WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000 So, if you turn back with me if you have a Bible with you or if you have your Bible 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:14.759 on the phone, if you can, turn back with me to Psalm 130 from the book of Psalms in the 00:00:14.759 --> 00:00:17.280 Old Testament. 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:22.640 And I've entitled this sermon, Singing the Blues, which I think is a really good title 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:28.240 for this Psalm, and it's a good title for the theme that we're going to look at today. 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:33.799 And it has to be said that on Thursday morning, certainly when Corey got up and he did his 00:00:33.799 --> 00:00:39.079 lateral flow test and it turned positive, he was singing the blues. 00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:44.000 And for sure I joined the chorus when I knew that I would have to be preaching today. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:48.799 So what you're getting today is what we call classically in the profession a reheat. 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:52.799 Okay, it's one that I've preached before here because you're getting a new sermon this 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:58.280 evening, but I'm too decrepit to do two new ones in that space of time. 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:03.519 So you're getting one that we've actually looked at before, but I'm going to say something 00:01:03.519 --> 00:01:10.640 about that very briefly, which is it's really valuable to defend myself here. 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:15.599 It's very valuable to repeat things biblically. 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:21.479 And that's because some of us, all of us to one degree at another, but some of us maybe 00:01:21.480 --> 00:01:24.240 more than others tend to forget. 00:01:24.240 --> 00:01:29.920 I was on a call last, a week last Tuesday for ministers in the church. 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:35.359 It was a kind of webinar for all ministers and Neil McMillan was speaking a part of it 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:37.280 anyway on a healthy church. 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:39.760 Now I'm hoping he'll come and do that here. 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:42.040 It was really very inspiring. 00:01:42.040 --> 00:01:46.280 But at one point he mentioned something that he had remembered in a sermon that I'd preached 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:51.719 here when they were here in the congregation and it was about Judas and Jesus, Jesus and 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:52.879 Judas. 00:01:52.879 --> 00:01:59.439 And I had absolutely no recollection whatsoever of what I said or of preaching that particular 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:00.439 sermon. 00:02:00.439 --> 00:02:03.159 But I'm glad that he remembered. 00:02:03.159 --> 00:02:07.400 And then when I was looking for on Thursday, when I was looking for a sermon in the theme 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:12.920 of the Psalms, which we're looking at, and particularly the Psalms, the latter Psalms 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:18.679 from Book 5, which we're looking at particularly this week and finishing next week with the 00:02:18.679 --> 00:02:19.879 last Psalm. 00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:24.479 I was looking back and I found, I went back to, because everything's very well structured 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:25.479 and organized. 00:02:25.479 --> 00:02:28.479 And I went back and I found Psalm 130. 00:02:28.479 --> 00:02:31.359 I thought, that'll be a good Psalm. 00:02:31.359 --> 00:02:33.000 That fits in well. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:44.479 And then I looked and the one before it was Psalm 124, which I preached here on the 17th 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:47.199 of May, 2018. 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:49.120 And that was the sermon I preached last week. 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:52.560 Well, it was the same Psalm that I preached last week. 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:56.000 And what was really interesting, this is just a complete aside, I think, but it was very 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:59.639 interesting that I'd forgotten I'd preached that sermon. 00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:02.319 I'd forgotten I'd preached on Psalm 124. 00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:04.719 Forgetting my personality story here. 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:10.400 But when I looked at it, what I was amazed at was that it was a completely different 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:12.319 sermon. 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:14.639 It took a completely different angle. 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:16.959 It looked at different truths from that Psalm. 00:03:16.959 --> 00:03:21.919 And it was very different from the one that I preached last week, which I think is always 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:27.519 interesting because it reminds us that when we go to scripture, it's not just a one size 00:03:27.519 --> 00:03:30.519 fits all and it's not just one message that's complete. 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:35.200 We find that it's just multifaceted in its teaching. 00:03:35.200 --> 00:03:40.760 And there's lots and lots we can learn from His living Word, depending on our own circumstances, 00:03:40.760 --> 00:03:47.719 depending on the time and the stage of life that we're at or that we're listening at. 00:03:47.719 --> 00:03:53.560 But one thing was interesting in it, remembering God's purposes and God's plans for us. 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:59.320 I finished on in my notes, which are usually not that full, they're kind of no form. 00:03:59.319 --> 00:04:07.359 But the last sentence of that sermon was in kind of note form, new phase in congregational 00:04:07.359 --> 00:04:08.439 life. 00:04:08.439 --> 00:04:09.959 People are moving on. 00:04:09.959 --> 00:04:13.879 The Brocs face new opportunities and challenges as do many. 00:04:13.879 --> 00:04:18.159 Let us remember who we are and who is our help. 00:04:18.159 --> 00:04:25.039 And remember and we recognize that God is with us in the different stages we're at. 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:30.439 And we thought we'd got rid of the Brocs and that they'd gone in 2018 and now they're 00:04:30.439 --> 00:04:36.120 back and God had all that purpose and planned as we prayed for them and as we prayed that 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:41.400 God would bless them in their lives and now they're back among us even though Corey is 00:04:41.400 --> 00:04:44.640 not fit today and has caught COVID. 00:04:44.640 --> 00:04:50.800 But isn't it interesting that we commit things to the Lord, we pray about things, we pray 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:55.879 into situations and we recognize that God speaks to us through His Word at different 00:04:55.879 --> 00:04:58.000 times and in different ways. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:03.120 And the value of the Psalms among other things is that they are experiential. 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:07.240 They deal with our experiences, they deal with what we're like and who we are as people 00:05:07.240 --> 00:05:14.360 and they legitimize for us many of our struggles and complaints and difficulties and doubts 00:05:14.360 --> 00:05:20.879 before God, they tell us where we are to take them and they encourage us in our prayer lives 00:05:20.879 --> 00:05:27.280 to be hugely honest and hugely open before our living God. 00:05:27.280 --> 00:05:31.000 We don't need to have pretense with Him, we don't need to pretend we're better than 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:37.879 we are, we simply come to Him and the Psalms remind us of that, that we come to Him with 00:05:37.879 --> 00:05:42.000 all the things we don't know what to do with, with all the impossibilities, with all the 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:46.279 fears and the doubts and the lack of faith and the joys and the thanksgivings and everything 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:50.000 else that's part of what makes us who we are. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:58.079 And one of the great things about the Psalms is their ability to put into song our grief 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:06.639 and the blues and our grieving and our sadness and even our sins and confession and praise 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:12.560 in a church context and praise in a gathered context when we're the people of God, must 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:18.839 embrace both our joys and our sorrows because praise should be our heart expression. 00:06:18.839 --> 00:06:27.719 It should be us putting into words and into song what is in our hearts and souls as Christians. 00:06:27.719 --> 00:06:32.120 Now none of us are old, they're going to be thinking and be at the same stage but actually 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:38.280 and have the same emotion or the same issues that we're dealing with but nonetheless they 00:06:38.280 --> 00:06:44.120 teach us, the Psalms teach us to take all these things and sometimes to stand with others 00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:47.560 who are going through difficult times as we sing. 00:06:47.560 --> 00:06:54.040 And I do think that we're probably not that great expressing our pain and our doubts and 00:06:54.040 --> 00:06:56.480 our fears in worship. 00:06:56.480 --> 00:07:06.040 As far as I think, and this is only from my point of view that I feel as soft with myself, 00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:10.920 that the soul is missing from our songs. 00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:19.319 It's such an important genre in popular music and music generally, you know, African American 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:29.959 music and gospel music, rhythm and jazz music often express suffering and loss and pain 00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:33.000 and guilt and failure. 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:39.639 Some of the greatest music creators that we know are those who've created out of poverty 00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:41.839 or out of hardship. 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:47.279 And I think in the popular genre today I mentioned this before, I think Adele is very good at 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:48.279 that. 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:55.479 She expresses sorrow and pain relentlessly in her songs. 00:07:55.479 --> 00:07:56.879 But it's powerful, isn't it? 00:07:56.879 --> 00:08:03.439 It's powerful to express the blues and it's powerful to express reality in our worship 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:09.559 as much as exaltation and praise because we find that in doing so we come round to exaltation 00:08:09.559 --> 00:08:12.279 and praise and it binds us all together. 00:08:12.279 --> 00:08:13.279 I think it is in many... 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:20.959 It is a dying tradition communally, people are suffering alone, people are grieving alone, 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:29.759 people don't find it easy to sing mournfully. 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:39.000 As a minister, you do funerals and that's part of our bread and butter in many ways. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:45.840 And increasingly the singing at funerals is utterly woeful because people are not used 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:52.639 to singing the blues, they're not used to mourning in song communally in our society. 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:57.320 And that's a shame and I think it's something that we need to be aware of in our own worship 00:08:57.320 --> 00:09:01.480 that it's good to sing mournfully as well as joyfully. 00:09:01.480 --> 00:09:07.240 It's good to sing and read and know the Monday morning Psalms that speak into the struggles 00:09:07.240 --> 00:09:17.000 and difficulties of our days and of our lives and that speak into our spiritual battles. 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:24.000 And Psalm 130 specific is one of what is generally regarded as one of the seven penitential Psalms, 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:30.480 ones that are confessional, that speak very much and confess before the living God and 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:33.600 rely on Him for His forgiveness and His grace. 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:38.200 They reach the very core of what it is to be, both Christian and what it is to be a 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:43.040 human at the very foundations of our faith. 00:09:43.040 --> 00:09:49.920 And I hope there are Psalms that you can empathize with, that you can relate to in your Christian 00:09:49.920 --> 00:09:55.720 life because I don't think, I think if we can't relate to them, there's something very 00:09:55.720 --> 00:10:05.360 significant missing from our walk with God if we feel that this confessional expression 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:08.519 with God is missing. 00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:10.920 And this is a great Psalm that helps us to do that. 00:10:10.920 --> 00:10:16.840 And it's unlike any of the other songs of ascent that we've, well we've only looked 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:23.200 at one of them, but the other songs of ascent are all very communal and they're very expressive 00:10:23.200 --> 00:10:29.440 of praise together as people go up to festival to remember God's work and to remember God's 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:30.440 salvation. 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:36.640 And there's this just this great sense of, there's a lighter, more praiseworthy sense 00:10:36.640 --> 00:10:38.680 in these songs of ascent. 00:10:38.680 --> 00:10:40.280 But this is very different. 00:10:40.280 --> 00:10:45.280 It's intensely personal, it's individual, not so much communal. 00:10:45.280 --> 00:10:49.000 And it's unattributed, we're not told who wrote it. 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:53.480 We don't know anything about the historical situation behind the original writing of the 00:10:53.480 --> 00:11:01.080 Psalm, which makes it great for us because we can immediately recognize it as a general 00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:06.919 Psalm for all of us to, as it were, be the authors of. 00:11:06.919 --> 00:11:11.360 And you sense that as this Psalm would have been sung on the way up to Jerusalem to the 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:17.159 times of worship and festival, it's as if as they're getting nearer Jerusalem, they 00:11:17.159 --> 00:11:24.039 seem to remember, or this individual seems to remember the holiness of God and recollects 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:31.679 their position before God like there's nobody else in the world but them and God. 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:35.639 As there, you know, there's a lot of crowd behind them, but it's just them and God. 00:11:35.639 --> 00:11:40.439 And the Psalmist here is bearing his soul before God. 00:11:40.439 --> 00:11:43.759 And we are privileged to read that because it matters for us. 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:47.480 It's like we are given and I'm very grateful and one day hopefully I'll shake the hand 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:52.279 of whoever wrote this in heaven and say, thank you for opening up. 00:11:52.279 --> 00:11:56.879 And thank you for letting us into the holy of holies of your heart and of your life and 00:11:56.879 --> 00:11:59.240 of your experience. 00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:04.399 And he's like, it's just like in the midst of this crowd, he sees himself before God. 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:11.600 And I wonder on a very rare occasion has it ever been like that for you in church or in 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:16.879 a gathered community of people who are worshiping that all of a sudden it's like there's nobody 00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:18.759 else there. 00:12:18.759 --> 00:12:20.279 And it's just you and God. 00:12:20.279 --> 00:12:22.399 It's a rare experience. 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:23.560 It doesn't happen. 00:12:23.560 --> 00:12:26.680 But I'm sure occasionally you've sensed that. 00:12:26.680 --> 00:12:28.759 Maybe it's the preaching of the word. 00:12:28.759 --> 00:12:31.000 Maybe it's a word that's been sung. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:32.320 Maybe it's in a prayer. 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:35.759 And it's like just a place empties. 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:36.759 And it's just you and God. 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:44.279 And it's almost like we've got that here in the Sam and he's desperate that God hears 00:12:44.279 --> 00:12:45.279 his voice. 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:46.779 Lord, hear my voice. 00:12:46.779 --> 00:12:48.039 I cry to you. 00:12:48.039 --> 00:12:49.600 Let your ears be attentive. 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:52.919 Please hear me to the voice of my cries. 00:12:52.919 --> 00:13:00.120 And that is what really is the essence of the Sam is that the Sam is isn't concerned about 00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:06.100 what anyone else hears because he realizes and he recognizes that in the depths of his 00:13:06.100 --> 00:13:13.159 spiritual condition where he feels guilty and sinful before God, he longs for God to 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:14.840 hear his cry. 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:22.159 And that is the essence of our faith is a one to one eyeball to eyeball as it were relationship 00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:23.680 with the living God. 00:13:23.680 --> 00:13:28.639 And you know, the best church experience in the world won't do it for you. 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:31.440 The best Christian friendships won't do it for you. 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:35.440 The depth of just intellectual knowledge won't do it for you. 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:40.440 The spiritual disciplines that is reading the Bible and worship and prayer will certainly 00:13:40.440 --> 00:13:41.880 prepare you. 00:13:41.880 --> 00:13:50.520 But it's this is God's presence that is craved in the Sam and it's a sense of guilt before 00:13:50.520 --> 00:13:59.240 God that is that the Sam is longing to be dealt with and to to receive mercy as a result 00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:01.440 of that. 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:06.280 And I think that's a very important thing is the Sam is he that's speaking very much 00:14:06.280 --> 00:14:12.440 about his own spiritual condition, his own iniquities, his own sins before the living 00:14:12.440 --> 00:14:13.440 God. 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:19.440 He's not talking about anything else but this one to one relationship with God. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:23.960 And I do think we use the word sin less and less. 00:14:23.960 --> 00:14:25.760 Maybe I'm guilty of doing that. 00:14:25.760 --> 00:14:27.080 I know I'm guilty of doing that. 00:14:27.080 --> 00:14:34.220 And part of the reason is I think people misunderstand what sin or they've got preconceived ideas 00:14:34.220 --> 00:14:36.400 of sin so they switch off. 00:14:36.400 --> 00:14:40.980 So quite often I'll use different words to try and provoke within myself and others a 00:14:40.980 --> 00:14:43.800 recognition of what sin is. 00:14:43.800 --> 00:14:45.360 It's not something to be made fun of. 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:47.240 It's not something that's outdated. 00:14:47.240 --> 00:14:51.640 It's not something that is misunderstood. 00:14:51.640 --> 00:14:57.000 And it's important that we understand what sin or the different biblical words are used 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:03.919 to explain what it is to be guilty before the living God. 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:08.120 Because iniquity is very much the whole idea of guilt before the living God. 00:15:08.120 --> 00:15:10.440 And we fall short of the mark. 00:15:10.440 --> 00:15:14.600 We fail to love as he commands us to love. 00:15:14.600 --> 00:15:19.240 We break his laws of love against him and against one another. 00:15:19.240 --> 00:15:24.399 And there's lots of different expressions and different explanations behind what sin 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:25.399 is. 00:15:25.399 --> 00:15:39.639 But I think there is a danger today of recognizing sin in a therapeutic way. 00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:44.759 What you might call therapeutic moralism that basically we see wrongdoing and we explain 00:15:44.759 --> 00:15:49.039 sin in terms of our own self-healing. 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:51.360 We've done something bad. 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:53.120 It's not good for us. 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:54.120 We're diseased. 00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:55.120 We need healed. 00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:58.159 That's an emphasis that is significant. 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:00.919 And I've probably used that particular emphasis a lot. 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:05.639 Or maybe we just think if I deal with this, then that will be better for me and better 00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:07.279 for the people around me. 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:10.960 So there's a kind of therapeutic moralism about it. 00:16:10.960 --> 00:16:12.120 It's a therapy. 00:16:12.120 --> 00:16:14.200 We look at it as something that needs to be dealt with. 00:16:14.200 --> 00:16:19.639 It's something that we can put right in our lives and we feel good about ourselves. 00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:25.799 There's a critical element missing and that is God. 00:16:25.799 --> 00:16:29.600 That is, there are relationships with God that sin more than all the damage it does 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:31.399 to ourselves and others. 00:16:31.399 --> 00:16:34.559 As sin is a broken relationship we have with God. 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:38.360 And it's that Sam 51 that we were singing earlier against you. 00:16:38.360 --> 00:16:41.799 You only have a sin and done what is evil in your sight. 00:16:41.799 --> 00:16:45.960 And yes, it has huge implications for everything else in life. 00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:54.360 But the core, the very basis of it is recognizing that it is God who we offend when we sin. 00:16:54.360 --> 00:16:57.240 It's God that we are broken relationship with. 00:16:57.240 --> 00:17:01.360 And it is in Christ alone that that can be healed. 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:08.319 So the psalmist is very much recognizing that it's crying out to the Lord, this saving God. 00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:13.279 And he's desperate longing for God's attention, for God to hear him. 00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:19.200 And you can hear almost, can't you, the intonation and the inflection behind the cry. 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:21.279 This is a cry. 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:28.559 This is not a polished theological entrance into the presence of the Holy of Holies. 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:34.639 This is a desperate person's cry for forgiveness because their life is a mess and they feel 00:17:34.639 --> 00:17:37.160 distant from their God. 00:17:37.160 --> 00:17:39.119 And it's heart-rending, isn't it? 00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:42.200 Out of the depths, I cry to you. 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:46.880 And we know, and if you've been here before, you know that we often talk about what the 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:53.720 Old Testament writers and the psalmist particularly think about water and think about the sea. 00:17:53.720 --> 00:17:56.160 It's always that place of danger and separation. 00:17:56.160 --> 00:18:01.799 There's so many references to the sea and to the depths and to the darkness and to the 00:18:01.799 --> 00:18:03.559 wildness of the seas. 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:07.360 And that was often as it was referenced spiritually for them. 00:18:07.360 --> 00:18:11.160 It's a really strong spiritual emblem in the psalms. 00:18:11.160 --> 00:18:13.000 It was a bad place. 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:14.519 They were afraid of the sea. 00:18:14.519 --> 00:18:15.960 They weren't good sailors. 00:18:15.960 --> 00:18:18.640 They weren't good swimmers, as it were. 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:22.880 And it spoke of spiritual darkness and foreboding. 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:25.480 And that's where the psalmist feels. 00:18:25.480 --> 00:18:27.120 He feels in the depths. 00:18:27.120 --> 00:18:28.840 He feels in darkness. 00:18:28.840 --> 00:18:33.120 And he's crying out to the living God for forgiveness and for light. 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:41.479 It's almost like we're witnessing a confession of cheating between partners, between a husband 00:18:41.479 --> 00:18:48.000 and a wife, or the confession of the breaking of trust in a really close friendship, which 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:51.639 is painful and hurtful. 00:18:51.639 --> 00:18:57.879 And there's many experiences in life that can plunge us into the depths and into despair, 00:18:57.879 --> 00:19:02.679 whether it be illness or poverty or depression. 00:19:02.680 --> 00:19:09.320 But this is, and all of these things can be related, but this is distinctly spiritual. 00:19:09.320 --> 00:19:15.560 This is about the condition of our heart, our spiritual relationship with God. 00:19:15.560 --> 00:19:23.360 And it's broken not so much, and our darkness is not so much our experiences or our circumstances, 00:19:23.360 --> 00:19:25.240 but it's a relationship. 00:19:25.240 --> 00:19:31.880 There's this relatable break between ourselves and our God and His cause by our sin. 00:19:31.880 --> 00:19:35.760 We've deviated from the right path and we've broken trust with our friends. 00:19:35.760 --> 00:19:38.920 And faith is like that. 00:19:38.920 --> 00:19:41.320 Our faith in Jesus Christ is like that. 00:19:41.320 --> 00:19:48.840 It involves us being in the depths because we recognize His light and the closer we are 00:19:48.840 --> 00:19:51.800 to Him, the darkness is exposed in us. 00:19:51.800 --> 00:19:53.600 And we don't avoid that. 00:19:53.600 --> 00:19:58.840 We don't avoid that because it's not despairing, but because there's healing and forgiveness 00:19:58.840 --> 00:19:59.840 there. 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:02.559 That's the one and two whose presence we come. 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:11.000 If our response to guilt or to faithlessness from our living God is to smother it or to 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:15.720 run away from it, then we're missing the whole point. 00:20:15.720 --> 00:20:21.839 We're missing the whole point of the honest beauty of confessing what we're like inside 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:27.039 before the living God and knowing His healing and knowing His love and knowing His acceptance 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:28.519 and His closeness. 00:20:28.519 --> 00:20:36.920 As we trust in Him as our Lord and Redeemer, as the one who has paid the price for all 00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:38.400 the darkness that's in us. 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:39.400 It's very paradoxical. 00:20:39.400 --> 00:20:40.400 I know that. 00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:41.400 I recognize that. 00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:43.400 C.S. Lewis makes that clear. 00:20:43.400 --> 00:20:47.839 He says, when a person, when a man is getting better, he says, he understands more and more 00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:50.759 clearly the evil that is still in him. 00:20:50.759 --> 00:20:54.839 When a man is getting worse, when a person is getting worse, they understand their own 00:20:54.839 --> 00:20:57.759 badness less and less. 00:20:57.759 --> 00:21:02.680 So it's a direct relation to the closeness we are to Jesus. 00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:10.200 Do we find that there's that confessional reality and that freeing and redeeming forgiveness 00:21:10.200 --> 00:21:11.640 and strength? 00:21:11.640 --> 00:21:17.879 Spurgeon, a great preacher from two centuries ago, was quoting James Vaughan, who is a hymn 00:21:17.879 --> 00:21:20.559 writer, I think, roughly at the same time. 00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:26.339 And he said, deep, deep places beget deep devotion. 00:21:26.339 --> 00:21:30.720 Man prays, but very few cry. 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:39.959 But of those who do cry to God, the majority would say, I owe it to the debts. 00:21:39.959 --> 00:21:42.720 I learned it there. 00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:46.000 I learned it there. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:58.839 And I think that's a very profound statement that even if today you come today to the worship 00:21:58.839 --> 00:22:04.680 service and you have done something really awful that nobody knows about, and it overwhelms 00:22:04.680 --> 00:22:11.640 you with guilt and despair, that's where we cry out to the Lord for mercy. 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:13.559 And that's what he asks from us. 00:22:13.559 --> 00:22:20.639 And the reality is, the more we know him, the more we spend time in his beauty and in 00:22:20.639 --> 00:22:29.139 his light, the deeper the depths we recognize are being cleansed by him as they're exposed 00:22:29.139 --> 00:22:34.659 and as we confess them before him. 00:22:34.660 --> 00:22:44.759 Here speaks people who get it, and the psalmist gets it, if we're legalistic in our Christian 00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:48.279 understanding, it's just about ticking the box. 00:22:48.279 --> 00:22:53.200 Or if we're moralists, moralists who just think we will do our best and that will be 00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:56.180 enough. 00:22:56.180 --> 00:23:02.540 Then we miss out on this great reality, and you will have a God, if that is what you are, 00:23:02.539 --> 00:23:06.879 if you are a legalist or a moralist, your God is distant. 00:23:06.879 --> 00:23:08.639 He's far away. 00:23:08.639 --> 00:23:13.879 He is uncaring and he is demanding and harsh. 00:23:13.879 --> 00:23:21.000 It's only as we fall at the foot of the cross and are touched by his grace that we understand 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:28.240 that his commitment and his love and his openness and his generosity will find out no other place. 00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:33.400 And that's the paradox of faith and the reality for us. 00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:37.960 And so what we find is that in the Psalms and in our Christian faith all the time we 00:23:37.960 --> 00:23:42.160 are, it's the clashing and embracing of two worlds. 00:23:42.160 --> 00:23:44.799 First there is unquestionable guilt. 00:23:44.799 --> 00:23:47.680 That is a reality. 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:53.720 We, a holy God is revealed to us who is unlike us. 00:23:53.720 --> 00:23:56.599 That's the reality of his own self revelation. 00:23:56.599 --> 00:23:58.039 He's uncreated. 00:23:58.039 --> 00:23:59.319 He is completely whole. 00:23:59.319 --> 00:24:00.319 He is other. 00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:01.319 He is love. 00:24:01.319 --> 00:24:02.319 He is purity. 00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:03.319 He is justice. 00:24:03.319 --> 00:24:05.319 He is generosity. 00:24:05.319 --> 00:24:08.639 That's who he is. 00:24:08.639 --> 00:24:10.759 And you know how it is in life sometimes? 00:24:10.759 --> 00:24:18.679 We have armchair experts about things, maybe especially in the field of television or sports 00:24:18.679 --> 00:24:19.679 on television. 00:24:19.679 --> 00:24:21.399 You've got armchair experts. 00:24:21.400 --> 00:24:29.200 There are over weight beer guzzling sports fans who always think they can do better and 00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:35.920 know better than the professionals that are playing on the screen in their ignorance and 00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:39.480 misplaced pride in their own abilities. 00:24:39.480 --> 00:24:42.800 And I think sometimes we can be like that with God. 00:24:42.800 --> 00:24:47.840 We can be armchair experts about what he should be like and what he should do and how he should 00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:54.039 treat us as if we know better than him. 00:24:54.039 --> 00:25:00.319 And that is such a challenge for our misplaced pride and our ignorance that he's come as 00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:08.159 the living holy God and he has been nailed to a cross and somehow we think he can do 00:25:08.159 --> 00:25:11.319 better. 00:25:11.319 --> 00:25:16.519 And it's as we sometimes realize that the ugliness and darkness of our own motives and 00:25:16.519 --> 00:25:22.559 our own hearts before him, even for ourselves and maybe sometimes for other, the way we treat 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:27.599 other people, is challenging and is exposing. 00:25:27.599 --> 00:25:35.200 And so we look for God to expose our hearts because within that there's healing, isn't 00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:36.200 there? 00:25:36.200 --> 00:25:42.279 As our relationship with him grows and as our forgiveness is experienced. 00:25:42.279 --> 00:25:47.519 So there's definitely unquestionable guilt in this paradox and this clashing of two 00:25:47.519 --> 00:25:54.119 worlds, but there's also unimaginable redemption. 00:25:54.119 --> 00:26:00.119 Let your ears, verse 2, be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy. 00:26:00.119 --> 00:26:04.440 For if Lord you should mark iniquities who can stand but with you there is forgiveness 00:26:04.440 --> 00:26:05.599 that you may be feared. 00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:11.200 There's just this great unimaginable mercy that is forgiveness. 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:16.720 Whenever we go to the living God for healing and for strength, that's the vitality and 00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:21.799 the centrality of repentance in our lives. 00:26:21.799 --> 00:26:28.559 I think often too, it's too little a part of our Christian lives and yet it's so important. 00:26:28.559 --> 00:26:34.720 It's hard to conceptualize how much we need the living God in our lives and it's hard 00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:43.480 to understand what hell is like and what Calvary is like together because they are both the 00:26:43.480 --> 00:26:51.160 same thing in many ways where he takes our forsakenness and our darkness and it is our 00:26:51.160 --> 00:26:53.920 sins that have put him there. 00:26:53.920 --> 00:27:01.680 And it's entering into that in many ways and seeing ourselves and seeing the cost and 00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:08.440 yet looking at the tremendous love and mercy and peace of realization. 00:27:08.440 --> 00:27:13.000 And I must go back and look at that sermon on Judas. 00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:18.000 Unimaginable redemption and this great new reality which comes out of this confession 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:22.480 where the psalmist says, I wait for the Lord, my soul waits in His Word. 00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:27.080 I hope my soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman. 00:27:27.080 --> 00:27:28.980 More than the watchman I wait. 00:27:28.980 --> 00:27:34.680 So there's this great new reality as we confess our need before him and our sin before him. 00:27:34.680 --> 00:27:41.640 There's this great hope, great hope in his promise and in his truth and in this saving 00:27:41.640 --> 00:27:46.440 character that all the people are going up to Jerusalem to remember in the three different 00:27:46.440 --> 00:27:50.680 festivals, festivals salvation and provision by God right through in the Old Testament 00:27:50.680 --> 00:27:52.839 as we looked at last week. 00:27:52.839 --> 00:27:57.400 And it's as if as they're walking up, maybe at the early morning they're seeing the watchman 00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:02.360 that are on the ramparts of the walls of Jerusalem and they're thinking of these watchmen and 00:28:02.360 --> 00:28:07.440 they're saying, well, I've got to wait on the Lord like that because I know that the 00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:13.040 morning is coming and I know that that comes from his forgiveness and from his grace and 00:28:13.040 --> 00:28:17.840 there's that repeated emphasis which so often happens in Scripture. 00:28:17.840 --> 00:28:20.200 Sometimes we feel like these watchmen don't we? 00:28:20.200 --> 00:28:21.680 You're kind of sleepless. 00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:22.960 You're restless in your life. 00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:23.960 You're mine. 00:28:23.960 --> 00:28:29.039 It seems to have been hard for them that their mind were playing games with the half light 00:28:29.039 --> 00:28:31.440 of the morning and was there people coming? 00:28:31.440 --> 00:28:33.920 What was the enemy doing? 00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:44.160 And as they got exhausted as their eyes went heavy, as they craved that morning to come, 00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:47.400 then he sees that and experiences the Christian life like that. 00:28:47.400 --> 00:28:53.519 In our Christian lives, there's this constant need to wait on the Lord and recognize that 00:28:53.519 --> 00:28:55.039 his answers come. 00:28:55.039 --> 00:29:00.200 His promises are true and we depend on him and seek to know him and love him greater. 00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:02.839 And the response of that is shared testimony. 00:29:02.839 --> 00:29:06.039 And with this we finish verses seven and eight, the last two verses. 00:29:06.039 --> 00:29:11.000 Oh, Israel, hoping the Lord for with him is steadfast love with him, plentious redemption. 00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:13.039 He will redeem Israel from all their iniquities. 00:29:13.039 --> 00:29:19.559 It's like they're snapped out of that completely individual place where they have been in thinking 00:29:19.559 --> 00:29:24.399 of their selves with God and they're back on the road with their companions. 00:29:24.399 --> 00:29:28.240 And there's a shared testimony of what God has done. 00:29:28.240 --> 00:29:33.359 That's one of the reasons we gather together because we share testimony and we are not 00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:36.440 called to be isolate Christians. 00:29:36.440 --> 00:29:39.399 We're not called to walk this road on our own. 00:29:39.399 --> 00:29:44.200 Yes, there will be an emphasis in times when we feel it's only me and God in the whole 00:29:44.200 --> 00:29:45.200 universe. 00:29:45.200 --> 00:29:52.799 The idea is to bring us to that point of confession and forgiveness and assurance of his great 00:29:52.799 --> 00:29:54.480 love and his great care for us. 00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:58.960 And we then share that relief from despair with others in our lives. 00:29:58.960 --> 00:30:02.759 There's this great hope that we're to have in the Lord. 00:30:02.759 --> 00:30:09.440 Hebrews speaks of it as that sure and certain hope, not a wispy kind of vague hope. 00:30:09.440 --> 00:30:16.320 We've talked about that a lot as we understand what he reveals and what he says for us and 00:30:16.320 --> 00:30:18.400 what his promises are. 00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:20.920 It's interesting. 00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:23.039 Preacher heal yourself. 00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:26.360 Last Sunday we mentioned that Psalm 124. 00:30:26.360 --> 00:30:31.120 And if you remember that Psalm had two great calls. 00:30:31.120 --> 00:30:36.200 One need for help, Lord, help me. 00:30:36.200 --> 00:30:41.440 And there was also a recognition that the Lord is on my side. 00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:44.440 And that was last Sunday morning. 00:30:44.440 --> 00:30:52.160 On Monday in particular, and I'm not going to anything here, but I felt really anxious 00:30:52.160 --> 00:30:54.120 on Monday morning for a variety of reasons. 00:30:54.120 --> 00:30:57.200 And it's something I very rarely experienced, to be honest. 00:30:57.200 --> 00:31:02.279 But I had physical symptoms with that as well, with that anxiety. 00:31:02.279 --> 00:31:05.559 Lots of different things that happen anyway. 00:31:05.559 --> 00:31:11.759 So what I thought was, well, listen, preacher, apply the truth that you've heard, that you've 00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:19.359 preached yesterday about the Lord being on my side, the Lord being my help. 00:31:19.359 --> 00:31:25.919 And I cried out and I called out because I recognized that it's far too easy to know 00:31:25.919 --> 00:31:31.039 these things in our head and not believe them in our hearts and apply them in our lives. 00:31:31.039 --> 00:31:36.680 It's not fable and it's not make-believe and it's not just trying to feel better about 00:31:36.680 --> 00:31:37.680 ourselves. 00:31:37.680 --> 00:31:43.680 It's a living relationship with the God who is on our side and who promises to be our 00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:44.680 help. 00:31:44.680 --> 00:31:47.240 Now, that's not an easy fix. 00:31:47.240 --> 00:31:52.839 That's not to say that the reasons for anxieties go away, but it gives us a different perspective. 00:31:52.839 --> 00:31:56.359 And the physical symptoms went. 00:31:56.359 --> 00:31:59.759 The reasons for the anxiety were still there. 00:31:59.759 --> 00:32:04.160 I knew that God was on my side and I knew that He was my help to take me through. 00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:13.960 And here I am a week later because God has been my help and He is that steadfast love 00:32:13.960 --> 00:32:19.200 for us, that great word there, steadfast love, covenant love for us. 00:32:19.200 --> 00:32:22.319 You know, He says, you have my word. 00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:26.519 You have my word as I trust in you, as you trust in me. 00:32:26.519 --> 00:32:31.960 His resolute will, it's not a capricious emotional attachment to us. 00:32:31.960 --> 00:32:39.079 It's sealed in the blood of His Son that He wants us to cry out to Him for forgiveness 00:32:39.079 --> 00:32:44.200 and hopes the settled reason of God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit that we 00:32:44.200 --> 00:32:48.559 spoke about to the children in the character of who God is. 00:32:48.559 --> 00:32:56.160 And it's a message of forgiveness for with you there is forgiveness and you redeem Israel. 00:32:56.160 --> 00:32:58.200 Forgiveness, different words. 00:32:58.200 --> 00:33:06.840 We tap into that deep seated recognition of God's forgiveness. 00:33:06.840 --> 00:33:11.960 Now we can ignore or we can reject the whole idea of guilt if you want. 00:33:11.960 --> 00:33:15.000 That's what many people will tell us to do. 00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:22.800 But guilt is only bad if it's not real and it's only bad if there's no forgiveness. 00:33:22.799 --> 00:33:28.359 But with God there is great forgiveness and we need to share it and live it honestly within 00:33:28.359 --> 00:33:33.799 the church and testify it to it within the world. 00:33:33.799 --> 00:33:42.359 So let's not, as we rise from our time together, be armchair experts about God, judging or 00:33:42.359 --> 00:33:46.319 thinking that we could do better or no better. 00:33:46.319 --> 00:33:51.559 And how dare He say we need to be forgiven and that our hearts are not good. 00:33:51.559 --> 00:33:59.200 But understand that He is good and He transforms our hearts to become good as we trust and 00:33:59.200 --> 00:34:05.679 understand in His sacrificial love and salvation for us. 00:34:05.679 --> 00:34:07.679 Amen. 00:34:07.679 --> 00:34:10.719 Lord God, hear us as we cry. 00:34:10.719 --> 00:34:13.440 Thank you for this, Sam, for this honesty. 00:34:13.440 --> 00:34:17.759 Thank you that you don't demand of us to be better than we could ever be. 00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:23.200 That you don't ask us to jump through hoops to be in relationship with you. 00:34:23.200 --> 00:34:24.400 You've seen us. 00:34:24.400 --> 00:34:25.400 You know us. 00:34:25.400 --> 00:34:27.480 We're a mess. 00:34:27.480 --> 00:34:32.640 And yet you've come and you've said, I love you and I am dying in your place and taking 00:34:32.640 --> 00:34:39.280 the mess that is your life before God and I will take that guilt before God. 00:34:39.280 --> 00:34:46.320 The Father is God the Son with the agreement of God the Spirit and I will defeat the reality 00:34:46.320 --> 00:34:50.240 of the separation that there is between us on the cross. 00:34:50.240 --> 00:34:57.280 And in resurrection, which we look at tonight, we pray that we would realize forgiveness 00:34:57.280 --> 00:35:01.160 and life and relationship unparalleled. 00:35:01.159 --> 00:35:17.199 Amen.