Thank you for listening to the media ministry of the Puritan Reformed Presbyterian Church in San Diego, California. If you are blessed by what you hear and would like to help keep our little church going as a ministry partner with your cheerful gifts, please listen for instructions at the end of this message. Beloved, as we just sang together, our scripture this morning for our sermon text is Psalm 71, verse 1. Psalm 71, verse 1. Hear now the word of the Lord. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be put to confusion. And it's the first part of the verse we'll be looking at this morning, so let me read that again. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me ask you, in whom or in what are you trusting? Some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, as the scriptures say elsewhere. We will trust in the Lord our God. In whom are you trusting? What are you going through? What are you anticipating that may have you the most troubled and in danger of confusion? The other verse says, in whom are you trusting? Well, the great danger is that you would trust in yourself. in the end, as it were. Certainly the danger is trust for salvation, but trust from deliverance from anything we may be facing. The great danger is to trust in yourself and not in the Lord. The scriptures teach us to get wisdom in many counselors. Are we willing to follow that counsel? And the main themes of it are, do we at the end of the day abort and forsake the counsel and trust in ourselves? And do things that would be against the word of the Lord. which isn't trusting in him. We had a series of sermons last year, wait upon the Lord. Are we willing to wait upon the Lord and trust his providence? Learning and doing what we need to do for the moment and then waiting on him to guide our steps with his word as a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path last week. Walking in the spirit that we wouldn't fulfill the lusts of the flesh that we saw last week. will you essentially say, perhaps right at the end of your prayer, or your Bible study, or going to church, or getting counsel from others in Christ, I'll trust in myself. Thank you very much. It's the biggest thing I pray the Lord would remove from us this day, because whatever else we may trust in, and you can think of the examples in scriptures, if it isn't trusting the Lord truly and ultimately, we are not safe. We're definitely not safe from what we'll do to ourselves, let alone anyone else. This has to truly be not only the words of our mouth, but the words of our heart, which affects our behavior. In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. I want to emphasize the first part, and that's why I start with, whom might you be trusting in? Most dangerously, yourself. Instead, say and live out, in Thee, In You, O Lord, instead of everyone else, instead of anything else, in Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. And we can't say we do if we then go and contradict His word directly by what we say and by what we do. We're definitely not. May it be true for you and me today. May it be the heart's cry of our lives in every moment, especially those moments of crises. in thee, O Lord, do I put my trust, because you and I are in the most danger of making the worst mistakes in moment of difficulties and crises. We're just inclined to rely on ourselves and default to trusting in ourselves, and we'll just destroy things. May it be especially that you and I apply this, as David is in this and other Psalms very similar, in our moments of crises, in our times of danger for the deliverance of the Lord, and not think we can deliver ourselves. May our regular refrain be, and there is a refrain, an ongoing life refrain, in thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. God is the only one in whom you can place your complete confidence, and you must. I give that to you as the idea of our verse, especially the first part. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. God is the only one in whom you can place your complete confidence, and you must. And at all times, especially at the most difficult times, when it is, frankly, most difficult to trust. So therefore, we cry out to Jesus and find ourselves sinking in the waters. But the answer is to cry out, Lord, save me. And he'll pull us out and say, why do you fear, O you of little faith? Why'd you take your eyes off of me? Trust in the Lord. And you can totally trust in God. That's the message for you from this text today. You can totally trust in God. I might have said, totally trust in God. But I think the thing is, is we doubt that we can, and that's why we tend to trust in ourselves and other things. You must, but you can totally trust in God. That's the message for you this morning. Whatever you're facing, whatever you're enduring, you can totally trust in God. With everything, everywhere, especially when most desperate. And so many scriptures speak in illustrations of our needing to, or our choosing to take shelter under God's wings, or behind his shield for safety, for survival through storms, and when we're under attack, certainly spiritually, but also just literally. Talks about the idea of going under the cleft of the rock or standing upon the rock that is higher than we are. Jesus says, build your house on him alone. Everything else is sinking sand that will wash away when raging floodwaters rush in. You try to trust in yourself at that moment, you'll be washed away. Trust in the Lord and you, oh Lord, do I put my trust. It's gotta be your response to everything in life, and especially to your own desire to think you can trust in yourself about it. You seek the scriptures, you seek wisdom in many counselors, you lift it up to the Lord in prayer, you look to the word, you do what you know you can at that moment, and you wait on the Lord patiently with hope and say, in you, oh Lord, do I place my trust. I'm waiting on you to work it out, having worked out whatever I know I can at the moment, and I know I can't trust in myself. The word trust in Hebrew could be translated, take refuge. Take refuge. And again, that's what it looks like to trust in God with those ideas again of those figurative expressions. We take refuge under his wings. In Psalm 46, we opened our worship time with God is our refuge and our strength. Think of the shield again. That's one of the things Paul says that we're to put on with the whole armor of God in Ephesians 6, that we can defend ourselves from the fiery darts of the evil one. The shield of faith, which is the same idea as trust or belief, and is in contradiction or contradistinction from fear. And we get so in trouble with fear, don't we? We need to instead have faith. We get so troubled when we need to have trust. Take refuge. That's the idea of trust, all those images. Run for cover under the blood of Christ. Run for cover in the protection of the Holy Spirit and His word. Take refuge. Look at verse seven. I am as a wonder unto many, but thou art my strong refuge. As the Proverbs teach us, they who hope in the name of the Lord, it's like they're running up into a strong tower and they are safe. Now our Psalter that we sang translated it as place confidence, and that's the same idea. But where do you place your confidence? Not in yourself. You place it in God who is the shield. And in the Psalter, it adds the idea of alone. I place my confidence in you alone. And that is really important. That's the sense and idea of it. I don't place my confidence in anyone or anything else. Not entirely, not completely. It's not that he doesn't use means. But ultimately, how we truly trust in the Lord and alone is by gathering all that and coming into prayer and with God alone, offering it up and asking for him to guide. and deliver and direct. Often, please deliver me from my fear. Deliver me. When I am afraid, the Psalter says also elsewhere, I believe Psalm 56. I go to this a lot. When I am afraid, I will trust in God. You trust in Him alone. to be your deliverance from sin, to be your shield from death, from Satan, from the attacks of men, from within and from without, from outside your body and from within your soul where the devil likes to speak against you and tread upon your thoughts when instead you are to take them captive under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your only comfort is Christ. Your only confidence is Christ. Christ alone can completely comfort you. Christ alone can completely deliver you. Trust in Him alone. As we'll study tonight from John 15, abide in Him. Apart from Him, you can do nothing. And Christ will completely be your refuge. And Christ will continually be your refuge. And this is true from the cradle to the grave. As you trust in Him, you'll always find this to be the case. You'll find yourself saying, I should have ran to Him sooner. You'll find yourself saying, I'm so glad I did run to Him. Oh, I'm more safe now. It isn't that there aren't storms of blowing and darts flying at you, but you are in the safety of Christ. But from the cradle to the grave, you'll find that you must, and you can always say this, and it'll always prove to be true. Look at verses five to six to begin with. For thou art my hope, O Lord God, thou art my trust from my youth. And by thee have I been holden up from the womb. Thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually of thee. And so, covenant children, I want to remind you, you have the privilege of being born into the church, the community of God. And at your earliest moments, even in your mother's womb before you were birthed, God is your God. And you trust in him. And he gives you the testimony. It doesn't have to be a testimony that I wasted my youth. It can be a testimony that God has always been my rock and my shelter and my refuge from my youth. And he's protected me from so many problems many youth experience. But you truly gotta trust in him and not in the things that many youth are trusting in, cuz they don't have the benefit of the church or being trained and discipled and disciplined to that end. But he's yours now to trust in. and you who are at a different place of life. He's still yours now to trust in. Verse nine. Cast me not off in the time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength faileth. Again, you can think of Psalm 73. God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever. Though my heart faileth, though my heart and my flesh fail, God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. And again in Psalm 73, I don't have anyone in heaven or on earth that I have or desire beside God. He alone is the strength of my heart. And so his strength will never fail you, though your strength fails you. Think of Psalm 40 again at the end, though the youth strength fails and will. Those who trust in the Lord, he will raise up. On wings like eagles, they will walk and not be weary, they shall run and not faint. Thus, beloved, you can and you must turn to the Lord in every season of your life. Every season of your life. Maybe I can even think to say similar to preaching the word, in and out of season. We don't even know what season we're in sometimes, and sometimes it feels like we're out of the season, watching the world go by beyond us. In and out of season, but in every season of your life, trust in the Lord. And again, I want to emphasize at every crisis moment, look at verse 12. Oh God, be not far from me. Oh my God, make haste. for my help. Children, I want to remind you, as we've seen in other Psalms, make haste means you might think you can't say this to Lord. Maybe we would say at least have please, as please often is in these scriptures, but it's basically saying, Lord, please hurry up. Because we know how in danger we are of turning to ourselves and trusting in ourselves. And as everything's coming against us in life, and when it's really heated up and really dangerous, and we feel like we're spent and we got nothing left, that's when we're the most in danger of turning to ourselves and foolish things. Lord, In thee do I trust. Please hurry up. I'm trusting in you and I feel like I'm in such danger of turning to something else or someone else. Lord, please hurry now. Deliver me now, please. That's a very biblical Christian way to pray and sing, beloved. How often isn't that what we should be doing at many of those moments that we don't? And then so often later we're praying, have mercy on me, have mercy on me, which is fine. We saw that in Psalm 51 today. But the Lord's Prayer teaches us, lead me not into temptation. Deliver me from evil, the prayer of Jabez. Deliver me from evil that it would not grieve me. Help me not quench the Holy Spirit. Help me not grieve the Holy Spirit, because that's going to grieve me. Have that prayer right at the moment, just as Peter, to Jesus, walking in the waters, begins to think, Lord, save me! Or as Mary Beakey says in her book about teaching children to work, and so much of it is child-rearing, and how much she talked about how she struggles and learns as she goes. And as she said in mothering so often, she said, my favorite prayer was simply this, Lord, help me. And she said, at those moments when you're struggling, get alone in the bathroom, look in the mirror, try to pretend you have it together as you go back out. And in the meantime, say, Lord, help me. Had that all the time. Lord, I trust in Thee. I can feel it. I'm starting to trust in myself and I'm ruining things. Lord, I pause. Lord, I trust in Thee. And all the word that you teach me that is involved in that, let me put it into practice now. Place your confidence in Christ alone, as Brian Littrell sang in a very well-known Christian song, in Christ alone. In Christ alone will I glory, though I could pride myself in battles won. For I have been blessed beyond measure, and by His strength alone I'll overcome. Oh, I could stop and count successes like diamonds in my hands, but those trophies could not equal to the grace by which I stand. In Christ alone I place my trust, and find my glory in the power of the cross. In every victory, let it be said of me, my source of strength, my source of hope is Christ alone. In Christ alone do I glory, for only by His grace I am redeemed. For only His tender mercy could reach beyond my weakness to my need. And now I seek no greater honor than just to know Him more. and to count my gains but losses to the glory of my Lord. In Christ alone I place my trust and find my glory in the power of the cross. In every victory, let it be said of me, my source of strength, my source of hope is Christ alone. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Well, I preached on verses 1 through 3 at another time, and I want to share a few things in summary from that sermon. First of all, let me read verses 1 through 3 together. In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in Thy righteousness, and cause me to escape. Incline Thine ear unto me, and save me Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort. Thou hast given commandment to save me, for thou art my rock. and my fortress. You see another image there built in the text. You are my rock. I take shelter on the cleft of the rock. You are my fortress. We want to run to a fortress when we need to be protected from an advancing army. Get that drawbridge up. Get behind the moat. Get behind the walls where the protection is there. He is your fortress. You run to Him. You trust in Him. You especially don't run to the world and the counsel of sinners. I gave to you the point of verses one to three together as this, while we so often are dazed and confused in life, we must keep turning to Jesus who is our life and lifesaver. The answer is this, beloved. I say it all the time, and I say it to myself all the time. The answer is always God. The answer is always Jesus alone. It isn't that there are not wisdom and ways that that plays out and means of grace and seeking wisdom and counsel and guidance, but the answer is always God. As you heard in Psalm 51 in the message today from Dr. Troxell, the answer is always that you run to God, as David did. It's always God, never away. Repentance unto life is turning away from sin unto God. With an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ. Yes, with full purpose, new endeavor after new obedience. Yes, of course. He makes us holy to be holy. He saves us to be in relationship with God, to grow in godliness. We know all this. But the answer is always God. It is hard, but it's always that simple. You've got to remember your thing. You always have to say to yourself, especially in the greatest crises, in the Lord do I put my trust. In that sermon of the three verses together, I shared with you as one main section, life will constantly feel terribly confusing. Welcome to life. It doesn't change for the Christian. It's just that we have new life in Christ and the ability to make something of it and have an abundant life. But life will constantly feel terribly confusing. Here is the only time that ends. Heaven. Or when you get to go to heaven before Christ's return. Secondly, you must continually go to God to get yourself centered in Christ, who is the life. God is a place of shelter from the storm, stillness, and quiet from chaos and craziness. So whatever your craziness and chaos is, whether it's being done to you, or whether you're doing it to yourself, or whether you're doing it to others as you do it to yourself, the only answer to calm the storm, the only answer to bring the stillness and tranquility is Christ alone. The only answer is for you to say to yourself and follow upon it in thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. The sermon point I gave you in that sermon of verses one to three, avoid confusion by continually returning to the Lord, resorting to the Lord, excuse me, avoid confusion by continually resorting to the Lord. Beloved, the first of the five solas is not only about how we are saved, it is also about how we are sustained and sanctified. Christ's propitiation of your sins also is the cause of your perseverance unto the end. Solo Christo, in Christ alone, in thee, O Lord, do I trust. Beloved, there have been, there are, and there will be times when you feel you can't go on at all. And I submit to you, those are the best moments of your life. When God allows everything to be stripped from you, and you find yourself there literally crying out to God, completely spent, knowing in such a vulnerable, dangerous situation that you're in, and there's nothing left for you to be able to do, but cry out to God. Literally. And when you truly come to the end of yourself, there also Christ is waiting for you to trust in Him. And it's those moments where you trust in him the most and you find the greatest deliverance and growth and fellowship with him and a whole new, blessed, better life. Cling to him and he will lift you up on eagle's wings. No matter the moment, no matter the misery, Jesus Christ will raise you in himself in peace and contentment and comfort and confidence. As a hymn was quoted at the Point Loma Nazarene University commencement yesterday at Rachel and Caitlin's graduation, their commencement speaker drawing on a hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, the phrase that was made to be the main focus, strength for today. and bright hope for tomorrow. You can only say that if you're trusting in God alone. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. And Christian, if you are trusting in God through Christ alone, here's what you have. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, even to obey God's command in Christ, to let today be sufficient for today and the evils thereof, and not worry about tomorrow. See, so often, thinking of all the messages we've heard on not worrying from Jesus and Paul, we're worried about tomorrow, we start to maneuver and manipulate for tomorrow, and tomorrow is not in our hands. The only thing that is in our hands is today, and the only thing that is in today about our hands is prayer, and obedience, and waiting and trusting in God and faith. Often very much mixed with repentance and mercy, reconciliation. God gives this to you always and he gives it to you. I want you to listen in on this one. This is a big one. Now, he gives it to you right now. Every next now, he gives it to you if you give it to him. That earlier sermon also drew something out of verse 2. Look at verse 2 with me. The psalmist you see expresses exasperation and a concern not to be undone by it. Does that ever sound familiar? Can you relate with that? I know you can. And you might very much right now. And you will. So that's the context. When we're in that context, we've got to have verse one. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. And look at verse three. But thou, my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort, thou hast given commandment to save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress. Notice that part, I may continually resort in you, the Redeemer. You see, that's what we've got to remember. This is just not a one time thing, trust Jesus to get out of hell free card. It's to trust Jesus to get me through hell every day. Often some days that we'll never forget. You gotta keep trusting in God. You need to keep taking refuge in God. You're gonna be feeling like, oh, I'm tired of waiting. I gotta run out there to see what's happening. I can't wait on God anymore. I gotta run out there and make it happen myself. Bam! Satan's waiting right there for you with the arrow. You gotta keep taking refuge in the Lord. You have to keep hiding under the shadow of his wing. You have to keep taking refuge in the fortress of God Almighty. Keep completely taking your eyes off of you and your situation. Keep continually keeping your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. Keep coming to Christ. Keep closing with Christ. Keep clinging to Christ. Keep rising with Christ. Make use of a similar psalm opening the same way with many similar things to be said. Psalm 31 verses 1 through 4. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me. Deliver me speedily. Be thou my strong rock and house of defense to save me. For thou art my rock and my fortress. Therefore, for thy name's sake, lead me and guide me. Pull me out of the net. that they have laid privilege for me. For thou art my strength, into thine hand I commit my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth." I have a few thoughts I want to draw our attention to with that psalm. But as I was reading it, I can't help but think of a movie we've watched together many years ago. We enjoy those movies by the Forgive me, the movies we enjoy, the Christian movies, the Kendrick Brothers. I was going to say a different name. And their first one, that even though it's not nearly as well produced as they kept growing, it still might be my favorite, is Flywheel. And you know, there's that scene where the main character who is repenting and changing, but the consequences are calling upon him. He's at his dealership, and there's all the media there. And there's all these people throwing out things at them. Some probably deserve, some not. And what does he do? He goes to the back and he just prays and begs God to deliver him and says, I can't deliver myself. Well, he might have been very tempted to go out and say this or that. He just goes and says, God, please deliver me. Please help me. And he did. But let's notice a few things here. You hear all the language of that idea of taking refuge and God being a refuge. I want to highlight the part that says, deliver me speedily. And I remind you, 71, Psalm 71, verse 12, the same idea. Please hurry up, make haste. So again, beloved, you know, when you say, Lord, in thee I put my trust. Lord, I'm trusting in you. I'm trusting you. You gotta help me now. I am in such danger of stop trusting you. Increase my faith now, please, Lord. Help on my unbelief now, please, Lord. Help me to reach out to a brother or sister now, Lord. I'm about to reach out to the wrong thing. Help me to open your Bible now. Help me to open your Psalter now and sing it. Help me to get on my knees and pray, oh Lord, now. Help me now, Lord. Only you can. I'm about to destroy myself and somebody else. The other thing I want to highlight is into thine hand I commit my spirit. You got to just stop. Remembering those were among the last words spoken by your Lord Jesus Christ. when he gave himself up on the cross before he gave up the ghost on the cross. He trusted in God through his death, burial, and resurrection, and the Lord rewarded him. So as you trust in Jesus, crucified in him, waiting upon the resurrection, he will reward you. including with a much better life overall in the meantime, the more he helps you trust him alone. Beloved, take refuge in the Lord by ducking down with your hands raised over your head in earnest prayer without ceasing. And pray the scriptures. And cry out to him and have confidence stirred up within you. And make it to the next minute. Make it to the next hour. Make it to the next day. Make it to the next week. Make it to the next month, the next season. Make it to the next year. And praise him for how you will see as you look back, but even in those moments, that he was there. And he took you through the flood, and he took you through the fire every time, never leaving you, nor forsaking you. And any time you're tempted to think he did, it was you walking away from Him, and the Good Shepherd had to bring you back to Him. Never think it is the end. With Jesus, it is always the next step. It is always the beginning. And from this day until the last great day, you can and you must say, in Thee, O Lord, Do I put my trust? Because, beloved, you can totally trust in God. May this be your refrain of life every minute, especially the most difficult times of life. When you are the most desperate, this has to be your response that guides you in how to keep responding. You take refuge in God, in his word, by his spirit, in the blood of Christ. You can totally trust in God. And so you must always say, in thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Will you do that with me this week, beloved? Will you try, we ask God, and when you ask God to help you, what you face this week could be in moments to come. In the days that come, there's always a moment every day and every week, and sometimes a really bad one because of a lot of moments, sometimes when we haven't said that. When you face that next time, will you say this? In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. In Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust, and so I will wait patiently on you in hope. Because in Thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Because again, beloved, you can totally trust in God. And of course, you only can totally trust in God. Let us pray. O Lord God, in Thee, O Lord, do we put our trust and we trust in Christ alone. Let this be the refrain not only of our new life saved from eternal death, but the abundant life of Christ with a peace that is not of this world as we await the new heavens and the new earth. Help us, Lord. You are our rock and our fortress. You alone are our shield and our exceeding great reward. Though our flesh and our heart fail, You are the strength of our heart and our portion forever. Help thou our unbelief, increase our faith in this truth, that we can totally trust in you. And so help us to trust in you alone, through Jesus Christ alone, by your word and grace alone, for the glory of God alone. We pray these things to you, blessed Trinity, for your glory and for our good. In Jesus' name, all your people said. Amen. Thanks again for listening to the media ministry of the Puritan Reformed Presbyterian Church in San Diego, California. If you are blessed by our sermons and would like to help keep our little church going as a ministry partner with your cheerful gifts, please click on the Give button at the top of any of our sermon audio pages to support us with your online donation. Or visit our website at PuritanChurch.com and click through the Give button at the top right of your screen. And if you prefer to send your support through the mail, please make your check out to Puritan Reformed Presbyterian Church and send it to Puritan Reformed Presbyterian Church, 6374 Potomac Street, San Diego, CA 92139. Thank you.