All right, Psalm 25, let's read
this together. This is a Psalm where there's
some verses in it that you may have gravitated towards, like
I have over the years, and we find it more dear because of
that. It starts out in verse one, unto thee, O Lord, do I
lift up my soul. Now, Obviously this is a prayer
to God and it says that the title of the psalm is the psalm of
David. But remember in the Psalms that David spoke as a prophet. And as a prophet, he spoke of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is seen in Acts chapter
2 and Acts chapter 13 and other places in the book of Acts where
the words of David were prophecies of what Christ would do and what
he would say in prayer. Psalm 22 is a case in point. where it opens up, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? And we recognize those as the
words of the Lord Jesus from the cross. So I mention that
here again as I've been doing this as we study each psalm because
in these psalms we see both the words of the Lord Jesus and the
words of his people. And I think this is the key that
helps us to understand the Psalms. If we look at this Psalm in particular,
it says in verse one, unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
In verse two, O my God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed.
Let not my enemies triumph over me. In verse three, yea, let
none that wait on thee be ashamed, let them be ashamed which transgress
without cause. So now we can see that in the
first two verses, the one who is the psalmist, who's singing
the psalm, is speaking of himself, and then in verse three, he's
speaking of not just himself, but those who also trust and
wait on the Lord. So he asked that the Lord would
not let them be ashamed, but speaking of himself, he says,
I lift up my soul, I trust in thee, you are my God, don't let
me be ashamed and don't let my enemies triumph over me. Now,
when the Lord Jesus was on the earth, when he was standing before
God in the place of his people and giving to God what he required
for them, He was acting as our surety. A surety is someone who
takes the obligations of another and fulfills their responsibility
for them. So, Judah is the classic case. In the book of Genesis, Jacob
entrusted his youngest son Benjamin to Judah. Judah promised to be
a surety to Jacob for Benjamin, and then when Judah stood before
Joseph as the governor of Egypt, he pleaded with Joseph for Benjamin. And he asked Joseph to consider
his surety ship engagements with his father Jacob for Benjamin,
and that Joseph would release Benjamin to go up free with his
brethren to his father again. And the way he persuaded him
and pleaded with him is he pleaded his own his own substitution
for Benjamin. He said, let me stay instead
of the lad, a bondman to my Lord. So that was an example of a surety. And we understand from that,
that the surety obligates himself on the behalf of another. So
in this Psalm, we see the Lord Jesus here acting as a surety
for his people. That means he's going to bear
their obligations. But there's another role here
that we see him acting in too. And when we see this, it becomes
more beautiful because he's acting as our mediator. Ashurti, in
a sense, is a mediator, but the mediator is also one who makes
an intercession. In the book of Exodus, Moses
often became the intercessor for Israel. When they sinned,
he would go to God and plead with God for his mercy to forgive
Israel and not destroy them. And then, of course, the Lord
heard the intercessor and answered his prayer on behalf of Israel. But here, if you understand the
Psalm as a prayer of the mediator, then you see here that in this
psalm, Christ is praying, the prophecy is by David, but it's
fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, when as our mediator, he's taking
our place as a surety and our place as the mediator for us
to stand before God and come before God. And what that does
is it shows us that because he lifts up his soul to God, when
he speaks this way, unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul,
O my God, I trust in Thee. He's not speaking only for himself.
In fact, as a surety, he's speaking for himself because he obligated
himself for his people. But as the mediator, he's speaking
for us, he's asking God to hear him as one man for all the people. And so we can see when we go
through this psalm, I think that will help us to see this. But
what that means then is there's a great blessing in this. Number
one, it means that God hears our prayers for the sake of the
mediator, for the sake of the surety, the one who stood for
us. And what that also means is that
the Lord Jesus Christ makes our prayers acceptable to God through
himself so that God hears our prayers, but not for the quality
of our prayers, not for any goodness in us, but for the virtue of
our surety and our mediator. So think of the person of Christ.
He's the son of God. He's the son of man. He had no
sin. He did no sin. He knew no sin.
He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. And so
as the son of man, as a man, he was holy and harmless and
undefiled, had no sin. And so God would hear him because
of that. But as Son of God, he also was
with the Father from the beginning. He knew the Father's will and
he was intent on doing that as Son of God for his Father. But
he did it in the nature of a man. So one person in two natures.
We see the person of our Lord Jesus Christ in those two natures.
God and men. But we also see his relations
to his people. His relations to his people are
captured by the names given to Christ. So shepherd, for example,
because he is our shepherd. Redeemer, for example. King,
high priest, prophet. All these titles show the relation
of Christ to his people that God made. He made him our surety,
our redeemer, our shepherd, our king, our high priest. All these
things God made him. So his person in his two natures,
his relations to us, and then of course his work for us as
our redeemer. He gave himself for our sins.
He obligated Himself and He fulfilled the will of God in that obligation.
Now I mention all these things because what we see here is that
in the Lord Jesus Christ is our salvation and our hope. And when
He comes to God, He brings us with Him. It says in 1 Peter
3.18, He died the just for the unjust to bring us to God. And
we understand that to be the reconciliation of us as sinners
to God through the blood, through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because that death removed the problem of our sin and made peace
with God for us. And so the beauty here I see
as I was going through this psalm is that what we're gonna see
is what does this mean to lift up my soul and who does the lifting
up of our soul? Well, think about us. Now, as
humans, as people, we are made up of a body, a soul, and a spirit,
it says in scripture. And I don't understand, I can't
divide these things, I can't say here's the boundary for your
soul, here's the boundary for your spirit, here's the boundary
for your body, I can't divide these different things. But we
do know this, that our soul was created by God and it never dies.
children of God or were not children of God, God created us as people
with a soul that never dies. And so some who are raised, Jesus
said at the end times he will raise up some to the resurrection
of life and others to the resurrection of damnation. That's because
in our soul we're always going to be alive. but alive in the
sense that we exist, at least. So that part of us is the soul,
and the spirit is that part of us that God raises to life in
regeneration. Remember Jesus said to Nicodemus,
that which is born of the flesh, our body and soul, that's flesh,
but that which is born of the spirit, that's what? Spirit,
right? So we are given a spirit by God,
a new spirit. We're given a, it says in Ezekiel
chapter 36, or 36 and 37, he says, I'm going to put my spirit
within you, a new spirit. And so, throughout the New Testament,
he talks about this, that when God saves us, when we are given
ears to hear the gospel of Christ crucified, so that we're enabled
by God's grace to trust Him, that's the operation of the Spirit
of God raising our dead spirits to life in Christ, so that then
we can believe, then we can live to God. But before that, we're
dead in sins. So now I mention all these things
because here he says, unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
What does this mean to us? Well, if you think about how
God describes our ability in the New Testament because of
Christ to come to him, then I think we can understand it in this
light. So look at this one verse here. I'll take you maybe to
several verses, but in Hebrews chapter 10, for example, Hebrews
chapter 10, one of my favorite verses. It's such a pivotal verse. It's a conclusion that's drawn
out of all that came before in the book of Hebrews, but Hebrews
chapter 10. Notice this. He's talking about
how Christ fulfilled. He was the one who fulfilled
the new covenant. He says in verse 14, Hebrews
10, 14, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that
are sanctified. God set us apart in Christ, Christ
sanctified us by his blood, and now by his offering the Lord
Jesus Christ has perfected his people. They were set apart by
God. But look at verse 15, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness
to us. For after that he had said before,
and now he's gonna give a reference to the covenant, the new covenant.
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. Okay, that's the new
covenant. Verse 18, he draws a conclusion
from that promise of God to remember their sins no more. He says,
now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering
for sin. And that's an important conclusion
because if Christ offered himself once, that means that all of
our sins are put away since God will not remember them anymore.
If God doesn't remember our sins, it means they are not there,
in God's view. How could that be? I don't know,
but by the blood of Jesus, he put them away. That's a very
substantial and endearing conclusion, that God remembers our sins no
more because of the remission made by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the fulfillment of the
new covenant, Christ's blood. Now, look at verse 19. Consider
this in light of Psalm 25, verse 1, unto thee, O Lord, do I lift
up my soul. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest, how? By the blood of Jesus. Now, where
is the holiest? On earth, it was that tabernacle
in the Old Testament where only the high priest could come in
once a year by the blood of animals, sprinkling it on the mercy seat.
But where's the true holiest? It's the presence of God, isn't
it? It's the presence of God where the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ was offered for his people. Look at chapter nine, Hebrews
nine and verse 12. He says, neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by his own blood he, Christ, entered
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctifyeth to the purifying of the flesh, In other words,
in the Old Testament, those priests were purified for performing
that service in the Old Testament by the blood of animals. How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
spirit offered himself Without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God. And for this cause
He is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death,
for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance."
So, where did He enter? Into the holiest. What did he
offer? Himself. And look at verse 24,
the same chapter. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God for us. What a beautiful statement that
is. Christ went into heaven with his blood to appear in the presence
of God for us. Okay? Look back now at chapter
10, verse 19. Again, having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest, how? By the blood of Jesus. Who
went there first? Jesus did. How did he go as a
man? What did he come with? His own
blood, the offering of himself to God. And because he offered
himself to God for us as our high priest and as our mediator,
completing the conditions of that New Testament, he himself
being the testator in that Testament and dying, put it into force,
Here he says that we now enter into the holiest by his blood. Now consider that. When you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, what does that mean? It means that
you are coming to God, asking God, and trusting that God will
accept you for what he has done in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
that when you in your heart believe on Christ and Him crucified,
that God would look upon Him and consider Him and accept you
for what Christ did, it means that the transaction is between
the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father, and because He entered
and was accepted into the holiest, the presence of God, in all of
His holiness and all of His glory, Therefore, we are accepted and
we now enter by his blood the same way. So our mediator went
in. Our surety went into the presence
of God with his own blood. Now we go, but we don't go physically,
do we? We can't leave our current position
and go into heaven, but the Lord Jesus did. But when we believe
on Him, it says we do, we enter into the holiest. So what is
that saying then? It's saying that when we trust
Christ as our acceptance, our justification before God, that
God would look upon Him and receive Him and not consider our sins,
receive Him and count His righteousness in offering Himself to God, being
accepted for us as our righteousness. then we're accepted because of
Him. And we, in our spirits that have been raised to life by the
Spirit of God, we enter into the holiest, where God is in
His presence. Can we see it? No. Can we feel
it? No. But faith is that God-given grace
that allows us to see and look upon what God himself has accepted
in his own presence in order to accept us, and we enter into
what Jesus said in John chapter four, we worship God in spirit
and in truth. Because God is honored and glorified
by what he did in his son. And now as sinners, we're saying
the same thing. This is wonderful, the wonderful
grace of Jesus. Right? And so here we have it
in Psalm chapter 25 verse 1. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift
up my soul. I'm coming to you, first Christ,
by the blood that you required, that your justice demanded, that
your law required for righteousness, and I'm coming on behalf of my
people to fulfill your will to save them. And then we, now having
heard in the gospel of that work accomplished by him and finished
by him, we by faith now come to God through that blood. And
because it's his blood only that is our acceptance, then it's
bold that we come. We don't come like, well, I don't know if God's
going to accept me or not. Well, he won't accept you if
it depends on you. But since God has said in his
word, we enter by the blood of Jesus, and that's it. then our
acceptance is certain because God has accepted him and his
blood is enough. So now we can see here how the
mediator prays, and our high priest has entered with his own
blood, and now he lifts up his soul, because in his spirit he
offered himself to God, and he entered into the holiest with
his own blood, we now come by his blood. So this helps me understand
a lot of scripture, because Jesus said what? Look at a couple of
verses in the New Testament. Look at John chapter six, for
example. In John chapter six, In verse 35, Jesus is talking
about the bread of life. In John 6, 35, he says, Jesus
said to them, I am the bread of life. In other words, if you
eat this bread, you live forever. John 6, 35. He said, I am the
bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, he that believeth on me shall never thirst." So you
see those two things that are equated? Coming to Christ, believing
on Christ. You come, you'll never hunger.
If you believe, you'll never thirst. So the two are equal. They mean the same thing, and
the eating and drinking are simply physical illustrations or metaphors
for what we do in our soul when we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're taking of Him, of His shed blood and His broken
body into our souls as our life and acceptance before God. And
notice in verse 37 of the same chapter, John 6, 37, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. How do we come? by the
blood of Jesus. And him that cometh to me, I
will and know why is cast out, for 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 which is sent me, that of all which he
has given me, not one left out, but all which he has given me,
I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last
day, and this is the will of him that sent me, that every
one, listen closely, that seeth the Son, and believeth on him,
may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last
day, every one, Everyone given to Christ is brought to Christ
through faith. God gives them this grace of
faith to see by that faith that God has accomplished my salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He did the work. God accepted
him because of the merits of his person and of his work and
his relations to us as God has established it from eternity.
And so now as he lifted up his soul, we come to God. We have
our access. What does the New Testament say
our access is? We have, well, I'll look at a
couple of scriptures. Look at Romans chapter 5. These
things are all very much, they have such overlap that we can
understand them better by seeing the overlap. Romans chapter 5
and verse 1, he says, therefore, Romans 5.1, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
and look at verse 2, by whom also, by Jesus Christ, we have
access. What does that mean? That means
we come, we enter, we're accepted. We have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. So, our living as a believer is all bound up in looking to
Christ, coming to God, considering Him, not considering our sin
as a barrier because He dealt with it, not considering our
own obedience as a necessity because Christ has fulfilled
our obedience and we see it all done in Him. And that makes us
That just causes us to worship God. That's what it does. When
we understand this, that's what faith does. Entrance, coming,
calling, crying, all these words are synonyms for that action
of our soul. We're looking to Christ, we come
to God for our acceptance in Him, our salvation by Him. Let's
go on in Psalm 25. Now I had to lay that fairly
broad framework here for us so we can see the significance of
this prayer, which is both a prayer of David, as a believer, and
a prayer prophetically of Christ, fulfilled by Christ, and therefore
it's our prayer. The Lord Jesus makes our prayers
acceptable to God by His mediation for us with His own blood. And
so we see here His prayer first of all, and ours also. And we
can say as believers, oh Lord, unto Thee, oh Lord, do I lift
up my soul, don't we? Lord, here I am. I am helpless. I have no power over my enemies,
my sin, death. I have no power over them, hell,
everything. You have to deliver me. You have to give me life. All
these things. We have an utter dependence upon
God. It's like we're presenting ourselves, we're committing ourselves,
like Jesus said on the cross, into thy hands I commit my spirit.
In coming to God by Jesus Christ, we're lifting up our soul, we're
committing ourselves, our soul, our body, everything to Him.
Okay, verse two, oh my God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over
me. Okay, so there's a couple of phrases in here I wanna look
at with you in verse two. So the first thing that came
to my mind when I read this is, oh my God, I trust in thee. Remember
the Psalm, tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Isn't it? He's trustworthy. God has done everything for us
in his son, everything. Why would we not trust him? Has
he ever done wrong? Has he ever lied? He cannot lie.
Has he ever failed? He cannot fail. Is his heart
somehow got some defect in it that he would do wrong? No, he
can't do wrong. God cannot be tempted by sin
and he can't commit sin. So there's no reason we shouldn't
trust him. Why are we reluctant then to trust him? Because we
think we have to carry somehow the weight, the burden of our
own salvation, right? And that's called doubting the
one true. It would be like... You know,
when you're a child, your mom and dad tell you something, and
you say, I don't believe you, dad. Why? I haven't given you
any, well, maybe I have given you reason to doubt me. But God
hasn't given us one, so it's surprising. But it is sweet to
trust in Jesus. It's so sweet because God has
said things like this. When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. And I find that so comforting.
The ungodly, that's my warrant. to look to Christ as my Savior.
Or he says this. This is a faithful saying. This
is one you can rely on. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I'm chief. And the Apostle Paul said
that. So this is the warrant of sinners
to trust in God. Oh my God, I trust in Thee. Let me not be ashamed. To be
ashamed means to be disappointed. And it means to be put to shame.
So how are we not going to be ashamed? As people, I have a
lot to be ashamed about. Every day, I do things that I'm
ashamed of, and I wish that I didn't do them, or think them, or have
motives that are wrong. And if it were made known, I
would be even more ashamed, but I'm ashamed of them even myself.
So how am I going to not be ashamed before God? The only way that
we cannot be ashamed before God is if God has removed all reason
for shame. Right? If He has, in the biblical
word, justified us in the blood of Jesus. In Romans chapter 6
and verse 7 it says, if we have died with Christ, we have been
justified from our sins. Romans 6-7. So God has justified
us. Isn't that what Romans 8.33 says?
Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who? God has justified them. That's
the response. If God has found nothing, to
accuse them of, then who can find anything? God himself sees
no cause for shame in them. And that's the blessing here.
I trust in thee. My soul is lift up. I can do
nothing to save myself. I'm relying on coming to you
by the blood of Jesus only. Oh my God, I trust in you. What
else can a sinner do? Let me not be ashamed and don't
let my enemies triumph over me. And how is that going to happen?
How is it that our enemies won't triumph over us? Because the
Lord Jesus Christ has defeated them. Look at Revelation chapter
12, for example, how we defeat our enemies. And what are our
enemies? Well, each one of us might have
some ideas. You know, maybe it's Bob down
the street who poked a hole in my tire, or maybe it's that person
at work. But here's my enemy. Look at
Revelation chapter 12, verse 10. It says, Now I heard a voice,
a loud voice, saying in heaven, Now has come salvation and strength
and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For
the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them
before God day and night. I don't know about you, but when
you're accused and you're guilty, you have nothing to say, don't
you? You know you're guilty, and someone says, oh, you know
what that person did? And suddenly now everyone's aware
of it, and you're guilty, and you're made known. It's a horrible
feeling. Remember the woman in John chapter
8, taken in adultery? The Pharisees dragged her into
the very presence of Christ in the temple when he was teaching
and said, what are you going to do with this woman? We caught
her in the very act, what are you going to do? Moses said,
stoner, what are you going to do? Don't you know that she felt
the shame, right? Notice, no shame. Verse 11, here's
the accuser, he's cast down. How did he get cast down? Because
there was war in heaven, Christ offered himself to God, God the
judge accepted the argument of our advocate and our mediator,
and he made the decision for the supreme court of heaven,
and he justified Christ with his people, and he cast Satan
out. That's what happened. Verse 11,
Now, he was cast to the earth, and it says, and they overcame.
He was there, he accused them before God day and night. How
did they overcome him? How do the people who believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ overcome Satan, their enemy? Because he's always
accusing them, verse 11. And they overcame him by the
blood of the lamb. That's our entrance, isn't it?
Our victory. our access, our entrance, our
justification, our sanctification, our reconciliation, our remission,
our propitiation, our forgiveness. Everything is by the blood of
Jesus. That's why we sing, nothing but
the blood of Jesus. So they overcame him by the blood
of the lamb. In other words, they looked to
what Christ had done and accomplished by his blood in the court of
heaven And they said, that's our victory. It's what Christ
did. He sits on the throne. And it says, and by the word
of their testimony. What is that? That's the gospel
of our salvation. We testify to others that our
only hope is what God has said in the gospel, how he has accepted
sinners for Christ's sake, for his blood's sake. And they loved
not their lives unto death. Because they were not going to
forsake Christ and turn from their only savior to trust an
idol. They would rather die. So, back
to Psalm 25. Not be ashamed. That's what we
were on, right? How can we not be ashamed? If we have nothing
before God to be ashamed for. How can that be as a sinner?
Because we have so much shame. Only if God has justified us,
and God justifies us. How? By the blood of Christ.
Romans 5, 9. Be now justified by His blood. There you have it. All right,
let's go to the next verse here in Psalm chapter 25, verse 3.
So in verse 3 it says this, yea, let none that wait on thee be
ashamed, let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
So now here is not just a prayer for the man who's speaking in
the Psalm, but now that man speaks concerning these people who also
wait on the Lord. All who wait on the Lord are
not going to be put to shame. This is exactly what it says
in Romans 10, 11. The scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him, the Lord Jesus, shall not be ashamed. There you
have it. Who's the ones that are justified
by God? The ones who believe on Christ. Were they justified
because they believe? No, they were justified because
God accepted Christ's blood for them. Then how do we know they
were justified? because God has given you this
grace of faith, this gift of faith, to look to Christ as all
of your acceptance and justification before God. And so here, always
remember, when you're reading Psalm 25, for example, in verse
three, yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed. Who is speaking
here, first of all? Well, we know that David was
the one who was speaking, but how did he say these words that
were God's very own words? By the Spirit of God. because
the Spirit of God moved him to write this scripture. And so,
these words are the mind and the heart of God himself, the
Spirit of God. This is the way God sees things,
the way he thinks. This is what he wants, his will
and his desire. Verse three, let none that wait
on thee, that believe on Christ, don't let them be ashamed. Don't
let them be put to shame. Don't let them be disappointed
in their hope. God will not fail them. And they're praying here,
in this psalm, according to God's mind and heart and will. This
is God's will for them. So, in the book of 1 John, it
says if we ask anything according to His will, we know that we
have what we asked of Him. And we know his will is that
none who trust Christ would be ashamed. So can we not trust?
Can we not also pray this prayer with confidence? Lord, don't
let me be ashamed of my hope. You are my trust. I have none
other. And that's what a sinner truly
does, is they look to Christ only. All right, but notice the
last phrase here in verse three. He says, let them be ashamed
which transgress without cause. Now, I have to ask you a question.
Did David, who wrote this psalm, ever transgress without cause? Remember the account with Bathsheba,
when he committed adultery with her and then had her husband
murdered, and then he pretended that it was all okay for a long
time until Nathan the prophet came and said, here's a little
parable. Remember this rich man who had a visitor come and instead
of providing from his own flock, he looked at his neighbor who
had one ewe lamb and treasured it up and let it eat with him
and sleep with him. And he took that ewe lamb and he slaughtered
it and gave that to his visitor for dinner. And David was so
angry that he said, that man is going to die. And Nathan the
prophet said, you're the man. And then David pours out the
51st Psalm. Did David ever transgress without cause in these things?
What about the time he told his captain, Joab, to go out and
number the armies, and after that numbering, there were 70,000
people of Israel destroyed. And it was David's fault. Was
that transgressing without cause? Joab warned him, don't do this.
And he said, no, I want you to do it anyway. And then after
that, he repented from that. There were many things David
did that were transgressions, and in my estimation, they were
all without cause. So how can the psalmist say here,
let them be ashamed which transgress without cause? Do we ever commit
transgression? Do we ever transgress God's law
without cause? I mean, the cause, there's no
cause in God for us to transgress. There's nothing wrong with his
law, is there? Is there any reason that we can
find in God where we can say, well, it's his fault that I did
this? No. No, there's no, we can't justify
our sin by anything like that. So what is God speaking about
here when he says, don't let them that wait on thee be ashamed,
but let them be ashamed which transgress without cause. Well,
it all comes down to, again, in Christ. If you understand
the scripture, when we stand before the throne of God in the
day of judgment, we are either going to be found on Christ's
right hand or on his left hand. We're either going to be known
by him. He's either going to say to us, enter into the kingdom
prepared for you of my father from the foundation of the world.
Or he's going to say to the ones on his left hand, I never knew
you. Not only that, but when I was hungry, you didn't come
feed me. When I was thirsty, you didn't give me drink. When
I was naked, you didn't clothe me. When I was sick, you didn't
visit me. When I was in prison, you didn't come to me. So all
these things were accusations the Lord Jesus makes against
those who are on his left hand. On the right hand, they said,
Lord, when did we see you naked or hungry or thirsty or in prison
or sick? He said, well, when you did it to the least of these,
my brethren, you did it to me. So the Lord Jesus Christ was
justifying his people. They didn't know when they had
done these things, but he used those as evidence to show they
were his. And on the left, he's saying,
yeah, you claimed that you would have done it had you seen me,
but you didn't do it. So, what God is saying here is that if
we stand before God in our own selves, in our own person, then
we have to stand before God and the books are going to be open
and God is going to judge us out of everything written in
the book of His remembrance. And He will remember our sins.
But if our sins were put away by the Lord Jesus Christ, then
our sins and iniquities are covered because our names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. So, to transgress without cause
are those who stand not in Christ, But those who stand in their
own selves, and they transgress without cause because everything
they do is against Him. They do it from a heart of wickedness.
Jesus said Himself, what defiles a man is what comes out of the
man. So everything that a person does is a sin against God, and
it's a sin without cause. But God doesn't count our sins
against us because He imputed them to Christ. and Christ justified
us by His blood. But if we're not in Christ, if
we don't come to God by Him, then we have to stand and answer
for everything. That's the difference here. We
will not be ashamed if we're found in Christ. We will be ashamed
if we're found outside of Christ. If you understand that, then
you'll understand verse 3. All right. There's another verse
that helps with this too. Let me take you to this verse
here. Let's see what time we have. Look at 2 John. There's
two verses there I want to read to you. There's only one chapter
in verse nine. He says this, and listen to these
words very carefully, because remember verse three of Psalm
25, he said, whoever transgresses without cause, let them be put
to shame. Look at this in 2 John, verse
nine. Whosoever transgresseth, Now
to transgress it means to go beyond, to go outside the boundaries. And abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ, has not God. He that does abide in the doctrine
of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son. You see that? And if there come any unto you,
and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him God's speed. Okay, so here we understand that
to transgress means to go beyond Christ, to go outside of Christ,
and not abide in the gospel of Christ. And so you can see how
that overlaps with this statement in John 25 and verse 3, those
who transgress without cause, why did you go outside of Christ?
Remember Solomon told, I think it was Shimei, he said, now don't
you leave. If you leave, I'm going to hold
you accountable for your own life, done his father David evil. And he told them, now if you
leave Jerusalem, then you're going to lose your life. And
he lost something, he went chasing after him, and he came back and
Solomon said, what'd you do? How come you left? Anyway, he lost his life. So
he was outside, right? That's going beyond, going beyond
Christ. Transgressing without cause means
you're trusting another savior. You're not holding fast to Christ
through the gospel of our salvation. So verse four, let's go to verse
four now. He says, show me thy ways, O Lord, and teach me thy
paths. Teach me means be my teacher, doesn't it? When the Lord Jesus
Christ was on earth, what did his disciples call him? Master. They called him Master. Look
at this. I found this very endearing,
and I might have to stop here because I don't want to wear
you out, but look at John chapter 1. This is right after John the
Baptist's ministry was beginning to wind down. And Jesus had been
baptized. In John chapter 1 and verse 36,
for example, it says, looking upon Jesus as he walked, John
said, behold the Lamb of God. Do you see that? And it says
in verse 37, two disciples of John heard him speak and they
followed Jesus. And then notice in verse 38,
then Jesus turned and he saw them following. And he said to
them, what seek ye? Now, put yourself in history
here. You were a disciple of John,
and you heard John say, behold, the Lamb of God. You had heard
John preach that you need to be baptized because this baptism
that I'll baptize you with is with reference to Jesus Christ
who's going to come. You need to be baptized concerning
salvation by Him. And so they were baptized, they
were following John, and they heard John say, this is the Lamb
of God, and so they followed Jesus. What were they thinking?
Well, they're thinking, here's somebody that I don't know, what
will you say to him? What am I going to say to Jesus?
And so he turns around, he saw them following, he says, what
do you want? Now what are you going to say? I don't know. It just seemed like a good idea.
I'd be so intimidated. But here's what they said. Rabbi? What were they saying in that
word? Teach me what I need to say, what I need to seek. Be my master. You see that? Rabbi,
which is to say being interpreted master, where dwellest thou? Where do you live? Where do you
stay? And it says, and he said to them, come and see. Now this
is such an endearing encounter, I think. These two men following
Jesus, they didn't know how to approach him, and he turns around
and he says to them, what do you want? Remember what Jesus
said to the blind man, blind Bartimaeus? He says, what do
you want me to do for you? He said, Lord, I might have my sight. And that's what these two guys
are doing. What are you seeking? What do you want? Master, where
do you dwell? Where are you staying? And he
said, come and see. And they came and saw where he
dwelt. And they abode with him that day. And it was about the
10th hour, which would have been, let's see, 4 o'clock, I think,
4 PM. Can you imagine that evening,
4 p.m. in the afternoon, and you have
all night to spend with the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's the master,
and you just want to drink it in, don't you? Probably a little
intimidating. Everything he says, you're hanging
on his every word. Master, where do you dwell? That's where I
want to be. I want to be with you. Can I stay with you tonight,
and the next night, and every day? Just follow you. I do. I want to be there. Show me your
ways, Lord. Teach me your paths. That's the heart of a disciple.
Lord, I have nothing. I lift up my soul to you. I'm
waiting on you. I'm trusting you. Save me for
your name's sake. Don't let me be ashamed. Don't
let me be one who transgresses and goes beyond Christ. Cause
me to abide in him and show me all of your truth in your son. That's what we want. Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the consistency
that you point us to, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way,
the truth, and the life. Everything, our wisdom, our righteousness,
our redemption, our holiness before God, our sins are taken
care of in Him, and righteousness is given to us from Him. Everything
you have is given to Him, and He gives it to us because He
earned it. He's our mediator, our surety, the one who comes
to God for us and stands before God for us in our place, offers
himself and answers every charge. And then he takes our prayers
and he makes them acceptable with his own prayers. And he
defends us against our enemies. He subdues them and overcomes
them. And then he gives us the victory by pointing us to his
own blood and righteousness. And he causes us to hold fast
to his gospel. And we abide there. We can't
go beyond him because we're sinners. We have no hope unless you save
us all by your grace because of Christ. And so we pray, Lord,
that you would do that and bless us from your word day by day.
Increase our faith, Lord. cause us not to doubt you, cause
us to trust in you and find it to be so sweet to trust in Jesus.
In his name we pray, amen.