WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.759 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:18.400 My name is Josiah. If you don't know me yet, I'm a ministry intern here at the church. Today, 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:24.319 Pastor George is on holiday and he'll be back next week. So this is the last week that you're stuck with 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:31.279 me. We're back to Pastor George's wonderful preaching next week. But before we enter into 00:01:31.279 --> 00:01:40.479 this sermon, let's just ask God and pray to him this morning as we begin. Father in heaven, Lord, 00:01:40.479 --> 00:01:48.159 we thank you that you are a great God. We thank you that you are just. We thank you that you hear us. 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:54.079 We thank you that you are our savior and God if we put our trust and our faith and trust in you. 00:01:54.959 --> 00:02:00.319 We thank you, God, that you hear our prayers for his sake. And we pray that this morning that you 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:08.560 would be glorified. Help us to soak up the words of your promises this morning. Renew our faith in you. 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:14.319 And we pray that you would help us and equip us to trust in Christ all the more and to walk in renewed 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:19.199 obedience for his glory. We pray these things in his name. Amen. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:29.439 Well, whatever people believe about God, just about everybody prays in certain times, especially when 00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:36.159 people are in trouble. But Psalm 143, which Hudson read for us and which I'll be preaching on this 00:02:36.159 --> 00:02:43.759 morning, it forces us to ask a question. It forces us to ask, why should God hear us when we pray? 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:49.680 Why should God hear us when we pray? Maybe we don't think about that. Maybe we take that for granted. 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:55.520 You know, maybe for some of us, maybe the answer to that in our inclination in our heart is to say, 00:02:55.520 --> 00:03:00.880 well, of course God would hear me. But maybe for other people, when they ask that question, 00:03:00.880 --> 00:03:08.160 maybe the inclination of their heart is to say, if God knows me, if God knew me, there is no way that 00:03:08.160 --> 00:03:13.920 he would hear me. There's no way that he would want me to come into his presence. Of course God would not 00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:21.840 hear me. And so whichever side of that you fall on this morning, Psalm 143, I think it has for us 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:28.000 a wonderful hope. It has for us a message that we need to hear. It has grace for us. 00:03:29.300 --> 00:03:35.280 And so please turn in your Bibles to the 143rd Psalm. And if you don't have a Bible, there's some 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:40.560 free blue and white ones down there at the front. Feel free to just come on down and grab one. 00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:46.060 It would be great if you open it up, because we're just going to go through it. And it would be great if 00:03:46.060 --> 00:03:52.280 you could have that with you to see, is what I'm saying faithful to the text? Because at the end of 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:59.780 the day, you know, I'm just a guy, but the power behind preaching is God speaking. And if you can see 00:03:59.780 --> 00:04:05.539 that, if you can see it from the word, then I think that would be a wonderful encouragement to you. 00:04:05.539 --> 00:04:14.500 So turning to Psalm 143, let's read the first verse. Psalm 143, a Psalm of David. 00:04:15.639 --> 00:04:23.860 Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give ear to my pleas for mercy. In your faithfulness, answer me. In your 00:04:23.860 --> 00:04:32.600 righteousness. You can hear in David a tone of desperation. His enemies are coming after him. 00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:41.020 And he asks God to have mercy and to intervene on his behalf. And he thinks that God should. 00:04:41.820 --> 00:04:47.460 And he thinks that God should because he knows that God is righteous, that God always does what's right. 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:53.620 And at this point, we could say, so far so good. Great. God is going to hear me. It's all going to 00:04:53.620 --> 00:05:02.540 work out for me. What a relief. But verse 2 surprises us. Enter not into judgment with 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:10.439 your servant. For no one living is righteous before you. In a courtroom, I think this is called an 00:05:10.439 --> 00:05:18.840 admission of guilt. David is saying that he doesn't deserve God's help. And he says no one deserves 00:05:18.840 --> 00:05:25.320 God's help. And the implication here is that I don't deserve God's help. I'm not. I'm not righteous. 00:05:25.319 --> 00:05:34.740 And neither are any of us. This is a recognition of a universal guilt before God. And so my first point 00:05:34.740 --> 00:05:43.819 is that God does not save because we are righteous. The Bible says, God says, that no one is good. 00:05:43.819 --> 00:05:50.860 But if God is a fair judge, then how on earth can guilty people like David in this scenario, 00:05:51.339 --> 00:05:57.560 people like you and me who are guilty and we ought to be sentenced, how can we go to the judge and expect 00:05:57.560 --> 00:06:06.379 not to get a conviction, but instead to get help in our need? But David asks God to relate to him 00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:12.959 beyond the realm of law. And yet somehow in a way that's consistent with God's righteousness, 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:20.680 but also even because God is righteous. That's a mystery that is going to be worked out as we move 00:06:20.680 --> 00:06:27.079 through this psalm by the end of it. But first we need to go on a journey with David. Next he tells God 00:06:27.079 --> 00:06:31.420 what's going on. What's going on in his life that's bringing him to this desperate cry? 00:06:31.420 --> 00:06:40.640 Hear my prayer. And he continues, for the enemy has pursued my soul. He has crushed my life to the 00:06:40.640 --> 00:06:50.120 ground. He has made me sit in darkness like those long dead. Therefore, my spirit faints within me. 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:58.900 My heart within me is appalled. These are pretty heavy words. And this is probably happening 00:06:58.899 --> 00:07:05.699 if you know your Old Testament. When Saul is after him with the army, he's been driven from his home. 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:12.779 He's been driven into the wilderness. There's false accusations against him. His friends have 00:07:12.779 --> 00:07:17.419 abandoned him. He's alone. He's in danger. He's in darkness. 00:07:20.539 --> 00:07:28.259 He has no hope for the future ahead. And he seems, it's as if he's been forgotten by everyone he once knew. 00:07:28.899 --> 00:07:36.279 And so when he says, my spirit faints within me, commentators who know the original language, 00:07:36.479 --> 00:07:43.359 who have that background, what they say is that there's an extra nuance here that he's saying that 00:07:43.359 --> 00:07:50.139 his soul has become numb. That everything he's gone through in his sufferings, it's traumatized his soul 00:07:50.139 --> 00:07:57.699 and driven it to a numbness to the point now where he's almost ready to just give up on life. That he is 00:07:57.699 --> 00:08:04.219 losing, he's losing the will to continue. And he is to the point of he's, he is not quite there, but he is 00:08:04.219 --> 00:08:11.879 almost to the point of despairing of life itself. And this is brutally honest. This is super raw. And you 00:08:11.879 --> 00:08:18.139 know, it's good news that the Bible is not superficial. It talks about real hard things, real honest 00:08:18.139 --> 00:08:23.659 things. And David models for us an honesty when we go towards God that we can and should be honest. 00:08:24.439 --> 00:08:30.779 We can often sometimes think that on our prayers we stay superficial level and maybe, maybe we kind of 00:08:30.779 --> 00:08:37.340 assume a sort of a pious kind of attitude. But David is brutally honest and he tells him, 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:39.639 I'm at the point of real despair. 00:08:39.639 --> 00:08:48.679 And while it might be for a different reason, maybe you've been here before, maybe you will get to a 00:08:48.679 --> 00:08:54.519 place like this in the future for a different reason, but whatever your circumstances, I'm thankful 00:08:54.519 --> 00:09:01.259 that this verse is in the Bible because it shows us, my second point is that God's greatest servants 00:09:01.259 --> 00:09:09.059 were tempted to despair. And if your soul is tempted into a despair that life is just extremely difficult 00:09:09.059 --> 00:09:14.639 right now, maybe it's because of your sin and you feel like you've got a guilty conscience, 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:21.959 your sins are weighing on you, and you feel trapped, you feel rejected by God, you feel horrible 00:09:21.959 --> 00:09:28.539 about yourself or what you've done, or maybe it's different. Maybe for some other reason, life is just 00:09:28.539 --> 00:09:36.979 really hard right now. That you've got, you're in good company. You've, David is like this as well. 00:09:36.980 --> 00:09:44.460 Job, Job, even our Lord Jesus Christ in his humanity when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, 00:09:45.379 --> 00:09:52.860 said that his soul is sorrowful even to the point of death. So I want to tell you that if you're in 00:09:52.860 --> 00:09:58.960 this place, that you're not a bad Christian. You know, we can often think that Christians got to be 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:07.480 chipper, you know, and super positive all the time and optimistic. But the psalm shows us that it's okay 00:10:07.480 --> 00:10:13.940 if you're not in that place. If you're in a dark place, you're not a bad Christian. You have company 00:10:13.940 --> 00:10:21.320 there. We have a Savior in Christ who has been there and who understands and can sympathize and 00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:30.440 who prays with you. But what do you do when you find yourself in that darkness? Well, verse 5 shows 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:36.900 us what David does, and it models for us a way for us to respond in that. He says, I remember the days 00:10:36.900 --> 00:10:45.840 of old. I meditate on all you have done. I ponder the work of your hands. I stretch my hands out to you. 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:52.180 My soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Notice that when David is tempted to despair, 00:10:53.220 --> 00:11:00.340 he, first he remembers, and then he meditates, and then he ponders, or he reflects on all that God has 00:11:00.340 --> 00:11:06.280 done in the days of old. You know, it's fantastic if we develop a habit and a pattern in our lives of 00:11:06.280 --> 00:11:11.440 regularly reading the Bible every day. We are reminded of this. This is the story of the scriptures, 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:20.460 that God is a Savior of his covenant people. David could look back and see how God saved the people 00:11:20.460 --> 00:11:26.680 of Israel time and time again. The exodus, the times under the judges, the times in his own life, 00:11:26.780 --> 00:11:35.120 all of these things, because the scriptures show us God has proven himself in history to be a Savior. 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:43.419 God has proven himself to be a Savior, and he needs to remember this and to chew on this and for this to 00:11:43.419 --> 00:11:52.659 become real in his heart. He needs to know, as we need to know, that our feelings aren't the truth. 00:11:53.600 --> 00:12:02.820 God's Word is truth. Our feelings aren't sovereign. God is sovereign. And the Bible says that God is a 00:12:02.820 --> 00:12:09.360 Savior in desperate places. And we see here such a hint of the gospel, such a model of the gospel, 00:12:10.860 --> 00:12:15.860 of all that Christ has, all that God has done to save his people time and time again. And this side 00:12:15.860 --> 00:12:22.140 of the cross, we can see that even so much more clearly. I'm reminded of the lyrics of the hymn, 00:12:22.139 --> 00:12:32.000 when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within. Upward I look, and I see him there, 00:12:32.179 --> 00:12:41.080 who made an end of all my sin. Well, point three, God's servants are renewed by remembering that God 00:12:41.080 --> 00:12:47.679 saves. Look at that last part of verse five, and notice this play on words with hands. You know, 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:52.759 the Psalms are great, great literature. They're from God, but there's sometimes such creative 00:12:52.759 --> 00:12:58.099 elements in that that are kind of fun to see, and it helps us understand it. But look at this. It says, 00:12:59.079 --> 00:13:05.259 it's only when David grapples with the fact that God's hands save, that God reaches down into 00:13:05.259 --> 00:13:11.279 history with a strong hand, you know, a strong arm, as sometimes the Bible says, and saves. It's only then 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:19.139 when he sees that, that God, that David rather, can reach out his hands to God in prayer with the hope 00:13:19.139 --> 00:13:25.480 that he can save. But despite all of his danger, all of his immediate danger, his prayer evolves. 00:13:26.139 --> 00:13:34.259 And David now, he's reaching out to God himself. His soul is thirsting for God like a, like as if he's in a dry 00:13:34.259 --> 00:13:42.480 and a parched land. He needs, his soul needs a renewing rain. Things are difficult. Things are hard. 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:49.720 And he needs God to get through it. He needs God's presence. And so he reaches out to God himself. 00:13:50.679 --> 00:13:57.620 And this is my fourth point, that God's servants don't just want God's things. They want God. 00:13:57.620 --> 00:14:05.759 God. The Bible says that we love God because he loved us first. And that is a wonderful, wonderful 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:12.100 truth of the gospel, that, that God is the one who takes the initiative in saving us, that we see what 00:14:12.100 --> 00:14:19.179 he, what he did for us in the acts of, of history. We see what he's done for us on the cross. And that, 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:25.519 and we see his great love for us, that what he went through in love to save us, and our hearts are ready, 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:30.059 and they can't help but respond. When we understand, when we truly understand that, we can't help but to 00:14:30.059 --> 00:14:39.879 respond in love. But are you only loving God because you love the things that you get from him? 00:14:40.579 --> 00:14:46.939 Or do you love him for his own sake? Do we love God just because we like the, the sense of peace that 00:14:46.939 --> 00:14:53.679 we maybe get in our prayers and devotional lives? Do we love God only because of the benefits that we 00:14:53.679 --> 00:15:00.120 associate with salvation or the church or things like that? Or do we love God for who God is, 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:08.319 for his own sake? Well, the psalm pivots on this. Psalms are, were often meant to be sung in liturgical 00:15:08.319 --> 00:15:14.979 worship. Maybe there's a choir, there's instruments. And then there's this word at this point in, 00:15:15.219 --> 00:15:19.899 at least in the ESV and in the original, it says selah. And this is probably a word for an 00:15:19.899 --> 00:15:25.879 intermission. It's a take a pause, change the band, bring out the different choir. We're going to, 00:15:26.179 --> 00:15:30.959 and when they come back, the song is going to continue, but it's going to be in a key change. 00:15:31.720 --> 00:15:36.579 The, the, the song is still the same song, but there's new notes to be sung. There's a pivot here. 00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:45.539 Well, verse seven begins to bridge into this. Here's what it says. Answer me quickly, O Lord, 00:15:45.539 --> 00:15:51.719 my spirit fails. And before continuing on, just, this is just a helpful point, I think, for us. 00:15:52.219 --> 00:15:56.799 I want to point out that just because David remembered God, that in his desperation, he 00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:02.639 remembers God, that God is a savior. He reaches out his hands and he, and he prays and renewed prayer. 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:07.980 Just because of this doesn't mean all of David's problems just went away just like that. And it 00:16:07.980 --> 00:16:13.360 doesn't mean that David right away felt better or that everything was okay in his life and he was in a 00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:19.759 place of stability and, and comfort and security or anything like that. It doesn't say that he 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:25.300 automatically feels better. And this Psalm is not really telling us how to feel better. That's not 00:16:25.300 --> 00:16:31.820 really its point. The message of the Bible, the message of Christianity, it's not mostly therapeutic. 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:37.980 Now, it's true. There are things in here that are wonderful medicine for us, therapeutic in that 00:16:37.980 --> 00:16:44.039 sense. But really, at the, at the heart of it, the message is not therapeutic. It's salvific, that we 00:16:44.039 --> 00:16:50.779 need a savior, and that we have a savior. The Psalm isn't telling us how to feel better. It's telling us, 00:16:50.960 --> 00:16:54.940 where do you go to get a hope that can endure suffering? 00:16:57.480 --> 00:17:04.380 Well, continuing on, David says, hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit, 00:17:04.380 --> 00:17:10.900 down into, you think of like a grave, down into the grave pit. Let me hear in the morning of your 00:17:10.900 --> 00:17:19.040 steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift my soul. 00:17:19.780 --> 00:17:29.220 Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord. I have fled to you for refuge. Before David was sitting in darkness, 00:17:29.220 --> 00:17:35.240 in the, the nighttime of the soul, he's not sure if he's going to make it to the day. He says, says, 00:17:35.319 --> 00:17:41.740 if God, if you don't save soon, I'm not going to make it. But now, he's remembered God. He's gone 00:17:41.740 --> 00:17:47.220 back, and he's remembered God, that God is a faithful savior to his covenant people, and he prays, and 00:17:47.220 --> 00:17:51.660 something has changed in him, and now he believes that God will bring him safely to the morning. 00:17:51.660 --> 00:17:59.880 Now, he believes that there will be a morning. Faith is a, is a popular word in our culture, 00:18:00.019 --> 00:18:05.279 and sometimes we hear people say things like, you need to have faith. You need to just have faith, 00:18:05.820 --> 00:18:11.240 and, but it's sometimes, it's less clear always, um, what we should have faith in, and what even 00:18:11.240 --> 00:18:15.000 really is faith, to begin with. I mean, it's so important in the Christian life, we should think 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:22.539 about what is faith. But this, this psalm gives us three pictures of what biblical faith is. 00:18:26.339 --> 00:18:35.339 And in doing so, he also shows us why should God save him? What's his claim upon God? Well, 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:42.680 these two go together. Verse eight, because in you I trust, because to you I lift up my soul, 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:46.840 or the NIV, I just think puts it really nicely, help me understand it. It says, 00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:56.880 to you I entrust my life. Verse nine, I have fled to you for refuge. Save in faith, it's, it's about a 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:02.460 trust, but it's not about a bare trust, but just about a trust in, in general. And it's not even about 00:19:02.460 --> 00:19:08.019 how much you trust. It's not even about a quantity or something like that, but it's about who you trust. 00:19:08.019 --> 00:19:13.259 You know, it's, it's like, I think there's an old analogy that says, in some ways, faith is kind 00:19:13.259 --> 00:19:17.039 of like a rope, you know, that you're, you're holding on to. It's not just that you kind of 00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:23.379 believe, oh, this exists, but you trust. You trust that the rope you're holding on to is going to be 00:19:23.379 --> 00:19:29.000 able to support your weight, that you're not going to fall. And why can you believe that? You're not 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:34.460 trusting in the rope. You're not trusting, you're not having faith in faith. You're having faith in the 00:19:34.460 --> 00:19:40.680 one who holds the rope. You're having faith in God who holds the rope, that you can entrust your soul 00:19:40.680 --> 00:19:47.980 to him. And when, when you're in desperation, when you're in a hard place, when you're under conviction 00:19:47.980 --> 00:19:55.019 of sin, you can run to God for refuge because you put your faith and trust in him that he can hold you, 00:19:55.480 --> 00:20:01.380 that he can hold your weight. And that's point five, that God saves those who trust in him. 00:20:01.380 --> 00:20:08.860 But knowing that God will save him because David goes to him in faith, we see a new prayer request 00:20:08.860 --> 00:20:14.820 emerge. This is part of that key change. He says, make me know the way I should go. And jumping down 00:20:14.820 --> 00:20:21.720 to verse 10, he says, teach me to do your will for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on level 00:20:21.720 --> 00:20:29.440 ground. Verse six showed us that David didn't just want God to do something for him. He didn't just want 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:34.900 something transactional out of God. He wanted, he needed salvation. He needed to be saved. Absolutely. 00:20:35.420 --> 00:20:43.700 But he also loved God and he wanted God. And now he's out of his love for God. He wants God to teach 00:20:43.700 --> 00:20:49.019 him how to be a better servant. We saw before he says, nobody is righteous before you, God. I'm not 00:20:49.019 --> 00:20:54.660 righteous before you. I'm not a righteous servant. And now he's asking that God would teach him and help 00:20:54.660 --> 00:21:00.040 him to do his will because he wants to live in a way that pleases God. He wants to live in a way that 00:21:00.040 --> 00:21:09.820 pleases God because he loves God. The same faith that goes to God for salvation loves God and wants 00:21:09.820 --> 00:21:16.220 to live in a way that pleases him. But notice how powerful, how powerless rather, David is to actually 00:21:16.220 --> 00:21:23.259 do these things. And this is true of us as well. You know, when he says, when he says, show me the way I 00:21:23.259 --> 00:21:30.460 should go, teach me, lead me, all of these things. It's, David is acknowledging and confessing that he 00:21:30.460 --> 00:21:37.279 doesn't know the way. He doesn't know the way to do God's will or what God wants. And even if he did know 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:44.279 it, he wouldn't, he wouldn't know how to do it. And even if he did know how, he wouldn't be able to do 00:21:44.279 --> 00:21:53.420 God's will. That he's prone to stumble. And I think that's one of the things about this text, when he asks 00:21:53.420 --> 00:21:59.019 God to lead him on level ground, it's because he knows if the ground's not level, if there's any bumps in it, 00:21:59.019 --> 00:22:03.680 I'm going to be tripping all over the place, I'm going to fall and I will not be able to stand. I won't be able 00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:12.720 to walk in your will. And we're exactly like that. I think of the hymn that says, prone to wander. 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:17.100 Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. 00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:27.000 And so he asks God to teach him the way that he should go. And he asks God to train him to do God's 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:35.259 will. And finally, he asks God's Holy Spirit to lead him, to shepherd him, to hold his hand as if 00:22:35.259 --> 00:22:41.680 crossing this level ground by God's grace. And that's my sixth point that the psalm models for us, 00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:46.360 that God's servants can't serve God without God. We can't serve God without God's help. 00:22:47.380 --> 00:22:51.860 You know, when we do good things for God, we're just giving back what God's already given to us. 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:56.200 You know, that's a wonderful miracle of grace that if we understand that... 00:22:59.160 --> 00:23:06.279 I'm a student at Ryle there, and we read this book at one point called On the Holy Spirit by St. Basil the 00:23:06.279 --> 00:23:12.519 Great. And it's a wonderful book. And he...this is just an aside, but he was saying that there's 00:23:12.519 --> 00:23:17.460 something wonderful to see in that, that the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is called 00:23:17.460 --> 00:23:23.279 the Holy Spirit. And one of the things this teaches about us is that if there's any holiness in us, 00:23:23.660 --> 00:23:27.960 it's because of the Holy Spirit, because there's gracious influence in our lives. 00:23:28.759 --> 00:23:31.379 Everything we do for God, even if we do it for God's glory, 00:23:31.380 --> 00:23:36.860 and even if God rewards us for it, it's more...it has more of the character of a gift than it does 00:23:36.860 --> 00:23:43.500 of merit, because everything that we do for God's sake is first from him. We give to God his own. 00:23:49.960 --> 00:23:55.380 Well, every moment of Christian existence, it depends on the prior, the present, and the future 00:23:55.380 --> 00:24:01.000 grace of God. And because of this, we can see that every moment in our relationship with God, 00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:07.040 it's characterized, frankly, by the irrelevance of what we deserve. It's rather characterized by this 00:24:07.040 --> 00:24:15.940 all-encompassing great love and graciousness of God, free and undeserved kindness to people who are 00:24:15.940 --> 00:24:24.780 not righteous, just wrapped around them in a gracious love. It's not just. It's gracious. And how is this 00:24:24.779 --> 00:24:31.799 possible? So how can we reconcile that God can save and look on us graciously when we trusted him, 00:24:32.099 --> 00:24:39.099 even though, one, God is righteous, and two, we are not? No one's righteous in God's sight. In other words, 00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:47.720 how does God's justice not break his grace? Well, I think we're back to the question of verses one and two. 00:24:48.180 --> 00:24:53.559 You know, how can we legitimately ask God to save in a way that's consistent with his justice, 00:24:53.559 --> 00:24:59.539 and not only consistent with it, but even because, like that's David's prayer, because of your 00:24:59.539 --> 00:25:06.259 righteousness? The scandal of the message of the Bible is not, how could a just God condemn me? 00:25:06.819 --> 00:25:13.119 The scandal of the Bible is, how could a just God forgive me? How could a just God save me? 00:25:13.119 --> 00:25:21.659 How could a just God save the unjust? How could God do that for me? Well, verse 11 brings us to, 00:25:21.979 --> 00:25:25.899 starts to bring us into an answer for this, as the psalm concludes. He says, 00:25:26.459 --> 00:25:33.279 for your sake, O Lord, preserve my life. In your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble, 00:25:33.500 --> 00:25:39.339 and in your steadfast love, you will cut off my enemies, and you will destroy all the adversaries 00:25:39.339 --> 00:25:48.179 of my soul, for I am your servant. The foundation of David's prayer, and the reason why he believes God 00:25:48.179 --> 00:25:54.959 will answer him, save him, and teach him how to do God's will, is because David knows that God has 00:25:54.959 --> 00:26:02.859 committed himself to David in a covenant relationship. It's not because David is good. 00:26:02.859 --> 00:26:09.159 It's not because David is a particularly obedient servant. Far from it. Verse 2 says, I'm not an 00:26:09.159 --> 00:26:16.879 obedient servant. But it's because God brought David into his covenant and made him his servant 00:26:16.879 --> 00:26:24.699 when David ran to God in faith. That word steadfast love here that's mentioned, it's a word for this 00:26:24.699 --> 00:26:31.799 special, never-ending, committed love that God has towards his people. God loves everybody. God loves 00:26:31.799 --> 00:26:37.240 his people. God loves all creation. But God has a special, particular love for his people. 00:26:38.079 --> 00:26:43.899 God has, we call this a covenantal love. That there's a special obligation that God has taken 00:26:43.899 --> 00:26:52.279 upon himself to love, and no matter the sins of his people, that he will cover them with his love. 00:26:52.639 --> 00:26:57.500 That's the love that's being talked about here. It's a covenantal love. That's the context. 00:26:57.500 --> 00:27:03.299 So what's the foundation? What's the bedrock of this relationship? Why can David go, 00:27:03.819 --> 00:27:09.740 knowing that he's, that he doesn't deserve anything from God? How can he go to God for help? Well, point 00:27:09.740 --> 00:27:16.160 seven, God saves his covenant people because he is faithful and righteous to keep his word. 00:27:17.859 --> 00:27:24.420 That God will never stop loving us in Christ because God is always faithful and righteous to keep his word, 00:27:24.420 --> 00:27:30.720 to keep his covenant. That he's committed himself to us in covenant. And he will not go against his own 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:38.279 word. He will not go against his own character. He will not break his promises. That our status with 00:27:38.279 --> 00:27:44.980 God is absolutely secure. And it's not secure because of us. It's secure because God is right, 00:27:45.340 --> 00:27:49.980 and God has made a promise, and God will never break that promise. As sure as God is God, 00:27:49.980 --> 00:27:55.299 he will not break his promises. That he is for you if you are in Christ. 00:27:57.160 --> 00:28:04.000 Well, that might sound good, but maybe verse 12 gets to a point here, and you see this part about 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:09.440 God destroying David's enemies in that verse, and it doesn't really sit very well. Maybe it sounds like 00:28:09.440 --> 00:28:17.099 the Bible, this is just vindicating the Bible's all about righteous us versus the them. And what do we 00:28:17.099 --> 00:28:22.599 make of this? This doesn't sound very New Testament-ish, you know? What do we make of this? 00:28:23.559 --> 00:28:29.159 Well, I think the answer is really buried in this word for I am your servant. What does this mean? 00:28:29.619 --> 00:28:35.879 Well, on one level, everybody that God brings into his covenant, into his people, are his servants. 00:28:36.959 --> 00:28:42.559 On one level, I'm God's servant, and Jono's God's servant, and Hudson's God's servant, 00:28:42.559 --> 00:28:49.359 and Deborah's God's servant, and Shannon's God's servant, and we could continue. Everybody 00:28:49.359 --> 00:28:54.619 in God's covenant is his servant, and in the Old Testament, Israel is called God's servant. 00:28:55.440 --> 00:29:00.779 But David, in particular, was a different kind of servant. All of that is true for him, 00:29:01.019 --> 00:29:08.779 but there's also something unique about him, because God chose David and anointed him to be king, 00:29:08.779 --> 00:29:17.519 to be this messianic figure for the people of God in the Old Testament, that he was set apart to be 00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:23.899 king of God's people on earth in Israel, that God would reign in Israel through David, his servant, 00:29:24.220 --> 00:29:29.259 as he tried to follow God's word, that God would reign through his appointed king. 00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:35.639 And when David's enemies, then in this psalm, when they set themselves up to try to kill David, 00:29:35.640 --> 00:29:39.960 well, then insofar as David's representing God's rule as God's appointed king, 00:29:40.920 --> 00:29:45.000 then they're declaring war against God, that they're setting themselves up against God, 00:29:45.100 --> 00:29:51.240 and against God's purposes to save. This verse is not saying that because you're a Christian, 00:29:51.800 --> 00:29:57.160 then, and your boss is mean, that God's going to smite your boss. It's not saying that we should 00:29:57.160 --> 00:30:02.060 call down fire on those that we don't like, or who are causing us pain, or something like that. 00:30:02.059 --> 00:30:09.059 And it's not even saying that God will always save your physical life from danger, although I think 00:30:09.059 --> 00:30:13.519 this psalm models for us that we should pray for things like that. But what it is saying is it's 00:30:13.519 --> 00:30:19.039 saying that God's kingdom will never be overthrown, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against 00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:25.359 God's kingdom, that his kingdom has an everlasting foundation, that it is sure, and nothing will 00:30:25.359 --> 00:30:31.919 overthrow it. Nothing will stand in the way of God's purposes for his people. Well, maybe you're asked, 00:30:31.920 --> 00:30:36.860 well, aren't we supposed to pray for our enemies, not to pray for their destruction? And again, I think 00:30:36.860 --> 00:30:42.800 the answer is in what this servanthood means. You know, if on one hand, David's servanthood, it, 00:30:42.940 --> 00:30:49.539 his, and his kingship go together. But on the other hand, you read David's psalms, like so much of the 00:30:49.539 --> 00:30:56.100 psalter, and over and over again, you hear this refrain, hear me, O God, save me, O God, for I am your 00:30:56.100 --> 00:31:01.460 servant. Almost all the time, the context when David prays these words is, 00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:11.400 overwhelming hostility, oppression, rejection by people, desperation, and gut-wrenching suffering 00:31:11.400 --> 00:31:13.080 on David's part. 00:31:13.079 --> 00:31:23.000 But centuries later, in a time of great darkness for God's people, you know, God's people have been 00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:28.359 formed on the psalter. They've been, this is their prayer book. Israel has been formed on prayers like 00:31:28.359 --> 00:31:34.379 this from David, and they are aware of this concept of, of a servant, the servant of the Lord in suffering, 00:31:34.899 --> 00:31:40.659 that before exaltation, there's the road of the wilderness, the road of the exile, the road of 00:31:40.660 --> 00:31:48.200 suffering. And the prophet Isaiah prophesies that from the stump of David's cut-off family tree, 00:31:48.340 --> 00:31:53.500 there's going to be a branch that grows out, that God is going to raise up another, another servant of 00:31:53.500 --> 00:31:59.860 the Lord, a suffering servant. And this time, not one who's just going to come and, and save God's, 00:32:00.380 --> 00:32:07.140 the righteous, but one who will lay down his own life to save the unrighteous. One who will give his 00:32:07.140 --> 00:32:16.420 life as a ransom for many. One who, in his suffering, the wounds of the unrighteous will be healed. 00:32:17.380 --> 00:32:22.120 And that suffering servant, that anointed one of God who would represent God and man. 00:32:22.860 --> 00:32:28.200 This is the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, you read the book of Mark. This is Mark's thesis. This is Jesus. 00:32:28.740 --> 00:32:33.680 Jesus is the suffering servant of the Lord. Think of all that Christ endures, all the 00:32:33.680 --> 00:32:41.180 rejection and hostility he faces, all the way up to the, to the cross. Even the, the gospel text, 00:32:41.279 --> 00:32:46.600 which we read. He goes into his own city, and it should be a celebration. But God's people reject him. 00:32:47.220 --> 00:32:52.560 That he is the suffering servant rejected by man, but chosen in the sight of God, the cornerstone. 00:32:53.180 --> 00:33:00.100 That he came into this world not to preserve his life, but to lay it down for mine, to lay it down for 00:33:00.099 --> 00:33:06.659 yours. Who did not save his own soul from the trouble of the cross, but who faced death to bring 00:33:06.659 --> 00:33:13.599 us peace with God. Who in his steadfast love did not cut off his enemies, but laid down his life so 00:33:13.599 --> 00:33:19.240 that while we were still sinners, while we were still enemies, while we were running away from God, 00:33:19.319 --> 00:33:24.459 and doing our own thing, and not caring about God, and hurting the people that God loves, 00:33:24.460 --> 00:33:33.640 that he would lay down his life for us, that we might be called God's friends, and brought into his 00:33:33.640 --> 00:33:42.400 family by his grace, because this is who God is, because God is a savior. For the man Jesus Christ, 00:33:42.400 --> 00:33:50.319 true God and true man, is the ultimate suffering servant of the Lord. And so why should God hear our 00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:57.119 prayers? Why should God save you? Why should God save me? Well, everybody needs to make a choice at some 00:33:57.119 --> 00:34:05.559 point. God will not hear you because you are good, because you're not, because I'm not. God will not be on 00:34:05.559 --> 00:34:12.759 your side because you deserve it, because you don't, because I don't either. But God will be on your side. 00:34:12.760 --> 00:34:20.860 God will be for you. Not because you can do anything for him. But if you are reconciled to God through 00:34:20.860 --> 00:34:26.280 his servant Jesus Christ, whom he has appointed to be the bridge between God and humanity. 00:34:27.860 --> 00:34:33.180 If you are reconciled to God through his servant Jesus Christ, who gave his life to pay the penalty for 00:34:33.180 --> 00:34:38.900 our unrighteousness, yours and mine, that through faith you might reach out your hand to God, 00:34:38.900 --> 00:34:44.840 and to remember there's, God has a hand that saves, and I want to reach up and take hold of that. God, 00:34:45.160 --> 00:34:53.860 save me. Lift me up out of darkness. Bring me into your covenant family. Then you can be absolutely sure 00:34:53.860 --> 00:35:02.200 that God is for you in Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. That's the good news that of God's steadfast, 00:35:02.960 --> 00:35:08.760 unfailing, never-ending love that does not depend on your performance, but that depends on the finished 00:35:08.760 --> 00:35:15.920 work of Jesus Christ and the character of God, our God who saves. That's who God is like. That's what 00:35:15.920 --> 00:35:22.760 God is like. That while we were unable, God is able. And if you don't know this, if you don't know God, 00:35:22.820 --> 00:35:30.180 if you don't relate to God like this, and know him as Savior through Jesus, reach out your heart to God. 00:35:30.440 --> 00:35:36.980 Reach out your heart to God and ask him, God, I want to know you like this. I want this, my relationship 00:35:36.980 --> 00:35:45.539 with you to be not one of ambivalence or hostility or abandonment, but I want you to save me because of 00:35:45.539 --> 00:35:51.300 what Jesus did on the cross, not because of myself. Lord, give me the faith to hold on to your promise, 00:35:51.380 --> 00:35:57.019 to hold on to that rope known that you are holding the other end, that you promise to save everyone who 00:35:57.019 --> 00:36:03.000 makes Jesus the reason that they come towards you. Forgive my sin. Bring me into your family and teach me 00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:09.599 to live a life that pleases you by grace alone, through Christ alone, in faith alone, to the glory 00:36:09.599 --> 00:36:18.280 and honor of God alone. And if you are a Christian, if you are in Christ and your circumstances and 00:36:18.280 --> 00:36:27.420 your sins and the hard stuff you're going through and maybe the guilt that you feel and you just feel 00:36:27.420 --> 00:36:35.000 awful about maybe who you are or what you do or what you keep on doing and you wonder, will God hear me? 00:36:35.360 --> 00:36:42.139 Or does God even want to hear me? Then remember that the strength of your relationship with God does 00:36:42.139 --> 00:36:48.820 not depend upon your performance, but upon the love of God for you through Jesus Christ and in the blood of 00:36:48.820 --> 00:36:55.860 his new covenant, the covenant of grace, that he has brought you into his family by grace, that he loves you, 00:36:55.860 --> 00:37:00.059 that you are loved by God, that you are a child of God through faith, 00:37:00.860 --> 00:37:09.280 and that God has committed himself to you, to be for you in a covenant relationship that is more stable 00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:17.480 than the very creation itself because its surety, its guarantee, its foundation is the character and 00:37:17.480 --> 00:37:25.099 righteousness of the unchanging, all good, eternal God. Let's pray. 00:37:25.860 --> 00:37:36.400 Father in heaven, Lord, we confess before you that we don't know what one another are going through. 00:37:36.700 --> 00:37:45.019 We don't know who's going through really, really hard times. We don't know who's done what and who 00:37:45.019 --> 00:37:52.360 feels what, and we don't know the weight of others' consciences, and we sometimes even barely know what's 00:37:52.360 --> 00:38:00.880 going on in our own hearts, but we know, God, that we need you. We know, God, that for many of us, we do thirst 00:38:00.880 --> 00:38:07.120 for you like a dry and parched land, and we can get by, but only if you bring the rain, that only if we 00:38:07.120 --> 00:38:14.220 have you are you yourself. So we pray, Lord God, I pray that you would refresh us this morning with your 00:38:14.220 --> 00:38:20.960 grace, with an assurance of your love, an assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ. And for those who don't 00:38:20.960 --> 00:38:26.480 know you, I pray, Lord, that you would savingly unite them to your Son through faith, and that you would 00:38:26.480 --> 00:38:34.940 teach us all and train us all to fix our eyes on Jesus, and in love for you to strive to become 00:38:34.940 --> 00:38:40.460 servants who do your will, trust in you, knowing that you are the one who by your grace has first saved us 00:38:40.460 --> 00:38:46.059 and now carries us forward through the rest of our Christian life, that you began our salvation 00:38:46.059 --> 00:38:52.059 and continue it, and you will bring it to an end. You will bring us safely home, Lord, because you are 00:38:52.059 --> 00:38:58.940 faithful. And so we trust this gospel truth once again this morning. We put our hope and our faith 00:38:58.940 --> 00:39:02.539 in you, through Jesus Christ alone. Amen. 00:39:16.059 --> 00:39:18.059 Amen. 00:39:18.059 --> 00:39:18.059