Let's open this morning's service
with the hardback hymnal hymn number 62, number 62. And let's all stand together,
crown him with many crowns. the Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
rounds, all music on its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
who died for thee. and hail him as thy matchless
king through all eternity. Crown him Lord of love. Behold his hands and side. Bridge blue jet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky can fully
bear that sight. But downward bends his wandering
eye at mystery so bright. Crown him Lord of life, who triumphed
for the great. ? For those victorious through
the strife ? ? For those he came to save ? ? His glories now we
sing ? ? Who died and rose on high ? ? Who died eternal life
to bring ? ? And lives that death may die ? Lord of them, one with the Father
known, One with the Spirit through Him given, From yonder glorious
throne, To Thee be endless praise, For Thou for us hast died, Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to
be in Psalm 119 this morning, if you'd like to turn with me
there in your Bibles. we can say of all things, and
it came to pass. It came to pass. When we first
started discussing the possibility of building this building, we
thought we might be in it by the time of our conference last
January. But that wasn't the Lord's time.
Here we are, September the 6th, and we're just very, very thankful
the Lord's timing is always perfect. And what a what a blessing it
is to have this new facility to meet him. I'll speak more
of that by way of introduction. In the second hour, I want to
try to bring a message from Acts chapter seven on the temple of
God. And we'll, we'll talk more about the purpose of this facility. in the context of that message. We've been praying for the Salzburg
family. Jerry's mother has been in hospice
now for several months. She passed away on Wednesday.
And they left yesterday to go up to Philadelphia to attend
the funeral services, which are going to be very difficult. But
Jerry's going to have an opportunity to speak at his mother's funeral.
So I told him that we would pray the Lord would give him the words
to say. Jerry's mother was Jewish and there'll be a rabbi conducting
the services. So you remember to pray for Jerry's
services are going to be Tuesday in Philadelphia. So Lord enables
you to remember him. Pray the Lord to give him the
words to speak. So let's go to the Lord in prayer
and ask His blessings. Our merciful and gracious, glorious
Heavenly Father, we know that you do all things well. Your
timing is perfect. Your purposes are perfect. Your
work is perfect. Your accomplishments are perfect.
Your son, our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ is perfect. Perfect in his person, perfect
in his work. We ask Lord that you would enable
us to lift him up this hour and every hour that we come into
this place. That Christ would be the reason for our being here
that you would enable us to speak of him and he would enable us
to enter into worship. Lord, we pray for your Holy Spirit
to enlighten the eyes of our understanding, enable us to speak
the truth, enable us to hear from you. Thank you, Lord, for this place,
and thank you for this day. Lord, we pray for Jerry and ask,
Lord, that you would give him just the right words to speak.
Pray that you would comfort his heart and the loss of his mother,
and pray that you would give him grace to testify of Christ
among his family. We pray it in Christ's name,
amen. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 119. I just want to read verse 105 because we looked at
this verse in detail Wednesday night. Thy word is a lamp unto
my feet and a light unto my path. And God's word is written word.
reveals the living word, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we were
reminded Wednesday night meeting here in this building that every
time we come here, our hope, our prayer is that God will open
to us what no man can shut, that his word will be open, that heaven
will be open, that our hearts will be open, and that his word
will be, well, it'll be effectual in our hearts, revealing to us
the glory of Christ. That's our prayer. That's our
purpose here in this building. I want to begin in verse 106
and read down to verse 112. I have sworn and I will perform
it. I will keep thy righteous judgments. Now the self-righteous read this
verse and they make their promises to let Jesus be Lord of their
life. They sing proudly, I have decided
to follow Jesus, and they rededicate their lives believing that it's
their commitment to God that secures their salvation. The sinner, on the other hand,
reads these verses and says with the Ethiopian eunuch to Philip
in Acts chapter 8, does the prophet speak of himself or is he speaking
of another? Well, I'm here to say to you
what Philip said to that eunuch. He speaks of another and beginning
in that verse, he preached unto him Jesus. Anyone who reads these verses
and thinks that their commitments to God are sufficient to secure
for them their salvation is deceived. No, when David wrote these words,
he was speaking of another. He was speaking of the God man. He was speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the mediator between God and man, the man, Christ
Jesus, the one who is seated at the right hand of God, the
one who was received back into glory for having fulfilled all
his vows, all of his promises, for having performed perfectly
the work that God sent him to do, and the hope that you and
I have is looking in faith to his accomplished work of salvation
for all of our acceptance before God. It's that simple. It's that simple. Notice with
me in verse 106, I have sworn how many times we've made commitments
and failed to follow through. How many, how many promises we've
made when convicted by the Spirit of God of a sin to never commit
that sin again, only to find ourselves repeating it over and
over again. Paul said in Romans chapter seven,
he says, in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing
for to do good, to do good is present with me, but how to perform
that which is good, I find not. The Lord Jesus Christ, somebody
close that back door, please. We've got some technical issues
that we're still working out. We've got to get some sound barriers
put up and different things. But I know if I can hear it,
you all can hear it. Psalm 116 verse 13 says, I will
take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of his people.
And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did. When he was
in the garden of Gethsemane and he prayed to the Father, Father,
if there be any way this cup can pass from me, let it be.
Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. It was the cup
of sin. It was the bitter dregs of God's
wrath in satisfying God's justice for the sins of his people. And
he speaks again prophetically with David. He said, I'll take
the cup of salvation. and I will fulfill all my vows. Psalm 22, which clearly the whole
Psalm 22 is a clear picture of Christ on Calvary's cross. He said, I will pay my vows before
them that fear him. All believers have a holy fear
of God. And only believers are able to
see that it was the Lord Jesus Christ that paid his vows, that
kept his promises, that performed everything that the Father sent
him to do. And so we say again, does the
prophet speak of himself or does he speak of another? Oh, he speaks
of another. He speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, when did the Lord swear? Look it again at this verse.
I have sworn. I have, past tense. I have sworn. When did the Lord swear? Well, in the eternal purpose
of God, before time ever began, the triune Godhead, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, entered in to a covenant promise
where the father swore to provide for the son abroad. The son entered
into that covenant. This was before time. This is
before the stars were made. This is before the planets were
put in their place. This is before, certainly before
man ever was. Well, to even to use the word
before is, it's difficult for us, isn't it? It's impossible for us to understand
eternity past. There was never a time when this
promise was not made. The Lord Jesus Christ promised
to come into this world to bear the wrath of his father, to put
away the sins of his people, to satisfy God's justice, to
work out a righteousness on behalf of his bride, and to accomplish
the salvation of his people. All that the father chose in
this covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed. This is when
he swore, I have sworn God, the Holy Spirit entered into that
covenant promise and swore to come in power and to make those
for whom Christ died, those that the father chose to give them
ears to hear, to give them eyes to see, and to make them willing
in the day of his power. You see, brethren, the hope of
our salvation is not. Ought we, to make promises, of
course, of course. But if we're hoping that the
fulfillment of our promises are sufficient to save our souls,
then we are deceived. He's the only one that was able
to say, I, notice in our text, I have sworn and I will perform
it. I will perform it. What did Paul
say? How to perform that which is good, I find not. I can't
perform my promises. To do good is present with me,
but I cannot perform it. The Lord Jesus Christ swore to
his father. He swore to bear the shame and
the guilt and the penalty and punishment for the sins of his
people, which is exactly what he did on Calvary's cross. And
he performed that. He swore to his father to work
out a perfect righteousness by his obedience unto his father,
even unto his dying breath. And he performed it. He performed
what he swore. There's the hope of our salvation.
The performance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 57 verse two, David speaks
again. And he says, I will cry unto
God most high, unto God that performeth all things for me. That's who I'm gonna cry to.
He's the one who performs all things for me. He performed the
putting away of my sin. I can't, but he did. He performed
the establishment of a perfect righteousness. He performed the
full salvation of his people. He performed everything that
God requires of me and you. The Lord Jesus Christ provided
it. And God's only pleased with what
He provided. What hope. What hope we have
when we're able to say the Lord Jesus Christ swore to His Father
in the covenant of grace to save His people and He performed it. He performed it. By His Spirit. He performs the new birth in
the hearts of His people. He opens the eyes of understanding. By His Spirit, the hearing ear
and the seeing eye are both of the Lord. He performs that. By His Spirit, He performs our
ability to enter into worship. Worship that's done in the power
of His Spirit and worship that's done in the light of his gospel. He performs that. Whatever we're able to do in
this place, he will be the performer of it. I love it when Joseph,
you remember, was falsely accused, which is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and he was thrown into prison, which is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the prison keeper turned
over All the details, everything that
took place in the prison, the scripture says, and whatever
was done there, he was the doer of it. The Lord Jesus Christ
was cast into the prison of our sinful world. And whatever is
done here, he will be the doer of it. I have sworn and I have
performed it. How many people read these words?
They say, well, I'll just rededicate. I'll make a commitment. I'll
let Jesus come into my heart. Whatever love we have for Christ,
what love we have for his word, what love we have for his church,
he's the performer of it. He's the doer of it. He has reconciled us to God. He is our surety. Now a surety is one who stands
in the place of another and provides everything on behalf of that
other person. That's a surety. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus did. All our righteousness, all our wisdom, all our sanctification,
all our redemption has been provided by the Lord Jesus Christ, our
surety. I have sworn and I have performed it. He swore to bear
the sins of his people in his body and he performed it. He
swore to God to satisfy the demands of God's holy law. And he performed
it. He swore to the father that he
would be our substitute and he performed it. And we look in
faith to him. And we rejoice in his performance. Paul said in Philippians chapter
one, I know that He, which began a good work in you, will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. He's gonna perform the miracle
of keeping us in Christ every day, from this day to the day
that we draw our last breath. And if a person falls from grace,
They never knew grace. They were never in Christ. Why? Because he can't fail. He
can't fail. What he begins, he finishes. He performs it all the way to
the end. Scripture says that Abraham staggered
not at the promises of God, being fully persuaded that what he
promised, he was able also to perform. He was able to perform. There's our hope. Our hope is
in his performance. Look with me again at Psalm 119,
106. I have sworn and I will perform
it. And I will keep thy righteous
judgments. That's exactly what the Lord
Jesus did. He kept the righteous judgments
of God. He satisfied all the demands
of God's holy law. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. He was obedient to the father,
yea, even unto death. You and I cannot say I will keep
God's righteous judgments. except as we're looking in faith
to Christ, and we can have the hope of knowing that we have
kept God's righteous judgments. Look at verse 107. I am afflicted very much, quicken
me, O Lord, according unto thy word. David said, before I was afflicted,
I had gone astray. Now I've kept my word. The Lord
in his, in his wise, merciful providence afflicts his children. He does. He exposes our weaknesses
and our inabilities. And he, through affliction, causes
his children to cry out unto him and to and to find that truth,
that his strength is made perfect in our weakness. As true as that is, and as much
as we are able to understand that experience, we cannot really
understand what Psalm 107 or Psalm 119, 107 means as it relates
to the Lord Jesus Christ. We can believe it. We can believe
it, but we can't understand it. When he said, I am afflicted
very much. No one knows the meaning of these
words. No one has been afflicted like
he was afflicted. As the sin bearer, he suffered
the full fury of God's holy wrath on Calvary's cross. And no one
can understand what that means. We know that the sky was blackened. We know that our Lord cried out,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We know that our
Lord had perfect union with his father for all eternity. And
now in these three hours, he is forsaken of God as the sin
bearer. And he's suffering an affliction
like no man has ever known. burying all the sins of all of
God's people of every generation. He's suffering under the heavy
hand of God's holy wrath. Why'd he do it? Why'd he do it? Because he had sworn to his father
that he would do it. He was performing that which
he had sworn. He was keeping God's holy law. And what does he say? Look at
verse, look at verse 107. I am afflicted very much, quicken
me. And you know what that word quicken
means. It means to make me alive. The Lord Jesus Christ bowed his
mighty head on Calvary's cross and cried father into thy hands.
I commend my spirit, believing to his dying breath that the
father was going to quicken him, that the father was going to
reward him, that the father was going to raise him from the dead. I don't like using the word obligated,
but I don't know of another word right now. You see, the Lord
obligated the Father, didn't He? He had satisfied everything
that they had agreed to in the covenant of grace. The father
rejoiced in raising his son from the dead, but the son believed
that his father would do that. Quicken me, quicken me according
unto thy word. Again, the Lord Jesus is looking
back to that covenant of grace made between the father, the
son, and the Holy Spirit in eternity past. And he's saying, Lord,
according to the eye promise, According to your word, quicken
me. You know, that's what faith does.
We said the same thing. Lord, according to your promise,
the only thing I have to lean on, I have no other hope. I have no other reason to believe
that you would save me except for your promises. Faith is just believing God,
isn't it? Verse 108, except I beseech thee. You know, you hear people in religion
talk about accepting Jesus. You know, and they've got this
little Jesus in the heavens that's wringing his hands, hoping that
men will let him have his way. And, uh, you know, if you'll
just accept Jesus, he'll save you. He wants to save you. He's
trying to save you. He's doing his best to save you,
but he can't, he can't violate your will. He needs your cooperation. He needs your participation. He needs your agreement. That's
not our God. That is not our God. Our God
reigns sovereign over the armies of heaven and over all the inhabitants
of the earth. Somebody talks about making Jesus
Lord of your life. I've got news for you. He is.
He is Lord of your life. Whether you believe him or not,
he reigns sovereign over the lives of every person. And when
he's ready to make you willing, you're going to be willing, aren't
you? And our Lord cries out to his
father, except I beseech thee. We can't say to the father, except
what I've done. We can say, except what Christ
has done. And we can believe on the authority
of God's word that God has accepted the free will offering of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Men love talking about free will.
As if because they can decide between chocolate and vanilla
ice cream, they can decide whether or not to make Jesus Lord of
their life or not. Men by nature are dead in their
trespasses and sins. They can't make a decision for
God. God has to breathe life into
our dead souls before we can believe. A miracle of of grace, the new
birth. It's called regeneration. The
Lord said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you cannot perceive of the kingdom
of God. You cannot see it. You can't
understand it. You can't enter into it. You
can't believe it, except you'd be born again. And Nicodemus, well, what can
I do to be born again? Oh no, Nicodemus. That which
is of the flesh is flesh. And the flesh profiteth nothing. You are completely dependent
upon the Spirit of God to do that for you. The Spirit's like
the wind. He listeth whithersoever He wills. But the Lord Jesus said, Except
I beseech thee the freewill offerings of my mouth. Crying out to His Father. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
13. Hebrews chapter 13. What is a freewill offering? It's an offering that's made
freely. It's an offering that's made freely. God loves a cheerful
giver. We make our offerings freely. We don't do it out of constraint.
We don't want to give, don't give. That's the Lord. The Lord loves a cheerful giver,
doesn't he? Not just the giving of our time
and money, but the giving of our praise. Look at Hebrews chapter
13 at verse 15. By Him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit
of our lips giving praise unto His name. That's what we do when
we join our voices together in song, when we pray, when we preach. This matter of preaching is not
just one man standing up here speaking. Every child of God,
when they hear the truth about Christ, you're saying in your
heart, amen. You're giving a freewill offering.
The fruit of your lips are being offered up in praise and thanksgiving
and worship to the God who's done everything necessary to
save His people. It's a freewill offering of our
lips. Turn with me to the book of Hosea.
Hosea. Hosea chapter 14. The Lord Jesus is the only one who is able to offer to God His
will. his obedience and secure the
salvation of his people by what he had decided, what he had committed
himself to do. And now in response to him, we
offer the freewill offerings of our lips. Look at, look at,
look at Hosea chapter 14, verse one. Oh, Israel. Return unto the Lord thy God,
for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. It's our sin that separates
us from God, isn't it? What's the solution to that? Who's going to put away our sin? We know the answer to that question.
The Lord Jesus Christ has put away our sin. And when we look
in faith to his finished work of redemption, We know that sin
has been put away. He's performed the doing of it. Verse two, how do we return? How do we come? Do we just say
in some sort of cavalier way that, well, the Lord Jesus has
already taken care of all that for me? No, we come crying out
in prayer to the Father, take with you words. Take with you
words and turn to the Lord and say unto Him. The Lord's given
us the words to say. Take away all iniquity. Receive
us graciously. So shall we render the calves
of our lips. Now, we just read in Hebrews
chapter 13, it's called the sacrifices of our, the calves of our lips. As the blood of the calves were
shed as a sacrifice in the Old Testament, we don't sacrifice
our blood to satisfy, but we offer up the calves of our lips,
the sacrifice of our praise. We take to our God words and
we say to him, Lord, take away my iniquity. Look to Christ for
the forgiveness of my sin. And notice the next verse. Asher shall not save us. Now
some of you may remember we've looked at this passage before.
You remember what Asher translated means? Steps. That's what it means. The word
Asher translated means steps. If you take this step and then
that step and then the next step, God will reward your steps by
saving you. If you pray this prayer and make
this decision and commit yourself and follow through with your
commitment with these works and those works, then your steps
will save you. And the Lord told the children
of Israel, when you build an altar, And Hebrews makes it clear
that Christ Jesus the Lord is our altar. But in the Old Testament,
before the Lord had revealed himself fully in Christ, when
you build an altar, do not put steps on it. For in making steps, the pagans
made altars with steps on them. They'd make their sacrifices
at the top of the altar. And the Lord said, if you make
an altar with steps, all you're going to do is expose your nakedness. As you walk up those steps, you're
going to be shamed by exposing your nakedness to those below
you. And that's what the Lord's saying. Asher cannot save us. Making steps that we have to
go through in order to satisfy what God requires for salvation
is only going to expose our nakedness before God. If we're going to
be clothed, and this goes all the way back to the garden, doesn't
it? When Adam sinned and he was ashamed of his nakedness, what
did he do? He sewed together fig leaves
and tried to cover his nakedness with the works of his hands.
And that's what the Lord, that's what Hosea is saying. Asher can't
save us. The works of our hands, the steps
of our works, they're never going to be able to save us. What are
we going to do? Your iniquity has separated you
from your God. And God says, come with words. And these are the words. Lord,
take away our iniquity. We can't save ourselves. We're in need of God to do for
us what he did for Adam in the garden. We're in need for God
to slay a lamb. A land that is without spot and
without blemish. The Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sins of the world. We're in need of that blood to
cover us. And what did God do with the fleece of that lamb
that he slew in the garden? He covered the nakedness of Adam. The righteousness of Christ is
our covering. That's our robe before God. So
the Lord says, bring with you words. These These freewill offerings,
the Lord Jesus brought with him words and the Father was pleased
with his words. We bring with us words. Go back with me. Go back with
me to our text. Verse 108. Accept, I beseech
thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth. When we come into the presence
of God, we're saying, Lord, I have no reason for acceptance except
for what you've accomplished in your dear son. Teach me thy judgments. Teach
me the gospel. Look at verse 109. My soul. Now this word soul comes
from the word breath. Comes from the word breath. What
do they say? A man can live three weeks without
food and three days without water and about three minutes without
breathing, which is going to come a day when we're going to
draw our last breath. And at that time, our body will
die. You can't live without breath.
So what is, what is the Lord saying? My soul or my breath
or my life is continually in my hands. You and I can't say that. We can't say that. The next breath
that you draw into your lungs was given to you by God. We're
in his hands. And it's appointed unto man once
to die. And after that, the judgment.
Our lives are completely dependent upon the Lord. But what's the
Lord saying to his father? My breath, my life is continually
in my hands. No man's going to take my life
from me. I'm going to lay my life down willingly. I'm in control
of my own death. I was reading an article recently
that spoke of the Lord Jesus as a victim. He wasn't a victim. He was a victor. No, he laid down his life for
his sheep. He was not a victim. He said,
my life is in my hands. I'll lay it down. My time has
not yet come. And when his time was come, he
said, set his face like Flint towards Jerusalem. When he laid down his life, what
did he say? Father into thy hands. I commend my spirit. He decided
when he would take his last breath. He decided when he would allow
his spirit to depart from his body. You and I don't make that
decision. And as the victor, he defeated
death. He conquered the grave. He put
away sin. He destroyed the works of the
devil. He was in absolute, complete
control of all the events of his life and of his death. I have sworn, I will perform
it. I will keep thy righteous judgments.
I was afflicted, quicken me. Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill
offerings of my mouth and teach me thy judgment. My soul is continually
in my hand, yet Do I not forget thy law? Lord in perfect obedience. And that's what God requires.
We saw that last Sunday, didn't we? Perfect obedience. God's not impressed with the
best that we can do. He's impressed with his son.
He's pleased with his son. He's satisfied with his son. who kept his law perfectly. And
when we come into worship, we're looking in faith to the Lord
Jesus Christ as the man, the mediator between God and man,
the only one able to fulfill these prophecies made some thousand
years before he was born. He swore, He performed, and He
kept. And He is our hope and our life. Amen. All right, let's take a
break.