Faithfulness of God

Well good morning. It's good to see you all.

I am especially glad to be here this morning.

We have just in the Thomason house, we've been

battling sickness the last week and a half and

all week I knew I'd be preaching and Joe kept

texting me, how you feeling, how you feeling?

I'm okay. I'm okay. I think maybe I pushed a

little bit at the end of the week and didn't

feel great yesterday, so pray for me. Just been

a weird battle in our house with some sickness

this week, so that's the bad news I guess on

one breath. And I'm gonna ask the forgiveness

of the young adults who... heard me preach on

this because I had to call an audible in light

of not feeling well. And we'll get to this on

the faithfulness of God. So that's the bad news.

The good news is I have some news to share with

you. If you hadn't heard, a baby was born this

week to Daniel and Sarah Tavern. And little baby

baby boy Rad Kitt Tavern. I know. I know. If

you think that's a wow, ready for this, the stats

on this baby. 10 pounds, 3 ounces, 22 .75 inches

long. That's a big boy. So you can tell Sarah,

great job when you see them. I'm so excited for

them. I didn't have time to get the picture up.

He is just a big boy and he is awesome and we're

praising the Lord with them for God's kindness

and faithfulness to them and so you can pray

and I'm sure there'll be a meal going out, meal

train going out for them. Well, why don't I do

this? Kind of start us in prayer. Let me just

pray and thank the Lord and we'll seek his help

today. Lord so grateful for a little baby rad

as we think about New life and we're just grateful

for him. We praise the praise you with the taverns

For that little one and just pray for your blessing

on them as they adjust now to having the two

little ones and Ask your blessing on them Lord.

Give me grace this morning as I open your word

and seek to Even unpack and make clear from your

word your faithfulness. So help me do that by

your grace your power praying in Jesus name.

Amen Well, maybe we can just begin by a little

bit of word association Sometimes, you know,

we throw out a word we say what's the first thing

that comes to our mind? I just want to ask you

that in relation to the word faithful What's

the what's the kind of the first thing? that

kind of comes to your mind as you consider someone

or something being faithful. I know for me, it's

not uncommon in our culture. We think of a faithful

dog, right? A dog that stays by your side. I

had one of those growing up. His name was Sparky.

Really original name for a dog. And he was my

dalmatian. And essentially growing up, we were

inseparable. me and Sparky. And he was always

by my side. He was the Robin to my Batman. So

much so there was a photo of that hung of me

and Sparky, a portrait, a studio portrait that

hung of me and Sparky in my house. Me wearing

a Batman shirt and Sparky wearing his black spots

and Batman and Robin. Faithful dog. Maybe you

think of Old Faithful, right? That geyser in

Yellowstone National Park. You know, it's so

named because of its consistency of blasts of

hot water that rise, I think, up to 100 feet

in the air. Old Faithful. You might think of

a faithful friend, right? Someone who's been

by your side through thick and thin, through

highs and lows, through the fires of life. Maybe

someone who's walked with you and been a constant

help and companion. I mean, everybody needs a

faithful friend, right? You think of in the scripture,

Jonathan and David, you think of maybe Paul and

his companions, Timothy and Epaphroditus, faithful

comrades in ministry, men that he could trust,

faithful partners in ministry, right? These are

vital. You could say the same of marriage, right?

I mean, to be married. And to covenant before

God and friends and family means that we are

pledging to be faithful My father -in -law he

he actually transcribed my entire wedding but

of course my vows were and he gave that to us

as a gift on our first anniversary and and of

course the vows I Shay take thee Bethany to be

my wedded wife and Do promise and covenant before

God in these witnesses to be thy loving and faithful

husband And of course, her to me to be my loving

and faithful wife. I mean, it's one of the hallmarks

of marriage, right? Faithfulness is just part

of the commitment in trusting ourselves to someone

else to seek to care and love them. It requires

faithfulness. I mean, I mean, these are just

some of the images, right? You may have others

that have come to your mind. Those are some that

come to mind, but to my mind. But we also might

think of even faithlessness. Unfaithfulness.

I mean, there's other images that come to our

mind. We really do live in a world of unfaithfulness.

I think I have a slide for that. I mean, we live

in a world where trust is low. I mean, it's often

a day doesn't go by right where we don't feel

the reality of this. I mean, I even said this

to the to the ambassadors group and had an opportunity

to talk on this back in early November. At that

time, Amazon was announcing a round of layoffs

and the CEO came out and he said, you know, it's

not because of AI. It's actually because of company

culture. We're announcing tens of thousands of

layoffs. and it wasn't just two or three days

later, he said, actually, haha, just kidding,

it actually is because of AI. And I thought,

man, you're the CEO of one of the largest companies

in the world. And one day you say one thing,

another day you say something else. How could

we trust you? It's actually interesting, this

week they announced another round of layoffs.

And they made this quote, I read it on their

blog, that this isn't going to be a new rhythm

of laying people off every few months. You're

kind of like, how can we trust you? We don't

know that's true now some of you may be employed

or hopefully still employed at Amazon and I'll

pray I'll pray that that would not be true But

but right we right right tech companies do this

and and we see that there's no faithfulness to

their word We say the same thing in politics,

right? This idea of of just simply lying so -called

have truths have become the norm No faithfulness

to their word or same is true for marriage I

mean, the marriage vows anymore seem to be more

optional than permanent, right? Divorce is easy

and apparently commitment isn't a big deal. Till

death do us part has become till I feel like

I don't love you anymore. We live in a world

of unfaithfulness and it's not just in our culture.

It's also made its way into the church. into

the church. So many churches today claiming to

be Bible believing and Bible teaching churches

have been found unfaithful to Christ. We see

it in their lack of commitment to the Word of

God. They come and they've abandoned the Word

of God in the name of progress, in the name of

being affirming of what the Lord has called evil,

even at times propping up false teachers. propping

them up and saying that they're people that we

should follow that are actually contrary, that

are unfaithful to the Word of God. I mean, I

could go on and on. The reality is we do live

in a world of unfaithfulness, a world of lying,

no one keeping their word. We live in a church

culture where we've abandoned the Word and the

Lord Jesus and been unfaithful to Him and His

Word. And the question becomes, what do we do?

What can we do? Is there anyone that we can trust?

Is there anybody truly faithful that we can rely

on? And of course, I think you know the answer

today is found in the Word of God. So if you

don't have your Bible open already, I would love

for you to open it to Psalm 36. Psalm 36. It

seeks to answer this question, who can we trust?

Is there anyone faithful, and I love how it does

it. It does it in such a beautiful fashion. Maybe

as you turn there, I can just tell you some press

on this psalm, what the commentators, multiple

commentators at least that I was looking at have

said about this psalm, and I'll have a slide

for this. It's some call it a composition of

rare excellence. One commentator said it's one

of the finest psalms in the whole collection.

And Jim Hamilton, in his commentary, he says

David's poetry soars to unmatched heights in

Psalm 36. I mean, this Psalm is kind of a lament

Psalm. It's lamenting the reality here at the

beginning of human sinfulness, but at the same

time, it's reorienting our heart in light of

the character of God. You see at the top of your

psalm right there. It's a psalm. It says of David

of David and it's in its full here of contrast

David is telling us the difference between man

and God and He gives us these incredible these

contrasts and in in in the middle of these contrasts

We're gonna get incredible truth about who we

can trust and who we can rely on So we can break

this psalm up real simply into three simple sections

You have the the first section verses 1 to 4

you have the wicked the wickedness of the wicked

the wickedness of the wicked secondly you have

the faithfulness of God in verses 5 through 9

and Then finally in verses 10 to 12 you have

the prayer of the pious the prayer of the pious

We're gonna start there. We're gonna start there

with the wickedness of the wicked look down in

your Bible at verse 1 Says this David says this

transgressions speaks to the wicked deep in his

heart There is no fear of God before his eyes

for he flatters himself in his own eyes That

his iniquity cannot be found out and hated the

words of his mouth are trouble and deceit He

has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots

trouble while on his bed He sets himself in a

way that is not good. He does not reject evil

Right here, at the very top, at the very beginning

of the psalm, we have a description of those

who are godless. Of course, David is going to

get to God, but before he starts with man, and

he starts with the wickedness of man. And you

should have to consider just how he describes

them. He says first and foremost that they have

no fear of God. No fear of God. I mean, I don't

know what... comes to your mind when you hear

the fear of God, you might be thinking of the

idea of reverence. Reverence, not a wrong way.

That's usually how we understand the fear of

God, and that would be true of the wicked. They

don't have a reverence for God, but the language

here is a lot stronger. It means they literally

have no terror, no dread of God. They have no

fear of His judgment. They don't even think about

God that way. It's fascinating. Paul actually,

in Romans 3, quotes from this Psalm in Psalm

36. You don't have to turn there. It'll come

up on the screen. Let's just follow along as

I read this. He says this. Does Paul? None is

righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No

one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together

they've become worthless. No one does good, not

even one. Their throat is an open grave. They

use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps

is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses

and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed

blood and their paths are ruin and misery and

the way of peace they have not known. And here

it is. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Paul, of course, is unpacking the reality that

everyone is a sinner. Everyone has missed the

mark. Everyone has been proven in that sense

unfaithful to obey the law of the Lord and are

now for now therefore condemned under judgment

by a righteous God. His point in Romans further

is that even. Even all humanity. No matter what

they do, no matter how much they try, are wicked

deep down and they are desperately in need of

Christ. In need of Christ. The wicked have no

fear of God. And this is bad news. Because as

one commentator put it, when a man has no fear

of God, he is prepared for any crime. He's prepared

for any crime. And that's essentially what David

here is laying out in verses one to four. In

fact, some commentators would even see maybe

stages of sin. I'm gonna put these up for you

so you can see them. I mean, it might even start

here with self -deception, verse two. For he

flatters himself in his own eyes. I mean, he's

right in his own eyes. So he can't even see his

own sin. He's self -deceived, is the wicked.

Even there, and secondly, insensitive to sin,

verse two. Can't see it and root it out and can't

repent of it, right? It says that his iniquity

cannot be found out and hated. He's insensitive

to sin. Maybe a stage of sin here. Then further,

can't help but sin. Everything that comes out

of his mouth is wicked and deceitful. He doesn't

do anything that would be considered good. Verse

three, the words of his mouth are trouble and

deceit. Further, just going down in these stages

of sin, he plans and prepares for sin. He is

committed to it, even planning for it. Verse

four, he plots trouble while on his bed, just

laying there going, man, what can I do? Finally,

unable to reject sin, just simply will not lay

it aside. The latter half of verse four, he sets

himself in a way that is not good. He does not

reject evil. It's a lot going on here. And David

is trying to set us up for something. He wants

us to understand the wickedness of the wicked.

They have no fear of God. They have no trembling

before him. They're utterly marked by wickedness.

And here's the thing here. Because of that, their

lives are empty. That's essentially the result

of their lives. They might look like they're

having fun day in and day out, but they go home

and they're joyless. laying in their beds, thinking

about what evil they could do next. And because

of this, verse 3 says, they've ceased to act

wisely. They're simply fools. Fools. And one

day their lives will come to an end, and the

true fear of God will be before them in judgment.

I mean, it's a sad state to be the wicked who

are described here. And yet it is a description,

we know this, of all people who are apart from

Christ. All those who have no relationship with

God, in deep need of the grace of God that's

only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe that's

you this morning. Maybe as you read even these

stages of sin and you read these descriptions,

you think, man, I could see myself here, no fear

of God, planning out and seeking sin, not rejecting

evil. If that's you, I want to introduce you

to the God of the Bible. I want to introduce

you to the man Jesus Christ who we just saying

about a few minutes ago that we as believers

can call our treasure and seeing about him being

our treasure he is a true and faithful God and

he died for your sin and my sin on a cross and

he was raised up we just saying about it and

while the reality of the gospel is not found

here in Psalm 36 we're always being pointed that

direction aren't we Always being pointed towards

the cross of Christ, but but one of the descriptions

that we have here of God I would even say Christ

is that he is faithful. He will not leave you

empty like sin will He will not leave you wanting

the way sin always does He will never fail you

always give you real life and real joy Which

takes us from the wickedness of the wicked to

the faithfulness of God the faithfulness of God

look down in your Bible at verse 5 Your steadfast

love, O Lord, extends to the heavens. Your faithfulness

to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the

mountains of God. Your judgments are like the

great deep man and beast you save, O Lord. How

precious is your steadfast love, O God. The children

of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your

wings. They feast on the abundance of your house

and you give them drink from the river of delights.

For with you is the fountain of life. In your

light do we see light. We started this morning

by asking that question in a world full of unfaithfulness.

Who can I trust? The psalmist is now answering

this question in stark contrast to the the wicked

described in verses one to four. who are always

set to do evil, I would dare I say faithful to

being evil, who you can't trust, who you can't

rely on, there is a God who is completely and

utterly faithful in everything that He does.

Because His character is totally and altogether

faithful. This is what David is trying to show

us, and he's starting to stretch the imagination

with his language, trying to find the loftiest

and highest words to build this contrast. Look

down again at verse five. Your steadfast love,

O Lord, extends to the heavens. Your faithfulness

to the clouds. If you were in our Bible study,

our men's and women's Bible study this week,

we talked about in the Psalms this idea of synonymous

parallelism. It's in the Hebrew poetry where

the second line essentially repeats the idea

in the first line. And that's what we've got

going on here. And the first line, he speaks

there in verse five of God's steadfast love.

And he repeats that word in verse seven, and

he repeats it again in verse 10. It becomes a

kind of theme over this song. In fact, the phrase

steadfast love appears at least 120 times in

the Psalms alone. That's why I love that one

brother in our church this week said, hey, I'm

starting to underline every time I see the word

steadfast love. Stay at it. Keep going, brother.

Do it. You should too. That word steadfast love

is one word in Hebrew. It's hesed, hesed. It's

sometimes translated loving kindness, loving

kindness. It means unfailing love. or loyal love.

This is who God is. He is loyal and unfailing

in His love for His people, unlike the marriages

that we find today, where people fall in and

out of love, the relationships that we see. God's

love is nothing like that. His love is utterly

faithful. He is unfailing in His love. He doesn't

fall in and out of love with His people. He remains.

He is faithful to His covenant, which is the

sense of that word hesed. That's why David says

it extends to the heavens. Its reach is endless.

Don't we talk like this? Even in our children's

books? Guess how much I love you. I love you

to the moon and back. We read these things to

our children. And here we see it as a description

of our God, God's love extending to the heavens,

to the moon and back. That's the second part

of verse five. That's he repeats the same idea.

Your faithfulness to the clouds. Right, it's

very similar word faithfulness to the word steadfast

love. It means steadfastness, faithful, trustworthy,

honest. It's saying here that God doesn't waver,

that God doesn't fail, that He is reliable. Or

how about this one? God doesn't lie. In and out

of sleep this week when I was resting from being

sick at one point for some reason I texted my

friend Nate. Nate works in tech. He lives in

Texas. He runs his own company. He's kind of

always on the cutting edge of technology. And

I was asking him a question about chat GPT. You

know that AI software? I feel like every time

I preach, I'm talking about AI now. So sorry

about that. But it's not something I use. And

I've just been wondering about it. I said, Nate,

do you use chat GPT? He said, well, I got my

stats at the end of the year. that they sent

it to me how much I use chat tbt and I said okay

how much he goes I'm in the top 1 % of users

he said I use it constantly I said man I gotta

be honest I'm still a little skeptical I I don't

know that I trust it he goes yeah that's good

and he said this he goes it's it's helpful as

far as it goes he actually told me how he he

spent eight hours with it one day helping him

fix like an engine at his house but then he said

this to me But it will also just lie to you confidently.

Lie to you confidently? How can you people trust

it? I don't know. I mean, it's like shocking

to me. And you think, who can we trust? What

can we trust? I like the way the late John MacArthur

answered that question. Quote should come up.

It says, the only one we can trust without reservation

is God. Because of his character, he cannot lie.

Whatever he says or does is absolute truth. He

has no ability to contradict himself. When he

makes a promise, he can't help but keep it. He

never deviates from his will or his word. He

goes on to say this, because God is trustworthy,

we can be sure that he is always faithful toward

his own children. That's why you can trust him

no matter what happens. Although you may be experiencing

adversity, you can know that he is reliable.

I don't know what you're going through right

now. I don't know what adversity might have come

into your life. And you might be going, man,

who can I trust right now? Where can I turn?

The simple answer of Psalm 36 is you can turn

to a loving and faithful God that you can always

trust way more than chat GPT way more even than

that close friend way more than Fox News or CNN

News because he's always faithful you can run

to turn to and trust in your faithful God I mean

God's faithfulness is an absolutely incredible

mind -boggling attribute If you really think

about it, I mean, it's part of His infinite perfections.

I mean, we understand this. It means that even

in His infinite, it's out of reach for us. That's

a little bit of what David's trying to say. There's

something unique about our God. Part of that

is that He is faithful. That's why His faithfulness

is to the clouds. Mean I would told this to the

young adults and I'll share it with you I mean

it seems like every time we study an attribute

of God You ever done this you start studying

an attribute of God you start thinking man. This

must be a supreme attribute Like you start studying

his love and you're like, that's it It's his

love and then you go to his grace and you're

like, it's got to be grace. It's everything and

you go to mercy It's it's mercy and you come

to faithfulness. You're like it has to be This

has to be some kind of ultimate attribute. I

mean We know that God is not parts, but he's

whole all of his attributes are one But maybe

you would agree with this statement from Mark

Jones He says this about God's faithfulness in

his book on attributes. He says God's faithfulness

is the very ground of our Christian religion

He goes on God's faithfulness makes his decree

sure indeed all his attributes Presuppose his

faithfulness God remains unchangeable holy wise

good eternal Omnipotent and so forth and therefore

he cannot be but faithful in what he says and

how he acts denying God's faithfulness means

denying him end quote Feels that way doesn't

it if God is not faithful, then he can change

Which the Bible says of course he can't because

he's faithful He will not change. Same goes to

any of his attributes. He's totally faithful.

That's why, again, David uses heavens and skies

and clouds and mountains and the great deep.

He's stretching the contrast from the greatest

heights to the greatest depths. And listen, you

say, okay, Pastor Shea, what does this mean for

me, though? How does this affect me on my day

-to -day life? Let me give you a few realities

of your life that rest on the faithfulness of

God. Here's a few things that rest on the faithfulness

of God. We'll start with the first one here.

The first one is your salvation rests on the

faithfulness of God. Your salvation rests on

the faithfulness of God. Apart from a faithful

God, no believer has hope for eternal salvation.

That's what Titus 1 -2 says. In hope of eternal

life, which God, who never lies, promised before

the ages began. God doesn't lie. Whatever promises

he makes, he keeps. Paul can write of the hope

of eternal life simply because God is faithful.

And this isn't the kind of hope that we think

of, right? Like, I hope that's going to happen.

I love my ESV study Bible. Sometimes a good study

Bible will just tell you the point. It says this,

hope is not wishful thinking, but certainty.

Certainty. The hope of eternal life. You can

bank on your eternal life because you've trusted

in a faithful God. Hebrews 6 .18 says it this

way, it is impossible for God to lie. Have hope,

brother or sister. Have hope because when you're

unfaithful, God is totally faithful. Your salvation

rests on God's faithfulness Hebrews 2 17 says

it like this Therefore he had to be made like

his brothers in every respects that he might

become a merciful and Faithful high priest in

the service of God to make propitiation for the

sins of his people again Mark Jones helpful as

a faithful and high priest He remains more concerned

than we are About maintaining us in a state of

grace His faithfulness, not ours, guarantees

our inheritance in the heavenly places with Him.

You ever doubt your salvation? You ever have

a moment? You go, man, I feel the accuser coming

after me right now. I would just remind you of

the faithfulness of God. Your salvation does

not rest on your work, but on the finished work

of Christ and God's faithfulness. Related to

that, there's another thing that rests on God's

faithfulness. It's your sanctification. Your

sanctification rests on the faithfulness of God.

It's not here in this specific text, but we can

read it in the New Testament in Philippians 1

6. When Paul talking to Philippians, he says,

and I'm sure of this, that he who began a good

work in you will bring it to completion at the

day of Christ Jesus. You're wondering whether

you're gonna make it to the end. You can trust

that God will complete the work in your heart

of making you more and more like Jesus Christ

every single day because he's faithful. He's

faithful. Aren't you glad for that? I mean, God's

working right now in you. He's doing something

faithfully. You can bank your sanctification

on the faithfulness of God. Third, you can also

trust the Word of God because God is faithful.

You can trust the Word of God because God is

faithful. We just read a couple scriptures that

speak of God not lying and being unable to lie

because lying would be against His character.

That's why the scripture says in Isaiah 14, the

Lord of Hosts has sworn, as I have planned, so

shall it be. As I've purposed, so shall it stand.

He always accomplishes what He says. Consider

Numbers 23, 19. God is not a man that He should

lie. a son of man that we he should change his

mind he has said and will he not do it or Has

he spoken and will he not fulfill it? Of course

not God will do what he's planned because he's

faithful. He will fulfill every promise I've

been telling people that I've been reading a

biography on Dawson Trotman Dawson Trotman or

sometimes called Dawes He was the man who founded

the Navigators ministry Navigators ministry a

global ministry Huge commitment to the scriptures

part of it's just the way that Dawson got saved

he was memorizing scriptures to try to win in

contests and win win a contest at a church and

win the heart of a girl who was at the church

and while memorizing scripture the Lord saved

him and God used him to start a global ministry

eventually would become a global ministry, but

one of the things I've noticed while reading

about Dawson Trotman is He believes that every

promise of God is for him Almost to a fault where

it's like actually that's for Israel. It's not

necessary for you But you got to love his heart.

He opens his Bible and he looks the promises.

Isn't this for me? This is a faithful God and

And I've been convicted by that man Shay. Why

don't you believe that God will always keep his

promises? He's utterly faithful I mean, His Word

is utterly faithful. That's why Psalm 119, I

did, I spent some time this week just reading

all of Psalm 119. It's an incredible text. You

should absolutely read it. Maybe we can preach

through it at some point. But in Psalm 119, verse

Psalms 119:86

86, it says this, all your commandments are sure.

That word sure is the exact same word we have

for faithfulness in Psalm 36. All your commandments

are sure. They're faithful. Why? Because they

come from a faithful God. I just want to ask

you, do you trust the commandments of the Lord?

When he says something, do you fight it or do

you trust it? Do you believe it that he will

do it? Psalm 119, 138, you have appointed your

testimonies in righteousness and how? And in

all faithfulness, in all faithfulness, everything

God says reflects his character. You want to

know how to live and please God? You have no

greater source than the word of God. It will

bless, it will convict, it will guide you into

all holiness. You need God's faithful word to

do his faithful work in your life. Entrust yourself

to God's word and to God. Maybe one more. It's

kind of, it's different than the other three,

but even nature itself. Have you noticed this?

relies on the faithfulness of God. Nature itself.

Something we don't think about too often. But

I appreciated Terry Johnson. He's got an incredible

book on the attributes of God. It's called The

Identity and Attributes of God. He says this,

and don't lose the point. He says the laws of

nature, he puts that in quotes, are merely human

observations, human descriptions of how God orders

and regulates the universe. The dependability

of those laws is a testimony of God's faithfulness.

Right, we're merely making observations about

what God's faithfulness is doing in nature. Then

Terry Johnson quotes that hymn, great is thy

faithfulness, summer and winter, springtime and

harvest, sun, moon and stars and their courses

above, join with all nature and manifold witness

to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. Terry

Johnson will go on to say that all the order

that we see in nature all the seasons all the

rising of the setting sun They all testify to

the faithfulness of God if God stops making the

world turn. It'll stop turning If he stops bringing

the sun up, it will not come up. He makes everything

work in the way he wants and he's ordering and

preserving everything because of his faithfulness.

It cannot be denied God's faithfulness because

we can see it every single day, every single

night and in every season. This is our God. This

is who he is. We're kind of looking if we're

looking at God we think about God being a prism

and all the colors that come We're looking at

one of the colors right now one of those being

his faithfulness That's why back in Psalm 36

these truths about God are so precious to his

children They can rest. They can take refuge

in God because he will faithfully accomplish

what he says. They don't have to fear because

they know he is faithful and he'll faithfully

work. If you look back in Psalm 36 in verse nine,

look what it says. He says, for with you is the

fountain of life. I mean, true life is found

in God's faithfulness and God's care and His

love. He is the true old faithful, isn't He?

Gushing out His goodness and His life. What a

contrast from the wicked who have no life and

whose lives are empty. They are left empty, but

the children of God in verse 9 are full of God.

Full of His goodness. Let me ask you a question

just based on even verse 8. Have you considered

this? Have you, in that sense, feasted on the

abundance of God's house? Have you enjoyed the

sustaining blessings and sustenance that God

gives? He has, the rest of the verse says, rivers

of delight. These are not future promises. They

are right now, present, found in the character

God and he keeps flowing these to his people

life and light are found in him alone He's faithful.

He sustains and he is endlessly this way Well,

we've looked at the wickedness of the wicked

the faithfulness of God now Let's take it to

the last section here and look at the prayer

of the pious the prayer of the pious look down

at verse 10 He says ho Continue your steadfast

love to those who know you and your righteousness

to the upright of heart. Let not the foot of

arrogance come upon me, nor the hand of the wicked

drive me away. There the evildoers lie fallen.

They are thrust down, unable to rise. This last

section is just a simple prayer. It's a prayer

of protection from the wicked that David is praying

from those people he described in verses one

to four. And it's a prayer that the God of verses

five through nine would continue to pour out

his faithfulness onto his people. He knows that

the Lord is the fountain of life, so he prays

more to drink from that fountain. I want more

of you, Lord. He prays that God would continue

to reveal himself. And I'll just ask that question.

Is that how you pray? Is that how we pray? God,

would you show us more of your faithfulness,

more of your character, more of your steadfast

love? Listen, you're going to need it, as David

did, when you come up against wickedness, both

in your own heart and wicked people. That's why

in verse 11, he's praying for protection against

those who would cause him to stumble. Did you

catch that? Look at verse 11. He says, Let not

the foot of arrogance come upon me, nor the hand

of the wicked drive me away. Drive me away. You

know that word. It's kind of one word there.

He doesn't want the wicked to overtake him to

the point where he's just wandering around. He

doesn't want to be like an exile just you know

wandering around because of what the wicked have

done I mean makes you think of that old him right

come now found That line that always kind of

just like ooh Prone to wander Lord, I feel it

Prone to leave the God I love those words were

written by Robert Robinson who even later in

life would Struggle with a wandering heart and

a wandering faith. Of course, praise God for

his faithfulness. Praise God for his faithfulness

who can keep us from wandering. I appreciate

Paul Tripp. He says the faithfulness of God confronts

our wandering hearts, confronts our wandering

hearts. So so we can come back and we can sing

the other parts of Come Thou Found. and pray

these words come thou fount of every blessing

tune my heart to sing thy grace streams of mercy

never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise

that's similar to what David is praying here

at the end of Psalm 36 that God's faithful love

and protection would be over him and against

the wicked and that he would shower his people

with his love and his care And the Psalm ends

on a very serious note. Did you catch it in verse

12? There the evildoers lie fallen. They are

thrust down, unable to rise. I mean, he kind

of puts a period on the end of this. He talked

about the wicked. He spoke of the evil, the evilness

and the wickedness. Sorry, he talked about the

wicked. He spoke of God's faithfulness. And he

prays that God would continue. And he puts a

period on it saying, listen, this is the fate

of all those who never drink from the fountain

of life. This is the fate of all those who do

not know the God that David is praying to. They

lie fallen, unable to get up, no light for them,

only darkness. Another incredible contrast from

the children of God who have light and life and

vitality. the end the wicked in verse 12 get

eternal destruction it is a statement of fact

it is certain this is their fate why do we know

this how can David say that well we can know

that because God is faithful he's even faithful

in his judgment of the wicked and for some that

will strike fear and for others that will strike

confidence that God will do what he says Similar

language is found in Psalm 1 we looked at this

on Thursday with the men Therefore the wicked

will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in

the congregation of the righteous Listen, there's

encouragement there for believers. The wicked

will not have the ultimate say The wicked will

not be able to ultimately overcome And that's

why I can appreciate Dane Ortland in his little

Devotional on the Psalms. He says this David's

prayer in this psalm then Is for the Lord's faithfulness

not the evildoers treachery to determine his

life and rule The wicked are set against him.

The Lord is set for him You gotta love that who

will prevail with this psalm David brings us

with him into a renewed settled confidence That

it is the Lord who would triumph in our lives.

He will care for us. He will get the last word

end quote It's true because the Lord is faithful.

This should bring us hope. It should encourage

our wandering hearts, shouldn't it? He is faithful.

Maybe I can close with a personal story. The

young adults heard me share this. Back in late

October, I got a package in the mail. It was

a binder full of all of my like childhood report

cards and things I'd drawn. My mom has been cleaning

house. My dad died a couple years ago. My mom's

been kind of cleaning up. She's kind of downsizing

and she sent me this package of all these things.

I'm looking through soccer awards and photos,

even some random homework that was in there.

And I came across two report cards for my junior

high days. One that was at the end of the first

semester just before Christmas. One that was

at the end of the year, maybe late May. And I

was staring at that I looked at a first report

card before Christmas that year my seventh grade

year and I had mostly A's and B's and mostly

positive comments from the teachers and Then

I I held up the other report card and That report

card showed nothing but D's and F's and I say

that plural F's in one class in my English class.

It said I had an 18 % the comment from the teacher

said student says he doesn't care and I it's

hard not to to feel the emotion of this because

I remember the difference between the first report

card and the second report card you want to know

what happened between those two things some of

you guys know my story it was the day after Christmas

that it was revealed that my dad had been unfaithful

to my mom part of that the sting of that at that

time was finding out that my dad had been living

a double life and part of the reason that my

mom found out is my dad had bought me for that

Christmas a brand new computer that his girlfriend

paid for and so from that point on there's a

defining moment in my life at that point and

that seventh grade year I don't remember doing

any schoolwork obviously I wasn't doing English

had an 18 % you can just show up and get an 18

% I think But for the next years of my life,

it was up and down traveling all over living

with friends I mean my my parents marriage an

absolute mess I mean even my dad's unfaithfulness

obviously leading to my own unfaithfulness and

my studies Not not doing the things not caring.

Obviously the teachers understood that and I

started to look at those papers and I was struck

with a contrast of a young man who I looked at

and go man I'm glad this still isn't true of

me. Because I can look back at 30 years of my

life and I can see nothing but the faithfulness

of God. Nothing. I know it seems like every time

I preach I cry. Ah, I'm trying not to. But you

guys, does it, we can look back and we go listen,

God put families around me at that time. Even

that very day, the moment I remember hearing

the words that this was coming out, the phone

rang and my friend said, hey, do you want to

go to a movie? I said, yes. I don't remember

what movie. I mean, I remember the movie, but

I don't remember what happened. I just remember

sitting there in the theater crying, but I was

glad I wasn't at home. And then God graciously

brought more families, more people in the church

that loved me, more people who would care for

me in His faithfulness. More people who would

come around me and be the dad that I needed in

that moment be the mom that I needed in that

moment and Then from there called me into ministry.

How amazing is this? To be to be a servant of

the King eventually my senior year between my

junior senior. He would save me And rescue me

from my sin. My parents eventually would reconcile.

That's just a cherry on top It's incredible his

faithfulness. He brought me Bethany. We've had

20 years of incredible marriage Yes, we've had

our ups and downs, but he's been faithful I don't

know what God's doing in your life right now.

It's easy for me to look back with with clear

eyes. I Don't know what he's doing in your life

right now, but would you rest in the faithfulness

of God at this moment? He can do it. He can rescue

you from whatever thing is going on. I Mean the

Lord Give me five amazing kids. He's been faithful.

I haven't truly wandered to the point of being

the wicked described in verses one to four because

I have had the experience of verse eight of drinking

from the river of his delights. His faithfulness

truly does extend to the clouds, doesn't it?

That's why In Lamentations, you'll come up on

the screen. Jeremiah can write this, the steadfast

love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never

come to an end. They are new every morning. Great

is your faithfulness. And why the hymn writer

can say great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy

faithfulness. Morning by morning. Isn't this

true? New mercies I see. All I have needed thy

hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness,

Lord. Unto me. Can we pray to the faithful God?

Let me pray. Lord. Obviously wasn't expecting

to have some emotion here. And yet, how could

I not when I think about your faithfulness? Lord,

we can read about it in our Bibles. And we experience

it. Day in and day out week in and week out month

in and month out year after year your faithfulness

Even just by looking at the Sun coming up and

going down But we see it in our own lives The

way that you move in the way that you change

things in our lives It's all part of your faithfulness

and your plan and you bringing to fruition The

things that you want Lord, I pray for my brothers

and sisters here this morning that they would

rest in your faithfulness. Maybe they can't see

it right now. Lord, show more of it. Protect

them from the wicked. Protect them even from

their own wicked heart at times that wants to

wander, that wants to be driven away. Lord, bring

them back and allow them to experience those

rivers of delight and the life and the light

that comes only through you and your faithfulness.

And I pray in Jesus' name, amen.