Alright, would you open your
Bibles to the 139th Psalm. Psalm 139. Now if you listened to the radio
this morning, you heard me preach a message from this text. And
normally I don't preach on Sunday morning what just went across
the air, but as I was working on that message for the radio,
so many other things came to mind that you certainly can't
get into. Well, when I'm preaching on the
radio, I've got about 13 and a half minutes of actual preaching
time I can do. And it was a blessing to my heart,
the other things that came to mind, so I thought, well, I'm
just going to preach on this. on Sunday morning in verses 23
and 24 of the 139th Psalm say this, Search me, O God, and know
my heart. Test me, and know my anxious
thoughts. See if there is any offensive
way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Now, you can put a marker there
or just hold your finger in it and go over to John 3. John 3.
And in John 3, verse 19, starting there, This is what we read. This is
the verdict. In other words, when all the
evidence has been brought in about man, about God, about Christ
and His gospel, when all this is brought in, this is the verdict. Light has come into the world. But men loved darkness instead of
light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil
hates the light and will not come into the light for fear
that his deeds will be exposed. Now, we see this principle at
work In those who live lives of utter corruption, they like
physical darkness because they don't want people seeing what
they're doing. Now, I have not been to many
bars, just not my thing. But I know this, the few I've
been to are dark. Well, I'm talking about places
where people go primarily to get drunk and to get into mischief.
And the windows, if there are any windows, are covered up and
the lights are turned way down low, just enough light that you
can get between your table and the bar to get something more
to drink, whatever. Why is that? Because they don't
want anybody to see what's going on. And that's true of all kinds
of activities that people do, whether it be literal darkness
or simply the darkness of privacy. People do things and they try
to keep them hidden from the eyes of men because they know
their deeds are evil and they don't want other men to know
they're doing evil deeds. But that's not what's being spoken
of here. Because the light that came into the world was not sunlight,
or an incandescent bulb, or as we're now required to use, the
fluorescent or LED. It's not that kind of light that
came into the world. The light that came into the
world was Jesus Christ. And the darkness spoken of here
is not the darkness of night time, or pulling down the shades,
or anything like that. It is the darkness of self-righteous,
false religion. Now, you don't need the light
of the gospel to convince drunks and adulterers and thieves and
murderers and that. You don't need the light of the
gospel to convince them that their deeds are evil. They already
know it. Really, they do. Paul goes through
a great list of awful things. I believe it's in Romans 1. It's
in Romans 1 and Romans 3. But I know he draws this conclusion.
He says, "...and they which do such things know that they are
worthy of death, but they go on doing them and have a good
time with other people who do the same things." God has put
within man a general understanding of His law. It's called the conscience.
And though men try to hide their evil deeds
from the eyes of other men, yet they know, even without a gospel
preacher or anything like that, they know that what they're doing
is wrong. They may not admit it, they may go on a crusade,
as it were, to make everybody else think it's okay, but they
know it's wrong and so does everybody else. Who needs the light of the gospel
to convince them that what they do is wrong? Those who think
that what they're doing is good. And the light, Christ the light
came into the world and what happened? He came into His own,
His own received Him not. There were all those, and this
primarily happened among the religious people, the seriously
religious people, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, All
the priests and all this, these guys were devoted to their religion,
and they were performing all those things that they thought
were right and good, and Jesus Christ came into the world, the
Light, and they absolutely despised Him. Why? Because as the Light,
He revealed that even what they're doing is evil. They couldn't stand the Light.
because the true light from God exposes us for what we really
are, not what we're pretending we are for everybody else to
see. The last thing men and women
want is the light of undeniable truth. It's just too revealing. But the wise man Loves the light. Look at verse 21 of John chapter
3. But whoever lives by the truth,
strictly speaking it says whoever does the truth, but that's the
meaning of it, lives by the truth. He comes into the light so that
it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through
God. There are some chosen by God,
chosen by grace, And the light came to them, and it exposed
them for what they were, and rather than getting angry, their
hearts were broken for what they found out. And they repented,
and they called upon the name of the Lord, and found salvation. And it added to them a nature
that loves righteousness, that loves good. It didn't take away
the old one. The old one's still there, and
there's inner conflict constantly between wanting to do one thing
and also at the same time wanting to do exactly the opposite. Though on one hand we want to
believe with all our hearts, and on the other hand we just
wish that we didn't have to do this religion stuff. Because we get on with our lives
and enjoy them, you know. We've got both principles. On
the one hand, we want to be loving and we want to be good and kind. On the other hand, we're so full
of selfishness, we're willing to do almost anything to get
ahead, even if it means crawling under roofs, stomping on other
people, physically or metaphorically. However, that one who does the
truth, which means essentially to believe God, who actually
lays hold of God's salvation in Christ Jesus, he comes right
out there into the light. He's glad for the light. He's
glad for the light for two reasons. The light revealed to him the
grace of God and also because the light reveals to anyone who
cares to see that anything good you might find in him is the
work of God and not the work of himself. Now the Pharisee
who prays within himself, I thank you God I'm not like other men,
because I give a tenth of this, and I fast twice a week, and
I do all this, and I'm not like other people, especially not
like this publican over there. He doesn't want to come into
the light. Why? Because if he came into
the light, he'd find out he's no different than that publican
over there. If he stepped out in the light, it would not only
be found, Well, that what good he did was done by God, actually,
what he would actually find out is he'd never done anything good.
And his conscience knows it. And he dare not allow the light
to shine on him and expose him for what he is. But he who does
the truth, who believes the gospel, he loves the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he wants the light to expose to himself that what is in Him
is the work of God and not the work of Himself? And I ask you
who believe, what greater thrill could there be to you, what greater
confidence could you have in your salvation than to have the
light shine in your heart and reveal to you that God has done
a work of grace there? What better thing could you ask
for than to have the light of the Gospel shine on you and reveal
to you that When you come to worship like this, that you're
here because you sincerely want to be. Because I know this, even we who believe, we have
these competing attitudes within us about coming to church, and
sometimes we're coming here out of duty. We say, you know, I
didn't come last week, and I better not let folks think I missed
church twice in a row. What would they say? And you say, we wouldn't say
anything. Oh, no. Well, we might not say anything. We're going
to think, well, where have they been? And then we got this on the other
hand that, oh, I'd love to be there with the assembly of God's
people and hear a word about the Savior. The trouble is those
two competing interests get to fighting, and it's like two cats
fighting. You can't always keep track of
just which one's which. And you come, and you sit down,
and the gospel is preached. And it shines the light of God's
grace upon you and it reveals that despite all the fleshly
motives you might have had, yes, you love to be here. Yes, you
want to be here. This is the message you want
to hear. Not only that, they like to be
brought into the light because if the light exposes what they
are to anybody else, it is a testimony to the glory of God that what
they are is a result of the work of God's grace. They don't want
people thinking that they're not like other people. They want
the world to understand that in themselves they're just like
everybody else, and that whatever difference may be perceived is
owing entirely to the grace of God. They take no credit for
it. It's God. To walk according to the truth
or to do the truth is to believe God, to trust Christ, to follow
the testimony of the Spirit of truth. Now this light of truth
is a searching and revealing light. Let's look back now at Psalm
139. I can understand why people resist being outed for the sort
of people they are. You know, when the whole homosexuality
thing became a public issue, of course, most at that point,
most homosexuals were still, quote, in the closet. And once
in a while, somebody would either come out of the closet and openly
confess themselves what they are, or they would get outed.
Nobody likes being outed. Nobody likes for somebody else
to shine the light, to open the door and shine the light in their
closet. You and I got our own closets, don't we? Let's admit
it. We got our own closets. And we
got things in there we hope nobody ever finds out. We don't like
being outed. But David is not asking God to
search him and then tell others what he finds out. You see, God
does not search the hearts of one man in order to reveal it
to another man. That's not what this is about.
In fact, God does not need to search our
hearts in order for Him to know us. Look at verse 11 and 12.
If I say, surely the darkness will hide me... Now this is the
139th Psalm, verse 11. If I say, surely the darkness
will hide me, and the light become night around me, even the darkness
will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the
day, for darkness is as a light to you." Now, God does not have
to have us come under the sound of the gospel to know what we
are. He does not search us so that
He can find out what we are. He already knows. So He doesn't
need any instruction in order to know. And others would not
profit from knowing what God finds out. That is what God reveals. I saw someone the other day,
a few weeks ago actually, they were on Facebook and they were
quoting a scripture there that says, confess your faults to
one another. And this person was acting like we ought to just
indiscriminately tell one another what kind of things we've done.
He says, because it gives us accountability. Folks, I've got
all the accountability I can handle. Really. I'm accountable to God. I'm accountable to God. And I'll tell you another reason
it's not good for us to come and dump on others the kind of
things we've done. Our sins, openly declared, can
become a temptation to others. You tell others what you do,
what your particular sins are, what your failures are, what
your inclinations are, and they might say, well then, you know,
he seems like a pretty good guy, that must not be so bad. And
we don't need to dump any extra temptation on our brothers and
sisters. They've got all they can handle dealing with their
own sins, right? So if God is pleased to keep
a thing private, We should likewise keep it private, unless there
is a need to tell someone about it in order to get help. But
otherwise, God's not searching our hearts to reveal our hearts
to someone else. Why did David want God to search
David's heart? So that God would tell David
what was in David's heart. David wanted God to reveal his
own heart to him. David didn't trust his own heart.
Why did David ask God to search him? Well, because the issues
are too serious to leave to anyone who might be wrong. Now, if your
body is sick, you don't just go to your next door neighbor
and say, What do you think's wrong? Why? Well, your health issues are
just too important to leave to someone who is not adequately
trained to test and take into account symptoms and come up
with a diagnosis. You go to a doctor. You go to
somebody that's been to school. Somebody's got some practice.
Somebody's got some machines that can look inside if they
have to. Why? Because it might be something
really serious that you need to tend to, or it could cost
you your life. Now brethren, if that's true
of our bodies, how much more our souls? The matters we're
talking about are not matters of whether we live another 10
years or another 15 years because we caught a disease in time.
We're talking about eternity here. We're talking about the
everlasting destiny of our undying souls. I want my heart, my soul
to be looked at by somebody who can't be wrong. Because on the
day of judgment, there will be many who trusted their own examination
or the examination of their local preacher or whatever. And they
thought everything was fine. And they're going to get there
and find out, no, nothing's fine. And they're going to argue with
the Lord and say, well, Lord, I checked it out and look what I did. I
did this and I did that and I did that. And go through their list
of all the wonderful things they had done for God. And the response
will be, Get away from me. I never knew you. You're a worker of evil. Brethren, if that's true, I don't
want to find out then, because by then the doctor's office is
closed. If I'm sick, I want to know and
get the medicine, the prescription, and I want to know why the pharmacy
is still open. Look over here at Romans chapter
11. Romans chapter 11, verse 33. Romans 11, verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches of
the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable His judgments
and His paths beyond tracing out. Now, folks, if you come to me,
and I know you wouldn't do this, but if you did, and you said,
Joe, do you think I'm a believer or not? The best I could do is say, well,
you say you are, and I've not seen anything that would make
me think otherwise. But here's the problem. I can't
see everything. Even if I saw everything you
did, there's no way for me to know what you think unless you
tell me. And even if I knew the things
you think, I don't know what you believe unless you tell me,
and then it's only you telling me. I can't render you an authoritative
opinion about your heart. God can. Man looks on the outward
appearance, says the Lord. And God was not condemning man
for doing that. That's all we can do. That's
as deep as we can see. But he goes on, he said, but
God looks on the heart. He goes right past what men can
see and looks at what men cannot see and renders his judgments
from that point of view. So I want God to look. God is the one who will search
and reveal all men in the great day of judgment. Wouldn't you
rather know now and not be surprised in that day? know while there is yet time
to get a remedy. But here's the most important
reason, I believe. Look, turn over to Jeremiah chapter
17. Here's the most important reason for us to ask God to search
our hearts. Jeremiah chapter 17. Now, what is it we're wanting
Him to search out for us? Well, our hearts, our innermost
affections, our faith, all these things tied up in the heart.
And it says in Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 9, the heart is deceitful
above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? You can't. I can't. I said I can't understand your
heart. You know what else? I can't understand mine. My heart
is deceitful enough to fool me. My heart is deceitful enough
to make me think I love Christ when I don't. I mean, it can
be done. I need someone who can't be deceived
by the deceitfulness of my own heart. I need that kind of person
to look at my heart and honestly and forthrightly tell me, what
did you find there? Is there faith in there or not?
Is there love for Christ in there or is there not? Is there eternal
life in there or is there not? I can't tell. My heart is a mass
of conflicting thoughts. David is saying, Lord, settle
the case for me, because I can't trust my own judgment of the
matter. Now, let's look at the search that David asked for.
It's a divine search. He says, search me, O God. Now,
we've gone through that for the most part as to why he asked
for God. But this is a divine search. If you want this, and
I urge you by all means, seek after this kind of searching
of your heart, a divine searching of it. But know this, if you
do, by no means should you expect an easy experience. Most of us spend a great deal
of energy trying to hide what's inside. And if you ask God to
search you out, He's going to uncover what you have worked
so hard to cover up. It is a searching of the heart.
If we went back to Jeremiah 17, and I am, you can just listen
if you want, or you can turn there yourselves,
verse 10. Now this is just after it says the heart's deceitful
above all things, and in verse 10 it says, I, the Lord, search
the heart and examine the mind, and reward a man according to
his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve. You say, well,
that's kind of funny. On the one hand, he's saying
he searches the heart and mind and then rewards them according
to what he's done. Well, shouldn't he have been
looking at what they were doing? No. This may sound funny, but what
they were doing isn't what they were doing. And the perfect example
is all those Pharisees who made a big display of working righteousness,
and God went right past their big robes with the fringes and
the phylacteries on their head, and the law here and there, and
all their going to the temple, and all their tithing this and
praying that. He went right past that, looked
right into their heart, and saw the wickedness of all their deeds. There are a lot of people in
church today, and their worship is as great a wickedness as man
could do. And you and I might not be able
to discern that. It might be going on right now
in this building. Somebody's sitting here, worshiping
God, pretty impressed with themselves. They wouldn't admit it out loud
because they know better than to do that. But they may have convinced themselves
they're humble about it, because they've been told humility is
the right way to do it. Their heart's still deceitful. They
have been convinced by their own deceitful heart that they
are sincere and that they love God, and they're sitting here
worshiping. God sees them and says, I've never seen such wickedness. Sodom can't even compete with
a hypocritical heart toward God. when it comes to wickedness.
And He judges them according to their deeds, because He sees
their deeds from the viewpoint of their heart. God blasts right
past our visible works, our prayers, our Bible reading, our preaching,
our tithing, our Sabbath keeping, our charitable works, our fastings,
all our displays of supposed humility. He just goes right
past that. He pierces through it as though
it's not there and looks into the depths of our hearts and
finds out what we really are. That's why I say, and turn it
over to Hebrews 12, it's not a pleasant experience. In fact,
it's so unpleasant that when it happened 2,000 years
ago, When our Lord came, Hebrews chapter
4 by the way, they hated the experience so much they crucified
the one who dared shine such a light upon who they are. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 says
this, for the word of God is living and active. Sharper than
any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to the dividing soul and
spirit joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes
of the heart. Now listen to this. This is powerful. Nothing in
all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered
and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an
account. Now, you can shield your heart
from me. It wouldn't take much. You can probably shield your
heart from your own prying eyes. We're easily deceived. But God
goes right past all that we try to do to look good and make people
convinced we love God and love Jesus and all that kind of stuff.
He gets right past it, pierces into the heart and says, I see
what's in there. And here's what I see. It is true wisdom to seek such
a work from God, but if you do, hang on, because it's likely
to be a rough ride. I never read in all the scriptures
of anybody who had dealings with God, and it was easy. One that pops to mind right now
is Jacob. He seeks God, and what does God
do with him? Wrestles with him all night long, in the form of
a man. And finally, Jacob gets frustrated
and he thinks he gets God in a hold that God can't wiggle
out of. And God said to Jacob, said,
let me go. And Jacob says, I'm not going
to let you go until you bless me. And it says, God reached
up and grabbed him in the hollow of his thigh. I guess it was
some kind of pressure point or something. I mean, he caused
Jacob agony. Why? To prove him. Just how much
do you really want my blessing? And he told Jacob, let go. And
Jacob said, I am not going to let go until you bless me, even
if it kills me. God let go and said, no more.
He said, what is your name? Cheat? Scoundrel? That's what the annoying name
Jacob means. He'll grab her, trip you up. And the Lord said,
you'll no longer be called Jacob. Your name is Israel. One who
prevails with God. God tested him. God searched
him. And revealed to Jacob, God already
knew it. revealed to Jacob that despite
all of his wickedness, and there was plenty of it, God was the
one Jacob wanted, and God's blessing is what Jacob had to have. This searching is the desire
for which prompted by anxious thoughts. He says, search me,
O God. Now we're back in Psalm 139,
verse 23. Search me, O God, and know my
heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Now, turn back to Psalm
94. We'll find out where these anxious
thoughts come from. It's also spoken of there in
139th, but this is pretty clear here. Verse 18, Psalm 94, When I said,
My foot is slipping, Your love, O Lord, supported me. When anxiety
was great within me, Your consolation brought joy to my soul. Now,
what was this anxiety from? These anxious thoughts. The feel,
David was feeling like he was slipping. You know, a lot of
times we go through our spiritual lives and we think we're doing
a pretty good job, or at least everything's okay. We're not concerned about
eternity, you know, and then something happens. Whether it
be an event in our lives that knocks us down, or some failure
on our part, we feel like we're about to fall. Our foot is slipping. And that creates the anxious
thought. As the old songwriter says, "'Tis a point I long to
know, and oft it gives me anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or
no? Am I His or am I not?" Now some of us wrestle with this
more than others do. But all believers wrestle with
it some. And David's having some anxious
thoughts. It feels to him like his foot's slipping. And he's saying, God, search
me and settle the matter for me. Am I falling? Or is your love
holding me up? I've got to know. Because I can't
live not knowing. Know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive
way in me. Now we're back to Psalm 139 verse
24. See if there is any offensive
way in me. Now actually, the word way is
not to be found in the Hebrew. It's just the word, actually
it can mean pain, sorrow, offense. But here's what I thought was
interesting. It can mean idle. And I don't mean I-D-L-E like
you're lazy, I-D-O-L, a false god. And I'll tell you, there's nothing
that is more offensive to God than an idol. And there's nothing
that will bring you greater sorrow and pain than to find that somehow
or another some idol has been set up in your heart. And this
can happen without us knowing it. Understand that our enemy
does not come bold-faced to us as our enemy. He comes as our
friend. He walks in the front door acting like a minister of
righteousness. And His thoughts invade our thoughts.
And before long, He's got us building an idol within our own
thoughts and our own minds. And David's saying, see if there's
some idol in me that I don't detect. Something I'm trusting
other than you. And you know what the answer
always is? Yeah, there is. Why? Because we're flesh. And the
flesh is full of idols. Martin Luther condemned the Roman
Church for all its idolatry. But I believe it was him that
made the remark, he said, but there is no greater idol factory
in all the world than my own heart. Those idols that are out there
made out of stone and gold, they're probably not going to fool you.
You say, I'm not going to worship a god of stone. I won't even
worship one made out of solid gold. Because you and I know that they
can't do any good. Oh, but the idols we set up in
our hearts, the idols of good works, the idols of morality,
the idol of religious works and religious zeal, the idol of feelings,
the idol of knowledge. And you know something? These
idols don't look like idols. When our enemy sets them up in
our hearts, he makes them look like Jesus Christ. And quite frankly, we don't have
the wit to discern the difference. But there is one who does. And
David says, you search my heart. Is there an idol in there? And
if there is, get it out. Because there is nothing that
will cause your heart and mine more trouble than an idol. And
then this searching is corrective. He says, and lead me in the way
everlasting. I don't just want this searching,
he says, to be a negative thing. I've seen it on Facebook and
I've heard it said before. Actually, it was some guy that
used to have these seminars on how to be godly. And one of his
things was, he would tell you, he said, go through your house
and throw out everything sinful. Really? Somebody went to one
of those seminars and he got all excited about it and he went
back and told his pastor and the pastor understood. God's
grace, and he said to his pastor, he said, I tell you, I'm excited.
This fellow, he said to go and throw everything sinful out of
your house. Get rid of everything sinful in your house. And he
said, I'm anxious to get started. And this preacher looked at him
and said, well, start here. Go get a gun and blow your brains
out because you're the most sinful thing in your house. All sin's not out there, folks.
Sin's in here. And sin in here doesn't always
look like sin. Sometimes it looks like righteousness.
The way of death doesn't always look like a way of death. It
looks like a way of life. And so he says, lead me in the way
everlasting. Because if you don't lead me,
I'm certainly going to find one of those ways that leads to everlasting
death. Well, what is the searchlight? And we've been through this several
times, but just so we can do it quickly, if you'll go back
to Hebrews chapter 4. Of course, I'm realizing no matter
what I say, I could say, now we've been through this a lot
of times, because we're coming up on 30 years, and I've been
saying this for 30 years. I've got nothing new for you
folks. We're going to stick with the same old thing. But we've
been through this particular verse to point this out. Hebrews
chapter 4 verse 12, for the Word of God, and he's not talking
about the Bible here, he's talking about the Gospel. Peter teaches us that because
he says, the Word of the Lord endures forever, and this is
the Word which by the Gospel was preached to you. So the Word
of the Lord, the Word of God is living and active. Now you and I don't need a searchlight
with no batteries in it. You know, what good is that going
to do? And a lot of people have that.
They've got doctrine, they've got a flashlight in their hand,
they've got their creed, they've got their catechism, they've
got their statement of faith, they've got the confession that
their church follows. But there's no life, there's
no batteries in that light. We need something that's alive. And something that's powerful
and active actually does something. And it says it's sharper than
any double-edged sword. If nothing else, what does it
tell us about this gospel? It cuts. It cuts. It pierces. It penetrates. Even the dividing of soul and
spirit, joints and marrow. And all He's doing is bringing
up things which men themselves, they couldn't figure out how
to separate them. They said, well, the Word of God can. And he said, it judges the thoughts
and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden
from God's sight. You see, the preaching of the
Gospel, and this is why it's so important that we expose ourselves
to that as much as we can, the preaching of the Gospel is the
way that God searches the heart. He sends His Word, the Gospel. And the Gospel is not magical,
but it's miraculous in its abilities. And it exposes to a man what
he is. I have been amazed at what people claimed I was
preaching against when they felt compelled to leave this church.
There have been a few people over the years that have left.
And I have at least had it come back to me that some have left
because I was preaching against what they were doing. And I thought,
I don't ever recall mentioning that, because I didn't. But the Gospel shined a light
in their heart, and the Gospel revealed the wickedness of their
ways with me not even mentioning what their ways are. I tell you,
the Gospel is miraculous. in its ability to do that. It reveals whether or not you're
real in your religion. It won't reveal it to anybody
else, but it will reveal it to you if you'll be honest under
the preaching of it. It says everything is uncovered
and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an
account. And when He lays it bare before Him, If we've asked
Him to do this work, that means it's been laid bare for us to
see. Now let's see how that works in real life. Paul thought he was a righteous
man. Saul of Tarsus thought he was a righteous man. And even
later as a believer, he talked about his former life and all
that he had done, and he sums it all in this, concerning that
righteousness which is of the law, I was blameless. Now, I've
heard people say, well, we need to go to the law to tell a man
he's a sinner, and then we take him to Calvary to show him how
sin is put away. Well, wait a minute. Paul sat
under the law his entire life, and you know what? He came away
saying, I'm good. I'm good. I'm blameless. The
law's got nothing on me. And then he met Christ. And Saul the magnificent, Saul
the righteous, is laying face down in the dust. And by the revelation of Jesus
Christ to him in the gospel, it was revealed to him that all
his righteousness was just filthy rags. Now, Paul didn't pray for God
to search him like this, but God in grace did it anyway. And
Paul was grateful because he says, now what I once considered
to be to my advantage, I realized was to my disadvantage. What
I once thought was an asset, I realize, belongs in the liability
column. And that's all those good things
I thought I was doing. And I gladly count them all rubbish,
just garbage to be set out by the curb and taken away, that
I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness
of my own, which is of the law, which in all reality is nothing
but filthy rags. I don't want a righteousness
that comes from the law. I want a righteousness that comes from
God, that is given to me through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so the searchlight of the Gospel shined on Paul, and blasted
right past all the good that he thought he had done, and revealed
his heart to be the wicked mess that it was, and moved him to
call upon the name of the Lord and find salvation. You say, okay. Been there, done
that. And I don't mean that smartly.
I mean, maybe so. You say, look, I know I'm a sinner.
You don't have to convince me of that. What I'm in doubt of
is whether or not I truly believe God. The same Word of God that
will strike dead your own efforts will reveal the work of God within
you. And I bring forward the example
of Peter. Peter, I'm sure for all those three years that he
walked with the Lord, was convinced, I am one. I'm good. I'm kind of the spokesman for
the group here. I'm at the top of the pile. I'm one whom Christ
chose because He says, He told me that I had not chosen him,
but he chose me, so, you know, everything's good. And then a
couple of things happened. He made a big boast to the Lord
Jesus that he would not deny the Lord even if it meant dying. And I'm sure when he said it,
he was convinced of the truth of that. And two things happened. One of those others whom Jesus
Christ had chosen, betrayed the Lord Jesus." Judas. You say, well, Jesus wasn't
really chosen. The Lord Jesus said this, Have
not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He had
chosen those twelve, but He didn't mean He had chosen them to eternal
salvation. He had chosen them as men to learn directly from
Him, and go out and preach the gospel, yet even among them was
a devil. A man controlled not by the Lord,
but by Satan. And now Peter can no longer stand
on a foundation of, well, I'm one of the Lord's chosen ministers,
one of the apostles, because here comes Judas, kisses the
Lord on the cheek, and betrays Him. But Peter says within himself,
alright, Judas may betray the Lord, not me, and Peter has a
sword with him, and he pulls that out when they try to arrest
the Lord Jesus, and he goes after the servant of the high priest,
and I'm assuming he was trying to split his head right down
the middle, and he kind of was off on a swing, or the guy ducked,
or whatever, cut his ear off. I don't think he was trying to
cut his ear off, you know, that wouldn't accomplish much. So Peter is now all full of zeal. And then the Lord picks up that
ear, sticks it back on the side of the guy's head, and he looks
at that crowd that came to arrest him. He said, alright, you've
come for me, you let these go. And you know what it says? All
his disciples forsook him and fled, Peter included. And later that night as our Lord
is being taken from kangaroo court to kangaroo court and being
abused, Three people asked Peter, aren't you one of his disciples?
I mean, one of them said, you know, listen, I can tell from your speech you're
from Galilee. Just like folks around here can
tell I'm not from around here. They could tell that Peter wasn't
from around them parts. You know, they're in Jerusalem
now, not up in Galilee. And three times Peter says, I
don't know the man. Got nothing to do with him. And
the third time it said he did it all calling down oaths on
himself and cursing. And as soon as he did that, that
rooster let out with a crow. And it said Peter went out and
wept bitterly. And wouldn't you? I guess I'm not what I thought
I was. I'm sure it went through his
mind, oh God, help me. What have I done? Have you ever
felt that way? What have I done? Our Lord raised from the dead,
and He taught His disciples His final lessons before He'd go
back to glory. I don't know how far into this
40-day period these events happened, The Lord got Peter by Himself,
and they're walking along, and the Lord says, Peter, do you
love Me? And Peter says, yeah. The Lord
said, well, feed My sheep. They go a little farther, and
He says, Peter, do you love Me? And Peter says, yes, I love You. Third time. Peter, as I understand it, he
changed the word to a more intensive meaning of love. Do you really
love me? And it said it grieved Peter
that the Lord asked him the third time. Why do you think the Lord
asked him three times? Because there had been three
denials. And the Lord wasn't asking this
to get a pound of flesh out of Peter. He was not trying to make
Peter feel bad. But he was searching Peter's
heart that Peter might know what was in his heart. And he
asked the third time. And I don't know whether Peter
had tears in his eyes or whatever. I know I would have. And he said,
Oh Lord. You know all things, and you
know that I love you. And while it's not written, I'm
sure that the Lord, whether He said it or not, this was His
intent to communicate to Peter. Yes, I knew Peter, but you didn't. Now you do. Week by week you come in here,
and if you're anything like me, You come in here weighed down. You come in here with doubts.
You come in here with concerns. And God comes with the gospel. And He shines that light, and
it may hurt. It may reveal things you didn't
want to know. And it may be it's revealing
things to you right now, to some of you, revealing that you are
lost. I don't know. God's the only
one who knows what it's revealing to you. Oh, child of God, when
you hear the testimony of Christ, does that not find a home in
your heart? Does not that light reveal to
you, oh yes, I love Him. Yes, I believe Him. I've been
amassed this past week. I have denied Him by my works. I've denied Him by my silence.
I have played the coward. I have played the rebel. I have
played the prodigal. But that's my father's voice
I'm hearing. I recognize it. I love the sound
of it. Lord, you know all things. And
you know that I love you.