All right, good evening, Grace. Let's make a beginning tonight. I don't have any other announcements other than this. I want to remind you, as a friendly reminder, that the next two Sundays are going to be abnormal, so expect chaos. Seriously, expect chaos. We're not all going to remember, and that's going to be okay. I'm still waiting. Next week, somebody's going to bring a big thing of chicken. And some of us are going to go home with some chickens, and that's okay. That'll be fine. But we're not going to have fellowship meal next week. Dr. Beeky is going to be here. And just to let you know, we have invited ladies from sister churches to the women's seminar at 3.30. There's going to be ladies here from a church in Norfolk, possibly from Grace Baptist Chapel in Hampton, and from Green Run Baptist Church. So we're looking forward to a good time of camaraderie and hearing from God's Word from our sister in the Lord, speaking to our sisters in the Lord. And she's coming with a wealth of knowledge and experience, and we're very much looking forward to it. And just to let you know, as elders and leaders, we're watching how this goes because if we get a good reaction, a good response, if you will, we're thinking through holding something of a theology conference every year where we would invite other churches to come. So this is going to be kind of a dry run to see how that goes on a smaller level. But just keep in mind, the next two Sundays are abnormal. We have the new schedule in the bulletin, so please go and put that on your refrigerator, okay? All right, let's make a beginning tonight. We'll do that in our responsive call to worship. It is in your bulletin. Toward the back, a responsive call to worship for the Vesper. This is coming from Isaiah 49, 13. I'm going to read the light print, and I encourage you to follow along in the bold. Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth. Break forth, O mountains, into singing. For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted. Would you bow your heads with me tonight? Father God, we take great joy and comfort in the fact that this verb, this past tense, you have comforted your people. You have comforted your people by sending your son from heaven some 2,000 years ago to redeem your precious elect. And Father, I just pray that in the course of this day, we have already pondered our identity in Christ. We have already pondered that before the foundation of the world, you set your love on us. It's not that we were lovely. It's not that we were commendable. It's that, Father, you loved us because you loved us because you loved us. You are the archetype father. You are the father that every father is to be like and yet no father is like. You are the great and compassionate father and it is before you that we come this evening praying that as we close out this Lord's Day, Father, you would reassure and affirm our hearts in the gospel and that you would remind us that you are there and that you are not silent. You remind us, Father, that though the world rage and totter and call what we celebrate on this day a myth, we know, Father, that you have acted in history. You have sent your Son. He has come. He has bled. He has died. He has been obedient on our behalf, and we rejoice that you are for us in Jesus Christ. So hear the cries of the afflicted tonight, and may our hearts be malleable as we hear from you through your word. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen. Let's stand. Tonight we're going to sing Psalm 119, 121 to 128. I encourage you to turn in your Bibles tonight to Psalm 119. We're going to be looking at the Ayan stanza, which is found in verses 121 to 128. So Psalm 119, verses 121 to 128. If you're visiting tonight, we've been working through Psalm 119, the longest Psalm in the Psalter. There are 22 stanzas. We're in the Ayan stanza, which is A Hebrew character for which there really is no English equivalent, it's called a guttural. Usually when it is pronounced people are getting spit on and that's just kind of how it goes in these Middle Eastern languages, ancient Near Eastern languages. So, Psalm 119 verses 121 to 28, let's give our attention to the reading of God's Word. The psalmist says, I have done what is just and right. Do not leave me to my oppressors. Give your servant a pledge of good. Let not the insolent oppress me. My eyes long for your salvation and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise. Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love and teach me your statutes. I am your servant. Give me understanding that I may know your testimonies. It is time for the Lord to act. For your law has been broken, therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. Therefore I consider all your precepts to be right. I hate every false sway." That's for the reading of God's Word. I love how the Bible is so incredibly politically incorrect. And it is especially incorrect in this stanza because the theme of this stanza is the child of God as servant. The child of God as servant, evid. In the Greek, doulos. Evid and doulos, whether it's in the Hebrew or the Greek, can be rendered either as servant or they can be rendered as slave. In the ancient Near Eastern context, and certainly in the Greco-Roman world in the New Testament, there wasn't always much of a difference. You were a servant and you had a master. Master was over you. You were to obey your master. Your worth, if you will, was found not in yourself, but in your master. That is so incredibly politically correct today. And yet we need to remind ourselves that as Christians, much of our lot in life is going against the flow of what are the current trends of modern thought. As I always say, he who marries the spirit of the age soon becomes a widow, and we need to be careful never to marry the spirit of the age, the thought of the age, the logic of the age, but we need to let our minds and our hearts be instructed by Scripture. And so what I would like to present for you tonight is Christians as servants. We are servants. We are douloi. We are evadhim. We are servants of the Most High God. And it's interesting because there is this interchange in John chapter 8. Many of you will be familiar with it. Please don't turn there. But in John chapter 8, verses 31 to 34, Jesus is arguing. He's sparring with the Pharisees, as it were. And he says to the Jews, if you abide in my word, these are the Jews that had believed in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Now, before I go any further, to be set free, you must have need of freedom. In other words, you must be enslaved. So Jesus, in some way, shape, or form, is assuming that everybody is enslaved to something, and this is exactly what the Pharisees pick up on. Verse 33, they answered him, we are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? Talk about short-term memory loss. The Jews were enslaved to the Egyptians for over 400 years. And that seems to have eluded their memory. But all of a sudden, they think that they've always been free. All of a sudden, they think that they are operating according to the highest octane level of free will. Jesus responds in verse 34, truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. I bring that up to say this, we live in an age where everyone likes to think, listen, that they are independent. Everyone likes to think that they are exercising the most heightened level of free will. Everyone likes to think that they are being genuine. We hear this and see this all the time in the LGBTQ community. Look, they say, I'm just being who I am. I'm just being who I am. We see and hear this oftentimes with the man who's going through the midlife crisis. He's balding, but he's gotta have the red convertible, and soon he finds himself off with his secretary, leaving his wife and his family, and he's just saying, I just gotta be who I am. This is who I are, who I am, to which the Bible responds, maybe that is who you are, but let me tell you something, pal, that's not a good thing. Because what that means is that you are a slave to something. Those in the LGBT community are slaves to their passions. And by the way, let's not just pick on them. Anyone who is a slave to any sexual sin is a slave to their passions. Anyone who thinks that they could trade in a younger model for an older model, or a younger model for an older model, is a slave to an elusive dream. Can I submit something to you tonight? Everyone, mark it, everyone is a slave or a servant to someone or something. Everyone. The question is not, am I a slave? Here's the question, who is my master? The question is, who is my master? Is money your master? Is fame your master? Is clout your master? Is security your master? Is the avoidance of fear your master? Is having the perfect body your master? Is having kids with straight teeth and straight A's your master? What is your master? Having as many degrees as you can get or at least more than your neighbor, is that your master? Having the perfect family? Everybody has a master, the question is who is it? So let me submit to you tonight two very simple marks of a Christian as servant. There's two things that a Christian servant delights in, and one of them is the surety of God, and the other one is the treasure of God. So let's start first with the surety. The Christian servant's surety is God's solemn promise of goodness to us in Jesus Christ. The Christian servant's surety is God's solemn promise of goodness to us in Jesus Christ. I want you to see this, beloved, in verses 122 to 124. I want you to look at verse 122. Though we seek to imitate God as we live out the new image that he has made us to be in Jesus Christ, that image-bearing activity, obeying God, submitting to our master Jesus Christ, listen, is not the basis of God's pledge of goodness to us. And I say that because when you come to verse 121, I said 122, I mean 121, on the surface it seems like the servant is bragging. Look at verse 121. I have done what is just and right. Do not leave me to my oppressors. But what I want you to see here is that he's not bragging about his righteous behavior. You know what he's doing? He's simply asserting the righteousness of his cause, which God stands behind. In other words, he's saying, God, you are righteousness. You also do righteousness, but you are righteous, and I want you to know, God, as a servant of you, I have done what is just and right as well. You wanna know why? Because I'm trying to imitate you. This isn't self-righteous Pharisaism. This is me saying I am striving after the cause for which you have baked into my new image in Jesus Christ. You have called me to be righteous. You have declared me to be righteous forensically through faith in Jesus Christ. And the rest of my life is a striving after with every twitch and fiber and muscle of my being to be righteous. I've done that, Father, and I'm doing that. So he's simply imitating his righteous master. In other words, the servant basically says, I delight God in what you delight in. I delight in what you delight in. I identify more with you than verse 121, my oppressors, and 122, the insolent who oppress me, those who make fun of me. But I want you to notice, I want you to notice that when you get to verse 122, Give your servant a pledge of good. I want you to notice that the basis upon which he's crying out to the Lord, that the Lord would give him this surety, and I'll talk about what surety is in just a moment, is not verse 121, but it's 123 and 124. Look at it. Verse 123, my eyes long for your salvation and for the fulfillment of your righteous promise. In other words, the servant is saying, be sure to me, stand in the gap for me, stand in my place, O righteous Father, not because of the good that I have done, but because of the promise that you have given. And then look at verse 124, deal with your servant according to your steadfast love. Now if you have a NASB it probably says loving kindness and I just want you to mark this word in the Hebrew is one of the most beautiful words in the Hebrew language and the word is chesed and chesed is God's covenant faithfulness, God's delighting to engage in steadfast love for His people, for His glory, and for His renown, that they might be happy. This is God's chesed, His steadfast, covenantal, faithful love. It's a mouthful, and it should be. And notice that the servant here, and this is what we should be doing as well, we are not asking that God would be surety to us. We're not asking that God would be a bond and a pledge and a promise to us because of our righteousness, even though we are trying to imitate Him. No, we ask Him to be that because of the promise that He has made to us. He made to us a promise way back in the garden in the fall that the seed of the woman would crush the seed of the serpent. He made a promise to us way back to our spiritual forefather Abraham that he would be a God to us and we would be servants to him. And then that promise came all the way down to Jesus Christ where it found its fulfillment. And that promise is the promise that God delights to be a surety to us in. Now what is this idea of surety? It's an idea of a pledge. It's an idea of one standing in the gap, or in one's place. In fact, this word was used in the Joseph account, in Genesis, when you'll recall Joseph was already in Egypt, and he was standing as second in command, and remember his brothers came to him, and they said that they were trying to get food because there was a famine, and Joseph was kind of playing games with them, and he sent them back to the father, and he said, I want you to bring Benjamin back. So he went back to Jacob and said, hey, the Pharaoh wants us to take Benjamin back. And he's like, no way, I've already lost one of my sons. I'm not gonna send another one. And then Judah stepped forward and he said, I will stand as a pledge. I will give a pledge for Benjamin. If we take Benjamin and he dies, then you can kill me. I will stand in his place. It's something of that idea. So here God stands as a pledge and a surety to us, and how do we understand this as Christians? Well, we understand this as Christians redemptively and historically in Hebrews 7.22, where the author to the Hebrews says that Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant. He is our bond, he is our pledge, he is the one who bridges the gap between God and man because he is the perfect God-man. This is why we make so much of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not just His blood, but His pristine righteousness and perfect obedience. Because guess what? On your best day, you still need the righteousness of Christ. On your best day. On the day when you got up and you wiped the sleep out of your eye and you got your coffee and you sat down and for a whole hour you read your Bible and you prayed. And then you got out the door and you didn't yell at anybody that cut you off on the way to work and you were nice to your boss all of five minutes and then of course you failed. On that best morning you still need the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And that's what I love about being a Christian, is as miserable as I can get in my disobedience, in my lack of faith, in my unfaithfulness, I still have a faithful surety that stands before the throne of God above, pleading for my case. Not because of any goodness in me, but because of the goodness of Jesus Christ. The righteousness, the obedience, the raw, hard-worked-for obedience of Jesus Christ. And this is driven home in verse 124, as I said, when he says, deal with your servant according to your steadfast love, that is, as I said, God's covenant love. So beloved, we must see ourselves in light of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, that perfect righteousness as an exchange for our filthy rags. And if I can just make this little comment, it's something I wanted to work into the sermon this morning, but this seems like a good place to say it. I know some of you struggle with not being who your family is, not being who your father was or is, not being who your mother was or is, because some of you don't come from generational Christianity families, if I could put it that way. And I feel that. My father isn't exactly an upstanding Christian. And I'd be lying if I told you that I don't wake up in the middle of the night sometimes thinking, what if I fall like he has? What if I don't finish the race? You know, Paul was able to say at the end of his life, I finished the race, but what if I don't get there? I mean, the road to heaven, I hate to say it, is littered with people who didn't finish the race. So what if I don't get there? Well, when you come back to Psalm 46, one little detail that we look over is that it was written by the sons of Korah. Now if you know your Bible history, you know that way back in the Pentateuch somewhere, I think in the book of Joshua, It was Korah in his rebellion that defied the orders of Yahweh when they were instructed to go into a people group and everything under the ban they were to destroy and kill and eradicate. But Korah had other ideas. He wanted to take some of that gold. He wanted to take some of those clothes that were under the ban. and take them home, and he hid them in his tent, and then the next time they went out to war against other people, they lost, and Joshua went before the Lord and said, what's going on? The Lord said, somebody's been unfaithful. And so he brought them out and picked lots, and it came to Korah, and Joshua told him to give glory to God, and he did, and the earth opened up and swallowed him. Covenant breaker judged before the people of Israel. And so many years later, the sons of Korah write Psalm 46, which at the heart says, be still and know that I am God. I want you to know that you are not your parents. You are not your father. You are not your mother. You do not have to be your mother. You know who you are? You're a child of God and Jesus Christ. Your identity is in Christ. I am crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me, not my mother, not my father. And I understand that some of you are like, well, I have a good mother, I have a good father, praise the Lord. But again, your mother and your father on their best day need the righteousness of Christ. So you are not your mother, you are not your father, you are not your brother, you are not your sister, you are a new creation in Jesus Christ. And that's once again why I love being a servant of the Most High God and calling myself a Christian. The Christian servant's treasure is God's commandments. And we see this in 124 through 128, principally in verse 127. Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. And I was thinking about this, I'm like, okay, what would it really look like if you thought that? What would it really look like if you esteemed the commandments of God as more precious than gold, not just gold, but fine gold? Well, it would at least mean this. You would look at the Word of God and meditate on the Word of God more than you looked at your checking account. Just think about that for a minute. Now, don't do the calculations right now. Do it at home and repent before the Lord later, okay? But if you're looking at your checking account more than you're looking at the Word of God, you probably don't esteem the Word of God more than gold, even fine gold, or plastic, even fine plastic, okay? But the psalmist here is a servant of God's word. He loves the word of God so much that it's like gold or word of God. Toss the gold, I want the word. I want the word because when I get into the heaven, the new heaven, the new earth, gold is not going to matter what's going to matter and be eternal. is the Word of God. I want to be righteous now. I want to be obedient now. And I want you to notice that a corollary of making God's commandments more, not making, but seeing them as more precious than gold, even fine gold as this, that you are a student, look at verse 124, deal with your servant according to your steadfast love and teach me your statutes. I am your servant, give me understanding that I might know your testimonies. Beloved, the Christian is a lifelong learner. Let me say that again. The Christian is a lifelong learner. The Christian, before he or she is a teacher, the Christian, no matter what their vocation is and no matter what their status, if you could put it that way, or role in the church is, before they are a teacher, they are a learner. Before you are a teacher, even to your children, you are a disciple. You know what a disciple means, mathetes in the Greek? It just means follower. That's all it means. It just means that you follow Jesus. You're a disciple of Jesus. You want to know every word that comes out of his mouth. You want to meditate on it. You want to spend time just kind of soaking in it because you don't want it to simply be that which you know But you want it to also be that which you do. You want what you know to come out in your hands and you want what you know to come out in your mouth. You want what you know to come out in your feet. And that's why I love that Jesus said to the disciples, you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Listen, I'm going to submit to you tonight. that we need to put a moratorium on saying things like, I know that, I know that, I know that, when people are pressing us with some sin or pressing us with the need to repent. And sometimes we'll be like, I know that, let me submit to you something. If you're not doing what you say you know, then you don't know it. Can I say that again? If you're not doing what you say that you know, then you don't know it. And I think that this is what Jesus gets at when he says, you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. And then verse 25 confirms this, I'm your servant, give me understanding that I may know your testimonies. So this Christian is a lifelong learner. Christian doesn't just read the Bible, he begs the Lord to give him understanding before he considers the raw materials of the Bible. Not just before he reads the Bible, but during his reading of the Bible and after his reading of the Bible. And verse 26, it's time for the Lord to act, for your law has been broken. You know what? The servant's love of the treasure of God's word makes him or her zealous. Lord it's time for you to act. Your law has been broken. No false humility here. The servant of the Lord sees when righteousness has been broken and he calls upon the Lord to act. I think this is important for us. And I think we see it in verse 128. Therefore I consider all your concepts, or excuse me, precepts to be right. I hate every false way. This is the antithesis that we see so often in Psalm 119. If I love truth, I hate falsehood. If I love righteousness, I hate wickedness. There's no mingling. There's no throwing your arm around Jesus and throwing your arm around a prostitute, throwing your arm around Jesus, throwing your arm around the bottle and saying, let's go party. It doesn't work that way. Somebody once put forward a thought experiment. If you could go back in a DeLorean, of course, and witness the event, just one event of Jesus in his life, what would it be? I'll tell you what I would like to go back and see. You know what I would like to go back and see? I would like to go back and see when he cleansed the temple, when he had a whip in his hand. And the reason why, is because I need that kind of courage and that kind of zeal to live in this kind of world. I need that kind of courage and that kind of zeal to live in this kind of world, because I lack that, and I wonder if you lack that as well, at least as much as you would like to have. I'm a miserable failure at it at times, and that is why I thank God that I serve a God who has a nail through one hand and a whip in the other. He atoned for my sins, which I couldn't do, and had the righteous courage that I don't have to cleanse the temple and to fight for God's honor. And what was it that consumed him? Zeal. zeal for your house has consumed me. So beloved, let us come tonight to the Savior who has a nail in one hand and a whip in the other, a Savior who is obedient enough to give to the Father the righteousness that we do not have, and to atone for the sins for which we cannot atone, and there build an altar and serve our God through the mediator, Jesus Christ, through repentance and faith. Amen. All right, let's turn to a time of prayer and I'm excited.