dying faith, something that we'll
all need very shortly. So I hope you'll make a special
effort to be here for that. I believe Lord's given me something
to be instructive and be a blessing to us. All right, Psalm 85. Lord, that has been favorable
into thy land. Thou has brought back the captivity
of Jacob. Thou has forgiven the iniquity
of thy people. Thou has covered all their sin.
Thou has taken away all thy wrath. Thou hast turned thyself from
the fierceness of thine anger. Turn us, O God of our salvation,
and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry
with us forever? Wilt thou draw out thine anger
to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again,
that thy people may rejoice in thee? Show us thy mercy, O Lord,
and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak, for he will speak peace unto his people and to
his saints. but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his
salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in
our land. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall
spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down
from heaven. Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good, and
our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before
him, and shall set us in the way of his steps. Tune now to 527. Thanks, O God, for boundless
mercy from thy gracious throne above. Thanks for every need
provided from the fullness of thy love. Thanks for daily toil
and labor, And for rest when shadows fall. Thanks for love of friend and
neighbor, And thy goodness unto all. Thanks for thorns as well
as roses. Thanks for weakness and for health. Thanks for clouds as well as
sunshine. Thanks for poverty and wealth. Thanks for pain as well as pleasure. All Thou sendest day by day,
And Thy Word, our dearest treasure, Shedding light upon our way. Thanks, O God, for home and fireside,
Where we share our daily bread. Thanks for hours of sweet communion,
When by Thee our souls are fed. Thanks for grace in time of sorrow,
Now let's turn back to the front of our book, 17. Come thou fount of every blessing, To my heart do sing thy grace,
Streams of mercy never ceasing, All for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues of old. Raise the mountain, Fixed upon
it, mount of Thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine heavenly knees,
O'er hither by Thy help I've come. And I hope by thy good
pleasure Safely to a private home. Jesus sought me when a
stranger, wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me
from danger interposed His precious blood. Oh, to grace how great
a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be, Left by goodness like
a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to thee. Lord, I feel it come to thee,
the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and
seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Listen to this last verse. Oh, that day when freed from
sinning, I shall see thy lovely face. Clothed with linen, blood-washed
linen, Now I sing Thy sovereign praise. Come, my Lord, no longer
tarry, Take my ransomed soul away. All right, let's open our Bibles
now to Psalm 101. Psalm 101. I will sing of mercy and judgment. Unto thee, O Lord, will I sing.
I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. But when wilt
thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with
a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before
mine eyes. I hate the work of them that
turn aside. I hate the work of them that
turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. A
froward heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked
person. Whoso privily slandereth his
neighbor, him will I cut off. Him that hath an high look and
a proud heart will not I suffer. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful
of the land, that they may dwell with me. He that walketh in a
perfect way, he shall serve me. He that worketh deceit shall
not dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not
tarry in my sight. I'll early destroy all the wicked
of the land that I may cut off all the wicked doers from the
city of the Lord. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our father, how we thank you
that you've given us another opportunity to meet together
to worship you. Father, I pray that you'd send
your spirit upon us. and enable us to worship you
in spirit and in truth. Father, we confess our great
need of you. Our hearts are so cold and dead. We're so prone to just go through
the motions. But Father, enable us tonight
to truly worship Christ our Savior. Father, Beg that in this hour
that you would be with me and enable me to rightly divide the
word of truth. That you enable me to preach
your gospel to your people in the power of your spirit, not
in the weakness of human intellect and human oratory, but in the
power of your spirit. Cause your gospel to go forth
in power. And give your people a hearing
ear and a believing heart to believe the things of Christ
that we hear preached. Enable us to leave here tonight
rejoicing in Christ our Savior and the full and free salvation
that you've given your people in him. He's put away the sin
of your people and made it right for you to accept us, made it
right for you to hear our prayers and accept us into your presence.
Father, how we thank you. How we thank you for the many
blessings that you so freely bestowed upon us in this life.
Spiritually, you've given us everything, absolutely everything
that you require and everything that we need. And Father, we're
thankful, thankful for all the material blessings you've so
showered upon us. And we're thankful, knowing that
they've all come from your hand. We haven't earned or deserved
any of them, but they've all come from your hand. And we're
thankful and beg your forgiveness for how often we seem to find
fault and murmur and complain. against your goodwill and don't
trust you after all the blessings that you've provided for us. Father, forgive us, we pray.
And Father, we thank you for this place, a place where your
gospel is preached, where you've called a family of believers
together. Father, I pray that you bless
each one, that you continue to bless your gospel as it's preached
here for your glory. Father, for our good, the good
of our children, grandchildren, the good of our community. Father,
bless your word. Cause it to go forth and reach
the hearts of your people, we pray. Father, we dare not sin
against thee and forgetting to pray for your people who you
brought in the time of trouble and trial. There's so many, Father,
sickness and heartbroken, sickness of mind and body and troubles
that we cannot escape from. Father, bless your people. Bless
with your presence. Comfort the hearts of your people
until such time as you provide a way out. Let us not deliver us from bringing
shame on your great name by murmuring and complaining and not trusting
you. All these things we ask and we
give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of Christ our Savior. Father of mercy, have mercy on
me. This is my prayer, Lord, my heart's
earnest plea. I pray, Lord, for my sinful soul. Father of mercy, Thy mercy is
free. Choosing the foolish and wretches
like me, calling the poor ones and less than the least, giving
them grace, Lord, to dine at Thy feast. How can we praise Thee? How can we adore? Blessing and honor be thine evermore. Praise to thy spirit, heavenly
dome. Hail to thy Son, Lord, the Son
of thy love. Father of power, thy power we
see, perfect redemption through Jesus our King. Righteousness before Thee, He
stands in our place. Looking at Him, Lord, we look
on Thy face. Father of glory, all glory to
Thee, for Thy salvation, for setting us free. Mercy and truth, Lord, in Thee
embrace. Alright, let's open our Bibles
again to Psalm 101. I titled the message this evening,
Mercy and Truth in Christ. Now this psalm was written by
David about the time that David finally ascended to the throne
after the death of Saul. I have no doubt that this is
David writing about how he wants to rule Israel. I mean, can you
imagine David at this point getting ready to sit upon the throne?
David was the forgotten son of Jesse. Samuel told Jesse, he's
going to come down to your house. I'm anointing one of your sons,
king of Israel. And Jesse got all his boys together,
except for David, because he was just so sure. David's not
even a candidate for this. He sent David out to wash the
sheep. Now Jesse had a servant who got to wash the sheep, because
when Samuel said, it's none of these, you got another son. He
said, well, yeah, we've got one, but you don't want him. And Sam
said, yeah, I do. You go get him. A servant went to get David
and said, I'll stay and watch sheep. You go back home. He had
a servant to watch the sheep, but he was so certain David was
not going to be king of Israel. He was just not even there. And
he came home. There all his brothers are in
their finery. I mean, you know, they dressed up. Sam was coming.
They dressed up. David's in his work clothes.
He comes in and Samuel anoints that boy king of Israel. And
then, seems like, from then on, David's running for his life
from Saul. Saul's trying to kill him. Just how many times David
was sure he's a goner, and the Lord delivered him every time.
And now finally, Saul has died, and David is going to be king
of Israel. I have no doubt David wanted
to be a good king. After all that the Lord had done
for him, brought him to this place, oh, he wanted to be a
good king. Just like he wrote here, he intends to behave wisely
and rule with a perfect heart. I have no doubt that's David's
intention. He intends to rule God's people, looking to and
worshiping and trusting the Lord. I have no doubt about it. David
intends not to let the wicked to prosper in his kingdom. He
intends to protect the poor from the wicked. He's determined to
surround himself with wise and honest people who are faithful
to the Lord, and he's not going to allow himself to play politics
and play favorites for the wicked who are rich and can do things
for him. David's determined to rule that way. But you know David's
reign. He didn't always succeed at that,
did he? So this is David writing, no question about it. But it
is the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David, who is speaking.
And this is the main point that I want to make tonight. Every
believer should desire the same things that David desires. We're
not ruling a kingdom, but we certainly ought to intend, desire
to behave wisely as we go through our lives. We ought to intend
and desire to live our lives looking to and worshiping the
Lord and relying upon him. We ought to be determined. I'm
not going to let my decisions be affected by the wicked who
can do something for me because I'm looking for gain from them.
They're going to affect the way I do things. We ought to intend
not to do that. We should desire to protect the
poor and the helpless and to be friends with people who are
wise people, faithful people. We should desire those things.
I bet all of you do. I bet not one person disagrees
with anything I said right there. You desire to live your life
that way. I know you. But when we don't do them, and
we won't, here's the believer's comfort. Our Savior did. He did do those things, and we're
complete in Him. We're complete in Him. Not what
we do or we don't do, but we're complete in Him. I need mercy. I need mercy. I need salvation. Because I'm
a sinner. And I need it to be true. I need
it to be real. I need it to be just so that
God and His justice will not take it away from me. Well, salvation
in Christ is certain. Salvation in Christ is the salvation
that sinners like us need because Christ saves people in both mercy
and justice. Mercy and judgment. Now, I need
mercy because I'm a sinner. I don't need the kind of mercy
that just ignores my sin. If I'm going to be saved, I need
to be saved in truth, in justice, because my sin has been put away. I need to be made not guilty
so that God in His justice, in His holy justice, can look at
me and accept me. Now that's the kind of salvation
that I need. And that's what David is writing
about here. Look at verse 1. He says, I will sing of mercy
and judgment. Unto thee, O Lord, will I sing."
Now this is Christ the Savior speaking. He's saying He's going
to sing unto the Lord because of God's mercy and His judgment. And that word judgment there
is justice that comes from a right verdict. Now the gospel, the
gospel of Christ answers the age-old question, how can God
be just and still show mercy to sinners? How can God do that? And try as we might, No man can
find the answer to that age old question. We can't find a way
to satisfy both God's justice and God's mercy. But God has. God's found the way and he's
given us his gospel. He's given us his word to tell
us about it. And this makes our Savior sing
for joy. Because this is the only way
the people he loves can be redeemed. In God's salvation, he's provided
for his people in mercy and judgment. Mercy and judgment can both be
satisfied at the same time, only in Christ our Savior. The father
at Calvary, he judged his son. And when he did, he gave his
son the right verdict. He put him to death. The father
put all of the sin of all of God's elect on his son. He made
his son sin for us. And then the father did what
justice demands. He put him to death. put him
to death as a sacrifice for sin. And justice is satisfied. The
father said, it's enough. I'm satisfied. Justice is satisfied
because Christ died to death. All of God's elect deserve for
their sin. And now that justice is satisfied,
God is free to be merciful to his people. God could not give
his elect the punishment that they deserve because he already
gave it to Christ our substitute. That's how God can be merciful
in justice. And more than that, the father
accepts his people in justice because there's no reason for
him not to. Christ made them righteous. Christ traded his
obedience for the sin of his people. So they're righteous.
He traded it to him. That righteousness is yours because
Christ gave it to you. It's yours. I know he earned
it, but it's yours because he gave it to you. Christ gave His
people His obedience and He washed them from their sin in His blood
so they're righteous. And when God looks at them and
says they're not guilty, it's a right verdict. It's a right
verdict. And that's what I was talking
about when I started this message. That's the salvation a sinner
like me needs. It's got to be a right verdict.
And only God could provide such a salvation. This is something
only God can do. And that's why the Savior here
is singing the praises of the Lord. Honor, He's honoring mercy
and justice. Because when He honors God's
mercy and God's justice, He's honoring every other attribute
of God. God's wisdom, His grace, His
love, His pity, His long-suffering. Honoring God's, His mercy and
His judgment. Honors every attribute of God.
They're all honored in Christ. And for the rest of this psalm,
I want to give you seven ways that we see mercy and judgment
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Things that we need. Number one
is this. I need, this is the salvation
I need. I need Christ to come to me in
mercy and judgment, justice. Verse two, I will behave myself
wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when wilt thou come unto
me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. Now you
know, David intended to do that, but that's not David speaking,
is it? Because David didn't do that. This can only be our Lord
Jesus Christ speaking. Now, we all desire, just like
David did, we desire to behave wisely. We desire to be perfect. I mean, I don't get up in the
morning intending, this is how I'm going to sin today. We don't desire
to do that. But we can't find a way to do
it. Paul said, I can't find a way to do. What I want to do, that's
what I don't I don't do it. What I don't want to do, that's
what I do. We can't walk with a perfect heart, can we? But
Christ our Savior did. So we need Him. We need Him to
be our wisdom because we don't have any. We need Him to be our
righteousness because we don't have any. And the clearest example
of our spiritual ignorance, we need God to give us wisdom. We're
so ignorant. The clearest example of that
is we refuse to come to Christ for salvation. He says, come
unto me. I'll give you rest. Come to me.
I'll forgive you. And we won't do it. We're so
ignorant. And the greatest example of our
sin is we refuse to come to Christ to be forgiven of it and to be
made righteous. We refuse. But our Lord, our
Lord Jesus, he was wise when we're not. He's perfect when
we're not. And the believers hope and comfort
is Christ is my wisdom. Christ is my righteousness. He's
my perfection. And as a man, the Lord Jesus
was the opposite of us. He constantly desired his father's
presence. That's why he was so troubled
in soul at Calvary when the father took his presence away from him.
He desired his father's presence. Here he says, oh, when wilt thou
come unto me? He constantly desired his father's
presence. So here's the question, when
wilt thou come unto me? I'm so ignorant, I'm so sinful, I won't
come to God. I will not come unto him that
I might have life. So when and how can I come to
God? Is there a way that I can come
to God? Yes, there is. I'll come to God when God comes
to me. And when God draws me to himself,
I'll come. And when I come to him in Christ,
he will accept me. And it'll be right for him to
accept me, because in Christ I'm righteous. I have no sin. I'm perfect in Christ. And since
Christ is my righteousness, God is both merciful and He's right. He's just to accept me in the
beloved. Look back at Psalm 73. We won't
read this whole psalm. You're acquainted with it. In
this psalm, David talks about how foolish he'd been. He said,
I was envious of the wicked. God's going to damn them. I was
envious of them. David said, I didn't act wisely.
I didn't act perfectly. But the Lord Jesus Christ did,
and he is our hope. Look what David says here in
verse 21 of Psalm 73. Thus was my heart grieved, and
I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I and ignorant.
I was as a beast before thee. Nevertheless, despite how foolish
I was, despite the fact that I was a beast before thee, I
am continually with thee. Thou hast holden me by my right
hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. David said, I was
so ignorant, I'm like a beast. I'm like that lost sheep, ignorant,
going the wrong way, going away from the shepherd. But my hope
is this, that the Lord will keep me. that He'll hold me by my
right hand, by His right hand, and that He'll guide me, that
by His counsel, He'll guide me, He'll keep me, that He will be
my counsel and He will be my wisdom. I need Christ to be my
all. That's what I need. In verse
25, that's what David says. Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
What other hope do I have? Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
There is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh
and my heart faileth. There's no hope in me. But God
is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. He's my hope.
For lo, they that are far from thee shall perish. Thou hast
destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. But it's good for
me to draw near to God. I've put my trust in the Lord
God that I may declare all thy works. It's good for me to draw
near to God. And when am I going to draw near
to him? When he comes to me, when he draws me to Himself. And when He does, when He comes
to me and draws me, I'll be accepted. And you may wonder, well, then
I'll just wait till I'm sure. How can I be sure if the Lord's
drawing me? If you're wondering that, the
Lord's drawing you. The Lord's drawing you. Just
come. Just come to Christ and trust Him. And when you do, you'll
be accepted. All right. Number two, I need
Christ to be merciful. I need him to cleanse me of my
sin, and I need it to be real. I need it to be in truth. I don't
need this to be a pretend thing now. I need it to be real. Verse
3, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the
work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. Now,
the wicked thing David's talking about here is idolatry. It's
the things of Belial. Now every believer constantly
flees idolatry. Scripture tells believers now,
flee idolatry. There's a reason scripture tells
us to flee idolatry. It's because our old natural
heart is still drawn to it. But God saves us, our natural
heart's unchanged. Our old natural heart is still
drawn to something other than Christ alone. Could I just add
a little bit to it? Could I be looked at, you know,
as better than this brother here? Because I do this and, you know,
he doesn't. It's idolatry. That's what that is. And we're
told to flee it. And we must flee it. Because
this I know. If the Lord doesn't keep me,
I'll turn away from Him. I know that. If He doesn't keep
me, I'll go after the idols of this world. And this is what
I need. I need the Lord to grant me repentance. I need Him to turn me, to turn
me away from my idols, and turn me to Christ, and I need him
to keep me turned to Christ. See, it all comes back to this.
I need Christ to be my righteousness. I need him. He did hate every
wicked thing. My natural heart's still drawn
to it. He did hate every wicked thing. He never one time turned
his eyes on anything wicked. He was always holy and pure. And even when he was made sin,
he didn't sin. Even when he was made sin, that
sin did not stain him or defile him. Instead, he put my sin away
with his precious blood, his perfect blood. And what I need
is to be found in Christ, not in myself. I need to be found
washed in his blood. I need to be cleansed of my sin
so that it won't cleave to me anymore. And you know what? My sin can't cleave to me if
Christ has washed me from it in his blood. If he's made me
righteous, it can't cleave to me anymore. No charge against
me can stick if Christ died for me. What did the Apostle Paul
say? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God to justify it. Who is
he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather
than is risen again. who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Oh, this is what I need. I need to be washed in His blood.
I need Him to be making intercession for me, so that I'm accepted
in mercy. It's got to be mercy. If God's
going to accept me, it's got to be mercy, doesn't it? But
I also need it to be right when God accepts me, because Christ
has put my sin away. That's what I need. Thirdly, I need this. I need
Christ to know me. I need him to know me like a
husband knows his wife. I need him to know me in mercy
and in judgment. Verse four, he says, a froward
heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked person.
Now, all of us by nature have a froward heart. That's not a
word we use very much today. It means a false heart, a sinful
heart. That's what it means. Our natural
heart is a wicked, sinful heart And God said, he'll not know
a wicked person. Now, a wicked person, if you
get a wicked person in your mind, I bet, I bet I can read your
mind. A wicked person, what we think is a person just goes out
there and try to commit as much sin as they possibly can. They
try to be dishonest as much as they possibly can. They try to
cheat people out of stuff as much as they possibly can. And
I won't argue with you and say that's not wicked. I mean, I
hope none of us will do that because, I mean, that's wicked.
God's not going to accept that person. But that's not the most wicked
person. The person our Lord described as wicked is the person who's
been a good citizen. Oh, they fed the poor. They've
given to help good causes. They've done these things. They
visited folks in the hospital, but they've done them with this
motive. Trying to get God to accept them
based on what they've done. And our Lord Jesus said, that's
a wicked person. And God will not accept them.
Look at Matthew chapter 7. I'll show you when he said this.
Matthew chapter 7. Verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Not every
religious person that uses the name Jesus is going to enter
the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of
my father, which is in heaven. And this is what he's getting
ready to tell us. Doing the will of our father, which is in heaven,
is not obeying the law and earning a righteousness that makes us
accepted before God. Doing the will of our father,
which is in heaven, is not trusting anything we've done and trusting
Christ alone. Because look what he says, verse
22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. And then
will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye
that work iniquity. All those who are preaching in
his name and casting out devils in the name of the Lord and doing
many wonderful works and miracles in the name of the Lord, they're
doing them thinking that's their righteousness, thinking that
is something they can do to make God happy with them. And our
Lord called them the workers of iniquity. Oh, they did all
these wonderful religious things that impressed the life out of
you and me. But our Lord told them, depart from me. I never
knew you. You're a worker of iniquity.
I never knew you in covenant love. I never knew you in mercy
and grace. The Father never knew you in
Christ. I only knew you in Adam. I only
knew you in all those wonderful works that you've done. So you
must be damned. That's the workers of iniquity.
So what I need is for God to know me in Christ. I need him
to know me in covenant love. I need him to know me in his
mercy, in his grace. I need him to know me so that
when he looks at me, All He sees is His Son. That's what I need. And if God knows me in Christ,
I'll tell you why He knows, why He sees me, why He knows me in
Christ. It's because before time began, He put me in His Christ,
in His Son. He put me in there. He put me
in Him. He's always seen me in Christ and that's the only way
He ever will see me. He sees me as perfect, as righteous,
as beautiful, as loved, as His own darling Son. Well, since
I'm perfect in Christ, it's obvious God's done that mercy. He's done
that mercy. But if I'm in Christ, it's a
true it's a right verdict for God to accept me in Christ. It's
right for him. Now, that's a good hope. That's
a good hope. And the only explanation for
it is God's mercy. All right. Fourthly, I need this. I need God to be merciful and
I need him to give me a new heart, a new nature. And buddy, I need
it to be real. I don't need this thing to be
a shuffling of the paper, you know, in the bureaucratic desk
of heaven. I need this thing to be real.
Verse five. Whoso privileged slandereth his
neighbor, him will I cut off. Him that hath a high look and
a proud heart will I not suffer. Now we saw in verse four, our
heart was described as a froward heart, a wicked heart. Here,
David describes our heart as a proud heart. Now, I'll show
you how much trouble that puts us in. Look over a few pages
in Proverbs chapter six. Proverbs chapter six. Here's the trouble of a proud
heart. Verse 16, Proverbs chapter six. These six things that the
Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination to him. A proud look,
a lying tongue and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart
that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running
to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that
soweth discord among the brethren. Now, all these things that God
hates are in our text back in verse five. And the number one
thing God hates is a proud look. And David said, we're in trouble.
We got a proud heart. We're in trouble. God hates that.
We are so proud. By nature, we think we do not
need the Lord Jesus Christ. If we needed him, we'd come to
him. If we needed him, we'd come to him. We're so proud. God hates
that. He hates those who think they
can stand on their own and not come to his son. God also hates
a lying tongue. He hates hearts that devise wicked
imaginations. It's not enough wicked stuff
going on in the world. We've got to devise a new way to be
wicked. He hates feet that are swift to shed blood. All those
things put together, that's how man crucified the Lord of Glory.
They found witnesses who would lie on Him. They devised all
these wicked imaginations about how they could take and crucify
God's Son in their heart. How they wanted to get rid of
Him and how our feet were swift to shed blood. The very moment
God allowed His Son to be put in our hands, what did we do?
Our feet were swift to shed blood. And God hates that person. Those
are the things God says He hates. God says, I'm going to cut that
person off. I'm never going to accept somebody
with that sinful heart. Well, then I'm in trouble, aren't
you? I'm in trouble. It's obvious to me what I need
is a new heart. I need God to give me a new heart
in the new birth, and I need it to be real. I don't need it
to be some reformation of my old heart. I don't need it to
be putting some chains of the law on me that, you know, I kind
of act better, and you think I'm acting better than I used
to, but the heart's still corrupt. I need a new heart. I need it
to be real. I need God to give me a heart
that loves God. I need God to give me a heart
that's a humble heart, that needs Christ. I need God to give me
an honest heart. A heart that needs Christ and
believes on Him and clings to Him. I need God to give me a
heart that God loves. I need Him to give me a nature
that He loves, that He can accept. That's what I need. And it's
got to be real. Now, it's got to be done in truth.
Salvation does require a work for us, doesn't it? But salvation
also requires a work in us. The problem with so many different
people and false religion is they leave out one or the other.
It's got to be both. It's got to be both. Christ is
the one who did the work for us. In His life, in His death,
He did a work for us. He purchased the redemption of
His people. And the Holy Spirit is the one who does the work
in us. Doing a work in us and giving us life. Giving us a new
heart, giving us a new nature. And when this old flesh is finally
laid in the ground, the new man is going to be set free to go
to glory where the father is going to say, well done. And
when he does, it's going to be, he's going to accept us in truth
because that new man is holy and righteous and God will accept
that. He can't accept us in our flesh.
He can't accept us with our old heart, but God will accept that
heart that he gives, the nature he gives in the new birth. See,
it's mercy that caused God to give us a heart that's holy.
That's mercy, isn't it? And it's justice. It's right
for God to accept that which is holy. See, I need mercy and
truth, mercy and judgment. All right, here's the fifth thing.
I need God to be merciful and I need him to make me faithful.
And I need him to do it in truth. I don't need to make him faithful.
Make me faithful in a way that fools you. I need him to make
me faithful to him. Verse 6, mine eyes shall be upon
the faithful of the land and that they may dwell with me.
He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. Now God's
eyes are on the faithful of the land. Well, who's that? It can only be one person, can
it? It can only be the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only faithful
man to ever live. He promised his father what he
would do And he came and did exactly what he said he was going
to do. He promised his father that he would come incarnate
and he would make his people righteous by his obedience for
them. And he promised his father, he said, I'll put away the sin
of my people. All those that you gave, given me, I'll put
their sin away by my sacrifice for them. And he did exactly
what he promised to do. He is the faithful savior. Well, that is the savior that
I need. I need him to be faithful. He
said, come unto me, I'll give you rest. I need him to be faithful
to do it, don't you? Because I need rest. I need rest
from all my works, my works of death. I need rest. I need him to be faithful to
do what he promised. He said, come to me, I'll forgive you.
Come to me, I'll make you righteous. Come to me. Are you weary? Are
you thirsty? Come to me, I'll give you a drink.
I need him to be faithful to do for this poor sinner what
he said he'd do. And He is, isn't He? I need the
Lord to give me faith in Christ the Savior. Because there's salvation
in no other name. I need Him to put me in Christ
so that I'm perfect in Him. Not in what I do, but in Christ. That's the only way I can be
saved. By a right verdict. God's got to be merciful to put
me in Christ. He's got to be merciful to be
sacrificed for me. Well, then it's a right verdict
for him to accept me, to do what he said he'd do and accept me
in Christ. All right, here's the sixth thing. I need Christ
to be cut off for me so that God can deal with me in both
mercy and judgment. Verse 7. He that worketh deceit
shall not dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not
tarry in my sight. Now, the only thing that my flesh
can do is work deceit. That's what this flesh does.
It tries to deceive God and men into thinking that I am much
more pious and much more righteous than I really am. And all that
deceit is is one great big lie. It's deceit. And God says that
person won't tarry in my presence. They won't be established in
my sight. Well, by nature, I'm deceitful.
Then I need Christ. I need him. I need Christ to
be my substitute. That's what the gospel is all
about. It's substitution and satisfaction. I need Christ to
be cut off from the Father for me, for my sin, so that I can
be accepted in the beloved. That's what I need. I know that
Christ was cut off from the Father at Calvary because he cried,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He was cut off.
What I need to know is, was He cut off for me? If Christ was
cut off from the Father for my sin, then the Father will never
cut me off for the same sin. Because that wouldn't be just.
And His verdicts are always a right verdict. If Christ was cut off
for my sin, if He bore my sin and was cut off from the Father
for me, now that's mercy, isn't it? What mercy is that? That the Father would cut off
His Son for my sin, that's mercy. But if Christ was cut off for
me in mercy, then it's a right judgment, it's a right verdict
for God to accept me and not cut me off, because my sin's
already been paid for in Christ. That's the only way I can have
a good hope, is if Christ was cut off for me, then I never
will be. All right, here's the seventh
thing, the last thing. I need Christ to be destroyed
for me in mercy, so that I can live in judgment and truth. Verse
8, I will destroy all the wicked of the land that I may cut off
all the wicked doers from the city of the Lord. Now, the Lord
says here he's going to destroy all the wicked and there'll be
no exceptions to this because God is holy and just. He will cut off all the wicked
doers from the city of the Lord so that the only people in the
kingdom of Christ, the only people in the city of the Lord are righteous
people. I'm not righteous by nature.
and I want in that city, in that kingdom, don't you? Then I need
Christ to be my substitute. I've got to be destroyed for
my sin. Then I need Christ to be my substitute and be destroyed
for me. I need him to die for me so that
I can live. And that is exactly what Christ
has done for his people. He was cut off in their place
so they'll never be cut off. He died in the place of his people
so that they'll never die. If Christ died for you, you'll
never die. You'll never die the second death.
God will accept you. He'll give you eternal life because
that's the only right verdict. It would be unjust for God to
kill Christ for your sin. You do. He won't do that. He's always just. If Christ died
in my place, that's mercy. I can't even say how great a
mercy that is. The depths of mercy. that the Son of God would
die in my place, bury my sin and my shame. That's mercy. Well,
here's justice. Christ died in my place. The
only right verdict is for God to accept me in His kingdom.
Mercy and judgment. And that's the salvation I need.
That's the Savior that I need. That is the salvation every sinner
needs. Thank God. That's the Savior
He's provided. That's the salvation He's provided
in His Son. May God be pleased to give us
faith in Him, to go home tonight believing Him, resting in Him
because He's the Savior we need. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, how can we ever thank
You as You ought to be thanked for the glorious Savior, Your
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for salvation
with depths of mercy that can never be told, that's also right. How you make in your wisdom,
in your grace, in your mercy, you make it right to accept your
people through the obedience and the sacrifice of Christ our
Savior. Father, how we thank you. And
how we beg that you give us faith to believe him. The turn from
all of our idols, the idols of our own works, the idols of our
own hands, the idols of our imaginations, and turn to Christ and trust
Him and rest in Him. Father, how we thank You. Pray
You'd bless Your Word to Your glory and to the good of Your
people. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Let's stand and sing 477. 477. Years I spent in vanity and pride,
Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing not it was for me He
died. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty. By God's word at last my sin
I learned, Then I trembled at the law I'd spurned, Till my
guilty soul imploring turned to God. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. There my burdened soul found
liberty. Now I owe to Jesus everything. Now I gladly own Him as my King. Now my raptured soul can only
sing of God the Mercy there was great and grace
was free. There my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. Oh, the love that drew salvation's
plan! Oh, the grace that brought it
down to man! Let go, let God disband, and
all are free.