For today, we're going to talk about, is God really there? That's a question that I think that a lot of people ask as they go through life. Is God really there? You know, we see all of the things in the world that would seem to indicate that God is dead. We see hatred. We see anger. We see bitterness and division. We see man raising his hand against men. We see the breakdown of the family. We see unrepentant selfishness and wanton pride in the world. And we ask, is God really there? And because the world doubts that God is really there, There is a great loss of hope. Now, I'm a firm believer that the Scriptures are given to us to teach us about the character, the nature, and the redemptive work of God himself. And that even though we have come to this first week of Advent where we're talking about hope, that we don't have to go and try to find a specific text on hope. For every text speaks of hope. And next week, or in the weeks to come, as we talk about peace, joy, love, we don't have to find specific texts on those topics. For every text talks and speaks to the joy and the love and the peace of Christ. It's interesting, I met with a group of pastors yesterday, wonderful meeting yesterday. And in the course of that meeting, the question came up, well, what are you preaching on? What are you preaching on? What are you preaching on? As pastors frequently do. And there was an awful lot of, I'm going to begin this series in the birth narratives of the Gospels, or I'm going to preach upon Jesus's advent, his first coming. And so they came to me and I said, well, I'm gonna preach Psalm 68. And they said, oh. As if Psalm 68 doesn't have anything to say about hope. But it does. Because the answer to the question, is God really there? Is yes. God is very much there. God is not dead, as Nietzsche said. God's alive. He is not only alive, he is the living God, and all source of life proceeds from him. So do I know that God is alive? Yes, I know God is alive, very well alive, because if he were not, you wouldn't be either. But we have to reckon with this question in this Christmas season, this Advent season. Is God really there? And David, so long ago, writes for us the answer. Psalm 68, we'll consider verses 1 to 10 in our time today. God shall arise. Now, before we say anything else, I want you to note the emphatic nature of those first three words. God shall arise. His enemies shall be scattered, and those who hate him shall flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so shall you drive them away. As wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God. But the righteous shall be glad. They shall exult before God. They shall be jubilant with joy. Sing to God. Sing praises to his name. Lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts. His name is the Lord. Exult before him. Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home. He leads out the prisoners to prosperity. But the rebellious dwell in a parched land. Oh God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, The earth quaked. The heavens poured down rain before God, the one of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel. Rain in abundance, O God, you shed abroad. You restored your inheritance as it languished. Your flock found a dwelling place in it. In your goodness, O God, you provide for the needy. Father, we thank you for the day that you've given to us. We continue to praise you, Father, for your goodness, for your mercy and your grace. We thank you, Father, that in Christ we have hope. And it's not just a utilitarian hope. It's an ordained hope. You have purposed, Father, to bring hope into the world. And so today, Father, as we look upon this text, we ask that you would give us eyes to see, and ears to hear, and hearts that are ready to receive what you have for us in this text, that we would not leave here despondent, overwhelmed, broken, but that we would revel in the hope that you've given to us in Christ. And so, Father, we pray that you would use this time for your glory, for our own conviction and edification, that we may, as the psalmist says, sing a song to you. We thank you, Father. We praise you. We glorify you. And we ask these things in your precious and holy name. Amen. It is said of Louis XV. Now, Louis XV is not one that we know super well. We're probably a little more familiar with Louis XIV, who built Versailles, the Golden King. We're probably a little more familiar with Louis XVI, who let him eat cake. We don't know much about Louis XV. Well, Louis XV was the grandson of Louis XIV and he is the second longest, was the second longest reigning king over France next to Louis XIV. But it was said of Louis XV that he foolishly ordained and ordered that death was never to be spoken of in his presence. Nothing that could ever remind him of death could ever be mentioned or displayed, and he sought to avoid every place, every sign, every monument which may in any way suggest death. Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish historian and epic writer, said of Louis XV that it is the resource of the ostrich whom he in Ployd, that when the ostrich is hunted, sticks his foolish head in the ground and would fain forget that his foolish body is still yet seen." And that's true. When I was in South Africa a number of years ago, I saw ostriches with their heads stuck in the sand. You see all the rest of them, but you can't...I guess they think if they can't see you, you can't see them. But you know, the reality is is that there are a lot of people in our world today that have treated God the same way. They've treated God's kingdom, Christ's salvation, the same way. If I ignore it and don't pay attention to it, then it must not be there. And that's a sad and foolish mistake. Because whether you believe in Christ or not, whether you trust Christ or not, whether you like Christ or not, his rule is still here. Your acceptance of Christ as king does not change the fact that he is king. So you can deny him all day long, and he still rules. And we have to begin here as we talk about the reality of God's kingdom, the rule of God's kingdom in our world today. We have to start here. Well, because that's where the psalmist starts. But then I think it also is a proper preparatory for what comes afterwards in the glories and the joys of being included in Christ's kingdom. And I think it is a good reminder for us who are actually included in Christ's kingdom to remember where we came from, because we all came from the same place, right? We all have denied Christ. We all have stuck our head in the sand and pretended that the gospel did not exist, that Christ did not exist, that the Ten Commandments did not exist, and that I could live life however I wanted to. We've all been there. But it is the wise person who has received the saving grace of God who understands that just because we denied him then didn't mean he didn't exist. So as we begin our time today, I want to mention this first thought that God is sovereign over those who do not believe in him, resulting in righteous judgment. Now that doesn't sound much like a Christmas idea, a Christmas theme, but it is. Because all of humanity was plunged into the darkness of self-indulgence in sin prior to Christ's first advent. Satan ran free before Christ's first advent. I want you to think about that. The law of God had been given to the nation of Israel, so it resided within the nation of Israel. The oracles, the prophets, the lineage had been given to the nation of Israel, which was a very small subset of the entire human race even at that time. The rest of the world did not know God, the rest of the world didn't care about God, and the rest of the world lived as if there was no God. And yet, Christ came into that world as the sovereign creator of that world to save a people for his own possession out of that world. And nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. The world has still fallen into sin. The majority of the world today still lives as if there is no God. The majority of the world today is either ignorant of or uncaring of God's word and his Ten Commandments. They live how they want, they do what they want thinking that nobody can catch them. And yet Christ has come into this self-same world to save people just like that. Christ is sovereign over his creation. Christ is sovereign over the world. And yes, Christ is sovereign even over the unbeliever. And as long as the unbeliever remains an unbeliever, the only interaction they will have with Christ at the end of their life is righteous judgment. So I want to point out something about Christ's rule in this regard, that Christ's rule is real. Christ's rule is real. Look at verse 1. God shall arise. David has no doubt that God will deal with those who do not care for him. His enemies shall be scattered. Those who hate him shall flee before him. There's a lot of folks in the world today, maybe somebody sitting here even this morning, thinking that if they can just ignore Christ long enough that it'll go away. that somehow the gospel is like a cold. If you just endure it for a little bit, then eventually it just goes away and leaves you alone. I pray today that if that is your heart, that if you just wish that the gospel would go away, you should be careful. You should be very careful. If all you want to do is try to outlast Christ, you can't do it. And if you're trying to ignore the gospel so that eventually, like a cold, you'll get better, then all you can expect when you die is to stand before Christ as the righteous judge and hear, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. That is a reality. That is real. That is truth. And I implore you, I beg you today, if you are just trying to outlast Christ Don't do it. Listen to what the Word of God has to say today. It'll make Christmas different this year, don't you think? God's rule is exclusive. It's not only real, it's exclusive. And you might could say, it's real exclusive, right? Verse two, as smoke is driven away, so shall you drive them away. Who is them? Well, it's in verse one, all those that hate you, all those who are your enemies. The gospel divides the world into two groups, lost and saved. Those who are God's people and those who are not. That's your only two options. And so today, if you're sitting there thinking, well, I'm not a bad person. I'm moral. I don't do bad things. I don't care much about Christ. And this whole church thing is just kind of religion, and I can really live without that. Because I'm really, after all, a good person. The Bible only recognizes two kinds of people, either saved or lost. And if you're not living in the glories of Christ, and if you're not loving the word of Christ, and loving the church of Christ, which means you're not loving Christ, then the reality is that you're lost. And God has and will separate you as a lost person from those who are truly his people, the saved folks, as a shepherd separates the sheep and the goats. as a farmer separates the wheat and the tares. Go and read the New Testament. Jesus himself said that, that when his kingdom comes, that the sheep will be separated from the goats and the tares will be separated from the wheat. It is a reality that the gospel is exclusive. You're either in or you're out. And if you're in, you praise God and glorify God, and if you're out, you don't. It's as simple as that. And God's rule, Christ's rule, is final. It's final. It is the final adjudication. It is the final word. It's the last word. It's the only word. So if you think that you're gonna be able to get to heaven and argue with God about how you lived your life, you're mistaken once again. God's rule is final. Look at the back half of verse two. As wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God. Does wax rebound? You know what I mean by rebound? You ever taken a rubber ball and squeezed it? Squoze it? Squeezed it? Squeezed it? You ever taken a rubber ball and squeezed it? And you let go of that rubber ball, what happens? It rebounds. It goes back to its original shape. You don't stand before God as a rubber ball in his judgment. And when his judgment falls, when the hammer falls, you will be crushed by the judgment of God. It is final. It is lasting. It is eternal. God's sovereign rule over those who do not believe in him will result in his righteous judgment. God will be glorified through his righteous judgment of the lost. No one will stand before God and say, this is unfair. All that God does is fair. All that God does is right. All that God does is good. And we need to remember that. In John 14, 21, and then 23 and 24, we find this encounter. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, Jesus said, he it is who loves me. Now, we could make a whole message out of verse 21 by itself, couldn't we? Let me read that again, just to make sure that we caught it. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, He it is who loves me. So those who have heard the word of God and know, even in a basic form, the word of God, those who have heard it and keep it are the ones who love Christ. Those who have heard the word of Christ and choose not to keep it are the ones who don't. That's pretty simple, right? But Jesus goes on to say, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father. So as we keep the words of Christ, if we follow the commands of Christ, if we truly are loving Christ, not just in word but in deed, but then we're also loving God and he loves us, the Father. And I will love him and manifest myself to him, Jesus said. So even though you might just have a little bit of knowledge of Christ, If you will follow that knowledge and obey that knowledge, then God will give you more knowledge. He will give you a greater understanding. He will give you a greater love for Christ. But if you don't care about Christ, if you just care about yourself, if what happens is in the morning you wake up and you look in the mirror to have your worship service, amen or oh me, Your worship service is when you stand in the bathroom looking in the mirror. You worship yourself. You love yourself. You don't love God. Then what little light you have is taken from you. That's why you're living in darkness. That's why you have no hope as a lost person, right? Jesus said, if you love me and keep my word, I will love you and I will make sure that I manifest myself to you. Verse 23, Jesus answered, if anyone loves me, he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. Pretty simple and straightforward, isn't it? Don't you think? So as we finish and conclude this first point, this first section, there is a diagnostic question that I want each of us to ask. Do I love Christ's words? Don't tell me that you love Jesus. Everybody in the world loves Jesus. How could you not love Jesus? How could you not? the gentlest, kindest, best man that ever lived. Gave his life as an atoning sacrifice for those who by faith would come to him. How can you not love Jesus? Everybody says they love Jesus. But do you love Jesus's words? Do you love his commandments? Do you love what he taught? Do you love Jesus's church? Because that's in the Bible too, right? If you love Jesus and you love his commands, then you love his church. You love those people who love him. It's like one big family, right? So do you love his word? Do you love his church? Depending upon your answer, we either might need to go back and review this first point, or we could go on to the second point, to the good news, the joys, the glories of Christ. Because everything really does hinge upon your answer. Whether you love him or not, he's sovereign over you. An interesting thought from Thomas Brooks. I love Thomas Brooks. He was a Puritan. Thomas Brooks said, here is an amazing thing. Actually, he said, here's a wonder, but I'm going to put it in modern English. Here's an amazing thing. God is on high, and yet the higher a man lifts himself, the further he is from God. Isn't that profound? God is high and lifted up. But the more I lift myself up, the more I exalt myself, the more I think of myself, the further away from God I get. He goes on to say that the lower a man humbles himself, the nearer he is to God. Of all the people in the world, God delights most to dwell with those who humble themselves. Because their eyes are not on themselves, their eyes are on God. They're not so interested in their words, they're more interested in God's words and they're not really interested in hanging out with the people that they like to hang out with, they are more interested in hanging out with the people who have been saved, their family. Right? God is sovereign. God sovereignly rules, but God also sovereignly saves, which brings me to the second thought today in our time in Psalm 68. God is sovereign over those who have been saved by him, resulting in the glorious praise of his name. Listen to verse three, Psalm 68, verse three. Don't you just love it when the scriptures start with the word but? This is what's going on, it's really bad, there is no hope, there's nothing you can do, but God has done it for you. Verse three. But the righteous shall be glad, they shall exult before God. That is that they'll be happy, they'll be exuberant. It's like a World Series, National Championship, Stanley Cup, everything rolled into one. They will exult before God, they shall be jubilant with joy, sing to God, sing praises to his name, lift up a song. What a contrast. What a contrast. Have you ever stopped to think and wonder why it is that around this time of year, every year, the world just seems to be a little lighter? Tensions seem to be a little less. Now, I realize that there's the hurry, scurry, panic, worry of the Christmas season. I got that. But in those quiet moments when perhaps the shopping list is done and all the food is cooked, and you sit down just to catch your breath and relax for a second, and the veil of the hurry-scurry is removed, and you think about this Christmas season, even as a lost person, you think about Christmas, the world just seems to be a little lighter. There seems to be a little more hope. There seems to be a little more peace and goodwill among men. Why is that? Why is it that this time of the year seems to be a season of time where everybody kind of just gets along, even if it's only for just a brief few moments? Why is it that this time of year we seem to have a little better outlook on life, even if everything else is bad? Why is it that Historically, this time of the year has been times when armies have ceased shooting at each other just to commonly sing, maybe perhaps, just perhaps, some of those old hymns. Is it just that the fat man in the red coat comes around this time of year? Is that what makes everybody so happy? Do nations stop fighting wars because somehow there's a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer? Could it be, could it just be that this Christ thing is real? Could it be that there's hope in the gospel that penetrates even The coldest, hardest heart? I think so. You see, God's sovereign grace is the source of great joy. Now let me explain to you, if you don't know already, what sovereign grace is. Sovereign grace is saving grace. It's God's grace. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that is greater than all my sin. That's saving grace. It's sovereign grace because you're hearing the message of God's sovereign grace. Though you may have sat in church 1,000 times before, you may have heard messages 1,000 times before, you may have had somebody give you a gospel tract 1,000 times before, and you have paid no attention to it, don't care about it, blew your nose on it, and really just scoffed at God for 999 times before, but now, in the hearing of the same old, same old, your heart is Cut to the quick. Your heart is challenged. You feel something different. You fall under conviction. You are willing to listen to what the message is, probably, maybe, for the first time ever. Why is that? Because God has sovereignly chosen to open your ears and open your eyes and open your heart to the message, which he hasn't done, perhaps, in the past. And now, the things of Christ actually pique your interest. You realize that God is holy and you're not. You realize that even though you might rationalize and spin and blame somebody else for your sin, that the reality is you know, maybe for the first time ever, that you have offended a holy God by not loving him, loving his word, and loving his church. And you don't want to stay there. You really want to change, and you begin to see hope coming over the horizon, just like in the mornings, if we walk out before the sun comes up, you can see the sun coming up before you ever see the sun, right? Those first rays of light in the morning, a cold, dark, Despondent night is over and the hope of day is coming because the sun begins to approach over the horizon and brings its warming light. And now perhaps for the first time ever, the hope of Christ is dawning in your heart. And Christ is speaking to you. Come unto me, all of those who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That, my friends, is sovereign grace. I want you to notice that you have not prayed a prayer. You have not signed a cart. You have not walked an aisle. You have not taken a pastor by the hand and said, I am so sorry for the things that I have done. Now, those things might be appropriate in the moments and hours to come, because I believe that there should be an open confession before somebody that you love Christ and you're repenting of your sins, but none of that's happened yet. You see, this is sovereign grace. This is God's grace. This is God moving upon your heart to bring you to repentance. It's not a incantation or a ritual or a saint or a tradition. It is sovereign grace. And God's sovereign grace is the source of great joy. Because when I was yet an enemy of Christ, Christ died for me. While I was still spitting in God's face and telling God, I don't care about you, I don't need you, I got life, it's okay, Christ died for me. Because the reality is, You do need Christ. I need Christ. We all need Christ. We cannot make it in this world, nor especially eternity, without Christ. We need Christ. And when we didn't want Christ, Christ died for you. And when you realize that, when you begin to see that Christ's death was to accomplish your salvation, your reconciliation with God, not through anything that you've done, not through the work of your hands, not through a prayer that you prayed, but just God moving on your heart and saving you because he loves you, that brings great joy. You're no longer the same. You've been bought with a price. And that price was the love of Christ to die for you. So God's sovereign grace is the source of great joy. The righteous shall be glad. Now that doesn't mean that the righteous are always happy, right? I'd be willing to bet that based upon the results of yesterday's athletic competitions that there are some people who are happy and some people who are not. Is that fair to say? Now, I was in Baton Rouge all day yesterday at a meeting. I have no idea who's on the upside and who's on the downside. No clue. I know my team won. That's about all I know, right? But it's not about happiness. I don't stand here today with the exultation that is in my heart because my team won yesterday. I would stand here with the exultation in my heart even if my team had gotten beaten by about 70 points. I wouldn't be happy, but I would be glad. Do you see the difference? Because being glad and the joy of the Lord being my strength is not about circumstances, it's not about what goes on in life, it's about what God has done in my heart. And it's the great joy that Christ has put into me as one of his children that moves me in every moment of the day. And the reality is, it makes Christmas that much sweeter. Because even if the turkey gets burned, Or we've got 85 degrees and, you know, there's no white Christmas when you have 85 degrees, right? When there is a family fight that ensues for some trivial point or I'm sick across the holidays. None of that matters. Does it make the holidays harder? Sure it does, but where is my joy? Why am I glad? Am I glad because we're all home for the holidays? Everybody's playing nice. Politics is not being mentioned. Religion is left at the door and everybody's happy. Is that what makes Christmas so wonderful? No. The joy of my salvation, the joy of Christ, the exultation, the singing with jubilant joy, the singing of praises to Christ, lifting up a song, as we've done already today, is what makes Christmas such a bright time of year. And it's not the songs, it's Christ, right? First Peter 1.8, though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Did you hear what Peter just said? Though you have not and you do not see Christ right now, right? We don't see him bodily. Jesus is not sitting on the front row bodily. but yet we have a joy inexpressible. We have a glory in Christ that is like we were talking about in Bible study this morning. It is a glow on your face. You ever met somebody that has that glow? Been in town, somebody comes up to you and you just know that they're different? You just know that Christ is part of their life and they're walking in the glories of Christ? You ever met somebody like that? Better yet, have you ever had somebody walk up to you and say that about you? Man, I can tell, you must be a Christian, because I can tell there's a joy on your face that doesn't come from anywhere else. Or as I had a guy tell me once upon a time, I think we were in Walmart, I was just sitting there, Nancy was shopping, it was before we had Asher. He came up to me and said, dude, what are you drinking? I said, well, I'm not drinking anything. He goes, you're on something that makes you happy. I said, let me tell you, it's Christ. Christ is better than anything I could drink or shoot or snort. There is no downside. There is no withdrawal. There is no hangover with Christ. Christ is all. He is everything to me. You see, that's the joy, inexpressible, that we receive in God's sovereign grace. God's sovereign grace is part of his divine character. It is who he is. Look at the next part of verse four with me, if you would. Psalm 68, verse four. To him who rides through the deserts. Actually, the better rendering of this text is one who rides on the clouds. His name is the Lord. Exult before him. His name is the Lord. How many of you, we'll start simply, how many of you, when you maybe got a Christmas present that you really wanted, when you opened it up, you saw what it was, and you're like, man, that's what I really wanted, then you began to tell everybody about this Christmas present you got, right? A little bit later in life, you, You go through school and then you start looking for a job and everybody's got that job that they really want. Right. And you get that job. What do you do? You keep it to yourself? No, you start telling everybody. I promise you, if we kept stuff to ourself, Facebook would have gone bankrupt two decades ago. Facebook is all about us telling the world about those things that we really like. Right? So you get that job that you really want, you tell everybody you can meet, and you tell some folks you know, and folks you don't know, man, I got this job. And what about that husband or wife that you wanted for so long? Pray that God would give you that perfect wife, that perfect husband, and then you meet them, God brings them, and you marry them, and then what do you do? You tell everybody about them, don't you? Don't you? Don't you? Right? If you don't, you better start, right? That's the one thing, and I don't want to embarrass Miss Lisa, but that's the one thing that I love about Brother Lamar. He is always talking about his Lisa. He is. He's always talking about Lisa. I know that Lamar loves Lisa and I know she is the best thing since sliced bread in his life because he talks about her all the time, right? Why can't we do that with Christ? Why can't His name is Lord? Why can't we talk about him all the time? Why can't we attribute everything that happens to us to him? And I mean the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good, Christ has blessed me in such a wonderful way in this way. The bad, well, I didn't really follow what he said and this is how it turned out, which might lead to the ugly. But then the good comes right back because in confession, in repentance, there's restoration in Christ. And we can live life to the abundance, right? Because Jesus said, I didn't come to give you life just mediocre. I came to give you life and give it to you abundantly. And that's not just eschatological one day at the judgment when I die kind of life. That's life right now. So if you, according to Joel Osteen, want your best life now, what do you got to do? Trust Christ. Follow Christ. Love and obey Christ. Love him, love his word, love his church. Because when you're doing that, I'll just tell you this, you can't love Christ in and of yourself. Now, you may be listening to me right now and you may go, Okay, Rusty, I think I'll just start loving Jesus. I love Jesus, I love Jesus, I got T-shirts, I got bumper stickers, I got what would Jesus do bracelets, and I'm gonna just talk about Jesus, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, and I'm just gonna love Jesus. I'm just gonna make up my mind right now to love Jesus. I don't think you can do that. Your heart has to be changed. Now look, I will tell you this, if you decide right now that you want to love Jesus and you ask Jesus, to teach you how to love him and give you a heart that loves him, he'll do it. Holy Spirit will come into you, will what we call regenerate you, he'll change you from the inside out, and you'll begin to love Jesus. If you really want to love him, all you have to do is say, I want to love you, and you can, and he will. But you can't do it in and of yourself. And if you decide, okay, well, I'm gonna start obeying Jesus, I'm gonna follow his words, and you start trying to legalistically do everything the Bible tells you to do, you're not gonna do it. You're not gonna do it. You can't do it. I guarantee you, if you're gonna try to start following the Bible in a external, legalistic way, I'm just gonna do it without repenting of your sins and loving Jesus, I'll give you maybe 30 days, maybe. And then you're just going to quit doing it because it's too hard. And if you say, well, I'm going to start loving Jesus's church. Now, these folks down here, they're a little strange. I'm not used to them, but they're okay. I think I'm going to start hanging out with them. Okay. Again, I think that'll go for a little while, but then pretty soon something's going to come up and you go, well, I would rather go do this than be down there. You've tapped the keg at that point, and you're just going to start doing other things. You see, you can't love Jesus. You can't love his words, and you can't love his church. Just because you decided to do it, something has to change inside of you. Your heart has to change. And that's what we're talking about with repentance. That's what we're talking about with confession. That's what we're talking about, the change, being saved, that you go from not loving any of that stuff to loving it all. And you don't really know why, but something's changed in you. Yeah, your heart. Christ has changed you. He has imparted to you a part of himself. That's where I'm going with all this. You have to have a part of God imparted to you. You have to have a little bit of God in you if you're going to love Jesus, love his word, and love his church. You want to know what part has to be given to you for you to do that? the Holy Spirit. Paul said, if the Spirit who raised Jesus' body from the dead dwells in your dead body, a body that's dead because of sin, we're all dead because of our trespasses and sin, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But if the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead indwells your dead body, then you're no longer dead. You're brought from death to life and you are now a living person. Just like when that Spirit raised Christ from the dead on the third day, that same Spirit indwells every believer. There's a part of God in each believer. It's the Holy Spirit. And then we begin to love him, love his word, love his church. We begin to take on the character of God. He gives us his part of himself. We call those the communicable attributes. So we have love, we have joy, we have peace, we have patience, we have kindness, we have gentleness, long-suffering, and self-control. Because we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. First Timothy 1.16, but I receive mercy for this reason that in me, as the foremost, that is the foremost of sinners, this is Paul talking, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Paul says, you think you're lost? You think you're bad? Buddy, I got you beat. I was bad on steroids and yet Christ saved me. Praise be to him, the eternal King of all glory for his grace and mercy in saving me. And if I was the worst, Paul says, I'm pretty sure he can save you too, right? There's a rhetorical device name for that, but I'll save that for another day. It's arguing from the greater to the lesser, but that's a whole other subject. And then God's sovereign grace is abundant, good, and free. Did you know that God's sovereign grace is abundant, it's good, it's free? Verse five, father of the fatherless, protector of the widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home. God settles those that are loners. Those who hadn't got anybody. That's what solitary means in this context. We might call it an orphan. God gives orphans families. How about that? He leads out the prisoners to prosperity. He gives you life abundance. Now, that doesn't mean life with a portfolio that is like a gazillion dollars. Don't mistake that. But it does mean that life is worth living, right? Can we honestly say that? Can we honestly say that my life is worth living? I can. I had four hours in the car by myself yesterday coming home. And I don't know about y'all, but when I'm in the car by myself for that long a period of time, I begin to think about a lot of things. I rehearsed in my mind, I hate to admit it, but I rehearsed in my mind the funeral of all of you guys. And I cried for about four hours on the way home. Did. I did. Because the pain of losing those that are so close to me, the pain of losing each and every one of you whom I love very deeply. Right? So it wasn't necessarily a happy drive home. but it was an abundant drive home. Because for those of you that I know that God has done a work in your heart, though the pain of not having you here, there's pain in not having you here, there's joy in knowing that to be absent from this physical plane means to be present with the Lord. And for me, That makes life worth living, right? Because the old song says, he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds tomorrow and life is worth the living because he lives, right? Now, you may not have that assurance. Your life may not be worth living, at least what you think about it, but in Christ, whose sovereign grace is abundant and good and free, life most certainly is worth the living. And then God's sovereign rule over all people is either the source of calamity or great joy. I don't have time today to go into all of the details of verses 7 through 10. Abundant rain is mentioned twice in these three verses. As I mentioned to the men Friday morning, as I read the first part of this, verses 7 and 8, That abundant rain is a cataclysmic rain. It's a storm. It's washing things away, right? Pour down rain before God, the one of Sinai, before God, the one of Israel. It's judgment. But in verse 9, it switches, rain in abundance, restoring an inheritance. The flock is dwelling in it, dwelling in your goodness. You're providing for the needy. And this is what I take away from verses 7 to 10. Life happens, doesn't it? Good things happen, not so good things happen. For those who are outside of Christ, everything that happens winds up being bad. Even if you get everything you want in life, if you're outside of Christ, you're terrified that somebody's gonna come along and take it from you. But inside of Christ, in Christ, in covenant with Christ, those that are saved, everything is good. Even the pain of losing somebody close to you is good. Because you know Christ is controlling all of that. Christ is sovereign over all of that. And that one you love very deeply, if they're in Christ, you know that in the moment they leave you, they fly into the arms of Christ, their loving Savior. In Christ, everything works for the good of those who love God or are called according to His purposes. Right? The lost do not have that assurance. The lost, those that are outside of Christ, what you've got right now is what you got. You better make the best of it because once it's over, it's over. How can I say that? Because Christ is real. And Christ has said that. Christ draws the line. Christ is the divider of persons. Either you are or you aren't. And my prayer for us today is that we take an honest inventory of our own hearts. that we would ask God, am I or aren't I? And be willing to receive the answer that he gives. If he gives us a yes, you are, then praise God, let's move on and see how many others that we can bring with us. If the answer is no, you're not, then now is the time to do business with Christ and move from the not to the am column, right? God is real. And in this season, this first week of Advent, as we're talking about hope, he's our only hope. Help us, Lord Jesus. You're our only hope. Help us, Lord Jesus. You're our only hope. Oh, you Star Wars people. It's not Obi-Wan, it's Christ. Father, we thank you for the day that you've given to us. We continue to praise you for your goodness, for your mercy, and your grace. And we just simply ask, Father, that in the hearing of your word today, that we would indeed see you as our only hope. Move upon every heart here. Open every eye, every ear, Cleanse away all of the distractions. Call us into yourself that we might do business with you. And Father, save a people for your own possession with great hope and joy because we know that you are real. We love you, Father. We praise you. We thank you. And we ask these things. In your precious and holy name, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we ask. Amen.