Very often when we come to a
passage or a chapter in the Word of God there are phrases, there
are verses, there are words which as it were leap out of the page
at us and often set the tone of that passage or that chapter
or that book. And in Psalm 40 as quoted in
Hebrews 10 in verse 7 we read this, Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. Though I come, I delight to do
Thy will, O my God. I delight to do Thy will, O my
God. Now what is so remarkable about
these words? These words which reflect the
words, the desire, the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ. What
is remarkable about this phrase, I delight to do thy will, O my
God, is that it stands in such stark contrast to the natural
will of man. All around us and in us is told
a very different story. Man's great problem, the heart
of man's problem, the reason man is in the state he's in,
the reason this world is in the state it's in, the reason we
live in a world full of sin, full of hatred, full of violence,
full of evil, full of darkness. full of tragedy, full of problems.
The reason the world is as it is is because man does not delight
to do the will of God. The heart of man's problem is
his will. The heart of your problem is
your will. When everything's distilled down
to its bare elements, Your problem is your will. God has said one thing unto man,
and man has said another unto God. God says one thing unto
you, and you say another unto him. God says this is my will,
and you and I say, but this is my will. There is no delight
in the heart of man to do the will of a righteous God. There is a battle of the wills. Our will is set against the will
of God. We are unwilling to walk in God's
ways. We are unwilling to follow God. We are unwilling to listen to
God. We are unwilling to love God.
We are unwilling to worship God. We are unwilling to come unto
God. There is a battle of the wills.
God says this is the way, walk ye in it and we will not, man
will not, follow God. He will not. The heart of man's
problem is his will. He is unwilling. He hates the
things of God. He does not desire the things
of God. As Paul makes plain in Romans
3, there's none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that
doeth good, no not one. We're unwilling. People speak
of free will. People say that man has free
will. that God has declared His will
unto man, indeed that God has said, I want man to be saved
and to walk before me and to love me and to be one with me. And they speak of a God who wills
and desires one thing, and they speak of man, and they say that
man has a free will to either choose to follow and to do as
God wills. or to rebel. But the reality is there is none
that seeketh after God. Where is your free will when
from the day you have been born you have gone the opposite way? Oh you might make your decisions
each day You might decide to run away from God on this road
or on that road. You have a will in the sense
that determines just how you go, but it's always away from
God. One day you sin in this way,
one day you sin in that way. One day you lose your temper,
one day you decide to do this. but you're captive to a will
that is set against God. There's nothing free about your
will. You cannot choose to follow God
and no man has chosen to follow God and those that say they've
chosen to follow God never have followed God because all they've
done is they've fashioned a God that suits what they want to
do and they've willingly followed that God because that God is
themselves. Or that God sanctions all that
they want to do. They want to do this, so they
worship a God that says it's alright to do this, but they
never choose to follow the true and the living God. Again, there
are those in religion who say, yes, we do, we follow Jesus,
we follow God, we have a free will, I've chosen to accept him.
But you've chosen to accept your idea of a Jesus that stands willingly,
helplessly, hopelessly, wanting you to be saved and not having
any power to bring about that salvation because the final decision
lies in your hands. So your Jesus is a little puppet
that abides by your will. If you choose to follow him,
he'll bless you. And if you choose to reject him,
tough. He's not a God. He's not Jesus. He's not the Christ of the scriptures.
He's not the God of the scriptures. You've never chosen to follow
God. You've never chosen to delight
in his will. All you've chosen is an idea
of a Jesus in your head who blesses whatever you choose. Free will. Your free will will lead you
to hell. Because there's none that's willing to follow after
God. Our will by nature is set against
God. Our will is to further our own
ends. We want this, we want that, we
will go here, we will go there, we want the glory, we want the
praise. We'll be religious as long as
we can feel good about it, as long as it brings some glory
to ourselves, oh we don't mind religion then. But a religion
that cuts us down and shows us what we are and plays us before
God as nothings, as rebels, as those who are totally depraved
by nature, as liars, as schemers, as deceivers, as haters, as warmongers,
as idolaters. Religion cuts us down and exposes
us as we really are. We reject. Our will is set against
it. Our will is diametrically opposed
to it. We are unwilling to receive such
a declaration, such a description from God about ourselves. should a preacher come from God
and declare unto us what we are by nature before him, as dead
in trespasses and sins, as utterly unwilling, as those who have
never sought and never will seek God, as those who hate God and
hate his people and hate his gospel. When a preacher comes
with that, we hate it. and we are unwilling to listen,
unwilling to believe, unwilling to follow the God of whom they
speak. That's your state by nature,
that's my state by nature. We are unwilling. And yet here in this psalm we
read of one who in stark contrast to you and I Says unto God, I
delight to do thy will. Oh my God. Now those are remarkable
words when we truly see them in the context of man as he truly
is. Now there are many deceivers
and many fools who talk about serving God, who talk about worshipping
God, who talk about what they do for God and they think that
they are willing to do God's will but they're not. They're
willing to do what they think God wants them to. What they
decide to do for God. They're willing to do and walk
in their religion. But they're not willing to do
what God would have them do. They're not willing to believe
the truth that God declares unto them. They're not willing to
receive the gospel as it truly is. So the reality is, is that
man does not delight to do the will of God. And God's law, God's
word, God's speech, God's testimony, God's gospel is not within their
heart. But here's one who said, I delight
to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. Thy truth, thy word, thy gospels
in my heart is one with me. I walk in thy will because I
love thy will. It's in my heart. What's in your
heart? What's in your heart? I'll tell you plain by nature,
the will of God, His word, His truth, His gospel, will not be
found there. There's no room there for it. Not with all the filth and the
hatred and the depravity of sin that's entered in. By one man,
sin entered into the earth, and death by sin. and when that sin
entered in your heart and my heart received the sentence we were
born with hearts unwilling to follow God hearts set upon another
thing hearts set upon our own desires and our own glory hearts
that despise the living God hearts with a will that is set against
him. We're unwilling. But here's one
who's willing. And the reason he's willing is
because here's a man with faith in his heart. He's a man who
walks before God by faith. He's a man who loves and trusts
and believes in his God. He's a man unlike the natural
man. He's a man, an Adam, unlike the
first Adam. He's another man, another heart,
another will. He's a man of faith. David writes as a man of faith. David writes as a man who was
once a natural man, born of Adam. Once in sin, once depraved, once
unwilling, but a man who'd encountered God. and a man who by the grace
of God had been changed, a man who'd been brought to faith,
a man into whom God had placed faith in his heart that he should
believe, and he should receive the truth, and he should receive
a love of the truth. Here's a man, David, who'd been
born again. Here's a man who knew God. Here's a man of faith. But in
his words, we see the words, the heart and the desire of the
man that made David into this man. We see the heart, the desire,
the words, the will of his saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the
man, Christ, the man of faith, who speaks in this psalm. And it's because of that man
that David was delivered from the shackles of his will. It's because of that man that
David who once was so unwilling could in Christ say with Christ
I delight to do thy will O my God unless and until God comes
unto you and speaks his truth unto you and reveals his truth
unto you and shows the lies that you once held on to and how unwilling
you once were until God comes with his gospel and opens your
eyes to see and says the truth is this and you see that all
you held to before was another way until that day you will remain
in darkness, in death, in sin and in the clutches of a fallen
will But when David came to hear the truth, when God spake unto
him, when God revealed the truth to him, when God revealed Christ
to him, who is the truth, then David's eyes were opened and
David beheld with faith a saviour crucified for him, a saviour
who took away his sin, a saviour who delivered him, and a saviour
who willingly gave himself for David. And when his eyes were
opened and faith entered into his heart, David, who was once
unwilling, was made willing. And should God do the same for
you? Should God reveal his truth unto
you? You who were once unwilling to
call upon God for salvation, will call with all your might. You who once didn't care, who
were careless, who were unwilling, who were going another way will
cry out unto God to have mercy upon your soul. You'll desire
nothing more than to know God's grace and the reason you desire
it is because God has opened your eyes. God has made his truth
known unto you. God has put faith in your heart
to cry out unto him. He's made you willing. In the
110th Psalm, David says of this, Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. In the beauties of holiness from
the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth. Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Once they were
unwilling. Once David was unwilling. Perhaps
today you're still unwilling, but when God comes with his gospel,
the power of God under salvation when God comes in a gospel day
with his speech in his gospel and says unto you behold my son
behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world
when he comes with his gospel in power you will be made willing
my people shall be willing in the day of my power thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power as he made you willing he made David willing
he put faith in David's heart David who once had no faith David
who was once blind David who was once in darkness David who
was once unwilling now looks unto God And now can say by faith,
I delight to do thy will, O my God. And the difference between
David and the natural man, between David on this day and David on
the day when he was born from his mother's womb, the difference
is the faith that God put. in his heart, because faith is
willing, whereas the flesh hates and goes another way. The psalm
opens with an introduction which shows us the patient waiting
of faith. Faith is willing, faith loves,
faith longs, Faith longs for mercy, faith longs for salvation,
faith longs to see the Lord Jesus Christ. The object of faith is
Christ, the object of faith is God, the object of faith is his
salvation and faith waits for it. We may have faith. But we're still called to wait.
We're still on a journey. We're still on a pilgrimage.
And there is a day coming, one day, when we will dwell with
the Lamb of God around His throne. But as we journey through this
world, we're called to wait. We're called to patience. We're
called to endure. And faith waits patiently. For
David opens this psalm, I waited patiently. for the Lord and he
inclined unto me and heard my cry. For he didn't walk, David
didn't walk by sight but by faith. If everything was revealed and
visible and fulfilled and there to be received at that moment
he'd have just seen it, he'd have walked by sight. But David
lived before Christ had even entered this world. David lived
before the Messiah had even come and fulfilled all the promises
and the prophecies regarding him, yet he looked and he believed. He heard the truth. He heard
the truth of the Gospel through the prophecies in the Bible,
in the Scriptures. He heard the truth and he received
them and he believed them and he waited. He looked down through
history to that day when Christ would come. To that day when
Christ would deliver him. And he knew that even if that
didn't come about in his own lifetime, even if David went
to the grave, not ever having seen Christ come, he knew it
would come about, he knew Christ would come, he knew his salvation
would come about, he waited. Do you know something of this
patience, this waiting? I waited patiently for the Lord
and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up out
of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet upon
a rock and established my goings. That's where, that horrible pit
is where David's natural will had gotten him. It's where your
will gets you. we go this way and that way the
world dazzles us with all that it promises to us the world dazzles
mankind and mankind like lemons runs following the crowd following
the masses all going seeking happiness in a way that brings
destruction this huge multitude and you see it all around you
if you can just step back from the mad rush that is in time
and you step back from these crowds racing one way and you
watch what happens they're all racing helplessly thinking they've
made a conscious decision thinking they've chosen something with
their own free will they're all consciously going after this
and going after that and going after the other and they're all
going the same way and they're all heading towards a precipice
and they're all falling off the cliff and they're all slaughtered
at the bottom they're all fools and we're all foolish like them
we're all led along this great flood these great rivers that
carry us along to our destruction we think we're choosing it but
we can't choose anything else it leads us to a horrible pit
your insatiable desire for entertainment, for pleasure, for riches for
all that you can gain in this world for the status and the
power and the applause the acclaim of man the popularity, the friendships
all that you seek leads you into a horrible pit because you're
not seeking you're not willing to seek You don't love the will
of God. There's no faith. But out of
that horrible pit into which he'd fallen with every man, out
of that miry clay from where he could not escape, David having
been brought to faith, was lifted up, his feet were set upon a
rock, and his goings were established. God put a new song in his mouth,
even praise unto God. David writes, many shall see
it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man
that maketh the Lord his trust and respecteth not the proud,
nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering
thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering
and sin offering hast thou not required. Oh how he rejoices in his God,
how his faith waits for his God, and how he's brought to cry out
unto his God, I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart.
Once it wasn't. Once it wasn't. Once his will
was in that way. that placed him in that horrible
pit? In the miry clay, where are you?
Are you found in miry clay, unable to escape? Or has faith put a
new song in your heart? Praise unto your God. Has faith
put the will of God in your heart? The word, the truth, the gospel. Has faith changed your will?
Faith delights. Faith delights in the will of
God. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Being brought to faith, David
loved God's ways. There's no slavish obedience. about David. This isn't those,
as are so common in the religious world, who go to a law and try
to strive to keep a law. He says here, thy law is within
my heart. But this is not a law of condemnation,
this is not the law of Moses that tells the natural man, that
tells an evil man to do this when the man would go the other
way. This is not a law given to him to expose how unwilling
he is. This is that truth that he loves
because his will has already been changed. David is willing. He loves the word of God. He
loves the truth of God. He loves the ways of God. It's
not a burden. As Christ says, my yoke is easy. This is a pathway that's easy
for him because he loves it. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, thou knowest. I've preached these things, I
speak of these things. Once I cared not for them, once
I hated them. There's no shyness about David's
declaration of God. There's no fear of man here that
chucks his mouth. Oh how easy it is to see the
hatred of men, to see the reaction of men to the gospel, to see
the unwillingness of men all around us to listen and to therefore
remain silent. But faith rises up above all
these things. Faith so delights in the truth
it will risk slaughter. It will risk being shunned of
man. It will risk standing before
hateful men and declaring and preaching the righteousness of
God before them. Though everyone else is so unwilling,
though they will not hear, faith will rise up above it. Faith
puts a boldness in the heart. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart, David says. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
and thy truth from the great congregation. It came forth,
I shouted it forth because I delight in it. Therefore withhold not thou thy
tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy lovingkindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. David delights in the will of
his God. He delights in the Gospel. He
delights in his God and he delights in what his God has done for
him. He delights in his salvation. Oh, what a contrast between the
natural man and the man of God. We're so unwilling. It's always
our will, my will, your will. There's always a battle of wills.
We won't do what God would have us do. We won't do what our parents
would have us do. We won't do what authority would
have us do. We won't do what anyone would
have us do. We'll do what we'll do. If the
country, if the laws say do this and we're happy we agree with
them all right we'll walk in them. If our parents say do this
and we happen to agree we'll do what they say but all the
time whenever there's a whenever there's a difference, whenever
men say something different, whenever God says something different
we'll fight against it. David delights. My people shall
be willing. in the day of my power. Willing to do what? Willing to do all that God desires. Willing to walk in God's ways,
willing to do anything that God desires. But consider not just
David here, but his saviour Christ. and his words, I delight to do
thy will. Oh my God. What delight and what
will was that? Christ came, lo I come. In the volume of the book it's
written of me, the scriptures they all speak of me and I come,
I've come in the fullness of time and I delight to do thy
will. What was God's will for Christ? God's will, God's desire, God's
covenant was that Christ should come into this world of unwilling
rebels. He should come into the darkness. He should come into this horrible
pit. He should come into this world
of hatred. He should come into this world
of sin and death. He should come and he should
take and bear the sins of many and go to a place of execution,
be nailed to a tree, be lifted up in the midday sun. He should
go and he should be crucified for his people. He should die
for those he loved. What was the will of his God
in which he delighted? He delighted to do all that God
would have him do and that included laying down his own life for
those who once hated him. Now when you realize that, when
you realize that that is what is set before Christ and what
is described in the latter part of this psalm, when you realize
that that is what the will of God for Christ was you'll realise
quite the heights to which faith goes. This was the will in which
Christ delighted and this was the will in which David delighted
and this is the will in which all God's people delight. It's
not just the willingness to walk in this righteous way and that
righteous way. It's not just the willingness
to turn aside from this sin and that sin. It's a willingness
to give up all. It's a willingness to lay down
one's life for God and his people. It's a willingness to suffer
to the very end. What is this will? That Christ
should die, that his people should live. David goes on. For innumerable evils have compassed
me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased,
O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded
together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be driven
backward and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate
for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha! Aha! Let all those that seek
thee rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, the Lord be magnified but I am poor and needy
yet the Lord thinketh upon me thou art my helper my deliverer
make no tarrying oh my God what did the will of God purpose for
his own son it purposed that he should so suffer he should
so die he should so bear the sins of many that he cried out
from the depths of anguish the depths of suffering the depths
of his sin bearing that innumerable evils have compassed me about
mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able
to look up. In the darkness, at the cross,
in the darkness, made sin, bearing his people's sin, Christ owned
them as his own. innumerable evils have compassed
me about mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I
am not able to look up they are more than the hairs of mine head
therefore my heart faileth me that's what he suffered he suffered
the outpouring of the wrath of God against those innumerable
evils against those iniquities which were more than the hairs
of his head, innumerable. You could not count them. All
the sins of all his people throughout all time crushed him and weighed
him down and the wrath of God poured down upon his head. He
waited through eternity. He waited through eternal wrath. unending wrath in the three hours
of darkness upon the cross eternity contracted to a span he waded
through the darkness he could not look up and yet that was
the will of God that he should go there that he should deliver
his people from their sins that they in him should die to their
sins that they in Him should rise again the other side victorious,
that they in Him should live forevermore, that they in Him
should be made willing, that they in Him should have a new
song in their hearts, that they in Him should live, that they
in Him should rise again with faith in their hearts, that they
in Him should delight to do God's will. I delight to do thy will,
O my God. This is his delight. He delighted
to die for sinners. He delighted to drink the cup
of God's wrath. He hated it, but he delighted
it. He hated the burden naturally
speaking as a man he'd have escaped it if he could if thou be willing
Lord let this cup pass from me nevertheless not my will but
thine he bore the unbearable he suffered the insufferable
he was crushed and yet the desire to see his
people saved. His love for his own, his love
for David, his love for all his people was such that he could
say, I delight to do thy will, O my God. I delight to suffer
and to die, that they should rise with me again in life. O the enormity of what David
and Christ and his people delighted. Faith trusts in the midst of
trial, all trial, every trial, the deepest of trial, when all
men around you, unwilling to listen, unwilling to follow your
God, unwilling to love, Unwilling cry ah-ha, ah-ha, when they see
you cast down, when they see you suffering, when they see
you broken, when they see you in the depths, rather than being
sympathetic, rather than lending a helping hand, when you need
help most, rather than them being kind, they come along and tread
you underfoot and mock you and scorn you and cry ah-ha, ah-ha,
look where you are now. look where your gospel's got
you, look where your saviour's got you, look where your God's
got you, look at you now. When they come unto you in that
state, when there's no man to help, when everything's at an
end, faith still rises up and looks beyond all the circumstances
and looks up into heaven. and sees God and sees his mercy
and his grace and says I believe and I delight to do thy will
oh my God I am poor and needy all men have rejected me yet
the Lord thinketh upon me thou and thou alone art my help and
my deliverer Make notarian. Oh my god. Have you been in a
horrible pit? Are you in a horrible pit? Are
you in miry clay? Have you no hope? Do you know your own wretchedness? But do you? long to know this
God, this saviour, this salvation. Do you delight in his truth? Do you delight in his word? Do you delight in his gospel? Do you delight in his will, that
he was willing to give his own son for sinners? Do you delight
that God was willing to offer his own son for sinners? Do you
want to know Him? Do you want to walk before Him?
Has God put faith in your heart to cry? If He has, then though
you're poor and needy, though you're in darkness, though man
cries, ah-ha, ah-ha, though you have no hope in self or in man,
if God looks upon you, you have every hope. Faith is rewarded. Faith overcomes. Faith is victorious
because Christ came in the volume of the book written of Him. He delighted to do the will of
God. His law, His word was in His
heart. He suffered in the darkness. He suffered when innumerable
evils compassed about Him. He suffered. and he rose again
victorious. He cried out, it is finished. And he and his people rose and
entered into glory. where they will dwell forevermore. Is that where you are heading? Are you waiting patiently for
it? Are you looking up? Will he set
your feet upon a rock? Will he put a new song in your
heart? Even praise unto our God. Amen.