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Another Look At The World
Ecclesiastes 4:1-16
June 27, 2021

Often times when we go on mission and spend time in a different culture
We speak of “culture shock”.

• It occurs when we get outside of the comforts of America and see villages of people living in utter poverty.
• We see them sleeping on dirt floors, drinking filthy water, wearing rags for clothes, and facing death due to lack of medical options.
• It can be eye-opening when you see it, especially for the first time.

Sometimes it is easy to sit in an air-conditioned house
Watching an HD television while drinking an ice-cold drink
And eating our third meal of the day
To forget just how much suffering there is in the world.

And yet, if you are willing to open your eyes
The suffering of humanity is everywhere.

If you stop and listen to a person’s story for just a few moments
You find that people everywhere are hurting.

We might even come to the conclusion that LIFE IS HARD,
Or even better yet that this WORLD IS CURSED.

And the simple fact is that you might insulate yourself from it for a while
But sooner or later HARDSHIP and SUFFERING and GRIEF will find you.

NOW THAT IS NOT A PLEASANT THOUGHT.

When a young man or woman graduates from High School
We very rarely send them a card about the cruelty of life.
• We talk to them about their bright future…
• We talk to them about all their opportunities…
• We talk to them about the potential for success…

Perhaps that is why you very rarely see a quote
From the book of Ecclesiastes on a greeting card.

The preacher here is just not “Hallmark” material.
• He does not sugar coat life.
• He does not hand out rose colored glasses.
• He tells the cold hard truth about life,
• And if you fail to listen to him the first time, then he will grab you and tell you again.

And with that we come to chapter 4 of this book.

Twice you see the statement (1, 7) “Then I looked again…”

Here the preacher takes another look at the world.
• It’s his honest critique.
• It’s his honest review.

He is out to tell you the truth, and as we have seen,
HE TELLS YOU THE TRUTH FOR A REASON.

• He has been saying repeatedly that the only true source of satisfaction is
found in the God who created you.
• He has repeatedly said that enjoyment comes only from Him and in Him.
• But if you look at this world apart from Him, you find a cold mean place to dwell.

What we are going to do this morning
Is actually cover this entire chapter in 1 sermon.

Indeed, I’m not sure our psyche could handle
Focusing on what he has to say much longer that that.

Here in the chapter we find 4 evils or vanities
That the preacher sees in life here on earth
And he wants to make sure that the young man is well aware of them.

Well let’s examine these evils or vanities that the preacher wants us to see.
#1 ABOUNDING EVIL
Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

That’s a pretty difficult passage to read.
It is dark and depressing to say the least.

The preacher quit turning a blind eye.
Instead of turning away from the gutter, he purposely examined it.

He saw “all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun.”
• He simply forced himself to look at what goes on in the world.
• He made himself watch life.
• And he looked “oppression”

And his conclusion was a difficult one to swallow.
“And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressor was power, but they had no one to comfort them.”

What he saw is a definite injustice of this world.
• Sometimes those in power are evil.
• Sometimes those in power oppress the weak.

And I know that in Hallmark movies or in Hollywood blockbusters
In the end everything is supposed to be made right.

The preacher told the young man to turn off the Hallmark channel.
This life doesn’t wrap up happy endings in a nice and neat little bow.

• He saw the oppressed crying
• He saw them continually oppressed
• And he saw that no one cared to comfort them

HE SAW DEJECTED PEOPLE.

AND THE SIGHT WAS SO DISCOURAGING
THAT IT LED HIM TO MAKE A STARTLING ANNOUNCEMENT.

(2-3) “So I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still living. But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun.”

Wow!
• “I congratulated the dead”
• “better off…is the one who never existed”

Those are certainly harsh statements.

But look at the oppression of this world
And see if you can’t come to the same conclusion.

Look at starving children in third world countries.
• See if you do not pity what they are born in to and have to survive.
• See if your heart is not granted relief when they die and escape the horror they were forced to live in.

It’s not a pleasant thought,
But we know there is truth here from the preacher.

There is evil and oppression in this world
And it is here to such an extent
That death can be seen as a welcomed relief.

How many times have we said around the grave of a loved one,
“At least they aren’t suffering anymore”?

You understand then the observation of the preacher.
• This life brings with it abounding evil.
• This life presents oppression and tears and a lack of comfort to so many.
• For so many it is a terribly hard life.

And the preacher is simply forcing us to look at it for a moment.

Abounding Evil
#2 EXHAUSTING LABOR
Ecclesiastes 4:4-6

Now he looks at the working man.
He moves from skid row to main street.

And here he sees humanity breaking their back in rigorous labor.

And he makes some startling observations about that too.

(4) “I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too is vanity and striving after wind.”

He noticed men working hard
And he noticed that the reason for their hard work
Is because they were in a heated competition with their neighbor.

The word “rivalry” there can actually be translated “jealousy” or “envy”

In short, he saw the “cut throat” nature of business.

He saw men locked in a brutal competition.
• And he saw them in a race with one another.
• That in order for this man’s business to grow stronger, that man’s business has
to grow weaker.
• It was a harsh battle for victory.

He sees men working themselves to death,
Not to simply earn a living, but to beat a competitor.

BUT HERE IS WHERE IT GETS EVEN SADDER.

(6) “One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind.”

• It would certainly be nice if those competitors could just sit back and rest and stop the battle for supremacy.

But there is a problem with that.
It is the problem the preacher mentioned in verse 5.

(5) “The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.”

• If you “fold your hands”
• That is to say if you slack off or you take a break,
• You will ruin yourself.

Man is out there killing himself in competition to grow his business
And it would be nice to just stop, be content, and say he has enough,
But if he does that it will ruin his business.

IF HE TAKES A BREAK, HIS COMPETITOR WILL SWOOP IN
AND STEAL HIS CUSTOMERS AND CRUSH HIS BUSINESS.

So the man can’t stop.
• He has to work and work and work and work.
• He has to drive his employees hard.
• He has to push through.

There is no rest, there is only labor.

LOOK AT OUR WORLD.
There used to be blue laws where at least businesses closed on Sunday,
• But you can’t now because your locked in a competition with that other business that decided to work on Sunday.

• Businesses now open on Thanksgiving and some even Christmas because they have to get ahead of the competition.

We could probably ask, “What do you have planned this afternoon?”
• We live in a day now were the majority of people squeeze in Sunday morning worship, but no sooner is it over than do they have work to do.
• It is no longer a day of rest and the culture has made you feel guilty if you take it.
• It certainly is no longer “The Lord’s Day”

Do you see how the world has stolen rest, even from the people of God?

Look at coaches and athletes.
• Summer breaks hardly exist any more.
• From the second kids get out of school it’s right back to workouts and summer leagues.
• Sure, you could take a break, but that school down the road is doing it and since they won’t take a break, neither can you.

DO YOU SEE THAT IN LIFE?
Men push each other to work longer and harder
And it robs the whole world of rest.

Now men can’t quit because their opponent will overtake them if they do.
This world is filled with exhausting labor.

Abounding Evil, Exhausting Labor
#3 REGRETTABLE SOLITUDE
Ecclesiastes 4:7-12

Here we see a man who is so consumed with his work and his profit
THAT HE HAS LITERALLY FOUND HIMSELF ALONE.

(7-8) “Then I looked again at vanity under the sun. There was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches and he never asked, “And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?” This too is vanity and it is a grievous task.”

The preacher says this man has no “dependent”.
The word there is literally “second”.

It may be that more than an heir the preacher is talking about
It could be a business partner or even an employee.

He works and he works alone.
• There is no one to share his life with.
• There is no one to share his profit with.
• There is no one to share victory or defeat with.

His job has literally taken him away from every human relationship.

Ever see people like that?
• They were “married” to their job…
• They sacrifice family and friends because there is always work to do…

This guy works and works and works
Even at the expense of all earthly relationships
And never even stops to ask himself why.

At the end of the day he no longer has family or friends,
All he has is the job
And he doesn’t even have anyone to leave all his earnings to.

HOW SAD.

And in this case the preacher just can’t help it.
He takes a moment to explain the importance of relationships in this life.

(9) “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.”

• That is to say you get a BETTER PROFIT if you work with someone instead of
working alone.
• You can get more done and often work harder with someone with you.

(10) “For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.”

• Which speaks of BETTER HELP.
• Jobs are just easier when there is someone to work with.

(11) “Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?”

• A companion produces BETTER COMFORT than if you are alone.

(12) “And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.”

• A companion is BETTER PROTECTION.

In short the preacher is just lamenting that guy
Who worked so hard all of his life and ended up alone
AND LOOK AT WHAT IT COST HIM.

Life would have been so much better
If he had had someone to share life with, instead all he had was the job.

It’s the old “Cats in the Cradle” Song
• About the man who was so busy working he never had time for his family
• And then in the end when the job is over his family has no time for him.

IT’S INCREDIBLY SAD. And yet we see it all our world.
We see those who because they were so busy working
They found themselves alone and missed out on the blessing of companionship.

Abounding Evil, Exhausting Labor, Regrettable Solitude
#4 FORGOTTEN ACCOMPLISHMENT
Ecclesiastes 4:13-16

THAT STORY CAN BE A LITTLE CONFUSING.
• In fact even translators will admit having a difficult time knowing exactly who all of the pronouns are talking about.

But I think the flow of the book helps us greatly understand his point.

Here we have 2 men.
• One is “a poor yet wise lad” who we also find out was “in prison”
• The other is “an old and foolish king”

Incidentally he is called “foolish”
Because he “no longer knows how to receive instruction.”

SO THE IMPLICATION IS THAT
We have a nation that is languishing under a stubborn king.

And because this king has made mistakes due to his pride
• The nation is ready for change
• And they turn to this “poor yet wise lad” who (14) “has come out of prison to become king”
• So the nation turns to this former poor prisoner because they have had it with the stubborn king.

And the preacher says, (15) “I have seen all the living under the sun throng to the side of the second lad who replaces him.”

I saw this young man get massive support from the nation
And everyone loved him and supported him
And wanted him to be the king.

However, his fame was short-lived.
(16) “There is no end to all the people, to al who were before them, and even the ones who will come later will not be happy with him, for this too is vanity and striving after wind.”

And the simple point is that
• Even though you may rise from poverty to greatness,
• And even though men may love you today,
• Your fame can be very short lived.

Ever watch pro athletes?
It’s actually a sad story.

• Fans can fall in love with an athlete; a quarterback.
• They’ll buy his jersey and chant his name.
• But it won’t be many years until the organization will draft a new young rookie
full of potential and before you know it those same fans will “boo” when the old quarterback takes the field and they’ll chant for his replacement.

AND SUCH IS LIFE.
• Accomplishment is often forgotten.
• Glory fades.
• It just doesn’t last.
• And after the world uses you, it will quickly discard you.

NOW THOSE ARE THE 4 OBSERATIONS ABOUT LIFE
THAT THE PREACHER MAKES.

Abounding Evil – this life produces no comfort for the oppressed.
Exhausting Labor – this life produces no rest for the weary.
Regrettable Solitude – this world will leave you empty and alone.
Forgotten Accomplishment – your glory will quickly be forgotten and discarded.

• Our world oppresses people
• Our world jealously attacks people
• Our world sucks people in and then isolates them and leaves them alone
• Our world uses people and then discards them

That is our world and you can see those things happening everywhere.

HAVE YOU EVER FELT THAT STING?

We call it THE CURSE
Genesis 3:14-15 “The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

• The curse brought enmity.
• The curse brought rivalry.
• The curse brought envy and jealousy and cruelty and oppression.

Genesis 3:16 “To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”

• The curse brought pain and hardship and suffering.

Genesis 3:17-18 “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;”

• The curse brought labor and robbed man of rest.

Genesis 3:19 “By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

• The curse brought death and the sting of being forgotten.

THIS WORLD IS CURSED.
And now, if you open your eyes you see things like:

ACTS OF OPPRESSION – Have you read about Cain killing Abel or Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery?

EXHAUSTING LABOR – Do you see man toiling to scratch out food from cursed ground and men crying out for rest?

REGRETTABLE SOLITUDE – Look at how this life leaves people alone. Look at how people are taught to work and make money and climb the ladder but sacrifice the people in their life to do it.

FORGOTTEN ACCOMPLISHMENT – Look at how this world uses people and then tosses them aside. This is what Israel did to Jesus even.

This world is cursed.
This world should never be the objective of your life.
GAINING THIS WORLD SHOULD NEVER BE THE GOAL.

Certainly that is a message to the young man.
If your ambition is to obtain this world you are in a sad state of affairs.

Open your eyes, this world is evil and exhausting and cruel and empty.

Just look at the WORDS THAT FLOOD chapter 4 of Ecclesiastes.
“oppression” – “tears” – “no one to comfort” – “evil activity” – “rivalry” – “vanity” – “striving after wind” – “not satisfied” – “laboring” – “depriving” – “grievous task” – “replaces” – “not be happy”

Do you see this world?
• It is broken and harsh and cruel.
• It leaves men oppressed without comfort
• It leaves men tired without relief
• It leaves men alone in solitude
• It leaves men forgotten and discarded

THAT IS THIS WORLD
And the preacher has sort of rubbed it in our face this morning.

BUT WHAT ARE WE TO LEARN FROM SUCH A REALITY?
• Are we just supposed to walk away depressed and defeated that we are consigned to live in such a cruel world?

No, we are supposed to see the cruelty of this sin cursed world
And be drawn to Christ.

This world will OPPRESS you, but Christ comforts the oppressed.
Luke 4:18-19 “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”

This world will EXHAUST you, but Christ offers rest to the weary.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

This world will LEAVE YOU alone, but Christ will come to you in your solitude.
John 5:4-5“for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.”

This world will USE you and DISCARD you, but Christ sees you.
Matthew 9:36 “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”

Christ came into this sin-cursed world and offered salvation.
He came to offer light in the midst of darkness.

John 1:4 “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”

• This world was never supposed to satisfy you.
• This world is cursed.
• Only Jesus offers satisfaction and life.

TURN TO: MATTHEW 11:28

We just read this passage a moment ago,
But I want us to go a bit further in Matthew’s gospel.

There are many stories we could examine this morning in order to make the point of how Jesus treats the oppressed.

• The hemorrhaging woman who had been suffering for 12 years.
• How He healed the leper who approached and said, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” And Jesus said, “I am willing.”
• How He forgave and healed the paralytic who was lowered through the roof.
• How He visited the city of Nain and saw a widow in a funeral possession burying her only son and how Jesus raised the boy from the dead and gave him back to her.
• How He saw 10 leprous men and healed them all.
• How He restored sight to Bartimaeus outside of Jericho
• Or all the other compassionate things Jesus did which are not written.

There are any number of stories that perhaps we could turn to,
But this morning we’re looking at Matthew 11 and 12.

We see again that famous passage where Jesus offered rest to the weary.
And then we come to chapter 12 and we read “At that time…”

IT STARTS WITH a confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees because Jesus’ disciples were picking heads of grain on the Sabbath.
• Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and says:
• (7) “But if you had known what this means, “I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.”
• Jesus was pointing out the major problem, not only of the world, but even of the Jewish religion. There was no compassion.

BUT KEEP FOLLOWING THE STORY.
(9) “Departing from there, He went into their synagogue…”

Jesus isn’t finished.
• And here we get the story about the man with the withered hand and yet another rebuke of the religious elite.
• Jesus is full of compassion for the hurting isn’t He?

And it’s still not over, Matthew is making a point.
(READ 15-21)

There Matthew makes THE POINT he wants you to see about Jesus.
He quotes from Isaiah 42 and says it is all about Jesus.

“HE WILL NOT QUARREL”
• The word for quarrel there is ERIZO and it means “wrangling or harassing or even brawling”
• Jesus is no bully, He is filled with compassion not meanness.

“NOR CRY OUT”
• “CRY OUT” is an onomatopoetic word KRAUGAZO which means “to squawk like a bird or to scream and yell repeatedly”
• That’s not Jesus.
• He didn’t attack people, He didn’t bully people, He didn’t use or intimidate people. He had compassion on people.

“A BATTERED REED HE WILL NOT BREAK OFF”
• That is a broken person barely hanging on, but Jesus doesn’t discard them.

“A SMOLDERING WICK HE WILL NOT PUT OFF”
• A person whose light is just about to go out, but Jesus doesn’t push them aside.

“AND IN HIS NAME THE GENTILES WILL HOPE.”
• He gives hope to the helpless
• He gives life to the dying
• He is moved with compassion.

And Matthew loved that about Jesus.
It was Matthew who first pointed out back in chapter 4

Matthew 4:12-16 “Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI, BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES— “THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”

Do you see this Jesus?
• The world is harsh and cruel.
• The world will work you to death with no relief
• The world will isolate you and take everything from you
• The world will then use you up and throw you aside

BUT NOT JESUS.
• He offers life to those who live in this world.
• He gives comfort to the oppressed
• He provides rest to those who labor
• He comes to those who are alone
• He sees those who are discarded

And it is important that you see Jesus
Because without Jesus all you get from this world
Is oppression and labor and loneliness and rejection.

SO YOUNG MAN, WHY WOULD YOU GO OUT AND SEEK THIS WORLD?

Seek, trust, fear, and enjoy the God who created you
For there is no satisfaction without Him.

Are you oppressed?
• Has this world beaten you down?
• Then run to Jesus He came “to set free those who are oppressed”

Are you tired?
• Have you gotten sucked into the rat race of this world, or even worse the rat race of religion where you are working like crazy to earn God’s approval?
• Then run to Jesus He came “to give you rest”

Are you lonely?
• Perhaps your loneliness is because you pursued the world at the expense of your family or perhaps your loneliness is from another source. But whatever the reason and regardless of who is to blame this world has seen fit to leave you alone.
• Then run to Jesus He said, “surely I will be with you always.”

Have you been discarded?
• Has the world used you up and spit you out. Did you give your life to a career or job only to find out how easily replaceable you were?
• HAPPENS TO HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS

Then run to Jesus He shepherds lost and discarded sheep.

His invitation was given to people just like you.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

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Learning The Hard Way
Ecclesiastes 3:11-22
June 20, 2021

Well, I’m sure that simply upon reading the title of the sermon,
There are many of you who either immediately nodded your head
Or perhaps were elbowed in the side by your wife.

We all know what it is to learn our lessons the hard way.

Someone even once said that “Experience is what causes us to recognize our mistakes when we make them the second time.”

There are likely many of us
Who know a thing or two about learning the hard way,
And those of who do are more than willing
To tell the next generation: “Don’t do what I did.”

Well there again you understand the preacher.
• He is begging and pleading and warning at this young man
• To pay attention and not make the same mistakes in life that he did.

The last couple of weeks we’ve been discussing the issue of time.
It has been a rather EVANGELISTIC time
As we are all asked to contemplate, “What Time Is It?” in our lives.

We are really in an application/invitation section of the book.

Let’s ZOOM OUT a little in our look at Ecclesiastes
And see again his big picture point.
• So you know by now that he started out addressing those great temptations of wisdom and pleasure.
• You are well aware of what he had to say about both of those being a mirage.
• And you remember his lament about how he had no control over his legacy and how he lamented that.

And then at the end of chapter 2
The preacher made his first application of the book.

He got to his first point.
Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him? For to a person who is good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, while to the sinner He has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he may give to one who is good in God’s sight. This too is vanity and striving after wind.”

I hope you remember that.

When he said in (verse 24a) “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good.”

His point was that there literally is nothing better.
That is all there is.

If you’re expecting something more out of the work of this life,
I hate to disappoint you, but it won’t happen.

And I hope you remember the reason.

He went on to say, (24b-25) “This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him.”

Remember the reason?
• It is because God has so ordained that
• There is no true or eternal satisfaction apart from Him.
• He will not allow it.

All true satisfaction both in this life and certainly for eternity
Comes only through a relationship with the God who created you.

And so the preacher went on to say:
(26) “For to a person who is good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, while to the sinner He has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he may give to one who is good in God’s sight. This too is vanity and striving after wind.”

So his point was that
• Your chief ambition should definitely be to please God
• And do what is good in His sight
• To seek satisfaction in Him
• For He alone has the ability to make life pleasant or difficult for you.

And He certainly has the ability to make eternity pleasant or difficult.

I hope you remember that point that the preacher made.
Because that point is still on his mind.

LOOK AT OUR TEXT THIS MORNING,
The preacher has returned right to that point now again.

Look at it in verses 12-13
“I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor—it is the gift of God.”

Look at in verse 22
“I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot. For who will bring him to see what will occur after him?”

Do you see that we are still on that same point?

He is still trying to drive through to the young man
That there is only one real objective to this life
And that is to live it in a way that pleases God,
And to find you ultimate satisfaction in Him.

So that’s where we’ve been.

THIS MORNING, LET’S MOVE FORWARD
And talk about those who ignore that warning
And are still intent on learning lessons the hard way.

There are 4 points to be made in our text this morning.
#1 THE CALLING OF MAN
Ecclesiastes 3:11-13

I went ahead and included verse 11 here again because it is a good reminder.

“He has made everything appropriate in its time.”
• Which is to say that God alone determines what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior.

“He has also set eternity in their heart”
• Which reminds us that all we do today we instinctively know is also for eternity.

“yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”
• Which reminds us that God has not told us everything. We are on a “need-to-know” basis.

Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”

SO AGAIN,
• God has not revealed to us everything,
• But He has told us what we need to know in order to prepare our heart for eternity and judgment
• And to find our satisfaction in Him.

And to that point the preacher continues.
(12-13) “I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor – it is the gift of God.”

IT IS THE SAME POINT.
• “there is nothing better”

Wisdom and pleasure and legacy and all that
Is simply going to leave you empty
When you realize that all they promise is a mirage.

However, the satisfied life…
• The fulfilled life…
• The happy life…

Is the life that learns to simply live and enjoy the good things
Which God gives daily to those who find satisfaction in Him.

You have a “lifetime” here.
• It is your life’s span
• We called it your allotted time

And that “lifetime” is filled with good gifts from God.
• Did you plant a field?
• Did you harvest a crop?
• Did you eat from your harvest?

That’s a good thing, it is a “gift of God” you should rejoice in it.

Those are the simple pleasures that you must learn to enjoy.

But even more than that,
It is an understanding of the fact that all good things come from God
AND THAT THE CHIEF CALLING OF MAN IS
To draw near to the One who gives all good gifts.

The New Testament echoes this:
James 1:13-18 “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.”

• Do you hear James reminding that there is no lasting satisfaction in following temptation?
• Do you hear James remind that there is only One good gift giver?
• Do you hear James revealing that God’s greatest gift is to bring us forth by His word (born again) and change our lives into “first fruits among His creatures”?

James is preaching the message of the preacher here.
There is no satisfaction in the lusts and temptations of this world,
They all end in death.
But there is a good God who gives good gifts
And your chief aim should be to draw near to Him.

THAT IS ACTUALLY THE CALLING OF MAN.
• Turn from sin, resist temptation
• Draw near to God, call upon Him
• And God will accomplish His will in and through your life

This is what the preacher wants for the young man.
Why would you pursue the world and all its lies when you can instead be satisfied in the life that God gives you?

That is the calling, and that really isn’t new.
That’s the same point he made back at the end of chapter 2.
But you see he is now revisiting it.

The Calling of Man
#2 THE CONTROL OF GOD
Ecclesiastes 3:14-15

This is also not really a new point.
• As evidenced by the fact of him saying, “I know…”
• It’s sort of a recap.

He is reminding us again that God is the One who is really at work.
God is the One who is sovereign over all things.

We tend to think our labors and tasks are so important,
But it is really God who is at work and who is accomplishing things in this life.

And we listen as the preacher talks about the work of God.

We see THE PERMANENCE of God’s work
“I know that everything God does will remain forever;”

• When God does something it lasts; it endures.

God ISN’T LIKE a president who may fill spiral notebooks full of executive orders
Only to have his successor come in and undo them all.

• No, if God does something it lasts forever.
• There is a permanence to His work.

We see the PERFECTION of God’s work
“there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take away from it,”

• What did God ever do that you felt the need to undo?
• What did God ever do that you felt the need to fix?

When God does it; it is perfect.

We see the POINT of God’s work
“for God has so worked that men should fear Him.”

• All that God has done has been for the purpose of teaching men to fear Him.
• All that He does is meant to show that He is God and you are not.

And we see the PRESENCE of God’s work
“That which is has been already and that which will be has already been, for God seeks what has passed by.”

I know that’s a little mysterious verse, but it simply is saying this.

That God refuses to let His standards and His laws and His works
To just fade into the past.

Instead God continually brings His past truth
Back to the forefront for humanity.

If man could, they would gladly throw God’s Laws behind their back, vote them out, and do away with them forever.

• But God doesn’t allow that.
• The world cannot rid itself of what God has determined will always be the
governing truth of the world.

“That which is has been already”
• The Law today was the Law yesterday.

“and that which will be has already been.”
• The Law that will be tomorrow is that same Law that was yesterday.

“for God seeks what has passed by.”
• God keeps bringing His truth back to the forefront.

You never can escape it.

Now let’s just make the simple observation of what has been said so far.

• We have a sovereign God who is in control of all things.
• His Law is the Law.
• He is in charge and He will always be in charge.
• And the calling of man is to fear God and draw near to Him and to please Him
and to enjoy Him in this life.

That is the calling of man and the control of God.

Now that is simple, but I hope you understand it.

You were placed here on this rock
That you might know and fear and trust and enjoy God.

That is how you are to live this life.

Listen again to Paul’s sermon to the people of Athens.
• They were totally pagan
• They had no knowledge of the true God
• They were wrapped up in idolatry

Acts 17:24-27 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;”

The God of the universe sits in control of all things
And you were created and put on this earth that you might seek Him.

And of course Paul would go on to say that
• It is even more imperative that you do this
• Since in the end, you will stand before Him and be judged for whether or not you did that.

Acts 17:30-31 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

BUT YOU SEE THE POINT.
• God created man for His glory.
• Man was intended to seek and know and fear and trust and enjoy God.

I don’t know what else you think you were put here for, but that’s it.
That is the purpose of your life.

Now, that isn’t necessarily new information from the preacher.
He’s been all over, under, around, and through that.

Here is where he starts making his newest point.
• You were put here that you might seek, know, fear, trust, and enjoy God.
• But some people insist on learning this lesson the hard way.

#3 THE CORRUPTION OF HUMANITY
Ecclesiastes 3:16-21

• Men should fear God
• Men should seek God
• Men should trust God
• Men should obey God
• Men should enjoy God

But that is definitely not what we see when we look at this world.

The preacher knows what you see,
Because it’s the same thing he saw.

(16) “Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.”

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell isn’t it?

“Under the sun” – that is in this world
We rarely see life played out as it was intended to be.

• We don’t see men seeking God we see them suppressing the truth about God.
• We don’t see men trusting God we see men rejecting Him.
• We don’t see men fearing God we see them blaspheming Him.
• We don’t see men enjoying God we see men seeking to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.

Romans 3:10-18 “as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”; “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”; “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.” “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

At the very least it is safe to say that
Man has totally missed the point of what he was created.

“in the place of justice there is wickedness and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.”

IT IS JUST EVIL AND BACKWARD.

And at the very least it does force a person to question
Why God, who is in control of all things,
Would allow His world to go so far into depravity.

Here we have a God
• Who will not allow His work or His law to pass away or be altered,
• But at the same time He has seemingly permitted men to fall headfirst into sin.

Why?

It frustrates the righteous for sure,
BUT IT ALSO SEEMS TO INVIGORATE THE WICKED
• Men who think they can sin an God will do nothing.
• They’ve been doing it for years, and thus far no judgment.
• What does it matter?

GOD CALLS them to fear and trust and enjoy Him,
BUT THEY have chosen instead to love and pursue and seek sin
And thus far it doesn’t seem that God is doing anything about it at all.

Well the preacher is going to shed some light on that.

There are two things that every human ought to know.
1) THE PROMISE OF JUDGMENT
(17) “I said to myself concerning the sons of men, “God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man,” for a time for every matter and for every deed is there.”

Just because you get away with it now
Does not mean you won’t be judged for it later.

• That is the simple truth.
• That is actually the truth the preacher is driving toward at the very end of this book.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”

• We could go to the book of the Revelation and read about the end when the books were opened, but I hope you get the point.

You’re not getting away with anything.
You’re just storing up wrath until the day of wrath.

But it is the second point you really need to see and understand.
2) THE PURPOSE OF PATIENCE
(18) “I said to myself concerning the sons of men, “God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts.”

The preacher says that God’s allowance of man
To run headlong into sin and depravity and wickedness
WAS FOR A PURPOSE.

What purpose?

God is showing man just how wicked he is.
“in order for them to see that they are but beasts.”

One of the reasons God does not instantly judge sin
Is because God allows men to get into sin
So that He may easily make His case as to how wicked man is.

WE HAVE SAID IT OVER AND OVER,
But it is so important to our understanding even for the gospel.

Today man holds the unyielding belief that he is basically good.
I talk to people all the time who are totally convinced that they are good people.

Now, what they mean by that is that
They are good compared to the human average.

And the reason they are convinced of their goodness
Is because they know that they have had opportunity for greater evil
That they have not taken.

So, because they had a chance to be more evil than they are,
And because they are not as evil as some,
Then the conclusion is that “I am a good person.”

However, human goodness or morality is easily explained.

God has placed in society certain barriers or constraints to help man choose what is right.
• The first line of defense is parents, who from an early age begin to instill right from wrong in us.
• The second line of defense quickly becomes the conscience where we feel guilty for doing what we are taught is wrong.
• Other lines of defense are societal peer pressure, where we know society will react negatively to us if we do things that society depicts as wrong.
• Governing authorities place a barrier to our wicked behavior because we can actually be punished for doing some things.
• Natural repercussions can be a deterrent. Things like smoking can give you cancer, or if you have an affair you can lose your marriage.

Point being there are all sorts of natural constraints
That God has put into effect
To keep man from being as wicked as he could be.

But if you start removing those restraints,
There is literally no limit to the level
That even “good men” can stoop to.

• If you sear the conscience
• If you nullify parental authority
• If you corrupt the societal notions of what is right and wrong
• If you vilify the police

Then man can quickly fall into all sorts of depravity and sinfulness.

In fact, you will “see that they are but beasts.”

Man is in effect nothing more than A STRAY DOG.
Whatever gratifies the flesh at the moment is exactly what he will do.

Now, in order for man to be saved, he must come to this understanding.

• The first criteria for salvation has always been that man become “poor in
spirit”.
• Man has to come to grips with how sinful he is.
• This is the only way he will cry out to God for mercy and salvation.

Well, one of the reasons God allows wickedness to continue
Is not because He is pleased with it,
But because He is allowing man to see just how corrupt he actually is.

I’m sure the prodigal thought he was “a good guy”,
• And as “a good guy” he was a long way away from salvation.
• But after his father permitted him to chase his sin and eat with the pigs he then became ready for salvation.

MAN HAS TO LEARN THIS.
And UNFORTUNATELY some people have to learn it THE HARD WAY.

We remember Nebuchadnezzar who literally became a beast to learn this lesson.
Daniel 4:33 “Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.”

• And after that 7 year hiatus as a vile beast Nebuchadnezzar was finally ready to repent and run to God.

We think certainly of the Prodigal Son:
Luke 15:13-16 “And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. “Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. “So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. “And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him.”

• These are just two graphic examples of men who had to learn what they were the hard way.
• They put themselves through unspeakable misery by chasing their sin to the max
• And God allowed them to chase their sin and even enjoy it for a time that He might finally show them just how wicked they actually were.

Consider Romans 1 where Paul outlines that God does this very thing.

TURN TO: ROMANS 1:24-32
• You see that repeated phrase, “God gave them over”

It is God letting men have the sin they crave
And the repercussions that come with it
Until they learn “that they are but beasts”

So God lets man in sin until he sees how sinful he is.

But that’s not all.
Through this process man is also forced to learn HOW MORTAL HE IS.

(19-21) “For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust. Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth?”

The simple point here is that
• Though man thinks himself so evolved.
• And though man thinks himself higher than the animals.
• And though man thinks himself superior.

Here’s the simple truth.
On your own, and by following your own desires,
You will live like an animal and you will die like an animal.

The preacher is clear:
• “As one dies so dies the other;”
• “All go to the same place” – death
• “All came from the dust and all return to the dust.”

And he asks:
“Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of beasts descends downward to the earth?”

His point is not to argue eternal things, but merely to point out that

Though man thinks himself so important he ought to realize that
If given the opportunity he will be just as sinful as a stray dog
And someday he will die just like a stray dog.

The Psalmist made this clear:
Psalms 49:10-12 “For he sees that even wise men die; The stupid and the senseless alike perish And leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is that their houses are forever And their dwelling places to all generations; They have called their lands after their own names. But man in his pomp will not endure; He is like the beasts that perish.”

Again:
Psalms 49:18-20 “Though while he lives he congratulates himself— And though men praise you when you do well for yourself— He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They will never see the light. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, Is like the beasts that perish.”

AND SO HERE’S THE POINT OF THE PREACHER.
• There is a calling for man to know, seek, trust, and fear God.
• God is in control of all things doing His perfect work so that you
will fear Him.
• AND YET, SOME MEN ARE STUBBORN.
• They don’t want to trust God,
• They don’t fear God,
• They won’t seek God.
• Instead they resist God and seek sin.

And for a time, though judgment is inevitable,
God actually allows them to walk in the sin they seek.

He does so that He might show them their sinfulness
And teach them their mortality.

NOW,
You who lives in sin.
You who chases the flesh,
whether substances or sexual immorality or whatever else gratifies the nature.

Can you not see that this mindset is no different than a beast?
A stray dog will eat what it can eat and mate what it can mate.

And if God has allowed you to walk in that sin
It is only so that on days like today
You might come to your senses and see that you need a Savior!

• You need the mercy of God to forgive you.
• You need the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to you.
• You need the atoning work of Jesus Christ to pardon you.
• You need the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God to change you.

Can you see that?
The preacher is here again driving men to the gospel.

HOW GREAT IT WOULD BE
If you would simply listen to the word of God and seek Him as He intends, but unfortunately some are determined to go and learn the hard way.

• So they chase their sin…
• They live in their immorality…
• And all the while they are simply moving one step closer to the pig pen and the final judgment.

The preacher is telling the young man not to be that person.

One final point
#4 THE CONVICTION OF THE PREACHER
Ecclesiastes 3:22

So here he has now COME FULL CIRCLE, and we are back to the point.
“I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot.”

Man should seek satisfaction and enjoyment in God
For that is why he was created.

And then the preacher asks:
“For who will bring him to see what will occur after him?”

In other words:
FOR THIS LIFE IS ALL YOU GET.

• You get one life…
• You get one allotted time…
• You were placed here that you might seek and know and fear and enjoy God.

Don’t be one who has to learn that lesson the hard way.
• Some do learn it through a life of pain.
• Sadly some don’t learn it until the day of judgment.

THOSE ARE BAD WAYS TO LEARN THAT LESSON.

We could go on with this subject for a long time, but I hope you get the point.

I’ll close again with that super relevant sermon of Paul:
Acts 17:24-31 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

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The Sin of Slander
Psalms 109
June 13, 2021

Well there is an eye-opening Psalm for you.
It’s actually quite shocking to read if you aren’t ready for it.

Some might even wonder how a song like that even made it into the Bible.
Certainly we would expect a strong rebuke from God toward David
For even thinking, let alone writing, such a Psalm.

We’ve read lots of those Imprecatory Prayers,
But this one just seems to go to a whole new level.

(10) “Let his children wander about and beg; And let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes.”

Really?

(12) “Let there be none to extend lovingkindness to him, Nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children.”

I mean that is harsh isn’t it?

One commentator I read noted that such Psalms
Almost make a Christian blush with shame when they read them.

I mean, could you imagine
• A non-believer coming up to you,
• Reading you this Psalm,
• And then asking you to explain how claim that you serve a loving God?

The Psalm presents a dilemma to say the least.

Well, just because we used it for a hypothetical,
I’ll go ahead and give you the answer.

If a non-believer does come up to you and quote Psalms 109
And then asks you how it is that you claim that you serve a loving God
THEN HERE IS THE ANSWER.

1. God hates sin, that’s never been denied.
2. God judges sinners, that’s never been denied.

But the reason we maintain Him to be a loving God
Is because God also sent His Son to atone for the sin He hates
And to save the sinners He is willing to judge.

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

BUT WHILE YOUR AT IT,
• Be sure that the unbeliever who brought up the text
• Understands that Psalms 109 gives them a very detailed view of exactly what God thinks of sin.

And though God is most certainly a loving God,
Psalms 109 shows us what God will do to sinners
Who do not repent and trust in the atoning work of His Son.

YOU MIGHT THINK Psalms 109 merely represents David on a bad day.
• It may appear that David is having one of those “James and John moments”
• Where he wrongly wants to call down fire on the Samaritans.

But let me go ahead and set the record straight for you.

Look especially at verse 8.
(8) “Let his days be few; Let another take his office.”

Now let me read you another passage.
Acts 1:16-20 “Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. “For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry.” (Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out. And it became known to all who were living in Jerusalem; so that in their own language that field was called Hakeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) “For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘LET HIS HOMESTEAD BE MADE DESOLATE, AND LET NO ONE DWELL IN IT’; and, ‘LET ANOTHER MAN TAKE HIS OFFICE.’”

TWO THINGS that are very important in that passage.

1. One is the obvious thing that Peter here is quoting Psalms 109:8
in reference to Judas.

2. But the other thing that is very important is that at the beginning
of that passage Peter also reveals who said that.

“Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas…”

Perhaps that changes your perspective a little bit on Psalms 109.
David sang it alright, but he did so under the directive of the Holy Spirit.

• Psalms 109 is NOT “David Gone Rogue”
• Psalms 109 is God’s genuine feeling toward those who accuse His children.

• Is the wrath intense? Yes
• Is the anger severe? Yes
• Is the prescribed judgment shocking? Yes

Well that is God’s wrath; God’s anger;
God’s prescribed judgment on those who slander His children.

SO BEFORE YOU ARE TEMPTED TO APOLOGIZE
That such harsh passages are in the Bible,
First you should point out what a terrible sin slander is in the eyes of God.

And then, while you’re at it, you can go ahead and ALSO POINT OUT that
Despite God’s fierce wrath toward accusers,
His love is demonstrated in that GOD SAVES EVEN SLANDERERS.

Psalms 109 DOES NOT flow contrary to the gospel.
Psalms 109 ENHANCES the gospel.

This Psalm was written by the Holy Spirit and it addresses
“The Sin of Slander”

This Psalm was written by the Holy Spirit
To remind victims of slander that
God saves His children from those who judge their soul.

BUT FIRST TONIGHT let’s lay a foundation
To remember just how badly GOD HATES SLANDER.
• God is livid over character assassins.
• God loathes those who accuse His children.
• If you don’t believe me, just read again this Psalm that the Holy Spirit gave to David.

But this should not be new information to you.

Earlier in our study of Psalms
• David wrote in Psalms 15 asking “Who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill?”

Part of the answer was this:
Psalms 15:3 “He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend;”

We also already studied Psalms 50:
Psalms 50:16-23 “But to the wicked God says, “What right have you to tell of My statutes And to take My covenant in your mouth? “For you hate discipline, And you cast My words behind you. “When you see a thief, you are pleased with him, And you associate with adulterers. “You let your mouth loose in evil And your tongue frames deceit. “You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother’s son. “These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes. “Now consider this, you who forget God, Or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be none to deliver. “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.”

And of course you know that the New Testament
Rightly continues the confrontation of that sin.

In His famous “Sermon on the Mount” Jesus likened slander to murder.
Matthew 5:21-22 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”

Paul taught:
Ephesians 4:31 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”

Colossians 3:8 “But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.”

Peter reminded:
1 Peter 2:1 “Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander,”

James taught:
James 3:8-10 “But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.”

So you get the idea.
• It is a severe sin to slander your brother.
• It is a severe sin in the eyes of God to be an accuser of your brother.

In fact, an interesting tidbit in this Psalm.

You see the word “accusers” or “accuser” 4 times in this Psalm. (4,6,20,29)

Do you want to know what the actual Hebrew word there is?
SATAN

That is one of the words that is attributed to the devil as an actual name.
• Devil means “adversary”
• Satan means “accuser”
• He is also called the serpent, a liar, a murderer, ect.

But you see the point.
When you slander your brother you are actually acting like Satan.

Revelation 12:10 “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.”

And so you also understand why slander and accusation and character assassination brings with it the highest of emotions from God.

You understand why it angers God so much.
You understand why Psalms 109 is so intense in its judgment.

Psalms 109 explains to us the intense vengeance of God
On those who attack His children.

That is why Peter rightly applied it to Judas.

NOW – IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE ALSO HAVE BALANCE

While we hear David here really laying it down on his accusers
We DO NOT NULLIFY our New Testament commands.

Romans 12:14-17 “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.”

Romans 12:19-20 “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.”

Luke 6:28 “bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

Jesus DIDN’T say to “pray against those” but to “pray FOR those”

We do remember that famous story where James and John wanted
To call down fire on the Samaritans and Jesus rebuked them harshly.

Luke 9:5 “When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went on to another village.”

We certainly remember Jonah
Jonah 4:9-11 “Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

All of those passages remind us that
• While there is certainly such a thing as “righteous indignation”
• While we are certainly to “hate what is evil”
• While we are to “leave room for the wrath of the LORD”
• While we do lift up our prayers for justice to God like that widow in Luke 18.

At the same time we must always remember that
At the heart of the matter
The desire of God is not to judge men but to save them.

The CHIEF AIM and the HIGHEST DESIRE
Is not to see sinners destroyed but to see them redeemed.

• That does not mean we love their sin or even tolerate their sin.
• Certainly we cry out for their repentance from sin and their salvation.
• And we do expect that one day God will judge those who persecute His children if they do not repent.

Psalms 109 merely shows us God’s just anger on those who slander.
And we need to understand it.
Indeed we need to use it when we preach the gospel.

In fact we need to remember it in the church.
Colossians 3:6-8 “For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.”

We certainly do not wish to walk in the sins that
Cause God to feel the way Psalms 109 causes Him to feel.

So Psalms like this one are important.
• They help us understand God’s hatred of sin and why we must repent of it.
• And they help us understand God’s love and mercy since He does forgive even slanderers when they repent.

We also gain a great understanding of passages like:
Hebrews 10:31 “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

And they also help us understand that
Because God hates slander so much,
He will absolutely save His children when they are victims of it.

Well, anyway, after such a lengthy introduction let’s now take a look at the Psalm.
It’s really not hard to understand, more than anything it’s merely hard to swallow.

4 points.
#1 THE FRUSTRATION OF THE ACCUSED
Psalms 109:1-5

When you read those first 5 verses it is absolutely evident that
DAVID HAS BEEN BLIND-SIDED BY HIS ACCUSERS.

He is totally shocked at their response to his love.

“O God of my praise, Do not be silent!”
• David wants an immediate response from God.
• David calls for an immediate judgment.

WHY?
“For they have opened the wicked and deceitful mouth against me; They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without cause.”

The first cry of David is in regard to the fact that
The words spoken about him were filled with hatred and deceit.

• They spoke awful things about him and things that were not true.
• And it is apparent that they spoke a lot of them.
• David said, “They have surrounded me with words of hatred”

It is a hard pill to swallow anytime someone has hateful words about you.
It is even harder when those words aren’t true.

• No one likes to be slandered.
• No one likes to be falsely accused.
• David was and he is shocked.

But what has David more shocked than anything is that
IT IS TOTALLY UNDESERVED.

(4-5) “In return for my love they act as my accusers; But I am in prayer. Thus they have repaid me evil for good And hatred for my love.”

This was the real sting for David,
Namely that he felt their rage to be totally undeserved.

Following the mindset of the preacher in Ecclesiastes
• Who recently reminded us that there is “a time for love and a time for hate”
• David saw their response to him as totally inappropriate.

They should have responded with love; they responded with hate.
• He prayed for them, they slandered him.
• He gave them good, they gave him evil.
• He loved them, they hated him.

And so you understand why David is so shocked and frustrated.
Their response was totally wrong.
It was totally undeserved.

Now, perhaps that is true on David’s part.

We do have a tendency to view ourselves better than we ought.

• Carrie and I have seen this many times with our boys.
• Zech would goad Zek relentlessly day in and day out as boys do.
• And, as boys will do, Zek would eventually retaliate and throw Zech around.
• Zech would then come tell on Zek and say, “He threw me into the wall for no
reason at all.”

Sometimes we have a tendency to overlook our own offense
And that is why we are shocked when someone retaliates.

AND PERHAPS THAT WAS DAVID.

But one thing we know for sure, that certainly wasn’t true of Jesus.

And these first 5 verses drip of Jesus.
• They lied about Him
• They slandered Him
• They accused Him
• They hated Him
• And all He ever did was love them.

Was His love at times harsh and confrontational? Yes
But it was love none the less.

He would have forgiven and saved any one of those Pharisees
If they had repented of their sins, but they would not.
Instead they attacked Him.

And chief on that list, according to Peter, was Judas.
• Who gave perhaps the most inappropriate response to Jesus that any man ever gave.
• He literally repaid Jesus evil for good and hatred for His love.

But you see the frustration of the afflicted
#2 THE FURY OF THE ACCUSED
Psalms 109:6-20

The longest section of the Psalm and certainly the most inflammatory.
• David is hot!
• He has had enough.
• And inspired by the Holy Spirit David lays out his expectation of judgment.

And again, while this comes across as extremely harsh,
Let it show you just how angry God is
At those who slander His own.

I remind you again that Peter told us that this Psalm (as they all are)
Was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

This is God’s rage against those who accuse His Son.

David talks about THE ACCUSERS FATE
(6-8) “Appoint a wicked man over him, And let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him come forth guilty, And let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few; Let another take his office.”

As we said, Peter applied that to Judas.
• Any man who has the audacity to slander and accuse God’s Son certainly deserves such a fate.
• And any who does the same to those who are clothed in the righteousness of God’s Son suffers that fate as well.

Do you understand that?
• Believers in Christ stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
• When they are slandered, it is seen by God as a slander of Christ.

This is severe and David lays it out as such.

We also see THE ACCUSERS FAMILY
(6-10) “Let his children be fatherless And his wife a widow. Let his children wander about and beg; And let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes. Let the creditor seize all that he has, And let strangers plunder the product of his labor. Let there be none to extend lovingkindness to him, Nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; In a following generation let their name be blotted out.”

It is not just to do away with this sinner,
But also to root out any influence that he has left behind.
• Many times in the ancient world, when a king was assassinated all of his heirs were assassinated as well so as to make sure that there was no retribution.
• When Achan sinned and troubled Israel, Achan was judged alone. All his family and all that he owned was stoned to death as well.

That is the sort of picture we see here.
Don’t just judge him, but root out any and all lingering influences
that he may have left behind.

THERE IS NO PLACE FOR SUCH A MAN
Or for his ideology which may survive in his children.

No doubt that is severe.

We also see THE ACCUSERS FATHER
(14-15) “Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, And do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the LORD continually, That He may cut off their memory from the earth;”

Now David goes backward to pick up the accusers parents.
• Certainly they do not escape guilt since they raised such a vile man.

And David wants them to also suffer the consequences
Of failing as parents and not instilling better judgment in their child
Than to respond in such an inappropriate way.

We see also THE ACCUSERS FOLLY
(16-19) “Because he did not remember to show lovingkindness, But persecuted the afflicted and needy man, And the despondent in heart, to put them to death. He also loved cursing, so it came to him; And he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him. But he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, And it entered into his body like water And like oil into his bones. Let it be to him as a garment with which he covers himself, And for a belt with which he constantly girds himself.”

This man
• Had no compassion; no mercy; no sense of justice at all.
• He had no loyalty to God nor to man.
• He did not care for the poor or the humble.
• He had no mercy for those who begged and pleaded.
• He ran from blessing and instead preferred cursing.

David said he actually clothes himself in cursing.
He loves it.

He loves to malign and accuse and attack.
It is his very nature.

It reminds of Paul’s compilation of sinful men in Romans 3.
Romans 3:13-14 “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”; “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”

He is just a vile man who greatly deserves the fury of God.

And that is why David says, (20) “Let this be the reward of my accuses from the LORD, And of those who speak evil against my soul.”

This is the very fury of God for those slander God’s children.
• This was inspired by the Holy Spirit
• This was fulfilled in Judas
• It is applied to any who accuse God’s children

THAT IS A SEVERE WARNING AGAINST SLANDER

The Frustration of the Accused; The Fury of the Accused
#3 THE FRAILTY OF THE ACCUSED
Psalms 109:21-29

And here we see the MOTIVE behind David’s prayer.
• He could have very easily entitled this as another one of those “Destroy Not” Psalms
• Where in David was held back by the command to never take your own revenge.

Certainly we saw that in the meekness of Christ.
1 Peter 2:23 “and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;”
• It wasn’t that Jesus couldn’t fight back,
• But in His meekness He refused to fight back.
• He was constrained by His obedience to the will of the Father.

Perhaps David saw himself as under those same constraints.
Either way David speaks of himself as a helpless man,
Unable to defend himself, and unable to right the wrongs against him.

(21-25) “But You, O GOD, the Lord, deal kindly with me for Your name’s sake; Because Your lovingkindness is good, deliver me; For I am afflicted and needy, And my heart is wounded within me. I am passing like a shadow when it lengthens; I am shaken off like the locust. My knees are weak from fasting, And my flesh has grown lean, without fatness. I also have become a reproach to them; When they see me, they wag their head.”

You can almost see Christ on the cross here.
• He is reviled
• They wag their head
• They divide with the tongue
• They accuse and malign and slander Him

And this is where David sits.
All He can do at this point is
“entrust Himself to Him who judges righteously”

And so David prays:
(26-29) “Help me, O LORD my God; Save me according to Your lovingkindness. And let them know that this is Your hand; You, LORD, have done it. Let them curse, but You bless; When they arise, they shall be ashamed, But Your servant shall be glad. Let my accusers be clothed with dishonor, And let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe.”

He cries out to God for His great loyalty.
• “Save me according to Your lovingkindness”
He cries out to God for His vindication
• “let them know that this is Your hand”
He cries out to God for His judgment
• “Let them curse, but You bless”
He cries out to God for His vengeance
• “Let my accuses be clothed in dishonor”

It is a cry to God.
It is an appeal to God from David.
He cannot defend himself and so God must defend Him for them.

SOME MAY HAVE DIFFICULTY SEEING CHRIST HERE
For we know His prayer for His accusers while He hung on the cross.

He actually prayed:
Luke 23:34 “But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

And there seems to be quite a disconnect here.
Certainly Jesus could not pray for forgiveness with His mouth
And at the same time pray for vengeance with His mind.

Not at all.

So how do we handle it?
• Is David out of touch?
• Or more appropriately were the Holy Spirit and Jesus in conflict on this subject?

NO, OF COURSE NOT.

It is only a conflict if you imagine that a desire for mercy
Cannot coexist with a commitment to justice.

God is merciful AND holy.
• He will judge sinners
• He will forgive sinners
• Both are well within His right and prerogative.

ON THE CROSS
• we do not see Christ desiring vengeance or judgment in the least.
• He came to save sinners and we are grateful that He did.
• AND YET, AT HIS SECOND COMING you will certainly the very vengeance of
this Psalm come forth.

Just because Christ desired mercy
Does not mean that He is not committed also to justice.

Slanderers are welcome to Him in repentance.
In fact, He said:
Luke 12:10 “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.”

• Those who come to Him seeking mercy will have it.
• Those who reject the Holy Spirit’s call to come to Him will receive the very
vengeance spoken of here.

And we also see Christ in this passage
• In His meekness by the fact that though He would have been justified,
• He chose to leave judgment in the hands of God.
• Though He was strong He became weak for us.

The Frustration of… The Fury of… The Frailty of the Accused
#4 THE FAITH OF THE ACCUSED
Psalms 109:30-31

And here we get even more at the heart of the matter.

Psalms 109, though it is graphic and severe and detailed,
Is NOT primarily about the judgment of the wicked.

It is PRIMARILY ABOUT the salvation of the accused.

• When God’s children are slandered, God rises up to vindicate and save His children from their attacks.
• He will most certainly do this with Satan when he saves us ultimately from his accusations.

But in reality, Christ does this for us continually.
Romans 8:33-34 “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

And David seemed to understand this.
(30-31) “With my mouth I will give thanks abundantly to the LORD; And in the midst of many I will praise Him. For He stands at the right hand of the needy, To save him from those who judge his soul.”

• David cried to God because he knew God would agree with the wrong.
• David cried to God because he knew God would be angry at the wrong.
• David cried to God because he knew God would be sympathetic to his weakness.
• David cried to God because he knew God would ultimately save him.

And it reminds us again why we do not take our own revenge.
Our God will certainly save us from the accuser.

If we live like Christ in this world we can expect to be treated like Christ.
• We can expect to be accused
• We can expect to be wrongly accused
• We can expect to be hated and lied about
• We can expect hatred to be returned for our love

• And all the while we seek to live like Christ and bless instead of cursing.

However, we know that our God avenges His children.
“For He stands at the right hand of the needy, To save him from those who judge his soul.”

That is our hope and that is good news.

Download Here:

What Time Is It? – Part 2
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
June 13, 2021

LAST TIME we met we worked our way through this important text.
• We noticed that the preacher has now jumped subjects.
• He has covered the temptations of wisdom, pleasure, and legacy.
• Then he jumped to another subject the young man needed to understand and that is time.

We covered the entire text last time, but there is so much more than still needs to be said and understood
Regarding the time before we move on even to verse 12.

What was made abundantly clear to us last time was this.

GOD IS SOVEREIGN over all time and events.

We read:
Ecclesiastes 3:1 “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven”

• The preacher was clear that there is an “appointed” time.
• Events aren’t random.
• God is sovereign over time and over the events of earth.

And we learned that there are APPROPRIATE RESPONSES to all that God orchestrates.

This was the preacher’s point in verses 2-8
Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 “A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh; A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. A time to search and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart and a time to sew together; A time to be silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate; A time for war and a time for peace.”

What you have listed there are reminders that
There are appropriate times for all events under heaven.

For example,
Take the last part of verse 2, “A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.”

• You know that is true.
• Right now it is summer and perhaps you are planting black-eyed peas or okra,
• But if you’re planting onions or broccoli, you’re too late.
• You don’t plant tomatoes in November, and you don’t harvest them in January.

WHY?
Because God has appointed the seasons.
God has sovereignly determined when seed will germinate
And when plants will grow and produce fruit.

SO, there is an appropriate response to every event which God orchestrates under heaven.
• Sometimes it is appropriate to plant, sometimes to harvest.
• Sometimes to kill, sometimes to heal.
• Sometimes to mourn, sometimes to dance.
• Sometimes to love, sometimes to hate.

And that is the point of the preacher.

Understand that there are appropriate responses
To the events that God orchestrates under heaven
And each event may require a different response.

NOW, because God is the One who sets the event,
Then we also learn something else.

THERE IS A JUDGMENT in which man answers to God for how they responded to life, or how they managed their time.

We learned this in verses 9-11
Ecclesiastes 3:9-11 “What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”

Now first the preacher followed his custom by asking that famous thought-provoking question: “What profit is there..?”

He loves that question.
He loves to get you thinking about how important your actions really are.

And the first application is depressing.
• If God is sovereign over all events and all times under heaven, then really,
what are you accomplishing through all your work?

And the answer is that here, you aren’t really accomplishing anything.

In fact the preacher actually said that “I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.”

It may just be that God is merely keeping you occupied.
• I told you about my cousin who was asked to join us in painting the barn, but
because he was little, my grandpa only gave him water in his paint bucket.
• He soon figured it out and wanted to know the same thing. What is the point?

Well that is what the preacher asked.

BUT THE POINT OF IT ALL IS SEEN LATER.

For the preacher went on to tell us that God “has made everything appropriate in its time.”

God is the one who determined whether or not
Your response to His sovereign event is appropriate or not.

And “He has also set eternity in their heart”
• God has instinctively taught us that there is more than this life.
• Somehow, inwardly, we know that this life is not all there is.
• We know that after this life ends there is One to whom we will answer.

Now, God HAS NOT given us all the information.
“man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”

• God hasn’t chosen to give you all the answers.
• God doesn’t expect you to know why He does what He does.

But God does expect you to respond appropriately
To all the events that He orchestrates.

God expects you to use your time on earth appropriately,
Because some day you will give an account for how you lived.

The payoff is not here, the payoff is in eternity.

And so the overarching point to be made by the preacher is that
God has not put us here to live for today, but rather to live for eternity.

We are in time, making decisions that will have eternal significance.

Or to quote R.C. Sproul again.
“We live in time, but we live for eternity.”

And this causes us to have to answer the question each day, “WHAT TIME IS IT?”

THAT WAS THE QUESTION WE CLOSED WITH LAST TIME
And before we move on to the next text,
I just want to spend one more moment thinking about it.

• I gave you some passages in closing last time, but I want to revisit them a little
• And perhaps consider a few others because I think this issue of understanding our time is so important.

I do want to SHIFT YOUR TERMINOLOGY a little if I can as we begin.

When we talk about time this morning, I want you to think about it,
Not simply as a moment on a clock, or a date on a calendar.

I want you to think about it as “YOUR ALLOTTED TIME”
Perhaps it is better to say it as your “life span”.

Ephesians 5:15-16 “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.”

Think about your “allotted time”
The time in which God has allotted for you to live upon this earth.

• What are you doing with the time God has given you?
• Are you making the most of your time? (As Paul would encourage)

And secondly I want you to think about APPOINTED TIME
That is God’s sovereign timetable.

Acts 17:26 “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,”

We learned from the preacher last week that God is sovereign over it all.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven”

• We know that God’s timetable is real.
• There is a timeline that God has orchestrated.
• He has set all events and knows their times.

Consider passages like:
Matthew 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”

Jesus spoke of THE FATHER’S TIMETABLE;
A time which while on earth even Jesus didn’t know.

Remember:
Revelation 9:15 “And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind.”

• That is a future judgmental event from God,
• But you’ll notice the hour and day and month and year are set.
• We are barreling at it at the rate of 60 seconds per minute.

The point is that God has appointed the timing of events.

So we have God’s APPOINTED time,
Which is His orchestration of all events of eternity,
And then we have our ALLOTTED time which is
The small portion of time God has given you to live on earth.

God who appoints all things,
And God who allots us a small amount of that time.
For perspective purposes
YOUR LIFESPAN AS COMPARED TO ETERNITY
Is actually considered a vapor by James.

James 4:14 “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

Or as Moses taught:
Psalms 90:10-12 “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away. Who understands the power of Your anger And Your fury, according to the fear that is due You? So teach us to number our days, That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”

Or as David taught:
Psalms 39:4-5 “LORD, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am. “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah.”

By comparison, we are not allotted much time.
But we do have time; our allotted time; our lifespan.

And the objective of humanity is to determine
What is our appropriate response to God’s appointed times
As we live in our allotted time.

• The goal IS NOT to understand everything.
• The goal IS NOT to know why God does what He does.
• The goal IS simply to make the most of our allotted time.

I read to you last week a passage that really spells this out.
Acts 1:6-8 “So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Knowing God’s appointed times is not for us.
We are to concern ourselves with faithfulness during our allotted time.
Hopefully that makes sense to you.

So it brings back the question where we left off last week.
WHAT TIME IS IT?

• What time is it in your life?
• What time is it in the life of your spouse?
• What time is it in the life of your children?
• What time is it in the life of this church?
• What time is it in the scope of our ministry to this world?

Is it a time to plant or a time to uproot?
• Should you be pouring something into your life or weeding something out of your life?
• Should you be pouring something into the life of your spouse or kids or should you be weeding something out of their life?
• Should we be planting seeds of truth in our community or challenging weeds of deception in our community?

What time is it right now for us to be faithful to God’s eternal purposes?

Is it a time to kill or a time to heal?
• Are there things that must be destroyed, or are there things that must be repaired?

There is a quote I love from Martin Luther:
“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is more flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”
(sited in: MacArthur, John; The Truth War, Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception; [Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN; 2007] pg. 26)

That is exactly what Luther was saying.
You can do the right thing, but if your timing is off, it is still inappropriate to your calling.

What is the appropriate response to the times in which we live?
Because if you respond the right way at the wrong time
You are missing what is appropriate.

• OUR WORLD is hung up on being positive all the time.
• OUR WORLD is hung up on being “loving” at all times.
• OUR WORLD is hung up on being tolerant at all times.

There are times when those things are certainly appropriate responses,
But there is also a time to kill and a time to hate and a time to tear apart.

You get the idea.
• Is it a time to tear down (Jeremiah)?
• Or a time to build up (Nehemiah)?

Is it a time to weep or to laugh; to mourn or to dance?

Jesus healed people and the Pharisees mourned;
• Their response was wrong.
John preached repentance and the religious elite scoffed;
• Their response was wrong.

Matthew 11:16-19 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call out to the other children, and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’ “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

Is it a time to throw stones or a time to gather stones?
Is it a time to embrace or to shun embracing?
Is it a time to search or a time to give up as lost?
Is it a time to keep or a time to throw away?
Is it a time to sew or a time to rend?
Is it a time to be silent or a time to speak?
Is it a time to love or a time to hate?
Is it a time for war or a time for peace?

What time is it?

Consider Paul’s admonition to Timothy:
2 Timothy 4:1-5 “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

What time was it?
• It was time to preach.
• It was to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort”

Now, that wasn’t going to be easy because it was also “out of season”;
Meaning the world didn’t want to hear it.

They had already gathered a multitude of teachers to tell them what their itching ears wanted to hear, but that was inappropriate according to God’s eternal mandate.

Paul told Timothy, it’s time to stand and preach.
Don’t respond wrongly to the time in your life.

Now I just want you to think for a moment
About your life and the events of your life
And the events of the lives of those around you.

(What is going on in your life right now?)

We know that God has sovereignly appointed them all.
(3:1) “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven.”

• There are all kinds of varying events that are taking place under heaven according to the sovereign prerogative of God.
• And our calling is to recognize the appropriate response to those events.

BUT HERE IS THE IMPORTANT POINT.

When we contemplate what time it is,
We must make the decision not based upon today,
But BASED UPON ETERNITY.

And this is the preacher’s point.

In the life of your spouse or your children or your community,
What is the appropriate response in regard to their eternity?

If your objective is not to make today better, but to make eternity better,
Is it more appropriate to plant or uproot?

If your objective is not to make today better, but to make eternity better,
Is it more appropriate to tear apart or to sew together?

This is perhaps the BIGGEST MISTAKE we make in our lives as parents, friends, spouses, and even ministers of the gospel in our communities.

When we lose sight of the eternal goal
We tend to make decisions based on what makes today better
Instead of what makes eternity better,
And this is totally out of step with God, who always works for eternity.

God knows that this life is a mere vapor
And to work for it is vanity and striving after wind.

SO AGAIN, WHAT TIME IS IT?

Someday in eternity everything regarding how you lived this life
Will be brought to light.

Matthew 10:26 “Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.”

And so you must consider eternity as you live in this small allotted time.

TO THAT END we read a couple of passages to end up last week.
Romans 13:11-14 “Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”

Certainly we should consider:
Matthew 16:26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Consider:
Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

We would also do good to consider:
Hebrews 3 and 4.

TURN TO: HEBREWS 3

Look at verse 7, “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me”

• God had delivered those people out of Israel,
• But they quickly grumbled against God and hardened their hearts against Him.

The writer of Hebrews speaks there of the opportunity of every man.
The opportunity to respond to the spoken word of God
Or the opportunity to reject it.

And he points to “Today” as your day to respond.
Israel failed, you shouldn’t.

He goes on down in verse 12, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”

Look at the children of Israel and consider “Today”
And the opportunities you have today that you might not have tomorrow.

Furthermore know that David took that same passage about “Today”
And OFFERED IT AGAIN to his contemporaries in Psalms 95,
Which means God is still calling men.

You see it in 4:7 “He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”

Do you get that?
• Back in the Exodus, that was their allotted time and they blew it.
• David offered it again to his contemporaries and that was their allotted time.
• And now we read it today.

TODAY IS YOUR DAY, TODAY IS YOUR TIME.
You don’t know how much more time you get, but you get today.
DON’T WASTE IT.

Because of this the writer of Hebrews also says:
Hebrews 9:27 “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,”

God has placed eternity in your heart.
• You know eternity is real (even if you wish you didn’t)
• You know there is a judgment coming
• You know that the soul will live forever either in heaven or hell
• God has seen to it that you know that

And you understand that today you are making decisions
That will have profound impact on your eternity.

2 Corinthians 6:2 “for He says, “AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU,
AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.” Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION”

AND THIS IS SOMETHING THAT YOU MUST CONTEMPLATE.
WHAT TIME IS IT?

If we have learned nothing else from the year of 2020 and beyond
We should have learned that time is not guaranteed.

Your time, your life-span has been appointed by God.
Psalms 139:16 “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”

And the days that God has given you are so that
You might call upon Him and prepare for eternity.

Let me go back to that great statement by Paul to the Athenians.
Acts 17:26-31 “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

Do you grasp that?

If you asked Paul what time it was
He would say it was time to repent and seek God because judgment was coming.

If you asked John the Baptist what time it was he would say:
Matthew 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

If you asked Jesus what time it was He would say:
Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

I HOPE YOU GRASP THAT.

WHAT TIME IS IT?
In your life

And what time is it in the lives of those around us?
• It is not about trying to make this life better.
The preacher asked (9) “What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?”

And if you are seeking this life the answer is: NOTHING
But if you are working for eternity the answer is: GREAT PROFIT

Men are today making decisions to repent and trust in Christ
And it makes all the difference for their eternity.

Even in ministry how we use today is of great significance, consider Paul again:
Romans 1:13-15 “I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.”

• Paul saw ministry today as an opportunity to gain fruit for tomorrow.
• He saw work today as a chance to gain treasure in heaven.

THIS IS THE BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
THAT WE MUST HOLD REGARDING TIME.

• Time is precious
• Time is a gift from God
• Time is mysterious
• Time is fleeting
• Time is sacred and we must make the most of it.

There will come a day, and you don’t know when,
When your time on earth is over, when your allotted days are done.

God already has an appointed day when He will put an end to your allotted days.

And all you will have before you is eternity.

And here is the sobering truth.
In eternity you cannot change your path or your fortune.

• There is no opportunity for repentance in eternity
• There is no opportunity for salvation in eternity
• There is no chance to store up more treasure in eternity
• There is no chance to witness to your friend in eternity
• There is no chance to confront sin in your child in eternity
• There is no chance to comfort the bereaved in eternity

All of that must be done now.
WHAT TIME IS IT?

“We live in time, but we live for eternity.”

“Make the most of your time because the days are evil.”

That is the message of the preacher to the young man.

How many of us, as we age,
Can look back on our life and see the waste that is there.

• Surely we understand the grief of the preacher as he talks about his quest for wisdom…
• Surely we understand the grief of the preacher as he talks about his quest for pleasure…
• We even understand the grief of the preacher as he realizes the futility of trying to sustain a legacy…

But how many of us can also look back and see wasted time?
• Not because we weren’t busy
• Not because we didn’t accomplish stuff in the world.

BUT BECAUSE WE ONLY ACCOMPLISHED STUFF IN THE WORLD.

• The futility of raising a child for 18 years and ONLY teaching them manners or how to live in the world.
• The futility of coaching a little league team and ONLY teaching them about baseball.
• The futility of working and building and ONLY leaving buildings behind.

It is the cry of the preacher:
DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE

Don’t waste this precious time which God has allotted you under heaven.

So again, WHAT TIME IS IT?
Contemplate that in your life and start making decisions
Based on a Biblical view of time and not a worldly view.

And because we certainly view all passages through a gospel perspective I most certainly tell you that it is time for you to repent and trust in Christ.

God placed you on this earth to seek for Him and to find Him only through Christ.
• Only Jesus Christ satisfied the righteous requirements of God.
• Only Jesus Christ propitiated the holy wrath of God.
• Only Jesus Christ offered to do both of those things for you.

He is the only way for a man to be prepared for eternity.

And so this morning, I’m telling you that
TODAY IS THE DAY for you to repent of your sins,
To trust in the work of Jesus Christ,
And to confess Him as your Lord.

Today is the day of salvation.

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Remembering Deliverance, Remembering Defeat
Psalms 108
June 6, 2021

Perhaps you pick up on it when we read through Psalms 108
But there seems to be a sort of peculiar jump that takes place
Between verses 5 and 6.

The first 5 verses are all praise and adoration with David declaring
• His sincerity to God
• His urgency to praise
• His zeal for making God known
• His discernment of the greatness of God
• And his goal that God is exalted above all the earth.

It is filled with praise and adoration.

And then sort of without warning he jumps into verse 6 which says, “That your beloved may be delivered, Save with Your right hand, and answer me!”

It’s almost like he got bad news
Right in the middle of singing a praise song.

And the rest of the song sort of follows the struggle.
• In verses 7-9 he reminds himself that God has chosen Israel.
• In verses 10-13 he actually speaks of God’s rejection and need for God’s help
or else there can be no victory.

In reading the Psalm it really seemed to me
To sort of jump in between verses 5 and 6.

It would have helped if I had immediately recognized the words David wrote, but I didn’t until opening a commentary.

The reason for the noticeable jump in thought is because
Nothing in Psalms 108 is original.

Psalms 108 is actually parts of two different Psalms
Which David puts together.
And they actually break in between verses 5 and 6.

• Verses 1-5 are actually taken verbatim from Psalms 57:7-11
• Verses 6-13 are taken verbatim from Psalms 60:5-12

I don’t expect you to immediately pull to your memory those Psalms;
As I certainly didn’t upon starting my study.

BUT:
Psalms 57 was a Psalm written when David was hiding in cave from Saul.
• It was written according to “Al-Tashheth” which you remember as one of the “Destroy Not” Psalms.
• It was a Psalm in which David learned to trust God’s judgment and to therefore withhold his own.
• David exalted God in Psalms 57 because God proved that He could and would take care of David’s enemies and David only needed to trust Him.

Psalms 60 was quite different. It was a Psalm of defeat.
• It also came with a context indicator saying, “A Mikhtam of David, to teach; when he struggled with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and Joab returned, and smote twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt.”
• The difficult part of that Psalm is that while we can find David fighting Aram and Joab fighting Edom, aside from Psalms 60 we don’t have any record of Edom ever defeating Israel.
• It occurred, it is just omitted from the books of 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles.
• Anyway Psalms 60 relates how David was humbled by the defeat
• It reveals how God reminded David of His sovereign selection of Israel.
• And it reveals how it reminded David that regardless of his military might, true victory was only found in the hands of God.

So you have a Psalm of Deliverance and a Psalm of Defeat.
And here in Psalms 108
David took part of both them and put them together.

While we know the original context of both of the Psalms David borrowed, We don’t know the context or the setting of Psalms 108
As to why David visited them again.

• Perhaps it is purely memorial as David reflects on past lessons learned.
• Perhaps it is again relevant and David is again afflicted and drawing strength
from past deliverance.
• Perhaps David is sharing it with others who need the same truth.

WE DON’T KNOW WHY

But David has visited them again, extracted from each of them,
And put them together in Psalms 108 for us to remember.

What is going to allow for us tonight is a PROGRESS REPORT
We get to revisit texts we studied previously and see how we are doing.
• Can we like David still sing those same songs?
• Or do we need to learn them again?

TURN TO: PSALMS 57

As we pointed out earlier you see the sub heading to Psalms 57
Which gives us great insight

“For the choir director; set to Al-tashheth. A Mikhtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.”

Again you notice the “Al-tashheth” distinction
Which of course means to “Destroy Not”

(It is a heading which we see in Psalms 57, 58, 59, and 75.)
It is NOT a prayer for God to “destroy not”
As those Psalms make abundantly clear.

Rather it is a message from David to Israel that they should “Destroy Not”

It is rather a reminder of what Paul taught in the New Testament.
Romans 12:19 “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.”

And you are well aware of that point as we have discussed it repeatedly
In the study of those former Psalms.

The setting is also given that it is “when he fled from Saul in the cave”
• And certainly you remember that story.
• 1 Samuel 24 outlines how David fled from Saul and Saul hunted him down.

1 Samuel 24:1-7 “Now when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, saying, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.” Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. He came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. The men of David said to him, “Behold, this is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold; I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.'” Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly. It came about afterward that David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe. So he said to his men, “Far be it from me because of the LORD that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD’S anointed.” David persuaded his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way.”

David learned a great lesson that day.
• He learned that it was not for him to take his own revenge,
• But that God could and would in His timing.

• David turned the other cheek in that cave.
• David spared Saul’s life.
• David left room for the vengeance of God.

And in response to what David learned in that cave, he penned Psalms 57.

Now you can read the first 6 verses of Psalms 57
(which David does not include in Psalms 108)
And you can learn again about David’s learning process.

YOU SEE DAVID’S CONFIDENCE (1-3)
• Namely that when in danger David cried out to God for his deliverance.

YOU SEE DAVID’S CONFIRMATION (4-6)
• Namely when Saul entered that cave David learned that God could definitely handle his enemies.

And then the part that David did copy and include for us was:
DAVID’S COMMITMENT (7-11)

“My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises! Awake, my glory! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your lovingkindness is great to the heavens And Your truth to the clouds. Be exalted above the heavens, O God; Let Your glory be above all the earth.”

The overwhelming desire of David was that God be exalted.
• David has just understood that if he delivers himself by his own hand then God receives no glory.
• However, if David is steadfast and full of faith and allows God to be his deliverance then God alone is glorified and exalted.

In our country we are told to “Never take the law into your own hands”

And yet people still do at times: WHY?
• People take the law into their own hands when they have no confidence in the
legal system or the justice system.
• Either they don’t think the police can catch the criminal
• Or they don’t think the judge will convict the criminal and so they take care of it
themselves.

Well, when we take our own revenge we say the same things about God
And thus we rob Him of His glory as the righteous Judge.

Well David learned that in the cave and Psalms 57 was about that truth.

So it was a Psalm about TRUSTING GOD’S VENGEANCE

Even though you are afflicted you need not take your own revenge,
For God, who has chosen you, will in fact deal with your enemies.

That was the lesson of Psalms 57.

From there we move to the other Psalm David quotes.
TURN TO: PSALMS 60

The common denominator of both Psalms
Is that David is attacked in each of them.

• He is attacked by Saul in Psalms 57
• And he is apparently attacked by Edom in Psalms 60.

Psalms 60 also has a subtitle.
“For the choir director; according to Shushan Eduth. A Mikhtam of David, to teach; when he struggled with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and Joab returned, and smote twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt.”

• Now, while we can read 2 Samuel 8 and read about David defeating Aram
• And we can read 2 Chronicles 18 and read about Joab defeating Edom in the Valley of Salt
• We have no record of any defeat at the hands of Edom which took place.

Just because it is not included in the narrative of Samuel or Chronicles
Does not mean it didn’t occur, clearly according to Psalms 60 it did.

Most likely, while David was up attacking Aram,
Edom attacked from the south and defeated Israel.

This defeat blindsided David.
• Psalms 60 is the song where David humbled himself and confessed to God that apart from God’s help there could be no victory.
• Psalms 60 is a Psalm about what David learned in defeat.

Those are good lessons.
• Like Paul’s thorn in the flesh.
• Paul didn’t learn true strength until he fully understood his own weakness.

SO DAVID ALSO.
Once he truly understood his own vulnerability,
He better understood his desperate need for God.

In Psalms 60 we saw David speak of A SHOCKING REJECTION in verses 1-3 (which David does not include in 108)

• You can really feel how shaken the confidence of David was.
• He just lost a battle he did not expect to lose.

In verses 4-5 (We get 5 in 108) we saw A SIMPLE REQUEST

• After David acknowledged in verse 4 that all his battles are for the glory of God
• David then cried out to God for deliverance.
• He wanted God to step in and deal with the enemy who had afflicted him.

In verses 6-8 (108:7-9) we see A SOVERIEGN REALITY

Here is where despite the defeat
David remembered what God had spoken in the past.

(60:6-8 / 108:7-9) “God has spoken in His holiness: “I will exult, I will portion out Shechem And measure out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is Mine, Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet of My head; Judah is My scepter. Moab is My washbowl; Over Edom I shall throw My shoe; Over Philistia I will shout aloud.”

The point to be made is that the Sovereign God of the universe,
Who owns all things has already declared who gets what.

• Shechem and the valley of Succoth are Israel’s land.
• Gilead belongs to God.
• Manasseh belongs to God.
• Ephraim and Judah belong to God and are honored as weapons of war.

No one made God determine that,
But in HIS SOVEREIGN PREROGATIVE He chose to determine that.

That was His decision, not theirs.

And conversely
• “Moab is my washbowl” a lowly servant carrying water to wash His feet.
• “Over Edom I shall throw My shoe” like a slave to whom you kick off your sandals and tell him to deal with them.
• “Over Philistia I will shout aloud” indicating dominance and control.

So the point that David remembered is that
Even though God had allowed a victory for Edom over Israel
It does not change that God has chosen Israel and not Edom.

It did not override God’s sovereign prerogative.

But what it did to was humble David.
• It reminded David that the only reason he ever has any victory
• Is not because of his own military might,
• But because God has chosen to give the victory.

And that understanding is clearly spelled out
In the final 4 verses of the Psalm.

We saw A SINCERE RELIANCE

(60:9-12 / 108:10-13) “Who will bring me into the besieged city? Who will lead me to Edom? Have not You Yourself, O God, rejected us? And will You not go forth with our armies, O God? Oh give us help against the adversary, For deliverance by man is in vain. Through God we will do valiantly, And it is He who shall tread down our adversaries.”

You can hear the humility and the lessons that David learned.
• There is no victory apart from God.
• If God rejects David cannot win.

• “For deliverance by man is in vain”
• And yet, “Through God we will do valiantly, And it is He who shall tread down our adversaries.”

So while David was crushed against the rock of his own weakness,
He was lifted by the power of God.

And David learned not to trust his own strength
But rather to TRUST GOD’S SOVEREIGN GRACE

That is to say, to trust that God will in fact
Deliver those whom He has chosen to deliver.

It reminds of the famous passage in Zechariah:
Zechariah 4:6 “Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.”

David learned that through his defeat.

So we have two Psalms that appear to be
The opposite sides of the same coin.

In both of them David is afflicted.
• In the first he is taught to trust God’s vengeance and let God fight his battles.
• In the second he is taught to trust God’s grace and not his own strength in battle.

And now in Psalms 108
David brings part of them back together for us to remember tonight.

• David remembers a time of deliverance where he learned to trust God’s
vengeance.
• David remembers a time of defeat where he learned to trust God’s grace.

Now he puts them together.

So let’s look at Psalms 108 now quickly
And remember what David was trying to remind us of.

We’ll break the Psalm where it naturally breaks.
#1 REMEMBERING COMMITMENT IN DANGER
Psalms 108:1-5

• Perhaps David finds himself in danger again like he did back in the days of Saul,
• Or perhaps he is encouraging someone else who is trying to learn what it means to leave room for the vengeance of God.

Either way David is compelled to sing this song again.

And again it begins with a tremendous statement of commitment.

“My heart is steadfast, O God;”

It brings to your mind the great statement of Paul which is rooted in the resurrection of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

• Because death is defeated and heaven is certain Paul calls for believers to be
steadfast.

David still believes that God will care for His own, and he confesses it again.
• He is not a vacillating man.
• He is not a half-hearted follower like the one whose seed was sown among the thorns.
• He is not a shallow-hearted follower like the one who seed was sown on the rocks.

Both of those only talk a good game until the going gets tough.

No David would be wholly devoted.
David would be committed no matter the danger.
And even though danger has arrived again David remains steadfast.

Notice also HIS SINCERITY
“I will sing, I will sing praises, even with my soul.”

This is evidence of a regenerate heart.
• David is not forcing a song against his will.
• David’s soul is so confident in God that it is filled with singing.

See HIS URGENCY
“Awake, harp and lyre; I will awaken the dawn!”

There is no time like the present.
There is no time to wait.
• It is not time to make battle plans.
• It is not time to double-check the defenses.
• It is not time to secure the rations.

It is time to praise the God who saves.
It is first on his agenda.

We see HIS ZEAL
“I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the peoples, And I will sing praises to You among the nations.”

• This was no private devotion.
• This was no intimate song.
• David’s song was meant to be a declaration to the God who avenges His own.

It was important to David that the world know
Where his trust was in the midst of danger.

Notice HIS DISCERNMENT
“For Your lovingkindness is great above the heavens, And Your truth reaches to the skies.”

• Why is David steadfast?
• Why is David sincere?
• Why is David urgent in praise?
• Why can David announce it to the world?

Because David knows how great the loyalty of God is.
He knows that God is for him.
He knows that God is with him.

He has sung this song before in faith,
Now he sings it in confident experience.
God will care for him again.

And we see HIS GOAL
“Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, And Your glory above all the earth.”

• There is a purpose in the danger.
• There is a sovereign reason behind it.

God is going to use this to glorify Himself
And David is still happy to be a part of it.

He saw God do this before with Saul.
• He saw God glorify Himself by preserving David and placing him on the throne.

Now He will see God glorify Himself again
By continuing to secure David’s throne even in new trials.

IT IS GREAT PERSPECTIVE FROM DAVID.
He has sang this song before and he will sing it now again.

He also remembers when God taught him humility by allowing him to suffer defeat and David is good with that too!

#2 REMEMBERING HUMILITY IN DEFEAT
Psalms 108:6-13

• Perhaps God will deliver like He did in the cave.
• Perhaps God will teach David humility like He did with the Edomites.
• Either way David is committed.

He knows that God and only God can deliver.
And so by singing this song again, David reiterates to God
That he has not forgotten that lesson learned long ago.

As he waits for victory he makes sure to confess again
That victory apart from God is impossible.

You see again his plea for salvation.
(6) “That Your beloved may be delivered, Save with Your right hand, and answer me!”

David still wants deliverance.

You see again that he has remembered God’s sovereign election of Israel over other nations.
(7-9) “God has spoken in His holiness: “I will exult, I will portion out Shechem And measure out the valley of Succoth. “Gilead is Mine, Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet of My head; Judah is My scepter. “Moab is My washbowl; Over Edom I shall throw My shoe; Over Philistia I will shout aloud.”

God’s sovereign grace in selecting Israel
Is still the very root of David’s confidence.

And you see again David’s humility and commitment to understand that deliverance only comes from God.
(10-13) “Who will bring me into the besieged city? Who will lead me to Edom? Have not You Yourself, O God, rejected us? And will You not go forth with our armies, O God? Oh give us help against the adversary, For deliverance by man is in vain. Through God we will do valiantly, And it is He who shall tread down our adversaries.”

The refreshing thing about the repeat found in Psalms 108
Is that we see that in David’s life NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

It is heartbreaking to us when we see men or women
Who seemed to trust God only to fall away from Him in future trials.
DAVID WAS NO SUCH DEFECTOR.

In Psalms 57 and 60 David LEARNED great things about God.
In Psalms 108 David is CONTINUING TO APPLY what he learned.

• It’s not like we only face certain trials once.
• It’s not like we only face danger once and then never again.
• It’s not like we only face opposition once and then never again.

No, each time we face it there is a lesson involved
To help us face it even better the next time.
That is part of the process of sanctification.

I suppose the good question tonight for us to ponder would be
“Do I trust those things?”

When we looked at Psalms 57
We talked about how a lack of meekness is actually an indictment against God.
• When we refuse to turn the other cheek…
• When we insist on getting our own revenge…
• We are actually saying that we don’t think God will handle it.

• Psalms 57 taught us to “Destroy Not” and leave room for the vengeance of God.
• Psalms 57 taught us to be meek like Jesus who even though He was reviled He did not revile in return.

Have you learned that lesson?

My notes say we studied that text on December 15, 2019.
(about 19 months ago)

Well we certainly had a year of frustration
Where we had every opportunity not to take our own revenge,
But to leave room for the wrath of God.

On December of 2019 none of us had a clue what 2020 was going to bring.

Did we learn the lesson?
Can we still sing 108 with David and say, “Absolutely, I am still steadfast in my belief that God will avenge”?

Or how about the lesson of Psalms 60.
I show that we studied it on January 19, 2020.

David taught us that the defeats and the hardships of life
Were meant to humble him.
David taught us that we were supposed to learn
That there is no victory apart from God.

Well again we saw 2020 come.
• We saw an election year.
• We saw defeats and struggles and hardships.

Did they humble us and teach us to rely on God
Or did they only anger us and cause us
To take matters into our own hands.

It is a pretty unique progress report God just dropped in our lap.

• We were first taught those truths a year and a half ago
• And then we were given every opportunity to see if we learned them.

• And now God has brought them around again to remind us
• And to give us a barometer by which to test our progress.

I’m not about to tell you how I think we did or you did.
I can certainly tell you that I don’t think I like the grade on my scorecard.

But it is a reminder to do better.

That when we face danger or trials or hardships,
• Don’t take your own revenge but leave room for God and He will deliver.

And when we face defeats,
• Don’t get angry,
• Be humble and recognize that God disciplines those whom He loves
• And He humbles them so they will rely on Him and Him alone for their future.

Tonight we are reminded again to TRUST GOD’S JUDGMENT
And to TRUST GOD’S SOVEREIGN GRACE.

• God has chosen us.
• God loves us.
• God has determined to work all things for our good.

And God has promised that we do not have to take our own revenge,
For He will do that for us.
That is good news.

Perhaps over the next 18 months
We’ll do a better job of applying that truth to our lives.