So in our Bibles, again, to Psalm
41, I titled the message this evening, My Sin and My Integrity. I'd like to answer two questions
this evening from our text. If I believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, question number one, what happened to my sin? Question
number two, if I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, where is my
integrity? And you know the answer to both
of those questions is Christ. Christ the Savior took the sin
of His people away from them and He put it away under His
blood. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, your sin can
never condemn you. It can't harm you in any way. And Christ is the answer to the
second question. Where is my integrity? Well,
He's seated on the right hand of the Father. Christ is my righteousness. He is my integrity. And that's
what this psalm is going to show us. It's going to show us, begins
dealing with our sin, the sin of God's people and how we go
from being nothing but sin, being integrity, perfect righteousness,
seated at the Father's right hand. I have four points this
evening. They're all very simple. The
first one is this. Here's why the Savior came to
earth as a man. Verse 1, why did he become flesh
and come to this earth as a man? Blessed is he that considereth
the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. Now,
contrary to what you would read if you pick up a lot of commentaries,
this verse is not telling us that if we take care of the poor,
we give to things that, you know, we ought to give to things that
would help the poor in their time of need. That if we give
to those things, that God will deliver us. If we ever find ourselves
as one of those poor and needy in time of trouble. Now that's
not what this is teaching us. That would be contrary to the
rest of the word of God. That teaching is works. I mean,
that's all it is. It's investing. Luke, that'd
be a good investment. You know, I understand accounting
and numbers. That'd be a good investment. You'll give to the
poor now, and if you ever need it, well, you'll get it back.
My friend, salvation is by grace. It's not by works, it's by grace. And all of God's provision to
us come from His grace. Not because we've earned it by
our works, but by His grace. I'll give you an example. I recently
read about a man named Robert Trail. Robert Trail was a Calvinistic
priest in the Church of England during the famine of 1846. And
he used all of his estate, every bit of it, he used up to provide
a soup kitchen for the people that were starving. He wrote
letters and begged and borrowed and did everything he could to
get money from places. He even sent letters to the Queen
of England trying to get money to feed the poor. And whatever
was sent to him, he spent. But all of his personal fortune,
every penny of it, he spent on a soup kitchen at his house,
inviting the poor to come and he would be there to ladle out
soup to them. He considered the poor. Isn't
that a wonderful thing? I mean, how kind and compassionate
the man was. He did everything he could do.
You know what happened to him? One year after he opened his
soup kitchen, he died of typhoid. I can't explain that. But he
was not delivered from sickness and death because he considered
the poor, was he? So that's not what this verse
is teaching us. Now, that being said, we ought
to help the poor. Those who are in such an awful
downtrodden state, we ought to help the poor, especially those
of the household of faith. God forbid anybody in this congregation
would go in need, that we wouldn't supply it for them, help one
another. But this verse, if that's all we get from this verse, we
miss the blessing. This verse is speaking of something
much, much better than that. This verse is telling us how
Christ came to this earth as a man. He considered the poor. He came to deliver them from
their spiritual poverty, from their sin. Christ came to deliver
the poor. He came to save poor, dead sinners
by taking their place and dying for them as their substitute
in their flesh. The word considereth here, it
means to understand. And the word poor doesn't mean
just not having very many dollars in your bank account. It means
having nothing, that you're starving to death, that you just have
nothing and you've had nothing for so long. You're so weak that
you cannot do anything. In the famine there in Ireland,
I told you about earlier, Robert Trail said every house, every
single house in his parish, and I don't know how many houses
that is, but he went visiting them one day. And inside of every
house was a person already dead or going to die in a matter of
days. In every house. That gives us
some picture of what we're talking about us spiritually. The Savior
understands the poor. He considers them. He understands
them. You know why He understands them?
Because He became one of them. He was made flesh and became
one of them. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. That though He was rich, how
rich is the Son of God. Though He were rich, yet for
your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might
be made rich. The Savior understands the poverty
of our flesh better than we do. Better than we do. By nature,
you know what we think. We all think, well, we're not
completely bankrupt. There's something I can do. There's
some little thing I could do that might grow into something
good, you know. That's what we think. But the Savior knows better
than that. He knows it's not just that we're
going to die in a few days. He knows we're already dead in
sin. We're born in this world dead
in sin. We're conceived in sin and we're
born dead. And that's why Christ came. He
came to deliver His people. from the poverty and the debt
that they're seeing to put them in. And Son of God, when it says
that He became poor, He became unspeakably poor. He felt the poverty of our flesh. He became flesh with all the
limitations of our weak flesh, yet without sin. But He limited
Himself to the powers of the flesh. He was always God, wasn't
He? The Lord Jesus Christ is not
like He's God. No, He is God. So He was always
God. He had the unlimited power of
God. The man Jesus Christ is the Lord
God omnipotent with all power. Yet, He always could work miracles. He could produce food. He could
create food from nothing to feed the thousands. But He could never
do that for Himself. for the benefit of his flesh.
That man was thirsty, sitting on a well one day. The one who
created the oceans, the only one who can send the rain, sat
there thirsty and couldn't create water to drink. He had to ask
a sinful Samaritan woman to draw it and give it to him. You know
why that was? Because you and I can't create
water. We'd have to have somebody draw it for us too, because we
don't have a bucket. He felt all the weakness and
the limitations of our flesh. He became one of us. That's how
poor the Son of God became. And then he felt the poverty
of the sin of his people. The day of trouble, David writes
about here. It says in the time of trouble,
that literally translated is the day of evil. And that day
of evil, that's the day of Calvary. when Christ was crucified. At
Calvary, man's evil nature is on full display. Men did every
evil thing they could possibly think of to do to torture and
kill the Son of God. What an evil day it was when
the creature spit in the face of the Creator. When the creature
balled up his fist and hit the Son of God in the face. Well,
they took a cat of nine tails to his back and then nailed him
to a cross and mocked him as he died in his agony. What an
evil day. But you know, really what was
going on that day was the father was pouring out his wrath against
sin upon his son. He poured out his wrath. He punished
his son. for the evil of his people. Now,
the day that Christ died was an evil day. I'm not saying anything
contrary to that. But at the same time, it was
a day of justice. It was a day of good. I don't
know what the opposite of evil is, but it was also that. It
was a day of good. The day Christ died was an evil
day, but it was also the day evil was done away with. It was
also the day of mercy and grace for God's people. Christ died
for evil, because He was made sin for His people. He felt the
poverty of their sin. He knows everything that it is,
with the exception of committing it. He was made sin, but when
He died, He put that sin away forever. The blood of His sacrifice
blotted it out, and it's gone. Now listen, that's not just a
point of good doctrine. This is the comfort of God's
people. The sin of God's elect is gone. It's gone. Then it can never
harm them. It can never condemn them. God's
not angry with them because the sin that made the holy God angry
has been taken away. You know, we're not prone. Jan and I were talking earlier
today about Brother Henry's influence on us. I'm not prone to displays
of any kind of emotion and things in the pulpit. Maybe I'm watching
a ballgame, but not in the pulpit. I believe if we really knew what
this was, that the sin of God's people is gone. I believe we'd
shout and jump for joy. It's gone. It can never harm
us. Now all we see of ourselves is
our sin, isn't it? But God doesn't see it because
the blood of his son blotted it out and paid the debt in full. By his life and by his death
for his people, Christ has delivered his people from all evil. But
in order to do it, he had to become a man so he could be their
substitute. And that's why Christ came to
this earth as a man. so he could be the substitute
for his people. All right, here's my second point. We know why
Christ came as a man. Here's why Christ died, because
he was made sin. Verse four, I said, Lord, be
merciful unto me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.
Now the sin of God's elect truly became Christ's sin at Calvary.
That is the only way a holy God could put a man to death is if
he's actually guilty. Look back at Psalm 40, verse
12. This transfer of sin was so real. The Savior said, it's mine iniquities. Verse 12, Psalm 40. For innumerable
evils have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. Now, Calvary was the day of evil.
These are the innumerable evils. All of the sin of God's elect
became Christ. And he felt the shame of it.
He was so ashamed. He did feel the punishment of
it. He felt the stroke of God's justice. He felt the sword of
his father's justice. But he also felt the shame of
it. Bobby was so ashamed he couldn't look at it. That's how real the transfer
of sin to Christ was. He felt the shame of it. If he's
going to feel the shame of it, it had to be his sin, didn't
it? Now, I could suffer for your sin. Something that you did,
I could suffer for it in order to satisfy justice in some way. But if that happened, I'd feel
the pain of it. But I wouldn't feel the shame of it because
I didn't do it. Isn't that right? The only way
I can feel the shame of it is if it's my sin. I did it. I'm guilty. The Savior said at
Calvary, he felt the shame of it because the sin of his people
became his sin. In our text, the Savior doesn't
say, heal me because my people have sinned against you. He said,
heal me because I've sinned against thee. I know this. The Lord Jesus Christ never committed
sin. Never. The sin of his people,
though, became his sin so truly that he said, It's not my people
that sinned against you. I have. It's my sin. And that's
the only way he could pay for it. The only way he could pay
for sin is it had to become his sin so he could pay the debt
and he could put it away. He felt the shame of sin. He
felt the guilt of sin. He felt the sin that suffering
causes. And you know, he also, as he suffered, he heard the
mocking of men and it stung him, it hurt him. Verse five, mine
enemies speak evil of me. When shall he die and his name
perish? The Savior heard his enemies.
They said, we want him to die. We want his name to be wiped
out. So nobody's going to remember the name of Jesus of Nazareth
anymore. Now that was their goal, wasn't
it? But in crucifying him, they guaranteed All of his people
will know the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And when they see him
lifted up, they'll come to him. But, you know, it wasn't their
purpose that was being carried out at Calvary anyway. You know,
here they are. They're watching him suffer as
no man ever suffered. And they're saying, how long
is it going to take him to die? You know, hurry this thing up. We got to
go back and play in our religious games. We got to be purified
so we can observe Passover. While the Passover is being sacrificed.
They were mocking him saying it. Verse six. And if he come
to see me, he speaketh vanity. His heart gathereth iniquity
to itself. When he goeth abroad, he telleth it. All that hate
me whisper together against me. Against me do they devise my
hurt. The Savior's enemies all gathered round the cross, mocking
him and in hurting. I can't explain that fully, but
just remember this. Everything the Savior He suffered
as the substitute for His people. I don't know everything that's
going on and the hurt that it caused the Savior to hear those
enemies mocking Him. But remember, He's suffering
for His people. He's suffering everything that
sin does to us. And yes, we have enemies. We
have enemies of the gospel that mock us, but I mean, let's just
be honest. That's not too bad in our day.
None of us have resisted the blood. But I tell you what does
relentlessly mock God's people. It's our sin. Relentlessly mocks
us. It comes to us and visits us.
Whispers in our ear. Always spreading vanity. Emptiness
in our heart. Sin spreads the emptiness of
trying to earn a righteousness before God by what we do. And
nothing can be more vain, more empty than that. Us trying to
earn a righteousness before God. We'll never do it. Sin spreads
the emptiness, the vanity, and the pleasures of sin. Sin promises
pleasure, all the pleasure that sin promises. And it never, ever,
ever gives it. It always brings sorrow and death.
Sin keeps whispering, mocking us in our ear that we'll never
be good enough to deserve God's grace, so you better get to work.
See, that's the vanity of sin. Sin tells us you never earn God's
grace, so you better get to work. You can't earn grace, can you?
That's the vanity of sin. And it's just, it's torture for
the believer to constantly be mocked by that, by our sin, by
our sin nature, you could never get away from it. Well, that's
at least in part what the Savior's suffering here at Calvary. Not
only did he take the condemnation of sin away, the guilt of sin,
the shame of sin, he took all of the effects of sin away from
his people. Sin's gonna mock us for a while
now, but might not for long. We'll get to that in a minute,
but not for long. See, and here's why the Savior was suffering.
Why He could die, why His enemies were allowed to mock Him. It's
for one reason. Because sin had taken hold of
Him. An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto Him. And now
that He lieth, He shall rise up no more. Now sin had taken
hold on him. They were right. They were right
about that. Now they didn't know what they were saying, but they
were right. And evil disease had taken hold upon him. But
it wasn't him getting what was coming to him because of all
the sin they felt like he committed. No, it was not his own sin at
all, was it? It was the sin of his people. But it had taken
hold upon him. It had become his. And he must
die for sin. He gives up the ghost. They're
going to think they got their way. And they're going to bury
him and be done with him and everybody's going to soon forget
about this man. But much to their surprise, he's not going to lie
in that grave for long. He's going to come out of the
tomb and never die. We'll get to that in a minute,
never die again. But he must. They're right. They're going
to watch him die because sin and evil disease had taken hold.
It's a sin of his people. And he died to put it away. But
there's one more thing here, he says in verse 12, this mocking
that he suffered. Or verse nine, excuse me. Yea,
mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat
of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. Now you know
this is a prophecy of Judas Iscariot. Now David suffered. What David
was writing about, he was writing a prophecy, but also his own
personal experience. David went through this. A man
named Ahithophel, who was one of David's most trusted advisors,
one of the wisest men in Israel, was one of David's advisors.
And when Absalom betrayed David, took his father's throne, Ahithophel
betrayed him too, and became Absalom's advisor. And when everybody
saw that Ahithophel was advising Absalom, they thought, oh no,
he can't be defeated because this wise advisor that he's got
on his side. Now all that was done as a picture
of Christ, who would be betrayed by one of the 12. One of the
12. Judas Iscariot. Even afterwards,
when the apostles are writing, you see their amazement. Judas. One of the 12. They're amazed
at this. This is the one who betrayed
him. Now think about Judas. Judas Iscariot. heard every message
that Peter heard. Judas Iscariot saw every miracle
that the Apostle John saw. Every one of them. Judas Iscariot
ate the last Passover. He ate the first Lord's table
directly from the hand of the Lord. He was still a rebel. Still unconverted. That ought to clearly drive home
the point. Salvation is by grace. It's not by experience. It's
by grace. Salvation is by faith in Christ. It's not going through the ceremonies.
It's not being baptized. Now, if you believe Christ, you
ought to be baptized. But if you don't believe Him,
when we baptize you, all we're going to get is a wet sinner. Salvation
is not in that ceremony. When we observe the Lord's table,
Every believer here, if somebody's visiting, or if you're a believer,
if you trust Christ, you ought to partake of the Lord's table.
This dude in remembrance of Him. But if you try to eat the Lord's
table, in order to be saved, you're just going to get a little
unleavened bread and a little wine on it. How can it make any difference?
Salvation is by faith in Christ. Judas Iscariot shows us that.
And not only did he just betray the Lord, not only did he just
turn away from Him, He lifted up his heel against him and stomped
him. One of the 12, his friend, when
Judas came to betray him with a kiss, what'd our Lord say?
Friend, why'd you come out here, friend? One of the 12 betrayed
him. And the rest of them forsook
him, didn't they? All his friends forsook him.
Even the father turned his back upon him so that he suffered
alone. You ever felt alone? Cry out to a Savior. He knows.
He knows what it is to be alone. He knows what it is to be betrayed.
He knows what it is to be forsaken. And He knows how to comfort the
hearts of those who have been betrayed and those who have been
forsaken, those who are alone. He suffered and died for the
sin of His people. But take it away. He knows how
to comfort them. And He will, He will with His
presence. Christ died for sin, to put away
the sin of His people. But He also died to heal His
people from their sin. He says here in verse 4, Lord
be merciful unto me, heal my soul. Heal my soul for I have
sinned against Thee. Now that's what Christ did for
His people. He healed their sin sick souls. Now sin is not just
a violation of the rules. You know, in basketball, players
get five fouls, don't they? You get five violations of the
rules before you get kicked out of the game. Well, sin's not
a violation of the rules. Sin is an evil disease, and it
must be healed. It's an uncleanness. And when
Christ was made sin, He pleaded, Father, heal my soul. And when
He died as a substitute for His people, He healed us. He took
away that disease. He healed it by his precious
blood. Isaiah told us seven, eight hundred
years before Christ was born, it was going to happen by his
stripes were healed. Malachi closing up the Old Testament
scriptures told us the son of righteousness is going to arise
with healing in his veins. We're healed from all of our
disease of sin, from all of its symptoms in the precious blood
of Christ, because the father Turn the suffering of Christ
into the health of his people. He turned the death of Christ
into the life of his people. That's why Christ died. To take
away the sin sickness, the disease of his people, to take away the
death of his people. He took all that away from them
and took it into his own body on the tree. And in exchange,
he traded them. He traded his health for their
sickness. He traded his life for their death. He traded his
righteousness for their sin. put it all away, made his people
whole. That's why Christ died. He died
for sin, as a sacrifice for sin, to put it away forever. All right,
thirdly, we see the resurrection of the Savior, verse two. The
Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he should be blessed
upon the earth, and thou will not deliver him under the will
of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of
languishing. Thou will make all his bed a turn, all his bad and
his sickness. By the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Savior, he considered the poor. He knows what it's like to be
poor. He felt all that poverty of our sin. He delivered his
people from their sin. He healed them of every sin sickness.
And he did it by suffering and dying for his people. But after
his death, the Father preserved him. The Father strengthened
him because his sacrifice put away sin. There's no reason for
him to stay dead. There's no reason for him to
stay weak. Sin has been put away. Now, for a short time, the Savior
suffered under the hand of his enemies. For a short time, he
suffered the wrath of his father. But those enemies will never
touch him again. Never. Because his death put
away the sin of his people. He is the successful, victorious
Savior. Now, he lay in the tomb. but
the father preserved him. His body was preserved. He laid
there for three days and suffered no decay because sin was gone. The sin that had been charged
to him had been washed away by his blood. He lay there on what
looked like, from what we read, sounds like a bed, a stone slab
or something. He laid there in a tomb. All he was doing was resting.
He just rested. It was a place of resting until
the Father raised Him up. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only man who was raised from the dead to never die again.
He's the first one. He's the first fruit. But because
He did it, there's a great harvest to follow. That's why we're preaching. The Lord sent His preachers out
to the harvest. There's going to be more to follow
Him who are going to be raised from the dead never to die again.
Now again, all this is not just a good story. I mean, you know,
the death of Christ and His resurrection, well, that's a good story, isn't
it? But it's a whole lot more than that. It's a whole lot more
than good doctrine. It's good doctrine, but more
than that. This is the comfort and assurance of salvation for
His people. Look at verse 10. But thou, O Lord, be merciful
unto me and raise me up that I may requite them. All those
that put our Lord to death, He's going to requite them. They're
going to stand before Him. He'll be their judge. By this
I know that thou favors me. How do I know that God favors
me? Because my enemy does not triumph over me. Now, if Christ
died as a sacrifice for sin and He stayed dead, then we know
His sacrifice didn't put away any sin, did we? Look at 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. If Christ died and He stayed
in the tomb, we would know that the father did not accept him,
did not accept his sacrifice. And all of us are still in our
sin. And we have absolutely no hope
of salvation. First Corinthians 15 verse 12. But that's not what
happened. Now, if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you, there is no resurrection
of the dead, but if there be no resurrection of the dead,
then is Christ not risen. Christ be not risen, then is
our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and
we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified
of God, that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so
be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then
is not Christ raised. If Christ be not raised, your
faith is vain, and you are yet in your sins. Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished, if in this life
only We have hope in Christ. We are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits
of them that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. You see, this
is the assurance that we have that Christ sacrificed, forever
put away the sin of his people. After he died, he was raised
from the dead. This was the father showing us
the proof he accepted his sacrifice. He had justified his people.
He was delivered for our offenses, but he was raised again for our
justification. He was raised again as the evidence.
He justified his people. Now look back at Acts chapter
17. Now this is an important point of doctrine, the resurrection
of Christ. is a point of doctrine the apostles
insisted upon and were martyred for. Acts 17 verse 24, this is
Paul here speaking to those superstitious religious people at Mars Hill.
He says, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing
that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples
made with hands, neither is worshiped with man's hands, as though he
needed anything. See, he giveth to all life, and
breath, and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations
of men, for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined
the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation,
that they should seek the Lord, that happily they may feel after
him, and find him, though he be not very far from every one
of us. For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As
certain also of your own poets have said, we are also his offspring. For as much, then, as we are
the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead
is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art in man's
device. In the times of this ignorance
God winked at him, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent,
because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men in that he raised him
from the dead. Now you can just see Paul, I
mean, he's just preaching. I mean, he don't have any notes.
I mean, he's just preaching. He's just going. And he gets
to this point here that he hath raised him from the dead. Suddenly
he was interrupted. And when they heard the resurrection
of the dead, some mocked. And others said, we'll hear thee
again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them.
Now they were listening. They thought, this is something
new. This is something interesting. We're hearing this. got to the
point of the resurrection, they mocked him. But Paul and none
of the other apostles would ever back down from the resurrection
of Christ because that's the proof that the Father accepted
his sacrifice and he accepted everyone for whom he died. The
Lord will heal. He will strengthen his people
because Christ both died and rose again for them. And since
Christ lives, the salvation of his people is guaranteed. That's
why he rose again. All right, here's my fourth point.
Here's the ascension and reign of the Savior, verse 12, back
in our text, Psalm 41. And as for me, thou upholdest
me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face forever. Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting and to everlasting. Amen and amen. Now the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior, That word integrity means innocent and
it also means complete. So the father raised him, he
ascended back to glory and he set him down at his right hand
on the throne of glory. And there he sits to this day,
blessed forever, ruling over creation, ruling as king of kings
and lord of lords from everlasting to everlasting. But now remember,
here's the comfort for God's people. The Lord Jesus Christ
never did do anything as a private person. And what I mean by that
is he never did anything just as himself. Everything he did,
he always did as the head of his people, the representative
of his people. So what he did, his people did
in him. God's elect are innocent because
Christ our head is innocent. God's people are complete. That's
one of the words of this word. Integrity is complete. We are
complete. in Him. Because our heads complete,
we are too. And Christ is the believer's
integrity. See, He took the sin of His people
away from Him. But He didn't give them a righteousness.
He didn't give them an integrity that they could lose. Like Adam
did. Adam had a righteous standing,
didn't he? But he could lose it. It was always based upon
his obedience, not eating of the tree, God forbid. But Christ
has given his people a righteousness and integrity they cannot lose
because it doesn't depend upon them. It doesn't depend upon
their obedience. It depends upon his obedience.
It doesn't depend on their sacrifice. It depends on his sacrifice.
It doesn't depend upon their life. It depends upon his life. Christ is the integrity. He is
the righteousness of his people, and it can never be lost because
it's from everlasting to everlasting. And right now, our Savior sits
before his father in glory. So do his people. That's right. I know we're still here on earth.
We're not a barrage. We really are here in the flesh.
I'm really looking at you. You're really looking at me.
I know we're here. But we who believe are also seated
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We're not. just as sure for heaven as if
we're already there. If we believe Christ, we already
are. We're there in Christ, our head. He's there as all of our
salvation. And that's why he came to earth
as a man. That's why he suffered and died for the sin of his people.
That's why he rose again. And that's why he ascended back
to glory to deliver his people from their sins. to heal them
from all of their sin sicknesses. And brother, he got the job done.
The father wouldn't have raised him from the dead and set him
on his right hand if he hadn't. He got the job done. And I love
how David ends this song. Amen and amen. That's a double
amen. You know, we're somebody preaching.
We really something really blesses. We say amen. So be it. This is a double amen. This is
what the believer wants. This is what the believer needs.
Christ is my hope. Amen. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this precious portion of your word. We've just looked
at it. Father, I pray that you would apply it to our hearts.
That by faith you'd enable us to see the Lord Jesus Christ
as our all in all. He's all of our salvation. He's
all of our righteousness. He's all of our integrity. He's
all of our sanctification, our redemption, our wisdom. Christ
is all. Enable us to see Him as our all.
And to enjoy this sweet rest. Resting in Christ. The one who's
finished the work. The one who had stooped so low. Who remembered us in our lowest
days and considered the poor by becoming one of us. That He
might redeem us. all of our sin and bring us to
the end. Father, how we thank you. Cause
your word to bring much glory to your name, to comfort the
hearts of your sheep as we go forth back out into the world
today and tomorrow. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, for his glory we pray and get