Make sure it's plugged in. We'll get there eventually. Right,
okay, well turn back with me to Psalm 119, this longest of
Psalms, Psalm 119, and I want to focus on verses 41 and 42
this morning. So let's go there now. Remember,
this is the Hebrew alphabet. There are 22 sections of eight
verses each, and they start with Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth. Hey, vow this week, vow, and
we're looking at verses 41 and 42. Verse 41, let thy mercies
come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation according to thy
word. So shall I have wherewith to
answer him that reproaches me, for I trust in your word. Now, of course, this was David's
personal experience. He's probably an old man when
he wrote Psalm 119, and he's writing the experiences of his
life and the wisdom learned in his life, the importance of God's
Word, the need for God's Spirit. This is the theme of Psalm 119,
that God's statutes, his gospel statutes, his law, his gospel
law, the principles of God's word might be at the very heart. How should a young man cleanse
his way? By taking heed unto thy word. Show me wondrous things
out of thy law. It's all about the gospel, David's
experience, and it's typical of the experience of true believers.
Of course, it's always, as these things always speak of Christ,
It's the experience of Jesus the man. Jesus the man, you know,
he prayed to his father. What did he pray? Let thy mercies
come also unto me. He knew who he was. He knew that
he was God in flesh and yet limited for that time to that space and
that place. Limited in that way, deliberately
limited for the purpose of death and redemption. But nevertheless,
he prayed to his father, these sorts of things, that according
to thy word, that the word of God might dwell in you richly,
as Paul wrote to other believers. So it's a prayer then, let thy
mercies, it's a request to God, which is a prayer, let thy mercies
come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation according to thy
word. Because I have a reason for needing that. Why is it that
David needs to pray in this way? Why is it that true believers
need to pray in this way? Believers in the days in which
we live. Well, all around we're surrounded by, for example, legalists. religious legalists who are bragging
about their sanctified walk, how good they're doing, how well
they're progressing. They're always on the mountaintop,
they would have you believe, spiritually. Or else they're
in a position where they're trying to put others to shame with their
reproaches against them, their accusations against them for
their inadequate witness and testimony, aiming to induce despair
in others. But David's condition David's
condition, as for so many, as for you and for me probably in
these days, is neither despairing nor exalted. See, he's asking
for God to show him mercy, to show him salvation according
to thy word, but he is a saved person. But he wants to know
more of it. He wants to know more of it.
He's in the middle, you know, he's not on the mountaintop of
spiritual experience, neither is he in the very depths of despair.
Most of our lives we spend somewhere in the middle. The things of
this life come up and trip us up every single day. We're conscious
of the sins of the flesh every single day, yet we know that
we have a home in eternity. We know that we're in the family
of God. We're neither despairing nor
exalting, but we're in the middle of everyday experience. We know
that we're true believers, but we're assailed on all sides by
that which induces doubt. Am I really a child of God? So
the prayer is that God would show, that God would teach his
mercies, his salvation, How is it? In accordance with that Word
of God, which alone is the truth. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. That Word,
which is that solid, objective truth. You know, there's no,
well, my opinion is about it. Thus says the Lord. Thus says
the Lord. If they speak not according to
this Word, there is no light, there is no truth in them. It
is that firm foundation that we often sing about, laid in
the Word of God for the people of God. And that foundation is
Christ. Everything here concerning our
eternal good is found in Christ. He is in this Word. He is this
Word. He is the Word of God. He is
the sword of the Spirit. He is all of these things. It's
Christ. This is the foundation. So David,
And perhaps you and me this morning, David is tried when he's writing
this, he's tried, he's not on the mountaintop, neither is he
in despair. He's harassed, he's tempted,
but yet he's got an abiding hope in God's truth and mercy. He's
like, imagine a ship anchored in a storm. It's tossed to and
fro by the waves and by the wind. It's pulled and tugged and buffeted,
but it has a firm anchor on a solid rock which cannot move. The storm
isn't strong enough to move it. This is what he's like. This
is what we're like so often. We're buffeted by the circumstances
of life, the events that happen to us, the things that come.
The weakness of the flesh displays itself all the time. Every day,
if we're honest, the weakness of the flesh shows itself to
us. And yet we have this firm anchor
of salvation truth. And it isn't just head knowledge.
It isn't just head knowledge. I might be able to Teach somebody
aspects of physics, if I can remember it from when I used
to teach it. But, no, that's head knowledge. This is knowledge
which is felt in the soul. This is felt, and this knowledge
of salvation of Christ is felt in the soul. You know it says
in the scriptures, taste and see that the Lord is good. If
you've tasted, you've known, you've seen that the Lord is
good. And having tasted and seen the Lord's goodness, you cannot
but want more of it. You get a taste and that kindles
an appetite for more of that thing. You want more knowledge,
more foundation in the truth of God. But it's only for those
who have truly been spiritually born of God. Only they can pray
a prayer like this. You see, religious folk can't
pray this prayer. Only those that have been spiritually
born of God, who've had an experience, who've tasted, can say, let more
of it come to me. Show me more of it. There is
much that will reproach in this life. Reproach, see there in
verse 42, him that reproaches me. What does reproach mean?
What does reproach mean? It means all sorts of things,
but it certainly means to accuse, that which accuses you, that
which threatens harm to you, that which judges you, that which
scorns you, pours scorn on your experience, that which reproaches
a believer. Those things. There's much that
will reproach a believer, but the lessons of God's Word, taught
by the Holy Spirit in the inner man, provide answers to those
reproaches. So my title this morning is,
A Believer's Answer to Reproaches. the reproaches, the accusations,
the threats, the judgments, the scorn. You can't truly be a real
believer, can you? Where do I find an answer to
those accusations, which we'll see are just? I find them in
God's Word. I find them by God's Spirit in
the inner man. That's where the answers come.
A believer's answer to reproaches. So first of all, let's look at
it in reverse order of the verses and look at him that reproacheth
me. See there? So shall I have wherewith
to answer him that reproacheth me, for I trust in thy word.
Him that reproacheth me. In your walk, in your life as
a believer, things accuse you. Things threaten you. Threaten
your assurance that you're truly a child of God. Things judge
you as having an inadequate witness. They pour scorn on your profession
of faith. Let's consider some of them.
First of all, the law of God, the holy law of God, that law
which is perfect and good and holy. In Romans chapter 7, Paul,
when he's wrestling with his experience that as a believer,
as a true child of God, he wants to do that which pleases God,
and yet he finds all the time that the flesh, the sin of the
flesh, lets him down. But he has to confess, he has
to allow that the law of God, it is good, it is holy, it is
right. It says, that law says, as Jesus
said to the lawyer in an account in Luke's gospel, do this, the
law, do the law and live. What should I do to inherit life?
Do this, do the law and you shall live. Now, People react to that
in different ways. The Pharisee, the self-righteous
person says, as that rich young ruler said, all of this I have
done from my youth upwards. What still do I lack? I've done
all of this. Why does he think he's done all
of this? Why do any of you out there who
may think that you make a good fist at keeping God's law, why
do you think that? It's because of this, the force
of God's law, the force, the weight of God's righteous justice
has not been opened up in your heart. You know, I mention this
hymn often, a sinner is a sacred thing. Why? How? The Holy Ghost
has made him so. These are things that only God
can teach you by revelation. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. When the law is opened up by
the Spirit of God, with spiritual understanding, you don't think,
I've done all of this, what more can I do? Paul, when he was Saul
of Tarsus, was one of the leading Pharisees. He could say that,
judged by his fellow Pharisees, judged by his peers, in matters
of keeping the law, he was judged perfect. Perfect. But when the
Holy Spirit taught him about the law that thou shalt not covet,
then the weight of that came home to him, and he knew that
he was a sinner. Thou shalt not covet. He knew
that he was a sinner, because what is covetousness? Covetousness
is idolatry, says the Scripture. When the Holy Spirit shows a
sinner something of what he is by nature, You know, when Isaiah
went into the temple in Isaiah chapter 6, in the year that King
Uzziah died, and he saw the Lord high and lifted up in the temple,
and seeing the Lord, then what did he know? Seeing the holiness
of God, what did he know? Woe is me. I am undone, for I
am a man of unclean lips. I who am the prophet of the Lord,
I who thought I was so good and righteous compared with others,
I am a man of unclean lips, and I'm no better than the rest of
the people of unclean lips amongst whom I dwell. A man of unclean
lips. Woe is me. I'm unable to plead
any mitigation against this. Yes, I have the odd slip, but
no, what does God's law require? Absolute perfection. The law
and justice of God requires absolute perfection. In fact, when you
read Romans 3, when you get to verse 19, having listed how it
is that there is none righteous, no, not one, and the sins are
listed there, and where does that bring you to? Not, all this
have I done from my youth upwards, what still do I lack? It brings
you to this point, Romans 3, 19, that every mouth might be
stopped. you've got no excuse to give,
you've got no plea to make, every mouth stopped, and all the world
become guilty before God. There isn't a shred of self-justification
that can be found, only mercy, God be merciful to me, the sinner. The reproach of the law, the
accusation of God's law, which is holy and good, comes But in
the flesh, no answer can be found. I need an answer to him that
reproaches me. The law reproaches me. I need
an answer. But I can't find an answer in
my flesh. Secondly, Here's something else
that reproaches us. Our own heart. Our own heart. Have you ever said or done something
that you bitterly regret? I know you have. We all have.
Everybody has. And you feel shame. And there's
times when it's particularly bad when you can't sleep because
of it. For it troubles you. For the believer, our own heart
regularly condemns us. We know that because John writes
in his first epistle, 1 John chapter 3 and verse 20, if our
heart condemn us, which it does, not so much if, as it might or
it might not, when it does, when it does, When our heart condemns
us, remember this, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all
things. The salvation and the remedy for the sins that our
heart condemns us with, God is greater than them, and his salvation
is greater than them. Our heart condemns us, for our
inconsistency of Christian walk, doesn't it? You're always looking
back, you set out a day with good resolutions that today you're
going to do that which pleases God, and it isn't long before
the sins of the flesh are rising to the surface, and our walk
is inconsistent, and there are shortcomings in our testimony,
and there are fleshly lusts for let's be in no doubt, Our flesh
isn't getting better and better as it progressively becomes sanctified
towards heaven, not at all. Our flesh remains the same. It's
the new man that needs to grow in grace and the knowledge of
our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. No, fleshly lusts rise up and
we fail. We regularly fail. There's no
excuse. We can't say as some might want
to, it's God's fault for making us like this. We didn't decide
to be born sinners. It's God's fault. No, we can't
say that. The verdict on us, when our heart accuses us, is
it's rightly accusing us. We're guilty as charged. Every
mouth may be stopped. Thirdly, him that reproacheth
us. Religious people approach us,
don't they? Religion all around us reproaches
us. You know, I'm not talking about,
you know, just sort of orthodox, the religion of the Christianity
of this country, let's say. I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about people who claim to be gospel-believing religious
people. People that claim to bear a testimony
to the gospel of Christ. Religious people. And they accuse
us of being less fruitful than they are. You know, they do so
many things, don't they? Oh, we're just having this lovely
meeting where we're giving out all these wonderful gifts to
this, that and the other person. They accuse us. Oh, what's your
church doing? Your church is not doing very
much. Reproaches. They reproach us. Religious people
reproach us. They're a bit like, you know,
there was the man in 1 Samuel chapter 1, Manoah, wasn't it?
Was it Manoah? Yes, I think so. Anyway, two
wives, shouldn't have had two wives, but he did. Hannah, the
one he loved, and Penina, the one who was fruitful in having
children. And Penina reproached Hannah. She accused Hannah of being unfruitful. She had children. Penina had
children. Hannah had none. Penina was the
fruitful wife. Hannah was the barren wife. Like,
what thinks itself fruitful religion, you know, accusing, reproaching
that which to them doesn't look so fruitful. Panina reproached
Hannah, but Hannah was a true living soul who knew God truly,
who knew that the only true fruit comes from God's Spirit. That's
it, the true fruit. You know in Galatians where the
works of the flesh are contrasted with the fruit of the Spirit.
Notice the clues in the answer. It's the fruit of the Spirit.
It's the Holy Spirit's fruit. That's where the fruit comes
from, true fruit. Religious folk accuse true believers
of ineffectiveness in our witness. They say your church is not very
effective, is it? Look how many people you get.
You don't get many. And what are you doing in the community?
What are you doing to help this, that and the other? And look
at your walk in this life. It's not very consistent with
what you preach. And how much Bible reading do
you do? Have you read your Bible today? How much of your Bible
did you read this morning? You know, we always read four
or five chapters every morning before we have breakfast. We
do all of these things. How much have you spent time
praying? You know, have you? When did
you last have an all-night prayer meeting? Have you heard those
sorts of accusations, those sorts of reproaches from religious
folk? Oh, look at your family. Look
at your family. Our children are just so good
in every respect. You know, we've raised our children
much better than you've raised yours. What about the testimony
that you're bearing to the gospel in your area? How many people
around here know that you bear testimony to the gospel of Christ?
Oh look, we are always posting leaflets through doorways and
holding special meetings. You see, they're all reproaches
that come from religion, from religious folk. And often we,
true believers, feel unable to answer these reproaches. Oh,
what wonderful acts of kindness they do. What about us? Do we
do any of the reproaches? Have we got an answer for those
reproaches? Then there's the world all around
us, the world in which we live, the world which is unbelieving.
But they'll leave you to yourself until they discover that you
profess faith in Christ. They watch for an opportunity
to reproach you, to accuse you, to pour scorn on your profession
of faith. They might see that you who claim
to be only interested in the things of heaven, they detect
a streak of covetousness in you. Oh, that you want these nice
things or those nice... Oh, really? Oh, you're not much
different to the world, are you? That your heart is set on worldly
things. When you say your heart is set
on heaven, and they look and they observe. They observe us
say in a moment of weakness we slip and we say something slanderous
about others in conversation, which we know we shouldn't have
done. We profess to follow Christ. We profess to be like Him who
turned the other cheek. You know, when he was reviled,
he reviled not again. They observe us show resentment
to others when we claim to be those like Christ who are meek
and lowly of heart. Unlike Christ, they say, you're
not like Christ. He didn't behave like that. They
observe fleshly frivolity and they say, ah, you say, you're
judging us for our worldly behavior, but look at you occasionally.
You're just the same. You're in the flesh too. insobriety
and frivolity. They accuse us and we struggle
to find answers. These are reproaches that come
from the world. And of course, throughout, our
own conscience constantly nags us inside, convicting about all
other accusations. that, as it says, every mouth
may be stopped, and that all the world may become guilty.
That's your conscience, a good conscience, a sharp conscience,
and a live conscience, is constantly aware of these shortcomings.
And of course, who reproaches you? Who reproaches the believer
above all else? Is it not Satan? In Revelation
chapter 12 and verse 10, what's his name? His name is the accuser
of the brethren. The one who accuses the children
of God. What does he accuse them of?
He accuses them of being sinners and therefore not qualified for
heaven. That's what he accuses them of.
And there's only one thing that defeats him in that accusation.
It's the blood of Christ. It's the salvation that Christ
has accomplished. He powerfully tempts The people
of God believe us to disobedience to God's law, and then accuses
us of failure when we disobey God's law. Just as he reproached
Job, you know, Job was head and shoulders above those around
him in terms of righteousness with God. And Satan said to God,
you know, there's only one reason he does this and that's because
he knows that, you know, you provide for him and everything
around him is so good and he has no worries. Take those things
away from him and then watch him curse you. And he called
on him to curse God and die. You know, he called on him, he
reproached him. Look at you now, now that all
of that comfort's been taken away from you. Look, you're just
like all the rest of us, if not worse. He was an accuser of the
brethren, and he accuses the people of God. His strategy is
temptation. He tempts us. You know, the lust
of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the world,
the things in the world. He tempts, and then he ensnares,
as he did with Jesus in Matthew chapter four when he tempted
him in the wilderness. That was without sin. For people
like us, we're ensnared. We regularly get ensnared. And
then we fall into sin. And what does he do? He accuses.
He reproaches. He pours scorn on our faith.
Where will the believer find answers to these things? Where
can we find answers? Look back at verse 41. Let thy
mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation according
to thy word. Let thy mercies come unto me.
God's mercies must come. You know, it's not for me to
go and get them. Let them come to me because they
come from God. And it's God alone who can give
them. They must come from God to quench the reproaches of the
accusers. You see, those accusations of
the world around us, of religious folks, of our own hearts, of
the law of God, of Satan, they all write a sentence of death
in our hearts. They all say, you're not fit
for heaven. What quality does God require
for admission to heaven? He requires holiness. You know,
follow after holiness, righteousness, without which no man shall see
the Lord. If you haven't got it in the
same measure that God has, you will not see the Lord. And therefore,
if you haven't got that righteousness which is of God, a sentence of
death is written in the heart. But where that sentence of death
is written, what we need to find, what we long to find, is a sentence
of acquittal. You know, imagine a court of
law, where somebody has tried of a crime, and you know, all
the evidence is presented and the jury goes out, and the jury
comes back in, have you reached a verdict, asks the judge, the
chairman of the jury, yes we have, what is your verdict, and
you know, the film, the movie, the TV program sort of heightens
the sense of anticipation and of nervousness as, what is it
going to be? And the verdict comes, not guilty,
not guilty. And the judge pronounces, the
sentence of acquittal, not the sentence of punishment, the sentence
of acquittal. The judge pronounces, you're
free, the charges are dropped, you've been declared not guilty
of these crimes. You see, reproaches are felt
inside. and the answer must come to the
inner man inside from God. Let your salvation, let your
mercies come also unto me. Let your salvation come unto
me. It must come to me so that I
sense it in the inner man. Good works that I might do, resolutions
that I might make, vows that I might promise, prayers, none
of that will effectively answer the reproaches of those that
reproach me. We need a remedy as deep as the
malady. Something to put right that is
as deep and as effective and goes as far down as the problem
goes. And the answer is twofold. Mercies
from God. Mercies from God. How do we answer
the law's reproaches? The law comes to us and rightly
and justly accuses us and finds us guilty of sin. Where do we
find an answer to that reproach of the law? Answer, 1 John chapter
1 verse 7, just for one, just for one. If you've had the word
of God taken from you, in a time of crisis, and you are really
troubled in your soul, this is where hiding the Word of God
in your heart that you might not sin against Him, earlier
verse in this psalm, comes to the fore. If the Word of God
is hidden in your heart, you remember it. And you remember
a verse like 1 John chapter 1 verse 7. The blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, God's Son. The blood of Jesus Christ, God
become man. The blood of Jesus Christ does
what? Cleanses us from all sin. The law says you're a sinner.
Yes, guilty. Guilty as charged. But the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanses the people of God from all sin. that sin which would
condemn you, that sin which does condemn you, that sentence which
goes from the law of God, the justice of God against it, is
taken away, because the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us
from all sin. Yes, we feel guilt justly in
the flesh, there is just condemnation in the flesh for us as sinners,
but the blood cleanses, the blood cleanses. You see, it answers
the demands of divine justice. What is the demand of divine
justice? The soul that sins, it shall die. Christ, the head
of his body, the head of his church, the head of all his people,
in union with all of his people, took upon him to come and stand
surety for that people, that multitude which no man can number.
And He died in the place of them, and He was made their sin, and
He bore that sin in His own body on the tree, that He might take
away the penalty, that He might pay the penalty of that sin.
so that justice is satisfied. The justice which demands the
death of the sinner says there is no sin to answer for, for
Christ has taken it away. And therefore there is, as Romans
8, 1 says, following that Romans 7 chapter, there is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. You see, whenever
the soul is reproached by internal condemnation, it doesn't escape
by pleading innocence, Does it? Oh, but I'm not guilty of these
things. No, it pleads guilt. the true child of God pleads
guilt. And then, having pleaded guilt, because the flesh is sinful,
the surety, who is Christ, the substitute, who is Christ, he
intervenes, and shows that he has intervened, and he has redeemed,
that his blood has paid the price of sin, that his blood has cleansed
his people from all sin. And so where sin abounds, which
it doubtless does, and the accusations are just, The grace of God much
more abounds, and this is what answers the reproaches. In Romans
5.20 it says just that, where sin abounded, grace much more
abounds. Yes, the sins are colossal, but
the grace of God is much more abounding than the abounding
of sin. How do God's mercies answer religious folks' reproaches? How do religious folks say you're
not very effective in your witness? Well, if we know in good conscience
that their reproaches are unfounded, that helps. But also, God uses
conscience so that we might learn and we might avoid those things
which give them cause to reproach in the future. And Satan? Satan,
when he comes and he accuses that you're not a true child
of God. When Satan comes and accuses, you know he came to
Christ. Even he came to Christ with his
temptations. The answer to it is the Word
of God. Isn't it? What did Jesus say?
Again and again, when Satan said, you say that you're this, that
and the other, and Jesus said, it is written. It is written.
It is written. What are we to do? As Paul writes
to the Ephesians in Ephesians 6, we're to take the whole armour
of God when Satan comes. We put on the shield of faith
which quenches the fiery darts of the evil one. Satan fires
his evil fiery darts at us, telling us that we're not true children
of God, telling us to conform to the rest of the world, tempting
us with sin, and yet that shield of faith That shield of faith
quenches those fiery darts. They can't penetrate through.
The helmet of salvation protects their head. The helmet of salvation. Your salvation comes to me. We
take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, with
which to fight and defend ourselves. All of these things come to us
from God. That the accusations are true. and accurate, but the
response, the answer, is the gospel answer of salvation accomplished. And that comes to us, and we
have wherewith to answer him that reproaches me. When Satan
reproaches, we have the gospel. We have gospel weapons to answer. The mercy of God, the salvation
of God. And so the salvation of God,
which comes from God alone. The salvation of God comes from
Him alone. His Word applied in the heart. His Word of salvation. It's the
Gospel of God is the God. Not the Gospel of religion. The
Gospel of God. The Gospel that God has revealed.
The Word of God applied in the heart. With spiritual eyes opened
to understand the Scriptures. Do you remember when In Luke
24, the last chapter of Luke, and there's the Emmaus Road experience,
and then Jesus appears to the disciples when they'd gone back
to Jerusalem. He appears to them in the upper
room again, and there he opened their eyes that they might understand
the scriptures. Do you know, you can't go to
university to have your eyes spiritually opened. You cannot
go through any number of experiences. It must be the revelation of
God that your eyes, your spiritual eyes, are opened to see and understand
what the Scriptures say. You know, unless a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You must be born again.
You must have that gift of faith which comes from God the Holy
Spirit to open your eyes, to understand the Scriptures, and
to see there the salvation The purpose of this book is to reveal
salvation and to experience it in the soul. You know what Moses
said to the children of Israel in fear between the Red Sea and
the Egyptians? There they are, trapped, and
they're thinking they're about all to be slain. And Moses says
to them, you don't need to do anything. He just says to them,
stand still. What must we do? Stand still,
stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And of course, the
Red Sea was opened and they went through dry shod and the Egyptians
tried to follow and they were drowned. Stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. And seeing that salvation, we
sense a sweet enjoyment of acceptance in Christ, who is the Beloved.
Yes, the reproaches of my accusers are justified in me. My strength
is inadequate to deal with them. I have none. But those reproaches
are completely answered for my good in Christ. for eternity. That's our comfort, the comfort
of the believer. The believer is never so satisfied
with Jesus as when he is most dissatisfied with himself. The
more you're dissatisfied with yourself and find no answers
in yourself, the more you find that the Lord Jesus Christ answers
every single demand of God for you in your place. You know,
Christ is all and in all. That's it. That's the sum total
of everything. Don't get away from that. It's
what this psalm is about. You say, I don't see the word
Christ in here once. No, you don't. Of course you
don't. But he's here. He's here in every bit of it.
The believer is never so satisfied with Jesus. as when he's most
dissatisfied with himself. Those reproaches, and yet we
have the answer to those reproaches. Amen.