If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Psalm chapter 39. Psalm chapter 39. I've been studying this passage
for the last couple of weeks, and I had to skip over it last
week. The Lord didn't give me a message
from it, and I prayed about it this week, and I believe the
Lord is giving me one tonight. Psalm chapter 39. We're looking
at verses 1 through 8, and we'll touch on some of the other ones
this evening. The title of the message tonight
is the vanity of self-determination. The vanity of self-determination. Let's read this first verse here
together. It is a Psalm of David. The scripture says, I said, I
will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue, I will
keep my mouth with the bridle while the wicked is before me. David here makes a self-determination. He says it twice in the first
verse, I will. I will. I said, I will. Keep myself from sin. Now this
sounds on the surface at first glance a good determination. A good determination. It appears
to be good that a believer should even follow this determination. There is no doubt that we are
exhorted as believers in Christ to keep ourselves from sin. There is no doubt that we are
even to keep ourselves from the very appearance of sin. But the problem with self-determination is that it is self-determination. It is a determination that we
make by our own will and by our own power. It is one David determined
to do by his own power and resolution. I said I will. I know that all
men at times of great difficulty, of great sorrow and trouble,
either because of something that was done to them or because of
something they have done, that they have sinned and they felt
remorse about it. They say, well, I'm sorry. I'm
sorry and I won't do that again. They make some kind of vow that
it will never happen to them again. They say in that moment of grief,
man, if I can just get out of this, I'll never. I promise. I swear I'll never commit that
sin again. Yet, we know that this is never
the case. They never are able to complete
their vow. Never. Even if a man doesn't
physically commit that act again, he'll fall into something worse
than that. Or he'll never, at least he'll
never be able to forget what he did. He'll never be able to
stop wanting to do it again. I know that in my family, we
have many people, my brothers are, were addicted to drugs and
alcohol. And how many times have I seen
them in that bottom section, in that depressed state, and
they just say, woe is me, I promise I'll never do it again. Sure
enough, they do it again. Why? Because it's self-determination. They believe somehow they have
the power to overcome these things if they just determine enough
to do it. And I'll tell you, they may.
But one thing about it, that thing never leaves them. That
desire never leaves them again. Never. It's the same way with
any sin. That's just an illustration,
but it's the same way with any sin. If there's something that
we enjoy in sin, if we fall into it and it causes us pain, I guarantee
you there's always a pull to pull us back into that sin again. This is always the desire of
the natural man is to trust in his own strength, in his own
reformation, to trust in his own power to keep himself from
trouble or to get himself out of it. I said I will. I said I will. But this man in our text was
not just any lost man, was he? This man that was saying this
was not just a lost sinner who had no idea who the Messiah was. This was David, a man after God's
own heart. This was a man who was the king
over Israel. And he pictured the Lord Jesus
Christ. And yet here we have this man
of God saying, I will determine within myself that I'll keep
myself from sin. I'll brighten my mouth and I
won't say anything but sin. Yet we still know and see that
David was prone to sin. And that's not any different
than any one of God's children. We're not any different than
David. We are all prone to such sin. Believer in Jesus Christ,
let us always remember that it was by sovereign grace that we
were chosen in eternity. It was by the sovereign purpose
of the Father that He gave us to Christ, that He put us in
Christ. That He became our surety from
eternity. It was sovereign, immutable,
unchangeable grace that did that for us. It was the sovereign
grace of Jesus Christ who was willing to take God's people
to Himself. It was the sovereign grace of
Christ who was willing to be our representative. And as He
came into this world, He brought in an everlasting righteousness
for His people and redeemed us from all our sins by the blood
of His cross. We know this from the prophecy
of Daniel that says in Daniel 9, 24, it says, He shall make
an end of sin. He shall bring in everlasting
righteousness. And friends, Christ has done
that for His people. Why? Because of His sovereign
mercy and friends by His one offering, He has already perfected
God's people forever. Jesus Christ, our Savior, is
a successful Savior. He has redeemed us to God by
His blood. and is now ascended to the throne
of God. Believer, let us praise our Savior
for He has accomplished our salvation. He's accomplished our redemption so that none of His elect will
ever be lost. If you remember, Jesus said this
in John 6, 39, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out of all. This is the will of the Father
which has sent me that I should lose nothing, nothing, not one. And because of this great sacrifice,
the Spirit of God was sent to us through the preaching of the
incorruptible Word of God. And by that Gospel, He has regenerated
our souls to believe in Christ. He's given us life. He's given
us faith in Christ to be able to receive what God has already
purposed and God has already accomplished for us. And we were
born again, not of our own self-determination. We were not born of our self-determination,
were we? The Scripture says, as many as
received Him, to them gave He the power, the right to be called,
to become the sons of God, which were born, not of the will of
the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. But of God. Believer, we were called by the
power of the Spirit of God. That's not something natural.
That's something supernatural. That's something spiritual. It's
not something fleshly. It's something that God does
in the resurrection of the soul. That's what He does. We were
determined in our sin to do nothing but sin. until the power of the
Spirit came. And then we were made willing
by the power of the Spirit to believe. We were called by His power.
And Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believes. Friends, our faith is never the
cause of our salvation, but rather it is the result of the new birth. So then, if our life, if our
spiritual life did not come by self-determination, why in the
world would we think that our spiritual life continues by our
self-determination? That is the most absurd thing
in the world. Didn't Paul answer that question
in Galatians when he said, Have you begun by the Spirit and now
are you made perfect by your walking after the law, after
the flesh? No way. No way. Friends, we didn't bring ourselves
into this and we can't keep ourselves in it. We are saved by the unmerited
favor of God and friends, we are going to be kept by the unmerited
favor of God and not our will or self-determination. If you remember, it is that we
were dead in trespasses and sin. The Scripture says, you hath
He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And then
what does it say? For by grace you are saved through
faith and that... That what? Faith. is not of yourself. It, faith, is the gift of God,
not of works. Why? Lest any man should boast
and say something like, I said and I will. That's nothing more
than boasting. It's nothing more than boasting.
So then our salvation is of the Lord. He chose us. He redeemed
us. He called us. He gave us life and faith. And
not only that, He has imputed His righteousness to us, but
He has also imparted His righteousness to us. In the new creation. Ephesians
4.24 says, Put on the new man which is created after God. In
the image of God. After true holiness and righteousness. The new nature cannot sin. It cannot sin. Why? It's created of God. It's
perfect. It's nothing lacking in it. It's as righteous as God Himself. And friends, even though God
has done all of this for us, even though He has saved us,
redeemed us, called us, regenerated us, given us His righteousness,
He still has not taken away that old man. You and I still have
that old nature. And just as the new man cannot
sin, the old man cannot not sin. The old man, he cannot not sin. All he does is sin. That's it. Jesus said, that which is born
of flesh is flesh. But that which is born of Spirit
is spirit. We have two distinct natures
in every believer in Christ. Now, if you're lost and without
Christ, you've got one nature, and that's that nature that only
sins continually. You have nothing else. But we
who are in Christ, we have a new nature, but we still have that
old nature in us. Friends, we must never assume
upon what God has not promised to do. And there is nowhere in
this Word of God that God has promised to take away this old
nature from us until it dies. That's it. You and I are stuck
with it. We are stuck with it. We must never pretend that this
nature is anything else but complete, absolute sin. Why? Because God doesn't give us any
promise of change until it takes on incorruption in the resurrection. Truly, our new nature is as John
tells us. As He is, so are we in this world. Isn't that what John says? It's
1 John 4, 17. He says, As He is, so are we
where? In this world. That new nature. It's just as Christ is in heaven. But the old nature didn't change
one bit. The old nature is still full
of sin. The Scriptures teach us that
Christ has redeemed us, the whole man, body, soul, and spirit,
yet it also tells us that we shall be made perfect. We are
made perfect in the accomplished work of Christ, but that's not
our experience, is it? Is that your experience? Not
my experience. I still have sin. I still commit
sin in this body. Paul struggled with that, he
said. He said, that that I want to do, I can't do. He said, I
find two walls in me warring against each other. In Psalm 138 verse 8, the scripture
says, The Lord will perfect that which concerneth us. That's future
tense. You remember when David was on
his deathbed, he said, Although my house be not so with God,
yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, both sure and steadfast. In 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse
5 it says, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation. Get this, ready to be revealed. Let me ask you this, do you know
all about this salvation? Do you know the full depth of
what Christ has done for us? No, we don't. Not yet. But one day, friends, this body
will drop off and we'll know Him even as we are known. Therefore, because our old man
of sin is still with us, we must, as Christ warned His disciples,
watch and pray. Watch and pray. Keep guard over
your heart because of sin. But we must never trust our own
resolve or our own determination to keep ourselves from it. Watch. And pray. It is God who will keep us. It
is God who will sustain us. And friends, if you stay under
the sound of the gospel all of your life and believe on Christ,
it will not be because of your determination. It will be because
the grace of God has kept you under the sound of the gospel.
He has kept you in the faith. David's sin here is for our learning. It's for our learning. He said,
I will. Take heed to my ways that I sin
not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle
while the wicked is before me. Like I said on the surface, that
sounds good. That he would take heed as to
how he would act and keep himself from all sinful ways. He even
promises to keep silent. David understands something.
He understood this, that the tongue is what turns the whole
body. Isn't that what James said? James
said that the tongue, if a man bridle his tongue, even so is
a perfect man. He said it's like a rudder on
a huge ship. That little rudder turns the
body of that whole ship. It's like a bit in the horse's
mouth that turns the body of the whole horse, even so the
tongue. The tongue. It turns us to sin. It's full
of sin. He said the tongue can no man
tame. And what did David determine
to do? I'm going to tame my tongue. I'm just going to hold back and
not sin. And how am I going to do that?
I'm just going to be quiet. Not going to say anything. He
became a monk. He tried to become a monk and
take a vow of silence as though that would keep him from sin. How many times have we done that? How many times have we determined,
I'm going to do this and keep myself from sin? I will. I won't commit that sin
again. This is the problem of modern
day false religion. Isn't this idea of repentance?
Repentance is not something you do constantly. Repentance is
something that's done at conversion. People think repentance is something
that every time you commit a sin, you got to repent of it. When have we ever repented of
one sin? Truly. Doesn't that bring you
to bondage? Of course it does. I'm going
to repent. I will repent of this sin. And I won't do it again. Liar. That's a lie. And we know it. This is why there's no peace
in works religion. Because they never find an end
of repenting. They never find an end of doing
enough to please God. What is the result of this resolve?
Now, we know that self-determination is a sham. It's a farce. It's vanity. What's the result
if we do this, if we are self-determined to do this in our own power to
keep ourselves from sin? Well, the result is this. It's going to fail. That's the
result. It's always, always, always,
always going to fail. When we determine and resolve
to keep ourselves from sin of commission, we are always prone to go too
far into sins of omission. Sins of commission are something
that we can see, something that we know about. But every time
we try to keep ourselves from that, we fall into sins of omission,
which is things we don't know about. David did that. Look in your
text. He says, I was dumb, I was silent,
I held my peace. Here it is, even from good. Even from good. The Scripture says, He that knoweth
to do good and doeth it not to him, it is sin. David said, I'm just going to
keep from doing anything and that way I won't sin. No, David,
you will sin because you did not do good. You did not do good. If we determine to keep ourselves
from seeing our own strength, we'll be like those Pharisees.
If you remember, the Pharisees were the strictest sect of the
Jewish religion. And what did they determine to
do? Well, we're going to keep the law. And they kept that law
so much and so meticulous that they wouldn't even allow anyone
to be healed on the Sabbath day. That's what they condemned Christ
for doing, isn't it? He went about doing good. And
what did they do? They condemned good, trying to
keep some law or some self-determination. You remember those Pharisees
in the Lord's parable and that Levite who passed by the man
who was taken by the thieves. And because they would not defile
their ceremonial cleansing, they wouldn't help that man. It was Peter's determination
not to eat the unclean thing even though God Himself said,
eat. When we sin and it's exposed
and we're in trouble because of it, we sometimes then make
hasty vows. Have you ever made a hasty vow? Have you kept it? David was truly determined to
do good. I mean, truly determined that
he would not sin. And friends, for God's saints,
this will not continue for very long. David's sin did not continue
very long, did it? Look at this. He said, I was
dumb, I was silent, I held my peace even from good, and my
sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me while
I was musing. The fire burned. Then I speak. Then I speak. How hard is it to keep from? Keep it in that you're sick.
You know, it's very difficult for me. I don't personally do
it very often because when I'm I'm sick, I usually let everybody
know. But that's just an illustration. Some people like to keep that
in. They just don't like anybody to know that they're sick. But
it comes to a point where they can't do anything but let it
out. It becomes so burdensome that
they have to tell somebody. How hard is it for us to keep
our complaints to ourself? A lot of times we won't even
confess our complaints against someone, but we'll confess to
someone else. We just can't hold it in very long. We got to tell
somebody. Friends, when the conviction
of sin reaches the heart of the saints, it won't be long till
he explodes. It won't be long. It'll be like
a fire in his heart. Remember when Jeremiah said,
I will not speak. And he said, my bones were on
fire. I couldn't forbear it any longer.
I had to speak. A believer in Christ cannot continue
long in self-determination or self-righteousness because we
have a holy nature that is inside of us that's in opposition Galatians tells us that we have
a war going on within our hearts. The spirit lusts against the
flesh and the flesh against the spirit, and these two are contrary
one to another. And the longer we muse and meditate
on this, the longer we keep our resolve to do this thing, the
harder the conviction burns within us. David says, I know that in me,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present with
me. Oh, I'm willing. But how to do it? I don't know. I want to be sinless, don't you?
I don't know how I go about that. I can't do that. Does not this self-righteous
attitude always then lead us to murmuring, complaining? Yes. I tell you, if I determine
to love my wife as Christ loved the church, it won't be long
till I'm murmuring about how she's not obedient to me. If
I try to do that in my own power, that's exactly what's going to
happen. And my love is fake. My love would be fake. But the
Spirit of God that convicts us of our pride and self-righteousness
burns within us until we burst out in prayer. Lord! Lord. That's what David said. Then I spake. It was burning in me and I couldn't
forbear. I had to speak. And what did
he speak? Lord, make me to know mine end. Friends, when this happens to
us, let us unto God that we may know, that he may teach us. Have we found our self-determination
and self-resolution to be vanity? Have we not seen by faith that
all we are by nature is sin? Oh, wretched man, not that I
was, that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Friends, who's going to deliver
us from these kinds of these things, these foolish, sinful
things? I thank God through Jesus Christ,
my Lord. It is the Lord that will deliver
us. It is the Lord that will keep us. It is the Lord that
will forgive us our sins. It is the Lord that must teach
us who we are by nature. And there are three things here
that David learned. He learned, first of all, the frailty. He
wanted to know the frailty of himself. He said, Lord, make
me to know my end and to measure my days. what it is that I may
know how frail I am." Believer, our life here is but
a small time, isn't it? It goes by fast in the light
of eternity. What is our time here on this
earth? David said it's a hand breath. In other words, it's
a measurement from this finger to this finger. That's it. Now,
put that up to eternity and see how much you got. We got no time. Our time is so small. All of mankind, the scripture
says, is counted as dust in the balance. before God. We are like grasshoppers
in the sight of God. The gospel cry of John the Baptist
is the same gospel cry that we have here today. All flesh is
grass. Grass. It grows today and it's
cut down tomorrow. These young girls are growing
up. They're becoming pretty. That won't last long. That won't
last long. All the things we think are important
today are nothing. All the events of the time of
our day is a second in the sight of eternity. Teach us to know how really insignificant
we really are in ourselves. Who's going to remember you when
you're gone? Maybe one or two generations
and then pretty soon you're just a distant memory in some picture
somewhere. Who's that? I don't know. I don't know. They died years ago. Insignificant. Man is nothing. How then does
man think he can merit the favor of the almighty eternal God in
his short little span of time? Why will men try to satisfy the
justice of an eternal God when they can't even satisfy their
own conscience? Teach us, Spirit, to know our
insignificant frailty to determine anything. We should rather say, if the
Lord will. Isn't that what we should do
with everything? Every place we go, everything we do, if the
Lord will, we'll do this and that and this and that. Number
two, he learned the vanity of will worship. Will worship. Verse six, surely every man walketh
in a vain show. Isn't that religion? Walking
in a vain show. A dog and pony show. In our day we have so many clinging
to their works, their laws and religions, and God says this,
Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of
the world, the law, why, as though living in the world, are you
subject to ordinances? Touch not, taste not, handle
not. Which things perish with the using, after the commandments
and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show
of wisdom? Religion has a good show, doesn't
it? It puts on a nice front, doesn't it? Look at those people,
they're doing really well. Oh, they're so good. They're
helping their neighbors. Look at them. It has a show of wisdom and will
worship and humility, neglecting of the body. Not in any honor to the satisfying
of the flesh, they're never satisfied, it's never enough. Teach us to
know that our works will never be enough to satisfy a holy God. Teach us that our vain show of
religion doesn't do anything for our righteousness. May God
the Spirit teach us the vanity of self-religious will worship
and that we as believers in Christ should stay away from it. Stay
away from it. Third, we're to learn the vanities
of earthly treasures. Look at that in verse 7. I'm
sorry, in the end of verse 6. He heapeth up riches, and knoweth
not who shall gather them." If you know how frail you are,
if you know that you can't earn righteousness by your merit,
then what in the world are these things around us going to do
for us? Nothing. You can't buy your favor with
God. You can't buy it. It must be by grace. You can't
earn it. It must be by grace, and we must
see that this world is not our true home, believer. This world
is not our home. These things are to be counted
as less than nothing, and we're to lay down our lives for the
gospel of Christ. Do you know the word witness?
I think I told you this Sunday it means martyr. We're to put
the cause of Christ above even our own lives. Why they're insignificant,
they're frail, they're weak. They add nothing to God. Solomon said this when he had
everything, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. In verse seven, David says, and
now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in the Lord. Teach us. that our hope is in
Christ. Our hope is in Christ. If we
know these things, God will teach us to continue to look to Jesus
Christ for all our righteousness and all our salvation. Believer,
by faith we must see that we are not able to deliver ourselves
from any sin, but Christ is our hope. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our all and all. Verse 80 said, Deliver me from
all my transgressions. Friends, in Christ, God has delivered
us from the penalty of sin, hasn't He? How? By taking our sins and
imputing them to Christ. He took all of our sins and Christ
willingly drank our sins in. And God poured out His wrath
on His Son. And the fire from heaven came
down and consumed the sacrifice. You never notice in that time
Elijah was offering that sacrifice, the fire came down. It says it
burned up the sacrifice, it burned up the wood, it burned up the
rocks, it burned up the water and the dirt. It even burned
up the dirt. That was the same wrath of God.
It came down on Christ. And yet Christ emerged victorious
in that sacrifice. The sacrifice did not consume
Him. It consumed our sin. It consumed
all of our sin so that none was left. He has saved us from the
penalty of sin. And when the Spirit of God came,
He saved us from the power of sin. How? By giving us a new
nature. Freeing us from the law of sin
and death. He's freed us from the law of
sin and death. Scripture says the strength of
sin is what? It's the law. But if we're free
from the law, what power does sin have? It has no power to
convict us anymore. It has no power to condemn us
anymore. No power. Scripture says, who
is he that condemneth? It's God that justified. It was
God that justified me. Sin has no more power to condemn
me. And one day, friends, God will
deliver us from the presence of sin. Is this not our glorious hope? Do you not long to be free from
sin completely in its presence? Well, guess what? It'll never
become that way by our determination, but only by the deliverance of
Almighty God when He comes and takes us to Himself. Friends, Christ is all our hope. May God teach us the frailty
of our sinful nature. Teach us to number our days,
to know our end. Teach us not to walk in self-righteousness. but rather to look to Christ
by faith. The just shall live by faith. And faith is by the gift and
grace of God, not by my will. I don't trust it. Don't lean
on it. Don't lean on your arm of flesh.
It'll fail you every time. Rest wholly in Christ. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.