Now, back in 2 Samuel 22. Now,
I read the first 16 verses of this chapter. This is a song
or a psalm. In fact, it's almost identical
to Psalm 18. In your study, in your personal
reading, you want to read that along with it. There are a few
minor differences, probably more in the line of language and translation
than anything else. But this is what this is, Psalm
18. But as I read the first 16 verses, I'm not going to try
to get through all of them even tonight. What I want to do is,
through the first four verses of this psalm as we look at it
in its divisions, I want to lay the foundation. That's what the
first four verses do. They lay the foundation of everything
that David says in this psalm of praise. The first four verses
speak of the character and the nature and the glory of God which
can only be seen and only really be truly embraced in worship
as we see the glory of God in Christ. And so that's why I've
entitled this message, The Glory of God in Christ. This is a Psalm
of David in reference to God's delivering mercies unto him,
where he ascribes all power and all goodness and all mercy to
God. This is where David throughout
this psalm, and it's almost like he's looking back all over his
life. He's about to come to the end
of his life. I know it says there in the day
that the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies
and out of the hand of Saul. This wasn't the exact day and
time, but it was a day of God's grace. And we can say that about
our whole life, can't we? David could too. I think about
Jeremiah, you know, when the Lord came to Jeremiah and told
him, he said, from the womb, I marked you out, chose you and
anointed you for this purpose. And so all of our days are days
of grace and mercy because God raised us up to the praise of
the glory of his grace. He saved us to the praise of
the glory of his grace. So when David says in that day,
he's not talking about an exact calendar day and time. He's talking
about that day of his life. the whole of his life, wherein
God delivered him out of all the hands of his enemies, and
out of the hands of Saul specifically, because he's going to make reference
to that later on in this psalm. But what David is doing in this
psalm of praise and worship, somebody said one time, if you
really want to learn how to worship, read the psalms. And I think
that's a good idea, isn't it? This is a psalm of worship. And
what David is doing here, he's acknowledging his total dependence
upon God to save him eternally, savingly in his eternal grace,
but also his total dependence upon God to deliver him in all
events, all the difficulties and challenges and trials of
this life and all that's happened to him, whether it be good or
bad. Nothing excepted here. In other words, David doesn't
make any comments specifically about the bad things and the
good things. He just sees it as all one big
thing in the mind and purpose and plan of God. And it's all
simply the unfolding of that plan and that purpose of God
in His behalf in redemption to show forth God's great power.
In other words, it's a psalm that simply states that salvation
is of the Lord. Amen to that. Salvation is of
the Lord. It shows God working all things
after the counsel of His own will, even to the point of moving
heaven and earth to glorify Himself in the salvation of His people
through Christ. He'll move heaven and earth.
We see that literally in many cases, especially in David's
life. And he's showing here that, listen,
these things, they're not happening by accident. They're not happening
in some frustrated way, as if to say this thing is out of whack
and we're in some kind of a chaotic episode here where we really
just can't figure it out and neither can God. No, we can't
figure it out, but God's got it all figured out. He's got
it all under control. He's bringing to pass His own
purpose for one reason, that Christ might have the preeminence
in all things. He said that in Colossians chapter
1, that He might have the preeminence in all things. and that all his
people might be brought unto the fullness of salvation and
glory that Christ alone purchased for us on the cross by his death."
And that's why he says, the writer says in Hebrews chapter 1, that
he's the fullness of the glory of God and the express image
of the purpose of God, for in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And where is that seen more than
anywhere else? in the revelation of God's time
and purpose. It's seen on the cross of Calvary,
right there. Because there you see every attribute
of God working consistently together, honoring to Him and in the salvation
of His people. Well, these first four verses,
as I said, they lay the foundation. Here we have David extolling
the perfections of God. The perfections of God. And what
I'm saying is, the foundation, we might say the benchmark, And
as we read through the psalm, you know, you might read some
strange language in this psalm. You might read some language
you can't figure out. You might think that David is justifying
himself in some areas, but he's not doing that. He's not doing
that at all, because you've got to go back to the foundation.
You've got to go back to the benchmark. You've got to go back
to the starting place, because here's where it all begins, centers,
and ends, right here. And that is in this. It's in
the perfections of God's nature, revealed, honored and magnified
in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
what these first four verses do. We'll just start reading
them here and look at them. You know, God had given David
a profound, glorious insight into his purpose and into his
own perfection. And as I said here, David knew,
you know, when we get to chapter 23, we're going to read the last
words of David. And he knew it wouldn't be long
that he'd be called to go to the Lord. And through his life,
especially the latter part of his life, he had experienced
the chastening of the Lord, sometimes the hard chastening of the Lord.
But it was all for God's glorious purpose and for David's good,
and he knew that. Well, let's look and see how
he expresses that by inspiration of the Spirit in these first
four verses. It says in verse 1, David spake unto the Lord.
This is a prayer. This is an act of worship. He
spake unto the Lord, and the word Lord there, the name Lord,
that title is the covenant God. It's the Lord Jehovah. It's the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's the God of promise. It's
the God of all grace. It's the God who justifies the
ungodly through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, His
bloody death on the cross. This is the God who will not
receive except any person. Accept that which he receives
and accept in honor to himself through and by the Lord Jesus
Christ. So David prays. He's praying through a great
high priest, the promise of a great high priest who would come and
who would go to the cross for him and die for his sins. And
he spake these words, the words of this song in the day that
the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies
and out of the hand of Saul. We can speak of this in reference
to David himself and the deliverances that God had brought David through. Everything David had come through
was not of David's power. It was not of David's goodness.
It was not of David's wisdom. It was all of God. And David
recognizes that. Don't you recognize that in your
own life? I do. I know you do. If we survive another day, whether
we're going through a time of joy or a time of pain, it's all
of the Lord. And it's all for His purpose
and according to His power and goodness. And then secondly,
this can be spoken in reference to all of God's children, for
He is also our Deliverer. God is our Deliverer. He's our
Savior, and He's our Deliverer. But another reference that can
be made of this is David as a type of Christ, in reference to our
Savior, who Himself, in His humanity, in His time here on earth, was
preserved and strengthened and upheld in his humanity by the
Father and the Spirit to accomplish all that he would do to save
us from our sins. In fact, part of this psalm,
if you'll look over in Hebrews chapter 2, part of this psalm
is quoted in Hebrews chapter 2 when it's talking about the
death of Christ. In his sufferings, and in his deliverances, in the
time of his humiliation here on earth, The Bible says that
the Father upheld him. It says that he had a full measure
of the Spirit. He's not like us. He had the
Spirit without measure, constantly with him, bearing him up in the
impurities of the flesh. His own deity held him up through
this. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, all three persons of the Godhead were engaged in
this great work in some capacity. And here in Hebrews chapter 2,
look at verse 13. Well, let's look at verse 10. It says, For it became Him, for
whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many
sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings. Now, that perfection there is
not moral purity. It's the completion of a work.
And what it's simply saying is that Christ, as the captain of
our salvation, through his sufferings, completed, perfected, if you
will, the work of redemption. And he did it in such a way that
there's nothing to be added to it. That's why it says, make
him perfect, the captain of our salvation, perfect through suffering,
because his work of redemption is the complete work. It's finished,
he said, for by one offering he hath perfected, completed. fulfilled, finished. You see,
all that he was sent to do. So that any addition to his work
in order to save us or to keep us or to entitle us to heaven
is a denial of his work. You see, when you add things,
if it's Christ plus anything, you see. And that's what David
is saying back in this psalm. He delivered me. He didn't deliver
me in part. from all my enemies." I mean,
He fully delivered me. And that's what Christ did on
the cross. He fully delivered us from all our sins. He didn't
partly deliver us from part of our sins. He fully delivered
us from all of our sins. He completed the work. He paid
our debt perfectly, in full. And so He says in verse 11, "...for
both he that sanctifieth and they who sanctify are all of
one." That identifies us with him, for which cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church, will I send praise
unto thee. And this is the quotation or part of the quotation from
2 Samuel or Psalm 18. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. Christ put his whole case
into the father's hands. And he trusted him. He was delivered.
And then back here in 2 Samuel 22, we can also see that this
has to go beyond David personally, because the latter verses of
this chapter, which we'll get to next time or later on, they
have too broad a stroke to be limited to David himself. And
they can really only be understood as we see them in prophecy written
of the coming of the son of David, the greater son of David, the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is a description of God
as revealed in our salvation by grace through Christ. This
is the glory of God in Christ. For this glory cannot be seen
by sinful man apart from the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the glory of God
revealed, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, in the face of Jesus
Christ. That's his person. Now notice
in verse 2, he says, and he said the Lord is my rock. Did you
notice the personal pronoun my? He says my fortress. He says
my deliverer, the God of my rock in verse 3. He's my shield. He's my salvation, my high tower. Hear that? My refuge, my savior. All of that. That's not bragging. You know what that is? That's
God-given faith. He's my Savior. That's not boasting
in ourselves. That's not trying to hold Him
to ourselves and nobody else can get to Him. No, no, that's
faith. God-given faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's the expression of faith
and worship. And notice what he says. Now,
each thing here, I'll tell you what, if you can truly say that
you're resting in Christ, for all of your salvation, and He
is your rock. If you can say with David, He's
my rock, my deliverer, my salvation, you'll walk away from here tonight
with more assurance, because that's the way faith grows. You'll
walk away with more confidence. And your confidence will not
be in yourself. Your confidence will not be in
me. It will be in Christ. Well, you'll say, I rejoice in
Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now listen to what
it means here. He starts off, the Lord is my rock. What is
a rock? Well, that's strength. That's
support. That's foundation. Christ is
our foundation. His Word is our foundation. Everything
about Him connected with Him is our foundation. His person,
who He is, is our foundation. Remember when he asked his disciples,
whom do men say that I am? And they gave him all kinds of
different answers. And he said, whom do you say that? And Peter
spoke up and he says, you're the, you're the Christ, the son
of the living God. That's an, that's, listen, that's
an attestation of his deity and his humanity. He's God man. He's
the word made flesh dwelling among us. And as God in human
flesh, he's our foundation. He's our rock. And we stand upon
the rock of His finished work. Because He said, the gates, He
said, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell
will not prevail against us. He is the rock of our foundation. His Word, how firm a foundation,
ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent
Word. You can depend upon His Word.
He's the rock and strength of His people. We're not standing
on our own. We're not standing on a foundation
that we've made, but we're depending upon His own strength, Christ's
own strength, the strength of His people. He's the rock of
the church. The Bible says, our Lord said
in the Sermon on the Mount, that the wise man is the one who builds
his house on the rock. so that when the floods come
and the storms come, the rains of sin, it will stand, not because
of the house, but because of the rock upon which it is built.
We stand upon the rock and foundation of the covenant that God made
with His Son, which included sinners like us in divine electing
grace. God made a promise and supported
it with his oath, which means he engaged everything that he
is that's listed out here in this foundation to fulfill that
promise towards us. And not one part of that covenant
oath and promise was conditioned on us. It was all put upon the
shoulders of Christ. And He became responsible for
it. And that includes our sin, because
this rock is a sure rock. Isaiah 28 speaks of that. This
is a sure foundation. And it's been tried, it's been
tested, and it's passed every test. Now, I haven't passed every
test, and you haven't either. So let's thank God that we're
not our own foundation. Isn't that right? But He's passed
every test. When Satan took Him up on the Mount to test Him,
He passed the test. When he was in the Garden of
Gethsemane, feeling all the pains and the sorrows and the infirmities
of human flesh without sin, he was tested. He passed the test,
didn't he? When he went to the cross and
died for our sins as our substitute to make an end of sin and finish
the transgression and enable God to be just and justify, to
bring in everlasting righteousness, he passed that test. And he was
raised from the dead and ascended unto the Father. He ever lives
now to make intercession for us. That's our rock. And you
can't have any greater, better, more solid rock than him, you
see. We stand upon the rock of his
blood for the forgiveness of all our sins. We stand upon the
rock of his righteousness imputed to us for our justification before
God. And we stand upon the rock of
his power to keep us and to preserve us. Look on in verse 2. He says,
the Lord is my rock and my fortress. He's not only my rock, He's my
fortress. You know what a fortress means?
That's shelter and security. Well hedged about by the Lord. He's a fortress. Nothing can
get to us unless He allows it for His own purpose and for our
good. Did you know that? You did. Nothing
can get to you, child of God, in whom there is no condemnation
because you're in Christ, nothing can get to you except by his
permission." Now, that's right. And if it gets to you, it's for
his glory and ultimately for your good. Now, you may not see
the good of it at the time. I may not either. I may say,
how in the world can there be any good come out of this stuff?
But I know there is. And that's what David's expressing
here. Here's a man, David, who's praising the Lord while he's
suffering the chastisement of his own sins from way back in
the sense that his house is under the sword. And yet he says, the
Lord is my rock and my fortress. The scripture teaches that, doesn't
it? You think about the book of Job. You don't have to read
this. I've got it marked here, Job chapter 1. Verses 9 and 10,
when the Lord said unto Satan, Have you considered my servant
Job? And then Satan said, answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job
fear God for not, for nothing? Hast not thou made an hedge about
him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every
side? Thou hast blessed the work of
his hands, and his substance is increased in love. You've
got Job hedged up. You know what Satan said? I can't
touch him. You've got him hedged about. I can't get to him. And
then the Lord determined, well, you can get to him now. You can
get everything except his life. You can't touch that. His soul.
And you know what? You read the book of Job. You've
read it. You've heard preaching from the book of Job. There's
a myriad of things in Job that we just can't figure out and
can't understand. And I'll tell you why. Because Job couldn't.
But God knew it all along. God was Job's fortress. Christ
was his fortress. He said all through that trial
that he was going through and couldn't figure it out and messed
up royally trying to figure it out like we do. Number one, he
said some good things, didn't he, by inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. One of the things he said is, I know my Redeemer liveth
and I shall stand. I'll see him in the latter day.
He knew his hope was in Christ. God was his fortress. God, listen,
child of God, God has built a wall around us so that no one can
frustrate his purpose to save us from our sins and bring us
to glory in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that. And we'll
go through some hard, hard things going through this old wilderness
called the world, this life, But there's a wall built to God
as Christ is our fortress. He is at all times. And He never
stops. But look on. He says in verse
2, He's my deliverer. The Lord is my deliverer. If
God allows things to get to us, rest assured, He will ultimately
deliver us. That's what He's saying. The
reason He is our rock and our fortress, first of all, is because
He has delivered us and He continues to deliver us. First of all,
Christ delivered us on the cross. He delivered us from all our
sins. That's why we can say boldly, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. What a foundation to stand on.
We don't have to fear death because our rock died in our place. And his death is our deliverance. Deliverance from sin, from Satan,
from the curse of the law. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. And then
he sends his Holy Spirit to deliver us from death and darkness in
the new birth. Look over Colossians chapter
1. Colossians chapter 1. Not only
have we been delivered from the condemnation of sin, we've also
been delivered from the power of sin. Now, that doesn't mean
we're no longer sinners, because we are sinners saved by the grace
of God. But sin no longer can keep us
in the darkness of unbelief and self-righteousness and self-love.
It can't keep us from Christ. because we've been delivered
from darkness. Look here in verse 12, he speaks of giving thanks
unto the Father, Colossians 1.12, giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life who have delivered us from the power of
darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. And it's all wrapped up in this
foundation that we're talking about now, that is, the perfections
of God's character and nature revealed in Christ. Proof, verse
15, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. That's how it happens. And so
when the Holy Spirit comes and brings us providentially under
the preaching of the gospel, And then from Christ gives us
spiritual life, what does he show us? He shows us the holy
nature of God and his justice. He shows us our own sinfulness
and depravity, but then he drives us to Christ as the Lord, our
righteousness, our hope, our fortress, our foundation. So
he is our deliverer. And you know, He continues to
deliver us every day from all that would harm us. Nothing shall
separate us from the love of God in Christ. He always has
His hand of deliverance upon us. You know, there's a verse
in 1 Timothy chapter 4. It's verse 10 that a lot of people
have problems with because it speaks of Him being the Savior
or the Deliverer of all men. But really, there's no problem
with that. It says this in 1 Timothy 4.10. It says, for therefore
we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living
God, who is the Savior of all men. Now, Paul's not talking
about redemption there. He's talking about deliverance
by power, and he goes on to say, who is the Savior of all men,
especially of those that believe. What's he talking about? Well,
let me say, God is the preserver of this whole world. If God did
not preserve and deliver this world throughout the time span
that He's marked out for it, this world would have been snuffed
out after the fall. It's like that. And so when God
delivers any person, even unbelievers, and let me tell you something,
when unbelievers are delivered from Physical death or delivered
from physical harm or in some that's God who does that who
you think does it Satan? Absolutely, not God does What
does that fall under it falls under God's forbearance God forbears
and Then there's his people his children Believers he delivers
us to and especially delivers us because that deliverance is
is headed towards our full and final deliverance in glory. You
see, when God delivers one who never comes to faith in Christ
and who dies in unbelief, that was just a temporary deliverance
by power. But when He delivers His children,
it is ultimately headed towards our final and full deliverance
in glory. And that's what Paul meant by
that. He's the Savior of all men, the deliverer of all men,
especially those that believe. Back over in 2 Samuel, look over
at 2 Samuel 18. 2 Samuel 18. You remember there
was a battle there between David's army and Absalom's army. And along with the people of
God, you know, when you think about Israel of old under the
Old Covenant, There were true believers in Israel, and then
there were unbelievers in Israel, just like any nation, any family.
You see, just because they were under that old covenant, you
can't assume that they were all believers. In fact, the majority
were unbelievers. Isaiah said this, in any given
generation, there's only a small remnant of those people who really
saw the glory of Christ in that old covenant. unto where it became
a schoolmaster by the power of the Spirit to drive them to Christ,
you see. But when a believer was delivered
in battles like this, the unbelievers were too. All of them were. And if those who were unbelievers
never came to faith in Christ, it was just a temporary deliverance
by power. But to the believer, it was something
special. It was a testimony of God's goodness
and grace towards them, and again, a token of their ultimate future
deliverance in final glory. But you know what? What we see
in these battles, look here at 2 Samuel 18, God will move heaven
and earth to deliver His people and to fulfill His purpose. You
remember it says in verse 8 there of 2 Samuel 18, for the battle
was there scattered over the face of all the country, and
the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured. God on the heaven and earth to
deliver his people. Even the woods, the forest, devoured
more people than the sword. God's creation ended up killing
more of the enemy than David's army did by the sword. What was
God doing? He's delivering his people. Now,
he doesn't always do it that way, granted. But he did. Sometimes he'll do it today.
We don't know. That's God's purpose and that's God's business. Look
back at 2 Samuel 22 now. Those who suffered unto death
and died in the Lord were ultimately delivered unto eternal glory
with Christ. Somebody said one time, well,
he doesn't always deliver because look at how many people died
for the gospel. The martyrs. Let me tell you
something. That was a great deliverance
for them. They never had to walk this veil
of tears again. They're in the presence of the
King of Kings. They're in the presence of their
Lord without sin. What a deliverance that is. Those
who die in unbelief, they'll never be delivered because they
are brought to eternal destruction and perishing. But you see, not
all the powers of hell can touch us unless God allows it. And
if God allows it, they still cannot separate us from His love
and mercy in Christ. Why? Because He's our Deliverer.
Look at verse 3 of 2 Samuel 22. The God of my rock. Now that's
literally, you can compare this to Psalm 18 and verse 2. It's
the God of my strength. In other words, our power in
any given area is not ours, it's God. Paul said, when I'm weak,
I'm strong. Why? Because He's strong. When
I'm weak, I depend upon Him. And this strength here, this
rock here, speaks of ability. Now, whose ability is it that
saves us and keeps us and brings us to glory? Whose ability is
it that makes us righteous before God? Not our own. I know whom
I believe and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day, 2 Timothy 1.12. Scripture
tells us that he is able to save us to the uttermost, them that
come unto the Father by him. And so he says in verse 3, in
him will I trust. This shows the essence, substance,
and power of faith, not in our believing, but in the object
of our faith, which is Christ. And he goes on, he says, he's
my shield. What's a shield do? It protects
us from all the arrows and spears and knives and guns and bullets
that the enemy would throw at us, not literally, but spiritually
speaking. Christ stands between us and
our enemies. He's our mediator. He's our advocate.
Over in 1 John 2, that's what this is speaking of. Christ as
our advocate is our shield. And John puts it this way in
1 John 2, verse 1, he says, My little children, These things
write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father. He stands between us and the
Father. God, and one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And He's Jesus Christ the righteous.
And He's the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of His people. So that He is our shield. And I always, and whenever I
go to that point, I always love to go to that passage that I
read so often in Revelation chapter 12. And I hope you don't get
tired of that. I know you don't. If you're a
sinner, in need of salvation, in need of protection, you don't.
But that verse over in Revelation chapter 12, in verse 9, and there he speaks of the great
dragon. You see that? Revelation 12, 9. The great dragon. Now who is that? That's Satan.
Look at it. It says he was cast out. That old serpent called
the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, He was cast
out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And he
says, and I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come
salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power
of his Christ. You see, this is so similar to
what David's talking about in his psalm of worship, psalm of
praise, and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our
brethren is cast down. Satan, it's almost like a battle
here, Satan hurling his accusations against the church, against the
people of God. And you see, the thing about
it is, we know what we are by nature. We know what we are,
what we're capable of. And so if those accusations just
came directly to us, they'd stick, wouldn't they? Just like an arrow
sticking into a target. Hey, stick. Somebody, you know,
Satan says, well, you're a sinner. Well, yes, I am. You know, I'm
a sinner. I have no this. I have no excuse
for my sins, for my selfishness, for my lack of zeal. I have no
excuse for it. I have no justification for it.
Some people say, well, well, it doesn't matter if I am because
I'm saved by grace. No, sir. That's not a believer.
That's an unbeliever. But you see, I have one who speaks
for me. Now, that's the key. I have one
who steps in between me and those errors because he's my shield.
And listen to what it says here, verse 10. He says, For the accuser
of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our
God day and night, which means he wouldn't let up. Could you
imagine that? I mean, literally? Somebody just
all the time, you know. Well, verse 11 says, And they
overcame him, how? By the blood of the Lamb. That's
how you overcome him. That's why his accusations will
not stick. For who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? He was made sin. Listen, he became
responsible for our sins charged to him. And they're his. They're not ours anymore. We
committed them. But he said, like Paul said to
Philemon about Onesimus, he said, put it on my account. Blame me
for it. Charge it to me. And so the arrows
of God's wrath stuck to him and stick to us. And so they overcame
him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
What is the word of our testimony? How great we are. No, Christ
and Him crucified. Paul said, I strive not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Listen,
the word of my testimony is the blood of the Lamb. I plead the
blood of the Lamb. I stand before God in His righteousness. And you know what that means?
That means I'm not guilty before God. You rest in Him. And it says, and they loved not
their lives unto the death. So you see, we have a shield,
Christ. Look back at verse 3 of chapter
22. He says, He's the horn, the Lord is the horn of my salvation. That horn speaks of strength
and the power of salvation. It's literally power to push
on, power to go forward, power to push over our foes. Nothing
can stop us. Paul wrote it this way in Philippians
chapter 3 when he said, I press towards the mark of the high
calling. That's in Christ. Forget those
things which are behind. You know, I wish we could do
that. Forget those things. And I'm not even talking about
the good things. You know, I was talking to a fellow a couple
of days ago, and he's talking, you know, talking about people
having dreams, and they always want to tell you about their
dreams. Forget it! Forget it! You say, but it's such a good...
Forget it! Press towards the mark of the high calling. That's
what this horn of salvation And then he says in verse 3, he's
my high tower. What is a high tower for? Well,
it could be a watchtower. Watch for the enemy. And you
see Christ watches for it. Now we're to watch, but he watches
for us. And you know how he does it?
You know how he warns us of the coming enemy? Right here in this
book. He'll warn you right here. We're
getting ready in our Sunday school to finish up the book of Romans
and I've been thinking about going into the book of Jude right
after that. That old book of Jude is a warning
of things that are coming. There's no excuse for us not,
you know, when the trumpeter blows the trumpet, the enemies
come. There's no excuse for us being unwary. There's no excuse
for us being surprised. It's right there in the book.
He's our high tower. He watches for us. But now another
thing about a high tower is it puts us out of the reach of our
enemies. Elevated above them. Now where is that elevation?
I don't like that hymn, Higher Ground, do you? That's not the
kind of elevation the Bible teaches. That's not the kind of high tower,
you know, it's almost like I'm walking above everybody, you
know. I can't remember which preacher, somebody during one
of the conferences, he got up and he said, I'm living above
sin. He was on the second floor of a motel and there was another
preacher down below him. He said, I'm finally living above sin. But that's not the kind of high
tower he is. We are elevated above our enemies, but what is
our elevation? Turn to 1 John 4. Let me show
you what our elevation, our high ground, okay? Here's our higher
ground, right here. Here's the highest ground. How
about that? This is the highest ground you
can reach, you can get to. 1 John chapter 4, verse 17. He says, herein is our love made
perfect. Now again, that means complete.
We don't have perfect love within ourselves. If you think you do,
you're just lying to yourself. And I'm going to tell you something.
If you have perfect love in yourself, you don't have the same struggle
I do in the warfare to love others. You don't. And to love God perfectly.
But it means our love is made complete. Here's the completion,
the fulfillment of love. Now we know where this love comes
from. It comes from God. Here in His love. 1 John 4 over
in verse 10. Here in His love. Not that we
love God. That's not the source or the cause of our love to Him.
His love is the source and cause of our love to Him. And it says,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. So when it says, herein
is our love made perfect, it means here is the completion,
the fulfillment of love to God. And here's what he says, that
we may have boldness in the day of judgment. You see that? Now,
what are we talking about? Having boldness, confidence,
and assurance in the day of judgment. How? Well, here it is. Because. As He is, that is, as Christ
is, so are we in this world. Right now, not later. Now, how
am I in this world right now standing before you as He is? It can't be in my conduct, and
in my character, and in my thoughts, because He's perfect in every
way. I should strive to be perfect.
What are we desiring? David said, I'll be satisfied
when I awake with thy likeness. David knew he wasn't perfectly
like Christ in his heart, in his thoughts, in his mind, in
his affections, in his will. He had a struggle. You think
Christ would have done the things that David did as a sinful man? No. And he proved that over and
over again in the 33 and a half years that he was on this earth
as God-man. He always did the will of His
Father. So how can I say right now on this earth as I stand
before you that I am as He is? There's only one way. And that
is I stand washed in His blood and clothed in His righteousness.
Before God in His bar of justice, legally, judicially, I am not
condemned in Christ Objectively, legally, judicially, I am as
perfect as he is. I am as he is in this world.
Right now, I'm not condemned. I'm not guilty. I'm righteous
in him. Not in myself yet. One day I
will be. One day I will be. Then I'll
see him as he is, John said. Beloved, it does not yet appear
what we shall be. 1 John 3, I think that's verse
2, but we'll know We'll be like Him, for we'll see Him perfectly.
We'll look at Him through perfect eyes, unclouded, unhindered,
undistracted, perfect eyes viewing the glory of Christ. But right
now, because of God's Word, because He is my high tower, right now
I'm elevated above all my enemies, because I am right now resurrected
and seated with Christ in the heavenlies, in Him. And then
look here, he says, in verse 3, he's my refuge, as a shelter
from every storm. A true refuge, not a refuge of
lies, not a false refuge. He's my hiding place. He's the
cleft of the rock, and I hide in Him. He's my Savior. That's
the summation of all that David has said about the glory of God
in Christ. Thou savest me from violence,
all violence. Even if violence gets to me,
I'll be ultimately delivered from it all in Him. And so in
verse 4, here's what he says. Now, he says, I will call on
the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved
from mine enemies. My friends, if we ever get a
real saving view of God in Christ, and a real view of ourselves,
I'll tell you exactly what we'll do. We'll call on the Lord. How? We'll beg Him for mercy. We'll
fall at the feet of Christ and beg for mercy. For He alone is
worthy to be praised. And when we call on Him, it's
in praise and in worship. It's not proudly. We don't come
to Him saying, boy, I'd be a great addition to your family. No,
sir. Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. And when we do, the
Scripture says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall Be saved. No exceptions. No exceptions. All right.