That is my prayer this morning,
that this Lord's Day will cause us to set our affections on things
above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And
that'll be the message this morning in the
first hour, if you'd like to turn with me in your Bibles to
Psalm 141. Psalm 141. titled this message, Marching
to Zion. We get so caught up in this world
with temporal things, and our blessing this morning is to redirect
our attention to that which is important, the spiritual, that
which cannot be seen with the natural eye. The oxygen concentrators that
we sent to India were delivered. They got there safely on Thursday,
and they were going directly into use right away, going to
a doctor that Gilbert knows. So they wanted you to know that
and to express their appreciation to you. Also on the back table,
there's a sign-up sheet for a clean-up schedule for next weekend. So
your schedule for the conference is in the bulletin. We'll meet
Friday night, Saturday morning, Sunday morning, lunch after services
on Sunday, no meal on Saturday, and pizza on Friday night. So
if you'd like to help, spruce the place up between services,
you can sign up on the table in the back. All right, let's ask the Lord's
blessings on his word. Our Heavenly Father, we come
into thy holy presence thanking you that we have the Lord Jesus
Christ to bear the burden of all of our guilt and shame and
sin, that we have acceptance in him and that we can come before
your throne of grace with the confidence of knowing that he
has made the way sure and steadfast. Lord, that you've promised when
your people meet together in his name, That you would. Send your spirit and power and.
Enlighten the eyes of our understanding and cause your word to be living
and effectual and sharper than any two edged sword. Oh Lord,
we. We long for that blessing this
morning and we pray that you would be pleased. To. Reveal Christ to us in a
new and fresh way. And that. we would once again
experience the forgiveness of our sin and the
hope of eternal life that you've given us in him. We ask Lord
for those who may be here who have never known your mercy and
your grace in Christ that you would that you would be pleased
to call out your lost sheep and to to add to your church. We pray for Donnie and we ask,
Lord, that you would prepare our hearts for the messages that
you put on his and that that you would meet with us next weekend
and be pleased to bless us with your presence and with your power.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. You have your Bibles open
to Psalm 141. This is a Psalm of David as we
see there in our text. It is as all the Psalms messianic. It is prophetic. It speaks David
King. David is speaking under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. of and for the Lord Jesus Christ. And what an encouragement we
have in this psalm as we hear our Lord crying out to his Father
to deliver him from the grave. In the next psalm, Psalm 142,
we actually have the prayer of Christ from the grave. But here
he's calling out to his father from the cross, trusting that
the Lord is going to reward him for what he's done. And as we
see this as the words of Christ, we are also able to enter into
it as our prayer that the Lord would reward us for Christ's
sake and deliver us from death and give to us the hope and the
promise of eternal life. That is our desire and that is
our prayer. Isaac Watts wasn't always very
clear on the gospel in his hymns. Let me rephrase that and say
that sometimes in some of his hymns there's not a lot of gospel.
And one of them I'm thinking about is ye that love the Lord. You remember we're marching to
Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We're marching onward to Zion,
the beautiful city of God. And perhaps somebody can change
some words in that hymn and get more gospel in it. But just thinking
about that, that is our life here. We are strangers and pilgrims
in this land. And as we saw Wednesday night
from Psalm 140, we are in a battle. We are in a warfare between the
two natures that we have as believers, the old man and the new man. And this Paul summarized his
life when he has said, I fought the good fight, I've kept the
faith. I'm now ready to be offered up. And that's our hope, that
the Lord will deliver us from this world and secure us for
heaven, for Zion. Here we have in these first two
verses of this psalm, the Lord Jesus Christ bearing the sins
of his people. All the shame, all the guilt,
all the justice and judgment of God being poured out upon
him as he bears in his body the sins of his elect. And as the
sin bearer, and as our substitute, He cries out to the Father and
he says, Lord, I cry unto thee, make haste unto me. Give ear
unto my voice when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set before
thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands. as the evening
sacrifice. Now the evening sacrifice was
that sacrifice that pictured Christ that was offered up for
1,500 years from the time the children of Israel came out of
Egypt until the death of Christ on Calvary's cross. Three o'clock
in the afternoon, faithfully every day, a sacrifice was made. A lamb was slaughtered. and its blood was shed. And on
this particular day, as this evening sacrifice, the scriptures
make it clear that our Lord hung in the darkness of God's separation
from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. That would have been
noon to three o'clock. And at the very moment of the
evening sacrifice, when the priest and the temple were slaying that
lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ bowed his mighty head on Calvary's
cross and said, it is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. And the veil was rent. And the
scripture says not a few of the priests believed. No longer was it necessary to
stand outside of the tabernacle and warn people to stay away.
Now the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ had been placed on the
mercy seat, not that golden mercy seat in the holies of holies,
but the mercy seat not made with the hands of men, that mercy
seat in heaven. And God now says, come, come. All you that labor, all you that
are heavy laden, come. And the spirit and the bride
say, come. The veil of his flesh was rent on Calvary's cross,
and God Almighty was satisfied with the sacrifice that he made.
Here he's praying to his Father. He says, let my prayer come up
unto thee as an incense. And as I lift up my hands, and
that's what he was doing on Calvary's cross. He was wounded for our
transgressions and his hands were being lifted up to his father
on behalf of his people. And he finished the work that
he came to do. And so, what great hope. The beginning of his burden began
in the Garden of Gethsemane. When he sweat great drops of
blood, we don't read in the scriptures, in the gospel accounts, we don't
read of the agonizing of the Lord Jesus Christ under any circumstances
until the Garden of Gethsemane. And that's when he begins to
bear the sins of his people. And he even says, he says, my
soul is exceedingly sorrow, even unto death. And he says to the
disciples, stay here and pray with me. And he came back and
found him asleep. Could you not pray with me for
one hour? Oh, isn't that just like we are? Our Lord's bearing
the burden all by himself. And he calls on us to pray with
him. And we can't even. pray with him for an hour, and
he says, he comes back and he says, have your sleep, it's done. All is settled. This is where
he cried out to his father. This is the prayer. He's not
just praying on the cross here. When he says, my God, my God,
whyst thou forsaken me? He's praying in the garden. Father,
if there be any way this cup can pass from me, let it be.
Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. There was no way
for the cup of sin to be emptied without the Lord Jesus Christ
drinking it down to its bitter dregs. If the Father could have
found any other way to atone for our sins, don't you know
he would have? And yet, here he knows what's
about to happen. And he He takes that cup and
he drinks, he drinks damnation dry. Our encouragement is that just
as the father answered our Lord's prayers because of his faithfulness,
we are called on to come into the presence of God, to come
before the throne of grace with boldness, expecting, expecting
that the Lord would answer our prayers, not because of our faithfulness,
but because of his. That's why we always pray in
Jesus' name. We have no claim on God other
than the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why the Lord said in John
15, 16, that whatsoever you shall ask, of the Father in my name,
he shall give it unto thee. Ask anything according to my
will, and I'll give it. You know, when we ask for temporal
things, whatever it might be, and I'm not suggesting that we
don't request temporal things, we do, but We don't know if those
things are in the Father's will for us or not. There are things
that we know are His will. Lord, would you be pleased to
open the eyes of my understanding? Would you be pleased to give
me faith? Would you be pleased to give me understanding and
hope and light and. Would you reveal more of Christ
to me? You see, these are the wisdom. If any man lack wisdom, let him
ask it of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraid if
it not all he he delights in giving these spiritual gifts. These spiritual blessings and
are these not the most important things? Lord, would you give me? the
forgiveness of sin, grace and salvation and hope, light and
life. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
was faithful to his father, we come, whatever is not of faith
is sin. When we pray, we are praying
always with an eye to Christ. And we are asking the Father
for Christ's sake to bless us. And so we can say, Lord, I cry
unto thee. Make haste unto me, give ear
to my voice when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set before thee
as incense and the lifting up of my hands. as the evening sacrifice,
or because of the evening sacrifice, because of what the Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished for me. Verse three. Set a watch, O Lord, before my
mouth, and keep the door of my lips. As a lamb to the slaughter and
as a sheep before his shearers, the scripture says he opened
not his mouth. The Lord Jesus Christ made no
objections to what was happening to him. You don't hear him making
the kind of complaints that we make or that Job made because
of the the things that we go through. Why? Well, number one, he laid down
his life willingly. No greater love of any man than
this, that he laid down his life for his friends. Our Lord wasn't,
his life wasn't being taken from him. And so he's, he's saying
here, Lord, set a, set a guard over my lips. Don't let me complain.
This is, this is a willing sacrifice that I'm making. And secondly,
He had no defense. As our sin bearer, God made him
beginning in Gethsemane and finishing when he bowed his head and cried,
it is finished. The work the father gave me to
do, I finished that work. And when he bowed his mighty
head from that time bearing our sins, he was guilty before God. God made him who knew no sin,
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So Christ Jesus the Lord is actually
bearing not just the burden and the justice of our sin, but he's
bearing the shame and the guilt and all that goes with the sins
of his people. That's why he didn't open his
mouth. Oh, let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus. Though he was equal with God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made of himself
of no reputation. Turn to me to the book of James. You know where I'm going in this
James chapter James chapter three. What a contrast between the unfamed lips of our
Lord who had, who had his father put a door over his lips and,
and keep a watch over his mouth. And that what we just read in
verse three, set a watch over my mouth and keep a door over
my lips. Oh Lord, that's what I need.
That's what I need. Look at chapter three of James. We begin reading in verse two.
For in many things we offend all, or we are all offensive
in many things. If any man offend not in word,
the same is a perfect man. Oh, the words that the Lord Jesus
spoke, every one of them, Every one of them, perfect words. And he spoke them in a perfect
way. You know, oftentimes it's not
what you say, it's how you say it, isn't it? And his words were
not only perfect, but his tone was perfect and his motive was
perfect. And James is telling us here,
if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and
able to bridle the whole body. You can control your lips, you
control everything. He goes on to say in verse three,
behold, we put bits in horses mouth and that they obey us and
we turn about their whole body. You can bridle the tongue, you
can bridle anything. The tongue is the strongest member
of our body. Do you and I not need to pray,
Lord, put a watch over my lips, put a guard. Behold also the
ships. which though they be so great
and are driven of fierce winds, yet they are turned about with
a very thin helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. These great
mighty ships are steered by a very small rudder. Even so the tongue
is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great
a matter a little fire kindleth. And the tongue is a fire, a world
of iniquity, so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth
the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and
is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast, and
of bird, and of serpent, and of the things in the sea, is
tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no
man tame. It is an unruly evil full of
poison. Here's my point, brethren. You
can't control your tongue. I can't control mine. All the
more reason why we cry unto the Lord, put a guard over my mouth. Lord, you're gonna have to guard
it. You're gonna have to keep it. If you're gonna... Go back with me to our text.
Verse three, set a watch, oh Lord, before my mouth. Keep the
door in my lips. Lord, help me. Help me to speak
word, gracious words, fit words. Wars have been started over words. Look at verse four. Incline not
my heart to any evil thing. Again, we know that our hearts are deceitful
and desperately wicked and that none of us can really know the
thoughts and the intents of our heart, apart from the revelation
that God makes in his word, which is sharper than any two-edged
sword, and devise the thoughts and the intents of the heart.
And so God reveals to us how sinful our motives are. And I've
said this to you before, don't check your motives too closely
and don't justify your motives. You know, well, I, this, what,
They're never pure. They're never pure. His were. His were. Every thought and intent of his
heart was perfect and pure before God. So he says, incline not my heart
to any evil thing. to practice wicked works with
men that work iniquity, and let me not eat of their dainties."
Notice these three words, heart, practice, and eat, in that one
verse. Isn't that where it begins with
the heart, and it develops into what's in the heart becomes the
practice, and what's the practice becomes our food, becomes our
sustenance, and so we pray, Lord, or give me a heart after you
and cause me to seek after those things that are, well, the things that lead to
eternal life. Christ, he's one that we eat
of his flesh and drink of his blood, and he's that manna that
comes down from heaven that we pray every day. Lord, give us
this day our daily bread. That's what's being said in this
verse. And what else is being said in this verse is what the
Lord said in that model prayer. When he said, when you pray,
pray like this, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil. That's a day. That's a daily
cry for every child of God. Lord, I know myself well enough,
if I know I'm tempted, I'm going to fall. He didn't say, lead
me not into sin. He said, lead me not into temptation.
Bend my heart towards Christ. This is a heart matter, brethren.
You see, legalistic religion is all about cleaning up the
outside. That's what the Pharisees were all about. The Lord said
there, you're like whitewashed tombs. You've cleaned up the
outside, but inside you're full of dead men's bones. You're like
a cup that's been cleaned on the outside, but the inside is
full of corruption. That's what legalistic religion
is about. Just making your appearances
before men. And men look at the outward appearance,
but God's looking at the heart. Here's where our problem is,
that sin is a matter of the heart. Somebody said, well, I'll just
close myself up in a closet and then I won't be tempted anymore.
No, you're gonna take your very problem with you into that closet. The problem with sin, it's a
hard problem. It's not the temptations of the
word, it's the bending of the heart towards those things. And
so the Lord says, Here's our prayer, incline not my heart
to any evil thing, to practice those things which are wicked
among men, and to make that my food, to eat of their dainties. Lord, you're gonna have to do
a work of grace in my heart. Men reform the outside of their
lives. without the inside ever being
changed. Only God can change the heart. You can change your
behavior. You can. You can change what people see,
but you can't change your heart. Only God can do that. And what
a miracle of grace it is when he does, when he takes out that
heart of stone and puts in a heart of flesh, when he gives us a
desire for the things of God. This word incline means to bend
or to shape. Lord, you're going to have to.
You're going to have to bend my heart towards Christ and that's
why you're here right now is and I hope that's why you're
here. We come to hear God's word. That our hearts might be drawn
out to Christ so that we leave this place. Will. Have. will have his grace and his sufficient
strength to be able to live in this world without being of this
world. Look at verse five. Let the righteous
smite me and it shall be his kindness. Oh, the Lord Jesus
Christ was smitten on Calvary's cross. And it was for the sins
of his people That's why Zacharias said they shall mourn after him
as one mourneth after his only son. Oh, the one that they bruised. We mourn for the burden of the
sin that we put on Christ. And so there's a smiting that
that the Lord Jesus experienced on Calvary's cross that we were
part of. It's for our sin that he bore
that shame and that judgment and that separation from God.
Let the righteous smite me, and it shall be as kindness. Oh,
and the Lord returns to us his goodness and his kindness, and
they follow us all the days of our life. He blesses us though
we smote him with our sin. And let him reprove me and it
shall be an excellent oil. Oh, the reproof of the Lord Jesus
on Calvary's cross is what? is what caused the oil. He was
anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, and as Aaron
was anointed with the oil of the Spirit of God that was poured
on his head, went down his beard, and dripped off the skirts of
his garment, so the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest came
in the full anointing of the Spirit of God. And it was only
because of that, that Pentecost, because of his accomplished work,
because of what he did on Calvary's cross, that Pentecost took place. And now, he said, it's expedient
for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. We have the Spirit of God in
measure, and he's that oil that fills the light of the candle
and directs us toward Christ. And all of this, all of this
smiting and all of this reproof that the Lord went through shall
not break my head. The father did not allow this
to result in his in his eternal death. No his his death. His death sufficiently satisfied
the justice of God. And so he was. rewarded for his
faithfulness by being raised from the dead. And his resurrection
is the hope of our resurrection, the hope of our resurrection. This is also the prayer of the believer, particularly
when he comes to worship. I've had I've had people offended
at me because of something that was said from the pulpit, and
generally it's because it struck a nerve, you know, and it pointed
out a particular sin in someone's life and they got offended by
it. But when we come to worship, do we not say, Let the righteous smite me, and
it shall be kindness. Lord, if there's something from
your word that I need to hear, though it be a rebuke, and the
truth often hurts, doesn't it? Lord, I need to be rebuked. I
need to be corrected. What a blessing it is to come
together for worship and have a teachable spirit, to come before
the Lord and say, Lord, whatever you need to say to me, Oh, unstop
my ears, open my heart and enable me to hear the truth. Let the
righteous smite me and it shall be kindness and let him reprove
me and it shall be an excellent oil. That's what I need. All scripture we know is given
by Israel. I'm not interested in reproving
or rebuking anybody. If you just hear it from me and
are offended by me, you haven't heard from God. But the word
of God does reprove us, and it does rebuke us. And all scripture
is given by inspiration, as God is profitable for doctrine, and
for reproof, and for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Lord, I need you to to reprove me, rebuke me, correct
me, encourage me, exhort me, teach me, and it'll be excellent
oil. It'll be gladness to my heart.
I'll be so much better for it. My head won't be broken. Oh no, the wounds in my head
will be healed. Yet at my prayer also shall be
in their calamities, calamity of my sin. Lord, let it be put
away. This is not an open invitation
to go around rebuking people. I've been part, some of you have
too, been a part of religious groups that thought it was spiritual
to go around and rebuke your brother for every little infraction
and inconsistency that you saw in them. And everybody wore their
feelings on their sleeves and was easily offended. Don't do
that. This is a prayer to be rebuked. Not to rebuke someone else. Let
the righteous smite me. Lord, it's a prayer to be open
to rebuke when it's needed. A wise man. Turn with me to Proverbs. Proverbs
chapter nine. Look at verse seven. He that
reproveth a scorner getteth to him shame, and he that rebuketh
a wicked man getteth himself a blot. Reprove not a scorner,
lest he hate thee. Rebuke a wise man, and he will
love thee. Give instruction to a wise man,
and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man, and he will
increase in knowledge. Now that's not for us to go around
rebuking. You know this, unsolicited advice
is usually received as criticism, so be very careful about going
around giving people advice for things. They want your advice,
they'll ask you for it. But you're in the Proverbs, turn
over with me to Proverbs chapter 26. Let me show you this. This
is a graphic picture. It's very, very instructive. Proverbs chapter 26. I'll get
there in a moment. Proverbs 26, look with me at
verse... At verse 17, he that passeth
by and meddleth with strife, belonging not to him is like
one that taketh a dog by the ears. Now the word dog there
is not just your little pet, that's a mad dog, that's a dog
that'll bite you and eat you up. And what he's saying here
is you meddling someone else's business, it's like taking a
mad dog by the ears, you can't turn it loose, it'll bite you.
What a picture, what a picture. Proverbs 26 verse 4, answer not
a fool according to his folly, lest you be like unto them. Now this passage, go back with
me to our text, this passage is talking about the preaching
of the gospel and the word of God. Holy men of God wrote as
they were moved by the Holy Spirit and so when we pray, let the
righteous smite me. Lord, if I need to be rebuked,
rebuke me. It shall be kindness and let
him reprove me and it shall be an excellent oil. It won't break
my head. Look at verse six, I love this
verse. When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they
shall hear my words, for they are sweet. Men by nature stand
in judgment of God. When they refuse to bow to every
word of God, and when they call into question the acts of God's
providence, by nature we stand in judgment of God. Romans 9,
verse 18 says, who art thou, O man, that judgeth God? Is he not the potter and are
we not the clay? And yet by nature we stand in
judgment of God. That's the natural man. Now let's read this verse again.
When their judges are overthrown in stony places. What is it for
a judge to be overthrown in a stony place? It's to fall upon the
rock. That's the picture here. It's
falling upon the rock. The Lord said in Matthew chapter
21 verse 44, whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken,
but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
So there was a time when I stood in judgment of God. I said, well,
that can't be so. That's, I'll not have that man
reign over me. I'll stand in judgment of what
he says. And then the Lord causes us to
fall upon the rock. And what does he say? When we
fall upon the rock, they shall hear my words for they are sweet. Revelation chapter 10, the angel
told John to take the scroll with the word of God and to eat
it. Just like he told Ezekiel to
do the same thing. He said, eat the whole scroll,
eat the word of God. And, and, and this is what John
said. John said it was sweet, like honey to my mouth, but when
it got to my belly, it was bitter. What is the belly a picture of
all throughout the scripture? It's a picture of the flesh.
The word of God is bitter to the flesh. It is. The truth of God is bitter to
the flesh. It's contrary to everything the
flesh desires and lusts after, but it's sweet to the taste. Men won't have it because of
the bitterness that it is to their flesh. Until they fall
upon that rock, and then they shall hear his words, and it'll
be sweet to them. Let's look at these last these
last couple of verses quickly. Our bones are scattered in the
grave's mouth as one that cut it and cleaveth wood upon the
earth. How hard it is for us to think on
spiritual things when we're so consumed with the temporal. Here
we are, we're dying men. We really are. Our life is truly
a vapor. It appeareth for a little while
and then it vanisheth away. And what the Lord's telling us
here is consider Consider the hope that you have in Christ
because this life is very brief. Look at verse eight. But mine
eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord, in thee is my trust. Leave not my soul destitute. Again, here's our Lord. Don't
leave me in the grave. My life is like bones before
the grave. And yet, Lord, if you'll not
leave my soul destitute, then I'll have hope. I'll have hope. In closing, turn with me to 2
Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We'll begin reading in verse
16. For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man
perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment. Now I can't tell you
that your afflictions are light and that they're going to pass
by quickly, but God can. And if this word is sweet to
your taste, though it be bitter to your belly, your flesh, oh,
you'll eat it up. You'll eat it up. For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not on
the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen,
for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal. If the Lord opens the eyes. Of
our faith and understanding enables us to see the cry of the Lord
Jesus Christ on Calvary's Cross and the answer of the father's
blessing on him and on his people. Then we'll have hope, though
our bones be. Like. Those that would before
the grave. We have the hope, we say, though
yet my eyes are toward Thee, O Lord. My eyes are toward Thee. Our Father, we pray that you
bless your word to our prophet. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.