I'm glad the Lord's gathered
us today. I hope he's with us. I'm not sick, but I'm ill. I don't know what's wrong with
me. I don't think I got a bug, but I ain't right. I'm weak, which normally is a good sign
for whoever I'm preaching to. If I'm absolutely miserable and
tore to shreds I feel like I'm about to just either run or curl
up and die. The Almighty Lord blesses that
for His people, so He might get me out of the way. I hope He
does. I hope we'll pay attention to Him this morning and not despise
what He's given us. Here in Psalm 26. Psalm 26. Psalm 26 begins here in verse
1 with David writing, Judge me, O Lord. Judge me, O Lord. For I have walked in mine integrity. I have trusted also in the Lord,
therefore I shall not sly. Examine me, O Lord, and prove
me. Try my reins and my heart, for
Thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes, and I have walked
in Thy truth. I have not set with vain persons,
neither will I go in with the dissemblers. I have hated a congregation
of evildoers and will not sit with the wicked. I will wash
my hands in innocency. So will I compass thine altar,
O Lord, that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and
tell of all thy wondrous works. Lord, I have loved the habitation
of thy house and the place where thine honor dwelleth. Gather
not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men, in whose
hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.
But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity. Redeem me, and
be merciful unto me. My foot standeth in an even place,
in an upright place, in the congregations Will I bless the Lord? Let's
pray together. Father, be with us. Lord, open
our ears and our eyes to see Christ in your holy word. Give me plainness of speech. Lord, bless it to our hearts.
Be with us and forgive us for what we are. Lord, see us only
in him. Your perfect, upright, holy Son,
our King. Forgive us for what we are, Lord.
It's in Christ's name that we ask it. Amen. The key to this psalm, there's a lot of
hard things. We just read that, didn't we? How long would it take you to
write an outline on that and explain it? And he says, redeem me. So I
walk in mine integrity. Cullen, redeem me. There in verse
11. Well, which is it? If you have complete integrity
and complete uprightness, you don't need to be redeemed. Do
you? If you're doing just fine on
your own, you don't need grace. If you ain't done nothing wrong,
you don't need someone to show you mercy. How are we going to
understand this song? It seems like some back and forth
here quite a bit. If we don't see Christ in it, we don't see
nothing. It ain't doing you no good. Throw
it away. Somebody said, well, my pastor
preaches all kinds. I heard this recently. My pastor
preaches all kinds of good things and it's all truth. And then
sometimes he'll throw Christ in a little bit there at the
end. It ain't going to do you no good. Go get you a history book. Study the Civil War. Study something
that makes you happy. Exploration or something to come. Study science. invent things. It ain't going to do you no eternal
good without Christ. It's unprofitable. Can we get
a hold of that? Can we really? I mean, can we
enter into that? It's unprofitable. I want to warn mankind. You get
a good history lesson, that's all you got. Boy, if we could
see Christ in this. The key of seeing Christ in this,
what unlocks it for us is in verse 6. I will wash my hands
in innocency so will I compass thine altar, O Lord." That means
completely surround and be upon and thoroughly overtake the altar. There's only one that can do
that. There's only one's blood that's worthy to be on that altar
of the Lord and not be cast out. That's the Lord Jesus. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ is who that is. These first five verses,
these aren't David falsely bragging. God told that fellow one time,
you're one of those people that just one-ups everybody. And it's
no, I know somebody that's much worse than that. That's one-upping
them. This isn't David one-upping everybody.
He says in verse 1, Psalm 26 verse 1, Judge me. Oh Lord, that's one of those
frightening things mankind will face outside of Christ, is to
stand before the Lord God Almighty in judgment. Have people foolishly
walked through this earth thinking, well, I'll be fine. I'll be all
right. My good will outweigh the bad.
No, it won't. No, it won't. You don't understand
how much bad weighs. That's a problem. Judge me, oh
Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity. This might be David
speaking just long enough to write this psalm. He knew he
was in Christ and in him, he's absolutely holy. And for that
brief second, I see him. Lord, you judge me. I'm in Christ. I have integrity because I have
his integrity. Lord gave him 10 minutes to see
Christ to write this psalm. But David's also the one that
said, Enter not into judgment with thy servant. In Psalm 143,
he said, For in thy sight shall no man be justified. Don't judge
me. Don't let your servant, don't
leave me by myself, is what he's saying, to be outside of the
Lord. Is this Christ speaking? It is,
isn't it? Judge me, O Lord, for I have
walked in mine integrity. I have trusted also in the Lord. Therefore, I shall not slide. How good have I trusted in the
Lord? Is that something you can brag on? Well, I trust the Lord. Oh, really? Have you trusted
Him as He ought to be trusted? How thoroughly do you and I trust
the Lord? Shameful, isn't it? How thoroughly did Christ our
King trust the Lord? Unto death. Unto death. He willingly laid down His life
in a gruesome, horrible way, trusting the Father. Why? You had to trust the Father.
I have to trust the Father. He trusted the Father for us,
on our behalf. He fulfilled all for His people.
This is Christ speaking. We know that. We read there in
verse 1, For I have walked to mine integrity, I have trusted
also in the Lord, therefore I shall not slide. Down in verse 6 says,
I will wash my hands in innocency. I'm innocent. Verse 11 says,
but as for me, I walk in my own integrity. Mankind flips with
the wind. They are solid until they ain't. Until a fly comes in the room.
It's like a bunch of sand you clump up together. It's solid
until one drop of rain hits it. It just goes away then. The Lord's
foot is steady. David prayed that too in Psalm
94. He said, When I said, My foot slippeth. That's continual. That's continual. It happens
all the time to God's people, not to heathens, and not to the
unregenerate, but to God's people. I'm falling away. I'm sliding
down a slippery slope, and there's nothing to grab hold to. And
we cry out. We don't work out. We cry out to God. He said, When
I said, My foot slippeth, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. David
slipped. He had to experience that to
experience the mercy of the Lord not just letting him go. What
he rightfully earned, let you go. Let him alone. He didn't. He cried. The Lord was merciful. He had experienced that. Christ's
foot never slipped. His face was set like a flint.
It was about his father's business. Day in and day out. Why slip?
I can't even imagine that. I can't imagine that. Verse 2
says, Examine me, O Lord, and prove me. Prove me, prove me
in the fires of justice. In him there is no dross. Our
dross been consumed because of him. We're proven to be failures at
everything we do, not him. Try my reins and my heart. Try my nature and try what controls
it, what controls me, my reins. Test them, that's a serious test. That ain't like giving me a math
problem. You understand that? Try my reins and try my... All
truth will be exposed. Prove it. Get all the proof out
there. Examine me. And you go up with
a fine tooth comb and see if you find anything wrong. Fools in this world will think
they can do that. Lord knows my heart. walking
all around this place and they don't know him. I do pretty good. I'm a good person. I said some
prayers. The only way a believer, a child
of God could say that is if he's in Christ. Examine me. Examine my robe. It'll be a couple
more weeks. We'll get there for when Jacob
deceives Isaac for the birthright. He's got a robe that feels like
his brother. Don't feel my skin. You feel
his skin. Don't feel me, don't examine me, examine him. What
happens when man's reigns and their motives, and what controls
us on a daily basis? It's the truth. Every one of
us, either the Lord showed you or He ain't. What's our thing
that's been examined? What's the proof that's found
in the pudding on that one? Paul said, as it's written, there
is none right. Let's turn over to Romans 3. Let's look at it.
You can quote it, but it's good. Sometimes when you look at stuff,
it just pops out at you. Romans 3. Romans 3 verse 10. As it is written, there is none
righteous. Well, I've done some good things.
No, not one. There is none that understandeth. Well, I have some discernment
and I get it. No, not one. There is none that seeketh after
God. Boy, I was looking for God all
over and I couldn't find Him. I went to every church in that
county and I couldn't find Him. No, you did not. That's the Lord's
work. Mankind ain't gonna seek God.
They are all gone out of the way. You know where you's going? Out of the way. Look at it. They
are together become unprofitable. There's no good in them. There's
no profit in them. There is none that doeth Good. No. Not one. Not a one. Not a one. I'm not that bad. No, you're
not. You're horrible. You're not righteous. That's
what's required. I understand some things. No, you don't. I
was seeking God. No, you weren't. He was out of
the way. That's where you went. That's unprofitable. It's not
profitable. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. We don't doeth good. Oh, look to ourselves, there's
no good in us. We can't do good. What did our Lord do? I came
down from heaven not to do. I mean, something done. Righteousness, understanding,
performing the will of God. I came down from heaven not to
do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will that has sent me. All that He hath given
me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again to last day.
That's what He did. Do the will of the Father. Did
he complete it? That's what he came to do. Did
he do it? He hung on that Roman cross and
he cried, it is finished. The examination is over. The proving by the fire of justice
is over. The reins and the heart have
been examined and it's finished. What was the result? We have
an empty tomb. He is risen. All payment has
been paid. All examining is complete. It
has been thorough, as thorough as thorough can get. And He's
risen and seated at the right hand of His Father right now.
What was said when Christ was examined, His Father looked at
Him while He was on this earth. He tried His reins. He said,
This is my beloved Son, whom I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. Hear ye Him. I had this Mark
2 just a second ago. I was reading Hebrews 12. It
said, For consider him that endureth such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have
not resisted unto blood striving against sin. Well, I stopped
doing that. Hush. Stop saying that. You get that? Stop saying it.
I've stopped doing this, and I went away from this, and I
stopped watching these movies and reading these books and going
to those places. You haven't resisted sin unto
blood, till you bled sweat drops of blood coming out of your body.
You haven't do that. Christ did. He strived against
sin, not you. If you think you're striving
against sin, you're on a fast track to hell. Your foot's sliding,
and you better cry at him for mercy, like David did. But we
think so highly of ourselves, don't we? Verse 3, back to Psalm
26. Why would he do all this stuff?
Why would he willfully go through all that, live for us, be examined
for us, and when the Lord found him, he punished sin on him.
Our sin, he knew no sin. He was made our sin. And we saw
what the Lord did when he saw it. Oh, what a payment, what
a price. God's turning his back on God
for us. Verse 3 says, for, here's why
he did it, because, for, thy loving kindness. He didn't say,
for my loving kindness, did he? I just love God so much, it don't
matter. His loving kindness, for thy
loving kindness is before mine eyes, that's all he saw. I have
walked. in thy truth." David's writing
this because this is Christ our Lord speaking. And because of
that love, he said, greater love has no man than this, that he
lay down his life for his friends. And he said, I'm the good shepherd.
I came here, I'm going to lay down my life for my sheep. I'm
going to die for them. Isn't that it? Why? Because of
the loving kindness of it. Not necessity, not, well this
is right, we gotta do it, now grit your teeth and go on. Suck
it up, it's the right thing. No, out of love. Willingness
to save a people, to make them just like Christ is why the Lord
purposed this. That's why Christ came and purchased us in His
own blood. And that's why the Holy Spirit
comes and reveals our sin to us. Shuts us up. You stop talking. Have you ever
been so embarrassed you can't show your face? I don't want
to see nobody. I don't want to talk to nobody.
The Lord reveals your sin to you. I'm going to tell you it's
worse than that. You don't want to get out of bed. It happens
often. The Holy Spirit comes in love and shows us, chastens
us, shows us what we are, and at the same time shows us Christ
is the only one that's righteous. He's the only one worthy of being
examined. I can't help it, I've got to jump to the next step.
He's the firstborn. He's the rightful heir. And we bow to
him and cry to him for mercy. He's the one that saved us. Christ is the one speaking it.
Verse 4 says, I have not sat with vain persons, neither will
I go with the dissemblers. Does that seem about the same
to you? Let's read on. I've hated the
congregation of evildoers and will not sit with the wicked.
There's two types of people described here in these two verses. Those
that hate God and it seems obvious to mankind because they curse
him out loud and they put it on their bumper stickers and
they live in wickedness all around us. And profligate people that's
vain and everything that comes out of their mouth and evil and
everything they'll do and they'll drown a box of kittens if they get
a chance. He don't sit with those people. He's clean. He's holy. but also those that absolutely
hate God and are at war with Him and are as religious as you
can get. I can't stand either one of them.
It absolutely just rubs me the wrong way when you're around
somebody that's just absolutely evil and profane in everything
they do all the time. It's embarrassing, it's horrible,
I want to turn away from them. And just as equally as much,
You go to work with a bunch of people that's just so hoity-toity
and religious, and you can't get a word, you can't talk about
what kind of car you drive without them bringing up a commandment
or scripture or something like that. And it's all vain show.
It's pretend. Read an article. They're kids
playing church. Me and Moose don't see eye on
it. The youngins do, they don't get whooped, I think, but that
ain't my house. In my house, they get whooped. But it's playing
church. Adults, they're pretending, they're
quoting stuff. and there's no life in it, it's
pretend. I'm put off by both. Here in verse 6, the Lord said,
I will wash my hands in innocency, so will I compass thine altar,
O Lord. A man tried to wash his hands
in innocency one time, Pilate said, I'll wash my hands of this.
I ain't got no part in it. Yeah, you did have part in it.
You can wash your hands till the skin falls off. It ain't
gonna do you no good, Pilate. It don't work for man. Christ
is the one that has clean hands and a pure heart. He's the only
one. The ultimate judgment, the ultimate
examining, the ultimate trying was at Calvary. And that's where
he shed his blood. for that altar. You and I cannot
approach the altar of the Lord, much less encompass it. Our blood
will not do. The blood of bulls and goats
will not do. Religion won't do. It must be
Him. And He did it, and it's finished. A believer can say everything
there. because of being in Christ. The Lord, the Father, put us
in Him before the foundation of the world. And because He
lived and He died and He's risen for His people, we can say, in
Him, judge me. Who is He that condemneth? Who's
going to lay charge to any of God's elect? It's God that condemneth,
isn't it? I'm in Him. You done something wrong a long,
long time ago? The Lord paid for that. Judgment ain't nothing
there. Like I said, David probably wrote
this in about 10 minutes. You know what happened to the
other 50 minutes of that hour? Lord, don't judge your servant. Don't
let my feet slip. I'll have mercy. Isn't it? It's
true. Just as true, isn't it? What
do we do when we hear such good things? What is our charge? What's your charge? What's my
charge? Verse 7, that I may publish with
the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works. I may preach." I'm probably have a little bit
more insight in that than other people do, but I won't take light of
it. I'd warn you. The Lord said, go into all the
world and preach the gospel. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. Get it out there. Do what you can. Get after it. He told us to do that, didn't
he? Proclaim it. What are we going to say? If
I could get on a satellite or get on TV and every continent
on this globe, what would I say? I'm thankful. God's done a whole
lot of wonderful works. They're wondrous. His Son did
them. He did them for me. He did them
for His elect, those that were put in Him. He's done everything. Salvation is of the Lord. Why
did the sun come up today? The Lord did it. Why did it rain?
The Lord did it. Why do you have good times, bad
times, rich, poor? Why do you have homeless and
wealthy and Lord did it? That's wonderful. I don't see
any good in that. How could something good come
out of something horrible? That's what we looked at with Lot and his daughters.
How could something good ever come out of an incestuous relationship
like that? That's impossible. I can't wrap
my head around it. You can't wrap your head around
it. What man meant for evil, God meant for good. One of those
children born is Moab. Then there's a Moabitess come
out of Moab named Ruth. She married Boaz. We get a Savior
out of this. His ways are wondrous. His works
are wondrous. And I tell you what, you are
His workmanship. And we ought to esteem our brethren
higher than ourselves. You're wondrous. Me, it's a wonder, God save me.
But if He's done a work in me, that's His seed, ain't mine.
And just like Hannah, return Samuel to the Lord, the life
I have that's been put in me, Lord, it's yours. You keep it,
you sustain it, and you make it do what you want it to do.
Your will be done. That's what it cries out in me.
That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all
thy wondrous works. Lord, I have loved the habitation
of thy house and the place where thine honor dwelleth. This is
a practical application, it's absolutely true. This is the
meeting place where the saints of God are gathered. And His
saints love it. And His saints go to where the
other saints are. Now that's so. Is this talking about His church?
Yeah, He is, but believers throughout time. He loved the habitation
of the Father's house. Christ went to... He went to... Sakes
were every Sabbath, didn't he? And he met in rooms and living
rooms and preached to them. He's THE preacher, capital P
preacher. That's him. But he did this because
he loved the habitation of the Father's house and where his
honor dwelleth. Where does the Lord abide? In
us, in his people. Where does he dwell? In his people. Where is he honored? in His people,
not other places. I'm gonna go give a whole bunch
of stuff to charity. I'm gonna honor God. No, He's honored in
the heart. You sacrifice to the Lord, honor
and glory and thanksgiving, don't you? We do. And as much as He
abides in His people, we abide in Him. Isn't that something? The Lord said, If a man love
me, he will keep my words and my father will love him and we
will come unto him and make our abode with him. And then Davis
told us in Psalm 91, Lord thou has been our dwelling place in
all generations. If man's gonna have life and
live, you gotta live somewhere. If he's given us life, we dwell
in him and he in us. What a thought. Verse 9 says,
gather not my soul with sinners, but my life with bloody men.
He sat and ate with publicans and sinners and harlots. He didn't
just sit with them, he ate with them. That's not talking about
sinners that he saved. That's talking about those bloody
men who with their wicked hands hung him on a cross. And you
know who that is? Everybody hates him. Everybody hates him. Everybody's
trying to do something to get an edge on God to make him do
something for them. And debt God to themselves. Whether it's
a whole bunch of pretty good, semi-truthful religion, and they're
trying to just sanctify themselves, or they just flat out say, I'm
gonna do something good, make him do something. I'm gonna pray
till he gives. And prayer warriors and nonsense. People knock that junk off. Lord
dwells in his people, and we dwell in him. And we honor him
where he dwells. Gather not my soul with sinners,
nor my life with bloody men, and whose hand is mischief, and
their right hand is full of bribes." That's this religious world,
isn't it? I wonder what those Pharisees old would have thought
about the helicopters and jet airplanes and Gucci handbags
and Ferraris and all that stuff. Boy, we was born in the wrong
time. Most people want to be born before. They probably want
to be born after, huh? I can get a helicopter, Gucci
suit. Filthy looker. Their right hands
are full of brobs, as was verse 11. But as for me, I will
walk in mine integrity. Redeem me and be merciful unto
me. We've established that the Lord
is the one speaking here. We've established he's the one
that has integrity. He's holy, He's undefiled, perfect,
without sin. Well, how could He be redeemed?
He said, redeem me and be merciful unto me. He doesn't need mercy,
does He? Why does He say that? He said,
unto me. You want to help me through that? He went to Saul
and said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Saul wasn't around. He persecuted
the Lord's people, didn't he? He sat there and held her coat,
said, y'all doing a fine job. I get rounder rocks, get a little
bit bigger rocks when you're stoning Stephen. Keep up the
good work. I got my marching orders. I'm
going to go take women, children, whoever, that say that they believe
in this Jesus Christ, and I'm going to put them in prison.
I'm going to sort this out. Our Lord asked him, why did you
persecute me? The oneness. John baptized me. John said, I need you to baptize
me. What are you talking about? And he said, thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. Us. My foot standeth in an even,
that means upright, holy, just place. My foot standeth, that
means it has stood, it stands right now and shall always stand
in an upright place in the congregations will I bless the Lord. In the
house of God, yes. Whoever he sent, a man after
his own heart to proclaim Christ and him crucified, they will
bless the Lord, but in our hearts, won't they? I pray the Lord gives us a new
heart, gives us mercy for today and grace for today, to see him
today like David. Give us 10 minutes. Give me some
breathing room. Give me 10 minutes to see. Christ
revealed Himself to me. I'm in Him. Now, what have you
got to worry about? What have you got to worry about?
You've been examined. You've been tried. Your reigns,
the heart's been looked on. I've lived a few days on this
earth. I met 10, 15 people in my life,
maybe a little more than that, 100,000. I kind of know when
somebody's lying, you know, when they're
just saying things for super fluidity, when they're blowing
smoke and trying to make the place look good and smell good.
I got a good idea on that. God looks on the heart, don't
He? If I see that, what do you think He sees? If He gives us
10 minutes, I hope all day, it'll be eternity when we leave this
body of death. to know that we're in Him. We're
perfect. The reins have been tried. The heart's been tried.
And it's finished. What will you do if He gives
you that? Thank you. Thank you, Lord. And then I'll
go publish the works. Let me tell everybody what you
did. Maybe our brothers and sisters out there, they haven't heard
it yet. I want to tell them. Kind of repeats itself, don't it?
I pray be merciful to us. Lord, thank you for this hour.
Allow us to see ourselves only in Christ and bow only to him
as you see us. What a thought that is, Lord.
What a humbling thought. What a motivating thought. The
love, your loving kindness that's shed abroad in our hearts in
the face of Jesus Christ. What a hope we have. Oh, be gracious
to us and merciful to us. Be with us, abide with us, and
allow us to see Go presents. Be with our brethren who aren't
here with us. Oh, make them hungry and feed
them. Give them a word for the hour. It's in Christ's name that
we ask it. Amen.