Psalm 36, to the chief musician,
a psalm of David, the servant of the Lord. The transgression
of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of
God before his eyes. For he flattereth himself in
his own eyes until his iniquity be found to be hateful. The words
of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He hath left off to be
wise and to do good. He diviseth mischief upon his
bed. He setteth himself in a way that
is not good. He abhorreth not evil. Thy mercy,
O Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto
the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the
great mountains. Thy judgments are great deep,
O Lord. Thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is our lovingkindness,
O God! Therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make
them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the
fountain of life, and thy light shall we see light. O continue
thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee, and thy righteousness
to the upright in heart. Let not the foot of pride come
against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. There
are the workers of iniquity fallen, they are cast down, and shall
not be able to rise." the testimony of David. And I
believe in a measure that we can see that as the Lord walked
among men and was the observer of men, though He had no wickedness
in His own heart, For he was without sin. He was perfect. There was nothing even within
him that Satan could get a hold upon. Remember when he told his
disciples that the hour was come, he said, Satan hath desired to
have me, but he hath found nothing in me. Satan had nothing in the
Lord. You see, whenever he tempted
him, after the Lord had fasted. Now, if that had been you or
I, we would have fallen very much prey to all of those temptations. But there was nothing in the
Lord that would incline Him toward those temptations, because He
was absolutely perfect. And He was not prone to deceit. See, the thing that makes you
and I prone to deceit is our sinful nature, is the corruptible
nature which we have. When the devil came to Eve and
he tempted her to eat that fruit, had she not been inclined Towards
eating the fruit, she would have never eaten it, would she? I
mean, he basically did the same thing to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He brought to him these things and he said, here, take of it.
But the Lord was not inclined towards it. But Eve was, the
scripture says, beguiled by the serpent. And so David's confession,
I believe the confession of David's own mouth, but I believe also
the observation of Christ as a man walking among men and seeing
the very nature of men. Of course, He created men. He knew what was in man, the
Scripture says. You know, it wasn't any surprise
to him, but nonetheless, he walked among men as a man, and in a
measure we could say firsthand, he saw that even though he was
the Creator. Yet as a man, he learned obedience
by the things which he suffered. He experienced these things as
a man. And so he can make this observation
that this is the way of man. But I believe David, in his own
testimony, Though some have interpreted this psalm as though David is
looking at these wicked men and saying this, but I believe David
is actually observing what he is by nature. He is seeing himself
as what he is, even as the Lord sees us for what we are. By the grace of God, when God
is pleased to open up a man's eyes and open up his understanding
to see what he is by nature, You see, the underlying thought
that men have in this world by nature is that, well, there's
a spark of good in everybody. You know, we can see good in
everybody. Don't you hear people say that? And I know what they
mean. I don't mean to go about and
say that every man I see is the most wicked creature that, you
know, ever lived, and that all men are inclined to the exact
same levels of wickedness that others are, but I know this is
a true thing, that the only reason they are not is because God has
restrained the wickedness that is in them by nature. It's not
anything good that's within them that has brought that to pass,
but it's the goodness of God that has surrounded them and
kept them back from those things. So David, he understood what
the transgression of the wicked was because he knew that he,
of himself and by himself, apart from the grace of God and the
restraining hand of the Lord, He would be as wicked as the
next man. The transgression of the wicked
saith within my heart." The testimony. Now how does a man come to that
conclusion? There is only one way, and that
is that the Spirit of God must awaken him to see himself for
what he is. And I don't believe that a man
will ever be converted He will never fall down and confess his
sin before the Lord unless he is taught in the inward parts
that there is no good thing that dwells within him. Because as
long as a man feels that he has some spark of good to bring to
the Lord, he'll hold out hope that he can fan that flame and
one day he can say, well, Lord, see, here's what I did. Now,
we have churches full of folks that believe that. They think
they can bring something to the Lord. But the transgression of
the wicked, David said, saith within my heart. Not his heart. He didn't say the transgression
of the wicked saith within his heart. He said it saith within
my heart. I see it. That there is no fear of God
before his eyes. Now, by the grace of God, we
fear the Lord. But do we fear the Lord by nature?
No, I mean, until the Lord puts His fear into a man's heart,
a man won't fear God. I mean, as we read Paul's description
of man by nature, the Scripture says that God gave them over
to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.
I mean, that's the way we are by nature. And the only thing
that keeps us back from that total destruction is the mercy
of God. The wicked saith within my heart
there is no fear of God before his eyes." The same thing that
he says in one of the other Psalms when he says, the fool has said
in his heart there is no God, or there is no God for me. In
other words, I won't serve God. I'll do what I want to do. That's
what the fool says, and every one of us is a fool by nature.
And we would be that way and go down that path apart from
the goodness of God to rescue us from it. For he, listen to
this, he flattereth himself. Now, the Grace Gazette this week
is entitled, The Flattery of the Wicked. And that's exactly what Satan,
the serpent, when he beguiled Eve, what did he do? He flattered
her, did he not? He flattered her ego. What? Well, you know better than that.
I mean, God said don't do it, but you know better than that.
You know that God is just trying to keep this back from you. You're
smarter than this. You can outsmart God. See, flattery
is at the heart of all deceit because it comes telling us that
we have something and that we are something, that we can do
something, does it not? Is that not what the very essence
of free will? Preaching is about. It's telling
me, well, you can do this. I mean, God, He's made provision
here, and just whenever you get ready, we hope you're ready today,
but if you're not, maybe next week you will be. And we hope
that you will. And it strokes man's ego. He's
flattered. Well, no, not today. I'll seek
the Lord next week. Now, men by nature think that
way, do they not? But it is the flattery, he says,
he flattered himself. See, a man says, well, you know,
preacher, I hear what you're saying and all that, but I'm
not ready yet. But when the time comes, I'll
get ready. You know, wasn't that what, was
it Festus that said to Paul, said, Paul, almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian. Now there are different ways
people have looked at what he said there, Perhaps he meant,
well, you know, maybe if I get to thinking about this, maybe
I'll think it through. You know, people say, well, I
want to find out more about this. But before I make my decision,
I want to find out more about it. Well, I'll tell you this,
there's never been a sinner that's been brought down under Holy
Ghost conviction that ever said, I think I'll wait and decide.
I mean, you know, did Paul, when he was on the road to Damascus,
Did he say, well, Lord, you know, I've got to think about this.
I don't want to make any rash decisions. I don't want to jump
off into this. No. It wasn't anything like that,
was it? I mean, when the Spirit of God
came upon him, he said, Lord, who art thou? See, he was brought
down to the end of himself. He knew, buddy, he'd hit the
end of the road. There wasn't no more seeking
out threatenings and slaughters. He was in a bind. He needed some
help real quick. And so it is as the Spirit of
God convinces a man of sin, for he flatters himself in his own
eyes till his iniquity be found to be hateful. See, the Lord
allows, if you want to use that term, I believe the Lord causes
men to flatter themselves till they come to the place where
they say, you know, I'm a fool. Now that's the work of God. You
see, the Lord uses even the flattery of men of their own selves to
bring them to the place of, you know, that's a bunch of baloney. I mean, didn't the Lord bring
you to the end of yourself? And say, well, you know, all
that stuff I've been hearing and I've been thinking, that's
been wrong. That's where Job was brought, was it not? Job
was a flatterer of himself. He flattered himself throughout
the book of Job. You know, the Lord loved Job. The whole book of Job is about
the Lord's love for Job. But Job was a man just like all
men. He had some things he had to
learn. And the Lord used wicked men to confront him about many
of these things, and the Lord used Job to confront them, and
then in the end, the Lord rebuked them all. But he loved Job and he said,
Jehovah, where were you when I laid the foundations of the
earth? And he went through a whole couple of chapters there telling
Job about the things he did not know. And all the flattery that
Job had about what he thought he knew about God went out the
window. And he said, I have heard of
thee. He said, I flattered myself in time past. I thought I knew
something. You know, sometimes, and all of us probably have been
through measures of this, some more so than others, we get a
hold of the Bible and we get to studying it a little bit,
and the Lord shows us a few things, and we get to thinking we really
know something. And so, buddy, you know, we go about then to
straighten everybody out, and, buddy, we get them by the collar,
and, buddy, we show them, you know, well, buddy, you know this
is the way it is, and all of that kind of stuff. And we flatter
ourselves with how much we know. But as the Lord teaches us, He
shows us, we don't know anything. I used to have all the answers.
I don't have very many now, but I know what the answer is. It's
Christ and Him crucified. And all the other things, you
know, I'm not going to argue with a man tooth and toenail
and try to prove my point with him because I know this, unless
the Lord opens his heart and mind to show him the truth, he'll
never see it. He can't see it. And I know the
Lord uses, even again, the wickedness of men, the harshness of men.
He'll use the flattery of men, the way of men, to bring His
people to the place He wants them to be. But there's no place,
really, in the Spirit of God for a man to flatter himself.
There's not one thing you can flatter yourself about. Not one
thing. There's not a thing you know.
There's not a thing you love. There's not a thing that you've
ever done in the name of the Lord that wasn't brought to pass
because of the Lord's work in you. There's not a thing you
can boast in. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory. And Paul had some things to glory
in now. Did he not? I mean, he'd gone
up to the third heaven. I mean, I'd have been glorying,
you know. He said, I'm not going to glory
in that. He said, I'm going to glory that I'm a sinner saved
by grace, by the grace of Almighty God, by the Savior of sinners.
by the one who died on the cross. You see, that's where our glory
is. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of Christ my Lord. The words of His mouth are iniquity
and deceit. He had left off to be wise and
to do good. That's natural. The mouth of the wicked, the
Scripture says, the wicked go astray as soon as they are born,
speaking lies. Now, some say, oh, well, that's
just them bad children. That's other people's children. Isn't it funny how you can see
the wickedness in other people's children and how they need to
raise their children right. They just aren't doing a good
job. Those kids, they are just disobedient
and they are unruly and all that. But dear brethren, every one of us, as soon as we
were able, we went about speaking lies. Nobody ever told us to
tell a lie, did they? But the first time we got caught
in something that we were not supposed to be doing, what was
the first thing that came out of our mouth? A lie. You know, I know George Washington
never did, but that's just the way that
it is. That's what's in the heart of
man. And David describes it. He devises mischief upon his
bed, sits around and thinks about wickedness, devising ways to
commit wickedness. Now this is the way of the natural
man. It's the way of all of us. He setteth himself in a way that
is not good. He does not hate evil. He abhors
not evil. He does not hate evil. He runs
after it by nature. But listen to this. Now, and
here is the only thing that makes a difference. Thy mercy. Now
just think, if God judged us according to what was in our
hearts, I mean, some people say, oh, well, God knows what's in
my heart. Well, brother, that's the worst
thing that could happen. If the Lord ever shows you what's
in your heart, you won't take any comfort in saying, the Lord
knows my heart. I mean, that would be the thing
you fear the most. The Lord does know your heart. He knows what
you are by nature. But you see, we've not been called
to preach that to men. We have been called to preach
to them what He says here. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens. See, He is full of mercy to all
who call upon His name. He is in the heavens. His faithfulness
reaches to the clouds. He will never forsake those whom
He loves. He will never forsake those that
seek Him. Thy righteousness is like the
great mountains. Thy judgments are great deep,
O Lord. Thou preservest man and beast. What is it? Now, you know, we've been inundated
in the last few years with those well-meaning souls and people
who want us to preserve the planet. And I'm not for going out here
and polluting the planet you know, doing things to destroy
the environment. I am not in favor of any of that.
But a man is a fool that thinks he has the power to pass legislation
and to get people to do things that will preserve this planet.
God preserves the planet. And it will be destroyed in the
moment when He says it will be destroyed. And there is not a
thing that a man will do that will cause anything to be prevented
that God does not cause to occur. He preserves man and beast. How does He do it? By preserving
seed time and harvest. By causing the rain to fall.
By causing the seeds to sprout. Now people think the seeds just
sprout because they just sprout. No, seeds sprout because God
made them that way. What if God said tomorrow, the
seeds are not going to sprout? What would you do? I mean, can
you cause a seed to sprout? I mean, can you cause something
to grow? Can you cause the sun to shine? Can you cause photosynthesis
to occur? No, God preserves these things.
He preserves man and beast. Where do the wild beasts get
their food? We have pets, and I'm going to
pick on my wife. She has cats, and she loves those
cats. And she'll do all kinds of stuff
to help those cats. And she's very faithful to put
those cats in the cat room at night so the cats are not out. But what about all the cats that
are out there that don't have somebody that cares about them?
Who cares about them? The Scripture says the Lord preserves
them. That's what it says. He preserves
man and beast. Where does our food come from?
How do we get it? I know we can talk about how
it is, but how do we really get it? I mean, where do we get it?
Why do we get it? Because the Lord provides it.
Thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is our love and
kindness, O God! How wonderful are the ways of
the Lord to provide the things that His people need, to preserve
the whole earth, You see, there is not a man who will ever stand
before Almighty God in the day of judgment that will be able
to accuse God of being less than merciful and kind to him in the
days of his life, because every mouth and morsel full of food
that he ever ate in his life came from the Lord. Every breath
that he took, every drink of water that flaked his thirst
came from the hand of the Lord. How excellent is our lovingkindness,
O God! Can not all the earth? Should that not be the testimony
of every creature in the earth? How excellent is our lovingkindness!
Lord, You've provided all these things for us. Therefore, the
children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings."
What is it? The goodness of God. The Scripture
says, "...the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance."
Is that not true? I mean, is it not the mercy of
God revealed to us that breaks our heart in the grace? I mean,
when you think of the mercy of Jesus Christ going to the cross
in our behalf, paying our sin debt, does that not overwhelm
your mind with gratitude? Are you not brought down before
His face with thankfulness? I mean, what did the Lord tell
us to do? He said, remember his death till
he comes again. Why? Because in his death we
see his mercy displayed. We see his provision for salvation. We see his preservation even
of his people. Therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. Now, not all, but
those whom he purposes that they shall. That's the reason that
we do, you see. is because of his mercy and his
lovingkindness. They shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink
of the river of thy pleasures. There is no greater blessing
for the sons of God than to feast upon the goodness of the Lord. I mean, where is the greatest
blessing the people of God will ever receive? It's not in the
money that they make in their life, or the friends that they
have, or even in their family, as much as we love our family.
But it is in the mercy of God communicating to us His truth,
His goodness, His mercy, His kindness, and showing us the
pleasures of living. Now, the flesh considers
that the pleasures of living is found in all the things the
flesh takes pleasure in, but brethren, that's not the pleasure
of the sons of God. For with thee is the fountain
of life. In thy light shall we see light. Now John said it Over here he
said, in him was life, and the life was the light of men in
Christ. Now, any man that has life has
it because of Christ. Now some people, you know, when
you think of, most people think of life as just being not dying. You know, in other words, we
go by the graveyard and we say, well, man, we're thankful we've
got life and those folks are dead. Well, that is one kind
of life, but that's not the life of which we speak, but the life
that we have in Christ. Now, all life, even that kind
that keeps us out of the graveyard, is from the Lord. I mean, He
numbers our days, even as He numbers the hairs on our head,
but the life that we desire in the life we have is in Christ. Our life is hidden in Him. For
with thee is the fountain of life. Isn't that what the Lord
said to the woman at the well? He said, if you had known who
I was, you would have asked me and I would have given you a
fountain of water, a well springing up into everlasting life. And
she said, Lord, evermore give me this water. I want to drink
some of it. And oh, the Lord is a fountain of life to His
people. In thy light shall we see light. Only by the light of the Lord
can we see the light of the Lord. The light of the Lord shines
everywhere. He's always been shining since the beginning.
The Lord said, Let there be light. But we live in a world that is
covered with light. But you see, it is only in the
light of Christ that men can see what the true light is, because
men look at all these things and they are satisfied with it. The world is satisfied with the
world. Oh, continue Thy lovingkindness unto them that know Thee, and
Thy righteousness to the upright in heart. Oh Lord, may Your blessings
be ever upon us, because Only as the Lord causes a man to be
upright in heart. See, that was what the Lord said
about Job when He brought Satan up there. And He said, Have you
considered My servant Job who is upright? Why was Job upright? Because the Lord made him upright. I mean, that's the only way any
man is. And the Lord saves the upright.
He is the righteousness of the upright in heart. And then he
says this, David's prayer, let not the foot of pride come against
me. Now, Bob Dylan wrote a song,
The Foot of Pride, and I don't remember all about the song,
I just remember that he did sing a song about that. But most people
think that the foot of pride in what he's talking about here
is, don't let the proud come against me. But that's not at
all what he's saying. He said, let not the foot of
pride. What's the foot of pride? It's that flattery that he began
speaking about. He flatters himself in his own
eyes. You see, who has the foot of
pride? We do. When you take your shoes
off, look at your foot when you go home tonight. And you'll see
the foot of pride. It's right there. He said, don't
let the foot of pride come against me. See, only the Lord can cause
a man to hate the foot of his own pride. That's the only way
that that can occur. Let not the foot of pride come
against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me. Where's
the hand of the wicked? Look at the end of your arm.
There it is. It's right there. Don't let those
things destroy me, oh Lord. Lord, keep me back from my secret
sins. I'm my own worst enemy. See? You don't have to... People
talk about, you know, the devil fought against them and bullied
all they have and all he's taught. Well, most of our problems, the
devil doesn't have anything to do with it. He's probably got
bigger fish to fry and things he's doing than worrying about
you. But I'll tell you this, your flesh night and day will
war against you. Constantly will. The flesh lusteth
against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And we'd be
overcome except for one thing, and that is the mercy of Almighty
God. And the prayer of the righteous is, let not the hand of the wicked
remove me, for there are the workers of iniquity fallen. They
are cast down and shall not be able to rise. Those that are
taken by the foot of pride and taken by the hand of the wicked,
they will not be able to rise. O Lord, keep us back from such
things, because we know ourselves to be prone to it, for we are
flatterers. of ourselves. The Lord said,
He that is greatest in the kingdom of God is He that is the servant
of all. And we want to flatter ourselves
and we think, well, you know, we ought to be served. Isn't
that how our nature is? That we would rather be served
than we had to serve? You know, we want people to,
well, take notice of me. Do what I want to do. I mean,
you get a bunch of kids together, and they can play along pretty
good. And of course, you have some, you know, that's more,
I say, bossy or whatever than others. But usually, it doesn't
make a difference what that pecking order is. Eventually, everybody
gets enough of that. And one will say, well, I want
to do what I want to do. And then here you have it. Now
that's just by nature. But we'll all go that way apart
from the grace of God. And thanks be unto the Lord that
He is that One that preserves His people even unto the end. We know what we are. And that's
not a negative thing. I'm glad the Lord showed me what
I am. I hope that He continues to show
me what I am, that He might ever keep me looking to Him for help. Because when the foot of pride
comes is when we say, well, Lord, we don't need You anymore. And
I've shared this story with you, I'm sure. I don't have two or
three stories, so I know I probably have. But about the fellow that
was sliding down the roof, he was on a tin roof, and he lost
his footing, and he was sliding down towards the edge, and he
started to cry, and, oh, Lord, help me. And when he got to the
edge of the roof, there was one nail that was hanging up a little
bit, and the strap of his overalls hung on that nail and he stopped. And he said, it's okay now, Lord,
I can take care of it from here. Now you see, rather than thanking
the Lord for delivering him by hanging him on that nail, he
said, well, you know, I don't need the Lord anymore because
I got what I was looking for. That's the foot of pride. Is
it not? I mean, people that pray to get
what they want until they get it, and then they say, well,
we got it, now we'll go do what we want to with it. The foot
of Christ, the hand of the wicked, the way we are by nature. But
oh, may the grace of God subdue us and bring us into conformity
with Christ.