Tonight we'll be looking at Psalm
27, verses 1 through 3, and the title of the message tonight,
A Believer's Assurance Against Fear. A Believer's Assurance
Against Fear. Let's read these three verses
together. Psalm chapter 27, verse 1. The Scripture says, 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? When
the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, come upon me to
eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should
encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident." And that last phrase
could be translated, in spite of this, I will be confident. In spite of my enemies, in spite
of the war encamped against me, I shall remain confident. In what? In the Lord. In the
Lord who is my light, who is my salvation, and who is my strength."
Now, this psalm could easily be broken down into four parts.
If you take verses 1 through 3, we can see that this is a
sound of confidence against fear, and that's what we'll be looking
at tonight. The second division would be verses 4 through 6,
When David reveals his one desire, his one desire, and that is to
see the beauty of the Lord and inquire in His temple. Verses
7 through 12, David here begins to entreat the Lord in prayer
for mercy and deliverance from his enemies. And the last two
verses he concludes, verses 13 and 14, He concludes that this
whole psalm is an example that is to be followed by every child
of God. He exhorts us to follow His example
of this psalm. Now this evening, I pray that
the grace of God and the Holy Spirit would comfort His people. That's my intention tonight.
My intention tonight is that God would be gracious in this
place, in this psalm, to give comfort, assurance, and help
to His people. 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? Now we know that this whole psalm
here, this whole psalm could be contributed to one of three
things. This whole psalm could be said
of Christ. And I want to show us that in
a brief section tonight. How this psalm could in every
part be spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ. It could be spoken of
the church as a whole, But I believe more especially it is to be spoken
to every single believer and individual of the church, every
saint of God, every believer in Christ. This psalm is for
you as well as it is of Christ. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, He
trusted fully in God, didn't He? He believed God to be His
like. He believed God to be his strength and God to be his salvation. And he believed Him more fully
than any one of us has ever believed God. Jesus believed God absolutely
perfectly. He believed God in every thought,
every word, and every deed. And I'll tell you this, He is
the only one that was encamped about His enemies and they stumbled
and fell at Him. Literally. They did. You remember in the Garden of
Gethsemane, when those men came to take the Lord Jesus Christ
away, and they said, Whom seek ye? Jesus said. And they said,
We seek Jesus of Nazareth. And what did He say? I am. And
what did they do? They fell backward and they bowed
themselves down to Him. One word. And his enemies stumbled
and fell down on the ground. Friends, he was encompassed by
his enemies. He was mocked of men and of Satan. He was crucified. He was forsaken
of God. And yet he still had confidence
in God. The Lord Jesus Christ Had only
one desire, didn't He? How many desires do we have?
How many desires do we have? I'll tell you this, the Lord
Jesus Christ had one desire in His heart at all times, and that
was to do the will of God, to obey the law of God, and to offer
Himself a sacrifice for the sins of His people. Jesus had that
one thought, that one desire. And this thing here in verse
4, David said, "...one thing have I desired of the Lord, and
that will I seek after." Jesus Christ is the only one that has
ever desired one thing, and that is to inquire of God. We desire
that, don't we? But I'll tell you this, many
times we are distracted from our desire. He was never distracted. Jesus prayed more than any man
had ever prayed. He prayed always. He prayed always
to the Father. I'll tell you what, sometimes
when I'm in the midst of my prayer, sometimes I fall asleep. I'm
praying so long and I get so tired and weary that I just fall
asleep. The Lord Jesus Christ never did
that. He always prayed with earnestness. The disciples, like me, they
fell asleep. But He was awake constantly praying
unto God. He constantly sought God's will,
always. And friends, he was forsaken
of God. He was forsaken of the Father
for our sins. God turned His back on the Lord
Jesus Christ for the sins of His people. And yet, he did not
leave off trusting in God. He didn't. Not once. Not once. And now the Lord Jesus, He has
fulfilled all the Father's will, all the law of God, satisfied
the justice of God. And now in this psalm, He gives
us encouragement and strength in time of need. This psalm truly
is about Christ. But I'll tell you that we who
believe in Christ, we are so in union with Christ that this
psalm is our psalm just as much as it is His psalm. Is that not
wonderful? Is that not gracious of our God? It is. It is gracious of Him. And the Lord Jesus Christ here
commends us and encourages us in the last verse to wait on
the Lord. To wait on the Lord. To trust
Him. And He will strengthen our hearts. Believers in Jesus Christ, do
we need courage? Do we need courage? You bet. Do we need strength? Yes. Are we downcast and low in grace
at times? Yes. Are we cold and indifferent
at times? Yes. Do we sin? Yes. Are we discouraged? Yes. Then we need this. We need assurance. Who needs
assurance? I do. Constantly I need to be
assured. Constantly I need to look to
Christ and look to the Scriptures for encouragement. And this Scripture
is a great encouragement. We should look to it. And by
God's grace, we will. Tonight, we have enemies, friends,
just like Christ did. And I'll tell you, our enemies
are more within than they are without. They are. You have more
enemies sitting right there with you than on the outside of those
doors. I dare say that I am my worst
enemy. I am. I am. We're like a soldier who's encamped by the enemy,
anticipating war. I read this, a soldier that anticipates
war feels a thousand deaths, fearing only one. We fear a thousand deaths before
we die, the only one will ever die. We're constantly fearing. Our foes, the shadow of our foes,
are bigger than our foes themselves. We're so afraid, constantly fearing,
constantly afraid, constantly in need of assurance. And this is because of our weak
flesh, our weak and sinful nature. But I'll tell you this, if you're
a believer in Christ, you may rejoice tonight. You may have
courage tonight. You may have strength this evening. If the Spirit of God would show
you the text that we're reading tonight, if He would reveal this
to your hearts, Take courage and take comfort from this psalm.
Now there are three confident statements tonight from this
psalm that you may take personally home with you. Three constant,
three sure statements, confident statements. First of all, the
Lord is my light. The Lord is my light. Second
of all, the Lord is my salvation. And third, the Lord is the strength
of my life. First of all, the Lord is my
light. The Lord is my light. We'll go
to a couple of Scriptures tonight and we'll read them together.
Go to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2 and verse 9. The Lord is my light. Now this light, this light speaks
to us of our spiritual birth. Our spiritual birth. Our spiritual
resurrection. Our being brought out of darkness
into the marvelous light of the gospel. Let's read this in verse
9 of chapter 2. 1 Peter. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should
show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light." This marvelous light. We were in darkness. We were in darkness. What does
that mean? Spiritual death? We were dead
to the things of God. We had no interest in the things
of God. We had no love for God. We had
no knowledge of Christ. Oh sure, we knew Jesus. Everybody
knows Jesus. I knew Jesus when I was a little
boy. I heard His name constantly. But I didn't know Him. I didn't
know who He was. Why? I was in darkness. I was
in darkness. I had no understanding of my
need of a Savior. I was in darkness. But we who
believe, we are God's chosen generation. You are God's royal
priesthood. You have been chosen and God
has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. How? How did He do that? by the Word
of His power. By the Word of His power. 2 Corinthians
4 and verse 6, For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts to give us, what? The knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. How can you
know the glory of God except God give you light to see? We're born blind and we need
eyes to see. You know, a blind man could stare
at a light all day long and never see the light. Until he has what? Sight. Until he can see. You see, we're blind and we need
to see. We're full of darkness. Go to
Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. My little daughter quoted this
on the way to church tonight. She quoted the first verse and
I said, what does that mean? She said, I don't know. And she
doesn't know. She doesn't know. God hasn't
given her light to see what it really means. We'll pray. We'll pray that God will. But
in the beginning it says, God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was without form and void, and notice this, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light. Friends, that is a beautiful
picture of God's mercy to sinners. We are like the earth. We were
in darkness, spiritual bondage, chained to our sins. And we had no idea that we were
in darkness. Why? Because we never saw light.
We didn't know what light was. And I'll tell you, the earth
moved in its orbit, but all its moving, in all its spinning,
it could never relieve itself of darkness. And I tell you,
you can do all you can, do all the religious works you want
to, but that will never give you light to see Christ. God has to give us light to see
Him. The Spirit moved on the darkness. And God said, let there be light. And friends, there was light.
When God said, let there be light, there was light. And I'll tell
you, when the Spirit of God moved on this dark heart and He said,
let there be light, there was light. And I saw, I saw something
that I didn't see before. What was it that we see with
this light? Friends, I saw my sin. That's what I saw. I saw that God was holy. And I saw that I was a sinner. I saw this, that I could never
please God in anything I did. Nothing I could do would ever
please God to save my soul. Nothing. When God gives light, He gives
understanding. Understanding of our depravity.
Friends, the purpose of light. What is the purpose of light?
Why do we cut on a light? Because we need to see. If we
don't cut on the light, there's darkness and we'll stumble and
fall. And friends, that's what religious
people are doing today. They're groping around in the
dark. They're trying to find something. And they can't find
it. Why? Because they're blind and
they can't see. Just like I was. But when God
gave me light, when He gave you light, we understood something
about God. And friends, the more I grow
in the grace and knowledge of God, the more light I'm given,
and the more sin I see in myself. You see, as I grow in grace and
knowledge of Christ, I don't get better, I see myself as worse. But you know who I see more of?
I see more of the beauty of God. That's what I see. I see more
of His infancy. I see more of His holiness. I
see more of His grace. I see more of His mercy. I see
more of everything, all the characteristics of God. When God shines more
light, I see Him. I see more. I see my need of Him. Don't you? Is that not a wonderful
light to have? To see our need of Him? I need
Him more today than I did when I was first delivered, when He
first came to me. I need Him more today. I need
His mercy. We see our need of Christ. Have
you seen your need of Christ? I have. Have you seen your need
of forgiveness of sins? I have. Therefore, take courage, for
we are now the children of light. Why? Because the Lord is our
light. He not only gives light, He is
light. And we see more of Him But not only that, He is our salvation. The Lord
is my salvation. When we came to know Christ,
when we came to see the light, when God opened our eyes to see
a need of Him, praise God He didn't leave us with just that
knowledge. Isn't that right? What if we
would have known the difference between us and God, the distance,
but yet we had no Savior? What good would that do? It wouldn't
do you any good. He's not only my light, He's
my salvation. Not only do I see a need to be
saved, He is my Savior as well as my light. I think this is
pictured for us in Exodus chapter 15. Flip over there with me.
Exodus chapter 15. This is Moses' song. Exodus 15, verse 1. Now this
is after the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea. The Lord parted
the Red Sea. The Israelites walked through.
His people walked through on dry ground. They came to the
other side. And as soon as Pharaoh decided
he wanted to do the same thing, he came through and the Lord
closed the waters and crushed their enemies. and wash their
dead bodies up on the shore just to show them, it's done, it's
finished, nobody's chasing you anymore. And Moses sang a song. He said, Then sang Moses and
the children of Israel this song unto the Lord. And Spake saying,
I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my
song and He has become my salvation. Friends, that picture of the
nation of Israel is a beautiful type of our salvation. If you
remember, they were first delivered by blood, right? In the Passover. They took that lamb and God said,
kill the lamb and put the blood on the door. And everyone that had the blood,
when God came through, He killed the firstborn of everyone who
did not have the blood. And what did Pharaoh do? He said,
Get out! Get out! Leave me alone! So they
were delivered by blood, right? And they were delivered by water.
They were delivered by the blood of the Lamb and through the water. This is very important because
if you remember, when the Lord was pierced on His side, what
flowed out? Blood and water. Blood and water. Friends, we are saved by the
blood and by the water. We know what the blood is, of
course. The blood of Jesus Christ is
what cleanses us from all sin. The blood of Christ is what redeems
us, what pays our ransom price. And know this, we were redeemed
before we were actually delivered. Hope that makes sense. The Israelites,
they were redeemed. They were taken out. They were
paid for by the blood and they got out of Egypt. But they weren't
finished, were they? They were being chased. And their
enemies had not yet been conquered. When I was born, I was a captive. I was a slave. When I was born,
I had no idea that Christ redeemed me. I had no idea that His blood
saved me. I had no idea. But only after the water came. What's the water? It's not baptism.
It's the Spirit and the Word. The Spirit and the Word. It's then we realize that our
enemies have been crushed. It's when the Holy Spirit comes
and He applies the Word of God to our hearts, we realize that
Jesus died for our sins. He died for my sins 2,000 years
before I was born. But when God came by water, He
washed me, He cleansed me of that sin inside. He created something new that
wasn't there before. And I realized that Christ is
all my salvation. All of it. All of it. He come
and He cleansed me through His Word. The Lord is all our salvation. Believers in Jesus, our Savior redeemed us from all
of our sins. That's what God's Word says. I believe that. I believe that. I believe Him. And I believe
His blood to be effectual for my soul. I believe He has conquered
all my enemies. How do I know this? Well, He
gave me light to see it. He gave me understanding to see
it. That Christ is all my salvation. He has crushed Satan, satisfied
God's justice by nailing our sins to the cross. He rose again
and God manifests to every one of us that He was satisfied with
Christ's offerings. And if God's satisfied, I should
be satisfied. He's all my salvation. All of
it. If Christ is all our salvation,
then what's left for us? What can you do? Nothing. And you know what's good about
that? I can't do nothing to spoil it. I'm more worried about spoiling
it, aren't you? That's what I get worried about.
I get worried about, no, I shouldn't worry about that. Why? He's all
my salvation. All my salvation. Jeremiah 31, 34, God says, I
will forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more. Micah 7, 19, He will turn again. He will have compassion on us. He will subdue our iniquities
and will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Now
friends, I don't know how deep the sea is, but it's pretty deep. And you know what? I don't know
how deep the forgetfulness of God is, but it's pretty deep.
God says, I won't, I will not remember their sins anymore.
Man, that's good. That's real good. So take courage
if you're a believer in Christ, for Christ is all your light
and all your salvation. And third, the Lord is the strength
of our life. If you remember, Jesus said,
I am the bread of life. And He gave His flesh, which
gives us life. Believer, the Lord is the light
of life. Isn't that what John says? In
John chapter 1, he says he is the light of life. And he by
his offering obtained spiritual life as the Father had elected
and purposed to give us from the foundation of the world. And it comes by the Holy Spirit
which gives us both life and faith. But friends, it is Christ
that sustains our life. Make no mistake about it, you
are breathing tonight because Jesus has given you life to breathe. The Lord Jesus Christ holds the
breath of every person in His hand. And I'll tell you, to a
person that despises the Son, that's not a very comforting
thought, is it? If you do not believe in Christ, that thought
should terrify your soul. But if you're in Christ, that
thought should give you the most rejoicing of any thought in the
world. He not only sustains our physical
life, but our spiritual life. Jesus Christ, as the High Priest,
makes intercession forever. You remember those Old Testament
priests? They made intercession. with
a sacrifice that could never take away sin. And the fact that
these priests died was very discomforting. It was very discomforting. But
friends, the Lord Jesus Christ lives forever. And He is ever
seated on the throne of God to make intercession for us. to make intercession for us.
Our High Priest never dies and His offering never ceases to
satisfy God. Never. Scripture says that He will save
us to the uttermost. How far is the uttermost? How
far can your imagination take you? To what end could you find
the uttermost? If He saves us to the uttermost,
how far is that? And whatever you think it is,
it's even farther. You see, because it's not really
the uttermost from our perspective, He saves us to the uttermost
from God's perspective. He saves us completely. He's
the strength of our life. And this should lift our hearts
and give us strength. He gave His life and He ever
lives to sustain our life and strengthen us, to keep us, to
teach us, to lean on His everlasting arm of righteousness. Believer,
the Lord has defeated all of our foes. He has accomplished
all that He was sent to do. Therefore, let me ask this last
question in conclusion. What have we to fear? If God is our light, if Christ
is all our salvation, if He sustains our spiritual life, then what
have we to fear? Should we fear darkness? No. He's our light. He's our light. Should we fear even the Prince
of darkness? No. He's our light. He's already
delivered us from darkness. Shall we fear the darkness of
God's judgment? No. He's already delivered us
from God's judgment. He's already died for my sins. God can't demand twice payment
from Christ and from me. He can't demand payment at my
Savior's hand and then demand it of me. I have nothing to fear
of God's judgment. It's past. Friends, we are children of light. The Scripture says, Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people. Tell Jerusalem and speak comfortably
to her, for her warfare is accomplished, for the Lord hath received double
of all her sins." You see, Christ was most valuable to God and
His payment was doubly satisfying to God. What have we to be afraid of?
What about men? Are we to be afraid of men? No. No. What can man do to you but
take your life? And then what can he do? Nothing.
He can't do anything. That's the worst he could do.
And in doing that, believe me, he does us a favor. He does us
a favor. So why would we fear them? Circumstances. Why should we fear them? Did not God's hand make them?
Didn't God bring those circumstances to us, whether it be sickness
or pains or troubles? Is it not by the hand of God
they are designed and brought for our good? Is He not our light? Is He not our salvation? Is He
not our strength? Yes. Then what should we fear? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Do we fear? Of course we do. Friends, let us set our affections
on Christ. Set your eyes on Christ. And the things of this world
grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and
grace. Friends, if you're a believer in Christ, God does truly love
you and has done all that is necessary for your salvation. Why then do we fear? It's such
a folly, isn't it? I pray the Lord bless this to
our hearts. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.