A Blood-Bought Right to Be Heard: The Protection of Psalm 91

Sermon outline

Because of the blood of Jesus, the believer who dwells with God and says so out loud lives under the protection of the Almighty and has a blood-bought right to be heard.

1. Recap: what the blood has already given us

   He reminds the church of the first eight points in the series: applying the blood, walking in obedience, eliminating personal sin, relying on the Lamb, understanding the measure of His love, Jesus' complete sacrifice, true believers and the sinless Lamb. He lingers on the measure of God's love, because you can only express love to others once you understand the love God has shown you.

   “You can't express the love to somebody else unless you understand God's love expressed towards you.”

   • Revelation 12:11

2. Point nine: the protection of the Almighty

   Reading Psalm 91 from the NIV, he stops on God's faithfulness, which he says is a sermon on its own. When people and institutions forsake you, it is His faithfulness that has kept you serving the Lord, caught you when you wanted to give in and will always keep you. He warns that it is a fearful thing to attack a child of God, because the believer will only observe with their eyes as the wicked are punished.

   “It was his faithfulness, and it is his faithfulness that will always keep you.”

   • Psalm 91:1-8

3. Angels in charge, because you love Him

   God commands His angels to guard His children and lift them up, and He makes it personal: He rescues those who love Him and acknowledge His name. God's protection is so vast it cannot be explained. Jesus promised not to leave us as orphans but to send the Holy Spirit, our standby and strengthener, so no believer can ever truly say God has forsaken them.

   Illustration: Some people grew up as orphans, but in the kingdom of God no one is an orphan: we all have a Father, and our testimony will always be that the Lord has provided.

   “God will go through a nation to protect you.”

   • Psalm 91:11-14
   • John 14:16-18

4. A blood-bought right to be heard

   Psalm 91 promises that when we call, God will answer. He says he respects the devotion of people who serve other gods, yet he wonders whether they are heard, while the God of the Christian answers by fire and His ears are open to the righteous. Because of the cross and the Mediator who bought us with His blood, believers can come boldly to the throne of grace and be heard about the desires they carry into 2017.

   “We as Christians have a blood-bought right to be heard.”

   • Psalm 91:15
   • 1 Kings 18:24
   • Psalm 34:15
   • 2 Chronicles 16:9
   • Hebrews 4:16
   • John 7:38
   • Psalm 37:4

5. I will honour him: the days of miracles are not over

   God's 'I will' is a statement of fact: He will be with us in trouble, deliver us and honour us, lifting us up as trophies of His grace so that He is distinguished from every other god. He grieves that much of the church has quietly taken out the blood, the name of Jesus, praise and communion, but says there are still people who will preach the blood and confess the name of Jesus, because there is salvation in no other name.

   Illustration: Put a frog in boiling water and it leaps out, but heat the water slowly and it never feels it until it dies. That, he says, is how the church has been silently killed, one small thing at a time.

   “The days of miracles are not over yet.”

   • Psalm 91:15-16
   • Acts 4:12

6. Dwell, then say it

   To dwell means to 'pass the night', to stay with God in good times and bad, not to visit Him casually. Then you must say it: knowing the history of the blood will not help you until you take it out of the basin and apply it by confessing it over yourself, your family and your country's troubles. Deep down everyone knows there is a God, and people can see God in a believer.

   Illustration: On a flight to Port Elizabeth the plane suddenly banked and things fell from the lockers, and even passengers who were drinking cried out to God. On a helicopter ride in the Drakensberg he befriended a wealthy jeweller from Scotland who said he was an atheist; after dinner in Durban the man wrote to say he saw God in them.

   “If you do not say it, you will never have it. You will only possess what you confess.”

   • Psalm 91:1-2
   • Mark 16:18