I hope that you will turn back
with me now in your Bibles to Psalm 19. This psalm of all the hundred
and fifty psalms has to be one of the favorites of many of God's
children. I know it is for me. I don't understand how anyone
can read this psalm and not be impressed with this truth that
all scripture is God breathed. That all scripture is given by
inspiration of God. How wonderful, how beautiful
is the word of God. When we look at this psalm, preachers,
I speak for myself, we usually emphasize the truth that God
has two books. God has two books. In verses
one through six, we read of the book of God's visible creation. The heavens declare the glory
of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth
speech and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech
nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line or word
is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of
the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle
for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and
rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is
from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of
it, And there's nothing hid from the heat thereof. This book,
that is, the book of God's visible creation, testifies that there
is a God, and testifies especially that He is a God of infinite
wisdom and power. We're told that there's no place
where the message of this book doesn't sound. No place upon
God's earth where this message, the message from God's visible
creation, doesn't run. Their line is gone out through
all the earth. There's no place in this world
that is not helped to some degree by the heat, the light of the
sun. If the sun were to stop shining
for one day, It would end all life upon this earth. We would
freeze to death. No vegetation could possibly
grow. Life would be ended. As I drove
here this morning, and at this time of the year, the sun is
orange-red when it first comes up. And it is beautiful. It is beautiful, isn't it? Like
a bridegroom. In the tradition of the Jewish
weddings, the bridegroom would put on his finest attire on the
day of his wedding and have his attendants with him. And he would
come out to go to the house of the woman that he had chosen
to be his bride. And so the son comes up and runs
his race every day. And in all the world, God is
testifying in his book of creation that there is a God, yes, and
that he is infinite in power and in wisdom. There's no place,
there's no tribe, there's no kindred on the face of God's
earth that is not taught by God's book of creation. In Romans chapter
1 where the apostle Paul begins that letter showing how that
all the world is guilty before God. The Jews, they divided the
world into two parts, the Jews and the Gentiles. And the Apostle
Paul begins by showing that even the Gentiles, though they did
not have God's written word, they were without excuse. And
he makes this statement in Romans chapter 1 in verse 20. He says,
for the invisible things of him, the invisible things of him,
that is of God, from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood, the invisible things of Him, that is His power,
His Godhead, that invisible, yes, but by the things which
are seen, that is by His creation, they are made known, even His
eternal power and Godhead. God's book of creation. And then the next verses, verses
7 through 11, we read of the book, God's book of written revelation. Notice beginning in verse 7.
The law, or if you have a marginal reading there, the doctrine,
the doctrine of the Lord is perfect. converting the soul, restoring
the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever, and judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the
honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant
warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. God's
written revelation. It is the message of this book,
the doctrine, the gospel of Jesus Christ that God uses in calling
and saving his people. That is, we see here in verse
7, the law of the Lord is perfect, the doctrine of the Lord is perfect,
the gospel is perfect, converting the soul. The apostle Paul said,
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it, it is the
power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believeth. The
gospel, the message, that the law, the doctrine of God is perfect,
converting the soul. God has chosen to use his written
word in calling and saving his chosen people. A person cannot
believe in him of whom he has not heard, And he cannot hear
without a preacher, and a preacher must preach. How beautiful are
the feet of them that bring glad tidings of great joy. That is
the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word, the law of God, the
doctrine of God is perfect, converting the soul. And James, the apostle
in the New Testament tells us of his, God's own will. Salvation is of the Lord. It's not according to your will.
It's not according to my will. Salvation is according to God's
will, of His own will. James tells us, of His own will
begat He us, now listen, with the word of truth, that we should
be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. Of His own will,
we are begotten again with the Word of Truth. God saves His
people, calls His people through the preaching of the Gospel,
through the message of Christ. One old Puritan, he put it like
this, the Holy Spirit rides in the chariot of the Gospel. As the Gospel is preached, not
always, not in every place, Not at every time, but many times
as the gospel is preached, God the Holy Spirit takes this word
and he plants it in the heart of his people. Scripture says
that we are begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible
with the word of God. Now this truth, or I should say
these two truths in the first 11 verses that tell us of God's
two books, and again I speak for myself, but these two truths
are so wonderful, they're so glorious, that we neglect the
last three verses of the psalm. Many times, at least, we neglect
the last three verses of this psalm. And I determined today,
with God's help, that I would not do that. I'm not going to
neglect the last three verses in this psalm. And to make sure
that I don't, I'm going to go to the very end for my beginning. The very end in verse 14. And I'm going to use the word
conversion today. The scripture there says the
doctrine of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. I'm going
to use the word conversion as it is used by many Bible teachers,
many Bible theology books. And that is to include the whole
work of salvation. And I know some make the distinction
between regeneration and conversion in the sense that regeneration
is God's work in us and conversion is our work. In other words,
it is our faith, our repentance, because the word conversion actually
means turning. Paul preached repentance toward
God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. But I'm not using
the word conversion in that limited sense this morning. But I want
you to know it. God doesn't believe for you.
God doesn't repent for you. Yes, repentance is a gift of
God. Yes, faith is a gift of God. But yet you repent. You believe the gospel. That's hard to understand. I
don't know that we can. But I know it's true. And I know
if you do not repent and believe the gospel, you will die and
spend eternity in hell. And I know this, everyone that
God regenerates does repent and believe the gospel. It's God's
work. But I'm using that term conversion
in that very broad sense to include everything in salvation. That
is, the new birth, the effectual call, regeneration, conversion,
that is repentance and faith, and eternal life that is given. And I have three points I want
to make to us today concerning those who are converted. those who are converted, those
who are saved. Number one, the converted man
has the Lord as his Redeemer and strength. I want you to notice
that in the very end of the psalm. Oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. The converted man has the Lord
as his Redeemer and His strength. Let's think about these two things.
First of all, the Lord is my Redeemer. Now the word, or the
name, or the title, Lord, each letter in capitals tells us that
this is the Hebrew name of God that we usually translate and
pronounce Jehovah, Jehovah. And it is especially the name
of God that tells us that God is self-existent. He doesn't
need anyone. He's perfect. He's complete. He's infinite in every way. And not only is He self-existent,
but He's eternal. He has no beginning. You had
a beginning. Everything we see had a beginning. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth, but God Himself has no beginning. He's eternal. And this is a name
that is usually associated with God in covenant with His people. The Lord is my Redeemer. We know that the name Jesus,
when you open your Bibles and begin to read in Matthew chapter
1 and read through those genealogies, and then you read of the birth
of our Savior, and you read that the angel told Joseph that his
name would be Jesus. And every letter, once again,
is in capitals, showing us that it is a derivative of this name
Jehovah, Jehoshua. Jehoshua the Lord is my Savior
the Lord David here in this psalm says the Lord is my Redeemer
the eternal Son of God He who is self-existent as the Father
and the Holy Spirit and eternal Only one God, yet three persons,
that the person of the eternal Son in the fullness of the time,
he joined himself to that body that was prepared him of the
Holy Spirit. We sang a hymn this morning,
Come Thou Incarnate Word. The word The eternal word, the
Son, became incarnate. He was made flesh and dwelt among
us. The word in this passage here
that is translated redeemer is that Hebrew word which is spelled
G-A-A-L. Gol or Gol, which means the next
of kin. The kinsman redeemer. In the law of God, a man might
find himself in a position where he needed to be redeemed. He
was poor. He didn't have anything. He was
in servitude to someone else. And he couldn't redeem himself.
And so God provided a kinsman redeemer. Now it wasn't just
anyone who could redeem him. It wasn't Joe Blow out here in
another tribe. No, no. To redeem this man who
was poverty stricken, in debt, couldn't redeem himself, God
allowed there could be a kinsman to redeem him. And he had to
be, there's an order of kinship. A father, of course, would be
closer than a cousin, let's say. But in the order, there had to
be a close kinsman. That's the reason the Lord Jesus,
the Lord is my Redeemer. He became flesh of our flesh
and bone of our bone, that he might be our kinsman Redeemer. And with His blood, as we sang
also, with His blood He has redeemed us. Now David, who wrote this
psalm, we refer to him as an Old Testament believer. He was an Old Testament believer
who had the promise. He had the promise of the coming
Messiah. And he, by faith, believed in
Him as His Redeemer who would come. Now the scriptures speak
of him as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And
we know that the Lord Jesus Christ redeems his covenant people,
those that God the Father chose and gave unto him in that everlasting
covenant of grace. Those of us who had sold ourselves
into poverty, into servitude, under the curse of the law, No
power, no ability, nothing with which to redeem ourselves. God
sent his own dear son to redeem us. And he redeemed us, not with
corruptible things like a near kinsman. He might redeem his
brother, his cousin, or whoever with gold or silver. But let
me tell you something. God has redeemed His people with
the precious blood of His Son. David, like Job before him, calls
Him, My Redeemer. If you look back just a few pages
into Job chapter 19, he too was an Old Testament believer,
wasn't he? In chapter 19 and verse 25, he
says, for I know. How did you know that? How did
you know that, Job? Living all these thousands of
years before Christ came and died on the cross, how did you
know that? He knew it from God's word. And you see, my friends, faith
He says, I know that my Redeemer, faith in Christ, is built upon
the Word of God. Anything else called faith is
mere presumption. You say, well, I feel. Well,
good. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe they're bad
feelings. Maybe they're good feelings.
My feelings change, don't yours? Someone said they change like
the weather. But I want to tell you something,
God's Word doesn't change. How did they know? They had God's
Word and they believed God's Word. They appropriated by faith
the Redeemer who would come, yes. And so Job even before David
said, I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth. The latter day. What did Paul
write in Hebrews chapter 1? God hath in these last days spoken
unto us in his Son. Martin Luther He made a comment one time, and
I've remembered this since I first read it. But he said, and I quote,
the life of Christianity consists in possessive pronouns. It's
one thing to say Christ is Savior. It's quite another thing to say
He is my Savior and Lord. The devil The devil can say the
first, the true Christian alone can say the second. He is my
Savior, my Lord. David said, the Lord is my Redeemer. Can you call Him your Redeemer
today? Do you trust in Him? We sang that Him, I am His and
He is mine. Isn't that what we read in the
Song of Solomon? My beloved is mine and I am his. He redeemed me. He redeemed you
if you're his. But notice secondly, David says,
the Lord is my strength. The word that is translated strength
here conveys to us through a picture the durableness and the strength,
the power of the Lord. My Lord. And it's conveyed to
us in the picture of a rock or a boulder. Several years ago,
Pat and I had the privilege of visiting in all of the New England
states. And one place that we went was
to the Pilgrim Rock. And we were, I think, a little
bit disappointed to see the Pilgrim Rock. And if I remember right,
they had it behind some rails, some bars, so you couldn't get
to it. That's not the picture. I mean,
that rock was small enough to be in kind of a little den. That's
not the picture here. Think of the rock of Gibraltar.
That rock, it juts out of the sea on the coast of Spain. How great it is. Think of how
many waves have come year after year. Storms have come. And that rock is just as stable,
just as secure, just as large, just as powerful as it ever was. The Lord is my strength. Sometimes people say, well, you
know, I'm just afraid if I were to confess the Lord is my Savior,
I couldn't hold out. You can't. You can't. Forget about that. He's got a
hold of you. My sheep are in my hand. He's
the one that holds us. Thank God. The Lord is my strength. He's the strength of my life. It's impossible without Him to
live what is called the Christian life. Never was intended that
anyone could live the Christian life without Christ. He is our
life. He is Christianity. And yes,
like David, Those who are converted are able to say, the Lord is
my strength. So much so that the Apostle Paul
wrote, and you're familiar with this verse, he said, I can do
all things. Really? Really, Paul? Are you bragging on yourself?
Do you have that kind of power? Do you have that kind of strength?
Do you have that kind of ability, Paul? That you say, I can do
all things, but he didn't put a period there, did he? I can
do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Amen. Amen. Right? The converted
man has the Lord as his Redeemer and as his strength. The converted man prays to his
heavenly father. Notice this in verses 13 and
the first part of 14. Keep back thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over
me. Then shall I be upright and I
shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words
of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in
thy sight. Prayer. to the converted man
is like breathing. He cannot live without it. Can
you live without breathing? No. Neither can the child of
God live without prayer. It's a privilege. It's a privilege. It's a responsibility. But my
friends, it is a privilege. It is a responsibility that every
converted man delights in. That is to pray. to pray, to
speak unto our Heavenly Father. When you bow your heads and pray,
when you close your eyes and pray, or if you pray without
closing your eyes, are you convinced that God hears you? Are you? Are you? He hears. He hears His people
when they cry. David said, the young ravens
shall suffer hunger, but they that cry unto the Lord, they
shall be filled. You know, I was thinking about
this this past week and about that passage where the Lord told
his disciples this. He said, if you've been evil,
Know how to give good gifts unto your children. How much more
shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them
that ask him? And I was struck by the words,
know how. Know how. If you then being evil,
know how to give good gifts. And in the context, of course,
it is giving something good to eat against something evil, something
bad to eat. But still, think about this. God is our Father. He knows how
to give good things to those who ask Him. As parents, we sometimes
struggle, and some of you are young parents, you'll find this.
Some of us older, we know it so. We sometimes struggle to
know how to give good gifts unto our children. We want to give
them good gifts. We have the good gifts to give,
and yet we know that you cannot just give a child everything
that child wants and be good for. I had a friend years ago,
a very wealthy man, and he told me this. He said, when our children
were young, we had a lot of money. We were making a lot of money.
And we just gave them everything they asked for. One of them had
three children. One of them died in prison. He
told me this. He said, I realize I didn't know
how to deal, to give to my children. But listen, God is our father. He not only gives good gifts
unto his children, but he knows He knows how to give good gifts
to his children. He knows the right way. He knows
the right time. And he knows the right amount
in which to give good to his children. And we trust him. Sometimes
we pray. Maybe he doesn't answer just
as we thought he would or we wanted him to. But remember this,
he knows how. He knows how to give good gifts
to his children, and he does. Now David, in this passage, he
prayed, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in thy sight. One thing David knew, if you
look at that request, one thing he knew, he knew that God knew
the words of his mouth, and he knew that God knew the meditation
of his heart. He doesn't ask, know the words
of my mouth. Because in Psalm 139, you remember
he says this, there's not a word in my tongue,
but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it. He knew, God knew every word
that came out of his mouth. And he knows every word that
comes out of our mouth. But his prayer is, Let the words
of my mouth be acceptable in thy sight. Someone said God gave
us two gates, the teeth and the lips. And for a word to get past
one gate, second gate, gives us time to reflect. Does this
need to be said? Will this word do any good to
anyone? Let the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart. You notice the word meditation,
and I think I've quoted this wrong many times. I believe I've
said, he said, let the words of my mouth and the meditations
of my heart. But he didn't say meditations.
He said meditation. Let the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in thy sight. Singular. Meditation, meditate
upon Christ, upon our Redeemer. When you think of Him, meditate
upon Him, His person. When Paul said, great is the
mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh. You know,
there's just a whole lot about the incarnation that we can't
explain. And yet we know God came as a
man in this world. Think about, meditate on his
person. Meditate upon his offices. He's the prophet. He's God's
prophet to you. He's our priest. He's our priest
to God. I don't want another one, do
you? I have one, thank God. I have a
great high priest who ever lives to make intercession for me.
I don't want another priest. Think about his sacrifice. His
offering, which did put away all the sins of His people. Meditate. Let the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in thy sight. Meditate on the place He's prepared
for us. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. Do you ever meditate upon heaven? You say, well, what do I think
about the golden streets? No, forget about all that. Think
about the fact it's a place where Christ is, where you'll see Him,
and not only see Him, but be like Him, a place where sin can
never come, where there'll be no more sorrow, no more crying,
no more sickness, no more death. Meditate on His second coming. He's going to come again when
people least expect it. When people say, where's the
promise of His coming? All things have continued from
the beginning, even until now. Isn't that what people say? He's
not coming. Oh yes, He is. Yes, He is. And what a day of rejoicing that
will be. And then notice David prayed
that the Lord would keep him from presumptuous sins. In other words, he prayed that
God would restrain him, restraining grace from presumptuous sins. When you think about a man of
God praying like this, the only thing that can explain it is
that yes, a child of God, a converted man has a new nature, but he
still has an old nature, an old man. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh. And David prays, keep back thy
servant from presumptuous sins. You see, a presumptuous sin is
a bold sin. It's a proudful sin. It's not
like you're overtaken in temptation and fall into sin. No, no. It's knowing. It's knowing. God says, do not do this. You doing it anyway. Presumptuous sins. And the thing
about presumptuous sins, which is borne out in this text, is
this. It opens the floodgate for other
sins. It's like lying. You know, you
tell one lie, you think you're going to get by with it? But
before you know it, you've got to tell another one to make up
for that first one. And before long, you've got to
tell a third one to cover that second one. So presumptuous sins,
it's like the camel that gets his nose under the tent, right? And before long, he's in the
tent. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous. Walk in the light. Now, here's
the last thing. I know I'm long, but forgive
me. The third thing about the converted
man is he recognizes his need for continual cleansing. Notice in verse 11, he says,
or verse 12, who can understand his errors? Who can understand
his errors? You say, well, preacher, what
does that mean? Well, let me explain it. The word that is
translated eras here is kin to that word in Leviticus which
speaks about sin through ignorance. Sin through ignorance. Matthew
Poole says, his eras are number one, sins of ignorance, and number
two, sins in general. Who can understand his eras? Who can understand how many times
we sin? How many times we sin through
ignorance? How many times we sin we're not
even aware of it? Who can understand? Is there
us? You've heard people say, well,
I tell you what, before you're forgiven, you've got to confess
each and every one of your sins. Well, let me tell you this, if
that's true, no one will ever be forgiven. You don't even know
all of your sins, and neither do I, or anyone else. And thank
God for that New Testament scripture where John tells us, if we walk
in the light as he is in the light, The blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. It cleanseth us from all
sin, day by day. You say, sins confess? Yes, sins
confess, and sins that we don't even know to confess. The blood
of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. Cleanse thou me from
secret faults. Well, I'm finished. I hope and I pray that God gives
you as much joy and much love in looking at this song as he
has me. What a blessing, right? What
a blessing to have the Word of God, the written Word. The Book
of Creation is wonderful. We look up into the stars and
the galaxy and we can see so much more today than these men
ever could see. And we are amazed at God and
that He's our Father, God that created all this. He's our father
and he loved us so much that he gave his son to redeem us. Oh my. Let's sing a hymn before
we go home.