Back to Psalm 4. Psalm 4. I titled the message, there's
actually a couple titles to it, The God of My Righteousness,
O God of My Righteousness. But I like the title also is,
Hear Me When I Call. That is the whole point of praying. I read the Word of God and prayed
afterwards. And the whole point of praying
afterwards is to be heard of God, to have an audience with
God Almighty, God of heaven and earth. God
of creation, God of salvation, our God, the only God there is. And we have every right through
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ to come into His
presence and ask Him to hear us. Hear me when I call. This psalm opens with a prayer
to God. And then David turns and he speaks
to the sons of men about their foolishness for loving vanity
and lying. He said, they seek after leasing
lying. Tell me, the sons of men want
you to tell them a lie. Tell me how good I am. Tell me
how smart I am, how intelligent. Just tell me, just set me up
on a pedestal. But don't tell me there's none
good, no, not one." They seek after a lie. They seek after
someone to tell them a lie. But then he gives here in this
psalm instructions to those who would be saved, those who would
seek the Lord. Stand in awe. That's the first
thing. Stand in awe of Him. And then in closing, he shows
that real happiness And every child of God here knows
this. Real happiness is having God's
favor. That's it. It's having God's
favor. And real safety, real safety
in this evil world is God watching over me. Now he says here, he
makes a request. And this should be on our hearts
every time we pray. This request should be here every
time we pray. Hear me when I call, because
we don't pray to be seen of men, not like the Pharisees who pray
to be heard and seen of men. We pray to be heard of God. Hear me when I call. Spurgeon
said this, and this is good. I wrote this down. Spurgeon said, The first thing we ought to do
is speak to God first before we speak to men. If we're going
to speak to men about God, we need to speak to God about men
first. And this is what he does. He
calls upon God first. He makes a request, and the request
is to be heard. This is coming boldly to the
throne of grace to find help in time of need. This is how
we come to the throne of grace, with confidence. Not cocky. with confidence. We ought to
come to the throne of grace with absolute confidence because our
Lord is sitting there. He's on the throne. We have a
right. I have a blood-bought right to
be at the throne of grace. And we need to make much use
of the throne of grace. It's sad when we have to be driven
to it. trials and heartaches, that God has to send us a trial
or heartache to drive us to the throne of grace. We ought to
learn early to use it early. It's there for us. God has provided
it for us. He's provided it for our use,
for our comfort, for our time of need. Use it. Use it. We are told to cast all
our cares upon Him who cares for us. So when we pray, let's pray,
hear me when I call. But he makes an acknowledgement
here. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. O God of my righteousness." This
is the only time in the Word of God this statement right here
is used, O God of my righteousness. He identifies God as the God
of His righteousness. God is the God of, listen, my
righteousness. And it's my righteousness because
it's imputed to me. It's my righteousness because
it's imparted to me. It's given to me. Christ provided
it and He's given it to me, therefore it's mine. It's mine. It's a
gift of God. If God gives you something, is
it yours or is it not? Paul spoke of the gospel being,
he spoke of the gospel like this, our gospel. That does not mean he came up
with it. It means God gave it to him. And if God's given you
something, He never takes it back. The gifts and calling of
God are without repentance. He does not take them back. They're
yours. They're yours. So the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ that He wrought out as a man is our righteousness. It's ours. We stand before God
righteous. It is written in 1 Corinthians
1.30, but of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. God is the God
of my righteousness. He produced it and He gave it
to me. He gave it to me. It's mine.
He's the author of it. He's the maintainer of it. And
He's the giver of it. And listen here. He says, O God
of my righteousness, thou hast enlarged me. Hast. Past tense. He's thinking here,
and this is a good thing to do in prayer. Before you go to prayer,
before we go to prayer, let me include myself, before we go
to prayer, we ought to meditate on what we're going to pray about.
Give some real thought to what we're going to pray about. And
one of the things we give real thought to? Past mercies. past mercies. Thou hast enlarged
me." He's looking at past mercies. He's looking at a time when he
was, at one time he was a shepherd running, hiding in a cave, and
now he's a king with a kingdom. Thou hast enlarged me when all
looked hopeless and helpless. You turned it into prosperity
and enlarged me when I was in distress. When I was in distress. Now we can apply this first to
the Lord Jesus Christ. He walked on this earth. He was
despised and rejected of men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. But my, look how the Lord has
enlarged Him. Look how His Father has enlarged
Him. He has the kingdom. The whole world is His. All is
His. But He's saying this also here,
Thou hast enlarged me, Thou hast set me free. Thou hast set me
free. Whom the Son sets free, He's
free indeed. Thou hast enlarged my understanding.
before I was like a dumb beast before God. But now I have been
given an understanding of who God is, who Jesus Christ is. I have an understanding of myself. I have an understanding of sin.
I have an understanding of how God can be a just God and a Savior. You have enlarged me. You've
enlarged my understanding. Thou hast enlarged my heart.
You've given me a new heart. You give me a heart to love God
and to love the brethren. He's enlarged my heart. A heart
that can be filled with the love of God. A heart that can be filled with
the love of God. Thou hast enlarged... I wrote
this down today. God made me a bigger man. You've made me a bigger man.
And how'd he do that? How'd he do that? He says, when
I was in distress. Suffering, the trials that God
sends our way, has a way of enlarging the spiritual heart. It does. It has a way of enlarging the
spiritual heart. It is under distress that the
fruit of the Spirit grows most sweet. You and I are most useful when God distresses us. When
He distresses us, He is enlarging us. It doesn't feel like it at
the time. It feels like you're being destroyed.
It feels like you're not going to make it. But he says here,
he's looking back at past mercies, and he said, Lord, You have enlarged
me. When I was in distress, when
all looked doomed, You were enlarging me. You were enlarged. I was
growing. I was growing in grace. I was growing in knowledge of
Christ. When? When I am in distress. When you
have distressed me through trials and heartaches. Job said, By
the hearing of the ear I heard of thee. But after God did all
that that He did to Job, He said, Now mine eye seeth thee. Now
I see you. I see you. And in seeing you, I see myself. Seeing who He is, I see who I
am and what I am. And then he says here, have mercy
upon me and hear my prayer. Though distresses, trials, heartaches may enlarge my heart,
listen, they never make me self-sufficient. There's never a time that I get
to a point in my life, to age in my life, that I am now self-sufficient. I started this journey by the
grace of God, by the mercy of God, and I will end this journey
by the grace of God and by the mercy of God. I'll end it the
same way I began it, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. Have mercy! I reckon that's probably
one of the things that I say in prayer more than anything,
is have mercy. Have mercy, because I don't deserve
what I'm asking for. And I know it. And you know it.
You know you don't deserve what you're asking for. That's why
we say, have mercy. Have mercy. And that makes me...
I'm telling you, that gives me real comfort because mercy is
something I don't deserve. But God delights to show mercy. He delights to show mercy. I
heard this years ago. I think Henry told this. Scott
Richardson was at a trial in court. He was in there watching
it. Somebody he knew was there. And
the judge, this particular judge was mean. He's mean. And he threw the book at this
guy. And Scott said to him, he said,
Judge, is there no mercy? Is there no mercy? And the judge
said to him, he doesn't deserve mercy. And Scott said, I thought
that's what mercy meant. He said, I thought that's what
mercy meant. You don't deserve it. He doesn't deserve mercy. Well, that's not the definition
of mercy. The definition of mercy is, I
don't deserve it. So when we go to prayer, we can
ask God for mercy, because He'd like to show it, and I don't
deserve it. And I'm on good grounds now. Mercy is what we need at
all times. And now he's spoken to God. Now
he's going to turn to the sons of men. He's going to speak to
men. He's spoken to God first. This is the order. This is the
order, especially for people like me who preach. This is a
real lesson here. Speak to God first before you
stand in a pulpit and speak to men. Either God's people or lost
men and women. It doesn't matter. Speak to God
first. But he says here, O ye sons of men, you sons of Adam,
you fallen men, you rebellious men, you religious men. And he's
going to interrogate them. How long? It's like if you're
a thinking man, think. Answer this question. How long
will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you turn the glory
of the being of God into shame? How long will you belittle God?
How long will you try and bring God down on your level? He is
high lifted up. Isaiah saw Him, when he saw His
glory, he was high lifted up in his train. That is, his glory
filled the court. We should have high views of
God. Our view, our understanding of
God ought to be way up here. And not down here on our level.
Not down here. How long will you turn the very
being of God into shame? talking of Him like He's like
you and me. You thought I was like you, He
said in the Psalm. You thought I was like you. All together
like you. How long will you take the redemptive
glory of Jesus Christ and turn it into shame? God loves everybody. Jesus Christ wants to save everybody
if He'll let Him. That's a lie. That's seeking
after a lie. How long will you lie on God
like that? How long will you lie? He hated
Esau. Is he the only one? The Scripture
says, He hateth all workers of iniquity. That's what it says. They don't want to hear that. How long will you take, how long
will you turn my glory, my glory, my redemptive glory, the glory
of my person into shame? How long will you love vanity
and seek after the least? How long will you love nothing?
Nothing. And you seek after a lie. You
seek after a lie. You know, Sunday morning, Sunday
night, Wednesday night, midweek service, people going out to
the service seeking after a lie. You tell them the truth, they
get mad. Tell them the truth and they get mad. Tell them a
lie and they go home happy. He said, how long are you going
to do that? How long? But know this, O sons of men,
the way he's saying it, O you sons of men, be instructed, you
sons of men. Men are in spiritual darkness
and death. Their knowledge of God is corrupt.
But he says here, know this. I want to tell you something.
I want to teach you something. The Lord has set apart He starts
with election. Election is a Bible doctrine. Salvation is not just thrown
out there like chicken feed. God chose a people. And he's
not afraid to tell the sons of men, he says, God chose a people.
He didn't leave this thing hanging in the air. He didn't do all
that he did to his son, then leave the rest up to rebels. Rebels and I'm not saying this
to be funny, but I gotta tell you the story I'm gonna alter
it a little bit but He comes over to me he's got the he's
got YouTube on and there's this girl busting beer cans with her
head and Anyway, they're empty. But she's
smashing them. When she gets to the last one,
and she doesn't smash it, she about knocks herself out. Because
she takes another blow at it real hard. I said, now you're
going to tell me that God is going to leave salvation, the
end result of salvation, to that? I said, are you serious? I said,
you need to think about it. That God has done all that He's
done to His Son, and then He leaves the end result to a bunch
of Idiots! That's not going to happen. God
has determined the end from the beginning. This has a good end for a multitude of sinners for
whom Jesus Christ died for. The Lord has set apart. He has
chosen. The Lord has chosen Him that
is godly for Himself. He has sanctified, that word
sanctified means set apart. Now listen, God set Christ apart
for Himself. And all whom He saves, He set
apart in Christ for Himself. This shows here a state of sonship. The Lord has set apart, listen,
Him that is godly for Himself. We're not our own. If you're
godly, God made you that way, and you're His. He owns you. He owns you. And you're glad
of it. You're glad of it. I know you are. You're glad of
it. The godly is for His glory. He said, I have created this
people for Myself. They shall what? Show forth My
glory. That's what it says in Isaiah.
They are created for His fellowship. You know, God created us. He
has saved us for His glory, His honor, but also for fellowship,
to have fellowship with us. Listen to 1 John 1.3, "...that
which we have seen and heard, declaring we unto you, that ye
also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship
is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ." Fellowship
with God. He's going to bring us to glory
We are going to be presented spotless and faultless, and we
are going to have fellowship with God throughout eternity,
and with one another. Now God has set apart him that
is godly for himself, and here's his privilege. The Lord will
hear when I call unto him. What confidence? Do you have
this confidence? Do I have this kind of confidence
when I pray, when you pray? Do we have this kind of confidence?
The Lord will hear me. I'm afraid I don't. I'm ashamed. I should. I have every right
to have this confidence. The Lord will hear me. The Lord
will hear when I call unto Him. I do know this. The Lord Jesus
Christ said, as it applies to Him, I know that you always hear
me. I know that. And the godly man
in Christ has this same blessing. The Lord does always hear. He
always hears us. He always does. And now He's
going to give direction here to seekers. If there's any out
there who's interested in salvation, the salvation of their soul,
He's going to give direction here. First thing He says is,
stand in awe and say not. You know, we have lost words
like All. Standing in awe of God. Because
we use words, we'll use words like amazing on stuff that's
not amazing. And then when something is amazing,
amazing doesn't really mean anything anymore. That's the reason why
when they say, God loves everybody, it really doesn't mean anything.
It becomes insignificant. But when you learn that God loved
Jacob and hated Esau, You realize you're in that same category.
God loved me. If you and I believe the gospel,
God loved us in Christ with an everlasting love. Now that means
something. That means something. Stand in awe and sin not. We've
lost words like awe and fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Trembling We need to use words like this
again in reference to God. He hasn't changed. God's still
God. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. We're even told in the Word of
God, there is mercy with the Lord that he may be feared. That
he may be feared, had in awe and reverence. Much of today's
preaching has presented God as soft. as if time has softened Him. Our God is still a consuming
fire. God is still a consuming fire. Outside of Jesus Christ,
you don't want to deal with Him. Apart from Christ, God is a consuming
fire. Stand in awe of Him. Stand in
awe of His salvation. Stand in awe. I thought of this
today when I was reading this again and I sketched this one
in. Stand in awe that He's not put
you and me in hell yet. Stand in awe of that. Stand in
awe that God will show mercy to a man, to a sinner like me
and you. Henry said this in a message
once, and I've mentioned it before, but grace quits being amazing
grace, it quits being grace. If it's not amazing grace, it's
not grace no more. And sin not. Sin is missing the mark. It's
rebellion against God. Sin is never accepted of God.
Never. And sin not. Leave your righteousness, leave
your thoughts, and go to Him. Bow to Him. Receive Him. And
commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still. There's
no better time to meditate and to think upon God and to speak
to God than in the quiet of the night when everything is shut
down. and you're alone, laying there
by yourself with your thoughts. Instead of always thinking about
what you're going to do tomorrow and how you're going to fix it. Instead of always doing that,
seriously, just stop it and start to think upon the Lord. commune
with your heart. And he's saying here, talk to
yourself. David said this, Why art thou
cast down, O my soul? He was speaking to himself. Why are you cast down, O my soul?
Hope thou in God. David was lifting himself up.
He was speaking to himself and he was saying, What do you have
to be cast down about? What do you have to hang your
head down about? Hope thou in God. He hasn't changed. He's still the same rock. He's
still the same foundation. He's still in the same place.
He's still on the throne. Hope thou in God. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed and be still. Think upon the Lord and your
need of His mercies. Don't live a thoughtless life
without God. It says in the scripture, I didn't
write it down, I'm just trying to think of it, that God is not
in their thoughts. He's not in all their thoughts.
The lost man desires no knowledge of God. But brethren, we have
a time. God's given us a time not just
to go to bed and go to sleep so we can get up in the morning
and be rested enough to do the next day. There's a precious
time right there to think upon the Lord. You know, we are told to bring
our thoughts into subjection to Christ. We are to have some
control over our thoughts and not let our thoughts control
us. That's so. That's so. That's why he's saying here,
commune with your own heart upon your bed. This is the place where
you can be plain with God. Listen, I read the Word of God
and I prayed, but there are things on my mind and there are things
that I can say to God that I'm not going to say from this pulpit.
I can't. He's my Father. God's my Father
and I can speak to Him like a son. I can speak to Him respectfully.
Respectfully. But I can tell Him if it hurts,
it hurts. And you can tell Him it hurts.
You can say, that hurts. He's your Father. Commune with
your own heart. This is the place where you can
be so plain with God You can speak to him. Speak to
him from your heart. He knows your heart anyway. What
are you hiding? You think you're hiding it? Think about it. You
can say, well, I'm trying not to say it hurts, like he doesn't
know. He knows anyway. He knows exactly
what's going through my heart and mind. David said in Psalm
3, hear my voice. He was crying out loud, hear
my voice. Commune with your own heart.
And be still. Be still. Don't try to use human reasoning
to know God. There's a time to speak to God.
Listen. There's a time to commune with your own heart. There's
a time to speak to God. Then there's a time to shut up and
listen and wait on the Lord. There's a time to do that. You
say, well, that's not very polite to say it that way. Well, sometimes
plight doesn't work. There's a time to be still, shut
up, and know that I'm God. There's a time for that. There's
a time to let all the noise of your mind and everything, all
the confusion. There's a time to just speak,
Lord. It's hard for us to shut up,
isn't it? It's hard for us to be quiet. It's hard. I remember
my grandfather said once, he was telling me one time about
a certain woman. He said, if she had to shut up,
her ears would slap her brains out. That's what he told me. Well,
that applies to all of us. If we have to shut up, our ears
will slap our brains out. He was a quiet man. He didn't
say a whole lot, but sometime when he said it, I got it. And listen, "...and offer the
sacrifices of righteousness." Spurgeon said this. I'm going
to give you what Spurgeon said. The only sacrifices of righteousness
are those that set forth the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
For example, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice. Why was
it more excellent? It pointed to Jesus Christ. Moses,
they offered the Passover lamb. Why was it a more excellent sacrifice,
that Passover lamb? It pointed to Jesus Christ. That's
why. And put your trust in the Lord.
Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Christ only. God has given us no one else
to trust. Don't trust your riches. Don't
trust your abilities. Don't trust your ancestries.
Don't trust your understanding. Trust the Lord. Trust Him. Get into His Word. Listen. Get into His Word. Find out what
His Word says and take Him at His Word. Take Him at His Word. There's a whole lot in this book
I don't understand. But I know this. I understand
who wrote this book. I have some understanding of
the one who wrote this book. and I trust Him to bring it to
a good conclusion. I trust Him. There be many that
say, who will show us any good? Who will show us good? You know
what they're saying here. Who will show us a good time?
Who will show us material good? Who will satisfy the lust of
the flesh? It's all about the flesh right
here. Who will show us good? Men want the blessing, but they
don't want to bless thee. But here's the good the believer
wants. Here's the good we want. Lord,
lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. They want the little trinkets
out here to play with. They want all the, what they
call the accoutrements of the rich. But what do you want? What do I want? I want God's
favor. I want God is, lift thou up the
light of thy countenance upon. Lord, shine upon me. Let your favor shine upon me. The real good is God's favor. It's God's favor. And here is
where real gladness comes from. Thou hast put gladness in my
heart. God put it there. God put it there. More than in
the time that their corn and their wine increased. More than
their gardens grew and their crops grew and they made big
money off of them and they were just happy. He said, you have
put gladness in my heart because I know what forgiveness of sins
is. I know what it is to be pardoned. I know what it is to be justified.
I know what it is to be accepted. Here they are running up and
down the road in their plate pretties. But I have gladness,
real gladness in my heart. And God, you put it there. You
put it there. When you saved my soul, you made
me glad. You know, there's never been
a sinner that got mad because God saved him. There's never
been a sinner that just got upset because God saved him. No, God
puts gladness. Gladness. Spurgeon called it
that God is the source of unrivaled joy. Unrivaled joy. Nothing in this life compares
to the happiness that we have in Jesus Christ. Christ in the
heart is better than all earthly riches. Give me Christ. I've had Mike sing that song
so many times for me back home. Give me Christ or else I die.
He ends with a great note. I will both lay me down in peace
and sleep for thou, Lord, only makes me dwell in safety. David had armed guards surrounding
his bedroom. Solomon, same way. But David
is saying this. David is saying that my safety,
my safety is not in the armed guards. My safety is in nothing
else and no one else but God Almighty, the Lord my God. I will. I will. And I tell you what, here's another
one. We can take another look at this.
I will both lay me down in peace when I die and sleep. That's
when I sleep. Lazarus is asleep. I'm going
to lay down in peace, and I'm just going to sleep, and the
Lord is going to keep me safe and bring me home to glory." Because our forerunner, our brother,
he's already gone through the grave and taken a sting out of
it. He's already entered into glory
and taken possession of heaven. He has already taken possession
of heaven for us. It's ours. It's ours. We can
lay down in peace tonight and sleep. Go to rest. Think upon
the Lord while you're doing that. And if you and I lay down tonight
and we sleep and wake up in glory, we'll really be safe, won't we?
But we won't be any safer there than we are here now. We won't
be any safer.