Come with me to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. And I've entitled this
message, from what we see in David's remarks in verse 3, at
the very latter part of verse 3, he said, those enemies rise against
him in this, will I be confident, confident. Who among us does
not need confidence? And if we're to have confidence,
if we're to have hope, and that's what the word means, hope, assurance,
if we're to have confidence, then we should know where our
confidence rests. And it should rest where David's
confidence, where he found confidence, you and I might also find great
confidence. And David begins this psalm by
encouraging himself. encouraging himself in the Lord. He said, the Lord is my light
and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? And then, even though his enemies,
he said, when the wicked, my enemies, my foes, came upon me
to eat up my flesh, he was confident because they stumbled and fell.
Though an host, an army, camp against me, my heart shall not
fear. Though war should rise against
me in this, will I be confident? And notice, what is his confidence
in? It's in one, verse four. One. And you'll notice, you'll
see this in just a minute, the thing, one thing, that word thing
is in italics. It's not there in the original.
One have I desired. Who is that? The Lord Jesus Christ.
And after him, the psalmist seeks. And where does he seek him? He
seeks in the house of the Lord. This is his desire, that he may
dwell in the house of the Lord. That's where the Lord was, was
in his temple, and that's where David desired to be. And then,
in verse 7, David begins a prayer. In verse 7 through verse 12,
he cries out to the Lord, And he says, you said to seek your
face, and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to seek your
face. And he asked, hide not thy face from me. Put not thy
servant away in anger. Asked, when my help leave me
not, nor forsake me, O God, of my salvation. You see, David
had confidence in God. He said, even when my father
and my mother forsake me, then will the Lord take me up. And
David prays to be taught and led. He said, Teach me thy way,
O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. Deliver me not into the will
of mine enemies. False witnesses are risen up
against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. And notice he says,
I had fainted. I had fainted. He said, I was
weak. I was wounded in my troubles
and trials. But had I not faith, I surely
would have fainted away. I surely would have gone away.
And such faith yields hope and strength to wait on God. And that's what he does in verse
14. He encourages us. He encourages himself and he
encourages us to do what? Wait on the Lord. Now, David truly is the author
of this psalm, as many others, yet we know this, he spake by
the mouth of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit spake through
David and wrote this psalm, not just for David, but for every
believer in Christ. When you're in trouble, don't
you turn more to the psalms than any other place? We do because
in these Psalms they speak from the heart. They speak as men
in trouble. And I tell you, we find great
comfort in these Psalms. And we do this because David
was a man of like passions. He wasn't a superman. He wasn't
a super-Christian. He wasn't somebody that excelled
above everybody else. He was a sinner saved by grace. Therefore, we can relate. We
can relate to Him. As to all the men of God, if
you notice that God doesn't leave any of their sins out, He shows
them warts and all. And this encourages us that if
these men could be encouraged, if these men could be strengthened,
then we too can be strengthened. We can be encouraged by these
Psalms. Therefore, as we study David's
prayer tonight, and we hear his words, hear His encouragement
to Himself. May God the Holy Spirit speak
to us and cause us to encourage our souls in these things that
our hearts might be comforted. Do you need comfort? Do you need
assurance? Do you need consolation? Do you
need assurance of your salvation? Are your foes surrounding you?
Are your troubles overwhelming your soul? Then this psalm's
for you. This one's directly for you.
May God the Holy Spirit use these words. Now, I've got four things
about David's psalm this evening. Four things that David pointed
out in this psalm. And the first thing is this,
David's Lord. David's Lord. David encourages
himself in the Lord. Look at that in verse 1. The
Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? This is not the first time David
speaks to himself, is it? How many times did David say,
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Matter of fact, he says
it two times in one psalm, and then in the very next psalm,
he says it again. Psalm, I think it's 42 and 43. But that's not the only place. He said, Oh, my soul, praise
the Lord. You see, it's good for you and
I to speak to our own soul. It's good for us to encourage
ourselves and strengthen ourselves in the Lord. Here, David, he
first lays the foundation and ground of his prayer and request. He lays out the cause of his
confidence. Why will he be confident even
though he's surrounded by enemies? How could he be so confident?
Because of the foundation of his confidence was not in himself,
but rather in his Lord. And so if you're ever to have
any confidence at all, you won't find it in yourself, you'll find
it in your Lord. And David said, the Lord. The
Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my
life. As we are surrounded by fears,
both within and without, as our troubles well up within us, does
this not cause us to cry? If you look over in Psalm 32,
tell me, is this not you when your troubles overcome you? Psalm
32 and verse 3. When I kept silent, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and
night, thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into
drought of summer. Believer, is thy sin great? Are thy foes mightier than you
are? Are your griefs too heavy to
bear? Does your bones wax old within
you if you keep silent any longer? You remember Newton when he wrote
that? He prayed for grace and faith. And he said, I thought
in some blessed hour the Lord would just give it to me. I thought
He'd just bless me and I'd be exalted above the heavens and
everything would open up. But what did He find? He said,
He said He found just the opposite. Instead, He made me feel the
hidden evils of my heart. And let the angry powers of hell
assault my soul in every part. Yea, more with His own hand. He seemed intent to aggravate
my woe, crossed all my fair designs, I schemed and cast out my feelings
and laid me low. Lord, why is this, I trembling
cried, will thou pursue thy worm to death? Do you not feel that
way when your troubles are overwhelming you? Do you not feel as though
the Lord has put His heavy hand on you and pursuing the worm
that you are to death? But we know this, at the end
of that song, He said, the Lord answered and said, this is the
way I answer prayer for grace and faith. Let me ask you, have
you not prayed for grace and faith? Have you not asked? And then when great trouble come,
why are we so confused? Is this not how the Lord answers
prayer? For grace and faith you ask for
it. Here it is. So how then can we be confident? If you're in trouble in the midst
of your foes, cry out to thy God and this is the foundation
upon which you should cry out. The Lord is my light and is my
salvation. The Lord is the strength of my
life. In other words, David is saying this in our text. The foundation upon which he
has confidence is this. His union with Christ. That's
his confidence. That's his confidence, his union.
Notice he says the Lord is. my light. The Lord is my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my
life. Now, he does not say the Lord
gives me light, the Lord gives me salvation, the Lord gives
me life, but he said the Lord himself is my light, salvation,
and life. The Lord himself in the sacred
trinity of His persons is in union with us and we are in union
with Him. And this should give you great
confidence. The Lord who is Himself our salvation
and who is Himself light is my light. The Lord who is salvation
is my salvation. The Lord who is life is my life. even because we are in union
with Him. Now, I want us to know that He does give us these things. He does give us light. Isn't
that right? Paul said, you were sometimes
darkness. Now, he didn't say you were in
darkness. He said you were darkness. But now, the light has shined
out of darkness. To give, listen, give us the
light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He
gives us that. So He gives us salvation. We
were lost. And what did He do? By grace
He saved us through faith. And faith is what? A gift of
God. So He did give us salvation.
And He did give us life. We were dead in trespasses and
sin. And He has quickened us. together
in Christ. He has quickened us from the
dead. So He did give us these things. But the root and source
of these gifts is based on the sovereign grace of God that put
us in union with Christ before the foundation of the world.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Very familiar passage. I know
you know it. I know it as well, but I don't
like, I don't stop reading it. I sure love to read it. 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 and verse 30. But of him Are you in Christ Jesus? Of who are you in Christ Jesus? Of God. But of God are you in
Christ Jesus? I tell you this, we did not put
ourselves in Christ. Any man puts you in Christ, somebody
else takes you out. See, this is why freewill works
religion is always vain and empty, because they're always putting
themselves in this. They're always, by their own
determination or will, they're putting themselves in you. That
doesn't work. God says, I put you in union
with my Son. God in grace put us in union
with Christ. And this is the same thing Paul
says in Ephesians. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. Where? In Christ, according He
has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Therefore, seeing our union with Christ, seeing God put us in
Him and made Him to be what? It says, who of God, Christ of
God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. You see, Christ is my light. Because of the union I have with
Christ. Because God puts you in Christ. He is your light. He is your
what? Wisdom. Isn't that what light
does? Doesn't light reveal? Doesn't
light expose? That's what He did with us. He
gave us wisdom to know our nature. He gave us wisdom to see the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I'll tell you that all wisdom
could be summed up in the answer to one question. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? Now, and the answer to that is
all wisdom summed up. And you know, there's only one
answer. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's it. That's
the message. That's all we have. That's all
that God required is what God provided. How can a sinner be
justified before a holy God? Only by Jesus Christ. Only because
He is my representative. Because I was in Him. He is the
light of my soul. Light in the scriptures also
represents other things besides knowledge. Joy and peace in the
scripture are presented as light. The joy. There's nothing like
the joy of the morning. I remember being a guard on duty.
I was watching an armory one time and, man, I never rejoiced
so much just to see the sun coming up. Oh, it was such a joy to
me. And I'll tell you, Christ is
my joy. He's my rejoicing. He's all my
hope and stay. He's my also light as representative
as peace. Is not Christ all our peace with
God? And so He is my light. He is the knowledge of God. He is all my wisdom. He is all my joy. He is all my
peace. You remember those apostles on
the road to Emmaus? What did they say when Christ
was talking with them? What did they say about their
hearts? They said, did they not burn within us while He spake
with us, by the way? Isn't that the same that we feel
when He is with us? The light burning inside of our
hearts. Why? He is my light. He is my
light. Therefore, because he is my light,
Jesus said this, you shall not walk in darkness, but have the
light of life. You shall have it. And second
of all, He is my salvation. The Father put us in union with
Christ for the purpose of our salvation. This word salvation,
when I say that, how many words can you think of that go under
that? Like someone said, it's like
an umbrella word. There are so many things that
fall under that word salvation. And I think in 1 Corinthians
1, those three things at the end are really can be summed
up salvation. He has made unto us not only
wisdom, but he has made unto us righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. You see, the Lord is my righteousness. I was not born righteous. We were born sinners. But by
the grace of God, we are made the righteousness of God. Where? In Him. In Him. By our union with Him, we are
made righteous. Therefore, we cry unto God as
righteous men. You not see that? Does that not
stir your heart with confidence to know this, that He's given
you the righteousness of God, and you may approach unto the
throne of God as a righteous man? Why? Because Christ is my
righteousness. And not only that, He is my sanctification. Oh, what a blessed truth this
is. He has made me holy. He has set me apart and fashioned
me as a vessel of honor fit for heaven itself. He is my holiness. He has chosen
us and set us apart. to be holy and without blame
before our God. We may boldly, therefore we may
boldly cry unto our God, for He is our sanctification. I'm
so glad that I don't believe that garbage of progressive sanctification. Because He is my holiness, I
am therefore holy in the eyes of God. His flesh just don't get any
better. It waxes old and worse and worse. All but the inner
man is not touched by the outer man. The inner man is not touched
by that flesh, not tainted. And also, He is my redemption. The Lord Jesus, in grace and
love, is our representative man. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. The Lord Jesus suffered all the
hell and justice of God for us. And when he paid it all in justice,
I like to think of justice being exhausted. I remember boxing one time. I
only did it once. I had a friend who was really
good at it, and he let me just go at him, just punch him as
much as I could. And I went as hard and as fast
as I could, and that lasted for about 35 seconds. And I was exhausted. I mean, you don't know how much
that is, but I think of the justice of God just being exhausted,
pouring out all he had on him. And when he said, that's enough,
Christ said, it is finished. He is all my redemption, all
my redemption. He's paid it all. All my sins
are gone. They've been removed as far as
the east is from the west. So far hath He removed our sins
from us. And God, testifying of this,
raised Him from the dead. Peter said this, he said, Whom
God hath raised up, having loosed from the pains of death, because
it is not possible that death should hold Him. How is it that
it's not possible? Because sin had been removed.
Where there is no sin, there is no death. And because sin
was gone, God raised him from the dead, testifying of his success. Therefore, fear not, nor be afraid. Don't be afraid to approach unto
thy God. I know this fear comes in. It's one thing to reverence God.
It's another thing to terror, to feel the terror of God. You
should never feel the terror of God, believer. Why? Because
Christ is your light and your salvation. And not only this,
Christ is your life. He is the strength of my life.
This earthly life is but a vapor. It's here and it's gone. It's
here and it's gone. It only appears for a little
while. And I know we truly hold this
life valuable, and you should. This life is valuable. God gave it. We should hold it
as such. And I think we should hold it
as valuable because only in this life is there hope. Only in this life are men called.
Only in this life are men called by the grace of God to believe
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Only in this life does the Holy
Spirit quicken. Because after this vapor is gone,
there's no more hope. There's no more salvation after
that. But we who are quickened, we
who are quickened to spiritual life, And what's the evidence of your
being quickened? Faith. Faith is the evidence. Our life is not this fleshly
existence. Our life, as Paul says, is hid
with Christ where? In God. You who are in Christ
are in God. Your life, the strength of your
life is with Christ in God. This is not our life. This is
not our life. Though this flesh will wax worse
and worse, it will soon die, our life is not over. Isn't that what the Lord told
Martha? He said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that liveth
and believeth in me shall never, what? Die. You see, believers,
this body may die, but your life is not extinguished. Your life
only then truly begins to be experienced. Peter said, we are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed. At the last time, he said, though
you with through heaviness and manifold temptation, manifold
testings, which is the trial of your faith, which is more
precious than gold. What's more precious? Faith. Faith is precious. And the trial
of your faith is good, it's not bad. It's meant to burn off this
existence, this fleshly existence. Is that not what God is doing?
Is He just taking these things and showing us that they're nothing?
That they mean nothing? That our life is not in this
veil of flesh and tears, but our life is hid with Christ in
God? He is my life. And when Christ, Paul says, who
is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him
in glory. Let me ask you this. Who can
take this physical life without the permission of God? Who? The psalmist said, my times
are in thy hands. He said, Behold, I am God, and
there is none else I kill. So who kills? God does. Who makes a life? God does. Who
controls the time and events of this mortal life? God does. God does. How much more than
our spiritual life, if no man could take our spiritual life,
how much more than could anyone take us? out of the life that
we have in Christ. Who can take us out of it? No
one. No one. Jesus said, I give unto
them eternal life, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand. And so then this is the foundation.
You should stir your soul. If you have faith in Christ,
you should stir your soul to confidence. The Lord is my light. The Lord is my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my
life. Who then shall I fear? Who? Second of all, David mentions
his enemies. He said that in, go back to your
text now, He says in verse 2, when the wicked, even mine enemies,
my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and
fell. Friends, believers in Christ,
listen. Just because we are in union with Christ does not mean
we have a lack of enemies. We have enemies. We, like David,
have no lack of enemies. And so when we were lost, We
had plenty of friends. We had plenty of friends. We
could be friends with just anybody. Anybody could just be friends
with us. We had plenty of friends when we were lost. But once the
Holy Spirit quickened us to life and faith, where'd they go? They're
gone. Those foes that we have are not
carnal, but spiritual. And they are the world, the flesh,
and the devil. These are our foes. The devil,
once he kept his kingdom at peace, once we didn't think of matters
of eternity or matters of life and death, didn't think of matters
of God's judgment or anything else. But once we were quickened,
we began to see these things because we were delivered from
his kingdom. Christ spoiled the Satan's kingdom
and delivered us his elect. And this evil being hates us
and walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Friends, he is
not to be trifled with. That's why the scripture says,
say the Lord rebuke thee, because we don't have the power, he does.
And the world is our enemy. Jesus warns us, he said, the
world will hate you. Now, I know you're surprised
that the world hates you. Why do they hate me? I don't
understand. They're all against me. Everybody's
against me. I don't understand. Well, Jesus
said you should understand they hated me before they hated you. And now, believer, We are not
taken out of the world. Jesus prayed that in John 17.
He says, I pray that thou take us not to take them out of the
world, but that you should deliver them from the evil one. He said,
thou, as thou has sent me into the world, even so send I them
into the world. Why? For those who shall believe
on me through their word. Now, why are you here? Why are
you here? You and I are here to preach
the gospel. Now, is this not a plain path?
Are these not simple words? We're here for the glory of God.
We're here to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and nothing else. This is our main focus. We are not sent into the world,
believer, to conform to the world. We're not sent here to win friends
and influence people. We're not here to mingle with
the world, but rather we are to declare the gospel of Jesus
Christ. And listen, we don't have to
try to separate ourselves. This gospel itself will do all
that for you. I know I find people sometimes
trying to to stick people with this word, and trying to cause
trouble, we don't have to try. All we have to do is declare
the gospel, and that itself incites our enemy against us. But I'll
tell you, the greatest enemy we face is not without, but within. The greatest foe that encompasses
us about is the one that's always with us, self, flesh. That is our greatest foe. Satan
is not omnipresent. You can shut out the world, but
you can't rid yourself of this dead, fallen nature, this corpse
that hangs about our neck. The flesh profited nothing by
our salvation. That which is born of flesh is
what? Flesh. It'll live flesh and die flesh. And so therefore, we have this
struggle, the flesh lusted against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh. These two are contrary so that
you cannot do what you would. The old man wants to leave Christ
and run into sin. The new man wants only to be
holy and righteous, and yet neither one can do what they want to. We are in a mess. We are simply
a mess. And this foe will remain even
until its death. And after that, we shall be caught
up, we shall be taken into the arms of the Lord, and this flesh
shall rest in hope of the resurrection. And only then will we be a complete
person. I mean, do you expect yourself
to be fully complete and whole in this life? You're wishing
a vain thing. You're desiring a vain hope.
Because it's never going to be. Therefore, always be set to fight. Fight against the flesh. Fight
against the world. And what are our weapons? Our
weapons are spiritual. They're not carnal. We don't
use the wisdom of the world to entice men to Christ, and we
don't use the wisdom and weapons of the world to fight against
the enemies of Christ. What do we use? The gospel. The gospel. And then thirdly,
look at this, David's desire. David had his confidence was
in the Lord. David had enemies, but this is
what David desired and found to be his confidence. He said
this in verse four. One, have I desired of the Lord. And that will I seek after. I told you that the word thing
is in italics. It's not there. So it should
be read, one have I desired. One have I desired. Now at this
time, the Messiah had not yet come. He who was promised to
come, David believed would come. And what did he do? He looked
for him by faith. He sought him by faith to come. This is how the Old Testament
saints were saved. Even by faith. The same as you. Same as me. They look forward
to His coming. We look back at His coming. But
we both look to the One. Jesus Christ. And that do we
seek after. David desired of the Lord Christ. Even so, it is with us now. We
live after Christ has fulfilled all his promises. Do we not have
a fuller picture than those in the Old Testament? We do. And
I know we gripe and complain that we haven't seen such things
as they saw with their eyes and heard with their ears. But I
tell you, we got more than they got. We have more because he's
already come. David sought him by faith and
looked to Christ to deliver him from his foes. Even so should
you desire to be delivered. How? By looking to Christ. Looking
to Christ. You see, Christ has been victorious
over all our foes. Every enemy, Christ has already
defeated them. They have already been delivered
into our hands. And because He was victorious
in His obedience, victorious in His death and resurrection,
He has overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. But how
shall we find rest and comfort, seeing we are pitted in such
a battle? even by the constant reminder
of the Word of God. Notice this. Look at this in
verse 4. One have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after.
Now this is the result. That I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of
the Lord and to inquire in His temple. What is David saying? David says, my desire is to be
where God is preached, where Christ is preached. In the Old
Testament, that was the temple. That's where those sacrifices
were made. Those were those pictures were
most clearly displayed when that blood, when the high priest shed
the blood of that lamb and brought it into the Holy of Holies. He
said, there's my hope. That's the one I've come, that's
the one I seek after. He is going to come and He's
going to die for my sins. Those pictures now being fulfilled
in Christ, we don't go to the temple because that's been done
away with, but God has established His church. He's established
His church for the continual preaching of the gospel. Those who desire Christ, those
who desire to be found in Him, to be confident of their union
with Him, it is our desire and necessity to be reminded of His
one offering for sin. It is our desire to inquire of
Him, and to see the beauty of His holiness and salvation. Where are you going to see that?
Where are you going to find that but in the place where God has
His Word proclaimed. That's where in His church. This is where we find the one
thing that man is lacking. You remember that lawyer that
came to the Lord Jesus, and he said, good master, what must
I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, why are you calling
me good? You don't understand I'm God, so you don't know I'm
good. And he said, but if you want
to do something here, go take what they see in the law. He
said, well, love the Lord your God and love your neighbors yourself.
And he said, one thing thou lackest, one thing. What is that? Faith in Christ. One thing you lack, sell all
you've got, come follow me. Take up your cross and follow
me. One thing is lacking is righteousness. How are you going to know that
except the word be preached to you? You remember that one thing
is needful, and what does the word of God preach? What does
that do? It should stir our hearts with desire to see Him. We are
reminded of the one thing needful. You remember Mary and Martha.
Martha was busy fixing the meal for the Son of God. Now, what
a task that was. Now, it was a self-imposed task. He didn't care to ask for it,
didn't care if she gave it or not. But Mary, she had chosen
something else. And Jesus said, Mary hath chosen
that one thing that is needful. What is needful? What do you
need? Do you think you need your family?
Do you need your friends? Do you need your possessions?
No, one thing is needful for us here in this world, and that
is to hear the gospel, to hear it again, to be reminded of the
benefits that we have in Christ Jesus. I really think that this
matter of public worship is not Seen at by every believer as
a necessity and it should be It is should be a necessity a
man once said this who raised sheep in England. He told this
to a pastor a friend of mine He said if you ever find it one
sheep alone He's either lost or he's sick Why sheep are gregarious
By nature, they flock together, they huddle together. And this
is what we're doing right now. We need this. You see, I need
this. This is needful for us so that
we might hear again of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we might
be confident. I tell you, if we go away from
this, we won't find confidence. We won't be encouraged. We won't
be strengthened. And I'll show you this. Go to
Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 10. I want you to see the necessity
of this that David desired. He desired Christ and he knew
where to find Him. He found Him where the Word was
preached, in the house of the Lord. In Hebrews chapter 10,
look at verse 24. Paul says, the apostle says,
let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works. He didn't say consider yourself,
did he? He said consider one another. to provoke us to love
and good works. What provokes us? What encourages
us? What incites the believer to
good works, to love? Listen, not forsaking the assembling
of yourselves together as the matter some is, but exhorting
one another. What have I been doing this whole
time? Have I not been exhorting you to confidence in Christ? Have I not been exhorting you
to love to Christ? Have I not been pointing Him
out all this time to you? That's all I want to do every
time I preach. Why? Because that provokes us
to love. Don't forsake the assembling
of yourselves together. And this should be our desire
of our hearts. I pray that God give us this.
And lastly, David's victory. Go back to your text. David's
victory. He said this in verse 13. He said, I had fainted. I had
fainted. Unless I believed to see the
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Believer, the Lord often tries
our faith. By His divine providence, He sets us in the fire of affliction,
and He sends the flood of infirmities. And yet this surprises us. He said, I will send these things. Did He not tell us, in this world
you shall have what? Tribulation. Tribulation. In this world you shall suffer.
It is not only given on behalf of Christ to believe, but also
to suffer for His namesake. But be of good cheer. I have
overcome the world. There's our confidence. Believer,
God tells us in Isaiah 43, I'll read it to you. Isaiah 43 and verse 1, he says, But now
thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, he that formed
thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have
called thee by thy name, thou art mine. Notice this verse,
the word there in verse two. What does it say? Does it say
if? If thou passest through the waters. If thou walkest in the fire. No, it says when. It's just not
a matter of if, it's just a matter of when. We will walk through
the fires. We will walk through the floods.
He says when thou passest through the waters When you go through
the fire, but here is our encouragement I will be with thee I will be
with thee the water shall not overflow thee and the fire shall
not kindle upon you and Yes, our flesh may suffer loss, our
flesh may be sick, our flesh may even die under tribulation
and suffering. But not one drop of the flood,
not one hint of the smoke of these afflictions will taint
our righteous spirit that God has created. He said in verse
7 of that text, I have created thee for my glory. How often do we, like David,
come to the point of fainting, giving up? I tell you, it's probably more
often than we want to confess. But what stops us and keeps us
from fainting away? The same thing that stopped David.
Look at your text. He said, I had fainted unless
I had believed. Faith. What's the victory that
overcomes the world? Is it not our faith in Christ? Rather the object of our faith.
Christ Himself. Unless I had believed. Believe
or remember the Lord is faithful. He will deliver us. Has he ever failed to deliver
you before? Has he not brought you through
every trouble? And yet we say this time, surely
he will fail me. Surely this time he will fail
me. No, he will not fail you. Because
remember, you are in union with Him. And for Him to fail you,
He would have to fail Himself. And He won't do it. He won't
fail. He won't be discouraged. All
that the Father giveth Him shall come to Him. And He that cometh
to me, I shall in no wise cast out. All that the Father giveth
me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last
day. And so therefore, he said, unless
I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord where? In the land
of the living. Now I expect to see the goodness
of the Lord in glory. Don't you? We often look there. We often long for that place.
But I tell you, you should expect goodness here. Because even our trials, aren't
they good? Are they not all meant for your
good? Isn't that what He said? That even the trying of your
faith being much more precious than gold? Is it not precious
you're being tried? He could have left you alone.
Could have left you to yourself. But He didn't. He gave you such
faith and you should expect good things from God. A good thing
may be sickness. A good thing may be death. Is
it not Is it not beautiful, pleasant in the eyes of the Lord, or the
death of His saints? Isn't that good in the eyes of God? So whatever
it is that's going on is good. Good. Remember, all things work together
for good to them that love God. Do you love God? Are you called
according to His purpose? Then listen, you should have
great confidence because you are in union with God. He is all your light, your salvation,
and your life. Nothing can take these things
away from you because they are hidden with Christ in God. What about all your enemies?
He's already defeated them. He's already overcome them. What is it that we're to be seeking?
One have I desired, that will I seek after. And I tell you,
faith in Him is the victory that overcomes all our foes. May God
give us such faith and confidence in Christ. And Lord, bless this to your
heart. So stand and be dismissed in prayer.