Send a revival. Send a revival. Start the work in me. That's
what Habakkuk prayed for, didn't he? Lord, I've heard Thy speech
and I was afraid. O Lord, revive Thy work in the
midst of the years. We all need reviving. often. Psalm 139. Psalm 139. Searched and known. The Lord
knows me. The Lord knows me. This word,
this passage, this message should strike some measure of fear in
us, shouldn't it? beginning of wisdom, yet at the
same time should give us great comfort. Fear and comfort. Yes, you can have both. It should
give us a measure of shame and guilt. and yet great peace and relief. He says in verse 1, Lord now
has searched me and known me. David is praying and he's between
him and his God. Him and His Lord. He's talking
about Himself. Lord, You searched and known
me. And this begins and ends with
that, doesn't it? Verse 23. He asked the Lord to
search him. Search me, O God. Only a child
of God loves this. But the Lord really knows him. that the Lord knows him or her
better than they know themselves. And only a child of God really
wants and needs the Lord to search them out. This is what the Lord
said in His Gospel of John. He said, remember, those that
love darkness, they don't come to the light. But he that doeth
truth, that is, believes and looks to Christ, cometh to the
light, that his deeds might be made manifest, clear. We come
to the light. We come to the Lord Jesus Christ,
don't we, who is the light to tell us. Search us and see if
there be any wicked way in us and lead us in the way everlasting. Search. The Word of God searches
us. That's what he said in Hebrews
in chapter 4. He said the Word of God is piercing
to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and the joints
and the marrows and the discerner of the thoughts, the intents
of the heart. The Word of God searches up.
Aren't you glad? And the Spirit of God The Spirit
of God whom He gives to His people to lead them and guide them,
the Spirit of God convinces of sin, of righteousness and judgment
all pertaining to Christ. And so we search. Lord, search
me. Keep searching me. Thou hast
searched me and you know me. Know me. Now, this known of God
is an intimate acquaintance with Him. As Adam knew his wife, he
didn't just know about her, it wasn't just a cognizant of her,
but he entered into a personal relationship with, like a husband
and wife. But this is even deeper than
that. This is like a father knows a child better than the child
knows himself and loves us anyway. That's what we're going to see
here. I was going to preach tonight. I had a whole message prepared
on it. But I thought I'll just quote it and read it again another
time. But Hebrews 2 says that He's
not ashamed to call us brethren. That we do shameful things and
bring reproach upon our Lord and others. He's not ashamed. Because He knows us. He knows
us. Psalm 103. My favorite psalm. One of my
favorites. He says, Like a father pities his children, so the Lord
pities them that fear Him. He knows our praying. He knows. He remembers. He never
loses sight of what we are. Aren't you glad? He knows me. Verse 2, he says, Thou knowest
my down-sitting and mine up-rising. He says, you know my thoughts
afar off. Thou compassest my path and my
lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. There is not
a word in my mouth, in my tongue, Lord, but Thou knowest altogether
my thoughts. He knows my thoughts, good and
bad. There are thoughts and intents
of my heart, he knows. The Lord seeth not as man seeth. Man looks on the outward countenance.
The Lord looks on the heart. Now, David is not pleading his
heart or anything like that to say, you know me, you know what
a good fellow I am. No, he's, as he does in all the
Psalms, he's saying, Lord, you know me. And you know how sinful
I am. And I'm so glad that He entered into this union with
me, foreknew. For whom He did foreknow, He
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. And
whom He did predestinate, He called. Whom He called, He justified.
Whom He justified, He glorified. That's David saying. He's not
pleading His goodness at all. He never does. He's pleading.
Well, Paul one time said, to the Galatians and said, after
you've known God, why do you turn or rather are known of God? Our salvation is not anything
in us. It's all in His blessed love
and mercy and grace to His people through Christ our Lord. He knows
us intimately, that He foreknew us. He knows our thoughts, our
ways, our words. There's not, he says, a thought
that I've thought before I think it. But you don't know it. How often are your thoughts pure? As I said, this ought to... cause
a measure of fear and trembling. That's what the Lord said, didn't
He? That this man, when I look, that he is poor and of contrite
heart and trembleth at My Word. Now look to that one who knows
that God knows him or her and pleads His mercy and grace in
Christ and asks, search me. I want to be known. I want to
know you and I want to know myself. You have, you've known me. You've
known me. You've known my thoughts so far
off. You've compassed, he said, you've compassed my path. The
word you see in the margin, winoist, like a sieve, like a fan, a fan
in his hand. He's acquainted with all our
ways. Everywhere we go, everything we do, nothing's hidden. And He still
loves us? My, my. See, this is our salvation,
God's intimate knowledge or love of His people. He's well acquainted
with, I don't know where I'm going to go next or what I'm
going to do. We don't know what we're liable to do tomorrow.
He does. He does. You know, he says in
verse three, verse four, there's not a word in my tongue. Oh,
Lord, thou knowest altogether before I speak. He knows our
thoughts. And there's not a word that I
have spoken or will speak that he does not know altogether. He knows everything. Preparation
of the heart and the answer of the tongue are of the Lord, Scripture
said. My, my, how this ought to set
a watch over our mouths, shouldn't it? Ecclesiastes 5. Go over there
real quickly. Ecclesiastes 5, right after Proverbs. And it says this. The Lord tells us in verse 1,
keep your foot, when you go to the house of God, be more ready
to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. What's that? A fool
is known by a multitude of words. They consider not that they do
evil, that is all their words. You know everyone's going to
be held accountable for every idle word. Everyone but us. You see why His knowledge or
His love of His people is so precious? People are going to
give an account for every idle word. That ought to make us choose
our words carefully, shouldn't it? Not them, not the people
of the world. It says, "...their tongue walketh
through the earth and blasphemeth them." Oh Lord! I said, watch
over my lips. Verse 2, Be not rash with thy
mouth, let not thine heart be hasty. Utter anything before
God. God's in heaven, thou upon the
earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. You know, every believer is like
that leper who said to the Lord, Lord, I want to be clean. Isn't
it? I want to be clean. Every believer
is like that blind man. I want to see. The death man, I want to hear.
And what the Lord tells us, this right here should be a restraining
influence on us, shouldn't it? Thou, Lord, seest me. That's
what Hagar said. You see me. That ought to restrain
us. It should. We need to keep these
words in mind. I hope we will. I hope we'll
dwell on these words. As I said, this should give a
measure of fear and yet comfort that he knows every thought I
think, every deed I do, everywhere I go, whatever I do, wherever
I am, whatever I think, whatever I speak. All the complaints,
all the murmuring, all the thanks, all the gratitude, you know. David even said, you put my tears
in your bottle. Every tear. Can you believe that? They give you great comfort.
He knows. He knows. He knows us. My, my. He knows us. The Lord is omniscient. He knows all things. Here is
His omnipresence, verse 5. That means He is everywhere.
And we live and move and have our being in Him. Thou hast beset
me behind and before and laid Thine hand upon me. That beset
means hemmed Him in. You have hemmed me in, Lord. behind and before, I can't get
away." And he laid your hand on me. Isn't that good news? If you are a wild ass's colt
at times, you like that, don't you? Satan complained to the
Lord about Job. The Lord said, have you considered
Job, My servant? And Satan said, yes, I have.
But you put an edge about him. You've beset him behind him before,
and you've laid your hand on him, and I can't touch him. But
if you touch him, he'll curse you. God says, okay. And let him go. Let him have
him, but not completely. Right? And Job did curse his
daddy. Before that, he didn't sin with
his lips or charge God foolishly. But then he let Satan have him.
And as most of us will do, We fall, you know. And Job cursed
his day, and Job got lifted up with self-righteous pride, but
the Lord didn't leave him alone. He'll never leave his people
alone. This knowledge, he says in verse 6, is too wonderful
for me. It's just wonderful. It's high. High. I cannot attain to it.
I can't enter into it. I can't fully appreciate it.
Oh, my. How wonderful. Whither, verse
7, he says, Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Whither shall
I flee from thy presence? No hiding from our God, thankfully. Thankfully. And every one of
us will admit there are times when we'd like to just run off
and hide somewhere. Run away from it all. All our troubles. Like what Brother
Henry Sword said one time, he said, I'd love to just run away
from all my troubles. And he said, wherever I go, I
realize I'm still there. Because I, this trouble is within
me, not just without, not just in the world, but it's right
here. This old man, he's always with
me. But thank God, he's with us.
He's with me. Where shall I go from thy presence? No matter where we go or what
we do, He's with us, His people, right here. He's with us. The
Lord knows His people intimately. He's well acquainted with them.
He loves them. His hand is upon them. He's always
with them, leading, guiding, directing, everything about them.
He's predestined and everything's for their good. And if He leaves
them for a little bit, He doesn't take His hand completely off
of them. If they fall, Because they need it. If the adversary
sifts them like wheat, like Satan, it's because they need it. Everything. He's never, ever going to leave
them. The last thing our Lord said
when He left His disciples was, Lo, I am with you always, even
to the ends of the earth. You're not, you're not, he said,
I'll never leave you. And if you try to get away, isn't
that good? He's not going to let you go. He said, my sheep, they're prone
to wander, but he'll leave if necessary. But 99, they go after
the one. Not one of them. Those that thou
hast given me, Christ said, I've kept. None of them is lost. Aren't
you glad? That's our salvation. The Lord
knows everybody, but not in this way. The Lord knows the thoughts,
the words, the deeds, the bad deeds, the evil of every person
on this earth. But He says, the proud He knoweth
how? At arm's length. And there's
going to be a day when He says to the wicked, And those that
didn't love God and worship His Son, those He didn't know, He's
going to say, depart from Me, I never knew you. They knew everything
about Him. They never entered into this
relationship. You see how that our salvation is how God foreknew
or foreloved, elected or chose a people before they were born?
He's going to tell us that in a minute. Before they were born.
And gave us to Christ. That's our salvation. We need
to rejoice. If you're going to rejoice, rejoice
in Him. Oh my. You know, how do you know if
this is all for you? How do you know if this is for
you? Because as I say it, as the Scripture says that is, that
children of light come to the light. They love the light. They
love the light and they come to the light that their deeds
might be reproved, that they might be known and show us ourselves
and show us Himself. Perfect knowledge, like love,
casts out fear. Lord, Thou hast known me. When
Simon Peter denied the Lord, acted like he didn't know Him, don't you know that those three
days were the worst days of his life? When the Lord turned and
looked at him, when he denied him and cursed, and the Lord
turned and looked at him, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. And for three days he was in
misery, thinking, I don't know if I'm one of the
Lords or not, didn't I? How could I do such a thing? And you remember
when the Lord arose, the angel told the ladies to go and tell
his disciples and Peter, make sure you tell Peter to be there. And Peter was the first one that
the Lord spoke to intimately, privately, and said, Simon, he
never called him Peter. He knows him. Rock? He didn't
act like a rock, did he? Christ was his rock. He knew
that. He said, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me more than thee? What did Peter answer? Yea, Lord,
thou knowest. You know all things. You know
I love you when I say I don't. You know I love you when I deny
you. You know that. You know my frame. You know me,
Lord. This gives me great comfort and great hope and great peace
that you know everything about me when I don't even know myself. I don't know what I'm going to
do next, but you do. See, that's our hope. See, if
He has foreknown us, He will always love us, always. So this is how, you know, perfect
knowledge like perfect love, and it's the same really, isn't
it? It's the same thing. Cast out fear. And love longs
to know and be known. Intimate love wants to know the
person that it loves and wants to be known. Like a husband and
wife. Wants to know. You know each
other. Husbands and wives know each other better than anybody.
Almost. But this is an intimate, it causes
your love to be closer than when you know each other. When you've
seen everything, bad or good about each other, they still
love you. And that's what love does. It wants to know and be
known. Pour out the heart to the other. And that's what Old
Mac, Old Mac, read tonight. Pour out your heart before Him,
the only song. Pour out your heart before Him. People, pour out your heart. God is a refuge for us. Love
wants to know and be known. Verses 8 through 10. If I ascend
up into heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in hell, thou
art there. If I take the wings of the morning,
if I get in a ship and the wind takes me to the uttermost parts
of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right
hand hold me. In other words, no matter where
I go, no matter what I do, if I'm high, if I'm low, If I'm
on the mountain, if I'm in the depths of despair, He's still
with me. Somebody once said that when
you feel you're farthest from God, maybe you're closest. How else could David have penned
Psalm 51? God had him pin that when he
felt the farthest from God. Take not thy Holy Spirit from
him. The Lord sent his Spirit for him to write that. Oh my,
no matter where we go, on the mountain, in the depths, highs
and lows, ins and outs, he leadeth me, O blessed thought, O words
of heavenly comfort from. Where'er I go, whatever I do,
His hand leads me. His right hand holds me. That's
Christ, the right hand. If I say, verse 11 and 12, surely
the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. Darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth
as the day. The darkness and the light are
both alike unto thee. David said in another psalm,
whom shall I fear? What shall I be afraid of? The
Lord is my light, my salvation. Why should I fear? Why should
we be afraid of the dark? Why are we afraid of the dark?
We are, aren't we? We have been ever since we were
children. I guess you have to get 80 or
90 years old before you quit being afraid, don't you? Somebody
tried to break in my parents' home the other day, kicked the
door in. Broke the door, broke it down. And didn't get anything. I told somebody, said whoever
it was was real disappointed when they went in there. No computers,
no stereos, no jewelry and money and stuff like that. But my parents
said, oh well. Just fixed it back. Ninety years
now, the Lord has protected them. He'll leave them now. The Lord has protected them.
The Lord is our salvation. He's our protection. He's our
protection. Yes, He is. The darkness, thieves
don't, they may do what they do undercover, what they call
cover of darkness, but they're not covered. Where is our faith? Where is
our faith? We don't have it. Verse 13, I love this. Thou hast
possessed my reins. Possessed my reins. Reins are
the innermost being. That's your mind, your heart,
your soul. You possessed my reins. You own
me. Thou, you're not your own, he
says to his people. You're bought with a price. They
don't belong to you anymore. You're possessed. You're not
your own. People are possessed by one spirit
or another, you know? They're possessed by the Lord
or possessed by the devil, held captive by him at his will. I want to be possessed by the
Lord, don't you? I want to be possessed with Him.
He says, Lord, thou hast possessed my vain. You owned me. You owned
me. You covered me. My mother's womb
covered me. From the womb, we've been under
the blood of Christ. We've been forgiven before we
were born. Our sins before they were committed
were covered. Before there was a sinner, there
was a lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. Isn't that good
enough? We say that. It's a modern term and I've got
you covered. Meaning, I'll take care of it. The Lord has covered
us from the womb. God has covered us. Whatever
it is, God's covered. Covered. Hidden. You're dead. Your life is what?
Hidden. Covered. I'll praise Thee. This
is our great Creator. Oh Lord, my God. How great Thou
art. I'll praise Thee. I'm fearfully
I like David's language here. I'm fearfully and wonderfully
made. Fearfully. See, God's creation
puts fear in God's people. People don't even fear the elements.
These storm chasers, you know, they don't even fear the element. It's the hand of God. Fearfully
and wonderfully made. When we think about His creation,
especially this body, This marvelous work, the image, and His image,
fearfully and wonderfully made, wonderful, full of wonders, marvelous,
marvelous are Thy works. And that my soul knoweth right
well. I know that right well. Do you know that right well?
Do you know how many people reject this hands down, that God made
the heavens and created the heavens and the earth? Do you know how
few people believe that God created the heavens and the earth, even
though Psalm 19, The heavens declare His glory, and the firmament
showeth His handiwork, and day unto day utter His speeches.
There is no language on earth where the voice of day and night
is not heard, how the things that are clearly made, clearly
seen, so that without excuse. Do you know how few people believe
that? Why? Because He has hid these things
from the wise and the reproved, and revealed them unto His people. And if you believe, if you know
right well, if you see right well God is our Creator. Remember
Brother Joe's message? The first thing he said, this
is the thing about God, this is the first thing, that He is
the Creator. And it's wonderful, isn't it?
It's marvelous. You love His creation, and you
marvel at His creation, and you love to have it so. You want
Him to be. You know He's your Creator, and
you're glad that it's so. If God is our Creator, it means
He owns us. He owns us. I love that, don't
you? Only His people love that. And
give Him the glory for it. Possessed by it. Subject to Him.
I ask the question, how do you know this is for you? How do
you know this is for you? The people said, we will not
have this man reign over us. All God's people say, we want
this man to reign over us. We know who you are. You're the
Christ, the Son of the living God, the Creator by whom all
things were made. And we want You to reign over
us, O Lord. Be Thou our Creator and our Owner
and our Judge us, because He'll do right. He'll do right. If Christ died for us and we're
in Christ, there's no condemnation. judgment. Oh, Lord, if I'm in
Christ, we'll come up. Justified, justified from all
things. Oh my, that my soul knoweth right
will. My substance, read on, verses
15 and 16. Everything about me was not hid
from thee when I was made in secret, curiously wrought in
the lowest parts of the earth. That's the womb. Thine eyes did
see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members
were written. which in continuance, as they
were fashioned, before there were any of them, he wrote them
all down in a book, everything about us. Everything about us. We'll never grow an inch taller
or one more hair on our head. Your hairs are numbered. This is our God. People don't
believe this God. But we know right well that this
is our God. And He is our salvation, our
hope. The one who says that not a sparrow shall fall to the ground,
not a hair of your head will fall to the ground, that's your
problem. except it be purposed by Him. Oh, that gives great
hope, great hope. Most people use these verses
to talk about life at conception, you know, to combat abortion. And that is true, isn't it? But
this is for us to marvel in God's creation, not to argue with pot
sherds. Verse 17. He says, how precious
also are your thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of
them. If I should count them, they
are more in number than the sand. How precious are thy thoughts.
This is the sum and the substance of his thoughts toward us. The
sum of them are many, often. In fact, every day. Isn't it
precious to you when someone calls you and tells you that
they were thinking about you? Isn't that meaningful to you? Somebody calls you and says,
I was just thinking about you today. I was thinking about you
the other day. Very precious and very endearing to them. How
often does the Lord think on His people? Every hour of every day, all
the day. If I should count them, they
are more in number. When I go to sleep, And David
said, when I awake, I'm still on your mind. I'm still with
you. And here's the substance of his
thoughts in Jeremiah. He said, I know the thoughts
that I think towards you. Thoughts of peace, not evil.
Not evil. To give you an expected end.
I know the thoughts. As rarely a day goes by that
I don't think of my children. Well, there's never a day that
goes by that God doesn't think on His children. Not a moment,
not an hour. Precious. How precious are thy
thoughts. Precious. Precious in the sight
of the Lord is the birth of His saints and the dead. They're
precious to Him. And His thoughts are precious
to us. Oh, my. Verse 19. He starts thinking
about the wicked. Now, don't think of them as simply
violent, people but those that blaspheme God. Yes, the bloody. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked,
O God. Depart from me, therefore, you
bloody men. They speak against God wickedly. Thine enemies take thy name in
vain. If you love God, you can't stand
to hear His name. I don't think you can know God
and use His name flippantly. I know you can't. You can't fear
God. God's people love His name. You
wouldn't throw your mother's name around, would you? Your
father's name? You don't use that flippantly. How much more?
God's name. Reverence it. Make mention of
it. It's holy. Exalted. So he says in verse 21, I hate them, O Lord, that hate
Thee. Am I not? I grieve with those
that rise up against Thee. I hate them with perfect hatred.
Mack, you know, you felt led to read that Psalm 62. You see
the similarity there? He said, They only consult to
cast Him down from His excellency. Bless with their mouth, but curse
inwardly. He's talking about religion. And this is a perfect
hatred, David said. I hate them with perfect hatred.
I count them my enemies. The Lord says, love them that
hate you. Pray for them that despitefully
use you. You. But not that hate your God. Not that are blaspheming you.
You can't. You can't love God and love those that blaspheme
your God. Elijah. He called down fire,
didn't He, on those prophets? A perfect taker. I count them
mine enemies. And now he ends this with the
way he began it. He said, Thou hast searched me,
O God, and known me. And now he prays, Lord, search
me. Search me, O God. Know my heart. Search me. Use the Word to search me out.
And know my heart. Try me. Try me. The trial of your faith. And the Lord, you know the Lord
chastens and tries His people principally and foremost and
all the time. First and foremost, by His Word. If the Word of God does not convict
us, nothing will. This is the first way that he
tries it. If we've sinned or whatever, the Lord sends, aren't
you glad? He doesn't take out the rod,
but He does use the rod of His Word. He doesn't just take something
away from you or send great pain and affliction upon you, but
He sends His Word. Aren't you glad? Like a father. Like a father,
a child, chases a child. Try me. Know my thoughts, Lord. See, we don't know ourselves
like He knows us. And this is what He's saying
here in verse 24, ending. He says, See if there be any
wicked way in me. You know He's not saying, I can't
find anything wrong with me. If you find something, What he's
saying is, Lord, keep me back, like he said in another song,
from secret sin. You know, at times what I don't
know. So much that I don't know about
myself. That's why it says, search me
by the Word. Send the Word. Know my thoughts,
I pray. And send the Word. See if there be
any presumptuous sins in me. Oh, my presumptuous sins. Willful sin against God is presumption. Anybody ever sin and think, oh
well, the Lord will forgive me for that? Not presumptuous. He will forgive all manner of
sin, but that kind of attitude will bring great chastening. There are many wicked ways in
me, Lord. The margin says, way of pain
or grief. Do you see that? Wicked way of
pain or grief. Do you ever cause anybody any
pain? Do you ever cause anybody any grief? Oh, my. We cause the Lord great pain. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Whose grief and sorrows did he
bear? Howard. Howard. And he says, lead me
in the way everlasting. What's that? Who's that? A child of God. wants to be known,
is known of God, and wants to be known of God, wants to be
searched out by God, exposed, and have everything revealed
to our hearts from the Word, that our hearts might be fashioned
like the Lord Jesus Christ. predestinated us to be conformed
to the image of Christ. And that's how you know if you're
a child of God, you say, Lord, that's who I want to be like.
I want to be just like Him. And so, how does He lead us in
paths of righteousness and the way of every life? He points
us to Christ. See, there's your substitute
and there's the way. Walk in it. There's the way you
should walk. Be like Him. Be like Him. Okay, stand with me. Our Lord, thank You so much for
Your Word. It is truly Your mind, Your will,
Your Word, Your voice to Your people. Thank You, Lord. I pray
that You might use it powerfully and speak to our hearts. You have and know You will. Thank
You. Thank You, Lord, that You don't
leave Your people alone. That Thou hast glorified Thy
Name and will glorify it again. We thank You. The thunder tells
us that. We thank You for Your Word and
we pray that it might thunder forth from this place for years
to come. That You might use it powerfully
upon us and our children. Speak to us. Keep us from this
evil world. from this untoward generation.
Keep us from the evil man within us. Keep us from the adversary. Keep us, Lord. Lead us in paths
of righteousness for Thy name's sake. In Christ's name, Amen.