Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleGod Has, God Will
Bible TextPsalm 56:12-13
Synopsis Past deliverance from the great death of sin, future deliverance from all lesser evils of life, and both being for God’s own pleasure and glory—are the greatest reasons to assure every believer that God shall deliver us through every trial and bring us to glory with him. Listen
Date13-Feb-2020
Series Psalms 2011
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: God Has, God Will (32 kbps)
Audio CD Quality Listen: God Has, God Will (128 kbps)
Length 39 min.
 
Title: God Hast, God Will 
Text: Ps 56: 12-13 
Date: February 13,2020 
Place: SGBC, NJ 
  
Psalm 56: 12: Thy vows are upon me, O God: 12: Thy vows are upon me, O God:  I will render praises unto thee.
  
David’s profession of faith in Christ, as it is for every believer, is much like a vow to Christ.  It is a vow between Christ our Husband and his bride.  Faith in Christ promises to always give God all the praise and all the glory for our salvation.  By God’s power and grace every believer shall keep this vow of faith in Christ until we reach glory.  
  
To render praises unto God is to persevere giving God all the glory and praise for our salvation.  It is to continue believing on Christ and bowing to God’s will in all things. 
  
I suggest you mark Psalm 56: 13 and refer to it anytime you face troublesome seasons Why?  Psalm 56: 13 gives the preeminent reasons believers can use to encourage ourselves in times of trouble. 
  
These reasons for David’s resolve to render praises to God will make up our divisions: 
  
1. Psalm 56: 13: For thou hast delivered my soul from death—I will continue rendering praise unto God because of the great deliverance Christ has already accomplished for me, delivering my soul from death.
  
2. Psalm 56: 13: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling—I will continue giving God all praise and glory because seeing as how Christ has delivered me from the greatest of all deaths, I know he shall deliver my feet from falling in all lesser temporal deaths 
  
3. I shall continue giving him all praise because of the reason he has delivered me—Psalm 56: 13:…that I may walk before God in the light of the living?—God delivers his people for a far greater reason than even our own salvation.  He does so for his own pleasure and glory.  He saves us that we might walk before God in Christ the Light in Christ the Life.
  
Past deliverance from the great death of sin, future deliverance from all lesser evils of life, and both being for God’s own pleasure and glory—are the greatest reasons to assure every believer that God shall deliver us through every trial and bring us to glory with him. 
  
GOD HAS
 
Psalm 56: 13: For thou hast delivered my soul from death
 
My first reason to be assured that God will keep me praising Christ, particularly by trusting Christ and bowing to God’s will and giving God all the glory, is because of the great deliverance Christ has already accomplished for me by delivering my soul from death. 
 
What is death?  Our text shows that only God can deliver from death. So what is “death” from which God delivers his people?   We know from where this death came. 
  
Romans 5: 12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 
  
God made one man, Adam, the first head of everyone who would be born of him—all people were in Adam.  When Adam disobeyed God he died by sin—and Adam’s death passed  upon us all because we all sinned in him.   But what is this “death?”  Is death only the separation of the eternal soul from our temporal body?  Is it merely what we see when we view the corpse in the coffin?  To most that is all death is.  But death has a far wider, more extensive meaning than what we see with our eyes.  
  
“Death by sin” consists of three kinds of death: Spiritual death, Natural death, Eternal death.
  
Spiritual death—we are conceived in sin and therefore we are spiritually dead from the womb. We come forth dead in trespasses and in sins.  That means we have no desire to receive spiritual things nor can we.  As we are born the first time we love what God hate and hate what God love.  We walked in 
  
Ephesians 2: 3:…the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, children of wrath [as all men are.] 4: But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)” 
  
God chose to give some sinners life by his grace.  He loved us though we did not love him.  Therefore, he quickened us to spiritual life.  The Spirit of God created a new man within in the image of God in Christ’s righteousness and holiness which cannot sin because born of God’s incorruptible seed.  We are in Christ and Christ is in us.  Christ in you is the hope of glory.  If you can give God all the glory for giving you spiritual life and faith in Christ, with no praise to yourself, then God has delivered you from spiritual death! 
  
Two, death by sin consists of natural death—all of us have a terminal illness called sin. We have a very short time to live.  “It is appointed unto men once to die” (Heb 9:27).  I heard a news caster speaking on the death of Kobe Bryant.  Since Kobe was young and beginning a new career the reporter said, “This was such an untimely death.”   There are no untimely deaths!  From before time, God appointed that helicopter crash on that Sunday morning.  God appoints every man’s death 
  
But for those born anew by the Spirit of God the death of our bodies will only be the beginning of a new, sinless life perfectly conformed to Christ. He said, 
  
John 11: 26: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (Joh 11:26)

1 Corinthians 15: 51:…we shall be changed.  52: In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…

1 Corinthians 15: 55: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 56: The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. 57: But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
  
This is why the death of the saints in the New Testament is not spoken of as death but as sleep.  "Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." (1 Thess. 4:14.) 
  
But for you who do not believe, do not imagine that the death of your body is the end.  We all have an eternal soul.  After death is the judgment then eternity either in heaven or hell.  That brings us to the third aspect of death 
  
Thirdly, death by sin is the eternal death—“the second death.”  For those who meet God in judgment outside of Christ, God will declare them guilty of sin and shall “cast [them] out into outer darkness:[where]  there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Mt 8: 11) No amount of good works will prevent it; no amount of pleading for mercy will prevail.  If we meet God outside of Christ, God shall cast us out to suffer “the worm that dieth not.” 
  
But for God’s elect, Christ Jesus fulfilled the law for us, making us righteous and holy by his life, love and precious blood.  He bore all the sin of all his elect.  He died eternal death for each of his people.  He settled our judgment when he cried, “It is finished!” Therefore when we stand before God in judgment, 
  
Matthew 25:34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 
  
So brethren each of you who believe on Christ have been delivered from: spiritual death, natural death and eternal death.  Believer remember these past mercies—they are the greatest mercies that can be had.  And because I know God has, I also know… 
  
GOD WILL
 
Psalm 56: 13: For thou hast delivered my soul from death, wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, 
 
Let’s say there was a very massive stone in our parking lot.  We all tried but none of us could move it.  Then along comes a big strong fellow and moves that stone out of the way.  But also on the parking lot there is a much smaller stone.  Seeing as how this fellow moved that large stone, would you have any worries that he would be unable to move a much, much smaller stone?  Seeing how Christ has delivered his people from the greatest of all deaths, I am assured that he shall deliver my feet from all lesser dangers in this temporal life. 
  
God’s justice and mercy and glory is on my side.  Will he give his only begotten Son and let one perish for whom Christ died, and that, by a weak world?  God forbid!  Will Christ pour out his life’s blood justifying me then leave me to perish by lesser dangers?  God forbid. 
  
Romans 8: 32: He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 
  
We are regenerated because God spared not his own Son.  We are justified because God spared not his own Son. We shall never die because God spared not his own Son.  So in all worldly tribulations we can say, “wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling.”   Or we can say the same thing with Paul, "How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
  
Brethren, in this world ye shall have tribulation.  Hold on loosely and don’t expect too much.  Don’t be surprised when trouble comes.  But Christ said be of good cheer.  I have overcome the world.”  That is the Peace Christ gives!  The very worst any man can do to a believer is kill our body.  But maybe I should say that is the best he can do for us because immediately we shall awake perfectly conformed to Christ in his kingdom for eternity.  Therefore in all trouble wait on the Lord to show you his glory and work out our good.  God has, God will! 
  
GOD’S PURPOSE AND GLORY
 
Psalm 56: 13:…that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
 
The third reason we have to assure us that God shall keep us giving all glory to him is because God delivered his people for his own pleasure and glory.  He did that we might “walk before God” in Christ the Light.  “The light of the living” is a person. 
  
Joh 8:12: Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. 
  
And Christ said, “I am the Life.”  By God’s grace, we walk before God by walking by faith in Christ, not by sight. 
  
John 12: 36: While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. 
  
It is walking as children of light approving what God approves. 
  
Ephesians 5: 8: For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: 9: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 10  Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. 11  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12: For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. 13: But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. 14: Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. 
  
This walk is for God’s glory.  God has saved a people for himself so that his people give God all the praise and all the glory for bringing us into the light of Christ’s kingdom. 
  
Colossians 1: 9: For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10: That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11: Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 12: Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: 
  
Everything God has done to bring his child to walk before him is to bring glory and praise to God for all the work.  Notice who we walk before.  The emphasis here is that I may walk before God.  One of the first things we instruct our children as toddlers is to walk before us.  We spend their younger years teaching them to walk before us in a way approved by us and by God.  As they get older and walk before us doing what they learned from us they give us praise and glory for teaching them—that brings us great pleasure at each of these stages. 
  
I have been watching the joy on John and Kelsie’s faces, Christine and Scott’s, as they watch Elias take his first steps.  They have taught him, worked with him, and now he is beginning to do one of the first things they have taught him—walk before you. 
  
God has done all the work of saving his people to teach us and enable us to walk before him.  He has done it for his own pleasure to bring him glory.  It was God’s pleasure and glory to deliver his people from death to life, to bring us to faith in Christ and robe us in the righteousness of his Son and to make us desire to please our Father as we walk before him to love Christ and love our brethren 
  
When you see how we delight to see Elias walk, think how God takes pleasure in seeing what his glory has accomplished to make his people walk before him. When Elias faces some great obstacle do you leave him. No, Kelsie endured the pain of childbirth to have him.  They have fed him in the early mornings, reared him from an infant till now.  After all those difficult things they have done for him, it would be absurd to think they would watch as he fell down the steps. 
  
God the Father gave his Son, Christ redeemed us by suffering so great a death, he turned the world upside down to bring us under the gospel and give faith.  All of this to bring us to walk before God.  It would be absurd to think after delivering us from so great a death, that he would not keep our feet from falling so that we walk before him in the light of the living. 
  
Christ prayed to the Father, “I will that those thou hast given me be with me where I am.”  Therefore, we shall be raised from this sin-cursed world to be with our Lord Jesus where he is because it is the will of God’s Son.  God has delivered me for a far greater reason than even my own salvation.  He did it for his own pleasure and glory 
 
2 Corinthians 1: 7: And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. 8: For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: 9: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: [that we might give him all the praise and all the glory submitting to his will to save us] 10: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us
  
God will continue to save each of his people so that we walk before him in the glory of God and in the light of the Lamb for all eternity. 
  
Revelation 21:23: And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 24: And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. 
  
Amen!