In God We Trust

Good evening. It is good to be with you this evening and I hope

To give you this hope that we can trust in God Tonight and in our present day in our country.

We can trust God. I Am NOT gonna make you stand

I did this morning and it was a long passage I'm not gonna do that, but I do want to read this passage for us

Psalm 73 I'm gonna start in verse one a psalm of Asaph Truly God is good to Israel to those who are pure in heart

But as for me my feet had almost stumbled my steps had nearly slipped

For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked for they have no pangs until death

Their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are

They are not stricken like the rest of mankind Therefore pride is their necklace

Violence covers them as a garment their eyes swell out through fatness their hearts overflow with follies

They scoff and speak with malice Loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongues struts through the earth

Therefore his people turn back to them and find no fault in them and they say how can

God know is their knowledge in the? Most high behold. These are the wicked always at ease they increase in riches all in vain

Have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence for all the day long? I've been stricken and rebuked every morning if I had said

I will speak thus I would have betrayed the generation of your children But when I thought how to understand this it seemed to me a wearisome task

Until I went into the sanctuary of God then I discerned their end Truly you set them in slippery places

You make them fall to ruin how they are destroyed in a moment swept away utterly by terrors like a dream when one awakes

Oh Lord when you rouse yourself You despise them as phantoms when my soul was embittered when

I was pricked in heart. I was brutish and ignorant I was like a beast towards you Nevertheless, I'm continually with you you hold my right hand you guide me with your counsel and afterward you will receive me to glory

Whom have I in heaven but you and there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you my flesh and my heart may fail

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever For behold those who are far from you shall perish you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you

But for me it is good to be near God I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works.

Let's pray together Lord I pray that you'd bless the preaching of your word tonight

That you'd bless the hearers that you would have their eyes opened to see what they have in Christ That they can trust him that he is more than enough and we pray all this in Jesus name.

Amen All right, I don't know if you guys carry cash around with you

But this is our US dollar on the back of it It has four words you may

May know this may just look past it not think about it, but it says in God we trust

Is that true for our country? many Think that that is that's we're a

Christian country But that's a slogan that we have printed on our money that we use

And I won't but I want to tell you about a man this morning who it's more than just a slogan for him

He believed it and it was his life that he trusted in God So I want to tell you about ASAP a little bit before we go into our text

ASAP was a Levite He was of a priestly line ASAP was appointed by King David to direct the music of the worship of God in the tabernacle or the

Ark of the Covenant rested He directed the worship of God through three Kings David Solomon and Jeroboam He wrote 12 psalms psalm 73 through 83 and psalm 50

He would go into the tabernacle every day in Israel and he would lead the people in the worship of God And this is his plea.

This is a song that they would sing and so starting at verse 1 Truly God is good to Israel to those who are pure in heart

Before ASAP Begins the meat of this psalm. He pens this reality truly

God is good to Israel This is the foundation for the rest of the letter

He places his feet upon this rock before he says anything else. He makes this crystal clear affirmation

This is a lens that he saw everything in his life. God is good to Israel He is fixing to lay down some things to his people that many would be viewed as a stumbling block

ASAP you are a leader of God's people. How are you thinking this way? So he sets the foundation

This is what you have to understand before I go into any of this. God is good

God is objectively good This needs to be our lens as well as we view the world around us

We view everything else we need to place our feet on this solid rock God is good all the time and all that he does

It is sure and it will never change It is not up for debate the goodness of God It doesn't matter if you think

God is good and someone else doesn't God is good all the time and all the time

God is good His goodness permeates from all that he does

Not just the ones that we think are good There is not one fault with God his mercy in his mercy

He is good in his grace. He is good in his judgments He is good in his giving and withholding

He is good in his creation in his sustaining his chastisements

His patience his love his anger his wrath his justice

Every attribute of God is good I could say it this way who is

God God is good. His essence is good We have never known

God apart from his goodness I want you to understand that not one minute of your life has been lived apart from knowing

God in his goodness Even when you were not a Christian God was good to you but as we see in The second part of this verse it says to those who are pure in heart

So this is a point that I believe that all scripture points to It's only one people that God delivers

It's only one people that he strengthens that he makes a covenant with and those are the pure in heart

The true Israel the Israel within the Israel. Okay Romans 9 6 it tells us it's not by circumcision

It's not by your heritage. It's not by the family that you come from It's by the promise if you believe in the promise, that's

That's the children of God. It's not just Israel the nation It is those who are within Israel the true

Israel God's chosen people of the promise The God that Asaph is speaking of is the one he worships and the one he spends every day

Walking with depending on trusting and the people like Asaph are the pure in heart those who trust and hope and God the people of the

Genesis 315 promise the promise that we have in the beginning where the seed of the woman were to crush the serpents head and He would bruise his heel.

That's the promise that they had and those who are trusting in that promise. Those were the pure in heart not the

Perfect people but people that were born again That's who this text is talking about You cannot understand this text without Understanding that you must be born again.

That's the people that God strengthens. That's the people that God holds up If you're not a

Christian in here some of these prompts in here. They're not for you God is not holding you up.

God will not strengthen you. There is no wisdom that you can gain Unless you are born again

So as we read this text if this is not you if you realize you're not born again,

I know we have children here If you're not born again, you must come to Jesus Christ because he can be a refuge the pure in heart

Are not people that just have a perfect bank account There's not just people that attend church every

Sunday They're the people who are born again not perfect ASAP wasn't perfect, but it's those who are trusting

Christ verse 2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled my steps had nearly slipped

So first ASAP acknowledges his unfaithfulness and his weakness before God that he almost slipped

Wasn't God that did anything it was ASAP. He understood there was something wrong with me

I'm the one who was envious not God. God was not the one at fault, but ASAP verse 3

I was envious of the arrogant. So what was the stumbling block? What was the stumbling block of?

ASAP almost slipping it was the prosperity and the arrogance of the wicked

Let us consider that this morning Do you do this? Do you covet what the world and its followers have and I'm gonna show you from this text

All these things are worthless It doesn't make sense for you to want what the wicked have

It's gonna be burnt up in the end. You don't want it. You don't need it

But that's what ASAP was doing This is common. This is common in God's people

I want you to know that to question the goodness of God and ask why do good things

Happen to bad people and bad things to good people Let me tell you if you're a believer, it's not hopeless

This this is not a hopeless If you have this question, it's not hopeless Because what we understand is the reason that these things are happening

This has been a question that the church has had for a long time If you think that I must not be a

Christian because I have these questions, that's not true It's not true. It is common among believers to have this

So let me just encourage you with that The wicked seem to have wealth and health and don't have a care in the world

The ones who are reaping the benefits of God and they're turning their back on him and God seems to prosper them

The scripture is so relevant today, isn't it? We see that happening today We just had the president that approved and did all sorts of wicked things that you already know of I don't have to go into it

But there's things that are happening in our country that this man occupied the highest

Official status in the world and he was a very very wicked man a foolish man

God, what are you doing? God, do you not see what's going on?

That's what Asaph was dealing with Is God giving them a pass? Does he not see what's happening?

He seems to bless them with prosperity Not just getting by but having more than enough.

That's what the wicked are doing a life of peace and wealth verse 4 For they have no pangs until death their bodies are fat and sleek

So the idea here is that death does not scare them they die most the time peaceful and easy and When it says their bodies are fat and sleek.

It doesn't mean that they're obese or they're big people. It means they're healthy The wicked are like healthy verse 5

They are not in trouble as others are they are not stricken like the rest of mankind No trouble they seem to escape justice and unfortunate circumstances their crimes go unpunished and the

Sufferings that others endure seem to miss them the guilty being called innocent the ones who curse

God Miss those bad situations. No disease. No bad doctors report their children are healthy

They live a carefree life because they never face distress and we tend to think well

My kids are sick and I'm a Christian and their kids never get sick. They don't even go to church

Asaph was a worshiper of God. He led God's people and he's dealing with seeing this we see it in our day, too

My car broke down on the way to church to worship you God. What's going on?

These are real things that happen to God's people and they have these questions verse 6

So what is the outcome of this life the life of the wicked that they're leading a

Prosperity arrogance that they don't seem to fear death What is the outcome of that life?

They hope and they trust in their own works verse 6 Therefore pride is their necklace

Violence covers them as a garment. Their pride is what they wear

So all can see they boast in it their own deeds. Look what we've done and not because God's allowed it

That's what they think. I've done all this not because God's doing it and we can tend to slip into that thinking too, right?

When times are good and everything is going our way we forget God is in control and we forget

Job 121 God gives and God takes away God is the one doing it all the only reason why we're here today is because of God the only reason that we have what we have the money in our bank accounts the car that we have outside the

Rifles that we have the clothes that we have on our back. It's not because of what we have done, but it's because of God That's the only reason

Verse 7 their eyes swell out through fatness their eyes their hearts overflow with follies so they have more than they expected the imagery is that of abundance of Overflow of being engorged they have more than enough and their hearts are filled with foolishness and they say foolish things

So this is a picture of a person who God has given up to the pleasures of their own heart

They're diving headlong and sin. All right, you want to go that way you want to just lead this life of wickedness

You just want to gain all this stuff. Don't care about me. God says go ahead Go ahead and do it.

God's not saying okay. You want to come to me? I'm gonna keep you away No, he's saying do what you want to do.

Your end is not gonna be good This is a picture of God Giving people up Verse 8 they scoff and speak with malice

Loftily they threaten oppressions. They speak arrogantly with anger. They speak evil and corrupt things

They deride people they have a sense of self -righteousness and are better than others

They speak cruelty and they want violence. There is no mercy or forgiveness in their hearts

No love at all. This is what the wicked heart is like verse 9 They set their mouths against the heavens and their tongues struts through the earth

They speak profanely about God's Word his works his ways They hate the gospel of the

Lord Jesus Christ. It is folly to them They don't want God or to know him.

They blaspheme God They ridicule and hate God's people and the worship of God This is

I could sum it up this way in verse 9. There is no fear of God before their eyes

That is the sum of the wicked's life there is no fear of God They don't bridle their tongues.

They speak with their noses turns turned up towards heaven beating their chest Thinking they are better and wiser than God verse 10

Therefore his people turn back to them and find no fault in them So what do they get all this pride and boasting and turning their nose up towards heaven?

What do they get an audience they get followers and people are led astray by their foolishness

It tickles their ears God Surely they don't people aren't gonna flock to this kind of foolishness and people do we see it all the time people just eat this stuff up I Believe the working of Satan has much to do with this many are blinded and approve and applaud this foolishness and haughty thinking

Verse 11 and they say how can God know? Is there any knowledge in the

Most High they become a practical atheist? God doesn't know anything there.

He doesn't he doesn't have any power is God even there verse 12

Behold, these are the wicked always at ease they increased in riches verse 13

All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence For all the day long

I've been stricken and rebuked every morning. So ASAP makes a statement that we can relate to today

Can't we is this life of following God? Is it even worth it? I Have pursued

God and I've been walking with you and yet the wicked that don't know you have more than me

They scoff at you and you bless them I'm a worshiper of you and you take from me and I suffer the wicked don't care about you

They don't care about your people your sanctuary They don't go to church and they keep getting richer and life just keeps getting easier

Is this life that I'm giving up? Is this life that I devote to you?

Is it worth it? Have I done all of this in vain? That's what

ASAP is Pleading out that's a cry of his heart I Make gathering with the church a priority.

I teach my family the Bible regularly I stay on the path and you bring distress my way

God Is this how you treat God your people God? Is this how you treat your children?

Do you said you care for us? What are you doing? You said you care for your sheep and I'm your sheep

But I feel like I'm just being cursed all the time and I'm not being blessed like these wicked are That's a real question that God's people have verse 16

But when I thought well I'll go to verse 15 he says if I had said

I will speak thus I would have betrayed the generation of my children He feels like he can't speak these things.

It would cause a stumbling block for the people Verse 16, but when I thought how to understand this it seemed to me a wearisome task

He tried to think of this question in his own strength Trusting in his own understanding and it could not produce that the clarity he needed

I'm trying to okay these okay, maybe I'm sinning and this is why this isn't happening to me or maybe

These people are doing this certain thing. He wasn't seeking God He was trying to understand these things in his own strength in his own understanding not coming to God Verse 17 until I went into the sanctuary of God then

I discerned their end Until he went before God until he went into his sanctuary until he went to church and his word and he sought him

Before he was looking Horizontally, right? He was looking around him. He was comparing his life to others, but then he looked vertically

He looked towards God and showed him the strength that Asaph had wasn't enough his understanding would not help him

But he had sought the Lord before this before coming into his sanctuary. He had not looked to his word

You know many things can be made clear and there can be many pitfalls that we avoid by seeking the

Lord first You know that There are many things that we can avoid by just seeking the Lord first Giving him the preeminence not trying to get through it on our own not trying to say

I'll just go this far in my own strength. And if it just doesn't work out then I'll okay

Then I'll ask God then I'll talk to God you go to God first. You can avoid many pitfalls

So what changed for Asaph? How did the I his eyes go from looking around him to the temporary to looking up?

This is what God did God showed Asaph the end of the wicked See God's Word is wonderful and makes these things plain to Asaph.

That's why we need the Word of God That's why we need the local church where God's Word is spoken plainly and preached rightly

We cannot discern anything of eternal value apart from it

That's why when we sit under the faithful preached Word of God we listen

Because we need it not the preacher's words, but God's words we ought to make prayer a priority

Because we need God to work and give us strength Imagine going into battle without your sword.

Oh, uh We're fixing up. We're fixing a charge. I forgot my sword man.

I'll probably be okay. You're not a Man that's like walking out your front door without seeking the

Lord first in prayer. It's like going into battle without your sword God's Church ought to be a place where we

Prioritize to be with God's people to encourage us to help us to challenge us to keep us going to keep our eyes on Christ This is the wicked

Zen the pleasures and the prosperity that they had accumulated in this life. They were only temporary

Judgment and hell would be their end. That's what God showed ASAP verse 18

Truly you set them in slippery places you make them fall to ruin God sets them in slippery places

God will pour justice upon them and God will not let them get away with your with their wicked lives

So let this be a warning to us God knows and will hold us accountable

For what we have done that's in Acts 17 unless you have the blood applied to you

Unless you have the blood God will meet you in judgment and your end will be the wicked's end unless you have the blood

Then your end We'll find out in a minute in verse 24 what that is verse 19

How they are destroyed at a moment and swept away utterly by tears Their life will be taken in a moment and all they worked to achieve.

I'll be just burnt up verse 20 Like a dream when one awake so Lord when you rouse yourself

But you despise them as phantoms God despises sin and the wicked and he is not indifferent to them verse 21

When my soul was embittered when I was pricked in heart 22, I was brutish and ignorant I was like a beast towards you

ASAP realized that he was foolish and he was ignorant and Arrogant for not trusting

God before he compared himself to like a beast a Matt think of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel How he was just he was like a beast feeding eating the grass.

That's how ASAP said he was compared to God The things that I was thinking and saying

I was like a beast. I was foolish to think those things verse 23

Nevertheless, I'm continually with you you hold my right hand God is sustaining

ASAP God is with you and with him and he's holding you up if it up We're up to you to hold on to God.

Let me tell you you would let go But we have this passage that ASAP tells the people they're singing this he says this to his own heart

I'm continuing with you. You hold my right hand. God is the one that's holding it up.

That's comforting verse 24 You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will receive me to glory

So how is a how at ASAP gotten this far? It was God's counsel if left to his own or the wicked's counsel

He would have fallen like the with wicked but in this verse in 24

We already saw the wicked's end. It's hell. It's judgment verse 24.

This is the believers end The end of those who trust in God its glory its salvation those who trust in God now may be bereft of possessions and status and riches and Accolades and the things of this world, but they will get

God in the end the Lord showed him his future in Worshipping him devoting his life to him not perfection or sinlessness, but pursuing

God. This is ASAP's future You're gonna go to the finish line and this is what you're gonna get you're gonna get the reward

You may not think you're rewarded now, but in the end you will be rewarded You will get glory you will get

Christ you will get heaven He showed him that this life is not

Meaningless and it's not in vain and it's serving this one main grander purpose glory

God's people have never been called to trust in the here and the now but looking at the finish line

We get God in the end and furthermore we have God now if you're in Christ today

He is with you. He is for your godliness He will keep you to the end by his power his grace and by his son's work on the cross

Today we have this confidence Christ died for me. He loves me.

I am his It would do us well to stop looking around us and look at look more at Christ and what he has done when we are

Tempted to think it's too much going on. There's too much chaos

God. You don't care about me I don't know what to do. Look at Christ. Look at what he has done for you

Remember this that he has done God has sent his son Jesus to die for you. That's how much he loves you

He has sent him to bear your shame to bear your guilt on himself to bear your punishment

To bear the wrath that you deserve. That's what Christ has done for you. Look at that. Remember that Christ has done all of this for us to show us

To remind us not only this but to remind us that he loves us and he will take care of us

We might not understand the very specific Details of why

God works and allows certain things, but we can trust this Romans 8 28

God works all things for good Not works all things that are good

That so what I mean is God does it like if you're reading this passage and you're thinking okay

Well good things aren't happening to me that verse is wrong. No, he works all things for your good

He works all things for your good and for his glory verse 25

Whom I have I in heaven, but you And there's nothing on earth that I desire beside you asap sees

God Compared to everything in heaven the angels the mansions the beauty and they don't even compare to Christ You can take everything on this earth and the world has the offer its kingdoms its riches its popularity

Its health its longevity Its ease and painlessness and you could put it on the scales and Christ on the other side and Christ out

Weighs it all that's what trusting Christ looks like you have You can have all that this world

Have all this world. Just give me Jesus. That's what the Christian does. I Don't have the world, but I have everything that I need in Jesus Christ verse 26 27 and 28.

I just want to run through though as Practical application for the Christian and then we'll be done

Verse 26 my flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever trust in God produces dependence

Asaph understood that he is weak and that his heart not just may fail but will fail but God is the strength of his heart

And all and he has all that he needs and more in God. So how often are you drawing strength from God?

How often are you? Understanding your frailty before God that you need

God daily John 15 5 Jesus says I am the vine you are the branch you can do nothing apart from me

Nothing. Do we understand that? So, how are you depending upon him are you seeking

God's face and prayer and in his word daily verse 27 for behold those who are far from you shall perish you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you a

Christian who trusts God is Unashamed of the gospel and the justices of God.

They are not trying to apologize for how God is They're not going to weak wink at sin around them either and especially in our own heart we talk all the time about Reformation.

Okay, the wicked really needs you God the wicked need to change but I'm telling you reformation starts in your own heart

Are you willing to say God? I'm opening every door God I hate my own sin first before I hate their sin

God I want to put to death my own sin before I'm willing to say they need to change

That's what the Christian needs to do Verse 28, but as for me, it is good to be near God.

I Have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works a Christian that trusts in God is

One who is constantly wanting to be with God in his word and in the church.

That's where God is That's where he is speaking to you. I Need to be reminded of his love and what he has done for me and his promises to me a

Christian depends on God as their refuge and everything in a chaotic world of evil and confusion

God is my hiding place in every circumstance going to him and resting in him in faith and Realizing that God is not only the refuge in the day of trouble but a refuge from the wrath of God To come because of Christ knowing we have been pardoned and getting given refuge.

We unashamedly tell of God's works and word to our neighbors the wicked

They don't have any mercy or love in their hearts But us because we have been given mercy because we have forgiven given forgiveness

We want to extend that forgiveness to others and we tell others of God's works

We trust God and we say look we don't have everything that the world has we don't have everything our neighbor has

But I got Christ. I'm gonna do what he tells me to do. I'm gonna go through this race I'm gonna just keep obeying him.

I may be bereft of all the possessions My car might break down my house might go away

My family might forsake me But I got Christ and I'm gonna keep going.

I'm gonna keep trusting him because in the end I see the finish line. It looks far away, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel

I see the finish line and God is gonna make good on his promises. I'm gonna get glory.

I'm gonna get him in the end Let's pray Lord thank you for this passage

Let this truth sink deep in our hearts that we can have confidence May we not look to what the world has it's in vain

It's all foolishness May be may we be content with what we have May we trust

Christ and if and if all we have is Christ, it's good enough for us Lord help us to have this dependence upon you

Help help us to understand. We have all that we need and much more. You are good to us