Well, good morning once again. As always, it is a great honor and privilege to have this opportunity to worship with you and to preach to you from God's holy and sufficient word. Well, this morning I would invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 139. Psalm 139. And this is a passage of scripture that I'm sure many of you will be very familiar with. Now, what I want to do this morning is to read the entire 139th Psalm, but then I want to narrow our focus to verses 17 through 24 of this psalm. If we were to try to consider all that is contained in this psalm, we would probably be here for several hours, and so I want us to focus in on these last few verses of the psalm and hopefully draw out a few key truths that will both encourage and exhort your souls this morning. Let's go to Psalm 139 and let's read the word of our holy God. To the choir master, a Psalm of David. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, oh God. How vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. Oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God. Oh, men of blood, depart from me. They speak against you with malicious intent. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred. I count them my enemies. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. With us the reading of God's word, and may his people say, amen. Let's go to the Lord and ask for his help as we consider his word this morning, let's pray. Holy Father, as we open up your word this morning, we ask that you would use it to the good of our souls. May it meet each of our varied and particular needs. Lord, I know that some of your saints here this morning need encouragement. And Lord, I know that others need exhortation. And Lord, I rest secure knowing that your word is sufficient for the sanctification of your people. O Lord, cause us to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. Well, as we begin our consideration of verses 17 through 24 of the psalm, I would direct your attention back to verse 17 and the beginning of verse 18. Verse 17. It reads, how precious to me are your thoughts, oh God. How vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand. Well, at first glance, this vast sum of God's thoughts could be attributed in a general way to the divine perfection of God, which we know as His omniscience. That is, God has all knowledge. I would venture to say that every one of you in this room have been taught since you were a child the truth that God knows all things. His knowledge is infinite. meaning it has no bounds. God knows everything, and he knows everything perfectly. But verse 17 is not a standalone verse, but rather it is built upon the preceding 16 verses of this passage. Now, when we read this psalm just a few moments ago, We saw time and time again in the first 16 verses that the focus of this perfect and vast knowledge of God is not so much on his general knowledge of all things, but rather it is focused on God's perfect and penetrating and all-encompassing knowledge of the individual. And in the immediate context of the psalm, that individual is, of course, David. Look with me once again at verses one through three. And I think this sufficiently illustrates this. And notice the pronouns that are used in these verses. It says, oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. And so in verse 17, We see that what thrills the heart of David is that the infinite and holy and transcendent God knows him personally. And David has a very high view of God, and that's very important. And thus, when he contemplated the reality that this God knows him personally, it thrilled his heart. So I want to ask you this morning, Does the fact that the infinite God knows you personally, does that thrill your heart this morning? Have you ever taken time to think about that reality? Because it should thrill your soul to think and to know that God knows you, really knows you, perfectly knows you. This is very similar to David's amazement that he expressed in Psalm 8. If you would flip with me to Psalm 8. Psalm 8. And if you're not familiar with Psalm 8, in that psalm what we see is David is basically outside and he's outside at night and he's looking up at the stars and he is thinking about the vastness of God's creation. And I'm sure all of us have done that at one point in our lives. We've walked outside on a beautiful night and seen the stars and just begin to think about the vastness of God's creation and to think that God created all of this. I often think, the Bible says that the stars are the work of his fingers. And I've often thought, I'm sure you've had, like washing your hands, get a little water on your hands and you can kind of flick your fingers and how the little dots will get on the mirror. I think that's what it was for God to create all the stars that we see. He just flicks his fingers and they're there. And so we see the vastness of God's creation. And as David is contemplating that reality, notice with me verses three through four. And he asked the following question in his prayer to God. Well, I got to turn there myself, don't I? Psalm 8, verses 3 and 4. He says, when I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? Have you ever stopped to think about how small you are in the context of the universe? I know that I have, and that can really boggle your mind and make you feel very, very small. And yet the Bible said God knows the very number of hairs on your head. And here's the thing that is really amazing to me. God's knowledge of you is not like your knowledge of your spouse, for example. You probably know a lot about your husband or your wife, but you don't know everything about them. Even though you know a lot, you don't know everything about them. In fact, you don't even know everything about your own self. We don't even know our own selves perfectly. But that's not so with God. God knows every single thing about you. And that's an amazing reality. And so as David is contemplating the reality that God knows every single thing about him, in communion with God, David exclaims, in verse 17 of our passage, Psalm 139, he exclaims, how precious to me are your thoughts, O God. Now, I think as we move into the second part of verse 18, we get some information that helps us to understand why David is so thankful and amazed that God has this perfect and comprehensive knowledge concerning him. Verse 18b says, David says, I awake and I am still with you. Dear ones, this is very critical for us to see. The fact that God knows us personally and that he knows every single thing about us, that and that alone is not sufficient to give us peace and comfort. The all-knowing God knows all the details about every person. But for the wicked, think about that. For the wicked, that is a frightening reality. That reality should cause shivers to run down the spine of every person who is a rebel against the Almighty God. To think that God knows everything about you. The Lord Jesus Christ says in Revelation 2.23, I am he who searches mind and heart and I will give to each of you according to your works. For the person outside of Christ, God's comprehensive knowledge of them is not a comfort to their soul, but rather it establishes the fact that the just God will make them pay for every sin that they've ever committed. Now that's a frightening reality. But how many sins have you committed in your life? Too numerous to count, right? How many sins have you even committed without even realizing it? You can't even count the sins that you know, much less the sins that you don't even know that you committed. And although we don't know ourselves perfectly, we do know ourselves enough that we can confess with John Newton, who wrote that song Amazing Grace, we can confess with him that we are great sinners. Remember what he said at the end of his life? I've forgotten most everything, but two things I know, that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great savior. So although we don't know ourselves perfectly, we know that much, right? We know that we are great sinners. We don't know all of our sin that we've committed, but all of our sin is open to the all-seeing eye of God. And so surely the understanding that God's perfect and comprehensive knowledge of who we are, even now through the secret chambers of our heart, is not sufficient to comfort our souls. That truth by itself would only cause us to tremble with fear. Think of it this way, if you were guilty of great crimes, and you stood before a judge and he knew all of your crimes, the judge's knowledge of your crimes wouldn't make you feel good with it. It'd make you afraid, right? And rightly so. But what we see in verse 18b, again, is something so crucial for us to see, it's amazing. David says, I awake and I am still with you. Sometimes I think that we should be amazed that when we wake up, that our spouses are still with us. They know our faults and our sins. More than anyone else in the world yet, when we wake up, they are still with us. And the main reason they're with us is not so much that you're just this amazing and perfect person that you're so easy to live with, but rather it's because they have made a covenant promise and commitment to love you, to love you both in the good times and in the bad times. They love you when you're at your best and they love you when you are at your worst. So to wake up and to say, you are still with me, that is amazing thought, right? And this covenant love, this covenant marriage love, is meant to be a picture of the covenant love that God has for us. But it's not a perfect picture. Because in marriage, we may have this covenant commitment to our spouse, and often, hopefully not often, but sometimes, our commitment to them is, we might say, well, I don't like them, but I love them. I've made this covenant commitment to them, but I don't really like them right now. And I'm sure we've all experienced that to some degree. But that's not so with God. If you would, turn with me to Jeremiah, the book of Jeremiah, and to chapter 32. Jeremiah 32. Let's begin in verse 40. We're going to read verses 40 and 41 of Jeremiah 32. God says, I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me." So you think of that verse, it's an amazing reality. God has made an everlasting covenant with his people. He will not turn away from doing good to them. But oftentimes, when we think about our relationship with God, we think that maybe God thinks about us in this way. Well, I've made this covenant promise to do this person good. I don't really like them. They're a worm in my eyes. I really can't stand them. But because I've made this covenant promise, I have to do them good. Because I'm a faithful God, I don't break my covenant promises, and therefore, I won't turn away from doing them good, but I really don't like them. Well, verse 41 shows us that's not the way that God thinks of us. Notice verse 41. God says, I will rejoice in doing them good. And I will plant, so I will rejoice in doing them good and I will plant them in this land of faithfulness with all my heart and all my soul. And so God's covenant promises to us is not that he's made a covenant promise he doesn't really like us. No, not only does he covenant to us, he loves us. He delights in us. He loves his people. And that ought to encourage our hearts this morning. And so when we think of that, when David arises in the morning and says, God is still with me, it's not that God is with me, well, God has to be with me because he made a covenant. No, God wants to be with David. Now that's an amazing thought, right? To think of all your sinfulness, everything that you've done to break God's holy law, and yet when you awake in the morning, God is there because God wants to be there with you. That's an amazing thought. And so David rises in the morning knowing that God has brought him into a covenant relationship with himself. And really, the whole Bible, the whole message of salvation is built on this idea of God's gracious covenant. We saw this back in December. We went through five weeks looking at this reality. And the end goal of God entering a saving covenant with his people, we find it in the words of Revelation 21 verse 3. There we read, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. You've heard me say this many times, but the very definition of what it means to have eternal life, to be saved, to be a Christian, the very definition of what that is, is to have been brought into this covenant relationship with God. where God has committed to you, to love you, and to do good to you, and he rejoices to do so. He says, I will be your God, and you'll be my people, and I will be with you. Jesus says in John 17, 3, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. The very definition of what it means to be spiritually dead is to be separated from God. That's what death is, right? When you die physically, what happens is your soul and your body are separated, right? Well, spiritual death is to be separated from God. Well, if death is separation from God, then what is the opposite of that? Life, right? So if death is separation from God, life is to have covenant union with God, to have God with us. You see that? And so spiritual life is to be brought into a covenant relationship with God where God himself commits himself to loving you forever and ever and ever. Not because you have earned it or are good enough, because he in his grace has chosen to set his covenant love upon you. And so as David is thinking back on God's perfect knowledge of him, that dates back not just to David's birth, but dating all the way back to when David was being formed in his mother's womb, and even dating back before that. Notice verse 16 with me once again of Psalm 139. It says, your eyes saw my unformed substance, in your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. And so as David rises in the morning, his heart is encouraged and stirred to worship as he reminds himself that God has set his covenant love upon him even before the very foundation of the world. Before anything in creation existed, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He gave us to his son in that eternal covenant. Dear ones, the contemplation of that reality ought to cause every single one of us to say with David, bless the Lord, O my soul, for I awake and I am still with you. And so with this further light of verse 18b, we can now go back to verse 17 and see more clearly what is meant by David's worshipful statement, how precious to me are your thoughts, O God. As these words are set in the covenantal context of verse 18, we understand that God's thoughts towards David are more than merely his perfect and complete knowledge about David, but rather it reveals God's intentional and covenant love towards David. In other words, the context of God's thoughts towards David are not primarily informational, but rather they are relational. You see that? We've all heard the statement, right, that it's the thought that counts, right? I'm sure we've all heard that. Especially some of us men, when we give a gift that's not all that great, but we hear that consolation prize. It's the thought that counts. But men, we all know that when it comes to loving our wives, for example, one of the most important things that we can do to show our wives that we love them is to have our thoughts directed to them. That's so important. When your wife knows that you are thinking about her throughout the day and that your thoughts concerning her are thoughts of love and affection and a desire for her good, there is nothing else that will bring her more secure marital happiness than that reality, to know that her husband is thinking about her and his thoughts toward her are of love and good intentions. When David says, how precious to me are your thoughts, O God, he has the redemptive and covenantal love of God for him in his mind. And so the main truth that I want you to see from these two verses this morning is that the God who has set his love on you from before the foundation of the earth is thinking of you at this very moment. Think about that. This great God, is thinking about you at this very moment. His thoughts are turned towards you. Not just his general knowledge of all things, but his covenant love is turned towards you even at this very moment. His thoughts are turned towards you and his thoughts concerning you are thoughts of mercy and grace and love. And further, his thoughts towards you are thoughts of faithful commitment to you. No one can snatch you out of his hand. Nothing can separate you from His love. The omnipotent God is for you and His thoughts towards you this morning are for your good. And as I think of that blessed reality that God is thinking of us, It reminds me of Christ in the high priestly prayer of John 17. You know, in that prayer where Christ is praying for his disciples, right? But not only does he pray for his immediate disciples, what does he say in that chapter? He's also praying for those who will believe. So even in John 17, Christ's thoughts were towards you. He was thinking of you in that high priestly prayer. I think of the reality that he set his face like flint to go to the cross. He would not be turned away. When Peter tried to stop him, he said, get behind me, Satan. And he did this for the joy that was set before him. And what was the joy that was set before Christ? That he would be the firstborn among many brothers. That joy was that the reason that he went to suffer on that cross is that he would get the reward of being with you for all eternity. That's an amazing thought. His thoughts were towards you on that cross. He loved you and he died for you if you are a believer. I think of how Christ ever lives to make intercession for us. The Bible says he ever lives to make intercession. Well, in order to make intercession for someone, your thoughts have to be turned towards that person, right? You can't intercede for somebody if you don't think about them, right? Okay? And so the Bible says Christ ever lives to make intercession for us, meaning he's interceding for us right now. meaning his thoughts are turned to us right now and he intercedes for us. That's an amazing reality and he's preparing a place for us and he will return to dwell with us for all eternity. And so brothers and sisters, in light of all these truths, can we say together this morning how precious to us are the thoughts of our Savior God? Well, now let us turn our attention in this portion of scripture to verses 19 through 22. There we read once again, oh that you would slay the wicked, oh God. Oh men of blood, depart from me. They speak against you with malicious intent. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, oh Lord? Do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred. I count them my enemies. Well, no doubt this seems to be a very drastic turn in the psalm. We just went from the mountaintop of worshiping the God who has loved us from before the very foundation of the world and continues to love us even this morning, and now we plunge into the valley of life lived in the midst of a fallen world. There are at least three things I want us to see from these verses. First, communion with God increases our awareness of wickedness. David simply opens his eyes, as it were, to observe his surroundings and is reminded that he lives in the midst of a multitude of people who are the enemies of God. How often have you read your Bible in the morning and had your time of prayer and your time of devotion and enjoyed communing with God, only to flip on the news or check social media and to be quickly reminded that you live in a wicked, wicked world? Dear ones, you will do well to remember and to understand that as you grow to love God more and more, the more your soul will be saddened and angered by sin. And I think that's a good gauge for the health of our souls. Are you becoming numb to the sinfulness that surrounds you on all sides, or are you becoming more sensitive to sin, both in your own heart and in those around you? I know some of us maybe work in certain environments where we see certain sins on a regular basis, and we can become numb to those things. But as you grow closer to God, those sins should hurt your heart more. They should cause you to be more and more sensitive. And so be wary of that. If you sense yourself becoming numb to sin, that's not the way to go. Your heart should be becoming more and more sensitive to sin around you. It should break your heart when you see people sinning against God. You understand that? The Puritan William Williams, it's a great name, once wrote, sin will be burdensome if the Savior is precious to you. So if the Savior is precious to you, you ought to be realizing that sin is burdensome to you. If sin is not burdensome to you, then the Savior is not precious to you. That's what he's saying. And so the more clearly you see the beauty and the splendor of God as revealed in the face of Christ, the uglier sin will become to your eyes as we are enabled to see it for what it really is. And so I ask you the question, is your heart becoming more and more burdened by the sinfulness of this world? Secondly, from verses 19 through 22, we see that the doctrine of God's simplicity is instructive and encouraging to the people of God who live in the midst of a wicked people. In our passage this morning, we see that oftentimes when we are contemplating any particular perfection of God, our minds and our hearts will be reminded of another perfection of God. When we speak of God's simplicity, what we mean by the doctrine of God's simplicity is basically this, that God is not composed of different parts, right? We know God has no body, right? He doesn't have two arms and two legs. You can't break God up into different parts, okay? He's not a physical being, he's a spiritual being. He's a spirit, okay? So you can't divide him up in parts. But not only can you not divide him up in physical parts, you can't divide him up in spiritual parts. You can't say that God is part love and part justice and part wrath and part goodness and part faithfulness. He's not a composite of all these different parts, but rather He just is God, okay? So we would say God is love, He is good, He is righteous, He is holy, right? He's not part of these things. But that can be really taxing on the brain to think about. In fact, it can just overwhelm our minds to even try to consider that. But God, in his gracious condescension to us, has been pleased to reveal himself to us in such a way that our finite minds are able to distinguish between the various perfections of God. For if we couldn't do that, we couldn't even think about God. You understand that? So God has revealed himself to us in such a way that we can distinguish between these various perfections. But we must always remember that the perfections of God are not separate things in God. James P. Boyce once wrote, we declare that his nature is so purely or simply one as not to be compounded of separate substances as matter and spirit, or even of the same substance in different forms, or of a substance with separable attributes. And we assert that even his attributes are one with his essence. I know it's a lot, but the point is, God is simple, he can't be composed in different parts, and so therefore, When we think of the various attributes of God or various perfections of God, what you'll tend to find is this. When you think about the great love of God, you can't think about the love of God before you also start thinking about the justice of God, okay? Because you can't divide God up into these different parts, okay? So anytime you think of any perfection of God, naturally your mind will begin to think of the other perfections of God, because God is one, God is simple. And so as David considers the infinite knowledge of God and the love of God for his people, and then as he surveys the wickedness of God's enemies, it causes David to pray that God would act in accordance with his very nature. The God who knows and loves his people perfectly is also the God who is fully aware of the wickedness of his enemies and who will mete out perfect justice. And so although this transition from verse 18 to verse 19 seems very drastic in our minds, really this is a very natural transition because of the very nature of God himself. The omniscient God knows his people perfectly and comprehensively, and this is an encouragement to us because we can assure ourselves that God has not blindly or ignorantly entered into covenant with us. But if this be true, then it is also true that the omniscient God knows his enemies perfectly and comprehensively, and this is to be a great terror to the wicked and an encouragement to the righteous, because the righteous God must deal justly with the wicked. As one writer has stated, without any doubt or deviation, God will justify and glorify all those who trust in Christ. And without any doubt or deviation, God will punish the wicked. And this is meant to be a comfort to our souls as the people of God. And I trust that your soul is comforted by that reality this morning. So when David looked around and what he saw was wickedness, right? And we see that in our country, right? We talk about it all the time. Our nation's so wicked and everything's bad and we're so discouraged by all the wickedness around us. We should not forget the reality that God, the very God who perfectly knows us and loves us, also perfectly knows the wicked. And the God who has set his covenant love upon us and mercy will also deal justly with the wicked. And we ought to be encouraged by that reality. And so our contemplation of God's perfect knowledge and his covenant love for us is to also lead us to think about God's perfect justice of the wicked. And therefore, even contemplating wickedness should cause us to praise and to worship our God. You see that? Thirdly, in verses 19 through 22, we see that increasing love for God results in increasing hatred for his enemies. Now this is a hard verse for some people to think through. But John Calvin once noted, he said, the dog barks when his master is attacked. Right? If you love somebody and somebody attacks somebody that you love, what are you going to do to that person? You're going to defend, you're going to go against them. J.C. Ryle made a similar observation when he stated, he that is not zealous against error is not likely to be zealous for truth. If you don't hate wickedness, if you don't hate error, it's because you don't love goodness and you don't love truth. And so these verses where David strongly declares his hatred of the wicked, It's tough for us to grasp because we've always heard the statement, well, shouldn't we hate the sin and love the sinner? You've heard that before, right? And so how do we think through that reality? Well, I think these verses here remind us that sin is not some abstract concept or force, which is often the way it's talked about. The Baptist Catechism that was written in 1693 answers the question, what is sin, in the following way. It says, sin is any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. If sin, by definition, is the transgression of the law, then that requires what? A transgressor. Okay? Sin is, by definition, a moral evil. And thus, for sin to take place, there must be a moral being who commits the sin. You understand that? So when a dog doesn't listen to you, he's not sinning, right? He's not a moral being. He's not breaking the law of God. But when we sin, we are moral creatures, right? And when we sin, we are breaking the very law of God. Sin requires a transgressor. It's not an abstract concept. So people are moral beings, people commit sins, and thus the enemies of God are not the sins, but rather the people who commit those sins. It's not the transgression that's the enemy of God, it's the transgressor that is the enemy of God. The enemies of God are those who do not love the Lord our God, and thus they refuse to submit to his Christ or to submit to his moral law. And further, these enemies of God are also the enemies of God's people. And so it's very simple. If we love God and are truly his willing subjects, then we by necessity must hate those whom he hates. And further, if we love God's people, then we must hate the enemies of God's people that would cause them harm. And so in light of this, David asked God both that justice will be done to the wicked and that God's righteous servants could experience relief from the wicked. And we should pray in the same way today, that God would exercise justice upon the wicked because they've offended God, but also that in God exercising justice upon the wicked, it would bring relief to the people of God. Brothers and sisters, sometimes as Christians, sometimes we live in some isolated culture sometimes, context, but you need to know this. There are wicked, wicked, wicked people in this world. There are evil people in this world. There are people who hate God and they hate you. Yes, we pray for their salvation, but we also pray that justice would be served so that these wicked people would not be able to harm the people of God. And then it is, as we read through this passage, it's as if David is seeking to prove the sincerity of his love for God by making it very clear where his allegiance lies. David desires to have a single eye fixed upon God. And so, too, our desire should be that God alone will be the object of our ultimate devotion. In other words, we don't align ourselves with wicked people in order to win them to Christ. We don't do that. We don't participate with wickedness so that we might befriend them so that we can win them to Christ. You don't evangelize a drunkard by becoming a drunkard, okay? Jesus sat with sinners, that's true, but he called those sinners to repent and believe the gospel. We need to understand that. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot be lovers of the world and lovers of God. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Dear ones, love what God loves and hate what God hates. Now let's move to the final verses of this wonderful portion of scripture. And here we see David's focus shift once again. And this time his focus shifts back to his covenant relationship with God. Let's read those verses once more as we bring our sermon to a close. Verses 23 and 24. Search me, O God. and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Well, here in these verses, once again, I would like to draw your attention to three truths, which I hope are an encouragement to your soul. First, the grace of the covenant of grace is both a pardoning grace and a purifying grace. You'll notice in verse 23 that David asked God to search him. But what does it say in verse 1 of Psalm 139? Notice what it says in verse 1. It says there that God has already searched David. He's already searched out David. So I think here we see the reality that if we have been brought into the covenant of grace with God through faith in Christ Jesus, God has already searched us in the sense that he's already dealt with our sins by the means of his justifying or pardoning grace. The Bible tells us that there is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. If you are in this gracious covenant with God, then you have received pardoning grace. Your sin debt has been canceled completely. Every single sin has been paid for through the blood of Christ. But the grace of this covenant does not end at justification. God in His grace will also sanctify us. In other words, in our salvation, God not only delivers us from the penalty of sin and justification, He also progressively delivers us from the power of sin and sanctification. As it says in 1 John, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So even though David's already been justified before God, he's already been searched out by God, his sins have already been paid for, he still says, oh God, search me and know my heart. And that should be our prayer as well. Even though your sins have already been paid for, we should continue to be crying out to God, search me, reveal my sin to me that I might repent of that sin and thereby be purified by your grace. Secondly, we see in these verses that the word, especially the preaching of the word, is the means that God uses to search the hearts of his people, leading to their ongoing sanctification. We, like David, are in need of God to reveal our sins to us so that we might, as our confession puts it, repent of our particular known sins particularly. But how does God reveal your sin to you? Does it come to you in a dream? Does he write it in the clouds? How does God reveal your sins to you? Does he give us any extra biblical revelation? Well, of course not. No, as it says in Hebrews 4.12, He uses the Word. He uses the Word. That verse says, For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing through the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Jesus prayed to his father in John 17 that the father would sanctify us in the truth. Then he defines what that truth is. He says, your word is truth. The appointed means that God has ordained for our growth and holiness is through the ministry of the word to our souls. And so would you have God search your heart and reveal your sins? so that you may repent of those sins. Well then, in faith, attend to the means of grace. Read your Bible, come to Bible study, listen to the sermons each week, have conversations with other people at the Bible, attend to the Lord's Supper. Attend to the means of grace, for it's through the word that God reveals our sins to us that we might repent of those sins and be purified by his grace. If you're not doing that, if you're not attending to the means of grace, then what you're saying is that you really don't want God to search your heart. That's really what's happening there. How often do you see people when they feel guilty about their sin, they're struggling, do they run to the word or do they run away from the word? Well, we should run to the word, right? But have you ever seen somebody running away from the word, away from the means of grace because they don't want their heart exposed? Because if you run to the word, your heart will be exposed before God. And that's what we need, and that's what David cries out for. He says, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Well, we can be sure that David also applied himself to understanding the word of God, and we ought to do the same as well. So commit yourself to knowing the word of God, for this is God's appointed means to sanctify you. And then lastly, as we bring the sermon to a close, we come to a most important point, and that is that the way that leads to everlasting life is Christ. As we notice the last verse of this passage, David's desire was to be led in the way everlasting. As we have seen, the word reveals our sin, but if all the word did was to show us our sins, that would not produce in us holiness of life, but rather it would lead us to utter despair. You understand that? The Word of God, yes, the Word of God is a mirror that shows us our sin through the law of God. But it's more than that, because if that's all it did, it would bloody our consciences without remedy. So we need more than the law, right? If all the Bible did was to say, you're a sinner, you're a sinner, you're a sinner, if that's all the Bible said, think about that for a moment. If you open the Bible and all it ever revealed was you have fallen short of the glory of God, you're a sinner, you were condemned before God, if that's all it said, you know what I would do? I'd quit reading it, right? If that's all it ever did, that would do no good for your soul. But thankfully, the word of God, in addition to revealing our sinfulness, also reveals to us the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It reveals to us the way in which our consciences can be cleansed from all sin. Christ, speaking of himself, said that he was the way, the truth, and the life. He didn't say he was a way, he said he was the way. There's only one way that leads to everlasting life. There's only one way that leads to forgiveness of sins, and he is that way. The early Christians understood that very well. In fact, we see in the Bible, what were they called? One of the things they were called, they were called followers of the way, right? And so may we too be followers of the way by turning away from our sin and turning to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, believing that he is able to save to the uttermost all those that have come to him by faith. Well, it is my prayer that all of us would be able to leave here this morning saying with David, how precious to me are your thoughts, oh God. If you are a Christian, God has loved you from before the very foundation of the world and he has proved this by the giving of his son and the saving of your soul through the work of the Holy Spirit. And so be encouraged to know that this God is for you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He will complete the good work that he has started in you because his thoughts are turned towards you and his thoughts about you are thoughts of mercy and goodness and kindness and faithful commitment to you. It's an amazing reality. God is thinking about you this morning, and his thoughts about you are this, that he would preserve your soul unto everlasting life. And if you're not a Christian here this morning, consider yourself blessed that you've heard the word of God preached this morning. For this is the appointed means of God to save sinners. God hates the wicked. If you're not a Christian, hear that. God hates the wicked. Do not continue in your wickedness. You will not win if you go to war against God. There has never, listen to this, there has never been a person who has ever rejected Christ and it ended up good for them at the end. Never, never happened, never will happen. But if you will humble yourself and come to Christ by simple faith, the Bible declares that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And so in the opposite manner, there has never been a sinner who has called upon the Lord for salvation, trusted in Christ with simple faith, that has ended up disappointed in the end. Christ saves every sinner that comes to him by faith. And so would you do that this morning? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the richness of it. Father, thank you for reminding us this morning of your great love for us in Christ. And Lord, as you have done for every single blood-bought believer that has gone on before us, would you lead us and would you keep us in the way everlasting? And it's in Christ's name that we do pray. Amen. At this time, if you would please stand and let's continue our worship by singing to God, hymn 437, Christ of All Myself.