and we spent a long time in Psalm
119, but as he went through, the Lord allowed, we understand
that the Psalm is written because it's music. It's literally praise
unto the Lord, but the problem with the translation, or I'm
saying problem, it's not a problem, but the stanzas are not the same
going from their language to ours. And the words don't rhyme
as they probably did then. So there's very few places that
you can actually just put the music, but that one, it works.
And I'm very thankful for that. We're going to be in Psalm 119.
That's why I wanted to sing that this morning. And we'll be in
33 through 40. Before we read those words that
we were just sung, I want us to turn to Hebrews chapter 12
for one verse. I could just quote it to you,
but I want you to see it. Hebrews chapter 12, in verse 2, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Now, if you look in your Bible,
that word our is in italics. Do you see that? It's in italics.
What does that mean? That means it was added by the
translators to try to help understand what was being said. But the
translators this particular time, I don't believe got it right.
I believe that that word needs to be omitted because it's not
our faith, it's His faith, isn't it? It is His faith. So let's
read it again without that. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down on
the right hand of the throne of God. Now to be the author
means that he has to be the first cause of it. He's the one, by
design, he is the one, according to his own will, according to
the determinate counsel of God, his foreknowledge, according
to his purpose, he is the author of faith. He is the author of
salvation. And he is the finisher. Finisher
means the doer of it, doesn't it? What did he say on the cross,
the last words that were spoken by him, before he gave up the
ghost? Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, and with
a loud shout, The veil in the temple was written twain from
the top to bottom, wasn't it, when he gave up the ghost? But
he said, it is finished. It is finished. The separation
that we had to approach the Lord is no longer there. It is finished.
He is the author and the finisher of faith. Now, you're still in Psalm 119.
Let's look here. This is what I've titled this
message, is the author and the finisher. That's why I wanted
us to turn there. Verse 33, Psalm 119, teach me, O Lord, the way
of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me
understanding, and I shall keep thy law. Yea, I shall observe
it with my whole heart. Make me to go in the path of
thy commandments, for therein do I delight. Incline my heart
unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness. Turn away mine
eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way. Establish
thy word unto thy servant who is devoted to thy fear. Turn
away my reproach, which I fear, for thy judgments are good. Behold,
I have longed after thy precepts. Quicken me in thy righteousness. Now there is a pattern of this
plea unto the Lord in this chapter, in these particular verses. It
is, teach me and I shall. Give me understanding, and I
shall. Make me to go, for I delight. Incline my heart. Turn away mine
eyes. Establish thy word. Quicken me
in thy way. Turn away my reproach. Quicken
me in thy righteousness. There isn't a single part of
that that states anything that they can do. They didn't state,
I'm going to do this, and so the Lord will do this, is it?
No, it's a plea, isn't it? It's a plea, Lord, if you don't
quicken me, we're gonna be dead. Quicken means to make alive.
Lord, if you don't call, we can't hear. Lord, if you don't give
ears, we can't hear. So this is what's being said
to us here is teach me, give me, make me. Is this not our
plea every time we come into this place? Lord, teach us thy
ways. Lord, give us understanding.
Lord, cause us to see you. It is the believer's prayer is
what it is. It's the believer's plea. And
it is what we pray every day unto the Lord. As often as He
reminds us, as often as He allows us to see our sin, we come unto
Him saying, Lord, cause me. Lord, make me. Lord, I've been
made to know that it's your salvation. It's not my salvation. And that
if I'm going to have any joy in it, you're going to have to
be the doer of it. That's what He's telling us here. The first
thing He requests is teach me, O Lord. To ask the Lord to teach
you means that you're confessing and I'm confessing our ignorance.
We are unlearned when it comes to the things of God by birth
because he's other. That's what holy means is he's
other than we are. He is high, we are not. He is
perfect, we're imperfect. So literally the opposite of
God. He is other than us in every way. He's never had a new thought. He is, he abides, he reigneth
forever and ever. And we can't understand the eternity,
but that is his inhabited place. That's where he inhabits. the
earth and the heavens. He's everywhere all the time.
He knows everything all the time. I don't understand that, but
we believe it. So we come to him saying, Lord, teach me thy
precepts. Teach me thy ways. I am ignorant. I am unlearned. This is the confession.
In order to request to be taught, we have to say we're ignorant.
First, we're unlearned. We don't know. We're dead in trespasses
and in sin. This is the confession. What
is he asking to be taught? He's asking for the way. Teach
us your way. Teach us your statutes. Christ
Himself is the way, isn't He? What is He saying? Give us Christ.
Give me Christ. Teach me Christ. That's what
I must know about. Tell me more about Him. Tell
me about His goodness, because I have no goodness. Teach me
about Him. Teach me what He declared. Teach
me His truth. Rob was praying and he said,
and I think I mentioned this earlier too, that we come unto
the Lord. They that worship must worship
in spirit and in truth. Well, that truth is the Lord
Jesus Christ, and everything that we say is honoring unto
Him, and He sends His Spirit, and He blesses only that, only
the declaration of Christ as all in salvation, only the declaration
of His gospel. This is what He blesses, and
this is how we worship in spirit and truth. We declare what He
has declared. Why? Well, because in verse 34,
He says, give me understanding. The Lord's caused us to understand
a few things, but it's not a one-time understanding, is it? You didn't
come to a knowledge of salvation on your own merits or your own
choice or your own determination. The Lord came by your path and
he caused you to hear the gospel. That's how salvation is done.
He does it, he's the doer of it. And this understanding is
a constant understanding. It's a continual putting my hand
over my mouth saying, Lord, I spoke and I shouldn't have spoke. Lord,
I've done something, I shouldn't have done it. Lord, save me.
This poor man cried, we heard the first hour. That's exactly
the thing over and over again, isn't it? Lord, I need understanding
again. Lord, I need your truth again. I need to be saved again.
Lord, it's me again, standing in the need of your grace and
your mercy. Do you love as you think of your children and grandchildren,
how many times they probably came to you and sometimes they
can pull at you and you can become annoyed and I've become annoyed
with my kids as well. But our heavenly father does not become
annoyed at his children coming to him, begging for mercy, begging
for Christ, begging for grace. Isn't that glorious? He doesn't
get tired of us. I love that. He never gets tired of us coming
to Him saying, Lord, it's me again. I need to be saved again. I need to be called again. I need to be made to see that
my sins are put away. See, it doesn't do me any good
to see that your sins are put away. I need to know my sins
are put away. Is that not what we say? It's a personal desire
unto the Lord. And we rejoice in seeing our
brethren rejoice. But when we come into the Lord's
presence, we're coming, Lord, save me. Save us and save our
children, sure. We definitely pray for our children
and we would desire to see them saved. But when you come unto
the Lord, you are in fear of death, fear of damnation, and
you are begging for mercy for yourself. You're coming to Him
saying, this poor man cried, this one right here. Lord, save
me. I am the man. I am the one that's the worst.
I'm the chief of sinner. I need salvation. He will never
turn away a mercy beggar. So what is he praying for here?
Give me understanding. And I shall keep thy law, I shall
observe it with my whole heart. What is understanding? Is this
not wisdom? Well, what is wisdom? Is that not Christ? Christ has
been made unto us wisdom, has he not? Scripture tells us clearly.
What is he saying? Lord, give me Christ. This is
what we see here in this chapter. Lord, again, all over again,
and we see it over and over throughout the scripture, but that's the
picture here. Lord, give me understanding. Lord, give me Christ. Give me
Him who is wisdom. And then, once I have this understanding
of who He is, and what He has done, and I see what I am, and
what I have done, then I will keep Your law. Why is that? because
we don't keep it ourself, do we? We keep it in the Lord Jesus
Christ. See, it's what He did in keeping
the law. That's what's being said here. Lord, if You give
me understanding that I am the sinner and You are the Savior,
I will see that I have kept Your law perfectly in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Isn't that glorious? That's what
He's telling us here. I've kept the law of the Lord,
looking unto Jesus. Looking unto Jesus, as we just
read, the author and finisher of faith. That is exactly the
understanding that He gives, is this looking unto Him. He
says, I'll observe this with my whole heart. Now, men in religion
talk about the heart of man, how that they're gonna give their
heart to Jesus and they're gonna do this with their heart. Our
hearts are deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. The Lord
doesn't want your heart. He doesn't want my heart. We
need him to take out the heart of stone that we have and put
in a heart of flesh. We need a new heart, don't we?
That's what he's saying here. Lord, if you give me the heart
of Christ, I will keep your precepts and your law because it's in
him. We live, we move, and we have our being. Do we see that?
This is the rejoicing. This is the begging and the rejoicing
that we have that the Lord puts in our heart. He gives us a new
heart, the heart of the Lord. Psalm 119.11, we're not gonna
turn there, but it's just a few pages back. It says, you can
probably see it, but it tells us, thy word have I hid in my
heart that I might not sin against thee. What does that mean? What
is the word? In the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. Turn with
me there to John chapter 1. What he's saying, Thou Word have
I hid in my heart that I might not sin against God. Only the
Word of God is what keeps us from being seen as the sinner. Look in verse 1 of John chapter
1. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by him.
And when he says all things were made by him, that's what that
exactly means, isn't it? All things. So that means he
owns everything, doesn't he? I want to just stop for a second
and mention that our God owns everything. The inhabitants of
the earth, the fullness thereof, they're his, he owns them. All
things were made by him, and without him was not anything
made that was made, and him was life. and the life was the light
of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not." We see that the Word of God is a person. In false religion, we would spend
a lot of time memorizing scripture. Anybody relate to that? Anybody
ever do that before? You just had memory verses. I
don't know how many memory verses. It's a good thing now because
I'm able to remember some of the verses I learned as a kid.
It's fantastic. I'm very thankful for that now. But at the time,
it was a righteousness thing. Do you understand what I'm saying?
It was a, I know this and you don't know this. See, I've hid
his word in my heart. That's the attitude that men
have in religion. That's what I had as an attitude. But when
we see Christ is the word of God, we realize we can't hide
him in our heart. He gives us a new heart that
looks unto him. He is our life. He is our heart. That's what
happens. And so we see that it's not memorization.
The word of God is a person. The word of God is a person.
It's the glorious person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in verse
six. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness
of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not
that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That light,
that was the true light, which lighteneth every man that cometh
into the world. He was in the world. Think about this verse. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, and the world knew him not. Does that
amaze you? That amazes me. was speaking. The Lord Jesus Christ is God.
He was speaking to these Pharisees, to these people, and they didn't
realize they were talking to God. What does that mean? That
means He reveals Himself to whomsoever He will. It's His choice. It's His right. Aren't you glad
He does reveal Himself to His people? He chose to do that.
I rejoice in that. If he hadn't chose to be the
first, if he hadn't chose to be the author, we would have
no hope. But yet he did. And he finished it. Verse 12
says, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his
name. Now, men would say in religion,
so all we need to do is receive him and believe on his name.
But you have to read verse 13 also to understand what he's
saying. which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but whose will? God's will. God's will is the one that births
His people into the Lord Jesus Christ. He did it all by Himself.
He put away our sin all by Himself, making us a new creature in Christ.
Verse 14, the word, Jesus Christ was made flesh and dwelt among
us. We beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Go back to Psalm 119 with me. So we see that the Word of God,
the Word of God, Jesus Christ is the Word of God. We see that
He was made flesh. God became a man. And I could
just say that over and over again because we can't comprehend that.
It's just not possible. My brain, my pea brain cannot
comprehend that God became a man. But I believe it because the
Scripture says it. He was born of a virgin. I don't understand
that, but I believe it because God said it. We find ourselves
believing in that which we do not understand. But understanding
is not believing. Believing is through faith. And
it is a gift, isn't it? It's the gift of the Lord. We
see that the word of God kept the commandments of his father.
He secured salvation for his people. So when he says in verse
34, give me, give me understanding. and I shall keep thy law. What
is he saying? I can't keep your law, and I understand that, but
there's one that did. I must be found in him, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but having his righteousness,
being robed in his righteousness, being washed in his blood. That's
my hope. That's my plea. Give me understanding
of this. Show me that my sin has been
put away, that I have kept your law in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is what this psalm is telling us. Verse 35 says, make me to go
in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight. Make
me to go. Is that how you approach the
Lord? It better be. That better be how I approach
him too. That's the only way he can be approached. By us saying,
if salvation's going to happen, Lord, you're the one that has
to be the author and the finisher of it. You're the one that has
to make me. What did Ezekiel and the Lord talk about? The
dry bones, you remember? Lord said, Ezekiel, can these bones
live? Lord, thou knowest, if these bones are going to live,
you're the one that's going to have to do it. I can't make these
bones live. I can't do anything. And he also
talked in Ezekiel about the, you remember, he said, I saw
you whenever you were you were dead, polluted in your own blood.
And I said, until you live and I spread my skirt over you and
I made you mine, that salvation, that's what he does. This is
the path that he's talking about. This is the commandment that
he's saying. Everything that proceeded out of His mouth is
what we believe. His commandments. We believe
His commandments. And we have kept the Lord's law
perfectly in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ by substitution.
We don't have our own righteousness anymore. We have His. Aren't
you glad whenever you can briefly for a moment, briefly for a moment,
it is brief. We come to this place for this
one reason, that is to see His face. Aren't you glad for a brief
moment of rest? where he causes you to be found
in Christ, just for that moment. And this is the only place it'll
happen. Under the sound of the preaching of the gospel, he causes
us to see and believe for that brief moment. Now, as soon as
we leave here, it may be a fleeting, something would happen that would
cause us to be distracted from looking unto him again. But aren't
you thankful for those sweet moments where he embraces, embraces
us? This is what he's begging for.
make me to go in the paths of thy commandments, for I delight
in those. I delight in every word that he's ever spoken. That's
what this man is saying. Everything that's ever proceeded
out of his mouth, all the truth that was ever spoken is all my
hope because Christ Jesus is the truth. Every word that proceeded
out of him was righteousness because he is the word of God.
This is our hope. This is what's being asked for
here. It tells us in verse 36, incline my heart unto thy testimonies,
unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness. What is testimonies? Is it not a confession? Testimony
is a confession, isn't it? In a court of laws, they give
a confession or give a testimony. It's to give a confession. So
we see that our confession must be the same as his confession.
This is what he's saying here. He's telling us, incline my heart
unto thy testimonies. Make me speak. What you say. Make me speak truth. Incline. Cause me. Make me to do this. Because He is the author and
finisher of our faith. He says, He that overcometh,
the same shall be clothed with white raiment, and I will blot
out His name out of the book of life, and I will confess Him.
See, this is what Christ confessed. I will confess Him that overcometh
before my Father and before His angels. What does He mean, overcometh?
He inclined your heart. So you overcame. What does the
scripture tell us about those that overcome? It's not what
we do. How do they overcome? By the blood of the Lamb. That's
how we overcome. Being washed in the blood of
the Lamb. It's nothing that we do. It's Him that overcame. And because we are washed, we
overcome as well. This is the perseverance of the
Lord's people to the very end. This is Him keeping His people
all the way to the end. Who is He that overcometh the
world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.
He that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. So what is
our confession? What is our confession? Christ
is all. Christ is all to the glory of
God the Father. Every knee is going to bow and every tongue
is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Whether it's
in this life or it's in the next life. And if He's given you the
faith to confess that now, you're His. He's bought you. The Lord
doesn't give partial faith to somebody and say, okay, now you
have an opportunity to make a decision. The Lord gives the faith of Christ
to those who are put in Christ before the foundation of the
world. That's my hope. Because if it's a decision I
make, then it's not me saying, Lord, make me, Lord, cause me.
It's saying, I will. I will let Jesus in my heart.
I will make a decision for God. I will do my part and let God
do the rest. I'll take the first step. This
is not what's being prayed right here. This is, Lord, cause me. Lord, make me to know. Lord,
give me understanding of you. Open my blinded eyes. Give me
a voice to speak praises unto you. Cause me to be alive. This
is what's being spoken here. Continues speaking and he says
in verse 37 turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity. What does
that mean? The scripture says that we are
all together vanity doesn't it? All men everywhere everything
we produce is just vanity and vexation of spirit. That's what
we find out in Ecclesiastes, isn't it? That's what song it.
Why is this man that ever lived beside the Lord? He said it's just vanity
all of it You remember Solomon, he was the richest man in the
world. He was the wisest man in the world. He prayed and the
Lord said unto him, Solomon, what would you have for me? Let
your petition be made known. Solomon didn't pray for riches.
Solomon didn't pray for He prayed for wisdom, didn't he? He prayed
for understanding, exactly what's being prayed for. Who is wisdom?
Who is understanding? He's begging for the Lord, Jesus
Christ. That's who he's asking for. And what does it say? Because
you prayed for this. I'm also gonna give you riches.
I'm gonna give you wisdom. I'm gonna give you Christ, but
I'm gonna let you know that your righteousness is found in him
as well. I'm gonna show you that. I'm gonna give you all the riches
of heaven and earth because you're mine. I bought you by my own
blood and I've given you an inheritance. The Lord Jesus Christ, we're
heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Do we see
that? So Solomon is our example also of crying out unto the Lord
saying, give me wisdom. But what happened to Solomon?
Solomon had all this wisdom and yet he got intermingled with
all this false worship. And yet the Lord says that Solomon
was his king. That Solomon had, he was the
Lord's king. He was bought, the Lord kept
him. That's our hope. Lord, give us understanding because
we're fools. We don't know anything. We come
confessing, we know nothing save Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Turn away my eyes from beholding
vanity. Every morning when we wake up, what do we see in the
mirror? It's vanity, isn't it? And how
often do we think of ourself rather than thinking of others?
How often do we think of ourselves? All the time, don't we? We're
always thinking of ourselves. Now, I so appreciate my wife
because she looks after the children and she looks after me, and I
can see her thinking of others a lot more than I think of others. But think about looking at yourself
as vanity. Think about, what is he saying
here? As you look at yourself, he's not just talking about looking
in a mirror, is he? He's talking about being concerned
with the things of this world more than having a desire than
looking unto Christ. He said, Lord, you're the one
that's going to have to turn away mine eyes from beholding
vanity. You're the one that's going to have to put a new heart
in me because my heart is drawn to sin. I'm a sinner by nature.
I'm a sinner by practice. I'm a sinner by pleasure. I will
be, if you leave me to myself, I will wallow in it. or turn
away mine eyes from beholding myself. Take my focus off of
me. Cause me not to see my sin, but
cause me to see that my sin were put away. Turn away mine eyes
from vanity. Let me see Jesus Christ. That's
what he's saying. Turn my eyes away from me and
cause me to look to you. Cause me to see and quicken me
in thy way. Make me alive. Make me alive
in Christ. Our life is hid in Christ. That's what the scripture tells
us. Quicken thou me in thy way. He didn't say, Lord, give me
an opportunity to do something for you. He didn't say, he said,
thy way. See, that's the confession of
the believer is we want the Lord's way. And who is the Lord's way?
The Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I am the way. He's not
a way. And he didn't make a way of salvation. He didn't make a plan of salvation.
He is the way. He is salvation. He offered himself
up unto his father, and his father was well pleased with him. And
all those for whom he lived and died and was resurrected, they
are in him. Their sin has been put away.
They've been presented perfectly righteous unto his father. Quicken me in thy way. Don't
make me alive to myself. Don't lead me to myself. Quicken
me in your way. That's what he's saying. Only those Only those who worry,
only those who worry about seeing vanity, only those who worry
and cry out, oh, wretched man that I am. Those are the only
ones that the Lord has mercy upon. The Lord came to save dead
dog sinners. Does that comfort you? That comforts
me because I'm a dead dog sinner. I have no righteousness in myself.
You have no righteousness in yourself. It is Christ alone,
Christ alone. He saved His people from their
sin. Now in verse 38, He says, Establish
thy word unto thy servant who is devoted to thy fear. Establish
thy word. What is the request that He's
asking for? We already found out who the Word is, have we
not? Is He not asking, Lord, reveal Christ to me? Lord, reveal
Your Son one more time. Reveal the Lord Jesus Christ. Make me to see Him. Turn me and
I shall be turned. Wash me and I shall be clean. Only Christ can do this. He was
the one that was completely devoted to the fear of God. The worship
of the Lord. Christ is the only one that worshiped
the Lord perfectly. He did it on the cross of Calvary,
didn't he, by offering himself up. He worshiped God perfectly. So what is he saying here? I'm
devoted to your worship. I'm devoted to your fear. I'm
devoted to the fact that if this gospel that we believe, if it
doesn't save us, we have no hope. We have no hope. We're devoted
to this truth, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Cause me to hope
in this. He alone, He alone can do this. He alone is the one that establishes
His word unto His people, to His servants. Now, I've mentioned
to us a couple of times that there's three different kinds
of servants. You have a servant that lives out of fear, which
would be a slave, would be a slave. You have a hireling, one that's
paid to serve. Then you have a servant that
serves as a son, one that serves out of love. And this is what
we're talking about here. The Lord's given you a love as
His people. The Lord gives His people a love
for His gospel and for Him. We serve with gladness, don't
we? We serve unto the Lord. Every time we have an opportunity,
I wrote on the cleanup schedule, we're doing this unto the Lord.
Every time we push a broom, we're doing it unto Him. We're not,
we're doing it for each other, certainly, but we're doing it
unto Him. Why? Because He's given us a love for one another and
a love for His gospel. That's what he's saying when
he says, I'm your servant. Establish thy word unto thy servant
who is devoted to thy fear. Turn away my reproach, which
I fear, for thy judgments are good. Now a reproach is his shamefulness. Reproach is his sin. His reproach
is what separated him from the Lord. I'm afraid of this. I'm afraid. My shame is before
me, my sin. I see my sin before me. He's
saying, turn it away from me. And the only way he can turn
it away is if he bore it in his own body. That's the only way
that he can put it away is if he bore it in his own body. This
is how he turns it. And he says, thy judgments are
good. What is his confession here?
He's saying, if you don't put away my sin, your judgment's
good, and your judgment is true, and you are just and right in
sending me to hell. You must. Turn away my reproach. You must have put away my sin,
or I have no hope in salvation. Your judgments are good. You're
right. I'm wrong. Everything about salvation is
us siding with God against ourself. It's literally pointing at yourself
and saying, I'm guilty and you're right. And men will not do that
by nature. And the Lord has to give faith,
repentance and faith in order for us to do that. And he gets
all the glory. Isaiah 64 tells us, but we are
all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy
rags. We do fade as a leaf, and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. We are made to
know that if the Lord did not finish the task, it will not
get done. If the Lord didn't do everything, if he left one
thing undone for me to do, salvation was not accomplished. Salvation
was accomplished, wasn't it? Salvation, our sin, was put away
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he by himself, by
his own blood, hath purged our sin, he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. Our sin's been put away. Our
sin's been put away. We no longer, even though we
want this reproach to be turned, our shamefulness. He was the
man that was acquainted with grief. He was the one that bore
our shame in his own body. He's put it away. That's the
declaration here. This is what this man's wanting to be reminded
of. Show me that my sin has been put away. In salvation, no attribute of God
can be compromised. Not one attribute. Understand
something that if God lets you do something, or I'm sorry, if
you let God do something, you're God. It's that simple. If you
let God do something, you're God. And you've been made to
know that, haven't you? This man right here is not saying,
Lord, I'm going to allow you to do this for me. This is a
beggar. This is a mercy-begging sinner that's coming to Christ
saying, Lord, teach me. Lord, cause me. Lord, make me.
Lord, quicken me. I'm dead. Teach me. I'm ignorant. This is what he's saying. Not
one attribute of God can be compromised. He's sovereign in salvation in
every way. His love cannot overpass his
judgment and his justice. He can't give love forth until
justice and judgment have been satisfied because death is the
wages of sin. In Christ Jesus, no attribute
of God whatsoever was compromised. He successfully redeemed his
people by what? Being just, and the justifier. We heard that last week. He's
just and the justifier. If you have been made to know
that God is sovereign, you've also been made to know that He
is not a respecter of person. There's twofold to that. Number
one, He doesn't look at you and save you based upon you. He saves
you based upon His choice in Christ. That's good news to me.
That's good news to you, too, if the Lord's made you a sinner.
But the thing is, we must understand Him not being a respecter of
person, when He saw sin upon His darling Son, whom He loves,
He executed Him. He put Him to death. He made
His soul an offering for sin, and it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. If He didn't respect His Son, if He didn't take and allow
His Son If he executed his darling son, do you think he's going
to acquit you and I of our sin? Do you think we're going to be
standing innocent before him because of what we do? One sin
separates us from him. He had to do it all. And he did.
He's the author and finisher. He finished it. He put away our
sin, the death that you and I deserved. Christ Jesus died that horrible
death on the cross of Calvary. And he put away our sin. He spared
not his own son. He became sin for His people,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now in verse 40, we have one
hope. We have one hope. I have longed after Thy precepts,
Thy words. I have longed after Christ. Quicken
me in Thy righteousness. This is our one hope that we
have. The righteousness of Christ. Is righteousness an attribute?
or a characteristic. I've heard men speak on righteous
living. I've heard men speak on godly
living. And what they're saying is, is
taste not, touch not, handle not. That's what they're implying.
They don't do this. And so God sees them as having a righteous
life. That's not true. That's not true. The Pharisees, what did Paul
say? He was the Pharisee of Pharisees. He had dotted every I, crossed
every T as far as the Lord's law was concerned, but he said
when the law came, sin revived and I died. He said everything
that I've ever learned, everything that I've ever known up until
this point, the righteousness that I thought that I had, I
count it all but dung that I may win Christ. This is what's being
declared here. Lord, you're going to have to
quicken me in your righteousness, not my righteousness, not unto
us, O Lord, but unto you all glory, unto you all praise, unto
you all honor. Righteousness is not an attribute
or a characteristic that can be earned or exhibited, but by
one person, and that is Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness.
You and I can't exhibit righteousness. We don't have it in us. We're
nothing but false and full of sin. As we sung a little bit
ago, thou art full of truth and grace. The righteousness that
we have is not our own. It is His righteousness. Quicken
me in thy righteousness. Proverbs 21, 21 says, He that
followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness,
and honor. So all I need to do to find life,
righteousness, and honor is to follow after righteousness. That's
absolutely right, 100%. Righteousness is a person. Do we see that? Righteousness
is a person. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. God hath made unto Him
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption to His people.
Righteousness is a person, and those who follow after Him have
been given the faith to look to Him, His faith. We've been made alive in Christ.
Turn with me in closing, if you will, to Romans chapter 3. Let's look at verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his side, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all. and upon all them that believe.
For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Quicken me in Thy righteousness. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. No one is justified by the deeds of the
law. He just told us that. But Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness' sake. Quicken me in Thy righteousness,
Lord. That's what this psalm is all
about. Lord, I can't do anything. Cause me, teach me, quicken me. It's a confession of us, what
we are, and what the Lord is. It's worship. That's what He's
doing, is worshiping the Lord. It's our only hope, is that He
would quicken us in His righteousness. He is the author, and He is the
finisher of our faith. He maketh me collide on green
pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restores.
We heard that Wednesday night, didn't we? The Lord's the one
that does it all. He leads me in the paths of righteousness. He's the one that leads me there.
I can't find it. Leads me in the paths of righteousness. Why?
For his name's sake. At the end of that, he says,
surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. What
does he mean by that? Being in Christ means that you
have His righteousness and you will be dwelling in Him for eternity. Father, we thank you that you
are the author and the finisher, and that you saved your people.
Cause us to look unto Him and not unto ourselves, and forgive
us for our unbelief. In Christ's name, amen.