I ask you to turn with me in
your Bibles to Psalm chapter 4, the fourth psalm. I want to use that for a text
this morning. As I looked at this psalm and
studied it, I gave it a title. I call it a psalm of grace, a
psalm of grace. There's some instruction in grace
here, and I believe that there's something that every child of
God can identify with here. I think as we go through this,
you'll be able to see your experience in grace, your experiences as
God brought you to a knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the psalm is a psalm of
David, and it appears that it was written
about the time that Absalom stole the hearts of the people, David's
son, stole the hearts of the people and had himself proclaimed
king and rebelled against his father, David. and was trying
to kill him. And David, with a few hundred
faithful men, had to flee from Absalom. And he was miraculously
preserved from harm. And many of the commentators
say that this psalm was written probably after that first night
when he survived that first night of his flight with those few
hundred men. And then he begins to pray in
verse one. And in this psalm, and we're
going to try to go through all eight verses of it this morning,
but in this psalm, he sets forth seven points of
grace. Seven points of grace. And I want to talk to you a little
bit about grace this morning. I like that subject, don't you?
I like to talk about grace. Because you can't talk about
grace without talking about God. And you can't talk about grace
without speaking of Christ. Because all of God's grace towards
sinners is bound up in His Son. But I love to hear of grace.
I love to read of grace. You know our election is of grace. Even so, Paul said, at this present
time also, there's a remnant according to the election of
grace. Our justification and redemption
is of grace. Paul said being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that's in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our calling is of grace. He said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me. Our salvation is of grace. By
grace are you saved. Through faith. And that's not
of yourselves. It's the gift of God. It's not
of works. Lest any man should boast. Lest
any man should boast. So let's look at this then as
David writes here and he says in verse 1, hear me, hear me
when I call. Hear me when I call. Have you
ever called on God? Did you desire to be heard or
were you just going through some motions? I tell you when the Lord brings
you to a place when you have a need, You'll desire to be heard. Hear me when I call. When I call. And David doesn't doubt. He's
not doubting that the Lord would hear him, but he's not taking
it for granted. Because his need, his need is
too great for that. But the first thing he sets forth
here about grace is this. Hear me when I call. Oh God of my righteousness. His plea to God was not based
on his righteousness of merit, of works, of ceremony. that his plea was based on the
righteousness of God, O God of my righteousness. He is the God
of our righteousness because he is the author of it. He planned
it and he purposed it. He planned it and purposed it
in Christ, and he did that from all eternity. And He's the executor of our
righteousness. He executes it in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself is our righteousness. He of God is made unto us righteousness,
righteousness. And it's God who bestows it.
God who bestows this righteousness. It's the same God who made Christ
to be sin for us. The same God makes us the righteousness
of God in Him. See, it's work. He does it. He
does it. Is this thing of righteousness
important? Is it? Is it important to know something
about the God of our righteousness and the righteousness of God?
Is this thing of salvation by grace? Oh, I believe it is. I
believe it's vitally important. Vitally important. Let me ask
you five quick questions. Who needs this righteousness
and why? Who needs this righteousness
of God and why? Well, everyone needs it. Everyone
needs it. And the reason we need it is
without it, we can't approach unto God. We can't stand in God's
presence. The psalmist said in Psalm 24,
who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand
in his holy place? I tell you, it's he that he hath
clean hands and a pure heart, who hath never lifted up his
soul unto vanity. That's righteousness, nor sworn
deceitfully. That's the one. That's the righteousness
we have to have, and only the person who has that righteousness
shall appear in God's presence. Anybody here fit that description
by nature? No. No. Everyone needs it if we expect
to appear before God. Now, here's another question
that follows that. Who has this righteousness by
nature? Nobody. Nobody. The testimony is there is none
righteous, no, not one. We've got to have it. But we
don't have it. Where is it to be found? Where
is it to be found? How are we going to find out
about it? How are we going to get it? Well, when the Apostle Paul wrote
to the Romans, he said in Romans 1, verse 16, he said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. For therein, therein, in that
gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth. For therein is the righteousness,
the righteousness of God revealed. from faith to faith. That's where
we find out about it. That's how we come to get it.
That's it. Now, I want you to turn over
to Romans 3, and the whole Psalm 4, we'll be right back, but Romans
3. How is this righteousness obtained?
How is it obtained? Well, I'm telling you this, it's
not be anything we do. Not be anything we do. Not be
any deeds of the law. That sort of thing. Verse 20 of chapter 3 says this,
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified
in God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But
all bless God. You want to know how this righteousness
is obtained? Look at verse 21 and 22. But
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. It's even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. It's unto all and
upon all them that believe. That's how we get it. preacher
you tell me all I have to do believe on Christ according to
this God and I have the very righteousness of God. Yeah, that's
what I'm telling you. That's what I'm telling you.
And I'm telling you that's the only way you live. That was Abraham declared righteous
justified and you know when we talk about justification you
can't you can't talk about justification without righteousness and you
can't talk about righteousness without justification. He that
has one has the other. Brother Paul, if you justify
it, you're righteous. Brother Todd, if you're righteous, you
justify it. Am I right? How was Abraham justified? He believed God, and it was counted
unto him for righteousness. Now, that wasn't written for
his sake alone. But for us also to whom it shall
be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord
from the dead who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. One last question about this
righteousness. Why is it necessary? Why is it
necessary? Is it simply simply to to make
us acceptable? Is it for us alone? Oh, no. No. It's been well said before that
before God could do anything for a sinner, he had to do something
for himself. He had to do something for himself.
God's holy. He can't just wink at sin. Oh,
no. Here's the key. Romans 3, verse
26. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, the
righteousness of God in Christ, that he, God, might be just. just and the justifier of him
which believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear me. All hear me. Oh, God of my righteousness. God of my righteousness. And look, David goes on and he
says, Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. enlarged me
when I was in distress. He may be talking about a lot
of things here. He may talk about his deliverance
when he was in trouble. You know, when he was out there
shepherding the sheep, taking care of his father's sheep, he
was delivered from the lion and the bear. When he was on the
battlefield facing Goliath and the Philistines, he was delivered. He was delivered. When he was
in the court of King Saul, Saul threw those javelins at him,
trying to kill him. He was delivered. Thou hast enlarged
me. But I tell you, he was enlarged
in a greater sense, in a greater sense, because he was chosen
of God to be his king over Israel. And he was taken from the shepherd,
from the sheep, and sat on the throne of Israel. And of his
seat, of His seat came the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou hast
enlarged me when I was in distress. God saved him the way He saves
every sinner. Pardoned his sin. Pardoned his
sin. Redeemed him by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ who was to come. Called him from darkness
to light, from death to life, from misery to glory. And His
request Hear me when I call, O God of
my righteousness. You've been merciful to me. You've
delivered me before. You've enlarged me. Have mercy
upon me. Be gracious. Do you have a marginal
reference there? Be gracious unto me. Be gracious unto me. According to thy sovereign will
and purpose of mercy, and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ my Savior,
continue the work that you've begun. He that hath begun a good
work in you, he'll perfect it, he'll perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. Give me mercy and grace that
I need today. Today, yesterday's grace won't
do. I'm thankful for it. And I plead
past mercies and past grace, but I've got to have grace today.
Got to have it today. I'm going to, by His grace and
to the best of my ability, I'm going to come boldly. Where?
To the throne of grace. Why? That I may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. in time of need. You've experienced anything about
that? You know anything about the God of our righteousness? All of the Lord's people do.
All of the Lord's people do. Now, the next few verses, David
speaks to men and instructs in grace. And that first point,
by the way, first point of grace, I said I was going to give you
seven. And that is, O God of my righteousness, that's the
foundation or the basis of grace. Apart from righteousness, God's
not going to be gracious to anybody. He can't. He can be just. But he can't be gracious, can
he, Tom? That's the foundation, the basis of it. The basis of
it. Now, you can read through these,
and I'm sure that as you read them, you can see that these
words spoken by David could very easily apply, and probably do
apply, to David's son and lord when he walked this earth in
the flesh. He was king, you know, but he
was rejected like David, and he was hounded like David, and
they tried to kill him like they did David. And yet he continued
to preach the gospel and continued to instruct men and women. So here's the next point. The
next point of grace that we have is confrontation with sin. I want you to know something
about the God of our righteousness. But that won't have any meaning
to you if God never shows you who you are by nature, who we
are by nature, our need. And that's because we're sinners.
And so David here confronts with sin. He says in verse two, Oh,
you sons of men, he addresses the sons of men, all of them.
Oh, you sons of men, all of you sitting here, this one, That
one, all those up there, you sons of men. All of you who have
rebelled against God, don't you know that the carnal, the natural
mind is enmity against God? We rebelled against His rule,
and David here brings three charges of sin against all the sons of
men. Firstly, oh you sons of men,
how long will you turn my glory into shame? We heard something
about that last night, didn't we? Something about glory? About
glory? You know the Lord Jesus Christ
is the brightness of God's glory. He expressed the exact image
of His person. He's the glory, the glory of
God's, of the person of Christ. The glory of God has turned to
shame when men rebel and reject the Lord Jesus Christ. When they
reject his divine sovereignty, the majesty of his person, and
they reject his righteousness, his pardon and redemption. and
seek salvation some other way. The greater glory of God is the
salvation of his people by grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. How long will you turn my glory
into shame? To seek salvation in any other
way is turning the glory of God into shame. I'm telling you,
that's a terrible sin. That's a terrible sin. I suggest to you not to worry
too much about that watermelon you stole. Worry more about turning the
glory of God into shame. Into shame. How long are you
going to do that? How long are you going to love vanity, secondly?
How long are you going to love a vain thing? I'll tell you what
a vain thing is. It's the idea that people can
overthrow God and overthrow His rule and that they can save themselves. That's a vain thing. How long
are you going to seek after leasing? The third sin, that word leasing
is lying. How long are you going to seek
after lying? Men by nature just reject the
truth of God and would rather believe a lie than the Word of
God. Satan came into the garden and
deceived the mother of us all. And we've been deceived with
that lie ever since. Our Lord said to some folks one
day, He said, I am come in my Father's name, and you receive
me not. Let another come in his own name,
him you receive. Men love a lie more than they
do the truth. How long are you going to do
those things? Beloved, instruction in grace begins, it begins with
the God of our righteousness and is followed by a confrontation
with men's sins. God's holy. Man's a sinner. God's holy. Man's a sinner. Preacher, are you sure that's
the way of grace? Yeah, that's the way of grace. I assure you
that's the way of grace. And then the third point of grace
is this, verse 3, it's instruction. It's instruction. Now you get the picture, don't
you? The man after God's own heart,
his chosen anointed king, they rebelled against him and he's
on the run. And he appeals to the God of
his righteousness. And then he confronts these people
with their sin. But he doesn't just leave them
there. He begins to instruct them. To instruct them. Look at this, verse 3, But know,
but know, you rebels, know that the Lord hath set apart him that
is godly for himself. The Lord hath set apart him that
is godly for himself. He begins to instruct, and the
very first thing he says to sinners is this. He confronts them and
instructs them with the Lord's sovereign election of a people
for himself. The Lord hath set apart him that
is godly for himself. Now, David didn't hesitate to
declare this gracious truth to those who opposed him. A lot of people get mad when they
hear about election. But, beloved, listen. Election
is the first and the greatest blessing of grace bestowed upon
men. You hear? The first and the greatest. Well, preacher, how can you say
that? Because all spiritual blessings are tied to it. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in Christ according as he hath chosen us
in him from before the foundation of the world. Oh, I thank God for His electing
grace, don't you? I thank God that He sent a man
preaching His gospel, and I was in my rebellion and pride, and confronted me with the truth
of God's electing grace. Just like God told the mother
of those twins, The children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth that was said unto her, to Rebekah. The elder shall
serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Men like to say, well, how in
the world could God hate Esau? The greater question is, how
could God love Jacob? God chose him in Christ and purposed
to love him and set his love upon him. The same way he chose him unconditionally,
sovereignly, because he would. And that's the way he chooses
all his people. There are no exceptions. Are
you a child of God? It began when he chose you to
salvation, to salvation. So he instructs, he instructs. Now the fourth point, admonition,
admonition. Some folks get, they get excited,
they get mad. It's not uncommon for a person
to get mad before they get glad when they hear the gospel. People say, oh no, you're going
to make people mad. Maybe they'll start thinking. Maybe. So David here admonishes these
people. Look at verse 4. Stand in awe, and stand not. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed, and be still. Don't go shooting off your mouth.
Now, I won't have that. Don't do that. Don't do that. When a person does these things,
it's because they've been confronted with their sin and with the Lord's
sovereignty and salvation and justification by His righteousness
alone. But David says, stand in awe
and sin not, be reverent. Be reverent. Now remember who
you're talking to and about. You're before God. You better
stop rebelling against His way and against His Word and against
His Christ and against His salvation. Stand in awe and sin not. And the next thing
you need to do is commune with your own heart. See, folks often get in trouble
and they want to run to somebody that will give them a little
relief and tell them a lie and smooth things over. Now, you
listen to me. This thing of salvation is between
the sinner and his Lord. And the only thing anybody else
can do is get in the way. You commune with your own heart
upon your bed. You take it to God. You deal
with Him. You deal with Him. This thing of salvation is a
heart issue. It's got to be settled personally
between you and your God. And you need to understand this.
You need to understand that God's electing grace is not exclusive. It doesn't shut people out of
the kingdom of God. No, it's inclusive. If God hadn't
chosen some to salvation, there wouldn't be anybody saved. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed. Take heart, beloved. Since salvation
is not conditioned upon anything to be found in you, The grace of God then doesn't
shut you out, does it? When I realized that, hope sprang that God could save me just as
easy, or perhaps a better word, just
as difficult as anybody else. Election didn't shut me out.
If God purposed to save me, If God be for me, who can be against
me? Commune with your own heart upon
your bed. Take these things to bed with
you in the darkness of the night when you're not bothered by others
and there's nothing intruding. And you settle it between you
and God. Between you and God. Stand in
awe. Don't see Him. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed. And all listen, listen, don't
miss this one. Be still. Be still. Don't work. Don't walk. Don't talk. Shut your mouth and
listen. Be still. Be still. It's like Samuel when he was
young, he was with Eli in the temple. Went to bed and he heard
somebody call him, Samuel. He got up and went to Eli and
said, Here I am. So I didn't call you. Go back
to bed. He went back and heard it again. The same thing happened.
Eli knew what was going on. The Lord's calling him. He said,
If that happens again, you say, Speak, Lord, thy servant here.
Speak, Lord, thy servant here. That's what we need to do. Just
stop talking and listen. Listen, be still and know that
I'm God. I'll be exalted among the heathen.
I'll be exalted in the earth. Be still." God appointed Moses, raised him
up to lead his people out of Egypt. And by the blood of the
Passover lamb, he brought them out. And here they are at the
Red Sea, surrounded, the sea before them. Hemmed in on both
sides and Pharaoh's army bearing down on them. And the people
were, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? Moses went to the Lord. The Lord,
you tell him now. You tell him. Stand still. Stand still and see the salvation
of God. The salvation of God. One old writer said, the only
thing man does by all his activity is to create a cloud of dust
which obscures the salvation of God. Stand still. Stand still. Isn't that good
instruction? That's the way of grace now.
That's the way of grace. Here's the fifth point. Exhortation. Verse five. Offer the sacrifices
of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. Now, there's no approaching God
without an acceptable sacrifice. Pastor Henry mentioned that last
night, Abraham and Isaac. Where's the lamb? Where's the
lamb? You can't come before God without
sacrifice. You've got to have a sacrifice. Well, Christ is
our sacrifice. He's our sacrifice. He loved
us and gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice, not
to you, but to God for a sweet-smelling savor. His obedience, the obedience
unto death, His obedience and blood constitutes all of our
righteousness and our only sacrifice that we bring before God. It's
the only one God will accept. It's the only one we plead. Nothing
in my hand I bring. Simply to Him we cling. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is our righteousness. He is our atonement. He is our
sacrifice. He is the propitiation for our
sin. And no man, our Lord said, comes
to the Father one way. By me, he said. By me. Now you come with the right sacrifice,
the sacrifice of righteousness and put your trust in the Lord. Put your trust in the Lord. I'll tell you something. All of my hope. It's tied up
in this one thing. Rather, this one person. Him. It's in Him. Put your trust in
the Lord. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. We've got to have faith in Him.
For without faith, it's impossible to please God. And faith, true, saving faith,
the faith of God's elect, the common faith, the faith that's
the gift of God, is founded on a righteous sacrifice. And Christ
is the righteousness of God. And He's our sacrifice. And I
put my trust in Him. And I take my stand beside the
Apostle Paul. And I say to you, I know whom
I have believed. And I'm persuaded that He's able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. Are
you? And He's able. He's able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make
intercession for us. Put your trust in Him. Sixth
point, quickly, application. Verse 6 and 7. There will be
many that say, who will show us any good, Lord, lift thou
up the light of thy countenance upon us. We can't look to men for mercy. They are going to have mercy
on us. We can't look to men for who's going to show us good.
Lord, you do it. Lift up the light of thy countenance, of thy countenance. thy light
of life. As you commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, command the light to shine in our hearts
to give the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of His
dear Son. Lift thou up the light of thy
countenance upon us And look at verse 7, Thou hast put gladness
in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their
wine increased. Who put what where? Huh? Thou hast put gladness where? In my heart more than all the
temporal blessings of the sons of men upon the whole earth. If He ever makes you glad, you will never be sad. He puts His gladness in our hearts. And it's a heart issue. Did you
notice that? It's a heart issue. That's what
it's saying. We go right back to the heart,
don't we? A new heart will I give you one that's capable, capable
of receiving this gladness. Here's the last one. The last point is the effect
of grace in the heart. the effect of grace in the heart. Verse eight, I will both lay
me down in peace and sleep. For thou, Lord, only makest me
dwell in safety. You reckon the Lord's people
will hold out? Reckon they'll persevere? I reckon
some are going to be snatched away and eternally lost for whom
He died. Sleep easy tonight if you are
in Him. And all who are in Him do sleep easy. He makes us dwell safely. Dwell
safely. Now I want to close by reading
a verse out of Isaiah. You don't have to turn to it
because Brother Henry Read it last night. Isaiah 32, 17. We go right back to the foundation
of grace, righteousness, and the work of righteousness. And
then we come to the end of it shall be peace. I lay me down
in peace. And the effect of righteousness
is quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in
a peaceable habitation and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting
places. He makes us to dwell in peace.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord bless his word.