Psalm 94, and I'm turning there right now. Last week we talked a good bit about the vengeance of the Lord, and I wanted to just remind you that vengeance belongs to the Lord. One of the concerns that was raised last week is that how can we find comfort in God's vengeance?

And I want to address that question just a little bit without being theological, if you would, but just being more pastoral in this way. There's often things that happen to us in our lives that we We wonder if things will go according to our will. For example, when a loved one doesn't hear the gospel, we really, really want them to be saved, and we pray for them, and it's a great concern that we have, and we wonder. Or when someone that we know and we don't know, if they're a believer or not, they die, and we wonder what became of them. And so all those questions and many, many more are always on our minds.

But I just wanted to say this, and by comparison, the scripture that teaches us this is that our greatest comfort, our greatest comfort and our assurance in all of these situations, things that we don't understand, things that we don't know the answer to, that we will find out someday, but we're not sure that we're going to be comfortable with the outcome, that we need to remember how the Lord is our assurance, that He is our comfort, He is our trust. And I want to bring a comparison, because I see this most often, it's something we all experience. in ourselves and when we see our children.

But children instinctively trust their parents. I've seen this. Little babies will always reach out to their mother or their father, and they look to them when any trouble is near. It doesn't matter how little. They might just want to be picked up, or they might want to have comfort in some little incident. They're afraid. They start to hurt themselves, and they suddenly cry out.

So they expect and they rely on their parents for this care, for help, for love and for comfort. And they expect their parents to know everything. They depend on them in every situation. Of course, their trust in their parents is not perfect. They grow impatient. They don't always wait. They believe their mom and dad know more and are able to do more than they can do.

But their trust in their parents is what causes them to look up to them. and their trust in their parents is what causes them to rely on them and to cry to them in every situation for help and for when they're hungry, when they need care, or when they're in trouble, or when they fall, or whatever it might be, and especially to make them happy. This is one thing I see, especially with small children. They need their parents to make them happy. And one thing that children need is they need their parents' approval. They need their re-approval. They need their constant reaffirmation of their love for them.

Nothing brings more stress or disappoints a child more than when their mom or their dad cannot hear or answer them when they're not able to or when they aren't interested in helping them, it seems. And so when uncertainty comes like that, a child's only comfort is to know that their mom and dad really hears them. If you take this analogy to the next step, is what does a child of God need for comfort? What is their greatest need?

And I think it's that same thing. We need from our God and Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to know that even though we are sinful, that we are still His, and that He is our Father, and that He will fulfill His will to bring us to Himself, and do it through the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is what causes us to rely on Him, this need. We know that He is able, we know that He knows, but we need to have this assurance of His love. And this comes to us by knowing who He is. And we know who He is through His Word and through His works. And we know His Word and His works from His Son. And so all these things give us this assurance that we need of God's love, that we're the Lord's and that He is ours and that He will save us and keep us and bring us to Himself.

And so, no matter what matter is facing us, no matter what the question is, no matter what anxious thought, whether it's about ourselves or about others, a child of God finds peace and rest in this, that God himself is for me, that God is good, that he is holy, that he's able to do his will, and he does his will all the time, Like a rock, it doesn't depend upon my strength or my confidence, but upon the rock that holds me up. The Lord is our rock. And this is true, that the child of God finds his comfort in the face of the most extreme circumstances. And God has taught us to look to him in the most climactic of times.

And scripture is full of this. And that's one of the things that we're going to see tonight, is that the Lord, who is holy, is able to be God, to be holy, to be sovereign, and yet to bring sinners to himself, even us, who have no strength in ourselves.

And so that's just meant to be an introduction, really, to the second part here of Psalm 94. But if you remember the opening verse here, he says, oh Lord God to whom vengeance belongeth. And I mentioned last week, and I didn't elaborate much on this, but there's many things about God that are unique to God. Vengeance belongs only to God.

Now he has delegated authorities in this world, civil authorities, for example. And by God's delegated authority to them, they are given this authority to execute judgment, and even judgment in death. You can read about that in Romans 13, for example, that God has appointed governments to to defend the people, to uphold the laws, and to punish evildoers. And that's God's way of delegating His vengeance or His authority. But ultimately, vengeance belongs to God. And there's many things like that. Some things belong to God because of His character, because of His nature.

For example, only God is good. Remember what Jesus told the rich young ruler in Matthew 19? He said, only God is good. Why do you call me good? There is none good but God. In another place in scripture, he says, there is none good. There is none that doeth good. So we know that when God looks at man, he says, there is none that doeth good. But when he talks to men about himself, he says, there is only one good, and that is God. So that is one example. Only God is good. Only God is holy. And in salvation, this is something, only God is the savior. So these things are incommunicable. They belong only to God. God is sovereign. There's no other sovereign. God is sovereign.

And so when we see all these things, it's encouraging because we see that The things that belong to God are His alone, and so we can trust Him because of that. If salvation is only God's work, then we trust God to do all in salvation. If vengeance is only God's work, then we wait on Him to execute that vengeance. And that's what the psalmist is saying here. Now, there's many things like this in scripture, I mean, in our lives.

All power belongs to God. All life belongs to God. All righteousness is God's only. And all mercy, these things are God's doings. And forgiveness, there's forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be fearful. All these things and many more, we could say, belong only to the Lord. And therefore, all glory belongs to the Lord. And so, vengeance is part of that.

And as children, we know that God is all wise and that he knows everything. And that He can do and does do all of His will. And He will always do His thoughts. He is the one who revealed Himself to be the Judge. And He reveals to us that He has appointed Christ to judge in all things. So, we can trust Him, can't we? The one who is our Savior is also our Judge. Or we could say it this way, the one who is our Judge is also our Savior. And that's a great, great comfort.

Even when the prodigal was away from his father and had wasted his father's living and had nothing to eat, he remembered that his father's servants were much better off than he was. So he said, I'll arise and go to my father. And I will say to him, I am not worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your servants. And so he came to himself. God brought him to that way.

And this is true here in Psalm 94 as well. And I want to focus tonight a little bit on some of the verses that we didn't get to last night. Let's just begin with verse one and we'll go through this and I'll comment as we get to these. It says, O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth, O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself. This is a request for God not only to take vengeance, but to show himself. It's much more than just act, it's God show yourself. We should always remember that. God's word and God's works are the outshining of who God is.

So that we don't so much focus on being saved from wrath as much as we focus on the one who saved us from wrath. We don't take delight so much in creation as we do in the creator. The giver is always much greater than the gift. The builder is much greater than the house.

And so we want to remember that, that all these things are meant to bring us to God, to show us who He is. So, Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth, O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself. Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth. Render a reward to the proud. This is something that we want, isn't it? Render a reward to the proud.

There are six things the Lord says that he hates in Proverbs chapter six. And the first of them is pride. Remember that? The six things the Lord hates. A proud look is the first one in the list. And this is something that throughout scripture is constantly emphasized.

Whoever exalts himself will be abased. This is a principle. It's more certain than gravity. Whoever exalts himself will be abased. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Now that's true, but we can't humble ourselves. And that's the humble thing. That's the humbling thing, isn't it? God has to humble us. And so the Lord is good enough to even humble us. And when he humbles us, he teaches us that the Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself. And this brings us to great humility in ourselves, to trust him only. But God hates pride.

He gives so many examples of this. Satan exalted himself and God said he's going to be brought down to hell. The Pharisee, trusted in himself that he was righteous and Jesus said he trusted in himself, he prayed with himself, he did not go down to his house justified and it was right after that parable that Jesus spoke in Luke 18 that he emphasized this in verse 14 when he says that Little children were brought to him and he says whoever humbles himself, I mean whoever exalts himself will be humbled. He must become as a little child. And they brought infants to him to emphasize that. So you have to become as an infant, a helpless child. Someone who only needs to receive everything. They don't bring anything. They don't bring potential.

God must do it all. And so that's what the Lord does when he humbles us. So he asked the Lord to do this. How long will the wicked, how long will the wicked triumph? How long shall they utter and speak hard things and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

You see, this is identifying the problem, our pride, isn't it? And especially we can see it in others, but seeing it in others is just like looking at a mirror. That's my problem too. The reason I'm so keen at being able to see these faults in others is because I'm guilty of the same things. There's many things here that he lists when he goes through this. How long shall they utter and speak hard things? All the workers of iniquity boast themselves.

They break in pieces thy people, O Lord. They afflict thine heritage. He takes God's side in the argument, in the prayer. He says, they're your people. They're afflicting your people. You've put your name upon them. You've committed yourself to give them what you promised in covenant, made by blood, even the blood of Christ. So he's emphasizing the fact that God's name is at stake. And this is an effective prayer because of that.

They slay the widow and the stranger. They murder the fatherless. And the Lord says he would be the father of the fatherless. He is a helper of widows. And so true religion and undefiled among men. is this, that you would visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. So these things are clear denunciations against this pride and this treatment of the Lord's people. It says in verse six, they slay the widow and stranger and murder the fatherless. Verse seven, yet they say, the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.

But he says in verse eight, Understand you brutish among the people, you fools. When will you be wise?" You see, the psalmist speaks in faith. He speaks against the enemies of the Lord's people. He calls them brutish, like beasts, fools, ignorant, unwise, who think and act in pride, which proves their foolishness, their beastly nature, a tendency to act no more than a beast would act. God corrects. He said, don't be like the horse or the mule that has to be steered with a bit and a bridle. Let the Lord's instructions steer us in another place. I don't have that reference for that, but I remember that. It says in verse nine, he's going to prove the foolishness of such thinking.

He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? Because you're saying these things, you don't think God hears you? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? He sees how you treat these. He reasons against their foolishness. If God made ears, then he can surely hear. If he made eyes, he can surely see. And then in verse 10 he says, He that chastiseth a heathen, shall not he correct? He that teaches man knowledge, shall he not know? Now, God chastises nations, the heathen. These are the nations, the Gentiles. Shall not he correct?

There's two words here, chastise and correct. And there's a slight difference in the meaning of these two words. Chastise is something that applies to child training, disciplinary action that a father would take on a child in order to teach and bring them along. But the second word, correct, is a word that emphasizes judgment and a reproof. It's like an open rebuke. It exposes wrongdoing. It's not meant so much for causing the correct behavior as it is to just prove that wrong as wrong and to correct them for it in that way.

God chastens his children to make them partakers of his holiness. He says in Proverbs 3, verse 12, whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, even as a father his son, the son in whom he delights. When God chastens his people, it's an evidence of his love and his delight in them as children. He says in Deuteronomy 8 verse 5, thou shalt also consider in thine heart that as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee.

So he gives that comparison. It's a valid comparison. A man chastens his son. Hebrews 12 says they do it for their prophet, but he for our prophet. And so, The other word, though, correct, in comparison or contrast, is God's view is to openly expose and shame by judgment. So the argument here, you can see, is from the lesser to the greater. He chastises the heathen. He will correct. He will correct these who deserve vengeance.

And remember, there's many places in scripture where this is spoken about. Remember Matthew 23? It's a whole chapter where many times in that chapter, Jesus says, woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites. Woe unto you, woe unto you, woe unto you. That's called correct.

That's rebuke. That's open rebuke. But for children, he chastens them. And so this open rebuke is something where this comes upon false prophets, false apostles, deceitful workers, those who want to be preeminent through the use of God's word. That's a very dangerous thing, isn't it? To seek honor for ourselves in the eyes of others, using the truth of God as the mechanism for that. That's a very, very dangerous thing.

In 3 John, the third epistle of John, in verse 9, it says, I wrote unto the church, but deatrophies, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. So the apostle John is saying this man deatrophies. His problem was that he wanted preeminence among the church. He wouldn't receive the apostles even though John wrote, wherefore, John says, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbid Forbiddeth them that would and casteth them out of the church." So that's going to be an open rebuke, isn't it? That's going to be a correction. John had the authority of an apostle. He had the authority of Christ. So, as Paul indicated, he could bring judgment. He could bring that right away when he comes.

The other lesson, though, the flip side of this is that when any of these people afflict the church of God, then they are touching the apple of God's eye. And this is a very important theme, as we see here, and this is part of the prayer. Lord, they afflict your heritage. And so that the psalmist here to the comfort of God's afflicted people who are the objects of this persecution by these proud men. He dismantles the inward thoughts of the proud against the Lord that he won't correct them because he says, if God can teach knowledge to men, he himself is wise. He'll know what you're doing.

And you see this, it's beautiful in the Gospels how when the enemies against Christ and His disciples came to Him to try to catch Him in His doctrine, He always so silenced them, didn't He? He just silenced them. And they had to just go away in their shame. Take for example, John chapter 8, when they brought that woman taking an adultery, they had nothing to say, they just had to leave.

But in verse 11 it says, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of man that they are vanity. In all these things the Lord proves that man's thoughts are completely foolish and opposed to the truth of God, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's enmity, it's hostility against God. Verse 12 says, Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law. So God chastens out of love, and the design of his chastening is to lead us to Christ and to strengthen us to cling only to the Lord Jesus Christ and to find the Lord Jesus to be our only and all-sufficient strength, and thereby to comfort us and to conform us to the image of his dear Son. You see, it has a different purpose.

Remember what Jesus said in John chapter 6 and verse 45. He says, all of God's children, as it says in the prophets in Isaiah 54, I think it is. He says, all of God's children, all of them are taught of God. And Jesus said, everyone therefore that has heard and learned of the Father does what?

This teaching of God. What is God's teaching? It's instruction, it's chastening. What does all of that do? All of those who are taught of God come to me. Come to me. So we can see then that the object and the result of God's teaching of his children is to bring us to Christ.

And that's why I say, God, that's the greatest love there can be, isn't it? To bring us to the Lord Jesus where we can see and know God and be accepted of Him and have access to Him and to have confidence before God in the Lord Jesus and to have life by His life and to live to God, be brought to God even though we're sinners. This is tremendous. This is immeasurable love, isn't it? That God would chasten us out of that love, with that design, to lead us to Christ and strengthen us, to cause us to cling to Him. And so we see that throughout scripture.

For example, in Hebrews chapter 10, he says, let us therefore, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. That's what God does to us. So when he says here in Psalm 94, he says, blessed is the man that, let's see, where is it?

Verse 12, blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law. out of his doctrine. And what is that doctrine? That God teaches us to come to Christ. He teaches us the gospel, doesn't he? And all of the law is fulfilled. The law is established by faith in Christ. Christ fulfilled the law. He's the end of the law for righteousness and faith sees that. Faith is aligned with God in that. Yes, my only obedience in all of my answer to God's justice is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's what the Lord teaches His people. It's consistent throughout. He teaches them His word about the Lord Jesus, and we find our all in Him.

Now, He says in verse 13, And I want to spend some time here in verse 13. He says, that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity until the pit be digged for the wicked. The one whom God chastens is blessed. We know he does it in love. We know the result of that is to bring us to Christ, to cause us to cling to him, to find our all in him. And he says that he does this, he teaches them his doctrine, his gospel, that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity until the pit be digged for the wicked.

So some are given rest and the wicked are going to be, the pit is going to be digged for them, the pit is prepared for them. So we want to see here in this God's mercy to us who are his people. We might not feel ourselves to be his people. That's not the point. The gospel tells us as sinners to come to Christ, doesn't it?

He says in John 6, where I was just quoting a minute ago. Let me just turn there so I get this right. Jesus says in John 6 and verse 30. Let's see. John 6. He says in verse 33. He says, the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life to the world. And then they said to him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. Hunger and thirst. How is our hunger, how is our spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst satiated? Christ must be our bread. We must, by faith, take of Christ broken for us. We live upon Christ and Him crucified. He is our life.

And this is emphasized over and over in this chapter. So he tells sinners to come to Him. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. This rest from the days of adversity until the pit be digged for the wicked refers to God giving his people refuge and rest in Christ, crucified, risen, reigning, and interceding. with whom their life is hid in God. This is the promise of scripture.

You see, our rest is knowing that our life with Christ is hid in God, that double insulated safe. Our life is hid. It's so secure that it's in Christ, in God. And it can't be taken from us, can it? But the problem is that we live in this world now. We live in a sinful body. We live with this old sinful nature. We live with the knowledge of our own sins. We live in a world that is full of those who make up gods and make up religion.

And they pretend that man is in control of his salvation, that man can do what God requires. And then they say there are certain measures and you have to meet these measures in order to have confidence. All these things. They make progress. Their measure of assurance and things like that.

But the gospel always brings us to Christ. And I want to get at this a little bit because The fact is that the days of adversity are time in this world. That's the time of God's elect in this world. That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity until the pit be digged for the wicked. Throughout history, God's elect have lived through adversity. At the end of time, there will be a final judgment, and they will be shown to be the Lord's people, and then they will appear with Christ in glory. and they will be presented and God will be, He will be magnified in their salvation and Christ will be magnified before them and they will be so gloriously enthralled with Him that there will be no impediment then.

But now it's the days of adversity. And I want to, this thought came to me as I was thinking about these verses this week because if you take the Bible, If you take all of the Old Testament especially, that's a significant portion of the Bible, isn't it? If you just hold it up and divide it, you'll see that there's a great proportion of the Bible that's just the Old Testament. And if you were to summarize what happens in the Old Testament, I think one of the things you would see is that God's people fall into sin, And then they're overcome by enemies.

And these enemies are always there. They're always present in and around them. And the people of God, many times, are fearful for their lives. And the reason for their fear and the reason for their trouble, the reason for their warfares and the battles that go on, it seems like they have so many enemies. And all these things occur over and over again throughout scripture.

You go from Genesis, what happens in Genesis? Well, God creates the world, and he creates man, and makes a woman perfect for Adam. And then the tempter comes, and they fall into sin, and the tempter brings them into the wages of sin, which is death, a condemnation. And then you go on a little further, and then all these people are born, and most of them are completely ungodly and wicked, but there's a few in the line of Seth who begin to call on the name of the Lord.

So there's a glimmer of light and hope, but yet all of the people of God are always in this context of warfare and fighting. And then you see Abraham, and there's the flood, and then there's Abraham, and then there's the nation of Israel. It seems like the nation of Israel occupies most of the rest of the Old Testament, doesn't it? Except for a few books like the Song of Solomon, which seems like it's an insert in the history of the nation of Israel. But most of it is Israel's time in Egypt, and then the wilderness, and then in Canaan, and then the kings, and the prophets, and their falls and they're being taken into captivity and brought back out of captivity, brought into captivity and brought back out of captivity and they're dwindled down and only a few remain and most of them die horrible deaths and their enemies seem more powerful and it seems like they're crying to the Lord and the Lord saves them.

And then they fall away again. And the Lord has to send prophets to them and turn them again to himself. And so you see that the Old Testament is a repetition, isn't it? It seems like a repeating theme, sin and failure and rescue and return. Do you find that resonating with you? The Psalms are full of this. We're talking about it right here in this chapter. Let me give you some examples here.

God sentenced Satan in Genesis 3.15. Now, what happened here was Adam and Eve had sinned and God drills down. He starts with Eve and then to Adam and then to Satan and he stops there and he says, all right, The seed of the woman, I'm going to put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, and the seed of the woman is going to crush your head, and you are going to bruise his heel.

Remember that? So in the pronouncement of judgment on Satan, what did God also pronounce? deliverance by the seed of the woman. You see those two? So right there in that first instance in Scripture, and this is a repeating theme now, we see this pattern that God simultaneously, simultaneously, he brings deliverance and judgment in a single stroke. In a single stroke, the Lord Jesus Christ would, in the fullness of time, he would be made of a woman, made under the law, And he would redeem those who were under the law. And when he did that, he would also bring judgment on Satan in that.

So when God sentenced Satan in Genesis 3.15, he promised his destruction, which obviously he did. 1 John 3 verse 8, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil.

And Luke 10.17, Jesus said, I saw Satan falling as lightning from heaven. And we could just go on and on. In John 12, 31, he says, Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

And you can go throughout scripture and you can see that the cross was the defeat of Satan. just according to God's promise. But God, in Genesis now, in Genesis, the same chapter, He not only prophesied this in the pronouncement of judgment on Satan, the redemption was promised in the pronouncement of judgment, but then in verse 21 of Genesis 3 what happened?

God clothed Adam and Eve with skins. which he was telling them in that very act. Here is the way God is going to do this, through the blood of the Lamb. He's going to, through the blood of the Lamb, he's going to clothe their nakedness, that their sin wrought, with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. So what an amazing revelation. This is at the very outset of history. And so we see that. And then the next thing we see in Genesis, if you remember, maybe not the very next thing, but one of the major things that happened next was the flood. Remember the flood? And what happened in the flood?

Well, God looked down and he saw the wickedness of man was great, that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. But then what? But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God, determined to have grace on a sinner. And what did he do? He chose Noah, and he said, take your wife, you and your wife, and your sons and their wives, and you build an ark and bring them into the ark, and then gather these animals and bring them in. What happened? Inside the ark, they had everything they needed, didn't they? There was nothing they lacked in the ark. They had a place to sleep, they had food, they had water, they and all the animals, Noah and his family.

And that was exactly the same time when God poured out the judgment that destroyed all people and all living things on the earth. So in the stroke of judgment, there was also salvation. At the same stroke, Just like in the stroke in Genesis 3, the redemption of God's people took place in the pouring out of vengeance upon Satan in that act. And in the Lord Jesus Christ, he took that vengeance for his people.

So in the flood, God said, prepare the ark, and the ark pictured the Lord Jesus Christ. The pitch on the ark is the word for atonement. All in the ark, underwent the judgment, but the ark was the substitute, the one that absorbed the judgment of God, the outpouring of judgment, and everyone was destroyed except those in the ark. And all they needed was there for them in the ark.

And then at the end of that flood and after the waters abated from the earth, God brought them out and he displayed his covenant. He made a covenant with them that never again would he flood the earth, he would destroy the earth with a flood. And he set the rainbow as a sign of that covenant, which shows the rainbow was a sign that God had found in Christ a way to, through the substitutionary work of Christ, to bring sinners to himself in peace. God who is holy on his throne, if you remember in Revelation 4, you see the rainbow around the throne, it's pointing back to that, that in the Lord Jesus Christ, God had found a way to bring sinners to himself and save them from the judgment, by pouring out that judgment on the ark. And the Lord Jesus was that. Okay, so that's the second one. That's the second one. What do we see there? We see sin and salvation. We see deliverance in the judgment.

And the third one that came to our mind is Abraham. Now, if you remember Abraham, he was with his father in that land of idolaters. It was a land of idolaters, even though he was through the descendants of Shem, Noah's son. He came from the descendants of Eber, and then through all these other men. But God called Abraham when he was in the land of Ur, the Chaldees.

And then in Genesis 12, if you remember, this is what the Lord said, I want to read this. He says, I will, verse three of Genesis 12, very, very popular, a very significant verse. He says, I will bless them that bless thee. What's that? That's God's blessing on those who bless Abraham and curse him that curseth thee. What's that? That's a curse. Blessing and curse in the same stroke. Notice, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

You see, Abraham later on, after this promise that was made to him, he went out and he defeated the kings that had stolen Lot and all the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and he delivered all those people, he and his men. And And so what we see here is that in the very promise where God promised that in the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's what Galatians 3 reveals to us, in that promise, God had also a promise of curse on all those who cursed, he says, thee, and he's referring not only to Abraham, but to all those who belong to Christ, because we're Abraham's seed if we belong to Christ. If Christ is our Redeemer, then we're Abraham's true seed. And so in that promise of blessing, which Galatians 3 tells us Christ would justify the Gentiles and the elect Gentiles and the elect Jews, that he would also curse He would bring a curse on those that curse Christ and His people. So you can see the same theme here, cursing on Satan, cursing on the world outside of the ark, and cursing here on those who curse Christ and His people, like Abraham.

And that's why when Abraham went against those kings, Keteleomer and those other kings, and defeated them to rescue Lot, it was that, he was doing that. He was foreshadowing the fact that the curse would be brought on them, who, they stole his nephew, Lot. Just one man. And Abraham said, I've gotta go get him. I'm gonna go rescue him. Because that was God's way of showing he's gonna save his people. Now let me give you another one.

Remember, God delivered Israel from Egypt. He destroyed Pharaoh. He destroyed the Egyptians. He destroyed the armies of the Egyptians through plagues, through the Red Sea. But God's elect were saved through those very plagues and through the very sea. The very thing that brought judgment on the Egyptians and Pharaoh was the deliverance of Israel through one stroke, you see. God honored himself on Pharaoh and on the Egyptians, just like he will on the kingdom of Satan. Let me go on with another example.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, the Amorites, the Moabites, the Edomites, and a bunch of others They came against Judah and King Jehoshaphat, who was the king of Judah in those days. And the king and the people asked help from the Lord. They began to seek the Lord. And in Second Chronicles, Chapter 20, it says this, that Jehoshaphat, the king, prayed. And I want you to listen to this prayer. He says, Oh, Lord, God of our fathers. Second Chronicles 20 begins at verse six. Oh, Lord, God of our fathers. Notice how he addresses the Lord, the God of our fathers. That's a reference to his covenant.

Art not thou God in heaven? Rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? In thine hand is there not power and might so that none is able to withstand thee? Art not thou our God? who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend forever, and they dwelt therein, and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, If when evil come upon us as the sword, and judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before this house, and in thy presence...

Now, how do we come into the presence of God? How do we do that? How are we allowed to come into the presence of God? Isn't it through the blood of Jesus Christ? He's referring to that. We stand before thy house and in thy presence, for thy name is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction. Then thou wilt hear and help. That was God's promise.

Now behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, the Esau's children, whom thou wouldst not let Israel invade when they came up out of the land of Egypt, for they turned from them and destroyed them not. Why? Because it wasn't time to destroy them. Why? Because God was going to save some, some elect from every nation, kindred, tongue and people.

Behold, Jehoshaphat says, I say, how they reward us to come to cast us out of thy possession which thou hast given us to inherit. Oh, our God, wilt thou not judge them? Isn't this what Psalm 94, the theme in there is? We have no might against this great company that comes against us. Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee.

And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives, and their children. And in this matter, God said, you can read it in 2 Chronicles 20, you do not need to fight in this battle. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And they went out before the enemies and they gave thanks and they praised God. And God caused the Omoabites and the Ammonites to whoop up on the Edomites.

They all destroyed each other. Now this is the same, this is the repeating theme throughout the Old Testament. We see it over and over again. The book of Esther, we talked about this on Sunday, the book of Esther. Enemies against God's people and the Queen, who is beloved of the King, brings this to the king's attention, our lives, the adversary is seeking our lives to destroy us. I wouldn't say a word if we were made slaves, but since they're going to destroy us, I beseech you, this is what I ask, the life of my people. And the king asks, who's the adversary?

This wicked Haman. And in one stroke, the king both passed judgment on Haman and gave to Esther and Mordecai and all the Jews liberty. He gave their lives back to them. And so you can see this. Now, these are repeating themes in the Old Testament history. And I want to I use a little time to develop these things because I want to bring a conclusion to this point.

The conclusion is this is that the Old Testament history concerning God's people and their enemies, all the enemies of Israel, whether it be Satan in Genesis, or Abraham's adversaries in Genesis 14, Sarah and Isaac's adversaries in Ishmael, or whoever they were, Lot's adversaries at Sodom and Gomorrah, Pharaoh and the Egyptians, Esau, the Amalekites, the Philistines, the false prophets, the wicked kings, the unfaithful priests, or whoever it is, these enemies.

In all of Israel's idolatry, in all of Israel's affliction, in all of God's chastisement of them by their enemies in the wilderness, in Canaan, all the time until Christ. All of Israel's falls, all of their crying, all that God did to turn them to himself again. and God's salvation and His judgments against our enemies. All of these point to and are fulfilled in Christ and His death on the cross as our Captain, our High Priest, as the Lamb of God who offered Himself who overcame the sins of God's elect, who endured the cross and the outpouring of God's wrath upon himself and overthrew by that substitutionary wrath bearing and sin bearing for his people, overthrew Satan, death, the world, and everything, and answered God's law and justice to the delight of God, so that God could say, so that the Lord's messenger could say to Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Now, there's a repetition of these things in the Old Testament and these repetition, the repetition of these conflicts and the weakness of Israel and God's chasing of them and his salvation of Israel from their enemies.

This repetition emphasizes a few things. It emphasizes the certainty of God's continuous work in the lives of his people throughout history. That's why I said verse 13 in Psalm 94, that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity until the pit be digged for the wicked. This is a repetition in the Old Testament.

Thousands of years of history given to us that we might see God's certainty that throughout the lives of his people, God is going to continuously work in their lives and their victory is in the cross of Christ. Through his chastening, whether it be inward or outward, God brings us to Christ to walk by faith on in him. And the repetition also emphasizes the certainty of our deliverance, doesn't it? God will not forsake his people whom he foreknew.

The repetition also emphasizes the message of deliverance by Christ repeated over and over again because we need to constantly hear it and hope upon these things, repeated promises. We need to hear in all these that the cross of Christ is central and the only means of our deliverance, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our sin is our great enemy. Satan brought us into sin with the intention of bringing us to death by the hand of God, our maker. But our maker became our redeemer. And so we need to understand our great enemy is our sin, our sins against God, our sinful nature. It leaves us utterly weak and helpless.

And it shows us that Christ is almighty because he is what he said, I'm the resurrection and the life. He brings us out of death, the consequences of our sin. In every conflict, a cry goes up to God and the plea is according to His name and His covenant, His relation to His people, which He made by Himself for their salvation. Christ is the captain of our salvation. He is the King who rules by His own victory over our enemies for our salvation and for our good. His rule over us and against our enemies, His fight, his win in the battle, we have no strength in this conflict, we don't know what to do, but with all of his people, our eyes are upon him. We're like little children holding up our hands, pick me up. Tell me again that you have everything in control, because the blood of the Lamb is our victory over all things.

God will avenge his enemies. And in the same stroke, he'll redeem them from death and from Satan and from the world and everything. And that's why I think that this is such a comforting psalm, because it shows us these things and as the way the Old Testament does, it repeats them over and over. Our weakness and God's grace are always set side by side. Utter failure on our part. Utter salvation on his part.

Utter shame. Utter glory. It's all, it's all. No, no power. Almighty, you see. No, no obedience. All righteousness. The Lord is holy. He can do whatever He wants to. And yet, He who is holy and sovereign and can destroy everything with a stroke of that flood or with whatever, Sodom and Gomorrah, whatever, He is pleased to save sinners by the sacrifice of His Son. The Lord to whom vengeance belongs. Let the Lord take vengeance as it seems good to him, when it seems good to him, in a way that brings salvation.

You see, let's pray. Lord, thank you for your saving work. Thank you for your word, your promises, your unchanging faithfulness and goodness that you could save. You could do the impossible. You could save a sinner like me and keep me and bring me to yourself through all the falls and misery and ruin and death. Everything and the enemies against my soul. I have no power against them and yet you show yourself strong By your grace through Christ Jesus the Almighty Savior of great sinners What a wonderful Savior we pray Lord that you would cause us to take great comfort and find assurance in your Person and your word and your work in the Lord Jesus Christ in his name. We pray in it