Let's look again at Psalm 31.
I titled the message this morning,
Five Reasons for Salvation. I probably chose that title because
I couldn't think of a better word for reason. We know that
Christ is the reason for salvation. Salvation is all by, through
and in our Lord Jesus Christ. But our text we're going to look
at this evening gives us five ways or five reasons that salvation
in Christ comes to His people. And all of them relate to Christ,
because Christ is salvation. And each of these five reasons
are going to show us how much we depend upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's my prayer this evening,
that we leave here tonight depending upon Christ. The first reason
is this. Salvation is through faith in
Christ. Verse 1, David says, In thee,
O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Now,
if we know anything at all about Scripture, we know this. Salvation
is not by our works of the law. It's not by our works of religion.
It's not by our moral life. Salvation is by faith in Christ. Salvation. Christ is our salvation. He's accomplished it all. And
we receive that salvation through faith. Salvation by faith. Without our works is so important. The Apostle Paul wrote a whole
letter to the church at Rome about it. Justification by faith. Salvation by faith. Without works. That's Paul's whole subject in
the book of Romans. And the rest of the Bible backs
him up. Let me just quote two verses to it. Hebrews 10, 38. Now the just shall live by faith.
Very simple, isn't it? We don't have life by our works
or our morality. It's by faith in Christ. Romans
5.1. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. We're justified by faith without
works. We have peace with God through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is by faith. Almost everybody has heard that. Let me ask you a question. What
exactly is faith? What is saving faith? Well, faith
is one of those things that if you have it, you know what it
is. It's kind of hard to explain exactly, but if you have it,
you know what it is. Faith believes Christ. Faith believes everything God
says. Even when I don't understand it, faith just believes it because
God's Word says it. And faith rests in Christ. You
know, salvation is not by works, and it's not because that's what
Scripture says. Salvation is not by works. then faith doesn't
get to work, does it? Faith doesn't think I've got
to work to keep the law. Faith just rests in Christ, who
already kept the law for us. But here, David uses a word,
and I love the word he uses to describe faith here. It's trust. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Isn't it wonderful if you have
somebody in your life that you just implicitly, completely trust? That's pretty special. I trust,
not just everything I have, I trust my heart to Janet. And you know
what? I've never had a moment's thought
that she's going to do something to hurt me. Never, ever. That's precious, trust. When
our children were small, Janet and I asked someone if something
would happen to both of us at the same time, would you take
our daughters? and raise them. And you parents,
you understand this. That's a big deal. That's a big
deal. To have somebody, a friend like
that, that you could trust with the children, the most precious
thing in this world that you've got. But I tell you, there's
something much more important than that. Our own eternal soul. Much more important than our
children. Much more important than our circumstances of this
life. Faith. trusts our eternal soul to Christ. Just trust it all in His hands.
We don't try to help Him out. We don't try to, you know, give
Him a down payment or help Him out with some of our strength.
Faith trusts all the weight of our soul into the hand of Christ.
Faith trusts Christ to save me. He's my salvation or I'm damned.
I trust it all to Him. Faith trusts Christ to keep me.
know this. This is one of the frightening
things that, you know, when you start looking at yourself, I
can't tell you how far off the deep end I'd go in a half a second
if God just lift his finger off of me just the slightest bit.
But faith, trust Christ to keep me. I trust him to save me. I
trust him to keep me saved. I trust him to ultimately save
me, to bring me to glory. I trust him to do that. Tis so
sweet. to trust in Jesus, how sweet
that is to know that he saved you, to be able to trust him
just completely. Look over at Proverbs chapter
three. This trust in Christ is a complete trust, wholehearted
trust. This is a verse I frequently
write in a card or we have a graduation, we give a Bible to one of our
young people graduating, this is the verse I always put in
the inscription. Verse 5, Proverbs 3. Trust in
the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path.
Faith, trust God wholeheartedly. Trust in the Lord with all thy
heart. A wholehearted trust with absolutely
no reservation. And just like faith, faith never
ends, does it? Not until we get to glory. Here,
faith never ends. This trust in Christ never ends. David said, trust in Him at all
times, ye people. All times, not just when you
first come to Him, but all times. Pour out your heart before Him.
Just trust Him enough to pour out your whole heart before Him.
You can trust the Lord at all times. All times. You know it's
easy to trust a boat if it's on a sea of glass. I have a friend
who lives up near northern Ohio, Lake Erie or some place they
went one time. He said he called it a sucker
day. His friends took him out on a boat and he said the lake
was like glass. He thought this is the best thing
ever. And you know what he did? He ran out and bought a huge
boat. You know what he found out? Those
sucker days don't come along very often. He needed a boat
that could withstand those waves and the storms and the things,
you know. That's trusting in the Lord.
It's easy to trust in the Lord when there's a sea of glass in there. I don't know, I don't
hesitate to call those sucker days, but those sucker days don't
come along very often, do they? But you can depend upon the Lord. You can trust upon the Lord at
all times. Especially in the rough seas. Especially when the sea is so
rough, you feel out of control. At that time, especially, you
can trust in the Lord. Psalm 56.3, David said this. At what time I'm afraid. At what
time the wind is strong and the rain and the waves and the darkness
and this just scares me to death. At what time I'm afraid. You
know what I'm going to do? David said, I'll trust in thee.
You trust in the Lord at all times. Job said this, Though
he slay me, even if he takes the life of this flesh, though
he slay me, yet will I trust him. I trust him at all times.
I trust him. He hadn't made a mistake. I trust him. He'll do right,
He'll do good. It is so sweet to trust in Jesus. Faith trusts Christ. And how can I get that faith?
Oh, I want that faith, that saving faith. How can I get that faith?
Well, faith is a gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. God gives
this gift of faith to all of His elect through the preaching
of the gospel. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. After Peter's great
message in Acts chapter 13 to Antioch, he finished that message,
and this is what we read. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. Everyone God had elected unto
salvation believed Christ. They believed that message because
God gave them faith in Christ. And they spent the rest of their
days trusting Christ. Salvation by faith means this,
that Christ has finished the work. And this is why that's
such good news. He finished it. It is finished.
Then there is not one thing left for this poor, weak, fickle sinner
to do in order to be saved. Not one. So I rest in Christ. I depend upon him. And that's
sweet rest. Salvation is through faith in
Christ. And salvation is also by the faith of Christ. That
brings me to the second reason, the second way here, that salvation
is in Christ our righteousness. Verse 1, end of verse 1, David
says, deliver me in thy righteousness. Now look over Galatians chapter
2. Let me show you what I mean when I say that salvation is
by the faith of Christ. It's by faith in Christ, but
it's also by the faith of Christ. Galatians chapter 2, verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Faith in Christ believes and
trust depends upon, rests upon the faith of Christ. The faithfulness
of Jesus Christ to do everything that it took. to save His people
from their sins. The law's got to be satisfied.
Christ did it. In a body of flesh, He obeyed
the law perfectly. Sin's got to be paid for. Sin's
got to be cleansed. Christ died to pay for sin. He
shed His blood to wash His people free from all of their sin. We're
justified by the faithfulness of Christ to do everything that
was necessary to save our souls. Now, we can't be justified by
Our deeds are the law because everything we do is sin. But
Christ, we don't have to worry about that because Christ already
did it. He already kept the law for his
people and made his people righteous. Christ is the righteousness of
his people. His name is Jehovah Sidkenus,
the Lord, our righteousness. God's elect are made the righteousness
of God in Christ, our representative. Now, how is it that we need to
be made righteous? Well, here's, I suppose, where
we need to start. If we need to be made righteous,
how do we get unrighteous? How do we get in this mess in
the first place? Well, all of us, every one of us in this room,
we were made guilty in Adam, our representative, our first
representative. What Adam did, we really did. We did it in him so that we're
guilty. Adam's guilt was not charged
to us even though we didn't do anything wrong. That would not
be holy. That wouldn't be just or right.
Adam's guilt wasn't charged to us even though we didn't do anything
wrong. We did what our representative did. So we're really guilty. Can you deny that? Can you deny
your sin nature? Where'd you get it? Got it from
Adam. We're made guilty in Adam. Well,
sinners are made righteous the exact same way. through representation
by a second representative, the Lord Jesus Christ, the second
Adam. And God's elect are truly righteous because we really did
what Christ our representative did. Now, that's not just good
doctrine. That's good preaching. Good preaching. That's something, if you believe
Christ, you can take this with you to work tomorrow. You can
take this with you wherever you go. You can take it all the way
to your deathbed. If you believe Christ, If you
are righteous in Christ, you have no sin. God will never cast
you out. Christ took away every reason
God would have to cast you out. He took your sin away and has
made you righteous in his Son. So when God sees you, do you
know who he sees? He sees Christ. And when God looks at Christ,
do you know who he sees? He sees you in him. When God looks at
you, do you know who he sees? Jehovah's sick kids. Lord, our
righteousness. This is the name wherewith she
shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. Jehovah said,
Kenny, when God sees you, he, you who believe he sees his precious
son. You always be accepted in there. You take that to your deathbed.
Well, you got to worry about it. You take that to work tomorrow.
When people at work are doing the things that people do, you
take that with you wherever you go. You got no worries if God
sees you as perfect as He sees His Son. Salvation is in Christ
our righteousness. It's all in Him. All right, here's
the third thing. Salvation is by God's sovereign
mercy. Verse 2, Psalm 31. Bow down thine
ear to me and deliver me speedily. David tells us that the Lord's
going to hear us. He's going to have to bow down
his ear. If Lord's going to hear us, He's
going to have to stoop down to hear us. Just like we would stoop
down to hear a little child. I was with my nephew Gavin the
other day. And he said, Uncle Frank, I have
to tell you something. And I said, OK, what's that?
And he starts talking so quiet I couldn't hear him. And I got
down on my knee and put my ear next to him and put my arm around
him so I could hear what he was saying to me. That's no secret I love that
little fella. That's bowing down, stooping down to hear Him in
tenderness. That's what the Lord does for
His children. He stoops down. If He's going to hear you and
me, He's so high above us, He's got to stoop down, doesn't He?
And He does. In tenderness, He stoops to help
His children. If Lord's going to hear us, He's
going to have to do it, not just in mercy. But David talks about
tender mercies. Those tender mercies for the
helpless, weak child. That's the only plea a sinner's
got. I need tender mercy. The Lord stoops down to hear
the cries of His people. Because He stooped way down to
become one of us. How He stooped to appear on this
earth in human flesh so that He could be one with His people.
So He could save the people that He loved. stoop that the Son
of God, the Word, would be made flesh and dwell among us. But
He did it so He could save His people from their sin. Think
how far He stooped. The Son of God, the Prince of
Glory stooped to become a servant. Not just a servant to His Father,
although He did, but He was made under the law to be a servant
to His Father. But you know, even for a time
He was made subject to the authority of creatures to whom he gives
life and breath. What a stoop. Tender mercy so
he could redeem his guilty people who couldn't do anything for
themselves. And after a life of perfection, he stooped again. He went to the Garden of Gethsemane
and he stooped. He knelt in prayer saying, Father,
help me. Help me. Help me in this hour.
Strengthen me in this hour. And he went and allowed himself
to be taken by that band of rabble. Allowed to be taken. Allowed
them to take him forcibly. Why are they thought by force
to Pilate's Hall? He stooped to submit to them.
All those accusations thrown against him. He never opened
them up. You know why? He had stooped to be made sin.
He didn't open his mouth because he was guilty. He was guilty
of the sin of his people. What a stoop! How far down did
the Holy Son of God have to stoop to take the sins of his own people
and his own body on the tree and suffer and die to make his
people righteous? You know, all you and I know
is sin. So we can't imagine how reprehensible it was for the
Son of God to be made sin and endure that. but he did in tender
mercies, stooping to help his people. Christ being made sin
and then suffering and dying for his people to satisfy all
of God's justice against that sin is the greatest display of
mercy we'll ever hear. You see, God didn't just let
his people go and not put them to death even though they're
guilty. Now that would be mercy, wouldn't it? It'd be mercy to
let a guilty a guilty sinner go free. If a man's on death
row and he did it and the governor pardoned him, that'd be mercy. But it wouldn't be just, would
it? It wouldn't be holy. Well, that's not the way God
shows mercy. God showed mercy to his people
and he let them live by taking their sin and their guilt and
putting it upon his son and then killing his darling son because
he made him guilty of the sin of his people. That's mercy. That's mercy. That is real, rich,
sovereign, saving mercy. God killing his son so he'd make
his people righteous and let them live. The only place mercy
and truth could ever meet like that, the only place mercy and
truth can ever kiss is one place. In the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
mercy. And if you know anything about
yourself, you can say thank God for sovereign mercy. Thank God
He gives mercy to whom He will. And when He gives it, He'll never
take it back. After the Holy God went to the
extreme to make His Son sin, to torture and crucify His Son
as a sacrifice for the sin of His people, God's never going
to take that mercy back now, ever. If God took His mercy back,
He'd lose His glory and salvation. He ruined the reputation of his
name. And God's never going to let that happen. He's never going
to take that mercy back from his people. It endureth forever. Mercy for sinners is the message
of this book. You can find God's mercy everywhere.
And we see something about God's mercy to me. I can read Jeremiah
and say, now I see what he's saying. It's of the Lord's mercy
that we're not concerned. because his compassion that his
tender mercy never fails. When I see what what kind of
mercy do I need? Well, it's got to be rich mercy. God's got to be rich in mercy
to save a sinner like me. It makes me so thankful to read
all but God, but God, who's rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us. Even when we were dead, even
then, He hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace you're
saved. That is rich mercy. Psalm 136 must be my favorite psalm, my
very favorite psalm, because I read that psalm and every time
I think, that's a psalm for me. I learn by repetition. I got
to read something, see something, do something over and over and
over again before I really finally learn it. Psalm 136 has 26 verses
and 26 times the psalmist says, for his mercy endureth forever. Frank, can you get that? His
mercy endureth forever. He'll never run out. It's eternal. And I'm so thankful. I need God's
mercies every day. Every second I need God's mercy. So I'm glad to hear. His mercies
are new every morning. If you're a guilty sinner, and
you can't plead anything good about yourself, because there's
nothing good to plead. And the only thing you can do is throw
yourself on the mercy of God's court. You have a good, sure
hope of eternal life. David's hope is sovereign mercy. You read this psalm, there's
not one mention of Mary. The only thing he can plead is
mercy. That's the man after God's own heart. That's your plea.
If your only plea is God's mercy, you have good hope because salvation
is in God's sovereign mercy. Right, here's the fourth thing.
Salvation is in a substitute. It's in Christ, our substitute.
Verse two, David says, bow down thine ear to me, deliver me speedily.
Be thou my strong rock for a house of defense to save me. For thou
art my rock and my fortress. Now sinners fleeing from God's
wrath against our sin. We need a strong refuge, don't
we? I mean, God's wrath against sin is indescribable. So we need
a strong refuge, a sure rock where we can hide, a sure rock
where we can be sheltered from God's wrath against our sin.
Because this I know, God's holy. God may have mercy. God may save
me. But even so, this has got to
happen. My sin must be punished. God's
wrath against my sin has got to be satisfied. Then I need
a place I can hide where His wrath falls on me, where His
wrath falls on my sin. Now you all know, everybody here
knows who that rock is. When Janet was teaching the little
ones, three, four, and five, she had them sing that song about
the foolish man, the wise man. She'd get to the end and say,
who is that rock? They all knew the answer. They all yell out
at once, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's that rock. Christ is the
rock where we can hide from God's wrath against our sin. The only
rock of salvation we have is Christ crucified. You know, being
in the presence of God as we are right now, we're killers. We've got to be changed before
we can go to glory. That's what the Lord told Moses,
isn't it? Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. God said, all
right, I will. But Moses, you can't see my face
and live. So I'm going to put you here in the cleft of the
rock. I'm going to cover it with my hand when I pass by so you
can live and see my back parts, but you can't see my face and
live. Well, the cleft of that rock where Moses hid, that's
a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. The cleft in the rock was made
when Christ was smitten by the sword of God's justice. The cleft
or the holes were made in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ
when he was pierced. Hands and feet, the side, when
he was pierced at Calvary Street. Precious, sin-atoning blood flowed
from those wounds. And by that blood, we're healed. Sinners can hide safe in that
cleft. Safe from God's wrath because
God's wrath is fully satisfied in the death of the substitute.
Scripture describes God's wrath as a violent storm. An overflowing
scourge is going to sweep away everything in its path. There's
no refuge that will not be swept away by this overflowing scourge
of God's wrath, except one, except the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
is that rock. He's the cornerstone laid by
God that shall never be moved. That cornerstone upon which all
of our salvation is built is the Lord Jesus Christ. Sinners
can hide in that rock. Sinners can be built upon that
rock. Now the wrath of God is still going to fall against our
sin, isn't it? But if we're hiding in that rock, now God's wrath
falls on Christ our substitute. We're saved alive. Just like
Noah was saved alive in the ark. Noah wasn't saved in the ark
because he was better than anybody else. He wasn't. God said, all
men, all flesh are this way. Then how was Noah saved? Because
he was in the ark. And God's wrath against Noah's
sin fell upon the ark. Noah would live. Noah was saved
alive in the ark. A believer flees to Christ and
hides in him as our refuge, hides in him as our substitute. But
a life of a believer is continually fleeing to Christ. Just continue. Peter said to whom coming. I
don't just come to Christ once and then you know that's it.
I look back so I came to Christ 35 years ago and such and such
date such such time and now I have to worry about anymore. No, if
you've come to Christ, you keep coming. Keep coming. We were. I don't know if it was
last Sunday, maybe we were Jan and Irene dinner. And she said,
what are you thinking about? She says, I'm thinking about
the message. I sure hope someone comes to Christ from hearing
that. And she said someone did. I did. I truly did. Isn't that it? That's the life
of a believer, continually coming to Christ. We come to Him daily
because we need His presence. We need His mercy. We need His
grace. We need His blood. We need Him daily. We come to
Him daily. And in the time of trouble, we have no place else
to flee. There's no other refuge, there's
no other place of comfort but our Lord Jesus Christ. We flee
to Him. In the heat of trial, when we
think it's just going to melt us, we flee to Christ. That great rock in the wilderness
to give us some shade. When our souls are thirsty for
righteousness, we hunger and thirst after righteousness. Where
are you going to go? You're going to flee to Christ,
that smitten rock. From Him flows a never-ending
river of eternal Water of life for his people. You know, there
are times that I know, or at least I think, I know what to
do about a problem that's facing me. I don't know. It seems like the older I get,
the less problems come up. I know what to do with them,
or I have any idea how to solve the problem. But when we don't
know what to do, how to deal with this problem, I don't know
what to do. I still know what to do. It's flee to Christ. Flee to that rock. It's a continual
life of a believer. It's fleeing to Christ our rock,
Christ our substitute. All right, here's the last thing.
The reason for salvation. Salvation is all for the glory
of Christ. The end of verse three, David
says, therefore, for thy namesake, lead me and guide me. David's
plea is, Lord, save me. for your name's sake. Lord, save
me and keep me saved for your name's sake, for the glory of
your name. If you look in Ezekiel chapter 36, I'll show you that
is a great plea. Lord, save me for your name's
sake, for your glory's sake, save me. I heard Brother Nyberg
say, God will save everyone, everyone, where he can get all
the glory and save me. The Lord save me for the glory
of your name's sake, the glory of your name. Ezekiel 36 verse
21. In the previous verse, he's talking
about the children of Israel gone forth and their sin and
their idolatry and profane the Lord's name everywhere they went.
Verse 21, but I had pity for mine holy name, which the house
of Israel profaned among the heathen, whether they win. Therefore,
say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, I do
not this for your sake, O house of Israel. I'm not going to deliver
from your enemies. I'm not going to bring you back
to Jerusalem. I'm not going to let you build
the city back up for your sake, but for my holy name's sake,
which you have profaned among the heathen, whether you win.
And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among
the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of them. And the
heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God,
when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. And I
will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of
all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then
will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean.
From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse
you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I
put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put
my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues, and
you shall keep my judgments and do them, And ye shall dwell in
the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people,
and I will be your God." All that that God gave them, which
he's talking there about salvation, about redemption, about the new
birth, all that that God gave them. It's not because they deserved
it, because he made it clear they didn't deserve it. But God
did that for the glory of His name, for His great namesake.
See, no matter what we do, God will not allow His name to be
shamed. He's not going to do it. So he
will save the people he promised to save, not because they deserved
it, but because he promised to do it and he's going to do what
he promised. And their sin, while it's shameful,
no excuse for it, will never make him take it back. God saves
sinners. He knows their sin. He sent his
son to die for their sin, to put their sin away. Their sin
didn't surprise God, you know, take Him by surprise and say,
well, I better take that back. No, He sent His Son to put their
sin away. And faith in Christ glorifies
God. God's not going to take it back
because of our sin. Faith in Christ glorifies God. It brings
shame upon God to condemn anybody trusting in Christ. If our only
plea before God's throne is Christ. I'm trusting him and he damn
us anyway. That would bring shame upon Christ
and Christ must not be another. But that's never going to happen.
He will save everyone who trusts in Christ. One more scripture,
Philippians chapter two. Paul tells us the same thing
here in Philippians chapter two. How and why God saves a sinner. Philippians 2 verse 5. Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in
the form of God thought of not robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Now that's how God saved
his people. Now here's why God saved his
people. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him and given
him a name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth
and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. I can tell you why God put all
of salvation, all the salvation of his people into the hands
of his son. He did it for this reason, so
Christ would get all of the glory. We parents, we always want our
children to be a star, don't we? If they're on a football
team, we want them to be a star on the football team. If they're
in a play, we want them to have the lead role. If they're going
to be at school, we want to be the class president. We want
our children to be the stars. And you know why? We can go overboard about it,
but we want everybody to look at our children and we want them
to see, oh, they're just as wonderful as we think they are. That's God's will for his son.
That's God's holy will for his son. Now, when we want that for
our children, often it's not right, but God's will is right. Everyone should look at Christ.
Christ should get all of the glory. He should get all of the
honor. Think what he did. He saved sinful
wretches like you and me. He saved them. He should get
all the glory for taking vile sinners like you and me and making
them righteous in Him. He took sinners, sinners that
nobody could love, but God, and He made them holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable in God's sight. That's something that's so astounding.
He ought to get all the glory, shouldn't He? That's why God
saved His people, so His Son would get all of the glory. And
if we know Christ, that's the way we want Him. We want Him
to get all of the glory. You heard Brother Henry say so
many times, you can tell if a man is preaching the gospel or not
by answering this question. Listen to him preach and say
he's got the glory. Christ got it all, that's the gospel. Because
that's the way God intended it. He saved His people this way,
through the obedience, through the sacrifice of His Son. by
His sovereign mercy, by God choosing whom He will, so that Christ
would get all the glory. Now let me leave you with this
exhortation. You know, we're sitting here tonight and it's
quiet. We don't have distractions. The world's not beating at our
ears with things that don't matter, foolishness and all that stuff.
So let me leave you with this exhortation. So when you go back
out there and that junk starts hitting your ears and your eyes
again, that you can remember this. Don't let anything, don't
let anything allow you to look away from the glory of Christ
and start looking to the shame of this flesh. Just don't do
it. If something comes up that's
trying to take your attention and your focus away from Christ,
don't fall for it. Why would we want to look away
from His glory? It's something that's so shameful
because that's why God saved his people so that we look to
Christ and see all glory. Let's bow together in prayer. Our father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you for this glorious salvation that's
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray you bless your
word as it's been preached. Blessed to bring glory to the
name of your son. Blessed to the hearts of your
people that you give us faith in Christ, that we trust him,
depend upon him, rest in him, see him as all of our salvation,
that we might rest in him. Father, in times of trouble and
trial, how thankful we are that once again, we can flee for safety,
refuge and comfort, a sure hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Never
let us, I beg it, never let us take our focus and our attention
away from Him who is all in all. It's in His precious name we
pray and give thanks.