If you will take your Bibles
and turn me to Psalm 37, Psalm chapter 37. We're looking at verses one through
six this morning, Psalm chapter 37, verses one through six. The title of the message this
morning is precepts of God for his people. precepts of God for
His people. Now, this psalm is a psalm of
David when he had written when he was old. You can see that
in verse 25. He said, I have been young and
now am old. David here is writing this psalm
not as one that could be likened to any of the other psalms we
have gone through. The other Psalms seem to be Psalms
that you can easily divide into its servile parts. Usually David's
low, and then he raises to heights of joy. He's from the bottom
to the top, and then he comes back down and goes back up. But
this one should be read in its entirety. And I hope you'll do
that this evening. It's more like one of the Proverbs.
Each one of these verses could stand alone. And each one of
the verses, it is an alphabetical psalm, so that we know that it
was, in the Hebrew language, it was each letter, first letter
of the verse, was the letter according to the Hebrew alphabet.
Now, as I've told you before, earlier, that there are eight
precepts. Eight precepts in this psalm. Fret not, verse 1. Trust in the
Lord, verse 3. Delight thyself in the Lord,
verse 4. Commit thy way unto the Lord,
verse 5. The fifth one's found in verse
7. Rest in the Lord, verse 8. The sixth one is cease from anger
in 34. The seventh one is wait on the
Lord. And eight is mark the perfect man. We're going to be dealing
with the first four precepts this morning. Fret not thyself. Trust in the Lord. Delight thyself
in the Lord and commit thy way unto Him. First of all, without
much introduction, we're going to go ahead and start with verse
1. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious
against them, against the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon
be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. The first precept of God is not
to fret. Don't worry. That's what God
says. This often plagues God's people
more than anything else, and that is worry. Worry. The saints of God are too often
greatly concerned about the outward circumstances or the outward
influences of evil men. We are too often worried about
the outside influences of this world. We are too often envious
of the power and success of evil men. Now this question concerning
God's people is not a modern one. It's a one that has been
through the ages. God's people have often asked
this question. Why do the wicked prosper and
the righteous suffer? Why does the world seem to applaud
and acquit the wicked, but those who follow after Christ are despised
and hated? This fretting plagued the man
Asaph in Psalm 73 when he said, All the day long have I been
plagued and chastened every morning. He said, I'll say, if I will
speak like this, behold, I should offend against the generation
of thy children. When I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me. He was plagued with the envy
of the wicked. He was plagued with it. He was
riddled with worry, and yet he kept it to himself. I know a
lot of you are worried at times, and you seem on the outside as
strong pillars. You wouldn't want to offend God's
people with your concerns or your worries. But you are. You're worried. You're concerned. You're fretting. You wish that
you could have what the wicked have. You may be sick and you
may say, I wish I had health like the wicked. You may be poor
and you may say, I wish I had the wealth of the wicked. And
we begin to worry and concern ourselves with these things.
Believer in Christ, if we are to look at what seems to be with
our physical eyes, we might have cause to fret. We might think we have a good
reason to fret when we look at something and say, man, I don't
understand that. That's evil. How is that prospering
and I'm suffering? And we may not understand. We
may not understand and we may be moved to fret. When we look
around us, the world seems to be upside down, doesn't it? They call evil good and they
call good evil. They call heresy the gospel,
and they call the gospel heresy. Men call God unjust and justify
themselves, and they seek to destroy the saints of God. This has always been from the
beginning when sin entered into the world, and this will always
be until the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and restores everything. This is always going to be like
this. Don't hope for a fairy tale ending
in this life. There is not one. The righteous
will suffer. And the wicked will prosper.
God's people, hear your Lord. Fret not for them. Don't worry about them. Don't
concern yourselves with what they've got. When Abel, you remember
Abel offered that sacrifice to God and he was accepted. The
scripture says that Abel was a righteous man because of his
faith. He believed in that offering.
He believed in that sacrifice, which was a picture of his Messiah,
which was to come Christ. And there was Cain. Cain offered
the best of his fruits, the best of the works of his hands, and
God says, I reject that offering. I reject Cain and his offering. Now, we who know Christ, will
we not think it be wise for him to throw away his offering and
say, I want his offering. I want Cain's, I want Abel's
offering. Abel, how did you get accepted
with God? How is it that you became righteous
and mine was not accepted? I want yours. I want to be accepted
with God. Isn't that the reasonable response?
Should that not be the most reasonable response? To get rid of his sacrifice
and offer one that's accepted? But no. Cain instead killed his
righteous brother. Do not expect the world to do
that which is right. And when they do that which is
wrong, don't fret about it. Even if it means your job, your
family, your home, Your wealth, God says for you and me, don't
worry. Fret not thyself because of them. And we should expect to be treated
this way. Jesus said, I came not to bring
peace, but a sword. The truth of the gospel always
divides, doesn't it? Truth always divides itself from
error. You see, when I declare the truth,
I don't have to divide men from it. The truth itself divides
men. If they have error, the truth
divides. I just declare the truth. And the truth does naturally
what it does, divides. Christ is always going to be
divisive. Believers in Christ, our gospel,
our Christ, our Lord, is very offensive to the lost soul. The
gospel declares that he is void of all righteousness, that man
by nature has nothing with which to please God, and we preach
this, that he's dead in trespasses and sins. That man can do absolutely,
completely, utterly nothing to please God. That he's altogether
unrighteous, altogether sin, and cannot obtain God's favor
by his works. Now that is very offensive to
the natural man. Very offensive. You mean that
my works in religion aren't helping me to God? No. No. They're not
helping you to God. You mean I'm not becoming more
righteous? No. No. But if you're trusting
in your works, you're lost and you have no righteousness. You
mean I made my decision for Jesus? So what? If you have not the Spirit of
God in you, you are none of His. Truth always divides, and they
hate this. We declare that God is sovereign
in love and grace, that He chose only some of Adam's race and
left the rest to themselves. Very offensive. That's very offensive
to the natural man. Go to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9 and verse 11.
This speaking of the children of Isaac. It says,
for the children not yet being born, neither having done good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. Not of works, but of him that
calleth. For it was said unto her, The
elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. Do you mean to say that God loved
Jacob and hated Esau even before they were born? Yes. That's exactly
what I'm saying. Why? Because that's exactly what
God says. What shall we say then? What
are you going to say about that? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is that not the common response? That's unfair. That's unfair. How could God be just to do such
a thing? To love someone or to hate someone
without any merit at all? That's just nothing but utter
pride to assume such a thing. For he saith to Moses, God forbid
that he should be unrighteous. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of them that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy. Truth is very divisive. You see, I'm glad God is not
playing fair, because if that was fair, I would go to hell. If God gave me what I deserved,
it would be hell. But I praise God He gave me what
I didn't deserve. He gave me grace. He gave me
mercy. And if there was no mercy, if
there was no election, if there was no choosing of God or the
love of God to one, there would be none of us saved. Praise God
He did choose some. He did choose some. We preach God's mercy. And man
is ignorant of this. He's ignorant of the righteousness
of God. Man, by nature, is ignorant.
He could be the smartest, most intellectual person in the world,
but if God does not reveal this to him, he will remain ignorant
all of his life as to the righteousness of God, going about to establish
his own righteousness and hating his brother, hating the gospel. Now, because the world hates
Christ and they hate His gospel, and they seek their own glory,
they will also hate us. Is the servant greater than his
Lord? Should we expect greater treatment? Well, I can't believe God would
do that to me. Oh, I've just been so good. I've just been doing good. I'm
really faithful in church. Oh, you know, and this trouble
comes on me. Oh! Don't be fretful. Don't be fretful. Don't look
to yourself. God says, don't worry. We're not to expect greater treatment
than our Lord. They hated me, they will also
hate you. Why then do we fret? Why do we
envy those who are lost? Why would we take part in their
pleasures or their honor or esteem their good treatment or the religion
of this world as anything? Believer fret not, for the doom
of the wicked is sure. Look at verse two of our text. Four. Don't fret for evil doers. Four. Because they shall soon
be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Look at that word soon. Soon. How quickly does life move? How fast does it go by? I see some men who are in their
80s and 90s just as vile and wicked, as wealthy as the world
can possibly make them, still striving for more power, striving
for more wealth, Hating God and hating His Christ. It won't be long. And soon they'll
be cut down like the grass before the mower. Now when I cut the grass, that
grass doesn't stand a chance. It doesn't stand a chance. As
soon as the blade cuts, it's gone. And it can do nothing to
stand for itself. Don't be fretful for evildoers. Soon, and very soon, they'll
be cut down by the wrath of God. Justice will be satisfied. And hell will be their portion. They were like a green leaf in
this life. Beautiful, green, yielding fruit. All kinds of pleasures and wickedness. And soon, the leaf withers and
just blows away. No beauty. No beauty in that. Don't fret
yourself for them. They'll be gone soon enough.
Or will be gone out of their hands soon enough. Either way,
that would be good. That would be good. Number two,
the second precept of God is this, trust in the Lord. The faith of the wicked is always
in themselves. The faith of the lost is always
in their religion, in their riches, in their pride, in their own
self-righteousness. But the faith of God's elect
is in Christ alone. We trust in Christ alone. We were by nature the children
of wrath even as others. We were haters of God. We despised
his gospel. But in great grace, he saved
us and sent his Holy Spirit to give us spiritual life and true
faith in Christ. Even the righteousness of God
is given to us. And as I said this morning in
the Sunday school time, there is only one righteousness and
that belongs to God. By which all the elect are partakers
of that righteousness. Peter said we are partakers of
the divine nature. The divine nature. And the righteousness of God
that only one was merited, only by one, Jesus Christ. But now
the scripture says the righteousness of God is revealed from heaven.
Revealed by the righteousness of God is manifest by the written
by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. He obtained righteousness. The very righteousness of God.
And there is no righteousness without obedience, and he obeyed
God. He was exceedingly well pleased
with Christ's obedience. The law was never meant to make
one righteous, but only made to see sin as exceeding sinful. That's all. But now that Christ has come,
who was pictured by the law, He has manifested to everyone
the righteousness of God by His life and by His death. You can
see the righteousness of God in His actions, in His thoughts,
in His words, in His deeds, in His motive. And you could see
the righteousness of God in His death when He took our sins.
God was just to kill His Son for our sins. And when He died
for our sins, He was satisfied. God was completely satisfied
for every one of the sins of His people in Christ. And this righteousness is only
imputed, it's only given to those who believe. To those who believe. Why would sinners not forsake
themselves and their righteousness to have the only righteousness
that matters? Why will sinners not stop trying
to please themselves instead of seeing what truly pleases
God? Pleasing God is not by something
you do. It's something by which God has
already done. It's believing in something that
God has already accomplished. That's faith in Christ. And that
faith saves. Trust in the Lord. And friends,
everyone who believes in Christ, everyone who dresses in Christ,
everyone who trusts Christ alone for all their righteousness,
and forsakes their sin, and follows Christ, they shall be saved. Forever. Completely. Absolutely. And utterly saved. by the righteousness of God.
Who is He that condemneth? It's God that justifies. And you that have believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ, believers who have trusted in the Lord,
what are we to do? Is there something more that
we're to do? Is there something other than
faith? Surely there's got to be something. The just shall
live by faith. It's how this life began. This spiritual life. And friend,
this is how we'll end this walk and this journey with Christ.
Is by faith in Him. Trust in the Lord. Troubles. will come. Now I know I just bursted everybody's
bubble. I know I just made a statement
that's just going to make everybody sad now because they believed
that everything was going to be right and good. No, there
will be troubles, sorrows, afflictions, pains. And we are not exempt
from this. And we're not even exempt from
our own nature yet. Which causes most all of our
troubles anyway. We don't have to look far to
blame someone for our troubles. Right here. Let's just start
here. But even in the midst of this,
even when we can't see what God is doing or how this is going
to work out, trust the Lord. That song we just sang, every
joy and every trial falleth from above. traced upon our dial by
the Son of Love. They who trust Him fully, all
for us to do. They who trust Him wholly shall
find Him wholly true. Let me ask you, believer, has
there ever been a trouble that God has not delivered you from? Not one. Not one. Will there ever be a trouble
that God will not deliver you from? Not one. Not one. Trust in the Lord. Shall not
the judge of the earth do right? Shall not the sovereign of the
universe do good to his own? You bet he will. Taste and see
that the Lord, He is good. Good. What shall ever come to us, we
must not see it, but any other way that it comes from the hand
of God. Shall not there be ill or evil
in the city, and the Lord hath not done it. Is that not something? You mean God does all of these
things that appear evil? God doesn't do sin, but friends,
everything that happens, happens according to God's providence.
Think of the death of His own Son. The Scripture tells us that
He was foreordained by God to be lifted up and crucified, and
yet those wicked men did exactly what they desired to do, all
the while doing exactly what God had determined before to
be done. Trust God to do what is right. Trust Him and do good. Look at that in our text. And
do good. Isn't it the natural inclination to do the opposite?
When evil comes, isn't it natural for us to do evil? I'm going
to get that guy. I can't believe he did that to
me. To me! Of all people! No. That's not doing good. Trust
the Lord and do good. Is that not what our Savior did?
He says in Psalm chapter 35, He said, When they did me evil,
I did them only good. He said, I treated them like
they were my brother and my mother. And yet they still hated me. Believer in Christ, we should
trust the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land.
And this is not the physical land. That was a picture, a type
that was given to Abraham. If you remember, he was given
a people, a physical descendants, and he was promised a physical
land. But guess what Abraham looked for? He didn't look for
that physical land, did he? The scripture tells us in Hebrews
11 that he looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. Are you looking for a city whose
builder and maker is God? Or are you looking for something
here? Are you looking for a nice four-bedroom flat with a nice
pool in the backyard? Is that your home? Is that what
you want? This is not our home. We're strangers and pilgrims
in this land. We're just passing through. Why
do you spend so much time on those things? I read this week
there's a fire and they had these big nice homes, 12,000 square
foot just burned to the ground, nothing left, nothing left. Don't worry, it's going to happen
to everything. Your home too. My home too. This world, everything's
going to burn up. But our home is not here. We
look for a land, we look for a city whose builder and maker
is God and we trust God for that. We have hope in that. Hope's
not yet seen, is it? Otherwise, why would you hope
for it? We hope, we have a confidence
that our home is yet coming. Trust in the Lord and don't look
to these things. Thirdly, delight thyself in the
Lord. Delight thyself in the Lord.
Look at this verse 4. Delight thyself also in the Lord and
He shall give thee the desires of thy heart. In whom does God the Father delight? He delights in the Son. He said,
Behold My servant, whom I uphold, Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth. That's what the Father's delight
is. He delights in the Son. Well, who's the Son's delight?
He said, Lo, in the volume of the book it is written to Me,
to do thy will, O God." He delights. He delights in the
Father. And He delighted so much in the
Father that He gave Himself as the Father hath commanded for
His elect people. And He, by His obedience, merited
God's favor. And by His blood satisfied God's
justice. God is well pleased with Him
and Christ is well pleased with God to do His will. And we must see that the Spirit
delights in the Father and the Son. You see, God delights in
Himself. When before there was anything,
We call this the singleness of God. He, the solitariness of
God. He alone was content and happy
with Himself. Delighted in Himself. Should
He not delight in Himself? Man, we delight in ourselves
and look at us. Should not God delight in Himself
and His holy perfections? Yes. He delights in Himself. Why then do we not delight in
Him? We who are believers, we delight
in Him. We must not delight in the fleeting
things of this life, but our delight, our joy, our pursuit
is to be found in the righteousness of Christ and to know more of
His great salvation. Delight yourself in the Gospel.
You know, when you read these things and it says, Sing unto
the Lord with all your might. Oh, man, that doesn't sound like
any delight at all. That sounds like utter misery. Oh, when the Spirit of God moves
on our hearts and we read, oh, delight. Thyself in the Lord. Rejoice! Sing! There is a treasure to be desired,
an oil in the house of the wise, says the psalmist. And that word
translated desired is to be delighted in. There is a treasure to be
delighted in, an oil in the house of the wise. The oil is the spirit
of God. The house of God resembles the
gospel of God, where God's word is preached. We delight in the
spirit of God, the treasure which is Christ and his spirit. We
delight in these things. Jesus Christ is to be desired
above all treasure. Above all treasure. And we can only know this treasure
by the oil of the Spirit and the Word of God. And we have this promise. Those who seek righteousness
For those who delight in righteousness and mercy, long for righteousness
and mercy, shall find righteousness, life, and honor." Is that not something? Honor? You mean God will honor us? You bet He will. Why? He's already honored us in Christ
and He shall fulfill His honor for us. I like this, when it
said Abel, God had respect. God had respect unto Abel and
unto his offering. There was equal respect among
Abel and his offering. Is that not something? God surely will give us the desires
of our heart. And that's not sinful desires,
and that's not fleshly desires, as some evil, wicked men would
have it say so. Well, I desire a car! God will
give me the desire of my heart! No, He won't. He's a fool, and
if God gives him a car, He's doing it to deceive him, to hide
Himself from him. The desire of our heart is Christ.
Give me Christ. And you know what? I have Christ. I have Christ. What else is there? Number four, commit thy way unto
the Lord. Believer, this is His will. This is God's precept for you.
Roll all your cares on Him, for He careth for you. I don't know what's coming next.
Do you? I don't know what's going to
happen two seconds from now, much less an hour from now. But why should I care? Why should I be so concerned
with things I have no control over? Roll that on his shoulders. Roll
all your worry and fret on Him. Our shoulders, it'll crush us.
But His shoulders are able to bear all of your troubles, and
your troubles, and your troubles, and my troubles, and all of the
trouble of His people. And friends, He even bears the
trouble of wicked men at times. Gives them some relief. How much more shall He not give
us relief? Our way is steeped with rough
places, isn't it? Straight is the gate and narrow
is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that find
it. Broad is the gate, and wide is the gate, and broad is the
way that leadeth unto destruction, and many be that go in thereat."
Friends, our way is narrow, it's singular, it's Christ. That's
it. Our road is trouble and suffering. And we can't make it on our own. We need Him. Thy way unto the Lord." I look at this moral frame and
this massive sin and wonder how He could love me. How He could impute His righteousness
to me and my sins to His darling Son. At times that troubles me. Does
that trouble you? How that And yet it is. It's true. Shall we not bring to pass all
his promises if he has given us the greatest offering of his
son? God has not promised to do us
good, not promised to do us evil. but promise to do us good and
he shall deliver us from all evil. Let's look at this passage
in closing. Uh, look at, uh, Zephaniah chapter three. Zephaniah chapter 3, and look
at verse 15. And I want you who are believers
to take this to heart. Listen to what God says. The
Lord hath taken away thy judgments. What about this sin? Yeah, it's gone. What about that
sin I'm going to commit? You know, it's gone. What about
the sin you're committing now? Gone! Taken away. He hath cast out thine enemy,
the King of Israel, even the Lord is in the midst of thee. He dwells in us. And notice this, thou shalt not
see evil anymore. You believe that? Do you believe that? God said it. Well, pastor, I'm sick. I'm dying. How is that not evil? God said it's not. God said you won't see evil anymore.
So whatever happens to us. Is not evil. But good. But good. Friends, don't fret. Our God reigneth. Trust in the Lord. Our Savior
has accomplished our righteousness. Commit thy way unto Him. And delight in Him. Delight in
Him. He should be our joy, our comfort,
our peace, our everything. Let's stand and we'll be dismissed
in prayer.