Amen. Would you open your Bibles tonight to Psalm 119? And I'm going to read in your hearing the very last stanza of Psalm 119. It's the Tav stanza, and you'll find that in verses 169 through 176. So Psalm 119, verses 169 to 176. This is the last time we'll be reading from this wonderful psalm, Psalm 119. I hope it has been profitable for you. Let us take the last ounces of goodness from it that we can, at least in our time together tonight, and listen carefully, for this is the Word of the Living God. Let my cry come before you, O Lord. Give me understanding according to your word. Let my plea come before you and deliver me according to your word. My lips will pour forth praise for you teach me your statutes. My tongue will sing of your word for all your commandments are right. Let your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts. I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. Let my soul live and praise you, and let your rules help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments." That's Father reading of God's Word. May he add his blessing to it. Would you bow your heads with me tonight as we ask for help in the ministry of the Word? Father, once again, your olive shoots are gathered in your house, and we are dependent upon the loving kindness that you shower down upon us through the person and work of your Son, Jesus Christ. Our trust, Father, we pray, would always be in you, and we pray that that trust would be strengthened tonight as the word is proclaimed. We pray that we would hear the words of our faithful shepherd, as they boom from heaven with hope and affirmation that our God is for us and not against us. We pray, Father, that we would take this consolation into the workplace tomorrow. We pray that we would take it into the private prayer closet as we come before Your throne of grace, begging for the souls of our children. begging for the souls of our loved ones who do not know you, begging for the souls of friends and family and loved ones who currently reject you, but knowing that there is yet hope while breath is in their lungs. And we pray, Father, that this hope would, like winds in a sail, carry us on to that great land beyond death. So, Father, would you do that tonight through your word, and we ask these things in Christ's name, amen. when we come to Psalm 119 in this last stanza, and it has something of an anticlimactic end. We were at Williamsburg the other night, and we went for the fireworks show. I can't remember what it's called, but Towards the end of the fireworks show they just throw everything out there everything including the kitchen sink and all these explosions are going off There's a wheel going around with fire on it's a pyromaniacs paradise It's just an amazing thing all the fireworks all the stops are pulled out But that's not how this ends this doesn't end with a climactic in it ends really with an anti-climactic in I want you to remember that that throughout this psalm the psalmist has been extolling the glory of God's word, the power of God's word, the life-giving and life-transforming quality of God's word. And the psalmist has said on numerous occasions that he loves God's law. He meditates on it day and night. He gets up in the early watches of the night and the early watches of the morning, and he meditates on God's Word, and he sticks close to God's Word, and he's obedient to God's Word. And then he also says, I have disgust for those who don't do the same. The other side of the coin of a righteous desire is a righteous hatred of those who reject the God that you love. And we saw that there's a place for that. There is a place for holy zeal. But that is why when we get to the very last verse of this stanza, I draw your attention to verse 176, we read words that would surprise us. He says in verse 176, I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Doesn't that seem a little out of place to you? With everything that he has said, with the disposition that he has exuded throughout this psalm. And if you think that's confusing, then read the commentators and you'll be even more confused. They don't understand it because in verse 110 of the same psalm, he says, the wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts. Well, now wait a minute, which one is it? Have you not strayed, or have you strayed? In 110 you had not strayed, and now in 176 you have gone astray. Is this a contradiction in the Bible? Has something changed to affect his outlook? Did he apostatize? Is that how he's going to go out? I mean, if you were writing this psalm, would you really want to go out this way, in such an anticlimactic way? Is this psalmist religiously schizophrenic? Speaking out of one side of His mouth in one moment and out of the other in the next? Well, the answer is no, none of the above. The attitude that says in one breath, I do not stray from Your Word, and in the next breath, I have gone astray like a lost sheep, is the experience of the justified sinner. It is what Luther said, simul iustis et peccator, at once justified and sinner. At once justified and sinner. There is a sense in which we go around with a split identity, is it not? Is it not the case that we go around wondering, which one is my master today? Is it the world? Is it the flesh? Is it the devil? Or is it my Lord Jesus Christ? And if you don't see that as something common in your own life, then I question if you've really been born again, because every Christian struggles with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Every Christian is weighed down with the guilt of not being as obedient to the Lord as they can be. And so I see in this last stanza, really, what I'm calling confessions of a justified sinner. And I see six confessions. I promise you they'll be really, really quick. Six confessions of a justified sinner. And the first one is the one I've already mentioned, that the justified sinner has the audacity to admit that he is both saint and sinner. This attitude that says that I am the saint and sinner is the same attitude that says, I believe, help my what? My unbelief. I am faithful, help my unfaithfulness. I am strong, help me when I am weak. I think it's in 2 Peter. This is off the cuff, so excuse me, but it's in 2 Peter that for many, many years would always confuse me. In 2 Timothy 2, Paul breaks out in a saying, which was probably common among early Christians, verse 11. He says, the saying is trustworthy. For if we have died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure with Him, we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will deny us. You know what denial is? Denial is the cessation of faith. And faith is the only handle we have on the Lord Jesus Christ. But then this last phrase, if we are faithless, He remains faithful. For many years, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that as a little natural born Pharisee. But you must understand that faith and faithfulness aren't always the same. Sometimes we go through seasons where we're not very faithful. And I thank God for this text in the Bible, because it says on the one hand, if you deny Him, He's gonna deny you, game over. But if we are faithless, we're not talking about a life of faithlessness, we're talking about pockets of faithlessness. If we are faithless, He remains faithful. I praise God for that verse. Do you praise God for that verse? The sinner in every one of us thanks God for that verse. The sinner in every one of us remembers what it was like when the gospel beckoned us to come to her pearly gates. And it was because we recognized that Christ, the real Jesus Christ, the real Jesus Christ that speaks through His church, The real Jesus Christ that moves in the hands and the feet of the church is the Jesus Christ who offers the free grace gospel to anyone who will repent and believe. You don't have to work for it. You don't have to keep your nose clean. All you have to do is come and believe and God's going to do the rest. You say, don't say that. You've got to preach a hard gospel. I preach a free gospel. This gospel is free. Come sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, Republicans and Democrats and independents. Come one and all because Jesus offers us free salvation. It's Peter who had the same attitude, remember what Peter said? Even if I'll fall away on your account, I will never leave. I never will. Two hours later, I do not know this man. But he didn't ultimately deny the Lord. In fact, the Lord restored him in his moment of faithlessness. The faithfulness of Jesus Christ gave him the justification he needed. You see, it takes audacity to be a sinner, but it takes even greater audacity to be a justified sinner. Because we live with a tension and angst that is the faint echo of the eschaton. What the psalmist models before us is the attitude that says, I am not as sanctified as I would like you to think that I am, but I want to be okay with that. I have too high of a view of the holiness of God to pass off my feeble attempt at holiness as true, genuine, and impeccable holiness. You see, the higher view of holiness that we have, the more honest, listen to me, we are with ourselves, with our God, and with our brothers and sisters. It's the audacity that allows us to be a sinner and to be okay with it. Only the sinner who is at once sinner and justified can be okay with being a sinner. You should not be okay with being a sinner if you do not have the righteousness of Jesus Christ to cover you. There's something exceedingly refreshing about Christians who have the audacity to be both sinner and saint, because they can be honest. So that's a first mark, a first confession. The second confession of the justified sinner is this. The justified sinner has the audacity to admit that he feels tension over the whole enterprise of praying. Look at verse 169, coming back to Psalm 119. Look at verse 169. A, in 170A, I'll be there in just a moment, but I want you to get there. I want you to be honest with yourself for a moment. When you think about and talk about and act out this thing called prayer, Do we really believe that it matters when you pray? Do you really believe that? Do you really believe that your prayers are getting beyond the ceiling? Well, we have two answers to that question. The first answer is the one that we give with our words, and the second answer is the one we give with our actions. The first answer is the right theological answer, and the second answer is the amount of wear and tear that we actually have on our knees. And these answers are not always the same, are they? And I think that the disparity between those two answers, what we say and the wear and tear on our knees, really shows us that we have this innate distrust of prayer. I mean, let's be honest, if we really believed that prayer was doing what we say that it's doing, what the Bible teaches that it's doing, what God wants us to do as we engage in it, we would do it a whole lot more than we do, right? Do we really believe that God hears us? Do we really believe that it matters? Do we really believe that it's changing anything? Do people just pray to make themselves feel good? Just to give you an example, how many times have you said that you would pray for somebody and you didn't? Be honest, don't raise your hand. How many times do you say, I'll pray for you, and you didn't? Well, realize that other people do that too. And what does that tell us about prayer? Well, I'm gonna tell you a secret. I think the psalmist dealt with this same thing, and I'm gonna tell you why. Look at verse 169a and 170a. He's praying a prayer, and then he says this, let my cry come before you, O Lord, and let my plea come before you. You know what he's doing? He's praying that God would hear his prayer. He's praying that his prayers be heard. And he has the audacity to admit that, he has the audacity to pray that, he has the audacity to have it enshrined in scripture for the succeeding generations of God's faithful people to see, hey, it's okay, it's okay, I could be honest if I don't believe in prayer as much as I would like. And now hopefully this would cause us to drive ourselves to our knees, to be driven to our knees, because even if we are honest with ourselves that we don't pray like we ought, with the intensity that we ought, we should certainly pray that we would pray with the intensity that we ought. Thirdly, the justified sinner has the audacity to admit that he doesn't have it all figured out. Look at verse 169b. Give me understanding according to your word, and then 171b, for you teach me your statutes. You know, some people are afraid to admit that they have things to learn. You know, mature Christians are not only willing to admit that they haven't got it all figured out, but they're also the same Christians that are eager to learn from you if you have some wisdom to drop on them. Think about that for a second. The justified sinner is willing to admit, I don't have it all figured out. My hands and my heart and my mind are open for you to show me, for you to display before me, for you to teach me. I want to be a mathetas. I want to be a disciple. I want to be a learner. I want to be a follower of Jesus. And I realize that Jesus is exuded in the life of every single regenerated person in this congregation, and I want to see what I can learn from them. We all learn from one another, do we not? Do we not see different contours and shape and features of the life of Jesus in every single member of this place? We see His kindness, we see His resilience, we see His courage, we see His mercy, we see His grace exhibited in the life of the saints. Number four, which is really the flip side of number three, the justified sinner has the audacity to admit that he needs help. Look at verse 175b. And let your rules help me, verse 173a, let your hand be ready to help me. Now listen. If you want help, if you're Christian enough to admit that you need it in the first place, you need to not only ask that the Lord would give you help, but look at verse 175b, and let your rules help me. How do we let God's rules help us? It's not simply reading a verse and calling your biblical counselor in the morning. Read two verses and call me in the morning. That's not how it works. It's reading those verses, internalizing those verses, meditating on those verses, praying those verses, crying over those verses. Declaring God's promises because they are for His children and then asking your brothers and sisters to keep your feet close to the fire so that you will actually live those things out. That's how God's rules help you. Make no mistake, there is no kind of osmosis where the closer I am to the ink on the page, the more likely it is that I'm going to do those things. It doesn't work that way. We have to walk in the way of His law and let His rules help us. And the first step to doing that is admitting that we need help. Fifthly, the justified sinner has the audacity to be jubilant. Look at verse 171a. My lips will pour forth phrase the word the verb there in the Hebrew is literally Gush forth a gushing forth of praise and my tongue will sing of your word. Do you know that in Colossians Paul says? Sing psalms hymns and spiritual songs. Let your lips be filled with psalms hymns and spiritual songs to one another. I don't think Paul is simply saying Just during the worship service You know, I've been in different cultures, in ministry context, in education context, and there are some cultures that have not lost this place for singing in the context of fellowship. It's a kind of serenading, but in Christian circles, it's a serenading unto God, as it were, and brothers and sisters will just get together in informal context, and they'll just break out in song. They'll just break out in song. But I think something that we need to hear as Reformed folk, Reformed Christians, is we need to push back on the fear that if we get too happy, We get too jubilant. We might be labeled a charismatic. But we just can't let that happen. We are the frozen chosen and we're proud of it. It's okay. It's okay. Listen to let your lips gush forth praise. And this morning, I heard lips gushing forth praise. I heard it when we were singing, It Is Well With My Soul. I heard the scars of trial and tribulation that have been applied with the balm of Gilead breaking forth in melodious and harmonious song as they were crying out for the eschaton. And that's good, beloved. That's the way it should be. And there's nothing wrong with lifting your hands. Yes, I said that. There's nothing wrong with that. You look at the psalmist and they did it often, lifting up their hands to Jah, to Yahweh. It's okay to be jubilant. Well, then finally, The justified sinner has the audacity to embrace their pilgrim status and long for something greater than the world can offer. Look at verse 174. He simply says, I long for your salvation. Now, we've talked about this before, but your salvation is not complete, beloved. You are not saved yet. Yeah, I was saved 2,000 years ago when Jesus died. Okay, we get it. You've watched the R.C. Sproul video. Wonderful, okay? We understand that we were justified at the cross, but the full package of salvation is not until Christ breaks through the clouds, judges the living and the dead, eradicates sin and disease and pain and suffering. and he takes his elect into the new heavens and the new earth, then you will be saved. Then no longer will you deal with the world and the flesh and the devil. The devil will be thrown into the lake of fire. The world will be burnt down to a core and rebuilt. The heavens as well. And then you can truly say you will be saved. And I just want to ask you a question tonight. Do you long for that? Is that something for which you long? Or do you simply long for your next promotion? Or do you simply long for Don't know your portfolio to get bigger. Do you simply long for your kids to get out of the house? You simply long for your retirement party and your retirement so you can go around the country collecting rocks For what do you long? The justified sinner longs for the eschaton. He longs for the new heavens and the new earth. He longs for the full and complete salvation that was purchased by Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. Now tonight, If you hear of this and you say, this is foreign to me, I don't know what you're talking about. How do I get this covering of sin? How do I get this transfer of Christ's righteousness to my account so that when I stand before that bar of judgment on the final day, and my friend, I promise you, you will. God says to me, why should I let you into heaven? You will be able to say by repenting of your sins and believing in Jesus Christ, it is nothing that I have done or left undone. But it is all because of what Jesus Christ has done. His perfect life, which is transferred to me through faith and my sin and the punishment and the wrath of God that I deserve was poured out on him in an unmitigated way on Calvary. So that now through faith, the simplicity of faith, I believe in Jesus, I get his righteousness and he takes my wrath. And God will say, come in to the paradise that was prepared before the foundation of the world just for you. Well done, my good and faithful servant. Would you like that tonight? Well, you can have it if you turn from your sins and believe in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you that one of the things the gospel does is it allows us to have a holy transparency that defies the religiosity of the Pharisees and befuddles the perfunctoriness of many religious organizations. And Father, we confess that we have remnants of that in our church. We're not a perfect church. We're not a perfect people. But we do thank You, Father, that we don't have to be that way. We can truly worship in spirit and truth. We can live our lives out, whether we are on the mountaintops of life or down in the bitter valleys, knowing that beyond all this is something reserved in heaven that can never be taken away. And beyond all this, there is a God transcendent outside of me, apart from me, wholly other than me, that though He is wholly other than me, knows every hair upon my head, and cares for me more than He cares for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. Father, we pray that that God, You, would be all of our gods tonight. And we ask these things in the strong and mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen. At this point,