The Christian Hope in Trials

I'm thankful for the truths that we sang tonight. And I hope that you believe these truths that we sang.

Christianity is maligned in our culture. Christianity is,

I think, not well represented by some. I'm going to tell you right now, you know this, anybody in here who's known me,

I've pastored here for eight years, I grew up here. In this community, anybody here who's known me, you've known that I've been guilty of what

I'm about to say as well. But we have too many professing believers, too many churches not taking

Christianity seriously. On this day,

March 3rd, 165 years ago.

So March 3rd, 1859, a little bit of back story.

In April of 1858, John Patton and his newly wed wife,

Mary Patton, they had just left Scotland for the

New Hebrides Islands. They're islands kind of, if you can picture Australia in your mind, kind of like to the right of Australia, so the east, kind of like northeast of Australia, there's all these islands.

And the New Hebrides is this group of islands that John and his new wife,

Mary, left in April 1858 to take the gospel to cannibals, people that eat people.

And these, literally, they would kill people and eat them. And before the

Pattons arrived, they had killed people and ate them. And they had killed people who had tried to take the gospel to them.

And so it was on this day, March 3rd, 1859, if you do the math, it's less than a year after they had left that Mary Patton died.

She succumbed to tropical fever and she died. Not long before her death, she said this,

I do not regret leaving home and friends. If I had it to do over, I would do it with more pleasure.

Yes, with all my heart. And now, Mary Patton is gone.

But listen, you need to hear tonight that it doesn't end there. You see, not long before her passing, she had given birth to a son.

And a few weeks later, the infant son also perished.

And so here's John Patton, who had left his home and his livelihood and all these things to go to the

New Hebrides Islands to these people who needed Christ.

And now here he is, and he's digging not one grave, but two.

He buries his wife, he buries his son.

He goes on, he says, but for Jesus, I'd have gone mad and died beside that lonely grave.

He goes on to say this, let those, I told somebody this afternoon,

I literally would not know how to preach without the sound of children in this room. I praise

God for it. Now they all be quiet. I didn't know

I had that power. Patton says this, let those who have ever passed through similar darkness as of midnight feel for me.

I was stunned and my reason seemed almost to give way. I built a wall of coral around the grave and covered the top with beautiful white coral, broken small as gravel.

That spot became my sacred and much frequented shrine during all the years that amidst difficulties, dangers and deaths,

I labored for the salvation of those savage islanders.

I'll be honest, sometimes I look around and I think, do we even understand

Christianity? We've painted such a strange picture of Christianity in America today.

We are consumed with stuff and worldly pleasures and carnality.

Suffering is so foreign to Christianity in our world today that says

God just wants us to be happy. Live how you want. God, it's just all about, it's just happy, happy, happy.

So turn tonight to Psalm 119, all of that to say this, Psalm 119. Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy is not always the reality of the

Christian life. True Christianity follows a path of trial.

But tonight there is hope and that's where we turn to in our text, the

Christian hope in trial. Psalm 119, would you stand with me as we begin our fourth section?

We begin in verse 25. The psalmist writes, my soul clings to the dust.

Give me life according to your word. When I told of my ways, you answered me.

Teach me your statutes. Make me understand the way of your precepts and I will meditate on your wondrous works.

My soul melts away for sorrow. Strengthen me according to your word.

Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law. I have chosen the way of faithfulness.

I set your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord. Let me not be put to shame.

I will run in the way of your commandments. When you enlarge my heart, let's pray.

Father, help us tonight, help us tonight to focus.

Help us tonight to hear what your word has to say. Help us tonight to understand the reality of suffering and let us be a people who understand your testimonies and choose faithfulness and delight in what your word has to say and follow your word no matter the cost.

Let us choose the path that is ancient and let us walk in the way of truthfulness and faithfulness and holiness.

Let us rest ourselves in the Lord Jesus. We pray that you would work in this place by your

Spirit for the glory of Christ. We pray in His name, Amen. You may be seated.

The first point I have for us tonight, number one, is the reality of despondency.

The reality of despondency. Despondency is just a state of low spirits caused by loss of hope or courage.

So, the reality of despondency. What I'm trying to communicate in this point is despondency is a reality.

Look at the text, look at verse 25. My soul clings to the dust. Give me life according to your word.

Look at verse 28, very similar, parallel. My soul melts away for sorrow.

Strengthen me according to your word.

I need to ask you tonight, do you feel this? Is there any part of your soul that feels what the psalmist is saying?

Have you never experienced this kind of temptation to give up?

It's a part of the Christian life. Now, what were the causes of this?

We're not shown here, but I have a few thoughts for the psalmist's life and ours.

One of the things that may have caused this low state is persecution. So, we saw that in John Patton's life, there was persecution.

But ultimately, that's not what took his wife. But we still see persecution, actual persecution.

People around the world today being threatened for their faith. I find this interesting, by the way, in America, we find all these excuses not to gather while people around the world are gathering in the face of actual and real persecution.

But that can perhaps cause us to be tempted to give up. Remember Brian Borgman, I told you, he thinks it's possible

Daniel wrote this song. We don't know that. But if you remember what happened to Daniel, he was a stranger in a foreign land.

First Peter calls us sojourners and exiles. I just want to tell you this tonight. I don't know if you feel this or not, but sometimes

I just get so weary. When I turn on the television and I see some crazy person has murdered all these people or there might be women on there shouting out their abortion or people in all these different hair colors talking about it.

It doesn't matter what gender you are. I just get so weary of living in a world that hates

God. And I get weary sometimes of looking around at people professing

Christianity. But they too seem to be infatuated with the idolatry and carnality.

They look at sometimes people like us and they're like, y 'all are the weird ones.

And I'm like, no, there's Christ, there's glory, there's truth, there's the church.

And I could go on and on and on. I'll be mindful of time. These kids got to get to bed.

But you understand what I'm saying? There's sometimes there's explicit persecution and then there's sometimes just the pressure from the world.

It causes us to be like, God, oh, this is hard. Or there might be suffering.

So persecution, suffering, physical or mental anguish. Certainly John Patton dealt with that.

Or the doctor report comes back different. Or there's financial pressure.

You feel the pressure of the economy or maybe there's church conflict, whatever the case may be.

Suffering is hard. My soul clings to the dust. My soul,

I'm reading now verse 28, my soul melts away for sorrow. Sometimes what causes this is sin.

So sometimes there's sin against us. Someone sins against us and it breaks our heart.

Or sometimes we sin and it drives us to this state.

So sometimes people sin against us and we can be discouraged. Or sometimes we commit sin and then we can feel in this lowest state or despondent.

We can be self -centered or sometimes, I want to tell you this, sometimes God mercifully rips an idol out of your heart.

He takes away that thing that you were chasing. Whether it be like, you know, an athlete tears his

ACL and his career is over. Or it's maybe he takes away that promotion, you get fired from your job.

Or maybe he takes away that land that you planned on hunting on this year or whatever the case is.

God mercifully rips an idol away from us and it hurts.

Maybe it can tempt us to be despondent. But here's what I want to say to you tonight.

Despondency, though it is a reality, it's dangerous. It can destroy us.

When we yield to despondency, when we fail to believe the promises of God, we sin before God.

A state of just low courage or no courage or loss of hope.

We feel like these verses, my soul clings to the dust. Give me life according to your word. Verse 28, my soul melts for sorrow.

Strengthen me according to your word. There are many exhortations I could give you about this tonight, but one is, let me point you to Jesus.

Christ was tempted toward despondency, so let me read to you Matthew 26, 36 -39, listen to this.

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray.

And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.

Then he said to them, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death, remain here and watch with me.

And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. So let me tell you this, Jesus was sorrowful and tempted with despondency, but never yielded to this sin.

He overcame this succumbing to despair, and it reminds us of the sufficiency we have in our

Lord Jesus. Our great Savior overcame sin, and then he paid for our sins, bearing

God's wrath in our place. Our sins, listen to me tonight, our sins clung to Jesus by imputation, so that our souls would not have to cling to the dust, but instead could cling to Christ.

The reality is tonight, that all that you hold dear can fail you. Your spouse can pass away.

Your children, our bodies may fail, our bank account may fail, our friends may fail, our family may fail, our fellow church members may fail, but listen to me tonight, our hope is not in these things.

Our hope is in Christ. Rest in Christ, otherwise you will succumb to this temptation.

Secondly, I want to speak about the relief of declaration. So, number one, the reality of despondency.

Secondly, there is relief, the relief of declaration. How do we fight trials?

How do we fight trials that are caused by suffering or persecution or sometimes our own sin?

Well, look at verse 26. It says, when I told of my ways, or the King James says, I have declared my ways and thou hurtest me.

ESV, when I told of my ways, you answered me. There is relief in declaration.

So, let me break this down for us. First of all, church, we need to declare our ways to God.

Confession and repentance of sin. Confession and repentance of despairing or losing hope.

I hope you're hearing me tonight. Verse 26, when I told of my ways, my soul is clinging to the dust.

I've allowed sin or maybe persecution or maybe suffering. I've allowed it to drive me to despair.

God already knows this. We need to speak this to Him. What intimacy we have with this holy

God. He already knows your ways and He loves you anyway. His love for you is proven on Calvary.

The gospel reveals to us God's love. We sang all of this about tonight and tenderness,

He sought me. The righteous life of Christ, the substitutionary work of Christ, His death,

His victorious resurrection, all of these prove God's love for us. So, confess your sins to God, pray to God.

One of the reasons we need to pray is we need to obey verse 26, to tell our ways to God.

And look at the text, when we do, He hears us. You look in there in verse 26, you answered me.

When we speak our ways to God, God hears us.

Like, have you thought about that for a second? Who are you that the infinite God of the universe hears your prayers?

But it's not only about declaring our ways to God. Secondly, it's also about declaring

God's way to ourselves. So, the text says in verse 27, make me understand the way of your precepts and I will meditate on your wondrous works.

Now, the word for meditate can also be translated like tell.

So, in 1 Chronicles 16 .9, it says, sing to Him, sing praises to Him, tell of all

His wondrous works. So, the Hebrew here is a bit ambiguous. It could either mean

I will tell, verse 27, I will tell your wondrous works or I will meditate on your wondrous works.

Well, which is it? Well, let me put it to you this way. When you meditate on God's word, you are speaking to yourself

God's ways. So, there's an aspect that we must declare our ways to God and confess our sins, but there's another aspect where we take up the

Bible and we declare God's ways to ourselves. We declare the ways of God to our own hearts and minds.

You're fighting with despair. You're fighting with giving up. Hey, I'm just going to tell you, man, we're a church of young children.

I know what it's like. Well, I don't know what it's like to be a young mother. Okay, I almost said that. I don't know what it's like to be a young mother.

I know what it's like to be a young father. I know what it's like to have young children. I know what it's like to be like,

God, is this ever like, what's going to happen? Like, I just feel I don't have any more to give.

I feel stretched so thin. What are we going to do? Listen, when we deal with situations like that in our life, not only do we need to confess that to God, but we also need to speak

God's truth to ourselves. We need to meditate on His word.

And I might also add that we should tell of His ways, not only internally to ourselves, we should speak the truth of God to one another.

You know, one of the balms for your soul, one of the medicines that God has given for your despondent soul is to speak the truth of God one to another in the church.

Hey, could you challenge yourself this week to be an encouragement in the body of Christ?

Speak, and how do you be an encouragement? You don't just say, oh, you look pretty today. You speak the promises and truths and ways of God to one another.

Now, I gave you an example of Jesus in the last point, and I'll give you another example of Jesus in this point.

In John 12, 27 and 28, Jesus says, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall

I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I have come to this hour.

Father, glorify Your name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.

Do you see what Jesus did there? Now, this is without sin. Jesus is not confessing sin.

Jesus is just telling of His ways to God. My soul is troubled, and yet He's speaking this out loud not only for Himself, but so these other people hear it, right?

And He's declaring His inner thoughts openly to the Father, and He's declaring the

Father openly to the crowds. What an example we have in Jesus.

Jesus tells His ways and declares

God's ways. So I say tonight, if you're feeling despondent or gloomy or depressed, two things you need to do.

One, you need to declare your ways to God. Secondly, you need to declare

God's ways to yourself. You need to preach the Gospel to yourself.

You need to preach the truths of God to yourself. Finally, let me say this.

The requirement of discipline. So the reality of despondency, the relief of declaration.

Thirdly, the requirement of discipline. So I don't want to lose focus on the psalm tonight. Look how the psalmist prays.

Look at the end of verse 26. Teach me your statutes. Look at the end of verse 27.

I will meditate on your wondrous works. Make me to understand the first part of 27.

Make me to understand your precepts. Strengthen me, 28, according to your word.

Put false ways from me, 29. Graciously teach me your law. The psalmist, one of the things that the psalmist requires in order to fight this despondency is to know

God's word. To learn God's word. We can't learn and know God's word if we don't have a desire to be disciplined, to stay in the word.

Verse 29 or verse 30, I have chosen the way of faithfulness. I set your rules before me. Hey, let me say this to us tonight.

Will you choose the way of faithfulness? Look, I know, listen to me children and adults. I know in this room tonight,

I'm not being judgmental. I'm not being like, hey, I've got my regeneration goggles on.

Those aren't a thing. But I know in our midst, there are people here who don't know

Christ. I know that. I know that there are people who aren't trusting

Christ. And I'm asking you tonight, will we choose, verse 30, the way of faithfulness?

The Psalmist makes a conscious, disciplined resolve to choose the way of faithfulness.

To choose the ancient paths. To choose God's ways.

Friends, we have memorized Psalm 1. How many ways are there to live?

Two. There is the way of faithfulness and there is the way of wickedness.

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

But his delight is where? In the law of the Lord. And on his law, he meditates day and night.

There's two ways to live. The way of faithfulness or the way of faithlessness. There's not an in -between.

Like, I'm so confused sometimes when I talk to people, I say, are you a Christian?

Yes. In what capacity are you a Christian? I think some people think to be a

Christian means we've just checked off some boxes. And so, well, we're not a

Muslim. Well, I'm not a Hindu. I'm not an atheist. I must be a

Christian. If you're a Christian, you choose the way of faithfulness. Which will you choose?

Again, verse 30. I have chosen the way of faithfulness. What does it mean to choose the way of faithfulness?

I have set your rules before me. Let me put it to you this way tonight, Providence. Which Christianity are you gonna choose?

I never, it is never my desire to disparage another church. So I'm trying to say this carefully and I don't wanna disparage

Christ's bride. We should tremble before we do such a thing.

But there is a movement among us, I'm afraid today, to water down Christianity.

To make Christianity about walking in aisle, praying a prayer. I pat myself on the back.

Hey, this is what it means to be a biblical man. This is what it means to be a biblical woman.

And we're gonna do the purity ring and we're gonna do all these things and but we're just gonna look and act and live like the world.

We're not gonna be concerned about the mission of Christ. We're not gonna be concerned about the church of Christ. We're not gonna be concerned about worship in our homes.

We're not gonna be concerned about serious evangelism and church planning and ordering our churches rightly and plurality of elders and these sorts of things.

Like all that stuff, we just don't care. We just wanna feel better about ourselves. And I'm saying to you, which will you choose?

We can't have it both ways. Will we choose the way of God's faithfulness?

The way of faithfulness. And if we choose that way, that means setting the rules of God before us.

Now listen, you guys know me. It's only by sovereign grace that we choose the way of faithfulness.

No person dead in their sins ever woke up one day and just said, hey, today I'm gonna choose biblical

Christianity. I'm gonna leave the world. I'm gonna leave watered down Christianity. I'm gonna leave idolatry and carnality.

And today I'm just gonna be a Christian. We know that doesn't happen because the dead in sin hate

God. But listen to me, church. God wakes up people through the use of means.

And one of the ways that God works in the hearts of people is when people are sitting under the preaching of the word and they are hearing that you are responsible to choose the way of faithfulness and not the way of destruction.

Listen to me tonight, church. Pastor Jacob and myself, there is nothing special about us, but I do wanna say this about our church.

What in the world is going on in Perry County, Arkansas, in Central Arkansas, that God would plant a church in our midst that is unashamed of the gospel and is trying though imperfectly, but trying by the

Lord's grace to just take up the book and say, this is what the Bible says and this is what we're gonna do.

What a great grace this local church is. That's not a reflection upon your pastors.

It's not a reflection upon anybody in here. It's a reflection upon the glory of Christ.

And I'm telling you tonight, whether you're a visitor or you're an unconverted child, or perhaps you're a member who is hiding hypocrisy, you will be held greatly accountable for the fact that here is a church before you preaching the gospel, seeking to be biblical, and you reject it.

So I'm pleading with you tonight to consider these things and to consider what the psalmist says.

I have chosen the way of faithfulness. Now, okay, we're gonna hurry, but not only does he set his rules,

God's rules before him, notice verse 29, he puts false ways. Put false ways from me.

So let me just run this by you real quick. Are you struggling tonight with sin, overeating, pornography, excessive spending, laziness, worldly pleasure, idolatry?

To choose the way of faithfulness means I'm leaving those things. I'm turning, I'm not putting myself in those situations.

I'm putting carnality and these things and sin away from me and I'm running to Jesus. And I'm putting away putrid doctrine.

I'm putting away watered down Christianity. I'm putting away false gospels. I'm putting false things from me and I'm running to Christ.

I'm telling you tonight, put those things, drugs and sin and sexual morality, run away from those things and run to Jesus.

I'm not saying clean yourself up and then go to Jesus. I'm saying by the act of you going to Jesus, you leave those things behind and he's worth it.

And this is worth it. Set God's rules before you.

This is another word for the scriptures. Cling to his testimonies.

In fact, look at verse 31. I do need to show this to you real quick. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord. That's the same word from verse 25.

My soul clings to the dust. So the idea is tonight, will we cling to the dust or cling to his testimonies?

Right, you understand? Will I cling to the dust in my despondency or will

I cling to the testimonies and the truth of God, his word? Verse 31 says, let me not be put to shame.

Verse 32, I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart. There's just so much here. Maybe I should have just put a couple of sermons.

Let me say this and then we're gonna land the plane.

I'm trying. John, one thing that I need to say is do not say to me tonight, if you choose the way of faithfulness, that your life is gonna be better.

I go back to the introduction. John Patton and his wife, Mary Patton, chose the way of faithfulness.

They said, we are not going to sit around and let people around the world perish without ever having heard of Christ.

We're leaving it all and we're going. And we have this mentality, I think, as Americans, to think if we choose what

God says to choose, he's gonna bless us. Our house will get bigger. Our cars will get bigger. Our bank accounts will get bigger.

All these things will get bigger. If I just do what God says to do, then all these things will happen to me. But sometimes you do what

God says to do and your life, as far as worldly speaking is concerned, gets worse.

If Patton stays in Scotland, maybe his wife doesn't die. But do you think that they regret it today?

Of course not. We need

God tonight, verse 32, to enlarge our hearts. As we come to God in prayer and in Scripture intake, the gathered assembly in the local church, we understand that God is the one enlarging our hearts.

Actually, the phrase can also mean that he sets our heart free. That's amazing. It's actually amazing.

The phrase could mean he either enlarges our heart or he sets our heart free. And we need God to do that.

God, set our hearts free from the love of the world and idolatry and the paltry forms of Christianity that are in the world today.

Set my heart free from love for sin and enslavement to sin. Set my heart free and set it on Christ.

And live grace. And grace fuels our effort.

It's why you need to be reminded again and again that the work has been completed in Christ. And when we're reminded of that,

God's grace that we talked about in Sunday school this morning frees us. It frees us, not freedom to sin, freedom to obey, freedom to run, verse 32, in the way of God's commandments, not walk, run.

Because I'm not depending on these commandments as my way to procure God's favor.

Rather, I'm seeking to live out these commandments out of a freed heart, out of an enlarged heart that now desires to follow

Christ to arrest all my sins and failures and what He has done for me.

Praise God. This is the heart that God gives us, that He gives His people, a heart that desires to walk in His ways.

Listen tonight, do you have a heart like that? Only God can give it to you.

The call to you is to look to Christ. You know, the sermon title tonight, maybe the direction this sermon has gone, it didn't really fit, maybe, the

Christian hope and trials. Man, just all those songs that we sang, thinking about the gospel, thinking about the worthiness of Christ, thinking about the greatness of God, the sovereignty of God.

Church, are we going to play games at Christianity or are we going to leave it all behind and say

Christ is worthy of a healthy church and Christ is worthy of a group of faithful Christians that love

Him and pursue Him in obedience by His grace for the glory of His name?

Are we going to believe these principles and live them out? Let me,

I'm really gonna close with this. Listen, as I said earlier, there are some of you in here tonight, whether you're a child, whether you're a

Nelson child, some of you are very young and you don't know Christ.

Some of you in here are visitors perhaps and you don't know Christ. Some of you in here are members perhaps and you don't know

Christ. I say to you tonight, I set life and death before you.

You can walk out of here tonight and you can say, blah, blah, blah,

Quattro's on a rant. I'm going back and I'm waking up tomorrow and I'm going right back to the rat race and to the routine.

And one day if you continue in that direction, you will pass from this life and when you open your eyes, you will be in and under the judgment of God.

Or there's life before you. Tonight you can not walk but run to the

Lord Jesus Christ who has suffered in our place, who has carried our shame and our sorrow and our sins, who has died on the cross, who has procured our righteousness and then died for the penalty that we deserve and then risen again from the grave and you can leave all the sin and all the worldliness and all the idolatry and you can run to Jesus and you can say there really is something in what the preacher's saying.

Not because of the preacher, but because of the book. There really is something in the book about the glory and worthiness and loveliness of Christ and I will give my all to live for this

King. No matter the cost. Help me to live that way and I'll help you.

And we'll be a church that God is pleased to call

His own. Father, thank You for Your Word. I pray God that we would take it seriously.

Help us to run in Your way. Enlarge our heart, free our heart and let us be the church that You'd have us to be.

Speak to us from Your Word. We pray even tonight that those that need to repent would that if there's any lost person here they would trust

Christ. And Lord that we'd be resolved as Christians to be people of the book, to love the truth, to love