We're back at our 1689. Let's pray real quick before we get started. Dear Heavenly Father, we do want to come before you and thank you for our time of Bible study. Lord, we pray for Diane that she'll get to film better. Lord, please don't let her get too sick. Lord, just all the stress and strain of being such a wonderful mom. and everything she does for us as a family and for all of her participation in every way. Lord, she gets frustrated and she gets just a feeling bad and feeling sick. And when that happens, Lord, it makes it hard for everybody because she does so much. And Lord, I want to pray for her. I want to pray for Brandon and for Emily during this time as he's proposing. pray that your hand will be on them though you'll protect them and Lord as I said last night when I pray that she's a godly wife and he's a godly husband I pray God that they do better than we did they that they were Lord they just see all the all the great and wonderful ways that Diane and I have been perfect examples of parenthood and husband and wifery and that we're the shining examples of all moral goodness and perfection and that's what he'll see. I know and I said that's what he'll see instead of the fact that we failed and we messed up and we've made mistakes and we've done so much wrong. Lord, I do pray that he remembers all the things that we've done right because of your grace and your kindness and your protection and that he will look at that and that will be his example. Lord, I do humbly come before you and I pray, Lord, that you'll look over us and let us glorify you in our hearts this day. In Jesus' name, amen. You know, you guys didn't have any faith in me. You just thought I was just gonna blow all this up. So anyway, we started in point number four last time we were together, last week, and we had made it pretty much through this section, and I just wanted to start out by reading the statement that we would hold to, that we look at, on talking about the issues of assurance of salvation and whatnot. And so we're talking about Article 18, Assurance of Salvation. And like I said, we're on point number four. We're almost done. We read this last week and started into it. Therefore, true believers may have the assurance of salvation in various ways, shaken, diminished, and intermittent. This may be because of the negligence in preserving it. or by the falling into some special sin which wounds the conscience and grieves the spirit. We had looked at some of this, but I wanted to just real quickly touch on this. In Psalm 51a, we read this, make me to hear the joy and gladness, make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. And he's just, what he's saying is in Psalm 51, Whenever somebody asks me, well, what do I need to do? How do I repent? I don't understand. I'm telling everybody, if you want a place in the Bible where it tells you how to repent, Psalm 51 is that one place. If I'm ever going to talk to somebody about what it means to repent, Psalm 51 is it. The entire chapter is devoted towards a broken contrite heart. It's somebody that has seen their wickedness and they want to be right with God. They want to be right with other people. They are not just sorry for the situation, they are sorry for what they've done, and that they've offended God. And now listen, make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. He's saying, God, you have broken my bones. Metaphorically speaking, he says, you physically crushed me. And Lord, I acknowledge that I deserve that. and I'm asking you now, Lord, to make me hear joy and gladness." And then we see verse 12, "...restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit." I mean, think about this. In the Old Testament, he's sinned against God and man, and he's murdered a person, he's deceived, he's committed adultery, he's He was even a bad king, and he did things that he shouldn't have done as a king, that are actually forbidden for a king to do. And you think, when it comes to verse 12, he says, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Well, how's that possible? He's saying, you're the only one that can save me. He's saying, Lord, I need salvation from you. And you gotta think, he's brought himself under such grievous sin. I mean, he's hid it for years. that he's brought himself under such a grievous sin for whatever amount of time. It's been for a long time that he's hid himself from the acknowledgement of his sin and now it's just flooding forward. Great. Listen to what he says in verse 14. Deliver me from blood guiltiness. Well, what does the Bible say? If you've sinned, you know, in the Old Testament, if you've sinned, in the Old Testament here, we're finding out that he's asking God to do what God won't do. I mean, under Old Testament law, he's done something that the penalty for this is death. The penalty for the things that he did was death. It wasn't pardon or anything like that, especially as king. It wasn't a pardon or anything like that, especially as a king. There was one order for the king, and yours to do righteousness, you're to uphold justice, you are to do what is right, you are to lead the people in righteousness, and he just did what was wicked. He deserved death. God didn't make a provision for that. God didn't say, well, if you mess up this one time, you know, well, you see this hot little number over here taking a bath outside on her roof. Which, why was she on the roof? I don't have a clue. But anyway. Maybe so but still man, dude, you know, but but here but think about this He he jumped into this wickedness and it went headlong into it and then he turns around says God Please deliver me The only reason that he could say that is he had no other hope I mean think about it when you're talking about repentance you realize you don't have any other hope You realize your guilt No, it's not like, you know, oh, I did something. I'm sorry. I'll do it again and again and again, which we all do guys. I do this. You do this. It's a sin that just keeps popping back up again and again. Yeah. Well, but think about it. What was what was it that God promised him would happen? John would die, but not just that. your your concubines your wives everyone you will see all of them yeah but he said you'll see all of them defiled so that before your very eyes and who was it that did it it was his own son Absalom in the presence of everybody It was just wicked. It was just way and he's going My own son. That's why he was in such grief over Absalom because he didn't want to condemn him and he want to kill him because he loved Absalom and Absalom Turned around and did this the most wicked thing and he's looking at him going. I did this I caused this I Caused the depravity of my son doing what he's doing because of my wickedness So he's sitting there saying in Psalm 51, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, because he can't find joy in anything else. I mean, you realize for the rest of his life, he was under such grievous, terrible times, very little laughter, very little joy in his life. He was under such grievous, you know, misery and sorrow. And the only joy he had was that God had saved him. He says, God, I want to be with you. I want to see you. That's the only thing I can hope for. He says, uphold me with your free spirit. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. Thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. You know what he's saying? He actually says it in another psalm, and I don't have it in front of my mind, but he says to the choir master, sing this aloud. And then basically he goes into this repetition about all his wickedness and how he deserved the wrath of God, the justice of God, the judgment of God, and all the stuff he had done. And then God is righteous. God is good. God has condemned me. God has judged me. God has weighed me and found me wanting." He just goes through all this stuff and he says, basically, long and short of it is, everything that God did was right and everything I did was wrong. And that's what we're talking about in this section. We fall into this wicked sin and it's going to wound our conscience, it grieves the spirit, and it will cause us sorrow and misery. Then let's keep going on. Or by some sudden and forceful temptation. So this is the section we're gonna start into, and I wanna see if maybe, possibly, we can get down through this entire thing in the next 30 minutes. Just real quickly, about the next 30 minutes or so and be done. Simply because I was hoping that we can get on to the next section next week, and there's not a whole lot left, so let's see if we can just storm through this. So let's see where we're at or by the fail of falling in Into some special sin which wounds the conscience and grieves the spirit or by some sudden and forceful temptation. So Somebody grabbed the psalm 116 111 Gracie you want to do that Gracie? It's that top one right there You know, there is a fact that every man's a liar But what's he saying? It's not just saying all men are liars. It's condemning, but wait a minute. But think about what the context here is. Okay, I understand. And I agree with that. Liar. You liar. Would I be right and righteous or would I be in sin if I just walked around and called people liars all the time? without any real reason to condemn somebody. You see what I'm saying? Yes, all men are liars. Look, every one of us are. We've lied. It's probably a daily habit for most people is to lie. However, if I walk around and I just say in my haste, think about what it's saying. I've said in my haste, Well, you're just a liar. I can't believe anything you say. Because here's the truth of it. We all hate being lied to, and yes, we're all liars, but if I assume that everything you've ever said was a lie, because you're a liar, guess what? I'm in sin. But think about this, too. We sin in God's Word. And we always think of this in His Word. We lie to ourselves and to God all the time when we don't And think about what you're getting at here. When you're talking about the reason for a lack of assurance, that's one of those things. When I'm so quick to want to condemn everyone else, I heard this actually said the other day, and I don't know who said it, but it's actually, I believe, no, not you. I know it wasn't you. It was actually, I was listening to a sermon talking about this. A person who is quick to attack and judge everyone else usually has a guilty heart. I mean, that's the truth. When we're so quick to attack everyone else, it's usually because we have a guilty heart. We're actually hiding something that's in us. It's the same thing with an angry person, with a person that just goes attacking everybody so quickly. It's usually because there's something in them that fills the guilt and the weight of something in their lives to sin. Okay, Kristen, do Psalm 77, seven to eight, please. Is the story behind the verses that are going on here? Because each one of them, if you look at them in all of these circumstances, they don't exactly what you would normally think of as fitting the context of what we're talking about. But you have to look at the story in the heart behind what's being said in each one of these. We've been saying that, or by some failing or falling into some, let me try that again, or by their falling into some special sin which wounds the conscience and grieves the spirit. or by some sudden or forceful temptation. Now we're not talking specifically in these verses about the actual sin, the actual temptation, but the repercussions of it, right? Now think about this. The truth of the matter is that David and others have fallen into massive, grievous sin. And you hear the words that they come out with as their plea to God. You know, I said in my haste, that's honesty. You know, that's honesty. Look, I have been a judgmental hypocrite. I have said all men are liars. I have condemned people unrighteously. Okay, I've done what's not just. Psalm 77, seven through eight. Will the Lord cast off forever? Lord, I've been going through this. I've got these, you know, valley of dry bones. I've been through these broken bones. Lord, are you gonna cast me away forever? Yes, I deserve the judgment. I deserve this valley. I deserve this wrath. Lord, will you please look upon me with favor? I know I deserve. He's saying that he knows that he has done such grievous sin that he deserves to be cast out forever. But his lament is he knows the goodness of God, he knows the grace of God, he knows the sanctification of God, he knows the love of God, he knows that God, while he is just, also desires to be the justifier. And so that's what's going on here. Just means to uphold what's right. It's to do that which is justice and which is right. Will the Lord cast off forever? Will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Does his promise fail forevermore? So the question is, in this little section, is yes, I'm a grievous wicked sinner. But can my wickedness outweigh God's goodness, His graciousness, His kindness? Yeah, He can cast me into hell. Okay? And you've got to think about this. It's talking about assurance. How much sinning can you do before God says, I'm done with you and throws you into hell? You know what? I saved you. I've done everything I can do. I've even died on the cross for you. I've paid for all your sin debt. But you know what? You just keep on sinning. I've had enough. I'm done. I didn't expect you were going to do all this. No, he did. See, the point is he knew that you were going to be an abject failure as a Christian. You know, I think that's the thing that people forget and why we lose our assurance because we sin and sometimes like Constantly we are just keep falling back into different sins Even sometimes the same sins over and over again The Bible talks about those besetting sins that we keep falling back into them and we keep We we're doing these things and then when we get done doing these things, whatever it is, we just get so upset We're like, why do I keep doing this and then we say? I'm not even a Christian. I'm not even saved. I just I'm done Okay, I'm going to hell. I'm done and then God gives us reprieve and he gives us this time. We're going Okay, well, I trust you even on your best day You deserve hell It doesn't matter how good you are. You deserve hell now people get upset with that. They get offended by that. They don't like that Because they're saying, so what you're saying is on my own I can't do any good thing. Well, that's what the Bible says. The Bible's clear that apart from God we can do no good work. The Bible's clear that we can't even uphold our own salvation, that the Lord upholds us. You got Peter. How many times did he deserve to burn in hell after confessing Christ as his Lord? How many times did he rebel against God? What about Ezekiel? What about Elijah? You know, Elijah with the, you know, the prophets of Baal, he goes and he fights all of them. They all died. There's 350 of them. No, that's not Elijah. That was... Yeah, not Elijah, but... No, no, wait a minute. No, it was Ezekiel. You're at it. How about the wrong one? It wasn't Elijah. It was... No, it was to Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Yes, it was. That was Enoch. You're you're you're messing okay, Elijah and the prophets of Baal he goes and he battles these prophets and and and they got consumed with fire And then he turns around and and here comes the king's naughty wife Jezebel, that's right. Yeah, I couldn't She says, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna find you I'm gonna kill you And what does he do? He took off running In fear. I mean, the Lord comes in that still small voice. I can't stand it when people misuse that, but he comes in this still small voice and he's speaking to his prophet and he says, why did you run? Well, because I didn't trust you. And this whole entire thing of his self-pity party and he's whining and railing against God and he's doing all this stuff and it's like, That's sin. You're not trusting God. That's sin. You're actually shaking your fist at God because of your doubt, your disbelief, because of your lack of faith of God. You know, you think about Moses and the sin that he committed. You think about Noah and his sins. I mean, we can go back and look at every single person, every single person in scripture, everyone. both the just and the unjust, the righteous and the unrighteous, have all been unrighteous. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But they're righteous. They're righteous because it's imputed to them. It's given to them by God. It's not something they did on their own. Psalm 3122, Gary. Psalm 3122. For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thy eyes, Yeah, easy for you to say My applications I've written many applications Lord and you finally opened it up and looked at them for I said my haste I am cut off from thine eyes. What's he saying? I've been bemoaning this thing that I'm going through and Even that was sin What he's saying is, is all the whining I've been doing has been sin. And my haste, because I've quick and got a big mouth and all that stuff. Sit down please. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're believing stuff and saying stuff we shouldn't be thinking. Because those things happen to us. Which one's the greater miracle? God healing your physical body. and letting you live to be 60 or 70 or 80 or 90 or 100 years old or whatever, and then you die anyway. Or God's regenerating your wicked dead heart, your stone dead heart, and causing you to come to Christ as Savior. The greater miracle is salvation. The greatest miracle is salvation. But, you know, with what we're at here, let's jump back in here. Or by God's withdrawing the light of his countenance and causing even those who fear him to walk in darkness and have no light. Psalm 30, verse 7, Wyatt. At the bottom. Keep going. Does that mean you hide in it? Hold on. My God's withdrawing the light of his countenance. I'm struggling with that verse on this. Yeah, let's go with that one. I can't remember the con I read this, but I don't remember the context of that. Psalm 30, verse seven, Lord, by thy favor, thou has made my mountain to stand strong. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I don't disagree with you. But I think a better Bible passage section would be Daniel. Daniel has has lived righteously before God and for his Righteous living he gets thrown in a lion's den Think about think about this the the the ultimate darkness. He's getting thrown lines in into pitch blackness He's thrown down in there spiritually and physically He does not know what's going on. He is obviously I would say probably almost definitely in fear and in that time of darkness and fear There there's nothing there for him other than you know, he sees that the Lord has Withdrawn for a season. I mean I'm saying totally and I'm not saying he's for you know forsaken him but from a perspective point you look at the issues of Daniel and even even let's go back to even as Ezekiel, I'm sorry Elijah when he's running off into the Into the desert and he's running away from God. He's in this point of He has done something that he shouldn't have done Even with Daniel he's done something here. He should have done to the innocent in defiance of a law but in both cases they've They've done something either that they shouldn't have done or should have done and it's caused them sorrow and grief and turmoil. David is saying this about David. He's not saying God is not moving. I said, David recalls his previous independent attitude and arrogant talk. God had warned the nation and its leaders about such simply myopic or nearsighted outlooks. David woke up to the fact that he was acting like his arrogant adversaries. That's one that even reading it, it didn't sound like it, but he's actually, he's confessing sin in that statement. The Lord removed himself because he was in sin. So basically he was basically felt no better than the unsaved person. It's just like we do when things are going good. When you're feeling good and you forget to call on God and you got all comfortable and oh, God pulled away. He was causing him to doubt his salvation. God was withdrawing from him and saying, In this section, to me, I see Elijah in the strength of the battle like nobody else ever experienced. And then the fear and defeat of self-doubt, of disbelief in God, God's provision, and running from God. But and then you think about Elijah as he's out in in the the wilderness in the desert He he runs from God and he goes into it He goes into a cave and you know, and he's hiding in this cave out of fear of this woman you know he's just taken out 350 of the prophets of Baal and another I believe it was 200 of these other various prophets and and and by the power of God he's wiped them out and God has seriously shown like nobody has seen. You know, this pillar of fire comes down like nobody has seen since Moses. And here he is, and he runs away from God. He's at that pillar and that height, and then he gets dropped down to the lowest point. He runs away from God, and God has to pursue him. You know after letting him be in his sorrow and wallowing in his misery for some season I don't know how long it was but he's you know, he runs away and then the next thing you know God God shows up to him in the whirlwind and you know the storm and everything else and In the midst of all this there's this as the Bible says this still small voice. It's it's a quiet silent Quiet steady voice that just speaks to him and and chides him a little bit. You know, why did you run? You know And he says He says well, I'm the only one left. He says oh by the way, I got 6,000 over here who haven't met the need of bail. I don't need you I'm using and he's basically saying to him. Who do you think you are? I You're not the only one left. Don't you get so arrogant to think you're the only one doing what I want done. I don't need you. I can use others. And he's basically humbling him. And you think about this. In that time, he's in this darkness, this self-pity, this mire, this muck that he has produced in himself. And it's caused him to withdraw from God. And God is allowing this time to withdraw from him. And then then we see on the next section here real quickly and yet we have we are never left without the seed of God first John 3 9 Obviously, I hope everybody understands this is not about sinless perfectionism This is talking about you cannot live in sin. It cannot be the style of your life that you are constantly in just the wickedness of abject rebellion. Yes, you're going to sin, but you cannot stay in it. You cannot rejoice in it. It cannot be a style of life for you. And talking about the seed of God here, It's the implanting of the Holy Spirit. It's the word of God. It's the truth of God. It's the regenerated heart. That's that mustard seed that actually grows up in your heart that blossoms into a full-grown tree. It's growing and in sanctification. well there you go that's what I'm saying yeah well well yeah well but you think about this in the how many Christians do you know who are born of God who have never sinned Can you name for me one? Except for all the sinless perfectionists that have shown up in the last 70 years, except for those, can you name one in history? No. All Christians have sinned and it's a grief to them. As the Bible even says in 1 John, we have an advocate because we know that when we do sin, we can go to our advocate. We can go to Jesus Christ. We can go to God with boldness and plead Jesus Christ. We can plead to Jesus to forgive us of our sin. Now think about this. It's not just that we sin. but that we are guilty, our conscience are attacked for it, and we have an advocate. That's our assurance. We have someone we can run to. I think what's the scary thing about people saying, well, I believe in Jesus, I have faith, is more often than not, their faith is in themselves. Their faith is in their ability to believe. Their faith is in their faith. The Bible doesn't address faith sola fide is is faith in Jesus Christ and all that he has done So if you place your faith and your ability to believe you're gonna fail if you if your faith is placed it's by the way, if your faith is it's a gift of God and if it is a gift then it is the faith in Jesus Christ in all the Bible and when we're talking about faith, it's always talking about the faith of in Jesus Christ, the faith, the faith that is what did Jesus do? That's what it's about. Yeah, and it's all about Jesus. It's not about my faithfulness or my, my ability to do what God's called me to do. That's not faith. Yeah. So let's real quickly jump in this. So whoever is born of God does not commit sin for his seed remains in him where he cannot sin. What's that noise? Oh. Luke 22 32 says but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fell not and when thou art converted Strengthen the brethren. I think that is a beautiful passage All the world is against Peter Satan wants to sift him as wheat and destroy him and wick tear him apart I mean Satan actually wants to rip him to shreds and And and Jesus says but I have prayed for you and bow by the way I have prayed for you that your faith fell not your faith in what? obviously not in himself because he failed his faith in Jesus Christ in other words the prayer of Jesus Christ is more powerful than any action of Satan or a man The prayer of Jesus Christ that your faith fell not is solid. It's grounded. It's steadfast. It's true. It's steady. It's lasting It's going to finish its perfect work. And what is its perfect work? This way says I have prayed that for thee that thy your faith fell not so in other words this hasn't happened yet And I pray that you don't fail. Oh, by the way when you get done falling all over yourself. Oh Restore the brethren. This one says, and when you are converted, strengthen your brethren. When you've seen your wickedness, when you've gone through all of this misery and sorrow and strife and everything, then do that. That love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart, and that conscience about their spiritual duty, out of these things, by the operation of the Spirit, their assurance can in due time be revived. Now, Psalm 42, 5, of course, I'd actually go to Luke 22 on that as well. You know, Jesus says, When thou art converted, strengthen brethren. You're going to fall in sin. You're going to sin. Satan wants to sift you like wheat. Satan wants to tear you apart. I've prayed for you that your faith fell not. And when you get done denying me three times, like I've already told you that you're going to do, When you get done rejecting me and blaspheming and cursing and all this other stuff you're going to do, when you get done doing all of that and completely failing, when you get done doing all that and you're restored, go strengthen the brother. I'm sorry, but there's not a better passage that takes care of what we just talked about. Psalm 42, 5, Why art thou downcast, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. That passage makes it clear that he is in misery and he's brokenhearted, but he's not looking at himself, he's looking at God. Real quick question, where do you find assurance? In yourself or in God? Okay, so how many times have you failed today? Well, if you failed then how can you have assurance in yourself? Yeah, okay. Psalm 42, 7, 11 says the same thing, basically. Why art thou downcast, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. Basically the very same thing. We're going to finish up here. And in the meantime, the presence of these graces preserves them from utter despair. Gary, I'll let you finish that. Lamentation 3. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in a dust, if so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him. He is filled full with reproach, for the Lord will not cast off forever. The thing about what that's saying, there's a passage that tells us about the chastening of the Lord. It tells us not to despise the correction and chastening of the Lord. Because He loves those who He chastens and disciplines. If you don't get corrected, you're not getting disciplined. In fact, if your conscience isn't telling you that you have been a guilty sinner that is in need of grace, and every day you need grace, then it should worry you. It should worry you. When we sin, when you sin, does your conscience bear witness that you're in sin? Think about this lamentation here is really laying it out for us that God's gonna break you and He's gonna crush you. I mean, it even says here, He putteth His mouth in the dust, if so be that there may be hope. He giveth His cheek to him that smiteth him. A righteous person is going to not shake your fist at God. When you sin, you are going to understand and accept the brokenhearted penalty of your sin. Yeah, I deserve punishment. When you are actually repentant, instead of saying, that's enough, when somebody's talking to you about what you've done wrong, when you say, okay, that's enough, I've already said I'm sorry, that's not repentance. See, repentance is not just, sorry for what I did, you are willing to accept the consequence. Do you think God is, he does this to Christians, or what about unbeliever and saved, I think, as Christians. For the non-believer, that's the whole point, is the reason you're not spiritually persecuted and you're not condemned, you're not under the stress and the grief of your sin is because, first of all, you haven't acknowledged that you are in sin, you don't believe that you're in sin, you don't care about the fact that you're in sin, and you've never come to God in repentance. Because you're not a child of God. Well, yeah. But the Bible makes it clear. There's the worldly sorrow that produces death and the godly sorrow that produces eternal life. Anyway, that's where we're at for today on our 1689. We're finished with this. Next week, we'll be going into Article 19. We'll be talking about the law of God. And we'll flow through that one fairly quickly. We've got several sermons that talk about the law of God and its proper place and its usage and what it's for. And there may be some points where we bring out some things that we want to look at a little more closely.