69, we come to verse 22. And we will be considering Psalm 69 from verse 22 down to the end at verse 36. Under the heading, Christmas Makes All the Difference. Now, as we were singing this last song, Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming, You may have noticed at the top of the song that that is a 15th century German carol. German. Germany. The home of the Nazi party. Worse yet, the home of what now has become termed Christian liberalism. The academy. The universities. the academics of Germany. In the late 1800s, early 1900s, began to depart from the authority of scripture and moved more towards what's called higher criticism, a perhaps deeper understanding of the scriptural text in which historic documents were considered. Is this text authentic? Is this text of the Bible not authentic? They began to espouse a particular philosophy that the Bible was not the Word of God, but rather contained the Word of God, which then precipitated the question, well, what texts are God's Word and what texts are not God's Word? And there have been various and sundry Experts throughout the years who have claimed this text is God's word, but this text is not, which came into conflict with other experts who said, no, no, no, no, no, this text is and that text is not. And it brings us right down to the days of Thomas Jefferson, who literally cut his Bible to shreds because none of it was God's word. Is it any wonder we're in the mess we're in? When we have those who are supposed to be guarding and protecting the authenticity and the acceptability of God's word, say, well, we no longer believe that this is actually God's word. We believe this little section might be, but that little section definitely isn't because it tells us that we have to do things that we really don't like doing, right? Like loving your neighbor as yourself, right? Easy to do at Christmas. Not so easy to do at Mardi Gras. Right? Or let's back up maybe a week or two. Easy to do if you like my team. Not so easy to do if you don't. Right? And that's not a plug for my university. I'm just saying my team broadly, generally. Right? I'm not gonna make any predictions on what the final score's gonna be in the national championship when they win. We'll see. And no, it's not Georgia. You see, it's not about where you grew up. It's not about the tradition that you grew up in. Germany, home to Martin Luther, home to the Lutheran understanding of scripture, is also the home of the Nazi party, which destroyed, I believe it was almost 12 million Jews, Polish folk, gypsies, anybody who was not of the proper ethnicity or heritage, destroyed millions of people. It's not about what your family has done. It's not about, in a lot of respects, what you've done. It is, however, about what Christ has done. And we celebrate this time of year, the birth of Christ, not just simply because of the birth of Christ, but because what Christ was born to do. Christ was born to live a sinless life and to die as an atoning sacrifice that we might be forgiven of our sins and restored back to a right relationship with God. A relationship that we ourselves broke in our sin and transgression. That's what makes Christmas important and that's what makes Christmas making all the difference. And we're going to talk about two classes of people today, and this is going to be nothing new for those that have been around for a while. You know that I've said on many occasion that the world is divided into two classes of people, those who are saved and those who are not. And we're going to look at the effects and how a life outside of Christ really holds no hope And then we're gonna talk about, I'm gonna give you another piece of pie this morning, and that is that Christ makes all the difference. And all of this is found in the last third of Psalm 69. Psalm 69, starting at verse 22, reading down to verse 36. David says, let their own table before them become a snare, and when they are at peace, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually. Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be a desolation. Let no one dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those whom you have wounded. Add to them punishment upon punishment. May they have no acquittal from you. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living. Let them not be enrolled among the righteous. But I am afflicted and in pain. Let your salvational God set me on high. I will praise the name of God with song. I will magnify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. When the humble see it, they will be glad. You who seek God, let your hearts revive. For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise his own people, whom are prisoners. Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them, for God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah, and the people shall dwell there and possess it. The offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it. Father, we thank you. We thank you for this Christmas season. We thank you, Father, that you have given us these truths, these realities. We thank you, Father, that you've given us your word. And we ask now, as we look upon these sacred texts, that you would give us insight, wisdom, the guidance of your spirit, Father, that we might see that Christmas truly does make all the difference. We love you, Father. We praise you, we thank you, and we ask these things in your precious and holy name. Amen. Eternity Magazine. Now, I'm not familiar with Eternity Magazine. Maybe you are. I would assume that it's a religious publication, but I don't know. Anyhow, Eternity Magazine told a story of a sidewalk flower vendor whose business was not really going that well. And they had this idea, we need a really good marketing campaign to boost sales, right, of our sidewalk flowers. And so they had this idea, and they put up a sign that said, and I quote, buy a gardenia, and it will make you feel important all day long, close quote. That was their slogan, buy a gardenia, and it will make you feel important all day long. Almost immediately, sales of flowers began to increase. You see, people love to feel inflated, for their innermost nature thrives on any attention that caters to their pride. Isn't that true of us? We like to tell people how good we are. We like people to tell us that we did a good job. We like people to tell us that we're important. We tend to thrive on that inward pride. It's a much deeper trap than I think what we realize. It speaks to our fallen nature that it's about me. I was listening to a commentary somebody sent me this week and the idea was is that we don't like to be humbled. We don't like humility. Humility is hard. We don't like it when we're embarrassed because we made a mistake, and we're not likely to humble ourselves before other people. We like, in fact, being the one who's in the right. We like to win the argument. And I think what Psalm 69 is telling us today is that we need to be mindful of this. In Christ we have been forgiven of our sin, and in Christ we've been saved, right? We've been restored back to God through the blood of Christ. But we still struggle, even as saved folk, with this inward pride. And Psalm 69 today is a good reminder of some things that perhaps might be true about ourselves, maybe not. Maybe to a certain degree, not completely, but at least in some measure. that we would remember that without Christ, there just isn't any hope. So the first thing that I want to discuss is the group of folks that don't see Christ as Savior. The folks that do not see Christ as Savior. Well, for folks like that, Christmas Day doesn't really hold a whole lot of hope. I think I'd mentioned Friday morning to the guys as we were talking about this idea that Friday morning, which was December 27th, I bet that there were people who had already lost all their Christmas cheer just two days after Christmas. Christmas was on Wednesday. I'm sure that everybody awakened quite early on Wednesday morning in anticipation of opening their gifts. Some of us when we opened our gifts were disappointed with what we got and some of us were elated with some of what we got. And yes, John Carter, I'm sure there were some of us that had an exuberant Christmas. I know I did. But Thursday comes in and the forecast turns dark, it's supposed to be rainy, it's supposed to be icky. Friday is even worse, rain's coming back. And that Christmas cheer, that exuberance that we experienced on Wednesday very quickly goes out the door. Why? Because the exuberance, the joy, the lightheartedness was based upon a day on a calendar. It was based upon the fact that I was supposed to get a gift. My expectation and the anticipation of that gift was based on what it was that I wanted to get. And when I didn't get what I wanted to get, that anticipation just goes right out the window, right? So for those who do not see Christ as Savior, Christmas Day just doesn't hold a lot of hope. On Friday after Christmas, there were depressed and overwhelmed people. You could see it on their faces. You could see it in their demeanor, how they spoke to one another. And it's a sad truth in Psalm 69 that if you don't see Christ as Savior, I bet even now as you sit right here, things just don't look very hopeful. The psalmist goes through several verses here to show us that though we may try to medicate this hopelessness through a variety of different things, we're gonna talk about our success and our understandings and our prominence, that there still isn't any hope in any one of those things because they are devoid of Christ. Without Christ, our success doesn't make any difference and our understanding doesn't make any difference and our prominence doesn't make any difference. Let me explain what I mean. Verse 22, let their own table before them become a snare. When they are at peace, let it become a trap. You see, without Christ, your success doesn't give you much hope. There is success, let their table before them become a snare. Their table, what they're providing, the food that they have, the home that they have. the career maybe they've built for themselves. All of those things don't give you much hope. The psalmist says, let their table become a snare. What does that mean, a table become a snare? Does anybody here have favorite food? You have a favorite food? I love Mexican food. I could eat Mexican food every day. I just love it. Do you think that I could idolize Mexican food? Do you think Mexican food could be the warp and the wolf of my entire existence? That I pursue Mexican food with everything that I have? Well, the reality is I can. I can begin to worship Mexican food. Now, I know that sounds strange, okay, but it could be. I could begin to identify as someone who loves Mexican food. I could begin to work only for Mexican food. I could somehow forsake other obligations so that I could get my fill of Mexican food, right? Now, You may not enjoy Mexican food as much as I do, but I'm sure you have a favorite food. So you fill in the blank. Maybe it's Cajun food. Maybe it's Italian food. Maybe it's Thai. Why you like Thai, I do not know, but maybe it's Thai. You have your creature comforts. You have the things that you prefer. You have the things that you desire and you crave that can become idols. Do become idols if we're not careful. You can devote your entire life to whatever that desire is. You can devote all of your energies and your efforts to achieve that desire to the forsaking of other things so that you can get what you want. Can't you? And when you attain to that level to where you get what you want, like today, hopefully after church, I think today is a Mexican food day, we go eat Mexican food and I can feel a degree of success because I got my Mexican food. Right? You can feel a degree of success when you fulfill that desire that you have way down deep inside of you, the thing you're willing to sell out for, right? The psalmist tells us that our success won't give us much hope if it's not founded in Christ, right? Our table will become a snare for us. The sense of peace that I have, that I've built out of my own efforts apart from Christ, is not a lasting peace. It will become a trap. It will become a snare. When I'm trying to find peace and stability and success in the things that I do, it won't last and it won't give us any hope because they're not founded on Christ. What about our understanding? That's success, I think we can see that one pretty easily. What about our understanding? Look at verse 23. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, make their loins tremble continually. You see, without Christ, your understanding doesn't give you much hope either. Let their eyes be darkened. We can take this a couple ways. I'll mention probably just two for time this morning. We could take this in terms of our education and our learning. You know, I'm not familiar with any academic institution that espouses darkness. or holds the darkness. You know, it's not in their mantra. Let the eyes of our students be darkened. No, that's not what they say. Every institution of learning, whether it be a high school, a junior high, a college, a university, is the light of learning, right? Let our eyes be enlightened. I don't know whether you can see it or not, but I wear on my lapel the pin of my alma mater where I did my master's work at Criswell College. If you were able to see it, you would notice that it is a torch. Because Criswell College, its mantra was the light of the gospel, the torch of the gospel in dark places. It's about bringing light and enlightenment to people's eyes. Our understanding is all about enlightenment, but David says, let their understanding be darkened. You see, the reality is that we can get lost in our education, can't we? We can become so educated that we're not really much good for anything. We can let our enlightenment, understanding, cloud us, cloud our vision to the reality of Christ. You know, maybe you've experienced this, I certainly have. Some of the hardest people to share the gospel with are highly educated folk. It's hard to evangelize people who have one, two, three, four, ten degrees because they've studied and they've read and they think they know everything, that as we're trying to share the gospel with them, There is hard. They say things like this. Well, the statistics just don't bear that out. The science doesn't bear that out. That is man-made philosophy. That is religion. That is the opiate of the masses, to quote a person from history that will remain nameless, but you know who he is. His name is Joseph Stalin. Oops, I said it out loud. The opiate of the masses. Our understanding, our eyes can be darkened. But there's another sense in which our eyes can be darkened too, and that's the perspective that we have on life, the perspective we have on the world, how we see things. You see, our perspective is darkened as well. We see things a certain way and we automatically assume that this is the way things are based on our perspective, right? You follow what I'm saying? And we can think that we know everything about everything, not necessarily education, but just how we live life, and yet be darkened. The psalmist says, so that they cannot see. They don't understand. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been in a place where you just don't understand? Now, the students here are going, yeah, Pastor Rusty, every day in geometry class. I don't understand, right? But what about life's more vexing problems? What about how am I gonna make it to the end of the month? How am I gonna make it in this economy? How am I gonna fix this relationship? How am I gonna fix this broken part of my home or my life? How do I answer those questions? What do I do? We can't see. Oh, we can read books. We can listen to podcasts. We can have a favorite author or blogger or whatever you want to call it. You know, in the old days, we might have listened to Ann Landers, right? There's a name that most of the young folks don't even know, right? We could have listened to, oh crud, I forgot his name now. Not Earl Pitts, you could listen to him too. Paul Harvey, thank you. Paul Harvey, now for page two, right? You can look for wisdom in worldly places, and for a moment you might have your eyes open briefly, but without Christ, they're just darkened again. The next little storm comes in and you forget what you've learned and you just don't have much hope. You see, without Christ, your understanding, there's no comfort there. There's no solace there. There's no security there. It's only in Christ that you find that security. And what about prominence? Without Christ, your prominence doesn't give you much hope either. Look at verse 24. Pour out your indignation upon them and let your burning anger overtake them. Now that's what the psalmist is asking God to do. How would God do that? Well, verse 25, make their camp a desolation, let no one dwell in their tents. That's a complete wiping off the face of the planet, no memory, right? Completely wipe them out, wipe them from memory so that nobody doesn't know anything about them. Why? Why would the psalmist ask God to do that? Well, look at verse 26. What are the people doing, presumably against David? David wrote the Psalm. What is Absalom doing? Remember, this Psalm was written during David's, the rebellion that Absalom sparked. What are they doing? Well, verse 26, for they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded. You see, they have, taken responsibility for themselves or rights for themselves that God doesn't give them. Here's what I mean. Persecute him whom you have struck down. It's not good enough that God judged them and struck them down. We have to add to it, right? We have to add injury to insult or insult to injury, whichever way you want to look at it. We have to take a position above God and say, God, you haven't done enough, I'm gonna add to it. You see? That's taking a place of prominence, a position of sovereignty, you might say, that God never gave. Have you ever done that? You ever been in that moment, which is as old as the Garden of Eden, Did God really say that you should not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? And you remember what Eve said, right? Oh yeah, God said, don't eat it, don't even touch it. Wait a minute, did God say not touch it? No, God said, don't eat it. Now, presumably, we would not want to touch it because that might lead us to eat it too. I got that part of it. But you see, Eve took the opportunity to add to what God had said. And we do it all the time. If a little bit is good, a whole bunch is better, don't you think? If we need to gauge or, excuse me, guard against this one little sin in our life, we go to the extreme and try to eradicate it off the face of the planet. If eating too much is a sin and we're guilty of gluttony, becoming a vegetarian probably is not gonna fix the problem, right? We add to what God has said. We take a prominence that God never gave to us. That's what David is saying, that without Christ, there is no boundary. Without Christ, there is nothing to keep us in check. If I'm not worshiping Christ, guess who I am worshiping? Can you guess? If I'm not worshiping Christ, I'm going to worship me, me. God bless you. That's why Jonathan Edwards said, the human heart is a factory of idols. Because we want to accumulate all those things around us that make us feel good, make us feel prominent, make us feel like we're somebody. They appeal to our inward pride. That's why if you'll buy a gardenia, you'll feel really good about yourself today. Seems to be so attractive to us. We like prominence. We like to sit at the head of the table. And you remember what Jesus said about that one, right? That if you're invited to a wedding, just don't be-bop yourself right on up into the middle and go sit at the head of the table, right? Because if you sit at the head of the table where the prominent people are, and you just go up there and sit, Somebody's gonna come in and say, hey friend, you're in the wrong spot. Why don't you move on down the table a little bit down here towards the end where the non-prominent people are, right? Didn't Jesus say it would be better to sit at the foot of the table down there with the nobodies and have somebody say, hey friend, why don't you move on up here? You see? But we tend to wanna sit at the front of the table. We wanna sit up there where the prominent people are. I would argue that that's a sign that we may not have Christ or we may not be listening to Christ to begin with, but if we're basing our life and our hope on our own prominence, it isn't there. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 9 to 12. Why are all these things So why do we see them in the world? Why are we being warned as Christians? Why are we even being warned about these things? Why should we be looking for these things? Well, Paul tells us here in 2 Thessalonians verse 9, "...the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refuse to love the truth and be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." I want to key in on a phrase here in, must be verse 10 of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, second half of verse 10. because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. They refused. It wasn't that they didn't hear the truth, they heard the truth. It wasn't that they didn't understand the truth, because they understood the truth too, they just refused to believe it. Maybe it was that they liked their success too much, right? You remember the rich young ruler, don't you? You remember that guy? Came to Jesus one day and said, Jesus, what do I have to do to be saved? And Jesus said, well, how does the law read to you? And he said, well, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. Okay, sounds good. Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor. And you remember the gospel commentators, the writers of the gospel said that that young man went away sad. Why? Because he had a lot of stuff. You see, he was more interested in his success than he was in Christ. How frequently are we like the rich young ruler in that we have stuff that we like to keep? And we let that get in the way of Christ. And we try to find hope and security in our stuff, which lasts as long as the stuff lasts. But when the stuff quits working, our hope goes out the window, doesn't it? Or maybe it was our understanding. Maybe we don't want to listen We don't love the truth to be saved because we think we have figured it out, or maybe we haven't figured it out yet, and we're not willing to trust if we can't figure it out. You ever been there? You ever heard somebody say, well, I just don't understand the gospel, and as soon as I understand the gospel, then I'll believe. Well, here's the sad truth. If you understand, you've just taken faith out of it, and you can't believe. Right? You know, Jesus was sitting at the dinner table at, I believe it was Simon's house. And that's when the woman came in and began to wash his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You remember that one? And Jesus talks to Simon and says, Simon, look, I came in. You didn't give me any water to wash my feet. You didn't really take care of me. But this woman, since the moment she walked in, that's all she's done. She has washed my feet with her tears. And why is that, Simon? At the end of that discussion, Jesus says, she's expressing her love for me because her sins, which are many, have been forgiven. And those that have been forgiven much, love much. They have a lot at stake, right? They understand experientially just how lost they were. They also, by extension, understand hopefully just how saved they are. Their understanding has been enlightened as to their renewed relationship with Christ. And so, therefore, they express their love in very outward ways. But Jesus also said to Simon, those who have been forgiven little, love little. Right? Remember that? that the Pharisees, in all of their learning, all of their perspective, all of their ritual, all of their tithing of mint and dill and cumin, had still neglected the weightier matters. Mercy, goodness, righteousness. Those things that can only come to us through Christ, not things that we can earn. So maybe it's that we don't understand our sin debt. We don't understand what we have been forgiven of. Maybe we think we're all okay. Maybe we're trusting in our self-righteousness. Maybe we're trusting in the fact that we're in church every Sunday or that we do our Bible studies every day or that somehow we're earning our salvation and we don't realize what we've been forgiven of. Our understanding of our real relationship to God, our real condition has been blinded, we've been darkened. And because we think we're okay, because we think we've earned our salvation, because we are a good church member, we are a good Bible study person, we do all of these things, that we don't love the truth. We refuse to listen to God's word when it says, your work avails you nothing. How about that? Or maybe you just think you don't need it. Maybe your prominence gets in the way. Does your prominence get in the way? Why did Nicodemus come to Jesus at night? Well, Brother Rusty, he was angling for a child's TV series called Nick at Night. Nicodemus was a prominent leader within the Jewish culture. Nick didn't want anybody knowing he was coming to talk to Jesus. And yet Jesus confronts him, are you not a teacher of Israel? And you don't understand the things that I'm telling you? I think Nick understood. I personally think that Nick believed in Christ as the Messiah, the true Messiah, and I believe Nick was saved. That's my personal opinion. But you see, sometimes we let our prominence get in the way. You know, I don't think it's dignified to love the truth and be saved. I don't think it would be right for me as a prominent person within within my community, to abase myself to such a point that I would come forward and confess my sin before God and the church and everybody. My prominence is too important to me. What people think of me is too important to me. And so therefore, in my prominence, I refuse to love the truth and be saved. And Paul says in verse 11, therefore God sends a strong delusion upon people like that. That he lets people, and I would argue based on verse 11, actually ordains that people would be lost in their success. You like your stuff, keep your stuff. Or your understanding, if you have attained to higher degrees of education and you want to put your hope in that, your eternity in that, well, according to verse 11, God sends you a strong delusion to let you think that all your edumacation will get you somewhere. Or your prominence. We're living in a world where, at least to some measure, from a natural perspective, the cards are stacked against you. You're born into sin. You're raised in sin. You're taught various and sundry ways to sin that are culturally acceptable, right? If everybody in your community is doing it, it must be okay. Now, several years ago when I was in seminary, we began to label that as a community response hermeneutic. That's all part of post-modernity, and we're not going to go too deeply into that. But there's a cultural and a societal reasoning that says that that's okay. If my culture says it's okay, it must be okay. All right? Getting drunker than Cooter Brown and acting like a fool just because it's Mardi Gras must be okay. No, it's not. Now, I really personally don't have anything against Mardi Gras. I mean, I understand its historical context. I understand where it comes from. I understand what is being done. I understand that it's foolish to stand out in the cold sometimes or the heat, depending on what's going on in Louisiana. and jump up and down and act foolish for a string of plastic beads that cost about 15 cents. Okay, I got all that. But Christ is more important than that. Isn't he? Let's not be so taken, so smitten with our success and our accomplishments, our understandings, our prominence, what people think of us, that we miss what Christ thinks of us. Jonathan Edwards put it this way. He said, the hypocrite has not the knowledge of his own blindness and the deceitfulness of his own heart, and that mean opinions of his own understanding, that mean, small, small opinions of his own understanding, that the true saint has. Those that are deluded with false discoveries and affections are evermore highly conceited of their light and understanding. When you think, when you're blind, you don't see your blindness. If you think you got it all together, you don't see that you really don't. The believer or the saint, as Edwards calls them, understands that they're broken, that they're fallible, that they're frail, that they're given to sin at the drop of a hat. That's why the wise person puts godly hedges around themselves. is accountable to godly friends, shares their weaknesses with those that they can depend on, and allow Christ to strengthen them through the body of Christ, through the church. The saint, the one saved by grace, knows that if it wasn't for Christ, I'd be right in the middle of all of that with everybody else, right? You see, for those who don't see Christ as Savior, this season of time that we're finishing up now, it's just another day on the calendar. It doesn't have any special importance to it. Yeah, I get to eat, drink, and be merry, get some presents, have some good times, but yeah, whatever. Why do you think Mardi Gras comes right on the heels of Christmas? Now, look, I know, scholars will say, based on the lunar cycle, so many weeks, I got it. But just think about it for a second, just human psychology-wise. About every 90 days, we have figured out how to have a party, haven't we? About every 90 days, right? Christmas, Mardi Gras, Easter, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas. About every 90 days, we've figured out how to have a party. Why? Because we can't take the pain of life. We have to medicate the pain of life with some sort of celebration. And we have taken, in the case of Christmas and Easter, we've taken those things that God has given us, which are good, to teach us, to point us to the great physician who can medicate the pain of life through forgiveness and redemption. We've taken it and turned it into something it was never intended to be. My point is that without Christ, these things are just days on a calendar. That's it. But the psalmist doesn't leave us there. The psalmist does not leave us in the despair of our sin. He tells us that if we will see Christ as our Savior, then actually Christmas Day makes all the difference in the world. It makes all the difference in eternity. You can go from being lost in your sin to forgiven and considered a child of God. That's a pretty big difference, don't you think? I do. Let me explain to you what I meant. Verse 29. You see, Christ makes all the difference regardless of what my condition might be. Verse 29 starts off, but I'm afflicted and in pain. Woo-hoo. Come on over here, boys. All we got is affliction and pain, but you're going to love it. Sounds real good, doesn't it? Oh, wait a minute. He says, but I'm afflicted and in pain. Let your salvation, O God, set me on high. David admits that in this season of his life, Absalom bearing down on him, Absalom is about to attempt to take the kingdom away from him. This is a rebellion. This is a coup. This is a military action to depose the king. David is in pain because it's not an outward army, like I said a couple weeks ago. This is one of his own sons who's doing this. But you notice that in Psalm 29, David doesn't count on anything except God. Let your salvational God set me on high. David's not even saying, I'm walking and I'll say in a prayer, signing a card, getting baptized. No, none of that. It's God, you save me. Now, look, there's nothing wrong with those things. I'm just saying, if we're even in that mindset, it's because God's brought us there. It's God who does it. It's God who brings salvation. It's God who calls you out of darkness into light. is God that sent his own son as an atoning sacrifice that his death on the cross might purchase your freedom from the slave market of sin. It's God who opens your heart and opens your eyes. God does it, God does it, God does it. Whose life does he do it in? Yours. God works in your life. But make no mistake about it, God works in your life. Because if you're doing the work, guess what? You're gonna get tired. You're gonna lose interest. You know, they tell us that people can't think, can't stay focused on something any longer than about 15 or 20 minutes, right? Those are statistics that are still floating around out there, that's why, you know, I think that's why they put football in four 15-minute quarters, because they knew that people couldn't think about it longer than 15 minutes. Now, we know that's not true, because how in the world in a football game they make 15 minutes last two hours? Okay. I mean, I enjoy football, but how do they do that? The point is that they still tell us we can't keep an attention for longer than about 15 or 20 minutes, right? With that in mind, if my salvation is dependent upon my work, then I just lost my salvation after about 20 minutes. Because I can't stay focused longer than that. Amen or oh me? Okay. Is everybody asleep? Okay. It's God who does the work. That's what David says. I'm afflicted and in pain. I don't like life. It's the worst that it's ever been. I don't know how I'm getting out of this, but you know what? I'm not trusting in what I can do. I'm trusting in what you can do, oh Lord. It's your salvation set me on high. So Christ makes the difference regardless of your situation. Christ makes all the difference whether you like life or not. Christ makes all the difference if you grew up in a Christian family or you didn't. Did you know Christ saves people who grew up in Christian families? Christ saves people who didn't grow up in Christian families. Christ saves people who were good people all their life, moral all their life. He saves people that have drunk deeply from the well of worldliness. Doesn't matter what your circumstance is. Christ makes all the difference. Christ makes all the difference regardless of what your rituals might be. Look at verse 31. This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. What is David making reference to? Obviously the sacrifices. David's making reference to the sacrifices. This will please the Lord more than sacrifice. Okay, let's put it in modern context. This will please the Lord more than a really cool worship service, really cool music, all the stuff that goes into that. What is it? When the humble see it, they'll be glad. You who seek God, let your hearts revise. What is it that pleases God? Those who seek him. Those who love God and seek Him. For the Lord hears the needy and does not despise His own people who are prisoners. Again, here's your circumstances. God doesn't despise you just because you're down and out. God doesn't despise you because you're prominent. Those who seek Him will find Him. That's why Jesus said, knock and the door will be opened unto you. Seek and you will find. doesn't make any difference what your rituals are. And Christ makes all the difference regardless of what your heritage might be. Let heaven and earth praise him, verse 34, the seas and everything that moves in them for God will save Zion and build up the cities of Judah and the people shall dwell there and possess it. The offspring of the servant shall inherit it and those who love his name shall dwell in it." This is all the language of heritage. It doesn't matter what your heritage is, good or bad, Christ makes all the difference. So do you see? The practical implication that we're talking about here is that if you're trusting in anything else other than Christ, you're going to be disappointed. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. It may not be the next day. It may not be for 30 or 40 years. But if you're trusting in something other than Christ, you will be disappointed. What I'm saying to you now is don't wait till it's too late. There is coming a day when it will be too late. There is coming a day when we will all stand before the Lord in judgment, every one of us. You will have to give an account of your life. At that point, it's too late. Trust in him now. Trust in Christ now. And though you might have pain in life, God will raise you up. Though you may come from a religious background, a religious family, Christ will forgive you anyway. Though you may think you have the heritage, Christ has a better heritage. John 16, 1-4, I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. Well, Jesus has been telling his disciples all the things that are coming. Jesus has been telling them, I was here, I taught you, I've shown you these things, I've given you a new commandment to love one another as I've loved you, and I've told you all of these things to keep you from falling away. Now, why would Jesus say that? Why would Jesus tell his disciples, all right, guys, I'm getting you ready in advance, because things are going to get bad. That's why he told them that. As a matter of fact, he tells them. He says, they'll put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he's offering God service. They think they're doing the right thing by killing you. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father or me." Right? Why is it that people trust in their success, they don't know the Father or Christ? Why is it that they trust in their learning, their education? Why are they trusting in their heritage? Why are they trusting in their prominence? Why are you trusting in the things you're trusting in that are not Christ? Because you don't know Christ. Because when you know Christ, when you have tasted and seen that he is good, you don't want anything else. It's what the writer of Hebrews is telling Jewish people, you know Christ is better. Why go back to something else? You know that Christ came to save sinners just like me and you. Why would you trust anything else? Why would you seek security in anything else? Christ. Christ is the only answer. And to know Christ is to know the truth. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Right? Patrick Henry. Y'all remember him? Patrick Henry is known in history as the guy who said, give me liberty or give me death. Pretty bold statement, don't you think? I'm not sure there's a lot of people in the world today who would make that statement. For all of the things that Patrick Henry did, he was instrumental in shaping the culture of the Reformation period, He was, in terms of the United States and the Constitution, forming the government, I mean, he was prominent. But there's something about Patrick Henry that you may not know. Now, the author of this particular article says that Patrick Henry lacked the business ability in building his own personal fortune. That's how the writer of this article put it. I think that Patrick Henry didn't really care about building his own personal fortune. Now, that's just me. I think Patrick Henry was one who understood the truth in Christ in particular, and that his own personal fortune was not really what he was interested in. But for whatever reason, In 1799, when Patrick Henry died and his family opened his will, his last will and testament, it read thus, and I quote, this is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ will give one which will make them rich indeed, close quote. It's not about your stuff. And that's a hard thing to say in this season of stuff. And I bet every one of us got some stuff a couple days ago, right? Yeah, I know you did. I did too. But that's not what it's about. And I'm not saying that you have to go home and sell all your stuff. Now, if Christ lead you to do that, I would certainly affirm that, but having stuff, there's nothing wrong with having stuff, but you don't worship your stuff. Right? We see that our stuff is a gift given to us by God and we praise him for it. The lost world doesn't see it that way. We understand what God is doing in our life and we praise him for it, right? The lost world doesn't see that. We realize that any position we may have Any prestige that we may have is given to us in Christ. Without Christ, I'm nothing. As John the Baptist said, I must decrease so that he can increase, right? That in our lives as we walk, as we live, that we really don't want people to see us, per se, we want people to see Christ in us. Right? And I would bet that for a lot of us, that Patrick Henry's sentiment, I'm not really worried about the stuff, I'm more worried about Christ, would be one that would resonate with us whether we have stuff or not. But the lost world doesn't see it that way, do they? Everybody in the world is trying to make a name for themselves, aren't they? But it's not about that. It's about seeing, because of Christ, that this season, this Christmas season, Christmas day, makes all the difference, because Christ makes all the difference. And if you don't have Christ, you're probably just going around in the same circles over and over and over again, hoping for a different result. But it's kind of like Groundhog Day. You wake up to Sonny and Cher every morning, right? Today, while it's still today, let us not be satisfied with anything less than recognizing that Christ makes all the difference. Father, we thank you for the day that you've given to us. We praise you for your continued goodness, your mercy, and your grace. And we just simply ask, Father, that in the hearing of your word today, that your Spirit, Father, send your Spirit upon us, that we would see that your Son makes all the difference. And we pray, Father, that your Son, his sacrifice, his Spirit indwelling us and teaching us to observe all that you've commanded us would make all the difference too. and that Father, in the hearing of your word today, we would leave this place to be salt and light in the world. We thank you, Father. We praise you. We glorify you. And we ask these things in your precious and holy name. Amen.