Now our study this evening will
be taken from Psalm 36, and I'm taking the title or the message
from verse 9, where it says in verse 9, for with thee, that
is in our Lord Jesus Christ, is the fountain of life. With the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
a fountain of blessings. With the Lord Jesus Christ, he
is the water of life everlasting. He is that fountain wellspring
that will never run dry. For with thee, with Christ, is
the fountain of life. And in the light, the Lord said,
I am the light. I am the light. In thy light
shall we see. When he enlightens our eyes,
we see. Oh, I see. Christ is everything
in salvation. Christ is all and in all in our
salvation. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily and we stand complete in Christ. Christ
indeed to the believer is all. People say, well, the Lord Jesus
Christ plays a big part of my life. That's not a good statement.
He is my life. He is my life. He's my all and
my all. Now, as I pointed out in the
reading, Psalm 36, it says the Psalm of David, the servant of
the Lord. The servant of the Lord. David
was called a man after God's own heart. David was that little
shepherd boy that was anointed by Samuel the prophet to be the
king in Israel. And he reigned as the good king.
He was a good king. even though he did some bad things,
he was still a good king. He was still justified in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He was a good king, but he doesn't
call himself here the king, he calls himself the servant. He
considered being a servant of the Lord a higher title than
being the king of Israel. No higher title can be given
to any believer than to be a servant of the Lord, to be a servant
of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah
42 verse one, the Lord Jesus Christ is called the servant
of the Lord. The servant of the Lord. Many
times in the gospel, he refers to himself as a servant, as a
servant of the Lord. Behold my servant, my elect God,
then in whom my soul delighted. And then in Isaiah 53, the Lord
Jesus Christ is referred to as the righteous servant of the
Lord that shall justify many. He justified all of his people
as a servant of the Lord. He's our savior. He's our servant,
God's servant, our servant, our substitute, our surety. How many
other words can we think of that start with S? Savior, surety,
substitute, sacrifice. He's all those things, is he
not? The Apostle Paul, when he writes the epistles that God
gave him, he used the title often before he calls himself The apostle,
he says, Paul, a servant of the Lord, separated unto the gospel
of God concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. We're gonna see, Lord
willing, Sunday morning when we start 2 Peter chapter one
in our Bible study, Sunday morning, that Peter there, Peter said, Simon Peter, the
servant of the Lord. Peter wasn't his name. by nature. Peter was his name. The Lord
named him Cephas. Simon, son of Jonah. God gave him that name of Peter.
Peter the apostle, but he called himself the servant of the Lord.
That's a high title. That's a high title. Put that
on my tombstone. The servant of the Lord. or a
servant of the Lord. We put a servant of the Lord.
And it's a privilege to serve the Lord. In the book of Acts
chapter 16, you remember that demon possessed woman who was
healed by the apostles and she proclaimed what the servants
of the Lord do. You remember what she said? These
men are servants of the Most High God, which show us the way
of salvation. That's what the servants of the
Lord do. They show us the way of salvation in Christ. And then
in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, the apostle Paul declared, for we
preach not ourselves, We preach not ourselves. You know, that
statement's been on the front of our bulletin for 31 years. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord ourselves, your servants, for his sake. You reckon I'd change that? It's
been there for 30 years. You might as well keep it there
now. Now, someone said, You read the
Treasury of David by Spurgeon, and a lot of the preachers, both
Mahan and others, including myself, we always read the Treasury of
David when we're looking at these Psalms. And the old preacher
said this Psalm can be divided under four headings. In verse
1-4, we see the rebellious character or attributes of our sinful nature. The second heading would be the
revelation of the character or attribute and holy nature of
Almighty God. Verse 5-9. And then, as I pointed
out in the reading, verse 10 and verse 11, we see the believer's
heart cry unto the Lord, O continue thy loving kindness unto me,
O Lord. Continue, continue to bless us. And then the last point would
be the rebel's final end. There is a final end. As I pointed
out, the man wants to die after that. The point of the men who want
to die, those who die in the Lord, they're called blessed.
Those who die in their sins will be raised in their sins, will
face God in their sins, and will be eternally judged in their
sin. For the wages of sin is death. Now, in verses 1, let's read
verse 1 through 4 again. The transgression of the wicked
And sin is a transgression of the law. That's what sin is.
It's a transgression of the law. We've not kept one law one time.
We've not kept one law one time. Guilty, guilty, guilty. The transgression of the wicked.
And it's describing the whole human race. Unless you descended
from a monkey, you don't have a problem that the rest of us
have. And Adam all died. The transgression
of the wicked saith within my heart or their heart within my
heart. There's no fear of God, no fear
of God. When Paul in Romans chapter three
describes that there's none righteous, no not one. And he says, and
there's no fear of God before their eyes. The repeat offender
that's let out and let out and arrested and let out and let
out, there's no fear of God before his eyes. There's no fear of
authority, is there? He doesn't care. For he flatters
himself in his own eyes. He thinks he's pretty good. I'm
getting away with it this time. Oh, if I get caught, they'll
just let me out. He flatters himself in his own
eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful. The words of his
mouth are iniquity. The reason the words of his mouth
are iniquity is because he's got a heart problem. The heart is desperately wicked.
Who can know it? Full of iniquity and deceit,
deceitful above all things. He left off to be wise. And he
can't do good. It's impossible. None good, no not one. He devises
mischief upon his bed. He sets himself in a way that's
not good. There's a way that seems right
unto men. The end of that way is death. He sets himself in
a way that's not good. And he doesn't even think anything
about evil. He doesn't abhor evil. He delights
in it. He delights in it. Now this is
God's description of the human race. And when you see wicked
men doing wicked things, you understand why, don't you? God
just simply removed the restraining grace and let them run. If the Lord totally took restraints
off all men everywhere, we'd all murder one another by sundown,
if it took that long. If He removed the restraining
grace, So we see the rebellious character
and simple nature of, we say man, but we can say the human
race, can't we? The human race. Whoever first
used the phrase, and I don't know where this started, back
way back years ago, back during the Reformation period, Martin
Luther and those people, John Calvin, But they came up with
the term of depravity when they tried to describe how depraved
sinners are. They came up with the term total
depravity. I mean, when you total your car,
I mean, it's wasted, isn't it? It's total. It's no good. Can't
use it. Well, we are totally depraved. Sinners are totally depraved.
And that's concerning our sinful nature. And they didn't overstate
the matter, did they? Man is not just simply bruised. He's dead. He's totaled. Spiritually dead. This description
is found throughout all Scripture. It's not common to just one writer
of scripture, but all, being inspired of God, have the same
testimony. God looked down from heaven to
see if there were any that did good, and God said, there's none
good, no, not one. And it goes all the way back
to Genesis chapter six. The Lord said, every imagination
of man's heart is only evil once in a while. continually, continually,
continually. We've all sinned and we've all
come short of the glory of God. This is displayed in our attitude
toward God. No fear of God, you see that?
The transgression of the wicked saith in his heart, I don't fear
God. No fear of God, no fear of authority. The authority we have among us,
whether it be government, The policeman, the governor, these
things are ordained of God. When you have no fear of authority,
it's because you have no fear of God. Our fallen nature has
no love for God, no respect for God, no reference or worship
of a true and living God, but rather just the opposite, hatred,
rebellion. The carnal mind is enmity against God. We love darkness,
not light. The natural man, Paul writes
in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God, they're foolishness unto him,
neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned. Now here's the proof of the fact,
verse 2, he flatters himself. The way of the transgressor,
I look in this scripture earlier today, the way of the transgressor
is hard. That's a hard way, the way of
the transgressor is hard. But here's the proof of the fact,
sinners and ungodly rebels flatter themselves in their own eyes.
They think too high thoughts of self and too low thoughts
of God. God-fearing men see their sins
and mourn over them. As Isaiah said, woe is me, I'm
undone. As Job said, I've heard of thee
by the hearing of the ear, by the hearing of the ear. Wherefore
now I see thee, wherefore I hate myself. The apostle Paul writes,
oh wretched man that I am. But godless men, rebels against
God, do not see themselves as sinners. but rather they justify
their rebellion against God. For example, our Lord said to
those Pharisees, you are they that justify yourself before
men, but God knows your hearts. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination in the sight of God. One old writer
said this, those who are truly righteous in Christ, know themselves
to be sinners, right? Those who are truly made righteous
in Christ, they know themselves to be sinners. Christ died for
the ungodly. Those who are truly sinners and
rebels, they think themselves to be righteous. Think about
that. Those who are really sinners,
those who are truly righteous in Christ, they know themselves
to be sinners. Those who are truly sinners and
rebels against God, they think themselves to be righteous. As
the Pharisee prayed, Lord, I thank you. I'm not like other men.
I'm not like other men. They flatter themselves. That
word there, flatter, in verse 2 means they smoothed it over.
They think that God will not see, or they think they will
not get caught. They think that God will not
judge. But one day, if not by grace,
it will be by justice. They'll be made to own their
sin and bow before Christ. Every knee will bow, every tongue
will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Verse three, the words
of their mouth are iniquity and deceit. He has left off to be
wise and to do good. His actions are full of sin.
His mouth spews out evil because his heart is evil. Paul describes those in Romans
3, their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. As I've said over the years,
what's in the well of the heart comes out through the bucket
of the mouth. And that's true. Mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness because their heart, their heart is wicked. He acts
as a fool. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. The fear of the Lord, you see,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. They are unable to
do anything that is good. They don't abhor evil, they delight
in it. It's only by the grace of God
that you hate sin. Look at verse 4. You see the
Lord really lays it out here for us, doesn't He? The way He sees it, that's the
way it is. He divides His mischief upon His bed. Now how does the
Lord know that? He knows our thoughts are far off. He divides
his mischief upon his bed. When he lays down, all he thinks
about is how he connive and cheat and steal. He setteth himself
in a way that's not good. He doesn't even abhor evil. He
delights in it. He delights in it. The ungodly, the unbeliever,
plots and plans and schemes, nothing but pure evil. He rejoices
in the pleasure of it. He meditates upon it and defends
it and practices it with delight. That's why the repeat offender,
when he's released, does he reform? No. He goes right
back. The whole time he was in prison
before they let him out, all he was doing was thinking about
how I can play it better next time and not get caught. Now here's a more pleasant thing
to think about. In verse 5 down through verse
9, we see the revelation of the character of God. We see the
revelation of the character of God. Certainly a much more pleasant
subject to talk about than to preach about, isn't it? I can preach about depravity
because I know somewhat how depraved I am. But it's much more pleasant to
talk about and preach about the amazing grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ. One of the amazing facts about
the gospel is that the Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners.
He came to save sinners. They criticized the Lord, why
does your master eat with that hobnob with those publicans and
sinners? And the Lord said, Those who
are well don't need a physician. I didn't come to call the righteous
sinners. Sinners! Sinners through repentance. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the friend of sinners. The friend of sinners. He proved
that He's a friend of sinners. And that He came to save them
from their sin. He came to seek and to save that
which is lost. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. Just like you. Just like me. That's good news, isn't it? Now
there's seven glorious characters or attributes revealed here about
our gracious Lord. And I'll spend a few minutes
here talking about each one of them. In verse 5, we see about
the mercy of the Lord. Thy mercy. Now this is the mercy
that comes from the Lord. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. It originates
in the heavens, but it's also upon the earth. Remember, and
don't turn them in, just see if I can read it, find it for
you. Last week we looked at Psalm 33. Was it Psalm 33 we looked
at last week? He loveth righteousness and judgment.
The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord. Psalm 33 verse 5. Psalm 33. The earth is full of
the mercy of the Lord because it comes from heaven. It comes
from heaven. We can measure, when we can measure
the vastness of the heavens, we can know something of the
vastness of His mercy toward us. The earth is full of His
mercy. You remember from Ephesians chapter
2, God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sin, has quickened us together
with Christ. We know in Micah chapter 7 verse
18 that He delights to show mercy. He delights to show mercy. When
Moses asked the Lord to show me your glory, remember what
he said? I'll call all my goodness to pass before thee. That's Christ. And I'll be merciful to whom
I will be merciful. His greatest glory is my greatest
need. God saves sinners through His
mercy. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed because His compassions fail not. They're
new every morning. So the Lord is merciful. Thank
God He is. But He's only merciful to us
through Christ Jesus. The second thing we see there
in verse 5 is God's faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. We
sing that song often, don't we? Great is thy faithfulness, O
God my Father. Great is thy faithfulness. It reaches unto the clouds. Every
way. God never fails. God's faithful.
He never fails. He never falters. He never forgets. He said, I'm the Lord. I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. The Lord is
the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Lord is faithful
to his word. His promises, they cannot fail. He said, I've spoken it, I bring
it to pass, I've purposed it, I will do it. God is faithful
to his people. He said, I'll never leave you,
I'll never forsake you. God had made with me, David said,
an everlasting covenant, order and all things and ensure, this
is all my hope, all my salvation. It's through the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ as our mediator and surety and sacrifice
that we're justified before God. The salvation of sinners is not
based upon our faithfulness. Our faithfulness, our faith is
not our righteousness. Our faith looks to Christ, who
is the Lord, our righteousness. It's through His faithfulness
that we have salvation. He was obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. Our salvation is based upon His
faithfulness. We're not justified by the deeds
of the law, as Paul writes in Romans and Galatians, but through
the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the third
attribute of God, verse 6. Thy righteousness is like the
great mountains. Thy righteousness is like the
great mountains. God is most holy in all his ways
and actions. Righteousness. Our wise Lord
justifies sinners with the righteousness that he provides in the gospel.
What God demands of us is righteousness and redemption, and you know
what? He freely gives that to us. Isn't that amazing? In that Gospel that Paul says,
I'm not ashamed of, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. God saves sinners in such a way that His holy character
is not violated. His law is magnified. At the
same time, He justifies the ungodly. That's how God can be just and
the justifier through Christ our substitute, the just dying
for the unjust, that he might bring us unto God. He says in
verse six, his judgments are great deep. You see that? Thy judgments, the judgments
of the Lord. What are the judgments of the
Lord? Now, we think about the wrath of God, don't we? We think
about the judgments of God. But really, when you boil it
all down, it gets down to this. The decrees of God, the mandates
and the decrees of God are great. Deep, deep. Can you fathom the
depth of the providence of God? Paul writes about that in Romans
chapter 11. Can you, by searching, find out
God? His ways are infinite. His ways are deep. Who can know? Who can know? Let me read it
to you. Oh, the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his
judgments and his ways past finding out. For who has known the mind
of the Lord? Who has been his counselor? Or who has first given
to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him and
through him and to him are all things to whom be glory. forever and ever. And then he
says, Amen. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, unsearchable, unsearchable
are his judgments and his ways pass finding out. His ways of
providence are mysterious, but they're not to be questioned
or criticized, but rather submitted unto. Had Job said the Lord gave
and the Lord had taken away, Blessed be the name of the Lord.
The Lord, the judge of all the earth, he will do right. In his
wise providence, he does provide for his creation, and he sustains
all things. Thy judgments are great deep,
O Lord. Thou preservest man and beast, the beast of the field. It's cattle on a thousand hills.
He said it's mine, mine. I think I had this in a bulletin
last week. Every beast of the forest is
mine, Psalm 50. The cattle upon a thousand hills.
If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell thee the world is mine and
the fullness thereof. He preserves the human race.
He preserves the beast. Them little bugs, them little
ants, those little The snake that crawls, the grasshopper
that jumps, the bird that flies, all those things are preserved
by God. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without your father. He preserves us, doesn't he?
were kept by the power of God. You see the great attributes
of God? Boy, what a contrast between sinful men and the Savior
of sinners. Verse 7 talks about how excellent or
how precious, how excellent, I love the marginal reference
there, precious. How precious is thy lovingkindness. The love of God is beyond measure. Who knows the depth, the height,
the length? God has loved His people. How
long has God loved His people? Well, God started loving me the
day I repented. God started loving me the day
I believed. Oh no. God has loved His people with
an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
He draws us. The reason we repent and the
reason we believe is because God has loved us from all eternity.
Chosen. I remember reading a book years
ago by John Warburton. Covenant Mercies. I believe it
was John Warburton. But I ran into that phrase I'd
never read before. God electing love. Jacob, have
I loved? Esau, have I hated? How excellent
is thy love and kindness? Well, somebody might say, well,
it's not fair for God to do that. He's a sovereign. He can choose
whom He will. He can love whom He will. How excellent is our love and
kindness! Here in His love, not that we love God, but He loved
us, sent His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins. How excellent is
our love and kindness, O God! O God! Nothing can separate us
from the love of God which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing!
How excellent is thy loving kindness, O God! Therefore, the children
of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wing. Now that refers to the mercy. See, look over here at Psalm,
I think it's Psalm 57. Turn over there. Psalm 57. Psalm 57, verse 1. Be merciful
unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee. Yea, in the shadow of thy wings
will I make my refuge until these calamities be overpassed. I'll
cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all things
for me. I love that verse. He shall send
from heaven and save me from the approach of him that will
swallow me up. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. The shadow of his wings, that's
the mercy seat. That's where sinners meet God,
and where God meets sinners in Christ, our propitiation. In
Christ, our mercy seek. Christ, our mercy seek. Verse eight, the Lord is a gracious
provider. He's called Jehovah-Jireh, the
Lord will provide. They shall abundantly, they shall
be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, with
the fullness of his house. God is satisfied with Christ.
This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And believers
are satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ. We have all fullness
in him. Of his fullness have we all received
grace for grace. You remember John chapter one? Of his fullness have we all received
grace for grace. In His house there is bread,
there is water abundantly given unto us through Christ Jesus
and Him crucified. My God shall supply all your
need according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus.
Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures."
There is a river. There is a river that flows from
the throne of God. And that river is the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. He's that river He's a river
of pleasures. We delight in him. He's a river. He's a river in a dry and thirsty
land. He is a water of life. He is
a water of life. A man shall be a hiding place
from the wind, a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water
in a dry place, as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Isaiah 32, 2. For with thee is a fountain of
life, verse 9, and in thy light Christ is a fountain of life. The Lord is the giver of all
life, isn't he? Both natural and physical. In
him we live and move and have our being. With thee is a fountain
of life. A never-ending fountain flowing
from the throne of God. It's a fountain of salvation.
Salvation of the Lord. And in Thy light, what do we
see? In His light, when He enlightens
us to see, when God commands the light to shine in our heart,
what do we see? We see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. With Thee is a fountain of life.
He said, I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. Right? No man come to the Father but
by me. For with thee the fountain of life, in thy light shall we
see light. In thy light shall we see light.
He said, I'm the light of the world, he that follows me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Those
are seven attributes of God. Aren't they glorious? Now our prayer, verse 10 and
11, and I'll just read this and wind this up. Our prayer in verse
10 and 11, O continue thy loving kindness to them that know thee. The Lord knows us and by his
grace we know him. As Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. O continue thy mercy, thy loving
kindness unto them that know thee. You reckon he will? Absolutely. Absolutely. And continue that
righteousness to those who have been made upright in heart. He's
given us a new heart. He's taken away that stony heart.
He's given us a new heart in Christ Jesus. Regenerated and
made new in Him. Oh, continue His love and His
righteousness unto us. And He will. That's our prayer,
isn't it? Verse 11, let not the foot of
pride come against me. Let not the ugly head, the ugly
head of pride raise up. in me. Lord, keep me humbled.
Keep me humbled. Deny them of a broken heart,
save as such as be of a contrite spirit. Let not the hand of the
wicked remove me. Now, we know he's not talking
about being removed from the hand of Almighty God. That's
impossible. But let not the hand of the wicked
disturb me or frustrate me. Let not the hand of those wicked
men disturb me. Lord, keep me from sinful religious
pride and keep me humble in Thy sight. Lord, let not the hand
of the wicked move or waver me from trusting Christ, from looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let not the wicked influence
me to compromise the gospel or to look somewhere else for salvation.
That's what we pray for, is it not? And then, finally, in verse
12, judgment. The rebel's final end. The psalm
begins with the description of the wicked and ends with their
final doom. Kiss the son. Remember Psalm
2? Kiss the son lest he be angry and he perish from the way when
his wrath is kindled just a little bit. And you perish from the
way. There are the workers of iniquity
fallen. You die in your sin, you'll be raised in your sin.
My pastor used to always say, men die as they live. Men die
as they live. You live without Christ, you'll
die without Christ. You'll be raised without Christ.
Face God in judgment without Christ. They are cast down, shall
not be able to rise. Judgment final. Judgment final.