Well, good evening to everyone.
If you would, open your Bibles with me to Psalm 119 for our
scripture reading. Psalm 119, we'll begin our reading
this evening in verse 113 of Psalm 119. I hate vain thoughts, but thy
law do I love. Thou art my hiding place and
my shield. I hope in thy word. Depart from me, ye evildoers,
for I will keep the commandments of my God. Uphold me according
unto thy word, that I may live, and let me not be ashamed of
my hope. Hold thou me up, and I shall
be safe, and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.
Thou hast trodden down all of them that err from thy statutes,
for their deceit is falsehood. Thou puttest away all the wicked
of the earth like draughts. Therefore, I love Thy testimonies.
My flesh trembleth for fear of Thee, and I am afraid of Thy
judgments." And we'll end our reading there. Let's bow together
in prayer. Our great God and our holy, sovereign,
merciful, and gracious Heavenly Father, oh, how thankful we are
because of your mercy and grace that sinful men and women such
as we are can call the God of heaven and earth our Father.
Oh, how thankful we are. We thank you for your capacity
to love sinners, to adopt us into your family. Father, we're
thankful. And of all the things for which we have to be thankful,
and there are so many, chiefly, we thank you for the Lord Jesus
Christ. We thank you for a Savior who completely and utterly saves
his people from all of their sin. And Father, this evening,
it is our heartfelt desire that you would enable us by your spirit
to worship you, to worship in spirit and in truth. While we
cannot be together in person, Father, meld our hearts together
and enable us to with one heart, with one accord, to worship thee. Father, cause your word to go
forth in power. Reveal to us the Lord Jesus Christ
in your word this evening. Reveal Christ to the hearts of
your people, to save your people, to feed and comfort and edify
your people, to strengthen us for this time that you've called
us to walk through here below. Father, we're Thankful for this
opportunity that you've given to us. It's not what we are used
to, it's not what we desire to meet together as a congregation
in person, but we're thankful for this means that you've given
us. And Father, I beg of you that you bless it. You promised
that you'd bless your word. You promised you'd bless your
word. It would not return unto thee void. And Father, I pray
you'd bless your word this evening. Give us a fulfillment of your
promise. that we might see your glory
in our day. And Father, we're thankful for
the many blessings, how richly you have blessed this congregation
all through the years, how you've been so faithful and blessed
us. And we're thankful and beg of thee that you not leave us
alone, but that you would continue to lead and to guide, that you
would continue to bless your word as it's preached here in
our town. And Father, for those who are sick and afflicted and
hurting, we pray for them. We pray that you'd heal. We pray
that you'd comfort them. Father, you know the needs of
your sheep. You know where they're at and what your people have
need of. And we pray that you would meet
their needs richly, according to the riches of your mercy and
your grace and your love for your people. And Father, we continue
to cry out to you about this pandemic, the plague that's sweeping
across our land. Father, we pray that you give
relief. You are the great physician. This virus germ is in your control. And we pray you'd give us some
relief from it. We pray that you'd be with our
leaders, that you'd give them wisdom and understanding of how
to safely lead us through this. And Father, above all, we pray
that you would In some way, enable your people to once again meet
together in person. Lift up our voices in praise
and thanksgiving together. All these things, Father, we
ask. And we give thanks in that name
which is above every name. The name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. I've titled the message this
evening, Christ from A to Z, Part 7. You'll recall from the
other six parts of this psalm we've studied. Psalm 119 is a
poem, and it has one eight-verse stanza for each of the letters
of the Hebrew alphabet. And the theme of this psalm is
the Word of God. The theme of each one of these
stanzas is the Word of God, both the written Word and Christ's
incarnate Word. And my desire is that the Lord
will enable me to show you from each stanza of this verse, what
the main point is of each one of these stanzas of this psalm,
to show us how from each letter of the alphabet from A to Z,
Christ is all. Christ himself is the theme of
each one of these stanzas in this psalm. And tonight we begin
looking at the 15th stanza, which shows us Christ our pillar or
Christ our support. The letter for this stanza represents
a prop or a pillar. showing us that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the pillar. Christ is the pillar that upholds
all truth, all spiritual truth. Anything that you know of that
is spiritually true is only true because of Christ. He is the
truth of God. All spiritual truth is true because
of who Christ is and what Christ has accomplished. Now, everything
that we believe is based upon the word of God. Everything that
we believe and everything we preach about salvation, about
righteousness, about the forgiveness of sin, about eternal life, is
all based on the Word of God, what the plainly revealed teaching
of the Word of God is. Absolutely everything in this
book, every page, every word, every paragraph, everything in
this book is written to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ. Every
passage, every verse of scripture, all is written to point us to
Christ. He is the truth of Scripture.
He is the true meaning of every passage of Scripture. So everything
we believe about salvation, everything we believe about righteousness
and the forgiveness of our sin, eternal life, is all based upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is and what He has accomplished
for His people. Now remember, the theme of this
stanza Christ is the pillar of support. That we lean upon Him.
He upholds all truth. He upholds all of His people.
Now, salvation is simply believing Christ. Salvation is simply trusting
Christ. It's putting all the care of
my soul, all the responsibility of my eternal soul upon Christ. It's simply trusting Him. It's
simply believing that Christ is all it takes to uphold me.
Christ is all it takes to save me. Salvation is in Christ's
obedience to the law for me. Salvation is trusting Christ's
sacrifice for my sin. I don't need to add anything
to it. Christ is all that I need. He's my righteousness. He's all
I need to be forgiven. He's all I need to be saved.
Salvation is trusting Christ. It's putting all of your weight
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It's leaning upon Christ and
depending completely on Christ to hold you up. I illustrated
this point to our children's Bible school classes a few years
ago. Janet found me an old wooden chair, a kitchen chair in a second-hand
store somewhere, and I cut off one of the legs. And I sat down
on that chair, but I couldn't sit easy. I had to keep one foot
and keep my balance. I couldn't put all my weight
on that chair because it just had three legs. Then I sat down in
that chair over there. I'd just plop down in it and
let all my weight go on that chair. Because I knew it would
hold me up. Now, that three-legged one wouldn't,
but that one would. That's salvation. It's trusting
Christ. It's putting all of your weight
and not trying to help Him one bit. Just putting all of your
weight upon Him. That's what this 15th stanza,
beginning in verse 113, is all about. Let's look at it. Verse
113. I hate vain thoughts. but thy
law do I love." Now, leaning on Christ, our pillar, putting
all of our weight upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that's salvation. That's what the believer does.
But leaning on Christ is also leaning on Him, depending upon
Him in love. Just like the Apostle John leaned
upon the Lord's breast at the supper. If you lean on someone's
chest, you have a close, intimate, loving relationship with that
person. That's salvation for the believer. We depend completely
on Christ for everything that we need, and we love it that
way. It's a lean on Him of dependence,
but also of love. You see, salvation is union with
a person. Salvation is knowing, loving,
and trusting a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't love
a doctrine like you can love a person. Salvation is loving
a person and trusting him. So if I love Christ, I will hate
vain, untrue thoughts about Christ. Now, vain thoughts of God, vain
thoughts about spiritual things are all the thoughts that man
has naturally. Every thought that man has naturally
about God, about Christ, about salvation, they're all wrong. They're all vain. They're empty
of truth. They're wrong. Our thoughts are
not God's thoughts and our ways are not God's ways. So our thoughts
and our ways are wrong, aren't they? Because God's thoughts
and God's ways are right. If my thoughts are not God's
thoughts, my natural thoughts are not God's thoughts and my
natural thoughts are wrong. If my natural way is not God's
way, my way is the one that's wrong. Everything we think naturally
about spiritual things is wrong and vain, empty of truth. And
when God shows us Christ and we're leaning upon Christ, we
put all the weight of our salvation on Christ, we're going to hate
the false way. If we love Christ, we'll hate
the false way. If I depend upon Christ, I depend
upon His love, then I'm going to hate the vain thoughts of
man's free will works religion. I hate the vain thought of salvation
depending upon my decision for Jesus. I hate that. That's a
vain thought. Because by nature, I can't make
a good decision. Because of my will and my nature
is sinful, so I cannot make a good decision. I can't decide for
Jesus. If my salvation depends on that, that's a vain thought.
I'll be damned. That's why I hate it. Oh, but
I love the truth of God's electing love. I love salvation by God's
choice, by God's electing love. Because God's choice and God's
love will never change. I hate the vain thought of salvation
depending upon how many religious ceremonies that I go through.
You know, candles and incense and the pomp and circumstance
of religion, the laying on of hands and having very official
sounding, very official looking religious ceremony. Buddy, that
impresses the flesh. Oh, that impresses the flesh.
It makes the flesh feel better because it makes the flesh feel
more religious. But I'm telling you, all of that ceremony is
empty and vain without Christ. Even the ordinances that the
church is given. The church is given two ordinances. Baptism and the Lord's Table.
Those things are empty without Christ. The Lord's Table is just
a little bit of unleavened bread and a little bit of wine that
won't help our soul a bit without Christ. But I love, and I know you all
do too, I love remembering Christ's sacrifice for me. I love that
ordinance when the men hand out that unleavened bread. I love
remembering how the perfect, sinless, precious body of the
Lord Jesus Christ was broken for my sin. Broken, getting the
punishment that I deserve. I love remembering how He shed
His life's blood to put my sin away. I love that. You love it
because of Christ. But that would just be vain and
empty without Christ. The ordinance of baptism, that's
a blessing to God's people. But if a person thinks getting
dunked under the waters of baptism is going to cleanse their soul
from sin, it's just a vain ceremony. It's empty. It's a vain ceremony.
It didn't do them any good. All you got when you get done
with it is a wet center. That's it. A wet sinner is bound
for hell because getting dunked under those waters, that doesn't
help anybody. I would hate something as vain
and empty as that, wouldn't you? Oh, but I love, when a person's
baptized, confessing Christ, confessing Him. I love to see
someone publicly identify with Christ and confess, I am such
a horrible sinner, that the only way it's possible somebody like
me could be saved is in Christ. that when he died, he died for
my sin. When he died, I died in him. I died to the law. I died to
justice in him, in my representative. And when he arose, I rose in
him. I rose to new life in him. Now,
I love that because it's Christ. You see the difference? And every
believer does. Every believer loves those things
that reveal Christ, show Christ to us. And I could go on and
on with examples of that, but you know what I'm saying. A believer
loves thoughts, they love doctrine, they love preaching that glorifies
Christ. You know, this thing of preaching
is one of the most difficult things that there is for a person
to do. It's so difficult, it's impossible
to do it unless the Spirit enables us to do it. But it's easy in
this sense. Feeding God's sheep, making God's
sheep happy is really easy. All you've got to do is preach
Christ, simply, plainly. That's all you've got to do to
make Him happy. The believer loves preaching and thoughts
that glorify Christ. And a believer hates thoughts,
they hate doctrine, they hate preaching that takes any of the
glory away from Christ. Because when you take the glory
away from Christ, not only are you taking glory away from the
one that I love, You're taking away my hope. You're taking away
my pillar. Something that's holding me up.
I hate that. I hate when somebody does that.
See, when you love the one, you hate the opposite. When you love
the truth, you hate a lie. You can't help it. Believers
hate vain thoughts. If you love Christ, you hate
every false gospel because false gospels are full of man's thoughts,
not what God says. I hate false gospels because
they lie on the Savior that I love. I hate false gospels because
they offer sinners a false hope that if they believe it, it's
going to send them to hell. Now, you should hate that. I
know that is not the way of our world today. You've got to love
everything, accept everything, you know, no matter what. Well,
brother, let me tell you, there's some things you ought to hate.
And you ought to hate things that take the glory away from
Christ. You ought to hate things that
gives people a hope, a false hope that sends them to hell.
You ought to hate that. Anybody who loves Christ should hate
those things. But now listen to me. That doesn't mean that
we should show animosity and hatred and be mean to people
who believe those things. No, we should pity the lost.
We shouldn't hate them. We shouldn't be mean to them.
We should pity them. We should pray for them. But
we don't have to have anything to do with their false gospel
either. That is what this is saying. You know, I'm not going
to be mean to somebody, but also, it would be wrong to have fellowship
with them and act like their lie is okay. It would be wrong
to have fellowship with them and act like we believe the same
thing, that we're all going to the same place even though we
believe something different because that's not so. That would be
wrong to do that. See, if two people believe two
different messages, two different saviors, both of them can't be
saved. Both of them can't be right.
So it's not that you just, I'm saying that we should be mean
and hostile towards people, but don't have anything to do with
their religion. That's what this is teaching. Because look at
verse 115. David says, depart from me, you
evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. See,
this is what he's saying. I'm not going to have anything
to do with their false doctrine, with their lies. I'm just not
going to do with it. And it would be wrong for us to have fellowship
with these people, these false Gospels, because when you do
that, you're putting your seal of approval on it. And that's
wrong. That's what he's saying here. We're not to be mean and
hard-hearted and be hostile, but it's to separate yourself
from that. I'm not going to put my seal
of approval. I'm not going to participate on that. And here's something
else. I shouldn't want to love what
God hates. I should not want to love what
God hates. And that's what God hates. Look
at verse 118. Thou hast trodden down all them
that err from thy statutes, for their deceit is falsehood. Thou
puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore,
I love thy testimonies. See, God hates the wicked. He
hates their wicked way. And the most wicked way on earth
is man's own righteousness. man's own goodness by what he
does and does not do. God hates him for it and God's
going to destroy him for it. God's going to destroy them for
not trusting on Christ, for not leaning all of their soul upon
his son. And I don't want to seem like
I'm putting my seal of approval on error that God hates and that
God will destroy and you shouldn't either. I hate man's vain thoughts
about God. Because our thoughts about God
are always too low. And our thoughts about ourselves
are always too high. But I love the Gospel that puts
man down in the dust as far as he can go. And I love the Gospel
that lifts Christ up as high as possible. Because if I see
Christ lifted up in all of His glory, you know what I'll naturally
do? I'll depend upon Him. And that's the point of this
whole thing. Christ is the pillar of His people. He's the one that
we lean all of our soul upon. And if you see Him, if God enables
you to see Him high and lifted up, you'll lean on Him. You'll
cast your soul upon Him. You'll have no doubt He's able
to uphold you. Now look at verse 114. Thou art my hiding place
and my shield. I hope in Thy Word. Now the Word
of God sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the perfect sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ put away
all the sin of all of his people by just one sacrifice. He did
not come and try to save anybody. Christ, by his one sacrifice,
saved all of his people from all of their sin. My friend,
if Christ died for you, Almighty God has no more wrath left for
you He has no more wrath left for your sin because he already
poured it out on Christ your substitute at Calvary Christ
bore all of God's wrath against all of the sin of God's elect
and he did not he shielded them He hid them from it. He didn't
let one not one drop of God's wrath fall on them But he took
it all he's the perfect sacrifice the perfect shelter who saved
all of His people from all of their sin. That's the way the
Word of God sets forth, the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that marvelous? What a Savior. Alright. Well, if Christ is the perfect
sacrifice, He is the perfect hiding place, I love to hide
in Him. It's not just that I hide in
Him because I have to. I love to hide in Him. It's true, I
don't have another choice. I don't have another hope. I
don't want one. I love hiding in the Lord Jesus
Christ. God's wrath against my sin will
never fall on me if it fell upon Christ, my substitute. I love
that. What a joy to be able to completely
depend upon Christ and have no reason to fear anything. You
have no reason to fear anything if you're trusting in and hiding
in Christ. Look what he says in verse 116.
Uphold me according unto thy word that I may live and let
me not be ashamed of my hope. Now the psalmist says here, don't
let me be ashamed. I don't want to be ashamed of
my hope. I don't want to hope in something that ends up being
a false hope. I don't want to be hoping in
something that just ends up being smoke and mirrors. I don't want
to hope that I'm righteous and innocent and holy in Christ and
come to find out in the end I'm really guilty. That's why I would
be ashamed. I would be ashamed if in that
day of judgment I'm found guilty. What a shame. You'd be so ashamed
to be trusting in Christ and find out that's a false hope. That'll never happen to you if
you're trusting Christ. You'll never be ashamed. You'll
never be found guilty if you're trusting in Christ. Now that
trust in Him, that trust in His grace, that trust in His righteousness,
that trust in His sacrifice is sweet. What a sweet trust, what
a sweet refuge we have as we go through this journey here
below. And the closer you get to the end, the closer you get
to the end of this life, the sweeter that rest in Christ will
be. To truly lean upon Christ, to truly hide in Him is to love
hiding in Him, is to love depending entirely on Christ. If you're
truly leaning on Christ, you're truly hiding in Christ, this
is the way you feel. I don't want any other righteousness
but Christ. I mean, if it was possible for me to be righteous
by what I do, I don't want that. I love Christ so much. I don't
want any other righteousness but Him. I don't want any other
way for my sin to be put away other than the sacrifice of Christ.
I don't want any other way to come to the Father except Christ. See, not only do I see Christ
as all of my salvation, not only do I see it's the only way I
can be saved, I love it that way. I love it that way because
I love Christ. I love depending upon him. And
this love is not just a one-way street. We always have to remember
this. The believer does love Christ,
but now let's remember this. We love Christ because He first
loved us. We only hide in Christ because
God first put us in Christ. God's the one that first hid
us in Christ. And we only stay in Christ because
God won't let us go. Look at verse 117. Hold thou
me up and I shall be saved. Hold me and don't let me go and
I'll be saved. I will have respect unto thy
statutes continually. Now David says, hold me up. If
you hold me up and don't let me go, I'll be saved. And you
know about the time that the Savior talked about, no man can
pluck them out of my Father's hand. All God's people are in
my Father's hand. No man can pluck them out of
my Father's hand. But God's hold on His people
is not a harsh grip. God's hold on His people is a
loving, protective hold. It's like a mother holds her
little baby. Now she holds that baby firmly,
doesn't she? But it's in love. It's in love.
That's the way the Father holds His people. That's the way the
Savior holds His people. And that hold is sweet. It's
just as sweet as it is secure. Because it's a loving hold. Now,
trusting Christ is very serious business. I tell you, trust Christ. I tell you, you cast all of the
weight of your eternal soul on Christ. It's serious business.
It's sweet. Oh, it is so sweet to trust in
Jesus. It's so sweet to cast all of
your care upon Him. It's so sweet to trust the salvation
of your soul to Him alone. That is so sweet. What a sweet,
gracious commandment we have of our Savior to come unto Him
and He'll give us rest. That's sweet. But never forget,
it's serious business too. Look what the psalmist says here,
verse 120. My flesh trembleth for fear of
Thee, And I am afraid of thy judgments. Now, by God's grace,
I can truly say this. I love the Lord Jesus Christ.
I do. I love him. I love him because
he first loved me. I love it. I love depending upon
Christ. I love that all the responsibility
for my soul rests upon the broad shoulders of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that none of it depends upon me, but it's all on his shoulders. I love that. But there's also
fear involved here. And not just fear as in reverence,
fear as being afraid. It is a fearful thing for a sinner
to fall into the hands of an angry God. That's another thing
I know that is not popular in our day. God loves everybody.
I know that's what everybody says. God's so loving he won't
hurt a flea. You didn't get that from his book. No, God's angry
with the wicked. It's a fearful thing for the
sinner to fall into the hands of an angry God who carries out
his judgment and justice against sin. That's a fearful thing.
But I love being saved in Christ. I love it and wouldn't want salvation
any other way. I trust Christ so completely
that I am afraid of being found outside of Him. I trust Christ
so completely, I am afraid of meeting God outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, in Christ, there's no fear.
In Christ, all there is is sweetness and mercy and grace. And I love
that sweetness. But this is also true. I'm afraid
of meeting God outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. See, both
are true. I truly love the Lord Jesus Christ. I love depending on him and him
alone. And this is equally true. I'm
afraid of being found outside of him. What a sweet blessing
God has given his people. You ought to be afraid. to meet
God outside of Christ. But what a sweet blessing God's
given His people to depend upon Christ, to lean upon Him, and
to hide in Him. Alright, that's the 15th stanza,
Christ our pillar and our support. Now let's look before we close
here at the 16th stanza, which tells us about spiritual light.
The letter for this stanza represents spiritual light. And we see in
this stanza what it is that the believer sees when the Lord gives
us spiritual light. When God gives us spiritual light,
we see two things. We see the Lord and we see ourselves. One of the old writers says that
when God gives us spiritual light, He gives us two eyes. One eye
to see God's greatness and one eye to see our smallness. I like
that. One eye to see God's greatness
and one eye to see our smallness. When God gives us spiritual light,
we see something of the glory of God. We see something, the
same thing that Isaiah saw. He saw the Lord high and lifted
up. We see the greatness of God. And we also see the smallness
and the sinfulness of ourselves. See, we think we're something.
By nature, we think we are something else. Until the Lord reveals Christ
to us. The only way I find out that I'm nothing is when I see
Christ as all. From A to Z, Christ is all. If
God will ever show me that, then I'll see I'm nothing. See, if
I ever see Christ high and lifted up, then I'll see how sinful
and how small and insignificant I am. When God the Holy Spirit
reveals Christ to us, and we see Christ in His righteousness,
Christ in His holiness, then I'll see how sinful I am. That's
what we see when God gives us spiritual light. And that's what
is described in this next stanza, beginning in verse 121. I have
done judgment and justice. Leave me not to mine oppressors.
Now, if God has given you spiritual light to see, when you read that
verse, you know that can only be the Lord Jesus Christ speaking.
You and I both, we read that, we know I've never done judgment
and justice. I've never done anything perfectly.
Only Christ could have done judgment and justice. Only Christ could
have satisfied God's judgment. Only Christ could have satisfied
God's justice. So that's what this means, because
the Lord Jesus Christ was the only righteous man to ever live.
He's the only man who perfectly satisfied God by obeying God's
law. And since he was the only righteous
man to ever live, that made his sacrifice pleasing to God. Christ's
personal perfection enabled Him to satisfy God's justice by enabling
Him to pay for the sins of His people. He had perfect blood
to shed. He had a perfect body to be broken
and offered to God. And in that offering on Calvary's
tree, the Father's the one who executed the Son. The Father's
the one that carried out judgment and justice, but He used men
as a tool to do it. The Lord Jesus Christ was oppressed
by men. even allowed of the Father to
be put to death. Christ gave up the ghost and
died. But He didn't stay in their hands. He did not stay under their power.
He rose from the dead three days later. And He rose from the dead
because His sacrifice paid for the sin of His people and put
it away. Now, if you have light to see,
I mean, a lot of what I just said is historical fact. A man named Jesus at Nazareth
suffered and died on a cross, was buried and rose again three
days later. That's an historical fact. And you can memorize and
know that that is an historical fact. But the difference between
knowing an historical fact and having spiritual light is this.
If God's given you light, You hear that message of who Christ
is, what he accomplished for his people, and you desperately
want Christ to be your sacrifice. That's the evidence that God's
given you spiritual light. You desperately need Christ.
I don't want to be oppressed by my sin anymore. I don't want
to be oppressed by this false gospel that tells me if I sin
less, God will accept me. That's just oppressive because
I can't do it. I can't sin less. But see, if
God's given me light, I see that's a fool's errand. It's a fool's
errand to try to sin less and make God happy with me because
I can't sin less. Sinning is all I can do. So if
God's given me light, I desperately want Christ to be my righteousness.
There is nothing I want more than Christ if God's given me
spiritual light. If God's given me light, I don't
want to stand on my own. I don't want to have my salvation
dependent upon what I do or what I don't do. Tell you what I want,
if God's given me spiritual life. I want Christ to be my surety. And when I say that Christ is
my surety, this is what I mean. All my salvation depends upon
Christ. Look at verse 122. This is what
the psalmist is asking for. Be surety for thy servant for
good. Let not the proud oppress me.
Now I read that word surety and I thought about Benjamin, Jacob's
youngest son, Benjamin. I don't know how Benjamin felt
about his older brothers. I don't know if he had any idea
how much they hated Joseph and how he felt about them. But I
just wonder about old Benjamin. He was there one day during that
famine. His brothers had gone down to Egypt and got corn, but
they came back and they said, that man that earned that throne
said, we can't come back to Egypt unless you bring your younger
brother with you. Oh, Jacob was just so distraught. Why did you
even tell him you had a younger brother? Just don't even bring
his name up. Why did you do this to me? And he said, I won't let
him go. Well, they're getting ready to
starve to death. That number of corn left and
they had to go. Jacob said, go back down and
get us some corn. They said, we won't go except we take Benjamin
and Jacob. I'm not letting him go with you.
When I let one of my boys go away, if you boys are alone,
I know what happens to him. I lose him. I'm not going to
do it. He's not going with you. And Judah came up. I was wondering,
Benjamin, what did Benjamin think when he heard this? Judah came
up and told Jacob, send the lad with me. I'll be surety for him. I'll bring him back to you. You
can require him at my hand. All the responsibility of taking
Benjamin down to Egypt and bringing back to you. It's on me. Now, I don't know how Benjamin
felt about that, but if he had any love, any admiration for
his big brother, if that was me, I'd have been glad to hear
it. I don't know how to walk down
to Egypt. I don't know the way. I don't know how to walk down.
I don't know the way back. Judah does. He's been there before.
Judah is the strong big brother. He's wise in the ways of the
world. He's wise in this travel. He's wise in how to conduct himself
down there in Egypt. He's wise how to conduct himself
with that man on the throne. He'll be able to defend me. He'll
be able to show me the way. He'll be able to bring me back.
You know, I'm not much of a fighting man, but Judah is. I'd be happy
to go with Judah. I'd a whole lot rather the safety
of my trip there and back depend on Judah than on me, because
I don't know how to go. Judah does. Well, you know what that
picture is, don't you? Judah's a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah. And I love, oh,
oh, I love. There's nothing that thrills
my heart more than to imagine a conversation one day in eternity
when there is nothing but God. To hear the Lord Jesus Christ,
God's Son, tell His Father, Father, give Him to me. Give Him to me. I'll be sure to do for him. I'll
bring him. Father, give Frank to me. I'll bear the responsibility. The responsibility is mine of
bringing him to you. I know he's a sinner. That Frank,
he's nothing. But Father, give him to me. Send
him with me. I'll take all the responsibility
of presenting him faultless before your throne. I love hearing that
because I can't do anything for myself. I can't do one thing.
But Christ can do it all. Christ, my big brother, he can
do it all. That lets me rest in him, lets
me rest in Christ. And that's what you do if God's
given you a light to see. He's your surety. Now you rest
in him. Read on, verse 123. This will
help you now. Stay with me. Mine eyes fail
for thy salvation and for the word of thy righteousness. Now,
the Lord's given His people eyes to see. No question about it.
When God saves a sinner, He gives them light. And they see. They
see Christ. Do you see Him as well as you
would like to? I know you don't. I know. I don't either. God's
given me eyes to see Christ, but I still look for Him. I still
strain to see more of Him. We always need more of Christ. We need to see more of Him. We
need to learn more of Him. We need to be constantly reminded. What an indictment on our flesh.
God's given us light to see Christ, but we still need to be constantly
reminded. Keep looking to Him. Keep looking to Him. Keep looking
to Him. Keep coming to Him. I need to be told that. Because
when I look at myself, I don't see any evidence of salvation
in me. I don't see any righteousness
in me. And that's very discouraging. Are you discouraged when you
look at yourself? I hope so. I hope you are. If
you're discouraged in looking at yourself, let me tell you
one more time, look to Christ. Look to Him. You look to Christ,
you'll see all the righteousness you ever need to see. Look to
Christ, you'll see all the evidence of salvation you need to see.
Because it's all in Him. Now keep looking to Him. Strain
to see Him. Because sometimes, There are
times seeing Christ is harder sometimes than others. Sometimes,
maybe we're in a trial, a difficulty, and it's dark. It's dark, and
you're strained to see in the dark, and you just can't see.
You're strained to see Christ, but you can't get any encouragement
for your heart. You can't get any rest for your
soul. Maybe you're brokenhearted, and your eyes are full of tears.
You're full of heartbreak and loss, and you can't see through
the tears. When that happens, let me encourage
you, keep looking for Christ. He's there. He's there. Call
out to him. He hears. I know this about my
troubles and sorrows. I'm not saying our troubles and
sorrows aren't real. They're real. But I can't see
Christ when I'm looking at my troubles and all the things that
I'm afraid of. I can't see Christ when I'm looking
at my troubles because I can't look two places at one time.
Trust me, you can't look at two places at one time. I heard this
true story. Preacher said in his message
one time, you can't look at two places at one time. Sitting down
here on the second row were two brothers. And they spent the
whole rest of that message trying to go like this and see if they
could look at the two fingers at one time. Trust me, you can't do
it, okay? You can't look at two places
at one time. Look to Christ. Just look to
one place. Just look to Christ. It won't
make your troubles go away, but it'll put your troubles and your
sorrows in perspective. They look a whole lot smaller
if you're looking to Christ, if you see Him. They look a whole
lot smaller compared to Him. If God's given me light to see,
I see my sinfulness. I see Christ as the Savior. So you know what I'll do? I'll
beg Him for mercy. Verse 124. Deal with thy servant
according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes. Now aren't
you thankful that God can deal with sinners like you and me
in mercy? He can deal with sinners in mercy
because He dealt with His only begotten Son in justice for your
souls. And Christ is the one, the way
this stanza started out, He satisfied justice for His people. The Father
would deal with His only begotten Son in justice and wrath for
sin, so that He could deal with His people in love and mercy.
That is the sweetest, most amazing story that's ever been told.
And if God has shown you mercy, He's shown you the way of salvation
in mercy. You hate the way of salvation
that involves man's words. See verse 128. Therefore, I esteem,
I love all thy precepts concerning all things to be right. And I
hate every false way. See, if I love the truth, I'll
hate every last way. Here's one last thing. Let me
give you this to you in closing. If God has given you light, you
see. You see Christ. But you know you only see through
a glass darkly. If God's given you light, you
know how God saves sinners. There's not a question in your
mind. You know how God saves sinners. If God's given you light,
you know, you see, you understand how God can be both just and
justifier. How can God be just and still
justify the ungodly? It's in Christ. You know that.
You see that. There's no question in your mind
about that. You see. You know. But we don't know everything
there is to know about God, do we? And we need to be continually
taught. Let me give you something on
this now. I hope you'll listen to me and remember this. We still
need to be taught. We don't know everything there
is to know about God. But you will never, you will never, ever
learn anything about God that is contrary to what God's already
showed you about how God saves sinners. You'll never learn anything
contrary to that. We don't know everything there
is to know about God, but there's nothing to be known about God
that is contrary to how He saves sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You'll never learn anything contrary to that. The fact that we don't
know everything about God will never negate what we know about
how God can be just and justifier. You see that? If God's given
you light, you'll know you need to be taught of God. But there's
nothing left to be revealed about God that will make you want a
different gospel, that will make you find out this gospel of sovereign
grace in Christ Jesus is not true. Verse 125, David says,
I am thy servant. Give me understanding that I
may know thy testimonies. Give me understanding, teach
me more of thy word. It's time for thee, Lord, to
work, for they have made void thy law." I love God's Word. I love God's Gospel. I love it
if God's the one teaching me His Word. See verse 27? Therefore,
it's time for thee to work, O Lord. It's time for thee to teach me
and reveal these things to me, because these false prophets,
they made your law void. It's time for thee, Lord, to
work, to work in me, to reveal Christ to me and in me. And this
is what happens if God's the one teaching Therefore, I love
thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. Nothing is more precious to me
than God's word. If God's the one that's teaching
me, if God's the one pointing me to Christ and revealing Christ
to me, nothing will be more precious to me than Christ. Nothing will
be more precious to me than God's word, because this is where Christ
is revealed. That's how you can tell if God's
given you spiritual life. And I pray that that's so. All
right, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we thank You for
Your Word. We thank You for Your Word that
reveals the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray, as the psalmist
said of old, it's time for Thee to work. Lord, would You give
us light. Would You give us the light of
the Lord Jesus Christ and enable us to see Christ in Your Word,
to rest in to hide in Him, to cast all of our soul, all the
weight of our soul, all the responsibility of the salvation of our soul
on Him and Him alone. Father, we beg of You that You
would reveal Christ to us and in us, that we might love Thy
Word. Father, all these things we ask
for Your glory, for the glory of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's in His name and for His sake We pray and give thanks. Amen. I pray the Lord will bless
that to your heart. Until next time, may the Lord
bless you and keep you.