you who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation. I greet you in his name this morning. Our first psalm this morning is Psalm 145a. Please join me there. In verse five, on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wonderful works, I will meditate. It is one of the great works and if not the greatest work of our lives in the Christian life to be refocusing our affections and our desires. When we consider that all of our sin is taking place because we are desiring something other than the Lord. We see we are brought here this morning for the purpose of worship, and when we are thinking of worship correctly, we are thinking we are doing a service specifically to and for the Lord, but he actually doesn't need it. It's not that we're doing something that we are adding to him, something he doesn't have. It's not that he is deficient without us, and yet he desires your presence. He wants you to be near to him. Think of someone that you have had great affection for, or admiration for, and you longed to be in their presence. God is glad when you are with him. He rejoices that you come. And he rejoices largely because it's what's best for you. He wants you blessed. He wants you cared for. He wants you in the place where you are fulfilling your chief end to glorify Him and enjoy Him. So our great work this morning, we're meditating on his wonders. We're meditating on the great works that he has done. When we are being in that place where we are rejoicing in him and enjoying him, we are at our highest and he wants you at that highest. So on 145, I will extol you, my God, O King. I will bless your name forever and ever. That is us standing in the place of eternal life, blessing Him starting even now, forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. We see the picture that takes place even this morning with us. One generation shall praise your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wonderful works, I will meditate, Men shall speak of the power of your awesome acts, and I will tell of your greatness. I get to speak of his wonderful acts. I get to announce them to you this morning. You get to listen, and you also get to explain and proclaim as we sing his word. I shall tell of your greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of your abundant goodness. And our worship is to be like that. We are eagerly uttering the memory of his abundant goodness as we sing of him. And we will shout joyfully of your righteousness. That's Christ's perfection. It's his righteousness. And we get to sing about it together and to be washed in the word. Let's stand and sing together Psalm 145A. Stay with me. Our Father, we rejoice in you. We rejoice in the greatness of your majesty. We rejoice in your great love that you have been showing us and love that we are confident that we will have and sing of forever and ever. Please bless us, your children now. Bless the worship that we give to you. Dwell in our midst and be glorified in your praise. It is in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Please be seated. Our scripture reading now comes from John. I'll start the reading in chapter 18. John 18, we'll start at verse 28. And then we'll be rolling into John chapter 19, through verse 30. I bring us here because there is a picture of very nearly the completion of man's rebellion since the fall. If I were to ask you what is the darkest picture in human history, would it be right to think of the fall specifically? Or as we think of what has taken place through scripture that as time moved on, Jesus was unfolding the gospel of grace. He comes to his own and his own did not receive him. We can think of his own as the Jewish people. We can also consider that all mankind belongs to him. We are his own. And yet a tension exists. There's an ongoing battle that's existing in our hearts and in our lives. So as we look here and we see Jesus being condemned, Jesus being rejected, consider the wrestling in your own heart with each sin that comes to us, each sin that we yield to. At such a time, aren't we also announcing, I have no king but Caesar, or I have no king but me. John chapter 18, starting with verse 28. Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the praetorium, and it was early. And they themselves did not enter into the praetorium so that they would not be defiled that might eat the Passover. Therefore Pilate went out to them and said, what accusation do you bring against this man? They answered and said to him, if this man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered him to you. So Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and judge him according to your law. The Jews said to him, we are not permitted to put anyone to death to fulfill the word of Jesus, which he spoke signifying by what kind of death he was about to die. Therefore, Pilate entered again into the Praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered. Are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell you about me? Pilate answered, I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. Therefore Pilate said to him, so you are a king. Jesus answered, you say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate said to him, what is truth? And then, and when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no guilt in him. but you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you wish then that I release for you the King of the Jews? So they cried out again saying, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. Pilate then took Jesus and scourged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and put a purple robe on him. And they began to come up to him and say, hail King of the Jews. and they give him slaps in the face. Pilate came out again and said to them, behold, I am bringing him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in him. Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold, the man. So when the chief priest and the officer saw him, they cried out saying, crucify him. Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, we have a law and by that law he ought to die because he made himself out to be the son of God. Therefore, when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid and he entered into the praetorium again and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and I have authority to crucify you? Jesus answered, you would have no authority over me unless it had been given to you from above. For this reason, he who delivered me to you has the greater sin. As a result of this, Pilate made efforts to release him. But the Jews cried out saying, if you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar. Therefore, when Pilate heard these words, He brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, behold, your king. So they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. So he then handed him over to them to be crucified. They took Jesus, therefore, and he went out bearing his own cross to a place called the Place of the Skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified him and with him two other men, one on either side and Jesus in between. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, Jesus, the Nazarene, the King of the Jews. Therefore, many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, do not write the King of the Jews, but that he said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. So they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture. They divided my outer garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Therefore the soldiers did these things. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. From that hour, the disciple took her into his own household. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the scripture said, I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon it, upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to his mouth. Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. Our next psalm is Psalm 145C. We see the blessing that we have received because of Jesus' sacrifice. The death that he took on himself, we are spared and we are given the blessing and the peace. The eyes of all look to you and you give them their food in due time. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his deeds. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, who call upon Him in truth. Consider the calling upon Christ in truth. We're not just crying out flippantly, we're crying out in truth, acknowledging that He is our real need. Put yourself in this place as we call on Christ together. Let's stand and sing of our mercy in Psalm 145. Please be seated. Please join your hearts to mine in prayer. Our Father, we love you and we rejoice in you. We rejoice in your goodness, your mercy in which we live forever and ever. You are so gracious, so patient, so loving, and we thank you for the amazing love that you have shown us in the Lord Jesus Christ. that mankind, and we ourselves included, have risen up against you. We have sought to make ourselves the king of our own hearts, the king of our own lives, and to reject you. But we thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit, that you have sent your word, that you have sent your spirit to convict us of sin and of righteousness and of salvation. And we thank you for this opportunity to call on you. even to call on you in truth from hearts that love you. Our Father, please deal with our hearts this morning. Please direct us in accordance with truth and in accordance with righteousness, in accordance with true love for you, in accordance with a true and pure love for one another. Lord, help us to center our minds and center our hearts. Help us to see your beauty and to desire you more and more. Our Father, we pray that you will bless us with a desire for you and a desire for your word. And we will be diligently reading our Bibles, that we will see our need for understanding, our need for growth and a knowledge in son, the growth and the grace and knowledge of your son, Jesus Christ. Our Father, we rejoice in the good and the mercy that you have shown us. We thank you for Dick Seary and we thank you that through the ministry of the Shaffers and the ministry of your spirit and your word that he had come to know you. And we thank you, Father, that you blessed him with the opportunity and the dignity to enjoy his last days in his home as he had desired to do. And we thank you for, in mercy and in grace, receiving him this past week. We ask, Father, that you would bless each of us in the same fashion, that we would love you and that we would call on you to the end of our days and that you would lovingly receive us. We give you thanks for Jonathan Wilson's job. We thank you that he has traveled safely to Chicago. Please bless our brother and please engraft him into a church where he will worship you, where he will serve you, where he will glorify you and enjoy you. Please bless our brother and please watch over Keith and Jennifer and bring them back into our midst safely. We give you thanks again for having spared Jack's life and we thank you that his procedure went well this week Please bless our brother and please give him good recovery. We pray for Carrie's grandma and for the family there and mourning. We pray also for Ali's grandma that you will bless and that you will care and that you will heal. We pray for the circumstances around Elliot's job. Please bless our brother with good work and we pray that you would bless him and protect him from any wrong lawsuits that could come against him. We pray for Jennifer's Nan for healing and covering and blessing. We pray for Tabby Stuyvesant that you would bless our sister with joy and peace and that you would be glorified there. We pray for the young boy Isaac as hospice has been called in. Please care for Isaac and please care for that family. We pray for Barb and Roy and their dealings with his uncle Don. We ask that you give them wisdom and patience and strength and we give you thanks that Barb's sister-in-law's surgery went well. Please care for her and give her a good recovery and we thank you for that. We pray for Carrie's brother's wife as she is in labor even now with their third child. Please bless her with safety and strength and please bring this child safely into the world. We pray for Stephen's dad and that you would bless him and prepare him for his upcoming surgery. And Lord, for those of us who are dealing with stress and anxiety and bad sleep, we pray that you will calm our hearts and our minds. As we center on you and as we focus on you, please give us your peace. And Father, as we continue to proclaim your word together this morning as we sing and as I proclaim your word in the preaching, we ask that you would move us by your spirit, that you would give us good understanding that we will again be growing in the grace and knowledge of your son, Jesus Christ. It's in his name that we pray, amen. Our next psalm, our psalm of the month, 17A. Please join me there. We call out for God to hear us. We pray also for his judgment in our presence, that as we are relying on Christ, his perfect heart, his perfect love for the Father, his perfect love for us, that we will be rescued and saved. And we also call out for his judgment, as there is so much wickedness in the world, and the weak are being oppressed. Let's stand and sing Psalm 17a. Please be seated. The sermon this morning It's from Psalm 18. Please join me there. I have been deeply blessed in my study of the word recently. As I was preparing for you, I consider the sermon a meal. It's a meal that I consider you, I consider your needs, what you might need to be fed in order to be strengthened, in order to be blessed, what you would need to glorify God, even what you would need to enjoy Him. As I've worked and I've been working through the Psalter, looking at less familiar psalms for us, things that we may have been lacking, things we haven't been singing because they're hard to sing or they're a bit awkward in different ways. A portion of Psalm 18 came to mind. There's a portion of it that we almost never sing. And I'm afraid oftentimes when we do sing it, we kind of snicker on the snicker because the tune is so strange to us or we make fun of it. So as I was preparing to work on that section of Psalm 18, I moved back and it seemed important to me that the first verses of Psalm 18, we were going to need those to move in. And then as I stepped back a little further and I read the introduction, I didn't get past the introduction to the psalm as I was preparing the sermon for you. I hope that as I am unpacking for you how the Lord has been dealing with me in his word, it is meaningful to you and helpful for you as it has been helpful to me. There is so much understanding that we are blessed by as we see what Christ says. As he speaks to you, he is sharing his heart with you. He has that perfect heart that you and I need. Consider as you know people that you love, people that you respect, and as they speak, you think, I wish I could be more like them. I wish I could be strong like them, or I wish I could love like them, or I wish I could have patience like them. As we look at Psalm 18, we see what God has been doing. We see what God had done for King David. And David is a picture and a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. As we look at Psalm 18 and we see the deliverance that David enjoyed as it's described here in Psalm 18, we see also the resurrection and the deliverance of Jesus Christ. You see also the rescue of the church and the deliverance of the church. You see, as you call in truth on the name of the Lord, your own rescue, your own deliverance, your own resurrection. It shows us specifically where we need to be. Our posture, that is our bowing down to Christ. The direction of our hearts towards him, a deep and a true affection for him that if we are thinking rightly, we will love him, love him, love him so deeply and be desiring him above all else. Psalm 18, the introduction. the choir director, a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord who spoke to the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. Pray with me. Our Father, as we look at you and we look at what you have done, please bless us now with understanding. Please make us strong of mind that we will not be double-minded, that we will not be doubting, that we will be putting forth the effort to purify our hearts and then cleanse our hands that you will be being glorified as we are loving you more and more deeply. It is in Jesus' name we pray, amen. What was the battle David was facing with King Saul? What was the dilemma? What had happened that Saul was trying to kill David? This is the same picture that we just saw in the Gospel of John, in which the people had assembled and would say, we will have no king but Caesar. It is the same dilemma that you face in your own heart when you struggle with your own sin and say, I will have no king but me. I will obey my own lust. Even seemingly, more innocently, I will obey my own fear. I will obey my own desire. I will bow down there. King Saul was in the position that he was in because Israel rejected the true king. Israel rejected God. We look at the Israelites, and they were in their situation. They looked, and humanly speaking, they looked at Samuel. Samuel was getting old. Samuel was about to die. Samuel had these two sons that nobody liked because they were unjust, and they were corrupt. And they said, you know, we're gonna need a king. We're gonna need a king. And they actually said, like the nations. Rather than a kingdom that's following the invisible God, we want a king like the nations. When God spoke to Samuel about this, he said, take heart, they're not rejecting you, they're actually rejecting me at this point. We look back to the fall in the Garden of Eden. Mankind was in a position to love God and to obey him. Satan comes onto the scene and says, don't listen to him, listen to me, and you will be like God. That was the rebellion that took place at the fall. Mankind refusing to believe God in order to be like God themselves. Moving from a reliance on who God is and what he has said, moving to a self-reliance. was the heart of the sin. Israel, at this time with Saul, moving from a reliance on the one true king to a self-reliance. Was there rebellion to ascend and be like the Most High? You and your sin. Isn't it specifically that? Moving from, relying on who God is and what he has said to a self-reliance. Isn't that the ongoing war in your heart? It is the struggle of mankind. It is the fashion in which Jesus has come to his own, and his own did not receive him, and they cry out, we will have no king but ourselves. That is my sin. That is your sin, that is the sin of mankind, and it is the wrath that mankind is under because they refuse to believe in and obey the Lord Jesus Christ. We look here, and the call this morning is to move from a self-reliance to relying on Christ. And I am telling you, this is for you and this is so much for your good. This is for your hope. This is for your care. This is for your processing of all of your own sin and all of your own guilt. If you can come and you can be walking on the highway of righteousness, as the Proverbs describe it, and you look and you can say, at this moment, I am choosing to walk towards destruction. I am choosing to walk towards self-reliance and reject God, or I am choosing to believe Him and obey Him, and I'm walking in reliance on Christ. You will be so much closer, so much closer to enjoying Him and glorifying Him forever. This is a beautiful place to which I am calling you now. Our first step, number one, is remember the spiritual war in which you live. In 1 Samuel 8, 7, this is where God says to Samuel, they have rejected me from being king over them. In 1 Samuel 8, 5, the people cry out, appoint a king for us to judge us like the nations. It is the same cry that we read in John 19, 15, away with him, crucify him, we have no king but Caesar. Can you see this in your own heart? As you would pursue your lust, as you would bow down at your fear, as you would choose not to listen to Christ, but to go your own way. Romans 6, 16, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, resulting in death, or of obedience, resulting in righteousness. We live in the conflict of the two natures. The battle is present, see it, and know it. Now let's look and see here in Psalm 18. Let's look at our first verses, verses one through six together. I'm calling you to recognize that this is specifically moving to the place of relying on God rather than a self-reliance. We'll start at verse one. I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death encompassed me, and the torrents of ungodliness terrified me. The cords of Sheol surrounded me. The snares of death confronted me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried to my God for help. He heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry for help came into his ears. You see the perfect change, the perfect difference between David and Saul, where Saul was once small in his own eyes, but then rose up even against God and against his anointed. Whom do you serve? Whom will you serve? So our next step, number two, is love God as your strength. Verse one, I love you, Lord, my strength. What is it, finally, to be in the place where we say God is strong and I am not? He is stronger than me. He is the strength that I need. In Ephesians 6.10, I was struck by the overlap. I would say that, well, this will sound ridiculous, I was going to say that it looks like Paul was almost preaching through Psalm 18 here, but I think I can definitely safely say Paul was carried along by the same Holy Spirit that David was carried along by. Ephesians 6.10, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. I have long loved Ephesians 6. I have loved the picture of the battle that is going on there, the battle that we are being called to, the weapons that we are being given to use. I have found in my own life and my own fight, I don't like it so much. It's not the glorious movie with the knight in the shining armor wielding the sword and a wonderful soundtrack playing and him just coming along and whopping off all of his enemies and there's no blood, there's no mess. When my children were little, we went to see, it might have been Prince Caspian, And afterwards, I asked one of my children, what did you think of it? He said, it was weird. I said, yes, it was weird. In what way was it weird? And he said, well, there was all that sword fighting, but no blood. I said, yeah, you're right. That's weird. The spiritual warfare that we're going through, I wish it was clean and neat like a PG movie. It's not. I wish we all went home at the end of the day. The music started, the credits roll, and we're all just happily ever after. Or not. Loved ones fall. Friends betray us. The battle goes on. The war rages. And as I have come to the end of my own strength running to where I collapse in the woods and Ben and Nate have to come find me and drag me out of a ditch and take me home, I have fallen the same way and laboring as a shepherd or under-shepherd in the midst of the congregation. I have fallen, I have lost my own strength as I tried to rely on myself where I just poured far, far too much out. To be at the place where we are actively saying, the Lord, the Lord is my strength. To be in the place where Jesus and the Holy Spirit says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Ephesians 2.1 tells us the place we have been in. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. What is that place to say I was dead in my trespasses and sins? Well, as you find your own weakness, I can tell you, you've been dead, but you're getting better. You're improving. You're growing. You are being carried along, especially as you are relying on the Holy Spirit, as you're relying on the word as you're carefully choosing your steps as you come to the forks in the road. Ephesians 1, 19 through 20 describes that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us. Psalm 18, as we will be going through it, there's amazing imagery offered. If we move to verse seven, then the earth shook and quaked, the foundations of the mountains were trembling and were shaken because God was angry. My mind goes to the death of Christ and the mountains shook. Boulders rolled off of hillsides. When the angel came and moved the stone away, it wasn't a casual rolling. I remember when I looked at the original language, he grabbed the boulder and he threw it. It's more the idea there than the ground shook. People felt the boulder hit. There's a great victory, a great power. And even at that time, though, you and I are looking forward to something better, something more powerful, something greater. This resurrection that you and I are enjoying, that you and I, we were dead, but we're getting better. He is actively healing us. He is actively changing us. He is actively growing us. I hope that you're seeing that. If you're not seeing that, look for ways to repent. Look for more of a diligence in the word. If you're not seeing that, if you're sad about your sin, good. If you're disappointed in a lack of walk, good. Be sorrowful, mourn, lament, and weep. Hate your sin. Grieve over it. Plead and pray for a greater victory. Move from your own strength. move to his strength, read the words, read the Psalms, read Psalm 18, read of the victory, that God does subdue all of his and our enemies. It is the great work he does. It is the great work he accomplishes. How does he make you strong? Well, we look and we see that he uses his word. In Ephesians 6, it is described as the sword of the spirit. There's a work that is to be being done. We look at the word, we see also that Christ strengthens us, he heals us, he cares for us. He is the fountain of living water that overflows within us, that we are nourished, cared for, that we are blessed. He uses prayer. In prayer, we pray in faith with the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. As we sing in Psalm 17, we know that he hears us. We cry out to him. If you are weak, and you are, we all are. Again, we were dead, but we are getting better. Where you are weak, look and see. Have you been listening to the words of the harlot? Have you been desiring her? Have you been walking, moving off of the highway of righteousness? Have you continued to walk in your sin? What does the harlot cry out? Whoever is naive, let him turn and hear. And to him who lacks understanding, she says, stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But you do not know that the dead are in her house, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol. This is why God cried out in Jeremiah 2.13, my people have committed two sins. They have rejected me, the fountain of living waters, and they have dug broken cisterns for themselves that hold no water. Are you weak? Are you weak? Are you weak because you are not nourished by Christ? Are you weak because you go to the stolen waters rather than what Christ gives us? In John 4, 10, Jesus says to the woman at the well, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Whoever drinks of the water that I give him shall never thirst, but that water that I give him will become in him a well of water, springing up to eternal life. Where have you been drinking? What broken cistern have you been digging? Where have you been sucking the dark water from the puddles rather than from Christ? The harlot calls out, bread eaten in secret is pleasant. What are your secret delights? your secret treasures to which you run. Jesus offers himself to you. Jesus answers, truly, truly I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. The nourishment to say that God is our strength is to be in Christ, is to be relying solely on Christ Jesus who says, I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. A reliance, a trusting, a nurture, a nourishing from Christ to be your strength. Our next step, the second portion of verse two, the Lord is my rock. Our third step, find your footing in the gospel. I tell you to lament and mourn your sin, yes. I tell you to lament and mourn your sin, not because you are going to hell, but I tell you to lament and mourn your sin so you'll think of what you're missing. what you are lacking, so that you will think in terms of where your desire is, that you are desiring something else rather than desiring Christ. In the place of loving Christ, in the place of finding your footing in the gospel, I set up verse two, the Lord is my rock, in comparison to Psalm 73, 18. For the law, surely you set them in slippery places. You cast them down to destruction. I point us here because of Ephesians 6, 14 and 15. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with the truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You stand in the gospel, you have firm footing. You're solid. You're strong. It is a terrifying place to not to be able to trust your footing. Have you ever been where you felt as if you were going to fall and that fall is going to be dreadful? That fall is going to be terrible. Last fall, when Amos and I went climbing, I was scared, I think, twice as we were going along. At one point, I was coming along a ledge, and there was a significant drop-off, and I was moving along on gravel, and the ledge was so, so steep. And I had my footing, but just barely. And Amos, from behind me, up higher, he yells, rock! Rock! Rock! Which meant a rock had broken loose and it was coming in my direction. My balance was enough that I could stand there, but it wasn't enough that I could do so much as turn my head to look and see what size rock was coming, to where it might hit me, to what part of my body it might hit, and I just had to brace myself. I didn't get locked off a mountain. I stood and I just bent down and I braced myself. And the rock bounced and bounced and hit and just slid and just touched the back of my heel. I was afraid because I did not have solid footing. If you have the gospel, you have solid footing. You're not going to be thrown off. You're not going to be kicked off the mountain. You're not going to be thrown away by Christ. All that the Father calls will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will never cast off. This is what Christ says. He is your rock. He is your strong footing. Stand firm, therefore, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel peace. Our next step, number four, is call Jesus your fortress. In what sense is he your fortress? We can get step back gently into Psalm 17 with that beautiful description of Christ who had been tested in every way. carefully examined, was found perfectly righteous. God does judge. He will by no means leave guilt unpunished. It is a part of his name. He will by no means leave guilt unpunished. Jesus being that high priest and without sin, There was no fear for Him. There was no doubt for Him. There was nothing for Him to have been judged for. Therefore, all of the judgment, all of the shame of the cross that was placed on Him was yours. Your sin, your shame, all placed on Him. He was beaten, He was stripped, He was hung, and He was killed bearing your shame. bearing your guilt. It's done. It's done. It's done. Your humiliation, your shame, your guilt has been finished. It's over. Hear Christ say, it is finished. It is finished. It is finished. Deliverance accomplished. You rescued. David and Saul and all of his enemies undone. The enemies of Christ undone. You rescued. You delivered. It says in verse 2, my deliverer. My deliverer. You who call on Christ in truth. You are delivered. You've been given a strength, a stronghold, a fortress. You have been saved to the place where you are brought in. Christ is even called your refuge in verse 2. He is called your shield in verse 2. A full deliverance, we are told in Ephesians 6, 16. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. What arrows? What arrows? What is lodged in your chest? What is lodged in your heart? What fears? What doubts? Do you still hold on to imagining you're responsible to be self-reliant? No. Your rescue is complete. Salvation is complete. What anxieties do you hold on to and refuse to let them go, imagining you will save yourself? No, it's finished. The shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one is your assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Our very definition of faith, not a wishful thinking, but you believe exactly what he has said. He says you're delivered, you say, I am delivered. He says you are rescued, you say, I am rescued. He says you are righteous, you say, in Christ, I am righteous. He says you are saved, you say, in Christ, I am saved. assurance, assurance of things hoped for, conviction of things not seen, the shield of faith. We say, oh God, look on our shield and see the face of your anointed, his righteousness, your deliverance. Our next step, call Jesus your salvation. In verse two, we call God himself the horn of my salvation. It is the strength of your salvation. We call him my stronghold. With that, you can say I am kept and not lost. Out of all the Father has given the Son, not one of them is lost. John 6, 39, this is the will of Him who sent me, that all of whom He has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. What a place to be, a place of recognizing Christ as your salvation. You not saving yourself. And all of us, all of us who are members of the church, all of us who have been examined, we say, right, right, I don't save myself. I trust in Christ alone. Even these vows that I make, I make in humble reliance on his grace. We say, right, I believe that. But then in our heart of hearts, we keep going back to rely on ourselves with our sin, with our pride, with our arrogance. No. No, although your salvation was an act, your justification was an act, though it was accomplished, we will spend the rest of our lives taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We will keep calling on Jesus. We will have to keep running back to him. We will have to keep setting our eyes back on him. acknowledging him, his strength, Jesus, the horn, the power, the might, your salvation, the one who says to you, you are kept and you will never be lost. Call him. Now verse three, I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. and I am saved from my enemies. A third step is call with assurance. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised and I am saved from my enemies. I am saved from my enemies. We look and there is a certainty about what is accomplished. Keep calling. Keep calling. Keep calling. Call about your snares. Call about the arrows. Call out to him and believe. Trust him. Assurance of things hoped for. Conviction of things not seen. Calling, believing everything he has said. We see the dreadful, terrifying picture in verses four and five. The cords of death encompass me. and the torrents of ungodliness terrified me. The cords of Sheol surrounded me. The snares of death confronted me. A terrifying place to be certain. Don't deny it. Don't ignore it. Don't self-medicate till you don't fear or feel your sin and the pain of sin. But know it. and keep calling with an assurance. Philippians 1.6, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2.1-3, again, you were dead. And you were dead, it says, in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, consider the course of this world is going to destruction, according to the prince of the power of the air, that is the kingdom of Saul, the house of Saul that was undone, the kingdom of Satan that will be undone, the dominion of darkness of which you once were a part, walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lust of the flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But what has he done? What has he done for you? What has he accomplished in you? Hasn't he brought you to that place where you are calling on the name of the Lord, that place where you are trusting in him alone? Starting then with verse four. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. What are you relying on? Value yourself, right? We see that that's our big problem now. We see that's our big dilemma. But we see the eternal reality laid out in scripture from Genesis to Revelation and into eternity. That you who are calling on Christ, you're saved. you are already saved. Now, let's us, as his children, be moving from our self-reliance, the gospel of Satan, to reliance on Christ alone. Let's turn to Psalm 18a. Psalm 18a is our profession of faith now. Psalm 18a is our announcement. It's our announcement that we are moving from a self-reliance to relying on Christ alone. Let's stand and sing as we're ready. Psalm 18a. Receive the blessing of the Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.