Turn with me to Psalm 65, verse
3, and let's read together there. Psalm 65, verse 3. Iniquities
prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. Iniquities prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away." In this one short verse, God graciously
teaches His people how to come to Him when the indwelling corruption
seems strong. When the mercy of God seems distant,
when our heart seems cold and our faith small, and the comforts
of heaven do not appear, and our prayers are so weak it seems
as if they aren't even there. When God teaches us in mercy
how to come, and not only how to come, but He teaches us how
He views our sin. Not as the consequence for which
He would condemn us, not that for which He would destroy us
eternally in hell, but as our enemy, our foe, the plague of
our heart, the prison keeper and taskmaster, that chain that
holds us, that cruel, relentless and deadly enemy of our soul,
and He teaches us to come to Him and to cry to Him. Psalm 34, 17 says, The righteous
cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their
troubles. So, I'd like to speak to you
this morning about calling upon God. How can I, a sinner, call
upon God and hope to be heard? I was listening to a tape in
my pickup, and the way that it works is that when you push the
tape, or you rewind the tape, then you get the radio, even
when the radio is off. And it was on some talk show
program, and I don't listen to talk show programs, they usually
just make me mad. But this announcer said some things, and it was
just maybe 10-15 seconds, and at the time I thought, That's
right, but it's not quite right. There's something right about
it. You know, have you ever heard someone on public broadcast say
something and you find some correctness with what they're saying? But
the problem is, is they just don't go far enough so that the
truth isn't really taught because they don't tell you the whole
story. And that's what I heard. And the man, I don't know who
he was, he was talking about someone who was a heroin addict
who had died. Apparently a movie star, someone
in the media, someone well-known. And he was complaining, the talk
show hosts, this is what they do, they try to stir people up.
He was complaining about the fact that everyone was... holding
this man up as an example of someone who was abused and mistreated
and experienced hardships in his life and was a picture of
pity and sorrow and almost someone to be made a monument to. And
he was taking the opposite approach and he said, no, here's a man
who died with a needle in his arm. He spent all that he had
for himself. He wasted his children's life. He wasted his family, betrayed
those that loved him. He lost his job. He served only
himself. He spent his entire life doing
nothing but living in selfishness for himself. Why should we pity
him? He was not on the road to heaven. He was taking the road to hell
and he gets what he deserves. That's what the talk show host
said. And on the one hand, I had to say, that's correct. You know, there's something true
about that. It's true that what this man experienced was certainly
just. Why should we pity someone who
takes the love of his family and betrays it? Who lies to them
and takes all that he has and spends it and wastes that on
himself, living for nothing but himself and finally dying. Should
we pity such a one? In justice, we should not pity
him. In justice, fairly, we should
say, this man got exactly what he deserved. His sin was his
own fault. His addiction was his fault. It wasn't the fault
of his upbringing. It wasn't the fault of the drug,
although the drug does that. It was his own fault. And I have to agree with that.
My sin is my fault. And here's the thing that struck
me about this. As he was describing the man who died with a needle
in his arm, having served himself all his life and finally ended
his life in self-destruction, I said, that describes me. That
describes my attitude toward all those around me. I live my
life in my nature. I live my life for no one but
myself. How little Do I find in my heart
any true love, any true selflessness? And then I read this verse, Iniquities
prevail against me, as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge
them away. Psalm 65, 3. And I found hope because in the
gospel, This is what the gospel teaches. What is my condition? What is my state before God?
Turn to Romans chapter 3, if you would. What is my condition
and my state before God? What does God say? What we describe
when we see a man who has wasted his life like this, we see a
human tragedy. But how does God see it? And
is it right for the announcer, the talk show host, to hold this
man up as the epitome of someone of disgust, someone we should
really hate and not honor? Is it right for him to do that?
Well, yes, it is, but not right as a human, not right for us
as a man to hold this up, because God is the judge. And God is
the one who tells us like it is. Look at this in Romans chapter
3. And this is not unfamiliar, but this is what the gospel teaches.
What is my state before God? Look at Romans 3.10. There is
none righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together. become unprofitable,
there is none that do with good. No, not one. Now look at verse
19. Now we know that what things,
however, the law sayeth, that means whatever the law says,
it says to them who are under the law that every mouth may
be stopped. And all the world may become
guilty before God. What is my condition before God? Guilty. Guilty before God. I am no different. I am no better. I am the same as this man who
wasted his life, gave everything he had for himself at the abuse
of his family, at the abuse of everyone, lying and betraying.
living in pride and self serving desire. That's me. That's all
of us. According, we just read this
last week. We ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving divers, lust and pleasures, living in malice
and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after. the kindness and love of God
our Savior toward man appeared. So here's our here's our condition
guilty. And the next question is, is
there something I can do? Is there something I can do before
God that would somehow satisfy God's justice that would somehow
take away the punishment I deserve for the sin I did that is all
my fault? Is there something, some hope
I have that I can bring something to God that would take away that
guilt? And the answer is nothing. No,
there's nothing. Look at verse 20. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, that's something I do, the deeds of
the law, something I can find within myself, or do, or contribute,
or think, or feel, anything I can experience, by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. Not only nothing
I can do to pay for my sin, but nothing I can do to bring to
God an obedience that God would look at and therefore accept
me. And here's a man with a needle
in his arm, dying, dead, wasted his life. That's us. Nothing
we could do. We're powerless. We have opened
the door, invited in those that put us in bondage, in chains,
and caused us to live our lives to our own destruction and to
the hateful, spiteful treatment of those around us. That's me.
That's you. That's what God says about us.
We're all, there's none righteous, not one, none good. There's only
one, and that's God. So the next question is, is there
then no hope? Is there no hope for me if I'm
guilty and there's nothing I can do either to take away my sin
or to provide to God an obedience He would accept and look to me
and then save me? Is there nothing I can do? Is
there no hope? Well, there is nothing I can do, but the answer
is there is hope. Look at the next verse. Verse
21, but now, but now you see this, just like Titus 3, 5, after
that, the kindness of love of God, after that, after what we
were. But now it says the righteousness
of God without our personal obedience. That's what that word means.
Without the law is manifested. being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. How do I know it's true that
the righteousness of God, that God, something that's from God,
something that's of God, something God has provided? What is that
righteousness? And how do I know it's true?
He says, because it's written in the scripture. He says, without
the laws manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
And what is that righteousness? What is that righteousness of
God? which comes alongside a sinner who's guilty, who's vile and
corrupt, helpless and hopeless in himself. What is that righteousness
of God? He says, verse 25, verse 22,
even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Do you see that? By faith of
Jesus Christ. It means the obedience of the
Lord Jesus Christ, what he did, not what I can do. Here God finds
every one of us dead, dying and self-serving with nothing. We
find spite when people are good to us. We take the best things
in life and we turn them upside down and inside out to our own
destruction and shame. But God comes along and He provides
a righteousness. It's of God. Not only is it of
God, but it's worked out by the Lord Jesus Christ. And because
it's of God and of Christ, God accepts it. God approves of it. God even rejoices in it. And
look, the next question might be, and to whom who possesses
this righteousness? To whom is this righteousness
given? He says unto all and upon all them that believe. Do you
see that? All that believe, the righteousness
of God, the very obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only
His obedience, but the shedding of His blood that takes the penalty
of sin and fully satisfies and compensates God's just law and
His requirements for my sin, for all the abuse that I've done
to others and myself, even the offense that I've given to God.
The righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ is upon all
them that believe. And there's no difference. But
what is it to believe? To believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ has fully satisfied God by His blood, has fully met every
obligation by His obedience. has done everything. And not
only to believe that, but to rely upon it. To rely on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And what do I do if I rely on
the Lord Jesus Christ? Guess what I do? I come to God
by Him. Look at Hebrews chapter 7, verse
25. He says this, The Lord Jesus Christ in Hebrews
chapter seven is proved to be the eternal high priest. That
means he had no beginning, no end. He always has been the high
priest for his people, standing in eternity for them to provide
for them himself, to provide not only himself as their high
priest, but himself as the sacrifice. But look at verse twenty five.
He says there. In verse twenty five of Hebrews
seven, wherefore, Because He continues ever, is eternal, He
has no ending, no beginning like Melchizedek. Therefore, He says,
He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by Him. Do you see that? Who are those
that possess the righteousness of God, a righteousness that
God can accept? Who are those that the Lord Jesus
Christ saves to the uttermost? It's those that come to God by
him. Do you see that? He therefore,
he therefore, because he is their high priest, ever lives to make
intercession for them. You see that phrase there? He
ever lives to make intercession for them. What do you live for? Well, I live for myself, of course.
But what does the Lord Jesus Christ live for? He lives to
the glory of God. But what does this verse say?
He lives in order to make intercession for his people. You see that?
It's like Romans 5.10 where it says, if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more. Being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. Here the Lord Jesus Christ in
His life, in His living, in all that He does, He does for God,
for His people, to God. In other words, God has provided
Him as a surety to bring His people to Him. He does all that
He does for His Father and His people. That's a servant. And
He does it to save them to the uttermost. And this is the righteousness
of God. What He did in His perfect obedience,
in His... Look at Galatians, another verse
that I love, Galatians chapter 2. Does righteousness come by
something I do? Is there something I can do to
bring an additional righteousness, something in addition to what
the Lord Jesus Christ has done? Well, if there is, then I can
go all the way. You've heard the story about
the myth or whatever it was about a man who had his head cut off
and picked up his head and walked a thousand miles. And someone
said, well, the surprising thing isn't that he could walk a thousand
miles. The surprising thing is that
he could lift up his head. At all and walk even one step. Well,
that's the that's the message of this verse. Look at Galatians
221. Can I do something, even something
small to contribute to add to? My standing before God, so that
when He looks at me, He says, Ah, there, I see something there
in you that now I can look at to find a reason to attribute
God's righteousness to you. He says here, verse 21, No, I
do not frustrate. In other words, I don't make
void. I don't make of empty value. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. If you can do something to even
add one little bit to your own righteousness, then Christ died
for nothing. And look at verse 21 of the next
chapter, chapter 3. Someone would say then, well,
what good is the law if the law can't do anything to make us
righteous? He says, he asked the question himself. He says,
is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there
had been a law which could have given life, verily, righteousness
should have been by the law." Remember what Jesus prayed in
the garden? Father, if there's any other way, let this cup pass
from me. And what was the response? There
is no other way. And he took the cup and he drank
it to the bottom. Because if there was another
way, then righteousness would have been by that way. But there
was no other way. And so the righteousness of God
is upon them, all them that believe. And what do they believe? They
believe that all that Christ has done is all that they need
before God. Those who believe come to God,
and they come to Him in this way. They look to God to receive
them as He has received His Son. In other words, we say in our
heart, in prayer, as we come to God, Lord, receive me for
Christ's sake. Receive me, not because of what
I think of Christ, but because of what you think of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's coming to God by Him.
That's bringing the only acceptable sacrifice to God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He provided Himself, He provided
for Himself a Lamb, and He provided for us a Lamb, and that's the
Lord Jesus Christ. And now, with these things squarely
in our understanding and in our confidence, that A. we're guilty,
and B. we're corrupt, and C. we are
hopeless and helpless in ourselves, and D. that the Lord God of glory
in His grace and mercy has provided a perfect satisfaction to His
law and a perfect righteousness for Himself, so that he could
secure his people to himself and bring them to glory. Therefore,
we come to God on this basis. And look back now at Psalm 65.
Psalm 65, verse 3. And let's read it again together
in this light. Because we see here now the prayer of confidence. The prayer that God has looked
upon me in pity as the one who has destroyed himself. In fact,
this is exactly what it says in Hosea 13, and if you want
to turn there, you can, but if you don't, it's fine. Hosea,
I'll read it to you. This is one of my favorite verses
in all of Scripture. There's a lot of them, but here's
one of them. He says, Oh, Israel, put your name right there. If
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Israel of
God and you can put your name there. Oh, Israel, thou has destroyed
thyself. Doesn't that sound like what
we've done? Doesn't that sound like our helplessness, our inability
to do anything of any profit? In fact, take the good things
God has given us and waste them like the prodigal son, waste
them. Abhor his love and his goodness,
the one who gives us breath and life and all things, but listen
what he says, but in me. Is thine help in me the lord
says is thine help and so we pray in 6 psalm 65 3 iniquities
Prevail against me like the flood of noah. They they lift up the
ark. They're covering the earth They completely inundate and
go over my soul And I have no power against them no power to
put them aside No power to answer to god for them But the lord
god himself has provided the answer And the answer is that
He will purge away our transgressions. He purged them away. And let
me read these verses to you from Leviticus chapter 16. Leviticus
16. We have to go back to what...
Remember what it says? The righteousness of God is witnessed
by the Law and the Prophets. And so how do we know it's true?
Because it's in Scripture. And here's what Scripture says
about God's righteousness. In verse 30 of Leviticus 16.
For on that day... Shall the priest make an atonement
for you? Listen to what the priest is
going to do. The people are outside. The priest is inside. The priest
is offering. It's not what the people think.
It's not what the people see. It's what God has said the priest
should do, what the priest has offered, and what God thinks
about what the priest has done and offered. On that day, Leviticus
16.30, shall the priest make an atonement for you." On that
day, isn't that amazing? What a comfort! What day is that? When He had by Himself purged
our sins. Remember that, Hebrews 1.3? That
day, when the Lord Jesus Christ lifted up His voice to heaven,
With all the strength, I'm sure, with all the strength of Almighty
God in man, as He was hanging there, dying, paying for our
sins and having finished it all, He cried with a loud voice, It
is finished! It is finished! And He bowed
His head. And that's what that day is.
On that day shall the priest make an atonement for you. To
cleanse you, that's what atonement means, to cleanse you that you
may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. You see that?
The priest did that. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so when we find in our experience that our sins cause us to feel
distant from God, to feel that our prayers are not even small. They're even lower than small.
They're non-existent. It's like our spirits aren't
even lifting up their cry to God. And we feel not only distant,
but we feel the corruption of our nature springing up within
us. And everything in life seems to have us so busy and so preoccupied
that we can't even think a single sequence of thoughts clearly
about the scripture, about God and about truth. And what do
we do? Here is the comfort of our great
Savior. He takes His Word from the mouth
of His prophet in the Psalms. He records it in His Word by
His Spirit, and He gives it to us in His Word. And He says,
take these words and bring them to Me. Iniquities prevail against
Me. That's the prayer. As for our
transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. What a thought. And you see, this is the very
heartbeat of the walk of faith, that when we find in all of our
experience, like we read in Psalm 107, God constantly brings us
low. And in bringing us low, we're
at our wits end. We think, I can't be saved. There's
no reason I have for even thinking that I could be a child of God. Lord, save me. My iniquities
prevail against me. And we cry to the Lord. And guess
what He does? He saves us. We're going to look
at a few verses along this line. Because for me, this breath that
comes from us towards God in our experience of our life, this
is an assurance that the Spirit of God is working in us. Look
at these verses with me. Look back at Psalm 50. Psalm
50. He says in verse 15, The same
theme is given there and on the same basis, because the gospel
throughout scripture is always the same basis. You yourself
are nothing but sin. Christ alone is what God accepts,
and he holds him up to us, bitten and under the curse of God to
look away to him. And he says here in Psalm 50,
15, Call upon me in the day of trouble. And what day is that? All the time. Call upon me in
the day of trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify me. Isn't that amazing? Just because
we are the objects of His saving grace, we bring glory to God.
I called, He saved me. Why did I call? Because He put
me under the vice of affliction. He showed me my sin. He showed
me the needle in my arm, as it were. I'm infected by it. I'm addicted to it. I can't be
free from it. It's enslaved me. I invited it
in. I'm guilty. I'm helpless and hopeless. And
without God's saving grace, I'm damned eternally. And here he
says, call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee
and thou shalt glorify me. Look at Psalm 31. He says this
in verse 22. I need to hold myself up as an
example to others. I can't let myself appear weak
or unspiritual. I have to maintain this air of
confidence and this air of knowledge and this attitude of having achieved
something. Baloney. Listen what the psalmist
says. Verse 22, For I said in my haste,
I am cut off from thine eyes. Nevertheless, thou heardest my
voice. The voice of my supplications
when I cried to thee. You see that? I thought I was
cut off, but the Lord heard my supplication. Look at Psalm 55.
Psalm 55. See what he says there in verse 16. He says, Psalm 55,
16, As for me, I will call upon God and the
Lord shall save me. You see that? How do I know the
Lord will save me if I call upon Him? Because He said. He gives
us these words. These are the words of promise.
To who? To all that believe. What do
I believe? I believe I'm guilty, I'm doomed,
I'm damned, and only God can save me. And He's provided a
righteousness that's so perfect and so righteous, no man on earth
is righteous. But the Lord Jesus Christ and
God provided him that I might come to God by him. And so I
come. I come with the very robes of
his righteousness. And I say, I will call upon God. The Lord shall save me. And look
at Psalm 18, taking you back and forth in the Psalms. The
Psalms are just pregnant with these things. Psalm 18. Waiting for us. to be delivered
from our sins with these prayers. Look at this in Psalm 18, verse
3. I will call upon the Lord who
is worthy to be praised. Why is he so worthy? Well, he
is worthy in himself. But you know why a sinner thinks
God is worthy? Because he saved my soul, because
he delivered me from the pit. He's worthy to be praised, so
shall I be saved from my enemies. Look at Psalm 116. This is one
of my favorite There I go again. What are my favorite psalms?
Psalm 116. Look at this. He says this, and
we'll read the whole psalm. I know it's a few verses. I love
the Lord. Why? Because he hath heard my
voice and my supplications. That seems selfish. It's true.
Because he hath inclined his ear to me. Therefore will I call
upon him as long as I live. Do you see that? I find such
comfort in that, such assurance. I can call upon God. What do
I bring when I call upon Him? Do I bring something? Do I need
to work up some kind of an attitude of worship? Or bring with me
some faith? Maybe a bag of sincerity? If you bring anything, then you
will not be heard. You come for everything because
Christ is all. And if He's all, what does that
make you? Nothing. He says here, the sorrows of
death compass me and the pains of hell get hold upon me. I found
trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord to call upon his name is to call upon him who he is.
Oh, Lord, he says. And you say, what does it mean
to call upon the Lord? Well, here he says, Oh, Lord,
I beseech thee, deliver my soul. You see that? Does it take much
to cry? Like Peter did when he was thinking,
Lord, save me. I perish. Gracious is the Lord
and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. The
Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought low and he helped
me return unto thy rest, O my soul. The Lord is that rest.
For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered
my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from
falling." Is there anything left out? He delivered me from death.
He took away the tears and gave me joy. And he says, and he kept
my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I
spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are
liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits
to me? What am I going to give to God for everything he's given
to me? This is what I'll do. I will take the cup of salvation.
And I will call upon the name of the Lord, you see that I'm
going to take God's saving grace, his mercy in Christ, and I'm
going to come to him. by him alone, and I'm going to
call on his name, and I'm going to say, Lord, save me for Christ's
sake. Receive my worship for Christ's
sake. Hold me up for Christ's sake.
Bring me to glory for Christ's sake. Take away my sins for Christ's
sake. Whatever my need is, increase
my faith for Christ's sake. I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of all His people. Precious in the sight
of the Lord is the death of His saints. O Lord, truly I am Thy
servant. I am Thy servant and the son
of Thine handmaid. Thou hast loosed my bonds. How
do I know I am God's child? He loosed my bonds. I will offer
to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of
the Lord. You see that over and over again
God says, call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify me. And I find that such comfort. Look at one more verse here,
Romans chapter 10. I know that you know, Romans
chapter 10. He says, in verse 10, For with the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. Concerning righteousness, he
believes. That's what a man does in his heart. It's not something
he does outwardly, although it does affect him outwardly. It's
on the inside. And with the mouth, confession
is made to salvation. All I have is Christ and all
I need for my salvation and everything in life now and in the life to
come is Christ. That's my confession. He's my
all. And I'm nothing. And then verse 11 says, For the
Scripture said, Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. There's no difference between
the Jew and the Greek. But the same Lord is over all, is rich
unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Remember Bartimaeus? Blind,
couldn't see. He heard that Jesus was passing.
He needed one thing. His blindness. I need to see. And so he heard that Christ was
passing and he's the one who could save blind men. Opened
their eyes. And he cried out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy
upon me. And they told him, of course,
be quiet. Don't make a big fuss. We know you're blind. You've
been begging all your life. Just shut up. But he cried the louder.
Son of David, have mercy upon me. And Jesus stood still. And he said, what do you want?
Lord, that I might receive my sight." What do you want? Call upon God. Ask Him for what
your soul needs. Thirsty and hungry are they,
and they called upon the Lord. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness, for His marvelous works to the children
of men. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank
You that You've given us Your Word of comfort, Your Word of
promise, Your Word of what Christ has done. for all those who call
upon you. We know our calling doesn't make
us saved. We know our calling is a result
of your saving grace. But Lord, we find it in our heart.
We can't help it. We need to see you. We need to know that you have
received us for Christ's sake. We need to know that all that
you require from us, you have found in your Son. Help us, Lord,
enable us, cause us to call upon You, bring us low so that we
might look only up and see our Savior hanging there, cursed
for us, received. In sacrifice by God for us and
help us, dear Lord, to know then that you truly are God. You have
done this. You brought us low. You showed
us our sin. And then you showed us our Savior.
Help us, Lord, to so love you and worship you and say the Lord
has done great things for us. In his name we pray. Amen.