Find our seats. Somebody get
the door in the back, please. Second Sunday of November. 28
years ago. We met for our first time as
a as a church. And This today is the second
Sunday in November so it's been 28 years and I just want to read
a verse of scripture from Deuteronomy chapter 7 because all the glory
goes to our Lord for having called us and kept us. We've been, and we've never been
more dependent upon him than we are now. to continue keeping
us. In Deuteronomy chapter seven
and verse seven, the Lord did not set his love upon you, nor
choose you because you were more in number than any other people,
for you were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord
loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn
unto your fathers hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty
hand and redeemed you of the house of bondage from the hand
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. It was the Lord keeping his covenant
promise. It's the only explanation for
why we heard and why we came out and why God has continued
to show his mercy upon us for his name's sake. Not because he saw something
in us, but because he had made a promise and he's faithful to
his promises. Know therefore that the Lord,
thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and
mercy with them that love him. and they keep his commandments
to a thousand generation. The evidence, the real evidence
of our love for him is our belief in him, our trust in him and
our desire for him to have all the glory for all things. And that is because of his faithfulness,
his faithfulness. Adam's gonna come and lead us
in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Let's stand together. "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
for, Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hadst thou not chosen me. Thou from the sin that stained
me hast cleansed and set me free. Of old thou hast ordained me
that I should live to thee. Your love had no beginning, no
cause in me was found. That you should choose to save
me, a sinner strongly bound. But grace not earned or sought,
for was purposed for my soul. For me salvation wrought, for
Christ paid the dreadful toll. ? Twas sovereign mercy called
me ? ? And taught my opening mind ? ? The world had else enthralled
me ? ? To heavenly glories blind ? ? My heart owns none before
thee ? ? For thy rich grace I thirst ? This, knowing if I loved thee,
thou must have loved me first. Be seated, please. Sorry. Turn with me in your Bibles
to Romans 8, 28. This is a verse that I'm guessing
probably, it's one of the most quoted in all the Bible. And
at the same time, it's one of the most misquoted in all the
Bible. And I'd like to read this and
share something God's put on my heart afterwards. And Paul says, and we know that
all things, not those just that we like, all things. And I look across, there's not
a person in this room hadn't had trials and tribulations.
That God's broken us, hadn't he? Brought us to tears, crying
out for his mercies. We've had dark times where our
hearts have been broken. But those are part of all things.
And they're from the hand of God. They work together for good
to them that love God. And that's where religious folks
stop, don't they? But it says more. Who is this
to love God? To them who are the called according
to His purpose. Our God is a God of purpose. He does what he wants, when he
wants, with whom he wants, and is not dependent on us for anything. He is a God that is sovereign,
and we rejoice in that. That's where we get comfort.
Our God's a sovereign God. We're not hoping it goes well. We know that despite my inability
to see the future, I can't see the next day. The God of purpose
already ordained the events that are gonna happen. And those events
that we're going and struggling through, they are for our good. God give us the grace to see
that. One of the beauties of growing
older is that when you say or do something foolish, you're
not judged so harshly. They just kind of look at you
and say, he's old, he don't know what he's doing or saying. I
hope that be the case, but I'd like to share something with
you. The reason I chose this verse, or God chose it, obviously,
he led me to this verse, is that a man that I dearly loved and
admired, who's long since gone away, a faithful gospel preacher
for many years, one time shared with me, this was the verse God
used to teach him the gospel. He said he was a young man and
he was an associate pastor at a large Baptist church. And he
said every year that church, like all Baptist church, had
revivals. And he said, after God saved
me, I realized there's more carnival than it was revival. He said
one particular year, he said, I was tasked with getting a pastor
to come to preach the revival. And about two or three days before
we would meet on that first Sunday, he said, the senior pastor said,
by the way, who did you get to preach? And I remember he said,
I don't know whose face was whiter, mine or his. I'd forgot. So we struggled around, couldn't
get anybody. Finally, we called the president
of a Bible college He said, I don't think I can get anybody, but
I'll try. He called him back, said, I've got somebody that'll
come, but I'm gonna have to tell you, he's different. They said,
we'll take him. We'll take him. We didn't know
the man, we didn't know anything about the man. Said, they got the day of our
first meeting, the church was packed. And he said, I kept looking
around, I didn't know him, so I didn't know, It's only about
five or 10 minutes, we're starting, and finally I seen a man standing
by himself. I went over and said, are you?
Yes, I'm him. He said, boy, I was relieved. Said, we started the services,
we had, you know how those who come out of religion, we had
special music and all this, and said they introduced the man
and said, I knew in the first 15 seconds that this man was
different. He didn't say, hello, how are
you? Glad to be here. He said, turn your Bibles to
Romans 8, 28. And he asked one of the men sitting
up front, could you please stand up and quote that for us? And
the man did that. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. And he sat down. And everybody around him, amen,
amen, amen. Said the preacher looked and
he said, is that all of it? And he got nervous and he stood
up and he quoted the rest of it. Most of them don't. Who are
the called according to his purpose. And the young preacher said,
for that next 30 minutes, that man declared a God, a God of
purpose. Every verse we looked at, God-willed,
God-purposed, God-ordained, God-predetermined, God-chose, God-elected. He said, I was stunned. Here
I am, a preacher, and I was stunned. I'd never heard this in my life. And he said, after it was over,
I ran to my study, because he said, in 30 minutes, some of
you can relate to this, And then 30 minutes, you know what I'm
gonna say, Don. He said, that 30 minutes, God rewrote my Bible. I looked, and everywhere I looked,
I saw the sovereignty of God-willed, God-purposed. It was all there,
and I couldn't see it. And here I am, a preacher. And he said, I'll be honest,
I thought, man, I don't know if I'm saved or not even. He
said, that night when I went back to the nightly meeting,
he said, I saw a group of men standing, and I could see they
weren't joking and laughing. They were mad and angry. As I
got closer, I heard one of them say, we cannot let this man preach
one more sermon in this church. He'll rip this church apart. And the young pastor said, finally,
one of the most respected members of the church, stood up to the
man, he said, gentlemen, John the Baptist has come to town,
and this church and this town will never be the same. And it
wasn't. I've told you this. Remember
they told Paul, put people in remembrance of what God has done.
Because it was a little over 28 years ago that a group of people in a meeting
at a Reformed Theological Seminary, and we were happy, and it was
growing, more people. And then one weekend, Brother
Greg and Trish had to be out of town. And correct me if I'm
wrong, had trouble finding somebody to preach. And one of the people that attended
there said, my brother's gonna be in town, he's a preacher.
And we said, okay, have him come. And he came. And that morning,
he preached to those group of Reformed people about Nahum the
leper. He said, Nahum thought he was
a great man who just happened to have leprosy. The truth is,
he was a leper. who happened to be a great man.
That's a picture of us and our sin. Most religious folks says,
I'm a good person who has some sin. God's people says, I'm nothing
but sin. You see the difference? John
the Baptist had come to town. And that church, Greg and Trish
got back, God be thanked. There wasn't many. Sorry, there was some sheep in
that large group. And our brother revealed the
gospel to our pastor, and to Trish, and to others. And those
who are here the first round, we know that I'll tell you before
we start trying to work things out, and brother, I don't know
how few remember it, I do. They were angry and they were
mad. Is he gonna tell us every week that we're sinners? Is that
what he's gonna do? He's causing us to doubt our
salvation. Well, it got ugly and it got
nasty, didn't it? And there's times I know, forgive
me for missing the window, but that same John the Baptist came
back and preached over a weekend and it got so ugly I remember
and it was Todd and Iver. He had to climb up in a SUV because
they were getting so angry surrounding him, protect himself. But our
God is a faithful God. He is a God of purpose. And he
purposed to bring his people out of religion and reveal his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ to us. And here we sit, 28 years later. God has been a faithful God.
And I'm so thankful to just be a participant in it. Now we look forward to what God
may do, all these young people and these children, that God
might be merciful to them and save them. And I'll close with
this, and thank you for your patience, There's not a day goes
by and I hope you would join me in praying to our sovereign
God that he be, keep us faithful to Christ and his gospel. And he protect his servant and
his helpmate, Trish. I'm already a lot of lines, so
I might as well go ahead and go. I told him one of the most
things, Trish, we thank you for sharing your husband with us.
That has to be a grace from God. To keep us faithful to Christ
and His gospel. And that we not only believe
it, but that we love it. And that we be willing to defend
it. Forgive me for my long time. Thank you. Let's stand together again and
sing hymn number 258 from the hardback hymnal, 258. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved, He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul
in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand. and covers me there with his
hand. With numberless blessings each
moment he crowns and filled with his fullness divine. I sing in my rapture, O glory
to God, for such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. When clothed in his brightness
transported, I rise to meet him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, his wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand. and covers me there with his
hand. Be seated again, please. Abide with me. Fast falls the eventide. The darkness deepens. Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts
flee, Help of the helpless, oh abide with me. Swift to its close ebbs out life's
little day. Earth's joys grow dim. Its glories pass away, change
and decay, in all around I see. Oh, thou who changest not, abide
with me. I need thy presence every passing
hour. What but thy grace can foil the
tempter's power? Who like thyself my guide and
strength can be? Through cloud and sunshine, though
abide with me. I fear no foe with thee at hand
to bless. Ills have no weight, and tears
no bitterness. Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory? I triumph still if thou abide
with me. Hold thou thy cross before my
closing eyes, Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies. Heaven's morning breaks and earth's
vain shadows flee. In life, in death, O Lord, abide
with me. Thank you, Adam. I didn't know what Adam... Adam
asked me when I asked him to do special music if there was
a particular hymn. I said, no, whatever. And just
so happens, Adam, that I was talking with somebody last night
about that hymn. And I looked it up and come to
find out it was a Scottish pastor that wrote that hymn in 1847. And he was on his deathbed dying
of tuberculosis when he wrote that hymn. Abide with me. What a blessing. The last thing
I ever want to do is turn our worship service into a mutual
admiration society. That having been said, I am very
thankful for Michael Etheridge and for Diane. And I do remember
28 years ago when there was some men who wanted to beat me up
and Michael stepped in between us and calmed the waters. And then for the next six months
or so, we met in the factory where Michael was the manager. And I tell you that because Michael
and Diane moved to Lakeland a few years ago, and just in the last
couple of years, the Lord has raised up a gospel church there.
Sean Reynolds pastors that church, and he'll be preaching our conference
in January. Sean's been here a few times,
and a faithful man. Michael and Diane live about
five minutes away from that church, and they've been driving here.
But like all of us, they're getting to that age where it sure is
enticing to attend services much closer to home. Michael, we love
you, Diane, and I know you all love us, but we wanted to give
you permission. this morning. You can't stay
away forever. You gotta come back every once
in a while so we don't forget who you are. But Michael asked
me for my blessings for them to start attending services there. And you have our blessings. So, like I said, come often,
okay, as you can. But if you all miss Michael and
Diane, that's where they'll be. Okay? Let's open our Bibles together
to 2 Samuel, chapter 15. 2 Samuel, chapter 15. I've titled
this message, The Cover-Up is Worse than the Crime. The Cover-Up
is Worse than the Crime. And it usually turns out that
way, doesn't it? try to make excuses and cover
up for things and we just get deeper and deeper. Reminded of,
I think it was Shakespeare that said, oh what a tangled web we
weave when first we practice to deceive. And lies have to
be told to cover up lies and before we know it, things have
gotten a whole lot worse than they would have been had we just
come clean to begin with. Well, Absalom is going to do
something here that we would all do if the Lord did not restrain
us. We would not hide ourselves in
the cleft of the rock or be hid, as it were, in the cleft of the
rock. We would hide our intentions and our sin in man-made religion,
in works of the law, we would try to cover up what our real
enmity with God is by pretending to be something that we're not.
And that's exactly what Absalom's gonna do, and if the Lord does
not restrain us and point us to Christ, We will cover up the
crime of our rebellion against God with self-righteousness and
with false piety and with outward religion. The Pharisees did it. The Lord called them whitewashed
tombs. that we're filled with dead men's
bones and we are all Pharisees by nature and we're all concerned
with the opinions of other men and left to ourselves we will
love the praise of men more than the praise of God and we will
clean up the outward appearances to make it look like we're alive
when inwardly we're dead. Absalom's gonna do that. Beyond justifying his lies, he
will come to the place of believing that he's right. Our text tells us that there
is a strong conspiracy that he's leading in rebellion against
his father. Absalom has had three years of
exile as a result of taking his brother Amnon's life. He's had
two years of isolation from his father. And in chapter 14 at
verse 33, the Bible says that he's finally reunited with David
and he gives to his father, Judas's kiss. He kisses his father on
the cheek with the pretense of being in fellowship with his
father, being in union with his father. But in chapter 15 at
verse one, he begins his plot of rebellion against his father. Here's what we would do. Oh,
we would blow our kisses to God and profess to believe in him. We would do, as the Lord Jesus
said, honor him with our lips while our hearts were far from
him. We were born in rebellion against
God. We, as we saw last Sunday, believe
ourselves to be more capable than God. We really do. We have
the power of God. We'd change everything because
we think we know better. Absalom thought, he believed
in his heart that he would be a better king than his father.
And he had the approval of the people. Everyone there praised
him and the first part of chapter 15, they followed him in his
procession and they hailed him as king. But before he carries out his
insurrection, Before he fulfills his overthrow,
he's going to hide his true intents behind the veil of religion. And here's what you and I would
do. We would hide our true intents behind the veil of religion. As sinners, we need a place to
hide. But as hypocrites, as hypocrites, we would profess
to be hiding one place that really doesn't provide an
adequate hiding place. We just saying that Him, He hideth
my soul. He hideth my soul. Let's see
where Absalom attempts to hide the true intents of his rebellion
against God. It is in our nature to stand
in rebellion against God. It is in our nature to raise
our fist to heaven and to say, I'll not have that man reign
over us. It is our nature to set ourselves up on the throne
of God. And if the Lord gives us what
we want, that's exactly what we'll do. Verse seven of 2 Samuel chapter
15, and it came to pass after 40 years, that Absalom said unto
the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have
vowed unto the Lord in Hebron. Now there's been some confusion
over what the reference to 40 years is and some Language experts
tell us that, like in most languages, the word 4 and the word 40 are
very similar and perhaps this is a misrepresentation of the
word number 4 which would be appropriate for the years that
we're looking at here. But if we read 1 and 2 Samuel
as a whole, we know that it's talking about the reign of David
and of Saul. And in fact, we're just right
about 40 years from the time that Saul began to reign as king
over Israel. So in the 40th year of a king,
an earthly king reigning over God's people, there is now a
rebellion, an insurrection by the son of the king himself. In verse eight, For thy servants
vowed a vow while I abode in Gesher. Gesher in Syria is where
Absalom had been exiled for three years. And he's telling his father,
I vowed a vow to God that when I was restored in fellowship
with you, I would go back to Hebron and I would make sacrifice
to God in thanksgiving and in worship. for the blessing that
he has given me to restore me. That's what he's telling his
father. For thy servant vowed a vow while
I was a boat in Geshur in Syria, saying, if the Lord shall bring
me again indeed unto Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. And
the king said unto him, go in peace. So he arose and went to
Hebron. And Absalom sent spies throughout
all the tribes of Israel saying, as soon as you hear the sound
of the trumpet then you shall say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron. So you see, Absalom lied to his
father, he said, I'm going to go to Hebron, I'm going to make
sacrifice to God. But his true intent was to lead
a rebellion against his father. And if we read through the rest
of these verses, you find that the people did go to Hebron and
they did hail him as king and they came back and they forced
David out of the throne and Absalom is set up. He sets himself up. God had sent David up, but now
Absalom's gonna set himself up. But the point of this message
is that in doing so, He's going to hide his true intents behind
God or the pretended worship of God. And this is what you
and I would do. Hebron is a very significant
religious site for the Israelites. In Genesis chapter 13, Abraham
made one of his, built one of his first altars and made sacrifice
to God in Hebron. Later, he went back to Hebron
and he bought the land and he buried Sarah, his wife there
and Abraham's buried there and Isaac's buried there. All the
patriarchs are buried in Hebron. When Moses was bringing the children
of Israel out of Egypt and sent Joshua and Caleb with the other
10 spies to spy out the land, they went to Hebron and they
spied out the land from Hebron. When Joshua later comes in and
captures the land, he gives Hebron to Caleb and they conquer Hebron.
David served his first seven and a half years as king in Hebron
before coming to Jerusalem. So Hebron has much significance
among the children of Israel as a very significant religious
site. Men choose those things which are
very significant to impress other men. Scripture says that that which
is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God. But
because we by nature value the esteem of others, we will use
significant religious trinkets and markers to try to impress our fellow man. And perhaps successfully hiding
our intents from one another, we cannot hide from God. Job put it like this in Job 8,
he said, the hypocrite's hope shall perish, his hope shall
be cut off. and his trust shall be as a spider's
web." Men put their hope in religious
experiences. They put their hope in religious
places. They put their hope in religious knowledge. And they hide themselves in those
places. They put their hope in religious
activity. And they will seek to impress
one another With that, that's exactly what Absalom's doing
here. He goes to a place that is highly
esteemed among the Israelites. And he uses that as a place whereby
he's intending to overthrow his father. His reign won't last long and
it won't end well for Absalom. And neither will ours if we play
the hypocrite, if we plot our schemes against God and pretend
to be putting our hope in spiritual things while at the same time
standing in rebellion against God. Our reign won't last long
and it won't end well. But by nature we've always done
this. We've always done it. We've always sought a hiding
place that wasn't safe. All the way back to the fall,
when Adam felt the shame and the guilt of his sin, what did
he do? He sewed together fig leaves. A picture of the works of our
hands, sewing them together in hopes of hiding himself behind his own works. And then
the scripture says that he hid in the garden amongst the trees. Now the Bible likens the church
to a garden and he likens believers, the Bible likens believers to
trees. the trees of righteousness, which
are the plantings of the Lord. Here's my point. If the Lord
leads us to ourselves, we will hide ourselves and try to cover
our shame for our sin with the works of our hands amongst the
trees of God's own garden. We'll do it. That's what Absalom's doing here.
He's using the significance of Hebron to hide the intent of
his rebellion against his father. And as it turns out, the coverup
is worse than the crime. Right after Adam. Cain was jealous and had hatred
in his heart toward his brother Abel and shed the blood of his
own brother. And what did he offer up to God in
sacrifice? The fruits of his own labor and
God had no regard for the sacrifice of Cain. Men will offer up things. God says, I don't have any regard
for that. The Tower of Babel was a temple. Man seeking to build a temple
up to heaven. It was like a pyramid. It was
like one of those things down there in Mexico that they built. And there was a place for sacrifice. And man's always been trying
to do that. He won't bow to God, he won't
believe God. He won't come to him, he won't rest
the hope of his salvation in Christ. He wants some glory,
he wants some credit. And so he will do what he does. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
1. Isaiah chapter 1. Look with me at verse 11. Here's what God says to the children
of Israel about their religious activity. Here's my point. The veil of religion, the veil of the law, the veil
of good works, is not a safe hiding place. There's only one cleft in the
rock. There's only one place to hide. There's only one place
to be safe. And that's in Christ. But left to ourselves, we'll
do exactly what Absalom did. We'll play the hypocrite. We'll
weave our lives together. We'll go out of our way to impress
men. And all along God sees through
every bit of it. He sees through every bit of
it. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifice? Isaiah chapter one, verse 11. To what purpose is the multitude
of your sacrifice unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt
offerings of rams, and of the fat of fed beasts, and I delight
not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
When you come to appear before me, who hath required this at
your hand to tread my courts? And there was no animal more
unclean than a dog, and the Lord said, you're offering a dog's
head to me. What we have to offer God to
atone for our sins and to hide ourselves from him. God said,
I'm not impressed, I'm not interested. Who commanded that from you?
It didn't come from me. Turn over just a few pages to
Isaiah chapter 28. Isaiah 28. Verse 17. Judgment. Judgment, the judgment of God.
God judges and there's no appeal to his judgments. There's no
reversal to his judgments. There's no higher court to go
to when God's judgments are made. Judgment also while I lay to
the line and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall
sweep away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow
the hiding place." And the covenant that you made with death? You
see, there's two covenants. A covenant is a promise. Either
we're saved in the covenant of grace, the promise that God made
to God. or we're saved by the covenant
of works, a promise that we make to God. God makes you to be a sinner.
You know you've not kept your promises. And if your salvation
depends upon any promise that you ever made to God, you have
no safe place to hide. God says, I'm gonna sweep away
the covenant of lies, the covenant that you've made. And your covenant
with death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell
shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then
you shall be trodden down by it. Even Judas, Ascariot, when brought to the shame and
guilt of what he did in selling the Lord Jesus out, took his money and went back
to the law, he thought, well, I'll give it back. That'll salve
my conscience. I'll restore what I took. Did
it? No. Now we know that Judas was
the son of perdition, he was purposed and ordained of God
to fulfill his role. But that being put aside, any
man that sells out the Lord Jesus and rather than taking his money
back to the law and throwing it on the floor thinking that
somehow I can redeem myself and I can restore that which I've
destroyed, if that man went back to Christ, he'd be forgiven. He'd be forgiven. Absalom, you know what that name
means. Abba, Father, Salome, Peace. Absalom had a good name. And
he gives his father a kiss on the cheek at the end of chapter
14. To give testimony of his name,
I have peace with God. I have peace with my father. And if you read the letters that
the Lord wrote to the church at Sardis in Revelation, here's
what he said. You have a name that you are
alive, but you're dead. You're dead. You see, you and I will go about Couting our name. My name's Christian. My name's a follower of Christ. I believe the Bible. And yet, if our hope is in anything other than the
Lord Jesus as our hiding place, If we're going back to this religious
place, trying to cover up our true intents, God knows, God knows. So where can we hide? Turn with
me to Isaiah 32. Isaiah 32. Verse one, behold. Now that word behold means put
everything else out of the way, put on your blinders, look, look. I'm gonna show you something.
This is the only thing that matters, behold. It doesn't matter what
men are impressed with. It doesn't matter what our experiences
have been. It doesn't matter how we might
be able to garner the support and impressions of other men. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall
be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest,
as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock
in a weary land. It's a man. A man. It's the God-man. He's the cleft
in the rock. He's the only one, the only one
that ever satisfied the demands of God's righteousness. He's
the only one that can atone for our sins. The only one. Turn with me to Psalm 32. Psalm
32. Look at verse five. I acknowledge my sin unto thee. Now that just simply means this.
Lord, whatever you say about me being a sinner, I know it's
true. Don't think that in order to
be able to come to God, you have to feel You know, in years gone
by, they would have morning benches at the front of the church where
people would come at the end of the service or even during
the service and they would kneel and cry and pray and ask God
to, you know, to give them the spirit of repentance. Listen,
your sin and my sin's a whole lot worse than we think it is.
And there's no way you can feel the shame and sorrow for your
sin that you ought to feel. There's only one that ever did
that. When the Lord Jesus hung on Calvary's cross, he felt in
his soul the horror and the shame and the sorrow of all the sins
of all of God's people. And he's the only one that's
ever been able to do that. So what is it to acknowledge my
sin? It's to believe what God says
about your sin. It's just to agree with God.
Take sides with God against yourself. It's just say, God, you're right,
I'm a sinner. Everything about me is sinful. I can't produce
any righteousness. And I can't atone for a single
one of my sins. Lord, you're right. That's all
faith is. It's just bowing and believing
what God says. I acknowledge my sin unto thee. And mine iniquity have I not
hid. The Bible speaks of sin in three
words. It speaks of transgression, iniquity,
and sin. Sin is what we are by nature.
Transgression is what we do when we violate the law of God. Iniquity is all the things that
we do trying to measure up to the standards of God's righteousness
and they are unequal. And so that everything that we
produce falls short of the glory of God. And God said, just agree
with me. I said it. You've seen the bumper sticker,
God said it, I believe it, that settles it. No, God said it,
that settles it. Believe it. Just believe it. It's already
settled. God said it. It's settled. It's
done. There's no changing it. Just believe God. Lord, everything
about me is iniquitous. It doesn't measure up. It's unequal.
I'm a sinner. I'm a transgressor of your law.
I acknowledge my sin before thee. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. All
three of those words right here in that one verse. Transgression, sin, and iniquity. And he forgave me. For this, For this shall everyone
that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be
found, surely in the floods of great waters, they shall not
come nigh unto them, for thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt
preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt come pass me about
with songs of deliverance. Selah. Now the Psalms are hymns
that were sang and the word Selah is a poetic pause in the music. And it was placed there by God
to say, pause a minute, stop, think about, think about the
weight and the truth of this that's just been said. For truly, the cover up, we've
all, we've all committed a capital crime against
God. In the day in which you sin,
you shall surely die. We deserve the death penalty.
And if we get the justice of God, we're gonna go to hell. And so what does man do? He does
what Absalom did. He goes to Hebron, a place highly
esteemed. He pretends to be one thing when
in fact he's never trusted Christ. He wants an overthrow. He wants
rebellion against God. He believes himself to be a more
qualified king than His Father. And what does faith do? Lord, Thou art my hiding place.
Lord, I confess my transgressions, my iniquity, my sin before Thee. Lord, I can't save myself. I
have no hope outside of Christ. Oh, but what hope we have in
Him. What hope? Oh, we are the true circumcision. Worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. I can find no confidence
anywhere outside of Christ. He's all my salvation. Believe
Him. Follow Him. Now let me just close with this
one brief illustration. We've all had the experience
of going someplace in the vehicle and following someone else. Maybe
on a long trip. Maybe not such a long trip, but
you don't know exactly where they're going. The lead car knows.
You don't know. You just have to keep your eye
on that lead car and follow that lead car. And sometimes that
lead car might get in a different lane than you're in. Following
the lead car doesn't mean that you're in the same lane with
the lead car. It means that you see the lead
car. And you're not going to let that lead car get out of
your sight. Following Christ does not mean
that we're in lockstep conformity. Oh, I wish we could be. It doesn't
mean that we're always in the same lane with Him. I wish we
could be. I want to please Him. I want to obey Him. But it's
all still iniquity for me. And I'm still a sinner. What
is it to follow Christ? It's to keep my eye on Him. He
knows where He's going. I don't. And I've got to, somebody gets
between me and Christ, I gotta get around that person and keep
my eye on Him. Keep my eye on Him. It's the only way I'm gonna
get where I need to be, safely. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for glorious, successful Savior. Lord, give us the grace to keep
our eye on Him, to trust Him, to believe on Him.
For Lord, outside of Him, we have no hiding place. We ask
it in Christ's name. Amen. Adam? 352. After you lead us in the
closing hymn, Adam, would you lead us in prayer? We're going
to have lunch together. If you didn't know about it,
didn't plan to stay, I hope you will. We're going to enjoy a
meal together after the service, OK? Adam, you come.