So good evening. If you care
to open your Bibles with me to Psalm 120. Psalm 120. Charles Spurgeon said we're leaving
the vast ocean of Psalm 119 and beginning the little islands
of the songs of degrees. We're going to start those tonight
in this Psalm 120. In my distress, I cried unto
the Lord, and he heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from
lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given unto
thee, or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue? Sharp
arrows of the mighty with coals of juniper. Woe is me that I
sojourn in Mesek, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar. My soul
hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace,
but when I speak, they are for war." Thank God for his word. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
to have yet one more opportunity to meet together with our brothers
and sisters and worship your matchless name. How thankful
we are to bow our hearts together before your matchless throne
of grace. We bow a thankful people. How
we thank you for your mercy and your grace that you have reserved
for your people. Father, how we thank you. How
we thank you for the unspeakable gift of your son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, we thank you that you
are God alone. We're thankful to know that you
rule and reign, that you are in control of every event, both
major and seemingly insignificant, you are in control of it. Everything
is happening according to your direct will and purpose, and
we're thankful to know you are God. Father, we know that. We pray that you let our hearts
rest in that knowledge, in that truth, that thou art God alone,
ruling and reigning. that this thing, our world, looks
like it's turned completely upside down, but it's not. It's all
happening according to your eternal will and purpose. And Father,
I pray for the peace of heart to truly believe what we know
is so. And Father, we pray for our world
at this time. We pray, Father, that you would
provide some relief from this horrible plague that has swept
across the land. We pray for peace in this unrest
that is also sweeping the land, that you would provide the way
of peace, that the land might dwell in peace, that your people
might be in peace and being able to go about our daily activities
and to be able to look forward to these times that we can meet
together and have your word open to us. Father, bless us tonight. We beg of thee that you would
bless us with your presence, that you would give us of your
spirit, both me as I preach and your people as they listen, that
we might behold the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and rest
in him. Father, Thankful for the many,
many blessings of this life that you have so abundantly showered
upon this congregation. We're thankful. And yet in this
flesh, we are a poor and a needy people. And Father, we pray for
those who are hurting, those who are brokenhearted, those
who are sick of body and mind and troubled. Father, we pray
that you would provide a way out, that you'd heal, that you'd
comfort, and that above all, you'd give a special portion
of your presence. to your people while you brought
them into the valley here below. Again, Father, we beg your blessing
on our service. Bless us, see us, and hear us
only in our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is in His blessed name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. I need Thee every hour, Most
gracious Lord, No tender voice like Thine Can peace afford. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee Every hour I need Thee Oh, bless
me now, my Savior I come to Thee I need Thee every hour Stay Thou
nearby Temptations lose their power When thou art nigh I need
thee every hour In joy or pain Come quickly and abide For life
is vain, I need Thee, O I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee Oh, bless
me now, my Savior I come to Thee I need Thee every hour, Most
Holy One, O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee
Every hour I need Thee Oh, bless me now, my Savior I come to Thee. Alright, let's open our Bibles
now again to Psalm 120. I titled the message this evening,
Deliver Me From Me. That's a constant cry of mine. Lord, deliver me from me. Now
our text this evening is the first of 15 of what they call
the Psalms of Degrees. These are called the Psalms of
Going Up. Each of these Psalms just keeps
going higher and higher and higher in glory. The people would sing
these psalms of degrees as they made their journeys to the different
annual feasts in Jerusalem. As they were going up to Jerusalem,
they'd sing these songs of degrees. They also sang these psalms on
their way back to Israel, back to Jerusalem after their time
in captivity in Babylon. And the closer they'd get back
to Jerusalem, the closer they'd get back to that place where
the temple would be rebuilt, the more full of joy and hope
they would become. This Psalm 120 is the first of
the Psalms of degrees, and you'll see for right at the start of
the journey, before we even get started, the traveler's already
weary. He's in distress. Verse 1. In
my distress, I cried unto the Lord, and He heard me. I remember
when our children were little, go see Jan's mom or go to something,
you know. Well, I would wait until I got
off work, and then we'd have dinner and kind of wait until
the kids get a little tired, and then we'd take off for Jan's mother's
house, and we'd drive through the night, you know, to get there.
I don't want to do that anymore. I like to start out fresh. Boy,
I'm going to get up early in the morning. Let's just hear
the travelers already in distress, already wore out before it even
starts. So here's the first thing I want us to see from Ms. Song.
We need to be delivered from distress in this world. Every
child of God knows about this, being in distress. You live in
this world of sin. You just can't help but be distressed
about that. Our world is now, I guess, maybe
not more than ever, certainly as much as ever, our world is
in distress and unrest, isn't it? And the reason for it all
is sin. We live in a world full of hatred,
full of selfishness, full of meekness. I mean, all this stuff
just keeps happening because people are evil. I mean, they're
just sinful. And you all have to live in that
every day. You got to work and to school.
You have to live in that. And I recognize I have a blessing
now that, you know, I get up and go to my study. I get up
and open my Bible. I read my Bible. I pray. You
know, but you have to go out in that every day. I know that
causes stress. Well, where do you go to get
some peace? Where do you go to get relief
from this distress? Well, you go to the temple. As
they sang these songs, they were going to the temple, to Jerusalem.
You go to the house of the Lord. And I think about that as I prepare
messages to preach here, especially... I don't know if this should exactly
be so, but especially on a Wednesday night, I think about this. Many
of you have been out working all day, you've been out in the
world, And I think about you, I think about young and old both.
I mean, now school's out, I know, but, you know, young and old,
you go out into the world, it causes you to get stressed out,
doesn't it? And you ought to have a place, you ought to be
able to come to the house of the Lord and find a message of
God's sovereign grace that'll comfort your heart, that'll give
peace to your heart, even though the world is so stressful. You
ought to be able to come to the house of the Lord and find some
people who are just kinder and gentler than those people you
see down there on the job or that you see at school. People
are more loving than the people out there in the world because
these folks are under the influence of the gospel. You ought to be
able to come to this place and have peace. Find some respite
from it. And I know we will never be done
with this kind of stress. Stress because of sin. As long
as we live in this world, it's just going to be full of sin.
It's going to be full of what we're reading in the newspaper
today. If the Lord tarries, it's the same thing that's going to
be in the newspaper in ten years. The world's just full of sin.
It'll never be done until God burns it up and creates a new
heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. But until
then, We get a reprieve from this distress in the house of
the Lord where the gospel is preached. That's where you go
to have some relief. But there's another kind of distress
that believers experience, and it's worse. It's worse than the
stress of the world. It's distress over my sin. Distress over my sins. Here's
the second thing. We need to be delivered from
the distress of our sin. I know that the sin of the world,
it causes stress. But for the believer, you know
what's worse? Worse than the sin of the world is my sin. Lord, deliver me from me. I mean,
my sin. And when the Lord shows us our
sin, that's what we call conviction of sin. I see that I'm guilty. I see it's my sin. It's my fault. Now that's real distress. I mean
real distress. It's not just fear of punishment
now, it's the horror of saying, I've sinned. I have sinned against
God. So the journey of faith begins
in distress, just like a psalm does, the Psalms of degrees. The journey of faith begins in
distress over sin. The journey of coming to Christ
begins with distress. Well, is there a cure for it?
What is the cure? for our sin against God. Is there
a place I can go and get some peace? Yes, there is. If you
want peace from the distress of your sin, I'll tell you what
you do. You go on the same journey that these people were going
on when they sang these psalms of degrees. They were going up
to the temple, which was a picture of Christ. Well, you get to do
something better now. In your distress, you go straight
to Christ. That's your relief. He's your
relief. Look back a few pages at Psalm 34. Crying to the Lord
in your distress. David said here, he said, I cried
in my distress and the Lord answered me. He heard me. Look here at
what he says in Psalm 34. Crying to the Lord. Just go to
the Lord. Crying, begging for mercy for
Christ's sake. The Scripture is full of verses
telling you the Lord will hear that prayer. The Lord always
hears the prayer of a poor, weak sinner, crying for mercy. Look
here at Psalm 34 verse 3. Oh, magnify the Lord with me
and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him
and were lightened. Their faces were not ashamed.
This poor man cried and Lord heard him and saved him. out
of all his troubles, so you cry unto the Lord. This poor man
cried, if the Lord will heal me, certainly He'll heal you.
Cry unto the Lord. Cry for mercy for Christ's sake.
He'll deliver you. He'll deliver you from your distress.
And when you cry and the Lord answers, I'll tell you what to
do next. Keep crying. Keep crying out
to God. Keep crying unto Him all the
days of your life, because you're going to constantly need Him.
You know, believers are often weary and just stressed out because
we live in this body of sin. Now, if you believe God, I can
tell you why this is, why you're so often just stressed out. Because if you believe God, you
have been born again. God's given you a new nature.
There's been a new man born to you. God's given you a new heart.
But you still live in a body of sinful flesh. And that old
nature, that sinful flair, it's just as sinful, it's just as
rebellious, it's just as evil as it ever was. But you have
a new man. But everywhere that new man goes,
he's got to drag the dead weight of that old man with him. And
maybe worse than dead weight, the new man's got to drag that
old man kicking and screaming everywhere he goes. I mean, you've
just got to carry extra weight. And it just makes you exhausted.
It stresses you out. It makes you so weary. Well,
what's the solution when you're so weary because of your sin?
Now, God saved you. God sent mercy. Your sin is ever
before you. What's the relief? It's to go
to Christ. Call on God in prayer. When the
believer sees Christ, our stress levels drop significantly, don't
they? Significantly. I hesitate to use this illustration,
but I thought of it today. In the morning that Jan and I
were married, I've never been more sure of anything in my life.
I wanted to marry her. I'd never been more sure. But
my nerves were a mess. I mean, I was just a mess that
morning. And it finally came time for the ceremony. My best
man and me and Henry standing down there, and I'm telling you,
man, my nerves were, I was just, I was a mess. And they opened
those doors back there and there she stood. So I mean, just the
relief that went through my whole body. It went to years later. Jan's sister told me, she said,
I saw you stand up. She said, I was worried. I was
worried you're going to faint or you're going to run or something.
And she said, then they opened those doors. I saw the color
come back in your face. I saw your body. Just relax. And she said, OK, everything's
going to be fine. That's the way it is for the believer. If
the Lord has pulled back the curtain a little bit and let
us see Him, The stress goes away. To see
Him in His glory, everything's going to be fine. Everything
regarding my sin. Now, my sin is real. I'm not
discounting. My sin is real. But everything
regarding my sin is going to be just fine because of who my
Savior is. The Lord Jesus Christ took my
sin away from me and He made it His. He took my sin and His
precious body upon the tree and sacrificed Himself to put that
sin away. The Son of God did that. Well,
then my sin's put away. The debt's paid. I mean, the
Son of God shed His blood to pay my sin debt. The debt is
paid, isn't it? Justice is satisfied. Then I have peace. I have peace
because of who's my sacrifice, who my Savior is. And everything
regarding this sinful world, it just causes me to stress out. You know what? It's going to
be just fine. It's going to be just fine because
of who's on the throne. If God just pulled back the curtain
for us a little bit, like He did for the prophet, let us see
the Savior high and lifted up, sitting upon the throne. We're
going to know this thing's all right. Our God rules and reigns. He always does His will. And
I don't care how much of a ruckus that His creatures make, none
of them can make any changes to His will. None of them can
even delay His will. And His will is the salvation
of His people, then it's going to be just fine. And I can relax
and have peace. Thirdly, deliver me from me. Deliver me from the lying nature
of my old man. Verse 2, Psalm 120. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from
lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. Now who knows what was
on David's mind as he penned this. A lot of people think he
was talking about Doeg. Remember that man who came and
lied on David to Saul? David said, I knew that dog Doeg.
I knew he'd do that. This is definitely the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking. Talking about Judas who lied
on him and betrayed him. Now that hurts, doesn't it? That
hurts. Have you ever had somebody slander
you? They just go behind you and ruin your reputation. They
slander you. They go behind your back. to
your friends. They try to rally support against
you. You're shocked. You expect that from your enemies.
I mean, you're watching out for it from your enemies. But your
friend? That's what happened to David. That's what happened
to our Savior. Well, what can give us any peace when that happens?
Well, I'll tell you what. You go on the same journey these
people were going on as they sang these songs of degrees,
except you go to something better. Don't you go to that temple made
with hands. You go straight to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our
defense. He's our comfort when we're slandered.
But I tell you, there's a worse liar we have to deal with. And
those who would slander us out there, you know, on the job,
they try to get ahead, they slander you. Somebody at school, boy,
they're awful at that school, aren't you? Trying to, you know,
getting their little clicks and then trying to drag you down.
But I tell you, somebody worse, worse than that, is this old
man. This old man that we carry around
with us is constantly whispering lies in our ears, telling us,
oh, your righteousness is good enough. Your righteousness is
good enough. God will bless you. Now, God will bless you if you
do well enough. Now, He'll get you if you don't do well enough.
But if you live well enough, God will bless you. Things, you
start getting stressed out. That old man whispers, God's
forgotten you. God's left you. He's forgotten you. Now those
things are lies. Those are lies. And there's no
profit in anything that old man says. Look at verse three. What
shall be given unto thee? And what that the translation
of that is, what shall the deceitful tongue give unto you? What profitable
thing will that deceitful tongue give unto you? Or what shall
be done unto thou, the false tongue, unto thee, thou false
tongue? What's going to be done to that old man? What's going
to be done? Well, I'll tell you what's going
to be done with it. Don't listen to him. Don't listen to the lies
of that old man. Ignore his lies and go to Christ. Quit listening to him and go
to Christ. Just like the singers of these
Psalms of degrees were doing. Go to the house of the Lord and
get a dose of the truth. Go to the house of the Lord and
hear a message on the truth of Christ. Hearing Christ the truth,
now that'll settle my heart. When my heart is troubled by
lies, the thing that will comfort it is the truth. The truth of
Christ. Hearing about the truth of Christ
my righteousness. Now that will give me peace. Because I quit looking to my
own righteousness and look to Christ. Hearing that's true,
I'm not good enough. But Christ is good enough. That
will give me peace. That will settle my heart and
ease my distress. To be eased from that lying nature
that I've got to carry around with me until the day I die.
All right, fourthly, deliver me from the fiery darts of Satan. Verse four, sharp arrows of the
mighty with coals of juniper. Now, these arrows with the coals
of juniper, they're burning arrows, but it's like a chemical burn.
Well, that's the fiery darts of Satan. Satan is the accuser
of the brethren, just constantly hurling these fiery accusations
against God's people. bringing up their sin and constantly
hurling it. And that causes God's elect great
distress. You know, I know my sin's been
forgiven in the blood of Christ. I know that. But I hate thinking
about my sin. I hate having these accusations
hurled at me. And it's a constant barrage,
isn't it? You know, you think about those
poor soldiers just under a constant barrage of those enemy missiles.
I mean, they get PTSD, just all kinds of suffering. That's what
it is for a believer too, just stressed out. All these accusations
being hurled at us. And what makes it worse is they're
all true. I mean, Satan doesn't have to lie to accuse us, does
he? We give him plenty of ammunition. Well, what's our defense? When
you come under that barrage of fiery accusations, what's your
defense? We can't say they're not true.
We can't say I didn't do it because I did it. I'll tell you what
our defense is. is to go to Christ. Flee to Christ. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians
6, verse 16, he said, you'll be able to quench the fiery darts
of the wicked with the shield of faith. You'll be able to quench
those darts, those fiery accusations by trusting in Christ. See, He's
our shield. When we're trusting in Christ,
quenches the fire of those darts that Satan hurls at us, the fire
is quenched because Christ has already been punished for us.
Christ has already bore the fire of God's wrath against the sin
of His people. So He puts out those fiery darts.
None of them can get through because He already paid for them
all. In Christ, we can truly say,
we're not guilty. If you believe Christ, if you
trust Christ, you're not guilty. Because in Christ, you obeyed
the law. When He obeyed the law, you did too. When Christ shed
His blood, which cleanses us from all sin, He made you not
guilty, so no accusation can stick. Those fiery accusations
are going to be hurled. But if you believe Christ, none
of them can stick, because He's already paid for them all. He
just extinguishes them all. You know, an innocent person,
I've been in courtrooms, and I've seen innocent people and
guilty people. Innocent people act very, very differently in
a court of law. They don't have any stress. Because
they're innocent. They can't be charged with anything.
They don't have anything to feel guilty about. That's God's elect. Now, we are guilty in ourselves,
aren't we? We're guilty of sin. We really
have sinned. I mean, you know, we don't have
anything to feel good about, anything that we've done, you
know. But we also don't have anything to feel guilty about.
Because Christ took the guilt of His people away from them
and made them not guilty. Yes, we have sinned. But a believer
has no reason to fear condemnation. No reason. Because Christ has
already been condemned for us. He has cleared his people of
every charge. So Satan's going to keep hurling
these fiery darts at you. But Christ will extinguish every
one of them. He's already paid for all the
sin of all of his people. Then here's the fifth thing.
I need to be delivered from me. I need to be delivered from the
idolatry of my old man." Verse 5, David says, Woe is me, that
I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar. Now, Mesech
is descended from Magog. You read about Gog and Magog
in the book of Ezekiel. Well, Mesech is delivered from
Magog and is an ally of Gog, who are given to us as enemies
of God. But God told Ezekiel, He's against
them. He's against them. And David's
saying, I live right in the midst of them. Mesech was a wicked,
idolatrous people. And David said, oh, the stress
that it causes me to live in this land filled with idolatry. Can you identify? I mean, our
land is filled with idolatry. It's filled with idolatry. And
I know that idolatry is not more rampant in our day than it's
been in other times of history. Because man by nature is an idolater. Idolatry has always been spread
all across the world. Anywhere there's a man, there's
idolatry. But idolatry is more easily spread,
if that's the word, or publicized than in any other time in our
history. You're the same technology. that
the Lord gives us to spread the gospel over the whole wide world. I mean, that's some technology.
I mean, I've been up late at night sometimes and I watch when
Brother Dan Morgan puts the messages online. And a lot of them he
puts on at like midnight. It shocks me. By 10 after 12,
40 people from all over the world listen to this. I mean, I just
started listening to it. It's amazing. Well, the same
technology that the Lord's given us to spread the gospel everywhere,
just instantaneously. It's also used by idolaters to
spread their idolatrous message everywhere instantly too. And
seeing and hearing the idolatry of these false prophets, it's
so irritating. The new man, to him, is just
like fingernails on a chalkboard. Just grates on your last nerve. It stresses you out, doesn't
it? But I'll tell you, there's a worse idolater. I mean, just
go home tonight and flip on your TV. You know, if they add channels
to your cable, they're always going to charge you more. Boy,
those religious ones, they're free. And they just keep adding them.
Just flip any of them on. I mean, they're everywhere. Don't
do that tonight. Do it another night. Don't ruin
the peace God's given you in the message. Do that another
night. But anyway. And it's awful. But let me tell you, worse idolater
than that, worse one. That old man we've got to deal
with. We take him with us everywhere we go. When David says here,
I dwell in the tents of Kedar. The tents of Kedar were black
tents. They always had black tents.
That's a picture of our bodies. A body of sin. We are stained
with sin. Just dark with the filth and
the guilt and the corruption of sin. We live in the tents
of Kedar. We live in a flesh that is nothing
but sin. And that old man, now he's sinful,
always sinful. But he's religious. He's an idolater. That old man still loves the
flesh. He still worships the flesh.
He still worships the will of the flesh. That old man, now
he's religious. He'll trust anyone or anything
other than Christ alone. That's what makes him an idolater.
You worship, you trust anything other than Christ alone, you're
an idolater. That's an old man we carry around
with us. And he is constantly trying to bring the believer
back into captivity to the law. He's constantly trying to get
us to take credit for something that we've done, you know. That
old man, he still trusts the flesh. He really does think he
can keep the law. And he wants some glory. He wants
some credit out of this thing. At least he wants to have at
least some of it for establishing your own righteousness. And He's
always with you. You can't get rid of Him. You
can't shut Him up. He's constantly trying to bring you back into
captivity to the Lord. And if you believe Christ, you
know exactly what I'm talking about. That is your experience.
You feel the pull of that old man every single day. Just a
constant pull. And it stresses you out. It stresses
you out. There's a fear there of being
pulled back. Being pulled back into the Lord.
being pulled back into self-righteousness, being pulled away from Christ.
Can't say a person doesn't have to fear it. We've seen it happen
too many times, haven't we? We've seen it happen too many
times. Just in my few short years, I've seen it more times than
I can count. More times than I can count. Well, what's the
cure? What will relieve my stress?
How can I ascend up out of this idolatry? Well, you go on the
same journey these folks were on when they were saying these
psalms of degrees. You go to Christ. You go straight to Christ. I'll tell you, if the Lord, God
the Holy Spirit, will reveal Christ to you, you won't want
anything to do with idols anymore. If the Lord revealed Christ to
you, you just won't want anything to do with the works of your
flesh. The cure for idolatry is hearing Christ preached. The
cure for idolatry is seeing Christ by faith. You remember when Paul
wrote to the church at Thessalonica. He told them, I know you believe
God. I know you do. I know God saved you. And here's
how he knew that. He saw them turn to God from
their idols to serve the true and living God. Well, when did
they do that? When did they turn to God from
their idols? Paul said, when God sent me in to enter in among
you and preach the gospel. When I preach the gospel to you,
when I preach Christ to you, he said, I watched it happen.
You turned to God from your idols. to serve the true and living
God. And when a person hears the gospel and they believe Christ,
they'll give up their idols. They'll say, I mean, I've had
people, you know, and for those of us who grew up here, I know
it's a little bit different. We still are idolaters. or still
want to trust the flesh, or we want to trust our knowledge of
doctrine or something. But I understand it is a little
bit different for someone who grew up in a free will place
or something, you know? And people tell me, I'll preach
and I'm thinking, mm-hmm, that's the last time I'm going to see
them again. And they'll tell me, you know, I always thought
that. But not anymore. Not anymore. That's turning to
God from our idols. They've seen Christ. If God shows
you the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll turn to God from those idols.
And the prescription that keeps us turn to God, turn to God from
our idols, the prescription that keeps us from going back to those
idols is continually going up to the house of the Lord and
hearing the gospel preached. Going up and worshiping God.
That'll deliver me from idols. Well, alright, here's the last
thing. Deliver me from me. I want to be delivered. I need
to be delivered from my own hateful nature, my old man. Verse 6. My soul hath long dwelt with
him that hateth peace. I am for peace, but when I speak,
they are for war. Now, you've all known people. I don't care what you do, what
you give them. They're never satisfied. They're always angry.
They're always looking at, you know, trying to have a fight,
trying to fuss and feud about something. And, you know, for
a person of peace, I mean, nothing stresses you out more than that,
wanting peace and somebody just constantly picking a fight. Well,
the best cure for stress is peace. But, you know, the believer is
never going to have peace in this world. We certainly can't
have peace with this world. This world hates the Savior we
love. They hate the God that we worship. So the only peace
the believer can have as we travel through this world is in the
heart. It's by looking to Christ. And I said this earlier, I'm
going to say it again, because this is where peace of heart comes
in for the believer. You know, this sinful world is
constantly trying to fight and just, well, just remember this
now, everything regarding this sinful world is going to be just
fine. It's going to be just fine. It's
going to end up exactly the way God ordained for it to end up.
because of who's on the throne. Now, we see God's on the throne,
ruling and reigning. We'll have peace. God's will
is going to happen now. It's not going to be delayed.
It's not going to be changed. And God's will is the salvation
of His people, the salvation of their soul. Well, then all
is well. If Christ has saved my soul,
all is well. All is well that ends well. And
it's going to end well for the believer. But there's another
warfare. And it's worse for the believer.
It causes the believer worse torment than fussing and fighting
with the world. It's that warfare between the
old man and the new man. I mean, it's not just the world
out there. It's the world in here. The world
that's been set in our heart. The sin that's set in our heart.
And that warfare between the old man and the new man is a
constant, constant warfare. That old man is an enemy Never
surrender. I mean, he just will not surrender.
He'll never be at peace. He'll never submit. He don't
want peace. He wants war. And that's what
David says, I have long dwelt with him that hates peace. It's
me. It's my old nature. The Apostle
Paul said the same thing in Romans 7. He said, this is what I want
to do, but I can't do it. I know that I don't want to do
this, but that's what I do. It's that warfare going on. I'm for peace. That old man,
he's for war. I'm for trusting Christ, but
that old man's not for trusting Christ, and that war just keeps
going and going and going and going. Well, where can I find
peace from this civil war? I've been watching this documentary
or this show on General Graham to just fascinate it. You know,
just fascinate the civil war. It's just fascinating to me.
Well, this civil war works. Where can I find peace from this
civil war between my two natures? How can I be delivered from me?
Can I be delivered from me? What is the cure to keep me from
listening to lies of that old man and just agreeing to his
lies just to have peace with him? It's to go to Christ. It's to go to the house of the
Lord and hear the truth of Christ. That will settle my heart. Look
at Romans 7. All that will give me peace is hearing of Christ and trusting
Him. Paul says, here's that civil
war, verse 21. I find then a law, that when
I would do good, evil is present with me. That's a law just like
the law of gravity. You take something and let go
of it, it's going to drop. It's a law of gravity. This is
a law that cannot be changed. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. Because that old man, he's in
me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
I see another law of my members, warring against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? Who will deliver me from me?
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind
I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin. That's how we're going to be
delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. He has delivered
His people. He is delivering His people.
And one day, right soon, He'll deliver us. All right. Lord,
bless that to your heart. Let's bow together. Our Father, we thank You for
Your Word. How we thank You for Your Word that, written so many
thousands of years ago, still speaks directly to the hearts
of your people. This speaks directly to what
your people are going through today. Father, I pray that by
your grace you would deliver us from ourselves. Certainly
deliver us from the world, keep us from the world, keep us from
the wicked one as you taught us to pray. Father, deliver us
from ourselves. Deliver us from trusting in ourselves,
listening to the lies of that old man. Father, by your grace,
by your power, speak to our hearts. Apply your word to our hearts
that we might believe in and trust in and rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That we might look to him and
him alone. We know if you would reveal your darling son to us,
our distress would be gone. So reveal Christ to our hearts,
we pray. Father, it's for his glory, for
the glory of his precious name that we pray and give thanks.
All right, you're all dismissed.