FBC Daily Devotional – November 4, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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I'm actually recording this on election day, so obviously have no idea what the outcome of the elections are.

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And even though it's, when you're watching this, it's Wednesday, we still probably don't have any idea what the outcome of some of the elections are, especially the general election for the president.

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I'm wondering if we're going to find that out for Christmas, maybe before Thanksgiving. I don't know.

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Crazy. It is a crazy time of life in our nation's history, isn't it?

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It's really, really quite sad as well. But we don't want to focus on that. We want to focus on being thankful.

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This is the month of Thanksgiving. This is the month of November. And we started off the last couple of days, beginning of this month, this new series of daily devotionals, just gearing our hearts toward gratitude and toward praise and thankfulness to the

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Lord. We're focusing on Psalm 103, and that Psalm begins with the exhortation to bless the

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Lord, to give praise to the Lord, and to do so with all of our being, to bless the

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Lord, to bless His holy name, and forget not all of His benefits. And we pointed out yesterday that those benefits that we are to remember are primarily of a spiritual nature.

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You know, the forgiveness of our sins. Yes, there's the aspect of the healing of our diseases, but we also understand that the ultimate healing of all of our diseases is rooted in our eternal life, and that's where ultimate, complete, total healing will take place.

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But he goes on to say, redeeming us from our life from the pit, crowning us with steadfast love and mercy, and satisfying us with good things so that our youth is renewed like the eagles.

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So certainly there is room in that list of things to be thankful for, for some of the everyday run -of -the -mill blessings, if you will.

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I told you about just trying to think of three or four things every day to be thankful for, and a couple things

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I mentioned this morning were I'm thankful for the beautiful, sunny weather and for a good cup of coffee first thing in the morning.

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Maybe that's not something you're thankful for, but there's just something about sitting down with my

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Bible, my devotional book, notebook, and a good, good stout cup of coffee at 5, 30, 6 o 'clock in the morning.

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Well, I'm thankful for those things, and those are certainly part of it, but really

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I think the focus is on just the spiritual blessings that are ours.

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But then the psalm goes on to talk about one aspect of the

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Lord's character and being for which we ought to be grateful, and that is his compassion.

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Verse 6 says, The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.

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This is an expression of the Lord's compassion, working righteousness and justice for the oppressed, and he says for all the oppressed, all who are oppressed.

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That raises a question, doesn't it? How are we to understand all here?

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What about those who have been through the centuries, the millennia, and even still are today oppressed by slavery in some form or another?

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What about those who are oppressed by overarching military regimes that just keep their people under their thumb?

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What about those who are oppressed in military prison camps?

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What about those who were oppressed in the Holocaust and were taken to the gas chambers, and all of those who were oppressed, well, they weren't delivered from that oppression, so how should we understand this?

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He works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. I think we can understand it in an immediate and in an ultimate sense.

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In the immediate sense, I think what this would mean is that the Lord works righteousness and justice for all of his covenant people who are oppressed, those who are his own.

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In the new covenant, those who are Christ's, the Lord works righteousness and justice for all believers in Christ who are oppressed.

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Now, there's also an ultimate sense to this because, again, it's like he heals all of our diseases.

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We experience some of that healing in this life, but we ultimately experience all of that healing in eternity, and the

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Lord does indeed work righteousness and justice for all of his people who are oppressed in an ultimate sense.

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There is coming, as Peter puts it, the new heavens and the new earth, where it says, according to his promise, we are awaiting for these new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells.

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There will be no unrighteousness. There will be no oppression in the new heavens and the new earth under the reign, the global, eternal reign of Christ.

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So we can think of it in that way, but the psalmist here is zeroing in on the

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Old Testament covenant people, the old covenant people. When he says, though the

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Lord works righteousness and justice for all of his covenant people who are oppressed, he goes on to illustrate that from history.

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So in verse 7, he says, he made known his ways, those ways of righteousness and justice for the oppressed.

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He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.

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So that takes us back to Exodus. So how did God make known his ways to Moses and his acts to the people of Israel, his ways of righteousness and justice for the oppressed?

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Well, of course, the people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, had been in Egyptian bondage and the bondage itself, the oppression itself, for years and years and years and years, long prior to Moses coming to deliver them from that bondage and oppression.

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And the Lord looked down upon his oppressed people and determined to deliver them. So even that deliverance from Egypt we could think of as being a way in which the

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Lord worked righteousness and justice for the oppressed. But Moses is thinking of something, or the psalmist here is thinking of something beyond that.

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Because you remember, even after the people were oppressed or delivered from that oppression in Egypt, they entered into the wilderness, and you come to Exodus 32, and they were still obviously under the oppression of idolatry, that old

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Egyptian way of religion. They made that golden calf and they bowed down and worshipped that golden calf and said, these are the gods that brought us out of Egypt and out of bondage, as if this golden calf that they made could do that.

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That is an expression of their bondage to the oppression of idolatry.

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And the Lord threatened to punish the people severely for that idolatry.

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So Moses prays, intercedes on behalf of the people, and the Lord responds to that intercession.

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And then Moses prays this. Listen to what he says. He says, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.

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Consider too that this nation is your people. So Moses prays, show me your ways, and consider that this nation is your people.

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Well, what did the Lord show him? What ways did the

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Lord show him? The Lord answers Moses' prayer in Exodus 34 and verses 36 and 7.

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And here's what the Lord says. Says the Lord passed by him and proclaimed, quote, the

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Lord or Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

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So what were the ways that the Lord showed

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Moses and what acts did he show to the people of Israel? Well, the very things that the psalmist then expresses next, and we'll look at that in just a second, but listen again to what the

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Lord said. Here's how I will show you, here are the ways that I will show you. I will show you that I am a gracious and merciful

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God, that I am slow to anger, that I am abounding in steadfast love, that is loyalty to the covenant and faithfulness, that I keep steadfast love.

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I maintain loyalty to my covenants for thousands. I forgive iniquity and transgression and sin.

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So you who are in bondage and under oppression to sin,

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I will work righteousness and justice for you who are oppressed.

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And what I will work is, the ways that I will work are ways of graciousness and mercy, slowness to anger, abundance of steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiveness of iniquity and transgression and sin.

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Now the way the Lord answered Moses is echoed here in the psalm.

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Right after the psalmist says that he made, the Lord made his ways, known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel, listen to what he says next.

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The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

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He will not always chide nor will he keep his anger forever. The psalmist is echoing some of the same terms, words, expressions of God's character and kindness and grace of his righteous and just acts for the oppressed here in psalm 103.

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He says essentially the same thing. Now the psalmist is going to elaborate on this even further to show how the

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Lord works righteousness and justice for his people who are woefully oppressed by sin.

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He's going to elaborate on that in the next several verses but we'll save those for tomorrow.

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I hope you'll come back and hear about these exciting works of the

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Lord that he does in behalf of the oppressed. So for today let's give thanks to the

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Lord for his mercy and his grace, his slowness to anger, his abundance in steadfast love.

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Our Father and our God we are grateful today that you work righteousness and justice for all that are oppressed.

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Oppressed by our own sinfulness, oppressed by the bondage that is so often felt even by those who are your covenant people.

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And Father we thank you for your character. Thank you that you are merciful, that you are gracious.

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Thank you for your slowness to anger, for your abundance of steadfast love, of loyalty to your covenant, to your people.

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We thank you and praise you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen. All right well this is the middle of the week and normally at church we would have a midweek service at seven o 'clock on Wednesday night.

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Well we'll not be doing that because of some of the COVID outbreak and so forth, but there will be tonight at seven o 'clock a special devotional time and prayer time and you can tune in on the church website at faithbaptisterling .com

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and we'll share that time together this evening. So for the rest of the day have a good one and may the

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Lord bless you richly and give you a great rest of your middle of the week day.