The Lord's mighty deliverances and manifold blessings. (Quality: Very good)

[0:00] As the Lord may be pleased to help us, we will turn again to the 18th Psalm and verse 46.

[0:13] The 46th Psalm, 46 verse in the 18th Psalm. The Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock.

[0:24] Let the God of my salvation be exalted. If you could have followed the psalm to give each verse meditation, it would help us all, no doubt, to see and feel what had taken place in the soul of the psalmist to enable him to speak these words.

[0:53] The summary of the psalm is this, that he acknowledges God's mighty deliverances and his manifold blessings and the perfect law that lays in your soul even the law of the gospel.

[1:14] The question arises, do we know enough of these things? Do we understand them right so that we can join with the psalmist here and say with him, we feel it in our own hearts, the Lord liveth.

[1:32] And blessed be my rock. Let the God of my salvation be exalted. This truly is a gospel experience, friend.

[1:44] The man, the psalmist, may use the poetical language or he has used his figures according to his feelings, but it's the truth of God that may manifest to the psalmist.

[2:00] And the question might be brought to us, if we have that desire to exalt him, can we exalt him as the God of our salvation?

[2:15] We might sing of him and his salvation unto others, but the psalmist said, the God of my salvation.

[2:27] Are we here this night, friends, as those who have been saved in the Lord with everlasting salvation?

[2:38] And if we can say that, no doubt, we shall be able to turn over in our minds the many mercies he's shown us, the many deliverances, the manifold blessings.

[2:52] Oh, what sort of religion have we, friends, if it doesn't come to this point, a personal acclamation of God's goodness to us and acknowledging him as our salvation.

[3:08] And those many mighty deliverances, they are mighty, yes. As you and I may know something of the power of sin in our own hearts, and we may live many years to prove what a power it is, what a mercy if we're able to say, he has delivered me with these mighty deliverances, which only God could do for me.

[3:39] That's a wonderful thing, friends, to have to be able and have this blessed opportunity of standing in God's great name, standing for him with our hymn book and our Bible open, and give him feeling from our heart of what he has done for us.

[4:01] For true religion is more than notion, something must be known and felt. You may have long ago come to conclusion that salvation is of the Lord, and you may have long ago been satisfied in your own mind that you have the truth of God and believe in the way of God's salvation.

[4:24] But the next point to consider is, is it ours by application? Is it ours by sovereign gift? Or is it notional?

[4:36] Notice how the psalmist commences here in this chapter. He said, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.

[4:47] The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust, my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my eye tower.

[5:03] Could we use such language honestly before God? I said, can we use it honestly? Is that our feeling before God, that he is our rock, unmovable, the rock upon which the church of God is built, not the sandy foundation, of some sort of religion, but the rock Christ Jesus, that rock of whom the man of old said, rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.

[5:39] So friends, we are hinting at this, that we must have a personal religion. what God has done for sinners, we might be able to say, but he did say on one occasion, didn't he?

[5:57] The psalmist, come all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he has done for my soul, my soul, a personal knowledge, a personal application, that brings forth praise, unto your God.

[6:16] And so, he uses language here, it's not extravagant, friends, no, it's the truth, as he stands in Christ.

[6:27] If you have a standing in Christ, you can speak of your righteousness, as he did, my righteousness. Well, friends, that at first in reading, we say, is the man self-righteousness?

[6:43] Then, no, he was resting upon the imputed righteousness of Christ. And if Christ brings you there, and imputes his righteousness, he'll never leave you, and he'll never withdraw that righteousness.

[7:00] It's yours, for all eternity. A living God has given you. This, for he says, I give unto my sheep eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

[7:16] So what you draw by sovereign gift from him, friends, what you are given by the grace of God, is a sovereign gift that will never be withdrawn.

[7:28] It will be yours. The righteousness that you rest upon is the imputed righteousness of Christ. It is the virtue of his own excellency and his holiness.

[7:45] It is yours by suffering gift and the good pleasure of God. And he's the ever-living God. Oh, oh, how wonderful. What he has done for your soul, friends, he's living tonight to still carry it on, to still perform what he has commenced with you.

[8:09] He's still the living God to fulfill all the promises. He's laid in your needy soul. He's the living God. He's not a God that's only alive when you're in the house of God, but ever he lives.

[8:28] And there are many gifts, as the apostle said, that we draw through him being a living God, those living mercies.

[8:39] He ever lives to make known to his people. And the psalmist, when I read the psalm, I thought to myself, well, he's turning over in his mind and his heart the experience that God has brought him through, the many deliverances, the many mercies, the many blessings.

[9:04] And now, David, what is the answer to this? Why, he says, he would say again, he's the living God. He's still performing these mercies.

[9:16] He's still upholding me in his righteousness. He has made me to know I'm a sinner, but he's sprinkled my conscience with his precious blood.

[9:28] And he's given me a good hope which builds on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And he said, the Lord liveth.

[9:41] The Lord liveth. Oh, what a mercy, friends. You may wake up to a troublesome day. Maybe something on your mind, something in your heart.

[9:55] And what can you say about it all? Perhaps you've just got these words, the Lord liveth. And if he lives to the morning, he'll live to the evening.

[10:09] If he lives to the evening, he lives forever, for he is the ever living God. Wonderful experience, friends. Oh, that we have more of it.

[10:21] Oh, what a mercy that the Lord does constrain us and brings us off of resting upon vain presumption or the thoughts of our wicked nature.

[10:35] Oh, the plans and purposes we may put forth for our own deliverance. And where do they get us? They do not get us further than ourselves, from our helpless, needy self.

[10:50] But when the Lord rises to deliver, he delivers according to his power, his wisdom, and his might. So, there is mighty deliverance.

[11:05] A mighty deliverance. And the more you know of yourself as a sinner before God, the more you struggle with sin, the more you will realize that if you have any deliverance, if you have any time had any deliverance, it was a mighty one.

[11:25] Mighty to save. Mighty to deliver. Because there is opposition to all God's work. The devil opposes. Your own evil nature opposes.

[11:39] But he breaks all that down with his might and with his great goodness and with his sovereign power. So, here, after speaking of these manifold blessings that he had received, how that his enemies had been brought down and he himself had been lifted up.

[12:02] But, he sums it up in their text. Why is it? And how can it be? Why, the Lord liveth. The great power of God, almighty God.

[12:15] He that rules the earth and rolls the stars along. He that can bring peace or war. He that can say to the song, peace, be still.

[12:31] Oh, the troubled heart, I am alive forevermore. evermore. Yes, a living God, friend. You couldn't rest on salvation, your salvation on anything else.

[12:45] Or you say, I've got a Bible and I know what the Word of God says and I've got a hymn book and I delight in those hymns. Yes, that's alright.

[12:56] But, what about if you should lose your Bible? What about if your poor mind was so distracted distracted? You couldn't remember anything.

[13:08] And what when the world comes in and fills your heart and mine? Where is your God? Is he alive? It is still the living God.

[13:20] Oh, there must be a liveliness to your friends that registers life. Yes, the life of God. What is that? Eternal life.

[13:31] He gave himself I gave myself, he said. I dine that they might live and yet he ever lives, he lives again and will ever live as the living God.

[13:47] And says the apostle that he gives his people many things richly to enjoy. There are many things, friends, that the Lord permits but they're not real enjoyment.

[14:02] They charm the mind, they charm the eye, they cause us sometimes fleshly indulgence. But the true and living gifts of God come from a living God.

[14:20] He was alive, friends, before we was alive. Think of that. before ever we was born into this world, if you and I belong to him, he was our living God, appointed himself to be our God.

[14:41] And then he must bring us forth. And then he must make himself known to us. And then he must put our souls in such a want that we must have a living God to save us because we feel that we are dying creatures.

[14:59] To think, friends, that your life was begun before your natural life commenced. A life, yes, eternal life.

[15:12] The life which Christ gave in giving himself. The life appointed for you from the almighty God in heaven that he brings you forth.

[15:24] And he first of all shows you yourself. And you find in yourself, you're just a dying creature. That the word is whispered into your soul, I give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish.

[15:43] That sin that you're born in, that nature that is yours, even the gift of God that it has fallen. into sin and disgrace.

[15:55] Yet, he should take notice of you. There's a great deliverance. He sent his son to deliver those people who were appointed to live.

[16:06] Think of that. You think sometimes you're only appointed to die. Your mind is perhaps that way directed that you're a dying creature and then there's another thought no health itself I find.

[16:24] Though I sought it well, the native treasure of my mind is sin and death and hell. If the Lord doesn't let you stay there, then he mercifully comes in and says, I am the living God.

[16:39] I'm alive forevermore. Those wonderful visions that John saw on the Isle of Patmos. He had those visitations from the holy God in the form of the angels, in the form of men, but all to rest the mind of John and to be published in the word of God that the living God made himself known from time to time to creatures upon the earth.

[17:11] Can we dare we say that yes, he revealed himself to me and I saw him as the living God, so I hope to be alive, I hope to live eternally with him.

[17:28] And the opposition and the power of sin is all in us. There must be a mighty deliverance with it. You fought against it all your life and so have I.

[17:41] our natural minds and natural ways are against his holiness. They were contrary to him and yet he's mighty to save.

[17:55] He watched all your path when Satan's blind slave you spotted with death. A living God, friends. And then sometimes you have to charge yourself and the Spirit may charge you too, the many idolatrous, the idols in your heart that draw your affections towards them.

[18:23] And you have to cry unto God that he would kill, he would destroy these idols and be unto your soul a living God.

[18:37] The idols must be taken away. There's no life in the idol, but in God there's eternal life. And so when the psalmist had gone through the meditation of what he had received from God, the manifold gifts and blessings, he could only come to this conclusion, why have I received them, why do I still receive them, why, because does God ever live, he ever lives to make salvation known for his people.

[19:16] The Lord liveth them, blessed be my rock. So we got to that point of meditation, a rock friend. Yes, he wanted a figure, he wanted something to rest his mind and heart upon, something unmovable, something lasting, something that could not be destroyed, so he's enabled to say, this God is my rock, and I can cast my care upon him.

[19:50] And even though the billows of life, and though it looks at times of this, I should be swallowed up with sins within, and without it, my rock is ever the same.

[20:03] Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee, when he was, this rock was cleft, friends, on Calvary, this rock was cleft.

[20:17] Yes, the holy heart of God was hope in Christ, and the blood flowed forth, let that blood for sinners spilt, cleanse my conscience, free from you.

[20:34] All from this rock, it was cleft, friends, yes, and you could go into this rock for those very things that you need for eternity and for time, for time.

[20:48] We can know what doctrine is, we may be able to profess many doctrines, the doctrines of the truth of salvation, that he must be cleft, his heart must be open for the sinner to enter in and to receive those mercies from that cleft rock.

[21:16] Oh, friends, a rock, poor and easy souls could be so dashed upon that rock that they be torn to pieces.

[21:31] Sometimes the rock is destroyed, friends, yes, destroyed the vessel. The vessel hoped to steer through, but now it struck the rock.

[21:46] But what a mercy when he's made you to know and feel the rock of ages, it was struck by the almighty hand of God, the power of God, the love of God, that for sinners who might enter into that rock, the rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.

[22:15] When you want to be covered, friends, when you feel you want to hide in place, is there any other place but this rock? Unmovable, unmovable, indestructive, yes, eternal in all its purposes, the eternal God is thy refuge, and the rock has been smitten, smitten, and the blood's drawn forth, you've entered into the rock for all that's been promised through the death and merit of Christ, so that every blessing, every grace, and every favor flows through us, through God's dear Son.

[23:03] Ah, he said, blessed be my rock, my rock, not a rock, friends, my rock, a personal note, a personal experience, the application of the blood of Christ to your conscience, yes, otherwise, how dare you use the expression, my rock, if you've no concern, if you're satisfied with a natural religion, if you're satisfied with a little chapel going, or leaning upon another religion, what is that?

[23:44] Now, this is what the psalmist had, he could bless God, that God was his rock. Now, it's a solemn thing because the rock, the Lord speaks of it in the gospel with his disciples, he said, a stone, it can be a stumbling stone, it can be a rock of a fence, and those that fall upon it will be torn asunder, will be destroyed, but those who can embrace the rock for want to shelter, through the grace of God, the mercy of God, they can say, blessed be my rock, the rock of my salvation.

[24:30] Yes, it is established, friends, to think of all that has been established in life for you and for me, to think of all that God might have appointed for us to pass through, the many masters, the many favors, but outstanding, we can say to God himself, blessed be my rock, blessed be my rock.

[24:58] You've had perhaps a stormy voyage in life, yes, many times, if you were like the psalmist and like to use the figures to explain your meaning, you would say, I've had many a stormy voyage that have not yet succumbed to that storm which would destroy me.

[25:23] My hope is in him. Blessed be this rock. Yes, when the Lord was speaking to Peter, he said, you're Peter, you're a stone, but I'm Christ, for he said, blessed art thou Simon Jonas, for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven, and you're able to say that I am Christ, I am Christ.

[26:03] well then says the Lord, upon this rock I will build my church. The Roman Catholics twist that round and tell you that Peter was the rock, and if you look carefully, you've got a few more verses to read, and the Lord said to Satan, said rather to Peter, get behind me Satan, for thou savest the things of man and not of God.

[26:30] You see, man is what he is, wherever he is, what he is. Peter was a man, but Peter had a rock, and Peter had a knowledge of Christ, and the Lord said that knowledge has come from heaven.

[26:47] What a wonderful knowledge, friends, the way of salvation, what a rock that is. Oh, how many places in your life, when the Lord might have made himself known as your rock of safety, and enabled you to build your hopes on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

[27:10] Ah, he said, the Lord liveth that, and blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted. Oh, friends, isn't it a trial?

[27:25] To look to your own life, and seek to find how the God of your salvation is exalted. Oh, we tremble because, friends, where can we find the exaltation of Christ, of his salvation, in our own life?

[27:47] Not in our own works, not in the best of our works, if we have any, but alone in what he has done, exalting in the precious Christ who died to save his people.

[28:02] That's your salvation, friends, if you have one, that's mine, if I have one. If we have not, then we are lost. We'll be dashed upon that rock, and whilst others will rejoice in its safety, we shall only know that rock has torn us to pieces, and brought shipwreck to our life, and ruined all our hopes.

[28:30] But one says, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. So, he brings this in a simple, it is in simple language to his disciples, and he said, take notice of this, that's the man that built his house upon the sand.

[28:53] When the storm and the wind comes, it will destroy, for the sand will sink, it will wash away, and the man will find there's no foundation for his house.

[29:07] But the house that's not made with hands, eternal in the heaven, that the eternal God has built for his people, is built upon the rock, Christ Jesus, so that the man that builds his house upon the rock, the storm will come, oh yes, and the wind will blow, and the rain will descend, and yet the house will stand.

[29:34] That's where the psalmist had got to when he had gone through much of the voyage of his life, enumerated many deliverances, how he had overcome his many enemies, and after all, he had not been destroyed, and the Lord had done so much for him, that the last he to say, blessed be my rock, and let the God of my salvation be exalted.

[30:07] Well, friends, to exalt the precious Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit. Oh, if the Spirit works in you, friends, I believe that's the only line of exaltation.

[30:21] All your words, all the best things you can put forth, all the best show you might make, will never exalt him as the Holy Spirit can and as the Holy Spirit does.

[30:37] He said, for I was then the comforter, he would take the things of mine, and he will reveal them unto you. And so in that divine revelation, friends, there's the exaltation of Christ.

[30:51] And he puts the sinner into such a place that he has to look to the Lord for everything. Yes, can't rest on his religion, can't rest on his works, can't rest on any profession of his own, but look alone to Christ.

[31:13] And this is what the psalmist was able to do. He was able to speak of his clean hands and the righteousness he had. That we know what he meant.

[31:26] It was that which, and how he stood in Christ, friends. Because if we stand in Christ, we've got to stand unspotted. yes, if we're in Christ, that work in Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit.

[31:44] He will make no mistake. He knows the things of Christ, and he knows those who were chosen to receive it. Oh, the gift of God is eternal life.

[31:57] Christ himself is made manifest through the operation of the Spirit, and so Christ is exalted. I think that's a wonderful mercy, friends, that God has not lifted the poor, held his servants, for the exaltation of Christ alone.

[32:17] It's the work of the blessed Spirit. Why is this? Because it's from heaven. That which will enter heaven has already come from heaven. What you and I manufacture or make upon earth, as much religion as you like to make good, can make, but that will not enter heaven.

[32:37] Not that which is abominable, or maketh a lie, can enter into heaven. Oh, what a mercy to have a truthful religion.

[32:50] That is, made truthful, acknowledged truthful, by the Holy Spirit, who takes the things of Christ, and reveals them.

[33:00] come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove with all thy quickened power, come, shed abroad, a Saviour's love in these cold hearts of earth.

[33:12] What a mercy that is, friends, that is not left to portion, as much as you would desire to exalt him, and register so often your failures to do so, that your hope is alone in the work of the blessed Holy Spirit, who would take the things of Christ and reveal them.

[33:35] Yes, the Holy Spirit must come in your life or mine, otherwise we shall never know this ever-living God.

[33:46] The Lord liveth. Yes, his God lived. That's how God lived. If we've got God's many that our idols, not one of them will live, friends.

[33:59] They'll leave us. They'll leave us. But this God says, I would never leave thee, nor forsake thee. He chose you for himself before he made this world.

[34:12] He comes forth to reveal unto you the eternal purposes of his grace towards you. You will close. The Lord liveth.

[34:24] And blessed be my rock. And let the God of my salvation be exalted. Amen. Amen.