Most instances point to Jesus
Christ and we will at the last day of our being in this text,
we will look at that and we'll look at the prophetic way in
which this psalm can be understood in light of the gospel. But there
is also a practical sense in which these Psalms were written,
that David, unbeknownst to him, was penning this song as a way
of pointing to Christ, for David himself is a type of Christ,
just like Moses is a type of Christ, and Joseph is a type
of Christ, and Adam is a type of Christ. But David was not
very aware of that reality. And that's the beauty of what
God can do through the mouths and the lives of his people.
There are things that we experience in this life that Christ is exemplified
and honored and glorified in our experiences, in our expressions,
in our worship. As Paul would teach us, the transformation
of the gospel in our lives to produce praise and honor and
glory. I was reading this morning of
a young man who was seeking some counsel through a group that
I'm a part of, and he was overcome with remorse for the sin that
he continued to do. And some of the applications
that he was given were so practical and so prudent, yet they were
powerless. But what you got to do, C, is
you got to get that sin, you got to put it in a box. But what
you got to do, C, is you got to get that troubling temptation,
you got to separate yourself from it. But what you got to
do, C, is you got to put a rubber band on your wrist, and every
time you think about it, you got to pop yourself. But what you got to
do, C, is avoid anybody who would even remotely bring you to that
temptation. And so I can understand what this young man was thinking,
I'm going to put myself in a box, and I'm going to ship myself
on the next rocket out of space. and I'm going to stay there forever.
The Bible gives us different prescriptions. So the Bible gives
us a prescription, even in the Psalms, how did David deal with
his sin? How did David deal with his faith?
How did David express himself in the context of his relationship
with the Lord and with other people? But our application is
not necessarily that we do what David did, and that's where we
get into problems. We don't need to dance like David did, or fight
like David did, or stand firm like David did. That's not the
point of the narrative. The point of the narrative is
to see what God has done in the life of the people, who were
powerless to effect any change in their own lives, and even
with the greatest of knowledge, the greatest of wisdom, the greatest
of wealth, the greatest of power, the greatest of righteousness
imputed to them, and the greatest of heart of worship, these people
still could not and will never, ever stand before God in a state
of righteousness, except that Jesus Christ himself has credited
them with his own. So the application of how we
mortify sin and put it to death is that we don't think about
it. We don't labor over it. We don't fight against it. This
is the dumbest thing in the world. You don't keep a dead thing to
bring it, to keep it dead. You let it die. And cultural Christianity, the
evangelical cults of our world, the oppressive even antinomianism
of just another law that you have to keep of not doing, all
this stuff is just incredibly ridiculously impossible to bring
us to the place of joy because the only joy that we can have,
the only identity that we can hold to with any power is that
we are indeed the people of God by grace alone. When we attempt to fill our lives
with anything else, I wanna fix this, I wanna fix that, I wanna
be this, I wanna be that, I wanna do better, I wanna do worse,
whatever, I'm worried, we will fill ourselves with a level of
anxiety that our bodies cannot stand. And for some people and their
temperament, it's even worse. So in this Psalm, as we've seen
already, there is some incredible, practical, praising, awesome,
prescriptive things that David did and understood. We are to
embrace the experience, and then we are to see Christ. Because
that's what David did. He saw Christ. We made it through
the first half of this thing twice. We've talked about, obviously,
up through verse eight. But let's read the psalm again,
the whole thing. I waited patiently for the Lord.
He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit
of destruction and out of the miry bog and set my feet upon
a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put
their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes
the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those
who go astray after a lie. You have multiplied, O Lord my
God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us. None
can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told. In sacrifice and offering
you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt
offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said,
behold, I have come. in the scroll of the book it
is written of me. I delight to do your will. Oh
my God, your law is written within my heart. I have told the glad
news of deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I have
not restrained my lips, as you know, oh Lord. I have not hidden
your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness
and of your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast
love and your faithfulness from the congregation. As for you,
O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast
love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me. For evils have
encompassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken
me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs
of my head, and my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver
me. O Lord, make haste to help me.
Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek
to snatch away my life. Let those be turned back and
brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. Let those be appalled
because of their shame who say to me, aha, aha. But may all
who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your
salvation say continually, Great is the Lord! As for me, I am
poor and I am needy, but the Lord takes thought of me for
me. You are my help and my deliverer.
Do not delay, O my God." Beautiful. How many times have you read
this psalm in the last three weeks? I don't know how many
times I've read this psalm in the last three weeks. And I'm
always inclined every week I'm thinking I'm just going to start
over. Because that is the typical preparation for preaching. You're
in the text so much, it is devouring you and your flesh, and it's
absorbing all of the self-reliance and self-sufficiency, and then
it's applying the gospel in such a way that is a supernatural
thing that goes on in the life of the reader of Scripture. And
then when you sit down and you begin to express your journey
with the Lord and His word to the people, there's always some
space in there. It's like, yeah, this is where
I've been. Let me show you where we're going. But for when this psalm
came to me, it was medicine for my soul at the moment, you see. So my labor is now. It's unfolding as we go week
to week in this. And it's the only thing that
I could do, and the only thing that I can do, is that the word
of God do its work. So the Lord's word will be repetitive
and redundant, but it will never be ridiculous. and it will always
be rewarding for God's people. We see that David has praised
the Lord for what he has done. That this personal testimony
of David, and of course we're going to look at the testimony
of Christ. I promise you the Christological reality of this
psalm is going to unfold for us once we get through just absorbing
it for a little bit. We see that David understood
the reality of God as his defender, as his savior, as his strength.
We also see that David understood that God's providence, and he
pondered that providence in the present moment of his harm and
pain and suffering and fear. And then he realized that the
things that he was experiencing were best told so that the people
around him could also participate in this providence, could participate
in the proclamation of what God has done for him. And when you
think about verse 4 and 5, think about verse 4 and 5 for a second.
And we talked about this a little bit last week, and I want to
get into it in a couple of weeks, but right now I want you to see,
blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does
not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie. And
we understand that in the context of self-reliance. We also understand
that as we see Hebrews 10 unfold in the next few verses, We see
there's some changing there that's taking place in what Paul wrote
of Christ and what David wrote of Christ, but the sense and
the theology is identical. See, Jesus himself did not entrust
himself to himself. Jesus entrusted himself to the
one who was faithful. I've had that question recently, is that
why should we believe that the cultural Christianity that we
see today in our world is true when every practice of the so-called
church is completely opposite of what Jesus even did? That Jesus talked about not giving
him praise but praising the Father, that Jesus made less of himself
but made much of the Father. I mean, it's a fair question
for the person who reads the Bible for the first few times,
especially an unconverted person. And I like the question. The
question stands as a truly necessary observation of the world versus
what the Bible teaches. And Jesus made much of the Father
because Jesus and His humanity must depend upon the Father. He laid His life down for His
people. And without the Father's promises,
Jesus was powerless to persevere through it. Think about that for a second.
But think about verse five for a minute. You have multiplied,
O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward
us. None can compare with you. I mean, think for just a minute
from the very beginning of the narrative of the Old Testament,
from the very reality of the expression of the poetry of Genesis
chapters one through four. And yes, it is poetry. A creation
account is poetry. That's the genre. If you want
to see some precursory thoughts on Genesis, it's on our church
website. But think about it for a second. Here is nothing, nothing,
and then something, and then out of something, chaos, and
out of chaos, order, and out of order, life. And when life
left to itself, it dies again. And then the Creator comes in
and creates life out of death by becoming life and then dying
for those that He intends to save. I mean, think about it
for a second. It's just beautiful stuff. So from the very beginning of
existence, this world has been observing and seeing the wondrous
deeds of the Lord. miss the boat of awe when we
ride the little ferry rides down the creek of simplicity in the
sense of niceties. Let me give you an example of
what I'm saying. We sometimes teach ourselves and our children,
you know, the Lord is powerful. Look at the birds. Ain't the
birds cute? Look at that bird. The Lord is
strong and does all many good things. Look at that rain. Isn't
that rain awesome? It feeds us and waters our soil
and fills up our lakes. These are true things, but see
how superficial that is? Yes, those are the deeds of the
Lord. The psalmist even says the world, the cosmos, declares
the worker of your hands. But it's bigger than that. Because
what happens when the birds get together and turn on us? Look
at God's birds! And Alfred Hitchcock comes together,
and, ah, the birds, I mean, you know, we just don't, we don't
know what to do with this. Oh, well, you know, it's our
fault. Or the rain that's blasting us
this week and killing us tomorrow. Dozens of people are dead this
morning because of the weather and the rain in Mississippi and
Tennessee. How do we maintain the solidarity
of our theology without understanding the gospel? We don't. Think a little bit
more. What is it that God's deeds are? What is it that God is speaking
of through his prophet David here? Yes, of course, the creation
of all things. Yes, of course, the promise of
Messiah. Yes, of course, the providence
of all things. You know, providence is linked
intricately with sovereignty, right? Don't be afraid to talk
about the providence of God. It's about His rule, authority,
and power over everything, including death by rain or birds. or pterodactyls or whatever else
horrible thing could come up and get you. Spiders. Sorry, it's made half of you
guys go, oh. What about what he did for his
people? What about how he killed an animal to cover the guilt
and shame of Adam and Eve? What about how He took them out
of the presence of His temple, out of the presence of His glory,
out of the presence of His person, so that He could show that He
alone through mercy could establish with them a covenant. And story after story after story,
genealogy after genealogy after genealogy. I mean, how is it that Rahab fits
into the narrative of Christ? Why is it that Paul praises the
Lord for the women in his churches doing the work of the gospel? Yet nothing culturally has changed
from that. Why is it that we can see in
the Bible that God has done wondrous things? He's been forgiving.
He went into Egypt through His prophet Moses who He made a murderer. Wouldn't it have been much more
effective if Moses had been like a Joseph? The co-regent? But no, Moses lived a good life,
then became a murderer, then became an outsider, then became
the messenger. Joseph was the arrogant little brother, sold
into slavery, lived a life of hell on earth, then became the
regent. Why? So that God could show his
wondrous deeds. These are the wondrous deeds.
What do they mean? They mean that Jesus Christ is
the preeminent sufficient hope of his people. Because Joseph died. Another
famine took most of those people. They're all gone. Moses didn't
even get to enter the promised land. Most of the Israelites
perished. But Christ is alive. The wondrous deeds. And not just
the wondrous deeds. The wondrous deeds, listen to
this, God has revealed Himself in His deeds and His power for
the sake of His people praising Him for His glorious grace. Everything
God has ever done recorded in the Bible and not recorded in
the Bible. You understand that God has done
so much more with so many more people that could ever be written
down. And that God has spoken prophetically through His Word
through the mouths of other men and women and children. Not new revelation, but continually
revealing Himself through what is written down by the prophets
and the apostles. And He's continuing to do the work. That's what Jesus
said and what Jesus meant when He said that greater things than
these you will do to His disciples. Now, what would you think of
the guy who came to town and said, I'm gonna do greater things
than Jesus did? I'm standing over here, lightning
bolts. I mean, that's what you would,
you'd be like, this is blasphemous. But that's not the point in that
I'm greater than Jesus, but as God continues to work in his
providential sovereignty, his promises, his grace toward his
people, He works out and affects His purposes in every minute
detail. These are amazing works. All the works of God revealed
to us have one thing as its focus. And it's twofold. You ready?
To show Himself in all His glory and power for the sake of His people. whom
he loves with an everlasting love. So you can bust into the throne
of heaven and say, hey, dad, and all the angels have to shut
their mouths so that your daddy can talk to you and you can talk
to him. You see that picture? This is
this isn't theological concrete. This is imagery. Just as Jesus spoke to the Father,
we, through Him, speak to the Father. Well, that helps your fear, if
nothing else. These wondrous works. What have we experienced
in this life that God has not wonderfully worked through? Nothing. Even if we don't see it, it doesn't
mean that it's not true. And we can disagree on these
things and we don't have to have people believe us. Our joy is
not tethered to whether someone agrees with it. Nobody agreed with David. They
blamed David. David, and they were right. You
are destroying the whole nation. Too late. You destroyed the whole
nation. To be so brave, to stand up to
so many things, David was a coward in so many ways. Christ is not
a coward. And He stood, and He did not
turn to the proud. He did not become self-reliant.
He stood in the hands of the Father who judges all things
rightly. And He gave Himself. as a ransom
for his people. See, that's where we were last
week in Hebrews 10. We see it over and over and over
and over. Beloved, we don't have to become
experts in all of scripture. I am of the opinion and you don't
have to agree with me and I can sleep tonight if you don't. But
I'm of the opinion, not only from the context of what the
Bible teaches me, but also the decades of experience with God,
according to the Bible, that He will use any of it, any small
part, any large part, and all of it, anytime He wishes, in
any way that He wishes, with anyone He wishes, to bring about
their joy, to bring about their salvation, When I don't feel like stomping
grapes, I'm going to get back into, and I'm taking that from
a metaphorical sense of the wrath of God, and I'm not making wine
to be glad, but when I don't feel like stomping grapes and
we get back into Timothy's writing, the writing to Timothy, we'll
see that Paul establishes that in the second letter. He's like,
you know what? We all know the 316, right? All scriptures breathed
out by God and useful, the man of God. But he tells Timothy
something. The Scriptures, the Holy Scriptures
are enough for your salvation. He was talking about the Psalms. It's enough. He was talking about
1st and 2nd Samuel. Really? If God cannot show us
Christ, in every portion of scripture, then we're doomed. If God cannot
do what we cannot do, then we're in trouble. You see how much
more powerful verses four and five are? And boy, does Christ proclaim
and tell of the good works of God. That's why we call it gospel,
God speak. That's where the word comes from.
It means good story. What is a story? Something we
tell about something that happened. And all stories have characters
and events and plot and apex or a climax and resolve and continuation
and a cliffhanger. There's a cliffhanger. Spoiler
alert. We're still living it. The story
of Christ is still true, living, breathing. But you know what
we do in our ignorance as powerful, awesome, intelligent, creative,
academic human beings? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. That's
not the gospel. The gospel is the treatise of theological fortitude
on these finer points. Church history has ruined Bible
reading for many of us. There are two distinct things. God's practical principles for
personal practice. In verses six through eight,
as we talked about already last week. We saw where this scripture,
of course, is talking of Christ and alluded in Paul's writing
of the Hebrews chapter 10 as Christ, and he even says, a body
you have prepared for me. The outcome of God's power and
the resolve of David was to look to the greater David, I mean
to the greater Christ, David as, yeah, the greater David,
Jesus Christ. The greater bridegroom, Jesus
Christ. The greater Adam, Jesus Christ. The greater Moses, Jesus
Christ. And Hebrews really does all that.
I feel like I need to teach that text again. I'm yours. My body is yours.
My life is yours. How many times have we sung that
in our lifetimes? How many Christian songs have
been written over the last thousand years that have something, you
know, I am yours. Have my all. I give my life. It's as foolish as the love songs
of antiquity. I'll swim the ocean. No, you
won't even get in the swimming pool. I'll climb the highest mountain.
No, you won't. You won't even wash the dishes. You see? I'll set myself on fire.
Yeah, not gonna happen. It's just hyperbole. But in the
moment, it's what we feel. In the moment, it's what we think.
In the moment, it's what we'll do. And for the Christian, the life
of, I'm yours, I trust you, is like, I don't know, a sputtering
engine. Running good and... Running good
and then backfiring. Running good and running out
of gas. Running well, oh my, engine locked up. That's what
we do. Look at the life of the people
in the Bible. But you know, who didn't do that was Christ. His
perfect humanity. He stayed and stood and never,
ever, ever lied to God. Not my will, but yours be done. I lay down my life for the sheep.
Think about those things. Husbands, lay down your wives
for your wife. Absolutely. I don't like this, I don't want
this, well I'm not laying down now. You see? Don't exacerbate your children,
don't lead them to anger. Well I'm the daddy around here.
I mean, no you're not. God's the true father. Christ
is the true parent. We're just a Britcom that we
don't know is happening. And everybody's not laughing
at the not funny dry jokes. And when we look back at it,
we chuckle and we think, praise God for His grace. And the public proclamation.
Verses 9 and 10, I've told of the glad deliverance in the great
congregation. I've not restrained my lips, as you know, Lord. I've
not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I've spoken of your
faithfulness and of your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast
love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. We talked
about this as well. This is David expressing, why
do we go through the things we go through? Because it's God's
purposes. And when we whine and complain
about the conditions and the circumstances, we are not praising
and being thankful for God's power in them. And that's okay. See, the application here is
not, stop whining. That'd be like me telling you
not to breathe again. Now, some of us are disciplined. I'm not
one. But some of us are disciplined
to the point where there's never a complaint. Matter of fact,
we don't say much at all. We don't even show the complaint
in our face. Matter of fact, we look like this. Things are
great. But that means. So we're saying on the inside
and we're lying to ourselves to think we're solid as a rock.
All the comedic things that use that reference just pop into
my head, I'm so sorry. Give me give me a moment. OK. So we praise the Lord. We praise what He is and who
He is and what He's done and the fact that He's given His
Son. We praise God for His glorious grace. So here's what we need
to learn in that everything that we experience, spiritual or not
spiritual, political, financial, relational, medical, mental,
emotional, everything is part of God's great purpose. for us
to look to and cling to Christ. So we see all of these things
and we know that Christ is, but for some real reason, it's very
difficult for us to hold fast. Verse 11. We get through the end of verse
10. We see this proclamation, we see this praising. When we get to verse 11, we begin
to see that God's promises, as David has been waiting and patiently
waiting, we see Psalm 37, 38, 39, on deliverance, and then
Him looking inward. And we begin to see that God's
promises include power over sin. We understand God's faithfulness,
yet we still try to make our faith or our faithfulness, the
barometer by which we stand firm. Let me say that again. We understand
and we praise God for His faithfulness, but oftentimes we try to use
our faith and our faithfulness as the barometer of how we stand
firm or that we are standing firm. Now think about this from
a gospel perspective from redemption. God's Word teaches us that God
snatches us out of the domain of darkness. There's no coaxing
there. Okay? It's not like, hey, it's
dark down there, see the light? Here's the light, come to the
light. Come on. Oh, don't go that way, go this
way. I know, I'll put a ladder down
there, they'll climb out. Sure, I'll put food down. That's not how
God works. It teaches that God draws all whom have been given
to the Son in John's Gospel. And that drawing is not a coaxing,
it's a forceful snatching. Snatching. Here we are on our
merry way and our self-righteousness and our religious activities
and our whatever it may be and we're walking around and we're
thinking, I'm not worthy, I'm not faithful. True, true, true,
but we are worthy and He is faithful because He has declared us worthy
and He's faithful to save us. And then all of a sudden we find
ourselves into the domain of light. Wait a minute, I can see. I was blind. Amazing grace. Look at all the songs that establish
that. Look at all the heretics who
sing about that through the ages. Now I concede your faithfulness. Let me live that I may tell of
your faithfulness. Do you know that psychologically,
gratitude is probably one of the most healing disciplines
in life? Reframing every circumstance
to try to find not naivety, not hyper-optimism, but gratitude.
You know what? I'm thankful for what I do have. I'm thankful
for the people in my life. I'm thankful. I'm thankful. And if that's true for science
and the way God created our bodies, is it not even truer with greater
benefit? Just like Paul would say to Timothy,
you know, physical fitness is of some value, pay attention
to your bodies, but spiritual fitness is of great value, of
all value. So the same thing is true with
how we exercise our thoughts, how we exercise our focus, how
we exercise our emotions. Well, these are highly practical
but incredibly spiritual things. The faithfulness of God has nothing
to do with whether or not we maintain our sense of focus and
faith. And if we find ourselves tomorrow naked in the grass eating
like a cow, you know that story, right? Nebuchadnezzar. There's nothing we can do about
it. There's nobody who can come along and help us. Matter of
fact, when they do, they're typically like the friends of Job. Well,
we knew you'd eat too much hamburger. Meh. And that's our only answer. That's our faithfulness. Moo.
We moo back to God. Moo. And he's like, okay. Now,
there's a context there. I'm just using it as an example.
If we find ourselves there, God is still faithful. God is
still faithful. Why did Lazarus die? For the
wages of sin is death. He caught COVID. Whatever disease
it was back then. Either way, he died. That's so
sad. It's very sad. It was so sad
that Mary and Martha lost their faith. They had faith, they were
like, you know what Jesus, had you been here, we called for
you, we sent the camogram and everything and you did not come.
Had you just shown up Jesus, He would be alive. And Jesus
says, it is not for death, it is not for any other reason
except that the Son of Man be glorified in His death. Do you know that's such a powerful
precursor to the cross? It's such a powerful thing that
higher critics of the New Testament academically don't get into academia. We've had hundreds and hundreds
and hundreds and if not thousands of hours of discussions about
these things in academia where people don't think that's a valid
narrative because it's so absurd. It is. It's the work of the Lord.
And everybody during that time would look at Lazarus and all
the people there that loved him. Praise the Lord, Lazarus is alive. Oh, this is great. That's not
the point of the celebration. The point of the celebration
is that Jesus is the life bringer. He's the light of the life of
men. He's the God come down from heaven in human form. He will
lay down His life and He will take it up again. And in all of that work, He didn't
stand at the precipice of the cliffs of Jerusalem and say,
Hear ye, hear ye, take out your pen, ye, and write it down, ye. And then list all of these deep
theological things for all these people to contemplate, to absorb,
to digest, and then to regurgitate. He stood at the corner of the
temple and he said, look at me, the living water, the bread that
gives eternal life. I am the bread that comes down
from heaven. You're a carpenter from an illegitimate
relationship. Don't tell me you've come from
heaven. Oh, may God grant our culture
and our church eyes. It is not about our faithfulness.
God is faithful. How do we know? Verse 11 and
verse 12. It's a long introduction to get
the two verses in it. As for you, oh, Lord, You will
not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your
faithfulness will ever preserve me. Now I've just taught that,
you know, now I've read it. I don't have to give you the
thousands of places or the thousands of instances in your own life
where that's been true. I don't have to remind you of
all the places that I've even already talked about in scripture. The Garden. The Fall. Cain and
Abel. All of that trouble. Babel. The Flood. Moses. Everything else. Abram. I mean just, where is
it? God is faithful. And every single
person that He uses in this world to bring about His purposes are
faithless. Because he is merciful. That's who he is. That's what
he does. That is what God has revealed
of himself. You will not restrain your mercy
from me. Oh, Father, take this cup from
me, but not my will, but yours be done. Your mercies are new. My heart and my desire is for
us to see this mercy flowing from the steadfast love and the
faithfulness of God who preserves His people. For evils have encompassed
me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken
me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs
of my head and my heart fails me. See, this is where when we
talk about this as a prophetic psalm of Christ, we lose sight
here, but we'll talk about that in a few weeks. Jesus had iniquities
placed upon Him. But in this sense, David was
crying out about his own. Isn't that funny? He often talks
about those who come against him. We often talk about how
others come against us. You know, every tyrant, every
maniacal dictator, every murderer, every killer, every abuser is
loved by somebody. Ever thought about that? I mean,
just go through the horrible things of history. Every one
of those persons, mostly men, was someone's little boy. Some
grandma loved that child. And what you been doing today,
daddy? Murdering thousands. I love you. You wanna play ball?
Sure. Dad has such a hard job. Those people won't stand still. It's sad and ridiculous to us,
but David, he has enemies and they are doing evil against him,
but he never loses sight of what? Who he is. Remember what I talked
about verse 17 is really the point. I am poor and I'm needy. So what are we to do? Are we
to resolve to overcome these things? Are we to resolve to
have a faith and a righteousness of our own? No. We stand in the
sufficiency of the mercy of God who leans toward us, who thinks
of us, who bends down to us, who condescends to us. How does that happen? Well, we
see it figuratively in the expressions of Scripture. We see it spiritually
in the fact that the Spirit of God prays for us. We see it purposefully
in the providence of God and His sovereignty to create the
world and everything in it and do the things that He's promised
to do, but we see it personally in the person of Jesus Christ.
God came down from heaven to save us. I don't remember who
said this lyric, but it's interesting to say the least. It sort of
expresses some song from years ago, a hip-hop song, that the
hero dies for the villain. I read Romans 5 at the beginning
of our service. God showed his love for us in
this while we were still enemies, Christ died for us. And if God
would do that while we were enemies, how much more now that we've
been reconciled as friends, as brothers, as children, will we
live because Christ lives? It's so easy. It's so easy to
become faithless. And see here, Here is the fork
in the road for the Christian when it comes to trial and we
feel and know that we're faithless. We create a faithfulness in our
own right and we run after it with great zeal and it's often
wicked. And what does it look like? Let
me give you some ideas. These just sort of popped into my head.
I think it's worth talking about. Well, I know I'm not trusting
the Lord. I know I'm not at peace. I know I'm not seeking the face
of Christ. I know I'm not resting in His faithfulness. I've got
to be faithful. I'm going to go after everything
that's wrong in the church. I'm going to stand for truth
against evil. And yes, I'm mocking that because
it's sad. Because if I contemplate that
junk too much, I will lose composure. I will show the sinful things
of the world. I'll teach this world. I'll be
a voice. You know what? Be a voice crying
out about Christ. And be a voice that cries with
the voice of Christ. Who has love and compassion for
the lowly, for the fatherless, for the poor, for the sick, for
the marginalized, for the disenfranchised. Be faithful in loving your neighbor.
Be faithful in loving your enemy. That's what Christ did, see. And I disavow anyone, as my friend,
who would ever say, you don't apply that type of instruction
to the church. Blasphemous demons. And see,
that dogma makes my blood curl. To say that out of my mouth makes
me hurt. But beloved, I want to show you
right now that there is instruction for our joy in the Bible. It's the therefore. It has nothing
to do with our salvation. It has nothing to do with us
being right before God. It has nothing to do, has everything
to do with giving God glory for who He is and what He's done
as He bent His ear toward us needy and lonely and poor and
in need of great help. So if we want to find any type
of zeal, find zeal for having compassion for other people who
are not like us. Why is that novel? I don't understand it. Beloved, when we stand, I was
thinking about this this week, when we stand patiently and kindly
and gently on our convictions on these things, what the gospel
is, how we are to learn it, the patience required to continue
to grow one another in it, and then the application thereof
of living a life of grace. You know, this assembly is not
about us just coming in here and learning theological things
and prophecies. It's about us learning theological
things and prophecies, and then the instruction, the application
of that instruction as we leave this assembly to spend 99% of
our time in the world out there with each other and with others.
And I find it very off-putting for people who have all the answers
in the Bible, and all the answers in the theology, and all the
answers in their church understanding, but yet they don't have any relationships
with unbelievers whatsoever, and they haven't shared the Bible
in any simple sense with anybody ever in 15 years. And they want
to argue the gospel? Please. Please. We're not doing that. You don't
have to do that, beloved. It's not required of you. You
just rest in the sufficiency of Christ who saved you because
he loved you. And you are free. Our iniquities, our enemies are
going to be more than the hairs of our head. But Christ has set
them down. He has erased them. He has taken
over them. He is the victor. He is the king.
He has done away with their power against us that even if, as he
says in 2 Corinthians, even if we die, what does he say? Yet
we live, right? I mean, think about that. David
wrote Psalm 40. Paul wrote 2 Corinthians chapter
4. That's a long ways away when you're turning it. Think about
that for a second. Paul wrote that, David wrote
this. I think the sentiment is the
same, except for one huge difference. Paul knew to whom he was pointing,
specifically. David knew he was pointing to
the faithfulness of the Father. Christ is the faithfulness of
God for his people. Therefore, having this ministry
by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart, Paul says, 2 Corinthians
4. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We do not practice
cunning. We refuse it. We also refuse
to tamper with God's Word, but by the open statement of the
truth. We don't chop it up and create arguments with it to coax
people into seeing our points of view. We just proclaim it. And when Paul wrote this, he
was talking about Psalm 40. Psalm 1, Deuteronomy 3, Zechariah, Amos, and all the other things
written for our benefit. But the open statement of the
truth, we show that the resurrection of Christ is the fulfillment
of all the prophets. Everything written in the Old
Testament is fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ. And we
would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.
We're doing what is right in the sight of God. You bear witness
to it. And if our gospel is veiled,
people can't see it. It is only veiled to those who
are perishing in their case. I'm going to paraphrase here
my interpretation of this text. By implication, it's going to
sound odd to some of you. In their case, God our Father,
who is the God of this world, has blinded the minds of unbelievers
to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is
not of ourselves. You see that? It's not about
what we've come to conclude in our studies. It's not about what
God has given us in our cognitive understanding of things. It's
not about all the years in. I mean, when you start looking
around the world, you start doing some connections in these small, matter
of fact, evangelical connections and church connections and sovereign
grace connections and gospel connections around the world
are very small. Very small. And in all the connections that
I have in all of my several decades of ministry, I can promise you
this, that it's in the thousands. The thousands of people. I think
I've got 6,000 people in my contact list on my Google contacts. People
that I know. I know them. Not my Facebook
page. I'm talking about people that I've known and talked to.
All right? Whoop-dee-doo. But out of all of those, I only
know a handful who have really spent their lives in the Yohannan
epistles, Yohannan literature, John's writing. Even though I
don't know nothing, and neither do they. Because what we proclaim
is not of ourselves, it's not of our study. It's of God's grace and mercy
to expound. Some people will do it differently
than I do, some people will emphasize it differently than I will, and
that is God's purpose for them. But here Paul says, it's not
of ourselves, But Jesus Christ says, Lord with ourselves as
your slaves for the sake of Christ. For God who said, one of my favorite,
if not my favorite verse in the entire Bible. For God who said,
let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give
us the light and the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And here is Paul's psalm. But we have this treasure. this
treasure of this gospel of this Jesus. We have this knowledge
in order to show that surpassing power belongs to God and not
to us. It's not about what we've done right or the words that
we've expressed or the things that we have accomplished or
the service that we have given. It is about us. Because if you
notice the service that Paul planned and the service that
God permitted were two completely different things. Paul planned
church plants, church plant, church plant, missionary, missionary,
missionary. He was in prison, prison, prison. And the Spirit
of God told him. He's like, I'm going to Spain.
And God said, you're going to jail. And he wrote to the Romans,
right? And he went to jail. And he stood
before King Agrippa and he stood before Caesar. And he said, it
ain't about you. You aren't Lord. He's Lord. He
didn't rebuke him and dance all over his authority. He appreciated
and respected it as coming from God. Romans 13. But he proclaimed the authority
above all authorities, the Lord above all lords, the God of grace
and the God of wonder whose deeds we will not be quiet about. You
see the point of the Bible teaching us as the Bible believers to
live according to the gospel. I have wasted more breath on
theological dialogue than I have, than I want to count. But that
in and of itself is part of the plan of God. We have this treasure
in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs
to God and not to us. Oh, we are afflicted in every
way, but we're not crushed. Paul, I think you were crushed.
I think they took you out in Acts 14, I think, and they put
you outside and they stoned you and then your disciples took
you out from under the rocks and then they put you back together
and you went back in and started preaching again. And Paul didn't say, these people
are stolen, the prophets of God, boo! Oh, these heretics, ooh! That would have gotten him true
salvation and probably a crown. He just said, oh, Paul, we thought
you died. No, I didn't die. I wasn't crushed. What are you talking about? I'm
perplexed. I don't know what's going on.
I don't know why it's going on. Have you ever thought about that
at the Apostle Paul? Have you ever thought about that's the
angst of the man Jesus Christ in the hours before his crucifixion?
the perplexity of the human emotion, what it's going, how it's conflicting
with the solidarity of what we know is true, what we hope and
hold on to, the tethers of this world, and everything in it,
and we're going, oh, what am I gonna, what do I do, what do
I do, how do I deal with this, I can't deal with this. But I'm
not driven to despair. We feel despairing. And sometimes we think we've
driven up to despair, but we never get out of the car. Paul's like, I'm perplexed, but
it's okay. I know my redeemer lives. I know the one who died
for me. I know the God of heaven who
revealed himself to me while I was going to kill his servants. Oh, I'm persecuted, Paul says.
2 Corinthians 4, 9. I'm persecuted, man. Nobody likes
me. Nobody liked Jesus either, even
the ones who followed him when he said, you got to eat my body.
They're like, ooh. Creepy, and they left. And then
all the people that depended on him for their livelihood,
because Judas shared a little bit, they're like, y'all gonna
leave? And Peter's like, never ever
would I ever deny you. You have the words of eternal
life. And he was truthful. But yet he told somebody three
times the night of Jesus' arrest, he had no idea who they were
talking about. He was not that Peter. I'm persecuted, but I'm not forsaken.
I'm not alone. I'm lonely, but I'm not alone. The only person Paul had was
offerings running from Ephesus in Philippi and Dr. Luke. And why did God do that? So that
I'd have this letter to read to you. I'm struck down, but I am not
destroyed. Always carrying in the body the
death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested
in our bodies. For we who live are always being
given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus
may also be manifested in our mortal flesh. Death is at work
in us, but life is at work in you. Since then, we have the same
spirit of faith according to what has been written. I believe
and so I spoke, we also believe, that's what was written. And
so we also speak, knowing that he who raised Jesus from the
dead will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you,
you who I'm writing to, into his presence. It is all for your
sake. As grace abounds and extends
to more and more people that may increase thanksgiving to
the glory of God. are to be grateful and to thank Him for all things.
So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is just wasting
away. Our inner self is being renewed daily. This is another
one of my favorites. For this light momentary affliction
is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory that is beyond
comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but
the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen
are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
So in that practical sense, as we read the Psalms, we don't
look to see how we can apply them practically without seeing
who they point to powerfully. Jesus. Jesus. And over the next week or two,
I want to talk about worship and thankfulness, because that's
where Paul, excuse me, that's where David goes, isn't it? Paul
goes there all the time. James, John, the apostles, the
saints of old. David does as well. He praises
God. He praises God, even though he's
persecuted, And all of these things, even though we suffer,
we can praise God. It's not something that works
without a divine imposition. What's that mean? Without God
doing something in our hearts and minds. It's not something that works.
I'm poor and I'm needy. Jesus Christ was poor and He
was needy. And He laid His life down for
the ransom of His people. Beloved, let us live in that
gospel. Let us learn that gospel more and more, and let us love
each other in that gospel. Let's pray. We thank You, Father,
for Your Word, and Father, just for Your compassion, for Your
patience with me and with the rest of us. Lord, I pray for
those who are not with us today, that You would help them find
this message in this series, so that we would be in one accord.
But Lord, you will be done. I pray that we who are gathered
today, Lord, would see and sense the extra grace that has been
given to us because of our presence here. Lord, I pray for us and
our daily lives and everything that we have upon us and all
the things that we have to do with work and school and home
and family. Everything. Lord, I pray for
our homes. I pray for the marriages of our
church. I pray for the singles in our church. I pray for our
children. Lord, that we would just be honoring to you in the
way according to Christ, not in the way according to the world.
Lord, give us discernment to know the difference between what
the world says is biblical and what you have taught us, that
we may grow without fear, without fear of anything, to stand bold
in calmness, to do that which you've taught us to. Lord, most
of all, we thank you that you've given us the assurance that Christ's
death is sufficient and that there is nothing we can do, obtain,
nothing that's required of us in any way that you have not
already fulfilled, and nothing else that we are looking to experience
except that day of reconciliation when we will be made like Him
forever. So until then, Lord, we live in this meat suit and
in this crazy world in a way that just blows our minds. So we thank you that we cannot
fathom the alternative because it is so foreign to our senses.
But Lord, the sense of your spirit within us has shown us the delight
that comes in Christ. So help us to see that which
is unseen. As we wait for it patiently in
Jesus name.