Turn back to Psalm 37. This is one of those psalms, after reading it, I want to just
say to myself and to you, now do it. Now do it. Fret not, trust, delight, commit,
rest, and cease, Depart from evil and wait on
the Lord. Now just do it. I went to a doctor a few weeks
ago. I had this cold and carried on. And I had been to him probably
a month and a half before that. And he said, he'd give me several
prescriptions. He said, now did you take this,
this, Did it help you? I had to get him off the subject
because I didn't take half of it. So I got him off the subject. Because either that or you might
have to lie to him or tell him the truth and then have to put
up with that. So I got him off the subject. I started talking
to him about something else. I just interrupted him and started
talking about something else. But if I had just done what he
said to do, I probably wouldn't have got the second round. And
if I get the third round of it, because I still didn't do what
he said to do. And that's stupidity, but that's just part of me. I
seem to, I seem to wear that well. But here, when I read this
psalm and I read it this past, last week, I read it last week.
And it just jumped out at me because it just, it fit me to
the T. It was what I needed. The very
first two words of the first verse, fret not. Fret not. Because I had been fretting.
I had been fretting over some things. And I read that, and
I thought, why don't you just believe God? Why don't you just
sit back, trust the Lord, and wait on Him, and He'll deliver
in His time. So I want us to look at this
psalm. The author of this psalm is a seasoned veteran. A young man did not write this
psalm because he says, David said, I have been young, verse
25, and now am old. Oh, an old man wrote this psalm. An old, experienced warrior wrote
this psalm. And this psalm is for all of
God's written by an old man under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
David. And his subject has to do with
the prosperity of the wicked, while the people of God suffer
affliction and trials as they go through this life. But you
look at others, and it seems like there's just no real affliction
there. And you know they don't believe
God. They don't believe the gospel.
They have no interest in God, and yet they prosper. And I've
seen more of that, and I've been affected probably more so in
this way because of being in business. You know, being in
business, I tell you, you see a lot of things that go on. And
you see a lot of under-the-table stuff, things that happen under
the table, behind the curtains, behind the scenes, and you don't
get involved in that. And you're trying to eke out
a living here, and you're trying to make it, and you know You
know how some of these others have made it, and I know. I wouldn't
name any business or anything, but I know. I know men that have
bought it, and they got it, and they're rich. But they shall soon, he says,
be cut off. They will soon be cut off. And
this is a psalm in which the Lord sweetly hushes the complaints
of his people, and he calms their fears, calms their minds, And
he says to them, trust me. You just trust me. God knows
what he's doing. Our father knows what he's doing.
Just trust him. He brings us by way that we know
not. There are things that have happened
to me, to our family, to the way that we have come that I
would have never guessed. Never in a million years would
I have thought the Lord would have brought me along such a
path. But He's the one who knows the
path, and the path is His. And it's a righteous path, it's
a good path, or He wouldn't put us on it. And that's the only
path we need to be on, is the one He puts us on. Now let me
give you a brief summary of this before I look into these. He
says in verse 1 and 2, flourish and they prosper like the green
grass and the green herb. But he says they shall soon be
cut down. Don't envy them. Don't think
they are blessed. I tell you what, the man blessed
is the man who knows Christ. A little that a righteous man
hath is better than all that the wicked have. The blessed man is the man who,
we read it back in the, Dale read it back in Psalm 1. Listen to this. Here's the blessed
man. Blessed is the man that walks
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law
of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. He
shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters, that
bringeth forth fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither,
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." That's the blessed
man, but that's the spiritual man. He's talking about spiritual
things. That blessed man there is the Lord Jesus Christ in that
chapter. But we are blessed in Him. And
to have Him, we can be no more blessed. As blessed as you can
get is to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. But those evildoers,
he said, they're going to be cut off. It's like the man Sitting
on death row. He's going to be executed in
the morning. Would you deny him a good meal tonight? Let him
have his good meal. Let him have it. It'll be the
last one. That'll be cut off. They'll wither like the grass.
And he says the wicked hate the believers. They persecute them.
Yet the Lord laughs at their opposition. He laughs. Over in Psalm 2 verse 4, it says,
the Lord shall laugh and have them in derision. They have no
power. You ever see a kid trying to
fight you, a little child, and you just laugh at it? What's it going to do to you?
What's the wicked going to do? What are they really going to
do? They're under God's control. They're under the power and authority
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The kingdoms of this world, it
says in Revelation, have become the kingdom of our Lord. He owns
them, they're his, livestock and bird. And the wicked take
advantage of believers. They draw out their swords to
hurt them, but their swords shall enter into their own hearts. They devise mischief against
a believer. And what they devise ends up
turning against them. Against them. And the believer
seems to have so little in this life, while the wicked have great
riches. But it's temporary. Oh, if we
could just remember that. If we could just remember everything
concerning this life is temporary. It has a time limit on it. There is a time limit. You know,
we go to the food store, go to the grocery store, hamburger
and it has eat by this date, has a time limit on it. The other
day I saw a package of hamburger in the refrigerator and Vicki
asked me what I wanted for lunch. I said, fix me a hamburger. She
said, well, no, I have to look at it. It may not be any good.
It may be expired by now. Has a time limit on it. Everything
here is temporary. That's all it is. It's going
to fade away. Our inheritance in Christ is
forever. It cannot fade away. And the
enemies of the Lord seem to get fatter and fatter. But he says
here, it has the fat of lambs for the slaughter. Who envies
the turkey on Thanksgiving Day? Who envies the pig that's being
fattened up for the slaughter? Only a fool. Only a fool. What's the bottom line? Where's
all this going to be settled? How are we to be comforted in
our trials while we watch the wicked prosper and flourish? Well, look over at Psalm 73.
Here's where all this is going to be settled. And we need to
keep this in mind as we pass through this life. In Psalm 73, look at verse 14. For all the day long have I been
plagued and chastened every morning. If I say I will speak thus, behold,
I should offend against a generation of thy children. When I thought
to know this, it was too painful for me. It was just too painful. Until, until I went to the sanctuary
of God until I went to the house of God, sat down and heard the
word of God, heard the gospel preached, heard the truth preached,
until then, until that happened, but when it happened, then understood
I their end." He didn't end him no more, did
he? Not after he understood their end. Surely thou didst set them
in slippery places, thou castest them down into destruction. Would you envy that person? Is
that person to be envied? I'll tell you who's to be envied.
Lazarus laying at that rich man's gate when he died, he was taken
to glory. That's the one to envy. He didn't
have much. He didn't have much. But the
Lord left us an example in him that the true riches are the
riches that we have in Christ. Not in this world. Not in this
world. Now, he says in verse 1, fret
not thyself because of evil doers. Don't burn with jealousy. Don't
be eaten up with envy. Because we still live in this
flesh. And this flesh rises up. That old nature still rises up.
And it causes us to be jealous. It causes us at times to be envious,
and it even causes us to be angry over the prosperity of the wicked.
David said, when I thought on these things, it was too painful
for me until I went into the sanctuary of God and saw their
end. Listen, they have all that they will ever have now. This
is all they'll ever have. This is it. They will spend their
brief days upon this earth in ease and riches. But they shall
soon be cut down, he says, like the flower, like the grass. Soon
be cut down. One writer said, the sight of
their terrible end ought to deliver us from ever envying them. If it were not for God's grace,
we would be one of them. We'd be cut off too. Paul said
this, I am what I am by the grace of God. That's what I am. I am what I am by the grace of
God. At one time, Paul was a blasphemer.
He didn't know that until God saved him. At one time, he was
a persecutor. But by the grace of God, he became
a flaming witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am what I am by the grace of
God. That word just means worry. Don't
worry. Be anxious. And when I opened the Word of
God and I read that, I knew that psalm was for me that morning.
It was for me. Threat not. We ought to read
this one often. Often. Don't worry. Don't let yourself
get anxious and be taken up with anxiety. Don't do that. And here's one
of the best cures for it. Trust in the Lord. The best cure for fretting and
worrying is to have faith in God. Trust
in the Lord. Faith in Christ will cure all
fretting. Nothing else will. Faith in Christ
will. True faith will. A believer began to worry when
he takes his eyes off of Christ and starts to look at the elements.
Peter said, Lord, let me come to Thee. And the Lord said, come
on. Come on. Get out of that boat
and come on. And he did. And he took a few
steps. Peter actually walked on water until he realized he was walking
on water. You know, after he took a few
steps, he had to realize, wait a minute. I'm not in the boat
anymore. I'm standing on water and there's
nothing there. Water. And when he did that,
when he began to look at what he was walking on, he began to
sink. And I imagine when the water
got up to about right here, I hate to believe, when it got to right
there, as you was telling me about that sickness, when it
got to right there, he said, Lord, save me. Greatest prayer
I ever prayed. Lord, save me. And he reached
down and plucked him up out of that water. He started looking at the beggarly
things, the elements. He took his eyes off of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that is so easily done. So
easily done. Remember this. Christ is our
life. Christ is our strength. Christ
is our refuge in time of trouble. Christ is our hiding place in
the storm. So let's not look at these things.
Let's look to Him. Trust Him to pull you. Lord,
I trust you to bring me out of this, whatever this is. I trust you to do it. Our outward
conduct depends on our inward attitude and confidence in God.
You can mark that down. Let me read that again. Our outward
conduct depends on our inward attitude and confidence in God. If you really believe He's able
to save you, then you'll have a good attitude. You'll have a good attitude. He is the one we trust for pardon. Protection, provision, and we
trust His wise providence. Working together, working all
things together for our good. We trust Him. And listen, trust
in the Lord and thou shalt be fed. All that's needed, that's what
that means. He'll feed us whatever the situation is, whatever we
need, He'll give it. He will meet our need. And then,
delight thyself also, he says here in the Lord. Stop fretting,
trust in the Lord, and listen. One of the greatest evidence,
I believe, of confidence and trust in the Lord is this, you're
delighting Him. You can't delight in the Lord
if you don't trust Him. You can't do it. It doesn't work
that way. The One who commanded us not
to fret, the One who commanded us to trust, also exhorts us
to delight in Him. Find our joy in Him. He's real. He's living. He's a real person. You have friends you delight
in. I delight in my wife. How much more ought I to delight
in Him who is my life? who is my Lord, my Redeemer,
my Sacrifice, my High Priest, my God, my Lord and my God. Oh, how we ought to delight in
Him. In giving up this world, listen,
we have given up nothing. In giving up the world, we've
given up nothing. It's all vanity. But it says over in Ecclesiastes,
the preachers, the vanity of vanity, all is vanity. Nothing
is nothing. In the Lord Jesus Christ, we
have all spiritual blessings. And like Moses, we know that
the reproach of Christ is greater riches than all the treasures
of this world. Is that so with you? Is it so
with me? Is it really? Let us delight in our Lord, rejoice
in Him. Glad! Glad to go into the house
of the Lord. David said, I was glad when they
said, let us go into the house of the Lord. Glad to be here.
Glad to hear of Him. Glad. Sit down under His shadow
with great delight. Great delight. with contentment is great gain. You think great gain is the bank
account, possessions? They can bring with them great
trouble. Wealth can be a blessing if it's handled properly. But
great gain is godliness. It's being content with Christ.
Godliness, it says, Godliness with contentment is great gain.
And then it says here, commit thy way unto the Lord. In verse
5. You know what that means? Roll the whole burden of life
upon the Lord. Not just the stuff you can't
handle. You can't handle any of it. You can't handle any of it. Roll the whole burden of life
over on Him. That's what that means. Commit
thy way unto the Lord. Cast away anxiety and worry and
fear by casting it all on Him. And you know what? If the Lord
enables you to do this today, He will have to enable you to
do it again tomorrow and the next day. It's a daily thing. Actually, it's a minute-by-minute
thing. You will constantly have to do
it and do it. You have to constantly fight
these things. You have to fight fretting. I guarantee you tomorrow,
before the day's over with, I'll fret about something. I'll be
out there at the shop, or something's going to cause me to fret, and
I'm going to have to deal with it. But maybe I'll remember this. Maybe the Lord will be gracious
to me and enable me to remember this, his word that we're looking
at tonight. Cast all your cares upon him,
it says in 1 Peter, for he cares for you. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord knows how to deliver him out of them
all. We sing a song. It goes like
this, take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. I don't know that I've ever left
it there. I don't know if I ever have. Take your burden to the Lord
and leave it there. Maybe sometime between now and
before I die, maybe I'll actually do it one time. He tells us to do it, to cast
all your cares on Him. That doesn't mean cast it on
him then bring it back home with you. But you do. But I tell you
what you do when you do. Do it again. Cast it back on
him again. What a friend we have in Jesus. What a friend. And the result is he will bring
it to pass. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall
bring it to pass." He'll bring it to pass in his time. Someone wrote this, "'Thy way,
not mine, O Lord, however dark it be. O lead me by thine own
right hand. Choose out the path for me. You know anyone wiser to do that
than he? And then listen. Rest in the
Lord in verse 7. Rest. Look over in your margin. It says, be silent. Not murmuring, complaining. Be
silent. Rest. It's like this. It's like you're
resting with full confidence. He's going to do it. He's going to do it. I know that. I believe that. I'm going to
rest. I'm going to wait on Him to do it. He's going to do it. It takes much grace to carry
this out, to quiet our spirits, and to wait and rest in Him is
a work of God. It's a work of God. When God
created the world, it is said that He rested. It doesn't mean
that He was weary. It's just simply declaring that
there was no more to do. He rested because he completed
the work. Finished. Finished. When our Lord cried
on the cross, it's finished, he rested. He's seated at God's
right hand. At rest. Seated. Not standing. Not walking around
the throne, anxious. Not walking up and down the room
like I do at the shop. You don't know how many times I've walked
past that shop back and forth. That gets to be a long job as
well. Seated. Seated. Now let us strive to
enter into His rest. His rest. His rest is our rest. Strive to enter into Him. Cease
from fretting, laboring, and doubting, and rest in Him. Come
unto me, all you that labor and heavy laden. I will do what? Give you rest. Is there anything like a good
night's rest? I mean, when you're really, really able to get one.
Nothing like it. And there's nothing like spiritual
rest, quiet conscience, a clean conscience. There's nothing to be compared
to that. Rest. And the more one learns
of his sufficiency, the more we learn of him, the more we
draw close to him, the greater the rest. And then he says, wait patiently
for him. Wait patiently for it. Listen,
time is nothing to God. It should be nothing to us. Wait patiently for Him. He's worth waiting on. He's worth
waiting on. Wait for Him. He's never before
His time and He's never late. Everything's on time. Wait for it. You know, when we
read a story, we wait for the end of the, we wait till we get
to the end of the book to clear up the plot, don't we? You wait. Well, sometimes you just jump
on over there, but you read the whole book, chapter by chapter,
page by page, and the plot thickens and then it clears up. It clears
up. You know the story. You know
the story. Even so, we ought to wait on
the closing scene, as one says, in the theater of
life. Wait patiently, and it'll all clear up. It will clear up. And then cease from anger. Knowing
the good providence of the Lord and His eternal purpose to accomplish
our good, what do we have to be angry about? I do not have
anything to be angry about against God's providence. If it's good, what do I have
to be angry about? And don't entertain anger toward
His ways. I said last week, His ways are
higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than
our thoughts. I'm glad they are. And forsake wrath, shun every
appearance of evil. Don't take matters, he says,
into your own hands. Now David's writing this. Remember who's
writing this. An old man who took too many
matters into his own hands. An old king. An old king who
took too many matters into his own hands and caused too many
heartaches to himself and his family. And he says, forsake
wrath, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. Commit yourself unto him who
judges faithfully, and depart from evil, like Lot departed
from Sodom. Depart from it. Depart from the
evil, the evil of this world, the evil precepts of this world,
and depart from evil companions. Isn't this a good instruction? And these instructions will last
and they're good if the world stands ten million years. We don't need any more than this.
And what he's already given us in his word. Depart from evil. The evil of the flesh, evil companions,
evil of this world. He says run from it. Run from it. That's what Job,
I read that to you Sunday, Job eschewed evil. He shunned it. He departed from it. God said
this man did. He departed from it. He got away
from it. Don't hang around it. Depart
from evil and do good. It doesn't mean just depart from
evil and go sit down. Do good. Work the works of righteousness.
Adorn the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by good works. We're taught that in the Word
of God. Aren't they? And while doing this, wait on
the Lord. Wait on the Lord. That's a demonstration of faith,
isn't it? Waiting on the Lord. You believe He's coming, and
you're going to wait on Him. If I told you I was going to
show up at your house at noon, Would you wait on me? But he
says he's coming back. How much more ought we to take
him at his word and wait on him? Wait on him! Those who truly trust in the
Lord and delight in the Lord and rest in the Lord, wait on
him! Wait on God's time for all things.
Wait in obedience. Wait in hope. Wait in expectation. It's easy to say, hard to carry
out in this flesh. The flesh can be carried out,
but we've still got this flesh to deal with. Wait on the Lord and keep His
way. That's what we're doing right now. Preaching the gospel. Studying His word. Following
Him. Keep to the narrow way. Keep
to the narrow way. And that's what we're doing. Every time I step in this pulpit,
Frank, whoever we invite to be in this pulpit and they preach
Christ, keep to the way. I'd say to anybody
who steps in this pulpit, keep to the way. Don't stray from
the way. Don't do that. Threat not, trust in the Lord,
delight thyself in Him, commit your way to Him, rest in Him,
cease from anger, depart from evil, and wait on the Lord. Now
do it. Do it, and all will be well.