Oh, Magnify The Lord With Me!

So if you would, open your word, open the Bible to Psalm 34.!

This is a Psalm of David, and the pretext before the Psalm says this. It's of David when he changed his behavior before Abimelech so that he drove him out and he went away.

Verse 1, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints. For those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good.

Come, oh children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.

The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. He keeps all his bones. Not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. Let's pray. Father, I ask that you would cause your word to touch our hearts deeply this morning.

God, I pray that you'd open our minds to understand and our hearts to receive what you have for us this morning. I pray in your name. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. There's not many Psalms that give us the context.

But this morning we're given this context when David changed his behavior before the king of Gath. If we were to read the story, we'd turn back to 1 Samuel.

I'm not going to read the whole thing for sake of time. I'm going to paraphrase or just share the story briefly. You remember when David was anointed the coming king and yet Saul was troubled by a spirit and Saul sought to destroy and kill David.

So more than once he threw a spirit, David intended to kill him and David sidestepped it. And he left the presence of Saul and he went into the wilderness to hide from Saul.

Though God gave him opportunity to kill Saul more than once, he would not do it. He said, who am I to kill the Lord's anointed, which Saul was anointed as king over Israel.

So on one of the occasions when he threw a spirit, David, David left and he fled. And where did he go? He went to Nod. It's a city where the priests were, one of the priestly cities.

And that priest, he said, do you have a sword? He didn't have a sword. He left in a hurry. He didn't have anything to defend himself. Didn't even have food. So they gave him food and the only sword they had in that city, at least the priest, the only sword the priest had was the sword of Goliath.

And so he gave David this humongous sword, this well-crafted sword. Where David takes it with him and he goes of all places to hide from Saul. He goes to Gath. Why, David, would you go to Gath?

You've got the sword of Goliath who was from Gath. And you go to the people of Gath. What were you thinking? I don't know what David was thinking.

There's no way for us to know what he was thinking. But he ends up in the city where Goliath used to be, who lived, who was born, who was raised in Gath. And he finds himself among these people who recognize him.

Oh yeah, you're David. You're the one about whom they sing he has killed his ten thousands. You're the one that killed Goliath. Matter of fact, there's his sword.

We've got proof. So what does David do to get away from this situation? He finds himself in a spot that's not good. He's surrounded by himself.

Gath. He's surrounded by the people of Gath. And the people of Gath. And what does he choose to do? He chooses to act as if he is insane. He drools at the mouth.

He feigns being crazy. And by the grace of God, instead of the king killing him, the king says, What do I have to do with more crazy people?

I don't need another crazy people. Get him out of here. And David is able to leave the situation which you would have said, What is the possibility he's going to be let free, set free?

It is interesting if we were to continue to read past that account. And when the king of Gath let him go, he ends up in a cave, the cave of Abdulam.

And I don't know how this happened, but these men showed up at the cave. What men, you might ask? Well, the scripture in 1 Samuel 22 says that there's 400 men.

Who were these men? There were men. The scripture says this. Everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was bitter in soul gathered to David at this cave in Adullam.

So as we look at this psalm, we need to keep in mind that this psalm is written by David at this time frame when he was delivered out of the hand of the king of Gath.

And where he's got all these other men that are in full of distress of whatever variety. And they have nowhere else to go. So where do they go? They flee to David.

Why would they flee to David? David is the one who helped them when they were being tormented by the Philistines. And Goliath would show up day after day, 40 days worth, and defy the army.

And by the grace and the power of God, through this little shepherd boy, David, they were delivered. So these men flocked to David as one who would lead them. They've seen how God has used him, and they flocked to him as men in distress.

Their life is in a bad spot. So you see that David was delivered by the powerful hand of God. Don't know why he went to Gath, but God even so delivered him.

And we have all these men that are in a bad place, and they all end up in this cave. And so what we see here, I believe, is we see David speaking to these men that are in distress.

And so what does he say? What would you say? If all these people gathered to you, and they look to you for leadership, and they're all in a bad spot, David just got out of a bad spot, what would you encourage these men to do?

Isn't it interesting in our psalm the first thing he does? Verse 1, verse 2, verse 3. What do you see? It's as if we have to place ourselves in this cave in order to really glean the truth of what's being said by David here.

And what does David do immediately? The first thing David does, listen to verse 1, 2, and 3. I'm going to read it. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

David, what is your response to being delivered out of the hand of the king of Gath? I will praise the Lord at all times.

His praise will continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord, not in my own ability, not in the sword of Goliath, not in rescue from the hand of men.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord and the Lord alone. You know, I'll pause a second.

In whom do you boast, Christian, church? In whom do we tend to boast? Are we like David when we are in distress?

Do we boast in him? Do we continually worship and praise? Listen to what Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 9. Let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.

You know, that's where our boast should be. And that's where David's boast was. David had come to know the Lord in a very personal way.

And he saw in his deliverance the hand of God. What other explanation would David have? His cunning, his wisdom? No, it's the hand of God.

His boast is that he knows the Lord. And it's my prayer that God would help us to know him more and more deeply so that our response to distress is very like David's response.

Verse 3, Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Can you see him in the cave? Fellas, I know y'all got problems. Listen, fellas, I've got problems.

I got the king trying to kill me. He's throwing spears at me and he's chased me around the wilderness. He's bringing his army to try to destroy me. I'm having to run and flee. I'm having to live in the land of the Philistines because there's no safe place for me to live in the land of Israel.

He's after my life. But brothers, let me tell you, let's magnify the Lord. Do it with me, brothers. In our distress, here's where we need to be. God is almighty.

He's worthy to be praised. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. Father, the psalm today we're going to look and we're going to, for those of y'all who like to take notes and y'all remember when you jot things down, we're going to divide the psalm today in two parts.

And the first part is this, it's invitation. What is the invitation that he gives to these men? David gives three invitations to these men, these men in distress.

And I want us to see what the invitation was. Did you notice the first one? The first invitation is this, come, let us magnify the Lord together.

Men, I know you're in distress, but let's start here. Let's boast in the Lord and magnify him this morning. And then David in verse four, he shares his story with these men in the cave.

He says this, four through seven, he says this, I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed.

This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and deliver them.

Let me just stop for a second. Do you hear David's story? David is sharing with them of the deliverance that just happened. Number one from Saul, number two from the king of Gath.

He's now in a cave with these distressed men. And he's saying to them, listen, let me tell you my story. God's real. I'm telling you, you can trust in him. He has delivered me here.

Listen, I'm going to tell you my story, how he's delivered me and he'll deliver you too. Matter of fact, it says this, for all who fear him, they will be delivered.

Do you believe it? Let me ask you, Christian, do you believe it? Church, do you believe that all who fear him will be delivered? Let me share this.

If you look at verse 17 quickly, you'll see that it also states something pretty similar to verse 7. Verse 7 says, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.

Verse 17, when the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and does what? Delivers them. Out of what? Out of all their trouble.

All right. If you're like me, when I first read this, I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. David, are you saying that if we fear the Lord, then I'll never have any trouble?

Is that what you're saying? Are you saying for sure I can take it to the bank that I'm going to be delivered at all my troubles? That doesn't seem to add up, does it?

Let me ask this. How many of the apostles were martyred for their faith? Did they get delivered? As we read this, we have to understand there's a physical level to this psalm and there's a spiritual message to this psalm.

There's a physical message. There's a spiritual message. Was David physically delivered from both of those situations? Yes, he was. Does he fear the Lord?

Yes, he does. Is he counted in this number of those who fear the Lord? Yes. Was he physically delivered? Yes. Is David saying that you'll always be physically delivered? He's not saying that.

But he is saying that God is the source of deliverance. So let's look at, quickly look at verse 22 and I want you to see that there is a spiritual level to this message.

This message of deliverance that he's encouraging these men with this truth. What is the truth? Verse 22 says this. There's a spiritual deliverance that trumps any physical deliverance that we could ever receive.

There is a spiritual deliverance from what? From condemnation. Does Romans 8, 1 echo in your ear? There's therefore now no condemnation to who?

To those who are in Christ Jesus. New Testament, Paul's saying that there's something spiritual about deliverance. And here it is. The Lord redeems the life of his servants.

To redeem is to what? To purchase. The Lord redeems or purchases the life of his servants. None of those, none of those who've been redeemed, none of his servants, none of those who fear him, none of those who've entrusted their life to him will be what?

Condemned. Is that deliverance? Of course it is. Do you all realize that we need to be delivered from sin and death? Do you realize that's the biggest animal in the room?

We can be temporarily delivered in a physical sense from the king of Gath and I can get away and I can run to a cave and have safety, relative safety, at least for a time. But there's still something greater from which you will never recover and that's sin and death unless he provides a redeemer.

Do you know that we need to be redeemed from sin and death? That's the spiritual truth that underlays this psalm. David is worshiping because he's delivered physically but at the same time he's worshiping because God is the deliverer who will deliver his people from sin and death.

So we go on. Second invitation. Do you see it? Verse 8. So you put yourself in this cave and you're just a bystander watching and David, the one who these men have come to and said, lead us.

And what does he say next? He said, taste and see. Man, do you hear what I'm saying? I know you're in distress. I know you're in debt. I know you've got problems.

I know that you have nowhere else to turn. I know that you're here in this cave. Taste and see. What does it mean to taste? Taste and see.

Taste is to partake. Taste and see. You know, when I read this, where my mind went is John 6.

Do you all remember what he said about himself, Jesus? What he said about himself in John 6 is I am the bread of life. And then later in that same chapter he says this, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, unless you partake of me by faith, you're not one of the fathers.

You're not his. You're not his children. The only way to be a child of God is to taste and see, is to partake of Christ.

He says to them, taste and see. What? That the Lord is good. Men, take a chance and put your trust in God. You know what you'll discover? That the Lord is good.

Yeah, I know what's going on in your life is not good, but the Lord is good. And when you see his goodness, you know what happens? You worship. So he says, blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

So he'll always be physically delivered. No, no, no. That's not what's said. There's something far greater than being physically delivered. We'll see it as we progress here.

But he's saying to these men, taste and see. Step into this world, this life of faith. Partake in Christ by faith. Trust in the Lord by faith.

I will pause just a second. I'm using the name Christ a lot, and this is Old Testament. Christ is not born yet, okay? But there's a spiritual connection that I hope you see as those of us who are in New Testament time, we're on this side of the cross.

Do you see that the deliverer is Jesus? Do you see that it's because of his work on the cross that he has purchased our redemption, those of us who trust in him?

Those of us who taste and see? So in the Old Testament, David's saying, taste and see. Hey, why don't you live like this? Why don't you trust God? And you pray to him and you ask him, you cry out to him, and guess what he does on behalf of his people?

He always hears. He always sees. Do you see it in 15 and 16? The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears are open to them.

Okay, begs a question. Wait a minute, righteous? We'll get to that. But I want you to see he's saying to them, taste and see.

That's the second invitation. If you will, men, step into this life of belief and faith in God, you will see his power at work and it'll lead you to worship.

Number three, invitation number three. Verse nine. These men, oh, men, I'm inserting that word there, but it's talking to these men.

We've got to see the setting here. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. Those who fear him have no lack.

The young lion suffers want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. What in the world are you saying, David? You're saying, David, that if we fear the Lord, then we don't lack any good thing?

Bingo. That's exactly what he's saying. Those who fear the Lord lack no good thing. Where do all good things come from? You know, in our world, nowadays, in our culture, we look, if we were to say, what are some good things?

And we were trying to put together a list. Well, I like my four-wheeler. I love going in the woods. I like my boat. I love my house and the pretty green grass I've got. We look at things and we say, that's good.

You know what would be good? If I didn't ever have to worry about finances again. That would be really good. You know, if I always had the food I wanted, that would be really good. You know, if life was smooth and I didn't have any bumps, I didn't have any problems, that would be really good.

You know, that's not the good that's being spoken of here. This is a spiritual point that hopefully we'll see all good, truly good things come from God.

All truly good things affect us on a deeper level than just the exterior. Just our wants and our human desires. Really good things affect us deep within in our heart.

You know what's really good? Being in relationship with God Almighty. You know what's really good? Is knowing for sure that I'm destined for heaven. You know what's really good?

Is I can trust in Him. I know, even if it doesn't turn out the way I think, I know that God loves me. And I know He's got my good in mind and His glory in mind. I believe that whatever happens, He's with me through the whole thing.

That's good. Three invitations. One, magnify the Lord with me. Two, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Partake of Him. Trust in Him. Number three, fear the Lord. What does fear the Lord mean? Verse 11. I want you to see it again.

We're going to see this theme in this psalm that says fear the Lord. We're going to see it over and over again. You know when things are repeated, that means that's important to the message of the psalm. And in this case, this phrase is repeated, the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord.

What is the fear of the Lord? Come, oh children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord.

Are you in awe of who He is? Do you live in a reverent way? The second section begins here of the psalm in verse 11.

That second section is instruction. So He invites them to taste of the Lord. He invites them to fear the Lord. And now this next section, He instructs them.

He says, listen man, let me tell you what this looks like. If you hear me and if you believe me, men, it's going to change your life.

I know you're distressed and by the way, the rest of your life you're going to have moments and things that happen that are going to outwardly give you stress. But there's such a life that inwardly you can have peace even when outwardly the world is exploding.

Let me tell you what it looks like. And so here He goes. He says, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. And He asks this question.

He says, you, hey man, I know you're in distress. Do you desire to experience the goodness of God? Do you desire? He says that right here.

What man is there who desires life and loves many days he might see good? Anybody? Do you want to see the goodness of God? Do you want to experience the goodness of God?

Men, do you want to step into a relationship that's far greater than you can possibly imagine? Let me tell you how. Let me tell you what that looks like.

And He goes on to say this. He says, keep your tongue from evil and keep your lip from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good.

Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears are toward their cry. But, men, the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

Don't walk like that. You know, it's interesting that in the book of Peter, 1 Peter, Peter quotes this passage I just read.

He quotes it in chapter 3 of 1 Peter. And who is he speaking to? He's speaking to the Christians in Asia Minor who are being persecuted, who are suffering greatly.

And you know, he could have picked any passage in the Old Testament he wanted to, but he picked Psalm 34. Why did he pick Psalm 34? Because these Christians are in great distress.

They're suffering. And he's saying to them, listen to what he says. I'm just going to read a small section here.

Now, who is there who will harm you if you be zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, stop. Wait a minute. You mean if I fear the Lord, I might suffer?

You mean if I fear the Lord, I might have hard times in my life? Peter's saying, absolutely, you can take it to the bank. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said, if they persecuted me, guess what?

They're going to persecute you too. You've got a devil, an enemy, that is like a roaring lion seeking to devour you. Yes. The life of a Christian is not supposed to be a smooth sailing ship with no ripples in the water.

And there's a reason. And we'll see that here shortly. But here's what he says to them. In your hearts, honor Christ as the Lord is holy. In your hearts.

In your, you know what the heart is? It's a place of desire. In your desires. In the depth of who you are. Cause it your desire.

Honors Christ as Lord. And he also says, for sake of time, I won't read it all. But he says this, suffer for doing good if that should be God's will.

Are we willing to suffer for the kingdom of God? Man, nobody wants to say, hey, sign me up. I'm ready. I'm going now. We're not jumping at that invitation to suffer.

But I'm just telling you the life of a Christian is not intended to be smooth sailing. Why? Because we miss out on tasting what is good.

Oh, I want you to see this. True happiness. True happiness. Not temporary happiness.

You know, when we get a little puppy and that puppy comes home and it's a really nice looking puppy. It's like, man, look at this. I'm so excited to have this little puppy. Right? Yeah, you've been talking about how much you love.

Hey, that puppy pees on the floor and that puppy ain't going to live forever. But you know, there's things that we get happy and they're surface level. They might touch a heart. But my point is there's some true happiness that is at a level that a puppy can't touch.

or that a thing that you want, this thing you've been dreaming about to purchase so you can go have fun on the lake. It touches a little bit of the exterior happiness.

It's temporary. There's something far greater. Church, I hope you'll hear what the psalm is saying right here. Listen to this. When the righteous cry for help. Wait a minute. God, why would the righteous need to cry for help?

Because God allows these hard things to happen in life of those who are righteous. Who are righteous? Those that are called by His name. In the Old Testament, there's two distinguishings.

There's a way to distinguish in the Old Testament. The people of God, He uses these terms like saints, righteous. Are the people of God totally righteous? Are you totally righteous? Are you sinless?

You know what Paul said about righteous? There's none righteous. No, not one. Not one. Unless we're covered by the redeeming blood of Jesus and then we're counted as righteous.

He puts us in this category of His people and He calls us righteous not because of what we've done it's what Jesus did. It's Jesus' work that makes us righteous. It's imputed righteousness.

It's gifted to us and He puts us in this category. So listen again. When the righteous cry for help, that means there's problems, the Lord hears. Why?

Not because He loves us. And He delivers them out of all their troubles. Not all their physical troubles. Spiritually speaking, He's the deliverer. Does He sometimes deliver us out of physical troubles?

Yes. Does He always show Himself strong on behalf of His people? Yes. Notice this. It says, and He delivers them out of their troubles. The Lord is near who?

Who's He near to? Let me ask this question before I answer that. Do you want to be near to God? Do you want to be near enough to call it intimacy? Do you want to be so near you hear His voice?

are you longing to be in a deep relationship with God? The maker of the universe, the author of all good things, the lover of our souls, do you want to be deeply related to Him?

It is my prayer that all of us say, please, yes. And He said, how do we do this? Paul is telling these men, he's sitting in the cave, he's saying, let me share this with you.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and He saves the crushed in spirit. You know what leads to intimacy with God? Brokenheartedness and crushed in spirit.

Woo. Anybody ready to sign up? Do you know that intimacy with God is not just a smooth sailing ship? Do you know in order to really experience intimacy with God, I love how Tozer says He doesn't ever use a man, I'm really paraphrasing, okay?

He doesn't use a man much until He wounds him deeply. You know, it's the wounds that come our way that cut away the pride and it cuts away the fleshly tendencies, it cuts away the worldly living and to the point at which we say, God, I'm yours.

Wherever you take me, whatever you send, I'm going to cling to you. You know what closeness is? It's when you're in the storm and you cry out to Him and He hears and you hear Him and He says to you, I'll take care of you.

Y'all know a guy named Polycarp? If you haven't read about Polycarp, I can't encourage you enough to go read about Polycarp. There's a guy who translated a document that talks about him.

first century Bishop of Sardis. You know, Sardis as a church that shows up in the book of Revelation. He was one of the leaders in the book of Revelation and the authorities in the Roman Empire took him captive and says, recant that you trust in Jesus.

Recant. I want you to say, if you don't say you trust in Caesar, then you're going to be killed. He says, kill me. Kill me. He says, for 84 years He's been faithful to me.

He's never let me down. I'll trust in Him. Now, I won't give you the beautiful picture of what happened when they put him on a bunch of wood. They went and collected wood. They made a pyre.

They put him on there and they were going to tie him. I said, you don't need to tie me up. God had already given him a picture that he was going to be martyred by fire. And he willingly said, God, if that's what you want, I'm willing to do whatever.

God gave him the strength to be faithful in the midst of the flames and he praised God because he was walking into self-sacrifice. He was willing to sacrifice himself for the will of God and God gave him the strength to walk that road.

It's powerful. It lit a fire among Christians in that area, a fire that led them to be faithful even in the midst of persecution. You know what true happiness is? It says, it's nearness to God and experiencing his help.

If you want to deeply know God, the nearness to God and experiencing his help, if we taste that, that's true happiness.

I don't know if you buy that book I'm selling right here. Do you buy it? Do you really believe that the path to happiness is nearness to God?

I'm telling you. If you read John 15, you'll hear it. You know what it says, right? Abide in me. Apart from me, you can do nothing. He says, he says, abide in me and at the end, he says, these things I've told you in order that you might have joy and have it to the full.

You want to experience the fullness of joy? It's intimacy with him. You want to experience true happiness? Intimacy with him. Look what he's telling these guys. He said, man, don't try to get, seek happiness in the things you make and the things you build and the things you, what?

Seek happiness and nearness to him and by the way, you got to go through the fire to get there. Don't run from the fire. Say, God, help me in the midst of the fire and when God comes and helps you in the midst of the fire, you know what you say? Woo-hoo!

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did. They experienced him in a way that is unbelievable. The miraculous hand, redeeming hand of God.

I wonder if you notice in verse 20. So verse 19 echoes verse 18. It says, many are the afflictions of the righteous. Many are the afflictions of the righteous.

Hey, righteous one, Christian, do you know that there's many afflictions going to be in your life? Verse 20, he keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken.

He keeps all his bones. Y'all recognize that from John 19? Isn't this so interesting? that the apostle John says this, speaking of Jesus when his side was pierced in that section of the book of John, it says, for these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled saying, not one of his bones will be broken.

Why in the world would David put that in this psalm? Why would he share that with these men? In a physical type of way, he would say, listen, God so delivered me not one of my bones was broken.

I was in a bad spot. As a matter of fact, God tends to do that. Does that mean that the people of God never break a bone? No, it doesn't mean that. It's a way of saying this is what the powerful hand of God's deliverance looks like.

And in this case, he was really prophetically pointing to Jesus. Have y'all ever wondered why it was important for the bones of Jesus not to be broken? You remember, they broke the leg of the one thief and they broke the leg of the other thief, but Jesus' leg they didn't break because he is already dead.

So they do that to speed up the death of the criminals that are hanging on the cross. Well, Jesus' legs weren't broken. In matter of fact, prophetically, it said they wouldn't be. Why is that important?

Let me tell you this. All along the way, God said, I'm going to send a Passover lamb for you. I'm going to send a Passover. You know what a Passover lamb is? That's one on whom the people of God place all their sins on the Passover lamb and they take the Passover lamb, once a year and they send him outside the camp.

It signifies that the sins of the people have been taken by another and have left the camp so that we no longer are in this condition of sin because the Passover lamb received all of our sins.

Do you know that Jesus all along was saying the lamb, the lamb of the world, the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world? The plan of God was to send a lamb to take all the sins of his people and he would carry that burden away.

Do you know that when the Jewish people selected a Passover lamb, do you know what was important and what the word of God declared they had to do back in the first five books of the Bible?

It has to be a lamb without spot. It has to be a lamb without blemish. It has to be a lamb with no defect at all. It was important that the Passover lamb, Jesus, would meet all the criteria of the law in order to be acceptable as the Passover lamb.

Jesus' bones weren't broken because he met every single issue, element, dictate of the law.

He was the Passover lamb who took my sins and your sins if you've trusted in him. Let me ask you, have you trusted in Christ? Christ alone for your salvation? Have you trusted in this Passover lamb?

Have you been redeemed? Have your sins been forgiven? When God looks at you, does he see any condemnation at all or does he see the blood of Christ covering you? I hope all of you have understood the need for forgiveness.

A holy God and a sinful man can't be together. You know, for a holy God, only those who've been redeemed will be with them forever.

Only those who've been forgiven by faith in the finished work of the Passover lamb, Jesus. I hope that that's true for you. If not, I beg you to consider the truth and I would love to share, to talk to any of you who have questions about that.

Let's pray. Father, we at least I speak for me.

God, I don't get excited to think that I've got to walk straight into problems and difficulties and trials and all of that. God, I tend to walk backwards when I'm faced with those things.

God, I tend to shy away from the difficult parts of life and yet, God, I see in the pages of your word that the path to intimacy with you is a path that includes trials and struggles and difficulties.

God, in the midst of those, would you help us as your church embrace you and cry out to you and cling to you? God, would you draw us into a deeper relationship with you, a relationship where we trust you, a relationship where we're often praising you and worshiping you?

God, would you do a mighty work in our lives? And God, if there's someone here that doesn't know you as Lord and Savior that hadn't understood the work of Christ on their behalf, God, I pray that you would open their eyes to see.

God, be praised this morning. We worship you in the name of Jesus. Amen.