Finding Restoration
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As we continue to make our way through some of the Psalms in this series...
we will continue to see the Attributes of God put on display...
And a reason for that is because if you think about how we typically handle life...
when life gets hard, we’re always having to remind ourselves of where our strength comes...
and who God really is.
and we start to contemplate who God is...
and think about ALL THAT HE IS FOR US...
Well, it would have been no different for David.
Today we’ll be looking at Psalm 19:7-11
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
Here God, through David is affirming all that the TRUTH of God is for us...
…and so i want to walk through some of the benefits that we see in the text...
SLIDE: The Truth of God’s Word: Breaks the Chains of the World
The Truth of God’s Word
The Truth of God’s Word
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
The fact that this verse tells us that a purpose of the TRUTH of God’s WORD is to REVIVE the soul...
....to RESTORE the soul...
…points to the REALITY that this WORLD is constantly trying to pull us UNDER THE WATER...
Think of how much the Bible commands of us in the New Testament alone...
There are roughly 1050 commands in the NT...
Seven "Abstains" - Abstain from
Idols (ACTS 15:20)
Fornication (ACTS 15:20,29; 1 THESSALONIANS 4:2-3)
Strangled meats (ACTS 15:20)
Eating blood (ACTS 15:20)
Meats offered to idols (ACTS 15:29)
All appearance of evil (1 THESSALONIANS 5:22)
Fleshly lusts (1 PETER 2:11)
Seven Things to Avoid:
Troublemakers (ROMANS 16:17)
Profane and vain babblings (1 TIMOTHY 6:20)
False knowledge (1 TIMOTHY 6:20)
Unlearned questions (2 TIMOTHY 2:23)
Foolish questions (TITUS 3:9)
Genealogies (TITUS 3:9)
Arguments about the law (TITUS 3:9)
Seventy-four "Be's":
Be exceeding glad (MATTHEW 5:12)
Be reconciled to a brother (MATTHEW 5:24)
Be perfect (MATTHEW 5:48; 2 CORINTHIANS 13:11)
Be wise as serpents (MATTHEW 10:16)
Be harmless as doves (MATTHEW 10:16)
Be ready for Christ's coming (MATTHEW 24:44; LUKE 12:40)
Be content with your wages (LUKE 3:14)
Be merciful as God (LUKE 6:36)
Be like faithful servants (LUKE 12:36)
Be thankful (COLOSSIANS 3:15)
Be at peace among selves (1 THESSALONIANS 5:13)
Be patient toward all people (1 THESSALONIANS 5:14; 2 TIMOTHY 2:24)
Be no partaker of sin (1 TIMOTHY 5:22)
Be sober and hope (1 PETER 1:13)
Be sober and pray (1 PETER 4:7)
Be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, charity, and patience (aged men, TITUS 2:2)
Be sober, love husbands and children (young women, TITUS 2:4)
Be sober minded (young men, TITUS 2:6)
Be in behaviour as becoming to saints (aged women, TITUS 2:3)
Be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient (young women, TITUS 2:5)
Be ready to give an answer of the hope that is in you (1 PETER 3:15)
Be of good cheer (JOHN 16:33)
Be baptized (ACTS 2:38)
Be converted (ACTS 3:19)
Be transformed (ROMANS 12:2)
Be kind of brotherly love one to another (ROMANS 12:10; EPHESIANS 4:32)
Be fervent in spirit (ROMANS 12:11)
Be patient in tribulation (ROMANS 12:12)
Be given to hospitality (ROMANS 12:13)
Be afraid, if lawless (ROMANS 13:4)
Be no idolater (1 CORINTHIANS 10:7)
Be followers of Paul as he followed Christ (1 CORINTHIANS 11:1; PHILIPPIANS 3:17)
Be followers of God (EPHESIANS 5:1)
Be followers of the faithful and patient (HEBREWS 6:12)
Be children in malice (1 CORINTHIANS 14:20)
Be men in understanding (1 CORINTHIANS 14:20)
Be steadfast (1 CORINTHIANS 15:58)
Be unmoveable (1 CORINTHIANS 15:58)
Be always abounding in God's work (1 CORINTHIANS 15:58)
Be strong in the Lord (1 CORINTHIANS 16:13; EPHESIANS 6:10; 2 TIMOTHY 2:1)
Be of good comfort (2 CORINTHIANS 13:11)
Be of one mind (ROMANS 12:16; 2 CORINTHIANS 13:11; PHILIPPIANS 2:2; 1 PETER 3:8)
Be separate from the unclean (2 CORINTHIANS 6:17)
Be renewed in spirit (EPHESIANS 4:23)
Be angry and sin not (EPHESIANS 4:26)
Be tender-hearted one to another (EPHESIANS 4:32)
Be filled with the Spirit (EPHESIANS 5:18)
Be likeminded (PHILIPPIANS 2:2)
Be one of accord (PHILIPPIANS 2:2)
Be anxious for nothing (PHILIPPIANS 4:6)
Be an example to believers in word, conversation, charity, spirit, faith, and purity (1 TIMOTHY 4:12)
Be a partaker of Christian sufferings (2 TIMOTHY 1:8; cp. 1 PETER 4:1)
Be gentle to all people (2 TIMOTHY 2:24)
Be apt to teach (2 TIMOTHY 2:24)
Be instant in season, out of season (2 TIMOTHY 4:2)
Be careful to maintain good works (TITUS 3:8,14; cp. MATTHEW 5:16)
Be content with what you have (HEBREWS 13:5)
Be doers of the Word (JAMES 1:22)
Be afflicted and mourn (JAMES 4:9)
Be patient till Christ comes (JAMES 5:7-8)
Be holy in conversation (behaviour) (1 PETER 1:15-16)
Be pitiful (1 PETER 3:8)
Be courteous (1 PETER 3:8)
Be examples of the flock of God, not lord over it (1 PETER 5:3)
Be subject one to another (1 PETER 5:5)
Be clothed with humility (1 PETER 5:5)
Be sober (1 PETER 5:8)
Be vigilant (1 PETER 5:8)
Be mindful of prophecies and commandments (2 PETER 3:2)
Be diligent to be found in peace (2 PETER 3:14)
Be diligent to be without spot, and blameless (2 PETER 3:14)
Be faithful to death (REVELATION 2:10)
Be watchful, strengthen self (REVELATION 3:2)
Be zealous and repent (REVELATION 3:19)
Thirty "Be Not's" (be not troubled, of doubtful mind, conceited)
Fourteen "Beware's" (beware of covetousness, backsliding)
Six Classes to Honor (honor others)
Five Things to Consider (consider that you are CAPABLE of falling, Christ)
Three Things to Continue in (love, prayer, truth)
One Thing Not to Cast Away (confidence in God)
Two Things to Endure (hardness, suffering)
Three Things Not to Fear (man, persecutors, lack of provision)
Four Things to Flee From (fornication)
Ten "Do's"
Ten "Do Not's"
Ten Things to Follow (Christ, righteousness, faith, peace)
Six Things to Lay Aside (Wickedness, malice)
Seven Things to Keep
One Hundred "Let's" (Let your light shine, Let your love be genuine, Let the mind of Christ be in you)
Four Commands to "Love"
Two Things Not to Love (the world, the things of this world)
Eight "Put Away's" (put aways lying, bitterness, anger)
AGAIN - this is just the short list...
1050 commands in the New Testament....
The Bible reveals to us the sheer WEIGHT that this world puts on us...
In light of this list here (incomplete as it is)...
we begin to feel HOW HEAVY this world is...
..and how FRAGILE we are!
Maybe even MORE SO than you thought!
THAT’S WHY - we can say - if you don’t feel that you’re in a constant battle with this world...
HEARING the call to live out these truths...
then there’s a chance you’re not even on the SIDE of Christ...
But what we see in Scripture is - NOT just the REMEDY to this world...
WE actually get to see the struggle…the Christian struggle...
PEOPLE - trying to live out these truths…from a heart that’s been transformed!
And what GOD wants you to know is this - that the TRUTH of God can BREAK the CHAINS of this WORLD...
The world wants to suffocate us..
And A LOT of times - it does a good job…!
OUR PROBLEM - is that we often don’t put the work in necessary to PREPARE ourselves for REVIVAL!
If you want to ENDURE the loss of a loved one…suffering in this world...
you must PREPARE yourself...
the ONLY way you will SUFFER WELL as a Christian...
…is if you get a BIBLICAL THEOLOGY of Suffering!
How do you do that?
you PRESS into the Lord!
How? - Get into His word!
Maybe even SPEND some money and get a PROGRAM like Logos Bible Software that will HELP you get into and study His word!
See the world will point to COUNTERFEITS and say - THAT WILL HELP YOU...
Oprah has the answers...
Dr. Phil has the answers...
Yoga is the answer!
Organic is the answer!
Fitness is the answer!
All of them temporary....all of them counterfeits.
ONLY the Truth of God will REVIVE the soul!
When we look at Scripture and we see men of faith, pursuing Christ....SUFFERING to do so...
We see them RELYING on the TRUTH’s of God to REVIVE their soul!
Think about the Apostle Paul…he was the apostle to - The Nations…the Gentiles...
How was life for Paul as he proclaimed the Gospel to the nations?
HARD!
imagine you’re trying to people about the truths of God - and while you’re doing it, those same people are trying to - STONE you...
You think you’d want to throw up the WHITE FLAG??
How does Paul get through his difficulty?
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
25 As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”
Paul RESTS in the Old Testament TRUTH’s of God - and it REVIVES his soul!!
And ON he PRESSES!
What else?
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
YES - Life is HARD....
Gospel suffering is HARD....it’s difficult!!
But how do we HANDLE it??
OUR PROBLEM - is that we often don’t go to the ONE TRUE and LASTING source of WISDOM.
We like to FIGURE things out on our own...
We like to persevere in our own strength...
Good idea?
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
WHY?
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
DO NOT trust in your own understanding!
Not only does God’s TRUTH BREAK the chains of this world…that keep rising up within us...
But God’s TRUTH ALSO -
SLIDE: The Truth of God’s Word: Empowers the stupid
The Truth of God’s Word
The Truth of God’s Word
I was trying to think of another way to say this...
but this really does hit it on the head...
God’s truth MAKES the NAIVE - wise...
Makes one who lack intelligence - WISE!
Think about the POWER of God’s TRUTH!
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
You’ve heard the phrase - KNOWLEDGE IS POWER...
Well - sort of!
How powerful is the Knowledge of Physics?
knowledge of Chemistry?
knowledge of Biology?
So think of all the advancements we’ve made in those areas...
Now - HOW POWERFUL is the Gospel?
With the knowledge (truth) of Biology, we can determine how someone died...
With the knowledge of God’ WORD, we can RAISE the DEAD to - LIFE!
When we look at the 12 apostles…they were what? 12 ORDINARY MEN...
The one commonality among them was that they were - ORDINARY!
It wasn’t like going to a Pastors Conference and hearing John Piper, MacArthur, Platt, Chan, and all these guys speak..
It would be like going and hearing - Doug Borling, Chuck Allen, Lou Rodriguez, myself, Al Rudowicz
Just ORDINARY guys…called to extraordinary purposes!
And when they HELD the TRUTH of God - they held POWER
The apostle Paul KNEW this… and understood this!
2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,
4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Paul knew that God’s TRUTH made the SIMPLE - WISE!
Do you have this same confidence in the TRUTH of GOD?
How have you used the TRUTH of God lately in your life?
What else?
8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
Have you noticed so far all of the causes listed POINT to the COMMAND of the LORD...
His Law..
His truth!
v7 said - the Law of the Lord is perfect…the TESTIMONY (the Rule) of the Lord is sure...
v8 - the PRECEPTS (Commands) of the Lord are right…the COMMANDMENT of the Lord is pure...
All of these words mean- COMMANDMENTS…and we see here...
SLIDE: The Truth of God’s Word: Awakens Affections for the Lord
The Truth of God’s Word
The Truth of God’s Word
Who’s Law is perfect?
Who’s Testimony is sure?
Who’s Precepts are right?
Who’s Commandment is pure?
The Lord’s:
law
testimony
precepts
commandment
When we come to SEE more clearly our Lord - and we TASTE His goodness...
We will SEE Him AS good!
A HEART that has been broken into pieces by the TRUTH of God’s Word...
will also find WHOLENESS again as God’s TRUTH reorients the heart to NOW pursue - LIFE/TRUTH
*Shane and Shane - Your Love
And David would have loved that song because when we look at Psalm 51...
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
What we can see here in Psalm 51 is that God DESIRES a broken HEART...
That He will not DESPISE it...
But what is David referring to?
Let’s look at verse 16 of this same chapter:
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
What’s David saying here?
See, David SINNED pretty big in his life...
If you remember, he had committed adultery…with Bathsheba…and then had her husband killed...
How did David respond when confronted by Nathan?
Did he run to make an animal sacrifice to make up for it? - - NO
He - REPENTED!
His heart was BROKEN over that sin…and THAT’s what God is after…!
v16 said - God will NOT delight in sacrifice....a BROKEN and contrite heart You (GOD) will NOT despise!
And MANY people miss this truth!
When we sin - we often try to CLEAN UP OUR ACT...
good deeds
pay more money to church or charity
give something up for a period of time to help God like us again!
When we do this we COMPLETELY miss the point...
By DOING those things, we show that we haven’t TRULY repented!
Instead it shows we’re trying to RECONCILE ourselves to God...
to pay Him off...
A GREAT QUESTION to ask yourself is this:
Why Do You WANT To Be Forgiven?
*If you’re in the DOGHOUSE with your spouse....why do you want forgiveness?
The Truth of God’s Word: Awakens Affections FOR THE LORD!
We WANT the Lord!
Which is why David says this next...
9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
We see here that
SLIDE: The Truth of God’s Word: Brings the Blessing of God
The Truth of God’s Word
The Truth of God’s Word
Listen to how Hebrews puts it...
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
God REWARDS those who seek after Him...
NOW - before we think - OH, well LET.ME.JUST.GET.IN.LINE...
What is the REWARD?
back to v10 from Psalm 19
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
The COMMANDS of God should be DESIRED MORE THAN gold...
MORE THAN.....gold
And so it seems that the KIND OF rewards that God hands out - are BEYOND physical...
Yes - if you have MONEY in here - it came from God…but MONEY, or anything physical WILL NEVER be the ULTIMATE prize from God!
God isn’t IN HEAVEN - waiting to SPRING on you His ultimate gift of - MONEY...
If you have MONEY - it DID come from God - but the ultimate REWARD is that you’re NOT A SLAVE to IT!
MEANING - YOU - controlled by the Holy Spirit, use that money to WORK FOR YOU and God’s Kingdom...
That money doesn’t RULE over you...
You’re not a SLAVE to that money!
We’ve all heard the phrase - Do this or that - FOR THE LORD!
NOW - how many of you have something you need to DO - for someone else?
What are you DOING when you do that thing FOR THAT PERSON?
Are you meeting their need?
YES...
When we DO SOMETHING FOR GOD - are we MEETING His need?
No - why? Because God has NO NEEDS...
So what does it mean when it says - Do that FOR the LORD!?
23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
Here we go...
Sounds like we’re MEETING a need of God’s...
But we KNOW we’re not...
SO what does this mean?
Next verse tells us...
24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
So doing something FOR THE LORD - is to do it - KNOWING something!
What?
That God will SUPPLY you and MEET YOUR need!
When we do something FOR THE LORD - we do it to RECEIVE the LORD’s reward...
namely - the reward of JOY in the Lord!
And so you can see how this REWARD sustains our pursuit of Christ!
JOY in Christ is the fuel of Christian living!
And so think about all that you think God might be calling you to!...
Maybe you feel He might be calling you into Missionary work...
Maybe you feel that God might be calling you to Lead the men’s group of this church...
Maybe you feel God is leading you to witness to someone you know!
Whatever it is - begin to think about it this way...
I will step out in faith and begin missionary work for the reward of Joy in the Lord
I will begin leading the men’s group at Abiding Faith for the reward of Joy in the Lord
I will witness to my friend for the reward of Joy in the Lord!
What have we seen today?
Summary:
SLIDE:
The Truth of God’s Word:
Breaks the Chains of the World
Empowers the Simple with Wisdom
Awakens Affections for the Lord
Brings the Blessing of God
The Truth of God’s Word - more to be desired than anything…in this world.
Let’s pray...