The Interior Life Of The Believer - [Psalm 73]

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Today's message is entitled the interior life of the believer
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The interior life of the believer you can turn to psalm 73 Our text will come from this entire psalm, but as we turn there,
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I'd like to give a very brief Additional update for the faithful ones who have come this evening about Mozambique I want to begin with an update from pastor
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Mike When we finished our trip we were in Communicado for 10 12 days and then we finished our missions in Mozambique We came back to South Africa and our missionary
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Steve plot Nick he had the whole team over for a dinner before we headed back home and Steve had taken a bunch of the missionary seminary students over to Pretoria where pastor
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Mike was having his conference and He he told us how this conference went especially from his viewpoint and from the students who had attended it he said this was just incredible the the conference that pastor
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Mike had taught pastor Mike obviously as you know was teaching about how pastors should preach and these men who went there were
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Were just built up by the solid teaching and more than just the teaching You know how practically the man of God must apply the
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Word of God among the people so Steve was full of praise and joy at that conference and its success in this one particular place and I Believe that would have been replicated in many countries in Africa.
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So we look forward to pastor Mike's return and Tell us more about how that went One more thing
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I want to just say before we get into the text and I was talking to some Of us here this morning and one thing that just really struck me and I know the various team members
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Was how God? Mightily worked among the people of Mozambique while we were there
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This was over and beyond anything we expected We had gone there expecting
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God to do great things We had gone there with a lot of preparation expecting to do
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Whatever we were called to do out there And I think you know in some ways the circumstances that we experienced were much different in In both the positive and the negative in some things we were expecting the worst like food and the place we slept and the
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Lord just graciously surprised us with Some meals that I don't think we even had in the u .s
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It was just phenomenal And and in other cases, for example when we got there
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We had this long and tiring flight and we said, okay, we're gonna go get some rest and We found out we didn't get our luggages and we found out the place is much colder than we thought it was and we didn't have
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The clothes for it and we had a four -hour drive Before we got to our destination in a rickety bus with a loud noise and a lot of wind
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But The Lord and but the Lord was so faithful to us in all these high and low circumstances
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In fact, one thing I want to really press on you here is the people of God Show and reflect the glory of God when they go through trying times and I can speak for each and every one of our
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Mozambique team members that There was not a peep about the difficult circumstances that came across every single one of them met those circumstances just the way the man of God and the woman of God must and Did it in a way that brought honor and glory to Christ?
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there were many such circumstances where Any man might complain or find difficulty and find an excuse to Say, you know, this is not for me, but every single one of you members you did well you brought honor to Christ and God's honor was also
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Demonstrated in the word that went forth I mean I can speak for all the sessions the sermons in the evenings
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Pastor Dave often speaks of freedom in the pulpit. There was freedom of plenty
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I mean as the word was preached you should see many of the men This was their first time preaching and you would just think that was
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Persian up there or you and you would not recognize these men as they were preaching John and Barry and Joey and Simon, I mean there was just Great power as the word went forth and the people were just hanging on these words that were being preached out
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Amen That's the way the service starts is with a hallelujah and the response is our man
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But yes, God was definitely To be praised for what happened and not just in the sermons.
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There was teaching sessions I briefly mentioned it every single one of these people who went taught preached and or evangelized for you know four to maybe even ten hours some days a each day and there was hard work involved and everyone did it joyfully and Whatever came across our way every single one just poured their lives out and you could just see the love that we had and the people who came with us the translators and the
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Samaria mission folk had for these people and the people knew that and it was just good to see how the
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Lord Drew the people from Shikumba to get to hear the word and to know this great
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God I mean you can just see Christ exalted and lifted up every single day as the word was preached
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One last thing, you know, we went prepared for Shikumba and unbelievers what we ended up seeing there was there was
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A church in disrepair there was a church which had a group of heretical people come in and teach and things like that and My brother
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Simon was preaching in Shikumba. I was preaching in a neighboring village on Sunday morning So Saturday night, we have a emergency session
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You know, here's what's happening in this church and we need God's Word to be proclaimed and brother Simon just says, okay
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I will do that preach justification preached on the authority of God's Word. I wasn't there He preached with a dust storm in his face.
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I understand and preached for an hour and 15 minutes He it was just I mean we didn't go prepared for these things and who is able to do these things except the power of God working through his people and We were able to meet at least four or five different Church church leaders
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Church leaders from four or five different churches in the in the area and we were able to instruct them minister to them encourage them
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Exhort them give them Bibles and it was just good to see how the Lord used us even in such a short period of time to minister his word and I can just truly tell you
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God's power was in full evidence and we just were recipients and Observers of what
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God did and we want to share that excitement with you So I'll repeat again in three to four weeks.
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We will have a more complete information Informational session we will have some presentations giving you a full update and we'll have also some other forums
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I understand the women's breakfast will have something and we'll have a men's breakfast or something to get this out in fact, what we desire is that Excitement that we caught there in Chikumba.
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We will bring back to BBC and What we've been doing in missions that will continue forth
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We will find new venues to preach about Christ right where we are and we want to see that same kind of power
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Work in the hearts and the lives of the people around us here in West Boylston I can get excited about this and you may not hear the message
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So let's get to our text our text as I said is from Psalm 73 the interior life of a believer
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It's a long text and I want to first give you a brief outline. So, you know where we are going with this text each of you here
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Can identify with the psalm psalm 73 it is a psalm that explores
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The heart of a man who is going through deep turmoil a man who has faced intense suffering in his spirit a man who has seen grave injustice and Who is wrestling in his soul?
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With what his response should be for all of you who are grown -ups here.
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And in fact, even those of you who are younger You can identify with your own life events that have happened that this psalmist is talking about in fact you can even identify with the dark thoughts that pass through the psalmist mind as having thought those and Checking yourself.
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Maybe you know, how can such sinful thoughts? Arise in my heart a heart that has been redeemed by the blood of Christ.
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In fact, I think except for the little babies there Who have the innocence still
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Enwrapped around them almost all of us have had this experience one time or the other
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Some of us more than others Some of us maybe have walked this path that the psalmist has walked and can look back and say yes
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I have had these but these are far and few between and for some of us young in the faith
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This is probably a daily occurrence and my encouragement to you is when you go through this spot that the psalmist walked that you can have the
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Confidence and the assurance that the psalmist has as it comes through at the other side So, let me first give you an outline of this book of this part of this chapter chapter 73 begins with a very objective statement about who
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God is and He makes this Objective statement before he gets down in the dark recesses of his heart and he's going to expose what lies within There are three points to this passage to this message.
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I Wrote this in the aeroplane. So there's an aeroplane analogy here
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You know the believers life goes up and down and we have these mountain peaks of great joy.
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We experienced that in Chikumba We have these depths of despair where it seems that you know, it never never never ends it just goes on and on and on and We are going to be examining one of those
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Downs before we get to an up. So the first point we are going to look at are from verses 2 to 14 This is the believer taking a nosedive.
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He is heading headlong for a crash Verses 15 through 20.
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We're going to see the believer leveling off. He is now got his controls back and he is averted but he is still
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Flying low close to the ground and then versus 21 through 27 we're going to see this believer just soar in his spirit back up to the heavenlies where he belongs and we're going to conclude in verse 28 with a more
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Personal and a more deep knowledge of this God that he begins with in verse 1 So the three points of this message are you know, the nosedive the leveling off and the soaring when in the heavenlies?
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So let's get into the text and we will see what the psalmist and the Lord has to say to us this evening
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The psalm begins with an objective statement in verse 1 Surely God is good to Israel to those who are pure in heart
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When you go through difficult times When you go through times when life seems so dark, it is hard to understand what is happening
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You want to rest on the promises of God? You want to rest on what the
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Bible says is true about God. You want to remind yourselves of the attributes of God?
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When life around you seems to be going totally contrary to what it should be.
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In fact the psalmist here he's recounting what has happened to him and before he gets down into the depths of darkness he is
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Fixing his anchor on the goodness of God. He says God is good to Israel God is good to his people the people who have been redeemed who are pure in heart and he makes that confident statement before he goes down and tells the problem that he is he has experienced and And the problem that he experiences
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This is the first point which is the nose dive as he heads all the way down is found in verses 2 & 3
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The psalmist here says but as for me my feet came close to stumbling
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My steps had almost slipped for I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked
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But as for me, who is this me? We read in Psalm 73 that this is a psalm of Asaph and we will see the significance of what it is
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You know in a little while Asaph was a chief musician. He was called To sing and lead the worship.
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He was given the words of the Psalms said to music He himself wrote some Psalms it seems very likely that Asaph is the one who both wrote this and probably sang this in in the temple and This man a man of God a worship leader a man who is in the sanctuary at all times is talking about his experience
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Of coming close to a crash He says but as for me my feet came close to stumbling my steps had almost
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Slipped he starts with a statement that God is good and then he says but as for me
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I had a deep problem He says my feet My my parts were stumbling and I was slipping and going down into a crash
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You know the walk the word walk used in the scriptures often talks about a lifestyle and it's about a believers walk should always be one that is growing from In Maturity you grow closer and closer to the
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Lord. You're not one who is going after Sinful lifestyle first John talks about it
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You know if your life is in the light you're walking more and more towards a lot Then it shows that you are indeed a believer
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But on the other hand if your walk is going downwards that just is an evidence that you are not a believer to begin with and here
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Asaph a leader in the house of the Lord says My feet came close to stumbling my steps had almost slipped, but if you look more closely at the verse
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It is close to stumbling. It is almost slipped We will see how the
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Lord is faithful even when you go through your most deepest trials Now why did
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Asaph's feet stumble he gives his reason in verse 3 he was envious of the arrogant
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Because he saw the prosperity of the wicked the first point
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I said was this nosedive that a believer has in his inner spirit and the reason for his nosedive is
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The problem of evil and the impact that it has on the righteous
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When the believer looks around him you cannot escape Observing the evil that happens all around you.
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In fact, it just doesn't happen all around you It has an effect upon yourself You cannot go too far before the sinner the world
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Does its evil back to you and here Asaph sees injustice?
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He sees the wicked Prospering he says this cannot be and he's going to describe what kind of a prosperity this whiskey wicked people have in verses 4 through 11 and 4 through a 12 he's going to say this is what
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I observed and this is too much for me. How can this be? Let's see very briefly.
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What are all the evidences that he sees around him that causes his Spirit to go into a tailspin
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Verse 4 no pains in their death and their body is fat in the
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In the Old Testament time people were expecting that you know If a man lived a sinful life, his death has got to be, you know, just as bloody, you know, his
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White head doesn't rest in peace in the grave, but these wicked men that Asaph is watching they they have a very
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Pleasant that they just Living to a ripe old age. They have all their gardens around them and they just happily pass on into eternity
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Their body is fat. They are Enjoying the the fat of the land.
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They are eating Well, they are they are enjoying what God seems to have given them They are not in trouble as other men
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Trouble is common to most people but especially to those who are poor but these wicked who are rich They don't have this kind of trouble that the common man faces.
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They are just having a smooth and easy life They are not plagued like other mankind. They have a very healthy and Successful life they are enjoying what they have and then in verse 6 he says therefore pride is their necklace
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The garment of violence covers them these men who are successful enjoying the riches.
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They are just proud boastful They say, you know, I have done this on my own who can stand up against me and there is no one else to stand up and confront them and They are
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Speaking violence. They have authority and power to execute The violence that they want because there is no one to question them and these wicked people are
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Sinning blatantly in front of the whole world He continues in verse 7 their eyes bulges from fatness the imagination of their heart runs riot
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The their eye bulges from fatness It's a it's a phrase that just depicts that these men are just obese with with the food that they have eaten
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Spurgeon says, you know sometimes when you when you're so fat your eyes become slits
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But other times they just widen up and that's just a phrase just to say that these people had a lot of food and they were just eating a plenty and Not just was it food
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But we read that the imagination of their heart run riot these men their wicked thoughts have
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Are out there in the open they are practiced in public whatever sinful
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Imaginations that they have they are practiced and what are some of those things we see that in verse 8
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They mock and wickedly speak of oppression. They speak from on high they are blasphemous in the words that they use they see
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People who are an oppression and they cause this oppression they speak from on high is to exalt themselves and speak down with Sinful wickedness upon everything that happens they assume the position of God, but they are wicked in the way that they speak in verse 9
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They have set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue parades through the earth
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They they even lift up their words against Almighty God And their words have no end all through this world that they see whether it is individual sinners
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Just speaking wherever they go or a multitude of sinners that just populates this earth
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You can just look everywhere and you see these wicked people speak out their blasphemies Verse 10 therefore his people returned to this place and waters of abundance are drunk by them
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This verse has a couple of interpretations the most common one The one I go with is that this is still talking about the wicked the wicked the people of these wicked
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Princes the wicked men in authority They just eat up of all the wickedness that is spewed by these leaders
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So you have this man a wicked man who is an authority and all of his? Entourage just drink up of the waters that come out of this man's mouth and they are little wicked princes that just go about doing their own wickedness in their spheres of influence and In verse 11, it says they say how does
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God know and is their knowledge with the most high? Verse 11 is one of the indicators to what type of people
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Aesop was looking at he probably wasn't looking at those who were Pagans who had no God he is probably talking about people probably even within Israel Wicked men who knew that there was a
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God who acknowledged the existence of God, but they Live a life, and they speak words that Challenge the role of God in their lives.
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They say how can God know maybe there is a God But he doesn't care with what is going on or he cannot know what
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I am doing is their knowledge with the most high blasphemy against this
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Holy God and then in verse 12 Aesop wraps his Summary of the wickedness that is observed he says
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Behold these are the wicked and always at ease they have increased in wealth
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So we have a quick summary of what Aesop has seen what has caused his feet to stumble. What has caused him to have envy and What he sees as a prosperity of the wicked now you may say you know
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I Don't really care about these wicked princes talking about all these blasphemous words.
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God will judge them Aesop you know you should have been a little more smarter than doing this
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You're probably right Aesop should have been smarter But we will examine in a moment how this problem of evil is something that comes very close to each of our hearts
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Look at verses 13 and 14 as we wrap up this first point Aesop is not just looking at the problem that these evil men are doing and perpetrating he is
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Examining his own life in contrast to what is happening to these wicked men these wicked men doing all these sins are living a prosperous
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Happy and enjoyable life Oppressing everyone else around them and here is a sap.
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He says in verse 13 surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence
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Unlike these wicked men this man a man of God knowing the holiness of God knowing the
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Requirements of God's people what has he done thus far? He has kept his heart pure He has sought to please
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God with all of his heart with all of his mind He has washed his hands in innocence everything that he has done he has done with a desire to glorify and honor
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God and Surely you would think a man who does these things a man who thinks these thoughts would be the one who would enjoy the benefits that Should come from a life of obedience but we see in verse 14
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I have been stricken all day long and chastised every morning, so he's seeing the wicked doing their wickedness and Experiencing all their prosperity that the world can give and here
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He is a man of God doing what God requires thinking what God requires, but all he sees is
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Affliction and chastisement he is sore oppressed This does not seem right how does this apply to us before we go on with the rest of the psalm
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I Began by saying that each of us is confronted by evil in our lives
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It's maybe for some of you you're going through those times where something is happening to you right now
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If not, you can look back not too far in your life where something has happened where?
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Evil has come face to face with you and you have not come on top of it
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But you have come under it and your heart has said Lord, why would you do this to me?
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I'm praying I'm entreating I'm begging you Turn this around you are the one who is the sovereign king you should have me on top of the situation rather than me
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Under and suffering under this oppression that is happening think of some circumstances I mean the easiest thing to think of is think of maybe those in authority over you maybe at your job maybe
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At your school, maybe at You know even in your neighborhood, maybe somebody who is more influential maybe
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Your family all of you know Circumstances where those who had authority who?
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Use those authorities in sinful manner can cause this kind of Cry for justice
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This is how it should be I am a child of God, and how can these things happen? For us coming back from South Africa.
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We got a little more familiar with the political Landscape of all that is happening there.
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This is not a political message. I'm just using this as an illustration many of you know about Zimbabwe every time you read about its president or Past president.
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I don't know what this we are still caught up haven't gotten up on the news Mugabe and how? He was his lifestyle was rich and opulent while the people had an inflation in I don't know how many digits in a ten digits and it was just Incredible that a man who started out good, but now living in such a
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Horrible oppressive lifestyle can be still successful while those who try to do what is good.
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We're just getting killed How can this be I mean though you and I are not in that circumstance our inner man just cries for justice
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Lord This is not right You know there are probably believers there who are suffering because of this this man
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That happens all across Africa Zimbabwe is not just it just happens to be an extreme you see that even in South Africa the kind of issues that happen with the those in leadership and those who are not and you see that in Many many countries in Africa in India all across the world
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We don't have to look far to see how people in authority can abuse it We will look back at how a
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Christian should look at those in authority We will speak with David that when God has appointed the man we will honor him
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But at this point when you see injustice there is a cry from within that says how Lord can you do these things?
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And of course it always gets a lot more personal when that injustice is directed against you So you are denied that job promotion
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Because you can't lie as well and make that's many sales as the one who is next to you you are maybe fired because of your faith in Jesus Christ and You don't have a job for X amount of months and You look at those who are prospering who are living a wicked lifestyle you look at the people of the world who enjoy all the blessings in life while you your family your children are going through times of Extreme poverty.
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Yes, the Lord hasn't abandoned you you have food on your table But you don't have those kinds of blessings that the world seems to enjoy and the wicked seems to enjoy in abundance
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But I don't want to stop right there with when you consider the wicked for a believer
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Especially one who is mature in the Lord when you know The wicked and their lifestyle and what the consequences are
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There is a certain sense of reassurance that you know, you are a child of God and therefore everything is okay
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But there come time when there are people in the household of faith who would direct evil against you
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Or maybe who would exhibit evil and not Face the chastisement that Aesop has faced.
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In fact, you may look at these people and say, you know, are they even Christians? Here is one who is
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Intimately communing with me and yet he is raising his heel against me and crushing my feet my head to the ground
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You know many of the words that are spoken here definitely speak of people who are Unbelievers who call themselves
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Christians or people of God because they acknowledge God, but they are definitely not of the household of faith, but It you should not be surprised that even those who belong to the
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Lord sometimes act In such ways and not just such ways for a short period of time but for extended periods of time and when that happens
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Your cry for justice comes out all the more louder you think This cannot happen surely within the house of faith these things should not be happening and My brothers, let me just remind you when you look at the
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New Testament this morning. We looked at Philippians 4 1 through 9 we will be looking at it again
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God providentially used it both in the morning and in the evening In terms of how there will be trials in in the house of faith.
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We are not glorified yet We are being sanctified We have the flesh to deal with in fact in a soft time
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You can just put yourself in a soft feet and maybe a self is looking at David I don't think he's doing it in this passage, but he could look at David and say look at that King of Israel a man of the
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God's own heart Living as if God had no knowledge of his sin He's living he's committing adultery.
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He's murdering this person Maybe this is before Nathan went to see him and how can such injustice and he has so many children
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He has so much money and everybody looks up to him how can this be a man of God and you and I my brothers and sisters we need to be very careful because It's easier to forgive the sinner on the street
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Who throws a stone against you? But when you see injustice happening in the house of faith, you need to be very careful that you don't go down this tailspin very often we
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Put justice and equity above the sovereignty of God and we're going to get to that as ASAP Gets his ultimatum back in balance
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I want to just say one more thing before we move to the second point and that has to do with Not just injustice but with everything else that you observe
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Just turn with me to 1st John chapter 2 I want to just read a couple of verses to set the
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Christians priority before we get out of this depths that ASAP is in 1st John chapter 2 verses 15 through 17
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Do not love the world nor the things in the world If anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him
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For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father, but is from the world and Verse 17 we will see in the second point.
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The world is passing away and also its lusts But the one who does the does the will of God lives forever
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He's saying do not love the world what was ASAP's problem as we move on to the second point What was
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ASAP's problem? He has seen the prosperity of the wicked and he was Envious he saw all the goods and the success and the great uplifting that these men had and he said, you know,
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I need to have that and We read in 1st John That's not the way the believer looks at life
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You do not look at the things of the world and say, you know I need to have those things these men are succeeding and I need to succeed in the same way
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That is not the focus of the believer and ASAP is going to learn his lesson very quickly as we get to the second point here
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So the second mess point is was found in verses 15 through 20 and here The man of God who is on a nosedive is going to level off and how does he level off?
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He is going to do two things. He's going to do one thing He's going to make a choice that is godly and you will see how
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God gives him clarity He's going to make a choice That is godly and it is going to be
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God that gives him clarity. Let's read verses 15 through 20 ASAP he says if I had said
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I will speak thus Behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children
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What is ASAP talking about if I had said I? will speak thus remember
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ASAP is a Worship leader in the temple He has no choice.
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He has to come to the temple every day he has to stand and lead these people in singing songs of praise to his great
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God and Savior and Here his heart is in a turmoil over what is happening in the world around him and he is saying okay, these are the thoughts that are going through me and I come here before the people of God and I say
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All that is going in my mind You know, I got to be honest, right? Yeah I got to tell the people the way
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I see it. I got to be straight I can't just say something that I don't believe Which is a good thing
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So I'm going to come out and say God is maybe unjust
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Maybe God doesn't care. This is what I see around me and That's what he's struggling with.
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He he can't just hide in a hole in his bedroom He has to come before the people of God and what is he gonna say?
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I will speak thus all that I have been thinking about evil and the suffering of people
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He checks himself in the second part of verse 15 Behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children.
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He knows what he's feeling He knows where his heart is. He knows the deep dark struggles that he's going through But he also knows that This is not true.
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If he said this he is saying something that would betray the people of God As a leader, he would have said something that is untrue.
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You remember verse 1 He's a God is good to Israel. That is the objective truth here
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He has gone through a deep and trying experience where subjectively he feels that God has just abandoned him
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But he has a choice. He has to come before the people and what will he say? Will he say what he feels or will he say what he knows to be objectively true about God and the answer?
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I think implicit in verse 15 is that he will keep his mouth shut
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He is not going to spew those unclean and dark and difficult thoughts before everybody to say
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Oh, whoa is me. Whoa is you and I don't know what God is doing
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He's gonna say I'm gonna keep shut and I'm gonna do something and we see what he does in verse 16 He says when
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I pondered to understand this it was troublesome in my sight He he said, you know,
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I have to be honest. I'm gonna sit and wrestle with this problem I'm gonna try to understand this before I go and talk to the people
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But he could not it was troublesome. This is difficult. You know, my job's friends. They come and talk to job you got it, you got to figure out how this evil is happening and There is no answer
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When man tries to understand what happens in the world when you try to come up with a philosophy that just Accounts for all that happens it is impossible and Spurgeon says
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Quoting him rather loosely you know where man's philosophy fails the faith of The man will prevail it is it is not man's machinations man's
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You know grand design of figuring out how these all these pieces add up But it is knowing in the person who handles all these things from within we see that as we continue in verse 17
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Asaph says all this was troublesome my own thoughts could not comprehend this but when
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I came to the sanctuary of God I perceived their end
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He comes before God's own presence. It is not his own mind and his his
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Intellect that can comprehend this but he comes into the presence of God and he says when he does that when
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God is With him. He now sees the end of all this prosperity of the wicked and What is it that he sees?
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He says surely you no longer is Asaph just talking to the people around him
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He is now talking with his God and you're going to see here In fact, I probably should have said this when he does his nosedive.
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He is looking at man He's looking at people. He's looking at circumstances
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But now as he's leveling off you will see that his eyes are back where they should be at God He says you have set them in Slippery places you cast them down to destruction how they are destroyed in a moment
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They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors like a dream when one awakes Oh Lord when aroused you will despise their form
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He is given clarity as he makes the right choice not to speak evil when he makes the right choice to Come before God with his questions.
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God gives him what he needs to know. He sees the big picture He is not just limited by time and space he sees
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God's Eternal decree. Yes, there will be justice Sometimes it is paid out here, but in all cases it will be done in eternity
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In fact, he says God has placed them on slippery places Many a time the prosperity of the wicked is the cause for their downfall
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They are content with where they are. They think that they are immovable God does not know they boast and yet those very places where they are are the ones that strike slide them straight down into hell and Asaph as he comes before God's presence is given this knowledge of what
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God is doing. No, God is not sleeping He says when he says arose, he's not talking about God just sleeping and waking up He's talking about God active in judgment
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God will act and when that happens justice will be paid in its full and it's almost as if Asaph is concerned for these wicked people now, you know, they they are oblivious of what is going to happen
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But Asaph now sees clearly so the man who was doing a nosedive has now leveled off.
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He now sees Life as he should through God's perspective
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He has come before God's presence and he is able to now think and see
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Differently than he did in the past When you go through such times of difficulty when you go through times where Injustice rears his ugly head against you when you are angry in your inner man
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Against this unbeliever or maybe even against your fellow believer Who has done?
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Injustice to you. What should you do? when you are Spiritual life is taking a nosedive.
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You are Emotions are out of control. You want to do things that You think you can
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Cause justice to happen But you know in as a
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Christian that these are thoughts unworthy of you Will you check your words?
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Will you check your actions? before you do them I Mean for believers who sin against you we have a very simple and clear directive that the
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Bible has given How do you either cover their sin or how do you confront them?
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Would you do that in love or would you with? Ud and Synthetic II have this this
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Division that just tears you apart and in fact there's the whole church apart so much so that Paul has to write to them and say uh -uh
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You are dear people to me and you need to think differently so sometimes
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In fact almost all of the times when you go through times when you just can't bear what is happening to you or around you
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The best course of action would be in action in your words and in your in your hands
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It would be instead to draw near into God's presence It is
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God and God alone who can give you the comfort when you are acted upon injustly against It is
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God alone who can give you that strength when you feel you're crushed You just can't do anything anymore
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And you think that there is nothing in you that can respond to this trial that you are in when you get into God's presence
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You will receive that strength in a way that no man can give you you don't need to go around talking to everybody
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Look at what has happened to me you draw near into God's presence and you receive that power
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To stand up against whatever it is You may not need to stand up and defeat the enemy that is against you
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But you will stand confident and full assurance that God is with you and he will take you through this trial
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There is a song as the deer pants for the water and The singer there says, you know, you alone are my strength and my shield
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How can he say that because he has put his full trust in God and no matter what the trial he knows that when he trusts in God God will take him through and when when a soft here
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Looks at injustice and then he wrestles with his choices and then he comes into God's presence.
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He understands What God is doing and that puts him on a on a level course.
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He's no longer heading towards his own destruction Emulating the wicked but he is now back on track
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But there's something more that happens in this dear believers life and we see this in verses 21 through 27
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I call this the soaring of the believer back Into the heavenlies.
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I Titled this passage the interior life of believers. I picked those words rather deliberately because those of you who read older Writings like the
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Puritans and anything from 1500 to 1800s. You will see this kind of language used a lot
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You know, those men were not concerned with what you knew in your head They were concerned with what you believed in your heart and how you lived that life out in your in your walk on a daily basis and that's why they call the interior life and that was the most important thing that when you get into that closet you are
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Doing business with your God and here ASAP is going to do business with his God and you see how he gets back from where?
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He was right back into God's own presence. Let's read verse 15 I'm sorry verse 21
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When my heart was embittered and I was pierced within Then I was senseless and ignorant.
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I was like a beast before you It's a really soaring
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He's talking about being a beast he's talking about his folly Pretty you've got your points mixed up here.
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Maybe you were jet -lagged when you were writing these points No, I deliberately picked this as a division of the third point you see
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Asaph here is reflecting on his past Thoughts what we said in the first point when he was going headlong
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He is saying what was happening with me when I thought those thoughts Here he is in a place where he is in God's presence and he has a honest opinion
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Honest confession of who he was and my brothers you all know the word that describes it.
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It's called repentance he is Acknowledging that what he has done was foolish and that is that was the first thing that brings brought you into Christ's presence when you became a believer and That is the first thing that you need first John 1 9 you need to confess your sins
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To receive the forgiveness of God The first thing you need to do when you come out of this tailspin is to repent and that's what
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Asaph is doing And he does not mince any words And by the way, this was not a personal diary very which is just tear tore it and snuck under his bed
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This is a psalm. It's a publication for everybody to read and he has no shame in talking about his own sin he was careful not to say these thoughts when he was in turmoil, but now he is
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Boasting of what God did through him his own sin in order for the rest of the people to be glorified
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So you want to think of your own trials in this way as well? Our trials are not a time of us.
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Just telling everybody. Oh, whoa is me the trials at times of that are God's Chastisement to bring you into his presence and when you come out of his presence, don't just forget about it
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You need to tell people what God did for you during those trials so just summarizing verses 21 and 22 he talks about the bitterness of his heart.
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He talks about the piercing within the desperate Struggle that he had in his in his inner man
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And then he says that he was senseless that he was ignorant that he was like a beast
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That had no idea what was going on. He was just looking at the prosperity of the wicked he was Consumed with all that was happening around him he was like a mindless animal in the way he responded to the trial that God had placed him in and then look at what he says in verses 23 and 24 and This will tell you why repentance is rewarded by the sweetest of joys.
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He says Nevertheless, I am continually with you You have taken hold of my right hand with your counsel
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You will guide me and afterward receive me to glory My brothers the rest of the psalm is almost too strong for me to preach
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In any depth here This is something that you can read. It is very straightforward
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I'm gonna go quickly through this but I want you to understand the importance of every single word that is said here
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Look at how he says verse 23 nevertheless. I am with you continually you as a believer you are never outside of God's presence no matter how deep your trial and Asaph while he was still a senseless beast doing and thinking the things that were sinful
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Now acknowledges God's presence even in those deep trials. God is sovereign
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He has each of you in his hands. He never forgets you when your trials are so overwhelming that you do not know what to do
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He says you have taken hold of my right hand Who do you think kept this
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Asaph from sinning with your counsel
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You will guide me and we see the evidence of that in the previous point how God has led this man out of his dark thoughts into the
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Thoughts of God and then he concludes by saying afterward receive me to glory
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He is not looking for the end that is here here temporarily on earth He is looking for the glory that is going to come one day in eternity
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And he says in verse 25 whom am I in heaven? But you and besides you
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I desire nothing on earth Here is a man whose perspective is set right back where it should be
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I have an inheritance in heaven and that is nothing else, but Jesus Christ alone in fact
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Amelia was witnessing to the bus driver who Van driver who brought us back from the airport and the man was saying
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I'd like to go to heaven and play golf with Jesus and she said Maybe so but you're missing the point
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God is in heaven and that is why heaven is so beautiful. And when you are in God's presence
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God That's nothing and We are a to be a people who are heavenly minded.
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We are looking up to heaven the God who is there But we are just not People with head in the clouds.
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He says besides you I desire nothing on earth He's no longer looking for the prosperity of the wicked that was his the cause of his envy
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But he is now looking for the presence of God Which is his desire and it should be ours as well
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Verse 26 my flesh and my heart may fail But God is the strength of my heart and my potion forever
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Is F Has come through a trial and he is not going to be foolish to boast of his own strength
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He knows how he fell in those trials. He says my flesh my heart may fail
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I have no capacity to stand up against these trials that may come and will come again on my own.
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I Know if I were to rely on my arm of flesh, I will fall just as I did But he says but God is a strength of my heart
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He knows that as a child of God God who was continually with him will be his strength it is in the strength of God that he's going to live his life and In God is his inheritance forever verse 27 concludes this aspect of what
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Asaph sees he has not now turned his eyes away from the temporal success of the wicked
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He has seen their eternal Doom he has looked up to God and he had seen the reward of the righteous in heaven
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And he says in verse 27 for behold those who are far from you will perish
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In fact, he says you have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you.
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He trusts in God's righteousness He trusts in what
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God will do in setting justice back where it should be and Let me just give you a little more application before we go into the final verse here when you think of repentance and Acknowledging God's presence.
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There's a couple of things. I want you to look at the first thing is when you go through trials
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When the world seems dark around you you want to trust in the objective word of God You as a believer have the
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Spirit of God within you and you don't walk around Thinking that wrong is right and right is wrong when something happens in your life and you want to act in a sinful way
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The Spirit of God will bring conviction You will have doubts to act out your sinfulness and when you do that Check yourself go back to the word remember what
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God has spoken about himself and about life and about you and then you come into his presence bring all your deepest conflicts into his presence and Sometimes you may understand the perceived ends of what's happening here
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But always you will receive the comfort of God through those trials in order to look at what
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God is doing overall And What happens then is you receive the joy of the
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Lord in a personal way? You can and how many of you experience this you go through this trial?
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there is no end in sight and You were in a moment of despair, but you came before God's presence and then you just laugh deliriously you have a
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Sense of God's presence in a way that you don't experience when you're not in that trial You know that God is with you
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And you don't care if you die in this trial because you know that God is your refuge you have him with you and That is the joy that Aesop understand and that is a joy that you must
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Have when you go through this trial and God here gives this understanding to Aesop that he's able to experience it
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Let me Point out the last verse But as for me he has just talked about the wicked now
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He says as for me the nearness of God is my good I have made the
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Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your good works
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If you remember there was an ass for me in verse 2 He said my feet were stumbling and now he is in a different place in verse 1
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He had begun with an objective view of God He said I'm gonna start with this anchor of who
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God is before I plunge down this depths and tell you what happened and in verse 28
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He is not just talking about an objective truth that he knows mentally to be true. He is now talking about his own
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Subjective knowledge of that truth that objective truth being worked out in his life that he can now boast of what
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God has done He's not just going to tell people the Word of God tells you this and you ought to believe which is good enough
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But he's not going to say I tell you this great God who has saved me through this trial and this
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God who said everything in this word is true to his promises and What is it about God that he is now telling us?
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He says the nearness of God is my good Too often we take refuge in the promises of God But we stop short of taking those promises into the throne room of God You and I are
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Redeemed by the blood of Jesus. We are called children of God for a reason
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It is because we have an intimate communion with God Romans 5 1 we enter
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God's presence We are in God's presence continually and you and I as believers must take advantage of that We need to be in God's presence
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Sadly, it's the trials that seem to bring us there. We ought to be there all the time and here He says the nearness of God is my good.
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If God was not with me, I would have not just almost slipped I would have crashed and burned but God was with me and he says
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I have made the Lord God my refuge It was said this morning how the righteous run into the presence of the
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Lord. It's another psalm And then he concludes by saying that I may tell of all your works.
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He is not going to be silent He's talking back to his God and he's saying I'm gonna boast of how great you are
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Lord and the people need to know that and that you are not a God who just ignores things But you are a
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God who is intimately close closer than Anybody else as we close
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I wanted to give you some applications and I think I'm kind of running short on time here let's
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Turn with me if you will to Philippians chapter 4 you heard the passage this morning And I just want to highlight a few things as we draw this
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Evening message to a close as we let the Word of God do his work in our hearts Philippians chapter 4 verses 1 through 9
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We heard this morning about how a believer has joy and abiding sense of God's goodness to him
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We heard how we don't look for joy in the things that are around us, but we look for joy in one place We look for joy in Christ Let's look at what
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Paul has to say and command each of us here this evening if you look at verse 1 he says
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Stand firm in the Lord my beloved here was Asaph who was about to stumble who was slipping who was going down the path of destruction and here
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Paul is exhorting the Philippians and you and I that we must keep firm in the
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Lord It's not in our own strength, but we need to stand firm in what God is doing In the problem we read in verses 2 and 3 was lack of harmony and he says there's an exhortation to live in harmony and Whatever your trial might be you want to look for the purposes of God and live that out rather than fight over your petty quarrels
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And deal with sin, but come towards the love that God has for you in verse 4 we saw rejoice
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Why can you do that? Because it is in the Lord when you are in God's presence
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You cannot but rejoice if you are not rejoicing just examine where you are. Maybe you are not in God's presence
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Maybe you are in Pradeep's presence Maybe you're in your own Sinful presence rather than in God's presence and when you are in God's presence you cannot but have joy
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Pastor Dave said this morning joy. What is joy joy is not just a passing ephemeral happiness those things come and go but joy is a
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Calm happiness. I think was the word you use It's it is a inner sense of knowing that it is well with my soul because God is here
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It is in God's presence that we rejoice He talks about the gentleness in verse 5 that should be known to all and why?
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The Lord is near My friends. I hope you are seeing this theme. It is not in our own strength that we do this
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It is God with us God in us who enables us to rejoice to be gentle and he doesn't
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Paul is not a Stoic or you know, just forget about all the problems.
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Everything will be alright He says in verse 6 be anxious for nothing Why is he saying that because there are reason to be anxious about there are things that are not going well
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But instead what must you do? By prayer and supplication in everything everything with Thanksgiving let your request be made known to God you are to bring all those things into God's own presence and What will happen?
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The peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus So when you are in turmoil your mind doesn't understand what is happening.
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He's saying the peace of God itself You may not understand it past the why are you peaceful the world may ask you you have no reason to be peaceful You have no reason to be joyful The world cannot understand why you have that but God himself
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Promises to give that to you in those times and he will guard your hearts and your mind he will
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Hedge around you as Asaph was going down that downward spiral God was continually with him and brought him out of it and you also need to do the same thing
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With prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God draw near to his presence
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My friends this evening we saw a Believer in his life
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We saw how he struggled with sin Not just his sin the sin of those around him and the prosperity of the wicked he saw
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We saw the life of a man barred wide open for us to see in God's providence
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We saw how the Lord stopped that man from crashing down and leveled him off When he came into God's presence and we saw this man soar back into the heavenlies as he repented
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And he acknowledged God's presence with him. I Did not touch upon this but if you read this back again, you will see that Aesop is
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Overflowing with the sovereignty of God. He sees God's hand in those trials
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He sees God's hand in his life. It is none of his doing but is all of God and that's the
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Confidence that I would like all of us to have as we go forward from here knowing being assured being confident that this great
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God whom we serve is a God who is good and The nearness of God is
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My good and your good Let us pray a loving and gracious father.
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We come before you Lord this evening Thanking you for your word Thanking you for your presence in our midst
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Lord we acknowledge you each and every one of us here. We acknowledge you as our sovereign King And Lord with all
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We bring all our Perplexing questions our despairing moments into your presence and we thank you
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For the peace and the joy that you give us But I pray that as we go forth
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That your presence would go with each of us that our hearts and our minds would be wrapped around you
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Whether there are trials and whether that is just Life as usual and we praise you and we lift you and we exalt you
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Lord for your goodness to us We thank you for your work that you did in Jesus Bringing us into your very own presence, and it is in Christ's name that we pray