The Privilege of Injustice — Art Katz

Good morning, precious saints. What a privilege to be in the house of God with you. I told pastor I've been a believer for 35 years. But I have never observed worship like this. I don't think you have any need of me or my message.

Psalm 43 and the Cry of the Afflicted

But I would direct you to my morning devotional reading on February 13th. Which is Psalm 43. Are you reading the Psalms every day? Really reading? Devotionally? Not as religious obligation? Of how many chapters you have read?

But to luxuriate in the word. To dwell in the word. So let's read this short Psalm. Psalm 43. It's a cry Of a man who is afflicted. A man who is oppressed. A man who is suffering injustice. And that is traditionally the condition of the psalmist.

He's hated by the world. Even the religious world. And what he suffers Is the result of his relationship with God. He would not have needed to suffer it. If he was satisfied with something less. But the deeper the relationship The more intimate the knowledge The greater the suffering.

The Privilege of Suffering Injustice

I'm giving a title to my message this morning. I hope you will understand me. The privilege of injustice. It is a privilege to suffer injustice. If it will bring you to a depth in God Then only it can.

Vindication Belongs to God

We will praise God for the privilege. For listen to this. It begins with the cry of verse 1. Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause Against an ungodly people. Vindicate, justify me.

They are deceitful and unjust. Deliver me. His appeal is not to men Not to society Nor to government.

But to God. You, deliver me. Because what I'm suffering Is because of you. And I look to you only. Vindicate me, justify me. For you are the God in whom I take refuge. This is not a mere play on words.

This is not religious language. This is heartfelt cry directly to God. By a man who will not look to any other source But to God only.

And if God will not vindicate him Will not answer him Will not defend him Than any benefit that he might have obtained.

When God Withholds the Immediate Answer

But God does not answer. And the psalmist cries out in verse 2. Why have you cast me off? Why must I walk about mournfully? Because of the oppression of the enemy. Why don't you hear me? Why don't you answer immediately?

What kind of God are you? For the issue of what I'm suffering.

Is about you. Why do they come in my behest?

Why am I mourning? Why do I feel that you have cast me off? This brings our whole faith into question. Where is God? When we so urgently need him And have been faithful And have not turned to another He still does not answer.

The Psalms are God's end time book. It's instruction for the believers of the last days. Who if we are not suffering oppression now.

We will then not receive an immediate answer.

Doesn't he hear? Has he not the power to reply? Why does he withhold answer? If you could but understand This is very love. Because if he gave you an immediate answer Of making Jesus your errand boy You call the answers.

He serves your purposes.

He's for your convenience. Yes you have received an answer. But degraded, dumped on what he is. And when he withholds his answer Then we might really know him.

As something more than an errand boy Who does our bidding. And we don't know him as we ought.

That cannot be obtained. If that's what our suffering is about. It's a different kind of suffering.

Light and Truth Lead into God's Dwelling

Oh in verse 3. Oh send out your light and your truth Let them lead me Let them bring me to your home.

And to your dwelling. What he's asking.

He's not praying that God will lead his oppressor Afflicting him. But let them lead me. Send the light. The word send is the great apostolic word. That's what the Greek word apostolos means Send. It must be sent from God.

It's God's initiative. We have to wait for him to take it.

We cannot compel him But we can only appeal to him. Send light, not my oppressor. Send light and truth. Let them and to your dwelling. That's an ultimate place.

Have you been there? The holy hill. The very dwelling. It's not a place for the curious.

It's not for us to gape at him and stare at him. It's a revelation of God as God.

In the holy place When he will give us light to find it And the cry that comes out of our affliction Safed from it Because it's inconvenient By light and truth Into the holy place of God.

Place of true sacrifice Place of true worship. And I will praise you By exceeding you. How valuable is it.

To experience the joy of the Lord Unfeigned joy. It's not something that we can work up It is something given. It is joy unspeakable. Founders. Come to the place of dwelling. My exceeding joy. There is something so intensely personal about this That's true of all the psalms.

The psalm that says My God My defense My strength My exceeding joy Is mine As person in my deeds Because I have been brought there By the difficulty of my circumstances. I'm not turning to man Nor murmuring nor complaining As if it has come from men.

But I receive it as privilege Because it brings me to God.

Who becomes by that.

My exceeding great joy. We are privileged To be the afflicted and the oppressed people of God.

Not because we're black.

But because we're lovers of God Does the world despise us And afflict us And drive us to Him. So the psalmist talks to his own soul.

Speaking to the Cast-Down Soul

In verse 5.

Why are you cast down on my soul? The soul is the emotions of man. The feelings. That always wants to feel sorry for us. That always wants to encourage self-pity. That always wants to run the show. That wants us to become soulless.

But the soul is only one component of man.

And his spirit, his true identity. What in fact he is indeed.

Has God to take us and speak to us. Why are you cast down? I'm not going to allow you that mood. I'm not going to allow that mood to swallow me. I'm in my spirit.

And God is in my spirit. So why are you cast down? Why are you quiet in God? For I shall again praise Him My help and my God.

Love that song. You sense the kind of intimate knowledge That the psalmist has of God My Lord My help. When a man can talk like that Like that It doesn't matter what the external conditions Of the life might be.

You've come to something precious.

Something indestructible.

Something the world cannot provide Something enduring Is my God My strength My joy. I've appropriated something.

As I cried out to Him He gave me life But not right away. And rejoicing in Him Who is my hope. Who shared your experience.

A People Who Look to God Rather Than Human Vindication

It's a saving message Revelation Those who are satisfied Only with religion And even that Not too effectually See an entire people.

Who do not look to men. Or to society.

To right the injustices But to God Think exclusively.

It's something of what the world Does not know.

And cannot know. It cannot be presented to them As a principle. It has to be presented to them As a reality Demonstrated by an entire people Who are in their midst. Who have the joy of God. Not as some kind of cultural thing Or some soullessly prompted thing But as something Given By God who waits To make Him alone.

Who has found Him like that Who has the opportunity To find Him like that. And those who've had the privilege Of injustice We don't cry out Because we're suffering inconvenience. Or someone has more than we have.

That's not a cry that he will hear. We're suffering because of our faith. We're suffering an injustice From the world And trusting God to vindicate us Not for something that's petty And personal to ourselves.

It's not an issue of creature comfort It's the question of The name of God And the honor of God.

As is seen in His people. Not expected immediately And saving you.

From minimizing God.

And He waits to be recognized. This is historic By a nation Or an entire continent That the issue is God Not to be submitted.

As a Sunday religion But as the God who desires to be Our exceeding Not when they're sailing In Longview Expect you to be moaning With self-pity That the oppressor You are exhibiting Not for the oppressor It is the whole purpose of nations Recognized as God Because He has found a people Who know Him And it is seen in their joy That no circumstance Or situation can dim.

It's an exceeding Height of the world And we will only be brought there By this.

He waits to be met there It's deep And He's deep Calling unto. And only this festival brings.

If it's rightly employed.

Choosing God in the Midst of Distress

We miss a choice Of how we will use The circumstances of our life. One choice leads us to despair To anger.

To violence To alcoholism To defeat To death. And the very same distress Can lead a saint to God To deep calling unto deep That is exceedingly great. The same circumstance.

Your response. What. Education. Advantage or disadvantage. In the moment of choice When we assert ourselves Not to be depressed. The men.

And we are in ourselves Ethnic origin True selfhood Because we have chosen.

Himself has produced the distress He has employed men But he himself is the author.

As a deep. So. It's an ultimate power. He allows circumstances.

He does all things well. And a person Are required to respect In our relationship with God By our. Are you going to be the psalmists Of your own generation Are you sweet singers Of Israel. Burberry.

About the injustices That are in the world Recognized As given by God To bring you to a place In the knowledge of him Of which the world Knows nothing.

Does not even know That such a place is possible Is occupied with the world And will perish Until there is a people Authentically The joy of the Lord Light has come Take an initiative And by that light We will find the holy place Fine As the deep unto deep As our refuge Our strength Our exceeding great joy.

That's the purpose For your existence. That's why God has made you black And sent you in the midst Of this continent To have a ministry To inspire people To demonstrate God Not as we're thinking to be A Sunday supplement But as he in fact is.

The God of Abraham and Isaac And Jacob The God of our fathers The God who sent Jesus The God who is Only distressful to you. There's no other route to it Except through him. There's no other way Except through him.

That's why I've called this message Given me this morning Of injustice Nothing greater. You are a message.

From God. Satisfied with a Sunday supplement.

I have not seen An alternative. Through you. It needs a demonstration.

That only a psalmist Could make.

The unto deep In his hand Interpreting your circumstances By the eye of the spirit As not coming from man.

But from God.

Not once in this psalm. Complaint. Do we hear the psalmist Saying God Let them have it.

As only a prayer for himself Bring light and truth Into my life That I might find you And know you.

Unto joy Unspeakable And full of Glory.

Full of Glory It's your joy Unspeakable But it's his glory. He will be glorified By your joy In the face of all Because they cannot expect it. They only know happiness If you own a car If you own a BMW If you own a Mercedes.

They only know happiness But they don't know joy.

Is he God's glory. Are you praising him Are you choosing to be.

Joy as a Witness to God's Glory

My brother introduced me As an American speaker. I am no more American. I am living within His boundaries Saved by the God of Israel.

Can I pray for you. My prayers are becoming Authoritative. It's not religious human will. Wishing.

It establishes something. It becomes an event. Are you willing for a prayer like that. Are you choosing.

Are you counting yourself. The only true and living God Whose eye of compassion Looks upon this effort And sees the suffering everywhere Not only by those.

Who are down and out. But those who are up and out.

They have not seen They have not heard They do not know what is available. Raise up a people Who know you Deep in the midst Of their difficulty And their distress. May their eye look to you Might be directed to you.

As the God Who will give answer Not the relief The revelation From the holy place.

Full of Bless this Africa And this people And this faith For we have come to a crisis But this demonstration Can answer The knowledge of Great joy And our eternal reward.

In this life. And in the life to come.

Bless this people.

While they are willful Choosing Be the people of God.

That they might make him known As he deserves to be known Because he has not been Demonstrated.

By people Who joy in him In every circumstance I bless this people Bless this world.

This message Let it not fall to the ground Let it not be just A Sunday in passing. A visiting speaker. A little unusual Perception.

Let it be the word of the Lord Whose time has come An appointed word For a people and a place.

An historic word Whose time has come Sent from heaven Sent as a gift That we might receive it And this people to their nation And this nation to this country That God might be God Over all The God of us all The God of Israel The God who is God In Jesus' precious name Amen.

Not the way but I know God has spoken to us. And suffer.

To benefit.

All the dust to us. Let's give Jesus a hand clap. Our breakthrough has come. Our breakthrough has come.