To be reminded that all I have is Christ.
And it's actually in here I put it into my sermon as well.
So it was just amazing to hear that song before I stepped up.
I'm privileged to be here this morning to preach from God's Word.
I am nervous, but the Spirit can use my nervousness.
So before I start, I'd just like to pray.
Heavenly Father, what a wonderful God you are.
What a merciful God you are.
As we look at Psalm 19, help us to be reminded that you are sovereignty over all.
That we are here today to glorify you, O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer.
I pray, Lord, that you settle my nerves and that we settle each other's hearts and souls.
And help us to be reminded, Lord, that your Word is to penetrate our hearts, Lord.
And your Holy Spirit can use your Word to penetrate the heart of us.
Not just to tittle our ears, but to get into our hardened hearts.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
So what I'm going to do today, instead of reading Psalm 19, I'm going to walk through Psalm 19.
I love walking through passages.
And Psalm 19 is a fantastic psalm.
It's challenging.
It's encouraging.
And it's tough.
And there's a reason why it's called, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
Because I couldn't preach this without keep reminding myself, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
So we're going to look at Psalm 19 in three ways.
We're going to look at Psalm verses 1 to 6.
We can see the creation revelation.
God being revealed in creation.
We're going to look at, then we're going to go down to 7 to 10.
We will see the Word, the Scriptures.
The special revelation.
God being revealed in Scripture.
And finally, we're going to look at verses 10 to 14.
Our personal revelation.
So, we're going to look up, down, and in.
And that's what we must do when we're looking at Psalm 19.
We must look up, down, but most importantly, by looking up and down, it should make us look inside.
To see the personal revelation of Jesus Christ.
So, Dave tells us, David, Dave.
I was after reading about him so much this week, we became friends.
I don't call him David no more.
I call him Dave.
So, David tells us that God is revealed in nature.
He tells us that God is revealed in Scripture.
And God is revealed in character.
Have you ever cried out, Lord, say something?
Why don't you just say something?
Well, Psalm 19 tells us God does say something.
We just don't listen.
What more do you want to hear from God if he's calling out from above?
Calling out from below and calling out from being within?
He is calling out.
So, the question is, why aren't we listening?
And that's what we'd like to answer as well as we go through Psalm 19 this morning.
So, keep in mind, listening.
Why aren't we listening?
Now, I don't know you.
I'm not here to point fingers at why you're not listening.
So, you'll have to answer that yourselves.
But I know my own heart.
And my heart is the same as your heart.
And my church is the same as your church.
And our hearts are hardened.
And we don't listen because of our sin.
So, we're going to start at verses 1 in Psalm 19.
The heavens declare the glory of God.
And the expanse proclaims the work of his hands.
The heavens declare the glory of God.
Now, David is a shepherd in Bethlehem.
He's standing in a field, minding his sheep.
Bethlehem hasn't got much life.
He's standing there.
He looks up.
He sees the heavens.
The blanket of stars.
He looks up.
And he sees and hears God.
And he comes to the realization that God is showing himself in the heavens.
He's showing himself in creation.
Have you ever thought of yourself that you're done?
You're not worthy?
You're lonely?
God's not speaking to you?
Well, David suggests we go out and we look up.
And we see God in creation.
We can see his handiwork.
And what comes to mind in my handiwork is a surgeon's hand.
Like, you wouldn't go to a surgeon who has a shaky hand, would you?
Well, I wouldn't.
I would say I could pity the scar when he's finished.
But God's handiwork is precisely cut like a surgeon's hand.
The way we are on this planet, in this world, precisely placed in the universe.
We can see God's precise handiwork in our world.
When we see the leaves falling in spring.
When we hear the rain beating off our windows in the winter.
When you see our breath in a cold morning.
These things points to the creation of God.
We as a church demonstrates God's glory in his creation.
We are here to create.
We are here to glorify God.
Now, I might be biased in this one.
But the Cork accent.
It's the only accent that sounds like you're singing and talking at the same time.
Now, if that's not a demonstration of God's glory.
I might just go on over it.
The Cork accent is a demonstration of God's glory.
So we can use everything to see God's glory.
Verse 2 tells us that day after day it pours out.
So day after day it pours out our speech.
Night after night it communicates knowledge.
It doesn't stop.
It keeps showing us the knowledge of God.
And what is knowledge?
It shows us the truth about who God is.
So if you're having a bad day today, guess what?
Tomorrow is another day.
Just because you're having a bad day tomorrow will also show the creation and the glorification of God.
Verse 3 tells us that there is no speech.
There is no words.
Your voice is not heard.
I saw this first.
I said, this is a contradiction.
How could you have a voice that's not heard?
And it looks like a contradiction.
I love meeting people who tells us, I don't believe in the Bible because it contradicts itself.
And I'm looking at him and I says, no, you don't believe in the Bible because it contradicts you.
It contradicts everything that our heart wants and desires.
It contradicts everything that we believe to be true in this world.
And it contradicts it.
And that's why people don't believe in the Bible.
It has nothing to do with the contradiction that they say the Bible has.
Because the Bible don't have contradictions.
what this is saying here is like there's no voice no i'm a yapper i like communicating i like coffee
after chatting i like meeting people and talking to them and sometimes i forget that i have a family
and they want to go home 10 minutes ago so as i'm talking i look over to my wife burr
and she's looking at me and i know i should have left 10 minutes ago now there's no voice
sean i can't hear her but i know i should have been gone 10 minutes ago and i think we all have that
knowledge of knowing things without hearing anything and that is what sam or david is saying
here in the sam there's a knowledge meant without the voice but we know we see and we can look and
we know that god is glorified in creation so that brings us to verse 4
the messages has gone out to the whole world and the words to the ends of the world in the heaven
in the ends in the world so the message of god goes out everywhere that's the best thing
about the creation and the realization that god is speaking in creation because we have no excuses
it doesn't matter if you're from cork city or the tribe in timbuktu it doesn't matter god is speaking
to us in creation there is no boundaries there is no language differences we can all hear it
so we have no excuses of not listening to god if you don't believe if people don't believe in the
scriptures if people don't believe in anything like that they still can't deny that god is talking to
them in creation you can know hebrew chinese greek they're all nice things to know but it doesn't matter
it doesn't matter there's no boundaries
so can i ask you a question why don't we listen
why don't we stop and listen to what god is saying
paul tells us in romans 1 i'm going to flick the romans 1
but paul tells us in romans romans 1 20
he tells us
that for his invisible aptitudes that is his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen
since the creation of the world being understood through what he has made as a result people are without excuse
for true they know god they did not glorify him as god or show gratitude instead their thinking became
worthless and their senseless heart were darkened claiming to be wise they became fools and exchanging the glory for the immortal god for images resembling mortal men birds four-footed animals and reptiles
people don't listen because they want to worship the creation rather than the creator
we love seeing things that gratify us we love seeing things that we can create and control and it becomes our god
it's like exodus 32 with the golden calf we have our hearts want to control god so we create images we create and everybody has them
i've got an arm full of golden calves that i go out there when life is tough
but we must not worship them it must not become a worship disorder that we start worshiping things that we create rather than the creator
but paul tells us what happens if we do this these things so the heart becomes foolish
but god paul gives us a row give us a warning in romans again before we do what we just read in romans 18
like paul tells us what's going to happen to these people what's going to happen to us if we reject what god is saying
so again in romans 118 paul tells us for the god's wrath is revealed from the heavens against all godliness and
unrighteousness for people by who their unrighteousness suppress the truth since what can be known about god is evident
amongst them because god has shown it to them
did you see the unrighteousness suppression
we suppress our own unrighteousness
do you suppress your own unrighteousness
and what happens when we suppress our own unrighteousness we will feel the wrath of god
i don't say that this morning to frighten me or paul didn't say it to frighten me but it's the truth
people will tell you that it's okay to live in this world and do what you want to do
we as believers know that that's a lie
now you can't be a christian if you're bathing in your sin you can't now we are all going to sin but if
you're lying back bathing and enjoying your sin you're not a christian
because you love your sin and you love the creation more than the creator
and paul is saying that the wrath of god you will face we will face the wrath of god
if we don't accept the lord jesus christ as our savior
and express none of our righteousness
that's what nobody none of us can hear or can boast we're all unrighteousness
and if you suppress it you think you're right you think that you're that you are righteous
newsflash you're not does none of us here righteous the only righteous person is the righteousness of jesus
christ and the blood that he shed in the cross is what needs to cleanse our unrighteousness
so we try not to suppress that it's nothing to be shameful for we can come to christ with our
unrighteousness jesus will accept us with open arms he wants us as cork and as the cork slang he wants us with
warts and oil he wants us as we are he are he wants us broken he wants us unrighteous he wants us he wants
a relationship with us
so with that we're going to go back to
the sun and verse five and i really should have marked this better than i did
in verse five as it tells us
it is like a braves room coming out of his home it rejoices like an athlete running the course
it rises from one end of the heavens and it cycles their earth and it cycles to their other end nothing is hidden from the heat
my wedding there
i felt strong
i was full of energy and excitement i was just about to receive my wife
i was proud i was happy i was confident
this is the way we should be when we talk to people about jesus christ
we should be like the bride or the groom ready to burst out of his chambers
and the running scene everybody likes an old running scene everybody likes i'm a runner not
physically but mentally everything that there's something strong i run and the fastest i can get
out of a situation my eye is looking at this corner though i know it's there
so i know it's behind me so that's my first expression is how i'm going to get out of this
i'm a runner but everybody loves scenes of running my favorite scene of running in the movie is forrest
gump i love it because he's his legs are embraces he hasn't got as much energy as his friends but he runs
and he runs and he strengthens his legs and one of these days he got chased and he ran so fast
you could see the legs breaking there's the braces broken his legs and that boy ran
and his head went up in the air and the sun was shining on his face and he was smiling
and that reminded me of our christian life it's tough it's hard but we must run with the gospel of jesus christ
and the more we run and the faster we run our legs will get stronger and stronger and we will be able
to run as fast as we ever thought we could be with our heads in the air the sun beating down on top of
our face and smiling from air to air because we know that our treasures are not to be stored in this world
and as matthew matthew tells us in matthew 4 wherever your treasures is stored there is your heart
we must store our treasures in jesus christ we must run with his word to the world and tell people about him
and the sun is used in this verse because no one can escape from it it's everywhere it comes up and it
doesn't matter what you do you can hide under the shade but it's still here
so that was david looking up now after looking up and he's seeing the creation and he's seeing god
revealed in creation what does he do he looks down he's standing in the field looking at his sheep
and david now after seeing the glorification of god he looks down into his scriptures what we do today
he looks down into the scripture that he had at the time was torah the old testament
so he looks down and he sees and he says in verse 7 to 8 the instructions of the lord lord is perfect
renewing one's life the testimony of the lord is trustworthy making the inexperience wise where would you get that
where would you get them the instructions of the lord
when you look here you can see that david is after replacing god with lord
he's gone into torah he's using lord as in yahweh he's showing he's telling us about yahweh is perfect
he is complete he's without blemish lacking nothing
and he will revive your soul
he will renew
and bring you back
to him
if you've strained you can return
david talks to us through the torah in these verses
that's his gospel today we have the full gospel we have the full gospel in jesus christ
and if david is telling us that his torah can be trusted
our scriptures can be trusted again we live in a society that tells us you can trust them
you can't trust them it doesn't matter how good it sounds it's too good to be true
you cannot trust what people are telling in this world we must use scripture as a filter
we must filter what we are being told through scripture and it will reveal to us god will speak
and reveal to us if this is true or not because scripture is true so we must use scripture when
we look down into him and we're going through our lives you must use it we must filter what's happening
to us through the word of god
so you can read any books you want
you can listen to any sermons you want about god
which is good but remember that all these are filtered experience from other people's experiences
you need we need to have our own experiences with god unfiltered
and the only way we can do that is spend time on his word and understanding it for us
i mean have you ever seen instagram or facebook and you see these hashtag no filters
i know they're filtered you see the guy that's sitting down and their eyes are about this size and
they've got lips they're about that size and their skin their jaw is tiny and you're saying
that picture is filtered and they're saying no filters it's lies but we live in a society that
loves to filter what's going on in our lives we love to put things that we can convince ourselves
that it's true but no and it's not you know i have anxiety up here unfiltered
but the lord jesus christ walks through me with his spirit i have nothing to offer only a puny
fish but the spirit can feed the multitude of people with it i need to humble it's unfiltered
so we're looking around verses eight the deceptions of or the perceptions of the lord are right
making the heart glad the command of the lord is radiant making the eyes light up i love that
it's right
it makes your eyes light up
and it lasts forever
matthew 24 the heavens and earth will pass away but my word will not pass away
but my word will last forever we're gonna die
sorry if anybody knew that but we are gonna die we are all returning to dust we are gonna pass away
this building is going to pass away society in another 50 years time is going to look different
the buildings are going to look different but jesus christ and his word is going to endure
forever forever way beyond how long we're gonna last
and the and the the word will make your eyes light up
oh this sounds amazing don't it we'll be able to going to see things clearly the scales are going to
be removed and we are going to see the glorification of god through scripture
are you ready to see her that's the thing i'm going to see that your eyes are going to light up it
reminds me of when the kids come in at five o'clock in the morning and you're half asleep and they turn on
the light you are screaming in pain you the first thing you want to do is grab them covers and cover your
head you don't want to see the light it's too bright that's what it can be like when god goes into your
heart the first thing we want to do is run we're being exposed it sounds great but it it can be
blinding highlighting sin i remember the first time my single highlighted i was petrified petrified and i
wanted to grab the blanket and put it over my head and shut out that light i did not want to see it
but the longer you stay in the light the longer you stay in the presence of jesus christ you will get
up and you will open the curtain and behold the sunrise the sun jesus christ and all his glory you will see
but you have to adjust the eyes you have to adjust the eyes to the light and the only way we can do that
is through scripture the perfect revelation of jesus christ
so we're going to go to verse 10
we're going to come back to verse 9 i skipped the fear the fear of the lord is pure enduring forever
that's what i was talking about it but it goes on forever but it's fear we should fear the lord
we're not worthy of him but we should also remember he's a merciful god fear is good but without that
mercy of jesus christ fear is not good if there is something in your life that's not bringing to jesus
christ it's not the spirit the spirit leads you to christ so if you have fear and that spirit is leading
you to christ it's the spirit but if you have fear that makes you run it's not the spirit
verse 10 it tells us they are more desirable than gold than abundance gold of pure gold and sweeter than
honey dripping from a honeycomb
i grew up far from honeycombs i've never tasted honeycomb before i spoke to a few people and they
said it's amazing so i'll take the award for it i've tasted honey but not from a honeycomb and the
honey from a honeycomb is supposed to be pure honey and you're supposed to desire it more than that
now i can if you talk to me about the pure honey and the pure taste of alcohol i can tell you what
that's about i was an addiction for many years and that was my honey the drink that i drank i desired it
more than jesus i loved it it made me into anything i wanted to be it was more desirable with a
relationship with god and when i look at this and i think about the times i was in that addiction and
the promises that it gave me and the more i desired it today i can stand here and i can tell you jesus christ
will fill you with as much joy that you've never experienced in any addiction
it doesn't matter what drink you put down your throat whatever you shoot into your veins or whatever
lines you put up your nose it has nothing compared to what jesus christ has to offer you
and whatever your addiction is telling you it's a lie you're being deceived it's a temporary release
with the end you're going to face the wrath of god
and that's where that song that we just heard before we came before i came up here that i played
out of my baptism it was the first song that i realized looking at the lyrics what was going on i didn't
know i was running i didn't know i was doing it on my own murder i didn't know what was happening until
i heard that song and the most important verses i heard was i once was lost in darkest night yet thought i
knew the way the sin that promised joy and life had led me to the grave i had no hope that you would own
a rebel to your will and if you had not loved me first i would refuse you still hallelujah all i have is christ
hallelujah jesus is my life
that's it he's my life i'm not here because of my own murder i am not here because of what i've done and
i've done mad things i've been claiming mountains in medjugorje i've been in crawling on my knees the
statues in fatima i've been three days barefooted praying around monks beds awake for 46 hours to
remove the shame and guilt from my past and could never do it until i open up the scripture one day and
i've seen we all fall short to the glory of god and i realized that i am not worthy and he is
and if i didn't accept the price that he paid for the cross was his blood i still owe debt and it's not
a physical debt it's a spiritual debt damnation eternity in hell that's the debt jesus christ paid for
that is the debt he paid for us and if we don't accept that payment then we have to pay
next in eternity death
so verses 11
in addition the servant is warned by them and keeping them
is an important reward so looking back it can tell us
the promises of the promises of scripture it's perfect it's right it's sure it's pure it's clean and
it's true
how would you get that living in this world
so now we looked up
we look down
it's time to look in
and listen to god revealing himself in our souls in repentance
now david looked up into the heavens and he must have been wow
he looked down into the word of god and he must have been in awe
and then he must have looked in
in the personal revelation and he must have went yuck
what am i and that's the way we must do we must look in and we must not beat our chests and we must say
yuck
we are all sinful we are all unjust we are all hardened of hearts we are all the same
there's no different there's no mightier than mighty we are all struggling
we are all living in this world in this world as best as we can
we all long to be satisfied in this world but guess what we will never be satisfied in this world
you know why because we are not created for this world it doesn't matter what this world tells us
or what it promises us we will never have satisfaction in this world and we shouldn't
because we are not created for this world we are created to be in heaven in a glorified body and a
glorified soul with jesus christ and in there we will have the satisfaction that we long for down here
and that goes out especially to the young people here that are living in society and it tells you that
you can be who you want to be and you don't have to be this person and you can live the life that you
want to be because it's the only life that you have it's lies it's lies you never see the news and
they'll tell you look lads let's take out the bible and pray to jesus christ no you won't you'll never hear
that news and where will you hear that news in your local church it will tell you the truth it will tell you
that we are not created for this world we are not to be satisfied in this world we are to be putting our
treasures in heaven in the next world that we are created for and in there we will find rest come all
you who are weary and i will give you rest we can relax when we make it but we must persevere through this world
so david looks in
in verse 12 he said who perceives his intentional sin cleanse me from my hidden faults when i read this i went
oh
reminds me of a story i love stories so i was in a system before i became a christian and i had to go
to get confession and i was sitting in the confession box and i confessed and i moved and i left i was
convicted and i went to another confession box in the same day and i confessed the sin that i remembered
and i left and i sat down and had a cup of coffee and guess what i remembered more sins and i went back
in again for the third time on monday and the priest told me when was your last confession
and i said this is my third one today and he looked at me as well foreheads and he said why do you keep
coming back and he says i said because i'm remembering my sin as i leave i'm petrified i'm scared and i'm
remembering sin and i need to confess it and he looked at me and he says i am forgiving you of all your sins
in other words don't be coming back no more we're sick to that yeah
that's the way i picked it up but not realizing it's like i had sin i didn't even know i committed
we have sin that we don't know that we commit we could be talking to people in this in the conversation
and we could think it's great not knowing that what we're saying is sinful we don't know we have
on we have sin that we don't even know that we're committing how could we stand here today and say that
how can i stand here today and say i am just by my own i am just by my merits when the word of god
tells me no you're sinful you got sin that you don't even know you have how can you righteous from that you can't
you can't
it's in unintentional sin cleanse me from my hidden falls
moreover keep your sovereign from willing sins verse 13 then i will be blameless and cleanse from blunt rebel
rebellion notice in verse 13 david saying that he's not asking for forgiveness he's not saying
please forgive me because he knows that he has sinned that he doesn't even know he have so he can't
ask for forgiveness for something he doesn't have that he's not that he does not aware of
so it's the sin
that he's asking for is asking jesus to stand in the way of that sin that he doesn't know that he has
jesus stands in the way of our sin that he that we don't even know that we have
when we want to sin and we're sinful natures and we're going to keep sinning
we must run to jesus jesus is saying we are going to sin i've paid for the price of sin
but we're going to be sinners until we're in his presence but jesus christ will stand in between
our sin and we can run to him when we are in temptation
and then we are blameless and then we are cleansed
so you're looking at verse 14
may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you lord my rock and my redeemer
we got there where did we get there because oh lord my rock and my redeemer we would not have got through
psalm 19 without realizing that we are all here today because lord jesus christ is our rock and our redeemer
what a mighty king we serve what a mighty king we serve that he takes us as sinful as we are and loves us
that he paid a price winningly for us and accepts us sin and all and wants a relationship with us
jesus christ is our lord and savior we are right and just because of him
the blood he shed on the cross nothing else
he took our sin and paid the price we owed
we are saved not by our merit or our works
we are saved by god's grace freely given
freely given
so we cannot boast and beat our chests to other people
amen
and i'd like to end this i'm not going to sing it because of a voice like two cats in a plastic bag
but we're going to sing oh lord and
oh lord my rock and my redeemer thank you
oh