We're going to be in the book of Philippians, both hours, if you'd like to turn. Philippians chapter one. Paul is confessing to the Philippians his prayer for them, and then he is confessing what every believer's hope truly is, and that would be to awake in the likeness of the Lord.

John said, behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God? And he goes on to say, brethren, now are we the sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.

Paul is saying to them, I am betwixt two, to stay, to preach the gospel, for the furtherance of the gospel, to be your help, or to go and be with Christ, which is what I desire to do. So he's telling them he's, what do they call that? Between a rock and a hard place, I guess you could say. And that's the desire of every believer, is to be with the Lord. Scripture's clear, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So we desire that. And so he's telling them, that's his conundrum, if I could put it that way. Let's read this together. Philippians 1, verse 21 through 26.

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose I want not. For I am in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your fervence and joy of faith. that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. I've titled this message Eternal Perspective. Eternal Perspective. I wrote an article that makes this statement.

It talks about how David came back from Ziklag and he had found the city burnt to the ground and all the women and children were taken, and the men that were so faithful, fighting beside of him, they were gone fighting a battle against the Philistines, and they were, came back to find a ransacked city. And these men that were so faithful, and fighting beside of him, are now saying, kill him. Kill him, stone him with stone. They're saying it verbally, out loud. And it says that David, uh, What is that word?

Comforted. Comforted himself in the Lord. David comforted himself. How did he do that? Well, he recalled the promises of the Lord and he sought the Lord's face rather than trying to take matters into his own hands, rather than trying to defend himself and say something like that. No, he didn't. He went to the Lord. Why is that? Well, because the Lord gave him something called spiritual perspective.

And if we have that. It's because the Lord's given us that gift, that ability to see. We look through a glass darkly by faith, but we're able to see things that others can't see. We're able to see the material things for what they are, just being material things. We see that our life is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, then vanisheth away. And although we do get caught up in the flesh and the things of the flesh, the Lord's given his people spiritual perspective.

In the article it says this, if you can't change your circumstance, change your perspective. How do you do that? Look to Christ. May the Lord enable us to look to him. Rather than looking at the circumstance, realize he's the reason for the circumstance. He's the cause, the first cause of all things. He is the storm. He brings the rain according to his will and purpose. If we can change our perspective to that, We would spend a lot less time worrying, being anxious. And we're all guilty. I mean, every one of us are guilty of worrying, being anxious, frightful. What if, what if, what if?

And I tell my children, if you can't change your circumstance, change your perspective. Change your perspective. And a lot of times, it has a lot to do with attitude as well, doesn't it? If you change your attitude, that helps with changing your perspective. If my attitude is an entitled attitude, if it's all about me, then I'm going to have a hard time with my perspective. But if my attitude is that of what Paul's saying here, my desire to depart, but it's more needful for you that I stay.

That's the attitude of a servant. If I'm a servant, I have low expectations, then my troubles are not going to be near as bad as they would have been if I felt like I was entitled. Because we live in a society that does feel like they're very entitled.

Now only God's children have eternal perspective because it can only be received by God given faith. And I'm not perspective is not a big word. I don't use big words, but how we see things, how we view things. To see things spiritually means that we've been born of the Spirit, born from above. The Lord told Nicodemus, you must be born again. And he goes on to tell him, the wind blow us where it lifts us, and thou can't tell whether it comes or whether it goes, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit. If we're born of the Spirit, Then we do mind the things of the Spirit.

We see, Steve and I were talking about this prior to service, we see all of our work. There's always life is all about work. You go home and you really You have to make time to rest because there's always something that needs to be done, even at the house. And, you know, there's something that needs to be fixed, something that needs to be cleaned, something that needs to be repaired, something that needs to be cooked, uh, wash, whatever it may be. It's all life is work.

That's the curse of man in this sin condition that we've been given by our father, Adam. He fell all the way to the bottom and we fell with him in him. But when the Lord gives you spiritual perspective, you don't say, well, I don't have to do this work anymore. This is temporary anyways. No, we work as best as we can unto the Lord, but we see through it, don't we? We see that this is not our end. We have an expected end. That's spiritual perspective, to have the ability to look to Christ and see, okay, this responsibility that I have is something I need to do.

I'm gonna do it unto him for his glory and his honor. But in reality, this stuff that I am doing, I can't take any of this stuff with me. I can't. It's gonna burn up. It's wood, hay, and stubble. That's all that it is. People don't see that in this world. Their possessions are their everything. That means it's their treasure.

That's what the Lord was saying. He said, lay up treasure in heaven where moth does not corrupt, neither does thieves break through and steal. How do I lay up treasures in heaven? Look to Christ. Look to Christ. That's not talking about working more and earning a crown and all this stuff that people in false religion, no, that's not what that's talking about. We've already been given the crown in Christ, the crown of righteousness. That's what he gave to his people. He is the prize. He is the treasure. This is what the Lord gives us as his people, spiritual perspective. We don't see things like other people see. We see this is just a means to an end.

Now, we could take that a step farther if we so chose, and I pray the Lord doesn't allow us to do that, and we could be morbid about it. Like, well, this is gonna end anyways, what's the point? Don't do that. If we do that, that's not good. That's not looking to Christ at all. That's like having an antinomian attitude or a hyper-Calvinistic attitude. No, we don't do that. We've heard this in Proverbs several times, haven't we? The lot falls in the lap, but the whole disposing's of the Lord.

Spiritual perspective is what we're talking about. There's a verse that says this, to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. They that are in the flesh cannot please God, the scripture says. So how am I to be spiritually minded? Well, if I am, it's the Lord that's the doer of it. If he gave me faith, I'm spiritually minded. Faith looks to Christ. Faith doesn't examine self. Faith doesn't look to circumstances. Faith doesn't look at the world. Faith doesn't look at our adversary. Faith looks to Christ.

Spiritually minded doesn't mean that we have arrived at some plateau of way of thinking that's above everybody else. Now I'm all spiritual. I'm living more holy things. No, that's not what that's talking about. Being spiritually minded is simply doing what David did. Look to Christ. Strengthen yourself in the Lord. Remember his promises. Remember he cannot lie, that he is faithful. That's spiritually minded.

Our problem is very simple. We are born in sin and we're shaping in iniquity. That's our problem from birth. That's our curse and we can't do anything to fix it. Being that way means that I can't think spiritually about anything because I'm dead in trespasses and in sin. The flesh is hostile towards God and it will always remain that way. So we are naturally carnally minded desiring to be God. This is us by nature. You know the most interesting part, we are idle factories. Idol factories, literally from birth.

Think about the God that you had in false religion. It was a servant unto you. It made you look a certain way. It was a reflection of you, is what it was. We want to be our own God. Nebuchadnezzar is a fantastic example of this. He created a 60-foot statue, said, everybody's going to bow down and worship it. And whose face do you think was on that statue? It was his own face, wasn't it? He wanted to be worshiped.

You have Pilate, he said, What'd he tell the Lord? I have power. Do you not know I have the power to crucify you or to set you free? What'd the Lord say? You have no power at all, had it not been given to you and my father. Man thinks that they have power. Man thinks that they have, well, they want to be God. They want to be God. That was the temptation in the garden. You'll be as God if you take this fruit. And when she saw the fruit, it was pleasing to the eye. was pleasant, make one wise, she took and she ate.

This is our problem, brethren. Nothing has changed. We're no different than Nebuchadnezzar. We're no different than Pilate. We're no different than Eve. We're of the same mold. The Lord maketh thee to differ. And if he does not, we'll, well, here's a good example.

What if somebody, you ever been in a parking garage or a parking, area and you're trying to get to a parking spot. Maybe you even have your blinker on and somebody cuts you in front of you and parks there. How does that make you feel? Do you say, okay, I'm good. That's fine. No, you can have that parking spot. I'll go find another one. No, you know what we do? We want to get out of the car and say, Hey buddy, listen. Why? Because it's our pride by nature. It's the Nebuchadnezzar in us. It's the Eve in us. It's the flesh.

That's why the scripture says they that are in the flesh can't please God. It's the nature that we have. be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life in peace Lord make us spiritually minded calls us to look past all this world that distracts our physical senses all five senses are occupied all the time aren't they with. noise and confusion and you turn on any type of news, you're going to lose all the happiness that you've got. There's no good news. It's all bad news on the TV. The only good news you're going to find is here, is through spiritual perception.

Think about another type and picture of us, Jonah. Lord came to Jonah and said, Jonah, I want you to go preach to Nineveh. Go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry unto them that they're going to be destroyed in 40 days. And Jonah said, nope, I'm going to go down to Joppa and down to Tarshish. That's exactly what I'm going to do. Why? Pride. He hated the Ninevites. The whole point was is they were Gentiles. They weren't part of Israel. He hated the Ninevites.

And he decided he was gonna do things his way. Now here's the good news. The Lord made him have spiritual perspective. How did he do that? Because he found himself in the belly of hell is what he said. Out of the belly of hell hath I cried. Spent three days and three nights in the fish's belly. And what was his final conclusion?

Salvation is of the Lord. It's not of man. Not by the will of man. Not by my works. And certainly not because of my pride. It's of God. He gave him spiritual perception, perspective, spiritual perspective. What is our hope, brethren? Well, the scripture is very clear. God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's good news. If you find yourself, you can relate to Nebuchadnezzar, and if you can relate to Eve, you can relate to all these others, even Peter.

Why did Peter renounce his association with Christ? Well, it was purpose and it was foretold that he would, but why? Because he was frightened. Well, being afraid and not standing up for what you believe, that has a lot to do with self-preservation. That comes down to pride as well, doesn't it? Self-preservation, that was what that was all about. It's all in us.

But here's the good news, but God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, not whenever Peter cleaned up his life and got better, that very night or that very day, the Lord Jesus Christ died for the sin of Peter. That sin of denying Christ, he died for that sin. Just as he died for the sin of all of his elect.

Our hope is that God would set apart some vessels of honor, not for my sake and not for your sake, But what did he say? For my sake, I'll do this for my name's sake. Not for your sake, but for my name's sake. Scripture's clear, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy. It's his mercy that saved us, it's his mercy that it's not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we don't deserve. It's his mercy and grace.

Aren't you thankful that it's not about our merits? Aren't you thankful the Lord doesn't look at you and determine? Doesn't look at you and say, OK, you don't have enough spiritual perception, so I'm I'm angry with you or I'm no, it doesn't work that way. The Lord is not angry with his people. The Lord is not hostile towards his people.

Do you know why they're in Christ and they have no sin? They've been made perfectly righteous. I love the thought, even though I do the things which I would not do, I find myself sinning, I find myself loathing myself, as we talked about, more and more the older you get. And yet, I love the words that the Lord told David through Nathan.

Fear not, God hath put away your sin, you shall not die. He's not gonna hold it against his people. He said, I won't acquit the guilty. So our Lord bore the sin of his people on the cross of Calvary and put them away. He made them go away by the sacrifice of himself, by his shed blood. He washed the sin of his people away. For without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. He remitted the sin of his people. And then in time, he gives us this spiritual perspective to see to see Him by faith, to believe on Him by faith, and to see through this world as what it is.

It's a mirage. Do we see that? Somebody said, you talk crazy. No, this is a mirage. Heaven, that's the part that's hard to fathom. Heaven's eternal, never had a beginning, never has an end, because our God is everlasting. So that's everything about Him, everything He does, except for time. Time will cease. But that's the point. When we get there, we'll realize we've always been there. There's never been a time when we haven't been there. And this won't be a memory. Think about that.

You say, well, that's hard to fathom. Well, that's why spiritual perspective is necessary. The flesh can't comprehend the things of God. The flesh don't believe that Christ was successful. The flesh believes I need to do something to help God out. That's what the flesh thinks.

The Lord gives you spiritual perspective, you find yourself like the maniac of Gadara, seated and clothed in his righteousness and in your right mind. That's what the Lord does for his people. That maniac of Gadara had spiritual perspective then, didn't he? Yeah, that's what he gave him. Only God's chosen people have this eternal perspective.

We don't think like we used to think. Now physically, perhaps on some things, but we don't think about God like we used to think about God. And we don't think about ourself like we used to think about ourself. We don't see ourself as getting better. We see ourself as getting worse.

And the longer that we live in this life, the more we desire, just like Paul, to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord. We desire to be face to face with him, to be perfect as he is perfect, to worship him perfectly. to have the peace that you have the prince of peace there. Let's think about how glorious heaven is going to be. No confusion, no chaos. You know why? There's no sin. There's no sin.

That'll be a glorious day when we get to see him face to face and worship him as we want to. We don't see ourself. As we used to, we see ourself as sinners in need of a savior, in need of a substitute. And we see him high, the high and lofty one. We see him as the alpha and omega. Lord, if you're going to save me, you want to be the beginning and the end. You have to do it all. I cannot save myself. We see that we can't fix our sin, can't fix it, only add to it by trying. This is what the Lord's given us in eternal perspective, in spiritual perspective. He causes us to see that we cannot fix what we are.

You can maybe train a dog to meow, but that doesn't make it a cat, does it? No. I can live a good moral life, but I'm still a sinner. Doesn't matter what I do, it's because of what I am. It's the root problem deep down. I'm a sinner that needs to be saved, not helped a little bit, not Peter didn't say, Lord, help me out here. If you, if you wouldn't mind, I'll take the first step. If you take the rest, no, he said, save me, save me. That's what we cry out under our Lord. Sin is all we are, and therefore all we can do.

But there's good news. I've quoted this, I think, three Sundays in a row now. But David said on his deathbed, although it be not so with my house, yet, I love that word yet. If he'd have just stopped there, there'd have been no good news, would there? Although it be not so with my house. This flesh, this earthen house of this tabernacle, that's what the scripture says. Yet the Lord, there's the good news. The Lord did something. The Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant. This is all my salvation, all my hope. All my salvation, all my hope.

How could David be called a man after God's own heart, having committed murder, theft, adultery, all the things that he did, how could he be called a man after God's own heart? Whenever he was just like Nebuchadnezzar, he was just like Jonah in his rebellion, he was just like Eve eating the fruit. Because the Lord put away his sin. This is what the Lord gives to his people, the ability to believe that. The ability to hope in that alone, because if Christ didn't do it, I'm lost. I am lost without hope. The law says guilty. God requires a perfect payment. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But our hope is this, when the fullness of time has come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem them that were under the law.

Turn with me over there to Galatians chapter four. Paul is speaking about our adoption as the Lord's chosen people. And he says in verse one of chapter four of Galatians, now I say that the heir, as long as he has a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God hath sent forth his Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

That's why we have eternal perspective. That's why we have spiritual perspective, is his spirit indwelling us. That's what it is. That's what it is. Ask yourself this question, why did Christ come and die? Why? Because if you can answer that correctly, according to what the Lord says, not about man's opinion, then the Lord's given you that perspective. It tells us that he came to redeem them.

Not try, not make a way that they could be redeemed, but to redeem them. See, the declaration of the scripture is much different than common modern day works religion because it states clearly his purpose, what he was coming to do. And to say that he didn't accomplish that is to call God a liar or to say that he failed. But we can't, we're not gonna do that.

Lord gives us spiritual perspective. He gives us eternal perspective. So we're not focused on the temporary. We realize that Christ Jesus saved his people from their sin. He came to redeem and he did that. He said, call his name, Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. That was the whole reason he came. That's the whole reason he bore the name that he had.

And so we preach a finished salvation that can only be believed by God given faith. Christ says this, all that the Father give me shall come to me and he that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. He says also of all the Father given me I have lost none, none. Our Lord peered into the cup, the cup of damnation, the cup that our sin brought, the wrath of God, the justice of God, the judgment of God.

He peered into that cup, knowing full well the effect of drinking the contents thereof. He took the cup and he said, Father, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. He took the cup and he drank it dry. He drank it completely dry. The terrors, the scripture talks about the terrors can pass him about. It talks about all the judgment, talks about his bones being out of joint, talks about his, heart melting as wax in several different places in Psalms.

The agony that our Lord felt, why was all that necessary if he was just making a way for you to do our part? No, he was saving his people. He was doing business with God. He was working out salvation for his chosen people, everyone that he was dying for. He was making certain that they would be sealed to the day of redemption. He was making certain that they would be made the very righteousness of God by the sacrifice of himself. He was pleasing the law or satisfying the law. He was pleasing the father. When he took the contents of that cup, brethren, the sword of justice awoke. And it demanded justice. Why?

Because he was bearing our sin in his body on the tree. All the pride that we have, all the arrogance that we have, all the ugly that we are, he took every bit of it. Every bit of it and bore it in his body upon the tree. Scripture says he was made a curse for us. For curse it is everyone that hangs on a tree.

When the father saw the travail of his soul, he was satisfied. He said, and this is a mystery to us, but he said, it pleased the father to bruise him. It pleased the father to bruise him. That's a mystery to you and I. We believe it by faith because the Lord said it.

But that's the only way you and I could be set free from the bonds of sin and death, from the grip that hell had upon us. That's the only way that we could be set free because we can't fix anything that we are or any sin that we commit. The Lord has to do that. And that's exactly what Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary for his chosen people. He successfully redeemed them. He made them perfect. Perfect. His agony was so great it caused him to sweat blood, great drops of blood. This is the cup that demanded God pour out his wrath upon his son. That's what we deserved, that's what we deserved.

Now our eternal perspective that the Lord gives us allows us to see a finished salvation, a completed work, a successful redeemer, not an attempt, not a hope that he did it right. But we know that we know that we know there is no doubt in the heart of one of God's elect that Jesus Christ was successful in redeeming his people.

There is no doubt. You ask me or you ask anybody else that is a professing believer, you say, how do you know that you're one of the elect of God? The answer is this. I am if I am. The Lord's calls me to this one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. But it's not because of what I've done. It had to be because of what he done. So do I know that I know? Well, we don't know, do we? We don't know. We know that we believe. But what is the cry?

Lord, don't leave me to myself. Only the Lord's people pray that. We don't look for evidence. The Lord's given us spiritual perspective. We don't look at physical anymore. We look at the eternal, not the carnal anymore. We don't try to find evidences in our life to see if we are his or we've been saved. We don't seek for that. Who do we look to? The Lord Jesus Christ, because we know full well that he was successful in everything that he did.

That's our hope. Hope's not in what I see in myself. Hope's not in what I do. I'm just a sinner in need of grace, in need of mercy. Thank God, he said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Brethren, our savior was forsaken because of our sin. He was forsaken so that you and I would never have to be forsaken. He was, um, hated by men so that we would never have to be hated by God. The Lord hates the workers of iniquity.

What the scripture tells us clearly. The only way the Lord can love us is in Christ and because of his finished work. Look, turn with me to Psalm 22. This is prophetic, David, of our Lord on the cross. Psalm 22, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why art thou far from helping me? Why from the words of my roaring? Oh my God, I cried in the daytime, but thou hear us not.

And in the night season, and am not silent, but thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people.

Why couldn't the father, why did thee Why did the deliverance not come for the Lord Jesus Christ? Because he was bearing our sin and his body on the tree. He was made to own them. He was made to put them away, but the sacrifice of himself. This is wonderful news for you and I. It's How can we describe what actually happened on the cross? We can't really. We can just declare it. We just declare it and we believe it because what he said, he was rejected of men and forsaken of God so that you and I wouldn't be rejected or forsaken. That's what he's saying here. Look at verse nine. But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly.

Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, and as ravening and a roaring lion. This is what I was mentioning earlier. I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted. In the midst of my bowels, my strength is dried up like a pot shirt, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

For dogs have compassed me, and assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and feet." Was David's hands and feet pierced? No. This is Christ. This is our Lord on the cross. I may tell all my bones, they look and stare upon me, they part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. Be not thou far from me, O Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, the sword that we just mentioned, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth for thou has heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

David is speaking prophetically of our Lord on the cross. It's obvious. We can't begin to understand the agony that our Savior went through, but we look at it as all of our hope. We look at it as Him being all our righteousness, all our wisdom, all our sanctification and redemption. We look at this suffering of our Savior and we stand in awe that He had such love for the Father and He had such love for His bride, His church, that He offered Himself up freely for his people. He offered himself up freely.

He went as a lamb to the slaughter. He knew what they were going to do to him. He had ordained it. He had purposed all things. Think about the tree that was planted, the seed that started. Who did that? God did that. He knew that was going to be the tree they were going to hang him on. He created the world for this same purpose. for the purpose of salvation, for the purpose of His people.

He made Golgotha knowing that would be the place that He was going to do business, that He was going to save His people from their sin, all these things. that God has done, we can look at and we stand in awe, but we believe by faith. That's what spiritual perspective is. We can see that this is the Lord's, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. We can see that our life is a vapor that appeareth for a little time, that banisheth the way, that we're nothing but sin. And yet God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, his people. the agony of our Savior because of our sin. He said, deliver my soul from the sword, from the sword. That's the sword of justice, wasn't it?

Turn over to Psalm 31. Verse one, in thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be thou my strong rock for an house of defense to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for thy name's sake, lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me. For thou art my strength.

Into thine hands I commit my spirit. Lord said that on the cross, did he not? Into thy hands I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth. I have hated them that regarded lies, lying vanities, but I trust in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy, for thou hast considered my trouble. Thou hast known my soul in adversities and hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. Thou hast set my feet in a large room. Have mercy upon me, O God. O Lord, for I am in trouble. Mine eyes is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing.

My strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. I was a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and a fear to my acquaintances, to my acquaintance. They that did see me without fled from me. I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind. I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many. Fear was on every side. While they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life. But I trusted in thee, O Lord. I said, thou art my God.

The Lord Jesus Christ never one time while he was on the cross failed to trust the Father. He never failed in believing the Father would keep his word in resurrecting his son. We can see the Lord's, this is obviously David speaking about a certain circumstance, but this is also prophetic of our Lord on the cross. And to thy hands I commit my spirit. That's what the Lord said. Deliver me from this death. But the Lord could not and would not because the Lord Jesus had to die to put away the sin of his people. And that's exactly what he did. That's exactly what he did.

That's why when David said, Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant, he said, this is all my hope, all my hope and all my salvation, what the Lord has done. Once our Lord endeared the full wrath of God, he declared the hope that give his people eternal perspective, the hope that gives his people spiritual perspective, not just physical. The words, it is finished. It is finished. Everything he set out to do, he accomplished. Everything he purposed has been completed. Every requirement God had, he satisfied.

There's no work to be done. There's nothing left to do. If we look to the physical, we'll find something to do. We'll try to, there's always something to do physically. But if the Lord gives us eternal perspective, not just temporary, not temporal, we'll look to Christ and will rest in his unchanging grace, will rest in his finished work, will rest in what thus saith the Lord, will rest in his word, will hope in him alone. There is no hope in this world. There is no rest in this world. There's only rest in our Lord. Let's go back to our text in closing. Philippians one, verse 21. In light of everything that we've said, let's hear what Paul's talking about now again.

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Well, if he lived, it would be in Christ. For in Christ, we live, move and have our being, but to die is gain because he would have Christ as his portion. That's what he's stating. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose I want not. For I am straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you, and having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your fervence and joy of faith, that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. We can relate with what Paul's saying, can't we? We say with the writer, even so come Lord Jesus. Somebody said, well, the Lord may come back today. I hope he does. Would not hurt my feelings in the least bit. I would love it.

To see him as he is, to awaken his likeness, for our faith to be made sight, to be glorified, to experience glorification, the glory wherewith he had given to him of his father, he's given to his people, it shall be revealed in us. We don't know what we shall be. We know that we shall be like him. when we see Him, because we'll see Him as He is. Sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in His people.

This is eternal perspective. This is eternal perspective. Once God calls us out of darkness into light, He gives us the same eternal perspective to be like our Lord and Savior. on the inside, not on the outside, on the inside. We live by faith, not by sight.

No wonder Paul said, set your affections on things above, because as soon as we start trying to fix something, we mess it up. Rather than looking at circumstances that we can't change, may the Lord change our perspective. Can't change your circumstances, change your perspective.

That's good for physical, and if the Lord allows you to do that, spiritually speaking, it's even better. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, calls us to look to you. Bless these words to our understanding, all for your glory, in Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.