Psalm 37. And the title of the message
this morning is, Eight Precepts for Troubled Saints. Eight Precepts
for Troubled Saints. And that is the title is my purpose,
my aim in this message. is to give you, according to
the Word of God, eight wise precepts for us, things that we as believers
are given in order that we might endure great afflictions and
troubles. God gives us words of wisdom
by which we should live by which we should adore Him and worship
Him, so that we are not moved to despair by our troubles. And so in this psalm, David gives
us, by the Holy Spirit, aid of these precepts. And by way of
introduction, I want to give you the whole purpose of this
psalm. It is to help believers as We
see things in this world that appear contrary to the promises
of God as we go through this life. We see great difficulties
and sorrows and yet we have the promises of God that speak of
our good, our enjoyment, our glory in Christ. And yet our
experience seems sometimes to oppose this. Now, the great riddle
of the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the saints
has perplexed many a believer. Many a believer. Asaph was one
of these men who was perplexed by the prosperity of the wicked
and the persecution of God's children. You remember in Psalm
73, he said, truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are
of clean heart, but as for me, my feet were almost gone, my
steps had nigh well slipped." You see, he saw something in
life. He saw the wicked. He saw the
prosperity, the fatness of the wicked. How their lives were
full of pleasure. How their lives were so enjoyable. They were not thankful to God.
They set their mouth against heaven. They boasted of their
strength and their power. They were not fearful of death,
nor were they sorrowful for sin. And while the children of God,
the chosen, redeemed, and called sons of God, suffered greatly,
they lived in poverty for the most part, their sins, their
flesh, and Satan vexed them daily. Now, he believed the promises
of God. He said, I know God's good to
Israel. I know that. With all his soul, he believed
in God's goodness. He believed in the promises of
God. And so he then falsely concluded. He said, well, I must not be
a child of God. He said this, Verily, I have
cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
Now let me ask you this, believer, are you troubled? Are you troubled? Are you troubled with your flesh?
Are you familiar with the great promises of God that say, that
says this, I will not turn away from them to do them good. The
Apostle Paul writes this, all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. Do you love God? Are you the called according
to His purpose? Do you believe on the Son of
God? It was God who purposed our salvation. It was God who predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of His Son. It was God who justified
us. It was God who sent His Son. And if He has sent His Son, how
shall He not with Him freely give us all things? Yet, what is your experience? What is our experience in this
life? Does it not appear that God that promised to do us good
and yet why is it that we suffer? Why do we suffer? Why are we in poverty and sickness
and when our flesh and hearts fail and our minds are filled
with unbelief, when we see the world around us So content, and yet we ourselves
suffer greatly in the flesh. The darts of Satan pierce our
souls and our hearts. His temptations overwhelm us.
He says this to us when we are troubled, look at them. Is that not the temptation? When
you are troubled to look at the well-being of the world and how
well they prosper? He says, look how happy they
are, and look how miserable you are. They're full of joy, and you're
full of sadness. They're full of health, and you're
always sick. Their minds are not full of guilt,
and yours are. Surely you cannot be loved of
God, is what he says. Surely God is not good to you. So then we are brought into such
despair and sorrow, we become so fretful and anxious, and then
we begin to murmur. We complain against the providence of God.
We cry, Lord, if you have chosen me as a vessel of mercy, If you
have laid on me, loved me from eternity, if you have sent Christ
to die for me, why is it we suffer so? Why do the wicked prosper? Why do they find such comforts
in the world and the righteous suffer? When this comes to you, and it
does, remember the words of our Lord. In this world, you shall have
tribulation. You shall have it. You will not
escape. You will not escape. You shall
be hated of all men, he said, for my sake, for my name's sake. The Apostle Paul said this, Verily,
when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer
tribulation. even as it has come to pass,
and you know." So why? What is the purpose? What is
the purpose of suffering? The Apostle said this, think
it not strange. Isn't that the first thought
that comes to our mind? This is a strange thing. God
has promised us good. This is strange. No, it is not
strange. Think it not strange concerning
the fiery trials which try you, though some strange thing happen
to you, but rejoice. Rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers
of the sufferings of Christ. The Apostle there said in 1 Peter
1, 5, he says, we are kept through the power of God unto salvation
ready to be revealed. He says, wherein you greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need be. We suffer. You are in heaviness through
manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much
more precious than gold that perished, though it be tried
by fire, might be found under the praise and honor of the glory
of Christ at His appearing. What is the purpose of your trials?
It is to try your faith. To try your faith. Is your faith being tried? I tell you, if your faith has
never been tried, you have no faith at all. If you have faith at all, it
will be tried. It will be tested. It will be
proven. The fires of tribulation will
kindle and burn against your faith so as to burn off all things
that is not faith. You will burn off the dross. Is your heart being applied?
And when this thing is applied, the flame is applied to our face,
it always forces this question. Am I a true believer? Isn't that what trials do? When
you are tried, and you are tested, and you begin to murmur, you
look without, and then you look within, and then you say, Am
I a true believer? Seeing all of these things, seeing
I suffer, seeing in my soul is so much sin, seeing that I am
afflicted, seeing that God is good to Israel, but as for me,
this is what trials do, is that they test faith. They are necessary
to test faith. See, true trials They burn away the sham. They burn away that face we put
on. Everybody puts on a face. But
when they're in the midst of the flame, the face burns away
and the truth comes out. The truth comes out. I want you to understand that
trials are a gift. They're a gift of God to draw
you, who are true believers, closer to Himself. Closer to
Himself. Today, many are in fires. Today,
many of us have feelings of feeling the heat of our trials, that
the loss of health or wealth or family or children or parents, You remember our brother and
the disciples were tried that day when those 5,000 men had
come and the Lord fed them and then he preached the gospel to
them and 5,000 men left at one time. He turned to them in that
trial and he said, will you go away also? What was their answer? Or to whom shall we go? You have
the words of eternal life. Isn't this always the answer
of true faith in the midst of trial? Where else am I going
to go? You have the words of eternal
life. This is the answer of true faith. Now, in our text, knowing
that true faith must be tried, knowing that we are in the midst
of great trials and great sufferings that the Lord promised that we
would be, now then, how then should the believer deal with
these troubles? The Word of God is not silent
concerning our dealings in troubles. It is very explicit. And here
in this chapter, we have eight precepts. Eight precepts by which
the believer should live in the midst of the flames of his trials. In the midst of the flames of
his suffering and looking to Christ, this is what he should
do. Number one, read verse one with
me. fret not thyself because of evildoers. Neither be thou envious against
the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like
the grass and withered like the green herb. Here's our first
precept. Fret not thyself. Fret not thyself. Again, we are in great trouble. When we are laid low by the sovereign
providence of God, our flesh begins to look around us and
see the prosperity of the wicked. We see their beauty, their comforts,
their carefree life, and we are troubled. They don't know Christ. They have all the outward joy
in false religion. And we feel that God has dealt
so harshly with us. So then we want joy. In trial,
isn't that what you want? You want joy. You want to have
their lot. I mean, that's envy, isn't it?
Our hearts begin to envy them. And we look at them and say,
man, I wish I could have that. Why, Lord, am I in so much stress
and trouble, and yet they seem so free? We begin to care about
that. We look to those things God give
us. And He gives us His precept,
don't fret because of them. Don't burn after them. Don't
be vexed in your heart and envy them. Instead of envying the
lost, we should rather pity them. We should rather pity them. Why? He says soon they will be cut
down and withered. All that they had worked so hard
for, all that the comforts and joys that they had, soon will
be burned away. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He said
it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And so then see the envy, the
things that we envy, the riches and comforts of the wicked soon
shall be gone. And so then, he tells us, don't
envy them, don't fret about them. They'll soon be cut down. You
remember that rich man? The Lord gave that prophecy.
He said he had barns and he had houses and he got so full that
he had to build more barns and more houses. And what did the
Lord say? Thou fool, this night thy soul
is required of thee. Whose shall these things be?
They shall be cut down. And so then, all who are rich
should listen to this. If any are rich, you should weep
and howl. There are not many rich in the
kingdom of God. There are not many rich, not
many noble. But if you're ever a believer
in Christ, you should not trust in uncertain riches. And we who
have no riches should not long for them. Not envy them. Don't lust after them. Don't
fret after them. Don't envy them. That's the first
thing, believer. Don't turn your eyes away from
Christ. Don't turn to the things of the
world. Second thing is this. Look at that in verse 3. Trust
in the Lord and do good. Faith is always the cure for
fretting. Faith is always the cure. The
eyes of the flesh Look at how things appear, but faith always
looks at how things really are. Believer, things are not as they
appear. How things really are is exactly
how God says they are in His Word. And though our eyes see
things that oppose the Word of God, let us therefore trust in
God, rather than looking at the things that are seen. Behold, we see our sin, we see
our corruption of our nature, but what does faith see? Faith
sees that Christ has taken our sin. Faith sees that all of our
sin has been gone, that He bore our sins in His body on the tree.
Faith sees that God has made Him to be sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Faith sees that He has redeemed
us from the curse of the law and purged our sins. So what
appears? It appears that I am a wicked
man. That's how it appears. You watch me just a minute, you'll
find out. I can't see anything else with these eyes. But with
faith I see this. He hath made me righteous. He hath made me righteous. And so then in this we find what
we're looking for. Peace. Peace. Jesus said, peace I leave with
you. My peace I give unto you, not
as a world give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. So what then is the remedy for
fear? It is faith. It's trusting in
the Son of God, looking only to Christ. This is what you're
to do in your trouble. Don't fret. Don't envy. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the
Lord. All true faith looks only to the true object
of our faith. And true faith leads us to true
obedience. True obedience. And there we
find joy. We find joy in doing good. Trust
in the Lord and what? Do good. Do good. In another place, in this same
chapter, it says this. See if I can find it. It's the
same precept, just in another place. It says in verse 27, depart
from evil and do good. The same precept is mentioned
there. So then as we believe in Christ,
what are we to be doing? Good. Whatsoever your hand finds
to do that's good, do that. Do that. So that we are not idle
in our troubles, but do good. Faith moves us to do good. And look at this. He says this,
"...so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be
fed." That word verily means, in truth
thou shalt be fed. You trust in Christ and I know
this, you'll be fed, spiritually fed by the Shepherd. He'll feed
you. He'll care for you. He'll guide
you. He'll lead you. Trust in Him,
wholly, completely, absolutely, without question. Trust in the
Lord and do good. Third precept, look at this.
Delight thyself in the Lord. Delight thyself in the Lord.
Believers, set Jehovah to be thy joy and delight. Though this
flesh we suffer, we still may have joy in our hearts so long
as we can see Christ. Now listen, if you're in trouble,
the greatest joy and comfort and delight is to know the presence
of Christ. To have that, we can endure anything. You remember that song, 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. The midsummer sun shines but
dim, the fields strive in vain to look gay, but when I'm happy
in Him, when I delight in Him, December's as pleasant as May. Now the wicked, they delight
in the world. They delight in the thing. Do
they not labor at that? When men want something, do they
not? This morning I saw some people, man, they were dressed
up for a football game. They took a lot of time to dress
their bodies up to go watch football. And they are traveling from this
place, I believe, I guess they're going to Indianapolis. They're
traveling a few hours to go... They're really working hard in
order to delight in the things of the world. They're work...
Believer, you should work harder to delight thyself in thy God.
Labor to enter into his rest. labor to delight thyself. How
shall we delight ourself in the Lord? This is how, by meditation
on His name, His character, His attributes, His person, His work,
His Son, His blood, His righteousness, His resurrection, eternal life. There's a whole bunch to delight
in. I just don't know how I want
to be happy. There's a whole bunch for you to be happy about. But listen, you ain't gonna find
it on the surface, and nobody's gonna knock you on the head with
it. You delight yourself in the Lord. As hard as they work for
sin, we should work for delighting ourself in the Lord. Delight thyself, labor to delight
thyself in the Lord. Set your heart to it. We have great things to rejoice
in. Forgiveness of sins, pardon, redemption, eternal life. See
then what He has given you. What was our nature before? What
was it that we were by nature? We were dead and lost. We're
without light, without hope, without God in the world. And
yet God came to us. Now you've got something to delight
in. That's something to delight in,
isn't it? That God in grace came to me. That God in grace quickened
my soul. That Christ in love died for
my sin. That He rose again for my justification. That He sits on the throne pleading
for me continually every day. And I have perfect forgiveness
of sin. We have a lot to delight in the Lord. Delight in Him on
purpose. And what does He say? And He
shall give thee desire of thy heart. When you delight in the
Lord, what is your desire? It's Him. And you know what He's
going to give you? The desire of your heart. He's
going to give you Himself. Look at this fourth thing. Commit
thy way unto the Lord in the midst of all your trouble. Listen. Roll thy way upon Him. Absolutely, completely surrender
to Christ. That's what it is. When you're
in trouble, what do you do? Give up. Give up. Surrender. Commit all your soul to Him. All your way. Trust in the Lord. And what? Lean not on your own
understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge
Him, and He shall direct thy path. In the midst of our trouble,
roll everything on Him. and surrender. I know that that goes against
every grain of your old man. But we should kill the old man
and surrender. Surrender. Commit thy way unto
Him. How many people in the church
today have mistaken freedom from Christ from freedom in Christ? Believer, you have freedom in
Christ. We have no freedom from Christ. He is our Lord. He is our Master. He is our God and our King. And we are His servants and His
sons. True freedom in Christ makes
us servants of Christ. And therefore we should, as being
in Christ, delight to do the will of God. And what is the
will of God? That you should believe on Christ,
that you should love the brethren, that you should worship Him.
You know, isn't it what we're doing here, an act of obedience?
This morning, isn't it worship? Hearing the Word of God preached
is an act of obedience. And what should we do in the
midst of our troubles? I know that in the midst of our
troubles, usually we desire to stop worshiping God. That's counterproductive. This is where we should be in
the midst of our trials. Rolling all our trouble on Him. Surrendering. you remember that verse cast
all your care upon him now why should you do that because he
cares for you he careth for you that's why you should do it you
should surrender because he he knows what's best for you and
he is doing what's best for you all the time it's just reasonable
isn't it to surrender to one who loves you more than, and
I think it's impossible to do this, but it is, He loves you
more than you love yourself. Ain't nobody love myself more
than myself, except God. God loves me more than I do,
and He cares for me. Why then should I not give everything
to Him? Commit thyself unto the Lord,
I like this, thy way not mine, O Lord, however dark it be. Lead
me by thine own right hand, choose out the path for me. Smooth let
it be or rough, it will be still the best. Winding or straight
it matters not, it leads me to thy rest. I dare not choose my
lot, I would not if I might. But choose thou for me, O my
God, so shall I walk aright. Take thou my cup and it, with
joy or sorrow fill. As ever best to thee may seem,
choose thou my good and ill. This is what it is to commit
thy way unto Him. Commit thyself unto Him. Now the next thing here is rest. Look at that verse 7. Rest in
the Lord and wait patiently for Him. This is the product of faith
and the result of full commitment to God and the opposite of fretting
is to rest in the Lord. How much strength does it take
to rest? To rest. What is it to rest? To rest is
to cease from work. to cease from work. When you have a problem and you
try to fix it, has it gotten better or worse? Rest in thy God. Rest in thy God. Trust in Him. Rest in His work. Isn't that
what the Apostle says? Labor to enter in where? Into
rest. Why? You have that old man still
trying to fix things. You have the old man still trying
to fix your troubles. Instead of resting and waiting,
listen, waiting patiently on Him, we suppose to fix our troubles
would be quicker. No, we end up piercing our own
selves through with many sorrows. I've told you before, self-inflicted
wounds hurt the worst. And most of our troubles, they
don't start out, may not start out self-inflicted, but they
usually end up that way. By us not trusting and resting
and waiting for God's deliverance. For God to deliver us, instead
of us trying to deliver ourselves. Rest and fall down, cease from
labor. This is a good precept. Remember,
carnal work cannot fix a spiritual problem. You see, our problems originate
from the old heart of sin and self and flesh. The reason we
murmur and complain is because the flesh is crying out. Because
the flesh wants relief. And so we have a carnal solution.
We think a carnal solution will fix a spiritual problem. No.
No. It won't. Relievers said, all
your heart All your soul upon Christ, delight in Him, commit
all yourself to Him, and He will give you rest. You need rest? You can't? Can you do this precept
by yourself? No. Come unto Me. All you are weary and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. I will give you rest. Now then,
the next thing, look at this. Verse 8, cease from anger. Cease
from anger and forsake wrath. When we are suffering and envying
the lost, it will produce in us a bitterness of heart. A bitterness of heart. Let me ask you, are you bitter
of your lot? Are you angry at the Lord? Can believers be
angry? You bet we can. Jonah was angry,
was he not? God gave him the gourd and took
away the gourd. He saved those heathen people. He was so mad, he could spit. He was so mad, he wanted to die.
He said, just kill me. And what'd God say? Dost thou well
to be angry? Can I not do with my own as I
please? Hath not the potter power of
the clay?" Who are we to reply against God?
Make no mistake about it, bitterness and anger lead to apostasy. Let not the root of bitterness
spring up in you. Don't be angry. Don't be angry. but rather looking diligently
unto the Lord, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any
root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many
be defiled, lest there be any fornicator, profane person, as
Esau, for one morsel of meat sold as birthright." Oh, flee
from anger, friends. Don't let it burn in you. Number seven, be content with
righteousness. Look at verse 16. A little that
a righteous man hath is better than the riches of the wicked. Contentment in righteousness. He says, "...for the arms of
the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholdeth the righteous."
Listen why you should be content with righteousness. The Lord
upholdeth the righteous. The Lord knoweth the days of
the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall
not be ashamed in the evil time. In the days of famine they shall
be satisfied. Now listen, you should be content
because the Lord knows your days. He's marked them, He's numbered
them, and you have eternal life. Now is that not contentment enough
that you have eternal life? You are made the righteousness
of God in Christ. Is that not a contentment enough
for you? That you have all things, and
all things are yours? That you have an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in
heaven for you? Is it not enough for you that
you have been chosen, redeemed, quickened by the Holy Spirit,
kept by the power of God? Is that not enough for you? Why
would you envy these things that are going to burn away? Don't. Be content with such things as
you have. What do you have? Food, raiment. We have more than that, don't
we? Anybody, I just put three bags of clothes in your car.
My goodness, how much more clothes do we need? Surely we ain't starving here.
But I tell you we have much more than that. God loves you. His Son gave His life for me. And I have eternal life. Why do I covet these things? No, be content. I tell you, that
would help you in trouble. You're in trouble, being content
would help us greatly. And the last thing is this, and
this is, I believe, one of the greatest things. Look at this.
Look at this in verse 37. Here it is, "...in the midst
of all your troubles, don't fret, trust in the Lord, commit your
way to Him, rest in Him, be content." Here's the greatest thing, "...mark
the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that
man is Who is the perfect man? Christ. Now you mark Him. You put your
eyes on Him. You fix your gaze upon the Son
of the Living God. His end for you. It's peace. Peace. You may not feel peace, but you
have peace. Peace with God. Purchased by His blood. Look
unto Him and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. Mark
the perfect man. Verse 39. But the salvation of
the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in time
of trouble. And the Lord shall help them
and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the
wicked and save them. Because they trust in Him. They trust in Him. So what are
they? You fretting, you troubled. Remember,
trouble is necessary. It's necessary. You will have
it. You will have it because your faith must be tried. Must
be tried. And in the midst of this, fret
not. But trust in the Lord and do good. delight thyself on purpose,
delight thyself in the Lord and His name, His attributes, His
precepts, commit thy way unto the Lord, submit to Him, roll
all your care on Him, rest in the Lord, and wait patiently,
cease from anger, be content, and mark the perfect man. Friends,
that is wisdom. the wisdom of god for the troubled
saint i do pray that god the holy spirit
would take these things to you so that you might have comfort
in your trouble i'll ask you one last thing did that sound
ambiguous that last thing the lord maybe might deliver them
he might no he will he shall deliver them How long do your
troubles last? All your troubles, if you've
had, count all your troubles, how long do they last? Are they
not just a short period of time usually? And then God makes them
better. He delivers us from them. Trust in God. I pray God will
help you with that. Help me.