Good evening. It's a privilege
to be with you again. I was glad when they said that
you were going to start your service at 7. I think y'all did
that so I can have 30 minute extra to preach. Y'all know I
preach too long, so you change your service to match my preaching.
I think that, I hope the Lord gives me grace. I was studying
this afternoon. This was a blessing to me. I
had a message prepared and I don't like this feeling. When I have
a message prepared for you and the Lord gives me another one,
the day of I'm not very comfortable, but the Lord has not called me
to be comfortable. He's called me to preach Christ
to you, and by this I do pray that God would comfort you, God
would strengthen you, God would encourage you. I hope that there are some that
need that, because I do. I do. Take your Bibles and turn
with me to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. Some entitled this psalm a song
of confidence. And so I've entitled this message
just that, a song of confidence. A song of confidence. The scripture
here says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall
I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life, of whom shall I be afraid? Here, David is encouraging himself
in the Lord. He is encouraging himself by
rehearsing what God is to him. And how often do we need to do
this? He's done this before in other
places. He's encouraged himself. And here he does the same. Why?
Because he's surrounded by enemies. Look at this. When the wicked,
even mine enemies, my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they
stumbled and fell. Though in host and camp against
me, my heart shall not fear, though war should be raised against
me. In this will I be confident. And then what does he do, seeing
he is surrounded by his enemies? He's trying to encourage himself. But notice this, he now turns
to the one who gives him his source of confidence. He says,
one have I desired of the Lord. That will I seek after that I
may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life
and behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple.
For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in the pavilion.
In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set
me upon a rock. And so we see David's confidence
of the Lord being his strength, his life, his salvation rests
in this one. This one that he desired of the
Lord. We're going to see that this
is Christ. And he saw him in his day through the worship of
the temple, the sacrifices and the offerings. And this encouraged
him to know that when that priest went in there with the blood,
when that high priest went in there to make that offering,
that was the secret place. That's where God was. And he
knew that this man to come would be his representative and hide
him in the pavilion of his God. And David here was doing then
what every child of God does in trouble. He cries unto God, verse
7, Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon
me and answer me. When Thou saidst, Seek my face,
my heart said unto Thee, Thy face will I seek. You see, he
used the Word of God as his comfort to seek God. Isn't this what
we do in our troubles as we seek Him? Why? Because He said to
seek Him. If I didn't have that, I'd be
in trouble. I wouldn't have any confidence that He would hear
me, but He said, seek my face. And David does this. We pray unto Him in the midst
of our troubles, and we seek His face. And we know this, that
the glory of God is only seen in one place, the face of Jesus
Christ. For God has commanded the light
to shine out of darkness as shone in our hearts, to give us the
light of the glory of God, where? In the face of Jesus Christ,
where we seek God but in Christ. And then he has this comfort
in verse 10. He said, when my father and mother
forsake me, then will the Lord take me up. He has confidence
because of this one, because of Christ who represents him,
because God had told him to seek him through Christ. We also may
have this confidence that no matter who forsakes us here,
he will never leave us. He will never forsake us. And notice in verse 11, he cries
to be taught. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and
lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies. There are a
lot of people trying to confuse us. Number one enemy is right
here, self. We are easily confused. Lord,
lead me, teach me, and put me in a plain path. I need a plain
path because of mine enemies. Deliver me not into the will
of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen against me, and such
as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless I had believed. Here comes faith, the necessity
of faith. I had fainted. Except for what? Except I had believed. Except I had believed to see
the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And at the
end, David, all of this leads to the encouragement of waiting
upon the Lord. And David said, wait upon the
Lord and be of good courage and you shall strengthen thine heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord. Now, David was a man like we
are. He's the author of this psalm
and many others, and yet the Lord spake by the mouth of this
servant, David, to write this in order to comfort his people. David was like us. He was a man
saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, even as
we are. Therefore, as we study this prayer,
It's my heart's desire that every one of you who are in trouble
be comforted. This is what God intended for
this passage, that you who are in Christ should be comforted. That you should have confidence,
not in yourself. Hopefully and prayerfully, the
Lord, by his grace, will remove all confidence in you. and place all your confidence
in Christ. He is our hope. I pray God the Holy Spirit would
use this word in the prayer of David to strengthen our hearts,
to use this to comfort us. I've got four points here in
this psalm. I just gave you a brief outline
of this psalm, but there are four things here in this psalm
that every believer can take as a psalm of confidence. A song of confidence. When we
are in trouble, how are we assured that God will hear our cry? How are we assured that he will
never forsake us? How could David say that? When
my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up.
How can he be so confident? He said, though I'm surrounded
by my enemies, I will not fear. How can he be so confident? I have four things. First of
all, David is confident because of his union with Christ. Secondly, David is confident
because he understands who his foes are. And thirdly, he's confident
because of the one he desires to deliver him. And fourthly,
David's confidence stems in the victory, the victory that God
gives him over his enemies. Now, first of all, let's look
at our union with Christ. David here first lays the foundation
and ground of his request, the cause and hope of his being heard,
and that is his union. Look at this in verse one. David
said, the Lord is my light. and my salvation. Whom shall
I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life. Now, if you are surrounded by
your foes, encompassed with fear and doubts, both within and without,
as your troubles so that we cannot contain or
suppress them any longer. Have you been in such a place
where you cannot contain? You've hid it. You've hid it
from everybody. You've suppressed the troubles,
and now you cannot contain it. David tried this in Psalm 32.
He said that. He said, I kept silence, and
my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long, for
day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned
to drought." Is your moisture turned to drought? We've all
had days of joy. We've all had those days of great
prosperity. And yet, For whatever reason,
God determines to dry those up. He dries up our prosperity. Our
moisture is turned to drought. Is your sin great? Are your foes
too mighty for you? Is your grief too heavy to bear? Do your bones wax old within
you? Do you feel the hand of God heavy
on your conscience? Newton wrote that hymn. He said,
I prayed for grace and faith, but instead he made me feel the
hidden evils of my heart. He let the angry powers of hell
assault my soul in every part. Yea, more with his own hand he
seemed intent to aggravate my woes, crossed all my fair designs
I schemed. cast out my feelings and laid
me low. Lord, why? Why is this, I trembling
cried, wilt thou pursue thy worm to death? And the Lord answered
him and said, this is how I answer prayer for grace and faith. Is this your lot, to cry unto
God because of the trial, because of the evil? Because it's too
great to bear. What then is your confidence
that God will hear you in such a time? Now listen, if you're
not here tonight, just wait. It won't be long. Every believer
faces these difficult trials, these great afflictions. But what is the ground of David?
What is your ground? What is your hope of being heard? It is simply this, your union
with Christ. Your union with Christ is our
only hope of ever being heard of God. And notice David did
not say, the Lord gives me light. The Lord gives me salvation.
The Lord gives me life. We'll see those things are true.
God does give us light. He does give us salvation. He
does give us a life. But David is saying something
more intimate here. He says this, the Lord is my
light. The Lord is my salvation. The
Lord is the strength of my life. the Lord himself, and so the
Lord who is light. Isn't that how God describes
himself, that he is light and in him is no darkness at all?
God is light. And because of our union, he
who is light is my light. The Lord who is himself salvation
is all my salvation because of my union with him. The Lord is
life. And yet I know this, the Lord
is my life. He is the strength of my life. He is the root and source of
my life. And now you who are believers
in Christ, consider this union, when it took place. When were
you in union? That's a very strange way to
put it according to Scripture. When were you in union? Actually, it's not a when, I
can't really explain eternity. We have to use these words that
we understand. I was in Christ from eternity. You were in Christ from eternity. Before the world we began, God
puts you in union with his son. Therefore, when Christ came into
the world, you were in union with him. You were one with him. When he lived, you lived. When
he obtained righteousness, you obtained righteousness. When
he died on Calvary Street, you died in him. When he rose again
from the dead and was ascended to the throne of the Father,
you were in him. You were in him. And so we have all of our hope
be based on this union. Now, it is true that God, like
I said, does give us light. Because we weren't born with
light, we were born in darkness. Matter of fact, Paul says this,
he says, I believe it's in Colossians, he says, and you who were sometimes
darkness, notice he doesn't say you were in darkness, you're
darkness. That's who you are, you're darkness. That was our nature in Adam,
his darkness. But it is true that God has shined
the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. As God
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, I consider creation.
God said, let there be light, and there was light. You were darkness, and God said
to you, let there be light, and there was light. He did give
you light. Understanding, that's what it
means. Light has to do with understanding. If this place were totally dark,
you would have no understanding of what's in the room. When you
caught on the light, you have understanding. That's what God
did. You were in darkness. You did not know how to be received
of God. You did not know how God could
be just and justify the ungodly until he gave you what? Light. And the light was in the, as
he commanded the light to shine in darkness, that shined in our
hearts to give us light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
Where? How can you accept it? In the face of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is how. So he didn't give us life. He
also gave us salvation. We were without salvation. We
were lost when we were born into this world. But by the grace
of God through faith in Christ, he has now given us the gift
of salvation through faith. You that believe. You that believe. How do you believe? How is it
that you believe while many do not believe? How is it that you
trust in Christ? How is it that you have this
light? How is it that you receive Christ, as many as received Him,
and then gave you the right to become the sons of God, which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God? You realize your faith came from
God. I probably just read that back
there in the study. In Ephesians 2, it says, well,
by grace you're saved through faith. And that, what faith?
Not yourselves, it, faith, is a gift of God and not of worst. Come on, so you don't get to
brag. You don't get to boast. So he did give us salvation through
faith. And he gave us life. This is
how faith and life, they come together. You can't have one
without the other. He gives us life. We were dead in trespasses
and sin, and by the power of God, he does give us life. But
the root source of all these gifts, life, salvation, and life,
are based on our union with Christ. The foundation and source of
these gifts is our union with Christ. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter one.
So when David is saying, the Lord is my life, the Lord is
my salvation, the Lord is the strength of my life, he's confessing
his union with God. He's confessing his union with
Christ. In 1 Corinthians chapter one, look at verse 30. Paul speaks
of our union. He says, but of God. Are you
in Christ Jesus? who of God is made unto us light,
wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. What is this? Salvation. Salvation and a life. It's exactly what Paul was saying
in Ephesians 1 when he said, Blessed be the God and Father
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessing in heavenly places. Where? Where are all your spiritual
blessings? They're in Christ. Well, that
would be kind of bad if they were in Christ and we weren't
in there. But all our spiritual blessings are in Christ. according
as He had chosen us, we're in Christ, before the foundation
of the world. Therefore, seeing our union with
Christ, seeing God has put us in Christ, and seeing God has
made Him to be all our wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, Therefore, on this ground you
may cry unto God and be heard. Believer, Christ is my light.
He is my wisdom. We cry unto God because Christ
is all our light. He's all our wisdom and understanding. The question that religion tries
to answer and cannot is this, how can God be just and justify
the ungodly? It is the most profound question
and it's a necessity that needs to be answered. We will all stand
before God, who is just, who is holy. How can God be just
and still justify the ungodly? Religion says by works. God can
only be just and justify the ungodly if you can just earn
your way. We know what the Word of God
says about that, that there's none righteous, no not one. There's
none that understand it. There's none that seek it after
God. They are all together, become unprofitable. There's none that
do it good, no not one. Their mouths is a load of sepulchre.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law, shall no flesh be justified
in his sight. Why does it work in religion?
Their answer is insufficient. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? Here's the wisdom of God. Only
by Jesus Christ can God be just and justify the ungodly. Only
by the salvation through a representative man. This is the only hope. Paul
explains this very clearly in Romans chapter five. He tells
us that we were made sinners by a representative man. Wherefore,
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death
passed among all men. For all have sinned, you sin
in a representative man. Therefore, you were born in darkness,
you were born without life, you were born without life, you were
born without salvation in a representative man. The converse is true. The only
hope then for us is to be saved by a representative man. For
us to be in and represented by another Adam. And we know this,
that Jesus Christ is the second Adam. He is the only high priest
and representative of all the elect of God. And in him I know
this, God is just to save me. God is just through a representative
to justify me who is a real sinner. I'm a real sinner. But yet God
is just to justify me simply because my representative obtained
righteousness for me. My representative made an atonement
for me. And my representative constantly,
even now, intercedes for me. This is the wisdom that God gives
us. Why? Because he is my light. Because
of my union with him. This wisdom is mine. He's given
it to me because I am in Christ. because I am in him, the light.
He is the light, then, of my soul. The light in Scripture is now clear to us, and it is
our joy and peace. It's not the word of God, our
joy and comfort. It is, because it testifies of
our light. It testifies of Christ, that
he is made peace by the blood of his cross. Because now I am one within him,
my heart does burn within me to hear his voice and fellowship
with him. Therefore, because he is my light,
I shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. Secondly,
he is my salvation. Because of our union with him,
he is all my salvation. You see, it was the Father that
put me in union with Christ. I didn't put myself there. This
is really comforting to me because if I had the power to put myself
in Christ, I surely have the power to take myself out. And
those stronger than me, consider that. Those who desire to take
me out of Christ, if I put myself in Christ, surely they are stronger
than me can take me out of Christ. But consider that God himself
put me in union with Christ. For this purpose, that he should
save me. That Christ should be all my
salvation. Now salvation's a large word.
It encompasses a number of things. And these things here in 1 Corinthians,
there are only a few of them, but they're large. Salvation includes righteousness,
sanctification, redemption. Because Christ is our wisdom,
we know this, He is all our righteousness. You see, we were born without
righteousness. We were born without righteousness, but God purposed
that we should be righteous, made righteous by the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, that text
I was just quoting you in Romans chapter 3, which says there's none righteous,
no, not one. And he tells us this, but now
the righteousness of God without the law is manifest. Oh, that's
good news. Righteousness without my obedience to the law? Yep,
it's clear. Here it is. Being witnessed by
the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which
is by the faith of Jesus Christ. You see, my righteousness was
made by the faith of Christ. It wasn't made by my participation. It wasn't made by my hand and
his hand. It was made totally by his faith,
by his obedience. And what kind of righteousness
are we talking about? The righteousness of God. Righteousness of God
without the law, without my obedience to the law. That's good news.
Christ earned all my righteousness. And notice, but now that it says,
even the righteous God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ,
listen, unto all and upon all them that believe. This has the idea of both imputation
and impartation. See, that righteousness was mine
long before I ever committed my first sin. It was imputed
to me. It was charged to me because
of my union with Christ. And then by the grace and power
of the Holy Spirit, that righteousness was imparted to me in a new nature
that God created. It was given to me so that because
of my union, I am righteous before God. Astounding, isn't it? When you wake up and look in
the mirror, what do you say? Do you say that? Oh, you righteous
person. That's not what you say. But I am. I am righteous because of my
union with Him. Because God made Him to be my
righteousness. How much of my righteousness
is Christ? I ask this often. What will you
add to his righteousness? What righteousness of yours will
you ever add to his? Name it. Pick something. Not me. He's all my righteousness. And notice this, he is all my
sanctification. He is all my sanctification. In other words, he is all my
holiness. Righteousness, I believe, has
something to do with action, but holiness is a state of being. A person who is holy will naturally
do righteous, will work righteousness. So not only has he made me actively
righteous, he has made me holy. Isn't this what he planned to
do? Isn't this what God purposed to do? According as he had chosen
us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should
be what? What should we be? What did he
purpose you to be? Sanctified. Holy. We were set apart to be holy
creatures unto our God. I do not understand how anyone
would dare say Christ is my righteousness, Christ is my redemption, Christ
is my justification, but I need to have some active part in the
sanctification business. Who would dare say that? That
is an arrogant person who supposes that they have some part in it.
Again, what would you say sanctifies you? Tell me. What part of your
works would you add to his sanctification? Go to Hebrews, go to Hebrews,
look at this. This is, this makes the end of
argument concerning this matter of sanctification. Hebrews chapter
10. Hebrews chapter 10, Christ speaking
here, he says, Lo, I, in verse 9, Lo, I come to do thy will,
O God. He taketh away the first, he
may establish the second. Listen, by the wish will, by
the will of God, we are what? Sanctified. So you're sanctified by the will
of God, right? That's what it says. It's not
you will be, you are sanctified by the which will, by the will
of God. How? Through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ. How often are you sanctified? Once for all. We were sanctified
by the will of God, made holy through our union with Christ
before the world began. And in time, Christ accomplished
that holiness, that sanctification, by how? His offering. How many
offerings did he make? One. You were sanctified by the
offering of the body of Christ once. Sanctification is not an
ongoing process, friend. It's an accomplished thing. You
were sanctified by the will of God. You were sanctified through
the blood of Christ. Every priest in daily ministering
often offers in times of the same sacrifices and can never
take away sin. But this man after he offered
one sacrifice for sin forever sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting his enemies to be made his pistol.
For by his one offering he hath perfected forever them that are
what? Sanctified. You that were sanctified by the
will of God and sanctified through the blood of Christ, you are
perfected forever because you were sanctified. So then Christ is all my righteousness.
When I say he's my salvation, I say this, he's all my righteousness.
And he's all my sanctification. What's the next thing? Look at
that in 1 Corinthians again. Still speaking about our union
with Christ. But I've gone in Christ with
God and made it to his wisdom, our light, our righteousness,
our sanctification, and our redemption. In the midst of our troubles,
we may have hope of God hearing our prayers and answering our
prayers because of our union, and our union is this, he is
all my redemption. All my redemption, the Lord Jesus
Christ, in grace and love as our representative man, he bore
the sins of his people in his own body in order to redeem us. From what? The curse of the law. To redeem us from the curse of
the law. He himself was made a curse. He suffered the full measure
of God's wrath that was against my sin. See, my sin, it must
have been punished. God could not be just and justify
me except my sin be punished. Except I be righteous, Christ
took care of that. Except I be holy, Christ took
care of that. What about punishment for my
sin? He's already taken care of that. He bore our sins in
his own body. He paid the debt. Over in Job
33, verse 24, he said, let them go out of the pit, for I have
found a ransom. God found a ransom. And what were the words of our
Lord Jesus Christ when he died on Calvary's tree as our redemption? Three words. It is finished. What's finished? Christ is my
salvation, and my salvation is finished. It's finished. My sin is gone, and justice is
forever satisfied. How do I know this? When David
here... I'm not going to get this. I'm
not going to get past this one. I'm sorry. There's three more
things. I'm just not going to do it. I'm going to hold on to
this. David said, you're one of our
desire to know what I seek after. You know where David saw Christ?
He saw him in the temple. He saw him in the sacrifices.
He saw him, that was the gospel being preached to David, to the
offerings. And the greatest one was the
great day of atonement, wasn't it? What a beautiful picture
that is of my redemption, of my salvation. There's a high
priest. Who's that picture? Christ representing
us. You have the goat as a sin offering,
and you have the scapegoat. Both picture Christ. The sins were confessed on the
scapegoat, and he was taken out. The other goat was slain. Both
picture Christ. I like that scapegoat, don't
you? Christ bore my sins. God confessed all my sins upon
Him. He bore my sin in His own body. I don't understand that. That's
exactly how it happened. He bore my sin in His own body
on the tree. And as he died for my sins, he
carried them away. Now consider that strong man,
that's a picture of Christ too. Always Christ. And he carries
that golden, I can imagine watching him just go and watching him
as he goes in the distance and he becomes smaller and smaller
until he's what? Gone. Now I cannot forget my sins. Every day I am faced with my
sin. I confess my sin. But I know this by faith that
my sin is gone in the eyes of God. I don't feel that, do you? What
do your feelings have to do with it? Who cares how you feel about
it? Christ borne my sin. And my sin is forever gone, so
far gone that God himself cannot see it. The blood was so perfect that
it forever washed them away in the eyes of God, and that's all
who really counts, isn't it? That's just strong language,
isn't it? Jeremiah 50 tell me this is true Verse 20 if you don't have this
mark, you should mark this you should hang on to this When I cry to God in the midst
of my troubles I because of my union with Christ, because Christ
is my light and my salvation. Look at this. This is what God
sees. In those days and at that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for. Now who's doing the searching?
God. And what does he say? What did
he find when he searched for it? And there shall be none The sins of judah and they shall
not be found I don't know. I bring them to
god every day. I take god. Here's my sin. He said what sin No, it's right. No, it's not.
It's not. Four, I will pardon them whom
I reserve. Paul in Romans 8 asked this question,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God who is my salvation. It's God that justified me. Who is he that condemneth? Wait
a second, if you can't charge somebody, how can you condemn
them? Is it possible if there's no charge, how can there be any
condemnation? Which says, first of all, there's
no charge. And if somebody condemns you, listen, there's no condemnation. Why? Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. You're gonna condemn me of my
sin? You can't. Christ died for it. Yea, rather,
listen, it's written again, and is seated at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for me. Therefore, when I'm in
trouble, God will hear me, because Christ is all my salvation. That's why David said, who, who shall I fear? Are you afraid? We should be ashamed of our fear.
We have a lot of fear. But if Christ is my life, my
salvation, my wisdom, my understanding, then who in the world shall I
fear? Ain't nobody can condemn me. God justified me. Christ died. Yea, rather, he's so successful
that God set him down on the right hand and he now ever lives
pleading for me. Stout. I surely would have quit
on me a long time ago. But how gracious is he and longsuffering
with us. to intercede for us. Why? Because
He is my salvation. And lastly, He is the strength
of my life. Believer that certainly life
is a vapor, isn't it? It's going. It won't be long. I kind of think of this, and in
a hundred years, nobody will even know we were here. I want you to remember that we
were here. How many people do you know from 100 years ago? It's a vapor. I know that we truly hold this
life valuable because there's only hope in this life, isn't
there? Therefore, we must then compel
men to believe on Christ, knowing that the only hope for them is
that Christ give them life and faith. But all of us who are
quick into life, we understand this, that my life is not contained
in this mortal frame. This is not my life. This is
not my life. Paul said this, my life is hid
with God in Christ. He is the strength of my real
life. The source of my life is God. And though this flesh wax old
and worse, and though it die or be sick, our life is not here. Our life is not here. And when
this life ends, it will not be over. You understand that, right? When this life ends, it's not
over. In fact, it just begins. In fact, we then begin to really
live. We will then experience the fullness
of our life, which is here with God in Christ. And this is my
hope, that as long as I live in this body, I know this, my
life is kept. I am kept by the power of God. unto salvation, ready to be revealed
at the last time. And even though we go through
manifold trials and temptations, Peter said the trial of our faith
being much more precious than gold that perishes. Now listen,
the trial is not precious. Faith is precious. Faith is precious. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. God has given us faith, and faith
is the evidence of what? Our life. We believe, and God
says that this faith will be tried, it will be tested, it
will be proven that it is of God. Good, because I don't want
my faith to be of myself. Do you want your faith to be
of yourself? God tries our faith so that he
should prove it is of him. What's the evidence then that
I have real life? It's faith. What's the evidence
that I have true faith? It endures. It endures. All true life and spiritual faith
will endure because I'm kept. He's my life. And for my life
to end, he would have to die. God would have to die. You get
that? Not possible. My life. Christ is my life. Therefore Jesus said of his sheep,
I give unto them what? Eternal life. And they shall never perish. Your pastor went home to be with
the Lord many years ago. He has not perished. And neither
will you. Neither shall any man pluck him out of my hands. For the Father which came to
me is greater than all. And I and my Father are one. Now what does that say about
you who are in Christ? If He and the Father are one,
and you are one with Him, you are one with the Father by virtue
of our union with Him. Now, is there any question as
to will He answer my prayer? If I'm in union with Christ,
if I'm surrounded by my enemies, and I am, That psalm, he said, Thou makest
me to lie down, where? In the midst of my enemies. That's
where you put me. Imagine a shepherd leading his
sheep in the middle of the line. Then tell him to lie down and
eat. Everything's all right. It's as though he defies them
to touch one of his sheep. Who then shall separate me from
the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? If I'm in Christ Jesus,
who shall separate me from him? I am persuaded that neither life,
nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able, not they don't try, but they shall be able to
separate me from the love of God that is in in Christ Jesus. That's where I'm at. Union with
Christ is my confidence that God will hear my cries. Are you in trouble? Cry to God. Because of your union
with Christ, he will hear you. That's the grounds of it. Don't
make the grounds of it what you've done. That'll crumble. There's
no reason for God to hear you based on you. There's every reason
for God to hear you based on Christ. And you have confidence
that when you, no one, when everyone leaves you, David said, when
my mother and father leave me, you'll take me up. Why? Because
of my union with Christ. He's my life. He's my strength. He's my salvation. He's my light. Christ is all. Christ is all. I pray God blesses to you.