Turn back to Psalm 36. Psalm
36. The title of the message is, The Steadfast Love of God. The steadfast love of God that
He has to His children. One of the great blessings that
we have in Christ is the steadfast love of God, His faithfulness,
His righteousness. They are always the same towards
His children. They never vary. They never waver. Not one iota. That's an old saying
I used to hear when I was growing up. Not one iota. I've heard my mother say that.
Funny how things come back to you. But His love and His faithfulness, His righteousness, they never
change. He says in Malachi 3.6, For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
and you can write over that, you sons of election, are not
consumed. It's not because we're a bunch
of good boys and girls now. It's because God doesn't change.
He has loved us with an everlasting love. Now, to start out this psalm,
David gives us a description of the wicked. Now we know that
David is also speaking in spirit, the spirit of Christ, speaking
through him. So when we read in the Psalms
a description of the wicked, we can be sure this is exactly
who they are and what they are. Now he says in verse 36, notice
this first, at the top heading of this psalm, David writes this
to the chief musician, a psalm of David, the servant, the servant
of the Lord. David is identified here as the
servant of the Lord. He took more pleasure in being
the servant of the Lord, being called the servant of the Lord,
than being called a king. Paul often identified himself
in the same way. Paul, a servant, a bond slave
of Jesus Christ. We serve someone. Everybody does. Nobody's their own. There's not
one person on this earth that is their own person. We serve
either the spirit of darkness, the lust of the flesh, or we
serve the Lord Jesus Christ. We are, every believer in here,
we are His servants. Now that changes the way you
look at life. That changes the way you look
at your job. It'll change the way you look
at everything if you look at yourself as a servant of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I am His servant at all times. You know, when I was young, I
worked at a place, I punched the clock. And for eight hours,
I was their servant. But when I punched the clock
and I went home, I was not their servant. I could do what I wanted
to. But I am His servant 24-7. until
the day I die. I'm His servant here. I'm His
servant out there. Wherever I am, and I do try to
remind myself of this and keep this in mind, wherever I am,
I am an ambassador of Christ, a representative of Christ, a
servant of Christ. And when people see me, it is
a reflection on my Lord. When they hear me speak, it's
a reflection on my Lord. And so David here, he starts
out and he's called a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know, our Lord was called a servant in Philippians 2, verses 5 and
7. Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant. One day he had his
disciples gather in a room and he took a dishpan of water and
he took a towel and girded himself and stooped down and washed their
feet. He said, I came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many.
And we are to do the same thing. But as he goes on here, he says,
"...a servant of the Lord." Then he says this, he starts to describe
the wicked. And he says, "...the transgression,
that is the breaking the bounds of the law, the transgression
of the wicked, saith within my heart that there is no fear of
God before his eyes." The transgression of the wicked. This is the observation
of David. And this is the Lord speaking,
telling us what's going on in the heart of those who believe
not. And he says here that the transgression of the wicked is
so strong and deep in their hearts that it takes away any fear of
God. You see someone committing a
crime, you see someone doing something they shouldn't do,
the first thing you can stamp on their forehead is no fear
of God. No fear of God. Someone who doesn't fear authority.
You can stamp it right on their forehead, no fear of God. That
is where it starts. No fear of God. Man sins like
he does because he has no fear of God. We can read it like this. Part of what David means. Seeing
the transgression of the wicked, it's evident there's no fear
of God before his eyes. That's why David says, the transgression
of the wicked saith in his heart, he's meditating, he's thinking,
it's like he's watching someone do something. And he says, it's
evident there's no fear of God in that man. It's evident by
his conduct, by his language, by his conversation, there's
no fear of God. No fear of God. The Scripture
says that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. It's
the beginning of knowledge. So where there's no fear of God,
you can be sure that person is spiritually ignorant. He's spiritually
dead and spiritually ignorant of really who God is. I have to say this, the very
way God is preached today, no one would fear Him anyway. God
wants to do something for you if you'll let Him. Who's going
to fear that? Who's going to fear that? Yes, God is love,
but the Scripture also says God is a consuming fire. I want to deal with God in Christ.
I don't want to meet God outside of Christ. He's a consuming fire. And then he gives a description
of the attitude of the wicked. Here's the character of the wicked.
He flattereth himself. in his own eyes. It's like he's
standing in front of a mirror admiring himself until his iniquity
be found to be hateful. He's the object of his own flattery. The one person the wicked like
to boast about the most is himself. It's himself. The wicked flatters
himself. He believes that he's a good
moral person. He flatters himself in his morality. Is that not what that rich young
ruler said? All these have I kept from my youth up. What's he doing? He's flattering himself is what
he's doing. He believes that he has plenty
of time. Jonathan Edwards gave a real
good description of the man who flatters himself. And I got part
of this from Jonathan Edwards. He believes he's a good moral
person. He believes that he has plenty of time. He believes he's
an intelligent person. He believes that God will accept
him. He flatters himself. He flatters himself in a false
hope. He flatters himself in, someday
I'll get saved. Well, you don't just get saved.
You might get sick, but you don't get saved. A man is saved, he's
saved by the grace of God. It's not something you get. It's
something God does for you and in you. But he flatters himself. He's
the object of his own flattery. until his iniquity be found to
be hateful." Until it's too late. As my pastor said one time, hell
is truth realized too late. Sooner or later, he will be seen
for who and what he is. Sooner or later, people see through
his flattery. Sooner or later, God will expose
him. That's what he's saying. Sooner
or later, God will expose him. And his iniquity will be found
to be hateful. And then he says here in verse
3, the words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. Charles
Spurgeon called these hell dogs. They run together, he said. Iniquity
and deceit. He's left off to be wise and
to do good. He left the way. How many people
have sat in the Gospel And they've heard the gospel. And then they've
left. They've left the way. They left
the way of salvation. They left the way of redemption.
They left the way of grace. Left off to be wise and to do
good. They left off. They left the
way. But the words of His mouth are
iniquity and deceit. The words of His mouth come from
His heart. The Scripture says, Out of the
abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. All you have to do
is listen to someone talk for a while, and it gives you a pretty
good idea of the state of the heart. Out of the heart, out
of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Sooner or later,
what I am is going to come out. If you're a child of God, that's
going to come out. If you're not, that's going to come out
too. That's going to come out. Remember this, God sees the heart
as it is. Now, men may fool us, but they
never fool God. Those Pharisees, they said, we
may not sinners, we're children of Abraham. They said, God's
our Father. Christ said, you are of your
father, the devil. You're of your father the devil.
No one, no one would have ever said that to a Pharisee but Jesus
Christ. And the reason He said it? Because
He can see the heart. He can see the heart. He knows,
He knew whose children they were. He sees the heart. He sees the
iniquity and the deceit of the heart. And He devises, here's His thoughts.
You see, here's His speech. And now here's his thoughts.
He devises mischief upon his bed. He setteth himself in a way that's
not good. That's because he left the way.
He wants nothing to do with the way. He left off to be wise. When he heard the gospel, he
just turned from it. You can't be more foolish than
that. You cannot be a bigger fool. I'm serious. A person cannot
be a bigger fool than to turn their back on the gospel. They can't do it. He devises in his mind, he works
mischief upon his bed, he senteth himself in a way that's not good,
he abhors not evil, he can't rest at night. without thinking
of how to sin more and more, how to fulfill the lust of his
flesh, how to get the advantage of someone,
how to get what he wants, what he's after. He devises mischief. You know, as Solomon said, to
the wicked, mischief is a sport. He enjoys taking somebody as
much as a basketball player would enjoy playing basketball or any
other sport. He enjoys mischief. That's what he devises upon his
bed. You know, David often spoke of meditating upon the Lord in
the night season. When you go to bed at night, It's a time for reflection on
the goodness of God, isn't it? When the lights go out and we
turn the fan on, we always have a fan on, turn the fan on and
the lights are out. I'm telling you, that's when
I think, I'm able to think the most. There's no noise going
on in the house. I'm able to meditate upon scriptures,
and I couldn't tell you how many times I woke up at 3 or 4 o'clock
in the morning and thinking of a scripture that I'm going to
preach from. I mean, I lay there for two hours
preaching to myself. Well, I'm preaching to you, but
you're not there. You know, I can see myself preaching to you,
but you're not there. It's such a good time to reflect
on the goodness of the Lord. But not for the wicked. You can't
reflect on someone you don't know. Can you? You're not going
to think about somebody you've never met, someone you don't
know. No, what he does, he plots out
his next scheme, is what he does. He sits there and thinks about
the lust of his flesh and how to fulfill it. And here's his
direction. He said it himself. It's his
fault. Everyone that goes to hell, goes to hell on their own
fault. The wages of sin. God will give you what you earn.
The wages of sin is death. He setteth himself in a way that's
not good. He sets himself in a false way.
A way that's not good, that's not of God. If it's not good,
it's not of God. If it's good, it's of God. And
he saith himself, he's to blame for his own destruction. He's to blame for his own destruction.
He is determined to do evil with so many corrections and so many
reproofs. He's determined to do evil. Listen, he chooses his own course
of evil, and he is set He's determined. He determines himself in a way
that's not good. He's determined to do it. Listen
to Ecclesiastes 8 verse 11. Because sentence against an evil
work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons
of men, not the sons of God, but the sons of men, is fully
set in them to do evil. They did something they know
they're not supposed to do, or doing something they're not supposed
to do, but nothing happens. The next day, nothing happens.
You know, the thief breaks into the house, and he steals, and
he goes home, and the cops don't show up at the door. Nothing
happens. He's emboldened to do it again. You watch these movies,
and I was watching one here not too long ago. They had this bank
robbery, and they made this big heist, billions of dollars. Then
you know what they was doing next? Planning the next one.
I told Vicki, I said, why can't the idiot stop? I said, he can
live like a king the rest of their life. They can't do it. They can't stop. Why? Because their heart is set
in them to do evil. But now David leaves the wicked. He leaves the wicked. And he
turns from the wicked man to the character of God. I'm glad, aren't you? Oh, I'm
glad there's some sunshine bursting through the clouds here. This
is like a storm, like a dark, stormy night been going on here.
And all of a sudden it parts and the sun starts to shine through.
And that's what we're going to see here in the next few verses.
David, upon looking at the wicked, looking at the fact that there's
no fear of God before his eyes, that his heart is set in him
to do evil, he's left off to be wise and to do good, he's
saying, he said, My, the Lord is merciful, isn't he? That's
what he's saying. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens, and thy faithfulness reaches to the clouds. It seems
that David is overwhelmed by the mercy of God that is over
all his works. that wicked men who have no fear
of God enjoy the sunshine. Just go to the beach. Just go
to the beach. A bunch of wicked people down
there just enjoying the beach, enjoying the sunshine, enjoying
the breeze. They enjoy it just like you do
and I do. They enjoy the rain, they enjoy
the gardens, they enjoy the things of this life. And he's saying,
God is so long-suffering. He puts up with them. And the
reason He does so, His mercy, it says, is over all His works.
But also God is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Usward is
the church, it's the elect of God. He's longsuffering to usward,
Paul's writing to the church. Not willing that any of the sheep
should perish, but that they all should come to repentance.
Have you not thought, Lord, how long? And I've thought of this. This is going through my mind.
How do you put up with this? I'm gonna put it in my language.
How do you put up with this? How do you deal with this? That's
the way I think and talk. And then I realize he's doing
it for us. Because God has chosen a multitude
of sinners starting from the fall to the end. From the beginning to the end,
God has a multitude of sinners. And He's not going to close this
down until that last one is brought in. He's not going to close it
down. Every now and then, He's going
to let wickedness rise up here and there to remind this human
race who they are. And he'll put it in check. He'll
always put it in check, sooner or later. He controls the hearts of all
people. And so David here, he's just
amazed at the mercy of God. And he says, God's mercy is in
the heavens. And he says, heavens, and there's the atmosphere, there's
where the stars, and then there's the heaven where God dwells.
And I thought of this. It is known in heaven for sinners
are there. There's a multitude of sinners
in heaven because of the mercy of God. And they know it. And you know it. You who believe,
you know it. Apart from the Lord's mercy, there wouldn't be anybody
saved. And then it's in the heavens because mercy comes from heaven,
it's above. It doesn't come from this earth. Nothing comes from this earth
but wickedness. And then he says that God's mercy
is in the heavens for it is seen in the heavens for the sun comes
up every day. Doesn't it? What if that sun
doesn't shine no more? We die. The human race is over
with. It's done. So when you see that
sun coming up every morning, there's a child of God out there
somewhere that's yet to be saved. And that sun coming up is God's
mercy on that child. And it's going to keep coming
up until He brings him home. And then he says, his mercy's
in the heavens because he delights to show mercy. He says in Micah
7, 18, who is a god like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity
and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
He retains not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. He delighteth in mercy. and thy faithfulness reaches
unto the clouds." His faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. Well,
one of the first things that came to my mind when I was reading
this, I was driving, coming up, I don't know which is up or down
here, on Bethel Road. That's east and west, isn't it?
I think. I'm glad you all don't know any
more than I do. I don't want to look stupid. Anyway, I was
coming up Bethel Road, and there was a rainbow right across the
clouds, a beautiful rainbow. You know what that is? That's God's covenant, seen in
the clouds. He said, you'll see my rainbow
in the clouds. Thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. Numbers 23, 19, God is not a
man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should
repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make it good? God is faithful to His Word,
He's faithful to His Son, He's faithful to His people, He's
faithful to His covenant. It says in Lamentations 3, 22
and 23, It is the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because
His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great
is thy faithfulness. Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter
7. In Deuteronomy 7, look in verse 9. Know therefore that the Lord
thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and
mercy with them that love Him, and keep His commandments to
a thousand generations. He's the faithful God. Hath He said, and shall He not
do it?" He made a covenant with His Son concerning us. He will not break that covenant. He will not go back on that covenant.
That's comforting. And He says, "...thy righteousness
is like the great mountains, and thy judgments are a great
deep. O Lord, thou preservest man and beast." God's righteousness
is firm, and unmovable. One thing you can count on. God's
righteousness. God is righteous. The judge of
the earth will do right. The righteous Lord loves righteousness.
And we can count on that. Circumstances never change who
God is. Aren't you glad of that? It never changes who God is. He is righteous. And you and I are glad of it.
And thy judgments are a great deep. Who can understand all
that's going on right now? All that's going on with the
virus, the race problems, and all the things that's going on
in this world right now. Can you understand it? Can you
explain it to me? Can you? I mean, other than your
own personal opinion and feelings, okay? Pull back the curtain. Go into the eternal council halls
of God and tell me what's going on. Don't tell me from your perspective,
and I won't tell you from mine. Tell me from God's perspective.
Let me tell you something. Thy judgments are a great deep. We can't swim that deep. We can't
even swim to the bottom of the ocean without getting crushed. How can we plumb the depth of
God's dealings with men? How can we plumb the depths of
what God has for eternity that's coming? How can we go that deep? You know, he said over there
in Job, look over in Job, let me just see if I can find it
here in a minute, I think it's Job 37, Job 38, Job 38. Then the Lord
answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkens
counsel by words without knowledge? That would be me. I'd be darkening
counsel with words without... I don't know what I'm talking
about. I don't know what I'm talking about. Gird up now thy
loins like a man. He's talking to Job. For I will
demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where was thou when I laid
the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.
Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou know'st? Or who hath
stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations
thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof?
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
for joy, "'Who shut up the sea with doors when it break forth,
"'as if it had issued out of the womb? "'When I made the cloud,
the garment thereof, "'in thick darkness, a swaddling band for
it, "'and break up for it my decreed place, "'and set bars
and doors, and said, "'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further,
"'and here shalt thou proud waves be stayed. "'Hast thou commanded
the morning since thy days, "'and caused thy dayspring to know
"'that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, "'that
the wicked might be shaken out of it?'' And he goes on and on.
Job doesn't even open his mouth. You know why? He doesn't know
the first answer. I don't know. Where were you
when I laid the foundations of the earth? I wasn't born until
1955. This world's been around a long
time. This earth's been around a long time. It's hard to say
how long this earth has been around. And here's what he's
saying is this. You and I cannot comprehend the
judgments, the dealings of God. Why this? Why that? I don't know. But I do know this. He knows.
He's all knowledge. He's all wise. He knows what
He's doing. He can do nothing but good. And that's where we
leave it. The secret things of the Lord
belong to the Lord. And listen here. Thou preservest
man and beast. You remember when Jonah went
to... well, he was going to Nineveh, but he didn't want to go there.
But anyway, God said there was much people in that city, and
you know what also He said? As much cattle. He said as much
cattle. I mean, what? It's not like he's
going to lose money if he kills the cattle. No, that's just how
concerned God is for the animal life as well as our life. He
said, a sparrow doesn't fall to the ground without your heavenly
Father. Not a person in this room thought
of a sparrow today, but God took notice of it. He took notice. Man would self-destruct if God
did not preserve him, if God did not control him. Rocket man
would push the button. He would push the button. I'm
telling you, he'd already pushed it. But God said, no, you're
not. No, you're not. You're not pushing
it. You know, they dropped that bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They say now that looks like
a firecracker compared to what we have now. And we're saying, well, you know,
men know better than to use it. Are you kidding me? If God withdrew
his hand, we'd shoot each other. We'd just be boom, boom, boom,
and it'd be done. We don't have enough sense to stop. He maketh
wars to cease until the end of the earth. Not us. Not us. He preserveth man and beast. Hunting season would never end.
It wouldn't. There wouldn't be an animal left.
There wouldn't be an animal left. There wouldn't be a deer season.
There wouldn't be any deer. No turkey. I mean, there wouldn't be nothing.
We would rape this earth. We would rape it. and we will
destroy the animal kingdom for our own pleasure. He preserveth man and beast. Man's been on this earth for
6,000 years. Animal life has been on this
earth 6,000 years. God has preserved it. It's the Lord who feeds myriads
of animals and people every day. Oh, he says here, as he goes
along, he says, oh, in verse 7, How excellent, how precious,
surpassing is thy lovingkindness, O God! It never fails. You know, the lovingkindness
of God never fails. David said in Psalm 51, Have
mercy on me according to your lovingkindness. How excellent is thy lovingkindness,
O God! These children of men are men
whom God has saved among the sons of men. They put their trust
under the shadow of thy wings." Under the shadow of it. And he
can cast a big shadow. If the clouds are the dust of
his feet, as the Scripture says, what must a shadow of his wings
cover? The loving kindness of the Lord
is unmeasurable. It surpasses human understanding.
Our love can grow cold. Our love can end. Human love. Will a mother, the
Lord said, in Isaiah, will a mother forget her sucking child? You
know what he said? Yes, she will. He said, but not
me. I'm paraphrasing. I'll never,
as in my love and kindness, will never be taken away from you.
I'll not forget you. A mother, forget her sucking
child, yes, but I won't forget you. Only those who have tasted that
the Lord is good know something of the loving kindness of the
Lord, how excellent it is. It's nothing like human love. It's
nothing like human love. And only those who put their
trust in Him experience Him. They experience His lovingkindness,
His mercy, His grace. They experience Him. And they shall be abundantly
satisfied with fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them
drink of the river of thy pleasure. God's people are a satisfied
people. They are satisfied in Christ. They are complete in
Christ. They have all they need in Christ.
But I've got to read you something. I just had to read this after
I read it, I copied it off. This is what William Arnott wrote. They shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house, I once heard a father tell that
when he removed his family to a new residence where the accommodations
was much more ample, the substance much more rich and varied than
to which they had previously been accustomed. His youngest
son, yet a lisping infant, ran around every room and scanned
every article with ecstasy, calling out in childish wonder at every
new sight, "'Is this ours, Father?' And is this ours? And the child
did not say, Yours. And I observed that the father,
while he told the story, was not offended with the freedom.
You could read in his glistening eye that the infant's confidence
in appropriating as his own all that his father had was an important
element in his satisfaction. Such, I suppose, will be the
surprise and joy in appropriating confidence with which the child
of our father's family will count all his own when he is removed
from the comparatively mean condition of things present and enters
the infinite things to come. When the glories of heaven burst
upon His view, He does not stand at a distance like a stranger
saying, O God, these are Thine. He bounds forward to touch and
taste every provision which those blessed mansions contain, exclaiming
as He looks in the Father's face, Father, this and this is ours.
The dear child is glad of all the Father's riches, and the
Father is gladder of His dear child." I thought that was just
a blessing to me. This ours, this ours, all things
are yours in Christ. It's ours. When we look at heaven,
is this ours? And with thee, he said, is the
fountain of life. He is the source of life. In thy light shall we see light.
He's the source of all light. It's written in John 1-4, in
him was life, and the life was the light of men. In thy light
shall we see light. Charles Spurgeon wrote this.
And I'm going to close here. Light is the glory of life. Life in the dark is misery, and
rather death than life. The Lord alone can give natural,
intellectual, and spiritual life. He alone can make life bright
and lustrous. In spiritual things, the knowledge
of God sheds a light on all other subjects. You really don't know anything
until you know Christ, and you see everything in the light of
Christ, who is called in the Scriptures the key of knowledge.
And then he gives a prayer here for the children of God. Oh,
continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee, and thy
righteousness to the upright in heart. And thy righteousness can also
be written in thy faithfulness. What every sinner needs is a
continuance of the Lord's lovingkindness. Do you need that? Boy, I do. I do. You notice here how differently
the children of God are described compared to the wicked that David
described here in the beginning of this psalm. They that know
thee, they are the ones who put their
trust in thee. They are the upright in heart. They don't lay on their
bed at night figuring out what they can get into in the morning,
what they can do. No, they think of the Lord. And then he has the closing here
with a personal prayer. Let not the foot of pride come
against me. Now listen, when I first read
that, and I've been looking at this for a few days, I thought
of the pride of man, I thought of the proud man who thinks he's
something, you know, he's flattering himself. But a little while ago,
before coming down here, I thought the foot of pride that's in me. Pride of face, pride of race,
pride of grace, pride of place. Let that not rise up in me and
come against me. Put that down. And let not the
hand of the wicked remove me. When I have to leave this world,
or someday I got to step down from here as a pastor, Let it
not be by the hand of the wicked. Let them not remove me from this
pulpit or from this life. Lord, if I'm going to be removed,
You be the one. You be the one. We need, and it's something He
recognizes here, we all recognize it, we need God's constant protection
while traveling through this sinful world. Boy, it's a dark
place. It's a dark, dark place. Last
of all, the righteous know the end of the wicked who fear not
God. There are the workers of iniquity fallen. They are cast
down and shall not be able to rise. We see here the overthrow of
evil power, principles, and men. They come to an end. Everyone
not found in Christ will be cast into hell. It is written in Psalm
1 verse 5, Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Someday there
will be a real separation of the sheep and the goats. There
will not be a wicked person in heaven, and there will not be
a righteous one in hell.