Thank you, Art. All right, let's
go back there to Psalm 73. Complementary psalm to this psalm
is Psalm 37. If you want to read that later,
it goes right along with Psalm 73. Now, we're told here in verse
1, this is a psalm of Asaph. And we don't really know if he
was the chief song leader, we don't know if he wrote this or
if David wrote it and gave for him to sing it, but it really
doesn't matter. This is given by the Spirit of
God and it's what all believers encounter, what we suffer in
this world. Every believer can relate to
this. We've been there, we've had this happen to us. But he
says there, he begins in verse 1, and this is what he learned
through this again, what we learn again and again through this.
And so he begins with this statement of fact. He says, truly God is
good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. Now
that's the truth. That's the constant, continual
truth that's so In the good times and in the bad times, in the
happy times, the heartbreaking times, God is good to Israel. To those he everlastingly loved,
to those Christ has made perfect by his precious blood, God is
good to his people all the time, constantly. To such as be of
a clean heart, and that's all of God's children, those that
are born of him. We didn't have a clean heart,
to begin with. We were full of malice and guile
and nothing but sinful dead flesh. But God came, the Spirit of God
created a new heart, a clean heart, a right heart, purified
our hearts by faith in Christ. And this is so of every believer.
This is how it begins. Romans 8.16 said the Spirit itself,
God the Holy Spirit himself, bears witness with our spirit
that we're children of God. And he tells us we're heirs of
God, we're joint heirs with Christ, if so be we suffer with him,
that we may be glorified together with him. The way God's gonna
conform us to the image of Christ inwardly is we're gonna suffer
with Christ. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And if we want to really grow,
God's going to make us to suffer and be acquainted with grief.
It's how we're going to grow. And that's how he's conforming
us. The scripture says, though Christ
were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
He's the son of God, He experienced true suffering. Everything is
people suffer. He experienced it. And he learned
or he perfected obedience for us in the midst of that suffering.
And so God doesn't have any children that aren't gonna suffer. But
remember this, and this is something to comfort you brethren with.
When a believer suffers, God is dealing with you as with a
son. He only chastens those he loves. Brother Henry used to say when
brethren would suffer, the first thing he'd remind them is, God
loves you. Now that you can say to a believer.
And a believer's gonna suffer. God chastens his people. He's
gonna correct us. And he says he does it for our
profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. separated from
everything here below and made to run this race looking to Christ,
trusting Christ, who is the author and finisher of our faith. He's
gonna keep us doing that. And sometimes he has to correct
us, but by him giving us a clean heart, every believer desires
to be a doer of God's word. James says, be ye doers of the
word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. And every believer,
by the Spirit of God, has this desire. We want to be doers of
this word. And he makes you apply that to
yourself. If I apply it to somebody else,
I'm not hearing it right. He makes you apply it to yourself.
Lord, make me a doer of the word. And he makes you apply it to
yourself, making you see how far short I am of being a doer. And that's what he makes you
see. You do the word of God. He makes his people do the word
of God, but we see how far short we come to being doers of the
word as we'd like to be. And he makes you pray to God,
please, don't let me be deceived. I want to be a doer of your word.
There's a way God's going to make a doer of the Word. And
the way God does that's not the way we would pick for him to
make us a doer of the Word. But we see something of it in
this passage right here. We see an example of it. This
is how God makes This is the making of a doer. This is the
making of a doer. First of all, our psalm is going
to give us divided into two parts. The first part shows us what
we do when we're walking by sight. And the second part is going
to show us how God makes us walk by faith and what the outcome
is. Now, first of all, we walk by
sight rather than faith. And he gives us an example, verse
two, he says, but as for me, my feet were almost gone, my
steps had well nigh slipped. Now this is a believer, sanctified,
holy, somebody the spirit of God had made a clean heart within,
somebody whose chief desire was to be a doer of the word. And
he said, my feet had slipped, my steps were in the well nigh,
I was almost gone. Now have you ever seen a cow
slip down a muddy slope. When a cow slips down a slope,
they lower their head and they're looking straight ahead the whole
time. They're struggling trying to get their feet and they're
doing all kind of crazy stuff, but they got their head lower
looking straight ahead. And we're just the opposite.
The cause of our slipping is we turn from looking straight
to Christ and start looking at things going on around us. And
hear that now, that's what's gonna cause our steps to slip.
If I'm slipping, and I'm having trouble, and you'll see the trouble
he's having here, and I'm slipping, it's indication to me I'm not
looking straight ahead, I'm not looking at Christ. Because when
you see Christ, and you behold him, you're not gonna have any,
he gives you peace right in the middle of the trouble, and you
can behold him. But this is what we do, this
is what all of us do right here. Now this is what this believer
wrote, this is what caused him to almost slip away. He said
in verse 3, because I was envious at the foolish. When I saw, with
these carnal eyes, with these physical eyes, when I saw the
prosperity of the wicked. A sinner saved by God's grace
is somebody that God has made Christ to be our wisdom. He's
made Christ to be the unsearchable riches to us. And so we played
a fool when we turn from Christ our wisdom and look at the prosperity
of the wicked. It's foolish to be envious of
the foolish. Without Christ, you look at a
rich man, you see a man rich in this world's goods, rich in
whatever, all the prosperity he had, and you can say, He's
so poor because the only thing He possesses is riches. Without Christ, He's so poor. The only thing He possesses is
riches. And they're gonna perish and
they're gonna pass away. He saw the wicked living without
afflictions and without trouble. He saw them dying in old age
apparent peace, and he said in verse 4, there are no bands in
their death. Their strength is firm. They're
not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like
other men. Now unbelief makes us exaggerate. It always does. And he was comparing his suffering,
he was comparing the afflictions he was in, the trouble he was
suffering all the time with how the wicked didn't seem to ever
have this trouble. The ungodly didn't seem to ever
have this trouble. The other men, he says here,
when he says they're not in trouble as other men, they're not plagued
like other men. The other men he's talking about
is believers. He's talking about him particularly. They're not
plagued like I am. The ungodly might appear to live
and to die in peace. They might appear that way. and
God's child might appear to suffer and be chastened and be constantly
in affliction. But brethren, we make a mistake
by judging God's love and his grace by outward things. This is the mistake he was making. He said now, now look at this,
look at the foolish things unbelief makes us to envy. Look at verse
six, therefore pride compassed them about as a chain. They walk
in pride, they're just so proud. Why would we be envious of that?
He says, violence covereth them as a garment. They cover everything
with violence and everything they do is violence. Their eyes
stand out with fatness. They've got more than the heart
could wish for. God said, They're being fattened for the slaughter.
A man without Christ is like a sheep or a cow that's being
fattened for the slaughter. He said in Psalm 37, you take
fat and you put it on a grill and just watch it consume away.
And he said in verse 37, the wicked are going to consume away
like fat. And he says, they're corrupt,
they speak wickedly, concerning oppression, they're constantly
oppressing the poor and the needy, they're bringing them into bondage,
they're putting heavier burdens on people that already have a
burden. And he says, they speak loftily, always bragging on self,
and they set their mouth against the heavens, against God. Their
tongue walks through the earth. They just had their tongues set
on earthly things, and they just walking through the earth. Therefore,
his people return hither, and this is a hard passage, hard
verse to understand, but it seems like here, the his people, he's
talking about the wicked man's people, his people, they return
hither. to him, they come to the wicked
and the waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. They do
whatever wicked men, they try to live as the wicked and they
prosper too. And they say, how does God know?
Is their knowledge in the most high? Behold, these are the ungodly
who prosper in the world, they increase in riches. Listen to
this, you can look there if you want, it's Psalm 37. Listen to
this, he said, Let me see if I can find it. He says, I can't find it. Anyway, right
here in Psalm 37, you can look at it later, but he says that
they say, why would we want to seek God? Why do we even want
to seek God? But that's the way of the wicked.
They say, God, we're prospering without God. Why do we want to
seek God? And they say, put that from us.
We don't want to hear that. We're prospering without God.
We don't want to hear about God. and they say, God doesn't know
what we're doing, God doesn't see what we're doing, God sees
everything. What does God say is of great
price to him? He's got a picture here of proud,
ungodly men, men that don't know Christ, and they're walking in
pride, and God hates pride, but what does God say is a great
price, of great price? He said, the ornament, the adorning
of a meek and quiet spirit. A meek spirit trusts God. Moses was the meekest man on
the earth because in every case where you see him opposed and
oppressed and railed on and things looked like they were going south,
he hid his face and he was begging God to do his will. And that's
a meek spirit that trusts God and looks to Him. True riches
are known in Christ. That's true riches. Though He
was rich, yet He became poor. He emptied himself, he became
poor so that through his poverty we might be made rich. And that's
the true riches. That's the true riches. That's
why God said, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither
let the rich man glory in his riches or the mighty man glory
in his might, but let him that glory glory in this, that he
knows me, God said. Me, he knows me, that I'm he
that I'm the Lord that exercises loving kindness and judgment
and righteousness in the earth. These things I delight in, the
Lord said. That's true riches, to have Christ
and to have him. But we're so prone to look at
things in this world and to begin to envy the way things are going
for ungodly folks in the world and judge it whenever we're suffering
greatly because of some trial or affliction. And you see folks
that aren't suffering that way. But now look, let's read on.
We can't know those things of God and have a meek spirit and
trust Christ. We can't be doers of God's word
if God leaves us to ourselves. That's what we see here. This
is a believer we're talking about. You ever done this? This is the
common lot of believers. Here's the sad state he came
to. This is where he came to by looking
at things below. Verse 13, verily, he said, I've
cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency.
For all the day long I've been plagued and chastened every morning.
It made him It made him think, now God's made his people doers
of the word. He had cleansed his heart by
faith, purified his heart by faith. He had determined that
he was going to walk in innocency. His hands were going to be washed
of sin. And he was going to walk in innocency.
God does that for his people. But he was suffering in a place
from looking at these things going on around him to the point
where he said, It's vain. I've done this and served you
Lord and it's vain. Look at what's happening to me.
But thanks be to God for restraining grace. Thanks be to God for restraining
grace. God puts the love of God in our
hearts. and he constrains us by that
love. As soon as he said this in his heart, thought this in
his heart, listen to what he said in verse 15. If I say, I
will speak thus, if I say this, behold, I'll offend the generation
of thy children. I'm gonna hurt your children.
I'm gonna cause your children much confusion if I tell them
this is what I'm thinking. Thanks be to God, once he's filled
your heart with love, that love's gonna constrain the heart. Though
he was in a bad place where he was at, because he was looking
at things with carnal sight. He was in a bad place. But God,
by his grace, wouldn't let him speak it. He wouldn't let him
speak it. God's love makes us want to build
up our brethren, not offend our brethren. Unbelief begets unbelief,
and bitterness begets bitterness, and judgment begets judgment,
and the Lord gives you a heart to want to speak to one another
of Christ and to build up one another. So he said, I'm not
going to do this. I'm going to offend your children,
Father. You know, when they got to the
land of Canaan, they wanted to go in there and spy it out, you
know, They did, and they went in there, and it was just exactly
like God said it would be. And unbelief came back and said,
well, we can't go in there because there's giants in there, just
like God said it would be. There's giants in there. We can't
overcome them. We're not strong enough to overcome
them. We can't go in there. Faith said, it's just like God
said it would be. Let's go, because God promised
he'd give us the victory. And God said, in this world,
we're going to have tribulation. In this world, he's not going
to let his people, he's not going to let the majority of his people
prosper like the wicked. And if he does give you prosperity
in this world, whether it be in the riches of revelation,
to teach you more and more of Christ, and in comparison to
the more he teaches us of Christ, the more he's going to humble
us and make us do it through suffering. or else we'd be lifted
up in pride. And the same if he gives you
temporal blessings. The more temporal blessings he's
gonna give, the more he's gonna humble you in heart so that you
can't be carried away by those riches. I know some wealthy believers,
but he has humbled them greatly in heart so that they use what
God's given them for the furtherance of the gospel. That's a rare
thing, but it is so. God does do that with some people.
But what I'm saying is, We're gonna have tribulation, all God's
people are. But we're not to walk by sight,
we're not to judge by sight based on what's happening to us in
comparison to what's not happening to others. Now here secondly,
let's see all this work together by God to make us doers, to make
us doers of the word, to make us walk by faith as God commands
us in his word. How's he gonna do that? Verse
16, when I thought to know this, it was too painful for me until
I went into the sanctuary of God. Wherever God has assembled
his people and sent forth his gospel, that word's coming from
God's holiest of holies, from the sanctuary above. And that
place he's bringing it into is the sanctuary. It's the safe
place. It's the place where you can
go and be taught of God and find comfort from God. And that's
where he said, I went in and to hear God's word and this is
how God comforted me. Now he's gonna give us faith.
He gives his child faith, and he's going to strengthen you
in that faith. And he's going to do it from his sanctuary.
But look at what he does here. He says, verse 17, Then understood
I their end. He taught him something about
the prosperity of the wicked. Surely thou didst set them in
slippery paces, thou castest them down into destruction. How
are they brought into desolation as in a moment? They are utterly
consumed with terrors as a dream when one awaketh. So, O Lord,
when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image." He makes
you see Wicked at a prosperous world
without Christ, they might appear to live in peace. They're living
by the sword and dying by the sword, and they might appear
to die in peace, but just imagine closing your eyes and awaken
before an angry God, guilty before an angry God. Now look here,
and he's gonna make you understand your own heart. When you get
into this place, brethren, I'm telling you, this is what God
does. I've experienced this in the
past. I've experienced it. This is what God's gonna do.
He gonna make us, when we get in this place, he gonna make
us experience our own fleshly heart. He says, verse 21, thus
my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish
was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before thee. See, he's
not thinking this about somebody else. God's gonna make this personal
to us each individually. I was pricked in my reins. So I'm the one who was ignorant.
I was the one who was as a beast before the Lord. God's Word tells
me to walk in holiness of heart, tells me to walk in the fruit
of the Spirit, looking to Christ alone by faith. And God's going
to make His child a doer of that Word. You know how He's going
to do it? He's going to continually show you that every thought of
the imagination of your sinful flesh is only evil continually. I mean make it real to us that
that's all we think in our flesh is only evil continually. That's
what he's saying. I was a beast. I wasn't even
a man. I was a beast before you by thinking
this. And he's going to make you know
that the only way I ever put off that old man and the only
way I'm going to put on the new man It's by the Spirit of God
renewing my inward man. You know when Paul says that?
Put off the old man with his deeds and be renewed in the Spirit
of your mind. How are you going to do that
without the Spirit of God? It takes God to do this. Everywhere
it's spoken of, it's God that's going to make you do this. And
he's gonna make us see that. If God had left him where he
was, envying the wicked and looking on things of this world and not
being turned back to look at things by faith, if he'd have
left him there, that's where he'd have stayed. You know this. If God had not come and by the
Spirit made you put off your old man and believe on Christ
the first hour, you'd have never done it. You won't ever do it
after that either unless he shows you this. And that's what he's
doing. He says, verse 23, nevertheless,
I'm continually with thee. I was as a beast. I was acting
like I didn't even know God. Now get this, all he was doing
was thinking these things. He didn't speak them. And he's
brought now in his heart to say, I was like a beast, but you were
continually with me, Lord. You hold me by my right hand. That little fella will walk and
he'll hold John's hand. But if there's trouble around,
he may be holding John's hand, but you know who's holding who?
John's holding his hand. And that's what he said here.
You're holding me by my right hand. Oh, you're holding on,
but he's holding you, or you wouldn't be holding. And he says,
thou shalt guide me with thy counsel. and afterward receive
me to glory." You're going to do this for me my whole life. You're going to guide me with
your counsel, speaking your word into my heart by your spirit,
showing me you're continually with me. And when that's finished,
then you're going to receive me into glory. So that's going
to be forever for the life of the believer. He's going to permit
us to slip. He said, I slipped and my steps
were well not gone. I just about fell away, he said. He was beginning to say it's
vain to worship God. But Psalm 37.23 says, the steps
of a good man, a man that's loved and made good, righteous by God,
the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And he delights
in his way, though he fall. That means your slips are ordained
by God too. They're ordered by God too, thankfully.
Thankfully. But though he fall, he shall
not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his
hand." That's how you're going to be upheld, by his hand. Why the slip? Why the fall? Why
to be able to look at things below and act like you don't
even have faith? Why would he let you do that?
So he can recover you from it and show you that you'd have
stayed there without His Spirit, without Him holding you, without
Him keeping you from falling. And it turns us then to walk
by faith. This is the making of a doer
of the Word. This is how you're made to do
the Word. It's going to be painful and
it's going to be troublesome. Now watch this, verse 25. This
is where he was brought to by faith. Whom have I in heaven
but thee? There's none upon earth that
I desire beside thee. Don't you feel that way every
time God brings you out of trouble and shows you himself in such
a magnificent way that your heart just overflows? Don't you feel
this way? Lord, you're the only one I desire. I don't have anybody on earth
but you. You're all my desire. God teaches us in his word, he
teaches us to drink from the fountain of the water of life.
That's what he tells you when you drink from the fountain of
the water of life. And you know what he's going
to make you do with that word? He's going to break all our cisterns,
all our earthly cisterns that we try to drink from. He's going
to break them. He's going to break them all.
And that's going to be painful, but he's going to make you see
as he does that Christ is the fountain of living waters. Heal
on. Heal on. God's word tells me
to seek refuge under the shadow of his wings. That's where my
comfort is. That's where my refuge is. That's
where my protection is, under the shadow of his wings. How's
he going to make me a doer of that word? He's going to blast
every one of my gourds. that I try to take shade under,
just like he did Jonah. And he gonna make me see he's
the only one who provides the shadow of protection for his
people, under his wing. So he gonna make us understand
the truth of our weakness. That's what he gonna make us
see. If I've never been brought to see how weak I am, I won't
trust the Lord. You don't trust him till you
see you got nothing to trust in. Remember the psalm before
this? He said, he saves those that
have no helper. But we get to thinking we got
some helpers. And we get to thinking that we
got some strength. He does this continually and
he brings us back to see we're nothing but weakness. He's the
only strength we have. Look at verse 26. My flesh and
my heart faileth. That's all my flesh is. But God,
he's the strength of my heart. and my portion forever." Remember,
Abraham and Lot, they got into a dispute. And Abraham said,
Lot, our herdsmen don't need to fight. We don't need to fight.
You take whatever you want. Lot said, okay, I'll take the
well water plain. Abraham said, take it. He took
it. And Abraham dwelt in the mountains,
in the rocky mountains. It's hard to graze sheep in the
mountains. But God came to Abraham and said,
Abraham, I'm your shield and I'm your exceeding great reward.
You have nothing to worry about. And he ended up teaching like
that too, but it was through the pain of prosperity that he
taught him that. But he's gonna teach his people
that. He's gonna make us see that he's the only strength that
we have. He says, verse 27, for lo, they
that are far from thee shall perish. You see that by getting,
he got a little far away from the Lord, as far as his understanding,
when he was looking at the world. And God taught him by that, when
you get far away from Him, you're closer to perishing. He said,
I almost slipped. Thou has destroyed all them that
go whoring from thee. They just turn their back on
God. But it's good for me to draw near to God. That's the
purpose. That's the purpose. What's God
doing? I keep hearing, what's God doing?
Everybody sees the trouble in the country. What's God doing? The pandemic, what's God doing?
He's teaching us, it's good for me to draw near to God. Hadn't this whole pandemic humbled
us? Hadn't it? That's good. It's good to draw near to God. And he says, I put my trust in
the Lord God that I may declare all thy works. All thy works. You think, what's he doing for
us in this psalm? He's declaring God's works. When
he spoke of his works, all he said was, I sinned and just almost
fell away. But he spoke of God's works,
he said, he saved me and kept me. That's what he's doing. You
know, when you wean a baby, a baby cries. They don't like to be
weaned, do they? Well, God gives thorns in our
flesh in this world on purpose to wean us from our flesh and
to wean us from this world, to turn us from our sin and turn
us from our vain thoughts and turn us from our pride and our
self-righteousness and all the things we walk in. And it gives
Satan as a messenger to buffet us, to beat us black and blue.
But he does that on purpose. And the thorns cause real pain,
but you know where the real pain comes from? Mainly it comes from
our flesh not getting what it wants. Mainly it comes from us
being subdued and God weaning us from the things of this world.
Mainly. We pray amiss asking God to take
away the infirmities, to take away the reproaches, to take
away the necessities, to take away the distresses. God left
us in this world on purpose, and God left us in this body
of sin on purpose, and God put us together with sinners on purpose. Why? To make us see our flesh
is only weakness. and to keep us knowing our only
strength is Christ, and we only see that when He makes us behold
our weakness. He brings you to say, verse 28,
it's good for me to draw near to God, that I put my trust in
the Lord God so I can declare all His works. He brings you
to say truly God is good to Israel. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted. Paul said over there in Corinthians,
after he talked about the thorn in the flesh that God gave him,
God gave him an abundance of revelation, and the more revelation
he gives you, the more he gonna do for you what he did for Paul.
This man who wrote three-fourths of the New Testament, the messages
where we get the most comfort and see how sufficient God's
grace is, how'd he know that? God put him in prison and let
him be forsaken by most of the brethren and all his enemies. And from there is where he wrote
these words. He did that with Christ. And what did Christ say? This is what we need to learn.
What did Christ say? He said to his brethren, you're
gonna forsake me, you're gonna depart from me, but the Father's
with me. That's what the psalmist learned.
I was almost gone, but you were continually with me, and you
upheld me, and you strengthened me, and now I see I'm nothing
but weakness. That's all I am. And you know
what that brings you to do? What did Paul say in Romans 5?
We glory in tribulations. Paul said, I glory in these afflictions. I glory in my infirmities. I'm
thankful, God, that you've shown me I'm so, I'm just weakness,
no strength. I'm thankful, Lord, for that.
I'm thankful that you afflict me so I can learn your word and
be a doer of your word. I'm thankful. And that's where
he brings you. The man that just has a puffed
up knowledge of doctrine, he won't be thankful for his trials.
He won't. He don't get this from it. But
when God is working and teaching you in your heart, you're going
to end up at the end of it and you're going to say like this
psalmist, it's been so good. He's made me draw near to him.
That's good, always good. I pray God will bless that. Father,
we thank you for your word. Thank you for the trials and
the afflictions and the troubles. Thank you, Lord, that you make
us see our weakness. Thank you, Lord, that you make
us see that our only strength is Christ. Lord, turn us from
looking at things below It never does anything but leave us envious
and makes us like everything below. Lord, help us to be turned to
Christ and see him and behold, he is our only strength. Make
the power of Christ rest upon us. Lord, thank you. Thank you for
these brethren that suffered in the Old Testament that you
let their steps slip so you could show us these things and teach
us these things from your word. Lord, we have a full, complete
salvation and we're so thankful that you won't let any of your
people go. Lord, thank you. We just thank you. Be with your
brethren this weekend and bless the word here. and other places,
and we thank you, Father. In Christ's name we ask it, amen.