, Lord. I must have Christ. I must be found in His righteousness
and not my own. I have to have You save me, Lord.
Brethren, God our Father. Go to 1 Corinthians 1. I want
to end with this. God our Father and His Son, Christ
Jesus, have established the covenant of grace. God our Father and His Son shall
faithfully quicken, they shall faithfully keep you by grace,
because God is faithful. That's how David began this section
of the psalm. Lord, you are, and your words
settle, you're faithful. Listen to what Paul said. Now
Paul's writing to the Corinthians. You know the troubles they were
having and you know all the, you know, he said, I tried to
preach the gospel to you but you're carnal. I can't even preach
the gospel to you. But he still said this to them.
Look how he began. I thank, verse 4, I thank my
God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given
you by Jesus Christ that in everything you are enriched by him. in all utterance and in all knowledge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, the same
way you started hearing that testimony of God saying, this
is my son, believe him. That was confirmed in you by
his faithfulness. So that you come behind in no
gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
there was a lot of trouble there. But this was Paul's confidence,
because he'd been through it too, and the Lord had quickened
him and taught him, and here was his confidence. "...who shall
also confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless in
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." That'll only be in Christ. That'll
only be when you're brought to say, Lord, I've seen an end of
all perfection in me, and in the earth, and in all men, and
your commandment's broad. I need to be found in Christ.
That's where you'll be found blameless. How will this all
come about? How does it start continuing
in? Because God is faithful. God is faithful. By whom you
were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord. Trust God, and by His quickening
grace, that's what we'll do, and there's peace. There's peace. Amen.