Open with me to 1 Samuel 16. Our text is Psalm 139, but open
up first of all to 1 Samuel 16. There is nothing that is more
damning to a soul than to, in the sight of God,
pretend to be something that we're not. To pretend to be religious. Use words that are not sincere,
they're not truly from the heart. do works that seem to be religious
on the outside, but really it's just to be praised by others. It's just for a pat on the back.
That's it. We'll look at 1 Samuel 16 verse
7. It says, But the Lord said unto
Samuel, Look not on his countenance, are on the height of his stature,
because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as man
seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh
on the heart. Now, I was, when I first moved
here and we were trying to figure out what radio station to be
on, I was listening to a lot of radio stations. And a lot
of people were saying, you know, we don't always do right, but
God looks on the heart in a positive way. Well, the scripture says
God looks on the heart, but it's in a negative way. It's not in
a positive way. He says, man looks on the outward
appearance, but God looks on the heart. Our Lord told the Pharisees in
Luke 16, ye are they which justify yourselves before men. But God
knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among
men is abomination in the sight of the God. Now you can write
that down almost every single time. Every time I get a flyer
in the mail. You know, we're going to have
this big conference, this big religious conference, you know,
and we're going to be talking about some issue. And the world is latching hold
of this and really taking hold of this. Odds are it's abomination
in the sight of God, based on the Word. The true Lord God of
heaven knows us. He knows us. He knows everything
about us. And it's vital that we know the
God that knows us. Because John 17 3 says, This
is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. This is life eternal, that
they might know Thee. because there is nothing in us
that God doesn't know. Nothing. Now let's turn to our
text, Psalm 139. Verse one says, oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known
me. Isn't that terrifying? Really, isn't that terrifying? Think about that. Thou hast searched
me, you've studied me. You've examined me. Verse 1 says, the end of it says,
and known. The word me is in italics. That
means that the translators added it. You've searched me and known. God knows. He knows. Now I'm sure all of you are much
better than me. But that thought crushes me.
I'm standing here right now preaching it and I'm trying to do a good
job and all that kind of good stuff. But in my study, when
you all were not here, that crushed me. That crushed me. That just stopped me. It just
sobered me. God knows. He knows. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
4. Hebrews 4, look at verse 13.
It says, neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in His sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes
of Him with whom we have to do. We have to do. It's appointed
unto man once to die and then the judgment. We have to deal
with Him. He's going to deal with us. He's searched us and He's known
us. Our text, Psalm 139 verse 2 says,
Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising. He knows every move I make. Every time I sit down, whether
it's to read or watch TV or whatever it is I'm doing, He knows. Every time I stand up, whether
it's to go to work, take a walk, He knows. He sees me at all times. The end of verse 2 in our text
says, Thou understandest my thought afar off. He knows every single
thing that I think. Think about that. Is that a pleasant
thought? No. He knows every thing that I think. Man, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. This hits home to me. This really
reminds me just how bad a sinner I really am. He knows every single thing that
I think. Verse three says, thou compassest
my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways.
He knows every action that I make. Whether I'm awake, whether I'm
asleep, He knows my every move. He knows my motive for it. He knows my heart in it. He knows
my purpose in it. Verse four says, for there is
not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. He hears every single word that
I say. That is scary. That's scary. There's not one word that has
ever been spoken on this earth that made it past His ears. Not
one word. There's not one word that's not
permanently logged in His mind. Verse 4 says, Thou knowest it
all together. You know everything about my
words. Everything. Not only do you know
the source of the words, out of the heart the mouth speaketh,
you know the result of the words. We hurt each other so badly with
our words, don't we? Hurt. Verse five says, thou hast
beset me behind and before and laid thy hand upon me. God not only sees us and knows
us and searches us, but He besets us. He surrounds us. He hymns us in and there is no
escape. For some, what a wonderful thing
that is. No escape. Can't get out. He's before us and behind us
and He's not far off in the distance either. Look at verse 5, it says,
Thou laid thine hand upon me. He's not way off somewhere in
the distance, He laid His hand upon me. Now when He does that and He
is going to do that, He will do that. He's going to lay His
hand on every single person born into this world. He's going to
lay His hand on every single person born into this world.
And when He does that, it's going to be for one of two reasons. He's either going to lay His
hand on a sinner in mercy, or He's going to lay His hand
on a sinner in judgment. One of two. Let me tell you about
two men that he laid his hand on. One of them was Pharaoh. The other one was Saul of Tarsus.
Big difference. He told Pharaoh, for this same
purpose have I raised thee up. that I might show my power in
thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the
earth. And we know what he did to Pharaoh. That's right. He knocked Saul of Tarsus off
of his horse. He put him down in the dirt. And then he told a man named
Ananias, I want you to go help him. For he is a chosen vessel
unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the
children of Israel. He raised Pharaoh up so he could
bring him down. And he brought Paul down so he
could raise him up. Big difference. It's mercy to be brought down. It's mercy. Lord, you've searched
me. You've known me. You know everything
about me. And I need mercy. I just need mercy. We know we
don't deserve it. You know we don't deserve it.
But Lord, we beg for it anyway. In spite of us, for Christ's
sake, Lord, have mercy on us. You've searched us. You've known
us. Have mercy. We're at Your mercy. We stand before Your mercy. We
have nothing to say. Lord, You're omnipotence. The fact that You rule everything,
that's what that means. Omnipotent means He rules everything. Lord, You are the controller.
You're the absolute Sovereign. over everything. Now think about this. I'm about
to tell you the truth, okay? Not a leaf falls from a tree. Not a dust particle flies through
the air without God's command. He must allow it first. You cannot
fall until I say. That's amazing, isn't it? Look
at verse 6. It says, Such knowledge is too
wonderful for me. And that word wonderful means
it's just full of wonder. It's just too wonderful for me. Lord, Your omniscience. And that
word is the fact that You know everything. He's omniscient. He knows everything. Every move, every action, every
thought, every intent of everything. All the way to the end. Every
step. You know the end from the beginning. Verse 6 says, Such knowledge
is too wonderful for me. That's too big for me. Lord,
You're omnipresence. That's the fact that You're everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. All the time. There is no place
that You are not. Such knowledge is just too wonderful
for me. Verse 6 says, It is high and
I cannot attain to it. I can't comprehend it. My simple
mind, it just cannot fathom that. It just cannot fathom that. Listen
to this quote, okay? The peace and rest a man enjoys. And we all want peace and rest,
don't we? For the rest of our days, you know what we need?
Is Christ and His blood and His righteousness. But on this earth,
we need peace, we need rest. Now listen to this, the peace
and rest a man enjoys depends on his confidence in the God
who controls the flight of an angel or a fly, who controls
the flash of lightning or the glimmer of a glow worm. God is
in control. He's in control. Turn over to
Romans 11. Romans 11 verse 33 says, Oh,
the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding
out. We're never going to fully understand
our God. Never. We will know as we have
been known. We'll never find Him out. Verse
34 says, for who hath known the mind of our Lord? Or who hath
been his counselor? Who told him what to do? Or who
hath first given to him? And it shall be recompensed unto
him again. For of him and through him and
to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Lord, Your wisdom, Your glory,
Your holiness, it's too high for me. It's just too high for
me. I can't understand it. All of
His attributes, they're too high for me. All of His works, they're too
high for me. Now listen to this, okay? The
fact that God Okay now, God has no beginning. Can you fathom that? Okay, it goes back. Sorry. As far as your brain can think.
Thank you buddy. As far as your brain can think,
go back to a black vanishing point. Oh man, it's infinitely, you
can't fathom how much farther that is. Now this way, as far
as you can think that eternal life will go, we don't have numbers that can
possibly describe eternity. Can you fathom that? Now the
fact that God who has no beginning, the God who is everywhere and
knows everything and does everything, the fact that God became a man. A man. I don't understand how that's
possible. I really don't. I don't even know how that's
possible. The omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God that He would
limit Himself. He gave Himself a start date
and an end date. And He grew in wisdom and in
stature. How does He limit Himself? I
can't even understand that. That's too high for me. But I
believe it. I believe it. By God's grace,
by His gift of faith to me, I believe it. I believe God was manifest
in the flesh. The fact that God as a man could
take upon Himself the actual sin of His people. the things
that I did growing up, through my teenage years, the things
that I did this morning, the things that I did while I was
preaching right there, that He could actually take the very
sins of me, off of me, and put them on Himself, an actual transfer
was made. Those things that just grieved
me, I wish I wouldn't have done that. He grieved over that. And he said, I wish I wouldn't
have done that. Now, he didn't. He was sinless.
But he bore my sins. He carried my grief. I cannot understand that. It's
too high for me. But by God's grace, I believe
that. I believe that. I believe my sins are not on
me anymore. Will I commit them until the
day I die? Yes, I will. But until the day I die, every
sin I commit was taken off of me in charge to His account.
And He bore them and He died. The fact that He actually paid
the debt, I'm so wicked and I'm so vile and so are we all. And if we belong to Him, the
fact that He took all of that and it pressed upon Him so deeply,
drops of blood came out of His pores. The fact that He was able to
actually pay the debt of all of that. I can't fathom that. He died. That means God was separated
from God. But he was still God because
he rose from the grave. He died and he was gone for three
days. Where did he go? Where did he
go? If I go to heaven, you're there.
If I go to hell, you're there. That means a grave. I can't go
anywhere. God is everywhere. Where did
he go? What did he have to go through
to actually pay those debts? What did I do to him, really? After it was finished, he was
so powerful, death couldn't hold him. He died, but he was so powerful,
death couldn't hold him. The grave could conceal him no
longer. Up from the grave He arose victorious. And then He said to us, sin doesn't
have dominion over you anymore. It's finished. That's just too high for me.
How can that be? Back to our text, Psalm 139,
verse 7. Says, whither shall I go from
thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from
thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy
right hand shall hold me. The right hand of God is Jesus
Christ. And thanks be to God, no matter
where I go, He's going to lead me and feed me like a lamb. And His right hand shall hold
me. We sang the song, we started
the song, and it says, prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone
to leave the God I love. Lord, right here is my heart. I can't even hand it to You.
Here's my heart, would you take it and seal it? Seal it for thy
courts above. Why do I run? It's because I'm
ashamed of my sin. Why do I run? It's because my
flesh loves darkness rather than light. My deeds are evil, that's
why. Verse 11 says, If I say, Surely
the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not
from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and
the light are both a light to thee, for thou hast possessed
my reins. There's nowhere to run. There's
nowhere to hide. I'm prone to wander. I run here. I run there. He's possessed my reins. Isn't
that good news? That means He owns me. Whoever's
holding the reins is in charge. With so many people, the Lord
told His disciples, Leave them alone. Just leave them alone. Lord, don't leave me alone. Please don't leave me alone.
You know, this is our life, and we live in Kingsport. We're going
to do things and keep on living until we're gone, and then none
of this is going to matter. None of it. There's nothing here
worth anything. Lord, don't leave me alone. Please,
possess my reins. If you leave us alone, all we
like sheep will go astray. Possess our reins. Save us, Lord,
lest we perish. David said in verse 13, Thou
hast covered me. Covered me. Lord, cover me. Turn over to Psalm 91. Psalm 91. There was a man named
Charles Wesley back in the 1700's and he wrote a lot of songs in
our hymnal. And he was working in his study
one night and a huge storm came up. Massive storm. Violent storm. Lightning, thunder, rain coming
in. He had his window open. So he
got up quick and he ran over to the window and he reached
out to close the windows. And when he grabbed them, a bird
flew into his coat. And he sat down and he wrote,
Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly. Hide me, O my Savior, hide. Look at Psalm 91. I'm in Psalm
19. Psalm 91 verse 1 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. Surely He shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings
shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield
and thy buckler." He is my hiding place. Verse
13 in our text, Psalm 139 says, Thou hast possessed my reins,
and Thou hast covered me. Covered my sin with His blood. He covered my life with His righteousness. So verse 14 says this, I will
praise Thee. I'll praise Thee. What else can
we do? We praise Thee, O God, for the
Son of Thy love, for the Lord Jesus who died and is now gone
above. Our hiding place. Verse 14 says, I will praise
Thee for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. All who are in Christ, all who
are under His wing, all whom He chose to save, adopted into
His family, He's made them to be a brand
new creature. That righteousness we were just talking about is
the exact opposite of the sinner I am today. The exact opposite. Brand new creature in Christ. Now these bodies are amazing.
We're fearfully and wonderfully made. But in Christ, He's made
us to be something brand new. Brand spankin' new. Verse 14
says, marvelous are thy works. There's a song that says, hallelujah,
what a savior, who can take a poor lost sinner, lift him from the
miry clay, and set him free, make him something totally different.
Verse 14 says, I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made. Marvelous are Thy works, and
that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from
Thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the
lowest parts of the earth. He said, Before I formed Thee
in the belly, I knew You. Before I formed Thee, I knew
you, I loved you. Verse 16 says, Thine eyes did
see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members
were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
was none of them. Do you know what verse 16 is
saying? Here's what it's saying. You searched me and you knew
me. Thine eyes did see my substance. But you wrote my name in the
Lamb's Book of Life. And through your work, you made
me to be a brand new creature. And you did every bit of this
before the foundation of the Word. That's the truth, isn't
it? Verse 17 says, How precious also
are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
in spite of the fact that my thoughts are only evil continually. In Christ, because of Christ,
Lord, Your thoughts toward me are precious." Thoughts of love,
thoughts of grace. How great is the sum of them.
Verse 18 says, If I should count them, they are more in number
than the sand. I love that verse. We quote it
a lot. and I have something to add to
it. I used to think whenever I would
see that of all the sand on the beaches around all the continents
and the islands all over the world. That's a lot of sand. And then it hit me that the sand
goes inland. Florida's mostly sand. That's
a lot of sand. But let's add some sand to it,
okay? Add all the sand in every desert all over the world. And then add all the sand that
goes under the water on the ocean floor that covers the whole world. If I should count them, they
are more in number than the sand. Isn't that amazing? That's unbelievable. That He
would think about me one time. Just think about me one time. That's too high for me. Verse
18 says, When I awake, I'm still with thee. We go to bed in God's
mercy and when we wake up, it wasn't a dream. Still with Him. One of these days, every sinner
who's in Christ is going to go to sleep for the last time. The
last time. Go to sleep. And then they're going to wake
up and find out, I am still with thee. When we close our eyes that last
time, To be absent from this body is to immediately be present
with the Lord. As soon as they open, the first
thing we're going to see is the face of Jesus Christ. That's going
to be the very first thing we see. Verse 19 says, Surely thou
wilt slay the wicked, O God, Depart from me, therefore, ye
bloody men, for they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies
take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that
hate thee? And am I not grieved with those
that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred.
I count them mine enemies." The Lord is not going to do this
for everybody. That's what it means. He's just not going to
do it for everybody. Verse 23 says, Search me, O God,
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. Lord, I don't want to be your
enemy. By nature I am. I don't want
to be. Purge me in Christ, that's my
request. Put a brand new heart in me,
one that loves God, one that thanks God, and for Christ's
sake, lead me in the way everlasting. I pray that the Lord would give
us all a heart to say that. All right, let's stand together.