Turn to Psalms chapter 4. Psalm
4. And this is a song that David
wrote that they sing in public worship. And we're just going to look
down through the verses, starting in verse 1. Well, we'll read it first. Hear
me when I call, O God of my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I
was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my
prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into
shame? How long will you love vanity and seek after leasing?
But know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call
unto him. Stand in awe and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness
and put your trust in the Lord. There'll be many that say, who
will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light
of thy countenance upon us. Thou has put gladness in my heart.
more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only
makest me dwell in safety. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask this
morning in Christ's name for your presence with us. We need
you. We need your spirit. We need
your grace and your mercy. Lord, would you give us grace
to lift up your son here this morning? In the Bible study and
in the preaching of your word today. Bless the speakers and
bless the listeners and Lord. Would you please forgive us of
our many sins and turn our eyes to your precious son in his name
we pray, amen. Verse one, hear me when I call,
O God of my righteousness. Now the Lord hears everything,
we know that, but he hears his people in favor, and when we
call, we're calling for righteousness, because we're sinners. And the
thing that stuck out to me here, David says, it's my righteousness,
and every believer We, through eternal union with Christ, walked
this earth for 33 years in perfect righteousness. And we can actually
call this The righteousness of Christ is my righteousness and
every believer's righteousness. And that's good news. So when
we all get to heaven, there's none of this reward stuff, none
of this. We all have the same history. We'll look back, Brian
Dufour, 33 years, perfect righteousness. Rich Berg, 33 years, perfect
righteousness. We're all the same in Christ. So much so that we have the same
name. In Jeremiah 23, the Lord is called the Lord our righteousness.
And in Jeremiah 33, she, the church, all believers are called
the Lord our righteousness. We've got the same name. And
that's a comfort to me to know that God looks at me and every
believer as righteous. Thou hast enlarged me when I
was in distress. Enlarge there means to open wide. And what I thought of was any
parent that has kids, how when they're sick or in trouble, you
open them arms wide and they come running to you and just
climb in and it's their safe place. And the Lord, the Lord
does that to us. He gives us a word in first Peter,
chapter five, verse seven, cast all your cares upon him for he
cares for you. The Lord is a loving father to
his children, and we are his children, and we should, I don't
want to, that's probably not the word for it, but take advantage
of it. Go to our heavenly father for help at all times in all
things. He tells us to, his arms are
wide open, we're his precious children. Father help me just
go to him for help and he will. Have mercy. Upon me and hear
my prayer and that's the prayer. Of every center. Have mercy upon me. That's what
we need and it's a short prayer. If you'll notice that's that's
just four words. The public and spoke seven words. God be merciful
to me the center and he went down to his house justified.
I think sometimes. We like to make our prayers a
little longer, throw in some religious phrases, try to impress
God with this and that. If you don't have anything to
say, don't say anything. If he hasn't put any need on your heart,
don't say anything. I'm guilty of that. I try to,
maybe before I go to bed, impress the Lord with what I've done
through the day and all this, that. Lord, I need mercy. I'm a sinner. Help me. And he
will. Verse two. Oh, you sons of men,
how long will you turn my glory into shame? Now, in Scripture,
sons of men are. The men of the flesh, natural
religion and their sons of God, children of God, believers. And
what we glory in is the cross of our Savior. Galatians 6 verse
14, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ
Jesus. And these men of the world turn
his cross into a shameful thing, waiting on us to do something
so he can apply his mercy to us. It's giving men something
to do, and it's a shame that they do that. Look at the last part of that
verse. How long will you love vanity and seek after leasing?
Vanity is useless, leasing is lying. These men stand up and
lie to people and there is no saving benefit from that. Look
in Jeremiah chapter seven. Turn to Jeremiah chapter seven.
There's gonna be a couple verses in Jeremiah that talk about these
lying prophets and that there's no profit from their words. Jeremiah 7 verse 8. Behold. Ye trust in lying words
that cannot profit. Jeremiah 23. I'm going to be
turning to some scriptures, so keep Psalm 4 marked. But Jeremiah
23 verse 32. Behold, I am against them that
prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and
cause my people to err by their lies and by their likeness. Yet
I sent them not, nor commanded them. Therefore they shall not
profit this people at all Sayeth the Lord there's no profit in
false religion and false preaching and that's why I really think
we should be Thankful every time we come here. We get to hear
the truth We get to hear the truth from Todd or Aaron or whoever
stands up behind that pulpit We're hearing the truth And that's
a and there is profit to that. There's definitely profit to
that Okay back to Psalm 4 Verse 3, but know that the Lord
has set apart him that is godly for himself. That's called sanctification,
taking something common and setting it aside for holy purposes. And God did this with his people. God the Father elected them,
chose them to be his people. God the Son redeemed them, God
the Spirit regenerates them, and we are now, look at the,
but know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly, that
word is saints. We're now saints. And what amazed
me about this was he says, for himself. He set apart a people
for himself. Because his people are his portion,
his desire. He calls them the apple of his
eye in scripture. And he loves us because Christ
died for us, gave us his righteousness, and we're perfect and beautiful.
And God's always loved us in Christ with an eternal love because
we've always been in Christ eternally. Now at the end of that verse
three, the Lord will hear when I call unto him. That's not sitting
there and saying Lord, Lord, and using his name and trying
to impress him once again with all your religious catchphrases. Psalm 116, I'll show you what
calling upon the Lord means. Psalm chapter 116, verse four. Here's calling upon the name
of the Lord. Then called I upon the name of the Lord. Oh Lord,
I beseech thee, I beg you, deliver my soul. Eight words. Lord, help me, I'm a sinner,
deliver my soul. And whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. It says that in Romans
chapter 10 verse 13. If you've called on the name
of the Lord for salvation, for mercy, you're saved. Plain and
simple. God's word says it. You're saved. Any sinner that calls on the
Lord for mercy, he saves. And that's good news. Look back
in our text. Now this next verse, I know there's
a lot more to it than I got out of it, because I just, the way
it starts, stand in awe and sin not. Well, there's two things
I just, not real good at. We're not impressed with much
stuff, so we're not standing in awe. And sin not, all we do
is sin. But this is not what this, that
word awe here means, to quiver with anger, to be so mad that
you shake. And the Apostle Paul used that
in Ephesians 4 verse 26. He quoted this verse and he says,
be ye angry and sin not. And I'm angry, I'm mad at myself. For my sin, I can't stop. I can't
stop it. And I'm mad at sin, sin, and
everyone else. I mean, our good Lord and God
has done nothing but good for us and deserves nothing but good
and thanks from us. And all we do is continually
sin. And that makes me angry. You know, like I said, there's
probably more to it than what's there, but that's what I got
out of it. I'm I'm pretty upset at myself and. Now. I'm not shaken with anger,
like it says. I mean, our flesh really. You know, tempers this feeling,
but. We should not be sinning against
our Lord for what he's done for us. And may he give us grace
to to send not. Now, commune, the last part of
that verse says, commune with your own heart upon your bed
and be still. Be still, and that word means
to be dumb, dumbstruck, astonished. So this verse starts out with
standing in awe, and it ends up with laying in your bed in
awe. And sometimes we lay there and
we're thinking, how could a holy God that can't let one sin go
unpunished Have any favor on this sinner laying here in this
bed. And he'll turn your mind and your heart to a scripture.
You wait on the Lord. It's be still. That means to
wait. Wait on him. Don't we try to force issues? We try to force feelings. We
try to force emotions. We we don't we don't have to
do that. You wait on the Lord and he'll give you a scripture
and he will calm your heart and he will he'll make you stand
in awe and lay in awe of him at times when he reveals something
from his word that you just You find it hard to believe, but
you believe it and you love it. Look in verse 5. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness. Turn over to Psalm 51 and we'll
see what that is. Psalm 51. Verse 16. For thou desires not sacrifice
else would I give it thou delight is not in burnt offering. Here's
the sacrifices that we're talking about. The sacrifices of God
or a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart
or God that will not despise. Our hearts broke our natural
heart. The one we're born with is sinful. And. If the Lord ever shows you that
you will offer the sacrifice of righteousness and turn to
his son alone for salvation. And you'll turn completely away
from yourself and turn to that righteousness of your Savior.
And that word, let's see, go back to Psalm 4. The last part of that verse,
put your trust in the Lord. That word put means to hide for
refuge. And it's not a physical act.
It's a spiritual act of the new heart that he enables us to put
our trust in the Lord our Savior. Now, if we ever do that, it's
because he has caused us to do that. I think sometimes we get
a little up on ourselves and thinking, look at me, I've figured
this out, I've done that. Anything we can do, anything
we do spiritually towards our father and our Lord, he causes
us to do it. It's causing grace. It's nothing
from you, nothing from me. We sin. He gives grace, he gives grace to hide in Christ. And
that's what this is talking about, putting your trust in Christ.
I want to add one verse. I was going to look at a couple,
but... Psalm 71. Talking about how the Lord causes
his people to trust Christ. Look at Psalm 71, verse 2. Deliver me in thy righteousness
and cause me to escape. Right there is where it is. We're
delivered in the righteousness of Christ and he causes us to
escape, to hide in Christ, to run. Everything is a causation
of God for believers. All right, verse six. There'll be many that say, who
will show us any good? And there's times when we feel
depressed, and things are not going good, and we're tired of
it, and we're wondering if anything ever good is gonna happen again.
But as a believer, we're to believe every word in this Bible. And we do believe every word
in this Bible. And his word says all things are working together
for good to them that love God. So in reality, there's really
nothing ever bad that happens to believers. I know it's bad
physically. There's so many trials and troubles
and afflictions, but they're brought on by our Lord for our
good. It's loving chastisement, and
it's all good. No matter how bad it seems, it's
all good. And we found that out in the
last part of that verse. Lord, lift thou up the light
of thy countenance upon us. And that's talking about Him
looking down in his face, shining and beaming with pride over his
children. Just like you, like when I used
to watch Alex play football or anything in sports, my eyes were
focused on one kid out amongst that chaos of confusion. And I was beaming with pride.
You know, you're just beaming with pride. And to think that
Lord God looks down and can beam with pride over people like us,
well, he does, because we look just like Christ. And he's not
looking at these fleshly sinful bodies. He's looking at the new
man that's in us. And that new man is Christ in
us. And he can beam with pride and look at his beautiful children.
And that's lifting up the face of his countenance upon us. Like
during that conference here a couple weekends ago, I believe the Lord's
face shone down upon us. It was his presence was there. And that's what this is talking
about. His spiritual presence is present. His face shined upon us during
that conference. I mean, those messages were a blessing. The
name of Christ was used so many times in every one of those sermons,
it just warmed my heart. That's what we're here for, to
hear of Him. And we did. And the Lord shined upon us. And He gave us a sense of His
presence. And you can try to find this verse if you want to.
I'm gonna have trouble. Zephaniah chapter three, I've
turned to it several times and still have trouble finding it.
I'll just quote it if you don't wanna try to find it. behind
Habakkuk, which you probably can't find either. So, Zephaniah
3, verse 17. This describes the Lord's actions, the Lord's
thoughts towards when he looks down on his people. Look at this,
Zephaniah 3, verse 17. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. That's him looking down with
the light of his countenance. He will rest in his love. He
will joy over thee with singing. The Lord God sings songs of joy
about his children. Because they're just like Christ,
they're beautiful and the work of Christ is so perfect that
the Lord God's overwhelmed. With compassion and he will start
singing. I don't know what he's singing
one of these days. I hope we get it here. But he'll start
singing with joy over his people and that's. That's kind of hard
to grasp, but it's true because his word says it right there
and I just I love it and back to Psalm 4. Verse 7, thou has put gladness
in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their
wine increased. Now gladness here means a state
of joyful exuberance, really happy. And it's talking about
farmers here. When they have a good crop, they're
happy. The weather's cooperated, they
got a booming crop. They're happy, they're going
to be able to make some money, make a living. That wouldn't
be my choice of occupation. I'm a control freak, unfortunately,
like Todd talks about. He says most control freaks are
miserable. Well, I think it's a military
thing. Ever since then, where everything
was regimented. Procedured and this and that
I'm just I'm stuck with it. So I Couldn't be a farmer like
these guys, but I don't have to be it's but here's here's
the here's the point about it Farmers are glad when the when
the crops come up believers Are way beyond glad when the Lord
shows him he's put their sin away and gave him a righteousness
and they see that the Lord is has done everything for him.
As a matter of fact, in Romans 15, verse 13, he fills us with
all joy and peace in believing. He fills us with that during
the preaching of the gospel. And a state of joyful exuberance,
gladness, usually that means you smile. And I think I need
to work on that a lot more. I think we all need to work on
that a lot more. That when I hear this good news of the gospel
and the Lord really tells me that I'm one of his, man, that's
good news. I mean, it's worth smiling over. Now, I know I'm not going to
get up and hoop and holler and try to do a bunch of stuff to
attract anything, attention to my flesh. And if you just wanna
smile in your heart, that's okay too. But I think sometimes when
the Lord has just blessed us with his presence and given us
the gospel and told us this good news, and I'm a sinner. that
I don't have any sin, that he actually came to this earth and
lived and died and saved somebody like me and the rest of us, that
makes us glad. That puts gladness in our heart
and it makes us happy. And the Lord's given us a faithful
pastor, a place to hear this gospel, I mean, we should be
thankful and glad a whole lot more than we are. A whole lot
more than we are. And may the Lord enable us to
do that. And this joy is in the Lord. It's not in circumstances. We all come here with different
emotions and problems and this and that. but when he's here
and he's given us his word, you can still join the Lord, knowing
that he sent whatever's troubling you, it's loving chastisement,
it's all good, and you can joy in the Lord. I do wanna read
one verse. I'm gonna quote these. They're
all in Psalms. Psalm 32, verse 11, be glad in
the Lord. Psalm 40, verse 16, Let all those
that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. Psalm 64, verse
10. The righteous shall be glad in
the Lord. In the Lord is our happiness.
And finally, verse eight. I will both lay me down in peace
and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. So no matter where you're at,
in your bed, traveling, in any trouble, we're safe in the hands
of the Lord. And we should be able to lie
down in peace at night because our peace has been made by our
Savior with our Almighty Holy God. We are at peace through
the blood of our Savior. And he's finished the work of
salvation. He's made every one of us faultless and beautiful
to our God. His Spirit gives us faith to
believe that. And to know that my father can
look down on us, beaming with pride because we're perfect in
Christ, that's all a safe place to be. Now, it's all founded
on his word, of course, as believers. We believe every word in this
Bible, and his word says, I will never, no, never forsake you,
for I am with thee. And right there is the key. That
is our safety. He is with us. He's in us. He's for us. He's towards us. Everything he does is for his
people and for the glory of his son. And he also says no one's
able to pluck him out of his hands. No one, no thing. Actually
in that verse, it says there's no, and then the next word man's
in italics. There's no blank that could pluck
us out of his hands. Nothing that can pluck us out
of his hands. We're safe and secure. His word says that Christ Jesus
came in this world to save sinners. His word also says you shall
call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Well, if first Timothy says he
came to save sinners, then Matthew can say you shall call his name
Jesus for he shall save sinners from their sins. Sinners. I'm
a sinner. If there's any sinners in here,
sinners in this world, his word says he saved them. We are for real actually saints
saved. Any believer, any sinner that's
turned their heart, that has turned their affection, that's
turned their trust, put their trust, been called to put their
trust in Christ is a saint and they're perfect. And that's good
news to me. And I'll tell you what, I, being
military, I told you I like the kind of the routine thing. So
here's what I'll leave you with. I kind of, I start my day and
end my day with one verse in the morning and one in the evening.
And in the morning, I like to recall this verse, Psalm 143,
verse eight. Calls me to hear thy loving kindness
in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Calls me to know the
way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee.
That starts my day, going to him to cause me to walk in his
way. And then when I lay down at night,
this verse we just read, I will both lay me down in peace and
sleep for thou, Lord, only makes me dwell in safety. And we're
safe and sound in him, brothers and sisters. We really are. We're
safe and sound in our Savior. So, thank you.