Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 19. The title of the message is God's Two Books of Testimony. God has two great books that
testify of who God is. And God wrote both of those books.
First, there's the book of nature. God wrote that book when He created
the heavens and the earth. He spoke it into existence. And
that book of nature testifies that God exists. Any honest person
who looks at nature, who looks at creation, has to admit God
exists. Somebody created all this. And whoever created all this
is something else. He's great in power, wisdom,
and might. Somebody created this. The book
of nature reveals God and His power and wisdom. And anybody
can read that book of nature. Anybody can. Matter of fact,
I'll show you this in a minute. Everybody has. Every man, woman,
boy and girl has read this book of nature to know that God exists.
And the second book of testimony is God's Word. God wrote this
book. God the Holy Spirit moved men
to write it. They wrote it as they were inspired
of the Spirit. And God wrote this book. to reveal
himself in his redemptive glory. Now, the only way we can read
this book, everybody's read the book of nature, but the only
way we can read this book and see its true meaning and believe
it is if God reveals himself to us. So first there's the book
of nature. Psalm 19 verse one, the heavens
declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
Now the heavens, David talked about there is outer space, but
firmament is all the air above the earth. And you just look
up there and see all that. They declare the glory of God. Now you notice David doesn't
say the heavens give us a hint about God. No, they declare God's
glory. God made the air, the atmosphere
in which we live with just exactly the right amount of oxygen so
we can breathe. That didn't happen by accident.
God did that in His wisdom. God made the clouds and the ozone
layer and the things up there to protect the earth, to surround
the earth. He made the planets and the sun
and the moon and the stars and He put all those things in their
place and they stay right there in their place because God keeps
them there. He told them to stay right there
and that's where they stay. Creation shows God's handiwork. God's handiwork shows the kind
of work that God does. You know, the kind of work a
person does reveals something about them, about their character,
about their skill, about their wisdom. Debbie Davis told me
one time, she said, I drive to work and she said, there's just
beautiful sunrises. And I want to look around at
the cars around me and say, don't you see this? My God did this. He painted this glorious sunrise. Just for me, just to see. This
is, my God did this. He painted that glorious picture. It shows his handiwork, shows
something about him. Janet and I are blessed to own
a couple of paintings from Marvin Stoniker. And I look at those
things in utter amazement. How did a human being do that?
It's completely foreign to me. That tells me something about
the man. He got some skill, whoever did that. You look at this creation,
it tells you something about the glory of God, His intelligence,
His power, His wisdom. That's His handiwork. Verse two,
day unto day utter a speech, and night unto night showeth
knowledge. You know, every day and every night tells us God
is. But more than that, you know
what the every day, every night, you know what that tells us?
God is a God of order. Day and night, sunrise and sunset
come at exactly the right time. Men can predict it out years
and years and years in advance because God's never late. God
is a God of order. He controls everything that happens
in his creation. So it happens right on schedule. You know, in the early days of
our country, there were those little towns scattered around
all over the place. They're just little towns and
they weren't big enough. They didn't have enough people
to support a pastor. So what they did is several of those
little towns got together and together they could support a
pastor. And what he would do, he was called a circuit preacher.
He would, on a circuit, on a schedule, ride from town to town to town
to town to preach on that circuit, on that schedule. The sun and
moon are God's circuit preachers, just every day coming around
right on schedule, declaring that God is, God's a God of order. He keeps everything in its proper
place for his purpose. Verse three, there's no speech
nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has
gone out throughout all the earth and their words to the end of
the world. Now the heavens, the firmament, the day and the night,
they all testify to us. that God is. They tell us something
about God. David says their speech is heard
in every nation. This is a language everybody
can understand. Everybody speaks this language
to look at nature and know God is. The word line here is their
rule. The rule of nature has gone out
into every land and everybody understands it. Everybody understands
how the sun rules the day and the moon rules the night. And
there's no changing those things. Everybody understands how all
these different intricate things work together in our creation
to bring the rain and the dew and the changing of seasons and
all these things. Their rule, their line has gone
out and everybody understands it. So. Look at Romans chapter
one. The apostle Paul tells us in
no uncertain terms, what's the result of men understanding the
testimony of the book of nature that God is. Paul tells us that
men are without excuse if they do not see God, because nature
tells them God is. Romans 1 verse 18. For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them, is manifest
to them, for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal
power and Godhead. So there without excuse. Men
are without excuse who do not seek God, because the book of
nature testifies that God is. Look back in our text, Psalm
19, at the end of verse four. In
them, in the firmament, hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth
as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end
of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it. and there's
nothing hid from the heat thereof. Now, the glory of creation is
the sun. It's seen on every continent,
on every planet, the sun. The sun is the source of life
for all of creation. And God created the sun. He put
it where he put it, to give us a picture of his son, his S-O-N,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I grant you we can only know
that. We can only have that completely explained to us from the second
book of God's testimony, His Word. But the Son tells us God
is and ought to make us seek Him. The Son is the center of
this universe. You know, that's one of the first
things we've got to teach our children. We're not the center
of the universe. The Son is the center of the
universe. Spiritually speaking, The Lord Jesus Christ is the
center of the universe. He's the center of all things.
It all hangs upon him. The sun comes out to give life
and warmth to all the universe, just like Christ gives life and
warmth to his people. The sun is our source of life,
just like Christ is the light of his people. And the glory
of the sun reaches every corner of this planet. Just like the
saving glory of Christ has reached every corner, every nook and
cranny, every nation upon this globe, the saving glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ has reached it. There are no sinners so far
out there, they're too far from Christ. His saving power has
reached every nation. Now the book of nature tells
us God is. It tells us that God is wise,
He's powerful, that He rules over this creation. The book
of nature testifies to us, declares to us God's eternality. It's vast. Just think how vast
this universe is. And they tell me there's universes
on out past this. Just how vast is all this? Whoever created it has got to
be more vast than that, doesn't he? That's the book of nature. But the book of nature can only
go so far. The book of nature can't tell
us the true character of God. We read the book of nature, it's
obvious God exists, but is God holy? What is God like? Is he just? Is he merciful? Will
he forgive sin? Will he save sinners? Can God
love sinners? The book of nature doesn't tell
us that, does it? That's why God wrote the second book, the
second book of his testimony, the Bible, the Holy Bible, God's
word. And you'll notice in God's Word, this is the book of his
testimony that tells us who he is. This book tells us what God's
like, what he does. The opening pages of this book
explain the whole book of nature, don't they? He began there to
explain the book of nature, that it's the testimony of God. In
these next verses, David gives us six words that testify to
the character of God. And these six words, these six
characteristics tell us how and why God saves sinners. The first
word is law, verse seven. The law of the Lord is perfect,
converting the soul. Now that word law means a whole
lot more than the law of Moses. It means the doctrine, the whole
doctrine, the whole teaching of God's word is the Lord Jesus
Christ. The law, the doctrine, the teaching
of God's word is what? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
thou shalt be saved. He is the savior of sinners.
That's the teaching of the whole Bible. The law tells us that,
the prophets tell us that, the Psalms tell us that, the different
what we call Bible stories that we teach to our children. We
teach them to them to show them their pictures of Christ. They
all tell us Christ is the savior. And the New Testament tells us
here he is. The Old Testament promised us
he's coming. The New Testament tells us Here he is. Look to
him. He's the promised Savior. Believe
on him and be saved. The whole doctrine of the Bible
is what we call the gospel, the gospel of Christ, and that gospel
is perfect. David says the law of the Lord
is perfect. There's no error in it. It's
perfect. It reveals to us how perfect God is. It reveals to
us the perfection of the man, the Lord Jesus. And it reveals
to us this great miracle. It reveals how sinners, ruined
in sin, fallen in sin, who are nothing but sin, are made perfect
by the Lord Jesus Christ, because He obeyed the law for them, because
He suffered and died and shed His blood to wash them from all
of their sin, to wash them and make them white as snow, to make
them perfect in Him. And David says the result of
that gospel, the result of this doctrine of Christ, is the conversion
of souls, the conversion of God's elect. And that word converting,
it has three main meanings. It means turning, it means to
restore, it means to renew. First, turning. I can tell you
exactly when sinners are going to turn from their idol, when
they'll turn from their wicked works, they'll turn to Christ
when they hear Christ preach. He's the whole doctrine, the
whole teaching of the Bible. The second meaning is restored.
Adam was created upright, perfect, but he lost it. Somebody's got
to restore us back to God. Somebody's got to restore us
back to fellowship with God because Adam lost it. Somebody's got
to restore us back to life. Adam lost it. Somebody's got
to restore us back to righteousness because Adam lost it. That's
why the Lord Jesus Christ came to restore his people, to bring
them back to God so that he made his people accepted in the beloved.
And then the third meaning is renewed. The Lord renews his
people. He gives them life, new life,
by his word. You know how sinners are born
again? By the preaching of this word. This word is the seed.
James 1.18, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. This is the word that gives life. Life comes from the doctrine
of Christ. All right, the second word is
testimony, verse seven. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. Now, this whole book is the testimony
of who God is. It tells us the character of
God, and it's a testimony. It's the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but truth. It's the perfect testimony of
God. And God had to give us this testimony
so we know what he's like. How could we know what God's
character is unless he tells us? How can we know what the
heart of God is unless he tells us? I can't tell what your heart
is unless you tell me. Much less God. If I'm going to
know what his heart is, what his will is, if I'm going to
know why he does what he does, he's got to tell me in his word.
And that's what his word is. It's the testimony of who God
is. But this book also testifies
of something else. It testifies about you and me.
It testifies about the character of man. You know, this is what
the Bible tells us. This is the doctrine of the Bible.
That's what it testifies. That when Adam fell, all men
died. We became hopelessly lost and
ruined by sin. Now, if the Bible didn't give
us that testimony, we would all think that we've got the capacity
to do something that is good enough, that would be impressive
enough to make things right between us and God. That's what we think.
If the Bible didn't tell us the opposite, But here's the proof
our nature is dead. That when Adam fell, we died.
Here's the proof of it. The Bible testifies we're dead
in sin. We're ruined in sin. We can't
do anything but sin. Yet we still think I can do something
to make this thing right between me and God. We think I've got
to do something. The Bible testifies to us we're
dead in sin, without any hope in ourselves for this reason.
This is what, when the Bible tells us about our total depravity,
about how lost and ruined we are in sin, the reason is all
this. It's testifying to us how much
we need Christ the Savior. Now look to Him. He's everything
that you, you're not. He's everything that you need.
The Bible testifies, the only way a sinner can be saved, the
only way a sinner can be given life, is if Christ died for us. Christ died for a people. He
died for the people that the Father gave him. That's the testimony
of this book. And his life and his death were
perfect. Perfect. Then he cannot fail
to save those people for whom he died. He can't fail. He's
going to make them perfect. Look at 1 John chapter 5. The
whole testimony of the Bible is salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. First John 5 verse 11. And this is the record. This
is the testimony that God has given to us eternal life and
this life is in his son. He that hath the son hath life
and he that hath not the son of God hath not life. The testimony is salvation is
in Christ. And the testimony of the Bible
is so powerful. It makes simple men and women
wise. God, the Holy Spirit gives a
new mind. And that mind, that nature is wise. That mind is
wise. It understands how God saves
sinners. And more importantly, it understands
this. Now I understand how God can save me and still be God,
still be holy and still be just. Look at 2 Timothy 3. We make so much of God's Word
here because it's the testimony of God. It makes sinners wise
to salvation. 2 Timothy 3, verse 14. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing
of whom thou hast learned them. and that from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. You know, sometimes our children,
I'm sure you're a lot like me when I was your age, you wonder
why do my teachers keep going over and over and over these
stories in the Bible. Why do they keep going back?
Haven't they exhausted all the teaching of this book? Can't
we go find something else? Why do they keep going, just
hammering, hammering, hammering? Can't they ever find an end of
things to show me Christ out of this book? No, they can't. And you know why we do that?
You'll be like young Timothy. We keep teaching you these scriptures.
You memorize these scriptures. We keep reading them to you and
teaching them to you because these scriptures are able to
make you wise unto salvation. They did Timothy. Maybe they
will you too. If you're going to be wise unto
salvation, I promise you it's from this word, it's from this
book. It's able to make the simple wise. Then the third word back
in our text, Psalm 19, the third word is statutes, verse eight.
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. Now that word statutes, we normally
think of statutes like laws and commandments, but the word means
appointment, appointed. This is God's eternal decrees
that he has appointed. Before God created anything,
when only thing that, if you can say it that way, that exists,
only God existed. At that time, he appointed. all
of His will. He decreed what all of His purpose
and will would be. Then He created the world and
He put man in it. You know why? To do everything
He already decreed. That's why God created this planet.
God didn't create this world and man multiply, man's going
around and all this crazy stuff and in order to rule the world,
God's got to react to what man's doing. No. God's not reacting
to what you and I are doing. No, he's not. God rules the world
by making everything work together to accomplish his eternal will,
the purpose that he decreed. Even our sin, our rebellion,
the awful things that we do, God has ordained those things
to accomplish his eternal purpose and will. And you know the perfect
illustration of it we have. the cross. Peter told us that.
Yeah, you did what you wanted to do, but in so doing you accomplished
God's eternal appointment, his decree, what he said he would
do. So God's going to save anybody. He had a decree to do it in eternity
before anything was created, didn't he? Did salvation have
anything to do with what we do? It's all dependent upon God's
decree. If you and I are saved, it's
because God decreed our salvation before the foundation of the
world. And then he sent his son to accomplish what he decreed
to happen. And God saving his people is
right. It's just right. It's right because
Christ purchased it for them, because Christ earned it for
them. He made them not guilty. It's only right that God saved
them. And that rejoices the heart of God's people. Look at 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. Nothing will rejoice the heart
of a sinner more than that. That Almighty God determined
to save a people. That's what he decreed to do.
And then he sent his son to do it. It's done. It can't be lost. 2 Thessalonians 5. I'm sorry,
1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 9. For
God hath not appointed us to wrath. but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we
wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore,
comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also
you do." Do you want to comfort one another? Do you want to be
able to edify and help one another? Paul says, here's how you do
it. Remind each other, God has not appointed us to wrath, but
God has appointed us to salvation. He's appointed his people to
salvation. They're going to be saved because that's God's decree. Now look over 1 Peter chapter
2. Do you know the opposite of that is true? Also, if someone
is not saved, it's because God let him alone. He decreed he
was going to let them alone and it's right. It's only right that
he do it. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 7. And do you therefore which believe?
Oh, he's precious. How precious the Lord Jesus Christ
is. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto
also they were appointed. Now that's not telling us that
God predestinated some men to heaven and some men to hell.
No. People who refuse to believe God, they're going to be damned.
And it's going to be their own fault. Peter says they were disobedient. You want to know why they stumbled
at the word? They were disobedient. It's not that they couldn't understand
the testimony of God's word. They refused to have it. They
were disobedient and would not believe it. That's why they stumbled.
God didn't predestinate them to hell. It was God's purpose
to leave them alone and let them have their own way. And if they're
damned, it's only right. The wages of sin is death. It's
only right if they're damned. They refuse the only way of salvation. What the Bible testifies is this.
The salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord's appointment.
It's of his doing and his elect rejoice in it. Write the fourth
word, verse eight, commandment. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. Now this commandment, it does
include the law of God, the Ten Commandments, the whole mosaic
law. That law is pure and holy, isn't it? And that law enlightens
the eyes. At least that law ought to enlighten
our eyes, to show us that God is holy and we're unholy. The
law ought to show us that. But the law itself, while it
enlightens our eyes to see ourselves as we are, is to see us in our
sin and our rebellion and our inability to keep it. The law
can't show us the way of salvation, can it? The law can show us we're
unrighteous, but it can't tell us how to be righteous. The law
can show us we've broken the law, but it can't tell us how
to obey it. So this commandment means more than the law. It means
all the commandments of God. It means the gospel. What is
the commandment of God? Believe on the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Believe, that's the commandment
of the gospel. That's what the law says, that's
what the prophets say, that's what the Psalms say, that's what
the apostles say, that's the whole testimony of the Bible.
Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. And God the Holy Spirit enlightens
our eyes to see ourselves as we really are. To see our sinfulness,
our filth, to see our need. And then to see Christ. We will
believe on Him with all of our heart. The moment the Holy Spirit
enlightens our eyes, we'll see Christ. And we seek Him with
all of our heart, we'll find Him. And we'll be saved. And
this Word will continue to be a light to you. The Word of God
gives us light to see how and why God would save somebody like
me. I couldn't know that if it wasn't
for God's Word. This is how God can be just and justifier. The
only way you see that is in the light of God's Word. The Word
of God's a light to our feet to show us the way in which we
should go. And I can tell you, it's going
to tell you to go one way every time. Every time it's going to
tell you, go to Christ. Go to Christ, look to Him. That's
what the light of God's word tells us. And it's pure. This gospel, the word of God,
is pure. It's not an alloy. It's not a
mixture of grace and words. This thing's not a mixture of
Christ and me. No, the gospel, the word of God, is pure. It's
pure Christ. It's all of His obedience. It's
all of His blood. It's all of His choice. all of
his will, all of his purpose, all of his doing, all of his
glory. It's pure Christ. The Spirit gives us light. That's
what we see in God's Word. Right to fifth word, verse nine,
is fear. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. This word fear means reverence.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You have people who
know God. do not have an unholy familiarity
with him. Now they speak of the Lord. They
speak to the Lord and they speak of the Lord with respect. He's the Lord. He's not Jesus
like he's my equal. He's the Lord Jesus. He is the
almighty. He's to be feared. He's to be
referenced. He's to be worshiped. He's the
Lord Jesus. He's the Savior. He's to be worshipped. He's to be thanked and awe and
wonder. He's the Savior. And He saved
me. Oh, He's to be thanked. He's
to be worshipped. He's our refuge to rest in. He's our hope that we can rely
upon. He is to be referenced. And this
reverence is clean. It comes from a clean heart.
A heart that God has cleansed from sin. That heart of the new
man, he's been cleansed from sin. So he's going to endure
forever. That's what eternal life is.
It's going to endure forever. And you know why it'll endure
forever? It's clean. There's no sin to kill it. Christ has removed it. So the
reference of Christ will last too. If you don't enjoy referencing
Christ now and praising him now, why do you want to go to heaven
for? That's all heaven is. It's an eternity referencing
the Lord Jesus Christ, the savior of his people, the center of
the universe. Then the sixth word is judgments. The rest of verse nine, the judgments
of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. And that word judgments
means verdict. Now God is the judge and he's
going to pronounce a verdict on every soul that judge And
everyone, every verdict that he pronounces is going to be
true and righteous altogether. If God sent someone to hell,
it's a true and righteous judgment. He did that because they're guilty. It's their fault. He did it because
they refused to come to Christ. They refused to believe him.
They refused to bow to him. They refused to submit themselves
to the righteousness of Christ. So nobody will ever be able to
argue God's verdict is not fair. No, it's just. It's right. He'll
give everybody exactly what they've earned. And God, by His mercy
and grace, saves someone. It's not that He overlooked their
sin. It's not that He ignored the law and ignored their sin.
No, if He takes them to glory, it's going to be a right, a true
and righteous verdict altogether. Because they're not guilty. Their
obedience to the law is the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. His
obedience, His righteousness is true and righteous altogether. Their sin has been paid for.
Justice has been satisfied by the sacrifice of Christ. They're
not guilty. So God's true. He's righteous
to take them to glory. Now, the Word of God declares
this truth. And every saved person believes it. Every saved person
amens this truth. God is just. Everything he does
is true and righteous altogether. That's true. Whether God, it's
a scary thing to say, but that's true. Whether God sends me to
hell or whether he takes me to heaven. Both times, God's just. Both ways, whatever he does is
true and righteous altogether. That is taking sides with God
against myself. and depending wholly upon the
mercy of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the testimony
of who God is, how and why God saves sinners. Let's read the
rest of these verses. I think we'll get something sweet
here. Verse 10. Oh, this book is precious. This
testimony of God is precious. More to be desired are they than
gold. Yea, the much fine gold, sweeter
also than honey in the honeycomb. You know, we should desire these
truths, these testimony of God's Word. We should desire them in
the heart more than anything else. Because we need them more
than anything else. We need Christ to be our Savior. A whole lot more than we need
more money, or a better job, or a bigger house, or a nicer
car. We don't need anything as much as we need Christ to be
our Savior. He's revealed in this book. That's
what makes this book more valuable. I wouldn't trade this book for
its weight in gold. I wouldn't trade this book for
10 times its weight in gold. I was talking about light earlier.
Look at those notes right there. You know, we think gold and silver
and precious stone. We think all these things. Boy,
I'd like to have a bunch of that. That's fine. It's fine. Or give
it to you. But I'm telling you, there's
coming a day gold won't be worth nothing. Heaven says the streets,
or the Bible says that the streets of heaven are made out of gold.
You know what that's telling us? There's coming a day that
gold is going to be just as valuable, just as something you just think
about as you do asphalt. You'll never think that about
the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll never think that about
his righteousness. You'll never think that about
his blood. You'll never think that about
his love. Why don't we care more about
the love of Christ than we do money? We'll never think his love is
worthless. We will gold, but never his love,
never his sacrifice. And the gospel of Christ is sweet. You know, I've said this before.
I want to be dogmatic. I want to be so doctrinally straight. Oh, I want to be dogmatic. Never retreat. Never bend. Never stray. Never get off on
a tangent from Christ. But when we preach the gospel,
we preach Christ, if there's not a sweetness there, something's
awry. There is nothing sweeter to the
believer in God's free grace that's revealed in his scripture.
I don't know about y'all, but I got a sweet tooth. I mean,
I love sweets. I blame it on my mother and my
grandmother. They taught me from the time
I was a little guy, dinner's not over till you have something
sweet. I just, you know, and now I can do away with the dinner. Just give me something sweet.
You know, I got a sweet tooth. And it's not good for you. It's just
not good. Too much of that stuff's not
good for you. Here's one thing that's sweet. You can have all
of it you want. And not only is it not bad for
you, it's good for you. Oh, the gospel's sweet. There's
nothing sweeter than the forgiveness of sin in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, there's nothing sweeter than
life in Him, faith in Him. There's nothing sweeter than
that. Come have all of it you want. Verse 11. Moreover, by them, by this word,
by the teaching, the doctrine of this word, is thy servant
warned. And in keeping of them, there's
great reward. You know, this word warns us. It warns us. God's word gives us warnings
to hedge us about, to keep us from presumption. David's going
to talk about that in a minute, from presumptuous sins. And there's
great reward in keeping the sayings of this book. Now, let's not
become legalists, because that's not what that's saying. What
what is the saying of this book? It's Christ crucified. It's his
obedience. It's his righteousness. It's
his blood. This whole book is written to reveal Christ to us.
The reward of the reward of Scripture is having Christ. The reward
of believing Christ is eternal life. That's the testimony of
this book, the second book of God's testimony. It's it's who
Christ is. It's salvation in him. It's it's
the warning of not believing him. And a result of that, David
closes with a twofold prayer. First, he says, keep me from
sin. Verse 12. Who can understand
his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not
have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I
shall be innocent from the great transgression. You know, no one
who believes in salvation by grace, full and free in Christ
alone will ever be uncaring about the way we live in this world.
If we become uncaring about sin and our attitude, the way we
live in this world, we've missed it. Now, the fact that sin is
forgiven in Christ doesn't make me think I want to sin more.
Not at all. Our prayer is, Lord, cleanse
me from all my sins. Even David says, my secret sins.
What are my secret sins? I got all this sin, you know,
I plan and enjoy and do it. That's all I do is sin. How can
my sin be secret? Oh, I'm so steeped in sin. I don't even recognize it. You
know, you've heard about being nose blind, your nose blind to
the smells in your house. It's just because you're used
to it. I'm so used to sin. I'm nose blind to it. I don't
sniff it out. It's secret to me. It's not secret
to the Lord. Lord, cleanse me, this is David's
prayer, from all my sin. Wash me or I'll be damned. Keep
me from sin or I'll be lost in it. That's his first prayer,
keep me from sin. And his second, he prays, let
me be taken up with Christ. Let me talk about Him. Let me
think about Him. Verse 14. Let the words of my
mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer." Lord, let the words of my mouth
be good words, wholesome words, wholesome words about Christ.
Don't let me say things that would be discouraging to my brethren. But let me say things, let me
do things that would be encouraging to them. By speaking of the Savior,
don't let my heart get set upon myself and upon the things of
this life. but set my heart on Christ. He's
my strength. He's my Redeemer. He's all I
need. He's everything I need. Let me
think about Him and talk about Him. That's a good prayer. Keep
me from sin and let me be taken up with Christ. All right. Lord
bless you. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
that you've given us these two great books to testify that you
are. Father, how we pray that you
send your spirit upon us and enlighten our eyes, that we might
believe the testimony of your word, that we might believe the
testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is all we need. Father,
give us faith in him, to believe him. Give us faith to bow at
his feet and worship and wait. Just bow and wait upon him. Give us the faith to serve Him
in love and joy. Give us a heart that is set upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, that thinks on Him, that rejoices in Him,
that keeps in perspective the things of this life. Father,
make us faithful servants in this life. As we go through this
life, let us be faithful, faithful to our families, our jobs, our
homes, the responsibilities that You've given us in this life.
But as we do those things, let us be like Enoch of old and walk
with God, rejoicing in Christ our Savior. For it's in his precious
name we pray and give thanks.