You know, my dad had to deal
with cancer this past year. And if there would have been
a doctor that we'd have known of that had a 100% success rate
at healing cancer, you better believe we'd have found that
doctor and went to him in a heartbeat. If you were out to sea and you
were in a ship, and that ship had a large hole in it, and it's
going down. And it's just about to go on
end, and it's fixing to go under the sea. You want an old dilapidated
boat that comes by, and it's got about four or five holes
in it, and water's just pouring in it, and men are bailing water,
and there's an old rickety captain on there, and he said to you,
I'll take you on here, but you're going to have to bail water.
We might make it to shore, we might not. You want that boat
or you want a big old coast guard cutter that comes by with big
old strapping men that's practiced to save you in cases like that
that just tell you, just hold on, we got it covered. Which
one you want? Well, I'm here preaching a God
to you that has a 100% success rate. He's the God who is who
is skilled at saving his people and he's never lost one. Do you
know the sad thing is, is when it comes to the gospel, men want
that old doctor that is a quack that can't do anything for you.
Men want that old rickety boat so that you have to bail water
to, to try to get to heaven. That's what men want by now.
You know why? Because we're so blind and stupid
in sin. It takes God to make you see
what you need is God who's really God, who does not fail. That's the God I'm here to tell
you about. Psalm 25.8 says, Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore will He teach sinners
in the way. The meek will He guide in judgment,
and the meek will He teach His way. Now, this is an amazing
therefore. It says in verse 8, good and
upright is the Lord, therefore will He teach sinners in the
way. You might expect that to read,
good and upright is the Lord, therefore He won't have anything
to do with any sinners. You might read that, good and
upright is the Lord, and therefore He won't show mercy to any sinners.
That's what we'd expect to see. Good and upright is the Lord,
therefore He won't ever forgive any sinners." But He doesn't
say that. You see, when we're in our sin,
and in pride, and in our confusion, and we're offended at others,
we want God to do that. We want Him to say, I'm good
and I'm holy, I'm not going to do a thing for you. But that's
our sin. That's our confusion. That's
our pride. God's not that way. Our text
says God's not like us. God is good and He's upright
and therefore God will teach sinners in the way. Now first
here, there's two perfections of God that are declared. Good
and upright is the Lord. God is good. He's essentially
good. He's good. He alone is good.
And it's because of God's goodness that He will have mercy on sinners,
and that He is longsuffering toward sinners, and that He is
forgiving toward sinners, and that He is gracious toward sinners.
That is all included in this word good. All the good things we think
of when we think of God, that is what is included in this word
good. Look at Exodus 33.19. God showed Moses this. Exodus
33.16. I'm sorry, Exodus 33, 19. God said, I'll make all my goodness
pass before thee. And I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And will show mercy on whom I
will show mercy. So go down to Exodus 34 then
and look at verse 6. And the Lord passed by before
him. And he proclaimed, he's making all his goodness pass
before him. He said, the Lord, the Lord God,
now here's his goodness, merciful and gracious, long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, Now that's God's goodness. And then there's another perfection
listed in our text and that's God is upright. And that means
God is holy and He's just and He's righteous. Now look at the
rest of verse 7, Exodus 34, 7. Here's His uprightness. He will
by no means clear the guilty. You mean by no means? By no means. He will not clear
the guilty. He visits the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children. This is His chastening hand.
And upon the children's children until the third to the fourth
generation. Remember how He did that to David? All through David's
life He chastened him. Now look at verse 8. And Moses
made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and he worshipped
God. You see, because God is good and upright, therefore God
will not abandon or forsake sinners who God chooses to be merciful
to, and whom God chooses to be gracious to. He won't abandon
them. Now get what I'm saying to you.
If God ever chooses, if He ever chose in eternity, from eternity,
before He made anything, if He chose to be gracious to you,
can you just for a minute, just for a minute, try to think. Instead
of thinking, well, I don't like election, that puts me outside
of good. Just for a minute, put yourself
on the side of the elect. And think about it this way.
Think about it this way. God chose me in eternity. Think
about it this way. That means God won't ever abandon
me. He won't ever do it. He will
save me. He won't take no for an answer.
He will save me. You want that? Do you want that
God who's that old dilapidated boat, got a leak sprung, saying,
you're going to have to help me out? If you know anything
about yourself, you don't want a God that needs your help. Do
you? But God's upright and He's good,
so He won't abandon one sinner He's chosen to be merciful to.
He's going to be merciful and gracious and long-suffering.
He's going to forgive us. He's going to keep us. That's
what He's promised. And then look, because He's good
and upright, He won't allow one of His chosen people to walk
in our vain ways. Not one. You see, His justice
is included in this too. He won't allow us to go on in
a vain way. Here's what He's going to do.
He's going to teach sinners our vain way. And He is going to
teach us true judgment. And He is going to make us walk
in His way. Because He is just. He is good
and He is just. They are both included. His goodness
and His justice is included in His mercy and His grace. And His goodness and His justice
is included in how He deals with His people. Now, be sure to get
here before we move on in our text, back in our text. Be sure
to get who the teacher is and who the guide is. It's not me,
and it's not you. The teacher and the guide in
our text is the Lord. It says there in Psalm 25, it
says in verse 8, good and upright is the Lord, therefore will He
teach sinners in the way. The meek will He guide in judgment,
and the meek will He teach His way. You see that? He's the teacher. He's the guide. We see an example
of it with Moses. Moses is out there in the wilderness.
And there's a bunch of people out there in the wilderness with
Moses. And they all call themselves believers. But there's only a
couple out there that really believe God. Most of them don't
even believe God. But God's going to... He wouldn't
abandon Moses. And He wouldn't abandon Joshua.
And He wouldn't abandon Caleb. And God took Moses and He put
him in the cleft of the rock. He said, I'm going to make my
goodness pass before you. I'm going to teach you your sin.
I'm going to teach you my judgment. And I'm going to teach you my
way. So He put him in the cleft of the rock. Well, did God succeed
teaching him? God always succeeds. If God's
got something that He's teaching you, guiding you into, He's not
going to come and make a gentle suggestion. and hope you get
it. But if you don't, he's just going
to be frustrated and you'll go on your way. No, you're going
to get it. You're going to get it. And Moses
got it. It says there, Moses made haste
and bowed his head toward the earth and he worshipped God.
He got it. Because God's the teacher, the
effectual teacher, and He never fails to teach His child. Now
do you see how wonderful that statement is, that therefore
is? God is good and upright, therefore will He teach sinners
in the way. Now secondly, we're told who
God will teach and guide. But there first it says, therefore
will He teach sinners. Therefore will He teach sinners.
God only teaches sinners. It's the only people He teaches
are sinners. Are you a sinner? God only teaches
sinners. What is a sinner? Go to Romans
3. I want you to stay there just
a minute. Romans 3. Look at verse 23. Here's what
a sinner is. Do you know what we just looked
at? And we looked at what God showed Moses. He told Moses,
I'm going to show you my glory. I'll make all my goodness pass
before you. Alright, that mercy, that justice, that long-suffering,
that graciousness, that keeping of mercy and forgiveness and
by no means clearing the guilty, that's God's glory. Okay, then
now look, here's what a sinner is. Verse 23, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. We just read that glory
God showed Moses. Now, have you fallen short? Let
me ask you this, have you fallen short of being perfectly merciful
and gracious? Long-suffering, abundant in goodness
and truth, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Have
you been perfectly righteous and holy in that? Have you been
perfectly righteous and holy in perfect justice? By no means
clear in the guilty. Now, I'm not talking about toward
those that treat you nice and treat you good. I'm talking about
towards those that despise you and reject you and spit in your
face. Towards them. I don't hear anybody speaking
up. See, we've all sinned and come
short of that glory of God. But you see, God won't receive
us to where we measure up to that glory. How on earth then
can God receive me? Just hang on. Paul told us over
there what a sinner is in Romans 3. I won't have you read it again,
but he said there's none righteous. You see, a sinner is somebody
that knows that in my flesh I'm not righteous. He said there,
there's none that understandeth or seeks God. A sinner is somebody
that knows if God hadn't sought me and given me an understanding,
I never would have sought Him or understand how He saves sinners.
I'd have never done it. That's a sinner. You see, He
said, they're all going out of the way, they're unprofitable,
there's none that doeth good, no, not one. A sinner knows that's
true of me. That's speaking of me. I'm not
thinking of somebody else when I read that. That's me right
there. That's a sinner. And then over in Romans 5, He
told us this. He told us in Romans 5, when
we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5, 6. When we were yet
without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
A sinner is somebody who's totally, thoroughly without strength.
That means there's nothing you can do to save yourself from
any aspect of it. You're without strength. Without
strength. The sinner is the man who's been
knocked unconscious and is at the bottom of the swimming pool
and is sucked up on the drain down there. And if somebody don't
pull him out and resuscitate him and get him to breathing
again, that's it. Because he can't do a thing.
That person got to bring him from the bottom to the top, do
everything to get him breathing again. That's us. From the beginning of salvation
until we get to glory, that's us. Now, isn't that true of all
men? Aren't all men ungodly? Every
single person sinned in Adam. He represented everybody. We
all came from him. Everybody sinned in Adam and
everybody died in Adam and so sin and death passed upon us
all. That's true of everybody. And everybody in this world comes
short of the glory of God and is ungodly and commits sin and
thought, word and deed every day all the time. Not everybody. But here's the difference. Not
everybody will admit it. And the person that won't admit
it says to God, I'm not a sinner. Oh, he'll use the term, I'm a
sinner, but aren't we all? Oh, I'm a sinner, but now don't
dare make it personal. A sinner is somebody that knows
there's nothing about him that's worth anything. I'll tell you what, by nature
we won't confess we're sinners, and even as believers, when we're
accused, we sit here and hear this, say yes, amen. But when we get accused of something
by somebody, our knee-jerk reaction is to defend ourselves, cast
blame on them, and justify ourselves. And we're showing by that, that
that old man in us does not believe. There's a part of me that says,
no, I'm not a sinner. I'll show you I'm not. I'm going
to defend myself. Let me tell you something. If
I get accused of sin by somebody, or I get accused of unfaithfulness
in any way, this is what I try to remember. I'm just thankful
that's all they said. Because there's a whole lot more
they could have brought up. A whole lot more. Aren't you
thankful they didn't say everything that could have been said? Aren't
you thankful they didn't say all the things that only you
know about? Aren't you thankful? Well, now since it's true by
nature we won't acknowledge we're sinners, and since it's true
that God only teaches sinners, then for God to come and teach
a person he's a sinner, that means this whole thing's got
to be by God's grace, don't it? It is. It's all by God's grace. The only way you're going to
find out you're a sinner is God will come and teach your sinner. And why will God do that? Because
He's good and He's upright. Therefore, will He teach sinners
in the way by His sovereign free grace. That's right. Then He
tells us another characteristic of those God teaches. Verse 9.
The meek will He guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach His
way. The meek. Who are the meek? Well, the meek
is that person who walks around with his head down, and, oh,
preacher, you don't know what a sinner I am, and you don't
know what things I've done, how bad I am, and all that stuff.
Always telling you about his sin, always wanting you to know
about his sin. No, that's not the meek. That man is so proud
of what he's doing, he could bust a scene. The meek is the
man, and this is what the word means, he's lowly, he's afflicted,
he's poor, he's needy, he's broken, he's contrite to the point he
can't even lift his head up. All he can do is ask God, save
me. That's a meek person. You know
why Moses is called the meekest man on earth? He was constantly
barraged by people. They didn't believe him. They
didn't trust him. They kept ridiculing him and
accusing him of everything in the world. He's trying to lead
them as God directs him. You know why he's called the
meekest man in the world? He didn't let people run over him.
That don't mean you're meek. You know what he did? He turned
around and hid his face before God and said, God, help me. Save us. That's a meek man. broken. He knows I can't do it. I can't
save anything. I can't do a thing only God can
save. That's a meek man. But, just
like the sinner, we can't make ourselves meek. We can't do that. Ephesians 2 says that we by nature
have the spirit of the devil. We're under the power of the
prince of the air by nature. That's how we come into the world.
Now what's his spirit? What's the spirit of the devil?
Turn to Isaiah 14. Here it is. Here's Lucifer. Here's his spirit right here.
And this is the spirit we're born with. And you'll know this
is true. You're going to recognize this
about yourself when you hear it. Now look at this. Isaiah
14, 13. Here's what the devil said in
his heart. I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. You see, the devil believes in
free will. I will, I will, I will. Look at what God says will happen. The next verse, Yet thou shalt
be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. Now, have you
ever tried to teach a proud know-it-all? Somebody that's proud and thinks
they know everything. Have you ever tried to teach
them anything? You're wasting your time. You can't teach them
nothing. You can't teach them a thing. Well, that's what we
are by nature. We're proud and we know it all.
If you can find me one person on the street, just go up and
ask anybody this week, find me one person that will say, I don't
know a thing about God. I don't know a thing about the
Scriptures. I'm lost and undone. I need God to teach me. Could
you help me? And if you can find one, I'll
give you my bank account. I'm not saying I'm giving you
much, but I'll give you my bank account. You won't find one. You won't, unless he's a child
of God. I'm telling you that. So before
God teaches His child, you know what He's going to do? He's going
to break our stony heart, He's going to break our stiff neck,
and He's going to bring us down, and He's going to make us teachable.
He's going to make us meek. He's going to break us. He said,
a new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within
you, and I'll take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and
I'll give you a heart of flesh. And God does this in the first
hour when He begins to save His child and He don't stop doing
this, He keeps on doing it throughout the life of faith. And why is
that necessary for a believer? Because of our sinful nature.
We get puffed up in pride. We get to thinking we know something
and we get haughty and arrogant and all the while think we're
meek while it's going on. We begin to judge others and
we begin to cry down fire on other people. Even brethren. We'll do that to brethren. David
sinned against God. He committed adultery and he
committed murder. This is a minister of God. King
of Israel. He committed adultery and committed
murder. You know, I know there's people
that... People have written me off for
far less than adultery and murder. for four or less. David committed
adultery and murder. David knew he committed adultery
and murder because he tried to cover it up. He knew he'd done
it. When God's prophet told him the
story of that rich man, that rich man, you know, he had all
these cattle and all this cattle and there was a poor man down
there that didn't have anything but just one little lamb. And
that rich man had a friend come to his house, and instead of
going out and taking all his cattle from amongst his cattle,
he went down there and took that poor man's one little lamb. And
God's preacher told him that story. You know the first words
out of David's mouth? This man knows, for nine months
he's been trying to cover this up with everything he can. Killed
his best friend, because it was her husband. And he tried his
best to cover this up. You know what the first words
out of his mouth was? That man should die. That man's guilty. I'm the king and nobody in my
kingdom is going to do anything like that rich man has done and
insult my throne. I'll have that man executed. And Nathan said, David, thou
art the man. Thou art the man. Do you know
the next words that came out of David's mouth toward God?
Look at Psalm 51. I'll show you. You'd think David cried out in
anger and said, God, pour out fierce justice on me. Here's what he cried. Psalm 51.1,
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according
unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. You see, God broke David's heart and He made him meek and lowly
and needy. That made him teachable. And
then he taught David. He taught David. Now be sure
you hear this, so long as you hear the Word of God, so long
as I hear the Word of God, and I think of those who have offended
me, deserve justice. As long as I'm doing that, I'm
yet in my pride. I'm yet unteachable. And God
won't teach that old sinful, haughty, arrogant, proud man
anything. He won't teach that man anything.
He won't teach that man in me or you. He wouldn't teach him
in David. But if you're His, God will break
that stubborn man and He'll give you a new heart and therein God
will teach you that thou art the man. You're the man who's transgressed
against God every single day, the chief of sinners. Thou art
the man who deserves the fiery justice of God. Thou art the
man yet to whom God shows tender mercy in harmony with his justice. That's what God will make you
see and understand. And that's how God makes a meek
man. And only God can make a meek
man. And God will show you this. Look down at Psalm 51, 17. The
sacrifices of God, it's not burnt offerings and it's not all these
things men are doing to try to make it right with God. Here's
what God's interested in right here. A broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart. Oh God, thou wilt not despise. Only God can give you that. Now,
nothing makes us so proud, nothing makes us so self-exalting as
being offended by another sinner. But I want you to hear this word
from God. Look at 1 Peter 5.5. And I pray God will speak this
into your heart and make it effectual. Look here at 1 Peter 5.5. Nothing makes us so proud as
being offended by another sinner. God will not save a proud man.
He's going to bring you down and make you contrite. But look
at this, verse 5. Look at the second part of it
there. Wait a minute, let me make sure
I've got it right here. Go to 2 Peter 5. No, that's not right either.
Oh, all right. 1 Peter 5.5. I'm sorry. I was
in the wrong place. 1 Peter 5.5. Look at the second
part there. The last part. God resisteth
the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Now, I just showed
you how God had to humble David. And once God humbled him and
told him, Thou art a man, this is what God made of him affectionately
here to make him cry out for mercy. Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, that He may teach you in due
time. Casting all your care upon Him,
for He careth for you. You see, until you're brought
there, to where you can do this, because you see, there's nothing
else you can do. God's just brought you down to
see. If you're so guilty, and you're in such need of mercy,
there's nothing you can do but just bow down before God, under
His hand, and cast your care on Him. That's it. No way to
fix it. That's it. That's all you can
do. And see, anything else is us trying to exalt ourselves.
But did you catch there where he said, bow down under God's
hand and He will exalt you when it's time, in due time. And that
way you won't do it, He'll do it. He'll do it. But only, He
won't do it while we're proud. But if we're His, He's going
to bring us down. He's going to humble us. He's
going to make us meek. And then He'll do it. He'll teach us.
Now lastly, lastly, back in our text, Psalm 25. We're told what
God teaches us once He's made us meek. There's three things
here. Three things. First, God will
teach you that your way is sinful. Verse 8, Therefore he will teach
sinners in the way. Now you see there, he says he'll
teach sinners in the way, and then at the end there he says
he'll teach sinners his way. He'll teach the meek his way.
Now right here, the first thing God always does is He's going
to bring His child to confess that we are in our way. And He's
going to make you to see that our way is only evil and sin. We always choose that way. That's
the way we choose. That's our way. And God's going
to teach you, just like He taught David. If He is, He's going to
teach you, thou art the man. He's going to teach you, don't
look at sinners out there, and don't look at sinners that have
offended you, and don't try to say, well, I'm better than them,
or I hadn't done what they've done, or whatever. No, no, no,
no, no. God will deal with them. God
will deal with them. But that's not your business
or my business. My business is, I must be made to see and confess,
I'm the chief of sinners. So that's the first thing He's
going to teach me. And here's the second thing. Once He's made
you meek, man, broke your heart, made you confess your sin, David,
when you read on in Psalm 51, he said, Lord, against Thee and
Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight, that
You might be just when You speak. He took sides with God against
Himself. And that's where we've got to be brought. And once He
brought us to that point, God will guide His child in judgment.
Verse 9, the meek will He guide in judgment. When He breaks our heart, makes
us see our sin, you know what He makes us do? And He does this
over and over and over. He makes you cry out to God,
how can He have mercy on a sinner like me? How can he be just and
justify a sinner, a wretch like I am? How can God, how can He
pour out justice on me? He said He does not clear the
guilty. How can He slay me? How can He
pour out and satisfy justice on me and cast me into eternal
hell forever? That's what justice demands of
me. How can He do that and at the same time show me mercy and
save me and bring me to live with Him forever? How can He
do that? Where did God show Moses His glory? in the cleft of the
rock. And the place that God shows
you to bring you to understand true judgment is He shows you
the Lord Jesus Christ crucified at Calvary's tree. There's where
you see God being just and killing every one of His people because
we earned it. And there's where you see God
at the same time being merciful and saving us. Romans 3 says
to declare His righteousness. That's what Christ was doing,
declaring God's righteousness. That God might be just, because
He will by no means clear the guilty. And that He might be
the justifier of everyone that He's going to bring to believe
on Him. And that's what He brings you to see. There's true judgment.
There's where true judgment is. You see God's goodness, and His
mercy, and His long-suffering, and His loving-kindness, and
His forgiveness, and you see God's uprightness. You see His
divine justice, the full penalty of the law. You see God's just
wrath toward me, the transgressor. Where? Where do you see those
together? In Christ on the cross. You have
justice and mercy. kissing one another in perfect
harmony. You have God's goodness and God's
uprightness meeting together in perfect harmony on Christ
on the cross. The reason it's eternally effectual,
the reason it's eternally has accomplished the purpose is because
that was God, the God-man there. He's the man who is God, who
everything He did had an eternal efficacy about it, because He's
eternal. So He eternally redeemed His
people. And God guides His meek child into that true judgment
when He guides you into Christ through faith. The Lord, through His minister,
told David this, after He brought him to see thou art the man.
God used His minister to teach him this, The Lord also hath
put away thy sin, and thou shalt not die. How could that be? Only in Christ. Only because God put him in Christ.
When God guides us into Christ, that's when judgment starts to
reign in our hearts. True judgment. Confusion and
anger and malice is no longer reigning the day. Unjust judgments no longer rule
in our heart. That's when we understand God's
judgment and start to be constrained by the love of Christ. And it
has to take place over and over and over again. God has to bring
us there over and over and over again. Break our heart all over
again and show us you're guilty, but I've been merciful to you.
That's when you'll have true judgment. And what is this? That's
the next thing. Then he says God teaches His
child His way. He'll teach you His way. Look
at verse 9. And the meek will He teach His way. He's going
to teach sinners that our way is sinful. He's made you meek
then when He's done that. And He's going to teach the meek
judgment. He's going to show you Christ
in crucifixion. Show you there's where He justifies His people.
And then He's going to teach the meek His way. What's that? Turn to Ephesians 4. This is
where you'll be brought when that happens. But not until then.
Not until then. That confusion, that malice,
all that envy and strife, it'll just... Sad thing is, is that
stuff reigns in our hearts and we call it glorifying God. We call it defending the justice
of God and the righteousness of God and the mercy of God and
the truth of God until God makes us see, no, that's nothing but
your flesh. But then here's true judgment, here's His way He brings
you into right here. Psalm 431, He teaches you this,
let all bitterness, every bit of it, Ephesians 431, let all
bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking,
everything that's been ruling your heart, while you're crying
down fire on your brethren and on everybody else that you think
is guilty, not as righteous as you are. He said, put all that
away. With all malice, put it all away. Verse 32, and be ye kind one
to another, tender hearted, tender hearted, forgiving one another,
even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore
followers of God as dear children." We don't even have any dear children
in here anymore. We've got some that's close,
but what's a dear child? I guess that one you holding
back there is like a dear child. What's a dear child? That's that
one that just still come to you and just look at you like everything
revolves around you. You can do anything. There's
nothing too hard for you. You're Daddy. You're Daddy. Trouble comes, I'm coming to
you. That's a dear child. Follow God like Daddy said. And
then he says this, "...and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us,
and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to
God for a sweet-smelling savor." Which way sounds like our way? Which way sounds like God's way?
Does this sound like God's way? Bitterness and wrath and anger
and clamor and evil speaking and all malice? That sounds like
our way, don't it? What sounds like God's way? Kindness, tenderhearted, forgiveness,
even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. That's God's
way. I pray God, He's good and He's
just and because of that, He's not going to forsake His people.
He's going to teach us we're sinners. He's going to break
our heart. He's going to make us meek and
He's going to teach us that true judgment is what He did at Calvary.
You can put your pointer finger away and quit saying this should
be justice and this is what ought to be done, this is what should
be done and I can't believe this and I can't believe that. You
don't even know what judgment is. Look at the cross. There's judgment. And in that
man is taught God's way. Forgiveness. Tenderheartedness. Amen. Alright, Brother Eric.