Let's open our Bibles to Psalm
16 and also, if you would, locate Acts chapter 2. Now the title of this psalm is
called, it's a Midstam of David. That means a golden psalm. This
is a golden psalm because it can only be written about the
Lord Jesus Christ. It cannot refer to anyone other
than our Lord Jesus. And in Acts chapter 2, Great
message on the day of Pentecost. Peter makes this perfectly clear.
He gives us a New Testament commentary on the Old Testament, Psalm 16,
telling us not only is it about Christ, but because of who Christ
is, this is the point. This is the message. Salvation
in Christ is sure and certain. Acts 2, let's begin reading verse
22. You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, the
man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs,
which God did buy him in the midst of you, as you yourselves
also know him being delivered by the determinant counsel and
foreknowledge of God. You have taken him by wicked
hands of crucified and slain whom God hath raised up, having
loose the pains of death because it was not possible that he should
be holding up for David speak of concerning him. I foresaw
the Lord always before my face, for He is on my right hand, that
I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice,
my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh shall
rest in hope, because Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither
wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to seek corruption. Thou hast
made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full
of joy with Thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me speak
freely unto you of the patriarch David. that he is both dead and
buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore,
being a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with an oath
to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh,
he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, he seeing this
before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This
Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses, Therefore,
this is what all this means, Christ being raised from the
dead, his body not having any corruption, this is what this
means. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted and
having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost,
He has shed forth this which ye now see and hear. For David
has not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord
said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand until I make thy
enemies thy footstool. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus
whom you've crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now back to Psalm
16. Now we can go look at Psalm 16,
having no doubt. Peter left no doubt. This Psalm
is written about the Lord Jesus Christ. But this Psalm also applies
to God's people. It applies to us because of our
union with Christ. What Christ did, He did as a
representative of His people. He did for His people. And we
receive, those who believe, we receive everything that Christ
is through faith. through faith, through the faith
and the one described in this golden psalm. So I've entitled
the message, Golden Faith. And I want us to see how each
of these verses first apply to Christ the Savior, and then see
how they apply to us through believing. And I've got three
points. Number one, this psalm is a golden
psalm because it reveals the person and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Since Christ is precious, Since
Christ is golden, saving faith is golden. Faith in Christ is
golden. Saving faith is not a mixture
of what Christ did and what we do to add to it. Saving faith
is all Christ. That's what makes it golden.
The foundation of faith is the person revealed in the first
five verses of this psalm. Look here at verse one. This
is Christ speaking. Preserve me, O God, for in thee
do I put my trust. Now, how can that be Christ praying? How can the Son of God need the
Father to preserve Him? Well, it's because the Son of
God became the Son of Man. He became a Son of Man to be
the representative of His people. And as a man, He needed to be
preserved. He needed to be kept and strengthened
by His Father to do the work that the Father sent Him to do.
As a man, the Lord Jesus was tempted in all points like as
we are If he's going to do that without sin, he needs to find
help. He needs to be preserved and
strengthened. So he prays, says, Father, preserve me. Look over
in Isaiah 49. I'm going to show you this is
a good prayer because the Savior is praying for what the Father
already promised to do. I've told you this many times.
If you would pray what we call a good prayer, Just pray and
ask the Father, ask God to do what He already promised He would
do. That's what our Savior did. Look here, Isaiah 49 verse 7. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer
of Israel and His Holy One, to Him whom man despiseth, to Him
whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings shall
see and arise. Princes also shall worship because
of the Lord that is faithful and the Holy One of Israel. He
shall choose thee. Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable
time have I heard thee, in a day of salvation have I helped thee,
and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the
people, to establish the earth, and to cause to inherit the desolate
heritages, that thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth. To
them that are in darkness, show yourselves. They shall feed in
the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.
As a man, the Lord Jesus, pray, Father, preserve me. And he trusted that the Father
would do what he promised to do, that he preserve him, that
he protect him so that he could accomplish this great work of
redemption and set his people free from bondage to sin and
to the law and Satan. They're set free because of the
Lord Jesus Christ and because of what he accomplished, because
the Father answered his prayer, preserved and upheld Christ the
Savior. Everyone he died for, everyone he came to save, they're
preserved. They can never perish. They can
never be spoiled by sin. When our Lord prayed for himself,
he also prayed for his people. In John 17, verse 11, our Lord's
great high priestly prayer, he prayed this. Father, keep through
thine own name those whom thou hast given. He prayed that his
people be kept and preserved the same way he is. And the Father's
going to keep every last one of them. He's going to preserve
them and protect them and keep them because Christ made them
perfect. There's no reason for the Father
to throw them away. He's going to keep them because
Christ has made them perfect. So in our times of trouble and
turmoil, in times when the storms of life are just tossing us around
like a leaf in the wind, the child of God can pray, Lord,
preserve me. Lord, preserve me. And that would
be a good prayer, because we'd be praying and asking the Lord
to do what He already promised to do, preserve and protect and
keep His people. This word preserve, it has to
do with surrounding. You know how God keeps His, preserves,
keeps His sheep? Christ the Good Shepherd surrounds
them. protecting, He is the shield
about, He is the wall of fire about us, protecting His people
from every danger, from every direction. That's why Jude describes
believers as those who are sanctified by God the Father and preserved
in Christ Jesus. We're preserved because of the
Lord Jesus Christ, because of who our Savior is. All right,
verse two. O my soul, thou hast said unto
the Lord, thou art my Lord. My goodness extendeth not to
thee, but to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellent
in whom is all my delight. Now, as a man, the Lord Jesus
obeyed God's law perfectly. That's what righteousness is.
It's perfect obedience. But you know, the obedience of
Christ didn't add anything to God, did it? His obedience didn't
add anything to God's glory. God's already holy. God's already
righteous. The obedience of Christ, his
person, revealed God's holiness, but it didn't add anything, or
reveal God's glory, but it didn't add anything to God's glory.
But the obedience of Christ sure did add something to his people,
didn't it? That obedience wasn't for God, it wasn't for God's
benefit, it was for the benefit of his people, to make them perfect,
so that he can call them saints. Every believer is a saint. You
don't have to do, I don't know what the criteria is in Rome
being named a saint. I don't know what it is. Here's
the criteria. Believe on the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ and you're a saint made perfect in him. The work
of Christ for his people and in his people is so great that
God himself calls them excellent. cause them people in whom He
delights. Now there's only one way the
Father can delight in the likes of you and me. It's in the person
of His Son in whom He delights. And He delights in His people
with the same delight, the same joy as He does His own Son. See, this is the sure foundation
of faith. The Lord Jesus Christ is because
of who He is. That's why faith in Christ is
golden because of who he is. And a believer can say the exact
same thing our Lord said here. Our goodness doesn't extend to
God, does it? Our goodness, what we call goodness,
what we call good works, can't add one thing to God, can it?
Not one. Yet, how does scripture describe
believers? As zealous of good works. Zealous
of good works. But we sure never mention those
things to God, do we? Not to commend ourselves to Him.
God's people are zealous to serve Him. All the while knowing this,
our goodness does not extend to God. Those good works do not
add anything to God. But I sure hope they add something
to my brethren. I hope they add something to
our brethren here on earth. How does Scripture define a good
work? Our Lord defined a good work. That ointment that was
poured upon Him, He said, you leave her alone. She has performed
a good work. A good work is a work done upon
the body of Christ. For the people of Christ. To
help them on their journey. Their life's difficult. I mean
difficult. Seek to do something to help
them. Seek to do something to make this journey easier. That's
a good work. It doesn't extend to God. It
doesn't add anything to God's glory. It doesn't add anything
to Him. I sure hope it adds something to you. One of my fervent, heartfelt
desires is that I'd be useful to you. I want to be useful to
you. I want to be an encouragement
to you in some way. mortal fear of doing something
that would cause you to stumble. I want to help you. That is exactly
what this is talking about. It doesn't extend to God. It
doesn't add anything to him. I sure hope it does to God's
people. You're my delight. This is the people I'd like to
be with. The same way that the Lord delights
in his people, his people delight in each other. All right, verse
four. Their sorrows shall be multiplied
that hasten after another God. Their drink offerings of blood
will I not offer nor take up their names into my lips. And
the Lord Jesus Christ is so wonderful. There's no other Savior. There
is no one else that can be compared to him. Look over Psalm 115.
David here gives a description of these idols. They can't be
compared to our God, to our Savior. Psalm 115. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, where is now their God?
Our God's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Their idols aren't like that.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They
have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but
they smell not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk not. Neither speak they
through their throat. They that make them are like
unto them. So is everyone that trusteth in them. They're all
dead. Now, you don't have to be very
smart to know there's no salvation in those idols that men invent
from their own sinful imaginations. Salvation will never be a mixture
of them and Christ. There's no mixture. There's no,
this is idol. Anything other than the worship
of the Lord Jesus Christ of the God of this Bible is idolatry
and the Lord will never accept that as worship. He'll never
be pleased with sacrifices to them. The father's pleased with
one sacrifice, the sacrifice of his son, our Lord Jesus Christ. So where does that leave you
and me? Trust only in Christ. If you're still there in Psalm
115, look at verse nine. O Israel, trust thou in the Lord. He's their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their
shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust
the Lord. Whoever you are, trust the Lord.
He is their help and their shield. And saving faith does just that. trust Christ alone. They're not
going to try to compromise the gospel to get along with false
religion, with man's religion, any more than our Lord did. They're
not going to, saving faith is not going to take the name of
an idol upon our lips. We're not going to mix with them.
We're not going to say, yes, this is worship too. They speak
of Christ alone. The Lord Jesus Christ is so wonderful. Now this, we're talking about
his person, why he's golden. He is so wonderful that faith
in Him brings joys that are multiplied. Just multiplied joys. But trusting
in anything else brings sorrows that are multiplied. Now you
remember that. Trusting in anything else brings
sorrows that are multiplied. False religion does not have
some good things that we can get out of it. No, no. All they have is sorrows to be
multiplied. There's joy in Christ alone because
of who he is. Now there's sorrows to be multiplied
in that idol because of who and what they are. Made up from our
sinful imagination. But because of who Christ is,
because of the glory of his person, there's joy in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now verse five. The Lord is the
portion of mine inheritance. and of my cup, thou maintainest
my lot. Now this is Christ, our great
high priest speaking. And he says, the Lord is his
portion. And he says that as the high
priest of his people. Now you remember the priest from
the tribe of Levi, when they came into the promised land,
they didn't have an inheritance in the promised land. They didn't
receive a portion of land that would belong to them. The Lord
told them, the tribe of Levi, You won't be getting any of that.
I am your inheritance. I am your portion. What an inheritance. What a portion. The Lord is His
portion. Now this is Christ our High Priest
speaking. He said His part, His inheritance, His portion was
His Father. The pleasure and satisfaction
of the Lord Jesus Christ was His Father's love, was His Father's
communion. His pleasure His satisfaction
was doing his father's will. And the father maintained his
lot. That's his people. He put them all in the hand of
Christ and he kept them. Christ is the head. His people
are the body. So whatever it is Christ has,
his people have. Then we who believe, we have
an inheritance, don't we? It's not earthly treasures. It's
not earthly treasures. Anytime you hear somebody talking
this health and wealth and prosperity and get more money and get more
friends and just stuff blessings of this earth, you just write
it down, they're false prophet. The believer's inheritance is
not earthly treasures, something that's going to be burned up
shortly. It's not even what the flesh likes to think of, treasures
in heaven. Great big old houses, streaks
of gold, a permanent vacation. That's not it either. The believer's
inheritance is the exact same inheritance our father Abraham
had. Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham, don't
you worry about this. I am your exceeding great reward. Oh, what an inheritance. The
Lord Jesus Christ is so wonderful. For some reason, I didn't even
realize when I was in my study how insufficient I'm going to
sound trying to talk about how wonderful. He's so wonderful. His name is wonderful. He's wonderful. If you have Him,
you have everything. You've got it all. I believe
Christ. So Christ is everything I need. He's everything I want. That's
what faith says. That's golden faith. And the
Lord is the one who will keep our lot. There are times, especially
commercial property, you rent property. It's that person's
responsibility to maintain that property. The Lord gives his
people an inheritance and he doesn't leave it up to them to
maintain their lot. He maintains it for them. He keeps it. so
the rust of our sin is not going to destroy it. He keeps it from
our sin, causing it to decay, so we lose it. He keeps our lot. He keeps our inheritance for
us, where sin and moth and rust and corruption cannot reach it. This is the person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the foundation of faith.
Faith in that person is golden, isn't it? Alright, here's the
second point. As a man, Christ, our Savior,
had contentment doing the work the Father gave Him to do. Yes,
He had to humiliate Himself to be clothed in human flesh. He
had to humiliate Himself to appear as a man, to appear in the form
of a servant. He was homeless, He was poor,
He had very few friends, and what friends He had weren't very
good most of the time. Yet in all that, He had contentment. doing the work the Father gave
him to do. And faith in Christ gives the believer contentment
in this present world. Faith that gives contentment
while you live in this world of sorrows. Faith that gives
contentment while you live in this world that's just an utter
cesspool of iniquity. That kind of faith has to be
golden, doesn't it? The lines are fallen unto me
in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage.
The Savior says his work to redeem his people, it was a pleasant
work because of how much he loves his people. He endured the cross,
despising the shame. He just, he counted the shame
as just worth it. It wasn't anything compared to
the joy that was set before him. The joy of redeeming his people. the joy of cleansing his people
from their sin, the joy of making it so that his people would be
with him forever. That was such joy to him. He
counted the shame and the suffering. He counted it all as nothing
compared to the joy of redeeming his people. He said, the lines
are falling out to me in pleasant places. The lines he's referring
to here are lines that they lay down when they're marking out
and surveying property and they're marking out the different lots.
These are the lines. And he looked at the property
lines and he says, oh, the lines have fallen out to me in a pleasant
place. I've got a good land. I've got
a good inheritance. His lot, his place, that's the
people that God gave him, the people that God elected and gave
him to save. And the Savior said it was pleasant
for him to redeem them. He found such contentment in
that so that he could have them with him forever. And because
of that, because he completed that work, his people can say
the exact same thing. The lines are falling out to
me in pleasant places. Even in this life of suffering
and sorrow and sickness and this veil of tears, the believer has
pleasant places. Pleasant places in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We come to the worship service.
Oh, it's pleasant. It's refreshing. Why? Because Christ the Savior promised
to be where his people meet together. Reading God's Word is pleasant
to us. It's refreshing to us. Why? Because
it reveals Christ. We come together and we have
pleasant fellowship together. I feel so encouraged in being
with you all. Why? because we have fellowship
with each other in Christ. We're both in love with the same
person. It all has to do with Him. Now, saving faith primarily
looks past this life and looks to Christ. But faith in Christ
isn't just good for the next life. Faith in Christ will do
you in this life. It'll give contentment in this
life. Faith can say this. Regardless
of where I am on the path at this very moment, the path that
the Lord has chosen for me is pleasant and it's goodly. Faith
can say that no matter where. I might be in the way down there
deep. I might be in the deep forest
where it's thick and dark and black and I can't see anything.
But faith says the path is pleasant and it's goodly for two reasons. It's pleasant because Christ
is there with me. He didn't get his people and
send them off and say, now go on, go on, find your way, I will
send you. He didn't do that. How does he take his sheep? He
leads them out and he goeth before them. The path is pleasant because
he's leading me there in paths of righteousness for his namesake.
And secondly, these paths are pleasant because they're righteous
paths. The path of forgiveness. A path of love and peace. They're paths of grace and mercy.
They're pleasant places. They're goodly paths. And when
you have that, you have contentment that this whole world is searching
for. Everybody out there is searching
for contentment. They'd give anything to have
that kind of contentment of soul and they can't find it. But you
who believe already have it in the Lord Jesus Christ through
faith in Him. That's golden faith, isn't it?
And this contentment is real. It doesn't just do you when times
are good. This contentment is real. Faith in Christ gives a
contentment, a peace that passes understanding in the darkest
of hours for seven. I will bless the Lord who has
given me counsel. My reigns also instruct me in
the night seasons. How often do we read about the
Lord Jesus going somewhere at night? He goes off alone and
he prays all night. Everybody else is sleeping, but
the Savior went and prayed all night long. And when he did,
he received instruction from his father. He received help
from his father. It strengthened him to spend
that time communing with his father. So in our night seasons,
we'd always do well to follow the example of our Savior. In
our night seasons, when everything's so dark and you can't see, you
can't see why this is. You don't understand. You can't
see any way out. You can't understand how does
this work together for good? You don't understand. It's dark.
And you're all alone. That is the perfect time to commune
with your Heavenly Father and to receive instruction from Him. When we're all alone with the
Lord, that's when He instructs His people. Have you ever been alone? And
you know, you can be alone and be around a whole bunch of people,
can't you? And be alone. And you're wondering,
you're thinking, you're praying, you're thinking, and suddenly,
Verse of scripture comes to your mind. What is that? That's the Lord instructing you
in the night season. He uses his word. He lets us
think on his precious promises to his people. He reminds us
of those night seasons. His love is unchanging. My love
is greatly affected by my circumstances. How much I want to praise the
Lord is greatly affected by my circumstances. I mean, I say
that to my shame, but we may as well be honest. He reminds
His people. His love never changes. It's
always perfect. He's got mercy reserved for His
people and it cannot be measured. His grace is always rich for
His people. His presence with His people
is a promise from Almighty God who cannot lie. I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee. That just brings some peace,
doesn't it? That brings some contentment. You see, when the
counselor gives counsel, there's contentment of heart. This is
not just this silly joy that is just fake that you whip up
when you're with everybody else, but you can't sustain when you're
alone in your bed at night. This is real contentment of heart
because we've been instructed by the counselor himself. Faith
in this life gives us contentment. And thirdly, Christ our Savior
looked forward in confident joy He was never in doubt. He always
looked forward in confident joy and faith in Christ. Let's the
believer look forward in confident joy to a glorious future. The
present looks bad, but we have a glorious future. Verse eight. I have set the Lord always before
me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved. Now, only Christ could say this.
Only Christ could say, He set the Lord always before Him. We
can never say that, but He did. Only Christ could say, He's at
the Father's right hand, the place of acceptance, the place
of honor. Only Christ could say that. Christ can say that because
He's perfect. He always obeyed the Father.
He always did what pleased the Father. He always did the Father's
will. So He could confidently say,
I shall never be moved. Nothing could ever move him away
from his father. You know, by faith, every believer
would say the exact same thing. They even did in Psalm 62, I
shall not be moved. And it's not because my faith
is so strong. No, because I don't know that
I can ever say a time my faith has ever been all that strong.
Usually it's very weak. So it's not the strength of my
faith. I should not be moved because of the object of my faith.
Because Christ my Savior should never be moved. Christ sits at
the right hand of the Father and He shall not be moved. So
even at this very moment, you who believe, I know you're sitting
here in these chairs, but I can tell you where else you're sitting.
You're seated in the heavenlies at the right hand of the Father
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He who is seated there, ever
living, making intercession for us. And one day, because he's
there, all of his people are going to be there with him embodied
too. That's our glorious future. You can look forward to that
in confidence. Nothing can separate the believer
from Christ. His people will be with him.
Nothing can separate them. Look at Romans chapter 8. Can we read this too often? Can we read these verses too
often? Nothing can separate the believer
from the Savior. Not the suffering of this life.
Not the darkness of this world. Not our fears. Not our tears.
Not our weak faith. nothing will separate the believer
from the Savior. Romans 8 verse 35. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Should tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword? As it's written, for thy sake
we're killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Naying all these things, we are more than conquerors to
him that loved us. For I'm persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." Nothing can
separate the believer from Christ. Not even death? Especially not death. Look at
verse 9. Therefore, my heart is glad and
my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope. Lord Jesus Christ went to the
cross confidently. He went there joyfully because
this is the hour that he came for. This is the hour he's going
to redeem his people from their sin. This is the hour he's going
to blot out their blood with his sacrifice. And there was
never a hint The beginning of a thought, of doubt in his mind.
He never thought he'd fail. That's why he called going to
the tomb, rest in hope. He didn't call the death of his
body death. He called it rest. He rested confidently. You know why Christ lay resting
in the tomb? The work was finished. He rested. The work was done. And he lay
there in hope. And that word hope doesn't mean,
well, hope will happen, but I don't know whether or not it will.
That word hope means a sure expectation. He had a sure expectation to
arise from the tomb. How could he have such confidence?
He's going to rise from the dead because he knew his blood would
put the sin of his people away. Verse 10, for thou will not leave
my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to
see corruption. Now, this isn't saying that Christ
went to a place that's called hell. He suffered hell on the
cross for his people, but he never went there. The word hell
here means grave. Christ's sufferings ended on
the cross. He didn't have to come down from
the cross or die on the cross and go to hell. His sufferings
ended upon the cross because his sufferings put the sin of
his people away. And when there was no more reason
for him to suffer because sin had been paid for, He gave up
the ghost. Now, he could do that. He could pay for sin because
he's perfect. You and I could never pay for
even one of our sins, no matter how long we suffer, because we're
sinful. Everything we are is sinful,
so our suffering will accomplish nothing. That's why hell for
us would be eternal. But for Christ, it only lasted
about three hours. In three hours, he suffered the
hell for all of his people and he put their sin away. His death
accomplished what he came to do. How do I know when he died,
sin was gone? Because when they took that dead
body down from the cross and laid it in the tomb, for three
days he lay there and his body never saw corruption. After that
much time, Lazarus stank because his sinful body started to decay
and corrupt, but the body of Christ didn't decay. because
there's no sin left in his body. He took the sin of his people
into his own body on the tree, but his body didn't decay in
the tomb because his blood put all that sin away. That's why
his body didn't decay. And Christ had sure confidence
that the father would raise him from the dead because he knew
sin was going to be paid for. Just like there's no reason for
Christ to continue suffering on the cross because sin was
gone. There's no reason for him to stay dead either, because
sin is gone. And through faith, faith in Christ,
the believer has a good hope, a confident expectation of a
glorious future. Our bodies are going to die.
But you know, for the believer, that's not death. What our Lord
called sleep. Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.
It's rest. And that rest is glorious because
it's rest in Christ. The body is going to rest, but
the soul will be with the Lord. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. And a believer can go to the
grave with just as much joy and confidence as we go to bed at
night, looking forward to a good night's sleep and with an expectation
to get up tomorrow morning and get back at all our activities.
Our bodies are going to decay. They're going to go back to the
dust from whence they were made. But the Lord's not going to leave
his people there. They're going to be resurrected in glorified
bodies. In bodies just like the body
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The grave could not hold Christ
any longer because he's sinless. And the grave can't hold anyone
who's in him either. They can only hold, only let
that body rest there until the Lord calls them out and gives
them a new body. And those bodies are never going to grow old.
They're never going to decay. They're never going to get weak
because they're going to be bodies just like the body of our Lord
Jesus Christ. In that day, we'll be made just
like Him. But we shall see Him as He is. That's a glorious future. I heard
a story. I don't know if it's true or
not, but I heard this. I like it. I heard this story of an
old woman. She knew the time was near that her body would
die. And she told her granddaughter, she said, honey, bury me with
my fork. And she said, Grandma, what are
you talking about? And she said, when I was little, my mother,
she said, we didn't have very much silverware, and often we
didn't have dessert. But if we were going to have
dessert, my mother would say, save your fork. And she said,
when mama said, save your fork, I knew something better was coming.
She said, bury me with my fork. Something better coming. There's
all so much better than this. A body just like the body of
our Lord Jesus Christ. To be forever with the Lord in
a body just like His glorious body. Who cares about streets
of gold and great big mansions, huh? To be with Him, to be like
Him. So verse 11, here's the expectation
of every believer. Thou will show me the path of
life. In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there
are pleasures forevermore. The Lord's going to show his
people the path of life. It's him. He's the path of life.
He opened the grave so that many more of his people are going
to follow. He's the first prince. That means there's going to be
a great big article. There's more coming that's going to be
made just like Him. And because of who our Lord Jesus
Christ is, His people are going to have the full joy of the presence
of God Almighty. There He'll be, the right hand
of the Father. And there'll be nothing between
us and Him. There'll be nothing left but
pleasures forevermore. Because of this golden faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ. in his person, faith that gives
contentment in this life, faith that looks to a glorious future
with comfort and joy. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, how we thank you for
this glorious, this golden song that so clearly describes the
person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you
for him. We have so much for which to
be thankful. But above all, beyond comparison
to anything else, how we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ.
How we thank you for the gift of faith in Him. Faith that looks
to Him, that clings to Him alone, that rests in Him. Father, give
us this faith. Give us faith to look to the
Lord Jesus Christ. So right now, run to Him, to
find in Him everything you require, everything we need, everything
that we're not, to find in Him. Father, let the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ be exalted and magnified in our hearts as we leave here.
Let us meditate upon these things. Take them to bed with us. Take
them to work and school tomorrow, confident because of who the
Lord Jesus Christ our Savior is. It's in his precious name. We ask these blessings and give
thanks.