Psalm 27. And once again, we
see these psalms in the light of the fact that these are the
prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ as He walked among men as a perfect
man, as He trusted the Lord with a perfect trust. He never had anything but trust
in the Lord. to set forth what it is to be
a perfect man. 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? When the wicked, even
mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they
stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp
against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise
against me in this, will I be confident. One thing have I desired
of the Lord, and that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the
house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty
of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of
trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his
tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted
up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in
his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will
sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with
my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer
me. When Thou saidst, Seek ye my
face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not Thy face far from me. Put not Thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave
me not, neither forsake me, O God, of my salvation. When my father
and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. Teach
me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in the plain path because
of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the
will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against
me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless I had believed
to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait
on the Lord. Be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Now, as David wrote these words,
and surely they are the prayer of David as he wrote them, but
as we have pointed out in these other Psalms that we've been
looking at, He was prophetically pinning
the words of Christ. When Christ prayed, as He was
a man of prayer, these were the prayers that Christ prayed. The
Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Now when you
look at the Lord's life and you see Him going in confrontations
with the religious leaders of his time, men who were not men
of small authority. Now, the Jews hated the Romans
unless it was convenient for them to use the Romans for their
benefit. That's kind of the way that people
are by nature. You know, this is especially
true in the world of politics, as men kind of do things and
they compromise with others. But the Lord Jesus Christ, He
had one purpose as He walked in the earth, and that was to
bring glory to His Father's name. That was His purpose. That was
the only reason that He walked upon the earth, was to magnify
the name of the Father. He came to do His Father's will
perfectly. Even in the same fashion as He
says of the Spirit of God, when the Spirit has come, He said
He will do one thing, and that is He will glorify Me. He will
not speak of Himself. When Christ was upon the earth,
He didn't speak of Himself, did He? He spoke of the Father. And so it is when the Spirit
has come, whom the Father hath given to the Son, and whom the
Son hath given to us, He will not speak of Himself, but He
will speak of Christ. So when you hear men talking
about the Holy Ghost, and a lot of people think that the Holy
Ghost is some kind of a feeling that comes over you and causes
your leg to twitch or causes you to do some ridiculous thing,
but that's not the Holy Ghost. I don't know exactly what that
might be. I'm not saying that people don't
feel certain things, but I'm telling you this, that when the
Spirit of God is come into the earth, when the Spirit of God
visits a man, he will speak of Christ. He will glorify Christ,
and that is the purpose for which he will do and perform the things
that he does. He doesn't perform things so
people can feel good. He does what he does to make
Christ exalted. And that's the purpose of the
Son as He comes into the world as that perfect Lamb of God to
magnify the Father. And so He says, the Lord is my
light and my salvation. You see, the reason that the
Lord Jesus Christ could face these religious leaders and boldly
go into their presence was because of the fact that His trust was
in His Father. He said, The Lord is my light.
He says, I am coming here in the name of the Father. And how
often we read, especially in the book of John, of the numerous
times that they tried to Take the Lord's life. They tried to
kill Him. Now they couldn't, of course, do that until the
pointed time was come when it pleased God according to His
purpose. That was the time when it was.
But they would have killed Him long before they ever did. When
he went into the temple and he told them of the electing grace
of God and the fact that a man was not chosen to be a member
of the household of God on the basis of his natural birth, but
on the basis of the sovereign grace of God, they would have
thrown him off the hill. He said, you know, there were
many with us in Zion, But the only one, and she was a Gentile,
was the prophet sent. He said there were many lepers
in Israel, but he said there was only one that the prophet
was sent to, and he was a Gentile. And they said, well, this is
blasphemy. We'll throw this guy off the
hill. And they took him up, the scripture says, they took him
up to the bough of the hill. It says He passed through their
midst. And I've shared this with you before, but I would have
loved to have been there just to see exactly what happened.
I don't know what happened. I don't know if they just froze,
if He disappeared. I don't know what happened. But
I know this, that the Lord was His light and His salvation,
and He did not fear what men could do to Him, and so He was
bold in that which He set forth the Lord's strength of my life,
of whom shall I be afraid?" Now, dear brethren, by the grace of
God, when He causes His people to recognize this very truth,
when He operates in us to recognize that He is our light and our
salvation, whom shall we fear? What is it that men could ever
do to us? We've been very fortunate to
live in a land that is, basically we don't suffer any particular
persecution. I mean, you know, people sometimes
like to try to make out like they do, and a lot of times people
bring the problems on themselves. And they call it being persecuted
for the Lord, when in reality it might not necessarily be so
simple as that. But this is the true thing. And
that is that the man who is trusting in the Lord has no reason to
be fearful. For what is it that a man could
do unto him? The Lord said, you know, do not
fear the man that can take your life.
He said, do not worry about that. He said, but fear him who is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now who was that?
Who is he speaking about? He is talking about the Lord.
Talking about the one in whom his trust was. He said, don't
fear what men can do to you. But he says, if you're going
to fear, fear God. And he did that. The Lord is
the strength of my life, and whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat
up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Now I can think of a great
illustration of when this occurred. exactly as he says it here. For
in the garden they came with torches and spears, swords, his
enemies. They came to get him. And they
said, we came seeking Jesus of Nazareth. And he said two words,
the same words that he said to Moses in the burning bush. He says, Now in our English Bible,
they added the word in italics, he. He says, I am he in the English
translation. But what he actually said was,
I am. And the scripture says that the
men fell backwards. Now again, I would have liked
to have been there to have seen that. Because it shows the very
hardness of men's hearts. that they could be swept off
of their feet by the power of a man's words, and then yet,
because of their hatred of him, be willing to get up and shake
yourself off and say, what in the world happened? And then
still go on with that which God had ordained that they do according
to what Scripture said. He said, by the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God, he hath slain him. You see, the
Lord Jesus Christ wasn't slain by accident. He was slain according
to the purpose of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ, because
He trusted in His Father, He willingly went to the cross.
He willingly laid down His life. When the wicked, even mine enemies
and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled
and fell. They could not do. Anything,
though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not
fear. Though war should rise up against
me, in this will I be confident." That's the place of true faith,
is it not? I mean, a man can claim faith, but the Lord will put faith to
the test. And He did in Jesus Christ, for
though He be a Son, the Scripture says, yet He learned obedience
by the things which He suffered. Now that's one of those verses
that just overwhelms my thought. It makes my computer freeze up
and it just won't go any further than that. When I think of, though
He were a Son, yet learned the obedience by the things which
He suffered. How can that be? Yet the Scripture
says, that he experienced that, because he was that perfect man.
And he did face it, and he did come out, and he did say these
things, though a host should encamp against me. My heart shall
not fear, though war should rise against me. In this will I be
confident. Now what is it that he'll be confident? One thing
have I desired of the Lord. See, the Scripture says that
a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Now most people,
or most of us, I venture to say all of us, are double-minded,
are we not? I mean, Paul confessed that he
was. He said, the good that I would,
I do not, and that which I would not, that's what I do. Now that's
the very definition of a double-minded man, is it not? But you see,
the Lord demonstrated that very fact when the disciples couldn't
watch with Him for an hour. He was in agony and pain and
He came to them and He said, well, couldn't you watch with
Me? And they woke up and I'm sure they said, well, we're going
to do it this time. We're going to do it this time.
And He came back to them again and what happened? They were
in the same shape. And He came back the third time
and He found them asleep. And he said, the Spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak. And so indeed, brethren, all
of those who are born of woman other than Jesus Christ the righteous
are unstable in our ways. We are double-minded in all that
we say and do. But the Lord Jesus Christ said,
one thing, one thing have I desired. Now the glorious thing is that
the Lord does work in His people and we can say with David, even
as the Lord Jesus said, one thing have I desired. That is our desire,
is it not? I mean, we do desire that. If
a man has been born again, he does desire that. I mean, the
Spirit of God works in him and causes him to desire to be single-minded,
to put his hand to the plow and not look back, to do those things
that the Lord has called him to do. He does have a desire
to do that. But unfortunately, he finds himself
trapped in this house of clay. And you know, it is the greatest
struggle and the greatest heartache that we have is against that
sin nature that is within us that would destroy us if it could. Even the elect of God would be
destroyed. Even the elect of God would turn
away from Him. But the Lord said, if it were
possible. But it is not possible, because
He has promised to keep His own even unto the end. This will I be confident. One
thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after. This was His desire, that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Brother
Al talked about this morning there, the house of the Lord.
And the Lord, down through the years, He allowed the children
of God to build Him various houses. But these were not the real dwelling
place of God. He was just teaching them a lesson.
These things were given for our benefit. See, we've learned something. Because he gave the Ark of the
Covenant, we learn something about God. Because he allowed
them to put that in a tabernacle, we learn something about God.
Because he allowed Solomon to build a temple, we learn something
about God. Because he allowed Nebuchadnezzar
to come in and destroy that temple, we learn something about God. And this is the lesson that we
learn is that he doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. He doesn't need us. See, men
think they're going to do great things for God. And they pat
one another on the back and they say, you're really doing a good
job. You're doing great things for God. It makes you feel good
and all of that. But dear brothers, the Lord doesn't
need anything from men. But he's pleased to dwell with
men. It's a privilege that he gives
to men. Brother, I was talking about
giving. It's a privilege, is it not, to be able to give unto
the Lord. I mean, he owns the cattle on
a thousand hills. There's not a thing on earth
that you possess that he needs. Now I know you go listen to some
of these guys on the radio and they make you think the Lord's
going to go out of business next week if you don't send your money
in. Well, dear brethren, the Lord doesn't need your money.
That's the only thing you've got. You can't add one thing
to the Lord. But He, in His mercy, is pleased
to give unto men the glory of His grace. the manifestation
of Christ, to cause men to delight in His way, that we may dwell
in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire at His temple. Now, oftentimes
people build edifices, and they say, we're going to go down there
to church. Now, the Lord blessed us with
a building here. that we can gather in. But don't ever think that this
building has anything to do with the presence of God. I mean,
this building is just four walls and a floor and a few things. I mean, we could be out in the
yard. It doesn't make any difference.
The dwelling place of God is with His people. And brethren, it is the privilege
of God's people to be able or to have His grace wherein He
is pleased to dwell in our midst. Now, we talked about giving.
What a privilege it is to be able to give. See, the blessing
of giving is the giving. Now, a lot of people say, well,
you know, if you'll give, the Lord is going to bless you. You give in to five dollars and
you're going to get back ten dollars. You've heard that before,
you can't out-give God. Well, it is a true thing, you
cannot out-give God, but the giving of God to His people has
nothing to do with what they're giving to Him, but what He gives
to them. And to be able to give with a
cheerful heart is one of the greatest blessings that a man
can be given. Because it is with no strings
attached. You know, when a man gives and
then he gets things, well, you know, I don't know if they use
that right. I don't know if they did that. Well, he gave it for
the wrong reason, dear brethren. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't
be wise in what we do, but you see, the giving, when someone's
in need and you give to help them, And then later on you see,
well, maybe they bought something that you didn't think they should
have bought or whatever. And you say, well, hey, look
what they did. Look, when you give something in the name of
the Lord, you gave it as unto the Lord. That's His business
to deal with them and their business to give an account unto Him. That's not anything to do with
you. But what a privilege it is to be given a cheerful heart
Like the woman, the widow, that cast in all that she had. The
Lord said she gave more than anybody. Why? Because she did
it, because she wanted to. Not because she had it. See,
we often give out, well, we check and see, you know, have we got
enough to, if we give this, will we have enough then to do that?
Well, we better not give that much because we won't have enough
to do that. Well, she didn't even think about it. She didn't
have it to give, but she gave. Why? Because the Lord gave her
a blessing. And she gave. Now, a lot of people
say, well, she got a blessing after she gave. No. She got a
blessing when she gave. And that is the work of God,
to give men a spirit of cheerfulness in giving unto the Lord. To behold
the beauty of the Lord, to inquire in His temple. There is one place
where men can worship God. One place. Some folks say, build a building
over here, build a building over there, they'll get a denomination
started and they'll say, well, you all come over here and let's
worship God. No, there is one place where
men can worship God, and it's in Jesus Christ. No other place. I mean, men worship in vain that
worship in some other place. Christ alone is that One who
is the revelation of the Father. No man has seen God at any time. Jesus Christ, who is in the bosom
of the Father, He hath declared Him to behold the beauty of the
Lord and to inquire in His temple, for in the time of trouble He
shall hide me in His pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me, and shall set me up upon a rock." The Lord
Jesus Christ was hidden in the Father's side. And the glory
is that just like Moses was hid in the cliff of the rock while
the glory of God passed by, so too are the sons of God hidden
in the cliff of the rock, which is Christ. We are hidden in Him. We're in Him. He said we were
chosen in Him from before the foundation of the world. Now
that's a glorious thing, is it not? Now what did you do to gain
that? What can you do to forfeit that? I mean, it's a gift of
God. It's a blessing of God. It's
not something men can boast of. It's that which God bestows,
even as all those things. But you see, it's the place where
God's people delight to be. Where else would you want to
be than in the bosom of Christ, hidden in the side of Christ,
to have your name written upon His breast? What other place
on earth or in the heavens would you desire to be than there? He shall set me upon a rock,
and now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about
me. Now, I don't know exactly how, all the details about how crucifixion
took place. I've heard many accounts. Some
say that the crucifixion took place with a stake, and some
say that he was placed on just a straight stake, and his arms
were nailed over his head like that, his feet were nailed like
that. He was just on a stake. Others say it was a cross as
we think with His arms outstretched like this. But in either case,
we do know this, that He was put on that tree and He was lifted
up. The Scripture says here, "...and
now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemy." Oh, you
see, He was on that cross. And though men looked at it as
though He was crucified in weakness, He was crucified in strength.
And you remember when Pilate had them to write on the sign,
it said, This is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. And the Jews
said, Oh no, don't put that! They said, he said he was the
king of the Jews, and Pilate said, I have written what I have
written. Because you see, the Lord would exalt him above all,
and his head was lifted up above his enemies, because they were
his enemies. They hated him, and they crucified
him. Therefore will I offer in His
tabernacle sacrifices of joy. Who for the joy that was set
before Him endured the cross? Did He not? The sacrifices of
joy. When the Lord Jesus Christ hung
upon Calvary's cross, He did so in joy. Now was it an enjoyable
thing? No. As a man, it was the most
terrible thing that a man could undergo. But for the joy that was set
before Him, you see, He rejoiced in the work that He performed
even though He poured out His soul unto death and the very
weight of sin was cast down upon Him so much so that He cried,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Now if you were I, we wouldn't
really have to ever ask that, would we? You know, if we're forsaken of
God, we'll know why, won't we? I mean, is there some mitigating
circumstance you can bring to the Lord and say, Lord, you shouldn't
forsake me? No, we know why we'd be forsaken, wouldn't we not?
But you see, the Lord Jesus Christ, He was a perfect man who perfectly
trusted in His Father, and He underwent, dear brethren, the
greatest anguish that has ever been heaped upon anyone. When
He cried those words, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me, the
one in whom all my trust is put? But even in the midst of all
of that, what did He do? He committed Himself unto the
Father. For even as Job said, even though he slay me, yet will
I trust in him. And that's what he says here.
I will offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I'll come
into his presence with singing. I'll magnify the Lord. I'll say,
here's the offering, not the blood of bulls and goats, but
of my own blood. As the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, I am Him who is ordained unto this end to pay
the price for the sin of my people. And I will lose none, Father,
of those whom thou hast given me, but I will pay the price
for their sin. I will satisfy the law in their
behalf. I will justify them by my own
blood. I will offer those sacrifices.
I will gladly go there. I will gladly give up myself
before Thee. I will sing. Yea, I will sing praises unto
my God." Oh, how could it be that when He hung there upon
that cross and He said, And yet, as a perfect man, he
rejoiced in the Lord. Dear brethren, men cannot comprehend
such things as these. This is beyond the realm of human
understanding. But the Lord Jesus Christ, in
and as a perfect man, did indeed undertake these things. Hear,
O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer
me." Is that not what he was saying, O Lord? Why have you
forsaken me? Have mercy on me, O God. For
here I am hung between heaven and earth. And Thou hast closed the windows
of heaven. I cannot see Thee, O Lord. But yet my trust is in Thee.
Oh God, forsake me not. Dear brethren, I believe that
all of God's people have such a desire. The worst thing I can
even imagine, I can't even comprehend it, what it would be like to
be before the presence of God and Him to say, depart from me. I never knew you. Now, you know, the average man,
I mean, the natural man, he just goes through life. He doesn't
have any consideration of that at all, because he just figures,
well, he'll reason it out with the Lord. I mean, the Lord is
going to weigh up the good that he did versus the bad, and everything
will be alright. But you see, those who are awakened
to know themselves to be sinners and to believe the Word of God,
they tremble at the thought that they should stand before God
without a substitute. without an advocate, without
one who stands in their room and place as the perfect Lamb
of God, as that man who has kept the law. They tremble to think
that they should stand there in their own righteousness, because
they know they will perish. And they would not ever consider,
they would never be amazed that the Lord should forsake them. Have mercy also upon me, and
answer me. When thou saidst, Seek ye my
face, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Does not the Lord come to His
people and say such things as, Come
unto me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest? Now, it's a true thing that this
is words that are spoken in a general way. I mean, when we say that,
we don't know who God's people are. But you see, the Lord takes
those words and He applies them to the heart of those whom He
loves. And He says, come unto Me all you that labor and are
heavy laden, because you see, those whom the Lord has awakened
by the power of His Spirit to see themselves to be sinners,
they are laboring under that sin. They are convicted and convinced
that they are worthy to be cast out from His presence, and this
causes them great turmoil of heart. And the Lord says, Come
unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Because He is a God of mercy.
And so the Lord says, Seek ye My face. And you see, when we declare
the gospel, we say to men, seek ye the face of the Lord. Call
upon Him while He is near. He is the Savior of sinners.
He saveth such as call upon Him. But we don't have any power to
bring that to pass. And neither does any man have
the power in himself to seek the Lord. But you see, in the
grace and mercy of God, He causes the call and the power to meet
together. And He calls those by name. He said, My sheep hear My voice. I know them and they follow Me. And He calls to them. And they
say, I hear the Savior's voice. I must arise. and go to Him. I can't stay where I'm at. I've got to seek Him. And just
like old blind Bartimaeus by the side of the road, and thinks,
oh, you know, it will pass. You're just all upset right now.
You're just emotionally overworked, you know. Just calm down. Everything
is going to be alright. And he said, no. No, I've got
to get to the Savior. I've got to find Him who is that
One who is calling me. I hear Him. I hear His voice. And He says, Come! Come while
it is yet today. I will arise and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in His arms,
in the arms of my dear Savior. Oh, there are ten thousand Come
ye sinners poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus
ready stands to save you. Full of pity, joined with power. Oh, that the Lord might call
His people to Him. That we might hear His voice.
That we might come to Him. For He is that One in whom our
soul delights. We seek no other. We desire no
glory for any man upon this earth, but the name of Christ, that
he might be exalted, lifted up. He said, if I be lifted up, I
will draw all men unto Me. Not all men of every individual,
but He says, I will draw all men unto Me. He will draw His
people unto Himself. He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Oh, what a mercy. There he is
in the sovereign grace of God.