Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 37. I've entitled the message tonight,
Observations of an Old Believer. I thought as I was sitting up
here, I, as long as I can remember, have enjoyed being around men.
I've just, as a boy, I enjoyed being around men. I enjoyed being
around my dad and older men. If they were getting together
to talk about something maybe a boy ought not be privy to,
dad would just have to run me off. I mean, I just like being
around men, older men. When I was young, we were newly
married, I decided I'd like to start going to the men's meetings
in Henry's study. I found me a seat right between
Paul Williams and Carter Brown. I wanted to sit between these
two old men. Try not to say much and just,
you'd be amazed at the things I learned. But the main thing
I thought of was when we, Janet and I, were newly married. I
can't tell you how many evenings we'd spend out at her grandparents'
house, Grandma and Grandpa Conway. They'd invite us out to dinner.
It was under the guise of wanting to, you know, she'd fix too much
food or some, you know, let's visit or something. But they
knew times were lean, you know, so they'd invite us out to eat.
And after we ate, Grandpa Connie would sit there and we'd have
a cup of coffee, he'd smoke his cigar, we'd read the newspaper.
The National Daily Independent always has two sections. So I'd
take one, he'd take the other, and we'd switch them. And then
he'd invariably tell me something that struck his mind from one
of those articles. And I can't tell you how much
I learned as a young fellow sitting there at that kitchen table listening
to an old man. This psalm, Psalm 37, was written
when David was an old man. He says in verse 25, I've been
young, now I'm old. And what I hope we can do tonight
is just sit around the kitchen table and listen to his observations,
his observations of an old believer and see if the Spirit might be
pleased to teach us something very, very valuable. This is
not just the wise words of a man. David wrote this psalm under
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is almighty God, the ancient
of days speaking. But yet as David speaking to
it, you'll never mean wrote the scripture. The Lord did not take
their personality out. You see their personalities in
the script. You see clearly as you read the
psalms, you see David's personality. And the things that David is
telling us here are things that he learned by experience. But
almost always these things are learned slowly. That's why an
old man knows them. He's got some words of wisdom
that he can tell the young. It will have a teachable spirit.
Maybe we can learn something from David's wisdom here, the
wisdom of an old believer. I have six observations I want
us to see. And the first one is this. David
learned that the blessings that God gives his children are eternal. He blesses us with everything
we have in this life, but the blessings that God gives his
children are eternal. Verse 16, a little that a righteous
man have is better than the riches of many wicked. Who are the righteous
here? Well, you know, they're God's
people. These are people that God has saved. He's made them
righteous through the obedience and through the sacrifice of
our Lord Jesus Christ. These are God's people. They're
righteous. But even though they're the righteous
ones, God set his love and affection upon them. God's people usually
have little of this world's goods, don't they? Usually speaking,
Scripture says not many mighty, not many noble are called. But
you know, the little that they have is better than all the wealth
of the wicked. Just a little bit. And you young
people listen to me. I know this. This crosses the
logic of the human mind, but this is so. A little of God's
grace, a little bit. is a whole lot better than the
heap of gold and silver that the wicked have. Because you'll
find happiness is not found in a heap of gold and silver, is
it? Happiness is having Christ in the heart. And Christ in the
heart, just a little bit of His grace affects our whole life,
our whole outlook on life. I drink my coffee black, but
I do know people that sweeten it. And you know, it doesn't
take much. Just a little bit of sugar sweetens that whole
cup of coffee. Well, that's God's grace. Just
a little bit of God's grace sweetens our entire life, doesn't it?
But you know what? We can't ever talk about God's
grace in small terms, can we? He's rich in mercy. He's plenteous
in mercy and grace. He gives abundantly. That's why
these riches, these are eternal riches. Look over at Proverbs
chapter 15. I told you, you can tell that
David taught his son Solomon something. Solomon had learned
this. Proverbs chapter 15, verse 16. Better is a little, better is
a little bit of this world's goods with the fear of the Lord
than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner
of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. Just a little for the righteous
is a whole lot better than the wealth of the wicked. And let
me give you just two examples to make this so plain. We read
the scripture and we see John the Baptist and Herod the King. John the Baptist had little of
this world's goods. Our Lord said, there's not been
a greater man, greater profit ever. He just had little of this
world's goods. He ate locusts and wild honey
as his meat. His clothes had to be made out
of camel hair. Inherent, rich beyond measure, power just we
can't imagine. But look at their ending. Two blessings were eternal. Then
we know about Lazarus the beggar and the rich man. We know something
about their lives. That rich man lived scrumptiously,
just comfortably, Lazarus lay outside his gate on the ground,
sores, just a beggar. We know something about their
lives, don't we? We know something about their end. The rich man
called out in hell, just send Lazarus to put a drop of water
on my tongue. That was the rich man. Lazarus,
the beggar, is comforted in the bosom of Abraham. Now let me
ask you, who was really rich? Who was really rich? And David
observed this throughout his lifetime. You know, it's OK not
to have much of this world's goods, because it's all going
to perish with the using anyway. You know, they say you can't
take it with you. You know why they say that? Because you can't. Look at verse 17. For the arms
of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholdeth the righteous. You know, the wicked cling so
tightly to their riches, they won't let it go for anything.
And you know why they do that? They think that's their security.
It's in all their riches, their money, their, you know, whatever
it is. But the Lord breaks the arms of the wicked. He just breaks
the arms so they can't hold anything. And they go appear before the
Lord naked without anything. All their security will be gone.
They can't take any of that stuff with them. But the Lord upholds
the righteous. The righteous have salvation.
They have security in Christ. And get this, they don't have
to hang on to it themselves. The Lord holds them in His hand. He holds them and everything
about them in His hand. So they're saved. And everything
He gives them in this life, everything they had, He gives them. He gives
them enough. But He also blesses them with an eternal inheritance.
Verse 18. The Lord knoweth the days of the upright. and their
inheritance shall be forever. The believer has an eternal inheritance. Now, what is an inheritance?
Well, inheritance is something somebody else earned, isn't it?
It's something that somebody else stored up. It's something
that somebody else gave to you freely. You didn't do a thing
to get it, they did it all. Well, believers have an inheritance.
Our inheritance has been earned by Christ our Savior. It's been
stored up for him, by him, for his people. Peter said our inheritance
is incorruptible. It's undefiled. It's reserved
in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed. That inheritance can never be
lost because it's not in our arms to hold it. It's all in
the hand of our God. So the blessings that God gives
his people are eternal blessings. They can never be lost. All right,
second, David, the old believer, learned this. Remember Psalm
23, he wrote, the Lord is our shepherd. David learned, our
shepherd will never leave us. He'll guide us all the days of
our lives. Verse 23, the steps of a good
man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way.
Now, who is the good man? Well, you know who he is. It's
the man or the woman who's been made good in Christ because Christ
is the only one good. And He makes His people good
through His obedience. And the Lord's pleased with them.
He delights in their way. But now listen, He delights in
their way. The Lord's not pleased with the strength of our steps. You parents, you remember when
that baby started to pull himself up and he started to let go and
stand, and then he started walking. He'd just take one or two steps
and boom, down he'd go. And you're thrilled and clapping
your hands and hooting and hollering. It didn't matter that he couldn't
walk a straight line. It didn't matter that he took
two steps and fell down. You delighted in that, didn't
you? Well, the Lord's not pleased with the strength of our steps.
The Lord, David said, delights in our way. He delights in Christ
who is our way and He's pleased with us in Christ. In all those steps we take, we
might take two steps and fall down, we stagger around and go
backwards sometimes. But as we go through our lives,
you remember this. Every step you take, every step,
everything you do, everything somebody else does to you, everything
you experience has already been ordained. ordered and established
by our God. That's good news to God's children,
because we don't have to know the way to go. We don't have
to know how we can do this and go on our own. I tell you how
the Lord establishes the steps of His people. It's by leading
us everywhere we go. I find so much comfort in that.
If the Lord left me to myself for just a nanosecond, I'd go
the wrong way and fall off the cliff, wouldn't you? You know
why we don't do that? He's already bordered our steps.
Christ our shepherd is leading us. Look over at John chapter
10. Our Savior has a people. His
sheep. He loves those people. And when
it comes to leading those people, to protecting them, to feeding
them, He doesn't leave this to somebody else. He does it Himself. He's the Great Shepherd. John
10, verse 1. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth
up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he
that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth. and the sheep hear his voice.
And he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them. And the sheep follow him. They
don't run ahead, they don't run off to the left, off to the right,
they follow him, for they know his voice. The child of God listened to
him. Every step God's sheep take,
every step. Christ, our savior is taken first.
Whatever it is, it's a step of pain, a step of sorrow, whatever
it is, a step of joy, whatever it might be. Christ, our shepherd
has taken that step first because he goes before the sheep. He
leadeth the sheep. And we can never take a wrong
step or go the wrong way. if we're following Christ, because
He never leads us wrong. We can't go the wrong way and
lose our salvation, because it's our Savior, our Shepherd, who
will not allow it. Verse 24. Though He fall, He
shall not be utterly cast down. For the Lord upholdeth Him with
His hand. Scripture doesn't teach us that
believers won't make some mistakes, that they'll never stumble and
fall. You know, sometimes you see somebody stumble, Don't write
them off. Don't think, well, that's not
one of God's people. No, we stumble and fall. You know, and we would
do that, wouldn't we? We see it. We see one of our
brethren stumble and say, oh, they're not a believer. They
never did know the Lord. What about that toddler? That toddler
first learned to walk and falls down into a glass. Well, that's
not my son. Kick him out? Kick him to the curb? No. Scripture
doesn't teach us we won't make mistakes. No, we will. We'll
stumble and we'll fall. And you don't have to be very
old to have seen that happen in yourself or in others. But
here's what scripture does teach us. That while we sin, we stumble
and we fall to him, we might embarrass ourselves. We will
not fall off of Christ, the rock of our salvation. We may fall,
but we can't fall off of him. We'll fall, but we can't fall
away from grace. We can't fall away from Christ
Not if he saved us, we can. No. See, he's already reached
way down and lifted us from the depths, from the miry clay and
set our feet on Christ, the rock of our salvation. And we're going
to fall, but he's not going to let us fall all the way back
down there and stay. No, because the Lord upholds his people.
And what's more, that new nature that God gives his people a new
birth, that nature will never leave Christ either. Verse 31. Well, verse 30, the mouth of
the righteous speaketh wisdom. His tongue talketh of judgment.
The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall
slide. His steps are not going to slide
because he's following Christ. Look back at Job chapter 17.
A number of years ago, Brother
Henry preached a famous, at least a message, at least it's famous
to me. On this verse, Job 17, verse 9. The righteous also shall hold
on his way. He that hath clean hands shall
be stronger and stronger. The righteous shall hold on his
way. He's not going to leave. He's
going to keep hanging on. He's going to keep following
Christ and he'll grow stronger. Not grow stronger so that he
doesn't need Christ. No, he grows stronger and understanding
his need, his dependence upon Christ, he grows stronger in
grace, stronger in faith, and he will not leave. The Savior
won't allow it, and his new nature won't allow it either. All right,
thirdly, David, the old believer, learned this. This is an observation
that the young should listen to. Our God will never forsake
his people. Verse 25, I've been young. and now I'm old. Yet have I not
seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed baking bread." It
was this verse that drew me to want to preach from the rest
of this psalm. I preached from the first 10 or 11 verses last week. And I thought about moving to
Psalm 38, but this verse 25, it just drew me to look at it,
look at it, look at it. I looked at it a long time because
I was pretty sure I didn't know what it meant. So I kept looking
at it. I kept looking at it. I believe the Lord has given
me some light on it that will comfort your hearts by glorifying
Him. David said he's never seen the righteous begging bread.
I have to tell you, I haven't either. I've been at times without
a job and had no clue, utterly no clue, what are we going to
do for food three days from now. Utterly no clue. and the Lord
always provided. But I'm convinced that's not
what that means. I'm convinced of it. That does
not mean God's people will never suffer hunger or want in this
life. David himself, at least two times,
had to ask somebody else for bread because he didn't have
any. Remember, he went to Ahimelech the priest. He needed bread for
his men. The priest gave him the show
bread. And then he asked Nabal for for food. Abel wasn't going
to give it to him, but his wife Abigail did. So David twice had
to go ask somebody else for bread. The scripture's full of examples
of believers suffering want in this life. You read about our
brothers and sisters at the end of Hebrews chapter 11. Those
people were destitute. They were afflicted. They were
tormented. Looks to me like they went through some very lean times.
I bet you food was scarce. I don't know what to say about
that other than this. The Lord will provide. I know
that the Lord will provide. And if we see our brethren in
that situation, we're to help them. Maybe we're the means God
ordained to use to provide for them. But I tell you this, don't
wait to be asked. Give anyway. help anyway without
ever needing, don't ever make your brother ask you for help
that you might have some clue. You might, you just go, go fill
it. But here's what I believe this verse means. This is what
the observation that David learned. We know the spiritually speaking
God's people are always beggars. We're mercy beggars, always in
need of mercy. We never have a prayer. We don't
ask God for mercy. Don't ask Him for grace. Don't
ask Him to forgive us of our sin and thank Him for how much
He's freely given us. We didn't deserve it. We didn't
earn it. God just gave it all, everything we have, God gave
to us. So we're mercy beggars. But the children of God do not
beg like a beggar that nobody knows that beggar. I've seen people, I believe they
really were begging. Some people I think were faking,
but other people were, I'm confident, were beggars. And there they
sit, whatever place it is where they're begging. And you can
just tell from their expression, you can tell from their body
language, they really have very little hope of receiving anything.
Now they're asking, you know, but they just have very little
hope that they're going to receive anything. Seen that? Do you understand? That's a beggar
feeling that way, don't you? That's not the attitude of a
believer. That is not the attitude that a believer has coming to
our father, because our father never forsakes the righteous.
Verse 26, he is ever merciful. We are ever sinful. We are ever
in need, but he is ever merciful. And Linda, and his seed is blessed. See, a child of God doesn't come
to our father all afraid, you know, afraid if we ask for something,
he's going to smack us down. We don't come before him in that
kind of fear. Like, you know, some unknown beggar that's probably
not going to get anything. If we do just a little bit of
pocket change, not make any difference anyway. That is not how a child
of God comes to our father when we're in time of need. Luke 15. Let me show you this. Luke 15.
I can't tell you how much this thrilled me when the Lord put
this together for me. We don't come as a nameless beggar
to our Father. We come to our Heavenly Father
as a child, just like that prodigal came to his father. Now, we come
begging, but it's begging as a son and a daughter who is loved
by the Father. Luke 15, you know the story of
the prodigal. There he is down there eating
whatever it is they gave the swine to eat. In verse 17, he
came to himself and he said, how many hired servants of my
father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. I'll arise and go to my father
and I'll say unto him, here's this speech, you can just see
him walking on with his father, he keeps practicing this speech
over and over and over again. I'll arise and go to my father,
I'll say to him, father, I've sinned against heaven and before
thee. I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one
of thy hired servants. He rose and came to his father,
but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had
compassion. And he ran to him and fell on
his neck and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father,
I've sinned against heaven in thy sight and am no more worthy
to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants,
bring forth the best robe and put it on him. And put a ring
on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted
calf and kill it and let's eat. And be merry, for this my son,
not my servant, not a beggar, this my son was dead and is alive
again. He was lost. Yeah, you're right.
He didn't deserve to be called my son. He was lost, but now
he's found. And they began to be married.
That's how a son, undeserving, wayward, prodigal son comes to
our Father. We come begging that Father who
has eternally loved us. He will never forsake His children. I love what David says here.
We are undeserving, so undeserving, so full of sin. But God is ever
merciful. He lends it. He gives to His
children. And His seed is blessed, blessed with those eternal, everlasting
blessings. God blesses His children with
bread that the world doesn't know anything about. Remember
those disciples? Well, our Lord's disciples were
away from Him. Going to buy meat and they came
back and they weren't hungry anymore. And they thought, would
somebody else get Him? He said, I've got meat. You know not of. They didn't
understand that yet, did they? You who believe have bread that
the world knows not of. Can't understand it. It's bread
that satisfies the soul. It's Christ in the soul that
satisfies Those are the blessings that the soul of the believer
hungers and thirsts after. And God will never let that hunger
go unfilled. He always blesses His people
with His Son, the Bread of Life. The Lord does bless His children.
He gives us everything we have. If David could see us here today,
he'd say, we're all rich. Everybody's rich. The Lord has
blessed us with everything we have and we're thankful. Think,
well, you know, those things don't really matter, so I'm not
going to thank God for them. No, we thank God for them. But the kingdom
of God is a whole lot more than meat and raiment and drink. Our
Lord taught us that. All told, the church of Rome,
the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, joy, and the Holy Ghost.
So the famine that causes us to beg bread is not a physical
thing. It's a spiritual thing. And that's the need God never
lets go unfilled. Remember, Amos prophesied of
a famine of spiritual bread. The people will look for it everywhere,
but they won't be able to find it. The strong won't be able
to get it. They just can't get this spiritual food, the bread
of life. But during that time of famine,
boy, I believe that's today. I mean, I would imagine every
believer's thought. Amos talked about my day. There's
a famine of bread. There's a famine of the preaching
of the word in the land. Everybody's gone after something
else and nobody's hearing the gospel. Nobody's hearing of Christ.
But in that time of famine, in this dark day, we think this
day is so dark. You find me a believer, God's
not fooling you. He always blesses them with His
word. They'll never suffer famine because
God will never forsake the righteous. So come to Him begging. Come
to Him begging. Not as a frightened beggar. But
as a child of God, he will never fail to bless his children. We looked at this quite a bit
last week, but here it is again in these verses. David, the old
believer, learned the wicked are going to cause a lot of trouble,
but they're not going to be around for long. God will deal with
them. Verse 32. The wicked watcheth the righteous
and seeketh the slave. The Lord will not leave him in
his hand or condemn him when he is judged. Wait on the Lord
and keep his way. And he shall exalt thee to inherit
the land. When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. I've
seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a
green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not. Yeah,
I sought him, but he could not be found. Now, this is just the
way of the world. Don't ever expect it to change.
The wicked will always watch the righteous, and they'll always
try to trap them. The wicked will be opposed to
them at every step. They just can't help themselves.
Because light and darkness can never agree. They can never walk
together. Not in peace they can't. One's
going to drive out the other. And the wicked in this earth,
they're going to get power. They're going to get power over
the righteous. They're going to be able to make
laws and they're going to have power over the righteous. But
Lord's not going to leave his people in their hand. You just
wait. The Lord's going to come to deliver
His people. He always has. He always will. And when He comes to deliver
His people, He's going to just obliterate the wicked. He's going
to destroy them so completely, you can't find them. David said,
I went looking for them. Every trace of them is gone. Now, the preeminent illustration
of this is our Lord Jesus Christ. In order to fulfill his father's
will, the redemption of his people, the father turned his son over
to the wicked. For a time, didn't he? For a
time. They condemned him. They fathered
him. Not for long, he didn't, did
he? No, he turned his son over to the wicked. The wicked watched
for three years. They watched him. For three years,
they tried to trick him and trap him. They couldn't do it. And
then finally, the father gave his son into their hands and
they fulfilled the will of all flesh. They tried to get rid
of God's son. They tortured and killed God's
son so that for this reason, it wasn't so that their purpose
could be fulfilled. It was so God's purpose could
be fulfilled. They did all that. The father allowed all that to
happen so that Christ, our substitute, could satisfy justice for his
people. So he could die in the place of his people. So they
never died. The Father allowed all that to happen so His Son
could bring in everlasting righteousness and salvation to His people.
And when God's done using the wicked to accomplish His purpose,
He's going to destroy them in justice. Did that happen to Rome
and to the Jews? It did, didn't it? But God's
people, they won't be destroyed. They'll enjoy eternal redemption.
All right, fifth. David, the old believer, learned.
that the end of a righteous man is peace. Verse 37. He said,
you mark the perfect man, watch him. Behold the upright, for
the end of that man is peace. Now you know who this perfect
man is, the same as the righteous. It's the man who's been made
perfect in Christ. When Christ saved his people,
he made them perfect. Perfect. As perfect as He is. He took their sin away from them.
Put it away under His precious blood. So they're perfect. And
the blood of Christ's sacrifice purchased something for His people.
It purchased their eternal redemption. The blood of His cross bought
peace for His people. Because His blood paid for all
their sins. There's no more death. There
are no more deficiencies. They're perfect. That's why when
a child of God is born again, they're born with the nature
of Christ. They're perfect. They're born from perfect, incorruptible,
sinless seed. David says, you mark that man.
That man is an object of God's grace. God's made him perfect.
You mark that man, watch him. You see what happens to him.
His end is going to be peace. And in Adam, we declared war
on God. But in Christ, we have peace with God. In Adam, our
hearts are angry with God, aren't they? But when the blood of Christ
is applied to our hearts, we have peace. We have peace. The
blood of Christ took away what made the father angry, took away
the sin of his people, so the father's not angry anymore. And
when the blood of Christ is applied to our hearts, we're given a
new heart and we're not angry anymore either. Now those two
parties are at peace. They've been reconciled in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's a blessing to have peace.
Because in Adam, in the nature that we're born with, we cannot
find peace. Can't be done. If you try to
find peace for this flesh, you will never find it. Never will. Because nothing will ever satisfy
this flesh. Once we meet Christ, There's
peace. There's peace in the heart because
we're satisfied with Christ. There's peace because we don't
need anything else. We have what our soul was always
longing for. We just didn't know what it was
until we met Him. And we met Him and made one with
Him. There's peace. Now, this life
is still going to be full of troubles and trials and heartaches
and hardship and warfare. Has to be. We're in a hostile
territory behind enemy lines. But you mark that man. You mark
that man that trusts Christ. You mark that man, watch him.
When he leaves this life, he's leaving all that hardship and
warfare, leaving it all behind. He's going to eternal peace.
There's peace with God through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. All right, now here's the last
observation. David, the old believer, observed
why all this is true. He observed why all these previous
five observations are all true. It's all true because of this
one statement. Salvation is of the Lord. Verse 39. But the salvation of
the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in time
of trouble. And the Lord shall help them
and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the
wicked and save them because they trust in Him. Their trust
in Him is never in vain. The salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. Now, you and I are born in sin.
We're born unrighteous. So it's obvious if we're going
to be made righteous, if something about us is going to be pleasing
to God, somebody else is going to have to do it. Somebody else
is going to have to make us righteous. Somebody else has to save us.
It all had to be up to the Lord. The Lord had to do it all from
beginning to end. That's the only way a sinner
can be saved is if God does all the work. If even one work is
left up to you and me, there's no salvation. But there's salvation
if God did all the work. And that's the way God saved
his people. It began in eternity when God the Father chose a people
to save. Now, salvation does not begin
with the purpose of God in electing a people to save. No sinner can
ever be saved. People say they hate election.
For the life of me, I don't know why. If it did not begin with
God's purpose to save a people, no sinner could ever be saved.
And what? We can't do it. We couldn't choose
it, could we? Only God could do that. Only
God in amazing love and mercy could choose to save a sinner
that was His enemy. Only God could do that. It began
with God. When the Father chose those people,
you know what He did? He put them in Christ to be their
surety. Before anything was ever created,
Christ was the surety of His people. I'm so thankful. See, that's of the Lord. There
could be no salvation without Christ our surety. You know what
that means when I say there's no salvation without Christ our
surety. This is what that means. No one could be saved unless
God purposed to save them before time began. And at that time,
Christ promised to save them. If that didn't happen, there's
no salvation for any son of Adam. Because if Christ wasn't the
surety of a people, when Adam fell, the human race would have
been wiped out. Wouldn't it? You know why it
wasn't? Christ already said, Father, there's a people coming
from Adam's loins, and I'll save them. That's why Adam looked
like that. Christ our surety. God didn't
destroy him, because Christ promised to save him. Salvation's up in
the Lord, isn't it? But then in time, This is what
everybody is singing about at this time of year. Christ had
to come to this earth as a man. He had to in order to save his
people from their sin. Christ had to come in the same
nature that we have if he's going to save sinners. Somebody in
our nature has to obey the law for us and make us righteous.
Somebody in our nature must pay the debt that we owe. A sheep
or a bull can't do that, can they? A sheep or a bull can't
be your substitute because it's got a different nature. So you
know what God did? God took on him the nature of
fallen man, yet without sin, born of a virgin, the woman's
seed. He took on him that flesh and
not just flesh, but he took on him a human nature so that he
could be the representative of his people. So he could be their
substitute, put their sin away. All that had to be done by someone
in our nature. See, we were made guilty by representation,
by the actions of another, by Adam. He's the first representative
man. Well, sinners are made righteous
the exact same way we're made unrighteous. By a representative
man doing something for us. By the Lord Jesus Christ in a
human body. See, salvation is of the Lord.
God had to do that for us. God had to come in our nature
to save us or there'd be no salvation. be no possibility of it. And
here's the proof of it. Fallen angels had no hope of
redemption because Christ didn't take on him the nature of an
angel. He took on him the nature of a man so he could save sinful
men and women. And then that man, that glorious,
perfect man, the Lord Jesus Christ died in the place of his people. He took their sin his own body
on the tree. He made sin for them and he put
their sin away forever by his sacrifice. And he made those
people the righteousness of God. Adam made us unrighteous. The
Lord Jesus Christ made his people righteous. Only God could do
that. These salvations of the Lord
are worth thankful. But then, you know, that salvation
must be applied. It has to be done. It's like
that Passover lamb. It had to be watched for those
number of days. It had to be kept up and had
to be killed at the appointed time, didn't it? That firstborn
is going to die unless blood is applied to the door. Salvation
has got to be applied. How does that happen? God, the
Holy Spirit. He comes and He applies that
blood, the blood of Christ to our hearts. He causes His people
to be born again by what we're doing right now. by giving them
faith in Christ, by hearing the preaching of Christ, and suddenly
they believe it. They don't know how, they don't
know why, they just believe. It's the Holy Spirit giving life.
He's applied that salvation. Everyone for whom Christ died
must be born again. That's why the Lord said, well,
the dead can't give themselves life, can they? Well, God's got
to do that. Salvation's of the Lord. But
then those people must be kept. They can't do it themselves.
So God, by his power, the power of his spirit brings them home.
Christ, the good shepherd, leads them all the way home and brings
every last one of them in the presence of the father. And when
all of them have been gathered together at one place, then God's
purpose of redemption for his people will be complete. We think that's wonderful now.
When we see it for what it really is, we will spend eternity praising
God for it. Salvation is of the Lord. David
was thankful. David, the old believer, he learned
this more and more clearly as the days and years rolled by.
He learned there's no hope in this sinful, rotten, dying flesh. He learned this. I need Christ
more today than ever before. I need Him more than the day
I first believed. Because I've learned something
more about the rottenness of this flesh, the depravity of
this flesh. I've learned a little bit more
about His glory and His sufficiency and I need Him more every day. Thank God He's ever merciful. Thank God salvation is of the
Lord because He will, He will perfect it for His people. That
blessing is eternal. A whole lot better than a heap
of gold and silver. Salvations of the Lord. Alright, let's bow
together. Our God, how we thank You for
Your Word. I would thank You for opening it to us and giving
us some understanding of it. Father, how we beg that You give
us faith to believe it. That we would rest the entirety
of our soul's salvation upon the Lord Jesus Christ. and rest
in Him. It's not by anything that we've
done. It's all of your will, all of your purpose, all of the
doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, all of your power and
giving life, all of your mercy and grace, blessing to your people. Father, bless us, we pray, with
this great blessing, eternal blessing, Christ in the heart,
salvation in Him. Father, save us, we pray. Have
mercy upon us, we pray. Keep us faithful. Keep us in
your arm forever and ever, we pray. Of course, in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray and give thanks.