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For Future Generations – Part 2
Psalms 78 (40-72)
August 2, 2020

Well tonight we return to the 78th Psalm.

• I hate that it fell like this, it’s been 3 weeks since we last looked at this Psalm.
• I’ve preached 5 other sermons in between.
• You’re really not supposed to break it up like that.

So allow me a moment to bring our hearts and minds
Back to the point of this great Psalm.

We called this Psalm “For Future Generations”
Because it is a Psalm in which Asaph vows to preserve and share
The history of his nation with the next generation.

And as we noted, he’s NOT JUST GOING TO TELL THE GOOD STORIES.
(1-3) “Listen, O my people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.”

Asaph is going to tell it all, even the “dark sayings of old”;
Even the embarrassing stories of their history.

We noted that last time.
• In a day where we even see a movement to erase history, we note the danger in that.
• It’s not that we think our history is solely glorious and good.
• We are well aware that even our history is filled with mistakes and blemishes and bruises.
• Yet, by remember it, we learn from our mistakes.

It is a similar motivation which drives Asaph
To pass along Israel’s history to the next generation.

(4) “We will not conceal them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.”

But not only that.
Asaph also realizes that he is to pass it on because GOD COMMANDED ISRAEL TO DO THIS.

(5-6) “For He established a testimony in Jacob And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers That they should teach them to their children, That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children,”

We read Deuteronomy 6 where the “Shema” is recorded and Israel is commanded to diligently teach the commands of God to their children.

Asaph is certainly honoring that command here.

And ultimately the purpose of the Psalm is revealed.
Asaph gives you his heart’s desire in writing here.

(7-8) “That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments, And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart And whose spirit was not faithful to God.”

Asaph wants the next generation to do better than the last generation.
• They rebelled, you trust.
• They were not faithful, you be faithful.
• The disobeyed, you obey.
• Learn from the mistakes of your fathers.

As we also said, it is a mistake
For us to only assume that this is a Jewish warning.

Paul wrote to the Gentile church in Corinth all about the failures of Israel.
And he said:
1 Corinthians 10:6-11 “Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

Paul even told Gentile believers that this history was for them
That they too would learn from it.

And since God never changes,
History is a great source for us to learn the truth about God.

That is what Asaph is doing.

We broke this Psalm down into 6 main points
That Asaph would teach the next generation.

6 main truths he wants them to remember and learn from.
(We saw the first 3 last time)

#1 THE UNWARRANTED REBELLION OF EPHRAIM
Psalms 78:9-16

Ephraim of course represents Israel.
And analogy was given here about them turning back in the day of battle.
That is to say, they blew it when it mattered most.

Every time they were given the chance to shine out for God, they blew it.

(10-11) “They did not keep the covenant of God And refused to walk in His law; They forgot His deeds And His miracles that He had shown them.”

And Asaph even chronicled some of those miracles they forgot.
• Things like parting the Red Sea.
• Things like a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
• Things like God bringing water from a rock

But despite God’s faithful deliverance and provision
They still rebelled and refused to obey God.

The first point Asaph would make is that their rebellion was unwarranted.
It was unjustified.
It could not be explained.

God did not deserve their rebellion.
So it is true of all rebellion, God deserves your obedience, not your disobedience.

The Unwarranted Rebellion of Ephraim
#2 THE UNTOLERATED GRUMBLING OF ISRAEL
Psalms 78:17-33

Here Asaph focused on the grumbling of Israel in their desire for meat.
• God had given water from a rock
• They chose to put Him to the test by daring Him to produce meat.

Asaph reminded that God honored their request
And then judged them for it.

(29-31) “So they ate and were well filled, And their desire He gave to them. Before they had satisfied their desire, While their food was in their mouths, The anger of God rose against them And killed some of their stoutest ones, And subdued the choice men of Israel.”

The clear point was that God doesn’t tolerate grumbling.

Romans 1 clearly teaches that ingratitude brings the wrath of God.
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.”

Asaph wanted the next generation to learn this lesson.

#3 THE UNEQUALLED LOYALTY OF GOD
Psalms 78:34-39

This section almost reads as an interlude.

It just takes a summation type approach to reveal that while the history of Israel is one of
• Rebellion
• Disobedience
• Grumbling
• Hypocrisy

The history of God is that of a long-suffering and merciful Savior.

They weren’t faithful to God, but God was always faithful to them.

(38-39) “But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; And often He restrained His anger And did not arouse all His wrath. Thus He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes and does not return.”

It actually reads to us much like the infamous 103rd Psalm.
Psalms 103:7-14 “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.”

And so the point thus far is that
Israel has a Savior they do not deserve.

They are the worst people and He is the best God.

None of their rebellion makes sense.
It is a good thing for them that God has been so faithful.

It would be nice if their rebellion was over,
But another part of their embarrassing past is that they just kept rebelling.

The Unwarranted Rebellion of Ephraim The Untolerated Grumbling of Israel
The Unequaled Loyalty of God
#4 THE UNDESERVED RESPONSE TO SALVATION
Psalms 78:40-53

Asaph just outlined in one of the most beautiful sections of Scripture in all the Bible what a great and loyal and merciful Savior God is.

• He saves people who do not deserve it.
• His salvation is not about merit, it is always totally about grace.
• He saves sinners.

Well, you’d expect that when a sinner gets saved
Then they’d respond accordingly, with loyalty and gratitude and worship.

BUT THAT’S NOT AT ALL HOW ISRAEL RESPONDED.

(40-42) “How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness And grieved Him in the desert! Again and again they tempted God, And pained the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His power, The day when He redeemed them from the adversary,”

There are some words that really just jump out at us there.
• (40) – “rebelled”
• (40) – “grieved”
• (41) – “tempted”
• (41) – “pained”

They are words that are just wrong.
• When someone saves you, you don’t rebel against them.
• When someone delivers you, you don’t grieve them.
• When someone helps you, you don’t tempt them.
• When someone redeems you, you don’t pain them.

But that is what Israel did.

And Asaph says
• “How often” they did this.
• In verse 41 he says, “Again and again” they did this.

And time would fail us if we tried to read ever account of this,
But I can give you a pretty quick summary.

Asaph already alluded to
• The grumbling that took place on the banks of the Red Sea before God delivered.
• He didn’t even mention the golden calf incident.
• He did mention the grumbling for meat.

But what about all he hasn’t covered?
• We could turn to Numbers 12 and read how Miriam and Aaron rose up against Moses who was God’s appointed leader.
• We could turn to Numbers 13&14 read about how they refused to enter the Promised Land.
• We could turn to Numbers 16 and read about how Korah rose up against Moses and then the people followed suit.
• We could turn to Numbers 20 and read about Meribah where the people again grumbled for water.
• We could turn to Numbers 21 and read about another account of grumbling for which God gave serpents to bite them and ultimately the bronze serpent.
• We could turn to Numbers 25 and read how Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor by taking for themselves the Moabite women.

It really is just story after story after story of rebellion.
• These people who had a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
• These people who ate manna every morning.
• These people who had a stream from a rock following them.
• These people whose shoes never wore out.
• These people who had the very presence of God in their camp.

And all it seems they want to do is drive Him away.

It is clear that they had totally forgotten their salvation from Egypt,
Which is what Asaph chronicles next.

(READ 43-53)

Do you remember that story?
• All of those plagues…
• All of those demonstrations of power…
• All of those times God singled out His people for salvation…

And the summary is that God faithfully shepherded His people.
(52-53) “But He led forth His own people like sheep And guided them in the wilderness like a flock; He led them safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea engulfed their enemies.”

God was such a good and saving shepherd.
• They should have all be singing Psalms 23
• But instead they rebelled and grieved and tempted and pained God.

What we talk about here is the sin of forgetting salvation.
IT IS A GRIEVOUS ERROR FOR A PERSON TO MAKE.

God actually went to great lengths in Israel to make sure they did not forget His salvation.

Every year on the 14th day of the 1st month do you know what Israel was to do?
• Celebrate the Passover.
• They were to remember how God delivered them from Egypt.

Every year on the 15th day of the 7th month do you know what Israel was to do?
• Celebrate the Feast of Booths
• They were to live in booths to remember how God shepherded them through
the wilderness.

They were simply supposed to remember all that God had done on their behalf.
They were to remember their salvation.

Other events also come to mind.
Joshua 4:1-7 “Now when all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua, saying, “Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, and command them, saying, ‘Take up for yourselves twelve stones from here out of the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests’ feet are standing firm, and carry them over with you and lay them down in the lodging place where you will lodge tonight.'” So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; and Joshua said to them, “Cross again to the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel. “Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.”

It was a reminder of the deliverance of God
And that He gave them the Promised Land.

The point is that Israel was supposed to remember salvation.
Israel was supposed to remember deliverance.

Incidentally, aren’t we supposed to do that too?
Luke 22:17-22 “And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood. “But behold, the hand of the one betraying Me is with Mine on the table. “For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!”

This is why we take the Lord’s Supper.
• We remember the salvation of Jesus.

This is why we proclaim the gospel weekly both in song and in preaching.
• We remember the salvation of Jesus.

• We fix our minds on what we were and what He did.
• We fix our minds on our deserved fate and our now deliverance.
• We fix our minds on forgiveness through the atonement of Christ.

And what is that to produce in us?
Gratitude, Worship, Obedience.

We remember and we are again pushed to worship.

ISRAEL DIDN’T DO THIS.
• It is like they forgot their salvation.
• It is like they forgot what danger they used to be in.
• It is like they forgot the mud pits of Egypt.
• It is like they forgot the stealing and murdering of their babies.

• It is like they forgot how God avenged them.
• It is like they forgot how God freed them.
• It is like they forgot how God shepherded them.

AND THAT WAS AN UNDESERVED RESPONSE.
You will never repay God for all that He has done for you.
You will never repay Christ for all that He has done for you.

But the desire to do so should certainly be there.
Their out to be a desire to honor Him
And worship Him and obey Him and serve Him.

We sing:
“Were the whole realm of nature mine; that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Israel forgot.
It was an undeserved response.

#5 THE UNSURPRISING DEPARTURE OF GOD
Psalms 78:54-64

Now we’ve moved even further into Israel’s history.

(54-55) “So He brought them to His holy land, To this hill country which His right hand had gained. He also drove out the nations before them And apportioned them for an inheritance by measurement, And made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.”

And so if we’re keeping score.
• This is a people He saved despite their complaining.
• This is a people He provided for despite their complaining.
• This is a people He guided despite their rebellion.

And now, even though they have done nothing but pain Him for 40 years
GOD IS STILL GIVING THEM THIS LAND.

He brings them in.
• It is His land.
• He drove out the nations before them.
• He apportioned out the land for them.

And we think of all those famous stories of the conquest.
• Crossing the Jordan
• Conquering Jericho
• The sun standing still

All of those miraculous events where God gave them the land.

HE HAS BEEN GRACIOUS YET AGAIN.

(56-58) “YET they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God And did not keep His testimonies, But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; They turned aside like a treacherous bow. For they provoked Him with their high places And aroused His jealousy with their graven images.”

It’s the same old story.
• Regardless of the faithfulness of God, these people were unfaithful.
• They rebelled against God.
• They gave His glory to graven images.

And God was once again angry.
(READ 59-64)

Do you remember that story?=
GOD DEPARTED.
TURN TO: 1 Samuel 4:1-22

The Psalmist says in verse 61 that God “gave up His strength to captivity And His glory into the hand of the adversary.”

That is not a reference to the Babylonian captivity.
That is when God gave up His glory to captivity.

God reached such a point of frustration with Israel
That He chose rather to live amongst pagan idolaters than them.

God had enough of them and departed.

Years later as Jeremiah warned Jerusalem that what God had done before He was ready to do again, he referenced that story.

Jeremiah 7:8-15 “Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ — that you may do all these abominations? “Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the LORD. “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. “And now, because you have done all these things,” declares the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you did not answer, therefore, I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. “I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim.”

God was so frustrated with His people
That He determined to allow His glory to be kidnapped and leave Israel.

It is yet another blemish in the history of Israel that Asaph passes along.

IT IS THE UNSURPRISING DEPARTURE OF GOD
Based upon the continual rebellion of His people.

And these are the history lessons that Asaph wants to teach you.
• The Unwarranted Rebellion of Ephraim – God does not deserve your rebellion.
• The Untolerated Grumbling of Israel – God expects gratitude
• The Unequaled Loyalty of God – you don’t realize how good you have it
• The Undeserved Response to Salvation – should have been worship not grief.
• The Unsurprising Departure of God – The presence of God is a gift

And at this point in the Psalm, it is dark.
• God has saved, but He has been terribly offended.
• God has delivered, but He has been grieved.
• God has provided, but He has been angered.
• God has been faithful, but He has been denied.

And by the time we get to verse 64,
God has departed in what must have been
A REAL LOW POINT IN ISRAEL’S HISTORY.

And yet, we see again the remarkable faithfulness of God.
#6 THE UNMERITED APPOINTMENT OF A SHEPHERD
Psalms 78:65-72

• Despite the rebellion
• Despite the anger
• Despite the offense
God once again arose to the defense of His people.

(65-66) “Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep, Like a warrior overcome by wine. He drove His adversaries backward; He put on them an everlasting reproach.”

• Those Philistines stole the ark and the glory of God, but God hardly gave them a pass for it.
• God smote them and smote them until they finally put the ark of God on a cart and sent it away.
• Not only that, but God raised up a king to deliver His people from the Philistines.
• First it was Saul, but his personal rebellion called for his removal.

And then the infamous story of a shepherd boy
Who stood before a giant and took his head from him.
God raised up a new shepherd.

(67-72) “He also rejected the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has founded forever. He also chose David His servant And took him from the sheepfolds; From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them with his skillful hands.”

God raised up David.
And God put him in charge of his people to shepherd them.

And we are again blown away at the long-suffering and patience of God.
GOD CONTINUES TO CARE FOR HIS PEOPLE.

Now of course we know that if Psalms 78 were to continue:
• The idolatry of Solomon
• The rebellion of the period of the Kings
• Jeroboam son of Nebat
• Ahab & Jezebel
• Manasseh

It would include the ignoring of the prophets
• Like Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.

It would include the exile into Babylon and the presence of God again leaving.

But then we’d speak of God’s favor to bring Israel back to their land.
• We’d talk of Ezra and Nehemiah
• We’d talk of Haggai and Zerubbabel
• And we’d again marvel at God’s faithfulness to a wicked people.

We’d see that God would again grant them a shepherd;
• “The Good Shepherd” to save them,

But they would reject and kill Him.

But we’d have a promise that when they repent and return He will save them.

The point to be seen is simple when you zoom out
And see the history of Israel.
It is a simple message that we can all grasp.

1) Man is undeniably wicked – every chance they get for sin, they take it.
2) Man desperately needs a Savior – otherwise all they’ll ever get is judgment.
3) God alone is that Savior – no one else ever came to their rescue
4) God’s appointed Savior is the descendant of David – Jesus Christ

It is the simple message of the history of Israel.
It is the gospel message that has been preached for generations.

It is the message that Asaph wanted to make sure you passed down to your children.
It is the message Paul said we should learn from as an example.

• If you can read the history of Israel…
• Or even the history of America…
• Or even the history of the church…

And come away with any other belief than
The fact that man is terribly sinful and in need of a savior,
Then you just aren’t paying attention.

God announced it at the very beginning.
Genesis 6:5 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

And nothing has changed.

The history of man is indeed a dark history.
• It is a story of continual rebellion
• It is a story of a terrible lack of gratitude
• It is a story of idolatry
• It is a story of disobedience

But it is also a story of a faithful God,
Whose mercy is new every morning,
Who all day long offers mercy to sinful men.

When we zoom out and see that it should bring about a definite response.
Repentance for our rebellion.
Worship for God’s grace.

That is the undeniable message of history.
It is the job of each of us to pass that history on.

It may make us look bad, but it makes God look good,
and that is the goal.

Psalms 78:1-4 “Listen, O my people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. We will not conceal them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.”

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No Time For Hypotheticals
Luke 20:27-40
August 2, 2020

I know it’s been now 3 weeks since we were in Luke’s gospel together. I trust that Bro. Mike was a blessing to you the last 2 Sundays, I know he is always a blessing to me.

I hope you appreciate his willingness to always step in
And lead in worship when I am away.

This morning we jump back into Luke’s gospel
And I trust you remember where we are in the journey of Jesus’ life.

We have said we are in a segment of Jesus’ life where He is: SECURING A CRUCIFIXION.

Jesus had again reiterated this truth to the disciples:
Luke 18:31-34 “Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. “For He will be handed over to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon, and after they have scourged Him, they will kill Him; and the third day He will rise again.” But the disciples understood none of these things, and the meaning of this statement was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend the things that were said.”

Jesus came to save sinners through His own sacrificial death.
• Isaiah said it had to happen.
• David said how it had to happen.
• Daniel said when it had to happen.

That time is here and Jesus has entered Jerusalem to see that it happens.

We saw Him purposely fulfill that Messianic prophesy
• By getting on that donkey’s colt and entering Jerusalem
• Amid shouts of Hosanna and the singing of Psalms 118.

That certainly put the Pharisees on edge.
Luke 19:39 “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”

We then saw Him turn and rebuke the entire crowd
• That was following Him and proclaiming peace.

Luke 19:42 “saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.”

He then entered the temple and wrecked that place
• Setting off the chief priests and the scribes..

Luke 19:45-47 “Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling, saying to them, “It is written, ‘AND MY HOUSE SHALL BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER,’ but you have made it a ROBBERS’DEN.” And He was teaching daily in the temple; but the chief priests and the scribes and the leading men among the people were trying to destroy Him,”

And now it is Wednesday and He has returned to the temple
• And really sort of laid claim to it as His own.

He has set up shop and Luke says, He was preaching the gospel.

Luke 20:1 “On one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders confronted Him,”

AND WE’VE SEEN HIM DOING IT.

When the chief priests and the scribes confronted Him to ask what authority He had; “Who do You think You are?”

• We remember that He brought back to their mind the baptism of John.
• That baptism which was for repentance.
• That baptism which they had rejected.

They questioned Jesus and He immediately brought up their refusal to repent.

Then He gave a parable about ruthless vine-growers who produced no fruit and ultimately killed the vineyard owner’s son.

He warned them saying:
Luke 20:17-18 “But Jesus looked at them and said, “What then is this that is written: ‘THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone’? “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.”

• He warned them of the certain judgment for rejecting the Savior.
• And you’ll remember that the scribes and the chief priests knew He was talking
about them.

They then tried to trick Him by flattering Him and asking Him whether they should pay taxes, and He answered, but if you’ll remember He hit them again with the gospel.

Luke 20:25 “And He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

• He still slid in there that reminder that they have a balance due before God.

SO IT HASN’T MATTERED WHAT THEY ASKED.
Every time they confront Him He manages to remind them of
Their debt before God, their refusal to repent,
Or their rejection of the Savior.

And you should know that Jesus never stops doing this.
• Even after His arrest
• Even after all of His bogus trials
• Even after Pilate sentences Him to be crucified
• Even on the way to die

Luke 23:27-31 “And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him. But Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. “For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘ Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ “Then they will begin TO SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, ‘FALL ON US,’ AND TO THE HILLS, ‘COVER US.’ “For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

JESUS NEVER STOPS PREACHING.
And to this hardened crowd the message is always the judgment of God.

That is the first leg of the true gospel message.
• Certainly the full gospel message includes the person and work of Jesus,
• But people aren’t ready to hear that message until they first realize how badly they need Him.

Jesus is pulling no punches here,
And this next confrontation is no different.

Here we get yet again another attempt by a different foe.
• This time the Sadducees show up to hit Jesus with what I think was their number 1 argument.

And not only will Jesus answer it in His amazing wisdom,
But yet again He will manage to proclaim to them their need for salvation.

We’ll just divide this text into 2 main points this morning.
#1 A HYPOTHETICAL MYSTERY
Luke 20:27-33

Here we find a new group coming to challenge Jesus.
(27) “Now there came to Him some of the Sadducees (who say that there is no resurrection),”

Whereas the Pharisees were the sort of “blue collar” patriots and legalists of the day who loved to add to the Scriptures all their requirements.

The Sadducees were just the opposite.
• They were few in number because they were the wealthy elite who held the positions of power. This was Annas and Caiaphas.
• They didn’t hate Rome, they loved Rome because Rome kept them in power and kept them rich.
• Now on one hand we could call the Sadducees theological liberals since they rejected nearly all of the Old Testament.

But what they did accept, they were sticklers for.
They only believed the first 5 books of the Bible
(The Law of Moses; the Pentateuch)
But they held to a strict adherence of those books.

And because Moses mentioned nothing about angels or the resurrection,
THE SADDUCEES DIDN’T BELIEVE IN IT.

Acts 23:8 “For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.”

Well here this group has now approached Jesus to silence Him
Where their other Jewish leaders have failed.

And they bring out what I think was their “Golden” argument.
I think this was likely the scenario they had used time and time again to frustrate and silence the Pharisees or anyone else who believed in the resurrection.

Now, just to make sure you understand, the Old Testament
DOES speak clearly about the resurrection.

Job 19:25-27 “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!”

Psalms 16:9-11 “Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will dwell securely. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”

Psalms 49:15 “But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, For He will receive me. Selah.”

Psalms 73:24 “With Your counsel You will guide me, And afterward receive me to glory.”

And that’s not all, but as we said
The Sadducees conveniently omitted that portion of the Bible.

Furthermore, Jesus spoke a lot about a resurrection and eternal life.

Luke 14:13-14 “But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Luke 18:29-30 “And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.”

John 5:25-29 “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.”

And the Sadducees knew all of this.
• They knew the Pharisees held to a resurrection based on the rest of the Old Testament.
• They knew Jesus clearly preached a resurrection.

They are now, in front of everyone,
Going to swoop in with their golden argument
And deny and silence both of them
And walk out of the temple as the clear winners.

They gave a hypothetical.
(Perhaps it was hypothetical, it may have actually occurred)

(28-33) “and they questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that IF A MAN’S BROTHER DIES, having a wife, AND HE IS CHILDLESS, HIS BROTHER SHOULD MARRY THE WIFE AND RAISE UP CHILDREN TO HIS BROTHER. “Now there were seven brothers; and the first took a wife and died childless; and the second and the third married her; and in the same way all seven died, leaving no children. “Finally the woman died also. “In the resurrection therefore, which one’s wife will she be? For all seven had married her.”

They quote to Jesus from Deuteronomy 25:5 regarding the Law of the Levirate Marriage.
• You will remember that the inheritance was very important to the children of Israel and could not be stolen or passed from tribe to tribe, but was each man’s inheritance from God.
• And one potential problem would be that if a man died with no children to pass his land on to.
• The solution to the dilemma was this Law of the Levirate Marriage where a brother was specifically commanded to go to the widow and conceive a son to be an heir on his brother’s behalf.

The Sadducees saw here a riddle that was useful
In crushing any logical argument regarding the resurrection.

“If those who say there is a resurrection are correct
then we are going to have a train wreck in heaven.”

“We’re going to have women walking around with multiple husbands (adultery) who are all fighting over her.”

The argument was that God
Would certainly not have allowed for such an incident
And therefore the resurrection could not possibly be true.

It was an argument against the resurrection based on logic.

If you’ll remember there were some at Corinth who did the same thing.
1 Corinthians 15:35 “But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?”

That was also a logical denial.
“If the dead are raised, what will they look like? Heaven will be a place of zombies…”

So based on logic, resurrection could not possible be true.

And it is apparent that so far
No one had been able to satisfactorily answer the question.
And so they spring it on Jesus.

But you have to love Jesus here.
• He’s got no time for hypotheticals.
• He’s got no time for what-if questions.

He does however have plenty of time for straightforward facts.

A Hypothetical Mystery
#2 AN ACTUAL DECLARATION
Luke 20:34-40

First he answers their little dilemma.
That’s not really the question, but He’s going to put a stop to this foolish logic once and for all.

(34-35) “Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage;”

Well there’s the simple answer.
In the resurrection no one is married. PROBLEM SOLVED

Now, before you go getting all depressed.
(I don’t want Carrie to stop wanting to go to Heaven just because she can’t be married to me there)

Before you get all emotional, why would you think that any relationship in heaven would be worse than it is on earth?

You won’t lose one ounce of closeness or fellowship or joy or intimacy with your wife when you get to heaven.
In fact it will be better because your wife won’t be such a sinner there!

In reality every relationship will be better.
So don’t flip out about not having marriage in heaven.

BUT THAT’S THE SIMPLE ANSWER.
There will be no woman with 7 husbands in heaven
Because no one is getting married.

And as the eternal Son of God
That authoritative answer would have been enough,
But Jesus explains why, and He does so on purpose.

Here’s why there is no marriage in heaven.
(36) “for they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”

First of all, you hear the GOSPEL PROMISE in that don’t you?
Namely that sons of the resurrection can’t die anymore.

John 11:25-26 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

You say, “Yes, I’m aware that life in heaven is eternal,
But what does that have to do with marriage?”

Do you remember why God instituted marriage?
Genesis 1:27-28 “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God put natural man and natural woman in a natural world and told them “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”

We are talking about procreation and the propagation of the earth.
God’s means of creating humanity and populating the earth was marriage.

But heaven is not populated in that way.

Heaven is populated by a simple one-time resurrection.
• And because no one can die there, there is never a need to procreate.
• All of the angels were created at one time.
• Angels cannot die.
• And Jesus said that is what every resurrected person will be like.

So simply put, there is NO NEED for marriage in heaven.
• Not for procreation.
• Not for evangelism (marriage is a picture on earth)
• Not even for fulfillment since God is our fulfillment.

Asaph said:
Psalms 73:25 “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.”

The only marriage of heaven will be between you and Christ.
None other is needed.
None other will be wanted.

And that reminds us again of a very important reality regarding heaven.

HEAVEN IS NOT A SENSUAL PLACE,
HEAVEN IS A SPIRITUAL PLACE.

Heaven is not the place where
All your earthly lusts can finally be perfectly enjoyed.

I’m sorry to have to tell Mormons
• That there will be no celestial planet of their own where they have celestial sex
and produce supernatural children.

I’m sorry to have to tell Muslims
• That there will be no green pillows with 72 virgins for them in the after-life.

But I would also remind even the church
• That heaven is not about green golf-courses or steak buffets or perfect ski
slopes or beautiful women or affectionate men.

Heaven is a place where you enjoy one main attraction
To a degree that you were never able to enjoy on earth
Because your sin kept you too far away.

In heaven, when sin is gone, you will enjoy intimate fellowship with Christ
Like you never knew it on earth and nothing else will matter or pull at you.

The Sadducees were confused
Because they didn’t have a clue about heaven.
Jesus set them straight.

But as He did, did you notice His first gospel dig?

(35) “but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead…”

Did you catch that?

What was His point?
• Not everyone gets it.
• Not everyone enjoys it.

• Not everyone is worthy.
• Not everyone goes to heaven.

That’s a strong warning isn’t it?
They just can’t escape Him can they?

It doesn’t matter what question they ask,
Jesus has a way of turning it right back to their need for salvation.

Incidentally, how about you ponder that question.

WHO IS WORTHY FOR HEAVEN?

David asked that:
Psalms 15 “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend; In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, But who honors those who fear the LORD; He swears to his own hurt and does not change; He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.”

He asked it again:
Psalms 24:3-6 “Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood And has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the LORD And righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face — even Jacob. Selah.”

Who is worthy to attain to heaven?
Only those who are perfectly righteous.

Now the Sadducees didn’t believe those verses,
But even they should have been able to ponder this reality.

They believed the first 5 books.
TURN TO: EXODUS 19:10-25

That scene alone should have had them asking
What it took to draw near to God.

The writer of Hebrews capitalized on that scene when he wrote:
Hebrews 12:18-25 “For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, “IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED.” And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I AM FULL OF FEAR and trembling.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.”

His point was that if you can’t approach an earthly mountain
When God comes down on it,
How do you expect to approach a heavenly mountain
Where God actually dwells?

You’d better not ignore this Jesus.

The only people who go to heaven are those
Who have been redeemed by His blood and clothed in His righteousness.

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.”

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

Jesus answered their question, but HE DID SO BECAUSE
It afforded Him an opportunity to once again introduce the gospel.

BUT THAT QUESTION REALLY WASN’T THE ISSUE.
They weren’t worried about how to assign husbands in heaven.

Their real point was to deny the resurrection altogether.
And Jesus knew that.

So…
(37-38) “But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the burning bush, where he calls the Lord THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB. “Now He is not the God of the dead but of the living; for all live to Him.”

• Here Jesus actually quotes from their beloved Moses.
• He quotes from Exodus 3 when Moses stood before the burning bush.

And Moses wanted to know who he was supposed to say sent him into Egypt.
Exodus 3:13-15 “Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘ The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.”

What is the point?
• When God identified Himself He didn’t say, “I was the God of Abraham”,
• He said, “I AM the God of Abraham”,
• As in CURRENTLY, as in RIGHT NOW.

What does that mean?
Abraham isn’t a WAS; Abraham is a IS.

Abraham, though he died back in Genesis 25,
According to God in Exodus 3 was still alive.
RESURRECTION!!!

And that is what Jesus means when He says, “Now He is not the God of the dead but of the living;”

Even a reading of their very own Scriptures
Should have made it clear to them that those who died now live.

JESUS SILENCED THEM.

But His goal wasn’t just to win,
He was in that temple to preach the gospel
And so here comes His SECOND JAB.

“for all live to Him.”

What does that mean?
In the resurrection, when all men are raised, who do you think it is they are going to answer to?

Jesus said (we already read it)
John 5:25-29 “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.”

Some day you will die, but the writer of Hebrews was clear.
Hebrews 9:27 “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,”

The Sadducees taught that when a person died, both their body and soul just ceased to exist.

That is a sad thought, but it is also a convenient one.
• A man can live however he wants if there is no judgment.
• A man can drink up this world if there is no judgment.
• And they did.

Jesus corrected their faulty thinking.
Not only will all men live,
But all men will stand before God and give an account.

And yet again Jesus has introduced the gospel.

That is now the 5th time.
• First, their refusal to repent under John the Baptist.
• Second, their rejection of God’s Son and the only Savior.
• Third, their outstanding debt before God since they had not rendered Him what He deserved.
• Fourth, that they were not worthy to attain to heaven.
• Fifth, that they would rise and stand before God in the end.

Jesus has been laying out the gospel all day in this temple.

It’s no wonder then what we read next.
(39-40) “Some of the scribes answered and said, “Teacher, You have spoken well.” For they did not have courage to question Him any longer about anything.”

I’m sure they didn’t have courage.
I’m sure they were afraid.

Every time they challenged Him, He ended up condemning them.
Every time they questioned Him, He laid their hearts bare before God.

Can you see how heavy the conviction must have been that day in the temple?

Jesus had repeatedly preached to these sinful men
Who refuse to trust in Him
That all they can expect is a terrifying judgment.

This has always been the first point of the gospel message.

The youth will tell you that we went to camp last week.
Our theme was “Essential”

Our world has all sorts of definitions about what all of a sudden became essential,
But we wanted to look a little deeper.

Our first message was Revelation 20
• And the great white thrown judgment
• And how every man will one day stand before God,
• Will be judged,
• And unredeemed sinners will be cast into the lake of fire.

A few people asked me why I started youth camp off with judgment day?

When we talk about essential,
• Jesus is the obvious answer isn’t He?
• Can we honestly say that anyone or anything is more essential than Jesus?

But pull on that thread a second.

Why is Jesus essential?
Because He is the only Savior.

Why do we need to be saved?
Because we are sinners.

What do we need to be saved from?
The wrath of God and eternal hell.

There’s no escaping it.
The message of eternal judgment
Is not the last line of the gospel message it is the first line.

We don’t take sinners and warm them up to the idea judgment,
We start there because that’s what shows men they need a Savior.

And when Jesus preached the gospel in the temple,
It didn’t matter the topic, it didn’t matter the question,
He always managed to take it right back
To this notion of a sinner’s debt before God.

And that is what He does here.

Now, let me tell you, the RESURRECTION IS GOOD NEWS!
• We are so grateful that death is not final.
• We love the fact that God will raise us from the dead.
• We can loudly sing, “O death where is your victory?”

BUT LISTEN CAREFULLY.
The resurrection is only good news
To those who have repented of their sin and trusted in Christ.

Because the Bible says after the resurrection,
If you have not trusted in Christ,
Then you get a second death which is the lake of fire.

This is the truth of the gospel.

But also the truth is that
• If you will repent of your sin, and trust only in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
• His earned righteousness through His sinless life.
• His appeasing sacrifice through His death on the cross.

Then God will impute Christ’s righteousness to you
And you will be counted worthy
To attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead.

If you will deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus,
You too will have forgiveness of all your sins
And will receive eternal life with Christ.

That is the good news of the gospel.
And there’s nothing hypothetical about it.

Download Here:

For Future Generations – Part 1
Psalms 78 (1-39)
July 12, 2020

We’ve certainly seen in our day an all-out assault on history.
• It is being rewritten
• It is being wiped clean
• It is being ignored
• It is being destroyed

Those who continually attack our history and historical reminders
Do so because they view it as unfavorable or oppressive.

And to be honest, history is filled with terrible and tragic realities
Because history is filled with the exploits of sinful men.

• No one thinks the Civil War was a good thing.
• No one thinks slavery was a good thing.
• No one thinks the Holocaust was a good thing.

History is filled with the exploits, mistakes, and failures of sinful men.

The reason we teach history
Is so that we can learn from the mistakes of others
And not make those same mistakes ourselves.

George Santayana was the first to coin the phrase, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Even in a religious sense,
We certainly must understand the importance of history.

Stephen Nichols was asked in a podcast why Christians should care about church history?

He answered:
To answer this question, let’s quote Spurgeon. Spurgeon made a comment once; he was talking about using commentaries, pastors who sort of relied on just the Holy Spirit to enlighten them about the biblical texts without using commentaries. And he made this statement: “I find it interesting that someone [who] thinks so highly of what the Holy Spirit teaches them, thinks so little of what the Holy Spirit teaches others also.” When I first saw that quote, I thought, let’s apply that to church history. Here’s a sort of a riff on Spurgeon’s quote: “I find it interesting that Christians in the twenty-first century think so little of what the Holy Spirit has taught the church for the last twenty centuries.” What we’re saying when we say, “We don’t need church history,” is we’re basically saying, “We don’t really have anything to learn from the last two thousand years of the church.” And I don’t think anybody wants to make that statement. None of us are that arrogant, right? And we recognize how much we need each other to live the Christian life.
Well, let’s just expand that “each other” and add the past. And what we find is these are people, they’re not just dictionary definitions. These were husbands, these were sons, and these were daughters and wives. And these were people who are trying to be faithful disciples of Christ in their context. And they left behind the legacy of their lives. They left behind the legacy of their books, their letters, their confessions and catechisms and creeds. All of these are helpful resources. They never take the place of Scripture; they never supplant Scripture. Scripture alone is our authority, but they certainly can help us understand what it means to be a Christian in our context.
And you know, here’s the other thing: we learn from our mistakes, don’t we? And so sometimes we learn more from our mistakes. And the same is true of church history. We can also learn from church history’s mistakes.
You don’t need church history to get into heaven. All you need is Christ for that. But I think we are unnecessarily cutting ourselves off from help in living the Christian life by ignoring church history. Why is it important? I think it’ll help you in your Christian walk and it will help you be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.
https://ask.ligonier.org/podcast-episodes/why-is-church-history-important

Certainly you understand the reality that history is a great teacher;
Even the bad stuff; even the negative stuff.
We learn from all of it.

This concept is the very driving passion behind the 78th Psalm.
If you’ll look with me at the first 8 verses you’ll see exactly what I mean.
READ 1-8

Asaph begins with a call to his contemporaries
To first of all be a student of the history of their nation.

(1-3) “Listen, O my people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.”

• You know that the history of Israel was largely passed down orally from one generation to the next.
• Asaph recounts having heard from his father the history of Israel,
• And now is making sure that his contemporaries are well aware of it too.

He is going to speak “in a parable”
• Not in a cryptic sense like our Lord might have
• But rather in a story-telling sense

He is going to “utter dark sayings of old”
• Indicating that he’s not going to leave out the unfavorable parts
• Kings were notorious in ancient times for controlling what history was recorded and inevitably they made themselves look better.
• Asaph won’t do that.
• He’s going to tell the full raw story.

He’s simply going to tell the accurate story of history.

BUT FOR A PURPOSE.
(4) “We will not conceal them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.”

Asaph is making sure the current generation knows their history
That they might tell it to the next generation.

It is important that these truths about the history of Israel are not lost.

Specifically, Asaph says “the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.”

Asaph wants to tell Israel’s story
Because that is the best way to tell God’s story.

It would be really hard to know how awesome God is,
If we never had the history of Israel.

People today are largely bored with Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.

People tend to lightly read or shrug off those Old Testament books
Which contain so much history.

But if you had no access to those stories
Can you see how little you would know about God?

Imagine having never heard
• The story of the great flood or Sodom and Gomorrah
• Or the Exodus or the wilderness wanderings
• Or the conquest or David and Goliath, etc.

To tell the history of Israel is at the same time tell of the greatness of God
And so Asaph is adamant that it be learned and shared.

But that’s not the only reason.
He also wants it taught because God commanded it to be taught.

(5-6) “For He established a testimony in Jacob And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers That they should teach them to their children, That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children,”

Perhaps you remember the primary command that came from the mouth of Moses as the children of Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land.
TURN TO: DEUTERONOMY 6:1-15

• That was the whole idea.
• Teach your children about God.
• Teach them all about what God has done in your midst.
• Don’t let them forget.

And so Asaph is recording here a song of Israel’s history.
It is an honest and telling story of REBELLION and FAILURE.

But it is a necessary story for every generation to learn.

And Asaph says WHY:
(7-8) “That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments, And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart And whose spirit was not faithful to God.”

Asaph is honest about the generation of their fathers.
• They did not keep God’s commandments.
• They were stubborn and rebellious.
• They did not prepare their heart to follow God.
• Their spirit was not faithful to God.

They were a bad example of true devotion.
But we dare not sweep it under the rug.
• We dare not erase their mistakes.
• We dare not tear down their markers.
• We dare not remove their memory.

Instead we read of their failures, we tell of their mistakes
And we learn from them.

That is Asaph’s purpose in Psalms 78.

And just to make sure you understand where you fit in this.
After all, you are not Israel.
You are Gentiles and so may wonder why Jewish history matters so much.

Paul wrote a letter to a Gentile church, and here is what he said:
1 Corinthians 10:1-11 “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

The history of Israel is still very important even to Gentiles
Because the history of Israel is in many ways the history of God.

• By watching Israel we learn what God loves and what God hates.
• By watching Israel we learn what God rewards and what God punishes.
• By watching Israel we learn what God expects and what grieves God.

Their history is also very important to us.

So if you want just a brief and quick plug here…
READ YOUR OLD TESTAMENT.

• These aren’t just stories that you aren’t supposed to connect with since you aren’t Jewish.
• These are stories about the God who saved you and how He related to His people throughout the centuries.

There is much to learn there.

And tonight we sit under the instruction of Asaph
As he gives us a lesson in the history of Israel
• That we might learn to put our confidence in God,
• To keep His commandments,
• To not be stubborn or rebellious, but to be faithful.

To try to make the Psalm a little easier to follow I’ve sort of lumped it into 6 points
That Asaph is bringing to the forefront about Israel.

No doubt if we were to go and search out each story he references individually we could camp in Psalms 78 almost indefinitely, but just as Asaph sort of retells these stories in parabolic form, we’re going to do the same and pick up on the main points that Asaph seems to be bringing to the table.

#1 THE UNWARRANTED REBELLION OF EPHRAIM
Psalms 78:9-16

Asaph begins here in speaking of “the sons of Ephraim”

You know Ephraim to have been one of Joseph’s sons
(the other being Manasseh).
• Ephraim is a title simply representing Israel.
• Hosea uses it like this most often.

And here Asaph says:
“The sons of Ephraim were archers equipped with bows, Yet they turned back in the day of battle.”

It is somewhat interesting that Asaph is writing about Israel’s history
And the first thing he mentions is an event that can’t be found in the O.T.

It is likely that rather Asaph here is speaking metaphorically.

We might say it like this: “Ephraim had great strength and resources, but they blew it when it counted.”

• They were equipped with skill and strength.
• They were equipped with weapons and bows.
• But when the battle was upon them, they were not help.

In other words Ephraim was a failure.
Israel had opportunities but continually blew it.

Asaph’s historical account jumps right out of the gate with a reminder that
The history of Israel is largely a history of failure.
• It is a history of wasted opportunity.
• It is a history of blown chances.
• It is a history of failure and let down.

And Asaph gives the reason.
(10-11) “They did not keep the covenant of God And refused to walk in His law; They forgot His deeds And His miracles that He had shown them.”

This is what Asaph meant when he spoke of Ephraim turning back.

When given the opportunity to go forward in faithfulness and obedience
Their track record is just the opposite.
• “They did not keep the covenant of God”
• “[They] refused to walk in His law”
• “They forgot His deeds and His miracles that He had shown them.”

God had equipped them.
God had given them every reason to trust Him.
God had given them every proof needed that they should be ok.
But despite the equipping of God they turned away.

WHAT WAS THIS GREAT REASON THEY HAD FOR TRUSTING GOD?
It was His great salvation at the Red Sea.

(12-16) “He wrought wonders before their fathers In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, And He made the waters stand up like a heap. Then He led them with the cloud by day And all the night with a light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness And gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. He brought forth streams also from the rock And caused waters to run down like rivers.”

We actually read that story just last week.
• Israel was trapped with the sea on one side and Egypt on the other.
• And God worked a miracle like no one had ever seen before.
• He parted the Red Sea.
• He made the ground below hard enough to walk on.
• He saved Israel.

And that is not all.
• He also led them with a “cloud by day and all the night with a light of fire”

And that is not all.
• When they were thirsty in the desert:
• “He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. He brought forth streams also from the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers.”

Did you realize that about the water from the rock?
• I don’t know what you visualize when you read that story.
• If perhaps you see something like a water fountain where they all got a drink
and filled up their canteens.

No, God split open a rock and it made a river for them.
It was a river that followed them and flowed beside them.
It wasn’t just water for a day, it was water for an extended period of time.

That is why in the New Testament that river is compared to Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:4 “and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.”

• They had continual living water which was a picture of the salvation of God.
• God was giving them the water of life continually.
• Just like we get it from Jesus.

His salvation and provision was remarkable in the wilderness.

SO HEAR ASAPH’S FIRST POINT.
• God saved Israel from the Egyptians by miraculously parting the Red Sea.
• God then led them under a cloud by day and with a light of fire at night.
• God then supernaturally provided living water from a rock for them to never thirst in the wilderness.

He saved them.
He guided them.
He provided for them.

And in return Asaph noted that “they did not keep the covenant of God and refused to walk in His law; they forgot His deeds and His miracles that He had shown them.”

Their history was one of: UNWARRANTED REBELLION
What reason did they have to turn on God?
What reason did they have to fail to trust Him?
NONE.

It was surely a black mark in their history books,
But how important it is FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS to learn that.

How important it is FOR US to learn that.
• For us to contemplate the great salvation of God on our behalf.
• For us to contemplate the great guidance of God in our life.
• For us to contemplate the great provision of God through Christ in our life.

And then to ask if any of that warrants our failure to trust Him now?
Or to ask if any of that warrants our stubborn rebellion to His commands?

Certainly we must learn from the mistakes of Israel
So that we do not make the same.

The Unwarranted Rebellion of Ephraim.
#2 THE UNTOLERATED GRUMBLING OF ISRAEL
Psalms 78:17-33

The crowd should rightly be horrified at the rebellion they just heard.

And yet Asaph would respond with, “I’m just getting started.”
(17) “Yet they still continued to sin against Him, To rebel against the Most High in the desert.”

Asaph picks back up with the miraculous provision of water.
And then points out how ungrateful Israel was for it.

“Yet they still continued to sin against Him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.”

Think about THE ABSURDITY of that statement for a moment.
• Here was a massive throng of people wandering in the desert.
• Their only source of life was the fact that God had supernaturally provided a river of life for them drink from.
• And yet their decision, in such a dependent state, is to rebel against the God who is providing for them?

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you…

And they didn’t just rebel:
(18) “And in their heart they put God to the test By asking food according to their desire. Then they spoke against God; They said, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? “Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out, And streams were overflowing; Can He give bread also? Will He provide meat for His people?”

Here is a people in the desert,
Living only on the supernatural water that God is providing
AND THE FIRST THING THEY DO IS TAUNT HIM.

• “Sure You can give water, but if You were any kind of God at all, You’d give bread or meat.”
• “What’s the matter are You too weak to give food?”
• “Are You the God of water only?”

It is the height of disrespect.

In fact, if you’ll notice it, their grumbling was the VERY LANGUAGE OF SATAN.
Matthew 4:3 “And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Now, if you’ll remember,
You know that their hunger was INTENTIONAL on the part of God.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”

• Their momentary hunger was all part of God’s plan.
• He let them get hungry so that He could provide and so that they would come to value His presence over bread.
• He wanted them to see that He could meet their needs so that they would not consume themselves with earthly things, but with spiritual things.

People who don’t think God provides
Spend all their time trying to obtain worldly things,
But people who see God as their provision
Are free to seek spiritual things.

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

Jesus taught the same.
God will provide your needs, you focus on the kingdom.

That was the same lesson God was teaching Israel.
• Only, they hated Him for it and they began to grumble against Him.
• They began to accuse Him of being a bad provider.

THEY WANTED BREAD
Exodus 16:3 “The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the LORD’S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

And you’ll remember that God gave them manna.
(Which also pictured Jesus who was “the bread from Heaven”)

THEN THEY WANTED MEAT BECAUSE THEY WERE TIRED OF BREAD.
Numbers 11:4-6 “The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? “We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.”

They were ungrateful.
They tested God.
They taunted God.

The only reason they lived was due to His constant provision
And yet they had the audacity to complain against God anyway.

There is still a lesson for humanity here.
• We know that in God we live and move and exist.
• We know that God is both the giver and sustainer of life.
• We know that it is God who sends rain on the just and the unjust.

And yet we find the chief sin of the world is that:
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.”

• Man takes the life God gave him
• Lives it in the body God made for him
• Lives by breathing God’s air and eating the food God’s earth produces
• His body and all its organs are sustained by God’s hand
• His life is preserved by God’s doing

And yet all man can do is complain that God has not done enough.
• Too many bad things happening
• Too much suffering
• Why doesn’t God do this?
• Why doesn’t God to that?

Our world could use a great deal of advice from Job
Job 2:9-10 “Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

All God had done for them up to this point was deliver them
And meet their every need, and yet they still complained.

And as Asaph teaches the history of Israel,
He wants his contemporaries to know that
Their grumbling was NOT TOLERATED.

(21-31) “Therefore the LORD heard and was full of wrath; And a fire was kindled against Jacob And anger also mounted against Israel, Because they did not believe in God And did not trust in His salvation. Yet He commanded the clouds above And opened the doors of heaven; He rained down manna upon them to eat And gave them food from heaven. Man did eat the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance. He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens And by His power He directed the south wind. When He rained meat upon them like the dust, Even winged fowl like the sand of the seas, Then He let them fall in the midst of their camp, Round about their dwellings. So they ate and were well filled, And their desire He gave to them. Before they had satisfied their desire, While their food was in their mouths, The anger of God rose against them And killed some of their stoutest ones, And subdued the choice men of Israel.”

God did not tolerate their ungrateful complaining.
• He gave them their meat, just like they wanted.
• He caused quail to just fall right out of the sky.
• He gave them the desires of their carnal heart.

And then He let them have the full effect
Of their greed and gluttony and grumbling.

Numbers 11:32-33 “The people spent all day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers) and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very severe plague.”

And you would think
• That such an outburst from God would have gotten the people’s attention.
• That they would have stepped back and said, “Boy, we were jerks weren’t we? We’re sorry God for being so ungrateful.”

But they did not such thing.
(32-33) “In spite of all this they still sinned And did not believe in His wonderful works. So He brought their days to an end in futility And their years in sudden terror.”

They learned nothing but just kept right on in their selfish greed.
Until God had enough and determined
To kill that entire generation in the wilderness.

Psalms 95:7b-11 “Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”

What a sad reality.
That God took no joy in the people He had saved.

• He delivered them and provided for them and cared for their every need
• And yet the whole time He loathed them
• And made Himself a promise that none of them were getting into the land.

And the lesson is clear.
• God expects gratitude.
• God expects you to recognize His great sustenance on your behalf.

Let that sink in for a moment church and learn a lesson from Israel.
They refused to obey Him despite what He had done.
They refused to be grateful despite what He had provided.

Can I read it again?
Romans 1:18-21 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 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.”

There is a lesson to be learned there from the history of Israel.

The Unwarranted Rebellion of Ephraim The Untolerated Grumbling of Israel
#3 THE UNEQUALED LOYALTY OF GOD
Psalms 78:34-39

This section almost reads more like an INTERLUDE.
• Asaph sort of takes a break from the history
• Just to make an observation about their entire history in general.

If you want to sum up Israel’s entire interaction with God
We could use words like: hypocritical, deceptive, unfaithful.

If you want to sum up God’s entire interaction with Israel
We could use words like: compassionate, forgiving, patient, understanding.

And this is Asaph’s point halfway through this historical Psalm.
God has not received back from Israel what He gave to them.

If you read the story, Israel is the villain, God is the champion.

But totally beautiful is that despite Israel’s total rebellion,
God never completely forsook them.

They remained every moment of their life totally dependent on God.
And God never failed them despite having plenty of grounds to do so.

Listen to the summary of Israel’s faithfulness.
(34-37) “When He killed them, then they sought Him, And returned and searched diligently for God; And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer. But they deceived Him with their mouth And lied to Him with their tongue. For their heart was not steadfast toward Him, Nor were they faithful in His covenant.”

What a pathetic people.
• The only time they returned to God was when they wanted relief from punishment.
• If God punished them they’d cry “uncle”, but the second He let up on them they’d run right back into rebellion.

Ever read the book of Judges?
It is a drudging and disheartening cycle.
• The children of Israel rebelled against God.
• God raised up the _______ites to oppress Israel.
• The __________ites afflicted Israel for x number of years.
• The children of Israel cried out to God in their affliction.
• God appointed _________as a Judge to deliver Israel.
• Israel was delivered from the hand of the __________ites.
• The children of Israel rebelled against God.

It is painful to read.
But it is their history.

God lamented this through Hosea the prophet.
Hosea 5:11 – 6:6 “Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, Because he was determined to follow man’s command. Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim And like rottenness to the house of Judah. When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria And sent to King Jareb. But he is unable to heal you, Or to cure you of your wound. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim And like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away, I will carry away, and there will be none to deliver. I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me. “Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. “He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him. “So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth.” What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning cloud And like the dew which goes away early. Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth. For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

That was them.
Tell God whatever you think He wants to hear, but don’t do it.

Contrast them however to God.
(38-39) “But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; And often He restrained His anger And did not arouse all His wrath. Thus He remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passes and does not return.”

While Israel is nothing but deceptive, God is nothing but faithful.
• He is compassionate.
• He is forgiving.
• He is patient.
• He is gracious.
• He is understanding.

We would have written Israel off years ago, and yet God sticks with them.

What could Asaph possibly be teaching here?

WE ALL OWE GOD A DEBT OF LOVE, GRATITUDE, AND WORSHIP.
• He is so much more faithful than we are.
• He is so much more loyal than we are.
If you can read the history of Israel and not see
How faithful God is, then you are not reading it correctly.

The children of Israel are the most stubborn, most rebellious, most ungrateful, most hypocritical people to ever exist,
But have the most loyal, most loving, most forgiving, most compassionate, most patient, most understanding God.

And there’s still much more to learn here in Psalms 78
That we’ll have to pick up later, but at the very least tonight
We simply are reminded of how good we have it with our great God.

Learn that God does not deserve your rebellion.
• You will never be able to justify even the smallest act of disobedience.
• You will never be able to justify even the slightest rebellion.
• All God has done deserves your total allegiance.

Learn that there are few things more sickening than an ungrateful people.
• When we lust for more.
• When we complain.
• When we belly ache about our trials.
• When we accuse Him of not loving.
• When we demand He give us what we want.

Can you see what a repulsive attitude that is to Him?

Learn that when put side by side with God, He is the good one, not us.
• He is the faithful one
• He is the patient one
• He is the loving one
• He is the good one

I’m anything but and for that we owe God repentance.
We strip our lives of hypocrisy.
We make vows to God and keep them.
We turn to Him with all our heart and not just our lips.

We honor Him as God and we give thanks.

• These are just a few of the things that Asaph wants to make sure we learn from the history of Israel.
• These are just a few of the things Asaph wants the next generation to know.

Psalms 78:5-8 “For He established a testimony in Jacob And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers That they should teach them to their children, That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children, That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments, And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart And whose spirit was not faithful to God.”

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Trapping Jesus
Luke 20:19-26
July 12, 2020

As you know we are now in Luke’s gospel
And only a couple of days away from Jesus’ death.

IT IS WEDNESDAY.
• He’s already entered Jerusalem on that donkey infuriating the Pharisees.
• He’s already cleared the temple infuriating the Chief Priests.
• And today He has entered the temple, sort of taken over, and His preaching His gospel to the people.

It is no doubt a sharp stick in the eye to the religious elite.
As we have said many times, Jesus is securing a crucifixion.

• Isaiah prophesied the necessity of His death.
• David prophesied the manner of His death (crucifixion)
• Daniel prophesied the time of His death (right now during this Passover)

And even though it is the religious leaders desire for Jesus to die
Fulfilling all of those prophecies is a bit of a tall order.

Since:
• The religious leaders don’t really want to kill Jesus during the Passover.
• The religious leaders don’t really want to align with Rome in order to kill Him.

But it has been decreed
So Jesus is now in Jerusalem securing a crucifixion.
It really does drip of His sovereignty.

And sort of as an introduction to our study today
I just want to remind you of a statement Jesus would have made
Only a few months ago.

Back in December during “The Feast of Dedication” (Hanukkah)
Jesus made announcement about His coming death.

John 10:17-18 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

I really like that statement: “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.”
• The cross was NOT the result of careful scheming by the devil.
• The cross was NOT the result of a well-crafted plan by the Pharisees.
• The cross was NOT the result of political pressure from the Pharisees.

The cross was the result of the sovereign plan of God
And the immeasurable love of Christ.

He laid down His life.
He offered Himself to God.

He didn’t stumble into the role of atoning sacrifice,
He purposely fulfilled that role.

Sovereign Grace Music has a song out on their newest album, I think it’s in the new song books we put out in the pews.

“See How He Loves Us”
King of heav’n, robed in light; Sovereign of all, angels adore Him. Came and set His crown aside; Emptied Himself, leaving His glory. See how He loves us?
Son of Man robed in flesh; Bearing our grief, knowing our weakness. Yet despised in our eyes; Pitied and poor, living among us. See how He loves us?
Lamb of God crucified; Suffered alone, dying He saved us. Laid within a sinner’s grave; Ever He lives, risen to raise us. See How He loves us?
https://sovereigngracemusic.org/music/songs/see-how-he-loves-us/

This is primarily what I want you to see
Every time you see Jesus at work here in Jerusalem.

• Everything He does here is so that He might secure that crucifixion.
• Everything He does here is so that He might show you that no one took His life, but He lay it down on our behalf.

And THIS MORNING, that fact becomes extremely evident as we see the UTTER INABILITY of the religious elite to be able to condemn Him.

And today they’re pulling out all the stops.
• They’re going to appeal to His pride (if He has any)
• They’re going to challenge any legalism in Him (if there is any)
• They’re going to try to trip Him up regarding His words

(20) “So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, in order that they might catch Him in some statement…”

And can I just point out to you that
This is perhaps the most lethal trap of all?

When people are able to hang on our every word
With the intent of incriminating us, it is not difficult to do.

We see this in our day in relentless fashion.
I was watching a political video this past week, it was a BBC interview of Ben Shapiro (one of my favorite political analysts). And since this BBC news anchor disagreed with Shapiro the entire premise was to pull quotes from Shapiro and spring them on him.

At one point even Shapiro says, “If you’re just going to pull out quotes and play ‘Gotcha’ with me I might as well end this interview right now. In fact I’ve got an entire link on my website of wrong things that I’ve said.”

Shapiro’s point was that if you’re going to condemn or acquit me
Based on everything I’ve ever said, then “Game Over, I Lose”.
James 3:2 “For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.”

James said show me a man who never slips up with the tongue
And I’ll show you a perfect man.

Without intending to, that’s exactly what these spies are going to prove.
Jesus “is a perfect man”.

What is more, His perfection is more than they can handle.
Just pick up on some of the key phrasing Luke uses.

• (19) “The scribes and the chief priests TRIED to lay hands on Him…”
• (20) “So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, in order that they MIGHT catch Him…”
• (26) “And they were UNABLE to catch Him in a saying…”

The simple point is that they are out-matched.
• They are trying to expose a perfect man.
• They are trying to condemn a righteous man.
• They are looking for a reason or a way to kill Him.

AND THEY CAN’T FIND ONE.

He is not going to be crucified because He deserves crucifixion.
He is going to die because He is determined to lay down His life.

So let’s look at our text this morning.

I’ve chosen to break it down by showing why the religious leaders
Were so incompetent in their efforts to condemn Jesus.
HERE WE SEE WHY THEY COULDN’T KILL HIM.

4 points
#1 THEY WERE RESTRICTED BY FEAR
Luke 20:19

Immediately the previous text is forced into our mind.
It was a parable and here we are reminded that
Everyone there fully understood this one.

“they understood that He spoke this parable against them.” (the religious leaders)

You remember the parable.
• It was the vineyard owner who rented out the vineyard
• He came back wanting produce and sent a slave to get it
• They beat the slave and sent him away
• The vineyard owner sent a second slave and they did the same to him
• The vineyard owner sent a third slave and they did the same to him
• Finally the vineyard owner sent His Son and they killed Him
• The result would be that the vineyard owner would destroy those vine-growers

It was an “in your face” parable.
It was so direct that the crowd cried out “May it never be!”

Everyone knew exactly what Jesus was saying.
• God had sent prophet after prophet after prophet and they had all be rejected.
• Now God has sent His Son, but the religious elite will kill Him.
• As a result of their treachery God will destroy them.

The “scribes and the chief priest” were so angry at that parable
That they “tried to lay hands on Him that very hour, and they feared the people; for they understood that He spoke this parable against them.”

So you can see again that they really want to kill Jesus
BUT FEAR HAS STOPPED THEM.

Now, we already saw one expression of this.
• During that first argument when they sort of pounced on Jesus and demanded
Him to explain what authority He had…
• You’ll remember Jesus asked them about John the Baptist, but the religious
elite wouldn’t answer.

Luke 20:6-7 “But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” So they answered that they did not know where it came from.”

That was a fear of literally being stoned by the people.
Here was Jesus who was willing to die for His beliefs, but they were not.

THE FEAR HERE IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT.

Jesus just gave a parable in which He specifically said that these religious leaders would reject Him just like they had rejected every other prophet.
In fact Jesus said that they would kill Him.

Well, if they kill Him now all they do is prove Him right.
The people knew what that parable meant,
So for fear of losing the respect of the crowds they are hog-tied.

So let’s make sure we grasp the SOVEREIGN SHREWDNESS of Jesus.

Remember, I told you that not only does Jesus have to die now, but He also has to die by crucifixion, as was prophesied in Psalms 22:16

That means that the Jews are going to have to work with the Romans
To get Jesus executed.

And with one parable Jesus has already pushed them in that direction.
Now, they want Him dead, but they can’t do it without confirming His words.
So now they shift gears and look for ways to get Rome to do it for them.

The wisdom of Jesus is just mind-blowing.

But first you see that these religious leaders couldn’t kill Him because they were restricted by fear.
#2 THEY WERE RELEGATED TO FLATTERY
Luke 20:20-22

An interesting plot emerges here.

(20) “So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, in order that they might catch Him in some statement, so that they could deliver Him to the rule and the authority of the governor.”

The first thing you must recognize here is that
THEY OBVIOUSLY HAD NOTHING ON HIM.

If they want Him dead, but don’t want to appear unjust in killing Him,
All they have to do is present the evidence that He is worthy of death.

Just show this crowd His sin and they’ll be fine with it.

But that’s the problem, they can’t.
They’ve got nothing on Him.

This, by the way, is one of the greatest proofs of His sinless perfection.
If Jesus had committed sin
The religious leaders most certainly would have exposed it.

This past Monday CNN news anchor Don Lemon said, “Jesus Christ, if that’s who you believe in, Jesus Christ admittedly was not perfect here on earth.”

I’d like to know what Bible he is reading because
I can’t find a single time where Jesus admitted to not being perfect.
I saw Him tempted
I saw Him tried
I saw Him trapped
I never saw Him sin

He was perfect, and He knew it.
John 8:46 “Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?”

• The thief on the cross will announce it.
• The resurrection is the greatest proof of it.

AND WE ARE THANKFUL FOR HIS PERFECTION BECAUSE
It is that perfection that He imputes to those who believe in Him
It is that perfection that allows Him to be an acceptable sacrifice for sin.

His perfection is a big deal to us.

But His perfection is A REAL PROBLEM for the religious elite.
And so they’re going to have to try and trick Him into trouble.

And the strategy the use is FLATTERY.

They “sent spies who pretended to be righteous”
• They’re going to bait Him and see if they can’t trap Him and get grounds to have Him killed.

Matthew’s gospel actually IDENTIFIES who they sent.
Matthew 22:15-16a “Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said. And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians…”

Just so you know, that is an odd partnership.
These two were not friends.
• The Pharisees were the blue collar patriots.
• They got their start protesting the Greek cultural influence into Israel.

• The Herodians were just the opposite.
• They were the liberals who loved Greek culture and Greek influence.

But somehow they’ve found common ground in their desire to trap Jesus.

(21) “They questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, we know that You speak and teach correctly, and You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth.”

This is quite humorous.

They acknowledge His HIGH POSITION
“Teacher”

• It’s kind of funny that earlier this morning they were asking “Who do You think You are? Who gave You this authority?”
• And now all of a sudden they are giving Him the title of “Teacher”.

This was a sought after title of respect.
Matthew 23:6-7 “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.”

They are here calling Him what they most like to be called.
They are trying to appeal to His pride.

They acknowledge His THEOLOGICAL PERFECTION
“we know that You speak and teach correctly”

• We’ve listened carefully,
• We’ve discerned Your words,
• We’ve compared Your teaching to the Scriptures
• We’ve concluded that You are an orthodox teacher.

There is no heresy in what You teach at all.

They acknowledge His LACK OF PARTIALITY
“and You are not partial to any”

• You are a “tell it like it is” type of teacher.
• You don’t give in to bribes or cater to the well-to-dos.
• You just speak truth when truth is called for.

They acknowledge His DIVINE PURPOSE
“but teach the way of God in truth”

“way” there is a reference even to salvation.

• You teach people how to be pleasing to God.
• You teach people how to be saved.

Now the ironic part is that they are trying to flatter Him,
But in reality everything they said about Him was 100% true.

THAT’S EXACTLY WHO HE WAS

But their goal is simply to get Him to let down His guard.
• To feel like He is among fans.
• To feel free to speak His mind without fear.
• “You can tell us, we think You’re great!”

That’s what you call flattery, and they had to use it
Because they didn’t have any real evidence.

Flattery, by the way, is deception pure and simple.
It is “reverse slander”.
• Flattery is when you say something to someone’s face that you wouldn’t say
behind their back.

And the only reason people use it is to gain an advantage over a person.
Jude 16 “These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.”

That’s what these men are after.
They are looking for an advantage in the conversation.

And all their flattery was so that they might launch this question.
(22) “Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

This was a hot-button topic and it seemed to be the perfect trap.

Matthew tells us that they specifically asked about the “poll tax”.
• The “poll tax” was the most hated tax Jews were required to pay.
• It was basically just a head-count tax that was required of all men as sort of a “thank you” to Rome for all their services.

• You drive on our roads…
• You enjoy our security…
• You benefit from our economy…

“So here’s a tax for your privilege of us being in your life.”

The Jews hated that because
• They didn’t want Rome there to begin with.
• Coupled with that, it was paid in Roman currency which Jews saw as a violation of the 2nd commandment which prohibited graven images, and since the coin had a graven image of Caesar it was viewed as detestable.

And this is the chosen topic.
“Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

“lawful” there is in reference to the Mosaic Law.
Would God have us pay this tax?

If He says, “Yes, pay the tax”
The Pharisees will seize upon Him for His idolatrous and traitorous ways and the crowd will likely disown Him because they were categorically opposed to this tax.

If He says, “No, don’t pay the tax”
The Herodians will seize upon Him and immediately report Him to Rome who will likely arrest Him for treason and sentence Him to death.

It’s the perfect trap for this righteous man.
There’s no way out.

Or so they think.
• It would be nice if they could’ve just used actual evidence against Him,
• But they’ve got none and so they are relegated to flattery.

#3 THEY WERE RECOGNIZED AS FRAUDS
Luke 20:23-25

“But He detected their trickery”

Of course He did!
John 2:25 “…He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”

• Did they really expect to deceive the One who formed them in their mother’s womb?
• Did they really expect to get the drop on the One who ordained their days before them?

Hebrews 4:13 “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”

He knew exactly what was going on.
He could read the hearts of men.

And by the way, you should just know this.
JESUS SEES THROUGH ALL FORMS OF FLATTERY.

Luke 6:46 “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”

Matthew 15:7-9 “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. ‘BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'”

Don’t play games with Him, you’re out of your league.
• He does not see as man sees.
• Man looks at the outer appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

He saw right through these spies.

And He said to them
(24-25) “Show Me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

When Jesus asked for a denarius
They must’ve thought they had Him dead to rights.

“He’s about to condemn it as a graven image and renounce paying taxes!”

But that’s not what He did.
“He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s”

Interesting wording that Jesus uses here.

They asked “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”

“pay” in the Greek is DIDOMI
It means “to give”

Jesus said, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s”

“render” in the Greek is APIDIDOMI
It means “to return”

If we were talking about making offerings to Caesar
Or giving gifts to him as tribute that would be one thing,
But that’s not what Jesus condoned.

Jesus called for them to give a return to Caesar for his services to them.
Jesus took this from a legal obligation to a moral one.

You owe this to Caesar.
• Do you not walk on his roads?
• Do you not enjoy his protection?
• Do you not benefit from his economy?

You owe him.
Morally, you owe him.

This, is exactly what Paul would teach.
Romans 13:1-7 “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”

The governing authorities have the obligation of keeping the peace.
• They are there to reward good behavior.
• They are there to punish evil behavior.
• And you owe them compensation for that.

That is exactly what Jesus just said.
• Do you live under Caesar?
• Do you operate in his economy?
• Then you owe him.

Incidentally, Jesus didn’t stop there.

He went on to add, “and to God the things that are God’s.”

Caesar isn’t the only one
You are morally obligated to give a return to.
YOU ALSO OWE GOD.

Like what I wonder?
Luke 20:10 “At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him some of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed.”

He’s good isn’t He?
• They snuck in to try and trick Him.
• They wanted Him to condemn Himself before Caesar.

Not only did He answer in a way where He couldn’t be condemned,
But He also managed to once again remind these spies
That their account was still deficient before God.

As long as we are on the subject of compensation
Let’s talk again about the fruit you owe to God.

Everything for Him led back to the gospel.
They sought to trap Him, and with one answer He has turned the table on them again in order to reveal that they are in need of a Savior.

• They couldn’t kill Him because they were restricted by fear.
• They couldn’t kill Him because they were relegated to flattery.
• They couldn’t kill Him because they were recognized as frauds.

And then the final and almost laughable scene
#4 THEY WERE RESIGNED TO FAILURE
Luke 20:26

“And they were unable to catch Him in a saying in the presence of the people; and being amazed at His answer, they became silent.”

Matthew’s gospel adds “they went away”

But that is Luke’s point.
• They can’t condemn Him.
• They can’t catch Him.

• Satan couldn’t tempt Him
• Scribes couldn’t trick Him
• Priests couldn’t intimidate Him
• Leaders couldn’t condemn Him
• Pharisees couldn’t outsmart Him

And it’s not that they were incompetent,
It’s just that He was perfect and beyond reproach.

It doesn’t matter how long they play this game.
If it is dependent upon them, they will never kill Jesus.

If it’s a matter of their skill are shrewdness then Jesus will go on forever.
• He is flawless
• He is perfect
• He is too wise and too shrewd.

But if that’s the case,
Then how is it that in less than 48 hours He’ll be dead?

The only reason He will die is because He will lay down His life.

John 10:18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

• He won’t die because He messed up.
• He will die because of the great love He has for His children.

Remember His conversation with Nicodemus?
John 3:14-16 “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. “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.”

It was always about love.

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

If it was up to the ability of the religious leaders Jesus would’ve lived forever.
• He died because He came to die.
• He died because the wages of your sin was death.
• He died because it was the only way for you to stand forgiven before God.

SEE HOW HE LOVES US!

This morning,
I just call you church to rejoice in the deep deep love of Jesus.

“I stand amazed in the presence, of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. How marvelous, How wonderful, and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, How wonderful is my Savior’s love for me.”

If you have never trusted in Christ this morning I again call you to do so.

This morning is the other side of the coin.
• Here we see the great benefit of the love of Jesus when you believe in Him.
• Last week we saw that all those who reject Him will be crushed by Him.

It all hinges upon what you do with Jesus.
If you’ve never called upon His name and asked for His salvation
DO THAT TODAY.

If you have, then take a moment and rejoice in the great love of Jesus
Who would willingly and purposely lay down His life for you.

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Fighting Despair and Disillusionment
Psalms 77
July 5, 2020

You are all likely familiar with Paul’s famous analogy
We call “The Armor of God”.

• While Paul was likely chained to a Roman Centurion in prison,
• He likely drew inspiration from his attire
• And used it as a metaphor for the armor a Christian should wear in a spiritual battle.

You are familiar with:
• The Belt of Truth – and who we tie up all those loose ends and move freely.
• The Breastplate of Righteousness – and who holiness protects us from destruction.
• The Shoes of the Gospel of Peace – and our confidence on which we stand that we are at peace with God
• The Shield of Faith – and how by faith we overcome the devil’s lies and temptations.
• The Sword of the Spirit – which is God’s word by which the Spirit attacks deception.

But tonight, as we study Psalms 77 I want to zero in
On one particular piece of the armor and that is the helmet.

Ephesians 6:17 “And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

When we talk about the helmet of salvation
We are referring obviously to that which protects the mind.

We find in the inner man there are two great battlefields.
• One is the heart or the gut – the seat of emotions.
• The other is the head / mind – which refers to knowledge or discernment.

Commonly they both work together.
What the mind believes will inevitably affect how the gut feels,
And sometimes visa versa.

And this is why protecting our mind is so important.
When our mind loses the battle our courage and commitment often falter too. When truth is lost often times our hope is lost with it.

Paul said:
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 pass all thoughts through the filter of God’s word.
• We pass all thoughts through the filter of truth.

Instead of just believing everything we hear or see or read
We protect our minds.

Paul called it “the helmet of salvation”

Specifically we protect our minds with the hope of salvation.
• When the battle rages…
• When trials come…
• When hardship is unexplainable…
• When we are tempted to grow disillusioned…
• When despair starts to set in…
• When doubt creeps along…

It is then that we must certainly cling to the hope of salvation.

Passages like:
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

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

We commonly hear those passages quoted when people are in despair,
And rightly so, because those are passages that remind us
To look beyond the pain to the hope of salvation.

When we can’t understand today, we look to the hope of tomorrow.
We protect our mind from disillusionment.

It is an important piece of the Christian armor.
It is an important function of the Christian life.

And I bring that specific reality to your mind because tonight,
Once again in that brutal and raw honesty of Asaph,
We see a man fighting his own personal disillusionment.

And Asaph will fight off his despair with the hope of salvation.

I think Psalms 77 is about as good a picture of what it would mean
To put on the helmet of salvation as you will find anywhere in Scripture.

• We see a man at his wits end and he doesn’t know where to go.
• But he puts on his helmet of salvation
• And the hope that comes as a result will change his perspective and carry him
through his struggle.

So let’s work our way through it together.

4 points tonight (we’ll split them at the SELAH)
#1 HIS CRY
Psalms 77:1-3

The thing we most need to see in these 3 verses is
The clear degree of pain and desperation that Asaph is under.

He is facing a daunting and unrelenting struggle
From which he can get no rest or escape.

It is a deep pit he is falling into.

(1) “My voice rises to God, and I will cry aloud; My voice rises to God, and He will hear me.”

• Mostly we recognize that he has moved beyond a silent prayer.
• He is moved beyond silent tears.
• His desperation has moved past what seems civil or acceptable.

• He no longer cares what sort of scene he makes.
• He no longer cares who hears.
• Getting through to God has become more important than what anyone around him thinks.

He “will cry aloud” to God in order that God might “hear” him.

And we find out that HE WILL CRY out CONTINUALLY.
(2) “In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; In the night my hand was stretched out without weariness; My soul refused to be comforted.”

It is important here that the reader know that
Prayerlessness or “lack of faith” was not the problem.

This man prayed all day and all night.
He would not quit.

He was consumed with gaining an audience with God no matter how long it took.
• It reminds of that persistent widow…
• It reminds of blind Bartemaus who would not be passed by…
• It reminds of the Syrophoenician woman who yelled until Jesus healed her daughter…

There is desperation here and there is commitment.
• Asaph has come to God and God alone.
• And Asaph will not leave and go to another for it is clear that God alone has what he needs.

I just want you to understand that while many times IN OUR DAY
When people find no relief
It is most easy to question their faith or their commitment.
“Have you prayed?”
“Have you trusted God?”
“Have you endured?”

Well, Asaph could tick all those boxes.

But still there was a problem.
“My soul refused to be comforted.”

So take that reality in for a moment.
Here we have a person in desperate and faithful prayer to God because of his affliction and by his own testimony, he has FOUND NO COMFORT.

In fact:
(3) “When I remember God, then I am disturbed; When I sigh, then my spirit grows faint. Selah.”

He is already letting you in to some of the disillusionment of his soul.

“When I remember God” – that is, when I see God as my only help “then I am disturbed”
• It is the absence of peace.
• It is the absence of contentment.
• It is a word used to speak of a disturbance on the sea and all the crashing
waves.
• Asaph says when I think about God, I don’t have peace, my soul is disturbed.

“When I sigh” – that is, when I meditate on my problem, “then my spirit grows faint.”

So follow now Asaph’s plight.
• He is in some sort of trial.
• He has cried out to God faithfully.
• But by his own estimation, it hasn’t helped.

And now he is at the point where
The thought of more prayer only disturbs him
And the reality of his trial brings him great despair.

Perhaps you can identify with Asaph here.
• Perhaps you can think of a time when you’d say, “I know exactly what you’re
talking about.”

• Prayer didn’t really help.
• The more I told God about my problems the worse it got.
• Complaining to God hasn’t helped, it only made things worse.

Maybe you can identify with him there.

Let’s move on
His Cry
#2 HIS CONFUSION
Psalms 77:4-9

We noticed that verse 3 ended with “Selah”
Which can be a pause or a crescendo.

I think it is clearly a pause for the way that Asaph approaches verse 4.
“You have held my eyelids open;”

It would appear that after verse 3
Asaph decided maybe to give up on the prayer and just go to bed
In order that he might find some relief.

But he had a problem.
“You have held my eyelids open;”
God wouldn’t let him sleep.

He went to bed and all he could do
Was think about his plight and his trials.

It reminds a little of Job
Job 7:11-21 “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. “Am I the sea, or the sea monster, That You set a guard over me? “If I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, My couch will ease my complaint,’ Then You frighten me with dreams And terrify me by visions; So that my soul would choose suffocation, Death rather than my pains. “I waste away; I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath. “What is man that You magnify him, And that You are concerned about him, That You examine him every morning And try him every moment? “Will You never turn Your gaze away from me, Nor let me alone until I swallow my spittle? “Have I sinned? What have I done to You, O watcher of men? Why have You set me as Your target, So that I am a burden to myself? “Why then do You not pardon my transgression And take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust; And You will seek me, but I will not be.”

There was no relief in trying to sleep through his troubles.

And at this point his despair reaches A NEW HEIGHT.
“I am so troubled that I cannot speak.”

“troubled” is PA’AM
It means “to thrust, impel, push, beat persistently”

It is always used of an inner beating, NOT an outward one.
• Often times it is used of a response to a terrifying prophetic dream that one did not understand.
• Like when Pharaoh had the dream of the sick cows eating the fat ones.
• Or when Nebuchadnezzar had the dream of the great statue that he didn’t understand.

That is the type of trouble Asaph has.
HE IS EMOTIONALLY SPENT.

• He can’t sleep, he can’t speak.
• He is just wracked with anxiety and despair and is overcome with dread and fear.

I hope you see the depths of the pit he is in.

And having now decided
That prayer and complaining to God no longer helps,
Asaph turns to a different solution.

(5-6a) “I have considered the days of old, The years of long ago. I will remember my song in the night; I will meditate with my heart,”

• He turns his attention back to the “good ole days”.
• He starts reminiscing about how great life used to be before all of this
occurred.
• He remembers how the night used to be filled with singing and not despair.
• And he begins to “meditate with my heart” in search of a possible way to
bring it all back.

But anyone who has ever tried such a tactic
Knows that there is no relief there either.

Thinking about how good things used to be
Only manages to intensify the sting of the way things are now.

Asaph found no relief in reminiscing.

And this failure turned him to one last meditation.

(6b-9) “And my spirit ponders: Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable again? Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? Has His promise come to an end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious, Or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion? Selah.”

God has clearly allowed circumstances that Asaph thought were not right.
• Then God failed to answer as he expected.
• Then God allowed no relief in the midst of his pain.
• Then God embittered his heart as he realized the lost joy of yesterday.

And it all led him to the bottom of his pit
That perhaps God is no longer who He used to be.

“Will the Lord reject forever?”
• Am I just now on God’s bad side and will He continue to reject my calls?
• Is God done with me permanently?
• Am I just consigned to this miserable state for the rest of my life?

“And will He never be favorable again?”
• Have I used up all my favor from God?
• Is God done being good to me?

“Has His lovingkindness ceased forever?”
• You know this as His CHECED (loyal love)
• Has God broken His loyalty to me?
• Has God kicked me out forever?

“Has His promise come to an end forever?”
• That is the surety of God’s word.
• Is God no longer reliable in what He says?
• Have God’s promises expired?
• Can I no longer rely on His word?

“Has God forgotten to be gracious or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion?”
• Has God just decided that He is finished with grace and compassion?
• Does God no longer care about the plight of the unfortunate?
• Is God retiring from His ministry of care to the downtrodden?

And there we get another “Selah”
Which is a pause.

These questions are where Asaph determines to leave it.

Now we see that Asaph is not just disillusioned in life,
He is disillusioned with God.

Notice in all of those questions Asaph asks
• There is nothing regarding his own behavior or life.
• Everything Asaph asks is regarding the perceived failure or changes in God.
• And it is also clear that Asaph is drastic in his judgments since he likes to use the word “forever” or “never…again”

Asaph is at the point of questioning everything he believes about God
Because he cannot climb out of this pit of despair.

AND I FOR ONE AM THANKFUL FOR HIS HONESTY.

Many times in talking with people we hear that famous verse misapplied.
• People are in a trial and they say, “But we know that God won’t give us
more than we can handle.”

Which is of course not at all what Paul said.
1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

That verse doesn’t speak about the severity of your trials.
That verse speaks about the severity of your temptation.
God won’t let you be tempted to sin beyond what you are able.

If you expect bad things not to happen you’re liable to get disillusioned too.
Rest assured the evidence is clear
That many a man has been pushed beyond himself in the midst of trials.

Asaph here is moved to the point of wondering
If God is even the same God He used to be.

AND ASAPH IS NOT ALONE.

Remember Elijah?
• He just knew revival was coming to Israel, instead he received a death threat.
• He ran from the northern tip of Israel to the southern tip of Judah and then ran out into the wilderness.
• And there he asked to die.
• Finally he approached Mt. Sinai where he basically asked God, “What are You thinking!”
• God’s response didn’t match Elijah’s expectation.

1 Kings 19:14 “Then he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

Or how about Moses.
Numbers 11:10-15 “Now Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, each man at the doorway of his tent; and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was displeased. So Moses said to the LORD, “Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? “Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers’? “Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me, saying, ‘Give us meat that we may eat!’ “I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me. “So if You are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness.”

God, this wasn’t what I signed up for!
You’re not doing what I expected You to do.

Or how about Jonah.
Jonah 4:3-8 “Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” The LORD said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.”

There was a prophet of God who was not happy
About the way God was treating his enemies.

Or how about Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 15:18 “Why has my pain been perpetual And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream With water that is unreliable?”

Jeremiah there actually accused God of lying to him about the ministry.

Jeremiah 20:14-18 “Cursed be the day when I was born; Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me! Cursed be the man who brought the news To my father, saying, “A baby boy has been born to you!” And made him very happy. But let that man be like the cities Which the LORD overthrew without relenting, And let him hear an outcry in the morning And a shout of alarm at noon; Because he did not kill me before birth, So that my mother would have been my grave, And her womb ever pregnant. Why did I ever come forth from the womb To look on trouble and sorrow, So that my days have been spent in shame?”

That’s despair isn’t it?
I should have never been born.

And of course we’d get lost in the despair of Job
If we sought to read all his statements.

But even consider the apostle Paul.
2 Corinthians 1:8-9 “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;”

Do you see that even the greatest men of faith in Scripture
At times reached points of extreme despair because they could not figure out what God was doing?

He just didn’t respond as they expected.
• At the moment He felt to be absent.
• At the moment He felt to have changed.
• At the moment it felt as though He didn’t care or that He was no longer merciful.
• It felt as though His promises couldn’t be trusted.
• It felt as though He had forgotten to be gracious.

This is the depth of Asaph’s despair and disillusionment.
And I hope you see it.
Perhaps you can identify with it.

I remind people of this many times in their grief.
• It is encouraging to know that just because you can’t see what God is doing doesn’t mean He isn’t at work.
• He doesn’t always explain Himself; even to the most faithful.

But I simply want you to understand the depth we are talking about here.
This is serious despair.
This is serious disillusionment.
This is serious depression.

And Asaph simply says “Selah”
And IT WOULD APPEAR he is going to walk away in that despair.

BUT when he returns to the pen and paper in verse 10,
Asaph has A WHOLE NEW OUTLOOK.

His Cry, His Confusion
#3 HIS CONVICTION
Psalms 77:10-15

Now we have to do a little work here
Because verse 10 is a notoriously HARD VERSE TO TRANSLATE.
And various translations have rendered it various ways.

Literally it says:
“And I said, ‘It is my own infirmity the renewal of the right hand of the Most High.”

And translators have sort of played with it and taken liberties
To try to figure out what Asaph meant.

My translation says:
“Then I said, “It is my grief, that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”

And to some it sounds like Asaph is saying, “It’s my bad luck that God is no longer who He used to be.”

BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT ASAPH IS SAYING.

The word for “grief” actually means “disease or infirmity”

And what Asaph is saying is that
This “grief” is what God has changed by His mighty right hand.

God didn’t change. God changed Asaph’s “grief”.
• God changed Asaph’s “disease”
• God changed Asaph’s “infirmity”

It is important to grasp that
So that you will see that Asaph now recounts that HIS ATTITUDE and demeanor back in the first 9 verses WAS ACTUALLY A DISEASE.

He was blaming everything on God’s lack of faithfulness,
But now Asaph can see that he was the one with the problem, not God.

We might ask what this disease or infirmity was?
• The propensity to look only at his problems,
• To look only at his lack of goodness (not like things used to be)
• And to look only at God’s failure to fix it.

That was Asaph’s disease.
He had a vision problem.
He had a perspective disease.

In his struggle all that he would look at was his struggle,
That things weren’t as good as they used to be,
And that God wasn’t fixing it.

That is a formula for despair, disillusionment, & depression right there.
I don’t care how much you pray.
I don’t care how devout you are in seeking God.

If your only focus is on your trials, your lack of good,
And God’s failure to fix it
Then you are destined for despair.

You will also be confused and disheartened with God.
You also will lose hope and have the sentence of death within yourself.

Asaph sees that now.
And here he says that God changed that grief.
God healed that disease.

God didn’t take away the trial, but God did fix Asaph’s perspective.
HOW?

By a revelation of Himself.

When Asaph starts speaking again in verse 11
It is no longer about how big his problems are,
Or how deep his despair is, or how unhelpful God has been.

When Asaph speaks in verse 11
It is all about the glory of who God is and what He does.

(11-15) “I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds. Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples. You have by Your power redeemed Your people, The sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.”

There is a definite contrast presented here by Asaph.
• In verse 5 Asaph considered the days of old; those being his good old days.
• In verse 11 He is focusing on God’s days of old and His good days.

• In verse 6 he was meditating on what he might do to fix his problem.
• In verse 12 he is meditating on what God has done

• In verses 7-9 he was lamenting how God must have changed.
• In verses 13-15 he is proclaiming who God has always been.

HE HAS CHANGED HIS FOCUS

Philippians 4:6-9 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

Paul actually gives a command not to be anxious.
• That seems strange; most of us would agree that anxiety is not a choice.
• It’s not like God says, “Thou shalt not have anxiety” and we said, “Well I want
to!”
• Anxiety is more of a consequence than a choice, so how can God tell us not to
have it?

Because anxiety is preventable
If we do what God has commanded us to do.

And it is this: “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

“Prayer” – “Supplication” – “Thanksgiving” – “Requests”

And the result is that “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

And then “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

Change your focus.
• Stop looking at your problem.
• Stop looking at the good ole days you are mourning.
• Stop focusing on what God isn’t doing.
• Start focusing on who God is.

And the result is that “the God of peace will be with you.”

That is what Asaph is doing.
He has found the cure for his grief.
It is focusing on the greatness of who God is and what He has done.

“I will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds.”
I just start thinking about all the good things You have done.

And what did Asaph learn from those meditations?
• “Your way, O God, is holy;” – You always do what is right.
• “What god is great like our God?” – There is none like You.
• “You are the God who works wonders;” – Your power is limitless
• “You have made known Your strength among the peoples;” – You reveal Yourself
• “You have by Your power redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph” – You are a Savior.

Do you know what we call what Asaph just did?
We call that putting on the helmet of the hope of salvation.

• He guarded his mind from all of his doubts and despair by choosing what to focus on.
• He took his thoughts captive in obedience to Christ.
• He put away anxiety and focused on what was lovely.

And now he’s a different guy.
• It’s not that his despair wasn’t real; we saw that it was.
• It’s that he has now put on the helmet of hope in who God is and what God has done.

That is when we quote verses like:
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

I don’t know what is going on,
But I know who God is and what God does.
And with that hope we guard our minds
From anxiety and despair and disillusionment.

And Asaph even gives us the specific story
That seemed to pull him out of the pit and cure his grief.

#4 HIS CONSIDERATION
Psalms 77:16-20

Do you recognize that story?
It is the parting of the Red Sea.

Asaph was blown away by the majestic power God demonstrated there..
What other god has ever done such a thing?
What other god has such power?

TURN TO: EXODUS 14

Did you catch the despair of the children of Israel?
• They were looking at their problem.
• They were remembering the good ole days.
• But Moses was focused on the power of God.

This story delivered Asaph.
If God could part the waters then certainly God could fix his problem.

But there is more that Asaph noticed, and it’s so good!

(19-20) “Your way was in the sea and Your paths in the mighty waters, and Your footprints may not be known. You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.”

We saw the story of the Red Sea.
• The children of Israel walked right into a trap and it looked like certain disaster.

• So, was it a navigational mistake by Moses that landed them there?
• Was it a detour that caused them to be stuck in such a predicament?

NO – God led them there.
“Your way was in the sea”

It was God’s sovereign prerogative to lead Israel right into that dilemma that He might demonstrate His great power.

The next time you find yourself in a dilemma or in despair
And it feels like God is not the same God He used to be,
Then go do what Asaph did and read Exodus 14.

Start focusing on the great power of God and His sovereign hand and remember that “all things work together for good for them that love God”.

• Asaph read that story and it was hope for him.
• Asaph read that story and he put on his helmet of salvation.
• Asaph protected his thought life and his perspective and his meditation and
what a wonder it worked on him.

THIS IS WHAT WE MUST DO.

It is imperative that you guard your mind with the hope of salvation.

• Do not let anxiety and despair and disillusionment creep in.
• Focus on what is good and lovely.
• Stay in the word and be amazed with the power and salvation of God.

• It will change your outlook in your trials as well.
• It will allow you to go forward in battle, even against overwhelming odds, armed with the hope of salvation.