Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 37. Now, no matter how long the world
has gone on, some things never change. God's people have always
wondered, just like they do today, why is it that the wicked in
this world prosper so much? It seems like the wicked It seems
like they don't pay a price for things. They just keep growing
more and more and more prosperous. And yet God's people, the people
that God loves, suffer so much in this world. Now, why is that? Well, the theme of this song,
at least in these first verses that we'll look at this evening,
is just don't worry too much about the wicked. They won't
be here for long. They're not going to be here
for long. And instead of spending your time worrying so much about
the wicked, wondering why do they prosper, why do they have
it better than me? Instead of spending our time doing that,
let's spend our time trusting the Lord. And let's spend our
time rejoicing in Him, rejoicing in His salvation because what
we have in Him is eternal. What I want us to look at this
evening are six admonitions. six precious promises. With each
one of these admonitions comes a precious promise. And our first
admonition is this, in verse one, fret not. Fret not thyself
because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers
of iniquity. Now don't fret about evildoers. Now, I'm not saying don't just
be completely passive and say whatever they're doing is okay.
I'm not saying don't call evil evil. I'm not saying that. Don't
fret about it. Don't fret about it. Don't get
so anxious about it. Don't get mad because the wicked
prosper. And don't get jealous of the
wicked. Don't get jealous of all the world's goods and things
that the wicked have. And if we get mad about those
evildoers and how they hate God and they prosper more than I
do, I'll tell you what's going to happen. We're going to get
jealous. We're going to get jealous of all the stuff that they have
and we'll want to change our ways so we can be like them and
have what they have. We'll think, well, if you can't
beat them, join them. Well now, don't do that. If we get jealous
of them, this will be our attitude. We'll think, why should I bother
worshiping the Lord? People that don't worship the
Lord, they're rich. They get everything they want. Why should
I do the right thing? That's one thing I always try
to teach our girls. I don't care what anybody else
is doing. You do the right thing. And we think, well, why should
I always do the right thing? Nobody else does. And when they
don't do the right thing, they're the ones getting rich. Nobody
hates them. You do the right thing, people
will be mad at you. These people never do the right thing. Nobody
hates them. They got all kinds of friends, and everything's
going their way. Why should I be kind and honest
and sincere? Shallow hypocrites get along
way better than I do. They're just dancing through
life. Why should I do that? Now you know this is true from
listening to men preach. The best messages that's ever
been preached is when the Lord takes something from His Word
and blesses it to the heart of His servant. Now he's got something
to say that's going to be a blessing to somebody else. That's what
happened to David when he wrote this song. Later on in this song,
David tells us he's an old man when he writes this song. He
said, I've been young and now I'm old. And these are some of
the lessons that the Lord's taught an old man. If you look over
at Psalm 73, this is a lesson. This lesson of not being jealous
of the evil doers is something that David learned a long time
ago. And he said, it was a painful lesson for me, but I learned
it. The Lord taught this lesson to me. Psalm 73, verse three. David says, I was envious at
the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are
no bans in their death, but their strength is firm. They're not
in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men.
Therefore, pride compasseth them about as a chain. Violence covereth
them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fat
They have more than heart could wish. They're corrupt and speak
wickedly concerning oppression. They speak loftily. They set
their mouth against the heaven, and their tongue walketh through
the earth. Therefore, his people return hither, and waters of
a full cup are run out to them. And they say, how doth God know?
Is their knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly
who prosper in the world. They increase in riches. David
says, Verily I cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in
innocency. For all the day long have I been
plagued and chastened every morning. If I say I'll speak thus, behold,
I should offend against the children, the generation of thy children.
If I say this, will I really think I'm going to offend God's
children? Now, when I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me until, until I went into the sanctuary
of God. Then understood I their end. Look over verse 21. When David
learned this in the house of the Lord, he said, my heart was
grieved and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I and
ignorant. I was as a beast before thee.
Nevertheless, even though I was so foolish, even though I was
so ignorant, nevertheless, I'm continually with thee. Thou hast
holded me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven
but Thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
Then David learned, then he learned not to be envious of the wicked
and all their prosperity because I have the Lord. Whom have I
in heaven beside thee? Who is it on earth? What is it
on earth that I would want beside thee? David learned not to be
envious of the wicked because they're soon going to be destroyed.
God set their foot in a slippery place. They don't really have
anything, do they? Don't have anything. But the
believer has Christ. So the believer has everything. What would I want to be envious
of them for? I already have everything if I have the Lord Jesus Christ.
So don't be jealous of the evildoers. Don't get mad about how much
they prosper. Don't get mad. Don't fret too
much now. Don't get over anxious about
all their wicked plans. You want to know God's reaction
to all their wicked plans? Look back in our text, verse
12. The wicked plot against the just,
and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at
him, for he seeth his day is coming. The Lord knows the beginning
from the end. He's declared the beginning from
the end. He knows their end. He laughs
at them. So don't fret. Don't be overanxious
about them. Now that's the admonition. Now
here in verse two is the precious promise. For they shall soon
be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. I just
don't wish that you had all the riches and the earthly prosperity
that the wicked have, because they're not going to have them
for long. Don't think that the Lord is blessing them and punishing
you somehow. All he's doing with them is fattening
them up for the kill. When I was in high school, didn't
have anything better to do in the summertime, we would go to
the county fair. It wasn't all that interesting,
but you know, that's just what you did. Everybody was there.
And I certainly was not a farmer by any stretch of the imagination,
but because you're there, that's what you do. You go through the
livestock area. And every year I'd see these
prized bulls and prized cows and prized steers. And the ones
with all the blue ribbons, they got them a special pen over here,
you know, and all the other cows just over there, you know. And
those cows think, well, I'd like to be like that. That big prize
steer over there with all the blue ribbons and everybody's
just looking at them. You know where those things ended
up? They ended up at somebody's Sunday roast. They're just getting
fattened up for the kill. That's what God is doing with
the wicked. He's just fattening them up for the kill. So don't
get mad when the wicked flourish and you don't, when they flourish
in this world and you don't. God says they're flourishing.
like grass flourishes. In the summertime, grass flourishes. Now, I'm never like this, but
I've got neighbors and I know people like this. They want,
oh, they can't wait in the spring for their grass to flourish.
And I'm just hoping it doesn't because you just got to keep
cutting it, don't you? That summertime, that grass grows so fast. But now, an apple tree, oh, that
grows slow. Janice got a crape myrtle in
the front yard. She just worries herself every year. When's that
thing going to grow? When's it going to bloom? Takes
forever, doesn't it? Not the grass. The grass just
flourishes so quickly. Our teenage boys make a lot of
good money cutting that grass. Everybody wants that grass to
flourish, don't they? As soon as it does, what do they
want? They want it got rid of. Somebody, they'll pay to come
here and cut this and get rid of it. When it flourishes, nobody
wants it anymore. Not like that slow-growing apple
tree. Now, you just wait on that. It's slow-growing, but when it
grows, it's going to produce shade. It's going to produce
fruit. Well, that's God's blessings to His people. They're more slow-growing. They're
not going to flourish like the grass, but they're going to be
what you need. They're going to be what you
want. They're going to satisfy you, everything you need. So don't
be jealous of the wicked. They're going to flourish quickly,
but they'll be cut down. and everything they're ever going
to have is what they got right now. Not so for the believer. God has blessings for his people
that are eternal. God has an inheritance reserved
for you who believe in heaven where rust and moth cannot break
through or corrupt and the thief can't break through and steal.
Those blessings are eternal. God has those things reserved
for his people. And here's another reason, don't get mad at the
wicked when they prosper. Don't we thank God that He's
delivered us from this present evil world? He's delivered us
from being just like them. Don't we thank God for He saved
us by His grace. And we say, we see Him go. We
see Him go do all the things they do. We say, there go I,
but for the grace of God. Well, then why do I want to be
envious of Him? No. We don't want to be like them.
We don't be like the ungodly. We don't want to have their end.
So just don't fret. Don't fret. They're not going
to be around for long. But God's going to reserve His
people eternally. Right here's the second admission, verse 3.
Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord and do good.
So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
Now don't look at the wicked and think, oh, they're so rich.
They don't have any worries. Whatever comes up, they got the
money to pay for it. Now, don't don't think like that,
because that would be trusting in money, wouldn't it? And what
did Peter tell us about silver and gold and the redemption of
our soul? You're redeemed with those corruptible
things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
Christ. Now, there's protection in the precious blood of Christ,
but that silver and gold, that's not going to redeem your soul.
That's not going to protect you from any danger. Trust in the
Lord and do good, David says. Well, what is it to do good? It's to believe God. It's to
believe Christ. It's to rest in Him. To do good
is to trust Christ as your Redeemer. He is your protection. We've
seen this several times already in the Psalm. David says the
Lord is our shield and our buckler. He's our Redeemer. He's our protector. So trust in Him. Don't ever trust
in your own abilities to be able to help you out of a situation
or go get what you need. Always trust in the Lord to provide. Don't trust your faithfulness.
You ought to be faithful. Here's faithful people coming
out on a cold Wednesday evening. I'm glad for it. We ought to
be faithful soon. But don't trust in your faithfulness. Don't trust
in your morality. You ought to be strong, moral
people in the community, but don't trust in that. Trust in
the Lord to be your righteousness. Trust in His faithfulness to
keep you. Trust in His faithfulness and
His goodness to forgive your sin. Trust Him for mercy. Trust Him for protection. Trust
Him for guidance. Trust in the Lord. And don't
worry when the wicked get in a position of power and they
use that power to take advantage of you. Don't worry about it.
Just trust the Lord. Trust the God of providence.
It's not just he knows what's going on. He's in control of
what's going on. This is all happening according
to his will and his purpose. I don't know why the Lord is
allowing it to happen, but this I do know. It's his purpose being
carried out. So it's good. Now, here's the
precious promise. The admonition is trust in the
Lord. Here's the precious promise. The Lord will take care of his
people. He will. He says at the end of
verse 3, Verily thou shalt be fed. Now that word fed means
shepherded. And I want to show you another
time that word is used. Look at Genesis 48. Here's Jacob. Here's another old man. Something
he can tell us that he's learned of the Lord by experience. When
David says you shall be fed, he means the Lord will shepherd
you everywhere you go. Genesis 48 verse 15. And he blessed Joseph and said,
God, before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, did walk,
and God which fed me all my life long until this day. That word
fed is the same word David used. It means shepherded me. God which
did shepherd me all my life long until this day. The angel which
redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads and let my name be named
on them. In the name of my fathers, Abraham
and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst
of the earth. Now, who is this angel that redeemed
me from all evil? Well, that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the shepherd. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who
has always shepherded me all the days of my life. That's what
he does for all of his sheep. Now, think about what a shepherd
does for the sheep. The shepherd leads the sheep.
They don't know where to go, but he does. He knows where the
green grass is, where the best pasture is. He knows where the
still waters are, where those quiet, deep, still waters are.
He takes them to those places. He leads them there, and when
they get there, he makes them lie down in those green grass
to have rest and to be fed. It's the shepherd who protects
the sheep. The shepherd is the one always
on watch for the wolf, the bear, the lion to come in. And if that
wolf comes in, the sheep don't have to go out fighting. The
shepherd does. He takes his rod and his staff
and the weapons that he has, and he goes out and protects
the sheep. If need be, he gives his life for the sheep. That's
what our shepherd did. He laid down his life for the
sheep, that they might have everlasting life. A shepherd, and David understood
this well, he was a shepherd, wasn't he? One of those sheep,
one of those lambs gets sick, That shepherd, he holds that
sheep in his arms. He tends its wounds. He takes
its temperature, does whatever he's got to do to make that sheep
well. When that sheep is sick, the shepherd comes and takes
care of it. That's the Lord, our shepherd. He's our shepherd. He promises
to be the shepherd for his people. He will verily feed them all,
shepherd them all the days of their life. But now listen. We're not inactive
in this thing. Trust in the Lord, and then do
what the Lord's given you to do. You know, we've been looking
at that in our study in Romans. Everyone in the church has their
different gifts. Now, you trust in the Lord, and
then you do what the Lord's given you to do. Just think about it
as a farmer. You know, if in the coming fall,
the farmer wants a harvest, what's he got to do in the spring? He
got to plant some seed, doesn't he? He got to buy that seed,
he got to sow that seed in his field. Or go plant the seed,
go do what the Lord's given you to do, and then trust the Lord
to produce the harvest. Don't, don't, I hate to quote
this fella, don't get out of your lane. Don't get out of your
lane. If the farmer doesn't trust the
Lord, and he wonders, what's going on down there with those
seeds, and he digs those seeds up, he's not going to have a
harvest. If he wants to see just what's
going on, I got to know right now what's going on. He digs
those seeds up. He's not going to have a harvest,
is he? Plant the seed, let it alone. Do what God's given you
to do and let it alone and trust the Lord to do what He promised
to do. If we learned that lesson, we'd
fret not. We'd be a whole lot happier. That's what David means
here. He says, trust in the Lord and
you'll dwell in the land. You will dwell in the land that
God promised you. He's speaking of the promised
land, This is the land that God has promised to all of His people.
It's the land God promised because He's the covenant God. Trust
in the Lord. Trust Him to be your Savior.
Trust Him to be your Redeemer. Trust Him to be your Deliverer.
Trust Him to provide for you and you will dwell in the land
of eternal joy because that is the end of God's covenant of
grace. Just trust Him to do what He promised to do. All right,
thirdly, Here's the third admonition, delight yourself in the Lord. Verse four, delight thyself also
in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Now don't waste your time fretting
about these evil doers. If you do, all you're going to
do, all fretting does is make us miserable. So instead of fretting
about them, delight yourself in the Lord. in the Lord. Find
your delight in Him. Not in the temporary things of
this world that's going to perish with the using anyway. Find your
delight in the Lord. The wicked delight themselves
in all the things of this world that they can gather up. And
they're not going to take one of those things with them. They'll
not have one of those things in hell. Not one. They'll just
be a pure misery. Now, I'm not saying don't enjoy
this life. God's given this creation to
his people to enjoy. Whatever it is that the Lord
gives you, enjoy it. Be thankful for it. You don't
have to take the things of this world and throw them away. So
I've taken a vow to be miserable. Don't do that. Whatever it is
that the Lord's given you, enjoy it. Enjoy them, but don't find
your delight in them. There's a difference. Find your
delight in the Lord. Because whatever it is the Lord's
given us in this life, we're not going to take it with us
either. But we will have Him eternally. And that is what delights
the soul of God's people, that we will have Him eternally. So
be sure we delight in the Lord, in Him, not in the blessings
He gives, not in that He is. Eric, read that, in that He is,
just that God is. Let the fact that He is be your
delight. Delight in His name, Jehovah. God my Savior. God is my Savior. I find delight in that, don't
you? His name, Jehovah, said Kenneth, the Lord, my righteousness. I don't have a righteousness
that I've earned. The Lord Jesus Christ is my righteousness. That's my delight. Jehovah, Jireh,
the Lord will provide. Jehovah, Shalom, the Lord is
my peace. He's bought peace with the blood
of His cross. Delight in His love for His people.
Only God could love a sinful people like we are. Delight in
His election of a people. God chose me. I didn't do anything
to deserve it. I never could have. But He did
just because God's good. Delight in His sacrifice for
the sin of His people. The sacrifice of God's own Son
cannot fail to put our sin away. Delight how he keeps and protects
his people. Delight in his faithfulness to
his people. He said, I'll never leave nor
forsake you. He won't delight in that. There's
going to be times of trial, difficulty and hardship and sickness, but
our Lord promised even in those times he'll not leave nor forsake
his people. That's what we need to be delighted.
He is our all. That's the admonition. Delight
yourself in the Lord. Here's a precious promise. The
Lord will give you the desires of your heart. He's not going
to give us the desires of our fleshly heart, because all those
desires will be wicked and selfish. And he's not going to give us
the desires of those hearts. We're thankful. But he will give
you the desire of the new heart that he gave you in the new birth.
The chief desire of every believer is to be made just like Christ. He's going to do it. He'll give
you the desire of your heart. Our chief desire is to be righteous
and holy. He'll give you the desire of
your heart. If you're born again, He's already given you a new
man who's righteous and holy. Our chief desire is that our
sin be forgiven. It's our sin that's separated
between us and our God. He's done it. He sent His Son
and by His blood has put away the sin of His people. The new
man desires to know God and to be known of Him. That's eternal
life, isn't it? To know God and His Son. That
is eternal life. The Lord makes Himself known
to His people. The new man desires to love God
and to be loved of God. The Lord comes to His people
and sheds abroad His love in our hearts so we know Him. The
new man desires to live in God and God in him. God comes to
us in the new birth, and then Paul tells us, here's your hope
of glory. Christ in you. Christ does dwell in you, and
you dwell in God. There's nothing could be more
delightful than that. He will give you the desires
of your heart. All right, here's the fourth
admonition. Commit. Commit to the Lord. There is... I don't even know exactly how
to put it into words, but now there's something about this
thing of a believer, of a member of the church, there's a commitment.
There's a commitment to this thing. Commit yourself to the
Lord. Verse 5 says, commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also
in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. That word commit means
to roll the burden on. Just roll your burden on the
Lord. First, let's just talk about
this life, these bodies. Roll the burden of your body,
the safekeeping of it. Roll it. The whole burden of
it upon the Lord. We may as well. We can't carry
it, but He can. We can't provide for it, but
He can. Don't we worry? We spend time worrying. Boy,
especially, you've got a young family. You worry, how am I going
to provide for this family? I remember our babies were little.
There were times I was unemployed and I'd look at them little babies
and my wife and I'd think, how am I going to provide food for
them? And then you feed them and they
keep growing. How am I going to provide more clothes, more shoes? Commit your way unto the Lord. He's always been a whole lot
better provider than we are. Isn't that right? We worry about
our children. You've got little children. Everybody's
got little children worries. What's going to happen to them?
Me and Janet go off on a trip somewhere and the plane goes
down. What's going to happen to our little babies? Everybody
makes provision for that, don't you? We worry. Oh, what's going
to happen? Who's going to take care of them?
Who's going to love them? Who's going to teach them? Who's going to
do for my children if I'm not here? You know, our Heavenly Father's always
been a whole lot better parent than we are. He's a whole lot
more able to take care of them than we are. Just roll your burden
on the Lord. Now just roll it on Him and leave
it there. Leave it there. Don't be like
that farmer going out checking seeds under the ground. Now just
leave it there. Don't think, well, I'm going
to go talk to the Lord about this and then I'm going to go
over here and, you know, in case He don't take care of it, I will.
No. Songwriter said, take your burden to the Lord and leave
it there. He knows what needs to be done,
and He's able to do it. Look at 1 Peter 5. Here is a
precious, precious verse. This is good motivation to take
your burden to the Lord and leave it there. 1 Peter 5, verse 7. Casting all your care upon Him,
for He, careth for you. There's a lot in that phrase.
And he, he, almighty God, careth, has an affection for you, his
people. Well, then we can roll our burden
on the Lord. He cares and he'll take care of that. Then, so important, roll the
burden of your soul upon the Lord. We can't carry it. We can't do anything for it.
But He can. Roll the burden of your sin upon
the Lord. We can't carry it. It'd crush
us. But He carries it away from His people. You think of everything
our soul has to have in order to have eternal life. I mean,
this is a complicated matter. Just roll that whole burden.
Just roll the whole burden of it upon the Lord and leave it
there. If here's the precious promise,
he will bring it to pass. We've got to have a sacrifice
for sin, don't we? My son, the Lord will provide himself a lamb
for the sacrifice. A sacrifice, not of bulls and
goats, whose blood can never take away sins, but the lamb
of God, whose sacrifice will put away sin forever. We've got
to repent. We've got to have faith. We must
believe God. The Lord will provide. He'll
provide repentance. He'll grant the gift of repentance
and faith to his people. We've got to have life. The Lord's
the only one who can give it. He'll provide life for the new
birth. And the Lord's the one who brings his people all the
way safe to glory. The Lord will bring it to pass. He will bring to pass righteousness
so that his Father accepts his people. He'll bring to pass the
greatest heart's desire of his people. make them righteous.
Verse six. He shall bring forth thy righteousness
as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. The Lord will
bring thy righteousness as the light. It's yours, it's your
righteousness. So everybody, it'll be as clear, everybody
can see it, it's as clear as the noonday sun. Christ is our
righteousness. Christ, God, the Father's already
brought righteousness to this earth. in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He appeared in Bethlehem, and
God made it like the noonday sun. He hung a star over that
place. Here he is. Here is righteousness. Here is peace on earth so everybody
can see it. And throughout his life, Christ
walked this earth openly. Anybody could see. This is not
an ordinary man. This is the God man. This must
be the Son of God, the Messiah. And when he died, he died in
public. He died hanging on a tree between
heaven and earth outside of the city of Jerusalem on the most
heavily traveled day of the year, the day of the Passover. So everybody
could walk by and see. Is there any sorrow like unto
my sorrow which is done unto me? Anybody could see this man
dying has done nothing amiss. Then why is he dying? He's dying
for the sins of somebody else. He's dying for the sin of his
people. And he brought in Let me find my place. He brought
in thy judgment as the noonday. He made this clear as the noon
sun too. He satisfied justice for his
people. He brought it, he satisfied it and made them the righteousness
of God. And he was made sin for them.
That's why he died. And he made them the righteousness
of God in him. Now that is as clear as the noonday
sun in it. It has to be Christ's righteousness
because we can never earn it. God makes His people righteous
in His Son. Only God, He cares so much for
His people, He makes them righteous in His Son. Now commit your way
to Him. He'll bring it to pass. Then
here's the fifth admonition. Rest. Rest in the Lord, verse
7. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently
for Him. Threaten not thyself because
of Him who prospereth in His way, because of the man who bringeth
wicked devices to pass." Now, if we would be saved, we must
rest. We've got to quit working and
rest in the Lord. We've got to quit working in
order to please God, in order to earn something from God, and
we've got to rest in Christ who already pleased His Father for
His people. We've got to quit trying to work our way to God
through our goodness and our morality, and we've got to rest
in Christ. We've got to quit trying to impress
God with what we do and rest in His Son because He's pleased
with His Son. But the definition of this word
rest really tells us something about how true, how complete
this rest is. The word means to be silent. To be silent. We're admonished
to shut our mouths. Just be quiet. And that is exactly
what we'll do. If God ever grants us a view
of Christ by faith, we're going to shut our mouth. We'll be like
Job and put our hand over our mouth and worship him in silent
awe and wonder. Look back at Leviticus chapter
10. Here is a striking illustration of what
it means to rest, to be silent, to not complain and to not question
God. to be silent before him. Hebrews
10, or I'm sorry, Leviticus 10. Leviticus 10, verse one. And Nadab and Abihu, the sons
of Aaron, took either of them his censer and put fire therein,
and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the
Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire
from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.
And Moses said unto Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying,
I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me. If you're
going to come to me, you've got to come the way I said. It must
be through his son. It must be through Christ sacrificed.
And before all the people, I will be glorified. And Aaron held
his peace. And that phrase, held his peace,
is the same word translated rest in our text. This rest is to
be silent before the Lord. Charles Spurgeon made this statement.
You listen to this and think about it. A silent tongue, in
many cases, not only shows a wise head, but a holy heart. Not questioning
God is both wise and holy. Resting in the Lord means silent
worship. It's to not question Him. And
it is especially to be silent in this matter of earning salvation. Christ has done all the work,
so there's nothing left for me to do but believe. Just believe. Now look at Ruth
chapter 3. Resting in the Lord, the silence,
means depending on the Lord to take care of everything I need
and knowing He won't fail. Ruth chapter 3, you know the
whole story here of Ruth. She's gone in to Boaz and laid
his feet on a threshing floor there where the men were sleeping
after they worked all day. Ruth 3, verse 11. This is Boaz
speaking to Ruth. He says, Now my daughter, fear
not. I will do to thee all that thou requirest. For all the city
of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman. He said,
Now I'm going to take care of this matter. That's what he told
her. He sent her with gifts and so forth back to her mother-in-law.
She gets back to her mother-in-law. Look at verse 18. After Naomi
heard this whole story, she said, You sit still, my daughter, until
thou know how the matter will fall. For the man will not be
in rest this day until he had finished the thing this day.
You just sit still. You keep your peace. You be silent
and depend on him to take care of everything. See, that's the
admonition and the precious promise. Rest in the Lord. and depend
upon him. Wait patiently for him. What
a precious promise. You can wait patiently for the
Lord, can't you? Because he's worth waiting for. Then last,
here's our sixth admonition. Cease from anger. Verse eight.
Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any
wise to do evil. Now, it's not wrong to get angry
about sinful things or things done wrong in this world. It's
not wrong to be angry, upset about those things. But don't
let that anger control you and make you do something you'll
regret. You know, we usually live to regret the words spoken
in anger, don't we? Take that opportunity when you're
angry to remember that being silent up there in the last admission.
Just keep your mouth shut. You won't have something to say,
something you'd be sorry for. But don't let wrath, don't when you
see something, it's wrong, it's simple, it shouldn't be, but
don't let that wrath control your actions. Because James told
us, the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
When you see something's wrong, don't take matters into your
own hands, just wait on the Lord. Don't do some evil to try to
get even, just wait on the Lord. And especially when we see events
of providence, They unfold and they're not to our liking. Don't let anger, don't let your
anger make you do something you regret. You just remember this.
The Lord's in control of this thing. He hasn't made a mistake. This hasn't happened outside
of His control and He hasn't made a mistake. I don't know
how, but somehow He's working this out for good, for His glory. So just wait on Him. Just cease
from anger. And here's our precious promise,
verse nine. For evildoers should be cut off. You don't need to
get angry and go out there and try to settle the score with
them. They're going to be cut off. But those that wait upon
the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while,
the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider
his place and it shall not be. You won't be able to find him.
But the meek shall inherit the earth and should delight themselves
in the abundance of peace. You know, who really cares what
the wicked do with this world? The wicked's always been the
ones ruling it, as far as government and so forth. Who really cares
what they do with it? Because quickly, they're going
to be gone, and you're not going to be able to find them anymore.
But you who believe, you're going to inherit the earth anyway.
I mean, God's going to burn this one up and create a new one.
I mean, who cares what they're going to do with this? God's going to burn
it up anyway. He's going to create a new one. Wherein dwelleth righteousness,
And that's what you're going to inherit. That's where you're
going to be. You're going to inherit everything God promised
his people in the covenant of grace. Everything, not one thing
missing. What do we have to be angry about?
Not one thing. Rather, let's be glad and let's
rejoice in the Lord and not act out in anger, not fret so much
that we're so anxious that we can't do anything, but just wait
on the Lord. He'll bring it to pass. He'll
bring it to pass. And I hope that's been a comfort
and blessing to you. Let's bow and pray. Our Father, how we thank you
for this precious instruction from your word, these admonitions. And oh, how we thank you for
your precious promises, all your promises of grace, mercy, love,
and life to your people. in your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, how we thank you. How
we beg of you that you would give us some wisdom to see the
things of this life and this world in their true light, that
they're but temporary, and to enable us to set our affection
on things above. Not to diligently seek out the
things of this life, but to diligently seek the Lord Jesus Christ. to find him, to find life in
him, to find forgiveness and joy and peace in him. Father, how we thank you. Bless
your word to your glory, to the hearts of your people, to comfort
us and edify us as we go back out into the world now and get
ready for another day tomorrow. Bless us, Father, we pray. All
these things we ask in that great name, which is above every name,
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.