The Mayflower Pulpit

This sermon examines Jesus's model for prayer in Matthew 6, emphasizing that believers should approach God with the humble trust of a child coming to a majestic, transcendent Father. By contrasting true Christian faith with manipulative pagan practices, the message highlights that prayer is not meant to bend God's will to our desires, but rather to align our hearts with His kingdom while seeking His glory, daily provision, and spiritual protection.

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Our confidence in the effectiveness of our prayers grows as we better understand what it truly means to pray “in Jesus' name,” recognizing that we approach the Father not on our own merits, but through Christ's perfect authority.

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What does an effective prayer life look like? An effective prayer life relies on "abiding in Christ" and maintaining a pure relationship with God by confessing sin and walking in the light. Looking to the biblical example of Elijah, we, ordinary believers, should be encouraged to pray earnestly by knowing and claiming specific promises found in God's Word.

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The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. James 5:16

A Unique Ministry

Consider the Promises of God.

1 John 3:22 - "and whatever we ask we receive from Him..."

John 15:7 - “...ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

What is that person like who seems to have the ear of God?

A Child of God Matthew 6:9

A Vessel of Honor 2 Timothy 2:21

Who seeks the God’s Glory Matthew 6:9-10

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This morning, I'd like for us to turn to the book of Joel, and we're going to do a survey of these three short chapters. I was tempted to read through the three chapters, but that takes about 15 minutes, and if I did that, it would probably be better than anything I said. But I recognize that. But I'm trusting you to to read through this. So maybe the survey that we do today will be a helpful guide as you look into this book in the future.

It's a fascinating book and it's a complicated book in some ways, in the sense that well for instance it's a book of mystery in that we don't we have no idea when Joel lived or when you know precisely when he lived or when these this situation took place. That's there's the date spread for several hundred years in the Old Testament when they think it could have happened by different scholars. That's because in the book itself, there aren't many clues that would pinpoint it. And so there's no mention of a king, for instance, or any of those types of things that you normally have in prophets and passages of scripture. And I I thought it important to turn to this book.

This is usually if you if you look at most people's Bibles that are fairly well thumbed. These little sections in this little part of the Bible is usually the ones that's the cleanest and whitest because for some reason we don't read these so often. And yet these passages contain vital truth and our vital vitally important and we should pay attention to them because of verse one: “The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.”

The word of the Lord—that's reinforced in the New Testament in Acts by the way in Acts chapter 2 when Peter introduces a section of this and said this is what Joel said and he quotes a little he paraphrases a little part and and he says, "God says, God says this. This is God's word." And God inspired and gave this prophecy to Joel. And he gave Joel this picture that reaches into the future into a future that's beyond the future where we're living and right now. And so it's a it's a powerful and significant word to every generation from Joel this day through now and for our children and children's children. In fact, the very first thing that comes about in this book is “The word of the Lord came to Joel the son of Pethuel.”

“Hear this, O elders, and listen all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or in your father's days? Tell it to your son. Tell your sons about it. Let your sons tell their sons and their sons the next generation.”

There's important truth here that needs to be passed down from one generation to the next. This is a the what what Joel is leading up to and helping us understand is that God is sovereign over history and God has a future in mind that will bring about perfect righteousness and justice.

Now, the book begins with a locust plague. I don't know if you know much about locust plagues. I you know we since we don't experience there's been a few locust plagues in the United States in history, but it's not something common to our to our experience. You have to go back a while to find one over here. They're very common in Africa and in the Middle East. They happen far more often. Just a few years ago there was a serious plague in Kenya. And it's it's an amazing thing what takes place. You have these ordinary grasshoppers being happy little grasshoppers and then all of us it's usually things come about that that cause them to change.

You have you have these little grasshoppers and maybe they go through a time of drought and then there's a tri after that there's you know the ground flourishes and all of a sudden there's a chemical change inside the little grasshoppers and they change in form they change their shape they change from being a little grasshopper into what we call a locust. Their brain grows, their body grows incredibly strong and big for a grasshopper. And they change their behavior. You know, before they were kind of isolated. Now they are very social. They want to get together with all the other locust creatures and they band themselves together and swarm. And it's an amazing and devastating thing when that happens.

A few years ago, National Geographic had a article about the locust and you know some of the things that they mentioned are like a swarm of locusts. They can the swarm itself the cloud locust can can be 460 square miles. That's a lot of square miles. And how many locust is in that? I have no idea. But in just a half a mile, a half a square mile of locust, take a half a square mile of locust, you've got 40 to 80 million locusts in that little section. Can you imagine what that would be like? When they come over, it blots out the sun. You can't you can't see the sun. The cloud of locust, you know, swarm the swarm of locusts is absolutely, you know, it would be it'd be an extraordinary thing to to have to endure that.

And each locust in a day eats about as much vegetation as it weighs. And so a swarm like we just talked about would eat 423 million pounds of plants a day. Day. 423 million pounds of plants a day. That's what happened in Joel's day. A swarm of locusts came over the the kingdom of Judea and they devastated everything. The descriptions you know is is incredible.

“What the gnawing locust is left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten. What the creeping locust is left, the stripping locust has eaten.”

Three waves of locust is what he's saying. And they they they devastated all the crops. They they devastated everything. It's it's just a an it's just an extraordinary description of a terrible point in history of this great calamity.

One of the things that Joel makes clear is that this particular calamity and other calamities like it whatever it is comes from the hand of God. God brought this judgment upon Judah. In fact, the very kind of judgment he brought this judgment you remember on Egypt. Now, because of the sinfulness of God's people, he brings this judgment on them. And so, they came in, the these locusts came in, they stripped everything. And part of the description, you know, “it's made of my vine waste and my fig tree splinters.” The stripped them bare and cast them away. “The branches have become white.” Can you picture that? Coming through. No vegetation left. Nothing left. Just like a giant fire has swept through and burned everything up on the trees. The trees are white. Why? Because the bark has been stripped off. Hard to imagine devastation like that.

And so it's that's what happened in this history. And that's what Joel is using to prompt the people of Judah, God is using to prompt the people of Judah to repentance, to turn back to the Lord. And so that's exactly what what Joel is talking about and in the first part of this book or but he moves very quickly into something else and that is the day of the Lord. You know, this is the the the meaning of the day of the Lord is important when you're talking about Joel because Joel seems to introduce the idea. And if you are wondering what that means, the day of the Lord, then the definitive statement for that comes from Joel. And it's used that way elsewhere throughout scripture. And the day of the Lord means a time of the judgment of God. It means an event in human history where God moves in and brings judgment. That's the basic root meaning. But it looks forward to what is what the prophet Malachi called “the great and terrible day of the Lord.”

And so part of what Joel is saying is it's bad now, folks. He calls for them to come together and repent. But he's also saying something else. He's saying, "You haven't seen anything yet. There's a terrible day of judgment that God is going to bring called the day of the Lord. And he's going to bring judgment on the nations." And that's the future. And and and the point of it is to move people from out of their out of their stupor into into recognizing the value of God and worship him as he as he needs to be seen and worshiped. That's why verse 5 says:

“Awake drunkards and weep and wail all you wine drinkers on account of the sweet wine.”

They don't have any. That's the point. All the wine, the vines, everything has been eaten up and that should be sobering for them and and he wants them to get out of their stupor and start thinking rightly about the Lord. And worse than that, the priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord because they can't even make an offering to God because there's nothing to offer. You know, if this happened when this happens like it did in Kenya a few years ago, you know every every aspect of agriculture is devastated. If you were a farmer and you raised cattle, you know, these farms are wiped out and these people lose their business because if you have you have a bunch of cattle and you can't feed them anything, what they do is they sell them off usually for pennies of of what they would have gotten. And it's devastating.

This is the kind of devastation that Joel begins this book and he's talking about this terrible calamity that has come upon come upon Judea and he is pointing out to them that God has brought this and they need and he's calling them to repentance. Verse 14:

“Consecrate a fast and proclaim a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the assembly of the land to the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord alas for the day for the day of the Lord is near and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.”

So the idea is to call for repentance, call for repentance, but it's a call for genuine repentance.

One of the pictures that you see in this in in the book is a picture of like this locust plague and and later an army that is that that's formed probably an future army but the but the but the description is just like the locust plague. So you could be talking about locust there too. And He says before this before this great horde it's just like the just like Eden everything is so lush and perfect and afterward it's just devastation and judgment leaves nothing. It's what sin does. It's what happens to us when we when when we experience the consequences of sin.

First of all, it creates a brokenness within us. When Adam and Eve sinned it they they sinned and s and immediately there was a change in their relationship. It was a change in their relationship with God. They started trying to avoid God, hide from him. There was a change in the relationship with each other. You know, before Adam says to Eve, “Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.” I mean, there's nothing close closer to me than you. You're you're my very flesh. And afterwards he says “that woman which you gave me,” the relationship is broken. There's there's brokenness. Sin causes broken relationships and hurts. And sin unrepented brings great judgment. Great judgment. If you don't repent, if you don't turn back to the Lord, from your sin. There's there's terrible consequences. God can heal the brokenness if you repent, but the repentance has to be genuine and from the heart.

In Joel 2, let me read just a little of this. Verse 12.

“Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping, and mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments.”

That's a powerful little statement. “Rend your heart and not your garments.” In Joel's day, when a person expressed mourning, they had a pattern that was part of the culture. You would rip your clothes. You want to show your grief. You tore your garment. You put dust on your head. You did all these things which showed how grief-stricken you were. Joel says, "Rend your rend your heart." Let let let let the emotion that the brokenness, you know, be shown on the inside. Let your grief be real and genuine.

You can you can express all kinds of things outwardly and not truly repent inwardly. When parents discipline their children that it's a very easy thing for the child to obey outwardly and be absolutely rebellious inwardly. We you know that if you've raised children, you have to you have to see through get to the intent of the heart. It's what you're looking for. It's like the kid you probably the overused illustration of the kid who whose mother told him to sit and he didn't want to sit and she insisted that he sit and so she finally he sits down and he says, "But I'm standing up on the inside." You can outwardly go through things and it mean nothing because truly on the inside you've not you've not experienced anything.

When when we realize that “the wages of sin is death” and that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” and that means me. Then Jesus calls us to mourn. “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted”—to to grieve over our sin to recognize the seriousness of our sin. And it's easy for us to do outward things and not be and not experience the the reality internally. It's easy to walk an aisle to pray a prayer in front of the church to to do all these outward things and not be changed because it's not you're not doing this from the inside. God hasn't impacted you by his spirit to bring about true conviction for your sin and you don't see it.

When people are having a hard time, sometimes God gives great blessing to us in the way of the locust plagues of this world. The the the terrible things that come about which reminds us of our sinfulness. The locust plague strips the land barren, but their hearts are barren before God. They're they're they have nothing to to give to God. They are rebellious and idolatrous and they need to repent. So God says God says for them to to “return to me with all your heart and with fasting and weeping and mourning and rend your heart not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God.

And what's the motivation? The motivation is that he is a gracious and compassionate God. This is right out of that incident in the Old Testament when when Israel sinned with the two the golden calf and the judgment that followed and then Moses seeing God, experiencing God and seeing his glory as much as he could. And God declares himself to be “gracious and compassionate, that's slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil.”

God is that kind of a God. He's slow to anger and he's merciful. But when people continue in sin and they do not repent of their sin, God brings judgment. He does that to individuals. He does it to nations. God brings judgment. I mean, the flood in Genesis when God says he is “my spirit will not always strive with man.” That's a terrible statement because you continue in your sinfulness without repentance and you're going to experience the judgment in full. So he calls them to repentance. The repentance is for everyone. They're the to the whole congregation is to to come out that even the children and the nursing infants and a a bridegroom and bride, they're they're not exempt. They just got married. I want everybody out there, you know, no no exceptions. Everybody is showing really their their heartfelt conviction of their sinfulness and crying out to God.

And that's what happens. Judah repents and so there's restoration. And if if they rend their hearts, then God will stop rending their land. So the purpose, you know, it is, you know, the purpose is so that we will recognize that God is God. He is the Lord. So you have this you have these things taking place historically, but the application is the future. This day is before us. This day is all is coming.

God's spirits poured out on all flesh. That's the beginning of the the fulfillment. When did that be when did that fulfillment begin to take place? It took place at Pentecost in the New Testament. God God takes the time in his word to record Peter's words which quotes this portion of scripture Joel 2:28-32. And I'm going to read that because it is important. 28-32:

“It will come about after this that I will pour out my spirit on all mankind and your sons and daughters will prophecy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions even on the male and female servants. I will pour out my spirit in those days.”

When the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost, something unique happened in our experience of salvation, those indwelling of the Holy Spirit before, but here you have a special pouring out of the spirit of God, a a baptism of the Holy Spirit of God where the people of God when they come to faith in God are empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. That means that they are changed internally on they they're changed on the inside. They they see God God and his beauty in a way only only in the way that a redeemed person, a transformed person, someone with new life in God can see him. And so they worship him and recognize him and live their life for him. It's a change that takes place when a person comes to faith in Christ. They're indwelt by the spirit of God. And it's natural for people who are indwelt by the spirit of God to to know the Bible well enough to be able to speak the words of the Bible to communicate truth from the Bible. It should be their heart and mind. And so it should fill their conversations. It should change their speech. It should empower them to serve God. All those things take place by the power of the spirit of God.

And so that's the beginning of this passage, a fulfillment. But that's not the fulfillment of the passage. It's not a completion of the fulfillment. That's just the beginning of what Peter calls the last days. You know, he he he paraphrases that one line from this section and he calls it the last days. The beginning of the last days. We're in the last days right now. And it began certainly at least by at Pentecost. So, we're in the last days and there's something else that's coming because in that section what comes next is:

“I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth and blood fire fire and columns of smoke and the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”

So the Lord is coming back and when he comes back he's coming back to bring judgment to the nations of this world.

So you see some really interesting passages in this section. So in 3:2 it says, “I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.” Jehoshaphat means the valley of judgment and and there we don't there's no particular place that is the valley of Jehoshaphat. So that's figurative probably. There's going to be a particular place this might this takes place but that word is the valley of judgment. That's the idea. “Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of my people and mine inheritance Israel whom they've scattered among the nations and they've divided up my land.”

In in verse nine, it says, “Proclaim this among the nations.” Now, here's something that's interesting.

“Proclaim this among the nations. Prepare a war. Rouse the mighty men. Let all the soldiers draw near and let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears and let the weak say I'm a mighty man.”

It's not exactly what you would expect, is it? When thinking about the coming of the day of the Lord when we think if you're thinking about the millennial blessings and Isaiah's prophecy that when that time comes, we're going to take our swords and turn them into plowshares. We're going to turn them into plows and we we'll take all these weapons of war and we'll turn all these weapons of war into weapons of blessing. This is the opposite of that. He's saying you people, you nations, get ready for the battle. You've opposed that they've opposed God century after century. They're at war with God. This world is at war with God. And the day is coming when there's going to be a major conflict and God says, "Take all your all all the resources that you have and turn that and weaponize it and come against me." And the time is coming when that's going to happen. The world will come to war with the Lord. When the Lord returns, the world will go to war with him.

It says in verse 14, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.” Now, you've probably heard that preached. I've heard that preached. You know, multitudes in the valley of decision, like you have a decision to make. That's not the point here. The point here is they're coming to the place where God decides. God's bringing judgment on these people. “For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. And the sun and moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness.” Judgment takes place.

You know, we sing a Christmas carol we did last week. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. I read part of that psalm that that's based on. Now, Isaac Watts wrote that psalm. He didn't write it as a Christmas carol. He wrote it as a paraphrase of Psalm 96. And the Psalm 96 is is a very interesting psalm because it's calling on us to rejoice. And why is he why are we to rejoice? We're to rejoice because the Lord is coming in the song in the song you know joy to the world the Lord has come. You know that that's the the point is we're to receive the king and there should be joy that this whole psalm is a psalm of rejoicing.

“Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name. Ascribe to the Lord, oh families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord glory to his name.”

That's the message of Joel. Joel, by the way, God is sovereign over this world and he's the Lord of this world and he is to be recognized as the Lord. “Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness and tremble before him all the earth.” Why? Why are you to Why are all the trees of the forest to sing for joy before the Lord? “Because he's coming because he's coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples and his faithfulness on that day.” It says “all who call on the name of the Lord will be delivered.” They'll be saved. All who call on the name of the Lord in that time will be delivered. God's people are delivered are saved. That's the day of the Lord. Final judgment against the nations of the earth at the return of Christ.

And the point is, “so that you will know I am the Lord your God who dwells in Zion. My holy mountain in Jerusalem shall be holy.” That's what you're to learn.

“In that day, the mountains will drip with sweet wine and the hills will flow with milk and all the brooks of Judah will flow with water and a spring will go out from the house of the Lord to water the valley of Shittim.”

It's beautiful, wonderful, beyond anything that you can comprehend. That's the beauty of the Eden that's going to follow the judgment. It's a beautiful end for those who know the Lord, who've turned back to him.

In the middle, the part that I skipped over. When the people repent, he restores their land. He says, “I'll give back the years that the locust have eaten.” He restores the sorrow. He takes the broken people and he makes them whole. He takes the years of brokenness even that and he brings restoration to the saints of God, to the people of God. People who have trusted Christ as their savior, accepted the wrath that the wrath that Jesus bore for them, they've accepted that as payment for their sins. Them and God has changed them their heart giving him their spirit. For those people, there's great glory. It's two pictures of two outcomes of two kinds of people. Those who really never repent, never turn to the Lord, and the outcome of those who call on the name of the Lord, who love the Lord. It's a it's an extraordinary thing.

It's a vision that we should keep in mind. I mean, if you think of the calamities that this world faces, of the difficulties that you faced in life, if you think of the tragedies that you read about in the paper from time to time, the earthquakes and the devastation, the the terrible fires in California, all sorts of calamities in this world, God is sovereign over those. And when those things come, they're a warning. They're they come to us by grace of God to warn us that something far worse than that awaits us if we don't turn to him. We need to make sure that we've turned to him. Not just outwardly, not with just outward words, but that our hearts are torn. Not not just our garments. Let me pray for us.

Father, thank you for this word. The word of Joel, your word, Lord, a warning of judgment to come, but also the promise of restoration. Father, I'm so grateful to you that the years of brokenness, the sinful things, the things that resulted in devastation in my life the lives of all your people can be restored, made whole again. You're able to give back all the years that the locust had eaten. Thank you, Father, for that promise. Thank you for the reality as we experience it. And Lord, we pray your protective grace on us.

I pray, Father, if there's anyone here who has not truly turned to you, recognize the sinfulness of their heart, or unworthiness of any grace. The the fact that every one of us deserves the plague deserves eternal judgment. But for the abundant love that you have for us that comes to us in Jesus Christ our Lord and his sacrifice for us, we have a future and a glory that's beyond our our imagination. And we're so grateful, Father, that you've shown us such love. I pray, Father, that you stir our hearts to love you more, Father, to for us to love you with the kind of love that's worthy of the salvation you've given us. By your spirit, we pray that you you bless us in this way. In the name of Christ, amen.

Last week I was thinking about Richard Rogers the Puritans book holy helps for a godly life and he uses he talks about what people today call means of grace certain things in the that provisions that God has for us that are rich and a blessing and and that leads us to salvation or is an important part of our salvation. Last week we talked about revelation and the word of God and these are the analogy I used last week. These are like gifts and so you know using a Christmas metaphor I mean you could picture these as Christmas gifts that you open up that you receive that you value or maybe not value so much should value perhaps certainly and maybe don't always value.

I was thinking about that every now and then I I know when I was a kid I got gifts that I learned to appreciate after I received them and not so much on the morning I receive them. I mean if you if Can you imagine a a little kid who was so excited this Christmas because he heard that his very very rich uncle had decided to give him a present that year. And so he kept imagining what he would get. Maybe a bicycle or something like that. But what he really is hoping for is a new computer game machine. Something really special. Maybe because he's so rich maybe even an Apple vision type thing or something like that.

And Christmas morning comes and he gets a card and the card is a Christmas card that informs him that his uncle has deposited an amount of money into a Roth IRA for him. Well, not exactly what he is wanting. A few years later, many years later perhaps when he really needs that money to start a business or to establish a home and b pay and and make the down payment. That gift would be the most precious thing that he has at the moment. You know, his mo one of his most valuable possessions. Sometimes God gives us great, wonderful, precious gifts and we may not Certainly, I would say we never are appreciating them to the value that that we should. That's certainly true with the word of God we were talking about last week. The revelation of God, the fact that God has revealed himself to us in his word and in the person of Jesus Christ, that's more than just a means of grace. It's salvation itself. It's, you know, we can't minimize that.

Well, this morning I'm going to talk about another one of these and it is life from the body of Christ. It is the church. You know, the church is one of those things that's often not valued that so much, particularly in today's society. It's been true in centuries past from time to time. And we're living through one of those times when it is particularly a problem. Church for a lot of people seems irrelevant. You know, they're caught up in their own individualism and they don't want anyone, you know, they don't want any distractions from what they want to do. and then there is a growing sense of independence and self-directed spirituality.

And so a lot of people think that they don't really need the church for spirituality. There's that and where they have they can they can they can find you know God on their own. They can experience God in nature. They can certainly find podcasts and all sorts of communications online to to satisfy what they need. And so they they you know they have no real need. They don't think they have a need. And Then there is the rest of us who recognize the value of church but probably still in the most fundamental ways fail to appreciate it the way we should. Many of us see church as a nothing more than what than a means to grow spiritually a tool that we can use for our good.

Now you think You know, how many parents think, you know, I think I'm I'm going to I'm going to take my kids to to church and Sunday school and they can experience these things and it probably do them a little good. It'll change their character. It'll affect them in some way. If that's the kind if if it's that direction that our understanding of the church is, then we we don't understand its value. And yet all of us having experienced church here do recognize I think to a great degree the preciousness of what we have here. It's it's unusual. It's particularly precious.

You know, when we when this when our church merged, I was expecting a lot of difficulties. I really was. When our church merged, usually what happens is you have two churches with very differing understandings and expectations and you get tensions between the two groups within within two weeks. It was like we were one family. I mean it was amazing to me how the unity that we experienced here from the from the very beginning. That is a gift of God. That is a gift of God.

In fact, Psalm 133 is is talking about unity and fellowship and really the focus here is corporate worship though you may not just catch that immediately. This is a song with a scent however. So that's exactly what this is talking about and the point of this psalm. I'm just going to give you the end right now. I probably shouldn't do that. It should be more inductive and keep it mysterious for a while. But basically it's saying that The kind of fellowship that we enjoy as a church that that's described in this psalm comes from God. It's the very blessing of God. It flows out from God as a great blessing from God. So that's that's the point of the song.

and it's a it's a it's an you know this is a crucial topic for us. I mean the first idea that we come to in this psalm is that the interdependence of God's people is necessary and it's good. The interdependence of the people of God is necessary and good. In that very first probably the reason that I chose this psalm to to express it would probably be easier for me to make this argument from the New Testament because it's everywhere in the New Testament. It's it's in the Old Testament, too. But I chose the Psalm in particular because these the this phrase in the first verse, you know, there's you know how certain words tend to couple themselves together.

You know, you you hear the two words over and over again together like for example, coffee and donuts or bread and butter or milk and cookies, bacon and eggs. I don't know why all these things or food. Maybe it's the fragrance downstairs. I mean, I suppose I could be doing things like hammer and nails and law and order, but but certain words are a pattern and they go together. And that's what you have is you find that with with two words in verse one, good and pleasant. Now, they often are found in the in the Bible together. the idea of of shared unity that that the phrase is repeated throughout the Psalms and you see it multiple times in Genesis. And so it's a beautiful thing to see here. It's the ver verse says, let me just read it. In fact, let me read the psalm and then pray and go back and read verse one again so we can have the whole thing in context.

This is a song of a sense of David. It is the excellency of brotherly unity. Psalm 133. This is God's holy word.

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. It's like the precious oil upon the head coming down upon the beard. Even Aaron's beard coming down upon the edges of his robes. It's like the dew of Herman. coming down upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing life forever." —Psalm 133

We ask God to bless his word to our hearts. Father, I recognize how inadequate I am to talk about your word really. And Father, apart from the filling of your spirit and the blessing that you give through the study of your scripture and just the encouragement that you have given me through the teaching of others I'm able to say something this morning. But Lord, unless you speak to us through your word, there's nothing to be said. We ask, Father, that you give us ears to hear and a heart to respond to the truth of your word this morning. Bless us this way in Christ's name. Amen.

Well, the idea here is behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. And the idea of dwelling together is more than just being together in peace. It's more than that idea. The that idea is the idea of working together. fit in a fitted way the a unity and everything working for the life of the of the of the of the group together. It's the it has to the idea of shared responsibility and common interests and basically an extended family. That's the picture that this begins with. And this is what God's design is for his peoples. It's God's design for his church. We are to work together in unity. The church is is more precious than we tend to to think. It's precious because it's Christ's design.

It was Jesus himself who instituted the church who said, "I will build my church." When when in Matthew chapter 16 when Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" And Peter said, "You're the Christ, the son of the living God." Jesus said, "I will upon this rock, I will build my church." And he not only is building the church, but Jesus himself laid down his life for the church. He purchased the church with his own blood. He He sacrificed himself for it. is so valuable to him and I don't have my notes in in any good order but and somewhere in my notes I point you know I said last week we were talking about scripture and scripture as a means of grace for our spiritual growth it is all that it's wonderful but it but the revelation of God is more than that the revelation of God is salvation itself. The Lord Jesus prayer in John chapter 17 verse three the Lord Jesus said this is life eternal that they may know you knowing God and Jesus Christ whom you've sent the knowledge of God the revelation of God the received knowledge of God is salvation it's the it's an end

And we think of church in a similar way. We think of church as if it's a means for our to being built up in the body. But the church is an end in itself as well. When when we look to the church, it is the purpose and goal of our salvation. You know Jesus the Christmas, you know, one of the Christmas verses in Matthew 121, I think. you shall call his name Jesus. Jesus means savior. Why are you calling your son savior? Because he will save his people from their sins. His people from their sins. And that phrase his people repeats and those Christmas stories in Luke's account as well.

You know the the idea of Jesus coming to this world for the purpose of securing a people for his own name. That's the church. And it it's an end in itself. It's it's more it's more than just it's more than just a means of grace. If it's just a means of grace, then maybe we can do okay on our own. Probably can't, but we'd like to think so. But you see how that think makes that so much more superficial in a way. It's if it's if it's just something to build me up. But what if it's the end? What if it's the purpose? What is the purpose of all salvation? I'm going to leave that for the moment and hopefully come back to it in a in a few minutes. But, you know, it is Well, maybe I can't do that. Maybe I better just keep talking.

No, God's plan in bringing into existence a new covenant people through this work of salvation through Jesus Christ bringing the church, producing the church. We should never think of it as a means of an end. It's it is the end. I mean it's God is being glorified and ultimately will be glorified through his church. Ephesians 3:21 to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. The God saves people and when he saves them in 1 Corinthians 12 they are immersed into his body which is the church. You were saved into a church. and to the church. And when we say church, we're talking about a calledout body, a pe a people of God called out.

He saves you and makes you part of his church. Church and we use that word in the New Testament. It's used ecclesia means called out body. It means a group of people. This when we talk about the church here, we're talking about the people you know we we have in English we've lost that a little bit because the word church in English based on the word kirk kirk and church means the building the root idea is the building and so we when we think of the church we think of a building but in the New Testament when you think of the church you think of people and it's the local congregation and it's the church universal. And if you look at any of those confessional statements, the apostles creed or or any of those when it talks about the holy catholic church, it's talking about the universal church of God. And the New Testament uses the church to talk about all the saints who live and about the local saints who live. both ways. He uses it for either one because but when you see one, you're really seeing the church.

We right here in this this little congregation that we are this morning, we are the church of God. We are the church. Even though we're, you know, we're just you only see a fragment of it. Well, at night when you look up at the stars and the moon a few days ago, you could see a bright full moon and it's waning. So you see a little fragment of that moon. Whether you see the whole moon or you see a little tiny sliver, when you look up there, you say, "Oh, there's the moon." Well, this is the church. This is the church. You may be just a little part of it, but we are the church. And this is where the church finds its truest expression for us together. It's important that we we recognize that we are together.

The idea of brothers dwelling together in unity is the functionality work working perfectly, working beautifully together, supporting each other. The way a church is supposed a group is supposed to function. And that's the way a church is supposed to function. Do you remember in 1 Corinthians 12 when the apostle Paul says the spirit gives you know gifts to his people as he chooses severally as he will and then it describes the gifts of a of the spiritual gifts that's given to a congregation and it describes all of that as the body of Christ and it gives a powerful analogy there because each person. Each person is a functioning member of that body who works necessary part of that body to without without that person the body wouldn't be complete.

You know the his analogy is eyes and ears and feet. You know that those analogies work far better for a local congregation than they do for the church universal. I mean because we are arms and legs and ears. after all of man and the church universal were probably like you know molecules or little we're down in the cellular level. So but but the analogy is functioning being able to work together to the necessity and the foolishness of thinking you can do without it that that's basically what he says. And there he says, you know, the one person in the in that group in 1 Corinthians 12:21, he says, "I have no need of you. I'm an independent guy. I can take care of myself. I I'm I don't need anybody else." Good old American independence. We have lots of that. We are we we're we don't understand the blessings of the unity of the congregation and the necessity for it.

But it's the end. It's the goal of our salvation. The the church is the bride of Christ. And the bride of Christ is the culmination, you know, the cul ation of salvation when the the whole whole saving process. Where do you see that in the in the Bible? It's it's when the day comes for the bridal feast of the lamb. You see, that's the church. That's the union of the church and Jesus Christ. And it's the culmination of salvation. This is the end of all of church is far more important than you think. It's it's incredibly important and it's important for us in the New Testament. The the emphasis is always plural when we get commands or exhortations or blessings. I don't know if you realize it's almost always plural. Hardly ever do you see something singular You don't have you don't have you know lone ranger saints in the Bible.

Everybody works together in a unity and and and community. In fact, the word saint, I think it's used 64 times in the New Testament in the plural saints. One time it's used singular. And that's as a command to the in a command to the congregation to greet each saint. You see the idea of unity and working together and the in the in the way the body is to work together. It's fitting. It's beautiful. It works in in such an appropriate way and it's necessary and it's necessary for us because we think that we're strong and we're spiritual and we can get off on our own and do as we please and still be honoring to God. But the reality is probably far different than that. In fact, we live in an incredibly hostile world. We live in a world that is is pretty hostile.

Well, The psalm says it's like the precious oil upon the head coming down upon the beard. This is what this functioning in the body is like. The unity working together. It's like the precious oil. The picture is the first high priest Aaron being anointed with the oil that that special oil that the recipe is given in Leviticus. And I think it's a little bit and and it's fragrant spicy oil that's used just for this purpose and for the anointing of the priest and it's poured out lavishly on Aaron's head and it flows down over Aaron over his beard over his collar down over his his robe lavish rich frag. wonderful his anointing. The emphasis is on Aaron the priest. The picture is of the anointed one looking forward to the one who is the anointed one. You know Christ means anointed. It's a blessing. What an incredible blessing if you were there and to feel the fragrance of that oil as it was poured out. It'd be unique. It'd be unusual. It'd be wonderful. And to and see the blessing of the institution of a priesthood which means salvation for his people ultimately provision for salvation. That's a blessing. It's rich. It's wonderful. Produces the harmony, the the the working together.

It's like the dew of Herman coming down upon the mountains of Zion. It's a beautiful picture. Mount Herman in the north part of the kingdom was a mountain that's 9,000 that's more than 9,000 ft high. And around the cap there's always clouds. There's always a lot of moisture coming down from the mountain. The the valley below is desert or would be desert except the moisture coming down makes it a a rich garden. Beautiful picture of blessing. The outpouring of such of of of all this moisture, all this life. It's bless. It's a picture of blessing poured out. That's what this fellowship is like. You see, It's like that desert. It's harsh. It's hard to comprehend how wicked this world is. We get caught up in it and enjoy the wickedness. That's how how awful it is. You can be it can pull you away. It's a harsh place for Christians to live. They don't survive in this wilderness.

I a I read had a beautiful illustration this this past week. It was had to do with the the the the Antarctica, this polar ice cap in Antarctica and the conditions there. You know, six months out of the year it's total darkness and the winds get up to sometimes 100 miles an hour real often. 65 mph wind. That would be comfortable, wouldn't it? The the temperature in the wintertime regularly drops to 70° below zero. How'd you like to live there? Pretty harsh. Can Can you imagine anything living there? Well, that's where emperor penguins make their home. They live there. You take one emperor or penguin and send him out on his own, not going to survive. Know they group together by the hundreds and thousands and they they form a tight group and that those harsh winds blow and the temperature is incredible.

But together there's warmth. In the center of those groups of penguins, the temperature gets up to as much as 100 degrees. you know, they're warm on the inside there and the in and the inside of that group. Now, these guys are on the periphery. So, something interesting happens with the group and they they rotate. They move in. And so, some the warmest ones move to the outside, the coldest ones move to the inside. And a slow, very beautiful dance. It's like it's choreographed. If you can look up this sometime on I'm sure you can find it on YouTube where they do a time lapse of watching that group. It's it's beautiful to watch the group together is the protection.

Ephesians chapter 6, when you see the armor of the saints, we look at that passage and we think of this as individual things for us. But you look at the passage again today and you'll see all the we it's our armor. It's our armor. We pray for the saints. The look at it's it's corporate. And the point of using all that Roman armor, the picture of that isn't so that we go off armored singlehanded. The Roman soldiers never did that. If they did, they didn't survive. They came together exactly in a failax. They came together and they had their patterns to make their all their shields. into a tortoise shell that covered them over so that they could they could take on that reign of countless arrows and not and not feel the point of them. It's it's powerful picture but you don't do that. It's not separate.

We we get confused about things like you know we don't want to be dependent, we want to be independent. But we we fall short of the whole picture. See, when you think about that, you have a baby and we know something about babies in our family. You know, you have a baby and you pro provide it milk and you spoon feed them and you change their diapers and they're dependent on everything and they grow up and as they get a little older they become slightly more independent and then as they get into their young adult years they grow into some significant independence and that's a good thing. We want those that to happen don't we? And who wants to be dependent? Nobody. You don't want to be like a baby. You want to be independent. But we don't want to stop with adolescence. No, there's something more. more mature than independence and that is interdependence.

Interdependence is higher and better than independence. It's where you are using your giftedness and and the blessings that God gives you to strengthen other people and at the same time you benefit from them. You're far far stronger far stronger than any than you could ever be in any other way. Now, that's a higher level. That's what God calls us to. God calls us to community. A community where we come in as sinners who need grace, find love in community, and we find other things because we're with other sinners. The church is a hospital after all. And yet, here is the spirit of God and the giftedness of God and And when it works, and it does work, it's incredible. It's it's strengthening. It's empowering. And it gives us all all that we need to serve God to worship him and bring glory to him. We strengthen one another. It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful thing. We can't live Christians really without it. We need it. It's precious to us.

Well, there's an awful lot of points that I'm not going to say today, but I do want us to think about this. I want us to unwrap this little present and appreciate it. If we appreciate it, we will value it and protect it you know one of the bicycle companies Van Moof you familiar with the Dutch bicycle company Van Mouth I don't know he knows all the bicycle companies of honey they were they were shipping out their bicycles and they got most so many of them were damaged in shipping that it got it got to be a real problem and they noticed that their Their bicycle case was about the same size as a flat screen TV case. And so what they did is they printed a picture of a flat screen TV on the box and the damage fell by 80%. Because if you think something is valuable, you'll protect it, you'll look after it.

See the church of Jesus Christ. It's precious. It's precious to Christ. We should value it because Christ does. The church of Jesus Christ is wonderful because it protects us in the body. It protects us. We need it. It is a means of grace for us. Yes. For our spiritual growth, but it is what we're saved into. It is an end of our salvation as well. It is precious. to us. Let's value it and let's make the most of it. And since we are such a community, let's learn to live and within the responsibilities of this community. I'm going to stop here and and begin celebrate the Lord's table this morning. It's a little over. I'm sorry. But I think we can we still have time to do that and we're going downstairs to share a fellowship time together which is part of the church. Let's ask God's blessing on his word today and on the elements and this time of sharing that we have...

Father we thank you for the preciousness of your word. We thank you for the work of salvation that you've done for us. We thank you for making us part of your family, the family of God. Your holy temple, precious stones building up the edifice of your house. The body of Christ, the limbs, the organs, the parts of the body. You you take us and make us into that. You you take us and make us part of your very family. the the bride of Christ, Father, it's more than we can comprehend. It is so precious to us and we don't even know the half of it. We ask Lord that you grow us in our understanding of our salvation and the community that you're calling us into or have called us into and help us, Father, to live up to all the all the all the blood live up to the to the full blessing of interdependence in Jesus Christ. Help us with this, Lord. Bless us, I pray. Thank you for your mercies and bless us, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Well, I'd like to direct your attention in your Bibles to Psalm 73. Psalm 73. The Psalms are given to express all kinds of emotion and struggles in life as well as praising God. And Psalm 73 is a particularly powerful psalm. It's a psalm of Asaph. Asaph was one of the members of the tribe of Levi whom David put in charge of the worship music that was performed in the tabernacle before Solomon built the great temple in Jerusalem. That gives you the date of the psalm. It tells you when this was taking place. It was during the period of time of the tabernacle. And this psalm is praise to God for his goodness. And it is also a confession of doubt and the struggle that the psalmist Asaph went through as he struggled to think about the nature of God and the world we live in. So before we I'm just going to simply read through the psalm there are 28 verses and it'll take me about three minutes.

This is God's holy inerrant word.

"Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling. My steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant. As I saw the prosperity of the wicked, for there are no pains in their death, and their body is fat. They're not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore, pride is their necklace, and the garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness, the imagination of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppression. They speak from on high. They have set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue parades through the earth. Therefore, His people return to this place and waters of abundance are drunk by them. They say, 'How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?' Behold, these are the wicked, and always at ease they have increased in wealth. Surely I in vain have kept my heart pure, and washed my hands in innocence. For I've been stricken all day long and chastened every morning. If I had said, I will speak thus, behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God. Then I perceived their end. Surely you set them in slippery places. You cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment. They're utterly swept away by sudden terrors like a dream when one awakes. Oh Lord, when aroused, you will despise their form. When my heart was embittered, I was pierced within. Then I was senseless and ignorant. I was like a beast before you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You've taken hold of my right hand. With your counsel, you will guide me and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And besides you, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you will perish. You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all your works."

Let's ask God to bless his holy word.

Father, we thank you for your great mercy to us and your kindness. And we thank you, Father, that you are the fountain of all goodness, every good and perfect gift. Everything that we enjoy that's worthwhile and wonderful comes from your hand. We thank you, Father, for such a goodness. We thank you for being a God who is rich in mercy and deals with us according to the compassions we find in Christ Jesus. We thank you, Father, for the truth of that reality that we will enjoy forever. And we recognize, Father, the seriousness of what we're looking at today. How easy it is to have our heart moved, our focus changed to look at the things of this world to the point of questioning even your goodness. Guide us, Father, as we look at this passage. Help us with the struggles we may have and lead us, Father, in the same way that you led Asaph to new faith and trust in you. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Well, I'm doing this psalm in part because I've been reading through a collection of books by the Puritans and this past week I read through George Swinnick's book The Fading of the Flesh and the Flourishing of Truth which is based on this psalm particularly the last part of the psalm and though I'm probably not going to reference that book hardly at all and what I'm going to say today it was it's a great book to read and I would commend it to you If you can obtain a copy of it, it's definitely worth your while. But Asaph is very straightforward and he's a very honest person. Not many people who struggle with their faith like this. Not many believers confess it in the way that he did. But his confession is so helpful to us. God kept him through the struggle of faith that he had. And preserved his faith as we will see as it unfolds. But it's a rich passage to help us when our eyes get shifted away from the Lord and we start looking at ourselves and the world around us and making comparisons, it's easy to fall into the pattern that Asaph fell into.

He starts out in verse one by making a clear statement that God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. That's exactly where he's going to end up at the end of the psalm. But as he makes that statement, which is his creed, this is what he absolutely believes. He looks back to a time in his life when he struggled with that very question. And it's a crucial question to struggle with and it's a dangerous one. As he says, "My feet almost slipped, my steps had almost slipped." When you start questioning God's goodness, it's a very dangerous thing that's easily lead you into great sin. And so that's the issue for Asaph. He knows that God should be good. He believes that God is good. And yet when he begins to look around him, he begins to think, well, why is the world the way it is? How do we look around us and see in this case wicked people who prosper so greatly who live such rich wonderful lives as far as we can see. Why does that happen? And why do I struggle with all the struggles and the miseries that I struggle with? He says, "As for me, my feet came close to stumbling. My steps had almost slipped. For—and this is the greatest sin—he's admitting to a sin here. I was envious of the arrogant." I was envious of these proud people who seem to be able to have everything that you would desire in this world.

He goes on to explain that in doubting I mean he didn't ever stop believing that God is good. He just came he was just questioning it. That becomes clear as you read through here. He's envious of the arrogant, which is a sinful thing. I saw the prosperity of the wicked. There's no pain in their death. They seem to go through life with very little pain. And then you know, they seem to die peaceably. And you look around us and we struggle with all these struggles. And we're Christians. The question is the question that theologians call the question of theodicy. Why is it that bad things happen to good people and good things seem to happen to bad people? If God is good, then why is the world the way it is? It doesn't seem right that good things happen to bad people. And that's what he's struggling with. He's struggling with that idea. And why does this come about? He didn't abandon his faith and he didn't embrace the life of the wicked but he almost did. He almost did. He almost slipped. It's easy for a person taking their eyes off the goodness of the Lord to look around them, begin to make comparisons with the people around them and start envying the things that other people have and making these kinds of comparisons which weakens our faith. When even though God is good to his people, when our eyes shift away from him and we begin making comparisons with other people, it will weaken our faith. It will cause us to question God.

In verses 4 to 12, you know, the ungodly, they seem free of trouble. He points out that there's no fetters to their death. They enjoy long healthy lives really often. They seem to be exempt from the troubles common to humanity. They're not plagued like other people. They show great power and arrogance. These are powerful people. He's looking at they wear their arrogance. They wear like a necklace around their neck. Violence is their garment. You would think that violent, arrogant person would not do well in life, wouldn't you? But that's not the case. They do quite well really often. Every now and then they get tripped up, but real often they do quite well. In verses 8 to 10, it says they speak with arrogance. They scoff. They speak wickedly using mockery. That's painful. It's destructive. They set their mouth against heaven, against God. You know, they are insolent before God. "How can God know what I do?" is what they're saying. "I can do whatever I want to do. I mean, how could he know what I do?"

It's just insolence. And so he summarizes all these things in verse 12. He says, "So these are the wicked. They appear always at ease, carefree, comfortable in their life and increasing in wealth." There you have it. That's the problem. The wicked do so well in life. So comfortable, always at ease. Back in the 80s and 90s, for about a decade, there was a television program that ran called The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. You remember that? It was hosted by Robin Leach. And every week they would show this lavish lifestyle, all the things that these people could do, especially their incredible homes and all the things that they had, all their possessions. And the idea, you know, the point of the show was to encourage people to strive for a lifestyle like that or to at least long for it. If you couldn't have it in real life, at least you could look at it on television, you know. And he would end his every show he would end with "champagne wishes and caviar dreams." Maybe you could have a life like that, you know. And you looked at these people, you know who they, you know, these were actors and entertainers and sports heroes and all kinds of people whose lives were nothing like what you would find in a godly person. They lived wicked lives and yet they had all this stuff. This is the kind of thing that he's looking at. He's looking at people like that. People who you wouldn't expect to prosper, but who quite often do. They prosper through their sin and through their wickedness through the very things that they do which is clearly against the word of God causes them to gain wealth and live what seems like a wonderful life at least on the surface and they live lives that are where they are you've heard plenty of people in that category scorn God.

How can that be? The psalmist says, "How can that be?" Too often it is exactly what happens. It's been that way through all history. There are so many examples. One I thought of was Caesar Borgia. I don't know if you remember Caesar Borgia. Caesar Borgia was the illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI. Pope Alexander VI was one of those progressive popes who admitted to all of his illegitimate children. And so Caesar Borgia was appointed bishop of Pamplona when he was 15 years old. He became a cardinal three years later when he was 18. He didn't really want to be a cardinal. He envied his brother who was in charge of the papal forces. He wanted he was a soldier type and He wanted to be a soldier and lead that group. And so he had his brother murdered and he took his place and denied the and he got out of the he was the first person in history to resign from the cardinalate and he lived an incredibly incredibly wicked life. He you there's not a sin that you could think of that he didn't commit. And he gained enormous power and he's influenced people for centuries now chiefly because Niccolò Machiavelli was one of the people that worked under him along with Leonardo da Vinci who was commissioned by him to do some to design some war weaponry and things. And Machiavelli made him the picture of the perfect ruler. He thinks that that's the way a person should rule. If you're going to gain power in this world, here's how to do it. You do it by recognizing that the end justifies the means. So, don't worry too much about morality. Just do what you need to do to get the end that you're looking for. But you should make yourself look pious people, you know, you should look like somebody who is a reasonably good person so that they'll trust you. They should also fear you. Rule by fear. You don't have to get them to love you. They need need to get them to fear you, but don't get them don't let them hate you. If you can accomplish that, then you're going to rule like Borgia ruled and accomplish incredible things in his life which I think was about 34 years before someone killed him but he's set up as a model and there's not a politician in the world or maybe but there aren't many who haven't read his haven't read Machiavelli's book The Prince which celebrates Borgia's life and his methods. When you look at people like that and you question why do they prosper?

When we start doing that, if we start actually desiring the things that they desire, then we begin to question our own commitment with God. That's what happened to the psalmist. Envy is a sin and it was a sin in his case that led to questioning the goodness of God. And he says, "Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart." I'm living a godly life. I've pushed sin out of my life. I'm struggling to be obedient to the moral law of God. I want to be right before God. And what do I get? You know, it's like I'm constantly punished. I have all these things that happen to me. I've have a pure heart toward God, but what good is it done without substance or value? He thinks, you know, when you compare it to the life of the ungodly, he seemed that his piety was worthless. His adversaries, you know, all these people were prospering and and all and and he seemed like he's being punished and it made no sense to him. The wicked thrived while he suffered.

Come across that many times in scripture. It's Job's basically Job's question. Other psalms deal with the question. But here it's remarkable. This is a wonderful psalm because he confesses to the struggle that he has and then you come to the turning point. It's a it's like a worldview shift. It's like what I guess in the business world they call a paradigm shift. He's looking at things one way and then all of a sudden it flips and he sees things as they are and it's so radically different. He was when we shift our attention away from wicked people and the stuff of this world and we began to look to Christ to the Lord and what we have in him. Well, things began to look different. That's what happened to him. It was an epiphany. It was something remarkable that took place. And it happens as he goes into the temple. You know, I should have mentioned I didn't do it earlier. So, I'm going to back up just a bit and say in verse 15, he says, "If I will, if I spake thus, behold, I would have betrayed the generation of your children." That's how will you know? That's one of the ways you know that he didn't lose faith. He struggled with faith. He didn't lose it. If he had voiced the things that he voiced, he he says, "I'm not going to say this to anyone because it would it would damage their faith. It might hurt them." So, he didn't, you know, he was holding on. barely but holding on.

And then verse 17, you know, he's struggling with this, but "when I came into the sanctuary of God, then I perceived their end." When he comes into the sanctuary of God, you know, I'm not sure that several people suggest different things that must have happened. I think Calvin suggested that it was going to the sanctuary he was reminded of the law of God which gave him insight which maybe that's so another commentator said that when he goes to when he came into the sanctuary he came you it come in what's prominent there is all the sacrifices and the sacrificial system which reminds you of the judgment of God and that may have played into it as well but I think that the key thing here is that the sanctuary of God the Old Testament, the temple, the Old Testament temple and the tabernacle that came before it. God made his presence known locally to his people. He localized his presence in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle. And the psalmist goes into the tabernacle and it's here that he begins to realize what he has in God, what he actually has. And it's here that he begin his attention shifts away from the stuff of this world to the eternal his eternity and the eternal destinies of all these people. And he recognizes they're not going to last.

You know, he says, "Surely you set them in slippery places. You cast them down to destruction. How they're destroyed in a moment." In Swinnick's book he there's one section in the book where he talks about unusual ways people die. You know you may not be certain of many things in this life. You can't be certain of lots of things but one thing you can be certain of and that is that you will die. And wicked people don't spend much time thinking about that reality. But it's certainly true for all of us. And so he has a section where he describes the death of a number of people like I think Pope Adrian IV got choked on a fly and he died. Seems a little unusual. There was a Greek playwright named Aeschylus. You know golden eagles sometimes will sweep down and pick up a tortoise. And you know, you can't get to a tortoise very easily. So they'll take him and drop him on a rock which breaks up in the tortoise shell and then they can come down and get the meat. Well, the Greek playwright Aeschylus was bald-headed and unfortunately his head looked a lot like a rock and that's how he came to his demise. Death can happen in a thousands of ways and nobody is guaranteed of a moment. That's that's his point as he writes those things. He lists a number of other things, but death usually comes much more straightforward and simple than that, but it comes comes to every one of us. You can't be guaranteed a day. And he points out that it doesn't follow nature like you would expect real often at the noon of a day, the life is taken. Just when you would think that they were coming into their to their greatest strength, their life is taken away.

That's what happens to these people who are living for this world. They'll do anything to gain whatever it is they want and they gain it. God allows it. They gain all sorts of stuff. This is the only heaven they'll ever enjoy. And soon as all gone and there's nothing for them. Nothing for them except I think the sinful longings that they have trying to satisfied with this world, they probably stay just not not the blessings that they're seeking. When people look at the world around them and they desire things and they begin to live for to gain those things, they become addicted to those things which can't satisfy them. They want these they want they become addicted to things like sex and alcohol and drugs and gambling and gaming and all kinds of things. So almost any kind of a thing a person can become addicted to because they're looking to that thing to satisfy a heart's desire. And that thing can't satisfy the heart's desire. It gives a moment or two of relief and then the longing comes back. They want more and more and it never never satisfied. Only God can satisfy the longings of the human heart. Only God can do that. God created us with an eternal soul and with a need for him, for himself to find the joy that can only be found where Asaph found it in the temple in a place where you are meeting with God. When you meet with God, you can experience the joys of God. Joys that are more blessed than anything else, far more greater.

And as thinking about this, it you know, he's he realizes that I don't need all those things that I've been looking at and envying. I only need the joy that I have in God. I only need him. He's the one who satisfies my soul and gives me the greatest joy. He says, "I was like an animal. I was thinking like an animal in this world, like a beast, and yet you stayed with me, Lord." In his this prayer, he says, "You've taken hold of my right hand. With your counsel you will guide me and you'll receive me into your glory." That's the end of the believer of the one who trusts God. An eternal future with God. And then he writes these words that we all should have memorized. "Whom have I in heaven but you? And besides you, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail. But God's the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

What an incredibly beautiful, precious passage that is. What a great truth. Yeah, his flesh and his heart did fail. The physical body fails. But God never fails. God's the strength of his heart and his portion forever. If God is your portion, then you have everything. You've got everything. You've got all the joys and the blessings and the and the wonderful realities that are in the person of God. All of his incredible attributes which will stir your heart to joy every moment that you're with him. They can that begins now in this life. And it continues forever and ever for a believer. For the unbeliever, he's separated from that goodness. So he knows no goodness at all. He does that by his own choice. But God is the portion. Swinnick writes, "If you knew the best God and who it is that offered to you the sweetest love, the richest mercy, the surest friend, the chiefest good, the greatest beauty, the highest honor, and the fullest happiness. You would leave all these coal ships of the world and look and become an adventurer for that other world." That other world is where we really live. That's where our home is. And we're just pilgrims in this world. Other people make their home in this world and they prosper in various ways as long as they're here. But all of that will disappear. As the Apostle John writes, don't love the world. And then he says, this world is passing away.

Jonathan Edwards said that the enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. Fathers and mothers, husbands and wives or children or the company of earthly friends are but shadows of the enjoyment of God which is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God's the sun. These are but streams, but God's the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean. The good things that we enjoy in this life that come from God is just a foretaste of the blessings and the joy that is in God himself. The riches of life forever and with our holy and perfect God is the only thing that can ultimately satisfy the eternal soul of a man of a woman. The only thing that can satisfy your soul is the eternal God himself. And nothing else will last. Nothing else will last.

John Piper, you know, had that famous quote from John Piper. "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." We should find our joy in worship. We should find our joy in the relationship that we have with our good father in heaven. And when God blesses us as he's blessed us this week, lifting us up when things could have been far worse, helping us through the struggles and the troubles that we have. Bringing new life into the world when we are blessed in such ways. Recognizing that that's from the hand of God, it should lift our heart to praise him and to rejoice in him. He's the fountain of all goodness. And nothing is going to be greater than to be able to see and get to know his joys, all of it, forever and ever. Forever and ever, world without end. That's the future of a believer. What a contrast. If the contrast seems great before, how much greater it is in eternity when we shift our eyes away from the things of this world and we begin to look at our heavenly glory. What a glorious future we have. What a glorious future we have. Let's trust him. Let me pray for us.

Father, we thank you for the beauty of your nature. Father, we thank you that though death is certain for a believer. It is just a portal to glory that we have nothing to fear there. That you come and hold us by our very hand. You take us and lead us the way. Yea. Though we walk through the valley of shadow of death, you're with us. We've nothing to fear. We thank you, Father, that you have made yourself available to us the richest, most precious gift that anyone could have. The greatest blessing is the blessing of yourself. Father, teach us to pray from our very heart what Asaph prayed when he said, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And besides you, I desire nothing on earth." And when he realizes that his physical body will fade away, You are the You are the strength of his heart. You're the foundation, the rock. You're the one sure thing that we can count on forever. And we thank you, Father, that you have given yourself to us through Jesus Christ who offered himself as a sacrifice to pay our sin debt so that we could live before you. Thank you, Father, for these precious gifts and unbelievable. Thank you that there's joy at your right hand forever. We praise you for it in Christ's name. Amen.