Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2033
Delivered on Lord’s Day Morning, July 15, 1888
“Stand in awe and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.” Psalm 4:4,5.
DAVID was surrounded with many wicked and cruel enemies. They touched him in a tender place when they mocked his religion and so turned his glory into shame. They invented all kinds of lies against him. But the worst of all was that they said, “There is no help for him in God.” As much as to say, “God has cast him off. Therefore, let men cast him off. He that is forsaken of the Lord is not fit to sit upon the throne of Israel. Let us set up Absalom in his place.” This was malice, indeed.
David first made his appeal to God in prayer. Herein he showed his wisdom. You can drive a better business at the Mercy Seat than in the world’s jangling markets. You will get more relief from the righteous Lord than from ungodly men. To enter into debate is never so profitable as to enter into devotion. Carry not your complaint into the lower courts but go at once to the Court of King’s Bench, where the Judge of All presides. Imitate David and David’s Lord, who in the days of His flesh with strong crying and tears poured out His soul before the Father.
After David had prayed, he expostulated with his adversaries. The first showed his sonship towards God, the second his brotherliness towards men. There is nothing of bitterness in the words I have read to you—they have a kindly voice in them. If his foes had been at all reasonable they would have listened to his pleadings. But it is to be feared they were otherwise minded. He urges them to cease from sin and he teaches them the way to do so. In four sentences he helps them to escape from their evil ways and to become better men. Had God’s Spirit applied David’s words to their consciences, they would have been pricked in their hearts and there would have been no need for them to be smitten on the cheekbone, that their cruel teeth might be broken.
Upon these four precepts I would speak this morning as the Holy Spirit shall give me utterance, trusting, hoping, believing that many who desire a better life may find it while I speak. May God begin with them that they may begin with God! I have no confidence in my own persuasions. Yet, being called to use them, I trust in Him that sent me to make them effectual.
David mentions four things as helpful towards ceasing from sinning. The first is, feel reverent awe—“Stand in awe and sin not.” The second is, use thoughtful self-examination—“Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still.” The third advice is make a right approach to God—“Offer the sacrifice of righteousness” and the fourth is the greatest of them all—exercise faith—“Put your trust in the Lord.” Here are four steppingstones across the filthy slough of sin—may you mark them well and step from one to the other by the help of God’s Spirit—till you reach the other shore and stand on safe and clean ground!
I. First, FEEL REVERENT AWE—“Stand in awe.” It might be translated, “Tremble and sin not.” Hardened sinners sin and tremble not. Penitent sinners tremble and sin not. Gracious work in the heart usually begins with trembling. I cannot believe a man has been saved if he has never trembled before God because of the evil of sin. The old house of depraved nature shakes before it comes down. The returning prodigal must feel, “I am not worthy to be called Your son,” or he will never be called a son. He seeks his Father’s face with much trembling, because he has so grievously offended.
Awe is not a common emotion nowadays. This is a flippant age. Men are rather triflers than tremblers. If there is any doctrine which has peculiar weight and solemnity about it, they try to pare it down to less terrible proportions. Sin is not exceeding sinful to them, nor its punishment exceeding terrible. They would not have us know the terrors of the
Lord, though by these very terrors we persuade men. True religion must have a savor of awe about it—“My heart stands in awe of Your Word,” is the expression of one that knows God and is reconciled to Him.
Let me say, then, to you who have been thoughtless and careless about your souls until now—we earnestly desire you to consider these words—“Stand in awe.” Remember, there is a God—whatever you may think, or others may declare, there is a God who made you and in whose hand your breath is. There is a God that sits in Heaven, who beholds all the sons of men—and however much you may dislike the thought, there He is, and there He ever will be—and you will have to deal with Him and He with you, before long.
God is everywhere present, at all times. He has seen all your evil ways and heard all your hard speeches. No night is so dark as to hide from His eyes. No chamber so retired as to shut Him out. He has even read your thoughts and imaginations. He notes all and forgets nothing. All things are ever present to Him. The days of your youth and the years of your manhood lie open before Him like a book. If men could but realize that God is there, how could they dare to sin before His very eyes? If at this moment anyone of my hearers who is without Christ could only be filled with this one thought, “God, You see me,” surely he would stand in awe and at least desire to sin no more.