Sunday February 21, 2021 AM

Here to worship at Sunnyside Baptist Church this morning. If you're visiting with us we're especially glad that you're here this morning and if you're joining us on livestream we're glad that you're joining us that way as well.

Announcements, Schedule Changes, and Church Updates

A few announcements as we get started this morning. I come back tonight for our evening service at 530 that's here at the church in the main auditorium and then Wednesday we will have at 545 dinner for the whole church and Bible study at 630 for the adults and prayer for the adults and then the kids will have their tag program in the tag room and then looking ahead some dates that need to be adjusted just with regard to the winter storm and being out.

We will have truth group for the young adults next Sunday night the 28th. Okay after the evening service but we will not have communion next Sunday morning if that will instead be pushed to March 7th.

Okay that morning so Lord's Supper on March 7th please plan to be here for that. All right our fighter verses of the week come from the Psalms Psalm 56 verses 3 and 4. When I am afraid I put my trust in you in God whose word I praise in God I trust I shall not be afraid.

What can flesh do to me. Good verse to meditate and memorize. There's still need for a volunteer to work in the infant room in the nursery during the Sunday school hour please see Marla Hovarter if you can serve in that capacity also Operation Christmas Child we're still continuing to give regularly with regards to that this month hats and gloves and then I think next month small stuffed animals we want those to be able to fit into a shoebox and then lastly we've been talking for a little bit about our church directory and some updates there those updates have come out so if you need to go check the mailbox that's at the back on the back table look for the letter of your last name and look for those updates for your family if you know somebody who maybe isn't going to be here for a week or two but you can get it to them feel free to do that as well and then if there are any questions with regard to that you can talk to Tristan call.

Okay any other announcements before we get started with worship this morning. All right. It's good to be together this morning we're going to have a time of prayer silent preparation for worship and then after we're done with that Dwight will open us.

In prayer is your name in all the earth. We have come together this morning to.

Prayer for Worship and Thanksgiving for God’s Creation

Worship you and to lift up your most excellent holy name. We thank you and we praise you for who you are and for what you've done for us. How you've created this earth this world this universe a beautiful place and you have placed us in it to care for it.

We thank you and praise you for your creation and father. How we need you. We are a poor and spiritually needy people and we come before you this morning looking to you to help us worship in spirit and in truth and to lift up the name of your son the Lord Jesus our Savior the one who gave his life for us that we might have life who shed his blood on our behalf that we might be forgiven.

We have so much to be grateful for help us to offer up to you the sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise. How good you are to us how you so richly blessed us. How you care for us. Watch over us. And as my comes later to open your word to us feed us and nourish us with your word and may it grow within us and restore the image within us that is broken.

Make us after the image of your son the Lord Jesus that we might be a blessing to others in.

Jesus name I pray amen would you stand with me for our call to.

Worship high school boys. Sunday school class. We've been looking at how God is watching over protecting preserving the life of David from his enemies and so in our passage this morning we're going to see not just in theory that God watches over us in experience the psalmist is speaking from experience of God's protection in his own life and it's just good to have God's protection even this past week over the storm.

And so I'm glad we're all able to meet here together today. And those even online as well. Read with me together. Psalms chapter fifty nine verses one and two. Deliver me from my enemies oh my God. Protect me from those who rise up against me.

Deliver me from those who work evil and save me from bloodthirsty men. Our first song this morning is on page 25.

Immortal invisible he's the only wise God. I'm the backup. Good morning be in.

The Song of Moses: Vengeance, Judgment, and Atonement

Deuteronomy this morning chapter 32 34 through 52. Starting in verse 34 32. Sorry. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom and the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall their clusters are bitter.

Their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of Cobras. Is this not laid up in store with me sealed up among my treasures. Vengeance is mine and recompense. Their foot shall slip in due time for the day of their calamity is at hand and the things to hasten upon them.

For the Lord will judge his people and have compassion on his servants. When he sees that their power is gone and there is one remaining bond or free he will say where are their gods. The rock in which they sought refuge who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering let them rise and help you and be your refuge.

Now see that I even I am he and there's no God besides me. I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal. Nor is there any who can deliver from my hand. For I raise my hand to heaven and say as I live forever.

If I wet my glitting sword and my hand takes hold on judgment I will render vengeance to my enemies and repay those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh and the blood of the slain and the captives from the heads of the leaders of the enemy.

Rejoice Oh Gentiles with his people. For he will avenge the blood of the servants and render vengeance to his adversaries. He will provide atonement for his land and his people. So Moses came with Joshua the son of none and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.

Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel and he said to them set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today which you shall command your children to be careful to observe all the words of this law.

For it is not a futile thing for you because it is your life. And by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross but which you cross over the Jordan to possess. Then the Lord spoke to Moses that very same day saying go up this mountain of the Abram Mount Nebo which is the land of Moab across from Jericho view the land of Canaan which I give to the children of Israel as a position and die on the mountain which you ascend and be gathered to your people just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people because you trespassed against me among the children of Israel and the waters of Meribah Kadesh and the wilderness of sin because you did not hollow me in the midst of the children of Israel.

Yet you shall see the land before you though you shall not go there into the land which I am I am giving to the children of Israel. Would you pray with me father. We thank you for this morning. We thank you for the word.

We thank you for being so gracious so kind and so holy. We thank you for being so good. We ask Lord that you give us ears to hear your word this morning that we would submit to it and live it out that we would know more of you and be filled with all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

That we will be filled with Christ Lord and further know the depth the height and the width the love of Christ which you have given unto us through your son. And it's in his name we.

Pray amen you may be seated we're gonna continue our song service on page 355.

Trusting Jesus for his blessing father. I thank you for the many answered prayers.

You have heard us offer up to you us and our neighbors and our loved ones this last couple of weeks. We thank you for the way that you hear our prayers the way that you answer you are to be praised for.

The way that you hear that you incline your ear to us that you know what is going on that you have and are and will move according to your good pleasure and we praise you for it. Thank you for bringing us here today when there was the distinct concern that we would not be able to due to the weather.

What a joy it is to come together and dwell together in unity to rejoice in the truth of your son and our Savior and our sovereign Jesus Christ. He was even now at your right hand reigning with all authority and all glory.

And what a joy it is to give him praise today. I ask that you would help us as we look at your word this morning. I pray that you would give us a good look at your son Jesus that you would strengthen us in our faith guide us in our path and do what you want in our lives.

And I pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 116. Psalm 116 we will be looking at verses 5 and 6 in particular this morning. The title of the series is this call upon the name of the Lord whom you praise.

Call upon the name of the Lord whom you praise. This is what Psalm 116 shows us. It shows us somebody who fears God. And so whether they're in the fight or they're at the feast they praise God and they pray to him and they they call upon his name.

Doesn't matter if times are bad or times are good in times are bad they're not giving up on God or desperately searching for other things. When times are good they're not forgetting about God and going on to other things.

They're calling upon the name of the Lord whom they praise. This Psalm was written in the same style as King David wrote his Psalms. There are many things that David experienced in his life when times were low when he was on the run hiding out in caves and fear of his life.

And there were times that were good when he was reigning in Jerusalem and victory on every side. But in both cases when we see King David fearing the Lord he called upon the name of the Lord and he praised the Lord.

And this is essential for us that we would fear the Lord and so praise him in every respect. The key word for this group of Psalms 111 through 118 the key word in fact it's probably the key word of the whole book of Psalms is this hallelujah praise the Lord.

That's the key word all the way through and and we've got a lot to learn about hallelujah. It's easy to say we say it all the time and in the songs that we that we sing we read it all the time in the Bible.

But we've got a lot to learn about it. One thing we've got to know and we see it from our passage today is that hallelujah is a first-order prayer in the fight for faith. It's a first-order when we're fighting against unbelief.

It's a first-order thought when we're fighting to trust the Lord in the fight of suffering and pain. You're gonna see this as I read verses 1 through 11 in a moment. But you see it in verse 3 the pains of death the pangs of Sheol trouble and sorrow.

And that he calls upon the name of the Lord like the child he is to the father that God is. But the very next thing he does is stop to praise the Lord for who he is and what he does. He gives a hallelujah before he even knows the outcome.

Hallelujah is not a wait-around-and-see kind of word. Hallelujah is before things get resolved. Word. I'm gonna hallelujah first. And then when it's all going through it through it out. I'll hallelujah throughout and then I'll hallelujah at the end.

And that is a good way of understanding what it means to to fear the Lord. You'll stand with me. I'm gonna read this morning Psalm 116 verses 1 through 11. I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications.

Because he has inclined his ear to me. Therefore I will call upon him as long as I live. The pains of death surrounded me and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord.

Oh Lord I implore you deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low and he saved me. Return to your rest. Oh my soul. For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

For you have delivered my soul from death my eyes from tears and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed. Therefore I spoke. I am greatly afflicted. I said in my haste.

All men are liars. This is the word of the Lord may be seated. This first portion of Psalm 116 shows us the worshiper the God fearer in a bad time in a fight. And he begins by talking about how much he loves God because he knows that God is hearing him in his hurting.

And not only does God hear us in our trouble but he he saves us in his goodness. This morning we're just going to look at how good God is. Not based on experience not based on our notions not based upon our perception but based on how God has revealed himself.

That's where we. That's where we have to begin. We have to begin with how praiseworthy God is and then we proceed. And that's the theme of this whole song that that the Lord who is praiseworthy in all things is trustworthy at all times.

We will know that throughout and at the end we'll know that he has been more than sufficient in all. In all matters he is. He is certainly trustworthy at all times. But how do we know that. Because he is praiseworthy in all things.

But that's where we have to begin. It's praiseworthy in all things and so he is trustworthy at all times. It's an old saying that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

But what of your soul. What of your soul. Do you take your soul in hand and direct your own inner person to where you know your thirst can be quenched. Do you direct yourself to drink and be satisfied.

Do you taste and see that the Lord is good. That's what the psalmist is doing here. He's in a bad way. But he's going to take his soul and direct his his person to the Lord. And he's going to taste and see and be satisfied in God.

We are often. We are often careening about in our anger. We are often consumed by our anxieties. We are often standing thirsty and undrinking by the spring of the water of life. Listen to what Jesus says Psalm 32 verse 8.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule which have no understanding which must be harnessed with bit and bridle else they will not come near you.

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked. But he who trusts in the Lord mercy shall surround him. Mercy shall surround him. Fear of man and the fear of death leave you parched. Leave you without recourse. We commend to you the fear of the Lord.

To trust in the Lord. To praise the Lord. To think first of the Lord. To think most of the Lord. To bring all your considerations into the light of who God is. How he has revealed himself in his in his attributes and his actions.

You must walk by faith rather than by sight. In verses 7 through 11 you see what the psalmist says. What he begins to say to himself and to the Lord and to others about the situation that he's in. I think he does pretty well.

We are so often ready to talk about the situation that we're in the pains of death the pains of Sheol the trouble in the sorrow. We're ready to talk about it. We're ready to characterize it. We're ready to to qualify it.

We're ready to tell everybody else about it. We're ready to complain about it. But before we start saying things about it we got to start with what we know and then consider what we say. What do we know first.

What has God revealed about himself first. That's where we have to begin. So we see this goodness of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom the beginning of knowledge the beginning of understanding.

And thus we should think of him first. We should think about who he is first. Consider his attributes and his actions first. And then we'll have the knowledge and understanding and wisdom to talk about what we're going through.

First of all the attributes of God. What are we to think about God in our fight for faith. What are we to think about. There are there are many many things we could praise the Lord for and they are given to given it to us again and again in the Word of God.

We may praise God many times over for a variety of his his goodness. But there are three things mentioned here. Here's a good starting place in our fight for faith to fear God to praise him. And notice there is these three attributes that he is gracious that he is righteous and that he is merciful.

Verse 5. He's gracious. That he is righteous and that he is merciful. We can begin their pangs of she old pains of death trouble and sorrow. Before we start talking about it before we start categorizing it let's start by praising the Lord for him being gracious and righteous and merciful.

What does it mean that he's gracious. What does it mean that he's gracious. It's a word that necessarily means that God is far above us beyond us in power and in glory. That he is not like us limited or concerned that he has all power.

He is thoroughly sovereign. He has made everything and he controls everything. And yet this word envisions him being careful and favorable in his consideration of his people. He is not so transcendent that he's uninvolved but in his power in his glory in his high exalted state he is thoroughly concerned about what is going on with his people.

He is gracious. He is gracious. Look this person fears the Lord and so he knows how powerful God is how glorious God is how he's in control of all things. But he also knows that God is considerate and favorable and indeed merciful.

God has shown that he is merciful and he remains merciful from on high. This is one of the very first things that we are tempted about in when in our trouble in our sorrow in our suffering we are tempted to to grumble that God doesn't care got too many things he's involved with to bother with what's going on with me.

Or the reason why everything has been derailed is because he is not paying attention. Or that when I call out to him and I call upon him for for help and deliverance and things don't seem to go at my speed or my desire that somehow God is not considerate.

That God is not favorable but he is gracious. He is gracious. And the fight we must remember who reigns on high and that he is not inconsiderate in the least he is the I am though the the one who is above all is concerned and generous and kind to us in the things that we are in not only is he gracious but he's also righteous he's also righteous.

We begin with God being merciful even in his sovereign exaltation but also that he is righteous that he is he is just. And isn't this the case that if we're not if we're not thinking that God is somehow inconsiderate or he's just unseeing about our situation then aren't we tempted to think that God is unfair.

He's not doing the right thing he somehow failing to be consistent with what his his own word says. But you see how in our praising of the Lord in our and our hallelujah of God that we begin with him being we say he's gracious and he is righteous.

You've got to understand that this this hallelujah of the Lord is where we begin before we begin it's what we it's what we know before we think. It is the most necessary starting point for those who fear the Lord.

I know that he is gracious. I know that he is righteous. And when it's when and when we say that God is righteous. When the scriptures say that God is righteous it means that he that what he has sovereignly ordained to take place cannot contradict his righteousness.

That he is just and how he governs. Don't you desire that out of those in authority they would govern justly and righteously. God is just and righteous and how he governs. Whether he delays his vengeance or he accelerates it.

Whether he delays his deliverance or accelerates it he is just and how he governs. And he is just in his cause. He is right in what he desires. He is just and what he wills. Though all men be warped and wrong.

God is right. He is right and how he governs. He is right in his cause. He is just in his conduct. Not a single deed that God has performed is out of place ill-timed lacking aim how he governs in his cause in his conduct he is just and right.

And so also in his character perfect integrity. All that he thinks and desires does and says in agreement. He is gracious. He is righteous and he is merciful. Merciful. This is the third listed goodness of God is easily translated as compassionate.

Compassionate. Now. Gracious is a top-down word by definition. He must be above and exalted in order to be gracious. Righteous is an all-around word in all considerations. This word merciful is a face-to-face word.

It's the kind which flows from a deep love and a tender affection. He is gracious. He is righteous he is merciful. We've got to know that in our suffering. If we're not doubting God's attentiveness from on high or his justice in all things then aren't we doubting his affection for us his love toward us.

Is this not why we are careening in anger or consumed by anxiety. Because we're not beginning with the fear of the Lord. We fear man. We fear death. We don't fear the Lord. Fearing the Lord means we begin with this.

The Lord is gracious. He is righteous. He is merciful. I don't care what my perception of my experience is. I don't trust me. I trust God. And he is gracious. And he is righteous and he is merciful. He have nowhere else to begin.

Begin here. Begin at the cross of Jesus Christ. Begin with Jesus Christ who is the manifestation of God to us. God revealed to us through Christ. Consider the grace of the incarnation that God the Son took upon human flesh so that it would be God with us fully God and fully man.

Jesus with us means God with us. Because of sin it was man apart from God. Look at the disaster in the death and the and the horrendous chaos upon our world because of sin. Man apart from God banished because of his rebellion.

But with Christ it is God with us. God with us. This is grace for God the Creator Sovereign exalted to be with us. To come to us to be one of us that is grace. God is gracious. How do we know. Because of Jesus Christ God is righteous.

How do we know God. Look at Jesus Christ who never said or thought or did or felt anything unrighteous in all things he pleased his father in all things he obeyed perfectly even obeying to the point of of dying upon a cross suffering suffering what what we deserve judgment and wrath of the Holy God for our rebellion.

Christ who never rebelled and never sinned and never failed in any way offers himself up as the substitutionary atonement. The lamb the innocent lamb in our place dying perfectly righteous and he is merciful.

Look at the mercy of the cross. How can it be that that God would show mercy upon sinners mercy upon those who who blaspheme him and profane him and commit adultery in our hearts and with our bodies and and murder from our minds through our hands and commit idolatry in the mind and with our crafts.

How could it be that God would ever forgive us. But look at the mercy. How would it. How could God ever love us. Look at the mercy of the cross a thoroughgoing forgiveness wherein wherein Christ because of him dying in our place and for our sake that that God would that God would give him no mercy on the cross he would give us mercy that God that God's smile which Christ alone deserves would be upon us.

Because we trust in Christ. Because by God's grace we are brought into relationship with him through faith in Jesus Christ trusting only in him. We have nowhere else to start. Start with Jesus simply trusting Jesus every day.

Start with Jesus to remember that God is gracious that God is righteous that God is merciful. Just start there. Start there. He is. His attributes show us that he is good and his actions show us that he is good.

Of course these are impossible to truly separate but notice his actions toward the simple and the lowly. And this is how the the Godfear of the worshiper describes himself. He identifies as one of the simple.

He identifies one of the lowly. This is this is who I am he. We see that God guards the simple. He preserves the simple. Quite often in the Old Testament we we observe mockery and hear rebuke against the simple for being silly and naive which is not a desirable trait for those made in the image of God who have been blessed to be fruitful multiply fill the earth and subdue it to exercise dominion in the name of of God to give glory to him and to do great things to to grow up into the into the maturity which Christ possesses and and models for us and blesses us with being silly and naive is not godly.

But there's another use of the term because don't you know little children are pretty silly and naive. And it's not a bad thing at all to humble ourselves before God the Father and recognize that we are but little children.

And in fact that word infant is the Greek word that the ancient translation used to cover this Hebrew word simple in the Septuagint. When they translated the Hebrew into the Greek they looked at this word simple and says well in that context that means child or infant.

And I took the Greek word for infant and put it right over the top. That is the meaning of what is being said here that God. God preserves the simple. God preserves the simple. You know Jesus didn't say anything contrary to that did he mark 10 verse 13.

And following then they brought little children to him that he might touch them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it he was greatly displeased and he said to them let the little children come to me and do not forbid them for of such is the kingdom of God.

Assuredly I say to you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it. And he took them up in his arms and laid his hands on them and blessed them. Well I'm confused.

He told Nicodemus he had to be born again. And now he's saying as long as you're just a little child which is it. But again the metaphor matters. What Jesus is saying is unless you come into the kingdom of God like these little children in their state of neediness their lack of ability to offer anything.

Unless you're coming in like a little child you're not going to get in at all. The disciples didn't want the little children there because they are only a bother. You notice I've a little children. They're just they're only a bother.

They never offer you anything. They don't contribute to the to the budget. They don't. They don't eliminate the housework. They don't ease the headache. You notice that about little children very little children all they can do is require more work more labor more cost.

And Jesus says that's how you come into the kingdom of heaven. You have nothing. God needs you come in by grace. So you don't come in at all. Which is the same idea of the new birth says God preserves the simple.

The simple in this case are those who keep it simple and trust their Heavenly Father. Single-minded. Basically trusting it says he. He protects them. He preserves them. You have the word picture here of God hedging them about as with thorns which keeps out what he wants to kept out and keeps in what he wants to be kept in.

We've got to know this about our Lord that he preserves the simple. And we need to recognize that we are like little children. Simple and in need of preservation is good news for somebody who has no resources of their own who is surrounded by the pains of death and the pains of Sheol and trouble and sorrow.

Somebody who has no way out and no way to to to best their own enemies. Good news. The Lord preserves a simple and good news. I was brought low and he saved me. He saves the lowly. He saves the lowly.

This the psalmist you see makes the second part of this parallel personal. He starts off in the general the Lord preserves the simple. Then he says I was brought low and he saved me. What's he doing there.

Well he's intensifying and advancing the praise. There's the humility of acknowledging. I'm just I'm simple. I'm a I'm a child. But there's additional texture here. He says I was brought low and he saved me.

Been brought low. That that term has the idea of of hanging down and languishing. Do you see that the God fearer in fearing the Lord does not hold much stock in himself. He portrays himself like a neglected infant too weak even to cry lying there in his empty and famished state.

That's how he portrays himself. But then he praises the Lord because God guards the simple and he saves the lowly. Do we not. Do we not see that in how God reveals himself in his word. How often do we see God saving the lowly.

How often do we see this. That God is in the habit of of giving water from the rock to the thirsty bread from heaven to the hungry those in bondage. He liberates those in peril. He delivers the defeated.

He makes victorious and the dead he raises to life. So whatever your trouble and sorrow is whatever your trouble and sorrow is before before you begin to talk about it. Before you consider what to say.

Consider what you know. Consider what has been revealed to us about our Lord. That he is gracious. That he is righteous. That he is merciful. That he guards the simple and he saves the lowly. See your salvation in Christ.

And from that point see the goodness of God in every respect. Let that color all that you know and fill all that you know and focus all that you know. So that when it comes time to say something that we can say with a sincere heart and a an undivided mind.

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Let's pray together father. I thank you for the reminder of these things which I know Lord are. You say them again and again in your word. But we thank you for your long-suffering and your patience with us as children.

You know our frame that we are but dust. We thank you father for your graciousness and for your righteousness and your mercy. We thank you that you guard the simple save the lowly. Thank you for reminding us of what we are to know.

Help us to fear you so that we will praise you. That we will trust you. We pray these things for.

Benediction and Closing Song

Christ's sake you stand with me for song benediction. I'm gonna sing it a.

Little black hymnals. Him number 83 merciful God we'll sing all three verses.

Father. And the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. We are dismissed.