Spiritual Angst & Settled Action

All right, we continue tonight in our exposition of Psalm 119.

So I ask that you turn there, Psalm 119. Tonight I want to talk about spiritual angst and settled action.

Spiritual angst and settled action. Let me set this up for you by telling you tonight that the

Bible speaks of an experiential Christianity. Christianity is not just a set of rules and ideas and doctrine that's outside of us, but it's experiential.

That is, we experientially know Christ, personally we know Christ, and we want to walk in His ways and we want to do what

He has called us to do. And let me just say tonight that of all the sections of Psalm 119, and maybe it's just the fact that we're on this tonight, but of all the sections that we've covered, all the stanzas of Psalm 119, boy, this one really is so practical and relevant and applicatory to the

Christian life. And I'll explain what I mean by spiritual angst and settled action in just a minute, but let's start out and we'll read the text and pray.

We're down now in our sixth stanza, verse 41.

So would you stand with me as we read God's word? So the psalmist says,

Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise.

Then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word.

And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules.

I will keep your law continually forever and ever, and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts.

I will also speak of your testimonies before kings, and shall not be put to shame, for I find my delight in your commandments, which

I love. I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.

Father, you are good. Your rules are good. Help us to understand better Christianity tonight.

Help us to understand the relevancy and application of your word. Help us to be people of the book, to love your truth, to walk in it.

Help us to be a people of settled action. We know what your word says and we do it. We're resolved, as we sang this morning.

Not charmed by the world's delights, but seeking to follow Christ and to further the kingdom.

We pray that you would bless our church and all that you're doing here, and the salvations that you've wrought, and we pray that there would be more.

I thank you for the sound of children tonight, and it's a sign of continued blessing upon this church, and I pray that you would save our children.

Lord, I think about our young children, even here tonight. Help them to have ears to hear and listen, and even tonight, may they hear the gospel and repent and believe it.

We pray it all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. How relevant is

God's word? So, two main points tonight. Spiritual angst and settled action.

So first, spiritual angst, and I'll explain what I mean by that in just a moment. Verse 41, the psalmist says,

Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord. Notice, this is important, that it's the covenant name of God there,

Yahweh. Let your steadfast love come to me, O Yahweh. Your salvation according to your promise.

So let me just, a quick little review. But, you understand that believers in the

Old Testament and believers in the New Testament are the same. Like, we wouldn't call them

Christians in the Old Testament just because that's an inaccurate... How do you say the word?

Anyway, it's past inaccuristic. I don't know. Anyway, the point is, you wouldn't call them

Christians per se, because that's the name that we say in the New Testament, but they're believers.

They are essentially Christians, right? So they're looking forward to the promises of God. They're saved in this way by the gospel.

They're looking forward to what Christ is going to do. He's going to live for them. He's going to die on the cross in their place as their substitute.

He's going to raise again from the dead. They're looking by faith in the coming Messiah. They're believing upon Him.

They have the gospel foreshadowed, and they're trusting in it and resting in it. And that's how they're saved.

And that's how we're saved. We look to the gospel. We repent. We see Christ as our only suitable and all -sufficient

Savior. We understand. We don't understand. We weren't always believers, right?

There was a time in our life we didn't believe, and we rebelled. But now, by grace, we trust in our faithful God.

And so the idea then in the verse, verse 41, haven't we already received

God's steadfast love? Well, yes, if we're Christians, we've already received

God's steadfast love, and I'll talk about that in a moment. Then why does the psalmist say, let your steadfast love come to me?

Okay, and here's the idea. So hear me now. It's a fun word, angst. But here's the idea of what

I mean by spiritual angst. It's a negative term.

It has a negative connotation. It means, like, it's kind of like anxiety, tension.

The psalmist is feeling a tension here. Let me just pause and say, like, you would be lying if you said that you've never felt this.

This is the feeling of the psalmist. He knows God's steadfast love.

He knows the promises of God. But what he feels and what he knows are two different things.

Okay, this is what I'm saying. Have you ever experienced this as a believer? You know the truth.

You know God's promises. But you don't feel the steadfast love of the

Lord. Okay, so there's a tension between what he knows God's word says, what he believes

God's word says, what he trusts God's word says, and what he is experiencing. That's the angst, right?

I know the truth, but I'm experiencing this. God, help me. Let me know your steadfast love.

I know this is true. I know you're for the church. But I feel like you're distant.

I feel like you're away from me. Help me. Help me to reconcile what I know and what

I feel. You understand that? Have you ever felt that? So let me talk a minute about steadfast love.

In Exodus 34 .6, this is with Moses.

The Lord passed before him, that is Moses, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, or Yahweh, Yahweh, a

God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

So the psalmist knows that God is abounding in steadfast love, and so he pleads experientially that God's steadfast love would come to him.

I hope this is making sense. It makes sense in my brain. It makes sense in my own experience as a Christian.

I hope it makes sense to you. I know, okay, the word for steadfast love is the

Hebrew word hesed. And the idea of the word hesed in the King James often is translated mercy.

But it's much more than that. It's much more than even just steadfast love. It's a deep, meaningful, weighty term.

It means like loyalty, covenantal faithfulness, steadfast love. And the psalmist says,

I need to experience this. I need to feel this. Because I know it's true, but I'm not experiencing right now.

Like if you've been a Christian more than two minutes, I think that you can see this. The tears are falling from your face, and they're falling upon the carpet, and you know the truth.

You know God is sovereign. You know God is faithful. Why won't you save my children? Right? I need to feel your experience.

I need to experientially understand and feel your steadfast love, O Lord. This is the angst.

Okay? Now, how does he know? Now we talked about know and feeling. How does he know?

How does he know God's steadfast love? Look at verse 41. Because of the scriptures. Let your steadfast love come to me,

O Lord, your salvation, according to what? Your promise.

According to your promise. So the psalmist is appealing to what

God has spoken, knowing that it is true, knowing that it will come to pass.

I'll just mention here, we can highlight God's word is necessary. There is no promise of God to appeal to if we don't have the word of God.

So God can speak in a way, maybe in his own mind or something, or in a way that we can't hear it or comprehend it.

But if that was true, we couldn't appeal to it. But God is a speaking God. He's a revealing God.

And so he's revealed his word, and we're to appeal to it, and the psalmist appeals to it. In fact, spiritual angst exists because the word of God exists.

And let me explain that. If there wasn't the word of God, it would just be hopelessness and despair.

You would just feel destitute, forsaken. You would feel the struggles, but you wouldn't have the word of God to cling to.

But because we have the word of God, we're not left. We shouldn't live in spiritual angst, by the way, but we're not left to despair.

There's hope for salvation. Now, the psalmist here speaks of temporal salvation from a situation he needs to be delivered from.

But it's important to know that his appeal is to the character of God through the word of God. I want to give you an example. Turn in your

Bibles just quickly to Genesis 32. So this is experiential here for Jacob.

Genesis 32. So I'm just going to give you an experiential illustration from a life of a believer.

So in Genesis 32, verse 6. Genesis 32, verse 6. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying,

We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you. And there are 400 men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.

He divided the people who were with him, the flocks and the herds and camels, into two camps, thinking, if Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.

And Jacob said, now listen to this prayer. O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father

Isaac, O Lord who said to me, return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good.

I'm not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant.

For with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I've become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.

Now listen to this, verse 12. But you said, so what's he appealing to? He's appealing to the word of God.

But you said, I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

So in other words, Jacob is afraid. Okay, you understand the story, right?

So he cheated his brother Esau a couple of different times. And now it's like, oh no, mom and dad are out of the picture.

I'm fixing to meet Esau. Esau is going to return my tricking upon my own head, and I'm going to be in trouble.

So God, I'm afraid, I'm scared, I fear, I'm anxious, I don't know what to do.

And what does Jacob appeal to? He appeals to the promise of God. He appeals to the word of God.

I'm telling you, dear Christian, when we are afraid, when we are struggling, when we are anxious, our refuge, our hope, our anchor is the word of God.

We go to the word of God. That's what we trust, not what we feel, but what we know.

Can we say, too, that the word of God bears all authority? It's the word of God that we turn to.

It's our highest authority. Jacob was talking about that, but the psalmist is talking about temporal salvation.

But also we can look beyond that to our eternal salvation. God, bring salvation according to your promise.

So when we feel the dark night of the soul, when things are dark, when we're tempted to despair, when our heart is prone to wonder,

I'm telling you, our hope, our clinging is to the promises of God, to the word of God.

We stand upon the promises. Verse 42, so your salvation, let your steadfast love come to me,

O Lord, your salvation according to your promise. Then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me.

For I trust in your word. This is the word of the living God. It is the word of Yahweh.

It is the word of the Lord. So I remind you this evening, let the taunters taunt.

Let them taunt. I will have an answer for him who taunts me. Let them make fun.

Let them taunt. Let them ridicule. I have an answer. Why? Because I have the word of God.

I appeal to a higher authority. My authority is not in the taunters. My authority is not in those who would look at me and think negatively of me.

My authority is not those who mock and ridicule. My authority is in the word of God.

I trust in your word. And here is the angst. This is the tension.

God, I know your word says this, but I feel this. I know your word says that this is the truth.

I mean, have you ever felt alone? You've felt like you're crazy? You believe all these things and even people who say they're believers, they don't believe the same things or they ridicule you for the way that you do things or you go to some place and maybe

I'm... So you feel one thing, but then you go back to the word and you're like, but no, I know the word of God says this.

And so this is the plea. Oh, Lord, let your steadfast love come to me. Might I mention this?

I've said the word of God is necessary and authoritative. Might I mention that it's also sufficient?

And by sufficient, I just mean it is enough for these things. Look at verse 43. The psalmist says,

And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules.

Okay? Again, the angst here. Oh, God, don't take the word of truth out of my mouth.

Don't leave me. Don't forsake me. And my appeal to you, God, is in your own word.

That is where I set my hope. God, your word is sufficient. Your word is enough.

My hope is in your rules. By the way, I mentioned that. My hope is not in my own ability.

My hope is not in my own fruit, my own accomplishment. My hope is in your word.

So listen to me, Christian. This is going to help you. If you're not feeling this today, you might feel it tomorrow. You might feel it down the road.

Even if I don't feel, even if I don't feel like a child of the

Most High King, an heir of grace, I'm still going to believe it because I don't set my hope in my feelings.

I don't set my hope in my experiences. I set my hope in the word of God.

The word of God says this. We must resolutely put our eyes on it. Now, I'm the worst,

I feel like sometimes, to be so prone to be anxious, so prone to worry. These things are sin.

And I'm saying we're called to something higher. Not to put our hope in our feelings, but put our hope in the objective veracity of the word of God.

So we say, I believe the gospel. Listen to me, church. I believe that God has accepted me, not based on my good deeds.

He has accepted me in Christ. His word tells me tonight that Jesus is enough.

I have no innate righteousness, but I have one who was righteous for me. I have an advocate,

Jesus Christ, the righteous, who lived a righteous life and fulfilled all righteousness, who died in my place.

I am a sinner, but Christ died for sinners. Christ atoned for my sins. He said upon the cross, it is finished absorbing the wrath of God and rising again from the dead.

The Bible tells me that those who repent of their sins and believe that good news by faith will be reconciled to God, will be justified to God, will be imputed with the righteousness of Christ, will be redeemed, will be in a relationship with God, will have the favor of God resting upon them.

It doesn't matter how I feel, this is what the Bible says, and this is where I set my hope.

This is where I set my trust. I may have a bad day. I may have a bad week.

I may have a bad decade. But I hold fast to the truths of God's Word.

Even if the world, even if people in my life try to persuade me otherwise, this is the truth that I will cling to, and this is the gospel that we will preach.

So, have we seen what is the cure for spiritual angst? What is the cure for living in that tension of feeling and knowing?

Well, the cure is God's Word. More specifically, what

God's Word reminds us about Him and how God's Word points us to Christ and the gospel.

Alright, let's move from that. That's spiritual angst. Let's speak now about settled action.

So here's what I want to say first. Spiritual angst is a reality. We live sometimes in that reality of the difference between what we know and what we feel.

But now let me say this very clearly. Spiritual angst is not where we should live.

Though it is a reality, that's not where we should live. We should live in settled action.

The psalmist battles spiritual angst with the Word of God and this results in settled action.

In other words, it doesn't matter what I am feeling, I am going to do what the Word of God says.

So look at verse 44. I will keep your law continually forever and ever.

This is what the psalmist says. So walk through this with me in verse 41.

He's saying, let your steadfast love come to me. So I may not feel right now your presence.

I may not feel your grace. I may not feel these things, but I am resolved, verse 44, to settled action.

I'm going to do what your Word says even if I don't feel like it or even if I don't feel how close you are, et cetera, et cetera.

Now here's another fun word. The word for I will, it's a Hebrew verb.

It's in the cohortative mood. Now I mention that to say this because the cohortative mood expresses strong intention.

So the idea here is not, the psalmist does not think in verse 44 that he can fulfill the law of God in and of himself, but his desire is he wants to live in such a way that he obeys

God. That's what he wants to do. Listen to me tonight in Perryville, Arkansas, in central

Arkansas, in the Bible Belt. We have this idea, and it's true. First of all, it's true.

The application is not true. The idea is true. The idea is nobody's perfect. Correct. So that's true.

But the application is, well, nobody's perfect, therefore, it doesn't matter how I live.

Nobody's perfect, so my obedience doesn't matter. Well, no, the application's not true.

The first part's true. Nobody's perfect. But the application is not true. It is the desire of the

Christian to follow the law of God. Why? Because the steadfast love of God has been poured into our hearts because the steadfast love of God has been given to us.

The psalmist is resolved to walk with God. Now, there's absolutely no doubt verse 44 is only ultimately fulfilled in Jesus.

I will keep your law continually forever and ever. It's only ultimately Jesus who fulfills the law of God and completes all righteousness, fulfills all righteousness.

But I'm trying to argue tonight that the regenerate heart desires to live this way.

Show me what the word of God says, and that's what I want to do. Not what I feel. Well, not what

I think. Not what my neighbors may say. Show me what the Bible says, and I want to apply that to my life.

I want to do that. Why? Because I've been given a new heart.

The law of God is written on my heart. Don't miss the fact. Don't miss this.

This is a very important theological point. Like, verse 44 is grounded in what

God has done first. So, God has done, verse 41, your steadfast love, your promises, verse 43, my hope is in your rules, my hope is in the

Word. All of this is what God has done and what God is doing. So here is what

God has done, and here is what God is doing. And listen to me, church. As a result, here is what's happening because of it.

So God works in our heart. God brings us from death to life. God causes us to be born again.

And as a result, because we've been given a new heart, it's our desire to live according to God's Word.

If you preach this way to some people and talk to some people, they'll just call you legalistic. If you quote

Psalm 1944 to some people, I will keep your law continually forever and ever, they'll say, that's legalistic.

You're being a Pharisee. You just care about rules. No, friends, rules and relationship, law and love, it all goes together, right?

So for example, let's just take your marriage for example. You vow in your marriage to be faithful.

Is that legalistic? No. That flows out of a love that you have for God and a love that you have for your spouse.

That's not being legalistic. So for the Christian, because we've been born again, because God's love has been shed abroad in our hearts, because though we do not see

Him, we love Him. We love Christ. Because we love Christ, because God's given us a new heart, it is our desire to follow what

God has said in His Word. So again, let me say this again, verse 44.

I will keep your law continually forever and ever. Let me ask you tonight, do you like God's rules only when it's convenient to you?

Do you like God's rules only when it calls out other people's sins? Or is God's rules,

God's law, what you desire to follow as a believer? Not that we can keep it, but we desire to follow it.

Not that we can keep it perfectly, but the desire to follow it because we are believers.

Verse 45. This is settled action, right? I'm resolved. Verse 44.

And I shall walk in a wide place for I have sought your precepts. Now that's kind of interesting because we think of the road as being narrow, that's what

Jesus says, and it is narrow. The King James translates this, I will walk at liberty. So I want you to think of it this way, when we seek to follow

God's rules, we are free, we're free from the condemnation, first of all, we're free from the condemnation of the law because we're in Christ.

There is, Romans 8 .1, no more condemnation for those who are in Christ. So what God has done is freed us from the condemnation of the law.

But being free from the condemnation of the law does not result in us being free to sin.

Right? We're not free to sin. In other words, the psalmist is like saying, I'm free,

I have wide liberty to walk with the Lord, to be led by the Spirit of God, to pursue holiness.

This is wonderfully freeing for the Christian. I can follow hard after God. I can seek to do what

He says. I can seek to obey His law, knowing that every area that I fall short of has already been atoned for in Christ.

I'm free to repent. Like when someone says, hey, you've sinned. I'm free to repent.

I'm not making light of sin. I'm not just saying keep sinning so grace may abound. But I'm free. I'm free to run hard after God because of the

Gospel. I'm free to pursue holiness. I'm saying to us tonight, there is freedom in God's rules for the believer.

This is settled action. Let me put it to you this way.

When you understand God's rules, there's freedom because you don't have to make spur of the moment decisions.

It's already settled. This is settled action, right? What are you going to do on Sunday? Are you going to go hunting

Sunday? Are you going to play sports ball Sunday? Are you going to do this thing?

Hey, I'm free. I don't have to make that decision. It's already settled. I'm going to church.

I'm a Christian or whatever. You understand? Are you going to look at this on the internet? Are you going to look at pornography?

I'm free not to sin. I'm free to be like, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm already settled.

Why? Because I want to follow God's ways. Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense. Verse 46.

I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame. OK, so I'm settled on what your word says.

I believe it and I'll stand on it. Now there's going to be an application here, but consider

I stand on it so much so that I will even speak of your testimonies before kings, before political leaders, before those in power.

Think about this. I wonder, you remember we said Brian Borgman said maybe it was Daniel that wrote this. I don't know about that, but that's interesting if it was

Daniel. Think about his context. He's so resolved. He's so settled. I will speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame.

Why? Because God's word is our higher authority than the king's. It's totally true and trustworthy.

It is sufficient. It is necessary for understanding the ways of God and pointing to our need for Christ.

Do we want revival in our nation? Then we should be resolved to speak to things of God even before kings.

If our president is wrong. Hey, by the way, let me just mention this. Even if it's the presidential candidate that we like.

OK, so Donald Trump has made some statements recently. Hey, abortion is

OK in these circumstances. So what are we going to do? What's our response going to be? We'll say, no, you're wrong.

Because why? We don't just apply the word of God to the political left. We apply the word of God to the political right, too.

Right? We're not trying to be this, you know, kind of like, oh, well, we're just the middle. You know, obviously, the left is worse, right?

But that's not me saying that the right is perfect. We take the word of God and we take it to the political right and we say, this is the standard.

Not what we feel, what we think, or whatever. It's the word of God. So we speak the testimony of God before kings.

Now, here's the monies before kings. Then we should also speak the testimonies of God before those lesser.

So let me give you some application. Your coworkers. Don't say,

I'll stand before Joe Biden. I'll stand before Donald Trump. I'll stand before the Supreme Court.

And I'll stand on the word of God. Well, I hope that you do that. But how about let's start.

You probably won't have an opportunity tomorrow to stand before Donald Trump, to stand before Joe Biden, to stand before the

Supreme Court, and to bear witness to the word of God. I doubt that you have that opportunity. If you do, praise

God. But listen to me. You will have the opportunity tomorrow to stand before your coworkers.

You will have the opportunity to stand before the lady taking your order at the

Taco Bell, or whatever the case may be. You will have the opportunity to stand before your children, and your spouse, and your neighbors, and your friends.

What I'm saying is, look at verse 46. Speak of the testimonies not merely before kings.

Speak of the testimonies of God before those in your life. Right?

So if you're going to speak it before kings, then speak it before everyone as you get to the king.

Right? You make sense? Don't say that you're so resolved, and you're standing, and you're willing to die. No, no.

Speak before those in your life. Speak the testimonies of the truth. Speak the testimonies of God.

Teach the truth of God to those that God has put in our life. This is experiential

Christianity. It's not just this idea out there, if I ever stand before the magistrates,

I'll preach the gospel. Start by preaching the gospel and teaching the word of God to those in your life.

Okay, verse 47 -48. For I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which

I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. So the phrase, which

I love, is used twice. Once in verse 47, once in verse 48. Love is not a feeling.

It's not merely a feeling. The psalmist loves the word of God because he loves

God. You understand? We can't separate these two. So even when circumstances come into your life that would cause you or tempt you to believe otherwise, the psalmist says,

I'm not going to listen to those other voices. I'm not going to listen to the media. I'm not going to listen to Disney or whatever the case may be.

I'm not going to listen to the coach. I'm not going to listen to those in my life. I'm going to listen to the word.

It's the word of God that I love. What the word of God tells me is true.

Even if I can't always fit it with my experiences, it's my experiences that are wrong, not the word of God.

I'm always going to cling to the testimonies of the Lord. Look at verse 48.

In fact, verse 48, if it wasn't in the Bible, you would almost be like, oh, I don't know if that's OK. What if I said to you guys, what if I said this?

Hey, guys, tonight in worship, I want you to lift your hands to the Bible. Now, you might be like,

I don't know if we can do that. I think we should only lift our hands to the Lord.

OK, but listen to the verse. I will lift my hands toward your commandments.

Now, we're not saying that the Bible is God, but we are saying we have a high reverence for the word of God because it's

God who's spoken it to us. The psalmist has this idea. I lift my hands toward your commandments because that's what

I want to do. That's the way I want to live. I kind of mentioned it this morning in this morning sermon. But like that's the style of Christianity that we're trying to go for here.

Biblical Christianity. We're trying to do what the Bible says. We're trying to listen to what the word of God says and let that be the arbiter of truth.

Let that be the plumb line because it is. And we lift our hands to the word of God because this is how we want to live.

I lift my hand toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statute. So you want to know what settled action looks like?

It looks like keeping, walking, seeking, speaking, delighting, loving, praising.

I love the book because I love God. That's what settled action is.

That's what settled action comes from. It comes from the book. We are people of the book. We love the

Bible because the Bible is the word of God. This is the word of God on which we stand. The inerrant, infallible, necessary, sufficient, authoritative, clear word of the living

God. This is our truth. Our settled action flows from this book.

So let's zoom out for a moment and take this section of Psalm 119 as a whole again.

So we have spiritual angst. That is, circumstances and experiences cause us to have anxiety, doubts, fears.

We're tempted to sin. We're just not sure. Is God all that he says he is? Is the gospel true?

So by the spirit of God, we plead for God's love to make itself fresh in our hearts and our lives.

We look to the word of God and we say, you know what? This is what I believe. This is where my hope lies.

God is faithful. Even if my sight and my taste and my hearing and my feeling tell me something else,

I'm going to trust the Bible. And what's the result? Settled action. We will walk with God in freedom.

We will walk with God in delight. We will walk with God in love. We will trust him like a child trusts his or her father or mother.

Whatever you say, God, I believe it. If your word says it, that's what I believe and that's how

I'm going to live. So I wonder where you are tonight. Now, there's a third point. Not really a point.

It's just a concluding thought. So there's a third point I could have brought out, really, and that would just be serial apathy.

That is, spiritual angst isn't where we should live, but at least there's some tension there.

What's worse than that is serial apathy. And that is no time in the word, no walking with the

Lord. Instead, just presumptuous confidence that everything's okay. We must be shaken out of that.

That's where a lot of people live. Not in the angst, but in the serial apathy. Like, oh yeah, I know all this stuff.

All this stuff you're preaching about. Yeah, blah, blah, blah. I'm a Christian. No, we need to be shaken out of that.

And we don't need to stay in the spiritual angst either. We should move beyond that to settled action.

What I'm telling us tonight, Providence Baptist Church, is believe this word. Trust this word.

God is faithful. God is good. We must walk with Him in the light of His gospel.

And by His sovereign grace. We must be a people of settled action.

If our eyes don't see it, if our ears don't hear it, if our heart doesn't feel it, it still is true.

It is what the word of God says. And by this we will live. And by this we will die.

All for the glory of God. Father, thank You for Your word tonight. We pray that it would encourage us and strengthen us.

Help us to be a people of settled action. Help us to be people who, even if we don't feel it, we will live for the truth.

But we do pray we'd feel it more. We do pray that Your steadfast love would be shed abroad even more in our hearts.

We would feel Your presence. We would feel Your confidence. We would know that You're with us. And we pray it all in Jesus' name, amen.

Let's turn to page 54. Let's sing,