And we pray that you'd bless
those who are here and bless your word to us. We so desperately
need you to minister to us from your word. In Jesus' name we
pray, amen. All right, so Psalm chapter 11 is where we're gonna
be tonight. If you wanna turn there, let's
read through this Psalm. It's not very long, it's only
seven verses. And after we read through it,
I will give you an overview of it and we will go through it
verse by verse. In Psalm 11, verse 1, it says, In the Lord
put I my trust. How say ye to my soul, flee,
as a bird to your mountain? For lo, the wicked bend their
bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may
privily shoot at the upright in heart. If the foundations
be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in the heaven.
His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men. The
Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth
violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall reign
snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest. This
shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness. His countenance doth behold the
upright. All right, now, first of all,
I want to point out here what is often overlooked, and that's
the obvious. Here is a person who is pleading
with the Lord. We should never underestimate
the gift that God has given us in scripture. The fact that he
has given his own word and he cannot lie in this, the Bible
that we have in our hands, has given us a warrant, that he's
given us the authority to do so. His own blessing that we
would come to the Lord Jesus, we who are sinners, and trust
Him at all times, in every trial, even in the very darkest of times. It says in Isaiah 50 and verse
10, Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice
of His servant, that would be the Lord Jesus Christ, that walketh
in darkness and has no light? And we find that to be true,
don't we, in our experience? We trust the Lord, we fear the
Lord, we believe the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet we have darkness
and don't seem to have light. Here's God's admonition. He says, let him, that one who
fears the Lord, who obeys Christ, and yet walks in darkness and
has no light, let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay
upon his God. So here we have this obvious
point in the Psalms, not just this Psalm, but in all the Psalms,
that sinners are given warrant. In fact, they're given the greatest
encouragement by God Himself to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,
to come to Him, to seek forgiveness from Him for all of our sins,
and to thank and praise Him for that forgiveness, and ask and
expect Him to fully deliver us from our sins by His grace alone. What a privilege that is. that
we can come to God and trust the Lord Jesus Christ to save
us from our sins. That's what we need and that's
what God tells us to do. And so in this psalm in the very
first line he says, in the Lord put I my trust. Now I make no
apology for taking these words in the broadest sense to apply
to the Lord Jesus Christ. They speak of the Lord, and Jesus
Christ is the Lord. Remember in Romans 10, whosoever
shall confess with his mouth the Lord Jesus, Jesus is the
Lord. And so I freely take the liberty to apply
these words to the Lord Jesus Christ. We trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the one speaking here makes
it personal. In the Lord put I my trust. It's not another
person. I am trusting Him. At all times,
in the darkest of times, in the times when my soul is dark, Jesus
Christ is my light. He is the light of how God can
justify me who am in myself ungodly, not worthy of the least of His
blessings, and even save me to the uttermost because the Lord
Jesus Christ says He would do that for all who come to God
by Him. Now that's the introduction to this psalm and it points out
the great blessing we have that God has given his own word and
God cannot buy, he doesn't change, he doesn't fail, that those who
put their trust in Christ shall be saved. Okay, let's look at
this psalm in an outline form, first of all. Now, here, as I've
tried to say already, the psalm is talking about someone who
trusts in Christ. And though that person in the
first line says, I trust the Lord, how say ye to my soul,
he's speaking as if he's coming to God, he's expressing his trust
in Christ, and he's also saying, in response to his enemy's accusation,
the threatenings of his enemies, and all that the enemy would
bring upon him, he says to the enemy, how do you say to my soul,
flee as a bird to your mountain? I'm trusting him. So the outline
then is all who trust Christ, though they are tried, they are
tried by God, to prove that His grace will see them to the end,
and though they are tried to purify their faith, they shall
nevertheless prevail over their enemies, because Christ rules
in heaven, as you see here in verse 4, the Lord is in His holy
temple, the Lord's throne is in the heaven. and he dwells
in them they are the temple of god and he is greater than all
their enemies and he dwells in them the lord jesus christ according
to verse two if the foundations be destroyed the lord jesus christ
is our foundation and he cannot be shaken he is our rock he is
the one by whom we are saved he cannot change he can endure
all of the assaults of the enemy against us all of the waves,
the floods of any kind of trouble, He can endure it because He's
our rock, He's high above all other things, and He shall judge
against the wicked on our behalf because we trust in Him. Now
this trust, of course, is His gift to us. We didn't produce
it. We would never claim to be the ones who made us, made ourselves,
trust Him. No, actually, that faith that
we have comes out of affliction, and it comes out of the rescue
of God's word under affliction. Psalm 107 makes that clear. God brings affliction in order
to, under that affliction, show himself strong to save his people
from their sins, and then he gives them that grace of faith
to trust him, and in trusting him, they give him thanks. Oh,
that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and his marvelous
works to the children of men. So, that's the first thing. In
this psalm, a man, a believer, who is himself in need because
his enemy is coming against him, expresses his trust in Christ
and he also expresses, he speaks as if to the enemy, how do you
say to my soul, flee as a bird to the mountain, because the
Lord is my trust." And then in verse 2, what you see here, this
weak and persecuted believer, by the enemy here, expresses
not only his trust in Christ to the rebuke of all his enemies,
But he also brings to God's remembrance the wickedness of his enemies.
Verse 2, for lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their
arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot or secretly
shoot at the upright in heart. So what is he saying here? Lord,
my trust is in you. And how can the enemy prevail
against me? How can the enemy claim to be
able to overcome me, since my trust is in you, and consider
in light of the enemy's intent, consider their wickedness? because
they bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string,
and they secretly try to shoot at the upright in heart. And
then he brings in verse three, notice, if the foundations be
destroyed, what can the righteous do? And so in verse three, the
believer is praying on the ground that if God were to forsake those
who trust Christ, then the very foundations would be destroyed. So how powerful is that prayer?
It's powerful because God himself has given us the outline of it.
Remember when Israel sinned against God in the book of Exodus, when
Moses went up to the mountain, and then he came down from the
mountain, and Aaron had taken gold from them and made an idol,
and they were worshiping this idol, this calf that Aaron brought
out of the fire. and used a tool to shape it into
a calf, and they were worshipping the calf, and Moses was so angry,
he took those two tables of stone and broke them. And then he prays
to the Lord, and the Lord says, I'm going to destroy them. I'll
make you, I'll make out of you, I'll make another inheritance. And Moses said, you need to think
about this. Well, of course, he didn't say
it like that. But he prayed with him, if you do that, if you destroy
these people that are your people, what will the enemy say? You
couldn't bring them. Their sins were too great. And
not only that, but it's your glory to forgive iniquity. And so he asked the Lord to pardon
and the Lord pardoned them. Of course, it was God, the Holy
Spirit, who moved him to pray with that wisdom because this
is the way God saves his people. The foundation is what? No other
foundation can be laid than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Remember 1 Corinthians 3, verse 11, the apostle Paul says, there
is no other foundation on which we can build The church except
Jesus Christ and every believer is built on Christ, the rock.
He's the cornerstone, he's the chief cornerstone, he's that
rock, that stone that God has chosen to be the foundation of
his people. And so if the foundations be
destroyed, those who trust Christ to save them, if they're disappointed,
if they actually are overcome by the enemy, then God's word
fails. Christ's salvation of them fails. God's name is dishonored. His glory is dishonored. And
so he says, not only that, but what shall the righteous do?
What can the righteous do? Of course, God's foundations
are not going to fail. But the prayer is put forth is,
first of all, Lord, I'm trusting you. Secondly, look at the wickedness
of the enemy. Thirdly, if you allow the enemy
to overcome me, what will that do? The foundations will be destroyed,
and what can the righteous do? And so then, in the prayer, in
verse four, notice, he says, the Lord is in his holy temple.
The Lord's throne is in the heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids
try the children of men. So now he comes in the argument
of the prayer. The logic of the prayer flows
from, I trust in Christ. The enemy has no right. I'm going
to hold my hand up to the enemy and say, no, I am not going to
flee. If the Lord is my salvation,
if the Lord is my strength, who shall I fear? Isn't that what
Psalm 27 says? Let me read this to you in Psalm
27. 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? So
that's what Psalm 11 verse 1 is saying. Why do you think I'm
going to be afraid? The Lord Jesus Christ says that
the gates of hell will not prevail against the building of his church. And so I am not going to be afraid.
Remember what it says about Peter and John in Acts chapter 4. They had come to the temple and
there's a man there who couldn't walk and he's begging because
he couldn't walk, he couldn't work, he couldn't get money,
he needed people to give him money and Peter and John said,
Peter looked at him and said, I don't have any money, silver
and gold have I none, but such as I have I give to you in the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And the man
immediately leaped, he jumped up and was leaping and walking
and praising God. And the rulers of the temple
took issue with this. And Peter and John preached the
gospel, and they took Peter and John, and they scolded them and
threatened them that if they preached this anymore, that they
would punish them. They forbid them to do this.
And here was Peter's response. Listen to this cutting response
of Peter. And keep in mind verse 1 of Psalm
11, where he says, why do you say to my soul, flee as a bird
to your mountain, since I trust the Lord? In Acts chapter 4,
when Peter and John said this, it says in verse 7 of Acts 4,
when they had set them in the midst, Peter and John, they asked,
by what power or by what name have you done this? raised this
man up. And Peter, filled with the Holy
Ghost, said to them, You rulers of the people and elders of Israel,
if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent
man by what means he is made whole, be it known to you all
and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,
even by him does this man stand here before you whole. This is
the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which has become
the head of the corner." You looked at Christ, you said, no,
we reject him, even though he was the head of the cornerstone. He says, this is the stone which
was set at nought of you builders, which the builders, by the way,
are those who bringing are supposed to bring in people and put them
in the temple of God, but these men, of course, didn't do that.
They considered Christ not to be worthy to be built upon, but
he was the foundation. Anyway, so they said this to
them, and then they said, which has become the head of the corner,
neither, Peter tells them, you crucified Christ? You set him
aside? Yet God raised him from the dead.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. And when they saw the boldness
of Peter and John, they perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men. They marveled, and they took
knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus." OK, so apply
that here in Psalm chapter 11. Apply not only that, but the
boldness of Peter and John, apply the boldness of Psalm 27.1, the
Lord is my light and my salvation, my strength, whom shall I fear,
apply this to Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, apply it to all the
saints who through faith looked upon Christ as their Savior,
the Lord of heaven and earth, and said to the enemy, how dare
you say to my soul, flee as a bird to the mountain. No, I'm not
going to, because Christ has given me his gospel, the power
of God to salvation. You might forbid me, but Christ
has commanded me to trust him and to preach this gospel. And
so that's what they do. And he reminds them in verse
2, as I said, he reminds the Lord of the wickedness, their
intent, their evil intent to destroy his people. And what
is it that the wicked want to do? What do they want to do?
Well, what did Moses pray when he prayed to the Lord to forgive
Israel? For example, when they were going into the land of Canaan
and they wouldn't go in because of unbelief. And the Lord said,
I'm going to destroy them all. He said, Lord, if you do that,
the enemy will say, you couldn't do it. You couldn't bring these
people. They were too sinful. You couldn't bring them. So what
was the plea there? It was the plea that the wicked
were trying to take advantage of the fact that because if God
couldn't save these people, then he made them his people and he
didn't think far enough ahead or have the power to deliver
them from their sins and from the enemy. And so, the psalmist
is reminding the Lord of this in verse 2. The wicked bend their
bow, they make ready their arrow, upon the string that they may
privily shoot at the upright in heart. They would love to
discredit Christ. Remember the scribes and Pharisees?
They were always telling the disciples, why do you trust?
Why do you follow him? He's not worthy to be a master
teacher. He can't even perceive when there
are sinners in the room with him. He eats and drinks with
publicans and sinners. And he claims to be the son of
God and the Christ of God. He blasphemes. He's actually
one of Satan's devils. That's what they said about Jesus.
And so they try to discredit Christ. They try to destroy him,
just like the devil did in the garden with Eve, trying to get
her to focus off of what God said. But here we go. In verse
3, he also brings this up, if the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? Lord, if you allow our salvation
in Christ to be taken from us by the wicked intent of the enemy,
then the foundations are going to be destroyed. We trusted that
you would save us. Christ is able to do that, and
yet here the enemy is aiming at us with his arrow, trying
to take us secretly. But the Lord is in His holy temple,
the Lord's throne is in the heavens, and His eyes behold, His eyelids
try the children of men." All right. So here, now the prayer
is taking the eyes of the one who is praying to God up off
of the plea that God needs to act in order to uphold the foundations
of Christ and his salvation. Now he's taking his eyes up to
the throne of heaven itself and saying, the Lord is in his holy
temple. The Lord's throne is in the heavens.
His eyelids, behold, his eyelids try the children of men. He's
the judge. He's not going to let iniquity
go. He's not going to let His temple,
and what is His temple? That's wherever God is. Where
is God? He's in the heavens. So His temple
is there. Where else is He? He's in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, Jesus Christ, the fullness
of the Godhead dwells in him bodily, right? The fullness of
the Godhead dwells in the Lord Jesus Christ in his body. God
in all of his fullness dwells in Christ. No limitations. Solomon prayed, shall God indeed
dwell with men on the earth? Yes. Immanuel, God with us. Unto the Son he saith, thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. So, Christ sits in heaven on
the throne. Christ is God in his body on
the throne and Christ is in his people. That's where he dwells.
Remember in the Old Testament, the Lord said, I will meet with
you above the mercy seat between the cherubims in the tabernacle. That's a picture of the church
and Jesus Christ. It's a picture of his people
and of Christ in them. And so God makes himself known
there. And so the prayer of the psalmist says here, in consideration
of the intent and the actions of the enemy to destroy him,
he says, my trust is in Christ. The enemy have an evil desire
to destroy me, which is Christ's people. The foundations would
be destroyed if God allowed that to happen. The Lord is in his
holy temple. He cannot be overthrown. And it also adds this in the
end of verse four, his eyes behold, his eyelids try the children
of men. Now look at verse three, I'm
sorry, verse five. Verse five, the Lord trieth the
righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence his
soul hateth. So here is the explanation of
why this man is in such a difficult position. Why is this man even
in this case where he's crying out, my trust is in the Lord?
And why does he have to respond to the enemy? Why do you say
to my soul, flee as a bird to the mountain? And why is the
enemy allowed to take arrows and aim them at the righteous,
the Lord's people? And why does he feel as if the
foundations are gonna be destroyed and he has to plead to the Lord
Jesus Christ on the throne of grace in heaven who dwells in
his people? It's because Verse 5, the Lord
explains it. On the one hand, he tries the
righteous, and on the other hand, he hates the wicked, and upon
them, verse 6, he's going to rain snares, fire, and brimstone,
and a horrible tempest, and that shall be the portion of their
cup. So on the one hand, God who sits on the throne, verse
four again, and whose eyes see and his eyelids try the children
of men, the way he tries the righteous is he puts them under
test, trials, that try not only their faith, but God's grace
given to them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And under
that trial, what happens? Christ upholds their faith. It
proves the genuineness of the grace given to them. and that
faith in Christ is purified, so it increases more and more,
so they trust Him more and more. Remember 1 Peter 1? These things
are commonly spoken of in Scripture. Let me read this example to you
in 1 Peter 1. He says, Blessed, verse 3, blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Christ is risen.
He has justified His people. They are risen with Him. Now
that's a lively hope, isn't it? It's a living hope because Christ
being on the throne of glory, raised from the dead, gives them
His own spirit, gives them life to trust Him. Okay? Verse 4,
"...to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fades not
away reserved in heaven for you." That's our hope. that our inheritance,
our salvation, will be consummated in the inheritance that's in
heaven that can't be corrupted, can't be defiled, and can't fade
away. Verse 5. But now, who are kept by the
power of God through faith, That's the way God keeps his people,
through faith, always looking to Christ, the one through whom
we're saved, unto, this faith leads unto salvation, ready to
be revealed in the last time. In the last time, God's gonna
reveal the complete salvation of his people. wherein you greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness
through manifold temptations. The experience of our life now
is the trial, the trial of our faith." Verse seven, that the
trial of your faith. being much more precious than
of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. You see, so going back to Psalm
11 now, his eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men.
On the one hand, the righteous are tried. In the trial of their
faith, what happens? Their faith increases in its
purity and it increases in their trust in Christ. and it proves
the genuineness of God's grace to them because as Peter, facing
his denial of Christ, Jesus said, I've prayed for your faith. In
other words, Christ intercedes and upholds his faith. That's
the way God deals with His people. The Lord tries the righteous.
But, verse 5, the wicked and him that loveth violence his
soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire a brimstone, and a horrible tempest, and that
shall be the portion of their cup. So the wicked, they love
violence. And what kind of violence do
they love? Well, you know what the devil is called in Scripture? a murderer from the beginning.
Remember? He is a murderer from the beginning.
His intent was to kill Christ and his people. That's his desire. And so when it talks in verse
two here, the wicked bend their bow, make ready their arrow upon
the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart,
that's the violence. It's not a violence so much as
with swords and saws and spears and stuff like that. We wrestle
not with flesh and blood, God says in Ephesians chapter six,
but with principalities and powers, right? And what are we supposed
to do? We're not to take up a physical sword, not with lasers, not with
nuclear bombs. We're not supposed to rally in
Washington to beat our enemies. What are we to do? We're to take
on the whole armor of God, the helmet of salvation. the breastplate
of righteousness, our loins girt about with the truth, the shield
of faith, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, our
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel, praying with all
supplications. So our weapons are not carnal,
they're mighty through God through the pulling down of strongholds.
And so the wicked, their violence is not so much levied at us with
physical things, although that does happen. There is physical
persecution, but it's a spiritual attack. And therefore we have
to guard ourselves, we have to fight against it and protect
ourselves with spiritual resources. The Word of God, faith in Christ,
His salvation, His righteousness is our justification before God. And so we're always looking to
what? the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the foundation
Christ in him crucified. If the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do? What does the enemy do? Try to
destroy the foundations. What are those foundations? Well,
first of all, they attack the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not truly God. Or, he is
God, but he's not truly man. Or, he is God and man, and he
did die on the cross, but he died for everybody, therefore
somebody has to do something to make his salvation work. And
those people who do something, they're to be held up on a pedestal,
but the rest of those poor sinners can't do anything about it, so
they're lost as a goose. Or these people who actually
committed themselves to Christ, they hold to him, the rest of
them couldn't hold on, so they perish in their sins. All those
things are attacking the foundation. Because at the very core of the
foundation of the gospel is what? That Christ has justified us
by his blood and his obedience. It's not because of our sins,
our faith, or our commitment that we're saved. It's in spite
of our sins and our unbelief. We're justified by the blood
and righteousness of Christ. And faith is looking to Christ
as all of our acceptance and righteousness before God. So
the foundations are always attacking the person and work of Christ.
Men try to get you to look at your experience, or they try
to get you to understand what's truth by what you can perceive
and sense. Instead of just saying, no, God
has said that Christ did this and that's the truth and that's
my salvation, what God has said in his word concerning Christ.
It's what he did. He finished the work and it was
perfect. Nothing can be added. My faith
doesn't complete a transaction. My faith is God's gift to me
to see what Christ has done. But religion today is the enemy. Antichrist religion and false
religion is the enemy because they try to dishonor Christ. They try to steal something from
His glory. They try to rob Him of His honor and His glory because
they make salvation the work of God plus man. And if you were
to add up and distill everything in false religion, it's going
to come down to this. It's either by works or it's by grace. And
those who say it's by works plus grace, it's all of works. It
can't be both. And those who trust Christ say, no, God does
it. He did it all. Christ did it
by himself. He purged our sins and then he
sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. That's the
answer. The foundation is Christ and
him crucified. The enemy always trying to attack
him. But Christ is enough. If he's
not enough, we're lost. But if he's enough, then we have
all things in him. And that's what God teaches us.
The fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells in him, and you are complete
in him. Believer, reckon it to be so. Don't flee as a bird to your
mountain. Whom shall I fear? God is for us. Who can charge
one thing against God's people? Who can lay anything to their
charge? Who can condemn us for whom Christ died? You see, that's
our defense. It's what God has said in his
word concerning Christ and his work for us. And so the plea
of the psalmist here is always asking God, consider the fact
that you've given me this faith to trust you, Lord. Consider
the fact that the wicked intend to destroy your people, and me
in particular. Consider the fact that if you
allow that to happen, the very foundations will be destroyed,
and what can the righteous do if Christ and Him crucified is
not everything in their salvation? And consider the fact that you
sit on heaven's throne, you dwell there in your people, in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and consider the fact that this, and we should
consider the fact that all of our trials are because God is
testing us in order to prove His grace will uphold us by faith,
through faith that we, the salvation that He upholds us by. Let me
say it again. In 1 Peter 1, he says, now you
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed at the last day, okay? All right, so now
we're at verse seven, Psalm 11, verse seven. What does it say?
For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. His countenance
doth behold the upright. Now the plea is, he sums up everything
at the end of the psalm. He says, God's gonna do right.
The Lord Jesus Christ, it says in scripture in Psalm 45 and
verse seven and Hebrews chapter one, verse nine, it says, Thou
lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity. Therefore God has exalted
you, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows."
And so here, what he's saying here, the believer under the
assault of the enemy, and it comes in many forms, our own
sins, our own sinful nature, false religion, anti-Christ religion,
anything to tempt us to look to something besides what God
has said concerning what Christ has done. Isn't that it? Is that
enough? Is it enough that God has said
Christ has done the work and finished the work of our salvation
and now we look to him to save us to the uttermost and that
we can come to him even though we are sinners and ask and expect
him to actually save us from our sins to the uttermost? It's because the Lord, the righteous
Lord, loves righteousness, and His countenance does behold the
upright. He beholds the upright. He beholds
His people in Christ, and He beholds Christ for them. And
how can He do anything but bless them? Because He sees His Son
when He looks on them. Just like David, he looked at
Mephibosheth there at his table. That lame man, probably a scrabbly
old beard, who knows what he looked like, but he was shriveled
because he couldn't get up, he couldn't go jogging every day
like the rest of us, and so he was shriveled and scabby and
weak and helpless and couldn't contribute anything to David's
kingdom. And yet there he sits, and when
he sees him, what does he think of? Ah, that's Jonathan. That's my friend, my beloved,
the one I made a covenant with, that's Jonathan. And so the Lord
looks at us, and what does he see? He sees the Lord Jesus. His countenance doth behold the
upright. And so in all of our prayers,
we take God's word. It's His foundation. He laid
it. We're trusting Christ. Consider the wicked. They're
trying to destroy your kingdom, Lord, and yet you said your church
will be built and the gates of hell can't prevail, and consider
them, and you're trying the children of men that you try us, with
the wicked, you prove your grace to us in upholding our faith
in Christ. and yet you're going to bring
judgment on the wicked because you love righteousness and you
hate iniquity, and this is the scepter of your kingdom. Christ's
scepter, it's that he loves righteousness and hates iniquity. What a blessing
it is that God has given us his word to hold us fast, keeping
our eyes on Christ, and not trust ourselves, even though When we
look at ourselves, we become very terrified that the Lord
may not be able to save us because we're so weak and so sinful.
Isn't that wonderful? Let's pray. Lord, thank you for
the Lord Jesus Christ and your word concerning him. Give us
this faith that you give to your people. Give us this grace that
you give to your people in the Lord Jesus. Save us to the uttermost
by him. We know that he accomplished,
perfected the work of our salvation. All of our hope is in Him. If
we look to no other, we need no other. And if we need another,
then we're lost. But He is the foundation. Lord,
don't let us perish, lest the foundations be destroyed. Lest
Your name be dishonored, because those who trusted You, by the
grace You gave to them, were yet lost, and we know that cannot
happen. So we plead your grace, your upholding grace towards
us, your faithfulness to Christ, your hatred of iniquity and sin,
and the wickedness of those who would destroy your people and
dishonor your name. And we plead, Lord, to save us
to the uttermost. Give us a discerning heart so
that we would see when the false religions and the false Gospels
of this world would cause us to waver in our hope in Christ
and cause us to lose confidence in Him and our hope would become
dim. But help us to lay aside every
weight and look to the Lord Jesus Christ and that race set before
Him that He ran and how He finished the work and therefore our salvation
is sure in Him. and to realize that in this life
we are going to suffer trouble, trials, all sorts of things,
so that we would be tempted to run away. But help us to know
that because the Lord is our strength and our salvation, we
need not fear any of Satan's kingdom, but because we have
the Lord Jesus Christ who sits on the throne of glory, dwells
in us, and greater is He who is in us than he that is in the
world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.