Good evening. Let's all stand
and begin singing out of your softback 140, Behold the Savior
of Mankind, 140. Is that on? Yes. you Behold the Savior of mankind,
Hail to the shameful tree! How vast the love that Him inclined
To bleed and die for me! O'er Calhoun's wild nature shakes,
And her strong pillars bend, The temple veil in thunder breaks,
And solid marble rends. has done the precious ransoms
paid. Receive my soul, he cries. See how he bows his sacred head. He bows his head. ? But soon he'll break this iron
chain ? ? And in full glory shine ? ? O Lamb of God, was ever pained
? ? Was ever love like thine ? Good evening. Let's go to Psalm
85. I think I may bring a message from
this psalm soon. It really blessed my heart. Let's read from verse 1. Lord,
thou hast been favorable unto thy land. Thou hast brought back
the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou hast covered all their sin. Selah. That is a good place to
pause and to think of how the Lord has covered the sin of his
people with the blood of Christ. Verse 3, Thou hast taken away
all thy wrath. Thou hast turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. Turn us, O God, of our salvation,
and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry
with us forever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger
to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again,
that thy people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy mercy, O Lord,
and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people and to
his saints, but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his
salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in
our land. Mercy and peace are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the
Lord shall give that which is good and our land shall yield
her increase. Righteousness shall go before
him and shall set us in the way of his steps. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord. Father, we
thank you for your. Your grace. And your mercy. which teaches us, Lord, what
we are in this flesh, that we are sinners, that we are not
righteous by our works. But Lord, you show us what we
are and our need of your grace and your salvation. Lord, we
give you all the thanks and praise for it, because it's by your
grace that you show us this need that we have. And Lord, you show
us the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has
done to put away the sin of his people. And Lord, we confess that we are
sinners. We here, we need this grace and
mercy. Lord, we need you to cleanse
us of our sin and to turn our hearts to you. that we, Lord,
that you would not be angry with us, but that you would see us
in your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that in Christ,
mercy and peace have kissed together, that that righteousness and truth
have met together with your mercy and your grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we thank you, Lord, for this.
And Lord, we come to you with the needs and the cares of others.
We think, Lord, of how in this psalm one generation prayed for
the next. Lord, that we pray that you would
be gracious to our brethren who are yet to be brought out of
darkness and to see the light of Christ. We think of our children. We think of friends and family
and people that we know and care about. We pray, Lord, that you
would have mercy upon their souls. That you would deliver them from
the bondage of this carnal, dead, fleshly nature full of enmity.
That you would deliver your people from that. and give them life
and light in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we think of the needs and
the cares that our brethren here have. We think of Brother Scott
and Lord, just the process he's going through with the doctors
to see about home dialysis and Lord, the healing of his wounds
that you would continue to heal him, that it would not be Issue
that it would not be that it would not get infected Lord deliver
him from that strengthen his body strengthen The healing of
his wounds make him whole Lord and give him strength Lord we
think of brother Ron and the going through the the radiation
treatment Lord we know how that saps the strength of many we
ask Lord that you would give him strength help him and to
endure this and that this treatment would prove successful in removing
the cancer. Lord, we pray for Claudia that
you would help her and give her strength also to help in however
she needs to with this. Lord, we pray for Tom here. Lord, though he does not seek
you, Lord, but he has asked for prayers and we pray that you
would help him with his health issues and that you, Lord, as
you do for your people so often, how you use trials and difficulties
and sicknesses to turn our hearts and our thoughts upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, we ask that you would use this to turn him, to
seek you, that he would take make full use of the opportunity
which is here in the preaching of the gospel, Lord, that he
would come, that he would sit and that he would hear it, that
he would seek you, Lord, and that he would find your grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we know this is of your
work. We know this is all of what you must do, Lord, because
salvation is of the Lord and it's not of man. And so we pray
that you would turn him cause him to seek you and give him
an ear to hear. We pray this for many. We thank
you for our guests and visitors that have been coming. We pray
that you would open their ear and that you would cause them
to hear the voice of the son of God and that they would live
and that you would knit their hearts together with ours and
ours with theirs and Lord that you would call out your people,
your sheep, from the dark places all around us, that you would
draw them here to hear your word preached. Help us, Lord. Help
me to be faithful in the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Help
me in my weaknesses and in my inabilities and shortcomings,
Lord, to be faithful and to preach Christ, to exalt him, to lift
him up, Preach Him simply, plainly, boldly, clearly, that sinners
may hear the voice of the Son of God and live. Lord, we pray
that you be with us tonight. We also think of Alyssa and all
the struggles that, the very struggles that each and every
one of us has, that you would minister to her and to us, to
those who listen online. Lord, have mercy upon us. It's
in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Our second hymn will be 105,
He Surrendered All, 105. All for me Christ did surrender,
all for me he freely gave. Only one made sin for sinners,
by his death my soul he saved. He surrendered all, He surrendered
all. All to be my blessed Saviour,
He surrendered all. Coming from his throne in heaven,
Jesus laid his glory by. As the sinner is forgiven, and
shall soon be glorified, he surrendered all. He surrendered all All to
be my blessed Saviour He surrendered all Into death Christ did surrender
Even death upon a cross ? All to save the worst offender ?
? Mine the gain, his all the loss ? ? He surrendered all ?
? He surrendered all ? ? All to
be my blessing ? He surrendered all. At the cross, the Father's pleasure
prospered well in Jesus' hands. Now He's honored without measure,
so the Father's will demands. He surrendered all. He surrendered all. All to be my blessed Savior,
He surrendered all. Thank you. Alright brethren, we're going
to be in Isaiah chapter 63. Picking up in verse 10. While you're turning there, I think this needs to be said. It's relevant to the message
here. That salvation is a personal
experience of grace. It's a personal experience that
each one of God's children will experience themselves. They're going to know the grace
of God. In other words, we're not children of God through blood
lineage. It doesn't matter if a grandparent
or parent a brother, a sister, a cousin, an aunt, an uncle,
someone we know, it doesn't matter if they are believers and if
they are rejoicing in the hope that God gives sinners in his
son, we ourselves need that salvation. We need the blood of Christ to
cover our sins. Now, in this passage here, we
see the working of God. who delivers His people from
their sins. He delivers His people from death,
eternal death. He delivers His people from the
enmity that's in our flesh by nature. In addition to removing
these things, delivering us from these things, He gives us life
in that covenant of grace established in the blood of His Son. Now,
in this passage, you'll notice that The viewpoint is from the
believer, from the sinner saved. You see this understanding of
this truth of how God saves sinners, of how he saves the child of
God through their viewpoint here in this passage. I've titled
this message, Where Is He For Me? Where Is He For Me? Now let's start, we're picking
up in verse 10, but it's really appropriate that we see this
in context from the middle of verse nine. So I'm gonna pick
up in verse nine where it says, in his love and in his pity,
he redeemed them. He purchased them for love's
sake and he bare them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and vexed His
Holy Spirit. Therefore was He turned to be
their enemy, and He fought against them. We've been seeing this
very theme recently in Judges 6 a lot, where we see the repetition
of the Lord showing the child of God their sin. And we see
this repeated in our own lives and in our own experience, how
that we're made to see what sinners we are and to behold the salvation
of our God. And so it is that we see this
again in this passage here tonight. Now, we come, with a lot of religious
baggage, don't we? We come with a lot of religious
baggage. We have wallets, we have purses, we have fanny packs
and backpacks and duffel bags and luggage on wheels and big
things and little things, all full of religious nonsense. We all have a lot of religious
baggage, which the Lord strips us of, showing us our sin, showing
us our idolatry, to behold the salvation that he has freely
given in his Son, who is full, free, sufficient satisfaction
to meet every need of the child of God. Now, I want to look a
little bit at this verse 10 here, especially this phrase at the
beginning, but they rebelled. We see God's salvation, but they
rebelled. And I was thinking recently how
in terms of that religious baggage that we have, how there's, you
know, sometimes we meet people, professed believers, that like
to go back to a day. They go back to a day, even an
hour, which they remember and reflect upon when the Lord either
made a verse of scripture blessed to their heart or they heard
something and were thinking of some thought and they were so
overtaken by the influence of it that they felt like this was
the hour in which they were saved by God and their move to go and
tell others and others give them assurances of that experience
that they had. But the hope of the believer
rests in the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't need to put stock in
experiences like that because the grace of God it informs me,
it teaches me, it shows me this truth of verse 9 which says,
So we don't need to look to a specific experience of grace because the
truth is the hope that I now have in the Lord Jesus Christ Everything was in the perfect
sovereign hand of God's control which brought me to see my sin,
brought me to behold the servant of God who was sent of God and
came to this earth in the flesh bearing me and my sins and crucified
me with him on the cross. I died with him. to the demands
of the law, satisfying all the demands of the law, and am now
righteous in him. And God did everything to bring
me to Christ. He did everything and shows me
that it's all according to purpose. And so for every vague memory
that I have of some special experience where I had a clear view of Christ,
or had a better understanding of a certain verse in scripture,
and I was made to see Christ. For every one of those memories,
the truth is that immediately after, I rebelled. I rebelled. For every positive
experience, I rebelled. and sinned against the truth
of the Lord and vexed his Holy Spirit. So in other words, what
I'm trying to say is if I fix my hope on some religious experience
where I had a clear sight of Christ, well, I also have to
factor in that I rebelled, that I rebelled just like Israel here.
Every time they could see where God carried his people, we also
see that they rebelled. And that's true of them and it's
true of me. So my hope of Christ isn't in
what I remember. Because if I start remembering
the good things, I've got to factor in and remember the bad
things too. And we don't want God judging us according to our
memories and what he remembers. of us. We want Him to see us
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So this verse 10, "...but they
rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit, therefore He was turned to be
their enemy, and He fought against them." Now this likely, this
describes what the Lord was doing in and amongst the people of
Israel when they saw the miracles of God, they beheld his goodness,
all his deliverances and mercies and appearing for them, and they
began to murmur and complain. and rebelled against the Lord,
and turned against the Prophet, against Moses and Aaron, and
they returned, and they saw all these things. And so the Lord,
He brought various things that came and stripped them, whittled
them down, and many died in the wilderness. All that rebelled
against Him died in the wilderness. Now, if Israel's a type of the
believer, then what does this mean for me? How is this truth
worked by the Lord in me? How is it that I vex his Holy
Spirit and he turns to be my enemy and fights against me?
Well, first of all, the word vexed here means grieved. It means grieved. And believers,
and if we look at the New Testament, believers can grieve the Holy
Spirit. How is that possible? Well, the
Holy Spirit is a person. He's the third person in the
Trinity. And He's not a force. He's not just an influence, a
divine influence. He is a person. And as we are
persons and we can be grieved by the actions or words of others
so the Holy Spirit as a person can be grieved. Now turn to Ephesians
4. Let's see this in the scriptures.
Ephesians 4 29. The word grieve is in verse 30 but
let's see it in the context how it's used. Ephesians 4.29, Paul writes,
let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. But that which is good to the
use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God, whereby he are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let
all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christ's sake hath forgiven you. So you notice it's in the context
of actions and words there that we might grieve the Holy Spirit. Now I was thinking, how that
after 28 years of marriage, there are things that I can let proceed
out of my mouth that grieve my wife. There's things I can say
that will grieve her just like that. And if it's something I
do in the car, something I say in the car, or at home, sitting
on the couch, she's right there next to me. But I can tell that
her presence is not there with me. She's silent. I'm no longer
enjoying her fellowship in that moment and I begin to realize
that I've grieved her, and now I'm grieved because I want that
fellowship. I want to have that closeness
and nearness to her, and I've grieved her by something I've
said or done in that manner. Well, that's what it is. It's in that sense that the Holy
Spirit is grieved. Michelle's still my wife. She
hasn't left me. but her presence, that fellowship
isn't there, that nearness isn't there. It's in that sense, the
Holy Spirit doesn't leave us, he doesn't abandon us, but he's
grieved in that sense. And so, when we feel his presence
is withdrawn from us, the one thing a believer wants more than
anything is to have that presence back. Lord, don't leave me. Lord, don't abandon me, Lord.
Forgive me of my sins. Forgive me of my offense. Don't
leave me. And turn over to Psalm 51, because
David captures this very, the very heart of the child of God
who knows that they've sinned against the Holy Ghost, that
knows that we've sinned against the Lord, that we've sinned,
that we've done wrong, and that the Spirit is grieved with us.
And we feel the chastening of the Lord. And so Psalm 51 verse
eight, David says it this way, make me to hear joy and gladness
that the bones which thou has broken may rejoice. Right? When we're, when we've sinned
and we're being stubborn and hard about it, we're not feeling
joy. We're not hearing. the word,
the person next to us might hear the gospel, but we're not hearing
it, and we're not being fed, and we're having difficulties,
because we know that we've sinned against the Lord, and he says,
make me to hear joy and gladness. Hide thy face from my sins, and
blot out all mine iniquities. Lord, I feel like your face is
hid from me. Hide your face from my sins.
that you may look upon me, that I may have that fellowship with
you again. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from
thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. And so, There's things that we
can do and say in which we know, Lord, I've sinned. I've done wrong. And I'm sorry
for it. And the Lord makes us to know
that. He hasn't left us. Otherwise, we wouldn't care. We wouldn't be turned. But because
we do love him by his grace and by the fellowship that we enjoy
with our Lord and the Lord Jesus Christ, we know when He's grieved
when we've grieved Him by our words and actions. We see it
also in 1 Thessalonians 5, in verse 19. Oh, let's go there,
since this may not be, no, let's just see. In 1 Thessalonians
5, we see that context there from verse 18 through 20, with
19 being the word in question, but 18, Paul says, in everything give
thanks for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus concerning
you. Now we've talked about this.
It doesn't simply mean be thankful because that's the will of God
for you to be a thankful people, though that is true, but he's
saying Thank God, whatever the trial, whatever the adversity,
whatever the difficulty, give your God thanks because this
trial, adversity, and difficulty you're going through is the will
of God for you. Rejoice in Him. And then right
after that, he says, quench not the spirit because complaining
and murmuring and and just fighting against the adversity is not
hearing what the Lord, it's not even seeking to understand, Lord,
what are you teaching me here? Why am I going through this?
It's just missing the whole point. It's just seeking to get out
of it in the flesh. Verse 20 says, despise not prophesying,
which is the preaching of the gospel. And when you've quenched
the spirit, the flesh is just having its way and you're not
hearing the preaching of the gospel. You're despising it. You're warring against it and
you're not hearing any joy or any gladness like David said
in Psalm 51. You're not hearing it. And so
the point that I'm making here to begin this to get into verse
10 here is that the Lord deals with his child according to purpose. He's dealing with this child
according to his purpose. He's making us to see I'm the
sinner. I'm the one who all the time
is the rebel. God is merciful and gracious
to me, the sinner, and I've rebelled. Lord, quench, do not, just so
you know, that word in 1 Thessalonians 5 there, quench, means to stifle,
means to stifle, to suppress it, to stifle and suppress it.
Don't stifle it, don't suppress it, don't do those things that
we so easily do in the flesh. And the point is, is that the
Lord engages His child in areas of their life that they need
to be engaged in. And they may not be the same
for me as it is for you, and vice versa, but the Lord knows
exactly what His purpose is for us, and He knows how to deal
with us according to the things He's teaching us and showing
us, according to our sin and our need of those things being
put away from us. It's always in the flesh. The
temptation's there. It doesn't go away. But the Lord,
by His grace and power, teaches His child what He will have them
to know. To know in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so the Lord is, if he's removing something from you, he knows
exactly how to bring you under duress. He knows exactly how
to lead you and how to teach you and show you what you have
need of seeing. And he knows how to destroy this
old man of my flesh, just as he knows how to destroy the old
man of your flesh and teach you. Peter says the Lord knoweth how
to deliver the godly out of temptations. He knows how to do that. Paul
said, though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day. John the Baptist said, he must
increase, but I must decrease. Job said, though he slay me,
yet will I trust him. That's because the Lord taught
him and led him and brought him through many trials and he knew
that he could trust the Lord. And so our God graciously drops
this old man of flesh because it's for our good and it's for
our everlasting comfort. The prophet Isaiah wrote this
in Isaiah 40 verse 7, he said, the grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the Lord bloweth upon it. All surely the people
is grass. The Lord blows upon this flesh
and withers this old man, the outward man, but the inward man,
which is born of Christ, flourishes. it flourishes, it lives, it lives
and thrives being renewed day by day. Now, in the next verses,
when the Lord chastens his child through the various trials and
difficulties and the preaching of his word, the child of His
grace is never destroyed, just the outward man of flesh is weakened,
and the outward man of flesh is destroyed, and the outward
man of flesh is put down in the dust that Christ has the preeminence
in us. It's all upon His covenant mercies
and promises. Let's read verses 11 through
14. Then he remembered the days of old. This is you and me. Then he remembered the days of
old, Moses and his people, saying, where is he that brought them
up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he that
put his Holy Spirit within him? We remember, Lord, you're a God
of covenant mercies, and you've delivered your people. We've
heard of these stories, we've heard of these accounts, how
that you marvelously, wondrously, gloriously appeared for your
people and delivered them out of their troubles, and you healed
them and helped them and fought against their enemies and put
their enemies down and delivered the people so that they lived.
and enjoyed that fellowship and knowledge of you. Verse 12, where
is it? That led them by the right hand
of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them
to make himself an everlasting name. that led them through the
deep as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble.
As a beast goeth down into the valley, the spirit of the Lord
caused him to rest. So didst thou lead thy people
to make thyself a glorious name." All right, that's speaking of
the Red Sea there and how the Lord brought the people through,
delivered them from the Egyptians and gave them peace, right? And what the people there are
brought to see in this is they're referring to that time when the
Lord, by the hand of Moses, led the people. And that's what the
Lord is bringing his child to do, to remember the covenant
mercies of God established for us in the hands of the mediator,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We see I'm the rebel, I'm the
sinner, Lord have mercy upon me. Save me by the glorious power
of your son Jesus Christ whom you have sent to deliver your
people from their sins. So when we're in trouble and
we go through difficulties and trials and you will, you do,
you know the trials and the difficulties and the hardships that you have,
the things which oppose and make it hard upon you and strip you
of your flesh. These things are brought to you
to cause you to call upon the Lord, to cast your care upon
Him. We call upon our God in the name
of Jesus Christ because He's our mediator and in Him we have
all spiritual blessings given unto us. He's that everlasting
name which the Father has given to deliver His people. And so
it's for Christ's sake that our sin and our ruin is discovered
unto us and it's for Christ's sake that we see Him. gloriously in our need of him
and his righteousness and by his grace we are moved to cry
out to him. We're given that repentance so
that we do have a heart that says, Lord, I'm so dry. so thoroughly dry, so cold, so
dark, so unbelieving. We're made to see that, that
we should cry out to Him, because the fault's not with the Lord.
The fault is in this flesh. We're the sinners. Look over
at Romans 10. Go to Romans 10, and let's pick
up in verse 8. Romans 10.8 Paul writes, But
what saith it? It refers to a phrase in verse
6 called the righteousness which is of faith. But what saith the
righteousness which is of faith? It says the word is nigh thee,
even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith
which we preach. that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And so The Lord is revealing
Christ to us. Christ crucified. He came in
the flesh. He fulfilled all righteousness.
Look to Him. He's your righteousness. You're
never going to establish a righteousness for yourselves by the law of
God before holy God. We are far too sinful in this
flesh. We are ruined, corrupt, condemned,
being born of the seed of Adam. We know what we are. were the
rebels. We rebelled against Him and against
His grace, but He has sent that full free salvation in His Son
who is the Savior. And all who believe Him, who
trust Him for their salvation, for their deliverance, for their
righteousness and acceptance with God, they shall never be
ashamed." Meaning, God hears. and God's grace is sufficient
for His child. He has put away their sin, and
He has given them grace and fellowship in the Lord Jesus Christ. They shall follow Him and be
led of Him, and they shall not walk in darkness, but shall know
Him, the true and living God, all the days of their life. He promises this in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so we ask God, Lord, save
me, have mercy on me. And we ask in faith, believing,
Lord, you have a purpose in what you're doing. And you've brought
me here to see my need of you. Lord, save me. All right, now
continuing here with this prayer, look at verse 15, Isaiah 63,
verse 15. Here. The child continues to plead
with God in the covenant mercies of His grace. Look down, calling
upon the true and living God, Lord, look down from heaven and
behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory,
where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and
of thy mercies toward me, toward me? Are they restrained? Are they restrained? I began
this message saying that salvation is a personal experience of grace
for every child of God. We are gonna know our sins. We're
gonna know that we've offended Holy God, that we cannot save
ourselves. We're going to call out to God
for mercy for Christ's sake. knowing that he was crucified
for my sins, that he was buried, and that he rose again according
to the scriptures. Lord, save me. You say all who
call upon you shall never be ashamed. You say all who call
upon you have the remission, the forgiveness of sins in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, save me. It's not good
enough for us to hear how the Lord saved others, is it? That's wonderful that the Lord
had mercy upon you and upon your family. Lord, have you forgotten
me? Lord, what about me? Think about this. If you were
on a boat in the middle of the ocean, And your boat's all cracked
up, and you're going down. And the Coast Guard shows up
in one of those helicopters. And they come down, and there's
someone with you. And they come down, and they
strap that person in that life-saving device, and they pull them up
into the helicopter. And the guy looks down and goes,
good. And you say, yeah, good job,
man. You saved them. See ya. And he takes off. Would
that be good enough for you? No. What about me? Can you drop
that thing down for me? Save me. And that's what we're
brought to see is, Lord, I need salvation. That's wonderful that
you're saving your people of old. Lord, save me. Have you
forgotten me, Lord? Right? Verse 15 says, Where is
thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of
thy mercies toward me? I need your grace, Lord. I need
your salvation. Save me. The Apostle Paul's cry
in Romans 7.24 was, O wretched man, that I am who shall deliver
me from the body of this death, this body of death. Who shall
deliver me? The Syrophoenician mother, whose
daughter had a devil, of her we read, then came she and worshiped
him, saying, Lord, help me. Help me, Lord. The thief on the
cross said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
Remember me, Lord. I need your salvation. And then
there's that father in Mark 9. The whole account is from verse
14 to 24. The Lord came upon scribes talking with his disciples
because they couldn't heal this boy of the devil that he had.
And the Lord asks the man some questions and the father says,
well, the devil cast him into the fire and into the waters
to destroy him. The devil that he has is trying
to destroy my son. And then the father asks, but
if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us.
Would you do me a favor, Lord, and help me out some? Help me
out. It's a general plea. And Christ
answers, well, if thou canst believe, all things are possible
to him that believeth. And you ask a general question,
you're going to get a general answer. But the spirit came upon
the father here, because straightway the father of the child cried
out and said with tears, Lord, I believe help thou my unbelief. Lord, help me. No longer was
it a general, hey, if there's something you can do for us,
it'd be great. No, Lord, help me. Help me. And that's what the Lord is doing
to his child. He's making you to see you need
his salvation. He is the Savior that God has
provided to save His people from their sins, and He's making you
His chosen child of grace to know, Lord, I need this salvation. It's not good enough for me to
know that you save your people in a general sense. Is that what
salvation is? To know that Jesus is God? To
know that He's the Savior of men? The devils know that, and
they're not saved. They know that Jesus is God.
They know that He's the Son of God and that He's the Savior
of His people. No. The salvation of God is coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. Deliver me, Lord. Help me, Lord. Remember me, Lord. Help my unbelief, Lord. Save
me because I'm the sinner and I'm the rebel. I need your grace
and your blood. I need your salvation and what
you do to save sinners. That's what I need, Lord, because
I'm the sinner. I'm the guilty one here. Now,
a couple more things. Verse 16 and 17. Says, doubtless thou art our
father, though Abraham be ignorant of us. And Israel, acknowledge
us not. Thou, O Lord, art our father,
our redeemer. Thy name is from everlasting. Now, one way that this verse
can be understood is, I'm such a sinner that neither Abraham
nor Israel, they saw me. would own me, would even recognize
me as a child of God. That's how awful of a sinner
I am. But another way to understand
this, and I think in the context, this is what it's saying is,
Lord, your salvation of Abraham and of your people of old is
not sufficient to help me. That bread which they fed on
for their salvation, Lord, I need I need bread today. I need salvation
today. I need your grace. I can't live
on their salvation. I need your salvation personally. I need to be saved by the blood
of Christ. Lord, I need your Holy Spirit
to dwell in me. Because you say that by faith
Christ dwells in the heart of his child. Lord dwell in me,
live in me, give me life, raise me from the dead, deliver me
from my sins and the corruption of my sin and ruin. Verse 17, O Lord, why hast thou
made us to err from thy ways and hardened our heart from thy
fear? Return for thy servant's sake
the tribes of thine inheritance. This here is another affirmation
made to the child of God that all your difficulties, all your
trials, all the adversity is not by some random happenstance. No matter how severe the trial,
no matter how dark the days have been, it's not by some random
happenstance, some chance, bad luck, not at all. We know that
all things are brought to pass by the wise providence, by the
wise, all-powerful hand of the true and living God. We know
it's of His hand. Everything is according to purpose. Lord, you've brought this upon
me to break me and my flesh, my hard, proud, arrogant, boastful
heart, and made me to see my sin and my need of your salvation. To know that you are the sufficient
Savior, Lord, save me. Help me. Have mercy upon me."
And so, brethren, that's what the Lord's doing. That's what
He does for His people. It's a mercy. It's hard on the
flesh. It kills the flesh. It destroys
the flesh. But that new man, which is born
of Christ in God's chosen people, lives and rejoices and is thankful
to God, rejoicing in him evermore. I pray the Lord bless that word
to your hearts and help you to hear what the Lord says to his
churches. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your grace. We see, Lord, how
you teach your people. Lord, how you are so patient,
so gracious, so kind to us in showing us what we are, showing
us what rebels, what rebellious, what sinful people we are. how ruined and wicked this flesh
is, but Lord, we thank you for your grace and your salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that you have freely given him
to your people for their salvation. Lord, save me. Save us, Lord. Have mercy upon us. Lord, call
every sinner here. to You. Give them Your Spirit. Wash them in the blood of Christ.
Renew them in the Spirit of Christ. Bless us for Christ's sake, Lord. Let us have that fellowship which
You give to Your people in Christ, that we too may be made partakers
of Your grace. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Our final hymn will be Victory
in Jesus. That's your loose paper under
the folder cover. It's really the same hymn that
we've been singing from the blueback. We just made a small change to
the first stanza. It's a little less confusing,
so... Victory in Jesus. Heard an old, old story How a
Savior came from glory How He gave His life on Calvary To save
a wretch like me I heard about His groaning Of His precious
blood's atoning How He forgave me of my sins and won the victory,
O victory in Jesus my Savior forever. He sought me and bought
me with His redeeming blood. He loved the air, I knew Him,
and all my love is to Him. He plunged me to victory beneath
the cleansing flood. Heard about His healing, Of His
cleansing power revealing, How He made the lame to walk again,
And caused the blind to see. And then I cried, Dear Jesus,
Come and heal my broken spirit, And somehow Jesus came and brought
to me the victory. Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior
forever. He sought me and bought me with
His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him, and
all my love is to Him. He plunged me to victory beneath
the cleansing flood. Heard about a mansion He has
built for me in glory And I heard about the streets of gold Beyond
the crystal sea About the angels singing And the old redemption
story And some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory. Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior
forever. He sought me and bought me with
His redeeming blood. He loved the air, I knew Him,
and all my love is through Him. He plunged me to victory beneath
the cleansing flood. Thank you.