- 00:01
- One day you're gonna die. I Wonder if you'll die well Unless the
- 00:09
- Lord returns or maybe an accident if I were to come into your hospital room and to say you're going to die
- 00:17
- What would be your response? How do you die? Well, in other words, how do you how do you die?
- 00:23
- Worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ When I went to Mark Westcott's room this very week and told him he was going to die.
- 00:36
- I said Mark Are you afraid to die? He said no. I Said why aren't you afraid?
- 00:44
- You're a sinner He said yes, I am a sinner But I've been saved by the
- 00:49
- Lord Jesus Christ Said Mark, is there any condemnation for those who are in Christ?
- 00:56
- He said no. I Started to read Romans chapter 8. What shall we say to these things if God is for us and then
- 01:04
- Mark said who could be against us? I read to him in all things.
- 01:12
- We are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I'm sure that neither death
- 01:18
- And a whole other list of things will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord How do you die?
- 01:26
- Well, my premise this morning is if you don't live well for the glory of God You're not going to die.
- 01:35
- Well either Let's turn our Bibles to Psalm 95 this morning So we can understand what the
- 01:41
- Bible says about worship so that we live our lives by the grace of God as worshippers
- 01:46
- So we'll be able to die as we have lived Reminds me of the story of Alistair Begg.
- 01:54
- There was a an 80 year old man That was a mentor to him and they found him hunched over praying with a list of Prayer requests and Alistair Begg said, how do you die like that and the real?
- 02:08
- Question that needs to be answered is How do you live like that? Because if you live like that then you can die like that Psalm 95
- 02:18
- Worshiping God Worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ now, this is week two for Psalm 95
- 02:28
- So, let me give you a little bit of review and then we'll dive into the text one of these Psalms that is so convicting so Encouraging it doesn't say it in your
- 02:38
- English text But the Greek version of this Hebrew psalm says that David wrote it how fitting for David to write this psalm
- 02:46
- It's a psalm that basically you feel as it were David saying come worship this great
- 02:52
- God together With me the psalm was read in synagogues the commencements of evening service on the
- 03:01
- Sabbath And when we come to this psalm, it's broken up at least I'll break it up this way the commands to worship how to worship reasons for worship and warnings about worship, and I think that as you see
- 03:18
- Worship described by David through the Spirit's inspiration. It shows you really the paradigm for living so you live well
- 03:26
- And you'll be able to die. Well, too Look at the two commands for worship You remember these found in verse 1 and in verse 6
- 03:34
- Oh come in verse 1 and O come in verse 6 But they're different words Both commands to worship, but they're different.
- 03:42
- Let's look at the first one in verse 1. Oh Come Come with me.
- 03:49
- That's David's idea. It's a command. You must worship God. You can't audit We're going to worship together.
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- Let us let us but we're still not going to worship one another we together will worship The one true
- 04:01
- God and then he gives some modifiers and these are loud modifiers enthusiastic modifiers
- 04:12
- Let us sing for joy to Yahweh when you see Lord all caps, that's
- 04:17
- Yahweh That's that's the covenant name of God. Let us sing with joy Let us give a ringing cry.
- 04:25
- Let us sing with so much enthusiasm. It will draw attention to the one We're singing about that's the idea
- 04:34
- It's got decibels to it. It's got joy to it. It's got a smile to it It goes on to say in verse 1.
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- Let us shout joyfully Raise a shout Enthusiastically earnestly with an exclamation point
- 04:51
- I could stop for a second and say is that how you sing That's how David one of the
- 04:57
- Israelites are saying how much more should we as New Testament believers on the other side of the cross we see creation and redemption and Consummation and now we see it all through Scripture.
- 05:08
- And so David calls people to worship. I Love what he calls the
- 05:14
- Lord here. Do you notice it in verse 1 the rock of our salvation? The rock stability faithfulness first time
- 05:25
- God's called rock is in Deuteronomy 32 verse 15 the Identification of the
- 05:31
- Savior of Israel a rock and it keeps getting better verse 2 These just synonyms in parallel poetry this song come before his presence with Thanksgiving for what the
- 05:44
- Lord has done what the Lord will do Not with bitterness not with complaints not with anxiety
- 05:52
- Come into his presence. It means before his face didn't we just sing that song come if I could remember the songs lyrics
- 05:59
- I would Come let us sing before his face Is that what it was? That's what it should have been
- 06:10
- I mean you get the idea listen to Nehemiah and it came about at the month Nisan in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes That wine was before him and I took up the wine and gave it to the king now
- 06:22
- I had not been sad in his presence You don't want to be sad in front of a king because the king has done so much for you
- 06:30
- And if a king gives land and a king gives protection and the king gives food and the king gives Families, well, you don't go before the king with a sour face
- 06:41
- Verse 2 it keeps going. Let us shout joyfully to him with Psalms. I Mean this is like tiptoes like let's be fired up to worship the
- 06:51
- Lord But verse 6 balances it the outcome of verse 1 is
- 07:00
- Balanced now with verse 6 a different word This means to come with respectfulness with solemnity.
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- Oh come this is I'm nothing.
- 07:13
- I have an audience of one the Lord God of the universe and the tone changes to prostration to humbleness
- 07:22
- To submission if you see in verse 6, it says let us worship
- 07:29
- It means there's a king and I should be down on my face before the king He says the same thing in verse 6.
- 07:38
- Let us bow down Septuagint adds let us weep Verse 6 goes on to say let us kneel before the
- 07:46
- Lord Yahweh our maker There's someone who's superior to me and it's the
- 07:52
- Lord God and I should come with enthusiastic Shouting and joyful Thanksgiving, but I said
- 07:58
- I should also know this is the Lord God of the universe I know it's a weak illustration, but I'll often say to my son
- 08:11
- Yes, I am your friend, but I'm also your dad We're not just buddies the way we're talking right now
- 08:19
- It's kind of only buddy talk, but I'm also your dad.
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- And so yes, you're a great king to be praised and to be worshipped But you're my superior
- 08:32
- So he says worship He tells us how and now he tells us why do you see in verse 3?
- 08:40
- He gives a list of five reasons to worship God. We saw a couple last week. Let me give you a couple in review
- 08:46
- Number one Yahweh's great found in verse 3. Why do you want to worship God? He's great for Yahweh is a great
- 08:53
- God This sounds exactly like the New Testament version in Titus 2 Waiting for our blessed.
- 08:59
- Hope the appearing of our glory of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all unlawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession
- 09:15
- He's great but also he's preeminent look at verse 3 a great king above all gods he's a great
- 09:22
- God and he's a great king And you know back in those days there was the the God of the hills the
- 09:28
- God of the valleys The God of the mountains the God of the ocean the God of the Moabites the God of the
- 09:33
- Canaanites The God of the Hittites the God of that locale the God of this locale the God up there
- 09:38
- There was the God of Fitchburg and there was the God of Grafton And when you went to Grafton you worship that God and went you went to fit when you went to Fitchburg you worship that God He's the king above all gods
- 09:53
- Doesn't mean there are really gods, but if there were they're just inferior No wonder
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- Jeremiah said Thus says the Lord let not a wise man boast of his what wisdom
- 10:09
- Alistair Begg says that's brains Let not the mighty man boast of his might beg says that's brawn let not a rich man boast of his riches.
- 10:19
- That's what Keep the alliteration bucks But let him who boasts boast of this that he understands and knows me that I am
- 10:28
- Yahweh who exercises loving -kindness justice and righteousness on earth
- 10:34
- Why should you worship? He's a great God. He's a great king. Look what he says here in verse 4. He gives another reason reason 3
- 10:41
- He's sovereign over everything in sorry verse 4. I meant in whose hand are the depths of the earth the peaks of the mountains are also
- 10:52
- His so what is this in grammar when you show something that's small and something great
- 11:03
- Something little and something grand When you do this in poetry like this, it's called the
- 11:08
- Marism and a Marism means this I want to tell you from A to Z He's great, but not just from A to Z when
- 11:15
- I say from A to Z. What do you think? Well, that's A and Z, but not B C D E No from A to Z every letter is
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- Included so the totality from low lying regions to high
- 11:29
- God sovereign over all that He's not just the God of the valley another reason in other words. I Love what
- 11:36
- Nebuchadnezzar said God's dominion is an eternal dominion his kingdom endures from generation to generation
- 11:42
- All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth
- 11:49
- No one can hold back his hand or say to him. What have you done? So David is saying he's a great god.
- 11:57
- He he sits on a throne. He decrees things He's on the throne dispensing rule and Dominion.
- 12:07
- He ordains. He commands he appoints He establishes he chooses he predestines he for ordains
- 12:15
- He's worthy of worship But look at verse 5 he gives more he gives another reason a fourth reason this is great the sea is his
- 12:25
- For it was he who made it And his hands formed the dry
- 12:32
- Land he made these things and he owns them
- 12:42
- Steve and I have a friend named Edwin. He used to sell And he was gonna sell a million dollar diamond to a lady in Florida And so he had to take his
- 12:53
- Israeli trained security guard down there so he wouldn't get ripped off and he thought you know if I'm gonna sell a lady a
- 13:02
- Diamond for a million dollars. She might want something else, too Like a necklace or a bracelet.
- 13:09
- So he said he brought along a fifty thousand dollar Bracelet and some other earrings and some things like that and put them all in his bag and went down to Florida This lady was gonna go to Kenny Bunkport to meet with the
- 13:21
- Bushes. So you have to have million -dollar diamonds for that Don't you? I'll never forget what he says what he said said, you know
- 13:29
- Mike if you buy a suit You'll probably buy a tie and a shirt too. So she's gonna buy more than that So she looked at the diamond and I think it was diamond earrings and tried him on and I said by the way
- 13:39
- Edwin What do you tell someone when they try on million -dollar earrings? You look pretty in those He said no, that's what the jewelry jeweler says down at the mall.
- 13:47
- You don't say anything the diamond talks So she said okay.
- 13:53
- What else do you have in that bag? He said I whipped out this fifty thousand dollar Bracelet and she put it on her wrist and she shook her wrist and said that's mine.
- 14:02
- What else? Do you live like that? That's mine So see
- 14:08
- I don't live like that, but I want to live like that. So I took all the kids to the dollar store true story and I love to say the kids you each get five dollars pick whatever you want
- 14:20
- By the way, it's good to take kids the dollar store for lots of reasons Here's a reason let him get ten dollars worth of stuff and the next day
- 14:25
- It's just all thrown away because all material stuff just vanishes. I just shows you the just the emptiness of materialism
- 14:35
- So every time I put something in the cart, I would just shake my wrist and go that's mine.
- 14:42
- I Own that I have the power to buy that that's mine Okay. So now think about God the
- 14:54
- Atlantic That's mine Pacific That's mine.
- 15:00
- All the mountains. Those are mine. Abraham Kuyper said God looks at everything in the universe and he says mine.
- 15:09
- I Own it all I made everything and not just Things that are inanimate but people to he creates everything
- 15:17
- No wonder our school systems and the world is trying to push everything towards evolution because it robs
- 15:23
- God praise it robs God worship Instead of saying man, that is awesome.
- 15:28
- How does that happen? How can blood be so? Perfect if it's thinner you bleed out when you get cut if it's thicker your blood can't be pumped through the heart.
- 15:39
- You'll die This is awesome. This is incredible because creator praise paradigm
- 15:51
- Is a universal fact he made it and therefore he gets the praise and the psalmist says the sea is his mine
- 15:58
- For he who made it and his hands formed the dry land Spurgeon said he scooped the unfathomed channel and poured forth the overflowing flood
- 16:11
- Seas were not fashioned by chance nor their shores marked out by an imaginary finger of fate
- 16:17
- God made every creek and bay and current and Far -sounding tide owns the great makers hand in the beginning.
- 16:29
- God created the heavens and the earth SOS Johnson said I don't like to say people are creative because that's a term used for God and he's right
- 16:38
- The Hebrew word from Genesis 1 1 is only used of God used of no one else
- 16:43
- We form we fashion but God alone creates When you see his creation
- 16:52
- You've been given eyes to see you go to Niagara Falls and you just think that is awesome
- 16:57
- You feel it you sense it. You can taste it. You hear it. Maybe one of my favorite illustrations of evolutions shame
- 17:15
- How long would it take a monkey pounding irrationally at a computer to come up with these words?
- 17:21
- Genesis 1 1 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth Let's let 1 million tireless monkeys pound away at record speed 12 keys per second on an easy keyboard that only had capital letters
- 17:35
- Now try to think of a rock so large that if the earth were at its center its surface would touch the nearest star
- 17:43
- This star is so far away that the light from it takes more than four years to get here traveling at 186 ,000 miles per second if a bird came once every million years and removed in an equivalent amount to the finest grain of sand
- 17:58
- For such rocks would be worn away before the champion super Simeon's would be expected to type
- 18:03
- Genesis 1 -1 or I could ask my evolutionist friends
- 18:10
- Why do 11 of the 32 moons in our solar system orbit in direction opposite that of the rotational direction of their mother planets?
- 18:19
- Or maybe I could ask them why do seven of the nine planets have direct rotation in reference to the revolution around the
- 18:24
- Sun? But Venus rotates slowly backwards and Uranus rotates at a 98 degree angle from its orbitable or orbitable
- 18:34
- Forget it. I'm not even gonna read it. It's all it's all science to me Here's what
- 18:40
- I do know Hebrews 11 3 by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command
- 18:47
- So that what is seen was not made out of what was visible fiat
- 18:54
- Creation you look at the text and his hands formed the dry land
- 19:01
- That's languages. I pick up a little bit of dirt. I add in some water. I mold it and make something sovereign over creation
- 19:12
- That's why when rabbi Kushner writes in his book when bad things happen to good people
- 19:18
- He doesn't want to call earthquakes fire and tornadoes an act of God He says that's using
- 19:25
- God's name in vain They're just chances of nature not for David that takes away praise and it gets better Look at verse 7
- 19:37
- Jump ahead to verse 7. God's a great God. He's a great king. He's sovereign over everything. He's creator.
- 19:42
- He's transcendent. He's different He's other he's holy But now he's close he's personal look at the language of relationship look at the language of Communion look at the language of fellowship.
- 19:54
- How can you have relationship with the God who creates things with a word? verse 7
- 20:01
- For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand
- 20:10
- You mean to tell me that God who creates things by divine Fiat Wants to be close to humans wants to have a relationship with them
- 20:19
- Wants to guide them as a shepherd would a sheep the answer is for David. Yes, and he knows he was a shepherd
- 20:26
- Actually the the Hebrew word there For for at the beginning of the sentence in verse 7 for he really is best probably translated truly
- 20:37
- And don't you forget it Yeah, it's the transcendence of God the first few verses, but now the eminence of God with an a he's close
- 20:45
- He shepherds his people its language of intimacy of knowing his flock John 10
- 20:51
- I'm the Good Shepherd the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I Know my sheep and my sheep know me
- 20:58
- Just as the father knows me and I know the father I laid down my life for the sheep my sheep Listen to my voice.
- 21:05
- I know them and they follow me I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one so shall snatch them out of my hand
- 21:13
- He's not just creator. He's not just transcendent, but he's close
- 21:21
- You think about the closeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why did the eternal Son of God have to cloak himself with humanity?
- 21:30
- says in Hebrews 2 for it was fitting that he From whom by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory
- 21:39
- Should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering This is why he's not ashamed to call them
- 21:47
- Brothers since therefore the children share in flesh and blood he himself likewise partook of the same thing
- 21:54
- He had to be made like his brothers in every respect So that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of The people
- 22:10
- I mean, can you imagine the God who made everything cares for people? cares for Christians Isaiah 40 says like a shepherd he'll tend his flock in his arm.
- 22:21
- He'll gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom He will gently lead the nursing ewes Psalm 49 they will not hunger thirst neither will the scorching heat or Sun strike them down For he who has compassion on them will lead them and guide them to springs of water
- 22:39
- David said God is great and God is close God is different but God is a close shepherd
- 22:47
- The Lord is my shepherd Everything seems so wonderful so far doesn't it
- 22:55
- God is to be praised. He's to be worshipped He's to be adored With enthusiasm with reverence for lots of good reasons and then where did we get verses 7
- 23:05
- C through 11? This doesn't fit. These don't make sense. Do they?
- 23:12
- So much so that some writers say these were added later as the liberals say these don't these don't go here
- 23:19
- Notice the change of mood at the last part of verse 7 through verse 11
- 23:28
- There's even a change of speaker In verse 8 and God gives a warning
- 23:36
- Worship comes with a warning Spurgeon says this change of tone quote it has about a day ring like that of a church bell the first few verses and like the bells it sounds both merrily and Solemnly at first ringing out a lively peel and then at the end of verse 7
- 23:56
- Dropping into a funeral knell as if toiling at the funeral of the generation which perished in the wilderness one man said listen
- 24:11
- Regarding worship for Christians on Sunday morning in light of these verses Quote it is madness to wear ladies straw hats and velvet hats to church.
- 24:21
- We should be wearing crash helmets Usher should issue life preservers and signal flares.
- 24:29
- They should lash us to our pews Really let's read the verses
- 24:37
- Today if you hear his voice Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah as on the day of Massa in the wilderness
- 24:46
- When your father's put me to the test and put me to the proof you hear God speaking here though.
- 24:52
- They had seen my work For 40 years. I loathed that generation and said There are people who go astray in their heart
- 25:00
- And they have not known my ways Therefore I swore in my wrath. They shall not enter my rest
- 25:08
- Let's take a look at this how can there be a warning at the end of worship Let's dissect this a little bit go back to verse 7 at the end today if you hear his voice
- 25:19
- Immediately you start thinking there's some urgency here There's some pay attention instead of every head bowed and every eye closed.
- 25:26
- It's like keep your eyes peeled We better pay attention to this. There's a warning. We better not fail to do what
- 25:31
- God says. This isn't trivial MacArthur said worship begins in holy ecstasy.
- 25:37
- It ends in holy obedience or it isn't worship and look what he says if you hear his voice
- 25:45
- This is not well. I'm just hearing But the Hebrew when they heard they meant to do Right, it's it's
- 25:52
- I hear to do not just I hear sounds like Deuteronomy 6
- 25:58
- Doesn't it and these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart Hear the
- 26:05
- Lord our God is one and then he says in verse 8 of Psalm 95
- 26:10
- You see it don't harden your hearts So there's all this worship talk and now you could harden your heart in light of that worship
- 26:17
- I mean you could not worship. Well, there's a component that could turn badly and he gives an illustration at Meribah on the day
- 26:26
- But and in the day of Mass in the wilderness these people tested me They tried me.
- 26:32
- Hey Everest doesn't try me k2 doesn't test me The Arctic Sea doesn't disobey me
- 26:41
- But people do turn your Bibles, please to Exodus 17 and let's see together
- 26:49
- The account that David is referring to and that will help us and you're gonna see the link
- 26:55
- Worship and a warning for what reason how do these two go together?
- 27:02
- Let's take a look at the disobedience of Israel and I want it to serve as a signpost of what not to do
- 27:09
- This is the first Corinthians 10 language where these things happen as an illustration
- 27:14
- So we don't do them run from them don't do what they do and the problem is this is right up our alley
- 27:21
- This is me. This is you if we're not careful Now before I start reading
- 27:27
- Exodus chapter 17, how did God lead people back in those days when they're in the wilderness? Divining rods
- 27:36
- Looking at the liver counting the arrows How did
- 27:42
- God lead them It was a what Not all together now
- 27:47
- It was a pillar right and the pillar of fire and the cloud would move them right where God wanted them
- 27:54
- Stay here move there. Hey the things moving better pack up Don't forget that as we look at these verses verse 1 of Exodus 17 then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of sin
- 28:13
- According to the command of Yahweh and camped at Rephidim There was no water for the people to drink
- 28:21
- God leads them to this spot. Don't miss that pillar of cloud by day pillar of fire by night
- 28:31
- Now has God provided for these Israelites so far? Has he given them physical rescue out of Egypt?
- 28:38
- Has he given these? 600 ,000 men plus children and women which is maybe 2 million people has he given them water and food and protection and Deliverance the answer is yes.
- 28:49
- Yes. Yes, and yes He's been faithful immutably faithful.
- 28:55
- He's given them quail manna water Verse 2 therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said give us water that we may drink
- 29:08
- Moses said to them. Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh can feel it?
- 29:16
- Can't you you can hear it? No justice, no peace. No justice. No peace the mob mentality
- 29:22
- Moses. You're in charge Moses reminds them, you know, I'm I'm Just the spokesperson.
- 29:30
- I'm just the prophet. You're really putting God to the test verse 3 They didn't care the people thirsted there for water.
- 29:36
- They grumbled against Moses said why now? Have you brought us up from Egypt to kill us and kill our children and livestock with thirst?
- 29:46
- Moses cried out to Yahweh saying what shall I do with this people a little more and they'll stone me
- 29:52
- And the Lord said to Moses Yahweh said pass before the people
- 29:59
- Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the
- 30:05
- Nile go Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb and you shall strike the rock and water will come out of it
- 30:17
- That the people may drink and Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel 2 million people with potable drinkable water
- 30:30
- Now I love to study liberals not because I get much from them, but I get what not to do like when the liberals say well when
- 30:39
- Jesus, you know walked on water in Galilee. He was really walking on a sandbar or when
- 30:46
- The Red Sea was opened up It was only like six inches of water that all the people of Israel walked through I always thought it was comical that Six inches of water drowned all
- 30:57
- Pharaoh's army, but you know call me a stickler They said here too that you know, he just happened to like hit certain
- 31:04
- Like cap to a spring and then it just all came out one commentator said this sounds more like the television description of how
- 31:12
- Jeb Clampett of the Beverly Hillbillies Accidentally discovered oil a shot fired from his rifle accidentally released oil hidden in the ground
- 31:21
- First service thought that was much more funny than you did. I guess the younger people are here for this service
- 31:31
- I tell my students preaching students If you say anything, that's a little lighter you do that just before you slice the jugular
- 31:41
- So you just all laugh now guess what's coming. Here's the tie -in
- 31:49
- The God of the universe by sovereign direction Leads the people to a place
- 31:57
- Where there's no answers They have to walk by faith and not by sight They have to worship
- 32:03
- God and remember and reflect. He's a great God. He's a great King He creates the water.
- 32:10
- He creates fresh water. He creates salt water He creates brooks and streams and valleys and this
- 32:16
- God's been faithful so thus far We have his promises and he's not just a faithful God.
- 32:21
- He's not just a great God. He's not just a great King He's a personal God. He's Yahweh.
- 32:26
- He'll be close to us and yet when they were pushed to the edge. They didn't worship
- 32:33
- They complained and they tested God And it cost so now let's talk about you
- 32:44
- God perfectly orchestrates your life and All of a sudden you have no answers and You've got a problem and you don't know how to deal with it
- 32:55
- Pastor can't fix it. Doctors can't fix it. You can't fix it. Friends can't fix it taking a nap won't fix it
- 33:03
- Internet won't fix it. I this cannot be fixed Friends did not the sovereign
- 33:09
- God put you right there by his own sovereign decree The answer is yes, so how do you respond when you're in a trial and there seems to be no way out
- 33:21
- This was written so that we say to ourselves God still should be worshiped and I don't want to go do what the
- 33:28
- Israelites did I don't want to do what I have done before and that has failed when God has put me in a very hard Situation.
- 33:36
- I'm not making light of the difficulty of the trial It was a trial if they did not get water, they would drown.
- 33:42
- I mean, so they would drown they would they would Expire. I don't want there to be laughing now.
- 33:50
- I'm going for the jugular and so we come to the psalm. Yes Enthusiastic worship.
- 33:58
- Yes God, you're great. But the real test is when you're in the hospital and The pastor says you're gonna die.
- 34:12
- You've got a problem. No one can solve There's something going on at work or at home
- 34:19
- We're in some trial God sovereignly put you there just like he put them there unless you think
- 34:25
- God is only sovereign over the hills and not over the seven hills of Worcester Will you worship
- 34:34
- God in the midst of your trials? That's the point when you're in a trial you should say to yourself
- 34:42
- This is a test I'm in a test verse 9 you see it your father's tested me and Instead of the father saying
- 34:56
- I'm in a test now, they're gonna test God That's a way to fail the test when you flip it back and say you take the test
- 35:03
- God I'm not taking it. You want me to take the test you take it. It's exactly what they did
- 35:09
- And even though we're not brash enough to say it the way I did our lack of contentment our bitterness
- 35:18
- Our anxiousness is The exact same thing they tried me though they had seen my work
- 35:29
- They knew about God's faithful provision how much more we as New Testament Christians We know the work of God.
- 35:37
- We were enemies and Jesus Christ reconciled us to God We were slaves to sin and Jesus Christ freed us from the slave pit of sin and now we're adopted into the family of God God had a holy awesome wrath against us and Jesus stepped in between us as an advocate and mediator and bore the full brunt of the wrath we deserved because he loved the father and he loved us and This Savior then rose from the dead and we have seen his work.
- 36:13
- We've tasted his work We have experienced it, but you don't understand where I'm coming from You don't know my trials and the answer is you know what?
- 36:28
- I don't but I know God put you there That's why when
- 36:38
- I study the life of Christ, I'm so happy that Jesus never failed in a temptation, aren't you?
- 36:46
- Think about it. We go to Matthew chapter 4 Jesus in the wilderness actually We go there and we say things like this.
- 36:54
- Well, Jesus is in the wilderness He used Deuteronomy three times when I'm tempted. I should use Deuteronomy and get out of my temptations
- 37:02
- That's how I should do it. I should use scripture to overcome temptations. Is that a good principle by the way?
- 37:07
- It's a great principle, but it has nothing to do with Matthew chapter 4 at all When I pray here's how
- 37:12
- I pray Lord lead me not a temptation. Is that how you pray? Is that how your? Saviors taught you to pray don't lead me into temptations and in Matthew chapter 4
- 37:23
- It says in verse 1 that the Holy Spirit impelled Jesus into the temptation and he led
- 37:29
- Jesus into temptation That doesn't sound like this is what I do now
- 37:35
- No This is what happened to Jesus and Adam was tempted and failed Eve was tempted and failed
- 37:40
- Israel was tempted and failed Peter was tempted and failed. I'm tempted and failed you're tempted and failed
- 37:48
- Will anybody stand up to the test and not fail? answer Jesus didn't fail the point of Matthew chapter 4 is not
- 37:57
- I better memorize Deuteronomy Although that would be a wonderful thing to do Jesus when tempted so when
- 38:07
- I now look at these people and I say, you know what? Yeah shame on Israel, but Shame more on me.
- 38:15
- I know so much more than Israel does did I have the whole revelation of God? I'm so thankful.
- 38:20
- I have a mediator and a Savior who didn't test God When God the
- 38:27
- Father gave him a test, he didn't say back to the father of Gethsemane. No, you take the test Verse 10, it's a big deal
- 38:42
- For 40 years. I loathed that generation. I mean, can you imagine this how God talks about Israel? Is there anything worse than your current trial?
- 38:51
- Yes having God chasing you because you don't worship in your trial Let me say that again.
- 38:57
- What could be worse than the situation you're in right now. Could anything be worse? answer
- 39:02
- Yes God chasing you Chasing in you in your current trial because you just won't worship him in the middle of the trial and The text here says he loathed that generation
- 39:14
- Kidner The Old Testament scholar said loath is too impulsive So he wants a better word loath is too impulsive
- 39:23
- Disgusted is exactly right. God said I'm disgusted with them.
- 39:28
- Actually the other way to translate it. Are you ready? God says I'm nauseated Makes my stomach kind of ill to think about after everything
- 39:38
- I've done for Israel. They're gonna test me No, you take the test God makes me want to throw up and a people who err in their heart and they do not know my ways
- 39:51
- They don't know my ways where it says in the Psalms that my ways are through the sea
- 39:57
- Through the trials not around. I just want to get out of the trials I'm with you So do I but the way for God is as the psalmist says it's through the verse 11
- 40:08
- Therefore I swore in my anger truly. They shall not enter my rest and thankfully
- 40:14
- Because of our Savior and his meritorious work We do get to enter in the rest of Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 this generation didn't make it into the promised land
- 40:25
- But thankfully we have a Savior who doesn't break his word and we make it. How do you die?
- 40:39
- Well by living? Well Responding now to these smaller trials.
- 40:48
- So when you finally get to your deathbed you'll be able to say things like Lady Jane Grey did the nine -day
- 41:03
- Queen 15 years old good people. I am Come hither to die and by a law.
- 41:10
- I'm condemned to the same the fact indeed against the Queen's Highness was unlawful unlawful and the consenting there unto by me
- 41:18
- But touching the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my behalf I do wash my hands thereof in innocency
- 41:26
- Before God and the face of you good Christian people this day. She then recites
- 41:32
- Psalm 51 She gives her gloves and her handkerchief to her maid
- 41:41
- The executioner says to her. Will you please forgive me? She grants it and then she said to the ax man.
- 41:49
- I Pray you dispatch me quickly, of course back in those days
- 41:57
- The executioner was not paid for by the state The executioner was paid for by the person getting executed and you want to make sure you gave them a lot of money
- 42:05
- So they did it quickly. She said to the man.
- 42:10
- Will you take my head off before I lay me down? On the block. No, madam.
- 42:17
- She put her own blindfold on but she couldn't find the block to lay down her head What shall
- 42:24
- I do? Where is it? According to one account, sir, Thomas Bridges Escorted her up.
- 42:32
- She put the block on her head on the block Lord Into thy hands.
- 42:39
- I commend my spirit. How do you die like that?
- 42:48
- You got to live like that So you can die like that Let's pray father 2 ,000 years before Lady Jane Grey died your son said into my into your hands.
- 43:04
- I commend my spirit We're thankful today that we have such a great Savior. We're weak
- 43:11
- If we really were honest we'd admit that we're weaker than Israel we don't want to test you please forgive us
- 43:19
- Many families here in big trials Other families, they're right around the corner
- 43:27
- Would you help us to worship you? Would you help us to be reminded through your word and through your spirits conviction that you're a great
- 43:34
- God? We've seen your works we've experienced your great salvation And we want to worship in the midst of our trials when things are going.
- 43:43
- Well, the babies are born Promotions at work new houses
- 43:51
- We're saying bless you But father help us to be like Job Though you slay us will still trust in you and father
- 44:02
- I know it's possible because your word says it I've also seen it with my very eyes just hours ago with Mark Wescott, I believe on the
- 44:13
- Lord Jesus Christ for my salvation and Even though my body's dying.