Hold Fast to Christ

Have you ever Considered that we're going to meet Nay, whom in heaven

That'll be interesting one of the things maybe nay whom my ask is

Hey, did you ever get around to reading that little book? I wrote and we'll be able to say actually yes, we did and Similarly, we'll meet the author of Psalm 119, which is where we're at tonight

The great mystery of who actually wrote this psalm will finally be revealed though.

We may not be completely surprised Maybe it was David. Maybe it was Daniel. Maybe it's just some random person that we really don't know much about other than What has been given to us and far as the penmanship and Psalm?

119 119 Now we're here. I believe it's the 15th stanza.

You can count that up and tell me if I'm wrong later We are in verse 113 like we were last week and last week we talked about really two points in the

Stanza one the psalmist hates double -mindedness. So we talked about last week

That we're to be a people wholly committed to this book wholly committed to scripture And if we do that if we recognize the

Bible actually has supreme authority practically then We're going to hate compromise and maybe

I'll just mention here. We should hate compromise first and foremost in ourselves That's where it shows up the ugliest sometimes

So it's easy to look at someone else or to look at another church and say I hate that compromise But I was talking with some brothers just a minute ago.

It's so easy It's so easy to make a a compromising step and then justify it

The point is we should hate compromise. We should make war on sin We should not stand for double -mindedness and we should hate sin in our own life first But also sin in the lives of others, but tonight we're going to conclude the second half of that message if you will

And if we hope if we love the Bible, not only will we hate compromise, but secondly, we'll hold fast to Christ So would you stand with me as we read this stanza psalm 119 113 through 120 so we hate

Compromise and we hold fast to Christ. I Hate the double -minded, but I love your law

You are my hiding place in my shield. I hope in your word Depart from me you evildoers that I may keep the commandments of my

God Uphold me according to your promise that I may live And let me not be put to shame in my hope

Hold me up that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes Continually you spurn all who go astray from your statutes for their cunning is in vain

All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross. Therefore. I love your testimonies

My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments. Let's pray father.

We thank you For your mercy and we pray today that you would help us to have a holy fear of you

You would help us to be a people who? Hate compromise and hold fast to Christ Would you bless our church?

We know that we are absolutely dependent on your power So we we plead that you would grow our church

First and foremost that you would grow us Spiritually that we'd be more hungry for Christ that we'd love him more that we'd grow in our knowledge of you

But also would you grow us numerically? We pray we would see more Salvations more people coming to faith in Christ more baptisms not just for numbers sake but for The glory of Christ we believe the truth that the lamb who was slain is worthy to receive

The full reward of his suffering and we know that reward extends around the globe

But it also is right here in Perryville in Central, Arkansas, we want to see the fruit of Christ's suffering

Here and we want to see Salvations and so we pray father that you would be pleased to do that help us to be faithful to your word

Grow us tonight Use your word to Sanctify us and even tonight.

I think about some of the young ones here I think about specifically some of the ones that are a little bit older.

I think about Piper and I think about Amelia. I think about even had in an

Adeline and perhaps even the younger Piper And Lord, perhaps even tonight you would be pleased to draw these little children to Christ.

We love them We want to continue to point them to our King Lord, there may be others here.

Perhaps they're on the church roll but they Have been deceived or whatever the case may be

Lord, perhaps tonight you would seek to you would be willing to Bring them from death to life and they would call out to Christ and be saved

And then for what I believe is most of us. I just pray that Christ would be more precious to us that we'd love him more so we prepare for the week ahead of going out into this world and just Some maybe mundane things we have to do and some hard things we have to do we just pray that in all

Jesus would be with us and ultimately that he would hold us fast and That we'd be found faithful.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated so The first thing you may say as I preach this text, you know, this is

Old Testament, obviously You say you say that we're supposed to hold fast to Christ, but there's not a single verse in this passage that mentions the name of Jesus well

Technically, that's true But I would respond by saying that we need to Messiah was was known

The Messiah was trusted in a hope for Jesus was looked to even though not in the same degree of revelation

Of course that we know him but even from the very beginning even in Genesis 3 15 He was promised that there will be a seed of the woman who will crush the serpent's head and if you read the

Bible Understanding that with that lens you understand you see it a lot. Maybe is it gonna be

Noah what turns out spoiler? It's not Noah. Is it gonna be Isaac? Well, it's not Isaac and Hannah prays for a child.

Is it gonna be Samuel? It's not gonna be Samuel Samuel. Sorry. I went out of order back up go to the book of Judges You got you have this promise birth of Samson.

Is it gonna be Samson? You know, it's not Samson but there's this Anticipation in the Old Testament for the seed of the woman to come and crush the serpent's head and we know ultimately that that is

Christ and John 5 Jesus says we'll look at that in just a second The Scriptures are about him and Luke 24

Jesus shows his disciples that the Scriptures are about him I'm just telling you tonight and we talked about this morning.

The Bible is about Christ even Psalm 119 We see that in this chapter the longest chapter of the

Bible the author is pinning this beautiful poetry that one day Jesus is actually going to be the one that's to fruit the fulfillment of this

He's going to be the one that carries out these desires that the psalmist talks about But he'll carry them out in a way that no fallen human ever could let me just give you some examples from the psalm

So we'll go all the way back to verse 16. I'll just I'm gonna hit three verses here psalm 119 16 57 and 112 so in 16

Says I will delight in your statutes. I will not forget your word How you doing with that, right?

Well, we can have that desire and we should have that desire, but we don't perfectly carry that out

How often times do you snap at your wife or your children or your employer or the guy that cuts you off in traffic?

And at that moment you forgot the Word of God, didn't you but not Jesus. I will delight in your statutes

I will not forget your word verse 57 The Lord is my portion. I promise to keep your words now

Jesus is God in the flesh, but the Father was his portion and the Holy Spirit his portion in a way that For sinful human beings.

It's not a reality He keeps the words of God in a way for sinful human beings

It's not a reality and then you go to verse 112. These are just some examples I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever

To the end all I'm saying here is just by reading the psalm we as believers

We have these desires, but it's Christ who fulfills the law perfectly It's Christ who is the perfect fulfillment of Psalm 119

It's Christ who is earned heaven for us. Remember heaven must be earned

What that's right, it must be earned but you can't earn it but Christ earned it for us

We rest in him and then of course Christ himself is the very embodiment of this word

For example, the Bible calls him the logos the Word of God made

Flesh so it's not out of bounds ever to exhort us to hold fast to Christ Even when preaching an

Old Testament text Furthermore, I think it bears repeating. I talked about last week if we're going to bleed the

Bible we need to hold fast to Christ So I let me just I'm going to show you this.

I referenced it this morning I made a mention of it just a second ago, but let me just show it to you with your eyes

So just turn it's an easy place to find to John 5 for just a second. Well, I actually mentioned this

Wednesday night I've really been encouraged. We've only had one night. I've really been encouraged by our eschatology class and I'm looking forward to this week.

I'm really excited. I hope you're able to make it Maybe we'll record them. I'm not

I'm not sure. I think Steve's helping with that John 5 39 Jesus so Jesus says to the

Pharisees you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life and it is they that bear witness

About me so I want to be very clear because in some ways I think we'd find ourselves teammates with the

With the Pharisees they would vote like us right they would they would be moral

They would have morality and there's many things that we'd find agreement with the Pharisees But here's the one thing that they missed

Jesus is saying we don't love the Bible simply for the Bible's sake We love the Bible because the

Bible is the book by which we come to know Christ The Bible is the book that points us to Jesus So we don't we don't eliminate any of these other things.

The Bible is the Word of God The Bible is our highest authority. The Bible is totally sufficient and necessary and clear and authoritative

And we love and we prize the Bible because the Bible is Christ book The Bible points us to Jesus it's two scriptures that bear witness about Christ So friends we saturate ourselves in the scriptures not so that we can master the

Bible like some biology textbook So that the Bible So the scriptures can master us we memorize scripture like we do on Sunday mornings

Not so that we can look down on our friends and our relatives not so that young ones listen to this

Not so that you can look at your friends and say I've got more Bible memorized than you We memorize the

Bible so that we can know Christ Because the Bible bears witness to Christ So with all that in mind

Let's go back to the text. Look at verse 14 114. Sorry Psalm by the way, that's

Psalm 119 back to Psalm 119 verse 114. You are my hiding place in my shield.

I Hope in your word Guys who is our hiding place and who is our shield?

Yes, it's Yahweh the triune God, but specifically here. It's Christ Christ is our hiding place.

Do you remember with that when you were younger some of you grew up in traumatic? Situations even but all of us probably when we were younger had some place that we could go

We get away from everyone and everything a little maybe it was like a little clubhouse we had or maybe you had a spot in your room or Maybe as you got older, it was just driving around in your vehicle

You know, there was a time it wasn't that long ago. I'm still part of this generation. I'm kind of like a

Generic, you can't say the word transition, but I'm kind of like the like a transitioning generation.

That sounds terrible But like I've kind of got my foot in both worlds. I remember what it was like Let me just erase all that take that off the video

Remember what it was like to be in a world without cell phones, right? I remember you could like if you just wanted to get away you could go in your truck and you could drive around and for Us some of you you're older than this but for us we young people we had a little round disc a real flat round and we put it in our

CD and our radio CD player it played music and It was just a time you could escape or whatever and what

I'm trying to argue here all of that Probably too much to say We have a better hiding place than that in Christ The place that we can go

For refuge the place that we can get away from the chaos the place that we can feel secure

We have Christ some of you here. I know you're fighting you wrestle with self -esteem

You worry so much about what people think about you. You got anxiety on your shoulder worried about your kids

You worried about your job worried about family members. I mean, I'm just trying to preach you tonight, but the text says you are my hiding place

Christ is our hiding place. We can go to Christ and we can have fullness in Christ as believers

We spend time with him right for him to be our hiding place means we spend time with him

We pour our hearts to him in prayer you you understand prayer. Don't make us overly complicated

We absolutely believe what pastor Jacob taught us in just a few moments ago. We go to a high and holy

God But but do you understand that you can't allow that? To make you think that you can't just speak you can't just speak to God You can in Christ if you're a believer speak to him pour out your heart to him converse with him rest in him

Pray to him about others pray for his continued work in our hearts Love him.

He is our hiding place. That's one more analogy. Then we'll go to the second part about him being the shield

But you remember in the boat? You remember in the boat when it's storming.

This is just so interesting to me It's storming and all the disciples are running around like madmen.

What are we gonna do? And maybe I don't know I'm embellishing a little bit, but maybe maybe one of them's like well

I wonder what Jesus is doing right now, you know, like we're all out here being crazy We're about to die the boats about to tip over.

I wonder what Christ is doing. What was he doing? He was asleep, right? He's just asleep on the boat

And so I wonder if we would go and rest in Jesus if we would find a little more reprieve from the chaos of this world

I'm not saying that we ignore all that's going on But I wonder if we would sleep a little better if the

Lord Jesus was our hiding place secondly Secondly in the text he says you're my hiding place and my shield

Now I will you can turn there if you want, but I'm going to turn to Genesis 15. It's the very first place in the scriptures that God says

I am something So it's in Genesis 15 and It's in verse 1 and it says after these things the word of the

Lord came to Abram in a vision Fear not Abram. I am your shield your reward

Shall be very great. The Lord is our shield Christ is not only our hiding place, but he's also our shield.

That is he is our protector think about the shielding of Against the wrath of God on the cross.

He's our shield Protector from the wrath of God as he's our propitiatory sacrifice. He shields us from that wrath that we deserve

He absorbs it even he is the propitiation the wrath satisfying sacrifice He's the shield from the accusations of the evil one right the evil one

That means the adversary the accuser Satan He continues to accuse us before God, but Jesus is a shield for that all of his accusations fall flat because Christ Has a tone

There's a song called embracing accusations by Shane and Shane and it just talks about how

Satan is Accusing us and he's right Except he forgets to tell us the second half of the story, which is

Jesus saves So Jesus is a shield from the accusations of the evil one Christ has accomplished all of this

Of course in the gospel his life his death his burial his resurrection The gospel is our only shield because Christ is our only shield

He is our hiding place. He is our shield. Jesus is the protector of the covenant.

He is faithful He is our defense friends Even if no one else will stand up for us

Imagine yourself at a trial and no one will go to bat for you. No one will stand up for you

Well one day there will be a trial so to speak and if you're in Christ, you may imagine no one else will stand up for you perhaps

But Jesus will he is our shield May whom one seven we will get to that.

There'll be a couple weeks next Sunday morning. Pastor Jacob is preaching But God promises wrath upon Nineveh.

He also says he knows those who take refuge in him Maybe it's not a stretch to think of it this way

But maybe even in a Syria now just maybe it's a stretch But maybe even in a

Syria there was a person or two or a family or two who was still looking to Yahweh They're still looking to God perhaps.

It's not instrument. It's not impossible to imagine that The the revival that happened hundreds ago maybe there was a single a

Syrian or maybe there was a Syrian couple that were still looking to the Lord and so even as we might have to face the destruction of Our nation

God still knows those who take refuge in Christ. You think about that, right?

No, we're part of a nation right now that Regardless of what the future holds because we don't know what the future holds

But we can speak to the present and the present is there is at least a measure of God's wrath

Displayed upon our nation today Right, if you read Romans 1 it's unavoidable for people not to know what gender they are

That's not me up here making jokes. I'm saying that's what Romans 1 says That's people given over to the wrath of God for for there's a whole list of sins sexual morality disobedient to parents

These are all manifestations of the wrath of God poured out But I'm saying for the

Christian even if we walk in a nation that is experiencing the wrath of God. We have a shield in Christ It was a good place to ask you tonight even in this

Setting are you taking refuge in Jesus? children Adults have you forsaken other hiding places?

Some of you want to go hide in your own works. Maybe some of you want to go hide in sin

Maybe some of you want to go hide and in pornography and nobody's you think nobody's looking nobody's watching.

Nobody knows Maybe you want to go hide and just escape ism. You just get away from everything

Or maybe you think that your shield is your good works why I come to church I give money

I've given money to the Fellowship Hall or whatever the case may be. I try I serve at church

I show up I work I set up tables whatever the case may be But you've you've seen these things as your hiding place or as your shield and I'm saying no, no, no

No, no, these things cannot be you must forsake these false shields. You must forsake self -righteousness you must flee from illicit substances or or or or Distractions or sins you must flee from these things and you must see

Christ alone as your only hiding place and your only shield

Okay, we can move on. You're my hiding place in my shield. I hope in your word verse 115 depart from me

You evildoers that I may keep the commandments of my God Uphold me according to your promise that I may live and let me not be put to shame in my hope hold me up That I may be safe and have regard for your statutes

Continually we talked about this some last time but the psalmist is resolved here.

I will keep your commandments You see that there verse 115 in other words

He doesn't want to hang out with the evildoers says depart from you evil evildoers in essence

So that I may keep the commandments of my God He wants to keep the commandments, but then in verse 116 and 117.

He says in verse 116 Uphold me according to your promise 117 hold me up that I may be safe So the flesh is weak.

Is it not we can have a resolve we can have a resolve to live holy but if Christ is not holding on to us, then we will fail and Here's the good news as we hold fast to Christ Thankfully Christ is holding fast to us and his grip upon his people is much

Stronger and much tighter than our grip upon him the reality is sometimes we have these resolves and we're like Peter and we're like I'll never even if everyone else abandons you

I'll never abandon you and before the morning comes we've denied Jesus three times

What I'm saying is our hope tonight is not in how strongly we're able to hold on to Jesus our hope tonight is the fact that our

Lord holds us up and So the psalmist prays uphold me according to your promise

Hold me up Sometimes my grip gets weak. Sometimes I'm running and I cast my eyes.

Sometimes it's something silly. I'm running I'm like, oh look at that over there, right? Oh, we saw so funny video.

That's okay I don't mind calling out my children. Sometimes it's funny. Okay, so we watch this video and you can ask

Brayden about it But Brayden, I'm careful. I'm not trying to be too harsh. He'll like this

So he's about an eight or no is when we first moved here. So he was he was like Let me do the math real quick.

He was eight. It wasn't nine yet, and we're up on a hill and he's riding down this Scooter and so he's picking up speed and he's like, you know riding down a scooter and at the last second because I'm videoing

You see me turns around because he wants to you know Look at the camera or whatever and as soon as he turns around the front, you know starts wobbling and go boom right over the handlebars and eats pavement ouch

But how often am I like that spiritually? I'm running and things are going good and I'm like Yes, and then all of a sudden distracted

I look boom I eat pavement But I'm saying to you. My hope is not

My hope is not in that my hope is the fact that even in that Christ holds me fast

And tonight we don't just need saving grace But we need sustaining grace and the text says uphold me

According to your promise that I may live and let me not be put to shame in my hopes as God works with these means

So in one hand, he's holding us, but it's not just a presumptuous like oh, well, I'll do whatever I want God is holding on to me and no

God holds on to us But at the same time we're pleading with God to continue to do what please keep holding on to me

Keep doing your promise. Let me just show you real quick a couple promises in Philippians That's easy to turn to right turn to Philippians in Philippians chapter 1 according to your promise.

What are some promises Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 Paul says this

Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 and I'm sure of this That he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ So I want to speak individually and corporately to that for a second first individually if you are a believer

Who began the work in you wasn't you right? You didn't just get smart one day and decide

I'm gonna become a Christian No, God began the work in you and the reality is that he who began the work in you.

He's not gonna stop Maybe this is an indictment on husband sometimes, but sometimes we leave projects uncompleted.

There's the old joke out there If a man says he's gonna do something he's gonna do it. You don't have to remind him every six months

He'll get to it right now. Sometimes we start projects and we don't complete them not God He completes every project what he starts he finishes and if you're a

Christian He began a good work in you and he's going to see it through to the end But also really technically this is for the church because the you here's plural if I may translate it into Perry County Vernacular and I'm sure of this that he who began a good work in y 'all will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ because the you there is plural and he's not just going to bring

Individuals to completion but his entire church and he will present her before him

Holy and blameless men in Philippians chapter 2 verse 12 and 13 It says this therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure

This is an ironclad promise for believers If you're a believer you say

I want God God, please hold me up. He is holding you up God, please sustain me

He is sustaining you and he's working in you like I could never I look at to I look at some of the

Saints Who's gone by I think about me and like Martin Lord Jones or George Whitfield or John Bunyan or Charles Spurgeon?

I could never be the type of man. They could no no, that's not the way to think about it It's not the thing about those men.

It's the thing about God working in those men and God is working in us too to use us for his glory

And so we pray for God to work and we pray for God to sustain us the text explicitly uphold me verse 117 hold me up and then the psalmist says

Let me not be put to shame in my hope We have this kind of tension at times, right?

Oh God I'm hoping in your word and it feels as though I am the one that is going to be put to shame Right. I mean here's the deal if this were not true

You would never have a problem with evangelism. You'd never have a problem standing for Christ You'd never have a problem speaking out at family functions

The problem is though sometimes we feel like we are the ones that are going to be ashamed

We're embarrassed to talk about the things of the Lord because we feel like well people's gonna think we're weird

That's the main persecution right now in America right now. Anyway, the main persecution is

America is will feel Ostracized from from the culture will feel small people look out down on us.

Maybe our family will reject us They'll just think we're we're we're really weird or whatever but We have to remember we have promises for that, too

We have promises that God will see us through to the end I'm in fact another one know just you can turn here if you want

I know we've looked at a lot of different places look at Romans 5 and Romans 5 3 through 5 listen to this

Not only that we rejoice in our sufferings Knowing that this that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces

Hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the

Holy Spirit Who has been given to us? in other words The psalmist says let me not be put to shame in my hope and the text in Romans teaches us that even when we have to deal with sufferings and trials and persecutions they actually

Ultimately, though we might feel ashamed at those things initially these things actually ground and build and produce hope in us character holiness

There's character then it produces hope and the text in Romans says hope does not put us to shame

So the psalmist says I don't want to be put to shame and hope does not put us to shame Because God's love has been poured in our heart

Let me just ask you this and then we'll close I'll mention verse 120 again

Are you clinging to these promises? So it's a twofold thing one.

There is a reality like the song we just sang we need Christ to hold on to us

But the means by which Christ continues to hold on to us is to continue to call us to hold on to him to trust

Him he's never gonna let us go and yet it's still at the same time The church is called to look to Christ to love

Christ to trust his promises like we talked about this morning We don't just try to examine God like he's in a laboratory but we learn these things about God so that we can grow in our trust of him and That we can live our lives accordingly.

Let me mention 120 and then I mentioned it last week But we'll close here. My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I'm afraid of your judgments

Now that doesn't sound like a Christian at least in our common understanding but there is a reality of The believer should have healthy fear of God We should live holy lives

For out of love for Christ, but there's also a reality that we should have a healthy fear of God The Text in Romans 3 it says there's no fear of God before their eyes.

That's an indictment on unbelievers Used to believers even in our land.

We were called a person who fears God a God fearer He's a God fearing man.

You ever heard that that's kind of antiquated now. It's not really in our language anymore But that's what we used to be called.

He's a God. That's a God fearing woman. That's a God fearing Family that's because to fear

God is not a pejorative. We've turned that into a negative thing Well, you don't want to be afraid of God No There is a reality as we learned at the beginning of service when we understand the holiness of God that we should have a healthy

Reverence a healthy all a healthy fear of our high and holy

God We should not want to run astray And this is true for the believer the psalmist here is a believer

But let me say this and this is where we'll land the plane if this is true of the believer How much more true should it be of the unbeliever?

Those who forsake the gospel those who hear about the message of redemption of Christ and yet continue to go their own way

Those who hear the things of the Lord saying no. No, it's it's it's fine I'm gonna do my own thing and they continue to rebel

Friends if this describes you tonight, you should be in fear of God. You should be afraid of his judgments

The good news is you can run to Christ for refuge if you're willing

Will you go to Christ? Will you even tonight repent and believe the gospel and in church?

will we Be a people who proclaim the fear of the Lord even to our nation

I said I was laying in a plane, but the planes landed It's on the the tarmac and we're not to the not to the end yet.

So I'll say this Our nation doesn't fear God Look at our politicians look at our congressmen and congresswomen look at our laws

Look at the crazy people in the streets. There's no fear of God How are we going to recover a fear of God in our land?

I'm gonna tell you how if it's only by God's power It's only by the revival and working of the

Holy Spirit. But let me say this if the church doesn't fear God We have no hope for our nation to fear

God so let us begin right here in this place a recovery of a healthy fear of God and See whether or not he might use that to spill out onto our nation.

Let's pray father. I thank you for this psalm I thank you for the encouragement that it's been.

I thank you Lord for this section I pray God that we would be a people that both hate compromise and hold fast to Christ Even as we understand he is the one holding fast to us.

He is our protector. He is our shield Thank you for your word. We pray that it would sink deep and even in years to come it would produce fruit even

Things in our life. We don't even connect back to this sermon But we know that in years to come that you're bringing through fruit even through a sermon like this

It will forget about on a Sunday night, but yet the Holy Spirit is pleased to continue use the word in our lives like that That's amazing that he works that way and I pray he would continue to do that for the glory of Christ Help us to recover a fear of God.