The God Who Deserves Praise
Psalms 33
March 31, 2019

We are all aware of that serious warning
Which Paul utters in Romans 1 about the wrath of God.

He reminds us that:
Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,”

If you want it spelled out, he goes on to say:
Romans 1:21 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

It just cannot be stated enough the importance of honoring God.
It cannot be stated enough the importance of praising Him.

Malachi 1:6 “‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name.”

We have even learned recently regarding prayer
That the chief motivation for prayer is that God is glorified
As we pray, “Hallowed be Your name”

We are talking about the absolute necessity and importance
Of honoring and praising God.

Certainly the presence of a hymn book at the center of your Bible
Should be a sufficient indicator that God expects to be praised in song.

Even in the Old Testament, David appointed men whose job was simply to be singers in the temple.

• If you read about these men 1 Chronicles 9 you will find that they were given
no other job.

1 Chronicles 9:33 “Now these are the singers, heads of fathers’ households of the Levites, who lived in the chambers of the temple free from other service; for they were engaged in their work day and night.”

It was no small thing to God that He be praised continually.

I find it especially interesting even what we learn in the New Testament.

We talk often about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives to sanctify and seal us before God.
• We certainly are aware of His gifts…
• We are aware of His fruit…
• We are also aware of the command to “be filled with the Spirit”.

And we’ve talked about that, it is to let Christ’s word dwell within you richly.
It is to relinquish control and allow the Holy Spirit full access and leadership in your life.

But have you ever wondered what a life like that would look like?
Have you ever contemplated the indicators of a spirit-filled life?

Ephesians 5:18-20 “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;”

One who is filled with the Spirit continually speaks “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things”

That’s the evidence of a Spirit-filled person.

And of course even when we move to heaven we see that the preferred spiritual occupation is to sing praises to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Revelation 5:8-10 “When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

(That is echoed again in Revelation 15)

So you have the issue of singing praise to God.
• Orchestrated by the Father in the Old Testament.
• Inspired by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
• Offered continually by the Saints for all eternity.

It’s important.
We are a people called to praise God.

1 Peter 2:9-10 “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.”

We are simply called to be a praising people.
It is important.

And that is really the heart of Psalms 33.
• It is just a simply song of praise, inspired by God, and preserved in His hymn book for the church to sing repeatedly.

• It is a song that focuses on the greatness of God, the privilege we have to be His people, and the natural response of praise we give when we grasp that.

It is a simple song about the God who deserves to be praised.

Let’s work through it together:
#1 A CALL TO PRAISE
Psalms 33:1-5

We’re going to break this down more tonight in outline form
Because I think that makes it easier to see and understand.

Clearly we have here a call from the Psalmist
For God’s people to engage in singing to God.
That is obvious.

But let’s examine it a little closer than that.
1) WITH JOYFUL EAGERNESS (1)

“Sing for joy in the LORD, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright.”

What a wonderful statement and reality.
That God’s people are called to sing and to sing joyfully to God.

We are the “righteous ones”
• But only because He has declared us righteous.
• And that very notion of justification alone should inspire songs of praise.

In fact the Psalmist says that “Praise is becoming to the upright”

“becoming” means “attractive” or “fitting”

Songs of praise are the naturally preferred language of the justified.

For years in the charismatic movement we have been told about this supposed “heavenly language” or this unknown tongue.

It has been referred to as the angelic language.

They quote:
1 Corinthians 13:1 “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

• And yet, nowhere in the Bible do we have angels speaking any other language
than human languages.
• It is the same. It is the language of men and of angels.

And Paul tells you what that language here is in 1 Corinthians 13
Because he tells you that if you speak that language without love you are “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal”

Paul says if you speak that language without love you are like bad music.

Do you understand better what the “tongues of men and of angels” is?

IT IS SONGS OF PRAISE.
It is the fitting language of heaven.
Praise is the heavenly tongue.

Go read Revelation and tell me if you find them doing anything else.

We saw several weeks ago:
Psalms 29:9 “The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve And strips the forests bare; And in His temple everything says, “Glory!”

• Praise is the language of heaven.
• Praise is the language of the redeemed on earth.

It is fitting, it is attractive.
Those who have been declared righteous love it!

They praise with joyful eagerness
2) WITH MUSICAL EXCELLENCE (2)

“Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings.”

By musical excellence I simply mean that
It ought to be the objective to create
The most amazing musical masterpiece that we can.

• Add every instrument you can!
• Add every horn, every string, every drum, every instrument.

Not in chaotic noise, but in order to produce
The most beautiful sound you can muster.

• Make it a symphony with a great orchestra, incorporate all that you can.
• Make the most remarkable and beautiful song you can make to God.

Psalms 150:3-5 “Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals.”

It has always been amazing to me
In regard to our friends in the Church of Christ
Who refuse instruments as sinful.

They say it’s because the New Testament doesn’t speak to the use of instruments.

That’s a little foolish.
• They are clearly commanded in the Old Testament,
• They are clearly used in heaven.
• And they are not forbidden in the New Testament.

But beyond that, I would argue that they are commanded in the new.

Ephesians 5:18-19 “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;”

That word for “psalms” in the Greek is PSALMOS
And it means “a striking of the chords of a musical instrument”

Paul said to sing while you strike the chords.

The point is that you ought to do everything in your power
To praise God with the most remarkable display
Of music and beauty that you can.

He is God and deserves the best you can offer.

Praise with joyful eagerness; with musical excellence
3) WITH INTENTIONAL EFFORT (3)

“Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy.”

Notice the reference to “a new song”

• Have you ever tried to write a song?
• Have you ever tried to compose music?
• Have you ever tried even to write lyrics to a tune already composed?

I can tell you one thing, it doesn’t happen without hard work.
• To dig into the truth of God’s word and to know who He is that a song may be crafted which accurately depicts Him…
• To study the art of musical composition so as to know when the lyrics should crescendo or slow down or rise in power or soften in tone.

You don’t just do that, it takes effort.

To “play skillfully with a shout of joy”

• That is to work hard to master the instrument and to be happy to do it.

We are all aware of the admonition to preachers:
1 Timothy 4:15 “Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all.”

2 Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”

We know that a preacher must work hard at preaching.
• He must continually improve.
• He must be absorbed in being the best that he can be.

Should that be any different from our offering of praise?

• Should we be content to offer a lesser song to the God of the universe?
• Should we dare to refuse to sing because we don’t like it?

Work at it…
Get better at it…
Give it all you’ve got…

We’re talking about the high calling of singing praise to God.
Give Him your very best rendition of praise.

Do we remember the priests God rebuked in Malachi for bringing flawed sacrifices and then complaining because the work was so tiresome?

To their half-hearted efforts God said:
Malachi 1:9-11 “But now will you not entreat God’s favor, that He may be gracious to us? With such an offering on your part, will He receive any of you kindly?” says the LORD of hosts. “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD of hosts, “nor will I accept an offering from you. “For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts.”

Don’t forget that our God is a great God, and His name will be honored!
Offering a half-hearted effort to God does not fit what He deserves.

God deserves intentional effort when we praise.
He certainly gives His best rendition of salvation.

4) WITH HONEST EVALUATION (4-5)

(4-5) “For the word of the LORD is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD.”

The point being you should give God the best singing you can give
Because when you evaluate Him you’ll see that He deserves it.

• “the word of the LORD is upright” that’s His truth
• “all His work is done in faithfulness” that His faithfulness
• “He loves righteousness and justice” that His justice
• “The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the LORD” it’s obvious everywhere

• God is not some deceptive God who tells you lies
• He is not some fickle God who doesn’t keep His word
• He is not some corrupt God who can’t be trusted
• He is not some brutal God with no loyalty to anyone

He is a good God.
A God of truth, faithfulness, justice, and loyalty.

He deserves the best praise you can give Him.
So praise Him and do it as well as you can.

Work at it, be absorbed in it,
Come before the Lord and sing to Him the best you can bring.

It is a Call to Praise
#2 A CALL TO PONDER
Psalms 33:6-12

Just in case you are not yet convinced of the praise that God deserves,
The Psalmist continues.

He gives you 3 things about God just to ponder on and consider
So that you will see how much praise He deserves.

1) THE POWER OF HIS WORD (6-9)

“By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”

And of course here we are talking about
The power of His word to command creation.

Genesis 1 continually repeats the same phrase as the driving power behind all creation… “then God said…”

“By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.”

• Light came because God told it to come.
• The sun and moon and stars are there because God told them to be there.
• He first commanded them to exist and then He commanded them were to stand, and they have not moved.

“He gathers up the waters of the sea together as a heap;”

• He told the oceans where to go, and they went.

Job 38:8-11 “Or who enclosed the sea with doors When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb; When I made a cloud its garment And thick darkness its swaddling band, And I placed boundaries on it And set a bolt and doors, And I said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther; And here shall your proud waves stop’?”

“He lays up the deeps in the storehouses”

• That is a reference to rain.

Job 38:25-28 “Who has cleft a channel for the flood, Or a way for the thunderbolt, To bring rain on a land without people, On a desert without a man in it, To satisfy the waste and desolate land And to make the seeds of grass to sprout? “Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew?”

Job 38:34-35 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, So that an abundance of water will cover you? “Can you send forth lightnings that they may go And say to you, ‘Here we are’?”

Who else can do that?

To that the Psalmist says:
(8-9) “Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.”

Who else has the power that He has?
Who else can command creation?

Even when Jesus calmed the storm the disciples said:
Matthew 8:27 “The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

We are calling you to ponder the power of God’s word
And then perhaps you will be motivated
To sing to Him with all your heart.

But there’s more to ponder
2) THE SUPREMACY OF HIS WILL (10-11)

“The LORD nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation.”

First we are reminded of the reality that man can plan and scheme all he wants, but ultimately his plans are subject to God’s redirection.

God “nullifies the counsel of the nations He frustrates the plans of the peoples.”

Isaiah 40:23-24 “He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble.”

• Or go read the book of Daniel and see the sovereignty of God on display.
• Watch Him thwart the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar or Darius or Belshazzar

He can do whatever He wants with man’s plans.

Perhaps the greatest example is when the boastful plans of Babylon
Are laid out before God, and God reminds that they are not in control.
(incidentally, some see this as a reference to Satan)

Isaiah 14:12-20 “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, To the recesses of the pit. “Those who see you will gaze at you, They will ponder over you, saying, ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms, Who made the world like a wilderness And overthrew its cities, Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?’ “All the kings of the nations lie in glory, Each in his own tomb. “But you have been cast out of your tomb Like a rejected branch, Clothed with the slain who are pierced with a sword, Who go down to the stones of the pit Like a trampled corpse. “You will not be united with them in burial, Because you have ruined your country, You have slain your people. May the offspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever.”

He was so confident until God frustrated his plans.

James reminds us:
James 4:13-15 “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”

We are reminded that God’s plan trumps man’s plans.

BUT NOTHING TRUMPS GOD’S PLANS
(11) “The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation.”

No one thwarts Him.
It is the supremacy of His will over anyone else’s.

Isaiah 43:13 “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”

Isaiah 14:27 “For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”

Just ponder not only the power of His word,
But also the supremacy of His will.
Do you know of anyone who deserves praise more than Him?

Can you grasp for a moment
What great quality and intensity of praise He deserves?

He deserves far more than anything just half-hearted.

But there’s more to ponder
3) THE BLESSING OF HIS ELECTION (12)

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.”

Now we are reminded that this great God,
Whose powerful word is beyond question,
And whose will is immutable,
Has actually sovereignly chosen to be a God to a specific people.

HOW BLESSED ARE THOSE PEOPLE!

Jeremiah said:
Jeremiah 10:12-16 “It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens. When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain, And brings out the wind from His storehouses. Every man is stupid, devoid of knowledge; Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols; For his molten images are deceitful, And there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of mockery; In the time of their punishment they will perish. The portion of Jacob is not like these; For the Maker of all is He, And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; The LORD of hosts is His name.”

Just imagine if you were stuck with a god who can’t see, can’t speak, can’t hear, and can’t move?

How pathetic would it be to place all your hope
In a hunk of stone or block of wood?

But “the portion of Jacob is not like these”

We have the true God.
And He is our God because He chose us!

We didn’t get to look through the catalog of the gods
And determine which one we would worship.
This great God “has chosen us for His inheritance.”

We get to be His people!
• Can we not praise Him well for that?
• Can we not joyfully sing to Him for that?

Just ponder who He is and what He has done
And you will see why we are called to praise Him so perfectly.

A Call to Praise A Call to Ponder
#3 A CALL TO PERCEIVE
Psalms 33:13-22

You see who God is,
Now here are a few more truths you should recognize and grasp.

1) WHAT GOD DISCERNS (13-15)

“The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; From His dwelling place He looks out On all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works.”

What does that mean?
GOD KNOWS YOU

You are no mystery to Him.
• He knows what makes you tick.
• He knows the motives of your heart.
• He knows if you are singing with all you have or not.
• He knows

John 2:23-25 “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”

He knows if your confession is real or not.
He knows if your faith is genuine or not.

David said:
Psalms 139:1-12 “O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.”

God knows you.
Everything about you.
And when you sing, He sees your heart.

Ponder that the next time you come to praise.

2) WHAT GOD DOES (16-17)

“The king is not saved by a mighty army; A warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.”

It is not explicitly stated here what God does, but it is obvious.
He does what no army or warrior or strong arm can do.

• GOD DELIVERS
• GOD SAVES
• GOD GRANTS VICTORY

The point being that your entire deliverance
Rests upon His will and desire to deliver.

If He chooses not to save, you will not be saved.
If He chooses not to deliver, you will not be delivered.

IT CANNOT BE ACHIEVED THROUGH ANY OTHER MEANS.

And with that in mind we see:
3) WHAT GOD DESIRES (18-19)

“Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness, To deliver their soul from death And to keep them alive in famine.”

• Who does God deliver?
• Who does God keep alive?

“those who fear Him…those who hope for His lovingkindness”

“fear” there of course is reverential awe.

It is those who are blown away by Him
And are so enamored with Him
That they place all their hope in His deliverance and in His victory.

It is those who have faith and endurance in Him.

So God knows all about you.
• He knows if you fear Him.
• He knows if you hope in Him.
• And those are the ones He saves.

That doesn’t say much for those who don’t fear Him.
That doesn’t say much for those who don’t hope in Him.
That doesn’t say much for those who don’t put much value on Him.

AND OUR COMMITMENT TO PRAISE
SAYS SO MUCH ABOUT THE VALUE WE PLACE ON GOD.

And with that we come to the FITTING CONCLUSION to the Psalm.

4) WHAT GOD DESERVES (20-22)

“Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, Because we trust in His holy name. Let Your lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon us, According as we have hoped in You.”

Here we have our song.
• It is a song sung at the top of our lungs with joy.
• It is a song sung with the best orchestration we can muster.
• It is a song sung with great effort and careful work and practice.
• It is a song sung knowing what God deserves and that He knows everything about us as we sing it.

• We sing that we will wait for the LORD believing that He alone is our help and shield.
• We sing that our heart rejoices in God alone and that we trust Him fully.
• We sing asking for God’s lovingkindness to be upon us to the same degree that we hope in Him.

This is the song.
• God we trust You
• God we rejoice in You
• God we hope in You

And the Psalmist says
• To sing it with joy.
• To sing it with fine instruments
• To sing it skillfully as He deserves

It is the high calling of praise.
And it is part of what it means
To ponder who God is and to honor Him as God.

“Sing for joy in the LORD, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright.”

Teach Us To Pray – Part 2
Luke 11:1-13 (2b-3)
March 31, 2019

In the last chapter of James we read an astonishing statement.

James 5:16b “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

That is a remarkable thought to consider,
That there is much which can be accomplished through prayer.

The only qualifications which are given here
Are that it is the “prayer of a righteous man”
And that it is an “effective” prayer.

So certainly we seek to be righteous and we seek to pray effectively.

The righteous part is accomplished in our Lord Jesus Christ.
• He is the One who obtained perfect righteousness before God
• And when we are “in Him” we come before God as righteous men.

The second thing we concern ourselves with is how to pray effectively.

And certainly we’ve seen this sort of thing happen before.
• We saw last time that great intercessory prayer of Moses
• We saw the intercessory prayer of Amos

James even says in that last chapter:
James 5:17-18 “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.”

So when James says that a righteous man praying effectively can accomplish much, we know he is not just blowing smoke.

We are talking about results…massive results…mind boggling results.
Clearly there is benefit to praying effectively.

Well, as we have entered this new segment in Luke’s gospel
Where we will receive much theological training from Jesus,
Luke begins the segment with JESUS’ TEACHING ON PRAYER.

We read last time in verse 1, “It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”

We noted the BAD EXAMPLES of prayer they had been exposed to
• Such as the hypocritical prayer of the Pharisee
• Or the manipulative prayer of the pagan,

But the disciples spotted something different in the prayer life of Jesus.

• He didn’t pray for show, He seemed to favor communing with God in private.
• He didn’t seek to manipulate God with His prayers, but rather seemed submitted to the sovereign will of God.

And probably more obvious than either of those things
Was that JESUS PRAYED EFFECTIVELY.

His prayers moved mountains.
His prayers accomplished much.

And so the disciples asked Him point blank, “teach us to pray”

What we get here is what we have called
“The Model Prayer” or “The Disciples Prayer”
It is the direct instruction from Jesus regarding prayer.

And we began looking at this last time.
#1 A PATTERN TO FOLLOW
Luke 11:1-4

And again we noted that it would be A MISTAKE to take this prayer
(as many have done)
And turn it into one of those types of prayer that Jesus explicitly forbid.

For example:
• We don’t pray this prayer publicly as a means of showing off our piety.
• We don’t pray this prayer as though it has some mystical manipulative power, so that God is obligated if we just say these words.

We see both of those things done today,
And that would be to totally miss the point of what Jesus is teaching.

Rather, we find here the very heart of prayer.
We find the basic attitudes and desires
And purposes of prayer in these verses.

We began looking at them last time.
1) THE FOUNDATION OF PRAYER (2)

“And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father…’”

Of utmost importance is that when you pray, you pray to your Father.
• He is your dad.
• It is a term of intimacy.

It is not some formal request presented to some distant monarch.
When we pray, we approach One who is our Father.

One who has chosen us, adopted us, atoned for us,
has secured for us an inheritance.
• He is One who causes all things to work to our good, and who knows the plans He has for us.
• He is the One who has numbered the very hairs of our head and ordained our days before us before as yet one of them came into being.
• He is passionately interested in us, and has proven His unconditional love for us many times over, but never more so than in the cross.

You are praying to Him.
He is a good Father
Who does not give snakes when asked for a fish,
And who does not give scorpions when asked for a loaf of bread.
He gives good gifts to His children.

James even said:
James 1:17 “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

That is the foundation for prayer, we pray to our Father.
2) THE CHIEF MOTIVE FOR PRAYER (2)

“Father, hollowed be Your name.”

To hallow is to sanctify or set apart as holy.

This answers the question regarding the CHIEF MOTIVE to all prayer
And that is that it is done FOR THE GLORY OF GOD.

• Certainly when we pray for bread, we want bread.
• Certainly when we want protection from temptation, we want protection.
• Certainly when we pray for other things, we are specific.

But a motive deeper even than that,
Is that all of those requests are primarily that God may be glorified
In the answering of that prayer.

Prayer that is for selfish reasons is not effective prayer.
James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

• When we pray for our own selfish desires we get no answer.
• Our primary motive for prayer must be the glory of God.

• That was seen in Moses’ intercessory prayer for the people of Israel.
• That was seen in Elijah’s prayer on Mt. Carmel.
• That was seen in Daniel’s prayer from Babylon.

We even saw it in Jesus’ prayer regarding the cross.
John 12:27-28 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

He prayed for the glory of God even if that meant the cross.

We saw these 2 last time, and you HAVE TO START HERE.

One other thing I would point out is that not only do we start here,
But we cannot omit any of them either.

No doubt when I present to you that prayer is for God’s glory,
(And we even look to Jesus’ prayer regarding the cross.)

We can say, “Well that’s terrifying!”
It’s a scary thing to pray to God and say, “Do whatever You want, just glorify Yourself!”

True, UNLESS you remember that first point.
• You are praying to your Father!
• You are praying to One you can trust.
• You are praying to One who loves you to the full.

If you get the first one right, then the second one is much easier.
Make sense?

All of these aspects are important.

WELL, LET’S MOVE ON THIS MORNING.

The Foundation, The Chief Motive
3) THE FOCUS OF PRAYER (2)

“Your kingdom come.”

Now if you memorized Matthew’s version of this prayer you are also expecting to read, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

While Luke doesn’t include that statement, it is heavily implied.
We haven’t lost anything here.

But here Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come.”

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

Some have taken it to be a reference to Jesus’ reign on the earth.
That Jesus is here telling us to pray to God that He will come and reign.

That can be partially true.

We do read the apostle John’s closing remarks to the book of the Revelation:
Revelation 22:20 “He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

We do see at the very least that sentiment of a desire
To see Christ reign there coming from John.

But that’s not exactly what Jesus is telling us to pray for here.

For one reason, that reality has already been set.
• It’s going to happen.
• His earthly kingdom will come.

We are all familiar with that famous 2nd Psalm.
Psalms 2:6-9 “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.” “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'”

It’s a done deal.
God has already decreed, even apart from the prayers of His people.
Jesus is coming to reign.

Another thing that is set is the timing of it.
Matthew 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”

Now I’m not saying we don’t pray for this, or yearn for this.
It is not redundant to pray for things God has already ordained.
In fact, God many times molds the requests of our hearts
To pray for these things.
(That is even a means God uses to accomplish His will)

BUT I THINK THERE IS A MORE ACCURATE APPLICATION
TO WHAT JESUS IS TEACHING HERE.

If you will take a moment and contemplate the preaching of Jesus thus far, I think this will make more sense.

Information regarding the kingdom
Has really been the focal point of Jesus preaching.

It begins:
Matthew 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Even in Luke’s gospel we recognize the sending out of the 70:
Luke 10:8-11 “Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘ The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ “But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’”

EVEN LATER in Luke’s gospel when Jesus cast out a demon He will say:
Luke 11:20 “But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

In Matthew 13 our Lord delivers 7 parables, all of which are about the kingdom.
• Soils
• Tares
• Mustard Seed
• Leaven
• Treasure in a Field
• Pearl of Great Value
• Head of a Household

All of those deal with the kingdom of heaven as a present reality, Which is coming NOW
Not just a future kingdom coming later.

THE PREACHING OF OUR LORD
Was not just about His future return and reign upon the earth,
IT WAS ABOUT ENTERING THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM OF GOD.

Even consider the times when a physical kingdom may have manifested itself.
John 6:15 “So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.”

John 18:33-37 “Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

You can see there again Jesus wasn’t talking about the physical kingdom there.
He was talking about A SPIRITUAL KINGDOM, a kingdom not of this world.

We know it to be the realm of salvation.
• It is those who submit their lives to Jesus as Lord
• Those who are thus granted access into His spiritual realm of salvation.
• Those who are justified by His sacrifice, washed by His word, and sealed by His Spirit

AND WITH THAT UNDERSTANDING
It makes it a little more apparent what Jesus is talking about here
When He tells the disciples to pray “Your kingdom come”

• This is a prayer for spiritual advancement.
• This is a prayer for the salvation of the lost
• A prayer for the sanctification of the saved.
• It is a prayer that Christ would reign as Lord in our lives.

It is a desire epitomized in the command of Peter:
1 Peter 3:15a “but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts…”

And this clarifies the statement.
• When we pray “Your kingdom come” we are praying for the lost to submit to Christ.
• When we pray “Your kingdom come” we are praying for the redeemed to be sanctified and more obedient.

1 Timothy 2:1-4 “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Paul, speaking about the Jews said:
Romans 10:1 “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”

And of course THAT FITS with what we’ve already learned.
Because God is glorified through the growth of His kingdom.

• God is glorified when sinners repent…
• God is glorified when saints are conformed into the image of Christ…

This is the FOCUS OF OUR PRAYER.

It is primarily that whatever the circumstance,
Whatever the incident, whatever the setting,
That God might use it for the growth of His kingdom
And thus the glory of His name.

It is the Christian’s tunnel vision.
• We are not to get sidetracked on frivolous desires…
• We are not to get distracted with other things…
• It is all about the growth of His kingdom…

Everything we DO, everything we SAY, everywhere we GO,
Everything we pray comes with this focus,
That it may contribute to the growth of God’s kingdom.

It is our necessary focus, even in prayer life.

DOES THAT CHANGE THE WAY YOU PRAY?

• Perhaps our prayers become less about our own personal wants and needs and more about God’s kingdom?

This was the type of focus Jesus introduced as He taught us to pray.

The Foundation, The Chief Motive, The Focus
4) THE DISCERNMENT OF PRAYER (3)

“Give us each day our daily bread.”

Again, this is familiar,
But it is important that we understand what it means.

Certainly on the surface it is a request for provision.
We know God to be our provider, and so we seek Him for provision.

And we present that request to God.

Now, it is important to MAINTAIN OUR FOCUS even in this request.

Remember the teaching of Jesus:
Matthew 6:31-33 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

We still understand this request in the context of the entire prayer.
• It is still not for our own selfish desires.
• It still comes with an overall kingdom understanding.

BUT IT IS A CLEAR REQUEST FOR PROVISION.

AND YET IT IS ALSO MORE THAN THAT.

The request for “daily bread” comes from the days of the Exodus.

Do you remember the story?
Exodus 16:1-7 “Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the LORD’S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. “On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening you will know that the LORD has brought you out of the land of Egypt; and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, for He hears your grumblings against the LORD; and what are we, that you grumble against us?”

That was the command.

And then of course, as usual, we see the rebellion.
Exodus 16:17-20 “The sons of Israel did so, and some gathered much and some little. When they measured it with an omer, he who had gathered much had no excess, and he who had gathered little had no lack; every man gathered as much as he should eat. Moses said to them, “Let no man leave any of it until morning.” But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them.”

Now what was the command there?
• I’ll give you bread for one day (except on the day before the Sabbath)
• If you try to save more, I’ll ruin it.

WHY?

Well, He explains that explicitly in the book of Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 8:1-3 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers. You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”

• Why did God feed them manna?
• Why did God not let them store it up?

Because they were supposed to learn that
Their security was not in their excess, but in their Provider.

Humanity has a tendency to feel secure
So long as we’ve got a good cushion in the bank.

• Dave Ramsey tells us to have a safety fund for a rainy day.
• We are all seasoned to think in terms of retirement and our future.
• Much of the time even our giving is only considered if we have excess and it
won’t affect our security.

And you already know that this is not God’s plan.
He told the children of Israel that
They needed to learn to trust Him, Not their surplus.

• And how we could spend time listening to the warnings of Jesus about not storing up treasures on earth.
• Or we could listen about the rich man who had so much he decided to build larger barns so that his soul could live in ease and comfort.

The command for daily bread was a command determining to trust God.

Are you familiar with the prayer of Solomon?
Proverbs 30:7-9 “Two things I asked of You, Do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, That I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the LORD?” Or that I not be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God.”

Solomon saw just as much danger in having more than enough
As he saw in having a lack.

The instruction Jesus gives us here is that we pray for enough for today.
There is even a directive for intercession here because we pray for “our” daily bread.

SO WHY DO WE SAY THIS IS ABOUT DISCERNMENT.

Because it helps you understand better the purpose of prayer;
NAMELY WHAT IT IS NOT FOR.

I’ll read it again because it is so fitting.
James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

It is imperative that you understand that
Prayer is not a vending machine.

• We don’t come to God in prayer like He is some cosmic genie in a bottle who is there simply to grant our every whim and desire.

• Prayer is not a means to obtain riches or other comforts.

True prayer is to be that which is in accordance with the will of God.

And to that understanding TAKE BREAD AS THE EXAMPLE.

Has the Lord taught us about how He seeks to provide?
Yes, clearly.

Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

With that revealed truth from the Lord, does it make sense then to pray that God will give us extra funds so that we can store them?

OBVIOUSLY NOT.

Matthew 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Hence, we pray for daily bread, because that’s all we need today
And we pray for His kingdom to come.

Do you see that?

We learn that prayer is NOT ABOUT getting God to grant our will,
It IS ABOUT praying that our life will bend in accordance with His will.

This, by the way, is precisely what it means to pray “in Jesus name”

We hear that all the time.
• Some have taken that to be another one of those magic phrases, that if you tack it on to the end of your prayer then God has to do it.

John 14:13-14 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”

Well isn’t that what that means?
You can have anything you want so long as you add “In Jesus name” on the end?

Perhaps John will better clarify it in his epistle:
1 John 5:14 “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

A little different there isn’t it?

When we are talking about praying in His name, we are talking about praying “according to His will”.

That’s why we are told not to go asking for riches,
But rather daily bread,
Because God has already revealed
That this is how He seeks to operate with us.

So, when you pray, you learn to pray according to the will of God.
You pray with discernment of God’s will

In fact, I’ll seek to stretch your understanding here a bit more.

Prayer is a great tool that is used to bend our will to God’s.

That is to say, that prayer is not about us changing God’s will,
But rather, God changing ours.

Do you remember that prayer of Moses we saw last week, when he interceded for the Israelites?

• God said He was going to wipe them out and make a nation out of Moses.
• Moses interceded saying that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to make descendants from them.

And we read:
Exodus 32:14 “So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.”

Out of this verse developed a theology known as “Open Theism”.
Basically that everything is open, even God doesn’t know how it’s all going to play out it’s just open and our prayers dictate that end.

That would be a terrifying reality. Fortunately it’s not a true one.

The question in regard to that Moses prayer is this:
Was God really going to destroy all the Israelites?

And the answer to that question is an emphatic “NO”.
God is faithful to His word.

We read in Romans:
Romans 11:29 “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

Rather, what is taking place is God is pushing Moses
To pray according to His will.

God is pushing Moses to pray for the deliverance and well-being of those people.

NOW WHY WOULD GOD DO THAT?
• Because Moses is about to lead these people,
• And one thing that must be solidified in Moses’ mind is that these are God’s people,
• And regardless of how obstinate they become, that’s not going to change.

God used a threat of judgment to motivate Moses to pray
And thus come to a fuller understanding of God’s will in the matter.

Another example of this is Amos.
If you’ve read Amos you know that Amos was a southerner who went north to preach judgment to in the north, and it’s pretty clear that he enjoyed it.

So God gave him this vision.
Amos 7:1-6 “Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, He was forming a locust-swarm when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing. And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, “Lord GOD, please pardon! How can Jacob stand, For he is small?” The LORD changed His mind about this. “It shall not be,” said the LORD. Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, the Lord GOD was calling to contend with them by fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farm land. Then I said, “Lord GOD, please stop! How can Jacob stand, for he is small?” The LORD changed His mind about this. “This too shall not be,” said the Lord GOD.”

Again, that wasn’t about Amos changing God,
That was about God changing Amos.

God was teaching that hardened prophet to be compassionate.
He showed Amos the suffering that could occur
To start getting Amos to pray for these people the right way.

And by the way, God does that for us as well.

Things like:
• “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44)
• “I urge that entreaties and prayers…be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority” (1 Tim. 2:1-2)

Those aren’t the natural inclinations of our flesh,
But we are commanded to pray in that way.

So we discern the will of God in Scripture, we pray accordingly,
And we find that through that God changes our hearts.

Prayer then is not a means of getting God to bow to our flesh.
It is a means of getting our flesh to bow to God.

And to that this is what we mean when we talk about
THE DISCERNMENT OF PRAYER.

When we pray, it is not that we come to God with our list of wants and wishes as though our will was sovereign.

When we pray, we come to God and make requests according to His determined will.
• We pray for His glory
• We pray for His kingdom
• We pray for His provision precisely as He has determined to give it.

AND I SHOULD ALSO ADD TO THAT,
That knowing God’s will as revealed in Scripture is so important.

If you don’t know God’s will as He has revealed it in the Bible, then how are you going to know how to pray?

• Are you just going to base your prayers on the desires of your own heart?
• Are you just going to request what seems right to you?

That’s called praying according to your will, not God’s.

It is not human nature to pray simply for daily bread.
Humanity would at least pray for monthly bread, but most likely for endless bread.

But here Jesus tells us only to pray for daily bread
Because that is the way God wanted to deliver it.

And if it is scary to you to pray in this way,
• Then again go back and remember that you are praying to Your Father.
• The One who loves and cares for you.

Have discernment in your prayer
And don’t use it as an opportunity to serve the flesh.

So
• The Foundation of Prayer – God is our Father
• The Chief Motivation for Prayer – That God’s name be hallowed
• The Focus of Prayer – That His kingdom would grow
• The Discernment of Prayer – That we pray according to His will, not our own.

There are two more that we’ll look at next time.

The Inexpressible Blessing of Repentance
Psalms 32
March 24, 2019

I do realize that it is not common
To look at the concept of repentance in a positive light.

In fact, our culture hates the notion of repentance.
• It almost always comes with a negative connotation.
• People don’t want to hear about it.
• (You’ll never hear Joel Olsteen talk about it)

The topic of repentance doesn’t sell.

That is extremely tragic for a number of reasons.

One reason is because “repent” is undoubtedly the first requirement of the gospel message of salvation.

Even before man is called to believe in Christ,
He is first called to repent of his sin.

John the Baptist:
Matthew 3:1-2 “Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Jesus:
Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Peter:
Acts 2:38 “Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Paul:
Acts 17:30 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,”

Repentance is the first requirement that God places on the sinner.

But the world hates it.
Sadly, there are even many who regularly attend church that would groan if you told them that the sermon topic was going to be about repentance.

• Repentance implies humiliation; forcing me to admit I have blown it and fallen short.
• Repentance requires self-denial; it is going to ask me to let go of something my flesh loves.
• Repentance demonstrates weakness and dependence; because I am simply throwing myself at the mercy of another.

People hate it. Sadly, even people in the church can hate it.

Tonight I hope to change your mind about repentance.
• Rather, tonight David hopes to change your mind about repentance.
• Even more so, the Holy Spirit, who wrote this Psalm desires to change your mind about repentance.

Another reason disdain for repentance is so tragic is because: REPENTANCE IS A WORK OF SOVEREIGN GRACE

We remember Jesus words:
John 6:44-45 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.”

He reminded us that sinners can’t just come to God or Christ any time they choose. In that sense, it’s not up to them.
It must be granted. You know this.

And part of what must be granted is repentance.

You remember the story of Peter being commissioned to go and preach to Cornelius.
• Cornelius believed and was saved and was baptized.
• Peter then found himself in hot water for going to eat with an unclean Gentile.
• After Peter shared the story of Cornelius’ conversion.

Here was the response of the Jews:
Acts 11:18 “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”

Notice the phrasing?
“granted…repentance”

Or consider Paul’s second letter to Timothy as he seeks to encourage Timothy to deal wisely with rebellious men.

Paul wrote:
2 Timothy 2:24-26 “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, 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.”

There again, that “God may grant them repentance”

The important thing to remember and understand is that
• If God doesn’t open the eyes…
• If God doesn’t reveal sin…
• If God doesn’t convict and humble the heart…

THERE WILL BE NO SALVATION

Repentance is a gift from God!
Don’t look at it as a negative thing. Don’t resist it.
Embrace it! Love it! Rejoice in it! Use it!

And that simple message
Is actually also the message of Psalms 32.

David is going to remind us of the Inexpressible Blessing of Repentance.

Just for structural purposes,
I would show you that this Psalm breaks into two parallel parts.

The first five verses are of a testimonial nature.
• David speaks from the heart regarding his own experiences.
• He talks about The Result of Seeking God, The Rebellion of Sin, and The
Relief of Repentance in his own life.

The last six verses are of an encouraging nature to others.
• He again talks about the Result of Seeking God, the Rebellion of Sin, and the
Relief of repentance.

You can see the parallel structure in the song.

We’re going to break it down along those lines tonight.
#1 DAVID’S ANNOUNCEMENT
Psalms 32:1-5

These first 5 verses are really a testimony of David about his life.
• Whereas Psalms 51 (another famous penitent Psalm) is about a specific incident of sin in David’s life,
• This Psalm seems to be more of a general reflection regarding every time David sinned.

It’s just something he has learned
Over the course of his many years walking with God.

And as we noted a moment ago, we can break this point down a little further.
1) THE BLESSING OF JUSTIFICATION (1-2)

You probably are familiar with those verses, especially if you’ve been working through the Romans commentary lately.

Paul quotes them in Romans 4 as he seeks to make his foundational point that justification is by faith alone.

After Paul introduces Abraham as one
who had righteousness credited to him apart from works,
He then moves on to his next Old Testament example, and that is David:

Romans 4:6-8 “just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. “BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.”

According to Paul,
David is here talking about the blessing of justification by faith alone.

Namely that David would be able to recognize the futility of his works before God, but could still (apart from works) enjoy the blessing of forgiveness.

Indeed, that is what David speaks of.
HE SPEAKS OF RECEIVING THAT WHICH HE DID NOT EARN.

And if you want to understand the blessing of repentance
Then you first need to understand the result of repentance.

You need to understand what it produces.
And the answer is: FORGIVENESS

In these verses David not only talks about the blessing of being forgiven,
But also the reality that forgiveness SPANS ALL SIN.

Notice the 3 different words David uses to describe his sin.
(1) “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,”
• “transgression” had to do with transgressing the covenant, or violating the Law. It spoke of blatant rebellion.

It dealt with a person who knew what to do
And defiantly chose to do the opposite.

(1b) “Whose sin is covered”
• “sin” has to do with failure. It is just a falling shortness. It is a missing of the mark. Not being as good as you should be.

It is a person who simply is not holy like God is holy.

(2) “How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity”
• “iniquity” speaks of perversion. One who does vile and perverse things. Things that ought not to be done. Things that offend the very nature of God.

But David mentions all 3 types here under the blessing of being forgiven.

• His “transgression is forgiven”
• His “sin is covered”
• His “iniquity” is not imputed to him.

Incidentally that word brings great imagery to our minds
Of the atonement of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Of course reminding us that in order for our iniquity
To not be imputed to us, it had to be imputed to someone.

Here we not only bask in the glory of not having to pay for our sin,
But we also break in humility at the thought that Christ did.

But ultimately the blessing of these verses is that
Despite our rebellion, despite our failure, & despite our perversion
There is an avenue by which we can be forgiven.

Our “transgression” (rebellion) can be “forgiven”
Our “sin” (failure) can be “covered” (someone else will pick up the slack)
Our “iniquity” (perversion) will not be credited to us.

There really is no other way to describe this happening for us
Than the way David does in saying, “How blessed”

It is nothing short of a blessing to know
That there is an avenue by which we can have this amazing justification
In spite of what we are.

The next obvious question would be: WHAT IS THAT AVENUE?
• How do I become a forgiven transgressor?
• How do I become a covered sinner?
• How do I become a justified person of iniquity?

Well the answer to that question is: REPENTANCE

Now, we also already noted,
That this is the point where most people want to jump off the train.
They quit listening, they slam the door,
They don’t want to hear any more about this vile and painful thing called repentance.

David understands that mindset.
• So now he sets out to change your mind.
• And again he does so by recounting his own personal story.

The Blessing of Justification
2) THE WOES OF REBELLION (3-4)

• So you aren’t interested in repentance…
• So you don’t want to humble yourself before God and admit your failure…
• So you don’t want to part with what your flesh loves…

Well let David say here, “I didn’t want to either.”

I also “kept silent about my sin”
• I read God’s Law…
• I heard God’s prophet…
• My conscience was offended…

But I just decided to ignore it.
• I didn’t want repent.
• I didn’t want to feel the shame.
• I didn’t want to lose the fleshly things I loved.

But let me tell you how that worked out for me.

(3-4) “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.”

Obviously there David speaks in poetic language,
But I’m guessing I don’t have to explain that feeling to you.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that
You know exactly what David is talking about.

It’s called CONVICTION and it is painful.
And it is relentless, and it can suck the joy right out of life.

David explains it other places as well.
Psalms 38:2-8 “For Your arrows have sunk deep into me, And Your hand has pressed down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation; There is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities are gone over my head; As a heavy burden they weigh too much for me. My wounds grow foul and fester Because of my folly. I am bent over and greatly bowed down; I go mourning all day long. For my loins are filled with burning, And there is no soundness in my flesh. I am benumbed and badly crushed; I groan because of the agitation of my heart.”

Psalms 39:10 “Remove Your plague from me; Because of the opposition of Your hand I am perishing.”

If you’re familiar with Romans 7, This is the mentality that Paul explains as he laments the futility of seeking to obey the Law in your own strength.

He was a man convicted, but a man unable to do anything about it.
Never able to do the good he wanted to do, and literally broken over it.

Until he finally said:
Romans 7:24 “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”

This is the type of feeling David had.
He speaks of the pitiful condition of being aware that
You are under God’s displeasure.

It is not a pleasant place to be.
• You put your head on your pillow and you know that you are a sinner…
• You wake up in the morning and you feel God’s displeasure…
• Every time you read the Bible…
• Every sermon you hear…
• And at times even in the most unlikely places…

You are reminded again of how you have offended God,
And how He is not willing to allow you to remain in your present condition

And look, this can be a reality for SAVED people as well as LOST people.

I’ve even said many times to people that I’ve endured far more periods of conviction after I was saved than I ever did before.

• We can be talking here about that initial conviction which is meant to draw a
sinner to Christ…
• Or we can be talking about the conviction God places upon a believer as He
works to sanctify Him into the image of Christ…

And the main point that David is making is that
If you resist to give God what He wants, you won’t like it.

It is a heavy, painful, draining misery that God can put upon you.

So, you can hate the thought of repentance,
BUT LET ME ASK YOU: Do you prefer to just live under conviction?

Well David said, I made that mistake once.
I didn’t want to repent, I wanted to keep my sin,
And the conviction was miserable.

And I could stop the sermon right now, and open up the floor for testimonies and hear person after person in here recount a moment just like that in their lives.

That wrestling match with God,
And no one in here who has gone through it would say it was pleasant.

Rebellion against God is not a happy place to be.

The Blessing of Justification
The Woes of Rebellion
3) THE RELIEF OF REPENTANCE (5)

And here David tells you what he finally did.
“I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgression to the LORD”

There you see all 3 categories of the sin mentioned again.

My “sin” (failures) I owned up to.
• I blew it, me, myself. It was my mistake.

My “iniquity” (shameful perversion) “I did not hide”.
• I quit denying it, I owned up to it.

My “transgression” I confessed.
• My rebellion and insubordination I confessed to God.

That is called CONFESSION and it is a reality of repentance.
We confess our sins and we turn from them.

• David took the hard step.
• David did what many are unwilling to do.
• He came clean about who he was, what he was, and what he’d done.

• He quit arguing with God and finally submitted to Him.
• He walked the painful road of confession.

AND WHAT HAPPENED?
“And You forgave the guilt of my sin.”

WOW!

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I can’t tell you the number of times I have quoted that verse to God
And begged for its reality in my life.

2 Corinthians 7:8-10 “For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it — for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while – I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

Did you catch what Paul said about repentance?
He called “repentance without regret”

And this is fascinating.
• David said, there was a time when I refused repentance and tried to keep
silent about my sin, and God’s hand upon me made life miserable.

• And when I finally decided to yield to the pressure and confess my sin before
God, I found forgiveness.

And Paul would add: AND THERE WAS NO REGRET

At this point I could stop for testimonies again and ask those of you who know about that wrestling struggle with God and how miserable it is. I could now ask you, “After you repented, did you regret it?”

And to a man you’d all say “No”.
In fact most people say something like, “I don’t know why I fought so long.”

It’s so true.
Repentance is not a negative things, it is a blessing.

Can I tell you something else I notice about this verse?
How easy it is to get this forgiveness.

You know the church lived for years in the Dark Ages,
• Where you had the Roman Catholic Church and their Latin translation of the Bible which translated the word for repentance with a Latin word that meant “Do Penance”

• And so Catholicism adopted a system whereby a person must put themselves through various forms of suffering to earn their forgiveness.

Do you know what would NOT be a blessing?
• Having to suffer countless years in purgatory to earn forgiveness.
• Having to endure severe treatment of the body to earn forgiveness.
• Having to pay enormous amounts of money…
• Having to recite endless prayers…
• Having to climb a set of stairs on your knees…

If that is how forgiveness was earned then I’d agree,
It would not be something we could call a blessing.

But look at what David had to do to be forgiven.
• “I acknowledged my sin to You”
• “my iniquity I did not hide”
• “I will confess my transgressions”

“And You forgave the guilt of my sin.”
How easy is that!

How many criminals standing in a courthouse ready to go to prison would not readily take this deal in order to not go to prison?

“All I’m asking you to do is confess what you did, and don’t do it again and you can walk out of here a free man.”

Criminals by the thousands would take that deal.

Don’t tell me repentance is not a blessing.

That all God is asking you to do is humble yourself, own up to your sin, confess it before Him, and ask His forgiveness…that’s all!

Look, if you don’t have a relationship with Jesus,
And you’ve been resisting submitting your life to Him
Because you don’t want to own up to what you are
And confess your failure to Him.

What would you rather have?
A 25 year prison term to pay your debt?

It is nothing short of mercy that repentance is all God asks for.
It is an inexpressible blessing!

And David recounts that in his life.

David’s Announcement
#2 DAVID’S ADVICE
Psalms 32:6-11

Now, as we said earlier, we can see the same basic headings here
As David now takes what he learned and encourages you and me.

And let me just give you David’s advice as straightforward as I can.
1) SEEK GOD (6-7)

Here the simple admonition is to “pray” to God when He can be found.

Another way to put it, would be
Pray to God when He’s reaching out to you.

Isaiah used the same terminology.
Isaiah 55:6-7 “Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”

It’s the same implication there as it is here.
• That God has made Himself known.
• But that revelation of Him has brought with it the pain of conviction.
• You don’t stand in the presence of the holy without smelling the stench of sin.

And what happens far too often with people at that moment is
That instead of seeking to draw near to God,
They seek to get away from Him.

• Quit going to church…
• Quit reading the Bible…
• Quit listening to the preacher…
(Because all I get when I do is conviction)

And David says, DON’T DO THAT!
Instead, draw near to Him.

God is near, He’s dealing with you, He’s exposing you
DON’T RUN FROM IT.

John 3:20-21 “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

If God has opened your eyes to your sin,
Now is the time to run toward Him, not away.

WHY?
Because “Surely in a flood of great waters (judgment) they will not reach him.”

The reason God is exposing your sin
Is because He is saving you from judgment.

David knows it.
(7) “You are my hiding place; You have preserved me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.”

That is David saying that drawing near to God
Instead of running from Him was the best move I ever made.

• He was saving me from “trouble” (sin and judgment)
• He was delivering me from the real danger.

So, David’s first piece of advice when you face the conviction of God is don’t view God like He’s some holy monster to avoid.

Someone will say, “Yes, but He might expose me.”
True, but that is a good thing.

See, it’s all about your view of God and sin.
Which of the two do you think to be the enemy?
Which of the two do you think to be the protection?

David is telling you that your sin is not your friend, but God is.
So draw near to Him.

Seek God (don’t avoid Him)
2) DON’T BE STUBBORN (8-9)

Here David says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”

I’m going to watch you close and tell you how to walk.
And here it is:
“Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, otherwise they will not come near to you.”

What is he getting at?

Well, in your life there will undoubtedly come a time
When God will confront your sin.
And inevitably His message will be something like, “Stop doing that.”

DO NOT look back at Him and say, “Make me.”
Just ask Nebuchadnezzar…He can.

I find it humorous here that the horse is used as an analogy.

• My dad was a horse trader, and he’d come in several nights a week with horses from a horse sale, and the next day it was our job to go out and get on those horses just to see what they were.
• Many times you’d get on a horse with a “Make me” mentality.
• My dad’s phrase was, “Looks like he needs his attention got”

That meant that horse was about to go into the 10×30 loading shoot
And get Cowboy’d on pretty severely until that horse was clear of one thing:
THE RIDER IS IN CHARGE.

David’s advice would be, “Don’t make God put you in the loading shoot. Don’t fight Him, just give in, because God knows how to win.”

There are so many illustrations of this in Scripture
Where people rebelled against God and it didn’t end well.

Our Sunday School class has been studying Jeremiah, and I think this has been a pretty obvious theme in that book. Defying God is not a good decision.

Another chapter I’ve always appreciated on this is found in Isaiah 28.

You can see the rebellion of the people in:
Isaiah 28:9-10 “To whom would He teach knowledge, And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? “For He says, ‘Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.'”

And after warning them that this rebellious attitude will get them nowhere, the chapter ends with a parable of sorts.
Isaiah 28:23-29 “Give ear and hear my voice, Listen and hear my words. Does the farmer plow continually to plant seed? Does he continually turn and harrow the ground? Does he not level its surface And sow dill and scatter cummin And plant wheat in rows, Barley in its place and rye within its area? For his God instructs and teaches him properly. For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, Nor is the cartwheel driven over cummin; But dill is beaten out with a rod, and cummin with a club. Grain for bread is crushed, Indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever. Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually damage it, He does not thresh it longer. This also comes from the LORD of hosts, Who has made His counsel wonderful and His wisdom great.”

It’s a farming analogy.
• Like a farmer, sometimes God has to plow, but He doesn’t want to do it forever, don’t make Him.

Or then we see the harvest.
• Some seed is soft and is merely beaten out with a rod.
• Other seeds are hard and must be crushed with a threshing sledge.

THE POINT?
Don’t be a tuff nut to crack!

It’s not worth it, don’t make Him crush you.

Do you really want to force God to put a bit in your mouth and yank your head around?

Don’t be stubborn.
When God confronts you and demands repentance, do it!

Seek God (even if it exposes you)
Don’t Be Stubborn (you won’t win)
3) REJOICE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS (10-11)

This is the after effect of having submitted to God.
You get the peace and rejoicing of righteousness.

It is an important statement David makes:
“Many are the sorrows of the wicked”

Look, don’t believe what they show you on TV.
• According to television the happiest a man can be is while sleeping with
different women and drinking beer.
• It’s a lie.
• And if you try to pursue sin or conceal sin or hang on to sin, you won’t like it.

But if you’ll just repent,
You’ll find the forgiveness and justification of God
And there you’ll find true joy.

“But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him. Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.”

It’s a simple formula here.
• Live in sin, live in sorrow.
• Repent of sin, Rejoice in righteousness

That’s what David says here.
Repentance is not a negative thing, it is a blessing!

In fact, I’ll say it like this:
The only people who hate repentance are the people who love sin.

But if you love God and you desire righteousness
Don’t shy away from repentance,
It is a gracious and wonderful gift from God.

And tonight, we’re just going to close with
Our standard time of sitting and silence before the Lord.

But let me encourage you here tonight.
• Has there been a wrestling matching going on between you and God?
• Have you felt His hand heavy upon you?
• Has He been asking something of you that you have thus far not wanted to give?

Tonight I just want you to understand
What a blessing is found on the other side of repentance.

Wouldn’t it be something to be able to lay your head on your pillow tonight in peace instead of in sorrow?

So tonight when we have our response time,
I would just ask you to confess that to God. Repent to Him.
Ask Him for forgiveness.

• It may even be that you need to come to this altar so that your pride doesn’t
stand in the way.
• It may even be that you need to make a public decision before the church so
that you can’t back out of decisions made in secret.

I don’t know what it will look like for you.
All I’m saying is, repent,
And feel the blessing of having your transgressions forgiven,
Your sin covered, and your iniquity no longer imputed to you.

And it all occurs through the inexpressible blessing of repentance.

Teach Us To Pray – Part 1
Luke 11:1-13 (1-2a)
March 24, 2019

We now enter a new segment in the gospel of Luke.
It’s the longest segment in Luke’s gospel and it might be called
“The Theology of Jesus”

Luke compiles for us the teaching of Jesus on a variety of subjects.
Things like:
• Demonic activity
• Seeking a Sign
• Hypocrisy
• Blasphemy
• Money
• Arrogance
• And a host of others.

And this segment begins with Jesus teaching about prayer.

Luke records, “It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”

From this we can gather, that
The disciples had observed the prayer life of Jesus
And had no doubt come to the conclusion
That there was much they could learn from Him about it.

We do know, from other passages, that
The very concept of prayer had become distorted in the nation of Israel.

Jesus directly confronted two major issues in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 6:5-6 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

• That was actually the prayer life of the spiritual leaders of Israel.
• They’re praying was more about being noticed than it was honoring God.
• No doubt with them being the teachers, we can assume that their influence had certainly trickled into the culture.

The disciples would have noticed however that
The prayer life of Jesus was nothing like this.

We read:
Luke 5:16 “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.”

Luke 6:12 “It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.”

It would have been readily apparent to the disciples that the prayer of life of Jesus was in stark contrast to that of the other religious leaders.

• It didn’t seem that Jesus was concerned at all about gaining glory for being such a dedicated prayer.
• Rather, when Jesus prayed, it seemed as though His primary concern was spending time with God.

I’m sure the disciples recognized the contrast and where thus curious.

Jesus also confronted another obviously distorted form of prayer.
Matthew 6:7-8 “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

This would have been the example of pagan prayer
That the Jews had also witnessed.

It brings to mind the prayer of the 450 prophets of Baal during that great showdown with Elijah on Mt. Carmel
1 Kings 18:25-29 “So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first for you are many, and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.” Then they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon saying, “O Baal, answer us.” But there was no voice and no one answered. And they leaped about the altar which they made. It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.” So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them. When midday was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.”

It was a pagan practice steeped in superstition.
• They prophets of Baal supposed they could awaken Baal by their continual chanting and even tempt him by leaping upon the altar or appease him through their cultural rituals of cutting themselves.

It was all manipulative in nature.

And no doubt the disciples had witnessed this type of prayer in their day.
People who assumed they could back God into a corner or persuade
Or even tempt Him with their various antics.

Jesus condemned that as an insult to the true God
Who already knows your needs and who is a father to you.

And certainly the prayers of Jesus were not like these.

It could very well be that the disciples were INTRIGUED by the prayer of Jesus, or possibly even CONVICTED
By both the GENUINENESS of His prayer life
And even the EFFECTIVENESS of His prayer life.

After all, JESUS PRAYED OFTEN as we read a moment ago:
Luke 5:16 “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.”

And we know that JESUS PRAYED EFFECTIVELY:
John 11:41-42 “So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. “I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.”

And because of things like this,
The disciples approach Jesus wanting to be taught to pray.

AND THIS IS SO VALUABLE FOR US.

In part because we are commanded to pray.
Ephesians 6:18 “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,”

Colossians 4:2 “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;”

1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray without ceasing;”

If we are commanded to pray then certainly we need to learn how to do it.

But even more than that, we know that we serve a God who does in fact answer prayer.

Psalms 65:2 “O You who hear prayer, To You all men come.”

Psalms 18:6 “In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.”

Proverbs 15:29 “The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.”

We would be crazy not to take advantage of this blessing God has given us.

But even more than that, we are also told throughout the Bible how powerful and effective prayer can be.

We remember the intercessory prayer of Moses:
Exodus 32:11-14 “Then Moses entreated the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? “Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'” So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.”

Amos prayed with similar effect
Amos 7:1-3 “Thus the Lord GOD showed me, and behold, He was forming a locust-swarm when the spring crop began to sprout. And behold, the spring crop was after the king’s mowing. And it came about, when it had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, “Lord GOD, please pardon! How can Jacob stand,
For he is small?” The LORD changed His mind about this. “It shall not be,” said the LORD.”

Or certainly we remember the promise James reiterated to us:
James 5:17-18 “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.”

And of course the entire point of that statement was:
James 5:16b “…The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

It is clear that God answers the prayers of His people.

Jesus made a remarkable statement:
John 14:14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”

Prayer a very important aspect of the life of the believer.
And because we are commanded to do it,
We greatly appreciate teaching from Jesus telling us how to do it.

A FEW GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:
• Nothing is said about timing (when to do it)
• Nothing is said about posture
• Nothing is said about location (though Matthew 6 speaks of privacy)
• Nothing is said about length (though Matthew 6 also denounces the “many
words” theory)

And honestly we see examples with great variety in all these areas.
• You can find prayers in the morning, prayers at noon, prayers all night long.
• You can find people standing, sitting, and laying prostrate in prayer
• You can find people praying in their homes, in the synagogue, in the
wilderness
• You can find both long and short prayers

Those are not the issues that find priority with Jesus
When He sets out to answer this question.

Instead Jesus gives us what has become known as “The Lord’s Prayer”
It’s really not “The Lord’s Prayer”,
I would be more inclined to give that designation to John 17.

What we have here is “The Model Prayer”
Or as it has also been called “The Disciples Prayer”

So the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray and this is His response.
• First a pattern to follow.
• Then a parable to consider.
• And finally a principle to apply.

It will take us a few weeks, but let’s begin this study
As Jesus answers the request: “Lord, teach us to pray”

#1 A PATTERN TO FOLLOW
Luke 11:1-4

Jesus begins His instruction with the answer WHAT TO PRAY
(2) “And He said to them, “When you pray, say:”

At this point I do think there is need for some clarification.
Many have actually taken this prayer and turned it in to
Precisely the type of prayer our Lord said NOT to do.

Jesus told us in Matthew’s gospel
Not to let your prayers be mindless repetition, where you suppose you will be heard because you’re repeating the right words.

Now, that doesn’t mean
I have a problem with people reciting this passage from memory,
(It is Scripture after all.)

I just think it’s important that you understand that
This is NOT some magical statement that if you recite it,
You can automatically receive some sort of blessing or forgiveness.

Rather, this passage is Jesus giving you a guide for the heart.

Consider Matthew’s gospel, and the context he revealed.

• It begins with Jesus confronting the hypocritical prayer of the Pharisees who
pray on street corners so that they will be noticed.
• He then confronts the mindless prayer of the pagan who thinks they’ll be heard
simply because they said specific words.

And after that Jesus says:
Matthew 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way…”

It becomes clear that Jesus used this teaching
Not only as a guide for prayer
But also as a direct contradiction to the hypocritical and manipulative types of prayer He routinely saw.

This passage teaches us not only something of the CONTENT of prayer but also of the ATTITUDE of prayer.

It is not hypocritical, but if you simply recite this publicly as a means of impressing others then you’ve actually used this passage in a direct violation of the very reason our Lord preached it.

This prayer is not manipulative, but if you recite it because you think your quoting of it somehow obligates God to give in to your request, then you have also missed the very purpose of it.

What Jesus teaches is far more than just some prayer to recite.
Jesus teaches us about the heart of prayer.

MIGHT I ALSO ADD,
Because I think it’s important, and because I think there has been some confusion regarding the issue in recent years.

It’s no secret that charismatic theology has made inroads into Christianity.
• Part of this theology includes what has commonly been referred to as a
“private prayer language”.
• It is referred to as speaking in an unknown tongue or a “heavenly
language”.

• It is supposedly for the greater blessing of the individual who experiences it,
• Done without cognitive understanding,
• Just in blind faith that whatever language I am speaking is both coming from
God and is at the same time honoring to Him and pleasing to Him.

I certainly do not believe this to be of God, and I think in a confrontation of such practices one must consider this passage.

Here the disciples specifically ask Jesus to teach them how to pray,
And Jesus lays out a sensible, coherent, clear example of prayer.
He says nothing regarding anything mystical or confusing or incoherent.

Here we find prayer according to Jesus.

It is also easy to see a simple division in this pattern He gives.
• The first 3 elements point upward toward God.
• The last 3 elements point outward and include our fellow man (“our”)

But just for simple understanding,
Let’s work through this tremendous pattern Jesus gave us
And learn something of prayer.

There are 6 elements here that we can learn, let’s start looking at them this morning.
1) THE FOUNDATION FOR PRAYER (2a)

The foundation for prayer is found in the very first word.
“Father”

It is the title by which Jesus teaches us to address God.

You should know that this was a revolutionary thing for Jesus to teach.
Jews understood God to be the Father of Israel, or the Father of their nation, but it was UNHEARD OF for any of them to personally refer to God as their own Father.

In fact, the youth will recognize this passage:
John 5:18 “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”

It was unheard of to the Jews that Jesus would refer to God as His Father,
And certainly the notion that He would also teach His followers
To refer to God as Father would have been unheard of.

And yet, this is precisely what Jesus taught…over and over and over

Matthew 6:8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

Matthew 6:18 “so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Matthew 6:15 “But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

Mark 11:25 “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions.”

John 20:17 “Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'”

It wasn’t just that Jesus referred to God as His Father,
But He also taught His disciples to address God as their Father.

And not only that, but in the Aramaic (which they would have spoken)
The word would have been “Abba”,
Denoting a very intimate relationship. It would be akin to our English word “Daddy”

Mark 14:36 “And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.”

Romans 8:15 “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

Galatians 4:6 “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

The first thing Jesus taught His disciples about prayer is that
When they address God, they are addressing their Father or Dad.

From a theological sense you need to understand why.

John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,”

The reason we can be are allowed to address God as a Father or a dad
Is because we are “in Christ”.

NOW CERTAINLY SOME HAVE TRIED TO UNIVERSALIZE THIS IDEA

There is truth to the fact that because God is creator of all,
That in a sense, we are all His children. That is true.

Paul says in:
Acts 17:28 “for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’”

We are all children of God in the sense that He created us all,
And we were all formed in His image.

But only believers are children in an intimate sense.
Only believers who are in Christ, refer to Him as their dad.

In fact, Jesus said:
John 8:42-44 “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Paul noted:
Romans 9:8 “That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.”

But as those are in Christ.
Who through His righteousness and atonement have been adopted into the family, Jesus tells us to approach God as our Father.

• Not some distant Lord
• Not some uncaring Master
• Not some domineering General

But rather Jesus tells us to approach God as a Father.

And this will PROVE IMPORTANT later in the text.
Luke 11:11-13 “Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? “Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Much of what we must understand about prayer
Is rooted in the fact that when we pray we are approaching a Father
Who loves us and cares for us and who gives good gifts to us.

In Christ, we have been made His children,
And the love He has for us is the love that a Father has for a child;
Indeed we partake in the love the Father has for Christ.

If we can approach our earthly fathers with confidence that they will grant our requests, how much more can we approach our heavenly Father?
Since as Jesus points out, our earthly fathers are evil,
And our heavenly Father is good.

This is the foundation.
• When we pray, we are approaching One who loves us intimately.
• One who has adopted us by His sovereign grace.
• One who has atoned for us through His Son.
• One who has accepted us in Christ.
• One who delights in us.
• One who is committed to our good.
• One who has made plans to prosper us and not to harm us.

As Jesus first instructs the disciples regarding prayer
He wipes out any notion of a distant unconcerned God
Jesus reveals a Father.

Grab that first.
That’s the foundation for prayer.

Now, you do recognize that Luke does not include the phrase “who is in heaven”,
But it is clearly understood in the fact that we are praying.

After the foundation of prayer, we can move to the second reality Jesus addresses.
2) THE CHIEF MOTIVE FOR PRAYER (2b)

“hallowed be Your name”

This is also so important to our understanding of prayer.

Let me ask you, what is the purpose of prayer?
Why do you pray?
• Is it to impress others like the Pharisees did?
• Is it to manipulate God into action like the pagans did?
• Is it born out of some selfish lust like James talked about?

James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

• Is it just done sort of robotic basically because it’s something you’re supposed to do?
• Is it for the purpose of accomplishing something, even spiritual tasks?

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW THE CHIEF MOTIVE BEHIND PRAYER?
THE GLORY OF GOD.

John 14:13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

The primary motive for prayer is a desire to see God glorified.
In one sense we glorify Him simply in the action of prayer.
• Praying to Him insinuates submission and reliance and need, and certainly that is glorifying.

But ultimately the motive behind our prayer is that
God may be glorified through what is accomplished.

In short, we are primarily asking for that which will glorify God.

Consider this prayer of our Lord:
John 12:27-28 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

• There Jesus prayed regarding the cross,
• But the prayer wasn’t to skip the cross so that He might have a longer life.
• The prayer was that God would be glorified, and if the cross was the means of
that glory, then so be it.

His prayer was for God to be glorified.

And this runs true for us even in the remaining requests of this prayer.
• We see things like “Your kingdom come”
• Or “give us each day our daily bread”
• Or “forgive us our sins”
• Or “lead us not into temptation”

But do you suppose we primarily pray those things for our own benefit?
And the answer is “no”.

It is true that we do benefit from those things, BUT THE PRIMARY MOTIVE of the prayer is not my enjoyment, it is God’s glory.

• That He is glorified in the growth of His kingdom.
• That He is glorified in the provision of His people.
• That He is glorified in the exercise of His mercy.
• That He is glorified in the righteousness of His people.

That is the chief motive behind our prayers, that God is glorified.

“hallowed” there is HAGIAZO
It is primarily the word used for “sanctification”
It means to be “set apart as holy”

And this is the reason for our prayer,
That God’s great name might be set apart and magnified.

Consider Moses’ intercessory prayer for a moment.
TURN TO: EXODUS 32:7-14

Now, because I know you’re likely curious, don’t fall into the trap that God here was hot headed and Moses calmed Him down and changed His mind. Not at all.
What you’re seeing here is God moving Moses to intercede.

But beyond that,
• You see that God told Moses He was about to annihilate the entire nation.
• And Moses interceded.

But notice the motive behind his prayer.

Moses’ only appeal is on the basis of the glory of God.
(12) “Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, “With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth?”

Moses’ chief concern at the moment is the reputation of God.
His primary motive for that prayer was NOT the deliverance of the people,
It was the glory of God.

Consider the prayer of Daniel which he prayed in Babylon.
We’re going to consider it in much greater detail later, but let me show you simply the last part of it now.

Daniel 9:17-19 “So now, our God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and for Your sake, O Lord, let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary. “O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion. “O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

Did you catch that?
• “for Your sake”
• Because this city “is called by Your name”
• “For Your own sake”
• “because Your city and Your people are called by Your name”

The reason for his prayer was NOT
That his people might live more comfortable lives.
The reason for his prayer WAS that God might be glorified in his faithfulness and mercy toward Israel.

Or Elijah’s prayer on Mt. Carmel:
1 Kings 18:36-37 “At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your word. “Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that You, O LORD, are God, and that You have turned their heart back again.”

It was all about the glory of God.

Many times our prayer life is more about our own personal comfort
Or even our own fleshly lusts than it is the glory of God.

James nailed us pretty good when he said:
James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

We have a propensity to go to God praying for food and clothing and healing and safety and any other number of things,
But our primary motive is typically so that we will be comfortable.

And yet when Jesus prayed,
He prayed for the things which brought God glory.

“I see the cross, and I’m not about to pray to be saved from it. I’m going to pray that God would glorify Himself through it!”

In His great high priestly prayer, in John 17,
• He prays for things like protection from the enemy, for sanctification for His
people.
• That His people would have the common life that is in the Father and the Son.
• That His people would be granted to see His glory.

But why did He pray all those things?
Because He wanted us to have more comfortable lives?

Look at the end of the prayer:
John 17:25-26 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

It’s all so that through us the Father might be known.
The world doesn’t know Him.
The world doesn’t glorify Him.

Jesus prays that we will be set apart and sanctified and unified in common life so that the world will know the Father and glorify Him.

THIS IS THE CHIEF MOTIVE FOR PRAYER
That more than anything God’s name might be hallowed.

So we pray for His kingdom to come
• Not just because we are put out with our current government, but because we long for Him to be glorified as the reigning king.

We pray for daily bread,
• Not because we want the comfort of provision, but so that God may be glorified as our ever constant and faithful provider.

We pray for forgiveness of sins,
• So that God may be glorified as a merciful Savior.

We pray for deliverance from temptation,
• So that we not fall into sin and profane the name of our God.

Everything about our prayer life is primarily motivated by the glory of God

It is why we exist: SOLI DEO GLORIA
The Glory of God Alone

SO IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO PRAY AS JESUS PRAYED,
And if you want to follow His example, we find valuable insight here.

THE FOUNDATION OF PRAYER – that we appeal to One who is a Father
THE CHIEF MOTIVATION FOR PRAYER – that God’s name might be set apart and hallowed

We’ll continue on next time.

Facing Affliction
Psalms 31
March 17, 2019

Several years ago when Carrie and I were facing a very real affliction,
The Lord led me to a passage in 1 Peter that became very important to me.

1 Peter 5:6-11 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 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. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

• There was of course a reminder to be humble and submit to God’s perfect will in our suffering.
• There was a reminder to be alert and aware of the enemies attacks and schemes.

But there were also some very good points of encouragement.
• “knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.”

Peter DIDN’T say, “knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being EXPERIENCED…” He said, “ACCOMPLISHED”

It comes from a Greek word meaning
“to bring to an end; perfect; accomplish; execute”

Peter didn’t reference common suffering as our hope.
Peter referenced other believers
Who walked through their suffering to the perfect end.

I suppose there is some comfort in mutual suffering.
They say that “misery loves company”
But really that’s not all that encouraging.

WHAT IS REALLY ENCOURAGING IS
To know other people have suffered in this same way,
But have seen that suffering also accomplish its perfect end.

And of course Peter promised that once this end is achieved that God would “Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

So Peter’s encouragement was to
• Be humble before God,
• Resist the devil,
• And trust that God would accomplish His perfect work in you through the suffering.

And as an added encouragement
Peter told us to look to other brothers and sisters around the world
Who are testimonies to God’s work in the midst of our suffering.

Tonight we are going to get a look at one of those examples.
Psalms 31 is a good example of how to face affliction.

We are aware of some of the purposes of our trials.
• JAMES told us that God uses trials to teach endurance and thus perfect us.
• The writer of HEBREWS taught us that God uses suffering to cause us to share in His holiness.
• PETER told us that our suffering was a means to prove the genuineness of our faith.
• JOB taught us that as well.
• JEREMIAH reminded us that suffering can be used to purify us from disobedience and draw us near to God.

We know some of God’s purposes in suffering.
What this Psalm is about is the attitude we should have in the midst of it.
It is a testimonial song of David regarding suffering.

The message is stated at the end of the Psalm.
(23-24) “O love the LORD, all you His godly ones! The LORD preserves the faithful And fully recompenses the proud doer. Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the LORD.”

That is the message.
• “love the LORD”
• “Be strong”
• “let your heart take courage”
• “hope in the LORD”

That’s the advice.
But leading up to that we get the backstory.
We get an account of David’s affliction
And we get to see how he walked through it.

It is a good example for us.

3 main points.
#1 ENTER AFFLICTION WITH CONFIDENCE
Psalms 31:1-8

Now what you will notice as we work through this Psalm
Are some VERY DISTINCT MOODS.

• Verses 9-18 are very solemn as in a lament.
• Verses 19-24 are very upbeat like a victory lap.
• But the feel of these Verses 1-8 is clearly confidence.

FIRST we look at these verses and recognize that affliction has emerged in David’s life.

• Verse 4 tell us that David’s enemies have “secretly laid” a “net” for him.
• In verse 7 the affliction is spoken of in a present tense. “You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul.”

THE SUFFERING IS HERE.
It may be only beginning, but it is here.
David is aware of it, and he is confident that God is aware of it.

And as David prepares to face this affliction
We notice the intense confidence he has.

Now he starts with A REQUEST:
(1-2) “In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Your righteousness deliver me. Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly; Be to me a rock of strength, A stronghold to save me.”

• David reminds the Lord that He is his hope.
• David knows that God is righteous and appeals to that righteousness that God would do what is right in this situation.

I certainly understand the request “rescue me quickly”
That’s how I prefer it too.

And David says “Be to me a rock of strength, A stronghold to save me.”

Now why does David say that?
(3-4) “For You are my rock and my fortress; For Your name’s sake You will lead me and guide me. You will pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me, For You are my strength.”

It’s very interesting and it teaches us a great deal about prayer.

• David prays “Be to me a rock of strength”
• And then he says at the beginning of verse 3, “For You are my rock…”
• And he says at the end of verse 4, “For You are my strength.”

Well then, that request makes sense.

Incidentally, this is why it is so important for you to know God.
This is why it is important for you to gaze upon Him in His word
And learn who He is.

• David can ask God to be a rock because he knows God is a rock.
• David can ask God to supply strength because he knows God supplies
strength.

So David is requesting for God to “be to me a rock of strength”
• He wants God to “lead me and guide me”
• He wants God to “pull me out of the net which they have secretly laid for me”

He is simply counting on God to be who He has always been
And to do what He has always done.

And this is why it’s so important for you to have good theology.

People today frown on theology as though it were some sort of bad thing.
• I’ve heard statements like “Doctrine divides”
• Or “I’m not interested in theology, I just love Jesus”

Those are foolish statements.

Do you know what theology is? It’s the study of God.
It is to know who God is.

And here we learn how beneficial that is in our affliction and trials.

It certainly guided David’s prayer life
To know who God is and what God does.
That is huge.

And then comes that pinnacle statement of confidence.
You’ll recognize it

(5) “Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have ransomed me, O LORD, God of truth.”

Where have you heard that before?
• Jesus quoted it on the cross.
• Just before He died, Jesus quoted Psalms 31:5

It was a statement of faith from our Lord as He died.
That He knew God and He knew what God would do,
And so He did not have to fear entrusting His soul to God.

Peter referenced the confidence of Christ as well.
1 Peter 2:23 “and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;”

That is confidence.
Jesus faced the cross with confidence in God.

It is that confidence that David is here expressing.

Let me show you WHY David has such confidence as he faces this trial.
“You have ransomed me, O LORD, God of truth.”

“ransomed”, what is that?
You have saved me!

You’ll see it spelled out in the very next Psalm.
Psalms 32:1-2 “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!”

And here is the beauty.
David knows that he can trust God with this trial
Because God has already shown His favor toward David in salvation.

Sovereign Grace Music has a song I love: “I Lay It All”

It has to do with trusting in God when trials come.

The second verse says this:
“When questions rise, when faith wears thin, when fears come fast, and truth grows dim. The One Who saved will not forsake. I’ll trust His word and trust His way. For He Who bore my blame can bear each care I name.”

We are reminded that
If God would go to great lengths to save us when we were enemies,
Then there is no chance of Him abandoning us once we are sons.

And that is what David said.
“I’m going to trust my soul to you in this trial because You have already proven my soul’s worth by redeeming it.”

It is the logic Paul appealed to in Romans 8.

He first reminded of God’s sovereignty to save us.
Romans 8:28-30 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

And later Paul said:
Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

It’s the same point.
If God has already gone to such great lengths to redeem you,
Why would you think He’d abandon you now?

And this is the basis for David’s confidence while facing this trial.
He knows that God is his Savior.

And then comes David’s CONFIDENT DECLARATION.
(6-8) “I hate those who regard vain idols, But I trust in the LORD. I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness, Because You have seen my affliction You have known the troubles of my soul, And You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a large place.”

David first announces his disdain for those who refuse to trust God
But instead run to false gods for deliverance.

“I hate those who regard vain idols”

It crushes David to the core
That people would refuse to trust God
And instead would run to some false god for deliverance.

TURN TO: ISAIAH 44:6-20

TURN TO: JEREMIAH 10:1-16

Habakkuk 2:18-20 “What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it, Or an image, a teacher of falsehood? For its maker trusts in his own handiwork When he fashions speechless idols. “Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Awake!’ To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’ And that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, And there is no breath at all inside it. “But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”

Idolatry is just stupid!
That’s what David says as well.

So David says, “I trust in the LORD.”

“I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness” (loyalty)
“Because You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul, and You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a large place.”

That is to say.
• I know You know about my affliction.
• And I know You are loyal to me.
• And this is liberating to me!

My world is not caving in.
My hopes are not crushed.
I am not trapped.

I have You, the loyal and faithful friend on my side.
You have seen my affliction and I am confident
That You will act in my best interest.

NOW THAT’S HOW YOU ENTER AFFLICTION ISN’T IT?

• You remember who God is.
• You remember that God has saved you.
• And you determine to entrust your soul to Him in confidence.

I don’t know what’s coming, but I know God can handle it.

When you face trials of various kinds, then know that your brethren in the world are accomplishing it with an attitude like David’s. They enter their affliction with confidence in God.

#2 ENDURE AFFLICTION WITH FAITH
Psalms 31:9-18

Well, raise your hand if you can identify with David here!
It’s like his attitude has done a complete 180 in between verses 8 and 9.

Those first verses dripped with confidence and boasting and disdain for those who turn from God. He was making bold claims and walking with his head high.

And now, he almost comes across as a defeated man.
“Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress;”

I can tell you what happened.

Back in verse 2 David prayed,
“Incline Your ear to me, rescue me quickly;”

But I’m just going to go out on a limb here and say
That God didn’t move as “quickly” as David had anticipated.

The affliction has continued.

I’ve said it many times. We as believers tend to handle the appearance of trials relatively well. It is my observation that believers seem to handle those initial blows pretty good. The bigger problem comes when the affliction lasts longer than we think it should.

David seems to be there.

Just listen to the depth of his lament as he pours out his suffering to God.

(9-13) “Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; My eye is wasted away from grief, my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow And my years with sighing; My strength has failed because of my iniquity, And my body has wasted away. Because of all my adversaries, I have become a reproach, Especially to my neighbors, And an object of dread to my acquaintances; Those who see me in the street flee from me. I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many, Terror is on every side; While they took counsel together against me, They schemed to take away my life.”

That is not a statement of a man who had a bad morning.
That is a man who had a bad year.

• “my life is spent with sorrow”
• “my years with sighing”

It has just gone on and on and on and on and on

And now, “I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors”

I mean people avoid me
Because they don’t want what I have rubbing off on them.

“And an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.”

He has become that guy who people avoid because they are tired of bearing his burden.
• They are tired of hearing about my pain…
• They are tired of hearing about my affliction…
• They are tired of being asked to help in my infirmity…

The end result?
“I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind;”

People have just written me off.
“I am like a broken vessel”
No benefit to anyone.

And what is more they continue to slander him and David says, “They schemed to take away my life.”

This man has moved from pride and bold speaking to the pit.
It is safe to say that he is broken.
He is at his wits end.

SURELY YOU CAN AT LEAST PARTIALLY IDENTIFY

• It is not so hard when trials present themselves to boldly declare that I am going to trust God; especially while we pray “rescue me quickly.”

• But when “quickly” doesn’t come and days turn to months and months turn to years and we have worn out our welcome with everyone who used to help.

It is then that our endurance is really tested.

But this is where David shows us how to handle our affliction.
When the trial has endured and all help is gone.
YOU ENDURE WITH FAITH

(14-15a) “But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD, I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand;”

That is encouraging isn’t it!
“But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD, I say, “You are my God”

And please understand that
This isn’t some declaration meant to inspire God to spare him from pain. It’s too late for that.

This is commitment to God in spite of the pain.
I’m with You regardless.

“My times are in Your hand;”
• It is a reminder that God has the right to give him life, to take that life, and to mold that life however He chooses.

That is such great faith.

It DOESN’T MEAN that David has given up hope of deliverance.
He clearly has not.

(15b-18) “Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. Make Your face to shine upon Your servant; Save me in Your lovingkindness. Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I call upon You; Let the wicked be put to shame, let them be silent in Sheol. Let the lying lips be mute, Which speak arrogantly against the righteous With pride and contempt.”

• He is still requesting deliverance.
• He is still requesting justice.
• He is still banking on God’s “lovingkindness”

It’s just that until that day,
He has determined that he will keep trusting God.

It may be the hardest thing we do in this life.
• It is to wait on the Lord.
• It is to trust when we don’t see.
• It is to continue to make request when it’s the same request over and over and thus far not granted.

It is the deepest kind of faith.

Luke 18:1-8 “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

• It’s not so much a parable on prayer as it is a parable on faith.
• It is meant to teach us that we “that at all times we ought to pray and not to lose heart”

Keep trusting even when life seems to be wasting away.

It is a submissive faith that accepts anything the Lord brings because
“my times are in Your hand.”

That is how faithful believers endure their trials.

So we enter trials with confidence because God has saved us.
And we endure trials with faith because God is sovereign.

They enter them with confidence.
They endure them with faith.
#3 EXIT AFFLICTION WITH PUBLIC PRAISE
Psalms 31:19-24

Well, now the trial is over.

In verse 22 David said, “As for me, I said in my alarm, “I am cut off from before Your eyes”; Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications When I cried to You.”

Have you ever felt in your affliction that maybe the final answer was just “No” and you will die in this affliction?

Well, that’s what David thought too.
• He said, “I am cut off from before Your eyes”
• That is to say, “You’ve refused to grant me an audience with this; it’s over”

And yet God answered and delivered.
And this is how David responded.

With public praise!
“How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear You, Which You have wrought for those who take refuge in You, Before the sons of men!”

Many times I have read Paul’s warning in Romans 2
Romans 2:4-5 “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,”

Paul reminded the self-righteous who lived in sin
That they were “storing up wrath” for themselves.
It is a terrifying reality.

Well here David says that God has “stored up [goodness] for those who fear [Him]”

• And just like the wicked store up wrath that they may not see today, but will certainly see in the future.

• So we also store up goodness, which may seem non-existent in the day of affliction, but which we will certainly enjoy.

And David praises God for that here.

He goes on to say, “You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the conspiracies of man; You keep them secretly in a shelter from the strife of tongues.”

David felt doomed,
But all along he was in a place
That has always been off limits to the wicked.

David was in the presence of God.
He had been hidden there.
He had been sheltered there.

And though the enemy raged and badgered and threatened,
They were not able to enter the presence of God and so David was safe.

And that leads to David’s great expression of praise.
(21) “Blessed be the LORD, For He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city.”

• Even though he was in a city that was besieged.
• Even though the war raged all around him.
• Even though at times he thought it was over.

God proved His loyalty there!
God made it marvelous.

And that is certainly a part of why God allows trials.
There is an element of deliverance we simply cannot know until we are in a dangerous situation.

And so you have David here who:
• Enters affliction with confidence because God has saved him.
• Endures affliction with faith because God is sovereign
• And how he Exits affliction with public praise because others are suffering.

And here is that praise again:
(23-24) “O love the LORD, all you His godly ones! The LORD preserves the faithful And fully recompenses the proud doer. Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the LORD.”

This is David now giving his encouragement
After accomplishing his affliction.

This is the testimony of all those other brethren
Who have accomplished the affliction you are currently enduring.

And the encouragement?
“O love the Lord”
• Don’t stray to vain idols.
• Don’t grow embittered with enduring suffering
• Don’t doubt His lovingkindness

Love Him!

And know this:
“The LORD preserves the faithful and fully recompenses the proud doer”

That is the doctrine which must drive you in your trials.
• That God preserves the faithful.
• That God never deserts those that love Him.

Cling to that.

And finally:
“Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the LORD”

• I don’t know how it feels…
• I don’t know how long it has lasted…
• But don’t give up, God does not forsake the faithful.

Just keep hoping in God
Just keep loving God.
Just keep trusting God.

That’s all that God is asking.

1 Peter 5:6-11 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 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. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.”