Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 10. The title of the message this evening
is, The Desire of the Humble. I took that title from verse
17. Where David says, Lord, Thou
hast heard the desire of the humble. A humble people. Those are only people who the
Lord has made humble. That certainly, humility does
not come naturally to this flesh. If we have any humility at all,
God gave it to us. He gave us a new nature that's
humble. When God saves a person, He humbles them. We'll get to
that in a minute. If we ever see the Lord Jesus Christ as
He is, that'll humble us. Boy, it humbled Isaiah. He saw
the Lord high and lifted up. It humbled him. And humble people have a desire. There's common desires of every
humble heart. The humble have that desire.
They're weak. They can't supply it. They know
they have no ability. So the good news this evening
for the humble is the Lord hears their desire. He hears the desire
of the humble. Now I want us to look at each
verse of this psalm and see the things that the humble desire
and then see how the Lord meets that desire. Most of this psalm
talks about the wicked. to persecute and trouble the
humble. And all the writers that I read
almost exclusively talk about the wicked men of the world.
And certainly the only way we're protected from wicked men who
hate God and hate His people is by the Lord preserving us
and protecting us. I certainly pray to be delivered
from the desires of those wicked people. But I tell you, there's
a wickedness that we should fear more than wicked men out there
in the world who hate God. The wickedness that we should
fear the most is the wickedness that's in us, the wickedness
that's in our own hearts. If the Lord would not be pleased
to deliver us from wicked men, the worst they would do is kill
this body and then we'd be done with them forever. But if the
Lord does not deliver us from the wickedness of our own heart,
our own wickedness will condemn us to hell forever. So that's
the wickedness that I'm the most concerned about. The desire of
the humble is that the Lord deliver us from ourselves. We're our
own worth then. Lord deliver us from my own sin. If we ever see something about
our sin, that will humble us. So I want us to look at these
verses and we Talk about the wicked. Let's not think about
the people out there. Let's think about the wickedness
that's in our own nature and pray that the Lord will deliver
us from it. Now, the first major heading of this psalm is this.
The humble desire to be delivered from the thoughts of our wicked
mind. We desire to be delivered from
the way our wicked mind thinks. So verse one, we desire, the
humble desire the Lord's presence. Why standest thou far off, O
Lord, Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? Now the
worst suffering of any trial is to thought as we suffer, we're
afraid. The Lord's removed himself from
me. That's why I'm suffering. He's hidden himself from me.
For the believer, everything really is okay. As long as we
can see the face of our Savior. But everything is dark and cold
and dead for the believer, no matter what other earthly circumstances,
good things might be happening. If we cannot see his face, if
we can't see the face of our savior, everything dark and scary
and cold. So the thought, this is what
we want to be delivered from the way we think by nature, the
thought that the Lord has hidden himself from us, tortures the
mind of a believer. We think, am I going through
this time of suffering because the Lord has withdrew Himself
from me? Now we know the right doctrine. We know the doctrine. The Lord will never leave nor
forsake His people. I'd venture to say everybody
here wholeheartedly believes that truth. The Lord will never
leave nor forsake His people. But when I'm in darkness, when
I'm suffering and I can't seem to see the face of the Lord when
the heavens are as brass, I can't find Him in His Word, I can't
read, I can't pray, I can't hear a message in worship. What I
wonder is this, has the Lord withdrawn Himself from me like
He did Saul? Like He did King Saul because
of my sin? Now the humble desire to be delivered
from that way of thinking Lord, deliver me from any kind of thinking
that makes any salvation, any spiritual blessing dependent
on me. Lord, give me a right mind. It
all depends upon me. It all depends upon the grace
of God, not anything I do. Now, certainly there are times,
David noticed here, he put two and two together, he noticed
every time that he's in trouble, the Lord seems to be a far off
and hiding himself. Well, that's true. That's absolutely
true. If the Lord didn't hide himself
from his people, if he didn't hide his face for a time, we'd
never have a trial, wouldn't we? We don't like to really admit
this, but this is true. A believer needs trials. Trial
is the best teacher we have. Trials teach us to earnestly
seek the Lord. Well, I'm only going to really
earnestly seek him if I can't see him. He's got to hide his
face for a time to teach us that. Trials teach us to trust Christ
more completely. He promised I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. He promised I'll hide my face
for just a little time and I'll come back. And when he does,
we see him keeping his promise. We learn to trust him more fully. Now, are you the humble? Does
that describe you? Do you long for his presence. Do you long to be delivered from
this thinking that any part of my spiritual life depends upon
me? Well, if you do, I've got good news for you. The Lord hears
the desire of the humble. He has made it so his people
will never be separated from him forever. How do we become
separated from God? Well, we were separated from
God in Adam, weren't we? We're separated from God because
of our own sins. It's our sins that separate us
from our God. But Christ the Savior came, and
He bore away the sin of His people. When Christ, our substitute,
was made sin, He suffered separation from the Father. He cried, My
God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Not for His own information,
but so that we'd know the Father forsook Him for our sin. He suffered
and died to put our sin away. That sin's gone. So no one for
whom Christ died ever be separated from God again. Look at Isaiah
chapter 54. Now he'll hide his face for a
time. He'll hide his face for his purpose, to accomplish his
purpose, to teach us, but we'll never be separated from him.
Isaiah 54 verse 7. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
Now this is a promise, for this is as the waters of Noah unto
me. For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no
more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth
with thee nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart
and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee. Neither shall the covenant of
my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. That's the desire of the humble
and how the humble rejoice to know the Lord will not take his
presence from us. Then the humble desire to be
delivered from our own natural pride. We desire to be delivered
from prideful thinking. Verse two, the wicked in his
pride doth persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices
that they have imagined. Now remember, the wicked is us.
It's our own natural heart. And it is the pride of our heart
that persecutes the poor in spirit. The pride of our heart persecutes
us by constantly trying to get us that we can or we should do
something to make God happy with us. But no matter what we do,
we can't do anything to make God pleased with us. The only
way God can be pleased with you and me is through faith in Christ.
That's the only way he's pleased. So our pride constantly trying
to get us to do something to improve our standing with God
is just pure torture. Pride tortures the believer by
trying, we just pray, Lord, don't hide your face from us. Our pride
tries to get us to look away from his face and look to our
own self. It tortures us. Now, it seems
like a contradiction in terms to say the humble have a problem
with pride. And every believer can understand
that exactly. That's two natures that's in
every believer. The nature of Adam has always
been full of pride. I'll be my own God. I'll make
my own rules. I'll provide my own righteousness.
I'll provide my own comfort. That's the prideful nature of
Adam we all have. But that new man's born with
a nature that's humble. And the humble desire to be delivered
from our pride so that we'll put all of our trust in Christ.
Now, are you humble? Is that your desire to not look
at yourself at all, to not depend on yourself at all, but to rest
wholly in Christ? If it is, I've got good news.
The Lord hears the desire of the humble. I'll tell you the
best way to be delivered from pride is to look to Calvary. That's what David refers to here.
He says, let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
That's Calvary. The Calvary, the cross, was the
device that man invented to rid himself of Jesus Christ once
and for all. But by putting the Lord Jesus
to death, man and Satan, all they accomplished was God's eternal
purpose. to save his people through the
death of Christ their substitute. Now if you want to see what sin
is, if you want to be humbled and get rid of pride, look to
Calvary. Look to Calvary and see Christ
suffering. He doesn't even look like a man.
He looks like a slaughtered piece of meat. Look at Him and see. Read about Him. Read His sayings
from the cross. See His soul suffering that you
and I can't even begin to imagine. God showed us we can understand
it. He shut the sun off. He suffered in darkness that
we can't understand. The Holy Son of God was made
sin and He suffered in untold agony. Now that's what we are. Look at Him there. That's what
we are. Not only is that what we deserve, that's what our sin
deserves. And in order to save His people,
He could do no less. That is the only way sin can
be taken away, is the Holy Son of God dying in the place of
His people. The best cure for pride is to
see Christ at Calvary. If you see Him, God ever gives
you a sight of Him, you'll trust him wholly and not put any confidence
in the flesh. Then the humble desire to be
delivered from covetousness, verse three, for the wicked boasted
of his heart's desire and blessed the covetous whom the Lord abhorred. Now what's the heart's desire
of the wicked? It's the same desire of our wicked
heart. It's the desire to have the glory that rightfully belongs
to Christ. That's the desire and people
in false religion boast about it. You know, you and I, hopefully
we've been taught a little better. We don't try to say those things
publicly, you know, but that's the desire of our heart and they
boast about it. Christ gets all the glory in
salvation because he did it all with help from no one. But the
wicked heart wants some of that glory. The wicked heart wants
to contribute something to it, you know. Just let me contribute
a little bit. I don't have to save myself,
but let me contribute something, you know, to make myself a little
more savable. Let me cover up some of my nakedness
and my shame with my own rags of righteousness. We want that
because we covet some of Christ's glory. And David said, God abhors
it. He hates it. So the humble cry,
deliver me from that covetous, to that covetous heart, those
covetous thoughts, So I'll rest entirely in Christ. David gives
us good news, the Lord hears the desire of the humble. Now
he doesn't grant that heart's desire by changing that old heart. So that old heart won't covet
anymore. Every believer will confess, that's not true. That
old wicked heart I was born with, that hasn't been changed in the
least. The way God grants this desire
of the humble is by giving them a new heart. giving them a humble
heart, a heart that trusts. That heart can only trust Christ. That heart could never trust
in the flesh. Again, those are those two natures that's in every
believer. And those two natures are going to constantly battle
one another. But that new man is always going
to win out in the end because Christ is the king of that heart.
He's not going to be the king of that new heart. He's not going
to be conquered. Greater is he that's in you. that He that's
in the world. He'll deliver His people from
that thought. So the believer says, I've got to amen our brother
Paul. God forbid that I should glory,
that I should boast in anything save the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The only thing I'll boast in,
just let me boast in Him and what He's accomplished, how He
accomplished it all for me. God grants that desire to His
people. Then the desire of the humble is to seek God. Verse
four, the wicked through the pride of his countenance will
not seek after God. God's not in all his thoughts.
Now the wicked don't even know God is. Some of them won't admit
that God exists. They never think about God because
they don't know who he is. Now they have a God of their
imagination. They think about him all the time because he's
in their imagination, but they don't know the true and living
God. So they never think about him. And that's the nature you
and I were born with. You've got to admit that that's
the nature that we're born with. And you want to talk about wicked.
I'm not talking about somebody out there that never had the
opportunity to have the Bible read to them. I'm not talking
about somebody out there that never had the opportunity to
have somebody sit down with them as children and teach them those
Bible stories and show them how those things are pictures of
Christ. I'm not talking about somebody that didn't have the
opportunity to sit under one of God's preachers. Clearly,
clearly, clearly. Week after week after week preaching
Christ. I'm not talking about those people.
I'm talking about those people who did have all those advantages. Wicked. Wicked. In just outright
pride. Refusing to see God. I can do
it on my own. It's the cry of your heart to
be delivered from that. It's a humble cry. Lord, humble me. Humble me so I will seek after
you. Lord, seek me so I'll find you. If that's the desire of your
heart, I've got good news. The Lord hears the desire of
the humble. They will seek the Lord. and
they'll find him. They'll find him because Christ
came to seek him. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. What are you going to say? Are you going to say he found
me or I found him? It's one and the same. I'll find him when
he finds me. The Savior is near. He came to
seek and to save that which was lost. Are you lost? He's nearby. Paul said he's close to every
one of us. Look at Jeremiah chapter 29. He's close by. If you'll
seek him in humility, if you'll seek him out of a great need,
you will find him. Jeremiah 29 verse 11. For I know the thoughts I think
towards you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil to give you an expected end. Then in my time, then you
should call upon me and you should go and pray unto me and I will
hearken unto you. I'll hearken unto the cry of
the humble and you shall seek me and find me when you shall
search for me with your whole heart and I will be found of
you, sayeth the Lord. That's the promise of the Lord. If you seek him with all your
heart, you'll find him. You'll find him. He hears the
desire of the humble. And here the second heading in this psalm.
First, the humble desire to be delivered from the way we think.
Second, the humble desire to be delivered from our evil ways.
Look here at verse five. His ways are always grievous.
Thy judgments are far above out of his sight. As for all his
enemies, he puffeth at them. All the ways of the wicked are
grievous. They're not ways of life. They're
ways of death. There's a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Our way
is the way of death. So we can't know God. We can't
know His way of salvation. We can't know His way of eternal
life by coming to God our way. We need a new way. Lord, deliver
me from my way. Don't leave me to myself and
my own way. Give me a new way. Now is that
the desire of your heart? If it is, I've got good news.
The Lord hears the desire of the humble. He's already answered
that cry. He sent Christ to be the way
of His people. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. Christ is the way. He's the way
of eternal life. He's the way of light and peace.
He's the way of righteousness and sanctification. He's the
way of forgiveness and salvation. Not only is Christ the way, He's
not just a way to arrive at what you need. He is what you need. He's everything you need. God sent him to answer this cry
of the humble. He sent us the way, the way of
life. Then the humble desire to be delivered from our self-confidence,
verse six. He has said in his heart, I shall
not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity. Now the wicked
thinks he'll never be moved because he thinks his works are good
enough. He thinks he can stand strong enough. He thinks, oh,
I'll never be in adversity because, you know, I'm strong enough and
if something happens, I can provide for myself. Well, you know, the
believer still has that wicked nature in us. Now, we hate that
thought. God deliver us from that. But
we know that thought is still in us. And you know, he can be
subtle too. That old man, now he can be subtle
in this matter of self-confidence. The old man, tells the new man,
you know, the old man says, well, I can't get rid of this, this
religious guy. So he's going to work at him
a different way. He tells him, you know, you'll never be moved
because you're so faithful. The old man tells the new man,
you'll not be moved. God's too impressed with you.
He's impressed with your surface. He's impressed with all these
things, you know, that you do. The old man tells the new man,
you're not going to be trying because you're such a good Christian.
Boy, now that's a subtle way, isn't it? That's a subtle trap
to get us to look away from Christ and look to ourselves. And the
humble desire to be delivered from that way. And you know,
the Lord hears the desire of the humble. He sent Christ to
be our rock. David said, he didn't say, I
shall not be greatly moved because I trust so strongly. No, he said,
I shall not be greatly moved because I trust in Christ my
rock. My feet are set on the rock. I won't be moved because
Christ won't be moved. And when I suffer times of adversity,
I'll not be crushed by it because Christ is my rock. He's my shield
and my buckler. He's delivered me from self-righteousness
or from self-confidence, so I trust Him in. Then the humble desire
to be delivered from my own mouth condemning me. Verse 7. His mouth
is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is
mischief and vanity. Now the mouth of the wicked man
who's in us, he curses God. That man says, I see that way
of salvation in scripture, but that's just too strict. That's
that wicked voice in us. The mouth of the wicked man in
us wants to preach a message of deceit. He still wants to
say we can be good enough. That's deceitful. The mouth of
the wicked man preaches a message that's deceitful, full of fraud.
Free will religion is nothing but fraud. It defrauds Christ
of his glory. and it defrauds man of eternal
life by making salvation dependent on something we do. It's a lie. This is what Paul was quoting,
he said, about the poison of asps is under their lips. It's
a message that kills, not a message that gives life. And the humble
desire to be delivered from my own mouth condemning me. You
know what's the first thing a smart defense attorney always does?
Well, this is what I see on TV. The first thing a good defense
attorney does is say, shut up. Shut your mouth. They walk in
the room. You know, shut up. Don't say another word. Because
he knows if the more that person talks, the more ammunition they're
going to get against him, the more they'll be able to draw
out the truth and let his own words condemn him. That's the
desire of the humble. Or don't let my own mouth condemn
me. Psalm 141, this is what David says. Verse three. Set a watch, O Lord, before my
mouth. Keep the door of my lips. Just
keep my mouth shut. Now, are you humble? Does that
describe you? I've got good news. The Lord
hears the desire of the humble. He's given us someone new to
talk about. You know, if we want to talk
about ourselves, first thing I do is heed that warning. Keep
your mouth shut. Oh, but if you have the opportunity
to talk about Christ. See, now he's given us something
new to talk about. He's giving us a message to preach.
It's Christ. Him crucified. He taken away
the sin of his people. This is a message of truth and
life. And perhaps the most difficult
thing about preaching, most difficult, but it's something you battle
every single time, is the worry. What is that old man going to
say? I feel pretty confident here about my notes. I've looked
at them over and over again. But boy, if I start to go off
the reservation now, I get worried. Am I going to be preaching here
or is the old man going to pop off and say something? You worry. And that's true, not just to
the preacher, that's true in our everyday life. Aren't you
just afraid going out there to work and just... And out comes
your mouth, just what ought not be coming out and condemning
you. The new man is always afraid of what the old man is going
to say. But the desire of the humble is, Lord, don't let me
say anything that will embarrass you. And if you just open your... If you want to talk about yourself,
keep your mouth shut. But if you want to talk about the Lord,
if you have the opportunity to talk about the Lord, just talk
about Christ. You won't go wrong. Your mouth won't embarrass you.
Then the humble desire to be delivered from fear. Our whole
way is fearing the flesh. We're afraid of everybody. Afraid
of the flesh, afraid of Satan, afraid of everything. Look here
at verse 7. His mouth is full of cursing
and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief
and vanity. He sitteth in the lurking places
of the villages. In the secret places doth he
murder the innocent. His eyes are privily set against
the poor. He lieth and waits secretly as
a lion in his den. He lieth and waits to catch the
poor. He doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his
net. He croucheth and humbleth himself that the poor may fall
by his strong ones. Now every believer knows that
the flesh is always lurking. It's always hiding, trying to
set a trap to jump out and kill us when we least expect it. And
that's what the flesh is always trying to do. Set up traps to
trap the new man, to bring us back into bondage to the law.
And when we least expect it, that old man jumps out and begins
to whisper in the ears, you better start acting good, you better
do this better, you better do that better, you haven't done
this good enough, Well, you ought to pray about it, but before
you pray about it, you better do some good things, you know, to
kind of even the balances here before you go to God in prayer.
You know, it can happen at the most unexpected times. We might
be reading our Bible. We might be listening to a message
and thinking, oh, this is such a blessing. And then that old
man jumps out of the trap he's got set. Makes us think. I'm
not watching TV. How good am I at listing this
message? I'm not doing something else, you know. Where'd that
come from? Where did that thought come from?
I'm reading God's Word. It's a trap the old man set for
us. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be delivered, not always be
looking around the corner feeling that trap? I've got good news. The Lord's heard the desire of
the humble. One day He's going to return.
Dead in Christ are going to rise incorruptible. They're not going
to rise like they've been buried. No, they're going to rise in
a body just like Christ. Those who are alive and remain
at that time, they're going to be changed in a twinkling of
an eye, body and soul. They're going to be made just
like Christ. And we will never have to deal with the nature
of this flesh again. Now, until then, we're going
to have to. So just hang on to that what
we saw before. Greater is he that's in you that's
in the world. But it's temporary. It's temporary. One day that's all going to be
gone. And the humble also long to be set free from Satan. You
know, we just live in fear of that old roaring lion. You know,
we don't live in a country where lions roam free, but I read a
story one time about this woman. She went over to run with the
Kenyans and she was out there. She was going to get better,
you know, by running with the Kenyans. And boy, these men, they didn't
like a woman being able to run with them. So they were always
trying to outrun her and leave her and stuff. And they start
out running one day, and she heard a sound. She said, what's
that? And the fellow running with her said, it's a lion. Just keep running. She kept up
that day, scared to death. Don't we go through our life
that way? Scared to death. Scared to death. I'm going to
get in Satan's crosshairs like old Job was. Scared to death
of that. That old roaring lion frightens us to death. And we
know he's good at it. He set so many traps to trap
God's saints in the past. Even not getting his claws on
you. Just his wiles and his roars scare us to death. But the Lord's
heard the desire of the humble. You hang on to this. Christ has
destroyed Satan's power to devour his people. He died as a substitute
for his people. He crushed Satan's head. You
see, Christ is the only one. These poor, humble people, they've
suffered all these surprise attacks. They're from our own sin, from
within, from sin without, from our accuser Satan. It's just
like that poor man in our Lord's parable. He was going, he was
on a journey. He fell among thieves. Those
thieves stripped him. They beat him and left him in
the ditch half dead. Well, the priest came by. He
couldn't handle it. The priest represents the ceremonies
of religion. You can go through all the ceremonies
of religion, the mumbo, the jumbo, the stand up, the sit down, the
waving flags and candles and all the other stuff, bowing the
head and raising the hands and all those ceremonies of religion
aren't going to help us. There he lay. The priest went
by. Then Levi passed by. He couldn't help him. Levi represents
the law. Trying to keep the law can't
help you and me. All we can do is break it. But then the good
Samaritan came by. And he helped that poor man.
That Samaritan is a picture of Christ. Only Christ had compassion
on that poor, beaten, half-dead, suffering man. Just like Christ
has compassion on the humble, on the dead, those who have been
beaten up by our pride and our sin and our self. He had compassion. That Samaritan bound up that
man's wounds. He poured in oil and wine. He
put him on his own mule, took him to the inn, provided for
him. Everything was needed. He paid for it. That's Christ. He heals his people. He binds
up our wounds. He pours in his cleansing blood.
He gives his spirit. He provides us an end. A place
where we can come and be fed. A place where we can rest. We
can come to hear of Christ. Christ is all we need. And I'll tell you what's more,
He's the only one who can help. He's the only one who will help.
Look to Him. So now David begins here in verse
12. He begins to close the psalm in praise. Arise, O Lord. O God, lift up thine hand. Forget not the humble. David's
cry is, Lord, don't forget the humble. Well, he won't. He's
heard their desires. The Lord will rise up. He'll
lift up his great right hand to help them. He's already done
it. He raised up Christ, his great
right hand sent to deliver his people. They're already delivered. The Lord answered the prayer
before we even cried it. He sent Christ to deliver his
people. Then David praises God for his justice. Here's the difference
between the wicked and the humble. Look what the wicked says in
verse 13. Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? He has said
in his heart, God will not require it. Now the wicked hate God. That word contemn is not like
they're condemning God. It's contempt. Contempt. The
word means scorn. The wicked has scorn. Scorn for
everything about God. They scorn God's grace. They
scorn His holiness. They scorn His justice. The wicked
says, God's not going to judge me. God's not going to condemn
me. God loves everybody. He wouldn't
hurt anybody. That's holding God in contempt.
They say God's not just. He's not going to require payment
for every sin. That's contempt of God's holiness.
They say, well, my best should be good enough. That's contempt
of God's justice. And the wicked try to comfort
themselves by saying, well, God, he'll forget our sin. He's just
like this old fuddy-duddy grandfather. He's just going to forget our
sin. Verse 11. He has said in his heart, God
hath forgotten. He hideth his face. He'll never
see it. God's not going to see this. Now, you know, all that
sounds good to human logic, but human logic, human thinking is
wicked. That's what the humble want to
be delivered from. But the believer, the believer,
the humble is glad. They are glad God won't overlook
sin. The humble is glad that God always
sees sin and they love justice. Verse 14. Thou hast seen it,
for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy
hand. The poor committed himself unto thee. Thou art the helper
of the fatherless. Break thou the arm of the wicked
and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness till
thou find none. Now the humble, they're glad
that God knows everything. The humble is glad God sees everything,
even every sin. And the humble's glad for this,
that he will punish every sin without exception. Now the humble
know that, and they're glad. They know, I can't pay anything
to God. I can't do anything good for
God to lessen, you know, my debt or anything. So what's the humble
do? The humble didn't have a choice.
He just commits everything to Christ. I can't do anything. Lord, you do it all for me. The
humble didn't have a choice. I mean, he didn't want a choice,
but he didn't have a choice. He just cast himself wholly on
the mercy of God. And if your only hope is God's
mercy, you're glad that God sees every sin. If the Lord sees all
of my sin and he'll punish every one of my sins, then that means
when he made Christ sin at Calvary, when he made him sin for me,
he didn't miss even one of my sins. One wasn't hiding from
him somewhere. You know, you see those shows
on TV where the doctor operating and then they close them up and
they can't figure out what's wrong with the patient and there's
a sponge or a tool or something left. It was hiding. They don't
know how it got there. It was hidden from them. Nothing's
hid from God. He sees every sin. So He didn't
miss one to lay them all upon His Son, our substitute. And
Christ paid for every last one of them by His death. That I'll
never have to suffer for one of them. Not even one. One sin
is all it would take to damn me, but I have no worries. If
my hope, my only hope is God's mercies, I have no worries. God
saw my sin and he put it all on my substitute who paid for
it all. That's why David says, Lord,
seek out all, not just wickedness, seek out all my wickedness until
you find it all and lay it all upon Christ. That's the way the
arm of sin, the power of sin is broken. If Christ paid for
my sin, I'm free from it. I'm free from the damning power
of it. I'm free from the controlling power of it. And one day I'll
be free from the presence of it. He broke it as power. Then
David praises the Lord because he's king, verse 16. The humble
need a king, need a strong king. The Lord is king forever and
ever. The heathen are perished out of his land. Now the sovereignty
of God is not just a doctrine that separates us from the world.
The sovereignty of God causes the humble to rejoice. The sovereignty
of God causes us to worship. David said, the Lord reigneth.
Let the earth rejoice. His sovereignty is cause for
joy. The humble love God. Then David praises the Lord for
providing everything his people need. Verse 17. Lord, thou hast heard the desire
of the humble. Thou will prepare their heart. Thou will cause
thine ear to hear. You know, by nature, we don't
even know what we need. That's how blind and dead and
wicked we are. We don't even know what we need.
So the Lord teaches us what we need and then he supplies it. The humble desire a heart that
will believe God. The humble desire a heart that
will believe Christ and rest in him and him alone. God has
prepared for them a heart and he gives it to them in the new
birth. And that heart has desires. That heart's going to cry out
to God. Well, the Lord knows what the cry of that heart is.
He created it. He gave it and he will cause
his ear to hear, to hear the cry of his people. Then last,
David praises the Lord for being our father. This is a good place
to end. This is a good word of comfort.
Sovereign king is just not some, just some king, you know, that
we could never get an audience with him if we wanted to. He's
a father. Our father is in control of everything. Verse 18, to judge the fatherless
and the oppressed that the man of the earth may no more oppress. Now the humble know they can't
do anything. That's humility. The best definition of humility
I think that there is is simply this, humility. It's a proper
view of who we are. Proper view of who we are. We
are helpless, defenseless children. We don't even know how to take
care of ourselves. We need a father, don't we? We
need a father to take care of us. When you think of all the
things a father does for his family, A father provides for
his children. Our heavenly father provides
everything we need. What is it you need? He's provided
it. A father provides a place for
his family to live. Our heavenly father has provided
us a place to live and it's in him. A father provides food for
his family to eat. Our father has provided for us
the bread of life that the man eats of this bread He'll never
hunger. If a man drinks of this water,
he'll never thirst again. A father provides clothes for
his children to wear. Our heavenly father has provided
us himself to be our righteousness. Those boys growing on Saturday
night and outgrow their clothes, you'll never outgrow these clothes.
Always a perfect fit. A father protects his children.
A small child likes to know that my father can whip anybody. Our heavenly father is stronger
than all. No one can oppress if he lifts
his hand against him. A father teaches his children.
Our heavenly father teaches his children. He teaches us by pointing
us to Christ. He lets us look to him. He's
everything you need. And a father comforts his children. Humanly speaking, maybe not as
good as a mama, but a father can comfort his children. He
takes that child in His strong arms and says, it's alright. Our Heavenly Father comforts
the hearts of His children by giving us a place to rest. In
His mighty arm, He gives us a place to rest from our own wickedness.
He says, now it's alright. I've taken care of everything.
Just rest in me. Well, that makes it a whole lot
different where we started when David said, why are you hiding
your face from me? He won't hide it for long, will he? He's a
father. All right, I hope that'll bless
you. Let's bow. Our Father, how we ask that you'd
bless your word to our hearts. Father, we beg of thee that you
would give us this heart of the humble, the heart that desires
you above all things. Father, how we thank you for
your amazing mercy and grace that you condescend to hear the
desire of the heart, the humble heart of your people. God bless
your word to your glory to our comfort and edification to cause
us to look to our Lord Jesus Christ and to rest in him. It's
in the majesty name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray and give
thanks.