All right, Psalm 27, let's read
this Psalm together. And you will find the words very
familiar, very, very important words here. 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. 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. 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 upon a rock. 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. 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 to Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.
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. Teach
me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of
mine enemies. 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. Wait
on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine
heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Now this psalm, as you can tell
when we read it, it's a psalm spoken in prayer by a singular
man. And in the last verse, as many
of the psalms we've seen do, the prayer is broadened not only
to himself, but to the entire church of God. He says, wait
on the Lord. It's an instruction from the
psalmist to those who hear him sing, who hear him pray in this
psalm. Obviously we're reading it. And so it's for us, wait
on the Lord, be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine
heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. But the rest of the psalm is,
as I can see, a prayer of this man to the Lord. And so the first
question we have here is to whom is this psalm spoken and of what
does it speak? And we can see right away, first
of all, as we saw in our sermon last Sunday, that all scripture
is breathed out by God the Holy Spirit. And we also learned last
week that this is of great comfort to us and instruction for us
because what the Spirit of God teaches us is Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And since He is God, God the
Holy Spirit, and since this is His message in all of scripture,
therefore we know that this message gives us warrant He gives us
such a strong warrant that God himself, his own mind, his own
spirit would speak to us in scripture of Christ and we as sinners to
teach us to look to him in all things. In all of scripture,
in all that we read as sinners, what do we find? We find our
comfort that God, the Spirit of God, has directed us to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this psalm is prominent in
that way. He opens the psalm this way,
the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? Now these
words, the Lord is my light and my salvation, are really a summary
of the entire psalm. All of these verses, all 14 verses,
are speaking about the consequences of the Lord being my light and
my salvation and my strength. And this one verse captures all
that follows. It's the foundation upon which
everything that's spoken in this psalm rests. So it's the summary
and the the comprehensive statement of the entire psalm, and it's
the foundation, and it even explains why God's people, for all who
look to Christ, do, that there is safety and victory and blessing
and reward and joy and peace as this psalm speaks of these
things, because, why? The Lord is my light and my salvation. And so it's a very short phrase
and a very comprehensive phrase, all comprehensive phrase. It's
really saying what we like to say a lot as believers, Christ
is all. I like that phrase, and we see
that throughout Scripture. It's the message of Scripture.
It's the message of the Spirit of God to the church of Jesus
Christ, and that's who believers are. They make up His body, and
so Christ here is giving these words to His people. So I want
to look at this psalm primarily from that perspective, a prayer
of the believer. We know that it's a prayer of
Christ, but I want to look at it here in this context tonight
as a prayer of the believer to his God and Savior. And it says
again, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Now, because the
Lord is my light, we see many things in the psalm. First of
all, he says in verse one, since the Lord is my light and my salvation,
whom shall I fear? That immediately reminds me of
Romans chapter eight, where God lays down the gauntlet, as it
were, to say, He raises this question. It's a rhetorical question. He says, if God be for us, who
can be against us? So there it is. God on his throne
with his people under his hand, under his care, being saved by
the Lord Jesus Christ. He sends out this message challenging
all in heaven and earth and under the earth, who is going to lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Go ahead, raise your head
up. If God has justified them, and
if God can do no wrong, then there's a ground, there's a solid
ground. There's a basis on which God's
holiness and justice rests for their justification and who dare
question God's justice and righteousness and his mercy and grace because
God's glory is seen in this. So, the Lord is my light and
my salvation, whom shall I fear, gathers together everything in
Romans 8 that is so comforting to us that since God's purpose
from eternity is for those he has loved in Christ, chosen in
Christ, predestinated in Christ, called to Christ, justified by
Christ, and glorified with Christ. You see, in Romans 8, 29, since
that is God's purpose of grace from eternity, and since if God
be for us, who can be against us? They're saying the same words,
only in an expanded form in Romans chapter 8. And then he enumerates
all those things. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. I go
back to those verses over and over again. They're so powerful.
It shuts down every argument against God's people. It gathers
from the Old Testament all the prayers of the saints, and it
brings them to a point so that Moses' intercession to God for
Israel, when they had made the idol in Exodus 32, or when they
had failed to go into the land of Canaan because of their unbelief,
and Moses prays for them on the basis of God's glory, and God's
character, and God's promises, and God's unchanging nature,
all those things, his covenant to his people, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob in Christ. All those things were the argument
of Moses' prayer. And we see those brought together
in Romans 8 to a point in Jesus Christ. And here, reference is
made to all of that because my light and my salvation is the
Lord himself. And who can quench his light?
Who can unsave one who is saved in the Lord? So this is the great
theme of scripture to the Church of God, is the Lord Jesus Christ
is my light and my salvation. We know it's speaking of Christ
here, don't we? And let me take you to a couple of scriptures.
In Matthew chapter 11, in Matthew chapter 11 and in verse 25, Jesus
is raising his voice in prayer to God publicly so that his disciples
could hear it and the Spirit of God has recorded it here in
Matthew 11, 25. When the people of Israel opposed
him and failed to believe him after so many miracles, he said
this in verse 25, at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank
thee, O father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed
them to babes. Now here we see the action of
God's light for his people, but also God hiding this from the
wise and prudent. It reminds me of what happened
in the deliverance of Israel. The cloud was above the camp
and behind the camp of the Israelites. It was a light to them, but it
was darkness to the Egyptians. And so Jesus thanks his Father
that he hides the things of Christ from the wise and prudent, that
means the proud who considered themselves wise but were foolish
because of their arrogance, and then he says that God has revealed
them to babes. How did they become babes in
their own eyes, babes in understanding? Well, They were humbled because
of God's spirit. They were humbled when they saw
Christ. But they were not better than others. They were proud
too, but God humbled them and then revealed Christ to them.
And then in verse 26, Jesus thanks him further. He says, even so,
father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Because it seemed
good to his father, it was good. And so we can't find any fault
in what God does because all of his ways and all of his works
are holy and righteous. But here, notice in verse 27,
regarding the Lord as my light. See what he says here. All things
are delivered unto me of my Father. Okay, so that means that everything
that is the Father's is given to Christ as mediator. They were all his as the Son
of God. because he's one with the Father, all his. But as the
mediator, they were given to him, put into his hand, and since
they were delivered to him, he says, in verse 27, he goes, all
things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knows
the Son, but the Father. So that means the Son of God
is infinite, and only God the Father can know him, only God
can know God. He says, it goes on, he says,
neither knoweth any man the father save the son. Okay, that means
that the father also who is God can only be known by God and
the son is therefore God. But notice, and he, No man can
know the Father except the Son and He whomsoever the Son will
reveal Him. Now the Son is sovereign and
the Son is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God and Son
of Man and as mediator He makes known the Father. Making known
is the work of light. The Lord is my light. Who makes
known God? The Son. but not the son as son
of God in his pure divine essence, but as our mediator in his essence
and in his nature both as God and man. So the son of God reveals
God in his nature as son of man. Now also look at John chapter
1. the gospel of John in chapter one. He says something there
that has always intrigued me and caused me to think about
it a lot. And though I cannot tell you
everything it means, I'll tell you what I do see here. In John
chapter one, the gospel of John chapter one in verse four, speaking
about the Lord Jesus Christ as the word of God, it says, in
him, in the word, was life, life, L-I-F-E, and the life was the
light of men." Now that's a powerful statement, isn't it? The light
of the Son of God, I'm sorry, the life, the life of the Son
of God is the light of men. Well, we know he's the revealer
of God the Father. As the mediator, he reveals God.
But here he says that his life is the light of men. And in what
way is the life of Christ the light of men? Well, in his life,
we see God, don't we? In all he did in his life. So we see in his life, we hear
his words. We see his character in what
he did. We see his works. We see his
purpose. We see his love. We see his humility. We see Christ in his life, and
seeing him in his life, we see light. We see the light of who
God is. We see the light of who we are,
sinners, in need of a great Savior. We see that in Christ we have
such a great Savior who, in his great grace, laid down his life
for sinners and delighted to do so. And this is great light,
isn't it? The people who sat in darkness
have seen a great light. That light was Christ. Jesus
said in John 8, and you want to turn there too since we're
in the book of John, in John chapter 8, you know the account
in John 8 of the woman who was by her enemies, the Pharisees,
taken in adultery because they hated Christ, they wanted to
make a an example of her in order to, they wanted to make an issue
of her so that they could bring Christ down. So they thought
they had him. They knew that she was guilty and they knew
that he was merciful and they knew that Moses had said to stone
the adulterous the adulterer and the adulteress and so they
brought her to Jesus and asked him to do what he would and they
knew that if he answered to stone her then he would be a liar because
he was merciful to sinners and then therefore he didn't know
how to save sinners somehow his wisdom fell short his power to
save would fall short and this is the claim that Moses said
God's enemies would make if he didn't save Israel Because of
their sin, he was too weak, he didn't know how, he started to
work, he couldn't finish, and so they brought this woman to
Jesus to see if he would have mercy on her, and they could
use that to accuse him then of not keeping the law of Moses.
So they thought they had him. It was the age-old question,
how can God be just and justify the ungodly, isn't it? And so
this was the pivot, this was the point about which Satan and
all of those who are his offspring in the kingdom of Satan, they
try to use this as the great tool to both kill the church
and to accuse them, and yet God uses this as the occasion to
defeat Satan, because in justifying them by his death, Christ bruised
Satan's head. Now, in this account, the woman
is brought into the midst of the temple where Jesus is teaching.
He's the master and he arranged for this. He had orchestrated
the whole account to be an object lesson of his mercy and grace
to save a sinner and to silence her enemies, and so he does that
in this chapter. They accuse her to Jesus. They
ask him what he's going to do since Moses said stone her, and
Jesus didn't say anything to them because he had nothing to
say to them. God's law was going to accuse
them, so he wrote on the ground with his finger like God wrote
on the tables in the Old Testament when he wrote on the two tables,
the Ten Commandments. And then as Moses had broke those
two tables because the children of Israel were sinners, these
men, after Jesus wrote this account on the ground, he stood up and
these men went out after he said, if you're without sin, you go
ahead and cast the first stone at her. And all these men went
out one by one, their conscience convicting them. And Jesus stooped
down again as they were leaving. He wrote on the ground again,
which represents his second stoop. God gave the law the second time.
He gave it to Moses after Moses broke it because the children
of Israel broke it. And here, Jesus, in writing the second
time, as God gave those second writing of the law to Moses and
put it in the Ark of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ came to
fulfill the law in his own second stoop. He stooped down. in order
to save this woman, to answer God's law and righteousness,
and fulfill the demands of the law in his own death, to satisfy
God's justice. And when he rises up, there were
no accusers. And so he turned to the woman.
And the woman, of course, is the guilty adulteress. And yet,
here the Lord Jesus Christ stands with her. And he says, woman,
where are those thine accusers? And she says, no man, Lord. Up to that point in time, she
had said nothing. Christ had said everything to
send away her accusers guilty in shame. Not one of them ever
appealed to Christ to save them. They went away trusting in their
own righteousness, and they were sent out to depart from Christ,
standing before him in their own unrighteousness. But the
woman who was guilty was brought to Christ in all of her sin and
her guilt by her accusers, and he stoops for her and justifies
her on the basis of fulfilling God's law in his own shed blood. And then he tells her, After
he had done that, where are your accusers? And she looked around,
just like we do now, because of Christ's shed blood and his
righteousness fulfilled for us and given to us by God. He says
to us, where are your accusers? And we look into his face and
we say, there is no man here, Lord. And he says, neither do
I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. And so we
know that she would have had to come back to him who told
her she was justified. Lord, how do I sin no more? And
she would have to look again to him. And she would find that
when she did, that all of her salvation from first to last
was found in him, just like we do. And after that, in verse
12, John 8, verse 12, what did Jesus say? Jesus speak again,
and he said to them, I am the light of the world. Listen carefully. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Remember John
1.4, in his life we have light. His life is the light of men.
Here he says, he who follows Christ has the light of life. Hence, therefore, the life of
Christ in us shines forth the light of Christ for us, and He
is our light of who God is, of God's work in our eternal salvation,
therefore He is everything to us. because God has made him
so. The light of Christ shining out
of the light that God gives us by the life of his spirit in
us shows us Christ for us, and in this we see, in the gospel,
we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is
the work of God. In thy light, Psalms 36 verse
9, we see light. In thy light, we see light. The
entrance of thy word, Psalm 119 verse 130, the entrance of thy
words giveth light. All these things speak of Christ.
Now look at with me another scripture in 2 Timothy. In 2nd Timothy,
you know, you're familiar with all these references, I'm sure,
to the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
that light has come into the world. Men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. All these things speak
of Christ, who is the light, and God, the Holy Spirit, directs
us to Christ, our life, and our light, and he is therefore the
Lord, our light, and our salvation. Second Timothy, chapter one,
and verse eight. Paul tells Timothy, be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. Don't be intimidated. because
the gospel has come to you in power. Don't be intimidated.
Let those who hear the gospel, let the work of God be made known
in the preaching of the gospel. In some, it is a savor of life
to life. In others, it's a savor of death
to death. And whatever the reaction is,
know this, God's word will not return to him void. So be a partaker
of the afflictions of the gospel. You're given this greatest of
all privileges to declare the light and life of God in Jesus
Christ. The light and life to sinners.
Okay, verse nine. He's speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ because it's his testimony. He says, who has saved us? and called us with a holy calling. So when the Lord preaches the
gospel to us and commands us to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, it is a holy calling. We are called to the Holy Spirit. to the relation of sons by the
Spirit of God in us, showing Christ to us. Don't you know
that's what the call of the gospel does? It says that whoever received
him, to them gave he the authority or the power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of
man, but of God. So the birth of the believer is the result
of the call of the spirit of God in the gospel, and that's
a holy calling. How could it not be holy to be
born of God? We're given the divine nature. Here he says, who has saved us
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose. and grace which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began." That's the eternality
of God's purpose. Everything that God does is eternal. He doesn't change. He doesn't
learn things. He doesn't decide to do something
in time. It's all been done before time. The Lamb was slain before the
foundation of the world. His precious blood was ordained
for our redemption. 1 Peter 1, verses 18-20. So here
he says, that this salvation, we were
saved, we were called with a holy calling, and none of it was according
to our works, but all according to God's own purpose and His
grace, all of that was given to us in Christ Jesus, and that
before the world began. Whoa, so much doctrine here.
Everything is given to us in Christ. Everything is given to
us in Christ before the world began. All of it's according
to God's grace. All of it's because of His purpose.
All of it is independent of our goodness or our works. In fact,
thankfully it's independent of our sin, but because of our sin,
Christ is made our Savior. But now, verse 10, notice this.
All this huge, bright light of the gospel shining in verse 9.
Listen to what he says. But this purpose, this salvation,
this grace given to us before the world began is now made manifest,
that's the action of light, by the appearing of our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and has brought life LIFE,
and immortality to light. through the gospel. There you
have it. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? What is this
light? Is it the light that people might
speak about? I don't know what to do. I'm
in a financial difficulty. I don't know what to do. And
suddenly, a way out appears. Is that the light? Or is it maybe,
I don't know what to do. I need a doctor to help me solve
this physical problem. Is that the light? Well, we could
say that any light at all obviously comes to us from God. But in
Psalm 27 in verse 1, and throughout the psalm, he's speaking of the
light of Christ in the gospel, the light of Christ himself,
and our salvation in him. Because he says this, notice
Psalm 27 1, the Lord, the Lord himself is my light. and my salvation."
So he's my salvation. I cannot not be saved if he is
my salvation, because no one could stop him. No one could
keep him from saving me. My own sins are not great enough
to impede him. They're not a hindrance to him. He knew about them. When we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. So all these things are meant
to draw our attention up and away from our depravity and our
ruin and our lost condition, our helplessness, our weakness,
even our own sins to the Lord who was our light and our salvation. In His light we see light. And
he himself is that light. God, the Holy Spirit, directs
us to Christ, the light and salvation in this first verse. And when
we see him, we see the light of God. And when we see him,
we see everything else in his light. We see ourselves, don't
we? We suddenly come to the realization
that we're sinners and helpless. We have no righteousness. Look
at Christ. Who could be righteous in consideration
of him? No one. God's own word tells
us so, there's none righteous. But when we see Him and Him crucified,
it suddenly becomes evident and apparent to us that we're lost
and ruined and helpless. If it weren't for God's great
mercy to us, we would receive only what we deserve for our
sins. But the Lord has shined the light of who He is in His
grace and mercy to us. in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
see God in Christ. If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. And what bright light that is
to reveal the Father, that he would do that in his own character,
his nature, his work, the Lord Jesus Christ. We could talk about
this on and on and on, right? Christ is our light in our salvation. He's the light of who God is.
He's the light of who we are in God's sight. He's the light
of the purpose for this world. He's the light for the providence
of God in this world. We see it all when we see Christ
and Him crucified, risen, reigning, interceding, fulfilling His purpose
and His work of redemption for His people. Everything is ordered
by God to fulfill that purpose to bring many sons to glory.
And so we see that here. What a delight this Psalm is.
He goes on. What's the consequence then of
the Lord himself being my light, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
Spirit of God showing me the light of God in him? When we
see Christ by the commandment of God and by the illuminating
operation of the Spirit of God in us, what's the result of that?
We see Christ. we have suddenly seen the truth
of God, the grace of God, the justice of God, everything about
God in all of His perfections magnified and illuminated in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can say the answer to
every question is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But the details
of that go on and on throughout scripture. So we see Christ in
all of the radiant beauty of the, like a diamond reflecting
the light, and he is the express image of God. We see God in Christ.
So, let's go on. Whom shall I fear? That's the
consequence. The Lord is the strength of my life. If he's
my strength, I can't fail. Of whom shall I be afraid? Now,
this sets the whole context for the rest of the psalm. Notice,
he's going to enumerate this. I have no one to fear if the
Lord is my light and salvation and strength. I should be afraid
of no one because the Lord is my strength and he's for me. And verse two, he goes on, when
the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes come or came upon
me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should
encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me, in this will I be confident." In what? In what
he just said. The Lord is my light and my salvation
and my strength. My enemies, the wicked came against
me. Who are these enemies? Who is
this wicked? Well, it starts back in the garden,
doesn't it? Who was the enemy of Eve and Adam in the garden,
and hence the whole human race? It was the devil. And why was
the devil our enemy? Well, because he tempted our
first parents to sin against God. And we sinned in Adam. And therefore sin was imputed
to us and death came by sin. So the devil's tool was to deceive
to change the truth of God into a lie in order to get us to believe
that lie, to mistrust God in unbelief and sinning against
God, and then to fall into sin. So the devil is our enemy, and
his tool is his deception by which he causes us to sin, and
what he tries to do is to murder the children of God, the people
given to Christ, and he does that by the justice of God. Look,
they've sinned, and he accuses us to God, and in that accusation,
he expects God to answer in justice, just like those Pharisees did
in John chapter 8. But Satan's design was Satan's
demise, because the very thing he thought to kill Christ's people
became the stone that crushed his head. And so in Genesis 3
and verse 15, let me read that to you just to remind us what
it says there. God speaking to Satan about his demise. He says
this, I will put enmity, that's warfare, hostility between thee
and the woman, between Satan and the church, And between thy
seed, the seed of the offspring, the kingdom of Satan, and her
seed, which was Christ and his people, because they were in
him, it, her seed, her one seed, Christ, shall bruise thy head,
crush his head, and thou, the devil, shall bruise his heel.
That was the cross. So, what is the wicked that came,
my enemies and my foes that came upon me to eat up my flesh? Satan
and his kingdom. And what was the tool? Our sin.
He was going to destroy us because of our sin at the hand of God's
justice. That was his thought. That was
his intent to murder, and his weapon was his lies, and he thought
the murderous weapon would be the justice of God. God would
have to answer our sin in justice. But what he didn't realize is
that God would answer his justice by obligating himself and answering
in his son, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the answer Christ
gave would utterly take away our sin, establish our righteousness,
answer God's law and magnify it too, and therefore, like Haman
in the book of Esther, The gallows that Haman designed to hang Mordecai
on were the very thing that God used to put to death or to defeat
Satan and to subdue him under the feet of the church. And this
is the revelation of God. So, when we think about our enemies,
we think about Satan, we think about our sin. And we think about
death, that which reigns, sin reigns unto death. And then we
think about the Lord, who was our light and our salvation and
our strength, because he was strong enough to bind the strong
man, strong enough to crush his head. because he was strong because
of his love for righteousness and his hatred for iniquity.
He was strong to fulfill God's will. He had the knowledge to
justify his people by laying down his life, shedding his blood,
taking away their sins, fulfilling their righteousness, the righteousness
of God for them. and giving it to them, and this
he did all by his grace out of his love so that it was the complete
fulfillment of God's law and the manifestation of his character
in this act of Christ to save his people. What a Savior, what
a God. champion, what a captain, to
defeat our enemies, whether it be one or an army of them. He says, though a host should
encamp around me, that would be an army of enemies, or though
I have war, it doesn't matter. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Now, let's look at verse four
of Psalm 27. It says, one thing have I desired
of the Lord, one thing. It's important that we emphasize
the word one here. What is it that he desired? He
said, this one thing I've desired, and that will I seek after. The
one thing I desire, I'm going to seek. He says, 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. This verse,
we could preach sermons on this verse alone. First of all, to
understand this verse, I think it's necessary to understand
this phrase, I want to dwell in the house of the Lord. What
is the house of the Lord? Well, it's obviously where God
dwells. And where does God dwell? Well,
it says in Colossians 2, verse 9, the fullness of the Godhead
dwells bodily in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, and also in John
chapter 1, it says the word, which we know is the eternal
word, the Lord Jesus Christ and his divine nature, the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us, or tabernacled among us. So the
tabernacle of God is the Lord Jesus Christ, because in Him,
the fullness of the Godhead dwells. In Him, the Spirit is given without
measure, and He is the Word made flesh, the incarnate Word. He
is God with us. Okay? So the tabernacle is God
dwelling with us among, God dwelling among men. In 2 Kings, and I
think, I'm sorry, 2 Chronicles, chapter six and verse 18, Solomon
was building the great temple that Solomon built, and he exclaimed
in his prayer, when he's building this temple, and he says the
house was made for God, and yet he explains this. Let me turn
to 2 Chronicles 6, make sure I get this right. He says this
when he spoke, but will God in very deed dwell with men on the
earth? Behold, heaven And the heaven
of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which
I have built." Solomon was being very honest. He spent years,
all this gold and these precious jewels and the cedar and everything,
building this house for the Lord. And yet he says, now look at
this temple. God, will God in very deed dwell
with men on the earth? What was he talking about? He's
talking about the Word made flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
we see that no man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
So the Lord Jesus Christ is the one in whom God dwells. We see
that from scripture. And he is preeminently the temple
of the Lord. In Revelation 21, I think it's
verse three, it says, the tabernacle of God is with men and he shall
dwell with them. God himself dwelling in the tabernacle. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the mystery. God was manifest in the flesh,
2 Timothy 3.16. So, take all these things together
and overlay it on verse 4, Psalm 27 verse 4. What does it say?
The believer cries out, I want one thing, I seek after one thing,
that I may dwell in the Lord Jesus Christ. That when God sees
him, he sees all. that God requires, all that God
has for His people, all of it is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to be found there. And in being found in Christ,
I want to inquire in His temple. I want to ask Him, like John
laid his head on the bosom of Jesus, And he was the beloved
disciple, so near, laying his head right there on the very
chest of the Lord Jesus Christ. No doubt hearing his heartbeat,
feeling his breath and the warmth of his body, and listening so
intently to his words, he wanted to know him and be with him and
be found in him, and to inquire in his temple. Now, look what
he says, and what is he going to do? To behold the beauty of
the Lord. What is this beauty of the Lord
that we see when we're dwelling in Christ? Well, we see the very
reason that he does all that he does. It's his delight in
his people, isn't it? The beauty of Christ, think of
it as a bride. To the bride, the beauty of her
spouse, husband, is his love for her, isn't it? She loves
him, and he loves her, and he loves her in such a way that
she's overwhelmed by his affections
and his love for her. It sweeps her off her feet. And
so the Lord Jesus Christ's beauty to us is that he would love us
as sinners, give himself for us. The Son of God loved me and
gave himself for me. What greater beauty is there
in the love of Christ that passes knowledge? It extends in height
and depth and breadth and length. It's immeasurable that God, the
Son, would give himself eternally to take our nature, join himself
to his people in nature, join himself to them in all of his
work, in his reward, in his blessings, all that is his is made theirs
in this union. And this is beautiful to us,
isn't it? Lord, why did you give yourself
for sinners? Discovering that is to discover
the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was holy, it was righteous,
it exemplifies the very truth of God, it fulfills the righteousness
of God, it makes known the justice of God, it honors God's holy
law, and it makes known the overflowing grace of God, the ever-flowing
eternal river of God's love, all in Christ, and we see it
by the Spirit of God to see the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to
dwell in Him, and dwelling in Him by the life of the Spirit
of Christ, by His Spirit in me, I want to inquire in His temple. I want to ask Him. I want to
seek His beauty in what He has done, who He is, and it's all
seen in His relation to His people. What a beautiful Savior we have. I want this one thing, to be
found in Christ, for God to find me only in Him, to have nothing
but what I have in Him. I want no glory. I want nothing
but what Christ is, what God has made Christ to me. He's my
wisdom. That's my light, He's my righteousness,
He's my holiness, He's my redemption, He's everything. God has made
Him everything. What else do I need? The fullness
of the Godhead is in Him and you are complete in Him. Alright,
verse 5. Psalm 27, verse 5. He says, For in the time of trouble, he
shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me, and he shall set me upon a rock. And now shall
my 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 to the Lord. So in these two verses,
what do we see here? Well, take it back to what God
told Moses. Moses prayed, Lord, show me your
glory. What did the Lord say? I will,
but I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock and when I
have you in the cleft of the rock, I will cover you with my
hand and I will pass by you and you shall see my back parts when
God removes his hand. So that teaches us something.
In order to see God's glory, we have to be on the rock and
in the rock. And when we see on the rock and
in the rock, when God reveals himself to us, he's revealing
his glory, and God even said, this is my glory. When he passed
by, the Lord, the Lord God, let me read it to you in Exodus chapter
34, so you have it, because I don't have this memorized. He says
in verse six, the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed,
the Lord, the Lord God, merciful, There you have it, God's glory,
merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, all those things, iniquity, transgression, and sin, and will
by no means clear the guilty. That means he makes us righteous.
He clears us when he applies the blood of Christ to us when
Christ died for us and obtained our eternal redemption. The debt
was paid. The guilt was washed away. The
sins were removed. Justice was satisfied. A propitiation
to God was made. Reconciliation between us and
God was established by the blood of Christ. Full remission of
our sins, and that is the glory of God. And how does he make
it known this? He puts us in Christ by his spirit. He makes Christ known while we're
hidden in Christ. And when we see that, then what
we say is what the psalmist says. Being in Christ, being hidden
in the refuge of Christ, in him, the tabernacle, the secret of
his tabernacle, he hides me in him, he sets me in Christ, he
sets me upon Christ. He says in verse six, now, even
though I have all these enemies, Satan, my sins, death, the hell,
I mean hell and the grave. He says, now shall my head be
lifted up above my enemies round about me. Therefore, while I
will offer this in his tabernacle, because I see Christ in him crucified,
I will offer sacrifices of joy. And I will sing, I will sing
praises to the Lord. Doesn't that happen? Doesn't
the Lord give you this grace? Maybe not all the time, but sometimes
it seems like the light of the gospel so comforts you, that
peace overwhelms you, the joy of the Lord becomes your joy,
that he's done everything to save his people, and he has saved
them. And so our peace with Him and
with God is made. Joy comes to us, it's His joy.
We're given to know it and we're directed to Him and His love
for us and what flows is the fruit of the Spirit. And so he
says, I'm gonna sing praises to the Lord. And then in verse
seven he says, hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have
mercy also upon me and answer me. So here he's building up
to the next verse. And what he says is, he asked
the Lord to hear him. And how is the Lord going to
hear us? If he hears us, he will hear us in our advocate. He will hear us in our mediator,
our intercessor. He will hear us for Christ's
sake. He will hear the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ, as
he did in John chapter 17, for example. All the prayers of the
Lord Jesus Christ were not only for himself, but for himself
with his people. So he hears them. He, when he
was, it says in Hebrews chapter five and verse seven, that when
he suffered, let me just read it to you. In Hebrews chapter 5, verse 7,
he says this. He says, in the days of his flesh
when he had offered up prayers and supplication with strong
crying, and tears unto him that was able to save him from death,
and was heard, and that he feared. Though he were a son, he had
learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being
made perfect in his sufferings, in his supplications, in his
prayers, he became the author of eternal salvation to all them
that obey him. There we have the gospel, the
comfort of the gospel. All those who believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ are given eternal salvation because Christ prayed
for them and suffered for them and was saved by God with them
from death. All right? So he prays, hear,
O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer
me. That's our prayer, isn't it?
As sinners, we have no claims. We only have an intercessor,
a mediator that we go to when we say, Lord, have mercy upon
me. Consider not me, but consider
Christ. Consider the sacrifice of himself,
the propitiation to God that you gave and he offered and that
you accepted for sinners. And as I mentioned about Psalm
106, I think it was last week, Psalm 106, another Dear text of scripture, he says
in verse 4, Remember me, O Lord, with the favor that Thou bearest
to Thy people. O visit me with Thy salvation,
that I may see the good of Thy chosen, that I may rejoice in
the gladness of Thy nation, that I may glory with Thine inheritance.
And here he expresses the same prayer this way, hear me oh lord
when i cry with my voice have mercy also upon me let your mercies
it says in psalm 119 that thy mercies come also unto me even
thy salvation according to thy word so shall i um so shall i
what i gotta read it again so shall i sorry The last part of
that slips my mind. He says, so shall I have wherewith
to answer him that reproacheth me. How are we going to answer
our accuser? If the Lord has mercy, if he
is our salvation. And so he asks for God's mercy.
But then he says this in verse nine, hide not thy face from
me, put not thy servant away in anger. There has been my help,
leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. He
appeals to God as his entire salvation, and he asks him, don't
leave me, don't forsake me, you're my savior. Verse 10, when my
father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me
up. You see his expectation? What is it? What is his hope,
his expectation, his confidence? The Lord is not going to forsake,
he's not going to leave him. His greatest, his enemies aren't
as great a concern for him as the loss of the sense of God's
presence in Christ. He wants to see God's beauty
in Christ. He needs that. He hungers and
thirsts for it. He prays for it, for mercy, and
then he appeals to God not to leave him or forsake him, and
he considers his own mother and father, even if they forsake
me, the Lord's not gonna forsake me. And then he goes on, verse
11, teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path.
Make it simple, make it clear, make it straight, because of
my enemies. Deliver me not unto the will
of my enemies, for false witnesses are risen against me. Everything
my enemies say about me is generally not nearly as far as it should
be said in terms of my own guilt. I think it was George Whitefield
said, my enemies don't know the half. They make accusations,
but they don't know half of it. So, in a sense, all our enemies
can say about us is true, but here he says, no, false witnesses. And why are they false witnesses?
because God has justified his people in Christ. There's no
charge that can be justly made against God's people. God, in
his holiness, in his righteousness, justifies them. There, therefore,
is no sin. There's no coming short of the
glory of God in Christ for them. All has been fulfilled. They
stand before God, holy and without blame, in love in Christ. That's the glory of the gospel. He has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. It's all ours in Him. God, no
one can charge God's elect. So he says, Lord, teach me your
way. Show me Christ. Show me that my salvation is
in him, that he is my light and my salvation because of my enemies.
And deliver me not to the will of my enemies, for false witnesses
are risen 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. The land of the living, that's
where we live now. And I would faint unless God
showed me his goodness in Christ. and that I don't see it many
times. It seems like it's hidden from
me, but I know it's there because it's in the Lord. He's my light
and salvation. So I believe. I believe because
God has persuaded me that my salvation is in Christ. I believe
that His goodness is in Christ, and therefore I believe to see
His goodness. The Spirit of God will show me the goodness of
the Lord in the gospel here, even in this life. And he goes
on, wait on the Lord. be of good courage, he shall
strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, in the Lord." And
we know from Galatians 5.5 that we, through the Spirit, do wait
for the hope of righteousness through faith. It's all through
the Spirit. We wait. in expectation of God's
promise of righteousness in Christ, and we do so by faith." That's
what he said. I believe to see the goodness
of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait. He directs all
of God's people. As a man pouring out his heart
in need of God's saving grace, he says, You wait, wait on the
Lord and be of good courage. There's no reason to fear your
enemies. Why should we fear if the Lord
is our light and salvation? And why should we be afraid if
he is our strength? Let's pray. Father, thank you that the Lord
Jesus Christ has been made into us all. All that God has for
His people is given to us in Him. All heavenly and spiritual
blessings, our justification, our remission of our sins, everything.
We could go down the list. Our holiness, our glorification,
everything is in our Savior. And nothing that is in Him can
possibly fail. He sits on Heaven's throne in
glory already. and we have been raised to sit
in heavenly places with Him. So Lord, we pray, open our eyes,
show us that He is our light, He is our wisdom, and we see
wisdom in Him, and we know God in Him, and we know our need
because of Him. We pray, Lord, that You would
show us the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living as
we live these lives, that You would strengthen our hearts so
that we could see that our salvation is in Christ alone. In Jesus'
name we pray, Amen.