Would you turn to Psalm 131? Psalm 131, Lord. He's addressing the Lord. This
is very important. He's not trying to tell us how
humble he is. He's not making an announcement
concerning his humility, he's addressing the Lord himself.
And now you can see why he speaks like this. Lord, my heart is
not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty. Neither do I exercise myself
in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have
behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his
mother. My soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord from
henceforth and forever. Let's pray. Lord, how we desire by your grace
that we could. Enter in with David. Sitting
before you. From such a sight of who you
are. That we could say, Lord, our.
Eyes are not, our heart is not haughty nor are our eyes lofty
before you. We ask that you would grant us
the spirit of this song. Lord, we thank you for who you
are. We thank you for your gospel.
We thank you that you're in control of everything. We thank you for
your son. We thank you for his sacrifice
and what it accomplished, how we thank you for the complete
salvation that's in him. Lord, meet with us, speak to
us from your word for Christ's sake. Be with all your people,
wherever they meet together, and Lord, we confess our sins.
We pray for forgiveness and cleansing. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Now, this is one of the shortest
psalms, as you can see, only three verse. It's also one of
the most poignant psalms, and this psalm has something to do
with spiritual maturity. Now, why do you say that? Because
he talks about being weaned. My soul is as a weaned child. This has something to do with
spiritual maturity, the image of the child being weaned from
his mother, becoming weaned in maturity. Now, he addresses this
Psalm, Lord, Lord. There's something so personal,
something so special. Lord, he's my Lord. Lord. He's not saying, everybody look
at how humble I am. Kind of like the man saying,
behold, I've overcome my pride. He's not doing that at all. He's
before the Lord. And before the Lord, you can't
be anything but lowly and humble in his presence. If you know the Lord, and are
in his presence, it's impossible to feel haughty and your eyes
lifted up if you're in his presence. Now, if you're not in his presence,
or if you have some false concept of him, your eyes can be lifted
up like the Pharisee in the temple. Unlike the publican who would
not so much as lift up his eyes, but smote upon his breast saying,
God, be merciful to me, the sinner. If you have any awareness of
the Lord's presence, your heart is not haughty before the Lord,
nor your eyes lofty. Now let me give you two reasons
why this is so. Number one, because of who he
is. And number two, because of who
you are. Your eyes can't be haughty. Your
heart can't be haughty in his presence because of who he is
and because of who you are. You see, he is sovereign. He has control of everything. And me and you have no control. Have you ever realized that?
No control over anything. And he is absolutely sovereign. He is infinite. I am so limited. He is independent. I want you to think about the
independence of the Lord. He has no needs outside of himself.
I love saying this. He doesn't need me and you. We
need him. But he doesn't need me and you.
He's utterly independent and we are completely dependent. We're dependent upon him for
the next breath that comes into our lungs. He is holy. I'm sinful. He's all powerful. You think of the power of the
Lord. I'm all weakness. He's all wise. I'm foolish. He's immutable. I change so easily
and so often. He's omnipresent. He's not bound
by space and time. I'm stuck right here at this
place I'm standing right now. And be arrogant in his presence,
with a haughty heart, I'm complex. And that's not by way of compliment.
There's so many parts that I have. He's simple. He's one. He's only. He's other. He's God. I'm not. How can you be haughty? before
him. Now, look what he says, Lord,
my heart is not haughty. Now, what's he talking about
when he's talking about his heart? Now, I have no doubt that the
natural heart of every man is haughty and proud and arrogant. Even an insert, somebody's, They're
insecure and they feel like failures. They're still haughty and arrogant
in their natural hearts. He's talking about the new heart.
Let me give you these scriptural descriptions of this
heart, a new heart also. I will give thee one that was
not there before he gave it. This heart is called The pure
heart, blessed are the pure in heart. Now, the only heart that
can be is the heart given in the new birth. Pure, without
sin, spotless. It's called the tender heart.
It's called the clean heart. David said, create in me a clean
heart. Oh God, mine's filthy and I can't
make a clean one. Create this heart in me. It's called a broken and a contrite
heart. It's called the upright in heart. A fixed heart. A united heart. A trembling heart. A wise heart. A sound heart. These are all scriptural. An
understanding heart. Give an understanding. A heart
of flesh as opposed to a heart of stone. A good and honest heart. Now let me tell you what this
good and honest heart is. It's honest before God concerning
how sinful I am. If it's not, if it doesn't have
that honesty, it's no good. a good and honest heart, a burning
heart, a pricked heart, singleness of heart, a true heart. This
is the heart that is not haughty before God. This heart he gives. I pray the Lord gives me that,
don't you? This heart that before him is not haughty, but is lowly
and meek before him. Lord, my heart is not haughty,
nor mine eyes lofty." Upright. Speaking of my ability,
my ability to come into God's presence. You know, the Pharisee
and the publican, there's a lot of differences between those
two fellows. I realize that, but I love the way it said of
the publican, he would not so much as lift up his eyes. Mine eyes are not lofty, not
in the Lord's presence. Now, before men, we don't have
to bow and cringe. We know the living God. We don't
have to fear man. Before him, oh, how our eyes
go down. You know, one of the scriptures
I love, as for me, I'll behold thy face in righteousness. And
now, I can't completely enter into that because I'm still aware
of sinfulness. Can you imagine what it is to
behold his face with no sense of sin or guilt, perfect righteousness? As for me, I'll behold thy face
in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake
in thy likeness. David's words in Psalm 17, 15. Lord, my heart is not haughty,
nor mine eyes lofty. Now look what he says next. Neither
do I exercise myself in great matters or things too high for
me. I believe. But what I believe, who I believe,
too high for me. God is one God in three distinct
persons. Here, O Israel, the Lord thy
God is one God. He's one God in three distinct
persons. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. I cannot understand that, but
I believe it with all my heart. I believe who he is as he's revealed
in his word. I couldn't, we wouldn't have
any of this without the word of God. God is absolutely sovereign in
control of everything. And what I do, I do because I
want to. I'm not coerced. I'm not forced. I do what I want to do. And God
is completely sovereign over that. He's even sovereign over
the thoughts that go through my mind. He has complete control. Now, do I understand that? No. Do I believe it? Altogether. Ewan comes right down to it.
Yes, we have understanding. We have understanding, but we
also understand that we know in part, and we see through a
glass darkly. Paul said that, writing under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We see it through a glass darkly.
And John said in 1 John 3, it doth not yet appear what we shall
be. John is saying, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
I have no idea what it's going to be like to be without sin
and to see him as he is. I believe it, but I can't see
it. The glories of justification,
how I stand before God Having never sinned when I know in myself
I have sinned. And yet if God says I haven't,
I didn't. Because Christ put away my sin, he made it not to
be, he made it to where I'm the very righteousness of God in
him. Now do I grasp that intellectually? Do I understand how I'm eternally
united to Christ? How I've always been in Christ?
There's never a time when I was not in Christ. Before the foundation
of the world, I was in Christ, united to him, and God knew me
as a person. Before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew thee. Now think of that. Do you understand
that? No, not remotely. Do you believe it? Yes, with
all my heart. Now, I don't try to exercise
myself. Well, let me give you an explanation. I remember one
time a seminary student said, I can explain the Trinity. And
I said, well, I didn't say it. I thought it. You idiot. Do you
really think you can explain the Trinity? It's to be believed,
to be bowed to before who he is. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It's high. I cannot attain and
do it. It's just too high for me. Do
you, do you understand that everything we believe everything with that
exception, it's too high as far as intellectually grasping and
comprehending something, but we believe we look at verse two. David says, surely. I have behaved and quieted myself
as a child that is weaned of his mother. My soul is even as
a weaned child." Now, once again, this is When I'm before the Lord,
when I'm conscious of being before the Lord, a lot of times I'm
not, you're not either. We're thinking about something else,
but when you're conscious of being in his presence before
the Lord, you keep quiet. What he has to say is infinitely
more important than what I have to say. If you're hearing the
Lord speak, what have you got to say? Through the preaching
of the word, when the Lord is giving you the grace to hear
his word, what do you got to say? Nothing. Quiet before the Lord. Be still and know that I am God. Be still. He said, I've quieted
myself before. You see, you're quiet before
God. You believe that he's the first cause of everything. Therefore, whatever it is, is
good and to be bowed to or before without murmuring and complaining. Now, when you're quiet, when
you're quiet, when you're not given what you want, when you're given what you don't
want, By his grace, before the Lord,
you say with Eli, it's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. When we're quiet before the Lord,
oh, and we're in some other consciousness, whatever it is, we're complaining
and murmuring and thinking, I wish this didn't happen and that didn't
take place. But when we're, as David is,
before the Lord, Lord, my heart is not haughty before thee. We realize that everything he
brings our way is good. That's what the scripture teach. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are thee
called according to his purpose. All things. Does that cover everything? Everything. Everything. Every second of every minute
of your day. In everything give thanks, Paul
said. Even the stuff that's hard to
thank God for. In everything, give thanks. But
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you personally.
This is God's will for you, whatever it is. Somebody once said, or
a lot of people said, I want to know what the will of God
for my life is. You're up to your neck in it. This is who
he is. And David says, my heart is quiet
before the Lord. Now the Lord's going to send
things our way. Things we don't want. I'm going to disappoint
myself. I'm going to be disappointed
in people. I'm going to get sick. Your time's coming. Your time's
coming. You're going to get physically
sick. Oh, it's going to be such a trial. You'll have emotional
trials. The Lord's going to bring trials
your way. It's coming for sure. You know what meekness is? Meekness
is an attitude before God that is quiet. Whatever he does is
right. You see, God is so glorious,
so powerful. He's too powerful for his will
to not be done all the time. And he's too wise to err. He's
too kind to be cruel, and everything he does is just right. So my soul is quiet. before the Lord, I've behaved
myself as a weaned child." Now, what that means, you know, when
a child is weaned from his mother's milk, he's weaned. I'm always
going to be in this world, but until I die, I'm going to be
dealing with things in the world. But I hope by the grace of God,
I can become that my happiness is not going
to be dependent upon circumstances. That's the only way I know how
to say that. If my happiness is based upon,
well, everything's going good now, well, that's going to leave
quick enough. My happiness is being in the
Lord. My happiness is being found in Jesus Christ so that all God
requires of me, I have. My happiness is who God is. He
controls everything. He controls everything and it's
all good. It's all right. Now that, that
is what it is to, to be a weaned of, of finding my happiness or
my affirmation or my contentment in anything in this world. The writer of the Hebrew said,
let your conversation be without covetousness. What do you covet if you have
everything? I have everything in Christ. Christ is all. There is nothing for me to covet. Oh, that we may be as David. He says, I behave myself and
quieted myself as a child. that is weaned of his mother.
My soul is as a weaned child. Now, do you see how this is speaking
of spiritual maturity? When the Lord gives spiritual
maturity, you go down. Humility is spiritual maturity. You go down and you are like
David before the Lord. Not haughty. Your heart's not
haughty. Not before the Lord. Now remember,
once again, this is before the Lord. David's not advertising
himself. Look how humble I am. This is before the Lord. But
this is the attitude of the soul before the Lord that he has saved.
My heart's not haughty. My eyes are not lofty. I'm not
exercising myself in great matters or things too high for me. Surely
I behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of
his mother. My soul is even as a weaned child."
Isn't it a blessing when the Lord gives you that time, all
your hopes in Christ. And whatever happens here, whatever. My soul is as a weaned child. Now, verse three. Let Israel, now who's Israel? Israel is all of the elect. Romans 11, 26, all Israel shall
be saved. Romans 9, they are not all Israel
who are of Israel. Just because you're a spiritual,
or I mean a national Israel, you're born Jew, that doesn't
make you a real Jew. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
truly is the King of the Jews. I'm a Jew. I'm an Israelite.
All of Israel. Israel, remember God doesn't
have two purposes, one for Israel, one for the church. That's taught
so much, it's so wrong, kind of came about with Schofield
Bible and all the dispensationalism and so on. This is going to happen
for Israel and that. There's one Israel, the Israel
of God, every believer. Let Israel hope, hope. What a glorious thing hope is.
Now, if you can see it, you don't hope for it. Paul said that in
Romans 8, 24. What a man seeth, why does he
yet hope for? If you can see something, it's not hope. Hope is what you can't see. Now
I can't see, for sure I can't see that I stand before God as
having never sinned, without guilt. Perfect in his sight. I can't see that. I can't see
it. But I believe it. Because of
the gospel. Because of what Christ achieved
for me. Let Israel hope where? In the
Lord. You see, all my salvation is
in the Lord. In him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in him. In him, you are perfect without
any want or lack of anything in him. Now, our hope, that which
we can't see, of being accepted by God, of everything working
together for our good, all this hope is in him. Let Israel hope
in the Lord. I know why Paul said, oh, that
I may win Christ and be found in him. You know, that's, I believe,
right now at any rate, I believe that's my greatest desire, to
simply be found in him. Nothing else. So all that can
be said is, I'm in him. That's the only place I have
hope. Well, that's the only place Israel liked. The true Israel
has hope. Let Israel hope in The Lord,
when? Right now. Right now, may God give me the
grace right now, from henceforth, right now, right now to look
to Christ only and have all my hope in him right now. How long? Eternally, eternally,
forever, forever. Right now, my hope is in the
Lord and that's my eternal hope. is in the Lord. And I have no
doubt that even when I'm in glory, blessed thought, when I'm in
glory, beholding his face. And I don't believe we're going
to have memories of the pain and the suffering and the sinfulness
of this earth. I don't think we're going to
remember experiences that were unpleasant. I don't think we're
going to even remember what it's like to be a sinner. Who understands that? But I will
look at the Lord and I will look at the scars on his hands and
his feet. And I will understand that the
only reason I'm in heaven is because I'm in him. Let Israel open the Lord. henceforth and forever. Amen.