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[0:00] With the last half of this evening, I would direct your attention to Psalm 51, verse 15. Psalm 51, verse 15.

[0:15] O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.

[0:27] O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.

[0:42] David was called by grace early in his life. And he speaks in his youth of the Lord wonderfully delivering him from the poor of the lion and the bear.

[1:02] And whilst he was engaged during some 10 to 15 years in the wilderness prior to his being placed on the throne of Israel, he was subjected to many afflictions which would, under God, as they were, deepen the work of grace in his soul.

[1:33] There were occasions when he proved how great God was, what a deliverer he was, what a savior he was, and what an observer he was over all the events of his life.

[1:51] But then, the years go by, and something came upon him which he never expected would.

[2:04] And the result of that was a deep soul exercise and an entry into confession of sin on the one hand, and the forgiving love of God on the other, that transcended all that he had felt on either side before.

[2:31] Many of the psalms speak to us about the soul exercises of David.

[2:43] It is perhaps surprising to some that in the midst of some of his deeper trials were those times when he sung the loudest unto God.

[2:57] An example of this is in the 34th Psalm, where we read, His praise shall be always in my mouth.

[3:12] O come and magnify the Lord with me. Such language was at a time when he was in deep trouble.

[3:24] So much for the general circumstances that may lead up to the words of our text. I'm sure most of you will be aware of the background which we can read about in the book of Samuel.

[3:45] But there, we do not get the soul's feelings. People may see your outside if you fall, and they may bring you, bring all sorts of criticisms upon you.

[4:04] And they may have no understanding of what goes on in your soul, what confession is made to God, and what revelations are made to your soul of the Lord's mercy.

[4:23] But the scriptures give us both sides in this particular instance in David's life. Let us look more at what God did in the soul of David, bringing him to the petition in our text, rather than fix our attention and attempt to sit in judgment upon the circumstances which are given in some detail in the book of Samuel.

[5:03] By reason of the words of this prayer, O Lord, open thou my lips, we must surely conclude that he realized that he had no power to open his lips himself.

[5:18] He could open his lips, but not in the way he wanted to. Cannot we see in some parts of this psalm that his soul was cruelly feeling what he was praying for?

[5:39] Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgression. You will remember that David confessed his sin.

[5:55] He said, I have sinned against the Lord. But the prophet told him that God has put away your sins. Now, this was a spiritual experience of David, and therefore, it would have a spiritual outcome.

[6:17] How would you feel if you were a guilty person and you confessed that you had been guilty before God and then, maybe through the preaching of the word, you were told that God has put away your sins?

[6:32] Now, if you were alive unto God, that would have an overwhelming effect upon your spirit to think that God has put away the sins that you had been guilty of.

[6:51] Just preceding the words of our text, we read, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation.

[7:04] He was truly convicted of his sin. It was not something too superficial. Although, we need to look very closely and narrowly at this point because some may confess that they are guilty and yet feel nothing of the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost that will produce in their souls the spirit of repentance.

[7:37] It is the goodness of God which leadeth us to repentance. Now, what do we know of that goodness of God that will lead us to repentance?

[7:48] repentance? That goodness of God is contained in pardon of sin based on a good foundation.

[8:00] We should always make the distinction that here was no compromise. The war today would place David in that category where he was in need of a psychiatrist to put him on the right road again.

[8:24] But David had no such need. He was a sinner as other people are today. They are sinners and because they are sinners they do what they do and there should be no excuses made for them.

[8:38] As soon as you begin to make an excuse that you are a sinner and you can't help it then you are on a dangerous road. A road that will decline and bring you eventually down to hell itself.

[8:55] But if you are taught by the spirit of God then that teaching will bring you to know that you are a sinner and it will also convince you that you are incapable of doing anything else but sin unless the power of God's restraining grace is put forth on your behalf.

[9:17] At the same time we need to know something of that love of God that will put away sin. Now have you ever thought and felt my sin my sin what's to be done with it?

[9:37] you know there are two ways in which people die they either die in their sins or else they die in the Lord and each of us here this evening we shall die in just one of these places things now when you are aware of that solemn truth you will be concerned if the spirit of God stirs you up to it with an anxiety lest you should die in your sins how do we know that we are sinful sinful sin has a paralyzing effect upon us it's not just a matter of doing this and not doing that sin has a paralyzing effect the apostle Paul knew it he speaks of it in the seventh chapter to the

[10:38] Romans the good that I would I do not and the evil that I would not that I do and how to perform that that I would I find not the will is present with me but how to perform that which I would I find not oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and this man had come to grips with what sin really was you see if we don't come to grips with what sin really is then we shall follow the general trend and regard sin disobeying the commandments what God has written down shall we say the ten commandments and not doing those things that the ten commandments required of us how many people when they talk about sin they get no further but the people of God were no sin of a very different kind and

[11:48] David he in his life proved a sin of a very different kind he had to learn his absolute weakness I have no power the snare to shun I ever into ruin run well that may be so in respect to the weaknesses of the flesh or shall we say the strength of the flesh when it was against the spirit but it had a paralyzing effect upon him when he wanted to speak forth the praises of the Lord O Lord open thou my lips our lips are sometimes closed because of a sin which is self within perhaps we know what that is and the mercy of God has been evidence to us that

[12:49] God did not strike us down or cut us off as cumbres of the ground and we wonder why because the sins of foolishness anger and so on envy malice have had their effect upon our spirit and our lips are closed but there is something which is of much closer kind this we have in the book of obiticus in the tenth chapter when Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron took either of them his censer and put fire therein and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded not how important it is that we should be preserved from the sin of doing those things which we think

[13:52] God wants us to do if I can use that kind of language these two sons of Aaron they evidently offered this strange fire and they would have been in the same place that many are today when they used this expression God wants me to do it well God was soon to make manifest that he was displeased with what they did they went out of fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord now the most important point in these circumstances is in the third verse and Moses said unto Aaron this is that the Lord spake saying I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me and before all the people I will be glorified and Aaron held his peace there was nothing to say God solemnly appeared manifest as a sin contained in a lack of sanctification in heart now this is a great sin amongst the churches today the lack of sanctification in the heart considering that if this and that is to be done if we feel that we all agree about it then all is well but that is not so according to the scripture

[15:26] I direct your attention to another point in David's life when he had this in mind to build a temple unto the Lord when he told Nathan the prophet the prophet said do all that it did in heart it seemed good they both agreed but God intercepted it it will be of infinite mercy for you and me if God intercepts those things which are sinful will because we have not inquired of God as to whether it is his will or not but people may say well surely to erect a place of worship to have a consideration for God isn't this what he was saying here I dwell in the house of cedar and the Lord's house is in curtains we must do something better than that well the

[16:27] Lord had the purpose in mind and in his time he brought it to pass but David was not the man of his choice to do it how concerned therefore we have to be that what we do is by the inspiration of God by the movement of God upon our hearts and not just something that has come into our mind we would be careful here because no doubt David had the honour and glory of God in his soul when he made this suggestion to the prophet but it was not the time and he was not the person and how much grace we need when God may say to us in respect to a certain thing this is not the time and you are not the person but we must come to the words of our text oh

[17:30] Lord open thou my lips he needed God to open those lips that sin had closed up maybe we have felt that sin sometimes has closed up our lips so that we cannot open them hence this urgent prayer open thou my lips the Lord is the controller of every part of our body we read in the 94th psalm I think it's the 94th psalm where the Lord says he that may the ear shall he he that planted the ear shall he not hear he that form the eye shall he not see he that chastised the heathen shall not he correct he that teaches man knowledge shall not he know the

[18:42] Lord knoweth the thought of man that they are vanity and therefore how much of the speech of man is vanity now this was a time of God's chastening hand upon David and when that time comes upon you and upon me if there's one thing we should want to askew it is speaking words of vanity he wanted to honour God he wanted to sing the praises of the Lord oh how good it is to be dealt with by the God of heaven maybe some of us would have reason to rejoice in those few words in the Hebrews God dealeth with you as with sons that will have a melting effect upon your spirit when you know that God is dealing with you as a father my father's hand prepares the cup and what he wills is best now we are assured of this that whatever the father wills is for our good and our profit earthly fathers they chastised for their pleasure but the scripture says he put our profit don't we then consider some of

[20:10] God's chastisements maybe we've been in that place where we couldn't say a word receive black people complain and they say our hearts they're lost maybe we can understand them because we have two natures if we're born again of the spirit and the old nature struggles hard to gain the conquest over grace and after he seems to gain the field when Jesus hides his face but the time comes when we shall be made aware by the spirit of God that this is God's chastening hand it is good for us to think upon these lines if it's not God's chastening hand when adversity comes upon you when that prospect which you thought was going to develop it develops alright but in the opposite direction instead of being a time of prosperity it's a time of loss or if it should be a case of affliction instead of progress being made there is a going backwards now why does

[21:33] God do this it is in order that we might consider consider ourselves consider our sins and above all consider the wonderful works of the Lord this being so internally in the soul a gradual desire rises up to show forth the Lord's praises but oh my lips they seem sealed oh my lips I cannot think to open them here then we find the psalmist words and in finding the psalmist words may we find our words oh Lord open thou my lips because there is so much to be said thy name deserves so much honor and I want to speak well of thee and here I am with my lips closed he had something to speak about oh yes he had something to speak about and several of these points we can well mention first of all he had to speak about the mercy of

[22:55] God and my mouth shall show forth thy praise the mercy of God will that come forth out of our lips I know that various expressions can develop almost into a cant now that is almost vain repetition and the people may say through mercy so so so so of course it is perfectly true but on the other hand there are times when we want to feel this truth in such a depth that will cause us to say oh Lord open thou my lips and my mouth to show forth thy praise will tell of thy wondrous faithfulness and spread thy praise abroad that thou art merciful and gracious and full of compassion the reason for some of the things that come upon us is not known to everybody it may be known to the individual person let us not drift on with the world and say well of course this is the natural order of things this affliction is laid upon me this infirmity is upon me this adversity has come of course the children of

[24:28] God they are called upon to a pathway of tribulation we want something more than that we want to get some profit out of it we want to feel the love of God in it we want to appreciate the mercy of God satisfy us early with thy mercy says Moses in the 90th Psalm and what does he also say make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil he doesn't say make us glad in the days where thou hast prospered us in the days where everything has been smooth but make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us open thou my lips that my mouth may show forth thy praise to speak of thy wondrous faithfulness in the time of my triumph and affliction in a time when my religion was put through with a threshing machine and I wondered whether there was anything there at all when prayer was at the lower end when faith was severely tried maybe with a hymn writer we could say zeal extinguished to a spark life is very very low all my evidence is dark marks of grace

[25:51] I cannot show oh what a wonderful deliverance will that be when God comes and shines into your heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil it is in the days of affliction and the years of evil that we see more clearly more powerfully the wonderful mercy of God why and how we see the mercy of God because we are upheld and sustained we have we have but to look through the book of Job to see how God sustained him and upheld him in the time of his bitter trial if we are sustained it is because of God's mercy

[26:52] I was surprised that one of our poets should say thy mercy by God is the theme of my song the joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue we shall not say that in the day of prosperity we shall not say that in the day when everything runs smoothly but when we come into the time of affliction and distress and when the scum comes to the top from our own nature and we still find that God is merciful we still find that God is patient we still find that God is gracious we still find that God is as they are so we are absolutely ashamed of them will you understand me when I say it is a good thing when we are ashamed of our prayers because then pride is beginning to sink low and when we are ashamed of our prayers it only goes to emphasize the opening words of this time have mercy upon me

[28:00] O God according to thy loving kindness and this is what the psalmist wanted to speak about O Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise there was another point and is another point that we would mention and that is the long suffering of God towards David do we find ever in our Christian experience some understanding of God long suffering you know Christian experience is sometimes completely misunderstood Christian experience is such an experience that brings us to know a little more of God at the same time it brings us to know a little more ourselves

[29:02] Christian experience is an experience of a doctrine maybe sometimes as you pass through certain experiences in your life you've proved God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted about that you're able God is faithful that's the point of God bringing this trial and affection upon you this knowledge of sin God is faithful the knowledge of sin in regard to our unbelieving heart but God is faithful have we learned that are we witnesses to this great truth God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted about that you're able but will with every temptation make a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it and therefore we see the long suffering of God even in this our lives are different in their lengths about have we lived long enough to know something about

[30:12] God's long suffering he suffered their manners in the wilderness we read has he suffered your manners in the wilderness the times when you have not believed the times when there's been such a battle and unbelief and infidelity seems to have got the conquest and you begin to stay and feel to and you dare mention it to other people there is no God but in the face of all the evidence you have that there is well it just goes to show how deeply ingrained is wickedness in our hearts there is no God well what shall we say is the mercy of God sufficient to cover the occasion when the fool has said in his heart there is no God is the long suffering of God and the faithfulness of God sufficient to cover the occasion when you said there is no

[31:15] God and if you've never been in that place dear friends I can only feel that you're being deluded and you don't know your heart but if you do know your heart and your staggering faith gives way to get out your courage yields to feel shock at the sight you straight cry out can ever God dwell here and my mouth shall show forth thy praise when we think of the love of God oh the love of God now how is the love of God demonstrated to us well the love of God is demonstrated in several ways first of all that by correction and chastisement there are no chastisement for the present seemeth to be joyous but grieveth nevertheless afterward it yielded the peace of the fruit of righteousness which is seeing the love of God

[32:21] I was under great trials some years ago now and I could take you to the spot and name the time of the day more or less when God dissolved my heart with these words trials must and will be fall but with humble faith to see love inscribed upon them all this is happiness to me and I felt the force of it then and I felt the force many many times since love inscribed upon you on them all and if God has called you by his grace and led you forth in that pathway which will eventually lead you to heaven with all the adversities you will see the love of God the love of God and when you see it then your very soul will be melted and you will worship you will worship but then there is this question of correction that is a demonstration of the love of God but there is also the sin which has been committed which has brought you to that place where you have needed correction and what about that sin in order that we may show forth the

[34:06] Lord's praise we've already referred to this point but God has put away thy sin it is a good thing to have an exercise in our heart which only God can work for it is God that worketh in you both to will and do of his good pleasure about our sin and how is it going to be dealt with you see people the people of God they cannot let sin stand they must be directed to the cross and where is it that we see the love of God more demonstrated than in Gethsemane and on the cross was it for crimes that I have done he groaned upon the tree have you ever asked that question when the Lord has revealed to you the blessedness and glory of Christ it will especially be so if you catch hold of

[35:13] John Newton's words when he said a second look he gave which said I freely all forgive my life my life this blood is for thy ransom paid I die that thou mayst live the blood of Christ how rich and free does it come into your religion do you feel the need of it when you think upon the blood of Christ you're thinking about the love of God the blood of Christ was a cover in the Old Testament times and it is a cover today when I see the blood when I see the blood I will pass over you perhaps you might say sometimes I wish I could see the blood maybe you do but if you don't remember this that the scripture says when I see the blood and the

[36:21] Lord looked upon the blood of the sacrifice of his beloved son he looked upon the blood that was sprinkled upon the doorpost and the lintel when the avenging angel went through the land of Egypt and he will certainly look upon the blood when you are going through this life with all your concerns and there will be no destructive angel that will slay you maybe some in the wars that have been fought in the earlier part of this century might have had it vividly oppressed upon them when I see the blood I will pass over you ten thousand shall fall at thy side but it shall not come by thee because the person was under the blood well some may well have felt the force of that and if you're under the blood who put you there people cannot put themselves under the blood it is

[37:33] God that put them under the blood it is God that has chosen them unto salvation it is God that has accepted them through the redemption of Jesus Christ under the blood David was under the blood though he was blood guilty yet he was under the blood and therefore he was a sinner that could be pardoned now are you under the blood have you any hope that it is so that your faith look to it lovingly sometimes and say oh that I might have that witness in my spirit that the blood of Christ was shed for me how can we prove it there are one or two scriptures which we can think upon and as they reveal to us the revelation itself is an evidence of the love of

[38:35] God to your soul the blood of Christ bring it us nigh now if sin has stopped our lips if sin has stopped our coming if we have been ashamed and said I cannot come how can I come a sinner that I am how can I come dare I come to Christ now by the mysterious working of the father's love there is an irresistible drawing and that is to Christ and that irresistible drawing is the power of the father's love which is brought about when he looks upon the blood we think upon it when I see the blood the blood of Jesus Christ which bringeth us nigh now have you felt like that you couldn't come to

[39:41] God you couldn't confess your sins you felt you would be cut down at the cover of the ground when suddenly the word might have dropped upon your spirit the blood of Jesus Christ bring it up nigh the blood of Jesus Christ covers your sins the blood of Jesus Christ will make you accepted in the father's presence but then again if any man sin we have an advocate with the father and again the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin now to have the experience of being cleansed from all sin is an experience of the blood of Christ and you know that it has power to cleanse many expressions are used hymns are quoted and there it stops but it is a good thing though a painful experience when you come to endorse the words of the poet plunge me in that crimson ocean thy atonement may forsake free me from all empty motion may I feel the power within now the power which is in the blood of

[41:13] Christ is the power that will make you clean and what says the scripture I will make you clean the leper came and he said if thou canst thou canst make me clean what was this but an evidence of the love of God shed abroad in his heart gave him faith to believe that the Lord could make him clean do you believe that the Lord can make you clean do you believe that he can wash away your sin maybe it is such a blessing that you cannot conceive well I would like to tell you this dear friends and that is that it's a reality God is able to make you clean God is able to put away your sin and when he does you'll find that these words are absolutely true and when we search to find our sins our sins can ne'er be found why because I have blotted out of the thick cloud of thy sins and a cloud of thy liquidates or

[42:24] I have cast thy sins into the depth of the thing and you may search and you may search and you will not be able to find them now I can tell you that in my own experience mind you other things have come along since then but that was real I used to think the hypocrisy was going a bit too far until I came into it then I knew it was and I knew it was expressing the truth and I knew it was expressing the power of the love of God and the strength that was in the blood of Christ to blot out sin to cover it and to cast it away forever and ever and my mouth shall show forth thy praise in the 145th psalm psalm we read the psalm he says I will speak of thy power and of thy mighty acts and you know the power and the mighty acts that the people of God speak about are not just those things that they can see in nature that they can see in creation but the mighty acts and the great power that God has exerted in their souls experience when he has brought down their pride when he has made them come as a humble suppliant made willing in the day of his power to submit themselves to God this is God's power how often you might have been in the place of the young man in the scriptures who said

[44:12] I will not go but afterward he repented and went and that did it it was the power of God and it was the love of God in that power I cannot feel that that person in the scripture went under any compulsion he went willingly now do we know what it is to go willingly and renounce our pride and say I will go I will go how will I go?

[44:46] the psalmist tells us I will go in the strength of the Lord God and what will I say? I will make mention of his righteousness and of his own being now I believe that that was in the heart of the psalmist for in the previous verse he says and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness hence oh Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise the love of God yes but the righteousness of God oh to be able to speak about the righteousness of God what does this refer us to?

[45:31] my mind just goes to the book of Jeremiah where we read these words this is the name whereby she shall be called this is the name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness and then we turn over ten chapters and we come to these words this is the name whereby she shall be called the Lord our righteousness now what does that refer us to?

[45:58] well it refers us to the marriage bond it refers us to the bridegroom and his taking all that was ours and what was ours our best disdained and died with sin and dealing with it for us giving us his righteousness it is a wonderful truth in the Romans which speaks to us in this way he was made sin for us that we might be the righteousness of God in him how strange how mystical and yet how real when revealed to our faith when it's revealed to our faith then this word this prayer will be very important and my mouth shall show forth thy praise praise for thy righteousness this is what the poet had in mind when he said prepare me gracious God to stand before thy face thy spirit must have worked for firm for it is all of grace now do you know what you mean when you pray that?

[47:30] well the poet did in Christ's obedient and wash me in his blood so shall I lift my head with joy among the sons of God so then there was the clothing in the righteousness of Christ there was washing in the blood of Christ and there was furthermore the acceptance of this poor and wretched person with all their sins washed clothed and accepted in the beloved and if you ever feel that and have been delivered from a great sin then surely your prayer will be O Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise we read in Mark's gospel about the poor man that was among the tombs and what a mighty work

[48:38] God did there all the devils in that man knew that it was Christ and they thought that the Lord had come to torment them before the time but the Lord spoke to them and cast them out of that poor man and he was found sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his bright mind and he was willing to sit there what a change took place has such a change taken place in you and as you listen to those wonderful words struck by the spirit into your heart your this feeling grows O Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall so forth thy praise but you know that man he desired that he might stay with Jesus and cannot we understand that desire but the Lord said unto him go home to thy friends and tell them what great things the Lord have done for thee and how he hath had compassion upon thee well if we've got some great things to speak about then we shall pray feeling some inhibition inhibition and upon our own lips

[50:04] I cannot how can I open thou my lips open thou my lips O Lord and my mouth shall show forth thy praise may he get glory to his great name and pardon all who have been a man for his name's sake Amen prayer Vietnam denen走 down they nuts siglo h studying and theirgrena mayor tim quart 들 No doubt at all, as always, let a kind of take place and thank you to the Lord, your children.

[51:03] See you next week. Two and one. Two and one.

[51:52] Two and one.

[52:22] Two and one. Two and one. Two and one. Three and one. Two and one. Two and one.

[52:42] Two and one. Two and one.

[53:02] Two and one. Two and one.

[53:22] Two and one. Two and one. Three and one.

[53:34] Two and one. Three and one. Three and one. Two and one.

[53:46] Three and one. One. One. One.

[54:00] Two. Two and one. The End The End

[55:04] The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End The End God is here and we will live in joy.

[56:08] And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father's love and the fellowship of the eternal Spirit be with us all.

[56:25]  Amen.