Alright brethren, let's turn
to Psalm 18. Psalm 18. Our text will be Psalm 18 verses
1 through 3. By way of introduction, we need
to understand three things here. First of all, Let's understand
who's speaking in this psalm. The heading tells us, to the
chief musician, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. Now
the Holy Spirit moved King David to pen these words, the words
to this psalm. And much of what is said here
applies to David. But this is a prophetical psalm,
meaning the Holy Spirit gave David the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ. This is Christ speaking. In fact,
several verses in this psalm are quoted in the New Testament
and we're told that it is Christ speaking. I'll show you one of
those tonight. We'll look at another one another
time. Indeed, David was a servant of the Lord. He was made king
over political Israel by God. But Christ is the preeminent
faithful servant of the Lord. He's the faithful servant of
God. He's the king over his spiritual nation, his spiritual Israel. He was David's king. Apostle
Peter said this in Acts 2.34. He said, David is not ascended
into the heavens, but he saith himself. David said himself,
Thee, Lord, Jehovah, God, said unto my Lord, the Lord Jesus
Christ, my King. He said, Be, Lord, said unto
my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thy foes thy
footstool. The Son of God took flesh. The
Son of God came down and He took flesh. He is the Son of God and
He is the Son of Man. And He came to serve God. He
came to serve God. He came to represent His people
before God. And He came to fulfill the covenant
that He made with God in eternity to magnify the law and to make
the law honorable. And He did that by finishing
the transgression. He did that by making an end
of sins. Christ made reconciliation for
iniquity. Christ brought in everlasting
righteousness. And Christ sealed up, He fulfilled
the vision and the prophecies. Everything that's written in
this Old Testament Scripture, the visions and the prophets,
what they spoke, it's all pointing to the successful redemption
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything in these Scriptures
are speaking of Him. Christ in Him crucified. His
successful redemption of His people. And that's the case with
this 18th Psalm. The whole Psalm is speaking of
Christ. Whenever our Lord was walking
this earth, He spoke to some men one time and He said, search
the Scriptures. And at that time, they didn't
have the New Testament Scriptures. He was talking about the Old
Testament Scriptures. And He said, search the Scriptures.
He said, you think you have life in them, but He said, they are
they which testify of Me. That means all these scriptures.
When he was walking on the road to Emmaus with those two men
and he said to them, it says, beginning at Moses. The first
five books of the Bible were by Moses. Beginning at Moses
and all the prophets. It says that he expounded unto
them in all the scriptures, in all the scriptures, the things
concerning himself. when Philip found Nathanael.
You remember what he said? He said, we have found him of
whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write. In other
words, this is who Moses in the law was writing about. And this
is who the prophets were writing about, Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of Joseph. You read through the New Testament
and time and time again we'll read Christ did this or he did
that, that the scriptures might be fulfilled. Because it was
written by the prophet. Because the Lord said of the
prophet he would do this or that. So Christ, he accomplished the
will of God, he fulfilled that which he came to do by fulfilling
all the visions and the prophets. And then He anointed the Most
Holy. Christ Himself is the anointed
Holy One. He entered into heaven, into
the holiest of holies, into the Most Holy. And He anointed that
place for His people by His presence with the Father, presenting Himself
to the Father. And He is, by His Spirit abiding
in us, He is every believer, is made holy by Him, sanctified
by His Spirit, washed in His blood and robed in His righteousness.
So first of all we see here that this one speaking here is Christ
Jesus. It is the Son of God, the Son
of Man. He is the Son of David. He is
the only mediator between God and men. He is the servant of
the Lord that is speaking here. And then secondly, we need to
understand to whom these words are spoken. The heading says,
Who spake unto the Lord. Now when you see capital L-O-R-D,
it's speaking of Jehovah, the Lord God. Jehovah the Father,
Jehovah the Son, Jehovah the Holy Spirit. That's who's being
spoken to. Now Christ is God the Son. He's God the Son. But Christ
is speaking here as mediator. He's speaking here as the servant
of the Lord who is representing His people. Christ is in a sense
speaking of Himself here because He is God the Son. He is the
second person of the Trinity. And because Christ is the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And because these things that
are written here are true of Christ for the believer. So these
words are spoken unto Christ the Lord. They're spoken by Christ
and they're spoken unto the Lord Jehovah, unto God. And then three,
we need to understand the occasion that these words were written.
It says here in Psalm 18 in the heading, it says, "...who spake
unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord
delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the
hand of Saul." Now David indeed had reason to sing to the Lord
because God had delivered him from Saul and from the greater
part of his enemies. But remember David is speaking
prophetically here. This is Christ speaking and none
but the Lord Jesus Christ could say he's been delivered from
all his enemies. Christ Jesus the Lord came and
he conquered, he bruised the serpent's head, Satan's head,
he triumphed over powers and principalities, he overcame the
world, he put away the sin of his people, and the last enemy
to be destroyed is death, and none but Christ could destroy
that enemy. So Christ is the only one of
whom it could be said he was victorious over all his enemies. So, we got these three things.
We got to understand that this is Christ speaking. Christ speaking. Number two, He's speaking to
God, the Lord God. And number three, the occasion
is in that day when Christ said it's finished and God raised
Him triumphant, victorious over all His enemies. Now, in this
song, in this song of Christ singing to the Lord God, we behold
here how the believer is made perfect in love, how that we
have the perfection of love, of righteousness, of the fulfillment
of the law. We see how we have the perfection
of reverence to God, godly fear, reverence to God, and we see
how our faith is perfect. Not in us, but in Christ. All
of these we'll see in Christ. Let's read it together. Psalm
18, verse 1. I will love Thee, O Lord, my
strength. Here's love. Here's love. We're
going to see we have the perfection of love in Christ. Then He says,
the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my
strength. He's praising Him. He's reverencing
God. He's fearing God. He's giving
God the reverence and glory due to His name. And then He says
here, in whom I will trust. He believes God. He believes
God. He said, "...in whom I will trust, my buckler, the horn,
the power of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon
the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so I shall be saved
from mine enemies." The first thing we see here is Christ Jesus
is the perfection of love. He is the perfection of love.
The very righteousness of His people, that's what Christ is.
He is the fulfillment of the law. And this is what he said,
verse 1, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. Now this is the
perfect heart of Christ toward God as he served God as the head
and representative of his people. This is the perfect heart of
Christ, our Redeemer. I will love thee, O Lord, my
strength. Whenever God the Son came down,
He came down to represent fallen, depraved men. Fallen, depraved
men that were given to Him of the Father. And when He walked
this earth, He was the head and representative of His people.
That means that Christ stood as the one faithful God-man that
God looked to. The only one God looked to, this
one man. Everybody else was unfaithful.
Everybody else was full of enmity against God. Everybody else did
not reference God and did not believe God. He's the only one
who came down and He's the only man representing His people that
God looked to. And He didn't represent all men,
He represented His elect people. That's who He's representing
here. He didn't have to represent anybody, but He did come to represent
His people. Now, what does all that have
to do with Christ saying, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength?
Well, turn to Luke 10. Turn to Luke 10. The whole law of God is summed
up right here. Here's the law of God. Luke 10, 27. A man came and he asked the Lord
Jesus, What shall I do to inherit eternal
life? In verse 26, he said unto him, What is written in the law?
How readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God, love the Lord thy God, thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor
as thyself. And the Lord said unto him, Thou
hast answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. There can
be no mixture of sin whatsoever. There has to be perfect love.
with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength,
with all your mind, and the same towards your neighbor. Now, there's
not any sinner on this earth that has ever fulfilled this
law, not one. When God brought you into some
trial that was painful and hurt some to you, did you love God
perfectly? Have you ever loved God perfectly?
Whenever your neighbor's child died, Did you wish it was your
child instead of your neighbor's child? We never loved our neighbor
perfectly. But Christ Jesus established
the whole law. And He did it by loving God and
loving His brethren. He loved God and He loved His
people perfectly. This was His holy heart. He said,
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. So with perfect love
to Jehovah God on behalf of His people, Christ faithfully served
God in holiness of heart and in righteousness of deed from
the cradle to the cross. Especially when loving God and
loving His brethren meant going to the cross. And this one who
knew no sin being made sin for us and bearing the wrath of God,
the justice of God in our room instead. That's the fulfillment
of the law. That's loving God with all your
heart and soul and mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself.
That is the fulfillment of the law. That's why Christ is the
only one who fulfilled it. That's why Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. He's
the only one that ever did this. He said this, Hereafter I will
not talk with you much. That's what he told his disciples.
He said, For the prince of this world cometh, and he has nothing
in me. He said, But that the world may know that I love the
Father. That the world may know that
I love the Father. And as the Father gave me commandment,
even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. And he
went. He went to the garden of Gethsemane
and he suffered the agonies of being made sin in that garden
and then he went under that corrupt judgment of men and then he went
to the cross. And he stood before God with
the sin of his people upon him and he bore justice in the room
instead of his people. So Christ is the perfection of
love. He is the fulfillment of the
law and perfect righteousness. He is the holiness and righteousness
of every sinner in whom Christ abides in spirit through faith.
Christ did. Now we're born of the Spirit
and we do love God. We love God our Father and we
love Christ Jesus. As John said, we love Him because
He first loved us. But we've never loved Him perfectly.
We've never ever loved Him perfectly and we can't love God and our
brethren as Christ could. We just can't. We've never done
it as God demands it to be done. It is in and by Christ that God
reckons us to have loved God and our brethren in perfect,
holy, righteous love. Because Christ said, I will love
thee, O Lord, my strength. Alright, here's the second thing
we see. Now go back to our text, Psalm 18. Secondly, we see how
Christ is the perfection of reverence toward God for every believer. He's the perfection of reverence
toward God for every believer. Christ said in verse 2, the Lord
is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength,
my buckler, the horn, the power of my salvation and my high tower. When Christ walked this earth,
He looked nowhere else but to the Lord God. When He walked
as that one man serving God faithfully as we ought to have served Him,
as we ought to have served God, He walked serving God as God
demands to be served. Now the duty of every man is
not only to keep the commandments of the law, but it's to do it
with the fear of God in our hearts. It's to do it completely reverencing
God. This is what the scripture says.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God. Fear
God, reverence God. Fear God and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of
man. This is the whole duty of man. The fear of God is reverence. It's reverence for God. This
is what true internal religion is. It's true godliness in power
in the heart. It's a fear of God. And it includes
all the graces given by the Holy Spirit. Remember the Lord The
Spirit came upon our Lord Jesus without measure. And then it
includes using those graces, using those graces. It's reverence
of God, it's love to God, it's faith in God, it's hope of eternal
life from God, it's humility of soul, of patience, of submission
to His will. In all of this, it includes giving
God all the glory. Christ is the only one that ever
did this perfectly. He's the perfect believer. I
know He's God. He's God. He's God. But when
He served God, He's walking before God, depending upon God perfectly
as His people ought to. He's doing it representing His
people. He's doing it to be that perfection for His people in
every way. And that's what Christ our surety
did his entire life. That's what he did by all the
work that he accomplished. And that's what he's doing here
while he's... The occasion of this is he's
raised and he's looking back over his earthly ministry. And
this is what he's saying. He's praising God. He reverenced
God. He glorified God in perfection. God said this in Isaiah 42, 1.
He said, Behold... Let me read it to you. He said,
Behold My servant, whom I uphold, Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth."
And He said, I've put My Spirit upon him. I've put My Spirit
upon him. And He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. Now here's Christ and He's bringing
forth judgment to me and you who believe Him. Right now. That's
what He's doing in this psalm. Here's Christ. He's the God-man
mediator. And He's standing between God,
the capital L-O-R-D, and He's standing between His people.
And He's singing this psalm. He's singing this psalm. And
on one hand, He's turned to God. He's turned to God, and He's
praising God, and He's reverencing God, and He's glorifying God,
and He's doing that representing His people. And at the same time,
He's speaking to you and me, and He's teaching us to reverence
Him, to submit to Him, and to bow to Him, because He is all
of these things that we're about to read about right here. When
He was representing His people walking this earth as the servant
of the Lord, Christ Jesus referenced and glorified God as very God. And He did so in perfection for
His people. Now look here in verse 2. He said, The Lord is my rock
and He is my fortress. My rock and my fortress. Look
at Deuteronomy 32. It's preeminent in everything.
Deuteronomy 32, verse 3. It says, Because I will publish
the name of the Lord, ascribe ye greatness unto our God. Deuteronomy 32, verse 3. Verse
4 says, He is the rock. He is the rock. Now what does
that mean? Here's what it means. His work
is perfect for all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and
without iniquity, just and right is He. God is the rock. He's the solid, immutable, immovable
foundation. And so He sent forth His Son.
He sent forth God the Son to become one with His people that
He might be our rock. God's work is perfect. His work
is purpose. So He sent forth one who could
do His work in perfection. He sent forth His Son to work
the works of God in this earth in perfection for His people
who were dead in sin. God's ways are judgment. So in
judgment, God sent forth the just one to declare the judgment
of God, to declare God just and the justifier of His people.
God is a God of truth and He's without iniquity. He's just and
right. So God sent forth Christ the
truth. He sent forth Christ to manifest,
to establish the truth. Do you know what the truth is?
The truth is the righteousness of God. The truth is the righteousness
of God. And by the faith of Christ, by
His faithfulness, by His finishing the work on the cross, mercy
and truth are met together. Mercy and truth, righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. What does that mean? It means
Christ bore justice in place of His people and by that He
declared God just. He declared Him just, He declared
Him right, He declared Him true. Now the righteousness of God
is manifest. without the law. Apart from anything
you do, anything a sinner can do, Christ alone is the only
one who has the glory of declaring, manifesting, making known the
very righteousness of God. God will by no means clear the
guilty. He will by no means sweep our
sin under the rug and ignore it. He's a God that's just and
right. And so He put the sin of His
people on His Son and punished His Son justly in the room instead
of His people. And it means this. It means God's
merciful. It means He's the justifier.
It means He's the peace of His people because Christ is God
in human flesh justifying His people, making peace with God
for His people. God making peace with God for
His people. That's who Christ is. And we
could not be justified by the works of the law. He did this
for us. Christ did it. The law came by
Moses, but truth and grace and the very righteousness of God
came by Christ. That's who it came by. When God
would show Moses His glory, where did He put Moses? He put him
in the cleft of the rock. That's where He put Him and He
covered Him with His hand there. God put all His people in Christ
the Rock before the foundation of the world. God our Rock put
His people in Christ our Rock before the foundation of the
world. And God our Rock puts all His people in Christ our
Rock in time in our experience of grace when He makes Christ
our rock unto us. And that's when we see the glory
of God. We're not going to see the glory
of God anywhere else. We see the glory of God in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's when we begin to sing,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. He is
our rock. And so, get this now, everything
Everything except for our triune Jehovah God in Christ Jesus is
sinking sand. Everything except Jehovah in
Christ Jesus is sinking sand. It's just slippery gumbo mud. It doesn't have any bottom to
it. You know what gumbo mud is? Y'all know what that is? When
I was about 15, my daddy had a Ford four-wheel drive jacked
up with 38-inch super swappers under it and about a 10, 11-inch
lift under it. That thing was something. It
was just what any country boy growing up in South Arkansas
wanted to drive. And I took that thing and drove
it back in the woods behind my dad's house one time. We had
4,000 or 5,000 acres back there. And I drove that truck down there.
And I just wanted to see what it did. So I took it back into
the swampiest place there was. And it was just this flat land
down there. And it had been set under water
all winter. And the water was gone now, but it was just, you
can imagine how just, it didn't have a bottom to it because it
just sat in water all winter long. And I went to driving that
truck down through that, and I was doing fine. I could feel
it trying to sink the whole time, but it was clawing its way through
there. And I was doing fine until I ran out of road. I got about
so far in there, I ran out of road. And I had to back up. And
when I backed up, there was just a root just big enough that my
tires couldn't get over that root. And I spun those tires
about four good times. And when I did, the whole body
of that truck was sitting flat on the ground. The housing of
it was about five inches in the mud. It took us three or four
weeks before we ever even went down to get it out. And when
my dad went down there to get it out, he took a jack and he
jacked up every tire on that truck one at a time and he put
rocks, bricks and rock in there underneath it. And we got through,
he set that truck down and it was sitting on a foundation.
It was on a rock, sitting on a rock when it got finished with
it. And that's the only way he could then turn around and drive
it out of there and get it out of there. Everything but Christ
is just sinking gumbo mud. The more you try to get out of
it, the deeper you get in it. The more you try to work your
way out, your will, your wisdom, your works, the deeper you sink
in it. Christ is the foundation. He's the rock. He is the rock. God is that rock. And He sent
forth Christ to be that rock for His people. And through faith
in Christ, we're standing on justified ground. That's solid
ground. That's immovable ground. That's
ground that will never be shaken or moved, brethren. That's a
firm foundation. We're just saying it. It's a
firm foundation. Christ is our one foundation. Here's the third
thing I want you to see. We see Christ is the perfection
of faith for every believer. Christ said of Jehovah, He said
here in verse 2, God is my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom
I will trust. He says there, He's the power,
the horn of my salvation. Now in order for you to see that
this is Christ speaking, I'm sure there's always somebody
that doesn't believe me, but let's look over here at Hebrews
2 and let's see. He says there, in whom I will
trust. Turn to Hebrews 2. I'm going
to show you at another time that verse 49 is also Christ speaking
and we see that in Romans 15. But here in Hebrews 2, Hebrews
2 verse 10. It became Him, for whom are all
things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons unto glory,
to make the captain of their salvation, that's Christ, to
make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. Now,
He's perfect. It doesn't mean that in that
sense. It means to consecrate Him as our captain. He did that
through suffering. Now, look at verse 11. For both
He that sanctifieth, that's Christ, and they who are sanctified,
that's God's elect, they're all of one. Of one, that's Christ. We're all of Christ. for which
cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." He's not ashamed
to call us brethren. Saying, he came down and he made
himself one with us and he said this, I will declare thy name. He's speaking of God the Jehovah. I will declare thy name. Christ
said, I will. I will declare thy name unto
my brethren. He said, in the midst of the
church, Will I sing praise unto you? Now that's speaking of Christ. That's quoted from Psalm 22,
22. And that's what Christ is doing in this Psalm we're studying. He's standing in the midst of
the church, right here, right now, singing praise unto God. He's declaring the name of God
to us. And we see that name declared
in Christ Himself. And then look, now this is the
next verses from our text, Psalm 18, verse 13. He says, and again,
I will put my trust in Him. I will put my trust in Him. God
the Son made Himself one with His brethren by becoming a man.
And the God-man is the one man to whom God looks instead of
His people. And God the Son, as He served
God in perfect faith, Christ said this in our text. He said,
God is my Deliverer. He's my Deliverer. Couldn't Christ deliver Himself?
Yes, He's God. He said, I have power to lay
down my life, I have power to take it again. But we're talking
about him now as being the faithful one. The faithful one, trusting
God perfectly. Now look at Isaiah 50 and verse
6. God is my deliverer. What do
you mean by that? Here's what he means. Isaiah
50 verse 6. This is Christ speaking. Isaiah
50 verse 6. He said, I gave my back to the
smiters. and my cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair. I hidden out my face from shame
and spitting." Why? For the Lord God, that's Jehovah,
that's what he's singing praises to in our text. Here's the faithfulness
of Christ. The Lord God will help me. He
will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded.
Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that
I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me. You mean Christ needed to be
justified? Not like we needed to be justified. He's declared
to be the Just One. How? God raised Him from the
dead. God said, this is God the Son, as I've said, as He said
He is. This is the One who came to justify
my people, as He said He did. God raised Him, declaring to
us He is that Just One. He said, who will contend with
me? Let us stand together. Who's my adversary? Let him come
near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? And you know what Christ does for us? Look at Romans 8.
He speaks in our heart from faith to faith. From Christ the faithful
to the faith He's given in the heart of His child. And He speaks
and He puts that same song on our lips. And He says this to
us, using almost the exact same language. He says in Romans 8.31,
What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who
can be against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how should He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? So tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
as it's written, for thy sake we're killed all the day long,
we're counted as sheep for the slaughter. No, in all these things
we're more than conquerors through Him that loved us. He teaches
us that He is our Deliverer, just like God was His Deliverer.
Then look at our text. In perfect faith, we're looking
at His faith now. In perfect faith, our representative
glorified God for His people saying, God is my God. He's my God. Do you remember
what He said after His resurrection? Remember what He said after His
resurrection? He came, Jesus said in John 20, 17. He said,
go to my brethren. Go to my brethren and say unto
them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, unto my God
and your God. What's he saying by that? He's
telling us he's one with his brethren. He's telling us he
that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one
for which cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren. He's saying
I've stood in your room instead now and now I'm going to my Father
and your Father, my God and your God. In perfect faith, our representative
glorified God for saying in our text, he said, God is my strength.
God is my strength. As God the Son, He had all strength.
He's God. He had all strength as God the
Son. But as the one man serving God for His people, God made
Christ strong for Himself so that Christ would work the works
of God and glorify God. Look at Psalm 80 and verse 17. Psalm 80, verse 17. This psalm
is talking about how we need deliverance. And he says in Psalm
80, verse 17, Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand.
Who is that? That's Christ. Let thy hand,
God, be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of Man whom
thou madest strong for thyself. He made him strong so that he
would glorify God. So that he would work out this
salvation for his people and bring all the glory to God. Then
look back at our text. God made an eternal covenant
promise to Christ. And in representing his people,
Christ faithfully, perfectly believed God. Look here in verse
2. He says, in whom I will put,
in whom I will trust. In whom I will trust. He's going
to the cross. When He went to that cross, brethren,
and God turned the lights out, God turned His back on our Savior.
And Christ had to trust God that God, when He had finished the
work, that God would deliver Him. He had to trust God to do
that. And He did. He trusted God to
do that. He said, verse 3, I'll call upon
the Lord who's worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from mine
enemies. You know what Hebrews tells us? Hebrews 5. Listen to
this. Hebrews 5 says this right here. In verse 7, it says, In the days
of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplication with
strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him
from death, he was heard in that he feared. He reverenced God,
though he were a son, yet learned the obedience by the things which
he suffered. He wasn't being taught obedience,
he experienced obedience as a man, as one with his brethren, so
that he's able to succor us, to comfort us in all our troubles
that we suffer. But he had to do this and being
made perfect, being perfectly consecrated as the captain of
our salvation, he became the author of eternal salvation unto
all them that obey him. This is what He did. And when
Christ completed that work, when He declared God righteous, and
He put away the sin of His people, and He brought in everlasting
righteousness for His people, God did what He said He would
do. God delivered Him. Look at Isaiah 49 and verse 8. He said, Thus saith the Lord,
That's the capital L-O-R-D. This is Jehovah. Now he's speaking
to Christ. He says, in an acceptable time
when the work was finished. When Christ said, it is finished. In an acceptable time have I
heard thee. And in a day of salvation...
Christ said He would. Christ said, I'm going to call unto
Him because He'll hear me. And He said, and I've heard thee.
And in a day of salvation have I helped thee. And I will preserve
thee and give thee for a covenant of the people. Christ is the
covenant. You know, men get all their little
theological debates about covenants. Christ is the covenant. He is
the covenant. He is the sum and substance of
the covenant. I'll give thee for covenant of the people to
establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. That's what Christ is doing.
That thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth. And to them that are
in darkness, show yourselves. God gave him that glory. He believed
God. He trusted God would bring him
forth. And He did. And God gave him the glory just
like He promised him from the foundation of the world. Now,
let me try to sum up what I've been trying to say and what this
means for you and me. Christ Jesus is the love of the
Lord. He is the love of the law. He
is the righteousness of the law. Christ is the righteousness of
the law. Christ is the perfection of reverence. The perfection of the fear of
God. No man ever walked this earth that loved and served and
feared and reverenced God like Christ Jesus did. Christ is the
author and finisher of every believer's faith. He is the love,
the reverence and the faith of His people. Christ is. Now you
and I, we've been given a new heart and we've been given a
heart made new in righteousness where the love of God dwells.
We've been given the fear of God so that we have a fear of
God, a reverence of God in our heart. We've been given faith
by God. But brethren, our love and our
reverence and our faith is far from perfect. Sin is mixed with
everything we do. So don't ever... This is what
men do. Men get to want to try to find
some confidence. So they start looking at their
love. And they start looking at their
reverence. And they start looking at their faith. The fact that
you might have the possession of some love in you, the fact
that you might have the possession of some reverence in you or faith
in you, that's not going to give you any assurance. And when you
start looking there, you're going to sink down further and further.
That's sinking sand. That won't give you any hope.
Look to Christ. Look only to Christ. Look to
Him. Christ made Himself one with
His people. He walked the steps for His people
so that His perfect love for God is our perfect love for God.
His righteousness is our righteousness, the fulfillment of the law. His
perfect fear and reverence of God is our perfect fear and reverence
of God. His perfect faith in God is the
perfection of our faith in God. It's the reason that our little
mustard seed faith we can still be saved by that little mustard
seed faith, because it's not our little mustard seed faith
that's saving us, it's that big giant faithful one that's saving
us, and that's Christ, whom our little mustard seed faith lays
hold on. He's the one that's saving us. Be sure to get this,
and I want you to go home and think about this. When you see
Christ here praising God and depending on God and believing
God, loving Him, fulfilling His law for God and His people, loving
God and His brethren, when you see Him reverencing God, when
you see Him believing God, see yourself doing it. That's where
you're going to find your confidence and your assurance, because that's
who He did it for. He did it for His people. And when Christ
said, He's my God, and when He said, I'm going to your Father
and my Father, to my God and your God, He was telling us that
all that is Christ is ours. His Father is our Father. His
God is our God. His obedience is perfection of
our obedience. His righteous love is our righteous
love. His reverence is perfection of
our reverence. His faith is perfection of our
faith. Just like His death is our death. Just like His eternal
life is our eternal life. His reward is our reward. His
inheritance is our inheritance. His eternal life and glory is
our eternal life and glory. His safety is our safety. As He is, so are we on this earth. Look at Colossians 3. I pointed
this out to you not long ago, but I think it would be good
to see it again right now when we're talking about this. Colossians
3. Look at Colossians 2. Here you
go, Colossians 2. Verse 20. He says, if you be
dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though
living in the world. Why, as though you're living
in the world, are you subject to ordinances? Aren't I living
in the world? God says, it's as though you
are. It's as though you are. But now you want to see the reality?
Colossians 3 verse 1. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on the things
of the earth, for you are dead. It's not as if. You are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him
in glory. You see what I'm saying, brethren?
Everything He is, we are. And where He is, is where we
are. And what He's done, we've done. And it's ours. in perfection. Now, you can take this psalm
now, and you can read it again, and you can put your name in
the place of David here, and you can sing this like David
did, looking to the one David was looking to, Christ Jesus
the Lord, and it's true of you and me who believe Him. Let's
read it. To the chief musician, a psalm of Clay, and of Robert,
and of Ravi, and of Eric, the servant of the Lord. who spake
unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord
delivered him from the hand of all his enemies. When did he
do that? When Christ raised from the dead. And he said, I will
love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress
and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust. my buckler and the horn of my
salvation and my high tower. I will call upon the Lord who
is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies. And
brethren, every bit of that we have done as perfectly as Christ
did it. Amen.