I got it on, Scott? Okay. These two Psalms, Psalm 139 and
140, As I've studied these two Psalms,
I've read mostly that these Psalms really could be read together. They could be read together,
and if not, they were placed in this succinct order, and it
would be unwise for anyone to move them. Because these things,
these two things, are linked together. First of all, we see
David here crying in Psalm 139, crying unto God and expounding
the glories of God's omniscience, His all-seeing eye, His infinite
wisdom, that no matter where He goes or what He does, God
sees and everything is open to His eyes. And then he says in
verse 23, he demands of God, search me and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked
way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. And yet we see
that this is the cause. David is in trouble. And he is
prefacing his cry for help by God searching him. And then,
so that is the foundation for his cry for deliverance. And
that's what he asked for in verse 1. He says, Deliver me, O LORD,
from the evil man, and preserve me from the violent man. Now,
according to the history of Scripture, we see that this evil man and
this violent man is most likely Saul and Doag. Doag. If you remember, Doag is
the Edomite that slew those 85 priests of God at the command
of Saul because they had helped David escape. You remember they
gave him that showbread and they gave him the sword of Goliath
to David. And the priest had no idea that
David was running from Saul. They just did this because David
was a faithful servant. They had thought nothing of this.
And then comes in Saul riding with his soldiers. And Saul says,
Slay the priests! Kill these men! And his soldiers
wouldn't do it. They said, these are God's priests,
we're not going to do that. Now you can kill us if you want
to, but we ain't touching them. And you remember the Edomite,
Doag, he willingly took the sword and slew those 85 priests for
helping David. And so David is now being pursued
by these evil men. He is being chased as a partridge
by the beasts of prey. He is being pursued and His life
is on the line. He is running for His very life
from these men. Saul says of these men in verse
2, he said, continually they are gathered together for war. These men are after my blood
and they are not stopping. They don't stop. They're always
on my heels. These pursuers of David were
men of war, whose hearts was set on it. And he says that their
tongues, in verse Three, he said, they sharpened them like the
tongues of a serpent. This is poetic language, but
if you can imagine that forked tongue of a serpent, the sharp
ends of that tongue. And as it goes in and out really,
really fast, it looks as though he's trying to sharpen it. He
said, their mouths are moving against me constantly, piercing
my soul, speaking lies about me. They sharpen their tongue
and the poison of asp is under their lips. They are constantly
striking at me to ruin my reputation, calling me a traitor when I've
done no such harm to the King of Israel. Therefore, we see
here again the remedy. What is the remedy then that
David always comes to when he's pursued? When David's life has
been jeopardy, what is the remedy he turns to? Because it's the
wisest remedy for God's saints. If you are pursued by the enemy
of your soul, what is the remedy? Prayer. Prayer. Prayer. Prayer. Can you pray enough? Is that
possible, believer? Prayer is the remedy. Prayer
is the believer's recourse and response to all attacks of Satan,
the world, and the flesh. Paul says to the saints of Ephesus,
go over there in chapter 6. Go to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse
10. This is the conclusion of his letter. The Apostle Paul
says, finally, my brethren, he's speaking to believers here, believers
in Christ, be strong. Where? In the Lord. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might. in the power of His mind. Believer,
we know that in ourselves, in our flesh, dwelleth no good thing. We know that. If you have any
interest in Christ, you know this from the start. That you
by nature are wicked, and sinful, and evil, and that everything
that comes from your heart is only evil, and that continually. And after the Lord saves us,
what happens to that old nature? Did it change? No. That nature
is still evil. It still produces sin. And so
then, believer, we don't trust in the flesh. We have no confidence
in the flesh. I have no confidence in my obedience,
in my goodness, in my works or in my deeds. I have no confidence
in it. There's no strength to be found
in the arm of flesh. But our strength comes from this,
our union with Christ. When you are being pursued by
the enemies of your soul, listen, you should pray because of your
union with Christ. You have every right to pray.
Believer, you have every right to sue the throne of glory for
mercies. Every right. Not because of you. Not because of your strength.
But because of your union with Christ. David is pursuing the
throne of grace. He is suing God for deliverance. What is the grounds of David's
pursuit? How is it that David knows he'll
be heard? Because of his union with Christ.
Because of His union, His strength is to be found in Christ. Our
confidence to stand against Satan, our confidence to endure the
evil men of the world, our confidence in this warfare of our evil nature,
our strength and hope of endurance and griefs and sorrows and even
sin is this, that God has put us in Christ. That's my hope. That's my strength. That's my
confidence. Is that God hath put me in union
with His holy Son. God from eternity. from before
the foundation of the world, or ever the world was, God, in
his sovereign mercy, put us into union with his holy and precious
Son. Herein is our strength to stand
before our foes. Herein is our confidence that
our prayers will be answered and heard. I'm in Christ. I'm in Christ. And before David began this prayer
for deliverance, in the previous chapter of Psalm 139, go back
there. Psalm 139. David asked a very
strange request. A very unusual request. Before he begins his asking for
deliverance of these evil men, he asked God this, Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me, try me, and know my
thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me. and lead
me in the way everlasting. David calls for the omniscient,
all-seeing, all-knowing eye of God who is by nature a consuming
fire. God by nature is a consuming
fire who must and will destroy all sinners. He must punish all
sin. And David, throughout this Psalm
139, he's telling us about God's omniscience. He reveals to us
that nothing is hid from God. Nothing. Nothing. How many things
do you think you've hidden? Now you may have hid them from
me, from your parents, from your friends. Don't even pretend like you ain't
got them. I know you do. I've got plenty of my own that
no one else has seen. Nor do I want anyone to see them. But you listen to me, God sees
them. God sees them. He said, the light
and the darkness are alike unto thee. Every thought you have ever,
that's ever popped into your wicked head, God has known it
before it actually got there. He knew it already. He knew it. You you don't keep anything secret. You don't have any secrets before
God. You just don't He knows every thought every word before
you say it How many times have you gone
to God in prayer and even been embarrassed to mention something
As though you hid it from him because you didn't mention it
That's foolish. That's just ignorant. God knows
your thoughts. He knows what a vile cesspool
your heart is. Now, you can pretend in front
of others like we do. Oh, we pretend. We can put on
a smile. We can put on a face. Oh, God,
He sees past that. He sees past our pretend thoughts. God knows everything. How could David ask God, who
knows everything, to search him and see if he had any sin? And
yet have confidence that God would hear him after the search
was done. Was David not a sinful man? You
bet he was. You bet he was. In Psalm 51,
David confesses. David confesses his sin after
he is confronted. Usually isn't that the way it
is? Man, you ain't gonna confess anything until you're confronted.
And really, it don't matter if someone confronts you. It's best
if God does it. When God comes and confronts
you like He did David, And Nathan said, Thou art the man. Thou
art the sinful, wicked man. You took that woman and you committed
adultery with her and you murdered her husband. And God knows it. And what did David say? I have
sinned. Against God I have sinned. Against Thee and Thee only have
I done this evil in Thy sight. Behold, God, consider that I
was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. God, consider that I was born
in iniquity. Consider that I was born dead
in trespasses and sins. David was like all of Adam's
race. He was born dead. He was conceived in sin and full
of corruption. And so is the case with all of
us. If you hadn't got the hint yet,
I'm not just talking about David. Every one of us were born the
same. The same. Isaiah tells it like this. He said, there is no soundness
in you. From the sole of your foot to
the crown of your head is nothing but wounds and bruises and pussing
sores. That's what you by nature are. Vile. Vile. This is the whole nature and
condition of Adam's race. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men. For all have sinned. All have sinned. All men surely
have fallen in Adam, And as surely as he died, so did his whole
race die with him. So then there is none righteous,
no, not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They are all together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Not one. There's none that pleaseth
God. Well, if David was in such a
condition, if he was such a sinner and knew God saw everything,
he knew that God was also holy. Holy. In Deuteronomy chapter
9, just before the children of Israel was to go over Jordan
and receive the inheritance, Moses told the people, he said,
God goes before you and He will destroy the heathen. He will destroy the wicked. There's a very solemn thing that
I do for you now. I warn you. I warn you. God will judge every man according
to his works. Did you hear me? God will judge you according
to righteous judgment. Righteous judgment. One day soon,
God will come in holy vengeance And all men will appear before
His throne, and He will not judge like you judge. He will not judge
on a curve. He will not judge by sweeping
your sins under the rug or pretending that they're not there. He will
judge every man with righteous, holy judgment. God will. This all-seeing eye of God, whom
you did not escape, who every sin is marked clearly before
God, He will judge every man according to his works. The question is then, if God
is all-knowing and so holy, and we by nature are corrupt and
wicked, how then do we like David have confidence to call on God
to search us. Can you right now call on God
to search you? Can you call on God to try your
thoughts? Even in this hour. Even in this
moment. If God were to judge you on your
thoughts right now, what would you suppose to be the verdict?
Guilty! Guilty. How then did David have such
confidence? He cried for God to search him,
and he expected God to answer him based on his righteousness. This is how. Even because Jesus
Christ was all his righteousness. That's how. That's how he did
it. David trusted not in his own
works or self-righteousness, but in Christ who was to come,
the One that God purposed that should come from His line and
sit upon His throne. David trusted in the Son of God
who was to be the Son of David. God promised him an heir. God
promised that one would come out of His line and that He should
raise him up. and that He should deliver Israel
by this one man. And that man is Jesus Christ,
the Lord. Behold Him and see how it is
that God may be both just and the justifier of the ungodly.
For Christ was chosen by God from eternity to be the surety
of all the elect of the Father. See, the Father, having loved
a people, the Father, having loved a people, gave them everything. God, having loved a people, according
to His own free grace, He loved them in eternity and He purposed,
He willed, He decreed to give them everything. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. And where are these blessings
to be found? In Christ. He took the elect and He put
them in His Son. He gave them to His Son. And
His Son swore to be their Savior. He became what is known as a
surety. A surety. What's a surety? It's
a guarantee. It's one who guarantees the deliverance
of another. In the Old Testament, you remember
Joseph had demanded that Benjamin Jacob's son be brought to Egypt.
And Benjamin was his last son by his favorite wife and he didn't
want him to leave. And Judah said, we have to bring
him. We have to bring him or we'll
starve to death. And so what Judah did is said,
look, dad, I will be a surety for him. I will guarantee that
Benjamin would be brought back to you. And listen, dad, if I
don't bring him back, let me bear the blame. That's a surety. That's what Jesus Christ did
for his people. He swore to God. He said, Father,
I will save those that you gave me. I will save them. And if I don't save them, I will
bear the blame. Jesus took full responsibility
for the salvation of God's people. Therefore, you who have been
saved by the grace of God, listen, you who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, you may also cry out to God, search me and know me
and try me to see if there's any evil in me. Why? Because
Christ was your representative. Christ obtained the righteousness
you could not obtain. Go over to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Paul says this, there is therefore
now no condemnation, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
To you who are in union with Christ Jesus, listen, there is
no more condemnation for you. There is no condemnation. who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. Listen, this is why there's no
condemnation. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh... See, the law was good. The law is perfect. There's nothing
wrong with the law. There's something wrong with
us. The weakness was not in the law.
The weakness was in us. We, in the flesh, could not obey
God. We could not, by all our determination,
all our sincerity, ever obey the law of God. Ever. Never. So then, for what the law could
not do, and it was weak through us, the flesh, what did God do? God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, And for sin, condemn sin in the flesh. God sent His Son into the world
to condemn sin. I told you God would never overlook
sin. And He never does. How is it
that His people should be righteous? Because God took our sins and
punished them in Christ on the tree. He made Him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He condemns sin in the flesh.
Here it is. That the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled. Where? In us. Did you get that? The righteousness
of the law. Without you obeying one thing
of it. You've never obeyed the law.
Ever. You, in your positive active life, you've never done it. You
can't. Nature, by nature, we can't. You see, I did it in a
representative. We obeyed the law of God as Christ
obeyed the law. Remember, He put us in Christ.
Christ said, I'm your surety. I'm going to do it for you. I'll
obey the law in such a way as to obtain righteousness, and
then I'll pay for your sins and give you righteousness. I'll
give you righteousness. In order that the righteousness
of the law should be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh. What does that mean? In other
words, who have no confidence in the flesh. We don't trust
in the flesh. We don't have any trust in my works or my obedience
to the law. We don't live after the flesh.
But walk after the Spirit. What is that? That is to believe
on Christ. That's the job of the Spirit
to quicken our soul, to give us faith in Christ. And when
He does, He imputes righteousness to us. He takes the righteousness
of God and He puts it in us and gives us a new nature, a new
heart, a holy nature. Isn't that the covenant? God
says, I will give them a A new heart. A new heart. I will take out that stony heart
and give you a heart of flesh. In other words, our hearts by
nature are cold and indifferent to God, hating God, despising
God, will not come to Christ. What does He do? He moves that
out of the way and He puts in a heart of love and faith and
hope in Christ. And this heart is a new nature
that dwells in us by which the Holy Spirit dwells in us. And
it's a righteous nature. Therefore, sinners, behold the
Son of God who has come to save the unrighteous. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. You know who His elect people
are? They're sinners. They're sinners. And you know
what? He came to save them. He came
to seek them because they never would seek Him. And He's going to find every
one of them and save every one of them. And He's going to implant
this new righteous nature in them. He's going to raise the dead
to life. He's going to give sight to the
blind and cause the lame to leap. Jesus has come to give righteousness
to the unrighteous and peace with God to the rebel. And there
is no hope for you by your own works of obedience, no matter
how sincere you are. It's not going to be a combination
of you and Christ. Salvation is never a combination
of Christ's work and your work. Never. But what if I'm really sincere? If you try to add your work to
Christ, you'll be sincerely wrong. Jesus said this, not everyone
that sayeth to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which
is in heaven. How many, you suppose, will be
surprised to wake up in hell who thought they would be in
heaven? How many of those who sincerely
called Him, Lord, Lord, in this life, but did not the will of
the Father. What is the will of the Father? That you should believe on Jesus
Christ whom He has sent. That's the will of the Father. That's the will of God. They will say in that day, they'll
wake up in hell and say, Lord. They will call Jesus Lord even
as they did in life. Lord, did we not do wonderful
things for you? Lord, did we not preach in your
name? Did we not cast out devils in your name? And he will say unto them, depart
from me you that work iniquity. He said, all that that you thought
was good was nothing but evil. All that preaching you did was
nothing but evil. All that religion you had was
nothing but evil. Cast them out from my presence into hell prepared for Satan
and his angels. Why will these professors be
cast out even because they were trusting in their works and their
obedience to God, which is nothing but sin. If you are this hour
trusting in your works and obedience, you are not in Christ, and when
God searches you, He'll find only sin. How then can we have confidence
in the day of His coming? How can we surely who are truly
guilty I'm not pretending I'm not guilty. I know I am. How can we who are truly guilty
be so searched by God and be found free of all sin? Only by
having the righteousness of Christ imputed to you, that's it. There's
no other way. Only if God takes the righteousness
of Christ and implants it into your soul will you have any hope
of being accepted with God. And how does he do this? Faith
in Christ. Faith is the evidence of life. As breathing is the evidence
of physical life, faith is the evidence of spiritual life. Faith
in Christ. And faith in Christ alone. Alone. You see, I may call to God and
I say, God, search me. How can I be so confident that
He'll find no sin? Because of Jesus Christ. Because He is all my righteousness. He's all my stay. He's all my
salvation. Jesus said, My flesh is meat
indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood shall live forever. What is that to eat
and drink His flesh? It is to believe on Christ. Faith
in Christ. Believe on Christ. And He will
give you righteousness. Not merited by your action of
faith, but rather, faith is an evidence that He's already given
it. This is wonderful about salvation. You know what? The sinner who's
saved is saved before he even knows he's saved. Faith, it seems to come secondary. It seems to come, I think it
comes together, but it's a mystery. I'll tell you what, I know this,
when I was convicted of my sin, I knew I had no righteousness
in myself, and then all of a sudden I looked to Christ, I saw where
the righteousness was! I believed on Christ! And it
was already over. It was done. It was done before
I knew what happened. That's what salvation is. It's
to believe on Christ. And therefore, we who are in
Christ, if you believe in Christ, it is because you are in Christ. We're just saying it. Listen
to the confidence of this hymn. He said, not all the delusions
of sin shall ever seduce him to death. That's someone who
believes in Christ. He now hath the witness within,
united to Jesus by faith. This faith shall eternally fail. When shall this faith fail? When
Jesus shall fall from His throne. For hell against both must prevail,
since Jesus and He are One. One. To believe on Jesus Christ
is to be in union with Christ. And when you're in union with
Christ, you have His righteousness. So therefore, you cry unto God
and say, search me. And you know what God finds? Jeremiah chapter 50. Let me see. Yeah, Jeremiah chapter 50. Look
at it. I want you to see what God finds
when His people cry, search me. Look at it for yourselves. You
who are in Christ, this is what God sees when He looks at you. In those days and in that time,
say it the Lord. The iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for. There shall be how much? None And the sins of Judah and
they shall not be Found who's doing the searching God is and
what do you find not one sin? How is that possible Because
Jesus Christ, by the offering of himself, hath put away our
sins forever. They're gone. They're gone. Now this I know, believer, when
you look within, that's not what you see. Is that what you see? Believer,
is that what you see? Do you see righteousness when
you look within? If you are, you're the only one
in history. They say no believer ever looked
within and saw righteousness. Just never did. All we see is
that old man that's still with us. We still see the old nature. This is why David was praying
for deliverance. He said, deliver me! I know this,
that in Christ I have no sin, in Christ is my righteousness,
therefore I plead with thee, deliver me from the evil man.
Who is the evil man? Is that not yourself? Is that not the man that is continually
at war with you? The old man. God saved me, He
didn't do anything to that old man. Didn't do one thing. One
day he's going to put it in the grave, but he didn't change that
old man one bit. He put a new nature in me, and
therefore these two natures are constantly at warfare. That one
evil man of my flesh is constantly pursuing me, trying to get me
away from Christ. That's all he's doing. He opposes
me daily. He pursues me. And I do hate
him. I do hate him. He pursues me daily and constantly. He sharpens his tongue like a
serpent at me, constantly putting words, how can the Lord love
you? How is it possible that he would
ever save such a wretch as you are? Oh, I hate him. I'll be happy when he's put in
the ground. when he cannot pursue me anymore. But until then, I cried, deliver
me, O God, because of Christ my righteousness. For thine own
namesake, deliver me from this violent man. And I said unto the Lord, verse
6, Thou art my God. Hear the voice of my supplications,
O God the Lord. Listen, here's my hope. In all
my struggle, in all my grief, in all my sorrow, in all my sin,
this is my hope. The strength of my salvation
is Christ. And Thou has covered my head
in the day of battle. He is my refuge. He is a wall of fire about me. He has garrisoned my soul and
clothed me in His righteousness and not one arrow of accusation
shall ever penetrate His righteousness. Not one. Even because I am in Christ And you know what's amazing Christ
is in me That's something we are one We're
one So then for me to fail he would
have to fail And that just ain't gonna happen Search me and know me, and yes,
Lord, deliver me, for Thou art my salvation. You have covered
my head in the day of battle, and not one sin will penetrate."
So when God comes again and He judges me in righteous judgment,
He's going to judge me according to my works. You know what my
works are? Christ's works. His works are
mine. And therefore, the law with me
can have nothing to do. God's law says to me, welcome.
You're welcome. You come into the presence of
God anytime you want to. It's your right. It's your privilege. It's your right. Come. And God
will deliver you. He will answer your prayers because
you are as righteous as his son. Are you in Christ? May God even now reveal that
to you. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.