Thank you, Craig. Good morning. How about turning first of all in the book of Psalms. I want you to find Psalm 51. Psalm 51. And put a marker there, we'll
come back to it very shortly. Everybody on Psalm 51? Now if you would turn to Mark
chapter 9. Mark chapter 9. I don't remember
if it was this past Wednesday or the Wednesday before that,
that we spent some time, in fact our
whole study on that Wednesday night was in the book of Mark.
And one of the passages that we looked at is found in Mark
chapter 9. Mark 9. And we'll shorten it just a bit
and take just verses 22, 23, and 24. Our subject this morning
has to do with faith. There is a phrase in this 24th
verse This father has brought his young
son to our Lord. This man is a ruler of a synagogue,
and he takes his son to where our Lord is and begs for him
to have mercy. You'll have to go back and read
the whole chapter to get the full picture, but this is what
we need to concentrate on. So in verse 22, he's speaking to the Lord Jesus, and
he says, if you can do anything. Now that's just as bad as us
saying, if God can do anything. He does everything He pleases,
and so does His Son. This man may have confidence
in Christ, but he doesn't have quite enough. If you can do anything, have
compassion on us and help us. And our Lord immediately addresses
that statement in verse 23. He said to him, if you can believe, If there's any if anywhere, it's
on us. And then when we discover the
real truth, there ain't no if at all, is it? In either place. Us or him. He said, if you can
believe, all things are possible to him that believes. Everything is possible to him
that believes. But everything is not good for
us. The Lord, thankfully, knows what
is best. He always does. Always. Now, bringing this man and his
son Let's read verses 24 and 25,
Mark chapter 9. And straightway the father of
the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Oh, but it's such a weak belief. It's a sickly belief, and ours
is too. Let us not pretend differently. Lord, I believe. Help you my unbelief." And when our Lord saw that the
people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying
unto him, You dumb and deaf spirit, That is an evil, demonic spirit. I charge you, come out of him
and enter no more into him. And that is precisely the outcome
of this particular chapter. Alright, we go now to Psalm 51. This was 51 that I asked you
to turn to, right? At the beginning? Alright, so
we're all on the same page. Now let us bow for prayer and
we'll come back to this 54th Psalm. Lord, thank you for letting us
gather in this place this morning. Thank you for the Bible class
lesson and the wonderful statements that we saw repeatedly regarding
your Lord Jesus Christ, our precious Redeemer and Lord and Savior. And Lord, we now come with a very instructive, yet
difficult to understand chapter in our Bibles, Psalm 51. We're about to learn what happens
in a believer's mind and heart when we sin against you in an unbelievable way. Awful
and terrible indeed. And yet we're like David, and
David is like us. We have the same human nature
with all of its tendencies that David had. We are faced with
all kinds of temptation, perhaps even more. Lord, this morning we are prepared to say, like that father concerning his
son, Lord, we say to you these very words, Lord, I do believe,
but it is such a small, small amount of faith. Oh, that you
would come and help us to grasp this truth concerning yourself,
that all that a sinner needs is freely found in Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. O Lord, we beg your mercy upon
us. Help us. We pray for Christ's
sake. Amen. Now, in the heading to Psalm
51, it reads to the chief musician And if you follow that expression
through the Psalms, you're liable to conclude that every church
ought to have an orchestra, but that's not what it's about. It
is about learning to worship and praise God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Yes, we have music, but it ain't
hip-hop. It ain't trying to see how loud
you can sing or how much you can clap your hands. That is
pure junk. Just absolute garbage. And we
still have enough clinging to us to last us the rest of our
days. I want you to notice when David
wrote these words. And we just heard in the Bible
class this morning that that God said that David was a man
after his own heart. We ain't fixing to read that
now. This is different. A psalm of David, when Nathan
the prophet came unto him after David had gone in to Bathsheba, And Naaman gave him the parable
of a man that had one little sheep, and another man who had
herds everywhere. And his friend had called on
him, so he went to his neighbors and stole his sheep and killed
it and fed it to his guest, after it was cooked, of course. So Nathan comes to him and tells
him about this man. It's just a story. It's designed
to awaken in David what he's done. For he obviously doesn't
yet know. So he tells him this story about
this wealthy man who comes and takes the poor man's one single
little sheep. And this took place after David
had committed adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me. Oh God, Lord, don't give me what You
owe me, because He doesn't owe anybody. Have mercy upon me, oh God, according
to Your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Your tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly, or through
and through, from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge, I confess
my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." Now listen
carefully to the fourth verse. This is most important. David says, talking to the Lord,
against you and you only have I sinned. and done this evil
in your sight." Well, what about Bathsheba's
husband whom David had killed in battle? Against you and you only have
I sinned and done this evil. Now that is the beginning point
for all confession of sin. You don't need to go to the priest.
You take it up with God. And be thankful we've got a high
priest by the name of Jesus Christ. That you should be justified
when you judge and be clear. Be justified when you speak and
be clear when you judge. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me." This won't go over very
well in our generation in which we live, but every human being
who is born into the human race from the beginning of time to
the end of time is born a sinner, not waiting to be one. A sinner. And there's only one hope for
sinners in this whole book. And that hope is Christ and Him
crucified. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you desire truth
in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you shall make me
to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your
face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from
your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from
me. Restore unto me the joy of your
salvation, and uphold me with your free spirit. Then will I
teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted
unto you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness,
O God, you God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud
of your righteousness. O Lord, open you my lips, and
my mouth shall show forth your praise." I'll tell you one thing
grace will do for you. It will make you quit singing
your own song. and sing about somebody else, namely the Lord Jesus. For you desire not sacrifice,
else would I give it. You delight not in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. a broken and a contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise. Do good in your good pleasure
unto Zion. Your people, your church, build
you the walls of Jerusalem. And not the literal walls of
Jerusalem. speaking about spiritual Israel
in spiritual Jerusalem. Then shall you be pleased with
the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offerings and whole
burnt offerings. Then shall they offer bullets
upon my altar. When we learn the lessons taught
in Psalm 51, then we are in position to be able to praise and bless
God. Now hang on to Psalm 51, just
in case I have to refresh you about a statement made in one
of the verses. Now let's see if we can proceed in regard to this father whose
son is terribly beset by a demon, Our Lord said to this man, if
you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes. And straightway, the father of
the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Now, there are a number of things
that we want to try to understand in regard to not only Mark chapter
9, but primarily now we shift our emphasis to Psalm 51, and
David, and Bathsheba, and Nathan the prophet. Boy, I'll tell you,
he must have been a bold fellow. to walk into the king's house,
David's house, and put his finger in his face. When he gives him
that parable, David doesn't see a thing. He said, who is he?
I'll go kill him right now. Nathan said, David, you are the
man. You're the man. You're the one that this is speaking
about. Oh my goodness. And one more time, I'm just referring now, I'm not
turning to Mark chapter 9, but this man pleads for the Lord
to help his unbelief. Each one of us have a degree
of unbelief in us. It has always been in us. And
it will be until we leave this world, until Christ returns. I can truthfully say exactly
what this man said. I do believe. But it's such a
weak, poor, pitiful faith I do believe. I am a sinner. I know this. I know it. I know it. I need God's mercy and God's
grace. I need a Redeemer. And I believe
Christ alone can save. I don't care what you think about
today's religion, but I'm warning you one thing. It's always Christ
plus something else. And this is Christ plus nothing. All but what about my decision?
What? Your decision? Any of you read
C.S. Lewis when you were in college
or wherever? In England? This guy was an avowed
atheist, and he underwent a great change. I don't know that the
change was converting, but I know that he knew more than most religious
people in America know. So Billy Graham sends a team
over there for his Decision magazine. Decision magazine. You understand? It ain't my decision. It ain't
your decision. Sometimes lost people can say
things better than saved people. They went to this guy and wanted
to do an interview, and they were interviewing him. They said,
now, Mr. Lewis, when did you make your
decision? He said, what decision? He said,
I was decided upon. And that's where it is, and it
ain't nowhere else. It's exactly where it is. If I have trouble giving the
triune God all the credit, I've got more troubles than that.
I'm still lost. You can be lost in the pulpit
as well as the pew or in the bar or anywhere else, on the
baseball field, on the racetrack, wherever you want to go. You
can be lost. Oh, but this is pathetic. To
frequent a place of worship and still be lost. Goodness, be lost. Christ is said in our Bibles
to be the only mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. But like this Father, I grieve. I think I do. I hope I do. I grieve over my lack of faith. So let's look at this subject
of faith in Christ and see if we can find any help for people
honest enough to admit that we need it. Everything that goes by the name
faith is not true saving faith. Let me read you a statement out
of John. Now, when Christ was in Jerusalem
at the Passover, in the peace day, many believed in his name
when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit
himself unto them, because he knew all men. He knew what's
in man. And he needed not that any should
testify of man, for he knew what was in man. He knows. He still knows. And it ain't
a pretty sight, to say the least. Religion can produce many things
that resemble faith and deceive many. For that matter, they can
deceive themselves, and so can we deceive ourselves. Some tell us to reform the outward
man. That would be the Pharisee, and
they're still alive and well today in America. The largest part of religion
is Phariseeism. It's telling God what we've done
for Him. instead of thanking him for what
he's done for us. Some speak well of Christ. We
meet those characters in our Bibles. Nicodemus did in John
chapter 3. Yet he continued to be on the
board of directors for the Jewish Sanhedrin. And only after Christ
was on the cross, Was he able to come over to the side of truth? We love popular opinion. We like for people to like us.
It ain't going to do us any good. Does God like me? Does God love
me? Has God saved me? Whatever else
there is, it doesn't matter if that be the case. When they brought it, Christ
before him, he said, I find no fault in this man. And they cried
out to the top of their voices, crucify him, crucify him. And I'm reminding you that if
we had been present, we would have done the very same thing. And if you don't think so, you
don't know nothing. Nothing. Not anything at all. Some even feel sorry for their
sin. Judas did. But it didn't do him
any good. He still hanged himself. But we can never produce a heart
that is broken over sin. We have it in Psalm 51, verses
1 through 3, that we just read and covered. And it is vital
and important that we see that. I'll take you back there in just
a second, but I want to take another statement along with
us. A sinner, apart from the grace
of God, can never justify God in his own condemnation. Now,
he doesn't have a problem justifying other people's condemnation. What did David say to Nathan?
Where is this man? I'll go kill him. Pretty bold statement. The problem
is Nathan wasn't talking. This other man was a fictitious
character. He's talking about David. And
Psalms and Mark and all the pages of our Bible is talking about
you and me. And our understanding of the
glorious, glorious grace of Almighty God. But the problem With man by nature,
he can never take God's side against himself. Agreeing with God, even though
it makes me guilty. Do you understand that? Let's go back to Psalm 51 for
just a minute. I'll read you verses 1 through
3 again. Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of your tender
mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly. from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me." One more statement out of Psalm
51 is what David tells us in verse 4. Now the emphasis here is to cause
us to realize that first and foremost All sin of every kind
and type and color that you can imagine, all sin is first and
foremost against the triune God. Against you. You only have I
sinned and done this evil in your sight that you might be
justified when you speak and be clear when you judge. does exactly as he must. He must honor every attribute
of his being, both in condemnation and in setting us free. Everything
must be satisfied. His holiness, his righteousness,
and on and on and on. Where's Pinch Brook? There's
supposed to be a blue one, another blue one, and another one, and
some in the front, in the foyer. You ought to try to read that
if you don't understand what we're talking about when we talk
about God's attributes that cannot ever change. They've been around
since forever and they'll be around forever to come. Simply
how things are. You and I are not going to change
this globe on which we live. My soul, we can't even change
ourselves. Did you know that? And how come
the preacher tells you to come down here and take his hand and
he'll baptize you and you'll be a member of the church and
he tells you you're saved? Yeah, you're saved just like
he is, which ain't saved at all. Excuse the French, but he's lost.
And I do mean lost. I've been there and done that. A religious man, or woman, or
young woman, or young man, a religious man can never receive Christ
alone. And it's the word alone that
makes this statement what it is. Without it, it's not any
good. Man must add something that he
does, some agreeable disposition in himself to let God help him. Oh, my soul, you can make me
mad if you want to talk about letting God do something. It
is entirely the reverse. If he pleases, he might let us
live the rest of this day. If he pleases, he might let us
have a good lunch together. But let's not talk about letting
God. That is a dead giveaway. That whoever says it does not
know the God of the Bible. Christ is the way to God. Christ
is the truth of God. Christ is the life of God. Now
if that ain't everything, I don't know what is. Christ is all. That's a plain statement out
of our Bibles, out of the New Testament. Man tries to take Christ along
with his faith. His works, his morality, his
obedience, his baptism, his righteousness. And this book says as plain as
words could ever say it, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. What that means is, if you have
Christ, you have no room for anything that you have done to
be trusting toward God is concern. You just can't do it. You cannot
do it. These religious people who claim
to be such wonderful believers and followers of Christ, they
just can't ever let it be like this. just Christ alone. They cannot tolerate that. They
cannot bow to it. They cannot accept it. And the
only people who do are people that God, in almighty grace,
causes and makes us to see the truth, teaching it to us by His
precious Spirit, It is Christ and Christ alone. It might help us if we remembered
some of the words that we sing to our songs. William Cowper
wrote one called, There is a Fountain Filled with Blood, and he says,
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and
there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away, namely
in the blood of Christ. Or another one, in my hand no
price I bring, simply, only to your cross I cling. It's all
Christ. It's all grace. It's all of God. Let me work on something else
here just for a minute. Getting back to the subject of
faith, which we've never truly left. True faith, real faith, God-given
faith, still must be tried. Faith that is not tried may not
be real faith. It has certainly deceived many. In virtually every page of our
Bibles we run into people who thought one thing and the truth
was something else. True faith will be severely tried. In James 1, verse 12, it reads,
Blessed is that man that endures trials, for when he is tried,
he shall receive the crown of life. The crown of life. Faith must be tried by the Word
of God. Without this book, how would
we know anything about God's grace? The only way we could know is
if it was handed down for, I don't know how to say this, you know,
for the last 21 centuries, and we got a hold of a version that
was actually true. I don't believe that's the case. I think every Every tradition,
every custom that is passed on from one generation to the next
is flawed in many different directions, and none greater than these having
to do with the vital truths of the gospel. Secondly, faith will be tried
by persecution. It certainly was in the Bible.
And it has in many places to this very day. People are put
to death because they confess faith in Christ. Oh, my soul,
it was certainly so in England back in the 15 and 1600's. Those
streets ran with blood. The prisons were full of people
waiting to be put to death or burned at the stake or crucified
or the use of the guillotine. All kinds of ways in order to
put people's lives to an end. But it only made the church more
real, more honest, more truthful, and more gracious. I saw some of those martyrs that
were in those prisons. They said, when is it my turn
to die? I want to die. I don't know if I've found any
of those people. I know it ain't me. I wish it
could be, but it ain't. Job said when he lost his family,
his wealth, his wife didn't leave, but she might as well have. He
said, the Lord gave and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. Just among this group of a few
people, a year from now, five years from now, ten years from
now, there will be some funerals. Maybe mine will be one of them. Faith will be tried by persecution. You can read that all over the
Bible and in church history. True faith will be tried by poverty and by plenty. Lack of money and too much money will try faith. Believe it or not, poverty has
slain its thousands and plenty has slain its tens of thousands. True faith will be tried by sorrow. I think I gave you Job. The Lord
gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
But here's another one to put right under him. A fellow by
the name of Eli. Eli was virtually the high priest
of Israel in probably 1 Samuel. As he became infirm and aged,
he turned it over to his two sons, Hophni and Phenehas. And
these guys were as wicked as wicked could be. They set up
temple prostitution in the name of the God of the Bible. And so when Israel was fighting
the Philistines, the Philistines beat them so soundly that they
took the Ark of the Covenant with them. And these two guys, the sons
of Eli, are so dumb and dense that they run to the temple, it's
still a tabernacle at this time, run to the tabernacle and get
the Ark of the Covenant and carry it into battle. And that's where
the Philistines capture it and take it back to the house of
their god, Dagon. Dagon and the Ark of the Covenant
don't get along very well. So what happened? Hophni and
Phenehas were killed. And when Eli got the news, he
said, it is the Lord Let him do whatsoever he will. It is the Lord. If it's really
the Lord, he will do whatever he will. Absolutely. Even Stephen in Acts chapter
7, I want to say 7, it might be
8. Anyway, Stephen is being stoned. Saul of Tarsus is the supervisor. He's holding the rest of them's
jackets so they can throw stones better. And Stephen is breathing
almost his last breath. And he looks up to heaven and
he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And there was at least one fellow
that Stephen's prayer, God answered, Saul's apostles saw more that
day than he planned to see. True faith will be tried, I hate
to mention this, by years. Getting old ain't fun. It ain't
processes, as some people say. But our trials increase, at least
some of us, seemingly more so than others. But I'm tickled
to be breathing this morning, and I'm glad I can be here. True faith will ultimately be
tried by death. The time of our departure will
arrive. Let me die the death of the righteous,
and let my last end be like his, that is, the righteous." Alright, that's a plenty.