All right, so last week though,
as I'm kind of giving you the review from last week, and you
can look at the notes now. I've tried to capture this information
in the notes when you have time, maybe just sitting around doing
nothing else. Read those notes. You'll find,
I hope, that it's comforting to you. But I said last time,
what I didn't have time to get to is who is the enemy in this
psalm. And that's where I want to pick
it up. You can see this beginning at verse 3, for example, of Psalm
74. Verse 3 says, Lift up thy feet
unto the perpetual desolations. You see, it expresses this this
observation that it seems like God isn't doing anything for
us. It seems like by all appearance the enemy has the victory and
nothing's going to change. There's no word from God. There's
no evidence that he's ever going to make a change. So you can
see how desperate this makes the people of the Lord in this
situation. And this is a great comfort to
us because when things look desperate and we're in despair, we don't
know what to do. We don't have any power. We can't
do anything. All we can do, which, I mean, it's bad that we say
all we can do, but all we can do really is plead that the Lord
would do his will for our salvation for the sake of Christ. And that's
what this psalm is in essence. Lord, do your will, what you
have said, for the sake of Christ and for our salvation. So you
see this in verse three, lift up your feet, The Lord lifts
up his feet, is what he's asking, that he would come and he would
do what he's asking to do here. Lift up your feet to the perpetual
desolations, even all that the enemy has done wickedly in the
sanctuary. That's God's place of dwelling.
God dwells with his people. He dwells in his people. And
where God dwells with his people, he makes himself known to them.
And Jesus said, this is eternal life, that they might know thee,
the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. So it's
no light thing. It's nothing, it's no small thing
that God would make himself known. And when God does make himself
known to his people, what is it that we know about him? We
know him in the Lord Jesus Christ. We know him in the saving work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know his person. We know his
greatness in all that he is, in his obedience, in his humility,
in his righteousness, in his giving himself in love for his
people to save us, and doing all this in order to fulfill
all that pleases God and that is necessary to save us, because
he's doing what God requires, and he does it to God's delight.
This is what we come to know about God when the Lord dwells
with us in the sanctuary, which is in our own hearts, from His
Word. God reveals Himself from His
Word to us. He applies His Word to us. And
how desperately we need Him to do that, don't we? We don't have
any power to make God known to ourselves. But the Spirit of
God, it says in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12, He is given to us
that we might freely know the things which are given to us
from God. And He makes those things known
to us by making Christ known. So we see this reference to the
enemy in verse 3. We see it throughout this psalm.
So who are these enemies? Or who is the enemy here? Well,
ultimately, Ultimately, the enemy in this psalm is Satan and his
servants, which is his kingdom, the kingdom of Satan. We could
say it that way. It's the kingdom of Satan. Remember, Satan was
a liar from the beginning. It was through Satan that Eve
was deceived and sinned against God. And it was through Satan,
therefore, that Adam sinned against God. It was through Satan that
sin entered into the world, in that sense. So Satan is the enemy
of Christ and he's the enemy of God's people. He's in the
book of Revelation, it calls him the serpent, it calls him
the dragon. And I see a flash on my screen
there. Hopefully the connection is still
there. But because Satan is such a horrific enemy of God's people,
it's natural for us to realize this when he troubles us. Let me read a text of scripture
to you from 1 Peter chapter 5. because we're so easily troubled. We hear something on the news
and we're troubled, let alone something that Satan would do. But here he says in Hebrews chapter
five, he says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God
that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon
him for he careth for you. So obviously this is under the
situation where we have to humble ourselves. and that we're in
this trouble where our pride tends to make our life miserable,
but when we come under the recognition of our proper place and that
we are sinners saved by grace, then that humbles us and we're
at peace and rest then. But he goes on in 1 Peter 5,
he says, in 1 Peter 5, verse 8, be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walks about seeking
whom he may devour. Now this describes Satan, doesn't
it? like a roaring lion, he walks about seeking whom he may devour,
like a lion. Now, I've never met a lion up
front, but I'm always glad in the zoo that they're behind strong
bars and restraints. But that's what this psalm is
saying in verse 10. Oh God, how long shall the adversary
reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy
name forever? So Satan is our premier enemy,
isn't he? And we know that he's a roaring
lion. In this very Psalm, he says,
the enemy roars. Let's see, where is that? Let's see, I'm looking for it. I'm sorry, I don't have the verse,
but there's a verse here. It says, the enemy has not only
entered into the sanctuary and set fire to things, but he's
roaring. And so, verse 4. Yeah, there
it is. Thine enemies roar in the midst
of thy congregation. They set up their ensigns for
signs. Setting up the symbols of their false religion, instead
of the symbols of the truth, which is the gospel. All right,
and the preaching of the gospel. But here, but back in 1 Peter
5, he says, he said, since this this horrible enemy, Satan, the
devil, walks about seeking whom he may devour. It says, whom
resist steadfast in the faith. Now how does Satan seek, how
does he devour? Well, it's through deception. That's one means. He tempts us
through deception. And you know, how can Satan deceive
us? Well, because we're subject to
deception, aren't we? And why is that? Why are we subject
to deception? Well, because we naturally don't
know the truth, and we can't retain it unless God gives it
to us, reveals it, and holds us in the truth. You see, our
minds are naturally dark. Until the light of the gospel
comes to us, we don't know the truth. We're in deception, we're
deceived, we deceive others and we deceive ourselves. So the
Lord has to free us, remember Jesus said in John 8, if the
sun shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. He has to give
us the truth, he has to shine the light and he has to keep
that light shining in us. And so the devil can only get
a foothold in us because of what? Because we're sinful. And if
we understand that, then we see that really at the root of all
of our enemies is this problem, which is our own sin against
God. Satan, Jesus said in John, in
John chapter 16, let me see if I can put my finger on that.
Let me turn to that. He says, I think it's at the
end of John 16. Maybe it's 14. Yeah, it's at
the end of chapter 14, John 14. He says, Jesus said, as he's
going to the cross, he says this, Hereafter I will not talk much
with you, for the prince of this world, that would be Satan, the
prince of this world cometh and has nothing in me. You see that? Satan found nothing
in Christ. He already had overcome Satan's
temptations, but he's going to try to destroy Christ through
the cross, but it will be Satan's undoing. It will be his destruction. But yet, it says here, he found
nothing in Christ. He had nothing in Christ. He
had no way of getting a hold of him because he was the son
of God. He was a perfect man, but he
has plenty to get a hold of in us, doesn't he? And so that's
why Satan is an enemy that we really have no power against.
But here in 1 Peter 5, how are we to overcome Satan? Well, he says, whom resist. How? Steadfast in the faith. You see,
the only way to overcome these deceptions is by seeing the truth
in Christ. And that's what the faith is.
And the faith of the gospel, which is the objective truth,
is what we believe. And that faith that we have,
our subjective faith in Christ through the gospel, is the faith
that God has to uphold. And so He keeps us seeing Christ
in the gospel. And so that's the way we resist
Satan. To see what Christ, who Christ is, what Christ has done,
and our place in Him. That's the only way to resist
Him. Okay, so I'm kind of getting ahead of myself here. The first
question is, who is the enemy? The next question after that
is, how does the enemy assault or attack God's people? And we're
kind of addressing both of those questions in one. The enemy is
Satan. The reason he has a foothold
is because of our sin. And the way he attacks his people
is through temptation, through deception. And the other way
is through accusation. Now, we know we're sinners, so
it's easy to get us wrapped around our concern about our sin, isn't
it? But the only way that we can
truly serve the Lord is if we know the love of God, the grace
of God, and the liberty to which Christ has set us free by his
blood. We can't serve God in fear, not the fear of terror
and the slavish fear that comes by the terror of eternal death. The only way we can really truly
love God is if we know we're accepted in Christ. and in him
alone. We can't forgive others unless
we've been forgiven, and we can't know we're forgiven unless we
see the blood of Christ is all of our salvation. So again, we're
only able to resist Satan through the gospel, through faith in
Christ. It's always looking to Christ, isn't it? And this is
the theme throughout scripture. So who is our enemy? Well, it's
Satan, but through our sin. And the way he attacks is through
accusation, because accusation makes us fear that God is going
to destroy us, and we can't love a God who's going to destroy
us. So he takes away our faith in the gospel, in Christ, and
then that puts us at fear. But the original design of Satan
was to destroy all of God's people by causing them to sin and relying
on God's justice to destroy them because they were guilty. So
the devil then, seeing that God spared them, he now accuses God,
he accuses the Lord Jesus Christ, how could you have such a sinful
people? How could you eat and drink with sinners? Remember
the Pharisees and the publicans? They were the servants of Satan.
And how did they behave towards Christ? Well, they were always
accusing Him. What did they accuse Him of?
Well, they accused Him of hanging out with sinners. And so Jesus
had the strongest rebuke for the scribes and the Pharisees
because they were the self-righteous, proud liars who were hypocrites
because they didn't trust Christ. They thought in themselves they
were righteous. They had no need of a savior because they, in
their blindness, could only see God would accept them for what
they could be or what they could do. So these are the ways that
Satan works through the deception, especially by inflating man's
pride in his own self-promotion and his own self-esteem. So ultimately,
the great enemy of God's people is Satan, but he works through
our sinful nature. You see, the enemy wouldn't have
anything in us were it not for our sin, and the old man, that
part of us that is that carnal man, that flesh, that old man
that is still with us even after we're the Lord's people. That
old man is the part of us that is subject to temptation and
doubts and fears contrary to the gospel. And so this old man,
therefore, is our enemy. You see, and so we see that here,
we see it in our experience, and it's dreadful. What causes
you the most concern as a Christian, as a believer? Isn't it a sense
of your own cold-heartedness? I know that's my problem. my
own unbelief that I would act so presumptuously in life as
if everything was okay when everything's not okay, or that I would take
sin lightly, or that I would find myself so distant from God
in prayer and in thought, or all these things, because that's
the characteristic of the old nature, isn't it? And I don't
want that old man to have the rule. And so what do we do in
that case? Well, we flee And we plead with
God, according to this psalm, that the Lord himself would,
A, realize that we're his people according to his choice, his
redeemed, his inheritance, B, that that redemption came through
the Lord Jesus Christ who himself is interceding and advocating
himself for us in answer to God and that as our intercessor he's
pleading God's highest motive which is his own cause, his name,
his glory, his covenant, his promises, his word, all these
things and so we are given this psalm in order for us to look
to Christ trust Him and to come to Him and plead with Him to
be our answer, to plead for us and to overthrow our sinfulness. We have no power against our
sin. I don't know if you've realized that lately, but it becomes most
evident when we feel this sense of our sinfulness, especially
in our cold heartedness and our unbelief, our presumption and
our pride and our feeling that everything's okay when everything
is not okay. There's nothing worse than this
sense of lukewarmness, is there? And so we see this in this psalm.
We have many enemies. All of them are the result of
our sin against God. But there are other enemies who
come against us in the gospel. And I want to talk for a moment
about that too. Because these enemies are also
from the kingdom of Satan. And they oppose God's church
as a whole. And that's what I want to look
at here. There's another enemy. And this
enemy is seen, if you look in the New Testament now with me,
at a couple of scriptures. Let's go to 2 Corinthians. 2
Corinthians chapter 11. And in 2 Corinthians 11, we'll
see the enemy. And we'll also see how we are
to, what remedy, what we have against this enemy. Okay? So this is very important. It's
the same material, seen from a different perspective. And
this is the one that we can observe, not only in ourselves, but outside
of us, in the church, in the world today. Okay? 2 Corinthians
chapter 11, and this is the Apostle Paul pleading with the Corinthians.
He said, Would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly,
and indeed bear with me. I am jealous over you with godly
jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. So like a servant
to the king, as the Chamberlain, if you will, who's preparing
the bride for the king, Paul is preparing the church to Christ. He's preparing her for Christ,
and he does it through the gospel. But he has a concern. His concern
is he has a godly jealousy over Christ's bride because of his
faithfulness to the Lord himself who gave him this role as an
apostle. So he goes on in verse three,
he says, but I fear lest by any means as the serpent, that would
be the devil, beguiled Eve through his subtlety, your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. So what is
the enemy doing here? Well, he's trying to corrupt
the minds of God's people. And that's consistent with what
we were just considering in first Peter. And how that because of
our sinful nature, the devil works to tempt and to deceive
and to accuse and all these things, his tools, right? And so here,
the devil is working to corrupt the minds of believers. And Paul
is concerned that like Eve was deceived in the garden, so these
Corinthians would be deceived by the subtlety of Satan trying
to corrupt their minds. And he says what he tries to
corrupt them from is the simplicity that is in Christ. And the word
simplicity here doesn't mean simple like elementary, but it
means simple like only or singular. And so, if you understand that,
then you see that what he's saying here is that there's only one
you've been espoused to, one you've been engaged to, one you
should focus on, one you should look to and trust. It's Christ. He's the only mediator. His name
alone is the one name God has given whereby we must be saved.
He's the way, the truth, and the life by which we come to
the Father and know God and we're accepted by God. And we see God. All these things are only in
Christ. And so this is the greatest and
the best of news for a sinner, isn't it? because we look to
Christ for everything, not just part of our salvation, but everything,
every part of it. And so when we're feeling cold-hearted
or warm-hearted or whatever we're feeling, we go to Christ and
we look to him and we take from him. We pour out our hearts to
the Lord and we ask God to give us the food, the bread from heaven,
the drink, the blood of Christ to trust him to come to God by
him. to be thankful that God would give his son, that the
Lamb of God would give himself for us, that he would take our
sins as his own and remove them from us and answer God for them
and fulfill all righteousness and glorify God and then intercede
for us as our advocate and even advocate for us in the day of
judgment so that he would answer for us for everything. This is
looking to Christ, isn't it? This is just part of it. I mean,
we could go on and on because this is the subject matter here.
The singularity, the onlyness of Christ. That's what Paul is
concerned that the devil would corrupt their minds from this.
He goes on. In verse four of 2 Corinthians chapter 11, he
says, for if he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not
preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received,
or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might
bear well with him. Okay, so you see, he's saying
this is the way Satan comes, preaching a false, another, something
else, something other than Christ. The only thing is Christ. So
anything else but Christ is another, isn't it? Whether it be the gospel,
or spirit, or Jesus himself. Same name, but a different meaning,
right? Jesus only. Well, which Jesus?
It better be the Jesus of Scripture, or it's another Jesus. The Jesus
of the Gospel, the one who accomplished the salvation of God's elect
according to the will of God, and sat down on the right hand
of God. The one in whom they are saved, in whom they have
life, because of whom they shall be raised, and by whom they shall
be raised on the last day. The one we look to, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. For everything,
without me you can do nothing, the Lord has said. And so we
look to him, don't we? So he goes on, he talks about
his own apostleship, but he comes in this chapter, in 2 Corinthians
11, he says, these people who come as if they
are apostles but are not. He says in verse 11, I'll just
pick it up here. I'll actually go ahead and read
from verse 5. He says, For I suppose I was
not a wit behind the very chiefest apostles, but though I be rude
in speech, yet not in knowledge, But we have been thoroughly made
manifest among you in all things. Have I committed an offense in
abasing myself that you might be exalted because I have preached
to you the gospel of Christ freely or the gospel of God freely?"
You see how the apostle, this was his business, was preaching
Christ. And he abased himself to do that. I mean, he did it
in so many ways. He worked to pay for his own
living. He suffered the reproach and
the persecution of the enemies of the gospel. And he did it
all for the sake of those he was preaching to. And this was
a very humbling thing. He served them. He didn't exalt
himself. He didn't ask them to do for
him or to serve him. He served them. All right? He
says in verse 8, I robbed other churches, taking wages of them
to do your service, to do you service. And when I was present
with you and wanted, I was chargeable to no man for that which was
lacking to me, the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied.
And in all things I have kept myself from being a burden to
you, and so will I keep myself. As the truth of Christ is in
me, no man shall stop me from this boasting in the regions
of Achaia. Okay, so he's rehearsing the fact that they had discounted
him as an apostle even though he had humbled himself and made
himself like a slave to them for the gospel's sake, for their
salvation, exalting Christ only. While other people who pretended
to be apostles came in exalting themselves, And they wanted preeminence
among the churches in their own, you know, their hierarchy of
organizational layers, for example, like the Catholic Church. I mean,
have you ever seen such a hierarchy as that? They got somebody at
the top called the Pope. Then they got bishops, and they
got all these cardinals, and all these different things, these
layers. The Mormons do the same thing. All churches do. They
like to have these layers of rulers and stuff. It's a bunch
of poppycock. Jesus said, if you want to be
the greatest, then you become the servant of all. So, look
for the one who's serving the most, and that's the role that
Christ exalts. Not because they serve, but because
that's what he He loves, the Lord loves that because that's
what Christ did. He made himself a servant of
all. Okay, but verse 11, 2 Corinthians 11, verse 11, he says, Wherefore,
because I love you not, God knoweth. But what I do that I will do,
that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion, that
wherein they glory, they may be found even as we are. For
such are these people who exalt themselves in order to gain the
honor and praise from the Corinthians and control their purses, their
money, their pocketbooks, or whatever they do." He says, for
such are false apostles. Notice, deceitful workers. You see, this is the air This
is the resonant theme of Satan and his servants, his kingdom.
False apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into
the apostles of Christ, and no marvel, for Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it's no great
thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.
Okay, so the works of Paul was to serve Christ's church and
to preach the gospel. But the works of these others,
who were deceitful workers, was to distract the church from Christ.
And so this is the enemy, and this is the enemy that the advocate
and intercessor of God's people pleads against here in Psalm
74. And so I want to look at another text of scripture with
you that amplifies on this, and it's in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2. He says, in 2 Thessalonians 2,
Now we receive you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and by our gathering together to Him. He's talking
about the second coming of Christ, when the Lord comes and raises
His people in their bodies from the dead, and He executes judgment
on all of His enemies. That's what He's talking about
here. He says, concerning that coming and our gathering together
to him, that you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as
that the day of Christ is at hand. Obviously, the Thessalonians
had been told that Christ's coming either had already happened,
or it was going to happen immediately, and so they were troubled in
their mind. And he says, don't be troubled.
Let no man deceive you, verse 3, 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3.
He says, let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall
not come except there come a falling away first, and, notice, that
man of sin be revealed the son of perdition. who opposes and
exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped,
so that he, notice, as God, sits in the temple of God, showing
himself that he is God. Now this is the very definition
of Antichrist. Have you ever heard that term,
Antichrist? If you look at the meaning of the word Antichrist
in scripture, this is the definition that's given. First of all, anti
means in the place of. It also means in the place of
Christ, in opposition to Christ. So this Antichrist is the one
who stands in the place of where Christ should be. That's where
he stands. And he does this to oppose Christ.
Not to assist or to compliment or to do anything aligned with
him, but to absolutely oppose him. So the way that you realize
Antichrist is whoever is standing where Christ should stand, the
one who's preaching where Christ should be preached, but is not
preaching Christ. And the question we might want
to ask here, is there just one man here? One man of sin? And
the answer is no. But this describes the man of
sin. And he's talking here about an
end coming when there's going to be a great falling away first.
He says, let no man deceive you, for that day shall not come except
there come a falling away first. In 2 Thessalonians 2.3. He says
that, and then he says, and that man of sin be revealed, the son
of perdition. So there's going to be a climactic
falling away before Christ comes. And there's many things we could
say about that, and I don't want to try to get into it right now,
but the point here is that there's this opposition to Christ. This
is the enemy. This is Satan and his kingdom.
And you can read about this in Revelation. He talks about the
beast from the sea, the beast from the land. It's all talking
about the one who comes as if he were Christ, who comes with
the words as if he were speaking Christ's words, but does so in
deception, in order to throw off God's people from Christ
alone. Now this describes so many religions
in the world, doesn't it? Let's take some that are well-known,
like Muslim, the Muslim religion. They have a chief person in their
religion. It's Muhammad, right? It's not
Christ. And this Muhammad, you know,
they would say he respects Christ, you know, he's a prophet too.
But you can't have one who is a peer of Christ, because he's
alone. He's like no other. There's only
one anointed. And to say that Jesus is a great
prophet, and yet when the Lord Jesus said that he's the only
way to the Father, then you have a contradiction. And so that's
just compromise. It's just the Muslim religion
compromises with the Bible by doing that and they try to win
converts like Catholicism does. Catholicism, all satanic religions
compromise the truth. But they also boast in man's
religion. That is, man's free will and man's works in religion. And this is the one common thread
through all religions of the world. Be it Mormonism, Jehovah's
Witnesses, Assemblies of God, free will works, evangelical
free will works religion, Catholicism, it doesn't matter. They all have
this one thread, which is man does something in order to get
saved. It's his will, it's his work,
it's something. God looks for something in a
man, a person, in order to save them. It's completely contrary,
completely contrary and insulting to the gospel that Christ alone
could save, would save a sinner, and that God does this of his
own will, his sovereign will, uninfluenced by anything in man. There's nothing in man to influence
God, for one thing, God created him. Secondly, he's a sinner.
God has no reason to look at a sinner in respect, and there's
nothing respectful to find. So God is not, He doesn't have
any consideration when it comes to our salvation of us. He does
it for His namesake, out of His grace, by His work alone, in
Christ alone. And He gives us eyes of faith
to see This is the enlightening of our minds to the gospel. So
this is what Satan and his kingdom oppose. And so this is the enemy
here. This is the way that he comes. And so this is spoken of throughout
scripture. In 1 John, the book of 1 John,
he talks about this. He says, In 1 John, in chapter 2 of 1
John, he says in verse 18, little children, it is the last time.
And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, he says, even now
are there many Antichrists, people who stand where Christ alone
should stand, which is his dwelling place. and acts like they are
speaking Christ's words, as if they are Christ, but do so in
opposition to Christ. That's anti-Christ. Someone standing
in the place of Christ opposing Christ. And there's many of them. He says, wherefore, whereby we
know that it is the last time. 1 John 2, verse 18. And in verse
19, he says, they went out from us, but they were not of us.
For if they had been of us, they would have no doubt continued
with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest,
make evident that they were not all of us. Okay? So, and he goes on in verse 22.
Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He
is Antichrist that denies the Father and the Son. You see?
Antichrist denies the truth, the truth of the Gospel. So,
this is what Psalm 74 is speaking of also. Our enemy is Satan. Our enemy is Satan and his servants,
called the Kingdom of Satan. They operate effectively only
because we're sinners. And the only way we have any
defense against them is Christ. And so we are to resist them
in Satan, in the faith. Satan is powerful. He's like
a lion. He goes about roaring. The roaring is his words. It's
his accusations. It's his deception. And in Revelation
12, he pours out this flood out of his mouth. That represents
the false gospels, the false doctrine. that's in the world,
in religion, in man's religion. And it's pervasive, isn't it? So pervasive that you can't go
to any church hardly, any so-called church, and find the truth there.
Because it's so rare. It's so rare to find the truth
being taught and preached. The truth is simply Jesus. Him
alone. Christ alone. Christ alone. And if we could just learn that,
then we would be both protected in our minds from that corruption
from Christ and also we would be saved in Him. All right, so I've come to the
end of our time, and I encourage you to take a look at this more
extensively if you are able to in the notes. This enemy is strong,
and we have no power against him, but he has no power against
Christ. The gates of hell will not prevail
against the Lord Jesus Christ. and uh... he calls his church
the rod of his inheritance because even though in ourselves we have
no power by the gospel the power of god unto salvation he brings
his people out of the kingdom of darkness he translates them
from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear
son what a powerful savior we have whose word cannot be opposed. He accomplishes his will by his
word, just like when he was on the earth. Remember, there would
be a man, he's completely overwhelmed by the devil, and Jesus would
come, and the man would come running to Jesus and bow down
before him, and the Lord would speak to that legion of devils
and command them to leave him and depart, and they did, and
the man sat, and he was in his right mind and clothed, and he
wanted to follow Jesus. That's what the Lord does. Looking
unto Him, looking to Jesus, not corrupted by the false Gospels
of this world, not to be complacent, but also not
to be daunted by our own weakness, because our strength is in Christ,
isn't it? That's why we continuously go to the Lord in prayer. because
we're confident that by his own will, in his word, he's revealed
that he will save his people to the uttermost by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And since he will, then we go and we pray according
to his word. Lord, do as you have said. We
pray according to your will and word. Do as you have said. Save
me from my sins, oh Lord. If you have had grace upon me,
if you've given me this mercy of your salvation, which is the
only way I can be saved, then save me to the uttermost from
this present doubt, fear, sin, bodily failure, whatever it is.
And help me in all that to look to Christ and to love your people.
And that's what we pray. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for
your great mercy. You've revealed these things
to us in your word, your very word, which cannot fail. Heaven
and earth will pass away, but your word cannot pass away. And
so we are so greatly comforted by the prayers of our advocate,
our intercessor, the Lord Jesus Christ, by his spirit in us,
seated at the right hand of God for us, and promising to save
us to the uttermost from enemies far stronger than we are, who
have the advantage over us because of our sin, and yet the Lord
says he has justified us in Christ and nothing can separate us from
his love, and so we rely entirely on your strength and your faithfulness.
We pray this blessing on all who hear these words tonight.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.