Psalm 19 • Declare His Glory pt 2
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Before I left for Australia, we were beginning in this nineteenth psalm.
And so I'm going to ask that you look in your bibles there as well: Psalm 19, page 456 in your Grace bibles.
And just to remind you a bit of what we covered as we looked just at the first half of Psalm 19: There the psalmist was rejoicing in the glory of God that is revealed in general revelation, that is in nature itself.
And we recognize that if science is honest and faith is honest, that the scriptures tell us what we can observe in creation is true and all truth is God's truth, making known the reality of His greatness and His care.
Somebody shared with me afterwards that that's not just something I have to guess at.
A recent study done at Rice University surveyed this nation's scientists, twelve million, and recognized that two million self identify as evangelical, Bible-believing Christians.
Two million.
That means if you're pursuing a science profession, believing the truth of the Word of God, you're not alone.
Two million people.
There's another that's, by the way, seventeen percent of the nation's scientists are Bible-believing Christians.
Then you should recognize another nineteen percent are Roman Catholic.
Another twenty percent are mainline protestant, which means if you totalled all those together, over seventy percent of the nation's scientists in some way affirm the reality of the God of creation.
We sometimes think of science as being so opposed to faith and recognize those who study deeply into matters of creation recognize a Creator.
The reality is, only about twenty percent of the nation's scientists actually claim to be atheists or agnostic.
Far more actually recognize that in creation there's a hand of a Creator that is seen.
And that's what the psalmist was making clear in the first half of the psalm.
But the second half is about something else that is declaring the greatness of our God.
And I'll ask that you stand as we read this portion of God's Word and consider: What else is there that is declaring the greatness of the glory of God?
Psalm 19 beginning at verse 7.
"The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me!
Then shall I be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
Let's pray together.
>>> Heavenly Father, our prayer this day is simple, already supplied by the psalmist.
May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
The Bible is just a bunch of rules for scared, goody two-shoes who are trying to stay on the right side of their God.
We don't say it, but sometimes we think it.
And as a consequence, when other people say it, we're not sure exactly how to respond.
The Bible's just a bunch of rules for some scaredy, good two-shoes trying to stay on the right side of their God.
How would you answer that?
How does the psalmist answer that?
In order to understand, it may be helpful to recognize though we are somewhat into our series of Psalms, I haven't taken time to tell you the structure of all the psalms that you will read in the Bible.
You may not have recognized it, but a psalm is actually a poem for Hebrew writers, and that means it follows the rules of poetry.
There are images and symbols that don't work the same as in other parts of biblical literature.
But something else that's happening is that a poem has a particular structure that we in English recognize is held together by rhyme.
Right?
"Come, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight right of Paul Revere."
It rhymes.
"The gingham dog and the calico cat side by side on the table sat; 'T was half past twelve and what do you think?
Not one of the other had slept a wink."
You can read the rest in the children's book when you get home.
[Laughter]
They rhyme.
But if you read Hebrew poems, they don't rhyme.
The technique for making the poem progress is not rhyme but reflection.
Whatever line is paired with another line is actually meant to reflect what was said previously.
And that reflection can be seen in this psalm itself.
If you look just at verse 1 of chapter 19, you'll recognize the reflection in the first two paired sentences.
"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims his handiwork."
There's just different color, but it's really the same thought that's repeated again.
Sometimes the thought in the pairing is putting contrast to make the point.
That's in verse 2.
"Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge."
As the heavens are declaring the glory of God, some of it's in the daytime and some of it's in the nighttime.
But, still, the heavenly bodies are declaring, whether day or night, the glory of God.
A same thought in some contrast.
And sometimes the thought is stated to clarify what's been said earlier.
That's verses 3 and 4.
"There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard."
Now, I don't know about you, but that's not entirely clear to me what that means.
And so I have to read the paired verse 4 to see what actually is being said.
"Their voice," that is the heavenly bodies, "their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."
There is no language, says the psalmist, whereby the heavenly bodies, the stars and the greatness of the creator can't be seen and understood by the things that are created.
There's no earthly boundary.
The heavens are pouring forth speech, and we see them.
And that clarification comes if you use one paired line to compare the other.
And what that means is something really kind of neat.
If you're reading through the Psalms and you say, "I didn't get that; what did that mean?" well, read the line that's paired and you're going to get the same idea with some development that will help you understand.
That's not just true of lines that are put together but sometimes whole concepts that are put together.
The first half of this psalm was saying the works of God declare His glory.
The creation, the heavenly bodies: They declare the greatness and the glory of God.
But now you get the second half of the poem, which seems to be about something very different.
It starts talking about the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord.
Why did we suddenly switch subjects?
Well, we didn't switch subjects.
The first half of the psalm is saying the works of God declare His glory.
What do you think the second half is talking about when it talks about the commandments, the precepts, the rules: What is all that about?
It is not about the works of God but the Word of God.
The works of God declare His glory, and the Word of God declares His glory.
There are complementary thoughts here that we're supposed to understand so that we will be able to say, "Why do we think this Word is declaring the glory of God as much as the stars and the sun and the planets and the galaxies are declaring His glory as well?"
This also is supposed to be declaring God's glory.
How does it do that?
Well, you see it as you think of verses 7, 8 and 9 and what they are saying.
You recognize that as they are describing various aspects of the Word of God, that is, look at verse 7.
"The law," the end of verse 7, "the testimony," verse 8, "the precepts of the Lord," end of verse 8, "the commandments of the Lord," beginning of verse 9, "the fear of the Lord," and end of verse 9, "the rules of the Lord."
All these different aspects of the Lord are doing something: They are revealing God's character.
After all, if you see those various aspects of the Word of God and see how they are described here, something very special is happening.
If you just look at the descriptors that at the ends of the lines.
If you did not know they were describing the Word of God, you have to ask yourself, "What would you think they were describing?"
Just look at them.
"The law of the Lord perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, righteous altogether."
It you didn't know that those particular adjectives were describing the Word of God, what would you think they were describing?
Perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, altogether righteous: What would you think was being described?
God Himself.
He is the one who's perfect, sure, true, altogether righteous.
And that's the point that's being made: that this Word of God reflects the character of God.
In fact, the psalmist is careful to say at every point, "It is the law of the Lord.
It is the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord."
This is His Word to us.
Our human response is, "No, no, this was just written by men long ago."
But in the New Testament, the apostolic writers actually looked back, and they began to say, "How could it be that those mere men who wrote were nonetheless writing the Word of God?"
You take a passage like 2 Peter 1:21, "No prophecy of scripture is of human will, but holy men of God spake as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
The claim of the scriptures is, yes, that mere human people wrote, but in a very special way by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit they were carried along in such a way that what they wrote was the actual law of God, testimony of the Lord, precepts of the Lord, commandment of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, which, by the way, is just a technical way of referring to the Bible in the Old Testament, the fear of the Lord, and the rules of the Lord.
It's all of Him.
So it reflects His character.
Now, that in itself is a good thing, but I would have to be honest to tell you it doesn't actually help me very much.
If what I have in front of me is a book that tells me how holy, righteous and perfect God is, then all I do is feel guilty.
I mean, I can't measure up.
I can't meet the requirements.
And so we begin to recognize that the psalmist is not just telling us that this Word of God reflects the character of God: It also reflects the care of God.
What is the Word supposed to do in us?
What is its purpose as it is given in all its purity and truth and righteousness?
Well, look again in verse 7-9 and see what is the response that is expected.
Verse 7, "The law of the Lord is perfect," to what end?
"Reviving the soul."
Lord, I'm just out of gas.
I just don't have resources to go on.
I can't make sense of this.
I don't know what to do.
And the Word of God, if you actually heard it as it is, it is the Word of the Lord to you, is meant to revive your soul, to say you could face anything if you actually had God with you.
And when you have His voice, His Word with you, you are to understand you don't just have a reflection of His character: You have the presentation of His character.
He's explaining to you: I'm still with you; I'm here with you by My Word.
So, "The testimony of the Lord is sure."
To what end?
"Making wise the simple."
Lord, I don't know what to do.
Everybody's pressing me to do this.
I feel like I could do it.
What should I do?
Do what God says.
Because even when we don't know outcomes, we don't know results, we are not sure where this may lead, we are told: This is the Word of God.
The wisest creator of the universe has given the directions.
And so He says, "Do as I say, and as simple as you may be, you will be wise."
Just before I left for Australia, a news article in our local paper reported that our county is the third highest ranked for a particular type of sexually transmitted disease.
And there's part of us, you know, that kind of just go, "How sad," or, "Tsk, tsk," or, "Shame on them."
Instead of grieving, saying our hearts, how sad that in our society these days young people seem to have to get together sexually in order to prove their attractedness to one another, that there is the not just the loss of modesty but the loss of a convental relationship of marriage whereby families are secure, bearwy--, whereby children are made safe, whereby there's a generation that would know that somehow I am treasured for who I am, not what I look like or how much I can satisfy another person.
How do I know that?
I mean, everybody else, I'm told the population even among Christians doesn't seem to object so much anymore to sexual activity outside of marriage, because God says this is something special and beautiful and wonderful for those are in marriage.
And if you don't believe it, just recognize this: God said so, and to believe and act upon what He says is to be wiser than everyone else.
How can I prove it?
Well, it's God who said it.
And He makes wise the simple, even when we can't explain it all, when we can't prove it all.
In business, we don't know outcomes.
We see things that might not be as we think they are.
We recognize we put ourselves.
Why would we put ourselves at risk?
Because it's absolutely the wisest thing we can do to follow the Word of God.
He makes wise the simple as we follow His Word.
Verse 8, "The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart."
Lord, I don't know if I can ever laugh again.
I don't know if I will ever know joy again.
I have been so crushed by this hurt to myself or my family whatever, I don't.
And to believe that what God is saying in His Word is, "But I will be with you; I will never leave you or forsake you," and when we recognize God is working all things together for good, that He is making promises to His people of the glory that will come for those who even go through hard things with faithfulness to Him, that we can know joy everlasting, because His Word says so.
And we trust it because it's a reflection of His character and of His care.
"The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes."
I don't understand why this has happened.
I don't understand what I am to do next.
I don't know how I should advise my children.
But what do we do when we have those difficult and hard decisions?
We study God's Word.
We get a part and we read and we have Him minister to us by His Holy Spirit.
And we pray.
Why do we do that?
Because we profoundly believe that in this Word, God is communicating His character and care to us, so that when we are in need, we would know what He intends, that our eyes would be enlightened to the path that He has for us that is the right and the good path.
Some of you have teased me a bit, because you've started reading in some of the things that I have written.
And as my son was climbing a mountain recently, you all remembered an account that I gave of a mountain climb some years ago.
I and a friend were climbing a mountain in Colorado that was approaching about fourteen thousand feet.
We started out on a clear day.
And as we reached the summit, the clouds came in behind and below us on the mountain.
So as we started to descend, we descended into clouds that became the densest fog I have ever been in.
All the landmarks that I knew so well, that I'd been through ba--, I could not see a one.
I could hardly see my hand in front of my face.
Well, you say, no big problem.
I mean, the way you get down is you just go down.
I mean, it's a mountain after.
You just go down.
[Laughter]
The trouble was, when we just went down, we came to a cliff that seemed to be hundreds and hundreds of feet high, so we traversed the other way, and we came to a glacier that we could not cross.
We were stuck on the side of a mountain.
And the only way that we could get down was by going back up to the summit in the thin oxygen, but now it was raining as we were wearing summer clothes.
And as we got close to the summit again, it wasn't raining, it was snowing.
[Laughter]
Thin oxygen, exhausted, we went back up, back down the other side, hoping it was the other side, cause you can't see in that fog.
And then after hours of walking came across the path.
[Laughter]
And suddenly we say, "We so appreciate the character of the people who have laid a safe path.
We so appreciate the care of people who long ago made a path for us.
This is something that we deeply want to be on: this path to safety."
When you recognize what God is saying in His Word is, "I am providing for you a representation of My character and care that is the safe path for life," we are not saying, "I'm going to stay on this path because I'm a goody two-shoes and I don't want God to hurt me."
I'm on the path because the God who has loved me enough to out of all creation give me the law and the way that is glorious and good is the path that I want to be on.
And the psalmist knows that.
After all, having described this path that reflects the character and care of God, he says in verse 10, "It is more to be desired than gold, even much fine gold."
I will want it.
It will even be sweet to me, "Sweeter than honey and drippings from a honeycomb."
Some of you know more about what I'm about to say than I know.
That when you go in the trial places of life, there are times that nothing is more treasured or sweeter than the Word of God.
While I was in Australia, word came that my father had fallen a couple of times.
No apparent reason.
One time just actually falling out of a chair that he was in.
Sent him to the hospital.
And the discovery this past Friday that the lung cancer of four years ago has now spread to his brain, and we are told that depending on the treatment, he has two weeks to six months to live.
And suddenly the Word of God means absolutely everything to my family.
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
The Word of God.
You are my refuge.
You are my fortress.
You are my high tower.
You are my hiding place.
All things work together for good.
I have loved you with an everlasting love and called you with loving kindness.
The sheep hear the voice of the shepherd.
He is my God.
I am His child.
I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I love the Word of God.
And I love it because it's a reflection of the character of my God and of His heart for me and His people.
And in the times of trial when this word on--, world only shows its darkness, I need this Word and its great light.
It is sweeter than honey.
It is more precious than gold.
And in the dark places and the hard paths, you know that.
And so we want it.
We tried to tempt you a bit with a funny video about community groups.
But why bother?
To walk with other people in the Word of God because they will need it and you will need it.
Because this is what gives us strength and hope when so much in the world may not.
And we learn from each other and we lean upon each other.
And it's part of being a body that God has called us to be.
We want the Word.
And we walk in the Word.
The psalmist goes on to say, verse 11, "Moreover, by them," that is by these aspects of the Word of God, "is your servant warned."
We begin to recognize that the Bible is telling us there are paths not to be on.
And we are warned about them.
And not only that, we learn that there is great reward in keeping on the path that God designs.
Now, I can't always tell you what the reward will be.
And if you're only thinking in terms of money and fame or health, that, you know that's not what the gospel is talking about.
It's talking about a peace that passes understanding, about a joy that's not based on circumstances, about trust through trials, about the world not making sense and still having confidence that God in His sovereign hand is still in control.
And there is an eternity that's being preserved for His people, even when we can't make sense of things here.
Before I left for Australia, I read a letter to the elders of this church that I think you will appreciate as well about someone who is just trying to walk in the reality of the Word of God and believing that what it says is true despite what they may have to face.
This letter comes from someone who's never visited this church.
They listen by the internet from a long way away.
He writes, "Dr. Chapell, I hope that this very lengthy letter conveys to you how appreciate we are for the ministry that you and Grace Presbyterian Church have provided us and for the hope and the joy that my wife and I are now feeling.
The joy I feel is hard to describe, yet it feels like it's filling my heart, and I wanted to share with you as I have listened to the podcasts from Grace Presbyterian Church.
I'm now becoming constantly drawn to God's Word.
While I've been a Christian now for over fifteen years, it feels as though God has been gradually shifting gears in my spiritual walk.
This reawakening to the depth and the power of Christ has been life changing.
We now see the liberation that comes from knowing that our salvation is one hundred percent the grace of God and not our works.
We are truly being freed from the bondage of trying so hard to measure up.
And we are being freed to partake in a true, constant and unshakeable joy.
This is not just hope for eternity but empowering in this life.
I'm just beginning to understand this.
And my wife and I have never felt such immense deep and consistent joy, even through trials and the deaths of loved ones in our family.
A few years back, I was made director of an architectural firm.
I clearly see now that God was opening and guiding my life using experiences to mold my soul, such as ten years of being together with my wife before we were able to have children.
He was slowly teaching us about trusting in Him as the third, well, in fact, the first person in our marriage.
He enabled us to buy a small, rundown cottage in a very constrained block of land in our city, and we renovated it and later decided to help our firm that was having a difficult economic time by entering our house in the World Architecture Festival in Singapore."
To our complete shock, we won the World House of the Year.
We know that an architectural award is of now significance in itself unless God wants it for some other purpose, and we asked that He would use this whole experience for His glory.
In that winning moment, we both felt like God was telling us, 'Trust Me.
I can give you this now.
Trust Me with what I want you to do next.'"
He had no idea what the next was.
I wrote him back.
He had written from Australia.
So I wrote and said, "I'm coming to Australia."
He said, "I'm sorry, I can't meet with you due to business meetings."
I said, "Fine."
But I came out of one of the seminars that I was doing and there was a man who introduced himself to me.
He was the man who had written this letter.
"Why are you here?"
He said, "I've just had yesterday the most difficult day of my career."
What happened?
"Because my firm won the World Home Architecture Award, we were asked to be the k--, lead company to do the renovation of a major portion of our city.
It was a billion," as in "B" as in boy, "a billion dollar contract.
But as we began to examine the specifications, we recognized that the changing of the streets and the architecture and the parks and the apartment buildings were all designed to funnel people toward the casinos that are presumed to be the salvation of the city.
And we know their designed just to take money from helpless people.
And we could not morally or ethically be involved.
We walked away from a billion dollars."
And the glory of God shines.
What am I calling you to do next?
I don't know.
And the world will call this foolish, but the Word of God makes wise the simple.
The world will say, "This is going to be the end of your career."
And God says, "No, I am reviving your soul, because you will trust in Me, and I will do more in you and through you than you ever imagined."
Why?
"Because I'm the creator of the universe.
I make the sun to shine and the stars to glow.
And I've given you My Word, which has as much wisdom and power and glory in it.
Walk this path."
And we do so because it is revelatory of the glory of God in His character and His care.
And it's not just externally.
It's for the very reason that we recognize God is showing us His glory, that we're willing to trust Him on the inside too.
After all, it's what the psalmist says.
Verse 12, "Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults."
Oh, Lord, there's things I know are not right in my life, and I don't even know them.
They are hidden, even from me.
Do you recognize this word in the Hebrew is the reference to a type of sacrifice that the Jews had to make for sins they did not know they had committed?
Did you know that?
There was a sacrifice for unknown sins as well as known sins.
And so the psalmist is saying, "Lord, reveal to me the unknown sins, the things I don't even know about."
Now, some of us know exactly how that works, right?
You're just kind of cruising along in life, and suddenly the Holy Spirit puts this spotlight on one area of your life: Have you thought about this?
Oh, Lord, do I really have to think about that?
And then you work on that a while.
And then what does the Holy Spirit do?
Moves the spotlight.
[Laughter]
And you think, why, why would I bother with such things?
Because the hidden things that we sometimes will not even face ourselves are denying us the greatness and the glory that God intends.
Some of you know the name J. Vernon McGee, the Thru the Bible broadcast ministries.
I was listening the other night because I wasn't sleeping very well and jetlagged.
And he talked about a pastor who kept praying every Sunday for hidden sins, "Lord, please forgive our hidden sins; please forgive our hidden sins."
And finally a man went and challenged him, "Why do you keep praying about hidden sins?"
And the pastor said, "Cause I don't know what they are."
[Laughter]
And the man who was challenging said, "Well, guess."
[Laughter]
So J. Vernon McGee said, "The next Sunday, the pastor prayed and named a sin, and he hit it right on the head."
[Chuckles]
But we don't always see, and here the psalmist is so trusting in the character and care of God that he says, "Reveal what I need to know.
You, I may not, but just reveal what I need to know."
And then this, even harder, verse 13, "Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me!"
Oh, friends, this is the harder one.
There are things that we do know are wrong, and we keep going into them.
Think of that, some of us, you know, there's a way we go home from work.
And the very route we travel puts us in proximity of either a place or a person that we should not be near.
And the psalmist is so bold as to say, "God, save me from the rebellion of my own heart.
Keep me from what controls me."
It's like in the Lord's Prayer, "Lead me not into temptation."
Keep me away from the things that control me.
The book of Proverbs said, "Don't put your foot on the path of the wicked.
Don't even go near the path of wid--, but turn and go the other direction.
We know this.
We know the, you know, the person, the place, the website, the business deal, whatever, that we have no business being near.
And so the psalmist says, "Lord, keep m from that, too.
If You've got the safe and the good path, if I would trust You enough to put what is carrying before You, then, Lord, keep me from the path that would put me in the wrong place.
Help me there, too."
And then says, "Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression."
But do you recognize that this is a prayer?
And so what the psalmist is doing here is saying, "If I'm innocent, it's going to be a work of God, that God's got to do the work to keep me innocent."
And when you recognize that, you recognize that here's the gospel starting to glimmer in the Old Testament, as the psalmist is saying, "If I'm going to be innocent, it has to be a work of God.
He's got to be the active one, revealing sin and keeping me from sin."
And that's why I think the psalm ends as it does in verse 14.
"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight."
Lord, make me Your poem.
The stars reflect Your character and care.
The Word of God reflects Your character.
Now let the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart also reflect Your character and care.
Make me acceptable to You.
Make me Your testimony.
Make me Your witness.
Because then you recognize we would have to have somebody to help us.
And that is stated
The very end, "Lord, let the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
Rock I get.
It's the solid ground.
He's the firm ground.
He's the one that's dependable.
He's given us the path to go on.
You can bank on that.
That's the rock.
But why does the psalm end with the word "redeemer"?
Do you ever think about that?
"O, Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
It's almost as though the psalmist has said this: We are surrounded every day by this general revelation of nature, which is showing us the glory of God, and in the church we have the instruction from the Word of God that is also revealing His glory.
But what is going to make that glorious revealing of His character and care actually make us get on the path that is good for us?
It's going to be the love of God for us that will make us trust and want to be on the path.
Some of you are farmers or in agribusiness.
And you recognize that to make the herbicide or the fertilizer work well you use a surfactant, something that will break down the tension, so that the good stuff goes where it needs to go.
And what's happening is we have this great expression of the goodness and the glory of God, but we won't do it unless we have the love of God break down our resistance, so that we'll actually trust Him enough to walk on the path.
I heard it expressed well, though in very human terms, from a friend that I met in Australia.
And he talked about the Word coming into his life.
And he just said, "Only love makes the Word of God penetrate your heart."
He said, "Before I was a Christian, I thought the Bible was just a bunch of rules for scaredy, goody two-shoes."
That's where I got the line to begin the sermon.
[Laughter]
He said, "Then the life that I was leading led to the destruction of my marriage and home.
I have never known such pain.
I used to be sad every day at the same time driving home, knowing I was going to be alone in just a few minutes from work.
I would dread that moment of remembering, and it would crush me every day.
Then a business friend told me that what I had confessed with my mouth years before was so true I had to really allow it to affect my heart: that when we put our faith in Christ, we have to actually believe that He's paid the penalty for our sin on the cross; that our sins, by God's grace, aren't even on the scoreboard.
It was God's love for me on the cross that made me think that what He had described for me to do in the Bible might actually be good for me, too."
He said, "I started living and trusting that God knew what was right.
It took the questions and the doubts and the manipulations out of my life.
I said to myself, after a year of living by the Bible: How could I have been so stupid?"
Now, listen, I know it's church and I wouldn't normally say stupid, but he said it kind of Australian, so it sounds not so bad.
You know, he said.
[Laughter]
"How could I have been so stuuu-pid," he said, "not to have lived this lovely life?"
He said, "I just had to know how much Christ loved me before I would accept it.
And throw in the towel on my ways and start to live His way."
What would make you throw in the towel and actually live His way?
Believing that His way is out of a heart of love for you that is as great as the universe and as near as your Bible.
What would actually make you believe that love was behind the words?
Would it help to remember that on the night He was betrayed, Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; take and eat and do it in remembrance of Me."
And in the same manner, He took the cup after supper and He said, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins.
All of you, drink of it."
It is the great expression of the God of the universe saying, "I care about you."
And the evidence of that care is this provision, this symbol of His sacrifice in our behalf.
It's meant to make us throw in the towel of our resistance, our pride, of our claims to anything that is better than His wisdom, so that we will live for Him and by His Word, because He has loved us beyond, beyond any of our doing.