I thought we just might spend
a little time in some of these verses here. I don't know if
we'll go through the whole psalm or not. We'll see how the Lord
leads on that. Let's bow and have a word of
prayer. Father, we do thank You for all
that You are. We thank You for Your great work
of mercy and grace. We thank You for all that You
do for Your people. We thank You that You have chosen
to call us out of the world today and to gather us together for
fellowship, for worship. We pray, Lord, that you might
govern this meeting today, that you might govern our time, govern
the words that are being said, the thoughts that are being done. Lord, we pray that you might
help us to serve and to worship you rightly. Lord, we know that
In and of ourselves, fleshly man, can I do anything to please
you? That inward man that's renewed every day, that lives forth in
song and lives forth in love towards you and towards the brethren.
We know that's by your grace that that happens. But Father,
we are thankful that we've been given an opportunity to come
together today, share in the things of God, hear about Christ. So we ask, Lord, that you would
help us Again, as we open up these words, Lord, I pray that
you would help me to expound these things, that you might
give me utterance, Lord, that you might speak to your people
this morning, minister to their hearts, and Lord, that you might
edify them and grow them. I was visiting this week with
a dear brother and he brought up the 139th Psalm
and was talking about how that really speaks to him. And whenever
I got home from work that night, I started looking at it and kind
of went back to it two or three times this week and just kind
of read and pondered on it. And it kind of was really sticking
in my head this morning. whenever I got up and was getting
ready. So I opened up the Bible this morning and started going
down through some of these verses and just thinking about these.
And, you know, sometimes I think in the scriptures, I think I
mentioned this not too long ago, but I think a lot of times we
see that there is more than one application that we can see in
scripture about things. Whenever we look at the 139th
Psalm, especially, I think that we can see Jesus Christ. Of course, we know the Bible
says that all the Psalms and the Prophets are written about
Him, right? And I think that He's the subject
of everything in Scripture. That doesn't mean that there
aren't other subjects that are talked about and run alongside
of the glaring, overarching theme of the Scriptures, which is Christ
Jesus. But like in this 139th Psalm, we know that it's written
by David, so we know that this is David's heart. Of course,
it's inspired by God. God, the Spirit, by the Spirit,
give David to write these things and to pen these things. But
whenever David wrote these things, we know that David wrote these.
It says, to the chief musician of Psalm of David, this was a
song that David had wrote, and he wrote this expressing the
things of his heart, right? So we see that it had application
to David himself. But as I look at this psalm,
I see that it has application to the Lord Jesus Christ. But whenever we look at it also,
we can see that it has application to every one of his children.
And so sometimes we can look at these things and we can see
that there is a multi-layered application that can be seen
in some of these passages, whether it is to the exact person that
is writing it, to the person that is being written about,
whether it be Jesus or whether it be all the children of grace.
I think this would be the experience of every child of grace. Matter
of fact, I think this would, for the most part, some of the
things that we're going to see here is the experience of as far as the statement of fact
is concerned, what we're going to see here. But whenever we look at this through
the lens of what we see about Christ Jesus, we see as it pertains
to his humanity, as it pertains to his coming in flesh, and his
work as the mediator, his work as our substitute. But this morning
I thought I would go down through this for, as I hope, for encouragement
to all of us, not only just for knowledge about things of God
and the things of men. Whenever we start looking at
just carnal things, a lot of times we begin to get puffed
up and proud. Okay, so I try not to harbor
so much on the carnal side of things as it pertains to the
wisdom of man or the knowledge of man. of Adam, but look at
the things from the spiritual, and pray that the Spirit give
us the spiritual understanding of these things. And what I see
in this 139th Psalm, and as the brother that shared it with me
this week, he even pointed out too, is that we see the doctrine
of God's sovereignty, we see the doctrine of God's omniscience,
the doctrine of God's omnipresence. We see the grandiose nature of who God is
and all that God is as creator of his people, of this world
that we live in, everything that's in it. We see how God is over
all things. And whenever you first start
reading through this, you begin to to think, and I do believe
it talks about his omniscience in here, his knowing all things. But again, as I made mention
a few weeks ago, when God knows something, the reason that God
knows it is not because He can look ahead into the future, because
God's eternal. He exists at all times. He's
not looking from one point before time and looking and seeing what
time is going to work out and what's going to happen as the
things of man go on and on and on and on, and all the actions
of man. He's not foreseeing the future,
but God knows all things because He has declared all things. God
has, in His sovereign will, in His sovereign purpose, has determined
all things that would take place. And I think this song, as my
dear brother had pointed out to me, is very pointed in this
direction. Not only is salvation predetermined
by God, but every action, everything is predetermined by God. Therefore,
He knows all things. He knows everything that's going
to happen because God has declared that this is what is going to
happen. I am going to order all things according to my purpose. And whenever I order all things,
they're not going to be altered. We can't alter God's ordering. Whatever God orders, that's going
to happen. No matter what it seems that
we do in our, so to speak, free will, all of our actions, reactions,
all of our thoughts, all of our decisions and everything, all
of those are part of that ordered purpose. I know some people don't
like that. They say, well, you're just a
robot and everything. uh, you know, it is what it is. Did you have a question at all?
Oh, okay. Well, I see you're raising your hand. I was going
to let you talk if you wanted to talk. Okay. All right. Do you have a question? Tell
me. A lot of people think you become
a robot whenever this is taking place. The Bible actually purpose to do whatever He wants.
He makes us and uses us for His purpose. All of us have a design
purpose. But I thought we'd look through
here and just see, because to me it really did bless my heart
not only to know this, to me it's a comfort to know these
things. To other people it's harshness. They don't like this.
And that's because the Adamic man doesn't like the God of the
Scriptures. The Adamic man doesn't like the
testimony of the sovereign God. He doesn't like the testimony.
And whenever I say the Adamic man, I'm not talking about the
reprobates out there. I'm talking about everyone, including
every child of grace who has within themselves both the old
man and the inward man. The ones that we still have this
body of flesh that is at enmity with the spirit that is in us.
The spirit that is in us wages war against the flesh, and the
flesh wages war against the spirit, and that consternation that is
between the two is always there. It has been placed there by God
for a purpose for His people. That consternation of the spirit
and the flesh is always going to be there, Adam and the second
Adam. The Isaac and Ishmael, the two
seeds are always going to be at disharmony with each other
and they're always going to be fighting with each other. That
which is of the flesh is flesh and it cannot please God. That
which is of the spirit is spirit and it is perfect, created in
true righteousness and holiness. And that which is in us cannot
sin. Therefore, them residing in one
person, there's the conflict. And so with that conflict, we
see that God has designed and purposed for us to experience
these things throughout our whole entire life. And every action,
every reaction, whether it's of the Adamic man or whether
it's of the new man, all the things that we experience in
this life has been ordered by God, controlled by God, and is
for a purpose that we might be exercised in. God has created
all of his people subject to vanity. Why? So that they might
be exercised in that. He has created the habitation
in which we live, every one of us. Where we are living, where
we are, the surroundings, the people that we are around and
being influenced by or influencing, God has determined all those
things. Where I live, where I work, where I find entertainment, where
I find pleasure, where I find edification, everything that
has to do with my life, God has ordered that and is exercising
me in those things to prove and to show and to teach the child
of grace the things of God, that we might know Him, that we might
love Him, that we might love the brethren, that we might grow
in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
He does that through all these things. And so whenever we look
in here to these passages, we see that there isn't anything,
not anything, that God hasn't already known or predetermined
to take place or ordered for our lives. Let's go ahead and
start reading down through here and make some notes on what's
happening here. It says in verse 1, it says,
O Lord, and I'll just pause right there, if you'll notice there
in your Bible, Those are all capital letters there. The word
LORD, that's the word whenever you see in your King James Bible,
whenever you see LORD in all caps, that's always the Hebrew
word Jehovah, Yahweh, Jehovah, the proper name of God. This
is speaking of God in His fullness, God as the I Am. And whenever you see with the
lower L, LORD, that generally is speaking of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Generally speaking of Him as the Savior, you're generally
speaking of Him as the One who is over all things. But here
we see, oh Lord, this is talking about the I Am, the One who has
created all things, the One who controls all things. And I'm
not saying that Jesus doesn't. We only have one God, so I'm
not saying that they're different persons. I'm just saying it's
talking about that role, that characteristic of God as it pertains
to His office as Creator of all things, Ruler of all things,
Controller I mean, his sovereignty. It's talking about the I am whenever
he told Moses, you know, this is my name and this is how I
want to be known forever. That I am that I am the self-existent
God, the one that's not controlled by anything that's outward influence. It's he is who he is. OK, that's
who we're talking about. He says, oh, Lord, thou hast
searched me and known me. Now, brother, that right there,
just off the front there, that's an amazing thing to know, that
God, who has created all things, ought to know His creation. I
ought to know. I mean, I have children. I ought to know my children.
Why? Because not only have we born
these children, But we have raised these children and live with
these children. We should know our children. Well, the Lord
not only has created us, but has made us the makeup that we
are. You know, it's like you were
saying earlier, brother, you're not making an excuse for anything,
but this is how the Lord has made me. You know, that's kind
of what we're talking about here. The Lord has made us the way
that he has made us. Some of us are shy. Some of us
are backwards a little bit. Some of us are straightforward.
or brash. Some of us are sarcastic. Not
pointing any fingers. Some of us are the way that we
are because that's how God has made us. But here it says, thou
hast searched me and known me. Listen, brethren, there isn't
anything about you that God does not know. I mean, you think you
aren't known You think you might have secrets. You think there
might be some things. But the Lord knows us. The Lord
knows everything about us. Not because, again, He's observing
from without, but because He is the one who has fashioned
us the way that He has. He's the one who restrains. He
is the one who lets. He is the one who enables. He is the one who chokes. He keeps things down. I mean,
He's the one that is controlling all things, but He knows us. He has searched us. He has searched
us because He is the one who has made the very fabric of who
we are. He knows who we are. He says,
Thou knowest my down-sitting and my up-rising. Thou understandest,
this is the one, the kicker, Thou understandest my thought
afar off. God knows every action that I
do, whether I rise up, whether I lay down, whether I go out,
whether I come in. Whatever I'm doing, God knows
everything. But more than just that, He's
not seeing just my actions. He's not just controlling my
actions. We know the Bible says that He directs our steps, right? And a lot of people will say,
well, there you go. He's directing my steps as far as He's controlling
my actions. He's making circumstances happen
where like today, you know, maybe I plan to You know, once church
is over, maybe go down and, you know, buy a gallon of milk. Well,
God didn't want me to buy a gallon of milk, so he's going to cause
me to have a flat tire or something like that. So God's manipulating
the outward things so that we can't do anything that's opposed
to his purpose. So he's changing the course of
action so that it would fulfill what he wants to do. Well, brethren,
I think that he is, and I think the Bible That He has ordained
all things to happen exactly the way He's wanting it to happen,
and that is fulfilling His purpose. He's not having to react to things
so that His purpose will be taken back up, but He is controlling
all things, fulfilling His purpose. And here it says, Thou knowest
my down-sitting and my up-rising, but look what it says there,
Thou understandest my thoughts afar off. God knows your actions,
but He knows your thoughts. And if He knows your thoughts,
again, it's not because He's looking down the corridor of
time or He's peeking in through your skull, looking in one ear
to see what you're thinking. Why does He know your thoughts?
It's hard for that Adamic man to answer that. It's because
He puts them there. He knows our thoughts because
our thoughts are given by God. We can't claim that God's words
are in everything and not claim that God's words aren't in what
we think. How we feel. How we react. What angers us. What calms us. The thoughts that
I have in my mind? How did they get there? Is it
just a chemical reaction? Is it a sign to say it's just
a chemical reaction that happens within the brain? Whenever the
synapses are jumping back and forth all across the thing? How
is it that God You can control all things, but
you can't control the mind and the will of the person. God can't
control that. And He controls that for His
purpose. And He says, I know all of your
thoughts from afar. He tells us. As our God, He knows
all of our thoughts from afar. Now, what does that tell me?
Well, number one, it should give me calmness to know that the
Lord knows me. He knows what I'm going through.
He knows what I'm experiencing. If I'm having hardness and temptation,
if I'm having anger, if I'm having greed, whatever I'm experiencing,
God knows that. God understands and knows. Why?
Because God has given that to me to be exercised in. God knows
that. So I should have some sort of
peace and some sort of a comfort to know that all the things that
God has given for me to experience. Remember, Solomon was given to
experience everything that the flesh could indulge in, right?
And what did Solomon end up saying about all of it? It's all vexation,
vanity. It's all nothing. It's not worth
anything. I mean, that ought to tell us.
Hey, listen, all the pursuits that are out there in the world
that you can indulge yourself in, it's nothing compared to
knowing God, to be known of God, to be His people. Solomon was
the wisest man in the world, and he indulged in every fleshly
thing that could ever be indulged in. And he said, listen, at the
end of the day, none of it's worth anything. But yet God gives
that to Solomon to be exercised in. Why? So that Solomon might
come to the end of himself and know, hey, it doesn't matter
what I pursue in this life, none of it is worth anything compared
to God, compared to knowing Him and being known of Him. And here
we see our thoughts, God controls all our thoughts. Why? So that we might be exercised
in the things that we think, exercised in the things that
we experience. Why? So that we might know Him. So
that we might look to Him. So that we also might find that
everything is vexation and vanity except for Him. He has given
us these thoughts. What? Preacher, you're saying
He's given me my dirty thoughts? He's given you them dirty thoughts.
He's allowed those dirty thoughts into your mind. Why? So that
we might see the depth of the depravity of the Adamic man that
is doing battle with that man who is on the inside. So that
we might continue to remember that there is nothing in us that
can ever attain to a righteousness that our righteousness is that
of Christ. Because as soon as Adam begins
to see and to think and to do that You know what? I can do
a little bit. I can climb out of that. I can
restrain from this. I can restrain from that. I can
keep from doing that. And as soon as that Adamic man
sees that nice little piece of fruit and says, it looks good. It's good for me. It can make
me wise. And I see that fruit. And if
I do it, I can be as God, making my own decisions about good and
evil. Guess what? Now I have performed
a righteousness in myself. And the next thing I know, I'm
sliding on that suit of thick clothes that God is surely going
to be impressed with. You see why God gives us the
vexation and the vanity and even our thoughts? Because to the child of grace
who has that inward man in them, the child of grace is always
being taught by God that we cannot do anything worthy of righteousness
so that inward man, Man born from above always is going to
be battling against that flesh and saying, you might be thinking
that you are making a righteousness before God, but there is none
righteous, no, not one. That all your deeds are filthy
rags. That's what the inward man continues
to tell the natural man. The natural man keeps pointing
the finger at the inward man and saying, you're vile. You're
wretched. You're worthless. You cannot
keep God's law. You don't deserve God's stuff.
God knows our thoughts from afar. He keeps us repenting in dust
and ashes. He keeps us looking our eyes
upward, not inward. God has given us these thoughts.
He knows our thoughts. Look at verse 3. It says, Thou
can passest my path and my lying down and are acquainted with
all my ways, this compasseth my path and my lying down. This
basically means just he spreads it out. The word actually means
like to winnow. We don't use the word very much
in this day and time, but a winnowing port was something that they'd
go in and whenever they would have the straw or the hay or
the stuff, they would pitch that and that would separate the wheat
and the chaff, okay? What it's saying here is God
has spread out or He has distinguished between our ways. He knows the
good. He knows the evil. He knows everything
about us. He knows my lying down. He knows all my ways. He's acquainted
with all my ways. Why? Again, because God has ordained
all things for me. He has ordained all things that
I will experience in this lifetime. I cannot get outside of the habitation
and the exercising in which God has placed upon me. I can't get
past that. He says, for there is not a word
in my tongue. Oh, here it is now. He not only
knows our thoughts, but He also governs and has ordained all
things that we say. For there is not a word in my
tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together. He knows
what we say in secret. He knows what we say behind someone's
back. He knows what we say in our own heart. He knows us inside
and outside. And the reason He knows us is
because He has ordained us as we are. He says, Thou hast beset
Me behind and before and laid Thy hand upon Me. He is guarding us. We talked about last week that
He is preserving us in Christ Jesus, right? He is keeping us
from falling. What was the last verse that we read, that Brother
Larry read? It was in June. Let me read it
real quick. Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. That's what we're
talking about here. He has beset me behind and before
and laid His hand upon me. He is holding me up. He is guarding
me. That word beset there means like
a fortitude, like a fortress. He has beset me. He is guarding
me. He is keeping me from falling.
He is preserving me. Now, isn't that nice to know
that God is doing that in light of the fact that God knows our
heart, knows our mind, knows our thoughts, knows our words.
God knows us and who we are. And the fact that God knows us
and we're a child of grace, surely we've been given to know that
we are sinners before God. unholy and unworthy, but to know
that even though God knows our heart and our mind and our speech
and our activity, He still guards us. He still upholds us. He still preserves us. He still
loves us. It's amazing to know that. God
truly knows me, but yet even though He knows me, He has not
ceased to love me, to protect me, to do what's good for me. He has done all those things even
though He knows me. Now, I know you guys know me
kind of, you know, and the longer we fellowship together, the more
you know me. But nobody really knows anybody
except the person themselves. Nobody knows me. My wife has
been with me for 32 years, and we kind of know each other. But
still, I'm learning things about her, she's learning things about
me, and we change over our lifetimes. And so we have to continue to
get to know each other, right? But nobody knows anybody except,
matter of fact, I think that's biblical because the Bible says
that nobody knows the spirit of man except the man, right?
The spirit of man. The only person that knows me
like me is me. And God. And God knows me. I know things about me that nobody
else knows about me. That I don't want anybody else
to know about me, right? I'm sure we all can probably
say the same thing. God knows us. He knows our thoughts. He knows the intent of our heart. Why? Because He has given it
to us. But yet in midst of all of the knowing who we are, He
still loves us, and He still protects us, He still preserves
us, He still keeps us. Verse 6, such knowledge, and
this kind of backs up what I just said here, how amazing this is.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. The vastness of knowing God's
control, God's purpose, we can't ever find the bottom of it. We
can't ever explore all of it. You know, we like to go over
to Roaring River every now and then. As a matter of fact, me
and my wife just went there not too long ago looking for eagles
to take pictures of. And every time we go, even though
we've seen it several times, we like to go up there where
the fish hatchery is and go all the way back to the cave where
the roaring river spring comes up out of the underneath of that
thing. How deep and blue and greenish
the water is and all those big old trout that's swimming around
in there. We like to go look at all that stuff. And we always,
when we look at the map and we see, have they explored any further? Because they've not ever reached
the bottom of that. They've never been able to explore far enough
down to find how far down that spring is that starts. And they
went down hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of feet. I think,
what is it, 500 feet or 700 feet or something like that that they've
gone down so far and they still can't reach the bottom? They
still don't know? They still haven't explored all the caves
that's back inside this thing? I mean, it's just immense. It's
not been explored. You know, it's unfathomable what
could all be there because it's not been explored. Well, here
we see. This is so wonderful for me. It's something that I
can't even understand. I can't attain to it. Why? Because
it's so deep. It's so rich. And every time
I think I've explored this part of it, another cavern opens up
and I see God's love and I see God's working. I see God's sovereignty. I see God's order of all things.
And how God is working all things according to the purpose of His
will. And how God is bringing all things to the glory of Christ
Jesus. And whenever we begin to look
at all that and I think about myself in such a trivial manner
about, oh, poor me, this is what the Lord's doing for me right
now and this is what the Lord's not doing for me right now. This
is what happened to me today at work. This is what happened
between me and my kids and me and my wife. All the trivial
things of life that I think is all like that. But yet whenever
we sit back and look at the chasm and the big giant realm that God has given us and
controlling all things, and all of it is to the ultimate glory
of Christ Jesus, we look and see, man, how vast and how wide
and how deep and how immense is all the things of God. And
here I am complaining, here I am, you know, poor old me, about
my situation, and to think that God still knows
me. To think that God still is actively
Working me to His good. Working me to His purpose. Working
me to fulfill whatever it is that God has purposed for me,
for you, for whoever, for everyone. Now brethren, that's intricate.
I mean, there's so many minor things that we don't even know
about. The psalmist is saying here, such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It's too high. I cannot attain it. I can't reach
the depths of it. I can preach for days and days
and days. I know sometimes you probably
think that I'm trying. I can't attain to that. Nobody's going to find out God
by searching. Nobody's going to reach the depths,
brethren. But we can do one thing. We can enjoy what God has given
to us at the moment. We can find comfort in what God
has led us in on. What light He has shined upon
us. Verse 7 says, whether shall I
go from thy spirit, or whether shall I flee from thy presence.
You know, a lot of times we like to run from God whenever, especially
whenever we know that we're not doing right. We like to run from
God. We like to go, you know, hey,
I'm just going to get out of here. Most of the time, what
we do is we ditch the church. If we get away from God's people,
we can get away from God, right? And we can. We can get away from
God's people. I've seen people throughout the years, you know,
they quit coming to church. Why? Because they began to indulge
in some sort of activity that they think is going to get them
kicked out of God's favor and the favor of everybody else.
And so they get out of church and then they get satisfied with
being out of church and they just don't and come back and
whatever happens. Brethren, that's also of the
Lord as well. But it says here, whether shall
I go from thy Spirit or whether shall I flee from thy presence?
God's everywhere. Not only does God know everything,
we've just seen God has knowledge of everything about us, but we
also know that there isn't anywhere that we can go to get away from
God. Everywhere we go, God's there. God is with us wherever
we are. Whether shall I go from thy Spirit?
Well, we can't go anywhere. from thy Spirit. Well, for the
child of grace, we can't go anywhere from His Spirit. Why? Well, number
one, His Spirit is within us. We take Him everywhere we go.
If I decide to take up and run, guess what? The Spirit of God
is with me. Whether shall I flee from my
presence? Have you ever thought we can't
ever flee from the presence of God? He said, I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake
you. We are always in the presence of God. It says here, if I ascend
up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. Whether I'm living the Christian
life, guess what? You're there. Whether I'm living
like a devil, guess what? You're there too. Wherever I'm
at. Now, that's not okay to go out
and live like the devil. I'm not saying that. I'm just
saying, all of us has experienced that time where we've indulged
in sin and we know we're in sin and we kind of like to unravel
in that maybe a little bit. And so to speak, live like the
devil. But guess what? The Lord's there. See, that's
the wonderful thing about substitution. That's the wonderful thing about
justification. Not that it gives us a license
to go sin, But that whenever this Adamic man does, so to speak,
take the reins, and I'm not saying he's controlling anything, but
when he, so to speak, takes the rein of this vessel, God is there. The reins only go as far as the
Lord lets him. The reins are there for a purpose. He says, If I take the wings
of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, He's
saying there, He's like, if I try to get away from God, just like
the sun, whenever the sun peeks over the horizon and immediately
that light beam reaches from horizon to horizon, as fast as
it does that, that's how fast I want to get away from God.
From here to there, get away from Him. Guess what? He's still
there. No matter how far I go, no matter where I go, He is there. Whenever that prodigal son had
his face down in that pig pen, eating along with the pigs that
was making him unclean according to Jewish law, do you think God was not with
him? Was God there with him? He was right there with him in
that pigsty. He was there whenever he swatted
away his money. Well, matter of fact, he was
there whenever he decided to leave He was there whenever he
squandered all the goods. He was there whenever he was
begging. And he was there whenever he got down to his lowest point
where he shoved his face down in the food and ate alongside
the pigs. The Lord was with him. Listen, brethren, if we're the
children of grace, when the times of sin come, and I say when,
not if, when, when the times of sin will come, Not that you
should go out and look for it. Not that you are alright to seek
it out and indulge in it. I'm not saying that. Don't blame
the preacher for saying those things. When the time of sin
comes, the Lord never leaves us nor forsakes us because the
robe of righteousness is still upon us. Christ has lived the
perfect obedience that we did not live for Him. There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That
no one can lay any charge to God's elect. It is God that has
justified. And how often times just the
very thought of those things is what brings us back to the
Lord, right? He says, if I take the wings
in the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even
there, shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold
me." Even whenever I'm running away from the Lord, what does
it say here? Thy hand shall lead me and thy right hand shall hold
me. The power of God, that's the right hand, it's talking
about the power of God. Matter of fact, when you look out through
Scripture and you see the right hand of God, who's that usually
talking about? Talking about the Lord Jesus,
right? Jesus Christ is the right hand
of power of God. Now, there's a whole lot we can
talk about about that, but basically that's meaning that God, in all
of His fullness, dwells bodily in Christ Jesus. Therefore, Jesus
is the right hand, or the bodily power, the physical power, the
outworking power, the one who has opened the scroll of God's
purpose, of God's will, of God's predestination. He's opened that
scroll, and He has rolled it out, and He's bringing forth
everything that God has declared. It's the man Jesus Christ. He's
the man of power. Or He's the man of work. He's
the one who is doing the work of God. He's the one who is manifesting
the work of God. He's the one who is doing all
things that God has given Him to do. Whether it's of redemption
or whether it's of bringing about His eternal purpose, it is the
Lord Jesus Christ who is over all things. He's the one who
is sitting on the throne. He's the one who is controlling
all things. And it says here that His hand
shall lead me and it shall hold me. His hand shall lead me, meaning
that every time I go away from the Lord or I come back to the
Lord, whatever I am doing, it's God's hand that is leading me.
His purpose is being accomplished, even whenever I'm doing wrong.
That's why we talked about a few months ago. Can anybody ever
be out of the will of God? No, nothing happens outside the
will of God. Everything is in the will of
God. Can there be something we do that is dishonoring to God? Yes, it's a dishonoring to God,
but it's still His purpose and it's still His will that it be
done. It was a dishonor to God to nail Jesus to a cross and
falsely accuse Him of being a blasphemer, but yet God had purpose that
to be done. We run from God. God's hand is
leading us. We come back to God, God's hand
is leading us. Why? Because He has set our habitation. He has set our course. He has
given that to exercise us in as I've said now several times.
He's given us that to experience in this life because it's part
of His purpose. And yet through it all it says
His right hand shall hold me. I'm not ever going to fail. I'm
not ever going to falter. I'm not ever going to fall away.
I'm not going to become apostate. I'm not going to go away from
the Lord and He go away from me. Why? Because His right hand
shall hold me. He shall preserve me. We are
preserved in Christ Jesus. Faithful is God who also will
do it. See, it's God's faithfulness,
not ours. We see right here, we have unfaithfulness. We run like a light away from
the from horizon to horizon. We go to the other side of the
sea. We go away from God. We turn from God. We desire to
do our fleshly things, but it is God's hand who is leading
us and leading us back, leading us and leading us back, and it's
never going to let us go outside of His hand. It says, If I say,
Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. It's confusing when you first
read it, but think about it for a minute. Here it is. He's talking about someone who
is trying to run from the Lord. Someone who's trying to get away
from Him. Someone who's strayed away or
someone who is indulging in sin or whatever the case might be.
They are there and they say, surely, what I do in the dark,
God's not going to see. He says, surely the darkness
shall cover my sin. Nobody's going to know. I'm the
only one that knows. But what does it say there? Even
the night shall be light about me. What does that mean? It says
God sees in the dark. Even the night that I think is
covering me, holding everything that I'm doing
in darkness where nobody knows, To God, that's still light, because
there is no darkness that can keep God out. As a matter of
fact, he says in verse 12, Yea, the darkness hideth not from
thee, but the night shineth as day. The darkness and the light
are both alike to thee. So whether I cover it, whether
it's a sin of my inmost being, or whether it's an outward sin
that everybody sees, Whether it's something that I try to
hide and cover up or whether it's something that's exposed
and in the light, God knows it no matter what. Because the day
to the Lord and the night to the Lord are the same thing.
He sees through all of it. There isn't anything that we
can hide from the Lord. There isn't anything that is being
hid from the Lord. Satan isn't about doing something,
sneaking around and doing something, that he's going to come and attack
us and do something to God's people without God knowing. A
lot of people think that Satan has a lot of power that he doesn't
have. Now I'm not saying he's not powerful, but I'm saying
they think that Satan has this free reign to go do a lot of
things and that he's sneaking up on them. The Lord just kind
of jumps in and kind of breaks things up. Wait a minute, wait
a minute now. We can't have that. No. Because listen, Satan himself
falls in this same song. He is known of God. His thoughts
Have you ever thought about that? Satan's thoughts are known of
God. Satan's activities are known
of God. And I'm not talking about just cognitive understanding
of what he's doing. I'm talking about known in the
fact that he knows it because he has ordained him. He has declared
him. Satan's thoughts, Satan's comings and goings, what Satan
does, God's in control of all that. God knows all that. He
has ordered all these things. He says, Yea, the darkest hides
not from me, but the night shineth as the day, the darkest and the
light are both to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's
womb. And I was looking at that phrase,
thou hast possessed my reins, and I've always been to the mind
that it's talking about that thou hast taken control of who
I am. You control all that. Whenever you take a horse and
you grab the reins, what do you do with that? Pull this way and
the horse goes this way. Pull this way and the horse goes
this way. Pull back both like this and the horse stops. Whenever
you let it go, the horse goes, right? So it's talking about
control. But also look whenever I've seen
that this word reins can also have a connotation of my affections. It talks about my affections,
my attitudes, my desires, the seat of my emotions. You know,
we use the word heart in the Old Testament a lot of times.
They use your innards like your kidney or your liver or something
like that. OK. He says, for thou has possessed
my range, meaning you have taken the affection of my heart and
thou has covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise Thee, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Thy works, and
that my soul knoweth right well." So from the very beginning, God
has had control over me. Even before I was born from my
mother, within the womb, God has control over me. He says, My substance was not
hid from Thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought
in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of
them. So see again, here's this double application that I can
see of this. Not only is David talking about
himself, or I guess it would be triple application, David
is seeing this about himself. We can see this about ourself,
that whenever we are conceived in the womb, as we begin to develop
in the womb, legs and feet and hands and eyes and nose and all
that kind of stuff. As we begin to do it, God is
over all that. God knows us in that and God
is controlling everything about that in that. And He knew every
way that I was going to be born. Every way that I was going to
be before I was ever born. But we also see the Lord Jesus
in this. that God did see my substance.
Speaking of the manhood of Christ, He did see His substance before
it was ever brought forth. And in thy book, all the members
were written. All those who were in Christ Jesus' names were written
down before the foundation of the world. He knew all the members
that would be in Christ Jesus before any of them was ever brought
forth and manifested. Whenever there was none of them,
So see, we see the application, not only to the psalmist, but
we see the application to each one of us. And we see that specifically
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says in verse 17, How precious
also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of
them. Brethren, again, I say such knowledge
is too high for me. Here the Lord says that his thoughts
are precious unto us, even though He knows us, even though we go
far away, even though we do the things in the darkness that we
do, His thoughts are still precious unto us. He says, if I should
count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I
awake, I am still with thee. Surely, thou wilt slay the wicked,
O God. Depart from me, therefore, ye
bloody men. So now we see the psalmist goes
from extolling God for not only his omniscience, knowing all
things, his omnipresence being with him no matter where he goes,
and knowing him to the deepest part of his soul, the very fabric
of him beginning in the consummation of life, and seeing every part
of him being brought forth as it is being manifested. But now
he says, that all those that oppose God, may they depart from
us. For they speak against thee wickedly,
and thine enemies take thy name." Now isn't that something? Some
people would look at that and say, what a massive, arrogant,
prideful, boastful, hypocritical statement this person is making. You have just pronounced that
there is things about you that were hidden in the dark, that
things that you wanted to run from God and get away from Him,
there are things about you that is horrid, and you're bringing
up all these worthless attributes about you, and now here you're
saying the wicked needs to be taken away, the wicked should
be hated, Have you not looked at yourself, David? Have you
not looked at yourself, Michael? You're saying that God hates
the wicked and yet you declared unto yourself that you are wicked? Should you not be saying that?
Maybe you should keep that quiet. That's pretty hypocritical to
think that you think that the wicked should be dealt with when
you yourself are saying that God looks at you and has thoughts
for you and affections for you and love for you and preservation
for you and all these things. Don't you think that that is
hypocritical for you who are wicked to think that you are
not going to be dealt with like the wicked? See brethren, that's
what the Adamic man wants to point to. That's what Satan continues
to point to. That's what Paul was saying whenever
he was telling us in Romans 7 that the flesh wars against the Spirit. It lusts against the Spirit.
And the Spirit against the flesh. The flesh wants to continue to
put down, put down, put down the man and the child of God.
And what did Paul say? There is therefore now no condemnation.
That's why that verse followed that. The page break, the chapter
break was unfortunate whenever men put numbers in the Bible.
It was unfortunate that that happened Why? Because all of
a sudden we think that there's a new topic being taken up. Paul
was talking about the old man and the new man warring. Now
we're talking about something else. Oh, we're going on to justification.
We're going on to sanctification. Brethren, no. Paul said, therefore.
Therefore there is now. Therefore ties it into what was
just said. The fact that I continue to feel
the weight of my sin and the wickedness of my heart and the
battled between who I am in Adam and who I am in the second Adam.
The whole turmoil that's there, that my flesh just cannot do
anything right, but that inward man that is in me wants to do
right and continues to not sin before God and loves the law
of God in my heart. But that outward man can't keep
it, can't do it, will never do it. And I just have resided within
myself that I'm going to serve the law of sin in my flesh, but
in my mind I'll serve the law of God. Oh wretched man that
I am, who is going to deliver me from this body of death? Therefore, because of that mindset
that we have, because of the experience the child of grace
is being given to have of this going away and coming back, this
sin and this obedience, this sin and obedience, this love
for the Lord, this coldness towards the Lord, this continual work
between the flesh and the spirit that is exercised in the habitation
of every child of grace. Paul goes on and says, therefore,
in light of all that that you are experiencing, There is therefore
now no condemnation. May your mind be set on this,
that no matter how far you go, God is there. No matter how dark
it may seem, God is there. No matter how wicked you may
become, God is there, and His right hand is upholding you,
His right hand is keeping you, preserving you, will bring you
back, will keep you from falling, that He has saved you. What's the difference between
us and the wicked? Well, in the Adamic man, there's
not one thing different. We are just as they, we are children
of wrath, even as others. We are still wicked. But the
difference is, is a substitute has came and placed a righteousness
on us that we did not earn, that we did not work for, that we
did not put on ourselves. He has given us a righteousness
that He Himself has procured, that He Himself has worked out.
He has honored God. He has loved God. He has obeyed
God. He has paid the penalty for sin.
He has done everything. And that by grace has been given
to us. The difference between the wicked
and the righteous is not that we have become righteous, Not
that we have started doing the right things. Not that we build
ourselves up into some holy, righteous person by applying
the means. No, we have done that by imputation. We have become that by grace. What has caused me to differ?
Grace. What has caused me to change
my spots? My spots are still there in the
old man, but the new man, spotless. We are going to be presented
to Christ as a spotless bride. How is it? Because we're spotted. Because it's not about us, it's
about grace. Grace has given us the righteousness of God.
So that is why this man who has talked about his wickedness his
doing things in the dark, knowing that God knows all his thoughts
and has controlled him from afar off, his thoughts, his words,
his deeds, and has set his course, set his habitation, and the plight
of him is to know the consternation of the old man, to know the desires
and the perfection of the new man, but to know the gospel of
Jesus Christ, that despite the fact of him being wicked, God
has set his love upon him. There is no condemnation. He
says, for they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies
take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that
hate thee? And am not I greed with those
that rise up against thee? Whenever you start talking about
grace, especially sovereign grace, and you start talking about,
yeah, I'm just the same as you, but yet God has given me salvation. God has given me a righteousness.
That no matter what I do, as far as the flesh is concerned,
it is not going to separate me from the love of God. No height
nor depth. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, brethren. Why? Because God knows us. Why? Because God has ordained all
things for us. Why is it that God can look upon
a sinful man and not destroy him? It's because of grace. because
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this man here can say, listen,
we hate those that hate you. And it's not hypocritical. Why?
Because God has given us a heart to hate evil. He's given us a
heart to hate the wicked. He's given us a heart to hate
these things, even though we ourselves are that thing. He's
given us a heart to hate ourselves. To hate this man that we are.
That's why Paul said, Oh, wretched man. You think Paul did that
because he loved himself? Oh, wretched man that I am. Ain't
that wonderful? I'm just the biggest sinner.
Matter of fact, I'm the chief of sinners. No, Paul said that
out of a grievous heart that loved the Lord and loved righteousness.
He said, Oh, wretched man that I am. I am the chief of sinners. Whenever I look at myself and
I look out there, I can only say I'm the chief of sinners.
Surely there is nobody that is more vile than I am. He's been
given to know His sinfulness, but He's also been given to know
that there is a righteousness that comes apart from anything
that He does. He says, Search me, O God, and
know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting. This isn't David trying to prove
that There's no wickedness in him. He's not saying, hey, he's
not coming like Job did, and say, if I could just get my audience
before God, I'd be vindicated. I've not done anything. I've
not done anything. Okay? David's not saying, hey,
search me, God. I'm on my way. Do you know there's
nothing wicked in me? Because he's already said that there's
wickedness in him. David knew that there was wickedness in
him. Matter of fact, I might have this wrong. I hope I'm not
going on a wild goose chase here. It's the 51st Psalm. David writes,
Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according
to the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Verse 3. For I acknowledge my
transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against thee,
thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou might be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me." David knew his wickedness. He's
not saying, search me. No, he's saying, whenever I say
these things, search me and know my heart. Try me. Know my thoughts. You're controlling all these
things. And see, is there any wickedness in me? If there is,
you control it. Take it out of me. Lead me in
the way everlasting. He's asking the Lord just like
Paul did. I desire to do the things that
I want to do, but the things that I want to do, I don't do.
And I find that everything that I do, that evil is with me. And
he said, you know, who's going to deliver me from these things?
Who's going to take me from here? David is saying here, Lord, you
control my thoughts. You control my desires. You control
everything that I do. And if you do, search me and
try me and know, is there a wicked thing in me? then turn me from
it and lead me in the way everlasting." He is acknowledging the fact
that God controls the heart, God controls the mind, God controls
the tongue. Keep me from saying the things
that don't honor You. Keep me from doing the things
that dishonor You. Keep me from thinking about things
that I shouldn't think about. I know that You have given me
all these things, and to exercise me in these things, that the
men of God might know how wretched we are, and that how holy You
are. But Lord, please, if You would, because You control these
things, would You keep me from these things? And that's why
we always pray, Lord, keep me from these. Help me with this.
I can't. My flesh cannot do nothing but indulge in these things.
It's only by Your restraining grace that these things are kept
from me. So we see here in this 139th
Psalm, God's sovereignty, His predestination, God's providence,
His control over all things and the exercising of the consternation
of flesh and spirit And it is all that we might, as David did
at the very end of this right here, look to him and say, within
me dwells no good thing. So if there's any wicked thing
within me, only thou and thou alone can lead me in the way
everlasting. Thou and thou alone can keep
me from wandering afar, can uphold me with thy right hand, can keep
me from the thoughts and the words and the deeds that this
flesh will indulge to do. So all of this points back to
the work of Christ, points back to the work of God, it points
back to His sovereign purpose, and it points back to the utter
depravity of us in the natural man. So may we look at these
things and extol the Lord for all that He does. Anybody got
any questions or any comments or corrections or anything? Father, once again, we come to
You. Lord, how humbling it is to see these things today. And
as the psalmist said, these things are too high for me to think
on. These things are too great, too
deep for me to find the depths of them. Lord, we truly are in
awe of the grace and the mercy of God to not only know us, but
to love us. And how strange to us, how mysterious
it is that you control all things. that you bring your people through
things that to us, and especially to the outside world, would say,
surely the Lord wouldn't do that. But yet, Lord, we know that thou
doest all things, and it's for your purpose and for your glory.
So we ask, Lord, that you would help us in our heart and our
mind to learn of these things and to know these things, to
be able to rightly discern these things May we find comfort to
know that You are controlling all things and You're working
those things not only according to Your will, but for our good
and for Your glory. Father Lord, I pray that we might
not be given to complacency and that we might not be given over
to lasciviousness to think that because the grace of God abounds
that we can just sin all that we want and want to do that we
might indulge in these things? Father, keep us from those things.
Those are the thoughts that we desire to have rid. But Lord,
how often we're accused of that whenever we preach the truth
of Your grace, the truth of Your sovereignty in controlling all
things, including sin and evil. We're accused of all these things,
but yet, Lord, we know that You are who You are. And that You
will be who You will be, and that none can stay at Your hand,
and none can be Your counselor, And none has ever told you what
you can and cannot do, and that there is no law that is above
you that you do what you desire. And so, Father, we just pray
that as we experience that in this life, that you would help
us, give us comfort and peace and wisdom to know and to be
able to have grace through all of it. Lord, we truly need your
grace. So we ask these things now in
Christ's name before we say it.