The Lord is my light and my salvation,
of whom shall I fear? Now, the scriptures that I read
here, they come in threes. And I'm going to try threefold.
And Ecclesiastes said a threefold cord is not easily broken. But I want you to first of all
look at a threefold confession, a threefold acknowledgment here
in verse one. The Lord is my light. That's
the first acknowledgment, first confession. The Lord is my light. We confess that. We praise Him.
When we say, the Lord is my light, we admit that we was in darkness
at one time. That we had no light. We did
not know what light was. And that's why it says, the Lord
is my light. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
I'm the light of the world. And he that believeth in me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." And
John, he says, I am not that light. He said, I just came to
bear witness of that light. And he is that true light that
comes into this world, that light's everman. And that everman's the
same man of all his elect. He is my light, and I need him
to be my light. Do you remember what Paul said?
He says, you know, if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that
are lost, and whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds
of them that believe not, lest the light, the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ should shine unto them, and they be converted.
And the light, the gospel's got to come and has the light with
us. And we sit in darkness, and Christ comes and gives us light.
And I need Him to be my light. I want Him to be my light. Don't
you? You're seeing the only people, the only people who confess this,
who know that they were once in darkness. Now you keep this
and look with me in Colossians chapter 1. Keep Psalm 27, look
in Colossians chapter 1. You know, that's what our Lord
told the Pharisees, you know, or you think we're in darkness?
You think we're blind? He says, well, you'll stay blind.
He said, if you knew, if you said, I'm blind, I'd give you
sight to see. But you're in such darkness that
you don't even know that you're blind. And you know the only
people who know that they're in darkness is those who confess
it. And look what he said here in Colossians 1.12, giving thanks
unto the Father. which hath made us neat, fit,
worthy, able to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness,
and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, the
Son of His love." We were in darkness. The light shined in
darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. But when that light came
in, wherever there's light, you know, I don't care how dark it
is, but when you turn on the light, the darkness goes. And
that's what happens. Christ is our light, and he comes
and turns on the light for us. He turns on the light for us.
And he was, the scripture says he was given a light for the
Gentiles. And thou bless his holy name. The Lord is my light.
I confess that right now. I acknowledge that. And that
if he's not my light, I'm in darkness. And there's darkness
all around me. And his word is a light under
my feet, and it's a lamp under my path. Not only is the Lord
by light, and we confess this and acknowledge this, but also
it says here in the same verse, verse 1, the Lord is my light
and he, the Lord, is my salvation. The Lord is my salvation. I have
nothing, absolutely nothing to do with my own salvation. You
know what I contribute to my salvation? Nothing. All I had was sin, and depravity,
and darkness, and death, and corruption. And the Lord Jesus,
he, the Lord, is my salvation. And even when we say the Lord's
my salvation, we are saying that, we're confessing that we needn't
saved. You know how many people in this world who don't need
to be saved? They have no need of salvation.
They have no need of salvation because they don't have sin.
They don't have enough need of salvation because they have such
great power in themselves. But from Alpha to Omega, the
Lord is my salvation. We were so lost. Scott Richardson
used to say they were so lost. How lost was he? So lost that
you couldn't find your way out. So lost that somebody had to
go where you was and find you. Somebody had to go where you
was and find out where you was because you didn't know how lost
you were. We were so lost, so sinful, so
blinded, so helpless, in such a desperate condition that the
only way we could be saved is for the Lord to be our salvation. Could not be saved any other
way. Who else can save us other than the Lord? And look what
else it says here. Not only is the Lord my light
and my salvation, of whom shall I fear? But he says, the Lord
is the strength of my life. He's my light. He's my salvation. And then He's the strength of
my life. People say all the time, The
Lord, you know, you've got some strength and you've got some
gifts and you need to let the Lord use them. No, we have no
strength whatsoever. No strength whatsoever when it
comes to this vision of salvation. None whatsoever. We have no gifts
to offer. And, you know, the Lord will
use your strength. No, He can't use our strength.
All we've got is weaknesses. And that's why David says, the
Lord is my strength. I have no strength. How am I
going to go on from day to day? How am I going to carry the burdens
from day to day? How am I going to go through
my trials from day to day? How am I going to go through
my afflictions? How am I going to go through my heartaches?
How am I going to go through my sorrow? How am I going to
go through my coldness, and my deadness, and my lifelessness?
How am I going to go through the days when I can't feel the
presence of the Lord, when the Bible's dead to me, and I can't
pray? How in the world am I going to
get the strength to go on? The Lord's my strength. The Lord's
my strength. Paul says, you know, I've got
weaknesses. I've got infirmities. I've got thorn in the flesh,
and I've asked the Lord to deliver me from it. And you know what
he said? The Lord told him, he says, Paul,
he says, my grace is sufficient for thee. And here's what he
said, my strength, my strength is made perfect in your weakness. Perfect in your weakness. And
beloved, we grow in the strength of the Lord, and we can never
go in the strength of the flesh. If we tried to, we'd falter and
fail. Look over here in Psalm 33 with
me just a moment. Oh, that's why David said, in
whom shall I be afraid? So we have this threefold confession,
this acknowledgement. The Lord's my light. The Lord's
my light. I have no light. if he don't
give it to me. I have no salvation except what
he wrought out for me. I have no strength except what
he gives me. He is my strength. But here he
said in Psalm 33 and verse 16, There is no king saved by the
multitude of the host. And we're talking about the Lord
being our strength. A mighty man is not delivered
by much strength. A horse is a vain thing for safety.
Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. But now
listen to this. Behold, the eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear him, upon him that hope in his mercy. King can't be saved by strength.
Man can't be saved by strength. Mighty man. Horse don't, you
know, don't try to let a horse save you, says the Lord. And that's why He says, you know,
He said, We look unto the hills from which cometh our strength,
from which cometh our help. And that's why we say, Though
the hills be removed, and the mounds be removed into the depths
of the sea, the Lord is my strength, and I will not fear. And then
look what else it says here. So we have this threefold confession. And then look at this threefold
desire. Down here in verse 4. Threefold desire. 1. One thing. The Bible's full of
ones. You know it's full of ones. You can't get confused when there's
one thing. One Lord, one way, one truth,
one fellow, one faith, one gospel. And one thing have I desired
of the Lord. That's what 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.
Here's a threefold desire. First desire is this, to dwell
in the house of the Lord. To dwell in the house of the
Lord. To dwell in the house of the Lord is to abide with the
Lord. To abide with the Lord. And that's
why David said in Psalm 122, I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go unto the house of the Lord. Let us go up and
worship God. And what it is, you know, to
dwell in the house of the Lord, it's an expression of affection.
For the Lord Himself. I want to go live with the Lord.
I want to abide with the Lord. I want to dwell with the Lord.
I want to be in His house. I want to be among His people.
I love Him. I want to dwell among Him. I
want to be with the Lord Himself. And you know the one time that
when they was going with the disciples on the Emmaus Road,
and they got to the house, and the Lord did ask him in for supper,
and he was going to abide with them. They said, stay and abide
with us. Stay and abide with us. And wouldn't
it be wonderful for the Lord to abide with us? But David said,
here, I want to abide with Him. We want the Lord to abide with
us. But oh, he said, I want to abide with Him. And that's what
he said in Psalms 43 and 6. He said, we shall dwell. We shall dwell. Abide in the
house of the Lord. For how long? forever. And this
is in the diary of David Hanson. I want to dwell with the Lord.
I want to dwell with Him. I want to be with Him. I want
to behold Him. I want to see Him. And that's
why the Lord told His disciples, don't let your heart be afraid.
You believe in God, believe also in Me. I've got lots and lots
of houses in my Father's house. And he said, I want to bring
you to where I am. That's what David said. He said,
I want to go to one of them houses where you dwell. That's where
I want to be. I want to be with you. And then look what else
he said. He said in the middle of the
verse, to behold, I want to dwell there. And oh, you know, this
is the thing that, oh, to dwell with Him. And then he said here,
to behold the beauty of the Lord. You know why I want to dwell
with Him? And this is the desire I have to dwell in his house,
and then I want to behold the beauty of the Lord. If you start describing
the Lord, she started crying because she started talking about
Christ, and what Christ is, you know. He found me, poured in
the oil and the wine, told me to behold the beauty of Christ.
Try to describe the Lord Jesus Christ to somebody. How do you
describe Him? How do you describe the Lord
Jesus to somebody? You can describe yourself, but
how are you going to describe Him? How do you describe Christ? We say He was God and man, yes. We say He was conceived in the
womb of a virgin and born. It was God manifested in the
flesh. We say He is a sinless man. which they offer to sacrifice
on cross to save us from our sins and to satisfy God and endure
the wrath of God in our place. But that's telling what he did.
But how are you going to describe him? What beauty is there about
him when the scripture says there was no beauty about him that
we should desire? Now, how do you describe the
Lord Jesus Christ? How beautiful is he? What's His
character like? What's His compassion like? What's
He in His heart? What's He in His soul? How does
He treat us? How does He act towards us? Oh, the beauty of Christ is in
His character. It's in His nature. It's in the
way He deals with His blessed people. And oh, He says, to behold
the beauty of the Lord. I want to see Christ in His glory. And you know, when they saw Him
on His throne, in Revelations, they saw him as a lion and as
a lamb. Two natures in one person. How
can a lion and a lamb have opposite natures? And a lion's the king
of the jungle with all this might and all this strength. And oh,
everyone's afraid of him. He goes and prays, and then there's
the lamb. He's gentle, easy, good. How do you describe him as a
lamb? And how do you describe him as
a lion? How do you describe him as a son? How do you describe
him as a child? How do you describe him as a
sex by the seaside preacher? How do you describe him to your
children? We're at a loss when we try to
describe him. But oh, the glory of the Lord!
Everything about our blessed Savior is beautiful. His love! Oh, how beautiful is His love! His grace! How beautiful did
that grace first appear! His mercy! Oh, how blessed, blessed,
beautiful, kind, and joyous is His mercy! His compassion! How beautiful is the compassion
of Christ! When he told men they was hungry,
and he said, don't send them away. They've been with me three
days. And if you send them away, they'll faint. They're hungry. Set them down. Set them down. He was moved with compassion.
How many rolls of bread you got? Five. How many fish? Two. Set
them down. Feed them. Oh, my. And holiness. Oh, He dwells in the beauty of
holiness. And that righteousness of His, have you ever beheld
anything more glorious, more beautiful, more substantial than
the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ? The beauty of His
patience? You just think about yourself.
Just think strictly about yourself of His patience and longsuffering.
How beautiful is His patience and longsuffering towards you.
Just towards you. Just those two answers. Oh, this was that good part that
Mary chose. She sat there at his feet. Probably
had her head, arm on his knee and looking at him, sitting there
at his feet. Mary was cooking, Martha was
cooking, running around the house. And she sat there and she said,
Oh, he is so beautiful. He is so glorious. His words,
his words dropped like honey from his mouth. Words come from
Him, and they're the sweetest, they're the kindest, they're
the tenderest, they're the most instructive. That I don't care
what else ever happens in this world, I'm going to sit right
here, and I'm going to listen to what He's got to say. I'm
going to listen to what He's got to say. Well, that's the
way we want to dwell. That's one desire, to behold
Him in His beauty. And then look at the next one
there, in the last part of verse four. I've desired, I'm going
to seek after that. to dwell in the house of the
Lord. I'm going to seek after the beauty of the Lord in this,
and then thirdly, to inquire in this temple. I'm going to
inquire in Him. I'm going to inquire in Him. You know, David said in Psalm
111, he said, Blessed is he that walketh not in the counsel of
the ungodly. Oh, we're going to inquire in
the Lord. We're not going to have counsel
of the ungodly. We're going to ask of the Lord. We're going
to inquire of the Lord. Look over here in Psalm 73 with
me, in verse 17, just a moment. We're going to inquire in the
temple of the Lord. You men have already done it.
You went into the presence of the Lord. You understood that
you was in the presence of the Lord. You felt the weight and
the awesomeness and the responsibility of being in the presence of the
Lord and to inquire of Him. to inquire of Him. And Psalm
73, 17 says this, and there David said he had so much trouble understanding
everything that was going on in the world, the ungodly and
all the wickedness and all the people and nobody's in trouble
and only the righteous suffer. And he says this, he says, verse
16, When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, until
I went into the sanctuary of God, been understood, I am."
You want to know what's going on in this world, and you want
to have a way to recourse toward, go to Him. Inquire of Him. Inquire of the Lord. Inquire
of Him in His Word. And I'll tell you something,
the Word has an answer for whatever question you've got. I don't
care what question you've got, the Word has an answer for it.
And then there's a threefold, not only this threefold acknowledgement
and confession, threefold desire, but look down here in verse five,
a threefold privilege that we have, a threefold privilege in
verse five. For in the time of trouble, he
shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacles
shall he hide me. He shall set me upon a rock. And what a privilege. He says,
he shall hide me in his pavilion. This word hide means to cover,
it means to hedge in, it means to protect. And you know when
he says he's going to hide you in his pavilion, he's going to
cover you, he's going to hedge you in, he's going to protect
you. He says in the time of trouble. In the time of trouble, we're
protected by his gracious providence. In the time of trouble, he said,
come here, I'm going to hide you in my pavilion. I'll put
you where I'm at. Nothing will be able to come
in here. And hide me. Hide me, O thou Savior, hide
me, O blessed rock of ages, hide me. And then not only are you
hidden in his pavilion, but look what he says, in the secret of
his tabernacle shall he hide me. Secret of his tabernacle. Do you know what the secret place
of his tabernacle is? I don't either, but that's where
we're at. That's where he's going to hide
us. And the tabernacle is the place
where men met God and God met men. The tabernacle was the place
of worship. The tabernacle was the place
of sacrifice. The tabernacle is where God's
glory came down. The tabernacle was where the
mercy seat was at. The tabernacle was where the
glory of God was at. And God said, I'll hide you in
the secret of my tabernacle. I'll hide you in that place of
worship and glory and that place of worship and sacrifice. And
the natural man don't know nothing about this. And I'll tell you
in the tabernacle, that secret of his tabernacle, I'm going
to tell you who the tabernacle of God is. Look in Revelation
21. Look at this secret. This is the tabernacle where
God hides us. Oh, we're hid with Christ in
God. Paul says, you know, you're dead,
your life is hid with Christ in God. He said, we're going
to hide in the secret of his tabernacle. His tabernacle, You
know who we're at there, who's tabernacle, is the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that's where we're hidden. That's the place that
He's hidden. And He's hidden from this world. He's hidden
from the natural mind. He's hidden from the scribes
and the Pharisees, been revealed unto babes. He said here in Revelation
21, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away, and there's no more sea. And
John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and he will dwell with them." Now, the tabernacle is a he.
A he. And the tabernacle of God is
with men, and he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. To be hidden in Christ? To be
hidden in Christ? Who in the world can find you?
The devil can't find you when you're hidden in Christ. The law can't find you when you're
hidden in Christ. Sin can't find you when you're
hidden in Christ. Justice can't find you when you're
hidden in Christ. And then not only did He say
back over here in verse 5, "...shall hide me in His pavilion." Oh,
what a blessed privilege to be hidden. "...in the time of trouble
shall hide me. In the secret of His tabernacle
shall He hide me." And then look what else He's going to do. He's
going to set me on a rock. He said, He's going to set me.
Climb up on this rock here if you think you can make it up."
No, no, no, no, no. He set us on this rock. We didn't
climb up there. He's that rock in a weary land. He's that blessed place, you
know, and as Rick Sung has told me this morning, he had picked
me up out of my reclaim, set my feet upon a rock, and established
my goals. Now, I'll tell you something,
beloved. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He said, He is that rock. He
said, He is that rock. And He said, upon who falls on
this rock will be broken. And I'm falling on this rock.
I want to be broken. But He says, and on whomever
it falls, it shall grind him to powder. I don't want it falling
on me and crushing me and grinding me to powder. And He said, He
set us upon a rock. And we may move around on the
rock. We may even fall while we're on the rock, but one thing
about it, we'll never fall off the rock. And the rock will never
fall on us. Look over here at Psalm 61. Look
at this just a moment. Psalm 61, talking about this
rock. Lead me to that rock that is
higher than I. It's out of that rock that the
water came. It's the rock Christ that was
the rock in the wilderness. And Psalm 61 says this, Hear
my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth
will I cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thy has been a shelter
for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. God bless His holy
name. Hide, hide me, O thou blessed
Savior, hide me. Hide me, O thou blessed Savior,
hide me. And then back over in our text,
let me give you another one. Not only threefold desire, threefold
acknowledgment, threefold privilege, but look here at this threefold
assurance. I love assurance. I love to preach where people
can have assurance. When thou sayest to seek ye my face, my
heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. How do not
thy face part 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." First assurance
we have, we have assurance of His face. When you say, seek
my face, my heart answers. I'm seeking it. I'm crying. I'm looking for it. I'm looking
at it. Oh, beloved. He affectionately calls us. How
do you make your calling and election sure? He says, seek
my face. And how can you know that God
has saved you and God has called you? When He says, do you know
why and how you know it? You'll start seeking Him. You'll
start looking to Him. You'll start inquiring after
him. And that's how you know. You call on him. You look to
him. You say, Lord, thy face I seek.
And to seek the face of the Lord. The face stands for the person.
The face stands for the person. And he says, Lord, cause your
face to shine upon us. Let your person look towards
us with great favor. And, boy, we have the assurance
when you said, seek my face, my heart said, oh, Lord, I'm
going to seek it. And we see His face. Not only
do we seek it, but we see His face. We see the glory of God
in the face, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see
the face of our Lord Jesus Christ in His precious Word. We see
His face in His providence. And the Scriptures tell us, blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And, oh, we have
to seek my face. Lord, I... He said, you seek
it, you'll see it. So we're sure of that. And the
second thing is we're sure of his fellowship down in verse
nine. Hide not thy face far from me,
put not thy servant away in anger. Now listen to what he said here.
For thou hast been my help, leave me not. Leave me not. And oh, beloved God, do you know
what he said? He said, I'll never leave you, and I'll never forsake
you. Never do it. He says, you know,
let your conversation be without covenants, for He said, I'll
never leave you, and I'll never forsake you. Therefore, I boldly
say, the Lord is my helper, and I shall not fear what thou said
unto me. How many people have been forsaken
by family, by friends, by husbands, by wives, by children, been forsaken? That's what David said, my mother
and father forsaken. But he says, you know, you'll
never forsake me. I'll have your fellowship. You'll never leave
me. You'll never leave me alone. I may feel like I'm alone. I
may feel like nobody knows what I'm going through. Nobody understands
me. Nobody knows what's going on
in my mind, in my heart. And I just feel so alone. But
beloved, the scriptures tells us, he said, I'll never leave
you. You'll never alone. Christ said, I'll never, ever
leave you to yourself and leave you alone. And you've seen this
so many times in Isaiah, but it's well worth looking at again.
Isaiah 49 and verse 6, 14. You have seen this many times,
but in this instance, it's well worth looking at again. He said, here's Psalm 49. Here's
what Zion said. This is what people in Zion said.
The Lord has forsaken me. My Lord has forgotten me. And
oh my. Lord, where are you at? Are you
clean gone? And he said this. He said, can
a woman forget her sucking child? That she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yeah, they may forget. Yet will
I not forget thee? Why not, Lord? Because I have
graven thee upon the palms of my hands, and your walls are
continually before me. I see everything about you. And
your walls, and I tell you, you know, the walls that surround
us is the walls that He puts around us. We ain't got no walls. He has to put them around us.
So we owe a threefold assurance of his face and of his fellowship.
And then look down here in verse 10, back over in our text. And then we're assured of his
favor. He says, when my father and my mother forsake me. You
know how many people in this world, mothers and daddies both
has left them? Do you know how many people in
this world, Men and women went out trying to find their father
and their mother. I remember we was up in Ohio one time and
one of my uncle's wives, she had left a little baby, left
her child when it was a baby. And she went to looking for it
when she got to be an old woman. And we was there the first time
she saw him. He is a grown man. She was ashamed. She was heartbroken. She was
embarrassed. But she pursued her own child
when he was just a tiny baby. Then she wanted to find out who
it was, where it was. She found out, came and saw.
She lived in Ohio. She went to Ohio State, and we
was there. Very awkward situation. And I've told you this before
when I was ten years old. I put everything near my brother.
He was nine and I was ten. Everything I owned in a brown
grocery bag. Walked out to the end of the
lane and stood on Highway 127, Miamisburg, Ohio. And I got through here. Waited for somebody to come pick
me up. I don't want that little blankety-blank in my house anymore." Stood out there, somebody come,
and it was night, it was night. It was about ten o'clock when
somebody come and got him. It's hard to get over stuff like
that. But in my heart, I forgive my
mother and father both. I feel sorry for them, for what
they lost, for what they missed. They're the ones to be pitied. And that's why I said, and that's
why this verse means so much to me. When my mother and my
father forsake me, Lord said, I'll take you. He said, come over here, I'll
take you. I'll take you. I'll be your mother,
I'll be your dad, I'll be everything you need. I'll love you like
a mother, and I'll provide for you like a father. I'll feed
you, I'll clothe you, I'll provide for you, and you'll never have
to worry. I'll never leave you, and I'll
never forsake you." And, oh beloved, He is faithful. And where His
lost sheep are, when they're so alone, He takes them up. And
that's why He told His disciples, I'll not leave you comfortless.
And then look at this here, a threefold prayer. Verse 11 and 12. Threefold prayer. 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, such as breathe out cruelty."
Here's a threefold prayer. First thing that he asks for
is, teach me. Lord, teach me. And what does
he say? What does he ask to teach me?
Teach me thy way. Teach me your way. Teach me your way. Save me from
my way. Teach me your way. Teach me how you save sinners.
Teach us ourselves. Teach us to emulate our master.
Teach us patience. Teach us love. Teach us mercy. Teach us to walk according to
your blessed word. And you know, it's said over
Psalm 103, it says, you know, God showed Moses his ways, and
the children of Israel saw his acts. And that's the difference in
seeing what God does and knowing the way God does things. A lot
of people are interested in how He does things, but we want to
know the way, the way. Oh, only His elect are taught
His ways. He teaches you ways of how He
saves you, teaches you about Himself, teaches you His Word.
And then He not only asks us for teaching, teach me thy way,
but He asks for guidance. He says, lead me in a plain path
because of mine enemies. Now that is, you know, what He's
saying is, make my path as plain that a fellow cannot miss it.
Make it just as plain as I can. I can't mix it. That's what he
said. Just make it plain. Just make
it where I cannot do anything else but go that way. And it has to be made plain.
Because we're so dumb. And this we want by faith and
not by sight. And then he says, you're because
my enemies. You know, God's enemies are our
enemies. And we need, by God's grace, to walk plainly while
we're in this world. To walk the way that he says
before. Walk plainly, and don't never
give occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. So he
asked for teaching, teach me thy way. Ask for guidance, lead
me in a plain path. Make the way plain for me, Lord.
It's plain to see how many times you say that to somebody. That's
as plain as the nose on your face. That's why he said, if
I make it as plain as the nose on my face, so I'll know which
way to go. And then he prays for deliverance in verse 12. Deliver me. Deliver me, not over,
unto the will of mine enemies. Oh, and what he's saying is,
don't give me deliverance from the will of mine enemies. And
what is he saying here? He says, don't deliver me like
you did Job up to Satan. Don't deliver me up to the will
of the flesh like you did Judas. Don't deliver me up to the will
of the world like you did Demas. Don't deliver me up to my own
will, for it is a great enemy indeed. Deliver me up, O Lord,
from my enemies, for there is always somebody who wants to
see us fall and see us stand. Deliver me from the will of my
enemies. And the greatest enemy we have
is ourselves. Ourselves. And then let me close
with this. In threefold encouragement, verse
13 and 14, I had fainted. In other words, faint means that
I just got so weak that I just gave up. I just sat down and
gave up. 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 thy heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord. Oh my, here's a threefold encouragement
to believe. He said, I had fainted unless
I had believed. Unless I believed, What did you believe? Unless
I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord. That's why Paul
says, you know, I'm troubled, yet not distressed, cast down,
but not destroyed. And when he was in that ship,
when Paul was in the ship, you remember in Acts 27, he was in
that ship and that ship started, you know, the sun hadn't shined
in 14 days, the rain and the wind blew on that thing. And
everybody there thought, we're all going to die. The neighbors
are going to start casting everything overboard, going to kill the
prisoners. And Paul stood up and he says, God has told me
that he's going to save everybody on this ship. But you're going
to have to stay on it. And they all got scared to totally
to death. And they just wanted to do something.
Paul said, Sirs, be of good cheer. I believe it shall be. just as God has told me. I hadn't
fainted unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord.
I mean, I mean, all hope was gone, but he said, Sirs! It hadn't,
it hadn't rained for 14 days, no sun for 14 days, no food and
stuff you talked here yonder about. And he stands up and says,
Sirs! Brother or not, there has been
a good year. I believe that it shall be, as
God has said. And that's what we do. I believe. I believe we'll see the goodness
of the Lord. And then not only do we believe
and be encouraged to believe, but also to wait. He says there
in verse 14, wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. You know what
that word wait means? It's to be still and to wait
in expectation. Psalm 62 gives us a good interpretation on this verse
right here. Psalm 62, comparing verses with verses, Scripture
with Scripture. David said over here, you know,
he says there, encouragement, wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. Believe that you're going to
see the goodness of the Lord. And then wait on Him. That goodness
will come. You'll see it. It's coming. And
truly, my soul waiteth. Waiteth. And that word, you see
that little two there by some of you got things in your margin?
Mine's got a little two by that word, waiteth. Upon God and from
Him cometh my salvation. That means my soul is silent. My soul is silent. Truly, my
soul is silent. My soul waiteth upon. My soul
is silent. I'm going to be still. I'm going
to be still. Look down in verse 5, Psalm 62. My soul, my soul is talking to
himself now. Talk to yourself. Say, my soul,
wait thou only upon God. Be still. Be quiet. Be silent. Wait only on God.
Don't get in and up for it. Don't get anxious. Don't get
worried. Don't try to do it on your own. Wait on God. For my
expectation is from Him. My expectation is from Him. So
wait. Believe and wait. And then the
last thing over here, look at it with me. Not only wait and
be encouraged and believe, but also look what he says there
in verse 14. Wait on the Lord, be of good
courage, for He shall strengthen thine heart." Oh, you're going
to not only believe and wait, but you're going to receive.
What are you going to receive? Strength through your heart,
strength through your soul, strength and encouragement. Oh, what a blessed Savior we
have. Indeed, what a blessed Savior
we have. So much, so wonderful, so gracious, so kind, so pitiful.