WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.200 be seated. This morning we're going to be looking at Psalm 26. So if you have a Bible, 00:00:05.620 --> 00:00:09.400 please turn with me there, or you can follow along using your bulletin. 00:00:11.960 --> 00:00:16.920 So we're kind of continuing in this little mini-series in the book of Psalms. We're not 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:23.960 going to do all the Psalms. There's quite a few, but Matthew and I are both taking some time 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:31.740 to work through some selected Psalms. And this morning we are looking at Psalm 26. 00:00:40.219 --> 00:00:49.340 Psalm 26. Vindicate me, O Lord, for I've walked in my integrity. I've trusted in the Lord without 00:00:49.340 --> 00:00:57.800 wavering. Prove me, O Lord, and try me. Test my heart and my mind, for your steadfast love is before my 00:00:57.800 --> 00:01:05.540 eyes, and I will walk in your faithfulness. I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with 00:01:05.540 --> 00:01:13.920 hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. I wash my hands in 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:20.599 innocence, and go around your altar, O Lord, proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:28.960 your wondrous deeds. O Lord, I love the habitation of your house, and the place where your glory dwells. 00:01:29.340 --> 00:01:36.840 Do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, in whose hands are evil 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:45.900 devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes. But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity. Redeem me, 00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:54.359 and be gracious to me. My foot stands on level ground. In the great assembly, I will bless the Lord. Let's pray. 00:01:56.620 --> 00:02:04.159 Lord, we hear the cry of the psalmist in these words. May they be our cry. May we see Christ 00:02:04.159 --> 00:02:13.460 through his words. May we see the greatness of you. May you impress that upon our hearts this morning, 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:21.240 and may we delight in it. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm fairly certain in a room 00:02:21.240 --> 00:02:27.039 this size, and especially on a morning like today, when we have snow, and some people are at home, 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:34.939 no one has ever heard of the name Adolph Beck. Not Carson Beck, the college football player, or not even 00:02:34.939 --> 00:02:39.899 the Beck who plays for the Rockies, as I got confused yesterday and tried to convince my kids. 00:02:40.459 --> 00:02:48.919 This is Adolph Beck. Now, why is he important? Well, Adolph Beck, like many in our age, he grew up, 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:55.560 went to college, got a degree in something that he never used again. So what did he do? He went on a 00:02:55.560 --> 00:03:01.120 worldwide adventure. He went to sea. He moved abroad. He moved to England, and then to South America. 00:03:01.539 --> 00:03:09.699 He did all kinds of jobs. He was a singer, a ship broker. He even did what many people in Colorado do. 00:03:10.199 --> 00:03:16.520 He went into real estate. And then he became that ever-elusive, I don't really know what you do for 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:24.580 work, but you're an entrepreneur. And in his business ventures, he bought and sold parts of the Galapagos 00:03:24.580 --> 00:03:32.960 Islands. He even bought and sold a mine. You see, Adolph Beck wasn't around in the year 2024. 00:03:33.500 --> 00:03:40.520 He was around at the turn of the century. Not this century, but the 19th century. And as he was living 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:48.600 and doing his business, this distinguished gentleman took on all the trappings of the age. He wore a top 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:59.000 hat, a frock coat. So think like tuxedo coat. And he sported a fancy mustache. In 1895, he stepped out 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:04.719 of his house, and he was immediately confronted by a very angry woman. And the woman accused him 00:04:04.719 --> 00:04:12.479 of taking all that she had, all her jewelry, all her valuables. Obviously distressed, Mr. Beck went 00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:19.740 straight to the police and said this woman was harassing him. But instead of taking his statement, 00:04:20.099 --> 00:04:27.420 they arrested him. And when they did, this woman gave an account of the description of this man named 00:04:27.420 --> 00:04:34.599 Lord Willoughby, who had defrauded her and numerous other women with stories of the French Riviera, 00:04:34.600 --> 00:04:43.580 English Gardens, and high living. Lord Willoughby was guilty and thrown in jail. There's one problem 00:04:43.580 --> 00:04:50.320 though. Adolph Beck wasn't in England during that time. He was in South America. He couldn't have done 00:04:50.320 --> 00:04:58.500 it. So Beck pleaded and enlisted the help of people that were more famous than him. The very famous 00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:04.580 Sherlock Holmes writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But those pleas and those cries for just 00:05:04.579 --> 00:05:12.500 justice and his innocence fell on deaf ears. Beck went to jail. He did his time, and he was paroled. 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:20.439 But even with this miscarriage of justice, with his newfound freedom, Beck again was confronted with 00:05:20.439 --> 00:05:28.099 the reality of a mistaken identity. And he thought, as he was accused for a second time as Lord Willoughby 00:05:28.099 --> 00:05:34.539 of stealing people's valuables and possessions, this can't be happening again. So what did he do? 00:05:34.579 --> 00:05:43.099 He ran. But that confirmed his guilt, or so thought the police. But when it came time for sentencing, 00:05:43.419 --> 00:05:48.560 the judge was a little more careful this time. He was concerned that maybe there was some truth to these 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:58.219 accusations. And while he sat in jail, Lord Willoughby struck again. Because in fact, Adolph Beck was not Lord 00:05:58.220 --> 00:06:05.480 Willoughby, but a man named Wilhelm Meyer. He's equally as fascinating as Adolph Beck. If we thought that 00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:14.020 his life was interesting up until this point, Wilhelm Meyer was interesting for these reasons. Not only was 00:06:14.020 --> 00:06:19.700 he Lord Willoughby, but in all those years where Beck was in jail and Lord Willoughby didn't strike again, 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:26.560 he was in fact in America. What was he doing in America? Not posing and stealing valuables off people. 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:34.300 No, he was the Surgeon General of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was also a successful coffee entrepreneur 00:06:34.300 --> 00:06:41.319 and owned many plantations. But then he grew tired of all those exploits, and he moved back to England. 00:06:41.780 --> 00:06:47.939 And when he did, he resumed his actions as Lord Willoughby, stealing from unsuspecting women, 00:06:48.420 --> 00:06:54.699 wooing them with stories of grandeur, and all of these things. But this woman, I deed, 00:06:54.699 --> 00:07:02.920 Wilhelm Meyer at the request of that judge. And justice was served for him, but not Adolph Beck. 00:07:03.159 --> 00:07:06.719 You see, in this story, we have this question of mistaken identities. 00:07:09.060 --> 00:07:16.740 Adolph Beck went to jail for crimes he didn't commit. Two times, almost. Wilhelm Meyer ultimately 00:07:16.740 --> 00:07:24.240 paid the price for his crimes. But this case of mistaken identity is not one for the history books, 00:07:24.340 --> 00:07:30.340 or internet cessations, or murder mystery novels. A mistaken identity is something that we all suffer 00:07:30.340 --> 00:07:38.319 with, all people, especially Christians. You see, we get confused, and in each and every one of us, 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:44.839 we think that we know what it's like to be a Christian. We think we have this picture in our 00:07:44.839 --> 00:07:51.120 mind of what it must feel like, what it must be, what it must seem like. And oftentimes, we go with 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:57.639 those things, either that we've conjured in our mind, or people impose on us, when in fact, we don't 00:07:57.639 --> 00:08:05.240 go to the words of Scripture to tell us what the Christian life is like. So this morning, we're going to 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:12.879 look at Psalm 26, and we're going to see, because of God, that his people cry out to him. And they do so 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:22.040 on this sure and certain hope of a Christian identity that's based in confidence, that has 00:08:22.040 --> 00:08:28.319 characteristics, and ultimately cries out to him when we need help. So this morning, we're going to look 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:37.460 at confidence, characteristics, and the cry of the Christian. Now, as I mentioned, all of us suffer 00:08:37.460 --> 00:08:44.539 from this case of mistaken identity. There's this picture of what a Christian does or doesn't do, 00:08:44.879 --> 00:08:53.580 and sometimes we listen to those, those questions, those doubts, either from others or inside ourselves. 00:08:53.580 --> 00:09:03.520 How often have you heard, I am a Christian because I do X? I am a Christian because I love my wife. 00:09:04.160 --> 00:09:09.980 I'm a Christian because I don't steal from the grocery store. I am a Christian because I have been 00:09:09.980 --> 00:09:16.920 baptized. I'm a Christian because I don't do those bad things that my neighbor across the street does. 00:09:16.919 --> 00:09:25.799 Or surely I can't be a Christian because I do do those things my neighbor across the street does, 00:09:25.959 --> 00:09:33.179 and he doesn't trust in Christ. He thinks not about the things of God. That should be all of our 00:09:33.179 --> 00:09:39.319 experience on some level, but where the rubber meets the road is how do we answer all those doubts, 00:09:39.539 --> 00:09:45.559 objections, questions that gnaw and eat away at us? Do we have the confidence of the psalmist, 00:09:45.559 --> 00:09:54.339 or do we let those questions run amok in our mind? First, the confidence of the Christian. 00:09:55.479 --> 00:10:01.399 We of all people should be confident, right? Christians should be confident. Wait, 00:10:02.139 --> 00:10:06.699 should Christians be confident? I don't know how we should answer that question, right? Are they meek 00:10:06.699 --> 00:10:13.019 and humble and lowly and the gentle? Or are they arrogant, proud? Is it that kind of confidence? 00:10:13.019 --> 00:10:19.220 No, this is a different kind of confidence. But what we see in these first verses is a kind of 00:10:19.220 --> 00:10:25.480 confidence that makes us a little bit nervous if we're honest, right? It's confidence in speaking 00:10:25.480 --> 00:10:34.240 back to God, not just asking for things, but speaking very directly to him. Vindicate me, prove, try me, 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:43.860 judge me. Judge me. That's really, really bold. Why is it really, really bold? Why can the psalmist do this? 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:51.919 Is it because of himself or something else? Is the molder saying back to the thing that, or the person 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:57.759 that molded him? Why have you made me like this? In the words of Paul. No, he's doing something very 00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:05.120 different. He has confidence before the throne because of something different. Bold move, psalmist. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:11.399 If you remember, as we're looking at these psalms in Psalm 24, which we skipped because of snow, 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:17.019 in Psalm 25 and Psalm 26, there's kind of like a dialogue going on between the person that wrote them 00:11:17.019 --> 00:11:23.960 and the Lord. They're crying out to the Lord. The interesting thing, though, as they're doing this, 00:11:23.960 --> 00:11:29.379 Israel use these psalms in worship, and they would sing them back to the Lord. 00:11:30.860 --> 00:11:37.620 And in doing so, they reveal a lot more about what they thought about God, even though we think it's 00:11:37.620 --> 00:11:44.440 just about how he approaches the throne and asks these questions. We don't know all the situation that 00:11:44.440 --> 00:11:50.100 the psalmist is going through, though. We know that he's tried and pressed in, that some kind of evil 00:11:50.100 --> 00:11:56.600 lurks about, but it's not specific, like we heard from Jim, where David is talking at the end of his day, 00:11:56.840 --> 00:12:04.120 or even when David walks through some real tough times of his own doing, or at the hands of others. 00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:10.940 This is more general, but we know this. There's something out there that's eating at him, 00:12:11.159 --> 00:12:14.580 either internally or some kind of evil that's pressing in upon him. 00:12:14.580 --> 00:12:22.360 But these words kind of lose some of their boldness, the shock value, and the humility factor 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:28.580 starts to rise when we think about why can he have this kind of boldness in talking to the Lord? 00:12:29.460 --> 00:12:39.379 It's less about the psalmist and more about God when we start to realize it. Here's a clue, 00:12:39.379 --> 00:12:46.080 though, to that end. And we don't get it immediately. He says, vindicate me, O Lord, for something. 00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:53.679 Or if we rearrange the words and say, not vindicate me, but judge me, O Lord. That seems more in line 00:12:53.679 --> 00:13:01.500 with these other ideas of prove me, try me, all those kind of things. Not just a little bit, but fully, 00:13:01.659 --> 00:13:07.820 he says, my heart and mind. Open up all those closet doors where all those dust bunnies live 00:13:07.820 --> 00:13:13.460 of sin and darkness. Open up those closets that you don't show to those house guests, 00:13:13.980 --> 00:13:20.340 or your friends, or your neighbors, or even your family. He says, look in all of those. It's 00:13:20.340 --> 00:13:27.240 completely, it's all-encompassing. Judge me in that way. But these aren't out there floating 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:35.320 willy-nilly. This vindicate me, prove, try. We see that linkage with the term for. It gives us the 00:13:35.320 --> 00:13:42.140 reason for it. And that reason is this. Look at verse one. Integrity and trust in the Lord. 00:13:44.340 --> 00:13:48.640 Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in integrity. I've trusted in the Lord without 00:13:48.640 --> 00:13:56.440 wavering. Prove me, O Lord, and try me. Test my heart and mind, for your steadfast love is before 00:13:56.440 --> 00:14:05.000 my eyes. And I walk in your faithfulness. For is kind of incomplete. It's kind of like saying this. 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:12.980 Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Surely, I'm not going to put my 00:14:12.980 --> 00:14:18.660 child in the car without a seatbelt. Surely, you're not going to do that to your sister while 00:14:18.659 --> 00:14:27.879 I'm sitting here watching you. Surely, gravity will do the rest. It's a certainty that follows. 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:34.679 The basis of him making these claims or asking the Lord to do these things is not based in him, 00:14:34.919 --> 00:14:41.699 but surely on the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord. The judgment is not of the psalmist. 00:14:41.700 --> 00:14:49.180 The judgment is against God and acting in his own character and who he is. And so the question is not 00:14:49.180 --> 00:14:56.420 about the psalmist, but it's about the nature of God. We see this when we kind of try to pit love and 00:14:56.420 --> 00:15:05.700 truth against each other. Steadfastness, faithfulness, love. Those are all held in tension, and we can see 00:15:05.700 --> 00:15:14.140 those intention even in these verses that God is equally loving and equally faithful to his promises, 00:15:14.140 --> 00:15:23.680 to who he is. He is love. He is faithfulness. He is wisdom. He is truth. He is justice. All of those 00:15:23.680 --> 00:15:31.460 things at the same time. Moses reminds us of this in places like Exodus. This will sound really familiar. 00:15:31.460 --> 00:15:37.840 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, 00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:45.080 slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, 00:15:45.680 --> 00:15:53.080 forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, 00:15:53.800 --> 00:16:00.160 visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and children's children to the third and fourth 00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:09.639 generation. He is love. He is truth. He is justice. He is faithfulness. Not that he has them, but he is them. 00:16:10.059 --> 00:16:20.839 That is the God by whom the psalmist says, prove me, try me based on who you are, not who I am. 00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:27.600 That is confidence. What is misplaced confidence, though? When I think of misplaced confidence, 00:16:27.820 --> 00:16:37.519 I am reminded of a time in the 90s where a certain mean, nasty dictator tried to reassure everyone of 00:16:37.519 --> 00:16:43.680 how confident he was. Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator who was invaded by a coalition of forces, 00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:51.079 made a video before selfies were really popular, before YouTube ever existed. He made a video and 00:16:51.079 --> 00:16:57.739 tried to convince his people, maybe even himself, and the watching world that everything was going okay. 00:16:58.419 --> 00:17:03.239 He defiantly kind of talked bad about the coalition and how great it was going for him, 00:17:03.559 --> 00:17:09.399 not giving any acknowledgement to what was going on in the real world, that his soldiers were 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:16.960 surrendering by the thousands or hundreds, even to CNN news camera teams. But as he recorded this video, 00:17:17.100 --> 00:17:23.560 this is the irony, is he was doing it in a bunker. If it was going so well for you, if you were so 00:17:23.560 --> 00:17:31.740 confident, you wouldn't be recording that video in a bunker, would you? I don't think so. But that example 00:17:31.740 --> 00:17:39.380 of misplaced confidence also haunts us as Christians, because oftentimes our confidence is not in the 00:17:39.380 --> 00:17:47.740 nature of God, the fact that he is steadfastness and faithfulness, but in us, in our ability 00:17:47.740 --> 00:17:54.920 to follow through on that. And that's not at all what the psalmist is saying. He's saying, 00:17:55.260 --> 00:18:01.580 my confidence is not in me alone, but my confidence is in the Lord. That's the kind of confidence that 00:18:01.579 --> 00:18:09.519 we need as God's people, as Christians. But oftentimes we are blind. So let's see. Let's see 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:15.859 what Christians look like, right? Those characteristics are listed for us as we work through this psalm. 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:23.599 The characteristics of Christians are not anything new or God's people, right? We see them in places 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:29.859 like this. We see them in places like Matthew 5. Blessed are all those people who do all these things. 00:18:29.859 --> 00:18:36.339 We'll come back to that in a minute. You see, these are descriptions of God's people. They're not the 00:18:36.339 --> 00:18:43.579 conditions or even the means or even the mode by which God sees us as righteous, sees us as lovely, 00:18:43.979 --> 00:18:50.819 or approves of us. The same is true in Psalm 26. Look with me at verses 4 and 5. 00:18:51.819 --> 00:18:58.059 I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of 00:18:58.059 --> 00:19:04.759 evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked. These are all nots. These are all bad things, 00:19:04.819 --> 00:19:09.639 right? These aren't descriptions of Christians. So we have this idea of, hey, the psalmist is saying, 00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:14.279 we're going to get to what it looks like in a minute, but this is what it doesn't look like, 00:19:14.500 --> 00:19:20.139 and it doesn't look like this. It doesn't look like God's people sitting with men of falsehood, 00:19:20.279 --> 00:19:25.759 hanging out with hypocrites, or even being in the larger assembly of evildoers. 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:32.859 It's not sitting with the wicked. If you remember about Scripture, Psalm 1 starts out in a way 00:19:32.859 --> 00:19:39.819 where it progressively moves. God's people, or those people that say they're God's people, 00:19:40.059 --> 00:19:44.980 but in fact they're evildoers, they're doing all these things. They're hanging out with all these 00:19:44.980 --> 00:19:50.420 evildoers, and they're not just doing that, but they're sitting with them, and they're commiserating 00:19:50.420 --> 00:19:57.600 with them. They're speaking ill of the Lord. This is an almost identical contrast of God's people 00:19:57.600 --> 00:20:04.560 and of evil. Don't be like these people. Don't do this. Psalm 1 reads like this, 00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:09.320 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, 00:20:09.940 --> 00:20:15.080 nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, 00:20:15.079 --> 00:20:21.619 and on his law he meditates the day and night. He goes on, Therefore the wicked will not stand in 00:20:21.619 --> 00:20:27.779 the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the 00:20:27.779 --> 00:20:34.339 righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. That brings it almost into immediate focus. This is 00:20:34.339 --> 00:20:42.500 not just, hey, in the good Christian sense of, I don't drink, smoke, or chew, or go with girls that do. 00:20:42.500 --> 00:20:53.240 This is real life. This is cosmic treason. This has implications. This is true evil. And a Christian 00:20:53.240 --> 00:21:00.319 is not supposed to do any of these things, or even be around with them. It's not a mixing of this. 00:21:01.059 --> 00:21:05.980 The psalmist isn't pleading his right standing before the Lord because he doesn't do this, 00:21:05.980 --> 00:21:16.420 as we'll see in a second. They're descriptors of someone who follows after the Lord. They don't do 00:21:16.420 --> 00:21:21.460 these things. So what do they do? They do something like this. Look in verse 9 and 10. 00:21:21.460 --> 00:21:31.980 Do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, 00:21:32.519 --> 00:21:37.880 in whose hands are evil devices, whose right hands are full of bribes. 00:21:39.220 --> 00:21:45.819 Wait a second. That's not what they do either, right? That's a continuation of all those bad things. 00:21:45.819 --> 00:21:51.819 It's actually gotten worse. So what do they do? They do things like this in 6 and 8. 00:21:52.159 --> 00:21:58.019 I wash my hands in innocence, and I go around your altar, O Lord, proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, 00:21:58.399 --> 00:22:03.899 and telling all your wondrous deeds. O Lord, I love the habitation of your house, 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:11.799 and the place where your glory dwells. He washes his hands in innocence. Not that he is innocent 00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:18.859 because of what he's done. Yes, he is innocent. He loves the Lord. He loves his house. He loves his 00:22:18.859 --> 00:22:29.839 worship, the worship of the living God. Moses reminds us again that he loves where his glory 00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:35.500 dwells. And where is that, as Moses reminds us? In his tabernacle, where the worship of God happens. 00:22:35.899 --> 00:22:41.559 He loves the house of God because that's where worship happens. But where does God's glory, 00:22:41.559 --> 00:22:48.879 also dwells? In his people. So the psalmist is saying he loves his glory, and so he has to love his 00:22:48.879 --> 00:22:58.299 people. He loves the worship of God. He's marked by love for his glory, and he loves his people. 00:22:59.659 --> 00:23:08.159 He proclaims thanksgiving aloud, and he tells of his wondrous deeds. That's what a Christian looks like. 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:15.880 That's descriptive of what a follower after God should be doing, should be marked by. 00:23:16.580 --> 00:23:22.519 A few years ago, there was a very popular TV commercial about insurance. And in this insurance 00:23:22.519 --> 00:23:30.519 commercial, this woman was telling a friend how she had met a new boyfriend. She was going to go on a 00:23:30.519 --> 00:23:37.279 date with him. She met him on the internet. And in doing so, she told her friend that he was a French 00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:44.279 model. And right at that split second, the French model walked up, except for he wasn't a French model 00:23:44.279 --> 00:23:51.879 at all. He was this big, hulking oaf of a guy, kind of disheveled, a little bit dirty. And when he 00:23:51.880 --> 00:24:00.180 walked up and he greeted this friend and his date, he says, bonjour, about like that. Now, clearly I'm 00:24:00.180 --> 00:24:06.260 not French, and neither is this hulking oaf of a date. And the friend says to the woman who's about 00:24:06.260 --> 00:24:11.580 to go on this date, you can't believe everything that you see on the internet or read on the internet 00:24:11.579 --> 00:24:20.039 because it doesn't pose as true. The same is true in real life. The same is true in the Christian life. 00:24:20.339 --> 00:24:27.639 We might say all these things, but are we marked with the things that we see in Psalm 26? Are we 00:24:27.639 --> 00:24:34.779 marked by a love for God's word, a love for his glory, and a love for his people? We might say them all the 00:24:34.779 --> 00:24:41.519 day long, but are we more like the American French model who walks up and says, bonjour, 00:24:41.579 --> 00:24:48.779 who's not French at all, and is not a model at all? How often do we as Christians say we are 00:24:48.779 --> 00:24:54.720 Christians and we are not marked by the characteristics that should mark God's people? 00:24:56.220 --> 00:25:02.699 That's certainly true of my own heart. Maybe it's true of yours. Jesus goes further with this 00:25:02.699 --> 00:25:10.980 in Matthew 5, right? He says these contrasts, blessed is the man who does 00:25:10.980 --> 00:25:16.579 what? Not walks in the counsel of the wicked like Psalm 1. He goes beyond that and says, 00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:21.839 blessed are these people who look like this, and he goes through a whole list. 00:25:22.599 --> 00:25:27.759 And oftentimes as Christians, we come to that list and we're so discouraged, or we come to Psalm 1 00:25:27.759 --> 00:25:32.920 and think, do I really do this? Or we come to sections like Psalm 26 and say, 00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:42.519 this isn't me at all. What am I going to do? Does that mean that I'm not a Christian if I don't 00:25:42.519 --> 00:25:51.620 proclaim his wondrous deeds, if I don't enjoy the presence at his altar? What do we do when we're 00:25:51.620 --> 00:25:57.820 called to be something and we are not? I have the great privilege during the week of leading a Bible 00:25:57.819 --> 00:26:03.119 study for guys that are Christians and guys that aren't Christians that meet together and study 00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:10.919 God's word on Fort Carson. And as we do that, this young man has started to come, a young man who I've 00:26:10.919 --> 00:26:17.599 known for many years. And I thought, surely all my wisdom and insight has finally brought him to the 00:26:17.599 --> 00:26:23.079 Lord. Or maybe it's the fact that we talk about NBA basketball. It's not that at all. In fact, it's the 00:26:23.079 --> 00:26:30.500 witness of a man that used to be in our congregation who's moved away. And it wasn't even his words that 00:26:30.500 --> 00:26:37.779 brought this young man into this Bible study that brought him to faith. It's the fact that this young 00:26:37.779 --> 00:26:44.720 member of our congregation would do things at work that were wrong and he would acknowledge them. 00:26:45.259 --> 00:26:50.839 So it wasn't the fact that he did everything right. It wasn't the fact that he was perfect or he was a 00:26:50.839 --> 00:26:56.199 great leader or great army officer. No, it was the fact that when he did things that were wrong, 00:26:56.659 --> 00:27:04.439 he acknowledged them and said, please forgive me. And that witness to the gospel lived out in normal 00:27:04.439 --> 00:27:10.899 life is what transformed this guy's heart and let him see there's something different about this guy. 00:27:11.079 --> 00:27:18.299 And in that, I have to know what's going on. It's not the witness of Andy, but in fact, the witness of 00:27:18.299 --> 00:27:26.440 the gospel at work and a church member at work in the office cubicle on the flight line doing normal 00:27:26.440 --> 00:27:35.220 stuff and saying, I'm sorry, I am not who God has called me to be. How true is that of us? That even 00:27:35.220 --> 00:27:42.440 in our own failings, when we are not what we should be, that God uses that to show other people 00:27:42.440 --> 00:27:50.840 forgiveness that we have experienced as we extend it to others. Christian is marked by confidence, 00:27:50.840 --> 00:27:56.160 not in themselves. And sometimes it's even marked by these characteristics that we see. 00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:02.940 But in spite of all that, that is the ground for the psalmist and for us crying out to the Lord. 00:28:04.299 --> 00:28:10.860 Starts, Psalm 26 starts in the same way it kind of ends. This crying out to God in the midst of 00:28:10.859 --> 00:28:20.439 difficulty in the midst of evil that surrounds them. The psalmist, remember, this is the book of Psalms. 00:28:20.719 --> 00:28:27.240 This is not Romans where this is nicely laid out theology. Yet we're talking about the character of 00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:33.359 God, his love and steadfastness, the confidence that Christians have before the Lord. But at the same 00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:41.119 time, that Christian is crying out to the Lord. Look with me at verses 11 and 12. 00:28:42.779 --> 00:28:49.419 But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity, redeem me and be gracious to me. My foot stands on level 00:28:49.419 --> 00:28:58.439 ground. In the great assembly, I will bless the Lord. Those are loaded terms. He doesn't appeal to the 00:28:58.440 --> 00:29:07.320 marks. He doesn't appeal to the characteristics of Christians. In fact, he only appeals to the Lord, 00:29:07.480 --> 00:29:13.799 asking him to be gracious to him, asking him to redeem him. As you read in Romans, that is the picture of 00:29:13.799 --> 00:29:23.740 the redeemer that he needs. He appeals to God himself on his own character, not the writer's character, 00:29:23.740 --> 00:29:30.220 not what he has done, not what he should be, not of the blood of bulls and goats, but in fact, 00:29:30.680 --> 00:29:37.319 on God himself. Now, many of us this morning have probably slipped and stumbled our way into church, 00:29:37.579 --> 00:29:41.900 whether it's from the snow or you just rolled in. We're glad that you're here. 00:29:41.900 --> 00:29:51.700 Because this truth is what defines a Christian. The fact that we all need a redeemer, that we've sinned, 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:56.920 and that we need something outside of ourselves. We need God himself to be gracious to us, 00:29:57.120 --> 00:30:05.080 to forgive us of our sin. And we need to cry out to the Lord and ask him to be gracious to us. 00:30:05.079 --> 00:30:12.819 The psalmist pleads not of his own confidence. He doesn't even plead of his own marks of Christian 00:30:12.819 --> 00:30:19.819 character, nor should we. But if we cry out to him in faith, based on what Christ has done, 00:30:20.399 --> 00:30:29.179 then we can be redeemed. That's the identity of a Christian. If that's your identity this morning, 00:30:29.180 --> 00:30:35.620 rest in that as we live and move and have our being as we do normal life. May it be in the Lord. 00:30:36.620 --> 00:30:46.299 But if that's not you this morning, he is inviting you to experience that life, a true identity in Christ 00:30:46.299 --> 00:30:55.039 alone. Let's pray. Lord, may we join with you this morning in a cry for redemption. 00:30:55.039 --> 00:31:07.799 Lord, we need a Savior that bears all the glorious marks, not of ourselves, but of you. That Savior is 00:31:07.799 --> 00:31:14.559 Christ. We pray that you would cement that truth in our hearts, whether we've walked with you for many 00:31:14.559 --> 00:31:23.220 years or not at all. Lord, may you do that work in our hearts to convince us of the truth and necessity 00:31:23.220 --> 00:31:30.299 of depending upon you alone for salvation. And we ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.