Still have your Bibles open.
Keep them there to Psalm 27. That's going to be our text this
morning. I'll tell you that I'm going to pick up where Brother
Eric left off Wednesday evening. The title of the message is,
Whom Shall I Fear? You know, this world is full
of scary, evil things. If you don't want to be able
to sleep at night, just watch the 11 o'clock news before you
go to bed at night. If these things happen, they're
going to be painful. They're going to be negative
things for our country and neighborhoods and so forth. But which of those
things should the believer fear? Now, doctrinally, everybody here
already knows the answer to that question, don't we? We shouldn't
be afraid of any of these. because our God is the one who's
in control of them. You know, all these things can
only happen, they can only do to us what our sovereign God
allows them to do. Now by God's grace, we do fear
the Lord, don't we? We fear the Lord, we reverence
him, and the believer is afraid not to trust in the Lord. That's
what I'm afraid of, is that God will leave me to myself and I
won't trust the Lord. But if you fear the Lord, You don't
have any reason to be afraid of anything, nothing. And in
this Psalm, David gives us eight specific things that every believer
comes in contact with, comes face to face with. And David
tells us why the believer does not have to be afraid of these
eight things. Number one is this. I don't have
to be afraid of the darkness of unbelief and spiritual ignorance. if the Lord is my light. Verse
one, David says, the Lord is my light. Now by nature, we are
spiritual darkness. It's not just that we're in spiritual
darkness, our hearts are spiritual darkness. The darkness of unbelief,
it's the darkness of ignorance of who God is, of who we are.
But you don't have to be afraid of that darkness of unbelief,
that darkness of ignorance, if the Lord is your light. Now,
by nature, we don't see. We don't understand. We don't
believe any spiritual truth. You know, by nature, I think
I'm pretty good. You know why I think I'm pretty
good? Because I'm in darkness and I look at the mirror, I can't
see myself. I can't see myself as I am. That's why I think I'm
pretty good. The only way I could ever see
myself as I really am is in the light of Christ. is in His light
by comparison to Him. If I see myself in the light
of Christ, if He shows me who I am in the light of Him by comparison
to Him, I'm going to abhor myself. Just like Job did of old. Remember,
he said, I've heard of you, but now I see you. Wherefore, I abhor
myself. Isaiah thought he was something,
didn't he? He thought he was somebody so great he could go
woeing on everybody else. And then he saw the Lord. And
he said, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
know that because I've seen the Lord. I've seen myself in his
light. And you're the only way I can
see how God saves sinners. It's in the light of Christ.
Man inherently knows there's something wrong. There's something
wrong. There's a separation between
me and God. And men have come up with all kinds of ways to
fix that problem, to try to reconcile themselves to God. but nobody,
I don't care how smart they are, nobody can see how God saved
sinners without the light of Christ. You see, the real issue
is not just sinners in general. Here's the real issue. How can
God save a sinner like me and still be God? That's the question. The only way God can be holy
and just and still have mercy on a sinner like me is through
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's got to be by his obedience.
I can't keep the law. Somebody else got to keep it
for me. I can't put my sin away. Somebody else has got to do it
for me. That's why Christ came. To obey the law as a representative
of his people. To make them righteous by his
obedience. He came to shed his precious,
perfect, sinless blood as a sacrifice to atone for the sin of his people.
To pay for their sin and put it away. And God sends us preachers
to preach Christ to us. And that preacher, he's gonna
preach, and preach, and preach, and preach, and preach. And if
you're God's own one day, the Holy Spirit's gonna open your
eyes, and you're gonna say, I see. Now I see. Oh, I see Christ. Now I understand how God could
save a sinner like me. It's only through the obedience
of Christ. It's only through the sacrifice of the sinless
Lamb of God He died for me to put away. Now I see, that's how
God could save me. I see, I see, I believe. I want you to listen to me for
a minute. I never want to, I call it ivory tower preaching. You
know, it's just pie in the sky. Let's just get right down here
on the dirt road where we live. You who believe, you see Christ,
don't you? You see Him. You believe Him. You trust Him.
You love Him. You do, don't you? But that sight
of Christ and that faith, that trust in Him is not going to
be perfect. Don't you expect it to be. You'll
be sorely disappointed. The very best that we see in
this life, Scripture says it's through a glass darkly. Just
trying to look through a frosted glass, That's the best we can
see. But you know what? Now, I just
see through a glass darkly. But I do still believe. My faith
is weak. It's just, it's imperfect. I mean, that's just the best
I get. It's imperfect. But I do believe. I do believe. It's not what I wish it was.
It's not what it should be, but I believe. I see, I don't see
as much as I wish I did, but I see. That's why every believer
says, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. I think
unbelief is the greatest heartache that there is. Weak faith is
the greatest heartache that there is to the believer. You see,
we all want perfect faith. Wouldn't you love to have perfect
faith? I do, I want to have perfect faith. But you know what? It's
not perfect faith that saves. It's not even faith that saves,
it's Christ who saves. Now we receive him by faith,
we see him by faith, but it's Christ that saves. You know why
salvation, the salvation of God's people is perfect? It's because
Christ is perfect. Whether I believe him strongly
or weakly, either way, I'm still perfect. because Christ is perfect. You see that? I don't have to
be afraid of my weakness, the weakness of my faith, because
David says here, the Lord's my strength. The Lord's my strength. If God's called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light, there's no reason for you to be afraid
of the dark, is there? Now, if Christ is your light,
just not. Once you see, you can't unsee. Once you see Christ, You
can't see anything else. All right, number two, I don't
have to be afraid of condemnation if the Lord is my salvation.
David says the Lord is my light and he is my salvation. Now I
know sinners fear damnation, they fear condemnation. I understand
that. I understand being afraid of that because that's what our
sin deserves. A holy God must punish sin. It's only right that
he does. I understand that. But if Christ
is my savior, I don't have to be afraid of that condemnation
because my salvation in Christ is perfect. And notice here,
David says the Lord Jehovah is my salvation. It's not just that
Christ has saved me, although he has, what he's saying is Christ
is my salvation. Salvation is a person. Salvation
is knowing and trusting a person. It's union with a person. It's
not knowing all the right facts. It's loving a person. It's trusting
a person. Now if I know Him, I've got nothing
to fear. Now I should fear if I've got
to work out my own salvation by my own works. If I've got
to be religious enough, if I've got to keep the law well enough,
if I've got to be moral enough, in order for God to accept me,
I should be afraid. Because that's a shame. Now you
know it and I know it too. That's a shame. Just religious
people are afraid to admit it. But if Christ obeyed the law
for me, I don't have fear. Because his obedience is perfect.
If Christ shed his blood to atone for my sin, then my sin's gone,
my debt's paid, he's cleansed my soul. in his precious sin-atoning
blood. And if I trust Christ, I don't
have anything to fear. Because my salvation is the person
who came to this earth in my flesh. He came to obey the law
for me. He came to suffer and die to
put my sin away. He died. They took a dead body
down from that tree. And three days later, he came
out of the tomb. He rose from the grave. And you know where
that person is now? at the right hand of God, ruling
and reigning to ensure my salvation. See, if I know that person, if
I trust that person, I've got nothing to fear, do I? Number
three, I don't have to be afraid of death if Christ is my life. At the end of verse one, David
says, the Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be
afraid? Now, the death of these bodies
is something that's coming. We can fight it all we want. We can eat right all we want.
We can exercise all we want. And by all means, do those things.
Do those things. But it's not going to stop the
death of these bodies. There's no reason for the believer to
fear death. Now, take care of yourself. Take
care of yourself. Whatever treatment the doctor
tells you to do, do it. But you don't have to fear death, the
death of these bodies, if Christ is your life. See, Christ already
died. He rose again for his people.
And when he did that, you know what he did? He took the sting
of death away. He took the sting of it away.
He took sin away. He took the power of sin to condemn
you, so that when your body dies, you don't die. You don't die
the second death. Christ took the sting out of
it. So it can't hurt you. Now, if you trust Christ, it
can. All death for the believer is, is to lay this body of sin
down and go be with the Lord. That's all it is. That's the best day you and I
will ever have. Now, our loved ones that are
left behind, it won't be the best day for them. And they're
the ones that make it hard to say goodbye. But when we do,
we say goodbye and we lay this body down, it'll be the best
day we've ever had. Because we're gonna close our
eyes in this world and open them to see the face of Christ the
Savior. Now there's no reason for anybody
to be afraid of that. There's no reason for the believer
to be afraid of death any more than there is for a tired person
to lay down at night to get a good night's sleep. That's good for
us, isn't it? Well, it's going to be good for
the believer to lay these bodies down. But you know what? They're not going to stay there.
They're going to stay in the grave. The Lord's going to come back and
he's going to raise these bodies again. The grave's just temporary.
He's going to raise these bodies, but they're not going to be like
they are now. They're not gonna be sinful, corrupt, decaying,
dead, dying flesh. The Lord's gonna raise these
bodies in perfection, just like his glorious body. And I'm telling
you, I'm not afraid of that. No, I long for it. Because John
tells us, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is. Now there's no fear in that,
is there? Then number four, I don't have
to be afraid of any enemy because the Lord will fight them for
me. Verse two says, when the wicked, even mine enemies and
my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should encamp against
me, my heart should not fear. Though war should rise against
me, in this will I be confident. Now believers have a lot of real
enemies. I'm not saying you don't have to fear enemies because
you don't have any. No, you've got them. Satan is our enemy. He's a roaring lion going about
seeking whom he may devour. Don't go looking for him. You
can't handle him one-on-one. Don't go looking for him. But
you don't have to fear him either. You know why? The Lord's already
crushed his head, just like God promised Adam and Eve he would.
The sacrifice of Christ took away Satan's power to make any
accusation of sin stick against any of God's elect. He's the
accuser of the brethren. But Satan can't accuse you of
something you're innocent of that Christ already paid for,
can he? Satan can't even touch anybody's body without the Lord's
permission. So you don't have to be afraid of him. Then there are enemies of the
gospel. They slander us, they speak evil of us. And just like
many years ago in the Reformation, don't you be mistaken, they'd
still burn us at the stake if they could. but you don't have
to fear them. You don't have to fear them.
They're gonna be aggravating this all get out, but you don't
have to fear them. The Lord's not gonna let them prosper. The
Lord may well allow them to slander me. He may well allow them to
harm my body, but they can't touch my soul, and they can never
separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Well, then I don't have to fear them. But there's
another enemy. And this is a dangerous enemy. Deadly enemy. Close to every
one of us. Me. My sin. David talked about this innumerable
host encamped against me. That's my sin. Innumerable host
of sin. And that enemy deserves my eternal
damnation. but I don't have to be afraid
of my sin. I do not have to, now I'm gonna hate it, but I
do not have to fear my sin is gonna condemn me if I fear Christ. If Christ took my sin in his
own body upon the tree and he put it away, if he has made a
curse for me, then I don't have to fear. I don't have to fear
that curse. I don't have to fear condemnation because Christ already
paid for my sin with his precious blood. The blood of Christ is
so effectual. You know what God Almighty said?
Their sins and their iniquities, well, I remember no more. God
who cannot forget anything, God who sees everything as it really
is says, I don't remember their sin. Why not? Because they're
not there. The blood of Christ washed them
away. Now I'm going to hate my sins.
I did not get up this morning with the intention of finding
all the many different ways that I could sin. That wasn't my intention.
And I hate my sin. I'm gonna strive not to, but
I'm still gonna. But I don't have to fear. If any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father. And you know what that
advocate's doing? Pleading his own blood. Pleading
his own sacrifice. Nobody knows better than your
advocate. He already paid for your sin.
That's the one pleading for us Then I've got nothing to fear.
Do I not for my sin? I don't Then fifthly, I don't have to
be afraid of being spiritually homeless because I live in Christ
First for David says one thing have I desired of the Lord that
will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to
inquire in his temple. Now being found in Christ is
so important. David says it's the one thing
I desire. This is what I'm seeking, this
one thing to be found in Christ. Everything else that I do have
won't matter a bit if I'm found outside of Christ. If I miss Christ, everything
else that I have is a curse, not a blessing. If I miss Christ,
so I seek after him. I seek after being found in Christ. Like Paul said, not having my
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ. The faithfulness of Christ to
do Everything necessary. He did everything perfectly to
make His people righteous. That's the righteousness I want.
I want to be found in Him. Then seek Him. Seek Him. Seek Him where He may be found.
Seek Him in His Word. Seek Him where His people gather
together. I'm telling you, if you want to find Christ, wouldn't
it be an awful good idea to be where He said He'd be? He said
he'd be where two or three gathered together in my name. There I
am in the midst of them. He's where the gospel's preached.
I tell you, I'd make it a point to be where he is, seeking, seeking. Now, I can't do anything to get
God to save me. I can't do anything to make God
save me. You know, if I do this, then God's obligated to save
me. I can't do that. Can't do it. But you know what
I can do? I can cry out and beg for mercy.
I can't be like blind Bartimaeus and just keep crying. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. If somebody tries to shush me
up, I'm going to yell it even louder. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. Oh, would you help me. I can
beg for mercy. That I can do. Begging for mercy. That's seeking the Lord. That's
seeking the Lord. See, David here, he's talking
about a whole lot more than being in the temple. being in the tabernacle,
being in a church building. He's talking about being found
in Christ. In Christ, being hidden in Christ. Now I learned of Christ in the
public worship service. That's why I learned of him.
That's why I hear of him preached. But you being in the public worship
service still miss Christ. David says, I want to be found
in Christ. I want to behold his beauty. His beauty, the beauty of his
holiness, not mine. He is. I want to be where I can
inquire of the Lord. You know, David already says,
Lord, it's my life. He says, I see. I see Christ. I believe
him. But I want to be where I can inquire of him. You know why
I want to inquire of him? I want to see him better. I want
to know more of him so I trust him more, so I believe him more.
I want to learn more of Christ so I rest in him more. I must
be found in Christ. Do you know every single believer
has that blessing? Because it pleased the Father
to put all of his elect, where? In Christ. When did he do it? When you decided to accept Jesus?
Yes, sir. Before the foundation of the
world. Before God created anything, he was pleased to put all of
his people in Christ. Now, I don't have to fear being
found outside of Christ if the Fathers won't put me in it. Then sixthly, I don't have to
be afraid of trials that are sure to come because the Lord
will deliver me. David says in verse five, for
in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the
secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up
upon a rock. Now I'm not saying that you don't
have to fear trials and troubles because they won't come. I'm
not telling you, that you don't have to fear trials and troubles
because they'll come, but they won't really hurt you. No, they're
going to come. They're coming, and they're going
to hurt. Otherwise, Peter wouldn't have called them fiery trials.
Job said, this is what I've learned, told his friends. Man that is
born of woman is a few days, and he's full of trouble. Every
one of those days is full of trouble. Now, they're coming.
But I don't have to be afraid. of those trials. I don't have
to be afraid of those troubles because when they come, when
the Lord sends them, he's going to hide me. He's going to hide
me. The Lord will hide me so I can't
be destroyed by these trials. And David describes here a threefold
hiding place for the believer. Number one, he says, the Lord
will hide me in the king's pavilion. You know what the king's pavilion
is? It's the place where the king
would lay down and sleep, and his best soldiers, his most valiant
soldiers, armed to the teeth, would stand around that bed where
the king was sleeping, all with their back to the king, facing
out, so they'd see any trouble that's coming after the king.
King, you just lay here and rest. You don't have to worry about
one thing. If it comes, we'll take care of it. Long for whatever
gets to you. It's the king's pavilion. The believer is hidden. In Christ
the King. In Christ the King. I'm telling
you, if you're in Christ, nothing can touch you there because nothing
can harm Christ. Nothing can touch him. Then David
says, he's gonna hide me in the sacrifice of Christ. When he
talks about the secret of his tabernacle, you know what he's
talking about? The Holy of Holies. That place
only the high priest ever saw. He went in there once a year,
not without blood, and he sprinkled blood on that mercy seat. of
God's tabernacle. It's the sacrifice of Christ.
Now, like I said, you can just bank on it. Trials and troubles
are coming. If you belong to God, if you trust Him, trials
and troubles are coming. But I don't have to be afraid
of what they'll do to me. Because I'm resting in Christ my sacrifice,
covered in His blood. And if I'm covered in the blood
of Christ, the wrath of God himself can't touch me. because he's
already poured out his wrath upon my substitute. Now if God's
justice can't get to me, nothing else can either, can it? So I
don't have to be afraid of those things. Thirdly, David says he'll
hide me on the rock Christ Jesus. Now the tempest, I mean a tempest
of trial, the storm, the strong storms of fierce trials of this
life would sweep us away. I mean in a heartbeat they'd
sweep us away. unless our feet are founded upon a rock. The
rock, Christ Jesus. If God's planted our feet on
Christ, if you're trusting Christ and Christ on your planted on
him, you can't be moved by anything. David said in Psalm 62, he only
is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. David, how can you be so sure?
because Christ won't be moved. See, if I'm founded in him, he
can't move, so I can't either. So the Lord's gonna send trials,
but when he does, he'll hide us in the secret of his pavilion.
He'll hide us, but he's gonna send these trials. He's gonna
send these trials, not to drive us away from him, but to drive
us closer to him. The Lord sends trials to his
children to teach us, to teach us. Because unfortunately, in
this flesh, that's the only way we're ever going to learn. To
be taught in the furnace of trial. Trials teach us how frail we
are. You know, if the Lord didn't
send us trials, we would be so full of ourselves. Nobody could
stand to be around us. We'd think we're so strong. What's
wrong with you? And why aren't you as strong
as me, you know? The Lord sends us trials to teach us just how
frail we are. so that we trust Him more fully.
The Lord sends us trials to teach us how faithful our God is. He's faithful. He'll do what
He promised you. He'll hide you. He'll give you
grace sufficient, just like He promised. He's gonna teach us
how faithful He is so we trust Him more. Well, that means that these hard,
fiery trials are good for us. Aren't they? I don't look forward
to the next one coming, do you? But they're good for us. You
who believe, you can look back over the course of your life,
and you look at the trials that the Lord sent you. Now when you're
going through them, you're suffering, weren't you? But when they were
over, the Lord's pleased to deliver you, and you look back on those,
what do you say? That was the best thing for me. I wouldn't change it. I'm not
seeking the next one, but that one, Lord, now that was the best
thing for me. You see, trials reveal true faith. Trials let
you know I really trust Christ. Now, the trial drives you away
from Christ. The trial makes you mad. You say, well, I'm not
going back now. It didn't do me no good to be there in that
service every Sunday. You can go somewhere else, do
something else. Well, then your feet weren't found on the rock,
Christ Jesus. You didn't have genuine faith in Christ. But
that trial drives you closer to Christ. Now you know. I really
do trust him. I really do. And they make us
sing his praises. David says in verse six, and
now after this time of trouble, the Lord hid me, the Lord delivered
me. Now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about
me. Therefore will I offer in his
tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will sing
praises unto the Lord. You just, you don't not sing
him praises because of the trial. It's because of what the Lord
taught you. Nobody can sing God's praises any better than the person
that he's delivered, that he's hidden in the secret of his tabernacle. Then seventh. Oh, this is a great
fear of every believer. I don't have to be afraid that
the Lord will ignore me. Verse seven, David says, hear,
oh Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer
me. Every believer can understand
David's cry here, can't we? Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, hear me when I cry. And
David's not crying, Lord, hear me, because I did something good.
So, you know, I deserve for you to hear me. I haven't, it's not
like, well, I haven't done anything to deserve, you know, you not
hearing my cry. Lord, hear me because you're
merciful. Lord, hear me because you hear the cries of guilty,
helpless sinners. Lord, hear me in your mercy.
Hear me for Christ's sake. You know, my constant cry to
God is for mercy. Mercy and forgiveness. And I'll
tell you a real good reason to keep crying for mercy and keep
crying for forgiveness is because that's what the Lord told us
to do. Verse eight, when thou saidest, seek ye my face, my
heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek. Lord, I'm
seeking you because you said, I'm seeking you because you said,
you told me to seek your face. If you would plead with God,
plead his word. Plead his own promises back to
him. Because God's not gonna allow
one word of this book to fall. Plead his promise back to him.
He'll keep his promise. A number of years ago, on our
25th wedding anniversary, Janet and I took a cruise, and we were
coming back from dinner one night down the hall of that ship, and
there was a mother and her little boy behind us. He's three, four
years old. And they're walking down the
hall. Boy, you know, was happy, and he said, when are we going
to go to Nana's room? And she said, we're not, she,
you, you can tell. This one's been with this four-year-old.
She's tired. And she said, we're not going
to Nana's room. We're going to go back to our room, lay down
for a minute. And this kid starts sobbing. And he said, but you
said, if I ain't good, we'd go to Nana's room after dinner.
And I thought, what you gonna do now? And she sighed and turned around
and went to Nana's room, because that's what she promised him. Oh, how much more our God. Do you need mercy from our God? Lord, you promised you would
have mercy on the guilty. Lord, you promised your mercy
endureth forever. Lord, you promised if I seek
you with all my heart, I'll find you. Lord, you promised. I tell
you what, you plead his promise. He'll give it to you. He won't
be like that mother. You'll do it gladly. You'll do it gladly. Lord, I'm seeking you, and I'm
counting on you to keep your promise. That's a plea. That's the Lord's answer. And
you keep crying it till he does. I promise you on the authority
of this book, you'll find it. You'll find it. Number nine, or number eight,
if I fear the Lord, I don't have to fear being left alone. Verse
nine. Hide not thy face far from me.
Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Leave
me not. Neither forsake me, O God, of
my salvation. Lord, don't forsake me. Isn't
that a great fear of yours? The Lord will finally forsake
you and leave you on your own? Remember last week, Psalm 22,
we looked at this. You know why the Lord will never leave or
forsake his people? Because our Savior cried from
the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? If the
Father forsook Christ your substitute, Calvary, he'll never leave you
or forsake you. That's his promise to his people
that I don't have to fear being left alone. I've plead God's
promise. I know this, the Lord will keep
his word, I know he will. Now you can't count on anyone
or anything else like that. Look at verse 10. When my father,
my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up. You know,
our parents raised us so that we can be independent adults.
But you know, eventually it's time to leave the nest, stand
on your own, isn't it? Do you know our heavenly father
will never make his children leave his house and stand on
their own. Never, ever, ever. He'll always hold his children
in the palm of his hand. And our parents will eventually
die, and we're gonna be left here alone. That's the normal
course of life, isn't it? Well, our Heavenly Father will
never die. He'll never die and leave us
alone. He's eternal. The one that's gonna die is us.
And like I said earlier, when that happens, you know what our
Father's gonna do? Just bring us home, be with Him forever.
That's all that is. Well, then I don't have to fear
being left alone, do I? Then David closes in prayer.
You know, he's confident, isn't he? He says, I'm confident in
this. But confidence in Christ does not make us presume on the
Lord's mercy. Absolute confidence in Christ,
you know what that does? It makes us pray. That's what
David says in verse 11. Lord, teach me thy way, O Lord. Lead me in a plain path because
of mine enemies. Deliver me not over into the
will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against
me, and such as breathe out cruelty. David says, Lord, teach me your
way. Teach me Christ the way. He's the way, teach me him. Lord,
teach me Christ's soft fearing. Teach me the Christ who's the
way of salvation, the way of righteousness, the way of forgiveness,
the way of deliverance from all my fears. Teach me Christ so
I trust Him alone. And Lord, lead me. Lead me in
a plain, well-marked path. I'm just a dumb sheep. I'll wander
offshore as the world. Lord, lead me. Don't just teach
me what to do and then leave me alone to do it. Lord, teach
me and then lead me. Lead me so I don't go off in
the wrong direction. You know, if the Lord's leading
me, I got nothing to fear, do I? Brother Eric used such a great
illustration Wednesday night. Talked about going down, when
he was a boy, going down a country road alone. He said he just goes
fast as his little feet would carry him on his night, wouldn't
you? Just, oh, everything was scary. But he said, well, with
my dad, Nothing scared me. I didn't even hear nothing going
on in the woods. Nothing scared me. It didn't matter how dark
it was. Nothing scared me. If the Lord's leading me, ain't
nothing scary around this there. No, He'll take care of it. And
then David closes with a word of encouragement to his brethren. He tells us, now don't quit.
He says in verse 13, I'd fainted. I would have quit, unless I had
believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living. So wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. He shall
strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." Now,
life's journey is difficult. David already experienced it,
didn't he? dangers and toils and snares that we go through.
David says it's already been so difficult, I would have quit.
I would have quit if God would let me. I would have quit unless
I really believed that Christ is all I needed. I really would
have quit unless I believed that Christ was sufficient in every
situation. So when you're weak, I mean,
you're so weak, you're so beaten down, you think, I can't go on
another second. David says, don't quit. Rest in the Lord. Don't quit
resting in Him. Don't start thinking, I better start doing something
to fix this situation. Rest in the Lord. Depend upon Him. He's the strength of your life.
I tell you, when the going gets tough, rest more. Rest more in
Christ. So wait. Boy, it's one of the
toughest things in this world to do, wait. Wait on the Lord. You keep crying to the Lord.
Keep crying to Him and wait on Him. Wait on Him to answer, because
I know this. Our Father hears the cries of
His children. Do you need mercy? Cry for mercy. Keep crying. Do
you need comfort for your heart? Cry. Keep asking for it. Do you
need grace sufficient for the hour? Cry and ask for it. God
said, give it. Cry on him and wait on him to do it. He'll answer,
won't he? Sooner or later, usually not
as quickly as we wish. You see, when we're in those
situations, you know what is our number one concern? I want
out of this. I want the pain to quit. I want
the suffering to quit. I want the doubt to quit. I want
it to just all stop. The Lord's purpose is to teach
us something. And when he teaches us, then he'll answer. That's
exactly right. So wait, honey. Wait, honey.
All right. I hope the Lord will bless that
to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this precious portion of your word. Lord, how we thank
you for the clear comfort and instruction of your word to wait
on thee, to look to thee, to rest in thee, to trust in thee,
that you're all that we need. Oh, Father, how thankful we are.
How thankful we are for your mercy and your grace, that you
would provide everything your people need in one person, in
your darling son. Father, I pray that you take
the message as it's been preached, And Father, you'd use it to glorify
your son, to enable us to see the glory, the redemptive glory
of your son, that he would stoop so low to redeem such vile sinners
as we are. Father, enable us to see his
glory and to rest in him. Father, it's in Christ's name,
for his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen.