David writes in Psalm 52, which he penned when Doeg the Edomite
came and told Saul and said unto him, David is come to the house
of Ahimelech. David writes, why boastest thou
thyself in mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth
continually. Thy tongue diviseth mischiefs
like a sharp razor working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good,
and lying rather than to speak righteousness, say thou. Thou
lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. God shall likewise
destroy thee forever. He shall take thee away and pluck
thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land
of the living, say thou. righteous also shall see and
fear and shall laugh at him. Lo, this is the man that made
not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches
and strengthened himself in his wickedness. But I am like a green
olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever
and ever. I will praise thee forever because
thou hast done it and I will wait on thy name for it is good
before thy saints. Why boastest thyself in mischief,
O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth
continually. The tongue deviseth mischiefs,
like a sharp razor working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good,
and lying rather than to speak righteousness. How man loves to boast. How we in our hearts love to
boast. How proud we are by nature of
what we are and what we do and what we say and what we know. how man loves to boast of his
great deeds, his accomplishments, his much knowledge, his strength,
his wisdom. It's in his nature to vaunt himself
over and above others, to set himself high, to show how mighty
he is. And it's in his nature before
God to rebel against God's greatness and set himself up as though
there's something of worth in him, in man. Do you know this yourself? Why boastest thou thyself in
mystery, O mighty man? For the things we boast in, in
God's eyes, a mischief, a sinful, however they may appear to us,
however great these things may be, however noble, however righteous
we may think they are, ultimately, if we know not God, if they're
not God's works, if they're not glorifying unto God, They're
mischief. Even those works that men do
in religion by which they think that God will praise them, by
which they may attain some merit before God. Even the good works
of men, so called, in God's eyes are full of sin, full of pride,
full of self-glory. and a denial of man's need of
God himself. A denial of our need for God
to make us righteous. A denial of the very fact that
ultimately through and through we are but sin from head to toe. For us to think there's anything
good in what we are, anything good in what we do. Any merit
in our deeds before a holy God shows our total unawareness of
what we really are, of how vile we are, of how proud we are by
nature, of how wicked our deeds are, of how sinful we are. There
is nothing we do before God. There is nothing we do before
men. Which is good. Not in God's eyes. We may compare
our deeds with others and say, well this is a good deed and
this was not harmful to them. But it's all full of pride, it's
all full of self-glory. It's all full of sin. Why boastest thou thyself in
mischief? O mighty man, because that's
all that it is. All that we glory in, all our
inventions, all our connivance, all our wisdom, and all our striving
to climb up to heaven, as it were, in our own strength, all
our works in religion, whatever it may be, whatever realms our
works may be in, whether it's just making a name for ourselves
in this world, whether it's building up our own riches and our own
empire, or whether it's making a name for ourselves in religion
and bringing glory unto ourselves, whatever it may be, in God's
eyes, it's mischief. Why boastest thou thyself in
mischief, O mighty man? How we love to boast, and yet
how foolish when we are nothing, nothing before God, nothing if
we know it. We're grasshoppers before an
almighty, an eternal, a great God. We're grasshoppers, we're
dust, we're flies, we're worms, we're nothing. And yet how great
we think we are, how big we think we are. Like a multitude of ants
upon the ground, how great we think we are in our little realm,
and how small. how temporary how sinful how
we boast in our religion as soon as we're brought to some understanding
of the truth some understanding of eternal matters as soon as
we're given some sort of desire to live right before God how we boast in all that we do
how little we truly know of Him, and how great we think our deeds
are. We boast in our wisdom, our knowledge
of the truth, our knowledge of doctrine, our outward conduct, our righteousness,
self-righteousness. Paul in Romans, having clearly
shown that all men are sinners, that there is no good whatsoever
in man, that there is none that seeketh after God, that is none
that doeth good, having shown us that we are but dust, workers
of mischief, workers of iniquity, having shown us that there is
no good in man and no good in man in religion, Jew or Greek,
we're all the same. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, having shown us that even the law of God cannot
make us right. Even our works cannot cleanse
us. But it makes us worse, because
it hides the sin within. It's a veneer on the outside
to present us in a good light when really our hearts are full
of rebellion, our hearts are full of pride. Having shown man
what he really is, Paul concludes in chapter 3 verse 27, where
is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law of
works? Nay. but by the law of faith. If your religion stands in works,
if your desire to come before God is a pathway in which you
take the law of God and try to live accordingly or take any
of the instruction of scripture and try to live your life outwardly
by your own strength and your own ability, for your own works, then you will ultimately take
pride in those works. You will rejoice in them. You
will come before God with a, Lord, Lord, I've done this in
thy name and that in thy name. You will boast. The law condemning man finds
him out. But when man takes that law and
tries to live by it, he's proud. He thinks he's done right. But
the gospel, the law of faith, the truth, will break us. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. When God comes unto us in his
word and begins to speak in our hearts, inwardly, truly to our
souls, when he begins to show us what we are, when he begins
to sound an alarm within us that we're not what we thought we
were, that we're not righteous, That our good works are not good,
they're vile. That they're full of pride and
self-glory. That they cannot save. And even
if there was merit in them, what about our past works? What about
our past deeds? What about all those things we
did before we tried to live a right? What about all those years we
lived in darkness and blindness with no thought for God even
though we may have come to a point of coming to the scriptures and
hearing the gospel and seeking to reform ourselves? What about
all those things we've done before? When God begins to show us what
we are and what we've done and what state we're in then all
our boasting fades away. Why boastest thou thyself in
mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth
continually. Your efforts to live right are
but for a moment. But God is eternal. One moment
you do right, the next moment you fall down. But God desires
righteousness continually. From the moment we're born, every
hour, every day, every moment, He demands righteousness. Who
can say that they have done this? Thy tongue dividesth mischiefs,
God says, like a sharp razor working deceitfully. Thou lovest
evil more than good and lying rather than to speak righteousness,
say La. This is the truth concerning
us, not just concerning some others out there. This is not
just addressed to the wicked out there, but this concerns
one and all. This concerns the believer even,
who looks at himself as he is in Adam, his old man, his flesh,
and sees what he is. We all have a heart, we all have
a tongue that divisive mischiefs. Like a sharp razor it cuts, working
deceitfully. How easily we say things that
cut and destroy. How our words are designed to
portray ourselves in the best light at the expense of others. how swiftly we destroy with our
tongue. As James says, it's a little
member. What does it do? What evil does it bring about?
What fires it burns? Thou lovest evil more than good
and lying rather than to speak righteousness. From the womb
we've gone astray, speaking lies. From the dawn of time when Adam
and Eve were in the garden, before sin entered into this world,
when Eve disobeyed the commandment of God and Adam fell with her
in the same transgression, when they both disobeyed the command
of God, in that garden, the tempter, the serpent, came alongside and
said, half God said. He questioned, he lied. He said thou shalt not surely
die when God had said thou shalt surely die. He questioned, he
brought in deceit, he brought in lies. And as they fell, as
they were deceived, and as sin entered into the heart of man
and death by sin, so the lying heart promulgated deceit and lies from
thenceforth. We can barely utter a word without
there being some untruth in it. Even when we try to say something
right there's an aspect of lying. How we speak in order to glorify
self at the expense of others. Our love is evil more than good.
and lie in rather than to speak righteousness. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. By what law of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. It takes faith. It takes the law of faith, the
gospel. It takes the word of God to show
us this. To show us what we are. to open
our eyes to look within and see the darkness of our own heart. When God opens our eyes, we will
first see how small, how wretched, how vile we really are. He will take away all our boasting.
He will bring our pride to nothing. He will bring us down. And then He will bring us to
see how great, how wonderful, how righteous, how glorious,
how eternal, how lifted up high God is. And how wonderful His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ is. We will see in Him all that we
aren't by nature. We will see in Christ, the man
Christ Jesus, all that we aren't. We will see the one man who never
lied. The one man who never devised
mischief. The one man who never boasted. The one man who was meek and
humble. The one man who loved righteousness
rather than lies. We will see in Christ all that
we aren't, the absolute opposite of what we are by nature. We
will look at ourselves and see how small we are. And in the
Gospel we will see how great Christ is. We will look at ourselves
and see how proud we are. And in Christ we'll see how humble
He is. We'll look at ourselves and see
how sinful we are. And in Christ we'll see how righteous,
how holy, how perfect He is. But it takes the Word of God,
the Gospel, to bring us to this point. Thou lovest all devouring
words, O thou deceitful tongue. God shall likewise destroy thee
forever. He shall take thee away and pluck
thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land
of the living. Selah. This is where we need to be.
If God is to save, if we are to enter into the land of the
living, then all that is in us that is wicked and sinful, all
that is of the flesh, all that is proud, all that boasts, must
be destroyed. Here the psalmist speaks of the
wicked, but he also looks in his own heart. and sees his own
wickedness in his own fleshy heart and sees that this must
happen there too. God shall likewise destroy thee
forever. He shall take thee away and pluck
thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land
of the living. Selah. When a believer When a sinner
is brought to faith to believe on Jesus Christ, there's a warfare
between that new man of grace, between the spirit within, and
between the old wicked flesh that remains. But there's a day
coming when that new man, that saved soul, That spirit will enter into glory
into the land of the living. And when that flesh, that so
long warred against it, will be destroyed forever and taken
away, God shall take it away forever. God shall pluck it out
of His dwelling place and root it out of the land of the living.
He shall separate. He shall divide. And this is
what his word does, this is what the gospel does. The gospel makes
known those who are the Lord's. It divides the sheep from the
goats. It divides the righteous from
the wicked. And it divides the flesh from
the spirit. It not only divides those who
are brought to know Christ and his salvation from those who
don't. but it divides within it cuts
us up believers know this division they know the sword entering
into their soul and how this word exposes what they are in
themselves how wicked and vile they are how much sin there is
in their flesh how weak they are by nature And it shows them that all that
they have, which is right and true and everlasting, is to be
found in Christ alone. It divides the spirit from the
flesh. It cuts. Yes, the word of God,
the gospel, divides. It reveals what we are. As we
read in Hebrews, the word of God is quick and powerful and
sharper than any two-edged sword. piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This word cuts. It divides. It reveals. and ultimately it destroys forever
that which is of the flesh it discerns the thoughts and
intents of the heart on the outside we can appear one thing on the
outside we can talk a certain way and walk a certain way and
appear a certain way before others but the word of God comes inwardly
and reveals unto us, discerns the thoughts and intents of the
heart. We cannot hide from it. We're exposed. God sees within
our hearts. We can hide from men. We can
hide from others, but God knows what we think. God knows what
we believe. God knows why we are. We have no secrets before an
all-seeing God. We have nowhere to hide. And
how His Word, when He applies it by His Spirit to the soul,
how His Word finds us out. Sin has no place with righteousness. Darkness has no place with light. and the flesh has no place with
the spirit. The lying tongue, the deceitful,
the wicked will be taken out of the land of the living. When
a believer's brought to life by the word of God and enters
in by spirit into this life, this eternal life, this land
of the living, he carries with him his flesh. which wars and
battles and rages against all that is of God. But in the end,
God will take that wicked, that lying tongue, that deceitful
man out of the land of the living. Not just those who know not God,
but that which is in the believer, his wicked flesh, his rebellious,
his unbelieving flesh, his proud and his boastful flesh. God judged
it in Christ at the cross. God took that flesh and all its
deeds and all its ways, he took the flesh of all his people and
all their sins and he laid them upon Christ and he made Christ
to be sin he took that flesh and put it upon his son and he
destroyed it and judged it and took it away took it away forever
and there's coming a day in the believers pathway when he enters
into glory that he will be forever free of this flesh, forever free
of this deceitful man, forever free of this lying tongue, forever
free, when we enter the land of the living. The righteous also shall see
and fear and shall laugh at him, Lo this is the man that made
not God his strength but trusted in the abundance of his riches
and strengthened himself in his wickedness. When God does this, when God
delivers us from what we were, from what we are by nature, when
he destroys this flesh, this wicked man, how the righteous
will laugh how the righteous will rejoice that that which
fought against them that which warred against the spirit that
which caused trouble and strife for so long is taken away here
the psalmist speaks in terms of those who are the enemies
of God who bring trouble upon the people of God, but it's the
warfare within where the real battle is. And every believer
will laugh, will rejoice when the Lord destroys his flesh and
brings him in perfect into the land of the living. He will look
upon that old man himself, what he was, and say of him, Lo, this
is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance
of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness. That's
what I was. That's all that I am by nature.
That's all that I was. I never made God my strength. I never cared for him. I never
desired him. I trusted in the abundance of
my riches. strengthen myself in my own wickedness
I stood in my own strength I desired my own glory I sought after this
thing and that thing I built up my own riches my own riches
in this world my own riches of my own knowledge my own riches
of wisdom my own riches of religion, my own riches of self-righteousness,
I built up all these riches which I fought to earn my credit, I
boasted in them, I rejoiced in them, I was proud of them. And
how vile they all were. How deceitful they all were. They're all mischief. Why boastest
thou thyself in mischief? Oh mighty man, how mighty I thought
I was, and how small I was in reality. Oh how we boast, oh
how we trust in our riches, our spiritual riches, our inward
riches, all that we are, all that we think we are, in our
own strength, our own knowledge, our own works. All these things in God's eyes
are wicked. They supplant the place of Jesus
Christ. They say we don't need His righteousness,
we have our own. They seek not His own glory,
they build up our own. We have no need of His riches,
we have enough to support ourselves. It's all rebellion. Though man may say, it's religion. How proud we are in how we've
lived. How proud we are in what we've
done. How proud man is in religion. How proud Pharisees we all are. Yet God sees us as wicked. And
when we've come to this place in the gospel, when the word
of God has divided us asunder and shown us what we are, how
we'll rejoice that this man, this man that I was, that made
not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his own riches
and strengthened himself in his wicked rebellion and unbelief,
how glad I am that God destroyed him. that God took him and laid
him upon Christ at the cross and took him away. Oh, that God
would show us this, that if we trust in ourselves or anything
that we do, that it leads to destruction,
that we need Christ and Christ alone. Having been taught this, David
and every believer like him is brought to this place. But I
am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in
the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise thee forever
because thou hast done it. and I will wait on thy name for
it is good before thy saints. I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God. Who has made me like this? Who
can take a wretched lying sinner, a deceitful man, and plant him as a green olive
tree in the house of God. Only the God whose mercy endureth unto all
generations. Only a God of grace. Only that
God that gave his own son that David should live. Only a God
that takes that which is wicked and judges it and gives life
unto sinners. Only a God who's merciful. I
will praise thee forever, David says, because thou hast done
it. And I will wait on thy name for
it is good before thy saints. David never himself sought God. Like you and I, we are lost in
our sin, lost in the darkness, blind in our unbelief, proud by nature, boasting ourselves
in mischief. But when this gospel comes our
way, when Christ passes by, and finds us in the darkness. When Christ approaches us like
he approached Saul upon the Damascus road and says unto us, Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? Then it all changes. Then we're
taken with Christ into the house of God and planted in him as
an olive tree. For when David writes, but I
am like a green olive tree in the house of God, this is not
in himself. This is because he sees himself
in Christ his savior. There's one in whom he dwelt. Christ is this olive tree. Christ
trusts in the mercy of God. Christ is the one that delivered
David from all his rebellion and sin. Christ is his savior. I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God. What a picture of Christ this
is. That one who in his lifetime dwelt so often in the Mount of
Olives? How he went up to the Mount of
Olives? How as his final hour approached did he
go to the Mount of Olives? Did he pray unto his God? How
the olive tree is a picture of Christ our Saviour. That fruitful
olive tree That olive tree, a picture of the vine, the tree of life
in the house of God, of Christ, one with his people. But how
the olive must be crushed before it brings forth life. We read in Luke chapter 21 of
how Christ dwelt in the Mount of Olives so often. We read there
that in the daytime he was teaching in the temple and at night he
went out and abode in the mount that is called the Mount of Olives
and all the people came early in the morning to him in the
temple for to hear him. In the daytime he was teaching
in the temple and at night he went out and abode in the mount
that is called the Mount of Olives. How he knew in the darkness of
the night what awaited him because of the sin of his people who
dwelt in darkness. How he knew that the olives must
be crushed before life could be brought forth to those people
who came unto him by day in the temple, the house of God. When the night approached, when
the darkness descended, Christ went up to the Mount of Olives. In the day he was found in the
temple, teaching with the people. But in the darkness, in the night,
he was found in the Mount of Olives. As his hour approached,
he went to the Garden of Gethsemane. as the hour of judgment came
down upon this earth for which he entered this earth for which
he came into this place as the hour of judgment came upon Christ
upon this earth Christ went and prayed under his guard in Gethsemane
as he knew that the cup that he must drink was approaching
him that he must take the sin and the iniquity of all his people
and bear it and drink the cup of God's wrath as he knew that
a darkness and a night was approaching him which no man could endure. There in the Mount of Olives
He prayed unto his God for he saw this darkness, this eternal
darkness, this everlasting night, these hours of darkness and judgment
and wrath of God, an eternity of darkness that men should suffer
because of their sin. He saw this darkness descending
upon him. And as they took him from the
garden, and tried him, and called out for him to be crucified,
and led him to the cross, led him to the place of crucifixion,
as they nailed him to the accursed tree. In those three hours of
darkness that came upon all the earth, the Son of God was crushed
as an olive is crushed. under the wrath of God. Crushed because of the sins of
his people. Crushed, believer, because of
your sins. O sinner, did he bear yours? We placed him there upon the
tree. Sin is what nailed him to the
tree. The darkness and rebellion of
our own hearts, our own blindness, our own sin is what took him there. But did
he take our sin and take it away? If he did, then when the darkness
passed, and when he'd been laid in the grave, And when the morning
came, he rose victorious. He said, if this temple be destroyed,
I will rebuild it in three days. The temple in which he dwells
in the day, in which his people hear him, is himself. risen from the grave
he rose early in the morning and the people came to him the
women came to the tomb the disciples came to seek him and he was risen
he was risen he was alive and the house of God the everlasting
eternal house of God was built stood on firm foundations and
in the midst of the house of God a green olive tree rose up. An everlasting tree of life stood
in the midst of the city. The olive tree which is Christ
stood in the midst of the house of God. Christ and his people
for whom he died, washed in his blood, cleansed in his blood,
one with him, fruitful and living in the land of the living. They all came in the day to the
temple to hear him. He who is like a green olive
tree in the house of God. Is that where God has brought
you? Has he brought you to Christ in his house, in his temple,
to hear his word from his lips, united unto him as a green olive
tree? Do you trust in the mercy of
God forever and ever? Will you praise him forever because
he has done it? Will you wait on his name as
he brought you to this tree, this olive tree, this tree of
life? I will praise thee forever, David
writes, because thou has done it. Thou has done it. He sees himself
in Christ and Christ alone. He sees himself in this olive
tree, his saviour. Planted in the house of God.
Delivered from all that he was. The lying tongue, the deceitful
tongue taken away. Given a heart that desires righteousness. Here he is in Christ his saviour. And he says, God did it. Salvation is of the Lord. I never
sought him. God made himself known unto me. God came with his word. God delivered
me. God took away all my sin. God led me to that one who is
my olive tree. Has he brought you there? Oh,
that he would bring us to the feet of Jesus Christ, to show
us what we are, to take away our boasting heart, to bring
us down low, and to cleanse us in his blood, to wash us clean
of all our sins, and to make us grow up in Christ. branches
upon his vine, wed to him as a green olive tree in the house
of God. Oh, that we should trust in the mercy of God forever and
ever. The mercy, the grace. As sinners that deserve nothing
but his wrath. But as sinners that have come
to know that in spite of all that they have done, All that
they have said, all that they are, He set His love upon them
in His Son. He set His love upon them eternally. He set His love upon them freely. And He gave them faith to look
out from what they are and where they are to a risen Saviour who
has finished the work, who has wrought salvation, and who has
delivered forever. Amen.