The Lord's our rock, in Him we hide A shelter in the time of storm Secure whatever it'll be tied A shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land, A weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land, A shelter in the time of storm. Shade by day, defense by night, a shelter in the time of storm. No fears alarmed, no foes affright, a shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm. The raging storms may round us beat A shelter in the time of storm We'll never leave our safe retreat A shelter in the time of storm Lord Jesus is a rock in a weary land A weary land, a weary land Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary lane, shelter in the time of storm. O drop divine, O refuge dear, A shelter in the time of storm. Be thou our help forever, dear, A shelter in the time of storm. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land. Oh, Jesus is a rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number 117. Number 117. He was wounded for our transgressions, He bore our sins in His body on the tree. He gave us peace from our bondage, gave relief. And with His stripes, and with His stripes, and with His stripes, our souls are healed. He was numbered among transgressors. We did esteem him forsaken by his God. As our sacrifice he died, that the law be satisfied. And all our sin, and all our sin, and all our sin was laid open. We had wandered beyond. Far from the fold of the shepherd of the sheep. But he saw us where we were on the mountain bleak and bare, and brought us home. and brought us safely home to God. Who can number His generation? Who shall declare all the triumphs of His cross? ♪ Millions can now live again ♪ ♪ Spirits follow in his strength ♪ ♪ Victorious Lord ♪ ♪ Victorious Lord ♪ ♪ Victorious Lord and coming King ♪ Psalm 18. I dealt with this a little last week. I'll deal with it a little more this evening. Start reading at verse 4. Read down to verse 20. The sorrows of death compassed me and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about. The snares of death prevented me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and came down, and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub and did fly. Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place, his pavilion round about him. dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies. And the brightness that was before him, his thick clouds passed, hailstones and coals of fire. The Lord also thunders in the heavens, and the highest gave his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows and scattered them. He shot out lightnings and discomfited them. Then the channels of water were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me, for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands. Hath he recompensed me? Our Lord, we come cautiously, humbly with Some sense of trembling, even, in your holy presence. Lord, you're God. You're in the heavens. We're just old frail flesh here on this earth. You're infinite, Lord. We're subjects of time and space. You inhabit eternity. We inhabit time. You're pure spirit. We're pure flesh. Oh, Lord, have mercy on us. God, we need you. We need you so desperately. Need your presence, need your power, need your forgiveness, need your righteousness, need your strength, need the grace and abundance, oh Lord. Father, I pray that you'd be merciful to us tonight and meet with us. And Lord, we pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ, who are worshiping also tonight. Bless my preacher brethren. Use them, Lord. And I pray, Lord, that you'd be pleased to bless the hearts and minds of those that are here tonight. Have mercy upon our children, our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren. Lord, they grow so fast. Time just don't stop for anyone. So, Lord, they're grown men and women, have no regard for you, no regard for your word, no regard for their sin or anything else. But, oh, Lord, I pray that you, for Christ's sake, would please have mercy on them, bring them to yourself, convince them of their sin, humble them under your mighty hand. And Lord, forgive us of everything that's unlike you. Bring glory to yourself tonight for Christ's sake. Amen. M number 290. 290. Be still, my soul, the Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide. In every change, be faithful, will remain. Be still, my soul, my best, thy heavenly friend. Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end. Be still, my soul, thy God doth undertake To guide the future as he has to pass. I hope thy confidence let nothing shake All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul, the winds and winds still blow. His voice to rule them while He dwells below. Be still, my soul, the hour is hastening on, When we shall be forever with the Lord. When grief and fear are gone, sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored. When changing tears are passed, all safe and blessed, we shall meet at last. I want to talk about David's great deliverance, or our Lord Jesus Christ. More of this is about him than David, because he was David's son. But look again at the superscription at the top of the psalm. It said, A psalm of David. It also said he was a servant of the Lord. He'd rather be a servant than to be the king. In the day, look what it says, in the day the Lord delivered him, saved him from the hand of his enemies, but he spake unto the Lord. You know, the keynote in this psalm is, I will love thee. Why will I love you? Because in verse two, he says, I will trust in whom I will trust. I'll trust him. I will trust him. And then in verse 3, he says, I'll call upon the Lord. I'll call upon Him. And then he says, and in the last part of verse 3, so shall I be saved. So shall I be saved. Love, trust Him, call on Him, and you get assurance. Salvation comes through Him. David went to great, great heights here. And wherever you get high, however high you go, you go that low. From however high you go, you go that low. That's just the nature of life. That's just the nature of life. And when David goes to great heights and anybody goes to great heights, it takes a great, great deliverer, a great savior to lift them up when their soul's in distress. And this psalm talks about David soul being passed from death unto life, but it also talks about our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, David said, I shall be saved from mine enemies. Then in verse 4, he says, he has a great need, and this could also mean our Lord. The sorrows of death compass me. The sorrows of death compass me. There's two deaths in the Scriptures. There's a spiritual death because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And because of sin, death is passed upon all men because all have sinned. So there's this spiritual death that people have. And then if you don't, Christ don't do something to you and you stay in that spiritual death, there'll be an eternal death, an eternal death. But also our Lord Jesus Christ, when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he cried out there, Lord, if there be any way, any way to save me from this hour. Oh, save me from this hour. He said, the great sorrows has gripped upon me. My heart is so heavy. You know, I feel the pains of death, he says. But oh, my. all worldly blessings, everything that's held dear to a soul will be gone, be gone. And then the need is that you need life. And Christ, He said His great need was death. Souls of death got around me. And it's like that Ethiopian, I mean the Philippian jailer, when the Lord shook that jail and opened up that jail house and let the people in. Peter and Silas out, and they stayed right there. The man got a sword fixed to kill himself. He said, they're going to kill me anyway for letting them out. And he's going to kill himself. Paul run in and said, don't do thyself no harm. We've not gone anywhere. And he preached the gospel to him, preached the gospel to him. And then look what he says about, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. So, sorrows of death and the sorrows of men, and oh, how this is really about our Lord there, because ungodly men gathered around Him, and He says, the sorrow of death is on me. Ungodly men, wicked men, got a hold of the Son of God, got a hold of the Lord Jesus Christ, and mistreated Him so awful, so awful. But also, when it talks about sorrows of men, Now, something that's been missing in a lot of preaching for years is conviction of sin, conviction of sin. When a soul is convicted of their sin, you know what'll happen every single time? An enemy will come along to keep you surrounded, to keep you from coming to Christ, to keep you away from God. The world will creep in and tell you, you'll be okay, you'll be okay. And I tell you, it's against the purpose of the heart. When the heart purposes, something comes along in ungodly men. And there are some ungodly men in this world. There are some ungodly men that gather around our Lord Jesus Christ. And the thing about every one of those religious men that come after Christ, every one of them was religious. I told Shirley on the way to church, I said, men are waiting in manure, waist deep, in religion, and they don't have any idea how bad they stink. They don't have any idea how deep they are in sin. They have no idea. And they got religion. And the men that got, the ungodly men that got around Christ was Pharisees, Sadducees, religious men. The only people that gathered around that cross that had anything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ was Mary Magdalene, Mary, his mother, John, and two other women. And they stood there with the Lord Jesus Christ, and he spoke to them. He spoke to them. And I tell you what, people say, I wouldn't have done that. Oh, I was the loudest one in the bunch. Then look what else he says. Oh, what a great need. Sorrows of death, sorrows of men, ungodly men. And then look what else he says in verse five. The sorrows of hell compass me about. Sorrows of hell. Oh, my. Can you imagine what our Lord went through? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But, oh, my soul, my soul. And I'm sure some of you have experienced this. A soul can experience, in the soul, he can experience this deepness, this agony in his soul, afraid of this awful place called hell. And I'll tell you what, I'm afraid of it. I don't want to go. I don't want to miss Christ. I don't want to miss the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't. I don't want to miss him. I want to fear God. But when, you know, I remember when I was a young man, very young, you know, there's a place over in Deuteronomy says that they pray for the night because they was in such agony, and then prayed for the day because the nights were so long. I'd done that for almost three years. I dreaded the night, and then I dreaded the days. And oh, I'll tell you what, but the sorrow upon sorrow, many sorrows, and our Lord said, who has the sorrow like unto my sorrow? Who's got the sorrow like mine? Our Lord said. And oh, only God, only God in Christ can save us from this sorrow of death, the ungodly men, the sorrows of men, and the sorrows of hell. Only God can do that. And I thank God that he does. The worse shape you get in, the more you need him. And it's awful that we have to be brought so low that it takes that to make us really seek the Lord. And oh, look what happens now. Look what he confesses. He has a confession. What a confession he makes here in verse six. In my distress, anybody know what it is to be distressed? I mean really distressed. where you absolutely have no answer for anything. You don't know what's going on. You just, everything in this world, I think Cody preached on it where Jacob said, and all these things are against me. And he said, in my distress, when I didn't have anybody that felt for me, anybody that was interested in it, in my distress, look what he said. I crawled upon the Lord. I crawled upon the Lord. And oh, our Lord Jesus Christ, the first words out of His mouth when He was on that cross, He said, Father! He was in distress. Oh, such distress. Father! Forgive them. They don't know what they do. And oh, my. And in my distress, I called, I cried unto the Lord. And when a soul is in real, real trouble, like David and like our Lord in distress, the first thing you know, and it's awful that we have to wait to get into shape before we really cry on the Lord. And he said, I called upon the Lord and cried, cried unto my God. Cried unto him, cried unto him. Oh, my. And I'll tell you something, the prayer here is urgent. There's no hypocrisy in it. He has no hope of saving himself out of his distress. Christ was on that cross, and he's gonna die, but God's gonna save him out of the grave. But I'll tell you, here we are, no hope of saving himself. He has to go outside of himself. He's gotta go to somebody else. He gotta go to a God that can do something for him. A God that's got the power. Oh my, he goes outside himself. Only almighty God can meet the need of this soul when he's in this condition. Only God can do that. And oh my, look what happens to him. You reckon God hurt him? You reckon God heard him when he cried? Look what happens. Down in verse nine. He bowed the heavens. You know what it is to bow? People bow, you know, get around certain people and they bow. God bowed the heavens, brought the heavens down and made them bow so he could come down to where he was. That's figurative language, but that just shows you how powerful God is. And when one soul cries unto him in such distress, God said, I'll bow the heavens down. I'll bow down and I'll come and I'll come to you. Ain't that what he said? Look what he said. He bowed the heavens and came down. Oh my goodness. When did he come down? When he was in sorrow. When his great sorrow, sorrow upon sorrow, he came down. Oh, he came down. Ain't you grateful Christ came down? Oh, he came down. You know how far he came down? He came down to be a man, came down to be a servant, came down to be nothing and mistreated in the hands of men. This is Christ coming. All of his sufferings. And the heavens witnessed his coming. Oh God, he turned out the sun. He bowed to heaven, turned it out. And all the heavens witnessed his coming. The heavens witnessed his death. Oh my, and I tell you, when he came, because he came down, you look at the people that got in distress. that was in trouble and nobody, nobody cared for their soul until Christ was coming by when he came down. Bartimaeus! Jesus! What do you want? What do you want? I'd love to be able to see. I'd love to be able to see. Oh, God, give me eyes to see Christ. Give me eyes to see my Savior. Give me eyes to see the Son of David. Give me eyes to see the Son of God. Give me eyes to see Him who came down. Oh, my. That woman of Cana come to Him, and the Lord said, I'm not going to do anything for you. I'm not going to give you the children's bread to dogs. Oh, Lord, I know I'm a dog. I know I'm a dog. But even the dogs get the crumbs from the master's table. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, the cross. The sun was out, cut out, and the cross earthquaked when Christ came. And then look what it says in verse 16. I love this right here. He sent from above, he took me. He sent from above. Here we are in this awful shape. He sent from above. God sent from above. And he took me. He took me. I was in such miserable shape, he took me. Took me. What did he take me for? To save me out of these many waters. Save me out of these waters that go over our head. Save me out of these trials of troubles that goes over our head. Save me out of the things that go over our heart. Save me out of the troubles and sorrows of men and women. Save me out of the sorrows and grief of this world. Oh, he drew me. He took me and drew me. And I'll tell you what. I was reading a thing today by Tim James about doctrine. You know, when it says there that no man can come unto me except the Father which sent me, draw him, and everyone shall be taught of God. That same word, taught of God, is the same thing as doctrine, teaching. And God, when he teaches a man, you know what he'll do? He's gotta go get him. He's gotta lay hands on him. and he got to bring him out of the water of his sin, out of the sinfullest water of this sinful world, out of the waters of his tears, he got to bring him out. Oh, bring him out of sin, bring him out of sorrow. He must draw. He has to take hold of us. And when he takes hold of us, it's a perfect, perfect salvation. Once he takes hold, he don't turn loose. He don't turn loose. And oh, listen, what else they said had happened to him. Look down verse 17. You know, I love it that he sent from above and took me. Sent from above, drew me, took me. And then, oh, verse 17, look what it says. He delivered me. He saved me. Who'd he save me from? A strong enemy. You know what the strongest enemy that we have is? Sin. Sin. That's the strongest enemy we got. Every one of us, every one of us grieves over it, shamed of it, don't make any excuses for it, don't justify it, but sin is our greatest enemy. That's what we want to be saved from eventually out of this world, be saved from sin. What I would do, I don't. What I wouldn't do, I do. What I hate, I do. What I love, I don't do. What is that? Sin. Sin. That's our strongest enemy. And then Satan is a strong enemy and a subtle enemy. But oh, look what he said. He delivered me from my strong enemy. Strong enemy. I want you to keep this and look in Hebrews chapter two with me. Look in Hebrews chapter two. I want to show you something about Christ. You know, Hebrews chapter two, verse 14. Oh, my. I tell you, He so delivered us, He so saved us. Paul said, you know, said, He has saved me, He has saved me, and shall save me. But, oh, my soul, how many times have we been saved? How many times have we been saved? But here Christ identifies with us. Look what this says, Hebrews 2, 14. Forasmuch then, THE CHILDREN, THAT'S ME AND YOU, ARE PARTAKERS OF FLESH AND BLOOD. LISTEN TO THIS, CHRIST, HE ALSO HIMSELF LIKEWISE TOOK PART OF THE SAME. NOW WATCH THIS, THAT THROUGH DEATH, THROUGH DYING, HE MIGHT DESTROY HIM THAT HAD THE POWER OF DEATH, THAT IS THE DEVIL. AND THAT POWER OF DEATH HE'S TALKING ABOUT THERE IS SPIRITUAL DEATH. Satan's got no power to take our life. He has no power to kill us in this world But what he's saying is he saves us from a spiritual death I've had the death that spiritual death and listen to this and and deliver them who through fear of death and were all their lifetime subject to being bound, scared to death about dying. And look what it says, it says about him, for truly he took not on him the nature of angels. He didn't take on the nature of an angel, but he took on him the seed of Abraham, the seed of Abraham. Oh, he was that seed of Abraham that God promised to make the father of many nations. And listen to this, wherefore? Because of this, in all things it behooved him, it became necessary for him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of his people." He delivered us from our strong enemy. Satan's a roaring lion, but God's got him on a chain. God's got him on a chain. So he delivered me, my strong enemy, back over here in our text. He delivered me from my enemy and from them which hated me. Oh, they hated him without a cause. And they reasoned he had to deliver us because these enemies were too strong for me, too strong for me. And oh, look what it says here in verse 19, look what he says. He brought me forth also into a large place. He brought me, not only did he take me, Delivered me from my enemies then he brought me Where'd he bring you into a large place? What's a large place, you know anything larger than Christ? He brought me out brought me out of darkness and Translated me into the kingdom of his dear son and all my And I tell you what, he brought me into a large place. He brought me into the Christ. And oh, who's larger than Christ? Who's more blessed than Christ? He brought us into his life and us, his life into us. He brought us into a large, large place. I'll tell you another, this place is so large that God brought us to. and brought us to, it stretches into eternity. That's how large it is. It stretches from here all the way into eternity. You know how large it is? It's so large it'll hold a multitude that no man can number. That's how large it is. And oh, large place to be in God, to be a God who inhabits eternity, to be in Christ, to have the Holy Spirit And oh my, can you imagine how large a place heaven will be? Heaven will be. And then look what else it says there in verse 19. Look what it says. He brought me into a large place. He delivered me, listen to this, because he delighted in me. You know, he delighted in Christ. His Son, in whom He was His delight. But also, He delights in those that are in Christ. He delights in His elect. He delights in His chosen. He delights in the objects of His love. He delights in the objects of His grace. And oh, oh, He delights, delights in His elect and His love, His blessed, blessed people, those that are only in Christ. That's why Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, nevertheless, I live it. I'm living. And the life that I now live in this flesh right here, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And then look what else he says there in verse 20. And this has to be about Christ. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness. Well, there's only one righteousness that there is. That's the righteousness of Christ. And he rewarded us with the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. God gave us the righteousness of Christ. He regards us as righteous. He treats us as righteous people. We're going to be righteous when we get in heaven. We're righteous right now. And then look what he said. And then according to the cleanness of my hands, we dealt with that the other day, clean hands. Who gets to go up there? Those that have clean hands. Well, we got no clean hands only as Christ. We're in Christ and without sin, without spot, without blemish in Christ. He rewarded me with Christ. He rewarded me with salvation. And He daily gives us what He promised, everything that He ever promised, He gives it to us. Oh, He rewards us with His. He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, and He rewards us with Christ. Let's look at Psalm 34, and I'm done. Psalm 34. Look down here in verse 8. I love this. This is what we do. He rewarded us with Christ, with salvation. Gives us daily what he promised to do. He says this, oh, taste. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Taste it. Do you taste it in the gospel? Do you taste it in the scriptures? Do you taste it in Christ? Do you taste this glorious gospel? This honey out of the rock? This water out of the rock? This bread from heaven? Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, and blessed, blessed is the man that trusts in Him. Trust in Him. Oh, my. What a God, what a Savior, what a Deliverer. Our Father, in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Blessed be your name. Lord, you're so encouraging. You're so good. You lift us up when we're down. Bring us out of darkness into your light. And then you reward us as if we'd done something when Christ did it all. And Lord, we attribute all of our salvation, all of our blessings, all of everything that we have, we attribute it to him. Give him all the glory. God bless these dear saints and those that'll be traveling this weekend. Please protect them. Please watch over them. Give them safe travels. And may their fellowship be sweet as they fellowship together and enjoy one another's company. God, bring glory to yourself through all of us. For Christ's sake, amen. Amen. Well, I'll see you Sunday, and we're gonna have dinner Sunday. You got plenty left over, so that's what we're going to have. We're going to have beef, queso, salad, refried beans. We're going to eat like you do up at the Mexican restaurant.