I want you to turn in your Bibles
tonight to Psalm 42. Psalm 42. I've entitled this message, Why are you cast down? Why are you cast down? And I might be just preaching
it to myself. Just might be that the Lord would
have me to look at this for my own self. But in Psalm 42, in
two verses, the psalmist asks this question. Why art thou cast
down? He says it in verse 5. Why art
thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in
me? Hope thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him for the help of his countenance. And then again
in the 11th verse. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? And why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God. For I shall yet praise him who
is the health of my countenance and my God." He not only asked the question,
why are you cast down? But he also asked, why are you
disquieted? I thought I would look and see
what that word in the Hebrew means, and it means to make a
loud noise. It means to cry aloud. It means to be in an uproar. It means to moan. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? And if you notice that response
that immediately follows those things, he simply says, hope
thou in God. I thought about it That almost
seems too simplistic, don't it? It almost seems like, well, everybody
says that. But it is a real thing because
that's where the only hope is. There is no hope apart from God. There may be a lot of wishes. We may wish a lot of things,
but there is no hope anywhere but in God. Because a hope is
not a wish. A hope is a confident expectation. that is based on reality, that
is based on truth, that is based on one who is able to perform
everything that's hoped for, and that's only in God. And more particularly, God in
Christ. All hope is in Christ. And therefore, God's people are
the only people who have hope. They're the only ones that can
have hope. In the book of Proverbs, it tells
us this. It says, the hope of the righteous
shall be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked shall perish. He says again in Proverbs, When
a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish, and the hope of
unjust men perisheth. They have no hope. And that was
the state of every one of God's people before Christ and apart
from Christ and apart from grace, because Paul says in Ephesians
2, He says, Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands, that at that time you were, without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But look over in the book of
Titus, in the first chapter of Titus, and see what he says. When he begins this epistle,
Paul writing to Titus, says, Paul, a servant of God, and an
apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and
the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. He says, in hope, in hope of
eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world
began in hope of eternal life. And that is because God promised
it. And he promised it before we
ever were. And he made that promise to be
like all others. Yes. And a man in the Lord, Jesus
Christ. And Christ is our hope, and we
have hope in the promises of God because of Him and because
of what He's accomplished for us. We'd never have any hope
if it were not for Christ. We'd never have any hope if it
were not what he's done for us and what he does for us on a
daily basis. This is what Paul is saying in
Colossians 1. to whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of his mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." The hope of glory. And he also says by Paul again,
writing to Timothy, he says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is our hope? If we have Christ, we have hope,
and we have hope and all hope in him because of God's grace, he says to the Thessalonians. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace. We have hope because of Christ. We have hope because of God the
Father. We have hope because of grace. He says, comfort your hearts
and establish in you every good word and work because God has
given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace. And because of grace, because
he's given us grace, he's also given us faith. We have faith
because he's given us grace. In Hebrews chapter 11, it says,
now faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. In other words, the things that
are seen are not the things that we have hope in, but the things
that are not seen because God has given us faith to have hope
for that which we cannot see. Romans 5, by whom also we have access,
that is, by Christ we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We have hope because we have
faith. We have faith because God has
given us great and precious promises. We have faith because of Christ. He says this, if you continue
in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel. which ye have heard, and which
was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof
I, Paul, am made a minister." Then he says in Galatians, for
we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. There is a hope of righteousness. that we lay whole to by faith
and that hope of righteousness is all that God in grace has
given us in the Righteous One, the Lord Jesus Christ. But having faith, having Christ,
having all these promises from God the Father, God produces this hope in us
through His Word. If we don't have His Word in
us. If we don't lay hold to these
precious promises of grace, if we don't look to where hope is
made manifest, we cannot be hopeful. But listen to this verse. It's
Romans 15 and verse 14, or verse 4. Romans 15, 4. For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience
and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Now there's a lot that the scriptures
are given to us for. But one of the things that we
have the Word of God for, the written Word of God for, is so
that in it, in the things that are written in it, not just the
promises, but the examples of deliverance, the examples of
protection, the examples of provision that the Lord's people have experienced
over time, they might cause us to have hope. But the problem is, most of the
times, and I'm talking to myself tonight, most of the times we're
looking, we're thinking about our problems, we're focusing
on our circumstances, we're thinking about our difficulties instead
of looking at and listening to God in His Word. Now, we can talk to each other
and maybe be encouraging, and we can hear sermons and we
can read books, but there is nothing that will
encourage our hearts like what God has written in his word. Because the God of the Bible
is the one we ought to be listening to. We always make fun of people
who go around mumbling and we say they're just talking to themselves. But I'm afraid that a whole lot
of times that's what we do. We talk to ourselves and we answer
ourselves. But he says, hope thou in God. Listen to some verses in Psalm
119, which every verse is about the scriptures. Every verse is
about the word of God. Whether it's called the law or
the precepts or every verse But I want you to look at Psalm 119
verse 49. He says, Remember the word unto
thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. Remind me of your word. caused me to look to your word. Remember the word unto thy servant
upon which thou hast caused me to hope." Again in verse 81. My soul fainteth
for thy salvation, But I hope in thy word." I don't think he's especially
talking about the salvation of the soul there. I think he's
talking about all these deliverances we have to have, all these salvations. We have to be saved every day
from all different things. And he says, but I hope in thy
word. Verse 114, thou art my hiding
place and my shield, I hope in thy word. Of course that's talking
about Christ, but it's talking as well about the written word
because you can't separate the two. Verse 116, uphold me according
unto thy word that I may live and let me not be ashamed of
my hope. When you boil it down to its
finest essence, we cannot hope in anything we
see. We cannot hope in anything that's
going on. We can't find a reason to hope
on anything around us. So we look to his word. And we
see what he says. And we behold all these deliverances. We see all these precious promises. And we have hope. So what are we to do? I want you to look at 1 Peter 1
and verse 13. 1 Peter 1, verse 13. Wherefore gird up the loins of
your mind. The picture here is of the old garments like they
used to wear, robes. And what they would do is if
they had a particular task, if they had some hard work or if
they had some rough traveling or something like that, They
would reach down and pull up the robe, the hem of the robe,
pull it through their legs and tuck it in their girdle or their
cummerbund or belt or whatever you want to call it, so that
they could take care of the task. In our day, we'd say, we're going
to roll up our sleeves. But they had to do that in order
to keep the long flowing garments from getting tangled up and hindering
the work and all that. That's the picture that Peter
is setting forth here. And he says this, wherefore gird
up the loins of your mind. In other words, our minds are
like cloth or garments flowing in
the breeze sometimes. They just blow every which way,
all thoughts go every which way. He says, gird up the loins of
your mind and be sober and hope to the end for the grace that
is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, it's
obvious that he has to be talking about the coming of our Lord. But how many times does our Lord
come to us? He comes to us in grace. He comes to us helping us. He
comes to us delivering us. He comes to us strengthening
us. He comes to us in dealing with
all our cares and things of this life. We're going to have grace
all the way until He comes, and then we'll have more grace. And there'll be grace brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Not just when He comes again.
He may let us weary ourselves so that we won't think we're
so strong. He might let us flounder and
flitter around just just like a loose garment, so that we'll
know really how weak and how necessary His mercy to us is. But He's always going to come
and reveal Himself. And He's always going to come
with grace. He's always going to come helping
us. He's always going to come delivering
us. He's always going to come and most always things are better than we ever thought they could
be. We look in hindsight And that's
one thing we do when we look at the Word. We look in hindsight
at all His other people, all His children, and we see His
care and His love and His deliverance in every situation. He's coming
with grace. Paul writes to the Thessalonians,
he says, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on
the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet, the hope
of salvation. I can tell you this. Every child of God has reason
to have hope. Because this world is as bad
as it's gonna get for us Look at what he says for God
hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep,
we should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together, and edify one another, even as you do." Whether we live or whether we
die. whether we sleep, whether we
wait, whether we're poor, whether we're rich, whether we're healthy,
whether we're not, we're healthy. It just doesn't matter. Because we have the hope of salvation. The hope of salvation. Paul writing
to the Philippians, he says this, Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue,
if there be any praise, think on these things. What do you
say? There's not any of that in my
life right now. There's just not any of those
kind of things in my life right now. Well, he's talking about Christ. Is He lovely? Is He pure? Is He of good rapport? He's talking about the things
that are in Christ, which is the only things we can find reason
to hope for. Hope thou in God. Gospel things, the things of
Christ, the things that God has promised. Because to worry, to be afraid,
and to doubt, It's just unbelief. Because God has not died. He has not lied. He has not changed. He has not diminished in any
way in His ability to take care of His children. Well, you say, preacher, I'm
guilty of a lot of unbelief. I'm guilty of a lot of sin. To
doubt God, I am too. But thank God He remembers our
frame. He knows that we're dust. He
knows that we're sinful. And the only way we could ever
have hope is the hope that he gives us in himself. And we're going to learn the
hopelessness of ourself. We're going to learn the hopelessness
of others. We're going to learn the hopelessness
of this world and find our hope only in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we live in hope. We live
in anticipation for Christ coming because he's coming for us. I thought about that today. We
often forget that. Sometimes we just think about
Christ is coming. He's coming for his people. looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Father,
Lord, and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Paul said something to the Corinthians
that I think I realize more and more with every passing day. He said, if in this life only, if in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we're of all men most miserable. We're of all men most miserable. Because our hope goes beyond this life. And it's a good hope, because
he says it's a good hope of grace, and because it is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. So he says to his people, be
of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye
that hope in the Lord. He said, behold, the eye of the
Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy. We have hope because we have
God. Because God became a man and
came down and did the things necessary to save us and to give
us this hope. This hope of eternal life is
in Him. And I noticed something today. Verse 5 says, for I shall yet
praise him for the help of his countenance." Verse 7 says, for I shall yet
praise him who is the help of my countenance and my God. I'm oftentimes looking down. Just sometimes I feel like you
do that when you get older. You just, I walk around. I'm looking down and things don't
look very good there from that perspective. But when you see the countenance
of God, that's the facial expression of God. That's what he's meant
to portray here. When you see the countenance
of God, his countenance in Christ is a smile, not a frown. He looks lovingly. He looks savingly. He watches over us with the apple
as the apple of His eye. And when we look at Him, it becomes
our countenance. It becomes our face that smiles. It becomes our face that remembers
him. It becomes our countenance. And it's one of joy and peace
and anticipation. Because looking to Christ and
hoping in God, we cannot help but rejoice and be happy No matter
what. Now I want you to turn to one
more verse and I'm going to hush. Psalm 146. 146. And verse 5. I want you to just think about
that first word, happy. Happy. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob. Oh, I just love that so much
because I'm surely a Jacob. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God. is the only one that can be the
help of my countenance. You might say, put a smile, a
lasting smile, an eternal smile on my face because he's smiling
in Christ. Our Father, we thank you this
night for your Word. We have found no other hope except
what we find in your word, your promises that are in Christ,
your grace. We thank you for them. We live
in Terrible times it seems. We have problems of all kinds. Health and family and work and everything. But we have a good hope. The good hope of grace. Because we have Christ. Christ
in us, the hope of glory. We pray for grace and therefore
faith to hope in our God, to look at everything, to gird up the loins of our mind
and be sober. but be hopeful. We pray that you would bless
us for Christ's sake, bless the food that we're about to partake
of. We know that everything comes
from you and we're thankful. We pray in his name. Amen.