If you were to look up the most dangerous areas in the world for Christianity right now, where Christians are being targeted and persecuted on a regular basis, imprisoned and even killed, that list of places would include regions like North Korea, Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and the list goes on. Religious persecution And Nigeria has been alarming to folks for many years. By the record known since 2009, extremist groups, Islamist militants have murdered more than 52,000 Christians in Nigeria in 16 years. More than 20,000 churches, seminaries, and other Christian institutions have been destroyed in that region of the world over the last 16 years. This past June, June 13th, during a night of carnage, jihadists stormed a village and murdered over 200 Christians. These statistics, many of which continue to be almost unfathomable to hear and imagine on the regular basis of persecution in these regions throughout the world, we are reminded of the brutality that the seed of the serpent has against believers in Jesus Christ. We are reminded not only about the reality of evil, but the opposition the evil one has against the church of Jesus. Listen to Revelation chapter 12, verse 17, where we're told that the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring. Who are those offspring? The writer says those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. So the offspring or the seed of the woman is the church in Christ. The church in Christ, Christ being the singular seed of the woman promised in Genesis 315, and the people of God in union with Christ being the corporate church and seed of the woman, they are opposed by the dragon. And so when we listen to reports of widespread persecution in various regions of the world and ongoing evil committed against the church of Christ, we're listening to reports of the warfare the dragon rages against those who hold to the testimony of Jesus. But I want you to know something about the hope these people possess. Persecuted Christians throughout the world draw great comfort from the Psalms. The Psalms are among the most important sources for stability and perseverance in the Word of God. The Psalms promise the vindication of God's people. And so when the people of God are opposed, the people of God are trusting the promises of God that evil does not have the last word. In fact, these Psalms promise the vanquishing of evil. The affliction of the persecuted cries out for relief like the blood of Abel from the ground. The blood of the martyrs cries out for justice. Psalm 79 is the kind of place where the cries for justice and the plea from the persecuted can be heard. There's an event that prompts this psalm. I think the content of the wording that we're going to notice is that something has happened against Jerusalem in the history of the Israelites that has led to widespread ruin and demise. I think we can conclude that we're looking at the invasion of Jerusalem and the destruction of its temple. And in Israel's history, that takes us to a specific era where the Babylonians were in power and they besieged and then brought down Jerusalem and exiled the people and destroyed the temple. And the year was 586 BC. So in the 6th century BC, we're likely looking at the context from which the psalmist cries out in the agonies of the psalm. Now let's get some perspective for a moment because as disastrous as that is, let's contrast it with something that was, for the Israelites, a remembrance of great hope and rescue. The greatest act of redemption for the Israelites in the Old Testament was the Exodus. The greatest act of redemption for the Israelites in the Old Testament was the Exodus. The worst disaster for the Israelites in the Old Testament was the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. So if you were to look at those two things, what was their greatest act of rescue that they can remember as a people of God that God did for them for his glory and name and contrast that with the worst disaster in their history as a covenant people, what had they faced? the invasion of the land and the destruction of the temple and city. Shifting to such a concern is important after we ended Psalm 78 where we did. We looked at the entirety of the psalm, this very long psalm, last week. And in Psalm 78, we're reminded in verse 69 that he built his sanctuary. like the high heavens. In the previous verse, he chose the tribe of Judah and Mount Zion, a reference to Jerusalem. And then we're reminded in verses 70 to the end that David reigned in Jerusalem, had the Ark of the Covenant brought there. The temple would be built by his son Solomon. In verses 68 to the end of Psalm 78, you see a setting up for where Jerusalem and the sanctuary and the reign of Israel's king, starting with David from the tribe of Judah, because Saul prior to him was from the tribe of Benjamin. These verses set up the hope-giving, exciting era of the sanctuary for the people of God. And then we get to Psalm 79. Psalm 79 right after these verses is telling us the destruction of that sanctuary built in Jerusalem. In verses one to four, the description of the affliction is very heartbreaking. The description of the affliction sounds like this. Oh God, the nations have come into your inheritance. That claim reminds us that in the book of Joshua, the land was an inheritance for the covenant community of the Israelites and all Gentiles who had cast themselves upon the mercy of Yahweh to worship him alone. And as these Israelites and Gentiles in covenant with Yahweh have inherited the promised land, we fast forward all these years later, where we're reminded of a coming into the inheritance by the nations, and this is not a positive statement. The nations coming into your inheritance isn't positive because we know in verses in verse one, the second and third lines are about defilement and ruin. So this is not the nations coming in and streaming in like the prophets might uphold, where the nation shall come to you and worship you and praise you. That's not what verse one is about. Verse one is about the tragic arrival of Gentile opponents with all their hostility and animosity, and they defile the holy temple. Holiness was to be maintained, preserved, protected, cherished. Holiness was not to be defiled. It's something that's an inversion of what ought to be. It's a disordering of what ought to be rightly ordered. It's an impurity upon what is pure and clean. The holy temple has been defiled and Jerusalem, the city of the temple, laid in ruins. The destruction of the city included the walls around the city that were brought low. And not only is the city opposed, you might say, okay, so just the buildings, right? The temple and the city as a whole in ruins? Well, of course the people would be impacted. Verses two through four explain for us why this affliction is described in such a graphic way. They, the opponents of the nations, have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth. This is an image of death, that the ruin and the defilement has led not merely to the exile of many people, but also to the death of many in the covenant community. They have bodies given as food for the birds. Well, that's not the order of creation. Rather, man is to subdue the animal world and the creatures would be provided as food for the human beings. And here, for the people to become food for the animals is a reversal of the dominion that ought to be, isn't it? Here, these bodies are given to the birds for food and the flesh to the beasts of the earth. These servants and these faithful would be those who were looking to the Lord with faith and hope, and they have faced the onslaught of the Babylonian captivity and all that that has meant in terms of death for so many. The lives of these people are in view in verse 3. The persecutors have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem. That's such a graphic picture for the imagination. It's thinking of a city and just imagining all around it, instead of water everywhere, it's blood. And there was no one to bury them. That language that there was no one to bury them is counter what you might have expected a culture that wants to honor the dead would do. They would have people who would deal with the dead. But if the heartbreak and ruin is so widespread that there's not even anyone to rightly administer proper burials, then this city and its temple and its people are in a deep mess, a deep affliction. There's no one to bury them. Some of this language seems to recall Moses' own warnings to the people in Deuteronomy, that if their land were to be taken over by these foreign adversaries, it says in Deuteronomy 28, 26, your dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. And there shall be no one to frighten them away. So the days of Deuteronomy 28, 26 seem to be what the psalmist is describing and just pulling that language from the book of Moses or from the book of Deuteronomy from Moses and laying this out in the psalm. Yes, the affliction is deep. In verse 4, we have become a taunt to our neighbors. The neighbors are the nations in verse 1. People have come into the land, and those around the Israelites should praise the Lord, join the Israelites in their covenant community, abandon idolatry. But instead, we have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us. So maybe they're thinking about people immediately east of the Jordan. like the Moabites or the Edomites or the Ammonites. People that are nearby and who look at what's happening to the covenant community and they are tempted to mock and to jeer and to heap scorn upon it. They want to deride the Israelites. They heap taunts, not blessing. The Israelites in this context are not envied by their neighbors. They're not appreciated or supported or defended by their neighbors. They're mocked and derided and taunted. It's the opposite of what you would want. So in verses one to four, this description of affliction is graphic. It is historically rooted to the days of the 6th century with the Babylonian invasion of the land. And it prompts the psalmist to ask in verses 5-12 some questions and a plea. The plea is for judgment and mercy. In verses 5-12, Right before the end of the psalm in verse 13, this unit of verses, verses 5 to 12, is a plea for judgment and mercy. There are some questions and some prayers that are interwoven here, and the question opens verse 5, how long, O Lord? That's a question we've heard before. Psalm 79 is not the first time, how long, O Lord, is asked. All the way into Book 1, we see it. In Book 2 of the Psalms, we see it. In Book 3, we see it. In Book 4, we see it. In Book 5, the psalmist in every section of the Psalms asks, how long, O Lord? And the reason this question is important is because the psalmists know what God has promised. How long, O Lord, is not a question of mockery to the Lord, though perhaps, from the lips of some, overflowing out of the heart of a particular speaker, it could be disrespectful or rebellious. The psalmists do not mean their question that way. The psalmist asks how long because they believe what God has promised. Think of the connection here. What's assumed how long? What are they expecting? Well, they're expecting God to make good on His promises. So knowing God has promised to vindicate His people and to bring the wicked low before His sovereign, righteous might, the psalmist says, how long, O Lord, until that happens? How long, O Lord, till your anger is poured out upon the nations and your people are brought near to you? The question how long is not a question of unbelief. The question how long stems from faith in what God has promised, it's also a confession of ignorance. Because the psalmist, while believing God's promises, does not know what the all-wise and sovereign God is up to. He does not understand the details of the timetable of everything unfolding around him. And so the psalmist, believing God and turning to God, says, how long, O Lord? Because the psalmist longs for, yearns for, pouring out of the righteousness of God which will mean the rescue of his people and it will mean the judgment of the wicked. He says, will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? Oh, truly, judgment is being poured out. In the Babylonian context, this is an important element of the story to understand. The Israelites in the 6th century BC had turned against the Lord, and for generations of kings had been involved in unrighteousness and idolatry, and prophet after prophet pled with them to turn from sin. saying that their sin and their destructive practices and their rebellion was going to lead to absolute judgment and exile. It was a failure on the part of the people to believe the promises of God and the warnings of God. Instead they presumed upon favor and grace and they thought nothing we're doing in the road we're heading on will lead anywhere beyond what we can handle. So the psalmist says, will you be angry forever and will your jealousy burn like fire? the pure and sovereign and righteous jealousy of the name of God. And here the righteous anger of the Lord, not sinful anger, not rash or overreacting response, but righteous judgment and the flaming purity of holiness and wrath has been poured out in covenant curses. And the psalmist says, Lord, we long for you to direct that upon the unbelieving wicked nations. So in verse six, he says, pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name, for they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation. Now, what nations and what peoples, what kingdoms does he have in mind? In verse seven, those who have devoured and laid waste. That's the context of verse six. The plea, pour out your anger on the nations that don't know you. Why? What have they done? That in their refusal to know and call upon the Lord, and in their embrace of idolatry and hatred for the people of God, in verse seven, they've devoured Israel. The word Jacob there is just a synonymous term for Israel, because when the patriarch Jacob was alive, he was renamed Israel in the book of Genesis. So to devour Jacob is another way of saying in the land of Israel, the Babylonians have wreaked havoc. They brought ruin and destruction. And so, Lord, what of them? They're the wicked. You pour out your anger upon them, the unrighteous who've come with all of their hatred and all their rebellious and malice, malicious activity. Lord, they don't know you. They don't call on your name. They don't love you. They hate you. That's what the posture is in verses six and seven of the nations. They're idol worshipers who hate God. They're idol worshipers who experience in their heart a hatred for the people of God. And so they have devoured Jacob. It's the image of a hungry beast. Not only have the bodies of the covenant community be given for the food of the birds of the air, but even the Babylonian army is like a predator, like a beast that comes to devour and to steal and kill and destroy as an instrument of the evil one. Lay to waste his habitation. the language there being the promised land, where God would dwell with His people in the temple in Jerusalem in particular. Now the book of Jeremiah seems to use this part of Psalm 79. Jeremiah was an example of a prophet who lived in the days of the Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah was a sixth century B.C. prophet who saw coming by visions and oracles what he made known to the people. God is going to judge the southern kingdom of Judah, and he's going to do so by Babylon, and he's going to take the people away. Listen to Jeremiah chapter 10, verse 25. Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, and on the peoples that do not call on your name. For they have devoured Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and laid waste his habitation. Jeremiah 10.25 comes right out of Psalm 79. Jeremiah is a prophet who knows, and prays, and sings the truth about what God is doing. He knows what the psalmist have said. He knows the judgment of the Lord being worked out in the Babylonian captivity. The psalmist knows God's people's only hope. In verses eight and nine, the psalmist says, do not remember against us our former iniquities. Let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we're brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us and atone for our sins for your name's sake. If I were to isolate the central point of and gravitational pull of the psalm, it comes from these verses. These verses, verses eight and nine, get at the core of what the people long for is God's mercy and not his judgment. They long for their iniquities to be atoned for. So they say, do not remember our former iniquities. What would it mean for God not to remember? The language of not remember is important here because we have to remember this is of God and not of man, that these words are spoken. And God doesn't not remember like we might not remember. It is important to keep that clear, right? We can think of something that we want to keep in our minds and then later on realize, I forgot about that, I did not remember. The Lord does not forget in the way man forgets. When it says do not remember against us, the idea is don't count our sins against us. To call to mind our sins would mean to hold our sins against us in judgment. So do not remember. It's another way of saying, Lord, have mercy on us. Don't hold our sins against us. The Lord never loses information. This is not a denial of the omniscience of God. Do not remember our former iniquities against us. This would mean, Lord, forgive us. That's the positive way to put it. It's the language of pardon. It's the language of forgiveness. Rather than the Lord remembering their iniquities, let us compassion come speedily to the needy. The psalmist here has a sense of how great their sins would be that if the Lord were to remember them, what hope would they have? One writer puts it this way in an article, Christians often feel like they're on a tightrope between believing our sin is too small for us to confess or too big for God to overcome. Well, we must have clarity then on each of these things. There's no sin too small for us to bring to the Lord and plead for the Lord's help in and forgiveness for. And there's no sin too great that the Lord's surpassing mercy and the blood of his Son cannot atone for. And so this notion of Christians may often feel that they're on that tightrope between what we think is too small or not that big of a deal versus the overwhelming sense of, can God really do anything for me? I'm such a great sinner. Here in verse eight, in the second line, we're told that we are brought very low. And indeed, their sins have brought them very low. They are in dire straits, and their only hope is mercy, and they know it. The psalmist knows it, and he has the song singing about their only hope being mercy, so that when this is sung with the people of God and remembered corporately, they can all remember that our sins have brought us very low. So Lord, don't treat us as our sins deserve. Don't remember against us our many iniquities. Instead, let your compassion come speedily to meet us. for we are brought very low. They need divine compassion and they don't deserve it. They need divine compassion and they don't deserve it. Their sins being counted against them, that would be justice. That's what they would deserve. So they don't deserve compassion. They need his sovereign mercy nevertheless, and they urgently need it. You see the language there, come speedily to meet us. Let your compassion come speedily, for we're brought very low. The psalmist wants the Lord to do this in verse nine, knowing that God is the God of our salvation. Why does he call for God's help? He says, help us. He knows who God is. Help us, O God of our salvation. There's no point in calling for help to someone who's not able to do what you need. Help us, O God of our salvation. As the psalmist knowing God saves, salvation is what we need, so Lord, help must come from you. Help us, O God of our salvation, and for the glory of your name. Yes, the people would benefit. And the people would experience the mercies and compassion of God. But ultimately, the psalmist wants the display of the name and glory of God to be the ultimate reason why God does what he does. Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Right now, in Psalm 79, the people of the covenant community are a taunt to the neighbors. It doesn't look like God's name is very glorious. It looks like His temple's in ruins, the walls of the city are a mess, and it looks like disaster has come to where God would be reigning. What's going on with the glory and name of Yahweh? And that means when the psalmist says, Lord, we need your compassion to come speedily to us, for we're brought low and help us for the glory of your name, that the reversal of this situation and the pouring out of mercy and the giving of salvation would display the glory of God, the glory of his name. Deliver us and atone for our sins for your name's sake. So for the sake of God's name and for the glory of God's name, he says that's why you should deliver. Not only for us, but ultimately for the display of your might, your worth, your character as a God of great mercy and steadfast love. In this case, in verses eight and nine, when we think about iniquities, and we think about compassion that we need from the Lord, and how low our sins bring us when we're honest and sober-minded about our iniquities, and the help and salvation that we need, and atonement and deliverance, surely we think beyond the sacrificial system of the Old Testament and say, the way this prayer would ultimately be answered is through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has come to us in our low and ravaged estate. The Lord Jesus Christ is the God of salvation who's come with his sovereign help to do what we cannot do. And he's done so for the glory of his name. He has delivered and atoned for his great name's sake. And he will do so by being ruined and destroyed in our place. Consider that Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. In Psalm 79, they're talking about a temple destruction. But atonement would come through the death of Jesus. Finished work of atonement and pardon from sin would come by one who said something greater than the temple is here. He says that in Matthew 12, showing that he's come to fulfill what the Old Testament foreshadowed. And that temple in the Old Testament anticipated him. And so yes, Babylon came and destroyed the Jerusalem temple. But in the first century, the Romans and the religious leaders and the bloodthirsty crowds would call for the crucifixion of Christ. Yes, deliverance would come for us. Yes, divine compassion would come to us. But through the atoning death of Jesus, who is the greater temple, destroyed in our place, raised and vindicated on the third day, living up to his name, Jesus, the one who has come to save us from our sins. Oh, our very many sins. We are more sinful than we realize. Even when we reflect on our transgressive estate and how many our iniquities are, even to this day, sins that we battle, We have not come to a full knowledge of how deep our iniquity goes. In other words, if we were to look over an edge into a dark chasm, we can see into it, and we know, my goodness, that's deep. But we can't see the bottom. What I want you to know, friends, is the Lord sends His compassion and mercy to us, and He sees the bottom. He sees how far it goes. He sees all our many sins. What is not even as clear to us is crystal clear to the Lord. The Lord knows our every sin. And so as Christ Jesus dies on the cross and as his atonement for our iniquities is accomplished, all our sins, all the ones that have never even occurred to us are known by God and paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ. All our many sins are atoned for. Several hundred years ago, there was a book written called The Bruised Read The bruised reed was written by a Puritan named Richard Sibbes, and there's a sentence in that book that I think shines so brightly. I know I've probably shared it from time to time, and the hymn we'll close our service with today, His Mercy is More, is based on this notion. Richard Sibbes said, there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us. Think about that. I mean, if you think about that, that'll change your life. There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us, and there is so much sin in us. This language here, let your compassion come speedily to meet us. We don't hope for the Lord to move slowly and eventually get to us with the pardon we need. Come speedily, Lord, with what we need. Come speedily. Our sin is so serious, the judgment we deserve, so righteous and true, that the Lord's speedy compassion is what we call for. Lord, pour out your mercy to us. Come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. In verse 10, the psalmist says, why should the nation say, where is their God? Because from the look of it, and the sixth century landscape of devastation, those neighbors might look around and say, I don't see any mighty Yahweh here. Doesn't look like he could do anything. It doesn't look like his hand is involved in rescuing you. Look at what's happening with the walls, the city, the sanctuary, the people being exiled. Where's your God? So in verse 10, he says, why should the nations get away with that? Why should they say, where's their God? Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes. So that's a it's a painful question in the mind of the believer that the God of the nations, the mighty king of all creation, would be mocked and thought little of. He says, Lord, don't let that stay the case. Instead, display your great might and outpoured mercy would also result in the judgment of the wicked, the ungodly who come with destruction in their wake. In verse 10, let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known. The outpoured blood reminds us of verses one to four where the blood of the servants is filling the streets of the city, right? And here in verse 10, the avenging of that blood, who's going to avenge the blood of the martyrs? The Lord himself will. And that means that to oppose the church of Christ is to oppose the Lord of the church. Paul learned this, didn't he? Think about the road to Damascus. Here he is in Acts 9, and he's going along toward Damascus, planning to continue his persecutorial activity. And all of a sudden, after persecuting the church for the weeks and months that he had, the Lord Jesus says to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Now, the living and ascended Christ, Lord and King overall, confronts the persecutor on the road to Damascus. And Paul is faced with that sobering reality that to persecute the people of God is to oppose Jesus. So let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known. How would that be known? The Lord, who is righteous and just, displays his judgment to vindicate his people and bring down the wicked. It reminds us of the cry of the martyrs in Revelation 6. In Revelation 6, verse 10, they cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Perhaps the martyrs are drawing from Psalm 79, a question about how long, a question about judging and avenging, a question about the blood of your people. He says in verse 11, let the groans, this is not Revelation 6, 11, but Psalm 79, 11. Let the groans of the prisoners come before you. According to your great power, preserve those doomed to die. Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors, the taunts with which they've taunted you, oh Lord. You know, the groans of the prisoners, they have some experience with that as a covenant community. It's much farther back than the sixth century BC. All the way in the days of their Egyptian captivity. So the captivity not under Babylon, but under Egypt in the 15th century BC. The groans of the prisoners cried out in Exodus 2. They were under the captivity of their ruthless taskmasters and subjected by the tyrannical and paranoid plans of Pharaoh. And they cried out for deliverance. They groaned and the Lord heard their cry. Let the groans of the prisoners come before you, verse 11 says, and according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die. The sevenfold judgment is mentioned in verse 12. Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors, the taunts with which they've taunted you. It's another way of saying, may they reap what they've sown, O Lord, the wicked who have done this great destruction. O Father, may they reap what they've sown. They have sown taunts. Return those taunts upon them. Return sevenfold into their lap. The number seven there being a perfect judgment. A perfect recompense. Lord, vindicate your people, showing your mercy. Lord, display your righteous judgment and do so perfectly. And when you do it, do it for the sake of your name and for your glory among the nations. Do it for your glory. When we pray the Lord's prayer, your kingdom come. It involves the overthrow of the wicked. It involves the rescue of the people of God. Your kingdom come. Think through what that means. That His will would be done and His kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven for the kingdom and will of God to be done in the earth is for the King's righteousness to be established in the earth. What would that mean for the wicked? Woe to the wicked. For the righteous judgment of the Lord shall fall upon them. The psalmists sing about it in these songs, our prophecies. It will happen. The psalm ends in verse 13. After the plea for judgment and mercy in verses 5 to 12, the resolve to praise the Lord is clear and rings loudly at the end of the psalm, the resolve to praise the Lord, he says, but we, your people, the sheep of your pasture. We'll give thanks to you forever. From generation to generation, we will recount your praise. Here's the psalmist's plan. He says, here's what we're going to do as the people of God. We're going to think both now and forever about praising and worshiping you, giving glory to your name, because we are your people, the sheep of your pasture. Psalm 77 ended with language about sheep. Psalm 77, verse 20, you led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. Last week's psalm ended similarly. With an upright heart, David shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand. The people of God are a flock. And now at the end of Psalm 79, three psalms in a row, each psalm is ending by saying, remember who the people of God are. They're the flock of God. They're the sheep of his pasture. And so we will praise your name and we will recount your praise and give thanks to you for this is what the people of God do as they are led by their shepherd. The New Covenant is the context for our eternal praise and unending gratitude. We're not in the days of the sacrificial system. We're not in the days of the 6th century BC with the overthrow of the Southern Kingdom by the Babylonians. We're long past the days of that temporary captivity and judgment where the psalmist cried out for deliverance and vindication. We're in the days of the New Covenant, where the Lord Jesus is the temple who was torn down and destroyed and raised up in our place. We're in the days where our former iniquities are not going to be counted against us, but it's not because we've kept the Old Testament law. Our former iniquities are not going to be counted against us because they were counted to Jesus. The cross is the mighty display of the hand and power of God, where all of our sins were counted upon him. And friends, our sins will not be counted against us. They cannot be counted against both Christ and us. They are counted against Christ so that we will not perish. They're counted against Christ so that he will bear them and that we, his flock, will be ushered into everlasting glory and peace, vindicated by his might. He will overthrow the wicked. And He will deliver His people. These promises are sure. And they're sure because He lives. I can face tomorrow. Because He lives. All fear is gone. We think about the empty tomb and the glorious risen Jesus who is our mighty shepherd. He says in John 10, My sheep hear My voice and I know them. And they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. Man, that's some good news on September 28th, isn't it? He says in John 6, all that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. And so the urgency there is, I'm going to come to Jesus. I've got to flee to him because he loves his flock, preserves his flock and delivers his flock. They are his and they follow him. In John 6 39, this is the will of him who sent me, Jesus says that I should lose none of all that he's given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is the will of my father. Everyone who looks on the sun and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. This is the word of God.