Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 37 from your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn
book. Number 37, Approach My Soul,
the Throne of Grace. Let's all stand together. 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 bleed 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, God will hear
my groans and cries of grief. Nothing can keep me from His
throne, but mine, all I believe. O Lord, my unbelief removed,
and turned my heart by grace. Compel me to approach your throne,
and there spread out my case. Please be seated. I was going to read a different
passage, but in light of that hymn we just sang, let's open
our Bibles together to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4. We'll begin reading at verse
9. There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God. A rest. For he that has entered
into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did
from his. When we're resting in Christ
for all our acceptance before God, we're not looking to our
works. Cease from works gospel, look to Christ. Let us labor
therefore to enter into that rest lest any man fall after
the same example of unbelief. How do we labor to enter into
that rest? Well, that's what we're going to do right now for
the Word of God. The Word of God is quick and
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit. The unbeliever looks at their
outward behavior and evaluates their righteousness by how they
act. The child of God looks at his heart and realizes,
Lord, I'm a sinner. The word of God pierces even
the dividing asunder the soul and spirit and joints and marrow
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. How
are the thoughts and intents of your heart? Pretty wicked,
aren't they? Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. What we see
in our hearts is only just a small portion of what the Lord sees.
He sees all the wickedness. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. What is our profession? It is
finished. That's our profession. Jesus
Christ is Lord. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities
but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. God made him sin who knew no
sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace Coming with confidence to the
throne of grace has a lot to do with not hiding anything before
God. It's just realizing He knows
my heart. He knows everything there is
to know about me. What Adam did in the garden was he tried to
hide from God, didn't he? Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Let's go before the Lord now
and ask for his grace and help. We are needy people and I just
found out from Star that Dean is in the hospital. He's having
some heart issues and So he's at ORMC and we need to pray for
Dean. So let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father, we are a needy people. We're sinners. Lord, you've given
us your spirit and given us your word that is so faithful to cut
and to expose the sin of our hearts and then to drive us to
look to Christ and rest in him for all our righteousness before
thee. Lord, we thank you for that work
of grace. We pray that you would extend it again this hour. We
pray that you would cause your word to be alive and sharp and
able to divide, as you said here, Lord, the marrow from the bones
and the thoughts and intents of our hearts. And cause us,
Lord, to. To flee in faith. To thy dear
son. And find all our rest. And all
our hope and all our help and all our grace in him. We pray
for Dean and we asked Lord that for him in this hour that you
would Cause him to look to thee and find his rest in Christ. We pray for those that minister
to him physically and ask Lord that you would give them good
skill and pray for your hand of healing to be upon him, to
restore him. And we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand together again.
We'll sing hymn number 268, 268, 268, How Firm a Foundation. 268.
? How firm a foundation ye saints
of the Lord ? ? Is laid for your faith in his excellent word ?
? What more can he say than to you he hath said ? to you who
for refuge to Jesus have fled. Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand. Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent
hand. When through the deep waters
I call thee to go, The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow,
for I will be with thee thy troubles to bless and sanctify to thee
thy deepest distress. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee,
thy only design, Thy trust to consume and thy gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned
for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. Please be seated. If you'd like to follow along,
we're going to be in Psalm 36 tonight. Psalm 36. And I've titled this, A Prayer
for Mercy. at him we sang was so appropriate.
And what the Lord tells us in Hebrews chapter 4 is so very
appropriate to this psalm and to the believer's desire for
mercy. Mercy is for sinners and the
gospel is for sinners. This is a faithful saying worthy
of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And when the Spirit of God comes,
He exposes the thoughts and the intents of the heart. He causes
us to see for the first time in our lives that we have no
righteousness. We thought that just the things
that we were ashamed of, the things that we were embarrassed
to talk about, were our sinful problems. When the Spirit of
God comes, he convicts the world of sin because they believe not
on me. We come to see that this easily
besetting sin that plagues us violently and daily is the sin
of unbelief, our inability to trust God as we ought. And that's how David starts out
this psalm. But even before we go to this
psalm, I want to read a few verses from Romans chapter 7 if you'd
like to turn with me in Romans chapter 7, for you remember when
Paul, speaking of his life before his conversion, he said, he said,
I was circumcised the eighth day, I was of the tribe of Benjamin,
a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, and concerning the law, I was
blameless. I was blameless. Now whether
or not the Apostle Paul was the rich young ruler is speculation. But certainly Paul felt the same
way as that rich young ruler when the Lord gave him the commandments. What did that rich young ruler
say? I've done these things from my youth. I've been faithful
to the law. And he was in terms of what other
people saw in his behavior. He said himself, he said, no
one can bring a charge against me for having violated God's
law. But now look what he says in Romans chapter 7 verse 9,
for I was alive without the law once. Now Paul, he's talking
about when he was a when he was zealous for the law, but he didn't
have the law. The law of God had not spoken
to his heart. He thought the law of God just
had to do with not committing murder and not and not committing
adultery and not lying and not stealing and tithing and all
those things that, you know, that he said, I've done all those
things. But now, now the law comes and
I come to see that the law says thou shalt not covet. In other words, I've been looking
all my life at my, at the outward man. not realizing that God was
looking at my heart. He was looking at my heart. The
heart is desperately wicked. We can't know our own hearts,
can we? Paul says, For I was alive without the law once, but
when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. In other
words, when the law spoke to me by the Spirit of God, and
revealed to me what its real requirements were. For the first time in my life,
I realized I've never been able to keep God's law. The law slew
me. It killed me. It condemned me.
It judged me. There was a time when I thought
that which was gain to me. I was keeping the law, but now
I realize that it was lost because I was looking at my outward law
keeping. Now the law comes to my heart
and God slays me. Now I need to be made alive.
I've been made a sinner. I often say, God has to make
you a sinner. And I've had people ask me, what
do you mean God has to make you a sinner? Why would God make
you a sinner? You know, they think that I'm
saying that God's going to make you sin. No, no, no. No, but
God has to make you to be a sinner, doesn't he? And that's what Paul's
saying here. When the law came, sin revived, and I died, and
the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be unto death. That commandment that I loved
and the one I was living my life by and the one that I thought
I was keeping, it slew me. It put me to death. For sin,
taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. There wasn't anything wrong with
the commandment. The commandment was good and holy and just, but
the commandment wasn't making me good, and the commandment
wasn't making me holy, and the commandment wasn't justifying
me before God. Wherefore, the law is holy, and
the commandment holy and just and good. There's the law. It's holy, but
it can't make you holy. It's just, but it can't justify
you. It's good, but it can't make you good. The purpose of
the law is to make sin utterly sinful, is to expose us for what
we are. This is what the unbeliever doesn't
know anything about. They think that, well, I'm, you
know, the law of God is my rule of life and I'm doing my best
to keep it and God just expects me to do my best. Never has God been satisfied
with your best or my best, never. We might be able to satisfy one
another with doing our best. Well, truth is, you and I have
never done our best on anything, have we? Could always do better
than we do on anything. But doing your best is not what
God requires. God requires the law to be magnified. God requires the law to be exalted,
to be kept perfectly. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one that ever did that. That's why Paul goes on to say,
that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to them
that believe it. But here he's talking about his
life now before he was converted. Sin slew me when I saw myself
for what I really was in comparison to God's law. You see, the law
just, the law exposes the Lord Jesus Christ for who he is. That's
what the law does. He kept everyone, what did he
do? He loved his father with all
of his heart and with all of his mind and with all of his
soul. Isn't that what that Pharisee said? What is the greatest commandment?
And the Lord said, the Lord summarized the commandments. He did the
first four commandments. He summarized all four of them
when he said, love the Lord thy God with all your heart and all
your mind and all your soul. And then he summarized the next
six when he said, and love thy neighbor as thyself. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the only one that ever loved God with all of his
heart, all of his mind, all of his soul, all the time. You and
I have never been able to do that. And oh, we talk about wanting
to esteem others more highly than ourselves. And we hope that
we can behave that way at least outwardly and show some concern
for other people. You know, we wake up in the mornings
and we open our eyes and we're the first person we think about.
And we just consume with ourselves. Love your neighbor as yourself? The Lord did. You see, he's the only one that
kept the law. He kept it from his heart. Paul's saying, when
the law came, sin revived, and I died. Verse 13, was then that which
is good made death unto me? God forbid. Did the law kill
me? No. The law exposed me for what
I was. Sin killed me. Sin killed me. That's what killed me. And the
day in which you shall sin, you shall surely die. It's sin that
kills, isn't it? The wages of sin is death. So
Paul's saying, the law didn't kill me. I don't know, I was
already dead. All the law did was expose me
for what I was, a dead man. But sin that it might appear
sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the
commandment might become exceeding sinful. The commandment of God
exposes our hearts for what they are. Some will hear us talking like
this and they'll say, well, that gives me a license to just act
any way I want. Oh, no. We, we, God restrain that old man from
behaving shamefully. That's our hope, isn't it? But
it doesn't change the old man. You see, whether the old man
acts out or whether he doesn't, he's still the same. He's a sinner.
Everything about him is sinful. He can't be made better. We've got to have the new nature
of the Lord Jesus Christ to have any acceptance. Well, in him,
we have all acceptance before God, don't we? In the beloved,
we're accepted. The new man's perfectly righteous
in Christ. That old man, That old man, Esau
was born before Jacob, wasn't he? Esau represents the flesh. Jacob represents that new man
and what God said. When Rebecca said, why am I thus? Well, it's because there's two
nations within you and one is stronger than the other and they
strive together against each other. We know something about
that as believers, don't we? Only a believer knows something
about the two natures because the unbelievers all just got
one nature. And he's trusting that that old
man is somehow going to, you know, going to earn favor with
God by, you know, what he does. But the believer, thank God,
the elder shall serve the younger. Thank God that Esau, that old
man, when he rears his ugly head and he exposes himself for what
he is, The next verse in Romans chapter 7, Paul said, I'm sold
under sin, I'm a slave to it. The law is holy but I'm carnal. Now that's an introduction to
Psalm 36, because that gives us some insight, I think, into
what David is saying in Psalm 36. And if you read commentaries
on Psalm 36, you're gonna be led astray by many good men that
have tried to, well, they've just missed the entire meaning
of the very first verse, the very first verse. David says
the transgression of the wicked sayeth within my heart. There is no fear of God before
his eyes. That's the, that's the, that's
the wickedness of my own heart. That's the deceitfulness above
all things desperately wicked. Who can know it? My own heart,
Lord, the unbelief that's in my heart. You see, now the Spirit
of God has caused us to look inside. That's where God's looking.
And we become so overwhelmed with the fact that there's nothing
in us that's good. What? Just read on in Romans
chapter 7, what did Paul say? In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. To will is present with me, but
how to perform that which is good, I find not. Oh, wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Thanks be to God, through Christ Jesus, I'm free. There is now
therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ. So we, The Spirit of God makes
us to be a sinner and the Spirit of God is the one who leads us
to the Lord Jesus Christ and causes us to realize that all
my own, all my rest, all my rest. That's what Hebrews chapter four
about. The Word of God is sharp. It's
powerful. It exposes the thoughts and the
intents of our hearts. When you think about the thought,
you know, we want to put on our best behavior, don't we? We do.
But you know your heart. I know my heart. You know the
evil that's in your heart, the thoughts that you have, the unbelief
that you have, the lust that you have, the worldliness that
you have, the fears that you have. That's the heart, isn't
it? That's where the problem is. May the Lord give us grace to
behave well. I want to behave well. But my
heart is so desperate, it's so wicked, it's so deceitful, it's
so full of unbelief, it's so full of sin. And that's what
David's saying. The transgression of the wicked
is in my heart. All the things that they're doing,
I see those things in me. We see an unbeliever behaving
badly, shamefully. We don't stand in judgment of
them. We think, Lord, if you don't restrain me, I'll do the
same thing because I know that those things are in my heart.
They're in my heart. And that's what David's saying.
The transgression of the wicked, and that word transgression means
the violation of God's law. So the lawlessness of the wicked
It's in my heart. What am I going to do? I'm so
discontent, I murmur, I complain, I charge God of wrongdoing. I wake up in the middle of the
night and I toss and turn worrying about things. Why am I thus? Why is my heart
so evil? Why is it so dark? Why is it
that everything I see people doing out there in the world,
I have in me? That's what David, the transgression
of the wicked saith within my heart. We can be so ungrateful. You know, so attracted to this
world, so unconcerned about our sin, cold, you know, isn't that
indifferent? That's what David's saying. When
I look at what the wicked's doing, I see that what they're doing
is in my heart. Lord, restrain my heart. I can't, I can't find any righteousness
in here. I can't find any reason why God
would be pleased with my heart. And that's what he's going to
go on to say in this Psalm that the, that the Lord look at verse
eight, they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of
thy house. Now, what is the fatness of thy
house? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ is the house of God. Everything
about that Old Testament tabernacle pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ
from the one door to the badger skins, to the lavers, to the
showbread, to the holies of holies, to the veil that separated it,
to the Ark of the Covenant, to everything in there pointed to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the scripture says that
the word became flesh and tabernacled among us, he dwelt among us,
the house of God came down. Now what does David say? Let me be satisfied with the
fatness of my house. Let me be satisfied with Christ,
with the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness. and thou shalt
make them drink of the river of thy pleasure." There's that
river, the river that flows clear as crystal that John saw in Revelation
22, that flows from the throne of God and from the Lamb. The
river by which the tree of life was planted. There's a river. There's a river. And that river's Christ. On the great day of atonement,
when the priest was pouring out the drink offering, the water
offering on the altar, and the smoke was going up, and the crowd
was silent, and the Lord Jesus Christ, I think it's in John
chapter 11, cries loudly, if any man thirst, Let him come
unto me and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And this he spake concerning
his spirit. It's the spirit of God that gives
us thirst. And it's the spirit of God that
quenches our thirst. And the scripture says that my
people have committed two evils against me. They've not drank from the river
of life and they've built for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns
that cannot hold water. And that's what we do, don't
we? We try to store things up in
broken cisterns. Lord, let me delight in the fatness
of thy house. Let me delight in Christ and
let me drink of him. That's what the Lord said in
John chapter four with the woman at the well? When he said to
her, give me to drink. The Lord was getting her to,
well, let's turn to that passage. I want to read some of those
verses, John chapter four. In verse seven, Remember, the
Lord said, I must needs go through Samaria. The disciples didn't
want to go through Samaria, but the Lord had already ordained
a meeting with this woman who had had five husbands. And the
man she was with now wasn't her husband. And she was at the well
in the middle of the day because she was ashamed to go early in
the morning with the other women of town. I'm sure she was the
topic of conversation. among the other self-righteous
women, talking about her. Well, she'll be out here in the
middle of the day, in the heat of the day, because that's when
she met the Lord, isn't it? The Lord told her everything
she ever did. But here he begins the conversation
by saying to her when she shows up, the disciples have gone down
to Sychar to get food, and this woman shows up. And the Lord
says, get me to drink. Verse seven, verse eight, for
his disciples were gone away into the sea to buy meat, and
then said the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou
being a Jew asketh drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?
For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. And Jesus
answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto
thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest ask him, and he would
give thee living water." Now that's what David's talking about.
The transgression of the wicked is in my heart. Lord, let me
find my pleasure in the fatness of thy house, and let me drink
from the river of thy pleasure. And the Lord's saying, if you
knew the gift of God, and we do, we do know the gift
of God. It's eternal life. The gift of
God is Christ. In Him is life. You would ask of Him. And He
would give you living water. And that's what we're doing right
now, I pray. And that's what the Spirit of God is constantly
causing us to do because we see, we see that the transgression
of the wicked is in our heart. And that realization and conviction
of our own sin is what drives us to pray this prayer for mercy
and to ask the Lord, yes. Do what this woman did. The woman
saith him, sir, thou hast nothing to draw with and the well is
deep. Oh yes, the well is deep. It's
inexhaustible. It's deep. Oh, our aquifers here
in Florida don't compare to this well. This well's never been
diminished. All the believers that have drawn
from this well of water and it's got the same amount of water
in it as it's ever had. Same amount. And he does have something to
draw with. His sovereign grace, his sovereign power is able to
change the heart of this woman, change our hearts. From whence then thou hast this
living water? Art thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us this well, and drank thereof himself, and
his children, and his cattle? And Jesus answered his son to
her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. And
we do, don't we? We drink from our broken cisterns.
And we keep coming back to the same polluted cisterns, don't
we? In our hearts. And then, realizing, Lord, I'm
thirsty. You've got to give me living
water. This water, this water of the world, this water of my
sin, this water of my heart, it's just making me sick. And
that's what happens when you drink polluted water, isn't it?
It makes you sick. Verse 14, but whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. Sir, give me this water that
I need not come here anymore. She didn't like going up to that
well. Go get your husband. Now I've
got you where you need to be. Now I'm going to expose you for
what you are, a sinner. We drink of the water that he
gave us, that he has to give us. We'll never go back to another
well for that water, the water of everlasting life. We don't
go anywhere else for that, do we? All right, go back with me
to Psalm 37. The transgression of the wicked saith within my
heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes." Oh, the
fear of God is the beginning of wisdom that we could fear
God like we ought. And we think, I don't, I wouldn't
be thinking the things I'm thinking. I wouldn't be acting the way
I'm acting. I wouldn't be, I wouldn't have the attitude I have if I
feared God. And then we look at the religious
world and we think, well, he would not make God subject
to the will of man if he feared God. If the religious man feared God,
the transgression of the wicked, he wouldn't make God subject
to the will of man. He wouldn't speak of God as if
he was unable to accomplish his purpose. He wouldn't dare stand
in the presence of God based on his good works. He wouldn't deny the sufficiency
of God's word and come up with creeds and confessions that he
needed to look to in order to get direction from God. He wouldn't be looking to the
works of his life for the cause or the evidence of
his salvation if he feared God. Lord, if I feared you as I ought,
I wouldn't be so fleshly, so attacted to this world. Look at verse two. For he flattereth
himself in his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful." How proud we are. How vain we are in wanting others
to see things that, you know, we just flatter ourselves, don't
we? We really do. But the unbeliever flatters himself. He flatters himself in believing
that I've kept these things from my youth. He flatters himself
in believing that he's at least sufficiently satisfied the demands
of God's law to secure himself a place in heaven. He flatters
himself in believing that. until his iniquity, those things
that he's trusting in, those things that he's putting on the
balance scale to try to balance out his sin, is turned into hatred. And that's what it is. It's hatred.
It's hatred for God. It's hatred for Christ. He convinces himself that he's
good. He flatters himself. Now what David's doing here is
he's looking at the transgressions of the wicked. And he's exposing them for what
they are, but he's saying these things are in my heart. Lord, I'm the sinner. I'm the
one who, he's not like the Pharisee in the temple who's saying, God,
I thank thee that I'm not like other men. He's saying with the
publican, smoting himself upon his breast and not so much as
even looking up and say, have mercy upon me, the sinner. Lord, I'm the problem, I'm the
sinner, I'm the one that needs salvation. Yeah, that is the
flattering of the wicked one and the iniquity And the words
of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. What they say about Christ,
when they talk about Jesus dying for everybody and God loving
everybody and God wanting everybody to be saved, that's the words
of their mouth. And by their words, they'll be
justified. And by their words, they'll be condemned. Lord, when
I think about the words that come out of my mouth. The transgressions of the wicked
is in my heart. He left off to be wise. How often we leave off to be
wise and we act foolishly and we speak foolishly because out
of the heart the mouth speaks. You want to know what's in a
man's heart? Just listen to what he says. Now the unbeliever, the transgression,
the wicked, they're saying all sorts of ungodly things about
Christ. The Lord restrained my lips from
speaking such about Him. But that doesn't change the fact
that there's things coming out of my mouth. James said, James
talked about that, he said the mouth is full of iniquity, the
lips they speak evil and out of the same fountain comes fresh
water and salt water? No. Bitter and sweet? No. It ought not to be, but it
is. Not only does he leave off to
be wise, but he leaves off to do good. He thinks that he's being good,
but he doesn't know that there's but one that's good, and that's
God. And he's not looking to Christ
for his goodness. And sometimes, Lord, I leave
off to do good. Things I ought to do, I don't
do. Things I ought not to do, I do. He deviseth, you see that word
mischief, it's the word vanity. In other words, he has vain thoughts.
He lies up in his bed at night and he thinks about vain things. He worries about nothing. And
most of the things he worries about never come to pass. But
why does he do that? Because he doesn't trust God.
The transgression of the wicked is in my heart. He divides as
mischief upon his bed, vanity upon his bed and the thoughts
of the wicked is vanity. They're having vain thoughts
when they think that they're going to present themselves to
God based on some prayer that they prayed or decision that
they made or work that they performed or knowledge that they achieved.
Look how much I've read, I know, I've got, it's vain. He setteth himself in a way that
is not good. There is a way that seems right
unto man, the transgression of the wicked. They're going along
their way thinking that that's the right way. And they don't
know that in the end that way leads to death. It's a broad
road that leads to destruction and most folks are on it. And
the road that leads to eternal life is narrow, narrow. He's on a way that's not good.
He abhoreth not evil. He takes pleasure in his unrighteousness. He doesn't abhor the evil that's
in his heart. He thinks he's got a good heart.
And he thinks that the things that he's doing religiously are
righteous and good, and that God's gonna be pleased with him
because of what he's doing. But Lord, we cast out demons.
We did many wonderful works in thy name. Depart from me, you
workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. So the transgression
of the wicked is being described here. Lord, I don't abhor evil like
I ought. thing that bothers me most about
my sin is how little it bothers me. The transgression of the wicked
is in my heart. And that's why I need mercy.
Look at the next verse. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
mercy of God. He ascended into glory and took
His rightful place at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
All the blessings of God are in Christ, in the heavenlies.
Lord, Thy mercy is not here. It's not in my heart. It's not
in my life. It's not in this world. The mercy
of God is in heaven. The only way we're going to find
mercy is to look up. Look up. Thy faithfulness When we are not faithful, he
remaineth faithful. He cannot deny himself. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the faithful and true one. He's above the
clouds. He's in the heavens. He intercedes
on our behalf. He presents our case to God based
on his righteousness and his heart. And that's what we need. That's what sinners need. See,
the unbeliever thinks he can just barge into the very presence
of God and present himself to God based on something he's done. And here's the child of God saying,
Lord, the transgression of the wicked is in my heart. They have
no fear of you, but Lord, I don't fear you as I ought. They're
speaking words of evil against you, Lord, the things that come
out of my mouth. I've got to have mercy. Rend
the heavens, Lord, and come down. Reveal to me that I've got a
Savior. I've got a sin substitute, a
sin bearer, seated at the right hand of God. I've got an Advocate,
Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, who's interceded on my behalf. The mercy of God, the righteousness
of God is in the heavens. Where is your God? Now what,
Psalm, where is your God? He's in the heavens. He hath
done whatsoever he wills. Thy righteousness is like the
great mountains. Thy judgments are a great deep. O Lord, thou preservest man and
beast. Righteousness of God is all in
Christ. You don't have any righteousness.
I don't have any righteousness. And if God ever gives you the
grace to look at your heart, if the word of God, like a sharp
two-edged sword, ever exposes the thoughts and intents of the
heart, then we'll realize that that mountain from which the
rock was cut without the hand of man and crushed the image
of Nebuchadnezzar That's the righteousness of God. And his judgments are deep. You know these topographical,
I love the ocean, I love everything about the ocean, but you know
the topographical maps that we have of the ocean are nothing
more than a guess. We don't have any idea what's
down there. We know more about the surface of the moon than
we know about the ocean. And every single time, now that
they've got those deep diving things, every single time they
go down they come up with a new species, every time. They find
new species every time they go down there, stuff they never
knew existed. And we have like one-tenth of one percent of the
bottom of the ocean that we know anything about. And what did God say about our
sins? He buried them in the depths of the ocean. They're gone. They're gone. Thy judgments are
like the great deep. They're gone. You're not going
to find them. They're at the bottom of the
ocean. The shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross put away all that wickedness, all the transgressions of the
wicked that's in my heart. Christ died for it. Christ put
them away, cast them behind his back. He buried them in the depths
of the sea. He separated them from us as
far as the east is from the west, and he remembers them no more.
Oh, Lord, that's what I need. That's what I need. I can't fix
this problem in here. or do you restrain me because
I see that the transgressions there be also do and I'm capable
you restrain the Lord I've got no I've got
no righteousness to bring before you you're gonna have to you're
gonna have to judge my sin in Christ and put them in the great
deep hide them under the blood of Christ how look at verse 7
how excellent And that word excellent is the word precious or priceless.
Now, we use the word priceless very loosely, don't we? We might
say, well, that's a priceless item. I guarantee you it's not
priceless. I guarantee you there's a dollar amount that'll pay for
that. Whatever man calls priceless is not priceless. Now, our children
might be priceless. You're not going to buy them
from me, are you? And here this is priceless, precious. And loving kindness is grace,
grace. How priceless is the grace of
God. What are you gonna do to pay
for it? It took the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the precious
blood of Christ, to make the grace of God available to sinners
like you and me. How priceless is thy grace, O
God. Therefore, the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. Oh, flee to Christ. Get under
the shadow of his wings. Look to his pleasure. Drink from
his river. When I'll close with this, if
you'd like to turn with me to the book of Ruth. Ruth Chapter 2. Ruth is right after Judges. Ruth Chapter 2. Boaz is speaking to Ruth. And verse 11, he said, it hath
been fully shown me all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law
since the death of thy husband, and how thou hast left thy father
and thy mother in the land of thy nativity, and are come unto
a people which thou knewest not heretofore. Now, Boaz is a picture
of Christ. He's the kinsman redeemer. Ruth,
that mole-bitest, that's me and you. And Boaz says, I've heard. What did Ruth say to Naomi? Your
God will be my God. Your people will be my people.
Wherever you go, I'll go. And Boaz says, I see that I've
heard what you've done. And the Lord recompensed thy
work. and a full reward be given thee
of the Lord God of Israel under whose wings thou hast come to
trust. That was the Lord that brought
Ruth to Bethlehem. It was the Lord that caused her
to hide under the shadow of his wings. Ruth didn't have anything. She
lost her husband. She was destitute. The Lord put it in her heart
to go to the house of bread, that was Bethlehem, and to hide
under the shadow of the wings of the God of Naomi. He would
provide for her. And oh, how he provided. How
he provided. Ruth is in the lineage of the
Lord Jesus Christ, isn't she? Yeah. She hid under the shadow
of his wing. And that's what sinners do. That's
what sinners do. You see, it's like I was trying
to say from Hebrews chapter four at the beginning, Adam hid from
God. He hid from God. Why? Because
he was ashamed. He was naked. He was ashamed. He thought he could hide his
sin from God. You see, what we cover, God uncovers. What we uncover, God covers. When God makes you to be a sinner,
When he takes the sword of his spirit, the sword of his word,
and exposes the thoughts and intents of the heart, there's
no place to hide. There's no place to hide. That's why he said, come boldly
to the throne of grace to find mercy and help in your
time of need. We have a high priest who is
not unable to sympathize with our afflictions, our sin. He
was tempted in all ways that we are. He understands. He suffered
sin on Calvary's cross like you and I have never suffered it.
The shame of it, the guilt of it. Not his sin, but our sin. Come to Him. The transgression
of the wicked? Yeah, it's wicked. It's evil.
The Lord restrained me from acting like that. But it's in my heart. Our Heavenly Father, we are in need of Thy mercy and
how hopeful we are that Your righteousness is in the heavens and that our righteousness is
seated at Thy right hand. Lord, that you would give us
the faith to rest all the hope of our salvation in thy dear
son and his accomplished work. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. The top number 11. Let's stand
together. Number 11. With broken heart and contrite
side A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry Thy pardoning grace is
rich and free O God, be merciful to me I smite upon my troubled breast
With deep and conscious guilt oppressed Christ and His cross
my only plea O God, be merciful to me No works nor deeds that
I have done can for a single sin atone. To Christ the Lord alone I flee. O God, be merciful to me. And when redeemed from sin and
hell With all the ransom throng I dwell My raptured song shall
ever be God has been merciful to me