Tonight, if you would like to
turn to our text, it's found in the Book of Proverbs, Chapter
3. The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 3.
A lot of times these passages are
divided up in with those little, some of you
may have them look kind of like a asterisk or something beside
a bit of a marking. And I've mentioned to us before,
that's a paragraph, that's a complete thought. And there's a lot in
this, these six verses that we could work, that we could go
over. But I just want to kind of look
at them as a whole tonight. I want to look at them as a whole,
not just go, we may end up back here next, well, not next Wednesday.
We don't have any service next Wednesday. That's an important
announcement. I have it wrote down here and it wrote down here
and I still forgot to announce it. No service next Wednesday.
All right. Tell everybody, you know, here in Proverbs chapter
three, as we know, the Lord exhorts his people through the words
of Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. And here we have, Something that we find is common
between every single believer, something that every believer
has in common. There is only, there are several
things we have in common. I know that's true, but this
one in particular is that our confidence is only found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're not confident in ourselves. We're not confident in what we
do or what we've done. We're confident in what he's
done and who he is. That's what we have in common.
We have no confidence at all pertaining to spiritual matters.
We have no boasting. Where's boasting then, Paul said.
There is no boasting in this, is there? It's the Lord's salvation.
He freely gives it. We don't get to brag about, look
what I've done. Look at me, what I've done. I
mentioned this to you, I think, Sunday. I'll mention it again.
But there was a fan that my wife had that was broken. And I repaired
that fan by getting a completely different motor and a completely
different switch. It took me forever. But I was
very, very proud of the fan that I put together for her. I was
like, look at my fan. Look at my fan. Look what I've
done. And that's how men are by nature when it comes to the
things pertaining to God. Look at what I've done. But in
reality, we haven't done anything pertaining to salvation. The
Lord did it all. The Lord did it all. There's no glorying for
us. There's no boasting in it for us. Paul says this in Philippians
3, 3, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Jesus Christ and have no confidence in the flesh.
Is that you? You rejoice in the finished work
of Jesus Christ and have no confidence in your flesh. If you ask somebody
what makes them confident in their salvation, they may look
at you and give you several different responses. They may say, well,
I've done this. And I've done that. I've prayed this prayer. I shook the preacher's hand.
One, this is a true story. There was a man told me that
he knows he was saved because he shook the pastor's hand. That
was, I'm like, I don't even, even in false religion,
I knew that wasn't the case. But everybody looks at what they've
done. What are they confident in? Well,
I've done this, or I've done that. And that's made me acceptable
unto God. That's not true. Because everything
we do to try to prove ourself to God is called iniquity. And
God hates the workers of iniquity. That's what he says in Psalm
5 verse 5. But you know what you'll never
hear? You'll never hear God's people talk like that. God's
people, the true believer, They've been made to know salvation is
of the Lord. Salvation's of the Lord. It's
not of me, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, hath he saved us. He did it all. Scripture says
in 2 Timothy 1, 9, we have that as one of our, I guess, banner
verses. It's on our bulletin. It says,
God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace given
to us in Christ before the world ever began. Tonight, I'm gonna title this
message, The Believer's Confidence. We're confident in that, aren't
we? The Lord did it all. We're confident in that. Let's read
our text. Proverbs 3.21 through 26 says, My son, let not them
depart from thine eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion.
So shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck. Then
shalt thou walk in the way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.
When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid. Yea, thou shalt
lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. be not afraid of sudden
fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh.
For the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from
being taken. As I mentioned before, there's
several things that we could look at. I want to look at them briefly
tonight. I don't want to, uh, I want to begin actually with
the very last verse and it says for the Lord shall be thy confidence. What is the believers confidence?
The Lord is plain and simple. I've heard messages before from
preachers and they kind of want to hang everything in suspense
until the very end and gospel preachers don't typically do
that, but I'll just go ahead and give you the spoiler alert. The Lord's our confidence. We're
not confident in ourselves. What's the believer's confidence?
The Lord Jesus Christ alone. Alone. Not how much we've give
to the church. It's not how often we come to
church. It's not that we were baptized. It's not that we take
the Lord's table or we've walked down an aisle or we prayed a
prayer. It's not that we've, uh, It's not that my dad's a
pastor at a church. Our confidence can only be in
the Lord Jesus Christ or truly we have no hope. We have no hope. Everything in this passage right
here is contingent upon the last verse that we just read. Not
contingent on the first verse, the second verse, or the third
verse we just read, it's on this. This is the contingency right
here. For the Lord shall be thy confidence
and shall keep thy foot from being taken. Everything hinges
on that, everything. If the Lord is not our confidence,
we have no hope. If he does not keep our foot,
we'll certainly be taken as it says there. Taken, that means
we'll be lost, doesn't it? means we'll be lost. If we were
to be taken, that means we could be snatched away. Well, who's
going to be the snatcher? Well, the scripture says, Satan
as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. But
the Lord's people, they're kept by him. They're kept by him. He keeps our foot. Now, salvation We could read
this and say, okay, so first, verse 21, my son, let not them
depart from thy eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion.
So shall thou be life unto thy soul and grace to thy neck. So
I need to keep this, and then I obligate God to do something
for me. The cause and effect's different. It's because the Lord
keeps your foot that you keep wisdom and discretion. That word
keep is observe, observe, treasure. We treasure wisdom. I love that
word discretion. That means purpose. Discretion
means purpose. Keep wisdom and purpose. Salvation's not based upon what
we do, it's based upon what he has done for his people, for
his elect, for what he has done, not for what we've done. Salvation
is determined, and I'll probably put this in an article, but salvation
is not determined because we believe. We believe because salvation's
determined. before the foundation of the
world. God said, I will. I will redeem you. You shall
be redeemed. I will save you. You will be
saved. This is why the Lord is our confidence. He swore it. Scripture says when
he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. What did
he swear? He's going to redeem his people.
And he did. He did, the Father elected a
people, the Son redeemed them, and in time the Spirit regenerates
them. This is the work of the Lord, salvations of the Lord.
Because he swore he cannot lie, he said, Isaiah, I've bought
you, I've redeemed you, you're mine, you're mine. I wrote an
article for this Sunday, and it says that everything about
the gospel hinges upon the Lord saying I will, and ending with,
it is finished. It's that simple. I will, I will
redeem, you'll be redeemed. I will and you shall, and then
it is finished. That's simple, isn't it? And
now we get to hear him say, I have redeemed you. I have, and he
just lets us know about it. Just lets us know. This is why
we have confidence is in him because it doesn't, we can't
mess it up. We can't do anything to get in
or out of it. He does it all. He does it all. False religion has it backwards.
They say that if we let not and keep wisdom and discretion, then
we'll make the Lord, then the Lord will be our confidence.
No, the Lord's your confidence because he keeps your foot from
slipping. Therefore, you're going to keep
wisdom and discretion. Look at the meaning of this,
the very first verse we had here, verse 21. The meaning of this,
my son, let not them depart from thine eyes. That let not them
depart is to turn back or perverse. It's the same word, turn back
or perverse. Then from thine eyes, that means
spiritual eyes. It's a spring or a fountain.
The word keep means to observe or treasure, as I've already
said. The word discretion, I loved looking that one up whenever
it came back as purpose. I loved, how are we gonna keep
purpose? Well, you observe it. You believe it. You believe the
purpose of the Lord. What's the Lord saying here?
He's saying, do not forsake nor perverse the fountain of living
water is what he's saying. Do not forsake it. Do not perverse
it by adding one thing to it or taking one thing away from
it. Don't perverse it. Observe and treasure the wisdom
and purpose of God and the salvation of his people. Observe and treasure
it. That's what he's telling us. It's precious to us, isn't
it? This gospel is precious to us. This is the result. This is the
result of God saving his people. Us being able to observe, us
being able to love the Lord's purpose, the Lord's sovereignty,
the Lord's holiness. Us being made the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. These are the things the Lord
has done and we love it, don't we? It's all because he saved
us. We believe because the Lord Jesus
Christ successfully redeemed his people. We do not believe
to be redeemed. We believe because we have been.
Somebody said, well, you have to do this and you have to do
that. No, you do those things. You do those things because you've
been called, because you've been given faith, you believe. Nobody
can believe unless they've been made alive, unless they've been
called. He calls us, but he saved us first. Nobody believes to
be redeemed, they believe because they are the redeemed of the
Lord. That's the whole reason Christ
came to the earth, wasn't it? To redeem his people, to honor
the Father, that was it, that was the entire purpose. And do
you think he could have failed? Certainly not. He didn't do it
99.9% and then leave something to us. Today, my wife was making
peach jelly. And I learned, you remember me
talking to you about this, some of you might not have been here,
so I'll use this analogy again. In the harvest of last year,
we did some canning. We canned tomatoes. We canned
beans. And I thought I would help those
little fellas by popping the tabs so it would hurry up and
seal faster. And she slapped me. She said, you can't do that.
You ruined it. I said, all I did was touch it.
She said, all you did was ruin it. I knew today when she made
that jelly, don't touch it. Don't touch it. I'll mess it
up. And so it is with the Lord's salvation. Don't touch it. The
moment you put a finger to it, you've ruined it. You and I ruin
it. We can't touch it, number one.
But as soon as we start thinking we have to do something, I have
to do something to earn favor with God, I have to do, that's,
you're substituting yourself at that point for the Lord Jesus
Christ. He did it all. He did it all. Just look to him,
believe on him. That's how we, that's how we,
Don't depart from the truth. Look to Christ. That's what he
said with our eyes. Look to Christ. He did it all. Now he's seated. That's why we're
confident in the Lord. That's why the believer's confidence
found in the Lord is now he's seated. That means he was successful.
There's no other work to be done. Aren't you glad he didn't leave
something open-ended for you and I to do? No matter the magnitude
of it, we would have messed it up, wouldn't we? He didn't. He
didn't leave anything. Nothing is dependent upon you
and I. Paul said this, being confident in this one thing,
he that begun a good work in you will perform it until the
day of Jesus Christ. That's a lot of he's, isn't it?
He's going to do this. He started it. He's going to
finish it. He started it. He's going to perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. With no man, there's no man living
that we can have complete confidence in. But the Lord Jesus Christ,
we can have complete confidence in 100% confidence, not doubting
ever. He spoke, he can't lie. He does
according to his own will and none can stay his hand or saying
to him, what do is thou? He's God. We can be confident
in him being God. We can have confidence of him
doing what's right by his people. Everything that happens is on
purpose. He's a God of purpose. He's not a God of, he's not playing
chess with the devil and not trying to, he's seated on his
throne. He's seated on his throne and
everything in the earth is doing exactly as he purposed before
time ever began. That's who God is. That's who
God is. The reason we have confidence
in him is because he cannot change. It'd be difficult if he changed
and one day he was pleased with us because we were in Christ,
but the next day he's not pleased with us. He's always pleased. He can't change. He doesn't change.
He doesn't change his mind. He doesn't change. He doesn't
have new thoughts. It's all purposed before time
ever began. He knows everything. I don't
understand that, and you don't either, but we believe it. He
knows everything all the time. That's why we can have confidence
in him. And when it says right here that there'll be life In
grace, in verse 22, so shall they be life unto thy soul and
grace to thy neck. The only way that we're gonna
have life and grace is if God gives us life by grace. It's that simple. The only way
we're gonna have life and grace is if the Lord gives us life
by his grace alone, by his wisdom and by his purpose. That's what
he's saying here. The only way we will walk safely
is the next thing it says, isn't it? The only way we'll walk safely
as if we're walking in Christ, if he's put us there. That's
the only way we'll walk safely. As if we've been pardoned, if
our sins have been remitted, if we've been redeemed, that's
the only way that we can walk safely. The only way our feet
do not stumble in the darkness is because the sun of righteousness
has illuminated the truth of the gospel to our heart. We're
no longer in darkness. The light of the world has shone
forth. The only way you ever, you ever
restless when you, everybody's restless at some point in time,
you're laying in bed, you need to go to sleep and you can't.
You're just restless. Maybe you're worried about something.
There's no peace. Maybe you're upset about troubled. You're just troubled. He says
right here in verse 24, when thou liest down, thou shalt not
be afraid. Yea, thou shalt lie down and
thy sleep shall be sweet. Why? because we're confident
in the Lord's finished work. Having no confidence in ourself,
we're resting in what God rests in. And who is that? It's the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Sabbath. You want sweet rest? Don't look
at your circumstances. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You want peace? Don't look at what you're doing
or what you're not doing. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where our hope is. That's where our confidence is,
isn't it? The only way we'll not be afraid of sudden fear,
as he says next, You're not afraid of sudden fear. The only way
we won't be afraid of sudden fear, whenever the dangers of hell
that we think are possible to come upon us, because we see
our sin ever before us, oh no, what if I'm not one of the Lord's
people? And you begin to worry about that. Don't look at that.
Look to Christ. The only way that you won't fear
sudden fear is by looking to Christ. That's what he talks
about with the eyes at the very beginning. Keep with the eyes.
This is what he's telling us. Look to Christ. Look unto Christ. The Lord makes us to remember
and believe it is finished, we can rest. The Lord calls us to
remember it's finished. We forget that all. We know it
to be true, but we don't think about that during the day all
the time, do we? As we're busy with our lives, we're thinking
about other things, we're taking care of our families, whatever
it may be. We don't ponder about it. It is finished as often as
we should. It's finished. Everything you
do, every step you take has been ordered by the Lord. The hairs
of your head, they weren't counted by God. They were put there,
the exact number that they're supposed to be. He knows the
numbers of your head because he purposed it. Everything, everything
he knows. You don't have to have sudden
fear of the dangers of death and hell. You know why? Because
the Lord Jesus Christ conquered death, hell, and the grave on
the cross of Calvary for his people. Whenever he shed his
blood made a sacrifice unto his father, and his father, his soul
was offered up unto his father. Soul was poured out unto death
unto the father, and the father was satisfied. And the Lord Jesus
Christ said, it is finished, and that the veil in the temple
was rent entwined from top to bottom. Every person that he
died for, perfectly righteous. It's perfectly righteous. This is why he is the believer's
confidence. This is the result of him saying,
I will, and you shall. This is the result of the Lord
saying, you're going to be kept by my power. I'm going to save
you. I'm going to call you. Then I'm going to keep you. I'm
going to do it all. That's what he's done. I'm going to keep
your feet. Keep your feet. And that's just,
that's your path, is what it is. That's your goings, your
coming outs and going ins, as the scripture says. You wanna
allow it to slip. You're gonna be on the path of righteousness. Why? Because we're walking in
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're saved by grace through
faith and we're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed the last time. Remember when the Lord
told the disciples, if you have faith, As a grain of mustard
seed, you can say into this mountain, be thou removed, and it will
be cast into the midst of the sea. What do you think the Lord,
he always spoke in parables, didn't he? What do you think
he's talking about there? You think the Lord's gonna give us
faith to actually talk to a mountain physically and it's gonna move?
No, no. He's talking about the mountain
of our sin. The mountain, and you know what
I'm talking about. The mountain, it's too big, it's too great.
The mountain of our sin, if the Lord has given you the measure
of faith, you believe Christ, that mountain's gone. Christ
put it away. That's what he's talking about.
Did he not say, cast your sins into the depths of the sea, as
far as the east is from the west, never to be remembered again?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That sin's gone. He put it away. When your sin's gone, that's
the only way your heart condemns you not. John 3, 21 says, beloved,
if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards
God. You know the reason your heart
doesn't condemn you anymore? Because you're confident in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Not confident in what you do,
not confident in what you don't do. You're confident in what
he has accomplished. Every time we, this is true,
isn't it? Every time we look to ourself,
we see how sinful we are. We see how ugly our heart is. We see Paul said, oh wretched
man that I am, not that I was. We don't get better, we get worse,
don't we, it seems like. What the Lord's doing is he's
revealing more sin so that we need a savior more and more and
more. And when we look at ourself and we see all of that on the
depravity of our heart and our nature, we can't see how the
Lord could save us. How could the Lord save a wretched,
vile sinner like me? When you look to the Lord Jesus
Christ, you look at the perfect lamb of glory, you look to the
sinless son of God, all his power, all his glory on the cross of
Calvary, shedding his blood, knowing the power of that blood,
seeing the power of the resurrection that happened, you can't see
why the Lord couldn't save you if you were in Christ. He was
well pleased with this son. What's the point? Don't look
to yourself. Don't look to yourself. Don't look to your sin. Don't
try to figure it out. Look to Christ. Look to Christ
and live. Ephesians 3.12 says, and we read
this for our call to worship. Ephesians 3.12, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we have boldness. That word boldness is complete
confidence. We have boldness and access with
confidence. by the faith of him. He gives his people faith to
believe. He gives his people rest, rest
to see him. How did the woman with the issue
of blood believe, if I could just touch the hem of his garment,
I'll be made whole? What put that in her mind? She
believed God. She believed. She was given faith
to believe. So she crawled through the crowd
and touched the hem of his garment. And she was made whole. Why?
Because she believed the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord gave her
faith to do so. What did the Syrophoenician woman,
you remember her? She came to the Lord. She wasn't
a Jew. She wasn't a Jew. She was a Gentile.
And the Lord said, it's not meat. to give the children's bread
unto dogs. That would have been a big insult
to her, but she said, truth, Lord, I am a dog. But the dogs
desire the crumbs that fall from the master's table. Why did she
desire a crumb from the master's table? Because she was given
faith to believe him. If I could just have a crumb,
if I could just touch the hem of his garment, I could just
have a crumb. Remember the man that came to
the Lord, he had a dying servant, he talked to the Lord, he said,
Lord said, I'll go with you. He said, no, just speak one word.
Just speak the word and it'll be done. Just speak the word.
He said he not saw faith in so much in all Jerusalem, or all
Israel, I believe is what he said. What made him believe? God did. He didn't wake up that
morning and say, okay, I'm choosing to follow Jesus today. I'm choosing
to really believe in him this time, really trust in him. God
said, believe, and the man believed. In so much that he said, Lord,
if you just speak the word, you ain't got to come to my house.
You don't have to come to my house. Just speak the word and
it'll be done. And he spoke it and it was done. It's the word
of his power, isn't it? They had confidence in Christ
alone. That's what they had in common.
Everyone in scripture, they were believers. Their confidence,
they went in their self, or their circumstances, or their anything. It was all about Him. They were
confident in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Lord gave them faith
to believe Him. How did Peter walk on the water?
Peter didn't walk on the water long. Maybe he did. Maybe he walked a long time on
the water before he doubted. But no, he sunk, didn't he? Started looking
at circumstances, started looking at the storm, he took his eyes
off of Christ. But how did he walk on the water
to begin with? Because he had complete confidence in the Lord
Jesus Christ when he was looking at him. And that's so you and
I, whenever we are looking unto the Lord, our confidence is there.
When we start looking at ourself and our circumstances, our eyes
begin to look away. We begin to sink, don't we? Lord,
save me. Lord, save me. The believer's confidence is
always in the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing more and nothing less. The believer's confidence in
salvation is always, always in the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing
more, nothing less. What made those Hebrew men, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, when the king came up, he said, you're
gonna bow down and worship this, or I'm gonna throw you in the
fiery furnace. And they said, king, we are not careful to answer
you in this matter. We're not careful to answer you.
We're going to tell you straight. We're not going to hesitate.
We will not bow to your God. And if you throw us in the furnace,
our God is able to deliver us from that hand, but made him
even more mad. He heated up the furnace seven
times. That's us, isn't it? When we hear that don't get our
way or whatever it may be, we want to worship and praise of
other men. We don't get it. We might get upset. That's all
false religion, isn't it? And what happened? Well, he took
them and threw them in the furnace. But they didn't know the Lord
Jesus Christ was gonna be present also. Hebrew men believed, didn't
they? They believed. Because they said,
we're not careful to answer you in this. You throw us in there.
Our God is able to deliver us out of your hand. And they believed.
Why? Against a fiery furnace. You
know how many things that we have in our life that we face
and we feel, maybe we can compare it to a fiery furnace. We're
just in the pressure cooker a lot of times. They're overwhelmed,
anxious, whatever it may be. Is it not true that the Lord
Jesus Christ is there with you the whole way? You can look back
and say, well, he never left me to myself. Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. He's not
going to stop now. He was in the furnace with the
Hebrew men and the king saw and said, did we not throw three
men into the fire? But I see a fourth one. And the
fourth one is like the son of God. It was the Lord Jesus Christ,
wasn't it? "'cause the Lord endured on the
cross of Calvary, "'the fiery wrath of God, you and I will
never be touched "'by the flame of his wrath. "'Hell will not
touch us. "'It will not come against one
of the Lord's people.'" What made David a lad, they called
him, I can't remember, I think they called him ruddy, I think
was the word maybe, I can't remember, but he was a lad and he decides
he's gonna go up against a giant that's nine foot tall. Got a
15-year-old boy gonna go up against a, what would make him do something
like that? He believed God. God was his
confidence. The Lord Jesus Christ was all
his confidence. He said, the Lord will deliver
me. He delivered me out of the hand
of the lion. He delivered me out of the paw of the bear. He
will deliver me, this giant. He will deliver me. The Lord is the believer's confidence. We no longer trust ourself. We
no longer believe in ourself. We live in a society that says,
well, you need to believe in yourself more. You need to trust yourself
more. You need to have more confidence in yourself. And it's good to
have confidence in yourself. I mean, you don't want to be,
I don't have to elaborate. You understand what I'm saying?
Good to have confidence, but not when it comes to spiritual
things, that's not good. Don't have confidence when it comes
to what you do spiritually, because it's not going to amount to anything.
Have confidence spiritually in the Lord Jesus Christ and what
he has done alone. Alone. We can't rest anymore, can we?
On what we've done or what we're doing or what we're going to
do. We rest. We have one rest, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder David said, Psalm 34,
oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that
trusteth in him. Have you ever tasted of the Lord? Yeah, you know what I'm talking
about. You ever felt his presence? You know, you know what I'm talking
about. He's sweet, isn't he? He satisfies like nothing else.
I was hungry, he fed me. Can't go to any other place now
for bread. Nothing else will satisfy. Can't go to any other
fountain to drink. Nothing will quench your thirst.
If you've tasted, you know the Lord is good. The Lord is good. And he's good to his people.
We can't go back to the onions of garlic of Egypt, can we? Can't
go back to the law, can't go back to bondage, no. No, I need
manna. I need manna today. I'm confident
in that manna. I'm confident in that water,
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has made our confidence.
The Lord hath been made our confidence. I love, David said, Psalm 23,
he maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside
the still waters. He restoreth my soul. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll feel
no evil. Why? Thou art with me. You're my confidence.
You're my confidence. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over. Surely,
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and
I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. He's provided
everything. That's why the first part says,
the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I won't be
in want of anything because I have him. I need nothing else. I need
nothing else. In closing, let's read this again. Verse 21, my son, let not them
depart from thee, keep sound wisdom and purpose. So shall they be life unto thy
soul and grace to thy neck. Then shall thou walk in the way
safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. Now liest down, thou
shalt not be afraid. Yea, thou shalt lie down, and
thy sleep shall be sweet. be not afraid of sudden fear,
neither of the desolation of the wicked when it cometh. For
the Lord shall be thy confidence and shall keep thy foot from
being taken." All those verses are determined by verse 26. Your
confidence, if you're confident in the Lord Jesus Christ alone,
all those other things are written about you. Your foot will not
be taken. If you're confident in yourself,
none of those apply to you. You're not gonna have peace.
When you lay your head down at night, you're not gonna be able
to sleep. Knowing that you have hope in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you're confident in something else. But if your confidence
is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, the Lord's made you a believer
in him, you can rest because it is finished. It's finished. Proverbs 23 says, by the truth, and sell it not. Also wisdom
and instruction and understanding. Now how are we gonna buy the
truth? How are we gonna buy wisdom? How are we gonna buy instruction
and understanding? Because it's already been paid for. It's already
been paid for. You remember what the Lord said,
whosoever will, let him come, take of the water of life freely.
He that's hungered, he that thirsty, let him come without money and
without price. Why? It's already been paid for.
Come and buy, come and drink, come and eat. It's paid for by
the blood of the lamb. This, brethren, is why the believer's
confidence is the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Let's pray. Father, we look to you to bless
this according to your will unto our understanding. In Christ
name. Amen. In closing, let's turn.