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Clay Curtis

Three Requests

Psalm 9:19-20
Clay Curtis • June, 28 2012 • Audio
3 Articles 2,478 Sermons
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Clay Curtis
Clay Curtis • June, 28 2012
3 articles 2,478 sermons
To read along with notes click on the external link.
What does the Bible say about God judging the wicked?

The Bible teaches that God will judge the wicked righteously, as seen in Psalm 9:19-20.

In Psalm 9:19-20, the believer intercedes, asking God to arise and let not man prevail. This reflects the belief that God is the ultimate judge who will execute justice according to His will. Throughout Scripture, we see that God's judgment is just, and He promises to protect His elect while judging the wicked. As expressed in Isaiah 45:13, God commands all His dealings, ensuring that His judgments are always right and just. We find comfort in knowing that God's judgment is not in man's hands but in the hands of a righteous God who will not let evildoers escape unpunished.

Psalm 9:19-20, Isaiah 45:13

How do we know that God keeps His promises?

God's faithfulness in keeping promises is affirmed throughout Scripture, particularly in His covenant with His elect.

God's steadfastness in keeping His promises is a foundational aspect of His character. As seen in 2 Corinthians 1:20, all the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ. This means that God's vows to His people are solidified through the work and sacrifice of Jesus. Furthermore, in Ezekiel 36:36, God affirms His commitment to restore and bless His people, assuring that His words will come to pass. The covenant established through the blood of Christ guarantees that He will not abandon His elect, as Paul reassures in Romans 8:38-39 that nothing can separate us from God's love.

2 Corinthians 1:20, Ezekiel 36:36, Romans 8:38-39

Why is the fear of God important for Christians?

The fear of God is crucial as it leads to wisdom, understanding, and a proper relationship with Him.

The fear of God is a vital aspect of a believer's faith, representing a holy reverence and respect for God's authority and character. Proverbs 9:10 states that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This recognition of God's sovereignty helps us understand our place as sinners saved by grace, fostering humility and dependence upon Him. Furthermore, fearing God means acknowledging His holiness and justice while also embracing His mercy, as we see in Psalm 34:9, which says, "Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! For to those who fear Him there is no want." This reverence invites us to seek His ways and cultivate a relationship grounded in worship and obedience.

Proverbs 9:10, Psalm 34:9

How does God's judgment differ from human judgment?

God's judgment is based on perfect righteousness, while human judgment is often corrupted and flawed.

God's judgment stands apart from human judgment in its absolute righteousness and incorruptibility. As noted in Psalm 9:19-20, divine judgment is executed by a perfectly just God who neither overlooks sin nor shows favoritism. Unlike earthly judges, whom can be influenced or corrupted, God's verdicts are fully just and reflect His holiness. This is critical for believers to grasp, especially in difficult times when human justice appears to fail. Isaiah 30:18 reminds us that the Lord is a just and loving judge who waits to be gracious. As such, believers find comfort in knowing that God will always execute justice in alignment with His character, ensuring that the innocent are vindicated and the wicked are held accountable.

Psalm 9:19-20, Isaiah 30:18

Sermon Transcript

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Psalm 9, and we're going to just
be in verses 19 and 20. And this really is a constant
intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ before the Father. And this is our prayer. This
is the prayer of the believer. It begins in verse 19, Arise,
O Lord. By faith we see that God the
Father and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is seated upon
His throne of judgment. And He's working judgment in
this earth right now, just like a judge presides over a courtroom. Our God, our Savior, resides
over heaven and earth, just like a judge right there over a courtroom.
And He speaks, and whenever He arises, the fierceness of the
ungodly, as ungodly as they may appear, as powerful as they may
appear, their fierceness immediately bows to Him. This is who God
is. So what I want you to see is,
however proud and however strong our enemies may appear, they're
in the hand of our God. So our prayer to God is, arise,
O Lord. That's our prayer. Arise, O Lord.
I've titled this Three Requests, and we're just going to divide
this into three headings here. Here's the first one, verse 19.
Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail. Here's the second thing, the
second request. We ask for God to do what He
judges to be right in His sight. Look at verse 19. Let the heathen
be judged in thy sight. And then thirdly, we ask that
God would call out His elect from among them. Verse 20, put
them in fear, O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to
be but men. Now let's look at these three
requests. Let not man prevail. Now if man
was to prevail in this earth, If man just had what he boasts
about his free will, and man was actually enabled to just
have his free reign, there's three things that would happen.
The first thing man would do is he would take God off his
throne. The second thing is he would separate God's people from
God. And the third thing is man would
destroy mankind. That's exactly what would happen
if man prevailed, if man had his way. All of that would happen
for covetousness, for self-gain. Man in his fallen condition,
the natural man, he is a selfish, fallen, covetous, self-seeking,
vain creature. He's ruled by money. He's ruled
by self-gain. Paul said the love of money,
the love of money, the heart-craving, selfish gain self-sufficiency,
that heart, that love of money is the root of all evil, is the
root of all evil. That means all evil. Selfish
gain makes judgment and righteousness. It makes the truth and mercy
and judgment and righteousness to take a back seat. And oppression
oppression and unjust dealings take the day. They rule the day. I want to give you three examples.
I was talking recently to some of you, and I want you to stay
with me on these three illustrations because I want to show you something
at the end of them. But I was talking with some of
you recently. I watched this documentary. It's several years
old now, but I was watching this thing about Monsanto, the company
Monsanto. And they have, the Supreme Court
gave them a patent on seed. And when I read that, heard that,
it scared me because I thought, that's going back to the very
beginning. That's going back, God made the seed. That's going
back to, you get a patent on life? You get a patent on something
you can't control, the birds carry it where they will and
drop it, the winds carry it where they will and drop it, and you
got a patent on it? That means nobody else can use
it but you. or they get to pay you to use it a patent. Well, the slogan was and this
is what whoever owns the seed controls the food. And whoever
controls the food, controls the money. That's what's behind it
all. And as I watched this thing,
they talked about how that all their former company lawyers
that work for how many of them now are in government. And the
top brass have gone into government agencies and back to the company,
and back to government agencies two or three times. Two or three
times. And they give out large campaign
contributions, and they ensure that their company's agenda is
going to be fulfilled, whether it's a Democrat or Republican
in the White House. It doesn't matter. And they get
that money back, most of it, because the farmers have to buy
seed from them. And then they'd have to buy pest
control from them. And they're getting, the farmers
mainly are getting it from government subsidies. So they get their
money back. The company gets that money,
those campaign contributions, they almost get it all back.
And they've gone and they've bought up every seed company
in the world. So they own it. And then they
quit. They just shelve all the rest of the seed and they're
breaking it down to about five strains of seed. And that's it.
And they own it. They own that seed. They own
it completely. And they got a team of investigators,
lawyers, to go out and they check the farmers to see if they're
saving seed. Or if they have seed growing
in their crops, that's their patented seed. And if they do,
they got a team of loggers that can go out and find them or shut
them down. And they've done it repeatedly.
They've done it to the farmers repeatedly. The love of money
is the root of all evil, all evil. Listen carefully. The tree
called fallen mankind. has the love of self-gain coursing
from its very roots into all its branches, so that the only
fruit that depraved man produces is poison. That's it. Is poison
fruit. And a very real practical case
in point is, that seed that's going out to be planted, say
corn seed that's going out to be planted, you know what it's
labeled? A pesticide. In the bag that's going out there
to be planted, it's labeled a pesticide. You know why? Nothing can kill
it. Pest can't kill it. They get
into it and eat it and they'll die without anything being sprayed
on it. They'll die. The very best men
can do is that, that's an example of it. All men have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. That's the fruit we produce.
Almost everything we do in this life has at the root of it what's
in it for me. what's in it for me, and that's
what determines greatly what men do in this earth. How am
I going to be benefited for it? That's how I'll vote. All right,
then you got religion. Religion, false religion, wheel-working,
self-righteous religion. It's corrupted by money, too.
It's corrupted by gain. I've told you repeatedly that
the attractants that attract people, you got to have a preacher
that's got a doctorate of divinity. You've got to have a nice building.
You've got to have some programs that people will be attracted
by. And all of those things cost lots of money. They cost lots
and lots of money. Now, if you preach the gospel
of Christ and Him crucified, that's not going to attract men.
That's not going to make you any money. Because when you preach
Christ and Him crucified, it puts a man in the dust. And natural
men don't want to hear that. It puts Christ victorious, triumphant
in the finished work of redemption upon the cross and declares he's
calling out his elect from the four corners of the earth. And
he's triumphant and he shall not fail. And when folks are
added to the church through that message, it's the Lord that adds
to the church daily, such as should be said. But in order
to pay for the attractants, those other things that attract, you
got to preach up man, you got to preach God down. You got to
preach up man's activities and all man's going to and fro and
all his religious deeds and preach down the finished work of Christ
and the work that Christ is accomplishing in the earth right now and shall
accomplish. Because if you don't, it's offensive. And that's the only message that's
going to attract men. But when you do that, Psalm 12,
8 says the wicked walk on every side when the vilest men are
exalted. Men will flock to hear that message
because it puts something in man's hand to glory him. Well,
that's not all, brethren. Those are just two examples of
corruption in this world. That's not all. There's unseen
corruption. There's corruption, that power
that's much more evil than what you and I have ever seen or ever
detected in this earth that's going on in this earth that's
going on right now. Paul said we wrestle not against
flesh and blood. but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. This is evil you and
I can't see. This is evil spirit, evil works
that we can't even see, that's much more corrupt, much more
powerful than just flesh and blood. Well, turn over to Isaiah
5. I know these things strike fear
in our hearts. And as I was watching this myself
and looking at it, I began to... I mean, it struck fear in my
heart. I thought, that is crazy how corrupt this world is. And
how ungodly in the pulpit and in the civil ruler everywhere,
how ungodly it is. And it strikes fear in our heart.
But remember this, brethren, corruption is not a new thing.
This is not a new thing. Sin and corruption is as old
as sin and sinners is. It's not anything new. How in
the world has man not destroyed man already? How in the world
has man not dethroned God and separated God from his people
already throughout the history of this world? It's because God
prevails, that's why. Look here at this. Israel's rulers
were corrupted. I'm just going to give you one
example in the past that we have from scripture. Israel's rulers
were corrupted, both their religious and civil rulers. Isaiah 5, 7. He said, the vineyard of the
Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. This is my vineyard.
I planted all this, he said. And the men of Judah, his pleasant
plant. And he looked for judgment. But
behold, oppression. He looked for righteousness,
but behold a cry. That's how men were dealing with
one another. Look over at Isaiah 9 and look
at verse 15. Isaiah 9, 15. The ancient and
the honorable, he's the head. And the prophet that teaches
lies, he's the tail. For the leaders of this people
caused them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed.
Therefore the Lord shall have no pleasure, no joy in their
young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and
widows, for everyone's a hypocrite and an evildoer, and ever mouth
speaketh folly. How then, look over at Isaiah
42, how then, how then are we going to be saved? Don't look
to man. Don't look to man. Don't look to the corruption
and think that we're going to expect to find a cure in the
cancer. We're not going to find the cure in the cancer. We're
not going to find the cure by looking to man. Not at all. Don't
look to protest groups of men and legislative bodies made of
men. Our strength's not in man. It's
not in man. Look to the Lord whose hand is
working all these things together for good to them that are the
called, to them that love God according to His purpose. Look
to Him. We don't have to drive to Washington, D.C. We don't
have to make our voice heard in the Capitol. We have the ear
of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You know what the only
thing we need to do? Go in our closet and cry, arise,
O Lord. Let not man prevail. Look, the
Lord won't end the evil just yet. He's not going to end the
evil, but He'll speak peace to our hearts. And the peace He
speaks to our hearts is fear not. Look at Isaiah 42, 13. The
Lord shall go forth as a mighty man. He shall stir up jealousy
like a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar. He shall
prevail against His enemies. Look over at Isaiah 45. Listen,
when you turn in there, let me read this to you from 1 Samuel
2, 9. And listen to this carefully. He will keep the feet of his
saints. He will keep the feet of his
saints. And the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by
strength shall no man prevail. It looks like it, but they won't.
Man can be bribed. He can be slipped a little bit
under the table and make him turn his head this way or that
way so that judgment is totally and thoroughly corrupted. But
not God. Listen to Isaiah 45, verse 13.
This is speaking of Christ. I've raised Him up in righteousness.
and I'll direct all His ways. He shall build my city and He
shall let go my captives." That's what Christ is doing in this
earth right now. That's what He's done on the cross. That's
what He's doing from His throne in glory. Not for price nor reward. saith the Lord of hosts. He can't
be bribed. He can't be bought off like the
judges of this earth. So when you see all the wickedness
in this world, remember, turn over now to Ezekiel 36. Ezekiel
36, why are you there? Close by. When you see all this
wickedness in the world, remember the Lord's left it here. You
don't think the Lord could end it immediately? The Lord's left
it all here. And the Lord's left His purchased
possession, His children, right in the middle of it. right in
the middle of it. And He's done that to teach us
our strength is not in man, our strength is not in ourselves,
our strength is the Lord. Our Lord shall prevail. But remember this too brethren,
Remember this, He's going to be asked to do this for us. Let me ask you something. Could
we prevail to justify ourselves before the law of God? But Christ
prevailed. Could we prevail to completely
make ourselves obedient to that law and the righteousness of
that law, Christ fulfilled it completely. He prevailed. Could
we prevail to create a right spirit in our hearts in righteousness
and true holiness? We couldn't. But God prevailed
within us. Can we prevail for one minute
to keep ourselves from the evil? Not one minute. But Christ can
prevail. He can prevail to keep us. We
went down to the beach this weekend. And we were down there, there
was a diver down there and it was cold, the wind was blowing
really hard and the water was wet. Every time the kids come
up from the water, I could tell how cold it was just when they
touched me. It was freezing. And but this diver went out there
in the water and in the wind and all that he went right down
in the water. He had a wetsuit on. And you know, when I believe
when a diver goes into the water like that, no matter how cold
it is, It can be really, really cold, much colder than that.
But when he's got that wetsuit on, he's surrounded by that cold
water constantly. But it can't touch him because
he's preserved from it by that wetsuit, that watertight suit. That's how it is for the believer.
We're in this world and it's all around us just like that
water is. But it can't touch us because of the mighty hand
of God that's keeping us. He's keeping us. We can't be
separated from him. But God will have us to ask Him
to help us. Look at Ezekiel 36, 36. He says,
Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that
I, the Lord, build the ruined places, and plant that that was
desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it,
and I will do it. Thus saith the Lord God. I will yet for
this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.
I will increase them with men like a flock." So we ask Him,
don't we? We say, arise, O Lord, let not
man prevail. Let not man prevail. We don't
look to man, we look to Him. We look to the one who can prevail
and say, Lord, let not man prevail. Look back at our text. Here's
the second thing. Our second request is for the
Lord to do with the nations what is just in His sight. We say
there, verse 19, let the heathen be just in thy sight. We ask
God to vindicate and to save His children. according to what
He judges to be right, what He judges to be best for His children. Let Him do this, what's right
and just in His judgment of things. And isn't it a relief? It's a
relief to me to know the burden of executing just judgment in
this world is not in our hands. It's in the hands of God Almighty.
It's the hands of one who's just and who will do right. Whenever
the Lord said he was going to go into Sodom and he was going
to destroy it. And Abraham had a nephew down
there named Lot. His name was, he's called in
scripture, Just Lot. He was a justified man. He was
a man perfected by by his surety, Christ Jesus. And he's down there
in that middle of Sodom. And Abraham said, that be far
from thee to do after this manner. He's speaking to the Lord. He
said, it be far from thee to slay the righteous with the wicked. And he said, and that the righteous
should be as the wicked. That be far from thee for you
to treat the righteous like you would the wicked. And he said,
shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And you know
what the Lord did? Because he had that one man that
was an elect, chosen, redeemed child of God down there in Sodom.
He brought that man out of Sodom before he destroyed Sodom. That's
the judge that does right. That's the judge of this earth
that does right. That's the judge in whose hand
all this judgment is. We've got a judge. The child
of God has a judge who's, when you go into a court, we think
of judgment. I think we put a negative ring
on that and think something scary about judgment. But you realize
for the child of God, the one who's resting all in Christ,
Our judgment has been accomplished by what he's endured so that
our God is dealing justly for us in this earth. Our justice,
the judgment of God is our friend. He's dealing justly for his people.
When you go to court, what do you want? And you're innocent
and you know that you're not guilty. What do you want? You
want a judge who's corrupt and crooked and who could be bought?
I don't. I want to just judge. I want
somebody that's going to judge right. Well that's the God of
all the earth and he's going to judge right for his people
in this earth because his elect children are righteous in him.
Because Christ by his one offering has perfected forever them that
are sanctified. He's perfectly justified his
children. Perfectly justified his children.
So that none of God's saints can be separated from him. God
will not cast them away. God won't cast us out of His
covenant because that covenant's written in the blood of Christ.
And because it's written in His blood, it's ordered in all things. And it's sure. It's yes and amen. All the promises that God makes
to the child of God are yes and amen. They can't be changed.
God has justified us in His Son so that He won't cast us out
of that covenant. None can pluck them out of Christ's hand. He
won't cast us out of His house. The Son abideth forever, the
scripture said. And if we're children, we're
children of God, sons of God. We cry, Abba, Father. He's our
Father. We're in the household of God. He won't kick you out
of His house. God won't, He won't let us to
perish eternally. Now there's been many saints
who have suffered and died in this flesh at the hands of wicked
men. but they can't separate us from
God. Don't fear men who can separate, who can kill your body only,
but worship the Lord who can save you body, soul, and spirit
and present you faultless before His throne of grace. He's the
one we trust. He's the one who'll save us.
He's the one who gives grace even if you have to suffer like
that so that you can go right through the flames and it won't
even, it won't even hurt you, not eternally, it won't hurt
you. He delights in His child. He
set a seal on His heart. He keeps us apart. He keeps us
separated. He keeps us as the apple of His
eye. That's what the Scriptures declare about the God we worship. But God will judge the heathen.
He will judge those who rebel against Him and try to come to
God some other way. He will judge the heathen. He
will do that for His people. Bildad said this. Look at Job
8. I tell you what, you look at
Ecclesiastes 8. Ecclesiastes 8. And let me read you what Job,
what Bildad said in Job. In Job 8.20, he said, Behold,
God will not cast away a perfect man. You know how we become perfect? We become perfect by Christ who
perfected us forever. God will not cast away a perfect
man. Neither will He help the evildoers. He won't cast away a perfect
man, but He won't help an evil man either. till He fill thy
mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing. They that
hate thee shall be clothed with shame, and the dwelling place
of the wicked shall come to nothing." That's God's promise to His people.
Look at Ecclesiastes 8, look at verse 12. Though a sinner,
let's read verse 11, because sentence against an evil work
is not executed speedily, because right this instant you don't
see God, a wicked man doesn't see God standing before him,
It says, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set
in them to do evil. Though a sinner do evil a hundred
times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall
be well with them that fear God, which fear before him. But it
shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his
days, which are as a shadow, because he feareth not before
God. You see that? The Lord is just. He's right in what He's doing.
He's going to help the righteous. He's made them righteous. He's
made them perfect and He won't cast them out. But the wicked,
He's not going to help at all. He's not going to help at all.
God's child is so one with Christ that whenever any enemy of God
wages war against His child, they're waging war against God.
They're waging war against Him. And God will prevail, he will
not allow wicked hands to do anything to his child for the
sake of his son, anything that might separate us from him. Long
time ago when I was younger, there was a friend, I call him
a friend, we fought constantly. Me and this fella did. We fought
all the time. And one time we got into a fight
in the schoolyard. And our schoolyard was, it was
just a big open field and it was divided between every grade
and, you know, everybody could stay on one section. We started
one end of that thing in our section and we started fighting.
I mean, just straight fist fighting. And we fought from one end of
that schoolyard all the way to the other end of that schoolyard.
And we picked up people the whole way. I mean, every age. By the
time we got from one end to the other. That crowd around us was
basically every kid that was out there on that schoolyard.
And in the middle of it was me and this other boy, and we were
going at it. And we were so worn out and so tired of fighting.
Our friends were literally pushing our fists to punch at one another. We were so worn out. It was just
a, it was just a, just a mayhem, it was just a mess. And all of
a sudden, through all that sea of people, there comes one of
our teachers through there. And this woman reached in there,
she went right through the midst of them, like she wasn't scared
of anybody. She reached in there and she grabbed me by the nap
of the neck and she grabbed him by the nap of the neck. And she
went to calling out names and looking at folks all around her
and telling them to follow her. And she led just about my whole
class back up to her room. And it was end of the lunchtime,
and we all went back up to her room. And she put us all up on
the front of that board, a bunch of boys. And she put us all up
there on the front. And I'll never forget it. She
stood there, and she said, I'm the judge, and I'm the jury,
and you're guilty, and I'm the executioner. And she said, here's
the punishment. And she put us up there, and
she began to wear out our rear end with a paddle. I mean, hard. And when she did that, you know
what she did? She did something. She didn't let man prevail. If
she'd have left us to ourselves, somebody got hurt. Somebody would
have ended up hurt or dead, one of the two. We wasn't stopping.
She did not let man prevail. And the second thing she did
was she judged us in her sight, and she did what was right to
save us from ourselves. And then she did something else,
too. There's a third thing she did. This is the third thing
we ask God to do. We ask him to put them in fear,
O Lord, that the nations may know themselves to be but men."
That woman put fear in me. I never looked at her the same
way again. I, from that day forward, realized, you don't mess with
Miss Carr. She means business. She will
get her point across. You don't mess with her. When
I came around her, it was, yes, ma'am, and no, ma'am. And I respected
her from then on, because she put fear in my heart. The word
here is, Lord, if you've got some in the nations who are rebellious
and rebelling against you, call them out. Call them and put fear
in their heart. They might know they're just
men and they're not going to prevail. Be a schoolmaster to
them. Be a schoolmaster to them and
teach them that. Make the law, the command come
and make the law revive and make sin become alive to them and
make them see that there's no way they're coming to God by
the works of their hand. Everything they've been doing
in business and in the church is polluted and corrupt. Everything
they've been doing in the world and elsewhere, it's totally,
thoroughly corrupt and that's what man is. Make man see what
he is, that you might put fear in his heart. The enemies of
God, every person who doesn't believe God. This is the case
of everybody that doesn't believe God. The reason they don't believe
God is they have no fear of the Lord. They don't have any fear
of the Lord. Spiritually dead sinners are
bold. They're bold. If you can go one more hour in
this world without casting all your mercy on Christ, it's because
you boldly stand back in the face of God and are saying, I'm
not afraid of you. I don't need you. I'm not afraid
of judgment, I don't believe it. I'm not afraid that my sin's
gonna land me in hell, I don't believe it. I'm not afraid I
need a righteousness I can't obtain my own self, I don't believe
it. That's what men are saying, bold,
brazen, to stand in the face of God. And refusing to depart
from evil and calling it wisdom and understanding. This is what
Job said, unto man, he said, behold, the fear of the Lord,
that's wisdom. and to depart from evil. That's
understanding. He said the fear of the Lord
is to hate evil. Pride and arrogancy and the evil
way and the forward mouth do I hate. What is this fear of
God? What is it? What is the fear
of God? It's a holy disposition, a holy
spirit, new spirit created within a center by the Holy Spirit of
God, by God the Holy Spirit. And it includes this. You begin
to dread God's displeasure. You tremble at God's displeasure,
at the thought of displeasing God. And it makes you to desire
to be found in God's favor. I want God to be well pleased
with me. I don't want him to be displeased with me. But until
you have this fear, you don't have that. It's a regard for
God's excellencies, for who God is, and it's submission to God's
will. It's a gratitude for God's benefits,
and it's a sincerity in the worship of God. It's a conscientious
obedience to God's command. It's not any longer prove it
to me that God said it. It's God said it. That's enough. God said it. That's what it is
to have a fear of the Lord. And until the Holy Spirit creates
a new heart and gives that new heart inwardly, we don't know
ourselves to be but men. We don't know that we're just
men. The weakest, lowest, fallen, depraved, helpless, hopeless,
hell-deserving wretch there is, is a man. The beasts don't deserve
what we deserve. The beasts of the field don't
deserve what man deserves. Because beasts of the field hadn't
sinned against God. It's man that sinned against
God. They don't deserve what we deserve. But look to the cross. That's where you're going to
see this. That's where God's going to give
us this fear of God. Look to the cross. Listen to
this. On the cross, you know who you see? You see God's own
Son. And you know what you see there
on that cross? When you see that one there hanging on that cross,
and you see God turning His back on him, and him crying out, God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And you see hell unleashed on
him, and all the wickedness that hell can throw at him, and all
the venom that man can throw at him. You see everything taking
place right there. What you don't see is What you
don't see there, what's taking place, and the reason all that's
taking place is, is because in order for God to show just mercy
to His children, He made His Son sin for His elect. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Now you think about that, His
own Son. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. That's telling us that whatever
God does to save sinners, He does it righteously. He does
it right. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? He does it right in righteousness. And then when
you look there, you see that when He had that iniquity laid
on Him, when He had the sin of His people laid upon Him, when that scapegoat was in the
wilderness, They went and they put their hand on the head of
that scapegoat and confessed all the iniquities of Israel
and all their transgressions wherein they had sinned against
God on that and they laid on him all their iniquities. And
at that point, nothing was done to him. That scapegoat was whole,
he was there, no punishment was inflicted upon him. Those iniquities
are not just the punishment inflicted upon him, it's the very sin put
on him. And then the punishment was inflicted
on him. That scapegoat was carried away
into the wilderness, into a land not inhabited. He was cut off
for the transgression of God's people. That was the type. Christ
himself was made sin so that God, in perfect justice, He came
to declare his righteousness, to do what's right, to justify
his children. So sin, he was made sin, he bore
our sins in his own body on the tree in order that God might
be just in pouring out the perfect justice upon him and cutting
him off. for the transgressions of his
people. He did none of the sin. He did none of it. He's that
just one dying in place of the unjust, but because he is the
perfect spotless lamb of God, he's able to take the sins of
his people, all of his elect throughout all time from upon
himself and all in one person. He becomes that guilty one. And it had to be so because the
judge of all the earth is gonna do right. He's not pouring out
justice on one that he hasn't made to justly deserve that punishment. Oh, we don't. I understand people's
fear of not wanting to say Christ did something he didn't do or
Christ was made something he wasn't made. But I also understand,
too, that this whole thing's about the righteousness of God.
And my greatest fear is we don't carry it far enough. We don't
see just how fully Christ bore the sin of his people in his
own body on the tree. But when you behold that, you
behold the God who will by no means clear the guilty. He didn't
clear his son. He poured out judgment upon his
son. Do you understand that? He's a God of mercy, but except
you come believe in Him and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, but the righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, that which is by the
righteousness which is of God, which God wrought in His Son,
Christ Jesus, and we attain through faith. Don't come in that righteousness.
We'll be found guilty, and He will not clear the guilty. Do
you see the strictness and the righteousness of God? We need
to see God is righteous. But God's merciful too. He delights
to show mercy. See how much He delights to show
mercy? He sent His Son to bear that injustice in order that
He might justly show mercy and delight in that mercy towards
those for whom Christ died. You see how much he delights
in mercy? He delights in it so much. Not that he's going to
show it at the expense of his justice, but he delights in mercy
so much he sent his son to satisfy justice that he might delight
to show mercy. Because he's the judge of all
the earth and he does what is right. God keeps mercy for thousands. Aren't you glad? He keeps mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. When
you're made to see His holy character, when you're made to see of God
in Christ there on that cross, what He's doing there, that's
when you're going to have a right view of yourself and a right
view of God. We're weak and ignorant. We're
weak and ignorant. Look to the cross and we see
God in wisdom and power. We see Him by His knowledge overruling
friend and foe. in heaven and in earth to justify
his children from our sins. We're weak and we're powerless,
but God is almighty wisdom. He did that which he purposed
from the beginning to do. We're unholy sinners. That's
what we are by nature. But you look to that cross. You
look there on that cross and you see God in perfect holiness
satisfying God. You see God in holiness of character.
God the Father and God the Son in holiness of character doing
that which pleased the other. Doing that which they delighted
in, in perfect fidelity, perfect faithfulness, perfect holiness
of heart. That's what they're doing there.
Do you fear this Lord? God's holy and separate from
us. He's all together. When you read holy, just know
that means God's everything. We're not. That's what He is. We're born dead, dying nothings. That's what we are. Born spiritually
dead and dying every second that we live. Dying nothings. But
you see Christ ascended to the Father? You know what God is?
Christ our Savior. You know what He is? He's life. Light is life. Truth is life. Righteousness is life. You look
into that sun and you look up there and you see how bright
the sun shines. You can't even look into it,
it's so bright. And you know this, that sun gets
its light from the sun of righteousness. In Him is light. In Him is no
darkness. In us is darkness and death.
That's all that's in us. In Him is life. Life, life, life. Do you see how totally different
He is from us? I'm trying to say, do you fear
this, Lord God? We can't give to God anything.
Nothing. We talk about our purpose and
what we plan to do and what we're going to do in our life. And
you know what we're like? We don't have a purpose. We go
from one thing to the next, hoping this will work out and that will
work out. And man by nature is content
to dwell in this puddle of mud like a pig laying in a mud puddle,
just being fattened for the slaughter. That's his purpose. I'll lay
in this swaller and just lay here and be content and swat
flies and eat slop, and then one day I'll die and go to hell.
That's my purpose. Woo, that's a good one, isn't
it? But God, from the beginning,
look to that cross. You know what you see there? You see the
reason why He made the earth, the purpose for which He made
this planet and this universe. You see the purpose for why He's
done everything that He's done in this earth since the beginning
of time. You see the all-powerful hand
bringing it right to that exact purpose for which He intended
there, and Christ hanging on that cross and crying out, IT
IS FINISHED! And you behold Him now, looking
back at that cross, you behold the reason for which God's doing
everything in this earth, the purpose for which God is working
everything. And when you look at that one
on the cross, behold the one to whom every one of us sitting
right here in this room are going to end up facing one day and
bowing to, either in grace or in judgment. All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest
thou? That's who God is. We fear this
Lord. We can't give Him anything. We
can't give God anything of ourselves. Everything a sinner saved by
grace gives to God is what God's already given to him. Look at
Psalm 50. Look at Psalm 50. And look at verse 10. For every
beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand
hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains, and the wild beasts
of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I wouldn't
tell thee. For the world's mine and the fullness thereof. Will
I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Am I going
to eat or drink something you sacrifice to me? Am I going to
be filled and going to be satisfied by something a sinful little
wretched worm sacrifices to me? Here's what he says to him. Offer
to God thanksgiving. and pay thy vows unto the Most
High, and call upon me in the day of trouble, and I'll deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify me. That's how he's glorified.
You see that? Come to God thanking God that
he saved us from ourselves. Come to God thanking God he's
not like us. Come to God thanking him he wouldn't
take anything of our hand. He couldn't be bribed. If you
could get God to do one thing you wanted him to do because
of something in you, somebody else would come along and get
him to do something against you because of something they did.
If he ever once poured out justice upon somebody in unrighteousness
who did not, who was not made the guilty one, he could do it
again. Huh? I want to judge who's just and
right because that God's mercy is going to be just and right
mercy. And it can't be changed because of something in me. You
see this guy? I pray God will work this fear
in our heart and make us to know ourself and to know Him. This
is how He's going to put the fear of the Lord in our heart.
And for every believer, remember this too. If God didn't work
this fear in our hearts, if He didn't work, we would think ourselves
gods. We need God's restraining hand
of grace to save us from our own hand of sin. We need the
swelling of God's chastening providence to keep us from the
swelling of our natural pride. We need thorns in the flesh to
puncture our vein balloon of self and make it deflate so that
God remains everything to us. He's shown us love as a faithful
father to make us see we're but men. We're but men. He's God. God. Holy God in the heavens. He rules everything. He does
what's right. That's who He is. All right,
here we go. This is what we've seen. Our cry is, Arise, O Lord. And
God hears His children. He hears His children. I got
one more story for you before we go. When I was going to Cub
Scouts one time, we went to the Boy Scout camp. And in order
to swim in the pool at the Boy Scout camp, you had to jump in
the pool with your boots and your shoes on. sink to the bottom
and then swim back up to the top and do it two or three times.
And they proved you could know you had to tread water. That's
what you had to do. Once you sunk to the bottom and swim to
the top tread water for so many minutes, and then it proved you
could swim and they'd let you swim. But we're all sitting out
there getting ready to do this. And all of a sudden, the lifeguards
not watching none of the Scoutmasters are watching, nobody ready yet.
Everybody's just kind of walking up there and getting ready for
him to tell us what to do. And all of a sudden, one of the guys
there, you hear a splash and he dove in, he jumped in. He's
got on big old boots and a full set of clothes. And he sunk to
the bottom on purpose. And he made it back to the top.
But by the time he made it back to the top, he just barely pierced
the surface. And he cried and said, help me. And he went back to the bottom.
That time, he didn't go back to the bottom on purpose. He
went back because he was soaking wet. He couldn't get back to
the top. Well, the lifeguard was over
here over a fence, and he heard him cry. And that lifeguard,
he touched the fence, but he barely touched it. He came over
the fence and was in that pool and at the bottom and pulled
that boy to the top. And I thought, man, that's a
good lifeguard. Turned out, that boy that fell
in there was his child. And he heard his son cry, and
he scaled everything to come to the salvation of his child. God hears the cry of his child.
He hears the cry of his child. Do you see some beloved friend,
some sinner that's turning from God and you know it's going to
end in danger? Our first request is, arise,
O Lord, and let not man prevail. You see this world appear to
prevail in wickedness and iniquity. We say, arise, O Lord, let the
heathen be just in thy sight. You do what's right for your
people. But you see, you long to see, truly long to see God
call out his sheep out of this world. Ask him, put them in fear,
O Lord. All your elect from among the
nations, from the four corners of this earth, make them to know
themselves to be but men, to see their need of you. He hears
the cry of His saint. This is what He said. The Lord
said to Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken,
for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by
name. He says He'll hear us, so let's
cry to Him. Cry to Him. Amen.
Clay Curtis
About Clay Curtis
Clay Curtis is pastor of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church of Ewing, New Jersey. Their services begin Sunday morning at 10:15 am and 11am at 251 Green Lane, Ewing, NJ, 08638. Clay may be reached by telephone at 615-513-4464 and by email at claycurtis70@gmail.com. For more information, please visit the church website at http://www.FreeGraceMedia.com.
Broadcaster:
Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, NJ
Theology:
#Prayer #Predestination #Grace
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