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The Sustained Soul
Psalms 54
November 10, 2019

Tonight we approach a Psalm
That finds David between a rock and a hard place.

The subtitle gives us the details.
“For the choir director; on stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “Is not David hiding himself among us?”

Basically you will see that we have David here.
• A man who was promised a throne
• A man who has had to flee
• A man serving God and landing in hot water
• He is hated and hunted
• He is unable to take matters into his own hands
• He is forced to simply endure this difficult situation

And the simple question to anyone in such a situation is
How do you endure?

How do you keep going when so many things are stacked against you?
And the answer is HOPE

Romans 5:3-5 “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

It is genuine hope, supplied to us by God,
That allows us the strength to endure
Even when circumstances are extremely unfavorable.

We’ll see that hope tonight in the 54th Psalm.

But first, let’s go and get a handle on the background behind this Psalm.

TURN TO: 1 SAMUEL 23

This portion of Scripture actually produced several of the Psalms.
Some we have recently examined.

It was in 1 Samuel 20
• That Saul’s animosity toward David was confirmed and David had to flee.

In 1 Samuel 21
• David fled to Nob to Ahimelech who gave David some of the consecrated bread and Goliath’s sword,
• From there David fled to Gath in the land of the Philistines where he had to fake insanity to escape. (This inspired Psalms 34 & 56)

In 1 Samuel 22
• David fled to Moab with his parents, but God directed him to stay in Judah
• So David hid out in the forest of Hereth.
• And David was relatively safe there.

It was then that Doeg the Edomite
• Told Saul about what Ahimelech had done by helping David
• And Saul had Ahimelech put to death,
• And Ahimelech’s son Abiathar escaped to tell David.

David then penned that 52nd Psalm
• To reassure Abiathar and the rest of the mighty men that Doeg’s words were empty threats.

That you all remember.
But the story continues.

David is now for the most part safe.
• He has taken refuge in the forest of Hereth,
• And he has comforted his men in regard to the idle threats of the enemy.

However, when Abiathar came to David he brought with him an ephod.
The ephod contained the Urim and Thummim
Which was a way of divining the will of the LORD.

Well in 1 Samuel 23
• David is hanging out in relative safety,
• But he receives word that a city in Judah is under attack by the Philistines,
• And now David is able to seek the will of the LORD

(READ 23:1-5)
• You see that David’s men understood the dangers in following this direction,
• But David is following the LORD and he goes and delivers that town.

The problem is that the town only has one way in and one way out
And David realizes that when Saul hears about what happened
He may come after David and if he does David is a sitting duck.

(READ 23:6-14)
• So David has now narrowly escaped and once again it feels like he can return to relative safety away from the threat of Saul.

But something happened.
DAVID GOT RATTED OUT.

(READ 23:19-29)
• The Ziphites ratted David out, and nearly got David killed.
• It was nothing short of the providence of God that allowed David to escape.

These men had no problem turning on David
In order to put themselves in good graces with Saul.

Now, that is likely the backstory to the 54th Psalm,
But I want to continue on in 1 Samuel for a moment
So you can get a better idea of these Ziphites)

David has escaped to Engedi, but then look at chapter 24.

(READ 24:1-3)

Now you know that story too.
• Someone ratted David out again (I know who I think it was)
• But Saul finds David and there we have the story of David cutting a piece off of Saul’s robe.
• The story results in Saul feeling remorse for chasing David, and determining not to pursue him anymore and Saul goes home.

It feels like the story should be over.
Well, it is, for a while.

In Chapter 25 David is just hanging out in the wilderness.
This is where he goes to Nabal for provisions
And Nabal refuses but Nabal’s wife Abigail provides.
You remember that story.

But then look again at chapter 26.
(READ 26:1-5)
• There they are again, those pesky Ziphites.
• And this is the story where David breaks into Saul’s camp and steals his spear and his water jug
• And once again shows Saul that he could have killed him but did not.

And of course there is a reason why David won’t kill Saul.
(READ 26:8-11)
• Saul is God’s anointed, and until God removes Saul, David is not at liberty to act against him.

Now I know that is a lot of backstory,
But I simply want you to understand David’s life of late.

• He’s got Saul who desperately wants to kill him
• He’s got the Ziphites who are determined to keep telling Saul where he is
• He’s got God who has forbidden him to touch Saul

It’s just a hard situation.
It would be one that might cause any of us to just want to give up.

Perhaps we would have wanted to take matters into our own hands
And go ahead and kill Saul and get it over with.

But David never did. David endured.

And Psalms 54 gives us a little insight as to how David did that.

Let’s break this Psalm into 3 points, and they certainly build upon one another.
#1 DAVID’S THREAT IS REAL
Psalms 54:1-3

Clearly by now you have seen that.
• On more than one occasion Saul has come close to killing David.
• And on more than one occasion Saul has been able to locate David while in hiding.

Saul is angry, the Ziphites are helping…the threat is real.
David isn’t just being paranoid here.

And so here David rightly takes that threat to God.

(1-2) “Save me, O God, by Your name, And vindicate me by Your power. Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth.”

When David says “Save me, O God, by Your name”
David is referring to the full attributes of God.

The name was significant in Israel.
• It is how a person was revealed.
• You are familiar with those covenantal names of God.

Well David here is referring to the fact that
God has revealed Himself as the Savior of Israel,
And that is why David is asking for salvation.

It is the equivalent of David saying,
“You are the revealed Savior, so save me”

David also recognizes God as the powerful Judge
“And vindicate me by Your power”

You are the revealed Savior, so save me.
You are the powerful Judge, so vindicate me.

They are the statements of a man
Who knows he cannot take the matter into his own hands.
He knows he must lean upon the LORD, and that is what he is doing.
He is leaning on God to save.
He is leaning on God to vindicate.

And his desperation in this matter is clear.
(2) “Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth.”

God, don’t ignore me now.
• You are the Savior.
• You are the Judge.

There’s nothing I can do so I’m crying out to you.
Now would be a bad time for You to tune me out.

And David explains why:
(3) “For strangers have risen against me”

That would be the Ziphites.
• Men who had no reason to hate David, but seemed more than willing to help Saul shed innocent blood by continually enlightening Saul to David’s location.

“For strangers have risen against me And violent men have sought my life;”

That would be Saul.
• The Ziphites expose David and Saul shows up to try and kill him.

And if that were not bad enough.
“They have not set God before them.”

That is to say, we have here enemies who want to kill me
And they are the kind of people who wake up in the morning
And seek direction from You.

Now David was that kind of guy, and that is partly why he is in this mess.
• It was God who chose to anoint David as king and thus anger Saul.
• It was God who told David to stay in Judah after he had fled to Moab.
• It was God who sent David to deliver the city of Keilah when he was hidden.
• It was God who wouldn’t let David kill Saul when Saul was firmly in his grasp.

So one could easily see that
The only reason Saul is still alive
Is because David continually sets God before him.

But the same can’t be said for David’s enemies.
• They aren’t the least bit concerned about the will of God.
• They don’t have an inner conscience to keep them from doing evil.
• They aren’t driven by the same moral or spiritual code that drives David.

David was in a battle where the enemy did not play by the same rules.

We have understood those types of issues in our day.

The enemy may attack us, blaspheme us, malign us, and even kill us,
But our playbook is filled with commands like:

Matthew 5:39 “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”

Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”

Romans 12:14 “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”

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.”

That is the same type of problem David is facing.
The threat is real, and there isn’t anything that he can do about it.

He’s facing a dangerous enemy that plays by a different set of rules.

And all he can really do is cry out to God.
Can you see why his soul might become weary?
Can you see why his endurance might falter?

Well David’s threat is real.
#2 BUT DAVID’S GOD IS ALSO REAL
Psalms 54:4-5

And this is so important.
And this is where the rubber really meets the road in life.

You face that enemy and he persecutes you
And God tells you not to take your own revenge,
But to leave room for His vindication
So it really matters at that point if your God is real.

Because if your God is fake, that command won’t help.
• It won’t do you any good to turn the other cheek if the God who commanded that isn’t real.
• It won’t do you any good to pray for those who persecute you if the God who commanded that doesn’t hear.
• It won’t do you any good to refrain from your own revenge if there is no God out there to vindicate you.

Furthermore we might also add,
It won’t do you any good if you don’t really believe He is real.

This is why so many fail to obey commands like those.
In the moment of hardship; in the moment of difficulty,
It as though they fail to really believe God can be trusted
And they end up taking matters into their own hands.

They take their own revenge
They respond with a curse

When we do that someone would do good to ask us,
“Is your God not real?”

Well, David’s God is real, and what is more, David believes that.

Because after his cry we now see his confession.
(4-5) “Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul. He will recompense the evil to my foes; Destroy them in Your faithfulness.”

David indicates that there are 4 things his God will do.
There are 4 things God will supply.

1) HELP
“Behold, God is my helper”

Certainly true for us.

Jesus even told us:
John 14:16-17 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

David knew God would help.

2) SUSTENANCE
“The Lord is the sustainer of my soul”
• It is God who will keep me from stumbling.
• It is God who will keep me from throwing in the towel.
• It is God who will give me the strength to endure and carry on.

We also see this.

Peter taught us:
1 Peter 5:10 “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”

God provides the strength of soul that is needed to endure.

3) VINDICATION
“He will recompense the evil to my foes”
• David knew that it was not his job to get even with Saul.
• David knew that was God’s job and he believed God would do it.

Paul taught us:
2 Thessalonians 1:6-7 “For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire,”

It was also Paul who reminded us not to take our own revenge for “Vengeance is Mine says the Lord”

David believed that.

4) VICTORY
“Destroy them in Your faithfulness.”
• At the end of the day David knew who would win.
• At the end of the day David knew who would be victorious.

He believed that God would show up
To help him, sustain him, vindicate him, and give him the victory.
Certainly the threat was real, but so was David’s God.

• God wasn’t just a token myth to David.
• God wasn’t just an empty claim.
• God wasn’t just a lifeless ceremony.
• God wasn’t just a boring hymn.

God was real to David.
David believed in God.
David trusted God.
That was the basis behind his obedience and the sustenance of his soul.

It seems like a simple question, but it really is the heart of the matter.
Do you believe in God?
Do you believe God?

• Is He real?
• Does He do what He says?
• Can He be trusted?

There are many who say “yes” to those questions,
But their life doesn’t back it up.

We remember those Cretans Paul talked about to Titus
Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”

They were people who claimed to believe in God
But their life certainly didn’t bear that out.

• There was only one reason David had stayed in Judah…
• There was only one reason David had refrained from killing Saul…
David believed his God was real

It is a very important reality.

So, we see here that David’s threat was real, but David’s God was also real.
#3 SO DAVID’S HOPE IS REAL
Psalms 54:6-7

Because David’s God is real, so is David’s hope.

Let me put it to you like this.
Hope is a result of faith, not the other way around.
Hope doesn’t come first, faith does.

If someone simply hopes for something that he doesn’t believe
All he has is some sort of fairy tale.

That is not Christian hope.
• Christian hope is not a verb, it’s not what we do.
• Christian hope is a noun, it’s what we have.

And we have hope as a result of faith.
• Because we believe God.
• Because we believe He is real.
• Because we believe He will do what He says.
• WE HAVE HOPE

Hope fades and hope falters when you don’t believe God.

But David did and so we see his hope.
(6-7) “Willingly I will sacrifice to You; I will give thanks to Your name, O LORD, for it is good. For He has delivered me from all trouble, And my eye has looked with satisfaction upon my enemies.”

You have here a future hope based on past reality.
• David knows that worship is in the future.
• David knows that thanksgiving is in the future.
• Because David believes that God is going to deliver him.

And the reason David believes that God is going to deliver him
Is because God has never failed him yet.
God has always delivered me.

Was it close at times? Absolutely
Did it feel like maybe He wasn’t? Yes
But did He? Yes, every time.

And with that confidence God is now
Sustaining David’s soul in this present threat.

THIS IS HOW THE SOUL IS SUSTAINED.
It is sustained through recognition of what God has done
And it is sustained through faith in what God will do.

And in this way God was helping David.
In this way God was giving David hope.

And this certainly applies to the Christian life we live.

• We face threats and enemies.
• We face things that would topple our faith and cause us anxiety and doubt.

What is it that sustains our soul?
• It is the reality that our God is real,
• Of what God has done,
• And the promise of what God has said He will do.

And frankly you can’t live the Christian life without that.

That brings to mind a New Testament passage that parallels this Psalm.
TURN TO: 2 TIMOTHY 4

• You of course remember that 2 Timothy is the letter where Paul is seeking to encourage Timothy not to quit, but to “preach the word”
• And the letter is filled with Paul seeking to encourage Timothy’s faith and give him hope.

But the last chapter of the letter gives us insight into Paul’s great hope
Even when facing various threats.

(READ 9-18)
• Here is the great apostle at the end of his life in the horrific Mamertine prison
• He will shortly be beheaded for the gospel and he knows it.
• And at the end of his life there were no prayer warriors surrounding his cell.
• There was no fan mail pouring in.
• Instead Paul says (16) “At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me;”
• The famed apostle was at the end of his life and was alone with the exception of Luke.

What soul can survive such heartbreak?

Paul could. Why?
(17-18) “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

That is a sustained soul.
Both by remembering what God had done
And by faith in what He would yet do.

And this is the calling for believers.

Let me remind you of the sustained soul of the apostles:
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;”

And then we are encouraged regarding how to have it.
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.”

It is the same thing.
Remembering what God has done and faith in what He will do.

One more passage.
TURN TO: ROMANS 8:18-30

There it is again.
• Paul reminding that the present threat is no comparison to the coming glory.
• And even in the threat we have the Helper who supplies us with hope and prays on our behalf.
• And we have the full confidence that the God who first foreknew us will also lead us to glory.

These are the things that sustain the soul
Even in the midst of life’s threats.

That is what David had.
He believed God and the result was hope and the sustaining of the soul.

This is our calling as well.

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The Sermon At The Pharisees House – Part 1
Luke 14:1-24 (1-11)
November 10, 2019

This morning we begin looking at an interesting event
That took place in the life of Jesus.
I just call it “The Sermon At The Pharisee’s House”

Namely because in verse 1 we read:
(1) “It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread…”

The first two words actually make me smile as I read “It happened”

It causes me to think of an anticipated scene.
• Almost like someone saying, “Could you imagine what would happen if
Jesus actually went to a Pharisees house on the Sabbath?”
• “Oh, and what if there was a sick man there?”

Well, “it happened”
And the entire account is found in verses 1-24.

And before we start working our way through it,
Let’s sort of zoom out and make sure
We see the big picture of what occurs here.

JUST SOME OBSERVATIONS about the visit as a whole that will help us understand the parts.

Clearly in verse 12 we find that on this day JESUS HAD BEEN INVITED to this Pharisee’s house.
• He didn’t crash the party, He was invited. (the motive of that invite will be discussed later, but Jesus was invited)

We also know that at least some of them wanted Him there for the purpose of FINDING DIRT ON HIM.
• That is what is implied by the end of verse 1 where Luke says “they were watching Him closely.”
• Perhaps that is why they invited Him, but even if not, there were at least some there who used the event for that purpose.

Now, what makes this sermon interesting to me is that Jesus sort of embraces A GATLING GUN APPROACH.
• That is to say, He kind of shoots at everybody here.
• No one in this room is off limits with perhaps the exception of the man He heals.

In verse 3 we read “And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees”

In verse 7 we read “And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests”

In verse 12 we read “And He went on to say to the one who had invited Him”

And in verses 15-16 we read “When one of those who were reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But He said to him…”

So you have there Jesus addressing 4 different groups.
1) The Pharisees and Lawyers
2) The Invited guests
3) The Host
4) His contemporaries

And Jesus confronts them all.

Another thing interesting about this account is that JESUS INSTIGATES most of these conversations and we DON’T GET ANYONE’S RESPONSE.
• The final man does make a sort of light hearted statement to Jesus, but other than that, Jesus initiates every one of these confrontations.
• He is clearly here to address the issues He sees.
• And we get no recorded response from the people regarding anything Jesus says.

Clearly then this text was not about what man thinks about Jesus.
This text is what Jesus thinks about man.

This text is not about man correcting Jesus.
This text is about Jesus correcting man.

THAT HELPS US WITH APPLICATION.
We have Jesus, addressing various issues,
And Luke just wants you to hear what He says
So that you and I might apply it to our lives.

And the reason each of these issues is important
Is because each one of the issues Jesus confronts here
Are issues that directly inhibit salvation.

You have Jesus here eating at a Pharisees house and He cannot be quiet about what He sees.

• These are things He must confront.
• These are issues He must address.
• These are attitudes He must expose.

Because these are the very attitudes
That keep men out of the kingdom of heaven.

These are heart issues that keep people lost.

Now, we will address 4 different ones as we work our way through the sermon, but even more simplified than that I could tell you like this.

We’re going to break it down into 4, but really it’s THE SAME ISSUE
Jesus addresses OVER AND OVER AND OVER with these people;
It just manifests itself in different ways.

The main issue Jesus addresses at this lunch is SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS.
It is the issue that shows up in each of these people’s lives
And it is the main issue Jesus is addressing.

And we’ll see it in 4 distinct areas.
So we will start working through this sermon, and learn from the preaching of our Lord.

#1 CONCERNING HYPOCRISY
Luke 14:1-6

Here we have the moment where
Jesus confronts the Pharisees and the Lawyers.

So “It happened that when He went into the house of one of the leaders of the Pharisees on the Sabbath to eat bread, they were watching Him closely.”

This was a common practice.
Sort of like you and I understand a Sunday lunch.
• After the synagogue they would go to eat bread, which undoubtedly had been prepared the day before so that no one was working on the Sabbath.
• And on this day Jesus was invited.
• And there appears to have been at least a decent sized group there as well.

And Luke adds:
(2) “And there in front of Him was a man suffering from dropsy.”

“dropsy” is sort of an old term for the condition you know as EDEMA.
It is an abnormal accumulation of fluids in the body.
It can be in your legs or your lungs or somewhere else.

Edema isn’t really a disease so much as it is a symptom of a disease.
• It can be a result of chronic heart failure.
• It can be a result of kidney failure.
• Or there are other things that can cause it.

But here we have a man who is swollen due to fluid buildup.

And similar to the HUNCHED OVER WOMAN in chapter 13,
• Nothing is said about this man asking for healing.
• Nothing is said about this man’s faith.

It’s just that on this day Jesus saw this “man suffering from dropsy”

And with the Pharisees and Lawyers “watching Him closely” we read:
(3) “And Jesus answered and spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”

We’ve seen this play out a few times before haven’t we?
• In Matthew 12 we had the man with the withered hand in the synagogue.
• In Luke 13 we’ve got the woman bent over
• In John 5 there is the crippled man at the Bethesda pool

This is not an unusual encounter in the gospels.

We’ve also seen a variety of emotions fly at such incidents.
• When we read about the man with the withered hand in Mark’s gospel we
read that Jesus was angered at all the people in the synagogue.
• After Jesus healed that man we read that they were angry at Jesus and
wanted to kill Him.
• We read in Luke 13 after Jesus healed that woman who was bent over that all
His opponents were being humiliated.

It has been a common battle ground, and here we have it again.

And Jesus asks the question “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?”

And please understand this is not a judgment call.
• This is a black and white issue.
• This is a clear matter about what the Law says or doesn’t say.

And Jesus asks the “lawyers” (experts on the law)
If the law was ok with a Sabbath healing or not.

• He DIDN’T ASK about traditions…
• He DIDN’T ASK, “what do you think?”
• He ASKED for a ruling from the Law.

And we find in verse 4, “But they kept silent.”

And this is an interesting silence.
It speaks a great deal to their goals and purposes.
• It shows us that these man had no concern for righteousness or truth, only condemnation.

If they really thought it sinful then they should have warned Him not to do it so as to guide Him not to sin.
• But their silence here is an indication that they were interested in righteousness, only in condemnation.

If they say, “It is not lawful” then Jesus might not do it and they’ll have no grounds for accusing Him.
If they say, “It is lawful” then they again have no grounds for accusing Him.

It’s better for them if they just keep silent
And then wait for Him to do something and then pounce.

The point being, they’d rather condemn than guide.
And their silence shows that.

“But they kept silent. And He took hold of him and healed him, and sent him away.”

Don’t miss the miracle here.
• We don’t even know what the ailment was.
• All we know is the consequence of the man’s ailment was dropsy.
• But whatever the disease, Jesus healed it, and the swelling was gone, and Jesus sent this man home.

And then Jesus confronts those silent “lawyers and Pharisees”

(5) “And He said to them, “Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”

Jesus words indicate to us that the Pharisees and lawyers
Thought Jesus was wrong to heal this man.

AND JESUS CALLS THEM ON IT.
Namely because
They condemn men when they do the same thing themselves.

We have a word for this, and it is HYPOCRISY.

Romans 2 deals directly with this.
• After that passage on God’s wrath which abides on those living in sin, Paul
turns in Romans 2 to ask:

Romans 2:1-3 “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?”

That is what these lawyers and Pharisees were doing.
If their ox or their son fell into a well on the Sabbath,
They wouldn’t even think twice about pulling it out.

Jesus said they would “immediately pull him out”

Then they would turn right around and condemn Jesus
For delivering this man on the Sabbath.

IT IS HYPOCRISY.

And hypocrisy is nothing more than a symptom of is self-righteousness.
That is to say, they have convinced themselves
That they are righteous in and of themselves.

It is the same hypocrisy and self-righteousness that Jesus exposed in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 7:1-5 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

The issue there isn’t just judging, but rather self-righteousness.
• It is biased judgment.
• It is a person who is willing to judge someone else,
• But is unwilling to judge themselves.

And Jesus constantly exposed the Pharisees and lawyers for this.
We see it with that woman caught in adultery.
• Men ready to stone a guilty adulteress.
• And Jesus says, “Sure, just check your own sin first”

It was hypocrisy, it was self-righteousness.
They would condemn others for sin they also committed.

BUT TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE,
Here they were condemning Jesus
When He didn’t even break the Law.

• The Law did not forbid healing on the Sabbath.
• The Law did not forbid helping on the Sabbath.
• But they were ready to condemn Jesus

It is just self-righteous hypocrisy all the way,
And it was a constant for the Pharisees and lawyers.

And then we read:
(6) “And they could make no reply to this.”

The word for “no reply” literally means “could not contradict”
• They couldn’t silence Jesus.
• They couldn’t correct Jesus.
• They couldn’t argue with Jesus.

• He had clearly exposed their double standard.
• He had clearly exposed their biased judgment.
• He had clearly exposed that while they condemned others, they had failed to condemn themselves.

And this is the first thing Jesus exposes at this meal.

Now, as we said, there is NO RESPONSE GIVEN,
SO WE DON’T FOCUS HERE ON THE PHARISEES OR LAWYERS.

Rather, we understand that Jesus here clearly exposed
Hypocrisy and self-righteousness as that which is unacceptable.

WHY IS HYPOCRISY AND SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS UNNACCEPTABLE?
BECAUSE IT WILL CONDEMN YOU BEFORE GOD.

Self-righteousness causes men not to trust in Christ
And that leaves men in their sin.

If we could explain it even clearer,
We would remind you of this simple truth.
God said it over and over, “Be holy AS I am holy”

God DIDN’T JUST SAY be holy or be righteous
God identified Himself as the standard of that righteousness or holiness.

Many a man has identified himself as righteous or holy
But the righteousness which he owns
Falls far short of the righteousness God demands.

Matthew 23:23-24 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”

That was the Pharisees. They were certain they were righteous,
But the righteousness they had was not acceptable.

Remember this guy?
Matthew 19:16-17 “And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

You see it again.
Don’t confuse your righteousness with God’s righteousness.
They do not compare.

And that is why self-righteousness is so dangerous.
That is why Jesus was so adamant to confront hypocrisy.

HYPOCRISY WAS A SYMPTOM OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS.
• When Jesus saw that these men would condemn someone else for the things
they do, He knew that self-righteousness was present.
• AND HE MUST EXPOSE IT.

• Self-righteousness leaves men under judgment assuming they are acceptable.
• Self-righteousness and hypocrisy breed false assurance in man and JESUS WOULD NOT LEAVE IT ALONE.

Even in this first encounter at the Pharisees house.
The miracle seems LESS ABOUT healing the man
And MORE ABOUT confronting the hypocrisy of these self-righteous men.

Jesus wanted them to know that the righteousness they trusted in
Was full of holes and ultimately unacceptable.

This, by the way, is what makes the gospel so remarkable.
Romans 3:21-24 “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;”

So listen to the warning of the Lord there.

So the first thing Jesus addresses is hypocrisy.
There is a second thing He addresses at this meal.
#2 CONCERNING HUMILITY
Luke 14:7-11

Jesus is clearly on a role.
After silencing the lawyers Jesus now turns to “the invited guests”

Because in all the shuffle of entering
And even healing the man with dropsy,
Jesus saw another practice taking place that concerned Him.

Luke says, “He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table”

And already we must admit that Jesus doesn’t miss anything.
He watches with clear eyes.

And when He watched these invited guests He saw a MAJOR PROBLEM.
• No, it wasn’t blatant immorality.
• No, it wasn’t drunkenness.
• No, it wasn’t profanity, or crude speech

Jesus just watched them as to which seats they chose for themselves.

And Jesus noticed that they “had been picking out the places of honor”

Typically in a room the seating would be laid out in a “U” shape.

The host would sit at the head of the “U”
With the two most important people on his right and on his left.

(Perhaps you now remember James and John’s mother
Requesting that Jesus let her boys sit in this place)

But you started with the two most important people
And sort of worked your way down around the sides
In a definite and distinguishable pecking order.

And even while addressing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees
Jesus had not failed to see the invited guests
Were preoccupied with picking out for themselves the best seats.

No doubt this was a learned practice from their spiritual leaders.
Jesus said of the Pharisees:
Matthew 23:6 “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues,”

It is likely that this was even the normal culture of Jesus’ day.
• We already mentioned James’ and John’s mother.
• But it’s not like it was just those two.

Luke 9:46 “An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest.”

But that wasn’t the only time they had this fight.
Luke 22:24 “And there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest.”

We read it yet again in Matthew’s gospel:
Matthew 18:1-4 “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Even the disciples of Jesus were deceived in this area.

Certainly we have also read Matthew 6 where Jesus confronts the Pharisees for their Hypocritical Giving, Hypocritical Prayer, and Hypocritical Fasting.

Each time point out that they do these things “to be noticed by men”

The entire culture was one of grabbing honor for yourself.
Their entire culture was about forcing yourself to the front of the pack
And making sure you were noticed.

So in that sense what these guests were doing wasn’t that unusual.

But in their self-exaltation
Jesus saw a root problem that must be addressed.

So, “He began speaking a parable to the invited guests”

(8-10) “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place. “But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you.”

It’s not a difficult parable to understand.
• If you go into a banquet hall and pick for yourself the best seat, then you run the risk of someone else coming in who is more important and in shame you are told to leave.

How embarrassing that would be.
How much shame that would involve.

• But, if you go in and pick the worst seat, you can imagine the honor when the host comes and says, “Oh no! You come up where with me”

And in that moment you “will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table.”

The simple application and point is seen in verse 11
(11) “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

This is the point Jesus is trying to make.

It is hard to imagine that Jesus actually cared
Who sat where in this insignificant meal,
However such arrogance and lack of humility was a problem.

People who are willing to so quickly exalt themselves
Indicate a dangerous heart problem.

They indicate a pride and an arrogance and a self-righteousness
That is again counterproductive to salvation.

FOR STARTERS, even in a temporal sense pride rarely pays off.

Solomon said it repeatedly.
Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.”

Proverbs 29:23 “A man’s pride will bring him low, But a humble spirit will obtain honor.”

There is a simple fact of human nature here that even society naturally resists the arrogant man and will almost unwittingly root for his fall.

We watch sports, and often the most hated and denounced athletes in sports
Will be those who continually exalt themselves and walk in arrogance.
Human nature will naturally rood for the underdog and the humble man.

Societal realities will typically prove true what Solomon said.
If you walk in pride you will be brought low.
That is a basic proverb for living.

BUT EVEN MORE DANGEROUS than that,
Is the reality that pride and arrogance
Are extremely detrimental to the call of salvation.

There is another incident
Which inspires Jesus to make this very same statement about humility and exaltation.

Luke 18:9-14 “And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ “I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Jesus gave the same analogy,
• BUT IT WASN’T that He was worried that this Pharisee might have shame in this life.
• HE WASN’T warning that someone in the temple might start booing the Pharisees for his arrogance.

No, the danger here was a spiritual one.
The danger here was an eternal one.

Because this man had an inflated view of his own goodness
He was unwilling to cry out for mercy.

This man came into that temple claiming the figurative place of honor.
• He walked right into that temple,
• Figuratively sat down at the highest seat,
• Then looked down the table to the man at the end,
• Leaned over to the host and said, “I’m thankful I’m not like that man!”

His statement dripped of pride and arrogance and self-righteousness.

But the problem there IS NOT that the Lord kicked him out of the temple.
• Nothing is said there about the host telling him to move down the table.
• On that day, in the temple, he received no shame.

THE PROBLEM was that when he left he was still not “justified”

It was his pride and arrogance that blinded him to his own faults
And ultimately caused him not to cry out for mercy.
And because he did not cry out for mercy, he did not receive it.

And THERE IS A DAY COMING when he will be told to get up and move.

That is why Jesus addresses this issue here in this house.
It has very little to do with Jesus caring where people are sitting.

What He is concerned about is the fact that
All these people seem to be carrying a seed of pride and arrogance
And that is very dangerous.

THEY HAVE IN THEM A SEED OF THE VERY THING GOD REJECTS.

Consider the Old Testament:
Isaiah 57:15 “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Isaiah 66:1-2 “Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? “For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.”

Psalms 34:18 “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Psalms 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

We read it continually that God eagerly accepts those who are humble.
That makes pride a dangerous thing to have in your heart.
Even small amounts…
Even seemingly insignificant expressions of it…

We’ve read it many times that “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble”

Jesus made it clear in the Sermon on the Mount in the beatitudes.
Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

And that is why Jesus is addressing this crowd.
• They have in them a seed of the very thing God rejects.
• They have in them a seed of that which will cause them to not cry for mercy.
• They have in them a seed of that which will deceive them and ultimately judge
them.

AND JESUS COULD NOT LEAVE IT ALONE.

And again, we are not told how the crowd responded to this parable.
The application and response is for the reader.

We clearly see the warning from Jesus
About the dangers of pride and arrogance
As indicators of self-righteousness.

AND THE APPLICATION?
Root it out.

We are reminded of the story of Nebuchadnezzar
• Who was forced to eat grass like a beast for 7 years.
• And we read his testimony after God restored him in which he said:

Daniel 4:37 “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”

Approaching God in pride is a foolish thing.
Approaching Him like you deserve to be there is foolish.

Again we run to the gospel
Where the only way we are made acceptable to God
Is when we are clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus.

To assume you are fine without Him is self-righteousness
And it will condemn you.

How do I know if I have self righteousness?
• Well, do you see hypocrisy in your life? (condemning others for what you do)
• Do you see humility in your life? (or do you think you deserve glory)

Those where the troubling attitudes Jesus saw
And He immediately confronted them.

Well, there’s the first two parts of this sermon.

Jesus was simply invited to a meal
But when He was there He saw some attitudes
That He could not leave alone.

• He could not just overlook the reality that these men would self-righteously
condemn others for things they do themselves.

• He could not overlook the obvious pride that grew in the hearts of the people
who were invited to this meal.

He addressed them both
Because both of these things are heart attitudes that prohibit salvation.

If you are to be saved IT WILL NOT BE accomplished by declaring yourself righteous,
IT WILL BE WHEN YOU RECOGNIZE YOU ARE NOT.

If you are to be saved IT WILL NOT BE by boldly walking into God’s presence and declaring yourself worthy to be there,
IT WILL BE WHEN YOU BEG HIS FORGIVENESS
BECAUSE YOU KNOW YOU ARE NOT WORTHY.

There’s the first two. But Jesus isn’t finished.
We’ll look at the next two next time.

The Fate Of The Fool
Psalms 53
November 3, 2019

Tonight we look at yet another song
Which God inspired for His church to sing.

A song which again was “For the choir director”
To teach to the great congregation.
The truths contained here are truths to be read, memorized, sung,
And thus engrained in the human heart.

What you may immediately be aware of is that this Psalm
Is nearly identical to a Psalm we have already studied.

Psalms 14 and Psalms 53 are very similar.

And that doesn’t bother us in the least.
Paul said:
Philippians 3:1 “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.”

Peter wrote:
2 Peter 1:12 “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.”

So just because we study something again, is not a big deal at all.
And there will definitely be some similar points.

However, there are also some important differences to grasp,
And such that will take us to a different application for Psalms 53.

For starters,
In the subheading we get information for Psalms 53 that was not present in Psalms 14.

Namely that it is played “according to Mahalath”
“Mahalath” is a word that can mean “disease”.
It can also mean “stringed instruments”

Many have noted that most likely this Psalm
Was to be played upon the string instruments to a sad theme.

So we know it carries a different tune than that of the 14th Psalm.

Another notable difference is when the 14th Psalm speaks of God David used Yahweh, translated “LORD”.

But in Psalms 53 the word “Elohim” is used and is translated “God”

Whereas Yahweh was the covenantal name of God
And focused greatly on the relationship between God and His people, Elohim is a name that seems to focus on the powerful Creator God.

So where Psalms 14 may have been for a more relational feel, Psalms 53 is going to focus in more on the power of God.

The third major difference you will see comes in verse 5, which is the most significantly different verse in the Psalm and one that allows us to gain the differing point and direction of this song.

Now, despite the differences they are very similar.
In fact the first 4 verses are almost identical.

And like the 14th Psalm, the focus here is on the fool.

Certainly we can all understand the importance of this topic.
Even when the Lord finished His Sermon on the Mount, He ended it with a warning about a foolish man.

Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell — and great was its fall.”

Most know that story, and there is even a child-song we sing about it.
That story is the final application of Jesus’ entire Sermon on the Mount.

He spent 3 chapters talking about true righteousness as opposed to merely external religious behavior.
• He called men to be poor in spirit and to hunger for righteousness
• He condemned hypocrisy
• He condemned self-righteousness
• He condemned those who put all their trust in their own religious deeds
• He called men instead to see their sin and ask Him for righteousness
• He called men to realize their desperation and enter through the narrow gate

Those who would see God’s righteous standard
As something they had failed to uphold
And who would understand their due judgment
And who would run to Christ to be saved from that judgment
WERE CONSIDERED WISE.

Those who ignored God’s righteous standard,
Ignored God’s judgment,
And chose rather to trust in all their own efforts
WERE CONSIDERED FOOLS.

After Jesus gave that sermon He could have easily ended with this Psalm.
It is a song which emphasizes the utter foolishness of fools.

We the church sing this Psalm still
• As a reminder of what true foolishness is,
• And how foolish it is to ignore God’s righteous standard.
• And how foolish it is not to call upon God for salvation.

AND THAT IS A REMINDER WE NEED
Buried in the prideful human heart
Is a continual draw toward legalism and self-reliance.

And even we must be continually reminded
To never put confidence in the flesh.

This is why Paul wrote to the Philippians:
Philippians 3:2-9 “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,”

The Philippians needed to guard themselves
From the temptation to put confidence in their flesh.

That confidence is the very heart of all foolishness.
• Only a fool trusts in his own house and forsakes the rock of Christ.
• Only a fool ignores the warning signs of judgment and believes himself to be
well established in his own goodness.

And the church must be reminded of this continually.
IGNORING GOD IS FOOLISH.

But we also sing this song as a reminder of the fate of the fool
So that we might glory in salvation
And be driven to evangelize all the more.

We remember the fate of the fool so that (as John learned in the Revelation) we might be driven to “prophesy again”.

No wonder God inspired such a fitting song to be sung.
This is an important Psalm to remember.
This is an important doctrine to fix in your heart.

We broke Psalms 14 into 2 points, but we’re going to break this Psalm into 4.
And they are all about the fool.
#1 THE FOOL DENIES HIS CREATOR
Psalms 53:1

Here we are talking about “The fool”

It’s not a foreign term – the book of Proverbs uses it 38 times.

Yet there are 3 different Hebrew words that are commonly referred to as “fool”

There is EVIL (e-veel)
• And this one just means “one who despises wisdom”.
• They don’t want correction
• They don’t want instruction

There is KESIL (ke-seel)
• And this is just a stupid or silly person.

And then there is the word used here.
• It is NABAL and it means “senseless”.
• That is to say, they just don’t get it.

This is the fool who can’t seem to discern
That the storm is on the way and his house is about to fall into ruin.

This is the person who can’t seem to grasp
The holy expectation of God or His coming wrath.

HE IS SENSELESS.

In the New Testament this man is not so often referred to as a fool
So much as he is referred to as “dead” or “spiritually dead”

Colossians 2:13 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,”

It speaks of that person who is unable to recognize the things of God.
He is not aware of what is going on around Him.

This is why Paul prayed for the unrepentant lost like this:
2 Timothy 2:25-26 “with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”

Consider the prodigal son, the beginning of his salvation is recorded like this:
Luke 15:17 “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger!”

This is the type of fool spoken of here.
• Not necessarily a stupid person
• Not necessarily a stubborn person
• Not dealing with an apostate here
• We not even be dealing with a person who has even heard the gospel
• But mostly a senseless person, they don’t get it.

It is a lost person
It is a spiritually dead person

But that lack of sense still makes him a fool.
And in verse 1 it is that he denies God’s desire.

(1) “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good.”

• Here we find the heart-confession of the senseless fool.
• He “has said in his heart, “There is no God.””

This the person David has in mind here.

It’s NOT that he runs around militantly declaring God isn’t real.

David is talking about the guy who lives like there is no God.
• He has just never contemplated that he was created
• He has never wondered who created him
• He has never considered his Creator’s expectations

David continues
“They are corrupt”

“corrupt” there is the Hebrew word SHACHATH
And it means “rotten” or “perverted” or “spoiled” or “decayed”

It speaks of something that
Is no longer useful for its intended purpose.

Genesis 6:11-13 “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, ” The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.”

Interestingly enough in that last line when God says that He will “destroy them” that word is also SHACHATH.
They are spoiled, rotten, and decayed, so God will decay them.

Exodus 32:7 “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.”

That of course was in reference to the golden calf incident.
• Through their actions the people had strayed from their original purpose and had rendered themselves unfit for their intentional design.

• They were ruined and no longer useful.

This is what David says about these fools.
“They are corrupt”

They have strayed from their created purpose
And are no longer useful for what they were designed for.

David goes on to say that
“they have committed abominable injustice;”

This was the means of their corruption.
“abominable” is a word that means “detestable”

The reason they are so ruined is because
They have spoiled themselves
By doing absolutely detestable things.

There is actually a word swap from Psalms 14 here.
• Psalms 14:1 says they “have committed abominable deeds”
• But Psalms 53 says “they have committed abominable injustice”

Whereas Psalms 14 just referenced detestable deeds.
Psalms 53 uses a word that means “violent deeds of injustice”

It really takes it up a notch and intensifies it.
They are just bad, they are violently bad.
They do unthinkable things.

My mind goes here to the atrocities we read about
• Concerning things like abortion.
• Or the killing of a baby who accidentally survives and abortion.
• Or the harvesting of a fetus’ organs.
• Or the selling of those organs.

It’s just intensified violent evil.

DAVID IS HERE MAKING SURE YOU UNDERSTAND
THAT THEY ARE DESERVING OF GOD’S DIVINE WRATH.

They have done things they should not have done,
And as such have corrupted themselves
And rendered themselves unfit for service and useless to God.

THEY JUST HAVE NO INTRINSIC VALUE BEFORE GOD

And then to sort of sum up the total problem of the fool David says:
“There is no one who does good”

“good” there is TAWB
You’ve seen it before
Genesis 1:31 “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

“good” there represents God’s expectation and desire.
• It represents what is complete and perfect and useable to Him.
• It represents something that functions exactly as He designed it to function.

And David says that there is no fool “who does good”
• They are all corrupt
• They have all been defiled by their detestable deeds
• None of them maintains the original good purpose which God designed for
them

That is why we say the fool has DENIED HIS CREATOR
God created humanity for a specific purpose and for a specific design
And every fool out there denied that purpose and corrupted themselves.

They were all ruined and useless.

The fool Denies His Creator
#2 THE FOOL DISREGARDS HIS JUDGE
Psalms 53:2-3

“God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. Every one of them has turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.”

Certainly we see again emphasized the fact that
The fool has failed to live up to God’s righteous expectation.

But added to that problem here is the fact that
The fool is also totally UNAWARE THAT GOD IS WATCHING.

“God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand”

We already established that man has corrupted his purpose
And is unusable to God,
Here we want to know if they realize that there is a problem with that?

And the answer from David is, “NO”.

God wanted to know if “there are any who understand”
That is to ask
• Do they understand that they have corrupted the purpose for which they were created?
• Do they understand that they have maligned their true purpose?
• Do they understand that they have offended Me, their Creator?

And the answer is, “No, they do not”

And it’s the same answer across the board.
“EVERY ONE of them has turned aside, TOGETHER they have become corrupt; There is NO ONE who does god, NOT EVEN ONE.”

What we are talking about here is not just a couple of people
Who need to be segregated or quarantined,
WE ARE TALKING ABOUT A GLOBAL EPIDEMIC.

It was the same epidemic that occurred before the flood.
Genesis 6:11-12 “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.”

They had become corrupt, God was watching, and they didn’t care.
• It mattered not to them that judgment was occurring.
• It mattered not to them that their Holy Creator disapproved.

It is the fool, totally disregarding the fact that God is watching.

It is the horrifying statement found in Romans 1
Romans 1:32 “and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

THAT IS TO BE SENSELESS
• They don’t get it.
• They are totally oblivious to the standards of God and the judgments of God.
• They are senseless, they are dead

The Fool Denies His Creator The Fool Disregard’s His Judge
#3 THE FOOL DECLINES HIS SAVIOR
Psalms 53:4

“Have the workers of wickedness no knowledge, Who eat up my people as though they eat bread, And have not called upon God?”

Here you actually have David asking, “Have [they] no knowledge?”
• These people “who eat up my people as they though eat bread”
• These people who “have not called upon God?”

• These are people who have denied the very reason for their existence.
• These are people who have disregarded that God might judge them for that.
• These are people who also have attacked those who do serve God.

And yet we find that thus far in life they “have not called upon God”

You will remember what Paul said in Romans 10
Romans 10:13 “for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

The point being, nothing has changed.
• Despite their rebellion.
• Despite their apathy.
• Despite their persecution of God’s people.

They still have not come to their senses and repented
And called upon God for forgiveness and salvation.

And David asks:
Have they no knowledge?

In other words, “Are they really that dumb?”
• Only a fool would live like that.
• Only a fool would do such things without repenting.
• Only a fool would refuse to call upon God for salvation.

Do they not realize what a terrifying predicament they are in?
Hebrews 10:29-31 “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Do they not know that?
And the answer is – NO
• They don’t know that God is righteous and they are wicked
• They don’t know that they are wicked and God is angry
• They don’t know that God is angry and they are in danger

NOW THIS IS WHERE THE PSALMS GO IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS.

In Psalms 14 David said:
Psalms 14:5-6 “There they are in great dread, For God is with the righteous generation. You would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted, But the LORD is his refuge.”

Psalm 14 clearly desired to contrast the fool with the wise man.
And the point to Psalms 14 is that
While the fool is raging, the wise man is trusting.

And so Psalms 14 becomes a contrast between the fool and the wise man.

• Whereas the fool denies God’s desire and disregards God’s judgment and
declines God’s salvation, the wise man does none of those things.

• The wise man realizes that God is with the righteous generation and so the
wise man takes refuge in the Lord.

It is a contrast meant to inspire the church to choose wisdom over folly.

But Psalms 53 has a different feel.
Instead of talking about how the wise is different from the fool,
David here gives one more point about the fool.

#4 THE FOOL DESERVES HIS FATE
Psalms 53:5

This Psalm makes no contrast between the fool and the wise man.
This Psalm instead takes the fool to his complete end.

Notice the coming reality for those who deny their Creator and who disregard their Judge and who decline their Savior.

There are really 2 listed here.
1) FEAR DUE TO JUDGMENT
2) SHAME DUE TO REJECTION

Look at it.
“There they were in great fear where no fear had been;”

David reveals that there was a point when they had no fear of God.

Well that is certainly true.
• It’s not listed here, but we are well aware of that other famous statement that
Paul draws upon from Psalms 36.

Romans 3:18 “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

That is certainly the fool.
• He lives in such a manner as to defy God and doesn’t even seem to care.
• There is really no fear there.

I watched a video promo recently by Ron Reagan in charge of
“The Freedom From Religion” campaign.

Where he boldly says at the end, “Ron Reagan, lifelong atheist, not afraid of burning in hell.”

You can even go on their website and create your own digital billboard where you upload your own picture inside a set of devil horns where you can also proudly proclaim that you also are not afraid of burning in hell.

That is the sort of brash foolishness we hear from our world today.

And yet, David also reveals that their lack of fear is temporary.

David says, “They were in great fear where no fear had been.”

They were previously unafraid of God’s judgment,
And all of a sudden that changed to “great fear”

Why?

Well that’s easy, God’s judgment began.
“For God scattered the bones of him who encamped against you.”

These ungodly fearless non-believers
Who ate up God’s people as though they ate bread
Were judged by God.
God attacked them, decimated them, and scattered their bones.

You may remember a couple of months ago we listened as Jesus warned that unfaithful slave that He would return and “tear you in pieces”.

Well that is what God is doing here,
And all of a sudden these fools found their fear.

We read of it in Revelation 6
Revelation 6:12-17 “I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

Isaiah 13:6-9 “Wail, for the day of the LORD is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will fall limp, And every man’s heart will melt. They will be terrified, Pains and anguish will take hold of them; They will writhe like a woman in labor, They will look at one another in astonishment, Their faces aflame. Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it.”

Ron Reagan isn’t afraid today, but that confidence is only temporary.
Only a fool would make such a statement.

There will be a fear due to judgment.

But David also speaks of a second reality.
SHAME DUE TO REJECTION

David says, “You put them to shame, because God had rejected them.”

Today there are many who don’t fear God
And there also many who feel no shame at their sin.

We live in the day of gay pride parades.
We live in the day of sexual immorality being celebrated.
At pro-abortion rally’s with signs like
• “My body my choice”
• “I don’t regret my abortion”
• “If Mary had had an abortion we wouldn’t be in this mess”

It’s a foolish lack of shame in our culture.

We saw it in Scripture.
Jeremiah 6:10-15 “To whom shall I speak and give warning That they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed And they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the LORD has become a reproach to them; They have no delight in it. But I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary with holding it in. “Pour it out on the children in the street And on the gathering of young men together; For both husband and wife shall be taken, The aged and the very old. “Their houses shall be turned over to others, Their fields and their wives together; For I will stretch out My hand Against the inhabitants of the land,” declares the LORD. “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace. “Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time that I punish them, They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.”

Philippians 3:19 “whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.”

But there is coming a day when their pride will come to an end.

The Bible says that God “rejected them”
And in that rejection “put them to shame”

Can there be a more shameful or foolish feeling than being shut outside of the door into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth?

Is there not shame in those beating in the door saying
“Please open up to us!”

It is coming.
• Today they have no fear of God but one day they will.
• Today they have no shame, but one day they will feel like the biggest fools of all.

And that is the focus of Psalms 53.
The foolishness of a fool.

BUT YOU OF COURSE NOTICE ONE MORE VERSE.

I’m convinced that verse 6 serves as sort of the chorus of the Psalm.
It is the truth that God’s people are to grab ahold of.

(6) “Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores His captive people, Let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.”

It is the fitting chorus to be sung between every stanza about the wicked.
• It is a cry for God’s Savior to immerge.
• It is a cry for God to restore the captives.
• It is a cry for God’s people to rejoice in that salvation.

I FIND IT EVEN TO BE A SONG WITH A MOTIVATION FOR EVANGELISM.
• When we contemplate the fate of the wicked should we not be moved to a greater evangelistic zeal?
• When we contemplate the fate of the foolish should we not be moved to warn them?
• When we contemplate the fate of the lost should we be like the prodigal son’s older brother and just rejoice in their damnation?

I certainly don’t find that to be Christ-like response.

So here’s how you sing this song.

THE FOOL DENIES HIS CREATOR – Oh God send Your Savior to rescue the captives and I am so thankful that You saved me!

THE FOOL DISREGARDS HIS JUDGE – O God send Your Savior to rescue the captives and I am so thankful that You saved me!

THE FOOL DECLINES HIS SAVIOR – O God send Your Savior to rescue the captives and I am so thankful that You saved me!

THE FOOL DESERVES HIS PUNISHMENT, but O God send Your Savior to rescue the captives and I am so thankful that You saved me!

And if you’ll see it, that is the message of the New Testament.
We certainly are made aware of the reality of the fool,
But that reality is that which is meant to ultimately
Drive us to the greatness of Christ.

TURN TO: ROMANS 3:10
• You are familiar with verses 10-18, we read them quite often and many of them
come from Psalms 14/53.

But Paul doesn’t just stop there.
• First Paul reveals that the Law couldn’t fix the problem. (19-20)
• The Law didn’t help.

But what happened?
God sent His Savior.
He rescued the Captives.

(READ 21-24)

The church sings this song of the judgment of the wicked.
But how did David say we sing it? “Mahalath” – we sing it sadly!

Sinful man is a fool, and the end of that path is only judgment.
And that is why (like us) they need a Savior.

If God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
How foolish would it be for us to do so?

We sing this song to remind us where the fool is headed.
• May it also inspire us to pray that God’s Savior would come.
• May it also inspire us to pray that God would save those captive to sin.
• May it also inspire us to rejoice at the salvation of the wicked.

• God forbid we be like the Pharisees who were angry at Christ for reaching out to tax collectors and sinners.
• God forbid we be like the prodigal’s older brother who had no room in his heart for a forgiven sinner.

I can’t help but be reminded:
Titus 3:3-7 “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

So we are aware of fools and the trouble they are in.
But that is why we pray for the Savior to come and save.

They are fools, but so where we.
God saved us, and we pray for God to save them.

The Savior’s Heart
Luke 13:31-35
November 3, 2019

Often times we have talked about the realities of God’s sovereignty,
Even as it pertains to things like salvation.
We have examined words like “predestined” or “foreknown” or “election”

There is not a doubt in our minds that the Scripture clearly teaches
That salvation is purely a matter of God’s sovereign grace
Through His sovereign election.

We discuss it a lot.

And as you know, many balk at such doctrines
As though God were cruel and wrong to do such a thing.

Instead of seeing the grace
That God determined to save those who were certainly headed to hell,
They distort the reality and pretend that God
Is somehow keeping people out who want in.

And they imagine all these people wanting to be saved, but God in cruel sovereignty saying, “I’m sorry, but you aren’t elect”.
That has never once happened and it never will.

The only reason anyone comes to Christ is because God chooses them.
But none the less, people blame God for the lostness of man.

Even last week we talked about the extreme DIFFICULTY OF SALVATION.
• We listened as Jesus clearly taught that salvation is hard to enter,
• In fact one must “strive” or literally “fight” to enter the kingdom.
• And even at that, only a few will be successful
• As many are shut outside where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

But we heard Jesus use words like “hard” or “few” or “narrow” or “impossible” to describe salvation.

And many at this point would also balk saying that
If this is true then God is far too demanding and rigid.

And again, if what Jesus said was true (and certainly it is)
Then people would once again blame the lostness of man
On the fact that God is just too rigid.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been tempted to think of God in that way.
• I don’t know if you’ve ever pondered that God is cruel because of His sovereign election.
• I don’t know if you’ve ever pondered that Jesus is cruel for keeping the door to salvation so narrow.

This morning I would encourage you not to fall prey to such a distortion.

No matter how the world might respond to the truth,
One thing I must remind you of is that in no way
Is man ever lost due to the cruelty of God.

I must remind you again of a very profound truth.
Hebrews 1:1-2 “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son…”

• All throughout the Old Testament we have God revealing Himself as the writer of Hebrews says “in many portions and in many ways”
• There are both verbal descriptions of God given and there are symbolic pictures of God revealed.
• We hear God spoken about and we see God typified throughout the Old Testament.

• But when God wanted to make Himself known through His most accurate and detailed revelation God came to us “in His Son”.

John told us:
John 1:18 “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”

Never was there a better revelation of who God is than in Jesus Christ.
• He revealed God.
• He explained God.
• He shows us the very heart of God.

And so we are reminded of a very important and profound truth. Namely that when God chose to make Himself known to mankind, He came in the form of a Savior.

• Not as a Tyrant…
• Not as a Warrior…
• Not as a Politician…
• He came as a Savior.

We see who God is in the person of Jesus Christ.

And of Him we read:
Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

John’s gospel even reminded us that
Had it been the intention of God to see man condemned,
Then all He had to do was nothing.

But if man was to be saved then He would have to come and save them.
John 3:17-18 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

And so I just remind you that,
Even though we read passages about salvation being hard,
Do not allow that to cause you to think
That somehow God is trying to keep men out.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Especially last week we learned how hard salvation was for Israel.
(That’s actually who Jesus was talking to)

He even said:
Luke 13:28-29 “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. “And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God.”

Jesus said that many Jews would not be saved.
But that wasn’t because He didn’t want them to be.

And that is why passages like the one this morning
Are so important to remind us of the heart of our Savior.

• The calling of God is high.
• Salvation is a costly calling.
• It is a narrow gate, it is a narrow way.
• It does bid you lose everything to obtain it.

But that is not because God is trying to keep people from being saved.
At His very core He is a Savior.

And we see that so clearly here in Jesus in our text this morning.

There are two main points I want you to see about our Lord’s heart.
#1 HIS DEVOTION
Luke 13:31-33

We begin by recognizing again that this text is directly linked to the previous one.

(31) “Just at that time some Pharisees approached…”

These types of little clues are so important to our understanding of context
And what the gospel writer is trying to get across to us.

And here we understand that this text is sort of a reactionary one
To the statements Jesus just made.

If you will remember,
Based upon the routine preaching of Jesus someone asked Jesus if only a few were being saved.

It’s not hard to figure why someone would ask that.
• Jesus’ sermons are filled with calls for repentance.
• Jesus’ sermons are filled with warnings of judgment.
• Jesus’ sermons are filled with offers of salvation.

Jesus’ messages aren’t the type
You’d figure He’d preach to a group of saved people.

And so He is asked if only a few are being saved.

His response was a difficult one.

He spoke about how salvation has AN UNACCOMMODATING ENTRANCE.
• He actually said you have to strive to enter.
• He actually said you have to fight to enter.

Of course, He is the door and THE REASON FOR THE STRUGGLE
Is because His calling is in direct opposition to the will of the flesh.

You don’t have to fight Jesus to get in, you have to fight yourself.
Your flesh won’t want it.

But even in the struggle, don’t look for God to widen the door.
Denial of self is a non-negotiable requirement.

He spoke about salvation have UNCOMPROMISING REQUIREMENTS
• Namely it is righteousness.
• Jesus revealed that the “evildoers” where shut outside and kept outside.
• Despite their begging, despite their knocking, He did not let them in.

If you aren’t righteous you don’t enter.

This is why we must deny self and squeeze through that narrow door,
Because only in Jesus do we find the righteousness that God demands.

Jesus also spoke about salvation having UNEXPECTED RECIPIENTS
• Jesus certainly spoke of the Fathers being saved,
• But also, to the shock of many, He spoke of Gentiles being saved.

They are saved of course because of their humility.
They are saved because they knew they couldn’t earn it,
They knew they were sinful, and they run to Christ.

It was a sobering message on salvation.
In order to be saved and to enter the kingdom,
A man must deny himself, humble himself, and run to Christ
Who alone provides the righteousness God demands.

That was the message.

What is clear now is that the message DIDN’T GO OVER WELL.

After the statement Jesus is confronted by some Pharisees.

“Just at that time some Pharisees approached, saying to Him, “Go away, leave here, for Herod wants to kill You.”

IT IS A LITTLE BIT OF A PECULIAR STATEMENT
Because it almost sounds like the Pharisees are trying to give him
A friendly heads up in order to save His life.

(We certainly know that is not the case since they also were out to kill Him.)

Probably what they wanted more than anything was just to silence Him.
They make Him aware of Herod’s wicked plot
In hopes that He will tone it down a notch and quit preaching.

It would be even better if He would just leave the region altogether.

And so they basically approach Him
And tell Him to leave town for His own good.

His answer will tell you a great deal about His heart.

(32-33) “And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach My goal.’ “Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem.”

• Here Jesus pulls no punches.
• He actually calls Herod “that fox” which was NOT a term of endearment.

Herod here is Herod Antipas.
• Herod the Great was the Herod who tried to kill Jesus as a baby, and it was
after he died that Joseph brought Mary and Jesus back to Judea.
• After Herod the Great’s death, his kingdom was split among his 3 sons.
• Archelaus received Judea, Samaria, and Idumea
• Philip received Ituraea and Trachonitis
• And Antipas received Galilee and Perea

Herod Antipas was the one who beheaded John the Baptist,
And he is the one who will try and host a trial of Jesus

Here Jesus calls him “that fox” which was not a term of endearment.

Foxes were destructive pests in Israel.
Today it would be akin to calling someone “that varmint”
(MacArthur, John [Luke 11-17; The MacArthur New Testament Commentary; Moody Press; Chicago, IL; 2013] pg. 228)

The main point being here was that to Jesus
Herod wasn’t a threat, Herod was a pest.

Jesus didn’t fear Herod and He wasn’t concerned about Herod’s plans.
And Jesus was not about to let Herod shape His ministry plans.

“Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach my goal.’”

You do need to know that the Greek word behind the phrase
“reach my goal” is TELEOO

It is a form of the same word our Lord utters from the cross.
It means “perfected” or “completed” or as Jesus said it “finished”

So when the Pharisees tell Jesus that He had better run for His life because Herod wants to kill Him
Jesus says, “Nope, I’m not finished”

In short, He was totally devoted to making sure He hit every village, every synagogue, every city that He was called to hit.

He came to proclaim the gospel throughout this region
And He wasn’t leaving until He finished proclaiming it
And delivering those who lived there.

THAT IS DEVOTION.

What makes the devotion even more impressive is what He says next.
(33) “Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem.”

There is a bit of a play on words here.
• In verse 31 the Pharisees told Jesus to “leave”
• In verse 33 Jesus said I must “journey on”
• Those are the same word in the Greek

THEY TOLD JESUS TO LEAVE, He said, once I’m finished I will, but only because I must go to Jerusalem to suffer.

What that means is that Jesus is well aware of that fact
That while Herod may be an enemy,
The truest threat He faces is from Israel.

He won’t die in Galilee
He’ll die in Jerusalem.

And here is the remarkable thing to me.
• Jesus won’t leave Galilee until He has finished the work He came to do.
• And the only reason He’s leaving is because He’s headed to Jerusalem where He is going to die.

SO ANALYZE THIS SITUATION
• You have Jesus threatened by Herod,
• But He won’t leave because He is committed to offering salvation to the Jews.
• But all the while He knows the Jews won’t receive His offer of salvation.
• And ultimately they will kill Him for it.

Now can we talk about our Savior’s devotion?

John 1:11 “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.”

The Jews didn’t want Him there. (The Pharisees were trying to run Him off)
The Gentiles didn’t want Him there. (Herod wanted to kill Him)

At what point, if you are Jesus, do you just throw in the towel and say, “You know what, forget it. I’m out of here, you people aren’t worth it.”?

But that wasn’t His answer.
His answer was “I’m not finished”

That puts so much more weight into that statement on the cross:
John 19:30 “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”

Jesus wouldn’t quit because He wasn’t finished.
• He never stopped early.
• He never overlooked His task.
• He came to preach
• He came to heal
• He came to die

And it didn’t matter how much they hated Him.
It didn’t matter how much they rejected Him.
He wouldn’t quit until He was finished.

JESUS CAME TO SAVE.
And He wasn’t leaving until the work was finished.

Does that sound like a cruel Savior?
Does that sound like someone disinterested in the salvation of sinners?
Does that sound like someone eager to condemn men?

NOT AT ALL.

Just because Jesus reveals that salvation is hard
And many fail to enter it
Does not mean that that is what He wants.

Jesus came to save, and He took that mission seriously.
It didn’t matter if He was HATED – It didn’t matter if He was THREATENED.
It didn’t matter if He was REJECTED.
HE WOULDN’T STOP UNTIL HE WAS FINISHED
That is the heart of our Savior.

You see His devotion.
#2 HIS DISTRESS
Luke 13:34-35

And perhaps these two verses are even more remarkable.
• The Pharisees are there telling Him to leave…
• Herod is out there wanting to kill Him…
• He’s headed to Jerusalem where they will kill Him…

You’d think at this point He might be a little angry (or frustrated).
BUT INSTEAD HE IS GRIEVED.

And the remarkable thing?
• He ISN’T grieved about His coming suffering.
• He IS grieved about Israel’s coming suffering.

He is in distress; He is lamenting;
Because of what THEY are going to face.

Let’s take these 2 verses and break them down a little further.
This is too significant a statement to just breeze through it.
1) DISAPPOINTMENT (34a)
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her!”

I’ve never been to Jerusalem, but that would be a nice billboard to post outside the city.
That would be a good banner for the city of Jerusalem website.

We are talking here about the city
• Where God caused His name to dwell.
• It is the city that housed the very glory of God.
• It is the holy city

And yet according to Jesus it isn’t known for any of those things.

Jesus says the defining characteristic of this city
Is its rejection of truth.

It is the city that “kills the prophets and stones those sent to her”

It is the city that rejects salvation.
It is the city that rejects God’s correction.

AND JESUS LAMENTS THAT REALITY
This grieves Him.

In fact a little later Jesus will finally reach the city.
Luke 19:41-44 “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

Jesus is broken-hearted over this city.
He is grieved.
He has come to save them, and they aren’t interested.

Disappointment
2) DESIRE (34b)
“How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,”

Now we understand that Jerusalem is an analogy for all the Jews.
Israel was the children Jesus speaks of.
He came in order that He might save them.

When you read the book of Ezekiel you come across that chapter which speaks of the horrible atrocities that Israel had suffered under her false shepherds.

Ezekiel 34:1-6 “Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? “You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. “Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them. “They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. “My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them.”‘”

Because of this, not only did God promise to annihilate those false shepherds, but we also read:
Ezekiel 34:11-12 “For thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. “As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.”

And ultimately:
Ezekiel 34:23-24 “Then I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. “And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the LORD have spoken.”

Isaiah 40:9-11 “Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” Behold, the Lord GOD will come with might, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him. Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.”

And this of course was why Jesus came.
Matthew 9:36 “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.”

In John 10 we are reminded that He is “the Good Shepherd”.

Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

He came to save.
He wanted to gather them.
He wanted to save them.
He wanted to protect them.

Here He said like “a hen gathers her brood under he wings”

This is an often used Old Testament reference.
Psalms 91:4 “He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.”

Deuteronomy 32:10-11 “He found him in a desert land, And in the howling waste of a wilderness; He encircled him, He cared for him, He guarded him as the pupil of His eye. “Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, That hovers over its young, He spread His wings and caught them, He carried them on His pinions.”

It is a picture of total salvation and deliverance.
It is a picture of safety from judgment.

Jesus wanted to do that.
• He wanted to save them
• That was His desire.

DON’T MISS THAT ABOUT OUR SAVIOR.
HE DIDN’T COME LONGING TO JUDGE THEM.

Our God is not One who delights in the judgment of sinners.
Ezekiel 18:23 “Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord GOD, “rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?”

Ezekiel 18:32 “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord GOD. “Therefore, repent and live.”

Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them, ‘ As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’”

And even while they were crucifying our Lord:
Luke 23:34 “But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.”

Do you see His heart?
His desire is for salvation.
He does not delight in the judgment of sinners.

He was disappointed in Jerusalem because He desired to save them.
3) DEFIANCE (34c)
“and you would not have it!”

That was always true.
• Every time God sent them a prophet…
• Every time God tried to correct their sin…
• They said, “No!”

The Old Testament is littered with the rebellion of Jerusalem.
The entire books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel are dedicated to that very fact.

And certainly that stubbornness remained with the ministry of Jesus.

Do you remember John 5
• When He healed that cripple that couldn’t get in the pool?
• He did it on the Sabbath.
• When the questioned it, He said, “I’m just doing what My Father is doing”
• And for that the Scripture says they wanted to kill Him.

AND LOOK, I REALIZE THERE IS A TENSION HERE
When we talk about the sovereignty of God and election
And then a passage here that clearly says Jerusalem “would not have it”

And we could spend a lot of time working through that balance of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.

But regardless of that debate, what you have to see here is:
THE JUDGEMENT OF JERUSALEM WAS NO GOD’S FAULT.

Can you see that?

You can moan all day about the “unfairness” of election.
You can moan all day about Jesus saying that salvation is hard.

But at the end of the day what is clear is that
It wasn’t God who rejected man, it was man who rejected God.

It wasn’t God who told man to get lost,
It was man who told God to get lost.

God is not the villain.
Jesus is not the villain.
HE IS THE SAVIOR

It is Israel, that despite all here opportunities,
Refused to accept the salvation Jesus offered.
They were the defiant ones.

4) DESOLATION (35a)
“Behold, your house is left to you desolate; and I say to you, you will not see Me…”

Jerusalem will finally get what they want.
The Pharisees wanted Him gone, and they would eventually get their wish.

And the rejection of Christ would be the desolation of Israel.

ON ONE HAND A SPIRITUAL DESOLATION – Israel would be broken off.

Romans 11:7-10 “What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY.” And David says, “LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE AND A TRAP, AND A STUMBLING BLOCK AND A RETRIBUTION TO THEM. “LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED TO SEE NOT, AND BEND THEIR BACKS FOREVER.”

ON THE OTHER HAND A PHYSICAL DESOLATION – In AD 70 Jerusalem would be burned to the ground.

And not only that, but since that day no people on earth
Have been more persecuted than the Jewish people.

It was Israel that wanted no Savior, and that is what they have received.
Their very history is the tragedy of a people
Who have told their Savior to get lost.

THEIR HOUSE HAS BEEN LEFT DESOLATE.
And there is a lot more we could say there.

But there is one more beautiful reality.
• Despite all that.
• Despite all the hatred.
• Despite all the rejection.
• Despite all the stubbornness.

Jesus has not forgotten what He came to do for them.
He came to save them.
And He will yet save them.

5) DELIVERANCE (35b)

A HUGE WORD in verse 35 is the word “until”
“you will not see Me UNTIL the time comes when you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’”

The Lord has indeed handed them over to desolation.
The Lord has indeed broken them off.
BUT HE HAS DONE SO TEMPORARILY.

He currently waits until they finally repent
And cry out for this Savior they have for 2,000 years rejected.

He currently waits for them to genuinely say, “BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!”

Peter preached it clearly in Jerusalem.
Acts 3:18-21 “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”

That verse gets often quoted in evangelistic efforts,
But the application of that verse is for Israel.

• When they repent and they return and they “look on Him whom they have pierced” as Zechariah says.

• Then their sins will be wiped away and times of refreshing will come (millennial reign) because Jesus will return.

HE ISN’T FINISHED WITH THEM.
He has never decided not to save them.
He is still a Savior.

Romans 11:25-29 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery — so that you will not be wise in your own estimation — that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

I find it to be the most merciful promise in the Bible.
• That God has not forsaken His people.
• That God will not let them go.
• That still He is intent on saving them.

And the point we take from this is a clear one.

We can talk about election and God choosing to save some,
• But if that causes you to think then that He is gladly choosing to destroy others
then you do not know the heart of God.

We can talk about salvation being narrow or hard or impossible or how only a few are being saved
• But if that causes you to think that Jesus is somehow trying to keep people out,
then you do not know the heart of Jesus.

• Whenever you see lost people…
• Whenever you see people rejecting Christ…
• One that last day when men are consigned to eternal hell…

It won’t be God’s fault that they are there.
God’s heart is clearly seen.
Jesus’ heart is clearly seen.

• He finished His work despite being hated and threatened and ultimately condemned.
• And He has maintained His purpose despite the stubborn rejection He has continually endured from those He came to save.
• And on the day that they finally turn from their sin, there He will be with open arms, and quickly He will come to deliver them from their enemy.

This is the Savior. This is our Savior.
He does not rejoice in the destruction of the wicked, He weeps over it.
He does not rejoice in everlasting torment, He came to save men from it.

AND FRIEND THAT IS TRUE FOR YOU.
• God desires to save.
• God is willing to save.
• Christ came to save.

NOW NO,
• He’s not going to widen the gate in order to save.
• He’s not going to abolish righteousness in order to save.
• He still requires repentance, He still requires humility, He still requires
righteousness.

But at the same time,
All that He has required He has provided it through His Son.

And His call to you is in fact a universal call to all men.
• Come, be saved!
• Deny yourself and be saved!
• Turn from your sin and be saved!
• Reject your own religious works and efforts and be saved!
• Enter through the narrow gate and be saved!
• Walk the narrow way and be saved!

That is why He came, and it is a valid offer to you.

Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

SUCCESS!!!!

Thank you for giving!  We were able to send $5,000 to Malawi in order to fix the fence, secure it with razor wire, install a security gate, replace the blankets, and even feed their congregations.  We praise God for providing, and we thank you for allowing Him to provide through you!

 

Here are some pictures of the work that has already been done!

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You should also know that while this need has been met, the situation in Malawi is always extreme.  People are dying of hunger and this makes things even tougher for an orphan.  You can give year round to help their needs such as food, clothing, bedding, and school fees.  Any time you donate through our church 100% of the funds you give go directly to the field.  Thank You!