Alright, let's open our Bibles
again to Psalm 68. Entitled the message this evening,
The Presence of the Lord. This psalm was written by David
when he was preparing to move the ark from Obed-Edom back to
Jerusalem. This is the time as they were
bringing the ark back that David danced with all of his might
before the Lord. The people rejoiced because the
presence of the Lord was coming back. to Jerusalem. That's good
reason to rejoice. You remember how the Shekinah,
glory of God, dwelt between the wings of the cherubim over the
mercy seat. His presence dwelt there. So
as they bring the ark back, they're bringing his presence back to
Jerusalem and they rejoice. David quotes the words that Moses
spoke. There are certain words that
Moses spoke. Every time they would prepare
to move the ark from place to place in the wilderness, and
David quotes Moses here, in this psalm. Now, we don't have the ark as
such today, but we can understand why the people rejoiced at the
presence of the Lord being with them, can't we? We who believe
the Lord are constantly asking for his presence. We constantly
seek to be in the presence of the Lord. Because if we can just
be in his presence, Everything's better if we just be in his presence. So I'll give you four reasons
from our text this evening, why we rejoice in the presence of
the Lord. And the first one is this. No enemy can harm us when
we're in the presence of the Lord. They can't harm us because
they can't be there. They didn't melt at the mere
presence of the Lord. Look at verse one, Psalm 68.
Let God arise. Let his enemies be scattered.
Let them also that hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven
away, so drive them away. As wax melteth before the fire,
so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. Now you know
there are times that our enemies around us, there's so many of
them, they're so thick, you can't see anything else. If it's our
enemies, if it's our troubles, it's our trials, whatever it
is, they're just so thick. It's like a deep fog or smoke
that's just settled down in the valley and it's so thick you
can't see anything. And all David asked for is that
the Lord just arise. Lord, just stand up off your
throne and let your presence be known. And if that happens,
because that's all David asked because that's all it takes for
God's enemies to be scattered. They disperse. at the presence
of the Lord just as easy as a morning breeze blows the fog away. They
just disperse. It's just natural. They just
disperse at His presence. He didn't have to say anything.
He didn't have to do anything. Just His presence makes every
enemy, makes every trouble flee. Now our enemies are hardened
in their rebellion. Like wax can be pretty hard. You know, Janet likes to get
those candles. And it seems like candles get
bigger and bigger and thicker and thicker and she buys one
of those things and brings it home, sets it on there. I think,
we're going to have to put that in a will to one of the kids.
I think it's going to be here forever. I mean, and I just, man, it's
hard and it's thick and it just seems like it's going to be here
forever, you know? And all it takes for that wax to be softened
and pliable where you can just do anything, all it takes It's
just the presence of heat. You don't have to do anything
special to it. Just leave the wax in the presence
of heat. It'll soften right up. It's so
pliable, you can do anything with it. Well, that's what happens
to enemies of our God when He just comes where they are. The
presence of our God melts the enemy's heart like wax. A stiff-necked,
rebellious people, so set in their rebellion, just instantly
become easily pliable in the presence of our God. And thank
God, sometimes He comes in His presence in mercy. He does that. That old, cold,
stony, dead heart gives way. God gives a new heart, a heart
of flesh that is so pliable The heart that is so affected at
the gracious presence of our God. Nothing will affect that
heart like the gracious presence of our God. And if He does not
come in mercy, the presence of our God will make those enemies
disappear. Just like those great big old
scented candles Janet buys. All you got to do with them to
make them disappear is light a candle. We haven't had to put
one of them in the wheel, have we? Every single one of them,
just like the wick. Every single one of them will
disappear. Now you think of our greatest
enemies in this life. They're not people. No, they're
not people. They're sin, they're death, and
they're hell. And the mere presence of Christ
our Savior makes all those enemies disappear. The mere presence
of Christ at Calvary made the sin of his people disappear. He took it, all the sin of his
people, his body on the tree and washed it away. Washed his
people white as snow in his blood. Just his mere presence at Calvary
put the sin of his people away. And as he suffered and died at
Calvary, he died as the substitute for his people. Just his mere
death in the tomb put death away forever for his people. Not one
of them will ever die because Christ already died for us. His
mere presence put that enemy away. And when Christ rose again,
he ensured his people would never die. And he made it so that even
the death of these bodies is sweet to his children. That's
right. It's not sweet to the body, but
it's sweet to the soul, to the child of God. All the death of
this body is, is leaving this life of sin and decay and failure
going to eternal bliss. And you know why it'll be eternal
bliss? Because we'll be in the presence of the Savior face to
face. And every enemy will be gone
because no enemy can come there in His presence. They all flee
and just melt away in His presence. Then second, we rejoice in the
presence of our Lord because of his name, verse four. Sing
unto God, sing praises to his name. Extol him that rideth upon
the heavens by his name, John, and rejoice before him. Now you
know that the name of the Lord tells us who he is. And all of
God's people exceedingly rejoice at who God is. We sing his praises
over and over and over again, don't we? I want you to notice
what David says here. He says, sing unto the Lord. You don't ever get caught up
singing to be heard of men. I remember a story brother John
Flaming told me one time he was practicing. He was going to sing
at some humongous event. He's practicing a song, some
song he was going to sing. Might've been the love of God.
I'm not sure. He was practicing to sing it. All along this gigantic
auditorium, a man came up to him and he said, I heard you
practicing there. He said, who are you trying to
impress when you're singing? He said, you're trying to impress
people who are going to be here. Don't do that. That song is meant
to be sung praising God. You sing that to the Lord. John
said, well, it changed everything. It changed everything. Sing out. Who cares what men think about
your singing? Sing out to the Lord with all
you've got. I don't care if you sound good,
or if you're off key, let her rip. Sing with joy to the Lord. I tell you when congregational
singing is always good, when everybody there is just singing
to the Lord. That's right, everyone. That's when that makes good singing.
But I tell you what primarily David is rejoicing in here, and
primarily what he's telling us to sing the praises of our God
for, is this. God's offering to you. He mentions
specifically God's name, Jah. And that is God's sacred name. The name Jah shows the awesomeness
of God. The name literally means the
Lord most vehement, the Lord most powerful, the Lord most
intense. The name Jah means God, the self-existent
one. Now we don't know what it means
to be self-existent because we are all totally dependent upon
God to exist. But God's dependent on no one. He exists in himself and because
he's dependent on no one, he answers to no one and he always
does as he pleases. He always does his will. This
is the Lord most vehement, the Lord most powerful. And this
name, Jah, is an abbreviation. It's an abbreviation of the name
Jehovah. But just because it's an abbreviation,
don't think the name means less. Spurgeon says it actually means
more. He says this name, this word
is an intensified word. It concentrates all of the power
of Jehovah into this abbreviated name, Jah. And Davis has extolled
the Lord. Sing his praises because he does
what he will in absolute sovereignty. David says the Lord rides upon
the heavens. And that means he rules the heavens
just as easily as a man riding a horse rules that horse and
rides upon the horse. The Lord rules. He rides upon
and rules the heavens. Now, horses are extraordinary
animals. They're powerful animals. And
a horse always has more strength than the rider, but the skillful
rider can ride that horse anyway. And you and I think that creation
is powerful. My illustration doesn't quite
work because God is more powerful than creation, but we think creation
is really powerful, don't we? And we really can't imagine the
power of nature. We get a few reminders of it
every once in a while, don't we? A hurricane, a tornado, a
volcano, Even just a thunderstorm. I mean, you think the power of
those things. God controls those things easily.
I was watching today video of this hurricane coming on shore
there in the Florida panhandle. And I thought, God's just riding
on that storm. It looks like utter chaos. And God's just riding
upon the storm, guiding it whithersoever He will. And that's what He does
with everything in His creation. He rides upon it. He rules it.
and does it with ease. And God's people rejoice. God's
people rejoice because first of all, God's sovereignty guarantees
the salvation of his people. Nothing can stand in opposition
to him. So nothing can stop him from saving his people from their
sin. And second, we rejoice because God's sovereignty means his people
are safe from every enemy, from every trouble, every toil and
from every snare. Child of God, not one of those
things will overcome you. Not one of them. Not one of them
will sweep you away from God. Not one of them will cause your
soul the slightest bit of harm. Because no enemy No trouble,
no toil, no snare is strong enough to oppose the will of our God
and the salvation of His people. Now look at Exodus chapter 15.
This name Jah is normally translated Lord throughout the scripture.
And this is the only time in scripture it's translated Jah.
But in Exodus chapter 15 is the first time that this word Jah
is used. Now it's translated Lord But
this is the first time it's used and it gives us a very good idea
of God's sovereignty. What it means that God is sovereign
in the salvation and the safety of His people. In Exodus 15 verse
2, the LORD. That word, all capital, LORD,
normally we would say Jehovah, but it's the same word translated
Jah in our text. The LORD. This is the LORD of
all power. The LORD most vehement. The LORD
most intense. The Lord is my strength and song,
and he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare
him in habitation. My Father's God, and I will exalt
him. And this is the song that Moses
sang after the Lord had overthrown Pharaoh and his host in the Red
Sea. And he says, the Lord's my strength and my song. Let's
read these next verses and get a description of Job, the Lord,
Jehovah. The Lord is a man of war. The
Lord is his name. And here's what that means. Pharaoh's
chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea. He just tossed
them in there like toothpicks. His chosen captains also are
drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them.
They sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord,
has become glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine
excellency, thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.
Thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. See, it's just the presence of
the Lord that consumed them. And with the blast of thy nostrils,
the waters were gathered together. The floods stood upright as in
heat, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The
enemy said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide
the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I will draw my sword. My hand
shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind,
and the sea covered them. They sank as lead in the mighty
waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is
like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Thou stretchest out thy right hand. The earth swallowed them. Now look at this. Thou and thy
mercy, in the same power, same God, thou and thy mercy, has
led forth the people which thou hast redeemed. Thou hast guided
them in thy strength into thy holy habitation. The people shall
hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the
inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall
be amazed, the mighty men of Moab. Trembling shall take hold
upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan
shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them. By the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as
a stone. till thy people pass over, O
Lord, till the people pass over which thou hast purchased. Thou
shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine
inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee
to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have
established. The Lord shall reign forever
and ever. The horse of Pharaoh went in
with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the
Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them. But the
children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. Now that is Jah. That is the
Lord, most vehement, the Lord most powerful. You see, I wanted
to read all that to make sure we get this now. God's sovereign
power guarantees the defeat of his enemies. I don't care how
powerful they are, how many of they are, they'll all melt away
at his presence. And that same sovereign power
guarantees the salvation of His elect. It guarantees the salvation
of the people which He purchased with His own blood. And when
you expand this name, Jah, to Jehovah, God's people just keep
rejoicing. Sinners rejoice at being made
righteous in Jehovah's sin kingdom. The Lord, our righteousness.
Sin sick people rejoice in the healing power of Jehovah Raya,
the Lord that healed. The empty sinner rejoices at
Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. The lost sheep rejoices
in Jehovah Raya, the Lord my shepherd. The rebel sinner rejoices
in Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. You see, that's how the
name of our God causes his people to rejoice in his presence. That's
who he is. That's the one in whose presence
we meet, in whose name we meet. All right. Thirdly, we rejoice
in the presence of the Lord because of everything that he is to his
people. Look back at verse five, Psalm 68. The father of the fatherless
and a judge of the widows is God in his holy habitation. It
is just comforting simply to be in the presence of somebody
that you really love and somebody who really loves you. That's
so it is just physically comforting to be in their presence. And
that's exactly what David's saying here. We rejoice in the presence
of our Lord. Just like an orphan rejoices
in being in the presence of an adopted father, or maybe better
yet, in the presence long lost father, who truly is our father. We've been separated for him
for a time, but now he's returned to get us and take us home to
be with him. And what a joy that orphan has
now to be in the presence of his father, to be loved of a
father, to be taken care of by a father, to be taught by a loving
father. And this is the father we need.
You know, we all had a first father, Adam. And just look what
Adam did to us. The ravages of sin I mentioned
earlier. That's what our father Adam has
done to us. Adam made us orphans. Adam left us without any means
of support, without any love, without any protection, without
any righteousness, without any ability to come into God's presence.
And God's children rejoice. at being adopted into God's family. What a gift of God's grace to
be adopted from the slums of Adam's family into the family
of God. What a blessing, how the orphan
rejoices to be born again into God's family so that we have
a new father, a heavenly father, and we have a rightful place
in his home. He's made us his children and
God's children They rejoice. They rejoice at being in the
loving presence of our Heavenly Father. Now, we were separated
from Him for a while in Adam, weren't we? But now, now that
He's come to get us, now that He's revealed Himself to us and
in us, everything's all right. If we have a sense of His love,
while blessed with the sense of His love, a palace, a toy
would appear, and prisms would palace His purse. If Jesus would
just dwell with me, if I just got a sense of His love and a
sense of His presence, it's all right. It's all right. Now, you know, those aren't just
words. Those aren't just good sounding religious words. The
love of God means something real and tangible. If God loves you,
everything will always be well. Always, it'll always be well
with the righteous. God showed his love to his people
by sending his son to be the propitiation for their sin. God
loved his people so much. I told you God's love is real.
It means something tangible. God loved his people so much. He sacrificed his only begotten
son to put their sin away. And he did that. so He could
bring those people to be with Him eternally. Well then, everything's
always going to be well with that person that God loves, isn't
it? And God's children rejoice in
our Father who takes care of us. We don't know how to take care
of ourselves. We don't know what to do or how to do it. So how
comforting is it to be a child of God? leave all that to our
Father and just not have to worry about it, because He knows what
to do and how to do it, and He knows when to do it. How wonderful
is it just to leave these things to He? He'll take care of them.
He will take care of His children. He will. And God's children rejoice
in how our Heavenly Father teaches His children. You know, we went
through the lessons on the family. That's one of the things I told
fathers. One of the things scripture says over and over and over and
over again to fathers, teach your children, teach your children
what a teacher our father is. And children like to be taught.
They know they don't know what to do. We don't know how to conduct
ourselves. We don't know what, we don't
know where to go, where we're supposed to go or how to get
there, do we? And God teaches all of his children. And you
know how you can tell if you've been taught of God? You can tell. Look at John chapter 6. You can
tell if you've been taught of God or not. Because everybody,
without exception, who's been taught of the Father comes to
Christ and comes to Christ rejoicing. John chapter 6 verse 45. It's
written in the prophets. Now this has been written in
the prophets and now our Lord is going to explain it. And they
shall be all taught of God Every man, therefore, that hath heard,
hath learned of the Father, does what? Cometh unto me. That's how we can tell if we've
been taught of the Father. We come to Christ. We come to
Him for salvation. We come to Him for forgiveness.
We come to Him for righteousness. We come to Him for cleansing.
We come to Him for acceptance. And we find it all in Him. See,
the Father teaches us to come into the presence, His presence,
the presence of His Son. And that causes us rejoicing.
He's our father. But then David also here mentions
the widows. We rejoice because God is the
judge of the widows. Now you notice here it doesn't
say husband of the widow, although that's true. But here he says
the judge of the widows. And that word judge means advocate. Now a childless widow, especially
in the time that David was writing, was a helpless person. They didn't
have social programs and things. A childless widow. She had nobody
to provide for her. She had nobody. She didn't have
a son who could go out and defend her from the world. She's helpless. She's utterly defenseless. Now
look at 1 Samuel chapter 24. In 1 Samuel 24, this is the only
other time in Scripture this word translated judge is used. And it means advocate. Here's
the setting here. David has been on the run from
Saul, from King Saul. And David is, he doesn't have
any way to fight against Saul and his army. He doesn't have
any way to defeat Saul. All these things are too powerful
for David. And look at what David says to
King Saul. First Samuel 24 verse 15. The Lord therefore be judge
and judge between me and thee and see and plead my cause and
deliver me out of thine hand. And he says, the Lord therefore
be judge. That's the same word, the exact same Hebrew word that
he uses over here in our text in Psalm 68. And it's the only
two times that word is used in scripture. And this is what David's
saying. The Lord be my judge. The Lord
be my advocate. God defend me. Saul, I depend
on God to protect me from you. I depend upon God to deliver
me from you. And he will. He will. He has taken upon himself the
glory. He put the glory of his name
dependent upon this. Saving his people from their
sin and keeping them safe from every enemy. Then you can rest
assured he's going to do it. Just like a little boy going
down the street seeing a bunch of bullies. Run scared. But not
if he's with his daddy he don't. Not if he's with his daddy. That's
what David's saying here. My father is my enemy. judge
who will defend me and protect me. And we have an advocate,
brethren, to defend us and to deliver us. It's a good thing
because we need one. We're in trouble by nature. Now, we we're guilty of sin and
we cannot do one thing about the guilt of our sin. We don't
have an excuse for it. We can't pretend it's not there.
We're guilty. And we can't do anything about
the sentence of death that's upon us because of our sin. But
look at 1 John chapter 2. Now we are helpless in ourselves
and we're guilty, but we're not alone. We're not appearing. God's
children do not appear before the bar of God's justice alone. 1 John 2 verse 1. My little children, these things
write unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, that fit
anybody? If any man sin, We have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And Jesus Christ
the Righteous, our Advocate, He can do what we can't do. He
can do something about our sin. He can pay for it. And He paid
for it with His own blood, verse 2. And He is the propitiation
for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of
the whole world. Christ, our Advocate, can do
something about our sins. He pays for it in full. And He
can do something about the sentence of death that's upon our head.
He can die for us in our place and set us free. He is Jesus
Christ the righteous. He makes His people to be not
guilty by making them righteous in the end. See, our advocate
saves His people in justice, in mercy and truth. And we rejoice. Can you find an advocate like
that anywhere else? And this advocate works pro bono. When I was in the warehouse,
I worked with a lot of attorneys. And I knew, keep your conversation
short with them fellas. Don't ask them how their family
is. Don't ask them, what are you doing? What did you do this
weekend? Don't ask them if they watched the game last night.
Because I want to tell you what, they're charging you for it all the time
you're talking to them. And you get the bill. Well, I guess it
was worth it, but my goodness, I didn't know we talked for that
long. Don't ask him about Monday night football. This advocate, you can talk to him about anything,
everything that's on your heart, because he provides it all for
his people. Oh, what an advocate. We rejoice
in that advocate, don't we? And our savior, he finds all
of his people, this advocate, this father of the fatherless.
He finds all of His people, and He puts them in their proper
place in His family. Not one of them is so far gone,
so far lost, He can't find them and bring them home. Verse 6,
back in our text. God setteth the solitary in families. He bringeth out those which are
bound with chains, but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. God's people,
they were lost in Adam. They were all alone in a solitary
place, but our Father finds them where they're at. He goes where
they're at and finds them and brings them home. And when they
get there, there's a place at the table set for them. They
got a place. There's a room with a bed all
prepared for a place of rest. And they're safe there. They're
safe in their father's house. Because let's go back to our
first point. The wicked can't enter there. They can't enter
in his house because his presence is there. And his children are
safe at home with him. And then fourthly, We rejoice
in the presence of the Lord, which is found in his word. Now
this is important. All these things have been sounded
awful good to us. Well, you want me to tell you
where to find them? You find the Lord, you find his
presence in his word. Verse 11, the Lord gave the word
and great was the company of those that published it. Now
the Lord gave his word to his people. And then He gave an army
of men to preach it to His people. Now just look at what the presence
of Christ in God's Word does for His people. I want us to
close looking at these. I think this will be a blessing
to you. If you want to find the presence of God, the presence
of the Lord, you find it in His Word. And look what His Word
does for His people. It leads them through the wilderness.
Verse 7, O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people, Well,
now just march through the wilderness. God went through the wilderness
with the people. They didn't just march willy nilly through
the wilderness. God led them, didn't he? He led
them with the cloudy pillar and the fiery pillar. He led them. And if you're out in the wilderness
and you don't know what way to go, I mean, you're lost in the
wilderness. I tell you what to do. Go to
God's word. Find God in his word. He'll lead
you. There's a word. You search it.
Somewhere in here, there's a word for you right now. Whatever it
is you're going for, there's a word right here for you right
now. Go find it. Go find it. You'd
be amazed. You'd just be amazed what reading
God's word will do for the soul of God's child. It'll just calm
them down. And then You can take comfort
in this. God's Word is much more powerful
than the world we live in. Verse 8 says, the earth shook. The heavens also dropped at the
presence of God. Even Sinai itself was moved at
the presence of God, the God of Israel. Just God's presence
shakes the earth, makes the earth tremble. Oh, His Word's so powerful. It's powerful. You'll find in
there what you need. You'll find because this word
reveals Christ. That's why you'll find what you
need in there. He is what you need. I don't care what it is
you're going through. Christ is what you need. Here
it is right here. The power of it, of Christ is
revealed right here in his word. And then God's word will give
rain in the desert. It'll give water of life to dead
souls. Verse nine. Thou O God didst
send a plentiful, a plentiful rain whereby thou didst confirm
thine inheritance. when it was weary. What's he
talking about there? I didn't really go looking a
lot, but I can't remember reading his scripture as the children
of Israel went through the wilderness of sin. I can't remember hearing
of it rain. Maybe it did. I just, I can't
remember of a time that happened, but I'll tell you what I believe
he's talking about here. The time of refreshing he's talking about.
I do know what it did rain while they're in the wilderness. It
rained manna from heaven. and refreshed. Oh, they were
so hungry. They thought they were going to starve. And God
said, just go to bed. And you get up in the morning,
get up and eat. And it rained manna and quail,
meat and bread. It rained it from heaven. And
when they were so thirsty, they thought they were going to die,
just die of thirst. You know what happened? Moses
struck a rock, a big old gigantic flinty rock and out came water. In the most miraculous way, God
rain blessing upon his people and refresh their hearts in the
desert. You in the desert? You need time
of refreshing? Here it is right here. I promise
you, God will give you what you need and this word leads you
into his presence. And God's word will give goodness
to the poor. Verse 10, thy congregation hath
dwelt therein Thou, O God, hast prepared thy goodness for the
poor. And then verse 12 tells us what
God's goodness to the poor looks like. Verse 12. Kings of armies
did flee apace, and she that tarried at home divided the spoil.
Though ye have lined among the pots, ye should be as the wings
of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow
gold. Now here's the picture David's painting. The army has
gone out to battle. And back there left in the camp
are the people who are too weak or too sickly or too wounded
to be able to go out and fight. All the women, certainly this
was not a day that women went out to battle. The women were
there, people who were too sick, too weak, too wounded to be able
to go fight. And they stayed back at the camp.
And David says they're lying or crouched by the pots. People
don't know what that means exactly. Maybe they were trying to cook
something. Maybe they were trying to find
a place to hide. But we think that what David means here is
they're trying to find a place to hide. Because they were so
poor, they didn't have anything to put in the pots to cook. They
were just left with nothing. And they didn't have anything
to eat. And they sent their starving army, they sent them out there
on an empty belly. You hear about an army that travels
on its belly, on its stomach. Well, this army went out on an
empty stomach. And if that army, fighting on
an empty stomach, loses its battle all these weeks, sick and wounded,
they're all going to be taken captive and killed by these kings.
And as they wait, trying to find a place to hide, worried to death,
they see off in the distance a runner coming. And they think,
he's coming with news. He's coming with news. Is it
good news? Is it bad news? And the runner finally gets there.
And in breathless excitement, he tells them, our army's victorious. We've caused the mighty kings
of the army to flee. our armies coming home with the
spoil. And all those who stayed behind because they couldn't
fight, they're too weak, they're too sick, didn't have the ability,
they couldn't fight, they shared in the spoil just as much as
the soldiers that went out to war. They shared in equal amounts
of the spoil. That's God's people. That's a
picture of God saving His people. We're too poor to be able to
fight. We're weak and wounded. Sin's already wounded us and
killed us. I mean, we're just helpless. We're dead. But good
news comes from God's servant. One of this great army of God's
preachers comes, bringing us news of the battle. And here's
his message from the battle. He's come fresh from the front,
and here's his message. It's finished. The battle's over. The enemy fled at the presence
of our God. The battle is over so much, there'll
be no more war. The captain of our salvation
has met the enemy and his power has caused them to melt away.
Christ our captain, he's so wonderful, he's so gracious, he's so loving,
he's so giving. He won the victory. He's got
all the spoil. And he comes and divides it all
with his people who didn't fight a lick. He comes and gives them
the spoil. He forgives their sin. He makes
them righteous. He gives them eternal life. They're
so poor and needy and he makes them all rich in his grace. And
he dwells with every one of them in victory face to face. Each one of them has his presence
face to face. how they thrill in his presence. That's the presence of the Lord.
We can rejoice in that, can't we? All right, let's bow together. Our God, how we thank you for
this blessed portion of your word. Father, we have begged
your presence this evening in our worship service, begging
you to honor your word, your promise, where you promised where
two or three are gathered together in your name, there you'll be
in the midst of them. And Father, we thank you. We thank you for
your presence. We thank you for meeting with
us, giving power to your word, enabling us to worship. And Father,
I pray that you would apply your word right now to the hearts
of each one gathered here. Apply your word to our hearts.
Give life, give faith, give repentance. Give us life. Give us rest and
hope and peace in Christ our Savior. We'll give you all the
praise and all the honor and all the glory for it now and
forever.