Turn with me to Psalms chapter
30. Psalms chapter 30. One phrase caught my attention.
We'll read the whole chapter. But one phrase in particular
caught my attention. A psalm of song at the dedication
of the house of David. I will extol thee, O Lord, for
thou hast lifted me up and hast not made my foes to rejoice over
me. O Lord, my God, I cried unto
thee and thou hast healed me. O Lord, thou hast brought up
my soul from the grave. Thou hast kept me alive that
I should not go down to the pit. Sing unto the Lord, all you saints
of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
For his anger endureth but for a moment, and in his favor is
life. Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning. And in my prosperity, I said,
I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favor thou hast
made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide my face, and
I was troubled. Thou didst hide thy face, and
I was troubled. I cried to thee, O Lord, and
unto the Lord I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood
when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall
it declare thy truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy
upon me. Lord, be thou my helper. Thou hast turned for me my mourning
into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth
and girded me with gladness. To the end that my glory may
sing praise to Thee and not be silent, O Lord my God, I will
give thanks unto Thee forever." Now the phrase that drew my attention, what tongue can enumerate can
speak of it, can expand it as it ought to be. It's found in
the latter part of the middle of verse 5. In His favor is life. In His favor is life. I pray that we may hear this
morning, this day, always keep this section in our view. In His favor. is life. To put it simply, in our 2021,
if we are favored of God in Christ, we have life. If we do not have
such favor of God, there will be certain death. Now let's look
at this, and let's expand the thought of God's favor, in His
favor, it's the His He's talking about. In His favor is life. In, or because of His favor we
have life. Through His favor we have life. from His grace, which is unmerited,
that favor, that's basically what He's talking about, favor,
we have eternal life. It's a good life, Romans 8.28. It's the best life,
Romans 8.28. And the life we have here and
in eternity. In His favor, we have life. We who all the day long were
born in trespasses and sins, we worked in our own iniquity
like soft clay, we molded and molding ourselves against God,
we were ruined from birth, wrecked by practice, and ravaged by the
fall of our parents, Adam and Eve." I looked these words up. English words, ruined, that means
to decay or collapse, wrecked, destroyed, spoiled completely,
and ravaged, devastated. Ruined from birth, wrecked by
practice, ravaged by the fall of our parents. In this state,
in this state, in this condition, is where God found us. And for
reasons found only in His sovereign purpose of grace, He favored. That word means delighted. And it also means voluntarily. I just love that. Because none
of us pressured God to send His Son. He was done out of a voluntary
will, act, decree of God. We're recipients. That's what
it is. Freely, supremely, without any
influence from or by us, He, delighted, voluntarily delighted,
gave us life. Gave us life. My friends and
brethren, may we dwell upon this solitary act of the free grace
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is not much of a verse.
It's part of a verse. In whatever situation you come
across, whatever situation you come in, the world's against
you, yes. The flesh is against you, obviously.
Satan, yes. But you can look at this, and
if He has given you eyes to see and ears to hear in His favor,
is life. In His favor is life. There was
absolutely nothing in us worth saving, worth redeeming. All
cause is found exclusively in the Son of God's love, Jesus
Christ. Favor was there before the worlds
were formed or framed in electing love towards the undeserving.
Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4. Favor was instrumental in the, I'm
sorry, favor was behind God's bringing the sweet notes of the
gospel truth to us. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. We
didn't understand the gospel. We were religion, maybe. I was
in religion and never heard the gospel once. I heard about God
from this book, not even from this book, it was from responsive
readings. I didn't know anything of God or His gospel or His grace. that brought it to me, but favor
was behind God bringing the sweet notes of the gospel, a gospel
preacher, the gospel crossed your path, crossed my path to
give us an understanding. Favor was instrumental in the
Holy Spirit taking the things of Christ and applying them to
our conscience which was once dead but now alive. Galatians
chapter 1 verses 15 and 16. set us apart, and made us meet
to be partakers of the saints in light." Colossians 1, 2. In
His favor, free, delight voluntarily. This favor and this favor shall
keep us unto the end. Jude 24. It's just like His character,
Alpha and Omega. He doesn't change. He's immutable. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
daughters of Jacob, are not consumed. Everything we possess is a free
gift from God to us. This favor can never be earned,
worked for, or secured by us because we're so sinful. And that's what the Scripture
means when it says grace. Favor. Voluntary delight God
the Father has in His Son and His sons redemptive, substitutionary
accomplishments on our behalf. The second point. The first point
was favor. In His favor, again it's sovereign
favor, supreme favor, unquenching favor, undiluted favor, is life. Life, or the grace from
God to the soul equals life, and that more abundantly. It's
foolproof, it's keeping life, it's solid life, it's steadfast,
it's eternal life. Life from death. The just, says
the scriptures, died for the unjust. He shed his precious
blood for the unjust. May we bow in adoration for His
perfect, substitutionary righteousness freely given to His sheep." 2
Corinthians 5.21. Freely given. Now, because this
favor is in God, is from God, and gives us life, because of
this truth, we should be, one, comforted in time of trouble. We have one that we can go to,
one who cares for us, one who delights in us. Secondly, we ought to be helped
in time of need. We have more needs than we realize. I'm not saying once. We have
more needs than we realize. We can go to Him who favors us
through the Son. We ought to be warmed when we
get cold, cold in heart. I don't feel like coming. I don't
feel like worshiping. I don't feel like this. I don't
feel like that. And we're up and down. That's the flesh. We're
up and down. May we spot the flesh as the flesh and mortify
the deeds of the flesh, run to Christ for life. May we be humbled in times of
pride. And how this pride, it's in every
one of us, it's our bosom, it's what we protect, it's why we
justify ourselves, it's why we like to hear ourselves talking,
it's all these different things. We, the pride, it's just pride,
always, it's just there. But we have the free favor of
God, which gives us life, and that more abundantly, And like
he says, I love this passage, I'll read it to you. Yes, I'm this way. Yes, I understand
you're that way. I'm the same way. But let us
not justify, let us not justify our pride. Let us not justify our sin. I
am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Why? Because His favor.
Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave Himself for me." The believer is quick
to justify Christ and quick to condemn himself. But we ought
to do this, comfort, help, warm, humbled, and of all things, thankful
in all times. There is no time when the believer
should not be thankful. For if we possess the favor of
God, who and what really can harm
us? Whatever befalls a child of God,
he can say regardless of time, circumstance, or situation, it
is well with the righteous. Isaiah 3, chapter 3, verse 10. Why can we say that? Because
He's favored us. He's favored us. Or, the believer
can say that in Isaiah 3, but closer to home in our text, in
Psalms 30, look back with me at verse 5. Weeping, the latter
part of verse 5, may endure for a night. We have struggles. Struggle
with sin. Struggle with the world. Struggle
with finances. Struggle with the economy. Struggle
with government. Struggle, struggle, struggle.
This world you shall have tribulations. And we weep, but only endures
for a night. But joy comes in the morning. Why? Because we have the favor
of God. And that's life right now. The
life which we now live in Christ. Don't make excuses. We don't
make excuses for sins, and we do that sometimes, for whatever
it might be. We have life in Christ. That's not something
that's down the road. It's eternal life. But we have
it right now, and we can enjoy life. Life. I'm not saying necessarily
the world. I'm not saying we Bruce dealt
with that this morning in Bible class. The love of the world,
if you have that, if I have that, the love of Christ is not in
us. We're not talking about that. We're talking about life. Because
we were dead trespassers in sins and didn't know it and didn't
care. And we were religious probably like everybody else was. Go through the motions. Sing
the hymns. When the preacher's praying,
somebody's praying, we close our eyes. Go through the motions.
No, I'm talking about true, genuine, spiritual life is only by God's
favor. sweet joy, sweet rest, all because
of the sweet sovereign favor from God in the person and worth
of Emmanuel. I close with this. Is there then,
the opposite of this text, is there then disfavor from God? Yes, there is. That's eternal
death. Yes, as God is merciful to His
chosen people, He is wrathful to all unbelievers. Turn with
me to Matthew chapter 7. This is something that the world
wants to ignore. God is love. That's why they want to blot
everything out. And if you have experienced God's love, it does
blot out all of our sins. But God doesn't love everybody.
He didn't die for everybody. I don't know who. It's not my
responsibility. I stand up and do what I'm called.
And you're called. We're all called. We all have
gifts. Matthew 7, verses 21-23. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. How can you
do the will of the Father? We're dead in trespasses and sins because
we have life. We have life, where that grain
of mustard seed that starts out so little, but there's life,
there's joy, there's happiness, there's peace, there's Christ. Many will say unto me in that
day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied thy name? And I name
cast out devils, and I name done many wonderful works. Then will
I say, this is the Lord speaking, I will profess unto them, I never
knew you, depart from me, you who work iniquity. They can't
work righteousness because there's no life. I never favored you. That's what he said, I've never
favored you. Well, what are we to do? If you're a criminal, and we
are, and you go before the bar of God's justice, the judge,
and he is. The old term is you throw yourself
at the mercy of the court. Throw yourself at the mercy of
the court. And may God, he won't change his mind, but there are
certain things that he does to a person Are you convinced of
your sin? Are you convinced of His righteousness?
Do you know that outside of Him you can do nothing? Without Me,
He says, you can do nothing. Sue for mercy and ask for life. May this in Matthew, may it not
be so amongst any here today.