I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 25. Psalm of David. We read and consider the psalm in connection with the Lord's Day 7. Specifically thinking about what is true faith. Psalm 25. Hear now the Word of God. To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. In You I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in You will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. Show me Your ways, O Lord. Teach me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior and my hope is in You all day long. Remember, O Lord, Your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways. According to Your love, remember me, for You are good, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord, therefore He instructs sinners in His ways. He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them His way. All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful, for those who keep the demands of His covenant. For the sake of Your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. Who then is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him. He will spend his days in prosperity and his descendants will inherit the land. The Lord confides in those who fear Him. He makes His covenant known to them. My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only He will release my feet from the snare. Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have multiplied. Free me from my anguish. Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins. See how my enemies have increased and how fiercely they hate me. Guard my life and rescue me. Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you. There ends the reading of God's holy word this evening. May He bless it to us. O beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, in Ephesians 2, verse 8, the Apostle Paul says, For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, It is the gift of God. God, in His Word, is clear as we know, as we have considered that salvation from sin is not by our own worth. It's not by our own work. It's not by our own effort. But it is a gift. It is a completely undeserved gift for you and for me. And Paul teaches that even the way we receive that precious gift and make it our own, that instrument which is as hands held open only to receive it, that that instrument itself is also a gift and that gift is faith. As we have been considering the catechism, we know that the catechism now after pointing us, reminding us of the foolishness and the hopelessness of man, of all of mankind, and after reminding us that salvation is indeed only in Jesus Christ, the catechism now logically asks in question 20, Are all men saved through Christ just as all were lost through Adam? All people, each and every one, have something in common through the head of the human race, Adam, and that is that every single one is lost in sin. Every single one, by nature, is hell-bound. But not all of the human race has salvation in Jesus Christ in common. As the answer says, no, only those are saved who by true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all of His blessings. One's relationship with Jesus Christ determines whether that one is saved or not. Nothing else but one's relationship with Jesus Christ. And a relationship of unbelief and rejection means that one is still lost. but a relationship of faith by which we become one with Christ using that beautiful analogy of grafting the branch being grafted into the tree drawing life-giving nourishment from that source. Being grafted into Christ with Christ living in that one. With true faith possessing the mind and the heart and the will and the hands of that one means that that one is saved. And the catechism now helps us to understand the Bible's teaching of what true faith is. And with David in Psalm 25, we see true faith exemplified. Psalm 25 is really a psalm of penitence, as we can tell as we read it. But it is also a psalm of quiet confidence in and dependence upon the Lord. It is a psalm in which David testifies to knowing his sin and in which he confesses his only hope in God to deliver him from his sin and in which he expresses his desire to live gratefully according to God's will, according to God's path, which alone is righteous and true, all the while facing the reality of enemies and troubles and hardships by which his faith is tried and tested. Yet, beloved, we find with David, by the grace of God, the abiding comfort of true faith. Now we hear a lot about faith in the general public. You've probably heard it on more than one occasion. Depending on the occasion for someone, someone will say, you've just got to have faith. You've just got to have faith. If you're sick, or if you're facing some sort of a challenge, or if you're hoping for something favorable to happen, you've just got to have faith that what you want will happen, that it will come to pass. Yet we cannot help but to ask, Faith in what? What is the basis for that faith? Why should you have confidence that whatever it is will happen? For example, students, if you don't study for a test or an examination, you can say all day long that you have faith that you will do well. But what's the foundation? If you haven't studied, if you don't know the material, then you have no foundation. And that kind of faith is meaningless. But true faith, beloved, is not meaningless. Instead, it provides abiding comfort because of what it is, first of all, identified by its characteristics. What makes it true? Question 21. What is true faith? True faith is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in His Word is true. First of all, it is knowledge. The answer says it is not only, which means that it includes knowledge. It's more than knowledge. It's more than what we know in our head, but it's not less than that. You cannot have faith in something if you don't know anything about it. True faith, first of all, is knowledge of God's Word. Knowledge of all that He has revealed. For example, about Himself. Or about this world, or about man, or our sin and need, or about the way of salvation, or about Jesus Christ, or about the church, or about life in this world, or about the last days, or about the life to come. All that God has revealed. We must know the Scriptures. True faith begins with knowledge of what God has seen fit to give to us and therefore we are to be students of the Word of God. Those who diligently study the Word of God in private and with fellow believers and those who crave the preaching of the Gospel in corporate worship. Because although we will never know God's Word perfectly, In a sense, we are called to know God's Word exhaustively from Genesis to Revelation. Question 22, what then must a Christian believe? Everything God promises us in the Gospel. Those with true faith are not to be minimalist, spiritual minimalist or spiritual bargain hunters, asking simply, what is the least that I need to know? What is the least I can get by with? because these will indeed only do the minimum. They will only do what they believe is the minimum when it comes to worship, when it comes to study. All of Scripture informs and shapes the believer's faith because it all points to Jesus Christ. And that leads then to the second necessary characteristic, and that is believing. It is not only a knowledge and conviction. Belief. Conviction of its truth. Believing all of it, not the man-made inventions, but believing the truth as God has revealed it, whether it's easy or difficult, whether it's easy to agree with or not, because at first read, Beloved, it doesn't always make sense, or it may be hard to accept. True faith includes knowledge, knowing what God has revealed, and believing that it's true. And that points to the third and the indispensable characteristic, and that is trust. True faith is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in His Word is true, it is also a deep-rooted assurance, a trust created in me by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel that out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ, not only others, but I too have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation. Beloved, saving faith must and it will be defined by personal trust that the Gospel centered on Jesus Christ and His saving work, that it's for me too. That Jesus gave His life for me. That His blood was shed. That He paid for my sins. That I am saved. That I belong to God the Father. True faith is not true faith without that personal trust of what we know and what we believe that it is true for me too. Demons, you see, don't have that personal trust. James says even the demons believe and tremble. We know that when Jesus would cast out demons in some of the scriptures that we read, the demons knew who he was. They had reverence. They had fear for him. They believed the truth of him, but they did not have personal trust and they never will have it because they have no hope of being saved and they have nothing to do with God while believers are believers because of the work of the Holy Spirit giving a new birth, giving the gift of faith by which we are made one with Jesus Christ and receive all of His blessings by which we make those blessings our very own. And the Holy Spirit of God works that assurance, that trust in our hearts. Knowledge, conviction or belief, and trust. And that true faith, beloved, was exemplified by David. David was indeed a man of true faith. David had knowledge and he believed the truth of the Word of God. Specifically, he believed, he knew and believed the truth of himself, of his sin and his need for forgiveness. In verse 7, he says, Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways. Verse 11, For the sake of Your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. Verse 18, Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins. He had a knowledge and belief of the truth of himself, but also he had a knowledge and belief of the truth of God. That God was his only hope. That God was his Savior. Verse 3, No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame. Verse 5, for you are God, my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. And he says in verse 20, for I take refuge in you. He had a knowledge and truth of God who had proven himself. Verse 6, remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. And therefore, beloved David, trusted. He relied upon, he had confidence in the Lord, the covenant God, beginning in verse 1, to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul, in you I trust, O my God. He trusted in God, his only hope, his Savior. He trusted because he knew the character of God. He believed the character of God. The central portion of the psalm really is verses 8-15, but in verses 1-7 and 16-22, we find David expressing his great need. We find David asking for deliverance, and he could do so with confidence because of what we find in verses 8-15 he thinks about, and there he declares the goodness of God and the blessedness of one who trusts in Him. Yet David gives expression to the character of God throughout the psalm. For example, God is faithful because, again, verse 3, no one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame. God is characterized by truth because His paths are paths of truth, verses 4 and 5. Again, He is David's Savior, verse 5. He is merciful and loving, verse 6. He is good and upright, or just, verse 8. He is loving and faithful in all of His ways, verse 10. He is forgiving, verse 11. He confides in His people. He shares with them His covenant promises. Verse 14. He is gracious. Verse 16. He is powerful to rescue His people. Verse 15. Therefore, He is the one in whom they can take refuge. Verse 20. David trusted. He relied upon. He put his confidence in the Lord, his covenant God, because he knew the character of God. He believed the character of God. He trusted that God was for him. And therefore, David's faith desired continual and greater knowledge of God in his ways because he knew that God's ways alone were the right path. Verse 4 again. Show me your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me. Verse 8. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore, he instructs sinners in his ways. He guides the humble in what is right. In verse 12, Who then is the man that fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way chosen for him. Beloved, again, true faith does not desire to know and understand the least of God's Word, but the most. And to live a life of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, not just on Sunday, not just when we are gathered together with fellow believers, one commentator says, we cannot pray, read the Bible, go to church, and so forth out of faith, and then exclude faith when we travel or conduct business. In other words, faith, beloved, is not like an object, not like a cell phone, or not like your wallet that you can leave on the dresser. Instead, true faith takes possession of the child of God. And the commentator goes on, neither can we let our faith function at certain devotional occasions and then in everyday life speak just as slanderously, complain just as loudly when things go wrong, and act just as selfishly as the unbelieving. Instead, as Paul says, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Believers, in a sense, are to look and act and sound no different on Monday through Saturday than on Sunday. Because true faith is living, it is active, it transforms and possesses one's heart and mind and hands. As James makes clear that good works make faith visible. David knew the Word of God. He knew God's promises. He believed them to be true. And most of all, he trusted that they were true for him. Especially God's promise of forgiveness, as David is able to say, not only to ask for forgiveness in this psalm, but to say in Psalm 32, verse 5, Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin. David had abiding comfort of true faith, because secondly, he was assured by its content, by the object of true faith. What is that content? What is the object of true faith? Well, broadly speaking, again, it is the entire Word of God. What then must a Christian believe? Everything God promises us in the Gospel. The entire Word of God, as we said before, knowing and believing the entirety of Scripture. All of God's history of revelation and redemption. Which also includes the hard-to-believe parts, the miracles, or the worldwide flood, or that the Red Sea parted and Israel crossed over on dry ground or that Jonah really was swallowed by a large fish or Elijah's chariot of fire. Yet the believer's hope, beloved, is centered, narrowly speaking, we might say, on the Lord Jesus Christ. David's focus was on God, his Savior, because of who David knew he was and what he had already proved of himself. The believer's focus of true faith is the Lord Jesus Christ trusting His gracious work that He gave Himself for me, that He suffered and paid for my sins, that He died and lives again so that not only others, but I too have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God and have been granted salvation. All of Scripture centers on God's salvation in Jesus Christ And therefore, He alone is the object, He is the central focus of the believer's faith. He is the reason we can say, I have had my sins forgiven. I have been made forever right with God. I have been granted salvation. He is why Hebrews 11.1 rightly says, Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. We cannot see these things. We cannot grab onto them and feel them in our hands. But we know they're true. And we trust that they're certain and sure for you and me because of God's gift of faith given to us in Christ Jesus alone. Yet, beloved, many things, many situations in life make trusting in Jesus Christ seem foolish. And that's because we can't see Jesus. But we can see what's right before our eyes. We can see troubles and afflictions and distress. And especially we can see and experience persecution for the faith. But many things, many situations in life make believing in Jesus seem kind of foolish. For example, for the world, when one loses their house or their business or their job, or when one is diagnosed with or is suffering with a deadly illness, or when one is living with pain or rejection or disappointment, or when one is suffering severe material need, how then does trusting in Jesus Christ help? What good is that? And even though you and I may even have difficulty giving an answer to those questions, yet, beloved, very simply, true faith changes one's entire attitude and view of and outlook on life. True faith changes how the believer views the circumstances of life. And true faith provides abiding comfort, finally, in the third place, strengthened by its confidence. True faith comes with an amazing confidence. A confidence which endures forever. David points to that confidence. Maybe you noticed, but he mentions shame four times. Three times in the first few verses and one time in verse 20, beginning at verse 1. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. In you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse. And in verse 20, guard my life and rescue me. Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. Now, when we think of being ashamed or being put to shame, we often think of being embarrassed or feeling foolish about something. And it is indeed used in that way in Scripture. But another way that it is used in Scripture in a powerful way on a number of occasions is in this way, especially here in Psalm 25, in the sense of being let down. In the sense of being disappointed. Do not let me be disappointed. Do not let me be let down. Or as someone has said, in the sense of having trusted in something that in the end proves unworthy of our trust. David's prayer is that God would not prove unworthy. That God would not disappoint him. And he feared that not because of God, he trusted in God's character, but because of himself, because of his sin, because of his own unworthiness, and because of his enemies. I take refuge in You. I know my sin. I take refuge in You, O Lord. Let me not be disappointed. But in the end, notice David's confidence as he expresses it in verse 18, I believe. Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins. Kind of a summary verse as he talks about his sins throughout the psalm and as he talks about his distress and affliction throughout the psalm, look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins. Do you hear what David is saying there? Lord, look upon. Lord, take notice of. Lord, please be aware of my affliction. Be aware of what I am going through. But notice, he doesn't ask God to take away the affliction or the distress. But take away my sin. David knew what he needed removed. It was not his enemies that he needed removed. It was not his afflictions. It was not his distresses. But it was his sin. His sin that separates him from God. Without sin removed, there is no hope. Beloved, you can die as it were, having lived a wonderful life with no problems and no difficulties. Everything went well for you, but if your sins are not forgiven, you have nothing. On the other hand, you can die to this life, having suffered all kinds of various trials, one right after another, but if your sin has been removed by Jesus Christ, you have everything. David knew that. And he knew that his confidence of forgiveness was in God his Savior. And therefore, he also had confidence that God would also deliver him, Maybe not from, but through the burdens and the difficulties of life. He had that confidence because of the heart of the Gospel. Because he could say, I too have had my sins forgiven. I have been made forever right with God. I have been granted salvation for Jesus' sake. And beloved, that comes with confidence that God will remember my sins no more. That comes with the confidence that I will not be disappointed when Jesus comes again. As we said this morning, when Jesus comes again, I will not be surprised in the sense that God will have changed His mind about me. He is my refuge and my strength. Any confidence and any trust in oneself is useless, it is worthless, it is even harmful. As the troubles and the afflictions of this life prove, But David knew that he couldn't even deliver himself from the troubles of his life. And if we can't deliver ourselves from those temporary difficulties of life, how then could we even think to try to deliver ourselves from the eternal cause or the eternal punishment of sin? We can't. But Jesus Christ can and did. And beloved, His work is certain. It is effective for those who trust in Him. Apart from that, again, there is no hope. One's relationship with Christ determines whether one is saved or not. Nothing else. Only Christ. For those who trust in Him, we have that certainty and therefore we have confidence for today, even though, as Jesus says, if they hated me, they will hate you. Even though the Bible says that we will go through the fire and water, or that we will be tempted, or that we will face the valley of the shadow of death, or that we are involved in spiritual warfare, We have confidence because the believer, by the grace of God, trusts in Jesus Christ and owns his benefits by faith. And therefore, though this life may not be pleasant, the believer is able to remain calm in spite of the raging waves, to remain calm with the assurance again that Paul gives us in Romans 8, that nothing. And if we were to go read that passage again and read that litany of things that Paul lists, again, you know what it says. he points out that nothing in all creation, and that means nothing other than God Himself, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Instead, as Isaiah 40 says, those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. Beloved, not one detail of this life matters apart from true faith. It's all meaningless by itself. But faith in Jesus Christ, with the hope that we have in Him, that we belong to Him. True faith gives direction and meaning also to this life. Because our hope is not only for eternity, ultimately, yes, for eternity, but not only for eternity, but also for today, that God will not let us be destroyed by the difficulties of life. He will deliver us through them. And therefore, true faith never tires of hearing again and again and again and again of why we can trust in Him. Because of His work and His promises. Only those are saved who by true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all His benefits. Faith that knows the truth of God and His promises in Christ Jesus. faith that believes those promises, and faith that trusts. That is true for me too. How can you know that your faith is real? Paul says in Romans chapter 10 that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, And it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the scripture says, anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. For those who are in Christ Jesus, you will never, ever be disappointed. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, as we come before You at the close of this service together, again we confess, Lord, we deserve nothing from Your hand. But You are so very gracious. And we can only say that we don't know why You have been gracious and merciful to us. Yet, Father, we praise Your most holy name. That in Your grace You have given to us true faith. To know and to believe and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Receive all the blessings and benefits earned by Him for us. And we thank You for the certainty that we have. That it will never be taken away from us. That we can never lose it. That You will never, ever change Your mind. Oh, Father, we give You glory and honor and praise. For indeed, You are wonderful. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.