All right, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Psalm chapter 17. Psalms chapter 17. We'll be looking at the first
eight verses this evening, the Lord willing, of this Psalm. The title of the message is,
Our Confidence of Prayer. Our Confidence of Prayer. The Scripture says, Hear the
right, O Lord. Attend unto my cry. Give ear
unto my prayer that goeth not out of feigned lips. Let my sentence
come forth from thy presence. Let thine eyes behold the things
that are equal. Thou hast proved mine heart.
Thou hast visited me in the night. Thou hast tried me, and thou
shalt find nothing. I am proposed that my mouth shall
not transgress. Concerning by the works of men,
by the word of thy lips, I have kept me from the paths of the
destroyer. Hold up my goings in thy paths,
that my footsteps slip not." I have called upon thee, for
thou wilt hear me. O God, incline thine ear unto
me and hear my speech. Show me thy marvelous lovingkindness. O thou that savest by thy right
hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise
up against them. As the apple of the eye, hide
me under the shadow of thy wings." Confidence in prayer. Our confidence. David said, Thou wilt hear me. Thou wilt hear me. Our confidence. Believer in Jesus Christ, we
should have confidence in prayer, first of all, because God will
hear the right, the right, the righteous. In other words, God
will hear Christ. We have confidence in prayer
because God will hear Christ. Hear ye the right, O Lord. Now,
prayer to the heart of the redeemed is as breath to the living. Prayer
in the heart of God's people is like breathing to a living
man. It is necessary. It is necessary. We do not pray like some who would pray when
they desire to or they can go without prayer for long periods
of time. God's people can't. God's people
are needy people. We are needy people and it's
necessary for prayer to sustain us through this life. To fail in prayer to God for
all your needs is self-inflicted wounds. Self-inflicted wounds. If we don't pray, it's our own
fault. It's our own fault we get into
trouble. We should pray without ceasing. We should pray constantly. The Scripture says be instant
in prayer. You know, my kids eat instant
oatmeal. Well, you need to be more instant than that. You need
to be quicker than that. Instant, constantly, instant
in prayer. Don't hesitate. Go with confidence
before the throne of God. He will hear our cries. He will hear our prayers. And we may be sure of this, when
we go to God for our every need, we are sure that God hears us
because the Scripture here says, the Lord hears the right or the
righteous. The Lord hears the righteous.
Now, is that not Is that not just sensible? God being righteous,
God being holy, that God would only hear what's right. What's
right. He'll only hear what's righteous
like himself. Because God is righteous, he
will hear the cry of the righteous. Go to Psalm 34. Flip over a couple
pages. Psalm 34 and verse 15. The eyes of the Lord are upon
the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry." Is that not
plain? Is it not simple that God hears
the righteous, that God's eyes is on the righteous? You remember
the disciples as they were told to go out and to row on that
sea? And the storm came and they just
toiled, constantly rowing and going nowhere. Where was Christ? He was on the mountain. Where
was His eye? It was on them. His eye was on them. And God
knew where they were. God knows where you are. God
knows where you are. I know a lot of times we ask
Him, Lord, don't you know? Yeah, I know, He says. I know
where you are. I put you there. You're not anywhere
that I didn't place you. He hears the righteous. His ear
is open to the righteous. And we know this, that in Christ
we are righteous. That we have the righteousness
of God in Christ. We know that our righteousness
is not of any of our works. Why then would we ever base our
prayers or the answer of our prayers based on ourselves in
any capacity? It's not right for God to hear
sinners. It's not right for God to hear
those who are rebels. It's right for God to hear the
righteous. And so we go to God not based
on anything we have done or anything that we are, There'd be no hope in that. Our
hope is in the righteousness of Christ. Our hope is in that
He gave us His righteousness. He obtained righteousness for
us. Our righteousness, friends, is not just any righteousness
because there is not just any righteousness. There's only one
righteousness. It is the righteousness of God. We have the very righteousness
of God that was made by the obedience of Jesus Christ the righteous.
John said, my little children, sin not. Is that not clear to
us? Sin not. What about this? Well, is it
sin? Sin not. Don't do it. When any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father. Who? Jesus Christ the
right, the righteous. The Lord hears the righteous
cries of our Savior, Jesus Christ, interceding for us. So when we
come before God, we already have the Advocate, the One that spoke
to God for us. Therefore, our confidence that
God will hear our prayers and the reason He will answer our
prayers, in such a way that it's good for us. He'll always answer
our prayers in such a way that it is good for us. May God teach us and God give
us grace to know and understand that the word no is a good answer. God is not saying no because
He would kill the joy or kill anything that would cause us
pleasure or anything. He does it because it's good.
Because it's good. I found this is apparent. No
is a word that you must understand before you become a parent. Because you say it a lot. And
sometimes I feel bad that I'm saying it a lot, but I'm not
saying it because it would be easier for letting my kids go
than to say no. But I say no because I care.
I care. And God, He will work all things
after the counsel of His own will, which is for your good.
Believers, trust not in your feelings. Don't pray according
to your feelings. I'll tell you, if we wait to
feel like we need prayer, we won't pray. You don't need to
feel like you need prayer to pray. And I'll tell you, sometimes
prayer is even without words. Have you ever just stopped and
shut up before the throne of God? It's
a great place to be. It's a great place to be. Why? Because God hears us. He hears
us. We trust not in our circumstances.
Don't trust in what you see happening to you concerning your prayer.
We have sinned and we will sin. We do sin. But I know this, God
is faithful and just to forgive us sin when we confess it. When
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us all of
our sins. all of our sins. Why then will we have any doubt
that God would hear our cries? If we doubt that God would hear
our cries, are we not doubting our Savior's righteousness? Yes,
we are. We're doubting His person and
His work to stand before us. Jesus Christ is said to be made
unto us wisdom. and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption. You see, Christ is all. Christ
is all. And God hears because Christ
is all. God hears us because Christ is
all. Paul said this, he said, I desire
not to be found in my own righteousness, but to be found in Christ's righteousness.
That's where I want to be found when I pray. That's where I want
to be found every single minute of every single day is to be
found in His holy righteousness before God. That way I know this,
God hears the right. God hears the right, attend unto
my cry, give ear unto my prayer that goeth not out of feigned
lips, deceitful lips, Oh, you mean my lips are not deceitful? Not in Christ. Not in His righteousness. Not before God. Not before God. He hears our cries. So then,
because we have the righteousness of God in Christ, we may also
have confidence that the judgment of God has passed. Is that why we fear or that's
why we hesitate to come before God? Because our sin is so great? I'll tell you, if our sin is
so great, that's exactly why we should come to God. That's
exactly why we should approach His throne. Look at verses 2.
It said, Let my sentence come forth from thy presence. Let thine eyes behold the things
that are equal." We may come to Christ because
our sentence is passed. We go to God because He has already
passed sentence on our sins in Christ. Already. You see, David
here is crying. He's saying, You pass the sentence. If I'm crying to you and I'm
unrighteous, then I want it to come from you. I'm not going
to allow anyone else to judge me but you. I'm not going to allow even my
own conscience and self to judge me. You pass sentence. You judge
me. According to your holiness, you
judge me. And we know this, that the Scripture
says in Romans 3 that our sin is passed through the forbearance
of God, by the blood of Jesus Christ. The sin that is our own. We confess that we are sinners
in need of great mercy. But I know this, that Jesus Christ
has already taken my sin. He's already passed sentence
even before I committed them. He passed sentence on Christ.
So when God comes in justice, when He comes and looks at me,
and He passes sentence, what will He find? What will He find? Look at verse 3, Thou hast proved
mine heart. Thou hast visited me, and tonight
Thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing." Wonderful! I'm so glad when God Himself
looks, He finds nothing. I know you find things. I know
I find things. Daily, I find things that I've
never seen before that were always there. Isn't that true about sin, that
it was always there, and then now we understand it, but it
was always there? God reveals our sin to us, but
He also reveals this, that we have been justified by the grace of God through Christ.
Justified. What does that mean? You're innocent.
It's not like you're innocent. You are. you are. The scripture says in Jeremiah,
I believe it's chapter 50 and verse 20, said the Lord will
search out our iniquities and he will not be able to find them.
He will not be able to find them. Believer, let us be instant in
prayer because our sin no more separates us from God. It was
sin that separated us from God. But Christ has bridged the gap. He's taken sin out of the way. It's gone. Where is it? Gone. It's gone. It's gone so far that
God won't find it. Far as the east is from the west. So far has He removed our sin
from us. That should give you all the
motivation you need to go to God instantly. in prayer, instantly,
without hesitation, be confident. God's throne that is a just throne
is also a throne of grace. He's both just and gracious,
just and gracious. And because of Christ, He can
be both just and gracious, the just and the justifier. And we say, let not our conscience
judge us, let not man judge us, but God himself. Let me be judged
in Christ, in Christ alone. Jesus, friends, has borne all
our iniquity, transgression, and sin. I like that in Exodus
34 because it includes all three of them. Forgiving iniquity. Transgression and sin. That's what God does through
Christ. And so, believer, cry out by
the righteousness of Christ because of the atonement of His blood
and we will be heard. I think that's said in some courtrooms,
isn't it? Let the court be in session and
speak and you shall be heard. We shall be heard because of
Christ. Second of all, we can pray with
confidence because our faith will be tried. He said, Thou hast proved mine
heart. Thou hast visited me in the night. Thou hast tried me. Friends, the only way that we
are going to be more confident and have more assurance in prayer
is only through trials, only through difficulties. Assurance,
hope, which means rock-solid assurance, not a wish, but to
be assured that God hears us, He proves our faith to be genuine. He proves us. Hold fast to this
truth that God will try us and prove us, not for Himself, but
for our own sake. For our own sake. We confess this, that the greatest
faith we have is unbelief. I mean, it's altogether unbelief. Our faith, it does not save us.
We know this, that it is the object of faith that saves. It
is Christ that saves. But this true faith in Christ,
it must be tried. God says, I will try you as silver. He is going to put us through
a furnace to try us and burn away all self-righteousness. He burns away all pride. He takes away all the darkness
and all the misunderstandings that we have And He burns them
off. And we come out. We come out
pure. And then He puts us in again.
And we come out pure. What it is, is He's burning away
all these things. Not that we become more righteous,
but that we realize that we are righteous in the eyes of God. I'll tell you, that's only done
through the trial of our faith. Faith of God's saints is perfect
because it is the gift of God. When you take gold out of the
earth, the gold is perfect. There's nothing wrong with the
gold. You just need to get rid of all the other junk. The gold
is perfect. Our faith is perfect because
it's God's faith. But yet we know this. We still
have this old man who weighs us down with unbelief. Constantly
mingled in with our faith. And it needs to be burned off,
it needs to be mortified. And we should praise God for
these trials. We should praise God for these
trials. Scripture says the trying of your faith being much more precious than
gold that perishes. Though it be tried with fire." Friends, it is needful for us
to go through trials. Otherwise, we would not go through
them. We wouldn't go through them. It is because of trials
that we were able to more embrace our Savior by faith. Let me ask
you this. Do you believe now more than
you did when you started? Now, did your faith improve?
No, it's the same faith. But God has burned off so much.
And He continues to burn off until He drops His body in the
grave. He'll need to burn it off. There's plenty more left
to burn off. Plenty more left. James says, count it all joy
when you fall into divers temptations. Does that sound opposite of what
our flesh desires? I mean, is that not the opposite? Don't we desire to be out of
trouble? Don't we desire to be out of trials? No. Count it. He said, command it. That's what
that word, count it, means. It means to command it. Are you
going to feel joy when you're suffering? No. But you count
it joy, because it truly is, even though you don't feel it.
Count it joy when you are surrounded. Surrounded by trials and troubles. By different adversities. Because
knowing that the trying, the trustworthiness of your faith
work at what? Patience. Patience. We want everything yesterday. And God has all eternity to give
it to us when he wants. We think that maybe a year or
two is really a long time for God to do something. But really, if you look at the
Scriptures, there are many times where God spent years teaching. his children before he spoke
again to them concerning a new thing, concerning more understanding
of the gospel. Friends, God will try us, and
it's not according to our timetable. He's not going to try us according
to our timetable. He works patient. So be patient
in the trials. so that you may be mature in
patience. I'm not quite mature in patience,
it seems. There's a lot of room for growth,
isn't there? Yeah, there is. Our faith will
be proven by God, not for Himself. He gave it. It's for us. You know, I desire not to be
found deceived in the end, don't you? I don't desire to be among the
goats. I don't desire to be among those
who thought they were saved. Who thought they had faith. I
want to know that I know, that I know, that I know I have faith
until I breathe my last breath, may it be in faith towards Christ. I want to know. I'll tell you,
I don't feel like I believe. I'll tell you, my unbelief is
great. I believe, Lord, help thou my
unbelief. In the same breath we pray that. We need to know our faith, whether
it's real or not. And only time and trials will
prove it out. That's it. And he'll prove this by providence.
Trial by providence. Look at verse 5. He said, Hold
up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip not. Hold up
my goings in thy paths. The paths of thy providence.
The paths of the Lord's providence. Hold me up in it. Because I tell
you, I don't understand it. I don't understand it. The Lord
moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. He plants
His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep and
unfathomable minds of never failing skill. He works His grand design
and does His precious will. God does His sovereign will.
He does what He wills. And we must cry unto God in confidence
in the midst of His providence. Cry out to God with confidence
knowing that we are where we are by the providence of God. And praise God for the joy of
His proving grace that we may know that we shall not fail. He shall
not fail. We do fail. We do fail and we
do sin. And we are under a lot of weight,
it seems. But I'll tell you this, even
the small trials we couldn't face alone. The seemingly small things, food,
clothes, I know that each one of us tonight really don't have
a big trial with food or clothing. We have plenty. Right now, God
has blessed us and graced us with plenty to eat and plenty
of clothes to wear. And yet we know this, that if
we had no food or clothes, we could not provide these things
for ourselves. God must provide them. Even the
smallest thing. We could not by our worry relieve
ourselves. Do you worry? Does it help? You're digging down and throwing
the dirt in your own face. It doesn't help. It doesn't do
anything. When the Apostle Paul was tried
and he prayed to God, he said, God, deliver me from this thorn
in my flesh. And what did Christ say? My grace
is sufficient for thee. Paul said, therefore, I will
boast in my weakness. My infirmities. Why? Because when I am weak, then
I'm strong. When I'm weak, He's strong. I look to Him. For all my confidence
and grace in the time of his providence." And believer, we
see that our goings are in the paths of God's sovereign divine
providence and he will uphold us. He's the only one who can.
Now, if you come to me with problems, I will try my best to do what
I can for you. But I know this, I can't hold
your heart. I can't hold you up. I can't
keep you from falling. I can't keep you and sustain
you. I can't even keep myself. But God is able to keep all of
us. God is able to keep us from falling. Because known are the works of
the Lord from the beginning. He's known everything that he's
going to do to us and for us. Scripture says, in whom we've
obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the
purpose of Him who worketh all things. God help us let that sink in,
all things. Can you not let your life pass
before your eyes, the eyes of your mind, and not see that all
things? or after the counsel of his own
will. There's peace for the believer
in that. There's peace. Because the Scripture
says we know. How do we know? By faith we know.
That all things operate together. All things blend together. for the good of them that love
God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Believer,
pray with confidence in the midst of God's providence. And He will
sustain us. He will uphold us in our goings,
in the goings of His path. Believers, we have hope that
none of God's elect will be lost. Isn't that a confident hope?
Isn't that an assurance? That if God were to fail to save
one of us, that He Himself would cease to be God? That's not going
to happen. And He's not going to lose us.
Not one. Not one. Jude says, unto Him that is able
to keep you from falling. It's true that believers may
fall and be rejected of me. I want you to see this, go to
first Corinthians nine flip over their first Corinthians nine. It's very important for us to
understand. Verse 26. Paul says, I therefore so run.
Not as. Uncertainly, so fight I, not
as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have
preached to others, I myself should be cast away, rejected."
Now, we know that this is not speaking of his salvation. He is not keeping under his body
in subjection so that he might be accepted of God. We know that's
not true. We are accepted only by Christ,
and Paul desired not to be found in his own righteousness. We
know that. What is he saying? He's saying, I keep my body under
subjection so that I might not be rejected when I preach the
gospel. I keep myself from sin. I desire to keep myself from
those things that I know are distasteful and disdained in
the eyes of God. I don't want those things. And
so we keep ourselves in subjection, under the subjection of God's
love, not God's law. I'll tell you what, I know this,
I feel more beat when God's love comes in. when I fall into sin. I feel more bruised when I see
what He gave for me and see how little I thought of Him. We have certainty of our salvation,
but friends, I'll tell you, we need to be careful about our
witness. It can be lost. Is there anyone who desires to
be lot? Lot was saved. Oh, but what kind of witness
is Lot? The believer in Christ must keep
the flesh under restraint through the power of the Spirit in mortifying
the deeds of the body Why? So that the gospel be not blasphemed. I'll tell you, is that not love?
Do we not obey Christ because of love? I don't want His gospel
to be blasphemed. It's too precious. It's too precious. And so, go to God in prayer concerning
these things. He'll hear you. He's already
taken care of your sins. He's faithful and just to forgive
you your sins, and He's going to keep you no matter what trials
come on you. So you can be confident of that.
And thirdly, we pray because we desire to see His lovingkindness. Look at this, verse 7. He says,
Show thy lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand
them which put their trust in thee, from those that rise up
against them. I want to see His love. Cheryl and I were talking about
experiencing His love. You know, we like those feelings
of His love. But I'll tell you what, those
are easy, aren't they? We love to have those. But they're
none more meaningful than to find His love in the midst of
adversity. When you're the lowest and you
see what Christ has done for you, is it not the greatest time
of your life? It is the greatest joy. It is
the greatest joy when He shows us the cross. He doesn't show us the law. I'm
so thankful. I see the law already written
in the heart. But He shows me the cross. If
you want to see the loving kindness of God, we must see the cross. We must see Christ on the cross. I saw one hanging on a tree in
agony and blood. He fixed His loving eyes on me
as near His cross I stood. My conscience felt and owned
the guilt and plunged me in despair. At once I saw that all my sin
had helped to nail Him there. A second look He gave to me which
said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for your ransom
paid. I died that you might live."
The lovingkindness is only found in the cross, in the cross of
Christ. Behold the cross where God took
away all our sin. All glory be to God. When we
pray, let us make sure all glory is to God. All glory is to God. Because it's by his right hand
of power, even Christ, we're saved. And lastly, we pray with
confidence, knowing that we shall be kept. Verse 8. Keep me as the apple of the eye. You want to know what that means?
Try to throw dirt in your own eye. Your whole body will repel
against it. Your whole body will react. I know this from weed eating,
especially, and lawn mowing if you don't have the bag on and
the stuff flies up. When a pebble flies up, I look
like an idiot. I mean, I just collapse on the
ground trying to guard my eye. But you don't care, do you? You
don't care what it makes you look like. Your whole body instantly
reacts to guard that eye. And friend, God uses His whole
self to keep you. What part of God, what power
of God does He not use to keep you? He says, you're precious. Is
that not reason to go to Him in prayer? Because He says you're
precious? You are. If you're a believer
in Christ, you are to God precious. Christ prayed that God the Father
would love us even as He has loved Christ. And He does. Praise God. Be confident. Be instant in prayer. I pray
that God would bless us to our hearts. This stand will be dismissed.