Placing & Removing the Shewbread (01/27/2002) | NOTE: Tape malfunction from 17:32 to 18:00

Park Meadows Church

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Amen. Turn with me this morning to the book of Leviticus in chapter 24, verse 5.

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What a good day it's been already. I needed a good day today.

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She was like a prophet this morning, she said, if you came in here with a headache, and I'm sitting here, man, my head's hurting, but it's better.

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We're talking about the duties of the believer priest as we see them in types in the Old Testament priests, we've talked about the fact that the believer priest offers sacrifices to the

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Lord. He keeps the charge of the tabernacle. He keeps the sacred fires always burning.

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And today we're going to talk about the fact that it is his duty to place and remove the show bread.

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We'll be in Leviticus chapter 24, let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for your word.

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Thank you for the musicians you've brought to our church and for the teachers and for the students and everyone that you've placed in their hearts, the desire for the word of God and the things of God and the face of God.

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Help us to study what it means to gaze into your face and help us to practice it all the remainder of this week and all of our days until you come back for us.

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We ask it in Jesus name, amen. Let's read the scripture in Leviticus chapter 23, and let's start with about verse 10.

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Speaking to the children of Israel and saying to them, when you be coming to the land which

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I given to you and shall reap the harvest thereof. We've got to stop a minute.

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What does that picture coming into the land, the promised land, what does it picture for us?

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When you have come into the land, victorious Christian living, the blessings of God, we're in.

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I mean, you're in. Now, if you're saved this morning and you know that you've received the

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Lord Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior and you have that gladness in your heart this morning, you're in.

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Now, now that you're here, he's giving us some instruction. This can't apply to anyone who's not in that place.

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A person who isn't here yet can't understand this. We talked in Sunday school this morning about the simplicity of the finished work of Christ.

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It's simple to us, and yet what he did that day on the cross, we'll never understand the complexity of that,

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I suppose, but he's made it simple to us, and we're in, and so he says, when you come to the land which

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I given to you, it was a gift, wasn't it? We didn't earn our salvation, did we?

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We didn't purchase it, did we? He purchased it with his blood, and it was given to us.

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So when you come into that land which I given to you and shall reap the harvest thereof, weren't we supposed to bear fruit now?

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Then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest.

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Am I reading the right place? Did I say Leviticus 23 .10?

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Okay. Yeah, I'm supposed to be in 24 .5.

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Well, I'm going to finish this one. This is going pretty good. The only problem is

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I'm preaching next week's sermon. There's no way we'll get to this today. There's just absolutely no way, even though it's one little paragraph on my notes.

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Then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest. Now if you would, let's go to chapter 24.

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I really don't want to preach that one today, unless we get to it. But that would be a real miracle.

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And thou shalt take fine flour. Notice this is the next chapter, so we're already in this place.

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We're in the promised land. We're in the place where we're supposed to do these things.

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So here's another thing. Thou shalt take fine flour and bake twelve cakes thereof.

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Two -tenth deals shall be in one cake. Now these things seem kind of strange, the detail that God gives them in.

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But they all picture something for them, but even more for us, because we have the advantage of hindsight.

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Now so we have these, the fine flour. We're going to bake twelve cakes of bread.

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Two -tenth deals shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the

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Lord. Remember when we studied the tabernacle, the wilderness tabernacle, and we'd go into the holy place.

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There is the table of showbread. You remember that? We showed you the picture. I wish I had left it here, but I took it home.

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I'd show it to you again this morning. So you can picture it. And you have the lampstand on the left side.

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On the right side, the table of showbread. And that's what we're referring to. So these twelve loaves are supposed to be placed on this table.

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It was the priest's duty to place and remove the showbread and then replace it again so that it's always there.

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Now let's go on. It's placed in six in a row upon the pure table before the

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Lord. Verse seven. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread as a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the

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Lord. Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the

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Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.

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What does it mean it's taken from the children of Israel? Where do they get this bread from?

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The children of Israel. They bring it and the priests take it.

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Now this bread, it's, I'm sure you're ahead of me already. You know what the bread pictures, or who the bread pictures, who does it picture?

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The bread of life. And where was he taken from? Out of the children of Israel.

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Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.

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Every Sabbath this bread was placed on the table in the six rows.

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Six is the number of men, so it pictures the humanity, the human side of Jesus for one thing.

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And every Sunday this is placed there, it comes out of the nation of Israel, from the nation of Israel, that's where he came from for us.

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And isn't it interesting that it is set before the Lord on the Sabbath, the

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Sabbath pictures rest and we have a continual rest in Jesus if you're born again.

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All of it pictured right here. Verse nine, and it shall be Aaron's and his sons and they shall eat it in the holy place.

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So they would eat this bread and then it would be replaced with new bread. So the bread is always there, it pictures that it can be consumed but not consumed, it's never consumed, it can be partaken of but it's always there again.

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And you know the poor Catholics picture that when they take their, what do they call it, the communion

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I guess, and they say that when they eat that bread that it turns into Jesus and they're really eating

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Jesus. So that's their salvation, that's why they get saved again and again because they think every time they eat that they eat

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Jesus and they're saved for a while longer until they eat it again. It reminds me so much of what Brother Otis was teaching in Sunday school, how those priests had to continually be working, working, working, working, never resting, always working.

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And the Catholic is the same way and yet our Lord Jesus has finished his work and sat down at the right hand of God and has an eternal

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Sabbath rest. He's resting and we can rest in him but what is pictured by the eating of the bread is the fact that we are in Christ and Christ is in us and yet unlike the

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Catholic who pictures that you have to continually be eating that bread, the fact is we have the

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Lord in us forever, he in us and us in him. Nevertheless this bread does picture the union of Christ with us.

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If you picture the physical thing that happens when you eat bread, it literally becomes part of you.

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This is what's pictured here is that Jesus is attached to us in such a way that we are part of his body and we cannot be separated.

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The Bible says that just as in physical marriage there is a union, spiritually you become one spirit and that union is a unity that can't be separated.

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It's pictured by these priests eating this bread. Now it's a picture and when you go beyond the picture you do damage to it like the

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Catholics do but it is a picture of something that is very, very real and that is the spiritual union of our spirit with the spirit of Christ.

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So, these Aaron's and his sons they shall eat it in the holy place for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the

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Lord made by fire by a perpetual statue. What all can we find that's pictured in this show bread?

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What's interesting when you look at the Hebrew word for show bread, I think the best

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English translation would be this, face bread, face bread and so it speaks of looking into the face of our

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Lord. Turn with me to Psalm 27 and verse 6, we're going to take a little journey through the

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Psalms today with David, the inspired songwriter and musician and lover of God, the one who wrote more love songs to God than any man probably has ever written and therefore he was the apple of God's eye.

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He has a lot to say about the face of God. This show bread pictures the body of Jesus, but the very name of it, meaning face bread, points out that aspect of Jesus that we think about when we say that he is all of the fullness of the

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Godhead bodily or that we think about when he says, if you have seen me, you have seen the

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Father, or when we think about the scriptures that say he is the express image of God.

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When we look into the face of Jesus in time, which is where we are right now, we see the face of God.

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And so the show bread is to remind us that we need to seek his face every day and that we have access to the countenance of God as it has a pleased look on it as he looks at us, his children.

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The world can't see God's face that way. All they can see is the wrath of God. All they can see is

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God, the judge. All they can think about is the fact that from time to time their conscience reminds them that they have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and they don't know what to do about it.

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One reason we're supposed to give the gospel is they can hear the good news. The problem is they won't all have ears that will hear it, but we're still supposed to give it.

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Because the good news is that if any man, woman, boy, or girl would receive the

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Lord Jesus Christ into their heart as their personal Lord and Savior, all of a sudden for the first time in their life and for the rest of their life on this earth, they can look upon the countenance of God and see a smile, a look of satisfaction as a father looks at a child that he's satisfied with.

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And this show bread pictures all these things. Let's go with David in Psalm 27, 6 and see if we can find some things we can learn about the importance of gazing into the face of the

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Father. And now shall my head be lifted up. We're in verse 6, Psalm 27, 6.

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Now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore, will

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I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. He's offering sacrifices of joy because his head is lifted up higher than the crowd.

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The crowd represents the human race. It represents the fallen human race.

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And here David is shown by God. It is revealed to David by the

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Holy Spirit of God that when God looks down upon the fallen masses, he sees his child's head sticking up taller and looking at him and he spots him in a crowd.

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How many of you ever had your children be in a crowd? Maybe they were playing sports or...

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I saw a basketball game the other night and the only kid playing was Paul, the only one I can see.

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Well, I saw Jonathan every once in a while but he moves so fast, he's hard to see. But you've had your children in a crowd of children, other children or just people who stands out in the crowd, that little face you adore so much.

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Not you, Paul, I'm thinking of Ben right now. But David was shown by the

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Lord that this is how it was, that he says, you lift my head up above the enemies, all of Satan's children around me and therefore

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I sing sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yeah, I will sing praises unto the

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Lord. I will sing praises, David says, because I've been separated out, made a part of the family of God.

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Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy also upon me and answer me.

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When thou saidst, look at this, he's recalling God's word from an earlier time and he said there was once in your word when you said this, now look at what he said.

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When you said, seek ye my face, so God has already commanded

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David and all of his children to seek his face. David remembers that and he says, I remember that, man, and he said, when

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I remember it, when you said, seek my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face,

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Lord, will I seek. Does it come from your heart? It does, you're in that place.

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God has brought you into that promised land and when you remember the fact that God desires,

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God, yea, commands that we seek his face on a day -to -day basis, our heart response should be, yea,

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Lord, thy face will I seek. This was a great secret of David.

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This is what David, what made David who he was and who we think of him as. This is what brought forth the songs that he wrote.

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It was the face that he was looking at. Hide not thy face from me.

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He says, don't ever let my life get to the place where I'm so much in the flesh that I don't see your face and can't see it anymore.

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Hide not your face from me, put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help.

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Leave me not, neither forsake me, oh God, of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the

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Lord will take me up. Now he gives a human comparison. David is talking about the fact that God is so ready to provide for us.

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God is so willing to love us. God is so ready to fellowship with us that if the closest friend you had on this earth, even if it were your own father and mother forsook you,

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God will not. And I'm sure David felt this way many times.

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His own family trying to kill him from time to time. And he says, but even if my own father and mother forsake me, the

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Lord will take me up, as to say in his arms. Teach me thy way, oh Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies.

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In other words, it's necessary because if you don't, my enemies will devour me. We see a lot right there in that little passage.

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Now let's stop before we go to another passage with David. Let's see what we found in this one. First of all, we found out that we stand out in a crowd.

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You put us in a crowd of humans and our heads are higher than they are from God's viewpoint and He sees us.

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And if you look back, you can see Him. You can see Him watching you. Another thing that we see, so I guess that speaks of sonship more than anything.

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Another thing we see is He talked about God's mercy. God's mercy, when you look into His face, what happens is you see a countenance of pleasure.

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And so you are reminded He is a merciful God. You don't fall back into the fear of the lost or even the fear that you had or even the fear that if you get in the flesh, you can have because you have believed a lie.

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You've believed Satan's lie that your flesh is revived. And you fall into fear. Do you ever have times of fear?

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Late at night, children won't even believe we adults have that, will they? It's just that we fear different things.

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We have a different boogeyman. We fear what the enemy is going to do to us, don't we? Now we may not frame it in the thought of the devil actually doing it but that is who's doing it.

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We may be thinking about a human who's not treating us right, may even be a church brother or sister member, hopefully just for a short season if that's the case.

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Whatever it is, we tend to put human clothes on it but the Bible says we battle not against flesh and blood, against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places, etc.,

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etc. We should remember who our enemy is but we should remember when we see the face of God that it should not bring fear, it should bring peace and joy because it's the countenance of a father towards a little loved child.

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And all of this he's reminded of when he thinks of the face of God. You said, seek my face,

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David says. I am seeking it and here's what I see. I see my sonship. It reminds me of my sonship.

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I've been separated out. It reminds me of your mercy that you, from David's viewpoint, you shall do what it takes to be able to justly have mercy upon me.

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From our viewpoint, he has already finished, completed what it takes and Jesus is set at the right hand of God.

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The finished work of Christ on the cross has made it possible for God's mercy to be shed upon us and he is totally satisfied with us.

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Why? Because we're in his son and he is satisfied with his son. We see

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David mention salvation in this passage. Salvation to him means more than it means to a Baptist because to a

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Baptist is what happened 20 years ago. When and where, oh, I remember when and where, to David it was ongoing because God allowed

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David to live such a life that his enemies were always before him reminding him that salvation is really deliverance.

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It's not a one -time thing only. It is a one -time thing, but it's not only one time.

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It's continual deliverance from the enemy day by day, moment by moment as he would attack through the different avenues that he has.

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David was reminded about his salvation, but to him he would call it deliverance. And then the tender watch care of God.

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David remembers that God sees him as a parent, sees a little child and takes care of him and he says, if my mother and father forsake me, you won't.

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You'll take me up. Now hold on to that phrase, take me up.

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Picture a mother taking a little newborn babe in her arms, taking him up.

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That's where he wants to be. He doesn't want to be down in that cold crib. He wants to be right there next to mama.

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Now you picture that, and that's the way it is with you and the Lord. David says, when I look in God's face,

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I'm reminded that he wants to take me up into his arms. And then he prays for guidance through the battle.

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Lead me in a plain path. Interesting that we talked about simplicity in Sunday school this morning.

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You don't need to be confused. God has not given us a spirit of confusion. A plain path.

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God give me a plain path. Clearly show me where my foot steps in the morning.

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Where do I go tomorrow? Show me in the morning where I go. Because I have enemies.

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And if I step the wrong direction, if I step in the wrong direction out of my house tomorrow,

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I could be devoured. David knows that. David was well aware enemies were all around him to kill him if they could.

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So he says, Lord, lead me in the plain path. Teach me thy way, O Lord, because of my enemies.

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Now there's five things we see in that passage. Look at Psalm 3115. That's not the only time David is reminded to think about the face of God.

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In Psalm 3115, we see where true bravery comes from.

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Do you think as Christians we're called to be brave? It's a fearful thing in the night to think about what the enemy could do to you, isn't it?

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I mean, some of us can think back about what he's already done to us. And then we can imagine all sorts of interesting things he could do to us in the future.

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Bravery is not the absence of fear, but it's the ability to perform in the midst of it for God, for the captain of our salvation.

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So David speaks of fear a little bit in Psalm 31, and he shows the cure for it. I won't say the cure for fear, but he shows the sure cause of bravery.

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My times are in thy hand. That's the first thing to remember, isn't it? Can any man or can

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Satan himself kill you one second before God has fulfilled his purpose in this life for you?

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You're immortal until that day comes. There's nothing that can take you out. That would bring bravery, wouldn't it?

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Let me ask you this. If you were going into battle and the bullets were whizzing around your head, could you be a lot more brave if you knew two things?

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Number one, you're not going to die in this battle. And number two, you're going to win the battle. You can't lose it because your captain,

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Jesus, is the leader. Would you be brave? Oh, yeah, let me. That'd be fun. Let's go.

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I hear them coming around, but none of them are going to hit me, and I'm going to win the battle. That would bring real bravery.

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Well, that's what it's all about. Look what David says here. My times are in your hand. I don't need to worry about it.

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Even if it were physical battle and war, young people, some of you, who knows? You may have to go to war someday.

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Your time is in God's hand. It's not in the enemy's hand. Hallelujah. And he goes on and he says,

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Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.

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Look at verse 16. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant.

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David knows it really does. Save me for thy mercy's sake.

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There's nothing like the shining countenance of a satisfied God. A God who's looking at you as if you've never sinned because you have the full righteousness of Jesus Christ all over you.

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There's nothing like that to put away fear. What can man do to us after all?

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If God is not against us, yea, if he is the one who died for us, if he is not against us, who cares who is?

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Brings awesome bravery in this walk, in this battle that we fight. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant.

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Save me for thy mercy's sake. Let me not be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon thee.

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Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. You know what he means when he starts talking about let me not be ashamed?

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He says, Lord, don't ever let a time come in my life where the enemy can come to me and say,

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Look what your God let happen to you. That's not going to happen in David's life.

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Read about it. Did it? Was there ever a time when David had to fear back and say, Okay, the enemy won.

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God, you know, you let me down, God. And I'm ashamed of you. When he says let me not be ashamed, he says let me not be ashamed of God.

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That's what he means. Don't let there come a time when the enemy can laugh at my face and say,

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Look, your God let you down. You know what? It never happened to David. And if you've ever seen that seemingly happen to someone that was a

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Christian, just remember this. You can't know the walk of that person. You really don't know if he's even a

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Christian. But you can know you. And you can know this. You'll never be ashamed of God.

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When it's all done, when it's all over, and the last little moment of your life has been written, you will look back and you will find one spot where he didn't prevail over the enemy.

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Not one little place. David is reminded of that when he looks at the shining face of God.

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That shining face pictures a pleased look. A happy countenance.

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One that has already received the finished work of his son. One that has already seen the blood applied to the mercy seat and who is smiling.

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We can never bring that smile to God's face on our own. Don't ever let ourselves think we could through anything that we might try to do.

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We want to please God. But if you get out of the right steps and you sin and you're in the flesh, don't ever let the devil bring to you the idea,

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Oh, I've got to do all these things now and crawl my way back on my knees to make God pleased.

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You know what you need to do? Do just what the devil tells you you can't do.

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Look right in his face. And see that it's still just as smiling and pleased as it was because it's not looking just at you.

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Just like the little black lady said, I'm all dressed up in Jesus. So we see true bravery comes from this shining face of God.

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Now let's go into Psalm 41. David still, you know, he thinks he's just about written down everything he can write about the face of God, but he's not through yet.

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He reminds me of my sonship. It reminds me of God's mercy, of God's deliverance, of God's tender care, of his guidance through the enemy in the battle.

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It reminds me to be brave. He says, Oh, no, I've thought of some other things. Better write Psalm 41, verse 9.

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Yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted is bad enough. Now it says if my parents forsake me, what about if my best friend who

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I trusted, which did eat of my bread and fellowship and sat at my table in my home, and he lifts up his heel against me.

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But thou, oh Lord, be merciful unto me and raise me up that I might requite them.

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By this I know that thou favorest me. Do you see this countenance is all about favor? Because my enemy doth not triumph over me.

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You know, you may find yourself sinning, but you'll find yourself having more victory over that sin than you ever had.

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You'll find yourself not doing that same sin next year. You'll find that if you think back, some of the sins that so easily beset you, or beset you,

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I think would be the right way to say it. Can't get a past tense for that, can you? In the past, they don't so easily overtake you now, do they?

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Now there may be new ones that crop up, but the ones of the past that got you so quickly and so easily before you were saved and then shortly after, they can't get you that easily now, can they?

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You know why? Because the Lord brings triumph over the enemy.

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My enemy doth not triumph over me. This is how I know God's favor is on my life.

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One of the ways. And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity and settest me before thy face forever.

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Now the next time Satan tempts you to get down into a guilt complex, you've just sinned, yes, you got in the flesh and you blew it, and you sinned, and Satan the accuser comes to you and begins to work you over, you need to think about what

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David said right here. He said, as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity and settest me before thy face forever.

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Do you know what he's talking about here? I know he's not a New Testament writer, but he's talking about positional, positional righteousness.

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The position that you have because of your sonship. Why would looking in his face remind you of this?

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Because as you look into his face, you see a father's face. And it reminds you you're a son.

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That is your position. You can't change that. There's no sin you can do that can change that.

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Now that you're his son, there's nothing that any of my five children can do to make me kick them across the street and say,

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Ivan Jackson, they're your kids now. There's nothing they can do that will undo their sonship.

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Why? It's their position. They were born into it. They didn't arrange it, did they?

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Neither did we. God knew us before the foundation and the creation of anything as his children.

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And then he birthed us. He brought us forth into his family. And David is saying, in the midst of my own sin, in the midst of the enemy, the enemy cannot triumph over me.

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And this reminds me that I'm God's child. As for me, as the enemy tells me that I'm no good, the enemy tells me

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I'm the sinner still, he tries to convince me I'm just an old sinner saved by grace like you've heard preached so many times, which is wrong.

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But Satan wants you to think you're still a sinner. You need to remember this phrase.

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As for me, thou holdest me in my integrity, not in my iniquity, and settest me before your face forever.

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When you look into his face now in time, do you have the ability to view that as an eternal situation?

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You'll be gazing at that face forever because you're his son. Blessed be the

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Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen.

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When we gaze into his face, it reminds us of our position. We are righteous before him because we have the righteousness of Christ.

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That verse was brought up, I think, by Diane in 2 Corinthians 5. He made him to be sin for us who knew no sin.

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Our sins were placed on him. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him, his righteousness is placed on us.

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When you look in his face, you'll see that because you'll see that pleased smile that could only look at you if he didn't see your sin.

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It could only look at you that way if he saw you as righteous, as his righteous child.

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Go to Psalm 69, 17. I wish I could let you go to lunch, but David wasn't through.

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He thought of another one. Psalm 69, 17.

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Notice the face of God, how he speaks of God's face. Hide not thy face from thy servant. Now what is the face of God seen?

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Who is God seen? Who is the showbread, the face bread? It is

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Jesus. And hide not thy face from thy servant, for I am in trouble.

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Couldn't we say that a lot? Well, that could be the Psalm of David Mitchell, not

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David David. I'm in trouble. The rest tells me

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I stay in trouble. I'm in trouble. Hear me speedily.

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Draw nigh unto my soul and redeem it. Deliver me because of mine enemies.

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They're after me. They're after you. They hate you with a cruel hatred, David says. Thou hast known my reproach.

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Uh -oh. Now David is reminded of his past a little bit here. We want to talk about the past of David.

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David was exposed naked before all of us, wasn't he? Thou hast known my reproach,

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Father. See, you have to add Father. Not God. Not wrathful judge.

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But Daddy, like Jesus called him, Abba. Thou hast known my reproach.

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Thou hast known my shame. Thou hast known my dishonor. Mine adversaries are all before thee.

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Isn't it interesting that he names his own shame and dishonor, which is part of his own flesh, as one of his adversaries?

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We know that our flesh is part of the enemy. Reproach hath broken my heart,

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David says. And I am full of heaviness, David says.

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Now he's right where God wants him. Now let me tell you something I've learned from Brother Otis. Well, from God, actually.

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But I guess God put Brother Otis in my life and yours. He teaches a few things.

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But when you look back at your past and you think about your reproach, you think about your dishonor, you think about the shame of your past, what you should think about is

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God used that as an instrument to make you be who you shall be, who you are now and who you shall be for all eternity.

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You're right on track. It was part of the trip. It was foreordained like everything else.

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Now we're not supposed to blame the bad things on him. We're responsible. But when we come back and we look at it with hindsight, we're going to see we were never truly out of God's will.

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People in modern theology go around, well, you've got to get in God's will. That implies you were out of God's will. How can you be out of a sovereign

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God's will? You could only be out of God's will if you're an Arminian, if you believe you're in control, a humanist.

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I'm not out of God's will. Now I may do something that the Bible teaches displeases him, but look at this.

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Even in the midst of all this, it brings reproach to the heart. It brings heaviness. And David says, and I looked for some to take pity.

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But you know what? When I fall, you won't take pity. Most of you won't.

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Some of you would, but most by and large, humans won't. But look what he says.

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I looked for some to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters, but I found none.

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So what does he think about in that situation? You get into sin, it's not always real wise to look for comfort among humans, even the closest, maybe even your spouse, your parents, your favorite friend that's eaten at your table so many times.

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David's just shown all of these can not always be for us. But he says that this face that he's been looking at all morning, this face is always for me.

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He's reminded through his own reproach and shame and dishonor that God is the one that delivered me because of the very enemies.

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God will not allow you to be ashamed of him in the presence of your enemies.

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God will deliver you, and this brings forth the New Testament concept and Old Testament concept of redemption from the slave market of sin.

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David looks into the face of God. He sees his sonship. He sees the very righteousness of Christ is on him because God's face is looking at him pleased, which is amazing.

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And as he even thinks of his own dishonor and shame of his past, he is reminded by the pleasant face of God that he has been redeemed, bought for with a price, and brought out of that market.

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Picture yourself when you sin as you're standing up on the blocks and Satan is bidding on you.

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And Jesus Christ says, No, here's the price. It's my blood. I own it. And he takes you off the blocks. You're not even in the market anymore.

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You're taken off the market. You are not a sinner saved by grace. You're a once -upon -a -time sinner that got saved out of it, and your sin's been removed as far as the east is from the west.

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Removed. And you look into his face. It'll remind you of that. Psalm 80, verse 2. The faster you turn those pages, the quicker we'll be through.

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Psalm 80, verse 2. Let's go, let's go. Before Ephraim. Now, you have to understand

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Ephraim becomes kind of like the enemy. Benjamin, Manasseh, stir up thy strength, and come and save us.

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Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

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It speaks of deliverance. Once again from the enemy. A shining face of the

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Father, if you look at it, guarantees you you're going to win the battle. The war is won already.

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He is pleased with you. He is pleased with you. You don't want to get into this modern theology of putting the cart before the horse and saying that, well, he's not pleased with me.

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I need to go out and do a bunch of good stuff, a bunch of good works, and I need to make sure that I go out and I win this battle for God so he can be pleased of me.

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It's the other way around. When you look at his face, he's already pleased. You can't do something to get it when you look, it's there.

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It's been done. The finished work of Christ has been accepted. God accepted it.

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Read Psalm 52 and 53 sometimes. I mean,

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Isaiah. And you'll see that he is satisfied.

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And you see this in his face, and all of a sudden you realize that you have deliverance and you have the reason to please

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God, to live a pleasing life. It is a response. It is not what causes the face to shine.

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You can't make it shine. Only Jesus can do that, and he's done it. Now you have a reason to live right.

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And lastly, look at Psalm 89, verse 13. Thou hast a mighty arm, strong as thy hand, and high as thy right hand.

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Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Now I want you to think about this.

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Just because his face is shining when he looks at you, and you know you've sinned before. Just his face is shining because his face is shining.

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Don't ever think for a moment that he's not just. Don't ever think for a moment that his justice can ever step aside.

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And David says that his right hand is strong, and justice and judgment are in fact the habitation of his throne.

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But it's the habitation of his throne. It's him. He is justice. Pure justice.

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That's a frightening thing to the world. Should be. You have a lost man that's lived his whole life in sin, and he's on his deathbed.

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There are many, many accounts, and I'm sure Miss B could probably verify this, having been a nurse. Of people like that who die lost, and in the last seconds of their life on that hospital bed, they scream out,

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They're coming to get me! They're coming for me! And they can see flames. It's happened.

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Why? For the first time, they've let themselves realize that God is a God of justice.

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It's a fearful thing, but David looks in his face, and he sees it shining. He sees it smiling.

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He sees the face that's satisfied and happy. And he says, but I'm looking at a just God. And he says, justice is the habitation of thy throne.

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Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.

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Not only is his face beautiful, but there's a sound of joy and song and pleasantness in his voice.

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Not a sound of thunder and lightning and judgment like some will hear when they look at him.

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They hear the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.

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In thy name shall they rejoice all the day. Boy, this is where we ought to be.

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It's not just right. It's easy right now. Man, we're lifted up. We've been with the

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Lord here for a good while. We're lifted up, but what about tomorrow when we step out of the house?

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Can we still be here? Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.

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Hear that sound in the morning when you walk out of the house. Think about this shining face.

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Look into it. They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day.

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And in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. In whose righteousness? For thou art the glory of their strength.

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Anything good in us is Christ's, but it's glorious. And in thy favor, our horn.

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That's the horn the animal has to protect himself with. The horns of the bull. Offensive weapons.

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In thy favor, our horn shall be exalted. We can, in fact, have victory over the enemy moment by moment, day by day.

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For the Lord is our defense. And the Holy One of Israel is our

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King. Man, that showbread, that face bread can remind us of a lot of things.

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It pictures the body of Jesus, yes, but it pictures that Jesus himself.

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You can gaze into his face and see the face of an invisible God. It reminds us of our sonship, of his mercy, of our salvation, of his tender care.

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Of his guidance through the battle that we're in. The fact that we can be brave.

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That we have positional righteousness that we cannot change. That we have redemption.

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We've been taken off the blocks. We're not for sale to the enemy anymore. That we have been delivered and we stand before him justified.

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Before a righteous, just God, which is the habitation of his throne.

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We stand in the midst of that, right with that kind of God. Man, sing some more praises.

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Stand before him, cry. Brother Charlie dismisses.