Let's turn back to Psalm 27. For blessings now I humbly plead. At the top of my page, there
is a summary sentence. Mine says, David sustaineth his
faith by the power of God. David had a difficult life. He had a very difficult life. I love David and Solomon, those
two men. Solomon, I love reading his heart,
what the Lord had him write. And the same goes for David.
He had a very, very difficult life. When it came to his family,
it was nothing but trouble. That was David's life, nothing
but trouble. David found himself in the middle
of scandal. We know that event, don't we? He lost a child because of that
scandal. He lost a child. His son that grew up turned on
him and he spent the rest of his life trying to kill David.
Can you imagine that? Spent the rest of his life trying
to kill his own father. David had to run and he had to
hide and he had to fight with Saul. And for long periods of time,
because he was hiding, He couldn't worship publicly
with God's people. He would live in caves while
he was in hiding. And he could not come out and
go worship with God's people. That's why he wrote what he did
in Psalm 42. Look at Psalm 42 with me. Psalm 42 verse 1, he said, as
the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after
thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for
the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? My tears have been my meat day
and night while they continually saying to me, where is thy God? When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul in me. For I had gone with the multitude. I went with them to the house
of God with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude
that kept holy day." What he's saying is, if I could just one
more time go meet with God's saints and appear before God
and worship God, Even though we will probably
never experience half of what David physically had to go through.
Not half of it. Inwardly and spiritually, we
enter into every word, don't we? We really do. We enter into every word. We sympathize with his every
pain. I am allowed to come gather with
the saints. But do you know what this old
heart cries right here? Lord, when am I going to gather in
truth of heart, in truth of conscience, in truth of spirit and worship
you with the saints? I'd love to worship you one more
time. This is a difficult life we live. It's a difficult life. We have
physical struggles. We have emotional struggles. We have doubts. We have fears. But we have something else too. We have the exact same thing
David had. We have Christ. We have Christ. Back over in our text in Psalm
27, look at verse 1. Can we say with David, the Lord
is my light. The Lord is my light. Trouble
is darkness. Sin is darkness. Darkness brings
sadness. That's all that's around me.
Everywhere I turn, I see darkness and I see sadness, but the Lord
is my light. When I see Him, I see light.
There's joy in light. You know that? Don't you love
seeing the sunrise? It's beautiful. There is warmth
in light. There's safety in light. You know, we go to a dark place
that we're unsure of, you park your car under the lamppost.
Why you do that? Safety. There's safety in light. I feel
safe. Life is in light. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ is
my light and the Lord Jesus Christ is your light. Everywhere you
go and everywhere you turn, It's going to be difficult and it's
going to be dark. It's going to be full of sin.
It's going to be full of trouble. But the Lord is our light. He's
our light. Oh, we're going to need that
light more and more as we go through this world. Go to Psalm
84 with me. Psalm 84 verse 11. It says for the Lord God is a
sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk up rightly. How does a man walk up rightly?
How does a man walk up rightly? Only in Christ. That's it. If a man is walking uprightly,
it's only because he's in Christ, and Christ is doing all the walking.
That's why. If a man is not in Christ, he's
not walking uprightly. But if we're in Christ, this
says he's a sun and a shield to us. And it says he gives grace
and glory and he will not withhold any good thing. Not one. Well, he withheld that from me.
That's because it wasn't good. You know, I had a few things
in my life that I wanted and he withheld them. You know why? It wasn't good for me. And I'm
so glad. That'll shine light on a cold,
dark heart, won't it? Well, back over in Psalm 27,
verse 1 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? Whom
shall I be afraid? ISIS? Should I be afraid of ISIS? Should I be? Because I am. I am. It's darkness. It's sin. It's
worry. It's fret. It's doubt. It's fear. What if ISIS comes into Kingsport? Should I fear ISIS? Or what if
Russia comes too close to our communication lines? Or what
if Iran builds a nuclear weapon? Whom should I fear? Our adversary,
the great adversary? No matter how dark this world
becomes, it's going to get darker and darker, but no matter how
dark this world becomes, the Lord is our light and our salvation. Is that not good news? If everything
folds, if everything absolutely folds. Oh, we live in a great
nation. I'm so glad to be here, but if
it folds, the Lord is my light and he's my salvation. Whom shall
I fear? Verse two says, when the wicked,
even my 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." What? What are we
confident in? Christ has saved us. Christ has saved us. No matter how dark this world
becomes around us, Here is the beam of hope that shines on every
child of mercy. Every sinner who has received
the gift of God's mercy. Every chosen one. Here is the
beam of light that shines on us. Christ has saved us. He saved us. I have a reference
right here in my Bible over to Exodus 15. Look over to Exodus
15 with me. This is where after the last
plague was finished, death in every house, Pharaoh let the
children of Israel go. And Moses led them out into the
wilderness and then Pharaoh changed his mind. And he went after them
with every horse and every chariot and every soldier he had. Now
let's begin by looking at Exodus 14 verse 10 says, And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the
children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians
marched after them, and they were sore afraid, and the children
of Israel cried out unto the Lord." I can't imagine that fear. And that would be real. I would
be afraid. Verse 13 says, And Moses said unto the people, Fear
ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which
he will show to you today. For the Egyptians whom you have
seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. For the
Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace. The
Lord is going to fight for you. I say the same thing this morning. If you belong to Jesus Christ,
if God put you in Jesus Christ, the Lord is going to fight for
you. Why is He going to do that? Because
you're a good person? No, because of Christ. Because of that covenant
He made. The Lord is going to fight for
you. We know what happened after this.
God parted the dark waters and this pillar of fire went in and
lit up the way and every child walked across on dry land. When
our enemy went in, when their enemy went in, they did not have
the favor of God's deliverer with them. They didn't have Moses,
they didn't have the rod of God, they didn't have Christ. And
they went in and God folded the water on them. And they saw every
enemy float up on the shore right there, all their enemies. Verse
30 says, Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand
of the Egyptians. That day God saved Israel. And that's exactly what our Lord
did for us. When he parted that water, that
dark water of death, a pillar of fire went in and every child
was able to walk across on dry land, dry ground. Verse 30 says, Thus the Lord
saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians. And
Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. And Israel
saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians.
And the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His
servant Moses. 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. Do you think that they believed
for one minute that they had anything to do with that victory? The Lord is my strength and my
song. He is become my salvation. He is my God and I will prepare
Him in habitation. My Father is God and I will exalt
Him. Now this has always been one
of my favorite verses. It says, The Lord is a man of
war. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
has a sword strapped to His side. He is captain of the host, first
into the battle. And after he goes in, the battle
is over. Nobody else has to go. The Lord
is a man of war. The Lord is His name. Jehovah is His name. God saved
us. God saved us. Nothing else matters. Nothing else matters. Christ
has saved us. The economy does not matter.
I want a good economy, but it doesn't matter. My 401k, it doesn't
matter. My job, period, it doesn't matter.
It does not matter. Nothing else matters. Go with me back to Psalm 27. This chapter is our reality. You know that? It's not David's
story. This is our reality. 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. That is
all that matters. That's all that matters. You
know, that's all that matters. All that matters is that I dwell
in the house of the Lord. Don't you want that? Don't you
want that? If I end up losing my house down
here. If I end up losing my house down
here, that doesn't matter. I believe somebody would let
me come sleep at your house. Doesn't matter. It really doesn't
matter. If I lose my house down here,
I will be no worse off than my Lord and his 12 apostles who
had no place to lay their head. They would go up into the Mount
of Olives and sleep there at night and then get up the next
morning and go right back into the temple. It doesn't matter. Every apostle up there was resting
on the fact that Christ had saved him. Talking about David's life, how
difficult it was, this is what he said in 2 Samuel 23. He said, although my house be
not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things ensure. This is all my salvation and
it's all my desire. It's all that matters. It's all
that matters. There is not one thing in this
life that matters. Does that mean we give up? We
don't do whatever our hand finds to do with all our might? No.
We obey our God. But the only thing that matters
is Jesus Christ saved us. He saved us. If a sinner is truly
looking to Christ, If Christ is truly a sinner's light and
salvation, then this will come to pass.
That sinner will dwell in the house of the Lord. Because verse
5 says, 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. He will preserve
us. Come what may, come what may
with the whole planet, come what may with the election, come what may he'll preserve
us. Isn't that good news? He'll preserve us. He will absolutely
preserve us. He'll set us up. I thought about
making preserves and you take them into your pantry and you
put them up where you don't need them right now, up high. Right
down here is the flour and the corn and the stuff we need every
day. I don't need this right now, so I'm gonna put it way
up and I'm gonna hide it back here. He's gonna preserve us
in Christ, our hiding place. Right there, we're safe. I'm
telling you, we are so safe. If we belong to Jesus Christ,
we are safe, we are provided for, and everything that matters
is taken care of. Verse six says, and now shall
mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.
That's Christ. It's not me, it's him. He's the
head, I'm the body. 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. That's all we have to do, isn't
it? Sing praises unto the Lord. That truly is our greatest joy,
seeing Him high and lifted up above everything that is in this
dark world. Our Lord is high and lifted up
above it all, and we are lifted up in Him. We are lifted up with
Him above everything in this dark world. Verse 1. told us three things about our
Lord. It said, He is my light, He's my salvation, and He is
the strength of my life. He is the strength of our life. This difficult life we live,
this troubled, fearful life. Now look at verse 7. It says,
Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon
me and answer me. When thou saidst, seek ye my
face, my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek.
Hide not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. For thou hast been my help. Leave
me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. You know, when
things seem to be going great in this world, sometimes it's up, sometimes
it's down. Sometimes it's smooth, sometimes it's rough. And when
things seem to be going great in this world, we have no need
of Him. I don't have any need of Him.
Not when everything's going great. When it's going great, I don't
have any need of Him. Our hearts are not crying to
Him. Our mouths are not speaking of Him. Our minds are not dwelling
on Him. But as soon as this world starts
falling apart, As soon as this world starts,
everything in this world that I've built for myself, as soon
as it starts to crumble, I cry with my voice. As soon as it
happens, I start crying with my voice. Don't we see why he
allows trouble to come? Don't we joy in tribulation? Didn't James say, count it all
joy? Why? You're going to start crying
to God. and he's gonna hear you, and he's gonna answer you, and
he's gonna comfort you. As soon as those clouds start
rolling in, here we got a gray sky today, don't we? As soon
as they start rolling in, my heart cries, thy face, Lord,
will I seek. Help me, please help me. Hide not thy face from me. Leave
me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. Verse 10 says,
when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will
take me up. It may not be that they've cut
me off. It just may be that they're gone. It may be that they're in the
exact same case I'm in and they can't do anything for me. We sons, we've always looked
to our dads. I'm so glad I still have my dad. I still look to Him. Daughters
have always looked to their mothers. But when the Lord finally puts
us in a position where we realize no one can help me, no one can
help me, when the Lord finally puts us there, the promise of
our God says, then the Lord will take me up. That's wonderful. That's just wonderful. When He
does, it's confirmed to us, You are the strength of my life.
Without Christ, I don't have any strength. Nothing. You are the strength of my life.
Verse 11 says, Teach me Thy way, O Lord. Teach me to look to You. That's my prayer is that he would
teach us all, every soul, no matter how old and no matter
how young, teach us all to look to Christ. How does he do that? He puts a need and then he fills
it. Teach us to look to you and lead
me in a plain path. Give me a single eye and a single
path to Christ. Lord, draw us to yourself. You're the only thing that matters.
Nothing else matters. Salvation in Christ is all that
matters. Don't let my heart go after a
career that will lead me away from Jesus Christ. Don't let
me have so much of this world that I have no need of him. Give me a plain path to the only
thing that matters. A single path to Christ because
of my enemies. Because of my enemies. Look at
Psalm 25. For me it's across the page.
Psalm 25 verse 8. Good and upright is the Lord,
therefore will he teach sinners in thee way. The meek will he
guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way. All the
paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant
and his testimonies. For thy name's sake, O Lord,
pardon mine iniquity, for it's great. What man is he that feareth
the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way
that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease,
and his seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord
is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant.
Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet
out of the net. Turn thee unto me, and have mercy
upon me, for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my
heart are enlarged. Oh, bring thou me out of mine
distresses. Look upon mine affliction and
my pain and forgive all my sins. Lord, that's all that matters.
Would you put that on this heart right here? Would you put that
on this heart, please? That is the strength of our life. Light and salvation. Our text
verse 12 says, deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies. For false witnesses are risen
up against me and such as breathe out cruelty. Let me tell you
what my greatest enemy is. It's myself. It's that career. I want it. It's all that stuff this world
has to offer. I want it. My greatest enemy
is myself. Lord, don't let me have my way. Can we not all say that? Can
we not all say that? Lord, don't let me have my way.
Well, you know what goodness and mercy is? Christ said he's
going to teach sinners in the way. If I've put them in Christ,
I'm going to teach them in the way. They're not going to have
their way. They're going to have the way.
Teach me thy way, please. Verse 13 says, I had fainted. One of my favorite three words.
I would have fainted. Sometimes you just feel like,
I don't think I'm gonna make it. Three score and 10 is not long, but
it sure seems like a long way off. I don't know if I'm gonna
make it. I would have fainted. I had fainted unless I had believed
to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Psalm 23 says we're walking through
the valley of the shadow of death. That's what this place is, the
valley of the shadow of death. This earth is the land of death. That's what it is. There is not one thing here that
doesn't die. Not one thing here. Everything
dies. But our Lord has prepared for
us a place in the land of the living. The land of the living. And in
that land, it's the land of God. It's the land where Christ dwells. In that land, there is not one
thing that will die. Not one thing. The reason is
because Christ died. And not one thing in that land
is going to die. I cannot imagine living this
life without the fear of death. Death for myself, death for my
wife, death for my children, death for our parents. No fear of death at all. Turn
with me to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 51 says, Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption. And this mortal
must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin and
the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, victory in
the Lord Jesus, my savior forever. He sought me and he bought me
with his redeeming blood. He loved me before I ever knew
him. And all my love is due Him. And it's all because He plunged
me to victory beneath that cleansing flood. So the last verse in our
text, back over in Psalm 27, the last verse, verse 14 says,
wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. He shall
strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. He has put away your sin. He's put away your sin. He's
put away your sin. Oh, I'm worried so much about
this, and I'm worried so much about that, and I'm worried about
so many things. He has put away the one thing
needful. That's done. That's done. So wait on the Lord. Lord, I'm
ready to be rid of the guilt of this sin. Wait on the Lord.
Lord, I have needs that need to be met. I have bills that
need to be paid. Wait on the Lord. He's the strength of your
life. He'll sustain it. Wait on the
Lord. Lord, I'm just down today. I'm
just depressed. I just need to hear from you
and I just need to feel your touch so badly. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. A man named
William Cooper wrote, God moves in a mysterious way. He has wonders
to perform. He plants his footsteps in the
sea and rides upon that storm. That one that's rolling in over
you right now. Deep in unfathomable minds of never failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs and works His sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage
take. The clouds you so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head. Wait on the Lord. Just wait on
the Lord. He'll strengthen your heart.
Be of good courage. Where's all of our courage? It's
in Christ. I don't have any courage. I can't
face my foes. I can't live my life. I can't
look to Him. Be of good courage. Oh, yes,
now I see. He'll strengthen your heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord. All right, let's stand together.