June 19, 2016 His Word is Sweeter Than Honey by Steve Mixsell

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June 19, 2016 His Word is Sweeter Than Honey Psalm 19 Steve Mixsell

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Heavenly Father, we are gathered around you, our hearts are prepared to hear what you would have us to hear from you this afternoon,
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Lord. It's precious, precious time. We ask you, Heavenly Father, that our hearts are ready to hear well.
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Our spirit is ready to obey you, Lord. Lord, we pray for our future, our brokenness.
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We ask, Lord, that you would bless the work of this hands. I pray, Lord, that this love and passion for your word would come to you, and we would be risen to a higher level of loving the
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Lord Jesus Christ and the word that you have given us about him. I pray, Father, that by your spirit, through you, we would have power and confidence in the
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Lord and not his flesh. And that you, Father, by your spirit, would put power to his words as he preaches us truth, your truth,
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Father. So bless this place. Bless all of you who are here. Bless our brother,
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Stephen. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Good morning.
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Please turn to Psalm 19, beginning at verse 7. And while you're going there,
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I feel compelled to go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name,
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I thank you for your precious word. Father, I thank you for this truth, this vital truth, that your word in the heart of the believer, in the mind of the believer, on the tongue of the believer, should always be sweeter than honey.
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Father, it's a precious truth which protects us from error, protects us from spiritual malady.
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It's protected me at times when I was in churches that did not proclaim your word in every way well.
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Father, and I just am struck with my inadequacy at declaring all the ways your word is sweet today.
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And so I humbly ask that you'll grant that I may have one good tongue to preach. One good mind to preach today, clearly, to declare your word.
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The word you would have me speak for your people, to their benefit, and that you'll not let any failing, any of my idiosyncrasies or outright failings, hinder you from doing good to your people.
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I ask that your word will go forth and bless the hearer and benefit the hearer and glorify your son.
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And I ask it, Father, for the advancement of your kingdom. I ask it in your son's name for his purposes, for his glory.
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And I thank you and praise you for all that you are and ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 19, beginning at verse 7.
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The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
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The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
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The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
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More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
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Our text for today clearly declares what is, in my estimation, one of the most central and pregnant truths in all of Scripture.
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A truth, it's one of the essential truths which is at the core of any sincere
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Christian walk. A walk which is truly pleasing to our Lord. It's a truth which has many theological and practical, many theological implications and practical applications.
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And perhaps most importantly for today, it's a truth which, if rightly understood and deeply held, has a tremendous protective power against theological error and also a great preservative power against many of the great and dangerous maladies of spirit which can plague even the most ardent servant of God.
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And of course the truth to which I'm referring is the truth that to the believer, the Word of God is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.
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Let me say it again with greater emphasis. To the true believer, every word that proceeds from the mouth of God should be, must be, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.
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This truth is intimately related, I'm convinced, and inexorably intertwined with another great truth, and that is that the healthy
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Christian walk is characterized by and enabled by the joy of the
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Lord. As the Holy Spirit tells us through the pen of the Apostle Paul, when issuing a warning in Romans 14, 16 and verse 17, verses 16 through 17,
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I think this warning is very illustrative. Paul, by the Holy Spirit, warns those who in their zeal to spread their knowledge concerning various practices, the observance or non -observance of days and their freedom from dietary restrictions.
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They seek to spread this knowledge within the Church of Christ. And Paul warns them that even if they are correct in the knowledge they seek to spread, they still run the risk of doing harm to their brethren.
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And two separate ways, I think, can be seen in our text. The first is by causing their brethren to stumble through being emboldened to do something which violates their weak conscience.
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But the second, which is perhaps less apparent from our text, but I believe nonetheless there, is that they may do damage by muddying or damaging their brother's understanding of a much more crucial truth through the inartful and immature way in which they attempt to teach them a secondary, and perhaps we might even say tertiary truth.
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Paul reminds them, Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love.
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Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let your good, and I say in parentheses, your correct understanding and practice of a secondary truth, a less important truth, not an unimportant truth, a less important truth.
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Do not let your good, your correct understanding, be spoken of as evil.
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Why would it be spoken of as evil? It would be spoken of as evil because in your emphasis of this truth and your seeking to inartfully ram it down the throat, so to speak, of your weaker brother, you obscure the greater truth that the kingdom of God is not primarily about eating and drinking, but it's about righteousness and peace and joy in the
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Holy Spirit. Therefore let us pursue those things which make for peace and the things by which we may edify one another.
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The Holy Spirit goes on through the pen of the Apostle Paul to emphasize this again.
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He touches on it again later, just a few verses later, when he prays for his hearers in Romans 15, 13, May the
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God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the
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Holy Spirit. Believing is characterized by joy and peace. And again, please observe, dear brethren, that joy is prominent among the fruits which the
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Holy Spirit will produce in the heart of every believer who rightly understands the word of God and knows well the
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God of that word. Galatians 5, 22, and 23, well known to most of us,
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I hope. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.
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Against such there is no law. This last verse,
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I believe, contains a warning that any understanding or application of the word which causes a sustained disturbance or disruption of the believer's joy or any of the other fruits of the
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Spirit in the life of the believer, such as was held by the Judaizers who sought to reimpose the keeping of the law or some of its elements as necessary for justification or perhaps even greater sanctification, any such understanding or application of his word which causes a sustained disturbance or disruption in the believer's joy or other fruits of the
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Spirit is in some sense a wrong understanding or application of his word which is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.
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And of course, please note that I am not saying the word of God should never cause you sorrow for true and godly sorrow is an element of the true repentance frequently brought upon us when the
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Holy Spirit illumines his word in our hearts to bring conviction of our sins and failings. However, please note that even this godly disquiet and sorrow that his word will,
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I would say, frequently bring into our heart. Remember, the sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite spirit.
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These he will not despise. What produces the broken and contrite spirit? The word of God having its reign in your heart.
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So there will be sorrow, but it's very important to understand that even this godly disquiet and sorrow should always give way rather expeditiously,
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I'll say. I have quickly, I'm changing it to expeditiously. I just don't want you to focus on days and minutes, but I will just say expeditiously and leave it at that.
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This godly sorrow and disquiet should always expeditiously give way to the joy which knowing that no matter how large our failure, his grace and mercy are larger.
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And we are truly and fully forgiven because of what Jesus did. As Nehemiah says, quoting a small portion of what
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Josh read, and remember this is in the context of godly repentance, as they were ignorant of the law before Nehemiah, before Ezra read the law.
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And Nehemiah who was governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe and the Levites taught all the people and said to the people, this day is holy to the
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Lord your God, do not mourn or weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. They wept because they were ignorant of it and had been in profound violation of it.
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And yet, in the midst of their weeping, they are told, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared.
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For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the
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Lord is your strength. Ezra and Nehemiah reminded the Israelites of this very truth, even when they repented their deep and profound disobedience.
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Upon hearing the word of God and bowing their heads to the ground and worshiping him and sorrowing with godly sorrow, they reminded them that this true and godly sorrow must pass quickly and give way to the joyfulness of the redeemed and forgiven, because the joy of the
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Lord is the believer's strength and health, I might add. The joy of the
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Lord, which is our strength and a fruit of the Holy Spirit, I would argue has its primary source, not the only source, but its primary source, the sweetness that comes from the word of God when it is received by a humble and repentant heart through the illumination of the
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Holy Spirit. Psalm 25, beginning at verse 8, says, Good and upright is the
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Lord, therefore he teaches sinners the way. The humble he guides in justice, and the humble he teaches his way.
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All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
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And in Psalm 119, beginning at verse 14, hear this truth from Psalm 19, amplified greatly by the psalmist.
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In Psalm 119, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches.
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I will meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways. I will delight myself in your statutes,
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I will not forget your word. Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may keep your word. Open my eyes, that I might see wondrous things from your law.
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I am a stranger in the earth, do not hide your commandments from me. My soul breaks with longing for your judgments at all times.
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You rebuke the proud, the cursed, who stray from your commandments. Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies.
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Princes also sit and speak against me, but your servant meditates on your statutes. Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.
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My soul clings to the dust, revive me according to your word. The psalmist, amid this world which drives us down, asks for the
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Lord to open his eyes, that he might see wondrous things from his word, that he might understand his word as sweet, and that sweetness might revive him, revive his spirit.
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The psalmist acknowledges that he is dependent upon the bountiful grace of his master in achieving his goal, that his eyes may be opened, that he might see wondrous things from the word of God, to the end that he might rejoice and delight in every part of the word of God, and thereby have his soul, which clings to the dust because of its own sinfulness and the sinfulness of the world around it, revived by the sweetness of the word of God.
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Toward this end, I want to help show us that our psalm today emphasizes that all of God's word should be sweet to the believer, not just merely some of it.
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So let me make a few observations from our text. I hope this will not seem pedantic for those of you that were here in Part 1.
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I did emphasize, I tried to show, that in Psalm 19, excuse me, wrong page there, in Psalm 19, all of the commendations applied to God's word, the law of the
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Lord is perfect, converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, the statutes of the
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Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, the commandment of the Lord is, and so on. All of the various condemnations, commendations, apply to every part of his word.
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So it's not just the law of the Lord which is perfect, it's also the testimony of the Lord, it's also the judgment of the Lord, and so on.
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However, one of the interesting things I find, and it is not accidental, I think, just as the correspondence between some of these commendations to the various parts are not accidental, although they apply each to every part of God's word.
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Note that the part of God's word which he says is sweeter than honey, beginning at the second half of verse 9, it's the judgments of the
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Lord, which are first true and righteous altogether, and the judgments of the
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Lord are more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
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The judgments speak of the judicial decrees of God, the statement of the case, these are the facts against you, these are the areas of the righteous requirements of my law you've fallen short of, and these are the judgments that will come against you.
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I think if we were to choose a part of God's word to say it's sweeter than honey than the honeycomb, this would probably be the last place we would choose.
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And again, I don't think it's an accident. Although the sweetness applies to all of the commandments, testimonies, the fact that he's chosen to say it's the judgments of the
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Lord, which are not only true and righteous altogether, but are sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, is to show us that all parts of his word must be sweet.
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Even these hardest, these hardest parts are sweet. Remember Josh a few weeks ago preached about God's judgment, his eventual judgment which fell not only upon Ahab, but upon his entire family.
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Seventy sons of Ahab were hunted down and killed. They were beheaded, and as a symbol that all may know
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God's judgment, the evil king who did it piled their heads at the city gate for an entire day.
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And Josh commented about how texts like these are hard to hear, and they are hard to hear.
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They are hard to hear, but they're also sweet. And you say, how can something like this be sweet?
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And I just want to take a quick look, because sometimes we miss this. Several of his texts which first produce revulsion or fear and trembling, if we will look at them deeply, look at them more carefully, produce sweetness.
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Despite the fact that Ahab is introduced as a man of unsurpassed evil, in 1 Kings 16, in the 38th year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel and Samaria 32 years.
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And he did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before them. The most evil man that's ever ascended to the throne.
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Nonetheless, God showed him immense mercy, stunning mercy. So often we pass over that.
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He did not judge him immediately. He did not judge he and his wife who introduced not only worship
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Baal themselves, but introduced Baal worship institutionally to Israel. What did he do?
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He sent a prophet. He sent a prophet, and he sent a powerful judgment attesting to the veracity of that prophet.
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He sent Elijah to announce a drought of three and a half years. We know that from James 5 .17,
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that it was three and a half years. In this three and a half year period where they were driven to desperation by the drought, did they repent?
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No. Instead, Jezebel and Ahab sent out the servants to hunt
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Elijah, as we learn in 1 Kings 18 .10. They sent out servants to every nation to hunt for him.
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And of course, the text doesn't specifically say that, but it was to kill him. And yet God again not only withheld his judgment against Ahab and Jezebel, but he granted them, in a sense, even more mercy in the form of another mighty display of his power over and judgment against the false god who they worshipped and whose worship they brought all
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Israel into. 1 Kings 18 .36 .41,
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the triumph over the prophets of Baal. And I trust you guys remember it. I won't go into it.
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But Elijah stood alone against hundreds of prophets of Baal and triumphed and judged them and by the power of God demonstrated in consuming the sacrifice, he slayed them.
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Again, despite this mighty display of the truth of God and the power of God over their false gods, they did not repent.
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But instead, they sent out servants to hunt down Elijah. 1 Kings 19 .2.
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And yet again, God's judgment did not fall upon them. In fact, his mercy and grace were demonstrated again when he stopped the drought.
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After that great victory over the prophets of Baal, he withheld the drought. He ended the drought.
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And then on two separate occasions when mighty kings made war against Ahab, kings he could not hope to defeat when looking at his order of battle compared to theirs,
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God delivered him, delivered Israel. The first occurred in 1
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Kings 20 .13. And it happened when Ben -Hadad heard this message and he and the kings were drinking at the command most that he said to his servant, the message was that he would not give them the full tribute he asked for.
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Although Ahab was ready to give him most of the tribute, he asked for a little bit too much.
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And then Ahab, even though he despaired of victory, said, we can't go that far.
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Suddenly a prophet approached Ahab when Ben -Hadad and his army of many kings is on the way.
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Suddenly a prophet approached Ahab, the king of Israel, this wicked Ahab, saying, thus says the
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Lord, have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today, and you shall know that I am the
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Lord. Again giving him a demonstration that his way is false, his worship of Baal is wrong, it's evil, and I am the
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Lord who is showing you mercy and all Israel mercy. Then again in a later campaign, 1
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Kings 20 .28 -29, when beset by another group of enemies, actually the same king coming back reinforced, then a man of God came to the king of Israel and said, thus says the
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Lord, because the Syrians have said, the Lord is a God of the hills, but he is not a God of the valleys, therefore
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I will deliver this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
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And they encamped opposite each other for seven days. So it was on the seventh day the battle was joined, and the children of Israel killed 100 ,000 foot soldiers of the
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Syrians that day. And yet again Ahab did not repent to his merciful and mighty
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God. God continued to grant him space and time to repent, and it was not until he killed
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Naboth in order to seize his vineyard that God finally formally declared a decree, a judgment against Ahab, against Jezebel, and against Ahab's family.
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And yet again, even after this heinous act, and God's decreed judgment against Ahab and his family,
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God, at Ahab's superficial and outward acts of repentance, granted him further time to repent by withholding execution of his proclaimed judgment, despite knowing that Ahab would not avail himself of this opportunity to repent.
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In 1 Kings 21, 19 -29, thus says the Lord, have you murdered and also taken possession, speaking of the vile murder of Naboth, and you shall speak to him, saying,
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Thus says the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, lick blood even yours.
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Then Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me, O my enemy? And he answered, I have found you, because you sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the
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Lord. Behold, I will bring calamity upon you, announcing the judgment of God. I will take away your posterity.
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I will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, bond and free. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and the house of Bashar, the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger and made me to sin.
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And yet, verse 27 tells us, So it was when Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about mourning.
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And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, See how Ahab has humbled himself before me?
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Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the calamity in his days.
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In the days of his son, I will bring calamity on his house. So I hope you can see this underlying sweetness of the word, that even in this judgment against the most wicked of men, just about that we can imagine in scripture, the one who executes the judgment is overabounding in mercy.
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He executes judgment in a mercy -bathed manner, which brings about this judgment very slowly and provides ample time for repentance.
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We can see this in God's declaration at the second giving of the law of Moses, in Exodus 34, beginning at verse 4.
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So he cut two tablets in stone like the first one, and Moses rose early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the
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Lord had commanded him. And he took in his hand two tablets of stone. Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the
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Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long -suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.
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And I just want to pause and say that if you know your God, don't be disturbed in spirit by statements that he visits the iniquities of the fathers on succeeding generations.
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Just as we've seen in Ahab, the actual wicked man was shown ample mercy before judgment fell.
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These declarations that the effects of your sin may affect future generations do not mean that God is somehow shortchanging or being unfair or executing judgment in an unjust manner upon these generations.
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There is an effect of sin which lingers over, but know, just as was illustrated in this manner of executing judgment against Ahab, that against Ahab's children, the judgment is executed in the same way.
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It doesn't have to be explicitly stated in the text. No one ever gets justice from the
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Lord untempered by mercy. He makes the rain fall upon the just and the unjust.
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Judgment will come for those who do not bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, but judgment never comes except in the context of superabundant, long -suffering mercy.
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Never. And in fact, of course, that scripture
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I just read about, the second giving of the law, we all know what happened with the first giving of the law. Idol worship, tablets of stone thrown down, and yet God again gives the law and proclaims his mercy.
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And what is this little study in God's abundant mercy to Ahab, and of course by implication also
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Jezebel, but a microcosm of the great and ultimate judgment that he executes in the lives of everyone who enters the world, who will not bow the knee to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Eternal condemnation in hell. It's true, I think. I don't know.
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I have not searched the scriptures carefully, but nothing pops into my head as any competing truth, which should be more difficult for the
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Christian to swallow, so to speak. It's almost certainly true that this is one of the most difficult and in some ways unpleasant truths to contemplate, that all who do not bow the knee to the
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Lord Jesus Christ will suffer, just as Ahab suffered, a comprehensive judgment.
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It's comprehensive. Just as Ahab's judgment went out to his 70 sons, the ultimate judgment we will all face, or I shouldn't say we, but who all will face who don't bow the knee to the
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Lord Jesus Christ is comprehensive. It lasts forever. It's a thought which is, in some sense, horrible to contemplate.
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They shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.
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And of course, it should be difficult. Don't misinterpret what
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I say. Don't become a cold, hyper -Calvinist who has no compassion for those who do not know the
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Lord. God forbid. But also, you might ask me, must we find this truth sweet?
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And I think the answer is yes. We should find this sweet, and we must, if we don't find it in some way sweet, we must seek a way to find it sweet.
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That's one of the reasons I had Josh read Revelation, the text from Revelation.
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This scroll that was eaten was a scroll of God's word, but also of God's judgment.
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And it was sweet on John's tongue, but it made his stomach bitter.
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Understand that these truths, these terrible judgments of God and comprehensive judgments of God, terrible not in that they're unjust, they're bathed in mercy, but these comprehensive judgments of God against sin and transgression only occur in the context of mercy, over -abounding mercy.
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They are made more just by the mind -boggling mercy God shows. Remember that the perfect man, our
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Lord Jesus Christ, even in exercising his role as judge over all the earth, when condemning the
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Pharisees and unbelieving Israel, nonetheless greatly lamented, and I put in parenthesis, perhaps even to tears, because I think you can hear that in his double lament,
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O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, after declaring in Matthew 23, beginning at verse 33, judgment, speaking directly to the
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Pharisees, but by implication, all of unbelieving Israel, serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell?
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Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify.
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Some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous
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Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
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Assuredly, I say to you, all of these things will come upon this generation. And then he laments greatly,
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O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often
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I wanted to gather you, to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
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I hope you can hear the lament of our God, the perfect man, the perfect God, man,
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Jesus Christ, over those who we know will not repent. This is not a purely sweet truth.
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It is a bittersweet truth. So I think we can see how we find this truth bitter.
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How can we find this comprehensive judgment sweet? I already told you the beginning of the answer.
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Never forget. Always reemphasize to yourself. And it's a good tip for good exegesis.
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There are so many parts of Scripture where something that is apparently caused to make you to tremble at first glance has an underlying sweetness.
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Don't be satisfied until you've mined deeply His Word and found that sweetness.
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I can think of one example. I always try, anytime I'm preaching on a text, I always try to never miss one of these areas where the
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Lord has showed me. One that comes to mind is, remember in Matthew when
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God warns us, and it's a terrible warning. There's two actually. I'll touch on both of them.
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One is to be careful that you do not cause one of these little ones to believe in Me to stumble because it would be better for you for a millstone to be hung around your neck and cast into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
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And then there's a related text where He says, do not despise, do not lightly, do not think lightly of one of these little ones who believe in Me because their angels always see the face of your
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Father. And I thought a lot about that text over the years, and I'm firmly convinced that it has one meaning, and that is that the messengers, the angelic beings who are
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His primary executors over those children are always in the throne room waiting for His glance, the jerk of His head signaling go.
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Someone is lightly regarding one of these little ones. Go. Put a stop to it.
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It should cause us to tremble. But don't stop there.
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Do you not see that it's God's passionate love for the least of His servants that makes
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Him so interventional that the angels are like guard dogs obedient who at one whistle of their master will speed to the protection of their charges?
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It's because of the great love with which He loves the least of His servants. And therefore, axiomatically, undisputedly, no matter where you are in your service to the
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Lord, where you feel you are, if you're walking less well with Him than you were last year,
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He still has that same love for you. That applies to you, little one.
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His passionate love for you is an interventional love, and your angels always see the face of your heavenly
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Father. It should be a sweet truth as well as a truth that makes you tremble.
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And there are many, many more. These are things that can be found by comparing
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Scripture with Scripture, by being well theological in your reading of God's Word.
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So how can I find the terrible and comprehensive judgment of God against those who will not bow the knee to the
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Lord Jesus Christ, sweet? Remind yourself that Jesus, as the Word of God tells us in John 1, 9, is the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
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Jesus has given light to everyone who will not receive Him. Remind yourself, as it says in John 3, beginning at verse 17, that God did not send
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His Son into the world to condemn the world, but for the reason that the world through Him might be saved.
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But even though this light is coming to the world, men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
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For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
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The reason people reject Jesus is not a lack of understanding. It's because they hate the light.
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They flee from the light. Remind yourself, as Jesus said in John 18, 37, for this cause
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I was born and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.
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Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. If anyone will go to their final day without bowing the knee to the
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Lord Jesus Christ, it's because they love something more than truth. They love their own self -image.
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They love... List the things. They love power and praise of men. Anyone to whom truth is important will hear
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Jesus' voice. Remind yourself that only those who actively resist and suppress the truth over and over again throughout their entire lives will face
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His judgment. Romans 1, verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, plain in them.
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For God has shown it to them, for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even
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His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew in some sense
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God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
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And, of course, this truth is echoed in the first part of Psalm 19, which tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God.
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There's nowhere on the earth where this obvious wisdom has not gone out. Remind yourself of these things.
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Remind yourself the depth of God's mercy to even the most wicked of men, allowing the rain to continue to fall for year after year after year on the unjust as well as the just, sending them good things and commanding
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His servants to show mercy and love even to the wicked. Matthew 5, beginning at verse 44, says,
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But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you, so that you may be sons of your
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Father in heaven. For He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
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He not only loves them, but He's commanded all of His servants to continue to show them acts of love. Remind yourself that He commands all of His servants to have lives characterized, characterized by performing acts of love and mercy, so that perhaps even the most wicked man may, seeing their works of love and mercy, glorify
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God in the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2, beginning at verse 12, Have your conduct honorable among the
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Gentiles, the unbelievers, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify
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God in the day of visitation. Going deeper in seeking to find
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His judgments, including His ultimate judgment, sweet, let the terribly comprehensive and unending nature of this judgment remind us of the degree of mercy
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He has shown each of us. Having His own
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Son, the degree of mercy, the cost, having His own
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Son, our glorious Lord, to drink to the last dregs the full cup of wrath which we were rightly owed in order to purchase our merciful redemption.
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Remind yourself in seeking to understand and appreciate the incredible cost of our salvation and the wonderful heroism of our beautiful Lord.
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Remind yourself that He, the perfect sinless man, prayed importunately and with bloody sweat that if for any way possible that this cup would be removed from Him, though He knew that it was foreordained.
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That's how terrible it was. No rational man could not but tremble at the idea of bearing the awesome weight of sin.
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Even the perfect man could not simply obey without asking that if there was any way possible it could be taken away.
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Remind yourself of our Savior's cry on the cross as He bore the awful weight of sin and bore the full weight wrath of your sin, that your sin was due.
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Hear His forlorn cry, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And yet remind yourself that despite this terrible suffering, an unimaginable suffering, a suffering which is equal to or surpasses the suffering you and I would experience in an eternity in hell, that nonetheless
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He set His face like flint to go to Jerusalem and drink that cup to the uttermost.
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He would not be dissuaded. That's the great love with which
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He loves us. The greatness of the wrath illustrates the greatness of His mercy.
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We should have been there. All sinners should be there. That is what we do.
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In our deepest heart we set ourselves against God and yet God who is rich in mercy while we were yet sinners decreed that Jesus would die for our sin.
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In seeking to find this ultimate judgment suite, remember that but for God's sovereignly appointed, irresistibly conquering, and permanently saving grace in our lives, we ourselves would have to face that terribly comprehensive judgment.
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It is a great salvation. Is it not? Sovereignly ordained what distinguishes us from those who receive wrath is a result of special mercy
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God has shown us. Ephesians 2 .8 For it is by grace you have been saved of faith and that not of yourselves.
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Even the faith you have is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. And even the good works we perform were created in Christ Jesus, created in Him before the foundation of the world that we should walk in them.
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Let the greatness of this salvation cause its logical conclusion, and that is the state of dumbfoundedness that is mercy towards us, which makes us passionate and zealous lovers of the
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God who has shown us mercy for reasons we do not fully understand. It will also make us lovers of mercy itself, as it says in Micah 6 .6,
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and I think describing the Christian walk, lovers of mercy who walk humbly with our
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God and delight in showing undeserved favor to others so that we may be like our Lord who shows unmerited favor to all, but especially to we who
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He has chosen. And of course His judgments, including
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His ultimate judgment, are sweet because they stand in stark contrast, do they not, in stark contrast to the rank unjustness of our fallen world.
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Rank unjustness. Justice in this world is often slow at best and oftentimes never to be found at all.
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Not so with our God. No transgression ever committed will escape His justice.
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Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. His judgments are also sweet because they free us from the terrible and soul -strangling task of taking vengeance, the work of vengeance upon ourselves, instead leaving us wonderfully free to show mercy to all, being confident that God will judge righteously.
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In this way, we are able to imitate our wonderful Lord who, as the Spirit tells us in 1 Peter 2, committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth, who when
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He was reviled did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but He committed
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Himself to Him who judges righteously. So I hope you can begin to see some of the ways we can and should begin to find even
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God's judgments, including His ultimate judgment, sweet. Now, I'm going to be tremendously summarizing.
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I had originally intended from this point on to be the main thrust of my message, but I just had to subordinate it.
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This truth is a sentinel truth. It's a guardian truth. It has a powerful ability.
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If you understand the centrality of this, if you're healthy, if you know your God, all of His words, all of His truth will be sweet to you, will be sweeter on your tongue than honey in the honeycomb.
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It has the power to protect from theological error and errors of practice, which sometimes so easily slip into our
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Christian walk. And I'm just going to very lightly touch on some of these. And if my brevity causes me to say something that seems strange, please ask me about it afterwards.
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I would not want to leave a slight misstatement or an incomplete statement that causes questions unanswered.
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The first application, and these are all applications from my Christian life, and I'll really abbreviate this one.
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I hope you can see it has very little place in Reformed churches, but throughout the church at large, this is a pretty big error.
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The church that I attended for, I think two and a half years after the Lord came into my life, this error was rampant.
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Antinomianism, in all of its forms, is error. How can anyone be against the law of God, the word of God?
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How can anyone? The church I went to, and by and large, I'd say it was a good church. They did many things right.
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But if you ever went to another believer with an open word, no matter how humbly, no matter how tenderly, and make no mistake, if you take it upon yourself to correct, that should be the way in which you correct.
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You should imitate your Lord who does not break the bruised reed and does not extinguish the smoking wick.
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No matter how tenderly you would be a legalist, and over and over, if you talked a little bit too long about an
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Old Testament text, you're a legalist. If you go to your brother and suggest, you don't even have to have a
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Bible, you don't have to have the intimidating Bible in your hand, but if you suggest that there's something that is a nonconformity with the word of God, and you, you're a legalist.
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Get that out of my face, essentially. And I thank the Lord that no matter, no matter that this was powerfully, the powerful practice of this church, because I was involved in home
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Bible studies and all sorts of small groups. I attended five or six a week for a couple years, and boy, it was powerful.
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I knew it was wrong. By God's grace, I had read Scripture from cover to cover before I ever attended this, my first church, but however, in the face of this onslaught, with many textual justifications, we're not under law, we're under grace.
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Do not judge, lest you be judged. Christ was our, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ. We're no longer under a tutor.
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All these things, which if you're not expert in the word of God, might have an initial, I knew they were wrong.
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Why? The word of God is sweet. All of it is sweet. How could any healthy
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Christian walk be characterized by people saying, get that out of my face, you legalist.
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How could it be? It can't be. I won't go into any text.
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I'll trust, I'll trust that, that most of you know that antinomianism is a rather, and that's to be against the law, against God's word, to say that, and by way of a simple, quick textual defense, we are no longer under the curse of the law.
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We've been freed from the curse of the law. Apart from Jesus Christ, we would have to obey the law perfectly. He's taken that curse from us because he took it upon himself, and now the law is no longer a means, a harsh taskmaster, a means of salvation.
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It has shown us our sin. It's brought us to the Savior who made atonement for our sin, and it now is a road map.
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It's a road map to get closer to our God. It is a, I had a list here. It's actually, it's too bad.
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It's a good list. I won't go searching for it. It's so many things.
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It's the only place, really, by God's grace through his Holy Spirit, where we can see the face of our
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Lord more clearly. The Holy Spirit, we don't know Jesus, do we? At all.
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We would not know who he was. We would never be able to learn more about Jesus apart from the Spirit of God taking the
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Word of God and showing us the glorious and beautiful face of our Lord and Savior ever more clearly through his
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Word. It's a wish list from our beloved.
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As we're going to see, perhaps time willing, the great desire of the psalmist is that the words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart might be acceptable to his great and glorious Lord who is his strength and redeemer to who he owes all.
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The second example might be a little less pedantic, and I'm a little hesitant. I guess there could be misunderstanding here, so I want to be very clear, and I may just give a little nonthreatening example.
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Letting the truth that his Word is sweeter than honey to the believer sink deeply into your heart also provides a defense against some of the much more insidious errors or spiritual maladies that may creep into our lives, much more dangerous to the reformed believer than a bald antinomianism.
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It also provides defense against legalism or even the antecedents or forerunners of legalism, which are, despite the fact that they might be the first seeds of legalism, they are pernicious and damaging to the health and walk of the believer.
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And let me step back and say it is my humble estimation I will not give any names, but there are some popular preachers today who, while they may not fall into any overt error on the face of their teachings and writings, nonetheless, by virtue of an unbalanced emphasis on some texts, and a corresponding under -emphasis on other texts and truths,
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I am convinced cause great harm to many in the Church. I want to stress that I do not stand in judgment over these men.
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I do not say that their preaching or teaching has no merit. I simply observe that an unhealthy emphasis on the stern warnings of Scripture and on texts dealing with the cost of discipleship have, in my estimation, led many astray.
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I also want to stress that I am not saying their preaching and teaching have no merit at all.
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Taken in a very measured and small dose, I believe it can produce benefit. However, I am nonetheless convinced that their undue emphasis of some of the truths in Scripture at the expense of others causes great harm in the body of Christ.
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I have personally seen, I think, some of the effects even in our own small church. Some people who are not here right now, well known to us all,
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I think, have been affected by this. And that's one of the reasons I bring it up despite my fear of being misunderstood.
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And to inoculate against that, let me talk about someone who I have the utmost respect for who's long dead because I think some of his writings fall into this category.
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Many of you know that I'm of German ancestry and I certainly consider myself like a typical German up here in many ways for all the good and bad that that implies.
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer. If I ever had a man crush on anybody it would be on Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
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This man, despite the fact that he was a beloved preacher around the world, well known and beloved in England and the
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United States, having spent many years there, and forgive me if I get emotional, the man knew what was coming in Nazi Germany.
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His friends told him to get out in the 30s, the early 30s when the Nazis took over, but he would not abandon the
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Church of Christ in Nazi Germany. Although he knew he would pay for that with his life.
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And his writings, one of them is The Cost of Discipleship which I primarily refer to, have merit.
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And I don't say that it shouldn't have been written at all. This man who knew that he was going to face the
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Nazis and all of their terrible intimidation, and who knew that the men he taught were going to face this, in his writings there is a profound emphasis on the stern warnings of Scripture and on the text on The Cost of Discipleship.
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His exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount which forms the backbone of The Cost of Discipleship is
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I think largely correct. But there is a flavor to his writing that would make me hesitant to recommend
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The Cost of Discipleship to many believers. Because he really either strongly implies or may actually come right out and say that if you're not obeying to a profound degree this
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Sermon on the Mount which I believe is probably the highest elevation of the Law of God. The great exegete of the
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Law of God tells us that hatred for your brother is murder. He explains that.
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And to look at a woman to lust for her is adultery. This lifting up of the law.
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And to his credit I believe the Sermon on the Mount there are many applications to give to everyone who asks so that it doesn't just mean that but I'm one of the few people who strongly believes it does mean that.
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To obey God's Law you should give to everyone who asks. So he lifts up the Sermon on the
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Mount wonderfully but he gives an implication that if you're not getting tens on all of these you should seriously question probably consider yourself a non -believer.
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And I just think that that is a gross under over -emphasis on certain texts and under -emphasis in others so that I would never recommend that to a believer.
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By God's grace when I read that had a deep rooting in some of the gracious texts of Scripture.
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Texts like Jesus saying that his yoke is easy and his burden light. There's many, many more.
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And I think our text Psalm 19 provides a powerful refutation of any idea that an extremely high observable obedience to God's righteous requirements of God's Word is necessary for any degree of assurance.
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I'd say along with most Puritans worth their salt I think is an unbalanced view.
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It makes the Word of God not sweet. It places you exactly where you were before you had a
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Savior take away the curse of the law. It makes the Word of God burdensome.
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Most importantly it forgets text. It forgets truth.
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How can his yoke be easy and his burden light if we're still fearful that falling short of the incredibly high his
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Word, his righteousness revealed in his Word is so high. And we should exegete it as high.
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It's our aiming point. But do not let a want of conformity at some level at least with his righteousness cause you to doubt your salvation.
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It's true that our Savior and God has every right to expect an extreme and even a perfect measure of obedience to the righteous requirements of his
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Word. It's true that Scripture contains many warnings about not persevering through persecution even great persecution even unto death.
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It's also true that at its deepest essence the Christian walk involves subordinating our all our all to him.
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However it's also true that the Word of God makes it clear that failing to meet a perfect standard of righteousness or even failing to meet a high standard of righteousness or even failing to meet any particular outward standard of righteousness will not cause us to be cast out from his presence.
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It will not defeat the sovereign and invincible grace of God. Even committing great sin see
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David the contract murderer. Even living a large portion of our lives characterized by sin or at best by a very poor level of obedience see
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Samson in the hall of faith will not defeat the sovereign grace of our Lord which he has bestowed upon his chosen vessels of mercy.
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In fact, in our very psalm King David echoes this point when after extolling the sweetness of the
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Word of God including the Law of God he makes some illuminating declarations followed by a rather surprising and very illuminating request.
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The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
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More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
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Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them is great reward. And here are some of the surprising statements.
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Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.
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Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgression.
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Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my
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Redeemer. He makes a confession that imperfection, weakness and waywardness of his own heart make it impossible for him to even be certain whether he is obeying the law of God well.
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And he asks God to cleanse him from faults which he may not even be aware of. Verse 12.
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David then entreats his beloved Lord to keep him back from presumptuous or egregious sins, those sins which have the power to hijack the course of his entire life so that he may be blameless, which he describes as innocent of great or severe transgression.
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David acknowledges that he falls well short of the righteous requirements of God's Word, I think, in many levels right here.
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David further acknowledges that despite desiring, the deepest desire of his heart is that the words of his mouth, all the words of his mouth and all the meditations of his heart might be acceptable to his
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Lord. Verse 14. Yet he nonetheless asks God merely to keep him back from presumptuous sins and great transgression.
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In essence, saying that the best he can hope for, when compared to the righteousness, the perfect righteousness
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God reveals in his Word, the best he can hope for is a very imperfect, one might even say poor, semblance to what his
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Lord deserves. Thankfully, I hope we can see from Psalm 19 and the rest of Scripture that perfection or even near perfection is not required, especially in any outward or even inwardly observable level of performance.
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Instead, as the last verse in our Psalm demonstrates, I hope we can see that what truly distinguishes the true and healthy child of God is not that outward observable parade of obedience which might seem impressive to ourselves or others, but it is instead that the inward desires of our heart, placed there by the
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Spirit of God through the new birth, are that one's thoughts and words might be acceptable in the sight of our
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Lord, who is the strength of our lives and is the one who has heroically redeemed us from sin and death and hell by drinking the last dregs of all the misery that was due us for us.
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So I warn you, brethren, simply, do not trust yourselves to preachers and teachers whose overemphasis on Scripture's great warnings and text describing the cost of discipleship make the
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Word of God burdensome to you. Do not make them part of your standard fare. Cease going to them regularly for spiritual food.
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Remember that the Word of God is not only more to be desired than gold, but it is also sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.
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Do not forget that Jesus, immediately after declaring that all authority had been delivered to him by his
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Father, in Matthew 11, beginning at verse 28, said, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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Take my yoke upon me and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
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His yoke is easy and his burden is light because the healthy, the first healthy motivation for obedience to the
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Word of God in the heart of the true and healthy believer is a deep love for him who has shown us mercy, and a deep desire to please him whom we love.
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As the psalmist tells us in verse 14, May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight,
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O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. His yoke is also easy and his burden light because the second healthy motivation for obedience to the
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Word of God in the heart of the true and healthy believer is the deep knowledge that because of the trustworthiness of God's Word and the greatness and generosity of God's love for us and his very nature, it is impossible for us to do anything but gain from any act of obedience, no matter how costly.
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By them your servant is warned and in keeping them is great reward. Therefore, I exhort you to trust yourself to preachers and teachers who call you to great obedience.
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Yes, a preacher should call you to great obedience, but not by constantly emphasizing the warnings of Scripture and the text describing the cost of discipleship, but instead primarily, and at least in a balanced sense, call you to great obedience by constantly showing you the greatness of your
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God, the greatness of his love for you, the steadfastness and covenant faithfulness of his love for you, which produces a great, grace -soaked and indestructible salvation for your soul.
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A salvation which even the feeble, even the easily confused, even the easily discouraged, and even the easily wavering heart can rest assured within, because he knows that their salvation depends not upon the quality of their obedience, but upon the great mercy, the unshakable faithfulness, the sweet gentleness of the
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Lord who bought and keeps them. To the most feeble, wavering, oh,
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I just have to throw out some names. Sinclair Ferguson, Ian Hamilton, Robert Godfrey.
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Sinclair Ferguson and Ian Hamilton have hundreds of messages available online. Trust yourself to these men.
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If you've never listened to these men, make it a habit. They call you to great obedience by lifting up the
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Lord and lifting up the greatness of his salvation in a sweet and gentle manner, just like the
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Lord. To the most feeble, wavering, and wind -tossed believer, I say to you, on the authority of his
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Holy and Eternal Word, which is sweeter than honey in the honeycomb, that even on your worst day, your
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God loves you with the same love with which he loves his perfect Son. I say this with the utmost assurance, because according to his
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Word, which is not only sweeter than honey, but utterly reliable, according to his
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Word, if you have believed, he has made you to become the righteousness of God in Christ.
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2 Corinthians 5 .21 He has made you on your worst day to become the righteousness of God by placing you in Christ.
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Just as he made Christ to be sin on your behalf, I exhort you to meditate on this truth day and night.
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I urge you to let the sweetness of this truth roll around on your tongue and sink deeply into your heart.
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I beg you to let the sweetness of this truth produce its perfect work in your heart, the joy of the
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Lord and the deep love for your beautiful Savior, which is the only strength that can produce true obedience.
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Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, I just thank you and praise you for your great salvation.
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I thank you for your precious Son, who did not flinch at the unimaginable cost that our salvation would require
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Him to pay. Father, I thank you for the indestructible nature of your salvation, that it is of pure grace from beginning, middle, and end.
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I humbly ask that you somehow, the words which I have so haltingly and poorly spoken, will fire and somehow play a role in increasing the love of everyone who has heard,
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Father, and the one who has spoke as well, increasing our love for you, and increasing our desire to be well -pleasing to you in thought, word, and deed, that every thought and every word might be acceptable in your sight, our rock and our