you. ? Abide with me, fast falls the
eventide ? The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide ? When other
helpers fail and comforts flee Help of the helpless, O abide
with me. Swift to its close ebbs out life's
little day. Earth, joys grow dim, its glory
pass away. Change and decay in all around
I see. O Thou who changest not, abide
with me. I need thy presence every passing
hour. What but thy grace can foil the
tempter's power? Who like thyself my guidance
day can be? Through cloud and sunshine, oh,
abide with me. Hold thou thy word before my
closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point
me to the skies. As morning breaks and earth's
vain shadows flee, In life, in death, O Lord, abide
with me. You can be seated. We have several of our folks
that are sick. I know Tom is sick. Bert, thank you for leading the
music. Open your Bibles with me, please,
to Psalm 14 for our call to worship. Psalm 14. And there's a sign-up sheet on the
table back there for things that we need done during the conference.
So please take a note of that before you leave tonight. Be here real soon. Not this weekend,
but next. Noticed in the first verse of
Psalm 14 that the words, there is, is in italics. It's not in the original text.
It would take a fool to say that there is no God, but I've met
very few true atheists in my life. Most folks believe there's
a God. but they still have their fists
raised to him in rebellion against his Christ and against the gospel.
And so God says, the fool has said in his heart, no God. They are corrupt. They have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good.
This psalm is the psalm that Paul quotes from in Romans chapter
3 when he's describing the sinful condition of all of us, all men. So this is true of our old man. Our old man is always saying,
no God. Why? Because he's a fool. He's a fool. Your old man's a fool. The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand
and seek God. They are all gone aside. They
are altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Of all the workers of iniquity,
no knowledge. Who eat up my people as they
eat bread and call not upon the Lord. You know, that, That can
be true, that can be said of the two natures within each of
us. That the old man is a worker
of inequity and the old man really has no knowledge and that he
would eat up the new man if he could. There were they in great fear
for God is in the generation of the righteous. You have shamed
the counsel of the poor because the Lord is his refuge." Here's
the new man now. He sees the poor condition of
that old man and he makes his refuge in the Lord. Oh, that
the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion. When the Lord
bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice. And Israel, shall be glad, shall
be glad. Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father,
we come before thy throne of grace in the name of thy dear
son, thanking you that we have full acceptance in him. Lord, we confess that you have
so clearly and truthfully described
and exposed our old man for who he is, and we thank you for it.
And we thank you for the hope of salvation that you've given
us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask, Lord, that Israel
would have cause to rejoice. We pray that you would comfort
our hearts and that you would Guard us, the Lord, against taking
counsel from within ourselves, and that you would speak truth
to our hearts by thy word. For we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Would you please turn to number
two on your spiral hymnal, number two, and if you could please
stand. Lord, we come before thee now. Number two. Lord, we come before thee now. At thy feet we humbly bow. Oh, do not our suit disdain. Shall we see thee, Lord, in vain? Lord, on Thee our souls depend,
In compassion now descend. Fill our hearts with Thy rich
grace, Tune our lips to sing Thy praise. In thine own appointed way, Now
we seek thee, here we stay. Lord, we know not how to go Till
a blessing thou bestow. Send the message from thy word
that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to each heart. Be seated, please. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 13, please? Psalm 13. I can remember many, many years
ago when Tricia and I first got married and we didn't have children.
And we thought we knew everything there was to know about raising
kids. And we weren't going to do it the way our parents did
it. We were going to do it right. Well, didn't work out exactly
that way, did it? I don't suppose there's any place
else in life where the flaws in our character are more, are
more exemplified than in our children, in the raising of our
children. And I don't know of a parent
who doesn't feel the guilt of wishing that they had done things
different, wishing that they had been better parents. David is writing Psalm 13 on
the heels of the death of his son, Absalom. When David cried after he heard
of Absalom's death, oh, Absalom, Absalom. The pain and sorrow that David
was feeling in his heart was fueled as much by the guilt that
he had for the mistakes that he had made as they were for
the loss of his own son. Every parent can relate. When
Nathan came to David after his shameful behavior with Bathsheba,
And Uriah, Nathan said to him, the sword shall not depart from
thy house. You're going to suffer the rest
of your life for this. And David certainly was reflecting back
on what he had done and thought, oh, if things had just been different.
If I hadn't done what I did, maybe things would be better
with my children. David, in fact, was a horrible
father. He was a man after God's own heart. He is a sweet psalmist
of Israel. He was the king of Israel, the
shepherd. But you remember when Amnon raped
Tamar? David knew about that and did
nothing. And Absalom waited a year, maybe
a year and a half. I can't remember exactly how
long it was, but he waited a long time. before he took revenge
against his brother Amnon, waiting to see if David do anything.
And then when David didn't do anything, Absalom took matters
into his own hand and had his brother put to death. And then
Absalom had to flee for his own life and stayed exiled for three
years, I think. And then when he did come back,
David refused to see. made him sit out in the city
gate. And as a result of that bad fathering decision, Absalom
stole the hearts of the people and David's kingdom fell and
David was forced out of the throne and out of Jerusalem and all
the horrible things that happened were happening right there in
his own home. And when he cried in his last
words, although my house be not so with God, You know he was
thinking about that, all the mistakes that he had made in
raising his children. We have great intentions to do
it right, don't we? If you don't have children yet,
young people, you'll know what I'm talking about in time. You'll
want to do right and you'll try to do your best. But as I said,
your character flaws are going to be seen in all their ugliness
with your children more than anybody else. And their failures
are going to be a weight on your shoulder feeling as if, you know,
I'm responsible. There's only one way around that.
There's only one escape from that heavy guilt that plagues
every parent. and David finds it here in Psalm
13 and he tells us what it is. I've titled this, The Cause and
the Cure of All Our Troubles. Now, you might think, well, the
cause of all of our troubles is sin and I guess we could trace
it to that, but that's not what I'm talking about and that's
not what David's talking about here in Psalm 13. Here's the cause of all our problems. Here it is, verse two. How long
shall I take counsel in my own soul? Having sorrow in my heart
daily. How long shall my enemy be exalted
over me? Now there's the cause of all
of our problems. Taking counsel in our own soul. trying to find some deliverance
from our problems in ourselves. And we just read in Psalm 14
that in us, there is no good thing. No, not one. There's none
that do it good. No, not one. And Paul said in
Romans chapter seven, in me, that is in my flesh. Well, it's
no good thing. And yet it's the first place we turn, isn't it?
We wallow in our guilt and in our shame and we reflect on our
mistakes and we think, well, if I hadn't done it that way
or if I had just done something better and we try to find the
answer to our problems, our sin problems in our own soul. And that's the cause of our problems. There's no answer there. Looking
for the answers within ourselves is just like going down in a
well looking for light. The deeper you go, the darker
it gets. And there's no answers. And so David starts out this
psalm, how long will thou forget me, O Lord? He's feeling the
absence of God's presence. Why is he feeling the absence
of God's presence? Because he's taking counsel in
his own soul. He's thinking, well, you know,
if I can just be sorry enough, or if I had done it this way
or that way, or if I'd been a better parent or a better person, you
know, this wouldn't have worked out that way. If I'd have been
a better spouse, a better wife, a better husband, you know, guilt
is such a horrible thing. It's such a heavy weight, and
David's David's feeling the absence of God's presence, and the Lord
has graciously withdrawn the awareness of his presence from
David, causing him to see that there are no answers anywhere
within himself. How long wilt thou forget me,
O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face
from me? Now, we know these words can
be spoken by our Lord on Calvary's cross. My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And here's the cause of God's
forsaking or withdrawing of himself. It's sin. And our Lord bore it
on Calvary's cross in order to suffer the full wrath of God's
justice to put that sin away once and for all. How long shall I take counsel
in my soul? How many wasted hours, how many
sleepless hours every single one of us have wasted taking
counsel in our own soul, trying to solve our own problems, trying
to think, well, you know, if I could just... And we haven't done yet what
David does in this psalm. So here's the... Here's the cause,
here's the cause of all of our trouble. What was the, what was
the cause of Judas's problem? It was, you might say, well,
it was unbelief, it was sins, denial of the Lord. But had Judas,
when he felt the burden of guilt for what he had done, gone to
the Lord instead of going back to the Sanhedrin and casting
those 30 pieces of silver before them, If he had cast himself
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord would have forgiven
him. You say, well, he was ordained
to that. Yes, he was. Yes, he was. But
I'm making the point that the reason why Judas went out and
hanged himself is because he suffered sorrow unto death. Paul talks about that in Corinthians.
He talks about godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. Worldly sorrow
is when you take counsel within yourself. That's worldly sorrow. You're just examining yourself
and going down into yourself trying to figure out what can
I do or what could I have done to fix this problem. And that's
worldly sorrow, and there's no life there. And the Lord will
let you wallow in it. He'll let us wallow in it as
long as we need to before we realize there's no hope there.
There's no solution. There's no answer. How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? Every parent who's raised children
can relate to what David's feeling. Sorrow in his heart for his mistakes,
for his sin, and the consequences that that has brought in his
family. How long shall my enemy be exalted
over me? We just, it's overwhelming, isn't
it? Guilt is overwhelming. Shame
is overwhelming. Trying to find answers by taking
counsel within yourself is overwhelming. Thank God. He only lets us get
overwhelmed to a point and then he causes us to see where our
hope lies. and He causes us to cast our
care upon Him who careth for us." Notice what David says in verse 3, consider
and hear me, my God. Now, he's not taking counsel
in himself now, now he's turned his attention heavenly. Now,
he's not trying to mine gold out of a salt mine, he's not
trying He's not trying to find the treasures of life in a dead
man. He's forced to see that I've
got to look up. And he sets his affections on
things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
And he says, consider and hear me. Oh Lord, my God, lighten
mine eyes. That's what we need. You see,
as long as we're taking counsel within ourselves, there's no
light. There's just darkness. There's just depression. There's
just shame and guilt. But when the Lord lights our
eyes, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. You know, the philosophy of the
world when When guilt and shame and troubles overwhelm a person,
the philosophy of the world is, you know, just fake it till you
make it. Just, you know, there's a silver lining around every
cloud and, you know, there's something good going to come
out of this and just, you know, just have a power positive thinking. That's the world's philosophy. You know, you can get through
this. Lie to yourself until you're able to believe the lie. That's
the world's philosophy. Continue lying to yourself that
you're really not at fault. You see, the truth is David was
at fault. He was at fault. And lying to
yourself that you're not the fault of things is not the solution. That's a lie. That might stab
your conscience for a little while but it's not the truth
and it won't set you free. Only the truth will set you free. The world thinks, well, if I
can just lie to myself, I'll, you know, I've heard somebody
say, you know, when the world gives you lemons, make lemonade
out of it. You know, just do something good, you know, as
if we're, you know, that's what it is. It's men lying to themselves
long enough until they believe the lie. And they'll die believing the
lie. And what's David say? He turns his eyes towards the
Lord and he says, Lord, Lighten my eyes that I might see. That's what Bartimaeus said,
isn't it? When the Lord said, what would
you have me to do for you? Oh Lord, that I might see. I
can't see. I'm getting further, deeper and
deeper in the mire of my own sin and my own guilt and my own
shame. And I need light. And so look what Paul says in
Ephesians chapter one, verse 17. Well, in verse 16,
he says, I cease not to give thanks for you making mention
of you in my prayers. And this is what I pray, that
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of him. That's what Paul later on in
chapter three of Philippians, he said that I might know him
and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of him. He
is the light of the world. If God enables me to look outside
of myself and quit taking counsel within myself and turn my eyes
towards him, then the light of the gospel in the face of the
Lord Jesus Christ will shine in my heart and I'll be free.
I'll be free with wisdom. That's who he is. God has made
him to be our wisdom and our righteousness and our sanctification
and our redemption. Let him the glory, glorieth in
the Lord. That's what James said, if any
man, and that little preposition, if, in best translated sense,
In the King James, we put it if, but it's since. When James
said, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God. And the
literal translation is, since you lack wisdom, ask it of God. He gives to all men liberally
and he upbraideth it not. He's not interested in getting
you to atone for your sins by seeing how guilty he can make
you feel. That's not his objective. Your
sins have already been atoned for. His purpose is to set you
free. He gives it to all men liberally
and he upbraideth it not. Now there's one of the mistakes
we make in raising our children. We roll our eyes at our kids. Do I have to tell you that again?
And we discipline them out of anger. And the Lord doesn't do that.
He never disciplines his children that way. He upbraideth it not. He gives it all men liberally. He delights in showing mercy
and he wants us to know him. And he makes himself known to
us. And so Paul said, I pray for you. And I pray in verse
18, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. That's exactly
what David just prayed for in Psalm 13. He's taking counsel
within himself and he's feeling the absence of God's presence
because he's taking counsel within himself. You see, that's the
cause of our problem. Sin is not really the cause.
Sin, properly understood, will drive us to Christ. It's trying
to solve the sin problem within ourselves that draws us away
from him. That's huge. God, give us understanding
on that. Your sin properly understood
will drive you to the Lord quicker than anything. What causes us
to lose the awareness of his presence, what causes us to feel
like David felt, how long, Lord, will you forsake me, is what
caused the Lord to lose the presence of his Father. on Calvary's cross,
because in fact, he was looking within and solving that problem
with himself, offering himself to the Father
as a sacrifice for our sin. And so the Lord says now, Paul
said, oh, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope of your calling. What is the hope of your calling?
Is it, oh, if I had just done better? You know, you talk to
somebody about the Lord forgiving all sin and I've had people say
to me, I remember one man recently say, you just don't know what
I've done. And he thought he was speaking
with humility, but that statement is full of self-righteousness.
Because what he was saying was, had I not done this one thing
that I feel so bad about, I'd be more acceptable to God. I'd
be more pleasing in His sight. I'd be more redeemable. I'd be
more savable if I hadn't done that. You see the self-righteousness
in that? And so what was he doing? He
was trying to atone for his own sins by taking counsel within
himself and seeing how guilty he could feel for his sin in
order to in order to be right with God. What does Paul say? Oh, that the eyes of your eye,
that the eyes, your eyes might be enlightened, that you might
know what is the hope of your calling. The hope of your calling
has nothing to do with anything that you're going to find in
yourself. Oh, Lord, deliver us from taking counsel within ourselves.
The only way my eyes are going to be enlightened is if I understand
that the hope of my calling is just exactly what David said
when he said, although my house be not so with God yet, yet he
has made with me an everlasting covenant. There's the hope of
my calling. God the Father made a covenant with God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit in eternity past before my children were
ever born, before I made the first mistake in raising them,
before I ever sinned before Adam was ever formed from the dust
of the earth, a covenant, a promise between God and God was struck
and it was sure and it was ordered in all things. There's the hope
of my calling. The hope of my calling is that
the Lord Jesus was successful in taking counsel within himself
and offering himself to the Father. as a perfect lamb without spot
and without blemish. He was taking counsel within
himself when he looked within himself and saw his body, his
church, all those that he was bearing with him on Calvary's
cross, all those that were being put to death with him. He was
taking counsel within himself. To him taking counsel within
himself is different than us though, isn't it? Because the
hope of our calling is what he did. Not what we do. The hope
of our calling is found in the successful work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Having satisfied divine justice
and put away our sin. And when we died in him. Raised again. Raised again by
the power of the Spirit of God. All the precious promises of
God. That's the hope of our calling. The promises of God. are all yay, yes, and amen, sure,
finished in Him. All God's promises. You see,
we don't make the promises of God effectual. We don't do anything
in order to, we don't take counsel within ourselves in order to
try to make what God promised work for us. All the promises
of God are yes and sure. Yay and amen, finished in Christ. There's the hope of our calling
and Paul says, oh, that the eyes of your understanding might be
enlightened, that you would know what is the hope of your calling.
The hope of your calling is completely outside of yourself. Quit taking
counsel within yourself. Quit wasting time wallowing in
your guilt and in your shame, trying to figure out what you
can do or what you could have done or what you should have
done in order to make things different. That's taking counsel
within yourself. As long as you're looking to
yourself, you're going to feel like David felt, how long? How
long will you forget me, oh Lord? How long will you withdraw? God's
not going to, God's not going to Manifest His grace and the
light of His gospel as long as we're looking at ourselves. Look at verse 18 out of Ephesians
chapter 1, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may
know what is the hope of His calling and what the riches of
the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Oh, you don't learn inheritance.
An inheritance is given to you. When that man asked the Lord,
what can we do to inherit eternal life? Here's the problem with
that question. You don't do something to inherit
something. No, it's all by the riches of
his glory, the riches of his grace. And he gets all the glory,
doesn't he? So David, David was the cause
of David's trouble. is the same as the cause of your
trouble and my trouble. And it's not so much our sin,
it's what we try to do to fix our sin. That's the problem, isn't it? We're like a two-year-old
trying to, you know, insistent about dressing themselves. And
a wise parent will just stand there. A wise parent won't discipline
a two-year-old for being insistent about dressing themselves. I
don't care how much they get tangled up because a wise parent
will know that little two-year-old is going to get so tangled up
in just a minute, they're going to cry for my help. And then
I'll step in and help them. And that's the way the Lord is,
isn't it? We try to dress ourselves and we get all tangled up until
we just have to say, Lord, help me. And no one's ever cried out for
help that the Lord didn't help. In verse 19, what is the exceed?
This is Paul's prayer for the church and this is what David's
praying for in Psalm 13. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us who believe according to the working of His
mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly
places. And we are in the heavenlies
in Christ by the power of God. There's the light of the gospel.
The light of the gospel is that all our sin has been put away. that God's forgotten them. He's
removed them from us as far as the east is from the west. Learn
from your mistakes. Hopefully, we learn a little
something. Hopefully, we, you know, we're a little bit better
grandparents than we were parents. But, you know, it's, there's no benefit. There's no benefit in trying
to atone for your mistakes and for your sins by taking counsel
within yourself. By looking within, trying to
figure out what could I have done? What could I have done
different? All there is to that is the absence of God's presence.
The Lord will let you wallow in that mud pile until You get
so dirty that you just cry out and say, oh God, enlighten the
eyes of my understanding. Show me Christ. And here's the
cure. Here's the cure. If the cause
of all of our problems is taking counsel within ourselves, the
cure to all of our problems is looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. How many times, not just in raising
children, but in every problem that we have in life. We lie
in our bed sleepless at night trying to figure out what can
we do to fix this problem? And we just lose the presence
and the peace, don't we? And what's the solution? What's
the cure? Turning our eyes upon Jesus,
looking full in his wonderful face, and the things of this
world grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.
Isn't that true? They do. Consider and hear me, back in
Psalm 13. Consider and hear me, O Lord
my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. This trouble's gonna overwhelm
me. I'm gonna die. And Lord, if I
can't see your presence and your grace and your mercy and your
forgiveness, it'll overwhelm me. to death. Not just to death, Lord, but
if you don't deliver me from this, I'll go to hell. Lest my enemies say, verse four,
I have prevailed against him and those that trouble me rejoice
when I am moved. The accuser of the brethren troubles
us. He does. There's no question about it.
Not a day that goes by the child of God doesn't have the thought,
oh, if I was really a child of God, if Christ was really my
savior, if I was in him like I think I am, I wouldn't have
been doing that. I wouldn't have think that. I
wouldn't have said that. I wouldn't have acted that way. And the
accuser of the brethren rejoices over us, doesn't he? When we
start thinking like that. And then we take counsel within
ourselves. Thinking, okay, I can be a better person. I can do
better than that. And we just, we can't avoid the
efforts and the attempts that we make to atone for our own
sins. And that's what this is all about. That's what David's
saying. I can't fix it. But, verse five, I have trusted
in thy mercy." Mercy and truth met together. You see, the truth is that God
is holy and he must punish sin. And most folks think, well, God's
a God of mercy, he can overlook my sin. No, not one sin will
go unpunished in the sight of God. Every single sin will have
to be punished. And the Lord says in Psalm 85
verse 10, that truth and mercy met together. Where did they
meet together? Righteousness and peace kissed
each other. The righteousness of God had
to be established and peace with God had to be achieved. And that
was all done at Calvary's cross when God made him who knew no
sin, sin. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. When God poured out the full
fury of his wrath against all his people who were in the Lord
Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross and satisfied his justice. There's
the light. There's the light of my understanding. Why am I so disquieted? Why am I so overwhelmed? Why
do I let the accuser or the brethren get such a foothold in my house? Yes, I'm guilty. Yes, I've made
mistakes. Yes, I should have done things
different. But I've been forgiven. That sin's been put away. It's
been buried in the depths of the sea and God sees it no more.
And if God be for me, who can be against me? You see, we're not lying to ourselves
and trying to convince ourselves that we're not responsible or
that we're not guilty or that it was somebody else's fault
or, you know, it was our environment or it was our upbringing or it
was this or that. We're not doing that. We're acknowledging. Yes, I am vile, but oh, I've got a savior. I do repent in dust and ashes,
but he has restored unto me tenfold. Just read the story of Job. How
did Job end up? He'd lost everything at the beginning.
And all through, you see, this is exactly what Job was doing.
If you read the book of Job, Job was taking counsel within
himself. He was trying to find something
in his life that was so bad to deserve such treatment from God. And then he was trying to defend
himself against his miserable comforters, his friends that
were accusing him of hiding sin. And it was all about taking counsel
within himself. Why would God put a whole book
of the Bible in there like that? Because that's what we all do.
We take counsel within ourselves. And David says, but I have trusted
in thy mercy. I'm trusting what the Lord Jesus
Christ did on Calvary's cross to put that sin away. I'm trusting
that though I have sinned horribly and I'm guilty before, You know,
for the consequences of things, though it can't be denied, I've trusted in his mercy. And I've believed that my God
is able to work all things together for good, for them that love
him. and those that are the called
according to his purpose. I know, I know the thoughts that
I have for you, thoughts of good, not of evil, that I might bring
you to your expected end. You see, as wrong as we've been
in everything that we've done, our God is able. to use those things and has ordained
them to be used for our good and for his glory. We wouldn't
be where we are listening to the gospel had things not happened
the way they happened. I've trusted in thy mercy. My
heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. Now notice in verse 60 says,
I will sing unto the Lord. Notice the progression. The singing
doesn't come until trust in God's mercy and rejoicing in God's
salvation. Now I've got reason to sing.
You see, I'm not gonna just cover up my guilt with a false sense
of joy, you know, fake it till you make it kind of idea. You
know, I'm just gonna sing and pretend like everything's good,
whistling through the graveyard. No, no. No, I'm gonna trust in
God's mercy. His mercy is sufficient for me. His mercy put away my sin. He's
full of mercy, delights in showing mercy and his mercy and the truth
of his justice met together on Calvary's cross. And I'm going to rejoice in thy
salvation. I love that. He didn't say I'm
going to rejoice in my salvation. I'm going to rejoice in knowing
that I'm saved. I'm going to take comfort in
being... You see that now you've gotten
back to taking counsel within yourself again, don't you? When
your comfort and your hope is found in your experience, in your thoughts and your feelings,
now you're back to taking counsel within yourself. He says, I'm
going to rejoice in not my salvation, but thy salvation. Salvation
belongs to the Lord, it's his. It's His to give whoever He will.
It's His from the covenant of grace. It's His in all the Old
Testament promises. It's His in the fulfilling work
of Christ, the successful work of Christ. It's His in the regenerating
power of the Spirit of God, making His people willing in the day
of His power. Salvation is the Lord's. And David said, I'm gonna
rejoice in thy salvation. Not in my feelings, not in my
experiences, not in when I think I got saved, but I'm gonna rejoice
in my salvation. Now I've got reason to sing.
Now I can sing. Now I've been cured of my problems. Now I've been delivered from
myself. That's who we need to be delivered
from, isn't it? If you're a child of God, you know that you are
your own worst enemy. Nobody else you've got to contend
with any more than yourself. And it's because you're constantly
taking counsel within yourself rather than taking counsel from
God, isn't it? That's why the Lord gave
David these words to speak. As he knew, he knows that we're
made of dust. He knows this is the way we are.
And he's giving us the cure to the problem. I will sing unto the Lord. I'm
gonna sing unto him. I'm gonna sing all praise and
all glory and all honor and all power unto thee, O Lord, because
thou hast made all things and for thy good pleasure they are
and were created. Lord, this is all for your glory
because he, he hath dealt bountifully with me. And when did God deal
bountifully with you? When he, you know, you can look
back at all the, all the good times. You can say, well, you
know, it's, the Lord's, the Lord's blessed me in spite of, in spite
of all my sin, he's blessed me. Look what I've got. Be careful. You take comfort
in that. The Lord might just take all
that away from you. No, he dealt bountifully with
us when he bore in his body on Calvary's cross all our sin. Took us right into the grave.
Suffered the wrath of God. Put away the guilt that we feel
so guilty and ashamed for. He put it away. And so Paul continues in Philippians
and says what? Rejoice in the Lord, in the Lord. And again, I say, rejoice, let
your gentleness be known unto all men. Why? Because the Lord
is at hand. He's near. And then he goes on in that same
passage and he said, finally, brother, whatsoever things are
good, Why call it thou me good? There's none good to God. And
he told, Lord told Moses, I'll pass, I'll cause my goodness
to pass before you. Whatsoever things are good, whatsoever
things are just. What's just? The justice of God
that fell on Christ on Calvary's cross. Whatsoever things are
holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and
earth is filled with thy glory. If there be any virtue in them,
who's virtuous? Not me. Think on these things. Oh Lord, forgive me for taking
counsel within myself. Cause me to look up, cry out
to thee and trust Christ for the forgiveness of all my sin.
Amen. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're thankful that we don't have to live a lie. We can be
open and truthful with you. As that woman
with the issue of blood, Lord, she told you all the truth. Lord, you've given us your spirit
to cause us to tell you all the truth. And we ask Lord that you
would speak all the truth about Christ back to us. For it's in
his name we pray, amen. Number 204, 204. ? O soul, you weary and troubled
? No light in the darkness you seek ? There's light for a look at the
Savior ? ? And life more abundant and free ? ? Turn your eyes upon
Jesus ? ? Look full in his wonderful face ? and the things of earth
will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting,
we pass and we follow Him there. Over and no more hath dominion,
For more than conquerors we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look
full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. His word shall not fail you,
he promised, Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell. ? Turn your eyes upon Jesus ? ?
Look full in His wonderful face ? ? And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim ? ? In the light of His glory and grace
?