All right, we're there in Psalm 62 and verse number two.
The Bible reads,
He only is my rock and my salvation.
The title for the sermon this morning is
My Rock and My Salvation.
We did cover Psalm 61 on Wednesday
and we did look at the fact that, of course,
you know, the request during a hard time
is to ask the Lord to set us upon a rock
that is higher than us.
And so the concept of the rock,
this actually appears three times in this Psalm.
And so I wanted to title the sermon by the title.
The sermon because the fact that the rock
is mentioned three times in this Psalm.
We're gonna look into that a little bit deeper
as we go through this Psalm.
Once again, the Psalm's not very big.
But again, it's a Psalm of David
and it begins by saying in verse number one,
Truly my soul waiteth upon God,
from him cometh my salvation.
Now this salvation that he's speaking about here
is physical salvation.
Once again, David finds himself in a difficult place.
I don't know, I mean, I just, you see the David,
like you see the poet, you know,
the artistic man, or the ability that he has within him
to write these words of poetry.
I mean, we do know that in his life,
many times he was under threat by either the Philistines
or by his own king soul, or even by his own son, Absalom.
I mean, David faced many trials.
And through these trials, God used him to pen
some great words, but he sought the salvation
or the deliverance, the help of the Lord many times
in his physical life.
And even though this is about physical salvation
or physical deliverance from enemies,
of course, we can still apply this
to our spiritual salvation.
Of course, we know that it is our God
that gives us that salvation.
But then in verse number two, he says,
he only is my rock and my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation.
I just want you to think about that.
So David doesn't run to another man.
You know, he doesn't think of his ability,
of the strength of a soldier.
We know he's got strength.
We know that he can defeat the lion and the bear
and deliver the lambs.
We know he's able to defeat Goliath.
We know he's able to lead men to war.
And we know that, of course, as a king,
you know, he had counselors and he had many men
that he could, you know, ask their thoughts
and advice from.
But he says, when it comes to deliverance,
when it comes to salvation, he says,
only God can fulfill these things.
He only is my rock.
He only is my salvation.
And of course, if we want to tie this
into spiritual salvation,
we know that the only one that can give us
spiritual salvation is our Lord God,
our rock, Jesus Christ.
You know, this is why he can't save yourself.
This is why a church can't save you.
This is why a man can't save you.
We need God to be our salvation,
which is why Christ became man and died for us,
paid for our sins, rose again from the dead.
And he says in the continuation of verse number two,
he is my defense.
I shall not be greatly moved.
And so, brethren, we know, I'm sure we've all gone through
times of difficulty, some more than others.
I'm sure some of you have gone through persecution.
I'm sure some of you have been betrayed
by people that you thought were very close to you,
your friends, family, who knows?
Now, there is so much betrayal, so much sadness
that you can go through in life.
And when that happens, when a great trial hits,
don't you feel very unsettled?
Don't you feel unsure of yourself?
You know, have I done the right things?
You start to second guess yourself.
I mean, you might think I've done nothing wrong,
but maybe I have.
Maybe I'm deserving of this betrayal.
Maybe I'm deserving of this persecution.
You know, you start to waver a little bit.
I know what that's like.
You start to, am I doing the right thing, Lord?
Did you want me to come to the Sunshine Coast
and start a church, Lord?
You know, there are many things
that you start asking yourself, you know?
But, brethren, in order for us to remain steadfast and sure,
it says that we need to go to God for our defense.
I shall not be greatly moved.
You'll be stable and established
even in the midst of persecution.
Even when your heart is breaking
because people have turned against you,
whatever it is that they've said about you,
you need to just run to the Lord.
He is your defense.
You will not be greatly moved.
You'll be established.
You'll be stable.
If you can, keep your finger there
and come with me to Matthew 16.
So this is our first reference of God as our rock
in this psalm.
So let's go to Matthew 16 and verse number 15.
Psalm number 16, verse number 15.
Let's talk about our rock and, of course,
you all know that the rock is Jesus Christ.
Very clear, multiple times.
You read your New Testament.
Christ is our rock.
And if you go to Matthew 16, verse number 15,
Matthew 16, verse number 15,
this is Jesus Christ speaking to his disciples.
He's safe unto them.
But whom say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Great statement from Peter right there.
All right, great, great statement, right?
And I love, you are the Christ, you're the Messiah.
You're the one that we've been waiting for this whole time.
And I love how he says you're the Son.
And again, once again, brethren,
the Trinity is a fundamental doctrine of the faith.
Jesus Christ is the Son of who?
Of the living, I love that, the living God.
My God's alive.
I know my God is alive.
Okay, I can speak to him right now.
God is right here in this church gathering right now.
His presence is here, he's living.
So while we come to sing praises,
we want to sing to our Lord.
He hears us, he knows.
And I love the fact that he's a God of the living,
because whatever I'm going through in life,
I know he knows of those things.
How many times do we sometimes suffer,
go through certain persecution,
where you might even have secrets that nobody else knows,
of difficulties that you've gone through,
but the Lord knows?
But you know, when you're going through that,
sometimes you think you're the only one.
I can't tell anyone.
But the Lord already knows.
You might as well just open your heart and tell the Lord.
He is our living God.
Verse number 17,
And Jesus answered and said unto him,
Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona,
for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee, and this is important,
thou art Peter, and upon this rock,
I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Reverend, this is New Life Baptist Church.
I did not come to build this church.
The builder is Christ.
He is the rock.
He is the rock by which New Life Baptist Church
is established upon.
And I want to make sure he remains the rock,
because there are churches throughout history
that started with the rock, the foundation of Christ,
and they've moved away.
They've moved away from his words.
They've moved away from Christ.
Reverend, a New Life Baptist Church
must be built upon the rock of Christ,
because if it is built on the rock of Christ,
what does Christ say?
Upon this rock, I will build my church.
I want Christ to build our church.
I don't want to play favoritism.
I don't want to be like, well, you're allowed in my church,
and you're not allowed,
or I'd rather that family be in my church,
and not that family.
That's not my job.
I don't want to be biased in that way.
I don't want to play favoritism.
I want Jesus, you want to add, you want to remove,
you want to, whatever it is that you want to do
to your church.
Lord, you're in charge.
You're the builder.
And I'll just serve you as best as I know how.
But again, then he says,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Now, some people have taught this incorrectly.
They believe the gates of hell
represents the power of Satan.
Reverend, Satan has no power in hell.
You need to understand, okay?
I think you know this.
We've gone through our statement of faith.
Hell is the wrath and judgment of God, okay?
That is where God pulls out his wrath,
his fiery wrath upon those that have rejected Jesus Christ,
and of course, he prepared hell
for the devil and his angels.
He prepared hell to punish the devil.
The devil's got no power in hell.
You know, when Satan is ultimately cast
into the lake of fire,
he's going to be burning in the lowest hells.
He's going to be burning in the greatest flames.
He's got no power in hell.
But some people teach, well, you know,
this means that Satan has no power,
and I do believe this, though.
But they're saying that this is teaching
that Satan has no power over the church of God,
but that's not actually what it's saying,
because we know what hell is.
We know that hell is a place
of those that have rejected Christ.
And, brethren, in this church, we preach the gospel.
We preach salvation in Christ alone.
He only is my rock and my salvation.
Isn't that what he said?
He only is, okay?
So if we preach this, and our church is made up of what?
Born again, saved, Bible believers,
guess what, none of you will go to hell.
None of you will be burnt by it.
None of you will face a second death.
And that's why it says, why Christ promises us, right?
That the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
We will never even enter those gates.
You know, the gates I'm looking forward to
are the gates of heaven, right?
The pearly gates of New Jerusalem,
those are the gates that I'm going to enter in.
But you that are saved,
you don't even need to worry about hell.
It's not going to prevail against you.
You've got the rock of Jesus Christ.
He is your rock and your salvation.
Now, verse number 18 is important,
because if we understand that concept,
that you look, okay, yeah, we're not in danger of hell.
So what does verse number 19 then follow up by saying?
He says, and I will give unto thee,
so if you're part of this church,
God's given us something,
and I will give unto thee
the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Oh, the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Now, those of you that know the Roman Catholic Church,
what is the insignia of the pope?
Does anyone know?
It's two keys, I don't know if you've seen it.
It's a silver key and a gold key.
And they believe, they believe Peter was the first pope,
and so down the lineage of the popes,
they've been given these special keys.
And only the pope can give you access to heaven.
You know, you can only receive salvation, they teach,
on the Roman Catholic Church.
But they forget that the rock is Christ.
He only is my, what was it?
He only is my salvation, yeah, not the pope, okay?
But brethren, actually we've been given keys
to the kingdom of heaven.
And I thank God for those of you
that went soul winning yesterday,
and I know some of you guys are gonna go soul winning today.
You know what, you've got a key, a spiritual key,
and you're opening that door,
and you're telling our lost neighbors,
hey, come in, come in to the kingdom of heaven.
Establish yourself upon the rock of Jesus Christ.
It continues by saying,
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth
shall be bowed in heaven,
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven.
And I guess, you know, you can apply this in different ways.
Of course, when it comes to the church,
and what we decide as a church will be solidified in heaven,
as far as God is concerned.
You know, the decisions we make running this church,
because that rock that this church has built upon is Christ.
But also the fact that as we go out,
and we, I guess in many ways,
loosen people from the bondage of sin,
we know that they're going to be in heaven
for all eternity.
So we have this power of opening the doors,
because we've got those keys for people to enter heaven.
And brethren, we also have the power
to restrict people from entering,
if we don't go out and preach the gospel.
We're saying, nope, you know, not letting you in.
And of course, if we were acting like that as a church,
we would not be built upon the rock, okay?
So going back to Psalm 62,
going back to Psalm 62,
now that we establish a greater, deeper truth
of what the rock represents,
if we can come to verse number three,
Psalm 62 and verse number three.
Now the Psalmist David, he is speaking to his enemies.
He says, how long will you imagine mischief against the man?
Because, guys, I'm tired.
I'm tired of this.
You're gonna just keep,
you're just gonna continue trying to, you know,
persecute me, you're gonna continue attacking me.
Because how long?
I mean, this is going on too long.
How long?
I mean, you can see David's just sick and tired of this.
He says, and his response is,
ye shall be slain, all of you,
as a bowing wall shall ye be,
and as a tottering fence.
You can see that he's, you know,
he started by crying out to the Lord,
waiting upon the Lord.
But as he's gone to God for his defense,
as he stood on the rock,
he now has the courage to speak out against his enemies.
Hey, what did he say about himself?
I will not be greatly moved.
But he says, you guys, you're like a bowing wall.
So I don't know if you've got a wall,
a fence or something,
and with your next door neighbor,
and the fence is starting to give way.
It's starting to bend,
and it's like you're trying to hold it up,
or you're, you know, back in Sydney,
my fence was like that.
You know, it just kept falling apart.
I have to, you know, putting nails into that wall,
into that wall, into that fence.
But it's that same idea, like it's not stable.
And then it says, and as a tottering fence,
the word tottering just means like shaking.
Like if a gush is blowing,
if the wind is blowing,
that fence is just shaking.
And what David is bringing to our attention
is that in Christ,
even if we're being attacked,
we will not be moved,
but our enemies, okay, they're unstable.
Our enemies are unsure of what they're doing.
I mean, they're going on,
how long, how long are you gonna keep going on that attack?
But they're not established.
They're not built upon the rock.
They're wavering.
They're fearful.
And he says, you shall all be slain, all of you.
You know, he knows that God is gonna step in.
He knows God is the one
that's going to take vengeance on his enemies.
And brethren, I'm often comforted by that,
that I don't need to go on the attack.
Lord, you take care of it.
Lord, they're weak.
They're struggling.
They're on the attack, Lord,
but I'm just, I'm gonna rest on you.
I don't wanna be moved.
I don't even like to give my enemies
the satisfaction to think that I've been moved.
I mean, internally, I might be,
oh, what's gonna happen?
But on the outward, I'm like,
ah, it's all good.
I don't wanna give my enemies the satisfaction.
And as I might be trembling and fearful on the inside,
of course, I'm crying out to the Lord,
Lord, please establish me.
Keep me strong.
Make me unmovable.
Help me to be solid.
And so why would this happen, do you think?
Why would people go on the attack?
How long?
He's saying this is useless.
What's the point of this?
Why would people go on the attack against you?
If you're doing things faithfully and right,
and you're not out to attack people,
you're not trying to hurt people,
why do people go on the attack?
I think one thing here, again,
the tottering and the bowing wall
gives us some thoughts about their perspective there.
But if you can, just come quickly with me,
keep your finger there,
and come with me to 3 John in the Bible.
Come with me to 3 John, verse nine.
3 John and verse number nine.
Because what we're reading here in 3 John, verse nine,
ties in quite well with what we're gonna look at,
verse four, in Psalm 62.
But we'll get to verse four in a moment.
But I'll tell you now,
one of the reasons people will go on the attack against you
is because they themselves lack contentment in their life.
They lack satisfaction.
They lack fulfilment in their life.
And why do I know this?
Because I've been there.
Like, I've learned now, I'm a mountain carrier.
Like, I'm content.
I'm honestly brave, I'm a content man, I'm happy.
I'm very satisfied in life.
I think the Lord has done more
than I could ever have asked for.
And I know that I'm doing better than most,
and I know I'm going to heaven no matter what happens.
But I remember, you know, teenage years.
Teenagers, silly.
Sorry, guys.
You'll know this eventually.
But I remember just like, you know,
feeling like, especially at school or something,
feeling that I might,
I'm not as strong as that person,
I'm not as fast as that person.
You know, I'm not as tall as that person,
or I'm not as smart as that person.
And when you see those individuals fail,
oh, that feels kind of nice.
That's cruel.
I'm just showing you what's on my heart.
It's probably been on your heart.
You know, when you're lacking contentment,
you kind of want to see others fail.
It's weird.
It's strange.
Like, when you're not happy within yourself,
it's like you don't want anyone else to be happy.
And you think that's going to give you contentment.
But when you find contentment,
especially when you find contentment in the Lord,
everything changes.
Like, I want everyone to succeed.
Like, every brother and sister in the Lord,
I want them to do well for the Lord.
Like, I'm not thinking, oh man,
you know, what if brother,
I'll use a name that's,
what if brother Bob, you know,
gets greater rewards in heaven than me,
and I was the pastor of the church.
Oh, that's not gonna, I don't care.
Like, I'm like, go for it, brother Bob.
Like, if you deserve those great rewards,
I mean, Christ is the great judge.
I mean, he's the righteous judge.
He knows what's right.
I'm like, yeah, awesome.
Brother Bob, that's my church member.
Praise God for that.
That's honest, that's how I feel.
Like, I want everyone to just do well in life.
I want everyone to have a happy
and fulfilled and content life.
You know, I want everybody to just be
satisfied in the Lord and growing in knowledge
and, you know, overcoming the challenges
and sins they've got.
I don't, like, why?
Why is that?
Because I've got content in myself.
I'm happy with where I am in life.
I'm happy with where I stand before God.
I mean, I'm still a sinner.
I still have areas that I've gotta work in my life,
but truly, when you find contentment in the Lord,
you just want everyone else to do well.
But when you're lacking contentment, brethren,
you wanna see others fail.
You wanna go on the attack.
You're wavering.
Contentment gives you stability.
And if you look at 3 John, verse nine,
this is a situation in a church here.
He says, I wrote unto the church,
but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence
among them, receiveth us not.
So Diotrephes wants to have the preeminence.
Hey, the one that should have preeminence
in the house of the Lord is Jesus Christ.
Okay, not a man.
Okay, I don't wanna have the preeminence here.
I know I'm the main preacher,
but I delight when other men stand behind this pulpit
and preach God's word.
I'm not thinking, oh man, that should be me.
I don't feel that way.
Lord, just use us.
However you need to use us.
Use our gifts and our offices that you've given us.
Just help us to serve you as best as we can.
But Diotrephes will not accept John.
John, the disciple who the Lord loved.
John who walked with Christ those three years.
He would not accept him in the church.
And I want you to notice why.
In verse number 10.
He says, wherefore, if I come,
I will remember his deeds which he doeth,
prattin' against us with malicious words.
Oh, that John, he's not a real disciple.
Yeah, he walked with Jesus those three years,
but he was fake.
He was always in it for whatever else.
He was in it for the money.
He was in it for the position.
He was in it for all these other things.
And then it says this, and not content therewith.
Diotrephes is not content.
And because he's not content,
he doesn't want anyone else to do well.
He'd rather attack.
He'd rather use prattin' words, malicious words.
He goes, neither doth he himself receive the brethren
and forbideth them that would,
and casteth them out of the church.
There are personalities that act that do this in church.
There are personalities that can affect people,
say, you know what, I don't wanna be in church.
They drive me away.
It's like, you know, I come to church,
I just wanna serve my Lord,
but this individual just, you know,
the way they act, the way they speak,
their attacks, their lack of contentment,
I don't wanna be there.
Diotrephes was this person.
But I want you to notice his lack in contentment.
Boy, if Diotrephes was a content man in the Lord,
serving the Lord faithfully, you'd have no problem.
Of course, John.
Of course, come and preach at our church.
Of course, come and teach us great truths of your word.
Like, it seems like this tiny thing,
but contentment really is an important part of your life.
Please find it in Jesus Christ.
You're not gonna find it in this world.
You might say, I'll be content pastor
once my bank account reaches, you know, $200,000, $500,000.
You won't be content even when that happens.
You won't be content when he doubles that amount
in your bank account.
You still won't be content.
Your contentment must come in Christ.
And where you stand, I'm a child of God.
I know who I am.
You know, I don't go around, you know, arrogant,
but I know, I know my position.
I know the Lord, my living God is looking down at me.
I know he sees all things.
I know he sees my heart, which is kind of scary sometimes.
Then I know he sees those that seek to hurt me.
I know he sees those that seek to hurt my family.
I know he sees the work of the devil.
I just rest in him.
Lord, you know all things.
So I'm not going to be moved.
I'm not gonna be greatly moved.
And I'm gonna find content in you, Lord.
And I love it.
When I'm content, I want everyone to just do well.
You know, to flourish for the Lord.
Back to Psalm 62.
Psalm 62, verse number four.
Just in case you thought I was moving away too much
in 3 John, he talks about his enemies here
in verse number four.
They only consult to cast him down from his excellency.
All my enemies wanna do is to cast me from my excellency.
I guess he's speaking about his position as a king there.
Right?
David lifted up an excellent position, a high position.
He goes, these enemies, all they consult,
all they're focused on, all they wanna accomplish
is to tear me down.
Again, why would you wanna tear others down?
Because you're lacking contentment.
Because they wanna tear me down.
That's all.
They only consult.
That's all they're focused on.
They're not thinking about the kingdom.
They're not thinking about their families.
They're not thinking about the Lord God.
They're not thinking about their fellow man.
All they're focused on is tearing me down
from my excellency.
It says they delight in lies.
Look, they're not seeking the truth.
They wanna lie.
They wanna create mischief.
And oh, when someone believes a lie,
oh yeah, woo hoo, we'll be able to convince someone else
that David's a wicked man.
They bless with their mouth.
We love you, David.
God bless you, David.
Anything you need, David, we're right here, you know that.
But then, but they curse inwardly, Selah.
They curse inwardly.
So they're double tongued, they betray us.
I mean, David had to deal with this in his kingdom.
You're gonna have to deal with this
at some point in your life.
Maybe the young people haven't,
but you will eventually.
People say all manner of beautiful things toward you,
but inwardly, they're cursing you.
Inwardly, they hate you.
Inwardly, they hate your success.
Inwardly, they hate your contentment.
And all they can focus on is tearing you down.
I mean, I've dealt with this.
It's not nice.
When you deal with people that just hate you
without a cause,
I tell you, like I said, you'd be,
you're like, what did I do?
What did I do?
You start replaying every interaction, every word,
every sentence, every, where did I go wrong?
Did I offend brother so-and-so?
Did I offend sister so-and-so?
And if I did, why didn't we sort that out?
I mean, what's, and you start replaying it all
again and again and again.
You can be easily moved.
And Brethren, when that happens, you run to the rock.
You run to God and say, God, I don't know what's going on.
You know what's going on.
I'm just gonna maintain a clear conscience before you.
And Lord, you just deal with it.
You deal with it, Lord.
I'm just gonna continue serving you,
setting you first, because these thoughts and these ideas,
the replaying of the past, it's just driving me insane.
These lies, when you start hearing lies
about you, is that true, though?
Did I misjudge that?
You know what, Lord, I'm just gonna continue serving you.
Lord, I'm just gonna stand on you, my rock,
my defense, my salvation.
And Lord, you just need to deal with it.
You see what my enemies do.
But their focus, again, the reason I like verse number four,
they only consult to cast him down.
This is like an unhealthy obsession.
They're only focused on that.
I've seen it, I've seen it with, you know,
I'd say Pastor Anderson or something like that in the States
where he might, there might be some issue,
certain people don't like him for whatever reason.
And I've seen it, I've seen it even in Australia,
this unhealthy obsession to just tear down a man of God
who's just trying to do great things for him.
Like, no man's perfect.
People sin all the time.
People, you know, we got weaknesses.
Even pastors do.
It always, you know, it's true.
Even pastors can fail, make mistakes.
But it's like, oh, that one thing, that one issue,
just, that's it, let's tear him down.
And it's like this obsession.
I've been there, I've been in a church like that.
Obsession over a man, obsession over tearing someone down.
It's like, what, you don't wanna be there.
It's like this is not the house of the Lord
because this is not about Jesus anymore.
Verse number five.
David says, my soul wait thou only upon God,
because I'm still waiting for the Lord to deliver me,
for my expectation is from him.
My expectation, I expect that God's gonna come through.
I expect that.
You know what, yeah, I hope it's gonna happen,
but I expect it's gonna happen.
I know the Lord's gonna come through,
but I'm still waiting.
And one of the most uneasy things in your life
is when you feel like, Lord, you need to step in now,
but you haven't yet, Lord.
Well, you think that, but you don't understand
the Lord is working behind the scenes,
and his timing is different to your timing, isn't it?
We're impatient people, we're very impatient.
Lord, now, now, why haven't you done anything, Lord?
No, no, no, wrong attitude.
Let's wait, my soul wait thou only upon God.
Verse number six, he only is my rock and my salvation.
He is my defense, I shall not be moved.
Very similar to verse number two,
but do you notice a difference?
Right, verse number two, he says,
I shall not be greatly moved,
meaning I'm gonna move a little bit.
I'm still uncertain about this, Lord,
but as he's continued to wait upon the Lord now,
he goes, you know what, I'm not even gonna move a bit.
I shall not be moved.
Not a single tremble.
I'm gonna stay exactly where I am before my Lord,
and I love that.
I mean, it's great to not be greatly moved,
but even better to not be moved at all, right?
And so what do we see in the Psalm?
The courage, right?
The hope is increasing in David.
He knows now the Lord's gonna step in,
and what's gonna give that in your life?
This development of courage and boldness
is going to God just like David is, in prayer.
You need to.
Brethren, we need to go to God in prayer.
You know, when things aren't working well,
when things are, when you're struggling,
I'm a human being too.
I've got the flesh too.
I've got pride too.
Sometimes when things aren't going according to plan,
you say, don't worry, God, I've got this.
I'll do all of it.
I know the answers.
Not really, brethren.
We need to go to God.
We need to go to Him.
I mean, He's always available.
He's always open.
He's always ready to hear your prayers.
It's beautiful.
We can go to our living God and speak to Him,
our Heavenly Father.
But once again, this is the second time
that we have a reference to the rock.
So come with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
Keep your finger there and come with me
to 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
1 Corinthians chapter 10, please.
Now, we're living in New Testament times, aren't we?
Our rock is Jesus Christ, okay?
But David, is he operating under New Testament times?
No, Old Testament times.
Doesn't matter.
Does God ever change, do you think, He never changes?
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
We know that.
But anytime I get an opportunity to teach this, I will.
Because it boggles my mind, like boggles, I don't know.
Why?
Independent Baptist churches, some, not all.
In fact, it's probably, I'd say it's few.
But still, there's a number of believers,
and sometimes I wonder if they even are believers,
that think Old Testament saints got saved some other way.
Some other way.
Like, but they didn't know the name of Christ.
They probably didn't know
about the crucifixion, the resurrection.
I don't know, because Isaiah knew
quite a lot of detail about it.
And this afternoon's sermon,
I'll show you just how much Abraham knew about it.
Anyway.
And they say, well, we, under the new covenant,
we get the opportunity to be saved by grace through faith.
Okay, but David says, God is His only salvation.
Was his faith on the Lord God alone as well?
Was he operating from a faith alone principle,
David, you reckon, under the old covenant?
Well, the reason I wanted to turn
to First Corinthians 10, verse one, let's just read it.
So this is Paul, well, let's make it clear.
Paul, the apostle Paul, okay, an Israelite,
writing to the Corinthian church, Gentiles.
Yeah, Gentiles, Corinthians, Greeks, are they Greeks?
Yeah, Corinth, Greeks, yeah?
So they're not Jews, they're not Israelites or anything.
But he says, moreover, brethren,
so Paul, the Israelite, is saying to the Gentiles,
we're brethren, we're related, brethren,
I would not that ye should be ignorant,
how that all our fathers, oh, so,
Paul, we have the same fathers, Gentiles and Israelites.
We have the same fathers, okay.
How that all our fathers were under the cloud
and all passed through the sea.
What's that talking about?
Talking about the Israelites that came out of Egypt.
They went through the Red Sea.
The pillar of the cloud led them
and gave them shade from the harsh sun.
He's talking about the Israelites that came out of Egypt
and he's saying to the Corinthians, the Greeks,
we have the same fathers that went through that.
Isn't that interesting?
Verse number two, and we're all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
And notice verse number three,
and did all eat the same spiritual meat.
New Testament saints, Old Testament saints,
we all eat of the same spiritual meat, okay?
Look at verse number four,
and did all drink the same spiritual drink.
Oh, we all get the same drink,
Old Testament, New Testament saints.
For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them
and that rock was Christ.
Do you see that, brethren?
What makes the Israelites of old, the saints of old,
I'm not saying all Israelites
because not all of them were saved,
but those that were saved,
those that had their faith on Christ,
what makes them our fathers?
Physically?
Of course not.
Spiritually, okay?
Spiritually, the saints of old are our fathers
that have gone before us.
And even those that were operating under the old covenant,
they ate of the same spiritual meat,
they drank of the same spiritual drink,
and the rock which they drank of, you know the miracle
where Moses would cause water to come out of that rock?
That rock typified or represented Jesus Christ.
So the rock in the Old Testament is Christ.
The rock in the New Testament is Christ.
And brethren, we're saved.
It's a spiritual issue.
And we're saved the same way in Christ.
So don't let people deceive you.
Oh, they knew nothing of Christ.
Are you sure?
I mean, have you read the Bible?
I don't understand.
Do you not read the Bible?
How many times when Christ was walking on the earth
did he have to say to the Pharisees, have ye not read?
And I actually believe they had read,
but they don't pay attention.
They're so fixed on their biases,
they're so fixed on their, well, this is our interpretation.
Just read the scriptures.
You know Christ was always there
with his people in the Old Testament.
Christ has always been the rock,
and salvation has only been available in our Lord God.
No other method, not works.
Faith on the Lord God, faith on that rock.
Now I'm not saying that you have to drink
of that water to be saved.
That's a spirit, that's an illustration.
It's a picture.
It's an object lesson of the spiritual truth.
I'm not saying Christ was literally that rock.
Again, that rock is a type.
It's a picture, it's a story of what Christ would give.
Back to Psalm 62, verse number seven.
Psalm 62, verse number seven.
So brethren, we can take Psalm 62
and apply it for ourselves.
It's not like David's rock was different
in the Old Covenant, and our rock is different
in the New Covenant.
No, we take the Bible, it's written all for us, okay?
For our admonition.
It's for our prophets.
The word of God.
Can we meet to verse number seven?
Psalm 62, verse number seven.
This is the third time the rock gets mentioned.
In God is my salvation and my glory.
The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God.
I love it, the rock is of my strength.
Reverend, where's your strength coming from?
It needs to come from the Lord.
But you know his strength is perfected in our weakness.
When we're doing well in life and we've got no problems,
it doesn't happen too often these days,
but when you have those openings,
it's very easy to stop thinking of the Lord.
It's so easy when things are just,
I just don't need the Lord, and it happens.
It's just the way we're made, I don't know why.
You know, why do we fail so much?
But when things are running so smoothly,
it's like, I've got it, Lord, you know?
But then we're relying on our own strength.
And it's truly, sometimes the Lord will just cause you
to go from some problem just to weaken you.
Say, but I wanna be strong, but he needs to weaken
your flesh so your strength comes from God.
I mean, who's stronger, you or God?
Of course, God, so what strength do you want?
Your strength or God's strength?
Obvious, but the only way to access the strength of God
is to understand and accept your weakness
and say, Lord, you're my strength.
So this is the third time that we have the rock mentioned.
And if you can come with me, keep your finger there,
come with me to first, sorry, yeah, 1 Peter 2.
Come with me to 1 Peter 2 and verse number four.
1 Peter 2 and verse number four.
The Bible reads, to whom come in as unto a living stone,
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious.
This stone that we're reading about, brethren,
is, if you go backtrack a little bit, it's about Christ.
But this is a precious stone.
This is a precious rock.
It's a disallowed indeed of men.
Men don't want this rock.
They'd rather do it on their own.
They'd rather try to save themselves
with their good works or what have you.
But for us that are saved by Christ,
we know how precious this stone is.
In verse number five, it says, ye also, ye also,
but not just Christ, but the rest of us, brethren, here,
as lively stones, oh, we're stones as well,
have built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood
to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Wherefore, also it is contained in the scripture,
behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone,
elect precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded.
So we have Christ who is that stone,
that elect precious stone.
And brethren, if we have Christ as our foundation,
then we can build our own lives upon him.
And God can use us as stones to build his kingdom,
to do his work.
Verse number seven, unto you therefore which believe.
How do you get saved again?
By believing.
That's it.
Again, oh, just believe, believing is not enough.
Unto you therefore which believe, he is precious.
Christ is precious.
How do you know you're saved?
Oh, because I live righteously.
Come on.
I know I'm saved because of what my precious stone
has done for me.
Always see your eyes on the rock.
Always see your eyes on the precious stone.
Look, when you have the right gospel,
and you glory in salvation,
you're only going to glory in Christ.
You're gonna say Christ is precious.
But if salvation's by your righteousness,
you're gonna glory in your righteousness.
You're not gonna find Christ precious.
You're gonna think your life is precious.
Look at me, look how well I'm doing.
But you'll never have the confidence
because you know you mess up in life.
But we've believed on Christ, we know he's precious.
Then it says, but unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed,
the same is made the head of the corner,
and a stone of stumbling, look at this,
and a rock of offense.
Look, my rock is not a rock of offense.
I'm not offended by Jesus.
But for most of the world, they're offended.
When you say, hey, you know what,
you're not good enough for heaven.
Christ offered you a gift.
Oh, I don't want, I can make it on my own.
Because people have a hard time,
especially in Australia, to accept free gifts.
What are the strings?
Surely there are strings attached to salvation.
But it's a rock of stumbling, they stumble.
All right, they stumble.
They don't understand, they don't get it.
They don't wanna receive it.
Like for us, it's so, so contrary.
We're like, hey, just stand on the rock.
Just, you know, let's pretend that's a rock, right?
We're just one foot, just all of it on Christ, right?
Just take a step, put all your trust on Christ alone.
And they walk up to the rock.
Oh, and they stumble.
All right, there's no salvation.
Ah, there's no salvation.
Well, just stand on it.
Stand on Christ.
It's precious.
It lifts you up.
Yeah, but Brevin, that's the reality.
Like we come, like for us,
we can't believe that people reject the gospel.
What about when people understand all of it?
They're like, ah, don't wanna call on the Lord.
Nah, not for me.
What's up, man?
It's like, what?
Just open it.
Say, yes, Jesus, I want it.
Give it to me.
Yes, I'm trusting you alone.
They still stumble at it.
Like we can't understand it.
Because we're like, it's so precious.
It's so valuable.
This rock, what more do you need?
But for them, they're offended by it.
I'll just read verse number eight again.
And a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word,
being disobedient, whereunto also they were appointed.
Verse number nine.
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.
Notice the next words.
And holy nation.
What is God's holy nation?
Oh, Israel in the Middle East.
No.
Believers of all people, of the Jews,
of the Gentiles, all believers make up that holy nation.
A peculiar people that you should show forth
the praises of him who have called you out of darkness
into his marvelous lights,
which in time past were not a people,
but are now the people of God,
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
So brethren, this rock also creates,
brings unity in the division between different peoples.
You know, it's such a beautiful rock, our Lord Jesus Christ.
I mean, he is my strength.
Not, again, as I live my life,
he's not always my strength because I make mistakes.
Not because of his failings, but because of my failings.
And I need to be reminded, Lord, you are my strength.
But of course, when it comes to salvation,
Christ, he is all that I need.
He is all that I preach about.
If I were to say anything else,
if I were to, you know, I mean, what a disaster.
What a disaster to preach any other form of salvation,
any other gospel message.
This is why I have a hard time believing
even independent Baptists that say other people,
you know, the Jews or the Israelites were saved
by some other method in the old covenant.
How can you even be saved?
How do you even understand it?
You don't get it, that man cannot do it.
You don't understand that only Christ
could have been that sacrifice.
Back to Psalm 62, please.
Psalm 62, verse number eight.
Trust in him at all times, ye people.
All times, ye people.
Pour out your heart before him, God, before him.
God is a refuge for us, Selah.
So what we're going to notice
toward the end of this Psalm is,
we're now comparing God's help,
trusting in God's ability to help us,
versus trust in man.
I'm gonna start saying this.
So we can trust God at all times.
When things are going well, you trust him.
When things are going bad, you trust him.
I mean, what is salvation?
Trust in him.
Trusting what Christ has done is all sufficient.
In all, all times.
There's never a time when you cannot trust him.
And Brevin, you need to just pour out your heart to him.
Just do it.
All right, just like, you know, if you're embarrassed,
just get yourself privately alone somewhere far
where no one can see you, okay?
There's plenty of, you know,
empty places here on the Sunshine Coast.
Praise God for that.
You guys saw the pictures of Sydney.
There's no quiet place in Sydney.
Plenty of quiet places here on the Sunshine Coast
where you can get ahold of God all by yourself.
Okay, you don't have to deal with the embarrassment
of man or anything like that.
Just get ahold of God, pour out your heart to him,
trust him, and then verse number nine.
You can either trust God or you can trust man.
Verse number nine speaks of men here.
Surely men of low degree are vanity.
What are men of low degree?
Speaking about men who might be poor,
maybe men who have a bad reputation, okay?
Like, you're not going to, like, if you need help, man,
let's say you're a financial, you need financial help.
You're not going to run to the poor man, okay?
You're not going to run to the homeless to get help, right?
Like, running to them, it's vanity.
They're not gonna help, you know that.
You know, men of low degree aren't capable of helping you
in a time of difficulty.
You go, oh, then maybe the men of high degree.
Maybe men with good reputation,
maybe men who are someone with a high standing in the world,
maybe they can help me.
Well, look what it says there, and then it says,
and men of high degree are a lie.
They don't exist, God is saying.
Like, in comparison to God, right?
In comparison to God's help,
you think if I just run to this man,
he's got a big bank account, he's got a good reputation,
surely he's gonna help me.
He's got a high degree.
He's got a good reputation.
Let me throw in pastors there.
Surely Pastor Kevin's gonna help me.
It's a lie.
I'm just a man.
I've got weaknesses like you.
Brevin, if you need help, you run to God.
And if you wanna give me a call, pastor,
can you please pray for me?
I will, because I'm running to God too.
All we're doing is running to God together, okay?
Because it's a lie.
If you think men can help you, Brevin, it's not true.
Men of low degree can't help you,
men of high degree can't help.
It's insignificant, it's vanity in comparison
to the help that God can give.
And I say this quite often, you know,
please don't have an ultra high,
like don't lift pastors on a pedestal.
Because I know what I am.
I'm just you, saved by grace, okay?
And I just met the qualifications, put my hand up,
I'll do it, Lord.
There's a need, I'll do it, Lord.
That's all, that's all the difference is.
And I say this because I'm gonna let you down.
And maybe I've already let you down in life, okay?
I mean, I don't want to, I'm not trying to, okay?
Like I'm not on this like,
oh man, I gotta let everybody down.
So they learned the lesson not to trust man,
but to trust God.
I'm not trying to, but I will, I promise, I will.
I've let myself down.
And when I let you down, I don't want you to go,
oh man, this whole Christian life is not worth it.
Because it happens.
People put too much trust in their pastors.
They think, well, surely that's a high degree, it's a lie.
They can't help you.
You go to God, you know what?
And when your pastor lets you down and you say,
Lord, I'm raising my pastor before you, all right?
Please help him, I love him,
help him to turn that corner,
whatever he needs to do in life, you know?
And as long as it's not some major sin
that requires someone to step down from an office
or something like that,
then get behind your pastors, but don't trust me.
I'm just another man.
I'm gonna fail you, I tell you now.
And when I do, I want you to remember,
oh my pastor said I'm gonna fail, I said, it happened.
Because he wanted me to put my trust in God, not in man.
And they say, well, hold on pastor, maybe.
Okay, one man of low degree, one man of high degree,
they can't help me.
But surely if I got every single human being in the world,
surely everybody, all 8 billion people are gonna help me
in this time of difficulty.
Well, that verse hasn't finished.
It says, to be laid in the balance,
they are all together lighter than vanity.
You get everybody, everybody's ability to help you.
You put it all in the balance, the balance of God's help.
And brethren, it's lighter than vanity, it's worthless.
It's, there's no profit.
It's lighter than vanity.
Again, we're comparing who we should be trusting, God.
So brethren, when you go through a difficulty, a problem,
the first person you call is Jesus.
Say, Lord, help me, you're my rock, let me stand upon you.
And then you call other people to pray for you,
to help you.
Man, you think if all 8 billion people in this world
got together behind me to help me,
surely I'm gonna get a solution.
It's lighter than vanity, God says.
God says, just come to me, trust in me at all times,
pull your heart out to me.
I love our Lord.
Because I don't even like when people
pull out their heart to me.
But God wants me to pull my heart out to him.
I don't have a lot of patience.
You know?
I know my weaknesses.
I don't try to pretend to be something that I'm not.
I have a hard time when someone's telling me a sob story.
I have a hard time keeping focus.
It's like, no, we need to go to God,
because God, God understands it.
God can hear it.
Trust in him.
Man, telling me your story, listen, it's vanity.
It's just how it is.
Just, let's accept man for what it is.
Okay, we're lighter than vanity.
And then verse number 10.
So you go, well, okay, if people aren't gonna help me,
then I'm just gonna make it on my own.
I'm going to raise myself up.
I'm going to, look, verse number 10,
trust not in oppression.
Then I'm just gonna oppress people then.
If I can't get help, then I'm gonna become
the aggressor in the situation.
It says, and become not vain in robbery.
Maybe if I just, I start taking for myself.
I start looking after my own needs.
Who cares about other people?
Obviously, that's not the right way to go either.
You know, sometimes the Lord does allow
your riches to increase.
It says that if riches increase, riches increase.
Say, pastor, I've got that million dollars
in my bank account.
Now I feel secure.
Now I know I'm gonna make it in life.
If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.
Set your heart on what?
On the one that gave you those riches.
Set your heart on God.
Brethren, your riches aren't going to deliver you.
You can't take it with you.
You can't take it with you when you pass away.
Those riches, brethren, as quickly as they can come
is as quickly as they can go.
In fact, I reckon they go faster than they come,
generally speaking.
So you can't set your heart on man.
You can't trust man, regardless of their status.
You can't trust in your ability to just be selfish
and oppress people and rob from them.
It's not gonna help you in life, of course not.
You're gonna end up in jail or something.
And you can't trust in money, in riches, in wealth.
And think this will be what gives me contentment.
This is what's gonna give me deliverance in my trials.
No, it's only the one that gives you the richest brethren.
Set your heart upon those things.
Verse number 11.
God has spoken once, twice have I heard this,
that power belongeth unto God.
What I like about verse number 11,
it speaks about the importance of repetition.
God has spoken once.
You know, we've got our Bibles.
God has spoken.
He's given us his word.
But, brethren, we need to read it again, twice.
Have you read your Bible cover to cover?
If you haven't, you need to read it at least once.
And then when you finish, I finished pastor,
I've got through the whole Bible, I'm done.
No, twice.
And a third time and a fourth time and a fifth time.
What this is saying is we need repetition.
We need to go to God's word again and again and again.
And sometimes when you're in church and you're going,
man, I've heard this sermon already.
Listen, you need to hear it twice.
You need to hear it again.
Sometimes we're talking to the preachers.
Oh, pastor, you're preaching this.
I was gonna preach on the same topic this coming Sunday.
Just preach it.
Because God obviously wants us to hear it twice.
Okay, because we can be thick.
We can get distracted at church.
Or maybe when I preached it on Wednesday,
that individual wasn't ready to hear it,
but they're gonna go for some difficulty on Friday
and they're gonna be ready to hear it
when you say it on Sunday.
And we're all at different stages in life.
We're all growing at different stages.
I might preach a sermon on marriage.
And you say, well, I'm a single man.
There's no point.
Well, then I need to preach it twice when you are married.
Eventually, it's going to be applicable to your life.
We need to hear it multiple times.
And the other reason we need to hear it multiple times
is because we forget.
Don't we forget?
I forget.
Someone says to me,
Pastor, that was a good sermon on Sunday.
What was it again?
I don't know.
We forget.
Okay?
Or we have visitors.
We have new members that come to church.
You go, well, this is just milk of God's word,
but maybe that visitor, maybe that new person,
maybe that newly saved individual needs to hear it.
But what is it specifically that the Psalmist
has heard twice?
That power belongeth unto God.
Because man, I'm not going to trust man.
Right?
If I want the power to deliver me in this difficulty,
it must be from God.
It comes from him.
He's reminded again.
I need to be reminded again.
You know, when I'm going through some difficulty,
I need to remind that, oh, go to God, of course.
He's got the power to deliver me.
Not only that, verse number 12, he says,
also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy.
So power belongs to God and mercy belongs to God.
Because not only do we need God's power to deliver us,
but we need God's mercy when we mess up.
I need it.
I definitely need God's mercy in my life.
You need God's mercy.
It comes from God.
For thou render'st to every man according to his work.
So it's essentially saying that God will reward you
with power and mercy based on what you're doing for him.
For your work.
What have you done?
Like if you're not living for Christ,
if you haven't got a heart for the Lord,
then how is he going to render,
how is he going to reward you with mercy and power?
You want to increase the help, the deliverance,
the success through our Lord God,
then work for him, serve him, love him, right?
And when that happens, brethren,
God's power and his mercy is just available to you
at every corner.
The mercy to help you when you mess up,
the power to help you when you need deliverance.
But these things belong to God.
Please don't set your heart on man.
Don't set your heart on a pastor.
Pastors fail.
Pastors have failed me.
I've gone through it.
My pastor failed me.
How can it be?
This is disappointing.
Downcast, sorrow, sadness, confusion,
wavering because a man let me down.
I go, oh, hold on.
I wasn't meant to trust my pastor.
I wasn't meant to put confidence in man.
I was meant to put confidence in God this whole time.
So just remind yourself of this truth, brethren,
that Jesus Christ, our Lord God,
is your rock and your salvation.
Okay, let's pray.