Go with me, if you would, back
to Psalm 27. I was talking with a brother
who brought up the story of the Gadarene to me. That demon possessed man who
was living in the tombs, cutting himself, mutilating himself, naked, they couldn't bind him
with chains, just uncontrollable. Our Lord came to him and He cast
those legions of demons out of him into a herd of swine. And He sat that man down and
He put clothes on that man and He put him in his right mind.
And that man heard the gospel from the mouth of the gospel
himself. What a blessed man. When it was time for the Lord
to go, the man wanted to follow Him. That's the natural response,
isn't it? The man said, I want to go with
you. And the Lord said, no. I want you to go to your house
I want you to go to your family, I want you to go to your friends,
I want you to go to your neighbors, go to all your acquaintances,
and you tell them how great things the Lord has done for you. That's
what I want to do tonight. I want to tell you, I'm always
very careful about saying our. Tonight, I want to tell you my
hope. Alright? My personal hope. Our hope is very important to
us. It's very important. And the
reason is because as sinners, we cannot always see the salvation,
the reality of the salvation that's promised to us in Christ. As sinners, we cannot always
see that. In Christ, we are promised salvation. Sometimes, though, we just don't
feel saved. We just don't. Sometimes, we don't look saved. Sometimes, we don't act saved. Isn't that right? That's where
our hope comes in. That right there is where our
hope comes in. Psalm 27 verse 1 says, The Lord
is my light and my salvation. Hardly ever, and I am speaking
from my heart in all honesty, hardly ever do I see my salvation
in myself. Hardly ever. But my hope is not
in myself. My hope is in Christ. And when
I see Him, I see my salvation. I see the light of my salvation. When I just look at Him, I see
the light. The light comes on. There's my salvation. That's
my salvation. Verse one 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 came upon me to eat
up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though in host should encamp
against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident. My enemies and my
foes are my sins. They're my sins. The host that
usually encamps against me is my sorrow. It's my sorrow. My doubt, my
fear, my anxiety, my depression, Anybody ever have depression?
I do. The reality of just how weak
I really am. We think we're something and
then the Lord reveals to us we're nothing. We're nothing. That
host that comes can be so powerful. It can be so defeating. Usually
I'm crushed by the time the attack is over. All the sorrow, all
the depression, all the fear, all the anxiety, all that stuff
that comes, it plows over me and it leaves me crushed. This
is my hope though. Verse 1 says, the Lord is the
strength of my life. When I look at myself, I see
no strength at all. I am constantly saying in my
brain, I can't do this. Whatever it is, I can't do this. There is no strength in my life
at all. But thank God, my hope is not
in my strength. My hope is in Christ. And when
I see Him, I see the strength of my life. the strength. I see my defense. I see victory. I see victory. Every time I see
Him, I see victory over all my foes, all the anxiety, the fear. Isn't it wonderful when you're
experiencing that and you're just having such a hard time
and then all of a sudden the Lord God and His kindness just
lets you see Christ and it all goes away. Victory. Verse 4 says, One thing have
I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after, 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. You know,
my desire can be so fickle. It can be so wishy-washy. I can
strongly desire something one day and then not desire it at
all the next. Isn't that something? If where I end up when this life
is over, if that depends on my desire, then I don't have any
idea where I'm going to be. My desire changes every day.
Every day. I don't think that I can count
on my desire to get me to tomorrow, much less glory. But here's my
hope. This is my hope. My hope is not
in my desire. My hope is in Christ. and His desire. When I look at
myself, all I can say is, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. I
don't think any of us are just given lip service when we sing
that. Prone to wander, do you feel like you're prone to leave
the God you love? Prone to not care. Prone to desire
the things of this world more so than the things of glory.
I'm prone to that. But thank God my hope is not
in my desire. My hope is in Christ and in His
desire. I am counting on His will. I am counting on His desire being
done rather than my desire being done. That's my hope. That's
my hope. This is His desire. This is what
He said His desire was. Look with me, if you would, at
John 17. John 17, verse 19, it says, Our Lord is speaking. He said,
for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word,
that they all may be one as thou father are in me and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us. that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me."
Now verse 24, he said, Father, I will. That they also whom thou hast
given me be with me where I am. That they may behold my glory. What did David say? One thing
have I desired of the Lord. What did he want to do? David's
desire is wonderful today, but what was David's desire the next
day? But this is what Christ said, Father, I desire. I will
that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. He said, that's
my desire. I want them to be with me where
I am. Because He said that, because
John 17 is in the Word of God, because He spoke that out loud
on our behalf, because that was His desire, and because my desire
and my hope is in His desire, then I believe with all my heart
that we will dwell in the house of the Lord. To behold the beauty
of the Lord and to inquire in His temple all the days of our
life. Go with me back to Psalm 27. Verse 5, it says, For in the time of trouble, He
shall hide me in His pavilion. In the secret of His tabernacle
shall He hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. I honestly, I honestly don't
see one reason why He should hide me. I don't see one reason. Not one reason why. I don't deserve
to be hid. I haven't done anything to earn
being hid. Most people have themselves convinced
that God owes it to them. He owes it to me to hide me.
They believe that when this judgment of God comes down, the judgment
of God's law on them because of the things they've done, based
on the things they've done, the books are going to be opened
and the judgments coming down. And people believe that the works
of their Their filthy rags flesh are worthy for them to be hid
when the judgment comes. They believe that they have earned
that hiding place. I don't believe that at all.
I don't. I do not believe that at all.
I don't believe one piece of that, not for one minute. There
is no doubt in my mind that my sinful works are not only not
worthy of me being hid, But because of my works, I deserve to be
shoved out into the middle of the wrath. I do. I deserve to be shoved out and
dealt with, rained down on. The only thing I'm worthy of
is judgment and damnation. But thank God, my hope is not
in my worthiness. My hope is in Christ and His
worthiness. My hope is in His works, not
mine, His works being judged. When His works, when He traded
places with us and gave us His works, He gave us that perfect
righteousness and the judgment came down. After the judgment
fell on His works, God said, well done, thou good and faithful
servant, welcome in. Because of His works laid on
me, I'm hidden. I'm hidden in His
works. Isn't that wonderful? My sins
are covered in His blood and I am totally covered in all of
His righteous works. Hidden. He hid me. That's my
hope. He hid me. Verse 6, it says, And now shall
mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.
Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will sing
praises unto the Lord. We all have so many things that
steal our joy. So many things rob our happiness.
Sometimes it brings us so low there is nothing left in us to
praise with. You'd love to. You'd love to. I would love to from the depths
of my soul praise God, but there's nothing left in me. Nothing left
to praise with. No melody in the heart. In those
times, you know what my hope is? It's that even though my joy
is gone, Whatever is causing my joy to
be gone at that particular moment, whatever it is that's causing
it is in the hands of my loving God. He is ordering it to be
the way that it is at that exact moment in time. It is all for
my good for His glory every single time. And because the end of
it is so perfect, He is right now, even though I'm not, He
is right now taking joy in it. It's so perfect. The end is so
good, He's taking absolute joy in it. My hope is not in my joy. It's in His joy. And His promise
is that even though weeping endures for the night, for us too, joy
is coming in the morning. It always does. It always does. Verse 7 says, Hear, O Lord, when
I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer
me. Now, I am saying my hope, my
hope, but it's ours. It's ours. Our hope is in His
bending ear, isn't it? Our hope is that He would bow
down and hear us. Our hope is in His mercy and
the answer from Him through His Word. That's our hope. Look with
me, if you would, at Psalm 51. Psalm 51. Here's our cry. Our
hope is in the fact that he'll hear us when we cry. It's in
his mercy and it's in his answer through the word. This is our
cry. David said in verse one, have
mercy upon me, oh God. According to thy loving kindness,
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou justest."
That's our cry. We cry out to him and he said
he would bend his ear down and listen. This is His mercy. Verse 7, purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean. Lord, you wash me in your blood
and I'll be white as snow. Wash me, I'll be whiter than
snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. That's God's
mercy. Hide your face from all my sins,
blot out all mine iniquity. And then here's the promise of
his word. Verse 10, creating me a clean heart. I want a brand
new heart. I want a brand new heart. Create
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."
Put this right spirit, put the spirit of my Lord back in 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 our free spirit.
Lord, you said that's what you were going to do. In Christ,
in that blood, every soul that cries out for mercy will receive
the mercy. And every soul that receives
the mercy is going to have everything restored. And that's our hope. Go with me back to Psalm 27. Verse 8 says, When thou saidst,
Seek ye my face, My heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will
I seek. The scripture says, seek the
Lord while he may be found. It says, seek and you'll find. It says, you shall seek me and find
me when you search for me with all your heart. all your heart
all right i know this heart i know this heart the honest truth is
this heart right here will not ever seek the lord the commandment
goes out seek the lord you see you'll find you'll find me when
you search with all your heart this heart right here is never
going to seek the lord never never if In order for me to find
Him, this heart has to seek Him. I'm never going to find Him.
Never. Thank God. My hope is not in
this heart. My hope is in Christ. It's in the fact that He is going
to take out this old stony heart and He's going to put in a brand
new heart of flesh. And then He's going to say to
that brand new heart of flesh, behold me. That's what He's going
to do. He's going to say right to the
heart of flesh, seek me. And if He'll do that, I'm going
to find the Lord. That's my hope. That's all our
hope. That He would say to all of us, seek ye my face. If He'll do that, all of our
hearts will say, Lord, thy face will I see. My face will I see. Verse nine. Hide not thy face
far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave
me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father
and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. If
he leaves us, we'll fall. We will fall. Some in the scriptures
walked with Him for a while, but then they walked with Him
no more. And we will do the same thing
if He leaves us alone. If He takes His hand off of us
and leaves us to ourself, we'll do the same thing. If He leaves
us, we will be God forsaken. If He leaves us, we will die
in our sins. We will perish. But here's our
hope. He said, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. He
said, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Our
hope is in His Word. It's in His promise. Verse 11
says, teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because
of mine enemies. Because everything I have is
going against me. All these enemies, everything
is going against me. Verse 12, deliver me not over
unto the will of mine enemies. For false witnesses are risen
up against me and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless
I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living. He said, teach me that way. Lead
me in your plain path and deliver me. Lord, that's what I'm asking
because I don't feel like I can take anymore. I just don't feel
like I can take anymore. I'm about to faint under the
load of sin. I'm about to faint under all
of the sin that's in me, all of the sin that's on me, all
of the sin that's around me. My way is clearly the wrong way. Always. My path is the hard path. My path is the confusing path. It's the rocky path. It's the
wayward path. If I believed that I had to finish
out the path of this life, like Frank Sinatra said, my way, if
I believed I had to do it my way, I wouldn't make it. I wouldn't make it. I could not
make it. I couldn't make it one more day.
I mean that. I mean that. If I believed I
had to live the rest of my days my way, I wouldn't make it one
more day. Thanks be to God. My hope and
all of our hope is not in our way. It's not in our way. Our hope is in Christ who is
the way. The one and only way. My hope
is in the fact that he said back in Psalm 23. Go look back a page
with me to Psalm 23. He said right here in Psalm 23
that he was our shepherd. Everything that means. It's hard and tedious to say
everything that means, but our hearts know what it means. We
have somebody watching out for us. We have somebody keeping
an eye on us, guarding us, defending us, feeding us. I was thinking about this earlier.
You think about the relationship between a shepherd and a sheep.
I love that that's compared to my relationship with the Lord.
I was driving down the interstate yesterday. I saw one sheep in
a field, just sitting there. And I think about that sheep's
life. How chaotic really is that sheep's
life? How bad really does that sheep
have it? You know, we feel like our life is about to spin out
of control and really, a sheep. The Lord has us in the fold,
hedged about. Ordering us and controlling us
and we just sitting there in all these green pastures of grass
thinking my life is over and it's just spinning out of control
and it's just all the sorrow and misery and The Lord's our
Shepherd He said we're never gonna want He's gonna make us
lie down in green pastures. He's gonna lead us beside still
waters. He's gonna restore our soul every time in five minutes
when all of us get down and depressed you just remember here's our
hope he's about to restore our soul he's about to show us christ
again he's going to make us glad again he'll lead us in paths
of righteousness for his name's sake not my path his path of
righteousness though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Meaning, I'm dead, we're all dead, everything's dead, this
is a dead, sinful world, but even so, there's nothing to fear. He's with us. His rod and His
staff will comfort us. He's going to prepare a table
before us in the presence of all these enemies, all these
doubts and fears and depressions and sorrows. And He's going to
anoint our head with His Spirit. The oil of His Spirit. And our
cup is going to run over. Surely, goodness and mercy is
going to follow us all the days of our life. And we're going
to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's our hope. That's
our hope. Back in Psalm 27, verse 14 says,
Wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on
the Lord. If I had to wait on my own courage,
I'd be waiting a long time. I'd be waiting a long time. But
my hope is not in my courage. My hope is in Christ. It's in
the fact that He will strengthen the heart of every soul that
waits on Him. Every soul that waits on Him,
every soul that looks to Him, He will strengthen their heart.
So that's what we'll do. We'll hope in the Lord, look
to the Lord, trust in the Lord, wait for the Lord. We'll wait
on Him. Let's close with this verse of
Scripture. Psalm 130. Go with me over to Psalm 130
and let's read verses 7 and 8. Psalm 130 verse 7 says, Let Israel
hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with
Him is plenteous redemption. and he shall redeem Israel from
all his iniquities. That's a good hope. That is a
good hope. Let Israel hope in the Lord.
All right, let's all stand together.