Sermon
E11: Psalm 119: Living Life in the Light of God's Word - A Biblical View Of God
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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You are listening to Key Life Fellowship's Pulpit Ministry
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podcast. We thank you for tuning in as we
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learn from God's Word together. For more information about Key
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Life Fellowship, visit us on the web at keylifefellow-ship.com.
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You. Have your Bibles, if you would
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turn to Psalm 119. I know that's not a shocker to
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anyone who's been here any amount of time as we have been
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walking through this longest chapter in Scripture, the 119th
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Psalm, as we have been on this journey about learning to live
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life in the light of God's Word. And I pray that we are doing
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just that. Today we come to the 73rd verse
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and we'll be looking at verses at verses 73 all the way to
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verse 80. It's going to begin as each
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section has begun with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet.
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And this one today is the letter yot.
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And that letter yot is interesting because in Matthew
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chapter 5 verse 18, Jesus himself said this, that not one
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yot jot in English or title shall be removed from the law.
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And so this is the letter that Jesus was talking about yot.
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And we know that's after this letter Yot is mentioned, there
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will be, as we have seen, this entire but 8 verses under that
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particular letter of the alphabet.
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And so we come to Yot today and we come here to learn and we
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come here to learn about a biblical view of God.
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And we need to learn this because we know that we live in
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a world full of relative truth, where God is defined by
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philosophy, intellect, God is defined by the world views of
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man, whatever those world views may be.
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God is defined by relative truth.
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And it's easy that way because if if God is defined by relative
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truth and not the absolute truth of scripture, well, God can now
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be perceived as anything that the perverted and sinful mind of
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man desires him to be. It stands to reason that in a
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culture where men can choose to be women, if they so choose to
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be, and others are then demanded to respect that choice, it
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stands to reason that this type of wickedness would be actually
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looking for a new or unbiblical view of God.
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A God of relative truth. One who we can simply choose to
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accept whichever way that we want to accept him, to make him
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into whatever it is that we want him to be.
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Or as many have done, the atheist who just completely
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denies his existence at all. That's the easiest way, isn't
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it, to just completely deny his existence.
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And truth to you is that there is no God at all, which is false
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and it's just relative to you. But we're going to see today
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that God has revealed in Scripture exactly who he is.
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He's revealed exactly how he works, how He loves, how he
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afflicts, as we talked about last week and we'll mention
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again this week how he judges, how he shows compassion, how he
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interacts with mankind. Aren't you thankful that we get
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to interact with our Creator and commune with Him?
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God's Word is expressly clear on these things.
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And so if we're going to have the right view of God, the right
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view of God can't come from relative truth.
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It can't come from your own intellect, your own philosophy,
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your own ideology. It can't come from whatever
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indoctrination you received as you came up through school and
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then into higher learning that God is just whatever, whoever
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you want him or her to be. If we're going to have the
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correct view of God, a correct view of God comes from the truth
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of Scripture. That is the only place that
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we're going to find a correct view of God.
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And we are going to see today that the psalmist understood
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that. He understood a biblical view of
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God, and in looking at what he writes today, we're going to see
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that. But the psalmist recognized the
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one true and living God, the eternal Creator, the sustainer
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of life, the wise counselor, the compassionate Redeemer of
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sinners, and the mighty conqueror of the hearts of man.
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He recognized him for who he is biblically.
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He's going to teach us how to do the same and I pray that you
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would adhere to what he is going to teach us today.
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Psalm 119, the 73rd verse. He says this under again the
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title Yoat. He says your hands made me
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informed me give me understanding to learn your
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commands. May those.
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Who fear you, rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope
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in your word. I know, O Lord, that your laws
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are righteous. And in faithfulness you have
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afflicted me. May your unfailing love be my
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comfort, according to your promise to Your servant.
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Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for Your law is
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my delight. May the arrogant be put to shame
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for wronging me without cause. But I will meditate on your
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precepts. May those who fear you turn to
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me, those who understand your statutes.
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May my heart be blameless toward your decrees, that I may not be
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put to shame. Let's pray together.
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Father, we thank you for your word.
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We thank You that Your word does truly reveal who you are to us.
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Lord, we thank You that You have preserved Your Word so that we
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cannot be bound by relative truth and humanistic ideology,
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but that we can see the one true and living God for exactly who
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You say that you are in Your Word.
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God, I pray that you would use the Psalmist today who was
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inspired by the Spirit to write these things to point us to a
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proper and biblical view of God so that our worship would be
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what it is supposed to be. So that our lives will be what
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they are supposed to be. So that our eternity will be
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everlasting life with You according to Your Word.
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God, I pray that we would yield to Your Spirit as You change our
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views because what we may be skewed and we may be off in our
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wicked hearts. God, I pray that You would use
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Your word today to bring us back to the center.
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Show us exactly who You are and that we would worship You
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according to Your word for exactly who You are.
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That we would follow You and obey Your commands because You
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are the true God. But I pray for the soul who's
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here who does not know Christ, Lord, They do not have a
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biblical view of God. And I know this because they
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have not bowed the knee to Christ.
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They have not surrendered to Him as Lord and Savior.
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They have not repented of their sin as Your word has commanded
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God. I pray today that by Your mercy
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and Your compassion, you would open their eyes, change their
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view, awaken them spiritually to new life, that they would trust
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in Christ as Lord and Savior, seeing you for who you truly
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are. Lord, we'll be careful to give
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you all the glory and all the praise for it.
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Teach us now as we look at Your Word.
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Holy Spirit, we ask that You give us enlightenment.
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You teach us what it is that You would have us to know.
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And we pray these things in Christ's name.
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Amen. We see here the Psalmist giving
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us an example of someone who has a biblical view of God, and he
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begins illustrating this for us and what he says in verse 73, in
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the very first part of this verse, he says your hands made
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me and formed me. If you're going to have a
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biblical view of God, a biblical view of God recognizes God as
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sovereign creator. You can't have a biblical view
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of God without first recognizing this.
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And the psalmist. Psalmist rightly acknowledged
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God as sovereign creator right out of the gate, the one who has
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formed him by his hands. Horatius Vonner said this.
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He said it is nearness, not distance that the name Creator
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implies and the simple fact of having made us in the assurance
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of his desire to bless us and to hold intercourse with us.
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Bonner is saying this, that it's God as our Creator that actually
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brings us near to God. It's not as if he's creator than
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causing us to think that he's far from us, but that he was
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intimately involved in our creation.
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The psalmist understanding this when he makes the statement,
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your hands again, as Bonner says, assuring the fact that
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having made us is assurance of His desire to bless us and to
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hold intercourse with us, His desire to commune with us.
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It is by His hands that He has created man, giving evidence
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that from creation He desired to commune with us.
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If you'll go back into creation, you know that He spoke many
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things into existence, but not man.
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For man, he reached down into the dirt, and he molded and he
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crafted man, and he formed him into his own image with that
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special creation. We must recognize him as the
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sole creator and that is the first step.
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That is the first step in being restored to an intimate
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relationship. A communion with him is to
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recognize him as the sovereign creator that he is, Stephen
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Sharnick said this. He said we must first believe
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that He is and that He is what He declares Himself to be, and
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over and over again in Scripture He declares Himself to be
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sovereign Creator. He says we must do this before
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we can seek Him, adore Him, and devote our affections to Him.
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Charnick says we must believe that He is who and what he says
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that He is. Is that not what the author of
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Hebrews says in Hebrews Chapter 11 verse 6 when he says without
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faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to
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Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who
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earnestly seek Him. First base is this believing in
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the existence of a sovereign Creator.
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The atheist in his foolish heart attempting over and over and
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over again to deny God is sovereign Creator, not the
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psalmist. The psalmist right in the
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beginning says it's he who by his hands made me informed me.
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Oh, it is the psalmist here recognizing God as sovereign
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Creator. If you truly recognize God as
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sovereign creator, you can write this down.
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You will recognize him as author of a creation.
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Again, the Psalm is saying your hands made me.
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Now why is that important? It's important because in
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acknowledging that we are agreeing with what happened in
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Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 and we're agreeing that this is
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absolute truth and what does it say there?
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The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and
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breathe into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man
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became a living being. It is God who authored the
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creation not of only all things, but especially of man, and He is
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the author of that creation. Now we all know this to be true
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in a worldly sense. If we were to invent something,
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whatever that invention may be, we are the creator of that
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something. We would then file for a patent.
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We would have this invention patented and we would have this
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patented. Why?
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Because we are the creator of that thing.
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We don't want anyone else coming in and and trying to state claim
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that they created what it was that we invented.
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God the same in His Word has made it very clear.
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He's laid down the patent over and over and over in Scripture
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that He is the author of creation.
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We need to recognize that. We need to recognize him as that
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author of creation according to the truth of the word of God.
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Not only do we need to recognize that, we need to Revere God as
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Creator. David in the 33rd Psalm says
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this. And verse 6, by the word of the
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Lord, where the heavens made the story host, by the breath of his
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mouth, He gathers the waters of the sea into jars.
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He puts the deep in the storehouses.
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Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the people of the world
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Revere him. Why?
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Because He is sovereign Creator over all.
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He is worthy to be revered. He is worthy to be praised.
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In fact, Jonah, that rebellious preacher there on his way to
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Nineveh and he decides, you know what, I'm not going to go to
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Nineveh. I'm going to go to Tarsus.
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And we know how the story goes, but Jonah understood this.
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In Jonah chapter one verse 9, even in all of his
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misunderstandings, it says this. He answered speaking to those
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men aboard aboard the ship that he was on, rebelling against
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God. I am a Hebrew and I worship the
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Lord, the God of heaven who made the sea and the land.
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Even in his waywardness, Jonah could not deny the fact that God
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is sovereign Creator over all. He is the author of creation,
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for all things were created by him and for him and through Him.
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And there is nothing that has been created that he did not
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create. It's God.
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We must recognize God rightfully as author of creation.
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In fact, in Isaiah, our scripture reading today in
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chapter 41, particular verse there in 28 stands out to me.
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The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the
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earth. He's created everything, things
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you see and things you will never see.
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The depths of the ocean, the extent and the expanse of
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heaven. He is the author and the
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mastermind over all creation. He is the author of creation and
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must be recognized as such, even though the atheist denies God as
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Creator. And why does he do this?
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Because he knows that the Creator is worthy of respect
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from whatever it is that He has created the creation and he is
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do this as the Creator. That's why the psalmist says in
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Psalm 14 that you're obviously a fool when you deny the existence
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of God, right? Because a fool has said in his
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heart there is no God. He's describing for us an
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atheist who's an absolute glittering fool.
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Perhaps you're here today and you wandered in under the radar
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and you're still an atheist. You are a fool and I am not
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telling you that. God is telling you that, and you
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are a fool because obviously when we look at the majesty and
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the splendor of all that He has created, including ourselves as
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humans, when we look at that, it is obvious that there is a
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creator and there is an author behind that.
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And who does Scripture say that that author is?
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It is the one true and living God, Yahweh of the Old
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Testament. We see Him as the author of
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creation, but we also need to recognize this and recognizing
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God as sovereign creator. And he's the authority over that
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creation. Just as I mentioned a moment
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ago, that person who gets that patent on that invention, guess
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what else that creator has? He has the authority over that
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invention, whether to mass produce that or not, whether to
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sell it to someone else so that they can produce it.
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He has complete authority over that which he has created.
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The psalmist understanding this, that God as creator and author
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of all creation has authority over that creation and he
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recognizes that. If you remember with me, in
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Psalm 24, verse 1, he says the earth is the Lord's and
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everything in it, the world and all who live in it, where He
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founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
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What is the psalmist saying here?
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That the One who created everything is the authority over
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everything. Now let me just help all of you
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out. You don't have to acknowledge
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His sovereign authority for Him to be in sovereign authority.
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He is in sovereign authority whether you know it or not.
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He is in sovereign authority over His creation, whether you
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accept that or not. He's made that very clear in his
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Word. And so a person who has a
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biblical view of God will recognize God as sovereign
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creator, that he is the author of creation and he is the
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authority over that creation. And to deny God, who is the
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Creator, the authority that he rightfully has is foolish.
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This is wicked reasoning, isn't it?
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This is the reasoning of the unbelieving, to say, well, maybe
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God is Creator, but that doesn't mean He has to be an authority
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in my life. No, He doesn't have to be an
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authority in your life. Let me make it very clear for
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you. He is an authority in your life.
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And one day every knee will bow in every tongue.
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Confess that He is Lord and there's nothing that you were
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going to do to change that. He is sovereign over all.
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The person who refuses the right of the Creator to govern his own
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creation. Just simply rebels and refuses
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to submit to him in governing their life.
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He rightfully deserves that position, doesn't he?
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To govern our lives, to be our Lord and our Master.
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Why? Because He's our Creator, and if
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He created us, that we would commune with Him and He did
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whatever He had to do, even the unthinkable, in sending His only
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Son to the cross to die to reconcile mankind unto Himself,
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so that He could again commune with these things, these people
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He has. Created who wandered away into
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sin. It stands to reason that if He
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is the author of creation and He is the authority over creation,
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and He has gone to the extent that He has gone to that we
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ought to bow to Him as the authority in our lives.
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So if we're going to have a biblical view of God, we must
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recognize him beginning with the fact that he is sovereign
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creator. The psalmist then quickly moves
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on verse 73, the second part, not only does he recognize God
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as sovereign creator. Secondly, he recognizes God as
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wise counselor. Pay attention to what he says
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here. He says give me understanding to
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learn your commands. May those who fear you rejoice
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when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word.
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The psalmist here now gives another mark of those who have a
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biblical view of God. And this biblical view of God
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recognizes God not only as creator and the author of
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creation and the authority over creation, but this biblical view
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of God recognizes God as an all wise counselor.
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Paul expresses this in first Timothy chapter one verse 17, as
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he gives a doxology unto the Lord.
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Now to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only
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God. Many of your transcripts say the
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only wise God because he is where wisdom comes from.
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He says be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen.
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And we know this to be true, don't we?
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It's from God that we receive wisdom.
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It's from God that we receive true, unadulterated knowledge.
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We have to trust in this wisdom. We have to trust in the wisdom
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from the Scriptures. This is where we find wisdom
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from God. People come to me and they ask
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me, I need wisdom for this situation and I point them to
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scripture over and over and over again.
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Why? Because I don't want them ever
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accusing me of being wise. God is wise and any wisdom that
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I give to someone comes from His wisdom.
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And any true wisdom that we gain, we gain it from God.
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Everything else, it's just man's ideology.
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It's the wisdom of man. It's fleeting.
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We can trust in the wisdom from the Scriptures that the psalmist
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is doing here. He says, give me understanding
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to learn your commands. He said, Lord, I want to learn
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your truths. I want wisdom from you.
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I want to know what you think about things.
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Isn't it interesting that we ask everyone's opinion in the world
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except God's on most issues? What is your opinion on blank?
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We hear these discussions all the time.
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Now I want to say in every one of those discussions, why does
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your opinion matter or why do you think your opinion matters?
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Because your opinion, my opinion, our opinion as a whole
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does not matter. What is God's opinion on things?
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Lord, give us understanding in into your wisdom and into your
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knowledge. That's what the psalmist is
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saying here. Give me understanding to learn
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your commands. I recognize that you are an all
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wise counselor and I don't want to get my advice from just
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anyone on the street. I want to get wisdom and I want
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to get direction. I want to get advice from the
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truth, from the Word of God. That's where the psalmist is
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turning here, trusting in the wisdom that is received only
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from the Scriptures and knowing that true wisdom comes from the
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truth of God's Word. Deuteronomy 4 verse 5, Moses
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says this. He says, See, I have taught you
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decrees and laws, as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you
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may follow them in the land you were entering to take possession
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of it. Observe them carefully, for this
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will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations.
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Now where were the people of God going to get wisdom and
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understanding from the word of God that was given unto Moses
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that he's now giving unto them? And he says, then they will hear
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about all these decrees and say, this is what the lost world
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should be saying. Surely this great nation is wise
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and understanding people. They are wise and understanding
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people. Why?
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Because they don't see human reasoning.
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They see the wisdom of God. They see the understanding that
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has come through His word. The reason that they're not
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saying that about us today. Is because many of us only pick
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up his word in our Lord's Day services on Sunday morning,
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never gleaning from his word as the psalmist was desiring here.
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Give me understanding to learn your commands.
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Let me open your word and give me the wisdom and the
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understanding to know what it is saying to me.
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He's trusting and he's gleaning from the wisdom of God, desiring
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wisdom for his life. Are you desiring that same
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wisdom from your for your life, from the word of God?
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You have it at your fingertips. You have access to it.
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Many of you hold it in your hand.
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What are you doing as the psalmist is doing here?
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Recognizing God is wise counselor saying, Lord, I need
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direction from you. I need direction from your word.
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He's doing what must be done to acquire wisdom here.
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Is that what James says? If you lack wisdom, you should
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ask God. That's what the psalmist is
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doing here. He's asking God for wisdom.
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And we know that James tells us this.
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God's going to give us that wisdom.
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He's going to give us that wisdom graciously.
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But are you asking God to give you wisdom and never returning
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to His Word to see the wisdom that it is that He has given
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you? His true wisdom is going to come
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from His commands, from His Word, just as the psalmist says.
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And so one who recognizes God as wise counselor will be trusting
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in the wisdom from Scriptures again, not just one day a week,
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meditating on scriptures every moment of their life.
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So the psalmist recognizing God as wise counselor, trusting in
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the wisdom from the Scriptures, but also encouraging others to
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do the same. See the next part of this in 74
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May. Those who fear you rejoice when
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they see me, for I've put my hope in your word.
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He's not saying that they can see me and it draws attention to
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myself. He's saying that they can see me
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and they can see the wisdom and the understanding that I have
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from the Word of God, and it draws attention unto the Lord
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and to His Word. This is what we ought to be
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doing. We ought to be encouraging
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others to do the same as the psalmist has done here.
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He said, give me understanding to learn your commands.
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We ought to be encouraging others.
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Go to the Lord and ask Him for wisdom to understand His
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commands. Go to the Word, Spend time in
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the Word. Find the answers to your
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questions, Probably the number one most asked question that I
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receive. How can I know God's will for my
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life? You know what they're asking
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for? Supernatural wisdom.
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You know where you find that? Not for me.
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Go to the Word of God and there you will see the will of God
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unfold in your life as you spend time studying and meditating on
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the Word of God. And so we see the psalmist doing
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just that, studying, meditating on the Word of God, learning his
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commands, seeking God's wisdom and doing that and then
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encouraging others to do the same by giving them that godly
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example that we all need. We need to be that example of
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one who trusts in God's word, who trust in God's word for
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wisdom, who trust in God's Word for understanding, who trusts in
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God's Word when something in the world happens, right?
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We wake up and all of a sudden, man, we're, we're bombing Iran.
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Just rest. Trust in the Word of God.
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Those people have been the enemies of God forever.
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They're going to continue to be the enemies of God until Christ
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comes and sets the record straight.
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Just chill. Where did I gain that from?
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Well, I didn't get it from reading Time magazine.
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I didn't even get it from watching Cnni got it from the
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scriptures. And in that I have peace and I
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have a hope in God's sovereign plan.
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And I want to encourage you to do the same thing when it when
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all chaos seems to be breaking out in the world.
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Let me just ask you this question.
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Do you believe the Scripture? God is sovereign, Jesus is
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merciful, and he wins in the end.
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Let's not complicate this. And so we see that all to be
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true when we go back to the Scripture and we do as the
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psalmist is doing here, receiving that understanding
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from the Lord and then being an example of someone who trusts in
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the Word of God. Are you being that in your life?
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Are you being that in the lives of your children or not?
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A question that we ought to ask. Are you teaching your children
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to trust in and to appropriate the Word of God?
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Or are you worrying about things all the time?
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Are you fearful all the time? Is your anxiety out of the roof?
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And we have to teach the word of God by our example.
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That's what the psalmist is saying.
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May those who fear you rejoice when they see me, when they look
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at me and they say, you know what?
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Not only does he know the Scriptures, that man lives the
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Scriptures. He says, right, put my hope in
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your word. They say this, He hopes in the
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word of God. Isn't that what the psalmist is
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encouraging us to do today, to encourage others by living a
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life of hope, by living a life of obedience unto the Word of
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God, encouraging other believers to do the same.
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We ought to be encouraging one another, as we're doing in this
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series, to live a life in light of the Word of God, to walk in
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it, allowing it to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto
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our path, and encouraging others to do the same.
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The psalmist here giving us the second point, that a biblical
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view of God will recognize him as wise counselor.
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Thirdly, verse 75, he says, I know, oh Lord, that your laws
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are righteous and in faithfulness you have afflicted
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me. Oh, no affliction again.
-
We had a whole message about that last week.
-
We're not going to stay there long, long, so don't worry.
-
I think we covered most of it last week.
-
But he says, I know, oh Lord, that your laws are righteous and
-
in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
-
May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to Your
-
promise to your servant. The psalmist here, yes, is going
-
to revisit Affliction for just a moment.
-
He's going to do this so that we can learn a little bit more
-
about this. We can learn about putting our
-
trust in God as our loving comforter.
-
A person who has a biblical view of God will recognize God as
-
loving comforter. He says, may your unfailing love
-
be my comfort according to your promise to your servant.
-
Why is he saying this? He's saying it in the context
-
and on the heels of mentioning again the fact that God has
-
allowed affliction into his life.
-
So the Psalmist here teaching us that a true biblical view of God
-
will recognize God as loving comforter.
-
Watch this despite the situation.
-
No matter what it is that you're facing.
-
We're all good with saying God is our comforter when we're
-
comfortable, but saying that God is our comfort is not the same
-
as we are comfortable. Does everybody understand that?
-
Because the American Church thinks that being comfortable is
-
comfort. Now I can tell you this, I have
-
received comfort from the Lord in the most uncomfortable
-
situations that I have faced in life, and comfort as far as the
-
world it defines being comfortable was nowhere to be
-
found, but it was God with a supernatural comfort that He
-
gives me from His love internally.
-
This is what the psalmist is understanding.
-
This is what he knows. This is what he knows, that God
-
truly is who He is in regard to His loving comfort.
-
He comforts us despite the situation.
-
Even in affliction, in times of trouble, He comforts us.
-
In fact, Isaiah 49 verse 13 says this.
-
Shout for joy, O heavens, rejoice, O earth, burst into
-
song, O mountains. For the Lord comforts his feeble
-
and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
-
What does that mean? No matter what you're going
-
through, you can rest in His loving comfort.
-
Isn't it good to have a loving comforter, one who constantly
-
comforts us by his unfailing love?
-
That's what the psalmist says. It's his unfailing love.
-
It brings me comfort. It brings me comfort according
-
to the promise that you've made to your servant.
-
And where do you think that he found this?
-
He found it in Scriptures. I will never leave you.
-
I will never forsake you. And he rested on that, and he
-
stood on that, and he knew that God's going to comfort him in
-
any affliction. In.
-
Fact, Second Corinthians Chapter 7 verse 6, it says, but God who
-
comforts the downcast comforted us.
-
This is Paul talking there to the Corinthians about the
-
comfort that he and Titus received from the Lord.
-
And it's God who comforts us even when we're downcast.
-
What is those moments that we feel his love the most?
-
Many times, isn't it? And we go through the darkest
-
hour. And His Spirit and the promises
-
of His word embrace us with the unfailing love of God despite
-
any situation that we face. He comforts us in our affliction
-
and He covers us with His affection.
-
Isaiah 54 verse 10 says though the mountains be shaken and the
-
hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not
-
be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord,
-
who has compassion on you. Oh.
-
What great promises that we can claim in Christ that he made
-
through the prophets so long ago, that we can rest, that
-
though the mountains be shaken and all the hills dissolve, we
-
can rest in his compassion because of the covenant that
-
he's made with us through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus
-
Christ. We see that the psalmist is
-
recognizing God as his loving comforter no matter what
-
situation he's in, no matter what he faces, despite the
-
situation, but also because it's declared by His Word.
-
The Word has declared it, and it's time we, as professing
-
believers in Christ, claim the things that the Word of God
-
proclaims. Stop acting as if God hasn't
-
said these things. God is our loving comforter.
-
Second Corinthians chapter one one of my favorite passages on
-
God's comfort. It says this in verse 3.
-
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
-
Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us
-
in all our troubles. Don't you think We didn't say
-
some of our troubles, a few of our troubles when things get
-
really, really bad. No, He comforts us in all of our
-
troubles. Why?
-
So that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we
-
ourselves have received from God.
-
Isn't that what the church is supposed to do?
-
We've received comfort from the Word of God.
-
That, that, that comfort, those promises that he gives us bring
-
comfort into our lives. And then what are we to do?
-
We're to turn around. We're to share that with someone
-
else who's going through a similar time of trial or
-
affliction, affliction or sorrow or suffering.
-
That's how the body of Christ is designed to work.
-
A group of people recognizing God as loving comforter and
-
reminding one another of that all the time.
-
Yes, brother, Yes, sister, I know that you're going through a
-
difficult time. In fact, I went through that
-
same thing. I got that same diagnosis.
-
I got that same phone call. I went through that same trial.
-
And let me tell you something, what I learned from the word of
-
God. He is a loving God who comforts
-
us in all of our troubles because He is the God of all
-
comfort. Aren't you thankful that He's
-
the God of all comfort? This morning the psalmist saying
-
that a biblical view of God will recognize him as that loving
-
comforter. Fourthly, we move on verse 77.
-
The psalmist says, let your compassion come to me, that I
-
may live, for your law is my delight.
-
Fourthly, I want you to see this that a biblical view of God
-
recognizes him as merciful Christ.
-
Now when I say. Christ.
-
I'm not talking about the last name of Jesus, as many of you
-
think that that's just his last name.
-
It's not his last name. It is the title of who he is.
-
He is the Christ. He is the Savior.
-
And when we talk about God being a merciful Christ, we are
-
talking about Him being a merciful Savior.
-
And the psalmist here is going to turn our attention to the
-
only hope that any of us have. And what is that?
-
God's compassion and His mercy. If God did not let His
-
compassion come to us, and see how He worded that, please let
-
it come to me. If God had not let His
-
compassion come to us, we would all be dreadfully lost and bound
-
for hell. But the psalmist here pleading
-
with God, let your compassion come to me.
-
I'm dependent upon you and your mercy and compassion toward this
-
Sinner. God brought his compassion to
-
us, didn't He? He brought his compassion to us
-
Himself. It is through God Incarnate, the
-
Lord Jesus Christ. Who came in flesh bringing mercy
-
to sinners. This is why the deity of the
-
Lord Jesus Christ is so essential to having true
-
biblical theology. That is God Himself, who
-
condescended and came to this earth to die in the place of
-
wicked sinners, to redeem them, and to cleanse them from all of
-
their sin. Matthew chapter 1 we see this
Matthew 1 chapter mention
-
promise being given and what is it?
-
The promise that was taken from the prophet Isaiah and it says
-
this in verse 21 of Matthew 1. She will give birth to a son,
-
Speaking of the Virgin Mary, and you are to give him the name
-
Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.
-
Give him the name Jesus, which is Jehovah saves because he will
-
save his people from their sins. It says in 22.
-
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through
-
the prophet. The Virgin will be with child
-
and will give birth to his Son, and they will call him Emmanuel,
-
which means God with us. The psalmist here saying, let
-
your compassion come to me, that I may live.
-
And God in the appointed time, honoring this, coming to this
-
earth fully God and fully man, offering himself as a
-
substitutionary sacrifice on a cross, so that all who believe
-
in Him would be saved from their sin and live.
-
He says, let your compassion come to me that I may live.
-
I'm dependent upon this Lord. I need your grace.
-
I need your mercy. Because a biblical view of God
-
will recognize God is merciful Christ, knowing that it's he who
-
brings forgiveness and pardon. And without His compassion,
-
there is no chance for forgiveness and pardon for our
-
sin. O may you all hear that this
-
morning. May that be the cry of your
-
heart. Lord, let your compassion come
-
to me, because without His compassion you will never be
-
forgiven of your sin. Without His compassion, you will
-
never be cleansed. Without His compassion, you will
-
never inherit eternal life. But it is in His compassion and
-
a proper understanding of that that we see he brings
-
forgiveness and pardon even to the most wicked and vile.
-
Center the psalmist again using the word let, let, please, just.
-
He's pleading with the Lord, let it, let it happen.
-
I'm hopeless without your compassion.
-
Let it come to me. God did not first will this.
-
The psalmist knew he did not deserve it.
-
Aren't you thankful that God has let his mercy and His compassion
-
come to you? Because I want you all to know
-
this. He was under no obligation to do
-
any such of a thing. You were not entitled to His
-
compassion. You were not entitled to his
-
mercy. In fact, truth be told, you
-
deserve justice and wrath and his indignation for all eternity
-
and hell. But yet He has let his
-
compassion come to you. Why?
-
Because He's a God of compassion.
-
And if He had not first loved you, you would never have loved
-
him. Oh, let us be thankful that He
-
is a God of compassion and let us see Him as such.
-
Lamentations chapter 3, verse 22 says because of the Lord's great
-
love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.
-
They're new every morning. Great is your faith on this
-
Jeremiah there placing faith and a biblical God, a biblical God
-
who is a God of compassion, bringing forgiveness and
-
pardoning sin, showing his love. Ephesians chapter 2, Paul says
Ephesians 2 chapter mention
-
this. But because of his great love
-
for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even
-
when we were dead in transgressions.
-
It is by grace you have been saved.
-
So, a Curt are we really going to talk about grace again?
-
Yes. If you haven't noticed, every
-
week we're going to talk about grace to some degree because if
-
God does not grace you with His mercy and His forgiveness, you
-
will never be. Forgiven.
-
So we honor Him for that, and we know that it is His grace and
-
His compassion shown by that grace that allows us to live His
-
great love for us. Because of that great love, He's
-
made us alive with Christ even when we were dead, all according
-
to His grace. So biblical view of God will
-
recognize God as the merciful Christ, the merciful Savior.
-
Who brings forgiveness and pardon?
-
But not only that, who brings new life?
-
Anyone. You're thankful for the new life
-
that you have in Christ. Because I can tell you this, My
-
old life was a pile of trash. My old life was detestable to
-
the nostrils of God. My old life was blasphemous.
-
I'm thankful that God has rescued me from that old life
-
and that He has given me new life.
-
That's what the psalmist says. Let your compassion come to me
-
that I may live. God, I need you to
-
compassionately spare me. Oh, and He has compassionately
-
spared so many of us, bringing us to a place of new life, life
-
that, as we've already said, was provided by God's grace.
-
We know Ephesians 28 and 9. If we if we finish out Ephesians
Ephesians 2 chapter mention
-
chapter 2, for it is by grace you've been saved through faith.
-
And this is not from yourself. It's the gift of God, not by
-
work, so that no man can boast. There's nothing for us to boast
-
and we have new life not because we woke up one day and say, you
-
know what? I want to have a better life.
-
I want to have a new life. I want to have a good life.
-
Now you would have said any of that in that you would have
-
woken up just like you did the day before and said, what kind
-
of sin can I find that will bring pleasure to my flesh?
-
But God, in his kindness and in his mercy, through his grace, he
-
saved us by his work and his work that he did on a cross
-
through faith. And that work and that work
-
alone, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus
-
Christ, it's in him that we find life.
-
That's what the psalmist is getting at.
-
He says, let your compassion come to me, that I may live.
-
I don't even know life. Isn't it true?
-
The lost man's a dead man. He just doesn't know it.
-
His true life is found only in Christ.
-
In fact, John says this in his first epistle, chapter 5.
-
He said He who has the Son has life.
-
He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
-
First, John 512 Those who don't have Christ have no life at all,
-
because it is the compassion of God, it is the mercy of God.
-
It is that which Christ does for us by His grace.
-
That makes us alive again. We don't just wake up one day
-
dead and decide to be alive. Dead people don't wake up, they
-
stay dead. It is God, through his mercy and
-
His compassion, who quickens us to life and grants us the gift
-
of faith to believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of
-
God who died. On a cross 2000 years ago, who
-
was buried and who rose victoriously over the grave?
-
He gives us the faith to trust in Him, to believe that He truly
-
is the Savior that the Scriptures have described all
-
the way from Genesis all the way to Revelation, To know that He
-
is the only hope for man to be saved from their sin and.
-
But in that we receive new life, this new life provided strictly
-
by God's grace. Many would ask, well, how do I
-
know if I have it? Your life will prove it.
-
New life will be proven by new desires.
-
We see this in the psalmist here.
-
He says, let your compassion come to me, that I may live, for
-
your law is my delight. What has just happened?
-
Won't I need your mercy? And I know it's dependent upon
-
your grace. And in that he's changed.
-
And now the Word of God becomes his delight.
-
His desire has changed, a desire that desired only himself to a
-
desire that now desires the will of God.
-
According to the Word of God. Your law is my delight.
-
I don't see your law as a burden.
-
I see it as a delight. Oh, it's proof that He is truly
-
received in new life. Because those who once delighted
-
in sin and in the things of this world, and they receive the
-
mercy of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, they'll no longer
-
delight in the world, but they'll begin to delight in the
-
Word. Why?
-
Because they're a new creation. Just a second Corinthians
2 Corinthians 5 chapter mention
-
chapter 5 or 17 says they're a new creation.
-
They'll delight in the Word instead of delighting in the
-
world. Now you have to ask yourself
-
this question at this juncture. Are you delighting in the Word?
-
Because that's evidence of new life here.
-
That's evidence that you have received mercy and you have
-
received the compassion of the Lord, that you have truly been
-
saved. And if you have truly been
-
saved, you will desire the Word of God.
-
Let me help all of you out. If you're sitting here this
-
morning and you're saying, I wish this guy would just stop
-
teaching from this old relic, you have a spiritual issue.
-
You're not yet born again. Because those who have truly
-
been born again, they hunger after the word of God.
-
It is food for their soul. Because they understand what the
-
word of God testifies, that man cannot live on bread alone, but
-
every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
-
So if you don't enjoy learning from the Word of God, studying
-
the Word of God, being preached to from the Word of God, you
-
have a spiritual problem. It's one of two things.
-
You're either lost and not yet born again, or you are starving
-
as a believer. There's no excuse for you to
-
starve around here. There's no excuse for you to
-
starve around here where you have every opportunity to.
-
Feast from the Word of God, where you at every opportunity
-
are encouraged to study the Word of God.
-
Some of you you haven't opened your Bible since the last Sunday
-
service that you came to. You're not delighting in the
-
Word of God. You're delighting in the Word of
-
God only on a Sunday morning. That's not delighting in the
-
Word of God. To delight in the Word of God
-
means that you delight in the Word of God constantly, that you
-
meditate on His commands, His precepts, His law, His promises,
-
over and over and over and over again to the day that the Lord
-
calls you home. Why?
-
Because that's evidence of a changed life.
-
You used to not do that. All you thought about was the
-
world and how you can succeed in the world's eyes and how you can
-
fulfill whatever fleshly desires that you had.
-
But now, because you have truly been born again, you desire the
-
Word of God. You crave it like that pure
-
spiritual milk that the Scripture talks about.
-
Then after you feast from that milk, that's not enough.
-
Why? Because when you taste and see
-
that the Lord is good, you want more of Him.
-
And now you want meat. And I'm so thankful for a
-
congregation who can eat the meat from the Word of God
-
because I've been in so many places where if you preach for
-
over 15 minutes, they were done because it was just way too much
-
for them to handle. And I say this to them as kindly
-
and as lovingly as I know how. You're either lost or you're OK
-
with being malnourished spiritually, and either one of
-
them is a major spiritual problem, and you need to turn to
-
Christ. Today.
-
You see the psalmist recognizing God is merciful Christ bringing
-
forgiveness and pardon, bringing new life, and that new life
-
being evidenced by a new desire for the Word of God.
-
Your law is my delight because one, when they received mercy
-
from God, they received new life.
-
They value the word of God, they value scriptures.
-
So biblical view of God will recognize God as merciful Christ
-
biblically moves to the fifth point this morning.
-
Verse 78 says, May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me
-
without cause, but I will meditate on your precepts.
-
May those who fear you turn to me, those who understand your
-
statutes, may my heart be blameless toward your decrees
-
that I may not be put to shame. A biblical view of God
-
recognizes God as mighty conqueror and the psalmist here
-
is doing nothing wrong. But I want to make very clearly
-
what is going on here because many people in in our mamby
-
pamby weak society would say, wow, can you really even do
-
this? The psalmist is praying to God
-
against his enemies. Make no mistake about that.
-
He is turning them over to the Lord.
-
He is praying against them. And he's doing this instead of
-
taking matters into his own hands and seeking vengeance by
-
the sword. And let me just assure you this,
-
the psalmist knew how to wield the sword.
-
History proves it. Scripture proves it.
-
But here he's not because he has been changed.
-
He's not considering those things.
-
What he is doing is he's trusting God to conquer his
-
enemies, just as God has promised to do.
-
Isn't it true that God in Scripture has promised to defend
-
the righteous? And this man of God was counting
-
on that. In fact, Thomas Manton says
-
this. He said malicious enemies may be
-
expressly prayed against. Many of us have faced that in
-
our Christian life, and maybe you haven't.
-
But if you've ever pastored a church, you have there are
-
people who just are mean and malicious toward the pastor.
-
Let me remind all of you, I am just as the delivery boy.
-
I'm the mailman. Don't get mad at me because God
-
has delivered something unto you that you needed to hear.
-
But yet we know there are those people who are malicious and
-
they, they bring accusations and they say false things.
-
And again, I know what we covered last week.
-
Blessed are you when men say all kinds of evil against you.
-
I understand that, but there's a reality to it that it hurts.
-
And when it hurts, you know what we can't do?
-
And I had to learn this. And I am so thankful that I
-
learned this because I have seen God work in this over and over
-
and over again since I have learned it.
-
In my younger years. I thought it was my
-
responsibility when someone was maligning me to go and verbally
-
assault them right back, because that's the thing to do, right?
-
No, absolutely not. Every time that I ever attempted
-
to do anything like that, I was so convicted and so broken that
-
it led me to a place of repentance and confession.
-
But. Now on the flip side of that,
-
God has taught me what the psalmist understands here, and
-
that is when people are malicious against you, you pray
-
for him. And you turn them over to God.
-
You trust God to defend you, and you stop trying to defend
-
yourself. You know why?
-
Because every time I've ever tried to defend myself, I did it
-
in the flesh. Because when I tried to defend
-
myself, you know what I am thinking for a second?
-
That I have rights. I don't have rights.
-
I died with Christ. I laid my rights down at the
-
feet of Jesus Christ when I surrendered to Him as my Lord
-
and Savior. Now He has the right to defend
-
me anytime He wants to, because when he's defending me when I'm
-
right, he's defending himself. Because I'm standing in His
-
righteousness, Not in the righteousness of Kirk Hall,
-
because I have none. And so I've learned when those
-
enemies pop up their head, those people who talk behind the
-
scenes, that you, you're not fooling anyone.
-
Someone rats on you. When?
-
Those enemies talk behind the scenes.
-
You know what I do? I just simply get on my knees
-
and I turn them over to the Lord, and I say, Lord, if
-
they're bashing me, rightfully so, I deserve it.
-
And I could give them a thousand other reasons to blast me.
-
But Lord, if they're blasting me as I'm standing in you, Lord,
-
defend your name, Defend your glory.
-
In fact, during the time of the 16th century, John Knox, one of
-
the Scottish reformers, encountered a woman by the name
-
of Mary, Queen of Scots. She was a devout enemy to
-
Protestantism, and she once said this about Knox.
-
She said, I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the
-
assembled armies of Europe. Why?
-
Because Knox would pray for his enemies.
-
God would work on his behalf, and God would work for his own
-
glory. Through Knox, through his
-
powerful preaching, and through his prayer ministry on this
-
earth, God used him in a mighty way, but he also defended him
-
against all enemies that came against them.
-
It's what was Knox doing? He was simply recognizing,
-
trusting in God and his promise to conquer the enemies who come
-
against us. Why would Scripture give us so
-
much wisdom and insight into trusting God with our enemies
-
and praying for them and turning them over to Him?
-
And then we're not to do that. We are to do that.
-
And in doing that, God will do what God is going to do, and
-
that is to conquer our enemies. It's the one who biblically
-
recognizes God, recognizes God is mighty.
-
Conquer and conquer over our enemies.
-
Psalmist calling on God in prayer to conquer the enemies
-
who are coming against them, those who are afflicting him,
-
those who are harming him. Those who are doing all this
-
without calls simply because he's following God.
-
Psalm 3417 the psalmist says this.
-
The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them.
-
He delivers them from all their troubles.
-
The Lord is close to the broken hearted and save those who are
-
crushed in. Spirit, a righteous man may have
-
many troubles, but the Lord delivers them from them all.
-
Oh, would we cling to that? Would we hold on that?
-
Would we just shut our mouths? It's not getting involved in
-
things that we don't need to get involved in.
-
God is going to take care of us. He protects all his bones.
-
Not one of them will be broken. Evil will slay the wicked.
-
The foes of the righteous will be condemned.
-
The Lord redeems his servants. No one will be condemned who
-
takes refuge in Him. No one.
-
So I encourage you to do this. When your enemies come against
-
you, they're blasting you on social media, they're blasting
-
you in whatever crowd that they run in.
-
See them for what they are. They're arrogant and they're
-
proud and they're wicked, and all those are synonymous in
-
Scripture. There are those arrogant
-
enemies, just as a psalmist is facing those arrogant enemies.
-
What is he saying? That they would be put to shame,
-
that they would be put in their place?
-
And would you just trust God to put them in their place?
-
You don't have to do it. He doesn't need your help.
-
That's one thing I've learned. I God doesn't need my help for
-
anything. I can simply just take Him at
-
His word and trust that He's going to do what He says.
-
And you know what? The truth always comes out.
-
It doesn't always come out when I want it to come out, but it
-
always comes out, doesn't it? He's always going to defend
-
those who take refuge in Him. So in those situations, you know
-
what you need to do. You need to examine your life
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and you need to ask this question by taking refuge in
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God. Am I trusting in His word?
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OK, I am. OK, I am.
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And Lord, I know you're going to defend me and I know you're
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going to take care of every bit of this.
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And I can tell you this, He does every single time.
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Every single time. He is the Conqueror of our
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enemies. The psalmist calling on God to
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do this. People would say it was he's
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seeking vengeance. Not for his name, He's not.
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He's turning them over to the Lord.
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And the Lord has said this, Leave room for my vengeance.
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Don't take matters into your own hands.
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He's simply just trusting in God to do what God and God alone can
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do. He's applying what we see Paul
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teach in Romans chapter 12. Do not repay anyone evil for
Romans 12 chapter mention
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evil. Be careful to do what is right
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in the eyes of everybody. Chapter 12 verse 18 says if it
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is. Possible as far as it depends on
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you. Live at peace with everyone.
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I do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for
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God's wrath, for it is written, it is mine to avenge.
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I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy
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is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him
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something to drink, and doing this you will heap burning coals
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on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but
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overcome evil with good. David simply turning to a good
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God and saying, Take care of this situation for me.
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Take care of it however you see fit.
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God knows how to do it best. Sometimes he removes those
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people from your life. Sometimes he removes their
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influence. Sometimes he changes their
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heart. Sometimes he takes their life.
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That's. All dependent upon God's will
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for that specific situation. But what you must do is you must
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trust God and not yourself in conquering your own enemies.
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That's what the psalmist is doing here.
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One who has a proper biblical understanding of God.
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We'll do just that, knowing that God has promised to defend US
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against our enemies. So we see one who recognizes God
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as mighty counselor will know that he's conqueror of their
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enemies, but he's also conqueror of hearts.
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We can't leave this out, he says.
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May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause.
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But I will meditate on your precepts.
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May those who fear, who fear you turn to me, those who understand
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your statutes saying and those who are in that group, or maybe
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they're saying the wrong things, but yet they are God fearing
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people and they've just been LED astray.
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Would you cause them to repent and to turn to me and to see
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that I am righteous and that I am noble and that I am not doing
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the things that others are accusing me to do and.
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Then he says in verse 80, May my heart be blameless toward your
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decrees, that I may not be put to shame.
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Look at David here saying this. He's saying conquer hearts,
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conquer the hearts of others. He's praying.
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That those who had had a wrong heart and wrong view toward him,
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that they would be changed. Isn't that what we ought to do?
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To pray for those who have a wrong heart, that they should be
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and would be changed? Luke 627 But I tell you, hear
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me, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless
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those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.
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David, praying for those who are mistreating him.
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And what is he saying? Lord, change their heart.
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If it is that they're God fearing people, turn them toward
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me and let them see the truth. Let them see that I am righteous
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because of you, and I'm standing in that righteousness and
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nothing else, but also His own heart.
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God is not only the Conqueror of the hearts of our enemies, those
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who may come against us, He's a conqueror of our own hearts.
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And boy, don't we need that. Why is that so needed?
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Well, we know this, that our heart is desperately wicked,
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right? Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 9.
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The heart is. Deceitful above all things and
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beyond cure. Who can understand it?
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Our heart is wicked and we are in need constantly of God
-
conquering our wicked heart. Christians so often forget that.
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They'll say stupid things like just follow your own heart.
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Please don't take the plaque off your wall.
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Take it back to Kirkland's. Whatever you have to do.
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Don't let anyone in your home adopt that false teaching.
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Don't follow your heart. Your heart will trick you so
-
fast you'll think you're right when you're wrong.
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Don't follow after the heart of God.
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Trust in God to conquer your wicked heart.
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Luke chapter 6 Lord reminds us how wicked our heart is.
Luke 6 chapter mention
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We need to remember that. Sorry, that's Mark Chapter 7.
Mark 7 chapter mention
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If you're taking notes, you're in Luke 6 going What in the
-
world? Mark, Mark 7, verse 21.
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He says for for from within, out of men's hearts come evil
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thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed,
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malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
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You don't want to trust your heart.
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In fact, you want that heart to be conquered.
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In fact, more than that, you ought to desire a new heart,
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that heart, a flesh that replaces your heart, a stone, as
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Ezekiel promised the people of God.
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You ought to pray that God would conquer your wicked heart.
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He. Would conquer your wicked heart,
-
just as he conquers the wicked hearts of your enemies, and that
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he would move you to follow his decrees.
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Luke 645 The good man brings good things out of the good
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stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out
-
of the evil stored up in his heart.
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For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth will speak.
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O may our prayer for ourselves, just as a psalmist prayed for
-
himself, that God would be our mighty conqueror even in our own
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hearts. Oh, it's easy to turn and to
-
pray for the hearts of the wicked who mistreat him.
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But will we? Be honest about our heart.
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Will we be honest in prayer? The Lord have turned my heart.
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Make my heart blameless toward Your decrees.
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Let me walk in obedience to Your word that I may not be put to
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shame. Let me walk in such a way that
-
even if they want to accuse me of doing wrong, there is so much
-
right that they cannot find an accusation.
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I wish that was the heart of Christians in our culture.
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Lord, let us live such righteous lives that no one can bring any
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blame against us, that even if they were to accuse us of doing
-
wrong, they have to be ashamed of that because they know that
-
deep down there's nothing wrong in our lives.
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We are living our lives honoring the one who has conquered our
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wicked hearts so the biblical view of God will recognize God
-
as our mighty conqueror. So we wrap this up and we
-
prepare to close as we've been challenged this morning.
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That a true biblical view of God recognizes God as sovereign
-
creator. Don't forget it.
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That's where it begins, Seeing Him for who he is, the author of
-
creation, the authority over His creation.
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Then it recognizes God as wise counselor.
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We need His wise counsel. We need His wisdom constantly.
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We need His understanding. From His word, every single
-
moment of every single day of our life.
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Then a true biblical view of God recognizes God as loving
-
comforter. We need His love and we need His
-
comfort, and thankfully, He brings us His love in the form
-
of that comfort, comforting us, leading us, and guiding us,
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shepherding our soul as that great shepherd that He is.
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We can agree with the psalmist in Psalm 23 that the Lord is my
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shepherd. I shall not be in one.
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I'll recognize God is loving comforter, and fourthly,
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recognize God as merciful Christ.
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Where would we be without the mercy of Christ had He not let
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His compassion come unto me? I would spend an eternity in
-
hell under the wrath and the judgment of God, and rightfully
-
so, because I would deserve every single ounce of it.
-
Or recognize God as merciful Christ.
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If you have not surrendered to Christ yet in your life,
-
recognize Him and surrender to Him today.
-
And then lastly, recognize God as mighty conqueror.
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Stop taking matters into your own hands, shut your mouth and
-
just trust God to defend the righteous.
-
He always does and He always will.
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So did the believer. I asked you the simple question,
-
do you have a biblical view of God?
-
I told the man before we met, before we began the service,
-
when we met out in the foyer. I actually told them, Some of
-
you are going to realize that you have some ideas about God
-
that aren't correct. I pray that God would correct
-
those ideas and you can actually leave.
-
You're saying, yes, I do have a biblical view of God.
-
I no longer adhere to an unbiblical view of God.
-
No, I no longer desire to have an unbiblical view of God.
-
Everything that I want to know about God I know I can find in
-
Scripture and there's where I'm going to find my answers for the
-
unbeliever. You're still in an unbelieving
-
and sinful state. And you're proving.
-
That every single moment of your life.
-
And you're proving that by that you don't have a biblical view
-
of God. Because if you did, if you had a
-
biblical view of God, you would repent of your sin.
-
Why? Because Christ has commanded
-
that we repent. If you had a biblical view of
-
God, you would repent of your sin, and you would turn by faith
-
to Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
-
Why? Because God commands that we do
-
so, and a biblical view of God was surrender to Christ as Lord
-
and Savior. You don't have a biblical view
-
of God because you don't value His word.
-
You don't value his commands. You don't have a biblical view
-
of God, therefore you're not reconciled with God.
-
You have not been forgiven of your sin.
-
You do not have eternal life, and unless you repent and turn
-
to Christ, you will never have either.
-
My prayer today is this, that you would cry out to God in
-
desperation, asking Him to let His mercy and His compassion
-
flow upon you today. That He would wash you and that
-
He would cleanse you of all of your sin and all of your
-
defilement. All the things that you've done
-
in your life and said in your life that are offensive to His
-
Holiness, and that today you would be restored and reconciled
-
to your Creator. Would you see God for who He is
-
today? Would you a God who loved
-
sinners in such a way that He sent His only begotten Son to
-
this earth to rescue all who would believe and trust in Him?
-
Would you believe and would you trust in Him today?
-
The trust in a Savior who went to a cross and who died to
-
display the compassion and the love that the Lord has for His
-
own. Would you surrender to that love
-
today by surrendering to Christ, the lover of your soul, receive
-
His mercy and his forgiveness and the eternal life that he and
-
he alone as promised. Let's pray together.
-
Father, in the name of Jesus, we thank you now for your word.
-
We thank you. Thank you for this group of
-
people who have endured the entirety of this.
-
But I know that it will accomplish everything that you
-
have set out in your sovereign plan for it to accomplish.
-
Lord, I ask that you would draw sinners unto yourself for
-
forgiveness and eternal life in Christ, that you would quicken
-
them to new life and to faith that they would believe and
-
trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior today by that faith that
-
you've given them. God, I pray for the Saint who's
-
here who's let all the indoctrination of the world skew
-
their view of you. God, I pray that they no longer
-
accept that, but they would wholeheartedly turn to Your
-
Word, just as the psalmist has shown us today.
-
They would turn to Your Word and gain wisdom and understanding
-
into who You really are, and they would worship You properly.
-
Holy Spirit, we invite you now to do what only you can do.
-
Convict the hearts of men, transform them into what it is
-
that you desire for them. And we pray and we ask all these
-
things in the mighty name of Jesus.
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Amen. You have been listening to Key
-
Life Fellowships Pulpit Ministry podcast.
-
Join us each week for more teaching from God's Word.
-
If you would like to speak with one of our pastors, please visit
-
us on the web at keylifefellow-ship.com.
-
Thank you again for joining us today.