your bibles and turn back with
me to psalm chapter seventy three. I think there was a reason I stopped
using this book because it takes up a lot of space. Psalm 73. The Scripture gives
this title, A Psalm of Asaph. Asaph was one of the singers
that sang David's psalms before the Lord, and he was one also
that wrote many psalms. This man was a man blessed of
God. He was a man saved by the grace
of God. He trusted in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Yet we have this psalm before
us of this man Asaph, and truly I believe this psalm is written
for our learning, as all the scriptures, written for our learning
and admonition. But I'm so glad that God reveals
His saints completely as they are in the scriptures, don't
you? That these are not some superheroes or some men who have
some extra strength that we don't have, but yet these were men.
These were men. The kings of England used to
have their portraits painted. And when Oliver Cromwell came
to power, He had his portrait painted by one of the king's
artists. And the artists were accustomed to eliminating all
blemishes. They were photoshopped. They were the photoshop of their
day. They took away all the blemishes the kings had. And so when they
painted Cromwell, he took away all of the blemishes. And Cromwell
had this big wart on his face. And of course the painter took
that wart away. And Oliver Cromwell looked at
the painting and he said, no sir, you will paint me warts
and all. Is that not true of how God paints
the picture of his people? Warts and all. Warts and all. Why? Because they're
men just like we are. They're saved by the same grace
of God through Christ Jesus. And this man was no different.
Notice what he says, this man Asaph. He said, Truly God is
good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. The
first thing I would see is this man knew that God was good. This
man understood the goodness of God. Now, the term good is a
characteristic of all of the attributes of God. All of the
characteristics of God are good, aren't they? God's holiness is
good. God's grace is good. God's justice
is good. God's love is good. Why? Because
God is good. You see, men may do good, But we're not talking about God's
doing, we're talking about His essential person. God is good. Therefore, everything God does
is good. God is the only truly good being
of all His creation. You remember when the Lord Jesus
Christ was confronted by that Pharisee, by that lawyer. He
said, good master. And what did Christ answer him?
He said, there is none good but one. That is God. There is only one truly, essentially
good being, and that is God. If you or I say something is
good, it may be good or it may not be good. But when God says it's good,
listen to me, everything God says is good is good. Everything. Because God is good. Think of
God's goodness in creating man and taking care to make him upright
and holy and to give him a helpmate. But you remember what happened.
Man rebelled against God. Man rebelled against God and
sin entered into the world. Wherefore, the scripture says,
as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so
death passed upon all men. And as a result of Adam's sin,
darkness, evil came upon God's good creation. After the fall,
man ceased to be good. as He was created. And man became
evil. Man became evil. And this nature,
this evil nature, is passed down to every one of us. I received
it from my father as he received it from his all the way back
to Adam. We were born dead in trespasses
and sins. The result of the fall of Adam
is that men call evil good and good evil. God says in Isaiah 520, woe unto
them that call evil good and good evil. But that's what we
do by nature. I tell you what, we truly don't
know what's good. We truly don't know what's good. When things happen we don't understand,
we may call it evil. But I tell you, that may be the
best thing that could ever happen to us, right? How many times
has that happened, believer, that something you thought was
bad turned for your good? It happens all the time to us.
All things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called according to His purpose. We know this,
that all things work together for good because God, who is
good, purposed it. Purposed it. So then, we should learn by God's
goodness that no matter what happens to us outwardly, whether
we call it bad or good, Believer, we should trust the Word of God. Believer in Christ, you should
trust God rather than what you see or what you experience. You should trust God, for God
is truly good. Even when you don't understand
it, I like this scripture in Jeremiah 12. It says, if you
get tired running with the footmen, how shall you run with the horses?
Yeah, we get tired, we get faint trying to understand men, don't
we? How then do you suppose you can
understand God's providence? You can't run with God's providence,
you can't do that. Second of all, not only did he
recognize God was good, he said God is good to a certain people.
God is good to Israel. and to such as are of a pure
heart." God is essentially good by nature. His character is good. He created all things and He
gives all things for men to enjoy. Think of the sun this morning.
I think it's beautiful outside. It's beautiful. Who gave that?
Who gave that to you today? To all of us? You think about
this. That sun, if I go outside and
it shines on my face and a lost man were to stand next to me,
we can enjoy the same sun. God gave it to us both. There
is a sense in which God in goodness gives things to all men. He gives
His reign and His Son to come upon the just as well as the
unjust. This week He's provided me traveling mercies. He's brought
me back. I went all the way to Texas and
I came back. Who did that? God did that. You
know how many lost people went somewhere and got back to where
they were going safely? Who did that? God did the same
thing for them. Do you see that God can be good
in a temporal sense to both the lost and the saved? He provides
us with family enjoyments of our loved ones. He gives us health. For every good and perfect gift
cometh down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variable,
just a shadow of turning. God giveth these things for us
to enjoy. But there is a particular goodness
that is only given to Israel. The Scripture says, truly. God is good to Israel. A peculiar goodness is given
only to this nation of Israel. Now this is not talking about
the physical nation, although God did provide them many benefits. Out of all the nations in the
world, that little Jewish nation who came from Abraham, they had
the oracles of God. They had the temple, they had
the sacrifices, so they received good things from God. But remember
that Israel is not just a nation. It was a nation was to be a type
of the church. Paul says this in Romans, he
says, not all they that are of Israel are truly Israel. What does he mean? He said, those
that are just Jews, that doesn't mean that they're true partakers
of the promises of God. You see, the nation of Israel
was only to be a type of the church of the elect of God. And all the elect of God are
true Israelites. All Israel are those who believe
in Jesus Christ alone. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Have you trusted Him? And my
friends, you are Israel. You are the chosen of God. You are the elect of God, redeemed
of Christ and called by the Spirit of Israel. You are Israel. And
listen to me, God is truly good to you. Is that not, have you
not found that to be so? that He sent His only begotten
Son into the world to provide a righteousness that you could
no way provide, to die in your stead, to be made sin for us
who knew no sin, that we should be made the righteousness of
God in Him. You are, God is truly good to
Israel. And notice this, that Israel,
He tells us who Israel is, even to such as are of a clean heart. All the Israel of God have a
pure heart, a pure heart. And I'll tell you this, none,
no man by nature can stand before God, no man can stand before
God without a pure heart that is free from sin. The psalmist in Psalm 24 asked
this question, he said, who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord
and who shall stand in his holy place? And he gives the answer,
he that hath clean hands and a pure heart. He that hath clean
hands and a pure heart." Let me ask you this. Do you have
clean hands? Are you free from sin? Have you sinned against God?
Well, the Scriptures are very clear concerning our sin. It
says, he, any man that say he hath not sinned, John says, he
makes God a liar. If you tell me you have not sinned,
all you're doing is saying God is a liar. You have sinned. And I tell you, so have I. We
have all sinned, the Scripture said, and come short of the glory
of God. I do not say this, that you have
sinned looking down at you. You see, I say you have sinned
because I'm looking across at you. We have sinned. We all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. We all have broken the law of
God. And I tell you, I once stood in this place as a sinner without
hope. But by the grace of God, I believe
on Jesus Christ. By the grace of God, He opened
my eyes to see what I was. Have you seen what you are by
nature? Have you seen your sin and hopelessness? Because this is what God does
to His people as He opens our eyes to see our helplessness.
And then He shows us the most miraculous thing. He shows us
a Savior that has accomplished all we need. He shows us Jesus
Christ, and we gladly believe and bow down to Christ. I'll tell you, if you're to ever
see God's goodness, it is only through faith in Jesus Christ.
It's only by looking to Jesus Christ alone. It's only finding your hope in
Him. He hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings, the Scripture says, in heavenly places, where? In
Christ Jesus. You don't want to know where
all the spiritual blessings are? All of God's blessings, you know
where they're at? They are in Jesus Christ. That's the only place you'll
ever find them. All the blessings of God are
in Christ and outside of Him. There is no blessing of God that
are eternal. Now you may receive temporal
blessings from God, but the only eternal blessing comes from Jesus
Christ. And when we come to Christ by
faith, By faith in His atoning work on the cross, by His blood
being applied to the doorpost of our hearts as our Passover
lamb, when God says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Eternal life is only found in
the person of Jesus Christ. Have you seen that? Then I tell you, God is truly
good to you who believe. You who believe, God is truly
good to you. If you have come to Christ by
faith, surely God fulfills his covenant. Over in Jeremiah chapter
29, look at what God says. Go to Jeremiah chapter 29. Jeremiah 29 and verse 11. Look at what God says to Israel,
to His church. He says, For I know the thoughts
that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and
not of evil. to give you unexpected end. Is that not good? God says, I
know my thoughts of you, thoughts of peace and not of evil. You see, God is truly good to
Israel, isn't He? God is truly good to Israel. But notice something here in
our text. Something's wrong with this man
Asaph. He says, truly God's good to
Israel and those that have a clean heart. But as for me, he sees and knows God's good
to Israel, but he does not know if God is good to him. Why should a man such as Asaph
was have such doubts about God's goodness? Because this man Asaph looked
away from Christ. He looked away, notice that in
verse 3, for I was envious at the foolish, notice, when I saw
the prosperity of the wicked. He did not doubt God's goodness
for Israel, but he did doubt God's goodness to himself based
on what he saw. He saw the wicked prospering. And his faith was shaken. His
faith was shaken. Sometimes, believers, is it not
true of us that we see things and circumstances in this life
that cause us to doubt our very salvation? Isn't that so? When I doubt God's goodness to
me, and have fallen into the sin of unbelief, I'll tell you
this, I don't doubt God's goodness to Israel. One thing about God's
people is that we do not doubt God's goodness to save his people
from their sins. I have no doubts about that.
I have no doubt that God has an elect people. I have no doubt
that Jesus Christ died for them and secured their salvation.
What I have doubts about is my assurance in it. What I begin
to doubt is my faith towards Christ. We never doubt God's
goodness toward Israel, but when we look around us and we start
seeing the circumstances around us, we begin to doubt, but as
for me? I don't know if God's good to
me. I don't know if I am one of the
elect. I don't know. And what causes
this doubt is that we, instead of looking to Christ, we look
at the circumstances. And that's what Asaph has done.
Are you in such a state as this? Do you doubt God's goodness to
you? This happens because sometimes, like Asab, we take our eyes off
of Christ and look at the things without and the things within. And they cause us to doubt and
cause fears to flood our hearts and our minds. Let us look at
this and know that God's Word is given here for our learning.
Asaph looked, first of all, at the earthly circumstances. He
looked at the prosperity of the wicked. Notice, he saw the prosperity
of the wicked. He looked at the experience of
outward circumstances and tried to reconcile them with the truth
of Scripture. Have you ever done that? Have
you ever looked around you and tried to reconcile what God is
doing? What is he doing? How is this going to work out?
How is this going to work to our good? I don't understand.
The wicked are prospering. And the righteous are suffering. How is this so? If God's good
to Israel, how is it that the righteous suffer and the wicked
prosper? He saw the prosperity of the
wicked. Believer, God never calls us
to reconcile his word with his providence. The scripture says, Oh, the depth
of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable,
unsearchable, are his judgments and his ways past finding out.
Listen to me. Listen very carefully, believer.
Do not make the mistake of placing God's providence under the microscope
of your judgment. You'll be confused every time. You'll be confused every time. Asaph could not reconcile the
absolute truth of God's goodness and the prosperity of the wicked. Why was Asaph envious of these
foolish and wicked men? Verse 4, look at this, now he
gives us reasons why he's upset, why he's doubtful. He says in
verse 4, for there are no bands in their death, but their strength
is firm. In other words, these men have
no fear of death. These men have no fear of death.
I like what Hawker says, he said these men seem to be at peace and die in
peace, those strangers from Christ. How can a man die in peace being
a stranger from Christ? Yet they do. There are no bans
in their death. They're not afraid of death. When we talk about sin and righteousness
and judgment, I know this, the heart of a believer begins to
quake. Why does the heart of the lost man not quake? Why are
they not afraid? Because they don't believe it.
They don't believe it's true. All men know there's a God and
a judgment, but over time they give themselves a God, they make
themselves a God, and they sear their conscience with a hot iron
so that they can feel no guilt. And Asaph was envious of these
men that had no fear of death. Asaph feared death. Believer,
do we not often fear death? Why is it that a believer fears
death? Because we understand there's no second chance. Once this life is over, it's
set. That's why Peter said, make your calling and election sure. Because there is no second chance
at this. Second of all, he was troubled
because these men were not plagued as others. He says that in verse
5. They are not troubled as other
men. Neither are they plagued like
other men. In other words, they're not plagued
with guilt. Who's plagued with guilt? Believers that's who are
plagued with guilt. That's the one we recognize what
we are by nature We are plagued with it We have this constant
struggle within our own breast of warfare that goes on Constantly
and yet we look at men that are not that are in this world and
they just go and sin freely and they just seem to be having a
great time and You want to see it, just look
at Facebook. Man, everybody seems to be having a great time. I'm
having trouble, and everybody else seems to be not. I'm plagued,
but nobody else seems to be plagued. That's what he was having problems
with. He looked at these men. But believers, it's not so with
us. We loathe ourselves. Isn't that
true? Scripture tells us that we do. Over in Psalm 38, In Psalm 38 and verse 7, it says,
For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there
is no soundness in my flesh. Isn't that what you feel, believer?
You feel that loathsomeness of your own flesh? Do we not cry
out with the Apostle Paul, Who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? As believers, We must understand
that these who feel no guilt are not chastened of the Lord
like we are, are because they are bastards and not sons. Isn't
it true that only the Lord chasteneth sons? Scripture tells us, For
whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son. Let
us be exhorted in the faith that we must, through much tribulation,
enter into the kingdom of God. As if I had these men, that they
were not troubled, and it caused him great trouble. Look at verse
6. Therefore pride compass him about
as a chain, and violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes
stand out in fatness, and they have more than their heart could
wish. They are corrupt and speak wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set
their mouths against heaven and their tongues walk through the
earth. These men, they wear their false
religion and self-righteousness as a chain of pride. I remember someone telling me
about their uncle that he had went to this church and he had
never missed a Sunday. And every day that he had, he
got a new ribbon or medal. And then his medals went all
the way down to the floor. He was so proud of those medals. He was so proud of his self-righteousness,
so proud of his religious deeds. This is how self-righteous men
do it. They put their self-righteousness
on as a garment, as a robe to be strutted around. Remember
that Pharisee who prayed thus with himself, Lord, I thank you
that I'm not like other men. I thank you that I fast twice
in the week, that I give tithes of all that I have. I thank you
I'm not like that wicked sinner over there. They walk around
with such pride and arrogancy. Their eyes stand out in fatness,
and they have more than they could ever want. Isn't that true
about the religious of this world, the false religion of this world?
Isn't it like a, man, that's a big business. Religion today
is a big business. And I'll tell you what, they
have more than they can handle. You look at these rich men and
you see them strutting around and some of them won't even think
twice. I think one movie star went in
and spent $20,000 in one night at a nightclub. And he got more
than they could ever ask for. But when a believer His eyes
stand out in fatness. What does God do to us? He takes
away. Isn't that right? When we start
gaining and we start getting greedy, what happens to the believer?
God strips it from us. And yet He doesn't strip it from
them. He doesn't take it away from them. Can you see the conflict of this
man Asaph? Can you not see it in your own
self? I can. Can you not see His envy for
them? I do. This is also the trade of the religionist. They do and do and never have
enough. Isn't that right? False religion
commands men to do this and do this and do this and then, if
you do enough, then you'll be saved. But when is enough enough?
It's never enough for them, is it? It's never enough. Their
eyes stand out with fatness and they always want to do more,
always trying to do more. Verses 8 and 9, it says, and
they are corrupt, they speak wickedly, concerning oppression
they speak loftily, they set their mouth against heaven and
their tongue walketh in the earth. In other words, these corrupt
men and their false religion spread rapidly. Isn't that right? I've heard this before. A lie
will get around the world twice before truth can put on his shoes.
Isn't that so? We see that the false gospel
of this age spreads so rapidly and so fast. Men say, I don't care what the
plain revealed word of God says. I'm going to tell you about my
experience. I'm going to tell you about what I think God does. regardless of what the Word of
God says. And they, man, they can get a
hearing just like that. They can fill these churches.
They can fill them! And yet, what does the truth
get? I tell you, the truth gets very little. People don't want
to hear the truth. They don't want to hear that
man doesn't have a free will. They don't want to hear that.
Why? Because man wants to be God.
They don't want to hear God is sovereign. They don't want to
hear Christ died for his elect. They don't want to hear of a
successful Savior. And yet, I'll tell you, their churches are
full. But in doing as they please,
they blaspheme God. They set their mouth against
heaven. And the result is opposite of
what we think it should be. We think God should strike them
down. We're like James. He said, Lord, would you that
we should call fire from heaven and have them... The opposite
is what happens, is that they are prosperous and God's church
is in poverty. It's the opposite of what we
think. We know that God is good to Israel, yet these false prophets
flourish. Till they set their tongues against
God and they are not impeded. The masses flock to them. This at times causes conflict
in the heart of the preacher as well as the believer. It did this to this man Asaph. Lord, can this be? They don't
fear death. They don't feel guilt. They grow
wealthy and desire more. They speak against the Word of
God and yet they prosper. How can this be? And what's the
result of this? Verse 10, Therefore His people
return thither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out unto
them. His people return, and the waters
of a full cup are running out to them. They say this, and they
say, How doth God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High?"
When this happens, God's people say, God, can't you see what's
happening? Isn't that what we say? When
we're confused, when we're confused about this, we look around and
see all this wicked prospering and we say, God, don't you see
this? Don't you see what's happening? God, don't you care? Are you
paying attention? If we should look at the circumstances
of God's divine providence, we too would be confused and would
doubt and wonder where God is and why the wicked prosper and
the righteous suffer. If you take your eyes off of
Jesus Christ for one second, you and I both would be right
where Asaph is, doubting God's divine goodness. doubting His
goodness. We would be brought into a great
valley of depression. We too would soon be asking the
question, the same questions of unbelief. If God by His grace
does not intervene, we too would doubt our own salvation and interest
in Christ. In verse 13, Verily I have cleansed
my heart in vain, and washed my hands in insight. For all
the day long I have been plagued and chastened every morning.
In other words, he's saying, look, I have made a false profession. That's what he's saying. I'm
a false professor. How could I think such ill of
God and be a true believer? He said, I'm done for. I'm done for. And yet notice his love for the
believers. He says this in verse 15, If
I say, I will speak thus, behold, I should offend against the generation
of thy children. When I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me. In other words, now he says,
I'm so destitute and I can't even speak to God's people because
I'll offend them. I've lost my faith. I've lost
my hope. Surely I'm a lost man to think
such ill of God. Isn't that the double-edged sword?
We think one way and then pretty soon we're plagued with this. The thought of offending God's
people is offensive to me. Well, where then is comfort?
If this is your condition, where then is comfort? Because I know
you need it. I've been here and I know I need
it. Where did Asaph go to find comfort? Look at your text. Verse
14. I'm sorry. Verse 17. This was too painful for me until... until I went into the sanctuary
of God. Then understood I their end."
He understood when he went to the sanctuary of God. Believers,
when you are plagued with unbelief and fear of doubting your salvation,
what does our nature tell us to do? It tells us to stay at
home. It tells us that I'm so distraught
that I can't even get up to go and... I can't even go and face
those people. I'm so sinful. I'm so wicked.
I can't even get up and face God's people. How can I go and
worship? We say to ourselves, we can't
go lest I should offend God's people. But this is the place
where you should be. Is it not? Listen to me. This church is
for sinners. This church is for sinners. If you're self-righteous and
you don't need any salvation, you don't need to be here. This
church is for sinners. You know, the church is made
up of sinners. Sinners saved by the grace of
God. This is where you need to be
to hear the truth. Believers, forsake not the assembling
of yourselves together as the manner of some is. This is the
place where Christ said He would meet with us. This is the place
of comfort. This is where God sheds His Word
and promises to His people. This is God's means of salvation. The preaching of the gospel.
To them that have perished, preaching is foolishness. But unto us who
are saved, it is the power of God. power of God. This is where we receive our
comfort. And what do we learn from God's Word about these people
that we envy so much? Look at this, God set their feet
in slippery places. He said, Surely thou didst set
them in slippery places, and castest them down into destruction,
how they are brought into desolation 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. All these people we look around
and we see them prospering and we envy them. Listen to me, you
don't need to envy them because God will destroy them. God will destroy them in a moment. There's a day coming that God
will come and they will be taken immediately. You remember Lazarus
and the rich man. The scripture says Lazarus died. And what happened? He was immediately
carried into the bosom of Abraham. He was immediately carried into
glory. But what happened to the rich man? The scripture says
the rich man died also and lifted up his eyes being in torments. He awoke! He closed his eyes
in death and woke up in torments! Why in the world would you envy
someone like that? We shouldn't envy them because
one day God will destroy them. And how do we feel when we envy
them, when we find out their end? We see this. He said, Thus
my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reign. So foolish
was I and ignorant. I was like a beast before thee. Isn't that how we feel when we
sin against God and take our eyes off Christ? Do we not feel
as though we were just a beast? Oh, so foolish are our thoughts.
we should not envy the wicked because God has set them in a
slippery place you know there's a when I was in the country as
a young boy there's a there was a hog pen and man they put out
the feed for this one hog and they just fed him and fed him
and fed him and these other little bitty ones they didn't get as
much feed as this one why not because they were fattening that
one up for the kill I tell you, God is giving the
wicked exactly what they want. They're giving them all that
they want. And one day, He will require it at their hands. I should never envy them. I should
never envy them. And when I do, I feel like a
fool. And I ask for God's forgiveness. Nevertheless, even though I'm
a fool, even though I'm sinful, nevertheless, I am continually with thee. Thou hast holden me by my right
hand, thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive
me into glory. Nevertheless, even though I'm
so foolish, even though I'm so ignorant, I know this, I am continually
with God because He's continually with me. Did you hear that? Believer,
no matter how foolish you are, God is continually with us. And He shall receive us. He shall hold us, He shall guide
us, and He shall receive us into glory. I remember Don Fortner
telling me this, big Don, huge man, and he had his little granddaughter
holding on to his fingers. And she was swinging and swinging. Now all that time, he said, she
thought she was holding on to me. But it was really me holding
on to her. And that's exactly how it is
with us, believer. It's not us holding on to God. It's God holding on to us. And I'm so thankful He'll never
let us go. Isn't that assuring? Isn't that
assuring that even though we have been so foolish as to envy
them, God says, I'm continually with you. I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. Men may leave you. Friends may
forsake you and fail you. But I will never leave you. I
will never forsake you. I will guide you and afterward
receive you into glory. Isn't that what the Spirit of
God does? Guide us? He said, if we are the sons of
God, are we not led by the Spirit of God? It's what the Scripture
tells us. And where will He lead us? Where
does the Spirit of God always lead us? Right back to faith
in Christ. You desire rest and peace, comfort,
assurance, It all rests in Christ. It all rests in Him. The Spirit
leads us, for the just, the scripture said, shall live, how? By faith. By faith. Remember those that are far off
from Christ, estranged from Him, they shall perish. And those
false religionists who are so proud and arrogant, one day God
will shut their mouths. But it is good, it is good, verse
28, for me to draw near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord
God, that I may declare all thy works. You see, God always has a purpose
in what he does. He allowed this man Asaph to
follow his foolish envying for what? So that he may draw him
closer. Isn't that what God does for
us? Isn't that why He does everything
He does? To draw us to Himself. And I tell you, God is truly
good to Israel. Isn't that right? You who are
in Christ, God is good to you. Stop looking around you, stop
looking in you, and look to Christ alone. May God add these blessings to
this.