I'd retake your Bibles and turn
with me to Psalm 37. Psalm 37. And the title of this message,
Wisdom for Troubled Saints. Wisdom for Troubled Saints. We'll
be looking at this verse in just a few minutes, but I want you
to understand, before we get into this text, that this Psalm
is written for a specific group of people. This psalm is written
for believers. It's a psalm of wisdom. It's
a psalm full of precepts given to us by God the Holy Spirit,
and it's given for believers, but not just believers. Listen. Troubled believers. Those who
are troubled. Notice the beginning words, fret
not thyself because of evil doers. You see, he's writing to fretting
saints, troubled saints. Now, the great mystery and riddle
of the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the saints
has perplexed believers throughout all ages. You remember Asaph,
man of God, he confessed this in Psalm 73. He said, truly God
is good to Israel. To them that be of a clean heart,
but as for me, as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps
had nigh well slipped wide. I was envious at the foolish. I was envious at the wicked.
He saw the fatness of the wicked. He saw the prosperity of the
wicked. The pleasures of life seemed
to pour out to them. Yet, they were not thankful. They set their mouth against
heaven. They boasted of their strength and their power. They
were not fearful of death, neither were they troubled by sin. While
the children of God, the chosen, redeemed, and called sons of
God, suffer, suffer while they live in prosperity. Children
of God live in poverty. Their sins, their flesh troubled
them. Satan vexes their soul daily. He believed God's promise that
God was good to Israel, so that he falsely concluded this, I
must not be one of them. If I am so troubled, then why
am I troubled if I am a child of God? Why do I suffer such
trouble? And he envied the wicked. He
said, Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed
my hands in innocency. And believer, let me ask you,
does this sound familiar? It should. Every believer is
troubled with the sufferings of our flesh. We are familiar
with the great promises of God who said, I know my thoughts
towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil. We know the
word of God that says all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. Do you love God? Do you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you called to believe on
his son? Remember, it was God who purposed
your calling. Remember, it was God who predestinated
you to be conformed to the image of his son. It was God who justified
you. It was God who called you. It
was God who glorified you. And so then God before us, Paul
said, who can be against us? Who can be against us? How shall
God, who spared not His own Son, deliver Him up for us all? How
shall He not with Him freely give us all things? And we know
that word, don't we? And yet, what is our experience?
Our experience seems to oppose what that just said. Our experience
seems to be opposite of what God has promised. The experience
of the believer in this world as we walk through this life
does not appear as God doing us good. When we suffer, when
we are in poverty or in sickness, when our flesh and heart fail,
when our minds are filled with unbelief and fear, when we fail
to see the goodness of God and love of God towards us, when
it seems the world is set to consume us and Satan's darts
and accusations pierce our hearts, When temptations whisper in our
ears and our flesh is overcome with sin, then we are troubled. Then we are perplexed. We're
perplexed. We feel our shame and say, I
know God's good to Israel, but ask for me. We're troubled. We're troubled. But when you're troubled, You're
troubled because you look at the wicked. You see they prosper. You see
they're happy. They look so full of joy and
you're sad. You're so full of grief and they're
so happy. You're so full of sickness and
they're so full of hell. Their minds are free from guilt
and shame and your mind is consumed with it. Surely I can't be loved of God. That's the thought of our mind
when we're troubled. Surely I know God's good to you, but as for
me, as for me. So then when we are brought into
despair and such sorrow and fear, become fearful and fretful and
anxious, what do we do? We murmur and complain. We murmur and complain of our
lot and the providence of God. We cry, Lord, if I am your chosen,
If I am loved from eternity, if the blood of Christ has cleansed
me from all my sins and the Holy Spirit has quickened me, then
how am I so troubled? Why am I so troubled? Why does the wicked prosper and
find comfort in the world while the righteous, the believer,
the child of God is afflicted and persecuted? It should not surprise us that
we are so afflicted in this world. You know it shouldn't, but it
does. It does. When you're afflicted, the first
thing we have, the first feeling is surprise. We're surprised. We shouldn't be surprised. Jesus
said, and you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. Anything unclear about that?
Anything that you can misinterpret that? He said, you shall be hated
by all men for my sake, but he that endures to the end, the
same shall be saved. What does that mean? He that
really believes, he that is truly born again of the Spirit of God,
he that is truly chosen and quickened by the Spirit and truly believes
in Christ, he shall endure to the end. Paul preached about
the sufferings of the believer. He said, we told you before that
you should suffer tribulation. When he was speaking to those
saints in the book of Acts, chapter 14, verse 22, he said, we must,
through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. And so, why? Why is trouble necessary
for the believer? What is the purpose of our suffering?
Peter said, think it not strange concerning the fiery trials which
tried you, but rejoice. Why? Because you were made partakers
of Christ's sufferings. Was not our master the man of
sorrows? Do you expect that his servants
should be anything but children of sorrows? Rejoice, we are made partakers
of His suffering, that when His glory shall be revealed, you
shall be glad with exceeding joy. We suffer. We are tried,
friends. We are tried, we are tested,
so that it may be revealed if we are truly the sons of God. Now, you want to know what suffering's
for? Here it is. It's to try you. God permits suffering, ordains
suffering. so that your faith might be tried
and tested. Peter says in 1 Peter 1, verse
5, he said that the trial of your faith being much more precious
than gold that perished, though it be tried with fire. What is
your faith for? It is to try your faith and that
if it endures. Listen, if your faith endures,
that it might be found to the praise of who? Christ. You see, all of this is for the
praise of Christ. All of this is for the glory
of Christ. You are suffering trouble so that your faith may
be tried. And if it is true, enduring faith,
it will be tried and it will endure for what purpose? The
glory of Christ. The glory of Christ. So are you
being tried? Are you being tried? Are the
flames of your afflictions burning away your false pretenses? That's
what it's doing, isn't it? It's burning away what is false.
You see, you thought something should be this way. And God said,
no, that's not how it should be. And what is that doing? It's
burning that thought away. It's burning that false pretense.
It's burning that fake face of joy, that fake happiness. That self-motivating happiness. You know, people work themselves
up to make themselves happy, right? If you're just determined
to be happy, you'll be happy. And that goes only so far, doesn't
it? And when trials come, that just burns away. That kind of
happiness doesn't endure. It's only skin deep. Is your
heart being tried? And are you being forced to question,
are you a true believer? Isn't that what trying our faith
does? It forces us to make our calling
and election sure. That's what it forces us to do.
These fires have a purpose. That's what it did for Asaph,
that's what it'll do for us. Am I a true believer? Is my faith
merely a vain show or is it the work of God? What's the answer? How do you know? The work of
God endures. Vain faith eventually goes away. You remember the great trial
of the disciples in John chapter 6? Our Lord preached that beautiful
gospel. He said, faith is of God. I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life and only
those who eat this bread and drink my blood shall be saved.
But no man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me
draw him. No man can eat of this bread, no man can drink of my
blood except the Father give him life, except he believe on
me. And you know what? Many of those
disciples left. But his disciples, they were
perplexed. They were perplexed. Jesus said,
will you go away also? And they said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? When you're perplexed and you have that question, shall
you go away? What do you say? Where am I going
to go? There's no place to go but you.
There's no place to go but you. Believers are fire too hot. Are
the trials too much to melt? Do they melt away your faith
in Christ or do they draw you closer? See, then true faith always looks
to Christ, always looks to Christ during our suffering. I'll tell
you, there are many who will endure for a while. I've seen
them, haven't you? It's a sad thing, I've seen them.
I've seen men I thought would be of greater faith than I could
ever possibly have, and come to find out their faith was vain
and empty. How did I know? They left. John said this, they went out
from us, they went out from us, but they were not of us. Now
how do you know that, John? He said, for if they'd been of
us, they would have no doubt continued with us. But that they
may be manifest, that they were not of us, they went out. So my question to you this morning,
are you troubled? Are you perplexed? that we are in right now is surely
one of great trials. And I know, believers, you see
the prosperity of the wicked and you wonder what in the world
is going on. How could God allow these to
gain such power and influence? And yet the righteous are going
to suffer because of it. We're perplexed. Well, now going
to your text, I have eight precepts to give you. Eight precepts from
the Word of God by which eight wise things that the Holy Spirit
gives us who are troubled sons of God. You who are believers
in Jesus Christ, you're in trouble. You listen to these things and
not only, I don't want you to just listen to them. Happy is
he that not only hears these things, but what? Does them.
Does them. May God the Holy Spirit put these
eight things in our minds and not only give us the ability
to hear them, but to do them. Let's read this first precept. Look at verse one. Fret not thyself
because of evildoers, neither be thou envious of the workers
of iniquity. Again, when we are in great trouble,
we are laid low by the sovereign providence of God. Our flesh
begins to look around at the lot of others and compare ourselves
to them. Isn't that mainly the cause of
our frenzy? We look on the prosperity of
others and our trouble and we envy them. We see their prosperity,
their beauty, their comforts. We see their carelessness of
those who know not Christ. We see their outward joy. We see the strength of false
religion. We feel that God is dealing surely
harshly with us. So then we want joy. We want
to have their lot and not ours. We're envious of the wicked.
We're envious of them. Friends, do not burn with desire
after them. Do not fret because of them. Do not be vexed in your heart
or envy them. Instead of being envied, they
should be pitied. They seem to have everything
on the outside, but what is that but vanity? If Jesus said, what
does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his
own soul? You see, they should be viewed
in horror, not in envy, if they're outside of Christ. Jesus said
it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. See then,
his riches, his comforts, the outward joys are fleeting. His
sins and guilt are under the condemnation of
God, and the more he has, the more he wants. And the more he
gets, the more condemnation he gets. You know, I know this. My grandparents,
they had a farm. They'd pick a hulk and they'd
give the best slop to that hulk and deny the others. And what
were they doing that for? They were fattening him up so
they could kill him. You listen to what God's doing. is giving them what they want
and building up their condemnation. Look what he says in verse 2,
don't envy them for this. Don't fret against them, don't
envy them, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and
wither like the green herb. You remember the story of the
rich man who built his barns and he had so much, he said,
let me tear down my barns and build bigger barns. But God said,
thou fool, this night thy soul is required of thee, and whose
shall these things be? What a fool. He had all that
men thought was a blessing. He had more than he could store,
and he had to build bigger barns to store it. And God said, fool,
God said, fool, this night thy soul is required of thee, whose
shall these things be? Friends, don't fret because of
evil men. You know why? They're gonna die.
They're gonna die. And they will face God. They
will face God. Don't envy them. What they have
is nothing but vanity. Lighter than vanity. Secondly, here's a second precept,
is this, trust in the Lord and do good. Trust in the Lord and
do good. What is the remedy for Freddy?
Here it is, faith. Faith in Christ is always the
remedy for anxiety. It's always the remedy. of the flesh, they look at how
things appear. You see things and that's how
it appears. Faith sees things how it really
is. Faith sees through the appearance
and sees to the reality of it. Behold, we see this, we see our
sin. Do we not? We see through our
appearance. You know, Scott, you look pretty
good today. But I know you see through that. I know you see
through that. You see, we see the corruption
of our nature. Faith sees Jesus Christ, who
has already bore our sins in his own body on the tree. This
is how anxiety is alleviated, because Christ had bore that
sin that I see. He had bore my sin in his own
body. Faith sees that God has made Him to be sin for us who
knew no sin, that we should be made the righteousness of God
again. Faith sees Jesus who has redeemed us from the curse of
the law by being made a curse for us. Faith sees that Christ
has purged our sins. Faith sees He has robed us in
His righteousness and made us acceptable to God, that by His
one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified.
That's what faith sees. So when you're Freddy, what do
we do? We look to how things really
are. Yes, I am a sinner. I have envied the wicked. But
here is my hope. Here is my trust. My trust is
in Christ that's pulled away my sin. My trust is that His
blood has satisfied the justice of God that was against my sin. My faith is seized that I have
been made righteous. I have been made acceptable by
His one offering. And because of this, what do
we have? We have peace with God. Peace. Faith sees we have peace with
God. And that's what Christ told us.
He said, peace, I leave with you. Not only does he leave it
with you, he said, my peace, I give unto you. Not as the world
giveth, give I unto you. How does the world give? They
give and they take. They give things that don't belong
to them. Now listen, truly, something
may belong to you, but really, isn't that God's? God owns everything,
and yet you're just giving what God gave you. So what have you
really given? Nothing. But Jesus Christ gives
something that only He has purchased. Peace with God. My peace I've
given to you. I'm not gonna take it back. Therefore,
let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Don't
fret. What's the remedy of fretting? Trusting. Believing. We trust in Christ that we have
peace with God. And what does this peace yield?
It yields this, obedience. True faith and peace yield obedience. Trust in the Lord and what? Do
good. Do good. All true faith leads to true
obedience, and there is joy in truly doing good. I read this
from Luther. God does not need your good works,
but I do. I do. Men do. We should do good. Why? Because
Christ had done good for us. Christ has done, if we trust
the Lord who has done good for us, is it not just reasonable
to do good to men? It is. And what this does is
it brings forth joy. Doing good brings forth joy.
You see that only works from the outside up. You see this works only from
the inside out though. You can't do good and then expect
joy from your doing. It's not merited by your good
works. It's not merited. You first must
trust the Lord for the merits of Christ, and then do good. You see, religion has it backwards.
Do good and then trust. No, only by trusting are we able
to do good. You see, our good merits nothing,
and this is something Christ works from the inside out. Not
the outside in. Religion always works from the
outside in, doesn't it? It says, do this, do this good thing,
do this good thing, and that works inside. No, when we trust
the Lord, it brings forth peace and joy, and we then do good. We do good. It works. Jesus said,
make the tree good, and what? The fruit will be good. That's
what he does by trusting in Christ. He gives us a new heart, a new
life. and we desire to do good. Notice
the promise here. So shalt thou dwell in the land.
What does this mean? Trust in the Lord, follow Him,
and you know what? I'll give you the land. I'll
give you eternal life. He does. He gives eternal life.
And not only does He give eternal life, and verily thou shalt be
fed. He gives us life and food. Spiritual food. You see, it is the shepherd who
feeds us even in the presence of our enemies. You know, I love
that the shepherd of Psalm, he said, thou prepares the table
before me, where? In the presence of my enemies.
Surrounded by, it's though the shepherd took them in a wolf's
den and prepared the table right in the middle of the wolf's den.
That's where we are. Can you not see it around you?
ravening wolves all around you, and there he is feeding his lambs. As though he dares them to touch
one. They can't touch one of his. He feeds us. What does he
feed us with? His good word. His good word. And next thing we see this. Here's
another precept. Delight thyself in the Lord.
So fret not, because of evildoers, why they're going to be cut down.
He said, trust in the Lord, trust in Christ, who has done good,
who has accomplished our salvation, do good, and he'll give you life,
and he'll feed you, and then what he says, delight yourself
in the Lord. Believers said Jehovah to be
your joy and delight. Though the flesh will suffer.
we still may have joy in our hearts so long as we can see
Christ. Isn't that right? Have you found
that to be true? Even though we suffer, if I can
just see him. If I could just find my delight
in him. If I, like the Shulamite bride,
might just have him. Have you seen my beloved? Tell
him I'm sick of love. She sought to delight herself
in His presence when she lost it. You lost it? Troubles and
prosperity sometimes do that, cause us to lose sight of Him.
Oh, set your heart to rejoice and delight yourself in the Lord. Look over at Psalm 43. It's just
a couple pages old. Psalm 43. Look at this prayer
of David here. This should be our prayer in
delighting in the Lord. See this? David cries out, he
says, send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead me. What is this but the word of
God speaking of Christ? Has God commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shine in our hearts? knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He shined in
our hearts the light through the gospel, and let the gospel
lead me. Where is the spirit and the gospel
lead me? Let them bring me to thy holy
hill, to thy tabernacles. Then will I go to the altar of
God, unto God my exceeding joy. You see, only when you come to
God by the altar is God your exceeding joy. Otherwise, he's
your terror. If you bypass the altar and go
into the presence of God, you have nothing but terror. You
see, but we come by Christ, we may do what? We may find God
to be our exceeding joy. Our exceeding joy. Oh, but when
we can't see him, how tedious and tasteless the hours. When
Jesus no longer I see, sweet birds, sweet prospects, sweet
flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. Midsummer sun shines but
dim, feel striving vain to look gay, but when I am happy in Him,
December's as pleasant as May." Isn't that so? Isn't that so? See how the wicked, they delight
in the world. They delight in their sin, the
pleasures of their flesh. They delight in labor to have
these things. Let us then labor to delight
in our God. Labor to delight in Him. Set
your heart on purpose to delight in Him. How? Only through Christ. Only by seeing Christ. Only then
can you delight in God. Paul said labor to enter into
a rest. Should we not labor then to rest
and delight and enjoy our Savior? Delight in Jehovah. Come by meditation
in our hearts upon His very name and His every attribute. I tell
you what, if we don't light ourselves in the Lord, is it not because
we don't spend time thinking of Him? I'm telling you what,
this week I have been so guilty of thinking of my trouble and
not thinking of Him. I should think of Him. I should
delight myself in Him. He should be the meditation of
my heart daily, constantly. The Apostle Paul said, Brethren,
whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things of good report, if there be any
virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Friends,
what is honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report other than
Christ? than his gospel. Can you think of anything more
lovely than him? Then think on these things. Stop
thinking on these troubles, and delight thyself, fret not them,
leave them alone, trust in me, do good, and delight thyself
in the fatness of my word. Meditation, prayer, Next thing
is this, look back at your text. Here is the fourth precept. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him and he shall
bring it to pass. Commit thy way. I tell you the
great sin of the church today is this. Lack of true commitment
to God. You want to know why we're so
perplexed and troubled? I tell you what. Doesn't trust require your commitment? That's like saying, Scott, I
trust you with my money, but I'm just gonna keep it myself.
I'm not gonna let you have my, I just wanna say I trust you.
No, if I trusted in you, I would be able to give it to you without
hesitation. If we truly trust in God, should
we not see we should be committed? We should commit all our way
unto him. Many have mistaken freedom in
Christ with freedom from Christ. Freedom from the law with freedom
from the law of Christ. You see, we're free from the
law. We're not free from the law of Christ. Free from the
law of sin and death. We're not free from the law of
faith and love. What is the command of our Lord? Believe
on Christ. That's the command. We're not
free from that command. Believe when? At all times. At
all times. In prosperity, in poverty, in
sickness, in health, in whatever condition or circumstance, what
do we do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? That's the
law. I'm committed to that. Are you committed to that? Love
thy brethren. There's a law we're committed
to. Love the brethren. Preach the word. Preach the word. When? in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering. Preach the
word. How about this? Support the ministry.
Are you committed to supporting this? If you believe this gospel,
you're supported. You'll give everything you have
to further it. And keep nothing for yourself.
That's what it is to commit thy way unto the Lord. Commit everything
unto the Lord. to support the ministry by faithful
assembling of the saints. Isn't that commitment? What we're
doing here. I know this, it took effort.
It's not as much as we had a building. I know when we have a building,
this has taught me so much and made me so much more appreciate
the assembling of the saints together. I know it has many
of you. But I know this, if we're committed, As a matter of fact,
we'll give up home and family and everything we have for it.
I know people say, well, I'm committed to Christ. Where do
you worship? Well, there's no place here.
Why are you still there? How can you say I'm committed
and yet you won't give up that for what you know Christ commands? No. Scripture says more words
for What are we stewards of? Not
just our money and time. We're stewards of the grace of
God. We've been committed the gospel
into our trust. I wonder how much anxiety and
fear come from a believer's lack of commitment and submission
to the will of the Lord. We say, Lord, I commit my way
to you. So long as it's convenient. So long as I don't have to give
up any of my possessions, I commit myself to you. So long as I don't have to give
up my family or my friends or my pleasures, I'm fully committed. And you wonder why you're anxious.
We wonder why we're anxious because we're struggling to keep all
of this stuff. all of these things, instead
of fully committing it to Christ. Oh, that we should submit our
whole life, all that we have, all that we are, into the hands
of God. Commit thyself, commit thy way
unto the Lord. And notice this, and he shall
bring it to pass. What shall he bring to pass?
Here it is. He shall bring forth thy righteousness
as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. What do you want
to see most? You as a believer in Christ,
what do you want to love and experience the most? Is it not
the righteousness of Christ and the death of Christ? Isn't that
what you want to see more of? Well, see, when we commit ourselves
unto God, guess what we get to see more of? we get to see more
of our inability to commit ourselves unto him and more of his righteousness
and blood that sustains us. Isn't that what it is? He says,
thy righteousness shall be manifest as a light. I wanna know, do
I have the righteousness of Christ? Look, commit thy way unto the
Lord. He's gonna bring it to pass.
He's gonna show it to you. He's gonna manifest it. Now listen,
our committing ourselves didn't make us righteous, but committing
ourselves reveals what God has done. Committing ourselves by
our way unto the Lord and trusting Him, He shows us forth the judgment
of God being satisfied in Christ. That's what I want to see more
of. And you know what? This also shines through us. How many people
have you seen committed themselves wholly to the Lord and you admired
them? Think of Moses. Think of David. Think of Joshua. Think of all
of the prophets who gave themselves and committed themselves so fully,
even unto death. And what do we see? What did
we see? We saw the righteousness of Christ and the blood of Christ
manifest in them. Listen, if we ever desire to
be used, we must commit all we have to Christ. And He will bring
forth this. He will show it. And fifthly, let's see this. Rest in the Lord. Rest in the
Lord. Here's what the priest said.
Rest. And wait patiently for Him. This is a product of faith,
the result of full commitment to God, and the opposite of fretting
is what? Resting. Resting. How hard is it to rest? If you just lay down on the floor,
how hard is that? Resting is the ceasing of what? Labor. Rest in what? Not rest in your
commitment. There's no resting in your commitment.
You haven't committed enough. Let me just put that out there.
You have never committed enough to Christ, have you? Isn't there
always more that we could commit? So there's no resting in our
commitment, yet we should commit. But our resting is not in our
commitment, but rather in the work of Christ. That's where
we find rest. You see, Jesus Christ is our
Sabbath rest. That's what the Sabbath day pictured.
He pictured Christ. When God finished his work on
the seventh day, the work was done. He said what? Behold, it
is very good. And so Christ, when he had finished
his work and he rested, he said what? God said, behold, it is
very good. Christ is our Sabbath. Rest in
him. Cease from your labors. The rest is to fall down and
cease to work. Here's a good precept. Stop trying
to fix or change your circumstances. You know the providence of God
doesn't turn to the right or the left. You realize that? It's
always moving straight forward. And usually we're trying to move
the providence of God. We're trying to move it in which
direction we want it to go. What is that vanity? God is going
to do His work. He's going to have His way. What
is the wise course of action? Rest. Rest in the Lord. Trust in Him. Remember, carnal
work can't fix a spiritual problem. Believers, set all your heart
and all your soul upon Christ. Delight in Him. Commit to Him. Serve Him. and wait and rest
on him to deliver you from all your troubles. So then I'll ask
you this, are you hemmed in? He says this, fret not thyself. Rest, wait patiently for him.
Fret not thyself because of him that prospereth in his way, because
the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Don't fret, rest. Are you hemmed in on every side?
Are you wounded because of, then stand still and rest. Sit
at the foot of the cross and behold the Son of God. And find
rest. Rest. Set your heart to rest. Set all your soul to trust in Him
and don't fret about what happens And seventh, we can see this,
look at this in verse eight. Cease from anger and forsake
wrath. Pain and envy will always result
in anger and bitterness. Believer, are you bitter at your
lot? You remember Jonah was, right?
Old Jonah, he had that, God put up that gourd and he rejoiced
in the shade of that gourd and when God sent that worm, Deed
to gore, you remember what happened, Jonah was angry with the Lord.
Have you been angry with Him because of your lot? You know, I got that thing, had
it above my desk for many years. Let me not talk of the sovereignty
of God and then complain of my lot in life. Those two are inconsistent
with each other, aren't they? But I'll tell you this, if we're
angry, God says, Dost thou well be angry? Dost thou well be angry? Is not God good? Has he not promised
you good? Will he fail then to do you good?
Then why the bitterness? Why the angry? Why the bitter
state? I read this this morning. I thought
it was good. Joe Terrell put this in his bulletin.
He said, Malice, bitterness, and resentment are poisons to
the soul. Malice only injures the malicer and not the malicee. Resentment is like taking a poison
and then waiting for the other person to die. The Word of God instructs us
to lay aside all malice. The Scripture teaches us that
the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his
friends who were forgers and liars and physicians of no value. God keep us from anger. God cause
us to cease from all malice and hatred. You know this, bitterness is the seed of apostasy. Do you know that? Bitterness
is the seed of apostasy. When the Lord chastens his children,
the apostle said this, the Lord chastens those that he loves,
and scourges every son. So don't faint when thou art
chastened of him. And then he says this, looking
diligently, lest any man fail in the grace of God, lest any
root of bitterness spring up trouble you, and thereby many
be defiled. Lest there be any fornicator
or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold at
birth. Oh friends, isn't this a wise
saying, cease from anger. Dost thou will to be angry at
the providence of God? Cease from anger and don't fret.
And the seventh thing is this, be content. Look at verse 16.
He says, a little that the righteous man hath is better than the riches
of many wicked. How much fretting would disappear
if we were just content with what we have? How much anxiety
would disappear if we were content with what we have? And I'll tell
you this, you have more believer than any wicked man ever could. You have much more. Look at what
he says. He says, the riches of the righteous
are better than the riches of the wicked. Here's the first
thing. For the arms of the wicked are broken, but the Lord upholdeth
the righteous. You know this, you have the Lord
upholding you. The Lord carries you. Is that
not something to be content with? Be content the Lord carries you
to glory. Be content. Look at this next
thing. The Lord knoweth the days of
the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. Listen, the
Lord knoweth you and He knows your inheritance. He knows your
inheritance. He gave it to you. And it shall
be forever. Listen, this world is not your
inheritance. As it is, only after it's purified God
will give it to you. Look at this next thing. Be content
because they shall not be ashamed in the evil time. In the days
of famine, they shall be satisfied. Listen, when God comes, we won't
be ashamed. Being in Christ, and listen,
God also provides for us in the days of famine. What does He
provide? His Word. Be content with His
Word. Look at verse 22. For such be as blessed
of him shall inherit the earth, and they that be cursed of him
shall be cut off. Be content with this. You inherit
all things. All things are yours. Should
you not be content with all things? All things are yours. Look at
this. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. Be content with God's providence
because all that happens in this life is ordered of God. Be content. And look at this next thing in
verse 24. Though he fall, yet he shall not be utterly cast
down. Oh, believer, consider this. How many times a day do
we fall? How many times a day do we fail?
And what does he promise? Be content with this. He shall
not be utterly passed out. Why, the Lord upholdeth him with
his hand. What a blessing. What a blessing
the Lord has given us, that he will uphold us. Be content with
whatsoever we have, because we have Christ. And if you have
Christ, you have everything. The last thing is this. The last
instruction of wisdom is found in verse 37. Look at this. Mark
the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that
man is peace. Who is this perfect man? Here's
wisdom. Mark Christ. Consider the perfect
man. Mark Him. Why? but the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord." That's Christ, the perfect man. His salvation,
our salvation is of Christ. He is our strength in the time
of trouble. And the Lord shall help them
and deliver them, and he shall deliver them from the wicked
and save them because they trust in him. Friends, is it not wisdom
then to consider Christ in every way? There's much more wisdom here
than I can ever go over with you, but these eight things are
very important, especially if you're in trouble. Listen to
me, fret not. Fret not. Envy not the wicked,
they shall perish. Secondly, trust in the Lord and
do good. Seek His will and do good. Trust Christ, believe on Christ. purpose. Fourthly, commit thyself
and thy way unto Him, trusting Him in all things. Fifthly, rest in the Lord, fall
on Him, and find peace. Sixth, cease from anger, cease
from resentment, cease from evil, cease from bitterness. Next, be content. you have. You have everything, if you have
Christ. And lastly, mark Christ. What
wisdom, what wisdom in times of trouble. God give us wisdom,
not only just on the surface, but take this wisdom, I pray
that the Spirit of God would impart this to us, so that we
can constantly look over these things. Go back over these things,
read it again, especially if you're in trouble. And I know
this, I believe in the word of blessing. I know it will.