If you would, let's open our
Bibles to Psalm 63. Psalm 63. Lord willing, tomorrow, as early
as two non-morning people can, Janet and I will depart, go as
far as we can go on our trip to Louisville, Arkansas. Tomorrow,
I'll be preaching this weekend, and we'll cover your prayers
as we travel and preach. All right, Psalm 63. O God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee. My
flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water
is. To see thy power and thy glory,
so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Because thy loving
kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus
will I bless thee while I live. I will lift up my hands in thy
name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and
my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. Will I remember
thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches,
because thou hast been my help. Therefore, in the shadow of thy
wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after
thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me. But those that seek my soul
to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They
shall fall by the sword. They should be a portion for
foxes. But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone that sweareth
by him shall glory. But the mouth of them that speak
lies shall be stopped. Let's turn now in our hymnal
to number 45, 45. Be servants of God, your master proclaim, His kingdom is glorious, He rules
over all. God ruleth on high, Almighty
to save, Presence we have, The great congregation
His triumph shall sing, Ascribing salvation To Jesus our King. Salvation to God who sits on
the throne. Let all cry aloud and honor the
Son. The praises of Jesus the angels
proclaim. fall down on their faces and
worship the Lamb. Then let us adore and give Him
His right All glory and power and wisdom and might All honor
and blessing with angels above And thanks never ceasing and
infinite Now turn over to 205. 205. Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus hath bled, and there is remission. Cursed by the law,
and death by the fall, Grace hath redeemed us once for all. Once for all, all sinner receive
it. Once for all, all brother believe
it. Plain to the cross the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. Now are we free, there's no condemnation. Jesus provides a perfect salvation. Come unto me, O hear His sweet
call. Come and He saves us once for
all. Once for all, O sinner, receive
it. Once for all, O brother, believe. Cling to the cross, the burden
will pull, Christ hath redeemed us once for all. Children of God, O glorious calling,
Surely His grace will keep us from falling, Passing from death
to life at His call, Blessed salvation once for all. Once for all, O sinner, receive
it. Once for all, O brother, believe
it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. Let's open our Bibles now to
Psalm 106. Psalm 106. We'll read the first 12 verses. Praise ye the Lord. All give
thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth
forever. Who can utter the mighty acts
of the Lord? Who can show forth all his praise? Blessed are they
that keep judgment, and he that doeth righteousness at all times. Remember me, O Lord, with the
favor that Thou bearest unto Thy people. O visit me with Thy
salvation, that I may see the good of Thy chosen, that I may
rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation, that I may glory with
Thine inheritance. We have sinned with our fathers.
We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. Our fathers
understood not thy wonders in Egypt. They remembered not the
multitude of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea, even
at the Red Sea. Nevertheless, nevertheless, he
saved them for his namesake, that he might make his mighty
power to be known. He rebuked the Red Sea also,
and it was dried up. So he led them through the depths
as through the wilderness. And he saved them from the hand
of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
And the waters covered their enemies, and there was not one
of them left. Then, believed they his words,
they sang his praise. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow in your presence
this evening with thankful hearts, hearts that are full of praise
for your matchless name. How thankful we are that you
are God, that none can stay in your hand or say unto you what
doest thou, that you always do your pleasure. Your will is always
accomplished. Father, we thank you for how
wisely you rule all things and we thank you And we humbly praise
you for how graciously you rule all things for your people. How
we thank you for your mercy and your grace that saves your people
from all their sin. That nothing can stand in the
way of you calling them to your son, enabling them to see him
and believe him by faith. Father, how we thank you. How
we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ. His perfect obedience
to your law is the only righteousness we could have. His sacrifice,
His blood is the only way our sin can be forgiven. Father,
we thank you. Father, I beg of thee tonight
that you would enable us to worship thee in spirit and in truth.
Let the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be exalted magnified,
that your people might see him, that you might be pleased tonight
to reveal yourself to one of your sheep who as of right now
hasn't yet believed you. Father, make this the night of
mercy. Make this the night that you
visit your people with thy salvation. And Father, cause your word to
reach the hearts of your people, to encourage us, comfort us,
and strengthen us. enable us to rest in Christ our
Savior. Let us see him and rest, have
peace in him. Father, we thank you for all
the blessings, how richly you have blessed this congregation,
blessed us more than human tongue can say. And Father, we're thankful. And we beg of you, Father, that
you would forgive us for the times we murmur and complain.
just like our fathers did at the Red Sea. After all you've
done for us, yet we don't trust you. We murmur and complain and
find fault. Father, forgive us. Despite our
weakness and our sin, nevertheless, save us for thy name's sake.
That's our prayer, that you'd save us for your name's sake.
Get glory to your name in saving your people. Get glory to your
name by blessing the word that's preached here from this pulpit
tonight In the days and weeks and months and years ahead, Father,
bless your word. For your namesake, let it be
known there's a God in Israel. There's a savior for sinners.
Call your people to come and hear of him. By your grace, believe
him. Father, all these things we ask
and we give thanks in that name, which is above every name, the
name of Christ, our savior. Terry, let's start off with a
chorus of that song, okay? Let the congregation sing with
us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and free. Some thank the Lord for friends
and home, For mercy sure and sweet. But I would praise Him
for His grace In prayer I would repeat Thank you, Lord, for saving
my soul Thank you, Lord, for making me whole Thank you, Lord,
for giving to me Thy great salvation, so rich and free. I trust in Him from day to day. I prove His saving grace. I'll sing this song of praise
to Him until I see His face. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation, so rich and free. Alright, let's open our Bibles
again to Psalm 106. titled our message this morning,
Visit Me With Thy Salvation. I took the title from the end
of verse four that says, oh, visit me with thy salvation. I want us to look at seven things
that it means when God visits his people with his salvation. Number one, this is a very obvious
one. When God visits his people with
his salvation, He does it because of his eternal mercy. Verse one
says, praise ye the Lord. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord
for he is good. For his mercy endureth forever. Now this phrase, his mercy endureth
forever. You'll notice that word endureth
is in italics. It's actually what is actually
written is his mercy forever. That's a very common phrase throughout
the psalm, his mercy forever. That means that God's mercy is
eternal. It doesn't have a beginning. It doesn't have an ending. And God's eternal mercy ought
to be a theme that all of us sing often. Because the only
reason God ever visits any sinner with his salvation is because
God's mercy endured forever. Because his mercy is greater
than all of our sin. God's mercy is eternal. That means God's mercy is as
old as God is. God never changes, does he? God's
eternal. So his mercy is eternal. His
mercy never changes. God has eternally purposed mercy
for his people. God has never looked at his people
outside of Christ. He'd never looked at his people
with wrath and anger. He's always looked at them in
mercy because God's mercy forever. God did not purpose mercy for
his people because he could look down through the telescope of
time and see his people would be better and more deserving
than the other sons of Adam. If God's elect were better than
the other sons of Adam, they wouldn't need mercy, would they?
No, they weren't any better than the rest of the sons of Adam.
They were just as bad. They desperately needed God's
mercy. Now, mercy, Is God not giving
us what we do deserve? Well, what is it that we deserve?
All of us, every single one of us, deserve damnation for our
sin. Because of our sin, every one
of us deserve God's wrath. Yet God's mercy is so great. God's mercy, His eternal mercy
that He has promised His people is so great. The Father, shows
mercy to His people and He does not damn them. He does not pour
out His wrath upon them. You know why? There's a good
reason for it. It's because the Father already
punished Christ our substitute with the hell our sin deserves.
So there's none left for Him to pour out upon His people.
All that's left for His people is mercy. So when God visits
His people with His salvation, He visits them in mercy. carrying out his eternal purpose
of mercy for them. And when we hear that and we
we think about God's mercy, we should say what the psalmist
says here. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. We should start
out every day praising God for his mercy. We should end every
day praising God for his mercy and all the time in between As
often as, you know, I know everybody's busy. You got things to do. I
mean. But just always right there in our mind should be this constant
theme. Thank God for his mercy. Thank
God for his mercy. God's eternal mercy, God's eternal
purpose of mercy for his people guarantees their salvation. God
will visit his people with mercy. All right. Number two, God visits
his people with his salvation. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
2 says, Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can show
forth all of his praise? Blessed are they that keep judgment,
and he that doeth righteousness at all times. Now the answer to this question,
who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord, blessed is this
one who keeps judgment, doeth righteousness all the time, you
know that's only one person, don't you? It's the Lord Jesus
Christ. Who can tell all the mighty acts
of God? Only His Son can. Only Christ
can. Who's the only one who can keep
God's judgment? Who's the only one that can do
righteousness at all times? Never do anything unrighteous.
Only the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the blessed one. See, we
can't keep any of God's judgments, can we? We can't keep any of
them at any time. We can't do anything righteous
at any time. But the Lord Jesus Christ came,
and he did obey God's law. He kept all of God's judgments.
He did righteousness all the time so that his obedience would
make his people righteous in their representative. And we
would know none of God's mighty acts if Christ didn't come and
reveal them to us. He's the one that utters them.
Now, I know we could tell, at least if we've got a Bible, we
could read some of Genesis. We could tell something about
God's mighty acts of creation, couldn't we? We might even have
some idea of how God rules this earth in Providence, how his
hand directs everything. We might have some idea of that.
But we do a mighty poor job of it, even at that, don't we? But
God's mighty act, his great act, is the act of redemption for
his people. And Mike, we know none of it.
We know nothing of God's greatest act if the Lord Jesus Christ
didn't come and tell it. If He didn't come and show us
it in Himself. See, we can't describe a fraction
of God's glory. We can't describe a fraction
of God's wisdom in anything that He does. Because we only see
through a glass darkly. The sun is one with the fire.
He can tell, He can show us God's purpose, God's mighty act of
redemption for His people. It's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. When God visits His people with
salvation, He does it in the person of His Son. When His Son
comes where we are and reveals Himself to us, so that the only
thing we know about salvation is when we see Christ. The only
time we know anything about salvation is when we see Christ, when we
see Him as He is. It's His obedience that matters. That's the only thing that matters.
It's His obedience. It's His sacrifice. It's the only thing
that matters. It's His blood. It's His power
to say, I don't have any. I can't. People, I see these
TV preachers trying to talk people. They're trying to talk me into
making a decision for Jesus and trying to talk me into doing
all these things. But I can't do it. I don't have
that power. Christ does. He's got the power
to cleanse from sin. He's got the power to save to
the uttermost. He's got the power to give life. He's got the power to keep. The
only thing we ever know about salvation is when we see the
Lord Jesus Christ. The only way we know anything
about God's love for sinners is by seeing Christ. How do we
know God loves sinners? I mean, everybody says that God
loves you. So do I. How do you know God
loves sinners? Just one way. He sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sin. See, the only thing we know
about salvation is by seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. And when
God visits us with his salvation, he visits us in the person of
his son so that we see Christ. We see the glory of God by faith. We see the glory of God. in the
face of Jesus Christ. You see, God's greatest glory
is his sovereign mercy. God's greatest glory is that
God would decide to show mercy to any sinner. That's amazing. That's God's greatest glory.
And the only way we see God's mercy is by seeing the Lord Jesus
Christ, our substitute. That's how God visits his people
with his salvation. It's by visiting us in the person
of his son and revealing Christ to us. All right, thirdly, God
visits his people with his salvation because he remembers them. He
remembers his covenant. Verse four, the psalmist says,
remember me, O Lord, with the favor that thou barest unto thy
people. Oh, visit me with thy salvation. Now this word visit has several
meanings. First, it means to come and visit, just like our
Lord did for Zacchaeus. The Lord was passing through
town, wasn't He? And He stopped. He stopped for one man. He stopped
at one tree. He went to one house that day,
didn't He? It's the house of the most unlikely
man in town, Zacchaeus. See, the Lord visits His people
by coming where they are. That's what our Lord did. He
became a man and He dwelt among us. He came where we are in the
cesspool of this world to redeem us out of it. In the new birth,
the Lord visits His people by coming into their heart and ruling
there. Now you think what condescension
that that is. How far down did the Lord have
to go? He went slumming. How far down
he had to go to go slumming with the likes of us. I heard my dad
say one time, people try to describe what, how far did Christ come
down to become a man, to redeem us? He said, he's heard people
compare that to me becoming a maggot. He said, if I would compare the
distance that Christ traveled from his height of glory to becoming
a man, to how far down I'd have to go to become a maggot, that
would be an insult to maggots everywhere. How far down did
the Savior have to come to become a man, to go slumming with the
likes of us, to come where we are? He's in our midst right
now. How far down does He have to
come to do that? How far down does He have to come to dwell
in the hearts of His people? But He does it, doesn't He? He
does it in mercy. bringing his salvation. He brings
his salvation when he visits his people. But when the Lord
visits his people, this is not just a, you know, a visit. We're going to go visit Arkansas
this weekend, but we're leaving that place. I mean, I really
don't, I'd like to live here more now. Sorry, folks in Arkansas. That's just the way it is. We're
going to leave that place. That's not how the Lord visits
his people. He comes, he stays. He stays. brings his salvation. When the Lord visited Zacchaeus's
house, what did he say? Today, salvation has come to
this house for as much as he also is a son of Abraham. He's in this covenant. He's in
this covenant. He's one of God's elect and Christ
came and visited him, bringing salvation. Then this word visit
also means to look after and care for like the great shepherd
of the sheep. Like I said, the Lord doesn't
just come for a quick one-time visit. When He visits His people
with His salvation, He comes to the heart and He stays and
He rules there forever. The Lord does not visit His people
with salvation and then set them down and leave it up to the sheep
to fend for themselves and to find their own way to glory.
He doesn't do that because you know what sheep would do, don't
you? They get lost again. They get eaten up by the wolf.
The good shepherd's not going to do that. The good shepherd
is not going to give his life for his sheep and then leave
them up to their own devices, to their own will, to their own
way. He's not going to do that. The Lord visits his people and
he stays watching over them, protecting them, feeding them,
just like the great shepherd of the sheep would. Then this
word visit means to number or to count. Like the father numbered,
he counted his people in divine election. When he gave his sheep
to his son, he numbered. He counted out an exact number
of sheep, an exact flock of sheep, called out by name, chosen by
name, and gave them to his son. He gave them to his son to save.
He gave them to his son to keep and to preserve and bring to
glory. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
going to visit every last one of them with God's salvation.
He's going to save them. And he's going to keep them.
He's going to watch over them. He's going to protect them. He's
going to bring them all to glory. He said that during his earthly
ministry, didn't he? He said, other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring. And I'm going to
get the job done. They shall hear my voice and
there shall be one fold and one separate. Now, the Lord visits
his people, bringing God's salvation to them in all those meanings
of the word when he remembers them, when he remembers them. Every believer has the same prayer
that the thief on the cross had. Lord, remember Oh, Lord, remember
me. Lord, remember me when you come
incarnate to work out a righteousness for your people. Lord, remember
me and work out a righteousness for me. Come to save me. Lord,
remember me when you go to the cross to suffer and die for the
sin of your people. Lord, remember me. Put my name
on your heart. Just like the high priest, when
that high priest on the day of atonement, he went in to make
atonement for the sins of the people, didn't he? What people? I mean, do we wonder? Well, I don't know who he was
making atonement for. I don't know who he was making atonement
for. But we know, don't we? How do we know? Because on his
breastplate were 12 stones. And those stones had the names
of the tribes of Israel inscribed upon them. He went to make atonement
for the sins of history. Lord, that's what I need you
to do for me. When you go to the Calvary's tree to suffer
and die, Lord, would you remember me?
Could you possibly, could you possibly carve my name on your
heart and die for me? It's my only hope. I'm begging
you, Lord, remember me. Lord, remember me. When you arise,
and ascend back to the Father. And you enter into your kingdom.
You enter there as the mediator for your people. Lord, remember
me. As you live, making intercession
for your people, Lord, would you make intercession for me? And you know, he'll do that for
his people. The Lord will never forget his people. He'll never
neglect his people. In his word, God describes his
people as his little children. As his little children. There was a time Janet and I
had two little children in our house. And they're growing up
adults now. They call it adulting. They're adulting now. They're
managing their affairs and living their life, you know. But to
their daddy and their mama, there's still a little girl there. And
when they need something, I can tell you somebody who's not going
to neglect them. And we may not always be there.
In fact, we won't. We may not always be able to
go in there and do our, you know, mama and daddy thing and fix
it. But they're our little children. We're not going to forget them.
How much more do you reckon our Heavenly Father will never neglect
His little children? And He'll always be there. He
always has the power to give His children just exactly what
they need. He'll remember. He'll remember. All right, fourthly, God visits
His people with His salvation. And when He does, He gives them
good and glory. Verse five, he says, visit me,
oh, visit me with thy salvation, that I may see the good of thy
chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that
I may glory with thine inheritance. Now God's elect, they're just
like all the rest of the sons of Adam. They're absolutely no
different. They have no good about them. They have no glory
about them. You and I are not good, we're
evil. Our Lord said, we're accustomed
to doing evil. We can't do any good. And we've never done anything
worthy of any glory. Not at all. The only thing that
we can earn for what we've done is shame. We'll be ashamed. But when God visits His people
with His salvation, we see good. Good. I'll tell you how we see
good. It's seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. He says here that I may see the
good of thy chosen Well, who is God's chosen? It's Christ. His son is God's first elect,
and he is good. Oh, he's good. He's good because
he's God. Since he's God, he's righteous
and holy. Of course he's good. There's nothing good about God.
He's good. And when God's people see Christ, when God visits us
with his salvation, we see Christ, our goodness. Now I see there's
one way I can be made good, and it's in Him. When God visits
His people with His salvation, He makes them good in Christ,
and He's so good in keeping His people from falling. He'll never
lose one of them. See, Christ is God's chosen.
He's God's first elect. In the book of Ephesians, when
the apostle Paul wrote about the one who first trusted in
Christ, That's the Father. God the Father was the one who
first trusted in Christ. He chose His Son to be the Savior
of His people and He trusted Him to fulfill all of that covenant
of grace. And when God visits His people
with His salvation, this is what He's doing. He's fulfilling His
eternal covenant of grace. He didn't visit us because we
did anything good. He didn't visit us with His salvation
because we did something right. He didn't visit us with His salvation
because we did something to deserve it. He visited us with His salvation
because God's good. To fulfill His covenant of grace. People can argue if God's covenant
mercy is all they want. God's covenant mercy is simply
this. God chose the people to save. He chose the people to
be merciful to them. And He will be merciful to them.
People can argue against that all they want. I don't know why. And I do know why. Because they're
dead. Because they're in the flesh.
When God visits His people with His salvation because of His
covenant mercies, God's people see, that's good. That's good. That's wise. God's covenant mercy,
not based on anything about me, wholly based upon the Lord Jesus
Christ is the only way salvation can never be lost. If it's all
dependent upon Him. If it's all in Christ, that's
good. And all of God's people, His
inheritance here. He talks about His inheritance.
Christ's inheritance is all of His people. All of them glory
in God's salvation. All God's people, wherever you
find them, all believe the exact same thing concerning the salvation
of their souls. It's all in Christ. It's all
in Him. And that's a blessing, isn't
it? That's a blessing to be able to gather together with God's
inheritance and worship Him and praise Him. That's a blessing.
I tell you, God has blessed this congregation. He visited us with
His salvation. I'm thankful. Right, here's the
fifth thing. God visits his people with his
salvation for his namesake, his name, not because of our works
for his namesake. Verse six, we have sinned with
our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We've
done wickedly. Our fathers understood not thy
wonders in Egypt. They remember not the multitude
of thy mercies, but provoked him at the sea. Even at the Red
Sea, I mean, right after they came out of Egypt, right after
they were delivered from Egypt with his mighty hand, right after
God answered their prayer, they've been crying for 400 years. God
deliver us from Egypt. And he did it with a great hand,
didn't he? Mighty power. Immediately after that, they
provoked him at the Red Sea by not believing him, by not trusting
him. Nevertheless, nevertheless, his
grace, His mercy is never less than our sin. God's power is
never less than our rebellion. Nevertheless, he saved them for
his namesake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.
Now scripture has so much to say about salvation. Salvation
by grace. You cannot read through very
many pages of this book at all before you just keep running
into this constant theme, salvation by grace. Salvation is all of
God's grace. And just to be sure that we get
that, many times when scripture says salvation is by grace, immediately
following that it says, and not by works. Just so you understand
what I mean when I say salvation is all of grace, it means not
by works. I'll give you a couple of examples. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Titus 3, 5. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to mercy, he saved us. And here
the psalmist says the same thing. We've done wickedly. That's all
we've done. We've done wickedly. All we can do is sin. Even after
God's been so kind to us? Hmm. I don't think it's a stretch
to say God's been more kind to us right here than he was to
Israel in Egypt. God's been more kind to us than
that. He gave them a physical deliverance.
He's given us a spiritual deliverance. God's been so good. Oh, God's
been so good to us. And still, all we do is sin. Still, God has been so kind to
us. God has been so faithful to us.
Is there anybody here that would dare say God's not been faithful
to me? Not one person. Yet what do we do? Just like
the children of Israel, provoking to His face Oh yeah, we believe
God, we sing God's praises, talk about God's mercy and grace and
everything's going well. What about when you get the plethora?
Bad tidings that come to us in the flesh. You know, we all, unless God
keeps us from it, you know, the first thing every one of us does,
God can't deliver me out of this one. God can't deliver me out
of this one. I was about 25 maybe, 25 years
old and had two babies and working my way up in this company. I
had big plans. I was going to rise up in this
company. And in one morning, every person in that building
without warning lost their job. I had two babies at home. The
day before that happened, I signed my first mortgage on a house. and you know what went through
my mind, we're going to lose it all. What's going on here?
You know God was able to deliver us. God was able. And you apply
that to everything we face in this life. Everything. And the
first little thing that comes up, we think, oh, God's not going
to be able to deliver me from this. I know He's able, but He's
just not going to. He's just forgotten about me.
That's provoking God to His face, not believing Him, not trusting
Him. And never the less, as we go
through this psalm in the coming weeks, you'll see this over and
over and over and over and over again. Oh, my goodness, God's
mercy on His people. Oh, they trusted Him and they
praised Him. Tara Kenna was telling me she
loves the children of Israel. She tells her class how God just
Miraculous power delivers his people. And she said, about two
days, they praise the Lord. They're so thankful and they
trust him. That lasts about two days and they're back to murmuring,
complaining, thinking God's forgotten us. Nevertheless, God delivers
them. Oh, they're so thankful. They
praise God. They're so thankful and they trust him and they praise
him for about two days. And then they go back to murmuring,
nevertheless. You see that cycle repeated over
and over and over in this psalm. because we see it repeated over
and over and over in our lifetime. Nevertheless, nevertheless, in
spite of all the sin of His people, in spite of the fact that we've
never done one thing to deserve salvation, in spite of the fact
that everything we do deserves God's wrath, in spite of the
fact that we just at every turn, I mean the slightest molehill
comes up and we don't trust Him. Nevertheless, God saves His people. And he visits them with his salvation.
Now, why does he do that? We've seen it's not because his
people deserve any mercy, is it? Mercy can't be deserved. Mercy is only undeserved. Nevertheless,
never less than the sin of his people, never less than the weakness
of his people. God saves his people for his
namesake. so that His name will be glorified. God visits His people with His
salvation so He will get the glory. God visits His people
with His salvation so He won't lose His glory. In eternity,
He purposed and He promised that He would save His people from
their sin. He would save them by His grace
in Christ Jesus. So no matter what happens, God
will visit His people with his salvation because God's not going
to lose any of his glory. He's going to have all of the
glory and he's going to make it known. He's going to make
the glory of his name known. No matter how sinful his people
have been, he's got the power. No matter how weak his people
are, he'll never forsake one of them so that he gets the glory
in bringing them all to all to heaven. then a good prayer for us would
be, Lord, get glory to your name in saving a wretch like me. I
believe God will answer that prayer. I know he will. All right,
here's the sixth thing. God visits his people with his
salvation to give them complete salvation from all of their sin. Verse nine. He rebuked the Red
Sea also, and it was dried up. So he led them through the depths
as through the wilderness. And he saved them from the hand
of him that hated them and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
And the waters covered their enemies. There was not one of
them left." Now this story of the children of Israel at the
Red Sea is a picture of salvation from sin by the blood of Christ
without any works of his people. Now you know the story. Israel,
they went to the Red Sea and they were trapped. They couldn't
go forward. The sea was blocking their way.
They couldn't go to the right or to the left. There were mountains
on both sides of them. They couldn't go back where they
came from. Pharaoh's army blocked the only exit between those two
mountains. Pharaoh's army was bearing down
on them. And Moses told them, stand still. Don't try to help
God out here. Just stand still. And when you're
still, you'll see the salvation of the Lord. God's going to visit
them with his salvation and you'll see it. when you're still. And
that's a picture of how our sin has trapped us. We can't go forward,
can we? Adam's sin has ruined that. We
can't cross this great gulf that's fixed between us and God. We
can't go to the right. God's law is there stopping us,
and we can't keep it. We can't go to the left. God's
holiness is there, and God's holiness will not let us escape
because we're guilty. And we can't go back where we
came from. God's justice is bearing down on us. to destroy us, blocked
all escape. And then, when God's people have
no choice but to stand still, because you can't go anywhere,
then when God makes us be still, He visits us with His salvation.
He sends us the gospel that tells us, quit working, quit trying
to help God out, quit trying to do something that you think
will make God happy with you and stand still. And when you're
still, and you quit trying to contribute anything, you'll see
the salvation of the poor. Then you'll see the salvation
that the father purposed in eternity. The salvation that the son purchased
for his people at Calvary. The salvation that God the Holy
Spirit applies to the hearts of his people. You'll see, once
you're still, you'll see salvation is all a work of God. And you'll
see the blood of Christ. You'll see the blood of his sacrifice
make the way to God wide open. Because it removes all the sin
of His people by that great Red Sea of His precious blood that
cleanses us from all sin. And after the children of Israel
crossed that Red Sea on dry ground, they turned around and looked
back where they came from. There's Pharaoh's army. They thought
we're going to cross the same way Israel did. And those walls
of water came crashing down and drowned every last soldier in
that army. Pharaoh included. There wasn't
one survivor. Every last one of them was drowned
in the Red Sea. Not one of those soldiers could
ever come against Israel again, could they? That's God visiting
his people, his salvation. God's elect look back at the
sacrifice of Christ and they see the blood of Christ has taken
away every sin. Every sin that would eternally
damn my soul has been taken away. under the blood of Christ. There's
not one sin left for God's left. They're all gone. They're under
the blood. They can never threaten you again. Oh, Satan's accused you of the
brethren. He'll accuse you. And you know what the father
will say? What sin? It's gone. There's not one sin
left that can damn God's people. Then we have nothing to fear,
do we? We have nothing to fear when God visits us with his salvation. Then lastly, God visits his people
with his salvation to give them faith in Christ. Verse 12, then
believe they his words. They sang his praise. When the
children of Israel saw what God had done, they believed. How can you not? How can you
not? They believed and they sang his praise. When God the Holy
Spirit When he brings God, he visits us with God's salvation.
He gives his people faith in Christ. So they see him and they
believe him. When we see Christ, we believe,
we'll believe. I know this. God gives you eyes
to see. You'll see Christ. And when you
see him, you'll see that he is all your salvation and you'll
believe him. And to believe Christ simply
means this, that all it takes to save me is Christ. That's
all it takes. It's Him. And we'll sing His
praises. We'll sing His praises. And the
rest of this psalm, like I said a few minutes ago, tells us the
story of Israel. How God delivered them and they
almost immediately went to doubt in Him. And this psalm tells
us, nevertheless. in spite of the weak faith and
failures of God's people. You know what God did? He kept
his promise. He kept his promise. And he visited
them with his salvation. And that is the hope of every
person, God says. Every person, when God visits
them with his salvation, this is their one hope. Their one
hope. You might be able to confuse
them with doctrine. You might be able to confuse them and twist
things around, but you can't twist this hope away from their
heart. Salvation is of the Lord. From
beginning to ending. It's all of Him. He didn't leave
one thing undone. So there's not one thing I have
to put my finger to to make it effectual. That's a good thing. Because if He did, if He left
one thing that I had to put my finger to to make it effectual,
I'd ruin it. He knew that. He provided salvation
fully for His people. Salvation is of the Lord from
beginning to end. And that's what we see, what
we believe, what we cling to when God visits us with His salvation. It's His salvation. All right.
I hope the Lord will bless that too. Let's bow together. Our Father, I thank You for this
time that You've given us to read and study Your Word. to
hear one more time of Christ our Savior. Father, I pray you
bless your word as it's been preached. Bless your word, not
our words and our thoughts, but Father, bless your word to the
hearts of your people. Father, we beg of you, would
you visit us tonight with thy salvation? Father, would you
get glory to your name in saving such weak, sinful, doubting,
rebellious people as we are, would you get glory to your name
in saving us and keeping us by your mercy and by your grace.
Father, we ask this great blessing for your namesake, for the glory
of Christ our Savior. It's in his blessed name we pray. Amen. Let's stand and sing 216. 216. If you from sin are longing to
be free, Look to the Lamb of God. He took redeem you died
on Calvary, Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God, for
He alone is able to save you. Look to the Lamb of God. When Satan tempts and doubts
and fears assail, Look to the Lamb of God. You in His strength shall over
all prevail. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God For He
alone is able to save you Look to the Lamb of God Are you weary? Does the way seem long? Look to the Lamb of God. His love will cheer and fill
your heart with song. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Lamb of God. For He alone is able to save
you. Look to the Lamb of God. Fear not when shadows on your
pathway fall. Look to the Lamb of God. Enjoy your sorrow. Christ is all in all. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God For He
alone is able to save you Look to the Lamb of God Thank you.