Let's open up this morning's
service in the hardback hymnal number 334. Number 334, Be Thou
My Vision. If you could please stand, 334. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart, Not be all else to me, save that Thou art. Thou my best thought, by day
or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light. Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my
true word. I ever with Thee, and Thou with
me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
son. Thou in me dwelling, and I with
Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always, Thou and Thou
only, first in my heart. High King of heaven, my treasure
thou art. High King of heaven, my victory
won. May I reach heaven's joys, O
bright heaven's sun. Heart of my own heart, whatever
befall. Still be my vision, O ruler of
all. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. I was thinking this
morning that the two messages that I believe the Lord has given
me for this morning are messages that an unbeliever can understand
in terms of what's being said. And I thought, well, that's the
way I'll always preach. What I'm trying to say is that
the simplicity of these two messages is just so simple. And I don't believe that we preach
differently to unbelievers than we preach to believers. And we
preach the gospel and we try to make it as simple as possible. And I'm very hopeful that this
first message, salvation is of the Lord. And the second message,
Christ is all. That's it. Salvation, all of
salvation, from election to glorification, and everything in between is
of the Lord. And Christ Jesus, the Lord, is
all, and he's in all. And I'm just so hopeful that
the Lord will keep us, keep us simple and clear this
morning. So let's ask him, for that blessing, and we'll begin
in his word. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
forgive us for our pride, forgive us for our self-righteousness.
Lord, we just sang a hymn that said we're not moved by the empty
praises of men, and yet we confess to you, Lord, that we're often
affected by the opinions of men, Lord, how fleshly and how worldly
we can be. We ask, Lord, that you would
be pleased to give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear. Most importantly, give us a heart
to believe on Christ, to rest all our hope in his accomplished,
finished work. of salvation. Lord, would you
pray that you would teach us that you would give us and that
you would make us this morning to rest our hope in the glorious
person and finished work of thy dear son, our savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 119. You remember this psalm is written in 26 different sections,
each beginning with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet,
and each section having eight verses. And so the section that
we're going to begin today is from verse 33 to verse 40. And you'll see if you'll just
let your eyes go down through these eight verses why I've titled
this message, Salvation is of the Lord. David says, teach me. Give me, make me, incline mine
ear, turn away mine eyes, establish thy word, turn away my reproach,
and the last part of verse 40, quicken me in thy righteousness.
I hope that'll be our prayer this morning. Lord, teach me,
give me, make me, incline mine heart, turn me, Lord, establish
me, establish me in Christ. Let me find all my footing, all
my hope, and all my salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice he begins with, teach
me. If the Lord doesn't teach us,
then all that we know is nothing but the wisdom of man. And if
we're not taught of God, then what one man convinces us of,
another man can teach us out of. But once a person is taught
of God, there's no change in their mind. The Lord has convinced
them. The Lord has taught them. Paul
said in Philippians chapter 1, I am confident of this very thing,
that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He that began
a good work will complete it. He will perform it. The Lord
is not going to lose one of his sheep. Contrary to that, if you
have been taught of men, then probably won't last. Matter of fact, if you can fall
away, and we've seen it happen to many, you eventually will,
eventually will. Look what David says, and here's
what I hope will be your prayer and my prayer. Lord, teach me.
You teach me. I don't want to hear the voice
of a man. I don't want to be convinced of something because
a man told me it was so. I want you to buy your spirit. The Lord said in John chapter
14, the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, which the father
shall send you in my name, shall teach you all things. The means
by which the Lord teaches his people is his word. It's his
word. In John chapter six, the Lord
Jesus Christ said, and they all, speaking of his sheep, shall
be taught of God. Therefore, every man that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father shall come to me. How do we know you've been taught
of God? How do we know? Well, the Lord just said right
there, they shall all be taught of God. Therefore, every man
that has been taught of the Father is gonna come to me. We're resting
all the hope of our salvation in the glorious person and in
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're looking to
Christ in faith, resting our hope in him. That's what it is
to be taught of God. Look at verse 33. Teach me, O
Lord, the way of thy statutes. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I am the way. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man can come to the Father except by me. I'm
not going to show you the way. I am the way. There is a way that seems right
unto man. What is that way? Well, it's
the way of works. It's the way of free will. That's
the way that seems right unto man. The natural man thinks,
well, the way to heaven is for me to make a decision for God.
Well, the way to heaven is for me to do something to earn favor
with God, whether it be to make up for my sins or whether it
be to do some righteous work. There is a way that seems right
unto man, but in the end, that way leads to death. Christ Jesus,
the Lord, said, I am the way. And so our prayer is, Lord, teach
me the way of thy statutes. Now, statutes, again, is a word
being used to describe all of scripture. And we know that in
the volume of the book, it is spoken of him. From the very
beginning, let there be light. That light was Christ. To the
very end. He that adds any word to the
prophecy of this book, the judgments of this book will be added on
to him. And what God is saying to you and me, if you add anything
to Christ, then the judgments of God is all you have. And if
you take anything away from this book, then You have no hope of
your name being in the last book of life. We take anything away
from the finished work of Christ. It's all about Christ from the
beginning to the end. It's about him, Lord, teach me,
teach me the way of thy statutes. Show me in every passage of scripture,
what it has to say about the glorious person of the Lord,
Jesus Christ. I think it was this past Wednesday
night. Was it this past Wednesday night we looked at Solomon? I
think it was. You know, Solomon is a type of
Christ in that he had a thousand wives. The number 1,000 is mentioned
many, many times in the scriptures, and it's a number of completion. And the thousand is a picture
of the church. We get all wrapped up in how
could Solomon, the wisest man in all the world, get so caught
up in violating the very principle that God established from the
beginning, one man to one woman for life? How could he do that?
Well, don't even go there. Don't even worry about that.
Solomon was wrong in doing that. It typifies the Lord Jesus Christ
as the wisest man who ever lived. And he has a complete harem,
if you will. His bride is complete. And if you look at Solomon's
brides, Solomon's wives, actually only 700 of them were wives.
Now the wife had special privileges because she was married to the
husband. And we're called the bride of
Christ, we've been married to Christ, and yet he had 300 concubines. And they had no privileges. They were part of the harem,
they were part of the church, but they weren't... And the Lord said, there's always
gonna be tears among the wheat. This ought to grip our hearts
with fear. Lord, I don't wanna be a concubine, I wanna be a
wife. I wanna have the privileges of a wife. And then the scripture
says something very disturbing. That Solomon was led astray by
his wives into pagan worship. Now here's a man, the Lord Jesus
Christ said he was the wisest man that ever lived. And he died
in shame. As a believer, he died in shame,
being led astray by his wives. How did the Lord Jesus Christ
die? He died in shame, didn't he? Why did he die in shame? Because he was led astray by
his wives. He bore the sins of his wives
and they led him, if you will, into idolatry. You understand
what I'm saying. We are by nature idolaters and
we are by nature, that's the nature that the Lord Jesus Christ
took and he died in shame. That's just one example of how
every story in this book is about the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
say, Lord, teach me the way of thy statutes. Guard me from being
caught up in some sort of historical knowledge or some sort of theological
debate. Men do that all the time. I was
talking to a pastor this week and he's got someone come to
his church that's a Greek scholar. And I mean he carries on conversations
in the Greek language and he's so impressed with himself and
wants everybody to be impressed with him. And it's clear that
he doesn't know Christ. And here he's spent all of his
life learning things from other men, but he hadn't been taught
of God. I told this pastor, I said, listen,
he wants to engage you in a debate so that he can prove himself
to be wise. Just don't even do it. Don't
even go there. You've forgotten more than he's
ever known. Just preach Christ to him. That's what he needs.
But the world is full of people who have learned a lot, but they
don't know the way of his statutes. They don't have Christ. So here's
every believer's prayer, Lord, if you don't teach me the way,
I'll go the way of man. I'll go the way of knowledge,
I'll go the way of works, I'll go the way of free will. Lord,
you have to teach me. They shall be all taught of God. And everyone that's taught, everyone
that's taught of God, cometh unto me. Lord, teach me the way
of thy statutes, and I shall keep it. Look at verse 33, and
I shall keep it unto the end. That's what I'm saying. If you've
been taught of God, you will remain to the end. I am confident
that he that began a good work in you will perform it to the
day of his coming. I'm just, I know he will. He's
not going to lose one of his sheep. What God starts, he finishes. Lord, if you teach me, then I
have the hope of knowing that I'll be safe and secure all the
way to the last breath that I draw in this world if I'm taught of
God. Look at verse 34. Give me understanding. Lord, give me understanding.
If you don't give it to me, I can't earn it. I can't persuade you. I can't force your hand. I can't
give you something to obligate you. You're going to have to
give it to me. It's called grace. Isn't that
what the word give means? It's just free grace. Lord, I'm
completely dependent upon you to just give it to me. I can't
I can't be repentant enough. I can't be sorrowful enough.
I can't work hard enough. I can't study enough. Lord, you're
just going to have to give it to me. Give me understanding. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
11, Hebrews chapter 11. We know. A salvation is by grace through
faith and that not of yourself. It is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Lord, you're going to have to
give me faith. If I'm going to have faith, you're going to have to
give it to me. I can't pull myself up by my bootstraps. I can't
make myself believe. You're going to have to give
me. This is the believer's prayer. You see, this is why salvation
is of the Lord. Lord, teach me and give me. Teach me the way
of thy statutes, and I'll keep them unto the end. Give me understanding. Look at Hebrews chapter 11. Now
faith. Faith. is the substance of things
hoped for. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. Now, what does that mean? Well,
what are we, what are we, what are we tempted to do? We're tempted
to look at something other than Christ to get assurance of our
salvation, aren't we? And we're accused by the accuser
of the brethren to say, well, you know, if you hadn't thought
that way or done that or said that, you know, You wouldn't
be, you wouldn't be a believer if you act the way you do. And
he's constantly accusing us. And we're tempted to think, well,
I've got to, you know, I've got to, I've got to look, find some
evidence of salvation in my life. What is the evidence of salvation?
It's faith. That's right there. Faith. It's
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for the cause of your salvation
and for the evidence of your salvation. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things that
you cannot see. You can't look into the Lamb's
book of life and see whether your name's there. You can't
look back into eternity past and see whether or not you were
chosen in the covenant of grace. See you and you can't look at
your life and not unless you're going to lie to yourself. You
can't look at your life and get any real comfort or hope or assurance
for your own salvation. It's faith. And that's the gift
of God. It's looking to Christ and resting
your hope in him. For by it, the elders obtained
A good report. Now Hebrews chapter 11 is all
about these elders that are being referenced here at the beginning,
these old Testament saints. And when you read Hebrews chapter
11, you think that these men and women that are mentioned
in Hebrews chapter 11 were perfect. I mean, there's no mention in
Hebrews chapter 11 of any of their faults. And yet, when you
go back in the Old Testament and you read the stories of their
lives, you find that they were fraught with problems and sins
and unbelief, but no mention of it in Hebrews chapter 11.
Why? Because in Christ, we are perfect. When we've given the gift of
faith to look to Christ, When God gives us understanding and
we rest our hope in Him, then far as God's concerned, we're
without sin. We're without sin. And someone
says, well, yeah, well, that's the way God sees it. Well, the
way God sees it is the way it is. Amen. It's just the way it
is. You gonna believe what you see?
Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is the evidence
of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained
a good report. All those things that they did
in unbelief were not accounted in their salvation. They had
a good report before God. Through faith, we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Who is the word of God? The Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the word that became flesh
and dwelt among us. He's the one that spoke these
things into existence. And he's the one who holds them
in the palm of his hands and keeps them together by the power
of his word. And we know that's true. How
do we know it's true? You can't look into the heavens
and see the Lord Jesus Christ. Anybody tells you they've had
a vision of Christ, they're lying. He reveals himself in his word
and through faith. And the eye of faith is not looking
at those things which are temporal. It's looking at those things
which are eternal. It's looking at those things which are invisible
to the natural man. And it's believing God. By faith
we understand. Lord, give me understanding.
If the Lord gives us understanding, it's going to come through faith.
Amen, that's it. You're there in Hebrews. Turn
back just a few pages to Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3 salvation
is of the Lord. It's of the Lord, it's of God.
Or teach me the way of my understanding. or the way of thy statutes, and
I'll keep them to the end. Lord, give me, give me. I can't earn and I can't make
it happen. Lord, you're gonna have to give
me faith. And faith comes by hearing. That's why we preach
the gospel every time we come together. That's why we open
this book and we talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, because this
is the means by which God gives faith. And we don't say, well,
I've got that down. No, we say, Lord, increase our
faith. Lord, give me more faith. I've
got, help thou mine unbelief. And that what we say as believers,
Lord, I do believe, but help thou mine unbelief. Give me more
faith. Ephesians chapter three, look
at verse one. For this cause, I, Paul, the
prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have heard
of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given unto me
to you word. So Paul saying, God revealed
the gospel to me for you. Here's a penman of scripture
saying that I've been given direct inspiration from God. Do you
believe that? There's a whole lot of people
who make that claim. Joseph Smith will tell you he
got, Mohammed will tell you he got a message from God. These
are the penman of scripture and the Bible says that holy men
of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Can I convince
you of that? I don't even want to try to convince
you of that. I'm just declaring it to you
that it's true. And if God teaches you and makes
you to believe that it's true, then nobody can talk you out
of that. So Paul says, this dispensation,
this revelation of the gospel was given directly to me for
you. How that by revelation, he made
known unto me the mystery as I wrote afore in few words, whereby
when you read, You may understand my knowledge in the mystery of
Christ. What is a mystery? A mystery
is not something strange or mysterious. A mystery is something that's
hid. It's hidden from the natural mind. And God has to open the
eyes of our understanding in order for that mystery to be
revealed. And that's our prayer. That's what David's saying. Lord,
teach me the way of thy statutes and I'll keep them to the end.
Lord, give me understanding. Give me understanding. So faith is the means of understanding,
scripture is the instrument of understanding, and preaching
is the vehicle of understanding. Turn to me to Romans chapter
15. Romans chapter 15. Preaching is the vehicle of understanding. Romans 15, look at verse 20. Yea, so have I strived to preach
the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build
upon another man's foundation, but as it is written, to whom
he was not spoken of they shall see, and they that have not heard
shall understand, shall understand. Paul said, I'm preaching the
gospel in order that men might understand. They that call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call upon
whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on
whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Lord, give me understanding.
Give me understanding by giving me faith to believe what your
word says. Give me ears to hear what the
message that would otherwise be hidden from me, the mystery
of the gospel. And prayer is the cry for understanding. Look at Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter one. Look at verse nine. For this
cause, we also, since the day we heard it, heard what? Of your
love in the spirit, your faith in Christ. We do not cease to
pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with a knowledge
of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. You don't ask for wisdom and
understanding. That's the cry, isn't it? That's the means. You have not
because you ask not. Lord, give me understanding.
Give it to me. Turn with me over to Ephesians
chapter one. Verse 16, we cease not to give
thanks for you, making mention of you in our prayers, that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of him, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what
the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." Well,
that's our constant prayer for you. That's my prayer for me. And that's my prayer for you.
Lord, open our eyes. Teach us the way of thy statutes. Give us understanding. And go back with me to our text.
I knew I wasn't gonna get through but three verses this morning
on this. on this, but look at the next look at the next. The
next verse. Lord, if you give me understanding,
I'll keep thy law in verse 2 and verse 34. And we do. We keep the law of God through
faith in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness. We love God's law. And we keep
it when we look into Christ. Yay, I shall observe it with
my whole heart. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one that did that. He's the only one that observed
the law of God with his whole heart, his whole mind, and his
whole soul. You and I have never been able
to keep any part of God's law, but through faith in Christ,
it's kept. It's kept. Look at verse 35.
Make me. to go in the way of my commandments.
Every time I read that, I think about growing up with two boys,
with two brothers. That was three of us. We were
all pretty close in age. And you probably had this happen
maybe with your own children or when you were a child. Parents
would be away and they would give the oldest responsibility
for the two younger ones. And of course, he'd try to wield
that authority. And what do we younger ones say?
Make me. Make me. And, uh, you know, we're
just, what's such a defiant, rebellious spirit. I'm not going
to submit to your authority. Well, just to the opposite of
that. Lord, if you don't make me, if you don't make me, if
you don't make me willing, I won't come. If you don't make me to
believe, I won't believe. If you don't make me to see,
Lord, if you don't open the eyes of my understanding, I'll be
blind. Lord, you're going to have to make me. You see, it's a submissive spirit
of dependence, isn't it? Lord, you're going to have to
make me. If you don't make me free, I'll
be under the bondage of the law. Turn with me to Romans chapter
eight. Verse eight, verse one, Romans
chapter eight. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. The law has nothing to say. The
voice of the law's judgments and penalties have been silenced.
There's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. He
satisfied the law. Who walked not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Now they that walk after the
flesh, he goes on to say, do mind the things of the flesh.
And in other words, they're looking at fleshly means and fleshly
evidences for their salvation. And they that walk after, no,
when he says walking after the spirit, he's not talking about
walking above the earth and the clouds and, you know, and just,
he's talking about looking in faith to Christ, which is what
the spirit gives us the ability to do. Now we're not walking
by the flesh, we're not walking by sight, we're walking by faith.
Look at verse two, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Sin shall not have any authority
to condemn me in that day of judgment for I am free from sin
and the law. Christ has put away my sin and
he's satisfied the law. He made it to be so. Lord, if
you don't make me free, I won't be free. I turn over just a page
to Romans chapter nine and look at verse 18. Romans chapter 9 verse 18, therefore
hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he
hardeneth. Salvation is of the Lord and
some will say well that's not fair and others will say Lord
make me Lord have mercy upon me, give me, teach me, don't
leave me to myself. Verse 19, Thou wilt say then
unto me, why doth he yet find fault? If salvation is completely
of the Lord, and he has mercy upon whom he will have mercy,
and he hardens whom he will harden, how can he blame me? How can
I be responsible? If you believe on Christ, it
is all God's fault. And if you don't believe on Christ,
it's all on you. That's just the way it is. You
say, well, that doesn't make sense. Say, Lord, teach me that. Teach me the truth. Give me understanding. Make me look at the rest of this. Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing form say to him
that form me, why hast thou made me so? Does not God, hath not the potter
power over the clay? He's the potter and we're the
clay. over the same lump to make one
vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. What if God willing
to show his wrath and to make his power known endured with
much long suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction
that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels
of mercy. Now we don't look at a person
caught up in some sort of self-destructive sin, however horrible it might
be, and say about that person, but for the grace of God, there
go I. Because we know in our heart of hearts that our sin
is worse than theirs. We sin against light. We sin
against Christ, we sin against love, we sin against the truth,
and to whom much is given, much is required, and we can never
look down our self-righteous nose at anyone and say, but for
the grace of God, there go I. But there is one time we can
say that of an unbeliever. I don't care what their lives
look like. If they don't believe on Christ, we can say, but for
the grace of God, there go I. A vessel fitted for destruction
that he might make known the glory of his grace to his left. And we say, Lord, make me a vessel
of honor. Make me. Salvations of the Lord. Teach
me the way of thy statutes. Give me understanding and make
me to go in the paths of thy commandments. What is the path
of his commandments? Christ. It's following after
Christ. For therein do I delight. Our delight is in Christ, isn't
it? All right, let's take a break. Okay.