I titled the message this evening,
Cast Your Burden on the Lord. I hope by the time we get done
looking at this psalm this evening, everybody walked in these doors
this evening with a burden of some sort. Some very heavy, very
heavy. I pray after we look at God's
Word, you'll walk out without it. and not pick it back up. Cast your burden on the Lord.
Now I'll begin with verse 22. Cast thy burden upon the Lord
and he shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved. Now here's a sweet invitation
and two precious promises. The sweet invitation to God's
people, cast your burden on the Lord. Whatever it is, Cast it
on the Lord. The word means to roll it. I kind of pictured it like the
burden so great you can't even pick it up and just roll it.
Roll it onto the Lord. What a sweet invitation. The
Lord says, give me your burden. Cast it upon me. And two precious
promises. He shall sustain thee. And he'll never suffer the righteous
to be moved. Now we want to be careful not
to apply something in God's Word to us that don't belong to us.
So who's the Lord speaking to here? Well, He's speaking to
the righteous. The righteous are not people
that have never sinned, that keep God's law better than everybody
else, you know, they're always this moral high-standing person.
The righteous are actually people who feel their burden of sin.
They've got a burden to roll upon the Lord. They feel that
burden. And the righteous, they're not
people who've kept the law. That's who he's speaking to here.
He's speaking to the righteous. Well, how can I tell if this
is me? How can I tell if this promise
is for me? Well, the righteous are not people who keep the law,
as I said just a minute ago. Because nobody can do that. There's
none righteous, no, not one. The righteous are people who've
been made righteous in the obedience of Christ. It's not their obedience. It's his obedience to the law
given to them that makes them righteous. Christ gave them his
obedience and he took their sin from them and put it away by
the sacrifice of himself. That's how they're made righteous.
For he was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. They're righteous or
righteous through faith. They're joined to faith. They
have union with Christ by faith. They're made righteous through
faith. Not by works, but by faith. The just shall live by faith. The heathen Gentiles, Paul showed
us this in the book of Romans, who never did have the law. They
didn't have Moses. They didn't have the ceremonies. They didn't
have their priesthood. They didn't have their prophets. Yet those Gentiles,
those heathens, have attained to righteousness. Well, how'd
they do that? Paul said it's by faith, didn't
he? It's by faith that he called it the righteousness of faith. I don't care who you are, whether
you're Gentile or Jew, whether you're the most heathen person
there is, or the most strictly religious person you are, that
can be. Righteousness comes by faith.
And that's what the apostle Paul told us, Philippians 3.9. He
said, my desire is to be found in Christ. Not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ. The righteousness of God which
is by faith. So the righteous are made righteous
through faith in Christ, through union with Christ. These people
believe God. The righteous are people who
believe Christ to be their salvation. If you see you've got no hope
but Christ, the only way you could possibly be saved is in
Christ, then you're righteous. That's what righteous people
believe. Well, the righteous are called upon to cast our burden,
to cast every care upon the Lord. Because really and truthfully,
He's already borne it. He's already borne the burden
of our sin. He's already borne the burden
of our sickness and our sorrows and our grief. So just cast it
all on Him. And you know, we may as well.
We may as well. He's the Great Shepherd who's
carrying us on His shoulder. Well, if he's carrying me, he's
carrying all my burdens. Then how silly is it for me to
try to carry him too? Just cast them all upon the Lord. He's
able and he's willing to do it. He's able and he's willing. Now
that's a sweet invitation. Cast your burden upon the Lord.
Now here's the promise. The promise is this, the righteous
shall be sustained. He'll never allow the righteous
to be moved because they're in Christ and Christ can't be moved.
The righteous will be sustained in Christ. They'll be sustained. They'll be kept safe. They'll
be fed in Christ. They'll be sustained on Christ. They'll feed upon Christ, the
bread of life. They'll be sustained on His righteousness.
They'll be sustained on His faithfulness and His love. That's what will
sustain them. And they'll never be moved, because
He's never going to be moved. He's not going anywhere. Then
we won't either if we're in Him. Now this is the believer's comfort.
God wants to see in the rest of this Psalm that the righteous
are in Christ. And we just cast our burden upon
Him. Because we can look at this Psalm
as the words of Christ our Savior. Now I'm not just saying. Now,
y'all, cast your burden on the Lord, because that just sounds
like a good, sweet, emotional thing to do. Give everybody some
emotional fix, you know, on Wednesday night, go home and you had your
emotions, you know, pumped up. No, that's not what I'm doing
at all. The believer has concrete reasons to cast our burden upon
the Lord and find comfort and assurance in that. He'll take
care of it. He'll take it off of me. because
of who he is, because of what he's already done for his people,
and because of what he promised to do for his people. He'll take
them away. In every situation, and the psalmist
here is going to give us a few of them, cast your burden on
the Lord. Now first, in the face of the
enemy, cast your burden on the Lord. David wrote this psalm
in the face of the enemy. He says, verse 1, give ear to
my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication.
Attend unto me and hear me. I mourn in my complaint and make
a noise because of the voice of the enemy, because of the
oppression of the wicked, for they cast iniquity upon me. And
in wrath, they hate me. Now these are the words. Remember,
I wanted us to look at these are the words of our Savior,
who was the greatest man of prayer who ever lived. He begins crying
to God, hear my prayer. Even in his agony, as he suffered
on the cross, he's suffering for the sin of his people. He's
made sin for his people. The Father turned his back on
him. I can't understand this, but he prayed. He asked the Father,
hear my prayer. He prayed for strength to get
the job done. He's prayed for the strength
to be able to put away the sin of his people. Father, I told
him, cast your burden on me. Now he's praying for the strength
to bear it away. He prayed for his people as he suffered. He
prayed that they would be saved. That they would enjoy the salvation
he's purchasing for them with his sacrifice. That they'd have
the life and the peace that he's buying with his sacrifice. And
the Father heard and answered every prayer. Our Savior cried
with a strong crying and tears in that he feared. And the Father
heard. He granted his prayer, gave him
the victory over sin, death, and hell, over every enemy. And that's why, in the face of
the enemy, we're to cast our burden upon the Lord. He's already
defeated every enemy. His enemies are our enemies.
Now he had enemies. At this time while he's praying,
the enemies had him, didn't they, in their grip. How did he get
there? How did he find himself in the
grip of those wicked enemies? He allowed them to take him.
He allowed them, that's the only way they could have. And as he
prayed for his people, he also prayed about his enemies. Look
here at verse nine. Destroy, O Lord, and divide their
tongues. For I have seen violence and
strife in the city. Day and night they go about it
upon the walls thereof. Mischief also and sorrow are
in the midst of it. Our Savior prayed that his enemies
would be destroyed. So much for Jesus loving everybody.
He prayed that they would be destroyed, that they'd be cast
into hell. He prayed that their tongues be divided, that their
objectives be divided. You know, that's what happened
to the Tower of Babel, wasn't it? The Lord divided their tongues.
He gave everybody different languages. And more than just everybody
talking a different language, now they can't communicate with
each other. They all got different objectives. They're trying to
do things in different order, trying to get things done at
different times. And they just had to throw up their hands and
quit because they couldn't get anything done. This is what the Savior prayed
for those enemies who hated Him without a cause, that their objectives
be divided and they be destroyed. And the Father granted that prayer.
They were all destroyed and everyone who still stands as the enemy
of the Savior will be destroyed. And that's what gives the believer
confidence in the face of the enemy. Just cast your burden
on the Lord. Our enemies are His enemies,
and He already defeated them. The battle's not yours, it's
the Lord's. So just roll the weight of the
battle upon Him. And we could talk about a lot
of different enemies, but our greatest enemy, the enemy
that the Savior was grappling with here as He prayed on Calvary
Street, is the sin of His people. Sin is our greatest enemy. Sin
has caused every problem we've ever had. It's a mighty big enemy. Roll the burden of your sin upon
the Savior. He says here in verse three,
for they cast iniquity upon me. The Jews falsely accused the
Savior. And you know, that didn't bother
him. And I know that he had been made sin and he kept his mouth
shut because he didn't defend himself because now those accusations
were true about him because they're true about us as people. But
you know, from what you read in scripture, it just didn't
bother him that those that the Jews brought these false accusations
against him. But I tell you when he suffered
is when the father cast the iniquity of his people on him. When the
father made him sin, How He suffered. The Father put that sin upon
Him and the Savior went to battle. And He put that sin away with
the blood of His sacrifice. The victory is over. The victory
is won. It's finished. Well, brethren,
don't fight the battle twice. It's already done. There's no
need to fight it again. Besides that, we can't win the
battle against our sin, can we? Just roll the burden upon the
Savior. Confess all your sin to Him in
faith, believing His blood's enough to atone for it. And cry
out to Him. Call upon Him. Cry out to the
Lord in prayer. He hears the cries of His people. That's part of what we read to
open the surface. The Lord told Moses, I heard the cries of my
people. I hear their groanings, their groanings, and I'm going
to deliver them from Egypt. Well, cry to the Lord. He's not
gonna hide himself from his people for long. Not for long, y'all
know sometimes it feels like the heavens are brass, but he's
not gonna hide himself from his people for long. He already turned
his back on Christ our substitute. He hid himself from our substitute
so he can turn his smiling face of grace to his people. So just
cry out to the Lord. Don't make your prayer, try to
be just all perfectly worded, you know, and sound like Charles
Spurgeon or somebody, you know, somebody who really had a way
with words. Don't, don't make it all religious sounding. Don't
make it sound like somebody else's prayer. Just cry out to the Lord. Make a groan. The Savior says
here, He just made a noise, a noise. The Lord know what it means.
He'll know what it means. Spurgeon said this, groanings
which cannot be uttered, are often prayers which cannot be
refused. Just groan. Just make a noise
to the Lord. Cry out to him. Roll your burden
upon him. He'll know what it means, and
he'll deliver you. All right, number two, in the
face of death, cast your burden on the Lord. Verse four, my heart
is sore pained within me, and the tears of death are falling
upon me. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror
hath overwhelmed me. The Savior died. He died for
his people as their substitute, bearing their sin. He died, so
his people will never die. Now we know these bodies will
die. There's this body of sin and flesh, it must die. But the
new man will never die. The Savior took the sting of
death away from his people, so death cannot hurt his people.
The death of Christ made the death of these bodies the believer's
friend, not our enemy. It made death our friend. The
death of these bodies is the way we're gonna be finally delivered
from this body of sin, from this world of sin, and taken to be
with the Lord. Well, that's a friend. Whatever
it is that takes me to be with the Lord, whatever it is that
frees me from sin is my friend. But until that time, the believer's
gonna groan. You're going to groan under the
burden of that old man. We got to carry around with us
everywhere we go. The weight of him is offensive.
The sight of him is offensive. The smell of him is offensive.
And we got to carry around with us everywhere we go. And the
way the Lord is going to remove the burden of that old man is
by causing that old man to die and taking us home to be with
him. So there's no reason for the believer to fear death. But
there's a sense in which we have some fear, some apprehension
of this process of dying. I hope I die when me and Jan
are on the same night. We're about 85 years old, still
in pretty good health, don't have too much pain. And we just
die, don't have any pain. And that's probably not the way
it's going to happen, is it? We worry about that. I don't
want to be in pain. I don't want to suffer, do you?
We've never done it before. Our biggest fear with death is
this, we've never done it before. Gabe Stoniker was telling me
about his daughter. She's gonna start middle school next year
and she's just nervous about this deal, you know? I said,
well, of course she is, she's never done it before. It's the
same way with death. But our Lord has. He died first. He went to the grave first so
that his people don't have to fear. He went there first. Spurgeon
also said this. He said, be sure to mark the
footprints of thy Lord in this miry part of the road. In this
dirty, awful part of the road, you be sure to mark the footprints
of your Savior. He went there first. Wherever
it is the believer goes, our Shepherd went there first. Our
Savior went there first. So when you face death, cast
your burden on the Lord. He's been there. He knows what
we're facing. And that's what enables him to
comfort. That's what enables him to give dying grace. But
you know, our Savior just didn't suddenly die. I mean, that's
the way I kind of hope it is for me someday. I'll just suddenly
die. The Savior didn't do that. He
faced death for his people. He didn't just die for his people.
He faced death face to face. Stared it down. He watched it
coming. Now we just can't know the darkness
and the terrors our Lord faced as he prayed in the garden. Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. As he prepared
to be made sin, as he prepared to go to battle, the darkness,
he's going to battle with all the forces of darkness. The terrors
he fought as he suffered on the tree. The horror of being made
sin. The horror of being separated
from his father. The horror wasn't his physical
sufferings. The horror wasn't the people
making fun of him, although that hurt, although his sufferings
were enormous. The horror of it was being made sin. The horror
of it was being separated from his father. Being made sin is
what caused his heart pain, his soul to suffer in agony. He faced that down and went to
it and defeated it. He didn't run. He didn't retreat.
He faced it down and met it head on and defeated it. So when you
face death and you feel the fear of it, you fear going through
it, you fear the whole process of it, just cast your burden
upon the Lord. He's already suffered death for
His people. And he's risen again. So he's
able to comfort. He died. He rose again and he
ascended on high. Cast your burden on the Lord.
He'll meet you on the other side. He'll meet you there. All right. Thirdly, in all the storms of
life, cast your burden on the Lord. Now, these first two things
we looked at were kind of particular. This just applies to all the
storms, all the troubles of life. Cast your burden on the Lord.
Verse six, and I said, oh, that I had wings like a dove, for
then would I fly away and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander
far off and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from
the windy storm and tempest. Now, this is one of the many
drastic drastic differences between us and the Savior. In the face
of the enemy, when the enemy is attacking you, just casting
iniquity upon you and hating you in all their wrath, what
do you want to do? I bet you're like me, and you
want to just fight back and crush them, don't you? I mean, you
just want to crush them. You want to attack them. But
that's not what our Savior said. His heart was a heart of peace.
He doesn't pray for wings of an eagle that attacks her prey,
her enemies. He prayed for the peaceful wings
of a dove. A dove who wouldn't attack, but
would fly swiftly to a place where she'd have some peace,
where she'd have some rest and quiet and shelter. And that's
what our Savior was praying for. Oh, that I'd have a place of
peace. Like Calvary, no place was found,
was it? No, he had to suffer the full
wrath of God for the sin of his people. But when the sacrifice
was complete, the father answered his prayer and gave him a place
of peace and rest. Our savior went for three days,
he rested. He rested in the tomb and then
he rose again, showed himself to his people as the evidence.
His sacrifice had justified them. And he spent about 40 days on
this earth. And then he sent it back to the Father. And from
everything I can find in all that 40 days was peace. I don't read of a time he encountered
an enemy. He was just with his people.
He never encountered those enemies again, and he won't ever, until
they stand before him in judgment. Well, this is the believer's
prayer too. Now I want, I desire, to contend
for the truth. Whenever that's possible, this
is my desire. I want to contend for the truth.
I want to show the Savior to people who hate Him, who would
fight against Him. I want to contend for the truth.
But we're not looking for a fight all the time. Now we're just
not doing that. God's people want peace. And
that's especially true in all the storms of this life. When
we're just battered and tossed with the storm, this is our prayer.
Oh, Lord, let me find a place of peace, of calm, of safety. Oh, that I had wings like a dove
that could fly quickly into some low little shelter and just get
a shelter from the tempest and storms of this life. Last week,
Brother Gabe mentioned the calm between the storms. And for the
believer, that's this life. This life is one big tempest. It's just an enormous tempest. And it's got some lulls sprinkled
in here and there. But when you find yourself in
the midst of the storms of this life, just fly to Christ as fast
as you can. because he is our refuge. He's
our refuge. He is our place of safety. He
is our place of quiet. I say this all the time, that
the gospel, preaching the gospel, believing the gospel, is not
just different points of doctrine. For sake of argument, the five
points of Calvinism. Now, you can't preach the gospel
without those things. It's impossible. But those points
of doctrine. When you're getting beaten up
in this life, there's not a lot of comfort there, is there? But
there is the Savior, those doctrines declare. He is our comfort. He is where we find shelter.
Look at just across one page, Psalm 64. Christ is the shelter
for His people. I thought of this as making out
my nose. That's what Janet has made our
home for our family. She was always determined our
home would be a place of peace. It's just going to be peace and
quiet. It's a place where you can get shelter from the world.
You can just go in there and shut that door. There's just going to be peace.
People there aren't going to be mean to you. It's going to
be peace. And I love going home. I do. I just love going home. I just love it. Going in the
door, just... Yeah, those dogs are yipping,
but it's still peace. I mean, just close that door.
Oh, there's bees. That's Christ for his people. There ain't no
dogs there. Just run to him. Oh, how I love
hiding in him. Psalm 61, verse three. For thou
has been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy.
I will abide in thy tabernacle forever. I will trust in the
comfort of thy wings." It's going to a person, isn't it? Look over
at Isaiah 25. Isaiah says the same thing. Isaiah 25, verse four. For thou has been a strength
to the poor. a strength to the needy in his
distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat. When
the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall,
thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers. As the heat in
a dry place, even the heat with the shadow of a cloud, the branch
of the terrible ones shall be brought low. See, it's Christ
we flee to. He's our refuge. He's our place
of safety. He's our peace. And what a refuge
He is. Oh, in the storm of this life,
just run to Him. Just flee to Him. He'll shelter
you. Just cast your burden on Him.
He'll shelter you. Then fourthly, when you find
yourself betrayed and deceived by your friends, cast your burden
upon the Lord. Verse 11, David says, wickedness
is in the midst thereof. Deceit and guile depart not from
her streets. For it was not an enemy that
reproached me. Then I could have borne it. Neither was it he that
hated me that did magnify himself against me. Then I would have
hidden myself from him. But it was thou, a man mine equal,
my guide and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together
and walked into the house of God in company. Let death seize
upon them, and let them go down quick into hell, for wickedness
is in their dwellings and among them. Now verse 19, God shall
hear and afflict them, even he that abideth of old, because
they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. He put forth
his hand, again, such it be at peace with him. He hath broken
his covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother
than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer
than oil, yet were they drawn swords. Now David is writing
here about his own personal experience. Some of the writers remember
the story about David crossing the brook Chidron, the very stream
Christ crossed to go to the garden before he suffered. And at some
point after he crossed that brook, they think this is where David
was writing this psalm at the darkest hour of his life. Because
he'd been betrayed. He'd been deceived and betrayed
by his trusted advisor, a man named Ahithophel. And he was
betrayed by his son Absalom. And they took the kingdom from
David and were seeking his life. And we can just imagine how that
hurt, can't we? Oh, how that hurt. That's David's
personal experience, but I'll tell you who he's really writing
about here. He's really writing about his son. the Lord Jesus
Christ, who was betrayed by one of his inner circle. Now this
is one of those things that amaze me and fascinate me about our
God. The Lord knew Judas would betray
him. I mean, this wasn't a surprise
to him. He knew it. He's the one that
ordained it. It was prophesied all throughout the Old Testament.
Yet when it happened, it hurt him. Knowing what Judas was getting
ready to go do, our Lord still warned him at that last Passover
supper. And when he was betrayed, the
Lord asked Judas, friend, why art thou come? Can't you just hear the hurt
in his voice? I can't understand that. And this is what David's
saying. He said, I was expecting attacks
from my enemies. I was always prepared for Saul.
I mean, I would expect the Philistines to do this. They can't come up
with a surprise attack on me, because I'm always watching them.
I didn't expect this from a friend. I didn't expect this from my
own flesh and blood. Their buttery words deceived
me. So I didn't see the sword coming. And that made it hurt
all the worse. David could bear Shimei, couldn't
he? He could bear Shimei's cursing.
He could bear the rocks being thrown at him and told his men,
no, leave him alone. Don't go over there and cut his
head off. The Lord sent him to curse me. He bore that, but he
just couldn't bear the betrayal of Absalom and Ahithophel. Now
this is both David and our Savior speaking. They said, we went
to the house of the Lord together. We went to worship together. We sat around breaking bread,
talking about the Lord, talking about grace, talking about the
gospel, talking about the blood and redemption. And all the while,
I thought we were friends. And they're just using it to
betray me. They're just pretending, trying to lull me to sleep so
they can stab me in the back. Now, I would imagine it hurts
any time you get stabbed. Oh, but when you get it in the
back, somebody thinks your friend, oh, it hurts. Well, that's what
they did. But now how did it end? How did
it end? Well, death quickly seized upon
both Ahithophel and Judas. They both took their own lives.
And that's what happens to everybody. It's not betraying Christ. When
they betray Christ, really they're betraying themselves. The Lord
said, whoever sins against me, sins against his own self. They
betray themselves by refusing to believe on Christ, by refusing
to come to Him, by refusing to bow to Him and insisting on trying
to overthrow them. And the day's coming quickly.
Or death will just take them quickly. Frenemies never prosper. They never will. And it's a very
sad truth. I bet you, not to this degree,
but something similar has happened to every person in this room.
Somebody that you loved, that you trusted, you thought was
your friend betrayed you. When that happens, there is such
comfort in knowing our high priest is touched with the feeling of
our infirmity. He knows what it feels like to
be betrayed by a close friend. The kindness of our Savior really
touches me. The length that He went to to
identify with His bride so that He's able to comfort her really
touches me. You think about this. He chose
who would betray Him. He could have been chosen to
have been betrayed by anybody, couldn't He? But He chose who
would betray Him. And He chose who would betray
Him. He chose the person that would hurt him the most so that
he could sympathize with his people when they hurt. So when
we hurt like that, what do we do? Flee to Christ. We can't understand why somebody
would do that, why this close, trusted person who's supposed
to love me, supposed to be my friend would do it. I'm just
crushed. What do I do? Flee to Christ. Just flee to Him. Cast your burden
on Him. Christ is the friend. that sticketh
closer than a brother. He'll never forsake you. He'll
never betray you. He already died for you. He's
certainly not going to forsake you now. Christ is the friend. He's the friend of sinners who
loves his people at all time. He was the friend that Solomon
talked about, born for the day of adversity. Christ, our big
brother, was born for the day of adversity. He was born as
a man so he could be our representative and go to the cross the day of
adversity and deliver his people from all of their sin. So when
you're betrayed and you're, oh, you're so hurt, flee to Christ. He's a friend who'll never betray
you, never. All right, lastly, I'm gonna
switch gears just a little bit. When we think about victory in
Christ, Flee to Him and rejoice in Him. Cast your burdens on
the Lord and rejoice in the Lord too. Now, I just said a minute
ago that the life of a believer is just one gigantic tempest. I mean, you look on those, Adam,
you were talking about those, the weather, the things you like
to watch and see the satellite cost. If you looked at the life
of a believer on those satellites, it would just be a massive hurricane
with just little lulls thrown in there. But don't ever forget
this. The believer's life is more than
sorrows and more than woes. The believer's life, now it is
full of that, but the believer's life is also a life of victory.
Victory in Christ. The wicked are gonna attack.
Now they're gonna cause so much trouble, but they'll be destroyed.
But look at verse 13. They're gonna be destroyed, but
as for me, I will call upon God and the Lord will save me. Oh,
here's the good news for sinners. Call on the Lord. He will save
me. He'll save me from my sin. He'll
save me from God's wrath. He'll save me from death. He'll
save me from myself. He'll save me by His grace, by
His power, by His love. Now that makes, I'll tell you
what that makes me do. That makes me call on Him. Lord, save me. Lord, you promised to save sinners.
Lord, save me. And Lord, keep saving me, keep
delivering me, keep teaching me, keep providing for me. I
will call upon God my savior at all times because I always
need him. Verse 17, what a joy to be able
to call upon the God who promised to save. David says, evening
and morning and at noon, while I pray and cry aloud, and he
shall hear my voice. Now all day long, in every situation,
call upon the Lord. That's how I start my day, calling
upon the Lord. I call, thanking God that he'd
give me another day. Lord, I pray about this day because
I don't know what's coming. Help me, keep me, protect me,
enable me to walk right in it. And then during the day, I call
on the Lord, asking Lord, keep guiding me, keep giving me wisdom
because I still don't know what's coming. Lord, keep me, protect
me, watch over me. Thank you for the blessings so
far this day. Keep watching over me. And at the end of the day,
we call upon the Lord. Lord, thank you. Thank you for
this day. Oh, I praise you for all your
bounty, all your blessings, all your grace today. Lord, keep
me through the night and prepare me for the next one. And the
next morning starts all over again. Lord, thank you. Thank
you for this night. Lord, I don't know what's going to happen today.
Watch me. Keep me. I'll call upon the Lord at all
times. and I'll call on the Lord in thanksgiving. Yes, I'll call
on the Lord in trouble. When I'm in the face of the enemy,
when I face death, when I face those who would deceive me and
betray me, I'm gonna call on the Lord in thanksgiving too.
Oh Lord, thank you for giving me the victory in Christ. Verse
18. He hath delivered my soul in
peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many
with me. Now I want us to look at these
words as the words of our Savior. The Father gave him peace because
his sacrifice took the sin away that caused the war in the first
place. Now we know Christ suffered alone, don't we? But he says
here, there were many with me. He didn't win the victory because
he had a great army of people with him helping him fight. There
were many with me. There were many in me. That's what he means. There are
many in me. Those many were God's elect. They're all in Christ
and they did what he did. Christ obeyed the law perfectly,
and they did too. That's why they're righteous.
Christ suffered and died to satisfy justice. They died in him. So
justice is already satisfied. And Christ was given peace. Everybody
who's in him has peace too. We have peace with God. Yes,
these bodies will die, but we'll rise again. And we'll live forever
with the Lord in peace. and peace because of the sacrifice
of Christ. Now, between now and then, there
can be a lot of wars. There can be a lot of battles
and a lot of fighting within and without. But you just cast
all those burdens on the Lord. He'll take care of them. He'll
take care of them. The way might be rough. It will
be rough. Not might. There's no might about
it. It will be. The way will be rough. But the end is going to
be peace. It's going to be peace. So cast
your burden on the Lord, rejoicing in His victory. Don't pray. Don't cast it all on the Lord
and then get up and go pick it up again and carry it back out
with you. There's no victory in that. Leave it there. Leave it there. I watched a movie
many times about these fellas in World War II, and they'd get
a little reprieve. They'd get me taken off the line,
you know, they'd get a little reprieve. And somebody'd come
back and say, all right, boys. And they'd pick up them guns
again, and off they'd go. One day they came and said, war's
over. The Japanese surrendered. They
hooted and hollered and ran off and left them guns there. Don't
take them back with you. Victory's been won. Victory's
over. Just thank God for it. Enjoy rest and peace in Christ. Now, let's go back and look at
verse 22. In closing, let's look at this kind invitation and these
precious promises. Cast thy burden upon the Lord.
He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the righteous
to be moved. Cast all your burdens on the
Lord, whatever it is. We can't carry him anyway. We
don't have the strength to do it. But he does. So child of
God, find comfort in this. What a sweet invitation. Cast
your burden on the Lord. And find comfort in this promise.
When it all seems lost, you hang on to this. He will sustain you. You think, I can't do this. I
cannot do this. I can't endure this. Cast your
burden on the Lord. He will sustain you. His grace
will be sufficient for you just as much as it was for Paul. And
when you feel like you're a goner, just remember this promise. He
shall never suffer the righteous to be moved away from Him. See,
God has the faithfulness and the power to keep every promise. Just look to Christ. Just flee
to Him. All God's promises in Him are yea, Amen Cast your burden
Let's bow together