Keep sharing good news without ads.
Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Psalm 78:12-39
Church Retreat 2026
Well, as we gather again tonight to have the second glimpse of what we began last night, again, we were blessed to have Pastor Ken Christensen over the past two mornings present to us two messages from Romans 1 on the idolatry all around us.
And my task beginning last night is to present the idolatry going on within us. So this evening we'll continue some of the things that we laid out last night from Revelation chapter 2, as we talked about the church in Ephesus.
And I've titled this message, In Spite of All This, which is a phrase that's taken from Psalm 78. Before we get to Psalm 78, let me begin with a little review of things that are significant from last night in order to track tonight as well as tomorrow morning.
The people of God are constantly surrounded by and drawn to false gods. We may not bow down to carved statues and temples, but we can still have a false god on the throne of our hearts that belongs to the one true God.
Idols are still worshipped today. Again, we don't have temples or statues to them that are quite obvious, quite transparent, but they're worshipped, they're powerful, and they're God dishonoring nonetheless.
Moses declares in Deuteronomy 4, Know this day, consider it in your heart. The Lord himself is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. There is no other. There is no other God but the one true God. Therefore, you shall have no other gods before me.
We said last night that the one true God, that exclamation, is predicated upon this, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. We have it there in the first commandment.
We have it in our memory verse from Joshua 24. We do not separate being taken out of Egypt from the command to have no other gods. God gives us this prologue because we're meant to hold it together. Our worship of God, the exclusive identity, the exclusive relationship we have with God is built upon the fact that this is the God who's made himself known not only in creation but in salvation.
This is the God who rescued us. Now, historically speaking, the things that were written for our sake show that God acted in history against nations for the sake of his people Israel, for the sake of his promise to Abraham.
He took the seed of Abraham and made them his own special people to be a light shining to the darkness of the world, distinguishing them from every other people and tribe on the face of the earth. They were brought into this exclusive relationship.
God rescuing, as it were, his bride and carrying her away into the wilderness that they might become one. And there they would know him and dwell with him and enjoy him forever in that land. In the same way, we're called into this marital-like covenantal relationship.
It's an exclusive relationship, as we said last night. That marriage metaphor is so rich as it comes to its fullness in the New Testament. Marriage is that relationship that excludes every other relationship.
The freedom which God had given to the people of Israel was a freedom to serve him. I brought you into the wilderness. I've revealed my salvation to you in this way that you might serve me and worship me.
And we saw this language last night from Jeremiah chapter 2. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem saying, I remember you, says the Lord. The kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after me in the wilderness.
God reminds his people of that love of that betrothal when they went after him. In other words, when they adored his presence. The only reason you'd go into the wilderness is because there's something worth going for in the wilderness.
And they went after his presence because it was worth going through the desolate landscape in order to have that intimate presence of God. In that time, the Lord says you were holiness to me. In other words, this was a time when the people of Israel remembered the presence of God, remembered the faithful work of God.
But now here in Jeremiah 2, they walk after things that do not profit. That's a roundabout way of talking about idols. Things that don't provide what they promise. Things that have no value, no merit, worthless things.
That's idolatry. And from Jeremiah 2, we looked at Revelation 2 and the church of Ephesus. The Lord said that he is present in the midst of the church. Remember, he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Lord says, what the Spirit says to the churches.
Every church, we said, has the potential of being the church of Ephesus. The Lord tells them that he's present among them, walking in the midst of them, and he has this against them. They've left their first love despite their persevering labor, despite all the things they're working on for his name's sake.
Somewhere along the way, they had forsaken him. They forgot his presence. So the church at Ephesus, or the people of God in Jeremiah 2, they forgot the great things that God had done. They forgot what it was like to be saved by God and brought into his presence.
They were once strangers, alienated from the life of God. God saved them and brought them into his presence. They once basked in that presence. They longed for it when they couldn't find it. They did whatever they could to maintain that presence.
Like a deer panting after streams in the desert, they went about looking for the presence of God, mourning, longing, fasting, praying, calling for that presence to return. The church at Ephesus, like the nation of Israel in Jeremiah 2, they've forgotten that presence.
The priests did not say, where is the Lord? Those who handle the law don't know him anymore. And as we said last night, the reason for this is clear. In the context of Jeremiah 2, much like Revelation 2, the reason is singular.
It's idolatry. A part of Jeremiah I didn't read last night, it's just a few verses earlier. Jeremiah 2, beginning in verse 4. Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.
Thus says the Lord, what injustice have your fathers found in me that they have gone so far from me? And they've followed idols, and now they've become idolaters. Neither did they say, where is the Lord?
Does that sound familiar? That's verse 8. The priests don't say, where is the Lord? Well, in these verses ahead of that, the people aren't asking where the Lord is. Why have they become idolaters? We can see it so clearly.
Because they've gone far from the Lord. Why have they gone far from the Lord? Because they followed idols. Do you see what Jeremiah 2 is saying? There was a time when you followed after me in the wilderness.
You went after me. Something happened that caused you to go somewhere else, to follow after something else. You were once close to me, in my presence. Then you went far from me. Why? Because you no longer followed my presence.
You followed after idols. You became idolaters. You left your first love. And so you did not ask, where is the Lord? Because you were instead asking, where is my idol? That's what I'm pursuing. That's the love of my life.
That's what I need. That's what I must have. That's the wilderness that I'll trudge through. I must have it. That's what will fulfill me. That's what will give my life purpose.
That's where I can be satisfied.
Neither did they say, where is the Lord, who, notice, brought us up out of the land of Egypt, led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, through a land of drought and the shadow of death, through a land that no one crossed and no one dwelt.
Do you see what the Lord is saying in Jeremiah 2? He's reminding them of the works that he had done. They didn't say, where is the Lord?
Who's the Lord?
The Lord who brought us out of the land of Egypt. They're supposed to be confessing this kind of thing. Even as we see, as we'll see in the morning from Joshua 24, far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord who brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, that you confess who he is by what he's done.
And they're not saying that.
Why are they not saying, where is the Lord? Because they've already forgotten what he's done. Neither do they say, where's the Lord who brought us up out of the land of Egypt and brought us through this dangerous, threatening, desolate wilderness.
They forgot the works that the Lord had done, and so they forgot the Lord himself. Do you see, again, I said this last night, do you see how idolatry affects us? It estranges us from the Lord. When we worship idols, the presence of the Lord becomes alien to us.
When we give our hearts, our affections, over to rival gods, rival loves, God becomes a stranger to us. The law handlers may continue handling the law, but the Lord says they don't know me. The fathers may return to Zion three times a year, but he says they've all become idolaters.
They've actually gone far from me.
When we worship idols,.
It's because we've forgotten the works of the Lord. And if we have forgotten the works of the Lord, we have forgotten the Lord himself. Idolatry, if I can put it this way, idolatry is a form of spiritual dementia.
Remember, yesterday I used this illustration of an old man who was reminiscing.
About the wife of his youth.
And because of this language from Revelation 2 -4, you have left your first love, that Greek verb aphiemi being used of divorce, and thinking of a couple that's dwelling in the same place as the Lord is in the presence of his people, and yet there's this estrangement, this alienation.
There's not an affection, there's not an intimacy. They just happen to inhabit the same space, but they're somewhat standing off from each other. You know, I said this old man, you could almost picture him reminiscing.
When I first met her, the love of her betrothed, her kindness, she pursued me. We had this glorious intimacy together, but now, and perhaps we could illustrate it in this way, now, because of this dementia, I'm right in front of her, and though I've given my whole life to her, she doesn't recognize me.
She doesn't recognize me. She used to know me. When I walked into the room, she used to light up. It used to melt, would instantly embrace. We were really one, but because of this cursed dementia, when I come in, she gives me a blank stare.
My presence doesn't give any warmth, any note of recognition. I've been estranged to her. She doesn't recognize me any longer. Though I walk in her midst, she's forgotten me. That's idolatry. That's the dementia of idolatry.
Now, I said last night in Revelation 2 that the big focus this evening was actually something we would just pass by last night, and that's verse 5 from Revelation 2.
Remember, therefore,.
From where you have fallen, repent and do the first works. And I believe when we're asking the question in light of the dementia of idolatry, in light of us potentially being like the church of Ephesus, having left our first love of being like the people of Israel who no longer pursue the presence of the Lord through the weary wilderness, but become content to pursue other things as we maintain the motions and rituals.
What must we do? What can we do to overcome that? Well, it all boils down to this word, remember. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works. Well, we come now to our text, Psalm 78.
In fact, you can start turning to Psalm 78 now. I'll give you a little word of introduction. Psalm 78 is, we read as a superscription, it's a maskul of Asaph. What's a maskul? Well, there's a lot of debate about what that term is.
It could simply be a musical term, but most likely it's describing the content of what this psalm is. Asaph wasn't the only one who wrote maskuls. The most famous maskul is written by David, and that would be Psalm 32.
That's a maskul of David. Maskul comes from the Hebrew term sekol, which is a root word roughly meaning to have insight or to contemplate. So the idea is what we're meant to read this as a contemplation of Asaph.
He's trying to gather insight as he recounts the content of this psalm so that we can be instructed. That's a maskul. Now, this is a massive psalm. And honestly, even to just take a quarter of it would be an entire sermon series in itself.
We're not going to have the time this evening to even begin at the beginning nor to follow it through its conclusion. The point I want to make, I think we can illustrate simply by looking at verses 12 through 39.
But I think what we'll do, since this is a retreat message on a Saturday evening, I think I'm going to have you, with your Bibles open to Psalm 78, to please read along with me and let's stand to read the word of God together.
So if you have your Bible open to Psalm 78, and please read with me beginning in verse 12, and I'm going to stop at verse 39. This is the word of the Lord. Marvelous things He did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
He divided the sea and caused them to pass through and He made the waters stand up like a heap. In the daytime also, He led them with the cloud and all the night with a light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink in abundance like the depths.
He also brought streams out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers. But they sinned even more against Him by rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness. And they tested God in their hearts by asking for the food of their fancy.
Yes, they spoke against God. They said, can God prepare a table in the wilderness? Behold, He struck the rock so that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can He give bread also? Can He provide meat for His people?
Therefore, the Lord heard this and was furious. So a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation. Yet He had commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven, had rained down manna on them to eat and given them of the bread of heaven.
Men ate angels' food. He sent them food to the full. He caused an east wind to blow in the heavens and by His power, He brought in the south wind. He also rained meat on them like the dust, feathered fowl like the sand of the seas, and He let them fall in the midst of their camp all around their dwellings.
So they ate and were well-filled.
For He gave them their own desire. They were not deprived of their craving, but while their food was still in their mouths, the wrath of God came against them and slew the stoutest of them and struck down the choice men of Israel.
In spite of this, they still sinned and did not believe in His wondrous works. Therefore, their days He consumed in futility and their years in fear. When He slew them, then they sought Him and they returned and sought earnestly for God.
Then they remembered that God was their rock and the Most High God their Redeemer. Nevertheless, they flattered Him with their mouth and they lied to Him with their tongue for their heart was not steadfast with Him nor were they faithful in His covenant, but He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them.
Yes, many a time He turned His anger away and did not stir up all His wrath for He remembered that they were but flesh, a breath that passes away and does not come again.
Let's be seated.
Well, here we have just a small part of this massive, elaborate account of God's work. Psalm 78 as a whole begins with the demand from the king that the people instruct their children and tell it forth to the next generation of the faithful work of God in both blessing and in discipline, in both judgment and in mercy, so that the next generation might come forth to worship God and God alone.
This is an account of how Ephraim, the chief of the ten tribes, lost that headship over the people of Israel and it was given to Judah and God would establish His promise and His desire through the tribe of Judah in Zion as a result of the Davidic kingship.
That's where Psalm 78 ends. We have in verses 12 through 39 just a small part of this description of God's work, of His redemption, of His blessing, of His discipline. In the language of Psalm 23, of His rod, but also His staff.
In short, we have a description of God's faithfulness. Now, perhaps for some of us, just reading this activity of God almost seems automatic. It just sort of happens. We don't have much of God's own view on the things that are described.
We don't really see how He's responding to things by way of emotion or motivation. We almost have just a bare bones description of what it was like to observe the things that happened from a man's point of view.
God's work just happens in Psalm 78. And that's why we need to join it to the lens of other prophetic voices in Scripture. Like when the Lord says, what injustice have your fathers found in me? That they've gone far from me.
That they've followed idols and have become idolaters. And they didn't say, where's the Lord who brought us up out of Egypt? This is what's going on behind the events being described in Psalm 78. It's against this backdrop that we come to the tragic refrain of verse 32.
In spite of all this, they still sinned. They did not believe in His wondrous works. Let me say again, they forgot the works that the Lord had done, and so they forgot the Lord Himself. This isn't the only Psalm that frames things in this way.
In fact, it's a very typical structure for Psalms. And we can see just a few famous examples in Psalms 105 and 106. In fact, we see there almost an identical mirror structure where that verb remember is used three times.
Two times up front, and once in the conclusion. And both of these Psalms, like Psalm 78, are giving an account of this redemptive work of God. Of the wonders that He's done when He brought His people out of Egypt.
Brought them through the wilderness and revealed Himself to them. Psalm 105 is more of a positive remembrance of what God has done. Whereas Psalm 106 turns that remembrance against the faithlessness and treachery of Israel.
And that clearly is where Psalm 78 would have us look. The combination of the two. The mighty, wonderful works of God. His patience and mercy and forbearance.
And in spite of this, they still sinned.
Psalm 105, just give you a few examples of this imagery of remembrance. Psalm 105 beginning in verse four. The call goes forth. Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face evermore. Here we have verse five.
Remember, that's the charge.
Do you notice what's taking place here? How do we actually return to our first love? Didn't we have that word from Revelation 2 .5? Remember from where you have fallen. Repent and do the first works.
So the charge to those who have left their first love,.
The first moral exhortation is to remember.
That's very significant.
The first thing that those who have left or forsaken their first love are to do is to remember. Look at how Psalm 105 frames it. Seek the Lord and His strength.
Seek His face. How are we going to do that?
Remember His marvelous works which He has done.
His wonders.
The judgments of His mouth. Oh, seed of Abraham, His servant. You children of Jacob, His chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all of the earth. Now we have the second verb of remembrance.
He remembers His covenant. The people are being charged with having forgotten the works of God and therefore forgotten the presence of the Lord Himself. But God has not forgotten His covenant. God has not forgotten His promise that He will fulfill.
We come toward the end of Psalm 105 in verses 38. Again, it's been recounting this work of God delivering the people from Egypt. We read, Egypt was glad when they departed. It had been recounting the plagues of God's judgment poured out on the land.
For the fear of them had fallen upon them. He spread a cloud for a covering and a fire to give light in the night. The people asked and He brought them quail, satisfied them with bread from heaven. He opened the rock, water gushed out.
It ran into the dry places like a river for He remembered His promise and Abraham, His servant. So the charge is you need to remember but the hope is what God has remembered. He's remembered His covenant.
Psalm 106, beginning in verse 2. Again, this charge to remember the work of the Lord. Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can declare all His praise? Blessed are those who keep justice and He who does righteousness at all times.
Remember me, O Lord,.
With the favor you have towards your people.
Visit me with your salvation that I might see the benefit of your chosen ones, that I might rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I might glory with your inheritance. This is one who's remembering the mighty work of God.
Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? He begins with, as I think about it, as I recall it, as I reflect upon it, I cry out, Lord, remember me. I'm thinking about your nation. I'm relishing that glorious inheritance.
Allow me to be in it, Lord.
What comes with that recognition? A man that's thinking about the history of God's work to the people of Israel doesn't just remember God's faithfulness. What else does he remember? Verse 6. We have sinned with our fathers.
We've committed iniquity. We've done wickedly.
Our fathers in Egypt, they didn't understand your wonders. They did not remember the multitude of your mercies. They rebelled at the sea. Do you see what the psalmist is connecting? Lord, I'm remembering, and so remember me.
When I think about my fathers.
Walking through the wilderness,.
I recognize they didn't know you because they didn't know your works. They did not remember the multitude of your mercies. They did not remember. That's why they rebelled. Verse 8. Nevertheless, he saved them for his namesake.
We come to the conclusion of Psalm 106 in verse 44 and 45. A repetition. Nevertheless, he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry. And for their sake, he remembered his covenant and relented according to the multitude of his mercies.
They forgot the multitude of his mercies. They did not remember it. And so they rebelled, but God remembered his covenant. And so he dealt with them according to that multitude of mercies.
That they spurned.
Psalm 105. Psalm 106. Recounting the mighty works of God and charging an idolatrous people to remember.
Just like the apostle John.
Is charging through the Spirit,.
The church of Ephesus,.
To remember from where they fell.
I want you to notice this beautiful shift in Psalm 106. This shift is accomplished with this little contrastive word, nevertheless. The people did this. They forgot. They rebelled by the sea. Nevertheless.
The people, they complained. They back-bit. They forsook. They built high places and worshipped other gods. Nevertheless. It's a beautiful word. Nevertheless. But as I think about our message last night, as I think about this weekend, and as I think about my own walk, my own life, I believe that when I'm like that little penguin that is diligently trudging toward the mountains,.
But why?
There's no clear objective. There's no clear drive. It's just going through the motions. I can hear a word like nevertheless from Psalm 106, and frankly, it goes in one ear and out the other. I can read Psalm 106 in my worst state as, yep, that's me, and it's a good thing that nevertheless God is like that.
I'm like this, and nevertheless God is like that. I can get comfortable with that kind of thought. I can hear a word like nevertheless and not remember from where I fell. And so I prefer right now from Psalm 78 this contrastive phrase.
In spite of all this. In spite of all this. Psalm 78, verse 32. In spite of this, they still sinned. They've forgotten the multitudes of God's mercies. They forgot this mighty work of salvation that He wrought.
They forgot the bondage of Egypt, and worse than that, they forgot the deliverance from that bondage. And God showered them with mercy, though they were fickle, complaining,.
Rebellious, treacherous. In spite of all this,.
God still showered them with goodness. Every morning He renewed mercy. He gave them clothes they never went without. Every blessing attended their way. In spite of all this, they still sinned. You see, that puts the burden on the heart of this people.
It's not you stay in this lane because nevertheless God will be like this. It puts the burden on the people. Do you recognize the kindness that has been poured out upon your life, and in spite of all that, you would still sin?
That's Psalm 78. Think of that phrase, in spite. The phrase doesn't quite have the same definition, but if we just take that little word spite, what is the definition for spite? The definition for spite is a desire to hurt, a desire to offend.
It's as if the people of Israel, while they still have food in their mouths, are so treacherous in their hearts, they want to hurt God to spite Him.
In spite of Him, they still sin.
And what, again, is the backdrop to these judgments that are falling down in cyclical form in Psalm 78? The backdrop, again, is what happened? You used to go after me in the wilderness. Don't you remember me?
Don't you know me anymore?
Why are you so far from me? What injustice have you found in me that you've gone far from me and become an idolater? Look at what I've done.
Look at what you've forgotten.
Don't you remember? Psalm 78 asks the question, look at what you're doing in spite of all this. The reason I chose this passage this evening is because of a husband and a wife, this beautiful music that these two musicians produce.
And I was first heard of them many, many years ago. I was at some small gathering in Grand Rapids, and a professor there commented, as he was referencing a psalm, he's saying, you really should look up the rendition of poor Bishop Hooper on that psalm.
I don't know what psalm it was, but I'd never heard of this duo before, this couple. And he said, I actually know them quite well. They're husband and wife. They love the Lord. They're very gifted musicians.
And they live in Tennessee, and they'll have their doors open because they live near a college campus, and they'll just play music. And sometimes students will walk by, and they'll kind of see that open door and say, can I just come in and listen?
And they use it as a whole ministry. And they started this project many, many years ago called Every Psalm. And the goal was to go through every psalm and compose an individual piece of music after having spent some time reflecting on what's in the psalm, the tone of the psalm, what the psalm is trying to get across.
And they're trying to do it in the language and the imagery of the psalm. They don't necessarily do it word for word, so they try to be very faithful in the way they summarize the psalm. And the music is very beautiful.
Let me read you the rendition of Psalm 78 from poor Bishop Hooper. He divided the sea and let them pass through it, made the waters stand there as a heap.
In the day he led by cloud,.
But with fire in the night, he split the rock for water so they could drink. He opened up the skies, the very doors of heaven, poured the bread of angels there to eat. By his very might on the wind, he fulfilled every hungering.
And here's the chorus. In spite of all this, they sinned.
They sinned.
In spite of all this, they rebelled again.
In spite of all this, they sinned.
He made the river blood, sent the swarms to devour, gave the crops to beasts, the harvest of their labor. The hail destroyed the vine, the flocks by lighted sky amidst the thundercloud. He let loose his anger by a company of angels, and when the path was made from death, he wouldn't save.
Struck down the firstborn, firstfruits of Egypt's strength. Then he led his people out. In spite of all this, they sinned.
In spite of all this, they rebelled again. In spite of all this, they sinned.
So, full of wrath, God rose against his own, laid low the young men and the strong. They fell. He delivered up his glory into fire all-consuming. The women had no marriage song. The priests fell by the sword.
The widows, they made no lament.
But then, the Lord,.
Full of compassion, his anger was restrained. Full of compassion, he remembered them again. Full of compassion, with a pure heart and a skillful hand. Full of compassion, he remembered them again. That's Psalm 78.
Now, clearly, the way they're reducing this psalm down into a single song is by emphasizing verse 32 and verses 38 and 39. The chorus initially, recounting the history of God's mighty works, brings verse 32 into the chorus.
In spite of all this, they sinned. In spite of all this, they rebelled again. And then there's this glorious breakthrough from verses 38 and 39 that concludes the whole song.
But he, being full of compassion,.
Forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time he turned his anger away. He did not stir up all his wrath,.
For he remembered that they were but flesh.
Now, that is not just a beautiful summary musically. That is a beautiful summary theologically. With the phrase, in spite of all this, we first begin with the focus on ourselves. That's what Psalm 78 is trying to do.
That's why I say it's a beautiful song theologically. This is not a simple, curious recounting of what God has done. They understand the pressure point is verse 32. When you're recounting the mighty works of God that He has done for your fathers and for you, that should build this burden and this pressure toward this confession, Lord, in spite of all that, I have sinned against you.
Isn't that what we saw in Psalm 106? We take this phrase, in spite of all this, and we turn the focus first on ourselves. And only having done that, can we then take the phrase, in spite of all this, and turn it to the Lord.
In other words, it looks like this. The Lord that I'm remembering, the Lord whose testimony I'm recounting, the Lord who I'm contemplating and seeking insight from, the Lord has done so many things.
Look at what He's done.
Look at what He's done throughout history. Look what He's doing in the church.
Throughout the ages.
Look at what He's doing in the church where why today. Look at what He's doing in this church. Look at what He's doing in these lives. Look at what He's doing in my life. Look at the things the Lord has done.
And as I start to count mercy by mercy, I begin to recognize, it's in spite of all this,.
I have sinned.
And if we start there, then the focus moves this way. I've done so many things. My wayward thoughts, my jealousies, my outbursts of wrath. I've done so many things. In spite of all this,.
He saves.
That's Psalm 78. It was a powerful experience to discover this psalm being presented in this way. I went to this little three-day conference and I was surrounded by all sorts of fascinating theological insights, great fellowship, hearty discussion, kind of things that thrill me and fascinate me and fill me with life.
But in the loneliness at night of being there, I just would give my mind over to lustful thoughts.
I'd just wallow in them.
And it was just something I held together, the Jekyll and Hyde of my walk from night to morning and morning to night. And then I came to Psalm 78.
And when the bridge came,.
In spite of all this, that all like a flash flood hit me. Lord, you've done so many things in spite of all this. I just sinned against you. I rebelled again. And as I look down at all these things I've done, as I'm hearing the divine heartbeat pulsing through Psalm 78, I recognize that beautiful conclusion.
But he, full of compassion, turned his anger away. It was to me in that moment the experience that William Cooper described. I hate the sins that made you mourn and drove you from my breast.
I hate it.
How could I sin against you and rebel against you in spite of all this?
Lord, the dearest idol I have known, whatever that idol is, help me to tear it from my throat. Idols need to be expelled. How are you going to expel idols? You expel idols first by remembering. That's what Psalm 78 is saying.
That's what Psalm 105 and 106 is saying. That's what they're helping you do. That's what Revelation 2 is saying. That's what Jeremiah 2 is yearning for. What happened? Don't you remember me?
Don't you recognize me?
That kind of expulsion.
To clear that throne of the heart.
That belongs only to the Lord from that invasive species of sin, whatever that sin may be, whatever ambition or lust, whatever strong desire, whatever else is eclipsing the presence of God and causing Him to be estranged, unfamiliar, undesirable.
That needs to be expelled.
How is it going to be expelled? It's the genius of the theologian Thomas Chalmers. The only power that can expel.
A rival love, a false love,.
Is the expulsive power of a new love.
It's what Thomas Chalmers called.
The expulsive power,.
The bulldozer power.
Of a new affection,.
Of a new affection. And for me, that's exactly what I would describe the experience of hearing Psalm 78 these years ago. It was a bulldozer on my heart of a fresh glimpse of God's mercy.
That made me hate and mourn.
The sins that ever drove Him from my breast. I want you to know, brother or sister, this is a real and glorious thing, this expulsive power. And it begins with this little act of remembrance. This new affection is nothing more but a fresh glimpse of God's mercy, a fresh recounting of not simply who He is in the abstract, but who He is because of what He's done.
It's a fresh glimpse of God's mercy to you in your life, the things that He should have removed from you years ago that He has preserved, the blessings He should have stripped from your life that He has secured.
It's a fresh realization of the never-failing patience of God. It's a fresh glimpse of where.
That patience begins.
It's not free. It's not arbitrary. If it's a blessing, if it's a mercy, it's flowing downhill from the cross of Calvary.
This expulsive power,.
This new affection is a fresh glimpse of God's mercy in the crucifixion.
Of His beloved Son.
What is it like to experience this? I trust,.
I certainly hope.
That I'm describing something to you that you have experienced. And if I'm not, you might be in a woeful state. You need to experience this. What is it like to experience this expulsive power? What is it like to stare down the idol for all of its hideous strength?
Where does that stare down begin? Where does that bulldozer effort begin? It begins by remembering the mighty work of God wrought out for your salvation. What does the experience look like? It looks like this.
This is how Isaac Watts described this experience. This fresh glimpse of Jesus' bloody death flooding His affections. It looked like this. Might I hide my blushing face while His dear cross appears? Dissolve my heart in thankfulness.
Melt my eyes in tears. He's remembering the cross. But that's not an old memory that He's returning to the same it's ever been. It's a remembrance. It's a fresh glimpse. It's a fresh beholding.
Of that full and complete forgiveness day after day after day.
Sin after sin after sin. In spite of all this, He's saved. This is what I'm getting at with this little phrase, in spite of all this. For those who serve their desire like some beast, like some animal, a hunger of pain, some flash of desire needs to be instantly fulfilled.
There's no self-control, no ability to restrain my flesh.
There's not a warfare.
Between the spirit or the flesh in my life because the spirit's not even fighting. He's been conquered long ago.
The flesh reigns.
And has almost full conquest. For someone who's a slave.
To their passions,.
Who's serving their passions,.
Because some other rival love is enthroned upon their heart, they will take 100 nevertheless moments and they won't even wince. I could preach till I'm blue in the face. Nevertheless, God forgives.
God forgives.
God is full of compassion. Even though you've sinned, nevertheless, God is full of compassion. And without knowing it or meaning it deliberately, they'll continue sinning so that His grace may abound.
But those who remember in that Jeremiah 2 sense, in that Revelation 2 sense of remembering, those who remember in the way Psalm 78.
Is calling for us to remember,.
They will take one in spite of all this and find their heart melting because as David Strain has said, with a fresh view of the cross comes a fresh view of the enormity of our guilt. You can almost feel it in Psalm 78.
You can almost feel it in Psalm 106. This man's actually remembering the work of God. He doesn't say,.
Those people over there,.
They sinned against you back then. He includes himself within it. We sinned against you. We rebelled against you. David Strain says, in this age of therapeutic method, preachers have developed a sensitivity to preaching the cross for conviction of sin and instead preach the cross to relieve the conviction of sin.
Notice what Psalm 78 is doing. It's using the kindness demonstrated by God's mercy to bring about conviction of sin. That's contained in the phrase, in spite of all this. In spite of all this.
Brothers and sisters,.
We should come to the scene of Golgotha and the agony of the beloved son and emblazoned along our conscience as we recount the filth of our guilt should be the phrase, in spite of all this. With your dying breath, you cried out,.
Father, forgive him.
In spite of this.
It's only there with that glimpse.
Of the enormity of our guilt that grief over sin can become joy.
Over salvation.
And if you don't experience the former, you won't experience the latter. Do you want the expulsive power of a new affection?
Do you want that dove to return.
Like a mighty force and tear down from the throne of your heart every rival. God? Then you need that glimpse of God's grace that convicts you of your sin. This is the first love.
It's out of this first love.
That the first works will flow. This is what we were talking about during the interaction last night. This is exactly what Psalm 78 does. And it all begins with this word,.
Remember.
I was really moved a few weeks ago to come across this PBS news report of an elderly man from Sheffield, England named Tony Folds. He's age 94. And it just so happened there was this contact between a woman who had met him on vacation in England and realized there was a contact of a man that he knew, though he had never met him personally, and this woman and some of her connections in the city of St. Louis, Missouri.
And so she was very excited to say, I want to fly you to St. Louis.
And you can stay with us.
I want you to go to the tomb of this man. I want you to tell this little story.
That you love telling.
Here's the story.
Tony Folds was an eight-year-old boy playing on this massive open field in Sheffield, England. And there were dozens of other children, maybe about 80. And they were all playing, running around, playing soccer in this massive open field surrounded by these mighty tall trees in the forests of England.
And a badly injured B -17 bomber, smoking and hurtling and sputtering its way toward a crash landing, found what seemed to be the only flat, safe area to even attempt a crash landing, which was this wide open field in Sheffield.
And behind the steering was the pilot, a man named Kriegshauser, Lieutenant Kriegshauser.
And as he drew in close,.
Him and the crew, they recognized this field was filled with all these little children. This little eight-year-old boy watched this limping bomber suddenly veer off into the trees and instantly explode, killing them all.
He's being interviewed 88 years later. And as they're interviewing him, he has to stop himself from weeping.
He said,.
Excuse me, and he weeps. And he says, what this man did. And then he stops and he weeps. And his bottom jaw is shaking.
And he said, he gave his life for me,.
For us.
88 years.
What this man did was he dedicated his life.
So that that sacrifice.
Wouldn't be forgotten.
He wouldn't forget it.
He would remember it.
And he made it his life's mission to make sure that others would remember it, too. So he built a memorial on the place where it happened.
And throughout his days, every week, he would care for it.
He'd create wreaths and ornaments and bring fresh flowers and clean it. And he'd stand by it. So that anyone who was passing by,.
He could go up and say,.
Do you know what happened here?
Can I tell you?
Anyone who came by,.
He would testify,.
Can I tell you what this man did for me?
And I'm watching this interview.
And he's this 94-year-old man. He was only eight when it happened. There were 79 other kids on that field.
Where are they?
They're nowhere to be found.
But for this man, he recognized,.
Even though I never met him, he gave his life for me. Even though I don't know him, in another sense, he's all I know. He's what my life's about. And so he maintains his memorial. And there's this beautiful picture of him standing with his head against a stone, as tears stream down his face.
In the interview, he says, every morning and every night, I pray. And he said, and I have a real cry about it.
Not just a feeling.
What is that?
That's not just a memory. The 79 other kids have a memory. This man has a remembrance. Remembrance is not merely a memory. Not for this old man, who spent the next eight decades of his life in an entirely different direction because of his remembrance of that sacrifice.
If he had an occasional memory of the moment, he could just carry on with business as usual and take it in stride. But that's not how he lived his life. From that moment, as an eight-year-old boy, his life was now in an entirely different direction.
He lived the rest of his life, we could say, in remembrance of the sacrifice. I hope I don't have to spell this out for you. At some point, I'm no longer describing this 94-year-old man. I'm just describing a Christian.
Is not a Christian someone who lives their whole life in an entirely different direction.
Because they refuse to forget.
What one they had never met did for them in sacrifice?
One of the things I...
We're a low church. We don't have established liturgy. We're working on that. But sometimes we just say things routinely, and I love the little routine sayings. One of my favorites is when our brother Marty gets up to lead us into the Lord's Supper, and usually in his prayer, from time to time,.
He'll say,.
Lord, I marvel at your wisdom in giving your people this ordinance. And it gives me pause to think, I wonder what Marty means by that. Why is it so wise? And it certainly is, that the Lord would give us this ordinance.
Why?
We have preaching. We're working expository through the Word of God.
We have singing.
Have you seen some of the rich devotional theology in our hymns? We have praying. Why do we need to eat bread and drink wine?
Is it any wonder to you that the very thing we are taught to do in the Lord's Supper is designed to bring about the very heart of Psalm 78? That when we look in that crimson vial.
Or hold that pale bread,.
We would reflect and contemplate what happened 2 ,000 years ago for us. And remember that ahead of the night when he would stain his garments with his own sweaty blood, contemplating the horror of facing the wrath due for our sin,.
That he would break the bread.
And give it to his people and pour out the wine and he would look them in the eyes.
And say,.
Do this in remembrance of me. Remember me. Remember my sacrifice.
And when your week's been filled with sin and your mind's been polluted with lust and evil desire and evil thoughts and outbursts of wrath and jealousies and discontentment.
And gossip,.
And you come in like that penguin trudging up the mountain for no apparent reason or goal, and if no other means of grace avails, that you would at least look at these elements and even if but just for a flash,.
You would remember.
What I did with my life and with my body for your soul.
So that the expulsive power.
Of a new affection.
Could wash over your conscience like a cleansing flood as you quietly weep and say, Lord, in spite of all this, you forgive me again. In spite of all this, you'll be patient with me still.
Lord, I do this in remembrance of you. Do we do that?
Do we understand what Psalm 78 is saying? Do we even know where to begin.
To remember from where we fell.
By remembering the work of the Lord so that we can remember the Lord himself? Remember, brothers and sisters, remember from where you fell. We'll have an opportunity to do it tomorrow after the service, if not now.
Remember the grace, the undeserved, unwarranted grace that you now expect. Remember the mercies that you coldly ignore on your way to serve yourself or some other idolatrous desire within you. Remember the kindness that you treat with spite.
Remember in vivid detail the specific ways that each one of you leaves your first love. And remember how all of these grievous betrayals of these hair-pulling, shocking, scandalous exclamations of in spite of all this, you would sin and rebel, were twisted and spreading upward to the throne of God like thorny shoots and sharp nails.
Until they rose all the way.
In their hideous offensiveness to the very seat of God's throne. And so he left that throne and took those sharp nails and thorns and wrapped them into his own body.
To pierce him through.
And pour out blood.
That would cleanse you from that sin. Remember, as the song says,.
It was your sin.
That held him there.
Until it was accomplished.
And then remember, he did that all for you.
In spite of all this.
Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his face evermore.
Remember the marvelous works.
Which he has done,.
His wonders, the judgments of his mouth.
Oh, seed of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob,.
His chosen ones,.
He is the Lord, our God. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, again, I do not know how I ought to pray.
Lord, as a man, I sit here calling for remembrance and I myself have not given my mind over to remembering you. Lord, I'm not so much inspired by the example of this 94-year-old man as I am ashamed of it, Lord.
For he received a noble sacrifice and the Lord Jesus himself said, Love has no greater than this that would lay his life down for his friends. And truly, this pilot laid his life down.
For a stranger.
That is a noble and a glorious thing. But this pilot was not the sinless, all-glorious.
Son of God.
And this pilot did not take on the humiliation of flesh and walk in perfect uprightness through a filthy and treacherous world.
Lord, you and you alone.
Have given this unthinkable sacrifice that sometimes barely pulls me in a different direction from my own desires and goals. Lord, I'm embarrassed. In spite of all this, Lord, I still sin and rebel against you so frequently, so easily.
Break my heart and break our hearts.
Here this evening.
With that expulsive power, Lord, that despite our sins you would show us compassion. You've already proven it and demonstrated it in giving your Son. Lord, help us to remember.
What he's done. Not a mere memory,.
Not something in stride, but Lord, a proper remembrance, a life-altering remembrance, an affection-transforming remembrance. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.