The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - The Blessings of Obedience (Part 3) ｜ Psalm 19

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, real quick, before we get started, I have a small request.

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00:00:18.020 We're continuing in the Psalter, our sermon series through the Psalms.

00:00:23.000 We've preached at this point through Psalm chapter 1,

00:00:26.280 Psalm chapter 2, Psalm chapter 8, Psalm chapter 16.

00:00:30.000 and now we've spent the last couple weeks in psalm chapter 19 this is our our third week in

00:00:35.960 psalm chapter 19 we spent one week one lord's day on psalm chapter 19 verses 1 through 6 where we

00:00:42.120 saw god revealing his glory as judgment to the wicked for those who are not in christ and as

00:00:49.100 joy to the righteous for those who've been saved by grace through faith in christ and god revealing

00:00:54.840 this glory perceived as judgment by the wicked and joy by the righteous and the avenue the agency

00:01:02.320 the means by which god reveals his glory in psalm 19 verses 1 through 6 is natural revelation general

00:01:09.440 revelation by what he has made and more particularly what david emphasizes in god's earthly creation

00:01:16.100 his physical creation that reveals his glory is the sky david is speaking of the heavens but he

00:01:22.100 is speaking of the physical heavens not spiritual but physical heavens he's speaking of the sky and

00:01:27.540 all that is above all that can be seen in the sky above the sun the moon the stars the clouds

00:01:33.940 the rain the lightning the thunder all of these things david says in psalm 19 1 through 6 that

00:01:41.060 god speaks he is constantly speaking and he's not just he's not just speaking but he's constantly

00:01:47.200 speaking and not just to one group of people in one place but God is speaking to all men both

00:01:53.160 believer and unbeliever alike in natural revelation he's speaking to all people in all places at all

00:01:59.900 times God is speaking God is preaching we could even say through what he has made by natural or

00:02:07.000 general revelation namely more specifically the sky but the problem is as we see in Romans chapter

00:02:13.300 one, natural revelation is not sufficient. It is preaching. It is God speaking as it were. It's

00:02:19.920 God's communication, not just to his people, but all people, but it is not sufficient for salvation.

00:02:27.740 Natural revelation, the revelation of God's glory through what he has made is only sufficient to

00:02:34.100 condemn, not to redeem, not to save. Romans chapter one says this, Paul says that what can be known

00:02:41.160 about God is clearly seen, it's clearly perceived, not just displayed by God, not just shown or

00:02:47.960 revealed, but it's interpreted, it's received, it's perceived by man, not just Christian men,

00:02:53.980 but believers and unbelievers alike. But Paul highlights two specific characteristics or

00:03:01.880 qualities of God. So it's not exhaustive. He doesn't say all that can be known about God is

00:03:07.060 seen in natural revelation but he highlights god's eternal power and divine nature what what

00:03:13.260 natural revelation what god has made what it communicates about god this is god truly speaking

00:03:19.140 and not just to his people but all people in all times in all places but but the question is what

00:03:25.280 is god saying about himself and and the reality is god is saying something but it's limited

00:03:30.720 What God is saying is, I exist.

00:03:33.080 I am creator.

00:03:34.100 I am God.

00:03:35.080 I am forever to be blessed.

00:03:37.320 I'm worthy of your worship and your adoration.

00:03:39.800 I'm the only true God worthy of praise.

00:03:42.660 I'm holy.

00:03:43.520 I'm divine.

00:03:44.360 I am eternally powerful.

00:03:47.120 But what is not being said through natural revelation by the skies and the sun and the moon and the stars

00:03:51.940 is that I have a son named Jesus Christ who came and lived a perfect life

00:03:55.780 and died as a substitute for your sin

00:03:58.120 and rose bodily on the third day

00:04:00.180 and has ascended to my right hand.

00:04:02.240 See, for salvation, you must hear,

00:04:06.260 not just see, not just God speaking

00:04:08.460 through what is seen, natural revelation,

00:04:11.000 but God speaking of the gospel

00:04:13.320 by what is heard, namely special revelation.

00:04:18.020 So we have natural revelation that can be seen,

00:04:20.480 that communicates one thing about God,

00:04:22.120 Namely, his existence, his power, his worth, his divinity.

00:04:28.220 And all this is sufficient really to only do one thing, to strip all men of any excuse.

00:04:34.140 You, O man, therefore, are without excuse, is what Romans 1 says.

00:04:38.580 So God speaks through natural revelation in a way that we can see.

00:04:43.500 and that particular sermon if you will the sermon that god speaks by sight by what he has made in

00:04:50.720 natural revelation is a sermon of condemnation it's a sermon of judgment and it and it strips

00:04:56.920 all people of any excuse so that no one can stand before god on that final day and claim to be

00:05:01.860 innocent by virtue of ignorance because no one is ignorant every man knows that there is a god in

00:05:09.220 heaven and that he is worthy of our worship and we have all failed to do so so so that's natural

00:05:15.520 revelation that's psalm 19 verses 1 through 6 and we use a lot of romans 1 in order to

00:05:20.600 exegete that that scripture right we want charles spurgeon no martin luther i believe he said that

00:05:26.420 the best interpreting tool of scripture is you guys probably know it scripture that's right best

00:05:33.560 way to interpret scripture is scripture so psalm 19 1 through 6 natural revelation the whole the

00:05:38.880 whole portion is about how God speaks about himself by what he has made well the best way

00:05:44.520 to understand that is to go to another place that talks about God speaking by what he has made in

00:05:49.300 more depth namely Romans 1 so that's what we did now what we're doing and finishing Psalm 19 three

00:05:54.680 weeks right first week first six verses God speaking through natural revelation revealing

00:05:59.280 his glory as joy to the righteous judgment to the wicked through natural revelation what we can see

00:06:05.760 what god has made now what we're doing in psalm 19 7 through 14 the remainder of the chapters

00:06:11.580 we're seeing god again speaking but this time not um in a way that we see in natural revelation what

00:06:18.220 he has made but in a way that we hear through special revelation what he has said i'll say

00:06:24.380 that again so so natural revelation it's god speaking about himself by what he has made and

00:06:31.680 what we can see. In special revelation, it's God, again, speaking about himself, not by what he has

00:06:38.280 made, but by what he has said and what we hear. So Romans 10 is a great, a great scripture to use

00:06:46.240 to exegete the second half of Psalm 19. So the first half of Psalm 19 really corresponds, we

00:06:52.120 could cross-reference to Romans 1, what Paul says about natural revelation. The second half of Psalm

00:06:57.540 19 verses 7 through 14 really cross-referenced as well not with Romans 1 but with Romans 10

00:07:03.280 namely verse 14 and the corresponding verses after that that says what does it say it says

00:07:09.240 that how will they believe unless they hear not see but hear because faith cometh by hearing and

00:07:17.660 hearing by the word of God we do not walk by sight but rather we walk by faith and faith

00:07:22.380 faith in special revelation in in the gospel is is what god has communicated uh by his word

00:07:30.060 not by his deeds not by what he has made so god communicates his eternal power and his divine

00:07:36.780 his eternal power and his divinity his divine nature by what he has made that we perceive by

00:07:43.820 sight but god communicates the gospel of his son jesus christ by what he says and what we perceive

00:07:50.460 by hearing and faith in the gospel saving faith comes by hearing because because what we need to

00:07:58.800 receive is special revelation the gospel doesn't belong to natural revelation it belongs to special

00:08:04.420 revelation and the means the medium of special revelation if you will is is not God's doing

00:08:11.640 in a way I mean obviously there is the work of Jesus Christ his life death and resurrection

00:08:16.860 but it's not what God has made and can be seen it's what God has said and can be heard and so

00:08:23.380 that's Psalm 19 verses 7 through 14 what we did last week we took this even the second half of

00:08:29.620 Psalm 19 God communicating who he is through special revelation and we're breaking this up

00:08:35.940 into two sections now what what David emphasizes with natural revelation the first six verses of

00:08:41.000 psalm 19 is the sky now there's other other pieces of natural revelation right you can look to the

00:08:47.520 earth or the sea you can look to the birds of the air well that would kind of be sky i guess but you

00:08:52.520 can look to the fish of the sea and and one of the chief pieces of natural revelation of what god has

00:08:58.280 made that you can look to to see that there is a god in heaven who is worthy to be praised is the

00:09:03.520 pinnacle of his physical earthly creation, namely mankind. The only piece, the only creature in

00:09:11.240 earthly creation that was made in the very image of God. And yet David doesn't speak about seeing

00:09:16.380 God or hearing God or God communicating something about himself through people. So we have natural

00:09:23.120 revelation, but the case study, if you will, the primary example that David cites as a piece,

00:09:29.980 a portion of natural revelation is the sky now in the same way take that same principle concept

00:09:36.700 with psalm 19 7 through 14 he's shifting gears from natural revelation to special revelation

00:09:42.900 and in the same way with natural revelation david focuses on one element namely the sky

00:09:47.620 now with special revelation david focuses on one element namely the law does that make sense

00:09:53.820 that doesn't mean that the law is the exhaustive special revelation of god it means that the law

00:10:00.360 is a portion now what's another what's another example in the same way we could say the sky is

00:10:05.080 an example of natural revelation but so is the sea so is the ground so are the beasts of the field so

00:10:09.820 are mankind human beings made in the image of god we could cite a number of examples of natural

00:10:15.720 revelation a way that god speaks to all people something about himself by what he has made and

00:10:21.620 what we can perceive by sight what we see in the same way what's another example we should beg the

00:10:27.780 question what's another example besides the example that david lands on namely the law of

00:10:32.540 special revelation right there's multiple examples that the sky the sea mankind well here we have the

00:10:38.080 law that's david's chosen example but we would also say something else another example of special

00:10:43.700 revelation that we hear is the gospel the gospel now that's not however what david selects and so

00:10:51.320 So although I believe in gospel-centered preaching, before I believe in gospel-centered preaching, I know this sounds bad, but trust me, I believe it's right.

00:10:59.560 Before I prioritize gospel-centered preaching, I prioritize Bible-preaching preaching. 0.56

00:11:07.420 And there's a way of centralizing the gospel in preaching at the expense of the text.

00:11:14.860 And that's what we see in a lot of gospel-centered churches today,

00:11:17.520 is the particular text is merely used as a springboard

00:11:21.720 to get to their same gospel proclamation that you hear every single week.

00:11:27.260 And what happens in gospel-centered preaching when it's done incorrectly,

00:11:31.700 when it's truncated, because I believe in gospel-centered preaching,

00:11:34.660 but what happens in truncated, careless gospel-centered preaching

00:11:41.800 is all the sermons actually sound the same, right?

00:11:45.780 Because the sermon is not contingent upon the text.

00:11:50.780 So each week, the only thing that's changing is the text, right?

00:11:54.260 So we were in Psalm 19.

00:11:55.640 Now we're in Psalm 23.

00:11:57.080 But here's the deal.

00:11:58.080 If you don't preach the Bible,

00:12:00.080 if you preach the gospel, rather,

00:12:01.720 at the expense of preaching the Bible, 0.98

00:12:03.220 then you're very likely going to have

00:12:05.600 a very monotonous gospel message week in, week out.

00:12:09.740 And so what we want to do in faithful preaching is we want to always, because Christ says, all the scripture points to him.

00:12:16.840 So that's why we believe in gospel-centered preaching, because there is no sense in which a portion of the scripture, a book of the Bible, doesn't ultimately esteem and center on the person and work of Jesus.

00:12:29.220 So all scripture points to Jesus, and Jesus is his work, his person is the gospel.

00:12:35.920 The gospel is the proclamation, the good news about Jesus.

00:12:39.340 So because all Scripture points to Jesus and the gospel is the good news of Jesus, then we could say that the gospel can and therefore should be preached from every text in Scripture.

00:12:51.280 Every text in Scripture.

00:12:52.720 However, the gospel shouldn't be preached the same way from every text in Scripture.

00:12:59.240 It's like this.

00:13:00.220 We're always trying to get to the gospel in preaching.

00:13:04.000 But it's kind of like the old adage, you know, all roads lead to Rome.

00:13:08.800 Well, in every text, what we have ultimately is a different avenue, a different path, a different road to the gospel, to Christ.

00:13:18.600 That's what we have. We have a different road.

00:13:20.220 I was reading this week, I was in the Bible reading with the Robert McShane plan that a lot of you guys are doing.

00:13:26.860 It's going through numbers.

00:13:28.620 And one of the texts was talking about, it was really interesting because I'm doing an in-depth study right now just personally for my own benefit.

00:13:36.400 And, well, and it'll usually come out, so I'm sure it'll be for other people's benefit too.

00:13:40.680 But I'm doing a study on degrees of murder from the Bible, right?

00:13:45.060 Because we have first-degree murder, second-degree murder, third-degree murder, manslaughter.

00:13:48.940 And we have two degrees of manslaughter, depending on what state you're in, involuntary and voluntary manslaughter.

00:13:53.820 And so I'm doing an in-depth study on what the Bible says about murder.

00:13:58.360 And what I can find so far is there's no such thing as first and second degree.

00:14:02.020 Now, there isn't this. 0.66

00:14:02.700 The Bible says there are those who lie in wait, right?

00:14:06.460 Those who lie in wait.

00:14:07.480 Their feet are swift to shed blood.

00:14:09.180 So they're waiting.

00:14:09.920 There's this ambush mentality.

00:14:11.720 So that would be premeditated, planned.

00:14:13.300 That's first degree.

00:14:14.560 But then there are also those.

00:14:16.100 Numbers talks about, I think it's, I believe it's chapter 35.

00:14:20.460 Numbers 35.

00:14:21.540 But it talks about those who kill with enmity.

00:14:25.020 Meaning they didn't lie in wait, but they became enraged in a moment, right?

00:14:30.000 It's a crime of passion.

00:14:31.180 and they sought to kill.

00:14:32.860 And that would be what we use in our culture

00:14:34.580 as second degree murder.

00:14:35.900 But there is no first and second degree murder

00:14:38.260 in biblical terms.

00:14:39.780 And what I mean by that is the penalty is the same.

00:14:42.620 Murder, the cost of murder, the price of murder

00:14:45.120 is the death of the murderer, right?

00:14:48.500 It's life for a life.

00:14:50.780 And when it comes to second degree murder,

00:14:52.660 what we would refer to as second degree murder,

00:14:55.040 Numbers 35 actually says

00:14:56.560 that even if you didn't mean to kill someone,

00:14:59.620 it would still be life for life.

00:15:01.780 Meaning, if you grabbed, it actually says verbatim,

00:15:04.480 an iron object, if you struck someone with an iron object,

00:15:08.200 even if you didn't mean to kill them,

00:15:09.880 you just meant to harm them in a moment of rage,

00:15:12.340 a crime of passion, but the person was in fact killed

00:15:15.280 by your actions, then it's life for life.

00:15:17.860 It's treated the same way as first degree murder,

00:15:20.220 lying in wait with a bow and arrow or a sword.

00:15:24.120 So the penalty is literally the same.

00:15:26.100 So whether you lie in wait with a lethal weapon, with the intent, the premeditated intent of murdering someone, or whether you get enraged in a moment, a crime of passion, and strike someone over the head with an iron object trying to harm them, but not actually even meaning to kill them, but they do in fact die, your penalty is the same.

00:15:49.000 So in biblical terms, it's not first degree, second degree, third degree.

00:15:52.020 In biblical terms, it's just murder.

00:15:54.400 It's just murder.

00:15:55.640 And then it goes further. 0.92

00:15:56.780 It says iron object, if you kill them, you didn't mean to. 0.99

00:15:59.680 But there was enmity, you meant to at least harm them. 0.99

00:16:02.140 You did intend harm, if not death. 1.00

00:16:04.020 But you selected an iron object, and they die, you're a murderer. 1.00

00:16:08.440 And the penalty is your death.

00:16:09.800 If it's a wooden or stone object, it's very specific, God's law.

00:16:13.900 And this is civil law.

00:16:15.340 But if it's a wooden or stone object, then it has to be brought to the judges.

00:16:20.280 And the judges have to determine if that substance, because it's not as deadly, it's not as strong and hard and heavy as iron, stone and wood have to be brought.

00:16:30.900 The object that was used and the person ended up dying, but you didn't intend to kill them.

00:16:35.000 But in rage, in enmity, you ended up causing their death.

00:16:38.940 That object that you used, if it's wood or stone, something other than iron, it has to be brought to the judges.

00:16:44.640 and the judges will deliberate among each other

00:16:47.320 and decide whether or not that object

00:16:49.500 ordinarily could cause death.

00:16:51.360 So for instance, if you killed someone with a wooden spoon

00:16:53.940 because you were angry, you meant to harm them,

00:16:57.740 there was enmity in your heart, intended harm,

00:17:00.460 but not intended death, but you just, a freak accident,

00:17:04.220 just got very, very lucky, or we should say unlucky,

00:17:07.240 and just struck them exactly in the temple

00:17:09.460 and it, boom, caused them to die, 0.52

00:17:11.800 then you may not be guilty of murder.

00:17:14.480 That wooden spoon would be taken to the judges, they would deliberate, and they would say,

00:17:17.740 yeah, this object doesn't ordinarily cause death.

00:17:20.200 So you want to be guilty of murder.

00:17:21.600 What you would be guilty of, though, in that particular case, is the other category of

00:17:26.520 killing, unlawful killing, not just war theory or those kinds of things, but unlawful killing

00:17:31.920 in biblical terms, which is manslaughter, which is referred to in Numbers 35 as the

00:17:37.060 manslayer.

00:17:38.720 That's what the King James, the King James says man killers or manslayers.

00:17:42.660 So in our culture, we have first degree, second degree, third degree murder.

00:17:45.680 Then we have manslaughter.

00:17:46.720 Even that gets bifurcated into involuntary or voluntary and involuntary.

00:17:51.440 In biblical terms, it's murder and manslaughter.

00:17:55.700 And although there are different degrees of murder, the punishment is still the same.

00:17:59.700 Whether you lie in wait or whether there's enmity in your heart in the moment, crime of passion, even without the intent to kill.

00:18:05.320 But you did kill and you used a particular tool that could kill, that had the capability of killing.

00:18:10.460 Either way, it's murder.

00:18:11.820 And the penalty is life for life.

00:18:13.760 In the case of manslaughter, a man killer,

00:18:16.480 you use an item that couldn't actually ordinarily kill someone

00:18:19.720 and you intended enmity, all right?

00:18:21.940 You intended harm, you had enmity in your heart,

00:18:23.860 but you did not intend their death.

00:18:26.260 In that case, you would be a manslayer.

00:18:28.240 And what happens to you?

00:18:29.340 Well, you go to prison and people pay taxes to support you.

00:18:32.400 No, because God is just.

00:18:34.540 There are no prisons in Israel

00:18:36.060 because we don't treat people like pets, right?

00:18:39.860 We don't take someone who's a criminal and then actually punish everyone else who's not a criminal by taking their money to support the one who does evil.

00:18:49.960 And then just give them a food bowl and a water bowl and on a leash with a fence around, let them out for some rec time outside.

00:18:56.500 You're literally treating people like dogs.

00:18:58.020 You talk about, all the time you hear liberals make the argument of, you know, Christians don't really care about the sanctity of life.

00:19:03.100 They're against abortion, but they're pro-death penalty.

00:19:06.360 No, no, we do care about the sanctity of life.

00:19:08.540 We care so much about the sanctity of life that we see the only fitting punishment for someone who would pervert the sanctity of life and take a life is their life.

00:19:19.020 That's esteeming.

00:19:20.140 That's not belittling.

00:19:21.280 That's esteeming the sanctity of life.

00:19:24.140 And we don't throw people into prison.

00:19:25.820 So what happens to the manslayer? 0.81

00:19:27.500 They have to go to a sanctuary city.

00:19:31.580 There were six cities.

00:19:32.780 And this is so interesting.

00:19:34.000 And it all supports a point, but it's really interesting.

00:19:36.540 You guys are going to love it.

00:19:37.220 there are six cities in Israel at that time that were set apart to be cities for the manslayer

00:19:42.860 that they could run to. And all these cities, one of the things that's unique about them

00:19:46.980 is that all these cities were Levitical cities. So in terms of inheritance, who got what piece

00:19:53.240 of land, what city, what inheritance, each of the 12 tribes of Israel had certain apportioned

00:20:00.180 inheritance. God spoke through Moses and more particularly through Joshua when he superseded

00:20:05.200 Moses and Moses died. Now the six cities that were refuge cities or sanctuary cities for the

00:20:11.580 manslayer that he could run to were all Levitical cities and they were strategically placed. They

00:20:17.640 were spread out in such a way that Matthew Henry, the late great Puritan, I'm going to quote him at

00:20:21.840 the end of the sermon today, but Matthew Henry in his exegesis of Numbers 35 and the manslayer

00:20:28.440 and these six refuge cities, they were Levitical cities. And so what Matthew Henry says is this,

00:20:33.180 they were strategically positioned,

00:20:35.520 these cities spread out

00:20:36.440 to where there was not one place in Israel

00:20:38.780 where you could not flee 0.98

00:20:40.620 to one of these refuge cities

00:20:42.200 in the course of a day.

00:20:44.760 And he says,

00:20:45.720 it is no wonder,

00:20:46.720 it is no coincidence 0.93

00:20:47.540 that these were Levitical cities

00:20:49.840 for these were the place

00:20:51.440 where the priest would dwell

00:20:52.640 and where the sinner,

00:20:53.900 the guilty sinner,

00:20:54.820 could run for refuge 0.96

00:20:56.500 and the way was not far off

00:20:58.860 for Christ is never far off from us.

00:21:00.980 And then Numbers 35 goes even further and says that the person who runs to one of these refuge cities, the avenger of blood, right?

00:21:08.220 The avenger of blood would be the next of kin for the person who was killed in this accident, manslaughter.

00:21:14.500 So the person who was killed, their next of kin had rights to actually kill the person who killed their relative, the next of kin.

00:21:20.560 They would be the avenger of blood.

00:21:22.360 But the avenger of blood could not harm the person, even though the person was guilty,

00:21:27.540 the manslayer who committed manslaughter, if they were within the bounds of one of these cities of refuge,

00:21:32.540 which was a Levitical city, a city of the priest, where they had sanctuary.

00:21:37.100 They were absolved so long as they stayed within the bounds of the city.

00:21:43.000 And so too, as long as sinners stay within the bounds of Christ,

00:21:46.800 so long as we stay hidden within the rock of ages, we have absolvement from guilt.

00:21:51.540 and the one, the avenger of blood,

00:21:53.280 because there is an avenger of blood.

00:21:55.240 And it's not merely Satan, brothers and sisters.

00:21:57.580 The true avenger of blood is God.

00:21:59.760 It is God who says all the way back

00:22:01.460 in the beginning of Genesis,

00:22:02.780 he says to Cain,

00:22:03.800 your brother's blood cries out from the ground.

00:22:08.260 Abel, who you killed, 0.96

00:22:10.000 who you murdered by striking him with a stone. 0.84

00:22:12.680 All this, it all goes together. 0.79

00:22:14.180 You killed Abel.

00:22:15.300 And I hear his blood crying out from the ground.

00:22:19.120 And what does his blood speak?

00:22:20.760 What is it petitioning, crying for?

00:22:23.880 Vengeance.

00:22:25.460 Vengeance.

00:22:27.420 But the blood of Christ,

00:22:29.460 who was also put to death wrongfully,

00:22:31.940 murdered at the hands of sinful men,

00:22:34.400 the blood of Christ also cries out from the ground.

00:22:37.620 And it speaks a better word than the word of Abel.

00:22:41.920 His blood cries out from the ground,

00:22:44.720 not for God to do vengeance,

00:22:46.800 but rather the blood of Christ cries out from the ground

00:22:49.740 for mercy for forgiveness and we see christ in a sense a type of christ all throughout the

00:22:58.040 scripture and even in these levitical cities these six levitical cities strategically placed

00:23:03.800 all over israel to where the manslayer who is guilty of killing someone would have refuge from

00:23:09.120 the avenger of blood who was well within their rights according to god's holy law they were

00:23:13.840 within their rights to come and kill this person, to do to them what this person did to a close

00:23:20.420 relative, to someone they loved. But there was a refuge. There was a rock. There was a hiding place

00:23:26.300 that they could go and be covered and be protected. And it was the city of the Levites. It was the 0.83

00:23:32.460 Levitical city, the priestly city where they would find refuge from the one who was crying out for

00:23:38.620 vengeance and further even than that matthew henry goes on in numbers 35 goes on and says that the

00:23:44.680 only way this individual if they ever stepped out of the balance of the city they were doing so at

00:23:49.540 their own peril at the risk of their own peril because the avenger of blood if they took one

00:23:53.980 step outside the boundaries of a refuge city a sanctuary city the avenger blood of blood would

00:23:59.700 be within their rights under the law of god to strike them dead so the only way they could return

00:24:04.800 back to their home to their family to their trade all these kinds of things was if one thing happened

00:24:10.020 if the high priest died the high priest these were priestly cities there were lower priests

00:24:15.760 the levitical priesthood but there was one high priest who once a year would go into the holy of

00:24:20.440 holies and make he would make um sacrifices for sin and it was not until the high priest died

00:24:28.160 that all the manslayers in the refuge cities could return to their homes no longer at their

00:24:34.280 at the risk of their own peril,

00:24:36.200 no longer guilty.

00:24:38.460 And Matthew and Henry says with that,

00:24:39.920 he says, and so too,

00:24:41.280 we see even in numbers

00:24:43.380 all the way in the Old Testament

00:24:44.760 with God's civil law,

00:24:46.320 we see that there is no true,

00:24:48.540 eternal, lasting forgiveness of sin

00:24:50.880 without the death of a high priest.

00:24:54.580 Christ is the high priest.

00:24:56.620 And by his death,

00:24:57.800 by his once and for all

00:24:59.280 eternal sacrifice,

00:25:00.760 the true high priest,

00:25:01.780 not in the order of the Levites,

00:25:04.180 not in the order of Aaron,

00:25:05.800 but in the order of Melchizedek,

00:25:07.340 who is a priest and king forever,

00:25:09.040 Christ by His one sacrifice

00:25:10.740 and His death once and for all,

00:25:13.040 all manslayers, 0.99

00:25:14.800 all those who are guilty of killing 0.99

00:25:17.500 and vile evil like you and like me,

00:25:20.780 not only do we have to hide in one place, 0.81

00:25:23.960 but we now are covered

00:25:25.620 with the righteousness of Christ

00:25:27.320 and we can go into all the world

00:25:29.320 and make disciples of all nations

00:25:31.160 and preach the gospel

00:25:32.220 with an innocence and a righteousness

00:25:34.440 that we find by grace through faith in Jesus Christ,

00:25:37.220 no longer weighted down by condemnation under our sin,

00:25:40.700 but free in Christ Jesus.

00:25:43.380 Now, all that is just one example

00:25:44.800 of how all the scripture points to Christ.

00:25:48.700 Numbers 35.

00:25:50.240 If you can find Christ in man-slain laws,

00:25:54.500 in Numbers 35,

00:25:56.060 and then you can't,

00:25:57.240 there's no place in the scripture you can't find it.

00:25:59.480 I think it was Spurgeon who said this,

00:26:01.520 And I think this is helpful.

00:26:02.420 He said, somebody once asked him, you know, is Christ in every text?

00:26:05.440 And he said, yes.

00:26:06.440 And then they asked, in every verse?

00:26:08.860 And he said, well, in every chapter.

00:26:12.300 And I think that is true.

00:26:14.160 And I think that is important.

00:26:15.400 Because again, back to my previous point, there is a sense in which people preach the gospel.

00:26:19.740 They preach Christ at the expense of the text.

00:26:22.440 And sometimes you'll see someone in a text like Numbers or Leviticus.

00:26:26.440 And my text for today is one verse.

00:26:29.580 And you know you're in for a doozy.

00:26:30.820 you know and you'll see me do that from time to time but my text is one verse it's like this guy's

00:26:34.880 going to preach for an hour on one verse oh my goodness and so i have one verse as my text today

00:26:39.780 and boom they'll preach christ and the reality is dude yeah all scripture points to jesus but

00:26:45.240 like christ is not in that verse if you panned out if you know if you took out your text 20 verses

00:26:50.460 you know and that verse was one of them and you took a chapter that's what spurgeon is getting to

00:26:55.040 then yeah we could see christ in the same way the matthew henry i i showed you how matthew henry

00:26:59.680 showed us Christ in the chapter of Numbers 35, right?

00:27:03.920 But not just in one verse, right?

00:27:05.940 It's not like Matthew Henry, you know,

00:27:07.580 took the one verse in Numbers 35 that says,

00:27:10.840 if you strike someone with a wooden object

00:27:12.360 and the judges determined that it wasn't able to kill,

00:27:14.760 then you're treated as a manslayer and not a murderer

00:27:16.980 and you can flee to a refuge city.

00:27:18.580 Like, he doesn't take that,

00:27:20.080 like just that one portion of,

00:27:21.480 if you strike them with a wooden object 0.97

00:27:23.180 that the judges determined could kill,

00:27:25.240 then it is not,

00:27:26.320 or the judges determined could not kill,

00:27:28.100 then it's not treated as murder.

00:27:29.640 And then all of a sudden you say, well, and the wooden object reminds me of Jesus who died on a wooden cross.

00:27:34.620 And like, there are guys who do that. 0.94

00:27:36.060 I don't know if you've ever heard that, like, like gospel, gospel, ridiculous preaching. 0.82

00:27:41.660 It's not gospel centered preaching. 0.99

00:27:43.280 It's gospel, ridiculous preaching. 0.95

00:27:45.060 It's like, it's just like, all right, that's, that's, you know, like, I appreciate the sentiment. 0.94

00:27:50.100 I appreciate your intention to preach Christ everywhere.

00:27:53.720 But, dude, just preach that text.

00:27:55.180 So all that being said, all that being said, Christ is in every text.

00:27:59.840 He is in every text.

00:28:01.120 But there's a way of preaching Christ at the expense of the text.

00:28:03.740 And there's also a way of preaching the text at the expense of Christ.

00:28:06.780 Good preaching, Bible preaching and gospel centered preaching wants to uphold both faithfully.

00:28:13.240 So all that being said, Psalm 19, verse 7 through 14, we're now moving from natural revelation,

00:28:20.000 focusing, emphasizing, centralizing on the sky.

00:28:23.760 we're moving to special revelation not what's seen but what is heard but it's focusing central

00:28:29.640 centering on not the gospel but the law so is christ there yeah i think so um but is that

00:28:39.160 the main point no david picks the law and so i'm going to preach the law that's what i preached

00:28:45.700 last week i'm going to preach the law again because that's where we are now in the law though

00:28:50.100 we do see ultimately our need for the gospel and so we can get to the gospel from the law

00:28:55.380 in terms of necessity in terms of the first use of the law which theologians argue is that the law

00:29:01.480 reveals the holiness of God the sinfulness of man and thus our need for a savior Spurgeon once more

00:29:08.000 he said this a man cannot appreciate the beauty of Christ unless he first comes to see the necessity

00:29:14.180 for Christ. There's a lot of people who don't really esteem Christ as beautiful and glorious

00:29:19.880 as he truly is because they've never first heard the bad news before hearing the good news. They

00:29:26.660 haven't had someone really preach to them from the scripture how holy God is and how sinful they are. 0.96

00:29:34.620 Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan, the main protagonist, Christian, that character, for a long

00:29:40.240 time before he ever gets to the wicked gate and before he ever gets to the cross and and the

00:29:46.980 catacombs the the tomb before the the sepulcher is the language the old english language before

00:29:53.640 he ever gets to the cross and the sepulcher the tomb and the burden of condemnation it rolls off

00:29:58.840 of his back into the tomb and he knows it no more and three holy ones angelic beings begin to pardon

00:30:04.760 him of sin, before that ever takes place, the main character modeled after John Bunyan, the author

00:30:11.160 himself, he is weighted down for a very long time by this burden. And the way that the burden first

00:30:17.740 arrives is that he finds in the fields one day, as a farmer, he finds the book of the law. And when

00:30:24.940 he finds the book of the law and he opens and he begins to read it, it's only at that moment that

00:30:29.520 all of a sudden a burden is placed on his back and it's a burden that he can't remove and all

00:30:34.980 the things that used to bring him joy like his children and his wife and good food and celebrations

00:30:39.640 he can't find joy in any of it anymore he's sleepless he's restless he's miserable he can't

00:30:45.420 enjoy his own family he can't enjoy his vocation he can't avoid and enjoy celebration or any of

00:30:50.740 these things he is hunched down burdened and weighted down by by the weight of this burden

00:30:57.180 that came by a reading of the law.

00:31:00.340 And he has to work his way

00:31:01.680 through the slew of despondency, right?

00:31:04.100 Where there's discouragement,

00:31:05.520 where many people turn back, right?

00:31:07.440 They start their way towards salvation,

00:31:10.200 but they turn back, they give up.

00:31:12.340 They give into despondency, into despair.

00:31:15.520 And he makes his way through the slew of despondency

00:31:18.180 and it's pliable who gives up and goes back.

00:31:21.280 And then eventually he starts going down wrong ways.

00:31:24.100 He meets a man named Mr. Legality who says,

00:31:26.520 hey there's an easy way to pry that burden off your back it's legalism he sends him to the city

00:31:31.540 of morality where where you can talk to you know mr worldly wise and this guy and that guy and

00:31:36.780 they'll give you all these different solutions to remove the burden from your back and christian

00:31:41.180 listens he listens to them he begins to go in the wrong direction and he's on this path on his way

00:31:46.320 to the city of morality and there's a mountain hanging over him and it looks like at at any

00:31:50.740 moment the rocks of this mountain like it's about to crumble and fall on him and all of a sudden

00:31:55.420 he's found by a man named Mr. Evangelist

00:31:57.980 who had already found him before the slew of despondency

00:32:01.060 and pointed him towards the wicked gate.

00:32:03.780 And Christian made it through the slew of despondency, 0.95

00:32:05.980 but then he listened to false prophets and false teachers, 0.89

00:32:09.260 a false gospel of works and morality and worldly wisdom.

00:32:12.980 And he started off in the wrong path.

00:32:15.420 But Mr. Evangelist, he saves him.

00:32:17.820 He rescues him. He finds him.

00:32:19.640 And it's right when Christian is about to be crushed by the mountain.

00:32:23.400 And Christian asks, what mountain is this?

00:32:25.660 And he says, it is Mount Sinai.

00:32:27.580 It's the law.

00:32:29.640 It's the law.

00:32:30.340 There's another point in Pilgrim's Progress

00:32:32.360 where Christian, he's beat over and over and over

00:32:35.740 by this man.

00:32:36.640 And he'll get up and try to throw the man off by force

00:32:39.780 and try to escape his power.

00:32:41.720 But the man would overpower him again

00:32:43.220 and beat him and beat him and beat him.

00:32:45.320 And Christian asks another character in the story,

00:32:47.660 who was this man who beat me without mercy?

00:32:51.020 I pleaded with him to stop.

00:32:52.880 I would try to persuade him to let up.

00:32:55.320 I would try to escape him and he would just beat me and beat me and beat me.

00:32:58.520 And the man that he asked, he responds by saying, that was Moses.

00:33:01.820 He can only beat you for he knows not mercy.

00:33:05.080 It's the law. It's the law.

00:33:06.940 And so it's the law of God, Mount Sinai, hanging over Christian's head. 0.94

00:33:10.920 It's Moses who beats him but will not aid him or help him. 0.92

00:33:14.360 All of this points him towards ultimately the wicked gate.

00:33:17.340 And then furthermore, the cross and the sepulcher, the cross and the tomb,

00:33:21.780 where the burden is finally removed

00:33:24.020 through the preaching of the gospel

00:33:25.500 of free grace through faith in Christ

00:33:27.780 and the burden rolls into the tomb.

00:33:29.920 The stone rolls over the entrance to the tomb,

00:33:33.200 seals the burden in 0.97

00:33:34.200 to where a Christian knows it no more.

00:33:36.580 He is free at last from condemnation and guilt.

00:33:40.860 And my point in all this is Bunyan,

00:33:42.820 he modeled this whole story off of his own life.

00:33:45.880 John Bunyan, the great Baptist preacher and writer,

00:33:48.820 for the first seven years

00:33:50.160 after reading the law of God,

00:33:51.440 He says that he had no assurance of salvation.

00:33:55.080 He was convinced that he was going to hell.

00:33:57.100 And it took seven years for him to eventually be able to preach his heart,

00:34:02.280 as other Puritans said, from a clock to a flame.

00:34:05.480 To preach his own heart in the preaching of the gospel of grace

00:34:09.700 to eventually gain the confidence that he had assurance in Christ.

00:34:14.720 That he could have confidence in Christ.

00:34:16.540 That he truly had forgiveness of sin.

00:34:18.900 And my point is to say that there are so many in the evangelical church today who don't see the beauty of Christ because they've never wrestled underneath the law.

00:34:28.640 They've never wrestled underneath their guilt.

00:34:31.580 They don't see the beauty of Christ because they don't see the necessity of Christ.

00:34:35.640 And they don't see the necessity, the need for Christ because they don't see the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man.

00:34:43.340 It's in the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man

00:34:46.400 and the unbreachable chasm between the two

00:34:50.980 that we see how desperately we need a Savior.

00:34:55.560 And the reason why we want to preach the law again and again and again

00:34:58.260 is because it's the path unto our feet.

00:35:00.180 That's the third use of the law.

00:35:01.860 It's the guide.

00:35:03.080 It's what tells us, directs us where to go

00:35:07.440 and how life makes sense and how life works

00:35:09.920 and how we can experience happiness and peace in this life

00:35:14.140 by doing what God commands,

00:35:16.000 living in God's world according to God's rules.

00:35:18.800 That's the third use of the law.

00:35:20.760 But in the first use of the law,

00:35:22.740 the reason why we want to preach the law again and again and again,

00:35:25.260 even to the redeemed, even to the Christian,

00:35:27.580 is because the law in its first use

00:35:29.520 reminds us again and again and again

00:35:31.280 how holy God is and how far we fall short.

00:35:35.180 And this is not for the Christian to produce condemnation.

00:35:38.580 See, the wider that gap gets in your heart, the more you hear about the holiness of God,

00:35:44.040 you sit under preaching of the law, preaching of the holiness of God,

00:35:47.280 and you see by the conviction that the Spirit supplies your own sinfulness, your lack of holiness,

00:35:52.580 what happens is this.

00:35:53.960 In your mind, not in real terms, not in objective terms, but in your mind subjectively,

00:35:59.180 you gain a deeper perception, a more accurate perception of the gap between a holy God and your sinful self.

00:36:07.380 And the wider this gap is, the more you love God.

00:36:11.040 Why?

00:36:11.520 Because what fills the gap is the gospel.

00:36:15.260 See, if you have a small view of your sin,

00:36:19.060 you will have a small view of God's grace.

00:36:22.940 If you can't see the true holiness of God

00:36:25.700 and your own true sinfulness,

00:36:28.000 then the gap between God and you becomes small.

00:36:31.240 Again, not objectively, not in real terms,

00:36:33.420 but subjectively in your perception.

00:36:35.380 And if you perceive the gap between a holy God and your sinful self to be small, then what Christ did at Calvary is small.

00:36:45.380 But when you see God is holy, I am sinful, the gap in between us is infinite, and Christ did it all.

00:36:53.800 He covered it all.

00:36:55.400 He filled in this gap.

00:36:57.420 The bridge is wide.

00:36:58.960 then what you see in seeing more of the holiness of God and more of your own sinfulness is you see

00:37:03.220 more of the mercy of God, the grace of God, the love of God. And when we see more of God's love

00:37:08.400 for us, we cannot help but respond with more love for him. First John 4.19, we love because he first

00:37:15.440 loved us. And if we have more love for him, the next thing that happens is as Jesus says, those

00:37:20.760 who love me will obey me. So you want to grow in obedience? That's how to do it with law and gospel.

00:37:27.300 law and gospel preach the law to yourself and sit under good law preaching from from others

00:37:33.480 and in the preaching of the law see the holiness of god see your own sinfulness let this gap get

00:37:39.640 wider and again not an objective term see for the christian you're being sanctified progressive

00:37:44.700 holiness you've been justified declared perfectly righteous because of the righteousness of christ

00:37:49.680 received by grace through faith okay so that that's objective now in in progressive holiness

00:37:56.280 not justification, but sanctification,

00:37:58.560 as a Christian progresses in sanctification,

00:38:01.060 we are being formed more and more

00:38:02.540 into the likeness of the Son,

00:38:04.200 more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

00:38:05.920 So in objective terms,

00:38:07.380 as you follow Jesus as a Christian, 0.98

00:38:09.380 the gap between you and God 0.89

00:38:10.660 is actually getting smaller in objective terms.

00:38:12.900 It's getting smaller.

00:38:14.180 Now, we don't want to split hairs with that

00:38:17.000 because the reality is God is infinitely holy.

00:38:19.440 So when we say the gap is getting smaller,

00:38:21.020 we're saying it's going from a trillion miles

00:38:23.260 to a trillion miles minus one.

00:38:27.140 It's still immense, right?

00:38:28.740 So that's progressive righteousness,

00:38:31.140 progressive holiness in terms of sanctification,

00:38:33.620 not declared righteousness,

00:38:35.580 positional righteousness in terms of justification.

00:38:38.540 So in sanctification, the lifelong process

00:38:40.860 from conversion to death

00:38:42.400 of being made more and more into the image of Christ

00:38:44.920 in objective terms, you're getting better, not worse.

00:38:48.320 And therefore, in objective terms, in a technical sense,

00:38:51.280 the gap is getting smaller, if anything, not wider.

00:38:53.700 but for the christian the way that the gap is getting objectively smaller is because it's

00:38:58.840 getting subjectively subjectively bigger meaning the gap you're actually becoming more holy in

00:39:04.900 objective terms but you're becoming more holy in objective terms because you're realizing in

00:39:09.980 subjective terms in terms of perception you're realizing how much holiness you lack

00:39:14.980 and as you realize more and more how much holiness you lack and how much holiness infinite holiness

00:39:21.260 god has you're seeing a bigger gap but when you see a bigger gap don't let that cause you despair

00:39:27.180 discourage you the bigger the gap the bigger the gospel that bridges the gap so as you see more of

00:39:32.480 the holiness of god and more of your sinfulness you see a bigger gap that needs to be bridged

00:39:36.520 by christ and it has been bridged god so loved the world it's his love he so loved the world he

00:39:43.600 sent jesus to bridge that gap that whoever has faith in him shall not perish but shall

00:39:48.600 shall receive eternal life. So as you see more of God's holiness and more of your sinfulness,

00:39:52.860 you see a bigger gap, a bigger need for Christ. You see the work of Christ in the gospel as larger,

00:39:59.840 not smaller, meaning you see more of God's love through the person and work of Jesus on your

00:40:04.220 behalf. And as you see more of God's love for you, 1 John 4, 19, we love because he first loved us.

00:40:10.700 If we see that he first loved us more than we previously thought, then we respond with more

00:40:15.300 love for him and if we love him more we'll obey him more that's the progression of how we become

00:40:21.840 obedient and it takes both law and gospel law and gospel the law is the scalpel it slices us open

00:40:30.360 and begins to remove like tweezers begins to forceps begins to remove uh cancerous tumors

00:40:38.020 and growths from inside but then the gospel is like the sow it's it's it's what heals the wound

00:40:45.100 after it's been inflicted

00:40:46.340 and the necessary surgery procedure has taken place.

00:40:49.340 It's the law and the gospel working in tandem,

00:40:52.560 like a left and right arm

00:40:53.820 working in conjunction with one another. 0.69

00:40:55.900 The law doesn't save,

00:40:57.400 but it points us towards the gospel that does.

00:41:00.500 And so we must preach to ourselves

00:41:02.660 and sit under faithful preaching of law and gospel,

00:41:05.600 law and gospel, law and gospel.

00:41:07.360 David emphasizes the law.

00:41:09.620 That's what he emphasizes.

00:41:11.220 That's what we see in our text today.

00:41:13.640 This is what I want to do

00:41:14.500 because last week I did it quickly.

00:41:16.580 So I wanna do it one more time.

00:41:18.100 I want you to see this, not just the rightness, if you will.

00:41:22.040 I know that's not really a word

00:41:23.780 or if it is, it's not used very often,

00:41:25.460 but not just the rightness, the moral perfection

00:41:29.120 or correctness of God's law, but the goodness, the benefit.

00:41:33.500 Okay, there are six benefits, six purposes of the law,

00:41:37.700 what the law is and what it's purpose to do

00:41:39.460 and six benefits of the law that we find

00:41:42.340 in Psalm 19, verses 7 through 9.

00:41:47.480 7 through 9.

00:41:48.260 So I'm just going to read it from the text,

00:41:50.240 not from my notes, because I did it last week,

00:41:52.120 so this is just an overview.

00:41:53.540 The law of the Lord is perfect.

00:41:55.400 That's speaking to its moral perfection,

00:41:57.300 its rightness.

00:41:58.200 It has no flaw, and therefore it revives the soul.

00:42:01.140 Why?

00:42:01.400 Because what makes your soul weary

00:42:03.100 is not God's requirements.

00:42:05.180 It's not God's commands.

00:42:06.780 That's what we think.

00:42:07.520 We think we're weary because God demands so much.

00:42:09.920 But Jesus says, all who are weary,

00:42:11.880 All who are heavy laden, come to me

00:42:13.500 and I'll give you rest. Why? Because if you come

00:42:15.520 to Jesus, he won't require anything?

00:42:17.220 He has no law? He has no commandment that you should

00:42:19.400 follow? No. No, come to me and

00:42:21.400 find rest because my commandment,

00:42:23.340 I do have a burden. I have a command for you.

00:42:25.480 But it's light. Light in comparison

00:42:27.540 to what? Your sin.

00:42:29.680 See, what makes you weary is your

00:42:31.520 sin. Not the law of God.

00:42:33.400 Not his precepts. Not his commandments.

00:42:35.540 What he requires. When we come to Christ,

00:42:37.680 and we don't come to Christ and then he says,

00:42:39.320 hey, this is a law-free zone.

00:42:41.040 No, he's the holy God.

00:42:42.640 Of course he has a law.

00:42:44.080 So when we come to Christ,

00:42:45.280 we are coming to a person

00:42:47.360 who's going to demand something of us.

00:42:49.300 He's going to require something of us.

00:42:51.400 But what he requires is actually light.

00:42:54.920 My yoke is easy.

00:42:56.240 My burden is light.

00:42:57.540 By comparison to what?

00:42:58.740 By comparison to the prior burden,

00:43:02.240 the prior yoke that you've been wearing,

00:43:04.440 which is the weariness of sin.

00:43:07.340 So the law is perfect.

00:43:09.380 The law of the Lord is perfect, that is, it's morally perfect.

00:43:12.240 It is without any moral flaw, and therefore it revives the soul.

00:43:17.040 Because what it does, it's like a scalpel, it slices us open,

00:43:21.320 and the perfection of the law begins, it begins to detect and diagnose

00:43:25.940 and identify imperfections, moral imperfections in us.

00:43:31.360 Now the gospel ultimately is the only device, the only tool,

00:43:34.400 the only remedy or medicine or or solution that removes those faults in us but but what the law

00:43:41.740 does is it detects them the law works like an mri machine it doesn't cure someone but it finds

00:43:47.720 things that are killing you namely your sin and so the law is perfect and because it's a perfect

00:43:54.120 tool it discovers without fault without fail it discovers moral imperfections in us and then by

00:44:02.240 the grace of the gospel, those moral imperfections are removed. And the moral imperfections, namely

00:44:08.200 your sin, is the real culprit for your weariness. And so therefore, when your sin is detected by the

00:44:14.080 law, removed by the gospel, the very thing that made you weary, namely sin, is now removed. And

00:44:21.300 therefore, your soul is revived. That's the first thing that the law does. The testimony of the Lord

00:44:26.680 is sure making wise the simple sure meaning credible reliable trustworthy so it's not just

00:44:33.340 right but because it's morally right it can be trusted and because it's trusted when it's trusted

00:44:39.960 it makes wise even the simple if we trust the law of god we don't just salute it we don't just

00:44:45.780 acknowledge it as morally perfect but we we submit ourselves to it we give ourselves over to this this

00:44:53.560 law that we see as morally perfect we trust it we we don't just salute it but we trust it because

00:44:59.340 we see it not only as right but as sure as as credible as trustworthy it produces wisdom and

00:45:06.620 not just that it makes the wise wiser no the law is so perfect and so sure it makes even the simple

00:45:13.600 wise even the simple those who would never be described but as wise previously become wise

00:45:21.140 because the law is perfect and sure.

00:45:25.000 Next, the precepts of the Lord are right,

00:45:28.320 morally right, correct, rejoicing the heart.

00:45:32.840 How do the precepts of the Lord rejoice the heart?

00:45:37.160 The law of God perfectly aligns

00:45:39.080 with the character of God Himself,

00:45:40.900 who is the eternal standard

00:45:42.000 for unchanging principles of good and evil in the world.

00:45:45.660 In other words, God's law functions

00:45:47.340 as the master blueprint.

00:45:49.080 We talked about this last week,

00:45:50.260 which perfectly details exactly how God designed the world

00:45:53.900 and how he intends for us to live in it.

00:45:56.660 So in short, the law of God reveals how life actually works

00:46:00.200 as well as what doesn't work.

00:46:02.460 Therefore, if we submit to the rightness of God's law,

00:46:05.580 we see it as right, as the right rule by which we should live,

00:46:10.160 our hearts are gladdened because we begin to live the right way.

00:46:13.920 It's God's world, therefore it's God's rules.

00:46:17.080 and his rules are right because the one who makes the rules when we acknowledge God as the rule

00:46:22.620 maker the one who who gets to make the rules for this world because he made the world itself

00:46:28.340 then then we recognize when we recognize that God's rules are right for this world and all

00:46:33.140 his creatures because God made this world and all his creatures then we submit ourselves to his law

00:46:38.400 because we see this is the right blueprint blueprint this is the right equation this is

00:46:43.280 the right formula i have my ideas but but my ideas are folly in comparison to god and his wisdom so

00:46:49.680 god made the world therefore it logically stands that god would know how we should live in the

00:46:54.960 world so his rules are right not mine and when we come to that conclusion that his rules are right

00:47:00.960 then we begin to live by his rules and when you live by his rules life goes better it does and

00:47:07.020 you might be saying but but that joel that that discludes that that that fails to acknowledge this

00:47:12.220 this category over here of of those who are persecuted for for faithfulness aren't there

00:47:18.220 people who live according to the rule and law of god that is right god made the world he has rules

00:47:23.540 for living in the world and when you live you're saying when you live by those rules that things

00:47:27.300 go better well what about the christian in china what about the christian in north korea i'm not

00:47:32.260 saying that there are no exceptions i'm saying as a general rule of thumb to live by god's law

00:47:37.880 will go better and it always without exception goes better in an eternal sense by living by

00:47:45.000 god's rules which are right it does rejoice the heart in this life and in the life to come in

00:47:52.100 terms of our eternal reward because this is not ultimately our home so even for the christian in

00:47:57.880 north korea living according to god's law that may produce human consequences temporary earthly

00:48:03.740 consequences because of an oppressive pagan regime they may temporarily experience heartache

00:48:09.700 and consequences for their faithfulness to the truth it still rejoices the heart as paul and

00:48:16.000 silas were able to rejoice in prison singing praises to god because they knew that they had

00:48:20.660 a sure and greater reward in the life to come but ordinarily ordinarily in a nation like ours

00:48:28.160 a nation where there's freedom

00:48:30.160 at least still some

00:48:31.720 we'll see if it lasts

00:48:33.100 but at least some freedom

00:48:34.560 and historically there was more freedom

00:48:36.920 then you're not oppressed

00:48:39.120 by being faithful to the Lord

00:48:41.460 and meaning that when you see God's law is right

00:48:44.680 the blueprint by which we should live

00:48:46.420 and you give yourself to living in that way

00:48:48.700 things actually go well for you

00:48:50.260 not just eternally in the life to come

00:48:52.080 but even here and now

00:48:53.360 even here and now

00:48:54.980 there's a sense in which when we live by God's law

00:48:58.120 things don't just work out eternally they work out temporarily unless unless there is the variable

00:49:04.640 of someone else's sin impeding upon us and the reason why i say that is again because

00:49:10.720 within the evangelical church i'm trying to correct certain things right so because we have

00:49:15.980 the prosperity gospel right just um have faith and you'll be healthy and wealthy and wise

00:49:21.920 well that's a heresy right so i want to condemn the prosperity gospel but but in evangelical

00:49:27.980 calls condemnation of the prosperity gospel, I think there's been an overcompensation in some

00:49:32.260 instances, where we have the introduction of what I would call the poverty gospel, where all of a

00:49:38.020 sudden it's like suffering becomes the badge of God's approval on your life. So in the same way

00:49:43.840 that you're saying, okay, you know, the prosperity gospel, you know, you've got prosperity false

00:49:48.960 teachers saying, you know, my $67 million jet plane is the badge of God's approval that he's

00:49:53.860 pleased with me but then all of a sudden you say the fact that i have cancer is proof that god's

00:49:58.720 pleased with me neither are biblical the fact that i'm poor means that god's god's really proud

00:50:04.820 of me no where do you get that in scripture that's that's not biblical see see what happens

00:50:11.200 the prosperity gospel have faith in jesus and you'll live forever and never get sick and you'll

00:50:16.440 you'll be a millionaire false um have faith in jesus and you'll suffer and be miserable but one

00:50:23.020 day you'll be in heaven it'll be great also false also false that could be the case you know what's

00:50:29.380 pointed to what's cited as the evidence for that is jesus and the apostles well jesus was faithful

00:50:33.460 look what happened to him he was crucified peter was faithful he was crucified upside down paul

00:50:38.820 was faithful he lost his head you know i mean all the apostles that yeah that's that's true in rome

00:50:44.220 you have to think of the concept in rome with an oppressive monarch that was pagan and hated god

00:50:52.780 But what about a nation that was founded on biblical principles

00:50:55.660 and has a constitution that has these biblical principles at play

00:50:59.160 and that lends towards religious freedom,

00:51:01.300 namely the religious freedom of Christianity?

00:51:03.940 What happens when you're faithful in that context?

00:51:08.100 Well, what happens is what's happened in our nation historically

00:51:10.600 over the last 250 years.

00:51:12.160 The most wealthy, prosperous nation

00:51:14.260 doing benevolence and acts of good to nations all over the world.

00:51:18.140 The best nation in the history of humanity.

00:51:21.640 Without exception.

00:51:22.480 America is the best.

00:51:24.240 Quickly losing its title.

00:51:26.300 Because we have people who are trying to make America the worst

00:51:29.700 by convincing children in schools

00:51:31.900 that America has always been the worst.

00:51:34.180 And teaching them to hate their country.

00:51:35.880 So my whole purpose in this is to say this.

00:51:37.680 Ultimately, why do we obey God?

00:51:39.220 Because it's right and because of the eternal reward.

00:51:42.260 But I don't want you or me or anyone else to have a theology

00:51:45.240 that says obedience to God only produces suffering.

00:51:49.620 That's not true.

00:51:50.960 because what that does is even if it's subconscious in our minds and we never verbalize it,

00:51:55.760 what that gets us to believe is this, that God, even though he made the world and he's the one

00:52:00.480 who sets the rules for living the world, God ultimately is either foolish, lacking in infinite

00:52:06.340 wisdom, or even worse, we can believe that God is cruel, that God knows how to live that would 0.96

00:52:12.480 produce more happiness, but he told us something else. Let me give you one example of that,

00:52:16.720 the cultural mandate be fruitful multiply there are many in the church who legitimately have 0.99

00:52:22.580 bought into the secular pagan stupid view that we're the world is overpopulated and we're all 0.98

00:52:29.460 going to die right the whole climate crisis because of overpopulation well think about that 1.00

00:52:34.460 real quick in theological terms what does that mean what does that mean well it means if you buy

00:52:39.120 into that as a christian what it means is that god commanded humanity to do something in the

00:52:43.940 cultural mandate be fruitful multiply that god knew would actually be the very thing that if

00:52:49.100 humanity obeyed him humanity's obedience to the cultural mandate would seal humanity's own demise

00:52:54.600 and god just kind of laughing i told him to be fruitful multiply and i know that there's finite

00:53:00.880 resources in this world and i actually set it up in such a way that there wouldn't be enough so

00:53:05.300 the more faithful they are to obey me the more people will start like say if you if you're

00:53:10.960 logical you have to it says something about the character and nature of god so if you're claiming

00:53:16.280 to be a christian saying that god is good but then also saying that the world is overpopulated

00:53:20.680 and if we don't start driving electric cars everybody's gonna burn up in 10 years then you

00:53:25.980 are making a theological statement you just haven't logically connected the dots but the

00:53:30.140 statement that you're making is this god is either ignorant god is in process he's learning as we

00:53:35.100 learn and go along so he had the cultural mandate but now he's like oh actually we fulfilled it and 0.84

00:53:38.800 I didn't know how the world would work and overpopulation.

00:53:41.460 I didn't know how climate worked, even though I made it.

00:53:43.480 And, you know, so now God's in process and he's rechanging.

00:53:46.040 So that's open theism, process theology.

00:53:48.240 So that's a heresy.

00:53:49.080 That's one option. 0.64

00:53:49.880 You can be a heretic.

00:53:50.840 Or you can say that God is not so much a lack of knowledge or expertise,

00:53:55.520 but it's a lack of benevolence.

00:53:57.540 It's his character.

00:53:58.400 He was cruel.

00:53:59.440 He knew what would happen.

00:54:00.480 He set it up to seal our own demise by virtue of our obedience.

00:54:04.440 No, people are demised.

00:54:06.200 It's people die, people perish because of sin.

00:54:10.040 How dare we ever come up with any kind of concept or theology or thought process

00:54:15.120 that would say that people are penalized by faithfulness.

00:54:19.580 No, people are only ever penalized because of sin.

00:54:23.020 And even the apostles who were faithful or Jesus who was faithful,

00:54:27.560 their faithfulness is not what caused them earthly consequences in this life.

00:54:31.160 It was the sin of others penalizing them for their faithfulness that caused the consequences.

00:54:37.860 Consequences in this life, suffering, difficulty, persecution, all these things,

00:54:43.160 they are only the result of sin.

00:54:45.620 And when we say that they're the result of faithfulness or the result of obedience,

00:54:49.280 then we're ultimately saying they're the result of obedience to what?

00:54:52.420 To God's law.

00:54:53.520 So what we're saying, whether we realize it or not, is that God's law is not perfect.

00:54:58.020 It's not sure.

00:54:59.000 It's not clean.

00:54:59.920 It's not right.

00:55:00.740 it's flawed. And if you follow it, these blueprints ultimately lend towards building a building with

00:55:06.900 an unsure foundation that will eventually topple and kill everyone inside. That's the view of many

00:55:12.640 Christians of the law of God today. Because they bought into the poverty gospel as an overcorrection 0.97

00:55:19.440 to the prosperity gospel. That's wrong. If you obey God's law, will you have a jet plane and live

00:55:26.640 forever? No. But if you obey God's law in an environment that's not led by pagans who hate

00:55:33.840 God's law, like North Korea, like China, then yes, things not only will be well for you in an

00:55:40.420 eternal sense, and your heart rejoiced in a spiritual, eternal sense, but things will go

00:55:45.700 well for you temporarily here on earth in a practical sense. Obedience brings blessing.

00:55:51.680 Obedience brings blessing.

00:55:53.480 God does not punish obedience.

00:55:56.740 And God forbid that any of us

00:55:58.980 would even subconsciously hold to that doctrine.

00:56:02.580 The more obedient you are,

00:56:03.880 the more suffering you'll experience.

00:56:05.880 The more punished you'll be.

00:56:08.420 But that's really good, you know,

00:56:10.000 and just hang in there and God's sovereign.

00:56:13.280 No, our theology just has to be better than that.

00:56:15.560 It just has to be better than that.

00:56:16.820 God is sovereign.

00:56:17.520 Sometimes people who are obedient get sick.

00:56:19.280 Sometimes people who are obedient are persecuted.

00:56:21.820 Sometimes you obey God and a child dies in a car accident.

00:56:25.860 And God is enough.

00:56:26.880 He's our portion forever.

00:56:28.440 All that is true.

00:56:29.860 But ordinarily, in a place like our nation,

00:56:34.180 if you obey God in general,

00:56:36.520 not saying there are no exceptions,

00:56:37.780 but in general, as a rule of thumb,

00:56:39.900 God's law is right.

00:56:41.440 Therefore, when we submit to it,

00:56:43.340 our lives go better.

00:56:45.720 You need to have that motivation.

00:56:47.520 Obey God because it's right.

00:56:49.280 and he's worthy of your obedience

00:56:50.700 and your reward is in heaven.

00:56:52.440 Yes and amen.

00:56:53.400 And obey God because you'll be happier here.

00:56:56.320 You will.

00:56:57.900 You will.

00:56:59.320 And how can we say anything else?

00:57:00.940 How can we say anything to the contrary?

00:57:02.900 Obey God and life won't go well

00:57:04.660 because God's law isn't as wise

00:57:08.820 or as benevolent towards you

00:57:10.780 as your own rules for living.

00:57:12.660 That's the only alternative.

00:57:14.220 How can we say that that's true?

00:57:16.860 Of course it's not.

00:57:18.500 All right.

00:57:19.280 Now that really gets into the point, right?

00:57:21.840 So if you look at verses 10 through, what is it?

00:57:25.220 Verse 10 through 11, I said the law of God

00:57:27.560 lends towards prosperity and pleasure.

00:57:30.160 What I want you to see is Solomon.

00:57:31.300 I'm not going to read the text, but this is the text.

00:57:33.380 Read it on your own time.

00:57:34.240 1 Kings chapter 3, 5 through 14.

00:57:36.500 This is when Solomon, he comes to the throne.

00:57:39.100 He's ultimately taking the throne from his father, David.

00:57:42.940 David has died.

00:57:44.020 Solomon's the new king and he's young.

00:57:46.000 He's in his youth.

00:57:46.680 the lord visits him in a theophany as it were in the night through a vision and and the lord gives

00:57:53.880 him kind of like almost like a genie in aladdin scenario in the cave of wonders um and he gets

00:57:58.760 one wish instead of three he says you know ask me the lord says ask me anything you want uh and i'll

00:58:04.040 and i will give it to you and solomon rightly asked for wisdom and and he asked for wisdom

00:58:08.540 notice this he asked for wisdom because of humility humility and wisdom are tied two peas in a pod

00:58:13.020 They always go hand in hand.

00:58:14.400 There's no such thing as an arrogant, wise person. 0.99

00:58:17.020 And there's no such thing as a humble fool. 0.98

00:58:21.320 Humility and wisdom go hand in hand. 0.89

00:58:22.880 In the Proverbs, we see it all the time.

00:58:24.660 All the time.

00:58:25.400 Humility, wisdom.

00:58:26.260 Humility, wisdom.

00:58:27.120 Humility, wisdom.

00:58:28.200 And so what happens is this.

00:58:29.980 Solomon asks for wisdom because he has humility.

00:58:33.120 Which means he already has some measure of wisdom.

00:58:35.160 He has enough wisdom to ask for wisdom. 1.00

00:58:37.940 You won't ask for wisdom if you're a complete fool. 1.00

00:58:40.240 So he has some wisdom because he has some humility. 0.99

00:58:42.620 therefore he asks for even more and what humbles him is this he's he's now the king over israel

00:58:47.700 and he says this great people it's such a great people and i i'm a youth how can i lead them make

00:58:53.020 me wise but what i want you to see is this first kings chapter five or chapter three verse five

00:58:58.660 through 14 god gives him wisdom but then god also says because you didn't ask for long life or

00:59:04.600 riches or this or that i'm going to give you that too and what i want you to see is this god says

00:59:09.900 because you ask for wisdom, you ask for what is better,

00:59:12.200 I'm also going to give you this other thing over here.

00:59:14.420 Long life and riches.

00:59:16.600 You're not just going to be the wisest guy.

00:59:18.260 You're going to be the richest guy.

00:59:19.600 But what I want you to see is this.

00:59:22.220 By asking for wisdom, of course he's going to be rich.

00:59:27.100 Of course he's going to be rich.

00:59:28.940 Because in the case of Solomon,

00:59:30.560 who was the king of a theocracy at that time,

00:59:33.420 Israel, God's covenant people,

00:59:34.780 being God's covenant people, also being the nation,

00:59:37.100 the nation um and solomon is the king of that nation no one's going to oppress him he's not

00:59:43.020 under mao or stalin or hitler right he is the the supreme monarch as the king of israel so nobody's

00:59:50.420 going to be able to oppress him and impede his faithfulness and inflict consequences because of

00:59:56.840 their sin he's the guy he's the man so if he's faithful to the law of god what's going to happen

01:00:02.120 of course he's going to be rich so when he asks for wisdom god says i'll give you riches also

01:00:06.720 But really what's happening is this, Solomon asked for wisdom, and by virtue of God giving him wisdom, by default he becomes rich.

01:00:14.940 Because wisdom produces that wealth, produces those riches.

01:00:19.860 Wisdom lends towards prosperity and pleasure, certainly in a spiritual and eternal sense,

01:00:25.840 but ordinarily, apart from oppressive sin of others impeding faithfulness,

01:00:31.900 apart from that ordinarily wisdom produces prosperity and pleasure blessing in this life

01:00:38.820 as well in this life as well all right another text second uh chronicles chapter 9 verses 1

01:00:45.500 through 7 this is where we see the queen of sheba come and visit solomon right she heard the reports

01:00:51.120 from all all over her kingdom that solomon was so wealthy and so wise and she comes to him and

01:00:57.000 begins to sit with him for hours is the implication and just just starts grilling him with question

01:01:02.060 after question after question about life and how things work and weather patterns and all these

01:01:06.900 kind of precipitation how does that work and the rising of the sun and all these different things

01:01:10.720 and and not one thing was hidden from solomon the text says god revealed to him the answers to all

01:01:16.300 of her questions he was so wise and she responds by saying this i heard the reports of your wisdom

01:01:21.640 and wealth but truly not even the half of it was told to me you're wiser than i thought

01:01:26.940 But look how she finishes.

01:01:28.380 This is verse 7.

01:01:29.800 Happy.

01:01:31.040 So she literally says, I came to you.

01:01:32.900 The reports were true.

01:01:34.160 In fact, they failed to do justice to the real truth.

01:01:37.000 You're even wiser than people said.

01:01:39.020 That's how it starts.

01:01:40.580 That's verses 1 through 6.

01:01:42.020 Solomon, I came to see.

01:01:43.200 I was told you were wise.

01:01:44.340 I came to see how wise you really were.

01:01:45.980 And you're wiser than I ever imagined.

01:01:48.260 And then the very next thing she says is,

01:01:51.600 no longer saying, you're wise, you're wise, you're wise.

01:01:54.080 Now she says, happy.

01:01:56.940 That's not a coincidence.

01:01:58.340 Don't miss the connection.

01:01:59.920 You're wise, you're wise, you're the king,

01:02:01.780 you're in a position of authority,

01:02:03.400 you're ruling your nation,

01:02:05.380 your people with wisdom and happy.

01:02:09.060 Happy are your wives, happy are your servants

01:02:11.280 who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom.

01:02:15.380 Your slaves are happy.

01:02:17.300 That's crazy.

01:02:18.140 Your slaves are happy.

01:02:19.360 You are so wise and you are ruling your nation

01:02:22.500 with so much wisdom and righteousness and equity

01:02:25.760 that even your servants and even your 700 wives,

01:02:31.800 which ordinarily you would think would be very unhappy

01:02:34.640 about that situation, are happy.

01:02:37.840 Not saying that today, under the new covenant,

01:02:39.980 that we should pursue polygamy,

01:02:41.580 but in the case of Solomon, even his wives were happy. 0.89

01:02:46.020 Wisdom begets riches.

01:02:48.400 That's why I wanted to show you.

01:02:50.220 That's why I wanted to show you 1 Kings 3, 5-14.

01:02:55.000 that's when we see wisdom lending towards wealth riches but we also see wisdom in second chronicles

01:03:01.640 nine one through seven lending towards pleasure happiness and again a guarantee godly wisdom for

01:03:09.240 those who are righteous by grace through faith in jesus for the christian godly wisdom that is

01:03:14.540 available to any christian who asks that's what james says if any man lacks wisdom let him ask

01:03:19.400 God who gives without finding reproach. Meaning what? The implicit point in that James passage

01:03:25.760 about asking for wisdom is God gives without finding reproach. Well, guess what? God always

01:03:29.720 finds reproach for those who aren't in Christ Jesus. So the implicit thing is that for those

01:03:35.860 who ask for wisdom, he's not just talking about any man, all of humanity. He's talking about one

01:03:39.620 portion of humanity, the redeemed. Because the only portion of humanity that God would give

01:03:43.820 wisdom to and not be able to find reproach are those who have no reproach because they've

01:03:49.360 been covered by the righteousness of christ not by works unto the law so that no man may boast but

01:03:54.500 rather by grace through faith in jesus so for the christian they can ask for wisdom and god will

01:03:59.880 grant it and for the christian who has wisdom they see the law of god is good and they are seeking

01:04:05.760 to apply they're seeking to obey god's law for that christian they will have prosperity and

01:04:11.980 pleasure guaranteed in the life to come and ordinarily and some measure in this life barring

01:04:20.760 the the exceptions that the the variables of an oppressive authoritative regime that penalizes

01:04:29.260 faithfulness to god's law like north korea am i making sense so it's not prosperity gospel

01:04:34.300 see last thing i'll say is this on this point then i'll read the conclusion from matthew henry

01:04:39.540 an analogy or an illustration of the prosperity gospel would be this if i teach my daughters

01:04:45.200 um hey you can be rich and all you need to do is when you reach the legal age you just need to buy

01:04:52.980 every single day go to the convenience store nearest convenience store and buy a lottery ticket

01:04:56.840 that's the prosperity gospel that's to illustrate as an example the prosperity gospel

01:05:01.620 if i tell my daughters however and it'd be better in this illustration if it was son so i'm going

01:05:06.520 use sons as an example. If I tell my hypothetical sons that the Lord will give me one day, we'll see.

01:05:11.820 If I tell them, not if you buy a lottery ticket, you'll be rich, but rather I tell them, if you

01:05:19.140 keep your vows, if you don't have children outside of wedlock, and you wait till marriage to have

01:05:25.900 children, and you don't divorce, right, because you want to lose half of your equity, half of

01:05:30.500 your wealth, that's a great way to do it. Divorce literally makes you poor. It does, right? There are

01:05:34.860 real tangible concept so you marry a woman you remain faithful to that woman you never leave

01:05:40.080 her or forsake her as christ has promised never to leave or forsake you you have children after

01:05:43.960 marriage not before you parent them according to god's word and you practice integrity and hard

01:05:50.500 work you will be i can't guarantee billionaire but you will be ordinarily wealthy you will

01:06:00.280 you will be reasonably wealthy over the course of your life if america doesn't start penalizing

01:06:08.520 hard work and rewarding laziness which for whatever reason they're dead set on doing right

01:06:13.940 now if you do nothing you'll receive a reward if you work hard we'll steal it right so as america

01:06:22.260 continues to turn its back on biblical principles by turning its back on god then that won't or

01:06:26.980 and then all of a sudden it's North Korea, China, right? 0.87

01:06:29.540 But then you still will have a rejoicing heart

01:06:32.900 in the eternal reward.

01:06:34.620 So it's still worth it.

01:06:36.100 But ordinarily, apart from an oppressive,

01:06:39.180 godless regime like North Korea or Joe Biden,

01:06:42.720 apart from that,

01:06:44.840 then it's not just prosperity and pleasure

01:06:47.600 in the life to come,

01:06:48.820 but by being wise and obedient

01:06:50.540 and following God's rules for life, his law,

01:06:52.600 there's also a measure of prosperity

01:06:55.280 and pleasure in this life.

01:06:58.280 Solomon was wise and rich, came along with it, riches,

01:07:02.820 and he was wise, and not only was he happy,

01:07:05.300 everyone else was happy too.

01:07:07.120 Everyone underneath his wise rule

01:07:08.880 experienced happiness as well.

01:07:11.120 So all that being said, this is how David ends our text, right?

01:07:14.800 So he lists the benefits of the law.

01:07:16.560 There were six of them, and I know I kind of stopped

01:07:17.980 halfway through, but I'm not gonna go back

01:07:19.240 for the sake of time.

01:07:20.180 Then he talks about not just these are the purposes

01:07:22.160 of the law, what it does and its benefits,

01:07:24.020 but also he says and this is what it produces what the law produces prosperity and pleasure

01:07:28.740 guaranteed in life to come ordinarily in this life barring those variables of oppressive regimes

01:07:34.980 penalizing faithfulness but then he finishes by this presumption and prayer so we saw prosperity

01:07:41.300 and pleasure here's presumption and prayer in the last three verses of our text 12 13 and 14

01:07:46.800 after recounting all the many benefits and advantages that come by submitting to the perfect

01:07:51.140 law of god david's only remaining desire is that he might experience even more of these benefits

01:07:56.820 and advantages by following the law of god more closely so by meditating on the perfection and

01:08:03.740 goodness of god's law david learns to call his sins errors that's that's the the language that

01:08:09.740 he uses in the text look verse 12 who can discern his errors declare me innocent from hidden faults

01:08:15.880 keep back your servant from presumptuous sins.

01:08:18.840 Let them not have dominion over me.

01:08:21.120 So he calls them errors.

01:08:23.300 Now this is not meant to minimize

01:08:24.800 the heinous nature of sin.

01:08:27.120 Don't miss this.

01:08:28.300 Surely David recognizes his sin

01:08:30.240 as a brutal betrayal.

01:08:32.340 There's a relational component,

01:08:33.900 a betrayal of the God he loves.

01:08:35.980 How do we know David's used his sin that way?

01:08:37.760 Psalm 51, his confession, right?

01:08:40.780 His confession, he talks about

01:08:42.080 the relational aspect of his sin

01:08:45.620 as a heinous offense and betrayal against God.

01:08:49.400 So this is not, calling his sin errors

01:08:51.240 is not meant to be a creative, tactful way

01:08:55.000 of using language to minimize the severity of his sin.

01:08:58.520 Right, so, because you and I can do that.

01:09:00.140 We gotta be careful.

01:09:00.860 Sometimes we'll say, yeah, I made a mistake.

01:09:03.340 Yeah, you know, I made a mistake.

01:09:05.520 Or yeah, it was an error.

01:09:06.720 Yeah, it was, you know.

01:09:07.680 And a lot of times we'll use that language

01:09:09.440 to minimize how serious our sin really is.

01:09:12.960 David's not doing that, okay?

01:09:14.440 So I don't want you,

01:09:14.980 because there is a sense in which our sin is an error that's what i want you to get david gets

01:09:18.720 it we need to get it all right that's what the text says we need to understand our sin as error

01:09:22.440 but but notice this it's not in substitute to viewing our sin as cosmic treason against our

01:09:29.360 loving savior but it's an addition so our sin is first and foremost it's a betrayal against the

01:09:35.560 god who loves us and we have to understand our sin first and foremost like that or we won't

01:09:40.560 experience godly sorrow leading unto repentance which leads unto life so first we need to to

01:09:45.820 experience and and perceive the full extent of the severity of our sin by seeing our sin in a

01:09:51.660 relational capacity as a betrayal an affront an offense against the god who loves us that's first

01:09:59.500 not in substitution to that view of sin but in addition to that view of sin we should also see

01:10:06.160 our sin as error as a miscalculation as as being off the mark see david comes to recognize every

01:10:15.100 one of his transgressions of the law as an error meaning grounded upon a mistake or a miscalculation

01:10:21.560 or a misjudgment what he means by that is this david rightly understands that every wicked

01:10:26.400 practice takes root in some corrupt principle or faulty premise all sin is a deviation from reality

01:10:33.260 the perfect rule by which we are to live so david sees it all of his sin in some sense first it's

01:10:40.960 betrayal against the god he loves and who has loved him but secondly all this sin is a misjudgment

01:10:46.760 a miscalculation a an error in the sense that in this area this particular sin i got off of the

01:10:53.620 blueprint i i got off of the roadmap i like i was going to a certain destination i was following

01:10:59.920 You know, I was listening to Siri or the iPhone, you know, I had Google Maps up, and I thought it said this, but I took this exit, it really meant the next one, I got off.

01:11:09.160 And so he realizes that all sin, ultimately, it is rooted in some kind of alternative principle to God's principle.

01:11:16.080 Some alternative rule for living other than God's rule of life.

01:11:20.240 Meaning it's rooted in something that ultimately is a formula that's corrupt.

01:11:25.620 And ultimately, because it's a corrupt formula,

01:11:28.060 when I don't follow God's law, a.k.a. sin,

01:11:30.420 I'm following someone else's.

01:11:32.040 And every other law, every other rule for life is corrupt.

01:11:35.800 It's flawed. It's a faulty premise.

01:11:38.000 It's a foundation that's shattered and splintered and cracked.

01:11:42.860 It's a house of cards.

01:11:44.200 And if I continue to do this, life will go poorer.

01:11:48.960 Things won't work.

01:11:50.080 furthermore by meditating on the perfection and goodness of god's law david also learns that his

01:11:57.220 sins are so many he can't even begin to comprehend the sheer number of them not only is david

01:12:02.760 incapable in and of himself apart from grace and the work of the spirit of writing all of his 0.53

01:12:08.260 wrongs david is incapable of even detecting all his wrongs and that's the end of our text it says

01:12:14.940 this verse 13 keep back your servant from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion

01:12:20.480 over me then i shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression let the words of my mouth

01:12:27.180 and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight o lord my rock and my redeemer

01:12:31.080 it's actually in verse 12 look at verse 12 who can discern his errors declare me innocent from

01:12:37.000 hidden faults all right matthew henry this is where i want to close i think he does great justice

01:12:43.540 to verse 12 of the text he says this david rightly recognizes that all men are guilty of many sins

01:12:50.200 which through our carelessness and partiality to ourselves we are not aware of many we have been

01:12:56.880 guilty of which we have forgotten so that when we have been even ever so particular so thorough so

01:13:03.660 careful in our confession of sin we must conclude our prayers of confession with an etc so even when

01:13:11.680 we're doing confession or repentance in prayer. Father, I confess this before you, I confess this

01:13:16.540 before you, I confess this, and etc. I think that's profound. That's what David's getting at.

01:13:22.580 My hidden faults, my errors that I can't even see. Matthew Henry goes on, for God knows a great deal

01:13:28.260 more evil of us than we do of ourselves. In many things we all offend, and who can tell how often

01:13:34.660 he offends? It is well that we are under grace and not under law, or else we would be undone.

01:13:40.460 So David takes occasion, hence, to pray against sin.

01:13:44.080 All the discoveries of sin made to us by the law,

01:13:47.340 that's what the MRI detects,

01:13:49.520 should drive us to the throne of grace.

01:13:51.280 That's the gospel that removes the tumor.

01:13:54.880 There to do what?

01:13:55.960 We go to the cross, to the gospel,

01:13:57.460 to pray, as David does here, for pardon and mercy.

01:14:02.120 Finding himself unable to specify

01:14:04.300 all the particulars of his transgressions,

01:14:07.680 he cries out,

01:14:08.820 lord cleanse me of my secret faults now notice this his secret faults are not secret to god

01:14:14.880 for none are nor are they just merely those secret faults to the world so when he says my secret

01:14:21.520 faults he's not just saying that the secret sin because we all often use that phrase secret sin

01:14:25.600 to describe the sin that we know about but other people don't so no sin is secret from god he sees

01:14:30.120 it all we use the phrase secret sin to say we know it's not secret from god it's also not secret from

01:14:34.660 us. We're aware of it, but it's secret from others. But David's not praying even about that.

01:14:39.020 He's not praying about your known secret sin, known to you, but not known by others. No, he's

01:14:45.340 saying this. He cries out, Lord, cleanse me from all my secret faults, not secret to God, so none

01:14:50.400 are, nor even secret, just those that are secret to the world, but even those sins in my life and

01:14:57.260 in my heart that are secret to me that were hidden from his own observation of himself

01:15:03.740 the best of men have reason to suspect themselves guilty of many secret faults and to pray to god

01:15:10.960 to cleanse them from that guilt and not lay it to their charge aka you're worse than you think you

01:15:19.440 and God is holier than you perceive him to be which means that if you're in Christ

01:15:29.800 God's grace for you is bigger than you ever imagined that's the point it's not you're worse

01:15:37.120 than you think you are go home that's the whole sermon hope you're depressed no you're worse than

01:15:43.740 you think you are I'm worse than I think I am right we're all worse than others think we are

01:15:48.780 I know I'm worse than you think I am.

01:15:51.800 But I'm actually worse than I think I am.

01:15:54.400 That's what David's getting at.

01:15:55.620 It's deeper.

01:15:56.320 Do you see?

01:15:56.800 It's deeper.

01:15:57.600 It's not just, man, if people actually knew who I was,

01:16:00.960 I'm so much worse than people realize.

01:16:03.820 No, no, no.

01:16:04.220 It's beyond that.

01:16:05.220 It's, I'm so much worse than I realize.

01:16:08.340 But here's the beauty.

01:16:09.600 Our omniscient God, he knows.

01:16:13.020 He knows how bad you are.

01:16:15.840 And he still chose you. 0.99

01:16:16.960 and sent his son to die for you so you're worse than you think you are he's holier than you think

01:16:23.620 he is which means the gap between you and god is wider than you've ever perceived it to be

01:16:29.920 but christ still died for you meaning that christ loves you more than you realize god loves you more

01:16:38.800 than you know that's how theologically that all that little statement god loves you so much more

01:16:43.620 than you know that's the theological framework for what makes that statement true god loves you

01:16:49.100 more than you know so today i hope that through the preaching of god's law and also the gospel

01:16:54.920 you would come to an awareness of a greater sense of your guilt your sin but also a greater sense

01:17:02.140 of god's holiness and therefore a greater sense of his love and mercy in the gospel of jesus christ

01:17:08.560 causing you to see more of his love for you which first john 419 causes you to have more love for

01:17:15.240 him which according to jesus should bring about obedience to the law and obedience to the law

01:17:21.280 produces as a guarantee prosperity and pleasure in an eternal spiritual sense the life to come

01:17:27.340 but ordinarily in a nation like ours assuming that biden doesn't ruin it prosperity and pleasure

01:17:34.320 in this life as well.

01:17:35.960 Let's pray.

01:17:37.080 Father God, thank you for your word.

01:17:39.540 Thank you for the blessing of your law.

01:17:41.840 Thank you for your wisdom, your goodness,

01:17:43.680 your benevolence, and your righteousness.

01:17:46.200 Your law is wise as you are wise,

01:17:48.900 right as you are right, but also good.

01:17:51.840 It's not just the right thing to do.

01:17:53.680 It's the good thing to do.

01:17:55.060 It is beneficial for those who trust you and obey.

01:17:58.920 I pray, Lord, that we would be a church

01:18:00.420 that loves the gospel and preaches grace

01:18:03.760 as the only means of salvation and forgiveness of sin,

01:18:07.180 but also a church that esteems the law

01:18:11.500 and loves the law and preaches the law

01:18:14.600 as a way of life

01:18:16.520 because it's right, but it's also good.

01:18:20.820 I pray that we would raise households

01:18:22.660 and families and children

01:18:23.740 and start businesses and publishing companies

01:18:26.720 and schools and all these things

01:18:28.680 by not following our own wisdom,

01:18:32.280 our own judgments,

01:18:33.000 but your word, your law, trusting it, it's sure.

01:18:37.100 The law of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

01:18:41.080 I think of what Paul says in his letters to the Corinthians

01:18:44.040 where he says, not many of you were wise

01:18:46.740 according to the world's standards

01:18:48.260 and so it is true of me.

01:18:50.640 So it is true of us, this church.

01:18:53.460 Let that be the testimony, years to come,

01:18:55.480 if it be your will, let that be the testimony

01:18:57.060 that people would look from the outside in

01:18:58.640 and they'd say, not many of them were wise.

01:19:00.440 but the law of the lord is sure making wise the simple and they just had that childlike not

01:19:06.960 childish but childlike trust in the law of god not as a means for salvation they weren't legalists

01:19:13.480 they trusted the gospel for salvation but they trust and submitted to god's law as the rule of

01:19:19.340 life and look at how much they did without while still being simple in a sense many not many were

01:19:27.380 wise by worldly standards they were simple some of these guys in this church covenant bible church

01:19:32.500 they didn't have a college degree they didn't have this they didn't have that but they just had

01:19:36.240 they had the good book had the bible and they actually had the audacity to believe it and to

01:19:42.140 apply it and look at what god did let that be lord if it be your will let that be the legacy of this

01:19:49.720 church and many other faithful churches throughout our nation and the world we pray these things in

01:19:54.000 jesus name for your glory amen thanks so much for listening but real quick before you go do us a

01:20:00.220 small favor take a moment and leave us a five-star review if you enjoyed the show this is undoubtedly

01:20:06.180 the best way that you can help us get this biblically faithful content to as many people

01:20:11.540 as possible thanks so much

The NXR Podcast - July 31, 2022

SUNDAY SERMON - The Blessings of Obedience (Part 3) ｜ Psalm 19

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