Well, Jeremiah stole my passage for this week, so I'm going to do him a solid and steal the passage from last week, which works out well. So I'm actually going to be combining three different texts, but from Psalm 51 to 1 Timothy chapter 1, and also this verse in Matthew here. So we're going to kind of bring these texts together. But I'll be using kind of Matthew 26 verses 36 through 46 as our main backdrop. So again, Matthew 26 and verses 36 through 46. And this sermon is really going to be a combination between this passage and our confession of sin that we've already recited. Particularly because I think these two passages have to go together. I think not only are they mutually reinforcing one another, but without one, you really can't have the other. And so I think they go together in a really unique way that I hope we'll have the opportunity to see tonight through this sermon. In one respect, you could say this sermon is about demonstrating the connectedness of scripture. And these are my favorite. So whether I'm in seminary, whether I'm sitting under a sermon, I love to hear about the connections between the Old Testament and the New Testament. And this is something I think that we need to hear often. I taught at the Anchorage two weeks ago on Deuteronomy chapter 8. Two weeks ago before that, I taught on Psalm 139. And you'd be surprised how many guys come up and say, why are you preaching through the Psalms? Why are you preaching through Deuteronomy? Why aren't you preaching through the Gospels? And if you just think about that question for a minute, it says something very interesting about some of the perspectives out there. The reality is that we don't have one without the other. And so, in one sense, this sermon, I hope, tonight will be demonstrating just how connected they are and how they go together, which is, I think, something that we've already seen kind of reinforced today, even from Jeremiah's Sunday School as well. This is one reason why I love covenant theology, because it bridges the whole Bible together, and you can see that thread. So it's one of my favorite things to hear, to preach on, so I'm excited about that. I say all that, and then I'm going to come in here and say that's not the primary focus of this sermon. In fact, the primary focus of this sermon is one thing and one thing only, and that's to exalt the obedience of Christ. You see, what we're seeing here in these gospel passages is we're seeing the moments leading up to Jesus' crucifixion, and we get a very, very unique and intimate view of what Jesus was thinking, what Jesus was feeling, what He was doing, and it's just amazing. I mean, you see sorrow here. You see sorrow in the garden, true, actual human sorrow. I mean, my dad has spoken before, he's a great preacher himself, and he's actually spoken about the medical reality, how much stress it takes to actually sweat drops of blood. And to hear him talk about that as a medical thing is just incredible. Jesus was experiencing that. And we see sorrow in Psalm 51 too, don't we? It's not the same kind of sorrow. But it is a kind of sorrow, and I think there is a way that they go together. And hopefully, again, we'll see that in this sermon tonight. But let me pray for us. I'll read our text, and then we'll jump in here. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, for its beauty, for its majesty. Lord, thank you that you've given it to us as a means of understanding more about who you are, understanding your character, and understanding what it is that you require of us. Lord, we don't need to look anywhere else. We need to look to your word and see, Lord, that you have given us all that we need here, that you, the fountain of life, have provided the means that your people may know you and commune with you. And so we ask, Lord, that above all else, that we would have that opportunity really tonight to sit at the table with you, Lord, to sup with you, to commune with you in your word. We pray, Lord, that you'll communicate the truths that are contained here. We don't need to extract them. We certainly don't bring them in, Lord. Your word speaks to us through the spirit and speaks truth. Lord, I pray that we will be ready to hear it. I ask this, Lord, in your name. So two weeks ago on Psalm 50, well, let me read, excuse me, let me read the text here. So this is Matthew 26, 36 through 46. Hear the word of the Lord. Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And talking with him, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. And then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples, and he found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, my father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. He came to the disciples and said to them, Sleep, and take your rest later on. See that the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand." What a powerful moment there. Two weeks ago I was preaching on Psalm 50, and I was asking the question, what is right obedience? What is right and true biblical obedience? And Psalm 50 was really helpful in that it answered that question by orienting us around the authority of God. So it pointed to God as creator, right? As sustainer, as upholder. The God who calls all creation to account and creation listens. Why? Because we're his creation. Because he has that authority. So we saw that one aspect of obedience was certainly submitting to God as the highest of all authorities. And I think that's the place where we have to start. So true and right biblical obedience, we can certainly say is obedience. But remember that we saw as well in Psalm 50 that it wasn't obedience for obedience sake. It wasn't obedience as a kind of skeletal structure, but there was more to it than that. There was this kind of whole soul, whole being, integrity of being, an entire devotion that really represented the obedience that God was desiring. So again, we can say one aspect certainly is submission, but there's more to it than that. In fact, as I was studying Psalm 50, as I was studying this passage and just thinking about what biblical obedience looks like, I came up with these four points. I didn't come up with them. I think the Bible represents them, but here they are. Right obedience is this. One, I saw it to be submission. Two, I saw right obedience to be confession. Three, adoration. And then four, exhortation. Now, we could certainly say I think that there's more to biblical obedience than just this, but I don't think that we can say it's less. So again, right obedience is submission, confession, adoration, and exhortation. A perfect model of this obedience is found in Paul, right? Formerly Saul. You remember on the Damascus Road, Saul is encountered by the risen Christ. He sees God for who He really is. In that moment, Saul, his eyes are opened, and he recognizes that he has been persecuting Christ, the living God. And what is Saul's response? Do you remember? We might say it was his only possible response, right? But it was submission. When Saul encountered the living God, he submitted. When he had his eyes opened, in some senses, to the glory of God, he recognized his great sin. When his pride and his zeal for obedience was stripped away, he recognized who God was and he submitted to God. Submission as a concept is something that we can think about, but submission as an action is something that we definitely struggle with. It's difficult because, I think we've already said it this morning, John mentioned it, I think Jeremiah said it, that submission in itself is diametrically opposed to our nature. We're not children of obedience. Some of you who have children probably know that. Children are not naturally obedient. Ephesians tells us that by nature we're children of wrath. Submission is difficult for us for this reason, that it's, again, diametrically opposed to our very nature. And the more I study the scriptures, the more I'm convinced over and over again that the height of the sin of man is at its root found in pride. I feel like throughout the scriptures, when you dig down, that's really at the root of it. It's this desire to sit in the seat of God. It's this desire to be autonomous above all else, to not be responsible to anything else, to not be responsible to any authority. This is what we saw in our home group study this week as what the devil ultimately falls into, what Paul calls the condemnation, the judgment of the devil. What was it? It was pride. It was that he wanted to be God. that he wanted to sit in the throne of the Lord. What happens when we're confronted with the opportunity to submit is generally we don't because we think that we are better than we actually are. That's really what it is, is that we think we're better than we actually are. Remember that Saul thought he was doing the Lord's work. I bet if you could go back and you could interview him and you could ask him while he was persecuting the church, if he thought he was doing God's work, I bet you he would say yes. He was a zealot. His objective was to squash this rebellion of rabble-rousers following this thing called the way. He thought he was being obedient. He thought he was being zealous for good works. And so it is often with us as well that we think when we're obeying that we're obeying for the right reasons. And when confronted with the reality that we're not, what do we usually do? We usually rationalize it. We find excuses, we twist it to suit our own means and our own story so that on the surface it appears like we're actually being obedient, when in reality our hearts are far from the kind of obedience that is depicted in the Bible. But God's not fooled and Saul quickly comes to this realization. Encountering the living God, he gets stripped of all his pride and literally becomes blind so that he has to sit in the darkness of his sin. It tells us in Acts that he was blind for three days. Do you ever wonder what he thought about those three days? Just sitting. It says that he neither ate nor he drank. You just wonder what he thought about during that time. The Lord opens his eyes in his blindness, if you think about how cool that is, opens his eyes in the midst of his blindness by saying, giving him this charge, right? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Not Saul, why are you persecuting the church? Jesus, the risen Christ, asks him, why are you persecuting me? Saul's sin wasn't against the church, though it was in some sense, of course, but that's not the heart of it, right? What was Saul's true sin? Who was it truly against? It was against God, it was against Christ, and that's what he's saying. But Saul, in submission, he recognizes the weight of his sin, and he confesses. And in 1 Timothy 1, we see this confession. I'm just going to read it here for you. And I think it, again, speaks to this model of biblical obedience here. So here are these words from 1 Timothy 1, starting in verse 13. Paul says this, "'Formerly I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor, and an insolent opponent.'" Paul knows what he was. He confesses what he was, a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent opponent. But I received mercy, acting ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed from me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of what? Of whom I am the foremost. of whom I am the foremost. That speaks to me of submission and confession in its truest sense. This is a confession that truly recognizes who God is, and there's no room for pride here. There's no room for us on the throne when we recognize the weight of our sin, when we're encountered with it, and when we encounter the beauty and the majesty and the all-encompassing glory of God. Paul says this, but I received mercy for this reason. Why? That in me, as the foremost sinner, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. He's talking about us, right? As an example for us. And watch, here comes the result of confession. Here comes the result of confessing our sins before the Lord. Here's where it turns to doxology. To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, The only God be honor and glory forever and ever. You see how it goes from submission to confession to adoration. Do you think God was pleased with that? I think so. I think this is what true biblical obedience looks like. So if we're looking for a proof for our model, right, that obedience is submission, confession, adoration, and exhortation, I think we see this here. Because of course, the pastoral epistles, 1 Timothy, that in its whole is an exhortation, right? It's a charge given to Timothy to do what? To fight the good fight of faith with this reality that Paul is presenting here. And throughout his letters, this is Paul's claim, right? that I was the foremost sinner saved by grace to the glory of God in Christ Jesus. So submission, confession, adoration, and exhortation. Now, turn with me, if you will, to Psalm 51, because I think David provides us with another example of what biblical obedience is supposed to look like. Turn with me to Psalm 51. David was also a man that we might say was consumed by pride. He was filled with lust for another man's wife while he stayed home and his compatriots were out at war. And ultimately commits the sin of murdering a man, his friend at that, and taking his wife as his own. David was blinded by pride and perhaps some entitlement, right? Which again, I think goes back to pride. Don't I deserve this? Aren't I king of Israel? Can't I have what I want? In thinking these things and believing these things, perhaps for a moment, David commits a grievous sin. And we, of course, know the rest of the story. We're told that this psalm was written after he was confronted with this reality, right? Nathan, the prophet under the command of God. And don't you just, don't you love the kind of people that are willing to end the Lord, cut us down from our high places, that are willing to come up and kind of pull us off our high horse? We should thank those people more often. Make a mental note, I'm gonna thank my wife more often. We should thank the people that are willing to confront us in our pride, like Nathan did to David. Nathan comes to David and by way of a simple, but a very powerful tale, he reveals to David the great sin that David has committed. It's an incredible moment. And it's incredibly frightening as well, isn't it? Because how many of us have been caught in a similar position, right? We get incensed about a wrong that's taking place, a sin that perhaps someone else committed. We get angry about that only to realize that the same person who committed that same sin is us. You are that man, said Nathan to David. We are that man, says the Bible to us. But maybe you haven't realized that yet. I feel like I should be preaching to the choir here, but maybe your eyes haven't been open to the reality of your sin. And I'm not talking about necessarily sin with the capital S. I'm talking about the everyday sin, the pride, the anger, the entitlement, the frustration, the impatience with God's way, the argumentativeness, the gossip, the discontentment. I'm talking about those things that exist in all of our hearts that none of us can weasel our way out of. It's a stone that comes down and comes down heavy. Do we really believe that we are that man that Nathan could have been pointing his finger at us? That we're the guilty ones, not the righteous ones? Yet how does David respond, do you remember? Does he try and kill Nathan? Does he take a note out of Saul's book and take a spear off the wall and chuck it at him? No. He submits. He's confronted by the reality of his sin, the Lord working through Nathan to reveal that sin to him, and his eyes are opened and he submits. He recognizes that he is that man. And out of that submission then comes this beautiful and familiar but heart-wrenching psalm that we've spoken already as our confession of sin. And here again I think we see the biblical model for obedience. Look for this, okay? Submission, confession, adoration, and exhortation. Verses 1 and 2. Have mercy on me, O God. According to your steadfast love and according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. I think I'd put this in submission. Of course, it's certainly submission and confession would go together here. But I think logically this kind of plea, it has to come from a point of submission, because I think that true submission, as we saw in Psalm 50, is it comes out of a recognition of who God really is. And what's David asking for here? Well, he's crying out for God to have mercy on him according to his steadfast love, according to his abundant mercy. What's he saying? He's saying, I'm pleading the character of God. I'm asking for mercy based on the character of God. To put it another way, I think the only way for David to cry out to God according to his steadfast love and according to his mercy is to understand that steadfast love and mercy are inherently part of God's character. They're part of who he is. So that when he makes this claim, he's speaking out of a knowledge of God, of who God is. God is steadfast love, he's hesed, he's mercy. And David recognizes this, that he sees God for who he truly is, a holy God and a just God, a God who hates and detests sin, and yet a God who is also rich in mercy and abounding in steadfast love. So David's prayer here, as ours should be, is in accordance with the character of God. David is submitting himself under the one true and holy God. This isn't too different from Isaiah's response. Y'all remember Isaiah chapter six as well? How does Isaiah respond when he encounters the living God, right? What does he say? Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. We could all raise our hand and say that's us tonight. For my eyes, oh this is great, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. You see there both is the recognition of who God is and then the recognition of what we are, full of sin. The revealing of the perfect holiness of God demonstrates just how far we are from that. God is holy and our sin runs deep. David says here in verse three, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. And John Corridor in our poets class kind of brought out some of the nuances of the Hebrew language there, and I can't translate it all here myself. But essentially, you get this idea that my sin is always around me. That is, it's kind of like when I sit down, my sin is with me, almost like an invisible friend. Did y'all have invisible friends when you were growing up? This isn't the invisible friend that you'd want, right? But of course, David's saying, everywhere I go, my sin is with me. It is always in my company. It is ever before me. And then come these great words, right? Again, submission and confession kind of working together here. Against you, O Lord, against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. You see how David recognizes how sin goes far beyond just our human to human interactions? Because we could certainly say that David's sin was against Uriah, wasn't it? We could say that for sure. The Bible also talks about sexual sin being a sin against our own bodies. So we could say that David sinned against his own body in committing adultery with Bathsheba. He sinned against Bathsheba, certainly. But what does he say here? He says, against you, Lord, have I sinned. And you only. Because sin at its heart is ultimately much more than an affront to one another. It's an affront to God. It's an affront to a holy God. That's submission. and the best kind of way that you could portray it. And by submitting to God and seeing him for who he really is, we then see ourselves as David does here for what we really are, which is poor and broken and needy and sinful. Confession then is recognizing not only that we are in desperate need of healing, redemption, salvation, but that there's a problem. Something has to be fixed. Something has to be made right because something is broken. Confession is seeing our frailty and recognizing that there is one alone who can provide the healing that we need. So you see then how these go together, submission and confession. And again, there's no room for pride here. And why do I think these are such a true picture of biblical obedience? Because David tells us, look at verse 16 with me. Like Psalm 50, he carries on what we saw two weeks ago, right? For you, O Lord, will not delight in sacrifice, so I would give it. You will not be pleased with burnt offerings, but the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh, God, you will not despise. Submission and confession that what the Lord desires is not the structure of the sacrifices that the people so often relied on. but it was the brokenness of heart in recognizing we have a problem and it needs to be fixed. And the only one that can provide the solution, the only one that can provide the fix is God Almighty. But what about the other two? I think we've covered in good length submission and confession. What about adoration and exhortation? Can we get to the good stuff already, please? But you see, the beauty of taking this passage in conjunction with the one in Matthew is that they really complete one another. What do I mean? Again, as I said in the introduction, do you realize that without Matthew 26, without the reality of that happening, Psalm 51 is nothing more than a man dejected as a result of his sin, crying out in an ugly cry, mercy. It's nothing more than that prayer. This would be the definition of what the world thinks we do, which is praying into the air. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy. Blot out my transgressions. Okay, but how? That's why I think we have to take it with the Matthew passage, because if Jesus had not stood before the Father in a garden of Gethsemane in earnest bloodstained prayer and submitted himself to the Father and said, yet not my will, but thy will be done. If Jesus had not laid down his life on his own accord and then raised it up again, if he had not triumphed over sin and death to make a way for salvation, then neither we nor David can stand before the Lord and say, have mercy on me, oh God. What is our plea? If Jesus did not say, Thy will be done, O Lord, and set His face toward the cross. If Jesus didn't obey, then we're sunk. We have no hope, and we have no basis for asking God to create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us. Without Christ, that prayer can't do us any good. This is why Jesus says, right, I'm the way, the truth and the life, that no one comes through the Father except through me. Because it is only through Christ and it's only through his obedience that our obedience is even possible. This is the thing that has to be reconciled. The sacrifice is pointed to something greater. And God said, the sacrifices are not what I want. I want your heart. Well, my heart is corrupt and it's broken and it's ruined. So what do I do now? Turn to Jesus. Christ and His perfect obedience is our only reconciliation to this issue and this problem. When Christ laid down His life, when He said, yet not my will, but thy will be done, you see the submission there? You see the submission that Jesus is committing here? When He said that, He opened the way for us and for David to pray this psalm. When David prayed these words, Not only was he confessing his need, but he was also professing his faith in Christ. So Psalm 51 for us and for David is not only a prayer of confession, but it is a confession of faith. David is certainly declaring that there's an issue that needs to be fixed, but he's also proclaiming by way of Matthew 26 and the rest of the gospel that there is a way. Right? How did David know? How did David know? How did he know that God would forgive him? On what basis could David claim these promises that according to the richness of God's love and mercy, that he would cleanse him, that he would give him a new heart and renew in him a right spirit? Either David was just shooting in the dark or he was trusting in the promises of God. which are a sure and steady anchor for the soul. What is God's only remedy for sin? What was God's only remedy for David in that moment? It was faith in Christ alone. It was then and it is now. David did this by looking forward. We do this by looking back to the cross. How cool is that, right? when we're praying Psalm 51, that we are confessing Christ's obedience. And this is where adoration comes in, right? How is it that our confession, our mourning over sin, our grief and our sorrow, how is it that these then turn to adoration and praise? I'll tell you how. because God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. For we who were dead in our trespasses and sins, God made alive together with Christ, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This Christ set aside, nailing to the cross. That makes me want to yell hallelujah. How could this not drive us to adoration and exaltation and praise? This is good news. You see, my record of sin that if we had a scroll that we set up here at the top of my record of sin and I enrolled it, it would go rolling down throughout all the way down the sanctuary and out past Alex there in the back. That record of sin has been canceled. The only proper response to that is doxology, is praise. This is what we see in our service, right? This is why this is so important, that we constantly be reminded of this, that we see in our service how we have a confession of sin, where we come, like David, confessing our great need, and then we receive what? We receive the words of assurance of pardon. that Christ has nailed our sin to the cross and we bear it no more so that we can say it is well with my soul like we did this morning. And then, right, we turn to doxology, praise God from whom all blessings flow. That's what that reality is based in in this, right, what we see here. And we see this throughout the Psalms. I just want to read a couple of these because they are glorious. Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints, and give thanks to His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may indeed tarry for the night, but joy comes with the dawn. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. O come and magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt His name together. For I sought the Lord and he answered me, and he delivered me from all my fears. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one that takes refuge in him. David recognizes, right, that the end result of confessing and having faith in Christ that he was looking forward to, he was looking forward to that canceling in faith, and the result of that is adoration, absolute adoration. He tells us, right? Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. We cannot help but adore God for his love when it's manifested to us in this way. And we cannot help but to exalt the obedience of Christ who made that way possible. This is the glorious reality of this sermon in its entirety, that we obey only because Christ obeyed. Christ submitted himself to the will of the Father. Christ confessed his sorrow, not a sorrow from disobedience, but a sorrow unto obedience. And Christ adored God in dying on the cross, being raised to new life, and now calls us, exhorts us to come out of darkness and into marvelous light. Christ was perfectly obedient. And what I love about this model of obedience, too, is that we're actually already doing the last part here, right? This is exhortation. This is the part where we call out to one another to come and magnify the Lord, to come out of sin, to come out of darkness and sadness into the marvelous light of Christ. This is a call to see the Lord for who He truly is, to confess our sins with one another, to receive the assurance of pardon, and then to turn and exalt God and praise for His steadfast love and abundant mercy in Jesus Christ. You see, we've done that. This is a call in the presence of many witnesses to lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely and to continue running the race with endurance. Don't we need to hear that every week? Lord, help us to run the race with endurance, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the founder, the author, the perfecter, the very foundation of our faith, who for what? The joy that was set before Him endured the cross. I would like to have that kind of joy. The kind of joy in obedience that Christ had. The ability to come and to lay my sorrow at the feet of the Lord and yet say, yet not my will, but thy will be done. Let's pray like David that God would restore us to the joy of our salvation. Let's pray that the Lord would give us the joy and the obedience of Christ. And then let's call transgressors to do the same. Right, David says, then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Let us have the joy and obedience of Christ that our life may call others to do the same. Let's pray. Father, your word is magnificent, glorious, cuts to the very heart. Oh Lord, we thank you for Christ's obedience. We thank you that he makes our obedience possible, that he is our solution, our reconciliation, our only hope and plea before your holy throne. For we carried, Lord, a debt and a burden that could be satisfied by no other. What you required of us was perfect, perpetual obedience. And we could not give it. Where we failed, Christ succeeded. And Lord, we magnify His obedience tonight as we confess Psalm 51. together, recognizing, Lord, that though, yes, it is indeed a confession of our sin and our need, it is also a profession and a confession of faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord, who has transferred us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of light, that we may bear the name, sons and daughters of the King. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.