Well, we continue in Psalm 119. I had thought that we would maybe
have a break, and maybe we will, possibly next week for a little
while, but this is about the 9th or 10th message, and we come
to the section headed Kaf. Again, I remind you, it's a letter,
one of the 22 of the Hebrew alphabet, of which these 22 sections of
8 verses form this Psalm of 176 verses. It's the experience of David. It's David's testimony, as an
old man it would seem, of God's gracious dealings with him, down
many, many years. And as I said before, each one
of these is, you know, on the surface there appears to be lots
of repetition. of the same ideas, but in actual
fact it's the one solid theme of Scripture, of the grace of
God in saving a multitude from their sins, for the glory of
God. And each section turns around
so that we catch a different aspect of the light of God, and
see his glory reflected in it. And the more deeply we look,
you know, initially, superficially, you just think it's the same
thing repeated over and over again. But the more deeply you
look, the more you find, I can't fathom this, I can't get to the
bottom of it. It's endless in the glory of
God that comes through in these verses. So it's David's testimony
of God's gracious dealings with him. No doubt he felt times when
his soul fainted for the salvation of God. He hoped in his word,
his eyes failed for the word, asking God to comfort him. He's
become like a bottle in the smoke, we'll talk about that a little
bit later. It's certainly all of those things, God's dealings
with David down his life. But more, it is prophetical of
great David's greater Son. Who is great David's greater
Son? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. For
according to the flesh, it was of the lineage of David that
Jesus came. He who is the Son of God, great
David's greater Son, The one whom David called Lord, the Lord
said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand till I make thine
enemies thy footstool. This is great David's greatest
son and we know that for he himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his
earthly ministry said in John, chapter 539, wasn't it, speaking
to the Jews, you search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life. These Scriptures are they which
speak of me. What do these words speak of?
You have it on the authority of the Word of God, who was in
the beginning with God, that these words speak of Him, for
they are His words. He is the Word of God. That's
the title that is upon Him. At the end of the book of Revelation,
He is the Word of God. He is the one who was in the
beginning with God. who was God, who made all things. These are
his words and these words relate to him. Although they're David's
words, they're prophetical of David's greater son in his earthly
mission to accomplish redemption. Redemption? Purchase. Purchase. To accomplish the payment of
the sin debt of his people. To make satisfaction to divine
justice. The justice of God is not satisfied
with sin. The justice of God must exact
a penalty, but He, Christ, has paid that penalty on the behalf
of the multitude the Father gave Him before the beginning of time.
He came to accomplish redemption, to qualify a multitude, an innumerable
multitude, of every tribe and tongue and kindred, who God had
loved from eternity, loved with an everlasting love. It's their
experience in Christ too. Christ came to accomplish their
redemption, but where this is speaking of Him, it's speaking
of David, it's speaking of Him, but it's also the experience
of His people in Him. who are put in union with Him
by the grace of God. The people of God chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world, chosen in Christ, it means
put in union with Him, so that legally He is the head, He is
the federal representative of all of His people. And it's their
experience in this earthly life. We are living, if you're a believer
today, you're living an earthly life in the flesh, with all that
that entails. But here's the comfort of the
Scriptures. This is foundational. I've said
it once or twice recently, and I'll say it again. 1 John, chapter
4, verse 17, as he is, as the Lord Jesus Christ is,
as the man in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily,
as He is, so are we in this world. In a mysterious way, and yet
in a very real way, His people are as Him in this world. And as He is the righteousness
of God, His people are counted the righteousness of God in Him.
David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, was a man after God's
own heart. When Samuel told Saul that God
had deposed him from being king, he said, he is seeking a man
after his own heart. And in Acts chapter 13, one of
the apostles is preaching, Paul I think is preaching, and saying
that he found David, a man after his own heart. Here is David,
he must have been a good man, mustn't he? He's a man after
the heart of God, he must have been a good man. But do you know
what else we read in the scripture about him? He's a man of bloodshed. He's a man of war. He's a man
by whose hands and the hands of his armies and his generals,
much blood was shed. So much so that when he wanted
to build God a temple, God would not let him build a temple and
said, it must be your son for you are a man of great bloodshed.
But he was also a sinner, a great sinner. He was a man after God's
own heart, but he was a great sinner. He was an earthen vessel. An earthen vessel is a rough,
old, easily broken vessel. It's not a fancy china-glazed
pot. It's a rough earthen vessel.
He was a rough earthen vessel. in whom God had put that priceless
treasure of the gospel of grace. He was a sinner who was fit for
destruction, but for the grace of God, as are all. All without
the grace of God are fit for destruction, but the grace of
God has rescued a multitude from that just dessert. All God's
believing people in Him are that same thing as David was, sinners
before God. Is your trust in Christ for heaven,
that He will take you when you die to be with Him in eternal
glory? What do you find if you're a
believer, believing Christ, leaning on Him, growing with Him? Do
you find improvement as you grow older, or are you made more aware
of fleshly sinfulness? You know what the Apostle Paul
said? He said he wasn't fit to be numbered amongst the Apostles.
He said he was least of all the Apostles. He said he was the
chief of sinners. The more he knew, the more he
knew how in this flesh there dwelt no good thing. But you
see, God sent his Son and put all the people of his choice
in federal union with him. He's the head. As He is, so are
we in this world. And that is true comfort, isn't
it? Despite what we know we are in
the flesh, there is true comfort, for I am in Christ. He is mine
and I am His, if I believe in Him. And being in Him, God must
treat me and deal with me as He deals with His own beloved
Son. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Is He pleased with me? I let
Him down every day. I am a sinner every day, but
in Christ He looks on me as I am in Christ, not as if I am in
Christ. This is what the Word of God
says. We go through times of intense awareness of God and
His salvation. Do you find that? Sometimes you
go through times of intense awareness of God and His salvation, and
other times of barrenness. of leanness, when it seems like
you barely know that there is a God. You go through these times
of elation in spiritual comfort, and times of bareness David had
experienced such highs and lows as are common to all of God's
people. It's the common experience of
the people of God. It isn't always high up on the
plateau in the presence and immediate sense of the presence of God.
There are times of great despair, there are times when that sense
of the nearness of God is removed from us. But eternal, certain
comfort is always found in God's Word, as it says, I hope in thy
word. I hope in thy word. I don't forget
your statutes. All of these things, look at
them. Let me just remind you again, let's read these verses
again. My soul fainteth for thy salvation. but I hope in thy
word. Mine eyes fail for thy word,
saying, When wilt thou comfort me? For I am become like a bottle
in the smoke, yet do I not forget thy statutes. How many are the
days of thy servant? When wilt thou execute judgment
on them that persecute me? The proud have digged pits for
me, which are not after thy law. All thy commandments are faithful.
They persecute me wrongfully. Help thou me. They had almost
consumed me upon earth, but I forsook not thy precepts. Quicken me. after thy lovingkindness,
so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth." What I want to
do is what we've done in recent weeks, and see how are these
the words of Christ? They're the words of David, but
how are they also, prophetically, the words of Christ? And how
do they reflect the experience of the people of God in Christ? That's what I want to look at
this morning. What can they teach us regarding
our own experience of God's saving grace? Firstly then, how are
these words, how is it that Christ is saying, My soul fainteth for
thy salvation, but I hope in thy word. Mine eyes fail for
thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me? I am become like
a bottle in the smoke. Are these not words of urgency? These are words of urgency. In
them you can see a desire to see them fulfilled. My soul fainteth
for thy salvation. I want your salvation. I want
the reality of your salvation. I want the comfort that comes
from knowing that it is well with my soul, that I am right
with God. The world around is tainting
me, but your statutes are the things which encourage me. When
God became man, you know, when God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law to redeem those that are under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. When God
did that, He, Jesus, the man, Jesus of Nazareth, the man, Son
of Mary had one ambition. His one ambition, overriding
ambition, was to do his father's will. That's what he came to
do, was to do the will of God. And what was the will of God? We get the answer in John chapter
6. I won't turn you to it now, but we get the answer there in
John chapter 6. This is his will, the will of him that sent me,
that of all that he gave me, I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up at the last day. that of all the people that God
the Father gave to God the Son, what do I mean by that? Chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world, is what Ephesians
1 verse 4 says. The people of God are chosen
in Christ before the foundation, chosen by God the Father in grace,
out of just the motive of pure love. He chose them in Christ
before the foundation of the world and put them in Him for
one purpose, that they might be qualified for eternal glory.
God's eternal purpose was that there would be a people recovered
from the fall, recovered from the deception of Satan, recovered
from the delusion of Satan, who would become the people of the
living God, who would be His people and He would be their
God, who He would qualify. to be right with God and fitted
for eternal glory. Nothing shall enter therein to
that kingdom of God which shall defile, so Christ his Son must
come and take on him the flesh of his people, the same likeness
of sinful flesh, and in that flesh he must pay the penalty
to the offended justice of God, that the justice of God might
be satisfied and thereby those people be justified. counted,
legally, absolutely fitted for eternal glory, and that he should
not lose a solitary one of them. Do you see how particular is
the redemption of Christ? It's particular redemption. It's
not tossing a coin to see who might choose, who might decide
to follow Jesus for themselves. It's the purpose of God, to save
a multitude. When Ezekiel saw the valley of
the dry bones and they stood on their feet a great army. Do
you know an army stands in ranks and you can see so easily if
one is missing. You can see so easily if one
stone is missing from the temple. And that's the same thing here.
It's a particular redemption that he accomplished. And his
whole life, the life of the man, Jesus, was aimed for what he
kept calling his hour. Think about it. When you read
the Gospels, he said, my hour is not yet come. What's he talking
about? His hour. In actual fact, he
means his three hours. Three hours? The three hours
when there was darkness over all the face of the earth. The
three hours when the father turned his back on the son who was loaded
with the sin of his people. The three hours when the price
was paid by Christ to the justice of God for the sin of His people.
And that price was precious blood, for only the precious lifeblood
of the Son of God could pay that price. All of His life was aimed
at that hour, this one hour. He was born as a baby. He didn't
come as the fully formed redeemed. He was born as a baby in flesh
that had to grow and mature. The bones grew, the muscles grew,
the senses grew, his awareness grew, his speech grew. All of
these things developed like a normal human child. He came as a baby
and grew as a child. And all of it was aiming towards
that hour. There's an urgency. My soul fainteth
for thy salvation. Whilst he's growing as a child,
when is that day coming? When is that day? He's in the
temple, 12 years old. He's debating with the scribes
and the Pharisees and the leaders, and they couldn't believe the
wisdom that this 12-year-old boy, because he's growing in
the grace of God. He is patiently obedient. at home to Mary and Joseph, working
in the carpenter's shop, all of this time aiming towards that
hour, all of it pointing towards that hour. And there's an urgency,
when is it coming, when is it coming, when do we get to it?
And there's his purposeful establishment of true righteousness. as he
perfectly obeys the law of God, and in no way was there any sin
in him. He was sinless, in a world of
sin all around him. Is that not what it means when
it says, I am become like a bottle in the smoke? A little bit of
explanation of this. In primitive households, there
probably wouldn't even be a chimney in the house to take the smoke
away. There would be a fire in this
place and there would be bottles, some of which would be skin bottles,
hanging up in the tent or in the establishment, whatever it
was. And the smoke would be all around them and the bottles would
be... Have you ever... Have you ever
had a bonfire? I'm sure many of you have. And
the one thing that used to happen to me, I frequently, when we
had a large garden, often had bonfires. And I'd try and put
on old clothes, because you know something? It doesn't matter
how briefly you're in contact with that smoke, you can smell
it for days afterwards. It so taints you, it so gets
onto you. Is that not what he's saying?
Those bottles hanging up in the smoke of those ancient houses,
primitive houses, were totally tainted with the smoke all around
them. Is this not what the sinless
Christ of God is saying? I am become like a bottle in
the smoke. Not that he became a sinner in any way, but he was
mingling with sin all around him. He, who is the Holy One
of God, patiently endured the sin and the rebellion of all
that was around Him. Can you imagine it? That sin
and rebellion against God, and He is the fullness of the Godhead
in bodily form. And there He is, in this body,
in this flesh, progressing towards the hour when salvation, when
redemption would be accomplished. And the smoke of the sin of this
world is all around Him. all around him. Can you imagine
how God, who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, Christ
who is God, Christ who is God, of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity and cannot look upon sin, is there enduring the sin
and rebellion of all around him, even in his own household, the
other children of Mary, that were all around him, their sin
and their rebellion. And he's urgent about accomplishing
redemption because we read as he gets nearer and nearer to
the cross, he set his face as a flint. Flint? Flintstones. What are flintstones? Incredibly
hard. You cut them the right way and
you get a blade, you get a sharp edge that you can cut things
with. He set his face as a flint, he wouldn't be bent from it,
he wouldn't be moulded into a different way. He was determined, this
is what he came for, to do his father's will, that of all that
the father gave him he should lose nothing, so that salvation
would be accomplished. in accordance with His Word,
in accordance with the Word of God. It's the Word of God, the
statutes of God, the testimonies of God, that define the saving
grace of God. And as a man, in the likeness
of sinful flesh, yet without sin, he spent hours in prayer
to his father. Don't we see that again and again
in the Gospel accounts? He went away on his own. Why
did he who was God, the man in whom the fullness of the Godhead
dwelt bodily, why did he need to pray to his father? Because
there For that little while, he was lower than the angels.
He was subjected to the restraints and the constraints of a body
of flesh, in the likeness of sinful flesh, but without any
sin. And there he is, communing with his Father. Communing for
hours with his Father, alone. What's he doing? If I might put
it this without in any way sounding irreverent or blasphemous in
any way, is not the man, for he was true man, is he not constantly
seeking affirmation from heaven? Whilst he's inhabiting this tent
of flesh on earth, is he not seeking affirmation of the will
and purpose that he knew he had come for? Is he not constantly
seeking heavenly clarity? Because there's all the smoke
of the world around him, tainting him, seeking to taint him, all
of the distractions of Satan seeking to distract him, is he
not constantly seeking heavenly clarity from this sinful realm? While he experiences persecution,
the proud have digged pits for me which are not after thy law.
They persecute me wrongfully, help thou me. They had almost
consumed me upon earth. He suffered persecution at the
hands of men. He suffered the traps and snares
that Satan sought to set to distract him from his mission. All of
it until his mission was fully accomplished. This is what God
did in order to justify a multitude from sin. Do you see that? Do
you see something of that? That this is what was necessary
to justify a multitude from the consequences of their sin. And
he succeeded. We read in Isaiah, is it Isaiah
42 verse 3? He shall not fail. He did not
fail. These are the words of Christ
in his mission to accomplish the salvation of his people.
But what can believers learn? What can believers learn? When
we apply that these words are the words of believers in Christ,
On the basis of the salvation he's accomplished, these words
are not only David's words, they're prophetical of Christ, but they're
the experience of believers. It's a common experience as a
true believer to pass through times of spiritual barrenness. As Christ the man longed for
that time when his hour would come and salvation would be completed
and accomplished, It's as if there's a kind of an urgency,
why isn't it happening yet? Well, in the experience of believers,
we pass through times of spiritual barrenness. When the blessings
of salvation, when the truth of God, when the promise of heaven,
when these things seem distant, when their sweetness has faded,
and we struggle to see clearly, Why is it that these things happen?
Do you have times when you go, my soul's fainting? I know that
the salvation of God is something I've experienced and is highly
relevant to me and has been the sweetest thing in my experience,
but at the moment, My soul's fainting for it. My soul's struggling
to grasp it. I hope for comfort in your word,
but my eyes are failing. I can't see it clearly. I'm like
a bottle in the smoke. I'm all tainted with the things
of this world. Is it not the changing circumstances
of life that come up and cause these ups and these downs in
the believer's experience of closeness to God and his salvation? A family crisis comes up. and how that can distract, and
how that can turn the attention away from the things of God.
There could be a bereavement, or some health crisis in the
family, or a financial crisis, or any number of things. There
can be career pressure in your job, and you can fear losing
your job, and your income, and all of those things, and what
am I going to do? There's the busy-ness of business, the busyness
of it, of much serving. You remember that Lazarus, whom
Jesus raised from the dead, had two sisters, Mary and Martha,
and when he was there and they were having a meal, Martha complained
to Jesus Lord, will you tell my sister Mary to stop sitting
at your feet and come and help me with the dishes and the cooking
and the preparation and the serving? And Jesus said to her, Martha,
Mary's chosen the better part. You're too concerned with much
serving. Do we sometimes get into a situation
where we're just too busy with much serving of the things that
we regard as the essential necessities of life? and we lose that immediate
sense of the salvation of God, and of the comfort of God's Word. Busyness of much serving. Perhaps,
here's another thing, there's disobedience regarding some particular
sin. I know we sin every day, but
that's not what I'm meaning. That's a fact of what we are
in the flesh. But for the believer, there are times when you know
that there are specific things that God is either telling you
to do, or telling you not to do, and we go against them. Knowing full well what they are,
we go the other way. Perhaps there's some disobedience
regarding some sin, a sin of commission, things we do, or
of omission, things we fail to do. You remember Jonah? committed
a sin of omission. For God said to him, the prophet
Jonah, he said, go to Nineveh, that great heathen city, and
preach to them the word of God, the truth of God, the judgment
of God. And Jonah said to himself, I'm
not going there. They're heathen Gentiles. I know
what's going to happen. God's sending me there because
he intends to do them good. Them? They're dreadful people.
I'm not going there. So he goes the other direction.
And he omitted to do what God had told him to do. And he went
down to Tarshish and found himself a ship going in the other direction. And of course, God would not
let him do that. And he got on that ship, and
he ended up being thrown overboard. And God sent a whale, and the
whale swallowed him up. Could things get any worse? There
he is. He's done all of these things,
and he's in the stomach of the whale, this huge, great, cavernous
space where he's saved from drowning. It was that whale that God sent
that eventually vomited him up on the shore, and his life was
saved, and in the process he learned the true salvation of
God, and what the grace of God is all about. He learned something
of it. We could take as another example, in Pilgrim's Progress,
Christian, and he's a companion, and they're going along the path,
and you know the path to the celestial city, is narrow. It's the narrow way that leads
to life. It isn't the broad way that leads
to destruction. It's the narrow way that leads
to life. It's a rough way. It's a steep
way. It's a rugged way. It isn't smooth
and broad and easy. It isn't a six-lane highway.
It's a rough, rough path. And they look, and beside the
path they see over the hedge they see a lovely pleasant meadow
and it's called Bypath Meadow because it's the meadow by the
path that they should be on and it won't hurt just to step over
because this road this this track is so rough and difficult well
let's just step over into Bypath Meadow which looks so nice because
because they say We can see the true path, and if any danger
comes along, we can quickly jump over the hedge back onto the
proper path, and of course if you know anything of the story,
you know that they end up falling asleep there, and giant despair
comes and takes them to his dungeon, and they suffer for it, because
they're omitting to do what God says, which is the narrow way
which leads to life. Maybe it's some sin of omission
or some sin of commission that is keeping us from that experience
of the blessedness of God's salvation. You know, the world is such an
enticing place, isn't it? Bypath Meadow is so enticing,
but God tells us to keep to that rough, straight and narrow way.
It might even be God's own chastisement. that is taking away that sense
of His immediacy, or the immediacy of His salvation. And the purpose
of it is all His loving chastisement of His children, to make us value
His presence by temporarily removing its immediacy. All of these things
He does. And then there's the defiling
smoke of the world and its sin and unbelief that is all around
us. It's all around us, tainting us and our experience. All of
these things can cause the spiritual experience to fluctuate from
highs down to lows. And what he says here is, my
soul fainteth for thy salvation. Fainting is a sense of weakness. Have you ever had it? A sense
of weakness, a loss of control, an inability to balance properly.
My sense of solid confidence in God's eternal purpose for
me is wavering. Near to it being gone is what
he's saying. It's expressed in the other Psalms.
In Psalm 42, as the heart, the deer, the stag, panteth after
the water, Brooks, so panteth my soul, you know, it's thirsty,
thirsty. My soul thirsts for God, for
the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? My tears have been my meat, day
and night, while they continually say to me, Where's your God now?
Where is your God? When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul in me. For I had gone with the multitude,
I went with them, I'd done all the right things, but the presence
of God has gone away. And then he says, verse 5, Why
art thou cast down, O my soul? The soul of the believer goes
through periods of being cast down. Why art thou disquieted
within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him for the help of his countenance. O my God, my
soul is cast down within me. Therefore will I remember thee
from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites, deep... And so
on, he goes on. It's the same theme again in
Psalm 43, verse 5. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? this experience of
true believers who experience lows in their spiritual experience,
who God puts through these times that we might more appreciate
the times when we are well aware of His presence. But we're always in this situation.
My soul fainteth for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word. You know,
when we go through these times, we know that the truth is here
in this book. I hope in your word. That's where
I will find the solid foothold. That's where I will find the
solid promises of God. That's where I will find stability
for my wavering balance. So we say to ourselves, let's
look into God's word. You know, my soul fainteth for
thy salvation, I hope in thy word. So let's look into God's
word. But look at verse 82. Mine eyes fail for thy word,
saying, when wilt thou comfort me? My eyes fail for thy word. We look into God's word and we
struggle there to see the truth of God there, to see the promises
of God there, to get the comfort from God that we so desire. When
wilt thou comfort me? I know God's comforting truth
will only be found there in God's word, whatever else I feel in
myself, but my eyes, my spiritual eyes of faith, struggle to see
it clearly. Is this not common experience
of believers. Why? Because it's not in my gift
to obtain the comfort of God's truth for myself. It's not a
mechanical process, like studying for mastery of mathematics or
something like that. When will thou comfort me, is
what the psalmist asks. This is what the true believer
asks. I know the truth is in your word, but when will God
comfort me? When will God come to me and
give me that comfort of salvation from his word? God must give
the comfort. He must reveal his truth in his
word. Never apart from it. And then
it must be applied in the believer's soul. The Spirit of God must
apply it in the believer's soul, to feel the force of it, to feel
the blessedness of forgiveness. To snuggle down, as it were,
in the divine embrace of love, knowing that God who is over
all is the God who loves me and has given His Son for me. To
testify from the heart, you know, this feeling of wellness with
God, it is well with my soul, acceptance in Him, it is well
with my soul, I know that God has saved me, I know that God
has done everything. Verse 88, "...quicken me after
thy lovingkindness, so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth."
God must quicken. God must give that spiritual
life, that spiritual sight, that spiritual experience in the inner
man. He must give that. We don't just
get it passively for ourselves, it doesn't come upon us fatalistically,
it isn't a do-nothing sort of situation. What did the man Jesus
do? I mentioned it earlier. He prayed
without ceasing. This portion of the psalm is
the believer's prayer to God, seeking the comfort There it
is, verse 82, when wilt thou comfort me? Lord, when will you
comfort me? I know the comfort is in your
word, but you must come by your spirit and apply that comfort
to me. When will you give me that inner
confidence of God's accomplished salvation? And God will provide
the answer in his time. That's it, we pray, this is why
we're implored, this is why Jesus teaches, pray without ceasing,
this is it, to be much in prayer, to be much communing with God,
that we might have that comfort which comes from his salvation,
that comfort from his word. But then before we finish, just
in a couple of minutes, There's another thing I want to say about
others, another group of people who we might describe as those
who are seeking salvation, but haven't yet found it. Because
these words could apply to them, my soul fainteth for thy salvation.
I hope in your word, mine eyes fail for thy word. When are you
going to give me the comfort of knowing that I am saved? What
can those seeking God's truth learn? Some have great empathy
with the Christian gospel. You know, they're very sympathetic
to it. They are sent to the truth of God and of His word and of
His creating power. They see the superiority of the
gospel of God and the wisdom of God to the world's wisdom.
These people know that the truth of God is here in His word. They
acknowledge the comfort that they see in true believers. But
they themselves have no assurance of salvation. They can't find
the comfort they seek in God's Word. Mine eyes fail for thy
word, they might say, saying, when wilt thou comfort me? They
can't find it. They want God's comfort and assurance
of eternal well-being, but it's not there for them. They might
ask God, when wilt thou comfort me? I think we can say, and as
I say, I'm going to be very brief, on the strength of the whole
Bible testimony, there are two things that stand in the way
of that comfort of God coming into the soul that is seeking
the peace of God, the salvation of God, the comfort of God. And
here are the two things. Firstly, unconfessed sin. harboring sin as a secret pleasure. You know, I keep saying, we're
all sinners. Don't think for one minute I'm saying, I'm talking
about some state of sinless perfection in believers. Not at all. The
more you know, the more you know that in me, that is in my flesh,
there dwells no good thing. But when there's some, you know,
I want to be right with God, but I also want to keep this
secret pleasure of a sin that I know his word tells me I mustn't
be doing. It might be a love of significant
aspects of the world. It might be trying to walk the
tightrope between God and mammon. And you know what Jesus said?
You cannot serve both. You cannot. You know what John
said? Little children love not the
world. You will never achieve sinlessness,
but don't expect God's saving comfort if you cling to unconfessed,
unrepented of sin. But hear the comforting words
of his book, of John the Apostle, if we confess our sins, John
the Apostle said this, 1 John 1 verse 9, if we confess our
sins, He, God, is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do you see it? Number one, unconfessed,
unrepented of sin. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. And secondly, the other thing
is the opposite of it in a way, which is self-righteousness.
Which is, you say, well, I'm not self-righteous. Ah, do you
regard anything of merit in God's judgment, in your character,
in your actions, in your thoughts, any worthiness at all in yourself? Because if you do, it will stand
as a barrier to God's saving comfort. You see, every shred
of self-righteousness that we have, our righteousnesses, as
Isaiah says, they're filthy rags in the sight of God, and they
stand in the way. Jesus came for the sick, not
for the well. It's not those who think they're
well that need a physician, it's those who are sick that need
a physician. He came for those that have nothing in their hand
to bring. He is the Good Samaritan. The
Lord Jesus Christ, that parable is not teaching us primarily
to be nice to one another. It's teaching us that He's the
Good Samaritan that comes to those who are genuinely wrecked
and ruined and lying in the gutter as far as spiritual standing
with God is concerned. And He came and He tended to
every need of that helpless victim of the robbers and the thieves
on the road to Jericho. So here's the message, and with
this I'll close. Confess your sin, bring nothing
of your own worth, plead for His mercy and grace, and I'll
tell you why. Because He's given you a promise.
He's promised that whoever comes to Him like that, He said, I
will in no wise turn away. Amen.