[0:00] If you would please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Psalms. Some technical difficulties here.
[0:21] If you would please turn with me to Psalm 34. And let us hear the reading of the Word of God. Of David when he changed his behavior before Ahimelech.
[0:38] So that he drove him out and he went away. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
[0:50] My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. Oh magnify the Lord with me. And let us exalt his name together.
[1:01] I sought the Lord and he answered me. And delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant. And their faces shall never be ashamed.
[1:14] This poor man cried and the Lord heard him. And saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him. And delivers them. Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.
[1:28] Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh fear the Lord you his saints. For those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer want and hunger.
[1:40] But those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come oh children listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life.
[1:54] And loves many days. That he may see good. Keep your tongue from evil. And your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it.
[2:06] The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous. And his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil. To cut off the memory of them from the earth.
[2:18] When the righteous cry for help. The Lord hears. And delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the broken hearted. And saves the crushed in spirits.
[2:31] Many are the afflictions of the righteous. But the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones. Not one of them is broken.
[2:44] Affliction will slay the wicked. And those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
[2:59] May God bless this. The reading of his word. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father. As we come before you. We seek your grace. Lord we have come singing your praises.
[3:13] And we thank you for the opportunity to join our voices together in song. To unite our voices with the saints that are around the world today. Worshipping. On this your day.
[3:24] Lord even uniting our voices with the saints who have gone before us into glory. With the angels of heaven as we praise you. Lord we have come here.
[3:38] Hungry. And needy. With nothing to offer. But seeking you. And so Lord we ask that you would labor through the weakness of your servants.
[3:51] That you would hide your servant behind the cross. And make yourself known. That you would pour out your Holy Spirit. In such a way that those who are here would know they have heard from the living God. And give praise and honor and glory to you.
[4:06] And to you alone. That none would be left for man. For Lord you alone are worthy. These things we pray in the name of your son. Our beloved savior Jesus Christ.
[4:17] Amen. One of the ongoing challenges that I face as a parent. And one that I've seen a fair amount of on this journey.
[4:29] As we've gone to different places. And tried to expose our children to new foods and cultures. Is that as we try new foods. My children are rather averse to the concept.
[4:41] And trying to get them to try it with an open mind. Is really the challenge. Right. There's a. When you. You get into a place. And you go. My little son. This is. This is a pupusa.
[4:52] You need to try it. And he goes. I have no idea what that is. And so it's going to be gross. And I'm like. No. Just because you don't know what it is. Doesn't mean it's going to be gross. But there's a similar phenomenon. For us as the children of God.
[5:03] We see trials. We see new circumstances. That are daunting and overwhelming. And we view them like children. See flan or caviar.
[5:15] And even though we're prone to hold our nose. And choke it down. Or try to feed it to the dog under the table. David calls us to taste and see. Taste and see the Lord is good.
[5:30] That what he provides is good. That what he has decreed is good. And for our benefit. As well as his glory. So I want to deal with the text this evening.
[5:42] Over the course of several points. First I want to deal with experience of goodness. Secondly the promises for righteous. The third is curses for the wicked.
[5:54] Fourth is Christ prophesied. Fifth is repentance and faith. And sixth is redefining prosperity. So we begin with the concept of experience of goodness.
[6:06] Now our brother read earlier this evening. Kind of the historical context. For when David wrote this psalm. And when we read the story of David. And his encounter with Achish at Gath.
[6:19] We wouldn't expect a psalm like this. Achish is here in our text. He's referred to as Abimelech. As his title. Kind of like Caesar or Pharaoh.
[6:30] And Achish would have had quite the grudge against David. David came into the city hoping to find some kind of refuge. But there was quite the animosity that was already present. Because David was not only part of the nation of Israel.
[6:43] And was not only a man who had been anointed. But he was the one who had slain the champion of Gath. Goliath. David actually had Goliath's sword with him.
[6:56] When he arrived at Gath. And we might think of David's escape as being a result of cunning. It was a brilliant spur of the moment. Light on his feet kind of intelligence.
[7:07] That he sees the circumstance. He sees that everything is going sour. And so he feigns madness. He makes himself look like a crazy person. And he drools and he scratches on the walls.
[7:18] And so we might say. Ah. What cunning David has. But David. Gives all the glory to his rescue. To God. While subtly denouncing his own tactic.
[7:33] Lest it be imitated. He emphasizes honesty and sincerity. In the psalm. David boasts only of God. A tactic that we find Paul used.
[7:45] When he quotes Jeremiah in 1 Corinthians 1.31. So that as it is written. Let no one. Let one who boasts. Boast in the Lord. Again Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11.
[7:56] 30 to 33. If I must boast. I will boast in the Lord. If I must boast. I boast in the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus.
[8:06] He who is blessed forever. Knows that I am not lying. At Damascus. The governor. Under King Aratas. Was guarding the city of Damascus. In order to seize me. But I was let down in a basket.
[8:17] Through a window in the wall. And escaped his hands. Likewise Saul had been rescued. Out of these kinds of circumstances. But he rendered all glory. To God. When David.
[8:27] Describes himself. Initially as being fearful. As being distressed. When he realized his peril. In the hands of the Philistines. Which is. Of course mirrored. In the first Samuel account.
[8:38] He calls himself. This poor one. Not this brilliant one. Not this cunning one. But this poor one. Meaning he lacked the strength. He lacked the ability.
[8:51] To deliver himself. And was indeed a beggar. Of God's mercy. So he turned. From the destructive fear. Of man.
[9:02] To the productive fear. Of God. God. And. As Cassiodorus once said. Here is not fear to be feared. But to be loved.
[9:14] Human fear. Is full of bitterness. But divine fear. Is full. Of sweetness. The one drives to slavery. The other allures to liberty.
[9:24] The one dreads the prison of Gehenna. The other opens the kingdom. Of heaven. The other. The other. So David sought God. And called upon him.
[9:36] With silent prayer. We can imagine David. As he scratches at the door. Crying out in his heart. For God to deliver him. He cast himself.
[9:46] Upon the rock of ages. To be delivered. And God heard that desperate plea. He answered those cries for help. And delivered him.
[9:56] Not only from his distress. But from his fears. As well. And so from the safety. Of the cave of Ajalom. And more importantly. The safety of God.
[10:07] As his refuge. David kneels before God. And blesses him. He praises God. With his mouth. And he calls upon. Those who are there with him.
[10:19] The other men. And his family. That are there with him. In the cave of Ajalom. And he pleads with them. To magnify Yahweh. With him. And we always want to be careful.
[10:29] When we come to these kinds of terms. Because of course. We cannot make God. Greater. We cannot expand. The God who is already. Infinite. We cannot make God.
[10:40] Larger or more glorious. Than he is. But as Philip Eveson. Described it. It's like the work. Of a telescope. Once the sun has gone down. You go outside. With a telescope. And you fixate that telescope.
[10:52] On a particular star. Or a planet. Or on the moon itself. And if you point it. Towards the moon. And you orient it. And you get everything set up. It doesn't actually expand.
[11:05] The size of the moon. But it brings the moon. Into focus. In such a way. That it fills. The entire view. Of the person who looks through.
[11:17] So that's the kind of thing. That David is talking about. Let us bring God. Into focus. Let us fixate on him. In such a way. That all our fears. And our terrors.
[11:27] Of humanity. All of our concerns. For the things. Of this world. Are blotted out. And brought into real perspective. So now we want to look.
[11:38] At the promises. For righteous. The righteous. That are in our text. Because as is common. For Hebrew wisdom. And literature. And poetry. David gives us. The image of a righteous man.
[11:49] And the blessings. That that righteous man receives. In order to show. The sure promises of God. This is kind of the ideal situation. If there were a man. Who is perfectly righteous.
[12:00] This is what the circumstances. Would look like. This is what we could expect. For him. And this man. This perfect man. This righteous man. Seeks God. This is the ideal.
[12:11] That we are to strive after. Meaning that. He seeks relationship. With God. God. And guidance from God. Willing to submit. To that guidance. As it comes. The righteous man.
[12:22] Fears God. But not man. And he takes refuge. In God. He is righteous. In God's eyes. Of judgment.
[12:34] It is this man. Whom God sends his angel. To camp surrounding. God will send his angels. To camp surrounding this man. And to rescue him. There are multiple promises.
[12:44] And accounts. Of such work. Of angels. For God's people. In 2nd Kings. Chapter 6. Verses 15 through 17. We see the army of angels. That surrounds.
[12:55] The Syrians. Who are about to attack. Elisha and his servant. It is one of those. Great exhilarating passages. Right. The servant wakes up. And he looks around. And they are completely surrounded.
[13:06] And he wakes up Elisha. And he is terrified. For what is about to take place. And Elisha. Almost laughs at him. And he goes. Lord open his eyes. And he. And God opens his eyes.
[13:17] To perceive that indeed. That army that surrounds them. Is surrounded. By God's army. And then of course. The Syrians are blinded. And I will let you read the rest. Of the story on your own.
[13:29] In Psalm 91. Verses 11 through 12. It says. For he will command. His angels concerning. You. To guard you. In all your ways. On their hands. They will bear you up.
[13:40] Lest you strike your foot. Against a stone. In Luke chapter 16. In verse 22. We see another. Poor man. Like in our text. We see that it is angels.
[13:51] Who carry Lazarus. To glory. That the language. Of the angel of the Lord. Is often used. To describe. A unique manifestation. Of God.
[14:02] In space and time. Prior to. Christ's incarnation. Angel. Means messenger. And one person. One person. Of the Trinity. Repeatedly. Enders time. And space. To appear.
[14:13] As that messenger. Of the Godhead. And for these. What we call. Theophanies. We can look. To the angel. Who visited Abraham. Jacob. Moses. In the burning bush.
[14:23] Joshua. The minx of Jordan. And this language. Of the encircling. Camp. Would draw us. To the language. Of God's presence. As that. Shekinah glory cloud.
[14:34] That was a wall. Between the Israelites. And the Egyptians. Before the crossing. Of the Red Sea. In Exodus chapter 14. In verse 20. Returning to our psalm.
[14:45] David says. That this righteous man. Lacks. Nothing. What an amazing image. He lacks nothing. That is good. For him. And as we saw.
[14:59] As we see. In Psalm 23. In verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. As a kid. I always thought. That meant. That somehow. We were supposed. To stop desiring things.
[15:10] But it means. That we. We need. Nothing. There is nothing. That we need. That is not provided. For us. By our God. In his perfect wisdom. His.
[15:21] This righteous man's bones. Are not broken. This doesn't mean. That a broken bone. Is necessarily. A sign of God's judgment. The fact that I've never. Had a broken bone. Does not make me more righteous.
[15:31] Than those of you. Who have. But this is talking about. As one commentator put it. The structure. And strength. Of the godly man. Will not be broken. He is redeemed.
[15:44] And found innocent. Though as we will see. This is an. If not. In effect. This is the cause. Because. He has been redeemed.
[15:54] And because. He has been declared. Innocent. The rest. The rest of these things. Take place. So now. We want to briefly. Turn to the curses. For the wicked. In our passage. In contrast.
[16:04] To the righteous one. Who is seen. By God. With love. And pity. The wicked. Are seen with contempt. And with judgment. God will remove. Their memory.
[16:15] From the earth. In this life. Their glory is often. Taken away. And they are either forgotten. Or only remembered. With contempt.
[16:27] You can think of. Some of the great. Historical figures. Who had this great. Rise to power. By the end of their life. They were treated. With contempt. They were outcasts. Themselves.
[16:41] But the fullness. Of this. Is how their memory. Will be wiped away. In the new heavens. And in the new earth. Sealed with them. In the vaults of hell. We are told.
[16:53] That the wicked man. Is slain. By his own evil. And. As you can see. Through the course. Of scripture. There is often. A kind of poetic justice.
[17:04] That God. That God has. In his outworking. In bringing about. Tastes of judgments. As we go. The same. The same nation.
[17:15] Whose Pharaoh. Sought to slay. All of the children. Of God's people. By casting them. Into the river. Had their own children. Slain. In the final plague.
[17:28] But the fullness. Of this. Is in the final judgment. Where it is. Their works. That will actually. Condemn them. And he who hates. God's people. Will be found.
[17:39] Guilty. But now. We want to turn. To Christ. Prophesied. God's people. I've been teaching. This series. On the psalms. In my own church. For about a year now.
[17:49] And it's been a huge. Blessing for me. But one of the things. That I keep coming back to. With my congregation. Is telling them. That we haven't. Really understood. The psalm. Until we found.
[17:59] Christ in it. And I describe it. As it's kind of like. When you're a kid. And you go to the doctor's office. And they give you. The where's Waldo book. And you open it up. You know Waldo's. On the page.
[18:11] Your job is to try to find Waldo. And. When we come to the psalms. We know Christ is there. But sometimes. It takes us a while. In order to identify Christ.
[18:21] In the psalm. To find his place in it. And Christ. Here. Is first seen. As the angel of the Lord. He who encircles the elect.
[18:33] Who encamps. Around them. Not just to provide us. Some protection. Against earthly trouble. And woes. No. Christ encircles.
[18:43] His elect. With his. Righteous. Works. To rescue them. From judgment. He clothes. His people. In righteousness. When we read.
[18:55] Of the righteous men. We should feel. How far short. We fall. Of these descriptions. We should read this. And with a.
[19:05] A real understanding. Of the nature. Of God's law. Of God's standards. Of righteousness. We should. Read through it. And. And feel a bit of discouragement. At first. To say.
[19:16] I. I don't meet the standard. I haven't fulfilled. The requirements. To be called. The righteous man. We don't merit. God's deliverance.
[19:27] We don't merit. God's love. His good gifts. From heaven. God's love. It's not. It's not. But. Having been clothed. God's love. In Christ's works.
[19:39] In Christ's righteousness. Through faith. We find favor. In God's sight. And David calls us. To taste. Of the Lord. And see.
[19:49] That he is. Good. What we do. Symbolically. When we partake. Of the Lord's supper. When we eat. That bread. and we drink that cup of Welch's grape juice or wine, whatever your practice is here.
[20:05] When we partake of that, symbolically, we also do that spiritually. By faith, God's people are fed of Christ.
[20:16] They are fed from Christ to give us strength. When we partake of that bread, it's an image of Christ's body, but it's that which also grants strength.
[20:28] Bread is a staple of life. And so spiritually, we need that which will give us the strength to continue on, to persist. We need grace constantly in order to continue forward.
[20:42] We are beggars at the throne of grace. That's our lives as Christians, and we do well to remember that. We need that constant source of strength that comes from Christ.
[20:55] Christ's, but the wine is a symbol of joy. If you're in a place of starvation, right, if the land is in famine and you have a crop of grapes, you don't crush them and set them aside in vats and wait for them to turn into wine while you and your family starve to death.
[21:14] You eat the grapes. In order for there to be wine, there has to be bounty. There has to be prosperity. God has to have provided above and beyond our needs.
[21:26] And it's a symbol of joy, of celebration. And these are the things that we are given by Christ. And we are called to taste and see that the Lord is good.
[21:39] To taste of Christ. As we see in 1 Peter 2.3, Indeed, you have tasted that the Lord is good. But of whom can it be more fitly said than Christ?
[21:52] Many are the afflictions of the righteous one. And from those afflictions which were due to us, Christ delivers us by taking them upon Himself.
[22:05] And not one of Christ's bones were broken. He keeps all His bones and not one of them is broken.
[22:17] And this was in order to fulfill this. This is a prophecy of Christ that we see fulfilled in John 19, verses 33-36.
[22:30] Here it says, But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear and at once there came out blood and water.
[22:41] He who saw it has borne witness. His testimony is true. And He knows that He is telling the truth that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Not one of His bones will be broken.
[22:58] But turning to this last, the second to last image of Christ Christ is the one who hates, the one who is hated. He who hates Christ, the righteous one of God, the only truly intrinsic righteous one of God, will be found guilty.
[23:25] When we look at John 3, verses 18-19, we see whoever believes in Him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already.
[23:37] Because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and the people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
[23:51] And finally, we see how Christ was delivered by God, the triune God, in the resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15, verses 14-21.
[24:04] You can turn there with me if you'd like. This is a little bit of a longer passage to read. But it's one of those passages, when I get into 1 Corinthians 15, I just really can't bear to cut it up and to use smaller sections.
[24:17] So I always wind up reading a big chunk out of it. But in 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 14, it says, And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
[24:30] We were even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
[24:43] And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. And you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
[24:54] If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.
[25:07] The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
[25:27] But now we want to turn to the concept of repentance and faith in our passage. Because David calls us to fear God. But this is not paralyzing fear.
[25:37] This is not trembling underneath the bed. This is a fear that drives us to repentance. A comprehension and understanding of who God is. It's a fascinating study to see the way in which the fear of God is dealt with through the course of the scriptures.
[25:53] And how it progresses from a mere sense of morality to the way in which a cognizance of the law is what God uses to drive us to repentance in its conjunction with faith.
[26:06] and how that fear becomes something that helps us to love God. Something that we would think quite entirely contradictory, but gradually that fear becomes not a fear of condemnation, but a fear of sinning against and grieving the one who has loved us.
[26:24] So when David calls us to seek peace and pursue it, it is true that we are to seek peace with our fellow man. Paul speaks of this in Romans chapter 12 in verse 18, as much as is within you.
[26:39] But more importantly, we must be at peace with God. Our sin incurs God's wrath. And only by pursuing Christ can we be reconciled.
[26:52] Only in Christ can peace be found. Which is why Paul calls it the gospel of peace. It's worth noting that we can also translate this verse in our psalm as seek peace and pursue Him.
[27:10] But God is near to the brokenhearted. God saves the contrite repentant soul. As David said in Psalm 51 and verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
[27:30] So take refuge. Take refuge in Christ. In God. In the God-man. By faith in His saving work.
[27:43] And if you do so, you are blessed. It's not a you will be blessed, but you are blessed. St. Augustine so succinctly put it, Thou hast prayed, thou art heard, thou art blessed.
[28:02] Let me read that again. Thou hast prayed, thou art heard, thou art blessed. Now this is foolishness to the world that we live in because it's all about materialism.
[28:14] Prayer is about getting what you want, right? We pray and then if we've prayed rightly or if we've prayed with enough good works in our accounts to the divine vending machine where we've put in our good works and we hit B4 and the candy bar falls out.
[28:28] It's what I call candy bar theology. It's the way many of us are, we default to that kind of works-based thinking, right? But when we come as Christians in prayer, yes, we have petitions, we have these things that we ask God for, but we come before Him and just in praying and submitting to Him and trusting in Him, we are blessed.
[28:53] We are already wrapped up in Christ. Whatever the external circumstances may be, we are blessed because God redeems the soul of His elect and hidden within Christ that man will not be found guilty.
[29:12] Hidden within Christ that daughter of the King will not be condemned. God planned redemption in eternity past. He accomplished it in Christ in the first century A.D.
[29:24] and now He applies it to His saints. Verse 17 literally says, cry out and Yahweh has heard and from all their distress He has delivered them.
[29:39] Our translators always put it into the same tense so that it doesn't sound so weird and strange. But I love the way it is in the original text because it emphasizes to us the sovereignty of God.
[29:51] Now I can hear a petition from one of my children and I can try to go and accomplish it to the best of my ability. But here it says, cry out and Yahweh has heard.
[30:04] Only God can begin the deliverance and often accomplishes all of the deliverance before the cry is even made. But now we want to turn to redefining prosperity in our closing because David asks us what man delights in long life or literally lives and loves days of seeing good.
[30:30] So I ask you is this psalm a key to next level thinking to unlocking our best life now with health wealth and prosperity for victorious living.
[30:45] If we omit enough verses and we divorce it out from all of its context we can make it sound like it. But the psalm as a whole tells us something different. So what does David mean here? David is actually giving us the direction to real prosperity.
[31:00] He is giving us a key to real prosperity but at the same time he demands that we redefine what we call prosperity. it's not necessarily long life but another life beyond this one.
[31:20] It is to find God as our prosperity. To quote Augustine again it is one thing to seek anything from God another to seek the Lord himself.
[31:36] That's rebuked me many a time in my prayer life. God but David knew many sorrows. He knew a great deal of grief and trial and turmoil but he also knew God and that made all the difference.
[31:52] We can say the same for Paul. In Romans chapter 8 verses 37 through 39 after describing immense sorrows and fierce persecution Paul says in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
[32:11] For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[32:30] Because that's all that matters. So also in Philippians 4 verses 11 through 13 not that I am speaking of being in need for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
[32:43] I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
[32:57] The beginning of that verse I love because it's literally I have learned in what I am to be content. Because he's talking about his situations and all the things that he has encountered but he's also talking about the fact that he's comfortable in his own skin as a sinner saved by grace.
[33:18] As a man who has experienced the grace of God. God promises us in this psalm that our afflictions will be many. In 1 Peter 2 21 we read for to you this for to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.
[33:42] But God has also promised that he will deliver us in his perfect timing. That he will deliver us from the evil therein. From being permanently broken by them.
[33:54] That he will use them for our good. in 1 Peter 5 10 it says and after you have suffered a little while the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore confirm strengthen and establish you.
[34:14] To quote Augustine one last time for that physician is cruel who heareth a man and spareth his wound in putrefaction. Meaning that when we come before God in our prayers infected with sin it's a painful thing to draw out that infection.
[34:34] And we cry and scream and flail about but it would be actually merciless of God to heed that and to leave off from purifying us and preparing us for glory.
[34:49] And God will deliver us from our fears unto peace. If we fixate our gaze on him rather than the things of this world like the apostles in Acts we can sing even when shackled.
[35:08] So keep your tongue from evil deceit as the psalmist exhorts us. Trust God with the outcome. Spurgeon once said clean and honest conversation by keeping the conscience at ease promotes happiness but lying and wicked talk stuffs our pillows with thorns and makes a life a constant world of fear and shame.
[35:31] All of this is interwoven for us to entrust ourselves to God to taste and see that he is good is necessary for us to indeed come and keep our tongue from deceit where we simply trust God as we speak his truth serve and follow him and in tasting of him in tasting of Christ you will see that he is good taste his providence and sense the good therein taste of God's word and internalize it like Isaiah eating the scroll this language is found in Hebrews 6 5 speaking of those who have tasted the goodness of the word of God Peter directly quotes our psalm in 1st Peter chapter 3 verses 10 through 14 1st
[36:31] Peter chapter 3 verses 10 through 14 reads for whatever whoever desires to love life and see good days let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit let him turn away from evil and do good let him seek peace and pursue it for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to the prayer but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil and then resuming his own writing Peter writes now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good but even if you should suffer for righteousness sake you will be blessed have no fear of them nor be troubled but finally I want to take a look at verse 5 in our text David says that God's people have looked to him and they shone and will never be ashamed in Exodus chapter 34 and verse 29 we see how Moses face shone after he spoke with God Paul referenced this in 2nd
[37:33] Corinthians 3 18 and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of God are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit for us to know God to have seen and experienced God to have tasted of Christ in repentance and faith is to be transformed it should be something that is evident in our lives the more time we spend with our God the more time we spend tasting of Christ tasting of his word and seeing that he is good the more it will transform us now this is not to say that you will literally emanate light unless you've recently been to Chernobyl that's probably not the case but if you've seen Christ by faith that love should emanate from you and it's so easy for us especially when we become when we get into the doldrums of the
[38:39] Christian life to simply go well I'm a Christian that's enough right my wife and I always talk about the enchanted grounds from pilgrim's progress where we're lulled to sleep where we cease to love on the people that are lost in this world and to talk to them about the matters of eternity you guys have a tremendous pastor he's not paying me to say that by the way you guys have a tremendous pastor but you have opportunities to share the gospel to talk to relatives to neighbors to friends and it's just if nothing else to say come taste see the Lord is good come and hear the word of life I think of in the days of England during the black plague there were people who were clamoring to get in the doors of the church and it was a beautiful and terrifying time for the
[39:43] Puritans because all of the guys who were in it for the money all fled London because to stay and to preach the gospel very likely would end in your death it was a terrifying time for pastors but the real pastors the ones who had all been kicked out of their pulpits for preaching the gospel faithfully as soon as all of the other hireling shepherds had fled they went in and they proclaimed the truth and they said that men were packing through the doors and these men preached as dying men to dying men we should have that heart because yeah we're not dying in the black plague at least I hope that's not going around out here I'm just new to the town but we're not we're not in that imminent danger but we should be conscious that we have a limited time on this earth God didn't rapture you the moment you were saved you ever asked yourself that question why are you still here why has
[40:48] God provided for you to remain in this world for this time and this season God's capable of taking you straight to heaven as soon as you believe some of us wish that would happen God has left you here for a purpose to serve him to serve his kingdom to glorify his name and I urge you to taste of Christ to immerse yourself in his love and in his grace in such a way that it emanates from you in this world people should see Christ in your life they should hear the praise of God from your mouth as you cry like David did magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together let's come before the Lord in prayer dear heavenly father Lord we thank you and praise you for all that you are in your grace and in your mercy and in your love and so Lord we ask that you would apply these truths to our hearts that you would draw us near to you and fill us up with your holy spirit that you would make us more like Christ
[41:51] Lord that you would give us hunger and a thirst to follow after you to serve you and Lord we pray that those who are around us in the world who need Christ who need to hear the gospel would see him in us Lord as painful as it is for us to pray do what is necessary to conform us to Christ so that we might glorify you so that we might serve you better and Lord we pray for any that are here that might not know you we pray for these little ones that that they would know you from a young age you would show them you would show them your law you would bring them to the foot of Mount Sinai and show them their need and then that you would show them what they need in Christ or that you would grant them not just repentance but saving faith that they might know you and serve you and love you for the days that you have for them we raise all this up to you
[42:57] Lord we rest at your feet at the throne of grace knowing that you the judge of heaven and earth will do right and that you do all things well it is in Jesus name that we pray Amen Amen Amen