We're about a minute early, but
everybody's here and ready. That's a good thing. Let's open
tonight's service with hymn number 42, number 42, all hail the power. Let's all stand together. ? All hail the power of Jesus'
name ? Let angels prostrate fall ? Bring forth the royal diadem
? And crown him Lord of all ? Bring forth the royal diadem ? Lord of all ? He chosen seed
of Israel's race ? He ransomed from the fall ? Hail him who
saves you by his grace ? And crown him Lord of all Hail Him
who saves you by His grace and crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe
on this terrestrial ball. To him all majesty ascribe and
crown him Lord of all. To him all majesty ascribe and
crown ? And crown Him Lord of all ? Oh, that with yonder sacred
throng ? We at His feet may fall ? We'll join the everlasting
song ? And crown Him Lord of all We'll join the everlasting
song and crown Him Lord of all. Please be seated. Good evening. We'll read from
Psalm 32 for our scripture reading tonight. Psalm 32. It's good to be home. Thank you
for your prayers. We had, I thought, good meetings in North Carolina. They don't have an opportunity
to hear the gospel every Sunday. Rupert's not able to preach anymore
at all. And so everybody came Friday
night, Saturday night, Sunday morning, and it was good. Rupert actually had surgery today. They had found a growth on one
of his kidneys some time ago and were putting off the surgery
because of his heart problems. He went in surgery at 1.30 this
afternoon and got finished about 5.30 and I just got word that
everything went well. He's in recovery now. The Lord enables you to pray
for that church and for Betty. Rupert. They've got to make some
decisions about the future of the church and pastor and that
sort of thing. Robert, Michael, thank you all
for the messages that you brought. Listened to both of them on the
way home on Sunday. Let's open our Bibles. If you
have them, Psalm 32. What a wonderful word from God
to a sinner. Blessed, blessed of God is he
whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. There's no greater blessing than
that. To have God forgive your sin, cover your sin with the
blood of his Son, There's no blessing like that blessing.
Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no guile. Isaiah said, my children
will not lie. This matter of being without
guile has to do with the gospel. We we know the truth and we speak
the truth about Christ When I kept silent my bones waxed old through
my roaring all the day long The Lord would not allow me to not
confess my sin I tried tried to hide I acted like my father
Adam so many times and He wouldn't let it be For day and night thy
hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer." Selah. It's pretty hot today,
isn't it? The Lord takes away all moisture
when the heat of his gospel shines in our hearts. I acknowledged
my sin unto thee. and mine iniquity have I not
hid, I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord,
and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." Selah. For this shall everyone that
is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. What
is the time when he may be found? It's the day of his power, isn't
it? It's the time of love. It's the
time when he makes himself known. That's the time when he may be
found. When thou mayest be found surely in the floods of great
waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding
place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. Selah. I will instruct thee and
teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. Oh, Lord, point me
to Christ. He is the way. I will guide thee
with mine eye. Now, this is the reason I wanted
to sing, I wanted to read this psalm tonight, because the Lord
is guiding his children with his eye. And we're going to be
looking at that in 2 Samuel. Be ye not as the horse or as
the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with
bit and bridle lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows
shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy
shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're we're
humbled and thankful that there is a throne of grace where we
can come boldly and find your mercy to be our help in our time
of need. We thank you that we have a high
priest who is able to be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
One who was tempted in all ways that we are and yet was without
sin. Oh, what hope we have in knowing
that that you charged him. You imputed to him. You placed
in his body upon that tree all the sins of your people and and
satisfied your justice once and for all. Father, how we pray
that you'd be pleased now to send your spirit in power and
to lift Christ up. that our hearts would be drawn
to him, that you would give to us the gift of faith, and that
we would see things and believe things as they are, as you have revealed them to
be. Lord, forgive us for our unbelief. Help us in our unbelief. We thank you for the surgery
that you gave to Rupert today, and we ask, Lord, for your hand
of strength and grace and healing to be upon him and encouragement
to he and Betty and to the brethren there in North Carolina. We pray, Father, that you would
provide for them a pastor And even as we do, we're reminded,
Father, to pray once again for our brethren in Sarasota and
ask, Lord, that you would raise up for them a man that can preach
the gospel and lead them. And we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 488. We've sung this hymn maybe only
once or twice. It's a good one to learn. 488.
Let's all stand together. ? I will sing of my Redeemer ?
? And His wondrous love to me ? ? On the cruel cross He suffered
? ? From the curse to set me free ? ? Sing, oh, sing of my
Redeemer ? With His blood, He purchased
me. On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free. I will tell the wondrous story,
How the lost estate to save, In His boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer,
With His blood, He purchased me. On the cross, He sealed my
pardon, Paid the debt, and made me free. I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I'll tell, How the victory He giveth over
sin and death and hell. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer,
My Redeemer, my Redeemer With His blood He purchased me, purchased
me On the cross He sealed my pardon Paid the debt And made
me free I will sing of my Redeemer and
His heavenly love to me. He from death to life hath brought
me, Son of God, with Him to be. Sing, O sing! of my Redeemer. With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free. Please be seated. Thank you, Tom. How many of y'all
know that hymn? Well, you know it now. We can
sing that any time. 2 Samuel chapter 22. 2 Samuel
chapter 22 is a song that King David sings to the Lord for having
delivered him from Saul. You remember in chapter 23, is
David's last words. And in chapter 22, it's a glorious, glorious psalm. The only way to understand this
psalm is to understand David as a type of Christ. He's the sweet psalmist of Israel. He's the king of Israel, he's
the shepherd of his sheep, he's a man after God's own heart,
and he's offering up this prayer to God as a type of Christ. And we're able to enter into
this prayer only as we see ourselves in Christ. I want to introduce this message.
I'll tell you the title of it first. Look at verse 25. Therefore the Lord hath recompensed
me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in
his eyes. In his eyes. If God didn't tell us what things
looked like in his word, From his perspective, we would have
no choice but to conclude that things are the way we see them.
And we would make God to be like ourselves. But the Lord has revealed
to us in his word how he sees things. And faith is believing
that things are the way God sees them. in his eyesight. How does God see me in his eyesight? Now I heard someone say recently
that you can be a sinner in the eyes of God or you can be a sinner
in your eyes but you can never be a sinner in both at the same
time. You can be a sinner in your eyes
You can be a sinner in God's eyes, but you can never be a
sinner in both your eyes and God's eyes at the same time. If you're a sinner in God's eyes,
it's because you're lost. And if you're lost, you're not
a sinner in your own eyes. You're trusting in your own righteousness. It's the reason you're lost,
because you haven't been made a sinner. And if you're a sinner
in your eyes, it's only because God's done a work of grace in
your heart and he's made you to be a sinner and caused you
to know that you have no righteousness so that in the eyes of God, you're
no longer a sinner. So you can be a sinner in your
eyes or you can be a sinner in God's eyes, but you can never
be a sinner in both at the same time. Now, I want to not be a
sinner in God's eyes. And to not be a sinner in God's
eyes means I'm going to be a sinner in my own eyes. But faith is
believing what God says He sees about me. And David says here,
He has recompensed me. He has rewarded me according
to my own righteousness. Haven't we just read? According
to my cleanness, in his eyes. Isn't that glorious? So how I
see it doesn't really matter. It's how God sees it. And we
would not know how God sees anything if he didn't tell us. We preach the gospel. We don't
preach the lost people one message and save people another message.
We don't preach to believers or unbelievers. We preach to
sinners. Sinners. My comfort comes when the message
gives me assurance of my salvation. You gonna preach to me as a believer,
well, I don't know if I'm a believer or not. I know I'm a sinner, and if the gospel is for sinners,
then yes, I'm a child of God. But you see what I'm saying?
We don't approach lost people or preach the gospel to sinners. Are you a sinner in your own
eyes? Do you need some assurance? Do you need some comfort? Do
you need some hope? You need God to let you know
how He sees you in Christ, that you might be delivered from this
horrible burden of guilt and shame and sin that attaches itself
to you. Like Paul said, of this body
of death, who shall deliver me? That's what I want. I want to hear a message that
I can walk away from feeling like, Oh, thank you. Thank you. That was, that was comfort to
a sinner's ears. That's my hope. And no message
does that more for me than to think about and preach the truth
of union and substitution. And that's what this, that's
what this song's about. that I have righteousness and
cleanness by virtue of my union with Christ, so that the life
that He lived, I lived in Him. The death that He died, I died
in Him. The resurrection that He experienced,
I raised in Him. The ascension that he experienced
in going up into glory, all the blessings of God right now are
in the heavenlies, in Christ, because I'm there. I'm there. I'm there in him. That's the
only hope I have. Oh Lord, give us the eyes of
Elijah's servants. Servant, you remember when Elijah
was surrounded by the Assyrians and he went out and looked out
the window, I guess. He told his servant, he said,
don't worry about it. He said, they that are with us
are more than they that are with them. What are you talking about?
Oh Lord, open his eyes that he might see. And the servant went
out, and he saw the army of the Assyrians surrounded by fiery
chariots. God blinded their eyes, didn't
he? He blinded their eyes. And Elijah took the whole army
and led them by the hand to the king in Samaria. Why? Because they couldn't see. They
couldn't see. Lord, open the eyes of my understanding
and enable me to see things like you see them. That's what he's
saying. I'm clean in His sight. Lord, my sin is ever before me. It's ever before me. I was conceived in iniquity and
the shame of my sin is always there. I need to know that it's
not before God. I need to know that in His eyesight,
He sees me perfect in Christ. Union and substitution. The voice is the voice of Jacob. But the hands are the hands of
Esau. There you go. There's union. There's substitution. That the
hands of the Lord Jesus Christ will be the hands that God will
be looking to for the work that I need in order to be accepted
in His presence. What did Laban say to Esau? Jacob
he said I pray thee if I have found favor in thine eyes Terry
for I have learned by experience That the Lord has blessed me
for your sake There it is substitution We can't we can't claim the blessings
of God we can't we can't bring before our God, our hands, our
works. Joseph's a glorious picture of
Christ, isn't he? And don't you love the story
when he was falsely accused and thrown into prison and God gave
him favor with the prison keeper? And the prison keeper basically
turned the prison over to Joseph. And Joseph ran the place as a
prisoner. And the scripture says, and whatsoever was done there,
Joseph was the doer of it. And whatever's done in righteousness
for you and for me, Christ is the doer of it. He's done it
all by Himself. He put away our sin all by Himself. It's His shed blood. It's not
our sorrow or our repentance or our dedication. It's Him. It's what He's done for us. You
say, well, how do I know He did it for me? because he is my only
hope. God has shut me up to him. I'm
not adding to or taking away from what you're saying, preacher.
That's my hope. That's my hope. I know I have
no righteousness outside of Christ. I know that the only hope that
I have for my sin to be put away and for me to be accepted in
the sight of God is for God to be looking to Christ for me.
Faith is the evidence of things hoped for. God's given me faith. I can't not believe. I'm looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of my faith. The Alpha and the Omega, everything
in between. I've got no place else to go. And every time my flesh is tempted
to look away from Christ, I hear the voice of the Spirit
of God. Are you going to lead me? Lord, where am I going to go? I've got no place else to go.
I've tried. Thou alone have the words of
eternal life, and I know and I'm sure that Thou art the Christ,
the anointed one, the one sent of God to work out a salvation
for His people that they could not work out for themselves.
And I'm sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. I've got no place else to go.
I'm in shut up to Christ. God won't let me add anything
to Him, and He won't let me take anything away from Him. And I
hear the voice of God in the Word of God. When God speaks,
it just is clear to me. It's true. Let's begin in verse... I just want to be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness, which is by the
faithfulness of Jesus Christ. That's my only hope. And that's
what this is about. This song that David is singing,
he's singing it for every child of God, and he's singing it in
light of the gospel and in light of union and substitution. He
says, God has recompensed me for my righteousness. He has
rewarded me. For my cleanness, and I'm so
thankful for those last four words, in his eyesight. In his eyesight. And however
he sees it is the way it is. And whatever view of things we
have that's distorted from way he says it is, it's wrong. It's wrong. Let's begin in verse 20. He brought
me forth also into a large place. He delivered me because he delighted
in me. Oh, to comprehend the breadth
and the length and the depth and the height and to know the
love of Christ. It's limitless, isn't it? It's, well he said, let your heart
not be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me and my father's house are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for
you. I'll come again. He's led me into a large place. The largeness of his grace, sufficient
for all my sins. The largeness of glory, the place
that he's prepared for his church. Plenty of room. and no vacancies. What a glorious Savior we have. He's led me into a large place
and He's delivered me He delivered me from the pit. He delivered
me from the curse of the law. He delivered me from the grave.
He delivered me from hell. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
came to do. He is our deliverer. Do you need a deliverer? Do you
need to be delivered from the penalty of the law, from your
sin? Have you got any place else to
go to get deliverance? Are you going to go back to the
law? You're going to go to your dedication? You're going to go
back to your... No! The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is our deliverer. He's the one who's led us into
a large place and He's delivered us. Why? Because He delights
in me. I suspect that you have the same
problem I have when it comes to our thoughts about God. being
angry at us. Do you not find yourself, you
know, I know Lord you must be awfully angry. You must be awfully put out with
me. And we, and we in our hearts, we do exactly what our father
Adam did. We hide from God and we try to
cover our nakedness out of shame and guilt. Oh, if we could believe
that by virtue of our union with Christ, He delights in us. It's the love of God that constraineth
us. Judgment and penalty has never,
threats, have never drawn anybody to God. The judgment of God is gone. There's no threats. There's no
penalty. The penalty has been satisfied.
The Lord Jesus Christ has put away our sin. He delights in
us. He sees us in His Son. And John
said, as He is, so are we in this world right now. It's His compassion. It's His
love. It's His understanding that draws
us to Him. No sheep has ever been beat to
Christ. He woos us with cords of kindness,
the scripture says. He draws us to himself. For Christ's sake, he delights
in us. He delights in us. How much do
you love your children? You delight in your children?
Can your children ever do anything to make you cut them off? No. They're your children. And if you being evil know how
to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will
your heavenly Father give good gifts to them who ask? Oh, Father. Abba Father, might the Spirit
of God work grace in our hearts and cause us to come before our
Heavenly Father with confidence. That's what the word boldness
means. Come before the throne of grace with boldness. It doesn't mean to be cocky about
it. It means to be confident that we have acceptance in the
person of our Savior. We have another verse right before
that says, we have not a high priest who is unable to be touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. He knows, he understands, he
remembers that we're made of dust. He knows the feelings of
our infirmities. He knows what we're going through.
The temptations that we experience don't compare to what he went
through. And he has compassion for his
children. He delights in us. Oh, isn't this the thing that
makes me want to come to him? I remember in the past, I hope
nobody ever says this to me ever again, but I've heard people
say to me in the past, oh preacher, you really stepped on my toes
this morning. And looking back, I realize that
people come to church to be beat up. That's their penance. They want
the preacher to step on their toes. They want somebody to shame
them. They want somebody to slap them around so that they can
leave feeling like, okay, I've atoned for my sins today. What a contradiction to the gospel.
That's what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He atoned for our sins. We don't beat the sheep. We comfort
the sheep. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
Speak ye comfortably to them. Tell them their warfare is accomplished.
We love God's sheep. We feed the sheep. Peter, lovest
thou me? Yes, Lord. Feed my sheep. Three times. Feed my sheep. Don't beat them, feed them. Don't
fleece them, feed them. Feed them of what? The gospel,
the bread of life. We don't preach about Christ,
we preach Christ. We're saying here's who he is.
This is what he's done. He's the only hope you've got
if you're a sinner. God's made you to be a sinner
in your eyes. You need to know that what you see is not what
God sees. Not what God sees. Now, don't pervert this. Don't pervert this and think,
well, I can just walk around with my nose in the air and say,
well, I'm not a sinner. No. We're sinners and saints at the
same time. But the hope of our salvation
is to be reminded that God sees us in His eyesight as a saint,
perfect in Christ. Though we've got to bear the
burden of our guilt and our sin and our shame, here's the conflict,
the contradiction that we have, isn't it? The flesh warring against
the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. Verse 21. You know what? Let's turn to 1 John chapter
4. 1 John chapter 4. Beginning of verse 15, whosoever
shall confess that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelleth in him
and he in God. That doesn't mean just speaking
it with your lips. They honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me. This is speaking from the
heart. Jesus Christ is the son of God. And we have known and believed
The love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Here's our union
with Christ. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as he is, so are we in this world. How is a man born of a woman
gonna approach a holy God? How are you going to come before
God? Only if you believe that in His
eyesight you are in Christ. This is the love of God. There
is no fear in love. demands, harshness, genders,
fear. We do that to one another, don't
we? Shamefully. Oh, Lord, deliver us. Don't let
us control one another with fear and threats. There's no fear in love, but
perfect love Perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment,
and he that feareth is not made perfect in love. We do love him
because he first loved us. Oh, the Lord calls the love of
Christ to shed abroad in our hearts. This is what's going to do it,
isn't it? forgiving one another and loving one another, even
as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us and loved us. So
it's seeing who we are in Christ in His eyesight. Go back with
me to 2 Samuel. Look at verse 21. The Lord rewarded
me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of
my hands, hath He reconvinced me. I heard somebody say recently
that they had heard a man who had claimed to be a gospel preacher
preaching about rewards in heaven based on your faithfulness here.
You're going to be rewarded in heaven based on, you know. That's so contrary to the
gospel. You know, anybody that preaches
rewards in heaven doesn't understand that I am your exceeding great
reward. Christ is our reward. How are
you going to get any better than that? And we're going to see him as
he is and be made like him. Is some of us going to be more
like him than others? No. In that place dwelleth no
iniquity. Righteousness only isn't going
to be in that place. We're going to all be made perfect
just like him. Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? They which
have clean hands and they which have a pure heart who have never
lifted up their soul in vanity. Does that describe you? In Christ it does. In Christ it does. The voice
is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau. Verse 22, for I have kept the
ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. Remember who's writing this?
David's writing this. Is this your experience? If God's
made you to be a believer, you can't not believe. You try all the time, don't you?
I mean, there are a million distractions every day that would divert our
attention from Christ, and you find that you can't go there.
You can't stay there. He just keeps bringing you back,
doesn't he? That's what David's talking about here. Look, I have
kept the ways of the Lord and not wickedly departed from my
God. I've been taught of God. and
the world and the devils and all my friends and family members
cannot talk me out of what God has taught me. I can't. No man can pluck you
out of my hand. Well, who's the right hand of
God? If you're in Christ, you can't
pluck yourself out of that. You just can't do it. You can't
not believe. And if you're still toying with
the idea of believing or not believing, then these promises
aren't something that's going to comfort your heart. But if
God's made you to be a believer, you know that you can't get away
from Him. My sheep hear my voice, they will follow me. I'm going
to stick to it. I'm going to keep everyone on
my leash. For all, verse 23, for all his
judgments were before me, and as for his statutes, I did not
depart from them. I can't tell you how many times
Trish and I, after hearing a message or preaching a message on our
way home, she'll say to me, what in the world did we believe about
that before God saved us? I mean, we studied this book,
we went to church all our lives, we heard these passages preached
from, what did we, how did we understand them? Well, generally, we skipped over.
Y'all met Betty over in Sarasota. I think I've told you this story
before, but I'll tell you it again. First time Betty came,
I was preaching from Ephesians chapter one. Betty's in her eighties. She's a graduate from a Bible
school in North Carolina, been playing an organ in Baptist churches
all her life. You look at her Bible, it's all
marked up. She'd been in church two or three times a week for
80 something years. And she's listened to me preach
from Ephesians chapter one. And she's looking at me and looking
at her Bible and shaking her head. And after the service,
she counted to me and she said, I didn't believe what you were
saying. I never heard that before in
my life, but there it was in my Bible right there, black and
white, just like you said, I never saw it. I never saw it. That's what God just rewrites
our Bibles. Doesn't he? We don't add to it. When God
makes you to be a believer, you believe every word of his statutes. You don't say, well, yeah, but you bow to the truth of God's
word. And that's what, that's what,
uh, That's what David's saying here, for all his judgments were
before me and as for his statutes, I did not depart from them. I
couldn't get away from God's word. I couldn't deny it. I can't
change it. I love it. I love it just like
it's written. I was also upright before him
and have kept myself from mine iniquity. Now you say that word before,
maybe it's in the margin of your Bible, it's in the margin of
my Bible, and I looked it up and it's true. It's really the
word to, to. Before in the sense of to him. So let's read that verse again.
I was also upright to him and have kept myself from mine iniquity. I'm not looking to the works
of my righteousness for the hope of my salvation. I now understand
that the things that I used to pride myself in and the things
that I used to put hope in for recommending me to God, the things
that I used to look to for evidence of my salvation, I now see they
are iniquity. And the only hope that I have
is what I am to Him in His eyesight. How does He see me? Look at verse
25. Therefore the Lord hath recompensed
me, rewarded me according to my righteousness. Now we know that our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags, but when God makes him who knew no sin
to be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,
God actually imputes to us the perfect righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So that his seed now is in us
and we cannot sin. Not in God's eyes, can't sin. We have a righteousness before
God. It's perfect. Does this give you some comfort
as a sinner? According to my cleanness. My
cleanness. Clean. If you've been washed
in the blood of Christ, you're clean. In His eyesight. Clean. Perfect. Remember that leper? Went before
the priest and he was leprous from the top of his head to the
bottom of his feet. Nothing but oozing sores. They weren't modified.
They weren't bandaged up. He was a leper. And the priest
checked him out and he couldn't find any clean skin on him anywhere.
And he said, clean! And the Lord took His hand and
He put on these lepers and touched them and made them. Lord, I know
that You can make me clean if You will. I will be Thou clean. Clean. All the shame and all
the guilt and all the sorrow that we carry around in our hearts
because of our wickedness, because of our sin and our iniquity,
and God says, you're clean. You're clean. Now the unbeliever listens to
this kind of thing and he says, you're giving folks a license
to just go out and sin all they want. If you think that that's
what this does, then you haven't heard a thing. You haven't heard
a thing. The only thing that will restrain
your wicked flesh from breaking out into horrible behavior is
the love of Christ. It's the truth of the gospel
that God restrains us with. With the merciful, verse 26,
thou wilt show thyself merciful. And with the upright man, thou
wilt show thyself upright. With the pure, thou wilt show
thyself pure. And with the froward, with the
froward, that word means twisted, distorted, perverse, crooked. And that's what the natural man
does. He takes the truth of God's word and he twists it. He twists
it. He uses his righteousness, his
own personal outward behavior for either the cause of his salvation
or the evidence of his salvation. Man by nature Being ignorant
of the righteousness of God goes about to establish his own righteousness,
not knowing that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth on him. And so he goes around. He's perverse. He's crooked. He denies Christ, His glory and
salvation. He twists the Scriptures and
makes man's free will the final determining factor as to who
gets saved and who doesn't. He puts man on the throne of
God. He's perverse. He's crooked. He wrests the Scriptures,
twisting it to his own destruction. To his own destruction. He makes the successful atoning
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He takes all the power out of
it and makes it an offer of salvation to be empowered by you. Rob's got it. You see, this is
the perverse man. Does this describe you? Did it describe you at one time? Yeah, describe me. That's what
I did. Twisted the scriptures. Robbing God of His holiness,
His glory, His power. Turning the immutable purposes
of God into something that man could change. I can change the
outcome of things based on the decisions I make and the things
that I do. We set ourselves up on the throne
of God. That's just all there was to
it. We made ourselves to be God. It goes all the way back to the
garden, doesn't it? And now what do we do? We bow
to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not perverse anymore. We're
not twisting the scriptures. We're not making God to be something
we want him to be. We, we understand that the only
way we're going to be holy and undefiled before the sight of
God is to be found in Christ. Christ becomes all our hope and
all our salvation and all our righteousness. And we just want
to hear about him. Tell me about the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me
who he is again. Tell me what he did for me. Cause
he's my hope. If this, if this is going to
describe me and if I'm going to be perfect in his eyesight,
I need to know about Christ. Tell me about him so I can flee
to him. My heart, I want to embrace him. They twist the scriptures by
making the perfect, eternal love of God. I've loved you with an
everlasting love, and they turn it into nothing more than a doting
grandfather who just has an affection for everybody, but doesn't really
love anybody. You know, there's no power in
that kind of love, is there? Verse 28, And the afflicted people
thou wilt save, but thine eyes are upon the haughty, that thou
mayest bring them down. And David said, before I was
afflicted, I had gone astray. And there's a whole lot of folks
in this world that have suffered much more difficult physical
afflictions than any of us have. I mean horrible, physical afflictions. That's not what he's talking
about. Those kind of afflictions don't bring you to repentance. It's when God puts your sin on
you. That's what David was talking
about, my sins ever before me. Oh Lord, I was shaping iniquity. It's
just always right there. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? Thanks be to God in Christ Jesus
I am free so that there is now therefore no condemnation. Why? Because in His eyesight
I'm perfect. I'm perfect. Let's close with
1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3. Behold, verse one, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we, that we, are
you not just amazed that we shall be called the sons of God, therefore
the world knoweth not, because it knew him not. The world doesn't
understand what we're talking about here. This is all our hope,
but the world doesn't know anything about it. They still think that
salvation's based on some contribution that they make. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Now are we the sons of God. And
we've already read in chapter four, as he is, so are we in
this world right now. Now are we the sons of God. And
it doth not yet appear. Not to us. We're already there in the person
of our substitute and we're longing to see him as he is. And you
remember when Paul was caught up into the third heaven, he
saw things that were unspeakable. He couldn't, there were no words
in any language sufficient to describe what he saw. And it
does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he
shall appear, We shall be made like him, for we shall see him
as he is. We're like him now. Faith is
the only way you're going to believe that. Oh God, give me
faith. Give me your Holy Spirit. Enable
me to see myself like you see me right now in Christ. The only hope I have. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever
commiteth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression
of the law. And you know that he was manifested to take away
our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him, bound
in Christ, sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither know him. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of
the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin." For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin because he's born of God. Now if you don't understand substitution
and union, that passage of scripture right there will drive you, it'll
drive you mad. It'll drive you mad. Because
if God's made you a sinner, you know that's all you ever do. But in his eyesight, his seeds
in you, the new man is perfect. Perfect. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word, and we're thankful for the hope that we have in
Christ, and we pray that your Holy Spirit would give comfort
to our souls as we find our rest in him. For it's in his name
we pray. Amen. Brother Tom. 234. 334, I'm sorry. Let's stand
together. 334. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart, Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art. Thy my best thought, by day or
by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light. Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my
true word, I ever with Thee, and Thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise. Thou mine inheritance, now and
always. Thou and Thou only, first in
my heart. I, King of Heaven, my treasure
Thou art. I, King of heaven, my victory
won. May I reach heaven's joys, O
bright heaven's sun. Heart of my own heart, whatever
befall, still be my vision, O ruler of all. Thank you. Thank you.