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Voddie Baucham - God Our Only Hope · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: It is a delight to be here with you on
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Speaker 1: this evening. If you have your Bibles with you, would
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Speaker 1: you open them to the Book of Exodus Exodus Exodus
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Speaker 1: chapter two. Let's turn our attention to the subject of God,
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Speaker 1: our only hope, because God is indeed our only hope,
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Speaker 1: And if we need to talk about anything in these days,
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Speaker 1: it is hope, is it not. There is this sense
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Speaker 1: of dread that has fallen upon not only the US
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Speaker 1: but around the world, and traveling internationally right now is
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Speaker 1: just a mess. From Lisaka to here was in total
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Speaker 1: a thirty six hour trip, and going through airports that
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Speaker 1: are partially, if not mostly empty, stores inside shuttered, everyone
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Speaker 1: walking around with masks and shields, and people stationed everywhere
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Speaker 1: checking your papers because you know, when you're traveling internationally,
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Speaker 1: you have to have a negative COVID test within seventy
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Speaker 1: two hours of your trip. And so now going through
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Speaker 1: the airport internationally is like passing through checkpoints in World
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Speaker 1: War two Germany, and people just kind of drown on.
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Speaker 1: Listening to the news the other day, and some physician
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Speaker 1: was talking about.
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Speaker 2: The vaccine or one of the many vaccines.
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Speaker 1: And it's interesting because before, before there were vaccines. That
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Speaker 1: there there was a glimmer of hope because because eventually,
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Speaker 1: someday we'll have a vaccine. This thing is here, and
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Speaker 1: maybe we all won't die because somewhere, somewhere down the
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Speaker 1: line there's going to be a vaccine. And so now
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Speaker 1: there are vaccines, and we go, Okay, finally we've got
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Speaker 1: a vaccine, and but we don't have enough vaccines to
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Speaker 1: vaccinate everybody right now, and so okay, when do I
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Speaker 1: get my vaccine?
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Speaker 2: Okay, you'll get your vaccine.
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Speaker 1: But then I'm listening to this doctor on the news,
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Speaker 1: and this doctor says, listen, you know, we have to
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Speaker 1: be clear about this. Even with the vaccine, because the
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Speaker 1: vaccine is not one hundred percent effective, we're still going
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Speaker 1: to have to wear masks and social distance.
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Speaker 2: With the vaccine. And so now where's the next glimmer
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Speaker 2: of hope.
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Speaker 1: Well, the good news is, our hope was never in vaccine.
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Speaker 1: It was never in masks, it was never in social distancing,
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Speaker 1: it was never in not seeing.
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Speaker 2: A novel coronavirus.
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Speaker 1: Our hope was and is and always will be in God,
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Speaker 1: and in God alone, everything else will fail us. We
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Speaker 1: must hope in God. In addition to all of that.
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Speaker 1: Now there are people who are losing hope because of
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Speaker 1: political situations and circumstances, and there's a ditch on both
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Speaker 1: sides of the road. If you were if you were
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Speaker 1: pro the party that lost, then you feel like there's
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Speaker 1: no hope and that all hope has been lost because
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Speaker 1: you put your hope in the party that lost. But
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Speaker 1: if you had hope in the party that won, then
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Speaker 1: you're still out of luck because our hope is not
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Speaker 1: in them either.
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Speaker 2: And so.
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Speaker 1: There is a word talked away in Exodus chapter two.
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Speaker 1: I just want to read a few verses, beginning at
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Speaker 1: verse twenty three. Moses has been rescued, He's found out
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Speaker 1: who he is, he's gone away. He killed the Egyptian,
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Speaker 1: he now finds himself and Midian, and then tucked away
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Speaker 1: here in verse twenty three.
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Speaker 2: The story in Egypt still goes on.
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Speaker 1: During those many days, the king of Egypt died, and
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Speaker 1: the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and
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Speaker 1: cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery
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Speaker 1: came up to God, and God heard their groaning, and
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Speaker 1: God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob,
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Speaker 1: God saw the people of Israel, and God knew. Amen, Hallelujah,
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Speaker 1: Praise the Lord God, our only God, was Israel's only hope.
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Speaker 1: They had grown under a maniacal king who was bent
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Speaker 1: on the destruction of the Israelites. And we see in
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Speaker 1: the previous chapter that he's instructing the midwives to kill
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Speaker 1: the male children. And so you would think that after
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Speaker 1: this maniacal king has died, that there would be some
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Speaker 1: sense of hope. But the exact opposite is true. During
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Speaker 1: those many days, by the way, which many days now,
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Speaker 1: remember what else has happened here.
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Speaker 2: We've learned of the.
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Speaker 1: Presence and of the designs of this maniacal king. But
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Speaker 1: we've been introduced to another character, this hopeful character, this
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Speaker 1: baby who's been rescued in Moses, who's been sent away
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Speaker 1: in the basket, and he goes off into Pharaoh's house,
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Speaker 1: and we think that somehow there is hope in this one.
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Speaker 1: But then that one in whom we were putting some
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Speaker 1: hope leaves, and there can be despair because we thought, certainly,
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Speaker 1: if God is going to deliver his people, we can
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Speaker 1: see where this story is going. One of God's people
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Speaker 1: was rescued from the murderous king and then ends up
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Speaker 1: in the house of the murderous king.
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Speaker 2: Certainly he will.
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Speaker 1: Rise up in the house of the murderous king, and
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Speaker 1: he will gain power in the house of the murderous king.
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Speaker 1: And then when the murderous king dies, he will use
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Speaker 1: the power that he has in the murderous king's house
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Speaker 1: to deliver the people of God. God, you are so
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Speaker 1: wise to put Moses in the wait. What Moses is gone,
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Speaker 1: that king is dead. Meet the new boss just like
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Speaker 1: the old boss. And there is hopelessness in many ways.
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Speaker 1: This text is a tale of two perspectives. The first
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Speaker 1: verse and really the first two thirds of the first
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Speaker 1: verse are about the perspective of earth. We look at
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Speaker 1: the situation from the perspective of Earth. Look at verse
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Speaker 1: twenty three. During those many days the king of Egypt died.
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Speaker 1: I remember all the other things that happened those many days.
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Speaker 1: What many days, these many days when a moniacal king
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Speaker 1: wanted to destroy us, and there was one who seemed
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Speaker 1: like he was going to be raised up, and then
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Speaker 1: that one ends up leaving and going off to Midian.
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Speaker 1: During those many days, the king of Egypt died, and
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Speaker 1: the people of Israel grown because of their slavery and
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Speaker 1: cried out for help. From Earth's perspective, things are bad
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Speaker 1: and there is no hope. The only thing worse than
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Speaker 1: slavery is death. And these are slaves who were being
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Speaker 1: pursued to death. But then there is a statement in
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Speaker 1: the middle of the two perspectives. Their cry for rescue
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Speaker 1: from slavery came up to God. And now we see
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Speaker 1: the same situation. Nothing has changed on the ground Verse
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Speaker 1: twenty four. Amen, nothing has In fact, nothing's going to
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Speaker 1: change for a while.
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Speaker 2: On the ground.
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Speaker 1: And God heard their groaning, remembered his covenant with Abraham,
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Speaker 1: with Isaac and with Jacob. And God saw the people
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Speaker 1: of Israel, and God knew. These four words point us
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Speaker 1: to the hope that we have in God. These four
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Speaker 1: words teach us something about the God of hope and
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Speaker 1: of our hope in God. First, God heard their groaning.
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Speaker 1: God heard their groaning. They're crying out, and God heard.
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Speaker 1: There is hope in God hearing.
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Speaker 2: Amen.
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Speaker 1: There's a couple of things that we see in this.
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Speaker 1: One thing that we see in God's hearing is that
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Speaker 1: God is distinguished from the idols of Egypt. Over in
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Speaker 1: Psalm one, fifteen. We have a helpful word. If you'll
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Speaker 1: turn your bibles there to Psalm one fifteen, Psalm one fifteen,
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Speaker 1: and listen to the words of the Psalmist. Not to us,
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Speaker 1: o Lord, not to us, but to your.
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Speaker 2: Name, Give glory for the sake.
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Speaker 1: Of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. Why should the
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Speaker 1: nations say where is their God? Our God is in
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Speaker 1: the heavens. He does all that he pleases. And then
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Speaker 1: here's the distinction. Remember God heard there. They're in the
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Speaker 1: land of idols, the land of Egypt, the land of idols,
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Speaker 1: Verse four.
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Speaker 2: Of Psalm one fifteen. Their idols are silver and gold,
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Speaker 2: the work of human hands.
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Speaker 1: They have mouths, but do not speak, eyes but do
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Speaker 1: not see. They have ears but do not hear, noses
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Speaker 1: but do not smell. They have hands and do not feel, feet,
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Speaker 1: but do not walk, and they do not make a
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Speaker 1: sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them,
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Speaker 1: So do all who trust in them. Because there's no
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Speaker 1: hope in IIMs. But Israel's God heard.
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Speaker 2: Amen. That's good news that God heard.
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Speaker 1: This is incredibly important because when we find ourselves in
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Speaker 1: situations where we lack hope, one of the things we
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Speaker 1: have a tendency to do is to doubt God's care
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Speaker 1: for us. We doubt that God is paying attention to us.
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Speaker 1: So this statement that God heard confronts that immediate fear
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Speaker 1: that we have, that fear that says we have no hope,
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Speaker 1: or that fear that says we have to look around
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Speaker 1: for something to hope in. We doubt God's care for us,
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Speaker 1: We fear the worst. We turn from following God. We
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Speaker 1: shake our fists at God all because we do not
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Speaker 1: hold on to this truth, and we do not see
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Speaker 1: reality from Heaven's perspective. All we look at is what
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Speaker 1: we see on the ground. Moses wants us to know
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Speaker 1: that even in those dark days where no one knew
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Speaker 1: what God was up to, God heard. The Maible makes
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Speaker 1: it clear that God hears us Psalm fifty five, seventeen
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Speaker 1: evening and morning, and at noon I utter my complaint
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Speaker 1: and moan, and He hears my voice.
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Speaker 2: Proverbs fifteen twenty nine.
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Speaker 1: The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the
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Speaker 1: prayer of the righteous one John five, fourteen and fifteen.
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Speaker 1: And this is the confidence that we have toward him,
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Speaker 1: that if we ask anything according to his will, he
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Speaker 1: hears us. And if we know that He hears us,
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Speaker 1: and whatever we ask, we know that we have the
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Speaker 1: request that we have asked of him. Belove, it is
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Speaker 1: as a privilege to be heard by God. And let
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Speaker 1: me say this, if you have to read the rest
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Speaker 1: of the text in order to have hope, you've missed something,
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Speaker 1: because if we just stopped right there, this would be
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Speaker 1: good news.
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Speaker 2: Amen. It is a privilege to be heard by God.
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Speaker 1: The God who upholds the universe hears us. Can you imagine,
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Speaker 1: you know, one of the things that I love to do.
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Speaker 1: I love looking through telescopes. I love looking at you know,
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Speaker 1: at astronomy and looking at planets and looking at stars.
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Speaker 1: I love looking at books about the stars and the
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Speaker 1: planets and all these sorts of things. People are talking
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Speaker 1: about going to Mars. I'm just you know, I've got
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Speaker 1: a friend who is a NASA astronaut, and I just said,
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Speaker 1: you know what, I know I could probably never happen,
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Speaker 1: But what would a brother need to do? I just
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Speaker 1: want to know, I want I'm not going. I just
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Speaker 1: want to know.
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Speaker 2: That if I did ABC and X y Z, I could.
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Speaker 1: Somebody's going to Mars. Men have stepped foot on the
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Speaker 1: moon and that barely scratches the surface of our solar system,
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Speaker 1: let alone our universe. It is vast, and God upholds
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Speaker 1: it all by the word of His power. And yet
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Speaker 1: he hears us. Saturn is glorious with all of its
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Speaker 1: magnificent rings. But God doesn't hear Saturn. But when God's
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Speaker 1: people cry out, God hears us, and I know what
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Speaker 1: you're saying, then you better be careful because some of
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Speaker 1: you are sitting there and you're saying, Yeah, I hear
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Speaker 1: what you're saying, but you just don't know.
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Speaker 2: Brother, I've been crying.
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Speaker 1: Out to God and God hasn't heard me. Can I
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Speaker 1: vary gently and as lovingly as possible say to you?
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Speaker 2: Repent? Repent? Repent?
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Speaker 1: Why Number one? Because you're contradicting the word of God.
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Speaker 1: The Bible says God hears you, and you say he doesn't.
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Speaker 1: But it's even more significant than that. How arrogant do
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Speaker 1: I have to be to assume that if God heard me?
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Speaker 1: I would know by now, because if he heard me,
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Speaker 1: he'd have done what I said.
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Speaker 2: God help us all.
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Speaker 1: Who do we think we are to judge whether or
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Speaker 1: not God heard us by whether or not he followed through?
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Speaker 1: When we jerked his chain. You better check yourself, God
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Speaker 1: hears us. And it's a privilege to be heard by God.
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Speaker 1: I didn't say it's a privilege for God to do
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Speaker 1: the thing that you asked him to do when he
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Speaker 1: heard you. I said, the hearing in and of itself
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Speaker 1: is a privilege. Through prayer, we commune with God, and
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Speaker 1: there is great comfort in this. Whatever you suffering, remember
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Speaker 1: two things about it. Number one, it's temporary. And number two,
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Speaker 1: it's not worth comparing that which lay ahead for you,
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Speaker 1: regardless of whether your circumstances change or not. Paul says
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Speaker 1: in Romans eighteen, for I consider that the sufferings of
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Speaker 1: this present time are not worth comparing with the glory
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Speaker 1: that is to be revealed in us. But the creation
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Speaker 1: waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons
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Speaker 1: of God, and it's been waiting for thousands of years.
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Speaker 1: God hears us. I said, if that was all, it
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Speaker 1: would be enough. But it's not all. Amen, God hears us.
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Speaker 1: Number two, God remembers his covenant. Don't neglect those last
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Speaker 1: two words. He remembers.
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Speaker 2: His covenant.
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Speaker 1: In other words, God didn't remember Israel because they cried
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Speaker 1: out loud enough or long enough.
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Speaker 2: Amen.
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Speaker 1: If that was the case, the propheence of bail would
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Speaker 1: have had a chance.
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Speaker 2: Amen.
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Speaker 1: I mean, they're down there and here's Elijah, and you know,
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Speaker 1: and this is the offerings, and the prophets are there,
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Speaker 1: and they're crying out. They're making all kind of noise,
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Speaker 1: cutting themselves, doing everything they could they could think of,
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Speaker 1: and and the and the and the lie.
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Speaker 3: Just like maybe maybe y'all just make a little more noise,
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Speaker 3: but maybe if maybe, if you get a few more
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Speaker 3: of your friends to join you, God didn't remember Israel
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Speaker 3: because they were the good guys.
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Speaker 2: They were not.
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Speaker 1: There are no good guys. All have sinned and falls
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Speaker 1: short of the glory of God. Stop reading your Bible
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Speaker 1: like that. We read our Bibles like it's like like.
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Speaker 2: We're reading a Western.
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Speaker 1: Like you can tell and whenever you're reading about the Israelites,
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Speaker 1: you're reading about the guy in the white hat who
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Speaker 1: comes and make no absolutely not all have sinned and
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Speaker 1: fall short of the glory of God. Israel is rescued
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Speaker 1: and redeemed in spite of the fact that they are sinners.
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Speaker 1: In fact, they're redeemed from their sin. They were neither
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Speaker 1: innocent nor sinless, and God did not owe them deliverance.
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Speaker 1: Consider how we come to God when we feel hopeless.
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Speaker 1: One of the reasons we feel hopeless because we say, listen, listen,
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Speaker 1: I am a good person. Why am I going through this?
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Speaker 1: I go to church? Why am I going through this?
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Speaker 1: I don't do bad things? Why am I going through this?
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Speaker 1: I am this?
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Speaker 2: I am not that.
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Speaker 1: Therefore, why am I going through this again? As though
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Speaker 1: this is our theology, our theology is as long as
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Speaker 1: I am better by some margin then the worst people
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Speaker 1: I know, things ought to go well for me. In
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Speaker 1: other words, my hope rests in my own relative goodness.
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Speaker 1: But what God remembered was his covenant. He remembered his
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Speaker 1: covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob. And
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Speaker 1: by the way, God remembering his covenant is not like
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Speaker 1: you remembering something. Amen, somebody, you ever you ever had this,
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Speaker 1: You ever had this situation where you know, as a
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Speaker 1: parent and you we got nine kids. I've had this
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Speaker 1: situation so many times. I'm ripping and running and doing
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Speaker 1: whatever I'm doing, and a kid is standing in front
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Speaker 1: of me looking at me with that look, that look
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Speaker 1: that immediately communicates to me, you know what I'm supposed
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Speaker 1: to remember something right now. I have no idea what
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Speaker 1: it is, but I know this one does. And then
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Speaker 1: the child says, whatever that thing is, and all of
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Speaker 1: a sudden that thing comes back to your remembrance.
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Speaker 2: No, God is not like that. Amen.
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Speaker 1: When it says here that God remembered his covenant, what's
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Speaker 1: being referred to here is not a God who is
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Speaker 1: so busy upholding the universe by the word of his
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Speaker 1: power that somehow he has to go back over here
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Speaker 1: and say, oh, wait a minute, you guys are suffering.
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Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Can somebody spin that? While I no, that
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Speaker 1: is not what the text means. Here. The very nature
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Speaker 1: of God militates against that. That's not who our God is.
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Speaker 1: All things, past, present, and future are open and exposed
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Speaker 1: before God, and nothing nothing can be hidden from God.
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Speaker 1: When we talk about God remembering his covenant, what we're
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Speaker 1: referring to is God's providence. God is actively working out.
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Speaker 1: He's working out all things in accordance with his will
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Speaker 1: and with his covenant. Now, for Israel, this is wonderful
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Speaker 1: in the context here. Here's Israel, and they are in
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Speaker 1: bondage in Egypt, and for their immediate context, God remembering
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Speaker 1: this covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and getting
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Speaker 1: them eventually out of Egypt into a land of promise.
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Speaker 1: That's good news for Israel in a temporal sense. But
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Speaker 1: God remembering his covenant is about far more than getting
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Speaker 1: them from one land to another. I'm glad God remembers
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Speaker 1: his covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob.
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Speaker 1: But I'm more glad that God remembers his covenant with God.
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Speaker 1: I'm glad that God remembers the Covenant of Redemption.
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Speaker 2: Amen.
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Speaker 1: You see, because in the Covenant of Redemption, the God
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Speaker 1: who created the world and all things in the world
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Speaker 1: has existed eternally before the world. This God existing eternally
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Speaker 1: and perfectly in three persons, the Father and the Son
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Speaker 1: and the Holy Spirit. The Father is God, the Son
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Speaker 1: is God, and the Spirit is God.
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Speaker 2: But the Father is not the Son or the Spirit.
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Speaker 1: The Spirit is not the Father or the Son.
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Speaker 2: Amen.
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Speaker 1: One God, three persons existing in perfect unity and perfect
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Speaker 1: harmony within the Godhead, needing absolutely nothing.
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Speaker 2: Please don't miss that.
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Speaker 1: If God needs something, that that means he's deficient. And
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Speaker 1: if he's deficient, he's not God. God needs nothing, and
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Speaker 1: the unity and the Godhead, the harmony in the Godhead,
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Speaker 1: the love in the Godhead is perfect, and that love within.
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Speaker 2: The Godhead spilled over and creation and redemption.
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Speaker 1: And in the Covenant of Redemption, the Father, out of
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Speaker 1: love for the Son, bequeaths to the Son of people.
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Speaker 1: You can read about it in John chapter seventeen when
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Speaker 1: Jesus talks to the Father about the people you gave me.
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Speaker 1: He bequeaths a people to the Son, and the Son,
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Speaker 1: out of his love for the Father, actually wraps himself
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Speaker 1: in flesh, lives a perfect sinful life, dies the death
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Speaker 1: that sinners oh, so that he can, out of love
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Speaker 1: for the Father, redeem the people whom the Father bequeathed
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Speaker 1: to him before the world began in the Covenant of Grace.
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Speaker 1: But wait, it's not over yet, because the Spirit, who
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Speaker 1: is not the Father or the Son, but as a
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Speaker 1: perfect expression of the love between the Father and the Son,
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Speaker 1: because of the love between the Father and the Son,
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Speaker 1: does his work of applying redemption to all those for
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Speaker 1: whom the Son died because the Father gave. That's the
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Speaker 1: Covenant of Redemption. So whatever it is that you're going through,
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Speaker 1: know this God remembers his covenant and God redeems his people.
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Speaker 1: That's why the text doesn't say, you know, when God
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Speaker 1: finally got around to it, he said his son, No,
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Speaker 1: When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth
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Speaker 1: his son, born of a woman, born of the law,
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Speaker 1: to redeem those who were under the law. In other words,
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Speaker 1: God remembered his covenant. There's a third one here. God
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Speaker 1: sees his people. God hears God remembers his covenant, and
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Speaker 1: God sees God sees. This answers our burning question because
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Speaker 1: in the midst of our hopelessness, in the midst of
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Speaker 1: our hopelessness, when we forget God, our only hope and
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Speaker 1: begin to look other places, many times it's because we
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Speaker 1: forget this reality, this reality that God sees. And there
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Speaker 1: are some of us who don't want to believe this.
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Speaker 1: There are some of us who are not comforted by this.
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Speaker 1: In fact, there are some of us who have gone
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Speaker 1: through things that are so hopeless and so painful that
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Speaker 1: the only way we think that we can deal with
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Speaker 1: that and the reality of God is to somehow shield
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Speaker 1: God from the responsibility of having seen that and not
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Speaker 1: having done something to stop it. Won't let you think
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Speaker 1: that I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where
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Speaker 1: does my help come. My help comes from the Lord
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Speaker 1: who made heaven and earth. He will not let your
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Speaker 1: foot be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold,
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Speaker 1: he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Lord
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Speaker 1: is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your
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Speaker 1: right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day,
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Speaker 1: nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you
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Speaker 1: from all evil. He will keep your life. The Lord
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Speaker 1: will keep your going out, and you're coming in from
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Speaker 1: this time forth and forevermore. When that cancer diagnosis came,
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Speaker 1: God was watching when that child went its tray. God
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Speaker 1: was watching when you were maligned and mistreated. God saw
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Speaker 1: when that loved one died. God saw that too. When
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Speaker 1: your family was broken and shattered into a million pieces,
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Speaker 1: God saw that too.
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Speaker 2: And I know, I hear you. I hear you.
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Speaker 1: That doesn't sound very hopeful, brother. That's because you haven't
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Speaker 1: considered the alternative. The alternative is we serve and worship
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Speaker 1: a God who misses things, as.
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Speaker 2: Opposed to a God who works all things.
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Speaker 1: To our good and for his glory. Alternative is absolutely unbearable.
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Speaker 1: The idea that somehow there are moments in my life
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Speaker 1: where God does not see the idea that there are
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Speaker 1: somehow moments in my life when God is not able
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Speaker 1: to be my hope, and therefore I have to trust
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Speaker 1: in something or someone else to be my hope. Because
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Speaker 1: here's the sad reality. If God can't intervene, who else
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Speaker 1: have I? When Israel was in bundage, God saw, And
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Speaker 1: when your darkest day came, God saw. Finally, God knows,
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Speaker 1: God knows, God knows what. Yes, God knows. There's a
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Speaker 1: picture here, and in this knowing, there is a picture
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Speaker 1: of love and pity. God knows, He loves and he pities.
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Speaker 1: God knows. Why is God our only hope? Because God
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Speaker 1: is the only one who hears and who remembers, and
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Speaker 1: who sees, and who knows.
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Speaker 2: He knows.
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Speaker 1: Intimately, God knows which circumstances will maximize his glory. God
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Speaker 1: knows how much you can bear. God knows what you
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Speaker 1: really need. And God knows and your deliverer is coming,
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Speaker 1: because the God who knows is the God who delivers.
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Speaker 1: So where was God? Where was God? For hundreds of
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Speaker 1: years while Israel.
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Speaker 4: Suffered in Egypt, while they suffered as slaves, while they
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Speaker 4: suffered in dignity, and at times suffered slaughter.
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Speaker 1: Where was God? Where was God on your darkest day,
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Speaker 1: in your darkest hour? Where was God? And the answer
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Speaker 1: is he was in the same place that he was
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Speaker 1: in when he crushed and killed his only son to
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Speaker 1: make that thing right. He was where he always is,
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Speaker 1: being our only hope, Peter writes, and second Peter three,
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Speaker 1: do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord,
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Speaker 1: one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand
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Speaker 1: years as one day. The Lord is not slow to
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Speaker 1: fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient
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Speaker 1: toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that
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Speaker 1: all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord
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Speaker 1: will come like a thief, and then the heavens will
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Speaker 1: pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will
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Speaker 1: be burned up and dissolved. Goodbye Saturn, and the earth
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Speaker 1: and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
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Speaker 1: God is our only hope. There is no other hope
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Speaker 1: but our God who hears, Our God who remembers his covenant,
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Speaker 1: Our God who sees, and our God who knows. And
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Speaker 1: so back in Psalm one fifteen we left off at
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Speaker 1: verse eight, where those who make these idols become like them,
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Speaker 1: and so do all who trust in them. And by
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Speaker 1: the way, anything that you are trusting in other than
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Speaker 1: God is an idol, because God is our only hope.
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Speaker 1: And the moment you are trusting in something else, you
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Speaker 1: are saying that God is not who God is. God
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Speaker 1: is not our only hope. And whatever this thing is,
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Speaker 1: and whoever this person is, this is now that which
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Speaker 1: God says, He and he alone is Verse nine, Psalm
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Speaker 1: one fifteen. Oh Israel, trust in the Lord. He is
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Speaker 1: their help and their shield. Oh house of Erran, trust
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Speaker 1: in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
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Speaker 1: You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He
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Speaker 1: is their help and their shield. The Lord has remembered us.
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Speaker 1: He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel,
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Speaker 1: He will bless the house of Erin. He will bless
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Speaker 1: those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great.
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Speaker 1: Because he hears, he remembers his covenant, He sees.
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Speaker 5: And he knows.
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Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 1: What I find is that sometimes even all of this
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Speaker 1: together is not seen as enough. I get all of that, brother,
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Speaker 1: But you just don't know. You just don't know how
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Speaker 1: bad it is. You just don't know how bad it was.
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Speaker 1: You just don't know what God lives. Okay, stop for
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Speaker 1: a moment, Just let's put that on the shelf for
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Speaker 1: a moment, and let's do a little mental exercise, and
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Speaker 1: instead of thinking about your circumstances, can I remind you
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Speaker 1: of your sin? God hears, God remembers, Yes, he does,
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Speaker 1: God sees, and God knows, and yet He has been
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Speaker 1: merciful to you. And you have not gotten what your
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Speaker 1: sin desert. And the only reason you haven't because of
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Speaker 1: this that we just put on the shelf over here.
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Speaker 1: God hears, he remembers, his covenant, he sees, and he knows.
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Speaker 1: And the culmination of all of this was the person
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Speaker 1: and work of Christ. When Israel groaned to God, they
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Speaker 1: had no idea that their deliverance was already on the way.
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Speaker 1: Years would pass before where their deliverer would come, And
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Speaker 1: what they thought every day was he has forgotten us.
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Speaker 1: But as new Covenant believers, we have the benefit of hindsight,
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Speaker 1: and we know the rest of the story that God
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Speaker 1: so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, Amen,
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Speaker 1: so that whosoever believes in him soha not perish, but
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Speaker 1: You'll have ever lasting life. That is our hope. And
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Speaker 1: because that is our hope, we need look nowhere else.
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Speaker 1: Let's pray, Oh, our good and gracious God, how we
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Speaker 1: love and adore, and thank and praise you for hearing,
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Speaker 1: for remembering your covenant, for seeing and for knowing. Grant
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Speaker 1: by your grace that we might rest in the hope
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Speaker 1: that that truth brings. For we ask it in Christ's
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Speaker 1: name and for his sake.
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Speaker 2: Amen, as