Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 62 from your hardback hymnal, Crown Hymn with
Many Crowns. Let's all stand together. Number
62. ? Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. ? ? Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. ? Awake, my soul, and sing of
Him who died for thee, and hail Him as thy matchless King through
all eternity. Crown him the Lord of love, behold
his hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky Can fully
bear that sight But downward bends his wandering eye That
mystery so bright ? Crown Him the Lord of life ? ? Who triumphed
o'er the grave ? ? Who rose victorious to the strife ? ? For those He
came to save ? ? His glories now we sing ? ? Who died and
rose on high ? Who died eternal life to bring, And lives that
death may die. Crown him the Lord of heaven,
one with the Father known, one with the Spirit through him given
from yonder glorious throne. To thee be endless praise, for
thou for us hast died. Be thou, O Lord, through endless
days adored and magnified. Please be seated. Good evening. We open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 20, please. We'll read Psalm 20 for our call
to worship. And I'm sure everybody knows
that little Wade Maddox Dunbar is in the world now. And I think
they were supposed to go home today. Has anybody, they went
home? Okay. So Emily and Logan took Wade home today and everybody's
doing well. So very thankful for that. Psalm 20, we'll begin reading
in verse 1. The Psalm of David. The Lord
hear thee in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob
defend thee. Send thee help from the sanctuary
and strengthen thee out of Zion. That's our hope now, isn't it?
The Lord will send help and strength. Grant thee according to thine
own heart and fulfill all thy counsel. We will rejoice in thy
salvation and in the name of our God, we will set up our banner. The Lord fulfill all thy petitions. This is the church crying out
for the father to honor his son. Verse six. Now know I that the
Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him from his holy
heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust
in chariots, some in horses, but we will remember the name
of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen,
but we are risen and stand upright. Save, Lord. Let the King hear
us when we call. Let's pray. Save us, oh God. We pray that you would rend the
heavens, that you would give ear to our petition. that you'd
be pleased in this hour to reveal to us more of the glory of thy
son, that we would find him to be our all in all, that you would
cause him to be our rest, cause him to be our salvation, cause
him to be our joy, cause him to be all our hope. Lord, we
are completely dependent upon your Holy Spirit to open our
hearts, our eyes, to open your word and speak to us. Lord, we ask that you would give
us ears to hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. We thank you for the miracle
of new life and Lord, we pray for your continued strength on
Emily and little Wade as they recover Lord, we pray for your
hand of mercy to be on them. And we ask that you'd be pleased
in your time to bring way to yourself, cause him to find his
hope in Christ. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
Hymn number 11 from the Gospel Hymn Spiral hymn book. 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 Please be seated. I've been thinking a lot about
mercy recently. And. Wrote a little article that
I think is going to be in the bulletin this Sunday. On God's
mercy. Psalm 136 I think it is. Yes, song 136. All 26 verses
of that song. End. with this phrase, His mercy endureth
forever. His mercy endureth forever. We ought to ask God for mercy
and we do. We're mercy beggars. But sometimes
I fear that we look to our circumstances to decide whether or not God's
been merciful. You know, if we're sick and we're
healed from that sickness we say God's been merciful. But
what if we hadn't been healed? What if we had died from that
sickness? Would God have been any less merciful? No. No. His mercy endureth forever. See the mercy of God is not seen
so much in our circumstances as it is in our ability to trust
Him regardless of our circumstances. That's the mercy of God. And
the Lord puts it in our hearts to trust Christ and to rest in
His good providence regardless of what He's ordained for us.
That's mercy, isn't it? Because whether things go the
way we want them to go or don't go the way, God's still merciful.
He hasn't changed. just wrote that last couple days
and we sang that hymn and I just wanted to share that because
it's been on my heart. Open your Bibles with me to Psalm
19. Psalm 19. I've titled this message, When
God Speaks. When God Speaks. Maybe you've seen it in the news
of late. Some person, I don't know who
she is, made fun of the Vice President of the United States
because he made a claim that God spoke to him. And the Vice
President, I think it was. And she said that that was mental
illness, you know, being able to hear voices from, you know,
from God. And that may be the opinion that
a lot of people have about hearing from the Lord. But God does speak. He does speak. And Psalm 19 tells
us how God speaks. And the first thing I want you
to want to see in this Psalm is that when God speaks, he always,
always, always speaks of Christ. He always speaks of Him. Somebody
claims they've heard a word from God and it doesn't have anything
to do with Christ. Or if a man's preaching and saying
that he's got a message from God and he's not preaching Christ,
God's not speaking. When God speaks, He always speaks
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first six verses in this
Psalm tell us how God speaks of Christ in creation. Verses 7 through 11 tell us about
how God speaks of Christ in His Word. And verses 12 through 14
tell us about how God speaks of Christ through conscience. Creation, His Word, and conscience. You could say this is a three-legged
stool. Now we know that whatever we
see in creation and whatever we experience in our conscience
has to be consistent with the revelation that God has made
of himself in his word. And so we test everything by
the word of God. Nevertheless, the Lord has made
it clear in this song that he does speak, he speaks to his
people and he reveals his glory in the Lord Jesus Christ in creation,
in scripture, and in conscience. He always speaks of Christ. Notice
in the first six verses of this psalm, the heavens declare, they
declare God speaking through creation. The heavens declare
the glory of God, And the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech,
and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech
nor language where his voice is not heard. And I understand
there's over 7,000 languages in the world right now, 7,000
known languages. And what God's saying is, it
doesn't matter what language you speak, creation declares
the glory of God. Now creation by itself does not
reveal to us how it is God saves sinners. Nevertheless, man is
responsible for the revelation that God has made of himself
in creation. He's without excuse, Romans chapter
1. Turn with me to that passage. God is speaking and men aren't hearing. God is declaring His power. He's
declaring His immutability. He's declaring His glory. He's
declaring His holiness. Anyone with any sense can look
at creation and know that there is a God with whom He must do. and that God is omnipotent, he's
omniscient, he's omnipresent, he is immutable, and yet a lost
man will never learn the gospel from the revelation that God
has made of himself in creation. Only believers can see the gospel
in creation. We're going to go back to our
text in just a moment, But look here at Romans chapter 1 at verse
18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness
because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for
God has showed it unto them for the invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen. They're clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are made, even the
eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So the Lord said, I've declared
my glory. The firmaments declare my glory.
The heavens declare my glory. Men can see something of who
I am by what I've done and what I've made. Look at verse 20,
because that when they knew God, they knew there was a God, they
glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain
in their imagination, and their foolish hearts were darkened,
professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Oh, the smartest men in the world.
What do they say? They look out at creation, they
talk about the Big Bang, talk about evolution, and they talk
about man-made global warming, and they profess themselves to
be wise. And if you say that, no, I don't believe any of that,
what do they do? They try to intimidate you, don't
they? Say, what are you, backwoods Neanderthal? I mean, wouldn't
you fall off the turnip truck? You know, don't you know that
these things are scientifically proven? No, they're not. Men
are foolish and they profess themselves to be wise, but they're
fools in their hearts. Why? Because they deny the revelation
that God has made of himself in creation. God has spoken. God has spoken and men are listening. They're not listening. And they
changed, look at verse 23, They changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like into corruptible man. They've set
themselves up on the throne of God, haven't they? We ought not
to be surprised. I was listening the other day
on the radio, a well-known, world-known scientist,
and he's talking about how we're going to have to colonize other
planets because, You know, this planet is not going to last and
we're going to become extinct if we don't, you know, we don't,
how many billions of dollars, trillions of dollars are we spending
now in the space program trying to figure out whether we can
live on another planet? in fear that man-made global
warming or the foolishness of these theories. This is what
God's talking about. Never have smart men been such
fools as they are today. And God says, I've spoken. I've
spoken. The heavens declare my glory.
Men aren't listening. Look at They changed what was
declared about God into the image made like an incorruptible man
to burge the four-footed beast and creeping things. Wherefore,
God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own
hearts to dishonor their bodies between themselves who changed
the truth of God into." Now, you see that little word A, it's
actually the word the. They changed the truth of God
into the lie. The lie. The lie is that man's
will trumps God's will. That man's power trumps God's
power. Man's thoughts are higher than
God's thoughts. And they worshipped and served
the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Turn with me to Genesis Chapter
8. This ought to settle all controversies and it will for those who have
ears to hear what God has said. This will settle all controversies
over the foolishness of modern day science. They talk about overpopulating
the world nuclear holocaust and all the
things that are, you know, man's going to become extinct. This
guy was saying that, you know, 99% of all species that ever
existed have become extinct. And what makes us think that
we're not going to become extinct? We've got to go find something
on another planet because this planet destroys its inhabitants.
professing themselves. I mean, this is a well, well-educated,
smart man. Look at what God says in Romans
and Genesis chapter 8 verse 22. Now, this was after the flood. In verse 22, while the earth
remaineth, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,
Day and night shall not cease. Period. And God's people say,
amen. Amen. Let them talk about the
melting polar caps and the rising oceans and the world becoming
flooded. You know, God said, I'm not going
to do it. There's going to be seasons. There's going to be
winter and summer. There's gonna be harvest and
planting until I come again. That's the way it's gonna be. Now, go back with me to our text in
Psalm 19, Psalm 19. God speaks. and God's people here. When we
look at creation, we think of the Creator. If we could see
everything as it really is, from the microscopic to the telescopic,
everything in creation testifies of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
does. Creation is a commentary. It's God's commentary on scripture
and scriptures about Christ. And that's what the Lord said,
the heavens declare the glory of God, the glory of God. Look at verse 4, their line has
gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of
the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle
for the sun. Now, here's what the world won't
see. When God speaks, he speaks of Christ. How many times in
the scriptures, that morning star, that ball of fire that
rises in the East and sets in the West is spoken of representing
the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me show you a couple of places.
Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 60. As we were coming here tonight,
I was watching the sun set, and I couldn't help but think about
that sun picturing the Lord Jesus Christ. And right now, you know,
the sun doesn't move, does it? The sun doesn't move. The earth
is rotating and revolving around the sun. And right now, right
this very minute, it's dark outside. Why? Because the earth is between
us and the sun. And in the morning, the sun will
come up. And then some days, it's real cloudy. Sun hasn't
changed. Our position to the sun changes.
In the winter, we're a little further away from the sun. In
the summer, we're closer to the sun. See, we're the ones changing.
Sun's not moving. Sun's in exactly the same place
all the time. We're the ones changing our position. Isn't
it the truth spiritually? You know, sometimes the brightness
of His glory is just overwhelming to our souls, isn't it? And then
sometimes the world gets between us and the Lord, and the sun
gets darkened. And sometimes we have cloudy
days. Sometimes it's cold and rainy, but sun's still the same. And the Lord Jesus Christ, look
what, this is what He's talking about. Isaiah chapter 60, look
at verse 19. The sun shall be no more thy
light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto
thee. Now, the moon is likened in the scriptures to the church.
The stars are likened in the scriptures to preachers. And
the wandering star, why are stars? Because navigation was by the
stars, wasn't it? And yet, there are, there are,
things up there in the sky that look like stars that really aren't
stars. They're planets, aren't they? And they're called wandering
stars in the scriptures and they liken to false prophets because
you can't navigate by them. The wandering stars are the planets
that look like stars but they're not stars at all because they're
not in the same position all the time. They wander around
in different places. You can't navigate by them. and
you can navigate by false prophet you see all these things all
these things God uses and now he says when I when when I when
I show the fullness of my glory you'll have no more need for
the sun or for the moon but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting
light and thy God glory thy son shall no more go down. S-U-N
thy son shall no more go down there won't be any night Neither shall thy moon withdraw
itself, for the Lord shall be thy everlasting light, and the
days of thy morning shall be ended. Now look at the last book
of the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 4. Malachi chapter 4. Verse 2. But unto you that fear
my name shall the son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings
and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. The son of righteousness with
healing in his wings. He's gonna shine the light of
the gospel in your heart. Now go back with me to our text
in Psalm. Psalm 19. Creation reveals the glory of
God, and when God speaks, He always speaks of Christ. And what He's telling us here
is the heavens declare His glory, but that one thing that's in
the heavens that's most prominent is the Son of Righteousness.
It's the morning star. It's the one who rises in the
morning and one day will never set. Look what he says in verse
4, their line has gone out through all the earth, their words to
the end of the world in them hath he set a tabernacle for
the sun which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and
rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is
from the end of the heavens and his circuit unto the end of it
And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. Oh, my God, speak to our hearts. Every time we look at the sun,
every time we enjoy its life-giving rays, might we understand that
God has put that in the sky in order to remind us of the Son
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, without which we have no life.
God speaks in creation. He speaks about Christ and he
speaks to his people, doesn't he? He says, this is who he is. He's like a bridegroom, like
a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and the bride's waiting
for him. And she rejoices at his coming.
He's like a strong man. who has spoiled the house and
delivered his people all the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's without limit in his power,
isn't he? His power was to destroy the
works of the devil. His power is to deliver his people.
His power was to take down the gates of hell. His power was
to satisfy the demands of God's law. and exercise holy justice
in suffering for the sins of this people, putting them away
once and for all? He's like a strong man. He's
like a bridegroom. He comes up every morning, every
morning. Yes, God speaks. God speaks. He speaks in creation. Might
He give us the grace to have ears to hear? The hearing ear,
Psalm, Proverbs 22, the hearing ear and the seeing eye are both
from the Lord. Remember that? What was it? Was it the woman with the issue
of blood that had heard of Him? And it was Jairus that saw the
Lord? And that's still the means by
which God speaks. Look at Verse 7, not only does God speak
of Christ, of Christ. I'm just, I'm becoming more and
more convinced of that. That when God speaks, He speaks
of His Son. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1. I just want to I'd like to read all of this,
but for the sake of time, we'll begin in verse one. Paul, called to be an apostle
of Jesus Christ. Now the book of Revelation begins.
Everybody says, well, you know, Revelation, that's where God
is revealing the future events, God speaking. And people read
the book of Revelation and they come up with all sorts of wild
ideas about what's gonna happen in the future. The first verse
of the book of Revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what and that's what this
whole book is. It is the revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so Paul when he's writing
the churches. He says, I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ through
the will of God and Sosthenes our brother unto the church of
God which is at Corinth to them which are sanctified in Christ
Jesus. Call to be saints with all that
are in every place. Call upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord, both theirs and ours. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice how many
times he uses the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what
it's all about. That's why he says, look at chapter
2, verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came
unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declared
unto you the testimony of God. I wasn't trying to impress you
with my wisdom. Man by wisdom knew not God. God
through the foolishness of preaching was pleased to save. Preaching
what? Preaching Christ. Preaching the cross. For I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. When God speaks, He always speaks
of Christ. And two, you know, it's kind
of like the point that I was making earlier about asking God
for mercy and then looking to your circumstances to see, to
evaluate whether or not He's been merciful. You know, we pray
for God to speak and reveal things to us, but we're not looking
for Christ. And when God speaks, he always
speaks about his son. He always speaks about his son.
What else is there? This is my beloved son. In him,
I'm well pleased. Look to, Paul said, I don't know
anything except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And you could
just keep reading any of those passages. This whole book is
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Susan Todd was talking to Todd
yesterday and he met with a preacher. Now you may have told you about
it. And this preacher came from the same experiences that some
of us had. in reformed religion, thinking
that, you know, the Bible had different subjects. Systematic
theology was a big thing in reformed religion. And Todd was talking
to this young man about, you know, how the Bible's all about
Christ. It's all about him. You know, in reformed religion,
we had different, we systematized our theology. and our scriptures. We had one topic that dealt with
the second coming and we called that eschatology. We had another
topic that dealt with the doctrine of salvation and we called that
soteriology. We had Christology. Can you believe it? How blasphemous
And then you have men who talk about the Psalms as if there's
only 15 or 20 of them that are Messianic. When God speaks, He
speaks about His Son. Always. And for us to want to
hear from God without God telling us about Christ, He's not going
to speak. He's not going to speak. For us to look out into creation
and the glory and the handiwork of God without looking for evidences
and testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ and seeing that son is
like a strong man and a bridegroom that circles the earth, that's
what it's, Christ is everything, he's all and he's in all. for whom, through whom, and to
whom are all things." Christ is all and he's in all. And so if a preacher isn't preaching
Christ, God's not speaking. If I'm not looking for Christ,
I'm not going to hear the voice of God. He's going to talk about
his son. That's it. That's all he's going
to do. And the glorious thing about
that is that's all we need him to do. We don't need him to tell
us anything else. If he speaks to us about Christ,
we've heard everything we need to hear. We don't need to know
what's gonna happen tomorrow. We don't need to know what's
gonna happen with anything. If we hear about the Lord Jesus
Christ, we've heard everything. And when God speaks, he speaks
about his son in creation. Go back with me to, that's why, that's why the writer
of Hebrew starts out with God who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake unto the prophets. unto our fathers by the prophets,
half in these last days spoken unto us by his son, who is the
express image of his glory. Does God speak? Yeah. Has he spoken to our vice president?
I don't know. I don't know. But he's spoken to me. And He's
revealed Christ. And He's made me to hang all
the hopes of my salvation on the Lord Jesus Christ. And to
believe that Christ is all and in all. Look at verse 7. God speaks in creation about
Christ. Everything in creation is pointing
to Christ. And the most prominent thing in the firmament is that
sun that comes up every morning. And, oh, that God would give
us the grace every day from now on, if we've never done it in
the past, to think about there's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
God's revelation of Christ. And my relationship to Christ
has nothing to do with him moving. He's the same. I'm the one that's
moving in it. The Law of the Lord, verse 7. Now these words, law and testimony
and statutes and commandments, they're all synonyms referring
to this book. And in the volume of the book,
it is written of me. And it's still true just like
this man that Todd was talking to the other day. It's still
true that men search the scriptures. They think in them they have
eternal life. If I can learn some theology,
if I can learn some history, if I can quote some scripture,
then I'll be spiritual and I'll be right with God. And they don't
know that these are they which testify of Him, of Him. They're all about Him. You know,
I've wondered many times when the Lord met with those disciples
in Luke 24 on the road to Emmaus and the scripture says, and beginning
with, Moses and the Psalms and the prophets, he expounded unto
them those things concerning himself. Which one of the Psalms
did he pick? I don't know. He could have picked any of them. Any of them. Why? Because they
all speak of him. God speaks. And when he speaks, he speaks
out of his law. The law of the Lord is perfect. It's a perfect revelation of
the perfect man. And we have perfect hope and
perfect salvation in what God has revealed and what God has
said in his word. You say, well, how would I know
if it's for me? If God's given you faith, you
just believe everything God says. You just do. You don't ask. You just, I don't always understand
everything, but I believe it. Believe it. The law of the Lord
is perfect. It's perfect. And it converts
the soul. It converts the soul. Now, it's not the Bible that
converts the soul. It's the revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's He that converts the soul,
isn't it? It's He that gives life. He gives
life to as many as the Father has given to Him. As many as were ordained to eternal
life, they believed, didn't they? So the Lord gives, the Lord converts
the soul by the revelation that he makes of himself in his word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the word of God of his own will. Begat he us, begat
he us, converted us, saved us by the word of God. The testimony of the Lord is
sure. It's sure. Are you sure? I'm not sure about much. I'm
not sure about anything, particularly when it comes to me, but God
has made me sure. I mean, I don't know what else
to do, but hang all the hope of my immortal soul and my daily
life on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because I'm sure that He is able. Lord, you can save me if you
will. I'm sure of that. I'm sure of
it. No question about it. Now, the
man who says, well, God wants to save, that man that died yesterday,
He was a liar. He was a liar. He didn't believe what God said. He believed in another Jesus, another
gospel, which was given to him by another spirit. The whole
world is just, oh, they're grieving the loss of this great man of
God. He was not a man of God. He was not a man of God. He was
a false prophet. He was a wandering star. You
couldn't navigate by him. God loves everybody. Christ died
for everybody. God wants everybody to be saved.
Well, I even heard him out of his own lips say that you don't
even have to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved if you
just have it in your heart to want to know God. That's all
you got to have. I heard that. That's not hearsay. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. Are you okay being simple? Being
simple means that you're single-minded. You're single-minded. God's simple
in that regard, isn't he? Because he's single-minded about
Christ. You know, if we... We're double-minded. We think, well, it's grace plus
works, and that's what being double-minded is. There's man in his wisdom. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. God has made him to be for us
all our wisdom. All our righteousness. All our redemption. Everything we need. Making wise
the simple. The statutes of the Lord are
right. Rejoicing the heart. Oh, when I read about Christ
and I read His promises, my heart leaps. We're able to rejoice. We're able to be thankful. The commandments of God, the
commandment of the Lord is pure. What is the commandment of the
Lord? What is His commandment? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's His commandment. And our warrant for believing
is that He's commanded it to be so, and our eyes are enlightened. Our eyes are enlightened. The
fear of the Lord is clean. enduring forever. The judgments
of the Lord are truthful and righteous altogether. Altogether. Everything God said. We don't take a pen knife and
cut up the scriptures like that king did in the Old Testament,
do we? We don't pick and choose what we believe. We know that
it's altogether true and altogether righteous. More to be desired
are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter than
honey and the honeycomb. The child of God wants to know
Christ more than anything else. He needs Christ. Moreover, by them is thy servant
warmed, and in keeping them there is great reward. believing until the end, until we receive that great reward. What a day that'll be. Now, as
I said, the first six verses in this psalm declare to us that
God speaks of Christ in creation. The verses we just read, verses
seven through 11 tell us that God speaks of Christ in his word. God speaking. And the rest of this Psalm tells
us that God speaks of Christ in our conscience. You say, where
do you get that? Well, look what he says. Who can understand his errors? Now I'm not talking about the
guilty conscience that we all experience when we know we've
done something wrong. I'm talking about the person
who has set his affections on things above where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God who knows that their holy things
are in need of a priest to bear the iniquity of them. This is
a description of a sinner. And only a sinner, the only person
that's ever made to be a sinner is that one who has seen Christ.
That's why when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, what
was the first thing that came out of his mouth? Woe is me,
I'm undone. When Peter saw the Lord Jesus Christ on the seashore
of Galilee, he fell at his feet. He said, Lord, depart from me,
I'm a sinful man. Every single person who has ever seen the
Lord Jesus Christ says in response, who can understand my sin? I
don't even understand it. Yeah, I feel guilty about the
bad things I do that I know I'm doing, but what about everything
else? I can't even begin to comprehend
how sinful I am. Who can understand his errors? Lord, you're going to have to
cleanse me from the secret faults. The things that I don't even
know about. All that stuff in my heart and mind and life that
I don't even feel bad about. And yet I know that the least
of them is worthy of sending me to hell. That's my error. Lord, cleanse me of my faults.
Keep back thy servant, verse 13, from... Now that word presumptuous,
you can look it up, is the word pride. And you see the word sins
is in italics, it's not in the text. And so here's what the
text says. Keep back thy servant from pride. What kind of pride? The kind
of pride that would take credit for righteousness. The kind of
pride that would Lord, don't let me lose sight of Christ.
Don't let me be like the rest of the world in thinking that
I've got some righteousness that's going to recommend me to God.
That's the worst pride of all, isn't it? Keep thy servant from pride,
Lord, and if you'll do that, if you'll keep me from being
proud like the rest of the world is proud, and this is an arrogant,
proud world we live in. And the most arrogant and proud
people are the ones who have the facade of humility and religiosity,
who are promoting their good works as the means of their salvation
and their free will. That's pride. Lord, keep me from
being proud. Let them not have dominion over
me. I know I've got pride in me, Lord. I know I'm proud. when it comes to my relationship
with other men. And we all have, we all have
our pride, don't we, when we present ourselves to one another.
But Lord, don't let me present myself to you with any pride
at all. Any pride will keep that from
having dominion over me. Don't let me be so deceived that
I would think I could come before you like I present myself before
another man. Then shall I be upright and I
shall be innocent from the great transgression. Lord, if you'll
keep me from being proud in your presence. What does God require? What's
God require? To do justly, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly before thy God. Lord, make me to be that
way. Let the words of my mouth and
the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord. You are my rock. That's the word there, strength.
You're my rock. Lord, I've got no place else
to go. I'm going to have to just stand right here and know that
when the storms of God's judgment come, that rock's not going to
be moved, and I'm going to stay with the rock. My rock. My Redeemer. What did the Lord Jesus Christ
redeem us with? Not with corruptible things such
as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Lamb. The Lamb without spot and without
blemish. Lord Jesus Christ bought us with
a price, didn't he? God does speak. He speaks. And when he speaks, he always
speaks about his son. He speaks about his son in creation.
He speaks about his son in his word. And when he speaks of his
son to our hearts, those last verses will be our response. That's our conscience, isn't
it? Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word and oh Lord, we do pray that you would speak
to us and cause us to hear. Oh, we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Number 18, the spiral hymnal,
let's stand. We'll sing through the refrain
as if it was just verse two. God gave his holy inspired word
for only one great end. The prophets and apostles, too,
revealed the sinner's friend. A Bible is a book of Christ. It only speaks of Him. On every page it shows us Christ. It only speaks of Him. The prophecies of old record
God's wondrous mighty deeds. Those deeds of power and of grace
set forth the woman's seed. The prophets all reveal our Lord
as prophet, priest, and king. The types of great redemption
show Christ's blood and grace now bring. Behold the Lamb, the Baptist
said, the sin-atoning One. As it was promised long before,
God's Son as man has come. Our substitutes obeyed the law,
then died and rose again. And in His Word our Savior said,
Rejoice, I come again. Thank you.