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Thinking About Perspective
Psalms 119:73-80
December 5, 2021

Tonight we come to back to the 119th Psalm
And since this is our second time through it,
Instead of expositing the whole stanza, we are just focusing on specific truths.

THE LAST TIME we looked at this stanza we called it “7 Requests of the Afflicted”

And when you read these 8 verses that really sort of just jumps out at you.
This man had been afflicted and in that affliction he had 7 requests.

I do actually want to identify those again tonight
Because I think it will help give balance to the truth we want to discuss.

So let me show you those 7 requests quickly tonight.

1) UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR WORD

(73) “Your hands made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.”

This is an important request to begin the list
Because it reminds us of the PSALMIST’S SUBMISSIVE SPIRIT.

• Very similar to Jesus who in the garden,
• Who even though He would pray that “this cup might pass from Me”
• He also would pray “Yet not My will but Yours be done”

Even in affliction this Psalmist is only interested in obedience.
He is not looking for an easy way out.

And so his initial request is for understanding of God’s word.

That’s a good prayer to pray when you’ve been afflicted.

2) PATIENCE FOR YOUR WORD

(74) “May those who fear You see me and be glad, Because I wait for Your word.”

The Psalmist had prayed for understanding and yet
He was certainly aware that it MIGHT NOT COME IMMEDIATELY.

Sometimes we must simply endure while we do not understand.

So the request of the Psalmist is that
While he is waiting and while he is confused
HE WANTS TO BE A BLESSING and an encouragement to other believers.

That is also a great request during affliction.

Paul taught us in 1 Corinthians that when 1 member of the body suffers the rest of the body suffers with it.

You probably can think of times when you’ve seen other believers respond so positively to their affliction that it actually grew your faith.

That is what the Psalmist wants here.
He wants to wait well so that other believers
Will be encouraged by how he endures.

That is a great request.

3) COMFORT ACCORDING TO YOUR WORD

(76) “O may Your lovingkindness comfort me, According to Your word to Your servant.”

And we certainly have no complaint here.
If you’ve ever been afflicted then you likely sympathize.
The Psalmist wanted comfort.

We don’t know specifically what kind of comfort he wanted
Because we don’t know the nature of his affliction,
But none of us can blame him
For appealing to “the God of all comfort” for comfort.

What we do see is what the Psalmist wants to be comforted by.
“may Your lovingkindness comfort me”

More than anything he wants to be reminded of God’s loyalty to him.
That is big isn’t it?

This was Job’s plight.
• He was afflicted and his friends kept telling him it was because God had forsaken him.

The Psalmist wants the comfort of knowing
That despite the affliction God is still for him.

That is a good request too.

4) DELIVERANCE FOR YOUR WORD

(77) “May Your compassion come to me that I may live, For Your law is my delight.”

What is the request?
I want to live!

This lends us to believe that this particular affliction
May in fact have been such that threatened his life.

So the Psalmist prayed for deliverance.
• Again, anyone who wouldn’t pray for deliverance when facing death probably isn’t really facing death.
• There is nothing wrong with this request.

What is even better however is WHY he is making the request.

And it is because “Your law is my delight”
He has a desire to be a testimony.

This is similar to Paul saying it is better for me to depart and be with Christ but it is better for you if I remain here.

This Psalmist doesn’t want deliverance to return to an apathetic life of sin,
This Psalmist wants deliverance to continue a life of obedience.

And in that sense, this is also a great request.

5) VINDICATION BY YOUR WORD

(78) “May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie; But I shall meditate on Your precepts.”

If the Psalmist’s life is in danger
It may be due to the false witness uttered against him.

And so in harmony with a prayer for deliverance is also a prayer for vindication.
• Elijah wanted such a vindication…
• Paul wrote 2 Corinthians chasing such vindication…

Both of those men wanted it, not just for their own personal satisfaction,
But because their reputation was tied to
The credibility of the message they preached.

In many ways their vindication was a vindication of the word of God.

The Psalmist isn’t specific that this is why he wants vindication,
But even in this request his commitment to God’s word is obvious.

He is leaving his defense to God while he merely seeks out God’s word.

And that is a good request.
When afflicted to turn over your defense to God.

6) FELLOWSHIP WITH YOUR WORD

(79) “May those who fear You turn to me, Even those who know Your testimonies.”

Earlier he wanted to be an encouragement to other believers.

Now he wants other believers to be an encouragement to him,
Specifically as they come and share the word with him.

And that is a great request.

A Christian has no desire in the “misery loves company” mentality.
But we love it when someone can strengthen us with God’s word.

The Psalmist prayed for that to happen.
And that is a great request.

7) OBEDIENCE TO YOUR WORD

(80) “May my heart be blameless in Your statutes, So that I will not be ashamed.”

He STARTED with a submissive request for understanding
And he ENDS with a submissive request to be obedient.

God help me obey!

And when you are afflicted that is also a great request.

So you can see the overall force of the stanza.

The Psalmist is afflicted and his prayer is clear and concise.
In fact his prayer is a great example and pattern for you or I
To pray when we are afflicted.

He is afflicted and in that affliction he prays for:
• Understanding
• Patience
• Comfort
• Deliverance
• Vindication
• Fellowship
• Obedience

That is still great advice.

But as I said, we studied that in more detail last time and you can go find that sermon on the website if you want to study it again.

TONIGHT we want to zoom in a little and focus just on one aspect.

This stanza has 8 verses.
7 of those verses express a request for God.

• 1 verse stands alone without a request.
• 1 verse is merely a statement of theology.
• 1 verse shows us the perspective of this afflicted Psalmist.

That is verse 75 and we want to examine it a little closer tonight.

(75) “I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.”

That is the Psalmists perspective.
Behind every single one of those great requests sits this perspective.

In fact, it is this perspective that allows him to make such great requests.

What we find here is great insight to affliction.
• Since sooner or later you will find affliction in your life,
• Let’s see if we can’t all gain a little of the perspective that this Psalmist has.
• And then you can follow his example in your prayer life.

FIRST I think it would do us all good to examine the word “afflicted”

Since everything in this Psalm flows from that condition.

“afflicted” is the Hebrew word ANA

In it’s simplest sense it means “to be occupied” or “to be busied with”
Which carries the idea of frustration or having to do what you don’t want to do.

But here the tense of the word carries the idea of
Someone actively doing it to you
For the purpose of humbling or humiliating.

It wasn’t just random, it was for a purpose.

The preacher in Ecclesiastes used the word
Just to express the everyday frustrating occupations of life.

But the Psalmist here is NOT talking about something random
Or the result of living in a cursed world.

The Psalmist here is talking about something that was specifically and intentionally done to him.
• He was intentionally humbled.
• He was intentionally afflicted.
• He was set as the target and he was afflicted; he was humiliated.

Now probably all of you have felt that at one point in your life or another.

But WHAT IS GREATLY LACKING in our world
Is the PROPER PERSPECTIVE as to what’s going on when that happens.

So we have a Psalmist who has been intentionally humbled,
Now let’s look at what he perceives about it.

There are 3 things.

#1 THE AUTHOR OF AFFLICTION
Psalms 119:75

And this first point actually comes from the end of the verse.

The Psalmist was intentionally humiliated or afflicted,
but the question is: BY WHO?

And the answer: GOD

“You have afflicted me”

Listen, if you believe in the sovereignty of God
Then you must go here.

Oddly enough the world doesn’t typically mind going here.

The world doesn’t seem to mind blaming their affliction on God.
Now, most do it because they want to use it to blaspheme Him.

They use the presence of their affliction as proof that
Either God isn’t good or God isn’t powerful.

“If God was good He would not do this”
“Or maybe He is good, He’s just now powerful enough to stop it”

And the world thinks they have God in some sort of trap
And so they love to actually attribute affliction to God.

And many times people in the church sort of buckle the knees here
And run backward and don’t know what to do with it.

That’s where we get such backward and awful statements like,
• “God didn’t will for this to happen.”
• “It’s not God’s will for such awful things”
• “God didn’t do this, sin did this.”

YOU’VE HEARD THEM ALL.
But none of those statements answer the world’s reproach.

• If God didn’t will for this to happen, then how did it happen unless it’s because He couldn’t stop it?
• If God didn’t do this, but sin did, then who is really in charge here?

You see the problem?

That is why the perspective of the Psalmist is the only perspective.
God did do this.

God is the Author of affliction.

We love passages like this:
Psalms 139:13-16 “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”

We especially love that type of passage when everything is rosy and wonderful.

But that passage doesn’t only apply to things you perceive to be good.

• If God wove us in our mother’s womb then that has to include those who are born with physical deformity doesn’t it?

• If God ordained all our days then that has to include the tragic days too doesn’t it?

I listened to a sermon excerpt from Voddie Baucham this week and shared it on Facebook of you want to see it.

Voddie talked about the day he discovered heart issues and was rushed to the doctor. The doctor told him that he made it within an hour of his death. He noted how many believers have told him, “That was the providence of God”

(As though providence was the equivalent to luck or good fortune)

Voddie Baucham agreed that his arriving an hour before he would have died was in fact the providence of God, however if he had died an hour before he arrived that also would have been the providence of God.

The providence of God is that
God ordains ALL THINGS after the counsel of His will.
(Not just the things you like)

Remember when God called Moses to go to Egypt to lead His people out?
God told Moses to approach Pharaoh.

What was Moses’ hesitation?
He shouldn’t do it because he stuttered.

Do you remember God’s response?
Exodus 4:10-11 “Then Moses said to the LORD, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” The LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”

Was Moses speech impediment a surprise to God? – No
Why, because God knows all things? – No

God wasn’t surprised by Moses’ speech impediment
Because God is the one who caused him to have it!

God made him that way!

Just like God makes man mute or deaf or seeing or blind.

Remember?
John 9:1-3 “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

That man was created exactly as God intended.
He was fearfully and wonderfully made.

Now, that IS TRUE in regard to your birth,
But it is ALSO TRUE in regard to your days.
God ordained all your days too,
And that includes your days of affliction.

GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF THEM.

And someone would then balk and say, “Why in the world would God be so calloused as to bring such affliction into someone’s life?”

The world would say, “Aha! See, we told you He wasn’t good.”

Why would God author your affliction?

WELL PERHAPS it is precisely what the Psalmist understood
HUMILITY!

OR MAYBE it is shape you into a person who can encourage others.
Remember Peter?

Luke 22:31-32 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

MAYBE it is like the blind man, simply for the glory of God.

I don’t know, and incidentally neither did this Psalmist.
Remember, his first request was for UNDERSTANDING.

But knowing why is not important.
Knowing that God is providentially behind it is.

Because if God is sovereign over your affliction
Then you can be confident that it is not random
And that He has a redeeming purpose behind it.

But knowing the author of affliction is important.

#2 THE JUSTICE OF AFFLICTION
Psalms 119:75

Well, we might be able to square with the fact that
God orchestrated my affliction, BUT THIS ONE is really difficult.

The Psalmist said: “I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous”

Not only is God behind all decisions, but all of God’s decisions are right!

“judgments” is MISPAT
And it means “the act of deciding a case”

Deuteronomy 1:7 “‘You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’”

Proverbs 16:33 “The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD.”

So God is behind the decisions.

THIS IS REALLY THE ABSOLUTE MIRACLE OF PROVIDENCE.
If you want to have your mind blown
Just try to ponder the providence of God.

We already read that God ordains all our days.

But did any of you get the directive this morning regarding every single thing you were supposed to do? – No.

Instead, God gave you autonomy in a sense to do whatever you wanted.
And this autonomy isn’t just for the redeemed,
God even gives this autonomy to the most vile and wicked.

And so every day we live in a world
Which in essence does whatever they want.
And yet, at the end of the day, it is exactly what God ordained.

I mean try to figure all the contingencies that could occur
Based on 1 different choice by 1 different human.
It’s unfathomable, and yet God in His providence controls it all!

It’s mind-blowing.

You see it in stories like Daniel’s brothers selling him into Egypt.

But the easiest place is certainly the cross.
Acts 2:22-23 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”

• God certainly didn’t make the Jews appeal to the Romans to crucify Jesus;
• They wanted to do that.
• And yet, at the end of the day that’s exactly what God ordained.

God is making the decisions.
God is making the judgments.

And that is not just about major things like the cross,
That is even about the minor things of life like your affliction.

But here the Psalmist DOESN’T JUST acknowledge that God is making the decisions, he says they “are righteous”

“righteous” is SEDEQ
And it means “right”

Job 31:6 “Let Him weigh me with accurate scales, And let God know my integrity.”

There “accurate” is the word SEDEQ

So not only does the Psalmist acknowledge
That God is making all the decisions
But that God is making the right decisions!

Now that is perspective isn’t it!
Can you say that?

• I’ll be honest, there have been times in my affliction where I didn’t say that.
• There have been times where I wondered if God had a clue what He was doing.

So did others in Scripture.
• Elijah was perplexed why Jezebel got to run free.
• Habakkuk couldn’t figure out why God would use the Chaldeans to discipline Israel.
• John the Baptist was shocked to be rotting in prison.

Job 9:19-20 “If it is a matter of power, behold, He is the strong one! And if it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him? “Though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me; Though I am guiltless, He will declare me guilty.”

Job 19:7 “Behold, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I get no answer; I shout for help, but there is no justice.”

Job 23:1-4 “Then Job replied, “Even today my complaint is rebellion; His hand is heavy despite my groaning. “Oh that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat! “I would present my case before Him And fill my mouth with arguments.”

Job had trouble with this notion for a while, maybe you have too.

But Elihu quickly confronted him.

Job 34:10-15 “Therefore, listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wickedness, And from the Almighty to do wrong. “For He pays a man according to his work, And makes him find it according to his way. “Surely, God will not act wickedly, And the Almighty will not pervert justice. “Who gave Him authority over the earth? And who has laid on Him the whole world? “If He should determine to do so, If He should gather to Himself His spirit and His breath, All flesh would perish together, And man would return to dust.”

Elihu reminded Job that God does not act wickedly, He can’t.

Now, you may have to take that by faith…
So, take it by faith!

God is the author of affliction and God is right in all that He does.

He is not making the wrong decision.
• If you knew all the facts like He knows all the facts.
• And if you loved purely like He loves purely.
• You’d have no problem at all with decisions He makes.

The best perspective in affliction is
To see that God is the author of it and His affliction is always just.

And by the way, it is this perspective that allows our Psalmist to pray that God will help him be obedient.

If you don’t think God is doing the right thing in your life
You’re going to have a really tuff time obeying His commands.

This perspective is essential.

The Author of Affliction, The Justice of Affliction
#3 THE FIRMNESS OF AFFLICTION
Psalms 119:75

Well those first 2 perspectives are sort of hard to swallow,
But I have to tell you it doesn’t immediately get any easier.

The Psalmist says, “And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me”

What does that mean?

I know how you want to read it.
You want to read it that even in my affliction, God will be faithful to me.

Well, He will be, but THAT’S NOT what the Psalmist is saying.

That is actually what the Psalmist requests in the next verse.
(76) “O may Your lovingkindness comfort me”

That is what you are looking for.

• And certainly God is loyal, and certainly God will be for you.
• And certainly God will not abandon you or turn His back on you.

But when the Psalmist says that “in faithfulness You have afflicted me”, He is NOT saying that God will be faithful to me in the affliction.

What the Psalmist is actually saying is that
God is faithful in His decision to afflict.

“faithfulness” there is EMUNA
It means “firmness or fidelity or steadfastness”

It is a word that refers to
“God’s strict observance of His promises and His duties.”

So let me tell you what the Psalmist is actually saying.
• He’s NOT saying that God is faithful to you in affliction (though He is)
• What the Psalmist IS saying is that: GOD IS FAITHFUL TO AFFLICT

Wait! What?
God is faithful to afflict

He afflicts out of His faithfulness.
He humbles people because He is faithful to His purposes and duty.

Think about Nebuchadnezzar and the great humbling God gave him.
• Could anyone else humble Nebuchadnezzar? -No
• But if Nebuchadnezzar is never humbled he’ll never be saved.
• Was anyone faithful enough to humble him? God was.

God is faithful to that.
• He is resolute to afflict.
• He is resolute to humble.

He has said that you need it and He is faithful to make sure you learn it.

Now that is good perspective.

Let me show you where Paul learned that perspective.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

• Paul had a thorn in the flesh.
• It was a messenger of Satan sent to torment him.
• The purpose was humility.

Do you see the providence of God?
• Surely – Satan wanted to afflict Paul
• That messenger of Satan was happy to lie about Paul

But who authored it?
God did.

Now Paul asked 3 times for it to be taken away, but what did he learn?
• God was faithful in it.
• God was resolute in it.
• God wouldn’t change His mind about it.

WHY?
Because it was the right decision.

God was using it to humble Paul
And to ultimately squeeze more glory out of his ministry.

When Paul learned this perspective,
He quit praying for the thorn to be removed
And started rejoicing in the presence of every other thorn in his life!

Perspective!

Didn’t we read from the Psalmist in the previous stanza?
Psalms 119:71 “It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.”

This is a great perspective!

It DOESN’T’ MEAN you can’t pray for comfort or deliverance.
Our Psalmist did that.

But what it does mean is that
There is a perspective in that even while you pray
• You understand that God’s will is being done
• And even a refusal by God to remove your affliction is simply because He is faithful to finish what He started in you.

I want to look at one final text here,
But it’s a little too lengthy for the screen.

TURN TO: HEBREWS 12:4-11

This is exactly what the writer of Hebrews is talking about.
He is recognizing the faithfulness of God
To bring the necessary affliction into your life.

In fact, God is doing it because He loves you
And He is faithful to love you the right way.

Do you see the perspective?
So don’t regard lightly His discipline.
And don’t faint when you are reproved.

Understand that God is faithfully at work in your life.
• He has authored this affliction.
• This affliction is right.
• It is right because He is faithful to finish what He started in you.

That is good perspective when you face affliction.
And when you have that perspective, then go ahead and pray your way through those 7 requests that the Psalmist laid out.

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The Joy of Fellowship – Part 1
1 John 1:1-4 (1)
December 5, 2021

This morning we begin a new Sunday Morning book study together.
We are going to study the book of 1 John.

I can’t really explain why I was compelled to go here next, but what I can say is that since I decided to go here and started studying it more thoroughly, I have grown more and more excited about it.

As we commonly do, before we dive into the text,
We need to give an overall sense of the book.

It’s that “Forest Approach” we talk about so much.

I’m a firm believer that you have to get the gist of the whole thing
Before you will ever accurately understand the parts.

So let me just give you THE THRUST of the book here right off the bat.

The main thrust of the book is what I’m going to call: CONVICTION
(Or perhaps you might prefer the word ASSURANCE)

John is simply setting out to solidify for you
What is Christianity and what is not.

And I think this is so valuable.

What is ABUNDANTLY CLEAR when you read 1 John
Is that heresy has surrounded the church.

1 John 2:18 “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”

From John’s perspective there are any number of heresies and heretics
That are seeking to subvert the truth in any number of ways.

And we’ll get to some specific ones in a minute,
But what is helpful to understand is that 1 John is written to the church
In a time when “Biblical Christianity” had sort of gotten confusing.

There were any number of false prophets
Who were offering up their view on what it meant to be “Christian”.

We can sympathize there today I think.

There is no shortage of variations presented today as to
• What the gospel is,
• Who Jesus is,
• Or what the Christian life should look like.

It can lead to confusion and a lack of conviction.

No book in the Bible seeks to set the record straight more so than 1 John.

He is writing about what I have called “Obvious Christianity”
He is calling you back to the very basic and obvious points of the faith.

He is bringing back to mind the basic and simple truths that easily help us discern what we see and hear in the world.
• Things like who Jesus is as God incarnate.
• Things like what Jesus did as the sacrifice for sin.
• Things like the necessary Christian lifestyles of righteousness and brotherly love.

It’s basic stuff, it’s obvious stuff.

I was listening to R.C. Sproul this week
And he talked about a heckler who stood up in one of his Q&A times and yelled out that the message of the cross that Sproul was explaining was “Primitive and Obscene”.

Sproul said, “I agree on both counts”
• Any time you have all the sin of all the elect being imputed on one man and he
is bearing the full weight of that guilt and being punished before God, it is
certainly obscene.
• And while the gospel has a depth that we will never fully excavate, primitive or
simple is also a good word.

What else do you call simple truths like God commanding His people to get a goat, confess their sins over it, and then kill it, and poor it’s blood on the altar?

That is certainly primitive.

AND SO IS THE GOSPEL.
• It is not simply for those of high intellectual capacity.
• It is in so many ways simple and obvious.
• It is so simple that a child can understand it and be moved to faith in Christ.

And it is good to remember that.

Our world loves to question things and debate and rationalize
And at times that can even lead a believer into confusion.

John counters such confusion by giving a straightforward letter
Regarding what is obviously Christian and what is obviously not.

THE PURPOSE IS to solidify your faith;
To give you conviction, and to allow you enjoy assurance.

JOHN IS GIVING THE SIMPLE OBVIOUS TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY.

That is why you constantly get the words “you know”
• “By this we know…”
• “from this we know…”
• “we will know by this…”

1 John 2:21 “I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.”

1 John 3:10 “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”

1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

In fact John uses the word “know” over 30 times in this letter.

He is not confused and from his perspective
There is NO REASON that you should be confused either.

And I am thankful for this.

There is a sort of CULTURAL MINDSET that is pretty popular today and sadly is even sweeping into the church.

It is the mindset that we might call RELATIVISM
“The doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.”

You’ve likely heard statements like:
“That may be true for you, but it’s not true for me”

The sort of popular image or illustration of this (which drives me crazy) but I see shared on social media is two men facing each other, and on the ground in front of them is the number “9”. One guy is standing at the top of the number looking down the other is standing at the bottom of the number and is looking up. The man on the top confidently says “6” and the man on the bottom confidently says “9”

And the argument is made that this is how truth works.
Depending on your culture and your context and your position even in history
Is how you will determine what is true.

What may be a “9” for you is in fact a “6” for someone else.

Now, just to clarify that drawing you need to understand that the number on the ground is either a 6 or a 9 but it is not both. One of those two men is wrong.

How do you know which one?
• Well you don’t from that drawing, in that case you need more information.
• You need the input of the one who wrote the number.
• And when you get more information there is the possibility that both of them are
wrong, but there is 0 chance that both of them are right.

BUT OUR CULTURE LOVES THIS MINDSET.

And in this culture the GREATEST SIN that can be committed
Is to be DOGMATIC.

You actually hear people say, “We cannot be dogmatic about this.”
In fact to be dogmatic is to be considered as arrogant today.

And that may be true of some things, there are to be certain some things that we cannot be dogmatic about, but it is not true of all things.

If I might quote Steve Lawson here,
“Regarding the gospel we are not just dogmatic, we are bull-dogmatic”

Well, that’s John.
• John is black and white
• John is bull-dogmatic

He is not confused in the least regarding
What is genuine Christianity and what is not genuine Christianity.

In John’s mind Christianity is OBVIOUS

For example:
1 John 1:6 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;”

1 John 2:4-6 “The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”

1 John 2:9-11 “The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”

1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

1 John 3:10 “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”

1 John 3:15 “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

1 John 4:20 “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

You get the idea.
• There is no vacillating in John.
• There is nothing relative about truth to him.

He knows what is true.
He knows what is false.
He doesn’t mind telling you the difference.

Our world hates that sort of confidence.

And the problem even in the church today is that
Such thinking isn’t creeping in, it is gushing in.

There are quotes all over the place from leading “Evangelicals” (you can youtube it) who are asked about homosexuality for instance, and here’s the types of answers you get.

• “Well, like, that’s a tough one.”
• “I’m not sure”
• “I’m not God”
• “I’m trying to understand this too”
• Or the famous Olsteen statement, “I just try to stay in my lane”

People who claim Christianity are becoming master contortionists.
They are adopting the theology of relativism.

And this is obviously bigger than just homosexuality.
It comes in all forms.
• Is Jesus the only way to heaven?
• Are other religions false?
• Is hell real?
• Does God really judge sinners?

And a host of others.

The world doesn’t want you to answer definitively on any of those topics.
And so the world would absolutely hate the book of 1 John.

And incidentally, John knows that.
1 John 3:13 “Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.”

He gets it.
His brand of confidence and dogmatic theology is NOT POPULAR.
BUT IT IS NECESSARY

WHY?
On one hand, certainly, because it’s true.
• It doesn’t do anyone any favors to call it true if it’s false or to call it false if it’s true.

But the main reason John writes with such conviction
And dogmatism in this letter is not to warn the lost,
But it is because HE WANTS TO HELP YOU.

There are no doubt some hard and very direct and revealing passages in the book of 1 John.

• 5 times John uses the word “liar”
• 3 times he references something being a “lie”

That is direct and hard and polarizing language.

YET, THE INTENT OF THIS LETTER is quite possibly
The most caring and compassionate in the New Testament.

This letter is NOT some harsh and abrupt beat down with truth.
The purpose of this letter is to restore believers
To a place of confidence and conviction and assurance.

John is looking at a church who has just gone 10 rounds with a heretic.
• They were asked questions they couldn’t answer.
• They were given “facts” they couldn’t dispute.
• They were proposed scenarios they couldn’t handle.

And they walked away from that conversation in spiritual limbo,
Not knowing what was true or which way was up.

Maybe you’ve been in an argument like that.
• Someone got the better of you in a disagreement.
• And you were left timid and afraid and without any assurance or confidence.

That’s where John found many believers and his purpose in writing was very simply so that you may “know” what is true.

Now it does help in our understanding also
To get a little background on what THE DECEPTION of the day was.

John never names a specific heresy.
He never names a specific heretic.

However, from reading what he writes it becomes a little clearer
What the heresy of his day most likely was.

Most agree that the most prevalent enemy that John’s readers faced was GNOSTICISM.

If you’re not familiar with Gnosticism here is a crash course.

Gnostic comes from the Greek word GNOSIS which oddly enough means “to know” or “knowledge”

So the whole Gnostic heresy was a heresy that was derived around
The supposed acquisition of knowledge
Or in their case a special knowledge.

There is today what we might call ORDINARY KNOWLEDGE.
• That which we obtain through observation
• Or that which we obtain through intellectual reflection (reason)

The Gnostics weren’t after either of those.

They claimed a SUPERIOR KNOWLEDGE which came through a higher and direct mystical or intuitive apprehension.

They had a supposed higher knowledge than everyone else.

They had supposedly drawn closer to the deity
And thus knew what the average man did not know.

Some achieved this through drunkenness or through starvation or through other various means, but somehow through their communion with this higher deity that had a more perfect understanding. They were “in the know”.

To a Gnostic salvation was not acquired by faith but rather by knowledge.
And so those with the special knowledge were saved
And those without were lost.

You can see how this might have upset various believers who didn’t claim such esoteric knowledge.

It also helps you understand passages like:
1 John 2:20-21 “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth.”

1 John 2:26-27 “These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.”

John was reminding believers that this supposed special knowledge was a myth. Through the Holy Spirit every believer has the full knowledge of the truth.

Now there are a lot of other aspects to Gnosticism
But for the perspective of 1 John the main thing you need to understand is regarding what is called DUALISM.

Dualism basically states that spirit and matter are not compatible.
More specifically it is the spirit that is good but all matter is evil.

SO TO A GNOSTIC if the spirit is good and all matter is evil and the two are not compatible then you can do whatever you want in the flesh because it is only the spirit that matters anyway.

And thus you understand why John would write things like:
1 John 2:29 “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.”

1 John 3:7-8 “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”

You see how John is confronting the lie
That how you live in the flesh doesn’t matter.

But Gnosticism didn’t just affect their practical living
IT ALSO AFFECTED THEIR THEOLOGY OF JESUS.

If physical matter is evil then there was no way that a Gnostic
Could believe in something as profane as the incarnation.

There is no way that a holy deity would put Himself into physical flesh.

So there were a couple of heresies that arose about Jesus.

One group of Gnostics called the DOCETISTS
• Believed that the body of Jesus wasn’t a real body, it only appeared to look like
a body (DOKEO means “to appear” or “to seem”)
• Jesus was like a phantom, not really in the flesh.

Another group of Gnostics called the CERINTHIANS
• Believed that there was a body but the “Christ Spirit” descended on that body at
Jesus’ baptism but departed from Jesus’ body before His death.

Both of those are problematic from the standpoint of the gospel
Since Jesus is only a mediator between God and men
If He is both God and man.
• He had to be human.
• He had to suffer as a human.
• He had to pay for human sin.

But maybe you can see
How all of this (and there was much more to it) had begun to confuse believers.

SOME GUY APPROACHES
Who claims to have had a special communion with God,
And thus knows more than you know.
• He knows the truth about Jesus which you don’t know…
• He knows what is really important in life…
• He knows how to really be saved…

And you know if you’re just a simple guy in a simple world who just loves Jesus but who has never had some special meeting with a deity or don’t have this secret knowledge, there’s a chance you could be really confused regarding the truth.

• I’ve always thought Jesus was a human, he wasn’t?
• I’ve always thought being righteous was important, it’s not?
• I’ve always thought faith was how to be saved, it’s not?
• I thought the main thing was loving your brother, it isn’t?

So you see how these Gnostics had come in
To supplant the apostles and turn Christianity on its head.

JOHN WRITES A BOLD AND DOGMATIC EPISTLE
To silence such foolish notions, expose such nonsensical knowledge,
And to restore assurance to those who have had the truth all along.

So I know that’s a lengthy introduction but now perhaps you understand what we’re trying to gain from this study.

If I might simply state it, the goal is just to convince you
That what you already know is absolutely true.

It is to comfort you.
It is to give you assurance.

And as we see in these first 4 verses,
It is to restore to you “The Absolute Joy of Fellowship.”

Well, let’s start looking at these first 4 verses. There are 3 things here.
#1 THE REALNESS OF JESUS
1 John 1:1

Here we are at Christmas time
And what a glorious truth to begin 1 John.

John clearly has A SUBJECT IN MIND here in this first verse.

That subject is “concerning the Word of Life”

One could perhaps argue that
JOHN MERELY REFERENCING THE TRUTH HERE

But verse 2 makes it obvious what he means.
When John says, (2) “and the life was manifested”

John is clearly harkening back
To the exact same way in which he opened his gospel.

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Or like what we see in the upper room (and by the way in some ways you could call 1 John a commentary on the upper room because there is so much complimentary doctrine here)

John 17:6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”

So this is what John is referring to here again right off the bat.
“the Word of Life” is Jesus.

John starts off his letter by reaffirming
A fundamental and foundational Christian truth about Jesus.

WHAT IS THAT TRUTH?
Jesus is real
JESUS WAS A REAL HUMAN

He is talking about the glorious truth of THE INCARNATION.

And look at how John defends that obvious truth.
“What was from the beginning”

That DOESN’T MEAN from the beginning of time.
• He is talking about the beginning of the gospel.
• He is talking about from the moment Jesus entered earth.

1 John 2:24 “As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.”

In other words John is going to restate
What has always been proclaimed about Jesus.

You can ignore all of those knew and supposed revelations regarding Jesus being a phantom or whatever.

Do you remember what you learned about Jesus at the very beginning?
Do you remember the first truth about Him?

THAT HE WAS GOD MADE FLESH.

And how does John defend that obvious truth?

“what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands,”

WHAT IS JOHN SAYING?

To claim that Jesus was just some sort of phantom spirit who merely appeared as human is stupid!
• I lived with the man.
• I heard Him with my own ears.
• I saw Him with my own eyes.
• I looked at Him (which means I pondered Him and thought about Him)
• I touched Him with my own hands

I’m telling you this notion that He wasn’t a human is absolutely foolish!
• He was fully human!
• He was totally human!
• He was truly human!

I don’t know what guy walked in here
Or what special knowledge he claimed to have,
But take it from me, Jesus was no mere phantom.

So in the VERY FIRST VERSE John has just laid to rest
Perhaps what was most confusing to the early church.

They had always heard that Jesus was God made flesh.
They had always been taught that He was fully human.
• But that guy was pretty convincing…
• He said he had a vision…

And John explodes it.
• Church, don’t go there.
• Church, this is obvious.

1 John 4:1-3 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

Don’t let such a deceiver lie to you and upset your faith.
I lived with the Man, I walked and talked with the Man, I touched the Man.

Jesus was a human.
And John will totally attest to the fact.

John 21:24 “This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.”

Do you see how comforting that is?
• Just because a guy claims to have special knowledge doesn’t mean he actually does.
• Just because a guy can propose riddles and mysteries doesn’t he knows something you don’t.

Don’t buy everything you hear.

And I think you can just see a corporate exhale from the church who must have been actually upset by these gnostic heresies.

Can’t you see them when they read verse 1?
• “Duh, right!”

IT IS OBVIOUS.

Now, obviously we can’t get through the next 3 verses this morning

But here we are in December approaching Christmas
And if nothing else this morning we rejoice in
What has always been a foundational truth regarding Jesus.

We read it to our youth Wednesday night:
Philippians 2:5-11 “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

• Jesus was God.
• Seated as God.
• Honored as God.
• Obeyed as God.

But He chose not to hold on to that
And instead took on the form of a bond-servant.

• He didn’t quit being God He just gave up being treated like He was God.
• He embraced humility and reproach and shame.
• He took on humanity.

Hebrews 2:14-18 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”

He took on “flesh and blood”
He became a human.

He became human under the Law so He could fully obey God as a human and earn the righteousness He would impute to us.

He became human so He could suffer God’s wrath on humanity and thus atone for our sins.

He became human so He could die as a human and conquer death.

I love some of the Christmas songs that have been written in recent years
To ponder this marvelous truth.

“Who is This?”
https://sovereigngracemusic.org/music/songs/who-is-this/

Who is this, divine and tender, hailing from eternal shores?
Once arrayed in highest splendor, now in poverty adorned
He is Jesus, God made mortal, Word in flesh, the Light of Life
From a throne room to a stable, hope is born this holy night

Who is this of might and meekness, given all authority?
With a word He stills the tempest, at His touch the blind can see
He is Jesus our Messiah, long awaited, long proclaimed
Sing “Hosanna in the highest!” Christ the King has come to reign

Who is this reviled and stricken broken on a cursed tree?
Son of God by God forsaken, drenched in our iniquity
He is Jesus slain for sinners, laden with our guilt and grief
All our praise to Him we render for His wounds have won our peace

Who is this entombed in darkness, cast into the bitter depths?
He whom grave nor Hell could harness rose and tore the sting from death
He is Jesus, God triumphant, risen to the Father’s side
All will bow in awe and reverence at the name of Jesus Christ

O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him
O come let us adore Him, Christ the LORD

IT IS A GLORIOUS TRUTH.
Our glorious God became human that He might bring salvation to us.

• This is a truth from the very beginning.
• This is a truth that you all know.
• This is a truth on which we rest.

Jesus became human, don’t let anyone tell you any different.
And we’ll talk about it more next time.

Download Here:

Contemplating Forgiveness, Urging Repentance
Psalms 32:1-2
November 28, 2021

This morning we find ourselves between two book studies.
• Having finished Ecclesiastes last week
• Planning to begin 1 John next week

This morning provided an opportunity to study wherever we wanted,
And that is always an easy decision.

When the topic can be anything, how could it be anything
Other than the glorious forgiveness purchased for us
Through the work of our Savior Jesus Christ?

Paul said it like this:
1 Corinthians 2:1-2 “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”

THIS MORNING we will also take a moment
And remember the wonderful forgiveness which was purchased for us
Through the cross of Jesus Christ.

And while we all just came through Thanksgiving
• And many of us sat around a family table eating all manner of good food,
• It certainly seems to fit that this week culminate by sitting at our favorite table
• Which is the Lord’s Table and feasting upon the riches of His sacrifice.

In order to prepare our hearts for this rich feast
WE ARE GOING TO STUDY A VERY POPULAR TEXT.

We are looking at the first 2 verses of Psalms 32.

Psalm 32 in it’s entirety is a Psalm on the joy and value of repentance,
But it’s the first 2 verses we are primarily interested in this morning.

And in those first 2 verses there are 3 things we want to discuss.
#1 THE IDENTITY OF SIN
Psalms 32:1-2

One of the things that comes to light in these 2 verses
Is the various ways in which sin is described.

David uses 3 different words for sin here.
• “transgression”
• “sin”
• “iniquity”

In one sense we would just see these as synonyms
And there is nothing wrong with that.

And yet, there are differences in each of these words
That perhaps helps us get a better grasp on exactly what sin is.

In our culture today the word “sin”
Isn’t so much taboo as it is disregarded.

There was a time when people shied away from the word “sin” or “sinner”
But in our day and time it is a word that no longer seems bother anyone.

We hear phrases like,
• “Well we’re all sinners”
• “Everybody sins”
Almost as though it’s really not that big of a deal.

Obviously such a nonchalant view of sin is A MISTAKE
Since the Bible is extremely clear what sin brings.

Romans 6:23a “For the wages of sin is death…”

And this we saw from the very beginning.
• We saw Adam and Eve removed from the garden.
• We saw the curse fall upon the earth.
• By Genesis 5 we were smacked in the face with the recurring phrase, “And he
died…” “And he died…” “And he died…”
• And by Genesis 6 every living thing with breath in its nostrils died except for
Noah’s family and the remnant of animals he saved.

The initial understanding of sin is that whatever it is, it is so bad
That it motivates the Creator of all things to kill all things.

THAT MAKES SIN TERRIFYING.

• But what is it?
• Why is it so bad?
• Why does it anger God so?

Well there is some explanation to that bound up in these 3 words.
And it is important that you understand this.

Let’s look at the words David used.
“transgression”

The Hebrew word is PESA (peh’-shah)
And it means “Rebellion” or “A Revolt”

It is a word that speaks of a subordinate
Who seeks to get out from under the authority of their superior.
It is a mutiny, an act of defiance.

Genesis 31:36 “Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?”

Jacob wanted to know what his rebellion was that would cause Laban to be so suspicious and pursue him?

And certainly just from that aspect
We can begin to understand why it is a big deal to God.

• It is the utter audacity that this creature who was formed out of the dirt would
dare to defy the living God.

• It is unthinkable arrogance that the clay would rebel against the potter.

• It is the mindboggling disrespect that one who derives their very life and
being from God would then seek to escape from under His sovereign hand.

THAT ALONE IS BAD ENOUGH.

But there is even more to the word than just a rebellion.

We see the word also in Exodus 22
Exodus 22:7-9 “If a man gives his neighbor money or goods to keep for him and it is stolen from the man’s house, if the thief is caught, he shall pay double. “If the thief is not caught, then the owner of the house shall appear before the judges, to determine whether he laid his hands on his neighbor’s property. “For every breach of trust, whether it is for ox, for donkey, for sheep, for clothing, or for any lost thing about which one says, ‘This is it,’ the case of both parties shall come before the judges; he whom the judges condemn shall pay double to his neighbor.”

In that passage the word is translated “breach of trust”

There is a personal aspect to this.
• This was a man who entrusted something to his neighbor
• And not only did the neighbor rebel against his wishes,
• But the neighbor also violated his trust.

MORE THAN JUST REBELLION IT IS ALSO BETRAYAL.

And we are talking here about how man does this to God.
• It is Adam and Even defiantly eating from the tree from which they were forbidden to eat…
• It is the Children of Israel entering covenant with God and then defiantly choosing to worship other gods…
• It is any man who derives his life and breathe from God seeking to remove God’s authoritative hand from his life without any gratitude or thought to all that God has done for him.

There is a sting in this.
There is pain in this.
And according to David, this is WHAT WE HAVE DONE TO GOD.

You wonder why transgression is such a bad thing,
And why God would punish it with death,
It’s because through it we have treated God
As He did not deserve to be treated.

He created us
In Him we live and move and exist
He has good will toward us
We owe Him all things

AND YET WE disregard His commands, reject His authority,
Despise His commands, and go our own way.

This is not only insubordination, but it is also a personal offence
To our God who deserves better.

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.”

Or consider:
Isaiah 1:2-4 “Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the LORD speaks, “Sons I have reared and brought up, But they have revolted against Me. “An ox knows its owner, And a donkey its master’s manger, But Israel does not know, My people do not understand.” Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity, Offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away from Him.”

Malachi 1:6a “‘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…”

You see the frustration from God.
It is transgression.

And it comes with such a sting that
It causes one to forget any previous good.

Ezekiel 33:12a “And you, son of man, say to your fellow citizens, ‘The righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression…”

We have all done this to God.
Perhaps you see why it is such a big deal to Him.
Perhaps you see why God judges it with death.

There’s another word David uses here.
“sin”

This is the Hebrew word HATA’A (khat-aw-aw’)
And this word means “an offense”

Certainly in our culture today we understand the term “OFFENDED”.

We live in a culture now that is offended by everything
And we have seen society literally begin to turn itself upside down
In order to keep from offending people.

Oddly enough the only One they aren’t worried about offending is God.

This word is the first word that is used to describe sin in the Bible.

Genesis 4:7 “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

The warning to Cain?
If you don’t watch yourself then you will offend God.

Consider these passages:
Exodus 32:21 “Then Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such great sin upon them?” (golden calf)

Exodus 32:30-31 “On the next day Moses said to the people, “You yourselves have committed a great sin; and now I am going up to the LORD, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” Then Moses returned to the LORD, and said, “Alas, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves.”

That golden calf was a great offense to God.
It was supposed to be a depiction of Him and it was offensive.
• Any graven image is offensive to God because they all do nothing but dumb Him down.
• And this gaudy golden calf was no different.

Here’s another one:
2 Kings 17:21 “When He had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD and made them commit a great sin.”

This sin of Jeroboam was a big deal!

9 times in the book of 2 Kings we read about how a king “did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat.”

Do you know what that sin was?
• He built those golden calves
• And told the northern tribes of Israel to worship there instead of Jerusalem.

It was an offense to God!

God never let forgot those things
Until He finally removed Israel from His sight.

Hosea 8:5-7 “He has rejected your calf, O Samaria, saying, “My anger burns against them!” How long will they be incapable of innocence? For from Israel is even this! A craftsman made it, so it is not God; Surely the calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces. For they sow the wind And they reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; It yields no grain. Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.”

IT IS TO OFFEND GOD.
And this we have all also done.

Romans 1:25 “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

And it is to offend Him to the point
That He is willing to destroy those whom He has created.

• So you’ve got “transgression” which is to rebel.
• And you’ve got “sin” which is to offend.

A third word David uses.
“iniquity”

This is the Hebrew word AON (aw-vone)
And it is a word that speaks of “perversity” or “depravity” or “intrinsic guilt”

We talk about how after Adam sinned the image was marred or distorted.
Adam was to bear the divine image, but Adam perverted that image.

As we said when speaking about Adam,
It wasn’t that all of a sudden his physical appearance changed,
It was that his nature was distorted.

We are talking here about an INTERNAL DEPRAVITY or perversion.

Jeremiah 2:22 “Although you wash yourself with lye And use much soap, The stain of your iniquity is before Me,” declares the Lord GOD.”

Isaiah 64:6 “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

And we are talking about that which is UNIVERSAL to the human race
Because we all inherit this same perversion and distortion
From our father Adam.

It is generational.
Exodus 20:5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,”

Isaiah 14:21 “Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter Because of the iniquity of their fathers. They must not arise and take possession of the earth And fill the face of the world with cities.”

It speaks to the OVERALL FALLENNESS of humanity.
It is the notion of “there is none who does good, not even one”

Since the fall, all humanity is a distortion.
• All of humanity is in perverse depravity and wickedness.
• We all fall short of the divine image.
• We all fall short of the glory of God.
• We all bear Adam’s defect.
• We are distorted clay pots, a mere distortion of the original intent.
• We don’t measure up.

What we have become and how we live
Is perverse and deprave before God.

It is the disgust you feel
As we read about the “deeds of the flesh” from Paul.

Galatians 5:19-21 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

It’s just ungodliness and perversion which appalls us at the deepest level.

AND WE, BY OUR VERY NATURE HAVE SO APPALLED GOD.
Is it any wonder then that God has dealt with such sin with death?

Now these are the 3 words which David used to give us a picture of sin
And to help us understand why it brings with it the wages of death.

• We see humanity has rebelled against God.
• We see humanity as participants in that which offends God.
• We see humanity as those who are perverted and deprave before God at their
deepest level.

And when you understand that THIS IS WHERE WE ARE,
It really does cause one to wonder
WHY GOD WOULD HAVE ALLOWED US TO HANG AROUND THIS LONG?

It certainly explains His decision to flood the earth in the days of Noah.

“Sinner” is far from an insignificant title.
To be called a sinner is to be called that which is:
• At enmity with God through rebellion,
• In danger before God because of offence,
• By our very nature perverse and guilty before a Holy God.

THIS IS NOT A TITLE TO RELISH IN.

That is the identity of sin.
But there is a second reality here David would show.
#2 THE AVAILABILITY OF FORGIVENESS
Psalms 32:1-2

I know we spent a lengthy time on the issue of what sin is,
But it is necessary that we might better understand the joy of David here.

David uses the phrase “How blessed” twice.
It is a statement that you and I are supposed to ponder.

We are supposed to think about the deep offense of sin
And the judgment that accompanies it.
We are supposed to grieve under the weight
Of having offended a Holy God.

And then we are supposed to contemplate how good it would be
If that same God whom we have so greatly offended
Were to pronounce us forgiven.

Well you also notice that accompanying each of those descriptive words of sin also comes words of forgiveness.

We have “transgression” which is rebellion against God.
• But David contemplates the blessing of having it “forgiven”

We have “sin” which is an offence to God.
• But David contemplates the blessing of having it “covered”

We have “iniquity” which is a detestably deprave nature.
• But David contemplates the blessing of it “not being imputed” to us.

So let’s now examine those words.

“forgiven”

Is the Hebrew word NASA (naw-saw)
It means “to lift up” or “to bear up” or “to carry”

After Cain sinned by killing Abel God punished him.
Cain responded:
Genesis 4:13 “Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is too great to bear!”

Cain said, “I can’t carry all of this burden”

“forgiven”
Here is a word that speaks of someone else carrying it for you.

The most vivid picture in Old Testament life was during the Day of Atonement.
Leviticus 16:21 “Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. “The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.”

“bear on itself” is the same Hebrew word.

So if you want to hear what David is so happy about
It is that he has rebelled against God,
But God has chosen to put that rebellion on someone else.

David basically says, “Wouldn’t that be great!”
Wouldn’t it be awesome if instead of punishing you, God chose to put your rebellion somewhere else?

What a blessing would that be?

The next word David uses
“covered”

In the Hebrew it is KASA (kaw-saw)

(naw-saw & kaw-saw) you see the poetry here.

KASA means literally “to cover”

It brings the idea of concealing it from view.

Job asked:
Job 31:33 “Have I covered my transgressions like Adam, By hiding my iniquity in my bosom,”

• Job argued that he was humble and honest before God by not trying to hide or
cover up his sin before God.

The beauty of forgiveness is when God covers our sin up for us.

Isaiah 61:10 “I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Wouldn’t it be a blessing if when we offended God, our offense was covered so He couldn’t see it?

Wouldn’t it be a blessing if someone would have thrown a tarp over that golden calf and God had not seen it?

So we have REBELLION but it is NASA – carried by someone else.
We have OFFENCE, but it is KASA – covered up by God and not seen.

David also speaks of a third blessing.
“the LORD does not impute iniquity”

“impute” there is HASAB (khaw-shab)
It means “to think” or “to esteem” or “to make a judgment” or “to count”

Isaiah 29:16 “You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”; Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?”

And it is a very dangerous word for a sinner.
No one wants to be considered by God as a perverse and deprave sinner.

Job 19:11 “He has also kindled His anger against me And considered me as His enemy.

That is a horrific way to be viewed by God.
Just ask Sodom and Gomorrah

The most famous use of the word is:
Genesis 15:6 “Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”

• There the word is translated “reckoned”
• There it is God choosing to consider Abraham to be righteous.

And this is the blessing David is referring to.

Wouldn’t it be great if even though we were sinful, God didn’t consider us to be sinners?

NOW THINK ABOUT THESE THREE FOR A MOMENT.

DAVID IS OUTLINING TRUE BLESSING FOR YOU.
In fact, it is somewhat immeasurable blessing for David only says, “How Blessed!”

David is saying wouldn’t it be great if:

• Those who rebelled against God, that instead of bearing the weight of their
guilt, God put that burden somewhere else?

• Those who offended God, that instead of punishing them, God just covered that
offense up where He no longer saw it?

• Those who are deprave and detestable, God just started considering them as
though they weren’t?

Think about that.
Wouldn’t that be great!

Think about that in any relationship, even human ones.

Suppose there is someone you’d like to be friends with, or someone you’d like to impress, but they can’t stand you.
• To them, you are offensive.
• To them, you are perverse and deprave.
• To them, you are rebellious and full of betrayal.

And you come up to them and say, “I realize that I betrayed you and offended you, and that my very being is pretty much repulsive to you in every way. But do you think you could just forget all that and start looking at me like someone you really like?”

If you approach someone like that they’re going to laugh in your face!

But David says that is exactly the blessing
He is talking about between us and God.

That even though we betrayed God, and are offensive to God, and are pretty much repulsive and detestable in every possible way to Him,

WE WERE JUST WONDERING IF
He’d maybe start looking at us like He liked us instead.

And the blessing here from David is that apparently God said, “YES!”

WHY?
Well, you know the answer.
It is all because of Christ.

When God chose not to impute your iniquity to you,
It’s because He was willing to instead impute it to Jesus Christ.

Remember that word means “credited” or “to count” or “to esteem”

Isaiah 53:3-4 “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.”

In that passage the word “esteem” is the same word.

We committed “iniquity”
But it wasn’t us who was treated as such.

Isaiah 53:5-6 “… He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”

Isaiah 53:11b “…He will bear their iniquities.”

Here we have Jesus who was perfectly righteous,
But He was never credited as He should have been.

He should have been esteemed, but He was not.
Instead, God imputed our sin to Him.

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.”

When we talk about sin being covered, that was also thanks to Christ,
For we then were covered by His righteous robe.

This is the glory of the phrase “in Him”

Philippians 3:8-9 “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,”

In the Old Testament we read phrases like “my refuge” or “my hiding place” or “my strong tower”.

They are all pictures of the wicked looking for a place to hide
So that their sin might be covered.

In the tribulation they will call to “the mountains and the hills” to fall on them and cover their sin before a holy God.

But we are only covered in Christ.
We are only hidden in Him.

Our sin was imputed to Christ and His righteousness was imputed to us.

David also spoke of forgiveness.
To have someone else bear the weight of our punishment.

And we read:
Isaiah 53:4 “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.”

Isaiah 53:12 “Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.”

We were the transgressors, but:
Isaiah 53:5 “But He was pierced through for our transgressions…”

In short, Christ bore the weight and the burden of our rebellion.
• We rebelled, God pierced Him.
• We offended, God covered our offence with Christ’s righteousness.
• We are deprave, God imputed that to Christ and crushed Him for it.

• He was the scapegoat, we are the forgiven.
• He was the victim, we are the covered.
• He was the judged, we are the esteemed.

It’s no wonder then that David says, “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,”

This is an enormous blessing that we should escape such wrath
While Christ should take our place.

Now, I know we are short on time, but there is one more phrase
In Psalms 32:2 that cannot be overlooked.

David makes one more statement, and it is our final point.
#3 THE URGENCE OF REPENTANCE
Psalms 32:2b

“And in whose spirit there is no deceit!”

This is one more statement that David makes.
It is another aspect to the blessing of being forgiven.

But what does he mean?

“deceit” is REMIYA (rem-ee-yaw) and it can certainly mean deceitful.

But it also is often translated as “slothful” or “idle” or “slack”

Proverbs 10:4 “Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, But the hand of the diligent makes rich.”

Proverbs 12:24 “The hand of the diligent will rule, But the slack hand will be put to forced labor.”

And this negligence is what David refers to here.

There is the undefinable blessing of forgiveness for the most vile sinner,
How blessed is the man who isn’t too negligent to take advantage of it!

And that is what the rest of the Psalm is about.
(READ PSALMS 32:3-11)

• Do you hear David say that for a while he was negligent to repent?
• Do you hear David say that once he found repentance he enjoyed forgiveness?
• Do you hear David tell you that you should not be stubborn, but also repent?

HE IS GIVING A WARNING
To those who will miss out on the blessing of forgiveness.

LISTEN TO ME.
• There is no greater blessing than to be considered righteous by God.
• There is no greater blessing than to have your sin covered.
• There is no greater blessing than forgiveness.

BUT IT IS NOT A UNIVERSAL BLESSING!
It is NOT automatically on all men.

It is only on those who repent of their sin and trust in Christ.
They get forgiveness, everyone else gets judgment.

David says, “Don’t be a negligent person”

The writer of Hebrews asked:
Hebrews 2:3 “how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”

YOU WON’T!
Matthew 22:4-5 “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.” ’ “But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business,

The king burned those people’s city with fire.

Hebrews 10:29 “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”

But for those who are in Christ!
• All our transgressions have been carried by Christ.
• All of our sins have been covered by His righteousness.
• All of our iniquity was imputed to Him and He paid the penalty.

THIS MORNING we come to the table of the Lord to celebrate His work.

This cracker represents His body in which He lived an obedient life and satisfied the righteous requirement of God.

It is the righteousness that we are covered with before God.
Jesus said this body is “for you”.

This juice represents His blood which was shed as He bore our sin and our guilt and suffered the wrath of God for our rebellion and our offense.

Jesus said His blood is “for you”.

And it all comes with one command.
“Do this in remembrance of Me”

That we will do this morning.

Download Here:

Thinking About Discernment
Psalms 119:65-72
November 21, 2021

Last time we studied this segment we called it “Appreciating Affliction”
And certainly that is what this entire segment is about.

But since we have studied that and exposited it last time,
Tonight I want to focus in on one aspect
Of what this stanza discusses, and that is DISCERNMENT.

And to begin our study
I first want you to be aware of the fact that Deception is Everywhere.

A brief journey through the New Testament will make that obvious.

1 Timothy 4:1 “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,”

• Paul there speaks of “deceitful spirits” and “doctrines of demons”

1 Timothy 4:7 “But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;”

• There he warns of “worldly fables”

1 Timothy 6:4 “he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions,”

• There he warns of “controversial questions and disputes about words”

1 Timothy 6:20 “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”

• There it is “what is falsely called knowledge”

2 Timothy 2:23 “But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels.”

• We see “foolish and ignorant speculations”

2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

• Paul says men will love “myths”

Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”

• Here it is “philosophy and empty deception”

Acts 20:30 “and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”

• That is a warning against “perverse things”

As you can see there is A REAL ISSUE in this world, even in the church,
Regarding the presence of deception.
• Satan is called the father of lies. (John 8:44)
• Lying is all he knows how to do.

And he is really, really, REALLY GOOD AT IT.
• He masquerades as an angel of light.
• He looks good
• He feels good
• He sounds good

Just ask the couple in the garden
Genesis 3:6 “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

What Satan offered WAS A LIE, but it sure sounded right.
It WAS A LIE, but it seemed to make sense.
It WAS DECEPTION, but it felt so good.

And we live in a world that is DOMINATED by his deceptive doctrines.
We even live in a church age where much of his teaching is accepted.

I think about the political realm.
• The most recent election has literally blown open the discussion on political
things.
• And today, if you have a basement and a video camera you are qualified to be
a journalist.
• And I’ve listened to several of these guys.
• They promise all sorts of thing that are coming and are about to happen.

But you listen because a lot of what they say is what you want to hear:

But I start to listen closer
• One guy talks about alien encounters,
• Another talks about how he is a multi-dimensional being,
• Another states that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are
inspired by God.

And even though much of what they say is what I want to hear,
I have to acknowledge that in many areas these people are deceived.

They are either being lied to by someone
Or they are deceiving themselves.

It is everywhere.

AND WE CERTAINLY SEE IT IN THE SECULAR REALM.

This week I read a Facebook post that cut me deep and grieved me.
It was written by a woman who attended this church about 17 years ago
When Carrie and I first came here.

Her post simply said that
For the past 3 years she has been what she called “A deconstructing Christian”

I had no clue what she meant
Because I’m obviously not very “woke”
Or too caught up in the lingo of the day.
So I had to google it.

But basically the process of “deconstructing” (as I understand it)
Is a new modern fad name for those who are questioning sort of the normative beliefs that have been “constructed” by society.

It’s a catchy phrase that sounds highly intellectual and humble.
And filled with honesty and vulnerability and compassion and insight.

Now, the girl didn’t actually share too much in her initial post that I would argue with,
Especially in an open social media comment section,
But the response she generated was huge.

It became clear to me that the idea behind “deconstruction”
• Is to basically ask the hard questions,
• To question everything,
• To break down sort of those traditional robotic beliefs
• And maybe even to try to think for yourself.

I’m new to the idea, but this is sort of how it read to me.

While I am new to the idea, the idea itself is not new.
In one sense, it is even Biblical.

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.”

Scripture itself affirms the need for discernment.
• That you should never just believe everything you hear or read.
• That you most certainly should test and examine everything carefully,
• And this even includes age-old traditions.

We love to celebrate and discuss the Reformation.
In many ways the Reformation was a time in which
There was some form of a “deconstruction” process.

Those that speak of this “Deconstruct Christianity” movement
• Like to use words like “Radical”
• And like to even point out that Jesus was radical to the normative beliefs of His day.
• They might even argue that Jesus “deconstructed Judaism”.

AND THERE IS MUCH TO THAT IDEA THAT WE WOULD AFFIRM.

What else can you call a sermon
In which Jesus repeatedly says, “You have heard, but I say…” anything but a word to deconstruct bad doctrine and replace it with true doctrine?

SO WE ARE NOT AFRAID OF THE TERM DECONSTRUCT.

What does greatly trouble me is the careless and uninformed
And misguided movement that seems to be coming with it.

As I read some of the comments on the post, I read things like:

When one person encouraged her to be careful in the journey because Satan seeks to isolate us,
She responded by saying, “As part of my journey I no longer believe Satan is real.”

At another point she commented “I came to a place where I found that the god I was connected with did not align with much of what the faith of Christianity taught.”

At another point she commented “I think for some folks Jesus is the truth, for others it is Buddha or Mohammad. In the end, it’s more about the way we love”

In fact the entire comment section is filled with what you might call disgruntled ex-church members who no longer believe the basics of Christian doctrine.

It is dangerously close to FULL BLOWN APOSTASY.

So while we are not afraid of the term “deconstruct”
THE MOVEMENT IS ACTUALLY HORRIFYING.

They seek to question things,
But what is apparent is that there is no basis
To be able to know when something is actually truth or not.

AND SO THIS ALL BRINGS UP A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION:
“What dictates what you believe?”
• “What is your standard of truth by which you measure what you hear?”
• “What do you use to discern if something is true?”
• “When you deconstruct something, what tool are you using?”

Discernment or testing everything is not a bad thing at all,
So long as you have an accurate standard of measure
By which everything is tested.

THAT’S THE REAL QUESTION HERE.

THE REFORMERS were clear what their standard of measure was.
They developed the cry “SOLA SCRIPTURA” – Scripture Alone.
• They said that Scripture would be the defining criteria by which things would be measured to be true.

JESUS is the author of Scripture and so He measured truth by Himself.

But this is where the danger lies
In such “woke” movements as this today.
They jump into discernment without first determining what the standard will be for that discernment.

A couple of weeks ago I heard parts of a sermon from a preacher named Todd White who absolutely butchered the truth of 2 Corinthians 5:21

He read the verse and his assessment was that on the cross Jesus actually became a sinner. He said Jesus became pedophilia and a hater of God and other blasphemous assertions.

Another man commented on this sermon and said, “His preaching is like giving a hammer to a 2 year old.”

The idea is that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about
And in an attempt to preach, he’s actually destroying everything.

That is a good way to describe this movement.
They go swinging the sword at things like Christianity,
But they don’t even know what they are swinging at.

They want to be discerning, but their standard for discernment is corrupt.

So we ask again:
WHAT DICTATES WHAT YOU BELIEVE?

I’ll likely never get the opportunity to talk with this woman regarding her post so I may never get a straight answer from her.

• Though I would suppose that her standard of belief is most likely her own heart.
• I would guess that her own heart (which is highly influenced by the culture) is
where she goes to determine if things are true or not.

AND THIS IS TERRIBLY DANGEROUS.

But this is what I want to discuss with you tonight.

In this segment our Psalmist has a very interesting prayer request to God.

(66) “Teach me good discernment and knowledge, For I believe in Your commandments.”

That’s a great request.
• “Team me good discernment…”
• “Teach me [good] knowledge…”

It is not just a request to have knowledge and discernment
But accurate knowledge and discernment.

And as we have now seen, that is vitally important.

The world has plenty of knowledge.
The world has plenty of discernment.

The question is whether it is accurate knowledge?
The question is whether it is good discernment?

Throughout this stanza we see the same word used 5 times.
It is the Hebrew word TOB (tobe)
• In verse 65 it is translated “well”
• The other 4 times it is translated “good”

You know it as the word God used to describe creation before the fall.

SO
• The Psalmist is NOT ASKING for what is considered good to the culture.
• The Psalmist is NOT ASKING what is considered good to his own heart.
• The Psalmist wants to know what is considered good to God.

He wants God’s discernment.
He wants God’s knowledge.

“discernment” is the Hebrew word TA’AM (ta-ham)
It literally means “taste” and is also used of “judgment”

When David faked madness before Ahimelech the Scripture says:
1 Samuel 21:13 “So he disguised his sanity before them…”

“sanity” there is TA’AM
David disguised his judgment
David disguised his discernment
David made himself appear to be one
Who didn’t know the difference between right or wrong.

You understand further then the request of the Psalmist.

I don’t want the world’s taste or judgment or discernment or sanity.
I want God’s taste or judgment or discernment or sanity.

I want true and good discernment.
I want true and good knowledge.

NOW THAT IS A GOOD VERSE TO REMEMBER
Because it is the criteria for discernment.

When you come to the decision to “test everything”
Or if you are motivated by the culture to “deconstruct”.

Then the thing you must solidify in your mind is
What will be your criteria for doing this?

What are you going to recognize as your standard
By which everything will be tested or deconstructed?

• Are you going to look at your own heart?
• Are you going to take a survey?
• Are you going to listen to the news?

And bear in mind this is IMPORTANT
Because as we noted, DECEPTION IS EVERYWHERE.

Well obviously you already know where this is headed.
We are going to affirm, with the Reformers,
That our standard for truth will be Scripture.

We are going to affirm:
2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

We are going to believe the words of Jesus when He said:
John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

But this stanza is NOT ABOUT
Proving to you why the Bible is true or why the Bible should be trusted,
Or why the Bible should be your standard.

The Psalmist assumes you already know this.

The problem the Psalmist addressed is
Why so many believers, who would affirm that Scripture is true,
Still fail to read it and through their ignorance of Scripture
Fail to have good discernment.

LISTEN,
• The Bible has never led anyone away from Christ.
• The Bible has never caused anyone to stop believing Satan is real.
• The Bible has never caused anyone to believe in Buddha or Muhammad.
• The Bible has never caused anyone to abandon the church.

The PROBLEM IS NOT what the Bible teaches,
The PROBLEM IS that people don’t know what the Bible teaches.

THE PROBLEM IS THAT
Many false prophets have misrepresented what the Bible teaches.

I’m really excited that in a couple of weeks
We are going to start a new study of 1 John.

John was actually dealing with this very issue.
• John faced deceivers.
• John called them anti-christs.
• John said they had left the church.

Now the difference was that in John’s day
They left they church because they claimed a higher knowledge (Gnosticism).

In a weird way this deconstruction movement
Claims a lesser knowledge as their reason for leaving.
(They can no longer be certain about anything)

But 1 John is all about the obvious truth of Christianity
Which is clearly taught in the Scripture.

And so all throughout the book John uses the same phrase,
“And you know” “And you know” “And you know”

What is he doing?
He is cutting through the nonsense and seeking to call the church back to basic simple Christian truths that they knew.

He was imparting discernment
And he was doing it by calling them back to Scriptural truth.

This is what the church needs.
This is what believers need.

You need a knowledge of God’s word.
You need to know what the Bible says.

(Oddly enough this girl who has left the faith said the beginning of her journey started when she attended Bible college and they taught her about the canonization of the Bible and she finally released her belief in the inerrancy of Scripture)

It’s not a surprise that one who started to believe the Bible isn’t true ended up on Facebook proclaiming to have left Christianity.

THE SCRIPTURE IS IMPORTANT
AND YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT IT SAYS.

BUT THERE IS THE PROBLEM
• People are lazy…
• People are busy…
• People are distracted…
• People are bored…

And for whatever reason it is the tendency of even believers
To fall into ruts in their life where they neglect the Scripture.

They fail to read it…

So they don’t know what is true.
They lose their ability to discern truth from error.
They forget what God says is true.

But all the while “the god of this world” is whispering his doctrines
Into their ears and over time they lose their discernment.

The solution is faithful study of God’s word,
But believers fail to do it.

IF ONLY THERE WAS A TOOL THAT WOULD CAUSE BELIEVERS TO FAITHFULLY STUDY GOD’S WORD…

Welcome to Psalms 119:65-72

• (71) “It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.”

• (65) “You have dealt well with Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word.”

• (67) “Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.”

What we get in this stanza is a song of thanksgiving to God
Because God has seen fit to bring affliction into his life.

If you want to see the current affliction, here it is:
(69-70) “The arrogant have forged a lie against me; With all my heart I will observe Your precepts. Their heart is covered with fat, But I delight in Your law.”

The Psalmist is being lied about.
“The arrogant have forged a lie” about the Psalmist.

That means they took the truth,
And put in the forge and heated it up,
And then they pulled it out and twisted it
And beat it and manipulated it until it was no longer the truth.

And the Psalmist was the victim of their attack.

The Psalmist says “Their heart is covered with fat”
• I heard one preacher refer to them as people with “high cholesterol”
• Arteriole Sclerosis is what we call “A Hardening of the Arteries”

These men have hardened hearts.
These men have thick hearts.
These men have undiscerning hearts.

THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT IS TRUE
But they are happy to spread what is not
And our Psalmist is the victim.

No one likes to be misrepresented
No one likes to be lied about

• We certainly don’t like it if those lies cause us to be treated differently or to reap negative consequences.

But that is where the Psalmist is.
He is being lied about and it hurts.

And yet, the Psalmist says, “It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.”

What does he mean?

The affliction that I have experienced has 1 outcome,
It drives me to God’s word.

And the Psalmist says this is a good thing!

(67) “Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.”

That is why LAST TIME we called this study “Appreciating Affliction”

Namely that a man ought to learn to see his affliction differently.
He ought to be able to see the value in it.

It is that which drives us to God’s word and that is a good thing.

It would be nice if we were faithful and committed without being prompted
But the fact of the matter is, sometimes we are not.

But this affliction drove the Psalmist to God’s word.

Someone has lied about him and caused him grief
So he goes to the One who knows the truth about him
That he might have comfort.

And he found a treasure.
(72) “The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.”

And so at the very least we learn a principle
That affliction can produce in us a love for God’s word
Because affliction is designed by God to drive us to His word.

So that’s a good thing.

BUT TONIGHT we discuss the issue of discernment.

This Psalmist has learned the dangerous effects of lacking discernment.
He has been the victim of fat-hearted people who don’t know the truth.

The Psalmist used that to evaluate his own life and he prayed:
(66) “Teach me good discernment and knowledge, For I believe Your commandments.”

That is an interesting request.
• He doesn’t go to God and say, “Stop their lies”
• He doesn’t go to God and say, “Let the truth come out”

What does he pray?
“Team me good discernment and knowledge”

His first prayer is,
• “God, don’t let me be deceived like them.”
• “Trim the fat from my heart”
• “Give me good discernment”
• “Give me good knowledge”

The Psalmist has seen the reality of deception.
But he does not think himself beyond it.

He doesn’t say, “God I could never be deceived like they are.”

On the contrary, he is well-aware that
He is just as prone to being deceived as the next guy.

SO
• He runs to God.
• He thanks God for the affliction that has driven him to God’s word.
• And he asks God to grant him good discernment.

SO THERE’S THE QUESTION TO THINK ABOUT TONIGHT.

We live in a world that is filled with deception.
Satan is the god of this world and he is the father of lies.

Do you understand that you are susceptible?

• Do you understand that your heart will lie to you?
• Do you understand that the culture will deceive you?
• Do you understand that what looks right and feels right may not be right?

That is the grievous mistake of this woman on Facebook.
• She has abandoned the Scripture and she has abandoned the Church
• And instead she is purely looking inward (and to some curious spirit she attributes to be god)
• And she is judging truth by if it aligns with her inner thoughts.

She is operating on the basis that
She will intuitively recognize truth when she sees it.

Is that what you think?

DO YOU THINK that you can listen to the ramblings of the world and just intuitively know if it’s true or false?

DO YOU THINK that you can fill your head with worldly logic and you’ll just know if it’s right or not?

1. Are you confident that you will spot every demonic doctrine?
2. Are you confident that you will spot every deceitful spirit?

3. Are you sure that no one can slip a “myth” past you?
4. Do you know that “perverse teaching” will be obvious to you when you hear it?

5. You are certain that you will be spot what is only the “commandments of men”?
6. You are certain that you’ll see the difference between truth and “speculations”?

7. There is no concern that you might get deceived by “controversial issues”?
8. There is no concern that “worldly fables” won’t such you in?

9. You are absolutely impervious to “what is falsely called knowledge”?
10. You are immune to “empty philosophy”?

If you think that is the case you are in a world of hurt.

I hate to tell you but your inner fact checker is fallen and flawed.
I hate to tell you but your personal discerner is wrongly calibrated.

AND IT IS PURE ARROGANCE TO ASSUME
That you’ll recognize deception based on some internal intuition.

Isn’t that what the Psalmist said?
(69) “The arrogant have forged a lie”

Tonight I simply want you to think about discernment.

I want you to understand WHY YOU NEED IT
And I want you to understand WHERE TO GET IT.

You must be devoted to God’s word.
You must be devoted to learn God’s statutes.

Paul had the best statement on this.
2 Corinthians 10:5 “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,”

• We hear these “speculations”
• And we take them captive “to the obedience of Christ”

That is to say, we force those speculations through Scripture
And that is how we know if it is true.

And beloved you need this now more than ever.

There are many false prophets in the world.

2 Peter 2:1-3 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

There is a bunch of them and they will be highly successful.
And they will take a lot of people to judgment with them.

You need discernment.

And so we thank God for anything that drives us to the word.
And we thank God for the affliction that drives us to the word.
Because we will not survive without it.

So, are you in the word?
Are you studying it?
• Can you say, “I delight in Your law”?
• Can you say, “The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces?”

YOU NEED THAT.
If for no other reason than to save you from being deceived.

“Teach me good discernment and knowledge, for I believe in Your commandments.”

Download Here:

The Conclusion
Ecclesiastes 12:9-14
November 21, 2021

This morning we come to the end of the book of Ecclesiastes.
• Last week we actually looked at the end of the sermon.
• This morning it is the end of the book.

As we said from the beginning Ecclesiastes has an author.
It is a man who heard the sermon of the preacher
And was so moved by it that he was compelled to publish what he heard.

• THE PREACHER, we said, was an older man who had a message for the young man, all about life and wisdom and what to pursue.
• THE AUTHOR heard that message, published it, and is now giving it to his son.

You see the reference to “my son” in verse 12.

So here’s the best way I could explain to you what we see in this text.

• The author heard this sermon (or sermons) from the Preacher.
• The author was moved by it and wrote this book called “Ecclesiastes”
• It is a book recounting the sermon (or perhaps sermons) of the preacher.

And then, (figuratively) tucked inside the back flap of the book
It’s as though the author LEFT A NOTE to his son.

The note explains why the author wanted his son to read this book.
The note explains what the author hoped his son would learn.

It is a perfect way to bring this wonderful book to a fitting conclusion.

WHAT WE READ HERE IS VERY MOVING.
You sense the heart-felt passion of a father
Who desperately wants his son to hear this powerful message.

It is fatherly, it is sincere, and it is incredibly serious.

IN MY MIND, it would be the kind of note
• A father would write to his son
• As he hands him a Bible
• And sends him off to college.

The message has inspired the father.
The preacher has hit the nail on the head.
And the father now is giving it as the finest of gifts to his son.

There is such a weight of emotion here.

But it could almost move a man to tears
As he seeks to express how huge this advice as been.

LAST WEEK DURING THE SERMON we had a few “young men” in the room who were having difficulty paying attention.
• I talked to them about it
• And before we’re too hard on them, we’ve all been there.

But IT GRIEVED ME because I felt the same burden this father has felt.
Of all the messages he wanted his son to hear, this is the one.

So THIS MORNING we’re going to look at this final text.

Certainly there is value for each of us in it,
But I’ll go ahead and make the appeal even stronger
To the young men and women who are here.

WHEN YOU LOOK AROUND THIS CHURCH
• You see friends and relatives.
• You probably see a lot of old people whom you’ve known your whole life.

What you may or may not realize is that from the time you were born
The “old people” in this church have had 1 desire for you.

• Yes they’ve rooted for you at your sporting events
• Yes they’ve followed your school accomplishments
• Yes they’ve commented on how you’ve grown and told you how handsome or pretty you are

BUT ALL OF THAT IS SECONDARY TO THEM.

SINCE THE TIME YOU WERE BORN,
• They’ve prayed for you,
• They’ve sought to welcome you,
• They’ve encouraged you,
• They’ve given money for a youth fund and for you to go to camp.

And it was all for 1 desire they have for you.
ONLY 1

THEY HAVE LONGED FOR THE DAY THAT YOU
• Would recognize your sin,
• Understand the judgment that comes as a result,
• See your need for Jesus,
• Trust in Jesus for salvation,
• Come make a public confession of Him through baptism,
• And then begin to live your life for Him.

Every other desire for you pales in comparison to that desire.

And I can promise you, as we study this text this morning,
And you hear this father speak to his son about what really matters,

There is a part of them that is going to be on pins and needles
And a part of them that is going to be in earnest prayer,
Just hoping that today you get the message.

That’s what we get in this text to conclude the book of Ecclesiastes.

So let’s examine these final 6 verses.
Let’s read this “Note” from the father to his son
Regarding this sermon he has heard.

We’ll break this text up into 3 points that this father has for his son.
#1 HIS COMMENDATION
Ecclesiastes 12:9-10

You will immediately notice that “the Preacher”
Is now being referred to in the 3rd person.

This isn’t “the Preacher” talking here, now this is the author.

And the note begins on somewhat of a light-hearted tone
With the author basically commending this Preacher to his son.

It’s as if to say, “Son, you really ought to listen to what this Preacher has to say.”
Or, “This guy knows what he’s talking about.”

He begins to sort of give the credentials of this preacher
That he is recommending to his son.

And the point is simple.
You should listen to this guy because he is telling you the truth.

Now, it is apparently understood that this preacher is “a wise man”

But the author wants his son to know that this guy
IS NOT just some “random philosopher” with a unique spin on life.

This preacher is a devoted, studying, seeking, proclaimer of truth.
He’s more than just “a wise man”

BUT “In addition to being a wise man, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered, searched out and arranged many proverbs.”

This guy is no shallow scholar.

Son, listen to this man, he knows what he’s talking about.
• He teaches “knowledge”
• He “pondered”
• He “searched out”
• He “arranged many proverbs”

HE’S NOT the kind of guy
That speaks without knowing what he’s talking about.

• He’s done the work, he’s done the research.
• He’s wrestled in prayer.
• He’s meditated all night.
• He has found the truth.

There is an article about forging a man of God that I have always enjoyed and at the same time been highly convicted by.

It describes the type of man that the author is describing here.

It’s called “Forging A Man of God”

Fling him into his office. Tear the “office” sign from the door and nail on the sign, “Study.” Take him off the mailing list. Lock him up with his books and his typewriter and his Bible. Slam him down on his knees before texts and broken hearts and the flock of lives of a superficial flock and a holy God.
Force him to be the one man in our surfeited communities who knows about God. Throw him into the ring to box with God until he learns how short his arms are. Engage him to wrestle with God all the night through. And let him come out only when he’s bruised and beaten into a blessing.
Shut his mouth forever spouting remarks, and stop his tongue tripping lightly over every nonessential. Require him to have something to say before he dares break the silence. Bend his knees in lonesome valley.
Burn his eyes with weary study. Wreck his emotional poise with worry for God. And make him exchange his pious stance for a humble walk with God and man. Make him spend and be spent for the glory of God. Rip out his telephone. Burn up his ecclesiastical success sheets.
Put water in his gas tank. Give him a Bible and tie him to the pulpit. And make him preach the Word of the living God!
Test him. Quiz him. Examine him. Humiliate him for his ignorance of things divine. Shame him for his good comprehension of finances, batting averages, and political infighting. Laugh at his frustrated effort to play psychiatrist. Form a choir and raise a chant and haunt him with it night and day – “Sir, we would see Jesus.”
When at long last he dares assay the pulpit, ask him if he has a word from God. If he does not, then dismiss him. Tell him you can read the morning paper and digest the television commentaries, and think through the day’s superficial problems, and manage the community’s weary drives, and bless the sordid baked potatoes and green beans, ad infinitum, better than he can.
Command him not to come back until he’s read and reread, written and rewritten, until he can stand up, worn and forlorn, and say, “Thus saith the Lord.”
Break him across the board of his ill-gotten popularity. Smack him hard with his own prestige. Corner him with questions about God. Cover him with demands for celestial wisdom. And give him no escape until his back’s against the wall of the Word.
And sit down before him and listen to the only word he has left – God’s Word. Let him be totally ignorant of the down-street gossip, but give him a chapter and order him to walk around it, camp on it, sup with it, and come at last to speak it backward and forward, until all he says about it rings with the truth of eternity.
And when he’s burned out by the flaming Word, when he’s consumed at last by the fiery grace blazing through him, and when he’s privileged to translate the truth of God to man, finally transferred from earth to heaven, then bear him away gently and blow a muted trumpet and lay him down softly. Place a two-edged sword in his coffin, and raise the tomb triumphant. For he was a brave soldier of the Word. And ere he died, he had become a man of God.
(John MacArthur, Preaching: How to Preach Biblically, [Nashville, TN.: Nelson Reference & Electronic, 2005] pg. 285-286)

The author is saying to his son that this preacher is that kind of guy.

Son, you should listen to what this Preacher has to say
Because he is giving you the very words of God.

He has studied and wrestled and prayed and begged
And meditated and suffered to know this truth.

THIS IS TRUTH!

(10) “The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly.”

THAT IS ALL HE WANTED.

Paul told Timothy:
1 Timothy 4:13-15 “Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching. Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. 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.”

2 Timothy 4:2 “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

2 Timothy 4:5 “But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

As the father gives this recorded sermon to his son,
He opens with a commendation that the son should listen to this sermon
Because this preacher knows what he is talking about.

#2 HIS COUNSEL
Ecclesiastes 12:11-12

THE AUTHOR CONTINUES WITH
Why the son should listen so intently to this Preacher.

The author says:
(11) “The words of a wise man are like goads…”

A “goad” is a stick with a sharp point on it used to drive livestock along the road.

Ever hear the statement,
“They where goading him along” or “Stop goading me”

IT MEANT “Stop poking me with that sharp stick”

Remember before the apostle Paul was saved,
The Lord commented on his stubbornness and said:
Acts 26:14 “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’”

Why do you fight the prompting of God?

So a goad is that which is meant to stimulate you
To do what you are supposed to do.

And the author says “The words of a wise man are like goads…”

• The words of this Preacher are the types of words that are going to push you to be the man you are supposed to be.
• The words of this Preacher are the words that will push you down the path you are supposed to walk.

ALL FAITHFUL PREACHERS CARRY A GOAD INTO THE PULPIT

WE KNOW THAT we are born in sin.
WE KNOW THAT foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.
WE KNOW THAT a father’s job is to extract foolishness and to instill.

You can’t leave a child to their own logic or devices.
They’ll wreck their life if you let them choose their own path.

Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

And the truth is that sometimes that young man or woman
Has to be goaded into the right path.

This father wants his son to recognize the goad of the preacher.

This is even the work of the church.
Hebrews 10:24 “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,”

• If you read the NIV it says, “to spur one another on”
• Like a goad.

THE AUTHOR HERE TELLS HIS SON THAT
This man has the wisdom that will drive him down the correct path.

He goes on to say:
“and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails;”

“collections” there is a confusing word translation.

It is a word that can mean “congregations”
It can even be a sort of figurative reference then to like “a heard or a flock”.

And that’s the idea in this verse.

When he says “masters”,
• He’s talking about those who are “masters” at “using the goad.”
• He’s talking about those who are “masters” at “directing the heard.”

When you have a wise man who is really good at using the goad
And pushing the herd down the right path
You’ve got the kind of guy you should listen to.

The Preacher was that kind of a guy.

The author said he is like “well-driven nails”

What does that mean?
What he builds lasts.
• His wisdom is tried and true.
• His wisdom is time-tested.

“Listen to this guy, he’ll goad you down the right path.
And the wisdom he gives you will last.”

But that’s not all.
“they are given by one Shepherd.”

• We have a guy here who is really good at using his goad to drive the flock
where they need to go.
• He puts them where they need to be and his direction lasts.

BUT THERE IS A REASON.
IT’S NOT because this particular Preacher is so smart or so astute.

Why is this Preacher so good at pushing you down the right path?
Because he got all of his instruction from the true “Shepherd”.

The “Shepherd” referred to here is none other than God.

AND THAT IS THE POINT OF THE AUTHOR TO HIS SON.

Son, listen, you need to pay attention to this Preacher.
• He’s a hard working, hard-studying wise man.
• He has done the work to bring you wisdom.
• He will drive you down the right path.
• And His counsel will last.

Because the wisdom and counsel he is imparting to you has come to him from God.
• His wisdom is NOT a secular wisdom.
• His wisdom is NOT even primarily an experiential wisdom.
• His wisdom IS supernatural wisdom.
• His wisdom IS divine wisdom.

We don’t have time to go read the whole chapter,
But you can write Job 28 in your margin.

It is the chapter where Job talks about mining for gold and other precious treasures.
And Job basically says if you want gold or silver or diamonds then man knows where it is and how to get it; you have to go dig for it.

But then Job asks the question, but where do you get wisdom?
• Can you dig for it?
• Where do you find it?

Job 28:20-28 “Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? “Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living And concealed from the birds of the sky. “Abaddon and Death say, ‘With our ears we have heard a report of it.’ “God understands its way, And He knows its place. “For He looks to the ends of the earth And sees everything under the heavens. “When He imparted weight to the wind And meted out the waters by measure, When He set a limit for the rain And a course for the thunderbolt, Then He saw it and declared it; He established it and also searched it out. “And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding.’”

Wisdom only comes from God.

And the author here is telling his son,
You need to listen to this Preacher
Because he is imparting to you wisdom from God.

And I love what he says next:
(12) “But beyond this, my son, be warned…”

• There is a wisdom you need to hear and that is God’s wisdom.
• You should devote yourself to knowing that.
• But “beyond this” be careful.

God’s wisdom is necessary, but anything “beyond” God’s wisdom
Should be examined very carefully.

For while God has true wisdom that must be heeded
There is a whole lot of false wisdom that should be avoided.

And that is what he means here:
“But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.”

NO, this isn’t some lament against reading.

It is a warning that there is NO END to “knowledge”
And “wisdom” that the world will throw at you.

The world will never quit writing books that tell you how to live.

We’ve read the passage a lot lately about what Paul preached when he was in Athens.
• Have you ever paid attention to what kind of people his audience was?
• Paul showed up in Athens because he was on the run.
• He went into the Areopagus and started preaching.

But this is how that crowd was described.
Acts 17:21 “(Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)”

Translation?
• There was no truth there.
• They never settled on anything.
• They just kept questioning and kept debating.

Listen there are a lot of highly educated people in this world
And they know a lot about a lot of things.

And NOT ALL of their knowledge is useless.
A man doesn’t have to be a Christian
To know how to build a bridge or remove an appendix.

BUT I WOULD REMIND YOU OF THIS.
If a man or woman does not believe in Jesus
Then regardless of what else they know
They are deceived at the very most important level.

So be very careful reading their books
And taking what they say to be true in every regard.

Some of it may be truth, but I promise you that some of it is not.

And if you devote yourself to learning from the world,
It will end up in terrible harm.

I’m telling you I can’t think of a better verse or better advice
To give a graduating senior as they plan to head off to college.

Don’t believe everything they tell you.
There is God’s wisdom and then there is everything else.
Saturate yourself with God’s wisdom and be very skeptical of everything else.

Paul summed up the difference:
1 Corinthians 2:7-8 “but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;”

You want the true value of the world’s wisdom?

The world is so smart and so educated and so knowledgeable
That they couldn’t even figure out why Jesus is so important.

THAT IS NOT WISDOM, THAT IS FOOLISHNESS.

1 Corinthians 3:19-20 “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS”; and again, “THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS.”

LET ME ASK THE ADULTS IN HERE.

When you send a kid off to college, do you ever have any reservations regarding just what they might get taught?

ABSOLUTELY!

We know how it works, the universities are a lion’s den.
• They’ll teach your kids about critical race theory…
• They’ll teach your kids about socialism…
• They’ll teach your kids about sexual orientation and gender neutrality…
• They’ll teach your kids about abortion and hyper-feminism…
• They’ll seek to rewrite the moral code you tried to instill in your kids.

• And they’ll teach them all that while immersing them in a secular and immoral environment.

If you have no concerns about sending your kid off to college
Then you aren’t paying attention.

THIS AUTHOR FEELS THAT CONCERN.

He heard this sermon and it resonated

And he wrote it down for his son and said, “Son, there’s a lot of information that’s going to be thrown at you which is called “truth” and it won’t be. If you want truth, listen to this Preacher. He is bringing you the truth of God and it will send you down the right path.”

Can you feel that plea from this father?
Can you hear the desperation he has?

We haven’t even gotten to the message yet.
I just want you to see how badly this father wants his son to listen.

SO YOUNG MAN LISTEN UP

His Commendation, His Counsel
#3 HIS CONCLUSION
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

In your life you’ll learn a great many things.
In your life you’ll process great amounts of information.

But if you can start to filter through it all
And start to rank it in order of importance,
Here is the truth that you should put at the top of your list.

We’ll call it the “absolute most important thing” you could ever know.

This is “The conclusion, when all has been heard:”

“Fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”

If you learn nothing else, learn that.
GOD (the Creator of the universe, the Sovereign over all)
GOD IS A RIGHTEOUS JUDGE

He will judge every single person.
• “this applies to every person”
He will judge every single deed.
• “everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil”

GOD KNOWS YOU.
• You have not escaped His radar.
• He meticulously and purposely created you.
• And He had kept extensive records on your entire life.

That thing you did that no one knows about.
You thought you were alone and no one was watching
God knows about it.

And in the great courtroom He will bring it light.
There is nothing hidden that God doesn’t know.

You may have your momma fooled (doubtful)
You may have your grandma fooled (probable)
But you don’t have God fooled.
HE KNOWS.

And because He will judge every single thing
The author tells his son the best advice he could possibly give.

“Fear God and keep His commandments”

Son, nothing is more important in this life
Than that you have such a fear of God
That you are motivated to obey Him at all times.

Do you feel the Father’s plea?
• Son, please don’t offend God!
• Son, please honor God!

This is a father who loves his son and does not want to bear the thought of his son bearing the wrath of God’s holy judgment.
• “Just do what He says!”
• “Obey Him!”

That’s the plea of this father.

Now, this plea is absolutely true and is absolutely the most important.

BUT, IT IS INCOMPLETE.
• This father lived on the other side of redemption.
• This father lived before Jesus came to earth and before Jesus died on the cross.

His message is 100% accurate, but it is incomplete.
• Jesus finished this message.
• Jesus completed this father’s point to his son.

We remember:
Matthew 16:27 “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”

John 5:22-29 “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”

We’ve read it many times:
Acts 17:31 “because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

And of course we are all aware:
Revelation 20:11-15 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Jesus Himself preached that judgment is coming.

But Jesus also offered a way through the judgment
And that was by believing in Him.

John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

AND THIS IS IT YOUNG MAN.
• I want nothing else for you.
• This father wanted nothing else for his son.
• This congregation wants nothing else for you.

We want you to know that God is not joking around.
JUDGMENT IS REAL.

There is a real lake of fire and people will really go there for all eternity.

The only people who escape it
Are those who turn from their sin and trust in Jesus Christ.
It is only for the people who confess Jesus as Lord.

There is not a more important piece of information
That you will ever hear than that.

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

That is it.
That is “The conclusion, when all has been heard”

When this father heard this sermon by the Preacher
He heard what he wanted his son to hear before he went into the world.

And this morning we conclude the study of this wonderful book
By bringing it to you.

AND THIS MORNING I AM ASKING YOU
To turn from your sin and to confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

I am asking you
• To believe that Jesus’ righteousness if enough to satisfy the Father.
• To believe that Jesus’ death is enough to satisfy the Father.
• To give your life to Him.
• Then to publicly confess Him.

Nothing matters to me or this church more than that.

And when you trust in Jesus the Bible says that
• Your sin will be imputed to Christ and He will have paid the penalty for that you have done – FORGIVENESS

• And not only that, but His righteousness will be imputed to you and you will instantly be made acceptable to God – JUSTIFICATION

• He will place His Spirit within you to set you free from the sin that has plagued your life – SANCTIFICATION

• And one day He will take you home to heaven to be with Him – GLORIFICATION

2 Corinthians 5:20-21 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”