Psalm 39, and the title of the
message this morning is, The Believer's Desire, Failure, and
Expectation. These three things are my points,
and they come from this text, and I hope that by God's grace,
every believer may see these as God has given them to us in
our own heart. David here says, I said, I will
take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep
my mouth with a bridle. Now that word bridle is even
stronger. It means muzzle. I'll put a muzzle
on my mouth while the wicked is before me. David here makes
a determination. He said, I said. Obviously, this
is something he said in his heart, something he had desired to do,
something he determined with all of his strength, with all
of his desire. David said, I said, as king,
I said, I decreed with all my heart that I would not sin. I would keep my ways. I'm going
to watch what I do. Be very careful, watch what I
do. And I'm going to be so pure as to not even speak. Now David did this either because
he was recently chastened of the hand of God and his sin was
exposed. as the previous psalm. This may go with the previous psalm. He
said in the previous psalm, Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither
chasten me in thy sword as pleasure. So this may be on the occasion
of him coming out of great chastisement for sin. This occasion of this
psalm might be that he is surrounded by his enemies, that his foes
have come in so much against him and accuse him and lie about
him, that he would be so pious as not to offend with his tongue,
and he determined not to do it, not to give in to their accusations. Or this may be because he had
such an overwhelming experience of grace that he saw Christ This
may be the occasion that he was so overwhelmed with love and
joy with Christ that he desired not to sin against his Master,
against his Lord. All of these are good reasons
as to why he said this. Now whether chastisement or of
enemies or because of a great revelation of Christ's perfect
salvation, whatever the cause, All of these things, surely,
we can see our own determination and desire here in David. You, believer, have you ever
been chastened and delivered of God? What is your determination
then? Oh, I'm not ever going to do that again. You're surrounded by your enemies.
Oh, Lord, save me, and I will not do this. You have a revelation
of Christ and you haven't seen that before and it's so glorious
and so beautiful that you say, oh, I will not do that. Oh, I will not sin against such
a gracious master. Whatever the reason, we can all
see that this desire that David had is common among believers. This desire and determination. I said that I would not sin.
I said I would take heed to my ways. You believer in Christ,
is this not a constant desire of the new man? If you don't
have this desire, it's because you don't have a new man. That's
just so. John says, they that are righteous
do righteousness. That's just the natural order
of it. It is our desire not to sin.
It is our desire to keep our ways. Scripture says, walk circumspectly. You know what that means? Carefully? Someone said, it's like walking
a fence with a Doberman pincher on one hand and a German shepherd
on the other. You'd walk carefully, wouldn't you? You'd walk carefully.
That's what it means, just walk carefully. And that's the desire
of every believer. We desire to walk carefully. We desire to guard our ways. The Scripture says, guard thy
heart. Is that not a good saying, guard
thy heart? Why? Because it needs to be guarded,
doesn't it? Is that not so with you? It is with me. The true
heart of every believer whose eyes have been opened by the
Spirit about the exceeding sinfulness of sin, we desire not to sin. Matter of fact, the revelation
of sin is the very first experience of grace, isn't it? It's the
very first thing that must be before there's salvation. There
must be an exposure. God must expose us to be who
we are. He exposes our depravity and
dead nature in our spiritual condition. We are made to see
that there is none righteous. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. We're all unprofitable servants. None doeth good, no not one. And as the Spirit of God revealed
this to us, this depravity we found was not just universal
but personal. A lot of people know universal
depravity. Only God's people know personal
depravity. It's only then we see who we
are. Only by the power of the Spirit
can we see that we are dead in sin. I don't know about anybody
else, but I was dead in sin. When God revealed myself, my
nature, that it was completely unrighteous, condemned, and guilty
before God, I saw this, that in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing." No good thing. All that God saves, He exposes.
He causes us. to see the depravity and causes
us to cry out like that publican. Lord, be merciful to me, the
sinner. The sinner. But you know God did not leave
us there. God in grace revealed Christ to us. We heard the gospel
of His grace and how God made an eternal covenant, how He purposed
to save a chosen people, how in this covenant of grace that
He gave all of these chosen to His Son to be Savior and King,
and accordingly, According to the promises of God's Word, Christ
came into the world and accomplished our redemption, our salvation,
for all of the elect of God. For the Scripture says, Lo, I
come in the volume of the book it is written of Me to do Thy
will. What is that? By the witch will
we are sanctified. That's what it is, that you and
I should be made holy, who were by nature sinners. That's the
will of God, that Christ should come and do that will, which
is provide righteousness and atonement and redemption and
salvation for all of His elect. And these elect, Ezekiel realized that we were
not born holy. We were born in sin of Adam's
fallen race, yet Christ came to be our second Adam, to represent
us before God. Therefore, the Son of God was
made flesh. He was made man in every part
except sin. And he obtained everlasting righteousness
for his people, who were by nature had no righteousness. And because
of our sins, the Son of God, in order to save us, must have
endured the wrath of God for our sins. He must have borne them in His
own body on the tree. You see, the love of God desired
to save you. The purpose of God decreed you
should be saved. But listen, the justice of God
demanded payment. and the only place that these
two meet together is on that tree. In all the world, in all
of history, there is no place that the mercy of God and the
justice of God are met together in peace. And that is when Christ
was crucified for our sins. When the justice of God fell
on Him for our sins, it is only then peace is brought forth. It's the only place. And so then by looking at the
untold, immeasurable suffering of the spotless Lamb of God when
He bore our sins, as we see the vengeance of the
Father, total absence of mercy, I have put this in my mind and
molded over in my heart and I still cannot begin to scratch the surface. I don't fully understand the
great suffering of Christ. How can you explain ten billion
fold of hails poured on one man? And yet he did bear them in his
own body Only then we'll see the true
nature of sin. If you really want to see sin
as it really is, you must look at Christ who was made sin. That song, stricken, smitten,
and afflicted, see Him dying on the tree. It says, tell me,
you who hear Him groaning, was there ever grief like His? Many hands were raised to wound
him, none would interpose to save, but the deepest stroke
that pierced him was the stroke that justice gave. You who think of sin but lightly,
nor suppose the evil great, here may view its nature rightly,
here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed. See who bears the awful load. Tis the Word, the Lord's anointed
Son of Man and Son of God. Therefore, you, to us who believe
Christ, our Savior, who bore our sins, sin is no light thing. If you know anything of what
it costs Christ, you know this, sin is no light thing. And seeing what it cost our beloved
Lord, does it not behoove us to say within our hearts, I will
keep my ways. I will take heed to my ways.
I will not sin with my tongue. And I believe the more we see
this, the more we would desire not to sin. Our desire mostly comes, this
desire surely mostly comes after chastisement. I mean, if there's
anything that causes the believer to stir not to sin, it has to
be chastisement. I'm sure there are times of revelation
when it causes our hearts in love or to stir, but mostly those
times come after chastisement. Those times come after we're
delivered from sin or delivered from some malady. And when we are delivered, we
see more clearly the victorious work of our suffering Lord. We
see the truth of His love, of His grace, of His kindness, of
His perfect salvation. And then we are strengthened
with praise in our innermost being to say, I will not sin. I will this day, from this day,
take heed to my ways. I have spoken evil, I won't do
that again. I'll put a muzzle on my mouth
and I won't even speak. Though all the flesh rise up
within me, though all the wicked oppose me, though Satan vex me
and accuse me, I will not even speak against my God. He said
in Psalm 119, Thy word have I hid in my heart. Why? That I might
not sin against Thee. Listen believer, this is a good
determination. It is one that we should daily
determine. It is a good determination Because
sin is always present with us. It is a good determination knowing
what our Lord paid for our sins. It is a good determination because
sin and misery go together. Isn't that right? Sin and misery
are brothers. And when one is present, the
other is at the door. Therefore, let us according to
the Word of God." Now, I'm not telling you to do something that's
not according to God's Word. I'm going to show you some scriptures
that this is a good determination. And David made no mistake in
his determination that it was a good determination not to sin. Go to Psalm chapter 4 and verse
4. Stand in awe. You know most of our sins is
because we're not standing in awe. It's because we think little
of God. Because we think light of sin
is mostly the fault. So the scripture says stand in
awe and sin Not. Sin not. Commune with your own
heart upon your bed and be still. In other words, you should wage
war. You should wage war with who?
Yourself. That's who you should wage war
with. Where is it going to be? Where is the battlefield? The
battlefield is in you. Stand in awe. Sin not. You remember
our Lord said that to this woman after He had... He said, that
woman caught in adultery. He said, neither condemn I thee. What was the exhortation after
that? Go and sin no more. Paul says to us who are saved
by the grace of God through Christ, in Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter
6 and verses 1 and 2, after he had explained salvation, is by
the free grace of God. Salvation, he said, where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound. What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Well, God forbid you should think
such a thing. How can you, being dead to sin,
live any longer therein? And in verse 15 he says, since
you're free from the law, does that give you a license to sin? He said, God forbid you should
think such a thing. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 34, Awake
to righteousness and sin not. Paul in Titus' letter, he says
that salvation is by grace, doesn't he? He teaches. He said the grace
of God. The grace of God. You know the
grace of God teaches us something? It teaches us to live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world. That's what it
teaches. Believer, let us now, seeing the vileness of our sin
and the misery sin causes, therefore, let us, like David, make such
a good determination. Let us make such a good determination
as to not to sin with our mouth. I know sin originates in the
heart, but where does it manifest itself? The tongue. James said this, if a man can
control his tongue, that guy is a perfect guy. So how are you doing with the
tongue? About as good as you're doing
with the heart? Yeah. That's about as good as you're
doing. I understand that does not give you a right to defy
Scripture. Sin not! That's what the Scripture
says. Determine. It is a good determination. Remember, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Remember, the tongue is a little
member that stirs the whole body. Awake you who are chosen of God,
who are made righteous before God, and live according to your
profession. Is that asking too much of you? You are saved by grace. Is that
asking too much? Paul said, let your conversation
be as becometh the gospel. What kind of conversation is
that? Is that a self-righteous conversation? Is that a pious
or a haughty attitude? No, it's grace, it's mercy, it's
speech that's seasoned with salt, seasoned with grace. Listen, if it walks like a duck
and quacks like a duck, it's not a horse. That's just so. If a man walks after the flesh,
lives after the flesh, loves the flesh, his heart and affections
are on the things of the world and not the Word of God, if he
does not have the love for God's Word or God's people, that guy,
I don't care how much he professes, is a liar, John said. If you have not love for the
brethren, the love of the Father is not in you. Therefore, every believer ought to determine
this. Every believer ought to determine this within himself.
Peter says this, he said, I'm going to read it to
you. I'm not going to try to paraphrase
it. Let me just read it. 1 Peter 1. I'm sorry. Yeah, 1 Peter 1, verse 13. Where's
the 2nd Peter? No, 1 Peter 1, verse 13. Wherefore, gird up the loins
of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that
is brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient
children, not fashioning yourselves according to the form of lust
in your ignorance, but as ye which have been called you are
you which have called you as holy, so be you holy in all manner
of conversation, because it is written. Be holy even as I, and
for I am holy." Is this not then to be our determination? Paul says, I beseech you therefore,
brethren, because of the mercies of God. By the mercies of God! Because of your election. Because
of your redemption. Because of your perfect salvation
in Christ. What are you to do? Present your
bodies a living sacrifice. Holy and acceptable. Not that
you presenting makes it holy and acceptable. Christ made you
holy and acceptable and your presenting it is in faith of
His making it holy and acceptable. Which is your reasonable service. So is this determination unreasonable?
Is this declaration of David unreasonable? No, it's not unreasonable. Matter of fact, it should be
our declaration if we've been saved by grace. Now second of
all, I want you to see the believer's failure. You have a determination,
you have a desire, now I want to see, you want to see your
failure. David says in verse 2, I was
done with silence. So far so good. I said, so far so good, David. I held
my peace. Oh, David, you're doing a great
job. You made it for two commas. Two commas. He's done so well.
Uh-oh. Even from good. even from good." Surely our Lord
was silent, remember, He was as a lamb before He shears His
doves, so He opened not His mouth. Did that mean that He was silent
through every part of His trial? No. Why? Because He didn't refrain
from speaking that which was good. Remember Pilate asked Him,
he said, Aren't Thou a king? He said, You said it, that's
right, I am a king. What? He made a good confession
before Pilate. He was silent when it was need
to be silent. And he spoke when he needed to
spoke. The problem with us is we don't know. We don't know what's good and
what's not. How many times have somebody
come to us and we should have witnessed of Christ and we remain
silent? How many times have we spoke of Christ and then should
have been silent? We don't know. David refrained himself even
from that which is good. This most surely exposes to us,
though we would do good, evil is present with me. For how to do that which is good
I find not. When we would be pious, surely the sin of pride and righteous,
self-righteousness creep in. Isn't that right? Do good and
then see if pride does not creep in the side. Give to somebody in need and
then see if your hand is not reaching back to pat yourself
on the back for doing good to someone else. Whole wretched man! Whole wretched
man that I am! Paul sees and smells the stench
of the old man when he would do good. Evil is present with
me. The stench of the corpse is upon
me. The slime of the serpent still
trails on my soul. And David said, And my sorrow
was stirred. My heart was hot within me while
I was musing, while I was thinking about doing good. While I was
meditating, while I made this determination even, it crept
in and slew me. When I would do good, there is
a fire that burns. Isn't that so with you? Is there
not a hot, raging warfare that ensues when you would do good? Did you not feel the warfare
this morning as you even tried to come to worship God? As you
sit there, Though your mouths are closed, do you not feel the
fires raging in you? It is if you believe. It is if
you have life. There's always a raging fire
when you would do good. No matter how zealous and determined
we are, Because of the corruption of our old nature that remains
in us, while we even muse on righteousness, our hearts burn
with sin. Though we may outwardly be pious,
within our soul is a warfare, a struggle that cannot be quenched. John says, My little children,
these things I write unto you, that you sin not. There's a good
determination, isn't it? And when you sin. Not if, when. You sin. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for
our sins. This fact humbled David, and
it will continually humble us. It will perpetually cause us
to be brought low the fact that we cannot do what we want. We
want to be righteous. But we cannot be righteous. And thirdly, the expectation
of such a man, the expectation of such a warring saint, what
is it? So when David's heart began to
stir in his mouth, he could not contain himself anymore. He said,
I spake with my tongue, Lord, make me to know mine end. Troubled believer, do you not
desire to know the end of this warfare? Make me to know my end. Not my death, although this is
part of it. Not really the manner of his
death. He's not asking God to tell him
how he was going to die or what circumstance he was going to
die. That's not it. What he wanted to know is, what's
the end of this? What is my end? Will it be good
at my end? Teach me to know I have an end. And I desire to know what that
end is. Do you? Often we fear because of our
lack of obedience. We fear because of our complete
failure to serve God. I like that hymn, He leadeth
me. Because at the end of it, that hymn writer said honestly,
he said, Thy faithful follower I would be. It would be. Therefore, Lord,
please teach me my end. Show me, Lord, not the time of
my end or the circumstance, but the final result of my end. Here it is. Go to Jeremiah chapter
23. May the Lord teach us our end.
Even though we determine to do good and evil is present with
me, we are constant failures in our determination But God has an end for us that's
different than what you think it is. Jeremiah chapter 29, and look
at verse 11. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, Now what are the thoughts you think towards
you? Seeing you are a failure, you are an abject failure, you're
miserable. I know this because I'm miserable.
I've determined to do good, which is good, but I've failed. And I fail every time. So my
thoughts is, I'm doomed. That's my thoughts. Often is
my thoughts, I'm doomed. But God says, look, I know my
thoughts. And His thoughts are the only
thing that really count, isn't it? He said, I know my thoughts towards
you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil. To give you unexpected end. Unexpected end. Something that's
sure unexpected in Listen believer God is not at war with you You are at war with yourself But God is not God says I'm at
peace with you why because my son has made peace my son has
brought peace by the blood of his cross and Because when you sin, listen,
you have an advocate with the Father. He is the propitiation for your
sin. He is the payment for your sin. He is the mercy seat by which
you have been accepted before God. He is. God's thoughts of you are not
of evil, though you continually think they are. They're not. Why? All things work together
for your good. To them that love God, to them
are they called according to his purpose. Surely David did
sin against God? You know he did. Many times.
Murdered a man. Committed adultery with his wife.
Lied and covered it up. God did sorely chasten David.
But what was the end of that? The end of that was Solomon,
who was the descendant of whom Christ
descended. You see, God used even his evil
for good. Now, God has an expected end
of this, believer. Unless Jesus returns, surely
you and I will die. His body will return to the dust
and the breath will return to God that gave it. Therefore,
we should learn the brevity of our life. Our life is but a hand
breath. Joanne, how fast? How fast? Fast. It's gone. Our life is but a handler breath,
and the Lord should teach us that. Let us learn to number
our days, to do what? To apply our hearts to wisdom.
What is wisdom? Christ! What should you as believers
do every day? Apply your heart to Christ! To
believe Christ! To trust Christ! To rest on Christ! To serve Christ! All the days
of your hand breath! That's it. Teach us to set our
hearts on service and love, furtherance of the gospel in this tabernacle
of flesh that we shall soon put off and soon we will be robed
in eternal glory and righteousness. That is our expected end. Your expected end is eternal
life. I know my sheep. They follow me. And I give unto
them unexpected end. What? Eternal life. And no man shall pluck them out
of my hands. Is that not expected enough for
you? No man shall pluck them out of my hands. I give you eternal
life and no man can pluck you out of my hands. The father which
gave them me is greater than all and no man can pluck them
out of his hands. I and my father are one. Peter said, the end of your faith. You know what the end of your
faith is? Salvation. The moment you stop believing
is the moment you die, because then faith is no more necessary. You see the end of faith? The
end of faith is our death, because then it ushers us into the presence
of sight, experience. The end of your faith is salvation.
So what then is the conclusion David comes to? Well, it's the
same conclusion we all come to. Man is at his best state altogether
vanity. Verse 5. This is what God teaches
by our humiliation. That we are nothing. He teaches us to cry, what do I wait for? Verse 7,
Lord, what wait I for? What is the whole purpose of
this, Lord? Here it is, my hope is in Thee, that all Your hope
be in Christ. That's why He allows this to
continue, this warfare, that all Your hope should rest in
Him. He cries in deliverance, He cries
for mercy, so do we. Deliver me from my, what? Transgression. What was all His good determination
but transgression? Deliver me from my transgression. Make me not the reproach of the
foolish. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, and if I did anything
good, you did it. You got that? Anything good you
do, He did it. You get no credit for anything good. He gets it
all. Remove thy stroke away from Me.
I am consumed by the blow of thy hand. Doesn't it always when
we determine to do good and fail, do we not all feel the blow of
His hand? When with thy rebukes thou discorrect
man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to be consumed away
as a moth. Isn't that what He does with
this? He makes you see that all your righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. And then when you think that
you've figured out how filthy they are, he says, oh, let me
show you some more. Let me show you some more. But every time
he shows you the one way, does he not show you the other way
of how high Christ is, how perfect He is, how righteous He is? He
does. And all your beauty is vanity.
Why? What's the conclusion then here?
I'm a sojourner. Verse 12, he said, I'm a stranger
and a sojourner with thee. Jesus said, I'm not of this world
and my people are not of this world. Spare me that I may recover strength
before I go from hence and be no more. Is this not a good prayer
for us who desire to do good but cannot? Lord, give me strength as long
as I live to serve You, to further Your Gospel by the humiliation of myself, by the abasement of myself and
the exaltation of Christ. As long as I live, give me that.
That's my expected end. And I will have a good end. Say
you to the righteous, it shall be well with them. It shall be well. Though you
struggle, it shall be well. May God help us to show us we
should make a good determination. And when we make that determination,
we will fail. And when we fail, we look to Christ and hope in
Him. Constantly. This is our experience,
isn't it? May God ever show it to us. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer.