Psalm 66. This psalm has 20 verses
so I want to read through them and we're going to pick up about
where we left off last time. Verse 1 begins, make a joyful
noise unto God all ye lands. Now this we saw was speaking
of the Gentiles and the great mercy that God showed to all
of the Gentiles, or not all the Gentiles, but all the nations
of the world, and the Gentiles being a synonym for the nations,
not all of the Gentiles individually, but all the nations and God's
people in those nations. So this psalm, as we saw last
week, is a psalm of gospel times. And because of that, we see in
this psalm, of course, the gospel revealed. He goes on in verse
2, "...sing forth the honor of his name, make his praise glorious." Say unto God, how terrible art
thou in thy works, through the greatness of thy power shall
thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. All the earth shall
worship thee, and shall sing unto thee, and they shall sing
to thy name, Selah. Come and see the works of God. He is terrible in his doing towards
the children of men. He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the flood on
foot, There did we rejoice in Him. He ruleth by His power forever. His eyes behold the nations.
Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah. O bless our
God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard,
which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to
be moved. For thou, O God, hast proved
us, thou hast tried us as silver is tried, thou broughtest us
into the net. Thou laidest affliction upon
our loins. So God brought us into the net
and laid affliction on our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride
over our heads. We went through fire and through
water, but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. I will
go into Thy house I will go into thy house with burnt offerings,
I will pay thee my vows, which my lips have uttered and my mouth
has spoken when I was in trouble. I will offer unto thee burnt
sacrifices of fatlings, with the increase I'm sorry, with
the incense of rams. I will offer bullocks with goats,
Selah, come and hear all ye that fear God, and I will declare
what he hath done for my soul. I cried unto him with my mouth,
and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me. But verily God hath heard me,
he has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God,
which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. All right, so last week we saw
in this psalm that there's really four parts. The first section begins with verse one and goes
through verse four, and it's all about God giving to his people
a cause for praise, for shouting with joyful triumph in praise
to God. Now, I was thinking about this.
There's oftentimes when people do shout with joy, And I know
that in the world, shouting with joy is something that men do. They usually are doing this at
some kind of a competition. And in those instances, men are
shouting because of their strength, because they have won some kind
of a competition, and they're boasting themselves and their
own ability. and they're seeking the applause
and the approval of men. And this is something that's
also true in religion. In religion, I'm not talking
about the true religion, I'm talking about false religion.
In false religion, men are considered to be hypocrites. using praise
and words that are phrases that sound spiritual. And in many
ways, they identify with the true Christians, the true believers. But in all those things, they're
doing it outwardly and they're doing it in order to work up
what only God can produce. I remember there was a time when
we used to meet in a building that was shared by another group
and they came in after us and we were there while they were
setting up and they had instruments and they had microphones and
there were a few of them in the room and others were beginning
to come in and the man at the front with the microphone They
would increase the tempo a little bit, and increase the volume
a little bit, and he would use words like, praise the Lord,
and amen, and he would say, we need to get something going,
and words like that. It was all about what people
do at, say, a secular concert or something, where they start
out with an introduction, and they're trying to get the crowd
into some kind of an emotional frenzy. So that's another way
that men shout for joy in religion. They try to work up some kind of a
fervor, and it's a lot like what the idols did when they tried
to get the fire from heaven to come down and consume the bullocks
that they put on the altar, remember, with Elijah. God tells us in
Isaiah not to try to kindle our own sparks, and that's what men
do when they serve idols. But the third way that men shout
for joy is the true, the true gospel. It's only when we know
that all of our salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that all that we have, we've been given by God in Christ,
that we can truly be joyful and then shout for joy in triumph.
Because not only are our possessions spiritual and all given to us
in Christ, but we have the victory. God always causes us to triumph
in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the first thing I wanted
to remind you of here, that in the first section of this psalm,
the first four verses, God is giving his church, his believers,
a warrant and a cause for praising him with a joyful shout of triumph. The Lord Jesus Christ has done
the work. He has accomplished our salvation. And then he goes on in the second
part, beginning in verse five, and he talks about the terrible
work of God. Notice what it says in verse
five. Come and see the works of God. He is terrible in his
doing toward the children of men. He turned the sea into dry
land. I'm sorry, yes, into dry land.
They went through the flood on foot, there did we rejoice in
Him." Now, this is speaking, it's recognized that this is
speaking about the time when Israel came out of Egypt and
passed through the Red Sea. It shows how God overthrew their
enemies, and in the same miracle of opening up the Red Sea and
then letting it close again, bringing the water back onto
their enemies, that God not only saved Israel, but he destroyed
their enemies. We are to rejoice, as it says
in the first four verses, because God is doing these kinds of works. The work that God does is called,
he says in verse five, O God thou, I'm sorry, my page got
turned here. He says in verse five, come and
see the works of God. He is terrible in his doing toward
the children of men. So, the children of Israel, there's
a psalm, and I can't remember the reference right now, but
it says, He only does wondrous things. Our God only does wondrous
things. So the Lord's works towards his
people are wonderful. His name is wonderful and his
works are wonderful. But here it talks about God's
acts or his works as being terrible toward the children of men. Think
about those who were in the Red Sea. The people who passed through
the Red Sea saw that the water didn't come upon them, the judgment
didn't fall on Israel. In fact, they walked through
the Red Sea on dry land. Normally, the water would just
have covered them. They couldn't have gone through
it, but because God opened it up and let them through, therefore
they walked through on dry land. Meanwhile, the Egyptians obviously
were drowned in the Red Sea, and Israel then after that saw
their bodies, their dead bodies, along the shore where God had
destroyed them. What a sight that must have been
to these Israelites who had been under the slavery for over 400
years in Egypt, and many of them had been killed in that slavery. So what we see then is that the
acts of God, the works of God, appear dreadful to the enemies
of God's people, but they are wonderful to the Lord's people.
And yet in that water that came upon the Egyptians, and Israel
was delivered from that, what we see is that God's way of deliverance,
we see in it that that's a judgment that should have passed upon
us, but didn't. God instead brought that judgment
upon Christ. And so, When God brings the terribleness
of his work upon the wicked, it causes the hair, as it were,
to stand up on the back of our neck. But when we think about
what it took to deliver us from our sin and the judgment our
sins deserve, that's what really causes us to be very sober in
our thinking and also joyful that God would find a way to
be righteous and just and also deliver us from our sins and
the judgments that we deserve for our sins. We pass through
the Red Sea of God's judgment on dry land because that judgment
fell on Christ. And the Egyptians had no savior. Therefore, when they tried to
come through the Red Sea, their heart was set on destroying God's
people. And they had no savior, and the
Lord brought that judgment upon them. So in that way, we see
that God's judgments or his works are terrible towards our enemies.
but they're wonderful towards his people. And we can think
of that especially when it comes to our sin. Our sin is our greatest
enemy. There's no question about that.
Our sin is what brought us to death. In Romans chapter 5, sin
has reigned unto death. Sin is like a tyrant. It has
no... It never lets up. And it always
brings death. And so it's like a tyrant that
rules absolutely. But Christ, it says in Romans
5, 21, though sin has reigned unto death, even so the grace
of God reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ,
our Lord. There's no more wonderful words
in all of scripture than that. That our sin against God, which
should have brought us under judgment, was overthrown by Christ,
and now grace reigns where sin once reigned. And where sin reigned
death, grace reigns through the righteousness of Jesus Christ,
not to death, but to eternal life. And it's all through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. This is what the Bible is about. This is what the Gospel is about.
It's about the Lord Jesus Christ saving us from our sins, our
sin enemy. And so, when we read about this,
we see here that God removes the cause of fear on our part
from us because he shows us in the gospel that he's placed all
of what he requires on the shoulders of Christ and required it in
his sufferings. And He willingly and gladly took
it and bore it for His people out of love. So this is a great
work, isn't it? It's a work of grace. It's a
terrible work because it brought judgment upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it's terrible because it
brought judgment on our enemies. But it's a wonderful work for
us because we're delivered by it. And therefore this gives
us cause, as it says in the first four verses, to shout with a
joyful noise in praise to God All ye lands, all the Gentiles
also. Okay, so then he goes on, so
that's the second section is the works of God that he would
deliver us from our sins and this would be the cause, God
giving his people cause for this joyful noise that he, that He
tells us to give to Him. But the third section, which
begins at verse 8 in this psalm, is a section of God's call to the Church. The Church
is called to praise Christ because He holds our life in His hand. He holds our souls in life. He
says in verse 9, which holdeth our soul in life. This, if you look here, and I
need to change the light in the room because it seems too dim
for me. Let me see if I can adjust the light. Oh, that's much better. I was
having trouble seeing it. I thought, man, I think my eyes
are going out, but the light was down too low. If you look
at the margin in your Bible, if you have a margin that gives
this, in this verse, in verse nine, it says, which holdeth
our soul in life. And in the margin, it says, putteth
or puts. In the Hebrew, it's the same
word hold or holdeth in the margin says it's put, it's God putting
our soul in life. Now, how does God put our soul
in life? How does he do that? Well, he
puts us in the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't he? Isn't there life
only in him? Isn't he called the way, the
truth, and the life? And we have life because of righteousness,
and doesn't God say that because he put us in Christ, Christ is
made by God to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption? And so here we see that God puts
our soul in life, and this second section, I mean this third section
then, is about how God is calling his people to praise him because
he has us in the Lord Jesus Christ. He put us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And also this section, he says
in verse 10, for thou, O God, hast proved us, thou hast tried
us as silver is tried. You know how silver is tried,
you put it in the fire and the fire melts the metal and what's
not silver rises to the top. And you see that floating on
the top and then you skim it off and what's left is the pure
silver. And that's the way God compares
the troubles of the life of believers. God brings us into trouble in
order to purify our faith. Oftentimes we pray for one another
because we have physical afflictions and it's right that we do pray
for one another. But we should always remember
that our prayers should go higher than just a physical relief from
physical afflictions and physical troubles. The real need that
we have is faith in Christ, isn't it? In other words, our real
need, our greatest need, is life in our souls. He just said that
in verse nine, which holdeth our soul in life. Not only are
we in Christ, but Christ is in us. And so our need in trouble
is to see that we are in Christ, and that's the life of God in
our soul. That's Christ in us, the hope
of glory. That's the mystery that God says
in Colossians 1, 27, Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's
the great mystery. And so this mystery of Christ
in us enabling us to see him who died for us and to trust
him. In fact, when we see Christ for us, that's the evidence of
the life of Christ in us. And that faith in Christ for
us, and Christ for us not only on the cross, but Christ for
us in the grave, and the resurrection, in his ascension, in his exaltation,
in his intercession, in his coming again, it's all Christ, isn't
it? And so this faith in Christ is the most precious thing that
we have. And that, of course, is the life
of Christ in us. It's the life of God in our soul.
Christ in you, the hope of glory. But what he's saying here is
that God brings his people into trouble, and in 1 Peter 1, he
talks about the trial of our faith being much more precious
than of gold which perishes. I know you know this verse, but
just listen to the way God describes the trouble there. In the New
Testament, these are believers who are troubled now. In the
New Testament, he says, that we were kept in this life, this
life of faith. Now we're walking by the Spirit
of God, we're walking by faith in Christ, that's our life. He
says, you are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
ready to be revealed in the last times. The literal phrase through
faith, it means looking to Christ. We're kept by God's power So
it's all his power. He works in us both to will and
to do of his good pleasure. And by the power of God, he gives
us faith in Christ. And through that faith, that
operation of God in us, that life of Christ in our soul, he
says, through the faith that we have in Christ, that he's
given to us and keeps us in, he says, through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. So our entire life is living
in dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ, from that verse. And
then he says in verse 6, wherein, during this life of faith in
Christ, though all troubles, we experience all sorts of troubles
waiting for that salvation, He says, wherein you greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, need be meaning by God's
will, it's God's will that this take place, this is the way he
teaches his children, he brings his children, he increases their
faith, all these things, if need be, you are in heaviness through
manifold temptation. Remember when God tried Abraham,
it says, and the Lord did tempt Abraham, which is to mean that
he tried him, and he told him to take his only son Isaac and
offer him up as a burnt offering, which he did, but he saw in In
that, the resurrection of Christ and that Isaac was promised by
God to be the one through whom Christ would come, all the Gentiles
would be justified and Christ would be raised again. So he
saw his own justification and the promise of God, which God
had sworn to be fulfilled in his son. Therefore, when he thought
to kill Isaac, he was looking by faith to Christ. So he says,
you now are in heaviness through manifold temptations. All of
God's people experience these troubles. In order that the trial
of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. I believe that
all of our lives as believers is a preparation for the great
trial of our death. Now we may have a death that's
sudden, or we may have a sickness or a condition that's long and
drawn out. But think about how much we need
faith in that hour. Because our life in this world,
all that we see, Our body lives by the sense of smell and touch
and everything. We don't know anything else except
what we experience in this body through those physical senses,
our thoughts and everything. But what God has given us as
believers was not something we were born with. God has added
to now, He has given us the life of God in our soul, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And now we believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now we live by faith. And that
faith increases and grows and matures and is perfected in the
process that God has chosen through hearing the Word of God preached. That's God's Chosen means, the
way that he's chosen to bless his people and increase their
faith is by hearing of Christ, hearing of him all the time through
the preaching of the gospel. And through trouble, because
trouble reduces us to nothing, doesn't it? It causes us to see
our weakness. And in our weakness, what do
we find? The only thing that we have to trust in is the Word
of God concerning Christ. And so this is how faith is strengthened. It's how it's purified. And this
is a good thing because faith gives all honor and glory to
God. and credit and glory to the Lord
Jesus Christ and to God the Father by Him. And so we're constantly
in prayer and in praise and joy and peace and believing Christ. Even though in trouble, we feel
sad, we feel confused, we feel weak, we feel like giving up
sometimes. But that's what we need to pray
for one another. That's what we need for ourselves,
is that God would uphold us, the life of Christ in our soul,
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and give Him all the credit,
all the honor and glory. So in Psalm 66, which holdeth
our soul in life, verse 9, suffereth not our feet to be moved, for
thou, God, hast proved us, thou hast tried us as silver is tried,
thou broughtest us into the net, thou laidest affliction upon
our loins, thou hast caused men to ride over our heads, we went
through fire and through water, but thou broughtest us out into
a wealthy place. This is speaking about our eternal
rest, our eternal inheritance, all that we have in Christ. That's
the wealthy place, isn't it? God reveals, like he did to Elisha's
servant, look at those that are with us are greater than those
that are with them. God is with us, and Christ is
with us, and his word won't fail, and Christ sits on the throne.
He's going to bring us to himself. Okay, so that's our life in this
world, and that's the third part here in the third section, how
God teaches his people in all trouble to look to and to joy
in Christ who always gives us the victory. Trouble is from
God. God has a redeeming purpose in
it. All things work together for our good because this is
the way God conforms us to the image of His own dear Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we want it, don't we? We
want to be conformed to Christ. And I'm constantly, I know you
are too, constantly concerned about this. Lord, give me a heart
like your heart. Make me see and know things,
and to praise you according to your goodness as you truly are,
and to proclaim your word as it truly is, and not promote
myself, but to seek your glory in all things, all these things
that are conforming us to the image of Christ. to take the
lowest place in order that he might be exalted and that we
might be brought low. All right. The last section,
though, of this psalm is the grace of God. It's the grace
of God who we're going to see this in a second here. As soon
as I get my notes, I'm looking at it and I'm wondering what
happened. Oh, here it is, the last section.
The saving grace of God in Christ, known personally by every believing
sinner made to trust Christ. I say that personally because
notice how it changes here in verse 16. Come and hear all ye
that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.
This is personal. True religion is personal. I
don't know how to say it. Jesus said, if any man thirst,
it was directed towards any man, but it was directed towards us
as individuals, as personal, individual application of God's,
of Christ's work to our heart. In other words, the life of God
in us, Christ in us. He has to be in us. It's not
enough for me to just think corporately. I want to think as God for me
in Christ. Each one of God's people are
members of Christ's body. And our body is a member of Christ. It's his body. So this is a very
personal thing, isn't it? The Apostle Paul said, the life
that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So the emphasis
here is a very personal dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and
all of God's people are shown in this last section the grace
of God. But in verse 15, I actually skipped
over this verse, I wanted to address this. In verse 15, notice
he says before this, he says, I will offer unto thee burnt
sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams, I will offer
bullocks with goats, selah. That's the last part of the last
section. And it occurs at the end of talking
about how the trouble in our lives and our need for faith
in order to see in the trouble to joyfully praise the Lord because
he was going to hold our soul, put our soul in Christ in life.
All right, so in this verse though, since this is gospel times, we
have to ask the question, why these sacrifices? I will offer
unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings with the incense of
rams, I will offer bullocks with goats. We don't actually offer
sacrifices, do we? Nobody in the New Testament did.
We're not to offer sacrifices, and the reason why is because
all of the sacrifices that were required in the Old Testament
never pleased God. They never brought any satisfaction
to the Lord. In Hebrews chapter 10, this is
the great revelation of the book of Hebrews, is that everything
in the Old Testament was fulfilled in Christ. He says in this, in
verse 1 of Hebrews 10, for the law having a shadow of good things
to come, but not the very image of the things, The difference
between the shadow and the image is between what the shadow of
the image casts and the real thing that casts the shadow.
The law is the shadow. Christ is the real thing, he
says. So the law, having a shadow of
good things to come and not the very image of the things, can
never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually, make the comers thereunto perfect, because they
were just a shadow. You can't do anything with a
shadow. You can have a picture of ice cream. I mean, you can
have a shadow of ice cream, but it won't taste good to you because
it's just a shadow. You could have a shadow of a
gun, but it can't hurt you because it's just a shadow. And you can
have a sacrifice burning on an altar and smell the hair and
the flesh of it, but it's just a shadow. It's just a shadow. He says in verse two, for then
would they not have ceased to be offered? If they did do something,
then they would not have had to offer them anymore. Because
that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience
of sins. If those animal sacrifices took away sins, then they wouldn't
have offered them anymore. But they have a conscience of
sins, because they didn't take sin away. Verse 3, but in those
sacrifices, there's actually a remembrance of sins made every
year. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when
he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, thou wouldest not, did not desire, would not
have it. Not for sin. It was to point
to Christ. That was the point of it. But
what happened is, and this is true of all of the outward shadows
given to the people in Scripture, unless God makes known from His
own authority to us, not only in His Word, but in our hearts,
the mystery of that offering, that it points to Christ, we
will not see it. We'll continue to look no further
than that burning animal. He says, it is not possible that
the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore,
when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book. It is written
of me to do thy will, O God. Long time ago, someone said the
words there mean that the scroll from top to bottom in the volume
of the book, from the very beginning of the long scroll of scripture,
the very first line, roll it up all the way to the end, to
the very last line, all of it speaks of Christ and Him crucified. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me to do thy will, O God, above when he said sacrifice
and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest
not neither has pleasure therein which are offered by the law
then said he I come lo I come to do thy will oh God he taketh
away the first that he may establish the second by the witch will
by this will of God we are set apart sanctified made holy through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all now that's
That's the reason it speaks in Psalm 66, I will come to thee,
I will offer burnt sacrifices of fatlings with incense of rams,
I will offer bullocks with goats. It's not talking about the shadow. It's talking about how when God's
people come in their hearts to God in prayer, in need, in praise,
in joy, and together, All of our coming to God is always and
only through the Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed for us. He pleased
God. He put away our sins. And that's
the only way we can be accepted. We have boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus. That's what this verse is talking
about. And so you can see in the Psalms, it's also a A revelation of Christ through
these typical sacrifices that are mentioned here, don't take
the Psalms as being somehow less than the gospel in type and in
shadow. They are that. They are meant
to signify, through the words, the truth of Christ and the gospel
by him. All right, now on to verses 16
through 20. He says, Come and hear all ye
that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.
Isn't that what the believer does? Come hear what the Lord
has done for me. And what has he done? He's done
everything. He's done everything for us,
but most particularly, We trust as sinners that God sent his
son into the world to save sinners. And we as sinners ask God, like
the publican, not to consider anything about us but to look
to the Lord Jesus Christ for everything, for God's glory,
for his name, for his righteousness, for his truth, for his faithfulness,
for everything that God is in his character as God, to find
all satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ concerning me and
concerning my sin. concerning all of the obedience
that he requires, find it all, provide it all, receive it all.
And let me then take all of that in praise to you and coming to
you only by him. That's what we say. He's done
this for my soul. God has made Christ to us all
of our hope and confidence, hasn't he? And this is why we can say,
come and hear all ye that fear God, and I will declare what
he hath done for my soul. He goes on, I cried to him with
my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity
in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. And yet he says in the
next verse, but verily God has heard me. He has attended to
the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not
turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me. What about verse
18, if I regard iniquity in my heart? It almost makes everything
else go into the shadows. We can't see anything but that
verse because it's screaming out that God will not hear us. Doesn't it seem to say that to
you? This is the way I read the Bible. I see this and I go, all the
comforting words here are taken away by this one verse that seems
to stand as an impediment for me to be heard by God. So how
do we deal with this? What does God mean by this here? Well, There's no doubt that this verse
troubles a believer. One of the things that we learn
as a believer is that God enables us through the gospel to come
to him and confess our great sin and therefore our great need. We have ruined ourselves. We
have gotten ourselves into the consequences of our sin, and
only God can deliver us. And He must do it in righteousness.
He must do it for His own namesake, not for something that He can
find in us or get from us in repayment or anything. It's all
going to be done by God, and it's going to be done by Him
for the glory of His own name. And it's going to be done according
to strict justice, and it's going to be done upholding His truth,
done by His own power, done for His own, what pleases Him. And all of His perfections have
got to be uncompromisingly pleased in the greatest possible way
for God to save me. That's what's got to happen here.
And so he says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not
hear me. That's why this troubles the heart of a believer, because
we know that if he considers me, then he will find iniquity
in me. In fact, remember Psalm 65? What did it say there in Psalm
65, just the last chapter? He says in verse three, iniquities
prevail against me. So we know that this statement
here, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me. Because of Psalm 65, three, iniquities prevail against me.
And here in verse 19, but God barely has heard me, that there's
a way in which even though as a sinner, I have regarded iniquity
in my heart, that God can still hear me. And so that's the sinner
looking into the gospel for the light of how God can be just
and yet justify the ungodly, isn't it? So how can we then
take the gospel and use it to understand this if I regard iniquity
in my heart? Well, first of all, the word
regard here, it means to look or to behold or to, I was trying
to remember, Oh, to consider or to take joy in. Now we know
that we all have had thoughts of sin that we have considered,
we have found sinful pleasure in it, and so that might be the
way that we gravitate toward understanding this verse, but
that's not how to understand this verse as a believer through
the gospel here. And let's consider now the three
ways in which I believe that we are to understand this verse.
First of all, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who is David's
son and Lord. And David as a prophet first
and foremost spoke of him. The Lord Jesus Christ knew no
sin. He did not think sin. He did not do sin. In Him, there
was no sin. Therefore, we can very clearly
see that He regarded no iniquity in His heart. And if He did not
regard iniquity in His heart, and He identified with His people,
so that when He came into the world to die, for them, for their
sins, Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, 1
Corinthians 15. Or in Hebrews 2, 9, he was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, that
he might taste death for every son. When we understand the reason
for his coming, to bear the iniquities of his people, Isaiah 53, then
we see then that if Christ was going to bear the iniquities
of his people, then he himself had to be without sin. He couldn't
think iniquity, regard it, look upon it, desire it, take pleasure
in it, and he didn't. And so this is very truly understood
of him. But a second way in which this
is understood is from Psalm 65, verse 3. Again, he says, Iniquities
prevail against me, as for our transgressions thou shalt purge
them away. What's the answer given in Psalm
65, 3 for our iniquities that prevail against us? The sin-atoning,
the sin-bearing, sin-atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the
right hand of God. His blood has washed us from
our sins because of his love for us. So that's what takes
away our iniquities. That's why in verse 19 he says,
yet the Lord Verily God has heard me, because of the sacrifice
of Christ. Not only did Christ himself have
no sin, and therefore his coming into the world and doing the
will of God, offering himself for us, and therefore the righteousness
of God is fulfilled in him for us, Also, His sin-atoning blood
took away our sins, so that even though iniquities do prevail,
God has purged us in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
there's another way to understand this, and this is the way I like
the best. because this is the way that
I feel it most. He says here, if I regard iniquity,
and the word could be consider or to behold. Now, this is something
that comes somewhat as a surprise to us, that when men stand before
Christ in judgment, that he will tell most of them, depart from
me, you that work iniquity. He will send them away from himself
because they are workers of iniquity. In other words, they have used
the law unlawfully. They have broken God's law. And
how did they do that? Well, they seek to be justified
by their own works. In Isaiah 64 6 he says, all of
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We are all as an unclean
thing and all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. So that our
best is an abomination to the Lord. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. All right, but what happened
was in Matthew chapter seven, and you've seen this probably
many times, but it's worth referring to many times. In Matthew chapter
seven, when these men stand before Christ in judgment, he tells
what's going to happen. This is future history. There's
no deviation from it. Many will say to him in this
day, he says in verse 21, not everyone that says to me, Lord,
Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. So at this point in the events of time and eternity,
wherever this is, there are those who are looking to get into heaven. This is the gate of heaven. This
is that narrow way which is called the way to life, the way of salvation,
the way to heaven. And they stand before Christ
because only The only way into heaven is Jesus Christ. He says,
many, not everyone, shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
they shall, not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of
my Father which is in heaven, many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? We taught, we preached,
we were speaking, and we were speaking in your name. We did
it with the authority of Jesus Christ. and in thy name have
cast out devils." Have I ever cast out a devil? No. These men
did, evidently, because they're asking Jesus Christ at that point
of eternal judgment to consider, to recognize that they casted
out devils. He says, and in thy name have
done many wonderful works. And that's when he said, then
I will profess to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you
that work iniquity. So if I regard iniquity, it means
I consider, I'm looking for God to recognize my performance,
what I've done. And Jesus said, that's iniquity. Because his coming to God with
something for recognition, like it says in Romans chapter four,
to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of
debt. If you're going to come to God
on the basis of what you did or have done or will do someday,
some part that you're going to do, you know, casting everything
you have on the scales of God's justice in order to be justified,
then you're going to come up short. And even if you throw
the name of Christ on there to try to help your work to be accepted,
it won't work. There's only one thing that will
justify, it's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. So when
he says here in Matthew 21, not everyone that says to me, Lord,
Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my father, which is in heaven, he's referring
to the will of God that the gospel declares to sinners. What must
I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. You see, it's not about my work,
it's about Christ and his work. And that's what this is saying
in Psalm 66. If I consider, like Abraham,
who did not consider his own body now dead, because he was
fully persuaded God was faithful and could perform what he promised,
So he didn't consider his own body. But if I consider iniquity,
my works, my good works, those filthy rag righteousness works,
as what God or Christ will consider and recognize in order to allow
me to enter heaven, they were done in his name. I mean, what
could be better than that? Well, the fact is that none of
my works will allow me to enter heaven, none. Not a little work. I'm not going to be able to look
to any of them. And if I do, if I do, the Lord won't hear
me. He'll say, I never knew you. I never knew you. Because we
were coming to God in this frame of mind. If we come that way,
we're coming in this frame of mind. I want to take you to the
book of Job just briefly to drive this home because this really
helped me. In Job chapter 8, a man named
Bildad says in Job 8 verse 3 to Job, one of Job's three friends,
he says, does God pervert judgment? Or does the Almighty pervert
justice? See what Bildad is doing? He's
trying to make Job consider God's justice. He says, Job chapter
8, verse 4, Bildad said to Job, if your children have sinned,
remember they all got killed? If your children have sinned
against him and he have cast them away for their transgression,
"'If thou wouldst seek unto God the times "'and make thy supplication
to the Almighty,' "'Job 8, 6,' he goes on, "'if thou wert pure
and upright, "'surely now he would awake for thee "'and make
the habitation of thy righteousness prosper.'" Bildad is arguing
that if you did right, God would reward you. If you didn't sin,
then your kids would still be living. This is cruel, isn't
it? He goes on in verse 20, Bildad
goes on, he says, Behold, God will not cast away a perfect
man, neither will he help the evildoer. He's not going to condemn
a perfect man, and he certainly isn't going to help an evil man.
That's what Bildad said. But in Job chapter 9, Job answered
Bildad and he said in verse two, I know it is so of a truth. So he agrees. God is just. And
if I were perfect. then it would be well with me.
And God doesn't cast away a perfect man, and God will not help an
evildoer. And he says, I know that's so
of a truth. But how should man be just with God? Do you hear
that? Job chapter nine, verse two.
How should man be just with God? If he will contend with him,
If God will contend with a man, the man cannot answer him one
of a thousand. When we stand before God, as
those men did in Matthew 7, 21 through 23, we can't answer one
thing of a thousand. And Job goes on in chapter 9,
verse 13. If God will not withdraw his
anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him. How much less shall
I answer him and choose out my words to reason with him? How?
How can I answer him? Now he goes on in verse 19 of
Job 9, he says, if I speak of strength, lo, he is strong, and
if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead? If I justify
myself, my own mouth shall condemn me. If I say I am perfect, it
shall prove me perverse. Though I were perfect, yet would
I not know my soul, I would despise my life. So what Job is saying,
if I were to use my own opinion of my own performance, I would
never use that to plead with God. I would never do that. How
can man be just with God? That's what he's saying here.
That's his answer to Bildad, who said, if you were perfect,
you know, your kids would still be around. But those men in Matthew
7, they spoke out of the abundance of their heart. They couldn't
think of anything else. The light of the gospel hadn't
come to them. They had never trusted Christ. They regarded iniquity in their
heart. Christ, no iniquity. Therefore,
in Him, we are made righteous. We, full of iniquity, and yet
God has laid our iniquities upon Him. And here he says, and the
believer will not regard his own performance, not his own
filthy rags of righteousness, because he would never plead
for God to recognize him. Our only plea is that God, that
Christ would answer with himself for us. Isn't that
it? That's our only plea. Lord, answer
with yourself for me. Be my answer in judgment. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that
you would indeed be our all and that we would be enabled because
of the consideration that you are all to us in everything God
requires, God having fulfilled all of his desire and provided
for everything for himself and for us in the Lord Jesus Christ
that he might receive us as his own children, holy and without
blame before him in love all because of the redeeming blood
of our Savior and His life and obedience. We pray that these
things would whelm up in our hearts, that we would confess
all that we are and come to God openly, honoring Him with this
awe and respect that You have saved us from the very destruction
we deserved and punishing our enemies under Your justice and
punishing Your Son for us in order that we might be delivered
from the judgment we deserve and help us, Lord, to to live
by faith in you in this life, and to know that you work all
things together for our good, and cause us to realize that
you have put this life in our souls, that we personally do
not depend on anything but the Lord Jesus Christ, and in depending
on Him, we have full confidence that because He was accepted,
then we also are accepted in Him. Give us this grace, Lord,
by your Spirit, to constantly hunger and thirst, and find our
thirst and hunger satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose
name we pray. Amen.