Let's begin our second service
by standing and singing out of your softback binder. 116. We bless the Triune God. 116. We bless the Holy Triune God. He blessed the name of our great
God for His electing love, Who has predestined everything to
save the ones He loves. We bless the name of Jesus Christ,
our Savior and our King, Who died the chosen race to save
and free salvation bring. We bless the Holy Spirit, who
seals the covenant grace, to all the chosen ransomed ones
by his effectual grace. Be blessed, the holy triune God,
the sacred three-in-one, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
for all that you have done. Selecting love, redeeming blood,
and mighty saving grace, we trace to you our sovereign God and
joy to sing your praise. If you would turn to 133, Complete
in Thee, 133. you Complete in thee no work of mine,
I take, dear Lord, the place of thine. Thy blood hath barred
and bought for me, and I am now complete in thee. Ye justified,
O blessed thought, and sanctified, salvation wrought. Thy blood
hath pardoned but for me, And glorified I too shall be. Complete in thee, no more shall
sin thy grace hath conquered reign within. Thy voice shall
bid the tempter flee, and I shall stand complete in thee. Yea, justified, O blessed Thou,
And sanctified salvation wrote, Thy blood hath pardoned, bought
for me, And glorified I too shall be. Complete in thee, each want
supplied, and no good thing to me denied. Since thou my portion,
Lord, wilt be, I ask no more. Complete in thee, ye justified,
O blessed thought. And sanctified salvation draw,
Thy blood hath pardoned but for me, And glorified I too shall
be. Savior, when before thy bar All
tribes and tongues assembled are, Among thy chosen will I
be, At thy right hand complete in thee, Yea, justified, O blessed
God! And sanctified salvation wrought,
Thy blood hath pardoned but for me, And glorified I too shall
be. Let me read this morning out
of Psalms 29. Psalm 29. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty,
give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord
the glory due unto his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. The voice of the Lord is upon
the waters. The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon
many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the
Lord breaketh the cedars, yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars
of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like a calf, Lebanon
and Syrian like a young unicorn. The voice of the Lord divided
the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shake at
the wilderness. The Lord shake at the wilderness
of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord make it the Heinz to cav and
discovered the forest. And in his temple does everyone
speak of his glory. The Lord said it upon the flood. Yeah, the Lord said King forever.
The Lord will give a strength unto his people. the Lord will
bless his people with peace. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning
humbled by this scripture. Father, that your simple voice
and actions can dictate and control anything and everything. And
Father, we see that in the salvation that you've brought to your people.
And Father, we come to you this morning thankful You sent your
son to die in our place. And father, we, we come to you
this morning, thankful for the place that you have given us
to worship and father for those that you've sent here to hear
the message this morning. And father, we ask that you watch
over the souls here this morning. Let us hear the message that
you bring in us. Father, we ask that you be with
those that couldn't be with us this morning. And father, we
ask that you watch over them as well. And Father, open their
hearts as well. And Father, we ask that wherever
this gospel is preached this morning, that you make the word
effectual to your people. And Father, we ask that you watch
over the pastor, our pastor, and all the pastors that bring
your message. Let them be clear and let them bring the message
you'd have us to hear. And Father, we ask this in Christ's
name. Just give me a second. That's a power mill, I know. I should have powered it on while Scott
went out. Where do you go to Facebook?
I gotta know that. Does that mean I gotta go through
the whole set up again? Not whole set up, but I mean... I just put it on, so... I don't
know what it's doing. I know that I had it over here. Well, we have to wait for it
to pick up the... I don't know how long it's going to take. Okay, when does it come? It's
going to be somewhere around here, but maybe we'll just go
ahead and do this. Okay. It's going to be a long
time. Alright, well, it takes time. We learn. All right, brethren. Take your Bibles and turn to
Psalm 4. Psalm 4. Our Lord is the teacher
of his people, and he teaches us to seek him. he teaches us
how to pray to him, when to pray. And this Psalm 4, it's a model
for prayer to that one who is in distress. And what we see
here, laid out for us in David's Psalm here, is that he first
turns to the Lord in prayer. He's turned to the Lord in prayer. That's where he begins. And having
been with his God, his God is able to make him stand, to face
the enemy standing in the promises that he gives to his child in
Christ. And the Lord himself communes
with his child, comforting them, giving them peace and joy in
the midst of the trial, in the midst of distress. And he works this in their heart
so that the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ, his work is
born out in the heart of the child, so that they give the
sweet expression of faith in their God. They have joy and
gladness even in the midst of distress. I've titled this, The
Prayer of the Distressed. The Prayer of the Distressed.
And let's begin where David begins, in prayer, in verse one. He says, hear me when I call,
O God of my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I
was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my
prayer. David here is turning to his
God, being in distress, and we find out when we look at verse
two that he's distressed by the sons of men. And that signifies
there that there's some men of reputation as well. And they're troubling David.
And they believe they're going to bring David down. They feel like they've got David
on the ropes and that there's no help for David. And they're
going to be successful in bringing him down. And David's distressed
by their troubling of him. He's distressed. And it's turning
him to the Lord. And it's believed that this Psalm
4 is related to Psalm 3. Psalm 3 is the joy he has when
he awakes the next morning after being pursued or chased out of
Jerusalem by Absalom. And then this would be called
the evening hymn where David realizes the Lord, Lord, there's
things still going on and I need you, Lord. I need your help.
I need your deliverance because I'm troubled by these men that
are troubling me. And so David turns to the Lord,
but notice the basis upon which David can come to his God with
such confidence. He calls him the God of my righteousness. the God of my righteousness. When the child of God, you children
of God, when you're distressed about anything, anything that
distresses you, we turn to the true and living God because he
is the God of my righteousness. He's the God of my righteousness. We're turned to God, not by our
strength, not by our wisdom, but by His grace. By His grace, and we come confessing
to Him, Lord, You're the God of my righteousness. You're my
righteousness. I come because You are the God
of my righteousness. That's boldness. That's having
boldness to come to God because it's His righteousness, not because
my works are righteous. We don't come because my works
are righteous. We don't come because, well,
of late I've been doing pretty good and I feel okay. I feel
like I can come to the Lord with this. That's not why we come. We come to our God in the righteousness
of another. We come to our God in the righteousness
of another. And nothing can stop you from
coming to your God when you come, not in your own righteousness,
but in the righteousness that he's provided for us in Jesus
Christ. What can stop you from coming
to the throne of your God when you come in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ? I'll say this. If you can pray
to your God because of your goodness, because of your works of righteousness,
and how good you feel about yourself because of your righteousness,
and you can come to your God because of how good you've been
of late, that's terrible. That's terrible. That's actually
coming to God in an evil conscience. because you're trusting that
you can come to God because you are righteous, because you've
been doing some good works to earn His favor, and that is called
an evil conscience, thinking that we can come to God because
we've earned that place before Him by our works, by something
we've done. If that's how it worked, none
of us, if we're honest, could ever come before our God, because
who of us comes without sin. We're all sinners in this flesh. None of us has any merit to stand
on before the throne of our God and have any confidence in that. But if our coming to Him is based
not on our righteousness, but on the righteousness He's freely
given in grace in His Son, then nothing can stop us, nothing
forbids us from coming to our God. Turn over to Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10. In Hebrews 10, let's begin in
verse 14. We're told there that by one
offering, one offering, Christ hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified. Can you perfect anything that's
already perfect? Can you make something that's
already perfect any more perfect? If someone makes you a meal and
they ask you, how is it? How do you like it? Oh, it's
perfect. It's perfect. And then you pick
up a salt shaker and you start grinding some salt on it. Was
it perfect? No, you added something to it.
Now maybe you think it's perfect, but you had to add something
to it to perfect it still. It may have been wonderful, it
may have been great, it may have satisfied you, and you would
have been content with it where it was, but it wasn't perfect
because you wouldn't have added more salt to it. You would have
added nothing to it. Well, Christ hath perfected forever. them that are sanctified, set
apart for himself. There's nothing that we can add
to Christ's work. There's nothing we can do. If
we add something, we'll corrupt it. We'll make it worse. Wherefore,
verse 15, the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after
that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make
with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws
into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and
their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Your Savior has fulfilled all
the covenant of grace for you, his children. There's nothing
more for you to add or do to make it complete and for you. We are washed in the blood of
Christ. We are washed by the renewing
and regeneration of the Holy Ghost. We are complete in Him. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sin. That goes back to our
perfection in Christ. There's nothing more that we
can add to what Christ has done for us. Having therefore, brethren,
boldness, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way. We come to the throne of God
in Christ, our life. He is that living way. We don't
come to God because we've perfected ourselves or improved ourselves
or been consistent and good in our religious form, in our works. That's not our coming. We come
in the living way, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we continue to come
in him. In this flesh, we fail, we stumble, we sin. We sin against
our God. But we keep coming in the Lord
Jesus Christ because He is our life. He is that living way. He's the living way which He
hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His
flesh. He was crucified for His people. He gave His life for your life,
that you should have life in Him. That's how we come to the
Father. And having an high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full
assurance of faith, not our sight, because we've been good, but
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. That evil conscience that comes
because it's good. It's a good religious boy or
girl. That's not how we come, and our
bodies are washed with pure water by the word of God. So child
of God, when you are distressed, and often when we're distressed,
We see some fault of our own in it. We see how we've had some
part in causing that distress. And so the temptation is, how
can I come to the Lord in this, when I've had some part in this? And maybe it's me, or maybe it's
all my fault. How can I come to the Lord in
this distress? He's saying, it's not about you.
It's about Christ, your Savior. When you're distressed, we turn
to Christ our Savior because He is the God of my righteousness. I'm coming not because my works
are righteous. I'm coming because His works
are righteous and He is my righteousness. He is my living way into the
presence of God my Father. He is my way. Next, David turns
to the Lord because the Lord is the only one who can enlarge
us in our distress. He's the one that enlarges us
when we're in distress. What are distresses? Distresses
are the hardships. They're the difficulties. They're
the afflictions, the trials, the troubles, the conflicts that
we have. They distress us. And when we're
in these difficulties, they circle us about. They come around us,
and they encircle us, and they start squeezing us. They press
us. There's pressure there, and it
makes us feel uncomfortable. It makes us feel uneasy, like
we're in a tight spot and we don't know, how am I going to
get out of this? How can I get out of this? I'm distressed,
Lord, I feel the pressure of these things. And and we think,
well, if if this doesn't change, what's going to happen? What's
going to happen? And we get afraid because we
start worrying and thinking through things and playing them out in
our minds. But David, he seeks the Lord
to restore his comfort. He's asking the Lord, restore
my comfort, Lord. And he says, because thou hast
enlarged me when I was in distress. He's saying, Lord, you've given
me relief when I've been in the pressure of distresses previously. Lord, you've given me relief
from the pressure of distress. Well, how does the Lord give
us relief from our distress? How does the Lord give the child
relief from their distress? Is it to be removed from that
pressure? Is it to be removed from the
distress? Rarely, rarely does the distress
just get taken away and all is well and back to normal again.
Instead, what our Lord does is in the midst of the trial, He
enlarges the heart of His child. He enlarges their heart to give
them relief. And what that means is you that
are turned to the Lord your righteousness, you that are turned to the Lord
in your distress, leaning upon Him, resting wholly upon Him,
having no strength of your own, confessing to the Lord, He's
the one that enlarges your heart, giving you grace, giving you
joy and gladness in Him. him reminding you that he's God
and has all things in control. Nothing's outside of his control.
It's all of his hands so that in spite of the distress, he
gives his child joy and comfort and peace in him, filling us
with this spirit, giving us fresh views of Christ our Savior. You that turn to him, have experienced
that enlarging of the heart, that in the midst of the trial.
Though nothing has changed regarding the trial and the distress, yet
you have peace with your God. You have hope that Christ is
all your righteousness, and so you ask God, have mercy upon
me and hear my prayer, even though God would be just to destroy
us for our sin, even though we in our flesh have nothing to
boast in. We in this flesh are sinners and deserving to be destroyed,
yet we turn to our God in hope, crying out for mercy and grace,
for his grace to us in Christ, that he be merciful to us and
enlarge our heart, create some space, reduce that pressure,
remove that pressure, Lord, fill my heart with joy and peace,
knowing that you've got everything in your hand, in your control. This brings us to our second
point now. Stand in the promises of Christ. The child of God, having communed
with God in prayer, is instructed and strengthened by the Lord,
who enlarges their heart with gladness, with joy, to remember,
to be reminded, my God, Lord, you have everything. You know
exactly what's happening. You know exactly what's going
on, and it's all of your hand. And so, being equipped now, we
stand against the assaults of the enemy. We endure it. We stand
in the distress, looking to Christ. Not because the distress is gone,
but because we are assured, Lord, It's in your hand. You're in
control of all things. And so when the enemy comes against
us and distresses us with trouble, we have the confidence of our
God and Savior. David asks in verse two, Psalm
four, verse two, O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my
glory into shame? How long will ye love vanity
and seek after leasing? Selah. You know, the enemy sees
David's hope in God. The enemy looks at David's confidence
in the Lord and he sees that as his weakness, his greatest
weakness. And he thinks, you're going to
be overtaken. I'm going to overtake you because
your confidence is in the Lord. But the reality is if the enemy
is attacking us because our confidence in the Lord, how foolish is that? How vain is that hope that they
have? How is it a bad thing for us
to trust in our God who promises that He provides everything for
us in the Lord Jesus Christ? Why? How is that a bad thing? In other words, what the enemy's
trusting in, thinking that Christ is our weakness, that's their
lie that they're hoping in. That's vanity. That's seeking
after leasing. You know, they despised Christ
because he trusted God. They despised Christ and he triumphed
over them in the cross. He triumphed over His enemies
there on the cross who despised Him because He hoped and trusted
in God, and He was fulfilling the will of God in Him. He fulfilled
the will of God in him. If our confidence was our best
work and our best word, that would be an awful foundation. That would be a terrible foundation
to trust in something we've done. But if my glory is Christ, if
he's all my glory and my hope is fixed in him, then those fiery
darts of the enemy are soon extinguished. Because is the enemy going to
overcome the will of God? Can he overcome the will and
the purpose of God for his kingdom to glorify the name of his of
his son Jesus Christ in the earth? Is he going to is the enemy going
to overcome? Nope, instead it shall turn to
his shame and his vanity for seeking after leasing Leasing
is lies and falsehood those who seek after leasing it's an old
term. That means there's they're following a lie they're trusting
in that which is false. And so our God comforts us in
his promises. He reminds us in verse three
that he chose us in Christ. Verse three, but know that the
Lord had set him apart or set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call
unto him. Our Lord has put us in Christ. He's the godly one. He's our
righteousness. We're sanctified, set apart in
Christ. And he hears us in Jesus Christ. But no, he says, the thing that
the disgruntled fool continues in, in opposing the Lord's people,
opposing his own mercy, what he never seems to learn is that
God's people are chosen of him in grace. And the carnal man
only looks on the outward. He doesn't account for God's
grace to his children, and God always provides for his children
in grace and in mercy, and everything he does for them is for their
good. God has set apart him that is
godly for himself. Paul would say to the Ephesians
in Ephesians 1, verse 3 and 4, He says blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He's given
us all spiritual blessings in Christ in heavenly places according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. So our God is keeping the foot
of his child planted in Christ. He's our foundation, He's our
standing, He's our hope, He's our righteousness in whom we
stand, confident in Him that our God is with us. Child of
God, your God saved you in grace, not for your righteousness, but
for Christ's righteousness. Turn to the Lord your God boldly
in prayer. He's your righteousness and you're
his child whom he loves. He's entrusted you to the care
of your Savior. He is your salvation. He's entrusted
you to Christ. David then speaks to his listeners.
He's speaking to those that are hearing him, even reading the
psalm. And that's whether they be those
who have come to distress the children of God, Perhaps they're
the ones who are causing the distress. Or it's those who have
turned to the psalm in distress. Those that have turned to the
psalm in distress or those that are the distressors. Now to the
listener then, whoever they may be, David says in verse four,
stand in awe and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed and be still. Silah. And when you read Silah
in the psalm, it means pause. Be still. Let this sink in. Think
about this. To that one opposing God and
distressing his people, the Lord says, stand in awe and sin not. Think seriously and carefully
about what you're doing. You're troubling the one that
God has set apart for himself. He says, be still. Don't lay
your hand to it. Be still. And then to the child
of God, the Lord says, stand in awe and be in sin not. Pray for your enemies. Don't
sin against them. Don't try to trouble them. Look
to the Lord, pray for your enemies. Pray that the Lord give them
repentance. Because the reality is we all
were enemies of our God. And as the Lord had mercy on
us, perhaps he'll have mercy on them. and comfort them. You
know, I was thinking this morning, when we pray for our enemies,
Lord bless them, Lord bless them. Sometimes the flesh thinks, well,
am I praying that the Lord bless them in what they're trying to
do? And is that what I'm praying, Lord, bless them? No, not at
all. We're praying that the Lord bless them. And when he blesses
someone, it's in accordance with his will. And the will of God
for his people, when he blesses a person, it's always to turn
them to Christ. That's the blessing. If we are
successful in that which is wicked against the Lord, that's not
a blessing. But when He blesses us in Christ to behold His Son,
to believe Him, that is, that's true spiritual blessing. That's
the will of the Father who sent Christ, that of all who see the
Son, that they would believe on Him, that they would believe
on Him. So pray for your enemies. Pray that the Lord bless your
enemies, those that trouble you, because if He blesses them, He's
turning them to the Lord. He's turning them to the Lord
if he blesses them. Also to you, child of God, don't
take matters into your own hands. We're not gonna fix it. If anything,
we usually ruin it and make it worse. Wait upon the Lord and
he'll make his will and purpose known in his time. He says in
James chapter 1, 19 and 20, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every
man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the
wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. We're not
going to to work the righteousness of God when we're distressed. You wait upon the Lord. Wait
upon Him. Instead, let us be turned to
the Lord. He says in verse 5, back in Psalm
4, verse 5, offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put your
trust in the Lord. Putting your trust in the Lord
is the sacrifices of righteousness. Trusting Him is the sacrifice
of righteousness. Wait on the Lord your God, praying
that He grant you to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the
inner man which He's formed in you. Pray that your God, that
He fill your hearts with Christ, that Christ dwell in your hearts
by faith, so that when you give an answer, when you're speaking
to anyone, you're speaking out of the good treasure of your
heart. Your heart filled with Christ,
when you speak, we'll speak of Him, we'll glorify Him, we'll
declare Him to your hearers. So pray that the Lord, that Christ
dwell in your hearts by faith so that when we speak, we speak
out of the good treasure of our hearts. Now here's our third
point, the sweet expression of faith. the sweet expression of
faith, with Christ full in our hearts, we'll have a good answer
for any that would speak foolishly against the Lord's will, against
His work, against those promises that He makes to us in Christ. Look at verse six. There, listen
to this expression, there be many that say, who will show
us any good? Who will show us any good? Now, first of all, that's not
the expression, the sweet expression of faith that the spirit gives
to his people in Christ. That's the expression of the
flesh. Who will show us any good? That's
the expression of the flesh. Because the carnal man needs
to see before he'll believe his God. Who's going to show us?
We want to see before we believe in God. We need evidences. He's
got to see a thing, hear a thing, touch a thing before he believes
God. But there's no faith in that
expression. There's no faith in, first I
want to see, then I'll be comforted. First I want to see, then I'll
know. First I need to see, then I can
be assured that the Lord is blessing me. That's not faith. There's
no faith in that. The one who must see in order
to believe, that hope soon turns to despair because the Lord doesn't
bless that. Whatsoever is not a faith is
sin. But the sweet expression of faith says, Lord, lift thou
up the light of thy countenance upon us. Lord, fill me, fill
my heart with the indwelling of your spirit. Lord, enjoin
me, draw me to yourself that I may have fellowship with you
in the light and the joy and the peace of your son. comforted
in what you've provided for me in your Son, Jesus Christ. Draw me to yourself. Keep me
there in your embrace. Let me not be moved from Christ. Lord, let me not be as the carnal
man that requires falsehoods of this flesh, that needs to
see before I can believe." Because that's the seek after leasing.
That's seeking after lies and after falsehoods. Lord, let me
not be satisfied with carnal things. We don't need to see
before we believe. We believe, and the Lord in his
time will make all things known. So the light of God shining in
upon our hearts, we can say with David in verse seven, thou hast
put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn
and their wine increased. This joy that's now flowing in
David's heart, that's the enlargement he was praying for in verse one.
He was praying, Lord, give me joy in the distress. Relieve
me of this pressure that's pressing in upon me from this distress.
Give me joy in spite of it. And the Lord gives His child
joy when He fills your heart, floods your heart with the light
of Christ and faith in Him. We're given joy, more joy, than
in the time when our corn is increased and the wine is increased. More than that, we don't need
those things is what David's saying. We need the presence
of the Lord. His gladness fills our heart
even now in the midst of the trial. This is what the righteous
man says. He says, Lord, I'm glad. I'm thankful that you've not
left me, that I still see your, I feel your presence. I still
know you. You are the God of my righteousness. Nothing's changed. What can take
me from you, Lord? You provided everything in your
son." And that is the sweet expression of the righteous man in opposition
to the many that speak of needing to see good first before they'll
believe God. The righteous man believes God,
and the seeing will come in the Lord's time. Instead, with joy
and gladness in his heart, David closes Psalm 4 with verse 8,
saying, I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou,
Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. That's peace, and that's
joy. because Christ is our righteousness,
and he floods the heart of his child. When you turn to him,
because he's your righteousness, in the distress, having nothing
of yourself, nothing to boast in, nothing to have confidence
in you, hoping entirely in him, and you breathe out that prayer
unto him in your distress, asking him, Lord, give me relief, enlarge
my heart, and he fills your heart with joy in spite of the distress,
that's peace, that's comfort, that's hope in the Lord. And he says, I will both lay
me down in peace and sleep for thou Lord only makest me dwell
in safety. And so they that turn to him,
Bless the Lord Jesus Christ for his mercy and kindness to them. Because Christ alone, that's
really where it is. That's where we find peace, is
in Christ alone. He gives us a good, quiet conscience
to sleep. Resting in him, knowing it's
all of his work. It's all of his his purpose for
our good. James 1 17 says every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the
father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow
of turning. The troubled heart you that have
a troubled heart it's soon fixed in Jesus Christ and that troubled
heart that's fixed by Christ That's the heart that's truly
fixed. It's by the Lord. He strengthens
us and comforts us in His Son. He's our peace and He gives us
sweet sleep in Him. You know, sometimes when When
we're troubled by a situation and we come into difficulties,
sometimes we like to call people, right? We like to call up our
friends or people that we know and care about us and we just
like to talk it out. And for a time, it feels relieving
and there's some comfort, but as soon as you hang up the phone,
it quickly passes and you're distressed again because they're
only words of a man. They're only words of a man and
they can't save you, but when the Lord fills your heart with
that peace and that grace and keeps you looking to Him, feeding
upon His Son, that's sustaining, that's our hope, that's our confidence
because we know, Lord, whatever happens, you're all in control. You've got everything in your
hand and it's going to work to the glory and praise of your
name. We know it. We know it because that's his
promise to us in Christ. And so only God satisfies the
troubled heart. Thou, Lord, only, only makest
me dwell in safety. That's the joy and peace your
God gives to you in Christ. Isaiah said it this way. This
is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest. And
this is the refreshing. Jesus Christ only. is our rest
and our peace. Nothing changes in Him. He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He does not change. And you that have been washed
in the blood of Jesus Christ, nothing's changed for you. You're
his child and he blesses you and keeps you. He's our enlargement
of peace and gladness when we are in distress. And I pray the
Lord bless you. Look that Psalm over when you're
in distress and you pray like David, knowing Christ's all my
righteousness. He's why I come and may come
and continue to come because of his grace to me in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, brethren, let's
close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your mercy. We thank you, Lord, for your
peace and kindness and grace to us in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, enlarge our hearts. Fill
us with that gladness of your Son, which floods the heart,
that takes the one who's weary and strengthens them by the blood
of Christ. Lord, keep us ever looking to
you, not talking like the carnal man who needs to see good before
he'll believe, but Lord, make us to believe, fill us with faith
and hope in you, for how can we ever fail hoping in you? How can it ever turn out awful
and terrible trusting in Christ our Savior, believing him, believing
your word and waiting upon you Lord, how can we ever be overtaken
by the enemy when we're trusting in you and looking to you for
everything? Lord, we can. We can. Enlarge
our hearts with that hope, with that confidence, with that blessed
peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, bless and keep your people.
Fill our hearts with Christ dwelling in it by faith. It's in his name
we pray and give thanks. Let us declare and speak of him
to all we come in contact with. Amen. All right, brother. Let's close
in one hymn. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, 175. Standing on the Promises, 175. Standing on the promises of Christ
my King, through eternal ages let his praises ring. Glory in the highest I will shout
and sing, standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that
cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises
of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ
the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cord, Overcoming
daily with the Spirit's sword, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot
fulfill, Listening every moment to the Spirit's call, Resting
in my Savior as my all in all, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Thank you. Okay.