Characteristics of a believer's salvation.

Q: What does the Bible say about trust in God?

The Bible emphasizes complete trust in God's Word, urging believers to rely on Him rather than their own understanding. The scriptures teach that trust in God is foundational to the believer's life. Proverbs 3:5 instructs us to 'trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.' This reliance on God's wisdom, instead of our flawed judgment, fosters a deeper relationship with Him and ensures we align ourselves with His will. Trust is also seen as part of our response to God's salvation, as we acknowledge His sovereignty in all circumstances and affirm that His ways are best, even when we face trials or uncertainty.

Q: How do we know that our hope in God is secure?

Our hope in God is secure because it is based on His unchanging promises and the certainty of salvation through Christ. The Christian hope is not a mere wish but a confident assurance rooted in God's character and His immutable Word. In Psalm 119:43, the psalmist expresses a firm hope in God's judgments, indicating that true hope stems from trusting in His righteous nature and revealed truth. This hope is supported by the assurance that believers are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, which secures for them an eternal inheritance. Therefore, regardless of life's uncertainties, Christians can hold onto the promise that God will bring all His plans to fruition, as emphasized in Romans 8:28, where it states that all things work together for good for those who love Him.

Q: Why is obedience to God's Word important for Christians?

Obedience is crucial for Christians as it reflects their love for God and aligns their lives with His commandments. Obedience to God's Word is not merely a duty but a demonstration of our love and commitment to Him. In Psalm 119:44, the psalmist declares his intention to keep God's law continually, which signifies a believer's response to the grace received through salvation. Obedience glorifies God and confirms our faith in Him, as outlined in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, emphasizing that our primary purpose is to glorify God. As we obey, we participate in the blessings of living according to His design, which leads to spiritual growth and the ability to walk in freedom, as stated in John 8:36. Hence, obedience is an essential evidence of true faith.

From time to time, I've been looking at various stanzas in Psalm 119. I think this is about the sixth. I'm not doing them in order. The one I want to look at this evening is actually the sixth stanza, but we have moved about with different ones over the last few months. And so the sixth stanza is vor, from verse 41 to verse 48.

And really here, I've sort of described it as the resolve of the psalmist, the resolve of the psalmist. Because in verse 41, We read, let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation according to thy word. And so key here is having God's salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's important, isn't it, for what I'm about to say, that as a result of having salvation from the Lord, then there are these various headings that I've put, about 13 of them all together. Don't worry, I'm not going to be a long time going through them all. But it worked out about 13 little headings, just looking at these few verses.

And the first one is in verse 42. So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me, for I trust in thy word. So there's a couple of points in this verse. And the first one is preparedness. So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me. It reminds me also of 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15 that says, So as a result of our salvation, then we should have a ready answer for people as to why we are Christian, why we are saved, who has saved us and things concerning that.

And there should be a sureness in what the Lord has done, despite what others may think or say, and also a preparedness for what is to come in our life and beyond. So there needs to be a preparing for obviously when we leave this world. But a sureness in what the Lord has done. because people will reproach us and people will say, well, why do you believe God? And if your God is so loving, why is this happening to you? And, you know, questions like this, people might ask. But may we have an answer, knowing that it's of the Lord that this has happened and it's God's will.

We don't necessarily know all the answers, saying that we know all the answers, but may we have a sureness in our God and know that his ways are best and right. And then secondly, we have trust. Trust, like a dependence on God. and trusting in the Word of God that it's true, we can rely on it. And Proverbs 3, 5 tells us, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.

And we're told in the previous Psalm, Psalm 118 verses 8 and 9, which people have said are the central verses of the Bible. I don't know if that's true. I mean, it's about right looking at this Bible here, looking at how much there is up to this point. It's probably about there that is the central part of the Bible. But if those are the central verses, they're good verses to have.

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. So in verse 42, then, we have preparedness and trust. And then in verse 43, and take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in thy judgments.

So the third word is hope. Hope. Submission, isn't it, to God's ways in knowing that God is right, whatever. Our hope as Christians, it's not a fingers crossed sort of hope. It's not that sort of hope. It's something that's sure and certain. And we know that indeed God's ways are right. though they might be a bit mysterious and perplexing to us. But there is much hope and, of course, the eternal hope, the sure and certain hope that the Lord's people have, who are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

And then in verse 44, we have the fourth. So shall I keep thy law continually forever and ever. So the fourth word is obedience. Obedience. And keeping the law continually forever and ever. So it's something that we do all the time. We seek to do with the Lord's help all the time to obey God's word. We obviously do fail. We're sinners and we do fail. But may our intention be to obey God's word. As a shorter catechism says in the first question that we are here, aren't we, to glorify God. And surely obedience is part of glorifying God.

And then verse 45, we have, and I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts. And I've got about three points in this verse. And the first, number five, is freedom. Freedom. We read in John 8, 36, if the son therefore shall make you free, he shall be free indeed. So if we've got freedom to do what we like.

Now Romans 6, 1 and 2 tells us, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? So there's a wonderful freedom that we have, but not to do just as we like. is within what the Lord has done. And there should be that desire to do what the Lord does.

And there is a wonderful freedom that we have in coming to worship and not being restricted in certain ways when we can or having to do certain things. It's a wonderful freedom. But thinking about the walking, walking at liberty, the sixth word is good conduct. Good conduct. And we read about walking and that's good conduct for the believer.

We read in 1 Thessalonians 2.12 that you would walk worthy of God who have called you unto his kingdom and glory.

And Ephesians 5.15 says, See then that ye walk circumspectly or carefully, not as fools, but as wise. So may we walk rightly and walk with the right company and not walk in the wrong ways. and walk worthy of God. And may that be seen in our lives, our conduct.

And then in verse 45 at the end, for I seek thy precepts. Seventhly, we have searching, searching. We read in Isaiah 55, 6, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. And we read, don't we, a priority for us in Matthew 6, 33, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. So there's a seeking of the Lord, particularly, you know, when we are saved and we realize that we are sinners, hell-deserving sinners, that we can't save ourselves and we're looking for a way to be really happy and to be content and that only comes through the Lord Jesus Christ and seeking the Lord.

But of course we are to do it, make a habit of seeking him and searching him and searching our hearts, looking at our hearts. The psalmist writes about examine me The Lord knows our hearts anyway. And he said, examine me, search my heart. And so there must be an examination of ourselves, of what we do and what we say and what we think. And all these things brought to the touchstone of God's word. And we're told, aren't we, to search the scriptures. that's something we should be doing isn't searching the scriptures because there's so much and there isn't there in God's Word that does us good and that can encourage us and challenge us and help us and we can never exhaust all there is to know about the Word of God. So may we be helped to keep searching God's Word.

And then in verse 46, I will speak of my testimonies also before kings and will not be ashamed. And so the eighth word is testifying. And so that's sort of going back to an earlier point, being able to give an account, to tell people what the Lord has done.

You don't have to be terribly theological in what you say and just have a very sort of simple testimony. Say, I'm a sinner. I can't save myself, but the Lord Jesus Christ died for me and he shed his blood for me. You don't have to be complicated or use long words to describe what the Lord has done for us. And it's wonderful, isn't it, to hear testimonies of people, just perhaps a very, very sincere, just very simple, but very sincere. And you can tell, yeah, the Lord has really worked in their hearts and it comes through in what they do and say.

Yes, we're not likely, are we, to have an audience with the King Charles III. I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings. We're not likely for that to happen. But whoever we're with, to be able to speak of the Lord. It's not always easy, is it? Particularly, perhaps, your family. I think I've said this before. It's not always easy, is it? perhaps they're the hardest people sometimes, your unbelieving family, to talk to them of the Lord.

And then in verse 47, I will delight myself in thy commandments which I have loved. And we have the word joy, nightly the word joy. We read, don't we, of the delight of God's Word. And we read that again in Romans 7, 22, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man.

And then in Isaiah 58, 13 and 14, if thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the Lord's day should be a delight, not a drudgery to us, it should be a delight. The holy of the Lord, honourable, and shall honour him, nor doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, so that there is a love for the Lord and a love for his day. and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. So may there be that joy in the Lord that we have in serving him, serve the Lord with gladness we're told and a joy in his day and to be able to meet together on his day too and with his people. And Psalm 1, that says, his delight is in the law of the Lord. We should love God's word and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Such was his delight that he frequently read it and looked into the word of God. And then finally in verse 48, my hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved, and I will meditate in thy statutes. And I've got just four points just in this verse.

And number 10 is approval. Number 10 is approval. So it speaks about lifting up of hands. Now that's not, as the charismatics do, lifting up their hands, nothing like that at all. But sometimes if you lift your hand up, you are agreeing to something. You know, hands up if you agree to this, hands up if you're in favour of this. And so you put your hand up, don't you? It's a sign of agreement. Agreement. And so it should be that we agree with God's word. and with God's works and God's ways, even though it might be a bit perplexing and what is happening perhaps in the world or in our lives, but there should be that agreement that God is right and God knows what he's doing.

We read in 1 Samuel 3.18, Samuel told him every wit and hid nothing from him. That's Eli. And he said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Yes, the Lord will do what's best. And for the Lord's people, we're told, aren't we, in Romans 8, 28, that he works all things together for good to them that love him, who are called according to his purpose. And then eleventhly, we have questioning.

And again, with this idea of raising the hand, And I call this really the Jeremy effect. Now, I remember somebody called Jeremy who was on my course when I was studying in Portsmouth. He was on my course and he really was the main one in the class. lecturer would come in. Imagine the scene. The lecturer would come in and give his lecture.

And I'm sure a lot of us there weren't quite sure what he was talking about. But you didn't want to say. You were too scared to put your hand up. and say, I don't understand what that is. But Jeremy, this lad Jeremy, every time without any inhibition, put his hand up and asked a question. And you can imagine the relief that went around the whole room. Oh, Jeremy's asked a question that I wanted the answer to that I was too scared to ask about. So it was good to have a Jeremy on your course.

And so he would like a question. Mind you, I think he was flummoxed. With one particular subject, there was a module that we had to do called parallel hybrid computing. To this day, I have not got a clue what it was. I did manage to pass the module. So I obviously knew something, but I think it was to do with physics or something. I wasn't very good at physics. But I think even that subject bamboozled Jeremy. But you're just sort of really thinking on a more serious note about questioning.

It's so, isn't it, that we often do question, you know, why things happen in the world or in our lives. And like the psalmist in Psalm 73, you know, how are the wicked getting away with this? And here's me really struggling. And the wicked, they seem to be getting away with so much and not being judged for it. And sometimes, you know, that happens with us, isn't it?

You know, we question God and we question and why things are happening. Trust that deep down we realise that God's ways are right and God knows what he's doing. But we do question, don't we? And sometimes it's good to question things and not just accept things, to question why we do things. Or I think sometimes it's good to do that, not just to sort of go along with the flow, but to question perhaps, yeah, is this right? You know, I've done this all these years, but is this right? So sometimes it's good to sort of question things. And then twelfthly, we have love. Love's mentioned in this verse 48. And later in Psalm 119, Oh, how love I thy law, it is my meditation all the day. Again, such was a love for God's Word that couldn't really get enough of meditating upon it.

What did the law, what did Jesus say to one of the lawyers in Matthew 22, verse 35 to 39? Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Jesus a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. So a real wholehearted love for God.

This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor. as thyself, so a love for others as well as for God. And we read, don't we, see how these brethren love one another we read in the scriptures. And that should indeed be a characteristic of the people of God for their love and their respect, kindness they show one to another.

And then 13th and finally, contemplation and really meditating in nice statues. I will meditate also of all thy works and talk of thy doings as Psalm 77 and verse 12. And again in Psalm 119 and verse 78, let the proud be ashamed For they dealt perversely with me without a cause, but I will meditate in thy precepts.

And so sometimes when there is a challenge to us with our faith or whatever, it's good, isn't it, to go back to God's word. God's word is true. God is true. And that perhaps strengthens us, particularly in those times when we are up against it and being challenged over our faith and why we believe and so on. And again, a similar thought in Psalm 119, again, verse 23.

Princes also did sit and speak against me, but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. So despite the challenge and what was being said against him, he said, well, I'm going to consider what is true, and that is the word of God. And again in Psalm 119, 15 and 16, I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word.

So there we have joy and delight. with a meditation. And I trust that when we read God's word, that it does challenge us, but it comforts us and it delights us. It gives us a real joy when we read it and when we hear it preached and are reminded of the precious word of God.

Well, it's not easy to sort of meditate or be contemplative in a frenetic world. But may we be helped to be still and know that God is God. In this frenetic world, in a world where everything's instant and everything has to be done yesterday, may we be still and know that God is God. So may those few little thoughts, let's say quite a few thoughts, each one could be really developed a lot more, but there's obviously not time for that this evening.

But just a few thoughts there on those words from Psalm 119. Amen. Let's sing again our second hymn, number 51. to the tune 183 from Gatsby's. Number 51. What wisdom, majesty and grace through all the gospel shine. It is God that speaks and we confess the doctrine most divine. Number 51. ♪♪♪ ♪ The Lord to take your care ♪ ♪ That you may rejoice in Him ♪ ♪ The full glory of God ♪ ♪ And be in heaven forevermore ♪ He's chosen you. His reign is on us.

Characteristics of a believer's salvation.

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about trust in God?

How do we know that our hope in God is secure?

Why is obedience to God's Word important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

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Characteristics of a believer's salvation.

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about trust in God?

How do we know that our hope in God is secure?

Why is obedience to God's Word important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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