Good evening. Claire and Annie,
good to have you guys with us tonight. Let's open our Bibles
together to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, we'll
begin reading in verse 12. Giving thanks unto the Father.
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. That's what we just sang about,
a union that we have with Christ, who hath delivered us from the
power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him. And he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of
the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through
the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things unto
Himself, by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven. And you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Let's pray together. Our glorious and merciful Heavenly
Father, what comfort, what hope, what encouragement we have to
to read your word and to hear your promises and to know, Lord,
that you are faithful to all that you've said and done. Lord,
what great hope we have in knowing that we have an advocate, a sin
bearer, a perfect substitute that stands
in our stead and presents to you his righteousness for his
church. Father, we pray tonight that
you would send your spirit and power. Pray that you would enable
me to speak. Pray, Lord, that you would give
us ears to hear. Pray, Lord, that you would make your word
effectual and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, that
it would divide us under the thoughts and the intents of the
heart. or that it would reveal to us
more of the glory of Christ. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. Number 318 from the hardback
temple. Let's all stand together again.
318. every hour. Most gracious Lord,
though tender voice like thine can be I need Thee, O I need Thee Every
hour I need Thee O bless me now, my Savior I come to Thee I need
Thee every hour Stay Thou nearby Temptations lose their power
when Thou art nigh. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. Every hour, enjoy your pain. Come quickly and abide, for life
is pain. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour, I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. O make me Thine indeed, Thou
blessed Son. I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, Please be seated. I can't ever sing that hymn without
the Lord reminded me that this hour right now is the hour that
we need him most. If he doesn't meet with us and
send his spirit and speak to our hearts, then what we do here
is worse than vain. It really is. My text tonight is Psalm 140. And I've titled this message.
A sinner's prayer. A sinner's prayer. The world. Believes that. Sinners make up one part of. Of the. society or whatever,
and that saints make up the other part, but we know that only saints
are sinners, and all sinners are saints. Before we get into our text,
I want us to go by way of introducing this message to 1st Corinthians
chapter 15. If you'll turn with me there,
1st Corinthians chapter 15. Believers who find their righteousness
and all their perfection in Christ are at the very same time always
aware of the fact that they are sinners in need of grace. Believers
know from experience that they have two natures. But more importantly,
because experience is not always a reliable source of truth, more
importantly, we know from scripture that the child of God has two
natures, the old man which remains bound to this world and sinful,
and the new man, which is perfect before God and found in Christ. And the Lord makes that clear
so much in the scriptures, but I want us to look for just a
moment, if you will. I want to show you from the scriptures
that the believer's life that the believer's life is a life
of two opposing natures. That's our life, brethren. We
live our lives in this world with two opposing natures. Next, we will, after we look
at some of these passages that speak such encouragement to us
about who we are, we'll go to Psalm 140 and we will look at
the plea that a struggling believer in this life makes for help with
that old man because that's what really what Psalm 140 is. Psalm
140 is the prayer of a child of God calling out to the Lord
to help him and deliver him from this body of death that he carries
around with him. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and
we begin reading at verse 45, and so it is written, it is written,
and that's all the child of God needs to know. What saith the
Lord? It is written, that's enough
to convince me. And so it is written, the first
man, Adam, was made a living soul, and the last Adam was made
a quickening spirit. Now that last Adam is Christ,
and what the first Adam was not able to do because of sin The
Lord Jesus Christ came and quickens us with his life. Look at verse
46. Howbeit that was not first which
is spiritual. He's talking about the new man,
the new Adam, the life that we have in Christ. so that we take
comfort in knowing this is our boldness in the day of judgment.
That's what the scripture says. Our encouragement, our hope is
that as he is, so are we in this world. And yet he says the first
Adam, that fallen creature that we are the children of was not
spiritual. but that which is natural and
afterwards that which is spiritual. So the natural man comes first
and the spiritual man comes second. The earthy man, the man fashioned
from the dust of the earth and aren't you thankful that the
Lord remembers that we're made of dust. He sees the struggles
that we have with this old man and he remembers how he made
us and fashioned us from the dust of the earth. That was the
natural man made in Adam and the spiritual man is made in
Christ. The first man is of the earth,
earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. the giver of life, life itself,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And as is the earthy, such are
they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. That's so clear, isn't it? And
that's your experience, isn't it? I've got a man that was fashioned
from the earth and he's attracted to the things of this earth.
And then I've got a new man in Christ. And we're not talking
about, we're not talking about having two personalities here.
We're not considering this to be schizophrenia. Everything we do right now while
we're attempting to worship God in the spirit and rejoicing Christ
Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh, we are aware of
the fact that we have this old man with us. We have this body
of death strapped to our back. We bear him in the most holy
places. And when we are caught up in
the things of this world, we are burying the new man in that
as well. So there's one personality, two
natures. One personality, two natures. Romans chapter 7, you're familiar
with this and so encouraged by what the Apostle Paul said when
he refers to himself as the chief of all sinners over in Timothy. Here in Romans chapter 7, if
you'll turn with me there, we'll begin reading at verse 14. We are a contradiction to ourselves. But it's not as if we can find
ourselves completely in the flesh at one point and completely in
the spirit at another point. We are always bearing both natures
with us, which are warring together, as the scripture says, against
one another. So what do we do in this war? Well, the Lord gives us a prayer. that we can offer up in faith
in Psalm 140, that every sinner who struggles with this warfare
will find great encouragement to offer up to the Lord. So look
with me at Romans chapter seven, beginning of verse 14, for we
know that the law is spiritual, but I, now he's talking about
his old man, but I am carnal, fleshly, Sold. Now that word sold means that's
what you do when you sell a man into slavery. This old man, he's
bound to this world and the new man doesn't make the old man
better. He's still nothing but sin. And so when the new man
looks at the old man, he sees that I'm just, I'm sold under
sin. I can't get away from it. He
goes on to tell us, well, let's just read it together. Let's
look at verse 15. For that which I do, I allow not. Oh, I would be perfectly holy
if I could be. I would be without the distraction
of this flesh. One day I long to be like that. And that's the longing desire
for heaven, for the child of God, to be rid of this flesh
and to have, well, to have perfect union with
Christ without the body of death. For that which I would, I allow
not. For what I would, that do I. But what I hate, or that do I
not, but what I hate, that do I. I hate this old man. He's always
with me. I can't ever be rid of him. And
he never leaves me. If then, verse 16, I do that
which I would not, I consent unto the law that it's good.
This sinful nature that I carry around with me only reminds me
that the law of God is holy, the law of God is just, and the
law of God is good. And it exposes me for what I
am. But what he's also saying here
is as holy as God's law is, God's law can't make you holy. As just
as God's law is, God's law can't justify you before God. As good
as God's law is, God's law can't make you good. Being holy and
being justified before God and being made good can only happen
by grace. It cannot happen by the law of
God. It can only happen by being found in Christ through the new
birth. The new birth. Verse 17, for then it is no more
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. This sinful nature is
always there. And he goes on to say, for I
know that in me, in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. For to will is present with me.
The new man wills to be perfect. The new man wills to love God
with all of his heart and all of his soul and all of his mind.
But how to perform that which is good, I find not. I cannot
achieve the desire that I have. I'm in this struggle. For the good that I would, I
do not, and the evil which I would not, that I do. But if I do that
I would not, it is no more I the doer, but sin that dwelleth in
me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present
with me. Now that's a law. That's a law. That's God's law. It can't be
changed. When I would desire to do good, evil is ever present
with me. Can't change that. Not in this
life. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, after the new man. I delight in God's law. And I would obey it perfectly
if I could, but I can't. For I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. Here's another law.
I've got a, sin is in my body, it's in my members, it's in my
flesh, it's part of who I am. Is there any hope for me? Oh, wretched man that I am. Every believer feels this way
about themselves. Oh, wretched man that I am. Where
do these What did Rebecca say? Why am I thus? Why am I thus? Why is my heart so cold? Why am I so easily drawn to the
pleasures of this world? Why do I lose sight of God so
easily? Why is it? Oh, wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Now,
the picture here is a criminal who's carrying the dead corpse
of the person he murdered on his back through the streets.
That was one of the ways they would punish a criminal. And you've got this rotting corpse
attached to your back. You feel that way? This is the
law. This is our life in this world. Here's our hope. I thank God through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God and with the flesh, the law of sin. I
thank God that through Jesus Christ, I am free. Free from the condemnation of
sin. That's what he goes on to say in the next verse. There
is now therefore no condemnation. Yes, the sin is ever present
with me. As David said in Psalm 51, it
is always before me. And yet there's no condemnation.
I have a righteousness in Christ. My sin has been paid for. It's
been atoned for. It's been put away. It's been
hid from the very sight of God so that there's no condemnation
that the law can make against me. The law's been silenced. God's been satisfied. The best, and I made reference
to it a moment ago, if you'll turn with me to Genesis chapter
25, the best allegorical example of what we're talking about here
is found in Genesis chapter 25 with Isaac's wife, Rebekah. She was barren, the scripture
says, and in verse 21, Isaac interceded for her. And we have
a picture here of the Lord Jesus Christ interceding for us. Tricia and I were talking, I
guess it was this morning or yesterday, about the Lord encouraging
Peter, saying, Peter, before the cock crows, you're going
to deny me three times. You're going to deny you even
know me. But Peter, I've prayed for you. I've prayed for you. Be of good
cheer. What comfort. What encouragement to know that
the Lord Jesus Christ prays for us. And in John chapter 17, he
said, well, he prayed for Peter, but did he pray for me? Father,
I pray not for the world, but I pray for them which thou hast
given me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou hast
given them unto me. I pray that you would keep them.
Here's the Lord praying for his church. praying for all those
that are looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for all their righteousness
before God, that are trusting him alone to put away their sin,
to justify them before God. And so Isaac entreats to the
Lord for his wife, and because she was barren, and the Lord
was entreated of him, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. The Father is always entreated
by the prayers of his son. We often pray amiss that we might
consume it upon our own lust, and we often don't know how to
pray or what to pray for, and we have to conclude every prayer
that we pray We offer them up in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and Lord, if it be thy will. But when the Lord Jesus
prayed, he had direct access to the father and every prayer
he prayed was entreated and answered by his father. And she conceived. And here we
are as Rebecca, we conceive. And look at the next verse, and
the children struggled together within her. Here's our conception,
brethren. Here's our new life. And we didn't
even know we had an old man until we got the new man. We didn't
know there was a wretched man within us. We didn't know there
was an unbelieving, sinful body of flesh strapped to our back
until we received the new nature. And so here's Rebecca as a type
of the church and every believer, she's struggling. And she said, if it'd be so,
Lord, if you've blessed me, if you've given me, if you've given
me this, these children, why am I thus? Why am I the way I
am? Believers are a contradiction
to themselves. You know, we just, every day,
Lord, why am I, why do I think that? Why do I say those things?
Why do I feel that way? Why am I, why am I so hard to
come and to worship and to rejoice? Lord, why do I get so caught
up in the things of this world? Why am I thus? And the Lord gives
her the answer. She went to inquire of the Lord.
She asked the Lord that, Lord, why am I the way I am? And the
Lord said unto her, two natures or nations, I'm sorry, are in
thy womb. You have a spiritual, holy nation
in you. a perfect nation, a sinless nation
in you. And in contrast to that, you
have a fleshly, earthy, natural, sinful, and sensual nation in
you. That's why you struggle. Because
you've got two conflicting nations in you. And look what he goes on to say,
the Lord, this is the Lord answering Rebecca's answer question. Why
am I thus? This is the Lord saying to you
and me, why am I the way I am? And the Lord said unto her, two
nations are in thy womb and two manner of people shall be separated
from thy vows. Two manner of people. They're completely contrary to
one another. One's alive, one's dead. One believes perfectly
and rests its hope in Christ, the other one doesn't believe
anything. One's attracted to the things of this world and
the other the things of God. How can light have fellowship
with darkness? How can we be consistent if this be the case?
We have two manner of people. And look what he goes on to say.
One manner of people is without, well, I'll look at,
Look at what he says in verse 23. And the one people shall
be stronger than the other people and the elder shall serve the
younger. The older, what's the older? Well, Esau we know was born first
and Esau is a picture of the old man, the natural man. And
Jacob came out holding onto the, to the heel of Esau. And God
said, the older one, the fleshly man, the natural man that was
born first is gonna serve the new man. So that every time,
every time your sinful nature raises its ugly head, it reminds
you of your need for a savior. It reminds you of your need for
Christ. It causes you to flee to him.
The older truly does serve the younger. Without my fleshly nature, I
would not see my need for a savior. It's my old man that reminds
me every day I've got to have a savior. I've got to have Christ. I've got to have his righteousness
because I have no righteousness of my own. Esau, Esau's name translated
means hairy. And I love what Asaph said in
the Psalms when he said in Psalm 73 verse 22, he said, I am as
a beast before thee. Now that was a believer. That
was the song leader for David, a man by the name of Asaph, who's
writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And he says
the same thing that Paul said in Romans chapter seven. wretched
man that I am and Asaph said before God I am as a beast a
hairy beast there's our old man Jacob's name you know what means
supplanter deceiver and the believer sees themselves as a sinner they
really do Lord you gonna have to You're gonna have to have
mercy on me. Look at what else the scripture
says about Esau and Jacob. And when her days to be delivered
were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her room, verse
24. And the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment,
and they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother
out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel, and his name was
called Jacob. And Isaac was three score years
old when she bared them. And the boys grew. And Esau was
a cunning hunter, a man of the field." There's our old man,
always in the field, always in the earth, always cunning his
way through this world. What's it say about Jacob? And Jacob was a plain man. Now you can look up that word,
plain. It is most often, it's only translated
plain I think one time in the Bible. The rest of the time it's
translated perfect. Perfect. It's the same word that's
used in Psalm 37, 37 when God says, mark the perfect man and
uphold The upright for the end of that man is peace. Take mark
of the perfect man. Who's the perfect man? The Lord
Jesus Christ, holy, undefiled, separate from sinners, higher
than heaven. He's perfect. Why is there no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus? Because of the
perfection that we have in him. There's the two natures. So we
have Esau, a cunning hunter, living off the land, living in
the world. And where do we have, where do
we find Jacob? A perfect man abiding in tents. Isn't that what it says right
there? He lived in tents. He lived in the tabernacle. That's
what the tent was. And that's where we have our
our hope. The Lord Jesus Christ is tabernacled
among us. He's our righteousness. He's our clothing. He's our tent.
He's our hiding place. He's our city of refuge. Why am I thus? Why am I so often
cold to the things of God? Why am I attracted? to these
earthly things. Why am I so afraid? Why am I
so unbelieving? Why am I thus? Because there's
two nations within you. Two manner of people. The older shall serve the younger. The older is a man of this world. The younger is the spiritual
man from heaven. Oh, what hope. Turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter
17 and I promise we're going to get to our text in Psalm 140. It's so self-explanatory once
we lay the foundation for what our problem is and what our hope
is that the prayer will just be so simple and clear as a sinner's
prayer. First Samuel chapter 17 at verse at verse 47, or verse 45, then
said David to the Philistine, thou camest to me with a sword
and with a spear and with a shield, but I came unto thee in the name
of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom
thou hast defiled. This day will the Lord deliver
thee into my hand and I will smite thee and take thine head
from thee. And I will give the carcass of the host of the Philistines
this day under the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of
the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God
in Israel. Now, you know, David is a type
of Christ here. You know, the Philistine army
and the Israel army got together and said, no reason to all of
us killing each other. Let's just send one representative
man. And whoever wins the battle between those two will win for
the whole nation. And so David goes up against
Goliath and look what happens in the next verse. And all this
assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with the sword
and with spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give
you into our hands. The battle's the Lord's. You
see, this conflict that we have between the old man and the new
man reminds us that we can't fight this battle. We cannot
fight this battle. The Lord Jesus Christ has got
to defeat this enemy for us. He's the one that gets all the
glory. He's the one that gets the victory. And so we read in
1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, for though we walk in the flesh,
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not carnal. We don't use worldly weapons. fleshly weapons. We don't use
psychology and determination and religious activity and positioning
of ourselves with other men to try to win this battle. No, we go before the Lord. Say,
Lord, you're going to have to help me. That's what Psalm 140
is. It's a sinner going before the
Lord, crying out to God for God to help him in this struggle. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thought
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ and
His perfect obedience. There's my hope. There's why
there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. There's
the hope that I have, that this old man has been slain. He's been put to death. If you'd
be dead, you're risen with Christ. See, the old man's dead. Yeah,
he seems very much alive in our lives, but spiritually, he's
been put to death. He died on Calvary's cross. Our
life is in Christ. And the weapons of our warfare
are the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the weapon
of our warfare, just like David slew Goliath. And he said, the
battle's not yours. It's the Lord's, it's the Lord's. You see my, We look at these kind of thing,
we think, well, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna be better. I'm gonna, no,
no, no. Turn me to Revelation chapter
19. Revelation 19. This is our lot
in life. walking by faith, not by sight. It's a spiritual walk. It's a
walk of prayer and dependence. And his strength is made perfect
in our weakness. And when I'm weak, we're strong
because our strength is his strength. And this treasure that we have
is an earthen vessel. It's in an earthen vessel. That's
the body of flesh that we live in. That the excellency of the
power might be of God and not of us. The battle's not yours,
it's the Lord's. I don't want us to leave here
tonight thinking, well, I'm gonna do better at this warfare that
I'm in. No. Lord, you're gonna have to help
me. You're gonna have to deliver me. Look at Revelation chapter
19 at verse 11. And I saw heaven opened. And
behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called
faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. The
Lord Jesus Christ is on that white horse. His name is faithful. His name is true, and he makes
war. He fights the war for us. Yeah,
there's warfare that we're engaged in, but it's his battle. We try to fight it. We find ourselves
crawling back, coming before the throne of grace and saying,
Lord, help me in my time of need. Look at Look at verse 12. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, and his name is called the word of God. There's the reason why there's
no condemnation. We're not under the law. We're
under grace. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
has covered our sin. And the armies which were in
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean. Here's the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ, following the Lord, clothed in linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth the
sharp sword, with it he should smite the nations, and he shall
rule them with an iron, with a rod of iron, and he treadeth
the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of the Almighty
God. That's what he did on Calvary's
cross. He tread the winepress of God's wrath. And that blood, Isaiah speaks of that garment
that is made red. with the wine of the wine press. And he hath on his vesture and
on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Here's our victory. We're looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ in this battle. Lord, I'm wrestling with
this old man. Help me. Help me. The spirit wars against the flesh
and the flesh against the spirit so that we cannot be what we
would be. We would be completely without
sin. And yet we sit here and make
a sincere effort to worship God and can't get away from our old
man. Your worst enemy is sitting in
the same seat you're sitting in, isn't he? He really is. I mean, we really are our own
worst enemies. And so the child of God comes
before the Lord in Psalm 140. Turn with me there. Psalm 140. Lord, I'm being taken captive.
You're going to have to come set me free. And so the believer
says, deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. Preserve me from
the violent man. Preserve me. I can't be any prophet
to anybody else until you help me. I can't be the husband that
I need to be or the wife that I need to be or the father or
the mother I need to be. I can't be the the brother I
need to be, or the pastor I need to be, Lord, you're gonna have
to help me. Isn't that what David said in Psalm 51? David said,
restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Uphold me by thy free
spirit, then I will teach transgressors thy way. Lord, you're gonna have
to help me first. Yeah, we come before the Lord,
we always come. with our needs first and foremost. We know our own sins more than
we know anyone else. We're going to pray for somebody
else, we've got to pray for ourselves first. Or deliver me. David wanted to say, deliver
me from blood guiltiness. Thou God, the God of my salvation,
and then, and then my tongue shall sing a praise. of thy righteousness,
sing aloud of thy righteousness. Lord, I can't sing, I can't worship
until you deliver me from this evil man. You have to remind
me that that man's been put to death and that the blood that
the Lord Jesus Christ shed on Calvary's cross was sufficient
to cover all my sin. The evil man set in contrast
to the righteous man. My old man is all unrighteousness,
all unrighteousness. Deliver me, O Lord, from the
evil man. This is a wonderful prayer, isn't
it? For those who are in this battle
with two natures and looking to the Lord to deliver them with
weapons that are not carnal, but are spiritual. Lord, you're
gonna have to deliver me, this evil man that's in me, preserve
me from the violent man. This word violent means unjust
or injustice. What is the violent man that
lives in the believer? It's the part of us that would
deny the justice of God successfully achieved on Calvary's cross by
thinking that there's something more that we can do to earn favor
with God. That's a violent man. That's
an unjust man. And yet he lives in every one
of us, doesn't he? Galatians chapter 5 verse 17
says the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh and they are contrary to one another so that you cannot
be what you would be. Look at Look at verse one of
Psalm 140. Deliver me, O Lord, from the
evil man. Preserve me from the violent
man, which imagine mischiefs in their heart. Continually are
they gathered together for war. Oh Lord, this old man is continually
thinking mischievous things and he's denying the finished work
of Christ and he's not believing God and he's a dead man. Lord, he's always
there. He's always there. Look at verse four or verse three. They have sharpened
their tongue like a serpent. Adder's poison is under their
lips. The accusations made in our hearts
by the accuser of the brethren are an attempt to get us to look
at our old man. He doesn't have to go far. His
accusations are not false accusations. When the accuser of the brethren
says, well, now, how could you be like that and be a child of
God? The lie is that we would think
that looking to that or changing that or somehow improving that
would confirm that we are a child of God. No, the confirmation
that we're believers is through faith in Christ. Only through
faith in Christ. So this lying tongue that's always
speaking And the child of God says, keep me, oh Lord, from
the hands of the wicked. Oh, we must be kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation. He's got to cause us to keep
looking to Christ in this conflict, in this warfare. That's the spiritual. Bringing down every thought and
imagination of the heart to the obedience of Christ. Lord, only
his obedience. I look to my obedience to try
to get assurance of my salvation. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that, which
I've committed unto him against that day. He's able to keep that. Lord, you're going to have to
keep me. If you don't keep me, this old man's going to over
He'll overwhelm me. He'll destroy me if you don't
keep me. This is the sinner's prayer.
This is the child of God who lives their whole life with two
nations within them and two manner of people within them. And they're
in this spiritual conflict and warfare that they can't win. So what are they doing? They're
crying out to God to keep them. Lord, deliver me. Keep me. Keep me, O Lord, from the hands
of the wicked. Preserve me from the violent man who have purpose
to overthrow my goings. Look at the last two verses of
the previous psalm. We looked at them Wednesday night,
but I spent just a minute on these last two verses. Search
me, O God, and know me, and see if there be any wicked way in
me, and lead me in the way of everlasting. Oh, here's what we're, that's
the beginning of this prayer. Lord, search my heart and know
me. You know all my thoughts. Lead
me to Christ. He's the one I have life everlasting
in. There's no life outside of him.
There's no hope in this body of death. The proud. All the proud. You know anything about pride? Sure you do. Someone has said
that the best definition of sin is the middle letter in the word
sin. It's also the middle letter in the word pride. And in that
problem, when pride cometh, then cometh
shame, but with the lowliest wisdom, oh Lord, I can be so
proud and so self-righteous, so independent and self-sufficient. until you allow that older brother
to raise his ugly head, and then the new man says, look out, look
out. You got a battle here you can't
win. Yes, the Lord's. You're gonna have to go to him.
Look to Christ. In the mouth of the foolish is
the rod of pride. Pride goeth before destruction
and haughtiness before the fall. All that is in the world, John
says. Here's the whole world that this
old man, he was fashioned from the old world. He lives in the
old world. And in so many ways, he's of
the old world. All that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of
life. Oh, we can be so proud, can't
we? There's our problem. That's that old man. That's Esau. That's the beast that lives before
God. That's the one who causes us
to cry out, oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? I'm going to have to be delivered.
I can't get him off me. Can't get rid of him. You're
going to have to deliver me. You have to help me. Look at
look at verse. Look at verse five, the proud
have hit a snare for me. Oh, pride can take, can take
so many forms and faces, can't it? Pride can act so pious and
pride can act so righteous. And, and yet when you scrape
away the facade, you find out that it's all rooted in pride. The proud have hit a snare for
me. They hide themselves. They deceive me. They have spread
a net by the wayside. They have set gins for me, traps.
Oh, there's traps at every corner of pride. I said unto the Lord, thou art
my God. Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord. I need
you to supply me with grace. Oh God, the Lord, the strength
of my salvation. Thou has covered my head in the
day of battle. There's my hope. My hope is that
I have the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness,
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel, the sword of the
spirit, which is the word of God. These are the spiritual
weapons of our warfare. The shield of faith. Quench the fiery darts of the
devil. Grant not, oh Lord, verse eight, the desires of the wicked.
Further not his wicked device, lest they exalt themselves. Oh
Lord, expose my sin for what it is. Search my heart and know
me. Reveal those wicked ways in me
and lead me to Christ. Lead me to Christ. The only sinner is going to pray
like this. The self-righteous see no need for this kind of
prayer. Well, yeah, I was a sinner once when I did this and that
and the other thing, but I don't do those things anymore. They just don't know. They don't
know they're sinners. They don't have the new nature
to expose the old man. As for the head of those that
can pass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them. Let burning coals fall upon them.
Let them be cast into the fire, into deep pits where they rise
up not again. Rise not up again. Lord, what
did Isaiah say in Isaiah chapter six when he saw the Lord? Woe
is me? I, my eyes have seen the king
and look at, look at what I am in light of what he is. I'm a dead man. And then what
happened? The seraphim took the tongs and
went to the altar and took a call from off the alter. He, Isaiah
said, I'm a man of unclean lips. I live among a people of unclean
lips. What am I going to do? You can't do anything. Isaiah,
the Lord's going to have to do it for you. And he took a burning
call from off the altar and he touched his lips and he said
there, You're clean. You're clean. That's the burning
fire of God's wrath that fell on the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross. Here's our hope. When we're engaged
in this spiritual warfare and we see this old man for who he
is, we're reminded that he's been put to death and that his
sin is of no condemnation to you. The death of Christ has
put it away. He made you clean. You see, live
in fear and shame of the old man, then you're just going to
put back under the law. And the strength of sin is the
law. If you try to go to the law to try to get delivered from
this old man, he's just going to get stronger. The strength
of sin is the law. Let not an evil speaker be established
in the earth. Evil shall hunt the violent man
to overthrow him. First Peter chapter three, verse
10, he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain
his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no guile. Oh Lord, evil things can come
out of my lips. Look at verse three of chapter
147. Set a watch, O Lord, before my
mouth and keep the door of my lips. Lord, you're gonna have to do
that for me. What do we see in Romans chapter three when the
Lord says, their throat is an open sepulcher? Their throat
is an open sepulcher. and with their tongue there is
deceit. God's using the anatomy of the
body to picture us looking up into heaven and God looks down
and he sees through the throat into the heart and he says the
heart is wicked and deceitful, who can know it? And there, from
the heart, the mouth speaks. And so we say, Lord, from this
mouth, as James said, would come sweet water and bitter water,
it ought not to be. Lord, help me. Set a guard over
my lips. Lord, I can't control this old
man. I know that the Lord will maintain
the cause of the afflicted. Verse 12, here's our hope, brethren.
Here's I hope you pray this prayer before God as a believer with
two natures. Ask him crying out to the Lord
to help you. I know that the Lord will maintain
the cause of the afflicted. Lord, I'm an afflicted man. But
I know that you will maintain the cause of the afflicted. and
the right of the poor, I'm poor and needy. Surely the righteous
shall give thanks unto thy name, the upright, the upright shall
dwell in thy presence. There's my hope to be found in
Christ, the hope of knowing this old man one day is gonna be put
where he belongs, back in the dirt where he came from. And this corruptible is gonna
be made incorruptible. This mortal body is gonna be
made immortal. We're gonna see him as he is
and be made like him. Oh, what a glorious day that'll
be. In the meantime, we're gonna
have to walk by faith, complete dependence upon him to help us
with this old body of death that we're carrying around. And he
said, I'll maintain the needs of the afflicted. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Blessed to our prophet and to
your glory, we ask in Christ's name. Amen. 125. Let's stand together. 125.