love that song. So good. Turn with me back to Psalm 36.
Psalm 36. You know, Talking about man is so unsettling. You know, if you're on the subject
of man, it's just so, so unsettling. But talking about Christ is so
peaceful. It is so peaceful. In the first four verses of this
Psalm, David talks about man. From verses five to 10, he talks
about Christ. From five to nine, really, he
talks about Christ. And then in the last three verses,
he begs God to not let him go his own way of man, but to keep
him in the way of Christ. And this is such a good Psalm.
This is just so good. Let's just go through the 12
verses here. Verse one, David said, the transgression
of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God
before his eyes. He said, in my heart, I believe
the greatest transgression of the wicked, the greatest sin
that this natural fleshly world commits is this, there is no
fear of God before their eyes. That's the greatest one. They don't fear God. That's the
greatest one. Men and women in their natural
condition in this world, there is no fear of God before their
eyes. Do you know why we see what we
see out there? It's because they don't fear
God. You get right down to it. That
evil, that transgression, as he said, It is evidenced most
clearly. It is seen most clearly in religion. Most clearly. Not in the bars. Not in the gutter. In religion. You can see that
men and women have no fear of God before their eyes. most clearly
in religion, false religion. That's where it's most sickening. That's where it's most sickening.
Verse two says, for he flattereth himself in his own eyes. Man loves himself. Man is proud
of himself. Man is proud of who he is and
proud of what he's done. in religion, in false religion. So proud of
himself. God's people are not like that
in the truth. They're not like that. God's
true elect saved people do not flatter themselves. They're the
only ones who don't. They do not flatter themselves.
Those who are taught the truth about God They acknowledge the
truth about themselves. Look with me at Psalm 51. Psalm 51. Don't you love Psalm
51? Don't you thank God for Psalm
51? Aren't you so glad that he had
these men in the scripture write truth, the reality of their heart? Look at Psalm 51 verse 1. David
here cried, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving
kindness. according unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly
from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge
my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Can anybody
enter into this? Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me. David is not flattering himself
right there. He's condemning himself. That's the characteristic of
a true saint of God. That is the characteristic of
a child of God. They don't try to hide what they
are. They expose what they are. They truly expose what they are.
Peter said, Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. That publican in the temple smote
upon his breast, crying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Be merciful to me. The apostle
Paul cried, oh, wretched man that I am. It's hard for us to
believe that that's what the apostle Paul was, but that's
what he was. That was inspired by God for
him to say that. Do you think God would let him
put an exaggeration or a lie in the scripture? No. Oh, wretched man that I am. Why
do God's people confess that? It's because they fear the God
with whom they're going to have to do. That's the reason why.
They fear standing before him outside of the mercy that is
in Christ. I fear that. They fear standing there alone
in their own merit, their own works. God's people are wise
for fearing that, so wise. Where wisdom is, the fear of
the Lord will be. False religion is nothing but
foolishness. It really is, it is nothing but
foolishness. And it's because there's no wisdom
there, none whatsoever. Go back to Psalm 36. Verse one says, the transgression
of the wicked saith within my heart that there's no fear of
God before his eyes. For he flattereth himself in
his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful. Man is going to deceive himself
with his false religion until the day he stands before the
judgment of God. On that day, man is going to
hate his false religion. And man is going to hate the
God that he claimed to love in his false religion. Man will spend his whole life
in false religion claiming to love God. That's what they do. They claim to love God. But because
there's no fear of God before his eyes, it proves that man
doesn't even know God. And the day that he goes to meet
God and the day that he hears and receives his condemnation
from God for not fearing and bowing before the true and living
God, On that day, the truth of his heart is going to come out and he'll be exposed. The gnashing
of his teeth against the true and living God will be exposed. Verse 3, the words of his mouth
are iniquity and deceit, sin and lies. Lies on God, which
is the greatest sin of all. Verse three goes on to say, he
hath left off to be wise and to do good. What is wise? What is good? Believing the word
of Christ, bowing to Christ. Verse four, he deviseth mischief,
and that means vanity. He devises vanity upon his bed. He setteth himself in a way that
is not good. He abhorreth not evil. His ways are not good because
he doesn't hate evil. What is evil? Man. Sin. Where do we see sin the most?
In the flesh of man. Right here in the flesh of man.
The thoughts of man, the intents of man, the works of man. The ways of man are not good
because he loves his own ways. He loves his own wicked, evil
ways. He loves darkness rather than light. That's man. That right there is man. Okay,
that's enough about man. Let's move on to Christ. Let's
turn to Christ. Verse five, David said, thy mercy,
O Lord, is in the heavens. You know what sinful man needs?
Mercy. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. David said, that's man, but this
is God. I told you about man, now let
me tell you about my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. David said,
his mercy is in the heavens. And His faithfulness reaches
the clouds. I know that reaching the clouds
sounds like the height of it. It goes all the way up to the
clouds. I believe that's the condescension of it. It's so
high. It reaches all the way down here
to us. His mercy and His faithfulness is higher than the heavens, but
it reaches all the way down here to us. Listen to the words of this song.
Sometimes we sing these songs and we've known them from a child
and we're, we don't even need to look at the book. I do, but
I don't need to on a lot of those songs because I just, I just
sing them. All right. Listen to the words. Okay. Great
is thy faithfulness. Oh God, my father, there is no
shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions
they fail not. As thou hast been thou forever
will be. Listen to him as he's getting
a hold of this. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth. You mean I get all that? You
mean I get pardon for my sin and peace? that endures and thine
own dear presence to cheer into God. You mean to tell me that
in Christ I get pardon for sin, peace that endures, and I get
to stand in the very presence of you to cheer me? Guide me. Strength for today,
bright hope for tomorrow. Listen to him. Blessings all
mine. With 10,000 beside. There's 10,000. Thousands times thousands more
where that came from. Great is thy faithfulness. Great
is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies
I see. All I have needed, thy hand hath
provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord,
unto me. Can't we all say that? David
said, let me just talk about my Lord for a minute. Let me
just tell you about my Lord. That was man. Yeah, that's man. Let me just tell you about the
Lord for a minute. Verse five, thy mercy, O Lord,
is in the heavens. That's where mercy started, in
the heavens. In eternity past, before anything
was, there was mercy. Mercy for God's sinful people.
How do you know that? God slayed a lamb. Before the foundation of the
world, Christ the lamb slain, he is the mercy of God for his
sinful people. The mercy of God that shed the
blood of Christ and poured that blood on his people, that mercy
keeps that blood right there faithfully. It just keeps it
right there. Our Lord said, when I see the blood, his mercy just
keeps it right there on his people faithfully. Verse six, thy righteousness
is like the great mountains. The margin says the mountains
of God. I want to see the mountains of God. Thy judgments are a great deep.
Oh Lord, thou preservest man in beast. What he's saying is,
oh Lord, salvation is of you. Mercy, faithfulness, righteousness,
judgment, preservation. Where's all that found? In Christ. He's our righteousness. David
said, man is transgression. Man is wicked. Man is vanity. Man is lies. Man is sin. Christ is mercy. Christ is righteousness. Christ is faithfulness. Christ
is our judgment before God. Christ bore our judgment before
God for everything that we are in the flesh. Everything that
we are as men and women in the flesh. Verse seven says, how
excellent is thy loving-kindness, O God." That word excellent means
precious. How precious is thy loving-kindness? Loving-kindness, grace, grace. How precious is thy grace, O
God? The grace, the gift of your mercy,
the gift of your faithfulness, the gift of your righteousness,
the gift of your judgment. Because of your gift, because
of your grace, because of your doing, all your doing. Verse
seven goes on to say, therefore, the children of men put their
trust under the shadow of thy wings. Doesn't that sound like
such a nice place to be? under the shadow of his wings. Let's enjoy a few scriptures
on that for a minute. Go over to Psalm 17. This is a picture of Christ.
We can hear the voice of Christ in this, crying to his father
from the cross. And because he cried this, we
can cry this. Verse seven, Psalm 17, verse
seven, it says, show thy marvelous loving kindness, O thou that
savest. By thy right hand, them which
put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.
Do you have a center margin in your Bible for that? Mine says,
them which trust in thee from those that rise up against thy
right hand. They're rising up against Christ. They're rising up against the
right hand of Christ. Verse eight, he said, keep me
as the apple of the eye. Hide me under the shadow of thy
wings. From the wicked that oppress
me, from my deadly enemies who compass me about. Hide me under
the shadow of thy wings. Like little chickens. Little
chicks hiding under the wings of their mama. I thought about
some of you who have chickens. I don't know if anybody here
has chick-laying chickens, chicken-laying hens. I watched a video of this hen
and All you could see was this hen sitting there and the person
with the camera got real close and real low and you could see
just right up under that hen there's just tons of little chicken
legs. All those little chicks hiding
up under the safety of their mother. That's
what I want to be in Christ. Look at Psalm 57. Verse 1 says, Be merciful unto me, O God, be
merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee. Yea, in the
shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities
be overpassed. Can't you see those little chicks
running up under the hen whenever they get scared? I'm going to
hide right here until this is over. That's all that God's people
are doing. That's all we're doing. We're just hiding in the refuge
of the wings of our God. That's all we're doing. Christ Jesus, our Lord, our God,
there's so much refuge in Him. So, you know, you'll come to
a place, if you belong to Him, you'll come to a place where
you need refuge in Him. You will find refuge in Him. You'll be so thankful for that
refuge in Him. You will feel safe in Him. So much peace and safety and
comfort. Having our lives hid with Christ
in God. Look at Psalm 63. Verse seven. Because thou hast been
my help, Therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice."
There's so much happiness in here. You know what? There's so much happiness in
here. When I say in here, I mean in
Christ. There's so much happiness in here. Psalm 121 verse 5 says, the Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. Psalm 91 says, he that dwelleth
in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is
my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him will I trust. Isn't it so much nicer to talk
about Christ? To just dwell on Christ? So much
more comforting and peaceful. Go back to Psalm 36. Verse 7, How excellent is thy lovingkindness,
O God! Therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of thy house. and thou shalt make
them drink of the river of thy pleasures. That deserves a whole
message, that deserves two whole messages right there. Abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of his house, drinking from the
river of thy pleasures. Oh, the provisions, the blessings,
the satisfaction, the delight, The life, the light, it's all
Christ. It's all Christ. John 1 verse
4 says, in him was life and the life was the light of men. We're going to truly live, we're
going to live by Christ. We're going to truly see, we're
going to see by Christ. And to live is to see Christ. To live is to know Christ. Verse
10, he said, Oh, continue thy loving kindness unto them that
know thee. Man, can we not say that with
David? Lord, please continue thy loving kindness unto them
that know thee and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. Lord,
it comes from you. It's all coming from you. Please
continue it. We're at your mercy. Please continue
it. Our hope is in your faithfulness
to continue it. Continue giving your grace to
us and your righteousness to us. I need his righteousness
every day. Your mercy, Lord, please continue
to give it. Verse 11 says, let not the foot
of pride come against me. And let not the hand of the wicked
remove me. There are the workers of iniquity
fallen. They are cast down and shall
not be able to rise. What he's saying is, Lord, keep
me from myself. There's more pride in here than
there is out there. That's a true statement. Lord,
keep me from myself. There's enough pride and wickedness
and sin to cast me into an eternity of hell. Right here, right now.
Lord, sovereignly overrule me. Overrule me. Reign over me. And keep me looking to you. Don't
you want that? You know, sometimes his dealings
with us are not pleasant to keep us looking to him, but don't
you want him to keep you looking to him? Lord, keep me looking
to you. Keep me abiding under the shadow
of thy wings. Usually it's fear that makes
those little chickens run under there. But the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. So Lord, keep me. Keep us looking
to you. Keep us abiding under the shadow
of your wings, finding our refuge in you. Keep us by the power
of God. Keep us. You know what his response
is? If I saved you, I'll keep you. If I've revealed to you
that I've saved you, I'll keep you. You will never be lost.
You'll never be lost. Amen.