Good morning again. We're going
to open the second hour with the hymn that's in your spiral
hymn book number 22, for the glory of his grace. Let's all
stand together once again. We were ruined by the fall, Adam's
sin defiles us all. By our deed as by our birth,
we deserve the law's great curse. Helpless, hopeless sinners we,
never can our souls retrieve. But the blessed Son of God Came
as man in flesh and blood He fulfilled the law's demands And
in death stretched out His hands On the cross of Calvary Christ
redeemed and set us free In the time which God had set, the Spirit
came for His elect to regenerate and pull from the ruin of the
fall. By His power and by His grace,
we were born for God's own praise. ? Now your purpose we fulfill
? ? Saved according to your will ? ? Sing this song of joyful
praise ? ? For the glory of your grace ? ? Blessed Holy Triune
God ? ? Hear our praise through Christ our Lord ? Please be seated. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles to Isaiah 63, please? Isaiah 63. And we'll begin reading in verse
one. Who is this that cometh from
Edom? Now, Edom was a pagan land, and this is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ coming to the earth. Who is this that cometh
from Edom with dyed garments from Basra? This that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength. I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel and thy garments like him that dreadeth the wine vat?
I have trodden the wine press alone. And of the people, there
was none with me. For I will tread them in mine
anger and trample them in my fury. And their blood shall be
sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.
For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my
redeemed is come. The full fury of God's wrath
fell from heaven, and The Lord Jesus Christ is this bloody sacrifice
satisfying God's justice. And I looked, and there was none
to help. And I wondered that there was
none to uphold. Therefore, mine own arm brought
salvation unto me, and my fury, it upheld me. The Lord Jesus
Christ died alone, even the Father forsook him. He had to bear the
weight of sin all by himself. And I will tread down the people
in mine anger and make them drunk in my fury. And I will bring
down their strength to the earth. When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. Oh, how we hope the Lord will
fulfill this passage among us today. Bring down our strength
to the earth and cause us to look in faith to his accomplished
work of redemption on Calvary's cross, putting away our sin by
the sacrifice of himself all by himself once and for all. I mentioned the first hour Jennifer's
having surgery on Tuesday at Mayo and you go and so be a bit
sick for a couple of weeks. They don't have their test results
back yet, but. They're thinking they may have
the coronavirus. You goes getting better. So be
still pretty sick. So let's pray together for them
and ask the Lord's blessings on our time. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
you've told us to bring our cares before thee, for thou carest
for us. Lord, the greatest evidence of
your care for us is seen in the sacrifice that Christ made for
us on Calvary's cross. For truly greater love hath no
man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. And
Lord, do you that cared for us then, care for us now. You care
for our spiritual needs. You care that we might have life
and hope and faith and Lord, how we have to be brought down
to the earth and we have to be stripped of our own strength
and our own righteousness and our own ability in order for
us to find all our hope in Christ. And we pray you would do that.
And Lord, we have to have your help in our in our temporal needs,
our daily needs. Lord, we. We pray for you going
so be we ask for your hand of healing to be upon them and to
give them full recovery. We asked Lord that in our time
of physical need that you would draw us each of us into thyself. Give us your grace. Your peace. Lord, we thank you for Jennifer.
We thank you for the. For the evidence of grace and
faith that you've given her over these years and we pray for your
hand of. Mercy to be upon her. Pray for
the doctors administered on some on Tuesday and ask Lord that
you would direct them. Pray for your healing touch.
We ask it in Christ name, Amen. the hymn on the back of your
bulletin. Let's all stand together again. O Thou who in Jordan didst bow
Thy meek head, And whelmed in our sorrow, didst sink to then
rose from the darkness to glory above and claimed for thy chosen
the kingdom of love. Thy footsteps we follow to bow
in the tide, and are buried with Thee in the death Thou hast died. Then wake in Thy likeness to
walk in the way that brightens and brightens to shadowless day. O Jesus, our Savior, O Jesus,
our Lord, by the life of Thy passion, the grace of Thy Word,
accept us, redeem us, dwell ever within. to keep by thy spirit
our spirit. Till crowned with Thy glory and
waving the palm, Our garments all white from the blood of the
Lamb, We'll join the bright millions of saints gone before To bless
Thee Please be seated. Adam Cherin
is going to bring special music. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord A wonderful Savior to me He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock and rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love And covers me there with His hand And covers me there with His
hand A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord. He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. And covers me
there with His hand With numberless blessings each moment He crowns
And filled with His fullness divine I sing in my rapture of glory
to God for such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows the dry, thirsty land. He hides my life in the depths
of His love And covers me there with His hand And covers me there
with His hand When clothed in His brightness
transported I rise To meet Him in clouds of the sky His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love I'll shout with the millions on high The height of my soul
in the cleft of the rock That shadows a dry, thirsty land He hideth my life in the depths
of His love And covers me there with His hand And covers me there
with His hand Will you turn with me in your
Bibles to Psalm 119? Thank you, Adam. I love that
hymn. And I love the imagery of Moses on Mount Sinai, the
mountain of the law, being hid in the cleft of the rock, the
Lord protecting him. What a blessing. We know that the problems we
have in society really have nothing to do with poverty. They really have nothing to do
with prejudice. They really have nothing to do
with lack of education. The problems we have in society
are caused by sin. That's the cause. That's the
root cause of our problems. One of the problems with cancer
is that we don't know what causes it. And so more times than not,
we end up treating the symptoms. Perhaps one day they will discover
a cause and then we'll be able to nip it in the bud and keep
it from being such a such a problem, but until you know the cause
of something, you can't really have a cure. This morning, I
want us to look at the cause and the cure of our problems,
because just like society, our problems don't have anything
to do with the temporal things that we think is our problem. It's not our circumstances that
cause our problems. It's not the conflicts that we
have with people. It's not the lack of financial
wealth or anything else. The problem is sin. That's the
problem. And if the Lord gives us the
grace to see our problem for what it is, and then to turn
to the one and only cure, for that problem, then whatever circumstances
might come, the Lord will give us grace to bear them. Was the Paul, the Apostle Paul
thought his problem was that thorn that he had in his flesh. Whatever it was, I don't know,
but he prayed three times, Lord remove this thorn from my flesh. You have a thorn in your flesh?
The thorn in his flesh was not his problem. His problem was
the fact that a messenger from Satan had come and used that
thorn in his flesh, which God gave him, to tempt him to unbelief. Because the Lord said, no, I'm
not going to remove that thorn from your flesh, for my grace
is sufficient for thee. There's the problem. It wasn't
his circumstance. It was his unbelief. It was the
sin associated with that circumstance. And so Paul goes on to say, I
will therefore glory in my infirmities, for when I am weak, then I am
strong, for his strength is made perfect in my weakness. Oh, may God give us the grace
to get to the root of the problem and to quit shifting the blame. You know, Adam's problem was
not Eve. It goes all the way back to that,
doesn't it? Adam, where art thou? Did you eat of the tree of the
fruit of the knowledge of good and evil I forbid you to eat
from? Lord, it's the woman you gave me. She's the problem. No, it's not. It's your sin problem. Adam, you're the one that disobeyed
God. And then the Lord gave him the solution to his problem,
didn't he? The Lord slew a lamb right there
in the garden, shed its blood, took the fleece of that lamb,
and covered Adam's nakedness. You see, there's no real cure
until there's an identity of the cause. And as long as we're
shifting the blame to something else, then we'll never be looking
to Christ for the solution to our problem. It's called the
burden of sin. That's the real issue. May God deliver us from doing
what the unbelieving world is doing. identifying our problems
as things that are really just symptoms. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 119. Look with me at verse 28. My soul melteth for heaviness. Strengthen thou me according
unto thy word and remove from me the way of lying and grant
me thy law graciously. Lord, my soul is heavy. Oh, it's heavy. I'm burdened with my sin. Lord,
you're going to have to deliver me. You're going to have to remove
from me the lies. What are the lies? It's those
things that we say the problem is when really that's not the
problem. That's a lie. The truth is that we're our own
worst enemy, isn't it? We're our own problem. Jay Iris had a very real problem. They came to him and said, bother
the master no more. My daughter's dead. What did
the Lord identify as Jairus' problem? The fact that his daughter
was dead? Is that what the Lord identified as Jairus' problem?
No. The Lord said to Jairus, he said,
Jairus, do not be afraid. That's your problem. Only believe. That's your problem. Not that your daughters just
died, but that you're full of unbelief and you're full of fear. That's your problem. That's what's
causing the heaviness of your soul. It's your sin. David had a real problem. The
betrayal and treachery of his own son, Absalom. who overthrew
his kingdom, chased him from Jerusalem. Was that David's real problem? Read the Psalms. David was full
of guilt and David was full of fear for having been such a bad
father to Absalom and was so consumed with his own guilt. That was his problem. It was the guilt and shame. What
about his problem with Bathsheba and Uriah? And Nathan came to him. gave
him that scenario of a man who took his neighbor's lamb and
slew it and fed it to his guests when he had plenty for himself.
And David said, that man should die. And Nathan said, thou art
the man. David had lived the last nine
months. You wouldn't have want to been
around King David those nine months of his life. I mean, he
was full of rage and guilt and shame, accusing everybody and
everything until Nathan identified the problem. And David said,
I've sinned. That's my problem. I've sinned. And Nathan said. And the Lord
has forgiven you of your sin. There's the solution. But see, as long as David was
pointing his finger to somebody else, he wasn't being delivered from
the lie. You and I need to be delivered
from the lie. The lie of pointing our finger
at something or someone else instead of coming before God.
God, I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. That publican in the temple,
Father, I thank thee that I'm not like other men. Oh, I fast
twice a week. I give my tithes. I do this and
I do that. And I thank you particularly
that I'm not like that publican over there. And the publican
would not so much as even look up, smote himself upon the breast
and cried, God forgive me, have mercy upon me, the sinner, the
sinner. In the King James, it says, have
mercy upon me, a sinner. But in the Greek language, the
indefinite article is not a, it's the definite article the.
And that's exactly what he said. I'm the sinner. There's no other
sinner but me. I'm the one. I'm the problem. And the Lord said, which one
of those two went to his house justified? justified with God,
right with God. When Peter stepped off that boat,
said, Lord bid me to come unto thee. And the Lord said, come
on. Peter got off that boat and the
storm started walking on water. And then he looked at the waves
and the wind and he started to drown. And he cried, Lord, save
me. Let me ask you, was it the circumstances
that Peter was in? Was it the wind and the waves
that was his problem? No, it was that he took his eyes
off of Christ. As long as he was looking at
Christ, he was walking on the water. Brethren, as long as we've got
our eyes fixed on Christ, we can walk on water. That's right,
above the waves. Above the sea. We've got to have
our eyes on Christ. And the sin that doth so easily
beset every single one of us is the sin of unbelief. It's
like Peter taking our eyes off of Christ. That's what causes
heaviness of soul. That's what David's crying here.
He said, Lord, my soul is burdened with heaviness. It's the heaviness
of my sin. When the disciples were on the
Sea of Galilee and that storm came up and most of these men
were experienced fishermen and they thought they were going
to die. They were convinced they were going to die. If you've
ever been in a perilous sea, in a bad situation, that's a
bad feeling. That's a really bad feeling.
And the Lord was on the bow with them. And they woke him, Lord, do you
care not that we perish? Oh, you little faith, there's
your problem. Your problem's not the storm.
Your problem is you're not, here I am right here in the midst
of you, and you're not looking to me. That's our problem. It's the unbelief. Lord, remove
the lies from me. I will lie to myself, and we
do it all the time. Men are liars. Cain, after the Lord told him
that he was going to be a vagabond all of his life, and men would
be pursuing him, and Cain said, oh, my punishment is too great
for me to bear. Was that Cain's problem? No,
before Cain slew his brother Abel, the Lord said, sin lieth
at your door. Sin lieth at your door, and it
wants to overcome you. My soul melteth for heaviness. Brethren, the Lord Jesus Christ,
though he suffered the contradictions of men, Though he spent every
day of his 33 years in this world in turmoil and conflict. We can't
even imagine the turmoil and conflict that the Lord experienced.
Being holy and being pure. We look at sin and we interact
with sin. We don't think anything about it because we're just right
in the middle of it ourselves, aren't we? But here the Holy
One of Israel was among sinners and lived his whole life And
yet he was never afraid. He was never anxious. He was never sorrowful. He was
never in heaviness of soul. He was never ashamed. He never
suffered loss. Why? He had perfect faith. And he had fellowship with his
father. When did the Lord Jesus Christ, when did he suffer loss? When was he filled with sorrow?
When did he feel shame and separation from God? When did he have to
cry out in agony, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
When did that happen? When God made him sin. That's when it happened. For
33 years, he never knew sin. He never knew sin. And so all
those things that are associated with sin, the heaviness of soul,
the burden of shame and guilt and loss and pain and all those
things, he never experienced them until he became sin. God made him sin who knew no
sin. That was the cup When he prayed
in the garden and said, Father, if there be any way this cup
can pass from me, let it be. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. It was the cup of sin. It was
the bitter dregs of God's wrath poured out on him because of
sin. And it wasn't until he became
sin that he experienced the things that you and I, the heaviness
of soul. Turn with me to Psalm 38. Turn
with me to Psalm 38. Rejection, sorrow, confusion,
conflict. Those are the things that we
think are our problems, right? No, it's the sin that caused
those things. And it was when the Lord Jesus
Christ became sin. Psalm 38, look at verse, look
at verse two. For thine arrows stick fast in
me and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger. Neither is there any rest in
my bones because of my sin. For mine iniquities have gone
over my head as heavy burden. They're too heavy for me. That's
the burden that David's talking about. And David's speaking prophetically
of Christ. Look back with me in our text.
Hold your finger there in Psalm 38. Look back with me to our
text in Psalm 119. My soul melteth for heaviness. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
melt or was not burdened with heaviness until he bore our sins. And David speaking in Psalm 38
prophetically again of what the Lord Jesus Christ would suffer
when he bore our sins. And he put them away. Look at verse 17 and 18 in Psalm
38. For I am ready to halt. I'm ready to die. And my sorrow
continually before me. Did the Lord Jesus Christ suffer
sorrow before that? Never. For I will declare mine iniquity
and I will be sorry for my sin. Now they tell us that repentance
is is when you sufficiently experience sorrow for your sin and then
separate yourself from it. The truth is repentance is a
work of grace in the heart that acknowledges our sin for what
it is. And repentance like faith is
not a one-time gift. If you ever repented once, you
will repent often Often. I can't tell you how many people
I've had over the years say, well, you know, you just keep calling
people sinners. They're not sinners. They're saved. They're saved. They're saints. They're sins.
God's people know what repentance is every day, don't they? When
the spirit of God confronts them with their sin and they're brought
again and again and again and again to say, Lord, you're right. I'm wrong. And they take sides
with God against themselves and they acknowledge their sin. And they say, Lord, I'm sorry,
but my sorrow cannot be felt sufficiently deep enough to satisfy
God's justice. When David wrote in Psalm 119,
my soul melteth for heaviness, he was speaking of what Christ
would go through when he was sufficiently sorry. And he called
them my sin. The Lord Jesus Christ made our
sin, his sin. And God saw the travail of his
soul and God was satisfied. He's not satisfied with the travail
of our soul. May the spirit of God bring us
often time and time and time again to a spirit of repentance
and faith. A repentance and faith are two
sides of the same coin. Repentance is acknowledging ourselves
for what we are and Christ for who he is. Faith is looking to
Christ and resting our hope in Christ, the author and the finisher
of our faith. Who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, suffering its shame. He knew
what God would do in rewarding him. for burying our sins on
Calvary's cross and putting them away by sacrifice of themselves. What a blessing. This is the
heaviness of Saul. And when God delivers us from
the lies of this world, we will acknowledge before God, my sin's
the problem. Lord, I need your help here and
here and here and Lord, please help me. But it's my sin, it's my unbelief. That's the sin that doth so easily
beset me. Look back with me, you're there
in the Psalms, look back at Psalm 22. Psalm 22. The Lord Jesus Christ never knew
sorrow and shame and separation. and guilt and fear until he was
made sin. And those things gripped his
heart on Calvary's cross. It was sin that cost it. Psalm 22, look at verse seven,
but I and David again, I mean, you know this whole Psalm is
about Christ on the cross. And David says, and I am a worm
And that word worm is the word maggot. Now what's nastier than
to cut something open and have maggots to be in it. And the
Lord Jesus Christ is crying out to his father after having been
made sin, I'm a worm, I'm a maggot and no man, I'm not a man. reproach of men and despise of
the people all they that see me lack me to score and they
shoot out their lip and shake their head saying he trusted
on the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing
that he delighted in him look at verse 14 of that same
psalm I am poured out like water you see it was sin that caused
this And it's sin that causes the
heaviness of our souls. I am poured out like water. and
all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted
in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, and now has brought
me into the dust of death. For dogs have come past me, and
the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They have pierced
my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones, they
look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them
and cast lots from my best, my best, my best year. But be not
thou far from me, O Lord. Oh, my strength. Help me. Help
me. Go back with me to Psalm 119.
The cause. And the cure. For every problem that causes our sin and the cure
is the sin bearer, our substitute who satisfied God's holy justice
and put away the guilt and shame of sin by suffering that shame
himself sufficiently to satisfy God. My soul melteth for heaviness. Strengthen thou me according
to thy word. Why do we spend all of our time
in God's word? Because faith comes by hearing
and hearing comes by the word of God. Of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth. God's word is true. This world
is full of lies, isn't it? Look at the next verse. Remove
from me the way of lying. What's the world call it? They
call it misinformation. Misinformation, a lot of misinformation
in the world, isn't there? It's lying is what it is. Everybody frames their arguments
so that it will promote their own agenda. And if it doesn't
fit their narrative, they ignore it altogether, don't they? And
that's especially true in religion. Lord, remove me from lying. Where
am I going to hear the truth? Am I going to hear it from the
talking heads on TV? Am I going to hear it from the
politicians? Am I going to hear it from the false prophets out there
in religion who are saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace?
Where am I going to hear the truth? Thy word is truth. Remove me from lying tongues. Satan is called the father of
lies. And if we go all the way back
to the beginning, when he tempted Eve in the garden, he asked Eve,
he said, did God say that thou shalt not eat of the trees, of
the fruit of the trees of the garden? Satan knew that's not
what God said. What is the, what is the tactic
that Satan uses? He just changes enough of God's
word. He changes it just a little bit.
He hadn't changed. He hasn't changed. You know,
there's about, I think there's six passages. We're not going
to look at all of them. Maybe we'll look at a couple
of them, but there's about six passages in the new Testament.
where God says, by the faith of Christ. You know, from 1611 to 1901,
the King James is the only version of the English Bible we had in
the world. And it's the King James that says, by the faith
of Christ. And then the American Standard
came out in 1901, and then up until 1970, there was not another
translation. I call it translations. They're
really not translations. From 1970 to today, there's about
20 different paraphrases of the Bible. And without exception,
every single one of them change those verses that talk about
the faith of Christ, and they just switch the words around
and say, your faith in Christ. and they make man's faith the
effectual cause of their salvation. Let me show you one or two. Turn
with me to Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three. Hey, this is the lie. Let the liberals and conservatives
haggle over, you know, coronavirus all they want. I'm concerned
about the lies that concern my soul. Those things may concern
my activity in this world, but the lies that I'm concerned about
have to do with the eternal destiny of my soul. Because my problem
is my sin, and I've got to have it taken away. And it doesn't
matter whatever else happens. If my sin's not put on Christ,
and God doesn't satisfy his justice in Christ for me, and nothing else, all the other
lies are not going to matter. Look at Ephesians chapter 3,
look with me at verse 12. In whom we have boldness and
access with confidence by the faith of Him. If you've got something
you're holding right now in the King James Bible, your Bible
says by your faith in Him. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
three. This is a verse that we quote a lot here. Philippians
chapter three, verse nine. And be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of
God by faith. Now, do we have faith? Yes, and
it's a gift of God, but our faith is in his faithfulness. And what
men do is they make faith the cause of salvation. Let me tell
you what's real popular among the reformed people. Christ died for everyone that
believes. I can't tell you how many times
I've heard that statement. Christ died for everyone that believes. Now that statement's true, but
it's not the truth. You see, it's phrased that way
in order to take the offense out of the gospel. And to leave
those who want to trust in their faith as the effectual cause
of their salvation an open door to say, well, if he died for
everyone, then I'll believe. And that means he died for me. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
his life for the sheep, not for the goats. He died for those
whom God chose in the covenant of grace before the foundation
of the world, and he successfully, effectually satisfied everything
that God required when he bowed his mighty head on Calvary's
cross and said, it is finished. He died for his sheep. He died
for the elect. And yes, every one of them will
believe. But why say Christ died for everyone
that will believe? That Christ died for everyone
that believes. because they're trying to take the offense out.
You see, that's just the subtle. What I'm getting back to is what
Eve told, what Satan told Eve back in the garden. Did God say? And he just changed it just a
little bit. And that change was just enough to tempt Eve because
Eve, when she responded, she said, oh no, that's not what
God said. God said you should not eat of the tree in the midst
of the garden, neither shall you touch it. See, Eve added
to God's word, didn't she? God never said don't touch it.
It'd be a good idea not to touch it, but that's not what God said. Turn with me to Galatians. Galatians chapter two. This is
another very familiar verse. Verse 20. I am crucified with
Christ. When Christ died on Calvary's
cross, the only hope that I have, the only hope that I have to
stand in the presence of a holy God is that I was crucified with
him. I had fellowship in his suffering. I was in Christ, not having my
own righteousness which is of the law, but that righteousness
which is by the faithfulness of Christ. I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me." Again, if you have any other
paraphrase, and that's what all these modern translations are,
they're just paraphrases, your Bible says, by your faith in
the Son of God. Lord, remove me. Remove me from
the lie. Cause me to believe your word. Satan is the father of lies and
if he can twist the scriptures and change the word of God and
rest the scriptures, men will believe it to their own destruction. Go back with me to our text. Remove from me the way of lying. What is a lie? A lie is something that promises
something that it can't deliver. The scripture speaks of the deceitfulness
of riches. What does the riches of this
world? They promise something that they cannot deliver. What
do the riches of religion and self-righteousness promise? The
riches of self-righteousness and man-made religion promise
eternal life, and they can't deliver. It's the lies of this
world. Deliver me, Lord, from your lies,
from the lies or from the way of lying, and grant to me thy
law graciously. Lord, cause me to believe what
you've said. Rest my hope in what Christ has
done. Sin's our problem. Go back with
me to Eve again. When Eve fell to the temptation
of Satan, who is the father of lies, and also he's called the
accuser of the brethren. He's always accusing us, isn't
he? And what does God say about that? There is no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh.
They don't mind the things of the flesh. They mind the things
of the spirit. They're not looking at fleshly means for their salvation
or fleshly evidences for their salvation. They're looking through
the eyes of faith to the Lord Jesus Christ who can only be
seen by the spirit of God. So Satan is still alive. What
did he convince Eve of? Eve saw the fruit, it was good
to the taste, it was pleasing to the eye, and it was able to
make one wise. And later on in the book of 1
John, when John summarized all that is in the world, the lust
of the flesh, that's good for the taste, it's called pleasure.
The lust of the eyes, it's not what you put your eyes on, it's
wanting other people's eyes on you. It's called popularity. It's called loving the praise
of men more than the praise of God. The lust of the eyes and
the pride of life, that's power. I'm gonna be in control of my
own circumstances and it's all a lie. It's all a lie. Why is the love, money's not
evil, but why is the love of money the root of all evil? Because
money buys pleasure, popularity, and power. And men live their
lives thinking that that's what life's all about. And what does
the child of God say? My soul is burdened because of
my sin. Deliver me from the way of lying.
and show me graciously what's in your law. Well, what's in
the law of God? Christ is in the law of God.
You remember when the Lord Jesus was baptized and the scripture
says as soon as he was baptized, the spirit of God drove him into
the wilderness and he spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness
and Satan came to him. And Satan said to him, see that
stone there? I know you're hungry. If you
be God, make that stone to be bread." What was that? Good to the taste? Pleasure? All that is in the world? The
lust of the flesh? And the Lord spoke the truth
back to Satan. He said, man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God. There's my life. My life's the word of God. And
so Satan took him up on the pinnacle of the temple. There's three
things in the wilderness, there's three things in 1 John, there's
three sufferings that Christ suffered. When he went into the
wilderness, Satan took him up on the pinnacle and let him look
down in the Kidron Valley, which is where the marketplace was
in Jerusalem. Thousands of people walking around
down there. and said, cast yourself off. And Satan misquoted a verse
that said the angels will not allow you to dash your feet against
a rock. They'll catch you before you
hit the ground and everybody will see and you'll become popular. Everybody will know who you are. And the Lord said, thou shall
not tempt the Lord our God. I don't need the popular, I don't
need the approval of men. Satan took him up on a mountain
and showed him all the kings in the world and said, bow down
to me. Bow down to me and I'll give you all this. Well, Lord
already had it all. I shall worship the Lord thy
God and him only shall I serve. You see, the three temptations
that the Lord Jesus went through in the wilderness were the temptations
that you and I fail to every day. pleasure, popularity, and
power. And he's the only one that conquered
Satan. And he never fell to the lie of pleasure, popularity,
or power. The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life. And he presents himself
before God on our behalf as the sinless substitute. And so when
David writes, when David writes, Satan's tactics have not changed
since he talked to Eve back there in Genesis chapter 3. They haven't
changed. He's got the same weapons that he used back then. My soul melteth for heaviness. Our souls, when convicted of
sin, Lord I'm the sinner. My sins the problem, my unbelief
is the problem, my inability to trust you as I ought, and
the fact that I fall to the lies of Satan. Strengthen thou me according
to thy word. The Lord Jesus Christ's heart melted on Calvary's cross.
We saw that. Psalm 38, Psalm 22, all that
the Lord went through on the cross. And he's crying out, strengthen
thou me according to thy word. Remove from me the way of lying. Lord, when I'm tempted to believe
a lie, show me the truth. Show me the truth as it is in
Christ. Because he's the only hope that
I have to be delivered from my sin. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your Word. We pray that you'd bless it to
our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 37. 37 in the spiral hymnal.
Let's stand. 37. Approach, my soul, the throne
of grace in every time of need. There's mercy for the needy one
who Jesus' name shall plead. Though I'm a weak and sinful
wretch, I will approach the throne. I'll lean upon Christ's mighty
arm and plead His blood alone. The blood, the precious blood
of Christ has opened up the way by which I can draw near to God
and to my Father pray. Though Satan tempts my heart
to sin, I'll call upon my God. And if I fall, he'll lift me
up and cleanse me in the blood. The way is open. hear my groans and cries of grief. Nothing can keep me from His
throne but my own unbelief. O Lord, my unbelief remove, and
turn my heart by grace. Compel me to approach your throne,
and there spread out my case.