Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Psalm 42. Psalm 42. I was noticing, as Brother Travis
was reading that, that two of the points that I'm going to
make in the message today are in verse 5. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his
God. So remember that. Help and hope. Help and hope. The name of the
message is help, hope, and health. Help, hope, and health. Now this, Psalm 42, was written
to the chief musician. It's an initial for the sons
of Korah. Remember Korah? Remember that
rebel Korah? The one who the ground opened
up and swallowed him? Demonstrating the sovereignty
and the power of God? This is written for his sons. So even in God's wrath, he spared
some of Korah's sons. Korah and his fellow rebels were
swallowed up. The ground just opened up, remember?
The ground just opened up and swallowed them because of their
gainsaying. But it appears here that some
of his sons didn't agree with his practice, and they escaped. How did they escape? Well, the
same way Noah escaped the flood. The same way we escape judgment
of our sins. They found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. They found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Of them
came Heman, the nephew of Samuel. It says this in 1 Chronicles
6.33. And these are they that waited
with the children of the sons of the Kohites. Heman, the singer,
the son of Joel, the son of Shemel. Now, this is written to him and
his brethren, one of the sons of Korah, to be kept as a treasure
and to be sung in the temple as well, in the sanctuary, to
bring comfort to the people of God, to be instruction for the
people of God. And it says here to the chief
musician, Mashel for the sons of Korah. Now, Mashel is a song
enforcing some kind of lesson. Or wisdom or pity. It's a diadex
song. And it's intended to teach. It
has moral instruction in an ulterior motive. So with that in mind,
let's read this song. It says, as the heart panteth
after the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. So David's using an illustration
here. And when you see a deer, and
if it's been on the run, it's being hunted, it looks to go
find water. And he's probably seen this in
his days as a shepherd. And he says, so panteth my soul
after thee, O God. And he says, my soul thirsts
for God and for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? So God's people, we hunger and
thirst after Christ, don't we? We hunger and thirst after Him.
He says, my tears have been my meat day and night while they
continually say unto me, where is thy God? See, the enemies
of God say, well, where is He? Where is He? Say to God's people,
where's your God? David had the perfect answer,
didn't he? Psalm 110, he says, my God's in the heavens. He does
whatever he pleases. Whatever he wants. He says, my tears have been my
meat day and night while they continually say unto me, where
is thy God? Brother Joe Terrell brings forth
that David is suffering, it appears, through a time of depression. It's real. God's people go through
whatever the world goes through. And it appears that David has
got himself down a little bit. He says, When I remember these
things, I pour out my soul in thee, for I had gone with a multitude. I went with them to the house
of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that
kept holy day. Look what he says in verse 5.
This is one of the verses we'll look at. Why art thou cast down,
O my soul? Why am I down? Why am I cast
down? David's going through some stuff. You ever get down? Let's be honest. Yeah, we do, don't we? David's
getting down. He's down there. Why art thou
cast down, O my soul? Why am I feeling the way I'm
feeling? Why would that disquiet me? Why
is my soul like a storm? You ever go through that? Yeah, we do, don't we? We're not mountaintop Christians.
Always on the mountaintop. No, we go through things. We
go through hills and valleys. We go through trials in this
life. And it's hard. It's hard. Why are they disquieting me?
Hope thou in God. Hope in God. Hope thou in God. Is God your hope? Is He your hope? He's the only
hope for sinners. Then he says, for I shall yet
praise Him for the help of His countenance. Again, there's the
hope and help that Brother Travis read. I'm going to praise Him. I may
be down now, but I'm going to praise Him. And even when I'm
down, I'm going to praise Him. This is real. He's going through some stuff.
Oh my God, my soul is cast down within me. Look what David says
here. This is a man after God's own heart. He says, my soul is
cast down. Therefore, while I remember thee
from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill
of Mizar. Deep calleth unto deep at the
noise of thy water spouts. All thy waves and thy billows
are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command His
loving kindness in the daytime and in the night. Remember that.
As God's people, His loving kindness is always upon us. It does not
cease. His love is always the same towards
us. How do we know this to be true?
Because He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, right? God
doesn't change. Therefore, his loving kindness
towards his people in Christ never changes. Never. That's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Day and
night, his song shall be with me in my prayer unto the God
of my life. He's the one who's given me life.
He's the one who's given me physical life, given you physical life,
and he's the only one who can give spiritual life. No one else
can. No one else can. I will say unto
God, my rock. Now see, David here, we're going
to see here, he feels like God's forsaken him. He feels like God's forsaken
him. Look what he says. I say unto my rock, why hast
thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of
the oppression of the enemy? See, he's got his eyes on the
enemies of God that are oppressing him, right? And he feels like the Lord has
forsook him. God will take care of the enemies
of his people. You've seen it in your life,
and I've seen it in my life. He takes care of the situation. Who's the battle belong to? It
belongs to the Lord. This is our situation. Hard for
us to do that. Vengeance is mine, I
will repay, saith the Lord. It's His. We're to live our life and walk
our life through this world trusting in him, aren't we? But see here,
David's really going through it. I was saying that God my
rock, Christ is the rock of our salvation, isn't he? He says,
why hast thou forgotten me? Do you know that God forsook
God so that we would never be forsaken? You know that? God forsook God
so that the people of God would never be forsaken. What did the
Lord Jesus Christ say? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? That's God the God-man crying
out to God the Father. Isn't that amazing? So David's got his eyes not on
the Lord, but he's got his eyes on his enemies. He's got his
eyes maybe on the things of the world that's going on. And he's saying, have you left
me, Lord? Have you forgotten me? No. What
does the Lord tell us in the book of Hebrews? He says, I'll
never leave thee nor forsake thee. And that's in the triple
negative in the Greek. Never, not ever, never. Never will He leave His people.
His love has been set upon them or from eternity, and he will
never turn his love away from them. Here, never forsake us.
Here, never forget us. Never. He says, as with a sword in my
bones, my enemies reproach me while they say daily, where is
thy God? They say, where's your God, David?
And look what he says here. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul, and why art thou disquieted me? Hope thou in God. Who's your hope? Who's your hope? Is your hope
in God? I pray that the Lord would make it so if your hope's
not in Him. Because He's the only hope for
sinners. He says, for I shall yet praise Him who is the health
of my countenance and my God. So being what I am, a sinner, God's law wholly condemns sinners,
right? I have three needs then. As a sinner born into this world,
I have three needs. I need help. I need help. When a man's drowning, he needs
help, doesn't he? Or a woman's drowning, they need
help. You know that in our natural
state we're drowning in a sea of sinfulness. We really are. And why do I need help? Well,
that I might have hope. And that I might have health.
I'm not talking health, wealth, prosperity, mumble-jumble those
lion preachers on TV are talking about. I'm talking about eternal
life. What does a drowning man or woman
cry for? Help. Help. They want to live. Every man and woman on this earth,
every human on this earth is drowning in a sea of sinfulness,
a sea of sin. And we need to be rescued. We need to be rescued, don't
we? What do we need to be rescued from? Well, we need to be rescued
from our sins, don't we? Because sin is from the top of
our head to the bottom of our feet. What else do we need to
be rescued from? Well, we need to be rescued from
the law of God, because it has a rightful claim on us. It says
the soul that sinneth it must die. That's a rightful claim
on us, right? We need to be rescued. We also
need to be rescued from the wrath of God, which falls upon sinners. A just God must punish sin, right? Would a judge be just if he knew
someone came into his courtroom and they were declared guilty,
would that judge be just to say, well, you know what, I'm just
going to let you go then? That wouldn't be a just judge, would
it? God's a just judge. He's just. But praise be to God,
for we who are the people of God, He's just God, but He's
also our justifier. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. So God's law has a rightful claim
on us. It has a rightful claim on us
because we're sinners. And I ask you, who should we cry to help
for? Who should we cry to help for? Well, some say, I'll go
to the preacher or the priest. No help there. No help there. No hope there. They're just as sin sick as you
are. I'm just a sinner saved by grace.
That's all I am. I'll tell you about someone who
can save anyone who comes to Him. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who saved my soul.
Some will say, well, then let's go to the church. Surely, surely
going to church can save us. God will count our church services
some merit towards salvation. A person can go to church and
be lost and go to hell because they didn't trust Christ. It's not a bad thing to go to
church, especially where the gospel is preached. That's a
good thing. But being a church member or
attending the church, I know my mom and dad attended the church
for years. Didn't save them. Didn't save him at all. Only
Christ Jesus can save. See, what happens is the sinner
finds out the church has a rope that's not long enough to reach
him. And he also finds out the preachers
and the priests have a rope that's not long enough to reach them
because they're drowned in too. Unless they've been rescued. Well, some think, well, maybe
if I do a good deed, or if I'm really good, surely God will
count that as a good thing and let me into heaven. Not by works
of righteousness which we have done. That means not by our works.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy. He has saved us. He saved us
by His mercy, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? God's people
are saved by the mercy and grace of God. Again, like I said in
Sunday School, because it pleased Him to do so. There's no reason
in us. None at all. Nothing in us that would merit
salvation. Absolutely nothing that would
have God say, well, I'm going to save you. Nothing in us. No merit, no merit, no merit.
It's all grace. I stand before you, and if you're
a child of God, you're listening, and we know that there's no merit
in us, that God would save us. There's nothing in us that would
move God to save us. It's an act of mercy in the free
and sovereign grace of God in Christ, period. Pure mercy. So doing good works or some good
deed won't help you. Can you do good works if you're
drowning? Is there anything you can do
if you're drowning? Are you thinking, well, I'm going
to do a good work before I drown? No, you're crying for help, aren't
you? You're screaming at the top of your voice. So the people in the world, and
we were there as God's people, are drowning in the sea of sinfulness. Can we help each other? Surely. Surely if I help my fellow man
or my fellow man helps me, surely. Surely, you know, if I do some
really good deed and feed the world or do this, which is not
a bad thing to do, right? To help people, of course. We
are to help people. We're to love our neighbors.
But that does not gain us any merit or favor with God at all.
None. So where does our help come from
then? Well, from the Holy Scriptures,
who tell us about the only one who can help a man or woman who
is drowning in their own sea of sinfulness. Let's read verse 5. We'll see
in our text where help for sinners comes from. Where does the strength of the
believer come from? It comes from Christ, doesn't
it? In our weakness, He is strong. Look at this here. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Verse 5. And why art thou disquieted of
me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of
his countenance." See, David's in distress. He's crying out
to God. He's reached the end of his rope. And he's crying out to God. Why
art thou cast down, O my soul? Why is my soul so cast down?
Ever been in that situation? Will you feel like you have no
hope? We've all been there at least
once in our lives. Why art thou cast down? Why is
our soul like a storm? Hope thou in God. See, the problem with men is
we try to hope in ourselves, don't we? We try to hope in something in
the world. Surely if I get this or that,
or reach a certain status, I'm going to be fine. But then you
reach that status and you're like, I'm not fulfilled. And if we're hoping in ourselves,
that's a false hope, isn't it? If we're hoping in something
in the world to bring us happiness and joy, we're hoping in something
that's just fleeting. Hope thou in God. Hope in the Eternal One. He is
the only hope for sinners. There's no other hope for sinners
but our great God. Turn, if you would, to Psalm
121, and then put your finger in Psalm 79. Psalm 121 first. Psalm 121. And we see here that the scripture
clearly declares where the born-again blood of our saint of God's help
comes from. Look at this in Psalm 121. We'll
read verses 1 to 3. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills. From whence cometh my help? Where
does the believer's help come from? Oh, it's wonderful. My help cometh
from who? From the Lord. Amen. Sister, from the Lord.
My help cometh from the Lord. That's where my help comes from.
As a believer, I stand before you saying my help comes from
the Lord. It doesn't come from myself. It doesn't come from
any ability I have. It comes from the Lord, and that's
Jehovah. My help comes from the Lord.
What did he do? Well, he made heaven and earth.
I love what Brother Chalmers said. That was awesome, brother. You didn't even realize I was
going to go into this verse. And Brother Travis was talking
about how the Lord created all these things and all these oceans,
the oceans and the water and all these diverse creatures that
we have on this earth. All because it pleased Him to
do so. It manifests His glory, doesn't it? And it's food for
us. Oh, it's incredible. He did all
this just to manifest His glory. Look what he says here. Look
at this. Now, if we get in that situation like David is in, look
at this. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth
thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. And then it says this, the Lord
is thy keeper. He's the one who keeps us. Rejoice. He's our keeper. Where's
our help come from? The Lord who's above. The Lord who created the whole
world and all the universe and everything in it. He's the one
where my help comes from. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. Well, He saves us and
then He preserves us. He keeps us. We can't keep ourselves,
but He does it. And it's the Lord Jehovah who
does this. The maker of heaven and earth. The one who just spoke
it all into existence. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth even forevermore.
Forevermore. Forever he's our keeper. Was he our keeper before we were
saved? Or was it just after he saved us? Amen. He was our keeper before. He
knew us. We were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. We had no clue about that. High privilege, did we? And we're
still in awe that God even chose us. But His eyes have ever been upon
us. Our coming in and our going out. It's wonderful. Then turn over to Psalm 79. Let's
look over there at Psalm 79. This is a wonderful portion of
Scripture, too, here. Psalm 79. Look at the help that
comes here. This is wonderful. Psalm 79,
verses 8 and 9. Psalm 79. Look at this. Oh, my. This is wondrous. Oh, remember
not against us former iniquities. Lord, don't remember our sin.
Please, Lord. We remember it, don't we? Let Thy tender mercy speedily
prevent us, for we are bought very low. Here we go. Help us. We're drowning in the
sea of sinfulness. Help us, O Lord! Help us! O God
of our salvation, look at that. Salvation is of the Lord, isn't
it? It's not of our doing. It's of the Lord. O God of our
salvation, for the glory of Thy name, and deliver us, and look
at this, and purge away our sins for Thy name's sake. In Psalm
79 there, we see the first of our three needs. We all need
help. It says, help us, O God of our
salvation, for the glory of Thy name and deliver us and purge
away our sins for Thy name's sake." You know, we see four
key statements right there in verse 9 of Psalm 79. When I was
studying this, I thought, boy, there's a four-point message
right there. Four key statements. I didn't see it until I was putting
this message together. Look at this. First, we see that
only God is the one who can help us in our sinful state. It says,
Help us, O God. Help us. You know, only he has the will,
the power, and the ability to help us. Only he does. Only he has the will, the power,
and the ability to save sinners who are drowning in our own sea
of sinfulness. Help us. Here's the first phrase. We cannot help ourselves. So
we must look outside of ourselves. We must look to Christ. Then
we see here the words, O God of our salvation. Here's the
second phrase. And this brings forth clearly
that salvation is of the Lord. It's not of us. It's not of anything
we do. We're not saved by making a decision
or praying a prayer. We're saved by God's will. Of
His own will begot He us with the word of truth. It's a heart
work. He can save you without you moving
a muscle. Because it's a heart work. And it's only a work that
God does. Only a work that He does. So salvation is of the Lord.
Then we see in verse 9 that it's God alone who must deliver us
from our sins. It says, deliver us and purge
away our sins. So we cry out to God for help,
and then we cry out to the only one who can deliver us from our
sins, the only one who can purge us from our sins. And you know
that word there, purge, is a key word. That's a key word in this
verse. Because it means a clearing away
of defilement. A clearing away of defilement.
To make one free of impurity. Think of that. You mean sinners
are made pure in Christ? Well, I'm still a sinner while
I'm on this earth, but I'm clothed in the righteousness
of Christ right now. God looks at me, he sees me in
Christ, even though I'm still a sinner. But one day, every
born-again, blood-washed believer will be presented to God by the
Lord Jesus Christ Faultless and without spot. Isn't that wonderful? No more struggle with sin. No
more burden of our sins. To be in the presence of the
Lord rejoicing forevermore. It's truly glorious. My oh my. And then we see in the latter
part of that verse, and in the body of the verse, for the glory
of thy name, and in the latter part, for thy name's sake. All
for his glory. He does all that for his glory,
that we might glorify him and honor him and praise him. What
a great God. Talking to someone this week,
and I said, you know, God's not obligated to save anyone. They thought that, well, because
God made everything and because he did all this, that God was
now obligated to save everyone. I said, God's not obligated to
save anyone. He's not. And that's a shock
when natural man hears that. He's not obligated to save anyone. He only saves because it pleases
him to do so. I said to him, I said, imagine
the potter with the clay. The potter makes a million of
one pots and a million of another pot. He says, well, I don't really
like that pot over here. The million pots here, I'm just
going to destroy them and start all over again. I'm going to
take these ones home. I'm going to give them to people
who I love and I appreciate. They're special. But as the potter,
he can do whatever he wants over those clay, right? Whatever he
desires. See, God can make one a vessel
of honor and one a vessel of dishonor if it pleases him to
do so. He's the potter. He has power over the clay. We're
the clay. That's the marvel of salvation
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, is that for me as a believer
and for you as a believer, God wasn't obligated to save us,
brother. He wasn't obligated to save us at all. And yet He
saved us by His grace. Because it pleased Him to do
so. It's just amazing. It's overwhelming. See, but the
world doesn't understand that. They think that, well, God, He
has to do whatever we think He has to do. No, He does not. His
ways are not our ways. That's why we marvel, we who
are the people of God, that He saved our souls. Because we were rebels just like
everybody else. And you know what? We still struggle
with sin, don't we? Even as saved believers. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. So it said
there in that verse in Psalm 79 is absolutely wonderful. Help
us. There's our first point. O God
of our salvation. We need help. We need help desperately. Help
us. O God of our salvation, for the
glory of thy name, and deliver us and purge away our sins for
thy name's sake. We need our sins to be purged
away, don't we? We need that. We need to be delivered from
our sins. Now, purging is a monumental
work. Purging is a monumental work. And this purging spoken
of in Psalm 79 is beyond human ability. Someone else must do
this purging. And who is that? Look at Hebrews
1, verse 3. Look at this. Scripture tells
us, again, the answer is in Scripture. Right? "...who being the brightness
of His glory," this is speaking of Christ, "...in the expressed
image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His
power, when He had by Himself purged our sin." Remember what
it meant in the Hebrew? A clearing of the defilement. That's amazing grace. Right there. That's amazing grace right there.
When he had by himself, Christ by himself, no help from anybody. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on
high. He did it all. He is the one who's cleansed
me. I'm still a sinner, I'm still a sinner, but oh my, what a savior
is Christ. Now I'm a safe sinner. He's amazing. Do I deserve this? No. You're all shaking your head. No. We don't deserve it, do we? We do not deserve this mercy.
And we do not deserve this grace. And Christ Himself, it says there
in Hebrews 1-3, He did this wondrous work of purging our sins. Purging away our sins. By Himself. He didn't ask for help from anyone.
He didn't say, well, I've done this work and now the rest is
up to you. That's not how God works. He either does it all,
He either saves us by His grace, or we're not saved at all. There's
no question. There's no middle ground. And by himself, no help asked,
no help needed, no man, no church, no preacher, none of creation
can offer any assistance to the purging of our sins. It only
occurs in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. So
help comes from him alone. And only this one element can
purge our sin. No son or daughter of Adam can
purge away our own sins or anyone else's. So we can conclude that
man cannot help in this great task of rescuing us from our
sin. You know why? You know why? Because they need to be rescued
from their sea of sinfulness, just like we need to be rescued
from our sea of sinfulness. So what is the one element that
can purge our sins? Well, let's turn to Hebrews chapter
9. Hebrews chapter 9. One element that can purge a
sinner, and you know it comes from God and God alone? Only
one element. Only one element can purge a
sinner. No son or daughter of Adam can purge away our own sins
or anyone else's. Look at Hebrews 9.22. And almost
all things are by the law purged with blood. And without the shedding
of blood is no remission. Verse 22. Let's read that again.
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood. This is speaking of the law of
God, the Mosaic law. And without shedding of blood
is no remission. So there's no remission for sins
without the shedding of blood. You know, it was only Christ
Jesus who put away our sins. No one else. You know, only God. God would only accept the sacrifice
of Christ. Look, four more verses down,
verse 26. For then must he have suffered since the foundation
of the world. Remember, he's the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. God had planned and purposed
to save a people in Christ. But now once in the end of the
world hath he appeared to put away sin, how? By the sacrifice
of himself, by his work, by his almighty power. The crimson flow
that purges a sinner is the blood. And not any blood, not just any
blood, It's the blood of the God-man. It's the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's the blood of He who is the
Word of God who became flesh and dwelt among us. And why did
He come here? Why? Well, He was manifested
to take away our sin. He was manifested to take away
our sin. Some people say, well, he lived
a good example and we should call the example, he was manifested
to take away our sin. Some people say, well, he was
a good teacher amongst other teachers. He was manifested to
take away our sin. And in him is no sin. He was
manifested for that very reason. To take away our sin. Whole reason
he came here. is to take away the sins of His
people. Do I hear a cry for help? Someone throws a life preserver,
and it encircles the poor, drowning sinner, and written on it is
the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. The only thing that can rescue
us from our sins is the Lord Jesus Christ and His precious
shed blood. the crimson flow that purges
a sinner. Again, it's not any blood. It's
the blood of the God-man. It's the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Justice Christ. The justice of God Christ. Blood
for blood. Punishment for every sin. And
the Scripture says the Lord by no means will clear the guilty.
And the sinner feels within his heart that his judgment is set.
If God doesn't damn me, he ought to. I have been so great a sinner
against His laws that if I should escape, His holiness is done
away with. And the sinner, when convicted
in his own conscience of our sinfulness, must own the righteousness
of God in his own condemnation. We take sides with God against
ourselves. And he or she knows that an atonement
must be made in order to obtain pardon. He asks in his heart,
or her heart, who can bring this about? Who can save me from all
my sins? I can't save myself. And no one
else can save me. No other human has the ability
to save me. The church can't save me. A priest or preacher
can't save me. No one. But you know that only
the infinite can satisfy the infinite. Only God can satisfy his own
law. Angels can't help us. They're
powerful beings. We see that all through the scriptures.
They're extremely powerful beings. They can't help us. Not at all. Man cannot help us. So where
shall we find the forgiveness of sins? Where shall we find
all our sins forgiven? Well, it's hidden in the secret
counsel of the Most High. And I do not know where it is
until from the very throne of God I hear the words, I am your
substitute. I am the one substitute for sinners. And looking there, I see sitting
on the throne God and yet a man. God and yet a man. A man who
once was slain. And I see his pierced hands and his pierced feet. But he's also God. And smile when he says, I have
forgiveness. I have pardon purchased with
my own precious blood. And I had to die the just one
for the unjust. And I had to suffer for your
sake. And now I have help for you. The only help for sinners is
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what help? What a glorious,
glorious help. And what will this produce in
the born-again, blood-washed believer? Joy. Peace. The fact that we've been
rescued by the power of God, that we've been rescued by God
Himself. Let's go back to our psalm, Psalm
42, and take note of the next word. In verse 5, Why art thou cast
down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted me? Hope thou
in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Hope. Hope. Hope thou in God. Let's turn to Job chapter 19.
Job chapter 19, but keep your finger there in Psalm 42. Look
at this. What is our only hope? Well,
our only hope is Christ. And as we saw, only one element
can purge a sinner and that's the precious blood of Christ.
And you know, only one can redeem a sinner too. The same element,
the blood of Christ. The same element can purge us
from all our sins, and the same element can redeem our souls. And that's the blood of Christ.
1 Peter 1, verses 18 to 19. To 21, the scripture says this,
for as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible
things of silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily
was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest
in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God
that raised him up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your
faith and your hope, that your faith and your what? Hope, might
be in God. Look at this in Job chapter 19,
verses 25 to 27. These are wondrous words. For
I know that my Redeemer liveth. Job knows that his Redeemer lives.
He knows. And that he shall stand the latter
day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy in his body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. He has
a confidence, doesn't he? And the confidence doesn't come
from within him, it comes from without him. Confidence is in
God. Whom I shall see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold. Beloved of God, look at that.
One day we will behold God. Like we'll look at one another,
we'll behold Him. One day. That'll be glorious,
won't it? We'll behold Him. We'll see Him. Whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins
be consumed within me." Job had found a ransom, hadn't he? Job
says, here, my Redeemer lives. You know that Job knew that his
Redeemer lives. How did he know? By faith. By
faith. You know, that's the same faith
that we have. God's gift of Christ never changes,
right? God's faith that he gives his
people is the same in the Old Testament as it is in the New.
The Old Testament saints say we're looking to Christ. We look
back to what he's done. But we're all given the same
faith. Are we all saved by the same grace, Old and New Testament
saints? Yeah. Are we all born again by the
same Holy Spirit? Yeah. God doesn't change. When I was
in religion, I used to think that the Old Testament was for
the Jews and the New Testament was for God's people. And I found
out really quick that this whole book is from God. It's for our
instruction. And who is the one who it points
us to? It says, the Lord said, the law and the prophets, they
testify of me. It speaks of Christ and what
he's done. So our only hope, then, is is in
Christ. The only hope we have is the
precious blood of Christ, right? That it not only did it purge
our sin, but we're redeemed, purchased by that same blood. And hope. Hope. Most man's hope
in this world are in the things of this world. And yet all those
things will one day perish. They'll all go away. Everything
we see is temporary. Everything. This world, every
person we see, temporary. We're all temporary. It's appointed
on man once to die and after this to judgment. It's all temporary. One day the Lord's just going
to roll it all up like a scroll. There'll be a new heaven and
a new earth. My oh my. But people, people of this world
don't really have hope. I ask you, what's your hope?
Who's your hope as you go through this world? We live, we eat,
we drink, we enjoy things, we get older, we eat, we drink,
and then the time comes when, for the natural man, even the
good things, the joy of those things fade away. But for the
people in Christ, our joy doesn't end as we get older. I believe
it increases. Because we learn more and more
about our King. We learn more and more about
what's waiting for us. It's glorious. And we get homesick
for heaven. Some people say, well, I just
want to be happy. But true happiness is not putting
your hope or your trust in anything in this life. True happiness
is putting your hope in Christ and Him alone. You know, despair is the opposite
of hope. And we see in our psalm, David
was despairing, wasn't he? That's the same man, he was despairing.
And he says to himself, hope thou in God, for I shall praise
him for the help of his countenance. I'm going to one day be in his
presence. Go to the garden of Gethsemane
and see the bloody clots of blood on the ground. Then go to the place of judgment
and see the Savior with his beard plucked out. And his holy cheeks with spittle
running down as they spit in his face. And look at his back, lacerated
from the whips. blood streaming from him. In agony, tormented, then stand
at Calvary and see our blessed Savior nailed to the cross. The just one dying for the unjust. and remember the bitter torments
that were tossed at him from his enemies as they stood at
the foot of the cross. And those voices of his enemy
and those lacerations that he received
were small compared to the inner soul anguish that he was going
through. as He's redeeming His people
from all their sins. As He's shedding His precious
blood to purge us from all our sins. As He's shedding His precious
blood to redeem us from all our sins. And know this, He was manifested
to take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. The sinless
One dying for sinners. And come away looking at Christ
by faith. Surely we come away saying, there
is my hope. There is my hope. The Lord Jesus Christ dying in
my room and place. There's my hope. The victorious
King risen from the grave, raised for our justification, now seated at the right hand
of the Father. My, the last thing I would like us
to consider is health. Let's go back to Psalm 42. And we'll read verse 11. Now,
when does health come? Health only comes when healing
comes, right? Because when you're sick, you're
not healthy. But when you're healed, you're healthy. You know where I'm going, eh,
brother? Oh, my. Now, if one does not
believe that this human race is sick unto death, just look
around. Look around. Sin leads to death.
It's all around us. It's all around us. But who has
the cure? Churches say, well, we have it.
Come and do all these religious requirements. Well, we want you
to do this, and we want you to do this, and we want you to do
this. And then, oh, no. You'd be no better. You'll still
be sin sick. Still be sin sick. And you know
what? Natural man falls for that stuff
every time. They fall for that stuff every single time. Tell
me what I've got to do. Just talk to folks. They'll tell
you, well, when you start mentioning sin, well, I'm a good person.
No, you're not. You're a sinner just like I am. You just don't
think you are. Oh my. And this health here is
not talking about the health of the body, it's talking about
the health of, by his stripes we are healed. The health of the soul. Help, hope, and health. Deceiving prophets, they say,
come on, I'll heal that cancer in your body and you'll have
perfect health. He says, just give me a little money. Give
me a little money. Lying, deceiving men. My, if someone had the true gift
of healing, we'd be running down to the hospital wards, wouldn't
we? Putting our hands, exhausting ourselves to death trying to
heal as many people as we could. Especially with this COVID going
on now. My. I'm not even going to get into
that. So this sickness and this health,
this sin sickness, every single human has. And then we see health
brought forth here. Look at verse 11. Why art thou
cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health
of my countenance. He was wounded. for our iniquities. He's blessed for my iniquities.
Wounded for my transgressions. By His stripes I'm healed from
all my sin. Isn't it wonderful? And who has the cure for sin
sickness? Well, who? His own self, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Bear our sins in His own body
on the tree. And we, being dead to sins, should
live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye
were as sheep going astray, but now returned unto the shepherd
and bishop of our souls." So the blood of Christ gives us
health, eternal life in Christ. I'm not talking health where
we won't have any sickness anymore. Don't even believe that garbage
when those guys say that stuff. Oh, I despise those word of faith
folks that say, well, you don't have enough faith. You know what? Some of the sweetest people I
know have went through some of the hardest things. And they
bear these things without saying a word. Several people in our
body here don't say a word, bearing things all the time. My, oh,
my. So we saw that one element can
purge a sinner, and that element can only redeem a sinner, and
so that only that one element can give health. Only one element
can cure sin-sick sinners, and that's the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And how did that come about for
we who believe? By his suffering in our place,
because by his stripes we are healed. His suffering, His death
brings health to His people. Eternal life. The cleansing from
all our sin. Purchased by His precious blood. And we believe that if Christ
stood as our substitute, it was an actual, real, effectual atonement. It was real. And it was complete. And we who are His people are
positively 100% delivered from our sins. Hallelujah! Praise God! What a Savior! And if our sin was imputed to
Christ, you know what? It cannot be imputed to us. Heaven or hell cannot accuse
the sons of God of any sin if it was all imputed to Christ. If God is justified and Christ
has died, then you know what? No one can lay a charge to God's
elect. No one. Isn't that wonderful? Think of this. Remember the purging? That's how much he's cleared
the defilement away. Oh, what a wonder of salvation.
Do you need help? Do you need help? The blood of Christ, the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ purges sin. Do you need hope? The blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ redeems and gives us hope. Do you need
help?