Alright brethren, let's turn
our Bibles to Psalm 119. I've been eager to get to this section.
I know some of you have too. Psalm 119. The title and the subject we're
looking at here is the power of God's Word. That's why I read
Romans 1 to you. The power of the Gospel. The
power of God's Word. And David declares here what
the power of God's Gospel does in the hearts of his people.
He says, first of all, it makes us stand when we are persecuted. He said in verse 161, princes
have persecuted me without a cause, but by heart standeth in awe
of thy word. Then it makes us rejoice. The
word of God makes us rejoice. He said, I rejoice at thy word
as one that findeth great spoil. It makes us hate every false
gospel. We can discern now because of
Christ's voice and we hate every false gospel. He said, I hate
and abhor lying, but thy law, thy gospel do I love. It makes
us give all the praise, all the glory to God alone. Seven times
a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgment. God's gospel gives us great peace. He said, great peace have they
which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. His gospel
gives us hope. Lord, I've hoped for thy salvation
and done thy commandments. And then it makes us know. It
makes us know that through faith we've established the whole law
of God as God commands. He says, My soul hath kept thy
testimonies, and I love them exceedingly. I've kept thy precepts
and thy testimonies, for all my ways are before thee. Now
let's look, we may not get to all of these, but let's look
at as much as we can. First of all, by the Lord creating
a new heart in us and by the word, putting his word in our
heart, teaching us the gospel, revealing Christ to us, he makes
his children stand when we're persecuted. He said here in verse
161, princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart
standeth in all of thy word. Our Lord Jesus Christ, and that's
who we always want to go to first and hear Him speak. Our Lord
Jesus could say this, He was persecuted by civil and religious
rulers. Civil and religious rulers. But
brethren, it's not just rulers who consider themselves princes.
It is all unregenerate men in this world. They think themselves
mighty. They think themselves a prince.
But Daniel declared Christ is the Prince of Princes. He declared
the Messiah the Prince. He's the Prince, the Lord Jesus
Christ. God standeth in the congregation
of the mighty, He judgeth among the gods. And that's what was
happening when Christ stood on this earth. He's standing in
the congregation of men that thought they were mighty and
judging among them. The true Prince tells us the
reason that men persecuted Him. He gives the very reason over
in John 15. If you want to look there, John 15. He says in verse 22, there's
two reasons. One, because he declared that
every son of Adam is a sinner. And two, because he declared
that he's the righteousness of God. He did the work no man could
do. He said here, verse 22, If I
had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But
now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth
my Father also. That's the first reason, they
have no cloak for their sin. And then the second reason, if
I had not done among them the works which none other man did,
they had not had sin. But now have they both seen and
hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that
the word might be fulfilled that's written in their law, they hated
me without a cause. You see the word law there, it
includes the whole word of God and what they had up to that
time. What David had was not everything we have, but when
you read the word law, it means the whole Word, the whole Word
of God. Now, he said there, what is written
in the Word of their law, they hated me without a cause. When
God's Word is preached, when Christ preached, when He preaches
through the Gospel today, He declares every son of Adam is
a guilty sinner in ourselves. Every son of Adam. That's why
men persecuted Christ when He walked this earth. That's why
men reject and persecute His people today. The Word of God
strips away not some of men's fig leaves. It strips away every
man's fig leaves. Every man. There's not a son
of Adam that's not guilty. It strips away all our fig leaves. It leaves no son of Adam out. Not a one. And it strips away
every man's covering. And here's what it does. This
whole Word is Christ's Word. It's not just the words He spoke
when He walked this earth. It's not just the red letters
if you have that kind of Bible. This whole book is Christ speaking. And His Word declares you and
me are guilty of every transgression. We're guilty of breaking every
law and of every transgression. Listen to this from James 2.10.
Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point,
he's guilty of all. You ever broke one law? You ever
broke one law of God? Just thinking. You don't have
to do it out in the act. Just thinking. He broke one law,
he was guilty of the whole law. He declares the sin and guilt
of the wicked Gentile sinners in the world, all through Romans
1. The sin and guilt of the wicked Gentile world. Then he turned
to the religious Jewish folks and he said, and you're guilty
of the same exact thing. Listen to this, therefore, Romans
2, 1, thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the same
things. That's so of everybody on the
top side of this earth. everybody on the top side of
this earth. Most princes in religion never include themselves as the
sinner. You'll hear men preach and they
never include themselves as the sinner. But Paul did, and God's
true preachers do. Listen, Romans 3, 9. He said,
What then? Are we better than they? He's
a Jew. He's talking about the Jews.
He said, Are we better than those vile, wicked Gentiles? He said,
No, and no wise. We have before proved Jew and
Gentiles, they are all under sin. All under sin. This is what Christ came preaching.
The Word of the Lord declares even every man's righteousnesses
are filthy rags. Isaiah 64, 6, we are all as an
unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. Now God's people do some righteous
works. We do some good works by the
grace of God. But brethren, those works, we
can't stand in those works. We can't trust those works for
salvation. Because even our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags due to the sin of our sin nature. There's,
listen, Ecclesiastes 7.20. Tell me if this includes all
men. There is not a just man upon
earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Listen to Psalm 133. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Job 20 verse 9. Who can say I've made my heart
clean? I am pure from my sin. Now listen
to John. He said, if we say that we have
no sin, that's our sin nature. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And then he said,
if we say that we have not sinned, that's sin in thought, word,
deed. We say we have not sinned. We
make Him a liar and His word is not in us. In other words,
God says we are sin in our nature and what we do is sin because
of our sin nature. The second reason men hated the
Lord Jesus Christ is because He declared He came and did the
works no other man could do. He did works no man ever did
and that no man could ever do. And this is why men hated Him.
He said, It says in Romans 5.19, and I want you to realize that's
the Word of our Lord Jesus. This whole, what I'm saying,
these Scriptures I'm giving you, they're the words of our Lord
Jesus as surely as when He walked this earth and spoke it plainly
before men. This is what the scripture says,
As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. There is no
obedience by which anybody is righteous but the obedience of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's His obedience alone that
makes His people righteous. In Isaiah 42.21, the Lord is
well pleased for His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law
and make it honorable. Christ came to do works that
no man ever did. This is a work that no man ever
did. No man ever honored the law.
No man ever made it honorable. Christ did. Our Lord Jesus did. God said in Isaiah 53, 11, By
His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for He
shall bear their iniquities. This whole book is telling us
there's a two-fold message, Paul, that God said to go preach. All flesh is grass and thy God
reigneth. All flesh is grass, that's me
and you, and Christ did the works no man could do, and it's by
His one obedience that sinners are saved. Listen to Psalm 98. Let's look back there at this.
Psalm 98 and verse 1. O sing unto the Lord a new song,
for He hath done marvelous things, wonderful things. His right hand
and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory. The Lord hath
made known His salvation. His righteousness has He openly
showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered His mercy
and His mercy. Truth. He made them meet together. Mercy and justice. He is made
to meet together in harmony. Nobody ever could do that but
Him. He done it toward the house of
Israel, toward His people. All the ends of the earth have
seen the salvation of our God. And here's what He said through
Paul. Listen now, He's the only one
that did this. He did works no other man ever
did or could do. And he said this, neither is
there salvation in any other. There's none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Those two things
right there. All are sin, all are guilty of
every sin and Christ alone is the righteousness of God. That's
why men persecuted Christ. That's why they still persecute
today. It was the Word of the Lord in
the heart of our Redeemer, though, that made Him stand. God our
Father gave Him a promise, a covenant promise, and He had that promise
in His heart, and that's what made Him stand. He stood in awe
of God's Word. He said there in Psalm 119 verse
161 in the second part, "...but my heart standeth in awe of thy
word." Christ knew, and He said this in that text we just read
in John. He knew that even that persecution was the fulfillment
of God's Word. He said there in John 15, 25,
He said, they persecuted Me because I revealed their sin and because
I declared that none ever did what I've done. And He said,
but this cometh to pass, this persecution, that the word might
be fulfilled that's written in their law, they hated Me without
a cause. Brethren, the Lord taught us
the same thing. He's teaching us the same thing.
You that believe Him, you that have His Word in your heart,
when men reject us for the gospel, when men reject us for the gospel,
remember this, He said this, He said, He's telling them all
that night before He's betrayed and He's telling them, you're
going to be persecuted just like I'm persecuted. But He said this,
the Word I said unto you, He said, when it happens, you'll
remember, the Word I said unto you, the servant's not greater
than his Lord. You see, it's His Word to us
that makes us stand. We stand in awe of His Word because
everything He says in His Word, He brings it to pass. And that's
how we stand. We stand knowing it's the Word
of our Lord Jesus Christ being fulfilled, even when you reject
it. Our substitute faced it head
on, and here's why he did it. He had the Word of God his Father.
Look at Isaiah 50. He stood by the Word. That's
how he stood. Isaiah 50 verse 5. He said, The
Lord God hath opened mine ear. And I was not rebellious, neither
turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters,
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face
from shame and spitting. Why not? For the Lord God will
help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded.
Therefore I have set my face like a flint. I know I shall
not be ashamed. Child of God, you have the same
promise. The Word of our Lord into your heart is the promise
of God that He will be your refuge. He will make you stand. Listen,
He commands us at the end there of Isaiah 50, He commands His
children that even when you're in the darkness and you don't
have light, keep trusting the name of the Lord. Stay upon your
God. It's by that word of promise
that you're going to be able to say, the Lord God will help
me, therefore I shall not be confounded. We stand by the Word
of God. It's by this Word we know that
all we are in ourselves is sin. That's it. It's by this Word
that we know He is the only righteousness God will accept. The righteousness
by which we're saved. And it's this same Word that
makes us stand. Isn't it? The Word's valuable,
isn't it? The Word's everything. Alright? His word makes us rejoice. You
see why it makes us rejoice already. He said in verse 162, I rejoice
at thy word as one that findeth great spoil. This book right
here, it's the field where the treasures hid. And when you go looking into
this book, you start finding treasure, you start finding spoil,
and things in here that is, when He gives you the key of knowledge,
when He makes you see the whole books about Christ, and you start
actually looking for Christ, and seeking Him, that's when
you find Him. When you go to this book, you'll
find whatever you're looking for. That's so. If you're looking
for something that you think you need to do by life, that's
what you'll find. If you're looking for Christ,
you'll find Christ. God will reveal Him to you. That's
the best thing. It makes you rejoice that you
find Christ Jesus the Lord. You take this example right here,
brethren. Our Lord has told us, He's told
us that He's justified us, He's quickened us, He's promised not
to pluck us out of His hand. These are all promises that make
you rejoice in His Word. Now you take for example, we
come to financial difficulty. Say God moves things in providence
and you come into some financial difficulty. And you know, when
things like that happen, that's when we pick the Word up and
start studying the Word. That's when God's people really
apply ourselves to the Word because we need some assurance. We need to know the Lord is going
to provide. We need to know that. And so
He gives you this financial difficulty and you come to the Word and
you start searching the Word. And He gives you things like
this, Hebrews 13 verse 5, He said, Let your conversation be
without covetousness. Be content with such things that
you have. For He has said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee. And He blesses a word like that
to your heart. I'll never leave thee nor forsake
thee. He brings you to a Scripture like this, He that spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for all His people. Now you
think about it, if He delivered Christ up for His people, and
Christ justified His people on that cross, and God poured out
wrath on His Son in place of His people to save us from our
sin, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? And He blesses that word to your
heart and He gives you comfort. He'll lead you to a word like
Psalm 37.25. David said, I've been young and
now I'm old. And he said, I've never seen
the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. God always
provides for His people. And so, as you find this great
spoil, and He's enriching you, He's enriching you, He's enriching
you. Yeah, your bank account, you're in trouble in your bank
account, but He's enriching you in His Word and showing you,
I'm going to provide, I'm going to open the door, I'm going to
help you, I'm going to do this for you. As He does that, and
He shows you all this spoil right here that you have in Christ,
this is what you end up saying, back up there in verse 72, He'll end up saying, the law
of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. You get what I'm saying? I'm
saying he'll take your temporal riches because, you know, you're
confident and you've got some strength and you're mighty because
you've got this temporal wealth. And he'll bring you into a situation
where that starts flying away. and you're in trouble, and He
shows you in the Word, He shows you Him, and He shows you He's
your treasure, and He shows you what He's done for you, and that
He's providing for you, and He ends up making you say, your
word's more to me than thousands of gold and silver. That's why
He does these sayings, to make your spoil be His Word, to rejoice
your heart in what He's done for you. What could make us rejoice
more than God revealing by His Word that we're called by His
name? We think about that. He said
in Jeremiah 15, 16, Thy words were found and I did eat them,
and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart,
for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts. That is,
you're called by His name. What a reason to rejoice in our
heart. All right, thirdly, By the Word
of the Lord, He makes us hate every false gospel. He says in
verse 163, I hate and abhor lying, but thy law do I love. Now you
can be certain that David, like all God's saints, hated and abhorred
lying in everyday life, especially when he was guilty of it himself. Before in this psalm, he asked
the Lord, remove from me the way of lying by putting your
word in my heart. He asked that already. Remove
from me the way of lying by planting your word in my heart. You have
these examples. David persuaded Jonathan to tell
his father he was gone on business. You have another example. He
told Abimelech, the priest, that he was on the king's business.
You remember when he went to get the showbread, he told him
he was on the king's business. He feigned madness before his
enemies. He pretended to be in league
with Achish. In the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah, he lied. And he hated that. David said,
I hate and I abhor lying. I hate it. And God's saints hate
it. And we beg God, remove from me
the way of lying. Plant your Word in my heart,
O Lord. You know, how many times have
you come into the Lord's house or have you been at home and
you read the Word of God, but you drew near in the form, but
you really didn't draw near in art? You prayed, you sang, but
you really didn't. That's lying. That's lying. He even hated lies that were
for the help of others. I got this from Thomas Madden.
He was talking about how the Egyptian midwives saved the male
Israelite babies. And the way they did that was
by saying they were delivered before they ever came to them. You know, they would tell Pharaoh
that we got there and they already had the baby. And they were saving
the male babies. And scripture says they feared
God and they were commended by God for doing that. Then you
have Rahab who spared the spies. And how did she do that? She
told the men of the city they were going out another way when
she had hid them. And God holds her up as a work
of faith. Now be sure to get this. Don't miss this. It's not
the lie that God commended. You know, Rebecca, she told Jacob
the lie and got the blessing from Jacob. I mean, yeah, from
Jacob. It's not the... Isaac, it's not
the lie that God commended. That's not what He commended.
God pardoned the lie by the blood of His Son. But what God commended
is them showing mercy and believing God, and believing God, trusting
God. God's child though hates even
that kind of a lie. The Scripture says, don't lie. That's plain and simple. The
wicked Scripture says, love and make lies. They love and make
lies. God's children hate and abhor
lying. We hate and abhor lying. But
in David's new man was no guile. That means a true, pure heart,
an honest heart in his new heart. And you know, because that was
so, He didn't pretend like he didn't lie. He didn't. He asked God, remove from me
the way of lying. He hated and abhorred lying. And all God's saints do. All
God's saints do. But this second phrase right
here, this second phrase in this verse tells us it's the lie of
the false gospel that he's speaking about. He says there in verse
163, I hate in the poor lying, but thy law do I love. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our
gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
gospel. He is the word. He is the law. The Lord Jesus Christ is. And
who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He
is antichrist that denieth the Father and His Son. On this verse,
Spurgeon said, If a man's blood doesn't boil when the glory of
God is given to man rather than to God, then man doesn't love
the gospel of Christ. If a man's blood doesn't boil
when he hears a preacher giving the glory to man that belongs
to God, our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ, he don't believe
the gospel. We once could hear a lie and
yet call it the truth. And remarkably, this area of
the Scriptures, the only place men will do it, can hear a lie
and say it's the truth. I've even heard of men who years
later said, I could never say none of that now, that's a lie,
but I saved under it. How can you say it's a lie but
say you were saved under it? I don't understand that, but
by God's Word, He revealed Christ to us. He revealed the truth
to us. What is the gospel? What is it?
Romans 1-1. I think this, if I'm not mistaken,
I think the first message I preached here was the gospel of Christ. Or something to that effect was
the title of it. I believe this right here was
the first scripture I ever read. What is the gospel? Paul said
at the end of verse 1, he said, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an apostle. And he said, separated unto the
gospel of God. He's going to tell what it is.
which He promised before by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures
concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." That's the Gospel.
That's the Gospel. That's what this whole book has
been teaching. And the Lord, He said, Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the Gospel because therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. The Lord comes through the preaching
of the Word and He makes His people to know His voice. He
reveals to you that He is the righteousness of His people,
and He makes you hear His voice. And He said, My sheep hear My
voice, and they follow Me, and they will not follow the voice
of a stranger. They just will not do it. We
hate and abhor the lie when men say sinners are born again by
their will. by what they did. They made Christ's
blood effectual by what they did. We hate that because that's
not so, brethren. Why do you hate it? Because Christ
is our prophet. And the glory goes to Christ
and the Holy Spirit for quickening us and teaching us the gospel
and bringing us to faith in Christ. That glory belongs to Him. Now
we hate and abhor the lie that says that it's by man's decision
that he makes Christ but effectual. Man can't make anything Christ
does effectual. Christ accomplished the redemption
of his people. Paul said He came with the time
appointed and accomplished our redemption. And you know why
God sent the Spirit to you and gave you life? He said, and because
you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying,
Abba, Father. We didn't become a child of God
when we believed. It was that He made you a child
of God by divine election, and Christ came and redeemed you,
and that's why He sent you the Spirit and gave you life. Why
do we hate and abhor that lie? Because it steals the glory that
belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why. We hate the lie that
says God saw something in us and that's why He chose us. That
makes salvation to be entirely of works. God chose His people
by His grace, by sovereign grace, by free grace. And you love that
because God gets all of the glory. All of this is in Christ. He
chose us in Christ. He redeemed us in Christ. He
quickened us together with Christ. He called us into Christ. It's
by Christ we're being preserved. This is the glory that belongs
to our God. Before He quickens you, before
He puts the love of God in your heart, you could care less. It
was, let men say what they wanted to, I can sit, well he said some
good things, I'll sit and listen a while, but he's off here and
there and he was just a system of intellectual doctrine. But
when he makes you to know that God is your Father and Christ
is your Redeemer, it's personal then. Now you're talking about
my Father. Now you're talking about my Redeemer.
And it gets personal. It gets personal. You don't just
sit around and go, oh well, he said some bad things about my
dad, but you know, it's okay. No, that's your father. Well,
that's how God's people are about the gospel. We hate the message
that gives sinners some part in salvation because it's robbing
God of the glory that's His. That's why we hate our sin. That's
why we hate our sin. Thank God He revealed the Gospel
to you and He keeps on teaching you and He will not let you go. You know, He hasn't revealed
the Gospel to everybody in this world. I mean, He doesn't even
send the Gospel to some people. You that were born in homes where
you had the Gospel, do you know what a blessing that is? That's
a blessing God gave you. Don't take advantage of that. I pray God will give you the Spirit
and work this in you. Well, let's go to this next thing.
By God's Word working in our hearts, we give God the praise
for justifying us. This is what it's all about right
here, verse 164. He said, seven times a day do
I praise Thee because of Thy righteous judgment. Do you see
where I'm getting these points, brethren? In verse 161, He said,
My heart standeth in awe of Thy Word. We stand in reverence because
of God's Word. We stand when we are persecuted
because of the Word. Verse 162, I rejoice at Thy Word
as one that findeth spoil. That's what the Word makes you
do. Verse 163, I hate and abhor lying, but Thy law do I love. He makes you love the Gospel
of your Redeemer. And then right here, I praise
Thee because of Thy righteous judgment. Seven times in a day. You know the Old Testament saints
really did, they literally did bow and praise God seven times
in a day. And God's people pray without
ceasing. It's a constant, don't you, do you do this when you
think of the Lord, which is often. And don't you just thank him?
Don't you praise and give and say, Lord, just thank you. You
know, prayer does not, don't, don't think that you have to
get in some special posture or something like that. But what,
because that'll keep you from praying. What I'm saying is when
he crosses your mind or thank him and, and, and, and let, and
say what you're thankful for. And if you think of your brethren,
and when you think of them, pray for them. You know, don't just
text, I'm praying for you. When you think of them, pray
for them. And this is what God's people do. It's a living in a
constant communion with God. And he says here though, this
is the point, I praise you. I praise you. And why? Because
of thy righteous judgments. Because of thy righteous judgments.
In the Lord's city, in His church, in His holy mountain, all the
praise and all the glory goes to God our Savior. All of it
does. Listen to Psalm 48. 1. Great
is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God,
in the mountain of holiness. He's right there in Mount Zion.
And every local church He's planted is a city of holiness, every
one of them. And we're all gathered looking
at Him, praising Him, glorifying Him. And He gets all the glory,
because He's great. Great is our God and greatly
to be praised. Our triune God in Christ is great. He's called the Great Shepherd
of the Sheep. He's called our Great High Priest. His salvation is called So Great
Salvation. His mercy is great, the scripture
says. His name shall be great unto
the ends of the earth. Everything about our God is great
and greatly to be praised. God is known in her palaces for
a refuge. That's why we praise Him. He's
a refuge to His people. He said, as we have heard This
is how we know it, the Word. As we've heard, He said, God
will establish it forever. And He said, according to thy
name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy
right hand is full of righteousness. And He said, and let Mount Zion
rejoice. Let the daughters of Judah be
glad because of thy judgments. For this God is our God. forever and ever, He will be
our guide even unto death. What does it mean that we praise
Him for His righteous judgments? Well, everything God does is
God's judgment. Everything He does. And every
word He speaks is His judgment. It's God's discernment on what's
right, and it's His judgment. And everything, every law of
God is His judgment. Everything He works in the earth
is His judgment. And it's all righteous judgments. And here's what, like we saw
in the very first point, all God's righteous judgments declare
you and me absolutely, thoroughly ruined, guilty in sin. And His
righteous judgment is the soul that sinneth must die. Must die. But God in His righteous judgment
knew a way to make His people righteous. He knew a way to save
His people and show us mercy and still be just and honor His
law. And that was by sending His own
Son to come and lay down His life for us. That's God's righteous
judgments. That's His righteous judgments.
For true and righteous are His judgments, for He has judged
the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication
and avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. God has
come to you who know Him, and you know what He's done? He has
spoken His righteous judgment into your heart. This is what
the Hebrew writer was talking about when he said, he purged
your conscience with the blood of Christ. He came and spoke
the verdict into your heart. First he made you hear the verdict
that you're guilty. And you began to mourn and you
began to think there's no hope. See, this is what's going to
have to happen for each of us. We're going to have to hear God
say, we are absolutely, thoroughly guilty. And it's a righteous
judgment. And when you're brought to that
place, that's when we stop objecting, that's when we stop trying to
rebut everything that's taught. That's when we hit our face before
God because we're at the mercy of God. That's when we know we're
at His mercy. And then the Lord shows you that
because Christ laid down His life for His people, He makes
His child know in our heart His righteous judgment is He has
thoroughly and completely purged your sins forever and made you
righteous in Christ. And He's just to be merciful
to you. I know I talk about that all
the time. I will talk about that all the time as long as God gives
me grace to do it because that is what Christ came into this
world for. What do you think the righteousness of God revealed
is? It is Christ Jesus, the righteousness of God. It's how God can be just
and the justifier of His people. This is the wisdom of God. And
this is what we praise our Lord for. And when He's handed that
verdict down in your heart, that's when you, first of all, when
He makes you know you're guilty, you agree with God, I'm guilty.
You take sides with God. And then, when He shows you you're
righteous in Christ, you start praising Him and thanking Him
that He has made you accepted in the Beloved. Lastly, let me
just sum it up. We have great peace, brethren.
This Word gives us great peace. Verse 165, Great peace have they
which love thy law. Nothing shall offend them. Brother
Adam read it. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has given
you peace with God. Christ reconciled His people.
He has come and purged your conscience and He has given you peace in
your conscience with God. Nothing shall offend His people.
The Pharisees, when the Lord said, He told them, He said,
it's not these things that you think are making you a sinner. You think that things you're
putting in your body, things you're touching or not touching
is what's either making you a sinner, sinful or right. He said, that's
not what did it. He said, it's what you are. He
said, you're the sinner. And Peter said, do you know that
offended them? And he told them, he said, if you are trusting
that, the harlots, the whores and the publicans will go in
before you go in. And they were greatly offended
at that. But when he teaches you this and he makes you see
the truth of it brethren, And you take sides with God against
yourself, then you are thankful God has made you righteous by
Christ, and nothing offends you then. Nothing offends you. Whatever
God says, you delight in it. If God convicts you, you say,
Amen. Amen. You have peace with God
now. You have peace with God now.
Why did they stumble so? It says, that word there in the
margin says, offended means stumbling block. And they stumbled because
they weren't seeking God's righteousness by faith, they were seeking it
by the works of the law. And it says, for they stumbled
at that stumbling stone. As it's written, God said, Behold,
I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. God did
it on purpose. He offended them on purpose.
But He also saved on purpose. Them that believe shall not be
ashamed. You'll not be confounded. And so He made peace with God
for us. And I'm out of time, but... So he gives you the hope,
the helmet of salvation, and he brings you to this place where
you know you want to keep all his law. You want to keep all
his law. And you would keep all his law.
Paul said, I delight in the law of God, and that which I would
do, he said, I don't do it. He said, but I would. I would,
and you would. But he's made you honest to know,
you don't go around boasting like poor folks do. But He has
made you know that in Christ, through faith in the Lord Jesus,
you have... Listen, what men call obedience
is not obedience. What Christ did is obedience.
That's what God demands. And when He brings you to see
where He says here, I've hoped for thy salvation and done thy
commandments. My soul hath kept thy testimonies.
I love them exceedingly. I've kept thy precepts and thy
testimonies for all my ways are before you. You know David can't
be saying that entirely just saying that he's done that. Because
in the last verse of the next section, he says, Father, save
me. I've gone astray like a lost sheep. But Christ could say that
unequivocally because He did it. And it's through faith that
we have. Go to Romans 3 and we'll end
with this. I've kept you longer than I meant
to. Romans 3. Through faith, brethren. Through
faith. Did you notice there, David said,
it's in my soul. And in your soul, in your new
man, He's giving you faith. to keep his precept, to trust
the Lord, believe on the Lord. In that new man is no sin. But
that's not what you're trusting. You're trusting Christ. And through
faith in Christ, we have established the whole law of God. Look here
at Romans 3, verse 31. You go home and read, Paul is
clearly saying we're justified by Christ alone, made righteous
by Christ's obedience only. Verse 31, he says, Do we then
make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. And he's saying through faith
we do it. What shall we say then that Abraham,
our father, is pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if
Abraham were justified by works, he hath work of the glory, but
not before God. For what saith the Scripture?
Abraham believed in God and it was counting to him for righteousness. That's the whole subject he's
been talking about, brethren. The only way you and me can say
that we have kept all the precepts of God is to trust His Son who
established the law for us. But if you believe His Son, that's
so, brethren. Now, if you've experienced the
power of God and the power of this Word working all these things
in your heart, you know what the result will be? Just like
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of
it. I'll declare it. I'll preach
it as much as in me is because I know this. And here's what
I'll do. I'll preach it. I'm going to ask God to bless
it. And I'm going to try my best to stay out of the way and wait
on him to bless it. Because he's the only one that
can work this in the hearts of his people. But that's what he
does through the preaching of the gospel. I pray he bless that. Amen. I read it, man.