I want to speak to you just for
a few minutes about the nature and elements of trust. The nature
and elements of trust. David often made the statement
of trust in the Lord. Trust ye in the Lord at all times.
That's the way he begins this psalm. In thee, O Lord, do I
put my trust. Let me never be put to confusion.
Deliver me in Thy righteousness, and cause me to escape. Incline
Thine ear unto me, and save me. Be Thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. Thou hast given commandment to
save me, for Thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me,
O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of
the unrighteous and cruel man. For Thou art my hope, O Lord
God. Thou art my trust from my youth.
By Thee have I been holding up from the womb. Thou art He that
took me out of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually
of Thee. I am a wanderer unto many, but
Thou art my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with thy
praise and with thy honor all the day. Cast me not off in the
time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength
faileth. For my enemies speak against
me, and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,
saying, God hath forsaken him, persecute and take him, for there
is none to deliver him. O God, be not far from me. O
my God, make haste to help me. Let them be confounded and consumed
that are adversaries to my soul. Let them be covered with reproach
and dishonor that seek my hurt, but I will hope continually and
will yet praise thee more and more. My mouth shall show forth
thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day, for I know not the
numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness even of
thine only. O God, thou hast taught me from
my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also,
when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not, until
I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power
to every one that is to come. Thy righteousness also, O God,
is very high, who hath done great things, O God, who is life unto
thee. Thou which hath showed me great
and sore trouble shall quicken me again. and shall bring me
up again from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my
greatness and comfort me on every side. I will also praise thee
with a psaltery, even thy truth, O my God. Unto thee will I sing
with a heart, O thou holy one of Israel. My lips shall greatly
rejoice when I sing unto thee, and my soul which thou hast redeemed. My tongue also shall talk of
thy righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded,
for they are broken to shame that seek my hurt. I have often,
and you have probably too, Saul, two little words scribbled on
an embankment or some bridge or some building. Trust Christ. Trust Christ. I've often wondered
if that person that got up there to scribble that really knew
what it means to trust Christ, the nature of trust, the elements
of trust. And that's what I want to look
at this evening. David began here in verse 1 and said, In
thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. David often mentioned that, trusting
in the Lord. And he knew what it meant to
trust the Lord. The word trust itself simply
means a strong belief that someone or something can be depended
upon. And therefore that one or that
something is reliable. One puts his confidence in to
believe in or to have faith in. That's what trust is. A strong
belief that someone or something can be dependent upon. And therefore
you put your trust in that person or in that thing. And there's
what David was saying here in verse 1. He was saying, Lord,
I put my confidence in you. I rely upon you. I believe with
all my heart that you can be trusted. That's what he was saying
here to the Lord. And notice some things here about
verse 1 of what David said. Just break it down and you see
some things here about trust. First of all, He says here, it's
a personal trust. In Thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. It's a personal trust. I've come
to Christ. I look to Christ. I trust Christ. Who is this that comes up out
of the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? It's me. That's
me. I've come up out of the wilderness,
leaning upon His everlasting arms. I trust the Lord Jesus
Christ. My faith has found a resting
place. Not in device nor creed. I trust
the ever-living One. His wounds for me shall heal. It's a personal trust, isn't
it? We come to Christ. We trust Christ. And David says
here that it's a present trust. Did you notice that? In thee,
O Lord, do I put my trust. He had trusted the Lord when
he was a little boy, and he still trusted Him. I trusted the Lord
Jesus Christ 32 years ago. And by God's grace, I'll trust
Him tomorrow. But I trust Him today. It's a
present trust. I rejoice that I can look back
and remember when I first trusted Christ. But I don't have to look
back then. And you don't either. It's a
present trust. I put my trust in the Lord right
now. And notice this about this trust.
It's a deliberate trust. In Thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. It's a deliberate, a willing,
a knowing, placing the trust of your heart on this person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember several years ago
when Joe and I first came to Indiana. I got a job at a filling
station and we were very, very busy. Took in a lot of cash,
especially for the early 70s. And we were afraid to carry it
on us, so we had this huge safe that had a little slot that we
dropped money down through that slot into that safe down in the
ground. And it was safe then. That's
what this word here means. To put, it means to deposit. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which I've
committed to him. I've deposited my trust upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't do that blindly. I don't
do that unknowingly. We do that deliberately. knowingly
and willingly. Christ is all my salvation plan.
I trust Him for that. He's all my life. He's all my
acceptance with God. We trust Him deliberately for
that, don't we? David said, I put my trust in
the Lord. And the object of trust, look
at that. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Our trust is in God. Our trust
is in God through Christ and in Christ. Listen to these two
verses of scripture. Romans chapter 15 and verse 13,
Paul said this, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he shall
rise to reign over the Gentiles, and in him shall the Gentiles
tread. There's who we trust. We trust
Him who reigns over the Gentiles. We trust the Sovereign Lord.
He's a person. We don't trust the sovereign
doctrines of grace. We trust the Sovereign Lord.
And listen to what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 12, 20 and 21. A bruised reed he will not bruise,
and smoking flax Will he not quench until he has sent forth
judgment to victory, and in his name shall the Gentiles trust? Who do we trust? We trust a merciful
high priest who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmity,
who won't break the bruised reed or put out the smoke in flames.
That's the kind of trust. We trust him, a person. David
makes this statement here in verse 1. In thee, O Lord, do
I put my trust. And then he seems to spend the
rest of this chapter elaborating on what it means to trust. See,
it's not enough just to say, I trust in the Lord. We need
to know what that means, don't we? We need to know the nature
and some elements of this trust. What it means to trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. Why do we trust Him? Why do we
trust Him? Well, that's the first thing
we'll look at. Look in verse 17. Here's why we trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. Here's the first element of trust. Look in verse 17. O God, thou
hast taught me from my youth. Now what had God taught David
from his youth? We'll look back in verse 5 and
he tells us. For thou art my hope, O Lord God. Thou art my
trust from my youth. Thou hast taught me from my youth. Thou art my trust from my youth.
So what's David saying? David's saying God has taught
me to trust His Christ from my youth. That's what he's saying.
God has taught me to rely upon His Christ. To put all my confidence
in the Lord's Christ. He's taught me. Now that poses
a question, doesn't it? Why is it necessary for God to
teach us to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? What's He saying
with that? Is He telling us this? That we
will not trust the Lord Jesus Christ unless the Father teaches
us to trust Christ? Is He telling us by our nature
we're ignorant of what it means to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ? Why should I trust Him? Who is
the Lord that I should trust Him? Why can't I trust myself? Why can't I trust something else?
You see, brothers and sisters, you and I are so ignorant by
nature. We don't understand who Christ
is. We don't understand how to trust
Him. The Father must teach us to trust
in His Son. That's what David said. David
said, when I was a youth, He taught me to trust. The Lord
taught me to trust. God taught me to trust. And that's
what He's telling us, first of all, that we will not trust the
Lord Jesus Christ if the Father don't teach us to trust Him.
And secondly, He's telling us this, that we cannot trust the
Lord Jesus Christ, except the Father teach us and bring us
to put our trust in Him. Why didn't David say, Jesse taught
me to trust Christ? Why didn't he say, Samuel the
great prophet taught me to put my trust in the Lord? Because
David knew that only God could teach a man to put his trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ. No man can come to me. Don't
we see it? It's written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. Every man that has heard
and learned of the Father, he comes to me. Why does He come
to me for? To put His trust in me. Who taught
Him that? The Father in Heaven teaches
Him that. He taught me that He said. And you know the Lord Jesus
said you ain't going to do it. And you can't do it if He don't
teach you to do it. That's the nature of trust, isn't
it? We have to be taught. Taught. And verse 17 here teaches
us that trust is not a blind trust. It's not a blind trust. Though
we've never seen the Lord Jesus Christ, we trust Him. We've never seen Him, we trust
Him. Why do we trust someone we've never seen? God has taught
us of His trustworthiness. He's taught us that His Son is
trustworthy. When the Lord Jesus came to this
earth, He was called faithful and true. He's called a faithful
servant of God. The Father sent Him, and look
how faithful He was to the Father. All those covenant engagements,
He fulfilled them all. Was hungry for 40 days and 40
nights, and tempted of the devil, and never sinned in those temptations.
There in the garden, when He was anticipating the awful judgment
of God upon our sins, When you saw His humanity, when His sweat
turned to blood, and you realized how He was suffering, how apprehensive
He was, and yet He got up off the ground and went with those
men to the judgment hall. On the cross of Calvary, how
He groaned under the pains, suffering our load. He was faithful to
God, and when you and I didn't even know it, and we didn't even
care, He is faithful to us. And that's what God teaches us.
Christ is, He has the power to save us, He has the will to save
us, He has the merit to save us. And that's what God must
teach us. He must teach us this. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is
able. Where did he learn that? He didn't
know that by nature, did he? Where did he learn that Christ
was able? He had the merit to save him. He had the power and
will to save him. God taught him that. God taught
him that. One problem you and I face
in this business of trust is this, that Christ is a stranger
unto us by our nature. And you won't trust a stranger,
will you? You better not trust a stranger. If Mandy was out
here at the mall and she was shopping and she wanted to leave
her little girls with somebody, she wouldn't go outside and find
a man sitting out there on a stool and say, would you watch over
my babies? I'm going shopping for a couple of hours. You wouldn't
do that, would you? That would scare you to death.
Think about the sense of that. We won't trust a stranger, will
we? We cannot and should not trust
a stranger. I'm not pleading, brothers and
sisters, that we have to be theologians before we come to trust Christ,
but I am saying this, we cannot trust a Christ that we do not
know. We cannot trust a Christ we do
not understand something of. How shall they believe in Him
whom they have not heard? How shall we trust a Christ that
we do not find revealed on the pages of the Word of God? You
may stumble in a dark hole, but we do not stumble on the Lord
Jesus Christ. God brings us to Christ and he teaches us that
you can trust my son. You can rely on him. He's trustworthy. God teaches us of that. He must
teach us of that. We cannot trust a stranger. Another
problem is this. By nature we have no conscious
need of trusting Jesus Christ. We have no conscious need. We
have a need, but we just don't know it. I remember the first
time that Brother Mahan came up here and preached. Preached
that we're going to abolish the pastor. And the message he preached
that night on there, we'll forget it. Most of you were there and
you remember. He preached his message and then read his text. I remember the title of his message.
He said, why won't you come to Christ? Why won't you come to
Christ? And he gave some examples of
people who did come to Christ. That woman with an issue of blood,
she came to Christ. Blind Barnabas came to Christ.
A blind man came to Christ. And he said, why won't you come
to Christ? And he finished his message and he read his text.
And his text was this. He healed those who had need
of being healed. And see, that's why the world
is not flocking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you come down here
on Grand Avenue this evening, and every Sunday evening at this
time, that parking lot is full of cars, those people in there
playing bingo. Why are they there instead of
here, hearing the gospel? Why aren't the world flocking
to hear and trust and believe the Lord Jesus Christ? They don't
need Him. They don't need Him. That's why.
Oh Bruce, you mean they don't, they're not conscious of their
need of Him. They've got souls that need to
be saved and only the Lord can save them. But they're not aware
of that. They don't have any sin that needs to be washed away.
They don't have any eyes that need eyesight where they can
see. They don't have any corruption of heart to wash in Jesus' blood. And they never will have till
God teaches them their need. The Lord said, what would a man
give in exchange for his soul? I tell you what, he'll give just
about anything. Give him a mess of pottage and he'll sell his
soul for it. Give him thirty pieces of silver
and he'll sell his soul for it. Give him a little lush and pleasures
of sin for a season and he'll give his soul for that. Why?
Because his soul is not valuable to him until God teaches him
that you've got a soul more precious than this world. See, the Lord
Jesus Christ, you ain't gonna put your trust in Him for your
finances. Lord, I'm going to put my trust in you now, and
I trust you to keep me healthy, wealthy, and wise. He won't be
trusted with such a flimsy thing. You're going to trust Him with
the most precious thing you've got, and that's yourself, your
soul, and your salvation. But until the Father in Heaven
teaches us, we won't come to Christ and trust Him with our
soul. Oh, I've got some great meetings.
But until the Father teaches me of those things, I won't trust
Christ with them. Another problem is this. We've
got this whole problem of the false trust. The Scripture teaches
us that some men trust in their bowls, and others trust in their
swords and chariots, and men trust in their wealth. The Lord
Jesus told us about those who trust in themselves. Isn't that
right? Well, who better to trust than
myself? Who knows more than me? I mean, these are my thoughts.
Surely I can trust in my thoughts. I mean, I feel. Can I trust my
feelings? Well, I think my heart I'm telling
you, we're a danger to ourselves. There's a danger of a man having
a false trust. I talked with a lady just the
other day. Talked to her about coming to the Lord, seeking the
Lord. And she said, you know, I've got hopes that I'm going
to someday. I said, you know what that is? That's your heart
deceiving you. That's your heart giving you
a false trust. When you're 90 years old, your heart's still
going to be saying, you'll come someday. You'll come. I trust
I'll come someday. That's a false trust there. And
God has to drive us out of those false trusts to bring us to a
saving trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. What is a false trust? To rely
upon anything or anyone but the Son of God as He's revealed in
the Holy Scriptures. Oh, if you trust Christ this
evening, dear soul, you're a blessed person. God's taught you to do
it. God's taught you to do it. Another
aspect of trust is this. Once the Father in Heaven begins
to teach us to trust Christ, He'll never cease to teach us.
Now he's done a blessing. Look what David says here in
verse 17 and verse 18 again. Once the Father teaches us to
trust the Lord Jesus Christ, he'll never cease to teach us.
He says here in verse 17, O God, thou hast taught me from my youth,
now also when I am old and gray-headed. And he says in verse 1, I'm still
trusting you. Thou still my trust. See what
David said. The father taught David back
there when he was keeping those few sheep out in the wilderness.
The lion came up to kill the sheep. David smote him. A bear
came up and David got him by the beard and killed him. Trust
him in the Lord. Went out to confront Goliath
with a little sling of five stones. He said, I come to you in the
name of the Lord. The Lord taught him to trust
at an early age. And he said, now I'm old and
grey-headed. I'm still trusting. Why is he still trusting? God
taught him to trust. And once the Lord teaches us
to put our trust in Him, He'll never quit teaching us that.
There's three things about distrust. It's trusting Christ alone in
thee, O Lord, do I put my trust in Him alone. Deliver me, O Lord,
in Thy righteousness. Wasn't that what he said in verse
2? And then he goes on in verse 16 and says, I will make mention
of Thy righteousness, even Thine only. See what trust is? It's in Christ alone. Christ's
blood alone. Christ's righteousness alone.
And it's in Christ fully. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. Don't lean to your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him. That's what trust does.
Has God ever taught a man to trust Christ with half a heart?
It's always all your heart. What hinders me from being baptized
if you believe with all your heart? You can't be. And this,
God teaches us to trust Christ continually. There never comes
a time when God says you've trusted Him enough. You don't have to
trust Him any longer. You can go on to something else.
It never comes to time. When the Lord deals with our
hearts and He brings us to trust, we'll trust the rest of our life.
When we're old and gray-headed like Clarence is, we'll trust
Him. We'll trust Him. Bruce, you're getting too technical.
That's what some people will say. Getting too narrow about
this business of trust. But if you want to know if your
trust is real, where are you going to go to prove it? Well,
here's a man that was taught of God. We know he was. He said
he was. That's the kind of trust I want.
And if I want to know that my trust is not a false trust, I
bring it right here and say, is my trust like David's? Has God taught me to trust? It's
God continually teaching me to trust Christ, and Christ alone,
and nothing but Christ. That's a true trust. A true trust.
David's trust never diminished as he got older. It surely didn't
cease. He trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. And the more he knew of Him,
the more he trusted Him. And that's the true nature of
trust. The more you love Him, the more you trust. I like what
David says here, and you can see this as it progresses. The
Lord was revealed here to David in verse 5, or in verse 3, as
a rock. As a rock. So what does David
say in verse 3? Well, he says there at the last
portion, Thou art my rock. If he's a rock, then he's my
rock. And then there he was delivered, he was revealed to David as a
fortress, as a fort. That's something built out of
the wilderness that you go to as a dwelling place, to hide
out at, a safe place. And David said, therefore he's
my fortress. He's my fortress. In verse 4,
Christ was revealed to David as God. So what does he say?
He's my God. In verse 5, he was revealed as
hope. So what does David say? He's
my hope. In verse 7, he was revealed as
a strong refuge. So what does David say? He's
my refuge. He's mine. This is what hope
does, trust does. This is the nature of it. It
trusts Christ as it finds Him revealed in the Word of God. And it finds Christ to be suitable
for its every need. So it trusts Him. It trusts Him. This is why Larry is always encouraging
us to read the Scripture. That's where we grow in grace
and knowledge. And as we grow in grace and knowledge, we grow
in our trust. See, if this ain't so, is Christ
the only Lord of glory? Then He's your Lord, for you
trust Him. Is Christ the Savior of His people? Then He's your Savior, because
you trust Him. Has God made Christ to be righteousness
and wisdom and sanctification and redemption? Then He's all
those things to you, for you trust Him. Is Christ a faithful
and merciful high priest in the presence of God? Then He's your
high priest, for you trust Him. Is He an advocate with the Father
for those who have sinned? Then He's your advocate, for
you trusted Him. Is Christ the resurrection and
the life? Then He's your resurrection and
He's your life, for you trusted Him. All Jesus is in His glory,
in His worth, in His beauty, both as man and God, because
I trust Him, and if you trust Him, He's yours too. All Christ
has done, the life He lived, the death He died, the death
He defeated, His ascension to heaven, His taking possession
of that holy place, is mine, because I trust Him. All Christ
is, all Christ has done, and all He possesses, is mine, because
I trust Him. Now you listen to these scriptures.
These ain't something I got out of my head, but you listen to
this. Doesn't the Father teach us that Christ is all? He teaches us that. Colossians
3 letter. That in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. Colossians 2.9. That all things
have been given unto his hands. John 3.35. That he's been exalted
above all heavens, Ephesians 1, verse 21-22, and that all
things are under his feet. That Jesus in his glorified humanity
has entered heaven on the behalf of his people, Hebrews 6.20.
And that where he is, there they shall also soon be. And as he
is in his glorified humanity, they soon shall be like him. And that all Christ possesses
shall they possess, for they are joint heirs with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Romans 8, 17. All God requires
for our eternal acceptance All that's needful for the eternal
salvation of my soul, all that is needed for our eternal happiness
is in Jesus Christ, and He possesses it all, and it belongs to those
who trust Him. Now, ain't that so or not? Christ is all, He's everything,
and He's mine, because I trust Him. As I find Him revealed in
the Holy Scripture, I trust Him. You say, Bruce, I didn't know
all of this. Well, I didn't either, until I found it in the Scripture.
But that's what I'm saying, true trust is. That's the nature of
it. As Christ is revealed to that
person in the Scripture, they say, well, He's mine then. I
trust Him. When you and I began this way,
we didn't know very much about the Lord. We knew He was the
Lord, and we knew He was the Savior. We knew we were sinners. That's about all we knew. But
as we come to a greater understanding of Him, we trust Him. We trust
Him. I don't like to see people take
off too fast. Do you? I've seen a lot of people
when they profess the Lord, boy, they... They're like a rabbit,
you know, old rabbit and a tortoise. You read that story of the old
rabbit and the tortoise? The rabbit took off right fast,
but in the end he was wore out. And the turtle beat the rain.
The turtle won. I like to see people take off like a turtle.
They're slow, but boy what they get, they get into their hearts. Tomorrow, they're still plugging
along. Next year, they're still plugging
along. And boy, what they know about
the Lord, they know it in their hearts. They may be slow, but
they know it there. You see them when the Lord first
saves them, and they say, Boy, the Lord saved me. And you see
them a few months later, and they'll say, The Lord is my salvation. You see them and they'll say,
Boy, the Lord has given me life. And you see them a few days later
and they say, Boy, the Lord is my life. And what do they do? They grow. They grow in grace
and knowledge and trust. That's the nature of trust. That's
what David did. That's what David did. And you
know this about trust. When we trust the Lord Jesus
Christ as He's revealed in the Scripture, that trust will never
be disappointed. God will never suffer that trust
to be disappointed. That's what He said here in verse
1. Look at this. O Lord, indeed do I put my trust,
let me never be put to confusion. God honors that soul that puts
his trust in Christ. The way you honor the Lord Jesus
Christ is to trust Him. And I tell you, you honor the
Son and you'll be honored to the Father. Everything that He's
promised you, He won't let any promise fall to the ground. Now
He won't do it. That soul that owned Jesus does
lean for repose. Here's what God said, I will
not, I will not desert to His foes. That soul though all hell
shall endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. God will never suffer a man who
trusted his son to be confused or disappointed. Now he won't
do it. He won't do it. Those who trust the Lord Jesus
now, they've got nothing to fear of God. He'll never disappoint
them. Not in this world, not in death,
or in the judgment to come. Let me never be disappointed. And here's another element of
trust. Let me go on just for a few more minutes. I appreciate
your patience. Here's another element of trust.
And we don't want to miss this element of trust. I don't think
we can trust the Lord Jesus Christ continually if this element of
trust is missing. And David makes mention of it
here. And it's a sense, a heart sense, of the desperate situation
that we're continually finding ourselves in, in regard to our
being saved. Now, salvation is a great mystery.
It is. It's a great mystery. We have
been saved, and we are being saved, and we shall be saved. That's the mystery of salvation.
The man who is saved feels his deep need of being saved. And those who have been washed
from their sin, they feel the pollution of sin. The man who
knows the Lord longs to know the Lord. The man who is being
saved will never be satisfied until he is completely saved.
You're here tonight and you're satisfied with Christ. You're
satisfied with what He is. You're satisfied with what He's
done. But you're never going to be satisfied until you're
with Him and you're made just like Him. That's the nature of
salvation. The man who has found peace with
God is a man who is at war with himself. The man who has been
delivered from the wrath to come feels that he must never be subject
to it again. The man whom the Lord has delivered
from this present evil world is a man who fears that he may
yet be overcome by it. And a man who has been delivered
from so great a death, a death that is in sin and trespasses,
is that very man that knows he must yet be delivered from so
great a death." See what I'm saying? It's a mystery. Bruce,
I'm saved. I'm saved. Don't you feel like
you must be saved? You see the nature of that here
when David began to pray. Here in verse 2 and verse 3 and
verse 4, so many of these verses. What does he mean here when he
says, Deliver me, O Lord, in Thy righteousness. Cause me to
escape. Incline Thine ear to me and save
me. You mean this wasn't a saved
man? Yes, it was a saved man. But he was keenly aware that
he yet needed to be saved. That's the mystery of salvation.
Every child of God understands this to a degree. When we come
to the Lord years ago, we felt an awful need for Him to save
us. And we still feel that need today,
don't we? And we hope for the future. We
hope to be saved. Somebody says, you're hoping
to be saved. I'm hoping to be saved. Every man that knows the
Lord is saved by hope. Hope that is seen is not hope.
If you see it, why do you yet hope for it? We're saved by hope.
I will hope continually. Hope for what, David? Hope to
be saved. Hope to be saved. I heard Brother
Scott Richardson preach a message one time on they shall see His
face. They shall see His face. And he said, you know what it
means when we see His face, yonder? It means we finally made it.
We finally made it. And that's the nature of salvation. And it's this element, I say,
that's so crucial if we continue to trust Christ. Let me put this
question to you like this. How important is it to you tonight
that you're saved right now? And know it. And assure that. How important is that to you?
How important is it to you right now that you're accepted with
God tonight? How important is it to you right
now that God is not angry with you? How important is that? That all your sins is forgiven
right now. That you're walking with the
Lord, that you're pleasing Him right now. How important is that
to you? Are you one of those who say,
oh, I trusted Christ 20 years ago, I'm not concerned with those
things now. But that's not the nature of
salvation, see. The nature of salvation, boy,
we're in the midst of a battle. We have apprehensions of God,
that He's a consuming fire, that He's angry with sin. The lost
don't have that apprehension, but we do sometimes. Have you
ever seen God so great that you think, how can He have anything
to do with me? Do you ever feel like sometimes, oh, you feel
His wrath, His hot displeasure against your sin? Do you ever
feel that? Do you ever see the nature and the strictness and
the inflexibility of God's holy law? Do you ever see this corruption
that boils within you? Do you ever get any sense of
that? Well, it's these things that drives us to continually
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a battle going on within
us. Don't you find yourself inclined
into self-righteousness and unbelief? Aren't you afraid of yourself? Don't you know if you don't trust
the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to get perished? You ain't
going to make it. That's the nature of this salvation. The
nature of trust. And there's something else here,
not only in regards to His salvation. But the desperate situation we're
finding ourselves in, the dangerous situation that we find ourselves
in today. David makes mention of it here
in these verses, and you can read it. Oh Lord, deliver me
from my enemies. My enemies speak against me.
They lay wait for my soul, saying, God hath forsaken him. Persecute
him and take him. There's two great powers in this
world, and that's God and the devil. God is almighty. He sits upon the throne of His
holiness, and before Him all the world is like grasshoppers.
He opens and no man shuts. He shuts and no man opens. Who
are we before Him? And there's these mighty creatures
These fallen angels that hate us, evil spirits. And though
they're creatures, they're mighty creatures. They're called gods,
rulers of the darkness of this world. Who are we before such
power? And one of them said, God hath
forsaken David, he's ours now. And David said, Lord, that's
the truth. I'm nothing before this power. You hear men talk
about the power of their free wills. Men that make such statements
that God has cast a vote for you, Satan has cast a vote for
you, but yours is the deciding vote. Who are we? Who are we
that we can affect anything before these great powers? We're helpless
before them. We're pawns in their hands and
their control. And I tell you, if God forsakes
a man, the devil will get him. Because he's no match for the
devil. That's the situation we find ourselves in, in this world. And what does that do? It brings
us to trust. I need the Lord. He's got to
uphold me every moment and every day. If He don't, I'll fall.
And I'll perish with the devil. Ain't that the way you feel?
That's the way we feel, isn't it? So it brings about this continual
trust, this continual need in the Lord. Brother Larry's been
meeting some men just up north of where he lives, and both of
them profess that he's been trying his best to get them to attend
the worship, sir. And both of them profess as the
Lord, and either one of them sees any need to attend the public
way. They don't need the preaching
of the gospel. They don't need to pray with the Lord's people.
They don't need to hear the Lord's Word read. Don't you wonder about
that? Can you do without the Lord's
people? Can you do without the preaching of the gospel? Can
you do that without being watchful and sober? Your adversary, the
devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Are you any match for him? There's
only one place to flee. There's only one place, brothers
and sisters, of safety, and that's in the Lord. And knowing that,
knowing that, it keeps us coming. It keeps us trusting. And the
last element of trust is this. Those who live in this full trust
of the Lord Jesus Christ, they live in His praises, and they
increase in those praises. David said here in verse 6, By
Thee have I been holding up from the wound. Thou art He that brought
me out of my mother's vows. My praise shall continually be
of Thee. In verse 8, let my mouth be filled
with Thy praises and Thy honor all the day long. In verse 14
he says, but I will hope continually and I will praise Thee more and
more. And he just goes on and he goes
on praising the Lord. Why is that? Well, that's the
nature of trust. That's the nature of trust. You
trust in the Lord, trust in Him continually, you'll find your
heart filled with His praises. God bless this Word.