We ask the Lord's blessing to
help us get a hold of the message here.
Psalm 27 this evening, Psalm 27, I'm using for a title what
is said there in verse one. The Lord is my light. The Lord
is my light, my salvation, my life. That pretty well sums it
up, doesn't it? He is my light. He's the revelation. The revelation of God, the glory
of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ. He's my light. He is my salvation. Now, that
being so, no fear. No fear. We fear Him. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Now
this psalm, like many others, expresses the joy, hope, and
confidence believers all experience and rejoice in while we are yet
in this flesh. While we also experience, we
experience in this life, don't we, we have joy, and we rejoicing
in the Lord, but we also have sorrow, we also have grief, we
also have heartache, don't we? We have disappointment, don't
we? These things, that's just part of life. We have joy, we
have happiness, and we have the flip side of that too, we have
sorrow. Our Lord told his disciples about these sorrows, that believers
will experience. In John 16, he said, these things
have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. And
we do, we have peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He made peace for us with his
own blood. But he said, in this world you
shall have tribulation. We all know about that, don't
we? But he said, be of good cheer,
I will overcome. He's won the victory for us.
Now these are David's words, but we know that David is speaking
by inspiration of scripture. And David certainly knew something
about sorrow. He had a lot of sorrow, a lot
of heartaches. but he also knew something about
joy, joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. I like what he says in Psalm
103, bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me, bless
his holy name. Bless his holy name. But we can
also look at this psalm in the light of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the greater David, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. While
in his humanity, as God manifests in the flesh, he was a real man,
a man tempted and tested in all points like as we are, yet without
sin. You remember in Isaiah 53, he's
called a man of what? Sorrows and acquainted with grief. He had sorrows and grief that
we know nothing about. One old preacher of the past
said, God had just one son without sin, and that is Christ. Had no sin, knew no sin, did
no sin, but he had no son without sorrow. The Lord himself had
multitude of sorrows and heartache, especially bearing the grief
and sorrow of our sin in his own body on the tree. But our
Lord Jesus Christ also had great joy as well, didn't he? We've
read this scripture many times in Hebrews chapter 12 where it
says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him, Hebrews 12, we're
going to see that in a few weeks. Who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising his shame, but he sat
down on the right hand of the majesty in the heavens. But this is also not only a psalm
of David and of the greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ, but this
is a psalm for every believer. We can make this our own personal
psalm. I want you to take it personal.
We can say, and every believer can say, the Lord is my light
and life and salvation. Every believer can say and identify
with what David says here in this Psalm 27. In verses 1, 2, and 3, we see
the believer's sure confidence. Confidence. He says in the last
part of verse 3 in this, I will be confident. I will be confident. Now, David's confidence wasn't
in David, was it? David's confidence was in the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. When Paul writes to those Philippians,
he said, we are the true Israel, which worship God in the spirit,
that rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in
the flesh. So we are confident that God
is able to do above all we ask or think according to his power
that works in us. But let's look at these things
that he says here. The Lord is my light. He not
only gives light, and I mean by that revelation, He gives
us a revelation of Himself, that we might see His beauty, that
He is altogether lovely. He is my light, my light. He is the light of life. Turn
over here to Psalm 36 verse 9. We read there a moment ago in
John chapter 8 verse 12 where the Lord said, I am the light
of the world, he that follows me shall not walk in darkness
but shall have the light of life. And look what it says here in
Psalm 36 verse 9, for with thee is a fountain of life, in thy
light shall we see light. By nature, we're in the dark.
He's got to turn on the light that we might see. He's salvation,
and the Lord Jesus Christ finds us in the dark, but thank God
he doesn't leave us there, does he? We've been translated out
of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. But we can say a lot about the
light. He is the light of the world. In Him is no darkness at all.
And He enlightens us, doesn't He? He gives us an understanding
of who He is and what He has done. having accomplished all
salvation for us. And then the second thing he
says there, David said, the Lord is my salvation. My salvation. Now, I don't remember
looking this up before, but I looked this up today, I was wondering
how many times David says, the Lord is my salvation. And I just
looked it up in the book of Psalms, and I found it recorded there
17 times. 17 times David said, the Lord
is my salvation. He's my Savior. He is my salvation. Let's look at one of those. Turn
back a few pages. Psalm 18. Turn over there. Psalm
18. Look at verse 1 and 2. Psalm
18. I will love thee, O Lord, my strength, The Lord is my rock,
my fortress, my deliverer, my God. Well, he just has one message,
doesn't he? The Lord is everything. He's
my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I trust, my buckler,
that's my shield, and the horn, the power of my salvation, and
my high tower. He's my salvation. The Lord Jesus
Christ is my salvation. He is the savior of sinners.
What he says in Psalm 23, you remember, the Lord is my shepherd. Because the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want, shall not want for any good thing. Simeon, you
remember, he picked up the babe, the Lord Jesus Christ, he said,
Lord, I'm ready to die. I've seen thy salvation. That's
when a man's ready to die. when he's saying God's salvation
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord is my light. He's a revelation of the glory
of God that shines in the face of Christ. He is my salvation. Salvation from what? Salvation
from my sin. Sin has to be dealt with. And
that's what happened at Calvary. The Lord took all the sin of
God's people and fully paid their debt. He put away sin. He put
away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and through that we
have what? We have salvation, don't we?
Salvation from what? Our sin, our sin. There's salvation
in no other. The Lord said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. And then the third thing he says
there, the Lord is the strength of my life. The Lord is my strength. The Lord is my life, my life,
my strength. He says that again, he repeats
that again down in verse 14. Look at Psalm 27, verse 14. Wait
on the Lord, be of good courage, be of good cheer. He shall strengthen
thy heart. He shall strengthen thine heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord. He's the strength of our salvation,
is he not? We had this Psalm a couple weeks
ago. Don't turn. Let me just remind
you of it. Psalm 46, God is our refuge and strength. A very present
help in trouble. He's our refuge. He's our strength.
He's our strength. Now, that being true, the Lord
is my light. The Lord is my salvation. The
Lord is the strength of my life, my righteousness. Now, the question
then comes, whom shall I fear? Whom shall I fear? None but the
Lord. We only fear the Lord. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding
have all they who believe His word. Whom shall I fear? None
but the Lord. Whom shall I be afraid? I cannot
fear darkness. He's my light. I cannot fear
condemnation because of sin. He's my salvation. There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. I cannot fear
weakness. He's my strength. Now we're not
talking about physical strength, are we? We're talking about spiritual
strength. He is my strength. Now our body is frail and weak
and one day we'll It'll just wither away to nothing and our
physical strength will be gone, but our spiritual strength grows
and grows and grows and grows. I cannot fear death because He's
my life and He's my resurrection. I cannot fear weakness, He's
my strength. I cannot fear death, He's my
life. The Lord said, I am the resurrection
and the life. Well, He is our resurrection,
isn't He? Now look at verse 2 and 3. If God be for us, who can
be against us? When the wicked, it doesn't say
if, it's just a matter of when. When the wicked, even my enemies
and my foes, when they came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled
and they fell. How many times did the Pharisees
hold a council to destroy him, they sought to throw him off
the cliff, they sought to stone him to death, and he just passed
right through. He said, my hour has not yet
come. When the wicked, mine enemies, when the wicked, even my enemies,
my foes, they came upon me to eat up my flesh. That's pretty gross, isn't it? like a pack of wild dogs, just
gnawing on your flesh. They stumbled and they fell. Remember when they came to arrest
the Lord Jesus Christ in the garden? And he stepped forth
and said, whom do you seek? Remember? He said, whom do you
seek? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I am. Remember what happened? They
fell backward. with a word. He defeated a whole
army. He's the same Lord today. Though
a host, verse 3, though a host encamp around, a host of an army
surrounds me, my heart shall not fear. David knows who's on
the throne. Though war should rise against
me, in this I'll be confident. Now David wasn't confident that
he was a mighty warrior, his confidence was in his Lord. That's where his confidence was.
When David went out, remember to face Goliath and the armies
of the Philistines defiled or defied the armies of Israel and
they were all hunkered down afraid of the Philistines and David
went out with a sling and some stones and killed Goliath. He was confident. David wasn't
confident in David. He was confident in the Lord. Do you remember what David said?
He said to Goliath, you come with a big sword. He said, I
come in the name of the Lord. And we know who won that battle,
don't we? One stone killed that ten foot giant. Wasn't
he ten feet tall? David ran up and took his sword,
the sword of Goliath, and took off his head too, didn't he?
David was confident in the victory because God was his strength. Now, look at verse 4. The believers,
verse 4, 1. One, and just underscore the
word thing, but it's really one desire. Believers have just one
desire. One desire. One, I have desire to the Lord.
I just have one desire. It is the Lord. That's my desire. It's the Lord. and I'll seek
after Him. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness and all these things be added unto
you. I just have one desire, it's Christ. He's all my desire. He's all my life. He's everything. Christ is all and in all. And
because He's that one desire, you see, He's given us a new
desire. As it says down here in verse 8, When thou saidest, seek ye my
face, my heart said, oh, I'm going to seek you. That's that
desire. That's a desire that we don't
have naturally. We don't have that desire to
seek the Lord and to seek salvation in Christ. He's got to give us
that desire. He's got to make us willing in
a day of his power to seek after the Lord. Our Lord said, if you
seek me, you'll find me. If you seek me with all your
heart, you'll find me. That will I seek after. Now, watch this.
This desire of the Lord that he's going to seek after is to
dwell in the house of the Lord. To dwell in his house, to be
one with him. To stay put in his house of the
Lord all the days of my life. That's the life of a believer. We desire to be one with the
Lord and to dwell in His house, that is to dwell in Him. He's
not talking about a physical house. He's talking about the
household of faith, the household of God's people, the household
of Christ Himself. He is our dwelling place, is
He not? Christ in you, the hope of glory, and you in Christ,
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one,
this one desire that I have of the Lord, and because it comes
from the Lord, I'll seek after, so I may dwell in the house of
the Lord all the days of my life. Look at the last part of verse
four, to behold. To behold what? To behold the
beauty of the Lord. Remember Isaiah 42, when we read
Sunday, Behold my servant, my elect, in whom my soul delighteth,
to behold his beauty, the beauty of the Lord. Our Lord is altogether
lovely. Remember Isaiah 53, it says when
they saw him, they saw no beauty in him. They just looked at another
man from Nazareth, the carpenter's son. We know who you are. You're
the carpenter's son. Well, he was a carpenter, but
he's God Almighty. And to the believer, he's altogether
lovely. To you who believe, he is precious.
To behold the beauty, the beauty of his person, the beauty of
his person. How do you describe the beauty
of the Lord Jesus Christ? How do you describe his attractiveness? What attracts the believer to
the Lord Jesus Christ? It's the beauty of his mercy.
It's the beauty of his love. It's the beauty of all of his
attributes. The attributes of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The beauty of his righteousness.
The beauty of his salvation. Well, I want to, I desire it.
I seek after it. I want to dwell in the Lord.
He's my beauty. He's my righteousness before
God. You see, his beauty is ours. He has given us his beauty. He's given us his righteousness. When the Lord said from heaven,
this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, God is saying
he's beautiful. He says that of every son of
God in Christ. I'm looking at some beautiful
folks out here. They're beautiful in Christ. He's our beauty. He's our glorious righteousness. Now look at verse 5. Behold the beauty of the Lord. To inquire. To inquire. To inquire in His temple. You
see the last part of verse 4? To inquire of Him. To seek His
will. To inquire about Him. To inquire
of His way. To take His yoke upon us and
learn of Him. Now verse 5. In a time of trouble. In a time of trouble, He'll just
kick me out. He'll just kick me out on the
street. For in a time of trouble, He'll
hide me. He'll hide me. He'll protect
me. He'll protect me in His dwelling
place, His pavilion. When a time of trouble, He'll
hide me in His pavilion, His dwelling place, in the secret
part of His tabernacle. Shall He hide me hidden in the
Savior's side by the Spirit sanctified? were hidden in Christ. And then
it says, in this time of trouble, the Lord will hide me in a refuge
that He's provided for us, in this secret place of this
tabernacle of the Most High God. He will hide me and then it says,
He will set me upon a rock. And we know this rock here is
Christ, isn't it? The rock here is the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. He is the rock in which we hide
hidden with Christ. Our life is hid with Christ in
God, with Christ in God. He shall hide me in the secret
of his tabernacle in the Holy of Holies beneath the blood-covered
mercy seat, and then he shall set me upon a rock I want you
to see this. Hold your place there and find
Psalm 61. Psalm 61 verse 2. Psalm 61 verse
2. From the end of the earth will
I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the
rock that's higher than I. Lead me to that high rock. Lead
me to that high ground. And then turn one page. Psalm
62 verse 6. He only is my rock, my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. And God is my salvation, my glory,
the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God. Trust in
Him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before Him.
God is a refuge for us. For He provided for us so well,
hadn't He? We're safe in Him. Hidden in
Him. We're safe in Him. He's the safe
source of our salvation. Therefore, in verse 6, He said,
Now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies. It not may
be. Not may be. When the wicked,
yeah, they'll come. Verse six, now shall my head
be lifted up. Our head is lifted up in Christ.
He is the head of the body, the church, and he is lifted up,
seated at the right hand of the Father, and we're seated in him. Now shall my head be lifted up
above mine enemies around about me. Therefore will I offer in
his tabernacle sacrifices, sacrifices, Not blood sacrifices now. I'm not going back and offering
a blood sacrifice, but sacrifices of joy. And notice the marginal
reference on that word joy is shouting. Shouting. That's rejoicing
in the Lord. I will sing, I will sing praises
unto the Lord. He'll hide me in the tabernacle. It's sacrifices of joy. We're
going to study In Hebrews 13, where it says, by him let us
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. And then
he says, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks. That's
the sacrifice of praise, is giving thanks unto the Lord. Remember,
in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but to Thy name do we give glory, for Thy mercy and for
Thy true sake. Now, verse 7 and following, we
see a prayer. And David often does this in
the Psalms. You see verse 7? Here, O Lord,
we desire to be heard of the Lord, don't we? Hear, O Lord,
when I cry." You know, the Pharisees, they loved to pray standing in
the street corner to be seen of men. David got out in the
secret places and cried unto the Lord, O Lord, when I cry,
hear my voice. And what is this cry? It's a
cry of mercy, isn't it? Have mercy. Have mercy. Have mercy upon me and answer
my cry. He will. He'll answer that cry
of mercy. He never turned a mercy beggar
away. Never one time. Turn over here to Psalm 51. Remember
Psalm 51? Look at verse 1. When David had committed adultery
with Bathsheba, David, a man after God's own heart, David,
who was a faithful believer, David was a sinner saved by the
grace of God. And when he was caught up in
his sin, when he had committed adultery with Bathsheba, and
not only that, remember what else he did? He killed her husband,
Uriah the Hittite, killed him. What are you going to do? Have
mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness and according
to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my sin. David
said, I killed Goliath, you should have mercy on me. David didn't
say, well, I'm a great king, you need to have mercy on me.
No, he knew he didn't merit any mercy. He said, according to
your loving kindness, according to the multitude of our tender
mercy, blot my sin out. wash me throughly from my iniquity,
cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgression and my sins
ever before me. Remember when Nathan came to
David and confronted him over his sin, and David told that
story about the man who just had one little sheep, and someone
came and took that one little sheep, and David said, tell me
who he is. And I'll take care of him. And
Nathan said, you remember what he said? You're the man. You're
the one that stole that one little lamb. David said, I've sinned
against the Lord. And Nathan said to him, the Lord
hath put away thy sin. You remember that? Hear, O Lord, when I cry. Isn't
that what the publican cried? Have mercy on me, thee, sinner.
Have mercy on me. Have mercy upon me. And he will.
God delights to show mercy. If God delights to show mercy,
wouldn't it be a wise thing to ask him for mercy? Have mercy
upon me, O God. According to thy lovingkindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. Now look
at verse 8, and I mentioned this before, but When you said, when
the Lord said, when the Lord said, seek him, seek thy face. Now we don't seek the blessings,
now listen to me, we don't seek the blessings, we seek the blesser. You see the difference? We seek
the Lord. When thou saidest, seek my face,
my heart said unto me, my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord,
will I seek. You see salvation. Salvation is in a person. Salvation
is in a person. It's not in this church, that
church, or any other church. Salvation is in a person. In
a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ alone.
I don't know if any of you watched on Sunday evening Pastor Mahan's
TV program at eight o'clock on Sunday evening. But I usually
turn on about five minutes before the program comes on because
sometimes it comes on a little bit earlier than eight o'clock.
But there's a man down Johns Creek here who has a 30-minute
program before our program comes on, and he's always talking about
And he's putting down this denomination, that denomination, the other
denomination. And he said, we have the right
name, Church of Christ. We're the Church of Christ. Salvation
is in our church. That's what he said. That's what
he said. In all the churches where Paul
writes to the Philippians, the Ephesians, Thessalonians, the
Galatians, Church of Thyatira, all the different churches, the
seven churches in the Revelation, you know how many times he calls
them the Church of Christ? Zero. As a matter of fact, if
you look up, and look this up, I've done this before. As a matter
of fact, if you look up the Church of Christ in the Bible, you know
how many times it's in there? Zero. Zero. Salvation is in a person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul writes to those churches,
he's writing to the saints, he's writing to believers who lived
in Philippi, who lived in Galatia, who lived in these different
areas. They didn't emphasize that you have to be one of us,
with us. What they're preaching is the
same thing that the Catholic Church preaches? If you don't go to Mass and partake
of the elements, they believe that you're actually taking salvation. You have to receive it from us.
The Mormons? Now, I know about the Mormons.
I grew up one. The Mormons, they say they are
the church. And you have to be baptized into
their church. It's the same thing, this Church
of Christ crowd. I call them the Church of Crud
because their doctrine is crud. It's crud. It's not Christ, it's
crud. You say, well, preacher, you're
being unkind. No, I'm being truthful. Salvation
is in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And to say that And this is what
this man said, he said, you're going to hell unless you join
our church. It's just not that you're baptized,
we have to baptize you. That's wicked, that's what that
is. That's nothing but what the Pharisees said. The Pharisees
said the same thing. And they're just 21st century
or 20th century Pharisees, that's all it is. And I didn't mean
to get into that. I didn't have it even in my notes. But it just kind of leaked out
on me. But something needs to be said. And as your pastor,
I'm going to warn you, stay away from them folks. Stay away from
them. They don't seek your good. They
seek your money, your pocketbook. That's what they're after. Oh,
when thou saidst, Seek my face, my heart said, Thy face, Lord.
That's where I'm going. I'm going to seek the Lord. I'm
going to seek the Lord Jesus Christ. Hide not thy face far
from me. Put me not. Put me not. Put not thy servant away in anger.
David knows that he didn't deserve mercy. Thou hast been my help. Leave me not, neither forsake
me. You're the God of my salvation. You see that? You're the God
of my salvation. Salvation's of the Lord. Hold
your place there and find Psalm 37 over here. Psalm 37. Look at verse 39. Psalm 37. But the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. He is their strength in the time
of trouble. He is their strength in the time
of trouble. He's the God of my salvation. He's the God of my
salvation. Lead me in thy truth and teach
me. You're the God of my salvation.
Now look at verse 10. I've got to wind this up. When
my father and when my mother, when they kick me out, when they
kick me out, the Lord will take me up. The Lord will gather me,
is the marginal reference on, take me up, He'll gather me.
Remember our Lord prayed in John 17, Father, I will that all that
those you have given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory. Verse 11, gather me, now teach
me. Teach me thy way, O Lord. Teach
me thy way, O Lord. We need to be taught, don't we?
Remember our Lord said, come unto me, all you who are laboring
heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. You know, he's the teacher and
he's the lesson. He's the lesson. He's the teacher,
he's the lesson. So gather me, teach me, lead
me in a plain path. The simpler, there is a simplicity
in the gospel. There is a singleness in the
gospel. The gospel of God's grace and
glory in Christ. It's a plain way. It's not complicated
with all these rules and regulations and different things. It's a
plain way. Lead me, teach me, lead me in
a plain way, in a plain path. Christ is the way. because of
mine enemies. And then he mentions his enemies
again. Deliver me not to the will of my enemies. Their false
witnesses are risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty
against me. Verse 13, I had fainted, I had
fainted, unless I believe to see the goodness
of the Lord in the land of the living." Now watch this. Most
of the time, someone would say, when you hear some fabulous story,
and someone would say, well, I won't believe that until I
see it. Well, in the way of faith, it's just the opposite. We believe
to see. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, unless I had believed
to see the goodness of the Lord. The goodness of the Lord. The
Lord is good. The Lord is merciful. The goodness
of the Lord in the land of the living. I'd fainted. I'd fainted
unless the Lord had given me faith to believe Him. Verse 14,
now wait on the Lord. Teach me, lead me in a plain
path, gather me, and Lord, help us to wait on thee. Wait upon
the Lord and be of good courage. Be of good cheer. Be of good
cheer. He shall strengthen thy heart.
And this is not the old man, the old nature, that wicked heart.
It's talking about the new heart that he gives in regenerating
grace. Wait, I say, upon the Lord. Wait upon the Lord. The
Lord is my light, my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my
life, and whom shall I fear?