May we rejoice today that Jesus
Christ is the friend of sinners. And were it not so, we would
certainly be of all men most miserable. We are looking in,
still continuing to look in the Psalms, and we're looking here
in Psalm 119, and beginning there in verse 113, And this section of that Psalm
is titled Psalmic, which is a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Don't
ask me to give you all of them because I would not be able to.
I can read them, however. In verse 113, it says, I hate
vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. Thou art my hiding place
and my shield, I hope in Thy word. Depart from me, ye evil
doers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. Uphold me according
unto Thy word that I may live, and let me not be ashamed of
my hope. Hold Thou me up and I shall be
safe, and I will have respect unto Thy statutes continually. Thou hast trodden down all them
that err from thy statutes, for their deceit is fault to them.
Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross, therefore
I love thy testimonies. My flesh trembleth for fear of
thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments. I have done judgment
and justice. This is Zane. I have done judgment
and justice. Leave me not to mine oppressors.
Be surety for thy servant for good. Let not the proud oppress
me. Mine eyes fail for thy salvation
and for the word of thy righteousness. Deal with thy servant according
unto thy mercy and teach me thy statutes. I am thy servant, give
me understanding. that I may know thy testimonies.
It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void
thy law. Therefore I love thy commandments
above gold, yea, above fine gold. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts
concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way. Now continuing as we think and
look at the psalm, all of the psalms, uh... uh... this one in particular that these
are the testimonies of jesus christ the words of christ and
because it is we look at the uh... statements that are made
the absolute surety with which uh... the lord uh... sets forth
that he will perform the will of God, that he will keep the
law, that he will do these things. We understand that Christ alone
is the only man born of a woman who could ever speak these things
in truth. Now we can speak them in a partial
manner as the Lord works grace in our heart. He does give us
a love for the law of God. But we would all be telling a
lie if we said we keep the law of God perfectly, or that we
love the law of God perfectly. Because it's not in man by nature
to be in such a state as that. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
that perfect man, that man who was tempted in all points like
as we are, yet without sin, he is that one. who by nature desired
to keep the law of God. He desired with his very being
to do all that the Lord had sent him to do. And so he says, I
hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. Oh, that I might be
able to say such a thing as that. I hate vain thoughts. Solomon
said, vanity of vanity is all is vanity. And surely this world
is vain. and we're put in this world,
and the Lord put us here for a purpose, and He knows that
we're dust, He knows what we are, and He would teach us that.
See, that's part of the reason for the frailty of man, is that
a man might learn that he is frail. I mean, if a man is strong
and has no faults and failures in his life, he begins to think,
well, he's invincible. Peter was such a man, was he
not? I mean, Peter was a bull of the woods. He was a strong
man. He meant what he said and said
what he meant. And probably until he met the Lord Jesus Christ,
he pretty much did what he wanted to do. And so when the Lord said
they would all depart from him, Peter said, oh no, not me. I'm strong, I'll stand with you.
All the rest of them may depart, but not me. But who was it that
the Lord brought down to a place of repentance? Denying the Lord
with his own mouth, doing the very thing that he said he would
not do. Now, was the Lord surprised at
that? No. Because before Peter ever
denied the Lord, the Lord had said, I've prayed for you. that
you're gonna do this. No, Lord, not me. Yes, you are.
You're gonna do this. Yes, he did. And the Lord brought
him to the place he'd have him to be. That is the grace of God,
you see. I mean, the religious men of
the world, they think that the grace of God is that which makes
a man to be perfect in the world, and they do things they don't
ever do, wrong things or whatever. If they do, it's just minor stuff,
you know. but the grace of god does indeed
work in his people to bring them to the place first of all to
see what they are by nature and then have him cause them to see
what they are by nature to desire to have that nature cleansed
even as david prayed oh create in me a clean heart oh god see
a man can't desire to have a clean heart unless the lord has first
given him that desire uh... may the lord do so in us But
the Lord Jesus says, I hate vain thoughts. He didn't entertain
any vain thoughts. Can you imagine that? Never had
a vain thought in his mind. Something that passed away was
frivolous. How many times a day do we think
of things that are just purely frivolous, purely of no use whatsoever? It was not so with him. I hate
vain thoughts, but thy law do I love, in contrast to that.
Because the law of God is in contrast to men. Now many of those who think the
law was given to Moses, given to the nation of Israel, in order
that they might keep the law, But the Lord gave the law to
Israel so that they might know themselves to be sinners. Now,
the religious nature of men looks at the law and says, well, look,
here it is. I'm gonna write it up on a placard and I'm gonna
do it. And I'm gonna check them off.
Well, I did this. Remember the rich young ruler? He had a checklist,
did he not? He came to the Lord. The Lord
said, well, you know what the commandments are. He said, well,
Lord, I've done all of those things. and the lord looked on him i
believe with mercy because you see it's the mercy of god that
shows a man that he does not keep the law and that's what
he showed the rich young ruler and he went away sorrowing because
he saw himself to be what he was. Now, I don't know what the
outcome of the rich young ruler was. My own thought is that the
Lord brought him to repentance, and that was the first evidence
of it, that he went away sorrowing. Now, a lot of people say, well,
no, he didn't want to give up his riches, and he went away
sorrowing. I don't think that was it at all. I think that what
it was, he saw himself, he had come there thinking himself to
be a righteous man, And he had never even given any thought
to giving away his riches, because they were a great possession
to him. And when he saw that that was the thing that he loved
more than he loved God, the Lord broke his heart. And he went
away sorrowing, but I don't think he stayed away necessarily. I
don't know. You know, we don't keep speculating
on things such as that. But the mercy of God, to show
a man what he is by nature, is the greatest of mercies to
be broken-hearted before Almighty God. There's nothing that exceeds
the magnitude of that. And except man be brought there,
he cannot have any appreciation for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thou art my hiding place and
my shield, I hope in Thy Word. The Lord was the hiding place,
the Father. was the hiding place of the Lord
Jesus Christ, his shield, I hope in thy word. We see it illustrated
when Satan tempted him and he came back to him with the word
of God, that was the hope. And we talked a little bit on
our journey yesterday as we went up to a meeting up in South Georgia
and we were talking about that subject of hope and what is the
hope of a man. You know, our hope is Christ.
Now, when we think of hope, we usually think of it in the terms
of, well, I hope so. But that's not how the scripture
uses the term hope. It's not, I hope so. I hope that
it's so. But rather, my hope is Christ. And Peter expressed it when the
Lord said to him, when many disciples went away, and the Lord said,
well, will you also go away? And Peter said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. You see, Peter expressed his hope. He said, here it is. I can't go anywhere else. There's
nothing else that I can do. There's nobody else that I know
that I can lean on. Well, this is that which the
Lord says here. Thou art my hiding place and
my shield. I hope in thy word. The word
of God is my hope. because we believe that whatever
he said he would do, he will do. And therein is our hope cast. Depart from me, ye evildoers,
for I will keep the commandments of my God. Oh, how often did
the Lord say, you know, even as he said to Peter, get thee
behind me, Satan. to be removed from the evildoers
of the world. Now, it's an impossibility, actually,
that we would be removed from the evildoers of the world. I
mean, the Lord even said so. He says, you're gonna be. He said, I didn't call you to
come out completely out of the world, but being in the world
to be not of the world. But we are assailed on every
side by evildoers. And not that we look at them
and think they're any more evil than we are, because certainly
it doesn't make any difference what you've ever seen somebody
do. You have within you the very
nature to do the same thing that they do, except that the grace
of God should keep you from it. And so when we deride the evildoers,
we're not looking at them as saying we're better than them.
But we desire to be delivered from the very things that they
have not been delivered from. And so it is that we understand
that. And so the Lord said, depart
from me ye evildoers. Now, the publicans and the harlots
and the winebibbers were evildoers, but yet the Lord accompanied
with them, did he not? Because he knew that by his grace,
that he could break their heart and bring them to himself, which
he did. He said, they go into the kingdom
of God before you do, speaking to the Pharisees, the righteous
men of the day. Does that mean then that the
Lord approved of their sin? Of course not, he hated their
sin. I mean, the woman taken in adultery, that was brought
before him. Did he approve of her sin? Did
he say, oh, it's all right? No, he said, go and sin no more. Don't do this anymore. The woman
at the well, when she came to him with all of her religious
talk, well, our father said, worship in this mountain, and
your father say this, and she wanted to talk about doctrine
and practice and things, you know, having to do, and the Lord
said, well, I tell you what to do. Go bring your husband. and all of a sudden she was faced
with what she was by nature. And so it is that the Lord will
indeed, though he hates the evildoer, the way of the evildoer, yet
he is pleased to bring evildoers unto himself. But he does not
leave them in that state, but he does perform in them a work
of grace. And though their practice might
not be perfect, Yet that work of grace that's in the heart
of every man that he's pleased to draw out of darkness and into
the light is a perfect work because it is that which causes their
hearts to break for their sin. They see themselves still to
be what they are. I will keep the commandments
of my God, oh, that it might be so, but he is that one that
did. Uphold me according unto thy
word that I may live And let me not be ashamed of my hope. Let not the evil doers overcome
me. Lord, let me not be a reproach
unto thee. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, on
the one hand, had no reason to pray such a prayer, did he? Because
he could not become a reproach unto God. But yet he had that
desire. And as a man, and being tempted
in all points like as we are, he learned obedience by the things
which he suffered. He was brought into that understanding
of the place of men before Almighty God. And he said, let me not
be ashamed of my hope. Let me not bring reproach unto
thy name, O Lord, but let me magnify thy name. Hold thou me
up, and I shall be safe, and I will have respect unto thy
statutes continually. If the Lord prayed and needed
to pray as a man, that he be holding up, that he be strengthened,
how much more so do we? Weak men. He was a strong man,
was he not? But he became weak for our sake.
But he was strong in that he was able to do whatever it was
that he set out to do. But he became weak. That is,
he became identified with us. Because he could not have been
identified with us and remained strong, could he? But he became
weak. that is before God in his mind,
in his heart, in his knowledge of the sin of his people. He
was brought down to bear it for our sake. Thou hast trodden down
all them that err from thy statutes, for their deceit is falsehood.
Now he's looking in prospect the lord is not manifested the
fact that he is down trodden uh... that he is trodden down
all them that err from thy statutes that's not evident yet i mean
you know men men that uh... it seems evil uh... proliferates
in the world does it not and the men who hate the way of god
they seem to prosper in the world in fact we read in the psalms
many times of the complaint that the wicked do prosper But the
Lord looks in prospect to that even as we. And he says, thou
hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes. That is
the ultimate end of those that will not walk in the way of God. That err from thy statutes, for
their deceit is falsehood. Now the falsehoods, Satan of
course is the father of lies, the scripture says. And he is
that one that works in men to deceive them. And then they in
turn, as they are transformed into angels of light, deceive
others. And their deceit is falsehood. And we cannot ever endorse error. Now that doesn't mean we have
to go on a crusade and go out and plaster everybody to the
wall every day for all the things we think are wrong, but we can
never endorse the falsehood that men might proclaim in the name
of the Lord, however sincere they may appear to be. If a man
does not speak according to the law and to the testimony, according
to the word of God, then it's because there's no truth, there's
no light in them. and so we need to be mindful
of that and that we not follow a multitude to do evil but that
we seek to recognize the truth of God and the deceivers that
have gone out there are many deceivers in the world today
thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like grass therefore
I love thy testimonies there again he's looking in prospect
he says this is the outcome of things. And we need to recognize
that. When we look around us and we
see all of the ridiculous stuff that goes on, not just in government,
but we can see that most plainly. But all of these things occur
because of the purpose of Almighty God. None of this stuff is happening
by chance. nor is there anything that men
are going to do that's going to change the purpose of God,
but He's going to play out these things. And He's going to humble
men. In many ways I'm thankful when
I see governments, any government of
the earth humiliated and humbled because it teaches men, the people
of God at least, not to trust in the arm of the flesh. You
know, you can look at all these mighty armies that were in all
of these nations in times past, and the Lord has trod them down.
We should not be surprised. I mean, the nation that forgets
God will be turned to destruction. My flesh trembleth for fear of
thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments. Wow. That's a good place to be. The
fear of God. The fear of God is the beginning
of wisdom. The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. And
without it, a man is cast off. To be without the fear of God
is to be reprobate, it is to be cast away from the presence
of God. Because that is what happens
when the Lord convinces a man of sin. See, the Lord convinces
a man of sin and He convinces a man of righteousness. And when
those two things come together, when a man is convinced of sin
and he's convinced of righteousness, because see, righteousness abides
only in one place, and that is in Jesus Christ, who is the righteousness
of God. And if any man would stand in
a place of righteousness, he must be in Christ. And so to
be in any other place is to perish, to be without the fear of God,
to know what we are by nature. Teach me to know my frame. to
teach me to know that I am dust. I am afraid of thy judgments.
You know, some people almost act like they're looking forward
to judgment. I hear people say, oh, well,
you know, God's gonna, he's gonna get all these things straightened
out and all these people's gonna get their comeuppance and all
that kind of stuff. Well, brethren, no, it's a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. I mean, to
come into the presence of God, If we come there with the prospect
of standing in judgment, we're in a bad situation. But we come
there by the grace of God in the prospect of having a mediator,
of standing with Christ, not being condemned with the rest
of the world. I have done judgment and justice.
Leave me not to mine oppressors. How often was the Lord oppressed
by the men that he came to deliver? No man stood with him. He often
said, O faithless generation, even to his disciples. They didn't
believe, they didn't understand, they were ignorant, really. Just
like we were. I mean, the only reason that
we can look back and see the errors and the faultiness of
the thinking of His disciples is because we know how it's turned
out. See, the Lord showed us these things that we might learn
from them, but they had to go through them. Even as I mentioned
yesterday, Jonah didn't know how the situation was going to
turn out, did he? I mean, when he was in the belly
of the fish, I mean, he kind of figured that was it. He was a goner. There wasn't anything else he
could do. He'd gone as far as he could go. Now, we look at
him and we say, well, I wonder what he was worried about, because,
see, we know how the story turned out, but he didn't know that.
But, oh, the mercy of God. Once again, when the Lord brought
Jonah to the place he wanted him to be, and he confessed salvations
of the Lord, and he went on to Nineveh as the Lord would have
him to be. Probably not smelling very good,
if you think about that. Be surety for thy servant for
good. Let not the proud oppress me. Mine eyes fail for thy salvation
and for the word of thy righteousness. That is, he says, I cannot see
to go on except that you give me light. If we don't have the
light of God, I mean, we can't go. See, that's one of the desires
that the Lord puts within the heart of God's people is to have
the light of God. Now, the man of the world, the
religious man, he's not necessarily interested in having the light
of God. I mean, he might want to learn
what the scripture says or memorize a scripture or have some kind
of external instruction on these things, but he's not hungry and
thirsting for the light of God. He wants to know the way of God.
He wants to walk in the way of God. He wants to see it more
clearly, to have a desire after it. See, that's what it is when
he says, mine eyes fail for thy salvation. Lord, I can't even
see except you help me. Now, if the Lord Jesus, as a
man, suffering for our sake, confessed such a thing, how ought
we not to do the same? Deal with thy servant according
unto thy mercy and teach me thy statutes. That's the place we
are brought. lord i don't want justice give
me mercy now there are many who think that they're going to stand
before the lord and plead their case but there's not going to be any
pleading of the case, the case has already been pleaded by the
shedding of the blood of the lord jesus christ and so vain
will be the attempts of men to seek justice. They're going to
have justice. Vain will be their attempts at
that time to seek mercy. See, most men don't think they
need mercy. They think they're alright. They
think they've done good. You know, just like my old neighbor,
as I shared with you several times, he said, you know, he'd
just tell the Lord he always did what was right, always tried
to do what was right. And I thought to myself, you
know, that's a pretty poor hope there, because he knew that wasn't
true, and so did I. Never been a man born other than
the Lord Jesus Christ that always tried to do what was right. Now
I've always tried to do what was wrong and it was only by
the mercy of God that I've ever done those things that was right. Give me understanding, I am thy
servant. Give me understanding that I
might know thy testimonies. Do we not desire to know the
truth of God? Is that not the work of grace
in the heart of a man? Even as it was in the Lord Jesus
Christ by nature, give me understanding that I may know thy testimony.
He desired to know the will of God, the word of God, even though
he was God. Amazing, I can't wrap my head
around him being God and man, but yet he was for our sake. He showed himself unto men. It is time for thee, O Lord,
to work, for they have made void thy law. Now what he's saying
here is, rise up, O Lord. It's time for thee to work. You
see, his passion, even when he was in the temple, in the money
changers, were at their work and he was saying in his heart,
it's time for thee to work, O Lord. And he did, did he not? And he
scattered the money changers in the temple because the passion
of desiring to do the will of God, the zeal of the house of
the Lord, his desire for the glory of God filled him so much
that he could not stand those that made a mockery of the word
of God They have made void thy law. Now it's impossible that
men could void the law of God in the sense in which we think
of it, but they have disregarded the law. In their own mind they
void it, they say it doesn't make any difference. Therefore
I love thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. Therefore I esteem all thy precepts
concerning all things to be right. And I hate every false way. The Word of God, more precious
than gold. Can we really believe that? The Lord Jesus Christ, He is
the Word. And as we've said so many times,
the pages on this book, this is not the Word of God. But the
Word of God is contained in these pages. You can burn this book
and the Word of God won't go anywhere. But the Word of God
is given to us in a printed form. We might read it and rejoice
in it. And in that sense, it's more
precious than gold. What is the thing that we delight
in? I esteem all thy precepts concerning
all things to be right, and I hate every false way. You know, one
of the sins which is quite prevalent among the Israelites, and I wrote
about it this week in the Grace Gazette, is the sin of murmuring. And murmuring is not just complaining,
but the root cause of murmuring is when a man does not consider
that all of the ways of the Lord are right. Because he finds himself
in a situation that is not pleasant to him. And he says, well, you
know, this isn't good. I don't deserve this. You know,
things ought to be better. Why is all this stuff happening
to me? That's what murmuring is. And what arises is that it
arises out of the pride of a man's heart, that he thinks himself
to be something when he's nothing. All the ways of the Lord are
right. We sing that song every now and then, whatever my God
ordains is right. Holy His will abideth. I will
be still whatever He doth and follow where He guideth. He is
my God, though dark my road, He leads me that I cannot fall.
Oh, what a glorious thing, dear brethren, to be brought to an
understanding even the imperfect understanding
of it that we have, and the imperfect desire that we have, what a glorious
thing, to rest in the sovereign will and purpose of Almighty
God, to know that His way is right, that He will do right,
He may show mercy. As Job said, though He slay me,
yet will I trust Him. So you see, Job was a man that
learned that God was right, regardless. made it was by elected or not
there's plenty of people that they won't serve god because
i don't think god did with this writer that right you you have
been you talk to him and i mean well you know god calls my mom
and dad when i was young and i think forgive him for that
one maybe there was whether you can forgive him or not you need
to be concerned whether or not he forgives you because you don't
have a platform from which to to say anything Nebuchadnezzar
said it, did he not? He said the most high rule within
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth
and there's none that can say his hand or say unto him what
doest thou. See that's the end of murmuring.
And old Nebuchadnezzar, when he was eating grass out in the
field, I don't know, you know, what the Lord was putting in
his mind, but he said, buddy, when my understanding returned
to me, he says, I fell down and worshiped the most high God.
He said, I realized that whatever he did was right. And I couldn't
say a word about it. Oh, that the Lord might bring
us to that place. And because it's there that a man might worship
the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit and truth. For He is the Savior
of sinners. And He saves such as be of a
broken and a contrite heart. What a glorious Savior He is.